Talk:outbuy
I don't think "To pay for the ransom of (a prisoner)." is a valid definition. --Sparkliest 19:06, 7 November 2010 (UTC)
RFV
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Rfv-sense To pay for the ransom of (a prisoner). I don't see evidence of this definition. --Sparkliest 19:49, 8 November 2010 (UTC)
- Added by Widsith (talk • contribs), one of our most reliable editors. However, after a couple of Google Books searches, I have nothing at all. Mglovesfun (talk) 14:30, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
- Is it dated, literary/poetic, rare? I see some possible Victorian and earlier usage, but find it hard to be sure of my reading. DCDuring TALK 16:25, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
- Hmm, my bad. I can't find any good citations of it either, except in really old texts. It seems like in later use it was only used kind of metaphorically, like in this Bulwer-Lytton quote: "That correspondence names thee as one who has taken the gold of Count Charolois, and whom, therefore, King Louis may outbuy." Here outbuy means basically buy out, which probably would be a better definition. The OED calls this sense: "To ransom (a prisoner), to buy out of slavery; to buy out of (a state of sin) through the purchase of indulgences; to get rid of by buying. Cf. to buy out." Ƿidsiþ 09:08, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
There is also the Scots outby ("to buy out of bondage, buy oneself out of bondage, ransom"). Otherwise, in English, another form is outbuie (1608) used in Byron's Conspiracy: "He that winnes Empire with the loss of faithe out-buies it, and will banck-route" --Thomas Thorpe. Leasnam 22:01, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
- Pretty sure on Google Books I saw a citation meaning to buy up/buy out (such as one would buy out a company). Mglovesfun (talk) 22:09, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
- RFV-failed. Please feel free to create the Scots verb outby and/or a Middle English entry. - -sche (discuss) 20:25, 8 August 2011 (UTC)