c. 1622. Fletcher, Chaucer, i. 2. What have I got by this now? What's the purchase? (et passim).
1633. Rowley, Match at Midnight [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), vii. 355]. A bag, Of a hundred pound at least, all in round shillings, Which I made my last night's purchase from a lawyer.
17[?]. Herd, Scot. Songs (1776), ii. 234. There dwells a Tod on yonder craig, And he's a Tod of might; He lives as well on his purchase As ony laird or knight.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, viii. This here purchase, a gold snuff-box . . . which I untied out of the tail of a pretty lady's smock.
1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ii. For even when a man hath got nobles of his own, he keeps out of the way of those whose exchequers lie in other men's purchase.
Pure, subs. (old).—1. A mistress:
a keep (q.v.). Hence purest-pure
= 'a Top mistress or Fine
Woman' (B. E., c. 1666).
1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, ii. [Wks. (1720), iv. 47]. But where's your lady, captain, and the blowing, that is to be my natural, my convenient, my pure?
2. (scavengers').—See quot: also as verb.: hence pure-finder.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., ii. 158. Dogs'-dung is called pure; from its cleansing and purifying properties. Ibid. The name of Pure-finders, however, has been applied to the men engaged in collecting dogs'-dung from the public streets only, within the last 20 or 30 years.
Adj. (common).—Neat; un-*adulterated: see Drinks. Whence pure-element = water: see Adam's Ale.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 61. And then we all must be content To guzzle down pure element.
1789. White, Selborne, i. A fine limpid water . . . much commended by those who drink the pure element.
1840. Barham, Ingoldsby Leg., 'Patty Morgan.' The pure element is for Man's belly meant! And Gin's but a snare of Old Nick.
2. (old and colloquial).—Used intensively: cf. prime, exquisite, tip-top, stunning = no-end (q.v.); mighty (q.v.); out-and-out (q.v.), &c. Also as adv.
1362. Langland, Piers Plowman, viii. 20. Godes pyne and hus passion is pure selde in my thoubte.
1371. Chaucer, Blanche the Duchess, 1251. I durst no more say thereto For pure feare.
1390. Mandeville, Travels [Halliwell], 130. Natheless there is gode Londe in sum place; but it is pure litille, as men seyn.
1393. Gower, Confessio Amantis, iii. 38. It torneth me to pure grame [ = vexation].
1592. Shakspeare, 1 Hen. VI., ii. 4. Thy cheeks blush for pure shame.
1601. Jonson, Poetaster, ii. 1. Purely jealous I would have her.
1700. Congreve, Way of the World, ii. 5. When your laship pins it up with poetry, it fits so pleasant the next day as anything, and is so pure and so crips.
1704. Cibber, Careless Husband, iii. 1. Mrs. E. Ha! she looks as if my master had quarrelled with her. . . . This is pure.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. Col. I'm like all Fools; I love everything that's good. Lady Smart. Well, and isn't it pure good? 'Tis better than a worse.
d. 1797. Walpole, Letters, 11. 297. His countess . . . looks pure awkward amongst so much good company.
1847. Halliwell, Arch. and Prov. Words, s.v. Pure. Mere; very. Still in use. A countryman shown Morland's picture of pigs feeding, corrected the artist, by exclaiming, "They be pure loike surelye, but whoever seed three pigs a-feeding without one o' em having his foot in the trough?"
1884. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, 1. iii. 3. O, such manners are pure, pure, pure! They are, by the shade of Claude Duval.
1887. Lippincott's Magazine, 397. I never struck a hole yet where there was more . . . what you call pure cussedness than in that whited sepulchre of a divinity school.
