neck-versen.
/ˈnɛkvəːs/, U.S. /ˈnɛkˌvərs/ 1. † b. to put (also bring) (a person) to the neck-verse (also figurative). Obsolete.
a. A Latin verse printed in black letter (usually the beginning of Psalm 51 Miserere mei Deus, ‘Have mercy upon me, O God’) formerly set before a person claiming benefit of clergy (see clergy n. 6), by reading which he might prove his clerical status and hence save his neck. In later use historical.The test was based on the assumption that the ability to read Latin was a clerical prerogative, but the verse was sometimes also memorized by laymen in order to claim benefit of clergy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > rescue or deliverance > [noun] > means of > verse or word which saves one's life
neck-versec1475
neck-word1650
c1475 Mankind (1969) 520 (MED) Lett ws com [read con] well owr neke-verse, þat we haue not a cheke.
1528 W. Tyndale Obed. Christen Man f. lxxxjv They have a sanctuary fo: ye, to save ye, yee and a necverse, if thou canst but rede a litle latenli.
1578 G. Whetstone Promos & Cassandra: 1st Pt. iv. iv. sig. E.iij It behoues me to be secret or else my neck verse cun.
1607 S. Hieron Good Fight in Wks. (1620) I. 223 It is not good to put it vpon the psalme of Miserere, and the neck-verse, for sometime he prooues no clarke.
1636 P. Massinger Great Duke of Florence ii. i. sig. D Calaminta. How the foole stares? Fiorinda. And lookes as if he were Conning his neck-verse.
1681 T. Otway Souldiers Fortune ii. i. 20 The Rogue can't write his Name, nor read his neck Verse, if he had occasion.
1718 J. Breval Play is Plot iv. i. 46 I will be after teaching you to Sing your Neck Verse.
1735 R. Savage Progress of Divine 14 Four years, thro' foggy ale, yet made him see, Just his neck-verse to read, and take degree.
1805 W. Scott Lay of Last Minstrel i. xxiv. 24 Letter nor line know I never a one, Wer't my neck-verse at Hairibee.
1827 S. B. H. Judah Buccaneers I. ii. iv. 234 Some few of these dogs shall never read the neck verse, if my arm weakens not in the encounter, and this good steel serves me as wont.
1872 O. Shipley Gloss. Eccl. Terms 338 A deputy of the bishop..appointed to give malefactors their neck-verses, and judge whether they read or not.
1917 Amer. Hist. Rev. 22 552 A verse in the Psalter was commonly selected (usually the 51st Psalm) which came to be known as the ‘neck verse’.
1989 D. H. Fischer Albion's Seed 398 By reading aloud the ‘neck verse’ from the Bible they escaped a hanging, and were sentenced to be branded on the brawn of the thumb.
1999 Britannica Online (Version 99.1) at Crime and punishment All that was required was the ability to read (or recite) one particular verse from Psalm 51 of the Bible, known as the ‘neck verse’ (for its ability to save one's neck); most offenders learned the words by heart.
ΚΠ
1567 A. Golding tr. Ovid Metamorphosis (new ed.) vi. f. 67v She purposed to put the Lydian Maide Arachne to hir necke verse.
1619 T. Lorkin in R. F. Williams Birch's Court & Times James I (1848) (modernized text) II. 151 He..dissuaded earnestly from the enterprise, as that which was like enough..to bring them all to the neck-verse.
1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue ii. 105 I swear I will put him to his necke-verse, and see how well or ill he will come off.
ΚΠ
1615 R. Brathwait Strappado 113 Her humour is my neck-verse, which to sort I cannot, if I should be hanged for't.
1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. iv. 140 These words, bread and cheese, were their neck-verse, or Shibboleth, to distinguish them.
a1659 R. Brownrig 65 Serm. (1674) I. xxxviii. 473 He looks upon the Scripture..as the very Neck-verse of his Condemnation.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.c1475