Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924096224880 3 1924 096 224 880 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 2003 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY LOST BEAUTIES ENGLISH LANGUAGE. LOST BEAUTIES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AN APPEAL TO AUTHORS, POETS, CLERGYMEN, AND PUBLIC SPEAKERS. By CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D, FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF DENMARK. %ontion: CHATTO AND WINDUS, PUBLISHERS. (SUCCESSORS TO JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN.) INTRODUCTION. ■]\ /[" ANY learned and interesting works have been written on ■^'-^ the origin, growth, and present state of the English lan- guage, but, as far as the author of the present work is aware, none has been written to point out the many losses which it has suffered, and which it is still suffering, from time, corruption, and change of literary fashion; Of all the languages of the world, the English has the greatest power of assimilating to and incorporating with itself the useful words — whether of trade, sentiment, poetry, or science — with which it comes into contact, in the cosmopolitan developments of society, which are the great characteristics of the present age. The English is essentially a living and a growing speech. All the languages of antiquity have had their tender in- fancy ; their passionate youth ; their careful maturity ; their gradual, though it may be imperceptible, decay, and, finally, their death. ' After death has come the apotheosis of a language, if it has been worthy of such honour — or burial in I the books, which, like the remains or memorials of ancient heroes, become the sacred treasure of newer ages. All Ian- vi INTRODUCTION. 1 guages pass through these stages in their career. SanscritL Gaelic, Greek, and Latin are familiar examples of the death and sanctity of great and mighty tongues that were once livins- powers to sway the passions and guide the reason of men. In. their ashes even yet live the wonted fires that scholars love tO) rekindle. The languages of modem Europe that have sprung- directly firom the Sanscrit and Celtic, may all be said to have passed their infancy and youth, and to have reached maturity., if not old age. The Celtic languages — all sprung from an ancient Oriental root, and which include Scottish and Irish Gaelic, Manx, Cymric, and Breton — are in the last stage of vitality, destined tq disappear, at^no very remote period, into the books, which will alone preserve their memory. Were it not for Victor Hugo; and some recent borrowings from the English, it might be said that French had ceased to expand, and had become stereo- typed into a form no longer to be modified. Spanish, Portu- guese, and Italian hold their own ; and that is all that can be said of them. German, and the languages sprung from the same root and stem, contain within themselves such immense resources, and are so continually evolving new compounds, as to free them firom that reproach of stagnation which may not; unjustly be applied to the other great tongues which we have enumerated. But English — which, taken all in all, may be considered by far the richest, though not the most beautiful or the most sonorous, of all the languages spoken in our day — is yet in its vigorous youth, and cannot be accused of exhibiting any symptoms of decay. It is doubtful whether it have yet reached the full maturity of its prime, or whether the mighty nation now existent in America, or the as mighty nation which is destined yet to arise in Australia, will not, as time rolls on, and new wants are created, new circumstances encountered, and new ideas evolved out of the progress of science and civi- lization, add many thousands of new words to our already copious vocabulary. Other languages are dainty in the mate- INTRODUCTION. vti rials of their increment ; but the English is, like man himself, omnivorous. Nothing comes amiss to its hxmgry palate. It does not live on air and honey-dew, or even on bread, like more delicate organisations. All nature — all the languages of the earth — administer to its wants. It borrows, it steals, it assimilates what words it pleases from all the points of the compass, and asks no questions of them, but that they shall ■express thoughts and describe circumstances more tersely and jnore accurately than any of the old words beside which they are invited to take their places. Saxon, Celtic, Greek, Xatin, French, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, have all helped it ; and the once despised, but beautiful, dialect of its Scottish sister has given it many poetical words, which it is not likely to part with. But if English is thus perpetually growing and gaining, it is at the same time perpetually losing. Were it not for the noble translation of the Bible, and for Chaucer, Gower, and the poets. of the Elizabethan age, it would have lost still more than it has of its early treasures, and would have been Latinised to an extent that would have impaired its vigour, emasculated its passion, and deprived it of that sturdy vernacular which is the richest element in its blood, and best serves to build up its bone and muscle. If few languages now spoken in the world have gained so much as the English from the progress of civi- lization, it must be admitted, at the same time, that few have lost so much, and lost it without necessit}'. It has been said that a good carpenter is known as much by the shape as by the quantity of his chips ; and the chips that the English tongue aas thrown off from the days of Piers Ploughman to our own betoken, both by quality and quantity, what a plethora of wealtli it possesses, and what a very cunning carpenter Time has proved in working with such abundant materials. It is one of the current assertions which, once started on high authority, are very rarely questioned, that the writ- ings of Chaucer are a "well of English undefiled." Chau- Tiii INTRODUCTION. cer's well, limpid and beautiful as it is, and undefiled as grammarians and critics may please to consider it, is not so much a fountain as a double stream. Chaucer, though so ancient in our eyes, was a neologist, and strove rather to increase the wealth of the written EngHsh, of which he was so great a master, by the introduction of words from the Norman-French, little understood by the bulk of the people, though famihar enough to the aristocracy, for whom he mainly ivrote, than to fix in his pages for ever the strong simple wordsj. of his native Anglo-Saxofl. The stream of native English in his writings runs pure and cool; the stream of Norman-French runs pure and bright also ; but the two currents that he em- ployed in his song never thoroughly intermingled, and at least nine-tenths of the elegant Gallicisms which he employed found no favour with succeeding writers ; and few of them have remained, except in the earlier poems of Milton. If we really wish to discover the true "well of EngUsh undefiled," where the stream runs clear and unmixed, we must look to the author of Fiers Ploughman rather than to Chaucer. We shall there find a large vocabulary of strong words, which are plain to all men's comprehension — preserved in the Bible, and in the common speech of the peasantry, and, notably,' in that living branch of the old English language which is known as the Scottish dialect. No such systematic attempt as that made by Chaucer to popularise words of French origin, was essayed by Scotlisli writers of that time ; not even by King James I.-^the illus- trious author of the King's Quair. Yet, in consequence of the friendly intercourse long subsisting between France and Scot- land — an intercourse that was alike political, commercial, and social— a considerable number of words of French origin crept into" the Scottish vernacular, and there established themselves with a tenacity that is not likely to be relaxed as long as tht language continues to be either written or spoken. Some of \ INTRODUCTION. ix ) these are among the most racy and characteristic differences between the EngUsh and the Scotcli. It will be sufficient to cite — to fash one's self, to be troubled with or about anything — from se f&cher, to be angered ; douce, gentle, good-tempered, courteous — from dottx, soft; dour, grim, obdurate, slow to for- give or relent — from dur, hard ; Men, comfortable, well-to-do in worldly affairs — from hieii, well \ ashet, a dish — from assiette, a plate j creel, a fish-basket — from creille, a basket ; a gigot of mutton — from gigot, a leg ; awmrie, a linen-press or plate-cup- board — from armoire, a movable cupboard or press ; bonnic, beautiful and good — from bon, good ; airles and flzV/ij-penny, money paid in advance to seal a bargain — from arrhes, a deposit on account ; brulzie, a fight or dispute — from s'embrouil- /(■,-, to quan-el j callant, a lad, a brave boy — from galant, a lover or a gallant youth ; braw, fine — from brave, honest and courage- ous ; dool, sorrow^from deuil, mourning ; grozet, a goosebeny ( whicla is a populai- English coiTuption from gorsiatrv^) — from ;::roseilk; ; taiipie, a thoughtless, foolish girl, who does not look before her to see what she is doing — from taupe, a mole j haggis, the Scottish national dish — from hachis, a hash ; pawn, peacock — from paon; caddie, a young man acting as a porter or mes- .^enjjer — from cadet, the younger born ; spaule, the shoulder — froi.i epaule, &c. The Scoto-Saxon and Old English words derived immediately from the Dutch, and following the Dutcli rules of pronunciation, art, exceedingly numerous. Among these ai^e "smnhope — from loanhoop, despair; wanchancie, wanlust, wanrestful, and many others, where the English adopt the German vn instead of wan. The English and Scottish words derived from the Gaelic are apparent in the names of places and in mucli of the colloquial phraseology of eveiyday life. Among the first, ben, glen, burn, Inirinc, strath, bog, corne, crag or craig, and caim, will recur to the memory of any one who has lived or travelled in Scotland, or ts conversant with Scottish literature. Gillie, a boy or servant ; X lyTRODUCTION. I ,gricve, a land-steward or agent, are not only ancient Scottisli words, but have lately become English. Loqf, the open palm, is derived from the Gaelic lamh (pronomiced laff ox lav), the hand ; cuddle, to embrace — from cadail, sleep ; whisky, froni idsge, water ; clachan, a village — from clack, a stone ; croon, to hum a tune — from cruin, to lament or moan ; bailie, a city oi: borough magistrate — from haile, a town ; tinder, from teine, fire; sonsie, fresh, healthful, young, good-looking — from sonas, good fortune ; grove, an assemblage of trees— from craobh, proj- nounced craov, a tree ; fallow, lying uncultivated, from falamk, pronouncedyB//az', empty— may serve as specimens of the many- words which the Scoto-Saxon and Anglo-Saxon languages ovsjJe to the Gaelic or Celtic stock that originally possessed these islands. / Four centuries ago, the English or Anglo-Saxon, wKen Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate were still intelligible, had a much greater resemblance to the Scoto-Saxon than it has at the present day. William Dunbar, one of the earliest, as he was one of the best, of the Scottish poets, and supposed to havfe been born in 1465, in the reign of James III. in Scotland, a.nd of Edward IV. in England, wrote, among other poems, the " Thrissel and the Rose." This composition was equally inte^-^'-- gible to the people of both countries. It was designed to com- memorate the marriage of James IV. with Margaret Tiidor, ■daughter of King Henry VII. of England— that small caus'e of many great events, of which the issues have extended to our time, and which gave the Stuarts their title to the British throne. Though Dunbar wrote in the Scotch of the literati, rather than in that of the common people, as did King James I. at an earlier period, when, a captive in Windsor Castle, he indited his beautiful poem, " The King's Quair," to celebrate the grace and loveliness of the Lady Beaufort, whom he after- wards married; the "Thrissel and the Rose" is only archaiic in its orthography, and contains no words that a commonly IXl'ROVUCTIO.V. xi well-educated Scottish ploughman cannot at this day under- stand, though it might puzzle some of the writers of leaders for the London press to interpret it without the aid of a glossary. Were the spelling of the following passages moder- nised, it would be found that there is nothing in any subsequent poets, from Dunbar's day to our own, with which it need fear a comparison, either in point of poetry or of popular comprehen- sion: — ; ' ' Quhen Mercli^ wes with variand \vmdis past, And Apryll hadd^ with her silver shouris, I Tane leif at nature, with ane orient blast, ,' And lusty May, that mudder is of fiouris, I Had maid the birdis to begyn their houris I Among the tender odouris reid and quhyt, I Quhois hai'mony to heir it was delyt. " In bed at morro we, sleiping as I lay, Methodit Aurora, with her a-ystal een. In at the window lukit by the day. And halsit me with visage paile and gi-ene, J On quhois hand a lark sang fro the splene, ; ■ Awauk, luvaris ! out of your shimmering ! See how the lusty morrowe dois upspring ! ' " ' Many of the popular authors of that century did not, like Dunbar, confine their poetic efforts to the speech of the learned, but wrote in the vernacular of the peasantry and townspeople. The well-known poem of " Peblis to the Play " is the earliest specimen of this class of literature that has come down to us. This composition scarcely contains a word that Burns, three hundred years later, would have hesitated to employ. In like manner the poem of " Christ's Kirk on the Green," written more than three hundred years ago, made. use of the lan- guage of the peasantry to describe the assembly of the lasses and their wooers that came to the " dancing and deray," mtli their gloves of tlie " rafde richt " (right doeskin), their " shoon of the straitis" (coarse clotli), and tlieir xii' hYTRODUCTIQN. ' ' ICirtles of the lincum light, Weel pressed wi' mony plaitis." : The author's description of " Gillie " is equal to anything in 1 Ramsay or Burns, and quite as intelligible to the Scottish peasantry of the present day : — j " Of all their maidens mild as meid i Was nane sae gynip as Gillie ; As ony rose her rude was reid, I Hir lire was like the lily. Bot zallow, zallow was hir held, | And sche of luif sae sillie, ( Thof a' hir kin suld hae bein deid, I Sche wuld hae bot sweit Willie." ' Captain Alexander Montgomerie, who was attached to th6 service of the Regent Murray in 1577, and who enjoyed a|. pension from King James VI., wrote many poems in which thet beauty, the strength, and the humour of the Scoto-Saxon languagi were very abundantly displayed. The " Cherry and the Slae J is particularly rich in words that Allan Ramsay, Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Christopher North have since rendered classical, and is, besides, a poem as excellent in thought ancj fancy as it is copious in diction. The description of the musid of the birds on a May morning may be taken as a specimen :— j- " The cushat croods, the corbie cries, I The Coukoo couks, the prattling pies | To keckhir they begin. The jargon 0' the jangling jays, The craildng craws and kecklin' kayes, They deaved me with their din. " The painted pawn with Argus e'es Can on his mayock call ; The turtle wails on withered trees, And Echo answers all. P^epeting, with greting, _ '. How fair Narcissus fell, , By lying and spying I His schadow in the well." INTRODUCTION. xiii Time was within living memory when the Scotch of the upper classes prided themselves on what was called "their nativeDoric;" when judges on the bench delivered their judgments in the broad- est Scotch, and would have thought themselves guilty of puerile and unworthy affectation if they had preferred English words or English accents to their own ; when advocates pleaded in the same homely and plastic tongue ; when ministers of religion found their best way to the hearts and to the understanding of their congregations in the use of the language most familiar to themselves, as well as to those whom they addressed ; and ■when ladies of the highest rank — celebrated alike for their wit and their beauty — sang their tenderest, archest, and most affecting songs, and made their bravest thrusts and parries in the sparkling encounters of conversation, in the homely speech of their childhood. All this, however, is fast disappearing, and iiot only the wealthy and titled, who live much in London and Jn England, begin to grow ashamed of speaking the language of their ancestors, though the sound of the well-beloved accents in the mouths of others is not unwelcome or unmusical to their ears, but the middle-class Scotch are learning to follow their l^xample. The members of the legal and medical profession are afraid of the accusation of vulgarity that might be launched against them if they spoke publicly in the picturesque language of their fathers and grandfathers ; and even the clergy are unlearning in the pulpit the brave old speech that was good enough for John Knox (though he was the greatest Angliciser of his day, and was publicly accused of that fault), and many thousands of pious preachers who, since his time, have worthily kept alive the faith of the Scottish people by appeals to their consciences in the language of their hearts. In ceasing to bmploy the "unadorned eloquence" of the sturdy vernacular, ; and using instead of it the language of books, and of the southern English, it is to be feared that too many of these superfine preachers have lost their former hold upon the mind, xiv INTRODUCTION. and that they have sensibly weakened the powers of persuasion and conviction which they possessed when tlieir words were in sympathetic unison with the current of thought and feeling that flowed through the broad Scottish intellect and language of the peasantry. And where fashion leads, snobbism will certainly follow ; so that it happens even in Scotland that young Scots- men of the Dundreary class will sometimes boast of tlaeir inability to understand the poetry of Burns and the romance of Scott on account of the difficulties presented by the language I — as if their crass igiaorance were a thing to be proud of ! ' The English and Scotch languages are both mainly derived from the Teutonic ; and five or six hundred years ago, may be correctly described as having been Anglo-Saxon and Scoto-t Saxon. Time has replaced the Anglo-Saxon by the modern English, but has spai'ed the Scoto-Saxon, which still remains a. living speech. Though the children of one mother, the two have lived apart, received different educations, developed them-r selves under dissimilar circumstances, and received accretions from independent and unrelated sources. The English, as far as it remains an Anglo-Saxon tongue, is derived from the Low German, with a mixture of the Scandinavian and Icelandic ^ while the Lowland Scotch, or Scoto-Saxon, is indebted more immediately to the Dutch, Flemish, and Danish, both for its fundamental and most characteristic words, and for its inflection and grammar. The English, like the Teutonic, bristles with consonants. The Scotch is as spangled with vowels as a meadow with daisies in the month of May. English, though l^erhaps the most muscular and copious language in the world; is harsh and sibilant ; while the Scotch, with its beautiful ter- minational diminutives, is ahnost as soft as the Italian. English songs, like those of Dibdin, Moore, and Campbell, however excel- lent they may be as poetical compositions, are, for these reasons,; not so available for musical purposes, as the songs of Scotland. ' An Englishman, if he sings of a "pretty little girl," uses words JNTRODUCTION. xr deficient in euphony, and suggests comedy rather than senti- ment ; but when a Scotsman sings of a " bonnie wee lassie," he employs words that are much softer than their English equiva- lents, express a tenderer idea, and are infinitely better adapted to music. The principal components of the Scoto-Saxon tongue are derived, first fi'om the Teutonic, comprising many words once possessed by the English, but which have become obsolete in the latter ; secondly, words and inflections derived from the Dutch, Flemish, and Norse ; thirdly, words derived from the French, or from theLatin and Greek through aFrench medium; and fourthly, words derived from the Gaelic, which is indubitably a branch of the Sanscrit. As regards the first source, it is interesting to note that in the glossary appended to Mr. Thomas Wright's edition of those ancient and excellent alliterative poems, the " Vision" and " Creed" of Piers Ploughman, there occur about two thousand obsolete English or Anglo-Saxon words, many of which are still retained in the Scoto-Saxon of the Scottish Low- lands; and that in the Glossary to Tyrrwhitt's edition of Chaucer, there occur upwards of six thousand words which need exj3lanation to the modem English reader, and full one half of which need no explanation whatever to a Scotsman. Even Shakespeare is becoming obsolete to his countrymen, and uses upwards of two thousand four hundred words, which Mr. Howard Staunton, his latest, and in many respects, his most judicious editor, thinks it necessary to collect in a glossary for the better elucidation of the text. Many hundreds of these words are perfectly familiar to a Scottish ear, and require no in- ter]oreter. It appears fi'om these facts, that the Scotch is a far more conservative language than the English, and that although it oes not object to receive new words, it clings reverently and aff.-ctionately to the old. The consequence of this mingled teiiacity and elasticity is, that it posesses a vocabulary which includes for a Scotsman's use, every word of the modern English language, and several thousand words which the English xvi INTRODUCTIOy. people never possessed, or have suffered to drop into desuetude. In addition to tliis conservancy of the bone and sinew of th-e language, the Scoto-Saxon possesses an advantage over tne modem English, in having reserved to itself the power, while retaining all the old words of the language, to eliminate all harsh or unnecessary consonants. Thus it has Id for love : fd for fall ; wd for walk ; aivfii' for awful ; smd for small ; and many hundreds of similar abbreviations, which detract noticing from the force of the idea or the clearness of the meaning, while they soften tlie roughness of the expression. No such povyer resides in the English or French, though it was once inherent in both languages. Very little of it belongs to the German, though it remains in all those European tongues which trace their origin to the Platt-Deutsch. 'The Scottish poet or versifier may \yx\ttfd or fall 3.S it pleases him, but his English compeer must write "fall" without abbreviation. Another source of che superior euphony of the Scoto-Saxon is the single diminuuve in ie, and the double dimunitive in kic, which may be applied to any noun in the language, as wife, wrfe, wifkie, wife, li;tle ■ndfe, very little wife ; bairtt, Mimic, bairnikie, cliild, little child, very little child; bird.birdie,birilikie ; and lass, lassie, lassil'ic; stc. A few English nouns remain susceptible of diminutives, though in a less musical form, as lamb, lambkin ; gi'ose, gosling, etc. The beauty of the Scottish forms of the diminutive is obvious. Take, for instance, the following lines : — \ " Hap and row, hap and row, Hap and row the feetie o't ; It is a wee bit wearie thing, I downa bide the greetie o't." Endeavour to translate into modern English the diminutives " feetie" and " greetie," and the superiority of the Scottish or old English for poetical purposes will be obvious. \ But the old Scottish language, though of later years it has become unfashionable in its nati\-e land, survives not alone pn the tongue, but in the heart of the "common" people (and INTRODVCTIOy. xvii where is there such a common or uncommon people as the peasantry of Scotland ?), and has established for itself a place in the affections of those ardent Scotsmen who travel to the New World and to the remotest parts of the Old, with the auri sacra fames to lead them on to fortune, but who never permit that particular species of hunger — which is by no means peculiar to Slcotsmen — to deaden their hearts to their native land, or to render them indifferent to their native speech, the merest word df which, when uttered unexpectedly imder a foreign sky, stirs up all the latent patriotism in their minds^ and opens their htart, and, if needs be, their purse, to the utterer. It has also, bly a kind of Nemesis or poetical justice, established for itself a hold and footing, even in that English language which affects to ignore it ; and, thanks more especially to Bums and Scott, and to the admiration which their genius has excited in England aKcl America, has engrafted many of its loveliest shoots upon the old trees of the Anglo-Saxon and English language. Every ywir the number of words that are taken like seeds or grafts frcm the Scottish conservatory, and planted in the fruitful Eng- lish garden, is on the increase, as v\'ill be seen from the following arithology of specimens, which might have been made ten times as abundant if it had been possible to squeeze into a wine-glass a whole gallon of hippocrene. Many of these words are recog- nised English, permissible both in literature and conversation ; roany others are in progress and process of adoption and assimi- lation ; and many more that are not English, and may never become so, are fully worthy of a place in the dictionary of a language that has room for every word, let it come whence it will, that expresses a new meaning, or a more delicate shade of an. old meaning than the existing forms of expression admit. Eerie, and gloaming, and cannie, and cantie, and cozie, and lift, and lilt, and caller, and gruesome, and thud, are all of an ancient and a goodly pedigree, and were, the most of them, as English in the fifteenth century as they ought to be in the nineteenth." xviii INTRODUCTION. Since the days oi Piers Ploughman, the spoken language of the English and Scottish peasantry has undergone but few changes as regards words, but verymany changes as regards terminations and inflections. On the other hand, the language of literature and polite society has undergone changes so vast that uneducated people are scarcely able to understand the phraseology that occurs in the masterpieces of our great authors, or the Sunday sermons of their pastors, delivered, as the saying is, "above their heads," in words that are rarely or never employed in their every-day hearing. Among this class survive large numbers of verbs as well as of inflections that ought never to have been allowed /to drop out of literature, and which it only needs the efforts of a few great writers and orators to restore to their original favour. Among the losses which the English language has undergone are, firstly, the loss of the plurals in 7i and in en, and the substitu- tion of the plural in s; secondly, the present participle in and, for which we have substituted the nasal and disagreeable i:ig; thirdly, the loss of the French negative ne, as in nill, for" I will not;" nouM.iox "I would not;" n'am, for "I am not;" and of which the sole trace now remaining is " willy-nilly ;" and, fourthly, the substitution of the preterite in d, as in lovt-^ and admiri'^, for the older and much stronger preterite formed by a change in the vowel sound of the infinitive and the present, as in nm, ran ; bite, bit ; speak, spoke ; take, took ; and many others that still survive. And not only has the lan- guage lost the strong preterite in a great variety of instances where it would have been infinitely better to have retained, it, but it has lost many hundred preterites altogether, as well as many whole verbs, which the illiterate sometimes use, but which Literature for a hundred and fifty years has either ignored or despised. Of all the nouns that formerly formed their plural in n, as the German or Saxon nouns still for the most part do, very few survive — some in the Bible, some in poetical compo- sition, some in the common conversation of the peasantry, aid INTRODUCTION. xix some, but very few, in polite literature. Among them may be mentioned "oxen," for oxes; "kine,"for cows; "shoon," for shoes ; " hosen," for stockings ; " een,'' for eyes ; " liousen," for houses ; and the words, as common to the vernacular as to literature^ "men," "women," "brethren," and "children." In America, the word " sistern," as a companion to brethren, sur- vives in the conventicle and the meeting-house. "Lamben" and "_thumben," for "lambs" and "thumbs," were compara- tively euphemistic words ; but thumbs and lambs, and every noun which ends with a consonant in the singular, are syllables which set music, and sometimes pronunciation, at defiance. What renders the matter worse is, that the s in the French plural, from which this perversion of the English language was adopted, is not sounded, and that the plural is really marked by the change of the definite article, as le champ, les champs. Thus in borrowing an unpronounced consonant from the French, in order to pronounce it we have adulterated our language with a multitude of sibilations alien to its spirit and original structure. The substitution of s for eth as the terminal of the present per- son singular of every verb in the language is an aggravation of the evil. If this change had been repudiated by our forefathers, a grace much needed would have been retained in the language. Gradually, too, the English language has lost the large number of diminutives which it formerly possessed, and which, as already remarked, are still common in the Scottish dialect. The Eng- lish diminutives in ordinary use in the nursery are many, but are Ciuefly employed in the pet names of children, as " Willie," for little WiUiam ; "Annie," for little Anne ; and so forth. The diminutives belonging to literature are abnormally few. Among other losses, the plural in en of the present tenses of all the verbs is greatly to be lamented. We \o\ch and we sn>ik« would serve many rhythmical needs, and administer to mfany poetic elegancies that the modern forms do not supply. " The persons plural," observes Ben Jonson in his English 2 — 2 XX INTRODUCTION. Grammar — a work by no means so well known as his poetry — " keep the termmation of the first person smgular. In former times, till about the reign of King Henry VIII., they were wont to be formed by adding en; thus, 'loven,' ' sayen,' ' com- plainen.' But now (whatsoever is the cause) it hath quite grown out of use. Albeit (to tell you my opinion) I am per- suaded that the lack thereof, well considered, will be found a great blemish to our tongue.'' But of all the losses which the language has sustained, not alone for poetry, but for oratory, that of many useful verbs, some of which are still existing in Scottish parlance, and of the ancient preterites and past participles of many old verbs, of which the infinitives and present tenses still hold their places, is the most to be deplored. This loss began early ; and that the process is still in operation in the present day, is manifest from the fact that many preterites written in the best books jand spoken in the best society forty years ago, are dropping out of use before our eyes. We constantly find bid for bade — >"!■ hid him now ;" " he bid me yesterday ;" dare for dnrst-^-" I told him I dare not do it /' needior needed — " it was clear tO' me a 3'ear ago that he need not perform his promise ;" eat for aic or ett — " he eat his dinner ;" bet for betted — " he bet me a thousand to one." The verbs to let, to cast, and to put, seem to have enjoyed no preterite during the last two hundred years in Eng- land, though in Scottish literature, both of the past and the present, their preterites are as common as their infinitives and present tenses. Must, in English, is equally devoid of me infinitive, the preterite, and the future ; while can has a pre- terite, but neither infinitive nor future. For what reasons these and similar losses have occurred in English and in other modern languages might be interesting to inquire, though it might pos- sibly lead us into metaphysical mazes were we to ask whyian Englishman who may say " I can" and " I could," must not ^ay " I will can," but must resort to the periphrase of " I will be introduction: xxi able," to express power in futurity ; or why the sense of present d.ity and obligation implied in the words " I must" cannot be expressed by the same verb if the duty be bygone or future, as I '•niusted" or "I will must^' but have to be translated, as it were, into " I was obliged," or " I shall be obliged,", to do such and such a thing hereafter. These, however, are losses or imper- fections, whatever may be their occult causes, which can never again be supplied, and which it is useless to lament. One of the most grievous of the losses which the language has suffered, is that of the preterites and past participles of ancient vefbs that are still in use, and of many good English verbs in all their tenses which, without reason, have been left for verna- cuh'.r 'ase to the people of the north of England and Scotland, and have not been admitted to the honours of modem literature, except in the poems of Robert Burns, Miss Blamire, and the novels of Sir Walter Scott and John Gait. These preterites ought not to be lost — many of them are not dead, but sleeping — many only need the fostering care of a few writers and speakers of genius and influence to be revived — and most of thern formed the bone and pith of the language of our fore- fathers, and make the beauty and strength of the Bible in many of i ts noblest passages. "W'hat should we say if an English nobleman, of ancient and illufjtrious lineage and great wealth, had in the cellars and vaults of his castle, hundreds of coffers and oaken chests filled to the hd with coins of the purest gold, stamped with the image and superscription of bygone kings, if he would never use nor look at any portion of his wealth ? What, also, should we say of him if, in want of gold for his daily needs, he persisted in borrowing it from strangers at usurious interest, rather than touch his antique treasures ? We should say he was unwise, or at the least eccentric, and that it was questionable whether he deserved to possess the great wealth which he had inherited. Every master of the English tongue, whether he be poet, orator, xxii INTRODUCTION. or great prose writer, is in the position of this supposed noble- man if he will not study the ancient words of the language, and revive to the extent of his abihty such among them_as he finds to be better adapted to express strong as well as delicate shades, of meaning than the modern words which have usurped their places. To the poets more especially, and, if there be none left in our day (which we should be very sorry to assert), to t'le versifiers, who are not likely ever to fail us as long as there aire hopes and fancies in the hearts of young men and women, tllis is a matter of special concern. The permissible rhymes 'of the modern English tongue are not very abundant; ahd such as exist, if not as well worn as love and dove, breeze and trees, heart and dart, are far too familiar to come upon the ear with any great charm of novelty. The dactylic rhymes are still fewer, as every [one who has tried his hand at versification is pain- fully aware. It is the poet, more than the prose writer, V'ho strengthens as well as beautifies the language which he employs. It is true that language first makes literature ; but literature, when once established among a people, reacts upon langucige, and fixes its form — decides what words shall and what wcrds shall not be used in the higher forms of prose and poetical composition. Old English — such as it is found in Piers PloiigJi- man and his successors as far downwards as the poets and dramatists of the Elizabethan era, and as late as Milton and Dryden — is a passionate rather than an argumentative language; and poets, who ought to be passionate above all else, otherwise they are but mere versifiers, should go back to those ancijnt sources if they would be strong without ceasing to be correct and elegant. The words that were good enough for Shake- speare and his contemporaries ought to be good enough for the greatest writers of our day. But Shakespeare himself, as already observed, is to a very considerable extent becoming obsolete. The intercourse between Great Britain and the United States of America has of late years so greatly increased, and the INTRODUCTION. xxiii interchange of thought between readers and writers on both sides of the Atlantic has become so intimate and incessant, as to have produced a marked effect, not only on the familiar language of Englishmen, but on English literature and, more espe- cially, that of the newspaper press. Ever since the colonization of the first thirteen colonies, which proclaimed their indepen- dence nearly a century ago, the United States have received vast accessions of immigrants from the British Isles, who carried along with them to the new country of their adoption, not only the Hterary language of books, but the language of the peasantry — of what are called the common people ; of people who used the rough and rustic speech of the counties — as distinguished from the more cultivated and more copious speech of London an'd of books — and who introduced into the current phraseology ofj'every-day life many hundreds of words that literary men would consider obsolete, archaic, or provincial, and, therefore, to! be avoided ; but which were quickly adopted by the less fastidious writers for the American press, who cared less for fine writing than for making a strong impression on the minds of those whom they addressed. By dint of repetition in print, these old English — and all but forgotten — words have become part of the ordinary speech of the Americans, and are fast making their way back again to the land of their birth, stamped w'.th the acceptance and approbation of a country that no longer aims in its literature to be a copyist. These American- isms, as they are erroneously called, are making themselves at home in the old country, and adding to the wealth of that great and expansive language which promises to be the one all-pervading language of the civilized world — or, at least, to share that honour with the Spanish and the German, and to predominate largely over both. Lest it may be objected that all the archaic words — reviving and revivable — that are introduced into the following pages, are not " beauties " in the strictest sense of the word, it may be xxiv INTRODUCTION. claimed that if not beauties, they are utilities — or may be made . so — and that everything which is useful is beautiful in its degree. Every country has its literary and its popular language ; but if ever there were a language in the world, from which literature might advantageously borrow from the language of the people — r of the past ages and of the present — it is the English. \ Let us conclude with the observations of Frederick Schlegel^ in his lectures on the History of Literature : — , " The care of the national language is at all times a sacred trust and a most important privilege of the higher orders of society. Every man of education should make it the object of his unceasing concern, to preserve his language pure and entire, to speak it, so far as' is in his power, in all its beauty and per- fection A nation whose language becomes rude and barbarous, must be on the brink of barbarism in regard to everything else. A nation which allows her language to go to ruin, is parting with the last half of her intellectual independence, and testifies her willingness to cease to exist.'' \ [The author has to return thanks to Messrs, Blackwood and Sons, of Edinburgh, for permission to reprint the substance of the above introduction and many " Lost Preterites," which origi- nally appeared in Blackwood' s Magazine, in a paper with that title.] LOST BEAUTIES ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Abear, to tolerate, or endure. This word survives among uneducated people, and is a better form of expression than its modern synonyme ' bear.' It is more correct to say of a man, that you cannot abear him, than to say you cannot bear him, for bear may mean to 'carry.' Abear is found in Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare. Acold, very cold. The owl, with, all his feathers, was acold. — Keats, Poor Tom's acold. — Shakespeare, Adle, Stagnant water that smells badly. From the same root, ' addled,' a rotten egg. Afeared, struck with fear — a more purely English word than its synonyine afraid, which is a corruption of the French ctfray'e, frightened. A soldier, and afeared? — Shakespeare. AJfbretime, of old time ; in the days of old ; ' auld lang syne.' A/termath, the pasture after the grass has been mowed or I mown ; a second mowing or crop. Aftertale, a postscript sometimes added when the tale or story is, or ought to be, ended. I 26 LOST BEAUTIES OF Afterword, a postscript to a letter ; or appendix to a book. Agasp, gasping forbreath. Agg, to irritate : whence, by corruption, to 'egg on,' to excitji. Agore, gory, bloody. / Aidle, to earn one's bread indifferently well. ' I aidk my kee|3. ' Airt, the quarter from which the wind blows, from the Gaejic ard, a height. Helter skelter from a' aii-ts, \ In swarms the country drives. — Siagg's Cumberland Ballads. Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, , I dearly lo'e the west, For there the bonnie lassie lives, The lass that I lo'e best. — Bums. But yon green gi'aff (grave) now huslcie green Wad airt me to my treasure. — Bums. Alder, \ the genitive of all ; a prefix formerly used to AUer, J intensify the meaning of an adjective in the superla- tive degree,- — as if to better the best, and heighten the highest : in which sense it is still employed in modern Ger- man, and all the Teutonic languages.- In Wicliffe's Bible, the Almighty is called the Alder-Father, and the Alder- Creator. Pope, in his Universal Prayer, says, ' Father of all,' — a phrase much less forcible than the one word of our ancestors. Alderbest, best of all. That all the best archers of the north Sholde come vipon a day, And they that shoteth aldei-hest 1 The game shal here away. — Ballad of Robin Hood. Alderelde, extreme old age. Alderfirst, first of all. ; Then Tonda forthwith alderfirst On the Christen smote wel fast. — Guy of Warwick. \ Placebo came and eke his frendes sone, 1 And alderfirst, he bade them all a bone. ' Chaucer : The Merchant's Tale. Alderforemost, the foremost of all. ' William and the Emperor went alderforemost. — William and the Werc-.volf. For tho-.igh they make semblant fairest, ' They will beguile you alderforemost. — The Seven IVise Mastcri. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 27 Alderhighest, highest of all. And alderhighest took Astronomie. — Lydgate. Alderlast, last of all. And alderlast how he hi this citie Was by the Sonne slaine at Tholouse, — Bochas. Alderlest, least of all. Love, — against the whiche who so dependith, Himselven most, him alderlest availeth. — Chaucer: Troilus and Cresdde. Alderliefest, dearest of all ; best beloved of all. Mine alderlicfisi Lorde and brother dear. — Chancer : Troilus and Creseidc. Witli you muie a/(/ifr//(/«f^ sovereign. — Shakespeare: King Henry VI. Aldermost, greatest, or most of all. But aldermost in honour out of soule, They had a reliclce highte Palladion. — Chaucer: Troilus and Creseidc. Aldertruest, truest of all. I liumbly do request Tliat by your means our princes may unite Their love unto mine aldertruest love. — Greeners Works. Alderwisest, wisest of all. And truliche it sitte well to be so. For aldenoiscst have therewith been pleased. Chaucer: Troilus and Creseidc. Alderworst, worst of all. \'& don us alderworst to spede When that we have most nede. — Guy of IVarzm'ci. Allwholly, entirely. Amiddleward, in the midst of. The lady took and smote with main. Right amiddleward the brain. Metrical Romance of the Seven Wise Masters. .fl.mort, dejected, depressed, dis-spirited ; at death's door. How fares my Kate? What, sweeting I all amort? The Taming of the Shreiu. Anan, an interrogative, applied by an inferior to a superior, to express that he has not caught the meaning of something said to him. It saves a long periphrasis, such as, ' I beg your pardon, I did not hear what you said.' Anent, 1 relating to, concerning. The first of these forms Anempst, J is retained in Scotland, the north of England, and America ; the second, which was more commonly used in the south and west of England, has become obsolete. 28 LOST BE A UTIES OF Anent — continued, \ We will speak anent this matter. ' And we humbly beseech yonr Highness we may knowe your Grace's pleasure, how we shall order ourselves anetnpst your Grace's sayd citie and castell. — State Papers, Vol. II. , quoted by Halliwell. The anxiety aiunt them was intense. T. A, Trollope : The Dream Numbers. Anywhen, at any time. This word is in common use among tlie peasants in the south of England ; but has not yet beeii admitted to the honours of the Dictionary. It seems quite as well entitled to a literary position as anyhow, anywhere, anywhither, or anywise. ] . ' in Scotland, and the north of England, the arl, or _ , ' ! erl-penny, is a deposit paid down in confirmation of _, ' {a bargain : an earnest of whatever kind : a pledsje JiEirieS, r r 11 • •> X- o Tearles, J of fi^^l Possession. Here tak' this gowd and never want, Enough to gar you drink and rant, i And this is but an arle penny To what I afterwards design ye. — Allan Ramsay. This was but erlys for to tell Of infortune that after fell. — Wyntown. " This word," says Jamieson, " is evidently from the Latin arrhabo, which the Romans abbreviated into arrha. It denoted an earnest — a pledge in general. It was very oftein given to signify the earnest which a man gave to the woman he espoused, for the confirmation of the pledge between them." The French have the word arrkes, — also signifying a deposit of money on a bargain. Arval, probably a corruption of earthal ; or putting to earth. A funeral. Arval-suppet, a supper given after a funeral. Arval-cake, \ r i u i j Arval-bread, | f>^neral-baked meats. Asper, (French, ipre,) rough. Asperly, roughly. Athattens, in th&.t manner. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 29 AtMssens, in this manner. Auld Lang Syne. This phrase, so peculiarly tender and beautiful, and so wholly Scotch, has no exact synonyme in any language, and is untranslatable except by a weak and ' lengthy periphrasis. The most recent English dictionaries, those of Worcester and Webster, have adopted it ; and the J expression is almost as common in England as in Scotland. ' Allan Ramsay included in 'The Tea-Table Miscellany' a song entitled ' Old Long Syne,' a very poor production ; but it , remained for Robert Bums to make ' Auld Lang Syne' im- mortal, and fix it for ever in the English language. A-veroyne, the herb Southernwood. A^mrie, a chest, a cabinet, a secretaire; from the French armoire: — , Steele (close) the awnirie, lock the kist, Or else some gear will soon be missed. Sir Walter Scott : Donald Caird. Aie, to inquire. This was the original and is the legitimate form of the verb now written and pronounced ask, and is not only to be heard in colloquial use all over England, but to be found in our earliest writers, with the inflexions axed and oxen : — Envy with heavy harte Axed after Thrifte. — Vision of Piers Ploughman. If he axe a fish. — Wicliffe's Bible. , Axe not why, — Chaucer i The Miller' s Tale . For the purposes of lyrical poetry and musical composition, the past participle of this verb, if reintroduced into literature, •would be a vast improvement upon the harsh sound asked, which no vocalist can pronounce without a painful gasp. Baekstand, resistance. Baekword, a contradiction, or answer, to put off an engage- ment. Bake, ] to bake. Both the preterite and the past participle of Boke, >the verb are lost to literature, though' they survive in Boken, J the rural dialects of Scotland and the north of England. Bale, sorrow, hurt, damage, mischief, misery ; whence baleful, mischievous, and halefulncss. 30 LOST BEAUTIES OF Sale — continued. Now flill of blisse and now of bait. — Gower : Confessio Antantis. _ Amid my baie, I bathe in blisse, I sing in heaven, I sink in hell. — Gascoigne : Strange Passion. But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs, Rome and her rats are at the point of battle ; The one side must have ^rt^. — Shakespeare: Conolanus. \ Bangle, to waste by little and little, to dissipate an estate by thoughtlessness and bad management. We bangle away our days — ^befool our time. Burton's Anatomy of Melanchofyj He bangled all his father's money, a Lancashire phrase, applied to a man who has allowed his inheritance to slip out of his hands. ; Bangled, beaten down by the wind, like com or long grass. 'A fe«j/(?-eared dog,' signifies a dog like a spaniel, with hi.ng- ing ears. Barm, yeast. Derived apparently from beer-ream (Geprm. Bierrahm), the cream, or fermentation of beer. Dry,den speaks of, — ' Windy cyder and barmy beer, < and in the ' Cherry and the Sloe,' of Captain Alexander Montgomer}', 1590, we find, — Hope puts that taste into your heads, That boils your barmy brain. ' In the 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' the fairy says to Puck,— Are you not he ; That frights the maidens of the villages, ' ■><■**#* And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm ? Bums, in his ' Epistle to James Smith,' uses the word in the sense given to it in the ' Cherry and the Sloe,' Just now I've ta'en the fit o' rhj-me. My banity noddk's workin' prime. Barn, \ a tme English word ; too long consigned, in modern Bairn, J times, to the use of the Scottish writers. It is com- mon to all the northern and eastern shires of England and Scotland, and is used in Sussex, Hampshire, and Dorset. Shakespeare, in the ' Winter's Tale,' has, — THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 31 B am — continued. Mercy on us, a harne I a very pretty bame I He also quibbles upon bairns and barns, in ' Much A.do about Nothing,' where Beatrice says, — Yea, Light-o'-love into your heels : Then, if your husband have stables enough, You'll see he shall lack no bams. In the ' Pious Ploughman ' the Saviour is called, That blessed Bame that boughte us on the rode. Barrel fever, the headache caused by intemperance in ale or beer. Barth, a shelter for cattle. Bat, the -preterite of beat. Bate, contention, strife; whence make-bate, and.breed-bate — a barrator, or breeder and stirrer up of strife. Bateful, quarrelsome, contentious. Batten. All the dictionaries define this word as meaning 'to fatten, or grow fat.' Mr. Halliwell explains it, ' to thrive, or grow fat ;' and adds that, ' to batten in dung, is to lie upon it and beat it close together.' In Sternberg's 'Folk Lore and Glossary of Northamptonshire,' the local phrase is quoted, ' Them pigs batten in the sun.' The word, as used by Shakespeare and Milton, does not seem susceptible of the common interpretation. It rather seems to signify, to feed insufiSciently — applied to animals only, or to men and women derisively. Thus Shakespeare, to whom we owe the literary preservation of the word, makes Hamlet say to his mother, when upbraiding her with her new marriage, and showing her the pictures of her first and second husbands, — Have you eyes ; Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten on this moor ? i.e., she fed well on the rich pastures of the mountain, but starved — fed insufficiently, or battened — upon the bare herbage of the moorland. In another passage, Shakespeare ■ says, — Go and batten on cold bits ; in which the use of the word is more consistent with the idea of insufficiency than with that of repletion. 32 LOST BE A UTIES OF Batten — continued. Milton has the line, ' Battening Qm '&.ockzyi\'&\ the fresh dews of night,' — a diet which, without fresh grass, as well as dew, would not add much to their plumpness. A north-country toast at christening-feasts is, — i The wife a good church-going, and a battening to the baini. ! Brockett's Glossary of Nm-th-Country Words. One with another they would he and play, And in the deep fog batten all the day. — Dry den. Bauch, indifferent ; insipid. Beauty but bounty's but bauch. — Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs, — i.e., beauty without goodness is not worth much. In Cheshire, a pudding made with milk and flour only, without any sweetening or condiment, is called a baugh. Bavin, 1 a loose faggot of brushwood, bound with one withe. Baven, J A faggot, says Mr. Halliwell, is bound with two. Shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, Soon kindled ; and soon burned. — Shakespeare : Henry 1 V. Be, as an augmentative of , verbs, is more extensively em- ployed by the uneducated than by the educated classes. Bewildered is stronger than ' wildered ;' or, ' I am beteazed by the children from morning till night,' than ' teazed.' ' I am sore besinitfen with ailments,' said a farm-labourer in Kent ; a more yigorous and poetical phrase than if he had said, ' I am greatly afflicted with diseases.' The tears beraiu my cheeks. — 772^ Earl of Surrey. Temp. Henry VIII. Basel ' I *^^* '^^^'^ °^^ ™S ™ which the jewel is set. Beat, ) ' The preterite of this verb,' says Walker, in his ' Pro- Beaten, J nouncing Dictionary,' 'is uniformly pronounced by the English like the present tense.' ' I think,' says Dr. Johnson to Home Tooke, in one of the 'Imaginary Conversations' of Savage Landor, ' that I have somewhere seen the preterite bate' ' I am afraid,' replied Tooke, ' of reminding you where you probably met with the word. The Irishman in Fielding's "Tom Jones" says "he bateraQ." ' Johnson rephed, 'that he would not hesitate to employ the word in grave composition ;' and Took aquiesced in the decision, justifying it by a statement of the fact, which, however, he did not THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 33 Beat — contifiued. prove, ' that authors much richer both in thought and ex- pression than any now living or recently deceased have done so.' Children, who often make preterites of their own, in this respect acting unconsciously upon the analogies of the language, often say bett for did beat. And the children, it would appear, are correct, if the following from 'Piers Plough- man' be considered good English : — He laid on me with rage And hitte me under the ear ; He buffeted me so about the mouthe ' That out my teeth he betie. In Ross's 'Helenore' — a perfect storehouse of Anglo- Saxon words current in Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire, the Mearns, and the north-east of Scotland — we find, — Baith their hearts bett wi' the common stound, And had nae pain, but pleasure in the wound. This preterite- might well be revived ; it is sadly wanted, as witness the following passage from Mr. Disraeli's ' Vivian Grey :' ' Never was she so animated ; never had she boasted that her pulse beat more melodious music, or her lively blood danced a more healthy measure.' If ' danced' (a preterite), why not bett, as ' Piers Ploughman ' has it ? The following is an example of the erroneous use of an imperfect preterite for the past participle beaten. They were stoned, and the horse in their vehicle beat severely. Temple Bar Magazine, March, 1869. Beck, a brook; used in Sussex, in Cumberland, and in Lincolnshire ; and common throughout Holland and Bel- gium as a termination to the names of villages through which flow small streams, — as Scarbeck, Etterbeck, &c., derived from the German Bach — a brook. The brooks, the becks, the rills, the rivulets. — Drayton's Polyolbion. The tongue, the paunch, the neck, When they be well washed with water of the beck. Booke of Hunting, 1586, Little John Jiggy Jog Went to Wigan to woo He came to a beck And broke his neck ; Johnny haw dost thou now? — Nursery Rhymes of England. 3 34 LOST BEAUTIES OF Bedgang, accouchement, lying in ; a purely English word, for which there needs no French synonyme. Bedswerver, adulterer. — Shakespeare. Bed-thrall, I ^ bedridden person; one confined to bed by Bedrel, j ^i'^^^^^- His father — who as Bedrel lay- Before his gate — of his life in despair. — Douglas : Translation of Virgil. Beet, I to help, mend, assist the gradual waste of anything \ Bete, J and more especially to add fuel to the fire. I will do sacrifice, and fires bete. — Chatuer : The Knights Tale. A corowne of a grene oak cerial Upon his head was set full faire and mete ; Two fires on the altar 'gan he bete. — Idem. Whereby the day was dawning well I knew ; Bad bete the fire and the candell alicht. Gawin Douglas : Translation of Virgil. Picking up peats to beet his ingle. Allan Ramsay : Epistle to Robert Yarde of Devonshire. 'Bete my bale;' i.e., feed or aliment my sorrow. In Kent, according to Mr. Halliwell, a beeter constantly attends the malt-kilns to beet the fire, — i.e., to put fresh straw into the mouth of the kiln. Belive, immediately ; by-and-by. If Triamour be alive, Hither will he come belive. God send us grace to speed. — Metrical Romance of Sir Triamour. For God's sake, love, hie we belive. And look whether Ogier be alive. — Metrical Romance of Sir Otuel. Ours went again belive, Into the city of Carohaise. — Metrical Romance of Merlin, Part IT. Belive the elder bairns come dropping in. Burns : Cotter's Saturday Night. Bellbloom, the hedge convolvulus. In some parts of England this name is given to the daffodil. Bellen, to swell out ; a word preferable to the more modern " belly ;" as the bellying, or bulging sail of a ship in a fair wind. Bell-penny, money laid up by any' one to pay the expenses of his own funeral ; or the ringing of the bell for the same. THE EXGLISH LANGUAGE. 35 Send, a drink ; a metaphorical expression for the bending of the arm, in Ufbing the glass or goblet to the mouth. Come gie's the other bend. We'll drink their health, however it may end. — Allan Ramsay. Bender, a hard drinker. Now lend yovir lungs, ye benders fine, Wha ken the benefit of wine. — Allan Ramsay. In America, ' to go on the bender,' is a common expres- sion, — to go on the spree, or on a drinking bout Bendsome, pliable, yielding. Benison, a blessing ; a benediction. And when his leave of me he took, The tears they wat mine e'e ; I gied him sic a parting look, — My benison gang wi' thee. — Ballad of GUderoy. Benothinged, annihilated. Bent, a species of coarse long grass. Benty, overgrown mth long coarse grass. !Lay the bent to the bonny broom. — Old English Song. Besmirch, besmear. Betide, ) from tide, to happen. The preterite is lost It Betid, J occurs both in ' Piers Ploughman' and in Chaucer : Thee should never have tidde so f^ a grace. — Canterbury Tales. Betterness, something better than goodness j a meaning not to be expressed by the imperfect synonyme, ' amelioration.' Bevel, out of the level ; crooked. I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel. Shakespeare's Sonnets. Bever, a drink between meals. Thirty meals a day, and ten bevers, a small trifle to suffice nature. Marlowe: Dr. Faustus. Bicker, a drinking cup, a beaker, a step in the wrong direc- tion: — Fill high the foaming bicker 1 Body and soul are mine, quoth he, I'll have them both for liquor. — The Gin Fiend. Setting my staff wi' a' my skill To keep me sicker. Though lee^-ard, whyles, against my htU, I took a bicker. — Bums : Death and Dr. Hornbook. 3—2 36 LOST BEAUTIES 01' ' Bid, and its derivative forbid. The ancient preterite and past participle of this verb were bade and bidden, forbade and forbidden. Both of these inflections are threatened with ex- tinction j for what offence it is impossible to surmise. Shake- speare says, — The very moment that he bade me do it. That our modem writers do not follow the example of Shakespeare, and conform to the rules of good English, may appear from the following examples : — The competition is so sharp and general that the leader of to-day can never be sure tliat he will not be outbid to-morrow. Quarterly Hn/ina, Afril, 1868. Mr. Charles Dickens has finally bid farewell to Philadelpliia. Times, March 4, 1868. Uncertain even at that epoch (1864) of Austria's fidelity, Prassia bid high for German leadership. — Ti7!ies, Aprils, 1868. He called his sei-vants ajid bid them procure firearms. Times, letter from Dublin, March 2, 1868. James the First, besides writing a book against tobacco, forbid its use by severe penalties. — Tobacco, by D. King, M.D. Bide, abide, remainj dwell. For some days she did with him bide. Ballad of John Thomson and the Turk. ' Bide a wee,' i.e., hold on awhile ; remain a little while. Bield, a shelter. This word occurs in the Morte Arthur, and is pure English, though long since consigned to the ex- clusive use of Scottish writers. Then peeping, half sleeping, Frae forth my niral bield. It easit me and pleasit me, To see and smell the field.—Allan Bamsay : The Vision, Better a wee bush than nae bield. (Adopted by Robert Bm-ns as his motto.) There's bield beneath an auld man's beard. As the wind blows seek your bield. Every man bows to the tree he gets bield from. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. The flaunting flowers our garden yield, High sheltering woods and wa's maun shield, But thou beneath the random bield (of clod or stone), Adorns the histie (dry) stubble field.— .ffeww .■ To a Daisy. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 37 Bike, ) a crowd. Byke, j a nest of wild bees, or wasps. A byke of waspes bred in his nose. — MS. Cott. Calig. [quoted by Halliwell). As bees birz out wi' angry fylce [fret]. When plundering herds assail their byke. — Burns : Tarn 0' Shanter. I am a bard of no regard, Wi' gentle folk and a' that, But Homer-like the glowriu' byke, Frae town to town, I draw that. — Burns: Tlie Jolly Beggars. Bilk, to defraud ; cheat ; run away without payment. This word has in modern days degenerated into slang : having in its proper use been, unnecessarily, superseded by balk. Dryden uses the one form, and Pope the other, to express the same meaning. What comedy, what farce, can more delight Than grinning hmiger, and the pleasing sight Of your fe7/4'af hopes ? — Dryden. An unknown country girl was delivered of him mider a tree ; where she bilked him : he was found by a sexton-priest of the church. Spenser: Secret History of the House of Medici, 1689. Is there a variance ? enter but his door, Balked are the courts ; and contest is no more. — Pope. Balked of his prey, the yeUing monster cries. — Pope. Bilk seems worthy of restoration to the honourable place given it by Dryden and Spenser in the foregoing extracts, because it expresses an idea of which balk is not the equiva- lent. To balk a wild animal of its prey, a thief of his plun- der, or the courts of justice of a suit, is a rightful act,_ and the word suggests no wrong or injustice. But to bilk, is to defraud another of that which is his due — as a mother who Mlks her helpless child of the protection she owes it ; or as a passenger, who bilks a coach-driver or cabman, by running off without payment of his debt. Bir, force, manliness, — ^from the Latin vir. Used in Scot- land, and on the English border; and stated in Grose's ' Provincial Glossary,' to be current in Cheshire. Bird, or burd, a term of endearment applied to a young lady : — And by my word, the bonnie bird In danger shall not tarry. — Thomas Cavipbcll. 38 LOST BEAUTIES OF Birkie, a conceited person : — Ye see yon birkie ca'd a lord, Wha struts and stares, and a' th.3.t.— Burns : A Man's a Man. Birl, 1 to pour out wine or liquor; whence furl as a Byrl, J stream. Oh, she has birled these mery yong men With the ale but and the wine. Until they were as deadly drunk, As any wild wood swine. Scott's Border Minstrelsy : Ballad of Pause Foodrage. There were three lords birling at the wine. On the dowie dens o' Yan-ow, They made a compact them between, They would go fecht to-moiTow. Motherwell's Ancient Minstrelsy. On the playne grene was buylded a fountain ; gylte with fine golde ; engrayled with antique workes, the olde god of wine called Bacchus, birling the wine. — Hall: Henry VIII. Birl, to turn round. He Iceepit close the house and birled s.t the wheel. — Hector Macneill. Birler, a butler, or pourer out of liquor. In Cumberland, according to Mr. Halliwell, birler signi- fies a master of the revels at a wedding ; one of his duties- being to superintend the refreshments for the party. In some districts, 'birl' means a rattling noise; and the becks, or mountain streams, in Westmoreland and Cumberland, are said to coine birling down. Birs, the thick hair or bristles on the back of swine : — The soutor (shoemaker) gave the sow a kiss. ' Humph !' quo' she, ' it's a' for my birs I' Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs^ Bladd, a leaf; a blade ; or a flat piece of anything. Blae, of a pale blue colour ; a sickly blue. The morning blae and wan. — Douglas : Translation of Virgil. Diseases, heaviness, and spleen, With visage dull and blae. — Allan Ramsay : The Fair Assembly. Be in dread, oh, sirs ! Some of you will stand with a blae countenance before the tribunal of God ! — Bruce' s Soul's Confirmation. Blare, \ to roar; to bellow. Blore, J to cry out, as with the brassy sound of a trumpet. A blast of wind is called a blore in the northern counties and in Scotland. The teiTible tmrn p-*- hi„... ^n^^^, r„,.„~,.n!! THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 39 Blashy, thin, poor, weak, small ; applied to drink — as ' blashy beer — very small beer ;' or ' blashy tea.' Blate, cold ; insipid ; bashful ; modest ; shy. And Eve, without her loving mate, Had thought the garden wondrous blate. — Callings Miscellanies, 1762. Says Lord Mark Kerr, ' ye are na blate To bring us the news o' your ain defeat — Get out o' my sight this morning.' Jacobite Ballad : yohnnie Cope: A blate cat makes a proud mouse.— ^//«« Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. The youngster's artless head o'erflows with joy, And blate and laithfu' scarce can well behave. Burns : Cotter's Saturday Night, Blaud, to lay anything flat with violence, as the wind or a storm of rain does the corn ;— This day M'Kinlay takes the flail. And he's the boy will blaud 'her. — Burns: The Ordination, Ochon ! ochon ! cries Haughton, That ever I was bom, To see the Buckie bum rin bluid. And blatidinga! the com. — Abei'deenshire Ballad, Blaver, the blue corn-flower, or the corn blue-bottle. In the Ballad of the ' Gardener Lad,' Vol. ii. of Buchan's ' Collec- tion of Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland,' occurs the passage, — Your gloves shall be 0' the green clover. Come lockerin' to your hand Well dropped o'er wi' blue blavers. That grow amang white land . Bleary, confused ; cloudy ; misty. Oh give me back my native hills. If bleak or bleary, grim or gray. — Cumberland Ballad. Blear-eyed, with dull, cloudy eyes. Blee, colour ; appearance ; complexion; A cloth of silke, she wonde hin, That was of swithe (very) fair ble. — Legend : Cathol. The ladies that were fair and free. And one that brighter was of blee, "Weeped sore and handes wrung. — Morte Arthur. 40 LOST BEA UTIES OF Blee , — continued. And pale pale grew her rosy cheek, That was so bright of blee, And she seemed to be as surely dead As any one could be. — The Gay Goss Hawk, Border Minstrelsy. Blend, \ to mingle. The ancient preterite of this verb is very Blent, / properly preserved by the poets, but seems to have entirelygiven way in prose and in ordinary speech to 'blended.' Any reason for the change it is impossible to discover ; for if it be correct to say ' blended,' it would be equally correct to say ' spended,' ' lended,' or ' rended.' This form of the preterite in the verb 'to mend^ has properly been superseded by 'mended,' in order to avoid the confusion that would be caused in the use of the verb ' to mean,' which has its proper preterite in ' meant.' Byron uses blent with fine effect in his noble lines on ' The Battle of Waterloo :' — Rider and horse, friend, foe, in one red burial blent. Blether, \ to talk nonsense in a loud manner ; to be full of Blather, j wind as a Madder. This is a common word in Scotland, and on the English border ; as well as in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. There's nothing gained by being witty : fame Gathers but wind to blather up a name. — Beaumont and Fletcher. When Phoebus' head turns light as cork, And Neptune leans upon his fork. And limping Vulcan te/,^«-.r. — Allan Ramsay : T7ie Vision. But I shall scribble down some blether. Just clear aff loof (off h,a.\\d).— Bu7-ns : Epistle to Lapraik. Then in we go to see the show. On every side they're gatherin'. Some carrying deals, some chairs and stools, And some are busy bletherin'. — Burns : Thi Holy Fair. All in this misty moisty clime, I backward mused on wasted time, How I had spent my youthful prime, And done nae thing. But stringing bletheis up in rhyme, For fools to sing. — Burns: The Vision. ' She's better to-night,' said one nurse to another. 'Night's come, but it's not gone,' replied her helpmate, in the full hearing of the patient, ' and it's the small hours 'U try her.' ' The small hours '11 none try me as much as you do with your blethering tongues,' remarked die patient. A Visit to the London Hospitals, ' Fall Mall Gazette,' March 22,, 1870. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 41 Blan I '•° ^^'^^ 'y ^^ ^'^"P- And so he did or that they went atwin, Till he had turned him he could not blin. Chaucer : The Chancnes' Yeman's Tale. Her tears did never blin. — Nares : Romeus and Julietia. One while then the page he went Another while he ranne, TiH-Jie'd o'ertaken King Estmere, I wis he never blanne. — Fercy's Reliques : King Estmere. Bloach, 1 to variegate. Blotch, ] to spot. The bloached holly. Blob, ) a drop of water or of dew ; from whence blebster and Bleb, J blister, — drops of water formed under the skin. Sir Thomas More, in his ' Consolations of the Soul,' says we look on ' this troubled passing stream of the generations of men, to as little purpose almost as idle boys do on dancing hld)s or bubbles in the water.' Blob, the northern and Scottish form of the word. She kisses the lips o' her bonnie red rose, Wet wi' the blobs o' dew. Bonnie Lady Ann, by Allan Cunningham, in CromweWs Reiiuiins of Nithsdale and Galloway Song. Oh sweet upon the go wan- tap the dew blobs fa'. — T/ie Bridal Sark, ii. Her e'en the dearest blob o' dew outshining. — Allan Ramsay. BloSe, } ^ l^g^' V0^^^\ horse. his burlike (burly) blonke. — Morte Arthur. Blooth, a blossom j useful as rhyme to youth, truth, &c. Blote, to dry in smoke ; whence the modern bloater, a Yar- mouth bloater. Blirrt, to cry out suddenly, and without premeditation ; whence, ' to blurt out a secret' Bode, a message. Assembled ben his answer for to here, And afterwards this knight was bode appere. Chaucer: The Wife of Bathes Tale. The owle that of death the bode bringeth. — Chaucer. Ye may hae was (worse) bodes ere Beltan (May Day). Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. 42 LOST BEAUTIES OF Bode — continued. Tell down your money, said Willie Wallace, Tell down your money if it be good, I'm sm'e I have it in my power. And never had a better bode. William Wallace : Motherwell's Ancient Minstrelsy, Bole, the trank of a tree. View well this tree, the queen of all the gi'ove. How vast her bole. — Dryden. Bolt, an arrow; from whence the phrases, i5i?/Aupright, straight up as an arrow; and bolt on end, perpendicular. The word thunderbolt thus means the arrow, or weapon, that falls to the earth, after being discharged from the bow of the thunder-clouds. The vulgarism, to ■ bolt — to run away — is derived from this rootj — to go straight off, and out of sight — like an arrow. Mincing she was, as is a jolly colt, Long as a mast, and upright as a bolt. — Chaucer: The Miller's Tale. ' Wide !' quoth Bolton, when his bolt flew backward. Proverb quoted by Halliivell. Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell. — Shakespeare. ' I have shot my bolt.' — Letter from Mr. E. Horsman, M.P., to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone: — Times, May yd, 1861. Bolter, 1 a round mass of conglomerate sand is called a baiter Baiter, j in Northamptonshire. The word is also used as a verb. In Bedfordshire, hasty-pudding is said to be boltered, when much of the flour remains in lumps. — Sternberg's Norihamptonshire Glossary. The word is used in Shakespeare, when Macbeth speaks of ' \AooA-boltered Banquo.' In Webster's and Worcester's Dictionary, bolter is said to inean besmear, and in the latter this passage is quoted as signifying \AooA-smeared Banquo ; but clotted, or covered with gory lumps, seems to be the real signification. Bonny, 1 this word holds a place midway between pretty and Bonnie, j beautiful, signifying the possession of more loveli- ness and grace than the one, and of less dignity and majesty than the other. To say of one that she is a bonnie lass, is a higher compliment than to say that she is a pretty girl, for bonnieness implies health as well as loveliness. The word, though considered Scottish in consequence of its more fre- THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 43 Bonny — continued. quent use by Ramsay, Burns, and the song writers and novelists of Scotland, than by those of England, is as English as Shakespeare and his contemporaries can make it. And every little grass Broad itself spreadetli ; Proud that this bonny lass, Upon it treadeth. — Drayton's Sheplwd's Sirena. So blythe and bonnie now the lads and lassies are. Drayton's Polyolbion. We say that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot, A cheny lip, a bonny eye, a passnig-pleasing tongue. Shakespeare : Richard III. As the bonny lass passed by, She roved at me with glancing eye. Spenser: Shepherd's Calendar. Broom, broom, the bonny broom, Come buy my birchen broom j In the wars we ve no more room. Buy all my bonny broom. — Beaumont and Fletcher. Bow to the sun, to our queen and the fair one, Come to behold our sports. Each bontiy lass is here counted a rare one. — John Ford, 1623. The bonny broome, the well-favoured broome, The broome blows fair on hill. Poor Cotydon : Ballad in the Pepys Collection. There was a lady in the North Country, Lay the bent to the bonnie broom. And she had lovely daughters three, Fa, la, la, la, la, la, lee. — Durfy's Fills to purge Melancholy. Oh where is the boatman ? my bonny lass. Oh where is tlie boatman ? bring him to me ; To feriy me over the Tyne to my love. And I will remember the boatman and thee. Song : The Water of Tyne, Newcastle. Wlio'."! like my Johnny, So leish, so blithe, so bonny, He's foremost 'mong the mony, Lads o' coaly Tyne. — Song: The Keel Pom. With these examples to prove its English use, it may well be asked why so beautiful and much needed a word should be considered local, and left to the Scottish song writers. Boon, a bonus, from ' bon,' good ; a day's work given gratuit- ously to help a man to build his house, or plough his field. Boon companions, drank together afterwards ; and hence the .44 LOST BEAUTIES OF Boon — continued. ' modern meaning of the adjective, as signifying jovial and merry, as well as good. In Lincolnshire to boon, according to Halliwell, means to work at the reparation of the public roads. Bord, ) a joke, a jest, a tricic. This word survives inScottish Bonrd, / poetry, and in the wit and philosophy of ancient pro- verbs, but has disappeared from English literature ; in which, from the days of Chaucer to those of Spenser and Shake- , speare, it was a frequent ornament. The early author of ' Lay Le Fraine,' commences his poem by observing that lays and songs to be accompanied by the harp, were composed on all sorts of subjects : — Some of war and some of woe, And some of J oy and mirth also, And some of treachery and guile, Of old adventures that fell erewhile, And some of boards : &c. * * * * ^ But most of love forsooth there be. You should not in a strange land, Mock, nor yet be bourdetied ; But if ye will with bourdings deck. Right clearly then ye should them veil. Sir Eger, Sir Graham, and Sir Gray Steel. ' Fool !' he said, ' thou bourdest grete, With my spear I shall thee beat.' Metrical Romance : The Life of Ipomydon, With sugered words she woo'd and spared no speed. But bourded'Kvca. with many a pleasant tale. — Turberville. They all agreed : so turning all to game And pleasant bord, they past forth on their way. Spenser : Faerie Qiieene. The wizard could no longer bear her bord. But bursting forth in laughter to her said. — Idem. Gramercy Borril for the company, For all thy jests and all Hsxy rcitrcy bourds . — Draytot^ s Pastorals. ' I'll tell tire bourd, but nae the body,' i.e., the joke, but not the person it was made upon. ' A sooth bourd is nae botird,' i.e., ' a true jest is no jest.' Board na with Bawtie (the watch dog) lest he bite you. They that bourd \i\\h cats may count upon scarts (scratches). Allan Famsay's Scottish Proverbs. 7 HE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 45 Bottle-tlirall, a confirmed drunkard, a slave to the bottle. Bouse, to drink deeply, to revel ; whence the English word ' boozy :' — There let him house, and deep Dai-ouse, Wi' bumpers flowmg o'er, Till he forgets his loves and debts, And minds his grief no more. — Burns. As though bold Robin Hood Would with his maid Marian Sup and house from horn and can. — Keats. Bowboy, a scarecrow. Bower, a lady's chamber. Bowermaid, a chambermaid. Brabble, v. to quarrel. Brabble, ) , Brabblement,}"-^'!"^'^''"'- This pretty hrabble will undo us all. — Shakespeare: Titus Amh-onicus.. Brae, the brow or side of a hill — from the Gaelic bruaich : — We twa ha'e run about the hraes And pu'd the gowans fine, But mony a weary foot we've trod Sin auld laiig syne, — Burns. Brag, the best, foremost, and most flourishing. Young Charlie Cochran was the sprout of an aik, Bonnie, and blooming, and straight was its make ; The sun took delight to shine for its sake. And it will be the hrag 0' the forest yet. Lady Mary Ann : Border Ballad. Braird, the first sprouting of the corn. — Scottish and Northern, Brander, a gridiron. Brent' I steep, high, precipitous. Roger Ascham says : The gi-apes gi-ew on the hrant rocks ; and Gawin Douglas in the translation of the '.^Eneid' : His blythe brow is h7-ent. In the song of John Anderson my Jo, the good wife says to her husband : — When we were first acquent. Your locks were like the raven, Your bonnie brow was hrctit ; 45 LOST BEAUTIES OF Brant — continued. a high compliment both to his personal graces and his intellect. ■ The same phrase occurs in the Ballad of Lady Elspet, (Jamieson's Popular Ballads, vol. ii.) How brent's your brow, my lady Elspet, How gouden yellow is your hair. In Allan Ramsay's Pastoral on the death of the Countess of Wigton, he says : — Her fair irent brow, smooth as the unwrinkled deep. In Yorkshire there is a proverb that ' It is good to set a stout heart to a stiff brani.' The same proverb is current in Scotland, in phraseology, encumbered with fewer consonants. ' Set a stout heart to a stey brae.' A brant hill — as brant as the ridge of a house. Ray's North Country Words, The excellent Prince, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, with bow- men of England, slew King James with many a noble Scot, even brant against Flodden Hill. — Ascham's Toxophilus. The word brunt, in the sense of bearing the ' brunt ' of battle, of strife, or of difficulty, has been derived by all the lexicographers, from Johnson to Worcester, from burned or burnt ; and Archbishop Trench says that the brunt of the battle is the heat of the battle, where it burns the most fiercely ; but brent, brant, and brunt axe all forms of the same word, and in the sense of steep, difficult to surmount, hard of access, brant seems the more obvious and more natural derivation. Brangle, v. to dispute, quarrel — either derived from the Anglo- Saxon be-'WTangle, or the Gaelic brionglaid, bickering, wrang- ling, quarreling. In Lincolnshire, according to Mr. Halliwell, brangled means confused, intricate, tangled. Here I conceive that flesh and blood will brangle. And murmuring Reason, with tlie Almighty Avrangle. — Du Bartas. Branglesome, quarrelsome. Brash, clippings of hedges, or wind-scattered boughs and branches of trees. Brath, fierce. Gaelic, brath, a conflagration. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 47 Brathly, fiercely. Bears to Sir Berill and brathly him liittes Piits him fiercely]. Morte Arthur. Brattle, a confused noise or clatter of feet. Breme, '\ Brim, > vigorous, lively, lusty, strong, sharp. Bryme, J When brim blastis of the northern art, O'erwhelmit had Neptunus in his cai-t: Gawin Douglas: Translation of the jEneid. They are bold and breme as bare. — MS. Harleian, quoted by Halliwell. The breme winter. — Spenser. In Milton's line — By dimpled brook and fountain brim, brim is probably not the rim or edge of the fountain, as commonly supposed, but the adjective brim, lively, as dis- tinguished from the gentler epithet of dimpling, applied to the brook. The brimming glasses may have originally meant glasses filled with lusty, vigorous, brim liquor ; and if this supposition be correct, brimful, as now used, is a corruption of rim-full, full up to the rim or edge. Breezeblossom, the wild anemone. Bren, "\ to burn. This verb is lost, though it might well Brend, ( have been retained in the language. ' A brand Brent, | plucked from the burning' is almost its sole rem- Brand, j nant. Bring in better wood, And blow it till it brend. — Piers Ploughman. Brest, ) Brast,/ to burst:— Have thou my tnith, till that mine herte brest. Chaucer : The Eranklein's Tale. The mayor smote Cloudeslee with his bill His buclder he brast in two. Percy's Reliques : Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudeslee, Briglitsome, shiny. Brincli, to drink in answer to a pledge. — Halliwell. Brisken, to make brisk, — such verbs as freshen and gladden are recognized English — but brisken has not yet recovered its lost place, and is partially, if not entirely, deprived by its less elegant s3Tionyme to 'brisk up.' 48 LOST BEAUTIES OF J ' j- the tliick hair on a hog's spine ; the same as birs. Brust, Birst, Roland lough (laughed) and said, No is worth the lirmt of a swine. — Romance o/HoIanJ The bearded buck damb up the brae, AVith birsty bears and brocks (badgers). The Cherry and the S.W, 1590. Bub, any Hquor that froths or bubbles. The Ballad of the ' Brewer,' in D'Urfey's ' Pills to Purge Melancholy,' ends by calling upon the guests to leave off singing and drink off their Imd. Matthew Prior says of one of his heroes : — He loves cheap port and double bui, or what, in the present day, would be called ' double X.' In one of the satirical effusions in the ' Convivial Songster,' London, 17S2, a priest is described as one who would 'cant out any nonsense, to please the illiterate crowd,' if he could thereby get Good victuals and 6ud. In the same collection occurs the following description of the emotions excited in the breast of a country lass, by the arrival of a regiment of soldiers in a dull country town : — Dear mother, I'm quite transported. To think of the boon comi-ades ; They say we shall all be courted, AVives, widows, and buxom maids. Oh, this will be joyful news, girls, We'll dress up our houses with holly, We'll broach a tub of humming dud, To treat those who come with a rub-a-dub-dub, Dear motlier ! they'll make us jolly ! ' My grub and bui,' is a phrase often employed by the peasantry, and an sde-bubber is as common an expression as a wine-bibber. One of the finest passages in which the word occurs is in Spenser — Rude Acheron a loathsome lake, to tell, That boils and iuds with swelth as black .is hell. Buck, the breast _; whence, ' buck,' a dandy, or one tliat walks proudly, with his breast stuck out. Perhaps buxom, portly and comely, as applied to a woman, is from tlie same root. Bummel, an idle fellow, a drone. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 49 Burdalane, ) the last child surviving in a family ; the. lonely JBurdalone, / bird. And Newton Gordon, Urdalone, And Dalgatie both stout and keen, And gallant Veitch upon the field, A braver face was never seen. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: Burdy-bud, ) ,, „ ^ , , Buddy-bud, / ^^^ nower of the buiT-thistle, or burdock. Burly, ) Buirdly, j strong, portly. Buirdly chiels. — Burns. Burn, brook, or small stream. This word was once common in English poetry as bourne; and survives in the names of such streams and places as Ravensbourne, Holborn, Kilburn, Sittingboume, Blackburn, &c. A song quoted in ' King Lear' has Come o'er the hotirn, Bessy, to me. In Drayton's 'Polyolbion' occurs : The bourns, the brooks, the becks, the rills, the rivulets. In the ' Faerie Queene' : My little boat can safely pass this perilous bourne ; and in Browne's ' Pastorals' : The muttering bourns and pretty rills. In Stow's ' Annals,' under the reign of Henry III. a.d. 1 21 7, he says that 'divers bournes suddenly brake out of the hollow places of the earth, and overflowed a great part of the city of Canterbury.' Bourne also signifies a boundary : The undiscovered regions, from whose bourne. No traveller returns. It has been supposed, with reason, that the word in this passage was derived from the fact, that in early ages, as is often the case now, streams were the obvious boundary lines of landed property. In the forms of burn and burnie — familiar to all the readers of Scottish poetry and romance — the word has of late years been making its way into English composition, to which it strictly and rightfully belongs. In his Epistle to William Simpson, of Ochiltree, Burns (happily omened name for such 4 so L OST BEA UTIES OF Burn — continued. a subject) complains of the neglect by poets of the streams and burnies of his native country ; and prophesies the fame that he will give them by his verse : — The 'Ilyssus, Tiber, Thames, and Seine Glide sweet in many a tuneful line. But AVillie, set your foot to mine. And cock your crest ; We'll gar our streams and burnies shine, Up wi' the best. The prediction has been verified ; and the banks of every stream which he has celebrated have become classic ground, to the fancy and memory of the English-speaking race in two hemispheres. Busk, to adorn, to dress : — A bonny bride is soon htskit. — Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Busk ye, busk ye, my bonnie, bonnie bride, Biisk ye, busk ye, my winsome marrow. — Hamilton ofBangour. Its constant use in Scottish romantic and legendary poetry, has rendered the word familiar to all readers of taste. It well deserves to be reinstated in the place in English litera- ture to which it formerly belonged. In a MS. in the Harleian library, quoted by Halliwell, we find : — Bade them busk and make them yare, All that stiffe were on steed. Nares, who says the word is Scotch, ||quotes Fairfax's ' Translation of Tasso,' and thus proves it to be English also : The noble Bam with his courage hot, And busked him boldly to the dreadful fight. In the ' Romance of Guy of Warwick,' the word occurs : The Danishmen busked them yare Into the battle forth to fare. It is found also in ' Sir Triamour' : When Triamour was whole and soimd. And well healed of his wound, He busked him forth to fare. | But, j out of doors and indoors ; the front and back rooms of and \ a cottage. These words, abbreviations of ' be out,' and Ben, j ' be in,' belong to a once numerous class, of which the poetical phrases, doff, or ' do off,' and don, or ' do on,' and dout, or' do out,' are the best known remnants. They have the merit of greater comprehensiveness and beauty than their paraphrastic synonymes. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 51 Caller, fresh, cool. The vtoxA. fresh seems to have been derived in all of its various forms in Anglo-Saxon, German, and French, from the Latin frigidus, cold. The beautiful word caller, so common in Scotland, comes in the same manner from cauld or cold. ' The caller air,' the fresh air. ' Caller herrings,' fresh herrings; the well-known cry of the New- haven fishwomen in the streets of Edinburgh, and the name of a very beautiful melody composed by Neil Gow. The populai- song, 'There's nae luck about the house,' which Burns calls the finest love song in our language, and written originally by William Julius Mickle, the author of the ' Lusiad,' contains a stanza, afterwards added by Dr. James Beattie, tine author of tlie ' Minstrel,' in which the word is beauti- fully introduced. Sae sweet his voice, sae smooth his tongue, His breath's like caller air ; His very foot lias music in't, As he goes up the stair. In Newcastle," according to Brockett's ' Glossary,' ^caller herrings,' '■caller cockles,' and 'caller ripe grosets' (goose- berries), were formerly common street cries. Callet, a vulgar, scolding, ill-tempered, unchaste woman ; an ancient word, in common use, tliough perishing from litera- ture. A callet of boundless tongue who late hath beat her husband. Winter's Tale. A beggar in his drink could not have laid such terms upon his callet. Othello. Can, ) to be able. Canning, / being able. ' I can do it, if I like,' said a man who did not fancy a particular job to which he was set. ' What's the use of can- ning, if you won't?' was the master's rejoinder. Canakin, Canikin, _ Let the canikin clink. — Old Song. Cannie, \ a word that has no synonyme in literary English, Canny, J but which is common in the north of England and in ScoUand. ' Canny Newcastle,' and a ' catmy Scotchman,' are botli local phrases. It means wise, prudent, cun- 4—2 -^ I a small can or drmkmg cup. 52 L OST BE A UTIES OF Cannie — continued. ' ning, gentle; Brockett's 'Glossary' affinns it to imply beauty of form as well as of manners and of morals ; but in Scotland it has a more extended signification. A canny man is a kindly man, but not so overkindly and simple as to be over- reached in business, or otherwise deceived. The word also implies dexterity and ability ; as in the proverb : ' They have need of a canny cook who have but one egg for their dinner.' Bonny lass, cannie lass, wilta be mine ? Thou St neither wash dishes, nor sarrup* the swine ; Thou sail sit on a cushion and sew up a seam. And thou sail eat strawberries, sugar, and cream. Cumberland Courtship : Nursery Rhymes of England. Cantie, ) cheerful, talkative, from the Gaelic cainnt, speech, Canty, J and cainnteach, talkative. Though the word is now used only in Scotland and in the English Border Counties, it occurs in Langtoft's ' Chronicle.' I wot she was a cantie queen. — Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch. Contented wi' little, and cantie wi' mair. — Burns. The clashan yill (ale) had made me canty, I was na' foo but just had plenty. Burns : Death and Dr. Hornbook. Some cannie wee bodie may be me lot. And aw'U be cantie in thinking o't. Newcastle Song: quoted in Brockett's North Cottntry Glossary. Cark, to be fretfully anxious; the present participle or adjec- tive; 'ca7'king,' conjoined with care, as ' carking care,' is used by Milton. I carJze — I care-^V me chagrine. — Palsgrave : quoted by Halliwell. ■ Carle, \ Chaucer has carle a hardy country fellow, a word Ca,rline, / which has been diverted from its original meaning into churl, a rude, rough, ill-natured fellow. ' Carle ' as dis- tinguished from ' churl,' deserves to be restored to a place among the honest words of the language, in the sense in which Chaucer uses it : — The miller was a stout carle for the nones, Full big he was of braun, and eke of bones. In this fine picture churlishness has no place. The Germans use the word in its original sense of a fellow or * Serve or wait upon. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 53 Carle — continued. , man, and speak of ' ein guier kerl^ or ' eln dummer kerl,' as the case may be. 'Carline,' the feminine of carle, is a word much needed, but which has never yet been natural- ized in English literature. Burns employs it with great effect when describing what Tam o' Shanter saw in the Dance of the Witches : — The piper loud and louder blew, The dancers quick and quicker flew, They reel'd, they sel, they cross'd, they cleekit. Till ilka carline swat and reekit. And in his epistle to James Smith — That avild capricious carline Nature, Has turned you off, a human creature On her first plan, And in her freaks, on every feature She's written — Man. And again in the ' Jolly Beggars' — And next outspoke a rauchle carline. The Northumberland and Scotch proverb says that ' cats and carlines love to sit in tlie sun.' And another advises no man to ' let his hens crow, or the carline wear the breeks.' ' Crooked carline ! said the cripple to his wife,' is a Scottish proverb quoted by Allan Ramsay, that conveys the same idea as the EngUsh proverb of the pot that accused the kettle of being black. The Rev. Mr. Munro of Westray, preaching on the flight of Lot from Sodom, said : — 'The honest man and his family were ordered out of the town, and charged not to look back ; but the auld carline, Lot's wife, looked ower her shouther, for which she was smote into a lump of sawt.' And he added, with great unction, ' O ye people of Westray, if ye had had her, mony a day since ye wad hae putten her in the parritch-pot !' — Dean Ramsay. In the north of England and south of Scotland, a tom-zsA. is popularly known as a cark-c^Vl a jack-daw is also called a ' (r«r/i?-daw.' Carpe, to argue ; whence the modern carping, argumentation, in an ill humour. For my profit and my health, Carpe I would with contrition. — Piers Ploughman. 54 LOST SEA UTIES OF Cast, to throw.— This verb in English has lost its preterite coost, and its past participle casten. Both survive in Scotland and the north of England. They coost kevils them among Wha should to the greenwood gang. Mimtrelsy of the Scottish Border. Bums employs the preterite in 'The Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie' : As Mailie and her lamb thegither, Were ae day nibbling on the tether, - Upon her cloot she coost a hitch. And again, in his immortal song of ' Duncan Gray' — Maggie coost her head fu' high, Looked asklent and unco skeigh, Gart poor Duncan stand abeigh. In the Scottish dialect, ' to cast out' means ' to fall out,' ' to disagree/ and the phrase 'they have casten out' is of con- stant occurrence. Chaffer, to haggle. Chancely, accidentally. Chancy, fortunate. Chang, the humming noise of the conversation of a great number of persons, or the singing of a great number of birds. Then doubly sweet the laverock sang, Wi' smiling sweets the cowslips sprang, ' And all the grove in gladsome chang. Their joy confessed. — John Stagg: Cumberland Ballads. Chap, to knock : — I dreamed I was deed, and carried far, far, far up, till I came to hea- ven's yett, when I chappit, and chappit, and chappit, till at last an angel keekit out, and said, ' Wha are ye ?' — JDean Ranisay, The chiel was stout, the chiel was stark, And wadna bide to chap nor ca'. — Holy Girzie. Char, 1 to work by the day. The vulgar saying, that 'job is Char, J jobbed,' was formerly, as we learn from Ray's Pro- verbs, ' that char is chared, as the good wife said when she hanged her husband.' And drew his sworde prively. That the childe were not war, As he hadde done that char. Cursor Mundi MS., Trinity College, Cambridge, quoted by Halliiocll. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 55 Chare, a day's work. But e'ea a woman and commanded, By such poor passions as the maid tliat milks, And does the meanest chares. Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra. I have no time up town to roam, There is odd chares for me to do at home. Praise of Yorkshire Ale, 1697. In some parts of England the word is pronounced chores. Ch.atsome, full of gossip, chatty. Chide-ster, a scolding woman, a female chider, a scolder; whence, perhaps, the American word ' shyster.^ Men must enquire (this is mine assent), Whade she be wise and sober, or drunkelewe, Or proude, or elles othenvays a shrewe, A chidester — or a waster of the food. Chaucer : The MarchanCs Tale. Chiel, ) a knight, a fellow, from the Gaelic gille — a youth. Childe, J The word has long disappeared from English litera- ture, though Byron made a gallant attempt to revive it in ' Childe Harold.' Lord Ingram and chiel Wyett, Were both born in one bower, Laid botli their hearts in one lady. The less was their bonheur. The North Countrie Garland. Childe Harold was he hight ; but whence his name. And lineage long it suits me not to say. — Byron. Auld Ayr whom ne'er a town surpasses. For buirdly chiels and clever hizzies. — Burns. , .„' ^ to bear or bring forth a child. Ch.ilding, child-bearing. Which the goddess of childing is, And clepid was by name Isis. Go^uer MS. , quoted by Halliwell. Chimble, 1 to crumble into very small fragments ; to gnaw Chumble, / like a mouse or rat. . S6 LOST BEA UTIES OF CMmbled, Chumtoled. \ the preterite of chimble and chumble. Whei-e hips and haws for food suffice, That chumhled lie about his hole. Clare's Shepherd's Calendar. Chirm, ] to sound like the murmur or song of a multiplicity Charm, V of birds. — Mr. Halliwell, in his ' Archaic Dictionary,' Churm, j defines the word to mean the melancholy undertone of a bird previous to a storm. Nares, in his ' Glossary,' has charre, to make a confused noise, a word current in some parts of England. The word is common in Scotland, though almost obsolete in the south. Small birds with chirming and with cheeping clanged their song. Gawin Douglas's translation of the JSneid, At last the kindly sky began to clear, The birds to chirm, and daylight to appear. Ross's Helenore. Milton makes Eve speak of the ' charm of earliest birds,' a phrase which has been misinterpreted to mean the charming (in the modern sense) song of the birds, while it really means chirm (in the old English sense), the confused and intermingled song of all the morning birds. Chit, v., to germinate, whence chits, children; chitty-faced, baby-faced ; chitterling, a very young child, a very new blossom ; chilling, a small, early apple ; and chits, the first sprouts of corn from the seed. Chode, preterite of chide, to reprove, scold, admonish. Choile, to over-reach. Chuckle, a hen. Chuckie -stone, a stone about the size of a hen's egg. Chuff, a term of contempt or reproach, applied to a fat, ava- ricious citizen. Thus Shakespeare, in the first part of Henry IV., Act II., scene ii. Are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs, I would your store were here. Nash, in ' Pierce Penniless,' 1592, has ' chu^-headed "brngo- masters.' THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 57 Chuff — continued. 'Burns in the 'Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer to the Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons,' speaks of ' a blackguard smuggler,' cheek and jowl with a ' chuffy vintner.' ClambersouU, strong drink that clambers up to the skull ; a heady liquor. Clam, I V. to famish, or starve with hunger. The word starve, Clem, j from the German, sterben, originally meant to die ; and we stiU say that a person starves or dies with cold ; as well as with hunger. Hard is the choice when the valiant must eat their arms, or clem. Ben Jonson : Every Man out of Humour. I cannot eat stones and turf; What, will he clem me and my followers ? Ask him, an he will clem me. — Ben Jonson : The Poetaster, My entrails were clamm'd with keeping a perpetual fast. Massinger: The Rovian Actor, In Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Eastern Counties, the labouring man of independent spirit still says, ' I would rather clam.' than go into the workhouse.' Clash, an idle tale, or rumour of the day. Clave, adhered. Moral vulgarity cleaved unto him like an hereditary error. Felix Holt, the Radical, Vol. I. jiage 212. The ground clave asunder. — Numbers xvi. 31. Claw, to flatter, to praise. The Scotch proverb says, ' Claw me, and I'll claw you j' i. e., ' praise and flatter me, and I'll praise and flatter you / and not ' scratch me, and I'll scratch you,' as some have mistranslated it : To ' clap and daw,' is to caress and fondle, like lovers. Sleep when I am drowsy, and tend on no man's business ; laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour, Shakespeare : Much Ado about Nothing, Cleave, Clove, Cleft, Cloven, split. ' Cloven ' foot, is used as a Scriptural phrase ; but the words cleft and cloven are dropping out of the language. 58 LOST BEAUTIES OF ■Cloven — continued. ' We^split it into two,' instead of ' we clove it into two ;' and ' it was split into two,' instead of ' it was cloven into two.' Clead, ) to clothe.— The preterite and past participle remain Clede, I in poetical use as well as in dignified prose, while the Clad, j infinite and the present and future tenses have been superseded by the much harsher word, ' clothe.' The compagnie of comfort, Men deped it some time . — Vision of Piers Ploughman. They clept us drunkards. — Shakespeare. To the Gods I clepe. — Shakespeare. The Pope clepeth himself servant of the servants of God. Chaucer : The Parsotu^s Tale. As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Though water-rugs, and demi-wolves are clep'd All by the name of dogs. — Macbeth. He clepeth a calf, cauf. — Lovers Labour Lost. The miser threw himself as an offal. Straight at his foot in base humilitie, And cleped\axeL liege. — Spenser's Faerie Queene. Mr. Halliwell, in his ' Archaic Dictionary,' says that this ■word is still used by boys at play in the Eastern Counties, who depe or call the sides at a game. Many newspaper writers in the present day, at a loss for a word for calling or naming an inanimate object, talk of the '■ christe7iing' of a church, a street, a battle, or any inanimate object. An example occurs in an editorial article of the Times, July 12, 1869, on the removal of the grating from the ladies' gallery in the House of Commons — ' " the grate question," as Mr. Lowe christened it.' 'The engagement at Villafranca, or Custozza, for I know not by what name the battle may be baftized.' — Daily Telegraph, July 5th, 1866. ' But the middle- class housewife, who does not know good beef from bad, is put off with the old cows and worn-out bullocks which have just grazed enough heather to be christened Scotch.' — Ibid. November 4th, 1873. 'Two years ago the defendants THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 59 Clep e — continued. began to advertize a product which they christened nourishing stoiit' — Ibid. November 13, 1873. In these, and other instances, the old word clepe, in default of call or name, would be an improvement, if it were possible to revive it. Y-clept. The only form in which the past participle of ' clepe ' is used in modern days, is y-clept, applied solely in mock heroics, or in derision ; or by vulgar people unaccustomed to literary composition, by whom it has been degraded into slang. Clevel, a grain of corn. eleven, the cliffs. Clip, to embrace, to fondle. Oh that I had my lady at this bay, To kiss and clip me till I run away. — Shakespeare. Oh let me clip ye In arms as round as when I woo'd. Shakespeare : Coriolanus. Then embraces his son-in law ; then again worries he his daughter with clipping her. — Shakespeare : Winter^ s Tale. The lusty vine not jealous of the ivy, Because she clips the elm. — Beaumont and Fletcher. Worse than Tantalus is her annoy. To clip Elysium and lack her joy. Shakespeare ; Venus and Adonis. The preterite of ' clip,' to embrace, was formerly ' clap.' This is lost as a verb, but survives as a substantive, and sometimes as the infinitive of a verb, with an ofTensive meaning. Clointer, to tread heavily. Clomb, preterite of climb. So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold. — Paradise Lost. The moon had clomb the highest hill. — Bums. Cloiir, a lump on the flesh, caused by a heavy blow. That cane o' yours would gi'e a clour on a man's head eneuch to pro- duce a phrenological faculty. — Professor Wilson: Nodes Ambrosiance. 6o LOST BEAUTIES OF Clout, to patch, to mend j— a patch, a rag ; whence dish-clout, a dish-rag. And cast on my clothes, Y -clouted zxii whole. —-AW-J Ploughman. Thereon lay a little childe lapped in cloutes. — Piers Ploiighinan. From the following line in ' Love's Labour's Lost,' Indeed and must shoot nearer, or he'll ne'er hit the clout, it would appear that a rag — probably a white one — was placed in the middle of a tai-get as a mark. Clout the aiild, the new are dear, My Jo Janet. — Scotch Song. As he went for the weel faur'd maid, A beggar bold, I wat met he, Was covered in a clouted cloak. Willie Wallace, Johnsoiis Museum. Better a clout in, than a hole out. An old sack craves muckle clouting. Money is welcome in the dirtiest clout. I thought he slept ; and put My clouted brogues from off my feet, whose rudeness Answered my stejDS too loud. — Shakespeare : Cymbeline. Many sentences of one meaning, clouted ^-^ together. — Roger Ascham. Clouter, a cobbler, in the North of England, and midland counties of Scotland. Never find fault with my shoon, unless ye'll pay the clouter. Allan Ramsay s Scottish Proverbs. Clouterly, clumsily, in a cobbler's manner. Clump, to walk heavily and awkwardly ; whence clumsy. Cluneh, close-grained ; applied to stone or wood ; and meta- phorically to the temper or disposition. Clyte ; this useful word is employed to express the confusion of an orator, who for want of a word or an idea, suddenly stops in his speech, and sits down. When a bird of prey pounces down from the clouds upon a small bird, he is said to ' clyte' upon it ; and in like manner the lark, when it THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 6i Clyte — contin ued. suddenly ceases its song, and drops like a stone to the ground, ' clytes.' In the Dutch and Flemish languages, both of which have so many words in common with the English, kluyt, from whence the English 'clod,' signifies the greensward; and hence the word clyte may possibly be derived from the action of dropping or falling' from a height upon the clyte, clod, or grass. ' I couldna find words to finish my speech.' said a Glasgow Bailie, ' so I clyted.' In Allan Ramsay's poems the word is spelled doit. I fairly clotted, On the cauld eard. William Hamilton of Gilbertficld, to Allan Ramsay. In Grose's ' Provincial Glossary,' clyte is stated to be a Kentish word for clay or mire. Cljrtlie, the herb ' burdock,' or burr-thistle. Cockernonie, a gathering up of the hair of women, after a fashion similar to that of the modern ' chignon ' : — I saw my Meg come linkiii' ower the lea — I saw my Meg, but Meggie saw na me — Her cockernonie siioodcd up fu' sleek. Allan Ramsay. But I doubt the daughter's a silly thing : an unco cochernony she had busked on her head at the kirk last Sunday.— &(Jtt.- Old Mortality. Cod, a pillow, bag, or cushion. In Scottish phrase a ' down- cod,' signifies a pillow of down. Fair cod of silke, Chalk white as the milke. MS. , Lincoln : quoted ly Halliwell. Cod also signifies a bag or receptacle, as in the modern word, peas-cod, the bag in which the peas rest. Cog, 7/., to entice, to swindle, to lie, to cheat, to load dice, from the Gaelic caog, to wink, or give a sign to a confederate. Sweet adieu, Since you can cog, I'll play no more with you. Shaliesfeare : Lovers Labour's Lost. Lo, here good reader, another manifest example of the unlionest dealing and false cogging of those men. — Fox : Book of Martyrs. Quality ! as quality in fashion. Drinking, lying, cogging, &c. Eord : The Suns Darling. 62 LOST BEAUTIES OF Cog — continued. He heard there was a club of cheats. Who had contrived a thousand feats ; Could change the stock, or cog a dye. And thus deceive the sharpest eye. S-wift. When lazy queens have nought to do. But study how to cog and lie. To mage debate and mischief too, 'Twixt one another secretly. Robin Goodfellow ; Percys Reliques. Cog, or Cogie, a bowl or cup, also a basin, from the Gaelic cuach; used either for broth, ale, or stronger drink ; — I canna want my cogie, sir, I canna want my cogie; I winna want my three-gin-ed cog For a' the wives in Bogie. Duke of Gordon. Coil, a din ; a confusion. The word coil in Hamlet's soliloquy : When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, has not this meaning, but apparently refers to the bondage of life ; from coil, a twisted mass of rope. To see them about nothing, keeping such a coil. Sir John Sztckling. This bubble shall not henceforth trouble me. Here is a coil with protestation. Two Gentlevien of Verona. The wedding being there to-morrow, there is a great coil to-night. Much Ado about Nothing. Conne, or Can, to be able. Neither the infinitive nor tlie past participle of this verb seems to have been used since the days of Chaucer, who says, ' I shall not conne answer ;' and in the ' Romance of the Rose' has 'Thou shalt never conne knowen.' Couth, 1 kindly, graceful, familiar, affectionate, smooth, agree- CoutMe, / able. The common word M«couth expresses the absence of these qualities, with the addition of strano-e- ness. Couth originally meant ' known,' and uncouth ' un- known.' From uncouth comes the Scottish ' unco,' or very. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 63; Couth — continued. Couth, known, has gradually come to signify familiar, and therefore pleasant. My ain couthie dame. — Archibald Mackafs Ingle-side Lilts. Covine, a deceitful contrivance between two or more persons- to get the better of, or injure another j also, to contrive de- ceitfully. Coy, quiet. Tenes vous coi; j'appellerai ma mere. Keep it coy. — TJie Evergreen, by Allan Ramsay. Cozie, snug, warm, pleasant, more than comfortable. Craft, a trade, art, business, strength, whence handicraft, craftsman, and crafty. In Anglo-Saxon, crafty, signiSed skilfully made; astronomy was star-craft; surgery, leech- craft, and a ship skilfully put together was, and is still, called a good ' craft' ' Of all crafts^ says an ancient English proverb, ' an honest man is the master craft.' This aphorism recurs in fewer words in Allan Ramsay's Scottish proverbs : ' Honesty is the best craft f or, in more modem phrase, the best policy. ' Craft and cunning,' originally meant skill and ability. It speaks weU for the ^drtue of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, that they had so great a paucity of words to express the refine- ments of wickedness, and to depict the shady side of human nature. It is a pity, however, that increasing civilization has- not been able to coin words of its own, to convey the new meanings, that a more artificial state of society renders ne- cessary ; and that the sturdy old words are perverted from their original signification. Crambles, boughs and branches of trees, broken off by the wind. Crank, a twist, a turn, a bend ; whence the modem vulgarism ' cranky,' applied to one who has a twist in his intellect; also- a turn of words, as in Milton : Quips and cranks and wanton wiles. In Shakespeare's 'Venus and Adonis,' we have Cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles. 64 LOST BE A UTIES 01' Grants, from the German 'kranz;'' a wreath, a coronal of flowers. Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants. Shakespeare : Hamlet, act v. scene 2. Creel, from the French creil, a wicker or fish basket. The boatie rows, the boatie rows, The boatie rows fu' weel, And muckle luck attend the boat, The merlin and the creel. Scotch Song. Crine, ) to shrivel from heat, frost, or sickness, from the Crone, > Gaelic crion, small. This verb, with all its declen- Crnnken, j sions, has perished, and only survives in its diminu- tive, to crinkle. In this last form it is rather of the middle ages than of our own. See the ballad of the ' Boy and the Mantle ' in Percy's Reliques. Crink, a very small shrunken child. Crisple, a curl, a lovelock. Crone, an old woman, a witch. Worcester, in his Dictionary, derives this word from the Scottish 'croon' — 'the hollow muttering sound with which old witches uttered their incan- tations.' A possible derivation is from the old word crine, to shrink ; of which the preterite was crone, shrunken. If this derivation were correct, crone would mean a shrunken, withered old woman. Crony, a comrade, a dear friend, a boon companion. This Scottish word seems to have been introduced to English notice by James I. It was used by Swift and other writers of his period, and was admitted into Johnson's Dictionary. To oblige your crony Swift, Bring our dame a New-Year's gift. Swift. And at his elbow Souter Johnny, His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony. Burns : Tarn o' Shanter. Croodle, to creep close ; the diminutive of crowd, or cruth, a fiddle, and signifying the low faint music of birds, as well as the humming of a tune. In Scotland ' a croodlin doo,' or dove, is a term of peculiar endearment to a timid child. There's ae thing keeps my heart right, Whate'er the world may do, A wee thing, mine ain thing, Wi' e'en of sparklincj blue ; THE ENGUSH LANGUAGE. 65 Croodle — continued. A wee thing, mine ain tiling, A pledge 0' love most true, A bonnie, bonnie, bonnie, bonnie Wee crooiUin doo. — Old Song. Far ben thy dark green plantin' shade. The cushat croodles amorously. — Tannahill. Crooken, to crook, to bend. Knightes crooken him to. — Piers Ploughman. Crool, defined in Phillips' 'World of Words,' 1678, as an old word, meaning to mutter. Croon, to hum over a time to one's self; to try, or prelude a melody. The sistci's gray, before this day, Did croon within their cloister. — Allan Ramsay: The Evergreen. Whiles holding fast his guid blue bonnet. Whiles irrOT«!«^- o'er some auld Scots sonnet. — Burns: Tamo' Shanter. Wi' hand on hainch and upward ee He iT« as well as of our current literature, is to ignore the Durst , J preterite and the past participle of this word, and to write and say dare where durst or dared would be more correct. There is also a tendency to omit the s in the third person singular of the present tense. The following are examples of each inaccuracy : — Neither her maidens nor the priest dare speak to her for half an hour (durst speak to her, &c. ) — Rev. Charles ICingsley .- Hereward the Wake. The Government dare (durst) not consent to the meeting held. .... No one can feel anything but contempt for a Government which meanly attempts to gain a cheap reputation for firmness by fulminations- which it dare (dares) not can-y out ; and by prohibiting meetings which it dare (dares) not prevent. — Morning Star, on the Hyde Park Riots, 1866. The devils of passion and wounded pride were 'stmgglmg within her, and she dare (durst) not trust herself to open her lips. Cast Away, All the Year Round, August 12, 1871. There is no reason why this verb should be deprived of its declensions, and no careful writer ought to fall into the errors just cited. Darg. Upon the principle that one word which expresses a meaning not otherwise to be conveyed except in two or more, darg, a day's work, ought to be reinstated in the language with all the honour to which it is entitled. The most recent dictionaries pass it over, and both Dr. Trench and Dean Hoare in their interesting treatises upon ancient EngHsh Words, omit all mention of it. Worcester's Dictionary (i860), cites and mis-spells the word, as dargue, and describes it, on the authority of the ' Farmer's Encyclopaedia,' to mean the quantity of peat one man can cut, and two can wheel in one day ; but the true meaning is a day's work, whether at peat-cutting or any other occupation. Mr. HalHwell gives the Cumberland pronunciation of the word as darrack. ' I'll do my darg before I arg,' (i.e., argue), is a proverb current in the eastern counties, and one much to be commended. Another well known on both sides of the Border, tells us truly ' that the man never did a good darg who went grum- THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 69 Darg — continued. bling about it ;' while a third says. ' You will spoil the darg, if you stop the plough to slay a mouse.' Luath, the poor man's dog in Burns' poem, tells his friend Caesar, that his master has himself, his wife, and a ' smytrie o' wee duddie weans,' (i.e., a host of little ragged children,) to keep out of nothing but his ' hand-i/arj-,' or the day's work of his hands. And the Auld Farmer in his New Year's salutation to his auld mare Maggie, says to her : Mony a sair darg we twa hae wrought, An' wi' the weary world fought. Dash., a knot, a bow in a ribbon; whence chin-bow-dash, a cravat under the chin ; and berdash, or beard-dash, the knot or cravat tied under the beard. Dashing, in the sense of gay and lively, and adorned with finery, is perhaps from the ■ same root ; ' a dashing girl ;' ' a dashing white sergeant.' Daiznch., fastidious, dainty, overnice, squeamish. Daunt, 1 to subdue, tame, or terrify ; hence the ancient word Daunton, J ' horse-daunter,' a man whose business it was to break or tame horses. And though his subtile wittes, He daimted down. — Piers Ploughman. To daunt thy heart. — Chaucer : Romance of the Rose. If a man will not daunt sensualitie when he may, therefore is he ■worthy to have shame. — Chaucer : The Purser's Tale. Dauntless, and undaunted, derived from this root, are used by the best writers and speakers. In Scotland the verb is current under the form of daunton : To daunton me, to daunton me, And me King James's eldest son. — yacobite Ballad. Daw-cock, a Jackdaw. Dawks, a woman who wears very fine clothes, but puts them on slovenly, so that they do not become her. Dave, to thaw. Daver, to droop. Daysmath, a day's mowing. Daize, ) to stupefy, whence dazzle, or blind the eyes with lize, ) lise, J Daise, J excess of light ; to benumb, to congeal with cold. ja L OST BE A UTIES OF Baze — continued. For in good faith thy visage is full pale, Thine eyes dasen, soothly as me thinketh. Chancer : The Manciples Prologiie. My daisit held, I raised up half in one lethargie. — Police of Honour. Gin he likes drink 'twad alter soon the case, It son wad gar his love to me turn cauld, And mak him dazed koA doited ere half auld. — Shirref. Deal, ) from the German theil, a portion. ' A great deal ' is Dealth, / still a common phrase. The opposite, ' a small deal,' has dropped out of use. All the gi'ound that they had, a man might have bought with a small deal of money. — Roger Aschani, qtioted by Nares. Where Fortune has bestowed her largest dealth. — Nares. Dearworth, precious. — Chaucer. Deave, to deafen, stun, or perplex one with much noise. The jargon of the jangling jays, The croaking craws and kackling kayes, They deaved me with their din. — The Cherry and the Sloe, Ijgo, Last May a braw wooer came down the lang glen. And sair wi' his love he did deave me. — Burns. She has an ee, she has but ane. The cat has twa the very colour. Five rusty teeth, forbye a stump, A clapper tongue wad deave a miller. Burns : Sic a Wife as Willie had. If mair they deave lis with their din, Or patronage intrusion. — Bums: The Ordination. A north country proverb says : ' I wiU not be deaved with your cackling for all your eggs.' Deem, '\ to judge. This word, which now signifies 'to Doom, V think ' rather than ' to judge,' and which has lost its Deemed, j old preterite doom, formerly implied the delivery of a doom, sentence, or judgment. Chaucer calls a judge a doomsman ; and in the Isle of Man the judge is still called the dempstej- or deemsta: The day of doom is the day of judgment. Chaucer does not use the old preterite doom, which seems to have perished before his time ; but in the ' Franklein's Prologue' uses the substantive doom in the sense of an opinion or a private judgment : — As to my doom, there is more that is here Of eloquence that shall be thy peer. If that thou live. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 71 Deem — continued. Out of the lost preterite the English writers of three centuries ago formed a new verb, to doom, with a regular preterite, doomed — a word which does not merely signify to pass judg- ment upon, but to pass a severe sentence. Deft, dexterous, neat, clever, handy. He said I were a deft lass. — Brown's Norihcm Lass. A laughter never left, Shook all the blessed deities, to see the lame so deft. At that cup service. — Chapnan's Homer. A clear nymph Comes deftly dancing. — Drayton's PolyolMon. They dance deftly, and sing sweet. Sfenser : Shepherd's Calendar. Deftster,. one who is deft, a proficient in his art or craft ; cor- rupted into dabster. Delightsome, delightful. Then deck them with thy loose delightsome breath, And on thy wings bring delicate perfumes. — Peele. Laughed delighisomely. — Chapman' s Homer. Delve, \ to dig, to bury. This word is still in common use Delve, > among the peasantry ; but the preterite and the past Dolven, J participle have long since disappeared. When Adam delved, and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman ? was a distich popular during Wat Tyler's rebellion, and written by John Ball, the priest, hanged and beheaded at St. Albans. In the ' Romance of Merlin,' we find the past participle dolven. All quick he should dolven be. Piers Ploughman has, ' They dolven with spades and shovels to drive away hunger.' Keats, in more modern times, employs delved : — Oh for a draught of vintage that hath been Cooled a long age in the deep delved earth ! If he had said ' deep dolven' instead of ' deep delved^ he would have had high authority, and would have greatly improved the stately march and music of his verse. 72 LOST BEAUTIES OF Dene, ) a woody valley of small extent ; such as Deepdene, Den, j near Dorking ; Hawthornden, near Edinburgh, the seat of the poet Drummond ; ' the dowie dens of Yarrow ;' and many other places of less note. Dere, to injure. Shall never devil him dere. — Piers Ploughman. No dint shall him dere. — Ibid. May no death him dere.-^-Ibid. Derne, \ secret, Dernely, / secretly. Her eggs fall derne. In mareys and moores. — Piers Ploughman. Derne, eager, earnest, sharp. By many a derne and painful perch. — Pericles. By derne love of the dear loving lord. — Spiritual Sonnets, 1595. Dew-cup, ) the morning allowance of beer to harvest Dew-drink, J labourers. Dight, to prepare, dress, get ready. The word seems to have been without change for the preterite and past participle. The lady looked out of her pavilion, And saw him dight the venison. Metrical Romance : The Life of Ifomydon. The lady lay in a high tovi'er, And saw between them all the stour ; But she -wist na which for her did fight, For they in like weed were dight. — Ibid. Soon was the lady dight In arms, as if it were a knight, He gave her spear and shield. Metrical Pomance of Sir Isumbras. Then forth the stranger knight he came, In his black annour dight ; The lady sighed a gentle sigh, That this were my true knight ! Sir Caulyne : Percy's Reliques. Come, Colin, dight your cheeks and banish care ; Our lady's happy. — Allan Ramsay; On the Death of the Coun- tess of Wigton. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 73 Dight — continued. The clouds in tlioiisand liveries dight. — Milton's V Allegro. Dight your bonny mou ! — Burns. Let me rax (reach) up to dight that tear, And go wi' me and be my dear. — Burns : The yolly Beggars. Dill, the aromatic plant, Andhum gradeolens. Dill-water, an anodyne. Dim men, to grow dark or dim. Di^Sg, } *^ ^^^^S^*- Dimpse, the dimming of the dayhght. Ding, ^ to strike hard, to beat down. — The infinitive and Dang, (present tense of this verb are still colloquially current, Dong, t but the preterite and past participle are obsolete, or Dung, ) only survive in the nursery phrase, ' Ding, dong, bell.' In Scotland the verb and all its inflections survive. Burns, in his immortal and often-quoted line, says, ' Facts are chiels that winna ding.' Sir Alexander Boswell has a song entitled ' Jenny dan^ the Weaver,' which expression was translated by an English critic into the very prosaic form of ' Jenny vanquished the manufacturer.' The past participle occurs in the familiar proverbs quoted by Allan Ramsay, 'It's a sair dung bairn that manna greet,' and 'He's sairest paid that's dung wi' his ain wand.' The modern English preterite dinged is still occasionally heard in conversation, though lost to literature, as in such phrases : ' Horace ? Yes ; he was dinged into me at school ;' and colloquially, ' Why do you keep dinging that old story into my ears ?' The word constantly occurs in serious poetry up to the time of Shake- speare and Ben Jonson. Do-well shall dyngen him down, And destroyen his mighte. — Piers Ploughman. The hellish prince, grim Pluto with his mace, ding down my soul to hell \—The Battle of Alcazar. That wolde defend me the doore, Dyng I never so late. — Piers Ploughman. His head he struck, his hands he wrang, And each hand on another dang. — Romance of Sir Eger, Sir Crahame, and Sir Gray Steel. 74 LOST BEAUTIES OF Ding — continued. This stone wall I shall down ding. MS. Cantah., quoted iy Halliwell. Now let us sing our cares to ding. And make a gladsome sound. Advice to be Liberal and Blythe ; The Evergreen, edited by Allan Ramsay. In Shropshire, as well as in the north, according to Mr. Halliwell, ' dung' is a word still current, meaning beaten, or overcome. Dung is a common word among the English working classes, to signify a man who consents to work for a master when his fellows are out on strike ; he is one who is dung, i.e., subdued, beaten down, or conquered by his employer. ' Dang it. Bill, don't say so,' is, according to Mr. Stern- berg, a contraction of ' God hang it;' but is more probably derived from ' ding it,' i.e., knock it down. The goat gives a good milking, but dings it down with her feet. Ramsay s Scottish Proverb. Let one devil ding ^■aa'Casx. — Northern Proverb. Eut alas ! my ain wand dings me now. Ballad of the Marchioness of Douglas. The carline she was stark and sture, She off the hinges dang the door. Ballad of Cosfatrick, MothetwelPs Collection. Dingtlirift, a prodigal; i.e., a person who dings or strikes at and beats'down the thrift, or savings of his ancestors. Dirl, to vibrate and shake from the effects of a heavy blow, or of a loud noise. In Yorkshire, according to Mr. Halli- well, dirl means to move briskly ; and a dirler is an active person. In Scottish poetry the word is highly expressive. Thus, in ' Death and Dr. Hornbook,' when Death complains that he threw a dart that ought to have killed a man, and with less than which he had slain hundreds, Hornbook had so fortified the part, that the arrow-point played dirl upon the bone, and was so blunt afterwards that he could not have pierced a cabbage-stalk with it. THE ENGLISH LANG UA GE. 75 Dirl — contintied. And in ' Tam o' Shanter' the devil plays the bag-pipes so loudly that ' the roof and rafters a' did dirl.' The raptures dirl through every part. John Staggs : The Blind Bard of Ctmilerland. Dither, to shake, to tremble. Dodder, to tremble in the wind, to nod and shake, as in palsy or decrepitude. Rocked by the blast and cabined in the storm, The sailor hugs them to tlie doddering mast. Of shipwreck negligence, while thou art kind. Thompson's Seasons. There vexit, perplexit, I leant me down to weep, In brief there, with grief there, I doddered osnxt in sleep. — Allan Ramsay : TJie Vision. Dodder-grass, quaking grass, that trembles in the wind. Dodderil, \ a very old tree, or a very old man j one who Dotteril, J shakes to every storm. Doflf, do off. Zl^that lion's hide, And hang a calf' s-skin on thy recreant limbs. — Shakespeare. Doit, to Stupefy. Doited, Stupid. Tliou (drink) clears the head o' doited lea.r. — Burns: Scotch Diink, Dole, preterite of deal. He dole it out. Dole, a lot, a portion ; fortune (good or ill.) Happy man be his dole ! Doly, mournful, melancholy, doleful. Don, to do on. Dorty, conceited, proud, stubborn, ill-tempered. Douoe, of a gentle or courteous disposition ; from the French doux, sweet : Ye daintie deacons and ye douce conveners. — Burns : The Brigs of Ayr. Dour, hard, bitter, disagreeable, close-fisted, severe, stern : When biting Boreas, fell and dour. Sharp shivers thi-ough the leafless bower. — Burns: A Winter Night. 76 LOST BEAUTIES OF Dout, to do out, or extinguish. I have a speech of fire that faui would blaze, But that this folly douts it. — Shakespeare : Hamlet. Dout the glim : i.e., extinguish the light, nautical phrase. Douter, an extinguisher. He's douted, a vulgarism, for he is dead, done for, extin- guished. — Halliwell. Dow, to be able, to thrive ; doughf, was able. This verb is lost from English literature, but, like many others of its sturdy class, exists in the speech of the English peasantry, and in the speech as well as the literature of Scotland. By a strange neglect, or a stranger ignorance, the makers of dic- tionaries — from Blount and Phillips up to Richardson, Wor- cester, and Webster — have either omitted all mention of it, or erroneously considered it to be 'synonymous with, or an orthographical error for, the word ' do,' with which it has no connection. 'I do as well as I dow' — i.e., ' I do as well as I can ' — is a common phrase in the north ; and the super-eminently English but pleonastic inquiry, ' How do you do ?' which means ' How do you dow f — i.e., thrive, prosper, or get on — has come to be accepted as accurate English, though wholly a mistake of the learned. Even NareSj in his ' Glossary,' has no suspicion of this word, though Halliwell, more acute, gives one of its meanings, ' to thrive,' 'to mend in health ; and Mr. Thomas Wright, in his ' Provincial Dic- tionary,' follows in the same track as regards its use in Eng- lish literature, though he does not seem to be aware of its commonness in the literature of Scotland. William Hamilton, the Scottish poet, writes to his friend Allan Ramsay : Lang may'st thou live and thrive and dow ! And Burns says to Gavin Hamilton : When I downa joke a naig, The Lord be thankit, I can beg ! In his ' Epistle to King George III.,' in his eulogy of facts, Burns speaks of them as ' chiels that winna ding,' and adds, ' they downa be disputed.' Ross, in his ' Helenore,' has 'When he dow do nae mair,' — a phrase that shows the ■essential difference between the two words. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. -jf "Daw — continued. From this obsolete verb springs the adjective doughty, strong, able — a derivation which up to the present time seems to have escaped all the English lexicographers. Do as well as you dow; i.e., do as well as you can. — Cumberland Proverb. Downcome, a stroke of adversity, a fall ; a reverse of fortune. Dowff, dispirited, weary, dejected. Dowie, forlorn, weary, dejected, black-looking; from the Gaelic duibhe, blackness. Sore and long may their sorrow last, Bimiorie, oil Binnorie, That wrought them sic a dowie cast, By the bonnie mill dams o' Binnorie. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border^ Sir, I am standing here, she says, This dmme death to die ; One kiss o' your comelie mouth, I'm sure would comfort me. — Motherwell's Scottish Ballads. Stay at home, my lord, she said For that will breed much son-ow. For my true brethren will them slay. On the dowie dens o' Yarrow. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.. Drabble, dirty people, drabs, scullions. Rabble and drabble. One is said to drabble his clothes, who slobbers his vest or- other attire in eating. — -Jamiesoiis JDidionary. Dread, 1 to fear greatly. The modern preterite and past Drad, > participle dreaded has entirely superseded the Dradden, J ancient forms : But what I drad, did me, poor wretch, betide. Robert Greene: 1593. In haubeck Guy him clad, He drad no stroke while he it had. — Guy of fVarwic/i. Dree, to suffer, to endure. Another dule ye dree. — Percy's Reliques. Pride in a poor man's breast has muckle to dree. Notthem Proverb. 78 LOST BEAUTIES OF Droil, n. a drudge, drudgery; v. to drudge. Then I begin to rave at my star's bitterness, To see how many muckhills placed above me, Peasants and drolls. Beaumont and Fletcher. 'Tis I do all the droil, the dirty work. Shirley : Gentleman of Venice. Oh who would droil. Or delve in such a soil, Where gain's imcertain, and the pain no more ? Quarks' Emblems. Let such vile vassals, bom to base vocation, Drudge in the world and for their living dtoil. Which have no wit to live withouten toil. Spenser: Faerie Queetie. Left the dull and droiling carcase to plod on in the old road and drudg- ing trade of controversy. — Milton : Of Reform. Drouk, to soak, or wet. My drookit sark sleeve as ye ken. — Robert Burns. Drouth, thirst, or dryness. Drouthy, thirsty, or dry. Now noise prevails and he is taxed for drouth Of wit. Carew. So that I now began to think, Being drouthy on a little drinlc. — Hudihras Rcdivivus. Then comes the feverish fiend with fiery eyes, Whom drouth, convulsions, and death surround. Granger's Sugar Cane. The word is evidently derived from the same root as the modern dj-ought ; formerly, says Johnson, written drouth, and in still older time drythe. An old proverb says : Drink and drouth, do not always come together. Another proverb puts into English the Latin, ' In vino Veritas ' — ' He speaks in his drink, what he thought in his drouth;' while a third aphorism thinks it hard that a neigh- bour should ' speak of a man's drinking, without giving a thought about his drouth' THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 79 Drouthy — continued. When chapman billies leave the street And drouthy neighbours, neighbours meet. ****** And at his elbow souter John, His ancient, trusty, drouthy cronj'. — Bums: Tarn 0' Shanter. The blither for their drouth. — Shakesjieare : Pericles. That irritating, embarrassing Sunday trading question about which so many futile speeclies have been made, so many drouthy books written, and so many wearisome sermons preached. — Daily Telegraph, November loih, 1873, The writer seems to think 'drouthy' wholly synonymous with ' dry/ whereas it is but partially so. We may say a ' dr/ book, or that a man is ' dr}',' or ' thirsty ;' but we can- not say a thirsty book. Drowse, to slumber, or to be sleepy. ' The old man drowses by the fire.' The word survives in tlie adjective drotvsy, and the substantive drowsiness. All their shape, Spangled with eyes more numerous than those Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drowse. — Milton. There gentle sleep First found me, and mth soft oppression seized My drowsed sense. — Paradise Lost. Drossel, | Drazel I ^ du^ty girl or woman ; a draggle-tailed slut Drumly, a., from the Gaelic trom, heavy ; whence drumly water, or water heavy mth sand or earth. In the south- western shires of England droum signifies mud. In the north of England and in Scotland, this root is not found as a substantive, but the adjective druvdy, meaning thick or muddy, is common both in literature and conversation. drum'y German water, To make himself look fair and fatter. — Burns : Tlie Twa Dogs. Ve banks and braes and streams around The Castle o' Montgomery ; Green be your woods and fair your flowers. Your waters never drumly. — Burtts. This word is much wanted in English literature, and is far more poetical than either of its synonymes turbid or muddy. It is used with fine effect in the ballad of the ' Demon Lover,' communicated to Sir ^Valter Scotf s ' Min- strelsy of the Scottish Border,' by his friend and amanuensis, So LOST BEAUTIES OF Drumly — continued. William Laidlaw : The Demon's eye in his anger, no longer clear as before, grows dark : They had na sailed a league, a league, A league, but barely three. When dismal grew his countenance, And dnimlw grew his ee. No Other word in the language could so admirably convey the meaning. Allan Ramsay uses it with equal power and beauty in the following passage, descriptive of a time of plague : When blue diseases fill the dnimly air. Masqtie on the Nuptials of the Duke of Hamilton. Draw me some water out of this spring, Madam, it is all foul, it is all drumly, black, muddy ! French and Ejiglish Grammar, 1623. Oh, boatman, haste, put off your boat ! Put off your boat for golden money, I cross the drumlie stream to-night, Or never more I meet my honey. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. I heard once a lady in Edinburgh objecting to a preacher that she did not understand him. Another lady, his great admirer, insinuated that probably he was too deep for her to follow. But her ready answer was, ' Na, na ! — he's no just deep, but he's drumly.' — Dean Ramsay. Drumble, to go about anything in a confused and awkward manner, as if not understanding or heeding what is to be done.' What, John ! Robert ! John ! So take up tliese clothes here quicWy ! Where's lihe cowl staff? Look — how you drumble I Shakespeare : Merry Wives of Windsor. Drunk-wort, tobacco ; or the intoxicating herb. Drury, gallantry, courtship ; from the Gaelic druis, lust ; druisire, a fornicator ; and druth, a harlot. Dub, a puddle, a duck pond ; a dirty pool ; a common pro- vincial word in England and Scotland. The young men knew the country well, So soon where he would be. And they have ta'en another way, Was nearer by miles three ; They rudely ran witli all their might. Spared neither diib nor mire. Robin Hood and the Beggar. Gutch's Collection. Through dirt and dub for life I'll paddle. — Bums : The Inventory. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 8i Dub — continued. Gie me a spark o' Nature's fire, That's a' the learning I desire, Then though I drudge through duh and mire. At plough or cart, My muse though hamely in attire, May touch the heart. — Bums : Epistle to Lapraik. Standing diiis gather dirt. There never was a good town but there was a dub at the end of it. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs, Dud, a rag. ' Duddy, a little rag. Duds, old clothes. Duddle, to tatter. Duddy, ragged. Dudman, a rag man, or a man of rags; i.e., a scarecrow made of old garments, set up in a garden or field to scare tlie birds. From this ancient English word, it is suggested by Nares in his ' Glossary,' that the name of the Duddery was formerly given to one of the booths in Stourbridge Fair near Cam- bridge, where old clothes were sold, as mentioned in Defoe's 'Tour of Great Britain.' In the ' Newest Academy of Compli- ments ' occurs the passage : Come off with your dads, and so pack away. And likewise your ribbons, your gloves, and your hair. For naked you came, and out you go bare. Johnson recognizes the word dud signifying clothes as used in the west of England, but neither it, nor any of its deri- vations have found a place in Richardson. In Webster, dud is said to be a vulgar word, signifying an old garment. But if Webster had studied Scottish poetry from the days of James I., a contemporary of Chaucer, to those of Burns, he might have found reason to qualify his verdict as to its vulgarity ; and to admit its vigour and usefulness. In the joyous ballad : ' We'll gang nae mair a roving,' attributed to the Royal author of the ' King's Quair,' the stanza descrip- tive of the action, by which the king, after his successful wooing of the farmer's daughter, throws off his disguise, introduces the word with much effect : 6 82 LOST BE A UTIES OF Dudman — continued. Then he took out his little knife, Let a' his duddies fa' And he was the bra west gentlemen That stood among them a'. And in ' Tarn o' Shanter,' the witches in Alloway Kirk, in order to dance with the less restraint, cast off ' their duddies to the wark.' Dule, 1 grief, sorrow, lamentation. This word, supposed by Doole, / a writer in Knight's ' Political Dictionary,' to be de- rived from the Greek doulos, a slave, but more probably from the Gaelic dolas or the French deuil, grief or mourning, has been to a great extent superseded by its synonyme dole, derived directly from the Latin ; but is still current in this form in the English border counties and in Scotland : but ' dule ' is worthy of revival, if it were only to avoid identity of orthography, with a word of totally different origin and mean- ing; meaning a lot, share, division, or portion. Chaucer writes the word ' dole,' but the Earl of Surrey in his trans- lation of ' Virgil,' and Spenser in the ' Faerie Queene,' have doole and dookfiil. Time of thy doole, thy spouse now dead, I grant, None might thee move. — Surrey. Now twenty days (by which the sons of men Divide their works) have past through heaven sheen, Since I was brought into this dooleful den. — Spenser. In its forms of dulsome, dulesome, and dolesome, the word is current in most parts of England. Dumble, very stupid. Dump, to throw down a heavy weight. To unload, to shoot rubbish. Dumpmg-grotiiid, a place where rubbish may be shot or ' dumped.' This phrase is common in America. As one in doleful dumps. — Satile of Chevy Chase. Mr. Fearing the pilgrim was dumpish at the House Beautiful. Pilgrim's Progi-ess. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 83 Dnnt, a hard blow. Let now stand dmit for dunt. — Metrical Romance of Sir Otuel. I have a wife o' my ain ; I'll take duHts frae naebody. — Bums. Why draw the dagger when a dunt will do the business ? Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Dunt, preterite of dint, to deal so strong a blow as to leave an impression on the thing struck, whence dint and dunt, a deep mark. Dwale, the Deadly Nightshade ; a sleeping potion. In her- aldry, a black colour. For well I know by thy tale, That thou, hast dronken of the dwale. — Gmoer: MS. Sor. Antiq. ' Arise !' quoth she, ' what have you drunken dzaale ? Why sleep you ?' — Chaucer : The Court of Lave. Needeth hira no dwale. This miller hath so wisely bibbed ale. That as an horse he snorteth in his sleep. Chaucer : The Rieve's Tale. ' He's in a dwale,' a dead sleep ; a common expression in the north of England. Dwine, to pine, or waste away slowly j from whence the diminutive, dwindle. Dethe on me hath sette his mark, As grass in meadows I dry and dwine. MS. Cantab., quoted by Halliwell. Thus dwineth he till he be dead. In minding of his own estate. — Gower : MS. Soc. Antiq. AH woxen was her body unveiled, And dry and dwined all for eild . — Chaucer : Romance of the Rose. Kindly he'd laugh when thus he saw me dwine. And talk of happiness like a divine. Allan Ramsay : On the Death of Addison. Bacchus hates repining, Venus loves nae dwining. — The Toast, Allan Ramsay. In Kent a weakly child is called a dwine or a dwindle. 6—2 84 L OST BE A UTIES OF Bar, to plough, to cultivate, from the Sanscrit and GaeHcar/ whence Ear-eth, the Earth, that which can be ploughed. And never after ear so barren a land. Shakespeare : Dedication to Venus and Adonis. Ear-fest, harvest, the festival of gathering the crops. Earth-fast, ) firm in the earth, and difficult to be removed ; of Xird-fast, j the same derivation as steadfast, fast in stead, or place, and metaphorically, to a purpose. Thus a tree that rocks to and fro in the wind, is not so much steadfast, as earth-fast ; and a rock, or stone in the river, as in the fol- lowing example, is properly called earth-fast: — About the middle o' Clyde water, There was a _y;Vrf-/aj/ Stan e. . Ballad of Burd Helen. The Scotch have also the phrase bedfast, instead, of the English bed-ridden. Earth-tilth, agriculture. Eath, ) Eith, r^^y- When ease abounds it's eath to do amiss. Spenser : Faerie Qucc7te. Uneath may she endure the flinty streets. Shakespeare: King Henij VI. The Miller sat unethes (uneasily) upon his horse. Chaucer i The Knighfs Talc. Who thinks him most secure is eathesl shamed. Fairfax: Tasso. A scald head is eath to bleed. An unlucky man's cart is eath tumbled. It's eath keeping a castle that's no besieged. Eath earned, soon forgotten. It's eath finding a stick to beat a dog. Allan Ramsafs Scottish Proverbs. Eerie, gloomy, wearisome, fall of fear. In mirkest glen at midnight hour I'd rove and ne'er be eerie, O ; If through that glen I gaed to thee, My ain kind dearie, O. — Burns. It was an eerie walk through the still chestnut woods at that still hour of the night. — T. A. Trollope: The Dream Numbers. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Ss Eft, again, quick, soon. And in three days after, Edifie it eft anew. — Piers Ploughman. Yea marry that's the cftesi way. Shakespeare : Much Ado about Nothing. UiPtsoons, soon, presently, by-and-bye. Hold off ! Unhand me, grayhead loon, Eftsoons his hand dropped he. Coleridge. Sgg, to instigate, incite, provoke to action. It is now thought a vulgarism to say ' that a man was egged on to do any- thing ;' but the word is pure Anglo-Saxon, from eggian, to excite, and of the same family as eager. Through egging of his wife. Chaucer : The Merchants Tale, Mother, quod she, and maiden bright Marie, Sooth is it that through woman's eggement, Chaucer: The Man of Lawis Tale. They that egge a consente to the sinne, bin partners of the sinne, and of the damnation of the sinner. Chaucer : The Parson's Tale. Whom ardour of inclination eggs forward and carrieth throiigh every obstacle. — Denham. Adam and Eve he egged to do ill. IHtrs Ploughman. Eke, V. to increase, augment, or add to. Eke, n. an augmentation, an increase. This word has gradually lost its original meaning. Spenser uses it in its ancient sense, when he says in the ' Shepherd's Calendar' : Then ekes his speed and faces it again. But Shakespeare mostly uses it with the addition of the particle ' out,' to eke out, to lengthen, to protract, to make the most of existing materials, rather than to add anything to them. In its almost obsolete form of ' eke^ also — A train band captain eke was he — / its derivation from the Teutonic, auch, is apparent. ^The substantive an eke still exists in common parianee-itr Scot- land : and signifies the last tumbler of whiskey toddy, made after all the guests have had sufficient ; the parting cup, be- S6 LOST BEAUTIES OF Eke — continued. fore retiring to rest. ' I hate intemperance,' said a worthy magistrate and distiller; ' what I like to see, is the douce honest man, takin' his aucht (eight) tumblers and an elie every night, in the bosom of his family ; but intemperance is my abomination.' Eld, ) old age. This word survives in poetical composition, Eild, / but is banished from the bar, the pulpit, and the senate. Well you know, The supersfitious, idle-headed Eld, Received and did deliver to our age, This tale of Heme the Hunter, for a truth. Shakespeare : Mcrty Wives of Windsor. Childless eld. — Milton. Rule youth well, Eild will rule itsell. Better eat gi-ay bread in youth than in eild. We can tell your eild by the wmnldes (wrinkles) of your honi. Youth and eild never sowder well (solder well) together. Allan Ramsay s Scottish Proverds. Elden, to grow old, to advance in years. The good wife is eldening, poor body. — Gait, Eldfather, grandfather, ancestor. That after his good eldfather was called Robert. Barbour ; quoted in Jamieso7i^s Dictionary. Our king — Dawy by name — was eldfather to King William. Wyntoun. Eldmother, grandmother, ancestress. Eldritch, haunted by evil spirits, unearthly, ghastly, horrible. On the eldrich hill there grows a thorn. Sir Carline : Percy's Rcliqucs. The witches follow, Wi' many an eldritch screech and hollow. Burns: Tain o' Shantcr. I've heard my reverend grannie say, In lonely glens ye like to stray. Or where auld ruined castles gi-ay Nod to the moon. Ye fright the nightly wand'rer's way Wi' eldritch croon. Bums ; Address to the Deil. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 87 Elf, to twist and entangle the hair. It was supposed to be a spiteful amusement of Queen Mab and her subjects [the Elves] to twist the hair of human creatures, or tie the manes and tails of horses into hard knots, which it was not fortunate to un- tangle. — Nans. . M7 face I'll grime with filth, Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots. Shakespeare : King Lear. Elf-locks, tangled hair. This is that vei-y Mab, That plats the manes of horses in the night. And cakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs. Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet. Elmen, made of elm ; as an ' elmen coffin,' an ' elmen grove.' Embrangle, to perplex. Embranglement, perplexity. Evenhood, equality. _ ' > from the German Oheim, an uncle. Think on thine eme. King Arthur, Knight that is of most valour. Metrical Romance of Merlin, part ii. In good faith, Eme, quoth she, that liketh me. Chaucer: Troilus and Cressida. While they were young, Cassibelan their eme. Was by the people chosen in their stead. Spenser : Faerie Quecne. Mony aunts, mony eems, Mony kin, few friends. Ramsay's Scottish Proveris. Etayne, | Etyn, V a giant. Ejnttyn, j ' The most common word for a giant in the Eddas,' says Mr. G. W. Dasent, in the Introduction to his ' Norse Tales,' (London, 1859), 'was Jotunn,' (Anglo-Saxon, Eoten,) 'which strange to say, survives in the Scotch etin.' But etin is not Scotch only, but ancient English. 88 LOST BEAUTIES OF Etayne — continued. Fy ! he said, thou foule ! thou Etayne ! AUe my knightes thou gart be slaine. MS., Lincoln, quoted by Halliwell. An Etyn in a fight. — Sir Tristram. They say the King of Portugal cannot sit at his meat, but the giants and Elyns will come and snatch it from him. Beaumont and Fletcher : Burning Pestle. In 'Hynde Etyn; or the Gentle Giant,' in Kinloch's 'Ancient 'Scottish Ballads,' May Margaret goes to the Mul- berry Woods, and has an adventure. She had na pu'd a nut, a nut, A nut but barely ane ; When up started the Hynde Etyn, Says, ' lady, let these alane. ' The Etyn threatens her life, but afterwards marries her, and carries her away, and some years afterwards when hunt- ing with his eldest son, the latter asks why his mother's cheeks are so often wet, and so seldom dry ; and the Etyn replies : Na wonder, na wonder, my eldest son, Tliat slie should brast and die ; For your mother was an earl's daughter, Of noble birth and fame. And now she's wife o' Hynde Etyn, Wlia' ne'er got Christen name. Ettle, to try, to attempt, to endeavour ; to fence. I looked the traitor in tire face. Drew out my brand and ettled at him. Lochmaben Gate, yacobite-Ballad. Everly, constantly, continually. Evil-will, malevolence. Evil-willing, malevolent. Eyrie, an eagle's nest — from the Gaelic eirigh, to rise. The eagle and the stork On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build. — Milton. 'Tis the fire-shower of ruin all dreadfully driven From his eyrie that beacons the darkness of heaven. Campbell: LochieFs Warning. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 89 Paa, ) a gipsy. Faa, Fa, or Fae, supposed to be derived from i'ae, J Fata (Fate), but more probably from the Gaelic faidk (a prophet or fortune-teller), was long the patronymic of the Gipsy chiefs in England, calling themselves, or called by others. Kings of the Gipsies. 'Johnnie Faa, or the Gipsy Laddie,' is the title of a well-known ballad which describes the elopement of a Countess of Cassilis, with the Gipsy King. In the reign of James I., of Scotland, there came one Faa or Fae, a gipsy, into his dominions, who called him- self Duke of Italy, and is supposed to be the hero of the adventure. Pae-gang, a gang of gipsies. Padgej to fit, to suit, to be agreeable to. If xK-iSfadge not. — Shakespeare: Lav^s Lahoui^s Lost. This word is still in common use, and finds a place in the ' Slang Dictionary,' where it ought not to be. Paith-fast, true to one's faith or pledge. Pali, autumn. This word is not only common, but almost universal in America ; and ought to be re-adopted in Eng- land. The names of the other three seasons are pure Sa:!don ; and either ' Fall,' the fall of the leaf, or ' Harvest,' a word much used by the English peasantry, should be admitted to synonymity with the foreign word, which has taken too strong a hold of the language to be entirely superseded. A honey tongne, a heart of gall Is Fancy's Spring, but Sorrow's Fall. — Sir W. Raleigh. What crowds of patients the town doctor kills, Or how last Fall, he raised the weekly bills. — Dryden. Pang, 1 to seize, to lay hold of. Most people remember the Pong, > old law phrase, ' infang thief and outfang thief,' the Pung, ) one signifying a thief taken within the jurisdiction of a feudal lord, and the other a thief taken without his jurisdic- tion. This is the only remnant of this verb that has come down to our time except the substantive /a^^, the large tooth of a beast of prey or of a serpent; the diminutive ^«!^/i?, to take hold of a new.fancy or fashion ; and the common phrase new-fangled: I ■nal&.fang a farthing (I would not take a farthing). Vision of Piers Ploughman. HefoHg his foeman by the flank, And flang him on the floor. — B'uchan's Northetn Ballads. 90 LOST BEA UTIES OF I'angle, a toy, trifle, or other article, laid hold of by the fashion, whence ntv-fangled, or newly fashioned, or laid hold of. The synne God hateth that on him hangeth, And Goddes hatred hell it fangeth. MS. Ilarleian, quoted by Halliwell. What fairies haunt this ground ? A Book ? Oh, rare one ! Be not as is onrfangled world, a garment, Nobler than that it covers. — Shakespeare: Cymbiline. Pare, 1 to travel. This verb is not wholly obsolete, though its Foor, preterite is lost. It has come to signify to eat and drink Tore, \ as well as to travel, and also that which is eaten or P^e, drunk. It is doubtful whether our beautiful word Tared, J ' farewell ' means ' may you travel well through life,' or 'may you be well treated by -the world.' K^z.-^ -faring man is still a common expression. The preterite occurs several times in the ' Vision of Piers Ploughman.' Alexander fell into a fever therewith, so that \ie.fure wondrous ille. MS. Lincoln, quoted in IdalliweU. Her errand led her through the glen lo fare. — Ross's Helenorc. As o'er the moor they lightly foor, A burn was clear, a glen was green — Up the banks they eased their shanks. — Burns. Tarrand, from fare, to journey, to travel. Aid or auld far- rand, in Scottish and Border dialect signifies wise, sagacious, applied to one who travels in the old ruts of experience, or who stands in the ancient ways. The Scotch say of a very wary man that ' he's owre auld farran' to be fleyed wie bogles :' i.e., too knowing to be frightened by ghosts. In Robert de Brunne's ' Chronicles of England,' written in the fourteenth century, we find the phrase, ' fftWfarrand;' in the sense of suitable or becoming, applied to the dress of Rowena, on her first interview with Voriigern : Before the king in hall she went, A cup with wine she had in hand. And her attire was well-farrand. Ill-farrand, means unsuitable, or out of fashion, and far- rantly, signifies orderly, neat, comely, respectable. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 91 Parrand — continued. In Northamptonshire, according to Sternberg's ' Glossary/ 'a farrantly body,' means a respectable man. The word when applied to animals, means, that they are strong, and shapely, and fit for labour. rarthel, the fourth part of anything. Mr. Halliwell has- ^farrel, the fourth part of a circular oat cake, the division being made by a cross.' From the same root comes farthing ; the fourth part of a penny. Fastles, 1 r ^ • Passels, I fastenmgs. Feather-heeled, nimble, agile, sprightly ; (apparently derived from the statue of Mercury, with feathers or wings at his- heels). Featly, dexterous. Feok, ■) power, activity. Feekful, > powerful. Feckless, J powerless. Worcester in his Dictionary, makes no mention of ' feck,'' a common word in Yorkshire, the Border Counties, and Scotland, for power and activity, but inserts the adjective feckless, which he erroneously supposes to be a corruption of ' eifectless.' For as we see a mischief grow Oft of Ti feckless thing. — Montgomery : The Cheriy and the Sloe. They are mair fascliious nor oifeck. — Cherry and Sloe. Mony s. feckful ciae\ that day was slain. — Wallace. Breathless 2iaA. feckless \hett she sits her down. — Ross' s Helcnore^ Feckless fouk are aye fain of ane another. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Provcris, Felth, the power of feeling in the fingers. Thus ' a blind man has greater felth than one who can see.' ' The tailor's, finger would lose its felth but for his thimble.' Fend, to strive, to struggle, to fight for. God bless him i\iat fends for his living, And holds up his head through it a'. Waugh's Lancashire SongSr 92 L OST BE A UTIES OF J'ettle, to arrange, mend, prepare, put in order. This word is common throughout the northern English and Scottish Border counties. Its derivation from feat, a deed, job, per- ; formance, or arrangement, seems to have escaped notice. '' I'll fettle it,' a common expression in Lancashire, mean- ing ' I will make a good job, ox feat of it. V^e'W fettle up ourselves. — Ctmibcrland Ballads. ' Fettled ale,' ale warmed, spiced, and sugared. ' The dinner's iWfettM/ i.e., badly cooked or prepared ; •* JFettle the horse and cart,' &c. When tlie sheriff saw little John bend his bow, TUs fettled him to be gone. — Percy's Reliques. Thank me no thanking, nor proud me no proud, '^v.t fettle yovcc five joints 'gainst Thursday next, To go into Paris and Saint Peter's Church, Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. Shakespeare : Romeo and Jtiliet. When your master is most busy in company, come in .and pretend to fettle about the room. — Swift. I'erlie, v., to wonder, and when used as an adjective, wonder- ful, strange, or curious. I'erlis, n., a wonder, a miracle. Kferlie strife then fell between, As they went by the way. — MS. Trin. Col. Cam. On Malvern Hills, Me befel aferly. — Piers Ploughman. Poor Fay ! he said Tiferlie case, Either I am of wine drunk, Either the firmament is sunk, Eitlier woxen is the ground. Metrical Romance of the Seven Wise Masters. The wheel -vtasferly rich and round, In world was never none half so high. — Morte Arthur. Alein the clerk that herd this melodie, He poketli John, and sayeth ' Slepest thou, Herdest thou ever slike a song ere now ?' * * _ * * « * Who harkened ever slike ^ferly thing ? Chaucer: The Per^s Talc. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 93 Perlie — continued. Light down, light down, now True Thomas, And lean your head upon my knee, Abide and rest a little space. And I will show yowferUes three. — Thomas of Ercildoune. Never make your insxv&s, ferly at you. The longer we live the raoieferlies we see. Allan Ramsafs Scottish Proverbs. Perne, afar. Perne-ago, very long ago. Pey, bewitched, fated to die, in the power of the fates, doomed. {See Paa.) ' We'll turn again,' said good Lord John, ' But no,' said Rothiemay, My steed's trapann'd, my bridle's broke, I fear this day V-cafey. — Ballad of the Fire of Frendranght. The Romayues for sadness ruschte to the erthe, * * * as they_/g/ wei-e. Morte Arthur : MS, Liiuoln, quoted by Halliwcll. Let the fate fall upon ihtfeyest. There is_/rj' blood in your veins. Take care of the man that God has marked, for he's y^ofey, Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Pibster, a teller of petty lies. Pire-flauglit, sudden sparks of fire. The fire-flaughts darting from his e'e. Richard Gall to Hector McNeill. Fire-flinger, an -incendiary. ITlancli, a projection in a building. Plang, preterite of fling ; very unnecessarily superseded by ' flung.' Plath, filth, dirt, ordure : {ffalliwell). The rhymes to ' wrath,' and ' path,' are few, and this might be admitted to increase the number. Plathers, rubbish. Platmts, finery, gew-gaws, ribbons. Plaueht, a flash of hghtning. The thunder crack'd ^-oAflauchts did rift, Frae the blade vizzard of the lift. — Allan Ramsay : The Vision. 94 LOST BEAUTIES OF Tlaun, a pancake. With green cheese, clouted cream, with Jlaiins and custards stor'd. Drayion. Tleck, to spot. i%f,5fi/ darkness. — Shakespeare: Romeo and'JuKet. 'We'll jffeei our white steeds in your christian blood. Eour Apprentices. !Eleer, to mock, to flirt, to sneer, to grin. And mark 'Cat fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns. Shakespeare. Democritus, thou ancienty?^;??-^?', How I miss thy laugh. — Beaumont and Fletcher. Tleme, a brook, a small river. The ^«OT« Jordan. — MS. Cantab., quoted by Halliwell. I^eme, to banish. Right forth thy Lord will thee reprove, Aa&fleme thee far out of his sight. Ritson's Ancient Songs, vol. i. , p. 78. Now help thou meek and blissful faire maid, Me flemed wretch in this desert of galle. Chaucer: The Second Nun's Tale. flemer of fiends, (Banisher of demons). The Man of Lawis Tale. Pley, to frighten, or alarm one person, or animal ; as distin- guished from ' scare,' to frighten a multitude ; though some- times used in the same sense as ' scare.' Tlinders, fragments, small pieces, splinters. The moon was clear, the day drew near, The spears \a flinders flew, And many a gallant Englishman, Ere day, the Scotsmen slew. The Battle of Otlerhourne. Tlirt, to move rapidly about from place to place, like a bee or a butterfly, from flower to flower, whence, metaphorically, a ' flirt,' a girl who wanders from admirer to admirer, or lover to lover, and cares for none. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 95 riit, to remove from one dwelling-place to another. From this source come flitter and flatter, applied to small creatures or objects that move rapidly. So sore it sticked when I was hit, That by no craft I might \tflit. Chancer: Romance of the Rose. Better rue sit, than ruey?;?; (i.e., better remain uncomfortable in an old house than become still more uncomfortable in a new one). Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. "Yvio flittings are as bad as a fire. Northumbrian Proverb. riite, to scold. Flitter, to fly like a fledgling. Mittermouse, ) , , Flutter mouse, J The bat has been called the winged, or flittering mouse ; and the owl, its enemy, the winged cat. Flosh, to spill, to splash. Flothery, showy, but vulgar ; overdressed, and in ill-taste. — Halliwell. Flouren, ) made of flour ; flouren cak&s, flouren bread ; in the Pluren, J same meaning as wheaten bread, or oaten cakes. Flunkey, a servant in livery; metaphorically applied to a person who abjectly flatters the great. — The word was un- known to Uterature until the time of Burns. Thackeray and Mr. Garlyle in our own day have made it classical English, although the most recent lexicographers have not admitted it or its Afma.'iwe.jflunkeyism, servility, to the honours of the dictionary. Our laird gets in his racked rents, * t % * He rises when he likes himsel', "HSs flunkeys answer to his bell. Burns : The Two, Dogs. PluTch, a great abundance ; ' there is a flurch of strawberries this year.' ' Flush of money,' seems to be a corruption of a 'flurch of money.' ^ 96 LOST BE A UTIES OF rittrn, to think little of, to disparage, used in a sense some- what less invidious than scorn or sneer. The word occurs in the preface to Fletcher's ' Poems,' as quoted by Nares, wherein he says of some of his earlier compo.sitions, 'The abortive birth slipped from my brain, which can carry neither worth nor weight in this pregnant age, so fraught and furnished with a variety of gallant pieces and performances of the choicest of writers ; give me leave Xaflurn at them, as the poor excrescences of nature,' &c. Neither the two great English lexicographers, Johnson and Richardson, nor I the two great Americans, Webster and Worcester, seem to have been cognizant of the word. Halliwell cites it as a Lincolnshire word, meaning to sneer at, or despise. Fluttersome, quick, agile, restless. Fogie, a dull, slow, old man, unable or unwilling to reconcile himself to the ideas and manners of the new generation. — The derivation of this word, which Thackeray did much to popularise in England, is uncertain, though it seems probable that it comes from 'foggy,' for a foggy, misty, hazy intellect, unable to see the things that are obvious to clearer minds. In the United States the word is generally applied to ultra-Conservatives in politics. In Gaelic fogair signifies an exile ; one who has been long absent from his country, and consequently unacquainted, on his return, with the newest fashions and modes of thought. In the same language fogi-ach is an outcast or vagabond. Ay, though we be 0\i fogies three, We're not so dulled as not to dine ; And not so old As to be cold To wit, to beauty, and to wine. All the Year Round. Poison, abundance. With loaves five and fishes two to feed, God sent \A%foison at the gi-eatest neede. Chaucer : The Man of Lawe's Tale. As blossoming time, That for the seedness the bare fallow brings. To teemmgfoison. — Shakespeare: Measure for Measure. All foison all abundance. To feed my innocent people. — Shaliesfcare : The Tempest. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. cfj Poison — CO ntinued. Earth's increase and _/&«»» plenty, Barns and garners never empty. The Blessing of Juno and Ceres, The Tempest. In Suffolk, says Mr. Halliwell, the word means, ' the natu- ral juice or moisture of grass or other herbs ; the heart and strength of it. Pond, ) to tempt, whence, probably, the adjective fond, Ponden, J tempting to enjoyment. And 'Ca&'o. fondeth the fiend. — Piers Ploughman. AaAfondede me to mete him. — Idem. Pool-happy, 1 imbecile, ) so great and hopeless as to Pool-liappmess, J imbecihty / be utterly unconscious of sorrow or pain. Poot-lock, now corrupted into fet-lock, the lock of hair be- hind the pastern joint of a horse's foot. Por. This syllable as a prefix to a verb, in the same manner as ver, in German, serves as an augmentative, or strengthen- ing of the meaning. In some instances, such as forbear, forbid, forget, forgive, and forsake, it gives the original verb an entirely new signification. The ancient preterite, lorn or or lost, with the prefix for becomes forlorn, or utterly and entirely lost ; as in the following stanza from the ballad of ' Lady Maisry :' Ye maun gie up your English lord, When your young babe is bom. For gin ye keep him an hour longer, Your life shall hs forlorn : that is, not that you shall live a forlorn life, but that your life shall be utterly lost. Poranent, right opposite to. Porbears, ancestors. Porecliosen, predestined. Pordeme, from ' deme,' to judge ; to judge beforehand ; and without evidence. Pordo, to ruin, to destroy; to exhaust. This is the night, That either makes me or fordoes me quite. Shakespeare : Othello. 7 98 LOST BEAUTIES OF Pordo — continued. Wilt thou not go further to see where thou hast left Thy father Anchisis, fordone with age ? Earl of Surrey. Now the hungi-y hon roars, And the wolf behowls the moon, While the heavy ploughman snores, All with weai-y \a^ fordone. Shakespeare : Midummer Night's Dream. Pordruilken, dead drunk. The miller 'CsxaX fordrunken was. Chaucer : The Knight's Tale. Porfend, to prohibit, forbid, ward off. Pore-elders, ancestors. Poreflgliter, a champion. This is almost the only word ap- plicable to battles, hosts, armies, and the miiitar}'' life and profession which remained in the Saxon-English language , for any length of time after the Norman conquest. Even the words ' war ' and ' peace ' are from the Norman French, and rapidly superseded the original Krieg and Friede. The words soldier, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major, colonel, general, are all from the Norman- French, and have utterly dispossessed the ancient names. Here, an army, was current as late only as the fourteenth century. Porewent, preterite of forego, to renounce. Writers and speakers still say, ' I forego the pleasure or the advantage ;' but will use a roundabout form of expres- sion rather than say, ' I iortwenl the pleasure,' &c. And why ? Forewent is as good a word as forego, and should not be allowed to perish. Porewit, anticipation. ", PorfoTighten, worn out in the struggle of life, exhausted in , battle. Porgab, to mock. For who so forgailed a frere, Yfounden at his stews. — Piei's Ploughman. Porgatlier, to meet, to encounter. I there wi' something &\&. forgather. -^Burits, Porgrown, covered and overgrown with vegetation. The path Forgrown was with grass and weed. — Chaucer. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 99 Forshruiiken, utterly shrunk up. Porspent, wearied, worn out. Fortrodden, utterly trodden down. Virtue is not only without meedes, but it is cast downe and eke fortrodckn under the feet. — Chaucer. Porswat, worn with the sweat of extreme toil. I'orswink, overtoil, to wear one self out with hard labour. Porswxmk, utterly worn out with swink, or hard labour. She is my goddess plain, And I her shepherd swain. AHhaiforswunk Siad/orsivat I am. — Sjienser: Shepherd's Calendar. forthright, straightforward, in the right direction j a straight path. Thtoxi^ forthright and meanders. Shakespeare : Tempest. If yoix give way, Or hedge aside from the dhect forthright. Shakespeare : Troilus and Cressida. Porwandred, utterly lost, and strayed out of the way. Porwasted, utterly wasted. Forwasted aM. their land. — Spenser: Faerie Queene. Porwearied, tired out. Some of his diet do from him withdraw, For I find him to be too proudly fed. Give him more labor and with straiter law. That he with work may he porweai-ied. Spenser: Faei-ie Queene. Your king, whom labored spirits Fonsiearied in the action of swift speed. Craves harborage within your city walls. Shakespeare : King John, Poreword, a preface, or introduction to a book. The translator wishes to say that he has felt no hesitation in placing the foreword to the Edda also, with the afterword to Gylfi's Mocking. Preface to the Younger Edda, translated by G. W. Dasent, Stockholm, 1842. Forworn, worn out. Poulsome, from foul, unclean; corrupted into fulsome, dis- gusting. 7—2 100 LOST BEA UTIES OF Poutli, from full, and fuU-eth, plenty. I took Sifouih Of sweetest kisses from her glowing mouth. Allan Ramsay- The Gentle Shepherd. Let fouth of tears dreep like May dew. Allan Ramsay: Elegy on Maggy Johnston. He had a. fouth o' auld knick knackits, Rusty iron caps and jingling jackets. Burns : Elegy on Captain Grose, Foust, stale dirt, whence /w/j. Franch, to crunch with the teeth. IPrateh, to quarrel. Fratchy, quarrelsome. And aye cracked his thumb for a bit ai fratck. Anderson^ s Cumberland Ballads. O, Donald, ye are just the man, Who when he gets a wife, Begins to fratck. — Miss Blatnire : Cumberland Song%. Frayne, to ask, inquire. Then \ frayned 2i. Faith. — Piers Ploughman. Kn&. frayned ivS\. often of folke that I raeX.—Idem, Fret, to devour, or eat, from the German fressen. ' A moth fretting a garment,' means, a moth eating a garment ; and fretted with care, is consumed or eaten with care. Like as it were a mo\h fretting a garment. — Psalm xxxix. Freet, preterite oifret, to eat. KAz-rafreet of that fruit, And forsook The love of our Lord. — Piers Ploughman. Fretten, past participle oifref, eat : He ''as^ fretten of folk mo' than five hundred. Morte Arthur, quoted by Halliwell. Freet, a proverb. He was the youngest of seven successive sons, a circumstance of which he used jocularly to boast, as conferring on him, according to the o\A freet, supernatural powers of some sort or other. — Whistle Binkie. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. loi Premd, 1 strange, unacquainted, unrelated, opposed to sib, of Premit, / kin. The commandment forbids us to synne witli any womane, sybbe, or fremde, wedde, or unwedde. — MS. Lincoln, quoted by Halliwell. Make friends oi /remit folk ; (i.e., not of your kinspeople and relatives). Better my friend think xat /remit than fashious (quarrelsome). Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. I*rim, Vigorous, healthy, thriving- as -s.frim tree,' a ^frim lass.' I^ike, fresh, liberal, hearty. Firth' ( ^ ^"^^^ place in the forest, land not enclosed. In the chill winter cauld, Quhen frostes dois owr flete hzx'Ctx firth and fauld. Gawin Douglas : Translation 0/ Virgil. He'll hang thy meiTy men, pair by pair, In &iiy/rith where he may them find. — Border Minstrelsy. Prostling, any fruit, flower, or leaf, injured by the frost. ; Frory, frosty. iProunee, a wrinkle ; from the French froncer le sourcil, to frown ; whence also ' frown,' to wrinkle the brow ; but formerly employed in the more extended sense of to twist, to curl. With she 'ih^.i/rounceth up the brow This covenant I will allow. — Gower. Sorae/rounce their curled hair in courtly guise. — Spenser. Dressing, braiding, /rouncing, flowering. — Drayton. Not tricked an^/rounced as she was wont With the Attic boy to hunt. — Milton ; II Penseroso. Frusli, to bruise, disturb. Stand ! stand, thou Greek ! thou art a goodly mark ! No ! wilt thou not ? I like thy armour well, Va/rush it and unlock the rivets all. Shakespeare : Troilus and Cressida. Hector assailed Achilles and gave him so many strokes that he all to frusht and brake his helm. — Caxton : Destruction 0/ Troy. High cedars are yraj/^ifi/ with tempests. — Hinde : i6o5. 102 LOST BEAUTIES OF lYush. — continued. Horrible uproar KoAfrush of rocks that meet in battle. Southey. Fud, a tail, still applied to the tail of a hair or rabbit. We'll whack their hydes and fyle 'iktvcfuds. Jacobite Ballads ; The Auld Stuarts Back Again. Fusionless, pithless, silly, sapless, senseless ; corrupted from foison, the old English word for plenty : For seven lang years I hae Iain by liis side, And he's but afusionless carlie, O ! Bums : The Veuk's dang o'er my Daddie. The mouths of fasting multitudes are crammed wi' fizzenless bran, in- stead of the sweet word in season. — Scott : Old Mortality. Gab, the mouth ; whence, to gossip, to talk idly, or loudly, to prate. ^ Gabbe'' zxA '■ gabbing' appear in the late Herbert Cole- ridge's,' Dictionary of the Oldest Words in the English Lan- guage.' In Gaelic, according to Maclntyre's ' Dictionary,' ' gabb ' signifies 'a mouth which is never at rest ;' whence, gabbach, garrulous. ' Gap,' an opening, and ' gape,' to yawn, are from the same root. The gift of the gab — i.e., the gift of oratory, elocution, or speech-making — is a common expression in England and America. A wealthy citizen, of Philadelphia, was asked to subscribe to a fund for the endowment of a chair of Elo- cution, in his native state ; but indignantly refused. ' I hold,' said he, 'the pernicious "gift of the gab" to be the curse of the Republic, and decline to contribute a red cent to its extension.' Ne though I say't, I am not lefe \.o galibc. — Chaucer: The Miller's Tale. And certes in the same boke I rede, Right in the next chapitre after this, I galilie not, so have I joy and bliss. Chaucer: The Nounes Freest^ s Tale. He is a japer and a. gabber. — Chaucer : The Parson's Tale. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 103 Gaed, the ancient preterite of go ; the modern preterite ' went,' being derived from wend, to turn. ' He wends on his way,' i.e., he turns on his way. From this lost preterite proceeds, probably, the common expression, ' to gad,' or to 'gad about.' I gaed a waefu' gate yestreen. — Bums. Gainage, profit. I trow Cue gainage of the ground. — Piers Ploughman. Gainbite, biting back again ; i.e., remorse. This word is still current in some parts of England ; the original form was ayerbyte, or again bite. Mr. Halliwell quotes in his ' Archaic Dictionary,' the ' Ayerbyte of Inwit,' or ' Remorse of Con- science.' Gainly, shapely, elegant, whence ungainly (still used). Gainstrive, to strive against, to contend. Gainstrife, contention. Gainstand, to stand against, to resist, to withstand. In a]l this realm, o'er all this land, Is none so wight dare him gainstand. So wisely can Sir Penny work. Sir Penny : Lord Haile's version, Hyndford MSS. Gale, «., a voice, a sound, a cry. Gale, v., to sound, to sing ; Gaelic gal, to weep, to moan, to lament. And when he heard the Frere gale. Chaucer : The Wife of Bath's Prologue, Gan he crie and gale. My lippis open. Lord of Love, I crie. Chaucer : The Court of Love. Then ^aZfrf the gowk ; i.e., then sang the. cuckoo. Morte Arthur. Bearing this origin of the word in mind, we find that nightin^a/i? means the song of the night ; and rnadri^a/, the voice, or song of the mother. On the same principle of derivation, a loud sounding wind becomes a gale, or singing wind. Gall, a sore place ; the rose-gall, the excrescence on the leaf of the rose when pricked and injured by an insect. Gall, to fret, make sore, or excoriate. Let the galled jzAe wince. — Shakespeare. 104 L OST BE A UTIES OF Gallow, to frighten. The viTatliful skies, Callow the veiy wanderers of the dark, Aiid make them keep their caves. Shakespeare : King Lear. G-ant, merry, frolicsome. Ganty, lusty, hearty, in good health. Gar, to cause a thing to be done, to force or compel a person to do anything; the quasi-synonyme of which is 'make.' He gars me do it : i.e., he makes or compels me to do it ; but as ' make' is required in another sense, that of construct or build, or shape, and as cause or compel are not only Latinisms, but express a different shade of meaning, the word ' gar,' no longer allowed in English, is a clear loss to the language. A Scottish lady, when asked to partake of a glass of whisky toddy, and not liking either to refuse or consent too readily, at last replied, ' Weel ! male it sweet and hot and strong, and gar me takit;' a much racier and more forcible expression than if she had said, ' jnaie me, or compel me to take it.' Then was folk fain and fed hunger with the best, With good ale, as glutton taught, and gar hunger sleep. Piers Plouglwwn. But specially I pray thee, hoste dere, Gar us have mete and drinke, and make us cliere. Chaucer : The Rez'e^s Tale, In Scottish literature the word is of constant occurrence. Bid her do weel to my young son. And give him nurses three. For gin he live to be a man. King James will gar him die. Buchan's Ancient Ballads. Gar saddle me my bonnie black. Gar saddle soon and mak' him ready, And I will down the Gate Hope slack. And a' to see my bonnie leddy. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, And the first kirk that ye come to, Ye's gar the mass be sung, And the nearest kirk that ye come to, Ye's gar the bells be rung. The Gay Goss Hatvk. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 105 Gar — continued. One man may lead a horse to the water, but four-and-twenty canna. gar him drink. — North Country Proverb. Gart, preterite of gar, to make. The boy was clad in robes of green, Sweet as the infant spring. And like the mavis on the bush. He gart the vallies ring. Percy's Reliques : Gil Morice. Gavel, a sheaf of corn before it is tied up. Gear, in the North of England and Scotland, signifies money;, wealth, property, belongings, possessions. The word is used by Chaucer and Spenser, in the sense of furniture, accoutre- ment, and apparel. AiTayed herself in her most gorgeous gear. Spenser. Some harmless villager. Whom thrift keeps up about his country's gear. Milton. Little said is soon mended, Little gear is soon spended. Allan Ramsay s Scottish Proverbs. Geason, scarce, rare. Hard to obtain, once gotten, not geason. Jewel of jeopardy, that peril doth assail. Earl of Surrey : The Frailty and Hurtfulness of Beauty^ Let not Ihy tongue speak thy will. Laughing and speech in the mouth be geason. MS. Cantab. (Halliiuell). Geek, scorn, derision ; a person scorned ; also to scorn, tO' mock, to deride. Gude man, Gramercy, for your geek, Quod Hope, and lowly louts, Gif we were sent for, we suspect, Because the doctor douts. jl'he Cherry and the Sloe, Montgomery, 1590. And made the most notorious geek and gull. That e'er invention played on. Shakespeare: Twelfth Night. Wliy did you suffer lachimo, * * * * To become the geek and scorn, Of the whole village ? Shakespeare : Cymbcline. io6 LOST BEAUTIES OF ■Geek — mitinued. Baiildy that drives the car, But geeks at me and says I smell of tar. Allan Ramsay: The Gentle Shepherd. You geek at me because I'm poor. Burns : O Tibbie, I hae seen the day. <3-et, ) to attain, to procure, to come into possession of. — ■Got, ' > The past participle of this verb has lately become Gotten, j obsolete, except in the talk of the uneducated and in Scottish literature. It was common in the last century. We Ijnew we were gotten far enough out of their reach. — Defoe : Robinson Crusoe. Ken ye what Meg o' the mill has gotten ? She's gotten a lout wi' a lump o' siller. And broken the heart of the barley miller. Burns. There is also a marked tendency to the disuse of this inflec- tion in the verb ' to forget,' and people too commonly say and write, ' I have " forgot," ' instead of ' forgotten.' Gey, very; probably from gay: sometimes used with the additional syllable an', as in the phrase, he was gey an' fou ! he was gay and drunk — or very drunk. A miller laughing at him [the fool of the parish] for his witlessness, the fool said, ' There are some things I ken, and some tilings I dinna ken.' On being asked what he knew, he said, ' I ken a miller has aye Si gey fat sow.' ' And what do ye no ken?' said the miller. ' I dinna ken at wha's expense she's fed.' — Dean Ramsay. Gilver, to ache, to throb ; a word current in the Eastern Counties. Gird, a bitter jest or sarcasm, also used as a verb. Mr. Halliwell defines it to mean, ' to strike with a weapon, to push,' and thence, metaphorically, to deal sarcastic thrusts. I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio. Shakespeare : Taming of the Shrew. He is still girding at the age's vanity. Earl's Microcosmographie. The poet took notice of this gird as is surmised. Shakespeare's Sonnets, by Get aid Masse}', 1866. Girdlestead, the waist, or place of the girdle. — Chancer. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 107 Girn, to laugh with rage j as distinguished from 'grin,' to laugh with merriment. The Deil sits girning in the neuk, Riving sticks to roast the Duke. Highland Laddie, jfacobite Ballad. Gith., the corn-cockle. Glamour, | fascination by the power of the eye, or of Glamourie, ) enchantment. She came tripping down the stair, And all her maids before her, As soon as they saw her weel-faur'd face, They cast their glamourie o'er her. Johnnie Faa : The Gypsy Laddie, Border Minstrelsy. Glaver, to flatter, to lear, to ogle. To glose or to glaver, I will for no maiden. liitson's Ancient Songs, Tye thy mare. Tarn, boy. Then shall you see those slaves aloof that stood, And would have let him starve, like spaniels to him crouch. And with their glavering lips his very feet to toad. Drayton's Polyolbion. These glaverers gone ; myself to rest I laid, Aiid doubting nothing, soundly fell asleep. Mirror for Magistrates. A slavish glavering, flattering parasite. South' s Sermons. Oh glavering flatteiy, How potent art thou. — Marston : What you Will. Bear not a flattering tongue to glaver any. Antonio and Mellida. Glavering upon a man to do him harm. Holland: Ammianus Marcellinus, 1609. And by such .subtle ^/rtw^Kj- means. Prevent distrust of their designs. Hudibras Redivivus, 1 708. Mai-y Beatson with the glavering mirth about her mouth. Atheneeum, April 21, 1866. Notice of the National Portrait Exhibition. Glaverer, a flatterer. These glaverers gone, myself to rest I laid. Mirror for Magistrates. Glee, music. Before our Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian an- cestors had learned to borrow from the Norman French or from the Latin, new and strange words to express old and I o8 LOST BE A VTIES OF Glee — continued. familiar meanings, they had, necessarily, a word for the art of music. That word was glee; which by the progress of change and corruption, has come to signify that state of mind which music is so calculated to produce : joyfulness and pleasure. A glee-man was originally a musician. At a later period, when the word Minstrel superseded that of Glee-man, we find the word glee, still in use to signify music, as in a passage from ' The Life of Alexander,' by Adam Davie, translated from the French in the reign of Edward II. : ' Orgnes, chymbes, each manner of glee,' i.e., organs, cymbals, and all manner of music. The same idea of music and joyousness pervaded the European languages in the Middle Ages, and music was the ' gay science ' in the speech of Germany, England, France, Italy, and Spain. The word 'glee,' as representing that par- ticular description of music and song in which English musicians have excelled from the very earliest times to our own, still remains ; though a 'glee' is not necessarily joyous, but may be plaintive, or even melancholy. Glede' } ^ ^"S'^*^' burning coal. As sparkles glide off the glede. — Romance of Sir Isambras. I saw Troy fall doun in burning gledes. Earl of Stirrey : Translation of the jEwid, The cruel ire, red as any glede. Chancer : Tlie Knight's Tale. My eyes witli tears against the fire striving, Whose scorching gleed my heart to cinders turneth. Drayton. My destiny to beliold her doth me lead. And yet I Imow I run into ios gleed. — Sir Thomas Wyatt. For when we see the sun go to gleed, we say to-morrow shall be faire •weather. — Udal, Matthew. His een glittering for anger like a fieiy gleed. The Fray of Suport, Border Minstrelsy. And as glov/ing gledes, Gladdeth not those workmen. — Piers Ploitghman. The sparks and gledes that flew out of Muspelheim. Gylfi's Moc/dng, translated by G. IV. Dasent, Stockholm, 1842. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 109 Gleek, v., to scoff; to jest at. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion, Titania, thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. Shakespeare : Midsummer Night's Dream. I have seen you gleeking and galling upon this gentleman twice or Jhrice. — Henry V., actv., scene i. Here, Juno, here : but stay, I do espy A pretty gleek coming from Pallas's eye. Beaumont and Fletcher. The more that I get her, the more she doth gleek at me. Tom Tylor and his Wife, 1598. _,,. . ' > to flash, to glare, to shine. In Morte Arthur, when Sir Bediver casts the magic sword, Excalibur, into the lake, in obedience to the command of the king, There came a band withouten rest, Out of the water and fain it hent. And brandished it, as it should brest, And anon as gleme away at glent. i.e., glided away like a flash of lightning. The sunbeams are glintin' far over the sea. Fisher's Newcastle Garland. The rising sun owre Galston muirs, Wi' glorious light was glintin. Burns : The Holy Fair. Cauld blew the bitter, biting North, Upon thy early, humble birflr. Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth Amid the storm. Burns: To u Mountain Daisy. Gley, to squint ; aglee or agley, crooked, aslant, in the wrong direction : There is a time to gley, and a time to look even. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs, Gleyed Sandy he came here yestreen. And speired when I saw Pate. — James Carnegie, 1 765. The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley. Burns : To a Mouse. Gliff, a moment, a short slumber, a nap : — I'll win out z.gliff'Cas. night for a' that— to dance in the moonlight. Scott: The Heart of Mid- Lothian. no LOST BE A UTIES OF Gliff — contin ued. ' Laid down on her bed for a s^if>' said her grandmother. Scoit : The Antiquary . Glincy, smooth and shining, mirror-Hke. ' The glincy water.' Glime, ) to shine brightly and steadfastly ; whence gliin, a Glyme, J small light ; and glimmer to shine fitfully. Gloaming, twilight : from gloom to darken ; a word common in Scotland and the North of England, as well as in America. Gie me the hour o' gloamirH grey. It makes my heart sae cheery O, To meet thee on the lea-rig, My ain kind dearie O ! — Burns. 'Twixt the gloaming and the mirk, When the kye come hame. — The Ettrick Shepherd. Glide, ] to move away easily and smoothly. The ancient Glode, V preterite and past participle have become obsolete, Glidden, j and have been superseded by glided. His good stede he all bestrode, And forth upon his way \& glode. — Chaucer. He glode forth as an adder doth. — Idem. Through Guy's shield \i glode. — Guy of Warwick. The reason of the substitution of the regular for the irregular preterite may be found in the desire to prevent confusion with the regular preterite of the verb to glow. Gloom, to look angry ; an angry look : It is of love, as of fortune. Which whilom will on folke smile, And gloom on them another while. Chaucer: Romance of the Rose. Why use the taws (the rod) when a gloom will do it ? Allan Ravisay. Glose, to flatter for an evil purpose. Glow, to stare with amazement, a common word in Cornwall and Devonshire. Glower, to look earnestly, to glare, to stare : — Ye glowered at the moon and fell on the midden. Allan Ramsay, THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. m Glower — continued. Poorlgapin', glowerin' Superstition. Burns : To yohn Goudie of Kilmarnock^ Satan glowered and fidged fu' fain: Burns : Tarn o' Shanler. Phoebus gies a short-lived glower, Far south the lift. — Burns: A Winter Nighl. I am a bard of no regard, Wi' gentle-folks and a' that ; But Homer-like, ihe glowrin' ijyke [swarm], Frae town to town I draw that. Burns : The Jolly Beggars, G-loTise, a strong gleam of heat. — Halliwell. GrloTit, to look sulky. G-lumpse, sullenness ; whence the common colloquialism, •' glumpy,' ill-tempered, morose, out of humour. Gluncli, to frown. Gnaw, 1 to bite at a hard substance. — The old preterite is Gnew, J lost, doubtless on account of its too great simi- larity in pronunciation to the more familiar word ' knew.' ; At last in twa the dowie ropes he gnew. Ross's Helenore. No sustenance got, But only at the cauld hill's h&mss gnew. — Hid. Gome, the old Anglo-Saxon for a man, a fellow, a companion. The first govie Adam. — Piers Ploughman, For I will go with this gome, If God will give me grace, — Piers Ploughman. Gomerilj a lout, a stupid man. Gowan, a daisy. Far dearer to me are yon humble broom bowers. Where the bluebell and gowan lurk lowly unseen. Burns. The night was fair, the moon was up, The wind blew low among ihe gowans. Legends of the Isles. 3 12 LOST BEAUTIES OF <3-owk, a cuckoo ; metaphorically a fool ; whence gawk and gawky, a tall, ungainly, awkward, and stupid person ; from whence also, gawk-a-mouth, used in Dorset and Devon, sig- nifying a gaping, wide-mouthed fool, male or female. You breed of the gcwli, you have never a song but one. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proveris. Sae young the gowk tries to appear, And fain would mock ilU wrinkle liar. Miss Blamirc : Ctimberland Sotigs. Oowl, to weep in anger, more than in sorrow, sulkily, and vin- dictively, rather than in penitence. From the Gaelic guil, to weep, to wail. Gowlin' and whinglin' sae muckle . — Lover in Cumberland . A child bom fully, Beginnes to gotale and cry. — HalliwelVs Archaic Dictionary. Ne'er may Misfortune's gowling'h!a\i Howl through the dwelling o' the clerk. Burns . To Gavin Hamilton, Oown. This word, once so common, is in our day almost superseded by ' dress,' which correctly interpreted, would mean the whole costume, upper and under, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. Thus a man's ' dress' would include all his garments ; while, in modern phrase, a woman's dress is only a part of her dress. Grab, ) to dig up, to seize. — This verb, in all its in- Grub, > flections, has been wholly relegated to the speech Grabbed, j of the vulgar, but, like many other vulgar words, has a highly respectable origin. ' Grab,' in its first sense, means to dig a grave or hole ; and ' grub' means that which is dug up, such as roots for human subsistence, whence its modern and slang signification, ' food.' Graith, an excellent and convenient word, meaning all things necessary for preparation or readiness ; the trappings, capa- rison, or gear, needed in any pursuit, vocation, business, or play. Thus the graith of a sportsman would be the costume, gun, powder, shot, and other trappings ; the graith of a fisherman, or angler, the things that should be ready for the 7HE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 113 Gr aith — coniin ued. pursuit of his business or sport. The verb, to graithe or grdthe, signifies to prepare or make ready. Unto the Jews such a hate had he, That he bade grdthe his chah- full hastilie. C/iaucer : The Revs' s Tale. Go warn me Perthshire and Angus baith AnAgraith my horse. — Song of the Outlaw Murray. He that rides ere be he ready, is sure to want some of his graith. Allan liainsay. When Vulcan gi'es his bellows breath, And ploughmen gather wi' \h€u graith. — Burns: Scotch Drink. That woeful moon be ever mourned. Saw him in ^aaixa^, graith adorned, While pointers round impatient burned, Frae couples freed. — Bums: Tarn Samson's Elegy. A critic in the ' Literary Gazette,' of the 30th of March, ' 1861, called a poet to account for using such an unallowable word as graith, of which he (the critic) declared his utter ignorance. Gramarye, magic. Whate'er he did oi gramarye. Was always done maliciously. Scott: Lay of the Last Minstrel. The wild yell and visage strange, And the dark woods Haet, a whit, an iota ; deil a haet, the devil a bit. But gentlemen, and ladies warst, Wi' ev'ndown want o' vvark are curst. They loiter, lounging, lank, an' lazy ; THough deil haet ails them, yet uneasy. Burns : The Twa Dogs. Hain, to save, to preserve with care, to spare, to keep without use. To hain a pasture is to exclude cattle from it ; so that the grass may grow for hay. The weel ^ozVWkebbuck ; (The well-preserved cheese.) Burns : Cotter's Saturday Night, Chiels wha their characters winna hain. But tune their lays. — Burns: To William Simpson. Long fasting hains no meat. — Northern Proverb. Hale, as contradistinguished from sick. As in the phrase, hale and hearty. SSnSS: }--->'• Hantle, a good deal, a quantity — probably derived from handful, or that which may be gathered by the hands. A Scottish clergyman related as his experience after killmg his first pig, that ' nae doot tliere was a liantle o' miscellaneous eating about a swine. ' Hap, to enwrap, to swathe, to swaddle, to cover up or in warm clothing, or coverlets. He should be better hapt, or covered from the cold. Mo7-is Utopia. Hap well your backs, and well your bellies fiU. Poor Robin. I digged a grave and laid him in, And happed him with the sod so green. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Bordei\ Hap and row, hap and row, Hap and row the feetie o't. — Burns. Hap, fate, fortune ; also as a verb, to befall, happen, come to pass. No man can make his ain hap. — Allan Ramsay. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. iij Haps, travelling rugs, or great coats. Never travel in Scotland without haps. If ye dinna want them for the cauld, ye'll need them for the rain. — Scott. Hardel, the back of the hand. Hearten, to encourage, or inspire with heart. Hedge-bell, the wild convolvulus. HoIb I '■^ ^^'^' — "^^^ preterite and past participle are fast Holpen, j becoming obsolete. For thoa hast holpen me now. Halliwell: Cantab. MS. And blind men holpen. Piers Ploughman. Building upon the foundation that went before us, and being holpen by their labours. — The translators of the Bible to the reader : temp. James I. Helve, a handle. Throw the helve after the hatchet — Proverb. Hend, 1 Hende, > gentle, courteous, polite. Hynde, j Tho' spake our host ; ah sire ye should been hende, And courteous as a man of your estate. Chaucer : The Frere's Prologue. Lancelot spoke with hearte free, For to comfort that lady hende. Morte Arthur. Whereto should I that ihaid deceive, She was the fairest thing on live, She was so hend and so well taught. Bevis of Hampton. Hende he was and mild of mood. All men spoke of liim great good. Halliwell : MS. Cantab. It may not unreasonably be concluded from these ex- amples that hende is the root of the modern handsome. The proverb, ' handsome is that handsome does,' means that he who does a gentle and a courteous action, is himself gentle and courteous, or hende. iiS LOST BEAUTIES OF Hent, to take, to hold, to seize, to apprehend. Jog on, jog on, the footpath way, And merrily hent the stile-a : A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tu-es in a mile-a. It is probable that in this well-known passage from the song of Autolycus in the ' Winter's Tale,' the preterite hent is a misprint for the infinitive he7id, though it must be admitted that Chaucer uses hent both in the present and tlie past tenses. This is a very unusual defect in an English verb of that early period. All be it that it was not our intente, He should be sauf, but that we sholde him hent. Chaucer : The Friar's Tale, Shakespeare uses hent as a substantive, to signify a purpose, an intention to hold by, in Hamlet's exclamation, when he determines not to kill the king at his prayers : No! Up, sword ! and know thou a more horrid hent ! When he is di-unk, asleep, or in his rage. The steward by the throte he hente. MS. quoted by Halliwell. Henter, a thief, a holder, or seizer of that which does not be- long to him. — Lydgate. Hext, highest. Nigh, nigher, and next, are the three recog- nized and common degrees of comparison, of the adjective nigh or near. The adjective high formerly underwent similar changes ; but the superlative hext, useful as a rhyme if for no other purpose, has become obsolete. The first apple and the hext. Which ygrowth unto you next ; Yhath three virtues notable. And keepeth youth aye durable. Chancers Dream. The Archbishope of Canterburye, In Engelande that is liext. Halliwell: MS. Trinity College. Hiekery, ill-natured. Hidel, a hiding-place. THE ENGLISH LANG CIA GE. 119 Hie, 1 to haste. This word is nearly obsolete, but survives in Hye, J heroic and mock-heroic verse ; as, ' hie thee hence,' ' he hied him home.' Hind, a peasant, or farm labourer. One morning early a farmer you'll find, Was walking along when lie met with a hind, A poor honest fellow upon the highway. The Farmer and the Hind ; Notes and Queries, April 21, i865. Hinderling, a marplot, an obstructive. Hindersome, Hindrous, )nie, I.J- .• ' > retardmg, preventmg Hirple, to Ump, to halt. The hares were hirplirH down the furs. Burns : The Holy Fair. ^^ +f ' \ to clash, to meet together with violence. They drew out their swords and hurtled together. History of Prince Arthur. And he him hurileth with his horse adown. Chaucer: The Knighfs Talc. That heaven hastilie and erth should hurtel together. William and the Werewolf. Iron sleet of aiTowy shower Hurtled in the darkened air. — Gray's Bard. Hit, ") to strike, to touch violently with a blow. Both pre- Hette, > terite and past participle are obsolete. Hitten sur- Hitten, j vives in the colloquial language of the peasantry. Your honor's hitten the nail upon the head. Ross's Helenore, He buffeted me so about the mouth, That out my teeth he hette. — Piers Ploughman. The Americans, in default of the old preterite hette, occa- sionally say hot — as, ' he hot me a heavy blow ; he hot out right and left.' Hithercome, arrival. Hodden grey. — In the glossary to the first edition of Allan Ramsay's 'Tea-Table Miscellany,' 1724, hodden is described 120 LOST BEAUTIES OF Hodden, grey — continued. as a coarse cloth. Hodden grey is, therefore, coarse grey cloth. It was usually home-made by the Scottish peasantry of the Lowlands, and formed the material of their working- day clothes. What though on hamely fare we dine, Wear hodden grey, and a' that ; Gi'e fools their silks, an' knaves their wine, A man's a man for a' that. — Burns. If a man did his best to murder me, I should not rest comfortably until I knew that he was safe in a well- ventilated cell, with the hodden ^rg/ garments of the gaol upon him. — Trial of Prince Fierre Bona- parte: Daily Telegrafli, March 26, 1870. Hoils, the beards of barley. Hold, ] to have, grasp, or retain in possession. — The past Held, > participle is obsolete, but might be advantageously Holden, j revived for the sake of the rhyme which it affords to ' golden,' ' embolden,' &c. Holme, a meadow near a river or stream ; in some parts of the country called a botham, or bottom. Holt, a small patch of forest. About the rivers, valleys, holts, and drags, Among the oziers and the waving flags. Browne: Britannia! s Fasiorals, Holyrood, the holy cross. Holystead, a holy place. Home-come, arrival at home. Hore, the preterite of hire, whence whore, a hireling. In the original sense of hire, and hore, a barrister, a physician, a soldier, or in a lower rank, any one receiving pay, or wages for service rendered, might have been addressed by this word. Hotfoot, in such haste that the foot is hot with running the errand. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 121 House-carle, a male domestic servant. Rebuking, as every child has heard, her house-carle^ s fiatteiy. Hereward, Rev. Charles Kingsley. He is a house-carle of mine, Lord King. — Ibid. Hove, preterite of heave, to hoist; and preferable to the modern and weaker preterite heaved. ' The ship /lave in sight,' is still a correct nautical phrase. Howff, a public-house, a place that a person is accustomed to frequent for conversation and conviviality ; also used as a verb. Bums's hoiaff at Dumfries. — Chambers. Where was't that Robertson and you were used to /ioic/^thegither ?- • Scott: Heart of Mid-Lothian. Howk, to dig, or scrape up the earth like an animal, or with-- out tools. He's howket a grave by tlie light o' the moon. Cumberland Ballads : The Sun shines fair on Carlisle 'uia'. She has howkedz. hole both deep and wide, And put tliem in both, side by side. The Cruel Mother. ^ ^' > softly, fairly, comfortably. When he was on the other side. Then fair and hulie could he ride. Romance of Sir Eger, Sir Graham, and Sir Gray Steel. ' Friend ! huly ! haste not half so fast, Lest," quoth Experience, ' at the last Ye buy my doctrine dear.' The Cheriy and the Sloe, 1590. Hooly and fairly go far in a day. Northern Proverb. Oh hooly, hooly, ran she up. To the place where he was lying. And when she drew the curtain, said, ' Young man I think you're dying.' Barbara Allan, Percy's Reliques. Oh gin my wife would drink hooly and fairly. Burns, 122 LOST BEAUTIES OF Humoursome, capricious, full of odd conceits, crotchets, and humours. Hurdles, the breech, the hips. His tail Hung o'er his hurdies wi' a swirl. Bums : The Twa Dogs. Ye godly brethren o' the sacred gown, Wha meekly gae your hurdies to the smiters. Burns : The Brigs of Ayr. Pendable ? ye may say that ; his craig wad ken the weight of his hurdies if they could get haud o' Rob. — Scott : Rob Roy. The old French poet, Francois Villon, when condemned to be hanged, wrote a stanza in which the idea of Sir Walter Scott occurs in language about as forcible, but not so ele- gant : — Je suis Franijais (dont ce me poise), N^ de Paris, emprfe Pontlioise, Or d'une corde d'une toise S9aura mon col que mon cul poise. Htirkle, to shrug the shoulders. Hurly, a noise, whence hurly burly, a confused noise. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 123 Imp, to lengthen, or shoot out, to imp the wings for flight. That pretty Cupid, God of love, Whom imped wings with speckled plumes are dight. Drayton's Pastorals^ Imp out our drooping country's broken wings. — Shakespeare. Imp, from the Anglo-Saxon impa, to engraft, emplant ; or from the German empfangen, to receive, to conceive, to be- come pregnant ; or from impfen, to graft, or inoculate ; from whence imp, a child, a bud, a shoot. In German, impfling is a child that has been vaccinated. He took upon him to protect him from them all, and not to suffer goodly an imp (Alcibiades) to lose the good fruit of his youth. North's Phitarch. Of feeble trees there cbmeth wretched impes. — Chaucer. Ye sacred imps that in Parnassus dwell. — Spenser. And thou most dreaded imp of highest Jove, Fair Venus' son. — Spenser: Faerie Queene. A lad of life, an imp of fame. — Shakespeare: Henry V. Ympe it in our thoughts, (i.e., engi'aft it in our minds). MS. Digby {Halliwell.), This word has been gradually perverted frorii its original meaning ; and imp now signifies a young demon ; or is applied in wrath or contempt to a very wicked or disagree- able child. But as the devil owes all his imps a shame, He chose the apostate as his proper theme. Dryden : Absalom and Achitophel. The serpent, fittest imp of fraud. — Milton. Im.pleach, interweave. With twisted metal amorously impleached. Shakespeare : A Lover's Complaint. Ingle, a fire-place, or fire-side. The original meaning of the word seems to have been a favourite or dear friend ; as in the phrase quoted by Nares, ' Call me your love, your ingle, your cousin, or so ; but sister, at no hand.' Or in ' Donne's Elegies :' Thy little brethren, which like fairy sprites, Oft skipt into our chamber those sweet nights. And kiss'd and ingled on thy father's knee. From this idea, probably, the fire-side, or place most com- fortable and sought after in the house, came to be called the 124 LOST BEAUTIES OF Ingle — continued. ingle, or the favourite ; the place of honour reserved for age, or for the evening assemblage of the family. A proverb in Allan Ramsay's collection seems to lend strength to this supposition. It saySj ' a good ingle makes a room fire-side ;' as if fire-side and ingle were not altogether synonymous. In the ancient sense the word has utterly disappeared, but, as the name for the blazing hearth and favourite corner, it survives in the north of England and Scotland. Bums, ia his ' Cotter's Saturday Night,' has made it familiar to all the lovers of poetry : His wee bit ingle blinliin' bomilly ; and it has been used by some of the best modern writers and speakers, both north and south of the Tweed. Better a wee ingle to warm you, than a muclde fire to burn you. Allan Jiatnsay's Scottish Proverbs. Inwit, conscience ; as distinguished from outwit, knowledge, ability, information. Who murthereth a good man, Me thinketh by mine inwit. He fordeth the livest light, That our hand loveth. — Piers Ploughman. With imait and with outwit, Imaginin' and studie. — Idem. Irk, to weary, tire, trouble, or distress, derived by some gram- marians from work. King Edward in his life, albeit, that this dissension between his friends somewhat irked him.. — Sir Thomas More' s Works. Now use it irketh me, That to thy bliss I made this luckless breach. — Spenser. Even Christ's easy yoke thy irke to bear. Stirling : Domes Day, The Fifth Hour. As a verb the word is almost obsolete, but the adjective irksome remains fixed in the language. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 125 Jade, to exhaust, or weary. .The past participle /arf'^^, wearied, remains in common usage. To Jade, was a new word in the time of James I., as may be inferred from Lord Bacon, who says : It is a dull thing to tire, ox as we now say to Jade, any thing too far. Janglesome, quarrelsome. Jant, cheerful, merry, whence the raoAtra Jatmty. Jape, to jest, to cheat, to mock, to laugh at. This word and its derivatives, yrtj>«', a buffoon ; japery, buffoonery ; and /«/ to peep slyly, to look in. £ike. Keek, As he had keyked on the new moone. Chaucer: The Millet's Tale. When the tod (fox) is in the wood, he cares na how many keek at his tail. — Allan Ramsay's Scottish Prcnierbs. Stars dinna keek in, And see me wi' Mary. — Burns. The gossip keekit in his loof (hand). Quo' she, who lives will see the proof, This waly boy will be nae coof (fool), I think we'll ca' him Robin. — Burns. And now the sun keeks in the west. And I maun rise among the rest. Burns : Ejiisile to Lafraik. The Robin came to the wren's nest. And keeked in. Nursery Rhymes of England. Kirtle, a petticoat, or loose gown. What stuff wilt thou have a kirtle of? Shakespeare : Henry IV. All in a kirtle of discoloured soy. Spenser: Faerie Qiieene. Kiss-worthy, deserving of a kiss, inspiring affection. Thy most kiss-worthy face. Anger invests with such lovely grace. That Anger's self I needs must kiss again. Sir Philip Sidney. 9—2 132 LOST BEAUTIES OF Kith., 1 to show, to appear, to make known, from whence the Kithe, V preterite kouth or couth, known ; sel-couth used by Kythe, J Chaucer, and meaning seldom known ; and the mo- dem word uncouth, which originally meant strange and un- known, but which has by degrees come to signify rough, rude, and unshapely. The modern word kith, as distin- guished from kin, in the phrase of ' kith and kin,' means acquaintances, or people who are known, as distinguished from relatives. Take your sport and kythe, you knights. Metrical Romance of Sir Ferumliras. Lift up thine hart and sing with gude intent, And in tliy notes sweete the treson telle, That to thy sister true and innocent, Was kythet by her husband false and fell. The King's Quair, Their faces blythe, fu' sweetly hyihe, Hearts leal and warm and kin'. Burns : Halloween. If you love me, kythe it. True love kythes in time of need. Kythe in your ain colours, that folk may know you, Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. The deed that thou hast done this night, Will kythe upon the morrow. Sweet William and Lady Margaret. Kittle, difficult, perilous, ticklish. ' A kittle question,' one that is not only difficult but incon- venient to answer ; ' a kittle horse,' one troublesome to manage ; 'a kittle subject,' a ticklish subject. ' Gude man,' quo' he, ' put up your whittle, I'm no designed to try its mettle, But if I did, I wad be kittle To be mislear'd.' — Death and Dr. Hornbook, ■ Butter and bum trout are kittle meat for maidens. It's kittle shooting at crows and clergy. It's kittle to waken sleeping dogs. It's kittle ior the cheeks when a wheelbarrow goes over the nose. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. THE ENGLISH LANGVA GE. 133 Enab, to take hold of, to bite, or gnaw ; to take the head off ; whence also knib, nib, and nibble. I had (could) much rather He knahbing cnists without fear, than be mistress of the world with cares. — L' Estrange. Oh once I had the best of hay And fodder in the stall, But now I'm forced to ktiab the grass That grows beneath the wall. Poor old horse ! — Old Ballad. Knabb, 1 the top or head of a mountain. This word is coni- Knapp, J mon in Westmoreland and Cumberland ; and con- stantly occurs in topographical nomenclature. Knabb-'Sicwx, opposite Rydal Mount, the former residence of Wordsworth, is frequently mentioned in his poems. Knapdale is also a well-known district, "w'^bh ^' f '^°^'^d> lumpy, like a mountain. 5^^° ', \z. round hill : Scottish knowe. Knowle, / ' Upon a knowe they sat them down, And there began a long digression About the lords o' the creation. Burns : The Tixia Dogs. Knee-bending, a genuflexion. Knee-erooking, obsequious, slavish in homage. Many a duteous and knee-croolting knave. — Shakespeare. Knell, to ring or toll the bell for a funeral ; to sound the knell. Knoll, preterite of knell. Knevel, the moustache. The hair on the upper lip was worn for ages, before the modem, and now the only, name for the thing was borrowed from the Spanish. The word is entirely obsolete, but pure English. Knit, now used as the infinitive of the verb to knit, was origi- nally the preterite of ' knot,' to tie in a knot, as in Robert Bums' song of ' The Ploughman :' 134 LOST BEAUTIES OF Knit — continued. The ploughman he's a bonny lad, His mind is ever true, jo. His garters knit below his knee. Knoppe, a button or a bud ; a word in common use before the English people began to import their fashions as well as their speech from the continent ; and one form of which still survives as knoh, the knob" or button of a door. The French still say, ' les boutons de la rose,' i.e., the buttons, buds, or knoppes of the rose. And with a hend of golde tassiled, And knoppes fine of golde.- — CAaucer : Romance of the Rose. About the rede roses springing. The stalke was as rushe right, And there stoode the knoppe upright. — Idem. Take half a pound of rede rose flowers that be gathered early whyle the dew lasts, and ben ful sprad, and puUe off the knoppes and clyppe hem with a pair sherys. — MS., i6ih cetiiury, quoted by Halliwell. Knurl, sometimes written 7iirl, to shrink up with the cold. A dwarf, or any shrunken object. A common word in the Border Counties of England and Scotland. The com has been nirled with the drowtli. — yamieson. A perfect knurl ; I've seen as buirdly a chiel in a glass bottle upon a doctor's shelf. — Reginald Dalton. Koister, a rough, ignorant, ill-tempered fellow, a churl, from the French cuistre. Kye, cows, or cattle generally. The plural Mfie is still used in the north of England and Scotland, and in poetic composi- tion. Kype, a grimace. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 1 35 Xiack, to be in want of : a verb that is fast becoming obsolete. Zack-wit, /ai:k--penny, lack-lsxid., lack-lnstct, lacMove, lack- beard, lack-tzf^, /ack-hraia, &c., were once common expres- sions, the disuse of which has not been remedied by the modern synonymes and periphrastic circumlocutions em- ployed to represent them. Iiade, to empty out or to let in water by degrees, whence the diminutive /ad/e. lag, «., the extreme end, and also as a verb, to remain behind, at the very end or last. The la^ end of my life. — Shakesjieare : Henry IV. The senators of Athens with the common lag of people. Shakespeare ; Timon of Athens, Iiangsyne, a long time ago. See Auld Lang Syne, page 29. Iiangsyner, a person who lived a long while ago, (Northum- brian and Scottish). Lank ' 1 ^^ 8^°^ ^^^.n and lanky. Thy cheek so much as lanKd not. Shakespeare : Antony and Cleopatra. Lass-lorn, having lost or been dismissed by a mistress. Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, Being lass-lorn. — Shakespeare : The Tempest. Laugh, ) The ancient preterite and past participle of this verb Lough, Vhave been superseded by the modern preterite Leuch, J in ed : Then lough there a lord, And 'By this lighte' saide, ' I hold it right and reson.' — Piers Ploughman. He cleped it Valerie and Theophrast, ' And lough always full fast. Chaucer: TIte Wife of Bath's Prologue. I3S LOST BEAUTIES OF Iiaugb. — continued. When she had read Wise William's letter, She smiled and she laich. — MothenuelTs Collection. ' I thinlc not so,' she halflins said, and leiich. — Ross's Helenoi'e. How gi-aceless Ham leiich at his dad, Which made Canaan a nigger. — Bums : The Ordination. An' ilka ane leiich him to scorn. Percfs Reliques : The Auld Guidman. lave, the residue ; that which is omitted or left out. The Anglo-Saxons called a widow a lafe, or lave, i.e., a relict. In the Ode on Athelstane's Victory in ' Ellis's Specimens of Early English Poets,' the word occurs twice : ' Mid hyra here leafuita,' with the lave or remainder ' of the army ;' and * Dreorig dare the la/,' ' dreary there the lave.' In the ex- cellent song of Burns, ' First when Maggy was my care,' the chorus ' whistle o'er the lave o't ;' could not be rendered by any synonyme, without the total destruction of the strength and beauty of the expression. ' Whistle o'er the t-est of it,' would be tame, besides being liable to the misinterpretation of rest for repose ; and ' whistle o'er the remainde7; rest, or residue of it,' would be prosaic. laze, to loll, to be idle, to lie in the sunshine doing nothing ; whence the adjective lazy. Cupid lazeth 'mong the fairy lasses. — Naies. Lea, j a field. Not obsolete in poetry, but almost obsolete in Lee, > prose. It survives in Scotland and the north of Eng- Ley, j land ; and throughout England as a termination to many well-known surnames, such as Stan/,f>', the stone-field ; Winstan/^j, the whin-stone field ; Edge/^, the field on the edge ; Endsleigh or Ends/ify, the field at the end ; Buck/^ the field of the beech tree ; Oak/^, the field of the oak ; Fairleigh or Fair/^y, the fair-field, &c. Leap, \ to leap. At what time this verb followed the analogy Lope, > of weep, creep, and sleep, and formed its preterite in Lopen, j leapt or lept, does not very clearly appear : And they laughing lope to her. — Piers Plotighman. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 137 Leap — continued. Have lopen the better. — Piers Ploughman. Up he lope and the window broke, And he had thirty foot to fall. Percy's Reliqiies : The Murder oftlie King of Scots^ Tom Rindle lope fra the chimley nook. Waugh's Lancashire Songs^ Lele, ) Leal J ^oyal, faithful, true ; ' The land o' the leal,' heaven. Her love is ever true and lele. Ciirsor Mimdi MS. Trin. Coll. Cantab, But a clere virgin that is lele, Has yet more than has the angele. — MS. Harl. ' Oh stop ! oh stop ! young man,' she said, ' For I in dule am dight, Oh stop and win a fair lady's love, If you be a leal tiwe knight.' — Ballad 0/ Sir Poland. I'm wearing awa, Jean, Like snow wreaths in thaw, Jean, I'm wearing awa, Jean, To the land o' the leal. Lady Nairne. Leal-heait never lied. Lang leal, lang poor. Spier at Jack Thief if I be a leal man. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Leath, cessation or soothing. The leath of pain in sleep. Leer, empty. This word is sufficiently common in every part of Devonshire ; a leer stomach, an empty stomach. — Giffard. A leer horse, a horse vrithout a rider (empty), whence the phrase- came to signify a led horse. — Nares, Iiceze, to approve, to be highly in favour of anything. Leeze me on the spinning-wheel. — Burns. Leman, a lover ; originally applied to both sexes, but in pro- gress of time, and in the improvement, or may be corruption of the language, applied solely to the female ; and by a still 138 LOST BEAUTIES OF Xeman — continued. later corruption, to signify a mistress, as distinguished from a wife. Many a lovely lady and letnan of knightes, Swooiiden and swelten for sorow of death's dints. Piers PloughiUan, Every maiden chose her lover, Every loiight his leman. Guy of Warwick. Of Ascalot, that maiden free, I said you, she was his leinaii. Morte Arthur. Xeme, Xeam ' > to shine ; a light The light of Heaven is a leme. Brighter than is the sone heme. MS. Ashmolc. The lawnces with lorayne and lemandc scheldes. MoHe Arthur. The starres with the leming leven, Shall sadly falle dovra from heaven. Cursor Mundi MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. , quoted by HalliwelL. Which causeth folk to dreden in their dremes, Of arwes and of fire with rede lemcs. Chaucer : The Nonncs Preeste's Talc. The bright leme of a torch. Sir T. Elyot. With lily-white cheek and leming eye, She look'd and laughed to him. The Jolly Goss-Hawlc, Border Minstrelsy. liesing, a lie, a falsehood. For we lived on the lesynges. Piers Ploughman. Lest, 1 to please. I lest, I please ; I list, I pleased ; I have Iiist, \lust, I have pleased; seem to have been the original Xust, j forms for the conjugation of this verb ; but at an early- period, the present, the preterite, and the past participle, were indiscriminately used as the infinitive. In Chaucer we find lest : And then our hoste began his horse to reste, And saide, lordes ! harkenelh if you lest. Tfic Knighte's Tale. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 139 lest — continued. In Lord Surrey's Translation of Virgil, and in the autho- rized translation of the Bible, it is list — To whatsoever land By sliding seas we listed them to lead. Surrey, jEneid. The wind bloweth where it listeth. yohn iii. 8. The past' participle lust had been perverted from its original meaning long before the divines, appointed by James I., had commenced the translation of the Bible ; and had come to signify unlawful or inordinate animal or worldly desire; as in the saying of Jesus: 'Whoso looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart ;' and in St. Paul's first Epistle to the ^ Corinthians : ' We should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.' Lest and lust were both converted into substantives, signi- fying delight and pleasure, but not necessarily in an evil sense. Chaucer, in the ' Knighte's Tale,' says, Farewell my life, my luste, and my gladness j and in the ' Assemblie of Fowles,' where he speaks of his own love of literature, he says : Of usage, what for lust, and what for love, In bookes rede I oft, as I you told. Fuller, in his ' Worthies,' has list instead of lust, in the same sense : Those Irish lords made their list the law to such whom they could overpower. From this root comes the modern word listless, without desire of pleasure ; and perhaps the colloquial expression to list (afterwards enlist) for a soldier, i.e., to please to become a soldier ; to go voluntarily, and not by conscription, as in other countries. let, to prevent, impede, or hinder. This word survives in the passports granted to British subjects by the Foreign Office, I40 L OST BE A UTIES OF Let — continued. in which the Princes and Potentates of Europe are notified to permit Mr. A. B., or C. D., to travel in their territories ' without let or hindrance.' Unhand me, gentlemen ! By heaven ! I'll make a ghost of him that lets me ! Shakespeare : Hamlet. Let, 1 to permit, to allow. — This verb has lost all its inflec- Iioot, \ tions in literary and colloquial English, but preserves Iietten, j them in the Scottish dialect. But letten him lede forth whom hym liked. Piers Plmtghman. And aye she loot the tears down fa' For Jock o' Hazeldean. Sir Walter Scott. Ye've loot the ponie o'er the dyke. — Burns. But dool had not yet letten her feel her want. Ross's Helenore. She'd pu'd him frae the milk-white steed, And loot the bridle fa'. Motherwell's Collection. Levin, ) the lightning. In Mr. Dasent's introduction to Leven, / ' Popular Tales from the Norse,' he says — ' The trolls cannot bear the glorious face of the sun, Balder's beaming visage, or the bright flash of Thor's levin bolt.' Chaucer rhymes the word with heaven, and imprecates vengeance on the scorners of women in a magnificent line : Thus sayest thou lorel, when thou goes to bed, And that no wise man needeth for to wed, Ne no man that intendeth unto heaven ; With wild thunder dint andfieiy LEVEN, Mote tliy welked neck be to be broke ! Wife of Bath's Prologue. The thunder with his fiery leven, So cruel was upon the heaven. — Gozver. Since that the sire of gods, and kings of men, Struck me with thunder, and with levening blast. Surrey. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 141 I>evin — continued. And when the flashing leven leaps to light Upon two stubborn oaks. Spenser: Faerie Qiieenc. To him as to the burning leven. Short, bright, resistless course was given. Scott : Marmion, Iievin-brand, a thunderbolt. His burning levin-brand in hand he took. Spenser: Faerie Queene. lewdster, an indecent, lewd, obscene person. Against such lewdsters and their lechery, Those that betray them do no treacheiy. Shakespeare : Merry Wives of Windsor. Lief, 1 derived from the Anglo-Saxon leaf, and German Hebe, Iiiever, > love or inclination ; but displaced in modern litera- Liefer, j ture by the less forcible phrases 'as soon as,' ' sooner,' ' rather.' The old forms are still current among the people all over England and Scotland, though banished from books. By him that all this world hath wrought, I had liefer thou wert a hog. Romance of Sir Gtiy of Warwick. Alle woman lievest would, Be sovereign of men's love. — Goiuer. But be him lief, or be him loth. Unto the earth forth he go'th. — Idem. And said anon with heavy cheer, AWe had liefer than all my kingdom dear, That I were fair out of this land. — Romance of Sir DegorS. I had as liefCcA tovm-crier cried my lines. Shakespeare : Hamlet. I had as lief not be, as live to be In awe of such a thing as I myself. — Shakespeare. Do not injure me so much as suppose I am a lavpyer, I had as lief be a Scotchman. — funius. And he that wad liefer drink water, Shall never be stinted by me, — WaugKs Lancashire Songs. 142 LOST BEAUTIES OF Iiief, dear. Oft have I heard my lief Corydon report on a love day. Robert Greene, 1590. Had my swam been liefia me. — Idevi. Iiift, the sky, the air, the atmosphere. This pure EngUsh word, though used in the north of England, and by the pre- decessors and contemporaries of Chaucer, has not yet suc- ceeded in re-establishing itself in modern English literature. In Scottish song it is well known, and for the purpose of ' poetry is far more expressive and beautiful than any of its synonymes. They had na sailed a league, A league, but barely three, When the lift gi-ew dark, and the wind blew hard. Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens. It is the moon, I ken her horn. That's blinldn' in the lift sae hie. She smiles so sweet to wile us hame. But by my troth she'll wait a wee. — Burns. Mr. Halliwell cites two instances of the use of this word from ' Cursor Mundi,' a MS. in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge : Some in the earth, some in the lift, and Now at the earth, now at the lift. In the ' Land of Cockayne,' quoted in ' Ellis's Specimens of Early English Poetry,' we find : N' is there hawk nor foul so swift. Better fleeing by the lift. , Iiigge, 1 from the German liegen, to lie down. This ancient Iiigged, J word is still in common use in Cumberland and Northumberland, and also in the Border Counties of Scot- land : So that the Holy Ghost Gloweth but as a glade. Till that lele love Ligge on him. — Piers Ploughman, What hawkes sitten on the perche above ! What houndes liggen on the floor adown ! Chaucer: TheKnighte's Tale. I have ligged for a fortnight in London, weak almost to death, and neglected by every one. — G, P, R. James : Cowrie, or the King's Plot. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 143 Iiimi) ' I ^°°^^» flexible, pliant. And had I lived when song was greet, And legs of trees were limber. — Teitnyson's Amphion. In America, limber is the most common form that the word assumes ; though in New England, limp has been transformed into limpsie or limsy. A story is told of a Virginian, who had made a consider- able fortune in Nova Scotia, who was met in the railway car, hurrying southward, by a friend, who inquired if he had left the north altogether. ' Yes,' he replied, ' I am very ill ; I wish to get home to die in the warm. I am frozen up. My bones are like icicles. I want to die limber.' Iiimmer, a blackguard, a thief, a jade, still used in Scotland, but only applied to women. The word occurs in Chaucer, but means a 'hound,' possibly from the French limier, a blood-hound. In the Border Counties, as may be seen in the ' Border Minstrelsy,' it is a word of reproach applied to either sex. What gart thee steal the Laird's Jocky horse. And limmer, what gart thee steal him, quoth he. Ballad of Dick of the Ccnif. His brother was hurt three days before, With limmer thieves, that did him prick. Nineteen bloody wounds lay him upon. — Old Ballad. Ne'er mind how Fortune waft and warp. Now comes the six and twentieth simmer, I've seen the bud upon the timmer. Still persecuted by the limmer, Fra year to year. — Bums: Epistle to Lapraik. What's that thou say'st, thou limmer loon ? Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. The nurse was a false limmer. As ever hung on tree. — Ballad of Lambert Linkin. Lin, ) a mere or pool of water on the moors or among the liinn, I mountains, of importance enough to be considered the source of a river or brook. Drayton in the ' Polyolbion,' describing the river Tivy, says : Tivy Cometh down from her capacious Un. S44 LOST BEAUTIES OF Iiin — continued. And in the same poem : And therefore to recount her rivers from her Hits. In Scotland the word either signifies a fall or cataract, or the pool formed underneath it. Corra Linn on the Clyde, and the Lynn of Dee, are the two most noted for their beauty. Xjin, or lins. This termination to many Scottish words sup- plies a shade of meaning not to be expressed in English but by a periphrasis ; as westlins, inclining towards the west. Aiblins, perhaps; from able-lins — inclining towards being able, or about to become possible. Backlins, inclining towards a retrogade movement. The westlin wind blaws loud and shrill. — Burns. Now frae the east neuk o' Fife the dawn Speel'd westlins up the lift. Allan Ramsay : Ckrisfs Kirk on the Green. linch, to beat, or chastise, a northern English word, intro- duced into America as lynch. Judge Lyjick, is a personifica- tion of the popular impulse to take summary vengeance upon a wrong-doer, and not to wait for the dilatory and customary forms of law. Xing, heath, heather. And he saw neither rich nor poor, But moss and ling, and bare wild moor. Romance of Sir Eget , Sir Grahame, and Sir Gray Steel. There was growing in that place where they were then encamped, very- much of that kind of heath or ling, which the Scotch call heather. Holinshed' s Historie of Scotland. lint, flax, from the old English Unne, whence also linen. Little he was, and wore a breast-plate made of Unne. Chapnan^s Homer. Lassie wi' the lint white locks. — Burns. Her hair it was lint white, Her skin it was milk white. Hector Macneil: Saw ye my wee thing. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 14S Iiintie, a linnet. Dr. Norman Macleod mentioned a conversation he had with a Scottish emigrant in Canada, who in general tenns spolie favourably of his position in his adopted country. ' But oh ! sir,' he said, ' there are no Unties in the woods and no braes like Yarrow.' — Dean Ramsay, The word Untie conveys to my mind more of tenderness and endear- ment towards the little bird than linnet. — Idem, Iiip-wise, wise of talk or lip, as distinguished from wise in brain or tliought. Iiippen, to rely or depend upon, to take a liking to. Never Uj>fen too much to a new friend or an old enemy. You'll beguile none but those that lippen to you. Ye may lippen to me, but look to yoursel. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverts, Iiiss, ) pleasure, aldn to bliss, and possibly the original form Iiisse, J of that word. Lord of life and of light. Of lisse and of payne. — Piers Ploughman, Lisse without an ende. — Idem, Iiite, few, small ; the diminutive of the word still survives as little, Iiith, movable property. ' Nor land nor lithl neither real nor personal property, was once a common phrase, long since obsolete ; see Halliwell's ' Archaic Dictionary.' lithe, calm, quiet, soft, tender, mild. She toolce up her son to her, And happed it full lithe. — MS. Cantab,, quoted by HalUwell, Iiithe-wort, the forget-me-not. Lithesome, )gg^jblg_ laissome, ) Iiither, wicked, lazy, wickedly idle. Nay, therefore, care you not, quod Nicholas, A clerk hath litherly beset his while, But if he could a carpenter beguile. Chaucer: The Millet^ s Tale, And lither folke to destroyen vice. Chaucer : The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, 10 " 146 LOST BEA UTIES OF Either — continued. Idleness most delectable to the flesh, which delighteth above measure in sloth and lithernesse. — Northbrooke, 1577 {HaUiwell\. If he were as long as he is lither, he might thatch a house without a ladder. — Cheshire Proverb. The dwarf was waspish, arch, and litherly. Sir W. Scott. Lithy, pliant, supple. Loathly, loathsome. Lob, to drop, to fall heavily on one side ; to avoid labour. Lob, Gaelic, lub, a twist, a bend, a trick ; lubaire, a deceitful person, a fool, a clumsy person. Farewell, thou lob of spirits. Shakespeare : Midsummer Nighfs Dream. Lob-lolly, a common colloquialism for a lazy fool ; a loUing fool. Lob's-pond, a prison, a place of confinement for one who will not work. Lodesman, a pilot. Lodemanage, pilotage. Lodestar, the Polar or leading star, by which ships were steered before the invention of the mariners' compass. Your eyes are lodestars. Shakespeare : Midsummer Nighfs Dream. Loft, preterite of lift, whence a loft, something lifted upon the rest of the house ; and aloft, lifted on high. The lark that sings aloft. The sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, To keep watch for the life of poor Jack. Dibdin. Lome, frequent; 'oft' and lome,' is a common phrase in old English literature, equivalent to the modem, but less elegant expression, ' time and again.' Long-home, the grave. Longsome, tedious. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 147 Iiooby, a man who lobs, or is unwilling to work. Iioof, the hollow of the hand. From the Gaelic lamh, pro- nounced laf, the hand. Touch with my lufe. Tffwnley Mysteries : quoted by Halliwell. See, here's my loof. — Burns. Iioon, a Stupid lout, or clown. The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon. Shakespeare: Macbeth. Iiooth, shelter, a sheltered place. Iiope, preterite of leap. Tom Rindle lope fra the chimley nook. Lancashire Songs, by Edwin Waugh, Iiorefather, a man eminent for his erudition, or lore; a teacher. Of all men they do most evil. Their lorefather is the devil. MS. Harleian, quoted by Halliwell, Loresman, a teacher. Iiorel, a dissolute person. To love and live, As well lorel as lele. Piers Ploughman. Wolleward (miserable) and wetshod. Went I forth after, And yede forth like a lorel. All my life-time, Till I wox weary of the world. Piers Ploughman. Lorn, lost. Wlio after that he had fain Una lorne. Spenser. This word survives m forlorn, utterly lost, or disconsolate, and in \oyt-lom, and \ass-lorn. Losengerie, flattery, lying. In lecherie and losengeries. Ye liven and in sleuthe. Piers Ploughman. ■10 — 2 148 LOST BEAUTIES OF Iiosengerie — continued. Lecherie, losengerie. And lorels tales, Gluttony and gi-eat othes. This mirth they love. Piers Ploughman. T °^t' I '° i^S'^'s 3. curtsey, or an obeisance, to bow down. And then touted I down, And he me leave granted. Creed of Pias Ploughman. To which image both yonge andolde, Commanded he to lout and have in dread. Chaucer: The Monk's Tale. And I am touted by a traitor villain. Shalzespeare : Henry VI., part I. They tottied to that ladye. Percy's Reliques : On Alliterative Metre. From this verb comes the substantive, 'a lout,' an awk- ward, ungainly person, who makes an obeisance to a supe- rior. lovable, ) amiable Loveworthy, J Iiovesome, amiable. Oh, tovesome ladle bright ! How have ye fared since that ye were there ? Chauca- ; Troilus and Cresseide. Iiowe, a heat, a flame, a blaze, whence whitlow, or white heat, a painful tumor on the finger. Raise a great Ivwe. MS. Lincoln, quoted by Halliwcll. The sacred toive o' weel placed love. Luxuriantly indulge it. Bums: Epistle to ayoungfiiend. IiOAvn, still, calm. ' Unbuckle your belt. Sir Roland,' she said, 'And set you safely down.' ' Oh, your chamber is veiy dark, fair maid, And the night is wondrous loivn.' THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 149 liown — continued. ' Yes, dark, dark, is my secret bower, And lown the midnight maybe. But there's none waking in a' this tower, But thou, true love, and me. ' Ballad of Sir Roland, in Motherwell's Collection; supposed to be quoted by Shakespeare in. King Lear. ' Keep lowne,' an old Border phrase ; keep it secret ; keep it in the shady place ; or, in the modern phrase, ^eep dark. Violets growing in the lown. IiUbbard, ) a man who might work, but will not ; applied by Iiubber, j sailors in another sense to a landsman who does not understand sea work, or does it awkwardly. Mr. Halli- well quotes from 'The Burning of Paule's Church, 1563,' a description of an abbey lubber, a person fed by the monks, one that was idle, well fed ; a lazy, lewd, lither loiterer; from the same root as lob. Iiug, the ear ; this word, common in Scotland, is colloquial in the east of England, but almost obsolete in literature. Can ye think your clumsy lugs so proper to decide as the delicate ears of Justice Midas ? — Midas. If sorrow, the tyrant, unveil thy breast, Draw out the foul fiend by the lug, the lug. Songs of the London Prentices and Trades, edited for the Pe>-cy Society, Iiugsome, heavy, cumbrous, difficult, to lug or drag along- This /iiijgage is a little too lugsome. Iitim, a chimney. ' The lang lums of Glasgow;' i.e., the tall chimneys of the Glasgow cotton factories. This word is common in Lancashire and the Northern counties. Iiuneh, in Scottish phrase, a large piece of bread, cheese, beef, &c., whence the modern English word ' lunch.' _ This meal in Scotland is called a f>iece, the two words being synony- mous. ISO LOST BEAUTIES OF Iiush, juicy ; from the Gaelic lus, an herb, a succulent plant. How lush and lusty the grass looks, how gi-een. Shakespeare: The Tempest. The lush VfOodhine.—rMilien. The modem slang /usA, signifying beer, wine, or other intoxicating drink, is proljably derived from the adjective so effectively employed by Shakespeare and Milton. lusk, a lazy lubber. Here is a great knave, a lither liisi, an idle lubber. Acolasius, 1540. Luxome, shiny. Iiiard' I ^^''^ ^^ Gaelic Hath, grey'; a grey horse. This word occurs in the ' Dictionary of the Oldest Words in the English Language,' by Herbert Coleridge. I may no longer lithe, quoth he, And lyardhs pricked. Piers Ploughman. His lyart haffets ; (thin grey locks). Robert Burns. Twa had manteels 0' doleful black. But ane wi' lyari lining. Burns : The Holy Fair. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 151 Ma.ffle, to stammer, to stutter. To stammer or maffle in speech. — Florio. In such staggering and maffling wise. — Holinshed. Maker, a poet ; the Greek IIw/etjis, and the Anglo-Saxon skope or scope ; — a shaper or maker. The most curious maker of them all (Ben Jonson). Drayton's Elegies. Malodorous, having a bad smell. Mal-taleut, talent misapplied. Great gradge and- mal-ialent. Spenser: Faerie Queene. Malison, a curse. The twin-word benison, a blessing, has been admitted into the English dictionaries, but malison is still excluded, although it was a recognised English word in the time of ' Piers Ploughman ' and Chaucer. Thus they serven Sathanas And soules beguileth Marchaunds of malisons. Piers Ploughman. The curse and malesoun of God. Archbishop Hamilton's Catechisme. I've won my mother's malison. Coining this night to thee. Annan Water: Border Minstrelsy. This is a cuckold's malison. John Anderson, my Jo. John Anderson, old version in the Convivial Songster, 1787- Manuner, to hesitate, to doubt. I wonder in my soul, What you could ask me that I should deny. Or stand so mammering on. Shakespeare: Othello. Euphues perused this letter several times, being in a mammenng how to answer. — Lilly: Euphues to his England. Mammock, a shred, a fragment. Mammocks of stone. Optick Glass of Humours, 1639. Manfulness, virtue, or the fulness of manhood ; the exact synonyme of the Latin and French virtus and vertu. 1S2 LOST BEAUTIES OF Mantle, to cream or sparkle like ale, wine, or effervescent waters. Many. The peasantry in all parts of England say, * there was a many.' Literature says, '& great many,' or ' a good many.' anymong, I ^^ j^j^ny sorts, or mixtures. Menemong, J ■' ' Menemong corn bread. Piers Ploughman. Mare, a demon, or imp j whence vix^t-mare. — Halliwell. Marrow, a mate, equal, companion, sweetheart; anything fellow to, or exact counterpart of another. Pore husbondes that bave no inarrowes. Hunting of the Hare. Thou took our sister to be thy wife, But ne'er thocht her thy marrow. The Doioie Dens o' Yarrow. Busk ye ! busk ye ! my bonnie bonnie bride, Busk ye, busk ye, my winsome viarroza. William Hamilton, of Bangour : The Braes of Yarrow . One glove or shoe is marrow to another. MS. Landowne, quoted by Halliwell. None stood unmarrow'd save my Nan and me. Evian Clark : Cumberland Ballads. Let Mons Meg and her marrow three volleys let flee. For love of the bonnets of Bonnie Dundee. Bonnie Dundee, Sir Walter Scott. Meddle with your marrow ; (i.e., liit one of your own size). Your een are no marrows ; (i.e., you squint). Love and lordship like nae marrow. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. ^^ I a goblet. Maser, Mazer, A greater cuppe, brode and deepe, such as great mazers were wont to be. — -Cooper's Dictionary, 1559. Masterful, insolent, commanding, imperious. A mastetful hegga.! ; i.e., an insolent beggar. Math, a mowing. THE ENGLISH LANG UA GE. 153 Maul, a heavy hammer. A man that beareth false witness against his neighbours, is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow. Proverbs, chap. xxv. verse 18, Maund, a basket Maunder, to go about with a basket, begging. Maundering for buttermilk. Beaumont and Fleklier, Maup, to gape about stupidly ; to ' moon.' Maups, a silly girl ; a simpleton. Mavis, the singing thrush, as distinguished Trom the missal thrush, or screech thrush ; a softer and more euphonious word than that now employed ; and formerly used by the best English writers, though now left wholly to the Scotch. Crows, popingayes, pyes, peacocks, and mavis. Ashmole, 1652. The swallow, martin, linnet, and the thrush. The mavis that sings sweetly in the bush. Taylor, 1630. The thnish replies ; the mavis descant plays. Spenser : Epithalamiuin . When to the mirthful merle the warbling mavis sings. Drayton^ s Polyolbion. In vain to me, in glen or shaw. The mavis and the lintwhite sing. Bums, ' An eccentric divine discoursing on a class of persons who were obnoxious to him, concluded with this singular peroration : " Ma freens, it is as impossible for a moderate to enter into the kingdom of heaven, as for a soo (sow) to sit on the tap o' a thistle and sing like a mavis T ' Illustrations of Scottish Life. Maw, the stomach. This word now signifies the stomach of birds and animals, but formerly signified that of the human species. ' Maw-bound,' says Mr. Halliwell, ' is a phrase com- mon in Cheshire to express costiveness.' Mawks, a slatternly, ignorant, stupid, and dirty young woman. May, from the Anglo-Saxon maeg, a girl, a sweetheart, and not an abbreviation for poetical and rhyming purposes, as Bishop Percy supposed, of maid or maiden; The fairest may she was that ever went. Her like she has not left behind I weene. — Spenser. 154 LOST BE A UTIES OF May — continued. Sir Caulyne loveth her best of all, But nothing durst he say, Ne descreeve his counsaile to no man. But dearly he loved this may. Ballad of Sir Caulyne, Pa'cy's Reliques. He gazed upon this bonnie may. Fairer than Bell of Oronsay. — The Dance of Ballochroy. Mayhap, ) perhaps ; a more purely English word than its M'happen, \ modem synonyme, of which the first syllable is Mayhappen, ) of Latin, and the second of Saxon derivation. JWhaffen you thought it was me. — Ctimberland Ballads. Maze, to bewilder ; whence amaze and amazement. ' A mazed man,' is a man so confused in his mind, as to be irrespon- ' sible for his actions. Mealyjgi'^'iy- Somehow it made me meazy. — Tim Boihin, Mazle, to wander about from place to place, without plan or purpose. Meadmonth., July. Meal, from the German mahl, a time; and applied par ex- cellence, to &\nx\tx-time, thence known as the meal, or time for eating. The Germans use ein mahl, once ; zwei mahl, twice ; drei mahl, thrice ; and upwards to any number of times. In English the word, as distinguished from a repast, only sur- vives in piece-wra/, done by pieces at a time ; and inch-wi?a/, by inches at a time. In ' Cymbeline,' the phrase occurs : Oh ! that I had her here, to tear her limb-mm/; i.e., to tear her to pieces, a limb at a time. ^^^'^^' I a boundary. Meere, J ' Meden, to reward ; from whence the modern substantive, ' meed,' reward. And medeth men. To maintayne his laws. — Piers Ploughman. Meere-brook, a boundary brook. Meere-stone, a boundary stone. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 155 Meere-tree, a boundary tree. That on the Cambrian side, Doth Shropshu-e as a meare from Hereford divide. Drayton's Polyolbion^ Miokle' Is'^^^'-j ^ word common to all the midland and MuckJe I'^O'^'h of England, and to Scotland. The name of an honest woman is muckle worth. Meikle water runs by, that the miller knows nothing of. Better be blythe with little, than sad with muckle. A proud heart wi' a poor purse, has muckle dolor to dree (endure), A wee spark may make muckle wark. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs, Oh muckle thinks my love 0' my beauty. — Bums. Melch, mild, soft, wet (applied to the weather). Mell, to mix or mingle (French, mekr). Hell-Sylvester, the honeysuckle. Meniality, domestic servants, menials. Merle, the blackbird. To walk and take the dew by it was day, And hear the merle and mavis. Chaucer : The Complaint of Cresseide. The mavis it made myrth for to mock the merle. Complaint of Scotland.. The merle upon her myrtle perch. There to the mavis sings, Who from the top of some curl'd birch. Those notes redoubled rings. — Drayton's Elysium. Mereswine, sea-swine, the porpoise. lileth, courteous, mild. Thou wast meek and meth, A maiden mild. — MS. Lincoln, quoted by Halliwell. All that was menye mild and meth. Went with him to Nazereth. — Cursor Mundi, Trin, Col. Cam, Mever, bashful. Meverly, bashfully. €56 LOST BEAUTIES OF JMezzel, the leprosy. JVtezzly, blotchy. JMevy, the gull, the sea-mew. About his sides a thousand sea gulls trod, The vievy and the halcyon. — Brown's Britannia! s Pastorals. miieh or Meeeh., to skulk, act by stealth, or indulge in secret amours. Mieher, a truant or skulker ; a clandestine lover. Examples of the use of these words are frequent in Shake- speare, and contemporary authors. In ' Euphues,' as quoted in Nares' ' Glossary,' is the passage : ' What made the gods so often to truant from heaven and mich here on earth ?* In ' Henry IV.' Part i., is the passage, put into the mouth of Falstaff : ' Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a mieher, and eat blackberries ?' The ' Scornful Lady,' of Beaumont and Fletcher, has, Sure she has Some meeching rascal in the house. Spenser in his account of Ireland, has the passage : ' Lest any of them should straggle up and down the country, or mich in corners among their friends idly.' Chaucer speaks of a ' mieher forsworn ;' and Gower of mieherie and miching. In Selby's ' Mother Bombie,' 1594, quoted by Halliwell, we iind, ' How like a mieher he stands, as if he had truanted from poverty.' MichS est un particulier qui a du michon, ou de I'argent ; un individa ■qui paye les faveurs des fiUes. Ces jeunes demoiselles Pour paraitre plus belles Aux yeux des michis. Francisque Michel : Diciionnaire d' Argot Francais. In Kent and Sussex, meeeh is still a common word to express the stealthy creeping of a cat after its prey. Midden, a provincial word in common use, not admitted into the dictionaries — a dunghill. Midden, crow, a carrion crow. Midmorn, nine in the morning. Midafternoon, ) ,, • ., „ Midovernoon, | ^^"^^^ ^^ '^^ afternoon. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 15.7 Midwinter, Christmas. Miff, a slight fit of ill-temper. Mildhood, mildness. Milth, to pity, or pardon, or feel com.passion for. Milthe, softness, mercifulness. Mim, from the Gaelic min, soft ; prudish, prim, and discreetly silent, applied only to women ; or contemptuously to effemi- nate men, as in the phrase, ' He's as mivi as a maiden.' In this sense the word is distinguished from mum, which means silent, or secret only, without reference to sex, as in the current slang, 'mum's the word.' Shakespeare says, 'the citizens are mum ■ and Master Slender in the ' Merry Wives of Windsor,' complains that he went to the pretended Anne Page, and cried mum, and she cried budget as appointed. The word mim has a meaning of its own, which should preserve it in the language. It is derived by some authorities from the Greek mimeo, to imitate by action without speaking ;. whence mimicry, mimic, and pantomime. And now came tlie night o' feet washing, And Bessie looked mim and scarce. yamieson's Popular Ballads. Now Nancy all the while was playing prim. As any lamb as modest ; and as mim. — Ross's Helenore. To market ride the gentlemen, So do we, so do we, Then comes the country clown, Hobbledy gee ! First go the ladies, viim, mim, mim ; Next come the gentlemen, trim, trim, trim ; Then comes the comitry clown, Gallop a trot, trot, trot. — Nursery Rhymes of England. Maidens should be mim till they're married. Allan Ramsay s Scottish Proverbs. Mim-mon'd Meg; (i.e., gentle or primly-mouthed Meg.) jSurris. Ming, to mix ; whence the diminutive mingle, to mix in small quantities. The Americans have the phrase ' mung' news, using the ancient preterite of ming — signifying news that is contradictory, or truth mixed up with falsehood. The busy bee her honey now she mings. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Ming his pride and poverty. Kendall's Poems, 1577. 858 LOST BEAUTIES OF "Mint, 1 to essay, to try, to aim, to attempt, to prove the IVEmted, j genuineness of metals before coinage. Minting s not making (attempting's not doing). Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. A minted [attempted] excuse. The Two Lancashire Lovers, 1660. The word remains in Mint — the Assay Office. Miredrum, the bittern. Mirk, ) dark, gloomy. This word has for upwards of a cen- liliirk, J tury been almost wholly abandoned to the use of Scottish writers, although Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton have rendered it classic English. Twice in mirk and occidental damp, Moist Hesperus hatli quenched her sleepy lamp. Shakespeare: All's Well that Ends Well. Then to her iron waggon she betakes. And with her bears the foul, well-favoured witch, Through mirltsome air her ready way she makes. Spenser^ s Faei-ie Qtieene. So scented the grim feature and upturned His nostril wide into the mirky air ; Sagacious of his quarry from afar. Milton's Paradise Lost. "Mirkshade, the evening, twilight, the gloaming. Erroneously printed in Halliwell's 'Archaic Dictionary* as muck-shade, and by Grose as muck-shut. Jffiirthen, to grow mirthful, to make merry. And as the wick and fire Will make a warm flame. For to mirthen me now, That in the dark sitten. Piers Ploughman. Mither, to perplex, confuse, bewilder. Mithers, perplexing. To be in the mithers, to know not what to do. Miss, to go wrong. To do amiss, to do a wrong, or to act wrongfully. To miss the way, to go the wrong way. As a prefix, this syllable might be made to accommodate itself to every active verb in the language, but is not employed to THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 159 Miss — continued. the same extent among us, as it was in the youth of our literature. We have still such words as misfit, misgovern, misjudge, misinterpret, misname, miscall, misplace, misplead, mismanage, mislead, misprint, &c. ; but many very con- venient and expressive words, in which the prefix was 1 formerly employed, have dropped out of books and conver- sation. Free-thinker, for instance, is a word that would be much better rendered by misthinker, or one who thinks wrongly. Misbelieve. That lewed man in misbelief lie and die. Piers Ploughman. Misbelief and false suspection, Have trath brought to his damnation. Chaucer. And coming to her son 'gan first to scold, And chide at him that made her misbelieve. Sfenser. And heard the hooded fathers mumbling charms, That made those misbelievers man and wife. Dryden. Mischoose. We mischoose the day. Stow's Annals, Misdeem, to judge erroneously. He who misconceiveth, oft misdeemeth. Chaucer, Misdo. Misdeed remains in common use, but the verb misdo, to do wrong, is seldom employed. In modem phrase we say, ' I have done it wrongly, or badly,' instead of ' I have misdone it.' Misexpense, unwise expense, prodigality, reckless expenditure, money wrongly applied. Misfall, to happen, or befall wrongly, or unfortunately. Thereat she 'gan to triumph with great boast, And to upbraid that chance which him misfell. Spenser. i6o LOST BEAUTIES OF Misfare, to fare or go ill, or wrong. Their own viisfaring will not see. Colin Cloufs come home again. Misgang, a failure, a going wrong. Misgo, to go wrong, ox to the wrong place. Alas ! quo' she, I had almost misgone. I had almost gone to the clerks bedde. Chaucer : The Rev^s Tale. Mislike, to have no favourable inclination ; less positive than dislike. Setting your scorn and your misKke aside, Tell me some reason why the Lady Gray Should not become my wife, and England's queen. ^ Shakespeare: Henry VI. Mislive, to lead a wicked life. If he mislive in lewdness and lust. Little bootes all the wealth and the trust. That his father left by inheritance. Spenser : Shepherd's Calendar. Misproud, proud for a wrong reason^ or in a wrong cause. Impairing Henry, strengthening misproud York. Shakespeare: Henry VI. Misthink, to think wrongfully. But I with better reason him avized. And show'd him how, through error and misthought. Of our like persons, each to be disguised. Or his exchange a freedom might be wrought. Spenser : Faerie Queene. Mith, power, might. Mr. Halliwell says the word is still in use, but gives no quotation. It would be useful as a rhyme. Mithe, to conceal. Mixen, a dunghill. Moble, to cover with a veil. The mobled queen. Shakespeare : Hamlet. The moon doth moble up herself. Shirley's Merchant of Venice. Their heads and faces are moiled in fine linen. Sandys, THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE, 1 6 1 Mow, \ to distort the mouth in scorn, to make grimaces ; from Moe, / the French ' faire la nrnie.' Unto his mother they complained, Which grieved her to heare ; And for these pranks she threatened him He should have whipping cheer. If that he did not leave his tricks. His jeering mocks and mows. The Merry Puck, quoted by Halliwdl. Sometimes like apes that moe and chatter at me, And after bite me. Shakespeare: The Tempest. Mffivs may come to earnest. Ravisays Scottish Proverbs. Moffle, to spoil work, to do anything badly, and without know- ledge. Moither I ^° (^o^ifuse, perplex, distract, bewilder. I have been strangely moidered e'er sin' about this same news o' the French king. I canna believe 'tis true. Nares : Wit of a Woman. Moidery, confused, thick, from whence moithery and moihery, turbid ; applied to liquors. It is not enough to malce the clearest liquor in the world both feculent and viothery. — Tristram Shandy. As touching the mother or lees of olive oil. Holland : Translation of Pliny. Theyoint their naked limbs with mother' doW. — Diyden: Virgil. Mole, a spot on the face or skin ; formerly any kind of spot on a garment, or piece of furniture. Thy best coat Hath many moles and spottes. — Piers Ploughman. Molt, preterite of ' melt ;' whence the past participle molten ; as ' molten gold,' ' molten metal.' Molt--water, drops of perspiration. Moly, a plant known only to the poets, who ascribed to it fabulous virtues. It is known to general readers by the allusion in Milton's ' Comus.' — Nares. The herb moly hath a flower as white as snow, and a root as black as ink. — Lillys Euphues. II 152 LOST BEAUTIES OF Mome, a stupid or silly person, a blockhead. Parnassus is not clomb, By every such mome. — Drayton. I dare be bold awhile to play the mome. Mirror for Magistrates. Mong, preterite of ming, mingled; whence the preposition among, i.e., mingled with. Monger, a retail dealer or mixer ; formerly applied to every one who traded, whatever was the article he sold or mixed. The word remains in ixoxmonger, chttszpwriger, costermonger, tn^tmonger; and might be advantageously combined with money, as raoneymonger, a dealer in gold and silver ; and with slander, as a s\a.-adermonger, a retailer of scandals. Moon, to drivel, to talk in a crazy manner. Moonflaw, the wild fancy of a lunatic. I fear she has a moonflaw in her brains, She chides and fights that none can look on her. — Nares. Moonling, a lunatic. I have a husband and a two-legged one, But such a moonling I — Ben Jonson. Moony, silly, affected, by the moon. Mop, ) a young girl. In the west of England, a fair to Moppet, J which young girls resort, to be hired for domestic or farm service, is still called a mop. Mopsey, a slovenly girl. Mortling, an animal found on the fields, woods, or moors, still-born, or dead of disease. A wretched withered mortling, and a piece of carrion. — Nares. Mosie, rough like the beard, hairy. Most, an augmentation of the superlative, used with great effect by Shakespeare and the writers of his time. I love thee best, oh, most best, believe it . — Hamlet. To take the basest and most poorest shape. — King Lear. Mote, ) the original preterite of meet, to assemble, afterwards Moot, j superseded by met. The word survives in Wittenage- mote, the meeting of the wise men ; and in the verb to moot a qustion ; i.e., to raise a question that only can be decided by public meeting or discussion. A Town Hall was formerly a moot house ; and is thus rendered in Wickliffe's Bible. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 163 Mother.naked, stark or utterly naked, naked as a new-bora babe. They'll shape me in your arms, Janet, A dove, hut and a swan. And last they'll shape me in your arms, A mother-naked man ; Cast your green mantle over me, I'll be myself again. The Young Tamlaiu: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Mother-tongue, native language. Mother-wit, innate ability. Moudy, a mole-catcher. Moudy-hill, a mole-hill. Moudy-rat, a mole ; from mouldy-rat ; a rat of the mould. Moudy-warp, a mole; one that warfis or throws up the mould. Monitor, the toll or tax taken by a miller for grinding com. ■ The qualcer's wife got up to hake, Her children all about her. She gave them every one a cake. And the miller wants his moulter. Nursery Rhymes of England. It's good to be merry and wise. Quoth the miller, when he moultered twice. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proveris. Motirnival, from the Gaelic muirn, hospitable, a term at cards ; to have four of any of the court cards in one's hand, or to hold four aces. It can be no treason to drink and sing, A mournival of healths to our new crowned king. Bronte's Cavalier Song on the Restoration of Charles IL Mow-land, grass-land ; meadow-land that may be mowed, or mown. Mowen, | or > to be able ; infinitive of ' may.' Mowe, j ' Thou shalt not mowe suffer;' i.e., thou shalt not be able to suffer. Moy, moist. Mild and moy. — Evergreen, by Allan Ramsay, II — 2 i64 LOST BEAUTIES OF Mulch, straw which is half rotten, and saturated for manure. Mung, preterite of ming, to ming or mingle ; when the sub- stantive meaning the mingled food of bread, potatoes, &c., thrown to poultry. See Ming and Moiig. Mureh, mischief; (a Devonshire word). 'The Old Murcher,' the devil. Mrirchy, mischievous. Murge, to rejoice. In May it murget/i. Advice to the Fair Sex: Fitson's Ancient Songs and Ballads. Mttrne, mournful, sorrowful. Mtirr, a cold in the head ; the influenza ; whence perhaps murrain, the ancient name of the rinderpest or cattle plague. The murr, the headache ; the catarrh, the bone-ache. C/iaJ>man's Mons. D' Olive. Deaf ears, blind eyes, the palsy, gout, and m-un: Rmvland, 1613. Murrain, the cattle plague. Mush, preterite of mash j to reduce to a consistency ; or, as the English cookery books, derived from the French, say, to make z.purie. In America, porridge either of oatmeal or of Indian corn, rice, beans, peas, or other vegetable, is called mush. The word is current in the north of England. Muss, a scramble, a confusion, a difficulty. This word, though little used in England, is common in America. Of late when I cry'd ho ! Like boys unto a muss, kings ivould start forth And cry — Yoiu" will ? Shakespeare : Antony and Cleopati-a. Striving as children play at muss. — Florio. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 165 Wab, the top, or head j the same as Knabb — q. v. Wake, 1 to denude of covering. — The preterite survives as JJfaked, J an adjective; the infinitive is lost. Come, be ready ! nake your swords. Think of your wrongs ! Nares R.vcng^s Tragedy, Ifantle, to fondle, to caress. ITapery, table linen ; from the French napfie, a table-cloth ; whence also Napier, the patron)rmic of a very distinguished family, and synonymous with ' draper.^ From this word also is napkin, a little cloth. Ifappy, comfortable, sleepy, predisposing one to ' nap ;' hence applied to ale and strong beer. This word is sometimes written noppy and nobby, as derived from nob, the head; whence it is applied to liquor that mounts into the head, and which is, as the French say of Burgundy wine, capiteux. With nappy beer I to the barn repaired. — Gay. Care, mad to see a man so happy, E'en drowned himself among the nappy. Burns : Tarn 0' Shunter. While we sit bousing at the nappy. And getting fou' and mico happy. — Idem. Twa bottles of as nappy liquor, As ever reamed in horn or bicker. Ramsay : The Monk and the RRller's Wife., Ifash, chilly ; a Wiltshire word. Ifast, dirt, filth, whence the adjective, nasty. Ifay, a negative, to be distinguished from No by many delicate shades of meaning. No, supposes will, or pre-judgment. Nay, supposes error, or somethirig to be argued out. Will you marry me ? No. Are two and three six ? Nay. Was Mahomet a tnie prophet ? No, or nay. Both may be said. The one negative excludes argument, the other per- mits it. Ifay-word, a denial. i66 LOST BEAUTIES OF Ue. This form of negative was formerly prefixed to all verbs beginning with a vowel or an aspirate. Chaucer uses liadde for ne hadde, or had not ; riis for ne is, or is not ; riam for ne am, or am not ; liere for ne were, or were not ; and n'isf for ne wist, or wist not. Prefixed to will, it became nil, noleo, ne will, to will not, to be unwilling ; whence the phrase, willy nilly, or nolens volens. NyUiiig to dwell wliere sin is wrought, Ashmolc, 1652. Their answei-s were nought for to hide, They nolde be of his assent. Morte Arthur. And iio!di: call hei-self none other name. Lydgate, MS. Soc. Antiq. Hanne noldc he do none. Chron. Vilodun, cpiotcd by HalHisdl. Will you, nill you, I will nian-y you. Shakespeare. I nill thine offered gi-ace. Spenser. In scorn or friendship nill I construe whether. Shakespeare : Poems. . Unto the founts Diana nild repair. Robert Greene ; Naier too late, 1 590. Wesley attempted to revive nill, and -wrote : Man wills something, because it is pleasing to liim ; and nills some- thing, because it is painfiil to nature. Lectures on the English Language, by G. P. Marsh. Heap, ) a turnip. French, navet; Gaelic, neip. Mr. Halliwell Ifeep, ] quotes this word as used in Cornwall. In Scottish popular parlance its use is universal. Whence the first sylla- ble in the ordinary English word was derived, and when it was added, is difficult to discover. A story is told of a late Lord Justice-Clerk, that when out in pursuit of game, and passing through a turnip-field, he ■was rudely hailed by the farmer to ' come out o' that.' His Lordship, not liking to be addressed in this disrespectful manner, asked the angry man if he knew to whom he was speaking. ' No, I dinna.' ' Well, I'm' the Lord Justice- Clerk.' ' I dinna care whose clerk ye are ; but ye'se come out 0' my neeps' THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 167 TTeb, the nose, a beak, a bird's bill j old English, nebbe. How she holds up the neb, the bill to him, And arms her with the boldness of a wife. Shakespeare: Winter's Tale. Turn your neb northwards, and settle for a whUe at St. Andrews. — Scott : The Fortunes of Nigel. Heek-weed, hemp ; a metaphorical expression for a rope. I Keeded, the preterite of need is still used in such phrases as, ' he needed assistance ;' but is being superseded by the pre- sent tense of the verb, in such instances as, ' I told him he need not do it.' To avoid this incorrectness, a periphrase is often employed : ' I told him it was not necessary that he should do it.' M" eeze, to snort ; as distinguished from sneeze. By his (the Leviathan's) neezing, a light doth shine. Job, chap, xii., verse 18. And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh, And yexen (hiccough) in their mirth and neeze and swear. Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream. Weist, the next, or nearest. Mr. Halliwell quotes this word as current in Devonshire. The present moment is our own, The ncist we never saw. — Burns. •Nesli, fresh, tender, delicate, soft ; applied to vegetables, fruit and foliage. Nice, which is now used in the sense of nesh, originally meant, silly, affected, foolish, from the French niais. The darker fir, light ash, and the nesh tops of the young hazel. Crowe's Lewesdon Hill. Take the root of horsehelme and seethe it long in water, and then take the nescheste thereof. MS. Lincoln, quoted by Hallitvell. 1 68 LOST BEA UTIES OF Wever-a-dele, not a bit, never a bit — none in the least. Be it right or wrong, these men among Of women do complain, Affirming this, how that it is A labor spent in vain To love them well, for nmer-Ordek, They love a man again. The Nut Brown Maid. Niderling, a little, mean, inhospitable person. Ifiding, a low, mean, contemptible person ; formerly the most opprobrious word that could be applied to anybody. When there was a dangerous rebellion against King William Rufus, he proclaimed that all subjects should repair to his camp, upon no other penalty but that, whoever refused to come, should be reputed a niding. * ♦ * xhe people swarmed to him immediately from all sides. — Camden's Remains. He is a niding, the pulse of whose soul beats but faintly towards heaven. — Howell, quoted by Mares. Wieve, the fist, the closed hand. He hasna as muckle sense as a cow could haud in her neive. — Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Mark the rustic, haggis-fed. The trembling earth resounds his tread, Clap in his walie nieve a blade, He'll mak' it whissle ; An' legs an' arms an' heads will sned Like taps o' thrissle. Burns : To a Haggis. Nieveful, as much as the closed hand or nieve will contain. Nevil ' 1 ^ ^^°^ ^'^ ^^ nieve or fist. Niffer, to exchange. Ye shall na be niffered but for a better. It's no easy to niffer you for anything worse. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. You see your state with theirs compared. And shudder at the niffer. Burns : Address to the unco guid and rigidly righteous. ThE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 169 Wightertale, the night time ; the whole night long. His men come by tughtertale. With them away his body stale. Cursor Mundi: MS. Trin. Col. Cantab, (quoted by ffalliwdl). By nigJUei-tale he was slain by King Darius. MS. Soc. Antiq. The nightingale, Within a temple shapen hawthorn wise, He might not slepe in all the rdghtertale. Chaucer: Court of Love. Nim, to take ; German, fiehmen. Fetchen I wolde of my next neighbour. And tiimmen of his earth. Piers Ploughman. Ifimster, a thief. Shakespeare probably had the word Nim in his mind when he invented and named the famous Corporal ' Nym.' Kinniver, the white water-lily. Ifinny-wateh, the expectation of a fool ; a vain,"over-sanguine hope. S^¥e, } ^i<=kedness. In pride and treachery. In nithe and lechery. Cursor Mundi MS. {quoted by Halliwell. ) Noggle, to walk awkwardly. Ifoiles, 1 If oils, > coarse and inferior knots in wool. Ifoyls, J By a statute of James I., no one was permitted to put ttoyles into woollen cloth. — Halliwell. M" ones, the hours midway between noon and sunset. That eten nought but at nones. — Piers Ploughman. Ifooiiscape, the escape from work at noon ; when day-labourers dine and take a rest. Ifoonslmn, the meal taken at noonscape ; whence nuiuheoii, a lunch. Harvest folk with curds and clotted cream. On sheaves cf com were at their nooitshun dose. Brownis Britannia's Pastorals. 17° L OST BE A UTIES OF Ifoneheon, la lunch, or mid-day refreshment j the same as Ifuneheon, \ noonshun. Ifope, the bullfinch. irij- The sparrow, the nope^ the redbreast, and the wren. Drayton^ s Polyolbion , For my lord's daughter she is, And I, his nori, forsooth, I was. — Guy of Warwick. If oughty, having nought, poor, possessed of nothing. JSTover, high, arable land, above a steep bank. Ifowl, the head of an animal, as distinguished from that of a man. An ass's nowl I fixed upon his head. Shakespeare : Midsummer Night's Dream. Ifowte, horned cattle ; corrupted in modem English into neat. Nowte geld, was the name formerly given in the north to a comage, or tax upon cattle. Mischief begins \vith needles and pins, and ends with honied nowte. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. And in your lug, most reverend James, To hear you roar and rowte. Few men of sense will doubt your claims To rank among the nowte. Burns : Epistle to the Rev. James Stevens. Goodly nmvt both fat and big with bone. Nares' English Glossary. Lord Seafield, who was accused by his brother of accept- ing a bribe to vote for the union betwixt England and Scot- land, endeavoured to retort upon him by calling him a cattle- dealer. ' Ay, weel,' replied his brother, ' better sell nowte than nations.' Hoy, annoyance. With little noy they can convoy, A matter finally. Ramsay. "Sixth, from nieve, the fist. Hubble, to bruise with the fist. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 1 7 b Wubbly, ) large and rounded like the fist ; a mibbly piece of Knubbly, J bread. Wug, a rude, unshapen piece of timber, a block {HalliweH), whence perhaps the modern word nugget, a little nug (of gold), first introduced or re-introduced into the language by the gold miners of Australia. Nurly, 1 lumpy, knotty; whence, metaphorically, cross- Gnurly, J grained, and ill-tempered. Obdure, to become obdurate. Senseless of good ; as stones they soone obdure. Heywood, 1609, Oke, preterite of ache, or ake. My head aches, and my head oke (ached). Olyte, diligent. Mr. Halliwell quotes an English use of this word, from the Harleian MSS., without defining its meaning. The word is common in the Border counties of England and Scotland. An olyte mother makes a lazy daughter. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Ooth, raging mad ; from the German wiUh, and the Scottish wud. Ope-tide, \ the early spring, or time when the buds begin to Opentide, / open. So lavish ope-tide, Causeth fasting Lents. — Narcs. Ord, from the Gaelic ard, sometimes written ord; a headland or promontory, as the Ord of Caithness ; ^r^fnamurchan, &c. ' In Suffolk,' says Mr. Halliwell, ' a promontory is called an otd' The word has also the sense of a beginning, or a point. And touched him with the spear's ord. — Roinance of Sir OtueL Saul drew his sword, And ran even upon the ord. Cursor Mundi: Trin. Col. Cam., quoted by HallivjelU Orlings, the teeth of a comb. 172 LOST BEAUTIES OF Orra, all sorts of odds and ends, occasional. When Donald Caird fand orra things. — Sir Walter Scott. She's a weel-educate woman, and if she win to her English as I hae heard her do at orra times, she may come to fickle us a'. Scott: The Antiquary. Orts, \ Ortings, > scraps, fragments, leavings. Ortins, J Let him have time a beggars oi'ts to crave. — Shakesfeare. Ouph, modernized and corrupted into oaf, a sprite, or goblin, less elegant, gentle, and prepossessing in appearance than a fairy. Urchins, oufhis, and fairies green and white. Slmkespeare : Merry Wives of Windsor. Ourie, shivering in the cold. I thought me on the ourie cattle. — Burns : A Winter Night. Outen, strange, foreign ; from without. Outener, a foreigner. Outrope, a sale by auction. This word survives in Scotland as roup, and is derived from the German rufen, to call or cry ; and ausrufen, to cry out. As at common outropes, when household stuffe is to be solde, they cry who gives more ? — Dekker, 1608, Overeraft, deceit, too much craftiness. Overcrafty, deceitful. Overdreep. Mr. Halliwell explains this word to mean over- shadow. In the northern and Scottish counties, dreep is to drip with moisture. The quotation given is : The aspiring nettles with their shady tops shall no longer overdreep the best herbs. — Pierce Penniless, The true meaning seems to be overdrip, and not over- shadow. Overhope, sanguineness. Overliopeful, sanguine, enthusiastic. Overnam.e, to call over names in a series. I pray thee ovcrname them. — Shakespeare. Overseethe, from seethe to boil ; to boil over. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 175 Oversodden, boiled over. Overtli-wart, opposite to, across. Our overthwart neighbours. — Diyden, • He laid a plank overthwart the brook. — Jonsoji. Overtimely, premature, too early. Overword, \ O'erword, (the chorus, burden, leading idea, 'or repeated O'ercome, Tphrase of a song or ballad. Owerword, ) And aye the o'ercome o' his sang, Was wae's nie for Prince Charlie. — yacohite Ballad. And aye the o'erword o' their sang, Was ' our wee, wee man's been lang awa'. Border Minstirlsy. And aye the o'erword o' her sang, Was ' o'er the muir amang the heather.' yean Glover, Scottish Song-, Overworn, worn out with toil or care. The o'ei-ivorn widow. — Shakespeare, Owzell, the blackbird ; the word is used in Massinger, and is current through the north of England and Scotland. House doves are white, and owsells blackbirds be. The Affectionate Shepherd, 1594- The owsel-cock so black of hue, With orange tawny bill. Shakespeare : Midsummer Night's Dream, Oxter, the arm-pit. Oxy, wet, spongy, morassy, boggy ; applied to land. Oye, a grandchild. From the Gaelic oige, youth, and og, young. 574 LOST BEAVTIES OF Taigle, a cowslip. Blue bells, hare bells, paigles, pansies. — Beii yonson. Taltoke, a cloak, or upper garment ; the modem paletot. Ga.t\\c pealltag, a cloak. Proud priests came witi. him, More than a thousand, \xi. pcdetokes and pyked shoon. — Piers PloughmcUi. Tantler, the servant in a great household, whose business it is to attend to the bread, as it is that of a butler to attend to the wine. He would have made a good pantler, he would have chipped bread well. — Shakespeare: Henry IV. I will presently take orders with the cook, f antler, and butler. The Jcrvial Crerca. Target, to plaister or besprinkle a wall ; from spargere, with the elision of the initial, as in parmecetty, a vulgar corrup- tion of spermacetti, and peckled for speckled. ' Applied metaphorically,' says Nares, ' to face painting.' She's above fifty- two, z.-aA pargets. — Ben Jonson. Tassing, very, exceedingly ; an abbreviation of surpassing, as in the common phrase, ' 'tis passing strange.' For Oberon is passing fell ; (surpassingly sliarp-tempered and bitter. ) Shakespeare : Midsummer Night's Dream . "Pat, preterite of put. The lass jSrt< on her satin govm. — Aberdeenshire Ballad. !Patch, a fool ; whence the common phrase cxosa-patch, an ill- natured fool. — Nares. The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder. Shakespeare : Merchant of Venice. Call xas. patch and puppy, and beat me if you please. Beaumont and Fletcher. Pautch, to walk painfully in deep mud. Ta-wky, witty, sly, and humourous, in speech or action, but without any evil intention. Modem English has no synonyme for this Northern and Scottish word. In Suffolk, according to Mr. Halliwell, pawky means awkward. The modern vulgarism, 'to poke fun,' may possibly afford a clue to the original derivation. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 175 Pawky — continued. The pawky auld carle came over the lea, Wi' mony gude e'ens and gude days to me, Says, Gude wife, for your courtesie, Will you lodge a silly poor man ? The Gaierluiisic Man. In an article on ' Worcester Cathedral,' in the Saturday Revieiv, June 9, 1866, the restorations are described as ' meagre, pawky, and vapid.' What could the writer mean 'by pawky in this instance ? Possibly the word was a printer's error iox paltry. Teason, peas. Formerly peas was employed in the singular, and the vtox^pea, as now used, was unknown. Green beans and feason. Nuts, pears, plums, apples, are in season. Taylor, the Water Poet, 1630. Pelf, rubbish ; whence 'pelf,' the philosophic term for ' money,' often applied by cynics, who by no means think money the rubbish they assert. The metaphorical use of the word has entirely superseded the original. Ill-gotten gains are called pelfry. — HaJlkaell. Pelt, to rage. ' A pelting storm,' is therefore a raging storm. To /^// with stones is, if this derivation be correct, to 'rage,' or show rage, by throwing stones. — See Nares. Poor houseless -WTetches, wheresoe'er ye be. That bide ih.e. pelting oi this pitiless storm. Shakespeare : King Lear. Peth, a well ; a word not very urgently required, but which, if accepted, would be useful in versification, to add to the very few rhymes to ' death ' and ' breath.' Pight, a word that occurs in Chaucer, is defined by Tyrwhitt as meaning ' pitched,' rather than the preterite of ' put.' He pight him on the pomel of his head. That in the place he lay as he were dead. • Chaucer: TTie Knights Tale. Stow, however, at a later period, uses pight for ' did put :' He was brought to the Standard in Cheape, where they stralce off his head and pight it on a pole, and bare it before them. — Stow's Annals: Henry VI, - 176 L OST BE A UTIES OF ' \ the bolt of a door, nne, j Pin, Pynne, * To tirl at the pin,' or undo the bolt, is a common expres- sion in ■ ancient ballad poetry. The word pynne occurs in Piers Ploughman, in the sense of bolt : And made Peace porter, To pynne the gates. tPinehpenny, a miser. Pinehbaek, a miser, who denies himself proper raiment. JPind, to impound a strayed animal ; to put it in the pound. Pindar, 1 the officer whose duty it was to impound strayed Pinder, / animals. Pinfold, a pound for strayed animals. Pingle, a small narrow enclosure. Pingle, to eat with very little appetite, the same as ' tarrow' — q.v. He fiUeth his mouth well, and is no pingUr at his meat. TopseU's B castes, 1607, quoted by HalKwelL Pippin, an apple. A pippin-monger (costermonger) selling trash. Hudihras Redivivus. Pirl, to spin like a top. Pirle, a stream. Pith, strength, sap, vigour. A word long obsolete, but recently re-introduced to its proper place in literature. The childe was of pith. Perceval, 1640, quoted by HalliweU. Pithful, strong, vigorous, pithy. Pix, to glean in an orchard. Pixie, a fairy ; //ary-puff, a fungus ; //.ry-rings, fairy circles. Plack, a piece of money. In Belgium, the plaquette, or little plack, is still current. Plackless, moneyless. Poor plackless devils like myself. Burns: Scotch Drinh. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 177 Placket, a petticoat. ' ^oaxUs placket is torn,' the name of an old English melody. Keep thy hand out oi plackets, thy pen from lender's books, and defy the foul fiend. — Shakespeare: King Lear. The bone-ache, that methinks Is the curse dependant on those that war for a placket. Shakespeare : Troilus and Cress? At. Plainsong, a melody. Plash, a shallow pond, pool, or rimning water, whence, to 'plash' in the water. Plash also signifies a heavy fall of rain. He leaves a shallow plash to plunge him in the deep. Shakespeare : Taming of the Shrew. Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewrayed, Fallen in ia& plash his wickedness had made. Pope : The Dimciad. The thunder rain in large drops came plash after plash in large drops. Blackwood' s Magazine, May, 1820. Platform, the principles agreed upon by a political party ; that on which the party stands. This word is now more com- mon in America than in England, but was in general use in England up to the time of the Commonwealth. To procure himself a pardon, went and discovered the whole plat- form of tlie conspiracie. Discovery of the New World : quoted by Narcs. And lay tx.^ platforms to endamage them. Shakespeare: King Henry VI. Pleach, to intertwine. Walking in a thick pleached alley, in my orchard. Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing. With pleached arms bending down. Shakespeare : Antony and Cleopatra. Plight, to fold, to enfold, to intertwine ; whence the phrase, ' to plight troth ;' to intertwine or fold the faith, word, and promise of lovers. The modern ' plait' seems to be a corruption of this word. Creatures of the element. That in the colours of the rainbow live, And play in the //2'y^fei/ clouds. Milton: Comus. 178 LOST BEAUTIES OF Flim, plump. He boiled a great number of groats, with a design, as he said, to make them/AVK. — Loche on Lowering Interest. Plout, ) to wade or flounder through water or mire ; to stir Plouter, j dirty water, or, figuratively, to be engaged in a dirty or miry business. Flouting through thick and thin. Grose. Many a vitary plouier she'd cost him, Through gutters and glaur. Jamieson's Fspular Ballads. Posie, a nosegay, a bouquet, a motto. It was formerly the custom for the gallant who sent a nosegay to a lady to affix a paper with a ' poesy,' or poetical quotation, to the stalk, whence the 'posy,' or 'poesy,' afterwards came to signify the flowers themselves. And if some infrequent passenger crossed our streets, it was not without tiis medicated posie at his nose. Bishop Hall, 1625. An' its a' to be a posie to my ain dear May. Burns. Potstire, sure with the confidence of drunkenness. When they beheld her thus secure, And armed against them like a man poisure. Legend of Captain Jones, 1650 {quoted by Nares). Poult, a chicken ; from the French /ok/i?/. 'Tis believed, coz. You do not feed on pleasant (pheasant ?) poults. Chapman's Revenge of Homer, 1654, Poulter, a dealer in chickens and fowls ; corrupted to poul- terer, a word that is as irregular as grocerer would be if used instead of grocer. Over against the parish church of St. Mildred are divers faire houses inhabited by poulters. — Stow's London. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 179 Pow, the head, the pate. An abbreviation of poll. To foil at election, is to count by heads ; a poll-tax, is a personal tax, or tax on heads. God bless thy snowy /mw. — WaugKs Lancashire Songs. But blessings on thy frosty pow, John Anderson, my jo. — Burns. Prank, to dress in the fashion, to adorn. Some prank their ruffs, and other trimly dight. Their gay attire. — Spenser. Prankings and adornings. — Sir Thomas More. False taXs^ prankt in reason's garb. — Milton : Comtis. Pranker, a dandy, a ' swell.' Pranksome, full of decorations and adornments, lively, frolic- some. Prig, to cheapen, to beat down the price ; whence the English word prig, a conceited person who thinks he knows better than other people. Men who grew wist ptiggin' ower hops and raisins. Burns : The Brigs of .4yr. Ane o' the street-musician crew Is busy priggin^. wi' him now ; An' twa auld sangs he swears are new. He pawns on Jock. James Ballantine : Coal Jock. Prink, to behave in a pert, saucy manner ; to adorn one's self jauntily. Dr. Johnson defines the word to be a diminutive or modification of prank. Prink their hair with daisies. — Cowper. Prinkle, the flesh is said to prinkle when there is a tingling sensation, consequent upon a temporary suspension of the circulation. — Jamieson. My blood ran prinhling through my veins, When I beheld my dear, O. — Hogg^s Mountain Bard. I [found the very hairs of my head begin to creep, and a prinhling through all my veins and skin, like needles and pins. The Brownie 0' Bodsbech, Proclive, leaning to, addicted to, having a ' proclivity ' for. Frail z.'oA proclive unto all ^s'^.—Latimti' s Sermons. 12 — 2 iSo- LOST BEAUTIES OF Prog, to poke, push, and peer about ; to maraud, for the pur- pose of plunder ; whence the modern slang prog, originally meaning food taken from the people by an invading army ; but now food in general, as in the phrase, ' ray prog and my grog,' i.e., my food and my drink. We travel sea and sail, we pry, we prowl, We progress and vie. frog, from pole to pole. Quarles' Emblems, What less than fool is man to p-og and plot. — Idem. And that man in the gown, in my opinion. Looks like a f ragging knave. — Beaumont and fletcher. Pro"W, brave, courageous ; yi^tnzt. prowess, bravery, strength. For they be two, the p-owest knights on ground. Spensei-: Faerie Queens. Iroyne, to clean or prune the feathers as birds do. The flori- cultural word prune in the sense of lopping off redundancies from trees or plants, does such multifarious duty, that the ancient word proyne, of which it is a corruption, might advan- tageously be restored to that restricted meaning which it had in the poetry of Chaucer's age : And after this the birdis everich one, Toke up one other songe full loude and clere, And with a voice said, ' Well is us begone, That with our makis are together here, Vie proyne and play without doubt and dangere. The Kings Quain. Up stode s.u6. proined hira the bird. — Chaucer's Dreame. The royal bird Prunes the immortal wing and cloys his beak: Shakespeare : Cymbeline. Pat or Pisht ' '° P'^^^" '^^^ modern verb has lost the Putten or Pitten, j P^-eterite and past participle. I there wi' something did forgether. That pai me in an eerie swither. Burns : Death and Doctoi- Hornbook. Ye see how Rob and Jenny's gone sin' they Ha'e pitten o'er their heads the merry day. — Ross's Helenore. 'Rf^ 9, putten it to a good purpose, has Brighouse. The Master of Marston : London, 1864. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. iSi Quaddy, squat ; short and thick. Quaisy, tough and indigestible. Quar, a stone quarry. The very agate Of slate and polity, cut from the quar Of Machiavel ; a true coi-nelian As Tacitus himself.— ^«» Jonson. Quarr, to block up. But as a miller having ground his grist, Leis down the flood-gates with a speedy fall, And quarring up the passage therewithal ; The waters swell in spleene and never stay Till by some cleft they fincf another way. Browne's Britannia's Pastorals. Quash, to smash, to subdue, to break into little pieces. Lest we should too happy be, Even in our infancy. Our joys are quashed, our hopes are blasted. Cotton : On Death. Thus Britain's hardy sons of rastic mould. Patient of arms, still quash th' aspiring Gaul. — Philip, Cerealia. The earth for heaviness. That he would suffer, Quoke as a quick thing. And all bequashed the rocke. — Piers Ploughman. Quave, to shake, to quiver. The day for dread withdrew. And dark became the sun, And aU the world quazed. — Piers Ploughman. Quave-mire, a quag-mire, or a shaky bog. A greate deepe marsh or quave-mire. — North (Nares). Queach, a bog, a morass. All sylvan copses and the fortresses of thorniest queaches. Chapman' s Homer, Queachy, shaking, quivering. Goodwin's queachy sands. — Drayton's Polyolbion, Rent the holly woods, and shook the queachy groimd. — Idem. Quean, a woman, a wench, a strong girl. Grey, great -headed queans. — Piers Ploughman. I wat she was a cantie quean. Burns: Roy's Wife of Aldivallock. i82 LOST BEAUTIES OF Quean — continutd. In Shakespeare's time quean ceased to be a word of respect, as it used to be in the days of Piers Ploughman and Chaucer, and as it still is in Scotland, and became a term of contempt and reproach. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean. Shakespeare : Merry Wives of Windsor^ Tliat Troy prevailed, that Greeks were conquered cleane, And that Penelope was but a queane. — ITarington's Aiiosto. Queme, to please; pleasant, convenient, fitting, appropriate; the modern German bequemlich has the same meaning. To be accepted thee to queme and please. Lydgate MS., Ashmol'e; quoted by HalHwell. Queming, pleasure. The words queme and queming occur in the ' Dictionary of the Oldest Words in the English Lan- guage,' by Herbert Coleridge. Querl, to spin round, to coil, to twirl. Quern, a hand mill, a churn. Are ye not he, That frights the maidens of the villages,. Skims milk, and labours in the quern ? Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream. Quert, joyful, in good spirits. He was now in quert. And all hale of wille and herte. Iwayne and Gawin (Jamiesott). All but the Earl they were full fain, In querte that he was comyn hame. — Sir Eglamoiir. Quethe, to say, speak, declare. The preterite of this verb still remains in the language, in the well-known and well-worn phrase, ' quoth he.' From the same root comes bequeath, to give to your survivors in your last will and testament ; to declare that they shall have such and such portions of your property. Quick, alive ; possibly derivable from the Gaelic coig, five ; applied to the five senses — thence to one in possession of his five senses — living, quick. ' The quick and the dead,' is a scriptural phrase, familiar to everybody. The word in this sense is fast becoming ob- solete ; and quick in its modern signification is simply active, THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 1 83 Quick — continued. the reverse of slow. The common expression, ' Look alive,' is synonymous with 'be quick.'' If ever the dead come to the quick. Be sure, Marg'ret, I'll come to thee. Clerk Saunders : Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Qiiillet, a play upon words j a facetious subtlety of argument, without logical force. Let not human quillets keep back divine authority. Milton : Of Reformation in England. Ply her with love-letters and billets, And bait them well with quirks and quillets. Butler : Hudibras. Quip ; from the Gaelic cuip, a whip. This word, enshrined in Shakespeare and Milton, dropped out of use for a century, but is again becoming a favourite. It means a quick, sharp jest, or stroke of raillery. And notwithstanding all her sudden quips The least whereof would quell a lover's hope. Shakespeare: Two Gentlemen of Verona. Quifs and cranks and wreathed smiles. — Milton. Quirk, an unfair turn in an argument ; an evasion or twisting of the truth. For my part, I have studied the law ; • » * these be but quirkcs intended to delay matters. — Fox: Book of Martyrs. Quirky, tricky ; unfair, pettifogging. Quoke, preterite of quake, to tremble. An ugly pit, deep as any hell. That to behold thereon, I quoke for fear. — T!i£ King's Quair. The whole land of Italy trembled and quoke. Douglas : Translation of the yUneid. Quoy, a northern word, signifying a piece of enclosed land on a common. ' In Orkney, a circular enclosure of the kind is called "a ringit quoy.' "—Jamieson. 1 84 LOST SEA UTIES OP W^'^'k 1 '^'°"'^ '~^ "^^"^ °^ clouds, vapour. Can permit the basest clouds to ride, With ugly rack on his celestial face. Shakespeare: The Tempest. Swifter than the sailing rack that gallops Upon the wings of angry winds. — Beaumont and Fletcher. Now we may calculate by the welkin's wrack, Eolus hath chast the clouds that were so black. Heywood's Marriage Triumph. Baddies, pieces of supple underwood, twisted between upright stakes to form a fence. Our fathers did well, either in houses of staves, or in houses of raddles. Holinshed. Raid, a predatory incursion on horseback. This Scottish word has gradually been establishing itself in the favour of the best writers and speakers, both in England and in America. RaSl;,}'^°"g^'^°^"^''^gg^^''^^'^- Bakelness, roughness, coarseness, rashness. This word, derived from the Latin raucus, hoarse, or the Gaelic rac, discordant, or racaireachd, noisy, discordant, riotous, survives in Scotland. Burns in the 'Jolly Beggars,' describes the wench who sings the song of ' A Highland lad my love was bom,' as a ' raude carline.' In his ' Earnest cry and prayer to the Scottish representatives in Parliament,' he speaks of Scotland as having ' a raude tongue, when she is offended.' O rakle hand ! to do so foule amis O troubled wit ! O ire reccheless ! * * ♦ # » O every man beware of rakelness. Chaucer : The Manciple's Tale. The souden sayd it is not so For your prestes that suld vertus trace, They syn rakyll out of gud grace, Give ille example and lie in synne. Halliwells MS. Bodleian. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 1 85 Kakelness — continued. In the west of England, rackle signifies rough, noisy talk ; and in Cumberland, rackle-6.z&& is loose, unruly conduct. These examples serve to show that the word is not derived from reck and reckless, as Worcester and other lexicographers \ suppose : as in addition to the sense of heedlessness and suddenness, it always implies coarseness and roughness. From the same source is derived the corrupted form of rake- hell. With a handful of rake-kelles, which he had scummed together in this our shire, whilst the king was on his return from Tewbury. Lambarde's Perambulation, 1596. The Americans of the present day, call rake-hells, roughs, thus going back unconsciously to the original source of the word. Kanee, a prop, a stake ; support, or scaffold. Kaneh., a deep scratch or wound with the sword upon the body, with a plough upon the earth, or with the claws of a wild animal. A ranche or clinche with a beast's paw. — Cotgrave. Ranch£d\As hips with one continued vio-axA.— Dryden. Dr. Johnson was at a loss to explain the etymology or meaning of this word ; and Worcester defines it to be a corruption of wrench. ' A Northamptonshire rustic,' says Mr. Sternberg in his ' Glossary,' ' would have had no difficulty in understanding that line of " Glorious John," which so puzzled the learned Johnson. Dryden was a Northamptonshire man, and might have heard the word during one of his many sojourns in that county.' Kand, the rushes and long grass on the banks of a stream, or on the margin of a lake or pool. B,ant, a public meeting, or fair ; whence, perhaps, the word ranter, a priest or layman who preached to the crowd on such occasions. Thou art the life o' public haunts, But thee, what were our fairs and rants ? — Burns : Scotch Drink. Bape, haste. Bapely, readily. i86 LOST BEAUTIES OF Eapen, to prepare, make ready.^ Two risen up in rape. — Piers Ploughman. Rape thee to ride. — Idem. Rape thee to shrifte. — Idetn. With that saw I another Rapelich (rapely) nm forth. — Idem. Ran ramping, swearing, rude and rape. TTie Cherry and the Sloe. Kath, ) From the Gaelic trath., early, soon. The compara- Eathe, j tive of this adjective is in common use; but the posi- tive and superlative have both been allowed to drop out of the language. Milton in ' Lycidas,' speaks of the ' rathe primrose ;' Drayton in his ' Polyolbion,' has, ' rathe as he could rise.' To serve, that lady both late and rathe. — Pkrs Ploughman. Oh dear, cousin mine, dear John, she said. What aileth you so rathe for to arise ? — Chaucer. Too rathe cut off by practice criminal Of secret foes. — Spenser. A rathe December, blights my lagging May. Hartley Coleridge. Bishop Hall mentions ' rathe ripe wits, that prevent their own perfection ;' and in the cider districts there is a well known species of apple called the rathe-ripe. Nares quotes but one example of the use of the superlative rathest : ' Barley almost ripe to be cut in June, whereas in England they seldom cut the rathest before the beginning of August.' In the ' Glossary of the Provincialisms of Sussex,' by W. Durrant Cooper, it is stated that the word rath is in frequent use and well understood in that county. Sax, to reach ; to stretch. KaugM, reached, stretched. This is doubtless the ancient form of the modern word to reach, or stretch, the x being softened to ch, as has happened in such words as church from kirk ; churn, from kern. The advantage of retaining it is shown in the proverb : ' Never rax aboon your reach ;' which, if translated into modern phraseology, would be, 'never st7-etch above your reach,' a phrase as full of meaning, but scarcely so forcible. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. i8| Katight — conlinued. The word still exists in the south of England. A street at Bridport is called the liax, or stretch of ground. And may ye rax corruption's neck, And gie her for dissection. — Burns: A Dream. Their three mile prayers and half-mile graces, Their ?v2;fj;2j conscience. — Burns: Epistle to Rev. fohnMcMath, He stert up and would have him raiight. Merlin, Early English Metrical Romances. Upon my life, by some device or other. The villain is o'er raught of all my money. Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors.. The auld gudenian raught down the pock. — Burns : Halloween, Eaven, to devour greedily, or to be eager to devour ; appa- rently derived from the Saxon reave or rieve, to steal or take, away violently ; from whence the word ravener, a plunderer ; used by Gower, Chaucer, and other writers of that tmie. The still current adjective, ' ravenous,' signifies hungry for food, enjoyment, or revenge. Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. — Genesis, chapter xlix. Better 'twere I met the raven lion when he roared AVith sharp constraint of hunger. Shakespeare : All's Well that Ends WelL Our natures do pursue ; Like rats that raven down their proper bane. Shakespeare t Mecksurefor Measure, Maw Of the ravened salt sea shark. — Shakespeare: Macbeth. ieap, \ lept, ( J.Q ^^^ Qj. jjg] jQ ^^j jj^g harvest. lope, I ^ lopen, ) Ropen and laide away the come. Chaucer : Legende of Good Women, After the corn is rept. — Nares. leave, to take away, only used at present in its augmentative form of be-reave. If he reveth me my right, He robbeth me by maistrie. — Piers Ploughman. i58 LOST BEAUTIES OF Heave — continued. Next we reave this sword, And give thee armless to thine enemies. For being foe to goodness and to heaven. Beaumont and Fletcher : Knight of Malta. To reave the orphan of his patrimony, And have no other reason for his wrong. But that he was bound by a solemn oath. Shakespeare: Henry VI. Butcher sire that reaves his son of life. Shakespeare : Venus and Adonis. That v/hich God will give. The Deil camia reave.— Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Bravery, robbery. Wallace was near, when he such reaverii saw, He spake to them with manly countenance. — Blind Harry. Heft, preterite of reave. These poor, world wandering men, (Of all hope to return their country reft,^ Sought shores whereon to set the little there was left. Drayton's Polyolbion. From this word comes the northern reiver, a thief, a taker- \ away. At Newcastle, the evening before the fair, the Great Bell of St. Nicholas called the ' Thief and Reaver Bell,' used to be rung, to notify to the fair-frequenting public the ap- proaching commencement of business, and consequently the advent of the thieves. IReam. This word expresses the effervescency of liquor, like the French word mousser, to sparkle, and is a better word than creaming, of which it is the original. ' Creaming cham- pagne, and creaming ale,' should be ' reaming champagne, or ale,' for there is no cream in wine or beer. Ream was formerly used in the sense of cream, as may be seen in the passage quoted from the ' Legendse Catholicas,' in Halliwell's ' Archaic Dictionary :' Methinks this pain is sweeter. Than any milk's ream. In Scottish poetry the word is of frequent occurrence, and by Robert Burns, more especially, is used with excellent effect. Tam o' Shanter sits by the ingle- side, on a market night, With reaming swats that drink divinely. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. i8» Seam — continued. Afterwards the swats (ale) So reamed in Tammie's noddle, when he looked in at the window of the haunted kirk and saw Maggie leaping in her ' cuttie sark,' that he was em- boldened to utter the famous cry that brought the whole of the grotesque crew after him. Beck, to take heed ; or care ; whence reckless and recklessness. I reck as as little what betideth me, As much I wish all good befortune you. — Shakesfearc. With that care lost. Went all his fear of God or hell, or worse. He recked not. — Milton. And may ye better reck the rede. Than ever did th' adviser. Burns : Epistle to a Young Friend. Bede, to advise, to counsel. Bedel, a thing or subject to be taken into counsel, or con- sideration, whence ' riddle,' a little rede. Are ye ■ Yemen to rede redels, I shall bring you a Bible, A book of the old lawe. — Piers Ploughman. When King Orfed heard this case. Then he said alas ! alas ! He asked 7-ede of many a manne. MS. Ashmole, quoted by HalliwclL Why yes, fore God, quoth Hem-y Nicholas, If thou wilt werken after love and rede. Chaucer : The Millet's Tale. And therefore I rede. My son that thou flee and drede This vice. — Gower : Confessio Amantis. Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede. — Shakespeare : Hamlet. Therefore I rede you three go hence. Gammer Gurion's Needle. Short rede is good rede. — Allan Ramsay. tgo LOST BEAUTIES OF Sedel — cotitinued. Ye gallants bright, I rede ye right, Beware o' bonnie Anne. — Burns : Songs. Two hundred and nine marched out ; one escaped at the end of the Tari-'ge ; yet behold when you count the corpses, they are two hundred and ten. Rede us this riddle. — Carlyles History oj tlie French Hevoluiioti. The man is blest that hath not lent To wicked rede his ears, Stei'tthold : Version of the Psalms. The etymology of the name of the village of Leather- head, in Surrey, has puzzled whole generations of local an- tiquaries, but as it was originally written Leoderede, the name seems to offer no difficulty, and to bespeak for itself a Very respectable antiquity, as well as a very honourable deri- vation. Lead is the Anglo-Saxon for people, from the same root as the Gaelic luchd, and the German leute, and con- joined with ' rede,' means the ' Council of the people.' Probably it was the place of meeting of some great popular assemblage ; not a wittenagemote, or meeting of the wise men, but of the multitude. B,eek, smolce, vapour, or exhalation ; from ranch, smoke. ' Atild .Reekie,' ' old smoky ;' i.e., Edinburgh. You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate, As reek o' tlie rotten fens. Shahespeare, Which with his beams, the sun Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed. Milton. The reek of my ain house is better Than the ingle of my neighbour's. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. ■ Come hitherward my maidens fair, Come hither unto me. Through this reck, and through this smeek. Motherwell's Ancient Minstrelsy. Sevel-coyle, noisy merriment. To dance, sing, sport, and to keep revel-coyle. Taylor's Workes, 1630. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. igi Eevel-rout, confused and noisy sport ; the same as revel-coyle. There is a strange thing like a gentlewoman, Crept into the nunnery, we know not which way, Plays revel-rout among us. Monsieur Thomas. Eewth, \ pity, compassion ; from whence ruthless, pitiless, and S,utli, J ruthful, compassionate. Then said he by Saint John, It is great rewth for to slon (slay) That God has bought so dear. Romance of Amys and Amylion. Tho' she can weep to stir up gentle ruth, But for her noble blood and for her tender truth. Spenser! Faerie Queens. If ruthful gods have any power. Surrey : Virgil's jEneid. Hibb, ) a wrinkle, a furrow. Sternberg, in his ' Northamp- Eibble, J tonshire Glossary,' quotes the popular phrase : ' His forehead was ribbled! Coleridge, in a note to the ' Ancient Mariner,' says he was indebted to Wordsworth for the lines : And he was lank, and lean, and bare, As is the n'WV sea-sand. Bindle, to sparkle like running water ; a mountain stream. The dainty rindles dancing down. Fro' the mountains to the plain. IVaugh's Lancashire Songs. By primrose banks, Where rindling weet was shining. Idem. Sift, to belch, to blow. Three times the carline groaned and rifted. Allan Ramsay. Hift, a fissure, a break, that which is riven or rift. E.ift, to cleave or break asunder. Then I'd shriek, that even your ears Should rift to hear me. Shakespeare: Winter's Tale. 192 LOST BEAUTIES OF Eift — continued. Flauclits (lightnings) did rift Frae the black vizard o' the lift. Allan Ramsay : The Vision. IRink, a course or arena for public sports. The word is principally used in connection with skating, and applied either to an open pond, frozen over, where a ring is made, or to a covered inclosure for the same purpose. The word is common in America and Scotland, though but little used in England. It formerly signified a distinct charge, or encounter in a tournament. Trumpets and shalms with a shout Played ere the rink began, And equal judges sat about To see who tint or wan. The Evergreen. Hoaky, \ hazy, misty, nebulous, dull, coarse, not clear ; from Boky, J the French rauque ; une voix rauque, a hoarse, thick voice. In Shakespeare, act iii., scene 2, of Macbeth, the passage occurs : Light thickens ; and the crow Makes wing to the rooky wood. It is probable that 'rooky' was formerly a recognized' English word, or is a misprint for roaky. If there were much doubt as to the true meaning of the passage, it might be removed by a reference to Jamieson's ' Dictionary of the Scottish Language,' where 'roaky' is spelt 'rooky,' and defined as ' misty.' A rooky mist fell down at break of day, Tlren thought he fit to make the best o's way. Hamilton's Wallace. Richardson defines the word in Shakespeare to mean ' covering.' Johnson in like manner failed to perceive tlie real meaning, as did also Webster and Worcester, both of whom define ' rooky' to mean inhabited by rooks. Rooky is not a more legitimate word than ' crowy ' would be ; and why the crows should fly to the rooks at daylight, is not easy to discover. But 'roaky,' or 'rooky,' in the sense of ' misty,' makes the passage intelligible. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 193 Eode, a healthy complexion ; the redness of one red with the blood of life ; whence ruddy. His rode is like scarlet in grayn. Chaiicer. Rogue-house, a prison, a penitentiary. Eone, to comfort ; (Herbert Coleridge's ' Dictionary of the Oldest Words in the English Language.') Eoop, a sore throat, the croop. Eooped Eoopit, ' > hoarse, as with bronchitis or sore throat. 3 } ' \ to praise ; to drink a health. Wliat's the matter now with him ? What roope ails he ? Terence in England, 1 6 14. Alas, my roopit Muse is hoarse. Bums : The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer. Eoose, Eouse, This word is still current in the North of England and Scotland, in its original sense of to praise or extol. In Eng- land, in the Elizabethan age, it meant to drink a bumper to any one's health ; on which occasions, as now when people drink a toast, it was customary and necessary to praise the person in whose honour the bumper was drunk. Rouse, a mode of drinlcing, in which the full cup or other drinking vessel was to be emptied at a draught ; a bumper toast. Rev. A. Dyce : Glossary to Ben Jbnson's Works. No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit again, Respeaking earthly thunder. Shakespeare: Hamlet. Roose the ford as ye find it. Roose the fair day at e'en. Allan Ramsay'' s Scottish Proverls. When Redisdale and Wise WiUiam Were drinking at the wine, They fell a roosing them among, On one unruly time. 13 194 L0S7' BEAUTIES OF "EiQOS&^conHnued. £ome of them hae roosed ^ar hawkes. And other some their hounds, And other some their ladies fair. MotherwelPs Ancient Minstrelsy. And we'll have a rouse in each of them, anon ; for bold Britons i' faith. — Ben Jonson. I have took since supper A rouse or two too much. Beaumont and Fletcher. Shall bauld Lapraik, the king o' hearts, Roose ye sae weel for your deserts. In terms sae friendly. Yet ye'll neglect to show your parts, And thanic him kindly. Burns: Epistle to Lapraik. Boove, to rivet, to clinch. If this nail be once rooved, we with our teeth will never get it drawn . — Bailli^s Letters, quoted by Jamieson, Eooven, riveted. Ships composed of meane stuffe, having their keeles and ribs made of slight timber, and the rest of the hull rooveii up with osiers, covered with leather. The Soveraigntie of the British Seas ; by Sir yohn Boroughs, 1633. B.ote, Gaelic roth, a wheel. To learn a thing by rote, is to learn it mechanically, ' as the wheel turns.' His respondes. But be pure rote. Piers Ploughman. And if by chance a tune you rote. Drayton. Bother, a rudder ; whence Rotherhithe, the haven of rudders, i.e., ships. Bove, preterite of rive, to split, to rend asunder. Eoute, Bout, te ) , _' > to assemble ; a company. In aU that land no Christian durste route. Chaucer : The Man of Lawe's Talc. Even he rode the hinderest of the route. Chaucer : Prologue to the Canterbury Talcs. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 195 Soute — continued. Of women many a route. Chaucer: The Marchante' s Tale. For routh shall cherisli love, and love shall bring Mae men t' improve the soil and serve the king. Allan Ramsay: The North Sea. God grant your lordship joy and health, Long days, and rowth of real wealth. Idem, Epistle to Lord Dalhousie. They that have roiuth o' butter, may lay it thick upon the scone (calie). — Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Rich folk have routh o' friends. Ideifi. A rowth of bonnie bairns and brave. Idem, Masque on the Marriage of the Duke of Hamilton. Fortune ! if thou wilt gie me still, Hale breeks, a scone, a whiskey gill, And rviuth o' rhyme to rave at will, Talc a' the rest. Burns : Scotch Drink. Eowan-tree, the mountain ash. — This tree, or a tvrig of it, was supposed, in the superstition of Scotland, to be a charm against witchcraft. Hence the phrase, ' Aroint thee, witch,' in Shakespeare (who never corrected his proof-sheets), is supposed to be a misprint for 'a rowan-tree-vnXch.^ The word is said to occur in no author previous to Shakespeare. There is an old Scottish couplet which lends countenance to this supposition : Rowan-tree and red thread Mak' the witches tyne their speed. B.owe, to roU or purl like a stream, to wrap up in cloth or flannel. Where Nith runs rowin' to the sea. Bums: Song. Hap and rewe, hap and ro^ve. Hap and rowe the feetie o't. Burns: Song. 13—2 195 LOST BEAUTIES OF Bown, to talk privately; to whisper in the earj from the Gaelic run, a mystery, a secret, a whisper ; whence, in the same language, runaire, a secretary. And rmaneth in his ear. Tiers Ploughman. They risen tip in rape, And rowned together ; And praised this pennyworth. Idem. Tlie archbishop tlien called to him a clerk, and rowned with him. — Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography. The steward on his knees set liim down, With the emperor for to rown . Romance of Cceur de Lion. But if it like yoit that I might rowne in your eare. Skelton. This word in Shakespeare's time had become corrupted into round, just as the word drown in our time is by vulgar people pronounced drownd, with drownded in the preterite. The phrase to ' round in the ear,' appears in much of the literature of that day, and has not been corrected in the modern reprints of Shakespeare. Polonius says to the King in ' Hamlet' : Let his queen mother all alone enh-eat him To show his griefs ; let her be round with him. Mr. Staunton, in a note on this passage, explains this to mean, ' let her be blunt and plain-spoken with him.' The true meaning is to be sought in the word rown. As God's own soldier, rounded (rowned ?) iu the ear. With that same purpose-changer. Shakespeare : King John. Disease, age, death, still in our ears thus rotind (rown). Puttenham. But being come to the supper-place, one of Kalender's servants rounded (rowned) in his ear. — Tembroke's Arcadia. They're here with me already, whispering, rounding (rmvning). Shakespeare: Winter's Tale. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 197 Kowte, to roar or bellow like cattle ; whence the phrase, ' the rutting time of deer,' from their bellowing when in that state. The word rout in the phrase ' rabble rout,' or the roar of the multitude, may possibly be derivable from this source rather than from ' rout,' confusion. In Sternberg's ' Northamptonshire Glossary,' 7'out is said to be a noise made by sheep. Chaucer, in the ' House of Fame,' uses the word to express the roaring of the sea : Like the beating of the sea Against the rockys hollow, And that a man stande A mile off tlience and hear it rowte. In the ' Miller's Tale,' the Carpenter ' dede asleep,' is said to grone and 7'owte. The Miller snorted in his sleep, and his wife provided a burden or bass to the music, so loud that ' men might hear her rowtings at a furlong's distance.' Maggie has baked the suf)per scones, And muckle kye stand rowtittg in the loans (lanes). Allan Ramsay : Pastoral on the Death of Addison . The bmn-clock (beetle) hummed wi' lazy drone. The kye stood rowting i' the loan. Burns : The Tiaa Dogs. Howth, plenty, abundance. A rowth o' rhyme to rave at wiU. Burns : Scotch Drink. He had a rowth o' auld knick-knackets. Burns: Captain Grose. Eoyle, I v., to trouble, or create a commotion in the waters Koil, J until they become turbid ; also to ruffle a person's temper ; to reproach. The word, often pronounced rile, is common in all the Midland Counties. ' He's been royling at me all day,' is a phrase quoted in Sternberg's ' Northamp- tonshire Glossary.' ' He loves to fish in roiled waters,' is a common proverb in many parts of England. The Ameri- cans have adopted the word, with its corrupt spelling rile, in which form it has come back again to the land of its 1 98 LOST BEA UTIES OF Eoyle — continued. birth, where it might do good service if the proper pro- nunciation could be restored. Sam Slick has done much to make it familiar. In the ' Clockmaker in England,' he says, ' I won't say your country or my country, and then I won't rile nobody.' And in ' Human Nature' : ' It riled me so, that I first steps up to him, as savage as a meat-axe, intend- ing to throw him down stairs.' We begin to think it's nature To take sarse and not be riled ; Who'd expect to see a tater All on end at being biled ? Lowell: The Biglow Papers. The word in America is also used as an adjective : ' The boys and girls were laughing so much at my scrape, and the pickle I was in, that I gan to get riley. — Robb : Squatter Life. Boyne, the mange ; from the French rogne. Eoynish, ) Boyny, j^^^^gy- The roynish clown, at whom so oft Your Grace was wont to laugh. Shakespeare : As You Like it. Bosle, to grunt; Gaelic, rocanach, having a hoarse voice. — Herbert Coleridge's ' Dictionary of the Oldest Words in the English Language.' Buck, to roost like a bird ; to haunt. The furies made the bridegroom's bed. And on the house did rucke A cursed owl, the messenger Of ill-success and lucke. Golding's Ovid, 1603. The raven ruck'd her in the chimney's top, And chattering pyes in dismal discords sung. Shakespeare: Hemy VI. Buddock, the robin redbreast. The ruddock would with charitable bill Bring them all this. Shakespeare! Cymheline. The mavis descant plays. The ouzell trills, the ruddock warbles soft. Spenser: Epithalavtium. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 199 EufF, a triumph j the ancient name for a trump card. And in the niffe of his felicitie, Priclted yA'Ca. ambition. Mirror for Magistrates. Rug, 1 the back of a man or animal ; also a protuberance ; Rugge, / hence applied to a rock or mountain ; the root of the adj.ective 'rugged.' Should no curious clothe Comen on his rugge. Piers Ploughman, The knight to the boar is gone. And cleveth him to the rugge-hone. MS. Cantab. , quoted by Halliwell. At his rugge bones end. Piers Ploughman. Ruly, obedient ; as good and necessary a word as unruly, or disobedient, which remains in the language. Eiunorous, murmurous. Clashing of armour, and the rumorous sound, Of the stern billows. Drayton, 1604. Rune, or Ryu, a letter ; a discourse, a conversation, a whisper. See Rown. Mr. Herbert Coleridge includes this word among the oldest in the English language. Rung, the step of a ladder. And layeth a ladder thereto, And lesyngs are the rungs. Piers Ploughman. Rting, a cudgel, a shillelagh. Something that hits a ringing blow. Auld Scotland She's just a devil wi' a rung. Burns. LOST BEAUTIES OF Bunt, an ox ; German, rind. Metaphorically applied in the North to a strong, rough, ignorant, bull-headed person. Sag, to bend or give way under great pressure ; like marshy land under the foot ; to fail in health, to droop, to wither. The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear, Shall never sag with doubt or shake with fear. Shakespeare. That it may not sag from the intention of the founder. Fuller's Worthies. Sog, preterite of sag. Samely, monotonous, unvaried ; always the same. Oh samely, naked leas, so bleak and strange. Clare. Samite, silk velvet. In silke samite she was light arrayed, And her fair locks were woven up in gold. Spenser'' s Faetie Quecne. Clad in white samite, mystic, wonderful. Tennyson. Sark, a common word all over Scotland and the North and East of England for a shirt, and either derived from the Greek ffasg, the body next to which the shirt is worn, or, as Richardson supposes, from 2?jf;«os, silk, of which material sarhs were first made. Dr. Arbuthnot, in ' John Bull,' says, ' Flaunting beaux with their breasts open, and their sarks over their waistcoats.' She shoulde unsowen her sei-k. Piers Ploughman: My sarKs dear to me, but my skin's dearer. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 201 Saw, a saying. Full of wise saws and modem instances. Shakespeare. From the same source comes z&zxsaw, a rejoinder. Seafe, to lead a roving, vagabond life ; to beg, to swindle. They scaffed {scafed) through all Scotland, oppressing the leal man as well as the thief, for their particular commoditie. Pitscottie's Chronicle. A scafing varlet, wanting shame. Legend of the Bishop of St. Aiidreius. Scale, to disperse ; like a crowd or congregation ; Gaelic sgaoil, to spread, to scatter, to disperse. They would no longer abide, But scaled and departed away. Holinshed. Whereupon the troopers scaled. Ibid. This word, lost in England, is common in Scotland : ' The kirk is scaling; i.e., the congregation is leaving the chmrch. ' When the school scales ;' i.e., when the school hours are over, and the children are let loose. Seart, to scratch. Yea, weighty reason me inclines, To thank some eminent divines ; Make their assenting here to thwart, And one another's cheeks to scart. Cleveland. They that bourd (jest) with cats may count upon scarts. Allan Ramsay. To scart the buttons, or draw one's hand down the breast of another, so as to touch the buttons with one's nails, is a mode of challenging to battle among boys ; perhaps a relic of some ancient mode of hostile defiance . — Jamieson. Scart-free, without a scratch, or injury. All whom the lawyers do advise. Get not off scart-free. Clcland. 202 LOST BEAUTIES OF Scartle, to scratch or scrape together by small strokes ; dimi- nutive of scai-t. In the South of Scotland, an instrument resembling a hoe, used for clearing out a cow-house, is called a scartk. Scathe, or Skaith ; to injure^ blast, destroy ; and scathe, injury, harm, destruction. Scatheful, injurious. Scatheless, harmless. These words have been used by the best writers since the days of Chaucer ; though they have not succeeded in retaining their place in ordinary conversation, the pulpit, or the stage. It dotli him double scat/te. — Piers Ploughman. My foes Are buckled to do me scathe.— Earl of Surrey. Was some deal deaf, and that was scathe. Chaucer : Wife of Bath. This trick may chance to scathe you. Shakespeare : Borneo and yuliet. Had I twenty times as many foes. And each of them had twenty times tlieir power, All these could not procure me any scathe. So long as I am loyal, tnie, and harmless. Shakespeare: Henry VI. Scathed 'das. forest oaks and mountain pines. — Milton. Guid faith ! Ye're maybe come to stop my breath ; But tent me, billie ; I red ye weel, tak care o' skaith. See, here's a gully ! Burns : Death and Dr. HornbooJi. One man does the scathe, and another gets the scorn. Better learn from your neighbour's skaith than your own. Better skaith saved than amends made. Scorn commonly comes wi' skaith. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Scathy, ) mischievous ; applied to a wild, excited, or frantic Skathy, J person. Let hun alone, he's scathy. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 203 Scaur, or 1 a bare rock without vegetation. Nab-Scar, in Sear, j Westmoreland, opposite Rydal Mount ; ' the head of the bare rock.' From the same root, the Gaelic skerries, the rocks ; and Skerrievore, the ' great bare rock,' on the west coast of Scotland. Scarborough, in Yorkshire, derives its name from this word. Seaw, the elder tree. Scode' 1 '•° s'^^tter earth, manure, or broken rubbish. Scoil, loose stones, rubbish ; the head of a quarry. Scope, Anglo-Saxon for a poet or maker; from sceopen, to make. Seoroe, to exchange. But Paridell sore bruised with the blow, Could not arise the counterchange to scarce. Spenser : Eaerie Queene. Will you scarce with him ? You are in Smithfield, you may fit yourself with a tine, easy-going street nag. — Ben Jonson. Scouth, room ; elbow-room, space. An he'll get scauth to wield his tree, I fear you'll both be paid. — Ballad af Robin Hood. By break of day he seeks the dowie glen, "ITiat he may scouth to a' his morning len'. Allan Ramsay : Pastoral an the Death af Mattliew Prior. Scr6a^ \ , Screit ' v ^ ^hnll cry, or sound ; harsher and sharper than a Scrike ' r shriek. The screik of the railway wliistle, Which lie in torments, yet die not, With many woeful scrikes. — Halliwell. Screeve Serieve '' > to glide swiftly along. The wheels of life go down hill scrieving, Wi' rattling glee. — Burns : Scotch Drinh. 204 LOST BE A UTIES OF Scrimp, bare, scarce j scrimply, barely, scarcely. Down flowed her robe, a tartan sheen, Till half a leg was scrimply seen ; And such a leg ! my bonnie Jean Alone could peer it. — Burns : The Vision. Scriteh, to screech. Perhaps it is the owlet's scriteh, Or what can ail the mastiff bitch ? — Coleridge : Christaiel. Serog, a stunted bush ; furze. Scroggy, abounding in underwood ; covered with stunted bushes, whin, or furze. The way towards the city was stony, thorny, and scraggy. Gesta Romanorum. Sir Walter Scott, when suffering from his last illness in Italy, was taken to a wild scene on the mountains that border the Lago di Garda. He had long been apathetic, and almost insensible to surrounding objects ; but his fading eyes flashed with unwonted fire at the sight of the furze bushes and scrogs that reminded him of home and Scotland ; and he suddenly exclaimed in the words of the Jacobite ballad : Up the scraggy mountain. And down the scraggy glen, We dare na gang a hunting, For Charlie and his men. So^° le I '^^^^'^^'^ J rubbish ; a mean fellow. Queen Elizabeth thanked Sir Harry Wallop, ' for some other services than common commissions for which in skroik of other memorials, I fail not to lock in my best memorye.' — Chalmer's Apology, 1797. In ' King John,' Falconbridge uses the word, and says : By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings. Mr. Howard Staunton, in his edition of Shakespeare, derives the word from the French, ecrouelle, a ' scabby rogue.' Sculsh, any trashy sweetmeats or green fruit : such as children are fond of eating. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 205 Scutcli, to bruise slightly ; whence, by corraption, to scotch. In the sense of to bruise flax, the word is still pronounced scutch, in the English manufacturing districts. We've scotched [scutched] tlie snake, not killed it. Shakespeare: Macieth, Second-grandfather, a word used by the peasantry in the North of England to express what in common, but less correct and elegant, English is called a ' great-grandfather.' A third great-grandfather, means in like manner, a ' great-great-great- grandfather. As the phrase is capable of indefinite extension, it seems a loss to literature that its use should be left whoUy to the unwritten speech of the people. A tenth remove of great-grandfatherhood would be difficult to designate by ten repetitions of the word ' great,' but would be easy, as well as graceful, by the popular method. Seethe, ) to boil. The translators of the Bible have preserved Sod, /■ this old English word, which was in common use Sodden, j before its modern synonyme was borrowed with other culinary phrases from the Norman-French. And he said unto his servant, Set on the gi-eat pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophet. — 2 Kings iv. 38. Go suck the subtle blood 0' th' grape Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth. Shakespeare: Timon of Athens, Seethe stanes in butter, the brew will be good. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverts. It is unsavorye '^-sodden or y-baken. — Piers Ploughman. My eyes are seething in my head, My flesh roasting also. — The Fire of Frendraught. The absence of the name of General Rosecrans from the lists of recent promotions has caused much comment. The reason need be no secret. Between Grant and Rosecrans there is waging an irrepressible conflict. Courteous in words, they fairly seethe with concealed hatred. New York Daily News, May 7, 1866. Seld, ) Selde, > seldom. Selden, j Selkouth, ) from kouih, couth, or kythe; to show, appear, or Selkethe, / be known ; meaning seldom seen ; strange, or unusual. 20(5 LOST BE A UTIES OF Seremonth, August, The month when the leaves begin to dry- or be sere. Shack, to rove about idly, to loiter, to go on the tramp. They call me shackaiack. And knave and lazy loon, Because, though hale and strong, I'm idle all day long ; And carol to the glimmer of the moon. Under Green Leaves, i860. In Jamieson's ' Scottish Dictionary,' to shack is described as meaning to shape or form anything in an oblique way. Thus, an idle vagabond, who goes on the tramp rather than do any work, shacks, or goes off obliquely from the true path of honesty. The root of the word is probably the Gaelic seach, pronounced sheach, to turn away, to avoid. Shackle, the wrist ; whence the verb to shackle, to fetter. The modern shackle was formerly schackle-lock or schacklock, i.e., wrist lock. Shad, preterite of shed. Then for us He shad His blood, And also dyed on the rode. Old Christmas Carols, edited by T.' Wright. Shaftmond, the measure of the palm of the hand with the thumb extended. A shaftemonde large. — Morie Arthur. The word is still current in Scodand and the North of England. Shale, a husk ; whence the modern word shell ; to shell peas, or remove them from the husk or pod. Shalm, a trumpet. In cornemuse and shalmes. And many another pipe. — Chaucer, He caused all the players oi shalmes to come out of the city. North's Plutarch. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 207 Shalm — continued. This word was also written shawm, as in the following quotations : What stately music have you ? You have shawms ? — Beaumont and Fletcher. In prayers and hymns to Heaven's eternal King, The comet, flute, and shawm, assisting as they sing. Otway: Windsor Castle, Shamster, one who shams. Shape, \ to make, to create, to put into form. The old pre- Shope, V terite and past participle of this verb have long been Shopen, J obsolete, and do not seem to have been used in English literature after the time of Chaucer. God shope the world. — Wickliffis Bible. The king and the commune Shopen laws. — Piers Ploughman. To which this sempnour shofe him for to wende. Chaucer: The Freri s Tale. Shapster, 1 Shapester, > a milliner ; one who shapes the dress to the form. Shepster, j Mabyll the shapster maketh surplys, shirts, breeches, keverchifs and all that may be wrought of linen cloth. Caxion's Bookefor Travellers [Nares). Shard, ) fragments of brittle substances, such as stone, marble, Sherd, J slate, glass, pottery, &c. ; from shear, to cut off. Hence the scales of serpents, or the shining wing cases of beetles, and other insects, hard, and as if made of a different substance from the rest of their bodies, were metaphorically called shards or sherds. Thou shalt break the sherds thereof. Ezekiel yodii. 34. For charitable prayers. Shards, flints, and pebbles, should be thrown on her. Shakespeare: Hamlet. Where the pig's (earthenware vessel) broken, let the sherds lie. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Pnmeibs. 2o8 LOST BEAUTIES oil Shard — continued. For longe tyme it so befelle, That with his sworde, and with his spere, He might mete the serpent dere : He was so sherded all aboute, It helde all edge toole withoute. Gower: Confessio Amantis. Sherd, ) the dung of cattle, when dried by exposure in the Shard, \ fields. Considerable controversy has arisen as to the Sharn, J sense in which Shakespeare used the phrase ' shard- bom beetle,' in Macbeth ; whether he meant sherd-hom, i.e., bom amid cow dung ; or sha7-d-\iam.t, borne in the air on shards or wings. In ' Cymbeline,' he says : And often to our comfort -we shall find, The sharded beetle in a safer hold, Than is the full-winged eagle. This passage seems to refer to ' shard,' a wing, rather than to 'shard,' dung. The Anglo-Saxon for cow-sherd or shard, was scearn or sharn; which pronunciation still survives in the North of England and Scotland. ■ Sharm, ) to make a buzzing, confused, chattering noise ; as of Swarm, / a crowd of people, children, or birds ; the same as chirm or churm, q. v. And though they sharme and crie, I care not a might. Digby Mysteries {Halliwell). Shaw, a small wood, thicket, or plantation of trees. This word was once common in English literature, and still subsists in the patronymics of many famihes ; as Shawe, Aldershawe, Hinshaw, Abershaw, Hawkshaw (or Oakshaw), and others j and is still used by the peasantry in most parts of England and Scotland. Whither ridest thou under this green shawe ? Said this yeman. — Chaucer: T/ie Frere's Tale. Gaillard he was a gold-finch in the shaw, Brown as a bery, a proper short felaw. Chaucer: The Coie'i Tale. Close hid beneath the greenwood sJiaw. Fairfax : Translation of Tasso. In summer when the shawes be shene. And leaves be fair and long, It is full merry in fair forest, To hear the sweet birds' song. — Ballad of Robin Hood. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 209 Shaw — continued. The braes ascend like lofty wa's, The foaming stream deep-roaring fa's, O'erhung wi' fragrant spreading shaws. The birks of Aberfeldy. — Bums. Gloomy winter's now awa, Saft the westlin' breezes blaw, Mang the birks o' Stanley shaw. The mavis sings fu' cheery, O. — Tannahill. Shawp, an empty husk ; a pea-pod, or bean-pod. Sheal, 1 to put under cover. To sheal the sheap, i.e., to put SMel, J them under cover \ from the Gaelic sgail, to cover. SheSS, } ^ shepherd's hut, a covering. Ten miles from any town this shieling lies. Rosses HeUnore. Shear, 1 to cut closely off. The ancient preterite is obso- Sheer, | lete, and has been superseded by the regular form Shore, or \ in ed. The sea-shore, i.e., the strip of land sheared, Shiire, shore, or shorn by the action of the waves, is the Shorn, j sole relic of this word in modern parlance. Robin share in hairst [harvest], I shtire wi' him. — Bums. Boston was the Delilah that allured him [Daniel Webster]. Oft he broke the withes of gold, till at last she shore off his locks, and his strength went from him. Theodore Parker : Discourse on the Death of Daniel Webster. Sheen. Nares defines this word to mean, shining as an adjec- tive, or brightness as a noun j but the true derivation is from the German schon, beautiful. It is used by Shakespeare and Milton in the sense which Nares attributes to it. By fountain clear or spangled starlight sheen. Shakespeare : Midsummer Night's Dream. And tlrirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen. Shakesfeare: Hamlet. Chaucer, King James I. of Scotland, Spenser, and the early metrical romancers, use it in its true sense of schon, or beautiful. Your blissful sister Lucina, the sheen, That of the sea is chief goddess and queen. Chaucer : The Franklin's Tale, 14 210 Z OST ERA UTIES OF Sheen — continued. Her garment was so bright and wondrous shecne, . That my fraile wit cannot devise to what It to compare. Spensen Faerie Queene. After sharpe showers, Most sheen is tire sun. Fiers Ploughman. On his long yellow lockis sJieen, A chaplet had he, all of levis green. The King's Quair. The wedding ring was forth brought, Guy then and fair Felice thought. He had her nigh forgotten clean, Alas ! he said, Felice the sheen I Penance I crave. None other maid my love shall have. Guy of Wai-wich. Her skin that was both bright and sheen. Sir Bevis of Havipton. Richmond in Surrey received the name of Sheen, from its beauty, not from its brightness. Byron, though following Shakespeare, seems to be wrong in using the word sheen in the sense of shine in the following passage : The Ass3n:ian came down like a wolf on the fold. And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold. And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea. Hebrew Melodies. Mr. Tennyson in his poem of ' Love and Death,' is also wrong in the use of the word sheeny, which is in reality a mere mis-spelling of shiny : ' You must begone !' said Death, ' these walks are mine ;' Love wept and spread his sheeny vans for flight. Coleridge uses it both correctly and incorrectly in the ' An- cient Mariner :' The upper air burst into life, And an hundred fire flags sheen. To and fro they were hurried about. In this passage the word is synonymous with schon. In the following it is a mis-spelling of shine : And through the drifts, the snowy clifts Did send a dismal sheen, Shend, v., to rebuke ; to blame ; to shame. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 2 u Shent, rebuked. Spenser in the 'Faerie Queene,' and Thomson in the ' Castle of Indolence,' use this word. Dryden, according to Dr. Johnson, was the last author of note who employed it Vengeance, vengeance, Forgiven be it never, That shente us, and shed oiu- bloode. Piei-s Ploughman. What say you, sir? I am shent for speaking to you. Shakespeare: Twelfth Night. Sorely shent with this rebuke. Sorely shent was the heir o' Linne. T/ie Heir of Linne. Though bending from the blast of eastern storms ; Though shent their leaves, and shattered are their arms. He that shames, let him be shent. ' Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Shevel, to distort; to walk in an oblique and unsteady manner. SMniele, a bonfire. A distant fire or light ; a little shine. — • Jamieson. .Ship-master, the master of a ship, a word preferable to ' cap- tain,' which is a military title, and which, if allowable in the case of an officer in the naval service of the sovereign, is not appropriate to that of a mere employ^ in the mercantile marine. 1^^^®' I a large slice. JSheeve, J ^ Shiver, a small slice. A man shall not find a sheve of it to fetch fire in. Halliwell. Have I nought of a capon but the liver ? And of your white bread nought but a shiver. Chaucer: The Sompnour's Tale. Easy it is Of a cut loaf, to steal a shive we know. Shakespeare : Titus Andronicus. Bannocks and a sJieeve of cheese, "Will make a breakfast that a laird might please. Allan Ramsay J The Gentle Shepherd. Shoon, ancient plural of shoe. 14—2 212 LOST BEAUTIES 01- Slioon — continued. And how shouU I your true love knpw. From any another one ? O, by his cockle hat and staff, And by his sandal shoon. Shakespeare: Hamlet. The disuse of the Anglo-Saxon plural in n and en, is one of the greatest losses which the English language has suf- fered ; and combined with the simultaneous disuse of eth, in the third person singular in the present tense of verbs, aggra- vates the tendency to sibillation or hissing, which makes English the most unvocal of all modern tongues. Sliope, preterite of shape or create. God shape the ytoxl&.— Wicliff^ s Bible. Lord that shape both heat and cold. Guy of Warmch. Wymmen were the best thing, That shape our high Heaven King. Advice to the Fair Sex : Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, The king and the commune, * ♦ * * Shopen lavFS. Piers Ploughman. Shote, a young hog. Jamieson's Dictionary has 'shot,' a half-grown swine, a word in use in the Lothians. In America a very common expression of contempt applied to a man of no'ability or character, is that ' he is a poor shote^ Shram, to shrivel with cold. Shrammed ; benumbed with cold, Halliwell . It was a cold, damp evening, and I found four mUes an hour on ■ shanks's pony ' only enough to keep me warm ; but I am glad to say- that his Majesty was the only one of the party in two open carriages who did not, to use a Wiltshirism, look ' shrammed -mSh. cold.' Daily Telegraph, Nov. I, 1866. Shread, ) to cut off the ends, to lop. The old preterite has Shred, J long been obsolete, but survives as a noun, shredy a thing lopped off or cut off, a remnant : The superfluous and waste sprigs of vines being shreaded off. WilhalVs Dictionarie, 1608. A shredder of trees. — Naves. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 2'i3 Shreed, "j to clotlie, to cover. Slired, > clothed, covered. Shrowd, J a garment, a covering. Bevis of his palfrey alight, And shredde the palmer as a knight. Bevis of Hampton. In a kirtel of silk he gan him shreede. Gicy of Warwich. Worthy to be shredde and shrined in gold. Morte Arthur- I shope me in a shrowde as I a shepherd were. Piers Ploughman. The princes were even compelled by the hail, to seek some shrowd- ing y\2i.cs.—Sidney : Arcadia. There was a place called the shrowds at Paul's Cross ; a covered space on the side of the church to protect the congregation in inclement seasons. — Pennant's London. The word shroud applied to the clothing of a dead body is still used. Shrew, this word, as a substantive, seems to have been origi- nally applied to both sexes, and to have meant an ill-con- ditioned, ill-natured, malicious, bad person. As a verb, with the prefix, be, it was used as an imprecation, signifying to curse, as ' beshrew me if I do ;' i.e., ' curse me if I do.' Some lexicographers have erroneously derived the word from the jy^r^e'-mouse ; but shrew-mouse really means an ill-natured and ferocious kind of mouse. Shrew, a kmd of field mouse, which, if he go over a beast's back, will make him lame in the chine ; and if he bite, the beast swells to the heart and dies. From hence came our English phrase, ' / beshrew thee,' when we wish ill to any one. And we call a curst woman a, shrew. — Blount's Glossographia, or Dictionary of Hard Words, 1680. I beshrewe me, But if I telle tales two or three of Freres. Chaucer: Wife of Bath's Talc. Arise, Roland, and fight, And shed the shrew's blood. For he was never good, By land nor by sea. — Sir Otuel. Thou black shrew. Thou art a foul thing, gotten amiss. No man wot who thy father is. Merlin. 314 LOST BEAUTIES OF Shrew — continued. fr In the ' Evergreen, or Poems written by the Ingenious before 1600/ the author of the ' Pedder Coffes,' calls cheat- ing pedlars, Shameless shrews. Shakespeare uses the word for both sexes : By this reckoning he's more shrew than she. And in ' Love's Labour's Lost,' the Princess says : I beshrew all shrews. The current meaning of the word, and of its adjective shrewish, as applied to a scolding wife, seems to be due en- tirely to its use by Shakespeare. Cotton, in the ' Joys of Marriage,' has : If too wary then she'll shrew thee, If too lavish she'll undo thee. The Americans use the word curse, or as they pronounce it 'cuss,' in a similar sense, both as verb and noun. 'A Yankee,' said an indignant slave-owner at New Orleans, ' is. a mean cuss.^ A shrewish woman is also called a cuss. The word shrewd, in the sense of far-seeing, sagacious, cunning, is generally supposed to be derived from shrew, but the connection is not obvious. Shrive, to confess. Shrove, ) , , ShriveA, I 'confessed. The infinitive and past participle of this verb are not quite obsolete. Shrove, the preterite, survives in Shrove Tuesday. Shrift, a confession. Short shrift, i.e., a short time allowed for the confession of the criminal between the passing of the sentence and the execution. Shxmt, to turn off, or aside ; a word lately re-introduced into the language by railway engineers and workmen. Shruek, preterite of shriek ; to cry out. Sib, related to by blood or marriage. 'An ancient Saxon word,' says Ray, 'signifying kindred, alliance, or afSnity.'' The Cheshire proverb, quoted by Halliwell, has : ' We are THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 215 Sib — continued. no more sib than sieve and riddle, that both grew in the woods together.' A Scotch proverb in Allan Ramsay's col- lection, says : 'A' Stuarts are no sib to the king ;' ' Ayaunter and a liar are right sib ;' and ' It's good to be sib to siller.' An ye be but sib to some of these sisters seven. Piers Ploughman. He was sib to Arthm- of Bretayne. — Chaucer. He is no fairy born or sii to elves. — Spenser. Let the blood of mine that's sib to him, be sucked from me with leeches ; let Hm break and fall off me with that corruption. Beaumont and Fletcher. Sile, 1 to run over, to slide down, or subside; as sand in Syle, J water. Silth, that which has subsided ; as the silth of a river or lake, erroneously contracted into silt. Siss, 1 a term of endeannent ; applied to a female child in Sissie, ) America ; from the first syllable of ' sister.' This word is supposed by some to be purely American, and to be derived from siss and asiss, signifying little in several native Indian dialects. Mr. Halliwell, partially aware of the English, and unaware of the American use of the word, appears to lean to the opinion that siss is an abbreviation of Cicely, ' a common name for a girl.' He quotes : The sho^vman that in times past was contented to russet, must now- a-days have his doublet of the fashion, with wide cuts, his garters of fine silk of Granada, to meet his Siss on Sunday. Lodges Wit's Miserie, 1598. Sistren, 1 the ancient plural of sister. Chaucer speaks of the Sustren, / Fates, or weird sisters, as ' the fatal sustren.' Bart- lett's Dictionary of Americanisms, says that the word is a ' vulgarism, sometimes heard from uneducated preachers at the West ;' and quotes from ' Carlton's New Purchase," the following example : Brethren and sistren, it is a powerful great work, this here preach- ing of the gospel. It appears, however, that the word was not vulgar in Chaucer's time, and is as well entitled to a place in pulpit eloquence, as its equally antique partner — ^brethren. zi6 LOST -BEAUTIES OF Sistren — continued. All sustren and bretlieren, That beth (be) of our m&xe..— Piers Ploughman. Sithence, 1 • _ . . , ' > since. Sith, J I came to my lady kith, I was yet sobre never sith. Gower: Confessio Amantis. Sith 'twill no bitter be, I trust I have within my realm Five hundred good as he. Ballad of Chevy Chase. Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope. Shakespeare : Measure for Measure. Sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. Ezekiel, chap. xxv. Sith, ) ^. Sithe, r"^^ ^'^ *'"'^'- AAd humbly thanked him a thousand sith. Spenser: Faerie Queene. Of his coming the king was blithe, And rejoiced a hundred sithe. Bevis of Hamptmi. SithcTindman, the oldest inhabitant ; one who knows what has happened a long time since ; one known for a long time. The chief man in a town, district, or parish. Skam, preterite of skim ; to take off the froth or upboiling of a liquid ; whence also scum. Skart, the cormorant. Like skarts upon the wing, by the hope of plunder led. The Invasion of the Norsemen. Skelp, to smack, to administer a blow with the palm of the hand. I'm sure sma' pleasure it can gie, E'en to a deil, To skelp and scaud poor dogs like me And hear us squeel !" Bums : Address to the Deil. Skelpie-Kmmer, a violent woman, ready both with her hands and tongue. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 217 Skelpie-limmer — continued. Ye little skelpie-limmer' s face ! How daur ye try sic sportin'. Bums : Hallcaoeen. Skelly, to squint. The veiyman, said Bothwell, he siellies fearfully with one eye. Sir Walter Scott. Skene, a knife, a sword, from the Gaelic sgian, a knife ; early- used as an English word. The Saxons * * the very noblest were, And of those crooked skains (skenes) they used in war to bear. Drayton's Polyolbion. His ai-me is long, In which he shakes a skene, bright, broad, and long, Heywood. Skew, to turn aside ; whence to look askew. Skew your eye towards the magnet. — Halliwell. The water skeweth. — MS. Cotton, quoted by Halliwell. Skime, to look at a person furtively ; or with half-shut eyes pretending not to see. Skyme, a glance or gleam of light. The skyme o' her e'en was like dewy sheen. Zady Mary of Craignethan. Skenk, 1 liquor ; to draw or pour out liquor j from the German Skink, J schenken, to pour out. Skinker, a waiter ; one who pours out liquor at a tavern. Such wine as Ganymede doth skink to Jove. — Shirley. Skink out the first glass. Ben Jonson. Sweet Ned, * * » j give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapt even now into my hand by an VLXvAsc-skinket . Shakespeare: Henry IV., part i. Until he falls asleep he skinks and drinks. Taylor, The Water Poet, 1630. But no fear affrights deep drinkers. There I toss'd it with my skinkers. Drunken Barnaby's yournal. 2i8 LOST BEAUTIES OF Skink — continued. The bowl went round the hoard, Which empty'd the nide skinker still restored. Diyden's Homer. The wine ! there was hardly half a mutchkin, and puir fusionless shvik it was. — Sir Walter Scott. In the glossary to Ramsay's 'Poems' (1723), skink is described as a strong broth, made of the shins of beef. 'Skink,' says Blount's ' Glossographia ' (1684), 'is, in Scot- land, a kind of pottage of strong nourishment made of knuckles and sinews of beef long boiled.' Skirl, to shriek, to cry out ; or to make a loud noise on a wind instrument. This word is never used to express the shriek or scream of pain, but is suggestive either of anger or boisterous glee. In 'Tam o' Shanter,' the 'deil,' on the window-ledge of Alloway Kirk, screwed up the bagpipes, and made them skirl so loudly that the vibration shook the rafters. Ye have given the sound thump, and he the loud j,4w-/; (i.e., you have beaten the man, and he shows it by his roaring). Allan Ramsay's Scottish Troverlis, When skirling weanies see the light. Thou makes the gossips clatter bright. Burns : Scotch Drink. Skirm, to fence : from the French escrime, whence also skir- mish. Skyte, to drive and pelt like rain or hail before the wind. When hailstones drive wi' bitter skyte. Burns : The folly Beggars. Slade, a narrow valley on a mountain side. Down through the deeper slade. Drayton. Slake, I to cool with water; to quench, to extinguish. The Sloke, \ preterite and past participle are nearly obsolete. In Sicken, ) some of the northern counties it is usual to say that ' the fire is sloken.^ From henceforth my rest is my travaile, My dry thirst with teris must I sloken. The icing's Quair, THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 219' Slake — continued. Some Mdden place wherein to slake the gnawing of my mind. Earl of Surrey. In Richardson's Dictionary, slake and slack, to slacken, retard or make slow, are held to be of the same signification. Todd's ' Johnson' gives the following examples of its use by early writers in a different sense : And slake the heavenly fire that raged evermore. Spenser, If I digged up thy forefathers' graves, And hung their rotten coffins up in chains, It coidd not slake mine ire. Shakespeare. And with the crystal stream their thirst at pleasure slake. Blackmore. The Rev. John Heugh was one day admonishing one of his people. on the sin of intemperance. ' Man, John ! you should never drinlc except when ye're dry.' ' Weel,' replied John, ' I never dae ! but I'm never slackened.' — Dean Ramsay. Sleeeh, the mud or soft sand at the bottom of lakes or rivers,, when taken away and used as manure. Sleeoh, to ladle or dip out water or broth. Sleepaway, to die without disease, peaceably, and by gradual decrease of the powers of nature. Sleeple, to slumber ; to have a little sleep. Mirthe of their mouthes. Made me there to sleeple. Piers Ploughman. Sleeve, a favour ; a badge, a love-token ; something given aiis liebe, out of love or gallantry. I'll grow friend with danger. Wear this sleeve. Troilus and Cressida. Shining in armour bright before the tilt, And with thy nustress' sleeve tied on thy helme. Nares. Sleeveless, without love-token, badge, or sign of favour; whence the common phrase, not yet obsolete, ' a sleeveless 220 LOST BEAUTIES OF Sleeveless — continued. errand,' one from which no reward, encouragement, or favour is to be got. Sleight, skill, a trick ; from the Gaelic slighe, a stratagem, and sligeach, sly, dexterous, cunning ; whence the modern phrase, ' sleight of hand.' By muckel sleight. As it becometh a conqueror, To konne manye sleights. And many wiles and wit. Piers Ploughman. Sleith, slyness, contrivance, cunning. Sleithly, slily, cunningly. What weenest thou Him who knowest all, To deceive with thy sleithly wile ? Lydgate, quoted by Halliwell. Slant' I *'° J^^' ^^^ °''' "'^truthfully ; to lie. J ' He slants a good deal,' a proverbial expression in the North, quoted by Brockett ; i.e., he lies, or sla7its from the right line of truth. And when Cleopatra found Antonius' jests and stents to be but gross and soldier like, » * * she without fear taunted him thoroughly. North's Plutarch. One Proteus, a pleasant, conceited fellow, that could stent finely. Idem. Sleuth, to track an animal, or a person, to a shelter or hiding- place ; whence the word ' sleuth-hound,' formerly used in Scotland. In the South of England, kuth signifies a shelter ; and sleuth is probably a contraction of disleuth, to dislodge from a place of shelter. In the Border ballad of ' Hobbie Noble,' the word is spelt sloiigh-Yi.omyA'i. In the spirited ballad of the 'Fray of Suport,' one of the characters is represented as sitting Wi' his sleuth-dog in his watch-right sure ; Should the dog gie a bark, He'll be out in his sark, And die or win ! In Thomson's ' English Etymons,' slouth is said to mean a company of wild beasts, a troop of bears or wolves, which THE ENGLISH LANCUA GE. 221 Sleuth — continued. suggests another derivation ; slot, in the same volume, is defined the track or beat of a deer ; and in Yorkshire, to slote a beast is to_set a dog at him. Sleuthe with his sljmg, A hard assault he made. Piers Ploughman. Slick, smooth, glossy. This word is not a vulgarism or an Americanism, as generally supposed, but a more ancient and genuine English word than its synonyme sleek, by which it has been partially superseded. The ancient pronunciation appears in Chaucer, who makes it rhyme to chick. Her flesh tender as is a chicke, With bent browes, smoothe and slike. Chaucer ; jRomance of the Rose. The mole's a creature very smooth and slick. Book for Boys and Girls, 1636. The word has recently acquired an extension of meaning both in America and England, and signifies : rapidly, eflfectu- ally, thoroughly, clean. The railroad company, out of sheer parsimony, have neglected tO' fence in their line, which goes slick through the centre of your garden. Blackwood's Magazine, '^■ai.j, 1847. I've heard tell that courtin's the hardest thing in the world to begin ;: though it goes on slick enough afterwards. Traits of American Humour. Slid, slippery. Sliddery, slippery. Slidness, slipperiness. Ye hae sae saft a voice and slid a tongue. Allan Ramsay : The Gentle Shepherds There's a sliddery siaxis before the ha' door; (i.e., they who visit above then: station, may slip). Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Slide, to disappear from sight j to go out ol one's thought or concern. ' Let it slidel is a common phrase in America, and sup- :222 LOST BE A UTIES OF Slide — continued. posed to be an Americanism ; but the word occurs in the same sense in Chaucer and Shakespeare. Lord Walter, in the ' Gierke's Tale,' was so addicted to the sport of hawking, that Well nigh all other cares let he slyde. Chaucer. Let her sorrow slide. Idem. Let the world slide. Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew. Slive, to do anything furtively or slily ; to sneak, to skulk. Slive, to slip down. Slove, \ slipped down ; loosened like an untidy garment ; Sloven, / whence the word slovenly. Sliver, to cut in long shreds or slices. The harme of which I would fain deliver, Alas ! that he all whole, or of him sliver. Should have his repute. Chaucer : Troilus and Cressida. She that herself will sliver and disbranch, From her material sap, perforce must wither. And come to deadly use. Shakespeare : King Lear. There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds, Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke. Shakespeare : Hamlet. This word is always pronounced in America, as Chaucer seems to have pronounced it, with the i short. In modem EngHsh the i is usually long. Sloaeh, to drink heavily. Slock, to entice away ; to inveigle. .Slockster, one that slocks or entices away another man's ser- vants. — Blount's Glossographia, 1684. -Slodder, slippery, tenacious ; adhesive mud or slush. THE ENGLISBI LANGUAGE. 223 Slogan, the war-cry of a Scottish clan ; a word not to be con- founded with pibroch, a musical composition for the bagpipes, as has been sometimes done by English writers. Sloom, to sleep heavily and soundly; distinguished from slumber, to sleep lightly. Sloomy, dull, lazy. Slop, preterite of slip. Sloppe, a garment ; something slipped on. Slop clothes and slop tailors, are current phrases in the present day ; but it appears ^from Chaucer, that in his time, any loose garment was called a sloppe. His overest sloppe it is not worth a mite ; Chancer: The Chanonis Tale. Slorp, to eat greedily and with a guttural noise. There's gentle John and Jock the slorp. And curly Jock, and hurly Jock, And lying Jock himsel. — Jacobite Relics. Slote, the pit of the stomach. Through the brain and the breast, with his bright weapon. Slant down to the slote he slittes at once. — Morte Arthur. Slotter, to make a noise with the palate in eating. To feed like an animal ; synonymous with slorp. Slotterhodge, a coarse-feeding clown. yamieson. Sloy, a slatternly woman. How tedious were a shrew, a sloy, a wanton, or a fool. Nares, f J^^' I thick mire. Slab, J Shakespeare, in the Witch Scene in ' Macbeth,' makes the witch say : Malce the gruel thick and slab. Slug, to be lazy and sleepy ; whence ' sluggard,' a lazy man ; and ' slug' applied to the earth worm from its slow motions. He used to slug and sleep in slothful shade. Spenser: Faeiie Queene, Slut, preterite of slit. 224 LOST BE A UTIES OF Smatter, a heap of small objects in motion ; also, to be busily engaged about small affairs ; whence a smattering of know- ledge. Smatters, small matters, trifles ; small sums of money. Smeke, to flatter a man to his face, and overdo it ; from the German schmeicheln, to flatter. Smell-feast, a parasite ; an habitual diner out, a sponge, a sorner. Mercurius, commonly called Captain of Smell-feasts. Nares. Smerl, a smock, a shift, a woman's under-garment. Smerly, demure looking. Smeth, the preterite of smooth ; a word still used in many parts of England for a depilatory, that smoothes the skin. The unguent is sometimes called a smoothery. Smither, a small fragment ; whence the vulgar colloquialism, smithereens. Snairl, a mischievous or roguish trick. I'll play him a smirliox that yet. — Jamieson. Smock, a woman's under-garment; from ^e.Gscra3.Tischmucken, to adorn; a much better word than the modern chemise; and the common vulgarism, shimmy. The word survives in ' smocMiock,' a farm labourer's over-garment. ' Lady's smock' is the common name, preserved in Shakespeare, of the white convolvulus. - This word also signifies an over as well as under garment ; a dress ; a robe ; as in the following : Believe me if my wedding smock were on, Were the gloves bought and given, The licence come, * * * * I would not wed that year. Beaumont and Fletcher : The Scornful Lady. Smock-frock, an over-garment, formerly, and still worn, by English farm labourers ; the French blouse. Smock-faced, pale-faced ; with a face like a young woman. — AsKs Dictionary, 1775. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 225 Smolt, smooth, shiny, glossy ; from smolten, ancient participle of smelt. Smoothen, to smooth. Mrs. Transome worked to smoothen the current of his dialogue. Felix Holt, the Radical, 1866. Smore, to smother. Smore, a swarm or gathering of people ; not so many as to be called a crowd. Smtire, preterite oi smore; smothered. Snack, quick, active ; whence a ' snack,' a hasty ineal. Snag, a tooth standing in the mouth by itself, or a projection on a tree where a branch has been lopped off at some dis- tance from the trunk. To this word the Americans owe their name for the peculiar danger of the Mississippi. How thy snag teeth stand orderly, Like stdces by the water side. — Wifs Interjireter, 1671. His weapon was a tall and snaggy oak. — Heywood, 1609. Snarl, a difficulty, an entanglement; a knot. This word, almost obsolete in England, is common in America. Let Hymen's easy snarls be quite forgot. — Quarks' Emblems. And from her head oft reft her snarled hair. Spenser : Faerie Queene. You snarle yourself into so many and such heinous absurdities as you shall never be able to winde yourself out. Cranmer's Answer to Bishop Gardhur. Snatlie, to prune trees. SnaugM, ancient preterite of snatch; formed on the same principle as caught, from catch. Snape, " to check, chide, or rebuke angrily ; nip with unkind- ■ ness ; whence smib, the preterite of this verb, now Snib, I used as the infinitive. Snub, J The two first of these five words have almost disappeared froni literature and conversation, to make room for the last ; ^5 Sneap, Sneb, 226 LOST BEAUTIES OF Sneap — continued. though snub is scarcely worthy of the honour, considering how much Shakespeare and other poets have done to make sneap famihar to us. No sneaping wind at home to make us say, This Is put forth too early. — Shakespeare: Winter's Tale. Biron is like an envious sneapnng frost, That bites the first bom infants of the spring. Shakespeare : Love's Labour's Lost. I will not undergo this sneap without reply. Shakespeare : Henry IV. Do you sneap me too, my Lord ? — Browne's Antipodes. And on a time he cast him for to scold, And snebbe the good oak. Spenser: Shepherd's Calendar. Sneath., the handle of a scythe. Sned, to prune, lop, shear, mow. And legs and arms and heads he'll sned Like taps o' thistles. — Burns. Snell, sharp, active, lively, piercing ; from the German schnell, quick. Johnson afSrms the word to be obsolete, and Rich- ardson ignores it altogether. He answered snell, Berynus I am named. — Chaucer. A handy man and snell In tournament, and eke in fight. — Morie Arthur. Fought stout and snell, And stood about him in the stour. — The Reia's Quair. One rough night the blattering winds blew snell. Allan Ramsay. Shivering for cold, the season was so snell. Gawin Douglas : Translation of Virgil. This snell lass that came with me. — Ross's Helenore. And when the day was done. They rode out snell. — Riison. Not Boreas that so snelly blows. — Ferguson. Snick, the latchet of a door. Snick-drawing, entering a house or door by stealth. And you, ye auld snick-drawing dog, Ye came to Pai-adise incog. Burns : Address to the Deil. Snidge, to hanj and sponge upon a person ; to sorn. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 227 Snipe, a cutting remark ; a sarcasm. Snipsy, sarcastic. Snirl, to shrivel up. Snirp, to wither. Snirt, a short, suppressed laugh. Snirtle, to attempt to suppress one's laughter. Snite, a snout or nose. Snite, to blow the nose ; of which the preterite was snot, a word that has become vulgar, to signify not the blowing of the nose, but what is blown from it. — See Nares. JSnithe, cold, sharp, and cutting ; said of the east wind. Let's spang (close) our gates, It's varra snithe. It will be frost belive. — Yorkshire Dialogue, 1667. SnodL, preterite of sned ; mown, shorn, pruned. Snodg^zs&, a well-known patronymic, means mown, or shorn grass. Your jwoi/ remarks and pointed style. — Galloway's Poems. Snood, a band or fillet for the hair, worn by unmarried girls. This word is still common in Scotland, and the North of England. Yon gentlewoman with the saffron snude. Two Lancashire Levers, 1640. Snool, to disspirit by constant chiding ; or to depress the , energies of life by excess of bodily toil. Mr. Halliwell ex- plains a sneul and a snool, to mean a poor pitiful fellow. It's ass and full and silly smdl. It's naething but a noodle. Miss Blamire : The Cumberland Scold. Snoke, to pry meanly into holes and comers, to poke one's nose where it has no business. Snoove, to pry, to sneak. Snow, ] to drop partially congealed rain. The preterite and Snew, > past participle survive in America, but are considered Snown, J vulgarisms. Withouten bake meat never was his house. Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteous. It snewe in his house of meat and drink. Chancer ; Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. 15—2 228 LOST BEAUTIES OF Snow — continued. First it blew, and tlien it snew, and tlien it friz horrid. Major Dffwning's Lettets. Ben Jonson, in his ' English Grammar,' cites the following verbs that make their preterite in ew — viz., blow, grow, throw, crow, know, draw, slay, and snow. The last is the only one of the number that now forms its preterite in ed, though uneducated people both in Great Britain and America sometimes form the preterites of grow, blow, and know in ed, as when Topsy, in ' Uncle Tom's Cabin,' says, ' she growed.' ' I knowed it,' instead of ' I knew it,' is also a common vul- garism. Snurl, to rufHe the surface of the waters with a wind ; meta- phorically applied to the temper of a man or woman. Northern blasts the ocean snurl. — Allan Ramsay. Snurle, an influenza ; catarrh or cold in the head. Sniirles, from nose-thurles, the nostrils. Sny, snug. Sodden, past participle of seethe, to boil. ' Gm-soddm' a phrase applied to a low drunkard, sodden, seethed, and per- meated with gin. Soggy, very wet, soft, swampy ground. The word occurs in Ben Jonson, and is in common use in America. S°levne I ^ ^^^i^^T person ; one all by himself He sat neither with Saint Johan, Ne with maidens, not with martyrs, But by himself as a soleyne. — Piers Ploughman. Somedeal, a little ; in some part. A poor widow, somedele stooped in age. — Chaucer. Sonee, prosperity ; from the Gaelic sonas, good fortune. Soney, 1 fortunate ; also used in the sense of comely, well- Sonsie, J favoured, healthful, and agreeable. Three are aye sonsy. — Allan Ramsay. The unsonsy fish gets the unlucky bait, — Scotch Proverbs. A sonsic and a bonnie lassie. — Bm-ns. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 229 Sool, anything eaten with bread or potatoes for a relish. Nares derives the word from the French soule, satiated, full, or drunk ; ' se souler,' to get drunk. The English and Scottish sool is not applied to liquids. Soom, to drink a long draught, with a sucking noise of the mouth ; as if in great thirst, or with great relish. Sooth, truth. He looks like sooth, He says he loves my daughter. Shakespeare: Winter's Tale. If thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much. Shakespeare : Macbeth. Soothfast, strong and steady in the truth. Sorn, a word common in Scotland and the North of England, to express the practice of fastening one's self upon another, to feast and lodge, unasked and unwelcome ; almost equivalent to the word to sponge, in England. In Scotland, ' to go and sorn upon a man for a dinner,' would be in England, ' to go and take pot-luck with him / he not expecting you. No exact synonyme exists, south of the Humber. In Thompson's ' Etymons of English Words,' sorn is said to be a corruption of sojourn and soiorn, to tarry from day to day, and to have been derived from the ancient practice in unsettled times, of bands of armed men, living at free quarters ■upon the people when passing through a country. It is related of a noble Scottish lady of the olden time, who lived in a remote part of the Highlands, and was noted for her profuse hospitality, that she was sometimes overburdened with habitual sornm-s. When any one of them outstayed his welcome, she would take occasion to say to him at the morn- ing meal, with an arch look at the rest of the company, ' Mak' a guid breakfast, Mr. Blank, while ye're about it ; ye dinna ken whar ye'll get your dinner.' The hint was usually taken, and the sorner departed. Sot, preterite of set. I sot him a task ; obsolete in England, but current in America. Vfi LOST BEAUTIES OF Sothery, soothing ; but defined by Naies to mean sweet. And as I wene. With sothery butter their bodies anoynted. Ftmr jPs, Old Play {Nares). Sough or sugh. In Nares's ' Glossary,' this usefiil word is. defined to mean, ' perhaps a sound.' He quotes firom Ben Jonson's ' Epigrams :' The well greased wherry now had got between. And bade her farewell sough imto her burden. Mr. Halliwell comes nearer to the mark, and describes a sough or sugh, as a buzzing, a hollow murmuring, a roaring. Johnson, in his Dictionary, though quite unaware of the derivation of the word, defines it to mean the whisthng of the wind ; and quotes firom the ' History of the Royal Society,' Vol. IV., p. 225, the phrase, 'A noise like that of a great soughing wind.' In the Scottish dialect the word is spelt and pronoimced sugh (with the guttural pronunciation),, and means the sound of the wind upon the seashore or among the trees, or amid the long grass, or the sedges on a river's brink ; in all of which senses, it is used both in the highest order of poetry, and in the most ordinary conversa- tion. It is e^idently from the same root as sigh, or the Greek psyche, the breath, or soiJ. According to Richardson the word was anciently written sike, thus betraying its etymo- logy. November chill blaws loud wi' angry sough. Burns : Cotter's Saturday Night. Like a rash-bush stood in sight, ■\Vi' waving sough. — Burns : Address to the Deil. The wavy swell of the soughing reeds. Tennyson : The Dying Swan. Sounder, a herd or company of wild swine. — Blounfs Glossa- graphia, 1681. If by any chance there is a sounder of them (boars or swine) together ;. then if any break sounder, the rest will run. Gentle Eecreation, (quoted by Nares. ) Souse, pickled pork or other meat ; also brine for pickling. Thus they went all along unto the miller's house, Where they were seething of puddings and souse. Percys Rdiques, the King a?id the Miller of Mansfield. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 231 Souse — continued. Nor is a breast of pork to be, Despised by either thee or me ; The head and feet will make good souse. — Poor Robin, 1738. Souter, a shoemaker ; from the Latin sutor. Ploughmen and pastorers, And other common laborers, Souters and shepherds. — Hers Ploughman. Souter Johnny. — Burns. ' Mair whistle than woo,' As the souter said when he sheared the soo. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs, Spade-graft, the depth to which a spade will dig. Spae, to tell fortunes ; to predict. Spae-wife, a fortune-teller. Spaed, ) that which is gelded or castrated. — Blounfs Glossa- Spade, ) grapAia, 1681. 'To call a spade, a spade, was a popular phrase for to be plain spoken,' says Nares. He adds, ' why the spade was especially chosen to enter into this figurative expression is not so clear.' Perhaps Blount's explanation may throw light upon the obscurity. To call a spaed man, a spaed ; i.e., to call a eunuch, a eunuch, is a possible derivation. Small eloquence men must expect from me, My scholarship will name things as they be ; I think it good plain English without fraud, To call a spade a spade, a bawd, a bawd. Taylor, the Water Poet, 1630, Possibly the phrase originates in the Gaelic spad, to strike a fatal blow ; and spadadh, murder. Spalt, brittle ; whence spelter. Sparthe, an axe, a halberd. Spate, ) a flood or freshet from the overflow of a river or lake. Spait, / Spat or spate, from the same root as spatter, to dis- perse, or shed abroad a fluid, means, according to Mr. Barnes, in his ' English Roots,' a ' heavy down-casting of rain.' Flood, the quasi synonyme of spate, may, and does mean, a torrent of water in its usual channel ; whereas, a spate, is water that has overspread its channel. The water was great and niickle of spate. Ballad of Kinmont Willie. 232 LOST BEAUTIES OF Spate — continued. Even like a mighty river, that runs down in sfate to the sea. W. E. Aytoun, Blaikwood's Magazine. The Laird of Balnamon was a truly eccentric character. He joined with his drinking propensities a great zeal for the Episcopal Church. One Sunday, having visitors, he read the services and prayers with great solemnity and earnestness. After dinner, he, with the true Scotch hospi- tality of the time, set to, to make his guests as drunk as possible. Next day, when they took their departure, one of the visitors asked another what he thought of the laird. ' Wky, really,' he replied, • sic a sfate o' praying, and sic a spate o' drinking, I never knew in all the course of my life.' — Dean Ramsay's Reminiscences. Speedful, prosperous, fortunate. ' I wish you good speed ■ is still a common expression. Sperage, the herb asparagus, or as it is vulgarty called by the street-criers, 'sparrow-grass, and 'grass.' This herb is so called by Gerard and all the old botanists, as its English name. It is an indigenous plant. — Nares. Spert, \ Spirt, \ a sudden fit of energy or spirit. Spurt, j And some of them led here and there \iy spU'ts, Shifting their lodgings oftener than their shirts. Taylors Works, 1630. Speer, 1 to ask, to inquire. This word is now seldom heard Spier, j out of Scotland, but was formerly universal in Eng- land. She speer' d his name ; ' I come from far, My name is called Dissowar.' Romance c/Roswal and LUyan. I am Spes, quoth he, And spier after a knighte, That took me a maudement, Upon the mount of Sinai, To rule all reams (realms) with. Piers Ploughman. Many a one speers the way he knows full well. Scottish Proverb. SSkai-d, } lavender. The gilliflower, the mint, the hyacynthe, the spike. Affectionate Shepherd, 1 594. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 233 Spilth, that which is spilt or overflown. ' The spilth of the river covered the meadow lands.' Our vaults have wept, With drunlcen spilth of wme. Shakespeare : Timon of Athens. Spink, a finch, a small bird; the golAspink, the goldfinch. Splairge, ) to splash, or splatter in the water. Mr. Halliwell Splurge, J quotes splairge, as a Northumbrian word. In Ame- rica the word is written splurge ; and means to make a dash, or splash, or sensation, by great expenditure of energy or money ; equivalent to the English phrase, to ' cut a dash.' Splat, a row of pins, as they are sold in the paper. Splay, from display, to spread or extend unnaturally \ as a ' splay foot, a splay mouth.' Splay in some parts of England means to ' castrate.' Splent, steel armour for the shoulder and arms. With spur on heel, and splent armour on the shoulder. Ballad ofKinmont Willie ; Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Splint, to support, whence the word used in surgery, a ' splint,' to support a weak or broken limb. Splore, a riotously merry meeting ; to make a splore, to create a sensation. In Posie-Nancy's held the splore, Wi' quafiSng and laughing, They ranted and they sang. Bums : The folly Beggars. We've had some bits of splores together. Sir Walter Scott. Spoffle, to make one's self very busy over a matter of very little consequence. An Eastern Counties word. — Halliwell. Spole, from the French epaule; the shoulder. Spelt, a heavy blow ; struck from the spole or shoulder ; to strike a blow from the shoulder. Speedes them to spolt with speeres y-new. Morte Arthur. Spook, a common word in America for a ghost, or goblin ; probably derived firom Puck and Pook. 234 LOST BEAVT2ES OF Spoom, a nautical word, signifying to go right before the wind. When virtue spooms before a prosperous gale, My hearing wishes help to fiU the sail. Dryden : Hind and Panther. Spore, a trace, a mark ; a foot spore, a foot mark. Spousal-breach, adultery. SpragM'P"^^*^^''^''''''''^^'''- Sprad, ancient preterite of spread. Spreath, active, nimble ; from the same root comes sprightly, and the American word ' spry.' Sprene, or Sprink, to sprinkle ; whence sprinkle as a diminu- tive. The word in its original form has long been obsolete ; but besprent, the past participle of ht-sfrene, is common both in ancient and modern poetry. ^ Sprentle, to flutter. Sprentkd with her wings tway. Gowe7- MS., Soc. Antiq. {ffalliwell.) Springald, 1 a youth, a young man ; one newly-sprung to Springall, J maturity. A lusty springald, or younkere. Douglas's Virgil. Then came two springalds, full of tender years. Spenser: Faerie Queene. Good, observe me, I do not rail against the hopeful springall. Beaumont and Fletcher. Sprith, rushes, coarse grass. Sprithy, rushy, grassy. His dead master was lying in a, little spnthy hollow, not above a muslcet shot from the peat stack. Bladiwood's Magazine, March, 1823. Sprote, a fragment. Sprote-wood, small twigs and sticks, and windfalls of trees gathered for fire-wood. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.', 25S. Sprunt, neat, well-grown, well-formed, and lively. Sprimtly, gaily, becomingly. How do I look to-day ? Am I not dressed spruntley ? Ben Jonson. Spry, nimble, active, sprightly. A Somersetshire and South- ern EngUsh word, very common in America. You're not so small as I, And not half so sfry. — R. W. Emerson. As spry as a cricket. — Judd's Margaret. Spuddle, to go about a trifling business as if it were a matter of grave importance. To assume airs of importance without occasion. Spunk, a spark of life, or fire. Spunky, mettlesome, brisk, brave, fiery of spirit. In that snug room, where any man of spunk, Would find it a hard matter to get drunk. Peter Pindar, The spunk of life is in him yet. yamieson. Erskine, a spunky Norland billie . Burns : Cry and Prayer. Spunkie, the ignis fatuus, Will o' the Wisp, or Jack 0' the Lantern. And oft your moss-traversing spunkies Decoy the wight that late and drunk is. Burns : Address to the Deil, Spurge, froth j to emit froth. The bodys something noisome, Good ti-oth, it spurgeth monstrously. Nares, 1651. Spurtle, a round stick or piece of wood ; used in the North- em counties and in Scotland, to stir the porridge in the pot when boiling. To have the scraping of the spurtle, is the reward of a good child in the districts where oatmeal porridge is still the food of the young. Spur-way, right of way for a man on horseback, as distin- guished from foot--vfs.y or carriage-way. 236 LOST BE A UTIES OE Squab, an unfledged bird. In America the word signifies more particularly a young pigeon. Squash, an unripe pod, before the peas are formed. Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy ; as a squash is before 'tis a peascod. Shakespeare : Twelfth Night. In America the word is applied to a coarse kind of pumpkin. Squawk. This word bears the same relation to squeak, as squeal does to squaU ; to squeak, but with a deeper note. 'Good gracious !' said Mrs. Bedott, "'if you'd heard Miss C. sing, you'd a gin up. The way she squawked it out was a caution to old gates on a windy day.' — Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms. Squelch. This word is so common in America, and so little used in England, as to be supposed an Americanism. It occurs in English literature in the sense of to ' crush by a fall,' or by a severe blow. He was the cream of Brecknock, And flower of all the Welsh, But St. George he did the dragon fell. And gave him a plaguy squelch. St. George and the Dragon. Qiielch is another form of the same word, but less com- monly used. Squintard, a person who squints. Squirm, to wriggle like a worm ; a common word in the South of England, and in general use in the United States. Some gentleman is suddenly seized with the retrenchment gripes, and squirms around like a long red worm on a pin-hook. Speech in the Missouri Legislature, June, 1859. Staddle, the stain left on metal after the rust is removed. Stadle, young trees left growing in an underwood : v., to cut a wood in such a way as to leave stadles. Stance, situation, standing-place or foundation. No ! sooner may the Saxon lance. Unfix Benledi from his stance I Scott : Lady of the Lake. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 237 Stance — continued. He never advanced From the place he was stanced Till was no more to do there at a', man. The Battle of Sheriff-Muir. We would recommend any Yankee believer in England's decay to take his stance in Fleet Street, or any of our gi-eat thoroughfares, and ask himself whether it would be wise to meddle with any member of that busy and strenuous crowd. — Blackwood's Magazine, June, 1869. Stanch, to suppress, put an end to, abolish. An act of the first year of the reign of King James I. was passed for the stanching of all masterful aiid idle beggars. — Chambers. This word, obsolete in the above sense, survives in ' stanch the blood of a wound,' i.e., to stop the bleeding. Stang, a large wooden bar or post, called in America a rail. To ride the stang in England, and to ride the rail in Ame- , rica, is a rural punishment often inflicted by Ljmch law upon some offender against the proprieties whom other law cannot reach. StaU, ] Staule, > to decoy. Stale, j A stall pigeon in the English sense of a decoy duck, is a common phrase in America. Stales to catch kites. Beaumont and Fletchei: The trumpery in my house, go fetch it hither, For stall to catch the thieves. Shakespeare : The Tempest. Stark, strong, lusty. Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer. Beaumont and Fletchei: How found you him? stark as you see. Shakespeare: The Tempest. .238 LOST BEAUTIES OF .Stark — continued. Going a fishing on a stark calm morning. Robinson Crusoe. This word has seemingly lost its original meaning, and in- stead of strong, is employed to express the adverb strongly, utterly, or very. The phrases stark naked, utterly naked, and stark dead, stiff, or utterly dead, still survive ; but stark is scarcely ever used in its original sense at the present day, except in America, where such expressions as stark treason and stark murder are occasionally heard. Stathe Staithe ' i a wharf, or pier. iStede, a place ; whence stead, in such words as i3xm.-stead^ rozA-stead, hti.-stead, home-stead, instead of, i.e., in place of, stead-{a.st, fast to the place ; steady; and in the termination of names of places, as Ila.mpstead. His gorgeous rider from his lofty siede Would have cast down, and trode in dirty mire. Spenser. In the days of chivalry, a knight's ^/ace was on horseback ; whence a knight and his stede, i.e., place. He was th tn so courteous and free, That doun off his stede he light. Mbrte Arthur. Lady he said For me, (ne give thee nothing ill), In another stede my heart is set. Morte Arthur. Steeve, strong, firm, stiff, well-made, and active. Thou ance was i' the foremost rank, A filly, buirdly, steeve, and swank. Burns ; The Auld Farmer to his Auld Mare Maggie. Steik, to shut tip ; ' steek the door,' i.e., shut the door. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 239 Stoke, shut up ; preterite of steek or steik, erroneously used in the infinitive and in the present tense. As I have spoke, Then hadst thou the gates stoke From such folly. Chaucer. Taverns should be stdked at nine hours. Skene's Acts. When one door sieiks, another opens. Allan Ramsay. Steik the awmrie, shut the kist, Or else your gear vpill soon be mist. Sir Walter Scott. Stoker, a shutter-up of the doors of a furnace; a modern word of ancient derivation, applied in railway language to the man who feeds the furnace with coal, and steiks or shuts up the door. Stall, to place ; from the German stellen, whence stall, a place for horses ; or a stall in a cathedral, or in a tlieatre ; i.e., a place for a clergyman, or a spectator. Stent, n., an allotted portion of work. A daily task, a portion. Stente or certeine of value, ordered and other lythe taxation. Harleian MS. , quoted by Halliwell. This word, like many others, lost to English literature, survives in America. Little boys in the country, working against time with stents to do, long for the passing by of some tall brother, who in a few minutes shall achieve what the smaller boys took hours to do. Discourse on the Death of Daniel Webster, by Theodore Parker, 1853. Stent, ) to desist, to cease, to limit, to confine within a certain Stint, > bound. — This verb is a curious instance of the liber- Stunt, ) ties which Time takes with the old words of a lan- guage. The three inflections have each been made to do duty for an infinitive, so that one verb has been virtually converted into three. Chaucer has stent, the correct and original form : And of this cry we would they never stent. The Knighfs Tale. 240 LOST BEAUTIES OF Stent — continued. Stint, the ancient preterite, is the modern infinitive, and forms its preterite and past participle regularly in ed. Stunt, to stint, or stop, or cease in growth, goes through the same inflections. The late Daniel O'Connell called the Duke of Wellington a stunted corporal. Sterve, to die ; the German sterben, corrupted into starve; and restricted in the latter form, to die of hunger, though in the j Northern counties the people still speak of ' starving -with cold.' The modern word, starvation, half corrupt English, and half Latin, ought to be expelled from the language if a proper synonyme could be found or made for it, from an English root. ' Clem,' or ' clam,' q.v., is the original word for dying of hunger, but the attempt to reintroduce it into literature would probably be all but hopeless. Choose out some noble dame, her honour thou and serve, Who will give ear to thy complaint, and pity ere thou sterve. Romeus mid Juliette, quoted by Nares. To her came message of this wunderment, Wherein her guiltless friends should liopeless sterve. Fairfax : Tasso. He stood until such time he sterved, And so God send all murderers may be served. Percy's Reliques, Titus Andronicus. Steven, a voice. The rhymes to ' heaven' in the English lan- guage are few, and this word would be useful. With dreary heart and sorrowful Steven. Morte Arthur. She shall be queen of my land, And all bow unto her hand, And none withstand her Steven. Sir Jsumbras. So blithe he was to hear that steven, That his heart became all light. Floriee and Blancheflour. Then thanked her God in heaven, And Mary with mild steven. That she had so y- wrought. Sir Otuel. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 241 Steven — continued. Say to him with mild siaiyn. He will not say you nay, MS. Harl., quoted by Halliwell. Stieliel. ' This word,' says Nares, ' is a term of reproach, im- plying want of manhood.' The word Twitchel, or twychild, twice a child, a very old man, q.v., might have helped him to the derivation. He quotes : Barren stichell That shall not serve thy turn ; but misses the root of the word, ' stay-child,' one who can not procreate. Stickle, to arbitrate ; whence stickler, an arbitrator ; and figu- ratively, one who makes a point of trifling matters, and will take nothing for granted. Stightle, to confirm, to strengthen. To stightle the people, Preaching and praying. Piers Ploughman. Stith, \ robust, strong, firmly-fixed, and not to be easily Stythe, / shaken. The stremys are so stiffe and stythe. That many men there lose their lyfe. MS. Lincoln {Halliwell). On stedes that were stith and strong, They ridden together. Amis and Amlloun. A tumaraent, With knightes stit/i on stede. Sir Tristram. Stithe, 1 -, ci-ix, > an anvil. Stithy, / A head where Wisdom mysteries did frame, Whose hammers beat still in that lively brain, As on a stithe, whereon some work of fame, Was daily wrought to turn to Briton's gain. TAe Earl of Surrey on the Death of Sir Thomas Wyatt. By the forge that stithy d Maxs' helm, I'll kill thee everywhere ; yea, o'er and o'er. Chaucer ; Troilus and Cressida. 16 242 LOST BEAUTIES OF Stithe — continued. And my imaginations are as foul, As Vulcan's stiiky. Shakespeare : Hamlet. A pig's Sty was formerly called a stythe in the North, as may be seen in the ballad of ' Fause Foodrage,' in the •' Bor- der Minstrelsy.' She wandered up, she wandered down. She wandered out and in. And at last into the swine's stythe. The queen brought forth a son. Stodge, to stuff too full. Stodge-full, so full as to be unable to contain any more ; like the ground after heavy and continuous rains j or like a glut- ton at a feast. Stoly, dirty, confused, disordered. A stoly house. — Grose's Provincial Glossary. Stot, a young bullock. Grace gave Piers, Of his goodness, four stotts. Piers Ploughman. A stot unto your plough. Sir Isainbi-as. But if the lover's raptured hour, Slaall ever be your lot. Forbid it every heavenly power. You e'er should be a stot. Burns. Stoop;}^ Pitcher. Set me the stoop of wine upon the table. Shakespeare : Hamlet. And surely ye'U be your ^-oA-stoup, And surely I'll be mine. Bums: Auld Lang Syne, Stoxuid, a hurt, a severe pain. And aye the stound and deadly wound, Came from her een sae boimie blue. Burns. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 243 Stotmd — continued. It does boom off, nevertheless sending a stotcnd through all hearts: Carlyle's French Revolution. Stound, an hour ; a little while ; from the German stunde. Wliat booth wilt thou have? our king reply'd ; Now tell me in this stound. Percys Reliques : The King and the Tanner of Tamviorlk. Listen to me a little stound. Percy's Reliques : The Carle of Carlisle. Stour, dust in motion, dust stirred by the wind, or by the trample of feet ; and from whence, metaphorically, strife, contention. The word is common all over Britain, from Devonshire, where it is pronounced sture, to Caithness, where, as in Scotland generally, it is stoure. The lord that great was of honour Himself, Sir Lancelot do talce Above the gates upon the tower ; Comely to the king he spake : My Lord ! God save your honour. Me is woe now, for your sake, Against thy kin to stand in stour; But needs must I this battle take. Morte Arthur. He is stalwarth in stoures. By Saint Martin of Towers. MS. Lincoln (HalUwell). The stoure was strong, enduring, long. The Romans had there the field. The Sarrazings they slew among, Ten thousand and more with speare and shielde. Ferumbras. Alas ! Fortune she that whilom was, Dreadful to Idngis and to emperours ; ***** And she that helmed was in stark stoures, And won by force towns, strong, and towerf. Chaucer : The Monk^s Tale. Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow'r, Thou'st met me in an evil hour. For I maun crush among the stoure, Thy slender stem. To spare thee now is past my pow'r, Thou bonnie gem. Burns. 16 — 2 244 LOST BEAUTIES OF Stow, a place ; whence Stowe, the seat of the Duke of 5uck- - ingham, the place. Whence, also, Walthamrfiszc, Bishop- stowe, and several other names of towns, villages, and places. ,Stow-away, a person who stows, or places himself in hiding on board of an emigrant ship, to escape the roll-call of the passengers ; and who, by showing himself when the vessel is far out at sea, forces the captain to take him to his destina- tion for humanity's sake. The captain on such occasions endeavours to get some value out of a stow-away by com- pelling him to do the menial offices of the ship. Strae-death, a natural death ; death in the straw, of which beds were usually made — as distinguished from death in the batde-field or on the gallows, the too frequent alternatives with the men of the middle ages : — Where I killed ane a fair strae death. By loss of blood or want of breatli, This night I'm free to tak my aith That Hornbook's skill Has clad a score i' their last claith By drap and pill. Biims : Death and Dr. Honibooh. Straight-fingered ; one ^^hose fingers will not crook to seize or hold dishonest gains ; thoroughly honest. Strauglit, preterite of to stretch. Strake, to wander about. With stern staves and strong, They over land straketh. Piers Ploughman. S Irene, to generate. Strend, a generation. For he said in his hearte nought sae I wendc, Withouten evil fra strende to strende. Cotton MSS. (UalHwell). Strene, 1 lineage. Chaucer uses stre7te in the sense of strend^ Strain, / to signify a race or generation. In Mr. Herbert Coleridge's ' Dictionary of the First or Oldest Words in the English Language,' ' stren ' is defined as progeny ; and streon, the knot in the yolk of an egg, the point where generation commences. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 245 Strene — continued. Of a noble strain was Jenkin. Old Welsh Song. Benedick is of a noble strain. Of approved valour, and confirmed honesty. Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing. He is bred out of that bloody strain. That haunted us in our familiar paths. Shakespeare: King Henry V. Strome, to walk backwards and forwards with long strides, as some do in anger and perplexity. Stromp, \ to tread heavily, or pace about ; whence, probably, Strxunp, / strumpet, a street walker. I heard 'un strompin' down staim ; i.e., I heard him walking heavily down stairs. — Sternberg's Northamptonshire Glossary. In Ford's play of ' The Fancies Chaste and Noble,' when the ladies are entreated to bear with Secco, who is ' a foul- mouth'd man,' Secco calls one of them by the most oppro- brious epithet that can be applied to a woman, and adds : ' a fox-bitch, a treddle.' The last word thus appears to have the same meaning as strumpet, and suggests treading, walk- ing, or strumming the streets. Stub, a thick, short stump of a tree left in the ground, when the trunk is cut down. Stubble, the diminutive of this word, means the small stalks of corn left by the reapers. All about old stocks and stubs of trees. Spaiser. Upon cutting down of an old timber tree, the stub hath sometimes put out a tree of another kind. — Bacon. We Live on tough roots and stubs ; to thirst inured ; Now to much misery and hardship born. Milton. Striking his foot against some stubbe or stone. Topself s Four-footed Beasts, 161 1 (Halliwcll). 246 LOST BEAUTIES OF Stub — continued. The late President Lincoln was met by a friend in Penn- sylvania Avenue, at Washington, who, seeing that he limped a little, asked what was the matter. ' Oh, not much,' re- plied the President, 'I hav6 only stubbed my toe,' i.e.,. ' knocked my toe against a stub.' Stubby, short and thick, like the stump of a tree. _ , 4. I to trouble, annoy ; ' J strife, annoyance ; from the same root as sfoure, battle or contention. The merriest man that lives in life, He sails upon the sea, For he knows neither sturt nor strife, But blytlie and glad is he. Allan Ramsay : The Evej-green . Sturt pays no debt. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. I've lived' a life of sturt and strife, I die by treachery. Burns : Macpherson's Farnvcll. And aye the less they hae to sturt them, In like proportion less will burt them. Burns : The Twa Dogs. Suekerel, an unweaned infant. Buckets, confectionery, sweetmeats, called in England ' sweet- stuff;' in America, ' candies,' and in Scotland, ' sweeties.' And in some six days' journey does consume. Ten pounds in sucliets. Drayton. Bring hither suchets, candies,. delicates. Antona and Mellida, quoted by Nares. Well filled with suckeis and sweetmeats. Taylor, the Water Poet. In the fifth course were confects and suckets. History of Brandon, 1655, quoted by Nares. Eud, the drift sand or slush left in the meadows by an over- flow of rivers. Meadows are said to be sudded after a flood, or ' sjfiate.' THE ENGLISH LANG UA GE. 247 Sumph, a fool, a blockhead ; a common Scottish and Northern word. Mr. Halliwell says that in Suffolk a very heavy weight is called a sump; and that hence, a heavy, stupid fellow is so designated. In Scotland, a heavy fall of rain is called a ' sump,' as in the following : Of thunder July speaks, and sumps of rain, And August winds uproot the growing grain. Blackwood's Magazine, January, 1 82 1. Better thole a grumph, than a sumph; (i.e., better endure a surly, or grumpy man, than a fool). Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. The j«OT/zV/« mob of penetration schawl; (i.e., the foolish mob of shallow penetration.) — Allan Ramsay. Sundriness, diversity. Sunstead, the solstice ; the place, or stede, of the sun. Swad, a lout, a raw recruit, a lubber ; a person who has to be brought into order and discipline, and to be swaddled, strapped, and laced ; whence szvaddie, a vulgar name for a soldier. No better could the silly swad than this. Robert Greene : Feiimedes the Blacksmith, 1 59°. Let countiy swains and silly swads be still. Idem. SwafE", to come one over the other, like waves upon the shore. Drenched with their sioaffing waves. Taylor's Works, 1630. Swale, to distend and wave in the wind, as a plume, a flag, or a sail; a more appropriate word for the purpose than its quasi synonyme, swell, which means to increase in real, whereas, to swale is to increase only in apparent, bulk. Swale, a shady valley. Swank, vigorous, hale, and hearty. Steeve and S7vank. Burns: The An Id Farmer's Salutation to his auld mare Maggie. 248 LOST BEA UTIES OF Swarf, the grit worn away from the stone in grinding ; Ger- man auswerf, or out-throw. Swarth, ) the corn cut by one stroke of the scythe ; the reach Swath, I of the scythe. The Greeks, ripe for his edge, Fall down before him like the mower's swath. Shakcsfeare, The devil a puritan that he is, or anything constantly but a time pleaser ; an affectioned (affected) ass, that cons state without book ; and utters it by great swaths. — Shakespeare : Twelfth Night. Here stretched in lengths, the levelled swarths are found. Fofe. So Time the mower, cuts his fatal swath, And mortals see him not across their path. W. R. Alger: The Poetry of the East . Swash, to swell, to protrude, to swagger, to bully, to affect bravery ; also used as a substantive and an equivalent to the modern word, 'a swell.' Or score out husbands in the charcoal ashes, With county knight, not roaring city swashes. Translation of Ovid's Art of Love, 1677. A swashing blow. Sen jfonson. This word was formerly applied in the sense of swell, or swelling, to a water-fall, ' a great swash of water.' To swash water, is a phrase still employed in the sense of ' splash^ but with the latent meaning of greater force. Swasher, a rowdy, a rough, a bully, a braggart. I have observed these three swashers. Shakespeare : Henry V. Swash-buckler, a bully, a fellow whose sword makes a noise against his buckler. Swash-bucket, a clumsy servant girl, who swashes or spills the milk or the water over the pail. Swarble, to climb a straight tree, on which there are no branches to help the ascent. The word ' swarm' has in some parts of England the same meaning. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 249 Sware, to pass backwards and forwards, to wave to and fro ; whence to swerve. Swatch, a specimen, a sample. That's just a raiatck o' Hornbook's way. Burns : Death and Dr. Hornbook. Swatter, to scatter abroad extravagantly ; to waste. He swattered away all his money. — Grose. Swattle, to drink voraciously, and with a noise, as a duck does, applied metaphorically to a drunkard. Sweat, 1 to perspire. This ancient word survives in colloquial, Swat, J but has been of late, years banished from literary, English. The curse pronounced upon Adam, ' In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat [or earn] thy bread,' would have lost much of its energy in English ears, if the ancient trans- lators had been as mealy-mouthed as the men of the present day, and rendered ' sweat' hy perspiration. His fair steed So swat that men might him ring. Chaucer : The Rhyme of Sir Topaz. His hackenye which that was al pomelee gris, So swatte that it wonder was to see. The Chanones Yemannis Tale. Some, lucky, find a flow'17 spot, For which they never toiled nor swat. Burns : Epistle to Jaines Smith. Swell, I -pjjg preterite in sivaJe is almost obsolete ; that in Swale or y^^gn jj^s been neWly revived, but scarcely holds its Bwoli, 1 Q^jj against swelled : Swollen,^. ^ An' thought it swale so sore about hir harte. Chaucer: The Wife of Bathe' s Tale. Sweer, \ hard, heavy, difficult to move, loth to move, unwill- Swere, / ing ; from the Saxon and German schwer. Thou art as young a man as I, And seem to be as sweer. — Ballad of Robin Hood. 250 LOST BE A UTIES OF Sweer — coniinued. Work for nought makes folk dead jzciV;-. Sweer in the bed, and sweer up in the morning's no a good house -^\'ife. An elite (over diligent) mother makes a sweer daughter, Pride and s-weemess take muckle uphadding (upholding). Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Sweoting, a sweet-heart, a lover. Ah, my sweet sweeting. My little pretty sweeting. My szveeting will I love wherever I go. She is so proper and pure, Full steadfast, stable, and demure. There is none such, you may be sure, As my sweet sweeting. — M.S. Temp. Hmry VIII. All's well, sweeting. Come away to bed. — Shakespeare : Othello. Oh, mistress mine, Trip no further, pretty sweeting. Journeys end in lovers' meeting. Every wise man's son doth know. — Shakespeare. One I could hear appointing with his sweeting, A place convenient for their secret meeting. Drayton ; The Otvl. Let not any maiden here. Dare to turn away her ear. Unto the whisper of her love, But give bracelet, ring, or glove. As a token to her sweeting. Of an after secret meeting. Beaumont and Fletcher : Cupid's Revenge, Sweg, to sway to and fro by its own weight; whence the modern slang woi;d, swag, as applied to plunder, when it is plenteous and heavy, Swelt, to perish. Death came driving after. And all to duste perished ; Kynges and knyghtes, Kaysers and popes, THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 251 Swelt — continued. Lered and lewed, He loot no man stand. Many a lovely ladye, And leman of linyghtes, Swound and swelted. For sorrow of his dintes. — Piers Ploughman, Sweltersome, very hot, close, sultry, and damp, applied to the weather. Swelter, to suffer from the heat. Swelth, the swollen flood of mud, slush, and foul water. Rude Acheron, a loathsome lake to tell, That boils and bubs with swelth as black as hell. Sacliville : Mirror for Magistrates, A deadly gulf where nought but rubbish grows. With foul blacke suelthe in thickened lump that lies. — Idem. Swent, smooth, regular, even, quiet, placid. Of a swent nature, amiable. — Nares. Sweven, to dream j a dream or vision. At night when Arthur was brought in bed, He should have battle upon the morrow, In strong swevens he was bestead. That many a man that day should have sorrow. Morte Arthur.- Now, by my fay, said Jolly Robin, A sweven I had this night. 2'obin Hood and Grey of Gislome. My heart with grief will brast, I had thought sxvevens had never been true, I have proved them true at last. — Percys Reliqucs. Swike, to deceive, betray, play false. Swikedom, treachery. Swikeful, deceitful, treacherous. Swile, to wash. Swill, to drink gluttonously. Swill-bowl, a drunkard. Swill, a wash, or that which is washed. £52 LOST BEAUTIES OF Swill-pail, a pail in which the washings and refuse of the pantry and kitchen are preserved. In the United States, almost every house in town or country has the swill-pail, into which the Irish servants very commonly throw as much food daily as would feed an English labourer's family. 'The jze/27/-woman ' comes round regularly to purchase or remove the plunder. Swime, from swim ; a swimming or dizziness in the head ; a swoon. Intill his logge he hyed that tyme, And to the earth he fell in swytne. MS. Lincoln, (Halliwell.) Swink, to labour over-hard. Upon a book in cloister alway to pore, Or swinken with his hand. ***** A true swinker and a good was he, Living in peace and charitie. Chaucer : Prologtte to the Canterbury Tales. For all the night he shope him for to swinke. In carrying of the gold out of that place. Chaitcer : The Pardnere's Tale. In setting and sowing, Swinken full harde. —Piers Ploughman. But now I swinke and sweate in vain, My labor hath no end, And moping in my study still. My youthfiil years I spend. Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, 1579. Riches, renown, and principality. Honor, estate, and all this world's good, For which men swink and sweat incessantly. Spenser: Faerie Queene. ■ "We'll labor and swinke. We'll kiss and we'll drink. And tithes shall come thicker and thicker. Beaumont and Fletcher : The Spanish Curate. Is there no patron to protect the Muse, And fence for her Parnassus' ban-en soil ? To every labor its reward accrues. As they are sure of bread who swink and moil. Thomson : Castle of Indolence, THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 25$ Swink. — continued. The laboured ox, In his loose traces from the furrow came, And the j7c/«.i'V hedger at his supper sat. — Milton : Comus. Swirl, an eddy in a stream ; the rapid and noisy revolution of a wheel ; and in the east of England, according to Halli- well, any 'whirling, wavy motion. In the North, siverl signi- fies to twist or twirl about. Out shot his hand, alas ! alas ! Fast in the swirl he screeched. The Mermaid, Finlay's Collection of Scottish Songs, 1 808. Swirl, to turn rapidly, to eddy, to curl. His tail Hung o'er his hurdies wl' a swirl. Burns: The Twa Dogs. The mill-wheel span and swirPd, And the mill-stream danced in the morning light, And all its eddies curl'd. The Lumji of Gold. Swither, n., uncertainty, perplexity ; to be in a swither, to be uncertain whither to go. Considering the swiddering Ye forced me first into. Montgomery : The Cherry and the Sloe. The errant knight Bestrides his steed. And stands some time in jumbled swither. To ride in this road or that ither. — Allan Ramsay. I there wi' something did forgather, That put me in an eerie swither. Burns : Death and Dr. Hornbook. Swith, Swithe, }■ quickly, rapidly, very. Swythe, J-quic When she herde the chylde cry her befome. It comforted her full S7vythe. MS. Cantai. (Halliwell). This messenger, Unto the king's mother rideth swithe. Chaucer: The Man ofLawe's Tale. 254 LOST BE A UTIES OF Swith — continued. And he that hath the cut, with herte blithe, Shall remove to the town, and that full swithe. Chancer: The Pardnere' s Tale, All so swythe. As grasse falleth fro' the scythe. Romance of Richard Cmtir de Lion. Swiih away ; Or learn, like us, to be thought more gay, Allan Ramsay, I am wounded swithe sore. Sir Bevis of Hampton. Swoll, preterite of swell ; a word for a long time disused in favour of swelled^ but gradually re-assuming its lost place. Syle, to overflow, to boil over ; to pour down in large quan- tities. He syled a gallon of ale do\iai his throat. Groses Provincial Glossary. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 2$$ Taigle, to banter : — Two irreverent young fellows determined to taigJe the minister. Coming up to him in the High Street of Dumfries, tiiey accosted him with much solemnity. ' Maister Dunlop, hae ye heard the news ?' ' What news ?' ' Oh, the deil's dead !' ' Is he ?' replied Mr. Dunlop. ' Then I maun pray for you twa faitherless bairns. — Dean Ramsay's Siminiscences. < Tang, a sharp sound ; from; tang, the preterite of ting, to sound. A tongue with a tang. — Nares. Let thy tongue&B^ arguments of sii±t.—Shakesj!eare. Tanglesome, quarrelsome, querulous, or unreasonable in ar- gument. 'Tanker, a cross humour. TankeroTiB, \ ill-natured, peevish, unreasonably quarrel- Tankersome, ) some. These words, in common use in the Eastern counties of England, are probably the origin of the American expression, cantankerous : a compound of the Gaelic cean, or can, the head, and tankerous, one with a quarrelsome head. Tantle, to walk feebly, like an invalid or old person. Tantrell, an idle unsettled person, who will not fix to any employment. — Grose, Targe, a shield. When I was thus armed, I put the targe to my side. Romance of the Monk, Sion College, MS. By his side. There hang his targe, with gashes deepe and wide. Sackville: Mirror for Magistrates, Tarn, a lake high up in the mountains. 356 LOST BEAUTIES OF Tarriance, the act of tarrying ; a word formed on the same principle as dalliance from dally. While lazy time his turn by tarriance serves, Love still grows sickly and hope daily sterves. Drayton, 1637. After somewhat more than a fortnight's tarriance. Southey, TarrOTT, to be over-dainty for want of appetite. A tar7-owing hen was never fat, A tarrcmiing baim has had owre muckle. Allan Ramsay. I have seen their coggies fu'. That yet have tarrmved at it. — Burns. Tarrysome, lingering, tarrjdng long. Of her long soitow and tarrysome dede. Douglas's jEneid. Tartle, to hesitate, to view a person or thing dubiously, as if not recognising him or it with certainty. A toom (empty) purse makes a tartling merchant. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Froverbs. Tasse, a cup. (French.) TaBsie, a little cup. Go fetch to me a pint of wine. And fill it in a silver tassiej And I will drink before I go, A service to my bonnie lassie. — Burns. Tath, the luxuriant grass which rises in tufts where the dung of cattle has been deposited. — -Jamieson. Tathy-grass, rough grass. — HalliweU. Taut, neat, clean, tight, tidy j the word survives in English nautical phraseology. Sae taut, sae taper, tight, and clean. Bums : The Vision. Tauted, 1 made taut, or tight j or matted together like hair or Tautie, / wool. She was nae get 0' moorland tips, Wi' tauted ket and hairy hips. Burns : Poor Mailiis Elegy. TBE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 257 Tawe, ' > To beat and dress leather with alum to harden it. I'll taw tie hide of thick skinned Hugenes. Mai-ton's What You WilL In Scotland and the Northern counties of England, the taws signifies a piece of leather cut into strips at the end, and hardened by fire, with which children at school are punished for ignorance, inattention, or bad behaviour. Formerly, if not now, every schoolmaster's desk was provided with the implement. Tead, a light, a lamp. Phoebus doth his beams display, And the fair bride forth to lead, Makes his torch their nuptial tead. — Spenser. Teat, ) a small quantity ; whence to teat or ' ted' the hay, Ted, J to spread it out in small quantities to dry ; to sprinkle. I wish our folks meet na some dool, Meg tedd the salt upon thee. — Picker^ s Poems. The smell o{ tedded grass. — Milton. Tedding, turning, cocking, raking. And such business in haymaking ; The lads and lasses sweat and fry. As they the grass do toss and dry. — Poor Rabin, 1746. Teathe, the dung of catde dropped on the field by the animals when feeding ; also to manure with dung. Teem, to pour out. As a verb neuter, in the sense of pouring out or bringing forth the natural increase, this word finds a place in every English Dictionary. 'The earth teems with plenty;' 'the landscape teems with beauty ;' ' the sea teems with fish ;' 8z:c. The root of the word is the Gaelic taotn, to empty, to pour out If she must teem, ' Create her child of spleen, that it may live And be a thwart, disnatured, to torment her. Shakespeare: King Lear. Teem out the remainder of the ale into the tanltard. — Swift, 17 2S8. LOST BEAUTIES OP ToorOj the' original preterite of teem, has become the infinitive in Scottish and Northumbrian phrase. It is also used as an adjective. ' TUey toom'd their pocks and pawned theii- duds. Bums : The JoUy Beggars. Better a toom house than a bad tenant. Scotch and Northumbrian Proveri. Teld, to build, to. erect; a building. — (Wrighfs Provincial Glossary.) Telt, erected, set up, built. Tent, to heed j to tend, to take care of; caution ; care; heed. Our Matty helps my motlier, and sews, and tents our Joe. WaugKs Lancashire Songs. But warily tent when ye come to com-i me. — Bums. When the tod (fox) preaches, talce tent of the lambs. Northern Proverh Thinlc ye, are we less blest than they, Who scarcely tent us in tlieir way, As hardly worth their while ? Bums : Epistle to Davie, a brother Poet, I'll tent thee, quoth Wood, If I cannot rule my daughter, I'll rule my good. — Cheshire Proverb (GVMff).) Tenty, careful, cautious, anxious, Tentless, inattentive.- I'U wander on wi' tentless heed. Bums : Epistle to James Smith. Temse, a sieve. In French, a sieve is a tamise, tiae same word that designates the river Thames. Teth, temper, disposition. — {Jamieson.) Tetliy, ill-tempered ; whence by corruption the modern word idchy, Thairms, "J entrails ; fiddle-strings. Nares and Richardson de- Thermos, > fine the word to mean the intestines of buUocks rharmes, j or other animals, and quote from ' Archaius Tox- ophilus,' p. 140 : * In olde time they made their bow-strings of bullocks' ihertnes.' Skinner calls it a word in common use in Lincolnshire. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 259 Thairnis — continued. He wlio has a wide thairm, never has a loBg arm ; (i.e., the inan who has much to do, never has the means of doing it.) Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. MacLauchlari, thairm inspiring sage ! Bums : The Brigs of Ayr. Come, screw the pegs ... And o'er the thairms be trying. — Burns : The Ordination. Thane, an earl or baron. All hail, Macbeth ! thou shalt be Thane of Cawdor. Shakespeare: Macbeth. Thane was a dignity among om- ancient- Saxon ancestor of two sorts : meset thanes (mass thanes), were priests qualified to say mass ; worold (worldly or temporal) thanes, were a land of secular or temporal lords. ■ Blount s Glo'ssographia, 1681, Thar, to need, Have then ynough, thee thar not plamen then. Chaucer: Wife of Bath's Prologue. Theak, to thatch. Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, They were twa bonnie lasses. They bigget (built) a bower in yon bum brae, And theekit it owre wi' rashes. Ballad of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, Theat, firm, close, sound. ' A theaf barrel,' is a barrel that does not leak. ' Out oi tkeats,' i.e., out of order, or use, is a phrase, as to any one who is rusted, as to any art or science, for want of practice . — -Jamieson. Tliepes, gooseberries. Therle, gaunt, ill-fed. — ( Wiighfs Provincial Dictionary >i Thester, dark. Thesterness, darkness. On a Thursday in thesternesse. Then was he taken ; . Through Judas and Jews, Jesus was his name. — Piers Ploughman. 17 — 2 26o LOST BEAUTIES OF Thews. Shakespeare speaks of ' theins and sinews ;' and the Wo words, after his example, are generally found combined in modem literature ; and are taken to be synonymous. But thew in more ancient writings appears to signify culture, manners ; so that a man of thews and sinews, was a man morally and intellectually, as well as physically strong. His virtues and good thews. And good example that he shewes. M.S. Cotton, quoted by Salliwell, To be brought up in gentle thewes and martial might. Sfenser. In virtuous thewes and friendly constancie. Mirror for Magistrates. Thibble, a stick for stirring porridge or gruel, Scottick a spiurtle. To borrow their thihUe to stir the furmety with. — Tim Bobbin. TMg, to beg, to sponge, to sorn, to take advantage of friends and acquaintances for food and lodging as long as decency admits on the one side, or patience on the other. , Better thig their meat, Than ony good in that wise get. — Harleian MSS. You've come to the goat's house. to ihig-viooX. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. The father buys, the son biggs (builds), The oye seUs, and his son thiggs. — Idem. TMgster, a beggar. Thight, the same as theat, q.v. ; closely planted ; as trees in a hedge, or turnips in a field ; firmly fixed like staves in a barrel. Thill, the shaft. Thill-horse, the shaft-horse. TTiou hast got more hair on thy chin, fiau my tkiH-horse Dobbin has on his tail. — Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice. Thirdendeal, a third part or deal of anything. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 261 , ' > «., a small hole j to drill a hole, to pierce through. Thirle, Thurle, . Sore yhurt, And vrith. a spear was ihirUd\As, breast bone. Chaucer: TheKnighfs Tale. If thou were in a mirlce house ♦ * * and all the tkirles, doores and wyndows were stokyne, that no one might enter. Lincolnshire MS. {HalHwell. ) Till I see and feele his fleshe, The thurles both of hands and feete. MS. Cursor Mundi, Trin. Col, Cam. The naxrow passages in coal-pits are in the North called thurlings; and in Kent the rabbit-hole, is the rabbit thirle. In Dorsetshire, the martin and swift are said to have their nests in thirles. From ' nose thirle^ is derived nostril. Thirlable, penetrable ; that through which thirles or holes can be made. Ttisness. The quality of being in this state. Thatness. The quality of being in that state. It is evident that sameness, ihisness and thatness, belongeth not to matter by itself (for a general indifference nmnefh through it all), but only as it is distinguished and individuated by the form, which in our case, v^hensoever Qie soul doth, it must be understood always to be the same matter and body. Sir Thomas Browne : JReligio Medici. ■ Thitherto, for the future." ' I have acted honestly hitherto : and shall act honestly thitherto.' Thole. This word is common in Old English and Scottish poetry, and lingers not only in Scottish, but in the Cumbrian ind Northumbrian dialect. It signifies to endure or suffer, and has been wrongfully thrust out of English to make room for modem substitutes derived from the French. A still current Saxon synonyme is bear : ' I cannot bear it,' which has the double disadvantage of being a weaker form of ex- pression, and of using a* word already pre-occupied in another sense. The Scotch and Northumbrians say of a thing they cannot endure : ' I canna thole it.' So muckle wo as I -with you have tholed. — Chaucer. What mischirf' and mal ease Christe for man tholed. — Ibid. She shall the death thole. Cower: Confessio Amantis. All that Christe tholed. Piers Ploughman. 268 LOST BEAUTIES OF Thole^cofiHnued.' The montayne cedar tAoles the blusterous winds. TAi Evergreen. But in vain, I still maun doat and thole her proud disdain. Allan Ramsay, Better dree out tlie inch when you have tholed the span. He that has a good crop ought to thole a few thistles. A good heart maun thole mickle. He -«\a tholes, conquers. . . Allan. Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs, Tholance, endurance, sufferance, toleration. Tlioleable, endurable. Thone, 1 moist, damp, limp, soft, pliable ; probably derived Thoney, J from the Gaelic ton or than, a wave. Thorp, German, dorf, a village. This word still survives as the terminal syllable of the names of many places in Eng- land. There stood a thorpe of sight delitable. Chaucer ; The Gierke's Tale. As we were entering at tlie ihorpe's ende. Chaucer: The Personis Prologue. By twenty thorps, a little town, And half-a-dozeu bridges. . Tennyson, Thorpsman, a villager. To call in irom the fields and waters, shops and work-housen, from the inbred stock of more homely women, and less filching thorpmen, Fairfax, 1674. Thouglity, meditative, pensive. Fanny is two years younger than I am, and not so thoughty, as Bhilip says. — Petticoat Tales, yamieson. Thrall, froni the Gaelic Iraill, a slave; whence enthrall, to enslave ; and thraldom, slavery ; words still current in literature. When they have turned them to the faith they make his thrallcs free out of thraldom. — Chaucer, • The Persone's Tale, This kyng as thou herdest ere this, Hed a thi-all that dede amiss. Religious Poems, Fifteenth Century; quoted by ffallituell. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. x6$ Thrall — continued. Look gracious on thy prostrate thrall. Shakespeare. No thralls like them that inward bondage have. Sidney. Till he redeemed had that lady thrall. Spenset's Faerie Queene. He drinketh the wine, but at the last The wine drinketh >iirn and bindeth him fast, And laith him drunke by the waUe ; As him which is his .bond thralle. And all in his subjection. Gcrvier; Confessio Amantis. iflrmg, I J.Q press, to jostle, to crowd : whence the modem A thousand of men, Tlirungen together. Cried upwarcU to Christ. Piers Ploughman. The Scottish word thrang — ^i.e., busy with a crowd of cus- tomers — ^is a remnant of this word, in which, as in many others akeady noticed, the original preterite has beea . made to do duty for the infinitive and the present tense. , Twa dogs that werena thrang at hame, Forgathered ance upon a time. Burns : The Twa Dogs, Thrateh., to gasp convulsively. If I but grip you by the coUar, I'U gar you gape. And thratch for want of breath. Beattie : John o' Amha', Thrave, \ a bunch, a bundle, a lot, a company. Twenty-four Threve, J sheaves of wheat. Arid after cometh a knave. The worst of a throve. MS. Lansdffwn, quoted by HaUiwell. And I have thoughts a throve. Piers Ploughman, ^4 L0S7' BEAUTIES OF Thrave — continued. He sends forth thraves of ballads to the sale. Bishop Hall: RitsorCs Ancient Songs. A daimen icker in a thrave; (a random ear of com from the sheaf). Bums : To a Mouse. A thrave ai com is two shocks of six, or rather, twelve sheaves a piece. ■ The word comes from the British threva, twenty-four. In most counties of England, twenty-four sheaves do now go to a thrave. Twelve sheaves make a stoolc, and two stocks make a thrave. Blount's Glossographia, 1681. Thraw, s., a turn, a little -whirl, a turn of time. To twist, to thwart, to be perverse, or contrary. When I a little thrawe had made my moan. Bewailing mine infortune and mischance. The King's Quair. And when she walked had a little thrawe. Under the sweete, greene bowis bent, Her fair ftesh face, as white as any snawe, She turned. Ibid. St Stephen's boys wi' jarring noise. They did his measures throw, man . Bums: The American War. There are twa hens into the crib. Have fed this month and mair ; Make haste and throw their neclcs about. That Colin weel may fare, Wm. Julius Mickle: There' s nae luck about tlie Jumse. Thrawn, cross, perverse ; ill-tempered, twisted out of humour. I'll be as thrown as you, though you were as thrown as the woodie ; ie., I'll be as cross as you, though you should be as cross as tlie gal- lovre. — Scottish Froverb. Thrawardness, perversity. But, instead of thankful hearts and good obedience, her Highuess's. demency is commonly abused with thrawardness and ingratitude. Proclamation of Mary Queen of Scots. Threesome, triple. There's twosome reels, and threesome reels. There's hornpipes and strathspeys, man. Burns, THE ENGLISH LANGUA CE. 265 Threiie, from the Greek threnos, a lamentation for the dead. Whereupon it made this threne. To the phoenix and the dove. The Passionate Pilgrim. Threpe, to argue or dispute. In the ancient ballad, 'Take thine auld Soak about thee,' quoted by Shakespeare in Othello, claimed both by Scotland and by England, and common to both, the husband says : Bell my wife, she loves not strife, Yet she will lead me if she can. And oft, to lead a quiet life, I'm forced to yield though I'm good man ; It's not fca: a man with a woman to ihrefe. Chaucer seems to use the word in a different sense, when> he says : The bodies seven » * * " Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe. Mars iron, Mercurie quicksilver, we clepe. But Chaucer would not employ two synonymous words to rhyme his couplet, and if ' clepe ' means to call, thre;pc may mean argue, insist, or assert. ' Sol gold is, and we argue (or threpe) that Luna is silver.' The word is often used in Scottish poetry and romance, and deserves a place in the English vocabulary, to which it strictly belongs. Some herds well learn'd upo' the book, Wad threaf auld folks the thing, mistook. Bums, Some cry upon God, some others threpe that He hath forgotten them. BishoJ) pisher : quoted in Todd's yohnson. In Grose's ' Provincial Glossary,' a shopkeepei-'s phrase is quoted : ' This is not threaping ware ;' meaning, that the •ware, or goods, is so obviously of first quahty that it needs no arguing about. TliTiminel, to pay a debt reluctantly ; to part with money in a niggardly and mean manner. 266 LOST BEA UTIES OF Which did reveal him then to be indeed A thridden fellow in a silken weede. Stephen^ s Essays and Characters, 1615 ; quoted by Halliwetl, Thrid, preterite of the verb to thread. Some thrid the mazy ringlets of her hair. — Pope. Thrid, to divide into three ■^zxXs.—Jamieson. Thrin, three together, a triplet, a trio. This ancient English word, if of no use to prose writers, might be valuable to rhymers. friiripple, to labour hard. — Halliwell. Thrist, difficulty, hard pressure ; stress of circumstance. Withdrew thee from no perils or hard thrisi. But even enforce more strongly to resist. Douglas's ^7ieid. Throaty, guttural. Certain hard throaty words which I was taught lately. Howell's Familiar Letters, 1650. Throdden, to grow, to tlirive, to ina-ease. Throme, a gang, company, or drove. Throughgang, a thoroughfare. {Throughgomg, active, lively; going through with a thing. She seems to be a plump and jocose little woman ; gleg, blythe, and throughgaun' for her years. — Blackwoods Magazine. Betty Lanshaw was an active, throughgoing woman. Galfs Annals of the Parish. Throughly, thoroughly. Throve, preterite of thrive, to prosper. Thrum, green and vigorous j applied to herbage. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 267 Thmm, the tufted part beyond the tie, at the end of the warp in weaving ; any collection of tuft or short thread. — Nares. O fates, come, come, Cut thread and thrum. Shakespeare: Midsummer Nighfs Dream. A child and dead ? alas, how could it come ! Surely thy thread of life was but a thrum. Wifs Recreation. Thou who wilt not love, doe this, Leame of me what woman is. Something made of thred and thriimme. A meere botch of aU and some. Herrick. Thrummed, made of coarse refiise thread or wool. There's her thrummed hit, her muffler too 1 Run up, Sir John ! Shakespeare ; Merry Wives of Windsor. Thrumble, sometimes ^vritten thrimble ; to press violently, as a crowd, or into a crowd. Peter, who was evermaist sudden, sayes, thou art thrumbled and thrusted by the multitude. — Bruce' s Sermons. Thrump, to squeeze, or press violently in a crowd. —jamieson. Thrimeli, much displeased, very angry. Thrimi:, busy, fussy. ThrtmJk-wife, a fussy, meddlesome woman. Thrut, the length of the throw of a stone ; or of the flight of an arrow. Thud, a dull, heavy blow. Neither the Dictionaries of Johnson nor Richardson, nor those of Webster and Worcester, contain this word. Nares, and his most recent editors, make no mention of it; but ^ Mr. Halliwell (Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words), defines it to mean a ' heavy blow.' This is scarcely its true signification. A sharp, quick, 'heavy blow,' would be i thump ; but a dull, slow, ponderous blow would be a thud, such as the shock of a heavy billow against the side of a. ship. Fra fearfiJ. thuds of the tempestuous tide. DouglaJs ^neid. 258 LOST BEA VTIES OF Thud — continued. The air grew rougli with, bousteous (boisterous) thuds. Allan Ramsay. Here Doon poiirs down Ms far-fetched floods. There, well-fed Irvine stately thuds. Burns. Loud roars the blast among the woods. And tirls the branches rarely, On hill and house hear how it thuds. Bums, The brave Lochiel as I heard tell. Led Camerons on in clouds, man ; The morning fair, and clear the air, ^ They loos'd with devilish thids, man. Ballad of Tranent Muir. Whose thundering with wondering, I heard up through the air ; Through cluds so, he thuds so. And flew I wist not where. The Cherry and the Sloe. Thurse, a giant ; a spectie. — Wrighfs Provincial Dictionary. Thtirte, might, need. As faire a ladye to his wife had he. As any earthly creature thurte see. Sir Isumhras. Tlxwaite, a wood cut down, grubbed up, and converted into arable land. This word constantly occurs in the Northern counties, as a termination to the names of places ; ag MJK^Qthwaite, HemeltAwaite, Owthivaite, &c. Tli-wart, an ill-tempered person, who thwarts others. In Berkshire, according to Mr. Halliv/ell, a 'thurt' has the same meaning. And be a thwart, disnatured, to torment her. Shakespeare : King Lear. Thwartover, contrary, transverse, across. And for fifteen long days and nights, the thwart-cmer sxA cross north- easterly wind blew us nothing but lengthening of our sorrow. Taylor's Woi-hs, 1630. Tickle, dangerous, difficult ; whence the modem, phrase, ' a ticklish question,' &c. A matter dangerous to the state, and tickle to the crovra'. Bowis Correspondence, 1538. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 269 quickly ; from tide, time ; German zeit. I shall tell tliee as iyd. What this tree tight. — Hers Ploughman. And. he turned him as tyd. And then took I heede. — Ibid. Lord, that I have done, forgive me iytte. MS. Harleian {HalliwelT). If this derivatioii be correct, it is possible that the modern phrase a ' tid-bit,' or dainty bit, meant originally a bit eaten quickly, on account of its daintiness. Worcester defines ' tid ' to mean * tender,' ' soft' Tidder, tender, soft, frail. Tidderness, tenderness, frailty. Tide, to happen, to befall. This word survives in the inten- sitive form to ' httide' and in the exclamation, ' Woe httide you!' Tidde, happened ; preterite of tidfe. Tift, a slight blow, an impulsion. Five-and-twenty silver bells Were a' tyed to his mane, And at ae tifi of the norland wind They twinlded ahe by ane. Ritsoiis Ancient Songs. Tifty, quarrelsome. Then up spake one, a maid forlorn With supple tongue and tifty. Jameion. Tilt, violence. He's in a tilt (of passion) ; probably derived from a tiU at a totraiament, when a person rides violently against an op- posing object. Tilty, violent, unreasonably ill-tempered. — Bameis Roots and Stems of the English as a Teutonic Tongue. Tilth, tillage, cultivated land ; the produce of tilling. 270 LOST BEAUTIES OF Tilth — continued. So that the tilihe is nigh forlorn, Which Christ sewe (sowed) with his own hande. Gower. Full iUth and husbandry. Shakespeare: Measure for Measure. Give the fallow land their seasons and their tilth. Drayton. Look where the full-eared sheaves of rye Grow, wavy on the tilth. Philips. In Northamptonshire, according to Sternberg's ' Glossary/ tilth means a ploughing. ' That piece of land must have a fresh tilth over.' ' That farm is in good tilth^ i.e., well culti- vated. Tine, to lose, or be lost. Tint, lost. This ancient English v/ord survives in Scotland both in conversation and literature. What was tint tlirough tree, Tree shall it win. Fiers Ploughman. The turtle that iynes her malce (mate). MS..Harl. That is our God so gracious, And is so loth man's soul to tyne^ Cursor Mundi. His knife was tint, his sheath was ta'en, His scabbard from his thigh was gane. Metrical Romance of Sir Eger, Sir Grahame, and Sir Gray Steele I never saw a fairer, I never loved a dearer, And next my heart I'll wear her, For fear my jewel tine. Bums ; My wife's a winsome wee thing. Where there is nothing, the king tines his right. All's not tint that's in danger. Better spoil your joke than tine your Mend. Give lining gamesters leave to gramble. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Prmerls, THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 27 b Tint — continued. He never tint a cow that grat (wept) for a needle. He wad tine his ears if they werena tacked -(fastened) to liitn. Time tint is ne'er found again. Tine heart and all's gone. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Prmirhs.. Tin, \ a fire ; to kindle a fire ; from the Gaelic teine, fire ; Tind, > whence Belfe, or 'BtMaine, the fire kindled on the Tine, ) night of the first of May, to Bel, the Sun, by the Celtic nations ; whence also the modern word tinder. Coals of contention, and hot vengeance ti7ieil. Spenser's Faerie Queene. If my pu£Ft life be out, give leave to tine, My shameless snuff at that bright light of thine. Quarles' Em&lems. One candle Hndeih a thousand. Sanderson's Sermons, 1689. Tindles, fires made by children in Derbyshire on the night of All Souls. — Hatliwell. Ting, to sound ; whence the diminutive tingle or tinkle, a small or soft sound ; whence also tang, the preterite, q.v. ,• and tongue {tung), that which makes the sound. Tinsel, signif3ang anything shining with false lustre, is gener- ally supposed to have its origin from the French etincdk, a spark ; or from the Latin scintilla. More probably the true derivation is to be sought in ty7ie, to lose ; whence tynsail, tinsal, and tynsal, defined in Jamieson's Dic- tionary as 'loss of whatever kind.' In this sense, the smaU pieces and remnants thrown off in the manufacture of articles of gold, silver, and precious stones, originally called tinsel, and afterwards used up, or applied to the ornamenta- tions of cloths, silks, and velvets, may have led to the secondary meaning of the word ; as signifying the appear- .. .ance^ rather than the reality of gold. Beaumont and Fletcher spea.k of 'tinsel affections,' i.e., affections that were not of the real gold of love, though they might shine like it. 272 LOST BEAUTIES OF ■Tinsel — continued. Goodly apparel of tinsel, clotli of gold, and velvet. Strype. Nothing can be more contemptible than that tinsel splendour of lan- guage which some writers continually affect. Blair. My profit is not your tinsel. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. hireling, one who is easily tired or worn out with work or exercise. Tirl, to spin round, to piit in motion ; to twist at the knob, pin, or fastening of a door. This is a very common word in ancient ballads, both English and Scotch. Oh he's gone round and round about. And iirled at the pin. Willie and May Margaret Tirl, to unroof, to uncover, to take the top off. While on the strong-winged tempest flym', Tirliri the kirks. Bums : Address to the Deil. 'Tirly, rotatory, that which has a spinning motion. Tith, tight, taut, strong, vigorous. She's good mettle ; of a good stirring strain ; She goes iith. Beaumont and Fletcher. Take a vndow, A good stanch wench, that's tith. Idem. 'Toare, grass and rubbish, or corn land after the com is reaped, the long sour grass in pasture fields. — Halliwell. •Toclier, a dowry ; a word principally applied to the fortunes of persons in the middle and lower ranks of life, who are too poor to give to their daughters dowries. A tocher stands in about the same relation to a dowry as a house does to a mansion. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 273 Tocher — continued. A cow and a calf, An ox and a half. Forty good shillings and three. Is not that enough tocher For a shoemaker's daughter ? Nursery Rhymes of England; by f. 0. HalKwell, The bonnie lass tocherless, has mair wooers than chances of a husband. The greatest tochers make not ever the greatest testaments. Marry a beggar, and get a louse for your tocher. Better a tocher in her than on her. Maiden's tochers, and minister's stipends, are aye less than they are ca'd. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Oh meikle thinks my- love 0' my beauty. And meilde thinks my love 0' my kin, But little thinlcs my love I ken brawly, My tocher's the jewel has charms for him. Bums. Tod, a large tufi, bunch, or bush of ivy. At length within the ivy tod, TThere shrouded was the Httle god. I heard a busy bustling. Spenser,: Shepherd's Calendar. There valiant and approved men of Britain, Like boding owls, creep into tods of ivy, And hoot their fears to one another nightly. Beaumont and Fletcher. The owle, tiU then, 'tis thought, full vi-ell could sing. And tune her voice to every bubbling spring. But when she heard those plaints, then forth she yode. Out of the covert of an ivy tod, And hallooing for aid, so strained her throat. That since, she clean forgot her former note. Brown : Britannia's Pastorals. In Suffolk, according to Mr. Halliwell, any bush at the top of a pollard, is called a tod. Tod, the common name for a fox in Scotland, and formerly in England. 18 274 LOST BEAUTIES OB Tod — continued. Driv'st hence the wolf, the tod, the brock, And other vermin from the flock. Ben Jonson. Toit, a fit of ill-humour. Toitish, ill-tempered, snappish. Tole, ) to draw, or pull, whence ' toll the bell,' i.e., pull the ToU, /bell. Who like, the bee, tolling iiora. every flower The virtuous sweets. Skakespsare ! Henry IV. pt. ii. A dog is tolled with a bone. Nares. Be sure to idle him on by insensible degrees. Of Education, quoted hy Nares. Curvets, runs, whitles, waves, and tales him on. Fairfax: Tasso. Tolt, to give yourself a blow by striking your head against a beam. — JSaket's Northampionshi^e Glossary. Tolter, to move heavily and clumsily. From cottage-door, farm-house, and dusty lane, Where home the cart-horse toilers vrith the wain. Clare's ViUage Minstrel. Tote, to peep. With his knopped shoon. Clouted full thick, His toen (toes) totened out. Piers Ploughman. Then toted I into a tavern. And there I espied. Two irere Cannes, With a full coppe. — Hid. Touse, ) to pull, to Struggle ; the Gaelic .te>z7/, to stumble ; Touz6, J whence also the modem word ' tussle.' In feats of arms; and life's dread desperation, I touse to gain me fame and reputation. Ford, i6o6i ■ THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 273 Towser, ( a rude, violent person, who pulls others about ; Touzer, j whence the common name for a dog, who is a good ratter. But let him loose among the kitchen maids j never was seen so ter- magant a towza: — Otway, 1684. Tousie, ) disordered, dishevelled, uncombed. Towzie, J 'A tousie head,' one that has not been combed. His towsie back Was glossy black. Bunts : The Twa Dogs. Tout, \ to blow upon- a horn ; whence the modem word, ' a Toot, ] touter^ a man who stands at the door of a shop to entice people in. To blow one's own trumpet ; or to tout one's own abilities, is an expression that conveys a similar meaning. In Wicliffe's translation of the Bible, the word ' tooter' is used to express a spy, or scout ; a man stationed on a tower to blow a horn as a signal of danger. In Scotland it is said of an old story revived, and told in a new manner, that ' it is an auld tout in a new horn.' Tout-Mil, a hill or eminence, on which, in time of war or danger, a man was stationed to tout or blow a horn as a signal. To"w, a rope, whence to tow, to pull with a rope. \ Tozy, soft, tender. Toziness, softness, tenderness. — Wrighfs Provincial Dic- tionary. Traik, to go idly about from place to place ; to wander with- out purpose J to lose one's self for want of thought whither one is going ; to follow after women. He's none of the birds that traik; i.e., he will not wander from the right way ; he can take care of himself. Northern Proverb. . There is not a hu22y on this side of thirty that ye can bring within your doors, but -there will be chiels, writer lads, 'prentice lads, and what not, come traVdng after them for their destruction. Sir Walter Scott: Heart of Mid-Lothiaju 18—2 276 LOST BEAUTIES OF Trail, a term of reproach for a slatternly woman -who lets her garments trail in the mire ; a draggle-tailed slut. A trull. Traily, slovenly. Traipse, to trail or draggle in the dirt or slush ; applied to a. slovenly woman. Trame, treachery, deceit. Trangle, one's own idea, device, way, or will. Let them take their own trangle. Leicestershire : Wrighfs Prcnnncial Dictionary. Trant, trade, barter ; also a trick or stratagem. Tranter, a pedlar, a hawker of small wares ; a carrier. And had some tranting merchant to his sire. That trafficked both by water and by fire. HalVs Satires. Trantles, articles ol little value; toysj petty articles of fur- niture . — -Jamieson. Tranty, tricky, crotchety, applied to a child that is wise and forward beyond its years. — Barnes' Jioofs 'and Stems of English. Treddle, a street walker. Treen, the old plural of tree ; also wooden, or made of a tree. Ane ireene truncheon, ane ramshonie spoone. Bannaiyne. Sir Thomas Rokeby being conti-oUed for first suffering himself to be- served in ireene cuppes ; answered : ' These homely cups and dishes pay truly for that they containe. I had rather drink out of treene, and pay gold and silver, than diink out of gold and silver, and make wooden payment. — Camden's Remains. Erminia's steed the while his mistress bore, Under safe shelter of the shadie treen. Fairfax: Tasso. Trend, to make a considerable bend or turn. Not far beneath, i' the valley as she trends,- Her sUver stream. Brown ; Britannia's Pastorals. Trendency, a strong deviation. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. ZfT Trice, from thrice. A space of time in which you can count three. ' A brace of shakes,' a similar phrase, means while you can count two, or sing two notes, shakes, or trills. ' I'll do it in a trice,' is still a common phrase. Chambers's ' Ety- mological Dictionary' admits this word, and traces it to the Spanish iris, noise of breaking glass, and states that its literal signification is a crack, a very short time. The same deriva- tion is given in Wedgwood's ' Dictionary of English Ety- mology.' In this trice of time, Commit a fliing so monstrous. Shakespeare : King Lear, ■Triehard, a cheat, a trickster; from the French iricher, to cheat, to trick. Ricliard, tliat thou be ever triehard. Song against the Emperor of Almaigne : Tetiip. Chaucer. •Trig, neat, fine, well-dressed, well-made ; also a fop, or a per son giving too much attention to his personal appearance. It is my humour, you are a pimp and a trig. An Amadis de Gaul, a Don Quixote. Ben Jonson : The Alchemist. And you among them ^', John, Sae trig from top to toe. Bums : John Anderson. 'Trine, a conjunction of three. •Triple-trine, three times three ; applied by the Elizabethan poets to the nine muses. ■Trod, a footpath. ■Troggin, pedlars' wares, or any miscellaneous collection. The words troke and truck, to barter, are firom the same root. Truck, in the Eastern counties of England, signifies odds and ends ; and in America, a load of miscellaneous vege- tables or other articles. They purchased homespun calico, salt, rum, tobacco, and such other truck as their necessities called for. — Chronicles ofFenneville. Buy braw troggin, Frae the banks o' Dee ; Wha wants troggin. Let him come to me. — Bums. 'Troke, Ito barter; from whence the 'truck system' in the Truck, J manufacturing districts. zjS LOST BE A UTIES OF Troll, to pass round the bottle at table ; to troll or trundle a hoop. Then doth she troll to me the bowl, Ev'n as a mault worm shoulde And saith, sweet heart, I take my part. Of this jolly good ale and old. Gammer Ourton's Needle. Troll about the bridal bowl. And divide the broad bride cake. — Ben jbnson. Nappy ale. Good and stale ; In a brown bowl. Which did about the board merrily trawl. Percy's Reliques : the King and the Miller of Mansfield, Tron, from the Gaelic Trom, heavy, weighty. There is a Tron Church in Edinburgh and another in Glasgow; but the Scottish glossaries and Jamieson's ' Scottish Dic- tionary' make no mention of the word. It would ap- pear from a passage in Hone's 'Eveiy-day Book' that ' Tron ' signified a public weighing-machine or scale in a market-place, where purchasers of commodities might with- out fee satisfy themselves that the weight of the purchase was correct according to the charge. Hence a ' Tron Church ' was a church in the market-place near which the public weighing-machine was established. Troth-pliglit, the passing of a solemn vow or pledge of faith ; the person who is security for the fidelity of another. As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to before her troth-plight. Shakespeare: Winters Tale, Nay ! and to him my troth-plight, and my friend. Heywood. Trull, a term of contempt for a woman ; firom trowl or troll, to run, to trundle \ whence, one that runs or walks the streets, a prostitute. Trundle, a wheel. ' You must take your trundle^ (i.e., your chance or turn at the wheel of Fate) : Northamptonshire. Tryste, a place of meeting ; a rendezvous. A purely English word, from the Anglo-Saxon trwsian,. to confide, whence. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 279 Tryste — continued. \ trust, trustful, and mistrustful. When two persons, appointed to meet at a designated spot on a future day, each trusted or trysted that the other would be true to the hour and place ; and thus such phrases as a ' trysting tree,' and a try sting bower,' for the meeting of lovers ; and Falkirk tryste, where the great catde drovers of the North and South of Scotland agreed to assemble every year, and thus established a fair. Chaucer uses the word- in ' Troilus and Cressida,' in the sense of a rendezvous, though the etymology of the word was not clear to ' Urry,' his editor. Lo 1 holde thee at thy irUie, In the '.Ballad of the Reid Squair' (1576), preserved in a MS. in the Cotton Library, and printed by Ritson, occurs : On July seventh this suthe to say, At Ae Reid Squair the tryst was set The word did not survive the days of Chaucer in English poetry ; but it remained a living flower in Scottish verse and parlance. Its obvious beauty and convenience, rendered it familiar to all the readers of Burns and Scott ; and it has since been adopted by some of the purest English writers, and partially restored to that place in the English Dictionary which it ought never to have lost. . . George Douglas caused a trist (tryste) to be set between him and the Carding and four lords, at the which trist, he and llie Cardinal agreed finally without the Queen's advice. Letter dated September, 1 543 ; quoted hy Nares. The tenderest hearted maid, That ever bided tryst at village stile. — Alfred Tennyson. By the wine-god he swore it. And named a trysting i.s.y, — Macaulay. Tuggle, from 'tug,' to pull by short, sharp, repeated jerks. Tuggling and struggling how to get him free. Hoss's Helenore. Tussook, a tuft of feathers j whence tussock-gr&ss, a grass with a feathery crest. Tuz, a knot of hair or wool ; an entanglement 28o L OST BE A UTIES OF Twattle, to talk loudly and idly, and several persons at a time ; betwatiled is a common expression in many parts of England and in America, to signify the condition of a person whose brain has been confused by contradictory opinions, and loud speaking. Twiddle, to be busy about nothing ; whence the phrase, ' to twiddle one's thumbs/ expressive of the useless activity of an idle person. Twlme, \ a couplet. Thrime, j a triplet. These words are written in an old hand, on the margin of a copy of Blount's ' Glossographia, 1681.' No authority for their use is given ; but the words are consonant with the structure of the language ; and would be useful if favoured with literary acceptance. Twine, to deprive. To twine me 0' my gear. — Allan Ramsay. Twines many a poor doylt dnmken carle, Of half his days. Burns : Scotch Drink, Twingle, to twine round. Twink, this word has been almost wholly superseded by its diminutive twinkle. Aye, with a twink. Before you can say come and go. Shakespeare: Twelfth Night. Twire, to turn round, to peep out, whence the diminutive twirl, to turn round rapidly. When sparkling stars twire out. Shakespeare: Sonnet xxxiv. I saw the wench that fwired and twinked at them. Beaumont and Fletcher. Twissle, ) that part of the tree where the branch separates Twistle, I from the trunk or bole. Twissle, one of two apples, two cherries, or any other fruit growing on a single stem. As from a tree, we sundrey times espy, A twissle grown hy Nature's subtle might. Turberville (quoted by Narcs). THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 281 Twist, a crotchet, a perverse idea. Twisty, contentious, ill-humoured, capricious. Twiteh., to tie tightly. Twitch-grass, a species of long grass, so named from its tena- city or stringiness. Twyehlld, a man or woman in extreme old age or second childhood ; from iwy, twice. And when thou shalt grow twychilde, slie shall be, Careful and kind, religiously to thee. Dailies : Scourge of Folly {Halliwell). Tyke, a rough, shaggy, mongrel dog. Now are they lowe cherles, TiMes and cherles. — IHers Ploughman. Base tike, call'st thou me host ? — Shakespeare : Henry V. Bobtail tike, or 'fxaa.Sy^AsSi.^-Shakespeare : King Lear. You have lost your own stomach, and found a tykis. I'm as tired of it, as a tyke of lang kale. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. Luath in the 'Twa Dogs,' by Bums, was 'a gash and faithful tyke, as ever leaped a ditch or dyke ;' and the Deil in ' Tam o' Shanter,' sat on a window sill in the shape of A towsy tyke, black, grim, and large. ' 28i Lost bea vties of ~U%, to feel abhorrence, or disgust at. This word has been supposed to be one of the many- derived from natural sounds, and from the exclamation 'ar^/^, which people involuntarily make when any frightfully disa- greeable object starts up before them. Possibly, however, its root is the Gaelic aog, death, a skeleton, and aogail, ghastly, death-like. In England, as well as in America, the word ugly has recently acquired a new meaning — ^i.e., vicious, ill-tempered. The rattling drum, and trumpets' tout, Deligit yoimg swankies that are stout, What his kind frighted. mother «^j, ' Is music to the soldier's lugs, yameson's Ballads^ Ugsome, ugly. The homid bird which we depe the nigtt owl ; Ugsome to hear was her wild eldritch shriek. Douglas: Translation of Virgil, The ligsomeness and silence of the night. Idem. May chains then, and pains then. Infernal be his hire. Who dang us, and flang us. Into this ugsome mire. Allan Ramsay : The Vision. XTm, Gaelic uime, round, or around. This prefix was once as common to English as it still is to German verbs. TTm-be-elippe, to clasp round or embrace. TTm-be-grippe, to seize, or grip round. XTm-be-lappe, to wrap round. TTm-be-set, to beset on every side. TTm-besiege, to besiege round about; to encompass a city with armed men. " THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 2&S Um-be-thinke, to bethink one's self of all surroundings (or circumstances), to remember. He um-be-tJimtghtt Mm of ane sKght > Barhour. Tim Bobbin gives um-be-t!iought, as used in Lancashire, in tbe sense of remembered. — ydndeson. Umgaiig, circuit, circumference. TJmgrip, to seize. TTmlap, to enfold. i Umset, to suiroimd. TJin-wliile, formerly, ci-devant. UnbtLxoni, uncomely; the reverse of buxom. Some lexico- grapbers derive this word from the German beugsam, obe- dient^ pliable ; and others from buck, a bosom, whence buck- some, having a large or full bosom, plump, hearty-looking, comely. To storm and to scolde, Sdaunders to make, Botli unbuxome and bolde. Piers Ploitghman. Uneanny, unlucky. A word common in the North of Eng- land and Scotland. ' Captain !' said Dinmont in a half-whisper, ' I wish she binna un~ canny.' — Scott: Guy Mannering. I was, by this experience of his watchftd Providence over this great cause, made hopefiil he would not suflFer it to be spoiled by the impru- dence of many -uncanny hands which are about it Bmlliis Letters. This Northern word seems to have been corrupted in the: literature of the seventeenth century in England, to ' incony.' Nares was at a loss to understand this last word, and says that it means 'sweet, pretty, delicate,' and that the- derivation is from the northern word ' canny,' in which he is right, and that the 'in' is intensive, and means very canny, in which he seems to be wrong. He cites the following examples : 284 LOST BEAUTIES OF Xrncanny — continued. My sweet omice of flesh, my incony liand. Shakespeare: Lovis Labour's Lost, Love me little, love me long, let music rumble, While I in thy incony lap do tumble. Jerw of Malta. Farewell, Dr. Doddy, In mind and in body, An excellent noddy, A coxcomb incony. Dr. Doddijiol. XTnehaneyj bringing ill-luck. Down the gate, in faith they're worse, And mair unchancy. Burns: Epistle to John Kennedy. TJneliary, not carefiil, not chary. I have said too much unto a heart of stone, And laid mine honor too unchary on't Shakespeare: Tivdfth Night. Undergrub, to underdig or undermine. This is a purer com- pound than its modem synon)Tne, both words being English ; whereas, undermine is half English, half French. XTnder-sort, the lower-class ; the mob, the vulgar. Xrnder-skinker, an imder-waiter, or drawer. I gjlve thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped even now into my hand by an undersMnker, one that never spaJce other English in his life than ' Eight-and-sixpence,' or 'You are welcome.' Shakespeare: 1st pait of LTenty VI. Trnder-wrought, undermined, underdug, or undergrubbed. XTneared, unploughed, tmtUled, uncultivated. In where is she so fair, whose uneared womb Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? Shakespearis Sonnets. TTnease, uneasiness, vexation, trouble. Shun thou the seas. Which breed unease, and quiet live on land. Kendall's Flowers of Epigrams, JS77- ^^®?^ 1 ^^^^^Y' scarcely. Uneath may she endure the flinty streets. Shakespeare: 2nd part of Henry VI. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 285 ■Whether 'twas day or night uneith wist we. Douglas: ^neid. TJnfast, loose, unfastened. ITnfiirtliersome, a term applied in the North to unfavourable weather ; that does not further or advance the ripening of the crops. TJngentleman, a churl, a boor, a low person ; one not a. gentleman. A strict observance of the niceties of speech was more important as an indication of breeding (in the fifteenth century), or in the words of Dame Juliana Bemers (the reputed author of the Book of St. Albans),, as a means of distinguishing ' gentylmen from ungmlylmen,' Hasa a. rigorous conformity to the rules of grammar, of even to the moral law» Marsh's Lectures on the English Language. ' XTnliale, not in a hale or hearty condition ; sick-, unwell. TJnlieartsonie, melancholy. It is an unheartsome thing to see our father and mother agree sO' ill. — Rutherford's Letters. XTnlieaxty, timid, listless ; without zeal or heart. xriiliouselled, not having received the last sacrament ; from housell, to receive the sacrament, A priest, a priest, says Aldingar, Me for to housle and shrive. Percy's Reliques, Sir Aldinger. Cut off even in the blossom of my sin, UnhottselVd. Shakespeare; Hamlet. Unleal, disloyal, dishonest. "Unliftyj not to be easily lifted ; unwieldy. ^nloveable, Kj^^i^ble. TJnlovesome, J TJnsneek, to draw the sneck, latch, or bolt of a door. Tip toe she tripped it o'er the floor, She drew the bar, unsnecl^d^i door. Jameson! s Popular Ballads. 285 . LOST BEAUTIES OF' Unsnod, rough, not smooth, in disorder. My daes aye unsnod. And my face seldom clean. Hector Mac Neil. Unsonsy, unfortunate ; from the Gaelic sonas, good fortune. Unsodden, unboiled. TJntlioleable, intolerable ; not to be tholed or endured. ITntrowable, incredible, not to be trowed or believed. TTn-wiTinable, impregnable. This crag, unwynnable by ingine of man. — Boetkius. Xrnwinsome,- not engaging in manners ; ugly, afifected. TJnwit, ignorance, folly, want of sense. TJnwroken, unavenged. Unwroken shall we die ? — Douglas : ^neid. TTpgang, an ascent, an acclivity. TTphoven, past participle of upheave. This word occurs in WicIiflFe's translation of the Bible, and merits re-introduction, • as not only more correct, but more easUy pronounceable, than upheaved. TJpstir, to rouse, to excite. Upstirring, an excitement or insurrection of the people. TTre, chance, fate, fortune. From the French heur, a word now only used with the adjectives bon and mal, to signify good and evil fortune. Drive the thing right to the end, And take the ure that God will send. , Barbour, TTrf, a stunted, ill- grown child, nearly synonymous with urk. Ye useless, weasel -like urf, that ye are. Hogg : The Brownie ofBodsieck. TTrk, a small, undergrown child; whence the diminutive ■urchin. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 287 "Vade, to fade quickly, to go to death or decay. This word is not exactly S3monymous with fade, as appears from its use by Shakespeare and other writers who employ both vade and Jade in the same sentence, Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, soon vaded. Pluck'd in the bud ; siAfaded'vo^ the spring. Shakes feare i Sonnets. Beauty is but a vain and doubtfiil good, A shining gloss that vadeth suddenly ; * » * * » A doubtful g;ood, a gloss, a glass, a flower. Lost, broken, vaded, dead within an hour. Idem. No fading, vading flower. Brathwait, Strappado for the Devil, 1 615. "Vady, damp, musty ; decaying. ■yap, vapidity, refuse, dregs. In vain it is to wash a goblet, if you mean to put nothing into it, but the dead lees and vap of wine. — Bishop Taylor. ■Vecfc, an old woman ; from die Italian veechia, old. Which hath ordained Jealousie, Yon olde Veck, for to espie The manner of his governance. Chaucer : Romance of the Rose. ■Venn, slush, mud. "Vennel, a gutter to carry off the slush. Both of these words are used in the North, but have dis- appeared from Southern English. Trailing on the venne. MS. Lansdowne (JlalUwell). "Vine-vred, mouldy. Many of Chaucer's words are become, as it were, vinewsd and hoarie with over long lying. — Beaumont : Letter to Speght, 1602. The word blue vinewed, or blue mouldy, is still current in the South of England. 288 LOST BEAUTIES OF Tirelav i ^ '^°^'^<^> ^ catch, a rondeau ; from virer, to turn. Ballads,- virelays, and verses vain. Spenser: Faerie Queene. Tken slumber not with dull Endymion, But tune thy reed to dapper virelays, Drayton: Polyolbion. ■yirr, ) force, impetus. A man without strength of mind or Bir, j purpose, is said in the Border counties and in Scotland, to have no bir in him. The lads unwilling yet to stir, Fire off their monny guns in virr. Beatti^s Tales. Wi' double virr the drummers drum- Mayne's Siller Gun. Come life, come death, I'll fight with all my bir. Hamilton's Wallace. Voth, outlawry, Voth sii Vothman, an outlaw. — -Jamieson. Voth signifies outlawiy ; — utlagiuvi. Skene, THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 289 "Wad, Straw, or a bundle of straw ; whence wadding, to signify a stuffing with straw ; whence also the title of the old song, ' Moll in the Wad,' i.e., Moll in the straw, after childbirth. Moll in the wad and I fell out, I'll tell you wliat 'twas all about : She had money and I had none. That's the way the row begun. Old Song. A wispe of rushes, or any wad of hay that's next to hand, they'll steal.— Tay/or; The Water Poet. "Wad, ) a wager, a bet, a pledge ; from whence a wedding, or "Wed, J pledging of faith at the altar ; and also wad-set, a mortgage. Wadder, a man who makes bets. There is no leech in all this land, Can put a finger to a hand, The finger that he left in wed. Sir Eger, Sir Grahame, and Sir Gray Steel, Wishers and wadderSj Were never good househadders. A wad is a fool's argument. liwads were horses, beggars would ride. Allan Ramta^s Scottish Prmerbs. What wiU you wager, Wise William ? My lands I'll wad with ihee. * ♦ * * * 111 wad my head against your land, Till I get more monie. RedisdaU and Wise William ; Motherwell's Ancient Minstrelsy.. Waft, to beckon ; to make a wavy motion with the hand. A word obsolete in this sense j and now employed to signify the action of the wind in impelling a ship to its destination. But, soft, who wafts us yonder ? Shakespeare : Comedy of Errors. A flag, wafting us back again. Hackluyt. ^9 ago LOST BEAUTIES OF Waft — continued. This word appears- to have sometimes been written w^, , preterite of waft; as in the following passage from ' Robinson Crusoe' : She gave three ■wefts with her ancient, Waffcer, a frigate or man-of-war that conducts merchant ships to port. — Blounfs Glossographia, 1611. WaftTire, a signal, a beckoning motion of the hand; from waft. But with an angry wafture of your hand,- Gave sign for me to leave you. Shakesj^eare : yulius Ccssar, Wair, to lay out, to expend judiciously. The best o' chiels are whiles in want, WhUe coofs on countless thousands rant, And ken na how to wair it. Buj-ns: Epistle to. Davie, a brother poet. Wale, to choose, to select ; from the Anglo-Saxon and German wahlen, one of the oldest words in the English language. Then wale a virgin, worthy you, Worthy your love and martial vow. Allan Ramsay : Epistle to Robert Yarde ofDevonsJnre. He wales a portion wi' judicious care. Bums : Cotter's Saturday Night. I'd hang you up in good green wood. And cause .your own hand wale the tree. yohn Thovison and the Turh. Then o'er again the jovial throng The poet did request, To loose his pack, and wale as gay A ballad as the best. Bums : The Jolly Beggars. Wale, choice ; the best of anything. There's auld Rob Morris that wons in yon glen. The king of good fellows, the wale of auld men. — Bums. Supple scones, the wale o' food. — Burns. The laird of Balnamo, after dinner at a friend's house, had cheny- brandy put before him in mistake for port. He liked the liquor, and drank freely of it. His servant Harry or Hairy was to drive him THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 29 r Wale — continued. home in a gig or whiskey. On crossing the moor, whether from greater exposure to the blast, or from the laird's unsteadiness of head, his hat and wig fell to the ground. Harry got off to pick them up and restore them to his master. The laird was satisfied with the hat, but demurred to the wig. ' It's no my wig. Hairy, lad ; it's no my wig.' ■' Ye'd better tak' it, sir,' said Harry, 'for there's nae wale o' wigs on the moor.' — Dean Ramsay's Reminiscences. "Walie, "Waly, There was a winsome wench and walie. Bums : Tarn J Shanter. This -waly boy will be no coof (fool), I think we'U ca' him Robin. — Burns. "Waly, woefully, alas ! An exclamation of sorrow. Oh waly I waly I up the bank, And waly I waly I down the brae. Percy's Religues of Ancient English Poetry. e 1 ' V choice. wSo^h, }^^*' ^^^^P^"^' ^^^^^^^- "Wame, the belly, or womb. This word, general in Scotland, is used in the Northern counties of England, as far south as Yorkshire. "Waneliaiice, misfortune. "Wanchancie, unlucky. Wae worth the man who first did shape, That vile wanchancie thing, a rape. Bums : Poor Mailiis Elegy. "Wandle, pliant, nimble. "Wandought, impotence, a silly weak person, wanting strength,. or doughtiness. ■Wandoughty, impotent. :^^^f«^"^' I the nightmare. "Wandretli, poverty, sorrow. The sixth virtue is strengtii or stalworthiness, not only of body but of heart, to suffer the weal and the woe, wealth or wandreth, whichever betide, — MS. Lincoln {quoted by Mr. Halliwell, the orthography ino- demizca). 19 2 £92 LOST BEA VTIES OP "Wang, the cheek, from the Gennan. In Leicestershire, says Mr. Halliwell, ' wang ' means a blow on the cheek. Wanhope, the waning and disappearance of hope preparatory- to despair. This word seems to have been derived from the Dutch and Flemish, and not from the Anglo-Saxon. The Dutch word for despair is wanJwop, or the waning of hope. Chaucer uses both despair and wanhope in the same sen- tence in the ' Knighte's Tale,' as if the words were not synon)nnous : That I am exiled and baireine, Of all grace, and in so great despaire ; * « # * * Will ouglit I sterve in wanhope and distresse ; Farewell my Hfe, my lust, and my gladnesse. Chauiei: Good men I wame alle, That ye in no wanhope falle. MS. Cantah., quoted hy Halliwell. Good hope that helpe should. To wanhope tumeth. Piers Ploughman. Furie and rage, wanhope, despair, and woe. Lodge : Glaucis and Lilla. Wanhope poor soul on brolcen anchor sits, "Wringing his aiTQS as wanting of his wits. — Idem. This word, and several others equally beautiful, have sur- vived in Scotland, and in the Border counties of England. ' It was in use,' says Dean Trench, in his ' Lectures on En- glish Past and Present,' ' down to the reign of Elizabeth ; and was the latest survivor of a whole family or group of words, which continued much longer in Scotland than with us.' Wannap, I mjgchance, misfortune. Wank, preterite of wink. Our long on the shepherd wank Privily with his eye. MS. Cantah., Halliweli. "Wanlust, indifference, satiety ; the waning away of lust, list, or pleasure. THE ENGLISH LANGVAGE. zgj Waril-UBty, indifferently. Wanrestful, restless, wanting rest. And may they never learn the gaets, Of ither vile wanrestfu' pets. Bums : The Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie. "Waiithriffc, prodigality. "Wantrust, jealousy, suspicion ; waning or dwindling of trust and belief. Oh, wantrust, full of false suspicion 1 Where was thy wit and thy discretion ? Chaucer: JTieMandpUs Tale. WanSsS^' } J^^^°^^' suspicious. "Wap, ^ a blow; also to strike, or beat. Johnson defines ■Wappen, ( ' whap ' to be a blow, and calls it ' a low expression.' Whap, j Doubtless it has long been left to schoolboys and,to 'Whop, ) illiterate people, but it is nevertheless of respect- able parentage, and from the same root as weapon, that with which a blow is struck, the German wappen,zxnis ; and the old English and Scottish weaj/onskaw and wappinshaw, a tourna- ment or exhibition of arms. In Scottish poetry, ' wap' some- times means to throw. Chaucer has ' waped,' in. the sense of .astonished ; and Spenser whape, in the sense of to shock, or deject. Shakespeare, in 'Timon of Athens,' speaking of the j)0wer of gold, says : This it is That makes the wappened widow wed again. Much controversy has arisen about the meanmg of this -word. Nares imagines it to signify ' worn or weakened,' but it is more probable that it is derived from to whap, to beat ; a,nd that the passage means, a widow beaten by sorrow, ' bruised and buffeted by the storms of fate.' The intensitive or augmentative of this word, with the •prefix a, and defined by Mr. Wright, in his ' Provincial Dic- itionaty,' as meaning to confound, to stupefy with fear, occurs in Spenser : 294 LOST BE A UTIES O^ "Wap — continued. A vrild and salvage man ; . Yet was no man, but only like in shape. And eke in stature higher by a span. All over-grown vrith hair that could awhape An hardy heart. Spenser: Faerie Queene. "War-gear, accoutrements of war. Warp, preterite of werp, to throw; whence wharf, a place where goods are thrown, and moudie-waf^, a mole, the mould thrower. And warp off his weeds ; ie., cast off his clothes. Morte Arthur. Warth, ) the sea-shore ; also, a ford over a river. ' Wath ' ap- "Wath, ) pears to be derived from the Gaelic ath, a ford. Warttistead, 1 the fording-place ; often erroneously written and "Watlistead, / pronounced warstead. Wasted!' } ^ ^^^'''^ ^ ^^'*^ P^^^^- Walked in that ■wasteme. — Morte Arthur. In a wasteyne far fro' the tovrae. — MS. Harl. (ffalliwell). "Wastrel, one who wastes his means ; an extravagant or profli- gate person ; any waste or imperfect article in manufacture. "Wasty, consumptive, wasting away. "Wat, preterite of wet. O sighing, said the lady fair, I've wat my gowden girdle. The Water «' Wearies Well. And when of me his leave he took. The teais ibeyzvat mine ee. Gilderoy, Laith, laith, were the good Scots' lords To wet their cork heeled shoon, But long ere all the play was played. They viat thair hats aboon. Sir Patrick Spens. "Watershed, the inclination and flow of the water from the higher to the lower level. TJTE ENGLISH LANG UA GE. 295 Waterstead, the ordinary channel or bed of a river, or smaller stream. Wathe, injury, severity. Woe and wathe betweai them wake. Wright's Provincial Glossary. "Wathely, severely. Waught, a deep draught of liquor. In most of the glossaries to Bums's poems this word is erroneously joined with ' willyj' and converted into ' •mHy-waught,'' and described as meaning ' a hearty draught.' The line in ' Auld Lang Syne' usually printed, We'll drink a right gude -mHy-waught, should be : We'll drink a right gude-willie waught ; i.e., we'll drink with right good-will a deep or hearty waught or draught. ' Willie, did you ever see the beasts drink more than was sufficient to satisfy the cravings of nature ?' ' No, Doctor ; I didna ! but d'ye think, if a poor beast could speak, and said to a comrade on the other side o' the water, " Here's to ye, lad !" he wadna tak anither waught T Laird of Logan. "Waur, to get the better of, to conquer. Ane Hornbook's ta'en up the trade, An' faith he'll waur me. Bums: Death and Dr. Homlooh. Up and loaur them a', Willie. — yacobite Ballad. "Wax, 1 to grow, to increase. This word, chiefly preserved "Wox, in the English language by its frequent use in the "Waxed, \ Old and New Testaments, lost its original preterite "Woxen, I and past participle, wox and woxen, before the tran- Woxed, J slation of the Bible in the reign of James I., at which time the word wax, with the regular inflections, was in com- mon use. And when he woxen was more In his moths''s absence. Piers Ploughman. 2^6 LOST BEAUTIES OF Wax — continued. ' This man wox weUnigh wood [mad] for ire.. Chaucer : The Sompnour^s Tide. Before my breath, like blazing flax, . Man and his marvels pass away, And changing empires wane and viax. Are founded, flourish, and decay. Sir Walter Scott. Now tiey luax, and now they dwindle. Sir Walter Scati's Song of Meg Merrilees. ^Weald, from the German wald, a forest. Wean, a little child ; a weanie, a very little child — from wee ane, little one. Wedbreach., adultery. Wedbreaker, an adulterer. — Wicliffis Bible. Wedfellow, a spouse ; applied either to husband or wife. Wee, little, diminutive, The word wee, as used by the Scotch, implies extreme littleness, and is always employed to express some degree of affection ; little dog, and wee dog, do not convey the same precise idea. Shakespeare, in ' The Merry Wives of Wmdsor,' makes Simple say of Dr. Caius : He hath but a little wee face, and a little yellow beard ; thereby implying that the face was something else than little, that it was wee; i.e., very little. A wee spark makes meikle wark. A wee mouse can creep under a great com stack. Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs. As a diminutive, the "word is commonly used in the best colloquial English, ' my little wee daughter,' a ' bonnie wee book,' &c. The following verses are current on both sides of the Tweed : A wee_ house well filled, A wee farm well tilled, A wee wife well willed. Make a happy man. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 297 Weed, dress, raiment. This word in the. singular, has disap- peared from literature as well as from ordinary speech, and is only used in the plural to express the garb and head-dress of a widow. In ancient poetry it occurs frequently, both in the singular and in the plural. Shining Pallas, all in w^like weed. Earl of Surrey : Translation of the jEneid. Hast thou given him at his nede, Mete and drinke, clothe and -wede ? — MS. Cotton. (Halliwell). The knight was lopen on his steed. And armed well in iron wetd. Metrical Romance of the Seven Wise Masters. It was a friar of orders grey, Went forth to tell his beades. And he met with a lady faire, Clad in a pilgrim.'s weeds. The Friar of Orders Grey, in Percy'' s Relics. Let fair humanity abhor the deed, That spots and stains love's modest snow white weed. Shakespeare: Rape of Lucrece. Such weeds as may beseem, Some well appointed page. Shaliespeare : Tivo Gentlemen of Verona. Throngs of knights, and barons bold, In weeds of peace. — Milton : V Allegro. Take off, take off, these bridal weeds. And crown my waeful head wi' willow. The Braes of Yarrow. Princely in my lover's weed, Bonnie laddie, highland laddie. Jacobite Ballad, 1745. Those whom chance may hither lead, Be thou dad in russet weed, . Be thou deck'd in silken stole. Grave these maxims on thy soul. Lines written in Friar's Carse Hermitage on the Banks of the Nith, by Bums. "Ween, to thmk, to imagine ; a word not quite obsolete, but seldom used except in poetic composition, and in mock heroics., . 398 LOST BEAUTIES OF Weft, a waif; something lost, gone astray, or abandoned. The gentle lady loose at random left, The greenwood long did walk and wander wide, At wild adventure, like a forlome •weft. Spenser: Faerie Queent. For we, the wefts and pilgrims of the streams. Are only bom to sorrow and distress. Fanshawis Ludad. Weird or wierd. Most English dictionaries misdefine this word, which has two different significations; one as a, noun, the other as an adjective. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time downwards, it exists as an adjective only, and is held to mean unearthly, ghastly, or witchlike. Before Shakespeare's time, and in Scottish poetry and parlance to the present day, the word is a noun, and signifies 'fate' or ' destiny ' — derived from the Teutonic werden, to become, or that which shall be. Chaucer, in ' Troilus and Cressida,' has the line : O Fortune ! executiice of wierdes I and Gower, in a manuscript in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, says : It were a wondrous weirde. To see a king become a herde. In this sense the word continues to be used in Scotland : A man may woo where he will, but he maun wed where his wierd is. She is a wise wife that kens her ain wierd. Allan Ramsay's Scottish JProveris. The wierd her dearest bairn befel By the bonnie mill-dams o' Binnorie. Scott : Minstrelsy of the Border, Shakespeare seems to have been the first to employ the word as an adjective, and to have given it the meaning of un- earthly, though pertaining to the idea of the Fates : The wierd sisters, hand in hand, ' Posters of the sea and land. — Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor 1 by which title tiiese wierd sisters saluted me. Idem. When we sat by her flickering fire at night she was most wierd. Charles Dickens : Great Expectations. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 299 "Weird — continued. No spot more fit than wierd, lawless Winchelsea, for a plot sucli as he. had conceived. — All the Year Round, Apil 2, 1870. Jasper surveyed his companioh as though he were getting imbued witbt a romantic interest in his weird life. Charles Dickens .' The Mystery of Edwin Drood. She turned to malce her Way from the merd s^oi as fast as her feehle. limbs would let (permit) her. T. A. Trollop : The Dream Numbers, ii. 271. \\/ GISS \ "Wvase I -*° direct, to tram, to conduct. Lord King, she said, of Heaven's blys. This day thou me rede and wysse — MS. Cantah. {ffalliwell). Every miller would weise the water to his ain mill. Scottish JProveri. !^®. » { to hold, to possess, to wield, to rule, to govern. And he no money ■weldeth. — Fiers Pltmghman. He had no heir his landes to weld. MS. Cantab. ( Wrights Provincial Glossary). "Welder, a ruler, a governor. All-welder, the Almighty Ruler. I pray to God, all-weldand. Ywaine and Gawin ( Wrights Promncial Glossary), "Welful, productive of happiness. Unto the cross of Christe thus said she, O dere ! O wealful / * * * holy cross ! Chaucer : The Man ofLawis Tale, "Welfulness, health, happiness, prosperity. "Welkin, the sky ; from the German w'dlken, the clouds. Amaze the welkin with your broken staves. — Shakespeare. "Well-will, benevolence. Welwilly, benevolent Well-wilier, a benevolent person. "Well-williiig, benevolent. They came in a loving and well-mlling msnnei to enquire. Melville, MS. [Jamieson)^ 300 LOST BEAUTIES OF " lU-will, malevolence. Ill-wilier, a malevolent person. Ill-willy, malevolent Of this group of words, ill-will is the only one that has remained in current use, or that has been admitted into literature. The rest have perished without offence, to make room for Latin synonymes, that are neither as beautiful nor as expressive. Venus, I mean, the wehmlly plaiiete. Chaucer :■ TroUits and Cressida. To themselves, well-willers. — Hooker. The calves and kye met in the loan, The man ran with ane rung to red. Then there comes ane ill-willy cow. The wife of Aitchtermuchty, from the Hyndford MS., Lord Hailed s Edition, quoted in Ritsoifs Caledonian Muse. "Welly, nearly, or very nearly. Our Joseph's welly blind, poor lad. WaugKs Lancashire Songs. Tummus, I welly lost my mmd. — Tim Bobbin, 1803. "Went, to dwindle, pine, fade away. "Wint, preterite of went, to fade. It TwW,' and went away, anon. MS. JDigby, Wrights Proviiuial Glossary. "Wern, to refuse, to deny. That is mete when men hym ■wernetk. And he no money weldeth. — Piers Ploughman, "Werp, to throw, to cast. "Werik, } it^sipid, unsavoury, tasteless. Her pleasures werish, and her amours tasteless. Translation of Montaigne, 1613. Weryshe as meat is that is not well tasted. — Palsgrave, Helicon's wersh well. — Allan Ramsay, A kiss and a drink of water, are but a wersh breakfast Scottish Proverb. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 301 "Wersh — -amiinued. In Brockett's ' Glossary of North Country Words,' (182 5,) this word appears in the corrupted form x>f wdsh. Broth and pottage witiiout salt, are said to be wdsh; but wersh is evidently the proper spelling. "Weth, I soft, mild. Mr. Halliwell says this word is used in ' "Weeth, j the Isle of Wight ; and Mr. Barnes quotes it in the sense of pliant, in his ' Roots and Stems of the English as a Teutonic tongue' ■Wevin, a moment ; from the Anglo-Saxon wiffend, a breath- ing ; whence also a whiff or breath. "Wliaiig, a laige cut or slice ; whence whanger, one who takes a large cut, slice, or piece ; and whence again, the American phrase, a slang whanger, a very vulgar, violent person, using slang words in excess. Ye cut laige lohattgs out of other folk's leather. Allan Ramsa^s ScotUsh Provais. He's ta'en fonr-and-twenty bioad arrows. And laced them in a whang. Sweet WilHe and Lady Margaret. Wliaup, a curlew. The wfld land fowls are plovers, pigeons, curlews, commonly called ■whaufs. — Statistical AccoutU of Scotland ; artide, Orkmy. "WTieeple, the cheep or low cry of a bird ; also metaphorically, the ineffectual attempt of a man to whistle loudly. A Scottish genHeman, who visited England for the first time, and ardently desired to return home to his native hills and moors, was asked ty his 'B'-Tigli'iTi host to come ont into the garden at nig^t to hear the song of the nightingale, a bird unknown in Scotland. His mmA was full of home, and he esdaimed, ' Na ! na ! I wadna gie the wheefU of a whanp for a' the nightingales that ever sang.' Statistical Account of Scotland. Wlielin, to turn. ' Overwhelm ' is still current, but ' whelm ' is nearly obsolete. 'Till billows gape and gales blow hard. And ■s.'hdm him o'er. — Bums: To a Mountain Daisy. 302 LOST BEA UTIES OF "WTiiffler, a fifer, or flute-player ; from whiff, a breath of wind ; also a trumpeter going foremost in a procession, to prepare the way for a king, or great personage. Whicli like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king, Seems to prepare his way. — Shakespeare : Henry, V. But as a poet that's no scholar makes Vulgarity his whiffler, and so takes Passage with ease and state. — Chapman's Homer. "WTiiles, sometimes. This word survives in Scottish speech and literature ; but has disappeared from English. Shake- speare uses it in the sense of while, and until. "WTiingle, to complain. What, thou 'rt in love, and •whinglin ? — Cumberland Ballads. "Wliirr, to_ fly from the ground in affiright, and with a loud noise ; like a partridge or pheasant. The moorcock springs on whirring wings, Among the blooming heather. — Burns. "WTiish, l silence, or to keep silence ; whence the name of the "Whist, j well-known game at cards. The other nipt so nigh, That whist I could not. — Sackville : Mirror for Magistrates. They whited all with fixed face attent. Surrey's Translation of the ^neid. The winds with wonder whist. Smoothly the waters kiss'd, — Milton. Haud your whish, (i.e., keep silence, or hold your tongue.) Scott: Rob Roy. Wistness, / suence. "WTiittle, a pocket or sheath-knife. For their knives, care not. While ye have throats to answer ; for myself, There's not a whittle in the unruly camp. But I do prize it at my love, before The reverend'st throat in Athens. Shakespeare : Timon of Athen Never want a good whittle at your belt. Allan Ravisay's Scottish Proverbs. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 303 "Wlrittle — continued. ' The word, as well as the practice of %vhittling (cutting a stick for amusement),' says Bartlett, in his ' Dictionary of Americanisms,' ' is so much more common with us, especially in New England, than it is in the old country, that its use may not improperly be regarded as an Americanism.' Americans must and will whittle. N. P. waiit. No matter where his home may be, What flag may be unfurl'd, He'll manage by some 'cute devise To whittle through tlie world. Idem. "WTiitster, a laundress j a bleacher or washer of linen, a person who makes wearing apparel white, a Uanchisseuse. Carry it among the whitsters in Datchet Mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch close by the Thames' side. Shakespeare : Merry Wives of Windsor. "Wlioimnle, to turn over clumsily and suddenly. Coming to the fire, with the said pan and water therein, and casting the water thereupon, and whommeling the pan upon the fire with the pronouncing of these fearful words — ' Bones to the fire, and soul to the devil !' which accomplished the cure. Trial of Alison Nisbeifor Witchcraft, 1632. "WliTiffle, to doubt. "Wlmffler, a doubter ; from the German zweifeln and zweifler. In some parliamentary boroughs in the North of England, a whuffler is one who will not promise his vote, because he expects a bribe, if he will only remain in doubt until a few minutes before the close of the poll. ^C^Tieker, 3. twig. This word, as a noun, has lost, except in the North of England and Scotland, its original meaning of twig, but survives as an adjective, in wie^er-y^oik, and wicker- basket. As with the wind, waves the wicker, So waves this world's vanitie. Bannatyne^s Poems. Waving like the willow-aw^i??-. Bums. ■ . 304 LOST BEAUTIES OF "Widder, ) ^^„^^,„, Wither, r°^*'^- Widder-guess, | ^ ^ j^ ^j^^ ^^^ direction. ■Widdershms, 1 in a direction contrary to the course of the "Witliersliiiis,' f sun. ' To pass the bottle withershins f ie.,, in the wrong direction. The said Alison past thrice ■withershins about the bed, muttermg out ■ certain charms in unlcnown words. Trial of Alison Nisbetfor Witchcraft, 1632.. "Wight, brave, a brave man. ■VSrightly, bravely. It would have been strange, if the Anglo-Saxons had not had a word in their language to express bravery and courage, without going to the Norman-French for it. Brave is a word of comparatively recent introduction. The ancient word wight, now used in literature as a substantive, is still current as an adjective in the North of England and in Scotland. ■ ' A wight man never wanted a weapon,' says the Scottish proverb. ' He is as wight,' says another, ' as a weaver's, doublet that every day takes a thief by the neck.' The word occurs in the ' Metrical Romance of Merlin,' where the young Arthur is described as Curteus, faire, and gent. And wight, and hardy, verament. In the same poem the word is applied to war-horses going into battle : Thestedes so noble and- so wight, Lopen and neighed. THE ENGLISH LANG UA GE. 305 "W ight — conttnued. The ' Wallace Wight,' is a title of nobility given by the people of Scotland to their favourite hero. But in England the adjective has become quite obsolete, and the substantive is only used in mock heroics. Wilding, a wild flower or fruit. Wilt, to wither and shrivel up. This word, common in Lin- colnshire and in Kent, has been carried by English emigrants to the United States, where it has taken root and floiurished to such an extent as almost to have superseded its synonyme wither. Neither ■ Johnson nor Richardson admits it to the honours of the language, but Webster, who denies that it is S3mon3Tnous with wither, declares it to be a legitimate word, for which there is no substitute in the language, and defines it to mean, ' to begin to wither, to lose freshness, and become jflaccid as a plant when exposed to great heat in a dry day.' ' A wilted plant,' he says, ' often revives and becomes fresh ; not so a withered plant' He quotes as an instance of its use a sentence from Dwight's ' Theology :' Despots have wilted the human race into sloth and imbecility. In Bartlett's ' Dictionary of Americanisms,' it is said, that to wilt down, means to look sheepish ; and the author quotes Robb's ' Squatter Life :' Some cotton fellow bid sixty dollars for the slave ; and she ■united right down. In Sternberg's ' Northamptonshire Glossary^' wilt or wilter, is defined as meaning to wither or dry up. The corrupt form of the preterite, used in the same county, is wilkt. Wimble, to shift to and fro. Wimple, to wind or meander like a brook or river ; to hang in folds, like a drooping flag or pendant. When wimpUng waters make their way. Allan Ramsay. Whiles owre a liim the bivmie plays, ■ As through the glen it wimpVt. Biims: Halloween. 20 3o6 LOST BEA UTIES OF Wimple — continued. Ye hazel shaws, and briery dens,. Ye bumies wimpling down the glens. Burns : On Captain Matthew Henderson. Wimple, a veil. And as she ran her wimple let she fall, And took more hede. Chaucer: Legend of Thishe of Babylon. Windle, to turn in the wind, like a leaf; or to drift before the wind like snow, sleet, or rain. Windling, a branch blown down by the wind. He starts at straws, and lets the windlings go. Northern Provej'b. Winly, pleasantly, winsomely. — Halliwell. Winsel, an unexpected profit, winning, or turn of luck ; a term of endearment to a bride, or a child; implying some- thing that is won and highly thought of. Wislfwortliy, desirable. Wis, to know. Wist, known. I wis your grandam had a worser match. Shakespeare. But had I wist before I kissed, That love had been so ill to win. Lady Anne BothwelVs Lament. Wit, knowledge ; whence moth erwzV, natural or common sense. Witch-thimble, the popular name in the North for the fox- glove, or digitalis purpurea. This word helps to prove that fox-glove, as has been supposed, is a corruption or perversion pf/o/z^V-glove ; i.e., the glove of the fairies, popularly called ' the 'folk.' Witcraft, logic, argumentation. Within-forth, in doors, at home. — ( Wicliffe's Bible). Scotticl ben, or be in. Without-forth, out of doors, not at home. Scottid but, or be out. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 307 "Withy, a tree of which the branches and twigs can be made easily into -withes; a willow, a sallow. "Witnessfiilly, evidently; that which can be fully proved by many witnesses. "Wittal, \ from ' wit all,' or know all ; the husband of an un- "Wittol, J faithful wife, who knows all his wife's shame, and his own dishonour. Cuckold ! witiol cuckold 1 The devQ himself hath not such a name ! Shakespeare ; Merry Wives of Windsor. "Witterly, consciously, truly. No man, as I leeve, Should ever wit 'witierfy. What day was to mean. Fieri Ploughman. "Wive, to marry. This word is not quite obsolete ; ' Wive and thrive,' is a common colloquialism. Her whom the first man did wive. Donnas Satires. "Wode, I ■Wood, > mad, furious, wild, from the German wuth. "Wud, j The old Saxon English, as preserved in the Lowlands of Scotland, and the English Border counties, was particularly rich in words expressive of the various shades and degrees of madness and lunacy. Wowf, wud, daft, gyte, and doited, still remain in Scottish parlance, while the English retains mad, siUy, crazy, cracked, moonstruck. Well loved he garlick, onions, and lekes, And for to drink, strong wine as red as blood, Then would he speke, and cry as he were wode. And when that he had drunken wel the wine, , Then would he epeken no word but Latiue. Chaucer: Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. On Monday next at quarter night, Shall fall a rain, and that so wild and wild, Tliat half so great was never Noe's flood. Chaucer: The Miller's Tale. 3oS LOST BEAUTIES OF "Wode — continued. And here am I and wode witliin this wood. Shakespeare : Midsummer Nights Dream. Life poisoning pestilence and frenzies wud, ■ ' The marrow-eating siclcness, whose attaint Disorder breeds by heating of the blood. Shakespeare : Venus and Adonis. Ance mode, aye waur. Allan Ramsay's Scottish-Prmierbs, Oppression 'wiU drive a wise man wode. Northern Prc/verh, When neighbours anger at a pka, And just as wud as mud can be, How easy can the barley bree Cement the quarrel ! It's aye the cheapestlawyer's fee, To taste lie barrel. Burns : Scotch Drink. We shall be married on Monday, And will not that be good? What, shall we be married no sooner ? Why sure the man's gone woode. Nursery Rhymes of England, by y. 0. HalliiaelT.. "Wode, to grow mad. He stareth and wodeth. Chaucer : The. Second Nonnis Tale^ -Wodeness, ) .^^^^^^ "Woodness, J „ ^ ' Wodenes laughing in his rage. Chaucer. Wofare, sorrow ; the opposite of welfare. Wold, an open country, whether hill or plain, without wood. St. Withold footed thrice the wold. He met the night- mare and her nine foals. — [la some editions,. ' and her nine-fold. '] Shakespeare : King Lear. Won, ■) to dwell, inhabit ; whence the modem word ' wont,'' Wone, V ' a person's wont, usage, or habit ;' from the Germart Wonen, j wohnen. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 309 "Won — continued. Antony and Egidie, And other holy fedres, Woneden in wilderness, Among wild beastes. — Piers Ploughman. Merrie it is in time of Tiine. * * « * ^ Violet and rose flower, Wonnith then in maiden's bower, The sun is hot, the day is long. Metrical Romance of Merlin. A sturdy pas down to the court he goth, Whereas there won'd a man of great honour. To whom that he was always confessour. Chaucer: The Sompnouris Tale. Not far away, quothe he, he hence doth vionne. Spenser : Paerie Queene. A people near the northern pole that wonne. — Fairfax: Tasso. There's auld Rob Morris that wons in yon glen, The king of good fellows. — Bums., ■Woning, a dwelling. Tell me, sir, what is thy name, and where thy vioning is. MS. Cantab. [Halliwell). Wontless, without wont, unaccustomed. What wontless courage dost thou still inspire. Spenser: Faeide Queene. ■Wood-ward, a forester, warder, or keeper of a wood. "Woodweel, the woodpecker. "Woolsted, corrupted into the modem word worsted, made of wool "Wordfast, true to one's word. An excellent form of speech, packing in the shortest compass, the proverb that, ' his word is as good as his bond.' "Wordridden, to be a slave to words without understanding their meaning ; to be overawed by a word rather than an argument ; like the fishwife of the story, who allowed Daniel O'Connell to call her a thief, a liar, and a prostitute, but who would not submit to be called a ' parallelogram.' An illiterate but enterprising man, started a daily news- 3IO LOST BEAUTIES OF "Wordridden — continued. paper in London. It was not successful at first ; few sucb enterprises are. He speedily lost courage, cursed the public, himself, and his editor. Desirous of fixing a quarrel on the latter, and having no real cause, he suddenly pounced upon the word bureaticracy, which appeared very frequently in the leading articles. He made notes of the times in which the word was used; and found it in no less than eleven in- stances in one week. Walking up to the editor's room in a. towering passion he pointed out the peccant word. ' Bure- aucracy, sir, bureaucracy, that is the word which has ruined, the paper. That word is the death of it. I shaJl carry it. on no longer. The thing shall stop next Saturday.' And the proprietor was as good — or bad — as his threat, and, the paper came to an ignominious end, after an existence of a. few weeks. Word-wanton, obscene in speech. Word-wantonly, obscenely. Word- wantonness, obscenity of conversation. WorkBome, active, laborious, industrious. Worksomeness, activity, laboriousness. Worm, a serpent. With the grace of God Almighty, With the worm, yet shall I fight. — HallvwtU. The venom'd womi Had belched his poison out. — TvrberviUe, 1587. Worrysome, exasperating, irritating, troublesome, annoying. Worsen, to grow worse, to make worse. Wort, a root or herb ; firom the German wurz. Wortle, a little root. These two words have almost disappeared from the lan- guage, except in combination. Mr. Halliwell defines ' wort' as meaning a vegetable or a cabbage j but the signification is wider, as may be seen from the following list of herbs and flowers, in popular speech, a list that might be greatly extended. THE ENGLISH- LANGUAGE. 311 Wort — contimted. Addex-worf, the snake weed. Bairn-wor^, the, children's flower, the daisy. Ban-wort, the wood violet Bane-wiJr/, the deadly nightshadew Beil-wori, the convolvulus. Biiih-worf. Bishop't-worf, or St. Catherine's flower. Bla,e-7t/ori, the blue corn-flower. Blood-Wi^r/, the wall-flower, sometimes called the bleeding heart. Bnde-wori, the meadow-sweet. Biose-worf, hyoscyamus or henbane. Brother-z£/<7r/, penny royal. Culver-ze/(7r/, lie columbine. Dnmk-wort, an old name for tobacco. 'Ers-wort, the mouse ear. Felon-warf, the woody nightshade. Fisld-worf, gentian. Laser-Wi7r/, from whence assafoetida is extracted for medi- cinal purposes. Lithe-w^r/, the forget-me-not. lAveT-wori. Jjibhei-worf, any root of which the decoction makes a person idle or stupid, applied metaphorically to 'barley' and 'malt' Moon-7wrt', lunary. NaU-^orf, or whitlow grass, so called from its supposed efficacy in the cure of whitlows. Talsy-wori, the cowslip or paigle. B'At-wort, cud weed. 'R.s.g-wori. St John's-ze/(3r/. ShoTt-wori. Smsre-wori. Sneeze-worf, or goose tongue. Spleen-worf. Staich-worf. Youth.-wort, the plant ros salts. ■ 312 LOST BEAUTIES OF Would. This word in certain cases wTiere its use is essential to grammatical correctness, threatens to be superseded by a clumsy colloquialism ; as in the following extracts. If a son is really capable of managing his otsti affairs, his father had best let him do so. — Times, May 8, 1861. I.e., If a son is really capable of managing his own affairs, it would be better if his father would let him do so. People in the responsible position of ministers had hsttw take time. — Times, May 13, 1861 . I.e., It would be better for people in the respon- sible position of ministers to take time. Interesting as is the subject — eloquent as are the speakers, we had {would) much rather hear them descant upon some other theme, — Times, May 13, 1861, A gentleman of such deUcate sensibilities (as Mr. Walpole), had better not have trusted himself to a personal interview with Mr. Beales. — Satur- day Seviem, July 28, 1866 y on the Hyde Park Riots. I.e., It would have been better, if a gentleman of such delicate susceptibilities had not trusted himself, &c. The man who touches them had\iel&sx have put his head into a hornet's nest. — Ssreward the Wake, by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, vol. i., page 299. I.e., It would hs better for the man who touches them to put his head into a hornet's nest. In a review of ' Travels not far from Home,' in the ' Morn- ing Post,' of September 14, r86o, the critic says, 'but the preface had better not havehztn. written ;' i.e., ' it would have been better if the preface had not been written,'' Mr. Leigh Hunt, in his 'Old Court Suburb,' vol. iL, page 14, says, _' But the account of it Md better be given in his own words,' instead of ' it would be better if the account were given, &c.'' Mr. Thackeray, in 'The Virginians,' vol. i., page 138, 'says, 'I ,^fl^ rather have lost an arm almost,' so obvious a mistake for,_ ' I would rather,' as to suggest a misprint rather than a deliberate inelegancy j if it were not that in the same work he repeats the error (page 667), and says,, 'the affair had better be settled,' instead of ' it would be better if the affair were settled.' Mr. Carlyle, in his pamphlet on the Negro question, edition 1853, page 39, speaks of 'a doom for Quashee, which I had (would) rather not contemplate.' Wouth, wrong, harm, madness ; sometimes written, wotJie and wuth. (See wode.) THE- ENGLISH LANGUAGE. zn Wowf, partially deranged. 'Having a bee' in one's bonnet' It is very odd, Lord Allan, wlio between ourselves, is a little wowf, seems at times to liave more sense than all of us put togetlier. Sir Walter Scott: Tales of my Landlord. Wraith, an apparition in his own likeness that becomes visible to a person about to die, a water-spirit. He held him for some fleeting wraith. And not a man of blood or breath. Sir Walter Scott, By this the storm grew loud apace, The water-wraith was shrieking, And in the scowl of heaven each face Grew dark as tbey were spealdng. ■ Thomas Camjibell. Wratlie, to incense, to anger, to make wrathful. — {Halliwdl.) Wraw, peevish. Wrawl, to quarrel, to dispute, to wrangle. Wreak, \ Wrokell'^ ^^^^'^^' ^^^nge. In our time, the substantive wreak has wholly dropped out of use ; and the verb is never employed without a substantive, originally implied in the meaning.j as to wreak displeasure, wrath, or vengeance. In Anglo-Saxon, wreaker signified an avenger. In the Shakespearian era of our literature, and in the ancient romances, both substantive and verb were used as single words. Thus : His sotil to hell so mote it wend 1 Hounds gnaw him to tJie bone ! So wreak us, God, of all our foes. Metrical Romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton. Till I be wroken of Saladjme, Certes my joy shall I tyne ! Metrical Romance of Richard Cceur de Lion. Then if thou hast, ' A hcEirt of wreak in thee, that will revenge Thine own particular wrongs. Shakespeare: Coriolanus, act iv. s. 5. 1) 1 i. 4. . ' V a stratagem. 314 LOST BEAUTIES OF Wroken, avenged. 'Tis not my faiJt, the boar provoked my tongue, Be viredked on him. Shakespeare : Venits and Adonis. Lend me your helping hand. To "Wreak the parricide. Beaumont and Fletcher. Come, wreak his loss, whom bootless ye deplore. Fairfax. And soon in the Gordon's foul heart's blood, He's wroken his dear ladye ! Border Ballad of Edom 0' Gordon, To have wroken himself of such •wrongs as were done and offered to him by the French king. — Holinshed. "Wrencli, Wrenek, Old men are fell and quent. And wicked wrenches can attent. Metrical Romance of the Seven Wise Masters. For all her wrench, The more love she might not win. — Idem. This was one of woman's wrenches. — Idem. For it leaves a man with wrenchs and Ti7les, And at the last it him beguiles. ' Halliwell. "WrigM, an artificer or artizan. In Scotland and the North of England, ' wright ' means a carpenter, and ztont.-wright, a '• mason. In English, as admitted into the Dictionaries, the word is only retained in combination, as in Shipwright and Millwright. The words ' Cartwright,' and 'Wheelwright,' exist as surnames ; but are still used by the peasantry for cartmaker, and wheelmaker. Wrine, a deep line in the face, a furrow ; whence the diminu- tive wrinkle, a small wrine. "Writh, the stalk of a ^\^\..—Wrighf s Provincial Glossary. Wrox, to begin to decay. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 315 'Wtj, to tvrist, to tum ; whence the modem words, awry, wry- mouth, and wry-neck. Seeing plainly That Fortune dotb wry. All contrary. From mine intent. Ellis's Ancient Songs and Ballads, 1483. "Wusli, preterite of wash. He viush Us face and kamed his hair. The Dcrwie Dens 0' Yarrow. "Wyte, \ to blame ; an ancient English word anterior to the- "Wite, J time when ' blame ' was introduced into the language- from the Norman-French. And but, I do, sirs, let me have the itnie. Chaucer: The Chanones VemarCs Tale^ And though that I be jealous, loite me not ! Chaucer: The Marchanfs Tale. And therefore if that I mis-speak or say, Wiie it (the ale of Southwark), I you pray. The Miller's Prologue. Fortune, Thy false wheel, all my woe, I -well may mfe. The Miller's Tale. Ane does the skaith, and another gets the wyte. Deem -warily, ye know not who wytes yoursel'. Many wyte their.-wives. For flierr own thriffiess lives.. Ye need not wyte yovu: teeth because your tail is smalL Allan Ramsay's Scottish Proverbs.. Alas ! that e'er my muse has reason To wyte my countrymen -wi' treason; Burns : Scotch Drink. 3i6 . LOST BEA UTIES OF Xaek, a smart blow. ' A yack t' th' ear,' a box on the ears. ' A yack on the head.' Xal, preterite of yell, to cry out like a man in rage ; or like a wild beast. Tald, vigorous, lively, alert. Being j/izi/ and stout, he ■wheel'd about, And clove his head in twain. Jlogg's Mountain Bard. TTalloch, a shout, a yell ; a wild haUoo. — Jamieson. "Yammer, v., to yearn or desire ; to hunger. And the little things yammering round. Lancashire Songs, by Edwin Waugk. I yammer fo hear how things turned eawt. Tim Bobbin. And the worm yammers for us i' th' ground. WaugKs Lancashire Songs. Tammerly, piteously. — Gawayne. Tamph, to bark, like a small dog. Tanks, leggings, or leather gaiters. Tap, \ Xaup, \ hungry ; having an eager desire for anything. "Tappy, J As glad, as gay, as young, as yap as ye. (Jajneson). Right ^a/ she yoked to the ready feast Rosis Helenore. ' Come away, Mr. Dunshunner,' said the Provost: 'I hope ye are yaup, for ye have a lang day's work before ye.' fV. £. Aytoun, Blackwood's Magazine. Tary,}''^'^>"^^le- THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 317 "Yarely, brisHy, nimbly. Be^arifinthy preparations, for thy assailant is quick, slulful, and deadly. — Shakespeare : Twelfth Night. Speak to the mariners ! Fall to 't yarely, or we see ourselves aground I Bestir! Bestir! — Shakespeare: Tempest. In Caesar's fleet Are those .that often have against Pompey fought ; Their ships are jl'ari?. Shakespeare : Antony and Cleopatra, This word is common to all the Northern and Eastern counties, and seems to be the original root of early, after- early had superseded rathe. In Lancashire, in 1540, ac- cording to a quotation from Palsgrave's ' Acolastus,' in HaUi- well's Dictionary, early and yarely were synonymous. Tarm, to scream. The fiend began to ay and j/sn;?. MS. Lincoln {quoted iy Halliwell). Taxn, preterite of the Anglo-Saxon yeme, to grow, to spin out, to run. The sailor's phrase, a ' yam,' or long story, run out to inordinate length, is thus pure English, of an ancient stock. Till I forget youth, PjiAyarn into eld. Piers Ploughman. ■yarrow, the achiUea millefolium. He fumitory gets, and eye-light for the eye, The yarrow, -wherewithal he stops the wound-made gore. Drayton: Polyolbion. Tatter, to talk in a peevish and querulous manner. Taup, to make a loud noise in talking ; also to laugh vulgarly. Taw, to roll from one side to another. Ta-wney, a sleepy, stupid person. Tea, signifies positive assent ; ' yes' is a weakened and attenu- ated variety of the same word, signifying acquiescence in k proposition that it is unnecessary to refute. 3i8 LOST BEAUTIES OF Tea — continued. Ask a country man if two and two are four, and he replies, ' Yea, that they be.' Ask him, Are you in good health ? and he says, ' Yes, that I be.' Tear, to grow old, to increase in years. Tear-day, an anniversary of birth, death, or marriage, or any memorable event in a family or nation. TeatKer, a flexible twig, stripi of ash, birch, used for binding faggots. Teavy, moist. Te, to go, from the German gehen. Tede, preterite of ye, to go. So they washed and yede to meat, The Bishop the grace did say. MS. Cantab. {HalHwdl). -YqtF' \ active, nimble. Thou art young zxAyepe. Piers Ploughman. They weren^^. Arthur and Merlin. In alle Egypte is none so yep. Cursor Mundi {HalliwelT). Teld, barren ; a yeld cow, that yields no milk. Telf, a hay-fork, a dung-fork. Telm, a portion of straw, as much as can be carried under the arm ; to lay out straw in convenient sheaves for the thatcher. Teme, heed, attention. This was the teste timely, I took ful good yeme, The glose was gloriously -wTitten With a gilt pin. Piers Ploughman Teme, to govern. Yeme well thyself. Idem. THE ENGLISH LANGUA GE. 319 "Feme — continued. Toyemen Bott young and old. Piers Ploughman. Full faire shall I him feede, And yeme him with our own childe, And clothe them in one weed. MS. Lincoln (Halliwell). Terne, to grow ; to run ; to spin out ; to extend. (See Yarn.) ?eplyf ' } ^'^'^^^^y' sharply, nimbly. A.'oA yefelike spaie Pride ■■ — Piers Ploughman. ■yernful, full of yearning and desire ; melancholy, full of fan- cies, conceits, and crotchets. But oh, Musick, as in joyfiil tunes. Thy merry notes I did borrow. So now lend me thy yemful tunes. To utter all my sorrow. Damon and Pythias ( Wrighfs Provincial Dictionary). "Yespen, ) as much of anything as can be taken up in both Yaspen, / hands joined ; a double handfiil.- Xester, the period of time last past. This word is now only used in combination witli ' day,' as yesterday. It is a com- mon colloquialism to talk of last night, as yesterday-night instead of yester-night. The words yester-mom, yester-een, are stUl allowed in English poetry, and common in Northern and Scottish parlance. y",?j/i?;--month, _y«&r-week, and yester- minute, are not incorrect, though scarcely ever employed in modem composition. In my sleep yestereen. The figiure of Cassandra, prophetess. Douglas : Translation of Virgil. Yestreen I rode this water deep, And my gude lord beside me. Cijl>sy Davie, Scottish Minstrelsy. 329 LOST BEAUTIES OF Yester — continued. In hope that you would come here yesterien. Ben yonson. And shall the wretch, whom j/£j/£/-sun beheld Waiting my nod, Presume to-day to plead audacious love ? Congreve : Mourning Bride.. I gaed a rueful gate yesireen. — Bams. In like sort we have such plentie of fish upon our several coasts, ■ that although millions of them be taken in a day, yet on the next, their loss will be so supplied with new store, that noiing shall be missing of His yester is-Tig. — Holinshed: Description of Scotland. Yeth-hoTinds, hounds without heads, supposed to be animated ' by the spirits of children who have died without baptism. ' These hounds are believed,' says Mr. Halliwell, who quotes a superstition current in Devonshire, ' to ramble among the woods at night, making wailing noises.' Tewen, formed of the wood of the yew-tree. With^OT/^B bow. — Spenser. Tex, to cough, hiccough. And yexen in their mirth. Shakespeare: Midsummer Mghfs Dream. His prayer a rhapsody of holy hiccoughs, sanctified barkings, illu- minated goggles, sighs, sobs, yexes, gasps, and groans. Character of a Fanatic (ffarleian Miscellany). Xox, preterite of yex. Toxen, past participle of yex. Tode, preterite of ye, and yede, to go. Before ihemyode a lusty taberere. — Chaucer. The king of France before \am.yode. MS. Lincoln {^Halliwell). Told, preterite of yield. The earth yold its finiits.— Wicliffis Bible. The chad they to Clement j/o/i:^. — Hdlliwell. THE ENGLISH ^LANGUA GE. 3-1 Toly, handsome, smart, young ; possibly the same as, or a mis- print for, the 'Fxsa.da.joli, whence the modem 'jolly.' Towards her came a Im^lit, Gentyle she thought and s.yoly man. MS. Cantab. (Halliwell). Yow, to reap, gathering the com under the arm. — HaJliwell. Ton, that or those, as distinguished from this and these; whence yonder, or yon-there, that which is there. Yon pleasant hiUs ; The sun shines sweetly on. Tfu Demon Lover. Yond, distant, strange. Nares defines this word to mean ' furious, savage,' a total miscomprehension of the meaning. Yonderly, shy, timid, retiring. Yonete, grace, favour, affection ; from the German gunsf. The very yonste and good will that I bear to you. Caxion's Reynard the Foxe, Yore, the preterite of year, to increase in years, to grow old ; whence yore, the days of old, the olden time, the time that yeared, oi yore. Yorne, agedj of the days of old, or of yore. The word is not uncommon in Scotland, and the North of England, in the sense of ' long ago,' antique, venerable. Yoten, a giant, from the Norse /o/ww. Youthy, having the false and affected appearance of youthful- ness ; applied to an old person of either sex, who dresses, talks, and otherwise behaves as if still young. I warrant she's no less than three score : but she's as youthy as if she werena out o' her teens. — yamieson. Yowe, a ewe. Northern and Scottish. The death and dying words of poor Mailie, the author's only pet yowe. — Burns. 2 r 322 LOST BEAUTIES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, Towf, to bark in a gruff maimer, as distinguished from yelp, to bark in a shrill, sharp manner. Then Jowler he begaa to yowff. . The Gruesome Carle, Blackwood's Magadne. A strange dog coming in among them, they all set up a barking, with their faces up to heavei, howKng, yelling, and yvrnffing. Law's Memorials. Towl, to howl vehemently. The greyhound arose, and began to yowl upon them. MS. Bodleian (Halliwell). The young priest began to stare at Uie windows, and the men in green baize began to set up a yowl so dismal, that you might have fencied them the very dogs. Letters from Rome, Daily Telegraph, December 29, 1866. Toyster, to frolic, to laugh loudly. Ynle, Christmas ; an ancient word — lately re-introduced into literature by the poets. The etymology has never been satisfactorily traced ; (fliougli aU the languages of Northern Europe have been ransacked for the purpose. Perhaps we ought to look to the ancient Druids for the root. Their word for the mistletoe — ^which with the hoUy has been conse- crated to this season from time immemorial, was the Celtic or Gaelic Uile-ioc, or heal-all, — the &st syllable of which may be the long-lost etymon. Possibly the early Christians, after the downfall of Druidism, found the ancient word applicable to the birthday of Jesus — the Healer, or Saviour of a//— and adopted it accordingly. TtQe, to keep Christmas. Ynling, keeping Christmas.— IfaHiwell. Tnly, beautiful. A captain's wife most yuly. Wt'igMs Provincial Glossary. THE END. BILLING, PEINTEK, GUILSFOKD, SURREY. SEASON' 1874. '-•.-; -i-:.- :>;ev\ 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CffATTO &• WINDUS. THE PEINCE OF CAEICATDEISTS. THE WORKS OF JAMES GILLRAY, The Caricaturist, With the Stoiy of his Life and Times, and full and Anecdotal Descriptions of his Engravings. Edited by THOS. WEIGHT, Esq., M-A., F.S.A. Illustrated with 90 full-page Plates, and about 400 Wood Engi-avings. Demy 4to, 600 pages, cloth extra, 3 1 J. 6(/. ; or, in morocco elegant, rof^ BEAUTIFUL PICTURES BY BRlTrSH ARTISTS. A Gathering of Favourites from our Picture Galleries, 1800 — 1870. By WiLKiE, Constable, J. M. W. 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Ward whilst "on the Rampage." New Edition, price \s. **• Some of Artemu^s most mirth-provoking papers are to be found in this book. The chapters on the Mormons "will unbend the sternest countenance. As bits of fun they are llAKB.ns,n\ Artemus Ward's Letters to " Punch," Among the Witches, and other Sketches. Cheap Popular Edition. Fcap. Svo, in illustrated cover, is, ; or, l6mo, bound in cloth extra, 2j. •,* The volume contains, in addition, some guaint and humorous compositioTts •which were found upon the author's table, after his decease, Artemus Ward among the Fenians: with the Showman's Experiences of Life at Washington, and Military Ardour at Baldinsville. Toned paper, price bd. 74 &' 7S, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO &' WINDUS. Army Lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers in the Civil War, 1642. Second Edition, considerably Enlarged and Corrected. Edited, with Notes, by Edward Peacock, F.S.A. 4to, half-Roxburghe, "js. 6d. *** yery interesting^ to Antigitaries and Genealogists. Art of Amusing. A Collection of Graceful Arts, Games, Tridcs, Puzzles, and Charades, intended to amuse everybody, and enable all to amuse everybody else. By Frank Bellew. With nearly 300 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 4^. 6d. ,* One qfi/ie itiosi etiierlaiiiiji^hand' books ^ itniuseynenis ever pulilished. Awful Crammers. A New American Joke Book. Edited by Titus A. Brick, Author of "Shaving Them." Fcap. 8vo, with numerous curious Illustrations, is. A Fine Edition is also published, in crown 8vo, printed on toned paper, and bound in cloth gilt, at 3^. Sd. " Rarer than the phcEnix is the virtuous mau who will consent to lose a good anecdote because it isn't true." — De Quincy. Babies and Ladders : Essays on Things in General. By Emmanuel-Kink. A New Work of Irresistible Humour (not Ameri- can), which ha:s excited consider- able attention. Fcap. Svo, with numerous Vignettes by W. S. Gilbert and others, is. Bayard Taylor's Diversions of the Echo Club. A Delightful Volume of Refined Literary Humour. In i6mo, paper cover, with Portrait of the Author, is. dd. ; cloth extra, 2s. 74 &' 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. 6 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO (V WINDUS. Uniform with Mr. Ruskin's Edition op " Grimm." Bechstein's As Pretty as Seven, and other Popular German Stories. Collected by Ludwig Bechstein. With Additional Tales by the Brothers Grimm, ioo Illustrations by RiCHTER. Small 4to, green and gold, (>s. 6d. ; gilt edges, ^s. 6d. *,* Ont of the most delightful hooks for children crier published. It is, in every ■may, a Companion to the German Stories of the Brothers Grimm, and t/ie tales are equally pure and healthful. The quaint simplicity of Richtefs engravings villi charm every lover of legendary lore. The Bigldw Papers. By James Russell Lowell. The Best Edition, with full Glossary, of these extra- ordinary Verses, Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, \s. Uniform with our "Rabelais." Boccaccio's Decameron. Now fully translated into English, with Introduction by ThomAs Wright, F.S.A. Crown Svo, with the Beauti- ful Engravings by Stothard which adorned Pickering's fine Edition, pub- lished at £z I2S. td. This New Edition is only "js. 6d. *«* A faithful translation, in which are restored many passages omitted in former Ediiiotis, Book of Hail-Marks ; or, Manual of Reference for the Goldsmith and Silversmith. By ALFRED Lut- SCHAUNIG, Manager of the Liverpool Assay Office. Crown Svo, with 46 Plates of the Hall-Marks of the different Assay Towns of the United Kingdom, as now stamped on Plate and Jewellery, 7^. td. *** This work gives practical meihodsfor testing the quality of gold and silver. It was compiledby the author for his own use, and as a Supplement to "Chafers/* 74 &- 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO &» WINDUS. Booksellers, A History of. A Work giving full Accounts of the Great Publishing Houses and their Founders, both in London and the Provinces, the History of their Rise and Progress, and descriptions of the special class of Literature dealt in by each. Crown 8vo, over 500 pages, with frontis- piece and numerous Portraits and Illustrations, cloth extra, Is. 6d. " In these days, ten ordinary Histories of Kings and Courtiers were well exchanged against the tenth part of one good History of Booksellers. " — Thomas Carlyle. Booth's Epigrams : Ancient and Modern, Humorous, Witty, Satirical, Moral, and Panegyrical Edited by the Rev. John Booth, B.A. A New Edition. PottSvo, cloth gilt,6j-. ** Is our civilization a failure, or is the Caucasian played out? " BRET HARTE'S -WORKS. Widdy known for their Exquisite Pathos and Delightful Humour. Bret Harte's Complete Works, in Prose and Poetry. Now First Collected. With Introductory Essay by J. M. 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Chips from a Rough Log. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, \s. Christmas Songs and Ballads. Selected and Edited by JOSHUA Sylvester. A New Edition, beautifully printed and bound in cloth, extra gilt, gilt edges, 3j. (>d. Clerical Anecdotes and Pulpit Eccen- tricities. An entirely New Gathering. Square i6mo, in illustrated paper wrapper, is. i^. ; or cloth neat, u; lod. The Country of the Dwarfs. By Paul DU Chaillu. a Book of Startling Interest. Fcap. 8vo, illus- trated with full-page Engravings, in faiicy wrapper, is. Cruikshank's Comic Almanack. First Series, 1835-43. A Gathering of the Best Humour, the Wittiest Sayings, the Drollest Quips, and the Best Things of Thackeray, Hood, Mayhew, Albert Smith, A'Beckett, RobertBrough, &c. With about One Thousand Woodcuts and Steel Engravings by the inimitable Cruikshank, Hine, Landells, &c. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, a very thick volume, price "js. 6d. 74 &" IS, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO &= WINDUS.. Cruikshank's Comic Almanac k. Secxjnd Series, 1844-53, Completing the work. Uniform with the First Series, and written and illustrated by the same humorists. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, a very thick volume, price 7j. 6rf. •»• The tivo volumes (each sold separately) form a most extraordinary gaikerin^ pf the best ivit and humour of the ^ast half-century. The work forms a " Comic Histoty (f Mngland "for i-wenty years. THE BEST GUIDE TO HERALDET. Cussans' Handbook of Heraldry; with Instructions for Tracing Pedigrees and Deciphering Ancient MSS.; also. Rules for the Appointment of Liveries, &c., &c. By John E. Cussans. Illus- trated with 360 Plates and Woodcuts, Cr. 8vo, cloth extra, gilt and emblazoned, 7j.6(/. *»• This volUTne, beautifully priiited on tonedpaper, contains not only the ordiiuiry matter to be found in tJie best books on the science of A rmory, but seve- ral other subjects hitherto unnoticed. Amongst these m.ay be vientioned : — i. Directions for TRAcmc Pedigrees. 2. Deciphering Ancient MSS., ILLUSTRATED BT ALPHABETS AND FAC- SIMILES. 3. The Appointment of Liveries. 4. Continental and American Heraldry, &c. 74 &- 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. 12 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO 6- WINDUS. "7BRY IMPORTANT COUNTY HISTORY. Oussans' History of Hertfordshire. A County History, got up in a very superior manner, and ranging with the finest works of its class. Illustrated with full-page Plates en Copper and Stone, and a profusion of small Woodcuts. Parts I. to VI. are now ready, price zu. each. *** An. entirely new Hisioty of this ijnporiaiU County ^ ^retii attention being given to all matters pertaining to the Family History o/ the locality. Uniform with the "Charlfs Dickens Edition." Dickens : The Story of his Life. By Theodore Tay-, LOR, Author of tlie "Life of Thackeray.", Uniform with the "Charles Dickens Edition" of his Works, and forming a Supple- mentary Volume to that Issue. Cr. 8vo, crimson cloth, y. 6d. " Arecdotes -seem to have poured in upon the author from all quarters. . . Turn where we will through these 370 pleasant prges, something worth reading is sure to meet the eye." — The Standard. Also Published : The " Best Edition " of the above Work, illustrated by Photo- graphic Frontispiece of " Dickens as Captain Bobadil," Portraits, Facsimiles, &c. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, is. dd. The " Cheap Edition," in i6mo, paper wrapper, with Frontispiece and Vignette, 2s. 74 &= 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO &> WINDVS. 13 Unifokm with the "Charles Dickens Edition." Dickens' Speeches, Social and Literary, now first collected. Uniform with, and forming a Supplemen- tary Volume to, the " Charles Dickens Edition." Crown 8vo, crimson cloth, 3^'. bd. *'His speeches are as good as any of his printed wricings." — The Times, Also Published : The "Best Edition," in crown 8vo, with fine Portrait by Count D'OrsaY; cloth extra, 7^. td. The "Cheap Edition," without Portrait, in l6mo, paper wrapper, Dickens' Life and Speeches, in One Volume, i6mo, cloth extra, 2j. td. BALZA.C'S CONTES DROLATIQTJES. Droll Stories, collected from the Abbeys of Touraine. Now first Translated into English, Complete and Unabridged, -with the whole 425 Marvellous, Extravagant, and Fantastic Illustrations (the finest he has ever done) by Gustave DoRfi. Beautifully printed, in 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, gUt top, I2J. td. •^* The most singular desigfts ever attempted by any artist. So ^crammed is i}u book wiih^iciweSf that even the contents are adorned "with thirty -tfiree Illus- trations. A few copies of the French Original are still on sale^bound half- Roxburghe, gilt top — a very handsome book — ^price I2j. td. 74 &» 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. 14 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO ^ WINDVS. The Danbury Newsman. A Brief but Comprehensive Record of the Doings of a Remarkable People, under more Remarkable Circumstances, and Chronicled in a most Re- markable Manner. . By James M. Bailey. Uniforni with Twain's " Screamers." Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, is. "A real Ajnerican humorist" — Figaro, The Derby Day. A Sporting Novel ol intense interest, by a well-known writer. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, \s, , Disraeli's (Rt. Hon. B.) Speeches on the Conservative Policy of the last Thirty Years, including the Speech at the Literary Fund Dinner, specially revised by the Author. Royal l6mo, paper cover, with Portrait, u. i^. \ in cloth, is. lod. D'Urfey's ("Tom") Wit and Mirth; or, Pills to Purge Melancholy : Being a Collection of the best Men7 Ballads and Songs, Old and New. Fitted to all Hu- mours, having each their proper Tune for either Voice or Instrument : most of the Songs being new set. London : Printed by W. Pearson, for J, Tonson, at Shakespeare's Head, over-against Cathe- rine Street in the Strand, 1719^ An exact and beautiful reprint of this much-prized work, with the Music to the Songs, just as in the rare original. In 6 vols., large fcap. 8vo, antique boards, edges uncut, beautifully printed on laid paper, made expressly for the work, price £'^ 3J. ; or LARGE Paper Copies (a limited number only printed), price ;^5 51. *»* The Pills toPurge Melancholy have now retained their celebrity /or a century attd a half. The difficulty of obtaining a copy has of late years raised sets to afahilous ^rice, and has -made even, odd volumes cosily. Consideri7iff the clas- sical reputation ivhieh the hook has ihits obtained^ and its very hiffh interest as illustrative 0/ the manners, customs, and anttisemenis of Rn^isJi life during the half centurj'folloiuing- the Restoration, no apology is needed for placing such a work more within the reach of general readers and students by re~issning it for the first time since its original appearance, and at about a tithe of the price for which the old edition could now be obtained. For drinking-songs and love-songs, sprightly ballads, merry stories, and political squibs, there are none to surpass these in the language. In improvising such pieces, and in singing them, D'Urfey was perhaps never equalled, except in our own century by THEnDORS Hook, The sallies of his wit amused and delighted three successive^ English sovereigns ; and while his plays are forgotten, his songs and ballads still retain the light abandon and joyous freshness that recommended them to the wits and beaux ^ Queen A nne's days. Nor can the warm and affec- tionate eulogy of Steele and Addison be forgotten, and T^'V rfzy may now take his place on the -bookshelves of the curious, side by side with the other worthies of his age. 74 d. Poe's Cottage at Fordham. Mrs. Ellis's Mothers of Great Men. A New Edition of this well-known Work, with numerous very beau- fol Portraits. Crown 8vo, cloth gUt, over 500 pages; is. 6d. [In preparation. The Standard Wouk on. the Subject. Emanuel on Diamonds and Precious Stones ; Their History, Value, and Properties ; with Sunple Tests for ascertaining their Reality. , By Harry Emanuel, F.R.G. S. With numerous Illustrations) Tinted and Plain. A New Edition, with the Prices brought down to the Present Time. Crown 8vo, full gilt, 6f. ' "Will be acceptable to many readers.*' — Times. "An invaluable work for buyers and sellers.'" — Spectator. *,• The present, which is greatly superior to thejirst edition^ gives the latest market value/or DiauioTtds and Precious S torus of e-very size. 74 &- 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. i6 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO 6- WINDVS. The Englishman's House, from a Cot- tage to a Mansion. A Practical Guide to Members of Building Societies, and all interested in Selecting or Building a House. By C.J. Richardson, Architect, Author of "Old English Mansions," &c. Second Edition, Corrected and Enlarged, with nearly 5oo Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 550 pages, cloth, '}s. dd. *** This Woi-k might vot innfiftropruitely be termed" A Book of Houses'^ It gives every variety of hoHse^ from a ivorkntun^s cottage to a noblematC s palace. The hook is intended to supply a tvoHt long felt, viz , a plain, non-technical acc ount of every style of house, vjith tJu cost and manner of building. Our English Surnames:, Their Sources and Significations. By Chart.es Wareing Bardsley, M.A. Crown 8vo, about 600 pages, cloth extra, gj. Indispensable to every Household. Everybody Answered. A Handy Book for All; and a Guide to the Housewife, the Servant, the Cook, the Tradesman, the Workman, the Professional Man, the Clerk, &c., &c., in the Duties belonging to their respective Callings. One thick volume, crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 4J. 6a'. [/« preparation. Family Fairy Tales; or, Glimpses of Elf- land at Heatherstone Hall. Edited by Cholmondeley Pennell, Author of "Puck on Pegasus," &c. Adorned with beautiful Pictures of "My Lord Lion," "King Uggermugger," and other Great Folks, by M. Ellen Edwards, and other artists. Hand- somely printed on toned paper, in cloth, green and gold, price 4J. dd. plain, Sj. td, coloured. > 74 &= 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO 6- WINDUS. 17 Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle. Lectures delivered to a Juvenile Audience. A New Edition of this well-known volume, which has been so long out of print, Edited by W. Ceookes, Esq., F.S.A., &c. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with all the Original Illustrations, price 4J. td. Faraday's Various Forces of Nature. A New Edition, with all the Original Illustrations, Edited by W. Crookes, Esq., F.S.A., &c Crown Svo, cloth extra, 4j. 6 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOA'S PUBLISHED BY CHATTO 6^ WINDUS. 21 Hall's (Mrs. S. C.) Sketches of Irish Character. With numerous Illustrations on Steel and Wood, by Daniel Maclise, R.A., Sir John Gilbert, W. Harvey, and G. Cruikshank. 8vo, pp. 450, cloth extra, "js. 6d. "The Irish sketches of this lady resemble Miss Mitiord's beautiful English Sketches in * Our Village,' but they are far more vigorous and picturesque and bright.*' — Blackwood's Magnzim. Companion to "The Secret Out." Hanky-Panky. A New and Wonderful Book of Very Easy Tricks, Very Difficult Triclcs, White Magic, Sleight of Hand ; in fact, all those startling Deceptions which the Great Wizards call " Hanky-Panky." Edited by W. H. Cremer, of Regent Street. With nearly 200 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, price 4s. 6ii. 74 6- 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. 22 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO &- WINDUS. Hans Breitmann's Ballads. By J. G. Leland. The Complete Work, from the Author's revised 'Edition. Royal i6mo, paper cover, u. ; in cloth, is. td. Hatton's (Jos.) Kites and Pigeons. A ■ most amusing Novelette. WithlUustrationstyLlNLEY Sambourne, of "Punch." Fcap. 8vo, illustrated wrap- per, \s. Hawth or n e 's English and American Note Boolcs. Edited, with an Introduction, by MoNCURE D. Conway. 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BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO 6- WINDUS. 25 Kajendars of Gwynedd ; or; Chrono- logical Lists of Lords-Lieutenant, Sheriffs and Knights for Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. With Lists of the Lords-Presidents of Wales, and the Constables of the Castles of Beaumaris, Caernarvon, Conway, ^d Harlech. Compiled by Edward Breese, F.S.A. With Notes by William Watkin EovyARD Wynne, Esq., F.S.A., of Penairth. Only a limited number printed. One volume, demy 4to, cloth extra, 2%s. Lamb's (Charles) Essays of Elia. The Complete Work. Beautifully printed, and uniform with the "Essays of Leigh Hunt" Royal i6mo, paper cover, is.; cloth neat, is. td. Leigh's Carols of Cockayne. Vers de ^ Societe, mostly descriptive of London Life. By Henry S. Leigh. With numerous exquisite Designs by Alfred Concanen and the late John .Leech. Small 4to, elegant, uniform with "Puniana," Uniform with "Dr. Syntax." Life in London ; or, The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn and Corinthian Tom. With THE WHOLE OF CRUIKSHANK's VERY Droll Illustrations, in Colours, after the Originals. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, "js. 6d. *,* One qfihe most popular hooks ever issued. It ivfis an immetisc favourite voitk George IV., atid as a picture of London life fifty years ago ivas often quoted by Thackeray, ivho devotes one qfhis *^RoundalimitPapei's" toadescriptu}7Lofii. Literary Scraps. A Folio Scrap-Book of 340 columns, vnth guards, for the reception of Cuttings from News- papers, Extracts, Miscellanea, &c. A very useful book. In folio, half-roan, cloth sides, Is. td. Little Breeches, and other Pieces (Pike County Ballads). By Colonel John Hay. Foolscap 8vo, illus- trated cover, \s. 6d. 74 &- 7S, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. 26 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTY 6^ WIND US. The Little London Directory of 1677, The Oldest Printed List of tlie Merchants and Bankers of London. Reprinted from the Exceedingly Rare Original, -vrith an Introduction by John Camden Hotten. i6mo, in a beautiful binding, after the original, 6j. 6d. The Log of the Water Lily, during Three Cruises on the Rhine, Neckar, Main, Moselle, Danube, Saone, and Rhone. By R. B. Mansfield, B.A. Illustrated by Alfred Thompson, B. A. Fifth Edition, revised and considerably enlarged. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 5^. Longfellow's Prose Works, Complete, including his Stories and Essays, now for 'the first time collected. Edited, with a Preface, by the Author of " Ten- nysoniana." With Portrait and Illustrations, drawn by Valentine Bromley, and beautifully engraved, 650 pages, crown Svo, cloth gilt. Lost Beauties oftheEnglish Language. An Appeal to Authors, Poets, Clergymen, and Public Speakeirs j with an Introductory Essay. By Charles MacKay, LL.D. In crown Svo, cloth extra, uniform with the "Slang Dictionary," 6j. dd. Uniform with " The Magician's Own Book." Magic and Mystery. A Splendid Collec- tion of Tricks with Cards, Dice, Balls, &c. , with fully descriptive working Directions. Crown Svo, with numerous Illustrations, cloth extra, 4J. td. [Preparing. Companion to "The Secret Out." The Magician's 0\A^n Book, Containing ample Instructions for Performances in Legerdemain with Cups and Balls, Eggs, Hats, Handkerchiefs, &c. All from Actual Experiencej Edited by W. H. Cremer, Jun., of Regent Street. Cloth extra, with 200 Illustrations, 4^. 6d, 74 fir- 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON; W. BOOJCS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO 6- WINDUS. 27 MARK TWAIN'S WORKS. Vlark Twain's Choice Works. With extra passages to the "Innocents Abroad," now first reprinted, and a Life of the Author. S° Illustrations by Maric Twain and other Artists, and Portrait of the Author. 700 pages, cloth gilt, 7^. dd. Mark Twain's Inno- cents Abroad : The Voyage Out, Crown 8vo, cloth, fine toned paper, 3^. td. ; or fcap. 8vo, illustrated wrapper, \s. Mark Twain's New Pilgrim's Progress : The Voy- age Home. Crown 8vo, cloth, fine toned paper, 3^. td. ; or fcap. Svo, illustra;ted wrapper, is. Mark Twain's Bur- lesque Autobiography, First [ediEeval Romance, and on Children. Fcap. Svo, illustrated cover, dd. /lark Twain's Eye-Openers. A Volume of immensely Funny Sayings, and Stories that will bring a smile upon the gruffest countenance. Fcap. Svo, illustrated wrapper, \s, /larkTwain's Jumping Frog, and other Humorous Sketches. Fcap. Svo, illustrated cover, is. " An miniit£Cbly funny book." — Saturday Review. /lark Twain's Pleasure Trip on the Continent of Europe. (The "Innocents Abroad" and "New Pilgrim's Progress" in one volume.) 500 pages, paper boards, 2j. ; or in cloth, 2s. 6d, /lark Twain's Practical Jokes ; or, Mirth with Artemus Ward, and other Papers. By Mark Twain, and other Humorists. Fcap. Svo, illustrated cover, is. larkTwain's Screamers. A Gathering of Delicious Bits and Short Stories. Fcap. Svo, illustrated cover, is. 74 &- 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. 28 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO &- WINDUS. Mayhew's London Characters : Illus- trations of the Humour, Pathos, and Peculiarities of London Life. By Henry Mayhew, Author of " London Labour and the London Poor," and other Writers. With nearly lOO graphic Illustrations. CrowngSvo, cloth gilt, about 500 pages, ^s. 6d. [Preparing. Magna Charta. An exact Facsimile of the Original Document, preserved in the British Museum, very carefully drawn, and printed on fine plate paper, nearly 3 feet long by 2 feet wide, with the Anns and Seals of the Barons elaborately emblazoned in Gold and Colours. A.D. 1215. Price sj.; or, handsomely framed and glazed, in carved oak, of an antique pattern, 22J-. td. A full Translation, with Notes, has been prepared, price 6d. ENTIEELT NEW GAMES. The Merry Circle, and How the Visitors were entertained during Twelve Pleasant Evenings. A Book of New Intellectual Games and Amusements. Edited by Mrs. Clara Bellew. Crown 8vo, numerous Illustrations, cloth extra, 4J. (id. •»* A capital Book of Household AttiMsemenis, •which •will please both old aitd yottn^. It is an excellejit book to consitlt before ^oing to an evening party. Monumental Inscriptions of the West Indies, from the Earliest Date, with Genealogical and Historical Annotations, &c., from Original, Local, and other Sources. Illus- trative of the Histories and Genealogies of ttie Seventeenth Century, the Calendars of State Papers, Peerages, and Baronetages. With Engravings of the Arms of the principal Families. Chiefly collected on the spot by the iCuthor, Capt. J. H. Lawrence-Archer. One volume, demy 4to, about 300 pages, cloth extra, 2IJ. 74 &- 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO &> WINDUS. 29 Mr. Brown on the Goings-pn of Mrs. Brown at the Tichbome Trial, &c. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, is. Mr. Sprouts: His Opinions. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, xs. Uniform with " Tom D'Urfey's Pills." Musarum Deiiciae; or, The Muses' Re- creation, 1656; Wit Reslor'd, 1658; and Wit's Recreations, 1640. The whole compared with the originals ; with all the Wood Engrav- ings, Plates, Memoirs, and Notes. A New Edition, in 2 volumes, post Svo, beautifully printed ou antique laid paper, and bound in antique boards, 2ij. A few Laige Paper copies have been prepared, price 35 J. •#• Of the Poets of tJie Restoration, there are tiotie whose works are more rare iJiaii those of Sir yohn Mennis and Dr. yavtes Smith. The smalt volume entitled " Musarum Delicia ; or, TJte Mttse^ Recreation" vihich contains the productions of iluse- two Jriends, was not accessible to Mr. Freeman when he compiled his " Kentish Poets " and has since become so rare iJtat it is only/onndin the cabinets o/tlie cnrious. A reprint of the " Musnrnm Delicia," together with several other kindred pieces of the period, appeared in ri^T, formijig- two volumes of Faceius, edited by Mr. E. Dubois, author of " Tlie Wreath," <&-"c. These volumes having in tumbeceme exceedingly scarce, ilte Publishei-s venture to put forth tlic present new edition, in tuhich, while nothing has been omitted, no pains have been spared to render it more complete and elegant than any tltat has yet appeared. The type, plates, and woodcuts of the originals liave been accurately follouued ; the notes of the Editor of 1817 are considerably auginented, and indexes have been added, together with a portrait of Sir yohn Mennis, from a paifiting by Vandyke in Lord Clarendon's Collection. The Mystery of Mr. E. Drood. An Adaptation. By Orpheus C. Kerr. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated The Mystery of the Good Old Cause: Sarcastic Notices of those Members of the Long Parliament that held Places, both Civil and Military, contrary to the Self-denying Ordinance of April 3, 164S ; with &e Sums of Money and Lands they divided among themselves. Small 4to, half-moirocco, "js. 6d. Never Caught in Blockade-Running. An exciting book of Adventures during the American Civil War. Fcap. Svo, illustrited cover, is. 74 &' 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON; W. 30 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO 6- WINDUS. A^'iS^^j^^Of,-^^. Napoleon III., the Man of His Time; from Caricatures. Part I. The Story of the Life of Napo- leon III., as told by J. M. Haswell. Part II. The Same Story, as told by the Popular Carica- tures of the past Thirty-five Years. Crown 8vo, with Coloured Frontispiece and over lOo Caricatures, 400 pp. , .7^-. dd. •,* TIu! oljcct of this Work is to five Both Sides of the Story. Tlte Artist has gone over the entire ground of Continental and English Caricatttres for the last third of a ceniitry^ and a very interesting book is the result. Nuggets and Dust, panned out in Cali- fornia by DoD Grile. Edited by J. Milton Sloluck. A new style of Humour and Satire. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, \s. *•' If Ariemns Ward may he considered the Douglas Jemld, and Mark Twain the Sydney Smith of America, Dod Grile will rank as their Dean Swift. The Old Prose Stories whence Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" were taken. By B. M. Ranking. Royal i6mo, paper cover, ij. ; cloth extra, is. 6d. 74 C' 75. PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO &- IVINDUS. 31 THE OLD DRAMATISTS. Sen Jonson's Works. With Notes, Criti- cal and Explanatory, and a. Biojjraphlcal Memoir by William GiFFORD. Edited by Lieut.-Col. Francis Cunningham. Com- plete in 3 vols., crown 8vo, Portrait. Cloth, 6j. each; cloth gilt, 6j. 6rf. each. George Chapman's Plays, Complete, from the Original Quartos. With an Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne, down 8vo, Portrait. Cloth, 6j. ; cloth gilt, 6j-. bd. \In preparation. Christopher Marlowe's Works: In- cluding his Translations. Edited, with Notes and Introduction, by Lieut.-Col. F. Cunningham. Crown 8vo, Portrait. Cloth, 6j-. ; cloth gilt, 6j. td. Philip Massinger's Plays. From the Text of Wm. Gifford. With the addition of the Ti-agedy of " Believe as You List." Edited by Lieut.-CoL Francis Cunning- HAM. Crown 8vo, Portrait. Cloth, 6s. ; cloth gilt, 6j-. dd. Original Lists of Persons of Quality; Emigrants ; Religious Exiles ; Political Rebels ; Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years ; Apprentices ; Children Stolen ; Maidens Pressed ; and others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. With their Ages, the Localities where they formerly Lived in the Mother Country, Names of the Ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars. From MSS. preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England. Edited by John Camden HoTTEN. A very handsome volume, crown 4to, cloth gilt, 700 pages, 3 1 J. (>d. A few Large Paper copies have been printed, price vcrc. ^v". ^_1 Jv^rs. J-::^ too, Cvu Modern Babylon, and <—-C"- orcmT. S>cv\ c^c^ii i.v;T». iv*. ^j". J>il o:j:'.or i c<"\<. The Pursuivant of Arms; A or, Htr*lvirv ■oi;-.v;{v.\ ir.x>;^ rVoujc Oax5f ^:• :lv; ^o;J^ >oj-.-,fr^s-; ;?«ri.o., --?.« *^,. y(itki>. iff *vu5i^v. Kcx^ss oy -.nt: V.ovjvs ov Meats. B K-v:Ki ?s o'-o;V™ wSh The Knowing- One?**! TiUof. it ^;. V" ,., !r>K;* y^=f. .^v\. Ac. A New sad «-,:iwbi Or-^v.'jil U«- «-,;h VixK ft\-«', ;hj f,!^ ■;-jvi:f to tlw kst. t\v- V-KV\-.vx. M.irv Mv^K,- o-vN, Kiiid ofter At*.w;s. 4;v\ bviiv.\sosx-,tiirr»;".'w. l,'\ .~-\v.<.-\-^j; ^v\\:\.v. tn BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO &' WINDUS. 33 Policeman Y: His Opinions on War and the Mlllingtary. With Illuitrations by '.he Author, John EowAKD SODEN, cflolh, very neat, 2/. M. ; in paper, is. For Gold amd Silversmiths, Private Book of Useful Alloys and Memoranda for Qoldsmithi and Jewellers. By James £. Collins, C.E., of Birmingham. Royal l6mo, 3/, 6i{. •»• T/u lecritii^lht Gold nnd SllvirimUh/ Arl are lure gtvm, for the lenefit isfyonnt Af/irmlieii mid Praetltionen, It it an invaluaile bot 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOK'S PUBLISHED Sy CIIATTO &- WINDUS. 37 THE POCKET SHELLEY. Shelley, from the Godwin Sketci-, Shelley's Poetical Works. Now First Reprinted from the Author's Original Editions.- In Two Series, the FlKSTcontaining " Queen Mab " and the Early Poems ; the .Second, "Laonand Cythna," "The Cenci," and Later Poems. In royal l6mo, over 400 pages in a volume, price \s. %d. each, in illustrated cover ; 2J. 21!. each in cloth extra. The Third Series, completing the Work, ■will shortly he ready. Sheridan's (Richard Brinsley) Com- plete Works, with Life and Anecdotes. Including his Dramatic Writings, printed from the Original Editions, his works in Prose and Poetry, Translations, Speeches, Jokes, Puns, &c. ; with a Collec- tion of Sheridaniana. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, with Portrait and Illustrations, Is. 6d. [Preparing. Shirley Brooks' Amusing Poetry. A Collection of Humorous Poems. Selected by Shirley Brooks, Editor of Punch. Fcap. 8vo, paper boards, 2s. [^Preparing. *,* This work has/or m^ny years been t»t£ of print, and very scarce. 74 ^ 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. 33 BOOKS PUBLISHED By CHATTO 6- WINDUS. Signboards: Their History. With Anec- dotes of Famous Taverns and Remarkable Characters. By Jacob Larwood and John Camden Hotten. Seventh Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5<^o PP-j 1^* 6^- Bull and Mouth. *' It is not fair on the part of a reviewer to pick out the plums of an author's book, thus filching away his cream, and leaving little but skim-milk remaining ; but, even if we were ever so niahciously inclined, we could not in the present instance pick out all Messrs. Larwood and Hqtten's pliims, because the good things are so numerous as to defy the most wholesale depredation." — The Tit/tes. '" ^* Nearly loo most curious illustraUons on wood are ^ven^ shoivingthe various old st,^7is which wcrc/ormerly hung frojn taverns and other houses. CHARLES DICKENS' EARLY SKETCHES. Sketches of Young Couples, Young Ladies and Young Gentlemen. By " Quiz " (Charles Dickens). With i8 Steel-plate Illustrations by "Phiz" (H. K.Browne). A New Edition, crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 4J-. 6d. \^Prcparing. The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical, and Anecdotal. An Entirely New Edition, revised throughout, and considerably Enlarged, containing upwards of a thousand more words than the last edition. Crown 8vo, with Curious Illustrations, cloth extra, 6j. 6a'. "Valuable as a work of reference." — Snturday Review. 74 i- 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOJCS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO d- VVINDUS. 39 A KEEPSAKE FOR SMOKERS. The Smoker's Text-Book, By J. Hamer, F.R.S.L. Exquisitely printed from "silver-faced" type, cloth, very neat, gilt edges, 2s. 6d. , post free. " A pipe is a great comforter, a pleasant soother. The man who smokes, thinks like a sage, and acts like a Samaritan." — Buliuer. "A tiny volume, dedicated to the votaries of the weed; beautifully printed on toned paper, in, we believe, the smallest type ever made (cast especially for show at the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park), but very clear, notwithstanding its minute- ness The pages sing, in various styles, the praises of tobacco. Amongst the writers laid under contribution are Bulwer, Kingsley, Charles Lamb, Thackeray, Cowper, and Byron." — 'The Field. WEST-END LIFE AND DOINGS. The Story of the London Parks. By Jacob Larwood. With numerous Illustrations, Coloured and Plain, In One thick Volume, crown Svo, cloth exti'a, gilt, ']s. 6d. *** A most interesting ivork, givinga cotnplcte History of tliese favourite ont'of ^oor resorts i from the earliest period to the present time, togetJier with thefashio7is, ihe Jfromenades, the rides, the reviews, and other displays. Summer Cruising in the South Seas. By C. W. Stoddard. With about Thirty Engravings on Wood, drawn by Wallis Mackay. Crown Svo, cloth, extra gilt, 5^. *** Chapters descriptive of life and adveiiture in the Saltth Sea Islands, in the style made so popular by " Tlie Marl and the Doctor" 74 &' 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. 40 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO 6- WINDUS. ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE'S WORKe. Swinburne's William Blake: A Critical Essay. With facsimile Paintings, Coloured by Hand, after the Drawings by Blake and his Wife. Thick 8vo, cloth extra, price i6i-. Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon. New Edition. Foolscap 8vo, price 6^. Swinburne's Bothwell. A New Poem. \In prtparation. Swinburne's Chastelard. A Tragedy. New Edition. Price Ts. Swinburne's Poems and Ballads. New Edition. Price gj. Swinburne's Notes on his Poems, and on the Reviews which have appeared upon them. Price is, Swinburne's Queen Mother and Rosa- mond. New Edition. Foolscap 8vo, price 5j. Swinburne's Song of Italy. Foolscap 8vo, toned paper, cloth, price 3^. (sd. 74 6- 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATrO 6- WINDUS. \i -^irmSlhM. COMBE'S BEST WOEK. Dr. Syntax's Three Tours. With the WHOLE OF RoWLANDSON'S VERY DROLL FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRA- TIONS, IN Colours, after the Original Drawings. Com- prising the well-known Tours — i; In Search^ of the Picturesque. 2. In Search of Consolation. 3. In Search of a Wife. The Three Series Complete and Unabridged, with a Life of the Author by John Camuen Hotten. 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, in one handsome volume, price "js. 6d. *»* One of the most amusijt^ and laughable books ever published ^ A Smaller Edition, with Eight Coloured Plates, the text "complete, price 3j. 6d. *#* The best guide to the reading o/old Records^ <5r^c. Wright's History of Caricature and the Grotesque in Art, in Literature, Sculpture, and Painting, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. By Thomas Wright, Esq., F.S.A. Profusely illustrated by Fairholt. Small 4to, cloth extra gilt, red edges, Q.\s. 74 &= 75, FICCADTLLY, LONDON, W. 46 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO WIND US. Wright's Caricature History of tiie Georges (House of Hanover). A very Entertaining Book of 640 pages, with 400 Pictures, Caricatures, Squibs, Broadsides, Window Pictures, &c. By Thomas Wright, Esq., F.S.A. Crown Svo, clotli extra, "js. i>d. A few copies of a Large Paper Edition are still on sale, with extra Portraits, bound in half-morocco, 30j-. "A set of caricatures such as we have in Mr. Wright's volume brings the surface of the age before us with a vividness that no prose writer, even of the highest power, could emulate. Macaulay's most brilliant sentence is weak by the side of the little woodcut from Gillray, which gives us Burlce and Fox." — Saiicj-day Review. ALL THE BEST AMERICAN HUMOUR. Yanl