Nero regned after this Claudius, of alle men wrechidhest, redy to alle maner vices.—Capgrave, Chronicle of England, p. 62.
To do evil gratis, to do evil for good, is the wretchedest wickedness that can be.—Andrewes, Of the Conspiracy of the Gowries, serm. 4.
Younker. Now, as far as it is used at all, equivalent to ‘youngster;’ but the ‘younker’ of our Elizabethan and earlier literature was much more nearly the German ‘junker,’ or Jung Herr, the young lord,—or perhaps ‘squire’ would be nearer the mark,—or youthful gallant. [We borrowed the word from the Dutch ‘jonker’ or ‘jonkheer’ (= ‘jong’ young + ‘heer’ gentleman). See Skeat’s Dictionary.]
Yf some of them can get a fox tale or two, or that he may have a capons feder or a goose feder, or any long feder on his cap, than he is called a yonker.—Boorde, The Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, 1547.
Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, act ii. sc. 6.
Id., 3 Henry VI., act ii. sc. 1.
Venus loved the younker Adonis better than the warrior Mars.—Dodoen, History of Plants, p. 656.
As Rehoboam’s yonkers carried that weighty business of his kingdom and overthrew it, so do the unruly and rebellious humours of most youth miscarry this.—Rogers, Matrimonial Honour, p. 31.
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