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Archaic and Obsolete Words
of the Authorized Version.
No.9.
p. 60
HOUGH. This belongs to the series of English words with different pronunciations
as cough, though, plough, rough, tough, etc. The word is only used as a verb in the A.V.
and is pronounced `hock'. It means to cut the tendons at the back of the foot of a horse
or other animal, in other words "to sever the hamstring" (Josh. 11: 6, 9; II Sam. 8: 4;
I Chron. 18: 4).
HUSBANDMAN. This meant a tiller of the soil and is used of Noah (Gen. 9: 20)
and others. Sometimes it is equivalent to `farmer' as in II Tim. 2: 6. Where the
cultivation of vines is concerned, the word means a `vine-dresser'.
INDITE. This word originally meant to dictate a form of words to be repeated or
written down and then it came to mean any expression of one's thought in writing. In
Psa. 45: 1 we have `my heart is inditing a good matter'. The Hebrew verb however, is
more vivid meaning to bubble up or boil over. So the R.S.V. renders it "my heart
overflows with a goodly theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the
pen of a ready scribe".
INFIDEL occurs twice in the A.V., `what part hath he that believeth with an infidel'
(II Cor. 6: 15) and "if any provide not for his own . . . . . . . he is worse than an infidel"
(I Tim. 5: 8). The word comes from Tyndale, who meant `one who is without faith'
rather than a person who denies or deliberately rejects it, in other words an unbeliever or
unsaved person. II Cor. 6: 15 clearly teaches that the marriage of a believer with an
unbeliever is disobedience in God's sight, whether the unbeliever opposes the truth or
not, and young believers should constantly remember this if they want to avoid a life of
misery and spiritual unfruitfulness.