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 employ 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 condemned 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 Scripture 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. MIL

[105] MIL

Millstone weight of affliction. This also plainly refers to this small sort of stones.

Rhenish Millstone, a stone which has been clas- sed among volcanic products, on account of its appear- ance, which is a blackish gray, porous, and very much resembling a lava of Mount Vesuvius.

Milledgeville, a town in the state of Georgia in North America, situated on the river Oconee, about 150 miles from the sea. Its population in 1810 was 1257. W. Long. 83. 10. N. Lat. 32. 40.

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

Milliner, or milliner, one who sells ribbands 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 Sewel, in his Dictionary English and Dutch, 1758, describes milliner to be "a pedlar who sells ribbands and other trimmings or ornaments; a French pedlar."

Littleton, in his English and Latin Dictionary, published 1677, defines milliner, "a jack of all trades;" q. d. millenarius, or mile mercurium venditor; that is, "one who sells a thousand different sorts of things." From this etymology, which seems fanciful, we must hold, that it then implied what is now termed "a haberdasher of small wares."

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 daintiness 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 milliners of Littleton; and milliners 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 milliner, an inhabitant of Milan, from whence people of this profession first came, as a Lombard is a banker.