almain

plural almains

1. alternativeAlternative form of Almain (“type of dance”).

alternative obsolete Almayne

1. historicalGermany.First known use 13th c.

   The x. of Awgust Maximilian emperowr of Almayne came to kynge Henry of England besyde Terwen, and there the emperowre had wages of the kynge.

   c. 1541, The Chronicle of Calais, London, published 1846

   1 more example

   The merchants who owned the goods claimed that the King of Almain was the lord of the town, and the Bishop could not do justice in the matter.

   1994, Marianne Constable, The Law of the Other, page 162

plural Almains · alternative obsolete Almayne

1. archaicliterarypoeticA German.First known use 14th c.

   Caſ[ſio]. Is your Engliſh man ſo expert in his drinking? / Iag[o]. Why he drinkes you with facillity, your Dane dead drunke: he ſweats not to ouerthrow your Almaine; he giues your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottle can be fild.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 31

2. A kind of dance. See allemande.First known use 16th c.

comparative more Almain · superlative most Almain · alternative obsolete Almayne

1. archaichistoricalGerman.First known use 15th c.

   1 more example

   Fauſtus theſe bookes thy wit and our experience / Shall make all nations to canonize vs, / As Indian Mooꝛes obey their Spaniſh Loꝛds, / So ſhall the ſubiects of euery element / Be alwaies ſeruiceable to vs thꝛée, / Like Lyons ſhall they guard vs when we pleaſe, / Like Almaine Rutters with their hoꝛſemens ſtaues, / Oꝛ Lapland Gyants trotting by our ſides, / Sometimes like women, oꝛ vnwedded maides, / Shadowing moꝛe beautie in their ayrie bꝛowes, / Then in their white bꝛeaſts of the queene of Loue: […]

   1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature [A4], recto