Faction sb.

Also 6 faccion, fac(c)yon, 8 factione. [a. F. faction, ad. L. factiōn-em, n. of action f. facĕre to do, make.

  The L. senses are: 1. action or manner of making or doing; 2. a class (of persons) either professional or social; 3. a political party, chiefly in bad sense, an oligarchical clique. The popular F. representative of the word, which had only the first sense, appears in Eng. as FASHION.]

  † 1.  A doing or making: cf. FASHION. a. Manner of acting or behaving; an action, proceeding, course of conduct. b. The action of doing or making something; an instance of this. Obs.

  a.  1559.  in Strype, Ann. Ref., I. App. viii. 22. The Pope’s Factions in refusinge to consecrate or confirme those which were duely electyd to Ecclesiasticall Dignities.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 110. The factions of dogs for their own ease:—When they lie down, they turn round in a circle two or three times together.

1622.  J. Boys, Wks., 628. Ye haue such an instructor as is the prisoner of Iesus Christ, in bonds, not for any faction of yours, or fault of his owne; but for y conscience toward God.

  b.  1612.  R. Sheldon, Serm. St. Martin’s, 34. Their daily new makings, productions, factions, creations … of Christ.

1676.  R. Dixon, Two Test., 29. Faction, when a Testator declares this to be his last Will and Testament.

1689.  Foxes & Firebrands, III. 216. Either by Creation or Faction from some pre-existing matter.

  2.  A class, sort, or set of persons. † a. gen.

1530.  A Proper Dyaloge (1863), 13.

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., IV. i. 37. This fellow were a King, for oure wilde faction. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., II. i. 130. I will … leaue the faction of fooles.

1606.  Holland, Sueton., 187. He chose … 5000 … young men out of the commons, who beeing sorted into factions should learne certaine kinde of shouts and applauses.

  b.  spec. in Rom. Antiq. One of the companies or organizations of contractors for the chariot races in the circus.

1606.  Holland, Sueton., 188. A chariot driver one of the greene-coate faction.

1788.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xl. IV. 69. The blue and green factions continued to afflict the reign of Justinian.

1869.  Lecky, Europ. Mor., I. iii. 231. Before the close of the republic, an enthusiastic partisan of one of the factions in the chariot races flung himself upon the pile on which the body of a favourite coachman was consumed, and perished in the flames.

1882.  C. Elton, Orig. Eng. Hist., xi. 308. The factions of the Blues and Greens were promised as many chariot-races as could be run between morning and night.

  c.  Sc. A division of a class in school; a section.

1700.  Extracts fr. Aberdeen Reg., 23 Oct. (Burgh Record Soc., 1872), 331. Item, in tyme of prayer that each decurio goe to the factione under his inspectione.

1870.  J. Burns, Mem. W. C. Burns, i. 20. He fought his way steadily … through the class till he reached … the highest ‘faction.’

1872.  D. Brown, Life J. Duncan, ii. 14. Maintaining his position in the first faction or bench,—each faction containing only four boys.

  3.  A party in the state or in any community or association. Always with opprobrious sense, conveying the imputation of selfish or mischievous ends or turbulent or unscrupulous methods.

1509.  Fisher, Fun. Serm. C’tess Richmond, Wks. (1876), 296. If any faccyons or bendes were made … she … dyde boulte it oute.

1535.  Joye, Apol. Tindale, 33. Tindals faccion and his disciples … beleue lyke their master.

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. viii. (1634), 25. Core, Dathan, and Abiram, and all that wicked faction.

1581.  W. Stafford, Exam. Compl., iii. (1876), 97. What continuall warres hath the Faction of the Arrians bene the occasion of?

1640.  James Yorke, The Union of Honour, 331. Hee [Richard Plantaginet] … was Chiefe of the faction of the white Rose.

1667.  Pepys, Diary (1877), V. 4. He hath joined himself with my Lady Castlemaine’s faction.

1776.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xviii. 493. The public tranquillity was disturbed by a discontented faction.

1828.  D’Israeli, Chas. I., I. vi. 157. Now Religion was running into factions, conscience inspiring acts of treason.

1849.  Lewis, Infl. Author., x. note, 385. When a party abandons public and general ends, and devotes itself only to the personal interests of its members and leaders, it is called a faction, and its policy is said to be factious.

1868.  E. Edwards, Raleigh, I. vii. 108. The Marian faction and the Spanish faction had played into each other’s hands, without having, at heart, one purpose.

  b.  transf. and fig.

1614.  Bp. Hall, A Recollection of such Treatises, 1063–4. The faction of evill is so much stronger in our nature, then that of Good, that every least motion preuailes for the one; scarce any sute for the other.

1627.  P. Fletcher, Locusts, II. ii. The spirit and flesh man in two factions rend.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 94.

  c.  In Ireland applied to certain mutually hostile associations among the peasantry, consisting usually of the members of one particular family (which gives its name to the faction) and of their relatives and friends.

1830.  W. Carleton, Irish Peasantry, II. 29. His family was not attached to any faction—and when I use the word faction, it is in contradistinction to the word party—for faction, you know, is applied to a feud or grudge between Roman Catholics exclusively.

1838.  S. C. Hall, Lights & Shad. Irish Life, I. 287. There’s as many as twenty of my faction at the Greybeard’s stone.

  4.  ‘Party’ in the abstract; self-interested or turbulent party strife or intrigue; factious spirit or action; dissension. † To be in faction with: to be in league with.

1538.  Starkly, England, I. iv. 106. Ther should be facyon and partys, wyth grete ambycyon and enuy.

a. 1652.  Brome, Mad Couple, II. Wks. 1873, I. 33. Car. The Rogue’s in faction with ’em.

1682.  Burnet, Rights Princes, Pref. 12–3. An equality among Pastors, cannot hold long without great Faction; and the majority of all Societies is apt to be corrupted, so we cannot long hope for much Order, where the major Vote determines every thing.

1735–8.  Bolingbroke, On Parties, Ded., 16. But Faction hath no Regard to national Interests.

1795.  Burke, Th. Scarcity, Wks. 1842, II. 247. The number of idle tales, spread about by the industry of faction, and by the zeal of foolish good-intention, and greedily devoured by the malignant credulity of mankind, tends infinitely to aggravate prejudices, which, in themselves, are more than sufficiently strong.

1841.  Emerson, Lectures, The Conservative, Wks. (Bohn), II. 276. The man of principle … even in the fury of faction is respected.

1860.  Hook, Lives Abps., I. vi. 347. The popularity, which faction was obliged for a brief period to concede, was, by faction, soon destroyed.

  † b.  A factious quarrel or intrigue. Obs.

1593.  R. Harvey, Philad., 18. Hurdibras allayed the factions and quarrels that hee found among his people, and of vnquiet men made them very quiet.

1623.  Laud, in Ellis Orig. Lett., II. 263. III. 241. A faction about the choice of a newe Governour.

1661–2.  Pepys, Diary, 22 June. There are factions (private ones at Court) about Madam Palmer.

  5.  attrib. and Comb., as faction-fight, † -governor; faction-mad, -ridden, adjs.

1841.  in S. C. Hall, Ireland, I. 428. ‘The *faction fights, plase your honours,’ said an intelligent countryman when spoken to by us on the subject, ‘the faction fights are a’most, and maybe more than a’most gone off the face of the country. The boys are beginning to talk about them as things they have seen—like a show or a giant.’

1890.  W. Smith’s Dict. Gr. & Rom. Antiq. (ed. 3), I. 438. Even in Rome faction fights frequently took place towards the declining period of the empire.

1639.  Drumm. of Hawth., Vind. Hamiltons, Wks. (1711), 238. Hamilton was not named by a private *Faction-Governour, but by the Hatred that was carried towards Cardinal Beaton.

1784.  Cowper, Task, III. 673.

1888.  Pall Mall G., 6 Oct. 1/2. The distracted and *faction ridden Republic of France.