Word.ws English Dictionary

ancientries

ancientries is the plural of ancientry.

Meaning of ancientry

Noun

ancientry (countable and uncountable, plural ancientries)

  1. (archaic) The quality or fact of being ancient or very old.
    • PEN, made of reed, cut, &c. like our pens, is of classical ancientry; but the first certain account of quill pens is in 636, in Isidore.1825, Thomas Dudley Fosbroke, Encyclopædia of Antiquities, volume I, London: John Nichols & Son, page 301
  2. (archaic) Old-fashioned style, elaborate ceremony.
    • […] wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque pace: the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance and, with his bad legs, falls into...1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  3. (archaic) Elderly people, elders, ancients (collectively).
    • I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting—c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  4. (archaic) Something ancient (countable); ancient things (collectively).
    • Kings Lynn is a pleasant town to ramble about. […] In its quiet and more secluded streets you come upon bits of ancientry, the waifs and strays of monastic times […]1898, John Mortimer, “Yarmouth to Barmouth”, in Samples from the Note Books of an Uncommercial Traveller, page 91
  5. (archaic) The olden days; antiquity.
    • Ere all, in ancientry æterne, was God
      (Holy and blessed always be His name)
      In essence inconceivable.1855, Philip James Bailey, “A Spiritual Legend”, in The Mystic and Other Poems, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, published 1856, page 67

Questions about ancientries

What is ancientries the plural of?
Ancientries is the plural of ancientry.

Words near ancientries in the dictionary

  1. ancientism
  2. anciently
  3. ancientmost
  4. ancientness
  5. ancientnesses
  6. ancientries
  7. ancientry
  8. ancients
  9. ancienty
  10. ancile
  11. anciles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ancientries (page history and authors); ancientry (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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