firmityt (fermiti)

[ The square is of all other accompted the figure of most solliditie and stedfastne e, and for his owne staye and firmitie requireth none other base then himselfe. The strength Putten ham , Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 83. falling tony mus rise and Chilling worth, Religion of Protestants, i. 6. Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, 1. 1122. firman (fer'man or fer-män'), n. [Also written firmaun , phirman , phirmaun , firm and , etc., repr. Turk. fermān = Ar. Hind. farm an , Pers. far mãn, a mandate, order, command, Skt. pramana , a measure, scale, authority, devering; shifting; unsteady. cision, The firman for importing rice and coffee from Ægypt is in the hands of some merchants here [at Baias]. Pococke , Description of the East, II. i. 175. After sitting down about two minutes, I again got up, and stood in the middle of the room before him, saying, I am bearer of a hatésherriffe, or royal mandate, to you, Mahomet Aga! and took the firman out of my bosom, and presented it to him. Bruce, Source of the Nile, I. 152. The difference between a Firman and a Hatti Sherif is that, though both are edicts of the Turkish government, the former is signed by any Minister, whereas the latter is approved by the Sultan himself, with his special mark, and is therefore supposed to be irrevocable. The distinction is as real as between a love-letter and a marriage settlement. Blackwood's Mag., IMG:content-1373.png:[blocks in formation] Infirmarium, or the Firmorie (the Curat our whereof In fir mar i us), wherein persons downright sick (trouble to others, and troubled by others, if lodging in the dormitorie) had the benefit of physick, and attendance private to themselves. Fuller, Ch. Hist., VI. 286. firmationt (fer-ma's hon), n. [ ML.firmatio ( n- ), confirmation, a urance, etc., taken in its lit. sense, firm are , strengthen, make fast: see firm , v.] A fixing or steadying. It is also true that man onely sitteth, if we define sitting to be a firm at i on of the body upon the ischias. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., iv. 1.