adminish

English

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English amenusen, from Old French amenuisier; compare French amenuiser (“to make thinner”).

Verb

adminish (third-person singular simple present adminishes, present participle adminishing, simple past and past participle adminished)

(transitive, obsolete) To reduce in size or magnitude; to diminish. [1300s-1600s]
- 1579, Joannes Rivius, translated by William Gace, A Guide unto godlinesse, moste worthy to bee followed of all true Christians, page 120:
  Helth of the body is muche to be vviſhed, yet it is diuvers and ſundry wayes mutable: ſtrength of the body is of many much made of, yet is it by ſicknes abated, by age adminiſhed & vvaſted.
- 1680, The Charters of the City of London, page 117:
  […] theſe our Letters Patents or any Thing contained in them, ſhall not be interpreted or conſtrued to the taking or adminiſhing the Force of Effect of any Proclamations publiſhed hereafter […]
- 1681, Johann Jacob, Institutiones Medicinæ Rationalis, page 68:
  In a Malignant Pleuriſy Bleeding cannot be adminiſhed without danger; tho we are ſometimes forc'd to give way to cuſtom.

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “variant form of 'administer'?”)

Verb

adminish (third-person singular simple present adminishes, present participle adminishing, simple past and past participle adminished)

(transitive, obsolete) To administer or govern. [1700s]
- 1751, A Pupil of Alexander the Copperſmith, A Visionary Letter to the Freemen of the City of Bagdad, on a Late Election of Cailiff and Scapins, page 11:
  The chief Magiſtrate in the adminiſhing Relief out of the publick Bounty, was greatly defrauded and deficient in his Accounts.
- 1768, Edward Cavendish Drake, A New Universal Collection of Authentic and Entertaining Voyages and Travels: From the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time, page 266:
  Calis exceeds Dover in begneſs; the market place is a ſpacious ſquare, and the government is adminiſhed by a mayor, and four aldermen.
- 1781, John Adams, Principles of Law and Government, volume 1, pages 125–126:
  The great art of good government, when adminiſhed by the few, or a part of the community, is to make that, the inclination of the people, which is for the intereſt of the people; and by wiſe regulations, to make every one act, in the manner moſt ſubſervient to the public good, while he may intend only, his own private advantage.

References

“adminish”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.