Exquisite (Hastings' Dictionary)

From Lat. exrfuisitm, ptcp. of exquirere, to search out, ' exquisite ' is properly, and was originally, that which is elaborately devised, ' ingenious,' and its application might be food or bad. In the Areopaqitica(\i.a.\es' ed. p. 16) lilton says Mr. Selden's volume ' proves ... by exquisite reasons and theorems almost mathe- matically demonstrative, that all opinions, yea, errors, known, read, and collated, are of main service and assistance toward the speedy attain- ment of what is tniest.'

Milton even uses the word actively of persons in Comus, 359, * Peace, brother, be not over-exqiiisite To ca.st the faabion of uncertain evils,' as other writers had done before him. Exquisite occurs Sir 18'^ 'They . . poured forth e. parables ' (iropoi/iia? CLKpipfh, RV ' apt proverbs '), and 19" ' There is an e. subtilty, and the same is unjust ' (so RV, Gr. irayovpyla dKpi/3j)s). J. HA.STINGS.