Craft

In the mod. sense of guile, Dn 8", 2 Mac 12'^ Mk 14' ; for already by 1611 the word had lost its orig. sense of 'power,' 'strenj^th,' ■n'hen it could be distinctly set against ' cunning,' as Caxton (1474), C'/tcsse, ''ihou bast vayntiuisslied them ... by subtilnes. . Hut I that am a roniayn ghal vaynquisshe them by craft and strength of armes.' Elsewhere in AV 'c' means 'trade,' an early application of the word ( = Uiat to which a man gives his strength).

So 'Crafts- man ' = ' tradesman,' as llev 18, ' no craftsman of whatsoever craft he be.' In Bic/i. II. I. iv. 28, Shaks. plays upon the double sense of ' craft ' — ' Wooing poor craftemen with the craft of nnileB.' Crafty and Craftiness are always used in the modern degenerated sense. J. HASTINGS.