"1. Money, or a sum of money, paid as an installment, esp. for the purpose of securing a bargain or contract. Also fig. A foretaste, instalment, pledge, or anything afterwards to be received in greater abundance. + Phrase, On (in, for) earnest: by way of earnest, as an instalment or foretaste.

The lit. sense is now nearly confined to law-books, and the fig. use, which retains its currency chiefly on account of its occurrence in the Bible, has almost ceased to be consciously metaphorical."

Tennyson's 1850 "In Memoriam" also uses the word this way:

The days she never can forget
Are earnest that he loves her yet. (xcvii)

This discussion is based on the definition of the phrase taken as an earnest, from earnest, in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which requires a little explanation.

Back to the libretto of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

Back to the homepage of this Mikado website.