Forms: 3–4 Giw-, Gywerie, -ye, 4 Iuery, -ie, 4–5 Iuwery, -ie, Iewery, -ie, -ye, (Iurye, 4–7 Iurie, Iury, 5 Iure, Iwry), 5–6 Iewry(e, (6 Sc. Ioure), 6–7 Jewrie, 7– Jewry. [a. AF. juerie = OF. juierie, juerie, jurie (13th c.), mod.F. juiverie: see JEW and -ERY.]
† 1. The land of the Jews, Judea; sometimes extended to the whole of Palestine. Obs. or arch.
a. 1350. Harl. MS. 4196, in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LVII. 79. Als custum was in þe iury.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 89. Þis Nabugodonosor … wente into Iuda, þat is þe Iewerie, and took Ierusalem.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 267/2. Ivrye, where Ivys dwelle [v.r. I wry], Iudea.
1526. Tindale, John vii. 1. Iesus went about in Galile, and wolde not goo about in iewry.
1533. Gau, Richt Vay, 41. O thow bethleem effrata thow art litil amangis ane thowsand of Ioure.
1539. Bible (Great), Ps. lxxvi. 1. In Iewry is God knowne; his name is greate in Israel.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., I. ii. 28. A Childe … to whom Herode of Iewry may do Homage.
1671. [R. MacWard], True Non-conf., 19. It may be considered that Antiochus his title to Jurie, is not obnoxious to any particular exception.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, II. (1807), 97. Drawn from the north to Jewry’s hallow’d plains.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IX. 1662. ’Tis unconfin’d To Christian land, or Jewry.
attrib. 1597–8. Bp. Hall, Sat., I. viii. 4. Parnassus is transform’d to Sion hill, And Iury-palmes her steepe ascents done fill.
2. The district inhabited by Jews in a town or city; the Jews’ quarter; the Ghetto. (Hence the Old Jewry in London.) Obs. exc. Hist.
In 1225, in Giwerie = in pawn to the Jews: cf. 1386.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 394. Ne telleð me him god feolawe þet leið his wed ine Giwerie uorto acwiten ut his fere? God Almihti leide himsulf uor us ine Giwerie,… uorto acwiten ut his leofmon of Giwene honden.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 9920. Þer was mani a wilde hine þat … wende in to þe gywerie and woundede and to drowe.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prioress’ T., 37. Ther was in Asye in a greet Citee Amonges cristene folk a Iewerye Sustened by a lord of that contree For foule vsure and lucre of vileynye.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., I. i[i]. Hast thou for-sworne all thy friends i’ the old Iewrie?
1670–98. Lassels, Voy. Italy, II. 50. I saw on my left hand, the great back door of the Jewry; for here the Jews live altogether in a Corner of the Town, and are locked up every night.
1844. Fraser’s Mag., XXX. 423/1. To assign them a peculiar quarter, as the Israelites were once confined to their Jewry.
1876. Green, Stray Stud., 336. Here [Oxford] as elsewhere the Jewry was a town within a town.
† 3. The Jewish religion, Judaism. Obs.
13[?]. S. E. Leg. (MS. Bodl. 779), in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LXXXII. 346/4. Al his kyn byleued al on þe gywerye.
1382. Wyclif, Gal. i. 14. I profitide in Iurye aboue many myn euene eeldis.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. xiii. 69. Conuertid fro Iewry into Cristenhode.
1552. Huloet, Iewrye, iudaismus.
4. The Jewish people, nation, race or community; the Jews collectively.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 247. Now comes a new pleynt, to destroie þe Juerie.
1340. Ayenb., 7. Þis word zeterday þet þe iurie clepeþ sabat.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 100. Wer þer þre sectis among þe Iury, Phariseis and Esseis, and Saduceis.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xx. 640. Most gentyll of Iure to me that I fynde.
1641. Jackson, True Evang. T., 2. This Prophecy hath been contained neither within the limits of Jury nor Christendome.
1893. Zangwill, Childr. Ghetto, Proem. That long cruel night in Jewry which coincides with the Christian Era.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 11 Aug., 7/1. All three parties call upon the judges [in the Dreyfus trial] … to remember that the real issue ‘is between Catholic France and Cosmopolitan Jewry.’
