pyx
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: Catholicism
Christianity
Roman-Catholicism
nautical
transport
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.
Inflected forms:
form: pyxes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: pix
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: pyxes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: pyxing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: pyxed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: pyxed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: pix
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: also
figuratively
examples: [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, […]
With Croſſes, Relicks, Crucifixes, / Beads, Pictures, Roſaries and Pixes: / The Tools of working out Salvation, / By meer Mechanick Operation.
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.
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.
[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; […]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
gloss: A (small) box; a casket, a coffret.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
rare
examples: It is not Beauty, which its Bluſh doth owe / Unto the Pixe and Pencill.
[M]eantime some pyx to screen / The full-grown pest, some lid to shut upon / The goblin!
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: UK
examples: [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.
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.
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.
The readers of the work will learn […] the proper methods of the survey of green-wax, and the trial of the pyx.
[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.
gloss: A compass used by sailors.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
rare
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: To place (the host) in a pyx.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: Than was yt boxed pyxed and tabernacled & so borne forth in processyon with torche lyght banner crosse candelstyck.
The bread that was left of this consecration or breaking, which was so holy as the other, was neither housed nor churched, boxed nor pixed, but remained there still to the householders, to be eaten of whomsoever lusted.
Christ ordained the supper to be a taking matter, an eating matter, a distributing and remembering matter: contrary our mass-men make it a matter, not of taking, but of gazing, peeping, pixing, boxing, carrying, re-carrying, worshipping, stooping, kneeling, knocking, with "stoop down before," "hold up higher," "I thank God I see my Maker to-day," etc. Christ ordained it a table-matter: we turn it to an altar-matter.
gloss: To enclose (something) in a box or other container; specifically, to place (a deceased person's body) in a coffin; to coffin, to encoffin.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Here lies poor Artedi, in foreign land pyx'd / Not a man nor a fish, but something betwixt, / Not a man, for his life amongst fishes he past, / Not a fish, for he perished by water at last.
There pyxed in alabastrine cell, / All uncorrupt his shade shall dwell, / While waves his memory chime; […]
gloss: To deposit (sample coins) in a pyx; (by extension) to test (such coins) for the fineness of metal and weight before a mint issues them to the public.
pos: verb
tags: UK
transitive
examples: After the said moneys shall be by the said warden and the assaymaster tried and pyxed as ordered by the said indenture, the said master worker shall make true deliverance and payment of the same to every person by weight by the same balance and weight whereof he shall receive the same bullion, taking again his said bills; […]
[W]hen the money is coined it is not allowed to go out of the mint until pixed; that is, until it had been ascertained, by the assay of one piece taken out of each journeyweight of coin, that it is of standard purity: […]
The ascertaining whether coin is of the proper standard is in England called "pixing" it; and there are occasions on which resort is had for this purpose to an ancient mode of inquisition called the "trial of the pix," before a jury of members of the Goldsmiths' Company.
Among the incidental operations [in manufacturing coins] are […] "pyxing" the finished coin, or selecting specimens to be weighed and assayed; […]
It appears that, in this instance, the coin had to wait a certain time for what is called the regular pyxing day; would it not be possible for you to fix the time for pyxing as soon as the coin was delivered to you, without waiting for the regular days?
Arrived per tramway before alluded to, they [the coins] are now "pyxed" by the senior officers. […] The pyxing at the Mint is a short operation, and after it the coins are ready for delivery to the Bank.
From hence arises myriad serpent brood / Of varied shape,—men, snakes and devils mixed. / Persuade or hiss according to their mood, / But inward grovel all, decretal-pyxed.
If the random sample pyxed passed the tests, all was well, and the Master was entitled without charge to a quittance under the great seal of England; but if the moneys did not pass, then he was liable to an unlimited fine.
Coins marked '2' were pyxed on 7 June 1603.
Derived words: pyx jury
pyxed
pyxing
Translations: