MILLSTONE, the stone by which corn is ground. —The millstones which we find preserved from ancient times are all small, and very different from those in use at present. Thoresby mentions two or three such found in England, among other Roman antiquities, which were but 20 inches broad; and there is great reason to believe that the Romans, as well as the Egyptians of old, and the ancient Jews, did not em- ploy horses, or wind, or water, as we do, to turn their mills, but made their slaves and captives of war do this laborious work; they were in this service placed behind these millstones, and pushed them on with all their force. Sampson, when a prisoner to the Philistines, was treated no better, but was con- demned to the millstone in his prison. The runner or loose millstone, in this sort of grinding, was usually very heavy for its size, being as thick as broad. This is the millstone which is expressly prohibited in Scrip- ture to take in pledge, as lying loose it was more easily removed. The Talmudists have a story, that the Chaldeans made the young men of the captivity carry millstones with them to Babylon, where there seems to have been a scarcity at that time; and hence, probably, their paraphrase renders the text "have borne the mills or millstones;" which might thus be true in a literal sense. They have also a proverbial expression of a man with a millstone about his neck; which they use to express a man under the severest weight. weight of affliction. This also plainly refers to this small fort of stones.

**Rhombus** MILSTONE, a stone which has been clasped among volcanic products, on account of its appearance, which is a blackish gray, porous, and very much resembling a lava of Mount Vesuvius.

**MILLENIARIES, or Chiliiasts**, a name given to those in the primitive ages, who believed that the saints will reign on earth with Christ 1000 years. See **Millennium**.

**MILLENER, or Milliner**, one who sells ribbons and dresses, particularly head dresses for women; and who makes up those dresses.

Of this word different etymologies have been given. It is not derived from the French. The French cannot express the notion of milliner, otherwise than by the circumlocution *marchand* or *marchande des modes*.

Neither is it derived from the Low Dutch language, the great, but neglected, magazine of the Anglo-Saxon. For Sewell, in his Dictionary English and Dutch, 1758, describes millener to be "en kraamer van lint en andere optonifelen, Fransche kraamer;" that is, "a pedlar who sells ribbons and other trimmings or ornaments; a French pedlar."

Littleton, in his English and Latin dictionary, published 1677, defines millener, "a jack of all trades;" q.d. *millenarius*, or *mille mercurium venditor*; that is, "one who sells a thousand different sorts of things." This etymology seems fanciful: But, if he rightly understood the vulgar meaning of the word millener in his time, we must hold that it then implied what is now termed "a haberdasher of small wares," one who dealt in various articles of petty merchandise, and who did, not make up the goods which he sold.

Before Littleton's time, however, a somewhat nicer characteristic than seems compatible with his notion, appears to have belonged to them; for Shakespeare, in his Henry IV., makes Hotspur, when complaining of the dainties of a courtier, say,

"He was perfumed like a milliner."

The fact seems to be, that there were milliners of several kinds: as, horse milliners, (for so those persons were called who make ornaments of coloured worsted for horses); haberdashers of small wares, the milleners of Littleton; and milleners such as those now peculiarly known by that name, whether male or female, and to whom Shakespeare's allusion seems most appropriate.

Lastly, Dr Johnson, in his dictionary, derives the word from *milaner*, an inhabitant of Milan, from whence people of this profession first came, as a Lombard is a banker.