8. Of quantity, considerable : 'A good way oil',' Gn 21", Mt 8** ; ' a good way from,' Jg 18*- ; ' for a good space,' 2 Mac 7° ; 'a good while,' Gn 46^, Ac 18". But ' good measure ' (Lk 6^) is ' abundant measure'; and to 'give good ear' (Wis 8'^) is to be very attentive. In 2 Es 16-' occurs the phrase ' good cheap,' ' Behold, victuals shall be so good cheap upon earth, that they shall think them- selves to be in good case ' (so RV ; Lat. erit annome vilitas). ' Cheap ' is from the Anglo- Saxon cfnp, a market, a price ; and Abbott {Shahs. Grammar, 132) thinks the phrase may arise from the omission of the prej). : ' good cheap ' = ' at a good price ' (for the buj-er), ' at a bargain,' as in Shaks. /// Henry VI. V. iii. 14 —
' The queen is valued thirty thousand strong ' ;
Mereh. of Venice, III. i. 57—' He hath disgraced me and hindered me half a mUlion.' But the oldest explanation is to refer the jjhrase to the French bun imtrr.hi. So Palsgrave (1530), Introd. i%
GOOD, GOODS
GOOD, GOODS
229
' Marehi, a bargene or a niarketstede or cheepe, as good cheepe, bnn marrhie.' And this is the explanation accepted by Murray (Ox/". Eng. Dirt, s.v. 'cheap'). Tliat the prup. may "o with it, however, is shown by Caxton, Ckron. Enq. ccxvii. 205, 'They toke the kynges prises for hir pcny worthes at good chepe. The meaning is simplj' 'cheap' (that word being now an adj., which was formerly a aubst., a somewhat rare change in English). Thus Sir D. Lindsay, ii. 197— •To sell richt deir, and by (oide-chaip. And mix ry-meill araanjj the aaip. And aoiffrone with oyl-dolie.'
The phrase is not uncommon in early authors : Lever, Sermons, 1550 (Arber's ed. p. 130), ' For they that be true merchauntemen to by and sell in dede, shoulde and doo provide great plentye and good chepe by honest byenge and sellynge of theyr wares'; Rutherford, Letters (cxvi.), 'Law and justice are to be had bj; any, especially for money and moven ; but Christ can get no law, good "cheap or ieax ' ; and Herbert, Temple, ' Pro- vidence,' 97 —
' Ilard thin^ are glorious, easle thinjfs good cheap.*
' Better cheap ' was also used, as Lever in the same sermon as above (p. 130), 'Take awaye lea.smongers, regrators and all suche as by byinge and sellynge make thyngs more dere, and when they be gone, all tliynj^ wylbe more plentye and better chepe.' So liutlierford, Letters (ccxv.), 'I trow that (if I were as I have been since I was his prisoner) I would beg lodging for God's sake in Hell's hottest furnace, that I might ruli souls with Clirist. But God be thanked, I shall lind him in a better lodging. We get Christ better cheap than so.'
In He 11" occurs 'as good as dead,' another phrase in which 'good' is used to express extent, qnantity ratlier than quality. The Gr. is simply tlio [lerf. ptcp. of the verb (vevriKpuiiievoi), which in Ro 4'", in a precisely parallel passage and con- struction, is tr^ in AV simply 'dead,' but RV gives ' as good as dead ' there also. The phrase 13 from Tindale, whom most versions follow ; but Wye. ha.s 'nygh deed,' Gen. 'dead,' Rhem. 'quifca dea<l.' It is good idiomatic Eng., though Moon (Recisers English, p. 126) speaks of ' the strange contradiction in the use of the word good for bad' ; but it probably expresses less emphasis now than fonnerly. Cf. Tindale's use of ' a good ' for ' in good earnest,' ' thoroughlv,' Dt 9^ 'And I toke youre synne, the calfe wfiich ye had made, and burnt him with fire and stanipe him and grounde him a good, even unto smal dust.'
2. The uses of 'good' as a subst. may be given onder three heads —
1. Material Possessions, goods: Gn 45* 'The good of all the land of Egypt is yours' ; 1 Ch 29' ' I have of mine own proper good, of gold and silver' (RV 'I have a treasure of mine own of gold and silver'); 1 Jn 3" 'Whoso hath this world's good ' (tAk plov toC kIxtiiou, RV ' this world's goods'). Cf. Chaucer, Parleitunt of Fuules, 462—
■ And liut I here me in hir «cr^■y•e As wel as that my wit can me suffyse. Fro poynt to iwy'nt. hir honour for to sav«, Talc she my lyf, and all the good I have."
So Ex 22' Tind. ' Yf the thefe be not foundo, then the good man of the liousse ahalbe brought unto the goddes and swere, whether he have put his hande unto his ncighlwurs gootl'; Un \V' Cov. ' For the kiiige of the north shal . . . come forth . . . with a mighty boost and exceadinge greate good' (eh3-), AV 'riches,' RV 'substance'); and Adams, Practirnl M'orks, i. 52, ' His heart is pro- portionably enlarged with his house : his good and hia blood riseth together.' But in this sense the
t^'
expression is more freiiuenlly 'goods' or 'good things,' OS Ec 5" ' When goods increase, they are increased that eat them ' ; Gn 45' 'Ten aases laden with the good things of Egj-pt.'