Also 6 burss(e, (6–7 buss), 7 burs, burze, byrse. [a. F. bourse purse, wallet:—med.L. bursa, a. Gr. βύρσα hide, wine-skin. The history of sense 3, and its F. form bourse, is doubtful, but apparently it did not originate in any reference to the money business there transacted.]
I. 1. A purse: now the designation of one of the official insignia of the Lord High Chancellor of England.
1570. Levins, Manip., 191. A Burse, bursa.
1863. Baring-Gould, Iceland, 239. An ancient crimson velvet burse.
b. Eccl. A receptacle for the ‘corporal’ or linen cloth used to cover the elements in the Eucharist.
1844. Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Ch. (1858), II. ix. 70. A burse to hold the linen for the altar.
1866. Direct. Angl. (ed. 3), 352. Burse, the case for the corporal.
† 2. A purse-like sac or covering. Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 395. The burse or cod wherin this woollie substance lyes. Ibid., XXXII. ii. (R.). A twofold burse or skin, which no living creature hath besides.
II. In commerce.
† 3. A meeting-place of merchants for transaction of business; an Exchange. Obs. (See BOURSE.)
[According to Guicciardini and Catel (quoted in Chambers, Cycl. Supp., 1753), the name arose at Bruges, from the sign of a purse, or three purses, on the front of the house which the merchants there bought to meet in: some say this was the arms of the former owners, the family Bursa or de la Bourse. Others assign the circumstance to Antwerp. See Chambers, Cycl. Supp., 1753, Littré (Supp., and Additions), Notes & Queries, 1st Ser. I. 74, etc. All the accounts agree as to the sign of a purse or purses.]
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind., 25. Whether the marchauntes … haue their continual recourse as to ye burse or strete.
1580. Lyly, Euphues, 434. It [London] hath … a gloryous Burse which they call the Ryoll Exchaung.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man, V. (1603), 540. Socrates walking in the Bursse or Market place.
1638. L. Roberts, Merch. Map Commerce, clxxxi. This citie [Bruges] hath an eminent market place with a publicke house for the meeting of all Marchants … called the Burse, of … the extinct familie Bursa, bearing three purses for their armes, ingraven upon their houses, from whence these meeting places to this day are called Burses.
1721–33. Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. I. 327. In the burse of Antwerp money was never so scanty.
1732. De Foe, Tour Gt. Brit. (1769), II. 110. The Royal Exchange is the greatest Burse in the World.
† b. The Burse: (spec.) the Royal Exchange in London, built by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566. Britain’s Burse: the New Exchange in the Strand, built by the Earl of Salisbury in 1609, afterwards known as Exeter ’Change, on the site of the present Exeter Hall. In both of these there were shops, allusions to which are frequent. Obs.
1570. Churchw. Acc. St. Margarets, Westminster (Nicholls, 1797), 18. When the Queens Majesty went to the Bursse.
1597. J. Payne, Royal Exch., 12. Our soueraigne Ladie in abolishing the fyrst title (Buss) … had prudent consideration to tearme yt the exchange.
1611. Dekker & Middleton, Roar. Girl, Wks. 1873, III. 196. She says, she went to the burse for patterns.
1625. Diff. East & West Churches, Title-page, To be sold at the signe of the Windmill in Britain’s Burse.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, III. i. (Nares). A coach … To hurry me to the Burse, or Old Exchange.
1640. Glapthorne, Wit in Constable, I. She has been at Britain’s burse a buying pins and needles.
1653. A. Wilson, Jas. I., 48. A goodly Fabrick, Rival to the Old Exchange which the King … dignified with the name of Britain’s Burse.
1720. Stow’s Surv. (ed. Strype, 1754), II. VI. i. 577/2. It pleased his Majesty … to intitle it Britain’s Burse or Buss.
† c. fig. Obs.
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, II. x. 441. The whores factors would faine drawe customers to her burse of bawderies.
1634. J. Taylor (Water P.), Gt. Eater Kent, 11. His guts are the rendezvous or meeting-place or burse for the beasts of the fields, the fowles of the ayre, and fishes of the sea.
1636. Fitzgeffrey, Blessed Birthd. (1881), 1500. O royall change for vs, o blessed Burse, Where man the blessing gets, God takes the curse!
† 4. ? A shop. Obs.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, 4. Five burses [tabernæ] which I let, adde to my store Four hundred sesterces.
III. In French and Scotch universities.
† 5. A fund or foundation to provide bursaries.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq., Gloss. s.v. Bursaria, Formerly all exhibitioners … at Paris were called bursars, as they lived on the burs, or fund, or endowment of founders and benefactors … Which bursarii were most properly those novices or young scholars, who were sent to the university, and maintained by the religious out of their public burs, or stock.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Bursa, Burse, or Bourse, in the French universities, still denotes a foundation for the maintenance of poor scholars in their studies.
6. = BURSARY 3.
1560. 1st Bk. Discipl., v. (1836), 34. They must have the priviledges in schooles, and bursis in colledges.
1579. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1814), 179 (Jam.). Nane sall bruik ane burss in ony facultie bot for the space of foure yeiris.
1677. in Spottiswood, Hist. Ch. Scotl., App. 26. Inviting young Scholars to come and dispute for a Burse, (which is their maintenance at the Colledge).
1779. in Grant, Burgh Sch. Scotl., II. v. 210. In 1779 the council of Aberdeen enacted that no boy who has … competed for a ‘burse,’ shall receive premium.
7. A college, or academic hall. See BURSA 2.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 1114. Samuel … was gouernour and principal of Naioth, that is to say y3 Burse (as they terme it) or Colledge of Prophetes.
c. 1840. Sir W. Hamilton, Log., App. II. 374, note. The … Masters Regent in the Burse (or College) of St. Lawrence, in Cologne.
