demiss (dem is)

[= OF. dem is, desmis = Sp. demiso = Pg. demi o = It. dimi o, dimes so, humble, submi ive, He downe descended, like a most demi e And abject thrall, in fleshes fraile attyre. Spenser, Heavenly Love. Neither is humility a virtue made up of wearing old clothes, or of sullen gestures, or demi behaviour. Jer. Taylor , Works (ed. 1835), I. 302. 2. In bot., depre ed; flattened. E. Tucker man. demi ion1 (dē-mish'on), n. [OF. demi ion, F. démi ion = Sp. dem is i on = Pg. demi ão = It. dime ione, a humbling, lowering, IMG:content-2336.png:[blocks in formation] = 1526 fenses than ta ets, and often without iron gauntlets, thus closely resembling the corselet. See corselet, 3. demit1+ (dē-mit'), v. t. [ They [peacocks] presently demit and let fall the same [their trains]. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., iii. 27. IMG:content-2337.png:[blocks in formation] demit2 (dē-mit'), v. t.; pret. and pp. demitted, ppr. demitting. [= OF. demetre, desmetre, desmettre, F. démettre = Pr. demetre = Sp. Pg. di mitir = It. dimettere, Let us here demit one spider and ten flise. Heywood, Spider and Fly (1556). 2. To lay down formally, as an office; resign; relinquish; transfer. Melvill , Memoirs, p. 85. The rest of the lords enterprisers, after they had secured the queen in Lochlevin, began to consult how to get her majesty counselled to demit the government to the prince General Conway demitted his office, and my commi ion expired, of course. Hume , Private Correspondence. dem i-tint (dem'i-tint), n. [ tint , after F. dem i-teinte. Cf. mezzotint.] In painting , a gradation of color between positive light and positive shade. Commonly called half -tint. demit one (dem'i-ton), n. In music , same as semitone. [Little used.] demiurge (dem'i-érj), n. [L. demiurgus , δημιοεργός , lit. a worker for the people, a handicraftsman, a skilled workman, a maker, an architect, the Maker of the world, the Creator (see def.), δῆμος , the people), + *έρ γειν , work, έργον , a work, = E. work .] 1. A maker or creator; the Creator of the world; specifically, a supernal being imagined by some as the creator of the world in subordination to the Supreme Being. In the Gnostic system the Demiurge (also called Archon, and Jaldabaoth, or son of Chaos) was represented as the chief of the lowest order of spirits or eons of the Pleroma. Mingling with Chaos, he evolved from it a corporeal, animated world. He could not, however, impart to man the true soul or pneuma , but only a sensuous one, psyche . He was identified with the Jehovah of the Jews, and was by some regarded as the origi nat or of evil. would not be God, but God defined as First Cause a demiurge, or subordinately creative deity, created to create the world. Hodgson , Phil. of Reflection, III. xi. § 6. It is much easier to believe that in some way unknown to our finite intelligence the power and goodne of God are compatible with the existence of evil than that the world is the work of an inferior demiurgus or other demon. Edinburgh Rev. The Gnostics agreed in attributing the world in which we live to an Angel, or a Demiurge , inferior to the infiG. P. Fisher, Begin. of Christianity, p. 385. nite God. 2. In some Peloponnesian states of ancient Greece, one of a cla of public officers who in some cases appear to have constituted the chief executive magistracy. Even in an active life some rece es and temporary demi ions of the world are most expedient. Jer. Taylor , Works (ed. 1835), I. 96. Inexorable rigour is worse than a lasche demi ion of sovereign authority. Sir R. L'Estrange.