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west end
[OE. west-ende (see west adv.) = Du. westeinde, WFris. westein, MLG., G. westende. In later use f. west a.]
1. The western end or extremity of anything.
c893ælfred Oros. i. i. §3 Hire on westende is Scotland. c1050O.E. Chron. (MS. C) an. 1036 Syððan hine man byriᵹde..æt þam west ende, þam styple ful ᵹehende. a1225Ancr. R. 244 Toward þe west ende of þe worlde. a1400–50Wars Alex. 1733 A selly nounbre Of wrichis & wirlingis out of the west endis. 1408–17in Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) Introd. p. xcvi, A Tent withowt the west ende of the church yerd made of Clothe. a1550Leland Itin. (1764) II. 7 The West Ende of Ewelm Paroche Chirch. Ibid. IV. 124 There be 2. Wooden Bridges at the West Ende of the Towne. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. v. iii. 9 Goe thou with her to the West end of the wood. a1700Evelyn Diary 25 Mar. 1644, Having two spires and middle lanterne at the West end. 1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4906/3 We met an English Runner off the West-end of this Island [Jamaica]. 1782F. Burney Cecilia iii. iv, He privately took a lodging at the west end of the town. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. vi, The west end of the defile formed by the Luckenbooths was secured in the same manner. 1847[see respond n. 2]. 1848Dickens Dombey vii, A fashionable neighbourhood at the west end of the town. 1874J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 59 The upper row of stalls..at the west end of the chancel.
2. spec. the West End, that part of London lying westward of Charing Cross and Regent St. and including the fashionable shopping district, Mayfair, and the Parks; also, those living within this area.
1776Gazetteer & New Daily Advertiser 11 Sept. in Bond & McLeod Newslett. to Newspapers (1977) iii. 186 A gentleman in a certain coffeehouse at the Westend of town. 1807tr. Goede's Trav. I. 38 The devices at the west end, are usually crowns, stars, crescents. 1815Zeluca III. 143 As you're staying with a relation at the west end..there's no harm in making a genteel acquaintance—eh? 1835Dickens Sk. Boz, Dancing Academy, It was not in the West-end at all—it rather approximated to the eastern portion of London. 1863O. W. Holmes Old Vol. Life (1891) 97 We know what the West End of London wishes may be result of this controversy. 1882Besant All Sorts vii, She was setting up a dressmaker's shop;..she had hopes of support, even from the West End, where she had friends.
b. The theatres of the West End, or their personnel.
1894Theatre Oct. 155 The influence of the west end is felt both in the cheaper London houses and throughout the provinces. 1979Listener 16 Aug. 206/3 No one wanted a National Theatre. The West End didn't want it because they feared a new rival.
3. transf. The fashionable or aristocratic quarter of a town or other place.
1823Byron Juan xi. xlv, The great world..Meaneth the west or worst end of a city. 1830Carlyle Misc. Ess., Richter (1872) III. 35 Richter, for his part, was quite excluded from the West-end of Hof: for Hof too has its West-end... So poor Richter could only be admitted to the West-end of the Universe. 1840Hood Up Rhine 159 There was, however, a sort of West-end to the room, where the fashionables and the Vons seemed instinctively to congregate. 1854tr. Hettner's Athens & Pelop. 28 This is the fashionable part, or ‘west end’ of New Athens. 1863Speke Source Nile xii. 339 A number of huts..were at once assigned to me, on the face of a hill... It was considered the ‘West End’.
4. attrib. (from senses 2 and 3.) Also passing into adj.
1835Court Mag. VI. 4/1 A refuge for the West-end destitute of all denominations. 1848Dickens Dombey i, Doctor Parker Pep's West End practice. 1863M. E. Braddon Aurora Floyd xxxiii, A colour that West-End tailors had vainly striven to emulate. 1888Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 28/1 Spacious west-end quarters in cities. 1889Lowell Latest Lit. Ess. (1891) 67 With that West-End view of the realities of life which Englishmen of a certain class feel it proper to take. 1890G. B. Shaw London Music 1888–89 (1937) 322 The more commercial atmosphere of the West-end theatre. 1890O. Wilde Pict. Dorian Gray iii, in Lippincott's Monthly Mag. July 29, I will take a West-End theatre and bring her out properly. 1928A. Huxley Point Counter Point x. 159 So well travelled, so brilliantly cosmopolitan and West-End. 1936N. Coward To-Night at 8.30 I. 103 If you're so bloody West End why the hell did you leave it? 1954‘M. Cost’ Invitation from Minerva 171, I got my first West-End engagement. Since then, I've never looked back. 1983S. Vizinczey Innocent Millionaire iii. 14 Occasionally his London agent got him a part in the West End production of an American play.
Hence ˌWest-ˈender, one who lives at the west end of a town, esp. of London; ˌWest-ˈendian (a) n. = prec.; (b) adj. = next; ˌWest-ˈendy a., characteristic or suggestive of a west end, spec. that of London; ˌWest-ˈendish a., of or characteristic of the West End; ˌWest-ˈendism, West-end quality or character.
1833Chambers's Jrnl. 30 Mar. 66/2 There have been instances of ‘*west-enders’ going on a tour of discovery..within the precincts of Wapping.
1839Dickens Nich. Nick. xxxvii, A pleasant fiction invented by jealous *West-enders. 1874H. Mayhew Lond. Characters 299 Already there is a sort of esprit de locale..amongst the inhabitants of the new quarters that the old West Ender never dreamed of.
1825Hor. Smith Gaieties & Grav. II. 322 *West-endians and Bond-street loungers. 1856J. M. Ludlow Let. Nov. in C. L. Graves Life & Lett. A. Macmillan (1910) ii. 91 [A London shop] more West-endian than Bell's or Nutt's.
1909Daily Chron. 9 June 5/4 An advanced..*West-endish sort of woman.
1875Blackie Introd. to C. Blackie's Etymol. Geog. 33 Such⁓like apish mimicry of metropolitan *West Endism.
1911J. Bone Edin. Revisited i. 12 A minister of the Gospel from the West Coast identified Edinburgh as an ‘east-windy, *west-endy city’. 1959New Chron. 25 July 4/5 Most of it proved too precious and West Endy for television. |