chevisance

English

Alternative forms

chevisaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French chevisance, from chevir (“provide”). The 'chivalrous adventure' sense is thought to be first used by Edmund Spenser, who incorrectly linked chevisance to Old French chevalerie (“chivalry”).

Noun

chevisance (countable and uncountable, plural chevisances)

(obsolete) Provision(s), supply.
- 1565, Jewel, Repl. Harding (1611), page 67:
  There was then neither such number of Altars, nor such chueisance of Masses, as hath beene sithence.
- 1602, Carew, Cornwall, page 29:
  The store-house of Sunnes cheuisance... Oceanus.
- 1609, Holland, Amm. Marcel., xxiii, iii, page 221:
  A strong towne of defence, and for rich chevisance and quicke traffique a most delectable place.
(obsolete) Booty.
- 1526, Skelton, Magnyf., page 2264:
  When we with Magnyfycence goodys made chevysaunce.
- 1530, Tindale, Pract. Prelates, xii:
  make what cheuysaunce they lusted.
- 1658, W. Burton, Itin. Anton., page 149:
  […] carried their pillage […] to places of safety […] and full of gladnesse for their chevisance, did then come again to fetch more.
(obsolete) Remedy, resource, expedient, means of helping oneself.
- 1548, Hall, Chron. (1809), page 406:
  Hir craftie chevesaunce tooke none effect in Brytayne
- 1650, B., Discollim., page 39:
  Violated by Leger du main, or chevisance of wit.
(obsolete, chiefly derogatory) The raising of money (by a borrower, by some expedient).
- 1510, Barclay, Mirr. Good Mann. (1570), C, iiij:
  If he shame to begge […] Then turneth he to fraude and crafty cheuesaunce, Of all men borowing on suertie, othe or seale.
- 1545, Act 37 Hen. VIII, c. 9:
  Punyshment of Usurye […] shiftes and chevisances.
- 1589, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie I, xviii, 53:
  […] or any other predatory art or cheuisance.
(obsolete, often derogatory) The furnishing of money (by a lender) for profit.
- 1570, Act 13 Eliz., c. 5:
  Couenous and fraudulent Feoffements […] to the overthrow of all true and plain dealing, bargaining and chevisance between man and man.
- 1588, J. Harvey, Disc. in Thynne's Animadv. (1865), page 146:
  Pitie, that any such knack of kanuerie, or covenous chevisance [...] should [...] overthrow [... a] state.
- 1602, Fulbecke, Second Part: Parall, page 48:
  It is held to be simonie, and corrupt cheuisance, if any valuance consideration be giuen in such regard […]
(obsolete) A contract or agreement (about a matter in dispute, such as a debt); in particular, an unlawful contract intended to evade laws against usury.
- 1961, Philip E. Jones, Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls, CUP Archive, page 102:
  [Discussing events from June 1421.] […] committed to prison till he satisfied the commonalty for £17 10s which he did not deny having obtained from the said Guy by false chevisance, together with the sum of £53 8d, being double the amount of gain he had made from the other persons.
- 2023 November 6, Gijs Kruijtzer, Justifying Transgression, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, →ISBN:
  Since, however, the form of such a canonical sale on credit was often or even mostly employed as a cover for loans with a mark-up, all chevisance came to be seen as deceitful, thus making the adjective “false” redundant. In any case it seems that the ecclesiastical courts in England did not prosecute chevisance, but only usury on the basis of mutuum type loans, which […]
(obsolete) Chivalrous adventure.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
  Fortune, the foe of famous cheuisaunce / Seldome (said Guyon) yields to vertue aide, / But in her way throwes mischiefe and mischaunce, / Whereby her course is stopt, and passage staid.
- 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, Book IV, lxxxi:
  Ah! be it not pardie declared in France, / Or elsewhere told where court'sy is in prize, // That we forsook so fair a chevisance, / For doubt or fear that might from fight arise.

Anagrams

chievances

Old French

Noun

chevisance oblique singular, f (oblique plural chevisances, nominative singular chevisance, nominative plural chevisances)

sustenance

References

Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (chevisance)