mickle
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɪk(ə)l/
ipa: /ˈmɪkəl/
rhymes: -ɪkəl
Forms: form: more mickle
form: most mickle
Etymology: From Middle English mickle, michel, mikel, mochel, muchel, mukel (“much; many; large, tall; great”), from Old English miċel, myċel (“big, large; great; much”), from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz (“great, large; many, much”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”). The word is cognate with Faroese mikil (“large, great, much”), Icelandic mikill (“large in quantity or number; much; great”), Middle High German michel (“large, much”). Doublet of much and muckle.
For the adverb and noun forms, compare Middle English muchel (“extensively, greatly, much”, adverb) and Middle English muchel (“large amount”, noun).
The noun sense “a small amount” was due to the proverb many a little makes a mickle being incorrectly rendered as many a mickle makes a muckle, leading to mickle being thought to mean “a small quantity” and muckle to mean “a large quantity”, even though muckle is a variant of mickle and both mean “a large quantity”.
Senses: examples: text: They ſay here, […] that ye deſired not the king and England to agree, becauſe it would rack the noblemen, […] I anſwered in your name that I was aſſured you had never ſpoken it. Mr. Archibald [Douglas] is the ſpeaker of it, who I aſſure your lordſhip has been a poiſon in this matter, for they lean very mickle to his opinion.
ref: 1586 January 12, the Master of Gray [i.e., Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray], “[Appendix to the Second Volume] To the Right Hon. My Lord Chancellor and Secretary to His Majesty, from the Master of Gray”, in William Robertson, The History of Scotland during the Reigns of Queen Mary and of King James VI. till His Accession to the Crown of England. […] In Two Volumes, 4th edition, volume II, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, […], published 1761, →OCLC, page 445:
text: […] I livd in a house by the Tower, which has not been repaird since Robert Consull of Gloucester repayrd the castle and wall; here I livd warm, but in my house on the hyll the ayre was mickle keen, […]
ref: 1778, Thomas Warton, “Section XXVI”, in The History of English Poetry, from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century, London: For, and sold by, J. Dodsley [et al.], →OCLC; republished as The History of English Poetry, from the Eleventh to the Seventeenth Century. […], London: Ward, Lock, and Co., […], 1875, →OCLC, page 424:
text: […] I am without fenzeitnes of hart and ſpreit; and of gude reſſoun, thocht [though] my meritis were mickle greiter than of the maiſt profit that ever was, […]
ref: 1790, John Whitaker, chapter VI, in Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated. … In Three Volumes, 2nd enlarged and corrected edition, volume I, London: Printed for J[ohn] Murray, […], →OCLC, § IV, page 478:
text: That I wad wi' a' my heart; and mickle obliged to your honour for putting me in mind o' my bounden duty.
ref: 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], chapter XIX, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 282:
glosses: To a great extent.
glosses: Frequently, often.