Also 5 werset. [a. OF. (also mod.F.) verset (= Prov. verset, Pg. verseto, It. versetto), dim. of vers VERSE sb.]
1. = VERSE sb. 2, VERSICLE 1. Now Hist.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 16. Siggeð so al ðe imne vt mid te uerset ‘Emitte Spiritum tuum.’ Ibid., 42. Her siggeð fifti auez…, alast þet uerset, ‘Ecce ancilla Domini’ [etc.].
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XII. 189. Dominus pars hereditatis mee is a meri verset.
c. 1400. Rule St. Benet (Prose), 16. Wen þai [i.e., psalms] ere said and te verset, þabbasse saie þe benecun. Ibid. And efter [sing] oþir sexe salmis wid þe antefens,… wid þe werset.
1641. Milton, Animadv., Wks. 1851, III. 209. They beare an equall part with the Priest in many places, and have their cues and versets as well as he.
1844. Lingard, Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858), I. App. M. 378. The manuscript, both here and in several other places, interposes two versets with their responses.
2. A little or short verse, esp. one of the Bible or similar book; a short piece of verse.
1625. Lisle, Du Bartas, Noe, Pref. 1. Among the sundrie versets or prosets which besides this I have or shall set out.
1861. I. Taylor, Spir. Hebr. Poetry, 335. The metrical Scriptures—infixed as they were in the memory by the very means of these artificial devices of versets,… became food to the mind.
1888. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, I. 143. A Koran verset is often written above.
