Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Occult learning; magic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Necromancy; magic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete Grammar; learning.
  • noun archaic Mystical learning; the occult, magic, sorcery.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English gramarie, probably from Old French gramaire, grammar, book of magic; see grammar.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French; see grammar. Revived by Sir Walter Scott.

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Examples

  • There are witches, fairies, and mermaidens [24] in the ballads: omens, dreams, spells, [25] enchantments, transformations, [26] magic rings and charms, "gramarye" [27] of many sorts; and all these things are more effective here than in poets like Spenser and Collins, because they are matters of belief and not of make-believe.

    A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century 1886

  • Its supernatural machinery -- Byron said that it had more "gramarye" than grammar -- is not impressive, if due exception be made of the opening of

    A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century 1886

  • Forefathers could be at once summarily and satisfactorily answered by any power of "gramarye," then the present and the future Fellows of the

    Archaeological Essays, Vol. 1 James Young Simpson 1840

  • How can I save the world and rescue fair maidens if I can't work proper gramarye?

    The Lives of Felix Gunderson Sugu Althomsons 2010

  • It wasn't as bad as the pit-bull, he thought as he threw himself to his left, nor as horrifying as some gramarye wraith, but it looked quite capable of butchering each and every one of mem without pausing to take a breath, including the massive Snaugenhutt.

    The Lives of Felix Gunderson Sugu Althomsons 2010

  • I've always thought the Faerie blood runs true in those who can, with gramarye and ink, send marvels bright and real before my view -

    On Being Daunted shweta_narayan 2009

  • When the Shaykh looked at him and saw the violence of his terror, he said to him, “O my son, come, sit at the threshold of the shop and look upon yonder creatures and upon their dress and complexion and that wherein they are by reason of gramarye and dread not; for the Queen and all in the city love and tender me and will not vex my heart or trouble my mind.”

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Abdallah, and there is none in my day more magical than I; yet do I not make use of gramarye save upon constraint.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • I myself once rebelled against King Solomon and he sent against me this monk, the only being who could overcome me with his craft and his conjurations and his gramarye; then he imprisoned me, and since that time I have been his vassal.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Now when we fell out there was in our company an old man by name Cohen Al – Abtan,269 who had reared our sire and taught him divination and gramarye, and he said to us,

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

Comments

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  • glamour (scottish): magic

    September 5, 2007