Obs. [worn down from of, f being dropped bef. a cons., and the toneless o sunk into the neutral ə, which being the ordinary sound of toneless a, as in a man, ămain, Americă, was here also written a. It was once the ordinary representative of of in certain phrases, as men a war, cloth a gold, inns a court, time a day, fustian a Napes, out a doors (where apparently confused with at, cf. in a doores) and familiarly in many others. In mod. spelling, of when contracted is written o’, but the familiar pronunciation is still ə as in man o’ (ə) war.]
1. Of.
1500[?]. Chevy Chase (MS. Ashmole, 48), 84. He spendyd A spere a trusti tre.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froissart, I. xxxviii. 52. The cyty was strong, and well furnysshed of men a warr.
1532. More, Conf. Dr. Barnes, VIII. (Wks. 1557), 804/2. Ye shall beare no part of that flesh foorth a dores.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iii. 76. The name of John a Gaunt. Ibid. (1599), Much Ado, III. iv. 19. Cloth a gold and cut, and lac’d with siluer.
1599. Chapman, An humerous dayes myrth (Plays, 1873), I. 63. Theeues, Puritanes, murderers, in adoores, I say.
1631. Lenton, Leasures, char. 29. A young innes a court gentleman.
1673. J. Janeway, Heaven upon Earth (1847), 286. ’Tis not time-a-day for you to be sleeping or playing.
2. Especially common in the phrase a clock = of the clock, o’clock.
c. 1450. Wills and Inv. Bury St. Edm., 17. At vii of the clokke.
1480. Plumpton Corr., 40. Uppon Munday by viii a clocke.
1593. T. Fale, Art of Dialling, A. 3. The Meridian and twelve a clock line are all one.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. (1616), I. iv. 14. It’s sixe a clocke: I should ha’ carried two turnes, by this.
1665. Boyle, Occ. Refl., VI. xv. 254 (1675). To know what a Clock it was.
1713. Derham, Physico-Theol., 18, note. Sea-Breezes commonly rise in the Morning about Nine a Clock.
1741. Amherst, Terræ Filius, I. 3. Coming into college at ten or eleven a clock at night.
3. After manner, kind, sort, etc. a, orig. the ‘indef. article,’ was taken as = of. Orig. what manner was in the genitive relation, thus: what manner a man? cujusmodi homo? what manner men? cujusmodi homines? By being taken as = of, a was first extended to the plural, as ‘what manner a men?’ and then changed to of, as in the mod. ‘what manner of men?’ which no longer answers to cujusmodi homines? but to qui modus hominum? The dialects retain the original ‘kind a’ as kinda, kinder.
1388. Wyclif, Judg. viii. 18. What maner men weren thei [1382 What weren the men] that ȝe killiden in Thabor. 1611 What maner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor?]
1523. Ld. Berners, Froissart, I. lxxv. 96. Ther abode alyue no maner a person.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. VI. 33. 17 a. We know what maner a one that is.
1592. Rd. Hyrde, trans. Vives’ Instr. Christ. Woman, G iij. What maner a ones they shoulde be, S. Peter, & S. Paule,… teach.
