Elizabethan

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English

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WOTD – 9 September 2022

Etymology

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One of the Armada Portraits (1588) of Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558 to 1603.
Elizabeth II, who reigned from 1952 to 2022, opening the Senedd Cymru or Welsh Parliament on 14 October 2021.
Charles-André van Loo’s portrait of Elizabeth of Russia, who reigned from 1741 to 1762.

From Elizabeth +‎ -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming agent nouns),[1] referring to Elizabeth I (1533–1603), Elizabeth II (1926–2022), and Elizabeth of Russia (1709–1762).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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Elizabethan (comparative more Elizabethan, superlative most Elizabethan)

  1. Pertaining to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, monarch of England and Ireland, from 1558 to 1603.
    Synonym: Elizabethian
    • 1840 May 12, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture III. The Hero as Poet. Dante; Shakespeare.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 95:
      This Elizabethan Era, and all its nobleness and blessedness, came without proclamation, preparation of ours. Priceless Shakspeare[sic] was the free gift of Nature; given altogether silently;—received altogether silently, as if it had been a thing of little account. And yet, very literally, it is a priceless thing.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Justifiably Angry Young Man”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 93:
      […] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because "it was wicked to dress us like charity children".
    • 2014 September 7, “Doddington’s garden pyramid is a folly good show: The owners of a Lincolnshire stately home have brought the folly into the 21st century, by building a 30ft pyramid [print edition: Great pyramid of Lincolnshire, 6 September 2014, page G2]”, in Jason Seiken, editor, The Daily Telegraph‎[1], London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 June 2021:
      [T]he owners of Doddington Hall, in Lincolnshire, have brought the folly into the 21st century, by building a 30ft pyramid in the grounds of the Elizabethan manor.
  2. Often preceded by new or second: pertaining to the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, monarch of the United Kingdom, from 1952 to 2022.
    • 1953 December 25, Elizabeth II, “Christmas Broadcast 1953”, in British Monarchy‎[2], archived from the original on 14 September 2022:
      Some people have expressed the hope that my reign may mark a new Elizabethan age. Frankly I do not myself feel at all like my great Tudor forbear, […] But there is at least one very significant resemblance between her age and mine. For her Kingdom, small though it may have been and poor by comparison with her European neighbours, was yet great in spirit and well endowed with men who were ready to encompass the earth.
    • 2015 September 9, Alexandra Petri, “I loved the Elizabethan era so much I decided to live in it”, in The Washington Post‎[3], Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      (The second Elizabethan era, that is. I’m not a maniac.)
    • 2017 February 19, Peter Webster, “The New Elizabethan Age: Culture, Society and National Identity after World War II [book review]”, in LSE Review of Books‎[4], archived from the original on 26 February 2022:
      Not everything that occurred in the early 1950s may usefully be dubbed ‘New Elizabethan’ without emptying the concept of its meaning. […] [I]t becomes clear that British people in the 1950s looked all over for resources to fund their thinking and actions, including to Tudor revivals that were in fact much older, such as in music, and to several periods of the past that were not Elizabethan.
    • 2021 April 13, Polly Toynbee, “This is a moment to mark the Elizabethan era, and ask what Britain has become”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[5], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 August 2022:
      The Elizabethan age is slowly drawing to a close. The end of Prince Philip's long life is a dress rehearsal for its final curtain, when the country will find itself reviewing what it has become, the choices it has made. […] There is just time to see off the rotten party that brought the country low, and end the Elizabethan era with some of the optimism with which it began.
    • 2022 September 8, Laura Clancy, “Queen Elizabeth II: The End of the ‘New Elizabethan Age’”, in Jo Adetunji, editor, The Conversation‎[6], archived from the original on 8 September 2022:
      [T]he austerity and restraint of the 1940s was giving way to a more prosperous 1950s. It is perhaps no wonder, then, that the Queen's succession was hailed as the "new Elizabethan age". […] The Queen's death is bound to prompt Britain's reflection on its past, its present and its future. Time will tell what the reign of Charles III will look like, but one thing is for sure: the "new Elizabethan age" is long gone.
    • 2022 September 8, Liz Truss, “Prime Minister’s Statement on the Death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II”, in Government of the United Kingdom‎[7], archived from the original on 8 September 2022:
      Today the Crown passes—as it is has done for more than a thousand years—to our new monarch, our new head of state: His Majesty King Charles III. […] And with the passing of the second Elizabethan age, we usher in a new era in the magnificent history of our great country,—exactly as Her Majesty would have wished—by saying the words … God save the King.
  3. Pertaining to the reign of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, from 1741 to 1762.
    • 1956, Sidney Harcave, Russia: A History, Chicago, Ill., Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J. B. Lippincott Company, page 120:
      In any case, his [Peter III’s] action was a complete reversal of the Elizabethan policy, and his offer of unconditional peace eliminated Russia’s chance to secure concessions from Frederick.
    • 1963, Melvin C. Wren, The Course of Russian History, page 295:
      The extent of her [Catherine the Great’s] knowledge and her appetite for reading made her one of the best-read women in Europe and the most unusual and outstanding woman in Elizabethan Russia.
    • 1985, Walter Gleason, transl., The Political and Legal Writings of Denis Fonvizin, Ardis Publishers, →ISBN, page 203:
      When Moscow University was initially opened in 1755, its “founder” was I. I. Shuvalov (1727-1797), a prominent cultural figure in Elizabethan Russia and, with his brothers Peter and Alexander, the key political force at the court in the 1750’s.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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Elizabethan (plural Elizabethans)

  1. A person (especially a writer) who lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, monarch of England and Ireland, from 1558 to 1603.
    • 1966, A[lfred] L[eslie] Rowse, “Drake’s Voyage”, in The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake, 1628 and The Relation of a Wonderfull Voiage by William Cornelison Schouten, 1619 […], Cleveland, Oh.: World Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 13:
      Here too [Francis] Drake had luck: he took advantage of the Sultan of Ternate's war with the Portuguese garrison upon Tidore to make a treaty with him to sell his produce exclusively to the English. The literal-minded Elizabethans attached great importance to this: on the principle of never throwing an argument away, they regarded it as giving them a right to share in the spice-trade.
  2. A person who lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, monarch of the United Kingdom, from 1952 to 2022.
    • 2017 February 19, Peter Webster, “The New Elizabethan Age: Culture, Society and National Identity after World War II [book review]”, in LSE Review of Books‎[8], archived from the original on 26 February 2022:
      The ‘New Elizabethans’ were to be in continuity with their past, but also youthful, inventive, exploratory – a spirit most clearly to be seen in the arts.

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “Elizabethan, adj. and n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2022; “Elizabethan, adj. and n..”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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