Curious (Hastings' Dictionary)

Of the many meanings which once belonged to this word only two now remain, in- quisilii'C anil peculiar. Of these the lirst is found in Apocr., 2 Es 4'^ (interrngarc) 9" (cnrinsus esse). Sir 3'^ (m) repiepydj:ov, RV ' Be not over busy '), 2 Mac 2' (iroXinrpaytioveii'). In OT curious occurs as a description of ' the girdle of the epliod ' in Ex 28H.»7.» 29» 39»-»'", Lv 8', for whi.h RV sub- stitutes 'cunningly woven,' Amer. KV 'skilfully woven.'

'Curious girdle' (AV) or 'cunningly woven band' (KV) represents one word in Heb., 35'n Mshebh, which comes from 3pij hdshnbh, to think, deNTse, invent ingenious or artistic things ; whence also Dt'n hOshfhh, tr" ' cunning workman ' ; and i??'qo mahitsh/ihhnh, device, invention, tr* ' curious works,' Ex 35" (RV ' cunning works '). 534 CUESE CURSE •Crafty,' 'cunning,' and 'curious' were all used formerly in the sense of clever, ingeniouB ; of. Barbour (1375), Bruce, x.

359— ' A crafty man and a ourionn ' ; and as a good parallel to the passages in Ex, Shaka. Cymb. v. v. 361— ' He, air, was lapp'd In a moat curious mantle, wrought by tbe hand Of blB queen mother.' The same thought is found in Ps 139" 'I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.' The Heb. here (T-Oi?"

;) means ' variegated ' ; ' the body or the f cetus is described as woven together of so many different- colonred threads, like a cunning ana beautiful network or tapestry ' — Perowne. The only other occurrence of 'curious' is in Ac 19" 'c. arts,' meaning 'magical arts,' as RVm (Gr. t4 repUpya, lit. ' superfluous things,' ' things better left alone ' (Page) ; cf. Sir 3^ above, and see Busybody). • Curious ' here is due to Wyclif, ' curiouse thingis,' a literal tr. of Vulg.

curiosa ; Tindale, 'c. crafts'; Geneva, 'c. artes'( vulg. marg. curiosas artes). From this place it has passed into English literature, as Bacon, Essays, 35, ' the Q. Mother, who was given to Curious Arts, caused the King her Husbands Nativitie, to be Calcu- lated, under a false Name.' J. Hastings.