† grimsirn.
Obsolete.
An austere, stern, morose or overbearing person.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > strictness > [noun] > severity or sternness > severe or stern person
sternc1400
grimsirc1450
roundhead1643
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > harshness or severity > [noun] > person
grimsirc1450
1508 Golagros & Gawane (Chepman & Myllar) sig. aii* With that come girdand in greif ane woundir grym sire.]
c1450 Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 69 A grym-syre at domysday xal he be.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. xxviii. ii. 297 Tiberius Cæsar..was knowne for a grim sir, and the most unsociable..man in the world.
1603 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. iii. v. 510 The Goddesse..with soft embrace, Of Snow-white armes, the grim-sir doth enchase.
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy iii. iii. i. ii. 672 I haue an old grimme sire to my husband.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
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