sb. Also 5 testement, 5–6 testment. [ad. L. testāment-um a will; also, in early Christian Latin, used to render Gr. διαθήκη covenant (see II.), f. testārī to be a witness, attest, make a will, etc.: see -MENT. With the form teste-, testment, cf. OF. testement, beside the more usual testament.]
I. In original sense of L. testāmentum.
This is app. later in Eng. than branch II.
1. Law. A formal declaration, usually in writing, of a person’s wishes as to the disposal of his property after his death; a will. Formerly, properly applied to a disposition of personal as distinct from real property (cf. c). Now rare (chiefly in phrase last will and testament).
[1306. Rolls of Parlt., I. 220/1. Les executors de tieux testaments.]
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 20. Þre þousand marke he gaf with testament fulle right.
13[?]. Cursor M., 28322. Ic seketur made of testament, Ne folud noght … Þe testament for to fulfill.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 78. I wole, ar I Wende write my Testament.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 36. I … calle vpon hym to do his part in alle thinges longyng to my testement and wille.
1464. Rolls of Parlt., V. 549/2. Ayenst the Testament and the last Wille of your seid noble Progenitour.
1590. Swinburne, Testaments, 3. A testament properly vnderstoode, is one kinde of last will, euen that wherein Executor is named.
1637. Prynne, in Documents agst. P. (Camden), 99. Whom I make sole executors of this my last will and testament, revoking all former wills.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. i. 12. The right of disposing one’s property, or a part of it, by testament.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages (1819), II. vii. 311. The ecclesiastical tribunals … took the execution of testaments into their hands, on account of the legacies to pious uses, which testators were advised to bequeath.
1880. Muirhead, Ulpian, xx. § 1. A testament is the testification of our will, in the form prescribed by law, made solemnly, on purpose that it may be effectual alter our death.
b. transf. and fig. (Cf. legacy.)
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 668. Take here my testament of tresoure fulle huge, As I trayste appone the, be traye thowe me never!
c. 1532. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1064. The masse is the testament the which our Lorde made before his deth & passyon.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. vi. 27. And so espous’d to death, with blood he seal’d A Testament of Noble-ending-loue.
1667. Jer. Taylor, Dissuas. Popery, II. I. iii. 110. The Gospels are Christ’s Testament; and the Epistles are the Codicils annex’d.
1831–3. E. Burton, Eccl. Hist., xix. (1845), 403. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs … professes to contain prophecies and exhortations delivered by the sons of Jacob shortly before their death.
† c. transf. Testamentary estate; personal as distinct from real property. Obs.
1424. E. E. Wills (1882), 56. I … declare my last will…, als well of my testament as of my land þat standez in feffez handes.
2. Sc. Law. The writing by which a person nominates an executor to administer his personal or movable estate after his decease. This writing is styled, in the decree of the Court granting confirmation (i.e., probate), a testament-testamentar (or -ary), and the executor is an executor-nominate. When no executor has been nominated, an executor-dative is appointed by the Court, and the decree appointing him is styled a testament-dative. (The latter answers to Letters of Administration in English Law.)
1526. Sc. Acts Jas. V. (1814), II. 306/2. Quhar ony sic persouns deis wtin age þat may not mak þar testamentis.
1564. Acts of Sederunt, 13 April (1790), 6. To the collectoris and ressaveris of the quotts, for confirmation of the testaments of the personis decessand within oure realm. Ibid. (1666), 28 Feb., 99. If there be no nomination or testament made by the defunct, or if the testament testamentar shall not be desired to be confirmed. Ibid., 101. Of all testaments, both great and small, which shall be confirmed, as well of testaments dative, as others.
1681. Stair, Inst. Law Scot., xxx. § 33. 170. The Nomination of Executors, is properly called a Testament.
1768–73. Erskine, Inst. Sc. Law, III. ix. § 7. Though nuncupative testaments are not effectual … to support the nomination of executors, yet nuncupative or verbal legacies are valid to the extent of L. 100 Scots. Ibid., § 27. Where an executor named by the deceased is authorised by the Judge, it is called the confirmation of a testament-testamentary; and when the Judge confers the office of executor upon a person of his own nomination, it is styled the confirmation of a testament-dative.
1838. in W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot.
¶ 3. erroneously. = TESTIMONY; witness.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 8. The pape convertit sanct Tiburce, [and] sanct Valere be his testament.
c. 1533. Disc. Antichrist, in Strype, Eccl. Mem. (1721), I. App. xlv. 125. And when he shal end his testament tha beast shal come from the bottomles pit … and shal slay them.
1904. in Daily Chron., 21 Oct., 5/7. There is first-hand testament to my statements.
II. In Christian Latin use of testāmentum.
Orig. a misuse of the word, arising from the fact that Gr. διαθήκη, ‘disposition, arrangement,’ was applied both to a covenant (pactum, fœdus) between parties, and to a testament or will (testamentum). Prob. largely due to the use of διαθήκη (in the sense ‘covenant’) in the account of the Last Supper immediately before Christ’s death, and its consequent association with the notion of a last will or testament. See also historical note s.v. COVENANT sb. 7.
4. Script. A covenant between God and man: = COVENANT sb. 7. Obs. or arch.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12718. Quen drightin gan to sprad his grace … Þe testament bigan he neu. Ibid., 12886. Þe ald testament hir-wit nu slakes, And sua þe neu begining takes.
c. 1315. Shoreham, i. 541. Þys hys þe chalis of my blode Of testament newe.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter cxxxi. 12. If þi sunnys hafe kepid my testament.
1382. Wyclif, Baruch ii. 35. And Y shal sette to them an other testament euere durende. Ibid., Acts vii. 8. He ȝaf to him the testament of circumcisioun. Ibid., 1 Cor. xi. 25. This cuppe is the newe testament in my blood.
c. 1430. Lydg., Letabundus, 248, in Min. Poems. In Reioysshyng of Crystes glad comynge; Two testamentys that day wer maad bothe Oon.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., xliv. (Percy Soc.), 216. His elect mother and arke of testament, Of holy chyrche the blessed lumynary.
1611. Bible, 2 Cor. iii. 6. Able ministers of the New Testament [Gr. διακόνους κιανῆς διαθήκης: Wyclif, able mynistris of the newe testament, 1881 R. V. ministers of a new covenant]. Ibid., 14. In the reading of the old testament [R. V. at the reading of the old covenant].
5. Hence, through the application of παλαιὰ and κιανῆ διαθήκη, in the Itala and Vulgate vetus and novum testamentum, to the Mosaic and Christian ‘covenants’ or ‘dispensations’ (cf. 2 Cor. iii. 6, 14 cited in 4), the term passed in early Christian Latin (and thence in the languages of the West) to the books or records of the old and new covenants.
(This transition of sense took place many centuries before the adoption of the word in English, where the name was simply taken over from L. or Fr. in this transferred use.)
a. Each of the two main divisions of the Sacred Scriptures or Bible, the Old and the New Testament, consisting of the books of the old or Mosaic and the new or Christian covenant or dispensation, respectively.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 120. I sal yow schew wit myn entent Brefli of aiþere testament.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, Prol. Þe lare of þe ald testament & of þe new.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 293. In þe olde testament me redeþ … In þe newe testament.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), Introd. 3. As the old testament beryth witnesse.
1532. Elyot, Lett. to Dk. Norfolk, in Gov. (1880), Life, 79. Thei … doo peruse euery daye one chapitre of the New Testament.
c. 1710. Celia Fiennes, Diary (1888), 235. A Large window full of fine paintings—the history of the testaments.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 160, ¶ 4. In the Old Testament we find several Passages more elevated and sublime than any in Homer.
1859. Dickens, T. Two Cities, I. ii. The coachman could … have taken his oath on the two Testaments.
b. The New Testament as distinct from the Old; a copy of the New Testament; a volume containing this. Common in Greek Testament.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xiv. 14. So quhene the Psalme and Testament to reid Within this land was nevir hard nor sene.
1831. R. Shennan, Tales, etc. 53 (E.D.D.). The Testament was his school-book.
1834. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), IX. 355. He [Erasmus] had for some time been … employed in preparing an edition of the Greek Testament.
1842. Borrow, Bible in Spain, viii. 49. I had brought with me a certain quantity of Testaments.
1869. McLennan, Peas. Life, I. xvii. (E.D.D.). The Testament, and next ‘the Bible,’ are regular class-books.
1888. Mrs. Ward, R. Elsmere, 118. Her little well-worn Testament open on her knee.
6. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) testament-maker, -making, (sense 4) testament-book; testament-man, a disciple of the New Testament.
1573. New Custom, III. i., in Hazl., Dodsley, III. 50. Here, take at my hands this *Testament-book.
1533. Tindale, Supper of Lord, B vj. Where so euer is a testament, there muste the death of the *testament maker go betwene.
1880. Muirhead, Gaius, II. § 113. A female acquires the right of *testament-making on reaching twelve.
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d, III. (1827), 103. That mad ill-gainshon’d byke O’ *Test’ment-men that doth us fyke.
Hence Testament v., intr. to make a will; trans. to leave by will, bequeath; whence Testamenting vbl. sb.; Testamented a. nonce-wd., included in the Old or New Testament Scriptures.
1586. Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, 117. In diuers cases in the matter of testamenting a knight is priuiledged.
a. 1878. H. Ainslie, Pilgr. Land Burns (1892), 198. What’s cross’d the craig Can ne’er be testamented.
1907. C. Gregory, Canon & Text N. T., 220. He [Clement] makes short comments on all the testamented Scripture.
