Talk:civil

"A civil evening"
I suppose this means a pleasant evening, with fair weather. Might be specific to Newfoundland dialect (note the use of duckish). Equinox ◑ 21:02, 23 November 2015 (UTC)


 * 1) * 1986, Gary L. Saunders, Rattles and steadies: memoirs of a Gander River man (page 80)
 * robins, hitch sparrows, whitethroats, chickadees, all kinds of them singing their hearts out. They would keep at that until the sun came up and then slack off. And then again at duckish, if it was a civil evening, you'd hear them

RFV discussion: July–August 2019
Rfv-sense: "(theology) Naturally good, as opposed to good through regeneration."

I haven't found this definition in other dictionaries. It has no cites or even usage examples. I couldn't find a hint of usage among the first hundred raw Google Books hits searching for 'civil regeneration'. Does anyone have any good ideas about how to search for usage? DCDuring (talk) 12:23, 13 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Came from Chambers 1908, I think. Still present, worded identically, in the recent (mid-2000s) Chambers I have on CD-ROM. Equinox ◑ 15:54, 13 July 2019 (UTC)


 * I think these are two examples of use: ; . Not really contemporary sources. --Lambiam 19:47, 13 July 2019 (UTC)

cited Kiwima (talk) 23:03, 13 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I don't think the citations support the definition. It looks to me as if civil has a meaning like "secular" in the citations. (AHD has, among its 6 definitions, "Of ordinary citizens or ordinary community life as distinguished from the military or the ecclesiastical") In civil sanctity, civil righteousness, and civil good or virtue, the "natural goodness" would seem to be in sanctity, righteousness, and good or virtue, NOT in civil. DCDuring (talk) 03:00, 14 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Calvin write his commentaries in the 16th century, I believe originally in Latin – in any case not in English. The English in these reprints of translations of the commentaries is by an unspecified (19th-century?) translator (John King?). --Lambiam 14:02, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 21:18, 13 August 2019 (UTC)