Need help with word in Calvin's sermons

[Logan]

I'm nearly done proofing Calvin's Sermons on the Song of Hezekiah but I'm having difficulty with a word in the middle-right of the attached screenshot:



It looks like "experuse" but I'm unfamiliar with that word. Could it be an "exercise" typo?

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Or expcruse. Is there an errata page? You know the text is online here? https://www.truecovenanter.com/calvin/calvin_john_sermons_on_hezekiahs_song.html

 

[Tom Hart]

I believe it does indeed say experuse. It's a word I have never seen before. Assuming it's not an error, I would judge from the context that it carries the meaning of "examine (oneself)", and that it is formed from a combination of ex ("out of") and peruse (originally, "read carefully").

 

[Logan]

Yes, I did find that page in my searches, and it's pretty good (a few typos) but I just did my own proof of it. It's also on EEBO and they transcribed it as "experuse" as well.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Next step would be to locate the text in Latin or French to see what it is. There is nothing in the OED like experuse that I could find.

 

[Logan]

Thanks Tom.

There is no errata page, and this edition seems to have been a lower quality publication from 1560. The page numbers go from 1--64 then back to 50, skip the second 55, have two 57s, skip the second 59, then two 61s in a row, skip 63, have two 65s in a row, skip 66,

I mean, the book has three page 61s!

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

I'm nearly done proofing Calvin's Sermons on the Song of Hezekiah but I'm having difficulty with a word in the middle-right of the attached screenshot:

View attachment 6793

It looks like "experuse" but I'm unfamiliar with that word. Could it be an "exercise" typo?

"Experuse" is a word. The context that I have generally seen it used for is to convey "expertise" and "experience" in one's trade or services. Exper= experience or expertise. Use = the employment or application of that expertise or experience.

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

I believe Calvin is exhorting people to employ or apply the experience of God's blessings to His praise. That would be my guess without seeing the surrounding text.

 

[Logan]

I've read hundreds of Calvin's sermons and he very commonly in application will say things like "let everyone prick himself forward" or "let us always press on" or "so we should all strive" or something to that effect. So yes. employ or apply, or Tom's "examine" fits that pattern, for example.

 

[Phil D.]

The original French is "exerce" which means to exert (or exercise). Perhaps experuse was a now archaic Anglicization of that word?

 

[Logan]

That's very helpful, thank you Phil!

Robert, if you can easily find a source that uses "experuse" I'd appreciate it. I haven't been able to find that word in the OED or any of the RHB books I have in electronic form.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

If it was once an archaic word, OED would have some entry I would think. I didn't see one in my squint print edition. This is the kind of thing I will spend an inordinate amount of time on. So, welcome to the club!

The original French is "exerce" which means to exert (or exercise). Perhaps experuse was a now archaic Anglicization of that word?

That's very helpful, thank you Phil!

Robert, if you can easily find a source that uses "experuse" I'd appreciate it. I haven't been able to find that word in the OED or any of the RHB books I have in electronic form.

 

[Phil D.]

In context I would say "exert" makes complete sense and even flows with the given English.

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

If you scroll through the examples in the link below, you will see it is almost always used in the context of have experience and expertise in one's vocation.

Experuse - Google Search

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

&

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

In the examples I've checked these results are simply Google autoscan misreading "expertise" due to scrunched printing.

Oh, that is odd. On my end, the results are showing up as "experuse." Nonetheless, it is almost exclusively used as a term for expertise or experience in one's vocation.

I hope this helps. My time is short for the PB today.

 

[Logan]

Robert, I did search through Google Books previously and saw those examples you mentioned, but like Phil it looks to me that the OCR is reading the ti ligature as a ru and the actual word in each of those instances is "expertise".

 

[Phil D.]

Ha! "autoscan" - what an ameteur I am! It's OCR... Optical Character Recognition.... you can learn something new everyday!

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

Robert, I did search through Google Books previously and saw those examples you mentioned, but like Phil it looks to me that the OCR is reading the ti ligature as a ru and the actual word in each of those instances is "expertise".

I understand what you are saying now. My apologies for the confusion above. I am flying in and out amid a busy workday. I wish you success on your search, but I must call it quits.

@Logan Please email the details of this project.

Also, I just saw your previous email. I will respond shortly.

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

I would be happy to delete those posts to clear up the clutter.

 

[Logan]

No worries, it helps highlight the difficult detective work that happens many times on these sorts of projects, doesn't it?

 

[Logan]

I decided just to leave the word as is in the text with a link to a glossary note that says "Original French is “exerce”, which means to exert or exercise." I appreciate the help guys!

 

[py3ak]

It's pretty clearly a typo: expercise for exercise. The typesetter hadn't had his coffee yet, naturally enough.

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

It's pretty clearly a typo: expercise for exercise. The typesetter hadn't had his coffee yet, naturally enough.

Neither did I when I tried to make "expertise" into "experuse."