empanoply

English

WOTD – 2 May 2020

Etymology

An empanoplied knight on horseback at the Jarmark Świętojański (Saint John’s Fair) in Kraków, Poland, in 2014.

From em- (prefix meaning ‘on, onto; covered’) +‎ panoply (“complete set of armour”); panoply is derived from Ancient Greek πᾰνοπλῐ́ᾱ (panoplíā, “suit of armour”), from πάνοπλος (pánoplos, “in full armour”) (from παν- (pan-, prefix meaning ‘all, every’) + ὅπλον (hóplon, “armour; arms, weapons”)) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpænəpli/, /ɛm-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: em‧pa‧no‧ply

Verb

empanoply (third-person singular simple present empanoplies, present participle empanoplying, simple past and past participle empanoplied)

1. (transitive, British, military, historical, also figuratively) To dress in a full suit of armour; to panoply.
   • 1784, William R[obert] Spencer, “Chorus from the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides. Written at Harrow School, in the Year 1784.”, in Poems by the Late Hon. William R. Spencer; […], new edition, London: James Cochrane and Co., […], published 1835, →OCLC, strophe III, page 139:

     I see, I see, empanoply'd in arms, / (Rapt with prophetic fire, sage Chiron cried), / O'er Phrygian plains wide hurling war's alarms, / Thy son, O Thetis, rise, his country's pride.

   • 1876, “Night the Sixth. [Hadramaut.]”, in The Echo Club, and Other Literary Diversions, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 126:

     The grand conglomerate hills of Araby, / That stand empanoplied in utmost thought, / With dazzling ramparts front the Indian sea, / Down there in Hadramaut.

   • 1886 May, Robert Brown, Jun., “To Miss Mildred Hope Courtney McDougall”, in A Trilogy of the Life-to-come and Other Poems, London: David Nutt, […], published 1887, →OCLC, page 92:

     High hope / Empanoplies the soul. Bright faith / Meets and o'ercomes the victor death, / And trusts the future's grander scope.

   • 1889, Bret Harte, “A Secret of Telegraph Hill”, in The Heritage of Dedlow Marsh and Other Tales, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, chapter II, page 171:

     It didn't appear to Herbert, however, that Mrs. Brooks exhibited any extravagant joy over the occurrence, and she almost instantly retired with her daughter into the sitting-room, linking her arm in Cherry's, and, as it were, empanoplying her with own invulnerable shawl.

   • 1901, Henry Murger [i.e., Henri Murger], “Floods of Pactolus”, in Ellen Marriage, John Selwyn, transl., The Latin Quarter: (“Scènes de la Vie de Bohème”), New York, N.Y.: Doubleday Page and Company, →OCLC, page 101:

     Do not interrupt; a truce to your raillery! It will fall blunted, besides, on the cuirass of an invulnerable will, in which henceforth I am empanoplied.

   • 1912, Thomas Burke, “Paddington”, in Pavements and Pastures: A Book of Songs, London: Printed by the London and Norwich Press, →OCLC; republished in London Lamps: A Book of Songs, New York, N.Y.: Robert M[edill] McBride & Co.; London: Grant Richards, 1919, →OCLC, page 15:

     Oh, lovely are her [Paddington Station's] lean lines, and lovely her poise, / Empanoplying the long, dim frenzy of noise.

   • 1928, Rafael Sabatini, “The Holy Office”, in The Hounds of God: A Romance, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 222:

     He was marvelling anew, no doubt, as he was presently to express it to the tribunal, that Satan should be permitted so admirably and deceptively to empanoply his servants.

Derived terms

• empanoplied (adjective)

Related terms

• panoplied (adjective)
• panoplist
• panoply

Translations

to dress in a full suit of armour

• Italian: corazzarsi

Further reading

• body armour on Wikipedia.Wikipedia