pyx
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪks/
homophone: picks
homophone: pics
homophone: pix
rhymes: -ɪks
Forms: form: pyxes
form: pix
Etymology: The noun is derived from Late Middle English pix, pixe (“vessel for holding a host, pyx; hip bone socket, pyxis”) [and other forms], from Late Latin pyxis (“vessel for holding a host”), Latin pyxis (“small box for medicines or toiletries; box holding sample coins for testing; hip bone socket; sailor's compass”), from Koine Greek πυξίς (puxís), Ancient Greek πῠξῐ́ς (pŭxĭ́s, “box; box or tablet made of boxwood; cylinder”), from πῠ́ξος (pŭ́xos, “box tree; boxwood”) + -ῐς (-ĭs, suffix forming feminine nouns). Doublet of box, piseog, and pyxis.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: [F]oraſmuche as we have often and many tymes, to our inwarde regrete and diſpleaſure, ſeen at oure Jen, in diverſe and many Churches of our Realme, the holie Sacrament of the Aulter kept in ful simple and inhoneſt Pixes, ſpecially Pixes of copre and tymbre: we have appointed and commaunded the Treſourer of our Chambre, and Maiſtre of our Juellhouſe, to cauſe to be made furthwith Pixes of ſilver and gilte, in a greate nombre, for the keping of the holie Sacrament of th'Aultre, after the faction of a Pixe that we have cauſed to be delivered to theim, […]
ref: 1509 April 20 (Gregorian calendar), Henry VII of England, edited by [Thomas Astle], The Will of King Henry VII, London: Printed for the editor; and sold by T[homas] Payne, […]; and B[enjamin] White, […], published 1775, →OCLC, pages 37–38:
text: With Croſſes, Relicks, Crucifixes, / Beads, Pictures, Roſaries and Pixes: / The Tools of working out Salvation, / By meer Mechanick Operation.
ref: 1677 (indicated as 1678), [Samuel Butler], “[The Third Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The Third and Last Part. […], London: […] Robert Horne, […], published 1679, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 86:
text: They have Pixes and Chalices for the Bleſſed Sacrament five hundred and fifty, ſome of pure Gold, others of Silver and Criſtal; and among them, is one that was offer'd to our Bleſſed Saviour, by one of the three Kings, when they came to Worſhip him, and brought Preſents.
ref: 1702, [William Bromley], “[In Italy]”, in Several Years Travels through Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark and the United Provinces. […], London: […] A[bel] Roper, […], R. Basset […], and W. Turner […], →OCLC, page 52:
text: The slight breach was fortunately committed by a distant relation of the Archbishop of Toledo, and consisted merely in his entering the church intoxicated, (a rare vice in Spaniards), attempting to drag the matin preacher from the pulpit, and failing in that, getting astride as well as he could on the altar, dashing down the tapers, overturning the vases and the pix, and trying to scratch out, as with the talons of a demon, the painting that hung over the table, uttering all the while the most horrible blasphemies, and even soliciting the portrait of the Virgin in language not to be repeated.
ref: 1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], chapter V, in Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 273:
text: [W]here am I to find such a sum? If I sell the very pyx and candlesticks on the altar at Jorvaulx, I shall scarce raise the half; […]
ref: 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter III, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 69:
text: He [Augustus Pugin] has a most sincere love for his profession, a hearty honest enthusiasm for pixes and piscinas; and though he will never design so much as a pix or piscina thoroughly well, yet better than most of the experimental architects of the day.
ref: 1851, John Ruskin, “[Appendix] 12. Romanist Modern Art.”, in The Stones of Venice, volume I (The Foundations), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 373:
text: In the twelfth century Germany was at the head of artistic movement, and even France sent to her for skilled workmen in the industrial arts. Her treasuries are still rich in the various beautiful objects comprehended under the name of altar furniture, such as chalices, pyxes and monstrances, missals, reliquaries, and so on.
ref: 1870 March 26, “Reviews. Ecclesiastical Art in Germany during the Middle Ages. By Dr. Wilhelm Lübke. London: Simpkin & Marshall.”, in The Architect. A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Art, Civil Engineering, and Building, volume III, London: Gilbert Wood; […], →OCLC, page 152, column 2:
text: Let chalice, pyx and paten, lamp and candelabrum, crozier and mitre be studded with diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds, and further enriched with figured representations of divine persons and things.
ref: 1888 July, “Art and Religion. Annual Lecture of Sir [Frederic] Leighton, President of the Royal Academy. London. The Decline of Art. By Francis Turner Palgrave, Professor of Poetry at Oxford.”, in The American Catholic Quarterly Review, volume XIII, number 51, Philadelphia, Pa.: Hardy and Mahony, […], →OCLC, page 412:
text: They plundered the abbey of Holyrood at their departure, and afterwards the abbeys of Melrose and Dryburgh in their retreat, venting their rage by slaying the prior of Melrose and a few old monks who were too frail to take to flight, and carrying off a pyx from the altar after they had contemptuously thrown away the host.
ref: 1893, Thomas Thomson, Charles Annandale, “Reign of Robert Bruce Continued (1318–1326)”, in A History of the Scottish People from the Earliest Times. […], divisional volume I (Earliest Times till Death of Robert Bruce, 1329), London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, […], →OCLC, page 259, column 1:
text: And at the same instant perhaps a priest round the corner is elevating it. Dringdring! And two streets off another locking it into a pyx. Dringadring! And in a ladychapel another taking housel all to his own cheek. Dringdring!
ref: 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 3: Proteus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 40:
text: Inventory references and examples preserved to this day attest to the fact that pyxes were among the objects most frequently made by Limousin workshops. […] It is likely that, as early as the ninth century, pyxes containing the body of Christ (cum corpore Domini) were placed on the altar and used for the Communion of the sick. […] The pyx from the former Côte Collection is among the oldest and most beautiful examples.
ref: 1996, “IV. Limoges in Transition (1190–1230)”, in John P. O’Neill, editor, Enamels of Limoges 1100–1350, New York, N.Y.: Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, entry 74 (Pyx), page 258:
text: On one of these visits she asked me to get her pyx, a beautiful, golden, highly decorated container used to carry the hosts for Holy Communion. She gave this to her fellow church worker who gave Mum her last Holy Communion.
ref: 2009, Claire Leimbach, Trypheyna McShane, Zenith Virago, “Talking about Death”, in The Intimacy of Death and Dying: Simple Guidance to Help You Through, Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Inspired Living, Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, pages 6–7:
topics: Catholicism
Christianity
Roman-Catholicism
synonyms: word: pyxis
glosses: A small, usually round container used to hold the host (“consecrated bread or wafer of the Eucharist”), especially when bringing communion to the sick or others unable to attend Mass.
examples: text: It is not Beauty, which its Bluſh doth owe / Unto the Pixe and Pencill.
ref: 1648, Joseph Beaumont, “Canto X. The Marveils. Stanza 1.”, in Psyche: Or Loves Mysterie, […], London: […] John Dawson for George Boddington, […], →OCLC, page 156, column 1:
text: [M]eantime some pyx to screen / The full-grown pest, some lid to shut upon / The goblin!
ref: 1840 March, Robert Browning, “Book the First”, in Sordello, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 26:
synonyms: pyxis
glosses: A (small) box; a casket, a coffret.
examples: text: [T]he said Tresurer and other Officers of the sayd Mynts, to bring with them, at that tyme and place, all ther Pixes, and ther severall Indentures of Coynag, by and for the holle tyme the said Assaye shall be taken.
ref: 16th–17th century, Rogers Ruding, “Of the Trial of the Pix”, in [John Yonge Akerman], editor, Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain and Its Dependencies; from the Earliest Period of Authentic History to the Reign of Victoria. […], volume I, London: Printed for John Hearne, […]; by Manning and Mason, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 73:
text: When His Majesty is pleased to call for the money in the pyx to be tried, by order of his Council, the same is signified to the Lord Chancellor and Lords of the Treasury. The Lord Chancellor summons a jury of goldsmiths for the trial. The Treasury order the Mint officers to produce their pyx, and the King's Remembrancer to swear the jury.
ref: 1837 June 1, J. W. Morrison (witness), “Report from the Select Committee on the Royal Mint; together with the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index. […]”, in Reports from Committees: […], volume 12, [London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office], →OCLC, paragraph 2028, page 142:
text: There is also opened in their presence the Mint pyx—or rather two pyxes, one filled with sample gold coin, the other with silver. The three officials produce their three keys; the two pyxes are unlocked and opened; the jury unwrap the papers in which the coins have been placed, and count and weigh all the gold and silver.
ref: 1868 December 19, “Plenty of Money”, in E[neas] S[weetland] Dallas, editor, Once a Week, volume II, number 51 (New Series), London: Bradbury, Evans, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 515, column 1:
text: The readers of the work will learn […] the proper methods of the survey of green-wax, and the trial of the pyx.
ref: 1891 November 21, Charles Elton, “Literature. Some Historical Books.”, in [James Sutherland Cotton], editor, The Academy. A Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art, volume XL, number 1020 (New Series), London: Alexander and Shepheard, […], →OCLC, page 447, column 3:
text: [I]n the indentures of this period a clause is always inserted providing for the trial of the pyx. The master is instructed to place specimens of each day's production (the journey-weight) of coins in a pyx, which is to be sealed at the end of every three months and sent for trial.
ref: 1983, C[hristopher] E[velyn] Blunt, “Privy-marking and the Trial of the Pyx”, in C[hristopher] N[ugent] L[awrence] Brooke, B[ernard] H[arold] I[an] H[adley] Stewart, J[ohn] G[raham] Pollard, T[erence] R[odney] Volk, editors, Studies in Numismatic Method: Presented to Philip Grierson, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 225:
glosses: A box used in a mint as a place to deposit sample coins intended to have the fineness of their metal and their weight tested before the coins are issued to the public.
examples: text: Here I lament I had not the accomodation^([sic]) of the Pyxis, or any Horizontal Plate divided into more points of the Compaſs, though I ſee not that Natural Knowledge requires ſo exact a Pyx as Navigation uſeth; becauſe I boggle at this, that I find the North Cardinal point gives more inſtances than the Weſt.
ref: 1686, J[ohn] Goad, chapter XII, in Astro-meteorologica, or, Aphorisms and Large Significant Discourses of the Natures and Influences of the Cœlestial Bodies; […], 2nd edition, London: […] O[badiah] B[lagrave] and sold by John Sprint, […], published 1699, →OCLC, book I, § 56, page 61:
text: Who travels in religious jars, / (Truth mixt with error, ſhade with rays,) / Like Whiſton wanting pyx or ſtars, / In ocean wide or ſinks or ſtrays.
ref: c. 1710, [Richard] Bentley, “A Reply to a Copy of Verses Made in Imitation of Book III. Ode 2. of Horace. Angustam amice pauperium pati, &c. And Sent by Mr. [Walter] Titley to Dr. Bentley.”, in R[obert] Dodsley, editor, A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. […], volume VI, London: […] J. Hughs, for J[ames] Dodsley, […], published 1765, →OCLC, page 189:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A compass used by sailors.
Derived terms: pyx jury