patchery

English edit

Etymology 1 edit

Noun edit

patchery (uncountable)

Hypocrisy; trickery.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
  Thersites: Here is ſuch patchery, ſuch juggling and ſuch knavery!
- c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
  Timon: I, and you heare him cogge, ſee him diſſemble / Know his groſſe patchery, loue him, feede him / Keepe in your boſome: yet ramain aſſur’d / That he’s a made-up villaine.
- 1820 July 20, Dorothy Woodsworth, Journal:
  at Aix-la-Chappelle there is always a mighty preponderance of poverty and dullness, except in a few of the shewiest of the streets, and even there, a flashy meanness, a slight patchery of things falling to pieces is everywhere visible.
- 1888, Samuel Cox, William Robertson Nicoll, and James Moffatt (editors), “The Books of the Apocrypha”, The Expositor, Hodder and Stoughton, page 340
  the learned Dr. Lightfoot...in a sermon preached in St. Margaret’s, Westminster, before the House of Commons in 1643, spoke of the “wretched Apocrypha” as “a patchery of human invention,” divorcing the end of the law from the beginning of the Gospel.
- 1978, Derek Roper, Reviewing Before the Edinburgh 1788-1802, University of Delaware Press, →ISBN, page 281
  It sounds prettily; and is, in parts, very carefully and mystically wrapped up in the gaudy envelope of poetical patchery.
That which is thrown or sown together usually clumsily or with different color and textures, like patchwork.
- 1856, Henry Mason Baum, “The Ministry a Pleasant Work”, in The Church Review., page 532:
  [The Clergy] find all that is absolutely requisite, provided in some way or other; they succeed in feeding, clothing, and educating their children, and live in sufficient comfort not to feel the ridicule which belong to dilapidation and patchery.
- 1863, “Naples and Lake Avernus”, The Eagle., volume 3, W. Metcalfe (Cambridge), page 285
  The Chinese mourn in white, and some of us in Harlequin-like patchery, as though believing motley to be the only wear.
- 1998, Gioia Timpanelli, “Rusina, Not Quite in Love”, Sometimes the Soul, Two Novellas of Sicily, W. W. Norton & Company (Sicily), →ISBN, page 131
  In the corner next to the oven was a huge heap of black rags covering the couch. Among the patchery was a large piece of tapestry

Etymology 2 edit

This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.
Particularly: “Hobson-Jobson says: The origin of the word is obscure, and it has been suggested that it was a corruption of Hind. pichch'hārī, 'the rear,' because these cottages were in rear of the barracks. But we think it most likely that the word was brought, with many other terms peculiar to the British soldier in India, from Madras, and is identical with a term in use there, parcherry or patcherry, which represents the Tam. parash'shēri, paraiççeri, 'a Pariah village,' or rather the quarter or outskirts of a town or village where the Pariahs reside.”

Noun edit

patchery (plural patcheries)

(UK, India, military, historical) Living quarters for married soldiers.

Alternative forms edit

parcherry, patcheree, patcherry

Anagrams edit

petchary