Learn English – Meaning of “magazine” from 1845

etymologymeaningnouns

My wife and I were reading Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin, translated into English in 1845 by Henry Beveridge, and we came across this phrase in the first book, chapter 5, section 4:

"a magazine stored with treasures of inestimable value"

Obviously, the context implies that a magazine is some kind of container, or perhaps a location, in which things are stored. Our questions are: What kinds of things were normally stored in a magazine? Who would have owned one? Was it a small container or a large warehouse? We tried to find some information online, but we couldn't.

Anybody have any ideas?

Best Answer

it probably has the long-lost meaning of "warehouse" or a military storehouse:

1580s, "place for storing goods, especially military ammunition," from M.Fr. magasin "warehouse, depot, store," from It. magazzino, from Arabic makhazin, pl. of makhzan "storehouse" (cf. Sp. almacén "warehouse, magazine"), from khazana "to store up." The original sense is almost obsolete; meaning "periodical journal" dates from the publication of the first one, "Gentleman's Magazine," in 1731, from earlier use of the word for a printed list of military stores and information, or in a figurative sense, from the publication being a "storehouse" of information.

I think John Calvin had this usage in mind if you actually look at the full quote:

"But herein appears the shameful ingratitude of men. Though they have in their own persons a factory where innumerable operations of God are carried on, and a magazine stored with treasures of inestimable value, instead of bursting forth in his praise, as they are bound to do, they, on the contrary, are the more inflated and swelled with pride."

To clarify as requested by OP - the Institutes was written originally in Latin and translated into English by Beveridge. The full quote above seemingly lends itself to the use of "magazine" in it's old usage as we can safely eliminate the use of a gun magazine or a journal.

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