CORNELL 
 
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 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 PE 1584.P17 
 
 Folk-etymolog 
 
 3 1924 027 422 405 
 
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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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5Folfe (Stpmologp. 
 
FOLK-ETYMOLOGY, 
 
 A 
 
 DICTIONARY 
 
 OF 
 
 VERBAL CORRUPTIONS OR WORDS PERVERTED IN FORM 
 
 OR MEANING, BY FALSE DERIVATION OR 
 
 MISTAKEN ANALOGY. 
 
 BY EBV. A. SMYTHB PALMER, 
 
 CITRATE OF STAINES; LATE SCHOLAR OF THTNITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN; AUTHOR OF "LEAVES 
 FR'.fM A WORD-HUNTER'S NOTE-BOOK." 
 
 LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, 
 COVENT GAEDEN. 
 
 1882. 
 
674-7^7 
 
 CHISWICK PRESS : — CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. 
 TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. 
 
 Jr 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Intkoduction i — xxviii 
 
 English Words Coebupted 1 — 456 
 
 Foreign Words Coekupted 457 — 514 
 
 Proper Names Corrupted 515 — 567 
 
 Corruptions due to Coalescence of the Article . . . 568 — 591 
 
 COKEUPTIONS due TO MISTAKES ABOUT NuMBER .... 592 — 607 
 
 Additions and Cokeections 608 — 664 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 By Folk-etymology is meant the influence exercised upon words, both as to 
 their form and meaning, by the popular use and misuse of them. In a special 
 sense, it is intended to denote the corruption which words undergo, owing 
 either to false ideas about their derivation, or to a mistaken analogy with 
 other words to which they are supposed to be related. Some introductory 
 remarks on the predisposing causes of this verbal pathology and its sympto- 
 matic features may conveniently find place here. 
 
 In every department of knowledge a fertile source of error may be found 
 in the reluctance generally felt to acknovvledge one's ignorance. Few men 
 have the courage to say " I don't know." If a subject comes up on which we 
 have no real information, we make shift with our imagination to eke out what 
 is wanting in our knowledge, and with unconscious insincerity let " may be " 
 serve in the place of "is." Another infirmity of mind which helps to foster 
 and perpetuate the growth of errors is the instinctive dislike which most men 
 feel for everything untried and unfamiliar. If, according to the accepted 
 maxim, " the unknown ever passes for magnifical," it is no less true that in the 
 majority of instances the unknown arouses active feelings of suspicion and 
 resentment. Tliere is an Arabic proverb, says Lord Strsaigiord, An-ndsu a'ddun 
 mdjclhalu, of which the French C'est la mesintelligence qulfaitla guerre is a feeble 
 shadow, and which we may freely translate " When men see a strange object 
 which they know nothing of they go and hate it " (^Letters and Papers, p. 86). 
 The uneducated shrink from novelties. A thing is new, i.e. not like any- 
 thing in their past or present experience, then it is " unlikely,'' unsafe, 
 untrue. 
 
 Thus, significantly enough, in Spain, a country which has more yet to learn 
 than most in Europe, novedad, novelty, is in common parlance synonymous 
 with danger. Reformers in all ages have had unhappy experiences of this 
 popular feeling. To leave the common track is to be delirious {de lird), if 
 not something worse. Fust, the innovating printer, is in general belief no 
 better than Faust, who juggles with the fiend. How the attitude of the 
 popular mind towards ihe vast field of human knowledge will be influenced 
 by this prejudice may easily be imagined. When it is a foregone conclusion 
 that the only thing that will be, or can be, is the thing that hath been, every 
 phenomenon which refuses to adapt itself to that self-evident axiom will be 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 doubted or ignored ; and, if it persists in obtruding itself as an obstinate fact, 
 it must be manipulated somehow till it fits in with the old formula. This 
 unreasoning conservatism of the populace, which has handed down many an 
 ancient superstition and delusion in the region of Folk-lore, has had a marked 
 effect in the province of language also. Multitudes of words owe their present 
 form, or present meaning, to the influence exercised upon them by popular 
 misconceptipn. The Queen's English is for the Queen's subjects ; and if 
 they treat it like the Queen's currency — thumb it into illegible smoothness, or 
 crooken it for luck, or mutilate it now and then if suspected as a counterfeit, 
 or nail it fast as an impostor whose career must be stopped — who can say them 
 nay? "They will not use a foreign or strange word until, like a coin, it has been, 
 to use the technical term, surfrappe with an image and superscription which 
 they understand. If a foreign word be introduced, they will neither not use 
 it at all, or not until they have twisted it into some shape which shall explain 
 itself to them" (Farrar, Chapters on Language, p. 138). For if there is one 
 thing the common folk cannot away with, it is an unknown word, which, 
 seeming to mean something, to them means nothing. A strange vocable 
 which awakes no echo in their understanding simply irritates. It is like a 
 dumb note in a piano, which arouses expectation by being struck, but yields 
 no answering sound. Every one has heard how O'Connell vanquished a 
 scolding fishwife to tears and silence with the unintelligible jargon supplied 
 by Euclid. Ignotum pro horrifico ! 
 
 " If there's any foreign language Qread to them] which can't be explained, 
 I've seen the costers annoyed at it — quite annoyed," says one intimate with 
 their habits in Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor (vol. i. p. 27). 
 He read to them a portion of a newspaper article in which occurred the words 
 noblesse and qui nest point noble nest rien. " I can't tumble to that barrikin " 
 [understand that gibberish], said a young fellow, "it's a jaw-breaker." 
 " Noblesse ! " said another, " Blessed if I know what he's up to," and here 
 there was a regular laugh. 
 
 The feeling of the common people towards foreigners who use such words 
 is one of undisguised contempt. It seems supremely ridiculous to the bucolic 
 Englishman that a wretched Frenchy should use such a senseless lingo. 
 Why say oh when it is so much more obvious to say " water ' in plain 
 English ? How perverse to use K-e for " yes," and then noo for " we" ! If 
 any word from his vocabulary be adopted, it must, as contraband goods, pay 
 heavy toll ere it pass the frontier. It must put on an honest English look- 
 before it receives letters of denization — Quelques choses must pass as kick- 
 shaws, and haut goAt as hogo. To the unlettered hind still, as to the Greeks 
 of old, every foreigner is a mere " bar-bar-ian,'' an inarticulate jabberer. 
 
 Nay, even a foreign garb awakens our insular prejudices. Should an 
 Oriental stranger pace down the street of any of our country villages in all 
 his native grace and long-robed dignity, he would, to a certainty, be pro- 
 nounced a "guy," and might congratulate himself if he escaped with beino- 
 ridiculed and not hooted and pelted by a crowd of grinning clod-pates. If 
 he would but condescend to change his barbaric turban for the chimnev-pot 
 
introduction: ix 
 
 of civilization, and his flowing robe for a pair of strait trousers, and, perhaps, 
 beflour his bronzed countenance, so as to " look like a Christian," he might then 
 go his way unmolested, and probably unobserved. It is much the same with the 
 language he imports. The words of his vocabulary must be Anglicized, or 
 we will have none of them. They will be regarded with suspicion till they 
 put on an honest English dress and begin to sound familiar. The unmeaning 
 bihuhti fa water-carrier) must become beastie ; sipahi must turn into sepoi/ or 
 (as in America) into seapoy ; Sirdju-d-daula must masquerade as Sir Roger 
 Dowler. 
 
 Thus Barker sawb aya, cover the Jem, is the popular transmutation in the 
 Anglo-Indian lingo of the Hindustani hahlr ka sahib aya khahir dijo, i. e. " a 
 stranger has come, please give the news" (Duncan Forbes). 
 
 The Margrave of Baden Dourlach was called by the people the Prince of 
 Bad-door-lock (Horace Walpole, Letters, vol. ii. p. 208). 
 
 Longbetty was the popular form at Durban of the name of the S. African 
 chief Langabalele (Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects, Srd Series, p. 354). 
 
 Bellerophon, the ship that carried the first Napoleon into exile, became the 
 BuUyniffian, and another vessel, the Hirondelle, was known as the Iron Devil. 
 The Franctireurs became the Francterrors (Andresen, Volkselymologie, p. 26). 
 
 In a similar way the lower classes in Hungary often deface foreign names 
 when they are contrary to euphony, and try to transform them into compounds 
 that shall have a meaning as Hungarian words ; Lord Palmerston, for in- 
 stance, was called Pal Mester (Master Paul), Prince Schwarzenberg, the 
 Governor of Transvlvania, was known as Sarczember (The tribute man), and 
 Prince Reuss Kostritz as Rizskdsa (Rice pudding). — Pulszky, in Philolog. 
 Trans. 1858, p. 23. 
 
 The Romans contrived to make the one word serve for a guest, a stranger, 
 and an enemy — pretty good evidence that those ideas were intimately asso- 
 ciated in their minds. In English, too, "guest," " host," and " hostility " 
 have the same underlying identity : and to our verbal guests, at all events, it 
 must be admitted we as hosts are often hostile. We give them a Procrustean 
 reception by enforcing conformity to our own manner of speaking, and our 
 treatment of alien words, or even native words \vhich happen to look like 
 strangers, is intolerant and arbitrary. In popular and colloquial speech these 
 mutilations and abbreviations abound. If a word appears to be of undue 
 length it must submit to decapitation. Hence 'bus, 'van, 'plot, 'wig, 'drawing- 
 room, &c. If the head is spared, the tail must go. Hence cab', cit', gin, 
 mob', phiz', tar (= sailor), wag', slang cop (^ capture), spec, &c. 
 
 Sometimes a word is simply cut in two and each half, worm-like, has hence- 
 forth a life of its own. An old game at cards was called lanturlii in French ; 
 this became lanterloo in English (lang-trilloo, in Shadwell's A True Widow, 
 1679). The latter part of the word yielded loo, the former lanter, and lant, 
 the names still given to the game in Cumberland and Lincolnshire. " At lanter 
 the caird lakers sat i' the loft" (Dickinson, Cumberland Glossary, E. D. S.). 
 So Alexander yields the two Scottish names Alec or Aleck and Saunders. 
 Sometimes, again, nothing but the heart or dismembered trunk is left in a 
 
X INTBODUGTION. 
 
 middle accented syllable, as in the slang 'tec, a detective, and sometimes the 
 word, if not quartered, is clean " drawn" or eviscerated, as in alms, proxi/, sexton, 
 prov. Eng. skeg (for " suck-egg"), the cuckoo. 
 
 But of all the tricks that the mischievous genius of popular speech loves to 
 play upon words, none is more curious than the transformation it makes them 
 undergo in order that they may resemble other words in which some family 
 relation or connexion is imagined. This is Folk-etymology proper. If the 
 word does not confess its true meaning at once, we put it on the rack till it 
 at least says something. " The violent dislike which we instinctively feel to 
 the use of a word entirely new to us, and of which we do not understand the 
 source, is a matter of daily experience ; and the tendency to cfwe a meaning 
 to adopted words by so changing them as to remove their seemingly arbitrary 
 character has exercised a permanent and appreciable influence on every lan- 
 guage" (Farrar, Origin of Language, p. 66). 
 
 In the world of animated nature the curious faculty with which many 
 creatures are endowed of assimilating themselves to their surroundings in 
 colour and even shape is one of the most interesting phenomena that engages 
 the naturalist. It is one chief means such animals have of securing them- 
 selves against their natural enemies, or of eluding the notice of their prey. 
 Thus the boldly-striped skin of the tiger enables it to crouch unobserved 
 amongst the stalks and grass of the jungle ; the tawny lion exactly counter- 
 feits the colour of the sandy plain over which he roams ; the russet feathers of 
 the woodcock render him scarcely distinguishable from the withered leaves 
 amidst which he lurks. Fishes will imitate to a nicety the exact colour of 
 the bottom over which they swim, changing, it is said, as it is changed ; 
 while the so-called "leaf insects" of Ceylon simulate the very form and 
 veining of the foliage amongst which they live. It is due to this protective 
 mimicry that the white Arctic foxes are often enabled to escape the pursuit of 
 their natural enemies amongst perpetual snows. In the domain of philology, 
 something verv analogous to this may be observed. A word conspicuous by 
 some peculiarity of foreign shape or sound only gains immunity by accommo- 
 dating itself to its new habitat. It must lose its distinctive colour, and 
 contrive to look like an English word in England, like a French word in 
 France, if it is to run free. This pretence of being native when indeed 
 foreign is made by many words in every language. Thus hanr/le, Jungle, toddy, 
 which look familiar enough, are accommodations of Hindustani words ; 
 aioiiing, curry, jackal, caravan, are Anglicized Persian words ; caddy is 
 IMalayan ; jerked-heei is Peruvian. So Fr. redingote is only a travesty of 
 Eng. riding-coat, as old Fr. goudale, goud-fallot, are of Eng. good ale, good 
 fellow. Many French words are Scotticized out of all resemblance ; blen- 
 shaw, Burdyhouse, gardeloo, killyvie, jigot, proochie, are not at once recognizable 
 as blanche can, Bordeaux, gare de I'eau, qui Id, vive, gigot, approchez (Jamieson). 
 An immense number of English and Latin words are imbedded in Welsh, 
 but so Cambrianized that they pass for excellent Welsh ; cv:ppwrdd, llewpart, 
 ffoddgraff, pwrcas, sowgart, are disguised forms of cupboard, leopard, photo- 
 graph, purchase, safeguard ; and cysylltu, sicllt, ystwyll (— Epiphany), of Lat. 
 
INTBOBUGTION. xi 
 
 conso/idare, solidus, Stella (the wise men's star). See Rhys, Lectures on Welsh 
 Philology, p. 7-i. Similarly Gaelic abounds in borrowed words, which, like 
 stolen children, are disfigured that they may not be reclaimed. Thus Arm- 
 strong's Dictionary gives prionnsa, p-iomhlaid, probhaid, prionntair, which 
 merely stand for .prince, prelate, profit, printer ; Campbell cites daoimean for 
 diamond, and probhaisd (lord mayor) for provost. Similarly in Gaelic, Lat. 
 oblatum takes the form of abhlan, scecidiim of saoghcd, apostolus of abstol, epis- 
 copus of easbuig ; discipulus becomes deisciopud ; sacerdos, sagart ; baptizave, 
 baist ; consea-are, coisrig ; confortare, comhfortaich (vid. Blackie, Language 
 and Literature of the Highlaruis, p. 31). Adbhannsa, moision, coitseachan, 
 deasput, phairti, represent Eng. advance, motion, coaches, dispute, party 
 (Campbell, Tales of W. Highlands, vol. iv. p. 167). Bhaigair, fiidair , reisi- 
 meid, are the Eng. words beggar, powder, regiment, in disguise (Id. p. 183). 
 So lukarn, karkara, aikeits, are Gothicized forms of the Latin lucerna, career, 
 acetum ; in Hebrew sanhedrin is a loan-word from Greek sunedrion, while it 
 lends siphonia to the Greek as sumphonia. Who would recognize at a glance 
 the Greek prosbole in the Rabbinical Pruzbul, " the defence," a legal docu- 
 ment (Barclay, The Talmud, p. 81). 
 
 In the same way the Northmen often adopted bastard Greek words into 
 their own tongue. Thus, from Hagiosophia, the famous church of St. Sophia, 
 they made their jS^gisif; from the Hippodrome, their Padreimr. So Elizabeth 
 became Ellisif Hellespontum was twisted into Ellipallta, Apulia became Puls- 
 land, Sdtalias-guU became Atals-Fjord. See Prof. Stephens, Old Northern 
 Runic Monuments, p. 964. 
 
 Even within the limits of our own language the likeness assumed by one 
 word to another is so deceptive that dictionary-makers have over and over 
 again fallen into the mistake of supposing a radical identity where there was 
 only a superficial and formal resemblance between them. Cutlet, for example, 
 seems very naturally to denote a little cut off a loin of mutton, a " chop," as 
 we also call it ; and cutler seems equally suggestive of one who has to do with 
 such cutting instruments as knives and razors. Accordingly Richardson, with 
 easy credulity, groups both these words under the verb to cut, not penetrating 
 the English disguise in the one case of Fr. cdtelette, a little rib (from c6te, Lat. 
 costa), and in the other of Fr. coutelier or cotelier, Lat. cultellarius, the man of 
 knives (Lat. cultellus, a knife). Similarly clipper, a fast sailing vessel, from 
 the analogy of cutter, readily falls into a line with clip, to speed along, and has 
 often been ranged as a derivative under that word, with which it has really no 
 connexion, as will be seen at p. 66. The same lexicographer also confuses 
 together press and p-ess-{gang), stand and standard, a banner, tact and tactics, 
 and thinks an earnest is a pledge given of being in earnest about one's bargain 
 or agreement — words totally unrelated. 
 
 Again rantism, an old pedantic word for an aspersion or sprinkling of 
 water, especially in the rite of baptism, has nothing to do, as Richardson 
 imagined, with the verb to rant,or, as Johnson puts it, with "the tenets of the 
 wretches called vanters," being simply the Greek rhantismos, a sprinkling, 
 adopted bodily (Trench, On Some Deficiencies in our Eng. Dictionaries, p. 22). 
 
xii INTBODUGTION. 
 
 " We but an handful! to their heape, but a rantisme to their baptisme."— 
 Bp. Andrewes, Of the Sending of the Holy Ghost, Sermons, p. 612 fol. 
 
 Pitfalls like these await word-mongers at every turn, and there are few 
 but tumble into them sometimes. I may mention one or two which I was 
 nearly caught in while engaged on this work. Meeting the word greensick- 
 ness in ^uck\mg{Fragmenta Aurea, 1648, p. 82), and The Spectator (No. 431), 
 the chief symptom of which malady is an unnatural longing for unwholesome 
 food, I was for a time tempted to see in this the Scottish wexh green or grene, 
 to long {e.g. in Dalyell, Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 206), from A. Sax. 
 gyrnan, to yearn, georn, desirous. However, it really bears its true meaning 
 on its face, it being, as Johnson says, "the disease of maids, so called from 
 the paleness which it produces," from green, used for pale ; and so its scientific 
 name is chlorosis, from Greek chloros, green, Welsh glaswst, from glas, green, 
 pale, proving my too ingenious conjecture to be unfounded. Again, on dis- 
 covering that the Low Latin name for the common wild cherry is Prussus 
 avium, and having read that Pnissic acid can be made (and I believe is made) 
 from the kernels of cherries and other stone-fruit, I concluded for the moment 
 that Prussic acid must be that manufactured from the Prussus. Further in- 
 vestigation showed me that it was really the acid derived from Prussian Blue, 
 as witness the Danish blaasyre, " blue-acid," Ger. herlinerhlausaure, " Berlin- 
 blue-acid," — that colour having been discovered by a Prussian at Berlin. 
 
 A similar blunder, though plausible at first sight, is Tyrwhitt's theory that 
 the old expression hotfot or hotfoot, with all speed (Debate between Body and 
 Soul, in Mape's Poems,]). 339), or/ote hote (Gower, Chaucer), is a corruption 
 of an old Eng. hautfote, adapted from Fr. haut pied, as if with uplifted foot, 
 on the trot or gallop (see Cant. Tales, note on 1. 4868). The suggestion 
 might seem to derive corroboration from Cotgrave's idioms : — 
 
 " S'en aller haut le pied, To flie with lift-up legs, or as fast as his legs can 
 carry with him." 
 
 " Poursuivre au pied leve. To ioWow foot-hot or hard at the heels.'' 
 However, as impetuosity and quick motion are often expressed by heat 
 (cf. 'Hotspur ; "A business of some heat" Othello, i. 2 ; heats in racing ; and 
 Shakespeare speaks of a horse "heating an acre"), this supposition seems un- 
 necessary, and is certainly wrong. The worst of it is that learned men have 
 had such confidence in the truth of their theories that they have sometimes 
 even altered the spelling of words that it may correspond more closelv to the 
 fancied original. Thus abominable was perverted into abhominable, voisinage 
 into vicinage, and many other instances will be found below. 
 
 Dr. J. A. H. Murray, remarking that Abraham Fleming's alteration of 
 old Eng. bycoket, a military cap, to abacot {Holinshcd, p. 666, 1587), was 
 doubtless in accordance with some etymological fancy, adds that all the cor- 
 ruptions of the English language have been thus caused. " The pedants of 
 the sixteenth century, like the sciolists of the nineteenth, were strong for 
 ' etymological spelling' ; their constant tinkering at the natural and historical 
 forms of English words, to make their spelling remind the eye of some Latin 
 or Greek ^^■ords «ith which they were thought to be connected, was a curse 
 
INTllOBTJGTION. xiii 
 
 to true etymology. They exemplify to the full the incisive remark of Prince 
 Lucien Bonaparte that 'the corrupters of language are the literary men who 
 write it not as it is, but according to their notions of what it ought to be.' " — 
 At/ienceinn, Feb. 4, 1882, p. 157. 
 
 Julius Hare had long before given expression to much the same opinion : — 
 " A large part of the corruptions in our language has arisen, not among 
 th€ vulgar, but among the half-learned and parcel-learned, among those who, 
 knowing nothing of the antiquities of their own tongue, but having a taint of 
 Latin and Greek, have altered our English words to make them look more 
 like their supposed Latin or Greek roots, thereby perpetuating their blunder 
 by giving it the semblance of truth. Thus nobody now doubts that island is 
 connected with isle and insula, rhyme with pu9fJi,o;, whereas if we retained the 
 true spelling Hand and rime, it would have been evident that both are words 
 of Teutonic origin, and akin to the German Eiland and Reim. Such corrup- 
 tions, as having no root among the people, as being mere grafts stuck in by 
 clumsy and ignorant workmen, it is more especially desirable to remove. 
 Their being more frequent in our language than perhaps in any other is 
 attributable to its mongrel character : the introduction of incongruous analo- 
 gies has much confounded, and ultimately blunted that analogical tact, which 
 is often found to possess such singular correctness and delicacy in the very 
 rudest classes of mankind: and the habit of taking so many of our derivatives 
 from foreign roots has often led us to look abroad, when we should have found 
 what we wanted at home. For while the primary words in our language are 
 almost all Saxon, the secondary, as they may be called, are mostly of French, 
 the tertiary of Latin origin ; and the attention of book-mongers has been 
 chiefly engaged by the latter two classes, as being generally of larger dimen- 
 sions, and coming more obtrusively into view, while our Saxon words were 
 hardly regarded as a part of our learned tongue, and so were almost entirely 
 neglected. On the other hand, a great many corruptions have resulted froJn 
 the converse practice of modifying exotic words under the notion that they 
 were native ; and this practice has prevailed more or less in all countries " 
 [Philological Museum, i. 654). Thus our unfortunate vocabulary has been 
 under two fires. The half-learned and the wholly unlettered have alike con- 
 spired to improve «'ords into something different from what they really are. 
 
 " Ignorance has often suggested false etymologies ; and the corresponding 
 orthography has not unfrequently led to false pronunciation, and a serious per- 
 version of language." Thus the old word causey came to be spelt causeway, 
 and life-lode was turned into livelihood, and the pronunciation, as Dr. Guest 
 observes, is now generally accommodated to the corrupt spelling ; but he was 
 certainly too sanguine when he wrote, thirty-five years ago, "that no one who 
 regards purity of style would, under any circum stances, employ terms so 
 barbarous" (Philological Proceedings, 1848, vol. iii. p. 2). 
 
 "It is usual," says Thomas Fuller, "for barbarous tongues to seduce words 
 (as I may say) from their native purity, custome corrupting them to signifie 
 things contrary to their genuine and grammatical notation " {Pisgah Sight, 
 1650, p. 39). The working of this principle of misconstruction has left its 
 
xW INTBODUOTION. 
 
 mark on the Authorized version of our Bible. " In some cases the wrong 
 rendering of our translators arose from a false derivation which was generally 
 accepted in their age. Thus akeraios (Matt. x. 16, Phil. ii. 15) is rendered 
 'harmless' [as if originally 'hornless,' from a, not, unAkeras, a horn], instead 
 of 'simple, pure, sincere' [lit. 'unmixed,' from kemnnumi]. So also eritheia 
 (Rom. ii. 8, Gal. v. 20, &c.) is taken to mean 'strife, contention,' from its 
 supposed connexion with ens, whereas its true derivation is from eritkos, 'a 
 hired partisan,' so that it denotes 'party-spirit'" (Bp. Lightfoot, On a Fresh 
 Revision of the New Testament, p. 137). 
 
 In our nursery tale Folk-etymology has clothed Cinderella's foot with glass 
 in the place of minever. It is now generally believed {e.g. by Mr. Ralston 
 and M. Littre') that the substance of la petite pantoufle de verre in Charles 
 Perrault's story of Cendrillon (1697) "was originally a kind of fur called 
 vair — a word now obsolete in France, except in heraldry, but locally preserved 
 in England as the name of the weasel [see Fairy, p. 116] — and that some 
 reciter or transcriber to whom the meaning of vair was unknown substituted 
 the more familiar, but less probable, verre, thereby dooming Cinderella to 
 wear a glass slipper." Balsac, so long ago as 1836, affirmed that the j>an- 
 toufle was sans doute de menu vair, i.e. of minever {The Nineteenth Century, 
 Nov. 1879). 
 
 Thus it is not alone the form of a word that undergoes a metamorphosis 
 from some mistaken assimilation, but its signification gets warped and per- 
 verted from a false relationship or analogy being assumed. Many instances 
 of this reflex influence will be found throughout this volume. An early in- 
 stance is exhibited, it is supposed, in the name of the tower of Babel, origi- 
 nally Bab-el or Bab-bel, " the gate of God or Bel," which by the quaint 
 humour of primitive times had been turned to the Hebrew word " Babel," or 
 "confusion" (Stanley, Jewish Church, vol. i. p. 7). But Babel or Bab-ilu is 
 itself a Semitic translation of the older Turanian name Ca-dimirra, "gate 
 of God" (Sayce, Trans, of Soc. of Bib. Archceology, vol. i. p. 298). 
 
 Similarly, with regard to the early belief in a stone-sprung race {>.l6ivo; 
 yovo;, Pindar), human beings are represented as having been created out of 
 stones in the Greek legend of Deucalion and Pyrrha, from a notion that ?\aoi, 
 people, was derived from ?^;, a stone (Von Bohlen, Genesis, ii. 170), just as 
 if we were to connect "people'' (Welsh pobl), with "pebble" (old Eng. 
 pobble). 
 
 The fact is, man is an etymologizing animal. He abhors the vacuum of 
 an unmeaning word. If it seems lifeless, he reads a new soul into it, and 
 often, like an unskilful necromancer, spirits the wrong soul into the ■(vrong 
 body. In old writers we meet the most ludicrous and fanciful suggestions 
 about the origination of words, quite ^-sorthy to range with Swift's ostler for 
 oat-stealer, and apothecccrt/ from a pot he carries. Alexander Neckam, in the 
 twelfth century, delights in " derivations " like '■^passer a patiendo," " ardea 
 quasi ardua" " alauda a laude diei" '■'■truta a trudendo" '■^ pellicanus, the 
 pellican, so called because its skin {pellis) when touched seems to sound 
 {canere) by reason of its roughness" {De Naturis Rernm, I. cap. 73). C)tlier 
 
INTRODUCTION. xv 
 
 mediaeval etymologies are equally amusing, e.y. Low Lat. colossus, a giavf- 
 stone, i.e. cok/is ossa, "bones-keeper" {Prompt. Pan\ s.v. Meiiioiyal) ; Lat. 
 nepos, a spendthrift, from negans passum, sc. ad bonum, not a step taking. to 
 anything good {Id. s.v. Neve) ; '■' sepulchra, id est, semijmkhru, halfe faire and 
 beautiful" (Weever, Fii/iera/ Monuments, p. 9, 1631), "extra nitiduni, intus 
 foetidum " (T. Adams, Sei-mons, ii. 466). Durandus thinks that Low Lat. 
 poUantrum, a tomb or mausoleum (for polyandrum, the place of " many men "), 
 is irom pollutum antrum, a polluted cave; and cemetery, "from cimew which is 
 sweet, and sterion which is station, for there the bones of the departed sweetly 
 rest " ! {Si/mbolism of Churches, p. 102, ed. Neale). Philip de Thaun, in his 
 Norman-French Livre des Creatures, derives Samadi, Saturday, from semuns, 
 seed (1. 261) ; Septembre from Lat. imber, rain; furmi, an ant, IjaX. formica, 
 because "/wt est e porte wee" (1. 502), it is strong {fm-tis) and carries a 
 crumb {mica); perdi.v, partridge, so named because it loses, peii {perdit), its 
 brood. Equally whimsical is his affiliation of vercex, a wether, on ver {vermis^, 
 a worm (1. 56.3). In the Malleus MaJeficarum, 1520, it is explained that the 
 etymology of Lat. femina, a woman, shows why there are so many more female 
 sorcerers than male, that word being compounded of _/e {^ fides), faith, and 
 minus, less, the woman having less faith (p. 65, see R. R. IMadden, Phantas- 
 mata, i. 459). Mons, it was believed (apparently on the Tertullian principle 
 of its being impossible), was derived a momndo, " A mount hath his name of 
 mouyng" (WyclifFe, Unprinted Works, p. 457, E. E. T. S.), just as '•'■Stella a 
 stando dicitur, — A star, quasi not stir " (T. Adams, Sermons, i. 455). Indeed 
 Thomas Adams is much given to these quaint derivations ; so is Thomas 
 Fuller, whose style and vein are very similar. Devil for Do-evil is one of the 
 suggestions of the former (ii. 41), while the latter is responsible for compliment 
 from completi mentiri {Joseph's Parti-coloured Coat, 1640) ; malignant, as a 
 political nickname, " from malus ignis (bad fire) or malum lignum (bad fewell)" 
 {Church History, bk. xi. p. 196) ; — the latter already hinted parenthetically by 
 Quarles, with allusion to the forbidden tree, " totus mundus in maligna {mali- 
 ligno) positus est" {Emblems, I. i.); — avcodile, from the Greek ;)^poKo'-5'Ei^05, or 
 the Saffron-fearer, "proved by the antipathy of the Crocodiles thereunto" 
 ( Worthies of England, i. 336). To Fuller also is due " Needle quasi Ne idle, 
 the industrious instrument " {Id. ii. 50), for a parallel to which he might have 
 adduced the somewhat similar Lithuanian word nedele, a week, originally the 
 Sabbath, from ne, not, and dielo, labour, and so denoting " the day of rest " 
 (Pictet, Origines Indo-Europeenes, ii. 601 ; compare negotium, business, from 
 nee otium, " not leisure "). As other old guesses which did duty as etymologies, 
 may be noted Ascham's war, from old Eng. werre (Scot, waur), that thing 
 which is wirrse than any, and lesing, a lie, as if losing ; Peacham's penny, from 
 Greek wmcc, poverty, as if the poor man's coin {Worth of a Penny, ^p. 30, 
 repr. 1813) ; Latimer's homily from homely, as if a familiar discourse; Henry 
 Smith's marriage from merry age, " because a play-fellow is come to make 
 our age merry" {Sermons, p. 12, 1657) ; mastiff irom mase-thief; Ben Jonson's 
 constable froni cyning and staple, " a stay for the king" {Tale of a Tub, iv. 2) ; 
 rogue " from the Latine erro, by putting a G to it" ! {Conversations with Drum- 
 
xvi INTBODUGTION. 
 
 mond, p. 34, Shaks. Soc.) ; and harlot " from Arloite, mother of William the 
 Conquerour " (Ibid.), — the last notion being found also in Camden, Reinaines, 
 p. 159 (1637), and Cartwright's The Ordinary; Spenser's elf, "to weet 
 quick" (F. Queene, 11. x. 71), as if ffl^ from alife, alive, like old Eng. wici//f, 
 which has both these meanings, just as the old feminine name Ailive is the 
 same as jElfwine, elf-darling (Yonge, Christian Names, ii. 349) ; his com- 
 mentator, E. K., rather extracting Elfes and Goblins from the Guelfes and 
 Gibelines (S/iep. Calender, June, Glosse on Faeries). Another fancy of Spenser's 
 is that Germany had its name from certain brothers, Lat. germani, the sons 
 of Ebranck, 
 
 " Those germans did subdew all Germany 
 
 Of whom it hight." Faerie (Queene, II. x. 22. 
 
 An older writer accounts for the name in a way not less ingenious : — " Wei 
 nyghe all y' londe that lyeth north-warde oner the see occean of brytayne is 
 caS\e:A germani CI . For it bryngyth forth so moche folke. Germania comyth 
 of germinare that is for too borge and brynge forth " (Polycronicon, P. de 
 Treveris, 1527, f. 184). As correct as either, probably, is Carlyle's assertion, 
 " German is by his very name, Guerre-man, or man that wars and gars " 
 (French Revolution, Pt. II. bk. iii. ch. 2). Erasmus affirms that Sunday 
 (Sonntag) is " called in the commune tongue of the Gerraanes Soendack, not 
 of the Sonne as certayne men done interprete but of reconcilynge " {On the 
 Commandments, p. 162, 1533), as if like sohn-opfer, expiatory sacrifice, from 
 {rer-)sbhnen, to reconcile. Bracton says Low Lat. ringoe (belts, evidently z: 
 Eng. rings) are so called because renes girant, they encircle the rejns (/)e 
 Legibus, bk. i. cap. 8). " Baptisme," says Tindal, " is called volo-wynge in 
 many places in Englande, bycause the preste sayth volo " (in Sir Thomas More, 
 p. 49), the true word being f idling, from A. S-dx.fullian, to whiten, cleanse, 
 or baptise. 
 
 Many quaint popular etymologies occur in the Old English Homilies (2iid 
 ser.) of the 1 2th century, edited by Dr. R. Morris ; e.g. fader is a name 
 given to God, " for that He us feide," formed or put us together, or because 
 hefedeth (feedeth) us (p. 26); a king is so cleped, "for that he kenneth" 
 (p. 45) ; Easter " is cleped estre dai, that is estene da ( = dainties' day, p. 99) ; 
 old Eng. hinrlre, deceit, is explained to be from bihindeii, behind, " for it 
 maketh a man to be behind when he weened to be before " (p. 213). In the 
 same volume (p. 99) is given an old folk-etymology of the A. Sax. word hftsel, 
 the sacrifice of the mass (Goth, hunsl, a sacrifice), as if Hu sel, " How good ! " 
 from hu, how, and sel {= seely, Ger. selig), good. " This dai is cleped estre 
 dai that is estene da, and te este is husel, and no man ne mai seien husel, wu 
 god it is"; i.e. "This day is called Easter Day, that is dainty day (day of 
 dainties), and the dainty is the housel, and no man may say how good it is." 
 
 The Wycliffite Apology for the Lollards seems to have 'derived priest, old 
 Eng. prest, from hai. prceeM, "he is over (the flock)," at least it more than 
 once translates prmesse by " to be pn'stis " (pp. 2, 4). WyclifFe himself spells 
 " imvileges" priiKelegies, evidently to suggest a connexion with Lat. jirarns 
 
INTB OB UOTION. xvii 
 
 crooked, wrong ; " They meyntenen false praueleyies agenst charite & good 
 conscience" {Utiprinted Works, p. 139, B. E. T. S.). 
 
 Coming down to later times, borel, or borrell, an old word meaning rustic, 
 clownish, illiterate, as in " borel folk " (Chaucer), " boi-rel men " (Gascoigne), 
 was supposed to refer to " the rudenesse and simplicity of the people that are 
 seated far North," as if derived from Lat. borealis, belonging to the north 
 country, as in Bishop Corbet's Iter Boreale (or Journey to the North), 1648 
 (so " Aurora bwealis," the Northern lights) ; " Which no doubt is intimated by a 
 vulgar speech,'' says The OptickGlasse of Humors, 1639, p. 29, "when we say 
 such a man hath a borreU wit, as if we said boreale ingenium." The word is 
 really from old Fr. burel (borel, bureau), coarse woollen stuff of a russet 
 colour (Lat. burrus, reddish, Greek purros, fiery red), and so means coarsely 
 clad as a peasant is, frieze-like, rude, plebeian ; to which usage we find numerous 
 parallels, e.g. russeting and russet-coat, a clown (Hall, Satires, i. 3) ; " poor 
 grogran rascal " (B. Jonson) ; Gaelic peillag, coarse cloth, also a peasant ; Fr. 
 grisette, a grey clad wench ; It. bizocco, coarse cloth, also clownish, rude ; and 
 with the phrase '' borrel wit " we may compare " coarse freize capacities, ye 
 jane judgements" (Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5, 8), and Shakespeare's '■'■russet 
 yeas and honest kersey noes " {Love's L. Lost, v. 2, 413). See also Diez, s.v. 
 Biijo, and Skeat's Notes to P. Plo^wman, pp. 208, 249. 
 
 " How be I am but rude and borrell." 
 
 Spenser, Shep. Calender, Julv. 
 
 " They deem a mighty lord 
 Is made by crown, and silken robe, and sword ; 
 Lo, such are borel folk." 
 
 W. Morris, The Earthly Paradise, p. 318. 
 
 Another word which readily lent itself to popular etymologizing ^vas 
 sincere (old Fr. sincere, Lat. sincerus), pure, unmixed, which formerly had a 
 material significance rather than an ethical, as in P. Holland's " sincere 
 vermilion." The original signification was conceived to be free from 
 alloy or mixture, as honey, is which is without wax, sine cerd. Thus it is 
 recorded of Fran9ois de Sales, " Un jour quelqu'un luy demandoit ce qu'il 
 entendoit par la sincerite : ' Cela mesme, respondit-il, que le mot soune, c'est a 
 dire, sans cire. . . . S9avez vous ce que c'est que du miel sans cire ? C'est 
 celuy qui est exprime du rayon, et qui est fort purifie : il en est de mesme 
 d'un esprit, quand il est purge de toute feintise et duplicite, alors on I'appelle 
 sincere, franc, loyal, cordial, ouvert, et sans arriere pensee ' " (L'Kyjrit du F. 
 De Sales, ii. 73, ed. 1840). 
 
 Dr. Donne no doubt had the same conception in his mind when, contrasting 
 the covert nature of bees' working with the open labours of the ant, he wrote, 
 "The Bees have made it their first work to line that Glasse-hive with a crust 
 of Wax, that they might work and not be discerned. It is a blessed sincerity 
 to work as the Ant, professedly, openly " {LXXX. Sermons, 1640, p. 713). 
 
 Then we have OYeT-hnv\'%"^ sergeant quasi see argent" {Characters, 1616); 
 
xviii INTBODUGTION. 
 
 Sir John Davies's world, so named because it is whirled round, though 
 Hampole had already resolved it into wer elde, worse age {Pricke of Conscience, 
 1. 1479) ; Verstegan's heaven from heave-n, the heaved up ; otherwise 
 
 " Which well we Heaven call ; not that it rowles 
 But that it is the hauen of our soules.'' 
 
 G. Fletcher, Christ's Trivmph after Death, st. 45 (1610). 
 
 Richardson may end the catalogue with his curious remark, " Writing 
 from the heart [Lat. cm-'] as the very word cor-respondence implied'" {Clarissa 
 Harlowe, iv. 291). 
 
 Some of the instances above quoted were doubtless, like 'Rowe\Vsfi)olosopher 
 for philosopher, and Southey's futilitarian for utilitarian, with many others 
 similar in The Doctor, merely humorous suggestions not seriously believed in 
 by their originators, and so deserve to be ranged only with such coinages of 
 " the Mint-masters of our Etymologies " as those mentioned by Camden, 
 " for they have merrily forged Monet/ from My-hony, Mayd as my ayd, Symohy 
 see-money, Stirrup a,stayre-up, &o." {Bemaines, -p. 34, 16.37). While rejecting 
 these, however, Camden accepts as reasonable, not only the derivation of God 
 from ffood, and Deus from Jso;, " because God is to be feared," but also, which 
 is more strange, " Sayle as the Sea-haile, Windor or Window as a doore against 
 the winde [see below, p. 441], King from Conning, for so our Great-grandfathers 
 called them, which one word implyeth two most important matters in a 
 Governour, Power and Skill" (ibid.'). 
 
 Many of the corruptions we meet in old writers are intentional and jesting 
 perversions of the true form of the word, and are therefore not folk-etymo- 
 logies proper. Such, for example, is bitesheep, or biteshipe, a satirical corrup- 
 tion oi bishop (in Fox, Book of Martyrs), to denote an unfaithful shepherd who 
 ravages his flock instead of feeding them. In the Becords of the English 
 Catholics under the Penal Laws, vol. i. (ed. Knox), mention is made of one 
 Tippet, a student of Doway, being " brought before the bitesheepe of London 
 and ar Recorder " (1578). This spelling was not invented by Bale (as the 
 Saturday Beview states, vol. 46, p. 761), since we iind in old German writers 
 bisx-schaf for bischof (Andresen, Volksetymologie, p, 36). 
 
 Fischart, in the 16th century, has many ingenious and humorous word-twists, 
 Jesiiwider(Ant\-Jesu) iorJesu/ten,Jesuite>; a Jesuit; Pfotnngram, foot-grief, for 
 podagra, the gout; Saurezahnen, "sour-teeth," ior Sarazenen; Notnarr (narr = 
 fool) for Notar; Bedtorich (as if from rede, speech ) for Bhetorik ; Vntenamend (as 
 if from unten, beneath) for fundamentum ; maulhenkolisch (as if down in the 
 mouth) for melancholisch (Andresen, p. 33) ; the latter recalling Moll-on-the- 
 coals, an Ayrshire word for a gloomy-minded person, a ludicrous perversion 
 of the word melancholy (Jamieson). Allkiihmisterei, " All-cow-mistery," is 
 Pastor Schupp's rendering oi Alchimisterei, Alchemistry ; and Zanktiiffeh a 
 good twist that some German Socrates gave to Zantippe w\\en applying it to 
 his scolding wife (as if from za)ik, a quarrel or bickering). 
 
 Coming now to deal with Folk-etymologies properly so called :— 
 
 " The nation always thinks that the word must have an idea behind it. 
 
INTBODUGTION. xix 
 
 So what it does not understand it converts into wliat it does ; it transforms 
 the word until it can understand it. Thus, words and names have their 
 forms altered, e.(/. the French ea-evisse becomes in English a-mcfish, and the 
 heathen god Soantevit was changed by the Christian Slavs into Saint Vitus, 
 and the Parisians converted Mons Martis into Mont-martre " (Steinthal, in 
 Goldziher's Mythology among the Hebreios, p. 440). 
 
 " People in antiquity, and even in modern times those who are more 
 affected by a word than a thought, were fond of finding in the word a sort of 
 reflexion of the corresponding thing. Indeed, many component parts of 
 ancient stories owe their existence only to such false etymologies. Dido's 
 oxhides and their connexion with the founding of Carthage are only based on 
 the Greek byrsa, a misunderstood modified pronunciation of the Semitic 
 bh-ethd, ' fortress,' ' citadel.' The shining Apollo, born of light, is said to be 
 born in Delos, or Lycia, because the terms Apollon Delios and LyMgems 
 were not understood. The Phenician origin of the Irish, asserted in clerical 
 chronicles of the middle ages, only rests on a false derivation of the Irish 
 word, ' fena, pi. fion, beautiful, agreeable.' Even the savage tribes of 
 America are misled by a false etymology to call Michabo, the Kadmos of the 
 red Indians (from michi, 'great,' and wabos, 'white') a 'White Hare.' 
 Falsely interpreted names of towns most frequently cause the invention of 
 fables. How fanciful the operation of popular etymology is in the case of 
 local names is observable in many such names when translated into another 
 language. By the Lake of Gennesereth lies Hippos, the district surrounding 
 which was called Hippene. This word in Phenician denoted a harbour, and 
 is found not only in Carthaginian territory as the name of the See of 
 St. Augustine, but also as the name of places in Spain. The Hebrew ck6ph, 
 ' shore,' and the local names Ydphd (Jaffa) and HaifA, are unquestionably 
 related to it. But the Greeks regarded it from a Grecian point of view, and 
 thought it meant Horse-town. Did they not call ships sea-horses, and 
 attribute horses to the Sea-God ? Then the Arabs directly translated this 
 'IwTTo;, Hippos, into Kalat al-Husdn; husdn being 'horse' in modern Arabic'' 
 (Goldziher, Mythology among the Hebrews, pp. 331-332). 
 
 A good woman, the hostess of the inn, proud of her skill in etymology, 
 once assured Wordsworth the poet that the name of the river Gi-eta was taken 
 from the bridge which surmounted it, the form of which, as he could see for 
 himself, exactly resembled a. great A. 
 
 In provincial German we find the name Beauregard transformed into 
 i?M?-e»^(J»-« (Boors-garden); BeUe Alliance atWaXerloo changed into Duller dans, 
 " Thunder dance;" a Westphalian mine called Felicitas commonly known as 
 Flitzentasche ; Philomelenlust, a grove at Brunswick, changed into Vielmanns- 
 lust; Cheval blanc, an inn at Strassburg, becomes blanke Schwalbe ; Brums 
 Warte, a district in Halle, becomes braune Schwarte (Andresen, Deutsche 
 Volksetymologie, p. 45). 
 
 The gypsies, both in England and on the continent of Europe, have a 
 rough and ready way of giving a Rommany meaning to towns they visit, some 
 fanciful resemblance of sound suggesting the new form. Thus Bedford 
 
XX INTUOBUGTION. 
 
 becomes Redfoot {Lalopeerd) ; Doiicaster, Donkey-town {Milesto-gav) ; Lyons, 
 Lion-town {Bombardo) ; Augsburg, Eyes-toicn (Jakkjakro foro), &c. (Smart, 
 Dialect of Eng. Gypsies, pp. 11 and 87). 
 
 The common gypsy name Boswell, as if '■^Buss-well," they translate into 
 Chumomisto, from ckoom, to kiss, and misto, well ; while Stanley becomes 
 Baryor, as if "s^owe-folk." A more curious metamorphosis still is that by the 
 Spanish gypsies of Pontius Pilate (Sp. Poncio Pilatd) into Brono Aljenicato, 
 i.e. " Bridge-fountain," Poncio being confused with Sp. puente (hat. pons), a 
 bridge, and Pilato with Sp. pila, a pillar, especially that of a fountain 
 (G. Barrow, Romano Lavo-lil). In our own local etymology Lancaster is 
 said to have its name from one Lang Kester or long Christopher, who, like the 
 saint so called, used to carry people across the Lune in the time previous to 
 bridges {Notes and Queries, 4th S. xii. 27). 
 
 " Either be Caesar or Niccolo " is a popular Italian folksaying (G. Giusti, 
 Proverbi Toscani), i.e. a man or a mouse. Niccold here stands for no histo- 
 rical Nicholas of proverbial insignificance, but is a personification in the 
 mouths of the people of It. nichilo, nothing, Lat. nihilum, often in the middle 
 ages spelt nichilum ; the saying is therefore only a modern version of " Aut 
 Caesar aut nihil." A similar perversion is annigulate, Anglo-Irish for anni- 
 h'date, "If you do I'll annigulate you" (W. Carleton, The Battle of the 
 Factions). A somewhat similar perversion is that by which " Teste David cum 
 Sibylla," in the Dies Irce, has been transformed into " David's head," testa 
 David, by the Trasteverini, who use it as a by-word for something enig- 
 matical. 
 
 Underneath the window of the cell of Roland's Tower in Paris were 
 engraven the words Tu Oka, " Pray thou." " The common people," says 
 Victor Hugo, " whose plain common sense never looks for profound meanings 
 in things, gave to this dark, damp, loathsome hole the name of Trou aux 
 Rats" (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, bk. v. ch. 2). 
 
 M. Gaidoz observed that in the German invasion of 1870 popular etymo- 
 logy ran riot, and as many outrages were committed on the French language 
 as on the people. But retaliation was sometimes made on the enemy. M. 
 de Brauschitsch, the Prussian prefet in Seine-et-Oise, was known by the 
 people as M. Bronchite,-~a.xiii indeed he had them by the throat. In Lorraine, 
 the peasants called the soldiers of the landwehr " langues-vertes.'- During 
 the siege of Paris the national guard always spoke of the casemate in which 
 they hid themselves {on se cachait) from the projectiles of the enemy as la 
 cachemate. At the same period „ woman was found searching everywhere to 
 g^t &ome huile d' Henri V. for her child: the desideratum was merely 
 huile de ricin ! 
 
 " Donnons un exemple de ce proce'de populaire dela deformation des mots. 
 C est ainsi qu en fran9ais le nom de courte-pointe d6signe une sorte de couver- 
 ture, bien qu'il n'y ait la, comme le fait remarquer M. Littre, ni courte ni 
 pomte. Le mot vient du latin culcita puncta, quisignifie "couverture pique'e " 
 et avait donne regulierement en ancien fran9ais coulte-pointe. Coulte n^ se 
 comprenant plus a ete deformd en courte qui semblait fournir un sens De 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxi 
 
 merae de rallemand Sauerkraut " herbe sure " nous avons fait choua-o4te, qui 
 n'est pas la traduction du mot alleraand et qui a de la crollte quand le mets 
 en question n'en a pas. Voila ce qu'on appelle une etyraologie populaire. 
 
 "Les mots de ce genre sont en linguistique de veritables monstres ; car les 
 lois qui president a la generation du langage voient alors leur action paralysoe 
 par une influence etrangere. L'instinct de la fausse analogie, on pourrait 
 presque dire du calembour, fait €chec aux regies de la plionetique, et le mot 
 en question acquiert des lettres adventices auxquelles il n'avait pas droit, 
 comme les monstres de I'histoire naturelle acquierent des membres nouveaux. 
 Ces mots, deformes par I'etymologie populaire, echappent aux lois ordi- 
 naires du langage comme les monstres aux lois de la nature. La bosse ne 
 rentre pas dans le type normal de I'liomme, et pourtant elle existe chez un 
 certain nombre d'hommes. Eh bien, il v a dans toutes les langues beaucoup 
 de mots bossus qui vivent, se melent aux autres mots du dictionnaire, et qui 
 cachent si bien leur infirmite qu'elle echappe a tout autre personnes qu'aux 
 linguistes " {Rerue Politique et Litteraire, No. ,35, p. 830). 
 
 To be distinguished from true folk-etymologies are those intentional per- 
 versions of words which for the main purpose of raising a laugh, or supporting 
 the vrai-semblance of the character, are put into the mouth of illiterate per- 
 sonages in works of fiction, such as Sirs. Malaprop, Mrs. Partington, Mrs. 
 Brown. To this class belong ]\Irs. Quigley's honey-seed for homicide, canary 
 for quandary, calm for qualm, in Shakespeare ; Mrs. Honeysuckle's " clients 
 \haX &UB in fm-m,a paper" in Webster's Westward Ho ; and Lackland'sjooc- 
 cupations, losopkers, diricksstories, extrumpery, and nomine in Randolph's Hey 
 fm- Honesty, instead of occupations, philosophers, directories, extempore, and 
 horn ily. 
 
 To the same category of jocularity prepense belong Costard's " Thou hast 
 it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends" (ad ungueni). Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1, 
 80 ; "a stay-at-home-at-us tumour" in one of Lever's novels, as if a sluggish 
 one, toujours chez nous, for steatomatous, tallow-like ; Coleridge's favourite 
 author Spy Nozy (Spinosa), which the eaves-dropper regarded as a personal 
 allusion to himself (Biographia Literaria, ch. x.) ; Sam Weller's " have-his- 
 carcass" for habeas corpus; "delicious beam-ends" in Anthony Trollope's 
 Dr. Thorne (ch. xl.) for delirium tremens, of which a slang corruption is 
 triangles ; Sham Elizas for Champs Elys'ees in Russell's Memoirs of Moore^ 
 iii. 171 ; Punch's coaly-hop-terror for coleoptera, which is, perhaps, also the 
 original of crawly-whopper, a' black-beetle, mentioned by Dr. Adams in the 
 Philolog. Soc. Travis. 1859, p. 96. Such also are Deborah Fimdish, an old 
 corruption of De Profundis ; Solomon Daoid, a cockney form of solemn 
 affidavit ; and the " Angry cat " which, spoken by a Jewish costumier, does 
 duty for Henri Quatre {Punch, vol. Ixx. p. 78). And so in many modern 
 works of humour. " Those long sliding opra-glasses that they call tallow- 
 scoops " is an ingenious make-up, individual, and not popular. When Mrs. 
 Ramsbottom in Paris bought " some sieve jars to keep popery in," she gave 
 for the moment a familiar and homely ring to those strange and outlandish 
 words Sevres and pot-pourri, with a lofty disregard to mere propriety of 
 
xxii INTBOV UOTION. 
 
 meaning. If those forms were generally and popularly accepted they would 
 be folk-etymologies. As it is they are a mere play on words. In the following 
 instances, thrown together at random, but all fairly authenticated, we may 
 see the mischievous genius of folk-etymology more undoubtedly at work. 
 " The poor creature was that big, sir, you can't think. The doctor said there 
 was a porpoise inside her." I conjecture it was nothing worse than s. polypus. 
 A servant man has been heard to convert an Alpine-stock into a helping -stick.. 
 A cook who used antipathies for antipodes also spoke of " the obnoxious gales" 
 at the time of the equinox. Another asked leave to attend " the aquarium 
 service " on the death of the last pope, evidently a requiem. A Devonshire 
 maid informed her mistress she had " divided her hair into three traces" for 
 tresses. An Irish domestic spoke of " trembling coals," i.e. trendling or trund- 
 ling., round, rolling coals, Cumberland trunlins. " As for my husband," 
 remarked a pastrycook, " poor man, he is a regular siphon'' Another Irish 
 woman of diminutive stature complacently described herself to a lady hiring 
 her services as " small but wicked'.' Wicked here, as sometimes in provincial 
 English, is manifestly a corruption of Yorkshire wick., lively, active, nimble, 
 properly alive, another form of quick, A. Sax. cwic, as in " wick as an eel " 
 ( Whitby Glossary), the word being confused with wicked, old Eng. wicke, 
 wikke. In the Cleveland dialect a very lively young man was characterized 
 as " T' wickest young chap at ivver Ah seen " (Atkinson), and in a Yorkshire 
 ballad occurs the line : — 
 
 " I'll swop wi' him my poor deead horse for his wick." 
 Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 210 (ed. R. Bell). 
 
 In Scotland needcessity is commonly used for necessity {e.g. Whitehead, 
 Daft Davie, p. 190); in England ill-convenientiox inconvenient, equal-nomical 
 for economical, human cry for hue and cry, natural school for national school, 
 hark audience for accordion, queen wine for quinine wine, uproar for opera, 
 cravat for carafe, in Ireland croft. Notes enquiries for Notes and Queries, have 
 all been heard. A lady of my acquaintance always uses tipsomania for dipso- 
 mania, a natural confusion with the word tipsy, and less pardonably trans- 
 forms acetic into Asiatic acid. " Would you like it square-edged or bible- 
 edged ? " asked an upholsterer of a lady ordering a sofa (Notes and Queries, 
 4th S. xii. 276), meaning no doubt bevil-edged. " This here is the stage front 
 or proceedings," said a Punch-and-Judy showman pointing to the proscenium 
 (Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, iii. 53). Jeremy Taylor's old 
 pulpit in Uppingham Church is shown by the sexton as " Geriral Taylor's 
 pulpit, or Gen'l'man Taylor's, I don't mind which " (Sat. Review, vol. 50, p. 
 422). The Wardevil is a London cabman's attempt to give a native appear- 
 ance to the Vaudeville Theatre. A Hampshire parish clerk when a certain 
 passage came round in the psalms always spoke of " snow and vipers " fulfilling 
 His word. Another of that fraternity would strike in " Thur go the shibs, 
 and thur's that lively thing, whom thou's made take hee's bastime thurin " 
 {Chambers Journal, 1874, p. 484). " Aye, sir," said an old sexton, "folks 
 like putting up a handsome memorandum of those that are gone." " The old 
 
INTBODUGTION. sxiii 
 
 gentleman likes telling antidotes of his young days." " We set up a soup- 
 kitchen, and a report gets about that it is Horsetralian meat" (Miss Yonge, 
 Womankind, p. 294), which suspicion of hippophagy is quite enough to con- 
 demn it. " Shall I let out the white uns or the dark uns" inquired a Hamp- 
 shire man of his master, whose fowl he kept, ingeniously discriminating 
 between the Dwkings and a lighter-coloured breed that happened to be in his 
 charge. The same man, an invaluable factotum, once expressed an opinion 
 that a hemp holder would do for the pony, meaning thereby a halter. A 
 young farmer of East Anglia with a liking for fine phrases appropriated 
 " otium cum dignitate," and assured his friends that he enjoyed his " oceans- 
 come-dig-my-taty," apparently ^ plenty as the result of his potatoe digging. 
 According to a Stratford-on-Avon MS. quoted in the last edition of Nares, 
 it was the business of a juror at an inquest to inquire whether the person 
 found dead was " a. fellow of himself " i.e. &felo de se. 
 
 In a wretched farrago of a book entitled The Bosicriicians, by H. Jennings 
 (p. 41), the author evolves the word scara-bees, or the imperial " Bees" of 
 Charlemagne, out of the Latin scarabceus, a beetle. It occurs also in MoufFet's 
 History of Insects, and in Beaumont and Fletcher. A New York paper once 
 used Sanscript for Sansa-it. The Americans of the Southern States, having 
 already 'eoonery as a descriptive word for Whiggery, from the shifty habits of 
 the racoon, transformed chicanery into shee-coonery, as it were feminine Whig- 
 gery. The lower orders in Ireland have got jackeenery, as if the conduct of 
 a jackeen or cad, out of the same word. " The physic is called ' Head-e- 
 cologiie^ or a sure cure for the head-ache," explains a showman in Mayhew's 
 London Labour and the London Poor, vol. iii. p. 56, referring to eau-de- 
 Cologne. An old woman in a country village to whom it was recommended for 
 an obstinate toothache, gratefully remarked that the power of that 0-do-go- 
 alrmg was, indeed, wonderful (Nomen omen). Another belonging to Surrey 
 observed, " Doctor has give me this here stuff, and ray ! I do believe it's 
 silver latiny" {^Notes and Queries, 5th S. x. 222), and sal volatile it was. 
 
 This word-twisting, or, as Ben Jonson calls it, " wresting words from their 
 true calling," is especially observable, as might be anticipated, in the case of 
 learned and unusual words, such as the names of diseases, medicines, or 
 flowers. 
 
 ' Thus we hear of complaints as extraordinary as " the ' hairy sipples,' 'green 
 asthma,' and 'brown creatures' of the English poor'" [Monthly Packet, vol. 
 xxiii. p. 253), which seem to be disguised forms of erysipelas, tenesmus, and 
 bronchitis. The last disease also takes the different forms of hrowngetus, brown- 
 chitis, and brown-typhus. " He's down with a bad attackt of brown a-isis on 
 the chest," said a Sussex peasant of his neighbour (Parish, Sussex Glossary, 
 s.v. Down'). Information of the lungs is not uncommonly met with. So, in 
 German, diphtheritis has been turned into gifteristik, as if from gift, poison, and 
 gastrische fieber into garstige fieber (Andresen, p. 42). 
 
 " It often happens that gardeners become acquainted with new plants, or 
 new species of old plants, that are brought to them under a foreign name ; not 
 understanding this name, they corrupt it into some word which sounds like it, 
 
xxiv INTEOBUGTION. 
 
 and with which they are already familiar. To this source of corruption we 
 owe such words as dandylion {dent de lion), rosemary (ros marinus), gillyflower^ 
 {girofle), quarter sessions rose (desquatre saisons), Jermalem artichoke (girasole)" 
 &c. (Farrar, Origin of Language, p. 57). Southey mentions that the Bon 
 Chretien pear is called by English gardeners the Bum-Gritton {The Doctm; 
 p. 349, ed. 1848), French gardeners having already manufactured Bon. 
 Chretien out of Gk. Panchrestos, universally good. 
 
 Other gardener's mistakes are China oysters for china asters, Bleary eye for 
 Blairii {rosa). Bloody Mars for Fr. Ble de Mars. An Irish dancing-master pro- 
 fessed to teach his pupils to go through "petticoatees and coatylongs (cotillons) 
 with the Quality" (P. Kennedy, Banks d the Boro, p. 136). Another Irish 
 peasant made misty manners out of misdemeanours (Carleton, Traits and 
 Stories, i. 309, ed. 1843). Polly Ann and Emma Jane have been observed as 
 negro corruptions of Pauline and Imogen. " We have heard of a groom who, 
 having the charge of two horses called Othello and Desdemona, christened 
 them respectively Old Fellow and Thursday Morning. Lamprocles, the name 
 of a horse of Lord Eglintoun's, was converted by the ring into ' Lamb and 
 Pickles.' The same principle may be seen at work among servants ; we have 
 heard a servant systematically use the word cravat for carafe, and astonish a 
 gentleman by calmly asking him at luncheon, " If she should fill his a-avat 
 with water ? " (Farrar, Origin of Language, p. 57). 
 
 Peter Gower, the Grecian and "mighty wiseacre,'' who, according to 
 Leland's Itinerary (temp. Hen. VIII. ed. Hearne), first introduced the 
 mystery of masonry into England, having learned it of the " Venetians " 
 (= Phcenicians), is none other, as Locke first pointed out, than Pythagoras, 
 Frenchified into Pythagore, Petagore, and then turned into a naturalized 
 Englishman. Worthy to keep him company is Paul Podgam, not this time 
 a Christianized heathen, but a personified plant. 
 
 " An old man in East Sussex said that many people set much store by the 
 doctors, but for his part, he was one for the yarbs [^herbs], and Paid Podgam 
 was what he went by. It was not for some time that it was discovered that 
 by Paul Podgam he meant the fern polypodium" (Parish, Sussex Glossary). 
 A German apothecary has been asked for Ole Peter, for umgewandtem Napo- 
 leon, and even for umgewandte dicke Stiefel (a "quick-thick-boot" !), when the 
 real articles wanted were oleum petroe, unguentum Neapolitanum, and unguen- 
 tum digestivum (Andresen, Deutsche Volksetymologie, p. 40). In the Americo- 
 German broken English of the Breitmann Ballads, Cosmopolite becomes 
 ^'- moskopolite, or von whose kopf QheadJ ish bemosst [^=: bearded] mit expe- 
 rience " (p. 17, ed. 1S71), mossyhead being a German college phrase for an 
 old student ; and applaud becomes ooploud (up-loud), " For sefen-lefen 
 minudes dey ooplouded on a bust" (p. 136) ; applause, vp-loudation (p. 1 38) ; 
 while Guerillas appears as Grillers. 
 
 Amongst other ingenious word-twists which may be heard in Germany are 
 canaillenv'ijijeln for caiairienvogeln, frontenspitselm frontispiece, sternlichtern for 
 stearinlichtern, rundtheil for roiidelle, erdschocke for artisrhocke, erdapfel for kar- 
 toffel, the last being, indeed, a partial reversion to the original meaning, as 
 
INTEODVGTION. xxv 
 
 hartoffel itself stands for tartufol. It. tartufola, tartufo, from Lat. terrce tuber, 
 earth tuber. Andresen, in his Volksett/mologie, also mentions the popular cor- 
 ruptions bibelapthek, paiieisen, seeldnder, biefstiick, for bibliothek, partisane, 
 cylinder (:=hat), beefsteak (of which a further corruption is the French 
 waiter's hiftek du pore'). So the unpopular ^ererfaj-OTe was cleverly turned into 
 schand-arm ; the French pear-name beurre blane ( = Ger. butter-birne) was 
 naturalized as beerblang (where Low Ger. beer = Mid. High Ger. Mr, a pear) ; 
 and bleu mourant, a faint or sickly blue, acquired a prettier form in blumerant, 
 with its apparent relationship to blume. Kellerassel (cellar millepes) is more 
 familiarly known as kelleresel, "cellar ass;" but this again is an unconscious 
 reversion to the right meaning assel, a wood-louse, being identical with Low 
 Lat. asellus oniscus, Greek 'ivo^ and ovidKoq. In prov. German pfeifholter, a 
 butterfly, is a corruption oi feif alter, and maul-rose of malve, the mallow. 
 
 The good folk of Bonn, with their thoughts running on apples, sometimes 
 degrade aprikosen, apricots, into mere appelkosen. The Westphalians have 
 coined a word glaszeiig, as if glass-ware, out of klaszeug, signifying properly the 
 presents supposed to be given by the good St. Klas, or Santa Glaus, i.e. St 
 Nicolaus (see Andresen, Deutsche Volksetymologie, p. 38). 
 
 Many of the corruptions which words have undergone are doubtless due to 
 the wear and tear of 
 
 " Time, whose slippery wheel doth play 
 In humane causes with inconstant sway. 
 Who exiles, alters, and disguises words." 
 
 J. Sylvester, Du Bartas, 1621, p. 173. 
 
 " Our language hath no law but vse : and still 
 Runs blinde, vnbridled, at the vulgars will." 
 
 Id. p. 261. 
 Or, as Tennyson expresses it : — 
 
 " A word that comes from olden days. 
 And passes through the peoples ; every tongue 
 Alters it passing, till it spells and speaks 
 Quite other than at first." 
 
 A word having been once thus altered, we must be content to take it as it 
 is, and pass it current for its nominal value. For example, to take a word 
 commented on by De Quincey : — 
 
 "The word country-dance was originally a corruption, but having once 
 arisen, and taken root in the language, it is far better to retain it in its collo- 
 quial form : better, I mean, on the general principle concerned in such cases. 
 For it is, in fact, by such corruptions, by offsets on an old stock, arising 
 through ignorance or mispronunciation originally, that every language is fre- 
 quently enriched ; and new modifications of thought, unfolding themselves in 
 the progress of society, generate for themselves concurrently appropriate ex- 
 pressions. Many words in the Latin can be pointed out as having passed 
 through this process. It must not be allowed to weigh against the validity of 
 
xxvi INTBODUGTION. 
 
 a word once fairly naturalized by use, that originally it crept in upon an abuse 
 or corruption. Prescription is as strong a ground of legitimation in a case of 
 this nature as it is in law. And the old axiom is applicable— Fieri non 
 debuit, factum valet. Were it otherwise, languages would be robbed of much 
 of their wealth. And, universally, the class of purists, in matters of lan- 
 guage, are liable to grievous suspicion as almost constantly proceeding on half 
 knowledge, and on insufficient principles. For example, if I have read one, 
 I have read twenty letters, addressed to newspapers, denouncing the name of 
 a great quarter in London, Mary-le-bone, as ludicrously ungrammatical. The 
 writers had learned (or were learning) French ; and they had thus become 
 aware that neither the article nor the adjective was right. True— not right 
 for the current age, but perfectly right for the age in which the name arose : 
 but, for want of elder French, they did not know that in our Chaucer's time, 
 both were right. Le was then the article feminine as well as masculine, and 
 bone was then the true form for the adjective" ( Works, vol. xiv. p. 201). 
 
 Karl Andresen observes in the preface to his Deutsche Volksetymologie 
 (1876), that it is a strange fact that his own volume, notwithstanding the very 
 curious and interesting nature of the subject, was -the first work of the kind 
 professedly devoted to popular etymology, and he expresses his surprise that 
 philologists should have so long neglected it. M. Gaidoz accounts for this by 
 remarking : — " La raison de la negligence ou pour mieux dire du dedain que 
 les linguistes montrent a I'e'gard de I'etymologie populaire est que celle-ci ne 
 se ramene a aucune loi, et qu'ils etudient de preference les phe'nomenes qui 
 peuvent se raraener a des lois. Peut-etre aussi voient-ils d'un oeil de defiance 
 et de mecontentement des faits en quelque sorte hors serie exercer une influence 
 perturbatrice sur le de veloppement mathemathique des lois generales du langage. 
 11 faut pourtant tenir compte de I'influence exercee sur le langage humain par 
 le raisonnement et la volonte de I'homme. II est aise de voir, ne fut-ce que 
 par I'exemple des langues vivantes, et malgre Taction conservatrice de la litt^- 
 rature et de la grammaire, combien sont puissantes ces tendances qu'on peut 
 reunir sous le nom ^analogie, par exemple dans la conjugaison dont I'analogie 
 cherche a detruire les irregularites et meme la variete" {Revue Critique, 19 
 Aout, 1876, p. 118). 
 
 The same judicious writer elsewhere gives the following summary of the 
 whole subject : — ^" L'etymologie populaire joue un certain role dans le develop- 
 pement des langues, et elle s'applique d'abord aux mots et aux noms etrangers, 
 puis aux mots savants et aux termes techniques, en d'autres termes, a tons les 
 mots et a tons les noms auxquels la conscience linguistique du peuple n'est 
 pas habituee. Dans les mots ordinaires de la langue, I'usage fait qu'on voit 
 distinctement en eux, non la combinaison de sons ou de lettres qu'ils ferment, 
 mais la chose meme qu'ils representent. Ce sont des monnaies que le peuple 
 passe comme il les a re9ues, sans s'occuper d'en regarder I'effigie ou d'en lire 
 la legende, puisqu'il sait qu'elles sont bonnes. Les mots de la langue ordi- 
 naire frappent son oreille des son enfance, et sa curiosite ne s'y arrete pas, 
 parce que ces mots sont pour lui des choses. II n'en est pas de meme des 
 mots etrangers ou inusites qu'il entend pour la premiere fois. Sa curiosite 
 
INTBODVOTION. xxtu 
 
 est mise en jeu, et comme il a una tendance a croire que tout mot a une sig- 
 nification, il cherche et se laisse guider par une ressemblance de son avec des 
 mots deja connus. II en arrive de la sorte a deTormer les mots par fausse 
 analogie. Cette tendance est dans la nature des choses, et les puristes 
 auraient bien tort de s'en indigner" {Bemie Politique et Litter aire, No. 36, 
 p. 831). 
 
 " How many words," says an old writer, " are buryed in the grave of for- 
 getfuUnes ? growne out of vse ? ^vrested awrye and peruersly corrupted by 
 diuers defaultes ? we wil declare at large in our booke intituled, Simphonia 
 vocum Britannicarum" (A. Fleming, Caius of Eng. Dogges, 1576, p. 40, repr. 
 1880). This promise I think was never redeemed. A part of his projected 
 plan I have here endeavoured to carry out, by forming a collection, as com- 
 plete as I could make it, of words which have been corrupted by false deri- 
 vation, or have in some way been altered or perverted from their true form or 
 meaning by false analogy. Such words may be conveniently ranged under 
 one or other of the following analytical groups (see Farrar, Origin of Lan- 
 guage, p. 58) :— 
 
 1. Words corrupted so as to be significant and in some sense appropriate ; 
 such as acorn, amhergreaae, aureole, battlement, belfry, blindfold, buttress, carnival, 
 cais cradle, cause-way, chittyfaced, cockatoo, counterpane, court-card, crawfish, 
 dewlap, excise, fairway, flushed, furbelow, geneva, hanger, hastener, hollyhock, 
 instep, meregrot, runagate, touchy, traveller's joy, wormwood, &c. 
 
 2. Words corrupted so as to convey a meaning, but one totally inappro- 
 priate, though sounding familiarly to the ear ; such as battle-door, cast-me- 
 down, cheese-bowl, fairmaids, farthingale, featherfew, gingerly, goose-horn, 
 hammer-cloth, stick-a-dove, titmouse, wheat-ear, wise-acre, &c. 
 
 3. Words corrupted so as to give rise to a total misconception, and conse- 
 quently to false explanations ; such as attic, bitter-end, cannibal, horn-mad, 
 humble-pie, hurricane, husband, &c. 
 
 4. Words which, though not actually corrupted from their true shape, are 
 suggestive of a false derivation, and have been generally accepted in that mis- 
 taken sense ; such as camlet, carp, colonel, cozen, crabbed, fratery, God, hawker, 
 henchman, hop-harlot, hussif incentive, muse, recover, tribulation, world, &c. 
 
 In this latter case it is the meaning of the word that has got warped from 
 some mistaken relationship or incorrect analogy having been assumed. Many 
 instances of this reflex influence of the form on the meaning will be found. 
 Fuller, for instance, remarks that men who being slow and slack go about 
 business with no agility are called " dull Dromedaries by a foul mistake 
 merely because of the affinity of that name to our English word Dreaming 
 ^compare old Sax. drdm, a dream, ^ Icel. draumr, Dut. droom'\ applied to 
 such who go slowly and sleepily about their employment ; whereas indeed 
 Dromedaries are creatures of a constant and continuing swiftness, so called 
 from the Greek word Apofj-o;, a Race" {Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 385). 
 
 In popular Italian belief the plant comino or cummin is supposed to have 
 the power of keeping animals and young children from straying from home, 
 or a lover near his mistress, owing to an imagined connexion of its name with 
 
xxviii IISiTB OB UOTION. 
 
 Lat. cominus, close at hand, near (De Gubernatis, Mythologie des Plantes, p. xx.). 
 The people of the Abruzzi in a similar manner fancying some relationship 
 between the plant-name menta and It. rammentare, to remember, lovers in 
 that region are accustomed to present a sprig of mint to each other as a me- 
 mento, with the words : — 
 
 " Ecco la menta, 
 
 Se si ama di cuore, non rallenta." 
 
 {Id. p. 236.) Compare the popular misconceptions with regard to the word 
 aimant, s.v. Aymont, p. 16. 
 
 I have thought it well, for the sake of completeness, to notice those words 
 which, though not really corruptions at all, have long passed for such, from 
 men through an excess of ingenuity not being content to take a plain word 
 in its plain meaning, such I mean as beef-eater, fox-glove, John Dm'y, Wehh- 
 rahbit. 
 
 To the English words I have appended a collection of foreign words which 
 have undergone similar corruptions, and also lists of words which have been 
 altered through agglutination of the article, or through being mistaken for 
 plurals when really singular, or vice versd. 
 
 I have to thank Professor Skeat for his great good-nature in looking over 
 many of my earlier sheets, and in setting me right in several instances where 
 I had gone wrong. It is needless to say that I had his invaluable Etymohgieal 
 Dictionary always in use, so far as it was issued when going to press ; but 
 from letter R to the end I could only make use of it for my Additions and 
 Corrections. I am also indebted to Mr. Wedgwood for kindly making a few 
 suggestions which I have utilized. 
 
A DICTIONARY OF 
 
 CORRUPTED WORDS. 
 
 A. 
 
 Aaron. A popular name for the 
 arwm plant, Gk. hiron, Lat. arum, a 
 corruption into a more familiar word. 
 (Prior, Pop. Navies of BritisWFlants.) 
 It was sometimes called Barha-Aron, 
 as if "Aaron's beard" (Gerard, Her- 
 hal, 1597, p. 685). 
 
 Abbey. The Somerset name of the 
 white poplar tree, the Dutch aheel, 
 whence 0. Eng. ahele, abeel, of which 
 this is a corruption. The origin is Low 
 Latia albellus, whitish. 
 
 He attempts to destroy her child hefore 
 birth with the leaves of the abbey-tree. — D. 
 IVitson, Old Edinburgh, vol. i. p. IT'S. 
 
 Another side of the garden was girt with 
 five lofty jagged afce/e-trees. — A. J. C. Hare, 
 Memorials of a Quiet Life, vol. ii. p. 147. 
 
 Abhomination, an old mis-speUing 
 of " abomination " (Lat. ahominatio, 
 from abonvinor, ah and omen), some- 
 thing to be deprecated as evil-omened, 
 as if it were derived frora ab and homo, 
 something ahen from the nattire of 
 man, or inhuman. 
 
 The Hebrews had with Angels conversation. 
 Held th' Idol-Altars in abhomination. 
 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 273 (1621). 
 
 Holofernes the pedant censures the 
 pronunciation of the " racker of ortho- 
 graphy," 
 
 This is ubhominable, — which he would call 
 abbominable. 
 
 hovels Labour^s Lost, v. 1. 1. 27 
 (Globe ed.). 
 
 AhJiomdnable is found in the Promp- 
 torium Pa/rvtdorum (c. 1440) and the 
 Apology for LoUa/rd Doctrines ; ahliomi- 
 namyoun in Wycliffe's New Testament ; 
 
 while Puller presents the form abhomi- 
 nal. 
 
 The Rev. Jonathan Boucher actually 
 assumes the etjrmology to be ab and 
 homo and defines the word as unmanly, 
 unworthy of a man I — (Fitzedward 
 Hall, Modern English, p. 159.) 
 
 Abide. Frequently found in old 
 writers with the meaning to expiate, 
 atone, or pay the penalty for, some 
 wrong- doing, is a confounding of the 
 old Eng. verb abie, abeye, abegge, A. 
 Sax. abicgan, to buy, redeem, or pay 
 for, with abide, A. Sax. abidan, to ex- 
 pect or wait for. 
 
 Let no man abide this deed 
 But we the doers. 
 
 Shakespeare, Julias Casar, iii. 1. 1. 94 
 (Globe ed.). 
 If it be found so, some will dear abide it. 
 Ibid. iii. 2. 1. 119. 
 Ay me ! they little know 
 How dearly I abide that boast so vain. 
 
 Milton, Par. Lost, Bk. IV. 1. 86. 
 
 Listances of abie are the following — 
 For if thou do,- thou shalt it dere abie. 
 Chaucer, Chanones Yemannes Tale, Prologue. 
 Yet thou, false Squire, his fault shalt deare 
 
 aby. 
 And with thy punishment his penance shalt 
 supply. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV. i. 53. 
 Yf I lyue a yere he shal abye it. 
 Caxton, Reynard the Fox (1481), p. 11 
 (ed. Arber). 
 Yf he wente out .... to stele myes to a 
 prestes hows and the priest dyde hym harme 
 sholde I abye that. — Ibid. p. 30. 
 
 In both these in8tances,and elsewhere, 
 the editor incorrectly prints aby [d] e. 
 Spenser, on the other hand, some- 
 
 B 
 
ABLE 
 
 ( 2 ) 
 
 ADDEB 
 
 times uses ahie incorrectly instead of 
 abide, to endure or suffer, e. g. — 
 
 Who dyes, the utmost dolor doth abye. 
 F. Queene, III. iv. 38. 
 
 But patience perforce, he must abie 
 What fortune and his fate on him will lay. 
 Ibid. III. X. 3. 
 
 Able, is old Eng. hable, Fr. habile, 
 Lat. hahilis, " haveable," manageable, 
 fit, apt (from haheo, to have). We stiU 
 say habilitate, to en-able, not ahilitafe, 
 habit, not obit (cf. also habilaments, 
 fittings, clothes; dishahille, undress). 
 The word seems to have been assimi- 
 lated to — perhaps confounded with — 
 old Eng. abal, strength, ability, "};in 
 abal and craft," Gcedmon, 32, 9, which 
 Ettmiiller connects with a root, form, 
 aban, to be strong. {Lex. Anglo-Sate. 
 B. V.) See Diefenbach, Ooth. Sprache, 
 i. 2. 
 
 Able, or abuUe, or abylle. Habilis, idoneus. 
 Promjitonum Parvulorum, 1440. 
 
 Which charge lasteth not long, but vntill 
 the Scholer he made hable to go to the Vni- 
 versitie. — R. Ascham, Schotemaster, p. 2-i (ed. 
 Arber), 1570. 
 
 Abeam- or Abeaham-coloueed, as 
 applied to the hair in old plays, is a 
 corruption of auburn, which is spelled 
 ab)-on in Hall's Satires (ui. 5, " abron 
 locks "). Shakespeare, Cor. it. 3. 
 (foho) speaks of heads, " some brown, 
 some black, some abram " {vide Nares). 
 The expressions Cain-colou/red and 
 Judas-coloured for a red-haired person 
 may have contributed to this mode of 
 spelling. In old German it is found 
 as abranuch, abrdumisch. In old Eng- 
 lish, where the word occxu-s in the 
 forms of abron, aburne, aborne, it de- 
 notes a colour inclining to white, e. g. — 
 
 He's white-hair'd. 
 Not wanton-white, but such a manly colour. 
 Next to an aborne. 
 
 Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 2. 1. 123 (Quarto, 
 1634, ed. Littledale. See his note, p. 155. ) 
 
 It is another form of alburn, white, 
 Lat. alburnum. 
 
 It. alburno, the white part of any timber, 
 also the whitish colour of womens haire which 
 we call an Alburne or Aburne colour. — Fl'orio, 
 New World of Words, 1611. 
 
 Abraham's Balm, a popular name 
 for a kind of willow, is probably a cor- 
 ruption of Abrahams-boom {i. e. Abra- 
 ham's tree), a Dutch name for the Vitex 
 
 Agnus- Gasius. — Britten and Holland, 
 Eng. Plant-Names, p. 4 (E. D. Soc). 
 
 AcoEN, has generally been regarded 
 as another form of "oak-corn," e.g., 
 A. Sax. ac-corn, ac-ccern, mceren, as if 
 from an, &c, an oak ; so Ger. eichel, as 
 if from eiohe, oak. Old Eng. forms are 
 ohecorne, aecha/rne (Ortus), accorne 
 (Prompt. Parv.), alcehorne (Florio, s. 
 V. Acilone). Compare, however, Icel. 
 akarn, Dan. agern, all near akin to 
 Gothic akran, fruit, originally a crop, 
 field-produce, from Goth, ahrs, a field, 
 Icel. akr, Gk. agrds, Lat. ager, A. Sax. 
 mcer, Ger. acker, our "acre." See 
 Diefenbach, Goth. Sprache, i. 31. Dean 
 Wren notes of the oak, 
 
 Besides the gall, which is his proper fruite, 
 hee shootes out oaherns, i.e. ut nunc vocamus 
 acornes, and oakes apples, and polypodye, and 
 moss." — Sir Thos. Browtie, Works, vol. i. p. 
 203 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 See Akehornb. 
 
 Act oe Paet, in the phrase, " I wUl 
 take neither act ncrpa/rt in the matter," 
 is a corrupted form of the old Scottish 
 law term, " To be art and part in the 
 committing of a crime, i. e., when the 
 same person was both a contriver and 
 acted a part in it."^ — BaAley. L. Lat. 
 artem et partem habuit (Jamieson). 
 See Davies, 8upp. Eng. Glossary, s. v. 
 
 Acknawleging his sinnes, bot na art nor 
 part of the King's father's murdour wherfor 
 he was condemnit. — Jas. Melville, Diary, 
 1581, p. lir (Wodrow Soc. ed.). 
 
 AcwEEN, the Anglo-Saxon name for 
 the squirrel, which Bosworth and 
 EtmiUler rank imder the heading of 
 derivatives from ac, in company with 
 ac-bedm and others, as if it was the 
 animal that lives in the oaks (Ger. 
 eichorn), is really rrlcelandic ikwni, and 
 that, according to Cleasby, is a cor- 
 ruption of the Latin and Greek scimrus, 
 " the shadow-tail," the diminutive of 
 which, sciurulus, yields our sgmrrrel. 
 Cf. O.Eng. ocguerne, Lambeth HormMes, 
 p. 181. 
 
 Addee. a. Sax. mttor, so spelt as if 
 denoting the poisonous snake, from 
 mttor, attor or ator, poison, Prov. Eng. 
 atter, Dan. cedder, Icel. eitr (like Icel. 
 eitr-ornvr, "poison-worm," the viper), 
 is a corrupt form of A. Sax. naddre, a 
 snake (mistaken for an mddre), Welsh 
 
ADJUST 
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 ADVANCE 
 
 fuidr, Irisli nafhair, originally perhaps 
 a water snake, Lat. matrix, " the 
 swimmer," a serpent. — (W. Stokes, 
 Irish Glosses, p. 46 ; Diefenbach, Ooth. 
 Spraclie, ii. 93.) Compare addircop 
 (Palsgrave) ^ attcrcop, a spider ; also 
 natter -jach, a (venomous) toad (Suf- 
 folk), and Ger. nutter, an adder. In S. 
 Matt, xxiii. 33, where Wychffe (1389) 
 has "3ee sarpentis, fruytis oi edd/ris," 
 the A. Sax. version (995) has " ge 
 ncedd7-an and nceddrena cynn." The 
 poisonous nature of the adder is fre- 
 quently dwelt on in old Eng. writers. 
 
 We ben alse Jie nedre hie liaueS longe liued, 
 and we longe leien in sinne. Hie hauefS 
 muchel atter on hire [i.e. We ai*e as the adder, 
 she hath lived long, and we lay long in sin. 
 She hath much venom in herj. — Old Eng. 
 Homilies, XII. Cent. 2nd Ser. p. 199 (ed. 
 Morris). 
 
 Jie Neddri of attri Onde haue seoue Kundles 
 [The adder of poisonous envy hath seven off- 
 springs]. — Ancreu Riule (1225), p. 200. 
 
 J>e attri neddri [slea<5] alle Jjeo ontfule [The 
 poisonous adder (slayeth) all the envious]. — 
 Id. p. 210. 
 
 Danne J^e neddre is of his hid naked, 
 and bare of his brest after. 
 
 Bestiary (ab. 1250) 1. 144, Old 
 Eng. Miscellany, p. 5. 
 In swete wordis Jje nedder was closet. 
 
 Tfte Bahees book,\,. 305, 1. 207 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Eddyr, or neddyr, wyrme. Serpens. — 
 Promptorium Parvidorum (1440). 
 
 Topsell says of the adder : 
 
 Although I am not ignorent that there be 
 which write it Nadere, of Natrix; which sig- 
 nifieth a Watersnake, yet I cannot consent 
 vnto them so readily, as to depart from the 
 more vulgar receaued word of a -whole 
 Nation, because of some likelyhoode in the 
 deriuation from the Latine. — Historie of' 
 Serpents, p. 50 (1608). 
 
 Adjust. So spelt as if the primitive 
 meaning were to make just or even, 
 to set to rights, and so Pr. adjuster, " to 
 place justly, set aptly, couch evenly, 
 joyn handsomely," Cotgrave; O. Fr. 
 adjouster, to add, set or put unto, It. 
 aggiustare, " to make iust, even, or 
 leueU " (Florio), Prov. ajoatar. Diez 
 is of opinion that these words are de- 
 rivatives not of just, giusto, but of O. 
 Pr. joste, juste, Prov. josta. It. giusta, 
 Lat. juxta, near, as if adjuxta/re, to set 
 near together. Hence also Sp. justwr, 
 O. Ft. joster, juster, Eng. "to joust" 
 and "jostle." 
 
 Admiral, an assimilation of the older 
 form anviral, amyrayl, Sp. almirante, 
 Portg. amiralh. It. amtniraglio, to 
 "admire," "admirable," as we see in 
 the Low Latin forms, admiralis, odmA- 
 ralius, admiraldas, adiivirans, adnviran- 
 dits(Spehnan, Olossarium, s.v.); admi- 
 rahiles and admiralU in Matthew Paris, 
 O. Pr. admraulx (Selden, Titles of 
 Honour, p. 103.). 
 
 Amiral is from the Arabic amir, a 
 prince or lord (compare Heb. amir, 
 head, top, summit). " Amerel of the 
 see, AmireUus." — Prompt. Pa/rv. 0. 
 Pr. halnvyrach, an admiral (Cotgrave), 
 seems to have been assimilated to Gk, 
 halmyros, the briny sea. 
 
 Engehnann supposes that amiral is 
 shortened from Arab, anm/r-al-hahr, 
 commander of the sea, but the oldest 
 meaning of the word in French, as M. 
 Devic observes, is a general or com- 
 mander of troops. 
 
 Sir Lancelot . . . slew and detrenched 
 many of the Romans, and slew many knights 
 and admiralU [^ erairs or Saracen chiefs, 
 Wright]. — Malory, Historie of King Arthur, 
 1634, ch. xciv. 
 
 Admiral occurs in Layamon's Brut., 
 A.D. 1205. 
 
 It may be noted that the handsome 
 butterfly called the adnviral is also 
 known as the admirable, which was 
 probably its original narae. 
 
 Much difference there is about the original 
 of this word, whilst most probable their 
 opinion who make it of Kasteru extraction, 
 borrowed by the Christians from the 
 Saracens. These derive it from Amir, in 
 Arabick a Prince, and "aXiq;, belonging to 
 the Sea, in the Greek language ; such mix- 
 ture being precedented in other words. 
 Besides, seeing the Sultan's dominions, in 
 the time of the Holy War, extended from 
 Sinus Arabicus to the North Eastern part of 
 the Midland-Sea, where a barbarous kind of 
 Greek was spoken by many, Amirall (thus 
 compounded) was significantly comprehen- 
 sive of his jurisdiction. Admirall is but a 
 depraving oiAmirallin vulgar mouths. How- 
 ever, it will never be beaten out of the heads 
 of common sort, that, seeing the Sea is scene 
 of wonders, something of wonderment hath in- 
 corporated Itself' in this word, and that it hath 
 a glimps, cast, or eye of admiration therein. — 
 T. Fuller, Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 18 
 (ed. 1811). 
 
 Advance, \ so spelt as if com- 
 Advanta&e, J pounded (like ad- 
 venture, ad/verse, etc.) with the Latin 
 
ADVOWTBY 
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 AEBT 
 
 preposition ad, to, are derivatives of 
 Fr. avancer, avantage (It. avanza/re, 
 vantaggio), which are from avant, for- 
 ward, Lat. ah-ante. 
 
 Other mistaken assimilations of the 
 first syllable of a word to prepositions 
 are — 
 
 Enl(wge for O. Eng. alarge (Wyoliffe), 
 Fr. eslargir, Lat. ex-largior. 
 • Engrieve (Chaucer, Spenser) for ag- 
 grieve. Entice, Fr. attiser. 
 
 Invpa/ir for appadr. Imposthume for 
 aposteme. 
 
 Invoice, from It. avviso (advice). 
 Ensample for example. 
 
 Encumber for O. Eng. acombre, ac- 
 comhre {Townley Mysteries). 
 
 Encroach for accroach, Fr. accrocher. 
 
 Embassy, an amhassage, Low L. am- 
 
 hascia, Lat. amhactus. 
 
 Advowtey, ^ an old word for advl- 
 
 AvowTET, ♦ tery. O. Fr. avoufrie, 
 
 as if a breach of one's marriage vow 
 
 (Fr. voue), is a derivative from Lat. 
 
 a^MWeriMm through the ProvenQal forms 
 
 azulteri, aiilteri, avulteri, just as Lat. 
 
 gladius yields Prov. glazi, glai, glavi, 
 
 Fr. and Eng. glcdve ; and Lat. vidua 
 
 jdelds Prov. vevza, veiwa (Diez). 
 
 Duke Humfi'ey aye repined. 
 Calling this match advouirie, as it was. 
 Mirror for Magistrates [Nares]. 
 The pharisees brought a woman taken in 
 aduoultrye. 
 Caxtim, Reynard the Fox, 1481, p. 73 
 (ed. Arber). 
 Euen such vnkindnesse as was in the lewes 
 ... in committing aduoultrie and hordom. — 
 R. Ascham, The Schoolmaster, 1570, p. 56 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 Avouire {i. e. a-outre'=:a{d)uUer) oc- 
 curs in the Norman French Vie de 
 Beint Auban, 1. 62 (ed. Atkinson). 
 
 JSglogues. Spenser's spelling of ecZo- 
 gues from a mistaken theory that — 
 
 They were first of the Greekes, the in- 
 ventours of them, called Mglogai, as it were 
 tdywv or alyowfji.m \oyoi, that is, Goteheards 
 tales. — General Argument to the Sheplieards 
 Calender. 
 
 " Eclogue " of course is the Gk. 
 ehlogS, a choice poem, a selection. So 
 E. E.. his conmaentator thinks it neces- 
 sary to note that Idyllia is the proper 
 name for Theocritus's pastorals "and 
 not, as I have heard some fondly guesse 
 . . .ffcecJiZia, of theGoteheardsin them" 
 ( Spenser, p. 472, Glohe ed.). 
 
 Aelmesse, > an Anglo-Saxon word 
 Ai-MASSE, \ for a charitable deed, 
 our "ahns," so spelt as if derived 
 from cbI, fire, and mcesse, an oblation, 
 the mass, " a burnt offering " (so Bos- 
 worth and H. Leo), is really a corrupt 
 form of L. Lat. elimosina, Gk. Elee- 
 mosune, an act of pity or mercy, whence 
 It. limosina, Sp. limosna, Fr. cmmone 
 (almosne). This word has been pecu- 
 liarly unfortunate in the treatment it 
 has received at the hands of popular 
 etymologists. Thus Brother Geoffrey 
 the Grammarian, c. 1440, when regis- 
 tering the word " almesse, or almos, Eh- 
 mosina, roga " [ ? a pyre, a burnt-offer- 
 ing] , vouchsafes the information that 
 " Elimosina is derived from el, which 
 is God, and rrwys which is water, as if 
 water of Ood ; because just as water 
 extinguishes fire, so alms, elimosina, 
 extinguishes sin." Florio similarly 
 defines It. Elimdsina, " a word com- 
 posed of E'li, that is to say God, and 
 Mois, that is to say water, that is to 
 say Alms or water of God to wash 
 sinnes away." " Elimosiniere, an Al- 
 moner, a giuer of almes or Gods water." 
 {Id.) 
 
 In Mid. High. German the word 
 (Ger. almosen) takes the form of almu- 
 osen, as if containing al and nvuos 
 (pap, food), and sometinaes oi arnvuosen, 
 as if from a/rm, poor-food. 
 
 Aerolite, a corrupt spelling of aero- 
 lith, air-stone, from the Greek lithos, a 
 stone, just as chrysolite is for chrysolith, 
 " gold-stone," from a desire probably 
 to assimilate these words to others 
 terminating in ite, such as anthracite, 
 malachite, &c. So coproUte for co- 
 proUth. 
 
 Aeey, > in old Eng. also spelt " aire, 
 AiEEY, 5 cdry, a Nest of Hawks 
 or other birds of prey " (Bailey), 
 Low Lat. aerea, a nest (Spelman, Olos- 
 scuriurn), as if so called from the amy 
 or aerial height at which the eagle 
 builds (Lat. aereus, 1 airy, 2 elevated), 
 is derived from Fr. aire, an eagle's nest, 
 airerto make a nest oi airy (Cotgrave). 
 See AiB. 
 
 An eagle o'er his aiery tow'rs 
 To souae annoyance that comes near his 
 nest. 
 Shakespeare, King John, act v. ec. 2. 
 
AFFOBD 
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 AKEHOBNE 
 
 Another frequent corruption is eyrie, 
 eyerie, as if for ey-ry (old Eng. eij, an 
 egg), i. e. egg-ery, a collection of eggs. 
 
 Afford, so spelt as if connected with 
 Fr. affm-er, affeurer, is a corruption of 
 old Eng. iforiien of the same meaning, 
 cf. geforiian, to further or help 
 (Morris), avorthi in Bp. Pecock. 
 
 Do l^ine elmesse of J?on Jiet Jju maht 
 ifoi'^ien. — Old Eng. Homiiies, 1st ser. p. 37 
 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 See Oliphant, Old and Mid. English, 
 p. 179. 
 
 Aghast, so spelt from a mistaken 
 analogy with ghastly, " ghost-Uke," is 
 an incorrect form of old Eng. agasf, a 
 participial form from A. Sax. egesian, 
 to ternfy, Goth, usgaisjan, from A. 
 Sax. egesa, ege, " awe," fear, Goth. 
 agis. 
 
 J)e deouel schal set agesten ham. 
 
 Ancren Riwte (1225), p. 212. 
 Wallace ■was spedy and gi-etlye als agast. 
 Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, Bk. i.I. 230 
 (ab. 1461). 
 Of euery noyse so was the -wi'etch agast. 
 Sir Thos. Wiat, Satires, i. 1. 39 (ab. 1540). 
 There sail ane Angell blawe a blast 
 Quhilk sail mak all the warld agast. 
 Sir D. Lindsey, The Mimarche, Bk, iv. 1. 
 5586 (1552). 
 
 Another corrupt spelling is agazed, 
 as if to imply standing at gaze, with 
 eyes fixed and paralyzed with fear. 
 
 As ankerd fast my sprites doe all resorte 
 To stand agazed, and sinke in more and 
 more. 
 Lord Surrey, Songes and Sonnettes, 1557. 
 The French exclaim'd, The deril was in 
 arms; 
 All the whole army stood agaz'd on him. 
 Shakespeare, Hen. VI. Pt. I. i. 3. 
 
 See ho'wever Prof. Skeat, Etym. Diet. 
 s. V. 
 
 Agnail. This word in aU prohabUity 
 has nothing to do, as its present form 
 woiild suggest, with the naAls of the 
 fingers (A. Sax. angnagl(1), pain-nail). 
 It was formerly spelt agnel, agnayle, 
 angnayle, and denoted a corn on the 
 toe, or generally any hard sweUing. 
 It is doubtless the same word as Fr. 
 angonailles, botchis, (pockie) bumps, 
 or sores (Cotgrave), It. anguinaglia, a 
 blain on the groin, " also a disease in 
 the inside of a horse's hinder legs," 
 (Plorio). AngmnagUa, as Diaz shows. 
 
 is for inguinalia, a disease or affliction 
 of inguine, Lat. inguen, the groin or 
 flank (Sp. engle, Pr. aine). 
 
 Palsgrave (1530) has " agnayle upon 
 one's too," and Turner, Herbal, speaks 
 of " angnaijlles and such hard swel- 
 linges," Florio of " agnels, wartles, 
 almonds, or kernels growing behind 
 the eares and in the necke " (s. v. 
 Pdno) . 
 
 The inner flesh or pulp [of a Gourd] is 
 passing good for to be applied to the agnels 
 or corns of the feet. — Holland, Pliny's Nat. 
 Hist. ii. 36 (1634). 
 
 Frouelle, An Agnell, pin, or warnell in 
 the the [? toe]. — Cotgrave (ed. 1660). 
 
 Agassin, A corn or agnele in the feet or 
 toes. — Id. 
 
 Ghiandole, Agnels, wartles, or kernels in 
 the thi'oat. — Florio. 
 
 AiE, word for a person's mien, 
 manner, or deportment (Fr. air. It. 
 aria), as if the subtle atmosphere, or 
 aura, which envelopes one and ema- 
 nates from his idiosyncrasy, is a con- 
 fusion of " air " := Lat. aer, with quite 
 a distinct word, Old Fr. aire, family, 
 breeding, natural disposition. This 
 aire, derived from Lat. area, seems to 
 have gone through the transitions of 
 meaning : (1) a space of ground for 
 building, (2) a dwelling or nest (whence 
 our airy, or eyry, an eagle's nest), (8) 
 race, family, disposition, quality. So 
 old Eng. debonaire, good-natured, Fr. 
 debonnaire, was originally apphed to 
 " un fauoon de bonne air," of a good 
 nest, i. e. breed or strain — well bred 
 and consequently well conditioned. 
 
 See Littre, Histoire de la Langue 
 Frangadse, tom. i. p. 61. 
 
 Prof. Skeat thinks that L. Lat. area, 
 an eyrie, is itself only a corrupted form 
 of Icel. wra-hreiir, " eagle's-nest " 
 {Etym. Diet. p. 10). 
 
 AiEBELL, a name for the Campanula 
 rotund/ifolia, is corrupted from the 
 commoner name Hairhell. The old 
 forms of this word are Ha/re bell and 
 Hare's bell (Britten and Holland, Eng. 
 Flant-Names, p. 34). 
 
 Akehoene, an old mis-speUing of 
 acorn (Urry, Ghaucer, p. 364). Other 
 old forms of the word are ahernel, 
 akeron, akker, akkern, akran, and 
 akyr (Britten and HoUand, Eng. Plant- 
 Names, p. 9). See AcoKN. 
 
AEEB8PIBE 
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 ALLELUIA 
 
 Akerspiee, "J provincial words, 
 
 AcEESPiEE, >• meaning to sprout or 
 
 AcKEESPEiT, J germinate, corrupt 
 forms of acrospyre (from Greek akros 
 and speira) to shoot at the extremity. 
 
 They let their malt akerspire. — Regiam 
 Majestatem, p. 293 (Wright). 
 
 A more corrupt form hechlespire is 
 found in some counties. 
 
 Alacompane, an old name for the 
 plant Inula Helenium (BuHein, Booh 
 of Simples), as if from a French a la 
 compagne, is a corruption of the old 
 Latin name enula campana, through 
 the forms elecampane and alUcampane, 
 used in Cheshire. (See Britten and 
 Holland, Eng. Plant-Names, p. 11.) 
 
 Albatross, as if connected with Lat. 
 alhus, white, is corrupted from the older 
 form alcatraz (e. g. in The Mirror for 
 Magistrates), which is the name of the 
 bird in Portuguese and Spanish. 
 
 " Alcatraz, a kind of fowle like a 
 seamew " (Minshew), old Fr. algatros. 
 M. Devio has shown that alcatraz is the 
 same word as Portg. alcatruz. Span, alca- 
 duz, Arab, al-qadiis, a vessel for draw- 
 ing water, having originally been given 
 as a name to the pehcan, which was 
 beheved to fill its huge bill with water 
 and convey it to its young ones in the 
 desert (Chardin). For this reason the 
 pehcan is called by the Arabs sagqa, 
 " the water-carrier." 
 
 Alfin. ^ The old EngUsh name 
 
 AwEYN. < for the piece in the game 
 of chess which we now call a bishop is 
 a corruption of its oriental name, 
 Arabic Al-fil, " The Elephant," Persian 
 Pil or JPil (compare the borrowed 
 words Icel. fill, Swed., D&n.fU, an ele- 
 phant). In Eussian it is called slonie, 
 an elephant (vid. D. Forbes, History 
 of Ghess, pp. 40, 210). 
 
 Awfun of Jje chekar, Aljinus. — Prompto- 
 rium Pm-v. c. 1440. 
 
 Al/'yn, a msin of the chesse horde, avl/in. 
 — Patigrave, 1530. 
 
 Al-fil was assimilated in Enghsh to 
 alfin, an oaf or lubber, just as fil be- 
 came in O. French fol, a fool. An 
 Itahan corruption is dalfino, " adolphin, 
 also a Bishop at Chesse," — Florio ; Old 
 French dauphin, as well as auphin, 
 aufin ; compare Span, and Portg. alfil ; 
 It. alfino, alfido; Low Lat. alfilus, al- 
 phinus (Devic). 
 
 All amoet, dejected, for a la mori. 
 
 Shall he thus all amort live malcontent? 
 — Greene, History of Friar Bacon, 1594. 
 
 What, all a mart ! How doth my dainty 
 Nell i.—Peele, Edward I. (1593), p. 392, ed. 
 Dyce. 
 
 What all a mort? No meny counte- 
 nance ? — Chettle, Kind Harts Dreame, 
 
 Allan, a name in Cornwall for 
 October 31st, is a curious condensation 
 of Allhalloween, i. e. The Eve of Alh 
 hallows or All Saints Day. 
 
 At St. Ives, " Allan Day," as'it is termed, 
 is one of the chief days in all the year to 
 hundreds of children, who would deem it a 
 great misfortune were tliey to go to bed on 
 Allan Night without their Allan apple to hide 
 beneath their pillows. A large quantity of 
 apples are disposed of in this manner, the 
 sale of which is termed Allan Market. — K. 
 Hunt, Pop. Romajices of West of England, 
 2nd Ser. p. 177. 
 
 All and some, a very common phrase 
 in old Eng. meaning all together, one 
 and all. It is a corruption of alle in- 
 same, all i-some, zr all together ; in- 
 same, A. Sax. cet-samne, together, from 
 sain, samen, together (see Notes and 
 Queries, 6"' S. II. 404). 
 The lady lawghed and made good game 
 W'han they came owte all in-same. 
 
 The Wright's Chaste Wife (ab. 1462) 
 1. 602 (E. E. T. S.). 
 [He] bade assemble in his halle, 
 In Pantheon alle in-same. 
 
 Stacuons of Rome, 1.792 (E. E. T. S.). 
 Uppon holy Jjoresday J^er on his nome 
 Heo weren i-gedered alle i-some. 
 
 Castel ofLoue, 1. 1418 (ab. 1320). 
 Sir, we bene heare all and some, 
 As boulde men, readye bonne. 
 
 Chester Mysteries, ii. 87 (Shaks. Soc). 
 His wife tolde him, all and some, 
 How Dane Hew in the morning would come. 
 A Mery Jest of Vane Hew, 1. 41 (Early 
 Pop. Poetry, iii. 136). 
 Now stop your noses, readers, all and some. 
 
 Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, ii. 457. 
 Two hours after midnight all and some. 
 Unto the hall to wait his word should come. 
 W. Morris, Earihly Paradise, ii. 478. 
 
 Allaways, the Lincolnshire word for 
 the drug aloes (Peacock), assimilated 
 apparently to carraways. 
 
 Alleluia, a popular name for the 
 wood-sorrel (BaUey), sometimes also 
 called lujulasaiA luzula, is held by Coles, 
 .Adam in Eden, 1657, and Withering, to 
 be a corruption of the Italian name 
 Juliola ; see, however. Julienne iufra. 
 
ALLUT 
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 AMBEBGBEASE 
 
 Florio (1611) has " Lwggiala, an 
 hearbe very sharps in taste." 
 
 Alley, the Lincohishire word for the 
 aisle of a church, of which probably it 
 is a corruption. 
 
 Alley, a boy's marble of a superior 
 description to the ordinary clay ones, 
 is probably a shortened form of ala- 
 iaster, of which material it is said 
 (in the language of the toy m.art) to 
 hare been made. 
 
 Mr. Pickwick enquired '* whetlier lie had 
 won any alley tors [? = taws] or commoneys 
 lately (both of which I understand to be a 
 particulai- species of mai'bles much prized by 
 the youth of this town)." — Dickens, Pick- 
 wick Papers, ch. xxxiv. 
 
 Allkjatob, It. alligatore, so spelt 
 as if a derivative of Lat. alliga/re, to 
 bind (cf. hoa constridor), is a corruption 
 of the older word alagarto, which is the 
 Sp. lagarto with the article el {al) pre- 
 fixed, Lat. lacerta, a hzard. However, 
 if awriterin the Penny GyclopcBdia,s.y., 
 be correct, lagarto is itself a corruption 
 of a native Indian word legaieer. 
 Ealeigh mentions alegartoes in his 
 History of the World, fol. p. 150. 
 
 Jonson spells it alligarta in Bartho- 
 lomew Fair, act ii. sc. 1. Mrs. Malaprop, 
 as every one knows, gave the word a 
 new twist into " an allegory on the 
 banks of the Nile." Fer contra, the 
 lizard seemed to the Ettrick Shepherd 
 a diminutive aUigator. 
 
 There's nane [serpent] amang our mosses, 
 only asks, which is a sort o' lizards, or wee 
 alligators. — Nodes Ambrosian<E, vol. i. p. 145. 
 
 All Saints' Woet, a popular name 
 of the Hypericum And/roscsmum, is a 
 mistaken rendering of the French name 
 toute-saine (Tutsan) "AU-heal." 
 
 Britten and Holland, Eng. Plant- 
 Names (B. D. Soc). 
 
 Allyant, a variety of alieni, the old 
 Enghsh spelling of alien, from a desire 
 apparently to accommodate it to 
 " alliant or ally, one that is in league, 
 or of kindred with one (Blount, 1656), 
 sc. one's enemy." 
 Yonder cometh Richmond over the fflood 
 
 with many allyants out of ifan* countrye, 
 bold men of bone and blood ; 
 
 the crowne of England chalengeth hee. 
 Percy, Folio MS. vol. iii. p. 241, 1. 145-148. 
 
 If any alyant in his absence durst aduen- 
 ture him seluen to visitt or inuade, our most 
 valiant realme. — Ibid. vol. i. p. 21.5, 1. 60. 
 
 HaUiweU and Wright [in Nares] 
 while quoting " Among alyoAJmtes 
 [=: strangers, aUens] he had easily 
 cured very many of all kyudes of dis- 
 eases" [Paraphrase of Brasmus, 1548), 
 confound this word with allyaunte, 
 alhed, akin, in More's Utopia, 1551. 
 
 Aliant, an ahen, occurs in Ooverdale 
 (Judges xix., Jer. vhi.) and A. V. 1611 
 (Job xix. 15, Lam. v. 2). 
 
 Almeey, an old Eng. word for a 
 cupboard, otherwise spelt aunwy, " a 
 Cupboard for the keeping of cold and 
 broken victuals " or other alms, as if 
 for almonry, cf. " awmehry or a/wniery, 
 Pjleemosina/i-ium " [Prompt. Parv.). It 
 is the same word as Ger. aimer, quasi A. 
 Sax. almerige, Sp. almario and armaria. 
 Low Lat. alma/>'ia, armaria, Pr. 
 a/rmoire; all (according to Diez) from 
 Latin arma/rium, a chest for holding 
 oi'ms. 
 
 Almari] or almery, Almarium. — Prompt, 
 Pai-v. 
 
 Almery of mete kepynge, or a saue for 
 mete. Cibutum. — Ibid. 
 
 Almery, aumbry, to put meats in, unes 
 ahnoires. — Palsgrave. 
 
 Almond, is derived from Er. amande, 
 Proven9al amanda, and these from 
 dmandola, which was supposed to be a 
 diminutival form, but really represen- 
 ted the TiHtiD. amygdala {&k.. ajj,iySa\.ti). 
 The etymologieally correct form would 
 be something Uke amandel, cf. It. 
 mandola, Ger. mandel. See Date. 
 
 So the French ange has been formed 
 from cmg-el by dispensing vidth the 
 supposed diminutival termination el 
 {PMlog. Soc. Proc. vi. 41). 
 
 Alpine, a Cheshire name for the 
 plant Sedmm Telephium, is a corruption 
 of Orpine (Britten and Holland, Eng. 
 Plant-Names, p. 12, E. D. Soc), Fr. 
 orpin, contracted from orpinnent, which 
 is from Lat. auripigmentum, with 
 allusion to the golden- coloured flowers 
 of one species. 
 
 All-plaistee, a provincial corrup- 
 tion of alabaster (Yorkshire), which in 
 old Enghsh is frequently spelt ala- 
 hlaster. cf. Yallow-plastee, infra. 
 Her alahlaster brest she soft did kis. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, Bk. III. 2, xlii. 
 
 Ambebgeeasb, a corruption of Fr. 
 ambregris. Grey amber [gris amber. 
 
AMBBY 
 
 ( 
 
 ) 
 
 ANCIENT 
 
 Milton, Pa/r. Reg. ii. 344). So verdi- 
 grease for vert-de-gris. 
 
 Jacobus de Dondis, the Aggregator, 
 repeats ambergreese, nutmegs, and all spice 
 amongst the rest. — Burtatij Anatomy of 
 Melancholy, 16th ed. p. 436. 
 
 A mass of this Ambergreese was about the 
 third year of Kintf Charles found in this 
 county [Cornwall] at low water. — Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, rol. i. p. 206 (ed. 
 Nichols). 
 
 A fat nightingale well season 'd with pep- 
 per and ambergrease. — S. Marmion, The 
 Antiquary, act iv. so. 1 (1641). 
 
 Ambey, \ a cupboard or pantry, is 
 Aumbry, j the Fr. armoire, origin- 
 ally achestinwhicliarmswere kept. The 
 word was sometimes spelt almery, and 
 being appHed to the general receptacle 
 of broken meat such as would be given 
 in ahns, was confounded with quite a 
 different word, aunvry or almomry, the 
 oflice or pantry of the aivmhrere, 
 awmnere, or almoner, the alms dis- 
 penser. Wedgwood. 
 
 Amoeeide, ) old Scotch corruptions 
 
 Emebant, S of the word emerald, 
 O. Eng. emeraud. The EngUsh word 
 traces its origin to Gk. sma/ragdos, 
 ma/ragdos, which may be the same 
 word as Sansk. marakata, a beryl, 
 (Piirst), cf. Heb. hareheth, a beryl. (See 
 Spealcer's Commenia/i-y, Ex. xxviii. 17.) 
 
 Ampeezand, an old name for " &," 
 formerly &, the contracted sign of ei 
 (:=and); the Criss-Cross row of the 
 old horn-books commonly ending in 
 X, y, ji, &c, 6f . These final characters 
 were read " et cetera," "etper se, and." 
 When the modem & was substituted for 
 6f, this came to be read " and per se, 
 and," of which amperzand, ampus-and, 
 ampassy, are corruptions. Similarly 
 the letters A, I, 0, when standing by 
 themselves as words, were read in 
 speUing lessons " A per se, A," " I per 
 se, I." Chaucer calls Creseide " the 
 floureaud aperse of Troie and Grece." 
 
 But he observed in apology that it [z] 
 was a letteryou never wanted hardly, nud he 
 thought it had only been put there to ffnish 
 ofi'th' alphabet like, though ampus-and would 
 ha' done as well, for what he could see." — 
 Adam Bede, ch. xxi. p. 205. 
 
 In the Holdemess dialect, E. York- 
 shire, it is called parseyand. See And- 
 PUSSY-AND, infra. 
 
 Anbebry, or anlxiry or amhury. 
 
 A kind of wen, or spongy wart, growing 
 upon any part of a horse s body, full of 
 blood. — The Sportsman's Dictionary, 1785. 
 
 Lincolnshire nanberry, from A. Sax. 
 ampre, a swollen vein, which still sur- 
 vives in the Dialects of Essex and the 
 East counties as amper, and in the 
 South-Eastem counties as ampery, de- 
 cayed, unhealthy (Wright, Proinndal 
 Diet.). 
 
 \fri ampres were an mancyn ler his to-cyme 
 [i.e. three blemishes were m mankind before 
 His coming]. — Old. Eng. Homilies, XII. Cent. 
 1 Ser. p. 237 (ed. Blorris). 
 
 Ampre may possibly be connected 
 -with old Eng. ample, ampulle, a 
 globular vessel, Lat. ampulla, some- 
 thing inflated. Of. Er. ampoule, a 
 small blister, wheal, powke, or rising 
 of the skin (Ootgrave). 
 
 Anchovy owes its present form to a 
 mistaken notion that anchovies or 
 anchoveys was a plural, whereas our 
 forefathers used formerly to speak of 
 " an anchoveyes." 
 
 Acciuga, a fish like a Sprat called Anchioues. 
 — Florio, New JVorld of Words, 1611. 
 
 Anchoyh, ou Anchoies, The fish Anchoveyes. 
 — Cotgrave. 
 
 Anchoves (fish). Anchou, anchoies, 
 anchoyes (poisson). — Sherwood, English- 
 French Diet. 1660. 
 
 We received the word probably from 
 the Dutch, who call the fish anchovis ; 
 but compare Fr. ancJwis, Portg. an- 
 cJiova, &c. 
 
 Ancient, an old and frequent cor- 
 ruption of ensign, Fr. ensigne, Lat. 
 insignia, denoting (1) a flag or banner. 
 
 full of holes, like a shot ancient. — The 
 Puritan, i. 2. 
 
 It was a spectacle extremely delightful to 
 behold the Jacks, the pendants, and the 
 ancients sporting in the wind. — Don Quixote, 
 p. 669 (ed. 1687). 
 
 (2) a standard-bearer. 
 
 'Tis one lago, ancient to the general. 
 
 Othello, ii. 4. 
 Master, Master, see you yonder faii-e ancyent ? 
 Yonder is the serpent & the serpent's 
 head. ^ 
 
 Percy, Folio MS. vol. i. p. 303. 1. 77. 
 "Enseigm, An Ensigne, Auntient, 
 Standard bearer." — Cotgi-ave. 
 
 Enseigne, it vfo^A^. appear, was con- 
 founded with ancien. 
 
 This is Othello's ancient, as I take it. 
 
 Othello, actv. sc. 1. 
 
AN DIB ON 
 
 ( 9 ) ANOTHER GUESS 
 
 Andiron, whatever be the origin of 
 this word, iron probably is no real part 
 of it, as we see by comparing the old 
 foi-ms au"nder7}s {Fronvpiorium, 1440), 
 aiondyern (Palsgrave, 1530), andyar 
 (Horman, 1519), old Fr. andder, andin, 
 Low Lat. andcna, anderius. 
 
 Further corruptions are Endieons 
 and Handikons. 
 
 And-pussey-and, -j Printers' names 
 Ampds-and, J for the character 
 
 Ampeezand, j &, are corrup- 
 
 tions of the old expression, " and per 
 se, and," applied to it, I believe, in the 
 horn-books. 
 
 The pen commandeth only twenty-six 
 letters, it can only rang-e between A and Z ; 
 these are its limits — 1 had forgotten and- 
 pussey-and! — Southey. Letters, vol. i. p. 
 200. 
 
 Popular etymologizing has busied 
 itself here to some purpose. 
 
 The sign & is said to be properly called 
 Emperor's Hand, from having been first in- 
 vented by some imperial personage, but by 
 whom the deponent saith not. It is com- 
 monly con'upted into Q] Ampazad, Zumpy 
 Zed, Ann Passy Ann. — TThe Monthly Packet, 
 vol. XXX. p. 448. 
 
 The character was also sometimes 
 called anpasty, anpassy, anpa/rse 
 (Wright), i.e. "and per se." 
 
 Angbl-touohe, an 0. Eng. name for 
 the earth-worm, is said by Nares to be 
 from the French anguille. More pro- 
 bably it is the twitch (A. Sax. twicce), 
 or worm for angling with. (See Fhilo- 
 logical Transactions for 1858, p. 98.) 
 
 I made thee twine like an angle-twitch. 
 — Mrs. Palmer, Devonshire Courtship, p. 28. 
 
 Tagwormes which the Cornish English 
 terme angle-touches. — Carew (^Couch, E. Corn- 
 wall Glossary). 
 
 Angee nails, a Cumberland word for 
 jags round the nails, as if connected 
 with angry, in the sense of inflamed 
 (Dickinson, Gumberland Glossary, E. D. 
 Soc.) is a corruption of ang-nails. See 
 Agnails supra. 
 
 Angle-dog, in Prov. English a large 
 earth worm, is a corruption of A. Sax. 
 An^el-twicce. 
 
 Ankye, a borrowed word for a " re- 
 cluse, Anacliorita" (Prompt. Parv.), Gk. 
 anadioretes (awithdrawer, aherinit), in 
 old Eng. and A. Sax. ancer, has been 
 assimilated, regardless of meaning, to 
 
 the word " amltyr of a shyppe, Aneora," 
 A. Sax. ancer. The A. Sax. word was 
 probably regarded as a compound of 
 an, alone, and cerran (=versari), as if 
 one who hves alone (qui solus versatur), 
 like Gk. mdnachos ("monk"). Bos- 
 worth actually ranges dneer as a deri- 
 vative under an, one, alone. 
 
 A curious piece of popular etjrmology 
 is given in the Anoren Biwle, ab. 1225. 
 
 For J)i . is ancre icleoped ancre, & under 
 chirche iancred ase ancre under schipes 
 borde, uorte holden J)'et schip, \>et uSen ne 
 stormes hit ne ouerworpen. Al so al holi 
 chirche, ^et is schip icleoped, schal ancren 
 oSer ancre ]>et hit so holde, j>et tea deofles 
 puffes, Jjst beoS temptaciuns, hit ne ouer- 
 worpe. (P. 142.) 
 
 [i.e. For this (reason) is an anchoress called 
 an anchoress, and anchored under the church, 
 as an anchor under a ship's board, for to hold 
 that ship, that waves or storms may not over- 
 throw it. Even so all holy church, which is 
 called a ship, shall anchoresses, or the anchor, 
 so hold, that the devil's puffs, which are 
 temptations, may not overthrow it.] 
 
 Lady Fayth ... is no Ankers, shee dwels 
 not alone. 
 
 Latinmv, Sermons, p. 58 verso. 
 
 Anny seed, a corrupted form of 
 anise seed, quoted by Dr. Prior from 
 The Englishman's Doctor. 
 
 The Promptoriwm Pa/rvulorum has 
 " Aneys seede or spyce, Anetum, ani- 
 sum " (o. 1440). 
 
 Anointed, in provincial Eng. em- 
 ployed to denote a worthless, reprobate, 
 good-for-nothing feUow, e.g. "He's 
 an anointed youth," in the Cleveland 
 dialect nointed, has generally been un- 
 derstood to be a perverted usage of the 
 ordinary word, as if it meant conse- 
 crated, set apart, or destined to evU 
 courses and an evil end. (So Mr. 
 Atkinson, Glossary, s. v.) 
 
 It is, without doubt, a corruption of 
 the French anoiente (Eoquefort) , another 
 form of aneanti, brought to nothing, 
 worthless, good for nothing. Wichf 
 has anyntische, anentysch, to bring to 
 nought, destroy (Ps. Ixxiv. 9, &c.) 
 
 Another guess, meaning different, 
 of another description, dissimilar, is a 
 corruption of the older phrase another 
 gates, or other gates, i.e. other ways. 
 Compare Scot, this gate, this way, 
 thus. 
 
ANTEYMN 
 
 ( 10 ) 
 
 APPABENT 
 
 This will never fail 
 Wi' them that this gate wooes them. 
 Ramsayj Christ^s Kirk on the Green, 
 canto ii. 
 Our race to heaven [is] another gates 
 business. — Frank, Sermons, vol. i. p. 436. 
 
 His bringing up [requii-es] another gates 
 marriage than such a minion.— LiH^, Mother 
 Bombie, act i. sc. 3. 
 
 He would have tickled you othergates 
 than he did.— Twelfth Night, v. 1. 
 
 Hudibras, about to enter 
 Upon another gates adventure, 
 To Ralpho cali'd aloud to arm. 
 
 Butler, Hudibras, Pt. I. canto iii. 
 This is quite another-guess sort of a place 
 than it was when I iirst took it, my lord. — 
 The Clandestine Marriage. 
 
 You bean't given to malting of a morn- 
 ing — more's the pity — you would be another 
 guess sort of a man if you were. — Tales by a 
 Barrister, vol. ii. p. 353 (1844). 
 
 Her's another gess 'oman than Dame. — 
 Mrs. Palmer, Devonshire Coartship, p. 12. 
 
 My lady Isabella is of another guess mould 
 than you take her for. — Horace IValpole, 
 Castle of' Otranto, ch. ii. 
 So Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xix. 
 I am constrained to make another giiesse 
 divertisement. — Comical History of Francion, 
 1655. 
 
 1 co'd make othergess musick with them. 
 — Flecknoe, Love's Kingdom, 1664. 
 
 Wolfe BaiTington came. Quite another 
 guess sort of pupil. — The Argosy, Dec. 1870, 
 p. 447. 
 
 Somewliat similarly "any Mndest 
 thing," is a Devonshire phrase for 
 " any hind-is thing " (an old genitive, 
 A. Sax. cynnes), and so oldEng. allcins, 
 no Icennes, nonkyns, &c. 
 
 Anthymn. Johnson's amended spell- 
 ing of anthem, as if a hymn sung in 
 parts or responsively {anti). It is so 
 written by Barrow. The old forms 
 are antem, anteme, antempne, antephne, 
 A. Sax. aniefn, from Lat. and Greek 
 antiphona, It. and Sp. antifona. (Vide 
 Blunt, Annotated Booh of Common 
 Prayer, p. Ixii.) 
 
 Fr, antienne, an antem. — Cotgrave, 
 Hymnes that are song interchangeably 
 in the Church, commonly called Antemes. — 
 Hanmer, Translation of Socrates, 1636. 
 
 A volume that has run through 
 many editions (SuUivan's Dictionary of 
 Derivations) actually gives as the origin 
 anti and hymnus, alleging the following 
 passage from Bacon in support of it, 
 " Several! quires, placed one over 
 against another, and taking the voices 
 
 by catches, antJieme-toise, gave grSat 
 pleasure." 
 
 On Sondaies and holidaies masse of the 
 day, besides our Ladymasae, and an an- 
 thempne in the afternoone. — Ordinaunces 
 made for the Kinges [Hen. VIII. 's] household, 
 
 Efter hire vine hexte blissen tel in ]je 
 antefnes. — Ancren Riwle (ab. 1225), p. 42. 
 
 " After her live highest joys count in the 
 anthems," where another MS. has anlempnes, 
 
 Antient, a frequent mis-spelling, as 
 if connected with Lat. antiqims, of 
 ancient, which is a derivative of Fr. 
 ancien, 0. Fr. aingois. It. anziano, Sp. 
 andano, Prov. anoian, all from Lat. 
 ante ipsiim (Diez). It is the customary 
 form in vsrriters of the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries. 
 
 So in this last and lewdest age 
 Thy antient love on some may shine. 
 Vaughan, Silex Scintillans, 1650. 
 
 It must have been by a slip of the 
 pen that such an orthographical purist 
 as Archbishop Trench speaks of " the 
 antient world" in his latest work 
 (Medioival Church History, p. 393), as 
 he elsewhere always uses the spelling 
 " ancient." 
 
 Anti-masque, so spelt as if denoting 
 an interlude opposed {anti) as a foil or 
 contrast to the more serious masgue, 
 was perhaps originally antieh-niasque, 
 a form put by Ben Jonson into the 
 mouths of two of his characters. Bacon 
 in his Essay Of Masques and Triumphs 
 (1625), says of Anti- Masques, 
 
 They haue been commonly of Fooles, 
 Satyi'es, Eaboones, Wilde-men, Antiques 
 (p. 540, ed. Arber). 
 
 And Wright quotes antick =: an anti- 
 masque from Ford. 
 
 Sir, all our request is, since we are come, 
 we may be admitted if not for a masque for 
 an antie-masque . — Jonson, The Masque of 
 Augurs (1622), p. 631, Works (ed. Moxon). 
 
 Sir, all de better vor an antic-mask, de 
 more absurd it be, and vrom de purpose, it 
 be ever all de better.^id. p. 632. 
 
 Anxious, Baebakous, &c., a mis- 
 spelling of anxius, barha/rus, to bring 
 them into conformity with such words 
 as glorious, famous, odious, &c. {glorio- 
 sus, famosus, oddosus). 
 
 Appaeent, in the phrase " heir ap- 
 parent"," would seem naturally to mean 
 the manifest, evident, and unques- 
 tioned heir, Lat. apparens. 
 
APPLE-PIE 
 
 ( 11 ) 
 
 AEGEAN GELL. 
 
 Fabyan, however, writes it "heir 
 paraimt," which Eichardson thinks is 
 for paravaunt, Pr. paravant, before, in 
 front (like pa/raunter for paraveniv/re). 
 He imderstands apparent, therefore, to 
 be from old Fr. aupa/ravant, meaning 
 the heir who stands foremost, or first 
 in the order of succession. So Spenser 
 speaks of one of the Graces. 
 
 That in the midst was placed paravaunt. 
 Faerie Queene, VI. 10. xv. 
 
 In the Alliteraiwe Poems (XIV. cent.) 
 Sodom is described 
 
 As aparamit to paradis J^at plantted \>e 
 drystyn.— B. I. 1007. 
 
 It may, however, only mean next of 
 kin ; compare Fr. apparenU (from 
 parens) of Kin, or neer Kinsman, 
 unto. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Apple-pie, in the phrase " Apple-pie 
 order," seems to be a poptdar corrup- 
 tion of cap-d-pie (Fr. d-e pied en cap), 
 with reference to the complete equip- 
 ment of a soldier fully caparisoned 
 from head to foot. The apple-pie bed 
 of schoolboys is an arrangement of the 
 sheets by which head and foot are 
 brought close together. 
 
 Take an Englishman Capa pea, from head 
 to foot, every member he hath is Dutch. — 
 Howell, Instructions/or Forrein Traveil, 1642, 
 p. 58 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Appleplexy, a vulgar corruption of 
 apoplexy. Pohsh in The Magnetic Lady, 
 iii. 3, turns it into happyplex. 
 
 But there's Sir Moth, your brother, 
 Is fallen into a fit o' the happyplex. 
 
 Ben Joiisoii, Works, p. 448 (ed. Moxon). 
 
 Arbour, so spelt as if it described a 
 bower formed by trees (Lat. a/rbor, a 
 tree). Sydney, for instance, speaks of 
 " a fine close a/rbor " — 
 
 It was octrees whose branches so interlaced 
 each other that it could resist the strongest 
 Tiolence of eye-sight. — Arcadia [in Richard- 
 son]. 
 
 It is really a corruption of harbour, 
 oldEng. herberwe, though the two words 
 are distinguished in the following : — 
 
 To seek new-refuge in more secret harbors 
 Among the dark shade of those tufting arbors. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, 1621, p. 194. 
 
 They have gardens . . . with their barbers 
 and bowers fit for the purpose. — Stubbes, Ana- 
 tomie of Abuses, 1593. 
 
 Wynter, all thy desyre is the belly to fyll : 
 Betf were to be in a grene herber, where one 
 may have his wyll. 
 Debate betwene Somer and Wynter, I. 58. 
 
 An older form of the word is erba/r 
 or herber, which was used sometimes 
 in the sense of a bower, sometimes in 
 that of a garden, e. g. " Erba/re, 
 Herbarium." — Prompt. Parvulorum, c. 
 1440. 
 
 Of swuche flures make J;u his herboruwe 
 wiSinnen i>e suluen. — Ancren Riwle (ab. 
 lT2i), p. 340. 
 
 " Of such flowers make thou his bower (or 
 lodging) within thy self." The Latin version 
 here has herbarium. 
 
 AKCHANaELL, appears in company 
 with various other birds in the Bomaunt 
 of the Rose (1. 915), " With finch, with 
 larke, and with archangell," and trans- 
 lates the French mesange (also 7iia/renge) 
 a titmouse or tithng. — Cotgrave. 
 
 The word was perhaps interpreted 
 to be compounded of mes ( = pins) and 
 ange, an angel. It is really a corrupted 
 form of the Low German meeseke, 
 Picardian maisaAngue, Icel. meisingr. 
 Other forms are old Fr. masange, 
 "Wallach. masenge, Eouchi masinque. 
 
 This corruption was the more 
 natural from birds being often called 
 angels by old authors in accordance 
 with the saying of Thomas Aquinas 
 " Ubi aves ibi angeli : " e. g. wa/riangle, 
 an old Eng. name for the shrike or 
 butcher-bird, Ger. wurgengel, i.e. the 
 worrying or destroying angel (vid. 
 Cotgrave, s. v. Ancrouelle) ; Ger. 
 engelchen (httle angel), the siskin. 
 Similarly G. Macdonald calls a butter- 
 fly "the flower-angel" {The Seaboard 
 Pa/rish, p. 414). Compare 
 
 The dear good angel of the spring, the night- 
 ingale. 
 
 Ben Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2. 
 
 And aerie birds like angels ever sing. 
 Barnabe Barnes, Spiritual Sonnets, x. 
 
 Not an angel of the au'e, 
 Bird melodious or bird faire, 
 [Be] absent hence. 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 1. 16 (1634). 
 
 See Littledale's note in loco, and Prof. 
 Skeat's note on Vision of Piers Plow- 
 man, xviii. 24, 33, where he traces the 
 idea of the excellence of birds to the 
 expression " volucres cceli," the birds 
 of heaven, Matt. vui. 20. 
 
ABGEIOHOOKE 
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 ABBANT 
 
 Aechichocke, aB old mis-spelling of 
 a/rticholce (Turner, Herbal, 1551-1568), 
 as if compounded with Gk. a/rchi. 
 
 " Artichoke " is itself a corrupted 
 form of Fr. artichaut, Sp. artichofa. It. 
 articiocco, from Gk. a/rtutilid, heads of 
 artichoke (Devic). But compare the 
 Arabian al cha/rsjof, Sp. alccurchofa 
 (Dozy, Scheler), or Arab, al hhwrcMf, 
 as Engelmann transcribes it. 
 
 The latter part of the word has been 
 sometimes understood to refer to the 
 core of the vegetable, which is likely to 
 stick in the thi-oat, and is in Lincoln- 
 shire called the cliodk. 
 
 It was sometimes spelt hoA-tichoake, 
 Oring'oes, hartwhoakes, potatoe pies, 
 Provocatives unto their luxuries. 
 The Young GatUinis Whirligigg, 1629. 
 
 Low. Lat. corruptions are a/rticadus 
 and wrticodus. 
 
 Akchimasteyb, an old corruption 
 of alchenvistry in Norton's OrcKnall of 
 AlcJieme, as if the chief of moAstries 
 or " arch-mystery " (see Mysteby). Old 
 Eng. alTcamistre, Old Fr. a/rquemie. 
 Maisti'yefull, mei*veylous and Archimastrye 
 Is the tincture of holi Alkimy • 
 A wonderful! science, secrete Philosophie. 
 Ashmote, Theatrvm Chemicum Brit. p. 13. 
 
 In the Proheme to his curious poem 
 Norton says : — 
 
 This Boke to an Alchimister wise 
 Is a Boke of incomparable price. 
 
 Op. Cit. p. 8. 
 
 Plorio gives " Archvnvisia, an alchi- 
 mist," and Ardiimia for Alddmia. 
 New World of Words, 1611. 
 
 Fuller says that Alasco, a Pole, 
 
 Souf;ht to repair his fortunes by associat- 
 ing- himself with these two Arch-chemists of 
 England [viz. Dr. Dee and Kelley, the 
 Alchemists].' — Worthies of England, vol. ii. 
 p. 473 (ed. 1811). 
 
 Aegosy, a ship, a merchant-vessel, 
 is a corruption of Ragosine, i. e. a Vessel 
 of Bagosa or Bagusa, influenced pro- 
 bably by the classical Argo in which 
 Jason went in search of the golden 
 fleece. The old Fr. argousin, the 
 lieutenant of a galley (Cotgrave), which 
 wotdd seem to be connected, is the 
 same word as It. aguzzitio, and a cor- 
 ruption of alguazil, Sp. alguadl, Arab. 
 al-wazir, the vizier (Devic). 
 
 Your argosies with portly sail . . . 
 
 Do overpeer the petty traffickers, 
 
 That cui'tsy to them. 
 
 Merchant of Venice, i. 1. 1. 9. 
 
 See, however, Douce, Illustrat'ions, 
 in loco. 
 
 Aek, recently used for citadel or 
 stronghold, as if identical with arlc, a 
 place of safety (Lat. area), is a corrup- 
 tion of Lat. arx (arcs), a defence, bul- 
 wark (from a/rcco, to keep off), seem- 
 ingly mistaken for a plural. 
 
 Lord Hartington said that he had no infor- 
 mation concerning the defences of Candahar; 
 but it is well known that its ark, or citadel, is 
 naturally untenable against artillery. — The 
 Standard, July 30, 1880. 
 
 Aembeust, a corruption of arialest, 
 arblast ; cf. old Dan. arhurst, Icel. 
 arm-hrysti, a cross-bow, Ger. a/rmhrust, 
 as if an arm fired from the breast 
 (hrust), 
 
 Aeow-blastb, ) an old spelling of 
 
 Aeweblast, 1 the word arhlasi, 
 arbalest {a/rcu-balista, bow-catapult), a 
 cross-bow, as if derived from the old 
 Eng. word a/rwe, an arrow, and blast, 
 to expel forcibly. Arow-blasters is 
 Wyoliffe's word for crossbowmen, 2 
 Kings, viii. 18. 
 
 The form all-hlaiosters occurs in 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 2426 (c. 1440, E. E. 
 T. S. ed.), aireblast (air-blast!) in 
 WilUam of Palerne, 1. 268. 
 
 Aequebuss, It. arrcliibuso, a/rcobugia, 
 is the Dutch haech-busse or haech-buyse, 
 Dan. hage-bosse, Get. hahenbiidise, L e. 
 a gun, iusse, Ger. biichse, fired from a 
 hooked or forked rest, haedc, hage, 
 haken. The word when borrowed was 
 altered in form so as to convey a mean- 
 ing in the vernacular, as if a derivative 
 from a/rco, Lat. a/rcus, a bow. Hence 
 the words a/rcobugia, Fr. a/rquebus, 
 Eng. a/rqaebuss. Sir S. D. Scott, how- 
 ever, thinks that the word was origi- 
 nally a/rc-et-bus, " bow and barrel " 
 (Dutch bus. Low Ger. busse) in one 
 {The British Army, vol. ii. p. 262), and 
 so Zedler. It was sometimes called 
 the arquebus a croc (Scott, p. 268). 
 See also Speknan, Glossary, s. v. Bom- 
 barda. 
 
 Aeeant, thorough, downright, noto- 
 rious, as apphed to a knave or a fool, 
 seems to be the same word as old Eng. 
 and Scot, a/i-gh, arch, Scot, arrow, A. 
 Sax. ean-g, cowardly, Dan. arrig, arrant, 
 rank, Ger. a/rg, Icel. argr, a coward 
 (cf. Gk. M-gos, idle, lazy), conformed 
 
AEBOW-EOOT 
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
 ASS-PAESLjEY 
 
 to old Eng. mrant, errawnt, wandering 
 about, vagabond. Low Lat. cvrga was a 
 contemptuous term for a stupid, lazy, 
 or mean-spirited person. — Spehnan, 
 Glossariuin, s. v. 
 
 Pusillanimitas, J)et is, to poure iheorted, 
 & to arch mid alle eni heih Jnng to underni- 
 meu. — Ancren Riwle (ab. 1225), p. 202 
 (MS. C). 
 
 Pusillanimity, that is, too poor hearted 
 and too cowai'dly withal any high thing to 
 undertake. 
 
 Dotterel. So do I, sweet mistress, or I am 
 an errant fool. — May, The Old Couple, iv. 1 
 (1658). 
 
 Old Eng. wrgh, wfwe, cowardly, lazy, 
 Scot, arrow, A. Sax, earg, Gk. drgos 
 (a-ergos, not working), curiously cor- 
 respond to arrow, the swift dart, O. 
 Eng. a/rwe, A. Sax. earh, from earh, 
 earg = Gk. drgos, sioift. 
 
 Aeeow-boot. The first part of the 
 word is said to be a corruption of ara, 
 the native name of the plant which 
 yields this substance and grows in the 
 West Indies. Arrow-root is also a popu- 
 lar name for the arum (maculatum), of 
 which perhaps it is a corruption, thotigh 
 a kind of starch resembling arrow-root 
 is actually made from its tubers. As a 
 Suffolk name for the Achillea MillA- 
 foUum, it is a perversion of ^/arrow-root, 
 just as Green arrow is of Green yairrow 
 (Britten and Holland, Eng. Plant- 
 Names, p. 17). 
 
 Aesmetbick, a common old spelling 
 (it is found in Lydgate and Chaucer) 
 of the word arithmetic, as if it were the 
 metric art. The Low Lat. form a/ris- 
 metica is probably from It. (vrismus, 
 risma, for Gk. arithmds (number). Cf. 
 Sp. resnia, Fr. rame, Eng. " ream." 
 Arsmetrike is a lore : jput of figours al is 
 fit of drau3tes as me drawe]> in poudre : & in 
 numbre iwis. 
 
 S. Edmund Confessor, 1. 224 (ab. 130.5).— 
 {Phitolog. Soc. Trans. 1858, p. 77.) 
 
 Aethue's Wain, an old popular name 
 for the constellation of the Great Bear, 
 has arisen, in all probability, from a 
 confusion of Arthur, Keltic Arth, Art, 
 Arthwys [ai.Ard, high), the name of the 
 legendary British prince, with Welsh 
 arth, a bear, Irish a/rt, the same word 
 as Lat. a/rctus, Gk. a/rhtos, a bear,, 
 especially the constellation so-called 
 (whence our "arctic"), Sansk. nX-s7ia, 
 
 (1) the bright, (2) a bear, (3) Ursa 
 Major. Cf. Welsh alban arthan, the 
 winter solstice ; Arab, duhh, a bear, the 
 constellation. In particular, Arcturus 
 (Gk. Arhiouros, the Bear-guard, a star 
 ia Bootes) would readily merge into 
 ArtUurus. Gawin Douglas caUs it 
 Arthurys-hufe . 
 
 Arthur's slow wain rolling his course round 
 the pole.— Yonge, Hist, of Christian Names, 
 ii. 12j. 
 
 Similarly the Northern Lights were 
 sometimes called " Arthm-'s Host." 
 
 Arthur has long ago been suspected of 
 haying been originally the Great Bear or the 
 bright star in his tail. — Quarterly Review, ro\. 
 91, p. 299. 
 
 Sir John Davies writing on the ac- 
 cession of Charles I., says : — 
 Charles, which now in Arthure's seate doth 
 
 raigne. 
 Is our Arcturus, and doth guide the waine. 
 
 Poems, vol. ii. p. 237 (ed. Grosart). 
 
 Aetogeapye, an old speUing of or- 
 thography, as if compounded with art. 
 How spellest thou this word Tom Couper 
 In trewe artograjue. 
 
 Interlude of the tour Elements (Percy Soc), 
 p. 37. 
 
 AsHOEE, a West country word for a- 
 jajr, i.e. on the jar (the phrase which so 
 perplexed Mr. Justice Stareleigh), A. 
 Sax. on cerre, Old Scot, on cha/r, on the 
 turn. 
 
 A Wiltshire girl I have heard ask 
 her mistress, " Shall I leave the door 
 ashore, mam ? " 
 
 Ask, a provincial word apphed espe- 
 cially to keen biting winds, or Hash 
 (pronounced ash) in the Holdemess 
 dialect, E. Yorkshire, stiff, bitter, tart, 
 is Icel. hashr, "harsh." 
 
 Aspect, an incorrect Scottish form 
 of aspicTc, IJ'r. aspic the asp {Jamieson). 
 
 Aspio, a term of cookery for a species 
 of jelly served as a condiment with 
 dishes, Pr. aspic (as if from being cold 
 as a snake or aspio ! — Littre), was so 
 called from having been originally 
 made with espic, or spihes of lavender, 
 as one of its ingredients. — Kettner, 
 Book of the Table, p. 47. 
 
 Aspic, the herbe Spickenard or Lavander 
 Spike. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Ass-PAESLEY, ) a popular name 
 AssE-PEESELiB, j for the plant 
 
A8TEB 
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
 ATTIC 
 
 chervil. The first part of the com- 
 pound is probably a corruption of old 
 Eng. and Fr. ache, parsley, such pleo- 
 nasms being not uncommon. — Britten 
 and Holland, Ung. Plant-Names, 
 p. 19. 
 
 WiJ) alisaundre J>areto ache & anys. 
 Bdddeker, AUeng. Dichtungen, p. 145, 1. 14. 
 AsTEE, } an old corruption of 
 AsTun, J Easter, owing to a false 
 derivation explained iu the following 
 quotation from Mirk's Festival of 
 Englyssche Sermones. 
 
 Hit is called astur day ... for welnyg in 
 y ch place hit is )>e maner to do J>e fyre owte of 
 \>e halle at J)is day, and J>e astur )><■ hath be 
 alle \>e wyntur brand w' fyre and baked 
 wt smoke, hit schall be J>i3 day araed w' grene 
 rysshes and sote flowrus. 
 
 Aster, also spelt astir, aistre, and 
 eatre, is an old Eng. word for a hearth 
 or fire-place, O. Fr. aistre, L. Lat. 
 astrum. 
 
 So b' ye mowe w' a clene concienoe on 
 astur day receyue |je clene body of owre 
 Lorde Ihu criste. — Festiall of Englysshe 
 Sennones. See Hampson, Med. Aevi Kalend. 
 vol. ii. p. 24. 
 
 Two otherpopular etymologies of the 
 word are given in the Old EngUsh Homi- 
 Ues edited by Dr. E.Morris, "}jis daiis 
 cleped estrene dai, fiat is a/ristes dai, for 
 \>aA he {lis dai aros of dea8e " (2nd Ser. 
 p. 97), i. e. " This day is called Easter 
 day, that is, day of arising, because 
 He arose from the dead on this day." 
 
 " Jiis dai is cleped estre dai )>at is 
 estene da, and te este is husel" {Ihid. p. 
 99), i. e. " This day is called Easter 
 day, that is, day of dainties, and the 
 dainty is the housel." 
 
 AsTEEiSKS, for hysterics in the lan- 
 guage of the street folk. 
 
 " Lemontation of Judy for the loss of her 
 dear child. . She goes into atterisks," says a 
 Punch and Judy exhibitor in Mayhew's 
 London Labour and the London Poor, vol. iii. 
 p. 53. 
 
 Compare Steeakles. 
 AsTONY, ) These, as well as 0. 
 Astonish, ( Eng, astome (Chaucer), 
 are perversions of astound (regarded 
 perhaps as a past participle astoun-ed), 
 A. Sax. astundian, to stupefy (cf. stunt, 
 stupid, sturdan, to stun, or stupefy), 
 and assimilated to Fr. estonner, "to 
 astonish, amaze, daunt, ... to stonny, 
 benum, or dull the sences " (Cotgrave), 
 
 as thunder does, from a hypothetical 
 Latin ex-tona/re. Thus astomed was 
 regarded as equivalent to thunder- 
 struck (Gk. emlrontetos), dunder-head 
 (=num-skull), Massiager, ThePictu/re, 
 ii. 1. 
 
 Besides astonied (A. V. Joh, xvii. 8), 
 we find astonyid, astoneyed, WycUffe 
 (Lev. xxvi. 32, Deeds ii. 6), stoneid, 
 stoneyd, stonyed (Ibid. Gen. xxxii. 32, 
 Matt. X. 24), astonned, HaU (Eich. III., 
 fol. 22 b) North speaks of Alexander 
 being astonied, i. e. stunned, with a 
 blow from a dart on his neck {Pluta/rch, 
 p. 751), and Holland of the torpedo 
 being able to astonish, or bemmib, those 
 that touch it. 
 
 Astonyed, or a-stoyned yn mannys wytte. 
 Attonitus, consteriiatus, stupefactus, per- 
 culsus. 
 
 Astoynyn, or hrese werkys (al. astoyn or 
 brosyn). Quatio. — Promptorium ParvuLorum 
 (c. 1440). 
 Vor her hors were al astonied, & nolde after 
 
 wylle 
 Sywe nojser spore ne brydel, ac stode Jjer al 
 
 stylle. 
 Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle (ed. 1810), p. 
 396. 
 
 An old MS. recommends " coste " as 
 a suffreyn remedie for sciatica and to \>e 
 
 membris ]>&X ben a-stonyed. — A. Way, Prompt. 
 
 Parvubrum, p. 94, note 4. 
 
 Attendant, Defendant, Gonfldamt, 
 &c., for the more strictly correct forma 
 attendent (Lat. aUenden{t)-s), defendent 
 {defenden(t)-s), &c., frona the mistaken 
 analogy of words like inhabitant, vigi- 
 lant, mdlitant, ignorant, arrogant, from 
 Lat. inhabitan(^t')-s, vigilan(t')-s, &c. 
 Respondent, correspondent, preserve 
 their primitive form. 
 
 Attic, the name given to a room at 
 the top of the house, Fr. attiguc, has no- 
 thing to do with an Attic style of archi- 
 tecture. It seems to have been bor- 
 rowed from the Hindus, as it closely 
 corresponds to Sanskrit at't'aka (in 
 modern pronunciation attah), the 
 highest room of an Indian house, from 
 a'tt'a, high, lofty. (Heb. attili, a portico, 
 can be only a coincidence.) Prof. Gold- 
 stiioker {Philological Transactions for 
 1854, p. 96). Similarly verandah, 
 Portg. vaira/nda, is from Sansk. varanda, 
 a portico. 
 
 Eev. Isaac Taylor is therefore mis- 
 taken in tracing the Attics of a house 
 
ATTONE 
 
 ( 16 ) 
 
 AUBEOLE 
 
 to the upper tiers of columns displayed 
 in Attic architeoture {Wcn-ds and Places, 
 p. 424, 2nd ed.). 
 
 Attone, a very frequent old speUing 
 of atone, to set at one those that are at 
 two, J. e. at variance, as if to at-tone, 
 to bring them to the same tone, or into 
 concord, to harmonize. 
 
 Accorder, to accord, — to attone, reconcile 
 parties in diflFerence, — Cotgrave. 
 
 Attinieinent, a louing again after a breache 
 or falling out. — -Baret, Atvearie, 1580. 
 High built with pines that heaven and earth 
 attone^ 
 G. Chapnmn, Odysseys, 1614, Bk. ix, 1. 266. 
 He that brought peace and discord could 
 attone, 
 Dtyden, Poem on Coronation, 1661, 1. 57. 
 I am comming forth to make attonement 
 betwixt them. — R. Bernard, Terence in 
 Jinglish, 1641. 
 
 White seemes fayrer macht with blacke 
 attone. — Spenser, F. Queene, III. ix. 2. 
 
 For the old use of atone compare — 
 
 [jis Kyng & J)e Bmt were at on. 
 
 Robert of Gloucester, p. 13. 
 If my death might be 
 An oiTring to atone my God and me. 
 Quartes, Emblems, iii. 6 (1635). 
 I was glad I did atone my countryman and 
 you. 
 
 Cymbeline, i. 4, 1. 42 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Udal speaks of a " triactie of atone- 
 •mente" (Erasmus, Luke, p. 118), and 
 Bp. Hall of 
 
 Discord 'twixt agreeing parts 
 Which never can be set at onement more. 
 Satires, iii. 7 (ed. Singer, p. 68). 
 Fleshely action .... doth set foes at 
 freendship, vnanimitie, and atonement. — 
 A. Fleming, Caius's Eng. Dogges, 1576, p. 36 
 (repr. 1880). 
 
 AuELONG, also awelonge, aweylonge, 
 an old English word defined oMongus in 
 the PronvptoriumPwrvulorum, elsewhere 
 avelonge, Suffolk avellong, as if com- 
 pounded with A. Sax. awoh, obUque, 
 is an evident corruption of ohlong. 
 
 AuKEOLE. A luminous appearance 
 encompassing the head of a saint in 
 Christian art is termed an " aureole." 
 This is generally imagined to represent 
 the classical Latin a/u/reola {sc. cmona), 
 a diminutive of aurea, and to mean 
 " a golden circlet," as indeed it is 
 generally depicted. It is highly pro- 
 bable, however, that, not aureola, but 
 
 areola (a little halo),^ a diminutive of 
 m-ea, is the true and original form, 
 ariole in French, and that the usual 
 orthography is due to a mistaken con- 
 nection with awum, gold, just as for 
 the same reason v/rina became, in 
 Itahan, awrina," It. arancio became Fr. 
 orange, L. Lat. poma aurantia ; G-k. 
 oreichalcos became Lat. aurichalciim. 
 This is certainly more hkely than that 
 it is a diminutive of aiira, a luminous 
 breath or exhalation, which is the view 
 put forward by Didron in his Gli/ris- 
 tian Iconography (p. 107). He quotes 
 a passage from an apocryphal trea- 
 tise, De Transitu B. Marias Virginis, 
 which states that " a brilliant cloud 
 appeared in the air, and placed itself 
 before the Virgin, forming on her brow 
 a transparent crown, resembling the 
 aureole or halo which surrounds the 
 rising moon " (p. 137). Here, ob- 
 viously, areola would have been the 
 more correct word to have employed, 
 and it is the one which recommended 
 itself to De Quinoey. He writes — 
 
 In some legends of saints we iind that 
 they were born with a lambent circle or 
 golden areola about their heads. — Works, 
 vol. XT. p. 39. 
 
 So correct a writer would not have 
 apphed the superfluous epithet of 
 "golden" to this "supernatural halo," 
 as he subsequently terms it, if the 
 word were to him only another form 
 of aureola. 
 
 Prom his use of the word in "Queen 
 Mary " (act v. so. 2), it might be 
 supposed that Tennyson connected 
 " aureole " with au/rum — 
 
 Our Clarence there 
 Sees ever such an aureole round the Queen, 
 It gilds the greatest wronger of her peace, 
 Who stands the nearest to her. 
 
 George Macdonald has been in- 
 fluenced apparently by the same idea. 
 
 The aureole which glorifies the sacred 
 things of the past had gathered in so golden 
 a hue around the memory of the holy cot- 
 tager. — David Elginbrod, p. 265. 
 
 Awreola, in the ecclesiastical sense 
 
 ' This bright phenomenon was called by 
 the Romans area — a word which runs exactly 
 parallel with the Greek hal6s, meaning 
 (1) a plot of ground, (2) a threshing-floor, 
 (3) a halo round one of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 " llorio, o. V. 
 
AXEY 
 
 ( 16 ) 
 
 AYMONT 
 
 of a golden discus, is not found in 
 Mediffival Latin (vide Du Cange). Dr. 
 Donne, who understands by it a crown 
 of gold, traces its origination as fol- 
 lows — 
 
 Because in their Translation, in the 
 vnlgat Edition of the Roman Church, they 
 find in Exodus [xxv. 25] that word Aureolam, 
 Fades Coronam aureolam^ Thou shalt make 
 a lesser Crowne of gold ; out of this diminu- 
 tive and mistaken word, they have established 
 a Doctrine, that besides those Corona aurea, 
 Those Crownes of gold, which are communi- 
 cated to all the Saints from the Crown of 
 Christ, Some Saints have made to them- 
 selves, and produced out of their owne ex- 
 traordinary merits certaine Aureolas, certain 
 lesser Crownes of their own, whereas in- 
 deed the word in the originall in that place 
 of Exodus is Zer Zehab, which is a Crowne 
 of gold, without any intimation of any such 
 lesser crownes growing out of themselves. 
 — LXXX., Sermons, p. 743, fol. 1640. 
 
 AxEY, a provincial word for the ague 
 used in Sussex and in the Eastern 
 States of America (L. J. Jennings, 
 JField Paths and Oreen Lanes, p. 46), 
 is a corruption of access (perhaps re- 
 garded as a plural), Fr. acces, a fit or 
 attack of illness, " accez de fielure, a 
 fit of an ague," Cotgrave, Lat. acces- 
 sus. 
 
 Feveres, axes^ and the blody flyx [pre- 
 vailed] in dyverse places of Englonde. — 
 Warkworth's Chronicle, p. 23, ab. 1475 
 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Wyth love's axcesse now wer they hote, 
 now colde. 
 
 Bochas, Fall of Princes (in Wright, 
 Prov. Diet.). 
 
 Thou dost miscall 
 Thy physick ; pills that change 
 Thy sick Accessions into setled health. 
 H. -Vaughan, Silex Scintillans, 1650, 
 
 Aymont, an old English word for a 
 diamond, occurring in Dan Michel's 
 Ayenbiie of Inwyt (or Remorse of Con- 
 science), 1340 (E. E. T. S. ed.). 
 
 Hi despendej) follich hare guodes ine 
 ydelnesses uor bost of J^e wordle ac uor to 
 yeue uor god hy byeth harde ase an aymont, 
 —p. 187. 
 
 (i.e. " They spend their goods foolishly 
 in idleness for boast of the world, but 
 for to give for God they be hard as a 
 ddamond, or as adoAnant.") 
 
 So the MS., but Mr. Morris, the 
 editor, thinks it necessary, for clear- 
 ness' sake, to print it "an [di]aymont." 
 There can be little doubt, however, 
 
 that there is no omission in the MS., 
 and that aymont is the old French 
 aymant or crnnant (cf. Sp. imam), which 
 seems to have been a more customary 
 form than diamant. Cotgrave gives 
 " aimant, a lover, a servant, a sweet- 
 heart ; also, the Adamant, or Load- 
 stone." " Liamani, a DiamonA ; also, 
 the Loadstone : (instead of Aymant)." 
 He also has " Guideymant, the needle 
 of a sea-compasse." " Diamond," Pr. 
 diamant, and " adamant," are both 
 (as is well known) derivatives of the 
 Latin adamas, adamantis, Gk. adamas, 
 " the invincible," the diamond, later 
 the magnet. The French form affords 
 an interesting example of a word being 
 corrupted in accordance with a popu- 
 lar acceptation. The adamant, or load- 
 stone, on account of its attractive 
 power in drawing iron to itself, and 
 the steady affection with which it 
 remains true to the pole, was regarded 
 as the loving stone, and transformed 
 into aimant. That this popular con- 
 ception is not a mere assumption, but 
 one widely traceable even in our own 
 language, the following quotations wiU 
 make plain — 
 
 How cold this clime ! and yet my sense 
 Perceives even here thy influence. 
 Even here thy strong magnetick charms I 
 
 feel. 
 And pant and ti-emble like the amorous 
 steel. 
 John Non-is, Miscellanies (1678), The 
 Tatitm. 
 
 In Chinese the magnet is called 
 "the affectionate stone " (Kidd, China, 
 p. 371), in Sanskrit "the kisser," 
 bumbaha. " Wliat loadstone first 
 touched the loadstone ? " is one of a 
 series of posers that Thomas FuUer puts 
 to the naturalists of his day, " or how 
 first /eM it in love with the North, rather 
 affecting that cold climate than the 
 pleasant East, or fruitful South, or 
 West ? " 
 
 [A wider question is that proposed by 
 Charles Kingsley, " Wliat efficient cause is 
 there that all matter should attract matter ? 
 ... If we come to Jinal causes, there is no 
 better answer than the old mystic one, that 
 God has imprest the Law of Love, which is 
 the Law of His own being, on matter." — ■ 
 Letters and Memories of lus Life, vol. ii. 
 p. 67.] ■' ' 
 
 Is there anything more heavy and unapt 
 for motion than iron or steel 1 yet these do 
 
A YMONT 
 
 ( 17 ) BAGOALAUBEATE 
 
 so run to their beloved loadstone as if they had 
 a sense of desire and delight. — Bp. Hall 
 (1634), Works, vol. xi. p. 93 (Oxford ed.). 
 
 Sylvester says of the loadstone, that 
 it acts 
 
 With unseen hands, with vndisoerned 
 
 arms. 
 With hidden Force, with sacred secret 
 
 charms, 
 Wherewith he wooes his Iron MisterisSj 
 And never leaves her till he get a kiss ; 
 Nay, till he fold her in his faithfiill bosom. 
 Never to pai't (except we, lone-less, loose- 
 em) 
 With so finne zeale and fast afifection 
 T/ie stone doth hue the steel, the steel the stone, 
 Du Bartas, Diitine ]Veekes and Workes, 
 p. 67 (1621, fol.). 
 
 Th' hidden loue that now-adaies doth 
 
 holde 
 The Steel and Loadstone, Hy^drargir'e and 
 
 Golde ; . . . . 
 Is hut a spark or shadow of that Loue 
 Which at the first in everything did moue. 
 Ibid. p. 202 (fol.). 
 
 The Anglo-Norman poet Philippe de 
 Thaun, in his Bestiary, about 1125, 
 says that the loadstone is a symbol of 
 the Incarnate Lord. 
 
 06s en guise d^aimant fud, puis que en char 
 
 fud apai'ut . . .■ 
 Si cum la pere trait le fer, e Jhesu Christ nus 
 
 traist d'enfer. 
 
 fVright, Popular Treatises mi Science in 
 Mid. Ages, p. 126. 
 
 " God was in guise of loadstone when he ap- 
 peared in Hesh . . . 
 
 As the stone draws the iron, so Jesus Christ 
 us drew from hell." 
 
 If it be a mysterious thing 
 Why Sieel should to the Loadstone cling ; 
 If we know not why Jett should draw 
 And with such kisses hug a straw. 
 
 Howell, Familiar Letters, Bk. iv. 44 
 (1655). 
 What makes the loadstone to the North ad- 
 
 uance? . . . 
 Kind Nature first doth cause all things to 
 
 loue, 
 Loue makes them daunce and in iust order 
 moue. 
 
 Sir John Davies, Orchestra, 56 (1596). 
 What was the loadstone, till the use was 
 
 found. 
 But a foul dotard on a fouler mistress ? 
 
 T. Randolph, The Muses' Looking Glass, 
 iii. 2 (1638). 
 
 On the other hand, it may be re- 
 marked as illustrative that the attrac- 
 tive power of love is often compared to 
 that of the magnet. 
 
 I find that I love my Creator a thousand 
 degrees more than I fear him; methinka I 
 feel the little needle of my soul touched with 
 a kind of magnetical and attractive virtue, 
 that it always moves towards Him, as being 
 her summum bonum, the ti*ue center of her 
 Happiness. — Howell, Bk. ii. 63 (1639). 
 
 MUton, speaking of women, says they 
 are — 
 
 Skill'd to retire, and, in retiring, draw 
 Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets. . 
 Draw out with credinous desire, and lead 
 At will the manliest, resolutest breast. 
 As the magnetick [== magnet] liardesi iron 
 draws . 
 Paradise Regained, Bk. ii. 1. 161-169. 
 
 On this passage the commentators 
 quote — 
 
 But if the fair one once look upon you, 
 what is it that can get you from her? she 
 will draw you after her pleasure, bound hand 
 and foot, just as the loadstone draivs iron. — 
 Lucian, Imagines. 
 
 Flagrat anhela silex, et amicam saucia sentit 
 Materiem, pUicidosque chalyhs cognoscit amores. 
 Sic Venus, etc. 
 
 Clauaian, Idyllium. 
 
 That a stone so named should be 
 esteemed of sovereign virtue in love- 
 charms is quite in accordance with 
 popular logic. The following hint to 
 jealous husbands is given in a chap- 
 book entitled Les Admirables secrets 
 du Grwtid Albert. 
 
 Si un homme veut savoir si sa femme est 
 chaste et sage, qn'il prenne la pierre que Ton 
 appelle aimant, qui a la couleur du fer, . . . 
 qu U la mette sous la tete de sa femme ; si 
 elle est chaste et honnSte elle embrassera son 
 mari, si non elle se jettera aussit6t hors du 
 lit. — Nisard, Histoire des Litres Populaires, 
 tom. i. p. 161. 
 
 B. 
 
 Baccalaureate, the adjectival form 
 of " bachelor," pertaining to the degree 
 of bachelor at a university, Fr. hacca- 
 laixreat, late Latin haccalaurius, as if 
 one crowned with a chaplet of lamrel 
 berries (baccm laiiri), a corruption of 
 Low Latin haccala/rius (see Spelmto, 
 Glossarium, s.v.). Of. It. haccala/ro and 
 hacaaUo, a kind of laurel or bay ; Fr. 
 bachelier. The original meaning of 
 bfiecalmus seems to have been (1) the 
 proprietor of baccalaria (in L. Latin of 
 ninth cent.), a rural domain, properly a 
 oo?«-farm, from lacca, a mediseval form 
 
BAGKBAO 
 
 ( 18 ) 
 
 BAFFLE 
 
 of Lat. vacaa (and bo in Italian, Florio); 
 (2), a young knight who takes service 
 under a superior ; (3) a young man of 
 inferior dignity ; (4) an unmarried 
 youth. Gf. Wallon, hauchelh, a young 
 girl (Sigart). 
 
 A sounder man 
 
 In mind and body, than a host who win 
 
 Your baccalaureate honours. 
 
 E. C. StedTimn, Lyrics and ld:,USj 1879, 
 The Freshet. 
 
 The haccalamrens was perhaps re- 
 garded as one who had successfully run 
 the gantelope of all his examiners, with 
 reference to the Latin proverb, "Bacu- 
 lum Icmrewm gesto " (I carry the staff 
 of bays), said of those who having been 
 plotted against, happily escaped the 
 danger (Erasmus, Adagia). Others 
 have imagined that he who had ob- 
 tained his first degree at the university 
 was said to have gained a herry of the 
 hay, an earnest of the entire chaplet. 
 Dante says : — 
 
 II baccetlier s' arma, e non parla, 
 Fin che '1 maestro la quistion propone. 
 Paradise, xxiv. 46. 
 The bachelor, who arms himself, 
 And speaks not, till the master have pro- 
 posed 
 The question. Carey. 
 
 Backeag, and Bageag, an old name 
 for the wine produced at Bacha/rach on 
 the Bhine. 
 
 I'm for no tongues but dry'd ones, such as 
 
 will 
 Give a fine relish to my backrag. 
 
 Old Plays, vol. ix. p. 285i (in Wright). 
 
 Bacharaoh is said to be a corruption 
 of Bacchi wra, having been of old a 
 favourite seat of the wine god. — 0. 
 Bedding, On Wines, p. 215. 
 
 Baokstone, a north country word 
 for a girdle or griddle, also spelled lah- 
 stan, is a corruption of the O. Norse 
 hahstjarn, i.e. "bake-iron." 
 
 Badger, an old word for " one that 
 buys com or other provisions in one 
 place in order to sell them in another, 
 a Huckster " (Bailey), stiU used provin- 
 cially for a dealer, has been confounded 
 with badger, the name of the animal, 
 which is an Anghoized form of Pr. bla- 
 dder (orig. bladger) a corn-dealer ; Low 
 Lat. bladarius, whence also its Fr. 
 name blaireau (Skeat, Wedgwood). 
 This false analogy has actually led 
 
 Webster to connect broker with hroek, 
 a badger ! 
 
 To badger was orig. to barter, to 
 haggle with. The word is a disguised 
 form of Old Bng. bager, beger, a buyer 
 (from buggen, A. S. lycgan, to buy), 
 with an intrusive d, as in ridge (North. 
 rigg), bridge {brig), ledger, abridge, 
 etc. 
 
 De beger bet litil Jiar-fore =the buyer bid- 
 deth little for it, — Old Jing. Homilies, vol. ii. 
 p. 213. 
 
 (See Dr. B. Morris, Add/ress to PMlo- 
 log. Soc. 1876, p. 17.) 
 
 We have fellows amon^ us, the engrossers 
 of corn, the raisers of price, sweeping away 
 whole markets ; we call these badgers. — , 
 Adams, Sermons, i. 17. 
 
 Fuller says " Higglers, as bc^uhting them 
 [i.e. carrying provisions] to London — Hence 
 Bagers." — Worthies o/' England, vol, ii. p. 381 
 (eil. 1811). 
 
 Holland has " a kinde of hucksters or 
 badgers." — Camden's Brittania, p. 555, fol. 
 
 One of the duties of the " Maire of Bris- 
 towe " was to assist and counsel the bakers 
 " in theire byeng and barganyng with the 
 Bagers, such as bryngeth whete to towne, as 
 wele in trowys, as otherwyse, by lande and 
 by water." — English Gilds (ed. Toulmin 
 Smith), p. 424 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 Wee will ryde like noe men of warr ; 
 but like poore badgers wee wilbe. 
 Percy, Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 205, 1. 30. 
 
 Licences to "badgers" to buy and 
 sell corn are found among the Quarter 
 Sessions records of the time of Queen 
 Elizabeth. — A. H. A. Hamilton, Hid. 
 of Qua/rter Sessions, p. 26. 
 
 In Queen Anne's reign one Bichard 
 Tulhng is licensed in Devonshire to be 
 " a common Drover of Cattle, Badger, 
 Lader, Kidder, Carrier, and Byer of 
 Corne."— Jc^. p. 270. 
 
 Bad-money, ) north country words 
 Bawd-money, \ for the plant Gen- 
 tian, are corruptions of its name Bald- 
 money, which see. 
 
 Baffle, so spelt as if a verbal fre- 
 quentative formation similar to raffle, 
 shuffle, snuffle, stifle, &o. (Haldeman, p. 
 178), has not been satisfactorily ex- 
 plained. 
 
 Dr. Morris rightly remarks that 
 "Baffled, as applied by a Norfolk pea- 
 sant to standing corn or grass beaten 
 about by the wind, or stray cattle, adds 
 
BAGGAGE 
 
 ( 19 ) 
 
 BALLED 
 
 greatly to our knowledge of the modem 
 term" {Address to Philolog. Soc, 1876, 
 p. 16). Older forms of the word are 
 hafful (Hall, Ohron.s Spenser, F. Q. 
 VI. viL. 27) and haffoule. 
 
 A religion that baffoules all Temporal 
 Princes. — Bp. Hall, WoHis, fol. 1634, p. 
 595. 
 
 These are from Fr. baffouer (and 6a/- 
 foler, adds Nares), " to baffle, abuse, re- 
 vile, disgrace, handle basely in terms " 
 (Cotgrave). I hold this haffoUer (baffoler) 
 to be contracted from has-fouler, to 
 trample down, just as haculer, haccoler 
 (Cotgrave) is from has-culer. The orig. 
 meaning, then, would be to trample 
 upon, afterwards to iU-treat, or put to 
 scorn (a recreant knight, &c.). Prof. 
 Skeat and Wedgwood, with less likeli- 
 hood, deduce the word from a Scottish 
 verb hauohle, to treat contemptuously. 
 
 Baffling winds are perhaps from Old 
 Fr. ieffler, to deceive ; It. heffcure. 
 
 Baggage, a contemptuous term for a 
 worthless woman, a wench following a 
 camp, as if a mere encumbrance, like 
 Ger. lumpewpack; Dutch stoute zah, a 
 saucy wench, a naughty pack (Sewel, 
 Dutch Bid. 1708), is a naturalized form 
 of Fr. hagasse, " a baggage, quean, 
 jyll, punke, flirt " (Cotgrave) ; It. hag- 
 ascia, Sp. hagasa. Old Fr. haiasse, a 
 woman of light character. These words 
 seem to be connected with Arab, hagi, 
 a word of the same meaning, hagez 
 shameful. In Sanskrit hliaga is lewd- 
 ness (vulva), and hhaga-ihakshaka, a 
 harlot. 
 
 You baggage, let me in ! 
 
 Comedy of Errors, iii. 1. 
 
 The English word was very probably 
 associated with the old Eng. hagage, 
 meaning sciun, dregs, refuse, just as 
 d/rah is akin to d/raff. 
 
 When brewers put no bagage in their 
 beere. 
 
 G. Gascoigne, The Steel Glas, 1. 1082, 1576 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Scum off the gi'een baggage from it and it 
 will be a water. — Lupton, Thousand Notable 
 Things [in Nares]. 
 
 Hacket speaks of " a haggage wo- 
 man" {Life of WilUams, ii. 123 [Da- 
 vies, Supp. Eng. Gloes.} ). 
 
 Baien-woet, ) names for the com- 
 
 Ban-wood, S mon daisy in the 
 
 Cleveland district, are corruptions of 
 
 an older name, but whether this was 
 A Sax. Idn-wyrt (bone-wort), or an old 
 Eng. hane-ivort, or some other word, is 
 not easy to determine. Perhaps ban, 
 bone, here may be a perversion of 
 belUs, the Latin name, just as tow-fire 
 or 6oTOe-fire is for boslfyr. [?] In the 
 North of England the daisy is still 
 known as the bonefloiver (Britten and 
 Holland, Eng. Flant-Names, p. 57). 
 
 Balance, in etymological correctness, 
 ought to be spelt hilance, being the 
 same word as It. bilancia, Lat. bilano-s 
 {hilanx), Ut. a pair {Us) of scales (lanx). 
 
 The French balance, which we have 
 adopted (Prov. balans, Sp. balanza), 
 seems to have been altered, under the 
 influence of a false analogy, to 0. Fr. 
 halant, Mod. Fr. hallant, oscillating, 
 hanging — Fr. baler, Wallach. baler, It. 
 ballare, to dance up and down. 
 
 The French, however, have retained 
 the proper form in the book-keeping 
 term bilan, a balance-sheet of debit 
 and credit. 
 
 Bald-etebeow, a curious North of 
 England name for the plant Anfherms 
 Cotula, is a corruption of Balder Brae, 
 so called from its whiteness resembling 
 the dazizling brow of Baldur, the north- 
 em sun-god (Britten and Holland, 
 Eng. Plant-Names, p. 23). 
 
 Compare Swed. bcddersbra, loel. Bal- 
 d/rs-hrd, and old Eng. Baldwr herbe 
 (Cockayne, Leechdoms, iii. xxsi.). 
 
 Bald-money, ) popular names for 
 Bawd-money, ) the plant Mew {Ile- 
 um Athamanticum), are corruptions of 
 its old Latin name valde bona, " very 
 good " (Prior). For the change of 6 
 to m, compare mona dies, an old French 
 perversion oi'bona dies (Cotgrave) ; It, 
 vermena, Lat. verbena; O. Eng. primet, 
 now privet; Lat. mandibula, Sp. 6am- 
 diiula; A. Sax. hr&nvn, Eng. raven; 
 termagant, Fr. Tervagant ; cormorant 
 and corvorant, &c. Britten and Hol- 
 land agree with Sir W. J. Hooker 
 that the first part of the word is a cor- 
 ruption of Baldu/r, the Apollo of the 
 North, to whom this plant (Uke Bal- 
 der's Brae) was dedicated {Eng. Plant- 
 Names, p. 23). 
 
 Balled, the old form of bald {balUd, 
 WycUffe, Levit. xui. 41), as if to denote 
 round, smooth, and polished, like a 
 
BALLIABB8 
 
 ( 20 ) 
 
 BANISTERS 
 
 billiard- bfliZi! (Tyrwhitt, Eiciiardson) ; 
 " hallyd, oalvus," Prompt. Pa/rv. (cf. 
 " halhew, or pleyn," Id.; O.Eng. hal^, 
 Bmooth?). Bal-d seems to be the same 
 word as Welsh hal, white-streaked, 
 Lith. halu, Gk. phal-ios, white (of. 
 Cumberl. holy, a white-marked horse ; 
 W. Cornw. hall-eye, a white or wall- 
 eye). BalA; the white sun-god, is pro- 
 bably near akin. — Thorpe, N. Myth, i., 
 185. The nominant quality therefore 
 of a hairless head is its gleaming eur- 
 faoe. 
 
 His head was balled and schon as eny glas. 
 Chaucer, C. T. Prologue, 1. 198. 
 
 Eobert of Gloucester says that WiUiam 
 the Conqueror was 
 
 Gret-wombede & ballede & bote of euene 
 leng)»e. 
 
 Morris, Specimens, p. 15, 1. 408. 
 Whanne the pie sawe a balled or a pilled 
 man, or a woman with an liighe forhede, the 
 pie saide to hem, "ye spake of the ele." 
 • — Knight of La Tour Landry, p. 22 
 (E. E. T. S'.). 
 
 BaZfchead, occurs in K. Alysa/under, 
 1. 6481. 
 
 Balliaeds, Spenser's orthography of 
 " billiards," as if from the halls that 
 game is played with {Mother Hiohherd's 
 Tale), whereas its name is really de- 
 rived from the French hillard, the cue ; 
 hillot, hille, a stick. 
 
 Balm-bowl, a Cleveland word for a 
 vase de chamhre (matelld). Mr. Atkin- 
 son compares an Icelandic hamhur, a 
 pot or bowl (Haldorsen), and thinks 
 there may be a connexion with the 
 Teutonic harme. But this seems 
 doubtful. 
 
 Balsamynte is an old name of the 
 plant {tanacetum) halsamita, of which 
 it seems to be a mere modification 
 (Britten and Holland). 
 
 Bandog, as if a dog hanned or cursed 
 for its savagenesB, was originally a 
 hand-dog, i.e. one hound or chained : 
 Pr. chien hande, Dutch, hand-hond. So 
 the "lime-hound" was one held in a 
 leash {Uani, 0. Fr. liam-en, Lat. Uga- 
 men). Bxit the Danish honde-hwnd 
 seems to be the husbandman's {bonde) 
 dog, a farm-dog. Tie-dog was another 
 name for an animal of unusual fieree- 
 nesB. 
 
 As a tie-dng I will muzzle him. 
 Death of R. F.arl of Huntingdon, 1601. 
 
 Mastive, Bandog, Alolossus. 
 
 Baret,' Aliiearie, 1580. 
 We ban gi'eat Bandogs will teare their skins. 
 
 Spenser, Shepheard's Calender, Sept. 
 Make bandog thy scoutwatoh, to barke at a 
 tbeefe. 
 
 Tusser, Five Hundred Pointes, 1580 
 (ed. E. D. Soc. p. 20). 
 The tie-dog or band-dog, so called bicause 
 manie of them are tied up in chaines and 
 strong bonds, in the dale time, for dooing 
 hurt abroad. — Harrison, Description of Eng- 
 land, pt. ii. p. 44. 
 
 See also Caius, Of EngUshe Boggest 
 1576, p. 43 (repr. 1880). 
 
 The fryer set his fist to his mouth 
 
 And whuted whues three : 
 Halfe a hundreth good band-dogs 
 Came running over the lee. 
 plobin Hood and the Curtail Fryer, 
 
 Bands, a frequent misspelling of 
 hanns [i.e. proclamations) of marriagej. 
 with evident allusion to the bonds or ties 
 of matrimony. More than once I have 
 received a written request from rustic 
 couples to have their "bands put up." 
 Dan Michel calls the married "y- 
 bounde mid hende, ' ' bound with a band. 
 —AyenUte oflnwyt, p. 220 (1340). 
 
 Art and industry can never marry those 
 things whose bands nature doth forbid.— 
 Fuller, Truth Maintained, 1643, p. 10. 
 
 The brethrein ordained Mr. Robert Wat- 
 soune to proclaime hir bandis, and to proceed 
 with themariage. — Presbytery Book of Strath- 
 bogie, p. 1 (1631), (Spalding Club). 
 
 Banisters, a very common corrup- 
 tion of halusters when placed as a 
 guard to a staircase, perhaps from a 
 supposed connexion with Prov. Eng. 
 han, to stop, shut in, hanrdn, that which 
 is used for shutting or stopping (Somer- 
 set). Balusters, Fr. halustres, seem to 
 have been originally the same as Low 
 Lat. halistarice, the shot-ports for 
 smaller cross-bows [halistce) along the 
 gunnels of the medieval galley (see 
 Yule, Ser Ma/rco Polo, vol. i. p. Ixvii.). 
 Cf. It. halestriera, a loophole (Florio, 
 1611) ; O. Sp. hwrahustes, halahustes, 
 turned posts like pillars to support gal- 
 leries (Minsheu, 1623), ba/rahustar to 
 cast weapons [Id.). The It. halaustro 
 seems to have been assimilated to la- 
 lausto (Gk. halaustion), a pomegranate 
 flower. Somewhat similarly crenelU, 
 Fr. creneau, 0. E. camel, denoted both 
 a battlement and a loophole (see Gastel 
 of Love, ed. Weymouth, p. 77). 
 
BANWOOD 
 
 ( 21 ) 
 
 BAB.MA8TEB 
 
 Banwood, and Bairnwokt (Cleve- 
 land dialect), the daisy, seem to be the 
 same as the A. S. idn-wtjrt, bonewort 
 (AiJcinson). 
 
 In battill gyrss burgionys the banwart 
 wild. 
 G. DoitgUSf EneadoSf But xii. Pi-oloiig, 
 
 Mr. Cockayne says that in old Eng- 
 lish hanwyrt was the name of the wall- 
 flower, from hana, a man-slayer, in 
 allusion to the bloodstained colour of 
 its petals, just as it is still frequently 
 called " the bloody warrior;" and that 
 afterwards the word was applied to the 
 daisy on account of its red-tipped pe- 
 tals {Lceclidoms, &o. vol.- iii.). 
 
 Bakb, to, to shave or trim the beard — 
 a verb that seems to owe its origin to a 
 mistaken idea that a harher is one who 
 harbs. Cf Butch. 
 
 Cooke and 1 to Sir G. Smith, it being now 
 niglit, and there up to his chamber and sat 
 talking, and I barbing against to-morrow. — 
 Pi^pya, Diary (ed. Bright), vol. iii. p. 316. 
 
 Bakbed, when applied to horses {as 
 in Shakespeare's " barbed steeds," Bich. 
 III. i. 1,1. 10):^covered with armour, 
 is a corrupted form of the older word 
 harded, Fr. hwrde, furnished with hwrde, 
 or horse-armour (Skeat, Et. Did.), 
 assimilated seemingly to larh, a Bar- 
 bary horse. 
 
 Baebeeey, the shrub so called, does 
 not derive its name from its berries, 
 but is corrupted from the Latin her- 
 
 Barybaryn tre (barbery), Barbaris. 
 
 Prompt. Parvuhrum, c. 1+40. 
 
 Fr. "herheris, the barbarie-tree " 
 (Cotgrave). Prof. Skeat adds Arab. 
 harhdris, IPers. ba/rha/ri [Etym. Diet.). 
 
 Barge, to scold in a loud abusive 
 way, used in most parts of Ireland 
 (e.g. Antrim and Down Glossary, Pat- 
 terson, E. D. S.), as if to use the strong 
 language of a bargee or barge-mam,, is 
 the same word as Scot, bmirge, to lift 
 up the voice in a strong loud manner 
 (Bamff Glossary, Gregor), bargain, to 
 chaffer, Scot, bargane, to fight, O. Fr. 
 bargmgner, to wrangle (Cotg.), from 
 baragomn, confused speech, gibberish, 
 whence slang barrihin. 
 
 Hee thinks no lenguage worth knowing 
 but his Barragouin, — Overbury, Works, p. 84 
 (ed. Rimhauit). 
 
 Baragouin is from Celt, bar a gown 
 bread and wine (W. Stokes, Ir. Glosses, 
 p. 52). 
 
 Baeguest, an apparition in the form 
 of an animal, as if one that arrests a 
 traveller (hke the Ancient Mariner), 
 believed in the northern counties (as 
 the Swed. kirhe-grim, Dan. hirhe-vair- 
 sel) to be a harbinger of death. It is, 
 no doubt, a corruption of bier-ghost, 
 Ger. balir geist, Dan. baa/re geist (Sir 
 W. Scott). See Atkinson, Cleveland 
 Glossa/ry, s. v. Henderson, Folklore of 
 the N. Counties, p. 239. 
 
 He had been sufficiently afraid of meeting 
 a barguest in his boyish days.' — Southey, The 
 Doctor, p. 577 (ed. 1848). 
 
 Baeley-men, a Lancashire word for 
 the petty officers of the manorial courts 
 leet or baron. In other places, and in 
 old documents, they are called burley- 
 men, burlimen, or bye-law men, e.g. : 
 
 Item there be appointed foure bitrley-men 
 for to se all paines that are made to be kept. 
 — Records of' the Manor of ^cotter, anno 1586. 
 
 All these words are corruptions of 
 byre-law-men, law of the byre or town ; 
 Icel. bcBr. See By-law. 
 
 Baeley-sugae, or sugar-bai'ley, is 
 said to be a corruption of the French 
 Sucre hrule, " burnt sugar ;" suare d'orge 
 being a re-translation of our corrupted 
 term, but this is doubtful. 
 
 Babman, is probably not correlative 
 to ba/r-moAd (as in Ger. Kellner to Kell- 
 nerinn), one who attends at the bar or 
 buffet ; but the modem form of old 
 Eng. berman, a kitchen-porter. 
 )jer the herles mete he tok, 
 J)at he bouthe at J;e brigge ; 
 \>e bermen let he alle ligge, 
 And bar l^e mete to ]>e castel. 
 
 Havetok the Dane, 11. 873-877 
 (ab. 1280). 
 Weoren in ])eos kinges cuchene 
 
 twa hundred cokes, 
 & ne maei na man tellen 
 for alle J?a bermannen. 
 
 La^amon, 1. 8101. 
 
 This berman is A. Sax. hoer-mann, a 
 "bear-man" or porter, from beran. 
 Bar is not foimd in the earliest Eng- 
 lish. 
 
 Bak-mastee, a name given in the 
 mining districts of Derbyshire and 
 Yorkshire to the officer or agent who 
 superintends the mines, is a corruption 
 
BABM-BBAGK 
 
 ( 22 ) 
 
 BABONBT 
 
 of the older term herghmaster =: the 
 German hergmeister. Fuller spells it 
 barge-master. 
 
 The Barge-master keeps hia two great 
 courts twice a year in Barge-Moot-Hall. — 
 Worthies, Derby-shire, vol. i. p. 251 (ed. 
 1811). 
 
 Baem-beack, or ha/rn-hrack, an Anglo- 
 Irish term for a currant cake, is a cor- 
 ruption of the Irish haArm hreac, 
 " speckled bread," old Ir. hcdrgen hrecc, 
 from hwlrgen or hdirghean, or ha/ran, 
 bread, cake, and hreac, speckled (so. 
 /yith currants and raisins) ; so hreacog 
 is a little cake. (See "Whitley Stokes, 
 Irish Glosses, p. 52 ; Pictet. Origines 
 Indo-Europ., torn. ii. p. 313.) 
 
 On St. Bridget's eye every farmer's wife 
 in Ireland makes a cake called bairin hreac. — 
 Vallancey, Antiquity of Irish Language, p. 
 291. 
 
 He was always welcome to a share of 
 our tea and barne-breac of an evening. — 
 Russet, Memoirs of Thomas Moore, vol. i. p. 
 67. 
 
 Baenaby, in " Bishop Barnahy," a 
 Suffolk name for thelady-bird(Wright), 
 as if sacred to S. Barnabas, is no doubt 
 for hwrney-hee, or hv/rney-hee, its name 
 in East Angha, which is understood as 
 hurrde hee, i.e. fiery beetle (Eng. Dia- 
 lect Soc, B. 20). See also PMlolog. 
 8oc. Trans. 1859, p. 86. This insect is 
 universally associated with fire, and a 
 burning house in which his children 
 are in danger of being consumed 
 {Kelly, Indo-European Tradition, p. 94 
 seq.). 
 
 Burnie bee, burnie bee, 
 Tell me when your wedding be. 
 HaUiwell, Nursery Rhymes, p. 100. 
 Of. Chambers, Pop. Shymes of Scot- 
 land, p. 43 ; Atkinson, Cleveland Glos- 
 sary, s.v. Oowlady. 
 
 Babnacle, the name of a species of 
 goose [Anser hernicla), or hernacle, is 
 said to be a corruption of Norweg. 
 ba/i-n-gagl, a sea-goose (T. Edmonston, 
 Shetland and Orhney Glossary, Pbilo- 
 log. Soc. Ed.). Cf. Icel. bdra, a wave. 
 The word was assimilated to harnacle, 
 the name of the sliell-fish, from which 
 the bird was then imagined to be pro- 
 duced. See M. Miiller, Lectures, 2nd 
 ser. p. 602. The form hernekke occur- 
 ring in Alex. Neokam (died 1217) would 
 seem to show that the Norweg. word 
 is the corruption (Be. Nat. Berumi, lib. 
 I., cap. xlviii.). 
 
 Bamakylle, byrde. Bamacus, bamita.— 
 Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 
 There are founde in the north parts of Scot- 
 land, & the Hands adiacent, called Orchades, 
 certaine trees, whereon doe growe certaine 
 shell iishes, of a white colour tending to 
 russet; wherein are conteined little liuing 
 creatures : which shels in time of maturitie 
 doe open, and out of them gi-ow those little 
 liuing things ; which falling into the water, 
 doe become foules, whom we call Baniakles, 
 in the north of England Brant Geese, and in 
 Lancashire tree Geese. — Gerard, Of the Goose 
 tree, or BarnaUe tree. Herbal, p. 1319 (1597). 
 
 Baenaclbs, a slang term for spec- 
 tacles, as old at least as the 16th cen- 
 tury, as if a pair of limpet-shells so 
 called (Ir. harneach), these barnacle- 
 shells being sometimes pierced by 
 children, and fitted to the eyes in sport. 
 It is, however, the same word as the 
 following, found in the provincial 
 French dialects, herniques, spectacles 
 (Berri); bornifeeZ, near-sighted (Langue- 
 doc) ; hornicle, a squint eye ; borndcler 
 to squint (G-eneva, Jura) ; hornier, to 
 be blear-eyed (Douai) ; hourgna, to 
 squint (Limousin) ; horni, blind 
 (LangTiedoo) ; Fr. horgne, It hornio. 
 
 M. Miiller thinks that the word was 
 originally hernicula, herynicula, for 
 herylUcula, from O. Fr. hericle, Proven- 
 9al herille, from heryllus ; as we speak of 
 " pebbles," of Ger. hrille, spectacles (2nd 
 ser. p. 534). 
 
 Cotgrave says, "Bericles, corruptly 
 for Besycles, a paire of spectacles : Ea- 
 
 Others, with less probability, see in 
 barnacles a corruption of hinocles, 
 binocuU,'with. r inserted, as in pimpernel, 
 Fr. pimprenelle ; beside It. pimpinelh, 
 Low Lat. hipinella, bipinrmla (two-, 
 winged). 
 
 lacke. Your eyes dassell after your wash- 
 ing, these spectacles put on. 
 
 Grimme, They be gay bamikels, yet I see 
 never the better. 
 
 Damon and Pithias, 1571, Old Plays, 
 i. 240 (ed. 1825). 
 
 Baeonet, in old Acts of Parliament, 
 e.g. in the statutes of Bichard II., is a 
 corruption of Banneret, as if it were 
 connected with Bcuron (Selden, Titles 
 of Honour, p. 736). 
 
 Low Lat. hanerettus, he who carries 
 the banner," homo ad vexillum," would 
 easily be confounded with bajronettus, 
 a diminution of ba/i'o, the man par ex- 
 
BABBEN 
 
 ( 23 ) 
 
 BA8ILI000K 
 
 cellcnoe, akin to Lat. vir. See, how- 
 ever, Spelman, Olosswrium, s. vv. 
 
 Barren, so spelt as if conneotecl witli 
 old Eng. " ha>Tyn dorys, or ojier shyt- 
 tynge (pessulo, repagulo)," Pronvpt. 
 Parv. ; and accordingly understood to 
 denote ba/rred up, so that no fruit can 
 issue, sterile (Tooke, Bichardson) — e.g. 
 when the Lord " fast closed up all the 
 wombs of the house of Abimelech" 
 (Gen. XX. 18), He rendered them "bar- 
 ren." The older forms are ' baryne ' 
 {Prompt. Pa/rv. 1440), 'bareyn' (Wy- 
 cliffe. Gen. xxv. 21), derived from 
 Norman-French Iwraine. 
 
 Terra ert idunques veine de tut en tut 
 baraine. — Philip de Thaun, Livre des Creci- 
 tures (12th cent.) 1. 848, ed. Wright). 
 
 Old Fr. hwrdigne. In 1 Samuel, 
 where Hannah, whose womb the Lord 
 had "shut up" (ch. i. v. 5), declares 
 "that the barren hath borne seven" 
 (ch. ii. V. 5), the old Fr. rendering 
 (12th cent.) is "la ba/rdigne plusurs en- 
 fantad " (Bartsch, Ghrestomathie). 
 
 Other forms are old Fr. hrehaigne ; 
 Wallon, hrouhagne, braine ; Breton, 
 h-echafi (of. Dut. h-aech, barren ; Ger. 
 brack, fallow), Bas. Bret. braJien. 
 He is a gull, who is long in taking roote 
 In baraine soyle, where can be but small 
 fruite. 
 
 E. Guilpin, Skialetheia, Epigram 20, 1598. 
 
 Baekow-team, a jocular Scotch term 
 for a raw-boned, awkward-looking per- 
 son (Jamieson). Lieut.-Col. Cunning- 
 ham thinks that it is a corruption of 
 ba/rathrum, an abyss or devouring gulf 
 — e. g. in Ouy Mannering where Meg 
 Merrihes calls Dominie Sampson "you 
 black barrowtram of the kirk," pre- 
 paratory to the order " gape, sinner, 
 and swallow." 
 
 Compare, "Marry, and shall, you 
 ba/i-aihrum of the shambles." 
 
 Massiager, A New Way to Pay Old 
 Debts, iii. 2. 
 
 Base, an old word for a smaU kind 
 of ordnance (Wright). It would seem 
 to be the same word as berche (also 
 barce), an old French word for " the 
 piece of ordnance called a Base " 
 (Cotgrave), for berce or bersc, derived 
 from bercer, berser, meaning to shoot or 
 hit with an arrow, originally to batter 
 with a ram, Lat. berbex, vervex. See 
 Bassinette. 
 
 The naraes of ancient offensive in- 
 struments, it is well known, were com- 
 monly transferred to their modern 
 substitutes. 
 
 Base-boen, illegitimate, seems to 
 have originated in an assumption that 
 iasta/rd meant one of base or low bhth, 
 Mid-Eng. bass, Fr. bas; so Welsh 
 basda/rdd ( ? a borrowed word), as if 
 from bas, low, and tardd, issue. Fuller 
 has "base chUd " (Oood Thoughts in 
 Bad Tifnes, p. 255, ed. Pickering). So 
 Diefenbach, Goth. Sprache, i., 281. 
 
 V^hj bastard? Wherefore 6ase ? 
 When my dimensions are as well compact, . . 
 As honest madam's issue ? Why brand they 
 
 us 
 With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, 
 
 base ? King Lear, v. 2. 
 
 Bastm-d, however, old Eng. bast 
 (" baaste, not wedlock," Prompt. Pa/rv., 
 cf. Gael, baos, lust), is either (1) 
 old Fr. fils de bas or bast, son of a 
 pack-saddle, i.e. irregularly begotten, 
 "on the wrong side of the blanket" 
 (Mahn, Scheler), or (2) Icel. basta/rir 
 ^ hcBsingr " one bom in a cowhouse," 
 or boose, Icel. lass (Goth, bansts), Hke 
 hornungr (from horn) a " comer-child," 
 Ger. winJcel-Mnd, one bom in some 
 hole or corner (cf. " Ditoh-dehvered of 
 a drab," Shaks.). See Cleasby and 
 Vigfusson, p. 771. 
 
 Out, you base-borne rascall." — Marston, 
 The Malcontent, i. 6 (1604). 
 
 Reinold .... bestowed Antioch on 
 Frederick, base sonne to Frederick the Em- 
 perour. — T. Fuller, Holy Warre, p. 168 
 (1647). 
 
 Henry Fitzroy . . confuted their Ety- 
 mology, who deduced Bastard from the 
 Dutch words boes and arl, that is, an abject 
 nature ; and verifyed their deduction, deriv- 
 ing it from besteaerd, that is, the best dispo- 
 sition. — Worthies, vol. i. p. 341. 
 
 Basilicock, an old corruption of 
 basilish, Lat. basiliscus, Gk. basilishos, 
 the kingly or crowned serpent (a trans- 
 lation of uroeus, which is from Copt. 
 ouro, a king : Bunsen and Eawhnson). 
 It is a fabulous animal, often identi- 
 fied with the cockatrice, which was 
 supposed to kill by a glance of its eye. 
 
 " (janne is he [J>e enuious] of i>e kende of 
 be baseli/coc." — Ayenhite of Jnwiyt (1340), p. 
 28 (E. E. T. S. eS.). 
 
 The basiiicok sleth folk by venime of his 
 sight. — Chaucer, Persones Tale. 
 
BASSINETTE 
 
 ( 24 ) 
 
 BEAUFIN 
 
 It is a basilisk unto mine eye, 
 Kills me to look on 't. 
 
 Shakespearej Cymbeline, act ii. so. 4. 
 
 Bassinette, a term for an infant's 
 cradle, as if (like the old hassinet, a 
 helmet), a diminutive of Fr. hassin, a 
 basin. It is plainly a corrupted form 
 pf hercecmnette, from herceau, a cradle. 
 This latter word is from bercer, to rock 
 to and fro, to swing Hke a battering- 
 ram, 6er?)ea!, another form of Lat. vervex. 
 Batteb, an old Scottish wojrd for a 
 small cannon, as if that which batters 
 walls (Fr. battre), is also found as bat- 
 ta/rd, from Fr. bata/rde, old Fr. basta/rde, 
 ti demy cannon (Cotgrave). Of, Bumpbe. 
 Battledooe, the hght bat with 
 which the shuttlecock is bandied to 
 and fro, is a corrupted form of the 
 Spanish batidor or batadm; a striker, or 
 beetle, from batir to beat. Formerly it 
 denoted the beetle used by laxmdresses 
 in beating and washing hien. 
 
 5at (//(ioure,orvp'asshjngebetylle. — Prompt, 
 Parv. 
 
 Batiildore, betyll to bete clothe^ with. — 
 Palsgrave, 
 
 The curious phrase " not to know B 
 from a battledoor," expressive of igno- 
 rance or stupidity, meant originally 
 not to know one's letters — the old 
 horn-book resembling a battledoor in 
 shape. The modem card-board which 
 has superseded this is still called a 
 battledoor by some of the Lincolnshire 
 folk, who have the saying, " He does 
 'nt know his ABC fra a battle- 
 door." (See Peacock, Glossary of Man- 
 ley and Gorringham, E. D. S.) Com- 
 pare Dutch " Abeehwdfje [i. e. A B- 
 board] a Battledoor, Criscrossrow " 
 (Sewel). 
 
 One whose hands are hard as battle doors 
 with clapping at baldness. — Histrio-Muntix 
 (1610), act ii. 1. 138. 
 While he was blinde, the wenche behinde 
 
 lent him, leyd on the flore, 
 fllany a iole about the nole with a great 
 buttil dore. 
 A Jest How a Sergeaunt wolde leme to 
 be a Frere, 1. 260. 
 
 Battlement, apparently a defence 
 in time of battle, a fortification. Prof. 
 Skeat is no doubt right in regarding it 
 as only another form of Fr. bdtiment, 
 old Fr. bastillement, from old Fr. bas- 
 filler, to fortify (whence " bastile "), 
 bastir, to build {Etym. Diet.). 
 
 At vch brugge a berfray on basteles wyse ( A^ 
 each bridge a watch-tower on the fortifica- 
 tions appeared). — Alliterative Poems, B. 1. 
 11 8r (ed. Morris). 
 In the same poem we find 
 
 \>e borS baytayled alofte (The city fortified 
 aloiit), 1. 1183, and batelment, 1. 1459. 
 Grape-loaded vines that glow 
 
 Beneath the battled tower. 
 Tennyson, Dream of Pair Women,!. S%0, 
 
 Beam, a ray of light, A. Sax. beam, 
 (beamdari), has generally been regarded 
 as the same word as beam, A. Sax. 
 beam (Goth, bagms, a tree), (Skeat, Ett- 
 miiller), just as "ray " itself (radius) ia 
 akin to '.'rod," MUton's " long-level'd 
 rule of streaming light " (Comus, 1. 
 340). 
 
 Benfey identifies it with Sansk. 
 bha-ma, light (root bha, to shine, to 
 sound), which is probably right. Old 
 Eng. beme, a trumpet (Frielce of Con- 
 science, 1. 4677, A. Sax. beam), is nearly 
 related. 
 
 Beans, a slang word for money, has 
 been regarded as a corruption of the 
 French biens, goods, property. How- 
 ever, the analogy of lupini, lupines, 
 used as money on the Latin stage, and 
 ai Lavo, the name given to money by 
 the Fiji Islanders, from its resemblance 
 to the flat round seeds of the Mimosa 
 scandens, shows that the word may 
 well be imderstood in its natural sense. 
 
 Acosta mentions that the Spaniards 
 in the West Indies at one time used 
 cacao-ni:^ts for money. 
 
 Beak Coote, as if the coot which 
 hawks at bea/rs, is a corruption of Bwr- 
 hut, the hunting eagle of Eastern 
 Turkestan, which is trained to fly at 
 wolves, foxes, deer, &c. (Atkinson's 
 Or. and W- Siberia, 493; see Yule, 
 Marco Polo, i. 355). It is spelt "bur- 
 goot" in T. E. Gordon's Boof of the 
 TForfd, p. 88. 
 
 Beastie, a vulgar Anglo-Indian 
 term for a water-carrier, is a corruption 
 of the native Hindustani word bihishti, 
 "the heavenly man" from hihisM, 
 Paradise. 
 
 Beaufin, Beefin, Biffin, are various 
 names for a sort of apple peculiar to 
 Norfolk, but which is the original or 
 more correct form is not easily deter- 
 mined. It is said to be called beefin, 
 
BEAVEB 
 
 ( 25 ) 
 
 BEEFEATER 
 
 from its colour resembling that of raw 
 beef! The first spelling would seera 
 to indicate a fruit, beau et fin. But in 
 either case there is a corruption. 
 
 Beaver, the lower part of a helmet, 
 is a corruption of Fr. baviere, due to 
 confusion with "beaver hat" (Skeat, 
 Etym. Diet.). 
 
 Become, to suit, fit, or set off to ad- 
 vantage, as when a certain dress or 
 colour is said to become one (decere), a 
 distinct word from become, to happen, 
 be-cuman, is the modern form of A. Sax. 
 be-cwenian, from cweman, to please or 
 profit ; compare Ger. beqiiem, con- 
 venient. See Comely. 
 
 Pilatus wolde 5a <5am folce ge-cweman. 
 — S. Mark, xv. 15 (A. Sax. vers.). 
 
 Bedridden : the passive form of this 
 word is puzzhng. As it stands it 
 would seem to denote one that was 
 ridden or pressed by his bed, rather 
 than one who lay upon it — the paraly- 
 tic man as he returned home with his 
 burden, rather than as he came for cure, 
 borne of four. It is the A. Sax. bed- 
 rida, bedreda, or bedredda, a deriva- 
 tive from Tidan, to ride, rest on, or press ; 
 and so denotes one who habitually 
 keeps his bed: 0. Eng. "bedered-man 
 or woman. Decumbens, clinicus," 
 Prompt. Pa/rv. (cf. bedlawyr, Decum- 
 bens, Id,). Similarly, hofrede is one 
 who keeps his house (hof), a sick man. 
 The form bed-rid was probably mis- 
 taken for a past parte, and then 
 changed to bed-ridden. 
 
 Priest-ridden, may be a modem for- 
 mation on the same model, as if over- 
 mastered by priests, as Sindbad by the 
 old man of the mountain ; but really 
 corresponding to an A. Saxon preosi- 
 rida, one that rests wholly on his priest. 
 Professor Erie advances the extraordi- 
 nary notion that bed-rida is for be- 
 d/rida, past parte, of bedrian ! {Philo- 
 logy of the English Tongue, p. 23.) 
 tieke I was^ and bedred lay, 
 And yhe visite me nouther njght ne day. 
 Hampole, Pi-icke oj Conscience, ab. 1340, 
 1. 6198 (ed. Morris). 
 There is an honest man, 
 That kept an olde woman 
 Of almes in hyr bed 
 Liyng dayly beddered, 
 
 Doctour Doubbte Ale, I. 338. 
 Old bedridden palsy. 
 Tennyson, Aylmer's Field, 1. 178. 
 
 Bbepbatee, a popular designation of 
 the yeomen of the guard on duty at 
 the Tower, has been considered a cor- 
 ruption of Fr. bwffetier, one who keeps 
 the bvffct. Fr. buffet formerly meant 
 a cupboard of plate, and the collection 
 of plate set forth on a sideboard (Cot- 
 grave) ; and the chief duty of these 
 yeomen may have been to guard the 
 crown jewels and coronation plate 
 there deposited. There is, however, no 
 such word as buffetier in Cotgrave, and 
 buffeteur, which he does give, means a 
 purloiner of wiue. 
 
 Though this corruption is quoted by 
 Andresen, M. Miiller, Trench, and 
 others, it is open to grave suspicion, 
 as there is no evidence whatever that 
 these yeomen were ever called buffe- 
 ticrs. Mr. Pegge states, indeed, that 
 the office of carrying up the dishes to 
 the royal table continued to be a branch 
 of their duty up to the time when he 
 wrote, 1791 (Gurialia, p. 31), but he 
 denies that they had anything to do 
 with the buffet. 
 
 Sometimes I stand by the beef-eaters, and 
 take the buz as it passes by me. — The Specta- 
 tor, No. 625 (1714). 
 
 Bathurst is to have the Beef-eaters. — Horace 
 Walpole, Letters, vol. i. p. 176 (1742), ed. 
 Cunningham. 
 
 But these gentlemen of the Guard 
 have been noted of old for their pre- 
 dilection for beef. 
 Hear me you men of strife ! you that have 
 
 bin, 
 Long time maintain'd by the dull Peoples 
 
 sin. 
 At Lyon's, Furnifold's, and Clement's Inne ! 
 With huge, o're-comming Mutton, Target- 
 Cheese, 
 Beefe, that the queasie siomacVd Guard would 
 please. 
 
 Sir William Davenant, Works, 
 fol. 1673, p. 237. 
 A foreigner, visiting England in 1741, 
 describes the Yeomen of the Guard as 
 follows : — 
 
 Une Troupe d'Anglo - Suisses, qu'on 
 nomme Vomen of the Card, et par derision 
 Roast-beef ou Beef-eaters, c'est a dire Man- 
 geiirs de Bceuf, remplissent la .Salle des Gardes 
 et en font les fonctions. — Letires de M. le 
 Baron Bielfield (1763), torn. i. Lett. xxix. (in 
 Scott, British Army, vol. i. p. 530). 
 
 Cowley, also, in his poem entitled 
 The Wish, plainly impUes that these 
 portly yeomen were notorious for their 
 consumption of beef : — 
 
BEELD 
 
 ( 26 ) BEHIND HAND 
 
 And chines of See/ innumerable send me, 
 Or from the stomach of the Guard defend me. 
 Marvell, in his Instructions to a 
 Painter about the Dutch Wwrs, 1667, 
 has these hnes : — 
 
 Bold Duncomb next, of the projectors chief, 
 And old Fitz Harding of the eaters beef. 
 Those goodly Juments of the guard would 
 
 fight 
 (^As they eat beef) after six stone a day. 
 Cartwright, The Ordinary, ii. 1 (1651). 
 
 The yeomen are often spoken of as 
 The Ouard in ancient documents : Sir 
 S. D. Scott, The British Army, vol. i. 
 p. 513. An instance of the early use 
 of the word heefeater is there quoted 
 from a letter of Prince Eupert's, dated 
 1645 (pp. 515-516). The large daily 
 allowance of beef which was granted 
 for their tahle renders the term in its 
 obvious sense quite appropriate (p. 
 517). 
 
 In the old play of Histrio-Mastix 
 (1610), Mavortius dismisses his serving- 
 men with the words — 
 
 Begone yee greedy beefe-eaters ; y'are best : 
 The Callis Cormorants from Dover roade 
 Are not so chargeable as you to feed. 
 
 Act iii. 1.99. 
 
 Beeld, a N.W. Lincolnshire word for 
 likeness, fao-simile — e.g. " She's the 
 very beeld o' her brother when she's 
 a man's hat on" (Peacock) : as it were, 
 build (beeld being "to build") seems 
 to be identical with Dutch beeld :=. Ger. 
 hild, figure, portrait, likeness. 
 
 Beeves, a Sussex word for bee-hives, 
 whence it is corrupted (Parish, Sussex 
 QlossoA-y). 
 
 Begger, has generally been regarded 
 from a very early period as being only 
 another form of bagger ; the bag which 
 he carried about for the reception of 
 alms or broken victuals being the dis- 
 tinctive mark of the mendicant. So 
 Skinner, Bailey, Richardson, Wedg- 
 wood. The Dorset folk say to bag for 
 to beg. Just as pedlar, 0. E. pedder, 
 was one that goes about with a ped or 
 pannier, and maunder, a begger, one 
 that goes about with a mamnd, or 
 basket, whence maund, to beg, in Ben 
 Jonson (see Nares, and Sternberg, 
 Northampt. Glossary) ; so begger, it was 
 conceived, came from bag. Compare 
 Ir. pocain-e, a begger, from poc, a bag 
 or poke ; Gasl. haigeir, a begger, from 
 
 hag. Wedgwood adduces similar in- 
 stances of "to beg," being originally to 
 carry a scrip or wallet, from Welsh, 
 Ital., Dan., and Greek. In the Cleve- 
 land dialect, " To tak' oop wi' t' begg- 
 ing-pooah," or "begging-poke," is to 
 be reduced to beggery ; Fr. etre au 
 bissac (Le Eoux, Diet. Gonmgue), "solet 
 antique bribas portare bisacco " (Rabe- 
 lais, Pantagruel, iv. 3). Thus the wallet 
 and staff was the standard "round 
 which the Netherland Gueux, glorying 
 in that nickname of Beggars, heroi- 
 cally rallied and prevailed" (Carlyle, 
 Sartor Besartus, ui. 3). Compare also 
 
 Hit is bsggares ribte uorte beren bagge on 
 bac. — Ancren Riwle, p. 168. 
 
 Beggers witli bagges \>e whiche brewhouses 
 ben here churches. — Vision of Piers Plowman, 
 X. 1. 98, C. (ed. Skeat.) 
 
 Bagges and beggyng he bad his folk leuen. 
 — Piers Plowman's Crede, 1. 600 (ed. Skeat). 
 
 Bidders and beggers- taste a-boute eoden, 
 Til heor Bagges and tieore Balies- weren [brat- 
 ful] I-crommet. — Vision of P. Plowman, Prol. 
 41, text A. 
 
 That maketh beggares go with bordon and 
 bagges. — Poiitica/i'ons'S, p. 150(CamdenSoc.). 
 I dreame it not the happy life 
 The needie beggers bug to beare. 
 
 Turbervdie, Sonnettes, 1569. 
 
 But what found he in a ' 
 Percy's Folio MS. i. 49, note. 
 
 A n old patcht coat the Beggar had one . . . 
 and many a bag about him did wag. — Ibid, 
 p. 14. 
 
 Mr. H. Sweet, however, commenting 
 on the word bedecige, to beg, in K. Al- 
 fred's version of Gregory's Fastorcd 
 care (p. 285, 1. 12), thinks that O. Eng. 
 hedecian, bedegian (from biddan, to beg) 
 passed through the stages heggian, beg- 
 gen, into our modem beg (p. 486, 
 E.E.T.S.). Prof Skeat adopts this 
 view, remarking that the word was 
 forced out of its true form to suit a 
 popular theory. Diefenbach had al- 
 ready connected it with Goth, bidagvd, 
 a begger, bidjan, to ask, Bav. baiggen 
 (Goth. Sprache, i. 294). 
 
 Behind hand : this curious idiom, 
 apphed to one in arrears with his work 
 or in money matters, seems to be a 
 corruption of Old Eng. behinden, back- 
 ward (opposed to forward or well to- 
 wards the front). 
 
 He him raakelS to ben fcj/imden, of Jjat he 
 weueS to ben biforen. — Old Eng. Homilies, 
 2nd ser. p.2i:i (ed. Mon'is). 
 
BEHOLDING 
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 BEBBT 
 
 See Oliphant, Old and Mid. Una. 
 p. 193. 
 
 Beholding, a very common perver- 
 sion of beholden. Old Bng. beholdyn, in 
 old authors. 
 
 I came .... to take my leaue of tliat 
 noble Lndie lane Grey, to whom I was ex- 
 ceding moch beholdlnge. — R. Aschum, Schole- 
 master, bk. 1. (1570), p. 46 (ed. Athev). 
 
 The chm-ch of LandaiFe Tras much behold- 
 ing to him. — Fuller, Worthies, ii. 164 (ed. 
 1811). 
 
 Belfey, so spelt as if it denoted al- 
 ways tlie tower where the hells are 
 hung, is the French heffroi, O. Eng. 
 hercfreit, O. Fr. herfroi, iefroit, a watch- 
 tower ; M. H. Ger. hercvrif, from her- 
 gen (to protect) and frid (a tower). — 
 Wedgwood, Diez. 
 
 At vch brugge a berfray on basteles "vvyse. 
 — Alliterative Poems (xiv. cent.), p. 71, 
 1. 1187. 
 
 A b&wfray that shal have ix fadome of 
 lengthe and two fadome of brede. — Caxton's 
 Vegecius, sig. 1. 6. 
 
 In Lincolnshire a helfry is any shed 
 made of wood and sticks, furze, or 
 straw (Peacock). 
 
 The beffroy, in ancient mihtary war- 
 fare, was a movable tower of wood, 
 consisting of a succession of stages or 
 storeys, connected by ladders, and 
 diminishing in width gradually from 
 the base. The name was afterwards 
 given to any high tower (Sir S. D. 
 Scott, The British Army, vol. ii. p. 
 170). 
 
 Mr. Cosmo Innes holds that the two 
 round towers of Scotland "were used 
 as helfreys, probably before bells were 
 hung in buildings, and when the mode 
 of assembling a congregation was by a 
 hand hell rung from the top of the hell 
 tower." — Scotland in the Mid. Ages, p. 
 290. It is difficult to suppose that in 
 writing this passage the author did not 
 connect helfreys with bells. 
 
 Bellibone, an old Enghsh word for 
 a lovely woman, is a corruption of the 
 phrase helle et honne. 
 
 Pan may be proud that ever he begot 
 Such a Bellibone. 
 Spenser, Hhepheards Calender (April). 
 
 The fact of woman being sometimes 
 termed man's rib may have favoured 
 the corruption. E. K.'s gloss on the 
 passage is : "A Bellibone, or a honmhell. 
 
 homely spoken for a fayre mayde, or 
 Bonilasse." 
 
 Bell-kite, a vulgar name in Scot- 
 land for the hald coot, old Scottish held 
 cytfp, of which it is a corruption. 
 
 The coot, Welsh cwt-iaa; has its name 
 from its short tail, cwt. 
 
 Bellycheeke, an old word for good 
 living : — 
 
 A spender of his patrimony and goods in 
 beltycheere and unthriftie companie. — Nomen- 
 clator, 1385. 
 
 It is a corruption of an older form, 
 belle-chere, i.e. good cheer. 
 For God it wote, I wend withouten doute. 
 That he had yeve it me, because of you, 
 'I'o don therwith mine honour and my prow. 
 For cosinage, and eke for belle-chere. 
 Chaucer, The Shipmannes Tale, 1. 13336-9 
 (ed. Tyrwhitt). 
 Gluttonie mounted on a greedie beare, 
 To belly-cheere and banquets lends his care. 
 Sam. Rowlands, The Four Kjuives (1611, 
 &o.), p. 117 (Percy Soc. Ed.). 
 
 Belly-bound, the name for a certain 
 kind of apple [? in America] is said to 
 be a corruption of helle et bonne (Scheie 
 De Vere, Studies in English, p. 205). 
 Cf. Prov. Eng. hellihorion, a kind of 
 apple, East (Wright). See Bellibone, 
 a fair maiden. 
 
 Benjamin, "B enjoin, the aromaticall 
 gumme called Benjamin " (Cotgrave), 
 is a corruption of Benzoin, It. belztiino, 
 belguinoi Span, henjui, Portg. heijoim, 
 aU from Arabic, luban djawi {'hdn- 
 djdwi) "incense of Java," i.e. of Su- 
 ruatra, called Java by the Arabs 
 (Dozy, Devic). In the dialect of 
 Wallon de Mons, benjamine is a cor- 
 ruption of balsamine (Sigart, Olossadre 
 Moniois). 
 
 Bent-wood, a north of England 
 word for ivy [hedera helix), is a cor- 
 ruption of Scotch hen-wood, hind-wood; 
 compare Bind-with. 
 
 Bequest, that which is bequeathed, 
 from A. Sax. be-c/iveian, to be-quoth, 
 influenced in form by a false analogy 
 to request, inquest, &c. 
 
 Berry, an old Eng. word for a 
 squall, or sudden storm, is a corruption 
 oiperrie (Harrison) ; "pyry or Storme, 
 Nimbus " {Prompt. Ptwv.) ; "pyrry, a 
 storme of wynde, orage," Palsgrave ; 
 " Sodain piries," Hall, Ghrordele, 17 
 
BEBTBAM 
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
 BILE 
 
 Hen. VI. ; " gnsdo di uento, a gust or 
 herw or gale of -wind," Plorio, 1611. 
 " Pirries or great stormes " (Sir T. 
 Elyot, The Gouernour). 
 
 Croscia d' acqua, a suddaiue showre, a 
 storme, a tempest, a blustring, a benyy or 
 flaw of many windes or stormes together. — 
 Fk'Ho (1611). 
 
 Tourbillon, a gust, flaw, berri£, sudden blast 
 or boisterous tempest of wind. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Vent, a gale, flaw, or berrie of wind. — Id. 
 
 We hoised seall with a lytle pirhe of est 
 wind, and lainshed furthe. — /. Mdoille, Diary 
 (1586), p. 252 (WodroiT Soc). 
 
 See Fwrie (Nares), Scotch, pirr, a 
 gentle breeze ; Icel. hyrr, a fair wiad ; 
 Dan. I'm-, Swed. lor. Of. Skeat, Eiym. 
 Bid. s.v. Pirouette. ' 
 
 Beetbam, the name of a plant, has 
 no connexion with the Christian name 
 of the same sound, but is a corruption 
 of the Lat. pyretlwum, Gk. purethron, 
 a hot spicy plant, from pur, fire. The 
 same word, by a different process, has 
 been converted into Peteb (which 
 see). 
 
 Beseen, used by Chaucer and Spen- 
 ser in the phrase well-heseen, comely, 
 of good appearance, is a corruption of 
 old' Eng. Tnsen, example, appearance 
 (Dr. E. Morris, Pricke of Conscience, 
 p. 283). See Bison. But query? 
 
 Arayd in antique robes downe to the 
 
 gi'ownd. 
 And sad habiliments right well beseene. 
 
 Fairie Queene, I. xii. 5. 
 Thus lay this pouer in great disti'esse 
 A colde and hungry at the gate, . . . 
 So was he wofuUy beseiie. 
 
 Gower, Confesaio A mantis, vol. iii. p. 35 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 Defoe uses heseen for attire, clothes. 
 See Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossary, s.v. 
 
 Beware, a cant term used by street 
 showmen for a drink or beverage, is 
 doubtless corrupted from It. hevere 
 (Lat. hihere), many other words of this 
 class having an Itahan origin — e.g. 
 nanti, none, It. niente ; dinali, money, 
 It. (Una/ri ; casa, house. It. casa ; Iteteva, 
 bad. It. cattivo ; vada, look, It. vedere ; 
 otter, eight, It. otio ; carroon, a crown, 
 It. corona. In the "mummers' slang," 
 " all beer, brandy, water, or soup, are 
 beware." — Mayhew, London Labour 
 and London Poor, vol. iii. p. 149. 
 
 It is the same word as old Eng. 
 "Beuer, drinkinge tyme " (Prompt 
 
 Pa/i-v.), Prov. Eng. bever, an afternoon 
 refection (Suffolk). In the argot of 
 Winchester College, beever is an allow- 
 ance of beer served out iu the after- 
 noon, and beever-time the time when it 
 is served out (H. 0. Adams, Wylce- 
 haimca, p. 417). 
 
 Bbzoes, a Gloucestershire word for 
 the auricula, is a corruption of bear's 
 ears (Lat. ii/rsi OMricula), so called from 
 the shape and texture of its leaves. — 
 Britten and Holland, Eng. Plant- 
 Names, p. 40 (E. D. Soc). 
 
 BiLBOOATCH, or BiBLBE-CATCH, an 
 
 old name for the game of cup and 
 ball, is a corruption of bilboquet, Fr. 
 billeboquet ; boquei seems to be for boc- 
 guet (the iron of a lance), the pro- 
 jecting point on which the ball (Kile) 
 was caught. But cf. Prov. Er. bilboter, 
 to totter or waver (Sigart, Gloss. Mon- 
 tots). 
 
 I am ti-ying to set up the noble game of 
 bilboquet against it [whist]. — Horace Walpole, 
 Letters, vol. i. p. 237 (1743). 
 
 Bile, the common old Eng. form of 
 boil, an inflamed swelling, and still used 
 by the peasantry both in England (e.g. 
 Lincolnshire, Brogden, Glossary, s.v.) 
 and Ireland, has no connexion with 
 bile (Lat. bilis), as if attributable to de- 
 rangement of the liver. That there 
 is no real analogy is shown by the 
 cognate words, Icel. bdla, a blain, or 
 blister ; also the boss on a shield (a 
 protuberance), Lat. bulla, a bleb or 
 bubble (Ger. beule, a boil ; Dutch buile, 
 Swed. bula) — all probably denoting a 
 bhster or bubble,the result of ebullition, 
 and so akin to Icel. bulla, Eng. to boil, 
 Lat. (e)bullvre. So eczema, a trouble- 
 some skin disease, is the Greek ehzema, 
 a boiling over, a pustule. 
 
 Ettmijller gives A. Sax. byle, a blotch 
 or sore. 
 
 Buyl, a Bile, boss. 
 
 Buyl, a Purse. 
 
 Sewel, Dutch Diet. 1708. 
 
 Wychffe has the forms Ule, byil, biel, 
 beel (Deut. xxviii. 27, 35 ; Ex. ix. 9). 
 
 His voices passage is with Biles be-layd. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 438 (1621). 
 
 Byle, Sore, Pustula. — Prompt Parvulorum 
 (c. 1440). 
 
 Dyeing houses . . . within are the botches 
 and byles of abhomination. — Whetstone, Mir- 
 ourfor Magistrates of Cyties, 1584. 
 
BILLY 
 
 ( 29 ) 
 
 BITTEB END 
 
 Thou ai't a byle. 
 
 King Lear, ii. 4. 
 The leaues of Asphodel seme for . . , red 
 and flat bites, gout-rosat, Sauce-fleame, ale- 
 pocks, and such like vlcers in the face. — 
 Holland, Plinies Nat. History, vol. ii. p. 128 
 (1634) fol. 
 
 Bosse, ... a botch, bile, or plague sore.— 
 Cotgrave, 
 
 So A.V. LevH. xiii. 18, 20 (1611). 
 
 Billy, a slang word for stolen metal 
 of any kind. (Hotten), is probably a 
 corruption of Fr. hillon, bullion. 
 
 BiLLTAED, an old spelling of hilliard, 
 as if it were the ya/rd or rod with which 
 the bille or ball is struck. 
 
 Bille, a small bowle, or billyard ball. 
 
 Billart, the sticke wherewith we touch 
 the ball at billyards. — Cotgrave. 
 
 It is from the Fr. hillmrd, originally 
 a curved stick for striking the ball — 
 Low Lat. hilla/rdtis, from billa z^pila, a, 
 baU. 
 
 BiND-wiTH, a popular name for the 
 clematis vitalba. It is diiiicult to say 
 what connexion, if any, exists between 
 this and the following words, or which, 
 if any, are corrupted words : Soot. 
 hindwood, henwood, ivy ; hindweed, 
 henweed, htmwede, ragwort ; O. Eng. 
 henwyt-tre, henewith ire {Prompt. Parv.), 
 perhaps the wood- bine ; Icel. hein-viiir 
 (bone-wood), salix arbuscula ; Swed. 
 hen-ved (bone-wood), the wild-cornel; 
 Dan. fcecTO-'iJeed (bone-wood),the spindle- 
 tree {euonymus). 
 
 BiRDBOLT, the fish gadus lota, is a 
 corruption of barhote (Latham). 
 
 So Nares gives turholi from Witts 
 Recreation, as another form of turhot. 
 
 Burbote, or barbate, is Lat. harbata, 
 the bearded fish, hke " barbel." 
 
 BiRD-OAGE Walk, in St. James's Park, 
 so called as if bird-cages were hung 
 there, is said to be a corruption of 
 bocage walk {Philolog. Soc. Proc. vol. v. 
 p. 139). This is doubtful. 
 
 Bird Eagles, a Cheshire name for 
 the fruit of the Gratcegus Oxycamtha. 
 Eagles or Agles is the diminutive of 
 hague, the more common name of the 
 haw in Cheshire. [A. Sax. haga.] — 
 Britten and Holland, Eng. Plant- 
 Names, p. 42. 
 
 BiscAKB, a provincial form of " bis- 
 cuit," Fr. ins-evAt (Lat. bis-eoct{Ms), i.e. 
 
 dmis-coct, literally, tivice-cooht ; Icel 
 tvi-baka, Ger. zwiebaoh. 
 She had Useakes and ale with the Dos's Meat 
 Man. 
 
 Ballad of the Dog's Meat Man. 
 Bis-ca^es would have suppUed a 
 transitional form. 
 
 Bishop's-Leaves, a popular name for 
 the plant scrophularia aquatica, arose 
 probably from a misunderstanding 
 of its French appellation, I'herhe dm, 
 siige, as if siege were used here in its 
 ecclesiastical sense of a bishop's see, 
 instead of its medical — the herb being 
 considered remedial in hsemorrhoidal 
 affections (Prior). 
 
 Bishop's-wort, a. Sax. hiscop-wyri, 
 as a name for a plant, seems to have 
 been originally a translation of the 
 Latin hibiscus, which was confounded 
 with Episcopus. 
 
 Bison, in the phrase " to be a holy 
 bison " — more correctly spelt in the 
 Cleveland Olossary " a holy bisen," i.e. 
 " a holy show," a gazing-stock, a 
 spectacle — is A. Sax. hysn, bysen, an 
 example ; Icel. bysn, a wonder, a 
 strange and portentous thing. 
 
 A common menace which the wo- 
 naen of Newcastle-upon-Tyne use to 
 each other is, " I'll make a holy by son 
 of you." — Brand, Pop. Antiquities, vol. 
 i. p. 487 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 Jje bodys of (je world in Jjair kynde, 
 
 Shewes us for bisens to haf in mynde. 
 
 Hanipole, Pricke of' Conscience, 
 1. 1026 (ab. 1340). 
 
 Bitter end, in the modem phrase 
 " To the bitter end " :=: d outrance, was 
 originally a nautical expression, to the 
 end of the bitter, which is " a turn of a 
 cable about the timbers called bites (or 
 bitts)," Bailey. Probably the same word 
 as bite, or bight, a bend or coil, bought (1 
 Sam. XXV. 29, marg.), Dut. bogt, Dan. 
 bugt. See Dr. Nicholson in N. and Q., 
 6th S. III. 26, who quotes from Capt. 
 John Smith, Governor- General of 
 Virginia : "A Bitter is but the turn of 
 a Cable about the Bits, and veere 
 [slacken or pay] it out little by Uttle. 
 And the Bitter's end is that part of the 
 Cable doth stay within board " (Sea- 
 man's Orammar, p. 30). But this 
 hitter's end became altered into hitter- 
 end. Adrn. Smyth in The SaMor's 
 
BLACK ABT 
 
 ( 30 ) 
 
 BLAZE 
 
 Word-Booh has " Bitter end. That part 
 of the cable which is abaft the bitts, 
 and therefore within board when the 
 ship rides at anchor. . . . And when a 
 chain or rope is paid out to the hitter 
 end no more remains to be let go." 
 
 Black abt, a literal rendering of the 
 Sp. magia negra, a phrase formed from 
 nigronicmoia, which is itself a corruption 
 of the Gk. nehromanteia, as if connected 
 with niger, black. Compare It. negro- 
 mcmte, nigromamte, Span, and Portg. 
 nigromante. 
 
 Nj^omSincy,Nigromancia, — Prompt, Parv. 
 Let's also flee the furious-curious Spell 
 Of those Black-Artists that consult with Hell. 
 
 /. Siikester, Works, p. 773 (1621), fol. 
 
 See Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossa/ry, s.v. 
 
 Blanch, an old spelling of hlench, to 
 shrink, or flinch, as if to grow pale or 
 white (blanche, Fr. llanc), old Eng. 
 hlench, to turn aside (game, &o.), lead 
 astray, deceive ; A. Sax. hlencan, to 
 make to hUnh (Skeat, TStym. Diet.). 
 Cf. Icel. hlehkja, to impose on. 
 
 Latimer has hlctunchers for hlenchers. 
 
 Even now so hath he certayne blaunchers 
 longing to the market, to let and stoppe the 
 light of the Gospell, and to hinder the Kinges 
 proceedings in setting forth the worde and 
 glory of God. — Sermons (1548), p. 23, verso. 
 
 Nu a uleih mei eilen ]pe and maken \>e to 
 blenchen [Now a fly may hurt thee and make 
 thee shrink]. — Ancren Riwle, p. 276. 
 
 Abuten us he is for to blenchen. 
 
 IVIid alle his mihte he wule us swenchen. 
 Old Eng. Homilies, 1st ser. p. 55, 1. 14. 
 
 Saw you not the deare come this way, hee 
 flew downe the wind, and I beleeve you have 
 blancht him. — Lilly, Gallathea, ii. I. 
 Here and there wanderers, blanching tales 
 
 and lies. 
 Of neither praise nor use. 
 
 G. Chapman, Odysseys. xi. 492. 
 
 Sylvester has blanch rz avoid, omit 
 mentioning. 
 
 O ! should I blanch the Jewes religious 
 River. 
 
 Dn Bartas, p. 52. 
 If my ingratefuU Rimes should blanch the 
 story. 
 
 Id. p. 54. 
 
 Blancmanger : the latter part of this 
 word is said to have no connexion 
 with manger, to eat. The old spelling 
 was hlanc-mangier, and hlanc-mengier, 
 a corruption of ma-en-sire, i.e. " fowl- 
 in-syrup," which is the chief ingredient 
 
 of the dish in old recipes. Its other 
 names — Blanc Desire {i.e. de sire, " of 
 syrup "), Blanc desorre, Blanc de sorry, 
 Blanc de Surry — are of similar origki. 
 — Kettner, Book of the Table, pp. 211- 
 213. But where is this 'ma{?)-en-sire to 
 be found ? 
 
 The Liber Cure Oocorum, 1440 (edi 
 Morris) gives recipes for Blonlce desore 
 (p. 12) and Blanc Maungere of fysshe 
 (p. 19). Minsheu gives {8pan. Diet. 
 1623), Manjar bianco, a white meat 
 made of the breast of a hen, milke, 
 sugar, rice beaten, mixed all together. 
 
 Blaze, a white mark, on the face of 
 an animal, or made on a tree by strip- 
 ping off a portion of the bark — so spelt 
 as if to denote a bright, flame-hke 
 streak — is the same word as Ger. hlasse, 
 a white mark (hlass, pale, wan) ; Swed. 
 bids, Dan. blis, a face-mark ; Prov. Ger. 
 llessen, to mark a tree by removing the 
 bark (WestphaUa) ; Ger. bletzen. Com- 
 pare Fr. blesser. 
 
 They met an old man who led them to a 
 line of ti'ees which had been marked by 
 having a part of the bark cut off ; trees so 
 marked are said to be blazed, and the patch 
 thus indicated is called a blaze. — Southey, 
 Life of Wesley, vol. i. p. 74, ed. 1858. 
 
 Blaze, in the phrase " to blaze 
 abroad," to proclaim or make widely 
 known, as if to cause to spread Hke 
 wild-fire, is properly to blow abroad or 
 trumpet forth, old Eng. hlasen, to blare, 
 A. Sax. bl&san, Dut. blazen, Icel. lldsa, 
 Goth, (uf-) blesan, all = to blow (Skeat). 
 With his blake clarioun 
 He gan to blasen out a soun. 
 
 Chaucer, House of Fame, iii. 711. 
 
 The heavens themselves blaze forth the death 
 of princes. 
 Shakespeare, Julius Crnsar, ii. 2, 1. 31. 
 
 That I this man of God his godly armes may 
 blaze. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queetie, I. xi. 7. 
 
 He began to publish it much and to blase 
 abroad the matter.—^. V. S. Mark, i.45. 
 
 Latimer has to blow abroad, and Hall 
 (1550) to blast abroad, =. to pubUsh. See 
 Eastwood and Wright, BibleWord-looh, 
 p. 67. 
 
 But when the thing was blazed about the 
 
 court. 
 The brute world howling forced them into 
 
 bonds. 
 
 Tennyson, Merlin and Vivien. 
 
BLAZES 
 
 ( 31 ) BLIND-MAN'S-BUFF 
 
 Blazes, in sundry colloquial com- 
 parisons impljring vehemently, ex- 
 tremely, in a very high degree, as 
 " drunk as blazes," is said to have 
 been originally hlaizers, or votaries of 
 8. Blaize or Blasius, in whose honour 
 orgies seem formerly to have been held. 
 " Old Bishop Blaize" is still a public 
 house sign (N. and Q. 6th S. II. 92), 
 and Miusheu speaks of " St. Blaze his 
 day [Feb. 3] , about Candlemas, when 
 country women goe about and make 
 good cheere, and if they find any of 
 their neighbour women a spinning that 
 day they burne and make a blaze of 
 fire of the distaffe, and thereof called 
 S. Blaze his day (I)." See Brand, Fop. 
 Antiq. i. 51 ; Chambers, Boole of Days, i. 
 219 ; N. and Q. 6th S. I. 434. Phi-ases 
 like a "blazing shame" (r= burning) 
 seem to be different. A naval officer 
 turning in after a very wintry watch 
 told his fellows " It was as cold as 
 hlazes." De Quincey says of a horse 
 " He went like Hazes." 
 
 I remember, fifty years since, or more, at 
 one of the Lincoln elections, hearing a man 
 in the crowd say to another, speaking of the 
 preceding night, " We got drunk as Blaizers." 
 I never could make out what he meant. 
 Yesterday 1 was reading" Sir Thomas Wyse's 
 Impressions of Greece, and, speaking of the 
 reverence for St. Blaize in Greece (who is 
 also, as you know, the patron saint of the 
 English woolcombers), and how his feast was 
 observed in the woollen manufactories of the 
 Midland Counties, he says, " Those who took 
 part in the procession were called ' Blaizers,' 
 and the phrase ' as drunk as Blaizers ' origi- 
 nated in the convivialities common on those 
 occasions." So good " Bishop and Martyr" 
 Blaize is dishonoured as well as honoured ia 
 England, and very probably in Greece. — 
 Life of Richard Waldo Sibthorp, by Bev. J. 
 Fowler, 1880, p. 227. 
 
 Bleae one's eye, an old phrase for 
 to deceive (Shaks. Tarndng of Slwew, 
 V. 1, 1. 120), is, accordiag to Prof. 
 Skeat := Prov. Swed. hlvrrafojr augu, 
 to hlv/r, or dazzle before the eyes [Etym. 
 Bid.). 
 
 Bleaey eye, a cottager's attempt at 
 Blm/rii, the scientific name for a species 
 of rose first raised by Mr. Blair, of 
 Stamford Hill, near London. — S. E. 
 Hole, Book about Boses, p. 154. 
 
 Bless, an old verb meaning to guard, 
 preserve, must be distinguished from 
 bless, A. Sax. bletsioM, i.e. bU^-sian, to 
 
 make bUthe or iKss-ful, with which it 
 has sometimes been confounded. It is 
 old Eng. blessen, hKssen, hlecen, to pre- 
 serve, turn aside, lessen ; Dut. bleschen, 
 to quench (Morris), for be-leschen, of. 
 Ger. losclien, to queneli, discharge. 
 
 From alle uuele he seal hlecen us. — Old 
 Eng. Homilies, 1st ser. p. 57, 1. 64. 
 [Aaron] Ran and stod tuen Hues and dead. 
 And Sis fier blessede and wi<5-drog. 
 
 Genesis and Exodus, 1. 3803 (ah. 1250). 
 So sorely he her strooke, that thence it 
 
 glaunst 
 Adowne her backe, the which it fairly blest 
 From foule mischance. 
 
 Spenser, F. Qxieene, IV. vi. 13. 
 
 Their father calls them [Simeon and Levi] 
 *' brethren in evil" for it, btesseth his honour 
 from their company, and his soul from their 
 secrecy, Gen. xlix. 6. — T. Adams, The City 
 of Peace, Works, ii. 322. 
 
 Heaven bless us from such landlords. — 
 Country Farmer's Catechism, 1703 [Nares]. 
 
 Bless, to brandish (Spenser) seems 
 to be akin to Fr. hlesser, to wound, slash. 
 
 Burning blades about their heades doe blesse. 
 F. Queene, I. v. 6. 
 
 Blindfold seems to have no al- 
 lusion to the fold (A. Sax. feald) of 
 material that covers or blinds the eyes, 
 but is a corruption of the old Eng. 
 blindfellede, from the verb blindfellen. 
 Ohphant, Old and Mid. Eng., p. 280. 
 
 He {jolede al [juldeliche jjet me hine blind- 
 fellede, hwon his eien weren )3us ine schend- 
 "lac iblinfelled, vor to Siuen |3e ancre brihte 
 sibie of heouene. — Ancren Riuile, p. 106. 
 
 He suffered all patiently that men him 
 blindfolded, when his eyes were thus in 
 derision blindfolded for to give the anchorite 
 bright sight of heaven. 
 
 BufFetes, spotlunge, blindfellunge, jiornene 
 crununge. — id. p. 188. 
 \>e Gywes fiat heolde ihesu crist. Muchele 
 
 scheme him dude. 
 Blyndfellede. and spatten him on. in jjen ilke 
 stude. 
 Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 45, 1. 272. 
 
 Blyndefylde, excecatus. — Prompt. Parvw- 
 lorum. 
 
 Where the Heber MS. has blyndfellyd. 
 Blyndfellen, ormake blynde, exceco.— frf. 
 
 Prof. Skeat says blindfellen is for 
 hlimd-fyllan, to strike blind; Mqd.'Eng. 
 fell. 
 
 Blind-man's-buff seems to be a 
 corruption of blind-mam-buck, as " in 
 the Scandinavian Julbock, from which 
 this sport is said to have originated, 
 
BLOODY MAB8 
 
 ( 32 ) 
 
 BLUNDEBBU8 
 
 the principal actor was disguised in 
 the skin of a buck or goat " ( Jamieson). 
 The name of the game in German is 
 blinde-Kuh, "bhnd-cow;" in Scotch, 
 hlind-ha/rie, helly-hUnd, hellie-mantie, 
 Ohache-hlynd-mcm, Joekie-hlind-mcm ; 
 in Danish hUndehuk. The Prompiorium 
 Pa/rvulorim (ab. 1440) gives " Pleyyn, 
 huk hyde, Angulo," which, however, 
 may perhaps be the game of hide and 
 seek. Bough, in Martin Parker's poem 
 entitled BUnd Mans Bough, 1641, may 
 be regarded as the transitional form. 
 
 The Dorset name is hlind-buck-o' - 
 jDeavy (Davy's bhnd buck). In most 
 countries it is an animal, not a person, 
 that is represented as being bhnd in 
 this game — e.g. in addition to those 
 ah-eady mentioned, Portg. cah-a ciega, 
 (blind goat), Sp. galUna ciega (blmd 
 hen). It. gatta orha (bhnd cat), nwsca 
 cieca (blind fly). — {Philohg.Soc.Trans. 
 1864, Dorset Glossa/ry, p. 43). 
 
 Similarly the game of hide and seek 
 is in the Dorset dialect hidy-huck .- cf. 
 hide-fox. Samlet iv. 2. 
 
 He has a natural desire to play at blind- 
 man-bujfa,U his lifetime. — Randolph, Works, 
 p. 394(1651)ed. HazUtt. 
 
 Bloody Maes, a popular name for 
 a kind of wheat, is a curious corruption 
 of Fr. Ble de Mo/rs. — Britten and Hol- 
 land, Eng. Plant-Names, p. 52 (E. D. 
 Soc.) 
 
 Bloomeey, a melting - furnace, a 
 foundry, an Anglicized form of Welsh 
 plymwiaeth, lead-work (Gamett, Phi- 
 lolog. Soc. Proc. vol. i. p. 173), from 
 Welsh pliom zi Lat. plumlum. But O. 
 Eng. hloma is a lump of metal taken 
 from the ore. 
 
 Massa, daS vel btoma. — Wright's Vocabu- 
 laries (10th cent.), p. 34. 
 
 Blooming- Sally, a North of Ireland 
 name for the flowering (Lat.) salix, or 
 wlUow (Bpilobium angustifolium). — 
 Britten and Holland. So Sweet Cicely 
 and Sioeet Alison have no connexion 
 with the similar woman's names. 
 
 Blot, in the phrase " to hit a hlot," 
 to flud out a defect or weak ijoint in 
 anything, is not, as one might suppose, 
 the same word as hlotoh, a stain or 
 mark on a fair surface, but taken from 
 the game of backgammon, where Hot 
 is a man left uncovered, and so liable to 
 be taken — a vulnerable point. Exactly 
 
 equivalent is Ger. eine hlSsze treffen : cf. 
 Swed. gSra hlott, to make a Hot, or ex- 
 posed point. It is the Ger. llozs, Dan. 
 and Swed. hlott, Scot, hlout, hlait, aU 
 meaning naked. Vid. Blaokley, Word 
 Gossip, p. 84. Cf. Icel. hlautr, soft, and 
 so defenceless. 
 Quarles says that Vengeance 
 
 Doth wisely frame 
 Her backward tables for an after-game : 
 She gives thee leave to venture many a bht; 
 And, for her own advantage, hits thee not. 
 
 EmbleTtis, Bk. iv. 4 (1635). 
 
 Blue as a Razoe, a proverbial ex- 
 pression, which Bailey explains to be 
 for blue as azure [Dictionairy, s.v.). 
 
 Blue-bottle : Dr. Adams beheves 
 that hottle in this word for a fly is a 
 diminutive of hot, a grub or maggot 
 (Gael, hoius ; — ? from its producing 
 these) — O.Eng. Wor-hottles heiagiound. 
 for wor-hots. — Philolog. Soc. Tram. 
 1859, p. 226. 
 
 Now, blue-bottle'! what flutter you for, 
 sea-pie^ — Webster, Northward Ho, i. 3. 
 
 Blue-mange, a vulgar Scotch cor- 
 ruption of hlancmange. 
 
 No to count Jeelies and coosturd, and blue- 
 mange. — Nodes Ambrosianm, vol. i. p. 64. 
 
 Blundeebus, which seems to be a 
 later name for the old harquebus, which 
 was fired from a rest fixed in the 
 ground, is not probably (as generally 
 stated) a corruption of Dutch donder- 
 bus, Ger. donnerhiiahse, but another 
 form of the word blanter-hus. Blanter- 
 bus seems originally to have been 
 plamtier-lus, a derivative doubtless of 
 Lat. planta/re, Pr. planter. It. piam- 
 ta/re, denoting the firearm that is 
 planted or fixed on a rest before being 
 discharged. Blunyierd is a Scotch 
 word for an old gun. 
 
 King James, in 1617, granted the 
 gunmakers a charter empowering them 
 to prove aU arms — " harquesbusse 
 {plantier-busse, alias blanter-busse), and 
 musquettoon, and every caUiver, 
 musquet, carbine," &c.~Original 
 Ordnance Accounts, quoted by Sir S.D. 
 Scott, The British Army, vol. i. p. 405. 
 
 I do believe the word is corrupted, for I 
 guess it is a German term, and should be 
 Donnerbuolis, and that is thundering guns; 
 Donner signifying thunder, and Buch a 
 gun. — Sir James Turner, Pallas Armata, 
 p. 173 (1683). 
 
BLUNT 
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 BODKIN 
 
 Sir S. D. Scott, strangely enough, 
 adopts tliis later account, explaining 
 blunder in the old sense of stupefying 
 or confounding. — {British Army, vol. ii. 
 p. 303.) 
 
 Blunt, money (cant), is said to be 
 from the French blond, used in the 
 sense of silver ; so " browns " for half- 
 pence, and "toyn," a very old cant term 
 for a penny =z Welsh gioyn (white), 
 a silver coin. " Blank," an old Eng. 
 word for a kind of base silver money, 
 is from the French 6Za»c, white — " inon- 
 noye blanche, white money, ooyne of 
 brasse or copper silvered over : " Cot- 
 grave. "3 blcmckes is a shilling :'" The 
 Post of the World, 1576, p. 86 (in 
 Nares). 
 
 Blush, in the phrase " at the first 
 blush," is a distinct word from blush, 
 to be suffused with redness, being the 
 old Eng. blusoh, look, view, glance. 
 Thus, when Campion, in his HiMo^-ie of 
 Ireland, 1571, speaks of "A man of 
 straw that at a blush seemeth to carry 
 some proportion " (Beprint, p. 167), he 
 means at a glanee, at first sight. This 
 b-lush is, perhaps, related to A. Sax. 
 Idcian, to look ; Gk. leusso, to behold ; 
 as b-lush, A. Sax. blyscan, to redden, 
 Dut. blosc, are to Dan. blusse, to blaze ; 
 Lat. lucere, Icel. hjsa — both being 
 traceable to the Sansk. root ruch, to 
 shine (Benfey). 
 
 A good instance is this concerning 
 Lot's wife : — 
 
 Bot >e balleful burde, J)at neuer bode keped, 
 Blusched by-hynden her bak, ))at bale forto 
 
 berkken. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 65, 1. 980 (ed. Moms). 
 );enne com Ihesu crisf so cler in him seluen, 
 after Jje furste blusch- we ne miste him bi- 
 
 holden. 
 
 Joseph of Arimathie, ab. 1350, 1. 656 
 (E.E.T.S. ed.). 
 Thou durst not blushe once backe for better or 
 
 worse, 
 but drew thee downe ffuU- in that deepe hell. 
 Death and Life, Percy Folio MS. vol. lii. 
 
 p. 72, 1. 388. 
 Methinks, at a blush, thou shouldest be 
 one of my occupation. — Lilly, Gallathea, ii. 
 3 (vol. i. p. 234, ed. Fairholt). 
 
 A " Contemporary Beview"-er lately 
 (Dec. 1878) singled out for remark the 
 following sentence: "In the garden 
 lay a dead Jackal, which, at the first 
 h,l took to be a fox," from a book 
 
 entitled West and East, and affixed a 
 sic! to the word blush, as if to say, 
 " Utterly incredible as it may appear, 
 it actually stands so ! " Evidently he 
 did not know that blush means a look 
 or glance. 
 
 BoAE THISTLE, a widely-spread popu- 
 lar name for the carduus lanceolaius, 
 is a corruption of Bur Thistle. — Brit- 
 ten and Holland, Eng. Plant-Names, 
 p. 54 (E. D. Soc.) 
 
 Similarly, bores is a Somersetshire 
 word for burs (Id. p. 58). 
 
 Board, to, a vessel, so spelt as if the 
 original conception was to go on boa/rd 
 and take possession of the deck, whereas 
 it meant at first simply to come along- 
 side, Pr. aborder, "to approach, ac- 
 coast, abboord ; boord, or lay aboord ; 
 come, or draw near unto; also to ar- 
 rive, or land at:" Cotgrave. Fr. boi'd, 
 Icel. bwi, a margin or border, esp. 
 the side of a ship {e.g. leggja bori toS 
 bori, to lay a ship alongside of another 
 so as to boa/rd it) ; O. Eng. to boord zz. to 
 approach, address (Spenser, Lilhe). 
 " Board," a plank, is, however, a word 
 nearly akin. Cf. " accost," Fr. costoyer, 
 " to accoast, side, abbord, to be by the 
 side of: " Cotgrave {adcostam). "Lap- 
 land ... so much as accosts the sea " 
 (FuUer, Woi-thies, i. 257). 
 Spenser speaks of the river 
 
 Newre whose waters gray 
 By faire Kilkenny and Rosseponte boord 
 [i.e. flow by the side of]. — Faerie Queene, IV. 
 xi. 43. 
 
 They both yfere 
 Forth passed on their way in fayre accord, 
 Till him the Prince wiui gentle court did 
 bord \=^ accost]. 
 
 Id. II. ix. 2. 
 Affect in things about thee cleanlinesse 
 That all may gladly board thee, as a flowre. 
 Geo. Herbert, The Church-Porch. 
 
 Mrs. Page. Unless he know some strain in 
 me .... he would never have boarded me in 
 this fury. 
 
 Mrs. Ford. " Boarding," call you it?, I'll 
 be sure to keep him above deck. 
 
 Shakespeare, Mei-ry Wives of Windsor, 
 ii. 1, 94. 
 
 Bodkin, an old word for a species of 
 rich cloth, a tissue of sUk and gold, is 
 a corruption of baudlcin (Gascoigne), 
 or baudequin, Pr. baldaquin, Sp. balda- 
 quino. It. baldacchino, from Baldach, 
 Bagdad, where it was manufactured. 
 
BOG-BEAN 
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 BONE-FIBE 
 
 The Icelanders corrupted the word 
 into Bald/rsskinn, i.e. " Balder's skin." 
 
 The better sort have vestes potijmitie gar- 
 ments of party-coloured silks' some bein^ 
 Satten, some (iold and Silver Chamlets, and 
 some of Bddkin and rich cloth of gold, 
 figured. — .Sir Thos. Herbert, Travels, p. 313 
 (1665). 
 
 At this day [Bagdad] is called Valdac or 
 Baldach. — Id. p. 242. 
 
 He hanged all the walls of the gallery . . . 
 with riche clothe of bodkin of divers colours. 
 — Cavendish, Life of Wolsey, Wordsworth, 
 Edcks Biog., vol. i. p. 447. 
 
 Bog-bean, a popular name for men- 
 yanthestrifoUaia. Notwithstanding its 
 French synonym, trefle des ma/rah, Dr. 
 Prior holds it to he a corruption of the 
 older forms huolt-liean or huches-heane. 
 
 BoLT-SPEiT, a frequent spelling of 
 how-sprit (Bailey, Richardson), the 
 sprit or spar projecting from the how of 
 a ship ; Dutch hoeg-spriet, Dan. hug- 
 spryd, as if one straight as a holt or 
 arrow. The French have corrupted 
 the word into heaupre. 
 
 Kennett explains holtsprit as the sprit 
 or mast that holts out (1695) : Eng. 
 Dialect Soc, B. 18. 
 
 BoND-GBACE, an old name for a 
 hanging border or curtain attached to 
 a bonnet or other head-dress to shade 
 the complexion from the sun, is a cor- 
 ruption of the older word BoM^rroce, Fr. 
 honne-grace. 
 
 You think me a very desperate man . . . 
 for coming near so bright a sun as you are 
 without a parasol, umbrellia, or a bondgrace. 
 — Sir Wm. Davenant, The Man's the Master 
 (1669). 
 
 Bonne-grace. The uppermost flap of the 
 down - hanging taile of a French-hood ; 
 (whence belike our Boongrace). — Cotgrave. 
 
 The attire of her head, her oarole, her 
 borders, her peruke of hair, her bon-grace 
 and chaplet. — Holland, Trans, of Plini/. 
 
 The Nomenclator, 1585, defines um- 
 hella to be a hone-grace. 
 
 BoNE-FiEE, an old spelling of hon- 
 jvre, from a belief that it was made of 
 hones. 
 
 Bakloria, a great bonefire or feude ioy. — 
 Florio. 
 
 The word is still vulgarly pronounced 
 so in Ireland, and probably elsewhere. 
 
 Some deduce it from fires made of bone, 
 relating it to the burning of martyrs, first 
 fashionable in England in the reign of King 
 Henry the Fourth. But others derive tlie 
 
 word (more truly in my mind) from Boon, 
 that is good and Fires ; whether good be taken 
 for merry and chearfull, such fires being 
 always made on welcome occasions. — Ful- 
 ler, Good Thoughts in Bud Times, p. 181 (ed. 
 Pickering). 
 
 Drayton's spelling is hoon-fire (Poly, 
 olhion, 1622, song 27), and so Fuller, 
 Mixt Contemplations, 1660, Part i. xvi. 
 26. 
 
 In worshipp of Saint lohann, the people 
 wake at home, and make three maner of 
 fyres : oone is ckne bones, and noo woode, 
 and that is called a bone-fiire; another is clene 
 woode, and no bones, and that is called a 
 woode fyre, for people to sit and wake |here- 
 by ; the thirde is made of wode and bones, 
 
 and it is called Saynt lohannys fyre 
 
 \\yse clerkes knoweth well that dragons 
 hate nothyng more than the stench of bren- 
 nynge bones, and therefore they gaderyd as 
 many as tliey mighte fynde and brent them; 
 and so with the stenche thereof they drove 
 away the dragons, and so they were brought 
 out of greete dysease. — Old Homilii, quoted 
 in Hampson's Med. Katendarium, vol. i.' p. 
 303. 
 
 A slightly different version of this 
 quotation is given in Brand's Populm- 
 Antiquities, vol. i. p. 299 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 The best bone-Jire of all is to have our 
 hearts kindled with love to God. — Richard 
 Sibbes, Works (ed. Nichol), vol. iii. p. 198. 
 
 Stowe gives the same account as 
 Fuller :— 
 
 These were called bonfires, as well of 
 good amity amongst neighbours, that, being 
 before at controversy, were there by the 
 labour of others reconciled, and made of bit- 
 ter enemies loving fnends ; as also for the 
 virtue that a great fire hath to purge the in- 
 fection of the air. — Survey of London, p. 307, 
 ed. 1754. 
 
 Mr. Fleay observes : — 
 
 The singular words " everlasting bon- 
 fire" [in Macbeth, ii. 3] have been mis- 
 understood by the commentators. A bonfire 
 at that date is invariably given in the Latin 
 Dictionaries as equivalent to 'pyra or rogm ; 
 it was the fire for consuming the human body 
 after death : and the hell- fire differed from 
 tlie earth-fire only in being everlasting. — 
 Shakespeare Maniiut, p. 247. 
 
 Whether the word be spelt hone-fire, 
 as if from hone, or, as at present, bon- 
 fire, as if a fire made on the receipt of 
 good (Fr. hon) news (Skinner, Johnson), 
 it has superseded A. Sax. hcel-fyr [? Scot. 
 hane-fire} , from heel, a bm-uing, a funeral 
 pile : of. Icel. hdl, a flame, a funeral pile ; 
 Soot, hale, a beacon-fagot. So Belt 
 taine, the Irish name for the 1st of 
 
BONE-SBAVE 
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 BOSH BUTTER 
 
 May, according to Cormac's Olossary, 
 is hil-tene, the goodly fire then made by 
 the Druids (Joyce, Irish Names of 
 Places, p. 198) ; as if from hil, good, 
 and tene, a fire. Bil here is probably 
 akin to hoel, hdl. The A. Sax. heel- 
 hlcBse still survives in the Cleveland 
 bally-hleeze, a bon-fire. 
 
 Mr. Wedgwood identifies the first 
 part of the word with Dan. haun, a 
 beacon, comparing Welsh ban, high, 
 lofty, whence han-ffagl, a bonfire. 
 
 BoNB-SHAVE, a provincial word for 
 the sciatica, is a corruption of the old 
 Eng. " honschawe, sekenesse, Tessedo, 
 Sciasis:" Prompt. Parvuhrum. Other 
 forms are honeshawe, hoonschaw, hane- 
 scha/we, perhaps from A. Sax. ban and 
 sceorfa (Way). 
 
 Bonny - clabber — an Anglo - Irish 
 word for thickened milk or buttermilk, 
 used by Swift, Jonson, and others — is 
 from the Irish baine, badrme, milk ; and 
 claba, thick. Ford spells it borvny- 
 elabbore, and Harington {Epigrams, 
 1633) bony-elabo. 
 
 Itisagainstmy freehold, my inheritance, . . . 
 To drink such balderdash or bonnyclabber. 
 Jonson, The New Inn, act. i. sc. 1. 
 
 O Marafastot shamrocks are no meat, 
 Nor bonny clabbo, nor green water-cresses. 
 The Famous History of Captain Thos. 
 Slukeley,\. 814(1605). 
 
 Boon, in such phrases as " to ask a 
 boon," is derived from Icel. b6n (A. 
 Sax. bene, hen), a prayer or petition : 
 with a collateral reference in popular 
 etymology to boon (as in boon com- 
 panion, z: Fr. Ion compagnon), Fr. bon, 
 a good thing, a benefit. 
 
 Bone or g^aunte of prayer, Precarium. — 
 Prompt, Parvulorum, 
 
 And yif ye shulde at god aske yow a bone. 
 —The Babees Book, p. 5,1.117 (E. E. T. S.). 
 What is good for a bootless bene ? 
 
 Wordsworth, Works, vol. v. 
 p. 52, ed. 1837. 
 
 HoweU, in his Letters, has boon voyage 
 for Fr. bon voyage. 
 
 Boot and Saddle, a military term, 
 the signal to cavalry for mounting, is 
 explained by Mr. Wedgwood to be a 
 corruption of Fr. boute-selle, put on 
 saddle, one half the expression being 
 adopted bodily, and the other trans- 
 lated {Fhihlog. Trans. 1856, p. 70). 
 
 Boute-selle, the word for horsemen to 
 prepare themselves to horse. 
 
 Bouter selle, to clap a saddle on a horse's 
 back. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Stand to your horses ! It's time to begin : 
 Boots and Saddles ! the pickets are in ! 
 G. J. Whyte-MeloUk, Songs and Verses, 
 p. 154 (5th ed.). 
 
 Boots, or Bouts, quoted by Dr. Prior 
 as a popular name for the marsh mari- 
 gold, is a corruption from the French 
 name houtons d'or, " golden buds." 
 
 Boots, in the old phrase, " Such a 
 man is got in his boots "■ — i.e. he is very 
 drunk, or has been at a drinking-bout : 
 Kennett, 1695 (E. Dialect. Soc. B. 18) 
 — seems to be corrupted from bouts, as 
 we stUl say, " He is in his cups." 
 
 BooziNG-KEN, an old slang term for 
 a beer-shop or public-house, as if a 
 ckinhing - house, from the. old verb 
 booze, bowse, to drink deeply ; Dut. buy- 
 sen, bvAjzen, to tipple, which Wedgwood 
 deduces from buyse (Scot, boss, old Fr. 
 bous, bout), a jar or flagon. Cf. old 
 Eng. bous, drink. 
 
 Wilt thou stoop to their puddle waters 
 . . . bousing, carding, dicing, whoring, &c. — 
 Sam. Ward, Life of Faith,ch. viii. (1636). 
 
 The word was introduced by the 
 Gypsies, and is identically the Hindu- 
 stani bilze-hhdna, i.e." beer-shop," from 
 biizd, beer (Duncan Forbes). 
 
 In Jonson's Masque of The Meta- 
 morphosed Gipsies, 1621, a gipsy says : 
 Captain, if ever at the Bowzing Ken 
 You have in draughts of Darby drill'd your 
 men .... 
 
 Now lent) your ear but to the Patrico. 
 
 My doxy stays for me in a bousing ken. 
 The Roaring Girl (1611), Old Plays, 
 vol. VI. p. 90 (ed. 1825). 
 As Tom, or Tib, or Jack, or Jill, 
 When they at bowsing ken do swill. 
 
 Brome, The Merry Beggars, 1652 
 (O.P. X. 316). 
 
 Bouzing-oan, a drinking cup, occurs 
 in dignified poetry {Fa^ri^ Queene, I. 
 iv. 22). 
 
 To crowne the bousing kan from day to 
 night. — G. Fletcher, Christ's Victorie on 
 Earth, 52. 
 
 BoEE-coLE, an old name for a Sjpecies 
 of cabbage, is perhaps a corruption of 
 broccoU; but compare Dut. "boerelcool, 
 peasant cabbage (Prior). 
 
 Bosh Butter — a name given to a 
 spurious imitation of the genuine com- 
 
BOSS 
 
 ( 36 ) 
 
 BOX 
 
 modity (sometimes called Butterine), 
 lately introduced into the London 
 market from Holland, as if from losh ! 
 an exclamation of contempt — is an 
 AngUoized form oi Dutch BosscheBoter, 
 from Hertogenhosch (Fr. Bcis-le-Duc), 
 the place where the stuff was manu- 
 factured. So Bosjesman, a man from 
 the Bush (Dut. hosch, hoschje). 
 
 Boss, used by Bp. John King for an 
 elephant's trunk, as if the same word 
 as toss, a protuberance ; Fr.fcosse, seems 
 to be merely the accented syllable of 
 proboscis. 
 
 Curtius writeth of the elephant that he 
 taketh an armed man ~with his hand. , . He 
 meaneth the boss of the elephant, which lie 
 uaeth as men their hands. — Lectures on 
 Jonah, 1594, p. 238 (ed. Grosart). 
 
 BoTHEEY-THEEE, a Yorkshire name 
 for the elder {samhwcus mgra) — i.e. hot- 
 tery-tree; hottery beiugfor bar-tree (pro- 
 nounced bortery) or bore-tree, perhaps 
 with reference to the bored or hollow 
 appearance of the pithless wood. So 
 lottery-tree r: bore-tree tree. Compare 
 beem-tree z= tree-tree, and Ass-paesley, 
 above. 
 
 Bottle, in the proverbial saying, 
 " To look for a needle in a loiile of 
 hay," is old Eng. hotel, a bundle, from 
 Fr. botte. 
 
 Botelleof hey, Fenifascis. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Methinks I iiave a g'reat desire to a botite 
 of hay. — Midsummer N. Dream, iv. 1, 1. 37. 
 
 Tailor. What dowry has she [a mare] t 
 
 Daugh. Some two hundred bottles, 
 
 And twenty strike of oates. 
 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 2,1. 64. 
 
 Bottom, in the old phrase, " to be in 
 the same bottom," i.e. to have a com- 
 munity of interests, is the A. Sax. 
 hytme, a ship (Ettmiiller, 304, al. 
 byine), connected with byt, butt, boat. 
 Hence bottomry, the insurance of a 
 ship. 
 
 We venture in the same bottom that all 
 good men of all nations have done before us. 
 — Bf. Bull, Sermons, vol.ii. p. 216. 
 
 Bottom, an old word for a cotton 
 ball, still in provincial use (see Pea- 
 cock, LincolnsJdre Qlosscury], origi- 
 nally the spool or knob of wood on 
 which it was wound, is another form 
 of button, Old Eng. and 0. Fr. boton 
 (Fr. houton), Welsh botwm, a boss. 
 Hence the name of Bottom the 
 weaver. 
 
 Botme of threde (al. botym). 
 Botwn, Bote, fibula, nodulus. 
 
 Prompt Parv. 
 George Herbert, writing to his 
 mother (1622) says : — 
 
 Happy is he whose bottom is wound up, 
 and laid ready for work in the New Jeru- 
 salem. — I. Walton, Lines, p. 304 (ed. 1858). 
 
 Bound, in such expressions as " out- 
 ward bound," "homeward bound" 
 (generally applied to vessels), "I am 
 bound for London," is a corruption of 
 the old Eng. word boun, bowne, Joom, 
 or bone, meaning, prepared, equipped, 
 or ready (for a journey or enterprise), 
 Icel. buinn, past parte, of bua, to make 
 ready, which is akin to Ger. bcumn 
 (to till). 
 
 Brother, I am readye bowne, 
 Hye that we were at the towne. 
 Chester Mysteries (Shaks. Soc), vol. ii. p. 7. 
 Sir, we bene heare all and some, 
 As boulde men, readye bonne 
 To drive your enemyes all downe. 
 
 Id. p. 87. 
 
 BoDEN, a boundary {Homilet, iii. 1), 
 is a corruption of old Fr. bonne (Fr. 
 borne), a 6oMm-d-ary, assimilated to 
 bourn, a (limitary) stream. 
 
 BowEE, an American term for the 
 highest card in the game of Euchre, is 
 the German bauer or peasant, corre- 
 sponding to our knave (Tylor). 
 
 EowEE, originally rueaning a cham- 
 ber, N. Eng. boor, A. Sax. bur, Icel. 
 bur, Ger. hauer, owes its modem signi- 
 fication of an arbour made by inter- 
 lacing branches to a supposed connec- 
 tion with bough, A. Sax. boh and log. 
 
 Bowyee's Mustabd, as if the Bow- 
 maker's Mustard, an old name for tlie 
 plant Thlaspi a/rvense, is a corruption 
 oiBoioers-, Botires-, or Boor's-Mustard, 
 from Dutch Bauren-senfe. Compare 
 its name Ghurl's 2lf'«sif(»-d( Britten and 
 HoUaud, Eng. Plant-Names, p. 58). 
 
 Box, the front seat of a coach, as if 
 originally the chest or receptacle in 
 which parcels were stowed away, is the 
 same word as Ger. bock, Dan. buh, de- 
 noting (1) a buck or he-goat, (2) a 
 trestle or support on which anything 
 rests, (3) a coach-box in particular. 
 Wedgwood compares Polish koziel (1) 
 a buck, (2) a coach-box, hozly, » 
 trestle. For similar transitions of 
 
BOX 
 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 BBED 
 
 meaning see my Wordhunter's Note- 
 Booli, pp. 230 seq. 
 
 Box, in the phrase "to box the 
 compass," i.e. to go round the points 
 naming them in their proper order, 
 has not been explained. It has pro- 
 bably nothing to do with 60a;, the old 
 name for the case of the compass. It 
 may have been borrowed from the 
 Spanish mariners, and be the same as 
 the nautical word to lox =: to sail 
 around, Sp. ho.v-ar, hoxea/t- (Stevens, 
 1706) ; cf. Sp. hoxo, roundness, com- 
 pass, circuit. 
 
 BoxAGE, used by Evelyn for shrub- 
 bery, wooded land, is apparently a cor- 
 rupt form of boscage. See Davies, Siijip. 
 Eng. Glossary, s.v. 
 
 Bean-new, an incorrect spelling of 
 hrand-neiv, i.e. " fire new," fresh from 
 the forge, just made. Shakespeare has 
 the expression fire-new. Burns spells 
 it h-ent new, i.e. burnt new. 
 
 Nae cotillon brent new frae France. 
 'Jam O'Shajiter (Globe ed. p. 93). 
 
 Compare flam-new ( W. Cornwall Glos- 
 sary, E.D.S.) ; span-new {Haveloh tJie 
 Dane), 0. Norse spdn-nyr, i.e. " chip- 
 new," fresh from the carpenter's bench 
 (A. Sax. sp6n), and Swed. spillerny, 
 " sphnter-new." 
 
 Brass, a vulgar and colloquial term 
 for impudence, effrontery, is generally 
 regarded as a figurative usage derived 
 from the composite metal so called, 
 just as we speak of "a brazen hussy," 
 a "face of brass," i.e. hard, shameless, 
 unblushing. The word occurs in the 
 Cleveland dialect, where Mr. Atkinson 
 identifies it with the old Norse hrass 
 of the same meaning {not in Cleasby). 
 Compare Icel. hrasta, to bluster, Ger. 
 hrasten, Dan. brashe, to boast, brag, Ir. 
 bras, a lie, h-asa, boasting, brasadre, a, 
 liar. North uses it in his Examen, see 
 Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossary. 
 
 Bkawn, a West of England word for 
 the smut in wheat, is a corruption or 
 contraction of old Eng. braneorn, which 
 has the same meaning { TJstilago sege- 
 tum), i.e. bren-corn, what burns or 
 blasts the com. 
 
 Bread-stitch, in Goldsmith, an in-' 
 con-ect form of braid -stitch. Davies, 
 Supp. Eng. Glossary. 
 
 Bkeak, in the expression " to break 
 in a horse," as if to crush his spirit, 
 has probably no direct connexion with 
 h'eak ( ^ frangere) . 
 
 Brake is a bit for horses, also a 
 wooden frame to confine their feet. 
 Compare Icel. brdh, a tanner's imple- 
 ment for rubbing leather, Dutch braalce, 
 a twitch to hold an animal by the nose. 
 A brahe to check the motion of a car- 
 riage is the same word. The correct 
 form, therefore, would be " to brake." 
 
 Bbeast-Summee, an architectural 
 term for a beam employed like a lin- 
 tel to Support the front of a building, 
 is a corruption of bressumer (Glosswi-y 
 of Architecture, Parker), where h-es- 
 seems to be for hrace, as in Scotch 
 h-ess is another form of brace, a chim- 
 ney-piece, and -sumer, is 0. Eng. somer, 
 a beam. 
 
 Brest Summers, are the pieces in the out- 
 ward part of any building;, and in the middle 
 floors, into which the girders are framed. — 
 Bailey. 
 
 Contrefrnntail, ... a haunse or breast sum- 
 mer. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Bkbd, in the expression " a weO.-hred 
 man," is probably not the past parti- 
 ciple of the verb to hj-eed (A. Sax. bre- 
 dan), as if gentle birth, not manners, 
 maketh man, but akin to Icel. bragi, 
 manners, fashion (:=z bragr, habit of 
 life, manner), also look, expression, 
 whence old Eng. bread, appearance 
 (Bailey), and Prov. Eng. "to braid of 
 a person," meaning to resemble him, 
 have his appearance or the trick of his 
 favour, Scotch to hreed, as "ye breed o' 
 the gowk, ye have ne'er a rime but 
 ane " (:= Icel. bregir). So when Diana 
 protests in All's Well that Ends Well, 
 act iv. sc. 2 : — 
 
 Since Frenchmen are so braid. 
 Marry that -will, I live and die a maid. 
 The meaning seems to be that which 
 Mr. Wedgwood assigns to it, " Since 
 Frenchmen are so mannered." Cf. 
 A. Sax. bredian, to adorn, bragd, bregd, 
 a device, &c., Ettmiiller, 318. In the 
 same way "a loell-bred person" is one, 
 not necessarily well bom, but well- 
 mannered. Breeding was formerly 
 used for the education or bringing up 
 of a child, and bred for educated. 
 
 My eldest son George was bred at Ox- 
 ford. — Vicar of' Wal<ejietd, ch. i. 
 
B BEECH 
 
 ( 38 ) 
 
 BBIGK 
 
 Thanka to my friends, who took care of my 
 
 breedings 
 And taught me betimes to love working and 
 
 reading. 
 
 Or. Watts, The Sluggard. 
 You wer to be sent to my Ladye Dromond, 
 your Cousine germaine .... to be hredde in 
 the Protestant religion .... I resolved to go 
 to France, wher your gi*andmother had re- 
 tired herself .... with the intention to work 
 upon her to send for vou, and bread you with 
 herself in France. — A breijfe narration of the 
 services done to Three Noble Ladt/es by Gilbert 
 Blakhall. See Presbytery Book of Strathbogie, 
 p. xxi (Spalding Club). 
 
 Perhaps the most that should be said 
 is that hired here has been assimilated 
 to, or confounded with, hraid (braid-ed), 
 mannered. 
 
 Beeech, a verb formerly in use 
 meaning to ilog, as if to strike on that 
 portion of the body so named, is, ac- 
 cording to Mr. Wedgwood {Etymologi- 
 cal Sid. S.V.), the same word as Prov. 
 Ger. britschen, priiselien, to strike with 
 a flat board (in Low Dutch called a 
 hritze) ; Dutch hridsen, Swiss brdischen, 
 to smack. 
 
 X view the prince with Aristarchus' eyes, 
 
 Whose looks were as a breechivg to a boy. 
 Marlowe, Edward the Second (p. 218, 
 ed. Dyce). 
 
 Had not a courteous serving-man convey'd 
 me away while he went to tetch whips, I 
 think in my conscience ... he would have 
 breech'd me.— -J?. Tailor, The Hog hath Lost 
 His Pearl (0. Plays, vi. 369, ed. 1825). 
 
 Beeeches, bo spelt as if denoting 
 clothing for the hreech, that part of 
 the body where its continuity is hrohen 
 (! as if breach). Compare hreche, an 
 old word for the hinder part of a deer 
 (Wright). 
 J>e water dude vorth hys kunde, & waxe 
 
 euere vaste . . , 
 (lat yt watte hys brych al aboute. 
 
 Robert of- Gbucester, Chronicle, 
 p". 322 (ed. 1810). 
 Here's one would be a ilea (jest comicall !) 
 Another, his sweet ladies verdingall. 
 To clip her tender breech. 
 
 Marston, Works, vol. iii. p. 290 
 (ed. Halliwell). 
 This has actually been regarded as 
 the tme etymology of the word by 
 Eichardson and others. It is reaUy 
 the same as North Eng. hreeks, A. Sax. 
 fri'ec, ircec, plural of Iroc, Icel. hrcekr, 
 plu. of Irdh; old Fr. bragues, braies. 
 Span, bragas, Breton bragez, Welsh 
 brycan, Gaelic h-iogis, Lat. hraccB, 
 
 trowsers ; Irish br6cc (also brog), a shoe, 
 whence Anglo-Irish brogue (Whitley 
 Stokes, Irish Olosses,^. 119). Compare 
 the two meanings of Fr. cha/usse, and 
 our hose. 
 
 Breeches, bracoB, &o., are of Celtic 
 origin, being identical with the Gaelic 
 brcBcan, tartan, from hreac, party- 
 coloured, variegated, describing the 
 plaid or striped cloth worn from time 
 immemorial by the Celts (Cleasby, Icel. 
 Did. B. V. Br6h). Cf. "Versicolore 
 sagulo, Iracas, tegmen barbarum iri- 
 dutus," Tac. Hist. 2, 20; " braes vir- 
 gatse," Propert. iv. 10, 43. 
 
 It may be observed that breeches is 
 really a double plural. For the Celtic 
 broc or h-og, having been adopted into 
 old English, was treated as a native 
 word, and had its plural formed by 
 internal vowel change. Just as 0. Eng. 
 fut, boc, gos become in the plural fit 
 (feet), bee (books), ges (geese), so Zwoc be- 
 came brec (breek) ; and accordingly we 
 find bracccB in the Promptorinm Pa/tim- 
 lorum (c. 1440) defined in EngHsh 
 by " breche or h-ehe ; " cf. " breclie of 
 hosen, braies," Palsgrave (1530). Wy- 
 cUffe has bregirdle, breeches-band (Jer. 
 xui. 1, 4, 6), for brelce-girdle- 
 Thou breech of cloth, thou weede of lowlines, 
 Thou hast not feared to mayntayne thy cause. 
 Thyniie, Debate between Pride Sf Lmoliness, 
 p. 63 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Beiae-boot pipes are really made 
 from the roots of the white heath, Fr. 
 h'uyere, of which briar is a corruption, 
 being imported chiefly from Corsica. 
 Bruyire,, Milan brughiera, Low Lat. 
 bruairium, are akin to Breton brng, 
 heath, Welsh hrwg. Briar is A. Sax. 
 brer. 
 
 Beick, a slang term of approval, a«j ■ 
 " He is a regular brick," a thoroughly '; 
 good fellow. Some wonderfulnonsense 
 about this word is vented in The Slang 
 Dictionary (Hotten), and Brewer's Dic- 
 tionary of PJtrase and Fable. 
 
 ■It is, perhaps, a survival of A. Sax. 
 bryce, useful, profitable, and so good, 
 which is the philological counterpart of 
 Lat. frvgi, worthy, honest. Bryce is 
 from brucan, to enjoy or profit, whence 
 0. Eng. hrouhe, Scot, brmch, to use, 
 enjoy (Mod. Eng. to brooh, cf. Ger. 
 brauchen), corresponding to Lat. frag 
 in fru{g)or, frueius, fruges. Compare 
 
BBIOK-WALL ( 89 ) BBOOK-LIME 
 
 also A. Sax. h-ice, use, old Eng. hriche 
 (Old Eng. Miscellcmy, E.E.T.S. p. 12), 
 Gotli. hruks. An amusing coincidence 
 is presented by Heb. tob, good, and 
 Arab, tob, a brick, Coptic and Egyptian 
 tobi. 
 
 Beick-wall, a corruption of hricoll 
 or hricole, a term at tennis. 
 
 Bvicole, a brick-wall ; a side stroake at 
 tennis, wherein the ball goes not right for- 
 ward, but hits one of the wals of the court, 
 and thence bounds towards the adverse party. 
 Bricoler, to toss or strike a ball sidewaies, to 
 give it a brick-wall. — Cotgrave. 
 
 What are these ships but tennis balls for 
 the wind to play withal ? tost from one wave 
 to another ; . . . sometimes brick-wal'd against 
 a rocke. — iViaraiort, Eastward HoBj ii. 1, 1603 
 (vol. iii. p. 24, ed. Halliwell). 
 Heer, th' Enginer begins his Ram to reai-e, . . . 
 Bends heer liis Bricolj there his boysterous 
 
 Bowe, 
 Brings heer his Fly-bridge, there his batt'ring 
 Crowe. 
 
 J. Sylvester, Work<i, p. 9r6 (1621). 
 
 These words are from the Mid. H. 
 German hrechel, a " breaker." Com- 
 pare It. hriccola, Sp. hrigola. Low Lat. 
 bricola, a catapult. 
 
 Beidal, so spelt as if it were a simi- 
 lar formation to " espousal," " be- 
 trayal," "denial," &c., is corrupted 
 from the old form hride-ale, the ah- 
 drinking or carousal in honour of the 
 h-ide. Bride-ale is still, in the Cleveland 
 dialect, the name of the draught pre- 
 sented to the wedding party on its re- 
 turn from church. 
 
 Harrison, in his Description of Eng- 
 land in the time of Elizabeth, rejoices 
 that the Beformation had swept away 
 . . idle wakes, guilds, fraternities, church- 
 ales, helpe-ales, and soule-ales, called also 
 dirge-ales, and heathenish rioting at bride- 
 ales. 
 
 O. Norse hrud-ol, A. Sax. hryd-eala. 
 
 Ale was even used as a synonym for 
 a festival or holiday, as in the Prologue 
 to the Play of Pericles, 1. 6, " ember 
 eves and lioly ales." In addition to 
 those already mentioned, we flhd 
 Easter ales, WMtsun ales, Leet ales. 
 Clerk ales. Lamb ales, Midsummer ales, 
 &c. Arval, a funeral feast, old Scand. 
 arfol (inheritance alej, Hampson, Medwi 
 Aevi Ealend, vol i. p. 283. 
 
 None of these martial, and cloudy, and 
 whining marriages can say that godliness was 
 invited to their Bride-ale. — Henry Smith, Ser- 
 mons, 1667, p. 23. 
 
 A man that's bid to a hride-ale, if he have 
 
 cake 
 And drink enough, he need not vear his stake. 
 B. Joiison, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1. 
 The Presbyterie Buih of Aberdeen, 
 1606, speaks of the "intoUerable abomi- 
 nations that falls out at the penny bry- 
 delUs, speciaUie of drunkennes and 
 murder" (T)a,lze\l, Darker Superstitions 
 of Scotland, p. 293). 
 
 BKiDB-GBooMis a corruption of bride- 
 gome, old Eng. bridgome, A. Sax. bryd- 
 guma, i.e. the bride's man, from a con- 
 fusion oigome, a man (Goth, guma, Lat. 
 homo), with grome, a groom, a servant, 
 0. Fr. gramme. 
 
 Ffor it es bryde, and God es brydegome. — 
 Hampole, Priclie of Conscience, 1. 8809, ab. 
 1340. 
 
 And Jje wyse maydines . . . yeden in mid 
 l>e bredgome to \>ebredale. — Ayenbiteof Inwyt, 
 p. 233 (1340). 
 
 Brief, a provincial word, meaning 
 prevalent, frequent, plentiful, is pro- 
 bably a corruption of rife. 
 
 "Wipers are wery brief" (vipers are 
 very plentiful), Pegge, Alplwhet of Ken- 
 ticisms, 1736. I have heard a County 
 Wicklow woman remark: " The small- 
 pox, I hear, sir, is very brief in Dublin." 
 A use of the word in 1730 is quoted in 
 Plan-che's Corner of Kent, p. 171, and 
 see Sternberg, Northamvpton Glossary, 
 s. V. 
 
 Bkimstonb, a corrupted form of the 
 old Eng. hren-stone or hryn-stone, i.e. 
 " bum-stone," from 0. Eng. brerme, A. 
 Sax. hryne, a burning, byrnan, to bum; 
 Icel. brennistein. 
 
 The word is also found as brimstan 
 (Nortlmmbrian Psalter, 1250) ; brinstan 
 in the Cv/rsor Mundd (14th century) : — 
 
 Our lauerd raind o J>am o-nan, 
 Dun o lift, fire and brinstan. 
 
 1. 2841, Cotton, MS. ; 
 
 where the other versions have brim- 
 stane and brimston; brumston in the 
 Debate between Body and Soul (xiii. 
 century) : — 
 Bothe pich and brumston, men mySte fif mile 
 
 have the smel. 
 
 Mupes, Poemi (Camden Soc), p. 339. 
 
 Wychffe (1389) has brenstoon, bryn- 
 stoon, brumston, and brymstoon. 
 
 Bkook-lime, a popular name for the 
 plant Veronica Beccabunga, seems to 
 be a corruption of the older names 
 
BBOOE-TONGUE ( 40 ) EBOWN STUDY. 
 
 hrohlembe, hrohlemp, hroclempe (what- 
 ever may be the origin of these), as if 
 it was so called from growing in the 
 lime or mud (Lat. Imius) of hroohs. 
 Markham (1637) spells the word 
 h-ochelUiemjpe, as if =" brittle-hemp " 
 {'EngUsh Housewife's Hoiishold Phy- 
 sicke, p. 23). 
 
 Mr. Cockayne says hroclempe is for 
 hroclemJce, and lemhe =: Icel. leumki, 
 Dan. lemmihe [?] , old Eng. hleomoc in 
 Leechdoms. 
 
 Beook-tongub, an old name for the 
 hemlock (ci'cwfaTO'Osa), is a corruption 
 of old Eng. brocl>ung. — Britten andHol- 
 land, Eng. Plcmt-Names, p. 66 (E. D. 
 Soc). 
 
 Bboth, in the Anglo-Irish expres- 
 sion, "the broth of a boy," is probably 
 from the Irish brutli, power, strength, 
 heat, adjectivally, pure, imaUoyed ; 
 which is akin to hmitMm, to boil, h'idth, 
 hroth, boiling, broth. Of. brigh, essence, 
 power, strength, Eng. " brew ; " It. 
 h-io, spirit. 
 
 Beotheelinge, an old word for a 
 nincompoop, as if a younger brother, 
 is a corrupted form of hritheling, bretlie- 
 ling, a rascal, or worthless fellow, con- 
 nected with O. Eng. hwthel, a black- 
 guard. 
 
 Quod Achab thanne : There is one, 
 A brothel, which Micheas hight. 
 
 Gower, Conf, Amantis, iii. 173 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 AJwlyng, bryitding,/ Load wiji-vten lawe. 
 
 Old Eiig. Miscellany, p. 185, 1. 12. 
 Ete H mete by smalle morselles ; 
 Fylle not thy mouth as done brothellis. 
 
 The Babees Book, ab. 1480, p. 18 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 Th6 said Moyne their young King 
 was but a Brotherlinge, 
 & said if Vortiger King were, 
 he wold bring them out of care. 
 
 Percy Folio M.S'. vol. i. p. 426, 1. 133. 
 
 Bbown Bess, a familiar name for 
 the old-fashioned regulation musket. 
 
 Bess is the ec^uivalent of -buss in 
 hlunder-huss, arque-btiss ; Ger. hiichse, 
 Flemish buis, Low Ger. biisse, Dut. bus, 
 Fr. base, tube, barrel; and so is equiva- 
 lent to " Brown barrel." 
 
 You should lay brown Bess ower the garden- 
 dike, and send the hail into their brains for 
 tiiem. — Nodes Ambriisiaiicp, vol. i. p. 171. 
 
 This is the bix of the Amerieo-Ger- 
 
 man Ungo of the Breitmcmn Ballads, 
 "Shoot at dat eagle mit yotir Me" 
 (p. 37, ed. 1871). A piotm-e of the old 
 Brown Bess is given by Sir S. D. 
 Scott, The British Army, vol. ii. p. 
 327. 
 
 If we had not the cognate words It. 
 husare, bugia/re, to perforate, bmso, hu- 
 gio, perforated; 0. Sp. buso, a hole 
 (Diez), we should have been tempted 
 to connect Fr. buse, a gun-barrel (of. 
 busine, a pipe — Cotgrave), with buse, a 
 falcon or buzzard (Ger. buse, Lat. 
 buteo), the names of firearms being most 
 commonly derived from birds. 
 
 Beown-beead, bread made with bran, 
 is not improbably a corrupted form of 
 the old word bran-bread. — Skeat, Htym. 
 Did. 
 
 They drew his brown-bread face on pretty gin.s. 
 Bp. Corbet, Poems, 1648, p. 211 (ed. 1807). 
 
 Bbowngetus. A poor Irish woman, 
 suffering from bronchitis, always spoke 
 of her complaint as an attack of brown- 
 gehis. The form hrown-typlms has also 
 been heard, and in Sussex brown-titvs. 
 
 The German brdune (brown), as a 
 name for the quinsy or croup, is a 
 cm-ious parallel. This disease is said 
 to have been so named from being at- 
 tended with blackness (see KUian, s.v. 
 Bruyne). 
 
 Bkown study. This somewhat pe- 
 cuhar expression for deep contempla- 
 tion, total pre-occupation, and absent- 
 mindedness, is one of considerable 
 antiquity. It is supposed to be a per- 
 version of the old Fr. embronc, (1) bent, 
 with head bowed down; (2) sad, pen- 
 sive, moody, thoughtful. Compare old 
 Span, broncar, to bend ; It. bronciare, 
 to stumble, probably from Lat. promis, 
 through a ioim prornoare (Diez). Cot- 
 grave gives an old verb, " embroncherr, 
 to bow or hold down the neck and 
 head, as one that is stonied . . ., also 
 to hide the face or eyes with hands, a 
 cloth, &c." The French and Provencal 
 eiiihvn, thoughtful, was perhaps con- 
 founded with embruni, embrowned, 
 darkened, obscured. But of. " Si les 
 pensees n'y sont pas tout-^-fait noires, 
 eUes y sont au moins gris-brun." — 
 Madame Sevigne, Lettres, torn. iv. 
 p. 9. Compare gris, dull, fuddled. 
 
BUBBLE 
 
 ( 41 ) 
 
 BUGKBAM 
 
 Le iioir dit la fennete des cueurs, 
 Gris le ti'avail, et tanne les langueurs ; 
 Par ainsi c'est langaeur en travail ferme, 
 Gris, tanne, noir. 
 
 C/emeiiE Marot, RondeaiLr^ xliii. 
 
 Compare Ger. Hester, Swed. b)'sfer=z 
 (1) brown, " bistre ; " (2) gloomy, grim, 
 dismal. Compare also Gk. halcliaina, (1) 
 to empurple, (2) to be troubled and 
 anxious; porphuro, (1) to be dark- 
 coloured, (2) ponder, be thoughtful, 
 perplexed {II. xxi. 551, Od. iv. 427) ; 
 pho'enes melmnoii, amphimelainai, black 
 tlioughts, painful ruminations. 
 
 Lack of company will soon lead a man into 
 !( brown sfi«/y. — Manijest Detection oj Use oj 
 Due, ^c, 1532, p. 6 (Percy Soc). 
 
 It seems to me (said she) that you are in 
 some brown study what coulours you might 
 best wear. — i-i//y, Kuphues, 1579, p. 80 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 Another commeth to muze, so soon as hee 
 is set, hee falleth into a brown stttdtf, some- 
 times his mind runues on his market, some- 
 time on his .iourney. — Henry Smith, Sermons, 
 1657, p. 308. * 
 
 1 must be firme to bring him out of his 
 Browne stodie, on this fashion. — The Mariage 
 oj- IVittand Wisdome,j>. 13 (Shats. Soc. ed. ). 
 I'aith, this brown study suits not with your 
 
 black. 
 Your habit and your thoughts are of two 
 colours. 
 
 BenJonson, The Case is Altered, 
 
 Donner la muse d, to amuse, or put into 
 dumps; to drive into a brown study. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Songe-creux, one that's in his dumps, or in a 
 brown study. — Id. 
 
 At last breaking out of a brown study, he 
 cried out, ConcLusum est contra Manichtnos. — 
 Howell, familiar Letters, bk. iii. 8 (16Jti). 
 
 They live retir'd, and then they doze away 
 their time in drowsiness and brown studies. — 
 Norris, Miscellanies, 1678, p. 126 (ed 8th). 
 
 He often puts me into a brown study how 
 to answer him. — The Spectator, J\'o. 286 
 (1711-12). 
 
 A zeem'd in a brown stiddy. — Mrs. Palmer, 
 Devonshire Courtship, p. 4. 
 
 Unconnected, perhaps, are Ir. bron, 
 mourning, grief; brcmach, sad, sorrow- 
 ful. 
 
 Bubble, to cheat, corresponds both 
 in form and meaning to Ital. buhholare, 
 to cheat, derived from bubhola, a hoopoe, 
 a bird which in many languages has 
 been selected as a synonym for a fool 
 or simpleton; e.g. Fr. dupe, duppe 
 (whence our " dupe "), Bret, houperik, 
 Polish dudeh, = (1) a hoopoe, (2) a 
 simpleton. Thus to bubble is " to gull," 
 
 or ■• pigeon," or " woodcockize," or 
 make a goose or booby of one ; cf. It. 
 pippionare, ¥v. dindonner. The older 
 form of bubbola is pupola, puppula 
 (Plorio) for upupula, dim. of Lat. 
 upupa, the hoopoe, so called apparently 
 froir^ its cry, supposed in Greek to be 
 pou, pou (where, where!). Its Persian 
 name is pii^u. However, we find in 
 EngUsh ^^ Bubble, a bladder in water, 
 also a silly fellow, a cully" (Bailey); 
 (cf. Manx bleb, an inflated pustule, also 
 a fool ; and/ooZ itself, tiom folUs, an in- 
 flated ball), and bubble, a cheating 
 scheme of speculation, which would 
 seem to show that the word is of native 
 origin. 
 
 And so here 1 am bubbled and choused out 
 of my money .—Mui-phy, The Citizen, ii. 1. 
 
 Hume, a man who has so much conceit as 
 to tell all mankind that they have been bubbled 
 for ages! — Boswell, Tour to the Hebrides, p. 
 13. 
 
 The dustman, bubbled flat. 
 Thinks 'tis for him, and doffs his fan-tailed 
 hat. 
 Jas. and Hor. Smith, Rejected Addresses, 
 p. 142. 
 T. L. O. Davies quotes an instance 
 of bubbleable = cheatable, 1669 {Supp, 
 Ung. Glossary). 
 
 Buck-bean. ) The plant so called, 
 BuOKES-BEANE J (menyanthestrifoUata), 
 is the Dutch bocks-boonen, German 
 boclcsboJme. The latter words, however, 
 are corruptions, it would seem, of 
 scharbocVs -boonen or -bohne, " scurvy- 
 bean," the plant being considered a 
 remedy for the scharbock, or scurvy, 
 Lat. scorbut-us (Prior). 
 
 Buckles, Hokse, a Kentish name for 
 cowshps {primula veris), is probably a 
 corruption of paigles, the E. Anglian 
 name for that plant. — Britten and Hol- 
 land, Eng. Plant-Nantes, p. 70 (E. D. 
 Soc). 
 
 Buck-mast, the mast or nuts of the 
 beech, A. Sax. bdc, Ger. buche, Swed. bole, 
 Dut. beuTce, boeke. 
 
 BucKKAM. This pleonasticaUy mas- 
 cuUne word is a corruption of Er. bou- 
 gran or bowrgrain, Prov. bocaran, boque- 
 rwn. It. bucherame (apparently from 
 buchera/re, to pierce with holes) a coarse, 
 loosely - woven stuff. " Bourgrain, 
 Buckeram," Cotgrave. It has been 
 
B UGESOME 
 
 ( 42 ) 
 
 BUDGE 
 
 suggested that Bohharanv/as the origi- 
 nal form, stuff frora Bohhara; but this 
 needs confirmation. 
 
 BucKSOME, an old spelling of hiixom 
 (bending, pUant, obedient), as if 
 " spirited, or hvely as a huch " (vid. 
 Nares, s.v.) ; old Eng. hwlisum, " bow- 
 some," from A. Sax. huga/n, to bow. 
 
 Vago, louely-faire, .... handsome and 
 buckesome. — Florio,It. 'Diet. 
 
 Bucksnme, brisk and jocund. 
 
 Kennett,169b (E. Dialect Soc. B. 18). 
 
 Shea now begins to grow buchsome as a 
 lightning before death. — Armin, Nest of' 
 Ninnies, p. 5 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 And if he be til God bovsom. 
 Til endeles blis at ]je last to com. 
 
 Hampflle, I'ricke of Conscience^ 1. 85 
 (ah. 1340). 
 Lorde, J30U make me to be hauxsome euer 
 mare to \>\ byddynges.^Re/i^iuus Fieces in 
 Prose and Verse, p. 19 (E.E.T. Soc). 
 
 BucK-THOKN, Mid. Lat. spina cervina, 
 a popular name for the plant rliamnus 
 catharticus, seems to have originated 
 in a blunder, the German hux-dorn 
 {zzGk. pux-ahcmtha) being mistakenfor 
 hoclcsdorn, i.e. " box-thorn" for " buck's- 
 thorn " (Prior). 
 
 Buck- WHEAT, the name of the poly- 
 gotmm fagopyrum, is a corruption of , 
 Dut. hoek-weit, Ger. huch-weizen, i.e. 
 " beech-wheat," so called from the re- 
 semblance of its three-cornered seeds to 
 beech-nuts. Another corrupted form is 
 the older German hauch-weizen, as if 
 "beUy-wheat." The French have trans- 
 formed it into hoiiquette. In the Montois 
 dialect of French, houcan-couqiLe (as if 
 " griddle-cake ") is for Flem. hoehweit- 
 hoeh (Sigart). 
 
 Budge, an old adjective, meaning 
 pompous, grave, severe, solemn, has 
 never been satisfactorily explained. 
 
 While the great Macedonian youth in nonage 
 
 grew, . . . 
 No tutor, but the budge philosophers he knew, 
 And well enough the grave and useful tools 
 Might serve to read him lectures. 
 
 Oldham, Praise of Homer, stanza 4. 
 The solemn fop, significant and budge, 
 A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge. 
 Cawper, Conoersation, p. 123 
 (ed. Routledge). 
 O foolishness of men ! that lend their ears 
 To those budge doctors of the Stoick fur. 
 Milton, Camus, I. 706. 
 
 Poore budge face, bow-case sleeve : but let him 
 
 passe, 
 Once furre and beard shall priviledge an asse, 
 Marston, Scourge of 'Villanie (1699), ill. j. 
 
 Prom the context in which hudgs 
 occurs in the two latter passages, a far- 
 fetched connexion has been imagined 
 with 'budge, an old word for lamb's- 
 wool, or fur, with which imiversity 
 hoods used to be tr imm ed (Warton, 
 Eichardson, Nares), and so the word 
 was conceived to mean grave as a 
 doctor, or wearer of budge, scholastic, 
 pedantic. Bailey actually defines 
 Biidge-Bachelors as " a company of men 
 oloathed in long gowns, hn'd with 
 Lamb's Fur, who accompany the Lord 
 Mayor of London, etc." 
 
 These explanations, I beheve, are 
 altogether on the wrong scent. That 
 the word has no such learned origin is 
 proved by the fact that it still hves in 
 the mouths of the peasantry in Sussex, 
 where one may hear a sentence hke 
 this : " He looked very hudge [i.e. grave, 
 solemn] when I asked him who stole 
 the apples " (Parish, Sussex Olossairy). 
 This is the softened form of the old 
 and Prov. Eng. word bug, proud, pom- 
 pous, conceited, tumid, great. (Cf. hrig 
 and 'bridge, rig and ridge, to egg and edge, 
 dog and dodge, d/rag and dredge, etc.). 
 
 Bugas a lord (HaltiweU). 
 
 As bug as a lad wiv a leather knife ; As bug 
 as a dog wi' two tails (Holderness Uialect, 
 E. Yorks. K.D.S.). 
 
 ^'ou need-na be so bug, you're non of the 
 quality {Brogden, Lincoins. Glossary). 
 
 " To be quite buggy about a thing," 
 i.e. proud ; also self-important, churUsh 
 (East Angha, E. Dialect. Soc. B. 20). 
 
 These are bugg-words that aw'd the women 
 in former ages, and still fool a great many in 
 this. — liavenscrojt. Careless Lovers, 1673. 
 
 Another form of the word is bog : — 
 The cuckooe, seeing him so bog, waxt also 
 wondrous wrothe. 
 Warner, Alhions England, 1592 (Wright). 
 
 'i'he thought of this should cause ... thy 
 600- and bold heart to be abashed. — Rogers, 
 l\aamanihe Syrian, p. 18 (^Trench, Defcieuies, 
 &c.,p. 17). 
 
 East Angha, " Boggy, self-important, 
 churHsh " (E. Dialect. Soc. B. 20). 
 
 Still another form is hig, which from 
 meaning proud, puffed-up, tumid, now 
 only means great, though we still say 
 "to look big," meaning to look proud. 
 Similarly stout (Ger. stolz) once meant 
 proud, but now fat, corpulent. 
 
BUDGE OF GOUBT ( 43 ) 
 
 BULL 
 
 The Bischope . . with a grait pontificalitie 
 and hig countenance . . braggit he was in his 
 awin oitie. — James Metvilte, Diary, 1586, p. 
 245 ( Wodrow Soc). 
 
 Wlio ever once discover 'd insolency in 
 him, or that he bore himself with a big oai-- 
 riHge to any man ? — T. Plume, Life of Haeket, 
 1675, p. xlvii. 
 
 Thejf [the monks] did presently think 
 themselves aliciijus momenti, and did begin 
 to look big and scornfully on their brethren. — 
 Farimton, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 417 (ed.Tegg). 
 
 Cheval de trompette, one that's not afraid of 
 shadowes ; one whom no big nor hug words 
 can terrific. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Faroloni, high, big, roving, long or bug 
 wordes. — Fiorio, 
 
 The primitive meaning underlying 
 all these words, whether biidge, or lug, 
 or hog, or h'g, is awe-inspiring, just as 
 hwge was originally awe-full, terrify- 
 ing, and awful in modern slang means 
 gi-eat of its kind. Near akin, there- 
 fore, is old Eng. hug or hugge, anything 
 that frightens or scares, a ghost or 
 spectre, hoggart, hogle, Welsh hwg, a 
 hobgoblin, Wallon houga, a monster to 
 terrify infants. 
 
 These hogies of the nursery are de- 
 graded survivals of a word once full of 
 dignity, its congeners being — Slavonic 
 hog, God, lord ; old Pers. haga, a lord ; 
 Zend hagha, Sansk. hhaga, a lord, a 
 liberal master, "apportioner of food," 
 from hhaj, to share or distribute. Com- 
 pare our own loi-d, A. Sax. lildford, 
 " loaf-provider," and It. Frangipam., as 
 a family name. 
 
 Budge of Couet, an old English 
 phrase for a gratuitous allowance of 
 provisions, originally, " Avoir houche a 
 Court, to eat and drink Scot-free ; to 
 have budge-a-court, to be in ordinary at 
 Court." — Cotgrave. 
 
 Bowge of courte, whyche was a liverye of 
 meate and dryncke. — tiuioet. 
 
 Ben Jonson spells it houdge of cou/rt 
 (Masque of Augurs) ; Stowe, houch of 
 am/rt [Survey of London), Wright. 
 
 See also Sir S. D. Scott, The British 
 Army, vol. ii. p. 364, who quotes 
 Bouche de Courte from an indentiu-e 
 between the Earl of Salisbury and 
 William Bedyk, his retainer, to whom 
 it is guaranteed. 
 
 Bugle, small glass pipes, sometimes 
 made like little trumpets, used as orna- 
 ments on women's dresses, is LowLat. 
 hugulus, prob. from M. H. Ger. houc 
 
 (Icel. haugr), a circular ornament 
 (Skeat) ; and so the same word as old 
 Eng. huchle, a curl (Yorks. huckle-horns, 
 curved horns) ; Pr. houcle, Dan. hugle, a 
 boss or bulge, and distinct from hugle, 
 the horn of the huculus or bidlock. Of. 
 Fr. haucal, a glass violl . . long necked 
 and narrow mouthed (Cotgrave). 
 
 BuLFisT, a provincial name for the 
 puff-ball fungus, =: the Swedish and 
 German hoflst, whence also the Low 
 Latin hovista. ? for hall-foist, i.e. puff- 
 ball. See Fuzz-Ball. 
 
 Twrma de tierra, a puffe, a bull fist. — Min- 
 sheu, Span. Diet., 162o. 
 
 Pissaulict, a furse-ball, puckfusse, pufBst, 
 or bul/ist. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Bull, a blunder, an absurd or self- 
 contradictory statement made with the 
 most unconscious naivete, supposed in- 
 correctly to be indigenous in Ireland 
 {Bos Hihemicus). 
 
 An Irishman may be described as a sort of 
 Minotaur, half man and halt bull; " semi- 
 bovemque virum, semivirumque bovem," as 
 Ovid has it. — Horace Smith, The Tin Trumpet, 
 s.v. 
 
 It is doubtless the same word as 
 Mod. Icel. bull, nonsense, bulla, to talk 
 nonsense, hterally hubbies, inflated, 
 empty talk, from Fr. hulle, Lat. bulla, 
 a bubble ; It. holla, a bubble, a round 
 glass bottle {ct. fiasco, in Itahan a flask 
 of thin glass easily smashed). Nowell 
 says, " Life is as a hull rising on the 
 water" (Davies, Supp. E. Glossan-y). 
 When the German students flung a 
 Papal buU into the river saying. Bulla 
 est ! (It's a hull or bubble,) Let's see if 
 it can swim I (Michelet, Life of Luther,) 
 they meant it was empty verbiage, " full 
 of sound and fury, signifying nothing." 
 So Lat. ampulla, a globular flask, in 
 Horace is used for bombast, and am- 
 pullairi is to talk bombastic nonsense. 
 
 Compare Eng. blather, to talk non- 
 sense, Icel. hla^r, nonsense, and hlaSra, 
 a bladder. Sir Thomas Overbury 
 writes of " a poet that speaks nothing 
 but bladders." 
 
 She was brought to bed upon chairs, if 
 that is not a bull.—Reliquiie Heariiianie, i'eb. 
 14, 1720-21. 
 
 Every in order was to speake some pretty 
 apothegme, or make a jest or bull, or speake 
 some eloquent nonsense to make the company 
 laugh. — Athenie Oxonienses, Life of Wood, 
 sub ann. 1647, ed. Bliss, p. 35. 
 
BULL-BEGGAB 
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 B ULLY-BOOK 
 
 The word is found as early as the 
 fourteenth centiu-y in the OiirsorifMmtfo': 
 
 Quilk man, quilk calf, quilk leon, quilk 
 
 fuxul [:= fowl] 
 I sal you tel, wit-vten hid. 
 
 1. 21269 (E.E.T.S. ed.). 
 
 I may say (witbout a Bull) this contro- 
 versy of yours is so much the more needless, 
 by how mucli that about which it is ( Refor- 
 mation) is so without all controversy need- 
 ful. — Chas. Herte, Ahab's Fall, 1644, Dedica- 
 tion. 
 
 "Why, Friend," says he [Baron Trevers], 
 ..." 1 myself have knowne a beast winter'd 
 one whole summer for a noble." "That was 
 a Bull, my Lord, I beleeve,"Bays the fellow. 
 — Thorns, Anecdotes and Traditions, p. 79 
 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Coleridge {Biogra'pMa Literaria, ch. 
 iv. p. 36) has a philosophical disquisition 
 on " the well-known bull, ' I was a fine 
 child, but they changed me.' " He 
 says : " The hull consists in the bringing 
 together two incompatible thoughts, 
 with the sensation, but without the 
 sense, of their connection." 
 
 Sydney Smith says: "A hull is an 
 apparent congmity, and real incon- 
 gruity of ideas, suddenly discovered." 
 It is " the very reverse of wit ; for as 
 wit discovers real relations that are not 
 apparent, buUs admit apparent rela- 
 tions that are not real." — WorJcs, -vol. i. 
 p. 69. 
 
 BuLL-BEGGAE, a terrifier of children 
 (Bailey), is, according to Wedgwood, a 
 corruption of Welsh hwhach, a scare- 
 crow or goblin, and with this he com- 
 pares Dut. hulle-hah, a bugbear. 
 
 Children be afraid of bear-bugs and bull- 
 beggars. — Sit' Thomas Smith. 
 
 He also gives Dut. hullemann. Low 
 Dut. hu-mann, =: Eng. bo-man. 
 
 Kaltschmidt explains the word as 
 " der Bettler mit eitier Bulle,'' [? with 
 a papal license to beg] ! ( German Diet, 
 s.v.) Compare Qex. popanii, a bugbear, 
 apparently connected with pope. 
 
 Mr. Wirt Sites says the bwbach is 
 the house-gobhnwhom the Welsh maids 
 propitiate with a bowl of cream set on 
 the hob the last thing at night {British 
 Gohlins). 
 
 Sigart compares Montois heuheu, 
 Languedoc hahau, a ghost to frighten 
 children, Fr.baheau (Ohssaire Montois, 
 p. 85). 
 
 BuLL-FiNCH, is probably not a native 
 compound of bull, significant of large- 
 ness, with finch, but the same word 
 as Swedish bo-fifih, the bull-finch or 
 chafiinch, apparently the house-fimch, 
 the bird that frequents the bo, or home- 
 stead ; Icel. hdl, Dan. bol. Compare 
 hull fist =1 Swed. hofist, a puff-ball. The 
 Cleveland name of the chaffinch is hull- 
 spirik; in Danish it is oaReA bog -frnke, 
 i.e. the beech- (or mast- ) finch, which is 
 perhaps a fresh corruption. 
 
 Bull-finch, a term well known in 
 the hunting-field for a stiff fence, is a 
 corruption of hull-fence, one strong 
 enough to keep in a bull apparently 
 (see T. L. O. Davies, 8upp. Eng. Oloi- 
 sary, s. v.). 
 
 AVhen I see those delicate fragile forma 
 
 [sc. ladies] crashing through strong huli- 
 
 Jniclies I am stnick with admiration. — G. J. 
 
 Whyte-Melville, Hiding Recollections, p. 122 
 
 (7tfi ed.). 
 
 The same writer has a rebus on the 
 word in his Songs and Verses, p. 127. 
 My first is the point of an Irishman's tale; 
 
 My second's a tail of its own to disclose ;. . . 
 The longer you look at my whole in the vale, 
 
 The bigger, and blacker, and bitterer it 
 grows. 
 
 Bullies, a Lincolnshire form of 
 BuLLACE, a wild plum, otherwise spelt 
 hullis (Skinner), hulles (Turner), bohs 
 {Prompt. Pa/i-v.), holays {Grete Herball], 
 and bullions, as if to denote the bullet- 
 like shape of the fruit (Sp. holas, Lat. 
 bulla, a bullet) : Prior. It is probably 
 a corruption of the French name bello- 
 cier, " a buUace tree, or wild plum-tree " 
 (Cotgrave). Professor Skeat,in a note 
 to Tusser's Five Hundred Pointes (where 
 it is spelt hoollesse), thinks the word is of 
 Celtic origin, akin to Ir. bulos, a prune. 
 — E. D. Soc. ed. Glossary, s.v. Davies 
 quotes "haws and bullies " from Smol- 
 lett, and bull-plum IroiaFoote. {Supp. 
 Eng. Glossary.) 
 
 Bull-teeb, a Cumberland word for 
 the elder {Bambiicus nigra), is a cor- 
 ruption of the word hur-tree or bore-tree, 
 which is frequently applied to it. 
 
 BuLLY-EooK, an old Eng. word for a 
 noisy, swaggering feUow. 
 
 \V bat says my bully-rook ? Speak scholarly 
 and wisely.— Men-j/ IVives of Windsor, Kti. 
 sc. 3. 
 
 The word, as Mr. Atkinson remarks, 
 
BULnUSE 
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 BURNISH 
 
 is doubtless essentially identical with 
 the Cleveland lullyrag, ballyrag, lalrag, 
 to scold 01- abuse soundly (cf. LowGer. 
 huller-hvoh). In modern Enghsh the 
 word has shrunk into hully. 
 
 Dorset, lallywrag, Hereford hellrag — 
 perhaps, says Mr. Barnes, from A. Sax. 
 heahi, evil, and ipregun, to accuse. — 
 {Fhilolog. Soe. Transactions, 1864). 
 
 Bulrush, the smyns lacKsMs, O. 
 Eng. holeriish, i.e. the rush with a hole 
 or stem (Dan. hul, Icel. hulr, holr) ; so 
 buhvarh, originally an erection of lole.s 
 or logs. — Skeat. Messrs. Britten and 
 Holland, however, consider it as being 
 merely hull-rush, the large rush. 
 
 Tiiey are deceived in the name of liorse- 
 radish, horse-mint, bull-rush, and many more: 
 conceiving therein some prenominal con- 
 sideration, whereas, indeed, that expression 
 is but a Grecism, by the prefix of hippos and 
 bona ; that is, horse and bull, implyino^ no 
 more than great. — Sir Thomas Browne, Works, 
 vol. i. p. 215 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 BuMBAiLiFF, a sheriffs officer, a cor- 
 ruption of "bound bailiff" (Black- 
 stone). But see Skeat, Etym. Did. s. v. 
 
 Bum-boat, a long-shore boat, Dan. 
 homhaad (Perrall and Eepp, pt. 2, p. 58), 
 seems to be from Dut. boom, a harbour- 
 bar (? a harbour), Swed. bom. Cf. 
 another Eng. word=Dut. 6oom, another 
 form oibodevi, bottom (Sewel). 
 
 The prototype of the river beer-seller of 
 the present day is the bumboat-man. Bum- 
 boats (or rather Bauni-boats,^h3X is to say, the 
 boats of the harbour, from the German Baum, 
 a haven or bar) are known in every port 
 where ships are obliged to anchor at a dis- 
 tance fi'om the shore. — Mavhew, London 
 Labour and London Poor, vol. ii. p. 107. 
 
 BuMPEE, a full glass, as if a brimmer 
 when the liquor bumps or swells above 
 the brim (Lat. vinum coronare), is really 
 a corrupted form of humbard or bom- 
 bajrd, used formerly for a large goblet 
 (Shakes. Tempest, ii. 2), properly a 
 mortar to cast bombs (see Skeat, Etym. 
 Did.). 
 
 Compare Pr. bourrabaquin, a great 
 carousing glass fashioned like a cannon. 
 — Cotgrave. 
 
 Then Rhenish rummers walk the round, 
 In bumpers every king is crowned. 
 
 Dryden, To iiir G. Etherege, 1, 46. 
 The bright-headed bumper shall sparkle as 
 well. 
 
 Though Cupid be cruel, and Venus be 
 coy ... . 
 Then croum the t^U goblet once more with 
 champagne ! 
 G. J. Whyte-Melville, Songs and Verses, 
 p. 244. 
 The old word humpsie, tipsy, may 
 have contributed to this use of bumhard. 
 Tarlton, being a carousing, drunk so long 
 to tlie watermen that one of them was 
 bumpsie. — Tarlton's Jesis, p. 8 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Burden, the refrain or recurring part 
 of a song, is a corrupt spelling of the 
 old EngUsh hordon, Sp. bordon. It. bor- 
 done. 
 
 The burdon of a song, or a tenor and keep- 
 ing of time in musicke. Also a humming 
 noise or sound. — Florio. 
 
 Fr. bowdon, " a drone, or dorre-bee, 
 also the humming or buzzing of bees" 
 (Cotgrave) ; Low Lat. bv/rdo{n), a drone, 
 an organ-pipe. 
 Yng. But there is a hordon, thou must here it, 
 
 Or ellys it wyll not be. 
 Hu. Than begyn and care not to ... . 
 Downe, downe, downe, &c. 
 Interlude of the Four Elements, p. 51 
 (c. 1510), Percy Soc. 
 The wife of the snoring miller 
 Bare him a burdon a ful strong, 
 Men might hir routing heren a furlong. 
 Chaucer, The Reues Tale, 1. 4162. 
 O moaning Sea, I know your burden well, 
 'Tis but the old dull tale, tilled full of pain. 
 Songs of Two Worlds, p. 219. 
 
 The word has been further corrupted 
 into hmihen. An anonymous poet sang 
 of " Christmas Good Will," in 1879, as 
 follows: — , 
 
 It sounds from Angels' voices, 
 It sounds o'er hill and dale. 
 The echoes take the burthen up. 
 Repeat the gladsome tale. 
 
 Burnet, another name for the herb 
 pimpernel, " so called of Bv/rn, which it 
 is good against " (Bailey), is a shghtly 
 disguised form of Fr. brunette, from 
 ti-un, brown, according to Dr. Prior, 
 with allusion to its dark flowers; 
 whence also one species of it was called 
 prunella, i.e. brimella. 
 
 Burnish, an old word for to prosper, 
 flourish, or grow fat, as if to shine 
 or be sleek, in fine condition (not regis- 
 tered in the dictionaries), is perhaps 
 a violent transposition of the verb bur- 
 gen (into burnege, bm-nish), sometimes 
 spelt burgeon, to grow big or prosperous, 
 
BUBSTEB 
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 BUTGH 
 
 to swell or bud forth. In Leicestershire 
 and Northampton, harrmsh is to grow fat 
 (Sternberg). Cf. Northampt. frez for 
 fwrze, loaps for wasps, hv/rwish for hru- 
 
 Her hath a' feathered her nest and bur- 
 msh'd well a' fine since her com'd here. — 
 Mrs. Palmer, Deionshire Courtship, p. 42. 
 
 Breake off the toppes of the hoppes .... 
 bicause thereby they barnish and stocke ex- 
 ceedingly. — R. Scot, PUuforme of u, Hop- 
 Garden. 
 
 Fuller prophesied of London : 
 It will be found to burnish round about to 
 every point of the compasse with new struc- 
 tures daily added thereunto. — Worthies, ii. 
 49 (ed. 1811). 
 
 The clustering nuts for you 
 The lover finds amid the secret shade ; 
 And where they burnish on the topmost 
 
 bough, 
 With active vigour crushes down the tree. 
 
 Thomson, Seasons, Autumn. 
 
 According to Bailey, hwi-msh " is also 
 used of Harts spreaduig their Horns 
 after they are firay'd or new ruhb'd;" 
 and hii/rgeon " to grow big about, or 
 gross, also to bud forth." From Fr. 
 hov/rgeon, a bud, which appears to be 
 from 0. H. Ger. hwrjan, to lift, push up 
 (Diez). 
 
 When first on trees bourgeon the blossoms 
 soft. Fuirjax, Tasso, vii. 76. 
 
 It may be that harnish was the orig. 
 form, a derivation of la/i-n (lairn), 
 meaning "to child," teem, or be pro- 
 ductive. 
 
 BoESTER, a Surrey word for a drain 
 under a road to carry off water, is a 
 corruption of old Eng. barstoiv, a 
 covered-in place, from A. Sax. beorgan 
 and stow. 
 
 Buey-Pbar. The first part of the 
 word is corrupted from Fr. hev/rre, from 
 teivrre, butter, which this pear was com- 
 pared to for softness, just as we speak 
 of vegetable-marrows and marrow-fat 
 peas (vid. ed. MiiUer, Etymologische 
 Woerterluch, s.v.). 
 
 " Foire de hewee, the butter Peare, a 
 tender and dehcate fruit." — Cotgrave. 
 
 Another corruption is " Bwrrel Pear, 
 the Bed Butter Pear " (Bailey), as if a 
 russeting, from O. Eng. lorel, 0. Fr. hu- 
 rel, Prov. hwrel, reddish-brown, russet. 
 
 The Germans have popularly cor- 
 rupted Fr. hewrre Uanc, the beun-e pear, 
 into heerblang. 
 
 BtrsKiN, a half-boot, bears a decep. 
 tive resemblance to Scot, hushing, dress, 
 as if clothing for the legs (O. Eng. hush, 
 to dress oneself). It is really for Iws- 
 hin, Dutch hroosken (Sewel, 1708), It, 
 horzacchini, from iorsa (Fr. 6oitr«e), 
 Lat. and Gk. hwrsa, a leathern case, 
 also a "purse," and so r:pMrsefcm, a 
 small leathern receptacle. 
 
 A payre of bushings thay did bringe 
 Of the cow ladyes currall winge. 
 
 Herrick, Poems, p. 475 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Busy, used in W. Cornwall in the 
 sense of needs, requires, e.g. " It es 
 husy aU my money to keep house," 
 " It es lusy all my time " (Miss Court- 
 ney, E. D. S.), seems to have been in- 
 fluenced by Fr. hesoin. 
 
 Busy-sack, a slang term for a carpet 
 bag (Hotten), is no doubt a corrupt 
 form of hy-sack, French hissao, hesace, 
 a bag opening into two parts (Lat. 
 Insacoiiim), It. Msaccia, Sp. hisaza. 
 
 Butch, To : a verb manufactured 
 by the Lancashire folk out of the word 
 butcher, to denote the act of slaughter- 
 ing cattle {Glossary of Lancashire Dia- 
 lect, Nodal and Milner). As "player," 
 " runner," and other words significant 
 of agency, are derivatives from verbs, 
 it was supposed, by a false analogy, 
 that " butcher " (O. Eng. and 0. Fr. 
 locher, a luah-elajer,) implied a verbal 
 forra also, and to hutch was devised ac- 
 cordingly (see Buttle). To huch or 
 hutch is in use also in the Cleveland 
 dialect. 
 
 I shall be batching thee from nape to rump. 
 Sir H. Taylor, Philip van Artevelde, 
 II. iii. 1. 
 
 Similarly Quarles has inferred a verb 
 to hdberdash from haherdctsher. 
 
 What mean dull souls in this high measure 
 
 To haberdask 
 In Earth's base wares, whose greatest trea- 
 sure 
 
 Is dross and trash. 
 
 Emblems, Bk. ii. Emb. 5 (1634). 
 
 Cf. to hurgle from hurglar (Bartlett, 
 Diet, of Americanisms; Daily News, 
 Oct. 28, 1880). 
 
 In the northern counties of England, 
 to datle or daitle zz to work by the day, 
 to go a datUng, are verbal usages evolved 
 out of dataler, a day workman, also 
 daitle-man, which words are for day- 
 
BUTTEB-BUMP 
 
 ( 47 ) 
 
 BUTTRESS 
 
 faler, day-iale-man, i.e. one who works 
 by day tale (Icel. dagatal), whose labour 
 is told or reckoned by the day. — Notes 
 and Queries, 5th S. viii. 456. 
 
 Step into that bookseller's shop and call 
 me a dau-taU critic- — Stenie, Tristram Shandy, 
 Tol. iv. chap. xiii. 
 
 Butter-bump, ^ The name of this 
 
 Bittern. i bird, also called hi- 
 
 tour, O. Eng. hittour, iotm; Scot, hewter, 
 Fr. lutor, It. hiitwe, is said to be a cor- 
 ruption of its Latin name hoiaurus, so 
 called from its hull hellowing, hoatus 
 tawri. Cf. the names roJir-trummel, 
 O. Eng. mire-drumhle [lm'mp:=to boom] . 
 — Jolin's British Birds in their Haunts, 
 p. 414. 
 
 Butaurus quasi bootauriis dicitur eo quod 
 mugitumtauriimitarividetur.^/-l/ei. Necliam, 
 Be Kat. Rerum, cap. liv. (died 1217). 
 
 Botowre, byrde, onocroculus, botorius. — 
 Prompt. Parv. 
 
 In Guy Mannering it is called the 
 Bull of the hog. 
 
 Then blushed the Byttur in the fenne. 
 The Parlament of Bijrdes, 1. 87. 
 And as a bittour bumps within a reed, 
 " To thee alone, O lake," she said, " I tell." 
 Dryden, Wife of Bath, 1. 19i 
 (Globe ed. p. 598). 
 
 Many a fertile cornfield . . . has resounded 
 far and wide with the deep, booming, belloW' 
 ing cry of the Bittern. — J. C. Atkinson, Brit, 
 Birds' Eggs, p. 82. 
 
 Another corruption is hottle-hump 
 (Wright). 
 
 Butter-cup. Dr. Prior thinks that 
 this word is a corruption of hutton-cop, 
 i.e. button-head, comparing the French 
 louton d'or, the bachelor's button. The 
 form hutton-cop, however, seems alto- 
 gether hypothetical. 
 
 Buttery is not the place where 
 huUer is kept, as larder is the place for 
 lard, and pantry iat poms, bread, but a 
 store for hutts or hottles, Sp. hoteria 
 and hotilleria, a "butlery." 
 Bedwer Jje botyler, Kyng of Normandye, 
 N om al so in ys half a uayr companye 
 Of on sywyte, vorto seruy of ]>e botelerye. 
 Robt. of Gloucester, p. 191 (ed. 1810), 
 ab. 1295. 
 In to the Biittri/. 
 
 Bears, two tonne hoggesheads a xlviii" the 
 tonne, vi\ 
 The Losely Manuscripts (1556), p. 11. 
 In the nonage of the world Men and Beasts 
 had but one Buttery, which was the fountain 
 
 and River. — Howell, Familiar Letters, Bk. ii. 
 54 (1639). 
 
 To it [the fonda] frequently is attached a 
 cafe, or botilleria, a bottlery , and a place for 
 the sale of liqueurs. — Ford, Gatherings from 
 Spain, p. 168. 
 
 Butt, Fr. hotie, is the same word as 
 Sp. hota, a large, pear-shaped leathern 
 bottle (whence Sp. hotilla, Fr. houteille, 
 our " bottle ") ; and so very nearly akin 
 to hoot, a leathern covering for the 
 foot. 
 
 Bota, a hoot to weare, a bottle, a buskinne. 
 — Minsheu, Spanish Diet. 1623. 
 
 For a description of the Spanish hota, 
 see Ford's Oatherings from Spain, pp. 
 97-98. 
 
 The Welsh hivytty, a pantry or but- 
 tery, if the same word, has been assimi- 
 lated to hwyta, to eat, take food. 
 
 Buttery, a Yorkshire word for the 
 elder tree [Samhucus nigra), is a cor- 
 ruption of its common name, hortree, 
 or hore-tree. See Bothery-three. 
 
 Buttle, To, a Lancashire verb, to act 
 as butler, and developed out of that 
 word, as if hutler were one who huttles. 
 So Butch is a feigned verb, to perform 
 the functions of a hutcher ; and tynke, to 
 play the tinker, occurs in the curious 
 old play of The Worlde amd the Ghylde 
 (1522). 
 Manhode. But herke, felowe, art thou ony 
 
 craftes man 1 
 Folye. Ve, syr, I can bynde a syue and tynke 
 
 a pan. 
 
 Old Plays, Vol. xii. p. 324. 
 
 So the Scotch have made a verb to 
 awrch or arch, to take aim or shoot, out 
 of a/rcher. 
 
 Buttress, apparently a support that 
 hutts up, or props, the main building, as 
 if from Fr. houter, to support (boutant, a 
 buttress) — older forms hutrasse, hoterace 
 (Wycliffe), hoteras, hretasce, is really 
 the same word as old Fr. hretesse — the 
 battlements of a waU (Cotgrave), hre- 
 tesche, hretesque, also hrutesche (Matt. 
 Paris), It. hertesea, a rampart, all seem- 
 ingly for hrettice, a boarding (Ger. hrett, 
 a board), Mke lattice, from Fr. latte, a 
 lath. Brattice, a fence of boards, is 
 therefore the same word (see Skeat and 
 Wedgwood). ^'Betrax of a walle (al. 
 hretasce, hretays), Propugnaculum." — 
 Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Bio-ge brutage of horde, bulde on Jw walles. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 71, 1. 1190. 
 
BY-LAW 
 
 ( 48 ) 
 
 OALM 
 
 To patch the flaws and buttress up the wall. 
 Drydejij Absalom and Achito])het, 1. 802. 
 By-law, the law of a company for 
 the regulation of their traffic, as if, 
 like "by-word," "by-play," something 
 heside, or subordinate to, the State law 
 (Dan. iylov), is only another form of 
 " hyrlm.0, burlaw, laws established in 
 Scotland with consent of Neighbours 
 chosen unanimously in the courts called 
 Burlaw Courts." — Bailey. Icel. bceja/i'- 
 log, " byre-law," i.e. the law (log) of 
 the hcer, town (also farm-yard). See 
 Cleasby, p. 92 ; also Spelman, who 
 qaotesBellagiTies, a medieval corruption 
 (^zbilagen), Glossarium, p. 94. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cabbage, for old Eng. caboclie (old 
 Fr. cahuce, It. cappuccio, a httle head), 
 simulates the common termination -age 
 (Pr. -age, It. -aggio, Lat. -aticus, Halde- 
 man, p. 109) in voyage, savage, &c. 
 
 Cabbage, to pilfer or purloin (slang), 
 especially applied to the pilfering of 
 cloth by tailors, is a corrupted form of 
 Belgian Tcabassen, to steal ; Dutch ha- 
 bassen, to hide, to steal (Sewel), origi- 
 nally to put in one's basket ; Dut. ha- 
 bas, a basket ; Fr. cabas, Portg. cabaz, 
 Sp. cabadio, Arab, qafas, a cage ; and 
 so to bag, to pocket ; cf. Fr. empocher 
 (perhaps, our "poach "). Cumberland 
 " cabbish, to • purloin " (Dickenson, 
 Supplement, E.D. S.). 
 
 Not to be confounded with this is the 
 old heraldic and hunting term, to cab- 
 bage zn to take the head off. 
 
 As the hounds are surbated and weary, the 
 head of the stag should be cabbaged in order 
 to reward them. — Scolt, Bride of Lammer- 
 moor, ch. ix. 
 
 This is another form of to caboshe, 
 from Fr. caboclie, the head. 
 
 Caboshed, is when the Beast's Head is cut 
 oiF close just behind the ears, by a section 
 parallel to the face, or by a perpendicular 
 downright section. — Bailey. 
 
 Caoheoope Bell. I quote this word, 
 not having found it anywhere else, on 
 the very insufficient authority of Dr. 
 Brewer (Diet, of Phrase and Fable, 
 S.V.), who explains it as a bell rung at 
 funerals when the pall was thrown over 
 the coffin, from Fr. cache corps, "cover- 
 corpse " (?). 
 
 Calender, old Eng. calendre (Leech- 
 doms, Wortcv/nming and Starcraft, ed. 
 Cockayne, vol. i. p. 218), an old name 
 for the plant coriander, is a corruption 
 of coliander, coliaundre (Wycliife, Ex. 
 xvi. 31), another form of " coriander," 
 still named col. by apothecaries. Com- 
 pare coronel and colonel. 
 
 Calf, the fleshy part of the leg be- 
 hind the tibia, is the Irish calpa, colpa, 
 and colbhtha (while colbthac is a calf or 
 heifer, and colpa, a cow or calf!). 
 
 Hcec tibia, colpa. — Medieval Tract on Latin 
 Declension (ed. W. Stokes), p. 7. 
 
 Near akin are collop, and Lat. pulpa, 
 flesh (Wedgwood). It is curious to 
 note tarb, the bull (of the thigh, or the 
 loin), glossing exugia in the Lorioa of 
 GUdas, which elsewhere is glossed ge- 
 scinco (shank). — Stokes, Irish Glosses, 
 pp. 139, 144 (Irish Archaeolog. Soc). 
 Cf., perhaps, Lat. tawms, interfemi- 
 neum. 
 
 Calm. The I has no more right to 
 be in this word than in comld. It was 
 probably assimilated to halm, halm,, 
 palm, psalm, &c., in English ; though 
 the word in other languages also has 
 the I : e.g. Fr. calme, It., Span., Portg., 
 and Prov. calma, denoting sultry 
 weather, when no breeze is stirring; 
 all from Low Lat. cauma, the heat of 
 the sun ; Greek hauma, heat, burning. 
 In Provengal, cliaiime signifies the time 
 when the flocks repose in the heat of 
 the day, and caumas =;heat (J. D. Craig, 
 Handbooh to Prov.) ; cf. " caimias, hot, 
 Gascon " (Cotgrave). In old Eng. the 
 form caivme is found. 
 
 For a similar intrusion of an I, com- 
 pare It. aldace, from Lat. audax, aldire 
 from audAre, palmento from paumento 
 (pavimentwm) ; so we find in Scottish 
 walm (G. Douglas)for wa/ux =.was, and 
 wolxfoxwoux ^wox; walkenioTwauken, 
 to waken, and awoaTIc (Dunbar) for 
 awake. Al is often pronounced as a%, 
 e.g. talk, stalk, walk, falcon, cawTc 
 (Bailey) for calk, O. Eng. fa/ute for 
 fait, caud/ron (WyoUffe) for ccddjron, 
 Hawkins for Hal-kins, MaukinioiMd- 
 kin. 
 
 Oawna may have become cakna, 
 from a supposed connexion with Lat. 
 color, heat ; Span. " OaUna, a thick, 
 sweltry air, rising like a fog in hot 
 
CAMEL LEOPABD ( 49 ) 
 
 CANNON 
 
 weather " (Stevens, 8p. Diet. 1706), 
 Langued. oalimas. 
 
 Swed. qualm, sultry weather, is per- 
 haps the same word assimilated to Dut. 
 and Ger. qualm, steam, exhalation ; 
 Dan. qualm, close, oppressive; qualtne, 
 to feel siokish ; Eng. qualm; Dan. qucele, 
 to stifle, torment, quell. Of. Mrs. 
 Quickly, " sick of a calm," 2 Hen. IV. 
 ii. 4, 40. 
 
 Forto behald, It was a glore to se 
 The stablit "wjndis and the cawmiit see. 
 G. DougUts, Eneados, Bk. xii. Prolong, 
 1.52 (1513). 
 Calme or softe, wythe-owte "wynde, Calmus, 
 tranquillus. — Prompt. Parmdorum, ab. 1440. 
 AH these stormea, which now his beauty- 
 blend 
 Shall tui-ne to caulmes, and tymely cleai'e 
 away. 
 Spenser, Sonnets, Ixii. p. 582 (Globe ed.). 
 A blont hede in a caidme or downe a wind 
 is very good. — R. Ascham, Toxophilas, 1545, 
 p. 137 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Camel leopard, an occasional mis- 
 spelling and vulgar pronunciation of 
 camelo-pard, the animal which was re- 
 garded as partaking of the nature of 
 the camel and the pard, Lat. camelo- 
 pardaUs. 
 
 All who remember the old staii-case of 
 Montague house have felt that there is limit 
 to the exhibition of a giraffe which had been 
 received at a period so remote that it was de- 
 scribed as a ^^ camel leopard." — The Athemeiim, 
 Oct. 13, 1877. 
 
 Camels, a W. Cornish word for oamio- 
 tnile flowers (E. D. Soc). 
 
 Camlet, a stuff made of wool and 
 goats' hair, Fr. camelot, anciently called 
 camellotti, is not named from the camel, 
 out of whose hair it was supposed origi- 
 nally to have been woven, but is de- 
 rived from Arab. Jchamlat, which is 
 from hhartd, pile or plush. — Yule, Ser 
 Marco Polo, vol. i. p. 248. 
 
 In Scotch the word was corrupted 
 into chalmillett. 
 
 For chainelot the camel full of hare. — Jas. I. 
 of Scotland, The Kingis Quhair, stanza 157 
 (ab. 1423). 
 
 And then present the mornings-light 
 
 Cloath'd in her chamlets of delight. 
 
 Herrick, Hesperides, Poems, vol. i. 
 p. 48 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Damaske, chamolets, lined with sables and 
 other costly fun'es . . . are worne according to 
 their seuerall qualities. — G. Sandys, Travels, 
 p. 64. 
 
 Canary, a corruption of quandary, 
 which Mrs. Quickly employs, confound- 
 ing it, probably, with canary, an old 
 name for a quick dance. 
 
 The best courtier of them all could never 
 have brouglit her to such a canarii. — Merry 
 Wires of Windsor, ii. 2, 63. 
 
 Quandary itself seems to be a cor- 
 ruption of O. Eng. wa,ndreth, dif&oulty, 
 perplexity ; Icel. vandrceisi (Wedg- 
 wood). 
 
 Oandlegostes, a curious old name 
 for a plant, probably the orchis mns- 
 cula, which Gerarde {Berhall) calls 
 grmdlegosses (Britten and Holland, 
 "Eng. Plant-Names, p. 85). On account 
 of its double bulb or tuber, and two- 
 coloured flowers, this plant is often 
 popularly known by names expressive 
 of a pair, or of the two sexes, e.g. Lords 
 and Ladies, Adam and Eve, Gain and 
 Abel. It would seem, then, that the 
 original of gandle-gosses was gander- 
 gosses, i.e. gander and goose. 
 
 Kandlegostes is goosegrasse. — Gerarde, Sup- 
 plement unto the Generall Table. 
 
 In Dorset and Gloucester the orchis 
 is called goosey -gander. 
 
 Cane-apple, an old word for the 
 arbutus unedo, which "hath come to 
 us from Ireland by the name of the 
 (7ame-apple " (Parkinson). The first 
 part of the word is the Irish Gaihne. 
 — Britten and Holland, Eng. Plant- 
 Names, p. 14 (E. D. Soc). No such 
 word, however, occurs in O'Donovan's 
 edition of CBeUly's Irish Diet., nor in 
 W. Stokes's Irish Glosses. 
 
 Cannibal, formerly ccmibal. Span. 
 canibal, a corrupted form of carihal, a 
 native of the Caribbean islands, as if 
 savages of a canine voracity {see Skeat, 
 Etym. Diet.). 
 
 They are people too were never christened ; 
 They know no law nor conscience; they'll 
 devour thee, 
 
 they 're cannibals ! 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit without Money, 
 T. 2. 
 
 Cannon, as a term at bilhards, is 
 said to have denoted originally a stroke 
 on the red ball and a white, and to be 
 a corruption of earrom or ca/i'om, a con- 
 tracted form of Fr. caramhole, the red 
 ball; cm-amboler, to make a double 
 stroke, or ricochet ; Sp, cwambola. 
 
CANTANKEROUS ( 50 ) GABE-SFNDAT 
 
 Cantankerous. This curious popu- 
 lar word, meaning peevish, cross- 
 grained, ill-tempered (Sheridan; see 
 T. L. O. Davies, 8^t.p. Eng. Olossa/ry), 
 would seem to be a compromise be- 
 tween cant, to whine, and ranoorous. 
 It is really, I think, for contehorous, or 
 coniaherous, quarrelsome, from O. Eng. 
 contekour, a quarrelsome person ; con- 
 teh, contake, a quarrel. 
 
 Contek so as the bokes sain 
 Foolhast hath to his chamberlain. 
 By whose counseil all unavised 
 Is pacience most despised. 
 
 Gowefj Confessio Amantis, vol. i. 
 p. 318 (ed. Pauli). 
 That contek sprong bituene horn mani volde. 
 — Rofcei-t of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 470 (ed. 
 Hearne). 
 
 To J)ise bo3e belongejj alle ualshedes and 
 ]>e gyles and ^e contaches. — Ayenbite of' Inwyt, 
 1340, p. 63 (ed. Morris). 
 Wyoliffe has contake and contek. 
 The other heiden hisseruauntis, and slowen 
 hem, ponished with contek. — Matt. xxii. 6 
 (1389). 
 
 A Coward, and Contacowre, manhod is pe 
 mene. 
 
 The Abce of Aristotill, 1. 36. 
 
 Capee cornee way, a Oimiherland 
 word for diagonally (Dickinson) ; a 
 corruption of cater corner way [see 
 Cater). So " caper-cousins, great 
 friends (Lane.)" — ^Wright, for cater- 
 cousins. 
 
 Cap-stern, sometimes found for cap- 
 stan, Fr. cdbestan, Sp. cabrestante (a 
 standing goat?), a windlass. Horace 
 Walpole speUs it capstamd. 
 
 He invented the drum capstands for weigh- 
 ing heavy anchors. — Anecdotes of Painting, 
 (ed. Murray), p. 267. 
 
 Gapstring in the following descrip- 
 tion of a sea-fight seems to be the 
 same word. 
 
 I pierced them with my chace-piece 
 through and through. Part of their cap- 
 string too I, with a piece abaft, shot over- 
 board. — Heywood and Rowky, Fortune by 
 Land and Sea, act iv. sc. o (36.55). 
 
 Compare Ger. hock, a buck or he- 
 goat, also a trestle or support; the 
 "hox" of a coach. So Pol. koziel, a 
 buck; kody, a trestle (Wedgwood). 
 
 8p. cabra, Fr.chevre, (1) a goat (Lat. 
 eapra), (2) a machine for raising 
 weights, &c., a "crab." 
 
 " Chevron," Fi. chevron, Sp. cabrio, a 
 
 rafter, from chtvre, &c., a goat. Com- 
 pare a/ries, a battering-ram. 
 
 Malm and Professor Skeat, however, 
 who think the original form is Sp. caies- 
 trante, deduce the word from Sp. cabes- 
 trar, Lat. capistrare, to tie with a 
 halter (Lat. capi^trum). 
 
 CARC-iBEN, the A. Saxon name for a 
 prison, as if the house [mm) of carh or 
 care [care), (ef. O. Eng. cwalm hmse, 
 "death-house," aprison: AnarenBiwk, 
 p. 140), is a manifest corruption of Lat. 
 ca/rcer, which also appears as a borrowed 
 word in Gothic karkaa-a (Matt. xi. 2). 
 
 Caee-awaybs, caraways (Pr. cani), 
 as if they were good for dispelling 
 ca/res. Gerarde spells it ca/ruwaie, and 
 says, "it groweth in Caria, as Dios- 
 corides sheweth, from whence it took 
 its name." — Herlall, p. 879. 
 
 Haile of care-a-wayes. — Davies. Scourge of 
 Folly, 1611 (Wright). 
 
 Cf. " ca/re-awey, sorowles." — Frompt. 
 Paw. Thos. Adams, in his sermon, 
 A Contemplation of the Herbs, under 
 the heading cm-e-away, has : " Soli- 
 citous thoughtfulness can give him no 
 hurt but this herb care-away shall easily 
 cure it" (Works, ii. 467, ed. Nichol). 
 Caraway, itself an altered form of 
 carwy (Prompt. Parv. p. 62), Pr. card, 
 cf. Portg. cherivia, (al)-caravia, is from 
 Arab, karcmia, from a Greek karma 
 (Devic). 
 
 Care- Sunday, a provincial name for 
 the fifth Sunday in Lent, like the related 
 words Chare Tlmrsday, the day before 
 Good Friday, Ger. char-freitag. Good 
 Friday, Gharwoche, Passion week, all 
 said to be derived from an old Teutonic 
 word cara, preparation [? gajrd\ , be- 
 cause the day of the crucifixion was 
 Dies Parasceves, Gk. paraskeue, the pre- 
 paration day of the Jews. See Hamp- 
 son, Med. Aevi Kalendarium, i. p. 178; 
 Grimm, however, connects old Ger. 
 ka/ifreita.g with 0. H. Ger. chara, grief, 
 suffering, Old Sax. cara, Goth, kara 
 (Worterbuch, B.\.). So old Eng. care, 
 A. Sax. cearu, mean grief. The proper 
 meaning, therefore, of Care-Sutimj 
 and GhoA-e-Thv/rsday is the Sunday 
 and Thursday of mourning (see Diefen- 
 bach, Ooth. Sprache, ii. 444). Cm-ling 
 Sunday, as if the day on which carUngs, 
 or grey-peas, are eaten, seems a popu- 
 
OABNATION 
 
 ( 51 ) 
 
 CABBIAGU 
 
 lar corruption (Atkinson, Cleveland 
 Glossary, s. v.). 
 
 Carnation, so called now as if it de- 
 rived its name from its flowers being 
 of a flesh colour (Lat. caro, ca/rnis, 
 flesh), wasformerly more correctly spelt 
 coronation, being commonly employed 
 in cliaplets, cwotocb (Prior). 
 
 So in German coi'wtce has become 
 Jcamksz : cf. Carneuan. Gerarde, 
 however (1597), spells it Ca/rnation, 
 and identifies it with "Clone Gilli- 
 flower" {Herhall, p. 472), which sug- 
 gests that coronation may be itself' the 
 coiTuption. 
 
 Bring Cormiations, and Sops in wine, 
 Worne of Paramoures. 
 
 Spenser, Sliepheards Calender, April, 1. 139. 
 
 Carnelian, a mis-spelUng of cornelian 
 sometimes found, as if it meant the 
 flesh-coloured stone (earn-, flesh), Ger. 
 ka/)-neol, whereas it is Fr. cornalinc. It. 
 cornaUno, cwniola, from cornu, so called 
 on account of its ^oj-m-like semi-trans- 
 parency. Cf. Ger. hor'iistein, and 
 " onyx," Gk. onux, the finger-nail ; 
 perhaps also Fr. naei-e, It. naccaro, 
 mother-of-pearl, connected with Sansk. 
 nakhara, a nail. 
 
 Carnival, the festivity preceding 
 Lent, Fr. and Sp. cm-naval, It. ca/rne- 
 vale, " Shrovetide, shroving time, when 
 flesh is hidden farewell" (Florio), as if 
 from ca/)-o {ca/rnis) and vale — "Flesh 
 farewell! " — is really an accommodation 
 of carnelevale, a corrupt form of Low 
 Lat. carne-leva/men, a solace of the 
 flesh. The Sunday before the begin- 
 ning of Lent was called Dominica ad 
 carries levandas. Compare also the 
 names of Shrovetide, CarnAcapium, 
 Oa/rnivora, Mardi-gras, &c. — Hampson, 
 Medii Aevi Kalendarium, i. p. 158. 
 This feast is named the Carnival, which 
 being 
 Interpreted, implies " farewell to flesh : " 
 So call'd, because the name and thing agree- 
 ing, 
 Through Lent they live on fish both salt 
 and fresh. 
 
 Buron, Beppo, vi. 
 
 Carol, an architectural term for a 
 small closet, or enclosure, to sit in 
 (Parker, Glossary of ArcMteeiwe, s.v.). 
 It is also spelt ca/rrol, carrel, carole, 
 carola, quarrel ; and is corrupted from 
 Low Lat. quadnrellus, a square pew. 
 
 Carola, a little Pew or Closet. — Bailey. 
 Carrel, a Closet or Pew in a Monastery. 
 
 Carola is applied to any place enclosed 
 with skreens or partitions, in Normandy 
 and elsewhere in France the rails themselves 
 are termed carolea. Also this tenn was ap- 
 plied to the aisles of French churches whicli 
 have skreened chapels on one side. — Parker, 
 Glossary of Architecture. 
 
 In the west walk [of the cloisters] are the 
 places prepared for the carols of the monks, 
 
 or theii' studies, to sit and write in ; 
 
 they were so called probably from their being 
 square, carrels, or qaarrts. — Id. 
 
 So quarrel, a square of glass, and 
 anciently a square-headed arrow, is 
 from quad/relhis; and carillon, a, chime, 
 is Uterally a peal of four bells, L. Lat. 
 quadrillio; Uke qiiad/rille, a dance of 
 four. 
 
 Carousal : strange as it may seem,' 
 this word has probably no connexion 
 with carouse, a drinking-bout. Prof. 
 Skeat says that in its older form, 
 cm-ousel, it meant a pageant or festival, 
 being derived from Fr. cm-rousel. It. 
 caroseMo, a tilting-match ortournament, 
 corrupted (under the influence of ca/n-o, 
 a chariot), from garosello, a diminutive 
 form of garoso, quarrelsome (cf. gm-a, 
 ' strife, perhaps = Fr. guerre). Gm-ouse, 
 formerly gm-ouse, is from Ger. ga/r aus 
 (a bumper drained), "right out." 
 
 Carp, Mid. Eng. carpen, old Eng. 
 Jcm-pe, to speak, to tell (Icel. Icarpa, to 
 boast), owes its modern sense of speak- 
 ing with sinister intent, fault-finding 
 or cavilling, to a supposed connexion 
 with Lat. carpere, to pluck, to calum- 
 niate. 
 
 Other of your insolent retinue 
 Do hourly carp and quarrel. 
 
 King Lear, i. 4, 1. 221. 
 Bi crist, sone, quafi (je King, to carpe \>e so);e. 
 William ofPalerne, 1. 4581. 
 
 (See Prof._ Skeat, Etym. Diet, s.v.) 
 Carpyn, or talkyn, Fabulor, confabulor, 
 garrulo. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 So gone thei forthe, carpende fast 
 On this, on that. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, vii. 
 Many was the bird did sweetly carj)e, 
 Emong the thornes, the bushes, and the 
 greves. 
 F. Thynn, Pride and Lowliness, ab. 1570, 
 p. 8 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Carriage, which appears to be a 
 similar formation to voyage, wharfage. 
 
OABBY.ALL 
 
 ( 52 ) 
 
 CAST 
 
 parentage, townage, nuwriage, is a more 
 thoroughly naturalized form of caroch 
 (Jonson), Pr. carosse, Sp. carroza, It. 
 carrozza, carocmo. To the latter has 
 been assimilated It. hmvcmo, hiroccio, 
 our " barouche," which originally 
 meant a two-wheeled vehicle, from 
 Lat. hi-roius. Cf. Pr. hrouette, for hi- 
 rouette (Diez). Ga/rriage, the carrying of 
 a parcel, " caryage, vectura, caria- 
 gium " {Prompt. Parv.), or the thing 
 carried, baggage (A. V. 1 Sam. xvii. 
 22), is a distinct word, 0. Fr. cariage, 
 It. ca/rriaggio. 
 
 Madam .... must be allow'd 
 Her footmen, her caroch, her ushers, pages. 
 Massinger, The Renegadn, i. 2 (p. 136, 
 ed. Cunningham). 
 
 At this time, 1605, began the ordinary use 
 o{ carochea. — Stow, Annates, p. 867 (1615). 
 
 They harnessed the Grand SigniorsCorodc?!, 
 mounted his Cauallery vpon Curtals, and so 
 sent him most pompously .... into the 
 Citty. — Dekher, Seii£n deadly Sinnes of London, 
 1606, p. 20 (ed. Arber). 
 
 He hurries up and down ... as a gallant 
 in his new caroch, driving as if he were mad. 
 — T. Adams, Mystical Bedlam, Sermons, i. 
 284. 
 
 Caeey-all (American), a waggon, 
 corrupted from Cmiole. 
 
 Carteidge is an Anglicized form of 
 Pr. cartouche. It. cartocoio, a ease made 
 of paper (It. can-ta, Lat. cliarta), assimi- 
 lated to such words as partridge, or 
 mistaken for carte (zicard) and ridge. 
 G. Markham further corrupts the word 
 to cai-talage ( The Souldier's Accidence, 
 p. 36). 
 
 " Cartridges " seem to be found first 
 in the works of Lord Orrery in 1677. 
 Sir James Turner in 1671 calls them 
 
 Casement — " Make the doors upon a 
 woman's wit and it will out at the 
 casement" (As YouLilcelt, a. iv. sc. 1) 
 — seems to be confounded sometimes 
 with "casemate," a loophole. 
 
 At Mochrum ... a medieval castle long 
 in ruins has been partly rebuilt on the old 
 lines, nothing being altered in the thickness 
 of the walls . . . and very little in the holes 
 or "casements" which admit the light. — Sat. 
 Review, vol. 50, p. 542. 
 
 The tumid bladder bounds at every kick, 
 bursts the withstanding casements. — Shaftes- 
 bury, Characteristichs, vol. iii. p. 14 (1749). 
 
 The Eye, by which as through a cleare 
 christall Casement wee discerne the various 
 
 works of Art and Nature. — J. Howeltj For- 
 rein Travell, 1642, p. 12 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Casemate, Pr. casemate, Sp. casamata, 
 It. casa-matta, (1) a house of slaughter 
 (from casa, and Sp. mata/r. It. mazzare, 
 Lat. mactare, to slaughter) — i.e. a cham- 
 ber in a fortress from which the enemy 
 may be securely slaughtered, (2) a 
 loophole or opening to fire on the 
 enemy. " Gasamatta, a casamat, a 
 canonrie or slaughter-house, so called 
 of Engineers, which is a place built low 
 under the wall or bulwarke not arriv- 
 ing unto the height of the ditch, and 
 serves to annoy or hinder the enemie 
 when he entreth the ditch to skale the 
 wall" — (Plorio, 1611). Compare Fr. 
 mewrtriire, Ger. mord-heller, a loop- 
 hole. 
 
 Cash, the name which we give to the 
 Chinese copper coins which are strung 
 together on strings through a hole in 
 the middle, is the same wprd as the 
 Eussian cheh or clwhh, and a corruption 
 of the Mongol ^'os, Chinese fsien, fi:om 
 a false analogy to the Enghsh word 
 " cash," Fr. caisse. Vid. Prejevalsky, 
 Mongolia, vol. ii. p. 3. 
 
 Cashier, to dismiss one from his 
 office, is a corruption of the older word 
 casseer, Ger. cassiren, Dut. 'kctsseren,sl\ 
 from French casser, " to cass, casseere, 
 discharge " (Cotgrave) ; Sp. cassa/r, to 
 casseer (Minsheu) ; Lat. cosscm's, to 
 render null {cassus) : see Cast. The 
 phrase " to break an officer " seems to 
 have originated in a misunderstanding 
 of this word. 
 
 Excepting the main point o{ cashiering the 
 Popes pretended Authority over the whole 
 Church, those two abuses were the first 
 things corrected by Authority in owe Realm. 
 — Bp. Hacket, Century of Sermons, p. 124 
 (1675). 
 
 Cast, in the idiom " to cast about," 
 to look for a plan, to contrive, plot, 
 meditate, search — "He casi about how 
 to escape " — as if he turned or cast his 
 eyes every way — looked roimd, seems 
 to be only a modern usage of old Bng, 
 cost, to contrive (A. Sax. costian, to ti-y, 
 prove, tempt, old Swed. hosta, Dut, 
 koste, try, attempt), which was some- 
 times written cast ( =: conceive, con- 
 sider). See Dr. B. Morris, E. E. AlUU- 
 rative Poems, p. 137. But query. 
 
CAST 
 
 ( 53 ) 
 
 OAT 
 
 Caste for to goon', or purpose for to don' 
 any othyi- thynge, Tendo, intendo. 
 
 Caste warke or disposyn', Dispone. — 
 Prompt. Parv, 
 
 A mare payne couthe na man in hert east 
 jjan fis war, als lang als it sukl last. 
 
 Pncke of Conscience, 1. 1918 (ab. 1340). 
 AUe mans \jfe casten may be 
 Principaly m Jpis partes thre. 
 
 Ibid. 1. 432. 
 Bi a coynt compacement • caste sohe sone, 
 How bold 3he mist hire bere • hire best to 
 excuse. 
 William of Paleme, 1. 1981, ab. 1350 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 Than cast I all the worlde about 
 And thenk, howe I at home in dout 
 Have all my time in vein despended. 
 
 GoweVj Conf. Amantis, vol. i. p. 317 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 Who ever casts to compasse weightye prise 
 And thinks to throwe out thondering words 
 
 of threate, 
 Let powre in lavish cups and thriftie bitts of 
 meate. 
 Spenser, Sheplieards Calender, Oct. 1. 105. 
 
 She cast in her mind what manner of salu- 
 tation this should be. — A. V. S. Luke, i. 2y 
 (1611). 
 
 And ever in her mind she cast about 
 For that unnoticed failing in herself. 
 Which made him look so cloudy and so 
 cold. 
 
 Tennyson, Enid, 1. 892. 
 
 Hence, no doubt, cast =: to calculate, 
 as "to cast a horoscope," or "to cast 
 up a sum in addition." 
 [He] arsmetrike raddein cours: in Oxenford 
 
 wel faste 
 & his figours drouS aldai : & his numbre 
 
 S. Edmund the Confessor, 1. 222 (Philolog. 
 Soo. Trans. 1858). 
 
 Cast, applied to old clothes, as if 
 something thrown aside as useless, is 
 probably for cassed, found in old writers 
 — French, casser, " to casse, casseere 
 [cashier] , discharge, tume out of ser- 
 vice" (Ciotgrave) ; which is from Lat. 
 cassa/re, to render null and void ( casstis ) . 
 See Oashiek. North and Holland 
 speak of soldiers being cassed; and 
 in Othello (ii. 3) lago says to the 
 "casliier'd Oassio" (1. 381), "You are 
 but now cast in his mood," 1. 273. 
 
 We will raise 
 A noise enough to wake an alderman. 
 Or a cast captain, when the reck'ning is 
 About to pay. 
 
 W. Cartm-ight, The Ordinary, iii. 4 
 (1651). 
 
 Put now these old cast clouts . . . under 
 thine armholes. — A. V. Jerem. xxxviii. 12. 
 
 He hath bought a pair of cast lips of Diana. 
 — As You Like It, iii. 4, 16. 
 
 Castle, the chess piece. It. castello 
 and torre, so called from rocco, its 
 proper name, being confounded with 
 rocca, a rook, fortress, or castle. The 
 Italian rocco, our " rook," is the French 
 roc, Sp. roque, Persian ruJeJi, all varia- 
 tions of the Sanskrit roTca, a boat or 
 ship, that being the original form of the 
 piece. — D. Forbes, History of Chess, 
 pp. 161, '211. Devio connects the word 
 with old Pers. rolih, a warrior or knight. 
 
 Castle, as used in Shakespeare (Tro. 
 and Ores. v. 2, 1. 187) and HoUnshed 
 (ii. p. 815) for a helmet, must be a 
 representative of the Latin cassida, 
 cassis, a helmet. 
 
 Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head. 
 — Shakespeare, 1. c, 
 
 Cast-me-down, a corruption of the 
 word cassidone, cassidonia, a species of 
 lavender, which is itself a corruption 
 of its Latin name, stcechas SidonAa 
 {'chas-Sidonia), the stcechas from Sidon, 
 where it is indigenous. 
 
 Stechados, Steckado, or Stickadove, Cassi- 
 donia or Castmedown. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Some simple people imitating the said 
 name doe call it cast-me-doume. — Gerarde, 
 Herball, p. 470. 
 
 Castoe Oil, a corruption of castus- 
 oil, the plant (ricinus communis) from 
 the nuts or seeds of which it is ex- 
 pressed having formerly been called 
 Agnus castus (Mahn, in Wehster's 
 Diet.). The word was doubtless con- 
 founded with, or assimilated to, cas- 
 toreum, " a medicine made of the Hquor 
 contained in the smaU bags which are 
 next to the beaver's [or castor's] groin, 
 oily, and of a strong scent " (Bailey). 
 
 Cat, a nautical term applied to va- 
 rious parts of the gear connected with 
 an anchor, e.g. " Gat, a piece of timber 
 to raise up the anchor from the hawse 
 to the forecastle ; " cat-head, " catt-rope, 
 the rope used in hauling up the cat " 
 (Bailey); to cat, to draw up the anchor 
 (Smith, Nautical Bid; Falconer, Ma- 
 rine Bict.). Compare Dutch Jcai, a small 
 anchor; Icatten, to cast out such ; hatrol, 
 a pulley. It is beyond doubt the same 
 word as Lith. Icatas, Bohem. hotew. 
 Buss, and old Slav. Icotva, an anchor, 
 
GAT 
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 CATGUT 
 
 meaning at first probably a large 
 stone ; cf. Sansk. hdtha, a stone (Pictet, 
 Originee I. Ewop.i. 133),. and the Ho- 
 meric ewnai, stones used as anchors. 
 
 Cat, in the story of WMUington and 
 his Cat, it has been considered with 
 some reason, is a corruption of the old 
 substmitive aoat or achat, trading {e.g. 
 Le Grand, FahUaux, tom. i. p. 305), 
 from acheter, to buy (Eiley). — Scheie 
 de Vere, Studies in EngUsh, p. 205 ; M. 
 Miiller. 
 
 Cat or DOG-wooi,, " of which cotto or 
 coarse Blankets were formerly made " 
 (Bailey, s. v. cottwm). Gat here is a 
 corruption of the old Bng. cot, a matted 
 lock; Ger. hotze, a shaggy covering; 
 Wal. cote, a fleece. " Got-ga/i-e, refuse 
 wool so clotted together that it cannot 
 be pulled asunder " (Bailey). 
 
 Bog-wool is for dag-wool, cf. dag- 
 lochs, the tail- wool of sheep (see 
 Wedgwood) ; and old Eng. dagswcan, a 
 bed-covering, " daggysweyne, lodix," 
 Prompt. Parvulorvmi. 
 
 Catch, a word used by Howell and 
 Pepys for a small vessel (see T. L. 0. 
 Davies, 8iip. JSng. Ohssan'y), as if hke 
 yaclit (Dut. jagt), a vessel for pursuit, 
 is a corruption of hetch, It. caicclvio, " a 
 little cocke bote, skiffe or scallop " 
 (Plorio) ; from Turk, gaig, a skiff or 
 caique. 
 
 Catch-pole, ] Scotch terms for the 
 
 Cache-pole, rgame of tennis, are 
 
 Catchpule, ) corrupted forms of 
 
 Belgian kaetsspel, i.e. "chase-game," 
 
 the game of ball : cf. kaetshal, a tenuis- 
 
 baU. 
 
 Catekumlyng, an old Eng. corrup- 
 tion of catechumen, a person catechized 
 or under instruction preparatory to 
 baptism, as if compounded with imme- 
 lyng (JRobt. of Ohucestei; p. 18) — i.e. 
 corneUng, a stranger, new Sirrival, a 
 proselyte — occurs inLangland's Vision 
 of Piers Plowman, 1377. 
 Why sowre couent coueytath' to confesse 
 
 and to hurye, 
 Rather Jjan to baptise barnes' jjat ben cate- 
 kumelijnges. 
 Pass. xi. 1. 77, text B. (ed. Steat) ; 
 
 where another MS. has cathecu- 
 mynys. 
 
 Catek, to cross diagonally, or eater- 
 ways, in the Sm-rey dialect (Notes and 
 
 Queries, 5th S. i. 361), is evidently a 
 corruption of Fr. quatre, as in ccder- 
 cousins and cater-caf. Compare Pr. 
 cairtayer (which Littre derives from 
 quatre), corresponding to our verb to 
 quarter, to drive so as to avoid the ruts 
 in the road. 
 
 Cater-cousin, an intimate friend, a 
 parasite, as if a friend for the sake of 
 the catering, is really a fomih cousin, 
 Fr. quatre. 
 
 Es havn't a' be cater cousins since last hay- 
 harvest. — Mrs. Palmer, Devonshire Courtship, 
 p. 61. 
 
 Sleep ! What have we to do with 
 Death*s cater cousin ? 
 
 Randolph, Aristippus, Works, p. 23 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 So O. Eng. catereyns =: guadrai'm, 
 farthings. See Cater. 
 
 Catebpillee — old Eng. " catyrpel, 
 wyrm amongefrute, "ProjTipf. Pan. — 
 is corrupted from old Fr. chaite pelenae ' 
 (Palsgrave, 1530), "hairy cat." Cf. 
 Norman carpleuse (? ■=. caier-peleme). 
 It. gattola, Swiss teufels-haiz, " devil's 
 cat" {AAa,ras,Philog.8oc. Trans. 18S0, 
 p. 90). The last part of the word 
 was probably assimilated to piller, a 
 robber or despoiler. 
 
 Latimer actually uses it in this 
 sense — 
 
 They that be children of this worlde (as 
 couetous persons, extorcioners, oppressours, 
 caterpilters, usurers), thynke you they come 
 to Gods storehouse ? — Sermons, p. 158, recto. 
 
 Cater, moreover, being an old name 
 for a glutton, the whole compoimd 
 would be understood as a " gluttonous- 
 robber." 
 
 Horace writes of an outragious cater in 
 his time, Quicquid quaesierat ventri donabat 
 avaro, whatsoever he could rap or rend, he 
 confiscated to his couetous eut. — Nash, Pierce 
 Pmilesse, 1592, p. 49 (ShaEs. Soc). 
 
 Catgut, the technical name for the 
 material of which the strings of the 
 guitar, harp, &c. are made. It is really 
 manufactured from sheep-gat (ride 
 Chappell's History of Music, vol. i. p- 
 26). 
 
 That sheep's guts should hale souls out of 
 men's bodies. — Much Ado about Nothing, 
 U.S. 
 
 So it may be conjectured that tlie 
 word is a coi-ruption of kit-gut, kit being 
 an old word for a smaU viohii. Com- 
 
GAT-HANDED 
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 CATS 
 
 pare Ger. Icitt, Mtt, a lute, and hUze, 
 icatze, a oat. Or catlings, small strings 
 for musical instruments (Bailey), may 
 be connected with cJdtterUngs, Ger. 
 kuttelen, "guts." 
 
 Hearsay. Do you not hear her guts already 
 squeak 
 Like kit-strings? 
 
 aiicer. They must come to that within 
 
 This two or three years : by that time she'll 
 
 be 
 True perfect cat. 
 
 W. Cartwright, The Ordinary, i. 2 
 (1651). 
 
 Unless the fidler Apollo get his sinews to 
 make catlings on. — Trailus and Cresn. act iii, 
 BO. 3. 
 
 Play, fiddler, or I'll cut your cat's guts 
 into chitterlings. — Marlowe, Jew of Malta, 
 act iv. (1633). 
 
 Mr. Timbs (Popular EiTors Ex- 
 plained, p. 64) points out that the old 
 reading for cats-guts in Gymbeline is 
 calves' -guts. 
 
 Cat-handed, a Devonshire term for 
 awkward, is a corruption of the word 
 which appears in Northamptonsliire as 
 heck-handed, left-handed (Sternberg); 
 in the Craven dialect gauk-handed, in 
 Yorkshire gawk, awkward ; gawkshaw, 
 a left-handed man, Fr. gauche. 
 
 Gingerly, gingerly ; how unvitty and cat- 
 handed you go about it, you dough-cake. — 
 Mrs. Palmer, Devonshire Courtship, p. 33. 
 
 Cat in the pan, to turn cat in the 
 pan, or cat in pan, are ancient phrases 
 for becoming a turn-coat or time-server, 
 changing with the times and circum- 
 stances. They are evident corruptions, 
 but of what ? Not hkely of the name 
 Catapan, a title which was assigned to 
 the chief governor of the naetropohs of 
 Lombardy in the tenth century, when 
 the " poUcy of Church and State in that 
 proviuce was modelled in exact sub- 
 ordination to the throne of Constanti- 
 nople " (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 
 Ivi.) ; Notes and Queries, 5th S. viii. 
 148. The original was perhaps " to 
 turn a cate " or cake. 
 
 In W. Cornwall " to turn oat-in-the- 
 pan" is hteraJly to turn head over 
 heels while holding on to a bar 
 (E. D. S.). 
 
 I am as very a tumcote as the wethercoke of 
 
 Poles [Paul's] ; 
 For now I will call my name Due 
 
 Disporte, fit for all soules, ye. 
 So, so, findly 1 can turne the catt in the 
 pane. 
 The Mariage of Witt and Wisdome 
 (Shaks. Soo. ed.), p. 24. 
 Damon smatters as well as he of craftie 
 
 philosophie 
 And can tourne cat in the panne very pretily. 
 R, Edwards, Damon and Pithias, 1571 
 (0. P. i. 206, ed. 1827-). « 
 When George in pudding time came o'er 
 
 And moderate men look'd big, Sir, 
 I turn'd a cat-in-pan once more, 
 And so became a Whig, Sir. 
 
 The Vicar of Bray, 
 
 Minsheu, in his Spanish Diet. 1623, 
 gives " Trastrocadas paldbras, words 
 turned, tlie cat into the pan." 
 
 Lord Bacon, in his Essays, uses the 
 phrase in a different sense : — 
 
 There is a Cunning, which we in England 
 call. The Turning of the Cat [Latin _/etem] in 
 the Pan; which is, when that which a man 
 sayes to another, he laiea it, as if another 
 had said it to him. — Of Cunning, 1625 
 (Arber's ed. p. 441 ). 
 
 " To savour," or " smeU, of the pan," 
 seems to have been a common cant 
 phrase in the time of the Beformation 
 for to change one's views — e.g. West, 
 Bishop of Ely, said of Latimer : "I 
 perceive that you smell somewhat of the 
 
 I hear of no clerk that hath come out lately 
 of -that College, but savoureth of the frying 
 pan, though he speak never so holily. — Bp. 
 Nihke, 1530 (see Eadie, The English Bible, 
 vol. i. p. 183). 
 
 Cats and dogs. To eain : the origin 
 of this expression has never been satis- 
 factorily explained. A correspondent 
 of Notes and Queries (5th S. vui. p. 
 183) suggests that it is a perversion of 
 an Italian acgua a catinelle e dogli, rain 
 in basins and casks. The phrase acqua 
 a catinelle is used by Massimo d'Azegho 
 in his Niccolo de' Lapi, vol. i. p. 97, ed. 
 1841, Paris ; Acgua a bigonce, "rain in 
 tuns," buckets of tain, is also found. 
 But is such a popular expression hkely 
 to be of foreign origin ? Ohien, in the 
 French phrase, une plvde de chien (a 
 heavy shower), has the same deprecia- 
 tory and intensive force as in bru4t de 
 chden, querelle de clvien. Probably tliis 
 is just one of those strong intensive 
 phrases in which the poptdace dehghts. 
 In the dialect of the WaUon de Mons, 
 pleuvoi a dik et dak is to rain in tor- 
 
CAT S-OE ABLE ( 56 ) 
 
 OENTINEL 
 
 rents (corresponding to a German reg- 
 nen dich und ['? an] dach, " thick on 
 thatch : " cf. risch und rasch, hUng und 
 Mang, &e.). 
 
 Cat's-ceadle, the children's game of 
 ■weaving a cord into various figures 
 from one to the other's hands alter- 
 nately, is a corruption of cratch-cfi'adle, 
 the word cratch being the usual term 
 formerly for a manger, rack, or crib 
 (Fr. creche), of interlaced wickerwork. 
 Lat. craiicius, crates. If, as Nares 
 affirms, the game was also called 
 scratcli-eradle, this account may be re- 
 ceived without hesitation, and an aUu- 
 sion may be traced to the manger- 
 cradle of the Sacred History. 
 
 These men found a child in a cratch, the 
 poorest and most unlikely birth that ever wag 
 to prove a Kin^. — Bp, Hacket, Century of 
 Sermnns, 1675, p. 143. 
 
 Sche childide her firste horn gone, .... 
 and puttide him in a cracche. — WycliffCj Luke, 
 ii. 7(1389). 
 
 This game in the London Schools is called 
 Scratch-scratch, or Scratch'Cradie. — Britton, 
 Beauties of Wittshire, 1825. 
 
 Oat-stones, i.e. battle-stones, erected 
 in various parts of England, and espe- 
 cially in Derbyshire, in commemoration 
 of battles having been fought there. 
 From the Celtic catli, a battle ; cf. Ard- 
 cath in the Co. Meath, Lat. cateia, &c. 
 
 On the east side of [Stanton] Moor were 
 three tall isolated stones, which in Rooke's 
 time [i.e. 1780] the natives still called Cat 
 Stones, showing clearly that the tradition 
 still remained of a battle fought there. — 
 Fergusson, Rude Stone Monuments, p. 146. 
 
 Catsup, or hetchup, a corruption of 
 hifjap, the oriental name for a similar 
 condiment. 
 
 And for our home-bred British cheer, 
 
 Botargo, Cuts-up, and Caveer. 
 
 Swift, Panegyrick on the Dean, 1730. 
 
 Caulifloweb is, properly, not the 
 flower of the (Lat.) cauUs, cabbage, but 
 asformerly spelt, coK2/^or2/(Cotgrave) — 
 i.e. cole-floris, Fr. choufleuri, the flower- 
 ing cole (Skeat). 
 
 Cole Flirrie, or after some Coliejiorie, hath 
 many large leaves sleightly endented about 
 the edges.— Geracdc, Herbatl, p. 246 (1597). 
 
 Cadsed-way, Fuller's spelling of 
 causey — e.g. History of Camhridqe, in. 
 .19 (1656). 
 
 Builders of Bridges . . . and makers of 
 Caused-waks or Causways (which are Bridges 
 
 over dirt) . . . are not least in benefit to the 
 Common-wealth. — Worthies of England, vol, 
 i. p. 32 (ed. 1811). 
 
 Causeway (Isaiah, vii. 3, marg.), 
 also sometimes written causey-way, 
 caused-way (q. v.), and cajwcewey, 
 cawcy wey (Fronipt. Poa'v. 1440), was 
 originally causey (1 Chron. xxvi. 16, 
 18 ; Prov. xv. 19, marg. ; Milton, Far. 
 Lost, X. 415) ; causeis in Camden's 
 Britain, fol. pp. 515, 750. It is the 
 French chaussee, old Fr. caucMe, 
 Norm. Fr. chaucee, Vie de St. Aulan, 
 1. 531 ; Sp. and Portg. calzada, from a 
 Latin caldata (sc. via), a road laid 
 down with limestone or chalk [cah), 
 Low Lat. calceta. Compare It. seU- 
 oiata, or slab-pavement. In W. Corn- 
 wall cawnse is a flagged floor, and 
 cawnse-way, a paved footpath. 
 
 A blazing starr seen by several people in 
 Oxon, and A. W. saw it in few nights after 
 on Botley Causei/ (1664). — Life of Anthony a 
 Wood (ed. Bliss), p. 140. 
 
 The rode on then all 3 : 
 
 Vpon a ffaire Causye. 
 Percy, Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 428, 1. 319. 
 
 Celery, a corruption (through a 
 mistaken analogy to other words be- 
 ginning in eel-) of the older name 
 '' sellery, a saUad Herb " (Bailey). Cf. 
 Ger. selleri, It. sellari, plu. of sellaro, 
 from Lat. seKnum, Gk. selinon. The 
 word is comparatively modem, not 
 being found in Gerarde, 1597. 
 
 Celeey-leaved ranunculus. This 
 expression is said, I know not on what 
 authority, to be a corruption of seek- 
 ratus ranunculus {Fhilolog. Soc. Froc. 
 vol. V. p. 138). 
 
 Cellar, the canopy of a bed, a cor- 
 ruption of It. cielo, Fr. del, "Cellar for 
 a bedde,c!eZ de lit" — Palsgrave; Lesclair- 
 dssement ("Wright) ; " ceele or seek, a 
 canopy" (Glossary of ArcMtectwrsj 
 Parker). 
 
 _ Cbntinel, a corrupt spelling of sen- 
 tinel, Fr. sentinelle (one who keeps his 
 beat or path, 0. Fr. sente), as if like 
 centurion, connected with Lat. centvm. 
 Sir J. Turner speaks of " the forlorn 
 centinels, whom the French call per- 
 dus."—Fallas Armata, p. 218 (1683). 
 
 Two men who were centinels ran away. — 
 Horace IVulpole, Letters (175^), vol. ii. p. 
 286. ^ /> 
 
 Coming up to the house where at that time 
 
CENTO 
 
 ( 57 ) 
 
 GHAMPAIGN 
 
 some centinelU were placed, and gating out 
 of her coiicli " she " says, make way there, I 
 am the Duchess of Devonshire. — Life of Bp. 
 Framptoit {ed. T. S. Evans), p. 194. 
 
 Spenser has centonell {F. Q. I. ix. 
 41), Marlowe centwnel (Dido, II. i.). 
 
 Cento, a poem made up of scraps of 
 different verses, Lat. cento, as if of a 
 hmidred pieces [centum), is a corrupted 
 form of the Greek kentrun, of the same 
 meaning, originally a patch-work, from 
 Jcentron, a prick (or stitch ?). 
 
 Centbe, 1 an architectural term 
 Centering, ^ for the wooden mould 
 Gentry, j or frame upon which an 
 arjh is built, would seem, naturally- 
 enough, to be the centre (Lat. centrum) 
 around which the masonry is con- 
 structed. It is really an alteration of 
 Fr. cintre, " a centry or mould for an 
 Arch," Cotgrave; cintrer, to mould an 
 arch, from Lat. cincturare, to encircle, 
 cinctura, a girdle, It. cintwra. 
 
 Centry-garth, an old name for a 
 burying-ground, is a corruption of 
 cem'try, cemetry, cemetery (Glossary of 
 Architecture, Parker). 
 
 At Durham the unworthy dean . . . de- 
 sti'oyed the tombs in the Centerie garth. — M. 
 E. C. Watcott, Traditions and Customs of 
 Cathedralsj p.^26. 
 
 Cess, a word used in the southern 
 counties of England and in Ireland to 
 call dogs to their food, or to encourage 
 them to eat. " Cess, boy, cess! " is no 
 doubt another form of the old word 
 sosse (Palsgrave, 1530), or sos, dogs' 
 meat, G^el. sos, a naess. 
 
 Sos, how(nd)ysmete. Cantabrum. — 
 Prompt. Paroulorum, ab. 1440. 
 
 Cess-pool is of the same origin (see 
 Skeat, Et. Diet. s. v.). 
 
 Cess, a tax, a mis-spelling of sess, 
 from assess, under the misleading in- 
 fluence of Lat. census, It. censo, "a 
 sessing," Florio. 
 
 Chaff, badinage, as if light, fruitless 
 talk, conversational husks (like Ger. 
 haff, (1) chaff, (2) idle words; A. Sax. 
 ceaf), would seem to be the sajne word 
 as Liuoolns. chaff, to chatter (Dut. 
 Iceffen), old Eng. cliefle, cheafle, idle 
 talk ; N. Eng. chaff, the jaw ; A. Sax. 
 ceafl, 0. E. chawl, to chide, "give jaw;" 
 Cleveland chaff, to banter (Icel. hdfa). 
 The Ancren Sdwle warns against words 
 
 that " uleoten Seond te world ase deS 
 muchel cheafle " (p. 72)— i.e. flit over 
 the world as doth much idle-talk, and 
 says that the false anchorers " chqfle^ 
 of idel " (p. 128)— chattereth idly. The 
 phrase "to c/icr/ a person," i.e. to make 
 fun of him, to ply him with jeering 
 remarks, was probably influenced by 
 chafe, to make hot, to exasperate (Fr. 
 chauffer), as in the following — 
 
 A testy man . . . chaffs at every trifle. — 
 Bp. Hall, Contemplations, Bk. vii. 2. 
 
 The boys watched the stately barques . . . 
 or chafed the fishermen whose boats heaved 
 on the waves at the foot of the promontory. — 
 F. \V. Farrar, Eric, p. 155 (1859). 
 
 " Why then," quoth she, " thou drunken ass, 
 
 Who bid thee here to prate ? " . . . 
 And thus most tauntingly she chaft 
 Against poor silly Lot. 
 
 The Wanton Wife of Bath, 1. 40 (Child's 
 Ballads, vol. viii. p. 154). 
 
 A thirde, perhapps, was hard chaffing with 
 the baylie of his husbandry for gevinge viiiJ. 
 a day this deere yeer to day laborers. — Sir 
 J. Harin^ton, Treatise on Playe, NvgOiAntiqua^, 
 vol. ii. p. 176. 
 
 Chamois-leather is considered by 
 Wedgwood to have only an accidental 
 resemblance to the name of the chamois, 
 or wild goat, and to be a corrupted 
 form of the older word shammy. This 
 he compares with Ger. sdndsch, Swed. 
 samsh, which some explain as Samo- 
 gitian [Icel. Sam-land in Russia] lea- 
 ther ; but he prefers connecting with 
 Dut. samt, soft and pliable, Prov. Eng. 
 semmit (Ger. s&mAsch, soft). In most 
 Em-opean languages, however, this 
 leather is called by the name of the 
 chamois or shamoy. See chamois and 
 ysard in Cotgrave, Ger. gemsenleder, 
 Swed. stengetsldder ; cf. old Eng. che- 
 verel, from Fr. chevreul, the chamois or 
 wild goat. It is perhaps worth noting 
 that in the Gipsy language cJiam is 
 leather, chamische, leathern (Borrow), 
 tschanvm (Pott). 
 
 Champaign, a flat or plain country 
 (Deut. xi. 30 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 2, marg.), 
 a corruption of the older and more 
 correct form, champian, or cliampion, 
 in Shakespeare champain (Leair, i. 1) — ■ 
 ther g (as in Fr. champagne, It. cam- 
 pagna) being inserted from perhaps a 
 supposed connexion with pagus, paga- 
 nus. Compare Fr. compagne, Ger.' 
 hompan, a companion, one who eats 
 
GHANCE-MEDLEY ( 58 ) 
 
 CHAB-OOAL 
 
 bread (Lat. pams) with {cum) another, 
 n commensaMs ; and see E. Agnel, In- 
 fluence du Langage Populaire, p. 112. 
 
 Chance-medley, an accidental en- 
 counter, is said to be a corruption of 
 Fr. chaude meslee, or melee, a mingling, 
 broil, or skirmisli, in the heat of the 
 moment, and not in cold blood. See 
 Chaudmallet, L. Lat. chaudmella 
 ( Spehnan). 
 
 Joab for obeying the King's letter and 
 putting Uriah but to chance-medley is con- 
 demned for it. — Bp. Andrewes, Pattern of 
 Catechistical Doctrine, 1641 (Anglo-Catholio 
 Lib.), p. 184. 
 
 Changeling, a chUd changed, also a 
 fool, a sUly fellow (Bailey) ; an oaf or 
 elvish child left iu exchange by the 
 fairies for a healthy one they have 
 stolen away. " The word changeling 
 impUes one ahnost an idiot, evincing 
 what was once the popular creed on 
 this subject; for as all the fairy chil- 
 dren were a little backward of their 
 tongue, and seemingly idiots, therefore 
 stunted and idiotical children were 
 supposed changelings " (Brand. Fop. 
 Antiq. ii. p. 74). The word is probably 
 not a hybrid, but formed from old 
 Eng. change, a fool, cluing, cang, hang, 
 foohsh, which occur repeatedly in the 
 Ancfren Bdwle (ab. 1225) ; the popular 
 superstition, as in other cases, being 
 invented afterwards to explain the 
 word. 
 
 We beoiS changes )jet weneS mid lihtleapes 
 buggen eche bhsse. — Ancren Riwle, p. 362 
 (MS. C). 
 
 ( We be fools that ween to buy eternal bliss 
 with trifles.) 
 
 {lis is al (jes canges blisse. — Id. p. 214. 
 
 Compare the following : — 
 From thence a Faery thee unweeting reft, 
 There as thou slepst in tender swadling 
 
 band. 
 And her base Elfin brood there for thee left : 
 Such men do Chaungelinges call, so chaung'd 
 
 by Faeries theft. 
 Spenser, F. Queene, I. x. 65 (ed. Morris). 
 When larlcs 'gin sing/ Away we fling. 
 And babes new-born steal as we go 
 An Elf instead/ We leave in bed. 
 
 And wind out laughing, ho, bo, ho ! 
 Pranks of Puck, Illustrations of Fairy My- 
 thology, p. 169 (Shaks. Soc). 
 that it could be proved 
 That some night-tripping fairy had ex- 
 changed 
 In cradle-clothes our children where they lay. 
 Shalcespeare, 1 Hen. IV. i. 1, 1. 86. 
 
 Lament, lament, old abbies, 
 The Faries lost command ; 
 They did but change priests babies, 
 But some have cnangd your land : 
 And all your children sprung from thence 
 
 Are now growne Puritanes ; 
 Who live as changelings ever since 
 For love of your demaines. 
 
 Bp. Corbet, Poems, 1648, p. 214 
 
 (ed. 1807). 
 
 Candlelights Coach is made all of Horn, 
 
 shauen as thin as Changelmges are. — Dekker, 
 
 Seti^n deadly Sinnes of Londmi, 1606, p. 29 
 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 As for a Changeling, which is not one child 
 changed for another, but one child on a 
 sudden much changed from it self; and for 
 a Jester .... I conceive them not to belong; 
 to the present subject. — T. Fuller, Holy State, 
 p. 170 (1648). 
 
 Chap, a colloquial and rather vulgar 
 word for a man in a disparaging sense — 
 a fellow, a boy, as if shortened from 
 chap -man (just as merchant is used in 
 old writers for a fellow, e.g. Shake- 
 speare's " saucy merchant ; " Rom. and 
 Jul. ii. 4 ; and customer in modem par- 
 lance has much the same meaning). It 
 is reaUy, however, derived from the 
 Gipsy word for a child or boy, wMob 
 is variously spelt chaho, tschabo, chavo, 
 and chaVby. Cuffen in queer-cuffefn,, an 
 old slang term for a magistrate, and 
 perhaps chuff, " cove," are the same 
 words. 
 
 Cofe, a person. Cuffen, a manne. — T. Har- 
 man, Caveat for Cursetors, 1566. 
 
 An' ane, a chap that's damn'd auldfarran, 
 Dundas his name. 
 
 Burns, Works, Globe ed. p. 11. 
 
 Chae-coal, a corruption of cha/rh 
 coal, " to chark " being an old word 
 for to burn wood (Bailey). 
 
 She burned no lesse through the cinders 
 of too kinde affection, than the logge dootli 
 with the helpe of charke-coles. — fell-Troth, 
 The Passionate Moi-rice, 1593, p. 80 (Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 
 Oh if this Coale could be so churched as to 
 make Iron melt out of the stone. — Fuller, 
 Worthies, ii. 263. 
 
 To charke seacole in such manner as to 
 render it usefull for the making of Iron.— 
 Id. ii. 382. 
 
 It [peat] is like wood charked for the 
 smith. — Samuel Johnson, A Journey to th 
 Hebrides. 
 
 I saw Sir John Winter's new project of 
 chamng sea-coale. — J. Evelm, Diary, July 
 11,1656. 
 
 Cha/rh-coal was no doubt the coal 
 
CHABE TEUBSDAY ( 59 ) 
 
 GEABM 
 
 that cha/rhs (Prov.Eng.), that is, clinks, 
 or gives a metallic sound; W. Coi-n- 
 wall cherk or chare, a half-burnt cinder. 
 Cf. cUnk&r. Wycliffe has charhith =z 
 creeks, Amos, ii. 13. Prof. Skeat is, I 
 think, mistaken in giving char, to turn, 
 as the first part of the word {Eiym. 
 Diet.) ; but char-h (like har-Tc, tal-h, 
 &c.) may be a frequentative of char. 
 Kaltschmidt, in his English-German 
 Dictionary (Leipsic, 1837), gives 
 " Chark-coals, Charks, Holzhohhn." 
 " Chark, verkohlen (Holz)." Compare 
 Chin-cough. 
 
 Chabe Thursday, the Thursday in 
 Passion Week, the day before Good 
 Friday, Ger. Ghar-freytag, from an old 
 word eara, grief, mourning ; see Cabe 
 Sunday. Perhaps a connexion was 
 imagined with the French chair, flesh, 
 because "Upon Chare Thursday Christ 
 brake bread unto his disciples, and bad 
 them eat it, saying it was his flesh and 
 blood." — Shepherd's Kalendar [Nares]. 
 
 Chables' Wain, a corruption of A. 
 Sax. Carles woen, Georles ween, the con- 
 stellation of the churl's (or husband- 
 man's) waggon, Swed. Karl-vagnen, 
 Dan. Karls-vognen, Scot. Charlewan 
 (G. Douglas, JSneid, p. 239, ed. 1710). 
 Nares says itwas so named in honour 
 of Charlemagne I English writers gene- 
 rally twisted it into a compliment to 
 Charles I. or II. ; e.g. a curious volmne 
 bears the title : " The most Gloriovs 
 Star or Celestial Constellation of the 
 Pleiades or Cha/>-les Waine. Appearing 
 and Shining most brightly in a Miracu- 
 lous manner in the Face of the Sun at 
 Noon day at the Nativity of our Sacred 
 Soveraign King Charles II. . . . Never 
 any Starre having appeared before at 
 the birth of any (the Highest humane 
 Hero) except our Saviour. By Edw. 
 Mathew, 1662." 
 
 May Peace once more 
 Descend from Heav'n upon our tottering 
 
 Shore, 
 And ride in Triumph both in Land and 
 
 Main, 
 And with her Milk-white Steeds draw Charles 
 
 his Wain. 
 J. Howell, The Vote or Poem-Royal, 1641. 
 
 In England it goes by the name of " King 
 Charles' Wain." — J, F, Blake, Astronomical 
 Muths, p. 59. 
 
 Septemtrio, )x)ne hataiS laewede menn 
 carles-win. (Septemtrio, which unlearned 
 
 men call carl's- wain.) — Wright, Popular 
 Treatises on Science in the Middlt Ages, p. Iti, 
 Cockayne, Leechdoms, iii. 270. 
 
 Ursa Major is also known as the 
 Plough, A. Sax. }pisl ; similarly the 
 Greeks called it Hdmaxa, the waggon, 
 the Latins platistrum, septem-triones, 
 temo, the Gauls Arthur's chariot; Icel. 
 vagn and OUn's vagn; Heb. as, the 
 bier. 
 
 Weever says the " Seuen Babaurers 
 [?] in heven" in the epitaph of Arch- 
 bishop Theodore, are the 
 
 Seuen stances in Charles Waine. 
 Funerall Monuments, p. 248 (1631). 
 Brittaine doth Tnder those bright stai-res 
 
 remaine, ■ 
 Which English Shepheards, Charles his waine, 
 
 doe name ,- 
 But more this lie is Charles, his waine, 
 Since Charles her royall wagoner became. 
 
 Sir John Davies, Poems, vol. ii. p; 23f 
 
 (ed. Grosart). 
 
 Augustus had native notes on his body and 
 
 belly after the order and number in the stars 
 
 otCharles' Wain. — Sir Thomas Browne,Works, 
 
 vol. ii. p. 536. 
 
 Chaelotte, the name of a confec- 
 tioner's sweet dish, as a Charlotte 
 Busse, seems to have no connexion 
 with the feminine name, but to be a 
 corruption of old Bug. " Chairlet, dys- 
 chemete. Pepo." — Prompt. Parv.liiO; 
 Forme of Cary, p. 27 ; which is perhaps 
 (as Dr. Pegge thought) a derivation of 
 Fr. chair, flesh being one of the chief 
 ingredients of it. Mr. Way supposes 
 it to have been a kind of omelet. But 
 to judge by the following recipe it 
 must have been more like a custard. 
 
 Chai-let. 
 Take swettest mylke, Jjat ):ou may have, 
 Colour hit with safron, so God jje save ; 
 Take fresshe porke and sethe hit wele, 
 And hew hit smalle every dele ; 
 Swyng eyryn, and do jjer to ; 
 Set hit over }:e fyre, fienne 
 Boyle hit and sture lest hit brenne ; 
 VVhenne hit Welles up, jjou schalt hit kele 
 With a litel ale, so have );ou cele ; 
 When lilt is inoSe, jiou sett hit doune, 
 And kepe hit lest hit be to broune. 
 
 Liber Cure Cocorum, 15th cent. p. 11, 
 ed. Morris. 
 
 Hoc omiaccinium, charlyt. — Wright's Vo- 
 cabularies (15th cent.) p. 241. 
 
 Chaem, applied to the song of birds, 
 as if descriptive of their enchanting or 
 seductive strains (cf. Fr.Benw, a canary, 
 ht. a " siren "), 
 
OHABMED-MILE ( 60 ) 
 
 Sweet ia the breath of Morn, her rising 
 
 Bweet 
 With charm of earliest birds. 
 
 Milton, Par. Lost, iv. 641, 
 has nothing to do with eha/rm, an en- 
 chantment (from Lat. carmen, a song), 
 hut is Prov. Eng., clia/rm, chirm, a con- 
 fused murmuring noise, as, " They are 
 all in a charm" ("Wilts. Akerman), 
 "They keep up sitch a chinn" (B. 
 Anglia, Spurdens). A. Sax. cyrm, ceorm, 
 a noise, uproar (cf. ceorian, to murmur, 
 O. E. chirr e, to chirp). 
 Sparuwe is a cheaterinde brid, cheatereS 
 
 euer ant chirme^. 
 (Spari'ow is a chattering bird, chattereth ever 
 
 and chirmeth.) 
 
 Ancreii Riwle, p. 152 (ab. 1225). 
 How heartsonje is't to see the rising plants ! 
 To hear the birds chirm o'er their pleasing 
 
 rants. 
 A. Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd, i. 1. 
 
 So Spenser speaks of the shepherd. 
 Charming his oaten pipe unto his peres. 
 
 Colin Clonics Come Home Again, 1. 5. 
 Whilest favourable times did us afford 
 Tru libertie to chaunt our charmes at will 1 
 The Teares of the Muses, 1. 244. 
 
 Chaemed-milk, or Oharm-milk, a 
 North Eng. word for sour milk (Wright) , 
 is a corruption (not probably of cliarn 
 (i.e. churn) milh, buttermilk, but) of 
 cha/r-mdlk, i.e. charredor turned (sour). 
 Cf. Kentish chaiTed drink, drink turned 
 sour, Lincolnshire chmi-hed (Skinner, 
 1671). Here the m of milh has got 
 attached to char-, as by a contrary 
 mistake in char{k)-coal the k has 
 merged into the -coal. 
 
 Lait beure, Butter milke ; charme milhe. 
 Nomenclator, 1585. 
 
 Ohartee-house, a corruption oiChar- 
 treuse (sc. maison). It. Gertosa, a house 
 or monastery of the Carthusian order 
 of monks, so called from the mountain 
 of Chartreuse in Dauphine, where St. 
 Bruno buUt his first monastery. 
 
 Chasbmates, in Heywood's Sierar- 
 chie, is a corruption of casemates, q. v. 
 
 Chaudmallet, an Aberdeen word for 
 a blow or beating, is evidently, as Ja- 
 mieson observes, a reUc of another 
 Scotch word chaudmelle, a sudden 
 broil or quaiTel, Fr. chaude meUe. 
 
 Chaumbeeling, an old Anglicized 
 form of Er. chamberlain, O. Fr. cham- 
 hrelene (cf. 0. H. Ger. chamerling). 
 
 GHEESE 
 
 Luue is his chaumberling. 
 
 Aneren Riwle, p. 410 (ab. 1225). 
 
 Chaw, a frequent old spelling of Jaw 
 (A. V. Ezek. xxix. 4 ; xxxviii. 4), chewe 
 in Surrey's Sonnets, as if that which 
 chaws or chews [Bible Word-Booh, s. v.) 
 is not probably a derivation of A. Sax. 
 cedwan, to chew, having no immediate 
 representative word in A. Saxon, but, 
 like jowl, A. Sax. ceole, ceafl, geagl, is 
 in direct relation vsdth O. Dut. kauwe, 
 Dan. kjoBve, a jaw ; cf. Scaud. kaf, 
 Prov. Eng. chaffs, " the chaps," Greek 
 gamphai, Sansk. jambha, the jaws (see 
 Skeat, s. v. Champ), jabh, " to gape," 
 (Benfey). The word was probably in- 
 fluenced by Fr.joue, the cheek, 0. Fr. 
 joe. Cf. O. E. "joue, or chekebone, 
 Mandibula," Prompt. Parv., and chaul 
 (WycUffe), chawle, iawle, old forms of 
 jowl. 
 
 Leuel-ranged teeth be in both chaws alike. 
 — Holland, Pliny N. Hist. xi. 37. 
 
 Here's a Conqueror that's more violent 
 than them both, he takes a dead man out of 
 my chaws, who stinks, and hath been four 
 days in the sepulchre. — Hachet, Century of 
 Sermons, p. 569 (1675). 
 
 Check- LATON, a kind of gUt leather. 
 Tn a jacket, quilted richly rare 
 Upon checklaton, he was straungely dight. 
 Spenser, F. Q. VI. vii. 43. 
 It is a corruption of the 0. Eng. " cio- 
 latotm," as if it were checkered or che- 
 quered, and adorned with the metal 
 called laton. It is the Fr. ciclaton, Sp. 
 ciclaton and ciclada, from Latin cydas, 
 cyclad/is. 
 
 Cheeeupping cup, an old phrase for 
 an exhilarating glass, which occurs ia 
 the old ballad. The Greenland Voy- 
 age :— 
 
 To Ben's, there's a cheerupping cup ; 
 
 Let's comfort our hearts. 
 
 (Nares, ed. Halliwell and Wright.) 
 
 As if " the cup that cheers " and ine- 
 briates, is a corrupt form of chirruping ' 
 cup, or "chirping cup," in Howell, 
 Fam. Letters, 1650, i.e. which makes 
 one chirp or sing (Bailey). 
 Let no sober bigot here think it a sin. 
 To push on the chirping and moderate bottle. 
 
 B. Jonson, Rules for the Ta7)ern Academy 
 ( Works, p. 726). 
 
 Cheese, in the slang phrase "That's 
 the cheese," meaning it is all right, 
 commeilfaut, is literally "That's the 
 
GEEESE-BOWL ( 61 ) 
 
 thing." The expression, like many- 
 other cant words, comes to us from the 
 Eommany or Gipsy dialect, in which 
 cheese, representing the Hindustani 
 chiz, denotes a thing. In the slang of 
 the London streets this is further me- 
 tamorphosed into " That's the Stilton," 
 and " That's the Gheslvire." 
 
 CHICK-PEA 
 
 Sir Lybius noe longer abode, 
 but after him ifast he rode, 
 la under a chest of tree. 
 
 Percy Folio MS., vol. ii. p. 461, 
 1. 1261. 
 
 Cheese-bowl, an old English name 
 for the poppy (Gerarde, Skmner, &c.). 
 " Gheseholle, Pavaver." — Promptoriiim 
 Parvuhrum. It is a corruption of the 
 word chesbol, chesbowe, or chasholl, so 
 called from the shape of the capsule, 
 Fr. chasse, in which its holl is en- 
 closed. 
 
 Oliette, Poppy, Chesbols or Cheesebowles. — 
 Cotgrave. 
 
 Drummond spells it chasbow. 
 The brave -carnation speckled pink here 
 
 shined, 
 The violet her fainting head declined, 
 Beneath a drowsy chasbow. 
 
 Poems, p. 10 (Lib. Old Authors). 
 
 Cheqtjer-teee, an old and provincial 
 name for the service tree, is said to be 
 a corruption of the word choicer (or 
 cTtofce-pear), which was also applied to 
 it (Prior). 
 
 Chereybum, a provincial word (De- 
 vonshire, Holdemess, &c.), fora cherub, 
 a corrupted form of chemhim. 
 
 Chest-nut, O. Eng. chesten, would 
 more properly bear the form of chastnut 
 or castnut, as we see when we com- 
 pare its congeners, Dut., Dan., and 
 Ger. hastanie, Fr. chastagne, chdtaAgne, 
 Lat. castanea, Greek hdsfanon, i. e. 
 the tree brought from Gastana in 
 Pontus. 
 
 Chaucer correctly spells it chastein. 
 The word was probably considered to 
 be a compound of chest and nut, with 
 some reference to the case within which 
 it is enclosed. Compare 
 Like as the Chest-nut (next the meat) within 
 Is cover'd (last) with a soft slender skin, 
 That skin inclos'd in a tough tawny shel, 
 That shel in-cas't in a thick thistly fell. 
 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 299 (1621). 
 
 Bosworth gives an Anglo-Saxon 
 form, cisten-iedm, which is an evident 
 assimilation to ciste, a chest. The Irish 
 understood the word to be chaste nut, 
 nux casta, caUing it geanm-chnu. The 
 following curious form occurs iu Lihius 
 JDisconius ; — 
 
 Chests, " The playe at Chests," was 
 the old name of the game of chess, 
 from a false analogy perhaps to " the 
 game at tables," i.e. backgamnaon. 
 
 They respect not him except it be to play 
 a game at Chests, Primero, Saunt, Maw, or 
 such like. — Lingua, sig. E verso, 1632. 
 
 The title of a curious old volume is, 
 " The Pleasaunt and wittie Playe of 
 the Gheasts renewed, with instructions 
 how to learne it easely, and to play it 
 well. Lately translated out of Italian 
 and French : and now set forth in Eng- 
 lishe by lames Eowbotham. Printed 
 at London by Eoulande Hall." 1562. 
 
 Chicken-heaeted is perhaps iden- 
 tical with the Scot. Mclcen- or highen- 
 hea/rted, faint-hearted, which Jamieson 
 connects with Icel. and Swed. kiJcn-a, 
 to lose spirit. The Cleveland hechen- 
 hearted means squeamish, and this Mr. 
 Atkinson compares with old Dan. hieh- 
 hen, squeamish, Cleveland, heck, keC' 
 ken, to be fastidious. 
 
 Chickin, a Venetian coin, checkin 
 (Skinner). "An hundred chickins of 
 very good golde." — Passenger of Ben- 
 venuto, 1612. (Nares.) 
 
 I am sorry to hear of the Trick that Sir 
 John Ayres put upon the Company by the 
 Box of Hail-shot .... which he made the 
 World believe to be full of Chequins and Turky 
 Gold.—Howell, Letters (1626), Bk. I. iv. 28. 
 
 It is a corruption of the Itahan coin, 
 seguine, also found in the form chi- 
 quinie, and cecchines (Ben Jonson, 
 Volpone, i. 4.). It is the It. cecchino, 
 zecchino, from cecca/re, zeccare, to coin, 
 zecca, the miat, Arab, sihhah, a stamp 
 or die (cf. Fr. cicherm in Cotgravezr 
 sequenie, a carter's frock). There is a 
 similar Anglo-Indian term ehickeen, 
 chick, and sicca, equivalent to four 
 rupees. Hence perhaps the slang 
 phrases, chicken stakes, chicken hazaird. 
 
 "And a little chicken hazard at theM , 
 
 afterwards," said Mr. Marsden. — Bulwer 
 Lyttoii, Night and Morning, ch. ix. 
 
 Chick-pea, a corruption of 0. Eng. 
 oich-pease, It. cece, Lat. cicer. 
 
 If the soile be light and lean, feed it with 
 such grain or forage seed as require no great 
 
OHILD 
 
 ( 62. ) 
 
 GHITTYFACED 
 
 nourishment . . . excepting the cich-pease. 
 — Holland, Pliny's NaturuU History, torn. i. p. 
 576, fol. 1634. 
 
 Child, as used for a knight, is not 
 found in the oldest English, though we 
 read of Child Mamioe, Child Waters, 
 and the Child of Ml, in the F&rmj Folio 
 MS. 
 
 Christ thee aaue, good child of Ell ! 
 
 Christ saue tliee & thy steede ! 
 
 Vol. i. p. 133. 
 
 It is best remembered by reason of 
 Lord Byron's CMlde Sa/rold's Pilgrim- 
 age. The word is not, as might be 
 supposed, analogous to Span, infante, 
 a prince, from Lat. infans, a child ; or 
 to old Eng. valet, vwrlet, a title of 
 honour, originally a boy. It is in all 
 probability the result of confounding 
 two distinct words, A. Sax. beorn, a 
 chief, hero, or prince (M. E. lurn), and 
 A. Sax. learn (M. E. ham), a child or 
 " bairn." 
 
 The latter word is from A. Sax. heran, 
 to bear or bring forth, one who is borne 
 (Lat./ero), while heorn is akin to Gaulish 
 hremws, a king, Ir. harn, a nobleman, 
 Pers. hdri, Sansk. hharatha, a sustainer, 
 from the same root bhar (Lenormant). 
 Bea/rn, he whois borne (by his mother), 
 and beorn, he who bears up or supports 
 (the state, &c.), are thus radically con- 
 nected. Compare also A. Sax. bora 
 (bearer), a king. In the following hne 
 we have the two words together : 
 William J>at hold barn- jiat alle fcui'nes praisen. 
 William of Palerne, 1. 617, 1350 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 
 Childken's daisy, a Yorkshire name 
 for the "hen and chicken" variety of 
 the common daisy, is no doubt a cor- 
 ruption of the cMlding daisy, i.e. the 
 daisy producing young ones, just as 
 chAldnng audiweed is a name for fAago 
 germanica (Britten and Holland). 
 Shakespeare, it will be remembered, 
 speaks oi " ihe ohdlding autumn," i. e. 
 fruit-bearing. 
 
 Chin-cough, the whooping cough, 
 has nothing to do with the chin, but 
 should properly be spelt chinh-cough, 
 being the same word as Soot. Mnhhost, 
 Dutch kinkhost, Ger. heichhusten, a 
 cough that takes one with a hink, i. e. 
 a catch in the breath, a total suspension 
 of it (Ut. a hitch or twist in a rope, Icel. 
 kengr). Similarly c7iar-coaZ should pro- 
 perly be chark-coal, and pea-goose, as 
 
 we see from the early editions of Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher, and Asoham's 
 Scholemaster, was originally peak-goose^^ 
 peaking or peakish meaning simple. 
 Compare also clog-weed, a corrupt form 
 of the name keyc-logge [i.e. keck-hch), 
 anciently given to the cow-parsnip. 
 
 Quinte, the French word for a severe 
 cough that comes in fits (? as if every 
 fifth hour), seems to be for quingue, a 
 modification of the same word, Belg. 
 kincken, Ger. keichen, which gives us 
 our chincough ; just as in the Rouohi dia- 
 lect quintousse is for qvAncousse = Belg. 
 kinckhoest : (compare old Pr. ainte for 
 ainque, encfre, and quintefeuille for 
 quinquefeimlle) . In the dialect of Ba- 
 yeux the form is cUnke, in the Wallon 
 of Liege oaiMoule, caicoule, whence 
 perhaps coqueluche, whooping-cough 
 (Scheler). It is also spelt kin-cough 
 (Lincoln), king-cough, or kink-cough, a 
 cough that takes one with a paroxysm 
 called a chink or kink. (Compare 
 Devonshire kick, to have an impedi- 
 ment in one's speech.) " (jIb erbe y- 
 dronke in olde wyne helpiji Jie kynges 
 Iwste," and "skyrewhite" (= skerret) 
 heals " )je chynke and }je olde coghe." 
 (15th cent. MS., Way, Prompt. Parv. 
 p. 97.) 
 
 It was well known that he never had but 
 one brother, who died of the chin-cough, — 
 Graves, The Sipiritual Quiiote, vol. i. p. 36. 
 
 Here my lord and lady took such a chink 
 of laughing, that it was some time before 
 they could recover. — Henry Brooke, The Fool 
 of Quality, vol. i. p. 95 [Ha'U, Modem EiigUsk, 
 p. 2201. 
 
 Hohhole Hob! 
 Ma' bairn's gotten 't kink cough, 
 Tak'toff! tak'toff! 
 
 Charm in Henderson, Folkhre of 
 N. Counties, p. 228. 
 
 Chinneb, a word for a grin in use at 
 Winchester College, is an evident cor- 
 ruption of Lat. cacMwrms. (H. C. 
 Adams, Wykeliamica, p. 418.) 
 
 Chisel, a slang term for to cheat, as 
 if to take a shoe off anything (! Slamg 
 Diet.), is Scottish cMnzel, to cheat, to 
 act deceitful, either a frequent, form of 
 clwuse, or from Belg. kwezelen, to play 
 the hypocrite (Jamieson). [?] 
 
 Chittyfaced, a colloquial expression 
 for a baby-faced or lean-faced person 
 (Wright), as if having the face of a cMi 
 — a contemptuous word for a child or 
 
CEOKE 
 
 ( 63 ) 
 
 OHYMIST 
 
 little girl. " GMtieface, a meagre 
 starveling young cliUd." — Bailey. 
 Another spelling is cMcheface. E. Corn- 
 wall chifter-faced, as if from chitter, 
 thin. All these words are corruptions 
 of Ghichevache, a mediseval monster 
 who was fabled to devour only patient 
 wives, and being therefore in a chronic 
 state of starvation for want of food was 
 made a byword for leanness. Its name 
 is formed from old Eng. and Fr. cJiiche, 
 meagre, starving, and vache, a cow. 
 In Lydgate's ballad of Ghichevache and 
 Bicm-ne occurs the following description 
 of this " long homed beste," 
 Chichevache this is my name ; 
 Hungry, megre, sklendre, and leene, 
 To show my body I have grete shame. 
 For hunger I feele so great teene : 
 On me no fatnesse "will be seene ; 
 By cause that pasture I finde none 
 TherfoT I am but skyn and boon. 
 Dodsley's Old Pkj/s, vol. xii. p. 303, ed.l827. 
 
 Chaucer warns women not to be 
 like Grisilde, 
 
 Lest Chichevache you swalwe in hir entraille ! 
 The Clerkes Tale, 1. 9064 (ed. Tyrwliitt), 
 
 where another reading is Ghechiface ; 
 and so in Cotgrave, 
 
 Chiche-face, a cbichiface, sneake-bill, etc. 
 
 Choke, a name popularly given to 
 the inner part of the oA-tichohe cone 
 (Gynwra Scolymus), or "flower al of 
 threds " as Gerarde defines it (Herball, 
 p. 991), as if the part that would choho 
 or stick in one's throat if swallowed, 
 has arisen manifestly from a misunder- 
 standing of the word artichoke. 
 
 "The choke" of this vegetable was 
 authoritatively defined in The Field 
 (Sept. 21, 1878) to be "the internal or 
 filamentous portion." 
 
 Chokefttl, completely filled, as if so 
 full that one is likely to choke, is a cor- 
 rupt form of chock-full, or chuck-full, 
 i. e. full to the chock, chuck, or throat 
 (Prov. Eng.). Cf. O. Scot, chokkeis, 
 the jaws, loel. kok, the gullet. 
 
 I like a pig's chuck. — M. A, Courtney^ W. 
 Cornwall Glossary, E. D. S. 
 
 Chops, the jaws, as if the instru- 
 ments which chop, mince, or cat up 
 one's food (Dut. Ger. happen, Gk. kOji- 
 tein, to cut), is an incorrect form of 
 chaps, N. Eng. chaffs, chafts, jaws, 
 Swed. kaft, Icel. kjaptr (Skeat). See 
 Chaw. 
 
 Cheysoble, a form of cruoible (Low 
 Lat. crudbolum, aUttle oruse or crock), 
 used by Bishop Jeremy Taylor as 
 if called from the gold, chrysos (Gk. 
 chrusos), which it served to melt. See 
 Ti-ench.,EngUsh, Past andPresent,'Lect. 
 V. With c^use compare Dutch kroes, 
 h)-uysR, Dan. kruus. The word oruaihle 
 itself, Lat. crudbolum (0. Eng. oroselett, 
 croislet, Chaucer), owes its form to a 
 mistaken .connexion with Lat. cruc-s 
 (arum), a cross, the sign sometimes 
 marked upon the vessel as an omen of 
 good. 
 
 Peter. What a life doe I lead with my 
 master, nothing but blowing of bellowes, 
 beating of spirits, and scraping of croslets! 
 
 Lilly, Gallathea, ii. 2 (Works, i. 233, 
 ed. Fairholt.) 
 
 Chdkn-owl, a popular name for the 
 nightjar, seems to be a corruption of 
 its other name jar-otvl, or churr-owl, 
 so called from " the whirring or jarring 
 noise which it makes when flying " 
 (H. G. Adams), with an obhque refe- 
 rence to its reputed habit of milk-steal- 
 ing, whence its names caprirmdgus and 
 goatsucker. This is supported by the 
 nsune might-char , another form oi night- 
 jar, Cleveland eve-chw/rr. In the latter 
 dialect the bird is said to churr in its 
 nocturnal flight, i. e. make a whirring 
 sound (A. Sax. ceorian). — Atkinson. 
 
 Its loud churring or jarring note, as it 
 wheels round a tree or clump of trees, is 
 often enough heard by many a one to whom 
 its form and size and plumage are nearly or 
 utterly strange. — J. C. Atkinson, Brit. Birds' 
 Eggs, p. 70. 
 
 Chylle, an old English term for an 
 herb, is defined dlium vel psilUumi 
 [^Gk. psylUon, flea-wort] in Promp- 
 torium Parvulorwn, and is evidently 
 corrupted from that word tmder the 
 influence of " chyllyn for colde, fri- 
 gudo." — Id, 
 
 Chymist, a mis-spelling of chemist, 
 common among members of the phar- 
 maceutical profession — I have noticed 
 it on two apothecaries' shops within a 
 stone's throw of the Crystal Palace — 
 as if from Gk. chymos (x"tioQ), the art of 
 distilling juices from simples, &c. Che- 
 mistry, as well as alchemy, is derived 
 from chemia, the science of medicine, 
 literally the Egyptian art, from Ghemi, 
 Egypt, where the art of medicine was 
 
GHYMME BELLE ( 64 ) 
 
 GINGULAB 
 
 cultivated in the darkest ages of an- 
 tiquity (Bunsen, Egypt, vol. i. p. 8). 
 OAemi means either " the black soO," 
 or the land of Ham or Khem (the sun- 
 burnt or swarthy), from the Shemitic 
 root ham or cham, to be hot (Eawhn- 
 son, Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 19). In the 
 Middle Ages books of alchemy, necro- 
 mancy, and m.agio were- ascribed to 
 Ham. — B. Gould, Old Test. Legends, 
 vol. i. p. 138; Paber, Prophetical 
 Dissertations, vol. ii. p. 368. Ghemia 
 was the native name of Egypt, also 
 Kame, i.e. Black (Plutarch, Be Is. et 
 Osir. xxxiii.) = Ham [Psalms, Ixxviii. 
 cv.). Eupolemos says that the word 
 Ham was also used for soot. 
 
 Ewald thinks that the name refers 
 to the dark, sooty complexion of the 
 Egyptians {History of Israel, vol. i. 
 281). The Arabs call darkness, " the 
 host of Ham " (jaysM ham). 
 
 Homer speaks of the infinity of drugs 
 produced in Egypt, Jeremiah of its 
 " many medicines," and PUny makes 
 frequent allusion to the medicinal 
 plants produced in that country. — Wil- 
 kinson, Ancient Egyptians, ed. Birch, 
 vol. ii. p. 417. 
 
 He must be a good Chymist who can ex- 
 tract Martyr out of Malefactor. — Fatler, 
 Worthies, ii. 497. 
 
 Honey, and that either distilled by bees 
 those little chymists ( and the pasture they fed 
 on was never a whit the barer for their biting) 
 or else rained down from heaven, as that 
 which Jonathan tasted. — Fuller, The Holy 
 Warre, p. 29 (1647). 
 
 When we sin, God, the great Chymist, thence 
 Drawes out th' elixar of ti-ue penitence. 
 
 Herrick, Noble Numbers, Works, ii. 413 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 T. Adams has chyme, to extract che- 
 mically. 
 
 What antidote against the terror of con- 
 science can be chymed from goldl — God's 
 Bounty, Sermons, i. 153. 
 
 Chymme belle, an old English term, 
 is defined in the Promptorium Pa/rvu- 
 hrum (c. 1440) by cimbahim, a cym- 
 bal (old Eng. chymhale), of which word 
 it is probably a corruption, Lat. cym- 
 hahim, (Jk. kumbalon. 
 
 His chymbe-belle he doth rynge. 
 
 K. Alimunder. 
 
 The word being mistaken for a com- 
 pound, chymhe or cJdme acquired an in- 
 dependent existence. 
 
 CiDEKAGB, an old name for the plani 
 waterpepper. Polygonum hyd/ropiper, is 
 the French cid/rage, which is a corrup- 
 tion of cul-rage, also spelt cmrage (Cot- 
 grave). 
 
 CiELiNG, ) the former spelling being 
 Ceiling, j that of the authorized 
 version (1 Kings, vi. 15 ; Ezek. xli. 16 
 marg.), as if connected with Er. oseZ, It. 
 cielo, a canopy or tester, Low Lat. 
 coslum, the interior of a roof. It seems 
 to be a corrupted form oi seeling (Cot- 
 grave, s. V. Lamhris), from the old verb 
 to seel, meaning to pannel, or wainscot, 
 e. g. " Plancher, to seele or close with 
 boards." — Cotgrave. This is the verb to 
 del in A. V. 2 Chron. iii. 5, Jer. xxii. 14, 
 i. e. to cover with planking. Wedgwood 
 thinks to seel here is the same as seal= 
 to make close. Cf. " ceel, sigillum," 
 " ceelyn wythe syllure, celo." — Prompt. 
 Parv. " These waUys shal be celyd 
 with cyprusse." — Hormcn. But Prof. 
 Skeat holds del, coelum, to be the true 
 origin : c and s are certainly often con- 
 fused in early writers, as seareloth for 
 cei'ecloth. 
 
 Loe how my cottage worships Thee aloofe, 
 That vnder ground hath hid his head, in 
 
 proofe 
 It doth adore Thee with the seeling lowe. 
 G. Fletcher, Christs Victorie on Earth, 
 19 (1610;. 
 As when we see Aurora, passing gay. 
 With opals paint the seeling of dathay. 
 Sylvester, Du, Bartas, p. 25 (1621). 
 The glory of Israel was laid in a Cratch, 
 . . . and dost thou permit us to hve in sieled 
 houses ? — Bp. Bucket, Century of Sermons, 
 1675, p. 9. 
 
 CiNDEE is for O. Eng. sinder, syndyr, 
 A. Sax. sinder, Ger. sinter, Icel. sindit 
 (with which (jleasby compares Lat. 
 scintilla, a spark), but conformed to Fr. 
 cendre, Lat. ciner. In Welsh sinddr, 
 sindw, is scoria, dross, cinders. I find 
 that this also is the view of Prof. Skeat, 
 who identified the word with Sansk. 
 sindhu, " that which flows," slag, dross. 
 {Etym. Diet.) 
 
 Scoria, sinder. — Wright's Vocabularies, ii. 
 120, col. 1. 
 
 [The Glossary here printed is from a JIS. 
 of the eighth century ; almost the oldest 
 English MS. in existence. This takes tke 
 word back nearly to a.d. 700.— W. W.S.] 
 
 CiNGULAR, a wild boar in his fifth 
 year (Wright), as if from Fr. dnq, five 
 
GITBON 
 
 ( 65 ) 
 
 CLEVER 
 
 (Compare oincater, a man in his fiftieth 
 year, Id.), is a corrupt form of the Low 
 Lat. singularis (epur), a wild boar, so 
 called from its solitary habits (cf. Greek 
 /iuvtoe, the lonely animal, the boar). 
 Hence comes Fr. sanglier, It. cinghiale 
 (Diez). 
 
 When he is foure yere, a boar shall he be. 
 From the sounder [^ herd] of the swyne 
 
 thenne departyth he ; 
 A synguler is he soo, for alone he woU go. 
 Book of St. Albans, 14.96, siap. d. i. 
 They line for the most part solitary and 
 alone, and not in beards. — Topsell, Fouifooted 
 Beasts, 1608, p. 696. 
 
 CiTKON, a musical instrument, a cor- 
 rupted form of cittern ("most barbers 
 can play on tlie dttefn." — B. Jonson, 
 Vision of DeUgJtt), or oitlier, Lat. 
 cithara, a lyre or " guitar." 
 
 Shawms, Sag-buts, CitroiLs, Viols, Cornets, 
 Flutes.— Siflcester, DuBartas, p. 301 (1621). 
 
 Civet, as a term of cookery, Fr. ciaiet 
 de Uivre, denotes properly the chives, 
 Fr. cive (Lat. cepa), or small onions with 
 which the hare is jugged, to form this 
 dish. — Kettner, Boohofthe Table, p. 127. 
 Cotgrave gives " civette, a chive, httle 
 BcalUon, or chiboU," and " cive, a kind 
 of black sauce for a hare." 
 
 Civil, in the Shakespearian compari- 
 son, " Civil as an orange " (Much Ado 
 about Nothing, ii. 1), is evidently a 
 jocular play on Seville, a place famous 
 for its oranges. 
 
 He never learned his manners in Swill, 
 
 Apius and Virginia, 1575 (O. P. xii. 
 375, ed. 1827). 
 
 ix tonne of good Ciuill oyle [i.e. Seville 
 oiY].— Arnold's Chron. (1502); repr. 1811, 
 p. 110 
 
 Thei had freighted dyuers shippis at Cyuill 
 with diuej-s merchaundicis. — Id. p. 130. 
 
 What Ciuill, Spaine, or Portugale affor- 
 
 deth . . . 
 The boundlesee Seas to London Walles pre- 
 senteth. 
 
 ii. Johnson, Londons Description, 
 1607. 
 
 Clear-bye, 7 old popular names for 
 See-bbight, j the plant salvia scla- 
 rea, are corruptions of the word clary, 
 otherwise called Godes-eie or oculus 
 OJwisti. On the strength of these names 
 it was regarded as a proper ingredient 
 for eye-salves (Prior). Gerard says it is 
 called "in high Dutch scharlach [scar- 
 
 let I] , in low Dutch scharleye, in Eng- 
 hsh CloD-ie or Clccre eie." — Herbal, p. 
 627 (1597). See Goody's eye. 
 
 Cleft, a fissure, so spelt as if a 
 direct derivative of cleave, is more pro- 
 perly clift, O. Eng. chjft, clifte, Swed. 
 Myff, a cave (Skeat, Et. Bid.). 
 
 i>e deuyll stode as lyoun raumpaunt 
 Blany folk he keighte to hell clijte. 
 Legends of the Holy Rood, p. 205, 
 I. 258. 
 I will put thee in a clift of the rock. — A. 
 V. Exodus, xxxiii. 22. 
 Than I loked betwene me and the lyght. 
 And I spyed a clyfte bothe large and wyde. 
 J. Heywood, A Mery Play betwten 
 Johau lohun the Husband, Tyb his 
 Wife, &;c. 
 
 Clever. There is httle doubt, as I 
 have elsewhere contended (Word- 
 hunter, ch. X.), that this word is a 
 modern corruption of the very common 
 old Eng. adjective delive/r, meaning 
 active, nimble, dexterous, Fr. delivre, 
 free in action. It is probable that de- 
 liverly was the form that first under- 
 went contraction in rapid pronuncia- 
 tion — thus, d'Uverly, gliverly, cleverly 
 — and that deliver then followed suit 
 (gliver, clever). The word was no doubt 
 influenced by, and assimilated to, old 
 Eng. diver, quick in seizing or grasp- 
 ing (from cliven, Stratmann), capax. 
 "Te deuel cliuer on sinnes" (0. E. 
 Miscellany, p. 7, 1. 221, Morris), Scot- 
 tish, clevertis, " scho was so cleverus of 
 her cluik" (Dunbar). Cf. O. Eng. 
 diver, a claw. This is well illustrated 
 in the ballad of Tlie Last Dying Words 
 of Bonny Ileck. 
 
 Where good stout hares gang fast awa, 
 
 So cliverly I did it cluw, 
 With pith and speed. 
 
 But if my puppies ance were ready . . . 
 
 They'll be baith diver, keen, and beddy. 
 
 It is certain that clever did not come 
 into use till deliver was already obso- 
 lete, and was at first regarded as a 
 somewhat vulgar and colloquial term, 
 like can't, don't, sha'n't, and other 
 contractions. Prof. Skeat could not 
 find an earher example of the word 
 than cleverly, in Hudibras, 1663. But 
 Thos. Atkin, a correspondent of Ful- 
 ler's, writing to him in 1657, says 
 that one Machell Vivan, at the age of 
 110, " made an excellent good sermon, 
 and went deaverly through, without 
 
CLIPPEB 
 
 ( 66 ) CLOSE 8GIENGES 
 
 the help of any notes " (Worthies of 
 England, ii. 195, ed. 1811). Cf. Prov. 
 Eng. clever through, uninterrupted, 
 ■without difficulty. 
 
 If it be soo yt all thynge go c/j/uer currant. 
 — Paston Letters, 1470 (toI. iv. p. 451, ed. 
 Fenn). 
 
 That is, dlyver (clyver) current, run 
 free and smooth. 
 
 His pen went, or pretended to go, as cle- 
 verly as ever, — Dickens, David Copperjield, 
 ch. XV. 
 
 So Hood, in his valedictory poem to 
 Dickens on his departure for America : 
 May lie shun all rocks whatever ! 
 
 And each shallow sand that lurks. 
 And his passage be as clever 
 As the best among his works. 
 
 A deceptive instance of a much 
 earher date appears in Sir S. D. Scott, 
 Hist, of the Brit. Army, vol. i. p. 287, 
 where a letter of Senleger's, 1543, is 
 quoted describing the kernes as " bothe 
 hardy and clever to serohe woddes or 
 raaresses." The v7ord in the origi- 
 nal, however, is delyver {State Papers, 
 vol. iii. p. 444, 1834). This unconscious 
 substitution of the modern form for the 
 earlier is interesting. 
 
 In the Prov. dialects clever still re- 
 tains the old meaning of active, dexte- 
 rous, weU-shaped, handsome, as "a 
 cZeuer horse," " a clever wench." In the 
 17th century it was used in the sense 
 of fit, proper, suitable, convenient. 
 
 It were not impossible to make an original 
 reduction of many words of no general re- 
 ception in England, but of common use in 
 Norfolk, or peculiar to the East Angle coun- 
 ■ ti-ies ; as . , . clever, matchly, dere, nicked, 
 stingy, &c. — Sir T. Browne, Tracts, 1684 
 (T^oris, iii. 233). 
 
 I can't but think 'twould sound more clever. 
 To me and to my Heii'S for ever. 
 
 Swift, Imit. of Horace, Bk. ii. sat. 6. 
 
 If you could write directly it would be 
 clever. — Gray, Letters. 
 
 These ckver apartments. — Cowper, Works, 
 V. 290. 
 
 See Fitzed. Hall, Modern Enqlish, 
 p. 220. 
 
 Clipper, a fast-sailing vessel, as if so 
 named from its clipping pace through 
 the water, like cutter from its cutting 
 along, is derived by a natural meto- 
 nymy from Ger. klepper, a racehorse 
 or quick trotter. Compare Dan. Mep>- 
 per, Swed. Iclippare, Icel. Uepphestr. 
 Ger. Jclepper (formerly /ctopper, Icleppher, 
 
 and hlopfer) gets its name from the 
 pace called Tclop (compare trot and 
 trah), expressive of the clattering or 
 clapping sound (Map) made by the 
 horse's hooves as they go hlipp-Mapp or 
 hUp-und-klap (Grimm, DeutsckesWor- 
 terbuch, s. v.). Similarly the Latin 
 poets use sonipes, " sounding-foot," as 
 a synonym for a horse. 
 
 Clipper is still used in English for a 
 fast-paced hunter. 
 
 When the country is deepest, I give you my 
 
 word, 
 'Tis a pride and a pleasure to put him along, 
 O'er fallow and pasture he sweeps like a 
 
 bird, 
 And there's nothing too high, nor too wide, 
 
 nor too strong ; 
 For the ploughs cannot choke, nor the fences 
 
 can crop, 
 This clipper that stands in the stall at the 
 
 top. 
 
 G, J. W, Melville, Songs and Verses, 
 p. 99. 
 
 Mr. Blackmore, writing of the time 
 of the Peninsula War, assigns a dtffe-' 
 rent origin, but not a correct one : 
 
 The British corvette Cleopatra-cum-Animio 
 was the nimblest little craft of all ever cap- 
 tured from the French ; and her name had 
 been reefed into Clipater first, and then into 
 Clipper, which still holds way. — AliceLorraine, 
 vol. iii. p. 2. 
 
 Clock, aname for the common black- 
 beetle in Ireland and the North of Eng- 
 land, seems to be a compressed form 
 (g'loch) of Scotch goloch, a beetle 
 (Philological Trans., 1858, p. 104; 
 Sternberg, Northampton Olossamj). Cf. 
 cloak, a blaokbeetle (Dalyell, Ba/rhir 
 Superstitions of Scotland, p. 564). 
 
 In Scotland gelloch or gelloch is a 
 contracted form of gavelock, an earwig, 
 so called from its forked taU ; gavelock 
 also meaning a crowbar slightly divided 
 at the end, A. Sax. gaflas, forks, gafa- 
 loc, a javelm. In the goloch, the allu- 
 sion is to the fork-hke antennse. Jamie- 
 son gives clock-hee as synonymous with 
 fleeing goloch, a species of beetle. See, 
 however, Gamett, PJdlological Essays, 
 p. 68. 
 
 Clog- WEED, an old name of the cow- 
 parsnip, is a shortened form of fej/c- 
 logge (Turner), i.e. keck-loch (A. Sax. 
 leac), or hex-plant (Prior). 
 
 Close sciences, Gerard's name for 
 the plant hesperis matronalis, is a oor- 
 
GLOUD-BEBBIES ( 67 ) COCK-A-HOOP 
 
 ruption of close soiney, the double va- 
 riety, as opposed to single soiney — sdney 
 having arisen probably from its specific 
 name Bamascena being understood as 
 Dame's scena. Compare its name 
 Dame's violet (Prior). 
 
 Fr. " Matrones, Damask, or Dames 
 Violets, Queens Gilloflowers, Rogues 
 GUloflowers, Close Sciences." — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Cloud-berries, a popular name for 
 the plant rubus chamcBmorus, so called, 
 according to Gerard, because they grow 
 on the summits of high mountains. 
 
 Where the cloudes are lower than the tops 
 of the same all winter long-, whereupon the 
 people of the countrie haue called tliem 
 Cloud berries. — Herball, 1597, p. 1568. 
 
 More probably they get their name 
 from old Eng. clud, a cliff (Cockayne, 
 Leechdoms, &c., vol. iii. Glossary). 
 
 Clouted cream, a corruption of 
 clotted, as if it meant fixed or fastened ; 
 "clouted ' ' properly meaning fixed with 
 douts or nails (Fr. clouette, clou). In a 
 manner curiously similar, the Greek 
 verbs gomphoo (yo/i^ow), to nail, and 
 pegnunai {rrriyvvvaij, to fix, were ap- 
 plied to the thickening or curdling of 
 milk. 
 
 Clover, is not, as it seems at first 
 sight, and as Gay calls it, " the chven 
 grass," but a mis-spelling of the old 
 Eng. and Scot, claver, A. Sax. cloefre, 
 " clubs," Lat. clava. Cf. Fr. trifle, 
 " clubs " at cards (Prior). " Ossitriphi- 
 lone, a kiade of Glauer or Trifohe." — 
 Florio. 
 
 And every one her call'd-for dances treads 
 Along the soft-flow'r of the ciaver-grass. 
 
 G. Chaprmin, Homer's Hymns, Tn 
 Earth, L 26. 
 
 CocK, an Anglo-Irish verb meaning 
 to bend down and point the ends of a 
 horse's shoes in order to give him a 
 surer footing in frosty wea,ther, as if 
 another usage of coch, to turn up, erect, 
 or set upright, is corrupted from old 
 Eng. calk or cauh, of the same mean- 
 ing, which occurs in Kennett's Paro- 
 cJiAal AnUquities, 1695 (E. Dialect Soc. 
 Ed. p. 9). The origin is Lat. calc-s, the 
 heel, calceus, a shoe, calcea/re, to shoe ; 
 cf. calcwre, to tread, whence 0. Fr. 
 cauquer, 0. E. oaulc, "calk." Horse- 
 shoes so treated were called calhins. 
 
 On this horse is Arcite 
 Trotting the stones of Athens, which the 
 
 calkins 
 Did rather tell than trample. 
 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen (1634), v. 4, 
 55 (ed. Littledale, New Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 
 To cog is, I believe, the form used in 
 modern English. 
 
 Ramplin, caivkes on a horse-shoe. — Min- 
 sheii. Span. Diet., 1623. 
 
 Calking, or catiking, of horseshoes, i.e. to 
 turn up the two corners that a horse may 
 stand the faster upon ice or smooth stones. — 
 Kennett, Paroch. Antiq. (1695), E. D. S. 
 £. 18. 
 
 Brockett has, " Gawker, an iron 
 plate put upon a clog." 
 
 Cock, the faucet or stop-cock of a 
 barrel, is perhaps that which caulcs, or 
 calhs it, or keeps it from flowing, as a 
 tent (O. Fr. cau/iue) does a wound 
 when thrust into it. 
 
 CoCK-A-HOOP, exulting, jubilant, has 
 often been understood to mean with 
 crest erect, like a triumphant cock, as if 
 from a potential Fr. coq a hupe. Coles, 
 Lat.-Eng.Did., explains it by cristas eri- 
 gere (cf. Fr. acoreste, having a great 
 crest, or combe, as a oocke, cockit, proud, 
 saucy, crest-risen, Cotgrave, and hupi, 
 proud, pluming oneself on something). 
 The older form however is " Cock on 
 hoop," i.e. " the spiggot or cook being 
 laid on the Jwop, and the barrel of ale 
 stunn'd, i.e. drunk without intermis- 
 sion, and so=:at the height of Mirth 
 and Jolhty." — Bailey. In Pifeshire 
 it is used for a bumper, or as an adj.= 
 half seas over (Longmuir). 
 
 I have good cause to set the cocke on the 
 hope and make gaudye chere. — Palsgrave, 
 Lesclarcissement, 1530. 
 
 Nares quotes from Tlie Honest 
 Ghost : 
 
 The cock-on-hoop is set, 
 Hoping to drink their lordships out of debt. 
 
 Folks, it seems, were grown cock-on-hoop — 
 but the heegh leaks of the meety were sean 
 brouo-ht laa. — W. Button, A Bran New Wark, 
 1. 195(E. D. S.). 
 
 However, it is to be noted that the effigy 
 of a cock (the fowl) stuck above a hoop, was 
 a common tavern sign in the olden time. 
 The Cock on the Hoop is mentioned in a 
 Clause Roll, 30 Henry VI., and still existed 
 as a sign in Holborn in VT9o.—Lurv)ood and 
 Hotten, Hist, of Signboards, p. 504. 
 
GOGKAPPABEL ( 68 ) 
 
 GOGKLE 
 
 CocKAPPAKEL, a provincial word, 
 quoted by Skinner (Eiynwlogicon, s. v.), 
 as of frequent use in Lincolnshixe, 
 and meaning "great pomp, great pride 
 in a small matter ; " lie identifies with 
 tlie French quelgu' appa/reil. Compare 
 Kickshaws. 
 
 Cockatoo, a crested parrot, is not a 
 derivation of cock, but a corruption 
 of the older form cacatoo, which is 
 from the Malayan hahatua, Hindu- 
 stani Tcdkdtud, a word imitative of its 
 cry, Fr. cacatocs, Dut. haketoe (Sewel, 
 1706). 
 
 The Hebrew name tucciim seems to re- 
 semble the tutitk, and tuti/k of the Persians 
 . . . meaning, perhaps, the crested pan-ot, 
 which we call cacatoo, — ScHpture lUustratedj 
 Pt. i. p. 108 (1814). 
 
 Sir Thos. Herbert says that in Mau- 
 ritius are 
 
 Cacatocs, a sort of PaiTat whose nature may 
 well take their name from xaKov wov [evil 
 egg] it is so fierce and so indomitable. — 
 Travels, p. 403 (1665). 
 
 The Physick or Anatomie Scheie, adorn'd 
 with some rarities of natural things, but no- 
 thing exti'aordinary save the skin of a Jaccall, 
 a rarely colour'd Jacatoo or prodigious large 
 parrot, &c. — J. Evelyn, Diary, July 11, 1654. 
 
 CocKATKiOE, old Eng. cokedrill, coco- 
 drille (Wycliffe), a fabulous beast sup- 
 posed to be hatched by a cock from the 
 eggs of a vipeir (0. Eng. otter), is a cor- 
 rupted form of Sp. cocairiz, cocad/riz, " a 
 serpent called a Basiliske, or Cocka- 
 trice" (Minsheu), and that a corrup- 
 tion of cocodrillo, " a serpent, a Croco- 
 dill " (Id.), Fr. cocatrix. The same 
 word as crocodile. 
 
 The death-darting eye of cockatrice. 
 
 Rom. and Jul. act iii. sc. 2. 
 
 Cocatryse, basillscus, cocodrillus. — Prompt. 
 Parv. (1440). 
 
 Idlenis is a cockadill and greate mischefe 
 breeds. — The Mariage of' Witt and Wisdome, 
 p. ,58 (Shaks. Soc. ed.). 
 
 The Welsh word is eeiUog-neidr, 
 exactly ^ coch-atter, or " cock-viper " 
 (SpurreU). 
 
 CocK-BEAiNED, light-headed, silly, is 
 perhaps from Gaehc caoch, empty, hol- 
 low, Welsh coeg, foolish, empty, and so 
 akin to O. Eng. cokes, a fool, "coax," 
 to befool. 
 
 Doest thou aske, cock-braind fool 1. 
 
 B. Bernard, Terence in English, 1641, 
 p. 162. 
 
 CocK-CHAFEE, probably a corruption 
 of clock-chafer. See Clock. 
 
 Cock-eyed, squinting, from Gaehe 
 caog, to wink, shut one eye, squint 
 (Skeat), akin to Lat. emeus, bhnd. 
 
 CocK-HOKSE, in the weU - known 
 nursery rhyme 
 
 Ride a cock-horse 
 
 To Banbury cross, &c., 
 
 would seem to be another form of the 
 Lincolnshire word cqp-fe»'se, (l)aohild's 
 name for ahorse ; (2) a child's toy like 
 a horse (Peacock). As cop, cop ! in that 
 dialect is a call- word for a horse, cop- 
 horse would be a similar formation to 
 puss-cat, moo-cow, haa-lamh, and other 
 nursery compounds. 
 
 And there he spide 
 The pamper'd Prodigall on cockhorse ride. 
 Taylor, the Water Poet, Workes, p. 119, 
 
 ed. 1630. 
 Sometimes he would i-ide a cock horse with 
 his children — equitare in arundine longi.— 
 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. ii. sec. 2, 
 6, iv. (1651). 
 A knave that for his wealth doth worship 
 
 get 
 Is like the divell that's a-cock-horse set. 
 
 Taylor, the Water Poet. 
 
 Mr. Dennis thinks he has discovered 
 an early representation of the " cock- 
 horse," the hippolectryon or "horse- 
 cock" of Aristophanes, in abiform chi- 
 maera depicted on an ancient Greek 
 vase ! — Cities and CenieteriesofEtrwrici, 
 vol. ii. p. 83, ed. 1878. 
 
 CocKiE-LBBKiE, } the Scotoh name 
 CoCK-A-LEEKiB, S for & soup made 
 apparently of a cock, boiled with leeh, 
 is said by Kettner to be a corruption of 
 cock and malachi, a dish of the 14th 
 century, which he regards as com- 
 pounded of ma, a fowl (?), and lesche, 
 leached, " licked," or beaten small, Fr. 
 alachi {Book of the Table), 
 
 Cockle, in the curious phrase " the 
 cockles of the heart," has never been 
 explained. It occurs in Eachard's 
 Observations, 1671, " This contrivance 
 of his did inwardly . . . rejoice the 
 cockles of his hea/rt" (Wright), In de- 
 fault of a better I make the foUowing 
 suggestion. As we find corke, a provin- 
 cial word for the core or heart of fmit 
 (Wright), so cockle may be for corde, 
 corkle, or corcule, an adaptation of the 
 Latin coreulum, a little heart, and the 
 
OOGKLE-STAIBS ( 69 ) OOOK'S-BONES 
 
 expression would mean the core (Fr. 
 cceur), or "heart of heart," but why the 
 word occurs in the plural I cannot say. 
 Similarly cochle, gith, cockil, cochelis, 
 coklis, Wychffe, A. Sax. cocceZ, seems to 
 be from Lat. corchorus, a wild pulse 
 (but see Skeat, Htym. Diet. s. v.). Cf. 
 bushin for bv/rshin, gin, old Eng. grin. 
 
 CocKLE-STAiES, a name sometimes 
 given to winding stairs (Wright). The 
 first part of the word is a distinct for- 
 mation from Lat. cochlea, Greek hoch- 
 lias, meaning (1) a snail, (2) a snail- 
 shell, (3) anything spiral hke a snaU- 
 shen. 
 
 Shakespeare correctly describes the 
 "hodmandod," or "house-bearer" 
 (Hesiod) as " cockled snails." — Love's 
 Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 
 
 CocKLOACH, or cocMoche, an old word 
 for a fool or a coxcomb, e.g. "A couple 
 of Oocfctoc7ies."— Shirley, WiUy FaAr 
 One, a. 2 [in Wright] , is no doubt from 
 Fr. coqueluche, a (fool's) hood (hke co- 
 qmllon, a fool's hood, or a hooded fool, 
 Cotgrave) — a derivative, not of coq, but 
 of Lat. cucullus, a hood, It. cocolla, cu- 
 cula; compare It. coccale, a guU, anoddy 
 (Florio). 
 
 Fr. coqueluche, whooping-cough, is 
 probably a variety of coquelicot, the 
 cry of a cock, from its crowing sound. 
 
 Cock-loft, i.e. the cop- (head-, or 
 top-) loft in a house. Wright {Frov. 
 Diet.) quotes coploft from a MS. Inven- 
 tory dated 1658. So a " cock " of hay 
 for a cop, A. S. copp, a head, apex, and 
 " cock-web," provincial for " cob- 
 web." 
 
 " Cockmate," which occurs in LUy's 
 Euphues, seems to be a corruption of 
 the more common word "copesmate." 
 CocJcshot, a shot taken at an object 
 resting on the top of a wall, a rock, &c., 
 is probably for cop-slwt, atop-shot. 
 
 He left the cockleloft over his brother's 
 chamber in the first quadrangle. — Life of An- 
 thony a Wood (sub anno 1650), p. 45, ed. 
 Bliss. 
 
 Such who are built four stories high are ob- 
 served to have little in their cock-loft. — Ful- 
 ler, Worthies, vol. ii. p. 104 (ed. 1811). 
 
 These are the Tops of their houses indeed, 
 like cotlojts, highest and emptiest. — Fuller, 
 Holy State, p. 40 (1648). 
 
 CocKMAN, a Scottish word for a sen- 
 tinel, is a corrupted form oigochmin or 
 
 goTcman, Gael, gochd/man, a watchman 
 (Jamieson). 
 
 CoCKQTiEAN, an impudent beggar, a 
 cheat, originally feminine, is from Fr. 
 coquine, the fem. form of coquin, a beg- 
 gar, poor sneak, any base scoundrel or 
 scurvy fellow. 
 
 Cot-quean seems to be the same 
 word. Vid. Kennett, Paroch. Antiqui- 
 ties, Glossary, s. v. Cock-boat. 
 
 OocKQUEEN is also an old word for a 
 female cuckold, probably the same 
 word as cot-quean (q. v.). B. Jonson 
 spells it cucquean. 
 
 Queen luno not a little wroth 
 
 Against her husband's crime. 
 By whom she was a, cockqueene made. 
 Warner, Albion's England, ir. 
 [Latham]. 
 
 CoCKBOACH. "Without question," 
 says Mr. Fitzedward Hall, "it is from 
 the Portuguese cajroucha, ' chafer,' 
 ' beetle,' and was introduced into our 
 language by saUors." — Modern Eng- 
 lish, p. 128. However, Icahherldk in 
 Dutch is a blaokbeetle, " a certain 
 Indian insect" (Sewel, 1706), which 
 Nares would identify with cocoloch, an 
 ambiguous term of abuse employed in 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Fovv Plays in 
 One. Cocoloch would readily become 
 cock-roach. Cf. Dan. IcaTcerlaJc, a cock- 
 roach. 
 
 OocK-ROSE, a Scotch name for the 
 wild poppy, is probably the same word 
 as Picard. coqriacot, Pr. coquericot, co- 
 quelicot, Languedoo caca/raca, all de- 
 noting (1) the cry of the cock, " coqvs- 
 ri-co!" (Wallon cotcoroco), (2) the 
 cock, (3) from the red colour of its 
 crest, the poppy. (Cf. Fr. coquerelles, 
 red berries of nightshade, &c., coqueret, 
 a red apple, Cotgrave.) For this gene- 
 ralizing of the word "cock" in the 
 sense of red, compare the German cant 
 phrase, " Den rothen Hahn auf 's Dach 
 setzen," "To make the red cook crow " 
 z^ to set fire to a house ; just as in 
 French argot rif, riffe (from ruffo), " the 
 red " = fire. Diefenbach, however, 
 thinks that each meant originaUy the 
 red bird, comparing Welsh coch, red. 
 It is more hkely to have been named 
 from its cry. 
 
 Cock's-bones, eoch's passion, &c., by 
 coch, a corruption of the name of the 
 
COOK-STOOL 
 
 ( 70 ) 
 
 COOKY 
 
 Deity, slightly disguised, as is common 
 in most languages, to avoid the open 
 profanity of swearing. So OM's hodd- 
 Mns, German Jcotz anipotz, Potz leich- 
 nam I Heirr Je [sus] , Pr. corhleu, ventre- 
 hleu, morthleu, pa/rtleu (i.e. corps de 
 Dieu, &o.). " Bones sbBod!" (Play of 
 Stucley, 1605, 1. 67) ; nom de ga/rce 1 
 (Rabelais) for nom de grace ! 
 
 Speake on, lesus, for cockes bioode. 
 For Pilate shall not, by my hoode, 
 Doe Thee non amysse. 
 
 Chester Mysteries, The Passion (Shaks. 
 Soc), vol. ii. p. 41. 
 Men, for cockes face ! 
 Howe longe shall Pewdreas 
 Stande nacked in that place ? 
 
 Id. The Crucijixion, p. 57. 
 A ! ffelowe ! felowe ! for cockes pittie ! 
 Are not thes men of Gallalye ? 
 
 Id. p. 137. 
 Yes, by cockes bones that I can. 
 
 The Worlde and the Chylde, 1522 
 (O.P. xii. 324, ed. 1827). 
 
 CocK-STOOL, a corrupt form of cuch- 
 ing-stool, a seat of ignominy, old Eng. 
 cohstole, cohestole, cmchestole, in which 
 scolding or immoral women used to be 
 placed formerly as a punishment. It 
 is from old Eng. " cakkyn, or fyystyn, 
 caco." — Pronipi. Pa/rv. ; cf. goging-sfoole, 
 sedes stercoraria. See Chambers' Booh 
 of Days, i. p. 211, and Way's note 
 on Culcstole [Prompt. Pa/rvuhrum). 
 An old Scotch law against thieves de- 
 clares that " for a payr of shone of iiij. 
 penys he aw to be put on the cuh stull." 
 — 0. Innes, Scotland in the Mid. Ages, 
 p. 190. 
 
 CocKSDEB. This e:spreseion, which 
 is now obsolescent and vulgar, was for- 
 merly in general use even in the most 
 dignified writings. Whatever be its 
 origin, whether it be compounded with 
 the Irish coc, manifest, or with Welsh 
 cocs, the cogs or indentations on a 
 wheel (and the certainty and exactness 
 with which cog meets and fits into cog 
 strikes every observer of machinery in 
 motion), or whether, and this is only a 
 particular case of a cog, and indeed 
 the most probable theory, the expres- 
 sion be taken from the certainty with 
 which the cock of a gun discharges its 
 function, in any case it can scarcely 
 be anything to do with the farmyard 
 cock. "As sure as a gun " is a collo- 
 quial phrase often heard among the 
 
 lower orders. The cock of a gun is the 
 modem representative of Fr. cache, the 
 nick or notch of an arrow, or " the nut- 
 hole of a crossbow " (Cotgrave), Prov. 
 coca. It. cocca, Bret, coch, Gael, sgoch. 
 We steal as in a castle, cock-sure. 
 
 Shakespeare, 1 Hen. IV. ii. 1. 
 For looke whome he iudgeth to be good, he 
 is sure, he is safe, he is cocke sure. — Latimer, 
 Sermons, p. 55, verso. 
 Now did Orandia laugh within her sleeve. 
 Thinking all was cock-sure. 
 
 Thalina and Clearchus, p. 89. 
 Whiles the red bat doth endure, 
 He maketh himself cocksure, 
 
 Skelton, 
 I thought myself cocksure of bis horse. — 
 Pope, Letters [Latham], 
 
 It occurs also in George Herbert's 
 Country Parson. 
 
 CocKWAED, an old corruption of emk- 
 old, O. Eng. kokewold, kukwald, orig. 
 one cokol-ed, i.e., cuckoo-d, wronged as 
 a hedge-sparrow is by a cuckoo, Lat. 
 caaulus, O. Fr. coucoul. 
 
 Her happy lord is cuckol'd by Spadil.— 
 Young, Satire VL 
 
 King Arthur, that kindly cockward, 
 bath none such in his bower. 
 
 Percy Folio M.S. vol. i. p. 65, 
 1. 94. 
 Then maried men might vild reproacles 
 
 scorne, .... 
 Then should no olde-Cocks, nor no coch- 
 
 olds crow. 
 But euerie man might in his owne ground 
 sow. 
 Tom Tel-Troths Message, 1600, 1. 677, 
 (Shaks. Soc.) 
 
 CocK-WEB (North), a corruption of 
 coh-wel (A. S. coppa, Dut. kop, a spider), 
 just as a cock of hay is for cop. 
 
 Cocky, a colloquial word for pert, 
 brisk, saucy, swaggering {provincial 
 Eng. to cock, to swagger impudently, 
 apparently as a cock does in his own 
 yard), is probably another form of 
 Lancashire cocket, lively, vivacious, 
 also keck, pert, Uvely, which is nearly 
 related to A. Sax. cue, cweoc, cwic, quick, 
 aUve. Cf. Dan. kick, hardy, pert, Ger. 
 kech (Philological Transactions, 1855, 
 p. 270). In old English cocken seems 
 to mean to be impudent, and cocker, 
 an insolent fellow, e.g. in The Pro- 
 verhs of Alfred the httle man, it is 
 said, " wole grennen, cocken, and chi- 
 den" (1. 688), while the red man "is 
 
GOGOA 
 
 ( n ) 
 
 COLONEL 
 
 Cocker, ]>d, and horeling" (1. 704). — 
 Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 138 (Morris). 
 
 Cocoa. The beverage so called is a 
 mis-spelling of the Mexican word cacao, 
 from a confusion with cocoa, the fruit 
 of the nut-bearing palm. 
 
 Cod, a vulgar word in Ireland for a 
 silly, contemptible fellow, an ass, and 
 as a verb, to hoax or humbug (Patter- 
 son, Antrim and Down Olossa/ry), is a 
 clipped form of codger, an old hunx, a 
 queer old fellow, Prov. Eng. cadger and 
 codger, a tramp, a packman or pedlar, 
 from cadge, to carry, also to beg. 
 
 The Cistercian lads called these old gentle- 
 men [pensioners] Codds, — Thackeray, The 
 Newcomes, ch. Ixxv. 
 
 See Davies, Supp. Glossary. 
 
 CoD-a:ppEL, an A. Saxon name for the 
 quince (Somner), is possibly a corrup- 
 tion of its classical name cydonium, 
 Gk. hudonia {•mela), so called from 
 Cydon, a place in Crete. Hence It. 
 and Sp. cotogna, Fr. coing, O. Eng. 
 come, " quince." 
 
 Codling, 1 a species of hard apple, 
 CoDLiN, J as if one that requires 
 codling {coddUng) or stewing before it 
 can be ea,ten, pomumcoctile (so Skinner, 
 Bailey, Eichardson, Wedgwood, Prior), 
 was formerly spelt guodUng, Norfolk 
 guadUng. 
 
 In July come .... Ginnitings, Qjiad/ins, 
 — Bacon, Essays (1625), p. 536 (ed. Arber). 
 
 QuadUn is evidently shortened from 
 the older guerdling, denoting a kind of 
 hard apple, probably (Uke " warden 
 pear") one fit for keeping, from the 
 old adjective quert, guarte, soiind, firm, 
 lasting. For the interchange of qu and 
 c, cf. Prov. Eng. cothy, sickly, A. Sax. 
 c6^, akin to Fris. quad, bad (Etmiiller, 
 391) ; queasy n A. Sax. cyse, squeamish. 
 Querdluvge, appuUe. Duracenum. — Promp- 
 torium Paruuiorum (1440). 
 
 Whose linnen-drapery is a thin 
 Subtile and ductile codlings skin, 
 
 Herrick, Hespend£s, Poems, vol. i, 
 p. 97 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Cohort, adivision of the Boman army, 
 Lat. cohors, the tenth part of a legion, 
 originally an enclosed yard. Co-hor(i)s, 
 co-hort-is, in its primitive signification 
 was probably understood to be a yard 
 or garden (hort-us) going with {co-, 
 cum) a house, it being a corrupted form 
 
 of the older word chor{f)s, or cor{t)s. 
 That the prefix co- is no organic part 
 of the word is evident from its con- 
 geners in other languages, e. g. Greek 
 chdrtos, Lat. hortus, Qoth.'garda, Scand. 
 ga/rdr, A. Sax. geard, Eng. gard-en, 
 ya/rd; cf. also It. corte, Welsh cwrt, 
 Eng.' cpv/rt. See, however, Pictet, 
 Origines Indo-Ewrop., tom. ii. p. 265 ; 
 Curtius, Grieeh. Etymol. i. p. 168. 
 
 CoLD-PEOPHET, a Corruption appa- 
 rently of the older forms ' ' col- prophet ' ' 
 and " cole-prophet," a false prophet. 
 Oole is an old Eng. word naeaning 
 falsehood, deceit, or craftiness. It 
 may be recognized probably in the old 
 French word cole, given by Boyer in 
 his French Diet., 1753, as equivalent 
 to " hourde, mensonge, Sham, Bam, 
 Fun." Gold-prophet occurs in Knolles' 
 History of the Turls, 1014 (1603), and 
 Scot's Discovery of Witches (1665). In 
 thieves' cant. 
 
 Cole Prophet is he, that when his malster 
 sendeth him on his errand, he wyl tel his 
 answer thereof to his maister or he depart 
 from hym. — The XXV, Orders of Knaues, 
 1575. 
 
 The older form is col-prophet, where 
 the prefix col means false, deceitful, as 
 in col-fox, a crafty fox (Chaucer). Cf. 
 O. Eng. holsipe (-col-ship), deceit, and 
 colwarde, deceitful, " colwarde and 
 croked dede ." — Alliterative Poems, p. 
 42, 1. 181 (ed. Morris). 
 And cast it be colis- with her conceill at 
 euene. 
 Richard the Redeles, iv-. 24 (1399), 
 ed. Skeat. 
 Nor colour crafte by swearing precious coles. 
 Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1. 1114, p. 80 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Colleague, for Lat. collega, one 
 chosen with another [con and legere), 
 Fr. collegue, so spelt as if it denoted 
 one leagued with another. 
 
 Colonel, a corrupt spelling of coro- 
 nel, i. e. the chief or coronal captain of 
 a regiment, as if it meant the com- 
 mander of a column (It. colonna). 
 
 Theyr coronell, named Don Sebastian, came 
 foorth to intreate that they might pai-te with 
 theyr armes like souldiours. — Spenser, State of 
 Ireland, p. 656 (Globe ed.). 
 
 We took our spelling seemingly from 
 It. " colonello, a Cwonell of a Regiment " 
 (Florio, 1611). Cf. Sp. " coronel, a. collo- 
 
GOLOUBBINE 
 
 ( 72 ) 
 
 GOMMOBOn 
 
 nell ouer a regiment " (Minslieu, 1623). 
 See Okownee. 
 
 On this word Sir S. D. Scott re- 
 marks, 
 
 We probably received it from the Spaniards. 
 It was CoraneU and Crownell here at first, and 
 Coronello is still the Spanish Cor that rank. — 
 The British Army, vol. ii. p. oQo. 
 
 Franfois, Erie of Bot.hewall, tuk upe bands 
 of men of weare underthe conduct of Co?'one// 
 Hakerston. — James Melville, Diary, 1589, p. 
 276(VVodrowSoc.). 
 
 Thus Anneus Serenus . . . came by his 
 death, with diners coronels and centurions, 
 at one dinner. — Holland, Pliny Nat. Hist., ii. 
 133 (1634). 
 Coronell, Coronell ; 
 
 Th' enemie's at hand, kils all the centries. 
 Sir John Suckling, Brennoralt (16-18), p. 2, 
 
 CoLOURBiNE, the columbine {aqwi- 
 legia ■vulgrm-is) is said to be so called in 
 Linoohi {Note to Tiisser, Fiue Himdn-ed 
 Points, &C.-E. D. Soc. Ed. p. 272). 
 A further distortion of this again is the 
 Cheshire cwranbtne (Britten and Hol- 
 land). 
 
 CoLTSTAFP, otherwise called a stang, 
 a provincial word for a, long pole on 
 which a husband who had been ill-used 
 by his wife was compelled to ride, 
 amidst the jeers of his neighbours, is a 
 corruption of colestaff or cowlstaff, a 
 staff used for carrying a tub called a 
 cowl. Burton speaks of witches " riding 
 in the air upon a coulstaff, out of a 
 chimney-top." (Wedgwood, in iV". ^ 
 Q. 5th S. vii. p. 212.) Richardson 
 observes that Holland renders fustes 
 by clubs and coid-sfavcs. 
 
 Cowk tre, or soo tre, Falanga, vectatorium. 
 ■ — Prompt. Parvuloriim. 
 
 Go take up these clothes here quickly. 
 Where's the c.iwl-stajfl — Mei-iy Wives of 
 Windsor, act iii. sc. 3. 
 
 Fr. tini a Colestaff or stang. — Cotgiuve. 
 The Gyants spitt sickerlye 
 was more then a cou-lt tree 
 
 that he rosted on the bore. 
 Lihius Disconins, Percy, Fol. MS. vol. ii. 
 p. 440, 1. 679. 
 
 aiounting him upon a cole-staff which .. . 
 he apprehended to be Pegasus.— iir J. Suck- 
 ling, The Goblins, iii. 1. 
 
 Comb, To, the modem form of the old 
 Enghsh kemb or ceinb, A. Sax. cemhan, 
 perhaps owes its present spelling to a 
 desire to assimilate it to the Latin 
 comere, to dress the hair. But it may 
 be only a verbalized form of the sub- 
 
 stantive com5, A. Sax. camh. " Oomht 
 for hemynge, Pecten." — Prompt. Pwrv.. 
 
 Every line, he says, that a proctor writes 
 ... is a long black hair, kemb'd out of the 
 tail of Antichrist. — B. Jonson, Bartholomew 
 Fair, i. 1. 
 
 My ship shall kemb the Oceans curled backe. 
 Jacke Drums Entertainementy act iii., 
 I. 325 (1616). 
 He, not able to kembe his own head, became 
 distracted. — Fuller, Worthies, ii. 539, 
 
 With silver locks vnkemb'd about her face. 
 — Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 399. 
 
 Comb, a West country word mean- 
 ing to sprout or germinate (Wright). 
 It is the old Eng. come, Ger. heirnen, to 
 germinate, Icel. heima, O. H. Ger. a/r- 
 cliinit ( =z germinat). — Vocab. of 8. Gall. 
 7th cent. 
 
 Comys, of malte, pululata. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 To shoote at the root end, which malsters 
 call commyng. — Harrison, Description of Eng- 
 land. (Vid. Way, Prompt. Parv. p. 324.) 
 
 Lincolnshire malt-comh, dried sprouts 
 (Peacock). 
 
 CoMESSATioN — a Word for revelling 
 found in old writers (e. g. Bp. Hall), 
 Lat. comessatio, so spelt as if from 
 comedo, an eating together — in strict 
 propriety should be comissation, from 
 comissa/ri (=Gk. komdzein), to revel.— 
 Trench, English Past and Present, p. 
 345 (ed. 10th). 
 
 Latimer complains of the old trans- 
 lation of Eomans xui. 13, " Not in eat- 
 yng and drinkyng." 
 
 1 maruell that the English is so translated, 
 in eating and drinkyng ; the Latine Exem- 
 plar hath. Won commessutionibus, that is to say, 
 iVot in to much eating and drinkyng. — Ser- 
 mons (1552), p. 229. 
 
 Comfort is the form that covifit 
 assumes in N. W. Liacolnshire (Pea- 
 cock). 
 
 Commission, an ancient slang term 
 for a shirt, Itahan camida. Low Lat. 
 camisia (whence also Er. cliemise). It 
 ocom-sin Harman's Gaveat orWanmng 
 for Common Cursetors, 1573. 
 Which is a garment shifting in condition, :, 
 
 And in the canting tongue is a Commission. 
 
 Taylor, the Water Poet, 1630 (in Skng 
 Did). 
 
 CoMMODOR, a corrupted form of Span, 
 and Portg. comendador, one put in 
 charge, from Lat. commendare, has ac- 
 quired a deceptive resemblance to Lat. 
 
COMMON 
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 GONNEOTION 
 
 commodus, commodare. Mr. George 
 Marsh {Lectures on the English Lan- 
 guage, p. 100) holds it to be a corrup- 
 tion of Portg. eapHao mor, or " chief- 
 captain." Southey(if!rters,vol. ii. p. 70) 
 quotes the form comdor from an old 
 Catalan author who claims it to be a 
 native word of his own country. 
 
 Common, an Anglo-Irish term for a 
 stick crooked at the end, used for strik- 
 ing the ball in the game of hurling (C. 
 Croker, Ballads of Ireland, p. 155), is 
 a corrupted form of Ir. caman (pro- 
 nounced comaun),iroui the wide-spread 
 root caiti, crooked, bent. 
 
 The game itself is called commony, 
 Ir. cainanachd. 
 
 Compare Welsh cam, crooked ; 
 " clean ham" (Shakes. Cor. iii. 1. Cot- 
 grave s.v. Hehours.) ; Lat. camirus ; 
 "a caniber nose, a crooked nose," Ken- 
 nett, FarocJdal Antiqiidties (E. D. Soc. 
 ed.). 
 
 Common Place was anciently a fre- 
 quent corruption of Common Pleas, the 
 court so called. 
 
 Unto tlie common place 1 yode thoo, 
 Where sat one with a sylken hoode. 
 J. Lydgate, London Lijckpeny, stanza 4 
 (ab. 1420). 
 He sayeth they are to .seke 
 In pletyng^e oftheyr case 
 At the Commune Place, 
 Or at the Kynges Benche. 
 J. Skeltonj Why come ye nat to Courte, 
 1. 315 (1522). 
 
 CoMPANioN-LADDEE, on board ship, 
 was originally the stairs that led up to 
 the quarter-deck (above the cabin), 
 Dutch kompanje or hampanje (Sewel), 
 the quarter-deck (? the fighting deck, 
 from hanipen). 
 
 CoMPASANT, a sailor's word for the 
 electric flame which hovers around the 
 mast-head, is a corruption of the 
 Spanish name cuerpo santo. — Smyth, 
 Sailor's Word-BooTc. 
 
 Complaisance. Sir Henry EEis men- 
 tions this name as having been given 
 to the electrical hght, sometimes called 
 St. Elmo's Fire, or Castor and Pollux, 
 by the captain of a vessel, when he ob- 
 served it playing around the mast-head. 
 — Brand, Pop. Antiquities, iii. 400. 
 It was a further perversion of corpu- 
 sanse, corposants, which is a sailor's 
 
 corruption of the Spanish name cuerpo 
 santo. 
 
 While baleful tritons to the ship-wreck guide, 
 And corposants along the tacklings slide. 
 Maxwell, Foeins, p. 103 (Murray repr.). 
 
 Compound, an Anglo-Indian term 
 for the enclosure around a bungalow, is 
 probably of Portuguese origin. 
 
 Compare Sp. campana, a field. 
 
 Comptroller, an old and incorrect 
 spelling in Thomas FuUer and others 
 of controller, one who keeps a counter- 
 roll (Fr. controlle, or countre-rolle) of 
 the accounts of others, and so checks 
 and overrules them. 
 
 Cownt rollare, {coiintrolloure), contrarotu- 
 lator. — Prompt. Pai-vttlorum. 
 
 Eichardson quotes counterrolment 
 from Bacon, and conteroler from Lang- 
 land. 
 
 Know I have a controul and check upon 
 you. — Sir M. Hale, The Great Audit. 
 
 The spelhng comptroller assumes a 
 connexion with " compt," Fr. compter, 
 " accomptant,"&c. (^accountant, &c.), 
 Lat. computare. 
 
 CoMEOGUB, a conscious corruption by 
 the Ehzabethan dramatists of the word 
 comrade, which is itself a warped form 
 oi^camrade," Fx.oamerade, a chamber- 
 fellow, from camera (cf. Lat. contuher- 
 nalis). The word was adopted into 
 Irish as comrada, and probably regarded 
 as a derivative of com, with, and radh, 
 speech (whence comhradh, discourse), as 
 if a gossip or talk-mate. 
 
 You and the rest of your comrogues shall 
 sit disguised in the stocks. — Ben Jonson, The 
 Masque of Augurs (ed. JVIoxon, p. 630). 
 
 Tho' you and your come-rogues keep him 
 out so late in your wicked college. — Swijt, 
 Mury, the cook-maid, to Dr. Sheridan. 
 
 CoNDOG, an old humorous corrup- 
 tion of concur, as if cur here meant a 
 worthless dog. 
 
 Alcumust. So is it, and often doth it hap- 
 pen, that the just proportion of the fire and 
 all things concurre. 
 
 Raffe. Concurre? Condogge! I will away. 
 — Lilly, Gallathea, iii. 3 ( Works, i. HiT, ed. 
 Fairholt). 
 
 Nares says that in Cockeram's Dic- 
 tionary " agree " is defined " concurre, 
 cohere, condog." 
 
 Connection, Reflection, a very 
 common mis-spelling of connexion, Pr. 
 
CONNYNO EBTEE ( 74 ) COBDWAINEB 
 
 connexion, from Lat. connemo ; reflexion, 
 Fr. reflexion, Lat. reflexios from the 
 mistaken analogy of words like affec- 
 tion, Fr. affection, Lat. affectio ; collec- 
 tion, Fr. collection, Lat. collectio. 
 
 CoNNYNG EETHE, an old perversion of 
 the word cony garth, an enclosure for 
 rabbits, a rabbit warren, as if com- 
 pounded of ccmig, cony, and erthe, 
 earth. 
 
 Connyngere or connynge erthe, Cunicula' 
 rium, — Prampt. Pavvulorum, c. 1440. 
 
 Conigare, or cony earth, or clapper for 
 conies. Vivarium. — Huloet, 
 
 "The cowyngerthe pale," MS. 1493, 
 quoted by Way. Other corruptions 
 are cowyger, connynger, conigree, con/i- 
 green. 
 
 Consort, the usual spelling in old 
 writers of concert, a musical entertain- 
 ment, as if from Lat. consorif)s, and 
 denoting an harmonious union, a mar- 
 riage of sweet sounds, is from It. con- 
 serto, an agreemeiit, accord, conserta/re, 
 more commonly written (borrowing 
 the from concento, harmony) con- 
 certare, " to proportion or accord to- 
 gether, to agree or tune together, to 
 sing or play in conBort." — Florio, (Lat. 
 consero, consertus). 
 
 The music 
 Of man's fair composition best accords 
 When 'tis in consort, not in single strains. 
 Ford (in Richardson). 
 
 There birds sing consorts, garlands grow, 
 Cool winds do whisper, springs do flow. 
 Marvell, Poems, p. 65 (Murray repr.). 
 
 Compare also the following : — 
 
 Jubal first made the wilder notes agree, . . . 
 He called the echoes from their sullen cell, 
 And built the Organ's city, where they 
 
 dwell ; 
 Each sought a coTisort in that lovely place, 
 And virgin trebles wed the manly base. 
 
 Marvett, Poems, p. 73. 
 
 If good as single instruments, they will be 
 the better as tuned in a Consort. — Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 2 (ed. 1811). 
 
 CoNTErvE, a modern corrupt spelling 
 of old Eng. controve (0. Fr. con-trover 
 = con-trouver, to find out, invent), 
 assimilated to a/rrive, derive, swvive, 
 &c. 
 
 fiis may be said, als \>e boke proves 
 Be [jam (jat new gyses controves. 
 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience (1340), 
 1. 1560. 
 
 Cook-eel, a provincial term for a 
 certain kind of bun used in East Anglia, 
 is no doubt (as Forby suggests) a cor- 
 ruption of the French cogmlle, it being 
 so called from its being shaped like a 
 BcaUop-sheU. Compare "Pain CoqwilU, 
 A fashion of an hardcrusted loaf e, some- 
 what like our Stillyard Bunne."— 
 Cotgrave. 
 
 In the Wallon dialect cogmlle is a 
 very small cake (Sigart). 
 
 Cookies, a Scotch word for a certain 
 sort of tea-cakes, is probably, like cook- 
 eels, a corruption of Fr. coquille. 
 
 Selkirk bannocks, cookies, and petticoat- 
 tails, — delicacies little known to the present 
 generation. — Scott, Bride of Lammermoar, 
 ch. xxvi. 
 
 Cool. In Ireland a cool of hitter is 
 a small tub of that commodity, and 
 cool-hutte); as opposed to fresh, is 
 butter salted slightly and packed into 
 a tub. Cool here is clearly the same 
 word as the Prov. Eng. cowl, a tut, 
 altered somewhat so as to convey the 
 idea oi freshness (Scot, caller) ; W. Corn- 
 wall cool, a large tub to salt meat in. We 
 may perhaps compare A. Sax. cound, 
 cowel, cawl, a basket. Compare Colt- 
 staff, O. Eng. cuuel-staf. Gen. md 
 ExodMs, 1. 3710. 
 
 Soo, or coidI, vessel. Tina. — Prompt. Panii- 
 lorum, ab. 1440. 
 
 Cowls, vessel, Tina. — Id. 
 
 Couil or Coul (1) a tub with two ears to be 
 carried between two persons on a coul-staff; 
 (2) any tub (Essex). — Kennett, Parochial Anti- 
 quities (E. Dialect Soc. ed.). 
 
 Cheese llii. per pound, and tub butter lid, 
 — Register of Streat^ tiussex (Sussex Archffi- 
 olog. Coll. vol. XXV. p. 129). 
 
 Quaffe up a bowle/ As big as a cowle 
 To beer drinkers. 
 Herrick, Hesperides, Works, ii. 345 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 CoppiN-TANK, or copped tanke, a com- 
 mon term in old authors for a high- 
 crowned or copped hat, is a corruption 
 of the expression " a copatain hat," 
 found in the Taming of the Shrew, act 
 V. sc. 1. The form cop-tank occurs in 
 North [Translation of Plutarch) and 
 coppled hat in Henry More. 
 
 CoEDWAiNEB. ThisveryEngHshlook- 
 ing word for a shoemaker is a natu- 
 larized form of Fr. cordonwier, 0. Fr. 
 cordoannier, literally one that works in 
 Cordwayne(,QTgeyisei,F. Q., VI.ii.6),or 
 
OOBK 
 
 ( 75 ) 
 
 GOT-QUEAN 
 
 Spanish leather, leather of Cordova, 
 Fr. cordouan, Sp. cordohan, It. cordo- 
 vano. 
 
 The Maister of the Crafte of Cordi/nerez 
 . . . hath diuerse tymez sued to the honorable 
 Mayor.— English Gilds, p. 331 (E. K. T. S.). 
 
 Of their skins excellent gloves are made, 
 which may be called our English Cordovant. 
 • — Fuller, [Vortkies, ii. 553, 
 
 Cork, a Scotch name for a species of 
 lichen {lecanora tattarea), Norwegian 
 horJije, is said to be a corruption of an 
 Arabic word into one more familiar. — 
 Prior, Names of British Plants (2nd 
 ed.). 
 
 Corking pin, a term used in Ireland 
 and Scotland for a pin of unusually 
 large size, seems to be corrupted from 
 a calking or cauking pin. Bailey de- 
 fines calk " to drive oakham and 
 ivooden pins into all the seams." In 
 N. W. Lincolnshire a cauker is anything 
 very big, especially a great lie, while 
 cm-ker (as Mr. Peacock suggests, for 
 caulker) is an incredible assertion, 
 "Well, that is a corker 1" Compare 
 Corks. 
 
 Cawker, anything abnormally large. — Hol- 
 derness Dialect, E. Yorks, 
 
 The Scotch have corkie and cwkin- 
 preen for the largest kind of pin. 
 
 When you put a clean pillowcase on your 
 lady's pillow, be sure to fasten it well with 
 corking-pins. — Swift, Directions to Servants 
 {Chambermaid'), 
 
 Corks, a provincial word for cinders 
 (Lancashire), Wright, as if from their 
 lightness, is, without question, a cor- 
 rupted form of coaks, of the same 
 meaning, or colkes, standard Eng. coke, 
 which Mr. Wedgwood deduces from 
 Gael, caoch, empty. 
 
 So corke, the core of fruit (Wright), is 
 for colke. Cf. Lincolnshire orawk, a core, 
 Cleveland goke. 
 
 A rounde appel of a tre, 
 
 Jat even in myddes has a cnlke. 
 
 Humpole, Pricke of Conscience, ah. 1340, 
 1. 6444. 
 
 Cawk, the core of an apple, also crawk and 
 gawk. — Holderness Dialect, E. Yorks, 
 
 Corn-acre, an Eng. corruption of 
 the Anglo-Irish word con-acre, the name 
 given to a certain tenure, or sub-letting, 
 of land in Ireland — a partnership (ex- 
 pressed by con) in the cultivation of an 
 aore, one supplying the seed and labour, 
 
 another the land and manure, and the 
 profits being divided. 
 
 He had a large farm on a profitable lease ; 
 he underlet a good deal of land by con-acre, 
 ov corn-acre.— A. Trollope, The Macdermots of 
 Balli^cloran, ch. xv. 
 
 This eloquent and reverend defender of the 
 cause of the tenant is in the habit, however, 
 of charging as much as eight or ten pounds 
 for a field in con-acre, that is, for one season's 
 crop.— TAe Standard, Dec. 2r, 1880. 
 
 Corporal, a heteronjrm for Pr. capo- 
 ral. It. oaporale, as if the petty com- 
 mander of a corps, instead of head of a 
 squadron (cap, capo, oapid). Cf. " Gap 
 d'escadre, a corpora!!." — Cotgrave, and 
 " captain," i.e. capitaneus, the head- 
 man (Ger. haupt-man), " Galo de 
 esquadi-a, qui caput et qui caeteris 
 prseest."— Minsheu. Holinshed uses 
 corporals, and Stowe corporals of the 
 squadrons, for captains (Sir S.D.Scott, 
 The British Army, vol. i. p. 523). 
 
 Cosmos. " Their drinke called (7osmos, 
 which is mares milke, is prepared after 
 this maner." — Journal of Frier Wm. 
 de Buhruquis, 1253, in Haklujrt, Voy- 
 ages, p. 97 (1598). 
 
 A corruption of koumis or kurm'z, the 
 habitual drink of most of the nomads 
 of Asia. 
 
 Their [the Tartars'] drink is mare's milk 
 prepared in such a way that you would take 
 It for white wine, and a right good drink it 
 is, called by them kemiz. — Ser Marco Polo, 
 vol. i. p. 224 (ed. Yule). 
 
 CosT-MARY, the plant so-called, as if 
 costus MaricB, owes its name to a mis- 
 understanding of Pr. coste amere, Lat. 
 costus amarus. 
 
 Cot-quean (an effeminate man), pi-o- 
 bably for cock-quean, and that perhaps 
 a corruption of the French coqmne, " a 
 cockney, simperdecockit, nice thing." 
 — Cotgrave. Goqudn, " a poor sneak, 
 &c." 
 
 Who like a cot-quean freezeth at the rock. — 
 Hall, Satires, iv. 6. 
 
 Got, however, in N. W. Lincolnshire 
 is a man or boy who cooks or does other 
 womanly work (Peacock) ; in Ireland, 
 a molVy-cot. 
 
 [A husband of an effeminate character] in 
 several places of England goes by the name 
 of a '^ cot-queen." I have the misfortune to be 
 joined for life with one of this character, who 
 
GOTTON 
 
 ( 76 ) 
 
 COUNTER 
 
 in reality is more a woman than I am. He 
 could preserve apricots, andmake jellies, &c. 
 — The Spectator, No. 482 (1712). 
 
 Cotton, " to agree, to succeed, to 
 hit " (Bailey), still used in the collo- 
 quial phrase, "to cotton to a person," 
 meaning to take kindly to him, to take 
 a liking to him, as if to stick to him as 
 coiton would (Bartlett, Dictiona/ry oj 
 Americamsms, 1877, s. v.), or to lie 
 smooth and even, like cotton, e.g. 
 
 It cottens well, it cannot choose but beare 
 
 A pretty napp. 
 
 Family of Love [in Nares]. 
 
 It will be found, however, that the 
 old meaning of the word is always to 
 agree, harmonize, coincide, 6t in well. 
 It is evidently an old British word still 
 surviving, and has nothing to do with 
 cotton, being identical with Welsh 
 cyduno, cytuno, to agree, consent, or 
 coincide, from cydun, cytun, of one 
 accord, imanimous, coincident, hterally 
 " at one (un) together " [cyd, cyt). 
 " To cotton to a person " is then to be 
 at one with him. Dr. Skinner, with a 
 wrong affiliation, but true etymological 
 instinct, deduced the word from Lat. 
 co-adunare {Etymologicon, 1671, s. v.). 
 
 Doth not this matter cotton as I would 1 — 
 Lilly, Campaspe, iii. 4 (1584). 
 
 A, sirra, in faith this geer cottons. — Mariage 
 of Witt and Wisdome, 1579, p. 29 (Shaks. 
 Soc), 
 
 Styles and I cannot cotten. — History of 
 Capt. Stukeley, B. 2. b. 
 
 Our secure lives and your severe laws will 
 never cotton.— T. Adams, The Fatal Banquet, 
 Sermons, i. 181. 
 
 Couch, left-handed, a provincial cor- 
 ruption of Fr. gauche. 
 
 CoucH-GEASs, the popular name of 
 triticum repens, a corruption of quitch- 
 or guiih-grass, A. Sax. cwice, quice, i.e. 
 the quich or vivacious plant. Soot. 
 guichen, Ger. cjueche, Lincolnshire 
 wiclcs (from wich, ahve), it being very 
 tenacious of life, with some allusion 
 perhaps to its habit of growth lying 
 along the ground ; cf. Dorset, cooch, to 
 He, Fr. coucher. So Dan. qvilc-grces, 
 Norweg. gvichu, &c. See Diefepbach, 
 Goth. 8prache, ii. 483. 
 
 Could, a modem corruption of the 
 more correct form coud, from a false 
 analogy to would, sJwuld, where the I is 
 an organic part of the word. A simi- 
 
 larly intrusive I is seen in moult fof 
 mout (moot, Lat. mutwre), calm (for 
 caume), halsam (Heb. bdsam), nolt fox 
 nowt (neat-cattle), &c. Ooude or cowjie 
 is the perfect of can, to cunne, = (1) 
 to know, and, as knowledge is power, 
 (2) to be able (See Phdlolog. Soc. Proc. 
 vol. ii. p. 153) ; A. Sax. cuie. 
 
 Well couth he tune his pipe and frame his 
 stile. 
 Spenser, Shepheard's Calender, Januarie. 
 
 The child could, his pedigree so readily 
 [^conned, knew]. — Campion, Historie of 
 Ireland, 1571 (Reprint, p. 162 . 
 
 Some of the bolder purists, such as 
 Tyrwhitt, Prof. George Stephens, and 
 (if I remember right) the brothers 
 Hare, have consistently written coitii— 
 e.g., the first expresses his wonder that 
 Chaucer "in an advanced age coud 
 begin so vast a work." — Introd. to 
 Canierhury Tales, p. 1. See also 
 Stoddart, Philosophy of Language, 
 p. 286. 
 
 The more we go into its history the more 
 we become convinced that the / has no place 
 in it. It occurs in none of the other tenses, 
 and in none of the Participles in any language 
 except our own. The Anglo-Saxon preterite 
 was cu]>e, and the Scotch is coud. — Lathifit, 
 Preface to hictionary, p. cxxx. 
 
 His felow taught him homeward prively 
 
 Fro day to day til he coude it by rote. 
 
 Chaucer, Prioresses TaU, 93. 
 They coulhe moch, he couthe more. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, iii. 50 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 A lewed goost I'at kovlje not knowe jje cause. 
 
 Treviso, Hi^den's Polychronicon. 
 
 Gret wonder is how tliat he couthe or mighte 
 Be domesman on hir dede beauts. 
 
 Chaucer, Menkes Tak. 
 I dyd hym reverence, for 1 ought to do so. 
 And told my case as well as I coode. 
 
 Lydgate, London Lychpeny. 
 The fyrste was Fauell, full of flatery, 
 Wyth fables false that well coude fayne atale. 
 
 Skelton, Bouge of Courte, 1. 134. 
 Haruy Hafter that well coude picke a male. 
 Skelton, Works, ed. Dyce, i. 35. 
 Whiche was right displesant to the kyng, 
 but he coude nat amende it.—Berners, Froismrt, 
 fol. 43. 
 
 CouNTEB, the name of two prisons 
 in Old London, sometimes spelt cotnipter, 
 as if derived from count, Lat. convpu- 
 tare. 
 
 _ Old Eng. " Cowntowre, CompHcato- 
 rium " (Prompt. Faro., where Way 
 seems to mistake the meaning). Per- 
 
GOUNTEBPANi; 
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 COVER 
 
 haps from A. Sax. cwea/i-iern, a prison. 
 Cf. 0. Fr. carfre, chatre, chartre (scar- 
 cer), Bartsch [?] . 
 A yonker then began to laugh, 
 'Gainst whom the Major advano't white 
 
 stafFe, 
 And sent him to the Compter safe, 
 Sans parly. 
 
 The Dagonizing of' Bartholomew Fair 
 (c. 1660). 
 
 Counterpane, a corruption of the 
 more ancient word " counterpoint," as 
 if to imply that it was formed o{ panes 
 or squares coitnter-changed, or disposed 
 alternately, like patch-work. Pr. 
 centre-point, also coute-pointe, coulte- 
 pointe, is from coultre (It. coltre, Lat. 
 culaitra, culcita, a cushion), a duvet, 
 andipuncia, stitched, quilted. A French 
 corruption is courte-point, " short- 
 stitch." See Quilt. 
 
 In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns ; 
 In cypress chests my aiTas countejyoints. 
 Turning of the Shrew, ii. 1. 1. 351. 
 
 Synonym in old Eng. is "Fw-poynf, 
 bed hyllynge [ = coveriug] . Pulvi- 
 narium, phimea, culcitra punctata." 
 — Prompt. Parvuloram. 
 
 Counter-pane, as a correctly formed 
 word, means the duphcate or respond- 
 ing sheet of an indenture (Kennett, 
 Paroch. Antiq., 1695, E. D. S., B. 18). 
 
 Country - dance, a corruption of 
 contra dance, i.e. one where the part- 
 ners are arranged in two lines con- 
 fronting one another, Pr. contredanse. 
 It. coniradanze. 
 
 I canti, i balli, .... che a noi sono per- 
 venuti con vocabulo Inglese di contradanze, 
 Country Dunces, quasi invenzione degli In- 
 glesi contadini. — Vtnutij Delie Antichi d^Er- 
 colaii, p. 114. 
 
 The English country-dance was still in esti- 
 mation at the courts of princes. — T. De 
 Quincey, Works, vol. xiy. p. 201. 
 
 In a note he adds — 
 
 This word, I am well aware, grew out of 
 the French word contre-danse ; indicating the 
 regular contraposition of male and female 
 partners in the first arrangement of the 
 dancers. The word country-dance was there- 
 foreoriginally a corruption ; buthaving once 
 arisen and taken root in the language, it is 
 far better to retain it in its colloquial form. 
 
 A country-dance of joy is in your face. — 
 Fielding, Tom Thumb the Great, act ii. sc. 4 
 (1730). 
 
 Each man danced one minuet with his 
 partner, and then began country dances. — 
 
 Horace Walpole, Letters (ed. Cunningham"), 
 
 vol. i. p. 82(1741). 
 
 I country-danced till four. — Id. p. 84(1741). 
 
 We learn from the Vicar of Walcrfidd, 
 ch. ix., that when the two fashionable 
 ladies from town wanted to make up a 
 set at this dance, the rosy daughters 
 of farmer Plamborough, though they 
 "were reckoned the very best dancers 
 in the parish, and understood the 
 jig and roundabout to perfection, yet 
 were totally unacquainted with country 
 dances." 
 
 CouKT-CAEDS, a modern corruption 
 (owing no doubt to the names Kings 
 and Queens) of "coat-cards," so called 
 from the long dresses with which the 
 figures are depicted. 
 
 The Kings and Coate cardes tliat we use 
 nowe were in olde times the images of idols 
 and false gods. — Northhrooke's Treatise against 
 Dicing, 1577, p. 142 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 1 have none but coate cardes. — Florio, Second 
 Frutes, 1591, p. 69. 
 
 And so in Minsheu's Spanish Dia- 
 logues, p. 26. 
 
 Carl a di fiojura, a cote-card. — Ftorio. Cf. 
 Jonson, New Inn, i. 1. 
 
 " Cwoat cards " is still a form in use 
 in Cumberland (Dickinson, Glossary, 
 Supplement). 
 
 Compare the Dutch jas, a coat, and 
 jas-haart, a trump-card. It. " Ga/rta 
 dipunto, a carde that hath no coate on 
 it."— Florio, 1611. 
 
 Here's a trick of discarded cards of us ! we 
 were ranked as cools as long as old master 
 lived. — Massinger, The Old Law, iii. 1 (p. 
 574, ed. Cunningham). 
 
 Cover, when used as a hunting term 
 for the retreat of a fox or hare, as if 
 that which covers it, is an incorrect form 
 oi covert, i.e. a place covered [with brush- 
 wood, &c.] , " an umbrage or shady 
 place " (Bailey), Fr. couvert, " a woody 
 plot, a place full of bushes and trees " 
 (Cotgrave). 
 
 A couert for deere or other beastes, Latibu- 
 lum . . . umbraoulum. — Buret, Alvearie. 
 
 [He] stole into the covert of the wood. 
 Shakespeare, Rom. and Jul. i. 1. 
 
 Chapman uses closset in the same 
 sense. 
 
 From the green clossets of his loftiest reeds 
 He rushes forth. 
 
 Homer's Hymns, To Pan, 1. 27. 
 
COTEBING-SEEDS ( 78 ) COW-EEABT 
 
 Similarly when it i8 said that " covers 
 were laid " for so many at a dinner, 
 cover is for Fr. co^wert, a knife and 
 fork, a plate and napkin for one 
 person. 
 
 I muste go before the breakfastinge covers 
 are placede and stande uncovered as her 
 Highnessecometheforthe. — Sir J. Harington, 
 NugtE AniiquiE, ii. 213. 
 
 CovEEiNG-SEBDS, " A sort of oomfit, 
 vulgarly called covering-seeds," is men- 
 tioned in the Rich Closet of Itcwities, 
 quoted by Nares. It is doubtless a 
 corruption of the old English carvi, 
 M. Lat. cand semina, carraway seeds. 
 Compare carvis-calces, a provincial name 
 for cakes made with carraway seeds 
 (Wright). 
 
 Cover-keys, a Kentish name for the 
 oxHp, also covey-lceys, a corruption of 
 culverkeys, said to be so called from its 
 A;ei/-like flowerets expressing the form of 
 a culver or dove (Britten and Holland), 
 but more probably a perversion of cul- 
 verhins, little pigeons. 
 
 Cover-lid, a corrupt form of coverlet, 
 — covei'let itself, though bearing all the 
 appearance of a diminutival form (cf. 
 eJiaplet, cmselet, ringlet, &c.), being the 
 French ccmvre-lit or " cover-bed." 
 Loves couches cover-lid, 
 Haste, haste, to make her bed. 
 
 Lovelace, The Rose, Poems, ed. 
 Singer, i. p. 8. 
 Wycliffe has cover-lyte, 4 Kings, viii. 
 15 (1389). The form coverlyght is also 
 found in old wills dated 1522 (Wright, 
 Homes of Other Bays, p. 414). 
 
 Cow-BEBHY, a name for the fruit of 
 the Vitis Idcea, arose probably from a 
 blunder between ^Jacci'm'ttm, the whortle- 
 berry, and vaceinus, pertaining to a cow 
 (Prior). 
 
 CowcnMBER, an old corruption of 
 cucunibeir, e.g. " concombre, A cow- 
 cumber." — Nomenclator, 1585. Skinner 
 spells it so in his Etymologicon, 1671. 
 
 Pickled cowcumbers 1 have bought a pecke 
 for three pence. — Taylor, the Water-Poet, 
 1630. 
 
 In their Lents they eate nothing but Cole-, 
 worts. Cabbages, salt Cowcumbers, with other 
 rootes, as Radish and such like. — Hakluyt, 
 Voiages, vol. i. p. 242 (1598;. 
 
 Oow-HEART, I corruptions of the 
 
 Cowherd, \ word cowa/i-d. With 
 
 but sUght difference of foi-m this word 
 
 is to be found in raore than one lan- 
 guage of modem Europe, and in each 
 the difference of form seems to have 
 arisen from an attempt to trace a con- 
 nexion and educe a meaning which 
 did not really belong to it. For in- 
 stance, the French coua/rd, 0. French 
 coarrd, was regarded as cognate with 
 the 0. Spanish and Provengal coa (Fr. 
 queue), a tail, as if the original signifi- 
 cation was a taller, one who flies to the 
 rear or tail of the army. Thus Cotgrave 
 translates the phrase, "faire la queue," 
 " to play the coward, come or drag he- 
 hind, march in the rere." 
 
 The Italian codardo in like manner 
 was brought into connexion with the 
 verbs " codaire, to tail, codAare, to follow 
 one at the taUe" {coda). — Plorio. 
 
 The Portuguese form is cola/rde, also 
 covarde {:= couard), which seems to 
 have resulted from an imagined rela- 
 tionship with cova, It. covo, al-cow, Sp. 
 alcoha, Arab, al-qobhah (the recess of a 
 room, "alcove"). A coward was so 
 called, says Vieyra, " from cova, a cave, 
 because he hides himself." Identically 
 the same account is given of the Spanish 
 coharde in Stevens' Dictionary, s. v. 
 1706. 
 
 As to our English word, some per- 
 sons, I would venture to assert, have 
 looked upon the coward as one who has 
 ignominiously cowered beneath the on- 
 slaught of an enemy, comparing the 
 Italian covone, " a squatting orcowring 
 fellow," " from covare, to squat or 
 coure" (Plorio), just as the "craven" 
 was supposed to be one who acknow- 
 ledged himself beaten, and craved for 
 mercy. Both derivations, however, 
 are equally incorrect. Another origin, 
 more improbable still, was once pretty 
 generally accepted, and the form of the 
 word was twisted so as to correspond. 
 The coward, it was thought, must surely 
 be a cow-heart, one who has no more 
 spirit or courage than the meek and 
 mild-eyed favourite of the dairymaid. 
 " Cowheart," indeed, is still tlie word 
 used in Dorsetshire, and " cow-hearted" 
 occurs in Ludolph's EtJmpia, p. 83 
 (1682). Compare also " corto de cora- 
 con, cow-hearted" (Stevens' 8p. Diet., 
 1706) ; " CoUa/)-d, a coward, a dastard, 
 a cow " (Cotgrave) ; " The veriest foro 
 in a company brags most " {Ibid., s.v. 
 Crier) ; " Craven, a cow " (Bailey). 
 
00 WITCH 
 
 It is the cawish terror of his spirit 
 That dares not undertake. 
 
 ( ?9 ) 
 
 00W.8E0T 
 
 King Lear, iv. 2. 
 
 To cow is nearly allied to Icel. Mga 
 of the same meaning. 
 
 In the Holdemess dialect of E. York- 
 shire, caffy (calfy) and cauf-hea/rted are 
 similarly used in the sense of timid, 
 cowardly. 
 
 Spenser, if we may judge by his 
 spelling of the word, considered cow- 
 herd to be the primitive form, as he 
 tells of the shepherd Coridon : 
 
 W]ien he saw the fiend, 
 Through cowherd feare he fled away as fast, 
 Ne durst abide the daunger to the end. 
 
 Faerie Queene, VI. x. 35. 
 
 This is also the usual orthography in 
 Chapman's Homer — 
 
 Ulysses, in suspense 
 To strike so home that he should fright from 
 
 thence 
 His cowherd soul, his trunk laid prosti'ate 
 
 there. Odysseys, xviii. 128. 
 
 The French and Italians, though 
 they erred in their explanations, were 
 certainly right in recognizing gueue and 
 coda respectively (Lat. cauda) as the 
 source of coua/rd and codardo. It is 
 not, however, because he tails off to the 
 rear that the dastard was so called, nor 
 yet — for this reason also has been as- 
 signed — because he resembles a terror- 
 stricken cur who runs away with his 
 tail between his legS. It is true that 
 " in heraldry a lion borne in an escut- 
 cheon, with his tail doubled or turned 
 in between his legs, is called a lion 
 coward." Still it was not the heraldic 
 Hon, nor the fugacious dog, nor even 
 the peaceful cow, but a much more 
 timid and unwarhke animal, which 
 was selected as the emblem of a person 
 deficient in courage. It was the hare 
 — "the trembler," as the Greeks used 
 to call her; "timorous of heart," as 
 Thomson characterizes her in the 
 " Seasons " (Winter) ; " the heartless 
 hare," as she is styled in the " Mirror 
 for Magistrates," ii. p. 74 (ed. Hasle- 
 wood); the " coward ra.a,ukm," Burns. 
 
 In mediaeval times the famiUar name 
 of the hare was coua/rd, cuwaert, coart 
 (= scutty or short-tail), just as bruin 
 is stiU of the bear, and chanticleer of 
 the cock. (See Grimm, Reinha/rt Fuchs, 
 pp. ccxxiii.-ccxxvii.) Compare Pro.v. 
 
 volpilk, cowardly, from Lat. vulpecitla, 
 a fox (Diez). 
 
 For further information the reader 
 may consult my Leaves from a Word- 
 hunter's Note Book, p. 133, seq., from 
 which much of the above has been 
 quoted. 
 
 OftheHareHuntyng . , . Ifenyfyndeof 
 hym, where he hath ben, Rycher or Bemond, 
 ye shall sey, '' oiez A Bemond le Tayllaunt, 
 que quide trovere le coward, ou le court cow." 
 — Le Venery de Twety (temp. Ed. II.), Reliqu. 
 Antiq. vol. i. p. 153. 
 
 I shall telle yow what I sawe hym do yes- 
 terday to Cuwaert the hare. — Caxton, Reiinard 
 the FoT, 1481, p. 7 (ed. Arber). 
 
 The foxe sayde to the hare, Kywart ar ye a 
 colde, how tremble ye and quake so, be not 
 a ferd. — Ibid. p. 42. 
 
 Compare in old French (14th cent.), 
 Li amans hardis 
 Vaut mieus que li acouwardis. 
 
 Jehan de Conde, Bartsch Chrisio- 
 mathie, p. 372. 
 
 Norman Fr. cuard. Vie de 8t. Auhan, 
 1. 474 (ed. Atkinson). 
 
 >eonne he kene [let was er cueard. [Then 
 he (becomes) bold that was before a coward.] 
 — Ancren Riwle, ah. 1225, p. 288 (text C). 
 
 To be of bold word atte mete, 6c co,wurd in (le 
 velde. 
 Robt. of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 285 
 (ed. 1811). 
 con ella cazar por les campifias 
 Liebres cobardesy conejos viles. 
 
 Lope, Hermosiira de Angelica. 
 [1] scarce everlook'd on blood 
 But thatoi coward hares, hotgoats, and venison. 
 Shakespeare, Cymbeline, iv. 4, 37. 
 CowiTCH, an Indian seed producing 
 itching, is said to be from the native 
 name Mwach. [Fhilolog. Trans., 1855, 
 p. 69.) 
 
 CowKBBP, a Pifeshire word for the 
 plant Heracleum SpJiondyliimi, is a 
 corruption of the synonymous word 
 cowheehs Icow-heek] , i. e. cow-kex, a 
 large kind of keck. —Britten and Hol- 
 land, Eng. Plant Names, p. 122. 
 
 Cow-LADT-STONE, > a Scotch word 
 CoLLADY-STONE, ) for quartz. Ja- 
 mieson thought it might be corrupted 
 from Fr. caAlleteau, " a chack-stone or 
 little flint-stone." — Ootgrave. Many 
 French words have been adopted by 
 the Scotch. 
 
 Cow-SHOT, an old name for the cu- 
 shat or ring-dove, stiU used in Lanca- 
 
COWPENDOOH 
 
 ( 80 ) 
 
 OOZEN 
 
 shire and probably other parts of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Couloa ra7n{er, A Queest, Cowshotj Ring 
 doTe, Stock dore, Wood-culver. — Cotgrave. 
 
 The A. Sax. word is cusceote, which 
 Bosworth resolves into cus (cow) -f- 
 sceote. It is doubtless, however, a de- 
 rivative of A. Sax. cusc, chaste ; cf. 
 Ger. Jceusch; doves being generally 
 regarded as patterns of conjugal fidehty 
 and true love. 
 
 Turtle ne wile liabbe no make bute on, and 
 after J)at non, and forjii it betocnelS Jie cle- 
 nesse. — Old Eng. Homilies (ISth cent.), 2nd S. 
 p. 49. 
 
 The wedded turtelle, with his herte true. 
 Chaucer. 
 Be trewe as turtyll in thy kynde 
 For lust will pari as fethers in wynde. 
 The Parlument of Byrdes, l-'arly Pop. 
 Poetry, iii. iS3 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 And love is still an emptier sound, 
 The modern fair-one's jest; 
 
 On earth unseen, or only found 
 To warm the turtle's nest. 
 
 Goldsmith, The Hermit. 
 
 CowPENDOCH, > a Scottish term for 
 CowPENDOw, S a young cow, to 
 which word it has been partially as- 
 similated, was originally colpindach, 
 from the Gaelic colbhtacJi, a calf (Jamie- 
 son), Ir. colhthac, a, cow or heifer, colpa, 
 a calf. Compare Goth, kalbo, Ger. 
 halh, A. Sax. calf, all connected with 
 Sansk. ga/rhha, the womb (Benfey), and 
 denoting any young animal. 
 
 Cowslip, Prov. Eng. cowslop, cooslop, 
 old Eng. cowslop, cowslope, coivslypp, 
 A. Sax. cuslyppe, has generally been 
 resolved into cow's-lip (A. Sax. cus -)- 
 Uppe) ; cf. its Provencal name iivuseta. 
 Reasons are adduced in Britten and 
 Holland's Eng. Plant Names, p. 123 
 (E. D. Soc), for considering it to be a 
 corruption of Tceslop or heslip, A. Sax. 
 ceseUb, cyselib, i.e. the prepared stomach 
 of a calf (which the plant was supposed 
 to resemble), used as rennet {lih, 
 Swed. lope, Dan. lobe, Ger. lab, Dut. 
 leb), for the making of cheese (A. Sax. 
 cese, Swed. hSse, Lat. cctseus) ['?] . 
 
 A view, however, put forward by 
 Eev. E. GiUett is deserving of con- 
 sideration. He thinks the old Eng. 
 cuslyppe is to be analyzed as cu^slyppe, 
 the last part of the word being from 
 A. Sax. slupan, to paralyze ; the name 
 
 (in Latin herla paralytica, or Kerha 
 paralysis) being indicative of the seda- 
 tive virtue of its flowers, wliich were 
 used to cause sleep. — Cockayne, Leech- 
 doms, &c., vol. iii. p. xxxii. Compare 
 nwroissus, from Gk. ncwhad, to benumb. 
 But slupan, from slip, means to relax, 
 not to put asleep (W. W. S.). 
 
 Coiosiope, herbe (al. cowslek, or cowslop), 
 
 Herba petri, herba paralisis, ligustra 
 
 Prompt. Parv, (c. 1440). 
 
 Palsiewort was a name formerly 
 given to this plant (vid. Cotgrave, s. v. 
 Oocii). Ben Jonson boldly adopts the 
 popular etymology — 
 
 The primrose drop, the spring's own spouse, 
 Bright day's eyes, and the lips ot' cows. 
 
 Pans Anniversary, 1625 (ed. Moxon, 
 p. 613). 
 
 Prof. Skeat says that cowsUp (M. 
 Eng. coushppe, Wright's Vocabuhnee, 
 i. 162) was originally the sUp, slop, or 
 dung of a cow, a "cow-plat." 
 
 Cow's THUMB, in a curious old 
 phrase, " (right) to a Cow's Thumb," 
 quoted by Skinner (Etymologicon, s. v. 
 Gow, 1671), and meaning "exactly," 
 " according to rule," he explains as a 
 corruption of the French a la coustwm, 
 selon la coustume. 
 
 You may fit yourself to a cow's thumb 
 among the Spaniards. — T. Brown, Works, iii. 
 26 [see Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossaryl. 
 
 CoYSTEiL, in old writers used for a 
 cowardly hawk, as if from coy, shy, is 
 a corruption of the word Icestrel, which 
 is also spelt castrel and coistrell. 
 
 Like a coistrell he strives to fill himself 
 with wind, and flies against it. — Overbmy's 
 Characters. 
 
 He's a coward and a Coystrill that will aot 
 drink to my niece till his'brains turn o' the 
 toe like a parish-top. — Shakespeare, Twelfth 
 Night, act 1. sc. 3. 
 
 Better places should bee possessed by Coy- 
 strells, and the coblers crowe, for crying but 
 ave Ca'sar, be more esteemed than rarer birds. 
 — JV«s/i, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication in 
 the Deuill, p. 22 (Shaks. Soc. ed.). 
 
 The Musquet and the Coj/sh-e/ were tooweai. 
 Dryden, Hind and Panther, 1. 1119. 
 
 Cozen, or cosen, to cheat, has been 
 assimilated in form and meaning to 
 cousin, formerly spelt cosin, cosyn, as if 
 its original import was to beguUe or 
 defraud one under the pretence or show 
 of relationship, like Hamlet's uncle, 
 
COZEN 
 
 ( 81 ) 
 
 OB ABB ED 
 
 who was " more than hin and less than 
 hind." So Minsheu and Abp. Trench, 
 Eng. Past and Present. 
 
 Arc. Deere codn Palamon. 
 
 P.*/. Cosener Arcite, give me language such 
 As thou ha-!t shewd me feate ! 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 1, 1. 43 (1634). 
 
 Mr. Littledale remarks that the two 
 words were frequently brought together 
 in this connexion, e.g. : — 
 
 Cousin, Cozen thyself no more. 
 
 Mons. Thotnas, i. 3, 
 
 Cousins indeed, and by their uncle coze7ied 
 
 Of comfort. Richard III., iv. 4. 
 
 Bailler du foin a la mule. To cheat, gull, 
 cousev, over -reach, cony-catch. — Cotgrave, 
 s. y. Mule, 
 
 Cousiner, to olaime kindred for advantage 
 or particular ends ; as he, who to save charges 
 in travelling, goes from house to house, as 
 Cosin to the honour of every one. — Cotgrave. 
 
 The true origin of the word has not 
 hitherto been shown. I have little doubt 
 that it is the same word as It. cozzonm-e, 
 to play the craftie knaue (Plorio), origi- 
 nally to play the horse-courser, horse- 
 dealers being notorious for cheating 
 (compare our "to jockey"), from coz- 
 zone, a horse-courser, a crafty knave 
 (O. Fr. cosson), Lat. cocio or coctio, a 
 haggler, dealer. ( Of. Fr . cuisson, from 
 Lat. cociio^n).) 
 
 The Scottish verb to cozain, to barter 
 or eichange one thing for another, 
 seems to be another usage of the same 
 word. In mediseval Latin cocCTO (cogroio, 
 or cotio) was used especially for a class 
 of beggars who used to extort ahns by 
 cries, tears, and other impostiu:es. A 
 Frankish law ordered " Mangones 
 vagabimdi et cotiones qui impostims 
 homines ludunt coeroentor" (Spehnan, 
 OlossaHum, 1626, p. 172). The word 
 thus became appUcable to any cheat or 
 cozener. 
 
 Valentine themperour, by holsome lawes 
 prouided that suche as . . . solde themselues to 
 begging, pleded pouerty wyth pretended in- 
 firmitie, & cloaked their ydle and slouthfull 
 life with colourable shifts and cloudy cossen- 
 ing, should be a pa-petuall slaue and drudge 
 to him by whom their impudent ydlenes was 
 hewrayed.^^. Fleming, Cuius of ting. Dogges, 
 1576, p. 27 (repr. 1880). 
 
 So I may speake of these cousonages now 
 in use, which till now not kuowne, 1 know 
 not how to stile them . . . but onely by the 
 generall names of consoruiges. — The seoerall 
 notorious and lewd Cousonages of John West 
 and Alice West, 1613, chap. 1. 
 
 The cooz'ned birds busily take their flight 
 And wonder at the shortnesse of the night. 
 G. Fletcher, Christs Victorie in Heaven, 42 
 
 (1610). 
 The devil doth but cozen the wicked with 
 his cates. — 5. Adums, Sermons, i. 217. 
 
 Oeabbed, peevish, iriitable, has been 
 generally understood to be " sour as a 
 CT-(i6-apple," of a temper like ver-juioe ; 
 thus Bailey gives " Grabbed (of crab, a 
 sour apple), sour or unripe, as Fruit, 
 rough, surly." " Orabbedness, sourness, 
 surliness." 
 
 Of bodie bygge and strong he was. 
 And somewhat Crabtre faced. 
 
 B. Googe, E^lags, 6fc., 1563, p. 117 
 (ed. Arber). 
 Sickness sours and crabs our nature. — 
 Ghinville [Latham]. 
 
 It is reaUy from North. Eng. crab, 
 crabbe, to provoke, o)-ob, to reproach, 
 Scottish crab, to fret. Of. Dut. tcribben, 
 to quarrel, hrib, a cross woman, a shrew, 
 hribbig, peevish, cross (Sewel). It was 
 originally a hawking term, hawks being 
 said to crab, when they stood too near 
 and fought one with another. This is 
 evidently the same word as Dut. hrab- 
 ben, to scratch, Prov. Eng. scrab, and 
 scrabble. It is curious to note the 
 Prompt. Par?)«Zo»'Mm translating " crab- 
 hyd, awke, or wrawe," by Lat. can- 
 cerinus, as if hke a orab (cancer), or 
 cankerous. 
 
 The strublyne of fulys crabis the visman. 
 [The troubling of fools vexes the wise man.] 
 
 Ratis Raving, p. 20, 1. 652 (E. E. T. S.). 
 With crabyt men hald na cumpany. 
 
 Id. p. 100, 1. 3509. 
 
 That uther wakned upe the spreits of all 
 guid brethring, and crabet the Court stranglie 
 [i.e. irritated]. — Jas. Melville, Diary, 1574, 
 p. 52 (Wodrow Soc). 
 
 Whowbeit he was verie hat in all questiones, 
 yit when it twitched his particular, no man 
 could crab him. — Id. 1578, p. 65. 
 
 The saise [= assize] wald nocht fyll 
 [ — convict] him wherat the Court was verie 
 crabbit.—Id. 1584, p. 218. 
 
 A countenance, not werishe and crabbed, 
 but faire and cumlie. — R. Ascham, The Hchole- 
 master, 1570, p. 39 (ed. Arber). 
 
 What doth Vulcan al day but endevour to 
 be as crabbed in manners as hee is crooked in 
 body? — Lilly, Sapho and Phao (1584), i. 1. 
 
 After crysten-masse com ))e crabbed lentoun. 
 Sir Gawayne, 1. 502. 
 He regardes not the whips of the moste 
 crabbish Satyristes. — Dekker, Seuen Deadly 
 Sinnes of London, p. 34. 
 
 G 
 
CBAOK BBOIMBNT ( 82 ) 
 
 OBATFISH 
 
 How charming is diTine philosophy ! 
 Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose. 
 Milton, Comus, 1. 476. 
 
 Ceack Eegiment, one of great pres- 
 tige, seems properly to denote a Irag 
 regiment, one entitled to hoast of its 
 achievements, from arack, O. Eng. 
 c/rahe, to boast. Compare O. Eng. 
 Irag, adj. spirited, proud, from Irag, to 
 boast (orig. to make a loud noise, 
 "bray," 'La.t.fragor), akin to Scot. Iraw, 
 fine, and hrave. 
 
 Crakynge, or boste, Jactancia, arrogancia. 
 — Prompt, Pan^ulorum. 
 
 A ffray-hair'd knight set up his head, 
 
 And crackit richt crousely. 
 Auld Maitland ; Child's Ballads, vol. vi. 
 p. 222. 
 
 Ohaven, a coward, so spelt as if it 
 meant one who has craven, craved, or 
 begged his life from his antagonist (A. 
 Sax. crafian), and indeed so explained 
 by Skinner and H. Tooke, was origi- 
 nally and properly cravant, meaning 
 overcome, conquered, old Pr. cravante, 
 " oppressed, foUed, or spoiled with ex- 
 cessive toyle, or stripes" (Cotgrave), 
 Span, quehrantado, broken, from que- 
 hrantar, Prov. crebantar, from Lat. cre- 
 pare {crepan(i)s), to break. 
 
 In a tryall by battel upon a writ of right 
 the ancient law was that the victory should be 
 proclaimed, and the vanquished acknowledge 
 his fault in the audience of the people, or 
 pronounce the horrid word Cravant. . . . and 
 after this the Recreant should . . . become 
 infamous. — Glossary to Gawin Douglas, 1710, 
 s.v. Crawdoun. 
 
 An early instance of oreaunt or cra- 
 vant used as an exclamation in ac- 
 knowledgment of defeat occurs in The 
 Anoren Biwle (about 1225), where the 
 heart is described as yielding to the 
 devil. 
 
 LeiS hire sulf aduneward, and buhS him 
 ase he bit, and S^ieiS creaunt, creauiit, ase 
 sB'owinde. — p. 288. 
 
 That is, "Layeth herself downward and 
 boweth to him as he bids, and crieth * craven, 
 craven I ' as swooning." 
 
 His mangled bodie they expose to scorne. 
 And now each cravin coward dare defie him. 
 Fuller, Davids Hainous Siune, 47 (1631). 
 
 Gryance in Sir Cauline appears to be 
 a corrupt form of creoAince, cowardice. 
 He sayes, No cr^ance comes to my hart, 
 Nor ifaith I ffeare not thee. 
 Percy's Folio MS. vol. iii. p. 7, 1. 93. 
 
 Ceawdown, an old Scotch word for 
 a coward, as if crawed down, or crowed 
 down, as one cock is by another. Com- 
 pare old Eng. overcrow, to insult over, 
 Spenser, F. Queene, I. ix. 50. 
 
 Becum thou cowart crawdoum recriand, 
 And by consent cry cok, thy dede is dicht. 
 Gawin Douglas, Bukes of Eneados, 
 p. 356, 1. 28 (ed. 1710). 
 
 It is not perhaps (as Jamieson sug- 
 gests) from old Fr. creant and donner, to 
 yield one's self vanquished, but another 
 form of Prov. Eng. cradant and cra- 
 vant, O. Eng. crauaunde, a coward or 
 " craven :" compare Prov. cravantm, 
 O. Fr. cravanter, to oppress or over- 
 throw. (See Wedgwood, s.vV. Graven 
 and Bea-eant). Cf. 0. Eng. cra\>min. 
 
 He cared for his cortaysye lest crai>ayn he 
 were. 
 
 Sir Gawaiine, ah. 1320, 1. 1773 
 (ed. Morris). 
 
 Crawfish, a corruption of the old 
 Enghsh orevish or crevice. See Cray- 
 fish. 
 
 They set my heart more cock-a-hoop. 
 
 Than could whole seas ot cram-fish soune. 
 Gay, Poems, vol. ii. p. 100 (ed. 1771). 
 
 I know nothing of the war, but that ve 
 catch little French fish like crawfish. — Horace 
 Walpnle, Letters (1755), vol. ii. p. 465. 
 
 My physicians have almost poisoned me 
 with what they call bouillons refraichissants 
 .... There is to be one craw-fish in it, and I 
 was gi'avely told it must be a male one, a 
 female would do me more hurt than good.— 
 Sterne, Letters, xlvi. 1764. 
 
 Ceayfish is a corruptjon of 0. Eng. 
 crevis, crevice (" Ligombeau, A sea crevice 
 or little lobster," Cotgrave), or cremsh, 
 from Fr. ecrevisse, i.e. O. H. G. fo-efe, 
 Ger. hrehs, our " crab." 
 Departe the crevise a-sondire euyn to youre 
 sight. 
 
 The Babees Book, p. 158, 1. 603 
 (E. E. T. S.). 
 So " cancer the oreityce," p. 231; 
 croMcs, p. 233. 
 
 ■ Sylvester remarks that in theincrease 
 of the moon the more doth abound :— 
 The Blood in Veines, the Sap in Plants, the 
 
 moisture 
 
 And lushious meat, in Creuish, crab and 
 
 oyster. Du Bartas, p. 82 (1621). 
 
 This Sir Christopher [Metcalfe] is also 
 
 memorable for stockmg the river Yower. . . . 
 
 with Creuts/ies. — Fuller, I^orf/iies, ii. 533. . 
 
 Crustaceous animals, as crevises, crabs, and 
 
 lobsters. — Sir Thomas Browne, Worki,ii.&. 
 
CBAZY 
 
 ( 83 ) 
 
 GBOFT 
 
 Crazy, a provincial word for the 
 buttercup, may perhaps be, as suggested 
 by Dr. Prior {Popular Names of British 
 Plants), a corruption of Christ's eye 
 (craisey), oculus Ohristi, the mediae val 
 name of the Marigold, with which old 
 writei's confounded it. In some places, 
 as the result of its name, its smell is 
 beheved to make one mad {N. and Q., 
 5th S. V. 364). Others regard it as a 
 contracted form of oroio's eye. 
 
 Ceeam-wabe, a Scottish word for 
 articles sold iu booths at fairs, other- 
 wise cream6^-y, from weam, crame, " a 
 market-stall or booth, a pedlar's pack 
 {creamer, a pedlar); and this from Dut. 
 kraam, a booth, kraamer, a pedlar, Dan. 
 hram, petty ware, Ger. hram. 
 
 Ane pedder is called ane merchod or cremar 
 quha beirs an pack or creame upon his bak. — 
 Skene, De Verboi-um Significatione, 1597. 
 
 Ckeasb-tiles, ) corrupt forms of 
 Oeess-tiles, S crest-tiles, those that 
 are fixed saddle-wise on the ridge of a 
 roof {Glossary of Architecture, Parker). 
 " Fmstiere, A Eidge-tyle, Creast-tyle, 
 Eoof-tyle" (Cotgrave), from faiste, the 
 ridge or crest. 
 
 Tbaktile, roftile, ou crestile, — Stat, 17 Ed. 
 IV. c. 4. 
 
 Credence table, the small table on 
 which the Communion vessels are 
 placed, has only a remote connexion 
 with the creeds of the church. It is Fr. 
 credence, a cupboard of silver plate (Cot- 
 grave), It. credenza, a buttery or pantry, 
 also a cup-board of plate (Plorio), Low. 
 Lat. credentia, a sideboard (Spehnan) ; 
 It. oredentiere, a cup-bearer, a prince's 
 sewer or taster, perhaps an accredited 
 or trusty officer. Gredenza, then, would 
 be the place where the dishes and cups 
 were arranged and tasted before served 
 up to the great table. 
 
 Ceebpie, a three-legged stool in North 
 Enghsh and Scottish, has ia all proba- 
 bULty nothing to do with creep, but is a 
 corruption of old Fr. tripied, a trivet 
 (Cotgrave), Mod. Fr. trepied, from liSit. 
 tripe{d)s, three-footed, tripetia, a three- 
 legged stool. Cf. Ital. irepie and tre- 
 piedi, a three-footed stool (Florio). Tr 
 would change into cr, as Fr. craind/re, 
 O. Fr. crembre, from Lat. tremere; Dan. 
 trane zz Eng. crane; huchle-herry zz 
 hv/rtle-herry, &c. 
 
 The three-legged creepie stools . . . were 
 unoccupied. — Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, 
 ch. ii. 
 
 Bums says of the stool of repent- 
 ance — 
 
 When I mount the creejiie-chair, 
 Wha will sit beside me there? 
 
 Poems, p. 213 (Globe ed. 
 
 Creeper, a trivet (T. L. O. Davies, 
 Supp. Eng. Glossary), seems to be a 
 further corruption. 
 
 Cremona, the name of a certain stop 
 in the organ, as if resembling the tone 
 of the Cremona violin, is a corruption 
 of Fr. cremome, Ger. hrummihorn, " the 
 crooked horn," an old iustrument 
 somewhat similar to a bassoon. See 
 Hawkins, History of Music, vol. ii. p. 
 245 ; Hopkins, History of tlie Organ, 
 p. 124. 
 
 In a letter in the State Paper Office 
 (about 1515) occurs the following : — 
 
 Ego dimisi unum Manicordium cum pe- 
 dale in Grintwitz [Greenwich] : et nisi ves- 
 tram Majestatem dredecim Cromhornes pro 
 talia, non sum recompensatus, sed spero. — 
 Ellis, Original Letters, 3rd Ser. vol. i. p. 203. 
 
 Crest-marine, an old name for the 
 plant Samphire ( Crithrmmimaritimuni), 
 as if from its growing on the crest of 
 land that rises above the sea, is a cor- 
 ruption of Fr. christe-ma/rine, the popu- 
 lar name of the same plant (otherwise 
 called salicorne or iaoile), wlaich is it- 
 self corrupted from Lat. cretlvmos, Gk. 
 hrethmon (Littre). 
 
 Christe-Marine, Sampire, rocke Sampire, 
 CrestmariTie. — Cotgrave. 
 
 The root of Nenuphar . . . assuageth the 
 paine and griefe of the bladder : of the same 
 power is Sampler, [margin] or Crestmarine. 
 — P. Holland, Plinies Naturall History, tom. 
 ii. p. 234 (1634). 
 
 Croft. In Ireland " a croft of 
 water " is the common term, especially 
 among servants, for a water-bottle. It 
 is probably a corrupted form of caraffe 
 {c'raffe, craft, croft). Canon Farrar 
 records an instance of the same word 
 being transformed into cravat in the 
 mouth of an Enghsh servant {Origin 
 of Languages, 'p. 5T). It would be but a 
 short step from cra/vat to croft. Fr. 
 carafe. It. caraffa, Sp. Portg. ^arrafa, fr. 
 Arab, qirdf, a measure, garafa, to draw 
 water, otherwise spelt gharaf (Dozy, 
 Devic). Littre thinks it may be from 
 the Persian gardbah, a large-belUed 
 
GB08IEB 
 
 ( 84 ) 
 
 GBOWD 
 
 glass bottle. In Italian giraffa (a 
 giraffe, also), "a kind of fine drinking 
 glasse or flower glasse " (Plorio), seems 
 to be a corruption oi caraffa [garaffa). 
 
 Cbosiee, old Eng. crose, crosse, Fr. 
 orosse [cnsseron), the pastoral staff 
 of a bishop, owes its present form to a 
 confusion with " cross," Pr. crot'x, 
 Lat. crux, with which words it has no 
 direct connexion. The oldest forms of 
 the word are in EngUsh croce, croclie, 
 in French aroce, denoting a staff, Uke 
 a shepherd's, with a curved head or 
 arook, Fr. cfroc, Dan. hrog, Welsh crwg. 
 Compare Ger. hrummstah. 
 
 ^^ Croce of a byschope. Pedum.'' — 
 Prompt. Farv. (see Way, in loco). 
 " Croce is a shepherd's crooke in our 
 old English ; hence the staffe of a 
 Bishop is called the croder or crosier." 
 — Minsheu. The fact of a cross-bearer 
 being called a eraser, croyser, or crocere, 
 contributed to the confusion. 
 
 Ceoss, meaning peevish, bad-tem- 
 pered, irritable, as if one whose dis- 
 position is contrary, perverse, or across 
 that of others, not running in the same 
 line but cross-grained, like thwart, per- 
 verse (A. Sax. j>weor, Ger. quer, 
 " queer ") ; frowaird, i.e. fromward ; 
 Fr. reoeclie. It. rivescio, from Lat. rever- 
 sus; It. ritroso, from Lat. retrosus {retro- 
 versus). It, however, seems to be the 
 same word as old Eng. crus, excited, 
 wrathful, nimble ; North Eng. crous, 
 crowse, brisk, pert, Prov. Eng. c/rous, 
 to provoke (East), Swed. hrus-hufvud, 
 Dan. /i:rMS-7iO'ue(i (" crowse-head "), ill- 
 tempered,perversefeUow,Scot.croM;seZi/, 
 with confidence or some degree of 
 petulance. The original meaning of 
 the word was crisp and curly, from 
 which it came to signify smart, brisk, 
 then pert, saucy, and finally peevish, 
 excitable. (See Atkinson, Cleveland 
 Olossa/ry, s. v. Crous.) Conapare the 
 popular phrase, "cross as two sticks." 
 — Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossa/ry. Have- 
 lok, when attacked by thieves, 
 Driue hem ut, j^ei [z= though] he weren cniSy 
 So doga'es ut of milne-hous. 
 
 Havelok the Dane, 1. 1966 (ab. 1280). 
 
 Cruse, captious, cross ; also croose, 
 irritable, pugnacious, conceited. 
 
 He's as croose as a banty cock, — Patterson^ 
 Antrim and Down Glossary, E. D. S. 
 
 It is noticeable that in Prov. English 
 
 crup (? from Fr. crqie, crisp) has the 
 twofold meaning of (1) crisp, brittle, 
 short, and (2) sm-ly [? short-tempered] 
 (Wright). 
 
 Ckoss-pdts, a Scotch term for funeral 
 gifts to the church, is a corrupted form 
 of cms-presands, or corps-presents (Ja- 
 mieson). So cors, corse, is a Scotch 
 form of cross. 
 
 Ceow, or Ckow-bae, may perhaps 
 be a corruption of the Provincial Eng- 
 lish crome, a crook, crome in Tusser 
 (1680), E. D. Soc. p. 38, cromle, Prompt. 
 Parv. In the Paston Letters we read 
 of a riotous mob coming with "long 
 cronies to drawe down howsis." 
 
 Compare the Irish cruim, crooked, 
 A. Sax. cr-umh. Compare, however, 
 the Irish cro = (1) strength, (2) an iron 
 bar. Cotgrave spells it croe, " Pince, 
 lb croe, great barre, or lever of iron." 
 The cloven end of the implement was 
 mistakenly assimilated to the powerful 
 beak of the crow or raven, cf. Lat. 
 cormis, Gk. Urax. Cotgrave uses aroe 
 in a different sense : — 
 
 Jables, the croes of a piece of caske ; the 
 furrow, or hollow (at either end of the pipe- 
 staves) whereinto the head-pieces be en- 
 cha.sed. 
 Get Crowe made of iron, deepe hole for to 
 
 make, 
 With crosse ouerfhwart it, as sharpe as astake. 
 Tusser, Fine Hundred Poinfes, 1580 
 (E. D. Soc), p. 98. 
 
 Cbowd, 1 apparently a popular cor- 
 Ceoud, ) ruption of crypt in the fol- 
 lowing passage descriptive of the an- 
 cient church of S. Faith, beneath old 
 S. Paul's. 
 
 This being a parish church dedicated to the 
 honour of St. Faith the Virgin, was hereto- 
 fore called EccLesia S. Fidis in Cryptis (or in 
 the crovdes, according to the vulgar expres- 
 sion). — Dugdale, Hist, of S. Paul's, p. 117. 
 
 Croud = Crypt, Glossary of ArcM- 
 tectu/re, Parker. 
 
 Cryptoporticus ... a secret walke or vault 
 under the gi'ounde, as the crowdes or shrowdes 
 of Faules, called S. Faithes church. — Nonrnn- 
 clator. 
 
 The Temple of the Holy Sepulchre .... 
 bathe wonder many yles, crowdes, and vautes. 
 — Py^Sry™-'^^^ of Sir R. Guylforde, 1506, 
 p. 24 (Camden Soc). 
 
 The origin of the word may be traced 
 through O. Fr. erote, Prov. orota, Sp. 
 
OB OWNER 
 
 ( 85 ) 
 
 GBU8TY 
 
 Portg. gruta, It. grotia, Fr. groUe (our 
 "grot," "grotto"), from Lat. crypta, 
 Gk. h-upte, a hidden place. 
 
 The close walks and rustic grotto ; a crypta, 
 of which the laver or basin is of one vast, 
 intire, antiq porphyrie. — Evelyn, Diary, 
 Not. 29, 1644. 
 
 Ceowner, also orownal, " the com- 
 mander of the troops raised in one 
 county" (Jamieson), a Scotch corrup- 
 tion oi colonel (coronel). Cf. orownellioT: 
 coronet, orowner for cwoner. 
 
 The orowiier& lay in canvas lodges, high 
 and wide, their captains about them in lesser 
 ones, thesoldiers about all inhuts of timber. — 
 Account of the Covenanters' Camp, temp. Chas. 
 1. (in Baillie, Letters and JoiirnaUs, vol. i. p. 
 211, ed. 1841). 
 
 Groioner (zz orownell ir coronel or 
 colonel) also occurs in Sir.T. Turner, 
 Pallas Armata, 1627, p. 17. 
 
 Cbuoible, a melting-pot. Low. Lat. 
 cruoibolum, so spelt as if it were a de- 
 rivation of Lat. o)-ux, crude, because it 
 was often marked with the sign of a 
 cross. So Chaucer calls it a croislet or 
 croselett. It is, however, certainly of 
 the same origin as cruse, Dut. kroes, 
 kruyse, Dan. kruus, Fr. creuset, a cup 
 or pot, Ir. c/fuisgin, a pitcher, pot, or 
 crock. 
 
 Crtjbls, \ a Scotch word for the 
 Ceuelles, I scrofula, or King's evU, 
 is a corruption of the French ecrouelles, 
 which is from Lat. sorofula through a 
 form scrofella. O. Fr. escrovele, whence 
 0. Eng. scroyle, a scrubby or shabby 
 [i.e. scabby] fellow. This word cruels 
 is still in use in Antrim and Down 
 (Patterson). 
 
 A MS. account of The Order of K. 
 Charles [I.] entring Edinhwrghe, p. 23, 
 preserved in the Advocates' Library, 
 says, that on the 24th of June, 1633, 
 he " their solenmlie offred, and after 
 the pfEringe, heaUit 100 persons of the 
 m-uelles or Kings's eivell, yong and 
 olde." — J. G. Dalyell, Darker Super- 
 stitions of Scotland (1835), p. 62. 
 
 Ceumb, numh, thunib, ^ old Eng. 
 orume, A. Sax. cruma, num{-en), ]>ur>i-a, 
 seem to owe their present spelling with 
 a final 6 to a false analogy with dumh 
 (A. Sax. dMrnh), tomb (Greek tunibos). 
 So limb (q.v.) was formerly lim, A. Sax. 
 Um. 
 
 Crush, a word used in the eastern 
 counties for gristle, cartilage, or soft- 
 bones, perhaps mentally associated 
 with the verb to crush, is a shortened 
 form of crussel (or crustle) of the same 
 meaning used in Suffolk, old Eng. 
 orusshell or oruschyl, aU=A. Sax. gristel, 
 which indeed itself probably denotes 
 that which must be ground like grist, 
 or crunched, before swallowed. 
 
 Crnschylbone, or grystylbone (crusshell), 
 cartilago. — Prompt. Furvulomm. 
 
 Bailey gives orussel as an old word 
 for gristle. 
 
 Crusty, in the sense of short-tem- 
 pered, irritable, testy, is perhaps a cor- 
 rupt form of the old English cwst, 
 which has the same meaning {e.g. 
 Cursor Mundi (14th cent.), p. 1100). 
 Compare Belgian and Dutch koreel, 
 angiy, choleric, testy. In Irish crosda 
 is morose, captious, crabbed, and cros- 
 tacht perverseness (O'Eeilly). The 
 Yankee cussedness, perversity, wrong- 
 headedness, is of the same origin. 
 
 She is thought but a curst mother who 
 beats her child for crying, and will not cease 
 heating until the child leave crying. — John 
 Owen (1680), [Vorks, vol. xiii. p. 341 (ed. 
 1852). 
 
 As curst and shrewd 
 As Socrates' Xantippe. 
 
 Taming of the Shrew, act. i. sc. 2. 
 They are never curst but when they are 
 hungi-y. 
 
 Winter's Tale, act iii. sc. 3. 
 
 So the old proverb " God gives a cu/rst 
 cow short horns." 
 
 Similar transposition of letters is 
 common, e.g. Dut. korst, a crust, kors- 
 tig, crusty ; cursen (Beaumont , and 
 Fletcher) for christen, hirsome for 
 chrisom; 0. Scot, corslinge for crossling; 
 grass, A. Sax. gcers; bird, A. Sax. brid, 
 elapse, and clasp. The French encroutS 
 (crusty), fuU of prejudices, and s'en- 
 crouter, to grow stupid, are founded on 
 the conception of becoming encrusted, 
 indurated, unimpressionable, stolid. 
 
 There are some dogs of that nature that they 
 barke rather vpon custome then curstne.Hse. — 
 Thos. Lodge, Workes of Seneca, p. 915 (1614). 
 
 Cursedly she loked on hym tho. 
 
 A Mery Geste of Frere and the Boye, 
 
 Pray for thy crusty soul \ Where's your re- 
 ward now ? 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, The Bloody 
 Brother, iii. 2. 
 
GBUT0HE8 
 
 ( 86 ) 
 
 OULLENDEB 
 
 Compare custwrd ^ O.Eng. crtistade, 
 O. F. croustade, orig. a crusted tart. 
 Somewhat similarly Prof. Skeat thinks 
 eurse may be a perverted use of Scand. 
 horsa, to make the sign of the Jcors, 
 hross, or " cross." Of. Heb. laurak = 
 to curse or to bless, Lat. sacer, sacred 
 or accursed. 
 
 Ckutohes, a Sussex word for broken 
 pieces of crockery (Parish, Olossa/ry), 
 is probably from Fr. cruche, a pitcher, 
 Welsh crwc. 
 
 CucBLBKE, the Anglo-Saxon word 
 for a spoon, which Bosworth ranges 
 under c3c, a cook, as if a cooking utensil, 
 is evidently the Latin cocMeare or coch- 
 lear. 
 
 Cuckold, a Somerset word for the 
 plant Burdock, a corruption of the 
 A. Sax. coccel, darnel, tares, cockle. 
 
 CncKoo-BONE, a name applied to a 
 bone at the lowest extremity of the 
 spine, attached to the os sacrum, Lat. 
 OS coccygis, Greek Tcohhux, cuckoo. 
 
 At the end of the Holy-bone appeareth the 
 Rump-bone called os coccygisy because it ia 
 like a cuckoos beake. — Crooke, Description of 
 the Body of Man, p. 981 (1631). 
 
 It is in all probability only another 
 form of Lat. coayim (coesim), the hinder- 
 part, coxa, the hip, Greek hochone (for 
 koxone). Curtius, OriecMsch, Etymo- 
 logie, i. 123 ; ii. 283. 
 
 Cdckoo-pint, ) a popular name for 
 CucKOO-PiNTLE, ) the ax-um viacula- 
 tum, a supposed corruption, is said to 
 have no reference to the bird so named, 
 but to be the A. Saxon cucw, hving 
 (Prior) ; Yorkshire cuchoo-point (Brit- 
 ten and Holland). 
 
 But Mr. Cockayne quotes old Eng. 
 cohe-pintel, gauh-pyntell, and shows it 
 was so called, because it flowers at the 
 time of the coming of the geac or 
 cuckoo {LeecMonis, &c. vol. iii. Glos- 
 sary). This is undoubtedly right. 
 Cuddy, ) a North British word for 
 CuDDiE, i an ass, as if identical with 
 cuddy, the pet name for Cuthbert, which 
 has long been a favourite appeUatiou in 
 the North of England out of veneration 
 for the famous saint of that name. The 
 much - enduring disposition of the 
 donkey was, perhaps, suggestive of the 
 saintly character, to say nothing of its 
 wearing the cross, just as the patient 
 
 camel is nicknamed by the Arabs AK- 
 Ayub, "Father of Job." It would 
 be curious if Cuthbert, expressive of 
 " noted brightness " (Yonge, Christian 
 Names, ii. 417), came to be apphed to 
 an animal notoriously stupid. The 
 word is not a native Scottish term, 
 and was originally slang. It was in 
 all probability borrowed from the 
 Gypsies, the ass being their favourite 
 animal, as Jamieson remarked, and so 
 may be of oriental origin. Guddy there- 
 fore may be identical with HindiistSni 
 gadhd, gadhi, an ass (? Persian gudda), 
 with which Oolebrooke would connect 
 Sansk. gcurdahha. But in the Siahp8sh 
 dialect of Cabul giida is an ass, Malay 
 Jcudha, near akin to Sanskrit ghota, a 
 horse, originally " the kicker," from 
 
 fhut, to strike back (see Pictet, Origines 
 ndo-Europeenes, tom. i. p. 352). In 
 Modern Greek gdda/ros is a donkey. 
 
 England being a dull counti-y — a Ghud- 
 distan or Cuddyiand^ as they say in the East 
 — keeps up oli fashions. — Andrew Wikon, 
 Edinburgh Essays (1856), p. 160. 
 
 James Simson, writing of the Scottish 
 Gypsies, speaks of 
 
 The droll appearance of so many cuddies— 
 animals that generally appear singly, but 
 when driven by gipsies come in battalions. — 
 History of the Gipsies, p, 46. 
 
 A cuddy's gallop's sune done. — A, Hish>p, 
 Proverbs of Scotland, p. 16. 
 
 Guddy, cudden, an old provincial 
 word for " a Nizey, or a silly fellow " 
 (Bailey), is probably a derived usage. 
 In the Cleveland dialect cuddy is a 
 hedge-sparrow (Atkinson), so called, 
 perhaps, from its resemblance in colour 
 to an ass, just as Northampt. doney, a 
 sparrow (elsewhere dunnock), donkey, 
 and Soot, donie, a hare, are all from 
 O. Eng. don, dun. 
 
 CuDSHOE, an affected mispronuncia- 
 tion of the interjection " Gadso " 
 (which is itself a corruption of It. 
 oazzo) in the old drama. 
 
 CuLLBNDEE, a popular spelling of 
 colander, which is apparently an in- 
 correct form of colader (cf. Span, cola- 
 dero, a strainer, sine, a colender. — Min- 
 sheu), like messenger, porrenger, passen- 
 ger, for messager, porridger, passager. 
 A derivative of Lat. colare, to strain. 
 
 I am a witnesse that in the late war his 
 owne ship was piero'd like a cuUendar.—J. 
 Eoelyn, Diary, May 31, 167S!. 
 
GULLISEN 
 
 ( 87 ) 
 
 QUERY 
 
 «f, ) an old word for a badge 
 ST, 3 or distinctive mark, in 
 
 CtlLLISEN, 
 OULLISON, 
 
 Ben Jonson and others, is a corruption 
 of cogmkance, that by which one is 
 Icnown (Lat, cognoscere), from a desire, 
 perhaps to assimilate it to other words 
 like cully, cullion, &c. 
 
 Onion. But what badge shall we give, what 
 culUson 7 — B. Jonson, The Case is Altered, iv. 4. 
 
 OuLVER-KEYS, an old popular name 
 for a meadow plant, probably the 
 orchis Ttwrio, is apparently a corruption 
 of cidverhins, i.e. Utile culvers or pigeons 
 (A. Sax. culfre), to which its flowers 
 were fancifully resembled. Compare 
 the name of the plant columbine from 
 Lat. columha, a pigeon. With the ter- 
 miuation compare raon-hey, ion-hey. 
 
 The form covey-heys, may sometimes 
 be heard ia Kent, applied to the oxhp. 
 
 Cup, as a medical term to draw 
 blood by scarifying under a glass 
 wherein the air is rarefied, derived as 
 it were from the citp-like shape of the 
 glass, is a corruption of Fr. couper, to 
 out, O. Fr. copper. 
 
 I should rather substitute couping glasses, 
 applied on the legs. — Ferrand, Love Melan- 
 choiy, p. 340. 
 
 It [pleurisy] is helped much 'bj cupping; I 
 do not mean drinking. — T. Adams, The Soul's 
 Sickness, Works, i. 487. 
 They bled, they ciipp'd, they purged; in 
 short, they cured. 
 
 Pope [^Lathani], 
 
 Cdely-floweh, a Lincolnshire word 
 for a cauliflower (Peacock, Glossa/ry of 
 Words used in Manley, Sfc). 
 
 CuRMtTDGEON, SO Spelt, no doubt, to 
 suggest a connexion with cur, used as 
 a term of contempt, is an altered 
 form of corn-mudgin, which Holland 
 in his Livy uses to translate frumen- 
 tarius, a corn-dealer, especiaUy in the 
 sense of a regrator, one who engrosses 
 and hoards up the com in time of 
 scarcity, and then " a covetous hunks, 
 a close-fisted fellow " (Bailey), in ac- 
 cordance with the Proverb (xi. 26) 
 "He that withholdeth com, the people 
 shall curse him." Corn-mudgin is for 
 com-mudging, i.e. corn-hoarding; mudge 
 being zz O. Eng. much or mich, to hide 
 (Skeat). Compare " Pleu/re-pain, a 
 nigardiy wretch ; a puhng mdcher or 
 miser, dec." (Id.). 0. Pr. mucer, to hide. 
 The popular hatred of the corn-hoarder 
 
 is exhibited in the Rhenish legend of 
 BishoJ) Hatto, and in a baUad Ucensed 
 in 1581, 
 
 Declaring the gi-eate covetousness and un- 
 mercifuU dealing of one Walter Gray, some- 
 tyme Archehisshop of Yorke, whoe having 
 peat abundance of corne, suilred the needie, 
 in the tyme of famyne, to die for want of 
 relief, And of the fearful! vengeance of God 
 pronounced against him. — Registers of the 
 Statinnei's' Company, vol. ii. p. 150 (Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 
 Cormorant (formerly corvorant, as if 
 com-vorant) seems to have been used in 
 the same sense. 
 
 His father is such a dogged old curmudgeon, 
 he dares not for his ears acquaint him with it. 
 — Hey wood dif Rowley, Fortune by Land &^ Sea, 
 1655, p. 46 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 When the Cormorants 
 And wealthy farmers hoord up all the graine 
 He empties all his garners to the poore. 
 
 No-Body and Some-body, I. 320 
 (ab. 1600). 
 
 The covetous cormorants or corn-morants 
 [i.e. corn-delayers] of his time. — W. Smith, 
 The Blacksmith, 1606. 
 
 OuERiNTS, a corruption of Corinths, 
 or "raisius of Corinth," Fr. raisins de 
 Oorinthe, they having been originally 
 brought from that place ; Welsh grawn 
 Gormih, i.e. Corinth berries. 
 
 We founde there rype smalle raysons that 
 we calle reysons of Corans, and they grow.e 
 chefly in Corynthy, called nowe Corona, in 
 Morea, to whome seynt Poule wrote sondry 
 epystolles. — Pylgrymage of Sir R. GuylJ'orde, 
 1506, p. 11 (Camden Soc). 
 
 The fruits are hereof called in shops by the 
 name of Passularum de Corintho ; in English 
 Cun-ans, or small Raisins. — Gerarde, Herbal, 
 p. 727 (1597). 
 
 Take raysyns of Corauns j^erto. 
 And wyte wynne |;ou take also. 
 Liber Cure Cocorum, p. 16 (1440). 
 
 Take . . . Raysonifsof Coraunce & myncyd 
 Datys, but not to small. — The Babees Book, 
 p. 212(E. E.T. S.). 
 
 The chiefe riches thereof [of Zante] consis- 
 teth in currents, which draweth hither much 
 trafficke. — G. Sandys, Travels, p. 5. 
 
 Curry, an Indian dish, origiually a 
 native term. Hind. Mri (a making), a 
 made dish, a curry, from harnd, to make 
 (Sansk. fccw, Icri, to make), seems to 
 have been assimilated to the existing 
 word cwry (Fr. corroyer, It. correda/re), 
 to prepare or make ready. Mahn de- 
 duces it from Pers. hhurdi, broth, juicy 
 meats. 
 
CUBBY FAVOUB ( 88 ) 
 
 OUBSE 
 
 CuERY FAVOUR, a phrase which Pro- 
 fessor Nichol brands as a " vulgairfsm " 
 {Prim&r of EngUsh Gomposition), and 
 the Satwday Review " does not much 
 like" (Jan. 4, 1879), is at all events 
 no pa/fvenu in the language. G. Put- 
 tenham, in his Arte of English Poesie, 
 1589, says — 
 
 If moderation of words tend to flattery, or 
 soothing, or excusing, it is by the figure 
 Paradiastole, wliich therefore nothing im- 
 properly we call the Currif-favelt, as when 
 we make the best of a bad thing, or turne a 
 signification to the more plausible sence ; as 
 to call an unthrift, a liberall Gentleman.— 
 (P. 195, ed. Arher). 
 
 If thou canst curreii fauour thus 
 ■ Thou shalt be counted sage. 
 
 Tasser, Works, 1580, p. 148 (E. & S.). 
 
 It is a corruption of cwry favel, to 
 curry, or smooth down, the chesnut- 
 horse, Fr. eU-iller fcmveaa} Ootgrave 
 quotes a proverb, " Tel etrille fauveau 
 gm •puis le mord. The imgratefull jade 
 bites him that does him good; " this 
 is found in a fourteenth century Eo- 
 mance, which went by the name of 
 Torche-Fauvel or Estrille-Fauvel. (Le 
 Eoux de Lincy, Proverhes Frangwis, 
 torn. ii. p. 36). Compare " curryfauell, 
 a flatterer, estrille." — Palsgrave, 1530. 
 
 Sche was a schrewe, as have y hele, 
 There sche currayed favetl well. 
 
 How a Merchant did his Wijfe betray j 
 1. 203. 
 
 The phrase assumed its meaning of 
 cajohng from a confusion of f(wel, the 
 yellow-coloured horse, with favel, an 
 old word for flattery (in Langland, 
 Occleve, Skelton, &c.), i.e. It. favola, a 
 lying tale, Lat. fabula. See Prof. 
 Skeat's Note on Piers the Plowman, 
 Vision of. Pass. ui. 1. 5, Text c. 
 
 In the ancient cant of thieves the 
 phrase is used for a sluggard. 
 
 He that will in court dwell, must needes 
 ctirrie fabel .... ye shal understand that 
 fahel is an olde Englishe worde, and signified 
 as much as favour doth now a dayes. — 
 Taoerner, Proverhes or adagies gathered out of 
 the Chiliudes of Erasmus, 1562, fo. 44. 
 
 Cory fauell is he, that wyl lie in his bed, 
 and cory the bed hordes in which he lyeth in 
 steede of his horse. This slouthful knaue 
 wyll buskill and scratch when he is called in 
 the morning, for any hast. — The XXV, 
 Orders of Knuues, 1575. 
 
 ' So also Douce, Illustrations to Shahesveare, 
 p. 291. 
 
 To curry a temporaiy favour he incurreth 
 everlasting hatred. — Adams, Sermons, i. 284. 
 
 To curry was once used indepen- 
 dently for to cajole, with reference 
 to the "soft smoothing of flattery" 
 (Fuller). 
 
 Jjey curry kinges & her back clawejj. 
 Fierce the Ploughman's Crede, 
 1394, 1. 365 (.ed. Skeat). 
 
 CuESE, in the vulgar phrase " not to 
 care a cwrse for a thing," is a corrup- 
 tion of the old Enghsh Icars or Jeers, a 
 cress, A. Sax. ccerse ; Dutch hersse, Ger. 
 kresse, Fr. cresson, " the herb tearmed 
 hars, or cresses," "cresson alenois, 
 kerse " (Cotgrave) ; which was made a 
 by- word for anything trivial and worth- 
 less. 
 
 So herson is a Lancashire form of 
 christen, "Feather Adam nother did 
 nor cou'd kerson it " (View of the Lanca- 
 sJwre Dialect). See also H. Tooke, 
 Diversions, p. 360 (ed. Taylor). 
 
 Wysdom and Wit now is nat worth a cane. 
 Langlarid, Vision of Piers Plowman, 
 Pass xii. 1. 14, Text c. 
 
 Anger gayneS the not a cresse. 
 Alliterative Poems, The Pearl, I. 343, 
 (ed. Mon-is). 
 
 Of paramours ne raught he not a hers. 
 Chanter, The MUleres Tale, 1. 3754. 
 
 To-morrow morning (if Heaven permit) I 
 begin the fifth volume of Shandy — 1 care mt 
 a curse for the critics. — Sterne, Letters, xviii. 
 1761. 
 
 That man never breathed, .... forwhose 
 conti'ibutions to the Magazine I cared one 
 single curse. — Wilson, Nodes Ambrosiante, 
 vol. i. p. 259. 
 
 I care not a curse though from birth he 
 inherit 
 The tear-bitter bread and the stingings of 
 scorn. 
 If the man be but one of God's nobles in 
 spirit — 
 Though penniless, richly-soul'd, — heart- 
 some, though worn. 
 
 Gerald Massey, The Worker. 
 
 A long list of examples in Norman 
 French, such as "not worth an onion, 
 a head of garlic, a nut, a lettuce, a 
 thread of silk," &c., will be found in 
 Atkinson's Vie de 8eint Auban, p. 67. 
 Compare 
 
 Thereof set the miller not a tare. 
 
 Chaucer, The Reves Tale, 3935. 
 
 This Absolon ne raughte not a bene. 
 MiUeres Tale, 1. 3770. 
 
CURTAIL 
 
 ( 89 ) GUST ABB WINDS 
 
 Compare the expressions " I don't 
 care a straw," " not a rush," Fr. il ne 
 vauf 'pas un zest {i.e. a wahmt-skin), 
 Lat. nauci, flood, nihili {i.e. ne-MU), 
 pendere; Greek ha/rdaniizo, to talk idly, 
 lit. chatter about cresses (kdrdamon), 
 hards mse , at a hair's value, &o. 
 
 " Not worth a rush " seems origi- 
 nally to have meant not deemed of 
 sulficient importance to have fresh 
 rushes strewed on the floor for one's 
 rebeption, at least so it is suggested by 
 the following passage : 
 
 " Strange have gi'eene rushes when daily 
 quests are wot worth a rush. — hilly^ Sapho 
 and Phao, ii. -1 (1584). 
 
 C0BTAIL, a corruption of the older 
 form to curtail, as if from the French 
 com-t tailler, to cut short, or as if it 
 meant to shorten or dock the tail [Cf. 
 0. Fr. courtaiilt, It. cortaldo]. Thus, 
 esqueui, which Cotgrave defines as "cii/r- 
 tall, curtailed ; untaUed, without taile, 
 deprived of a taile," would now be 
 translated " curtailed." An old writer 
 speaking of the knavery of dealers in 
 horses says : — 
 
 They can make curtails when they list, 
 and againe set too large taiLes, hanging to 
 the fetlockes at their pleasure. — Martin Plar- 
 haiCs apologie to the belman of Loiidotjy 1610, 
 Sig. G. 
 
 The curtal Friar of the Eobin Hood 
 Ballads was evidently of the Franciscan 
 order of monks who were ridiculed for 
 the short habits they wore in obedience 
 to their founder's injunction (Staveley, 
 Bonvish Horseleech, ch. xiv.), 0. Eng. 
 cwtal, a short cloke or coat. In the 
 old canting language of beggars, 
 
 A curtail is much like to the upright man, 
 but hys authority is not fully so great. He 
 useth commonly to go with a short cloke, like 
 to grefi friers, and his woman with him in 
 like liuery. — The Fratemitye of Vacabondes, 
 1575. 
 
 Shakespeare has " a curtail dog" for 
 cm-tal, in Gomedy of Errors, iii. 2, 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 1, and 
 Howell defines a curtail or curtal as 
 "a dog without a tail, good for any 
 service." — Bid. of Fou/r Languages. 
 
 Mr. Fitz-Edward Hall quotes, as 
 authorities for the verb to cwtall, 
 Thomas Campion (1602), Ancient Griti- 
 cal Essays, vol. ii. p. 165 ; Thos. James, 
 Treatise of the Corruption of Scriptwe, 
 1612, pt. ii. p. 59; Heyhn, Ecclesia 
 
 Vindicata (1657), pt. i. p. 132 {Moderrt 
 English, p. 185). 
 
 Curtail dogs, so taught they were 
 They kept the arrows in their mouth. 
 Ingledew, Ballads aiid Songs of York- 
 shire, p. 52. 
 
 CuBT-HOSE, the nickname of the 
 eldest son of the Conqueror, a corrup- 
 tion of Eobertus Curtus (M. MiillerJ 
 Chips, iii. 301). So cat-house, an old 
 species of battering-ram, was originally 
 cattus, so called from its crafty approach 
 to the walls. It. gatto, " a hee-oat, 
 Also an engine of warre to batter walls " 
 (Florio). Gattus, " machina belli " 
 (Spelman, Glossary), " a werrely holde 
 that men call a barbed catte " (Caxton's 
 Vegecius). 
 
 Curtilage, " a law term for a piece 
 of ground, yard, or garden-platt, be- 
 longing to, or lying near a house." — 
 Bailey, from Low Lat. curtis. The 
 word is a derivation not of curtus, but of 
 Lat. chor{t)s, cohor{t)s, a yard, whence 
 also It. corte, Fr. cour, Eng. cou/rt, 
 Welsh cwri. C. Kingsley curiously 
 spells it courtledge (Davies, Supp.Eng. 
 Glossary). 
 
 CuETLB-AXE, and CuBTLAX, a cor- 
 ruption of " cutlass," really Fr. coute- 
 las. It. cortelazo, coUellaccio, from Lat. 
 cuUellus (dim. of culter, a knife), but 
 understood as if a curtal or short axe. 
 Skinner spells it curtelass, and explains 
 it as ensis hrevicn- {Etymologiaon, 1671). 
 Cf. Dut. hortelas (Sewel). 
 For with my swor[r]d, this sharp cartle axe, 
 
 I'll cut asunder my accursed heart — ■ 
 
 Locrine, 1586. 
 
 A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh, 
 A boar-spear in my hand. 
 
 As You Like It, i. 3, 1. 119 
 (Globe ed.). 
 Dear ware this Hanger and this Curtilax. 
 The Roaring Girl, i. 1 (1611). 
 There springs the shrub three foot aboue 
 
 the grass 
 Which fears the keen edge of the Curtelace. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 181 (1621). 
 
 A still further corruption was curtaxe. 
 With curtaxe used Diamond to smite. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, iv. 2, 42. 
 
 Custard winds, a Cleveland word 
 for the cold easterly winds prevalent 
 on the N.E. coast in spring, is probably, 
 Mr. Atkinson thinks, a corruption of 
 coast-ward winds. 
 
OUT-HEAL 
 
 ( 90 ) 
 
 OYPHEB 
 
 Cut-heal, a popular name for the 
 Valerian, Dr. Prior thinks may be from 
 Dut. Icutte, A. Sax. cmS, it being used 
 in uterine affections. 
 
 CuTLASH, a corruption oicutlas found 
 in N.W. Lincolnshire, and elsewhere. 
 
 He . . . gave him one B]ow a-cross his 
 Belly with his cutlash. — Cha&, Johnson, Lives 
 of Highwai/men, ifc, 269 (1734). 
 
 A good hog for an old cutlash. 
 
 Id. p. 234. 
 A villanous Frenchman made at me with a 
 cutlash. — Blachnore, Maid oj Sker, vol. i. p. 11. 
 
 It is also found as cutlace. 
 With Monmouth cap and cutlace by my side. 
 A Satyre on Hea Officers ( 0, Plays, 
 xii. 375, ed. 1827). 
 
 Cutlet, so spelt probably from a 
 notion that it denoted a little cut of 
 meat. It is really the French cotelette, 
 a little rib of mutton or other meat, 
 diminutive of cote, a rib or side, and 
 this again is from the Lathi casta. The 
 older French form was costelette. 
 
 Costelkttes de pore, the span-ibs. — Cotgrave. 
 
 To join in a costelel and a sallad. — North, 
 Life of Lord Guilford, i. 91 [see Daoies, Supp. 
 Lng, Glossaiy^. 
 
 Coast is said to be a Sussex word for 
 the ribs of cooked meat, particularly 
 lamb (Parish, Glossa/ry). 
 
 Sir Beaumains smot him through the cost 
 of the body. — Malorif, King Arthur, 1634, 
 vol. i. p. 253 (ed. Wi-ight). 
 
 Cuttle-fish, O. Eng. " Codulle, 
 fysche. Sepia" [Promjpt. Parv.). A. 
 Sax. cudele. " Loligo, a fyshe whiohe 
 hath his head betwene his feete and 
 his bealy, and hath also two bones, 
 cone lylce a knife, the other lyke a 
 penne." — Elyot. It is from this bone, 
 which bears a considerable resemblance 
 to a flint Icmfe or celt (Fr. {coutel) cou- 
 teau), and may often be picked up on 
 the shore, that the fish is supposed to 
 take its name. Cf. the names cousteau 
 de mer, Welsh mor-gyllell, "sea-knife." 
 The German name, however, is huttel- 
 jisch (? from huttel, entrails, guts) ; 
 0. Dut. huttel-visch. The word in 
 Enghsh has been corrupted from 
 cuddle, cudle, under the influence of the 
 foreign names. 
 
 CwELOA, an Anglo-Saxon name for 
 tlie plant colocyniMs, Gk. IcololcuntMs, 
 given by Bosworth, is evidently a natu- 
 ralized form of the foreign word, as if 
 
 connected with cweUan, to kill or quell, 
 from its powerful action when adminis- 
 tered as a drug. See Gerarde, Eer- 
 hall, fol. p. 769. 
 
 Cycle, a pedantic spelling of sicUe 
 (Lat. secula, a cutter, from seeo), as if 
 so called from its circular shape and de- 
 rived from Greek cychts (icvkKoq); cf. 
 Fr. dele =. a shekel. — Cotgrave. 
 
 The corn . . . wooed the cycles to cut it. 
 Fuller, Pisgah Sight, fol. 1650, p. 161. 
 
 Messena was at the first called Zaucle," of 
 the crookednesse of the place, which signi- 
 fieth a cycle. — G. Sandys, Travels, p. 244. 
 
 Cyder, for sider or syder, the com- 
 mon form in old writers, Lat. sicera, 
 Greek siherd, Heb. shelcar, has appa- 
 rently been assimilated in spelling by 
 the learned to cyd-oneum, a beverage 
 made out of the cydonia or qTiince, a 
 kind of perry. Pepys spells it syder. 
 Diary, vol. ii. p. 113 (ed. Bright). 
 
 Shehar (Prov. xxxi. 4) was originally 
 a sweet wine ; in later times, when 
 widely spread by means of Phoenician 
 commerce, only a kind of beer. — Ewald, 
 Antiquities of Israel, p. 86. 
 
 Sothli he schal be greet bifore the Lord, 
 and lie schal not drynke wyn and si/dir. — 
 Wyclife, Luke i. 15 (1389). 
 
 He ne drincjj win ne btor. — ^4. Sai. Version 
 (995). 
 
 Sihera, says S. Jerome, " in the 
 Hebrew tongue is every drink which 
 can inebriate, whether it is made from 
 grain, or from the juice of apples, or 
 from honey, or the fruit of the palm " 
 (Epist. ad Nepolian). Initial C and S 
 were formerly almost interchangeable, 
 and we still write cele^-y for selery (It. 
 sellari, Lat. selinon), ceiling for seeling, 
 cess for sess, &c. 
 
 Cygnet, foi-merly cignet (Fr. eigne), 
 a young swan, so spelt as if connected 
 with Lat. cygnus, a swan. Fr. eigne, 
 however, is identical with 0. Fr. and 
 Span, cisnc, from Low Lat. cecinus, a 
 swan, and quite unconnected with cyg- 
 nus (Diez). 
 
 Cypher. An organ-pipe is said to 
 cypher when it continues sounding, 
 when the note on the key-board is not 
 struck. It is doubtless the same word 
 as 'Welsh, sihrwd, to murmur, to whisper, 
 French siffler, Sp. chifla.r, Prov. sillar 
 (from sifilare = sihilare) ; Prov. Eng. 
 sife, siff, to sigh (Devonshire, &c). 
 
0YPBE88 BOOT 
 
 ( 91 ) 
 
 DAINTY 
 
 Compare It. dfolare and ciuffola/re, to 
 whistle, dfello, a piper, a whistler, 
 zuffmure, to whistle or whisper, zuffo- 
 Iwre, to pipe ; Arab, sifr, whistling, 
 dffer, to whistle ; Heb. sqfdr, a trumpet. 
 
 Cypbess koot, or Sweet Cypress, 
 popularly so called, is an assimilation 
 of its Latin name cypertis {longus) to 
 the well-known tree-name cypress, 
 Lat. mipressus, Greek kuparissos. 
 
 Ctpetjs, otherwise spelt cypress and 
 dpres, an old name for a species of fine 
 transparent lawn, as if the stuff intro- 
 duced from Cyprus, has been considered 
 the origin of the word crape (Abp. 
 Trench, Stuckj of Words, Lect. iv.). 
 The direct opposite is, I think, the case. 
 Crape, Fr. arepe, old Pr. crespe, which 
 Cotgrave defines "Cipres, also Cobweb 
 Lawne," Scot, crisp, have their origin 
 in Lat. orispus, and are descriptive of 
 the crisp and riveUed (Fr. crespi) tex- 
 ture of the material. Minsheu de- 
 scribes cipres as " a fine curled linen, 
 Lat. lyssus crispata." Cipres, there- 
 fore, was the same as crape, and pro- 
 bably is only another form of the same 
 word altered by metathesis, thus, vrispe, 
 old Eng. cryspe ; cripse (crypse) in Prov. 
 Eng. ; cirps in A. Saxon, cyrps; oipr{e)s, 
 cypr{e)s; similar transformations being 
 not unusual, e.g. grass for gwrs, A. S. 
 goers ; cart for crat, A. S. ermt ; hirsten, 
 kirsen (Bums), for clwisten, &c. 
 Blak with crips her [^ hair], lene, and 
 somdel qued. 
 Wright, Pop. Treatises on SciencBj 
 loth cent., p. 138, 1. 283. 
 
 Jamieson gives cryp (? for aryps) as 
 an old Scotch word for crape, old Eng. 
 
 Nelle with hir nyfyls of crisp and of sylke. 
 Townky Mysteries, Juditium (15th cent.). 
 
 A Cyprus not a bosom 
 Hides my poor heart. 
 
 Twelfth Night, iii. 1. 
 Lawn, as white as driven snow, 
 Cyprus, black as e'er was crow. 
 
 Winter's Tale, iv. 3. 
 About her head a Cyprus heau'n she wore, 
 Spread like a veile, vpheld with siluer wire. 
 G. Fletcher, Christs Victorie in Heauen 
 
 (1610), 59. 
 And sable stole of cipres lawn 
 Over thy decent shoulders drawn. 
 
 Milton, 11 Penseroso, 1. 36. 
 Over all these draw a black cypress, a veil 
 of penitential sorrow. — J. Taylor, Holy Dying, 
 p. n (ed. 1848). 
 
 Exactly similar in origin, and nearly 
 related, are Fr. ci-epe, a pancake, old 
 Eng. cryjjjes, fritters (Wright), cryspels 
 (Forme of Cwy), Scot, crisp, a pancake, 
 i.e. something fried tOl crisp. 
 
 Cryspes fryeS- — Book of Precedence, p. 91 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Cyst-beam, the Anglo-Saxon name 
 for the chestnut tree, as if connected 
 with cyst, fruitfulness, goodness, cystig, 
 bountiful, liberal, is a corruption of 
 Lat. cast-aneus. See Chestnut. 
 
 Cythoen, an old Eng. form of "cit- 
 tern , " the musical instrument, is quoted 
 by Carl Engel, Musical Myths a/nd 
 Facts, i. p. 60. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dab, in the ooUoq^uial phrase "to be 
 a dab at anything," i.e. clever, expert, 
 has probably no connexion with dab, 
 to hit (the mark), or dapper, spruce 
 (Goth, ga-dobs, fitting), but is a corrup- 
 tion of adept (Lat. adeptus, proficient), 
 misunderstood as a dep'. Cf. North 
 Eng. dabster, a proficient. 
 
 Dainty. This word, when used in 
 the sense of fastidiously nice, finicking, 
 delicate, O. Eng. deynte, deinte, is pro- 
 perly a subs. = pleasantness, from 
 O. Fr. daintie, and that from dain, fine, 
 quaint, Lat. dignus, worthy. Cf. dis- 
 dain, to deem unworthy (Skeat). 
 
 For deynte i>at he hadde of him : he let him 
 
 sone bringe 
 Before ]je prince of Engelond : Adelstan Jje 
 
 kynge. 
 
 Life of S. Dunstan, 1. 36, Philolog. 
 Soc. Trans., 1858. 
 
 And he resawyt thaim in daynte, 
 And hyr full gretly thankit he. 
 Barbour, The Bruce, bk. iv. 1. 142 
 (ed. Jamieson). 
 
 When used in the special sense of a 
 delicacy, something nice to eat, the 
 word was probably confounded with 
 Welsh dantaeth, a dainty, something 
 toothsome (from dant, dwint, tooth), 
 Scot, dadntith, daintess. 
 
 Thow waxes pur, Jjane fortone wil |;e wyt. 
 And haf na dantetht of l>i sone na delite. 
 Bernardus, De Cura Rei Famularis, 
 p. 14, 1.334 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
DAMES 
 
 { 92 ) 
 
 BASH IT! 
 
 To tell here metus was tere/ That was served 
 
 at here sopere, 
 There was no dentethus to dere/ Ne spyces to 
 spare. 
 
 Sir Degrevant, 11. 1409-1412, The 
 
 Thornton Romance, p. 236. 
 
 Ahof dukes on dece, with dayntys serued. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, B. 1. 38 (ed. 
 
 Morris). 
 
 Jacob here made daintif of lentils. 
 
 T. Adams, Politic Hunting, 
 Worhs, i. 5. 
 So that for lack oideintie mete, 
 Of which an herte may be fedde, 
 I go fastende to my bedde. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, vol. iii. 
 p. 25 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 When we say, therefore, that a per- 
 son is dainty about his food and fond of 
 dainties, we use two really distinct 
 words — the former akin to dignity, the 
 latter to dentist. 
 
 Dames, an old Enghsh name for the 
 game of draughts, Fi: dames, would 
 seem to have been borrowed from 
 Egyptian dameh, if that be the primi- 
 tive word. 
 
 The modern Egyptians have a game of 
 draughts very similar in the appearance of 
 the men to that of their ancestors, which they 
 call dumeh, and play much in the same manner 
 as our own, — Witkinson, Ancient Egyptians, 
 ed. Birch, vol. ii. p. 58. 
 
 Another game existing in the Middle Ages, 
 but much more rarely alluded to, was called 
 dumes, or ladies, and has still preserved that 
 name in French. — Wright, Homes of other 
 Days, p. 235. 
 
 In French and Provenqal damier is a 
 chessboard. 
 
 Dame's violet, a popular name for 
 the hesperis matronalis, is a corruption 
 of Pr. violette de Damas, "damask 
 violet " (Lat. viola Damascena), as if 
 it were violette des dames (Prior). 
 
 Damsel, "the damson (Damascena), 
 a variety of the pnmus domestica." 
 (Holderness Glossary, Eng. Dialec. Soc, 
 Yorks., Cheshire, and North of Ireland.) 
 — Britten and Holland. 
 
 They are called damascens of the citie of 
 Damascus of Soria. — Passenger of Benvennto, 
 1612 (Nares). 
 
 Modern Damascus is a beautifull city. 
 The first Damask-rose had its root here, and 
 name hence. So all Damask silk, linen, 
 poulder, and plumbes called Damascens. — 
 r. Fuller, Pisgah Sight, bk. iv. ch. i. p. 9 
 (1650). 
 
 Darbies, a slang term forhandcufis, 
 is said to be in full Johrmy Barbies, a, 
 corruption of Pr. gens-d'armss, applied 
 originally as a nickname to pohoe- 
 men [?]. 
 
 We clinked the darbies on him, took him as 
 quiet as a lamb. 
 Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiii. 
 
 But the old term was "Father 
 Derbie's bands." 
 
 To binde such babes in father Derbies lands. 
 G. Gascoigne, The Steel Glas (1576), 
 1. 787. 
 See also T. L. 0. Davies, Supp.Eng. 
 Glossary, s. v. 
 
 Daekle, to gloom or be dark, a 
 fictitious verb, formed from darkUng, 
 understood as a present participle. 
 BoA-hling^ia the dark, is really an 
 adverb, like 0. Eng. hackling, jUdUng, 
 headUng. See Geovel and Sidle. 
 Out went the candle, and we were left dark- 
 ling. 
 
 Shahespeare, K. Lear, i. 4, 1. 237. 
 Darkling they join adverse, and shock un- 
 seen. 
 Coursers with coursers justling, men with 
 men. 
 
 Dryden, Fahmwn and Arcite, bk. iii. 
 
 1. 590. 
 
 Bp. HaU has the phrase " to go dark- 
 
 lings to bed." 
 
 D'Arcy Magee, in one of his songs, 
 
 A cypress wreath darkles now, I ween, 
 Upon the brow of my love in green. 
 Founder's Tomb .... darkles and shines 
 
 with the most wonderful shadows and lights. 
 
 — Thackeray, Neiccomes, ch. Ixxv. 
 
 See T. L. O. Davies, Supp. Eng. 
 Glossa/ry, s.v. 
 
 Modern poets often use darkling as 
 an adjective. 
 To-night beneath the lime-trees' darkling 
 
 arms 
 The dying sun's farewell is passing sweet. 
 W. H. Pollock, The Poet and the 
 Mme, 1880. 
 On darkling man in pure effulgence shine. 
 Johnson, The Rambler, No. 7. 
 
 Dash it I This expletive does not 
 probably, as we might suppose, repre- 
 sent the typographical euphemism of a 
 
 dash, as ia " d it," but the Fr. 
 
 deshait, dehait, dehet, affliction, misfor- 
 tune (Ut. dis-pleasure, from 0. Fr. hait, 
 pleasure), as an imprecation equivalent 
 
DASIBEBDE 
 
 ( 93 ) DAY-NETTLE 
 
 to Cursed I 111 betide I This in old Eng. 
 appears as the interjection datheit, 
 dahet. 
 
 Da]jeit hwo it hire thaue ! 
 Da]>eit hvro it hire yeue ! 
 Havelok the Dane (ab. 1280), 11. , 
 296,300. SeeSkeatjGtossaty, 
 s.v. 
 Dahet habbe that ilke best 
 That fuleth liia owe nest. 
 
 . The OwLand the NiE^htiiigale, 
 1. 100 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Dasibekdb, an old Eng. word for a 
 simpleton (? as if a dazed heard), affords 
 a curious instance of corruption. It is 
 another form of dozeper, dosseper, origi- 
 nally one of the doseperis, Pr. les douze 
 paws, the twelve peers of France. See 
 
 DOSEBEEDE. 
 
 Al so the dosse pers 
 Of France were Jjere echon, ))at so noble were 
 and fers. 
 
 Robt. of Gloucester, p. 188. 
 Sir Cayphas, I saye seckerly 
 We that bene in companye 
 Must needes this dosebelrde destroye. 
 The Chester Mysteries (Shaks. Soc), 
 vol. ii. p. 34. 
 
 Date, the fruit of the palm-tree, Fr. 
 datte, old Pr. dacie, have been formed 
 from dactle, dactyle ; of. Span, and 
 Prov. daM, Flem. dadel, Ger. dattel, 
 Lat. dadylus, Greek ddldulos, (1) a 
 finger or dactyl, (2) a finger-shaped 
 fruit, a date ; these latter words from 
 their termination being mistaken for 
 diminutives (Kke hernel, satchel, &o.). 
 Similarly almond, Fr. amande, has 
 been evolved from amandle, Dut. 
 a/mandel, Prov. almandola; and Fr. 
 "ange from angel. 
 
 Date, frute, Dactilus. — Prompt Parvulo- 
 rum, 1440. 
 
 Dactyle, the Date-grape or Finger-grape. 
 — Cotgrave. 
 
 A. iisiK.Jingeriepla [:= dates], ^Ifric. — 
 Cockayne, Leechdoms, ii. 368. 
 
 A man. might have been hard put to it to 
 interpret the language of ^sculapius, when 
 to a consumptive person he held forth his 
 fingers ; implying thereby that his cure lay 
 in dates, from the homonomy of the Greek, 
 which signifies dates and fingers. — Sir Thos, 
 Browne, •IVorhs, vol. iii. p. 344 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 Davy Jones's Looker, in the sailor's 
 phrase "He's gone to Davy Jones's 
 Locker," i.e. gone to the bottom, 
 drowned, or dead, it has been supposed 
 may originally have been Jonah's locker, 
 in aUusion to the position of the pro- 
 
 phet when swallowed up, and " the 
 earth with her bars was about him for 
 ever" (Jonah, ii. 6). Davy, as being a 
 common prenomen of all the Welsh 
 Joneses, was then, perhaps, arbitrarily 
 prefixed. See T. L. 0. Davies, Supp. 
 Eng. Glossary, s.v. David seems to 
 have been a favourite name, for some 
 reason, among seamen, certain navi- 
 gation instruments being called David's 
 staff and David's quad/rant (Bailey). 
 
 So was he descended .... to the roots 
 and crags of them [the hills], lodged in so 
 low a cabin, that all those heaps and swel- 
 lings of the earth lay upon him The 
 
 meaning of the prophet was, that he was 
 locked and warded within the sti'ength of the 
 earth, never looking to be set at liberty again. 
 — Bp. John King, On Jonah (1594), p. 174, 
 col. 1 (ed. Grosart). 
 
 Dawn, a corruption of the old word 
 dawing or daying, A. Sax. dagung, the 
 becoming day, a substantive formed 
 from the O. Eng. verb to daw, A. Sax. 
 dagian, to become day (dceg), Icel. 
 deging, so spelt as if a past participial 
 form, like drawn (from A. S. dragan), 
 sawn, horn, &c. 
 
 Dawyn', Auroro ; Dayyn', or wexyn day 
 (^dawyn), Diesco.- — Prompt. Pai-vulorum. 
 
 The dayng of day. — Anturs of Arthur, 
 xxxvii. (Camden. Soc). 
 
 To dawe as the day dothe, adjourner, I'aube 
 se crieve. — Palsgrave, 1530. 
 
 In his bed ther dawelh him no day. 
 
 Chaucer, The Knightes Tale, 1. 1678. 
 
 Hii come to her felawes in dawynge. — 
 Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 208 (ed. 
 1810). 
 
 Bi nihte ine winter, ine sumer ij>e 
 dawitnge. — Ancren Riwk (ab. 1225), p. 20. 
 When )je dawande day dryStyn con sende. 
 
 Alliterative Poems (14th cent.), C. 
 1.445. 
 
 Dat-beeey, a provincial name for 
 the wild gooseberry (Courtney, W. 
 Oorwwall Olossa/ry), is undoubtedly a 
 corruption of its common popular name 
 thape, or theabe, + herry, the ^ or & 
 being merged in the ensuing h, so that 
 the word became tha'-herry, and then 
 day-herry. 
 
 Day-nettle, a north country name 
 of the plant galeopsis tetrahit, is for 
 deye-nettle, i.e. the nettle injurious to 
 lahowrers, old Eng. deyes, whom it is 
 believed to affect with whitlows. — 
 Britten and Holland, Eng. Plant- 
 Names, pp. 140, 150. 
 
BAY-WOMAN 
 
 ( 94 ) 
 
 DEGOT 
 
 Day-woman occurs in Shakespeare 
 for a servant whom we would now call 
 a dairy-maid, Perthshire dey. 
 
 She is allowed for the day-woman. 
 Love's Labour's Lost, i. 2. 1. 137. 
 
 Bey-wyfe occurs in Palsgrave (1530), 
 deye in Chaucer and Prompt. Parvulo- 
 rum (c. 1440), with the same meaning. 
 Compare Swed. deja, a dairy-maid, 
 Icel. deigja. Bcdry, the place where 
 she pursues her occupation (O. Eng, 
 deyrye) stands to dey, as fairy {f eerie) 
 does to fay, huttery {i.e. hutlery) to 
 hutler. Bay-limise for dairy still is 
 found in S. W. counties of England. 
 It is this word day or dey, in the 
 general sense of maid, that occurs in 
 la-dy, A. Sax. hlcef-dige, the "loaf- 
 • maid." It is generally understood to 
 be the " kneader," connected with 
 Goth, deigan, to knead. But it is never 
 applied except to a female, and seems 
 to mean specifically a "milk-maid," 
 not a baker. Cf. Hindustani, ddi, a 
 mUk-nurse, " Lucy and her Daj/." Cf. 
 Prov. Ger. daiern, to fatten a calf with 
 milk (WestphaUan); and Dan. die, milk, 
 the breast, gi/ve die, to suckle, diehroder, 
 foster-brother. 
 
 His daye \>e is his whore awlenc<5 hire mid 
 clones [The maid that is his whore he adorns 
 with clothes]. — Old Eng. HomiUes,i2ih cent. 
 2nd ser. p. 168. 
 
 The goodnesse of the earth abounding with 
 deries and pasture. — Fuller, Worthies, vol. ii. 
 p. 1. 
 
 The dey, or farmwoman, entered with her 
 pitchers, to deliver the milk for the family. — 
 Scott, Fair Maid of Perth, ch. xxxii. vol. v. p. 
 329, ed. 1857. [Deyiuoman occurs a few lines 
 afterwards.] 
 
 Deadman's Day, an East Anglian 
 name for the 20th of November, St. 
 Edmund's Bay (E. D. Soc. reprints, 
 B. 20), of whicla it is evidently a cor- 
 ruption, 't Edrmm's day. Cf. Tantlins 
 for 8t. AntJwUns, Tails for 8t. mi's, 
 Tanns for 8t. Ann's, Tooley for 8i. 
 Olaf. 
 
 Deae me 1 a vulgar exclamation of 
 mild surprise, is supposed to be a cor- 
 ruption of It. Bio miol It is rather 
 from Fr. Biev, me (aide), old Fr. madia ! 
 Similar is the exclamation in the Alex- 
 ander Romance madeus! which stands 
 for m'aide Beus ! (0. Fr. Beus, God. — 
 W. W. S.) In Irish fiadha is " good 
 God," "a testimony," and fiadh is a 
 
 " deer," but this is no more than a 
 coincidence. 
 
 Madia, In good sooth; as true as I \m- 
 or (instead of Ce m'ait Di^u) So God help 
 me. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Deary me ! Deary me ! forgive me, good m, 
 but tliis yance, I'll steal naa maar. — W. Hut- 
 ton, A Bran New Wark, 1. 343 (E.D.S.). 
 
 My informant Jack did'nt seem quite ao 
 sanguine as the clergyman, for he uttered 
 that truly Northumbrian ejaculation, "Bear 
 kens ! " in a highly interrogative manner.— 
 N. and Q. in Dyer, Eng. Folklore, p. 225. 
 Then did ideas dance (dear safe ua !) 
 As they'd been daft. 
 
 A. Ramsay, Epistle to Arbuckle, 1719. 
 
 " Dear help you ! " " Dear love you ! " are 
 in use in N. Ireland (Patterson, E. D. S.). 
 
 Debentuee, a bond in acknowledg- 
 ment of moneys owing, is an altered 
 form of delentwr {Blount, Bacon), 
 " There are due," the first words of a 
 bond written in Latin. Cf. iAel, he 
 owes, credit, he trusts, tenet, he holds. 
 
 It has been assimilated to temnf, 
 censure, enclosure, and many other 
 words in -ure, Lat. -v/)-a. 
 Father John Burges,/ Necessity urges 
 My woeful cry/ To Sir Robert Pie : 
 And that he will venture/ To send my dehm- 
 ture. 
 
 B. Jonson, Underwoods, Ixxv. 
 
 Deck, in the following passage— 
 Thou didst smile. 
 Infused with a fortitude fi'om heaven, 
 When I have deck'd the sea with di'ops liill 
 salt. 
 
 Tempestj act i. sc. 2. 1. 155— 
 is most probably a corruption of the pro- 
 vincial word deg, to bedew or sprinkle 
 (so Dyoe, Clark, and Wright). Other 
 forms of the word are Cleveland (fojj, 
 Icel. doggva, Swed. dugva, to bedew, 
 and Icel. ddgg, Dan. and Swed. dug, 
 Prov. Swed. dagg, zz " dew." 
 
 Decoy, the modem form of the older 
 word duch-coy, from the mistaken ana- 
 logy of words like devour, decry, deWe, 
 depose, denude, deploy, &c. Dwd-coi/s 
 or coy-ducks (which occurs in Eush- 
 worth's Historical Collections, and is 
 the word still in use in N. W. Lincoln- 
 shire) are tame ducks trained to entice 
 wild-fowl into a net or coy. "Goj, 
 a duck decoy." — Holderness dialect, 
 E. Yorkshire. See Ooy-duck, Davie!, 
 8upp. Eng. Glossary. 
 
 Compare Dutch eende-hooi, "a duck- 
 cage," i.e. for catching ducks, and 
 
DEFAME 
 
 ( 95 ) 
 
 DELIOE 
 
 kooi-eend, a decoy duck; Fr. canar- 
 diere; "Decoys seu Duck-coys," Wil- 
 lughby, 1676. See Evelyn, Dia/ry, 
 Sept. 19, 1641. 
 
 Similarly Fr. enjolei; to wheedle, 
 meant etymologioaUy to encage, from 
 geole, O. F.Jaiole, a cage. Decoy seems 
 generally to have been confomided 
 ■with 0. Eng. to coy or acoie, to make 
 coy or quiet, to tame, to allure (so 
 Eiohardson, s.v.). See Haldeman, 
 Affixes, p. 56. 
 
 St. Basil says that some in his time did 
 sprinkle sweet ointment upon the Wings of 
 tame Pigeons, and sent them abroad, like our 
 cot) Ducks, to fetch in the wild Flocks that 
 tliey might take delight in them, and follow 
 them home. — Bp. Racket, Century of Serrmms, 
 1675, p. 802 (fol.). 
 Women, like me, as ducks in a decoy, 
 Swim down a stream, and seem to swim in 
 
 Crabbe, The Parisli Re^ster, Works, 
 p. 137 (ed. Murray)! 
 
 Defame, the modern spelling of old 
 Eng. diffame, Sp. desfamer, Fr. diffamer. 
 It. dAffama/re, Lat. diffamare, to dis- 
 fame (like disgrace, dishonour, disfigwre), 
 from a false analogy to words such as 
 debase, degrade, defend, &c. Bo defer is 
 for dif-fer. 
 
 All J^at dijfam£ man or woman wherfor her 
 state and her lose is peyred. — J. Myrc, In- 
 structions for Parish Priests, p. 22, 1. 708 
 (E. E. T. S.;. 
 
 Delice, " The fayre flowre Delice," 
 Spenser, The 8hepheards Calender, 
 April, 1. 145, so called as if the flower of 
 delight (deUce),tflos delicia/rum, is a cor- 
 ruption ot fleur-de-Us, the iris. E.K.'s 
 comment is, " Flowre deUee that which 
 they use to raisterme flowre deluce, 
 being in Latin called Flos delitiarum." 
 Custarde royall, with a lyoparde of golde 
 syttynge therein, and holdynge a Jtoure 
 delyce. — Fabuan, Chronicks, 1516, p. 600 
 ( Ellis's repnnt). 
 
 If sin open her shop of delicacies, Solo- 
 mon shews the trap-door and the vault ; 
 .... if she discovers, the green and gay 
 flowers of delice, he cries to the ingredients 
 [= goers in] Latet anguis in herba — The 
 serpent lurks there. — T. Adams, The Fatal 
 Banquet, Sermons, i. 159. 
 
 Fleur-de-lis itself is said to be a cor- 
 ruption oi fkur-de-Louis, from its hav- 
 ing been adopted as his badge by Louis 
 VII. of France. Compare the old Eng. 
 name^wre de luce. 
 
 Cardeno lirio, a Flowre-de-lice, or Flowre- 
 de-luce. — Minsheu, Spanish Diet., 1623. 
 
 Bring rich carnations, /ouier-t/e-Zuces, lilies. 
 The chequed and purple-ringed daffodillies. 
 B.Jonson, Fan s Anniversary, Works, 
 p. 6io. 
 
 There is a legendary helief that the twelve 
 
 first Louis signed their names as Lciys, and 
 
 tliat fieur-de-lys is simply a corruption of 
 
 fleur-de-Loi/s. — F. Marshall, Inlernational 
 
 Vanities, p. 200. 
 
 The vj a flour had fond, 
 Clepit delice, 
 
 Booke of Precedence, p. 95, 1. 47 
 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 John Birch .... heareth azure three 
 Flower deluces. . . . This Flower in Latin 
 is called Iris, w'"" word stands also for a 
 Rainbow whereto it some what resembleth 
 in Colour. Some of the French confound 
 this with the Lilly. — T. Dingley, History 
 from Marble, p. cli. (Camden Soc). 
 
 And as her Fmit sprung fi'om the Rose and 
 
 Luce, 
 (The best of Stems Earth yet did e'er pro- 
 duce) 
 Is tied already by a sanguine Race .... 
 So may they shoot their youthful Branches 
 
 o'er 
 The surging Seas, and gi'aff' with every shore. 
 J. Howell, The Vote or Poem-Royal, 
 1641. 
 II est certain que, ni en pierre, ni en metal, 
 ni sur les medailles, ni sur les sceaux, on ne 
 trouve aucun vestige veritable defleurs de lis 
 avant Louis le Jeune ; c'est sous son regne, 
 vers 1147, que I'ecu de France commenya 
 d'en etre seme. — Saint Foix, Ess. Hist. Paris, 
 (Euvres, tom. iv. p. 107. 
 
 A further corruption seems to have 
 resulted from a misunderstanding of 
 flower-de-luce as "flower of light," 
 flos luais, with some reference perhaps 
 to its name Iris, in Greek ourania, 
 which denotes also the heavenly bow 
 or rainbow (Gerarde, Herhall, p. 50). 
 
 The azure fields of heau'n wear 'sembled 
 
 right, 
 In a large round, set with the_;?oiij'r5 of light, 
 Ihejiow'rs-de-luce, and the round sparks of 
 
 deaw, 
 That hung vpon the azure leaues, did shew. 
 Like twinkling Starrs, that sparkle in th' 
 eau'ning blew. 
 Giles Fletcher, Christ's Victorie on Earth, 
 42 (1610). 
 
 A lily of a day 
 
 Is fairer far, in May, 
 Although it fall and die that night ; 
 It was the plant and flower of light. 
 B. Jonson, Underwoods, Ixxxvii. 3. 
 
DEMAIN 
 
 ( 96 ) 
 
 DENT 
 
 Dbmain, J also formerly demean, an 
 Demesne, S estate, lands pertaining 
 to a naanor-house, so spelt as if con- 
 nected with old Eng. demain, demene, 
 to manage, Fr. demener, and meant to 
 denote those lands which a lord of a 
 manor holds in his own hands (BaUey), 
 in his demain, management, or control ; 
 just as, according to Chaucer, Alexander 
 All this world welded in his demaine. 
 The Monkes Tale, 1. 14583 (ed. Tyrwhitt). 
 
 and so in another place 
 
 His herte was nothing in his own demain. 
 
 Similarly old Fr. demaine, It. de- 
 manio (Florio). 
 
 I find one William Stumps .... bought 
 of him the demeans of Malmesbury Abbey 
 for fifteen hundred pound two shillings and 
 a halfpenny. — T. iuller, Worthies, Tol. ii. 
 p. 452 (ed. 1811). 
 
 These are all corruptions of the cor- 
 rect form domcuin, Fr. domaine. It. do- 
 minio, Lat. dominium, a lordship or 
 domimon. Milton speaks of Eome's 
 
 Wide domain, 
 In ample territory, wealth, and power. 
 
 Paradise Regained, iv. 81. 
 
 Domaine, A demaine, a mans patrimony or 
 inheritance, proper and hereditary posses- 
 sions, those whereof he ia the right or ti'ue 
 Lord l^dominus']. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Domanium properly signifies the King's 
 land in France, appertaining to him in pro- 
 perty. . . Thedomams of the Crown are held 
 of the King, who is absolute lord, having 
 proper dominion. — Wood, Institutes, p. 139 
 (In Latham). 
 
 licmains . . are the lord's chief manor-place 
 with the lands thereto belonging, terr<B domi- 
 nicales.—Blount (Latham). 
 
 The spelling demesne is owing to an 
 idea that these were lands held in 
 mesne, an old law term, by a mesne 
 lord. Speknan says " Bonvinicam is a 
 forensic word . . in Enghsh the De- 
 mcuine, which some write wrongly De- 
 meane and Demesne, as if it were sprung 
 from Fr. de mesne, i.e. peculiar to one- 
 self, and not from Lat. dominicum" 
 [Glossary, 1626, p. 224). 
 A gentleman of noble parentage. 
 Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly trained. 
 
 Shakespeare, liomeo and Ju/ie(, iii. 5, 181. 
 
 Demean, often used in the sense to 
 lower, degrade, or make mean, as " I 
 wouldn't demean myseK to speak to 
 him," is a modern and popular per- 
 version of the verb demeam, to cbmport 
 or behave oneself, Fr. se dim^ner. 
 
 whence demeanov/r. It has no con- 
 nexion with mean, low, base, A. Sax. 
 mcene. "Yours as you demean your- 
 self " was the phrase with which Queen 
 Elizabeth sometimes concluded her 
 letters. 
 Be you so valiant as ye say, & of so greate 
 
 bownt^, 
 That so great ioye demeaneth, Of what coatr6 
 
 be yet 
 Debute between Somer and Wynter, 1. 8. 
 
 See, sir, thus far 
 We have demeaned fairly, like ourselves. 
 Heywood and Rowley, Fortune by Land 
 and Sea, p. 19 (Shaks. Soc.) 
 
 An Holy Scripture does not demean itself, 
 nor exhaust itself on matters alien to its very 
 highest purpose, when it largely occupies 
 itself herein. — Abp. Trench, S. Augustine as 
 an Interpreter, ch. iv. 
 
 Demi- John, a large wicker- cased bot- 
 tle (compare " black- Jack "), anciently 
 damajan. It is a corruption of the 
 Arabic damagan, which came from the 
 Persian glass-making town of Dama- 
 ghan (Tylor). It is sometimes called 
 a Jemmy-Jolm [Slang Did.). 
 
 A French corruption of the same is 
 dam^-Jeawne, which MM. Littre and 
 Devic deduce from the Arabic (in theu 
 transhteration) danidjana, a large glass 
 bottle. 
 
 It. damigiana, as if " a young lady" 
 (Busk, Folklore of Borne, p. 364). 
 
 Denize, \ an old verb for to natura- 
 Dennize, ) hze (Hohnshed), evolved 
 out of the word denizen, a naturalized 
 citizen, O. Pr. denzein, or deine-ein, 
 " one within," from 0. Fr. deinz {— 
 dans, Lat. de intus, within), opp. to /or- 
 ein, "one without." Formed on the 
 model oinaiwalize, dmUze, pretty much 
 as if citize were formed out of citizen. 
 
 Dent, the mark left by a blow, a less 
 correct spelling of dint, A. Sax. dyrd, 
 Icel. dyntr, dytir, as if an in-dent-ed 
 mark, an in-dewi-ation, or notch made 
 by a tooth (Lat. den(t)-s). Cf. "i)«»« 
 (of Dens), a notch about the Edges," 
 " in Heraldry of an outline notched in 
 and out." — Bailey; "Denfi/n'.orynden- 
 tyn', Indento." — Prompt. Fan. 
 
 J>e lif sone he les- J)at lauSt ani dint. 
 
 William ofPalerne, 1. 1234 (1350) 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 Now made a pretty history to herself ' ,» 
 Of every dint a sword had beaten in it. 
 Tennyson, 'Elaine, 1. 19' 
 
BUSCBT 
 
 ( 97 ) 
 
 DEVIL 
 
 Descey, to spy out, as if to (yry out 
 on disoovering somethmg that has been 
 looked for (of. Fr. descrier, to cry down, 
 decry, and Lat. explorare, to search a 
 wood, &c. with cries), is according to 
 Prof. Skeat merely a shortened spelling 
 of O. Fr. descrire, to describe, Lat. 
 desarihere. Cf. 0. Eng. discryve. 
 
 A maundement went out fro Cesai August 
 that al the world schulde be dkcryiied. — 
 Wycliffe, S. Luke, ii. 1 (1389). 
 
 J>us sal dede visite ilk man. 
 And yhit na man disciyue it can. 
 Hampntej Pricke of Conscience, 1. 1897. 
 
 Descrihe was formerly used in its 
 Latin sense "to mark or trace out" 
 (Wright and Eastwood, Bible Word- 
 book), as we still say " to describe a 
 cu'ole ; " whence the meaning to mark 
 or observe. The identity of the words 
 descry and describe was soon forgotten. 
 Thus hath my pen described, and descrifd, 
 Sinne with his seuen heads of seauen deadly 
 vices. 
 J. Lane, Tom Tel-Troths Message, 1600, 
 1. 704(Shaks. Soc). 
 I described his way 
 Bent all on speed and mark d his aery gait. 
 Milton, Par. Lost, iv. 567. 
 Ye shall therefore describe the land into 
 seven parts. — A. V. Joshua, xviii. 6. 
 
 Who hath descried the number of the foe? 
 Shakespeare, Rich. 111. v. 3. 
 If thou, my sone, canst descrive 
 This tale, as Crist him self it tolde, 
 Thou shalt have caase to beholde. 
 
 Gower, Conf, Amantis, vol. iii. p. 38 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 Ho coujre kyndeliche" with colour discriue, 
 Yf alle i>e worlde were whif o)jer swan-whit 
 aile >ynges? 
 
 Lungland, Vision of P. Plowman, 
 C. xxi. 1. 215. 
 In that tyme that Octavianus was Em- 
 peroure of Rome ... he sent oute a com- 
 maundement to discrie all the world : . , and 
 this discroying was made frist [by] Cyrinus 
 that then was bisshop of Cyrie. — Legend of 
 the Three Kings ( Chester Plays, p. 271, Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 
 Deuce, a common expression ap- 
 parently equivalent to the devil, as in 
 " The deuoe ! " " The deuce and all ! " 
 " It is deuced hard luck ; " cf. " Buce 
 take you, i.e. the Devil, or an evU spirit, 
 take you I " (Bailey), as if identical with 
 deuce, the two of dice, taken as a syno- 
 nym of bad luck. Similarly Ger. daus 
 = (1) deuce at cards, (2) the dickens I 
 
 In the mystical doctrine of numbers 
 
 two has always been considered un- 
 lucky as being the first of the series of 
 even numbers. The Pythagoreans re- 
 garded the unit as the good principle, 
 the d^ad as the evU one ("Wilkinson. 
 And. Egypt, vol. ii. p. 496, ed. Birch), 
 
 The Number of Two. 
 God hates the duall number; being known 
 
 The lucklesse number of division : 
 And when He blest each sey'rall day, whereon 
 
 He did His curious operation ; 
 'Tis never read there, as the fathers say, 
 God blest His work done on the second day. 
 Herrick, Noble Numbers, Poems, p. 423 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 Men therefore deem 
 That equal numbers gods do not esteem. 
 Being authors of sweet peace and unity, 
 But pleasing to th' infernal empery, 
 Under whose ensigns Wars and Discords fight. 
 Since an even number you may disunite 
 In two parts equal, naught in middle left 
 To reunite each pait from other reft. 
 
 C. Marloioe, Hero and Leander, Works, 
 p. 303, ed. 1865. 
 
 The exclamation Deus! occurs fre- 
 quently in Haveloh the Dane (ab. 1280), 
 as "Deus!" quoth ubbe, "hwat may 
 Ks be ? " 1. 2096. Sir F. Madden and 
 Prof. Skeat think this is merely Lat. 
 Deus I God I naturaUzed in Norman 
 oaths. 
 
 There is no doubt, however, that duce. 
 Low Lat. ductus, dnisius, was an old 
 word for some demon, spectre, or bogie, 
 e.g. 
 
 Bugge, or buglarde, Maurus, Ducius, — 
 Prompt. Paronlorum, 1440. 
 
 Thyrce, wykkyd spyryte, Ducius.— Id. 
 
 To this, says Mr. Way, the origin of 
 the vulgar term, the deuce, is evidently 
 to be traced. 
 
 Certaine deuills whome the Frenchmen 
 call Duties [quos dusios Galli nuncupant] , doe 
 continually practise this yncleannesse and 
 tempt others to it, which is affirmed by such 
 persons, and with such confidence that it 
 were impudence to denie it. — S. Augustine of 
 the City of God (xv. 23) Englished by J. H. 
 1620, p. 561. 
 
 Devil, as a term in cookery, " to 
 devil a fowl," " devilled bones," to broU 
 ■with, abundance of pepper, &o., was 
 perhaps originally to divel, i.e. to dis- 
 member, or tear asunder the wings, 
 legs, &c. as preparatory to cooking, 
 Latin di-vellere. But query ? 
 
 "Devil" (z: Satan), it may be ob- 
 served, in old writers, such as Bishop 
 Andrewes, is commonly spelt dn/vel. 
 
 H 
 
BHW-BEBBY 
 
 ( 98 ) 
 
 DISGHOBDE 
 
 Dew-beeby, the rubus ccbsvus, is 
 properly the dove-henry, so called from 
 the colour of its fruit, Ger. tauhen-heere, 
 Norw. col-hdr; from A. Sax. dMita, Dut. 
 dwif, a dove (Prior). Cf. Bav. taub-ber, 
 dove-berry (Wedgwood). 
 
 Dewlap. This word has generally 
 been explained as meaning the pendii- 
 lous part of the neck of a cow, which 
 seems to lap or lick the deiv 1 (see 
 Eichardson, s.v.). 
 
 It is the same word as Dan. doglcep, 
 where dog, is a distinct word from dug, 
 dew, and IcBp is a pendulous fleshy part, 
 a lobe. The Swedish is drog-lapp, which 
 seems to be the original form, and to 
 mean the trailing lobe or lappet of flesh, 
 from diraga, to drag, trail, or sweep 
 along the ground (cf. drog, a dray or 
 sledge). So Icel. dogUngr, a draggle- 
 tail, seems to be for droglingr. An 
 old Eng. name for the same is frcet- 
 Iwppa (Vocabulary, 10th cent., Wright, 
 p. 54). 
 
 Here thou "behold'st thy large sleek neat 
 
 Unto the dew-Laps up in meat. 
 
 Herrick, Hesperides, Poems, i. 247 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 The vnotious duhpps of a snayle. 
 
 Id. n. 472. 
 
 Dewsiers, a Wiltshire word for " the 
 valves of a pig's heart always cut off 
 and thrown away" (E. D. Soc. Re- 
 printed Olossa/ries, B. 19), which has 
 been regarded as a corruption of Jew's 
 ears (Grose), — Jew's ears being actually 
 the name of a worthless fungus, — can 
 scarcely be other than a perverted form 
 of old Fr. jusier, Wallon jugie, Mod. 
 Fr. gesier (Lat. gigerium), the entrails 
 of a fowl, especially the gizzard. In 
 old English giserne was synonymous 
 with gwrbage (Prompt. Parvuloruni). 
 
 Dickens ! or The Bichins (tahe it) ! 
 This vulgar exclamation must be the 
 same, Dr. Jamieson remarked, as the 
 Scotch daihins ! of simUar import, and 
 this for ddlkin or deelkin, i.e. demlkin, 
 the I, as so often, being silent. 
 And of every handful! that he met 
 
 He lept ouer fotes thre : 
 " What devilkyns draper," sayd litell Much, 
 
 " Thynkyst thou to he ? " 
 
 A LyteU Geste ofRobyn Hode, 1. 292 (Child't 
 Bailads, V. 57). 
 
 I cannot tell what the dickens his name is 
 my husband had him of. — Shakespeare, Merry 
 Wives of Windsor, iii. 1. I. 20. 
 
 Diddle, to cajole or cheat one out of 
 anything, is an assimilation to fiddle, 
 piddle, to trifle, &c., of didder, old Eng, 
 dyder, A. Sax. dyder-ian, dyd/rian, to 
 deceive. Ettmiiller connects with this 
 Dut. dodderig, and Eng. "dodge" 
 (Lex. Ang.-Sax. p. 562). 
 
 Diek's cordial, an old name for an 
 apothecary's electuary, is a corruption 
 of Biascordivm,. — Skinner, Prehgom, 
 Etymologica. 
 
 Diet, a dehberative assembly, Low 
 Lat. dieta, as if derived from dies, the 
 day of assembly, like the German words 
 Land-tag, Peichs-tag. 
 
 Cf. dieta, a day's work or journey 
 (Spehnan, Bailey). 
 
 It is, however, as Lord Strangford 
 has pointed out (Letters and Papers, p. 
 172), the same word as A. Sax. thM, 
 a nation, Goth. tJiiuda, Ir. tuath, Obcm 
 tuta, Umbrian tota, Lith. tauta, whence 
 A. Sax. theodiso, O.H.G. diwtish, Ger. 
 deutsch, " Dutch." Or the word may 
 not improbably have been assimilated 
 to Lat. diceta, Gk. diaita, way of Hving, 
 arbitration, whence comes " diet," a 
 prescribed regimen of food. 
 
 DiocEss, a mis-spelling of dieoese 
 (Greek dioihesis), from a false analogy 
 to such words as recess, excess, abscess, 
 &c., for which The Times newspaper is 
 generally held responsible, is found re- 
 peatedly in the anonymous Life ojBf. 
 Frampton, who was deprived in 1689, 
 e.g. "He came to reside in his own 
 diocess wholly," p. 129 (ed. T. S. 
 Evans). Dr. South also speUs it so, 
 and Cotgrave, s. v. Diocese. 
 
 That apperteynithe to the ordinaries in 
 whos diocesH ther said churchis bee in.— 
 Warham, 1525, Ellis, Orig. Letters, ser. 3rd, 
 vol. ii. p. 36. 
 
 Dischorde, an old spelling oidascmi, 
 as if from dis and ehorde (chords not 
 in unison), instead of from dAs and cc/ft 
 (hea/rts at variance) ; cf. 0. Fr. descorder, 
 to quarrel. 
 
 Oftentimes a dischorde in Musiok maketh » 
 comely concordaunce. — E. K(irke), Ep- to 
 Gabriel Harvey, prefixed to The Shepheiirds 
 Calender. 
 
 In the seventh century the Sevillian guitar 
 was shaped like the human breast, because, as 
 archbishops said, the chords signified the pul- 
 sation of the heart, d corde. The instrumenU 
 of the Andalucian Moors were strung after 
 these significant heartstrings — pne string 
 
DISHLAGO 
 
 ( 99 ) 
 
 BISTBAUGHT 
 
 being bright red, to represent blood, anotber 
 yellow, to indicate bile, &c. — Ford, Gatherings 
 from Sp.iin, p. 333. 
 
 Similarly accord, notwithstanding ac- 
 cordion, and concord in music, are not 
 derivatives of chord (Greek chm-de, 
 whence Fr. corde, "cord"), but of 
 cm-[d)s, the heart. 
 
 Heart ■with heart in concord beats, 
 And the lover is beloved. 
 
 Wordsivorth. 
 
 DiSHLAGo, 1 North country words 
 DiSHYLAGiB, J for the plant colt's- 
 
 foot, are corruptions of its Latin name 
 
 tussilago. 
 
 DiSTKAUGHT Is an incorrect assimi- 
 lation of distract, e.g. " The fellow is 
 distract" (Oom. of EiTors, iv. 3 =:Lat. 
 dia-tractus, dragged asunder, confused, 
 deranged ; 0. Bng. destrat), to raught, 
 the old p. parte, of reach (like tatight, 
 &c.). Similarly Shakespeare has ex- 
 traughtior extract:=:extracted: "Sham'st 
 thou not, knowing whence thou art ex- 
 traught:'~3Hen. VI. ii. 2. 1. 142. The 
 Latin past parte, was frequently adopted 
 into English, e.g. afycte (::: afflicted), 
 Rogers; acquit, expiate (Shakespeare); 
 compact (id.); captivate (Hammond); 
 consecrate, confuse (Chaiicer) ; complicate 
 (Young) ; exalt (Keats), &c. 
 
 As if thou wert distraught and mad with 
 ten'or. 
 Shakespeare, Richard III. iii. 5, 1. 4. 
 
 Ere into his hellish den he raught . . . 
 
 She sent an arrow forth with mighty draught, 
 
 That in the very dore him overcaught, . . . 
 
 His greedy throte, therewith in two dis- 
 traught. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV. vii. 31. 
 
 With present feare and future griefe dis- 
 traught. 
 G. Fletcher, Christs Trivmph over Death, 
 44 (1610). 
 
 Do when used in sundry idiomatic 
 phrases, in the sense of to avail, profit, 
 thrive, prosper, suffice (Lat. prodesse, 
 valere), is a distinct verb altogether 
 from cfo (^zfacere), A. Sax. ddn (Dut. 
 doen, Ger. thun), being the modernized 
 form of old Eng. dow, to avail, Prov. 
 Eng. and Scotch dow, to be able, to 
 profit, to thrive, A. Sax. dugan, to pro- 
 fit, help, be good for ; and near akin to 
 Dutch deugen, Swed. duga, Dan. due, 
 Ger. taugen, O. H. Ger. tugan, Icel. 
 duga, to help, be strong, sufiice. 
 
 Such phrases are, " That will do,"::z 
 
 That win suffice (Jam satis eat) ; "This 
 will never do," Jeffrey's rash and time- 
 confuted dictum, meaning, This poetry 
 will never succeed, thrive, or be good 
 for anything ; " If he sleep, he will do 
 well " (John xi. 12), i.e. He will thrive, 
 or recover (A. Sax. version, he hy}> hal, 
 Greek aoi9n<TETai). The Cleveland folk 
 say of a patient who lingers long, " He 
 nowther dees nor dows." Other York- 
 shire phrases are, " March grows, never 
 dows," meaning early blossoms never 
 tlirive, and " He'll never dow, egg nor 
 bird " (Atkinson, Cleveland Glossary, 
 p. 150). 
 
 Dugan is also found in old Eng. with 
 the meaning to suit or become, e.g. " as 
 Drihtin deah " {Legend of 8. Katherine, 
 p. 99), " as it becometh a lord." We still 
 say, " that will do very well for him " 
 (Ohphant). 
 
 We find the two verbs, do ( = faoere) 
 and do [dow zz valere), side by side in 
 our familiar greeting, "How do you do 
 (cfoiu) ? (Quomodo valetis ?) And in 
 this from Cotgrave : " Atrophe. In a 
 consumption, one with whom his meat 
 doives [= prodest] not, or to whom it 
 does [=facit] no good." Corapare 
 also the following : — 
 And now he gaes daundi'in' aboot the dykes, 
 And a' he dow do is to hund the tykes [^ 
 valet facere] . 
 Lady Bailiie, Were na mil Heart Licht 
 I wad Dee. 
 
 " No5t dowed bot f>e deth' in pe depe 
 stremej." — Alliterative Poems (ab. 
 1360), Tlie Deluge, 1. 374 (ed. Morris), 
 i.e. nought prevailed but death. So 
 douthe =z dowed (availed), in Havelok 
 the Dane, U. 703, 833. 
 Some swagger hame, the best they dow, [ ^ 
 are able] 
 
 Some wait the afternoon. 
 Burns, The Holy Fair (Globe ed.), p. 19. 
 
 A' the men o' the Mearns downs, do mair 
 than they dow.— Scott, The Black Dwarf. 
 
 Of the same origin are doughty, old 
 Eng. dohty, A. Sax. dyhtig, Dan. dyg- 
 tig, Swed. dugtig, Ger. tiichtig, mighty, 
 able; A. Sax. diigui, Ger. tugend, 
 valour, virtue, &c. 
 
 As instances of the confusion between 
 the two words, compare such phrases 
 as "It did admirably" (for O. Eng. 
 douthe, availed), " I have done very 
 well " (for 0. E. ydought, fared, pros- 
 pered). 
 
DOG 
 
 ( 100 ) 
 
 DOGGED 
 
 Dog, a provincial word for a small 
 pitcher (Wright), is prohably the same 
 word as Ital. ihga, " a wooden vessell 
 made of dsale or harreU-boards " 
 (Plorio), L. Lat. doga, a vessel, de- 
 rived from Gk. doche, a receptacle. 
 
 Dog cheap, which has generally been 
 supposed to be a perversion of the old 
 ■phrase good-cheap, "god-kepe" in Man- 
 deviUe, is really, I believe, a corrup- 
 tion of an original dag-cheap, or dagger- 
 cheap, i.e. pin-cheap, a phrase used by 
 Bishop Andrews. 
 
 But with us it is nothing so ; we esteeme 
 faiTe more basely of ourselves : wee set our 
 wares at a very easie price, he [the devil] 
 may buy us even dagger-cheape, as we say. — 
 Seven Sermons on the Wondsrfull Combate be- 
 tween Christ and Sathan, p. 51 (1642). 
 
 " I do not set my life at a pin's fee," 
 says Hamlet (act i. so. 4). In colloquial 
 phi'ase, he held it dagger-cheap or dog- 
 dieap. 
 
 Honour is sould soe dog-cheap now. 
 ButUid on the Order for muking Knights, 
 temp..}^ames I. 
 
 So dog would be another form of old 
 Eng. dagge, It. and Sp. daga, A. Sax. 
 dale, dole, Ger. dolch, a dagger, or sharp 
 instrument for piercing, Icel. ddlkr, . a 
 pin, O. North Runic dalca, and cognate 
 with Scot, dlrh or dm-k, Gael. dMrc, a 
 poniard, Ir. dealg, a pin, a thorn, a 
 skewer, Dan. dollc. In Prov. English 
 dauk is to prick or stab (compare Dog- 
 wood, i.e. dag-wood, so called from 
 skewers being made of it). Bale or dole, 
 according to Bosworth, denotes a toy or 
 trifle, as well as a brooch or buckle ; so 
 that dale-cheap, pronounced dazvlc- 
 cheap, would accord well, both in sound 
 and meaning, with dog-cheap. 
 
 With the above we may compare 
 picksworth, a Scotch word for a thing 
 of the slightest value — prick being a 
 pin, or skewer ; and ' ' no worth a prein- 
 head," an expression for anything not 
 valued at the head of a prein or preen, a 
 pin. 
 
 " Alle Jjeos )jinges somed . . ne beo8 
 nout wur^ a nelde," — AU these things 
 together are not worth a needle, — occurs 
 in the Anaren Biwle (ab. 1225), p. 400 
 (Camden Soc). 
 
 However, Prof. Skeat identifies this 
 atfix with Prov. Swed. dog :z: very, 
 Platt-Deutsch dSger, very much. 
 
 I have bought seven hundred books at a 
 purchase, dog-cheap — and many good — and I 
 have been a week getting them set up in my 
 best room here. — Sterne, Letters, xvii. 1761. 
 
 Daggar, an old term for the dog iish 
 (Smyth, Sailor's Word-look), presents 
 a close parallel to dagger- and dog- 
 cheap. Dog-stone, a name of the plant 
 orcMs mascula, is spelt dag-stone ia 
 Holme's Acadenvy of Armory, vol. ii. 
 p. 56. 
 
 It is, notwithstanding, quite possible 
 there may have been some such phrase 
 as "As cheap as a dog." Shakespeare 
 has "As dank as a dog" (1 Ee%. 
 IV. ii. 1), on which Dyoe (Sjemarh, 
 &c., p. 105) appropriately quotes from 
 the Water Poet : — 
 
 Many pretty ridiculous aspersions are cast 
 vpon Dogges, so that it would make a Dogge 
 laugh to heare and vnderstand them : As I 
 haue heard a Man say, I am as hot as a 
 Dogge, or, as cold as a Dogge ; I sweat like 
 a Dogge (when indeed a Dog never sweates), 
 as drunke as a Dogge, hee swore like a 
 Dogge ; and one told a Man once, That his 
 Wife was not to be beleev'd, for shee would 
 lye like a Dogge. — Worhes, The Woridrunnes 
 OH Wheeles, p. 232 (1630). 
 Thou doggid Cineas, hated like a dogge, 
 For still thou grumblest like a masty dogge, 
 Compar'st thyself to nothing but a dogge ; 
 Thou ."iaith thou art as weary as a dogge. 
 As angry, sicke, and hungry as a dogge, 
 As dull and melanchoUy as a dogge, 
 As lazy, sleepy, idle as a dogge. 
 
 Sir John Davies, Epigrammes, 19. 
 
 An other certain man complaining that he 
 was euen doggue wearie, and cleane tiere(i^ 
 with goyng a long iourney, Socrates asked, 
 &c. — N. tjdaU, Apnphthegmes of ^-asmmy. 
 (1542), p. 8, ed. 1877. ' 
 
 There is a Scotch expression dcg- 
 thick, meaning as intimate, or thick, as 
 two dogs. 
 
 Dog-fish was originally the dog-fish, 
 or dagga/r-fish ; at least, Gotgrave gives 
 agvdllat, a kind of dog-fish " that hath 
 tivo sharp and strong prickles on Iwr 
 hack, and thereof may be termed (as 
 she i^ by the Germans) a Thorn-hound" 
 [? DornhuUe] . It may be from these 
 prickles, or dags, Pr. agwlles, that the 
 fish got its name. Compare agiMh, a 
 needle, also a long small fish, called a 
 Hornback (Gotgrave). 
 
 Dogged, sullen, morose, obstinate, 
 can scarcely be a derivative of dog, as 
 we never say that a person resembling 
 
BOQGEBEL 
 
 ( 101 ) 
 
 BOLL 
 
 a sheep, or pig, or swine in disposition 
 is sheeped, or pigged, or swLtied, but 
 sheepish, piggish, swinish. The older 
 signification was somewhat different. 
 
 DnggydSy malycyowse. Maliciosus, per- 
 versus, bilosus. — Prompt. Fat-vuhiwn (ab. 
 14-10). 
 
 It is probably the same word, 
 radically, as Scotch dodgie, irritable, 
 bad-tempered, dudgeon, ill-temper, 
 suUenness, formerly spelt dogion 
 (Nares), Welsh dygen, grudge, malice, 
 dueg, melancholy, spleen (Spurrell). 
 Cf. Fr. doguin, brutal, quarrelsome 
 (Roquefort), Wallon dogtier, to butt or 
 beat. 
 
 The fals wolf stode behind ; 
 He was doggid and ek felle. 
 
 PoUticut Songs (temp. Edward I.), p. 199 
 (Camaen Soc. ). 
 
 Wiltshire folk use the word as rr 
 very, exceedingly, e.g. "dogged cute" 
 (Akerman). 
 
 Do&OEREL, } " pitiful poetry, paltry 
 DoGGKEL, S verses " (Bailey), as if 
 rime de c/iiem(Tyrwhitt), has been con- 
 nected with G-er. dichier, a poet (Hal- 
 deman, Afices, p. 209) ; cf. dichterling , 
 a poetaster, Flemish dichtregel, verse 
 (Olinger). This is quite conjectural. 
 Compare Icel. grey-ligr, paltry, from 
 grey, a dog. 
 
 Here is a gallimaufrie of all sorts . . . and 
 Clownes plaine Dunstable dogrelt to make 
 them lau^n. — The Cobler of Canterbime, Ep. 
 to Readers, 1608. 
 
 Dogs, an Essex word for the dew, is 
 a corruption of dag. See Deck. 
 
 Dog-sleep, an expression used in 
 Ireland for a light slumber easily 
 broken, might be conjecturally identi- 
 fied with the Icelandic phrase " a* sitja 
 upp viS dogg," to rechne upon a high 
 pillow, to he half erect in bed, where 
 dogg seems to be a pillow (Cleasby, 
 p. 101). 
 
 Dogwood, the cornus sangidnea, has 
 been supposed to derive its name from 
 its unfitness for a dog to eat 1 (Parkin- 
 son), or from its astringent bark being 
 medicinal in the case of dogs (F. G. 
 Heath, Ov/r Woodland Trees, p. 487), 
 especially mangy dogs (Sat. Review, 
 vol. xlvi. p. 605). 
 
 The word was, without doubt, origi- 
 nally dag-wood, the wood that skewers 
 
 were made of, old Eng. dagge, A. Sax. 
 dale (see Dog-oheap). Compare its 
 other names — Prick-wood {prich being 
 an old word for a butcher's skewer), 
 8hewer-wood, and Gad-rise (i.e. A. S. 
 gad, a goad, and Jms, a rod). — Prior. 
 So dog-wool, coarse wool (Bailey, s. v. 
 Cottum) is for dag-wool. 
 
 Cornus. Kpavei'a. Cormier, cornier, corneil- 
 lier. The wilde cherrie tree : the dog-tree : 
 the tree of the wood whereof batchers muke 
 their pricks. — NomencUUor. 
 
 Compare such names as Spindle- 
 tree, Ger. Spindelhaum, pirmlioUz, It. 
 fusaggine, Ger. nadelholtz, pfriemhraut. 
 
 The dog-rose is a translation of Lat. 
 rosa canina, so called apparently be- 
 cause the root of a wild rose was a 
 " sure and Soueraigne remedy for them 
 that are' bitten with a mad dog." — 
 Holland, PUnys Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 
 220 (1634). 
 
 Doll would seem to be a shortened 
 form of Scotch dally, a girl's puppet, 
 O. Eng. daly, a plaything, a die (zr Lat. 
 talus), Eng. dally, to trifle, or play. 
 Thus Morison speaks of a vain woman, 
 " Wha's like a dally drawn on delf or 
 china-ware " (Jamieson). Prof. Skeat 
 further compares 0. Dut. dol, a whip- 
 ping-top, Dut. dollen, to sport, dol, mad 
 (Etym. Diet., s.v.). The probability is, 
 however, that doll is just Doll, the 
 shortened and familiar form of Do- 
 rothy, a typical female name (as Moll 
 (Mai) of Mary, Hal of Hixr-ry). In 
 Scottish doroty is a doll, and a very 
 small woman. Compare Fr. mario- 
 nette, a puppet, orig. little Marion, 
 Mary, or Molly (Cotgrave, Diez), and 
 Jach-in-the-liox. 
 
 Bichardson notes that in Cooper's 
 Lat. Diet. 1573, "O httle pretie Doll 
 polle" [i.e. Dorothy Mary] is the ren- 
 dering of capitttlum lepidissimiim. 
 The old name for these playthings was 
 habies or poppets. For similar appli- 
 cations of proper names to famihar ob- 
 jects or utensils, cf. Prov. Eng. dolly, a 
 washing beetle or chum dash ; ietty, a 
 clothes drainer (Northampt.) ; ma/akin 
 (i.e. Mal-kin, httle Molly), a baker's 
 mop ; peggy, a night hght (Lincoln.) ; 
 thomasin, or tamsin, a frame for airing 
 linen (Kent) ; spinning-Zewwi/, Jenny- 
 quiek, an Italian iron (Devon.), roast- 
 iag-Jaok, &c. 
 
DOLLY OIL ( 102 ) 
 
 DUNGEON 
 
 Mr. Henry Morley, in his Memoirs 
 of Ba/rtholomew Fair, says: — 
 
 Dolls, now so dear to all young daughters 
 of England were not known by that name 
 before the reign of William and Al ary . . . . 
 Fewer dolls certainly were nursed ; and of 
 these the Bartholomew Babies, elegantly 
 dressed and carefully packed in boxes, seem 
 to have been regarded as the best. In 
 Nabbes' comedy of "Tottenham Court" 
 (1638) this phrase occurs, "I have packed 
 her up in't, like a Bartholomew Baby in a 
 box. I warrant you for hurting htr." Poor 
 Robin's Almanac for 1695 says, " It also tells 
 farmers what manner of wife they shall 
 choose : not one trickt up with ribbens and 
 knots like a Bartholomew baby." . . W hen 
 some popular toyman, who might have called 
 his babies pretty Sues or Molls or Polls, 
 cried diligently to the ladies who sought fair- 
 ings for tLeu- children, " Buy a pretty UoH " 
 (it was at a time too when tlie toy babies were 
 coming more and more into demand), the con- 
 quest of a clumsiness was recognized. Mo- 
 thers applied for dolls to the men at the stalls, 
 and, ere long, by all the sralls and toybooths 
 the new cry of " Pretty Doll " was taken up. 
 We have good reason to be tolerably certain 
 that Bartholomew Fair gave its familiar name 
 to a plaything now cherished in every English 
 nursery. — pp. 259, 260, ch. xvii. 
 
 Doll has often been regarded as a 
 mutilated form oiidol {e.g. Todhunter, 
 Account of Dr. Wm. Whewell, i. 63), 
 Uke, d/ropsy, from O. E. ydropsy ; and it 
 is observable that when Spenser 
 
 All as a poore pedler he did wend. 
 Bearing a trusse of tryfles, at hys backe, 
 As bells, and babes, and glasses, in hys packe. 
 Shepkeards Calender, Maye — 
 E. K.'s gloss is, " By such trifles are 
 noted, the reliques and ragges of popish 
 superstition, which put no smal rehgion 
 in Belles, and Babies, s [cU.] Idoles . . 
 and such lyke trumperies" (Spenser, 
 Worhs, p. 463, Globe ed.). 
 
 Dolly oil, the same as eel-dolly, a 
 Scotch term for oil, is a corruption of 
 Er. Ividle d'olive (Jamieson). 
 
 Dolly-shop, a slang word for a shop 
 where stolen property, or goods, are re- 
 ceived in pawn, and charged at so much 
 per day, is probably a corruption of 
 tally-shop, one where a tally — that is, a 
 score or account of moneys lent — is 
 kept. Of. " talley-man, one who sells 
 clothes, &c., to be paid by the week " 
 (Bailey). 
 
 The dolly-shops are essentially pawn-shops, 
 and pawn-shops for the very poorest. There 
 
 are many articles which the regular pawn- 
 brokers decline to accept as pledges. ... A 
 poor person driven to the necessity of raising 
 a few pence, and unwilling to part finally 
 with his lumber, goes to the dolly-mun, and 
 for the merest trifle advanced, deposits one or 
 other of the articles I have mentioned. — 
 Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, 
 vol. ii. p. 122. 
 
 The true origin of the name being ' 
 forgotten, a large black wooden figurej ■; 
 or doll, is frequently hung up, as a sign 
 over the door of these shops, and from 
 this they are supposed by Mayhew to 
 have been called. 
 
 Near akin to these caterpillars [pawn- 
 brokers] is the unconscionable tatltf-maa. — 
 Four J or a Penny, 1678 (Harl. Misc. iv. 
 148). 
 
 Donjon, I If these be not two dis- 
 DuNGBON. < tinct words, it is not easy 
 to say which is the original form from 
 which the other has taken its rise. 
 
 1. Donjon, a large tower or redoubt 
 of a fortress (BaUey), Fr. donjon, don- 
 geon, Prov. donjo, is from Low Lat. 
 domnio {dominio), a commanding tower 
 that dominates all the rest of the build- 
 ing (Diez, Wedgwood, Skeat). 
 
 2. Dungeon, a dark, strong-fenced 
 place, old Er. doignon, dognon, dan- 
 geon, Low Lat. dangio, is from Irish 
 daingean, strong, secure, also a strong- 
 hold or fort, daingnigim, a fortification 
 (so ZeusB, Pictet, Origines, ii. 194, 
 Whitley Stokes). In Stokes's Irish 
 Ohsses, daiingen explains durus and 
 firmus (p. 87). Dangan (a fortress or 
 castle), frequently used as a place-name 
 in Ireland, is the same word (Joyce, 
 Irish Names of Places, i. 295). In the 
 " Wars of the Gaedhil," ed. Todd, it is 
 said, " They built duns and daingearta" 
 (p. 41). 
 
 Dungeon, a dark prison cell, may 
 perhaps be a result of a popular con- 
 fusion of the two words. 
 I seigh a towre on a toff trielich ymaked ; 
 A depe dale binethe' a dongeon )jere-Inne, 
 With depe dyches & derke- and dredful of 
 sight. 
 
 Langlund, Vision of P. Plowman (1377), 
 Prol. 1. 16, text B. ed. Skeat. 
 
 "Anon the donge it was for-dit" 
 (the dtmgeon it was shut up). — Delate 
 hetween Body and Soul, 13th cent. 
 1. 286 (Camden Soo. p. 339), where a 
 later version has " the dunqoun was 
 for-dit " (p. 345). 
 
DOSEBEBDE 
 
 ( 103 ) 
 
 DRAUGHT 
 
 Vigfusson connects "dungeon"' with 
 Icel. dyngja, a lady's bower, the common 
 sense being that of a secluded chamber 
 in the ianer part of a house or castle 
 (Cleasby, Icel. Diet. p. IH). 
 
 DosEBERDE, > a simpleton, as if a 
 Dasibekde, J dozing, dazed, person, 
 " a dazed beard," is really a degraded 
 use of the word dozeper, a nobleman, 
 one of the Douze-Fairs, or twelve peers, 
 of France (see Le Grand, Fabliaux, 
 vol. ii. p. 420). A connexion was 
 imagined, apparently, with old Eng. 
 dusi, fooUsh, A. Sax. dijsig. Mod. Eng. 
 "dizzy," Scot, dosen, to stupify. 
 Lygger of Colonye, and al so the dosse pei-s 
 Of France were ^ere echon, Jjat so noble were 
 and fers. 
 Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, p. 188 
 (ed. 1810). 
 Iherejj nv one lutele tale. Jjat icli eu wille 
 
 telle . . . 
 Nis hit nouht of Karlemeyne ne of J>e 
 Ditzeper. 
 Old Eng. Miscelluny (Monis), p. 37, 1. 3. 
 Als he to Cai-lele was conunene, that conque- 
 
 rure kyde, 
 Withe dukes and with ducheperes. 
 
 The Awnlyn of Arthiire. 
 There is a dossiberde I would dere 
 That walkes abrode wild were 
 Whoe is his father 1 wotte nere. 
 
 The Chester Plays, vol. i. p. 264 
 (Shakspere Soc). 
 Durihuccus, fiat neuer openej) his mou>, a 
 dasiberde. — Medulla. 
 
 Big looking like a doughty Doucepere 
 At last he thus. 
 
 Spenser, Faen£ Queene, III. x. 31. 
 
 Double X, the name given to porter 
 or beer of more than ordinary strength, 
 as in " Guinness's XX," or "Double X," 
 is probably a survival, in a somewhat 
 disguised form, of the Lat. word duplex 
 (misunderstood as douhle-x), which 
 formerly was commonly apphed to such. 
 . Thus the Fellows and Postmasters of 
 Merton College were forbidden by the 
 Statutes to drink cerevisium duplex, or 
 strong ale. In Ma/rtini SchookU Liber 
 de Gerevisia, 1661, he says there are 
 three kinds of EngUsh ale, " Simplex 
 cerevisia," which produces the same 
 effect as a watery wine; " Potens cere- 
 visia," commonly called duplex, which 
 warms powerfully, and has the strength 
 of potent wine ; and a medium ale, com- 
 monly called Trihapennina [? three 
 ha'penny], which warms but mode- 
 
 rately. Cap. xxxvii. {Notes and Queries, 
 6th S. ii. 523). There is a cm-ious old 
 poem, entitled Doctow doubble ale (see 
 Darly Pop. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 297, ed. 
 HazUtt). Gascoigne mentions " dooble 
 dooble beere." 
 
 Had he been master of good double beer. 
 My life for his, John Dawson had been here. 
 Bp. Corbet, on J. Uauson, Butler of Christ- 
 Church (16-18). Poems, p. 208, ed. 1807. 
 
 DoWN-DiNNEE, in the Cleveland dia- 
 lect an afternoon meal, is without doubt 
 a corruption of the old word aandorn, 
 orndorn, orndoorns, undern, a mid-day 
 meal, stUl current in N. W. England 
 (Atkinson). See Gen-dinnee. 
 
 So " doivn-dinner, a mid-day meal in 
 the field." — Holderness, Glossary (Eng. 
 Dialect Soc). 
 
 DowNEE, a slang word for sixpence, 
 apparently another form of "tanner," 
 which, hke " tanny" (Utile), is derived 
 from the Gipsy tawno, little. 
 
 Deagonwoet. Dragon here is a cor- 
 ruption of Tarragona in Spain, whence 
 it comes, says Mr. I. Taylor, Words 
 and Places, p. 408, 2nd ed. 
 
 This, however, is quite a mistake. 
 It is rather the Eng. name tarragon, 
 that is a corruption of dragon, its 
 French name, It. dragontea, Lat. dra- 
 contium and di-acunculus (see Gerarde, 
 Herball, p. 193). Phny calls it d/ragon 
 {dracunculus), and says its root " is 
 somewhat red, and the same wrythed 
 and folded round in manner of a Dra- 
 gon, wherupon it took that name " 
 (Holland's translation, 1634, vol. ii. 
 p. 200). 
 
 Deakb, a popular name for darnel or 
 cockle, is a corruption of drawh or 
 d/ravicje, Dut. dravig, Welsh Arewg, 
 Bret, d^aoh (Prior). 
 
 Deaught (A. V. Matt. xv. 17 ; Mark 
 vii. 19) and Draught-house (2 Kings x. 
 27), old words for a latrine, or house of 
 ofiEice. Draught here is a corruption of 
 dn-af, draffe, = faeces, dregs, refuse; dirt, 
 which WycUffe spells draft (Ps. xxxix. 
 3), Icel. dx-af, A. Sax. dn-tfe, drof. See 
 Eastwood and Wright, Bible Word- 
 Booh, s. V. 
 
 And wij) \>e Serde J;e wolf he werde , 
 Wiji duntes drof him al to draf . 
 Legends of the Holy Rood, p. 141, 1. 
 (ed. Morris). 
 
DBAWING-BOOM ( 104 ) 
 
 BEOUGHT 
 
 ilang them, or stat them, drown them iu a 
 draught, 
 Shakespeare^ Tiinon of Athens^ v. 1. 
 
 There was ... a goddesse of the draught or 
 Jakes. 
 Barton, Anatomii of Melancholy, Pt, 2, 
 Sec. 1, Mem. 3. 
 
 The worst of the three is a thick, cloudy, 
 misty, fog^gy air, or such as comes from fens, 
 moorish grounds, lakes, muckhils, draughts, 
 sinks, where any carkasses or carrion lyes. — 
 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, I. 2, ii. 5. 
 
 Deawing-eoom, a meaningless con- 
 traction of withd/rcumng-room, a room 
 for retiring to after dinner. 
 
 After dinner into a withdrawing-room ; and 
 there we talked, among other things, of the 
 Lord Mayor's sword. — Pepys, Diary, Sept. 2, 
 1663. 
 
 Debss, in colloquial usage to drub, 
 chastise, or beat soundly, as in the 
 phrase "to give one a good d/ressing," 
 is the same word p,s Prov. Eng. dresli, 
 " to thresh," A. Sax. Yersccm, Icel. 
 ]>resTya, Goth. ]>rishjan, O. H. Ger. 
 d/rescan, Ger. d/reschen, Dan. tcerslca, but 
 assimilated by false analogy to Fr. 
 dressm- (Lat. dai-ecUare), to set right. 
 So, in the Cleveland dialect, d/ress (pro- 
 nounced derse) is not only to set in 
 order, but to beat, chastise, thrash 
 (Atkinson). Compare the phrase, "I'll 
 dress [sometimes trim] his jacket for 
 him," Scotch "to dress one's doublet," 
 i.e. to give him a sound thrashing, Ger- 
 man einen d/reschefi. 
 
 The Devonshire form is d/ras7i, to drub 
 with a stick. 
 
 Chell baste tha, chell stram tha, chell drash 
 tha. 
 Exmoor Scolding, 1. 94 (E. D. S.). 
 
 Now you calvee-skin impudence, I'll thresh 
 your jacket [Beats him <iut"|.^-l'. Randolvh, 
 
 Aristippus, 1630, Works, p. 10. 
 
 Dkilling, a coarse cloth used for 
 trousers, is a corruption of Ger. d/ril- 
 lich, ticking, which is itself corrupted 
 from Lat. triUc-a, trilix, tliree-threaded 
 stuff (Skeat). 
 
 Drop, in the phrase "to d/i-op a curt- 
 sey," seems to be a corruption of the 
 older word dop, to make a bow or curt- 
 sey, orig. to dAp, or duck, or bob (of. 
 " The learned pate duchs to the golden 
 fool."— Shaks.), Swed. doppa, to dip, 
 Dan. dJile, Dut. dx>open, Goth, daupjan. 
 
 Cf. O. Eng. doppar, a diver or dob- 
 chicle. 
 
 The Venetian dap, this. 
 
 B. Jonsmi, Cyuthias Revels. 
 We act by fits and starts, like drowning men, 
 But just peep up, and then dop down again. 
 tiryden, 1682, Works, p. 452 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Compare the intrusive r in shnll for 
 slwll, Fr. afrodAlle for affodille, hoarse, 
 groom, pursy, vagrant, treasure, &o. 
 
 Deop, in the provincial Eng. " wrist 
 drop," a disease of painters, and 
 "dropped hands'' := paralyzed, ac- 
 cording to Mr. Cockayne is the same 
 word as old Eng. d/i-opa, the palsy of a 
 limb (Leechdoms, vol. iii. p. 8), from 
 d/)-oppen, the p. parte, of drapam (A. Sax, 
 di-epan, to stiike, d/i-epe, a blow). Cog- 
 nate words would then be Icel. d/repa, 
 Dan. dy-cshe, Ger. treffen, to strike. Icel. 
 d/)'ep is used for a disease (cf "plague," 
 Gk. plage, a blow), and we stiU speak 
 of a paralytic stroke. 
 
 Deopsy, old Eng. yA-opsie, a natu- 
 ralized form of Fr. hyd/ropisie, Lat. hy- 
 drops, Gk. hud/rops, the watery disease 
 (from hudor, water), and confounded 
 possibly with A-qp. Compare gout, Fr. 
 goute, supposed to come from a humour 
 or drop (Lat. gutta) settling in the 
 joints. 
 
 And loo ! sum man syk in ydropesie was 
 bifore him. — Wyctiffe, S. Luke, xiv. 2 
 (1389). [A. Sax. version, " swo. W(eter-seoc 
 man."] 
 
 Drought, an incorrect form (assimi- 
 lated to thought, &c.) of d/routh, 0. Eng. 
 Avugth, drouhthe (in Ireland pro- 
 nounced drooth), A. Sax. d/ruga^e, dry- 
 ness, from dirugian, to dry. Cf. you{g)t\ 
 dearth, growth, &c. So height is incor- 
 rect for Ughth (Milton). The Sussex 
 folk use d/rythe, " Drythe never yet 
 bred dearth " (Parish, Glossary, p. 38). 
 
 " Drowte, siccitas." — Prompt. Pw- 
 vulorum, 1440. "Dyere time, rayn, 
 drul]>e."—Ayenlite of Inwyt, 1340, p. 
 68. 
 
 WiJ) cold ne wij) heete, wij) weete ne wi)> 
 drythe. 
 Trevisa, Polychronicon, 1337, lib. i. cap. 41. 
 Now for di-ieth the fields wear all vndone. 
 G. Fletcher, Chiists Victorie in Heaven, 81 
 
 (1610). 
 Brought is the ordinary word in tlie 
 -A.. Version, but drouth in. MiLton, Cole- 
 ridge, and Tennyson. 
 
DBUGGEBMAN 
 
 ( 105 ) 
 
 BTIOKY 
 
 He is tax'd for drowth 
 Of wit, that -B-ith the cry spends not his 
 mouth. Carew, Poems, 1642. 
 
 As one, whose drouth 
 Yet scarce allay'd, still eyes the current 
 stream. 
 
 Miltnn^ Pur, Lost, vii. 66. 
 Summer drouth, or singed air 
 Ivever scorch thy tresses fair. 
 
 Comiis, i. 928. 
 The traveller . . . is liable to mistake . . . 
 the mirage of drouth for an expanse of refresh- 
 ing waters. — Coteridgej The Friend^ vol. i. 
 p. 99. 
 
 I look'd athwart the burning drouth 
 Of that long desert to the south. 
 
 Tennyson, Fatima, 1. 13. 
 My one oasis in the dust and drouth 
 Of city life! 
 
 Id., Edwin Morris, 1. S. 
 Ask any [Irish] proprietor, more especially 
 if a farmer, and he would tell you " We're 
 ruined, ruined entirely, with the drought " — 
 perhaps he'd have called it " druth." — Chas. 
 Lever, One of Them, ch. vi. 
 
 Deuggeeman, an old form of drago- 
 man, an interpreter, 0. Eng. truckman 
 (? as if a barter-man), It. dragomanno 
 and twcimanno, Fr. drogman and 
 trucheman, from Arab, targoman, which 
 is a derivative of targama, to explain. 
 Compare Heb. meturgeman, an inter- 
 preter (Bdersheim, The Jews, p. 119), 
 from targem, to traiislate( whence ta/rgum 
 and mettirgdm, "interpreted," Ezra,iv. 
 7), which is itself from rdgam, to bring 
 together, construe, translate. 
 
 The form dragman occurs in Kyng 
 Alexaunder, p. 141 (ed. Weber). 
 
 In Mid. High German dragoman as- 
 sumed the form of tragemunt (or trouge- 
 munt), as if denoting the mouth-bearer 
 of the party. 
 
 Thus with ryght lyghte and joyous hertes, 
 by wamynge of our drogemi and guydes, we 
 comp all to Mounte Syon. — Piitgrymage ofSi/r 
 R. Guyljorde (l.'JOe), p. 56 (Camden Sdc). 
 
 Here the Vizier Bassas of the Port .... 
 consult of matters of State, and that pub- 
 likly, not excepting against Embassadors 
 Drogermen, lightly alwayes present. — Sandys, 
 Travels, p. 62. 
 
 The day of audience being come they were 
 introduced with the usual solemnity, and then 
 by the Druggerman or Interpreter he stated 
 his case. — Life of Bp. Frampton (ed. T. S. 
 Evans), p. 72. 
 
 Their druggerman did desire them to fall 
 down, for otherwise he should suffer for their 
 contempt of the King. — Pepys, Diary, Aug. 
 17, 1666. 
 
 Dey, in the sense of tedious, weari- 
 some, devoid of interest, as " a di-y 
 book," " a dry sermon," is the same 
 word as the Northern dree, tedious, 
 Prov. Eng. d/reigh, Scot, driegh, Icel. 
 d/rjugr, substantial, slow and sure. 
 Cf. Swed. Aryg-mil, a long mile, en 
 d/ryg hah, a heavy book, Dan. d/i-iri. 
 
 " I am very weary, Mrs. , and wet 
 
 through ; could you find me a glass of 
 wine 1 " She did not reply, like the old 
 Scotchwoman, " Get up into pulpit witli 
 you ; you'll be dry enough there." — T. Jack- 
 son, Curiosities of the Pulpit, p. 344. 
 The moor was driegh, an' Meg was skiegh. 
 Burns, There was a Lass. 
 
 In N. Ireland the people say, " It's 
 a dreegh jab (a wearisome job), a dn-eegh 
 road (a tedious road)." — Patterson, 
 (E.D. S.). 
 
 A dreigh drink is better than a dry sermon. 
 — A. Hlslop, Proverbs of Scotland, p. 17. 
 
 These two words, though spelt diffe- 
 rently, are really the same. They are 
 no doubt akin to the old verb drye, to 
 endure, undergo (Scot, dree), A. Sax. 
 dredgan, to suffer; cf. Goth. d/riiigan, 
 to serve as a soldier (Diefenbach, 
 Goth. Sprache, ii. 641). 
 Also in contemplacion there ben many other 
 That drawen hem to disert and drye muche 
 peyne. 
 Political Poems, ii. 64 (ed. Wright). 
 
 Full gray>ely got3 J)is god man' & dos godeS 
 
 hestes. 
 In dry5 dred & daunger. 
 Alliterative Poems, 1360, Cleanness, 1. 342. 
 
 Dky-eot, the name of the plant 
 merulius laorimans, is, according to 
 Dr. Prior, a corruption of tree-rot, from 
 A. S. treow and rotian. 
 
 Dtjck, \ a familiar caressing term 
 Ducky, ( for a child or other object 
 of affection, notwithstanding the ana- 
 logy of the Latin anaticula, " little 
 duck I " used as a word of endearment 
 in Plautus, is not a metaphorical em- 
 ployment of the name of the bird (like 
 "pigeon," "dove," &c.), but identical 
 with Danish d-uMce, a baby or puppet 
 (Wolff), Ger. doche, a doll or puppet, 
 Shetland diicMe, a doU or little girl ; 
 with which we may compare Scotch 
 tohie, a fondling term for a child (Ger. 
 toche), Swed. tMg, siUy, Icel. t61d, a 
 simpleton. This is more likely than 
 that it should be connected with North. 
 
BUCK 
 
 ( 106 ) BUTGR COUSINS 
 
 Eng. duchy, a woman's breast, and 
 mean a "suckling" (cf. dug, daugh- 
 ter, Greek thug-ater). 
 
 Mrs. Sanders, in Bardwell v. Pick- 
 wick, thought that Mr. Sanders had 
 called her a "duck " in his love-letters, 
 because "he was particularly fond of 
 duchs " for dinner, which was only a 
 particular form of the common philolo- 
 gical error. 
 
 Duck, } a Dorset word for the 
 DucKiSH, S twihght, as "In the duch 
 of the evening," is certainly a corrup- 
 tion, Mr. Barnes tliinks, of A. Sax. 
 ]pe<yrc-ung, which has the same mean- 
 ing (Philolog. Soc. Trans. 1864, Qlos- 
 sa/ry, p. 54). 
 
 It is more probably, I think, from 
 dush, O. Eng. dose, deosc, changed by 
 metathesis into dues, docs, as in A. Sax. 
 tux for tuse, a tusk ; dix for disc, a dish ; 
 dai, O. Eng. drit. Cf. Icel. dokh-, dohkr, 
 dark [Gleashy, 113). 
 
 Duck-eggs, is a comical corruption 
 of ducats, in the old play of Patient 
 Grissell, by Dekker, Chettle, and 
 Houghton {Shakspere Society Ed. 
 1841, p. 88). 
 
 Cousin, you promised to help her to her 
 duck-eggs, for all her paper and ponds are 
 torn. 
 
 If tlie Lyon had beene eating a ducke, it 
 had beene a rare device worth a duckat or a 
 ducke-egge. — Camden, Hemuines Concerning 
 Bi'itaine, 1637, p. 166. 
 
 The ducat was an Italian coin, so 
 named from the word dueaius, duchy 
 (It. dnicato), occurring in its legend. 
 
 Ducking-stool, an incorrect way of 
 writing cucking-stool, an ancient and 
 well-known machine for punishing 
 scolding wives. Gucking-stool, origi- 
 nally z^ cathedra stercoris, is akin to 
 Icel. kuka (cacare), Manx cugh (ster- 
 cus), another name for it being goging- 
 stool, A. Sax. gong-stole, a close-stool, in 
 the form of which it was sometimes 
 made (Wedgwood). Another old cor- 
 ruption of the word is cockstule, coeh- 
 stoll, for cuck-stool. 
 
 Prof. Skeat maintains that the two 
 stools of punishment were always dis- 
 tinct {Piers Ploioman, Notes, p. 61); 
 but at aU events the terms were some- 
 times used interchangeably. — Cham- 
 bers, Booh of Bays, i. 211. 
 
 The oldest word is certainly cMih 
 ing-stool. 
 
 The pilory and the cucking-stol beth i-mad for 
 noht. 
 
 Poem on the Reign of Edward 11. Polit, 
 Songs, p. 3i5 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Stocks for the men, a ducking-stool for 
 women, and a pound for beasts. — Boswell, 
 Life of Johnson, vol. iii. ch. x. p. 193 (ed. 
 1836). 
 
 In a quarter sessions record of the 
 time of James I., the constables are 
 directed to cueke one Agnes Fringe as 
 a skolster or scold (A. H. A. Hamil- 
 ton, Quajrter Sessions, y. 85), viz. to 
 duck her 
 
 In a chair curule 
 Which moderns call a cucking-stool. 
 Hudibras. 
 
 DuLCiMELL, the old name for the 
 dulcimer, Itahan " dolcemeUe, a musi- 
 call instrument called a Buloimell or 
 Dulcimer, also hony sweet " (Plorio), 
 as if the sweet-toned. So Sylvester says 
 a siren " Powres-forth a Torrent of 
 mel-Melodies." — Bu Bartas, p. 434. The 
 latter part of the word is more likely 
 to be from Greek melos, tune, than 
 meli, mel, honey. 
 
 Bulcimer is a corrupted form of dul- 
 cimel (of. marmalade, Portg. ma/rmeh, 
 a quince, from Greek melimekn, 
 "honey-apple "). 
 
 Durance, in the sense of imprison- 
 ment, painful restraint, as in the phrase 
 " durance vile," is a corrupt form of 
 the old word duress, hardship, severity, 
 imprisonment, Fr. duresse, from Lat. 
 dmritia. A connexion was imagined 
 with endu/rcmce, suffering. 
 
 Do you by duresse him compell thereto, 
 And in this prison put him here with me. 
 Spenser, Fuene Queene, IV. xii. 10. 
 
 So );at duel was to deme' jje duresse \>bX he 
 wrouSt. 
 
 William oj Palerne, 1. 10r4 (ed. Skeat). 
 Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts, 
 Is m base durance and contagious prison. 
 Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. v. 5, 1. 35. 
 
 Bemg so infeebled with long durante and 
 lard usage, that he could not stand, he had a 
 chair allowed him, and had the painfull ease 
 to Bit therein. — T. Fuller, Worthies, vol. i. 
 p. 3i3 (ed. 1811). 
 
 Dutch Cousins, an expression mean- 
 ing intimate friends, used along the 
 coast of Sussex. 
 
DYE-HOUSE 
 
 ( 107 ) 
 
 EAR 
 
 Yea, he and I were reg'lar Dutch Cousins ; 
 I feels cjuite lost without Cim. — IK. D. Parish, 
 Sussex Blossary. 
 
 This is, doubtless, a wliimsioal cor- 
 ruption or perversion oi gemian-cousins, 
 or cmisitis-german, from the old Eng. 
 word germane, near akin, Lat. germa- 
 nus, sprung from the same stock or germ. 
 Compare the following : — 
 And to him said; "Goe now, proud Mis- 
 
 creaunt, 
 Thyselfe tliy message do to germtm deare. 
 
 Spenser, Fuerie Qtieene, Bk. 1. cant. v. 13. 
 
 Those that are germane to him, though re- 
 moved fifty times, shall all come under the 
 hangman. — Shakespeare, Winter^s Tate, iv. 4, 
 1. 802. 
 
 The greatest good the Land got by this 
 match was a general leave to marry Cousiu- 
 genrums. — Fuller, Worthies, vol. ii. p. 62. 
 
 The phrase " A Dutch uncle " is no 
 doubt of similar origin. 
 
 Milverton . , . began reasoning with the 
 boys, talking to them like a, Dutch uncle (^l 
 wonder what that expression means) about 
 their cruelty. — Sir A. Helps, Animals and their 
 Masters, p. 131. 
 
 Dye-house, a Gloucestershire word 
 for a dairy, or day-house. Bee Day- 
 woman. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eager, a peculiar violence of the tide 
 in some rivers causing them to rise with 
 great suddenness, so spelt as if derived 
 from Prov. Eng. eager, angry, furious, 
 mLat. acer (Wright), is the A. Sax. 
 egor, ocean, connected with ege, awe, 
 terror (Ettmiiller) ; cf. wgir, the stormy 
 ocean (Thorpe, North. Myth. vol. i.). 
 Other forms are higre and aher. 
 Akyr of the see Bowynge, Impetus maris. 
 Prompt. Parvutorum. 
 Its more than common transport could not 
 
 hide. 
 But like an eagre rode in triumph o'er the 
 tide. 
 Dryden, Th'renodia Augustalis, 1. 134. 
 
 Eagle- WOOD, the aloe. The native 
 Indian name of this tree is aghil, Sansk. 
 agaru, whence Heb. ahalim or ahaloth 
 (Low Lat. agallochum), Septuagint. 
 aluth, Gk. aloe. The first Europeans 
 who visited India, on account of the 
 similarity of sound, called the aghil, 
 " lignum aquilcs," " aqidla/ria," "eagle- 
 
 wood," Pr. hois d'wigle, Ger. adler-holz 
 (Smith, Bihle Diet., vol. i. p. 52). See 
 also Dehtzsch on Song of Songs, iv. 
 14. 
 
 It seems that the Sanskrit name is 
 itself a corrupted word. 
 
 The " agallochum " is called aguru. or 
 agaru in Sanskrit; it is mentioned as mats- 
 rial for incense in the RSmSlyana; agura 
 means '' not heavy," and as the incense is 
 made out of the decayed roots of the tree 
 C'aquilaria agallocha"), the Sanskrit name 
 might seem applicable. Another name , how- 
 ever, of the Agallochum, in Sanskrit, is " an- 
 arya-ja " produced among non-Aryans, i.e. 
 barbarians, and, I believe, the wood is chiefly 
 brought from Cochin China and Siam. In 
 that case, aguru may be only an approxima- 
 tion to some foreign word, and an attempt to 
 give to that foreign word a meaning in San- 
 skrit. Aghil is only a modern pronunciation 
 ol aguru. — M. Miiller, in Pusey, Lectures on 
 Daniel, p. 647. 
 
 Eab, the name for a spike of corn, 
 bears a deceptive resemblance to that 
 for the organ of hearing. It is A. Sax. 
 ear, a contracted form of ceoMr, O. H. 
 Ger. ahir (hahir, spicas. — Vocab. ofS. 
 Gall, 7th cent.), Goth, ahs, Ger. iihre, 
 Scot, icker, the radical idea being that 
 of sharpness, root ac, as in the cognate 
 A. Sax. egl, egle, an ear of corn. 
 
 A daimen-icAcr [occasional ear] in a thrave, 
 'S a sma' request. 
 Bums, ^Vorks, p. 54 (Globe ed.). 
 But Thou with corne canst make this Stone 
 
 to eare. 
 What needen we the angrie heau'ns to fear ? 
 Let tliem enuie vs still, so we enioy Thee 
 here? 
 G. Fletcher, Chrisfs Victorie on Earth, 
 20 (1610). 
 
 Ear, an obsolete word for to plough, 
 A. Sax. ei-ian (c£ Icel. erja, Goth, arjan, 
 Lat. ararre), occurring in the authorized 
 version of the Bible (Gen. xlv. 6, Is. 
 XXX. 24, &c.), and Shakespeare, has 
 sometimes been mistakenly used as if 
 it meant to form into ea/rs (of com), to 
 ripen. 
 
 Pegge quotes from the Earl of Mon- 
 mouth's translation of BoccaUni(p.ll), 
 " The plowers of poetry . . . had good 
 reason to expect a rich harvest, but 
 when, in the beginning of July, the 
 season of ea/)-ing began, they saw their 
 sweat and labours dissolve aU into 
 leaves and flowers." — Gentleman's 
 Magazine, May, 1755. 
 
EABDH-WICGE ( 108 ) 
 
 EM 
 
 Eaedh-wicge, a Saxon eor^e-wicga, 
 an old corruption of ear-wicga, the ear- 
 wig, as if it meant the "earth-wig:" 
 wicga being the word for an insect, a 
 beetle. 
 
 Earl's money, 1 Provincial Eng. 
 AiELES MONEY, > words for money 
 Arlbs money, ) advanced to con- 
 firm a bargain, Scot, airle-penny, ear- 
 nest-money, are corruptions of 0. Eng. 
 ernes, Gael, earlas, Pr. arrhes, Lat. 
 a/rrha, arrhabo, Gk. arrabon, a deposit, 
 a word introduced by the Phoenicians, 
 Heb. erabhdn, a pledge. 
 
 Earning, a North of England word 
 for cheese-rennet (Halliwell, "Wright), 
 is the modern form of A. Sax. mrmng, 
 a running, then a running together, 
 coagulation, iromcernan, yrnan, a trans- 
 posed form of rinnan, to run, Dut. ren- 
 nan, Ger. rennen ; so we find Prov. 
 Eng. ea/i-n, to cm-die milk, and earn, to 
 run. Compare rennet, formerly runnet, 
 of the same origin ; and Ger. lab, Dan. 
 l^be, Swed. liipe, O. Norm, hlaup, ren- 
 net, from Dan. lipbe, Swed. liijpa, O. 
 Norn, hlaupa, to run together, coagu- 
 late ; Cleveland dialect lomered, curdled 
 (Atkiason). See also liming, rennet, 
 Old Gauntry and Farming Words, 
 E. D. S. p. 164. 
 
 Easel, Ger. esel, Dut. ezel (=:Lat. 
 asellus, a Uttle ass). The orthography 
 apparently influenced by " ease." Cf. 
 
 Ease {to), to take away trouble, pain, or 
 difficulty. 
 
 Easel, an instrument that painters set their 
 pictures on, for the better and more ready 
 performance of their work. — Vyche, Eng. 
 DictUnuiry, 1740. 
 
 Compare our " clothes' horse," Pr. 
 chevalet ; It. cavaletio, a nag and a tres- 
 sel (Florio) ; It. asinone, an ass, the 
 mounting of a cannon [Id.); Greek 
 JcilUbas, an easel, from Icillos, an ass ; 
 gauntree, from cantherius, a packhorse ; ■ 
 0. E. somer, a packhorse, a bedstead ; 
 Scot, mare, a scaffold support, Lat. 
 equuleus, &o. 
 
 Easing-spaerow, a Sliropshire word 
 for the house-sparrow, is for easen, — i. e. 
 eavesen, or eaves, — the eaves-sparrow, 
 A. Sax. efese, Goth, uhizva, a porch, 
 O. H. Ger. opasa, which glosses atrius 
 {atrium) in the Vocabulary of 8. Gall 
 (7th cent.). Cf. 0. Eng. evesunge. 
 
 He efnede hire to niht fuel fiet is under 
 euesitnge. 
 
 [He compared her to a night fowl that is 
 under the eaves.] Ancren Riiote, p. 142. 
 
 Eat -ALL, an old word for a glutton 
 or ravener, by which the Nomendaior 
 glosses Pamphagus, Oinnivorous, is no 
 doubt really an altered form of A. Sax. 
 etol, gluttonous, given to eating (A, 
 Sax. etan, to eat). Conapare Wit-ail. 
 
 Mannes sunu com etende and dryncende, 
 and hi cwefta);. Her ys ettu/-man. — A. Sax. 
 Gospels, a. Matt. xi. 19. 
 
 Eaton, an old North country word 
 for a giant, which Camden took to be a 
 corrupt form of heathen, is A. Sax. don, 
 eoton, a giant (Beowulf), a voracious 
 monster {= Lat. edo-n) from etan; 0. 
 Eng. eatande ; in later Enghsh Mn 
 (e.g. Cotton, Burlesques, p. 266); Icel. 
 jiitunn (Thorpe, No^'th. Mythology, vol. 
 i., p. 148), Dsai. jette. 
 
 He wes swa kene and so strong 
 Als he were an eatande. 
 
 Lii^amon, p. 58. 
 
 The common sort of people doe plainly say 
 these Roman workes were made by Giants, 
 whom in the North parts they use to call in 
 their vulgar tongue Batons, for heathens (if 1 
 be not deceived ) or Ethnicks. — Camden, tmiu. 
 by P. Holland, fol. p. 63. 
 
 Edge, a N. Irish word for an adze 
 (Patterson), as if significant ofits sharp- 
 ness ; Scottish eitdi ; both corruptions 
 of adze, old Eng. adse, adese, A. Sai. 
 
 Eel-Dolly, 1 a Scotch word for oil, 
 Oyl-Dolly, ) is a corruption of the 
 Prench hvAle d'olive (Jamieson). 
 
 Egg-beery, a Cumberland word for 
 the bird cherry {prunus padus),in.wiao'k 
 dialect it is also caUed ehberry and 
 heckberry (Dickinson, (?Zossar2/,p.xxi.). 
 Other forms are hag-berry, hachlmil, 
 and hedge-berry . All except the last are 
 corruptions, as is shown by the Swedish 
 name hdgg applied to the same plant. 
 Cf. A. Sax. hege, a hedge, N. Eng. ky, 
 a wood. 
 
 Elder, a Lincolnshire word for the 
 udder, of which no doubt it is a cor- 
 ruption, being in some places pro- 
 nounced edder. 
 
 Em, a colloquial form oithem, printed 
 'em in books, as "Take 'em to you" 
 (Eowe), as if a contracted form oithem, 
 
EMBATTLED 
 
 ( 109 ) 
 
 EMPEBIALL 
 
 really stands for old Eng. hem, ace. plu. 
 of hs. Cf. it for 0. E. Int. 
 
 The other Iielden his sernauntis and slowen 
 hem. — IVticlijfe, S. Matt. xxii. 6. 
 
 He sende hem J?ider fol son 
 
 To helpen hem wi^ hoc. 
 
 Morris and Skeat, Specimens, ii. 46, 1. 8. 
 
 EMB.iTTLED, fumished with hattle- 
 menfs or fortifications, as if put in battle 
 array [en hatadlle), is for O. Er. em- 
 hastille, fortified. See Battlement. 
 
 His combe was redder tlian the fin corall, 
 Enbuttelied, as it were a castel wall. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 14866. 
 
 Spurr'd at heart with fieriest energy 
 To emhattail and to wall abont thy cause 
 With iron-worded proof. 
 
 Tennyson, Sonnet to J, M. K., 1. 8. 
 
 Ember Days, ^ " So called," says 
 
 Ember Week, S Bailey, " from a cus- 
 tom anciently of putting Ashes on their 
 heads on those Days, in Token of Humi- 
 hation." Thiscustom, however, is quite 
 imaginary, being invented to account 
 for the name. 
 
 The Latin name is Jejuwia quatuor 
 ierKporvmi, " The Ember-Days at the 
 Four Seasons " {Prayer Booh), or more 
 concisely quatuor tempora. Derived 
 from this are the Dutch quaterfemper, 
 Danish hvatemher, German quatemher, 
 Spanish temporas, Fr. quatre-temps. 
 Other forms are Icelandic imh'V^dagar, 
 Dan. tamper-dage, Swed. tamper-dagar. 
 (The Icelandic word has been traced 
 to the Latin imber, and by others to an 
 old woman named Imbra .') Hampson 
 (Medii Aevi Kalendarium, vol. ii. p. 
 326) quotes from an old MS., "The 
 Quater Temper shalle be this weke, 
 callede the Tmber Dayes." 
 
 Temper or Tember (perhaps imder- 
 stood as Thember or Th'emher Days) 
 might seem to be the origin of our 
 ".Ember Days." 
 
 Compare the French " Les quatre 
 temps. Th'Ember dales ; four weeks 
 in the yeare appointed for publike 
 fasts." — Cotgrave. 
 
 But the true origin is seen in the A. 
 Sax. form ymbren-wuce for Ember week, 
 i.e. ymb-rene, or ymbe-ryne, a running- 
 round, or recurring period. Hence 
 embring weeks in Tusser and others. 
 
 In the Anwen Riwle, about 1225, the 
 word appears as Umbridawes, a word 
 compounded with old Eng. umbe (=: 
 
 Greek amphi), as if the days that come 
 round periodically. 
 
 Ve schulen eten . . . eueviche deie twie, 
 bute uridawes and umbridawes. — p. 412 
 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Ye shall eat . . . every day twice, except 
 Pridays and Embertlays. ^ 
 
 Perhaps the true account is that evi- 
 ber is a sort of a compromise between 
 'temper and ynibren, and assimilated by 
 false derivation to embers, ashes. 
 
 After J)e opynyon of men, and diverse 
 ciintreyes speclie, those quatuor tempora be 
 called ymher duyes, cause whi,,olde fadirs on 
 tho dayes whan they shuld fast, Jiei wolde ete 
 cakes }pt were bake vndir ■ jie asshes in J;e 
 ymbers and fjt was callid panis subcinereus, 
 j't is to say, brede vndir asshes ; so J)t in etyng 
 brede undir asshes in Jie ymhres Jiei re- 
 membreed Jjt J>ei were but asshes, and they 
 shulde to asshes torne ageyn. — Homily of the 
 15tfe century (quoted in Hampson, Medii 
 Aevi Kalendarium, vol. ii. p. 413). 
 
 A similar misimderstanding must 
 have got footing in Ireland, where 
 Ember week is csJlei 8eaclidmhain-na- 
 luaitlwe, " week of ashes." 
 I take from hym baptym, with the other 
 
 eacramentes 
 And Sufferages of the churche, both amber 
 dayes and lentes. 
 
 Bale, hynge Johan, p. 41 (Camden Soc). 
 
 He used often to punish his body with 
 discipline, especiallie every Fridaie, great 
 Sainctes eves, and at the fower ti/mes of Ember 
 weeke. — Wordsworth, Eccles. Biography, vol. ii. 
 p. 82 (ed. 1810). 
 
 Next him sat Hildebrand, and he held a 
 hering in his hand, because he made Lent : 
 and one pope sat with a smock sleeve about 
 his necke, and that was he that made the 
 imbering weekes, in honor of his faire and 
 beautinill curtizan Imbra. — Tarlton, Newes 
 out of Purgatorie, p. 64 (Shaks. Soc), 
 
 Emperiall is used in Hopton's Oon- 
 coi'danme of Yeares, 1612, pp. 34, 85, 
 for the empyreal or empyrean, a medise- 
 val name for the sether or fiery heaven 
 (Greek, empyros, fiery), which seems 
 to have been confounded with imperial. 
 BaUey defines " Empyrcevmi cmlum, the 
 highest heaven in which is the throne 
 of God." 
 
 Of the first Heaven— the Philosophers had 
 no knowledge of this Emperiall Heauen : onely 
 the scriptures teach us to belieue the same ; 
 and is called the Emperiall Heauen, by reason 
 of the clearnesse and resplendency : It is im- 
 moueable, made by God the first day he be- 
 gan his creation of the world .... where (as 
 it is thought) remaineth the humanity of 
 
EMBOD 
 
 ( no ) 
 
 HAND-IRONS 
 
 Jesus Christ, and hath therein thi-ee Hierar- 
 chias, holy orders, or principalities. — Hop- 
 toiiy he. cit. 
 
 If these inferior Orbs were rowled vp, 
 And the Impenall heauen bar"d to my view, 
 'Twere not so gracious, nor so much desir'd, 
 As my deare Kafherine is to Pasquils sight. 
 Jacke Drum:) Entertainementy act iii. 
 1. 295 (1616). 
 Whoso hath fi'om the Empijreall Pole, 
 Within the centre of his happy Soule, 
 Receiv'd som splendor of the beams divine. 
 Must to his Neighbour make the same to 
 shine. 
 
 Sylvester, Da Bartas, p. 151 (1621). 
 The Emperialt Heaven is one thing, the 
 materiall or visibleHeaven another. — William 
 Streutj The Dividing of the iiooJ\ p. 5, 1654. 
 
 Dante curiously enough calls the 
 ninth heaven " regal." 
 
 Lo real manto di tutti i volumi 
 
 Del mondo, che piu ferve e piii s'avviva 
 
 Neir alito di Dio. 
 
 Parudiso, xxiii. 112-114. 
 The robe, that with its regal folds enwraps 
 The world, and with the nearer breath of God 
 Dotli burn and quiver. Carey. 
 
 Emeod, [ the old Eng. word for an 
 
 Embeadd,) emerald, when apphed 
 to the disease known as piles, A. V. 
 emerods (1 Sam. v. 6), is a corrupted 
 form of Ticsmrods, liemmds (Burton, 
 Anatomy of Melamclwly), It. emor- 
 roidi', Fr. hemorroides, "haemorrhoids," 
 Gk. hmmorrJwides, "flowing with 
 blood." 
 
 The Spaniards corrupted the word 
 into 'mordydes (Minsheu). 
 
 Anemerod [r= emerald] esteemed at 50,000 
 crowns. — I^orth's Plutarch, Life of Augustus. 
 
 Emerau-ntys, or emerowdys, Ernorruis. — 
 Prompt. Parvuhrum. 
 
 Enceinte, old Fr. enceincte, great 
 with child, It. incinta, ungirt, also 
 with child (Florio), Low Lat. incinda, 
 pregnant, that is, without a cincture, or 
 girdle (Isidore of Seville), or, as the 
 French say, " femme sans corset " 
 (Soheler). All these words seem to 
 have been corrupted by false etymo- 
 logy from Lat. incien{t)s, pregnant, 
 breeding, childing, which is near akin 
 to Greek igliiws {i.e. enhuos), pregnant, 
 Sansk. fwi, to swell (Cm-tius, Oriech. 
 Etym. i. 126). Enceinte, an encircling 
 wall or boundary, is therefore a dis- 
 tinct word. 
 
 Enohesoun, a common old Eng. cor- 
 ruption of occasion {e.g. Wycliffe, Gen. 
 
 xxivii. 5), as if compounded with the 
 preposition en {in) (so ensampk for ex- 
 ample), the intermediate forms being 
 achesoun, achaison. 
 
 For it semes ))at J>e Kyng had grete encheson. 
 Hampole, Pricke of Couscieiice, 1. 5790. 
 
 Ends errand, a Scottish expression 
 meaning " a special design," is no 
 doubt, as pointed out by Jamieson, a 
 corruption of anes errand, a single 
 errand, for the nonce, or one special 
 occasion ; anes beiug the genitive of an, 
 one. 
 
 Endue, from the Lat. induo, to 
 clothe, has been confounded with en- 
 doio (Fr. en and dower, L. Lat. indotare), 
 to furnish with a dowry (Fr. douaire, 
 L. Lat. dotarium), then to supply with 
 any gift. This is evidently the case in 
 Genesis xxx. 20, "God hath endued me 
 with a good dowry." — Dotavitme Deus 
 dote bona. — Vulgate; " And with Sans- 
 foyes dead dowry you endew." — Spenser, 
 E. Queene, 1. iv. 51. In Luke xxiv. 
 49, however, the word is used in its 
 proper meaning, " Until ye be endued 
 with power from on high," where the 
 Greek has enduo, Vulgate imho, to 
 clothe. Another instance is presented 
 in the Versicles at Morning Prayer, 
 
 Priest. Endue thy ministers with righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 Answer. And make thy chosen people joy- 
 ful. 
 
 These words are taken from Ps. 
 cxsxii. 9, "Let thy priests be clothed 
 with righteousness, and let thy Saints 
 sing with Joyfulness " (P. B. version), 
 where the Vulgate has " Sacerdotes tui 
 induantur justitiam, et sancti tni ex- 
 sultent." 
 
 Clothe the in clennes, with vertu be iniute, 
 And God with his grace he wyl the sone 
 inspyre. 
 
 The Coventry Mi^steiies, p. 204 
 (Shaks.'Spc). 
 Infinite shapes of creatures there are bred . . ., 
 Some fitt for reasonable sowles t' iiidew. 
 Some made for beasts, some made for birds to 
 weare. 
 
 Spenser, F, Queene, III. vi. 35. 
 
 End-irons, ) corrupted forms of 
 Hand-ikons, j andirons, iron bars to 
 support the ends of the logs burning on 
 the hearth, the former occurring in the 
 margin of A. Version of Ezek. xl. 43, 
 the latter in Quarles' Judgment and 
 
ENEMY 
 
 ( lU ) 
 
 ENTIOE 
 
 Mercy (Repr. 1807), "Let heavy cynics 
 .... be Imndlrons for the injurious 
 world to work a heat upon," p. 147. 
 
 Older forms are awndyryn, andijrons. 
 " Iron " is no part of the original word, 
 cf. O. En", awnderne {Prnmpt. Farv.), 
 andyar, 0. Fr. andirr, Pr. landier. Low 
 Lat. andena. Andedos occurs in 
 Charlemagne's capitular, Be Villis Im- 
 periaUbvs, a. 42 (a.d. 812). 
 
 Enemy, a Lincolnshire name for the 
 anemone, of which word it is a corrup- 
 tion, through the common mispronun- 
 ciation anenome, or anenemy, being mis- 
 understood as an enemy. "The com- 
 mon people call them emones." — Coles, 
 Adam in Eden, 1657. 
 
 Doon i' the woild enemies. 
 Tennyson, Northern Farmer, Old Style. 
 
 (Britten and Holland, p. 169.) 
 
 Enemy, a Scotch word for an ant 
 (Fife), is a corruption of A. Sax. oemete, 
 an emmet, which in other parts is 
 called emmsck, ema.ntin, enanteen. Simi- 
 lar, perhaps, is the meaning of the fol- 
 lowing from Wright's Provincial Dic- 
 tionary, " Enemis, an insect, Shrop- 
 shire." 
 
 ENaiiAND. So far back as the time 
 of Procopius England was popularly 
 regarded by the people on the oppo- 
 site shore of the continent as the land of 
 souls or departed spirits. It is still 
 believed in Brittany that a weird boat 
 laden with souls is ferried across the 
 Enghsh Channel every night, and the 
 point of departure is either Boe ann 
 anavo, " the Bay of Souls," near Eaz, 
 or La Bwie des Trepasses, " the Bay of 
 the Departed," at Ga/rnoet (see Tylor, 
 Prim. Gultwe, ii. 59 ; Keary, Daivn of 
 History, 175 ; Lewis, Astronomy of An- 
 cients, 494 ; Maoquoid, Pictwes and 
 Legends from Normandy and Brit- 
 tam/y). 
 
 It has been conjectured that this 
 superstition arose from a misunder- 
 standing of England, formerly Enge- 
 lamd, as engle-land, " the Angel land," 
 engel being an angel in German, A. 
 Saxon, &c. 
 
 So Ger. englisch,B,nge\ic, and Enghsh. 
 The historic pun of Pope Gregory the 
 Great wUl occur as illustrative. 
 
 J>u ueir bimong wummen, auli bimong 
 engles, Jju meiht don Jjerto [Thou fair among 
 
 women, nay, among angels, thou mightest 
 add thereto].— 4 racrere Riwk, p. 102. 
 
 In German folk-lore we still hear of a 
 Realm of the Dead, which is said to be 
 situated in " Engel-land." Engel-land in 
 German literally means both the land of the 
 Angels and of the English. In the former 
 sense Engel-land is a later semi-Christian 
 transfiguration of the former Teutonic Home 
 of the angel-like Light Elves — good fays who 
 were said to be more beautiful than the sun. 
 In Anglo-Saxon we find the Home of the 
 Light Elves mentioned as Engla earii. — A'. 
 Blind, The Nineteenth Centurif, No. xxviii. 
 p. 1110. 
 
 Enhance, old Eng. enhaunce, en- 
 haunse, seems to be a natural com- 
 pound of en and old Eng. haunce, to 
 raise or lift up, a nasalized form of 
 Prov. Eng. Jmuse, to heave up (Ang. 
 Ir. hoosh), hauzen (Peele), from Fr. 
 Jumsser, to heighten, lift (= It. ahan-e, 
 Lat. (?) altiare, to make high, alius). 
 Cf. " Hawncyn', or heynyn' (al. 
 hawten, or heithyn vp), exalto, elevo." 
 — Prompt. Parv. So a city wall is said 
 to be enhaunsed (MS. in Way). " En- 
 Jiance, exaltare." — Levins, Manipwlus, 
 22. 
 
 It is, however, identical with Prov. 
 enansa/r, to advance or put forwards, 
 from enans (^ inante], forward (Skeat, 
 Wedgwood). 
 
 He puttide doun mysty men fro seete, and 
 enhaunside meke. — Wycliffe, S. Luke, i. 52 
 (1389). 
 
 Entail, in its modern and popular 
 acceptation to produce a necessary re- 
 sult, as when a measure is said to " en- 
 tail serious consequences," is probably 
 generally supposed to mean " draw in 
 its wake, or tail, or sequele " (cf. " a 
 matter of consequence," i.e. having a 
 following, sc. of results). 
 
 As a law term it means to limit an 
 estate to a certain Une of descent (to 
 settleunchangeably), orig. to abridge or 
 cut it off, from O. Fr. entailler, to cut, 
 It. intagUare, whence intaglio, a cut 
 gem. 
 
 Entice, so spelt as if compounded 
 with en {in), from the idea of drawing 
 in or inveigling a person, is a corrupt 
 form of attyce (Barclay, Shyp of Fooles, 
 1509), to excite, inflame, or kindle, 
 from Fr. attiser, to kindle, lay one brand 
 near another (Cotgrave), It. attizzare, 
 to stir up the fire, provoke to anger 
 
EOTUL-VABB ( 112 ) 
 
 E UTOPIAN 
 
 (Plorio); and these from Fr. tison. It. 
 tizzo, Lat. titio, a firebrand. 
 
 To tliefte shall they you soone attyse. 
 Ancient Poeticui TractSj p. 11 
 [Wright]. 
 It is his owne lust . . . that entises him to 
 sin. — Bp. AiidreweSy Sermons, p. 7.52. 
 
 EoTTJL-VAEB, the word for Italians in 
 Beda {Hist. Ecdes., 2, 4), as if " the 
 gluttonous men " (A. Sax. eotol, eatol, 
 etol, voracious, from etan, to eat ; of. 
 eoion, eton, a devouring giant), is a natu- 
 raUzed form of liaUoi, hteraUy " Italy- 
 men." 
 
 Ephesian, a name given in Galloway 
 to the pheasant (Jamieson), is an evi- 
 dent corruption of old Eng. fesan, fe- 
 saun, old Fr. faisan, Lat. phasiana, i.e. 
 the Phasian bird, from the Fhasis in 
 Colchis. 
 He com him-self y-charg:ed • wi conyng & 
 
 hares, 
 Wifi J'csuuns & feldfares • and ojjer foules 
 
 g'rete. 
 
 WiUiam of Palerne, 1. 183 (ed. Skeat). 
 Take goode brothe, |:erin Jjou pyt 
 jiy fesauntes and ^y pertryks, fjat men may 
 
 wyt. 
 Liber Cure Cocorum, p. 23 (ed. Morris). 
 Goe silly soules that doe so much admire 
 Court curious intertainment and fine fare 
 May you for mee obtaine what you desire 
 I for your fowles of Fhasis do not care. 
 
 T. FulUr, David's Haiiious Sinne, &^c., 
 1631, p. 72 (ed. Grosart). 
 
 Episode, so spelt and pronounced as 
 if denoting something sung in addition, 
 like epode, ode, should in strictness be 
 episodOike metlwd, period, synod), being 
 the Greek epeisodos, an additional entry 
 (into a story), something adventitious. 
 
 Equekry, an officer who has the 
 care of the horses of a prince, so spelt 
 as if derived from equus, a horse (so 
 Bailey), is properly the stable man, 
 from Fr. eeu/rie. Low Lat. scwia. 
 
 EtjTJiPAGK was once mistakenly re- 
 garded as a compound of Lat. mguus, 
 equal, like egmpoise, equinox, &c. Thus 
 " (Equipage, order," is E. K.'s gloss on 
 Spenser's line — 
 
 With queint Bellona in her equipage. 
 The Sheplieard's Calender, Oct., 1. 114. 
 
 But let these translations be beheld by un- 
 partiai eyes, and they will be allowed to go 
 in e<iuipige with the best Poems in that age. 
 — T. Fuller, Worthies, vol. i. p. 411 (ed. 
 1811). ^ ^ 
 
 Equip, formerly eslcip, esquip, from 
 Fr. eqvAper, esquiper, Sp. esqm'far, was 
 originally to fit out a ship (It. scJufo, 
 O. H. G. skif, G^th. ship), M. MuUer, 
 Diez. 
 
 To esquippe or fournish ships with all abi- 
 lements. — Cooper, Thesaurus, 1573. 
 See Verstegan, Bestitution of Becakd 
 Intelliqence, p. 205. 
 
 Eed-ling, eordlvng, or aer^Ung, the 
 A. Saxon name for the bittern or heron, 
 as if from eord, eori, the earth, is a cor- 
 ruption of Lat. m-dea, Gk. erddn.os, a 
 heron. 
 
 Eeeant, " In Law, is applied to Jus- 
 tices who go the circuit " (Bailey), as 
 ^wandering judges (Lat. e/rramtes, from 
 errare, to wander) ; it is really derived 
 from Fr. erre, a way or course (Cot- 
 grave), 0. Fr.eire, a journey, Pr. errer, 
 O. Fr. ed/rm- (L. Lat. itera/re), to jour- 
 ney, all from Lat. iter, but confounded 
 with erra/re. Scheler even thinks that 
 the Juif errant is of similar origin. So 
 " Justices in eyre," are justices on a 
 journey ; explained by Spehnan as 
 " Justiciarii itinerantes, or eiranies, for 
 iter is also called errm-" (Ghssariwm, 
 p. 240, 1626). 
 Tuelf hundred as in 3?r of grace & nintence, 
 
 ich vnderstonde. 
 The eire of Justize wende aboute in the 
 
 londe. 
 kobt. of Gloucester, Chronicle, f. 517 
 (ed. 1810). 
 Ell-ant, in the sense of notorioBSi 
 rank, is a corruption of Aekant, which 
 see. 
 
 Take heede of those, ''for they are errmmt 
 theeues. — Thos. Lever, Sermons, lo50, p. 66 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Eescen, an old Eng. word for the 
 hedgehog (? fide Somneri), as if from 
 ersc, a park or warren, is a corruption 
 of an original seen in 0. Eng. vrehn, 
 urclwne, O. Fr. eri^on, Sp. erizo, Fr, 
 hei-isson, Lat. ericius. 
 
 _ Edtopian, Milton's spelling, "Atlan- 
 tick and Eutopiam politics, wliich never 
 can be drawne into use, will not mend 
 our condition" (Areopagitica, 1644, p. 
 51, ed. Arber), as if from Greek en, 
 well, and topos, a place, is a mistaken 
 form of Utopian, from ou, not, and 
 topos, a non-existent place, "Kenna- 
 quhair," or No man's land. 
 
EVER 
 
 ( 113 ) 
 
 EXCREMENT 
 
 EvEE, ) Provincial names 
 
 EvEE-GEASS, V for the darnel, lo- 
 EvERY, J Hum perenne, are 
 
 corruptions of its French appellation 
 imaie ; so called from its power to ine- 
 h-iate or make drunk (iwe). Of. Ger. 
 rawschhorn, Plena, dronckaeri, Lat. lo- 
 lium temulenium. See Eay-geass. 
 
 EvEEHiLLS, a Northamptonshire 
 word, sometimes contracted into errils, 
 for a field or enclosure, ori|;inally an 
 allotment of common land to a parti- 
 cular proprietor, is a corruption of 
 several, a portion severed or set apart, 
 " a divided enclosure " (Kennett, Pa- 
 roeh. Antiq., 1695). 
 Of late he's broke into a several 
 Which doth belong to me, and there he spoils 
 Both corn and pasture. 
 
 Sir John Oldcastle, iii. 1. 
 
 Sternberg, JSforihampt. Glossary. 
 
 It is easy to see how constantly re- 
 curring phrases like " John's several," 
 " His several," would degenerate into 
 " John's everal," " His everal." So in 
 compounded words the initial s of the 
 latter part is often swallowed up in the 
 final s of the prefix, especially in the 
 case of ex (:= ehs), e.g. execrate for ex- 
 secrate (cf. consecrate) ; exert for ex- 
 sert (cf. insert); exist for ex-sist (cf. 
 insist) ; expect for exspect (cf. inspect) ; 
 expire for ex-spire (cf. inspire) ; extant 
 for exstant (cf. instant) ; extinct for 
 ex-stinct (cf. instinct) ; extirpate for ex- 
 stirpate; exude for exsude; exult for 
 ex-sult (ci.insult) ; exuperate (Browne) 
 for exsuperate. 
 Why should my heart think that a several 
 
 plot 
 Which my heart knows the wide world's 
 
 common place ? 
 
 Shakespeare, Sonnet cxxxvii. 
 
 Truth lies open to all ; it is no man's se- 
 veral. (Patet omnibus Veritas ; nondum est 
 occupata.) — B. Jonson, Discoveries, Works, p. 
 742. 
 
 Some are so boy sterous, no severalls will hold 
 them, but lay all Offices common to their 
 power. — T. Fuller, Holy and Profane State, 
 p. 234 (1648). 
 
 EvEKY WHERE, old Eng. eaverihiver 
 {Legend of S. Katherine, p. 37), is no 
 compound of every, everich, but a cor- 
 ruption of ever-gehwmr, ever yiuhere ; 
 ever being the usual 12th century prefix 
 (Ohphant). So handy -work is iorJiand- 
 gcweoi'c, Imnd-yioorh. 
 
 Excise, apparently a portion cut off 
 or excised (Lat. excisus) from a com- 
 modity in the way of duty, a tax, hke 
 talliage from Er. tailler, to cut. Prof. 
 Skeat, however, shows that this is a 
 mere mis-speUing of acme, Dut. ahsys, 
 ahsiis, Grer. acoise, and these corruptions 
 of O. Fr. assis, assise, an assessment 
 (Lat. assessus). — Etym. Diet., s. v. Ac- 
 cise occurs iu Howell, Letters, Bk. i., 
 vii. (1619). 
 
 All the townes of the Lowe-Countreyes 
 
 doe cutt upon themselves an excise of all 
 
 thinges towarde the mayntenaunce of tlie 
 
 ■ warre. — Spenser, State of Ireland, p. 669 
 
 (Globe ed.). 
 
 ExcEEMENT, frequently used in old 
 writers for the hair or nails, is literally 
 an " out-growth " from the body, an 
 excrescence (Lat. excrementum, from ex- 
 crescere, to grow out), and has no con- 
 nexion with excrement, the excreta, or 
 parts separated by digestion (from Lat. 
 excerno, to sift out), with which it has 
 sometimes been confounded, e. g. by 
 Eichardson. Thus Fuller says that 
 Elisha was mocked by the children 
 " For lacking the comely excrement of 
 haire on his head." — Fisgah-Sight of 
 Palestine, p. 249 (1650). 
 
 If that ornamentall excrement which groweth 
 beneath the chin be the standard of wisdome, 
 they [goats] carry it from Aristotle himself. 
 — Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 633 (ed. 
 18U). 
 
 Why is Time such a niggard of hair, being, 
 as it is, so plentiful an excrement ? — Shakespeare, 
 Comedy of Errors, ii, 2, 1. 79. 
 Above all things wear no beard : long beards 
 Are signs the brains are full, because the 
 
 excrements 
 Come out so plentifully. 
 
 Randolph, Amyntas, i. 3, Works, p. 282 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Pliny saith that the thorn is more soft than 
 a tree, and more hard than an herb ; as if it 
 were some unkindly thing, and but an un- 
 perfect excrement of the earth. — T. Adams, 
 Forest of Thorns, Works, ii. 4:78. 
 
 The following passages show how 
 the two words were confounded. 
 
 Expulsion is a power of nutrition, by 
 which it expells all superfluous excrements and 
 reliques of meat and drink, by the guts, blad- 
 ders, pores ; as by purging, vomiting, spit- 
 ting, sweating, 'urine, hairs, nails, 6lc. — Bur- 
 ton, Anatomy of Melancholy, I. 1, ii. 5. 
 
 Haires are bodyes engendred out of a su- 
 perfluous excrement of the third concoction, 
 terrified by the naturall heat . . One vajior 
 
 I 
 
EXHALE 
 
 ( 114 ) 
 
 ETE 
 
 continually solliciting& vrging another, they 
 are wrought together into one body ; euen as 
 in Chimneys we see by the continuall ascent 
 of Soot, long strings of it are gathered as it 
 were into a cbaine. The difl'erence is, that 
 the straightnesse of the passages of the Skin, 
 where through the matter of the Haires is 
 auoided, formeth them into a small round - 
 nesse, euen as a wire receiueth that propor- 
 tion whereof the hole is, where through it is 
 drawne. — H. Crnoke, Description of the Body 
 o/Itfa)!, p. 67(1631). 
 
 Exhale, sometimes used by Shake- 
 speare as meaning to draw out (Clark 
 and Wright), seems to be a confusion 
 of Lat. exhala/re, to breathe out, with ' 
 Eng. hale, to draw or drag, Dan. hale, 
 Dut. halen, to pull or draw. Thus 
 when Pistol defies Nym to mortal com- 
 bat, and bids him draw his sword, he 
 says — 
 The grave doth gape, and doting death is 
 
 near; 
 Therefore exhale. 
 
 Henry V. ii. 1, 1. 66. 
 
 And when King Henry's corpse be- 
 gins to bleed in the presence of Glou- 
 cester, Lady Anne says — 
 
 *Tis thy presence that exlwks this blood. 
 Richard III. i. 2, 1. 58. 
 
 ExTASY, a mis-spelhng of ecstasy, 
 sometimes found, like the French ex- 
 tase, as if from the Greek ex and tasis, 
 the state of being over strained, instead 
 of from eh and stasis, being beside one- 
 self. 
 
 There is nothing left for her but to fly to 
 the other world tor a metaphor, and swear 
 qu'elle etoit tout extasiee — which mode of 
 speaking is, by the bye, here creeping into 
 use, and there is scarce a woman who under- 
 stands the bon ton but is seren times a day in 
 downright extasy. — Sterne, Letters, xxiii, 
 1762. 
 
 In the same authour [Florilegus] is re- 
 corded Carolus Mag-nus vision an. 885, or 
 extasis, wherein he saw heaven and hell after 
 much fasting and meditation. — Burton, Ana- 
 tomy of Melancholii, III. 4, i. 2. 
 Eftsoones she thus resolv'd ; that whilst the 
 
 Gods . . . 
 Were troubled, and amongst themselves at 
 
 ods, 
 To set upon them in that extasie. 
 
 Spenser, F. Qweene, VII. 6, xxiii. 
 
 Joel breaks into an extasy as he sees the 
 spirit of God poured out "on all flesh." — 
 Sami. Cox, Expository Essays, p. 119. 
 
 This carried the heart of olde Simeon into 
 such a holy extasie of religious delight, that 
 earth could hold liim no longer, but he must 
 
 needs, as it were, breake prison, and leape out 
 of his olde body into heauen. — G. Fktcher, 
 Reward of the Faithfull, 1623, Poems, p. 27 
 (ed. Grosart). 
 
 ExTEME, an old Eng. perversion of ., 
 esteem (Lat. mstimm-e), as if compounded,! 
 with the preposition ex. Hall reports ' 
 how " certain Soottes of the isle of Bri- 
 tayne eate the fleshe of men .... 
 extemyng this meate to be the greatest 
 deinties." — Henry V. fol. 8 a. 
 
 ExTEEics, a common corruption in 
 Scotland of the word hysterics (Jamie- 
 son). See Asterisks, High steikes, 
 and Steeacles. 
 
 Eye, as an article of millinery, the 
 correlative term to a hook, which it 
 serves to catch, being indeed its coun- 
 terpart and inseparable concomitant, 
 as in the expression "hooka and eyes," 
 seems to be a metaphorical use of the 
 name of the organ of sight. It is pro- 
 bably a corruption of the German oese, 
 which has the same meaning. 
 
 Ose is given in Eumpf, Teclmoh- 
 gisches Worterbuch, as meaning a ring, 
 loop, link, hoop, or eye of a rope, hook, 
 &o. Auge, however, is used in a simi- 
 lar way. Cf. O. Eng. oes = eyes, 15th 
 cent. (Wright), and eyelet-hole, Fr. 
 oeillet. 
 
 It is perhaps the same word that in 
 old writers appears as o or oe, in the 
 sense of a spangle or oh-clet. 
 
 Yon fiery oes and eyes of light. 
 
 Midsum. N. Dream, iii. ?. 
 
 Oes or spangs, as they are of no gi-eat cost, 
 so are they of most glory. — Bacon, Of Mosjuw 
 and Triumphs. 
 
 Eye, used, as formerly, in the sense 
 of a tint or shade of colour, is probably 
 from A. Sax. hiw, hue, colom-, appear- 
 ance (of. eawian, to show or manifest), 
 Swed. hy, Goth, hiwi, appearance, 
 colour (Diefenbach, ii. 656). 
 
 The ground indeed is tawny. 
 With an eye oi green in it. 
 
 Tempest, ii. 1. 
 Red, with an eye of blue, makes a purple. 
 — Boyle, Experiments touching Colours. 
 
 The Shakespearian verb eye, to ap- 
 pear, is perhaps the same word. 
 IMy becomings kill me, when they do not 
 Eye well to you. 
 
 Antony and Cleop. i. 3, 1. 97. 
 
 Eye, a prov. word for a brood or 
 nest, as "an eye of pheasants" (OW 
 
FAG 
 
 ( 115 ) 
 
 FAIB-WAY 
 
 Country and Fm-ming Words, E. D. S., 
 p. 80), seems to be a corruption of Fr. 
 nid, a nest (Skeat). 
 
 F. 
 
 Fag. a person is said to be fagged 
 when wearied or tired out. This has 
 been regarded as a corruption o{ flagged, 
 become limp (It. fiacco, Lat. flaccus), 
 or as a contraction of fatigui (S. De 
 Vere, Studies in English). The original 
 meaning, I think, is beaten (cf " dead 
 beat," Sussex flogged, tired out), fag 
 being a sHghtly disguised form- of the 
 old Yerhfeag or feague, to beat. " To 
 Feag, to beat with rods, to whip, whence 
 fagging signLfieth any manner of beat- 
 ing." — Baaley. 
 
 "Fag, to beat or thrash." — Wright. 
 Hence probably iiiefag of pubhc schools. 
 Diefenbaoh connects it with A. Sax. 
 fmge, about to die, Swed. feg, loel. feigr, 
 Scot, fey (Goth. Spmche,!. 380). 
 
 But flagged was certainly used in the 
 same sense as fagged. 
 Flugg'd reines aweete [? swell, Lowell] plump 
 with fresh-infused joyes ! 
 
 Marston. 
 
 Davies, Sup-p. Fng. Glossary, gives 
 instances of fag, sb. r: fatigue (Miss 
 Austen), and fag, to toU or drudge (M. 
 D'Arblay, Dickens). 
 
 Faiepolks, 
 
 Faeefolks, 
 word they are no doubt corruptions. 
 Fairy ioi faery (Fr. f eerie, an assembly 
 oifees), probably owes its present form 
 to an imagined connexion with fair, as 
 in the title of a modem novel, "Fairer 
 than a Fairy." In Wales they are 
 called Tylwith teg, " the Fair family." 
 In Iceland the elves of light were " fair 
 of face," in distinction from their dark 
 subterranean brethren (Dasent, Oxford 
 Essays, 1858). Other names for them 
 are white nymphs, white ladies, witte 
 wyven (Douce), albatoB muKeris (More- 
 sin), hlamquettes in the Pyrenees. 
 
 In the Glossary to G. Douglas (1710) 
 it is explained that the drudging elves 
 get their name of Brownies from their 
 swarthy colour, " as these who move in 
 a higher sphere are called Fairies from 
 their fairness." The true origin is fay. 
 
 \ Scottish names for 
 ) the fairies, of which 
 
 Fr./&, Portg. fada, from L. Lat. fata, 
 a goddess of fate. 
 
 With Nymphis and Faunis apown euery 
 
 syde 
 Quhilk_/a7-e/i)ttis or than elfis clepin we. 
 
 G. Douglas, Bukes of Eneados, p. 252, 
 1. 45. 
 
 Fairly, when used as an intensive 
 adverb, meaning downright, whoUy, 
 altogether (Lat. omnino), as in " I am 
 fairly Tgnzzled," "fairly exhausted," &c., 
 is an evident corruption of 0. Eng. 
 ferly, wondrous, wonderfully, i.e. fear- 
 like, A. Sa.x.fcer-Uc. So Scottish /airZi/ 
 few, surprisingly or wondrous iew, ferly 
 few (Jamieson). Wedgwood (s. v. Fear) 
 quotes from B. Brunne, " He felt him 
 hevy and/erZj/ sick." 
 
 Lo, -o, ueorlich god word [jet te hoh Job 
 seide. — Ancreii Riwle, p. 148. 
 
 fpe pore man hente hyt vp belyue, 
 And was }>erof {uljerly blyjje. 
 
 Robt. Manning, Handtyng Sinne, 
 1. 5620. 
 So in the Alliterative Poems (ab. 
 1360), the Cities of the Plain when set 
 on fire fairly frightened the folk that 
 dwelt in them. 
 
 Ferly flayed >at folk • )>at in jjose fees lenged. 
 p. 64, 1. 961). 
 When a' the hills are covered wi' snaw, 
 I'm sure it's winter _/atrii/. 
 
 Burns, Poems, p. 211 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Faibmaids, otc fermades, i.e.fumadoes, 
 smoked pilchards. 
 
 " Eating fair maids and drinking 
 mahogany " (gin and treacle), is a pro- 
 verbial expression in the west of Eng- 
 land. Hunt, Drolls, ^o., of W. Eng., 
 h. 245. 
 
 And then ( by the name of Fumadoes) with 
 oyle and a lemon, they [pilchards] are meat 
 for the mightiest Don in Spain. — Fuller, Wor- 
 thies, vol. 1. p. 206. 
 
 Dried, sowced, indurate fish, as ling, fn- 
 mados, red-herrings, sprats, stock-fish, haber- 
 dine, poor-John. — Burton, Anatomy of Me- 
 lancholy, I. 2, ii. 1. 
 
 Faib-way, a sea term used in charts, 
 denoting the best course for a vessel 
 through shoals or other difficulties, is 
 without doubt the German FaJvrweg, a 
 thoroughfare or highway, a "/csre-way." 
 (GourpsireFahrwasser, navigable water. 
 A "fair wind " also may be for /are-wind. 
 Gar. Fahrwind.) The Scotch word is 
 fa/reioay, Swed. fa/rvag, a high road, 
 Icel. fcwveg. 
 
FAIBY 
 
 ( 116 ) 
 
 FAETHINGALE 
 
 Paiey, a provincial name for the 
 weasel, also called, a fare or vare or 
 va/ry (Somerset, Cornwall and Devon), 
 is the old Fr. vair, from Lat. varivs, 
 parti-ooloured. The word in the mouth 
 of a Sussex man underwent a further 
 corruption and became a 'pharisee 
 (Parish, Sussex Glossary). " Vare wi- 
 geon " is a name for the smew in N. 
 Devonshire (in Norfolk, "the weasel 
 duck ") from the resemblance of its 
 head to that of a weasel (Johns, Brit. 
 Birds in their Haunts, p. 526_). 
 
 Faith, 0. Eng. feyth, feitJi, an Angli- 
 cized form of O. Fr. fei, feid {zz Lat. 
 fidem), which has been assimilated to 
 other abstract words like truth, ruth, 
 health (Skeat, Etym. Bid.). 
 
 Fall, in the exclamation " A fall ! A 
 fall ! " used by the whale fishers on the 
 sight of their prey, is a corruption of 
 the Dutch Val! Val! i.e. " A whale ! 
 A whale ! " 
 
 A whaler empties its crew — clothed and 
 half-naked — into the boats when at any mo- 
 ment of the day or night the glad cry is 
 raised of " A fall ! A fail ! "—The Standard, 
 AoT. 7, 1879, p. 2. 
 
 False- sweae; The Leicestershire 
 folk say that a person who has com- 
 mitted perjury is "false-sworn." It is 
 doubtless a popular corruption of /or- 
 stoea/)-, forsworn (Evans, Leicestershire 
 Words, p. 145, E. D. S.). 
 
 Fancy, an attempted explanation of 
 pansy (Prior), not altogether beside 
 the mark, as pansy itself is from the 
 French pensee, thought. 
 
 Fangle, used for something trivial 
 or fantastic, " as new f angles, new 
 whimsies." — Bailey. Nares quotes an 
 instance from Gayton, and this from 
 Wood's AthencB, " A hatred to fangles 
 and the French fooleries of his time." 
 Shakespeare has f angled. 
 Be not, as is oav Jangled world, a garment 
 Nohler than that it covers. 
 
 Cymbeline, v. 4, 1. 134. 
 
 These words originated in a mistake 
 about the composition of the words 
 newfangled (Palsgrave, 1530), new- 
 fangledness {Fref. to P. Booh), less cor- 
 rect forms of newf angel (Chaucer, 
 Gower), newfanglenes (Fref. to A. V.). 
 Prof. Skeat shows that new-fangel is 
 compounded oifangel {faitvgol) and new. 
 
 ready to fang or seize on new 
 {Etym. Bict.). 
 
 Fakmee, one who cleanses, in the 
 old words jokes-farmer (Beaumont and 
 Fletcher), gong-farmer (Stowe), a la- 
 trine-cleaner, is a distinct word from 
 farmer, the food (A. Sax. fea/rme] sup. 
 plier, and farrmer of revenue who man- 
 ages it for a fixed sum {fjrma, of. " Jer- 
 myn, or take a };inge to/erme, sAfmmm 
 aooipio." — Fi-ompt. Fa/rv.), being a de- 
 rivative of old Eng. /erme, Prov.Eng. 
 farm, to cleanse, A. Sax. fea/rmian, and 
 akin to Prov. and old Eng. fey, feigh, 
 or fow, to cleanse, Ger. fegen, Dan, 
 feje, Icel. faga; also Icel. fagr, A. Sax. 
 fceger, " fair." 
 
 I ferme a siege or priuy, i'escure.— Pals- 
 grave, Lescluircissement, 1530. 
 
 Firmarius, given in other MSS. JMna- 
 rius and fwmarius, in the Prompt. Far- 
 vulorimi (c. 1440), as equivalent to 
 " racare of a pytte," is due to a false 
 etymology. 
 
 Faethee, is a mongrel form, — a cor- 
 ruption oifa/rrer. Mid. Ung. ferrer,fem, 
 old Eng. fyrra, the comparative of /or, 
 Mid. Eng. /er, old Eng. /eor, from false 
 analogy to further. So farthest tax far- 
 rest. 
 Now sen a ryghtwis man salle scliyne als 
 
 bright 
 Als }:e son dose, Jian mon he gyf lyght 
 Ais fer als ):e son dose and_/er?'er. 
 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 9154 
 (ab. 1340). 
 
 Fwrther (Mid. Eng. fortlher, ferthr, 
 old Eng. fu/rthor) is the oomparative, of 
 forth. Stoddart, Philosophy of Lan- 
 guage, p. 286 ; Morris, Historical En^. 
 Qramma/r, p. 94. 
 
 Farthingale, a corruption of tk 
 older form vardingale, Pr. iiertugdh, : 
 vertugadin, Sp. verdugado, a hooped 
 petticoat, from Sp. and Portg. vwikjo, 
 a rod, a plait, and that from verde, wi 
 dis, a green twig. 
 
 We shall not for the future submit ourselTO 
 to the learning of etymology, which migM 
 persuade the age to come that the farthingnle 
 was worn for cheapness, or the_/i»'teliiio for 
 warmth.— Spectator, No. 478 (1712). 
 
 The history of the French vertugain 
 being forgotten, it was explained to be 
 a veriu ga/rdien, a safe-guard, from its 
 rendering it impossible to approach tie 
 wearer except at arm's length ! Jamie- 
 
FASHIONS 
 
 ( 117 ) 
 
 FEASESTBA W 
 
 son gives us a Scotch word vardingard, 
 and Ital. gua/rdinfante, ■which must be 
 a further corruption. 
 
 With these Ferdm|-a/estlieGownsof Women 
 heneath their wastes were pent-housed out 
 far beyond their bodies, so that posterity will 
 wonder to what purpose those bucklers of 
 paste-board were employed. Some deduce 
 the name from the Belgick Verd-gard ( derived, 
 they say, from Virg, a Virg-in, and Garder, 
 to keep and preserve) ; as used to secure 
 modesty, and keep wantons at a distance. 
 Others more truly fetch it from Vertu and 
 Gaile ; because the scab and bane thereof, the 
 first inven tress thereof being known for a light 
 House-wife, who, under the pretence of mo- 
 desty, sought to cover her shame, and the 
 fi'uits of her wantonness. . . . But these 
 Verdingales have been disused this fourty 
 years. — Fullerj Worthies of England, vol. ii. 
 p. 221. 
 
 Fashion brought in the farthingale, and 
 carried out the farthingale, and hath again 
 revived the farthingale from death, & placed 
 it behind, like a rudder & stern to the body, 
 in some so big that the vessel is scai-ce able to 
 bear it. — Bp. John King, Lectures on Joruih, 
 1594, p. 2'-'7 (Nichol's ed.). 
 
 I warrant you they had bracelets, and ver- 
 dinggales, and suche fine geare. — Latimer, 
 Sermons, p. 280, verso. 
 
 What compass will you wear your farthin- 
 gale? 
 ShaJce^eare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, 
 ii. 7, 1. 51. 
 
 The Queene ariv'd with a traine of Portu- 
 guese ladies in their monstrous fardingals or 
 guard-infantas, their complexions olivader 
 and sufficiently unagreeable. — J. Evelyn, 
 Diary, May 30, 1662 (p. 284, A. Murray 
 ed.). 
 Tir'd with pinn'd ruffs, and fans, and partlet 
 
 strips. 
 And busks, and verdingales about their hips. 
 Bp. Hall, Satires, IV. 6, 1. 10. 
 
 Fashions, a disease of horses, the 
 farcy, a corruption of Fr. farcins, farcin 
 (Lat. farciminum, orig. a gtuf&ng). See 
 Davies, 8upp. Eng. Glosswry. s.v. 
 Infected with the fashions. 
 
 Taming of the Shrew, iii. 2. 
 
 No, sirra, my horse is not diseased of the 
 fashions. — Copley, Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 
 1615. 
 
 They are like to die of thefazion. — Greene, 
 Farewell to Folly, Introd. 
 
 It. farcina, "the farcin, farcies, 
 fashions or creeping ulcer in a horse." 
 — Florio. a. Ger. fasch. 
 
 ^'Fashion! " says a Wiltshire farmer to his 
 new-fangled granddaughters, " Ha ! many a 
 good horse has died o' the fashion !" — Aker- 
 
 Davies quotes from Sterne " a farci- 
 cal house," one fit for the reception of 
 fa/rded patients {Supp. Eng. Glossary). 
 
 Favour, to curry, is a corruption 
 of the old phrase to curry favel, which 
 meant originally to curry the yellow- 
 coloured horse, favel ; but the punning 
 allusion to favel, favelle, signifjrlng 
 flattery (from Lat. fabula) eventually 
 predominated, and gave the phrase the 
 meaning of to flatter or cajole. See 
 
 CUEBY. 
 
 Men of worschyppe that wylie not glose 
 nor coryfavyl. — Gregory's Chronicle of London 
 (1461), p. '214 (Camden See). 
 
 Sche was a schrewe, as havey hele. 
 There she currayedfuvell well. 
 
 How a Merchant did his Wyfe betray, 
 1. 203. 
 Curryfauell, a flatterer, estrille. — Palsgrave. 
 {Sheat, Notes to P. Plowman, p. 43.) 
 
 Faunt, an old Eng. word for a child 
 (Wychffe, Exod. ii. 3, &o.), so spelt asif 
 a mutilated form of infaunt, an infant 
 ( Lat. infan{t)s, one who cannot speak), 
 is no doubt the same word as old Pr. 
 fan, faon, feon, a young animal, off- 
 spring (our " fawn "), through fedon, 
 fceton, from Lat. foetus. Hence also 
 Walach. fet, a child, Sard, fedu, pro- 
 geny (Wedgwood). The excrescent t 
 (as in tyran-t) is common. 
 
 At \)e fote jjer-of {ler sete a faunt, 
 A mayden of menske, ful debonere. 
 Alliterative Poems, A. 1. 162 (ed. 
 Morris). 
 In Legends of the Holy Bood (E. E. 
 T. S.), Christ is called — 
 
 Godes sone and maydenes faunt. 
 
 P. 145, 1. 424. 
 
 " Faunch (deer) " is perhaps the same 
 word. 
 The white faunch deer of the hawthorn glen 
 
 Makes light of my woodcraft and me. 
 
 G. J. Whyte-Meloille, Songs and Verses. 
 
 Feasestkaw, an old corruption of 
 the word festu, the name given formerly 
 to a straw or small stick used in point- 
 ing out to children their letters. Later 
 forms are feskue and fescue, all from 
 Lat. festuca, a straw. See Davies, 
 Supp. Eng. Glossary, s.v. Festrawe. 
 
 Festuca, a feskue orfeasestraw that children 
 use to point their letters.— Florio (1611). 
 
 But what seest thou a festu in the eise of 
 thi brother, and thou seest not a beme in 
 thin owne eiSst—Wycliffe, S. Matt. vii. 3. 
 
FEATHEBFEW 
 
 ( 118 ) 
 
 FEBBET 
 
 This eloyster . . . arched with stone hath 
 in y" work our hlessed Lady shewing her son 
 to read w* a fescue & books. — T. Dingley, 
 History from MarbU, clxx. (Camden Soc.)- 
 
 A Festure, penna, festuca. — Lemns, Mani- 
 pulus, 1570, p. 192, 21. 
 
 Peathekfbw, ] provincial names of 
 
 Peatheefold, the plant feverfew, 
 
 Featheefowl, / the Pyrethrum pa/r- 
 
 thenium, so called from its being a 
 
 febrifuge (Lat. febris fuga, what puts 
 
 fever to flight). 
 
 To these I may adde roses, violets, capers, 
 fetheifew. — Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, 
 "I6th ed. p. 436. 
 
 Other old corruptions are fedyrfoy 
 (Prompt. Parv.) unAfetherfewell ; while 
 provincial forms are featherfull, feather- 
 fooly,fetherhow,fet7ierfoe,feathenvheeUe, 
 feverefox, feverfotdlie. (See Britten and 
 Holland, Eng. Plant-ifames, p. 176.) 
 
 Feathee-stone. Dr. Brewer {Bid. 
 of Phrase and Fable), giving no autho- 
 rity, more siio, quotes this word as 
 meaning " a federal stone, or stone 
 table at which the ancient courts baron 
 were held in the open air, and at which 
 covenants [fosdera] were made " [?] . 
 Wycliffe has federed, bound by cove- 
 nant (Prov. xvii. 9). 
 
 Pell, a Scotch word for very (valde), 
 sometimes spelt feil and fele, as in the 
 expression "He's a fell clever lad" 
 (Lady Nairne), is from the old Eng. 
 feel, pure, true (Ohphant, Old and Mid. 
 Eng. p. 76). But compare A. Sax. 
 fela, much, O. Eng. fele (Get. viel), 
 which was perhaps confounded with 0. 
 Eng. /eZ, cruelly. 
 
 Ych haue \jo\ed. for (jy lone woundes fele 
 sore. — Boddeker, Alteng. Vichtungen, p. 173, 
 1.30. 
 
 Felteykb, an old Eng. name for the 
 plant FrytlwcBa centamriwrn, as if fell 
 trick, is evidently a corruption of its 
 Latia name fel terras (Dutch eerdegall, 
 Eng. earth-gall, Cotgrave s.v. Sacotin), 
 so called from its very bitter taste. 
 
 Feltryhe, herbe, Tistra, fel terre, centaurea. 
 — Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 
 It may have been regarded as that 
 with which women trick their "fell of 
 hair," it being commonly used as a 
 hair-dye formerly. See Way (note in 
 lac. dt.). 
 
 Female, so spelt from a false analogy 
 to male, with which it has no con- 
 
 nexion. It is the French femelle, Lat. 
 femella, for feminula, a diminutive of 
 fermna. 
 
 And in euenynges also 3ede males fro 
 femeles. — Vision of P. Plowman, B. xi. 331. 
 
 Dr. Donne spells the word /cemaM. 
 Liv'd Mantuan now againe, 
 That fmmall Mastix, to limme with hij 
 
 penne 
 This she Chymera, that hath eyes of fire. 
 Poem^, 1635, p. 97. 
 Sylvester speaks of palms 
 
 Whose lusty Femals willing 
 Their marrow-boyling loues to be ftilfill- 
 
 ing . . . 
 Bow their stifl' backs, and serue for passing- 
 planks. 
 
 Vu Bartas, p. 180 (1621). 
 Male, best or fowle, uofemel. Masoulua,— 
 Prompt. Parv. (1440). 
 
 I will conclude that neither Vipers iii- 
 gender with Lampreys, nor yet the femdl 
 vipers kill the male. — Topsetl, Historie of 
 Serpents, p. 296 (1608). 
 
 In The Two Noble Kinsmen (v. 1, 
 140), Emilia addresses Diana as one 
 
 Who to thy femall knights 
 AUow'st no more blood than will make a 
 blush. 
 The form femmale occurs early in 
 Alliterative Poems (14th cent.), p. 57, 
 1. 696. 
 
 Penny, an old country word for 
 mouldy, as "fenny cheese " (Worlidge, 
 Diet. Rusticum, 1681), as if the same 
 word as fenny, boggy (cf. Goth, fani, 
 mud), is only another form of virmey, 
 vinnowy, or vinnewed, mouldy, A. Sax. 
 fynig. 
 
 Peeeet, which would more regularly 
 be spelt furet (like the cognate word 
 "furtive "), owes its present form pro- 
 bably to a mistaken idea that the 
 original was ferette, a dim. of /ere, Lat. 
 fei-a, as if the "little wild animal." 
 Compare Pr. furet and furon. It. 
 fv/retto, from Lat. fiir, a thief, Lan- 
 guedoc/we, a mouse, just as "mouse" 
 (Ger. maus, Lat. Gk. mus) is from 
 Sansk. mush, to steal (vid. Pictet, Orig. 
 Indo-Eur. ii. 441). 
 
 forette, or ferette, lytyll beste. [Mid. 
 Lat.] Furo,furetus, velfurunculiu. — Promyt, 
 Parv. c. 1440. 
 
 The Latines call this beast Vinerra, and 
 Furo, and Furetus, and Furectiis, because . . • 
 it preyeth vppon Conies in their holes and 
 liueth. vppon stealth. — E. Tapsell, Fourefooted 
 Beasts, p. 216 (1608). 
 
FEBBET 
 
 ( 119 ) 
 
 FIDDLE-DE-DEE 
 
 Ferret, an old name for some 
 species of woven silk fabric, is a cor- 
 rupted form of It. fioretto, Fr. fieuret, 
 GeT.floreti, from Tiat. flos, a flower. It 
 perhaps originally bore a flowered pat- 
 tern. "It. fioretti, course /errei silkes." 
 - — Florio. Another name for it was 
 flirt, jkurt, ot floret, silk. 
 
 When perchmentiers put in noyerret-silke. 
 G. Gascoigne, 2'he Steel Glas, 1. 1095 
 (1576). 
 
 Ferrule is the French virole, " an 
 iron ring put about the end of a staff, 
 &c., to strengthen it, and keep it from 
 riving" (Cotgrave), Sp. virola, con- 
 nected with It. viera, a ring, virer, to 
 turn around. Corrupted from a false 
 analogy to fen-wm, iron. The older 
 form is verrel, verril (Bailey). 
 
 Festraw, a corruption of festue or 
 fesciK, Lat. festuaa, a straw or wand 
 used to point out the letters to a child 
 learning to read. In E. Cornwall it 
 appears as vester (T. Q. Couch). 
 
 All that man can do towards the meriting 
 of heaven is no more than the hfting up of a 
 festraw towards the meriting of a kingdom. — 
 I'hos. Brooks, Apples of Gold (1660), Works 
 (ed. Nichol), vol. i. p. 213. 
 
 We have only scapt the ferular to come 
 under the yescii of an ImpHinatur. — Milton, 
 Areopagiticu, 1644, p. 56 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Fetch, the apparition of one who is 
 still aUve, is probably a corruption of 
 the Scandinavian vcett, a supernatural 
 being (Icel. vmttr ^ wight, Cleasby, 
 720). So vmite-lys, the vsett's candle, 
 would be the origin of the fetch-candle 
 (Wedgwood). But in Manx faaish is 
 a ghost or apparition. 
 
 Fetlock appears to be another form 
 of feet-loch, and has so been understood, 
 either as the joint of a horse's leg 
 whereby the foot is iater-loched with 
 the tibia (Skinner, Eichardson), or as 
 the loch of hair which grows behind the 
 foot. Mr. Wedgwood, however, thinks 
 that the word is the same as Swiss 
 flsdoch, fislooh, Dut. vitsloh, vitloh (?), 
 the pastern, from Low (Jer. fiss, Swiss 
 fisel, a lock of hair, Dut. vezel. In 
 Cornwall it is called the fetterlock 
 (Couch). 
 
 Fetterfoe, in Promptorium Farvu- 
 lorumfeder-foy, a corruption oi feverfew. 
 See Fbathbefew. 
 
 Feud, an inveterate grudge, enmity, 
 a private war, is A. Sax./ce^S, hatred, 
 Low Lat. /aMof, (Charlemagne, Capitu- 
 lary), Ger. fehde, Goth, fjathwa (akin 
 to fiend, foe, root pi, to hate), mis- 
 takenly assimilated to feud, a fief. 
 Low Lat. feiidum. This latter feud 
 has been evolved out of Low Lat. 
 fettdalis, a vassal (= Icel. fc-dial), 
 mistaken for an adjective (Skeat). 
 Coward Death behind him jumpit 
 W'i' deadly feide. 
 Bams, Poems, p. 43 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Feverefox, a corruption oi feverfew. 
 See Featherfew. 
 
 Fewterer, an old term for a dog- 
 keeper, or he who lets them loose in a 
 chaoe (Bailey), so spelt as if connected 
 with 0. Eng. /eufe, the scent or trace 
 of a beast of chase, " Fewte, vestigium " 
 (Prompt. Pa-i-v.), " He fond i>e feute al 
 fresh." — WilKam of Palerne, 1. 90. It 
 is really derived from O. Fr. viutre, 
 viautre (Fr. vautre), a hunting dog. 
 It. veltro, L. Lat. veltrum, from Lat. 
 vertragus, properly a Gauhsh word from 
 ver (intensive particle) +trag (Celtic := 
 Gk. Tpexo, to run), "the very swift" 
 (W. Stokes, Irish, Glosses, p. 44). 
 
 Amongst serving-men, worse, worse than 
 the man's man to the under-yeoman^/euJiere/'. 
 Webster, Appltis and Virginius, iii. 4. 
 If you will be 
 
 An honest yeoman-fewterer, feed us first 
 
 And walk us after. 
 
 Massinger, The Picture, v, 1. 
 
 Fiddle-de-dee I As the exclamation 
 Bosh I (compare Ger. Possen I meaning 
 Nonsense 1) has in all probability no 
 connexion with the Gipsy hosh, a 
 fiddle, though George Borrow asserts 
 the contrary, it seems likely that the 
 interjection fiddle-de-dee ! instead of 
 being derived from the popular name 
 of the violin, is a naturahzed form of 
 the Italian expletive Fed4dd/io ! (fede 
 and Iddio) "God's faith!" 'Sfaith I 
 just as Dear me I dea/r ! are appa- 
 rently from Dio wvio ! dAo 1 Fiddle- 
 stick I would then be a further corrup- 
 tion. 
 
 "Fediddio!" exclaimed Francesco Cei, 
 "that is a well-tanned San Giovanni." — G. 
 Eliot, Romola, ch. viii. 
 
 Similarly Crimini ! an interjection 
 of surprise, Mr. Wedgwood thinks is 
 It. crimine; cf. ci-ymardas! Gracious! 
 (Devonshire CowtsMp, p. 12). 
 
FIELDFARE 
 
 ( 120 ) 
 
 FIND 
 
 Fieldfare, the name of a bird sup- 
 posed to have been so called from its 
 cliaracteristic habit oi faring oi moving 
 across the fields (so Isaac Taylor, 
 Words and I'laces, p. 160, n. 2nd ed.), 
 Old Bng. feldefwre and felfa/i-e in the 
 Fromptorium Farvuloi-iimi (ab. 1440), 
 is a corruption of A. Sax. fealefor, 
 fealafor (Ettmiiller), from fealo, fealav, 
 tawny, yellowish, Lat. flavus. In 
 Cumberland it is called the fell-faw, or 
 " mountain gipsy," as if from fell, a 
 mountain (Ferguson, Glossary, s.v.)- 
 Compare Fr. fauvette, a small bird, a 
 warbler, from Fr. fauve, Lat. flavus 
 (falvus). 
 
 Glaucium, .... A felfare, or (as some 
 thinke) a coote. — Nomenclator. 
 
 Feldfa/re also, however, is found in 
 old English (Skeat). 
 Wijj fesauns & feldf ares' and olper foules 
 
 William of Paleme, 1. 183 (ab. 1350). 
 
 FiGAEDE, an old Eng. word for a 
 roebuck used in Wycliffe's Bible, Deut. 
 xiv. 5, is a corrupted form of Lat. 
 pygm-gus, Gk. pugargos, " white- 
 rump." The word was perhaps in- 
 fluenced by A. Sax. fvrgen-gdt, a moun- 
 tain-goat, fwgen-hucca. 
 
 File, a slang term for an artful per- 
 son, formerly a thief or pickpocket, 
 from Prov. Eng. feal, to hide, 0. Eng. 
 felen, Icel./eZa, Goth., filhan, to conceal. 
 Near akin is fil-ch, fil-k, and perhaps 
 Fr. filou. " To Feale, velare, abscon- 
 dere." — Levins, Mamipulus (1670), p. 
 207. 
 
 The greatest character among them was 
 that of a pickpocket, or, in truer language, a 
 Jile.—H. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, J3k. iv. 
 chap. xii. ( Works, p. 590). 
 
 Fillet, an Anglicized form of Fr. 
 filet, a little thread, hovafil, Lat. fihim. 
 An old form is felet (Fasten Letters), 
 Low Lat. feleta (1394, in Way), and 
 the orig. meaning a band worn across 
 the forehead consisting of hnon em- 
 broidered with gold {Ortus). It is 
 worth considering whether it is not a 
 corruption oi phylacterium (filatermm), 
 to which it closely corresponds, and 
 by which indeed it is glossed in the 
 Frompiormm Farvulonvm, " FyleUe, 
 victa, philacterium." Compare It. 
 filaierio, a precious stone worn as an 
 amulet (Florio), the same word, with 
 
 its close resemblance to filaierie, jUor 
 iera, a web, a woof. LowLat./Zafemm 
 is used for a girdle {cordeliere), while 
 filetum is a net (Du Cange). 
 
 Forsothe thei alargen her jilaieries.—Wy- 
 clife, S. Matt, xxiii. 5. 
 
 FiLL-HOKSE, or Fillar, "that horse 
 of a team which goes in the rods."— 
 Kennett, ParocMal Antiqmties, 1695 
 (E. Dialect Soc. ed.), is a corruption 
 of thill-horse, one that goes in the tUlh 
 or shafts (A. Sax. i>il, _ Icel. inli), 
 Northampt. filler and thiller (Stem- 
 berg). 
 
 Come 3'our ways ; an you draw backward, 
 we'll put you i' theyi7/s. — Shakespeare, TroUus 
 and Cressida, iii. 2, 1. 48. 
 
 F is very frequently substituted for 
 th, e.g. Wiltshire fusty for tlmsty (E. 
 D. Soc. Beprmt B. 19), 0. Eng. afurst 
 for athirst (P. Plowman, C. x. 85), and 
 th for f, e.g. thetches tor fitches, thorough 
 for furroiB (W. Elhs, 1750) ; Leicester, 
 throff tor froth (Evans). 
 
 The traces of the hindmost or phili-horge 
 are put on an iron hook.- — W. Mlis, Mod, 
 Husbandman, I. 39 (1750). 
 
 Thou hast got more hair on thy chin than 
 Dobbin my Jill-horse has on his tail. — Mer- 
 chant of Venice, ii. 2, 1. 100. 
 
 FiLLY-BAG, an Enghsh pronimcia- 
 tion of Gaelic feile heag, i.e. feile, a kilt 
 or covering, and heag, little (Campbell, 
 Tales of W. Highlands, vol. iv. p. 
 377). 
 
 FilmFeen, (owes its name, perhape, 
 
 Filmy Feen,Uo the latter part of 
 Hymeno-phylliim, its Latin denomina- 
 tion, just as fillyfindillan is an Irish 
 adaptation of the (Spirsa) fiUpm- 
 dula. 
 
 Find, in the sense of to support, pro- 
 vide, or supply with provisions, as 
 when servants are hired at a certain 
 wage "all/oMjid," or otherwise "to 
 find themselves," and as when a ship 
 is described as " well/oMmd,"is a pecu- 
 liar use of the word find, to discoverj 
 A. ^a,^.findan. It is old Eng._/i/m(fe, 
 " Fyndin, helpyn', and susteinyn' hem 
 Jjat be nedy. Sustento. Fyyndninge, 
 or helpynge in bodyly goodys at nede. 
 Exhibicio, subvencio." — Fromptmum 
 Fa/rvuloi-um (ab. 1440); influenced ap- 
 parently by Prov. Eng. and Scottish 
 fend, to support, provide for, or shift 
 (for oneself ), whence fenJy, managing, 
 
FIBMAN 
 
 ( 121 ) 
 
 FIVES 
 
 thrifty, Cleveland./eTOcia6Ze, industrious, 
 contriving. 
 
 He must fend for himself as well as he 
 can. — Wright. 
 
 Bay gives " To Fend, to shift for, 
 from dpfend " {North Country Words), 
 Fr. defend/re, to preserve, niaintaine, 
 sustaine (Ootgrave). Compare 
 Helme and hawherke both he hent 
 A long fauchion verameut. 
 to fend them in his neede. 
 Percy's Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 61, 1. 76. 
 I assayed him, & he fended weele. 
 
 Id. vol. i. p. 365, 1. 346. 
 But gie them guid cow-milk their fill, 
 Till they be fit to fend themsel. 
 
 Barns, Poems, p. 33 (Globe ed.). 
 Some saith that in paying this demaund 
 they should not be able to Jynde thair wifes 
 and childre, but should be dreven to send 
 theym a begging, and so to geve up" their 
 fermes. — Ellis, Original Letters (date 1525), 
 3rd Ser. vol. i. p. 363. 
 
 Finding vfas used for the exhibition 
 or support of a student at the Univer- 
 sity. 
 
 I have a fetherbeed with a boullster for 
 Master Wyllam VVellyfed sone that ys at 
 Cambreg at yowre mastershype Jt/ndeng. — 
 Ellis, Original Letters (1533), 3rd ber. vol. ii. 
 p. 238. 
 
 Compare old Eng. and Scot, findy, 
 full, substantial, supporting (A. Sax. 
 find/ig), as iu the proverb — 
 
 A cold May and a windy 
 Makes barns fat andjindti. 
 By husbondry of Swiche as God hire sente, 
 Shejonnd hireself and eke her doughtren two. 
 Chaucer, The Nonnes Preestes Tale, 
 1. 14834. 
 My fader and my frendes founden me to scole. 
 Langtand, Vision of P. Plowman, vi. 
 36 (text C). 
 Fiat uoluntas tua • fynt ous alle [jynges. 
 
 Ibid. 88. 
 If a labouring man should see all that hee 
 gathereth and spendeth in a yeare in a chest 
 it would not jinde him halfe a yeare, yet it 
 Jindeth him. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 304, verso. 
 As for the wicked, indeede God of his ex- 
 ceeding mercy and liberality fndeth them. — 
 Id. p. 1.57, verso. 
 
 Firman, a decree of the Turkish go- 
 vernment, so spelt as if derived from 
 0. Eng. fkm, Portg. jvrmar, to sign, 
 seal and confirm a writing (formerly 
 phirman), is properly the Persian far- 
 man, a mandate, order, Hindustani 
 fa/rmiln, and fa/rmdnd, to command, 
 Sansk. pramdna, decision. A firm is 
 
 properly the confirmatory signature 
 {Sp.firma) peculiar to a trading com- 
 pany, under vsrhich it does business, 
 from Sp. and Portg. jvrmar, to sign or 
 subscribe. 
 
 Long attendance we danced ere we could 
 procure a Phirman for our safe ti'avel. — Sir 
 Thos. Herbert, Travels, p. 224 (1665). 
 
 Fish, a counter used at cards to mark 
 the state of the game, owes its shape 
 and name to a mistaken etymology, 
 being really the Anglicized form of Fr. 
 ficlie, used in the same sense. It is a 
 derivative of ficJier, to fix (as a peg at 
 cribbage), then to mark, a by -form 
 springing from the Latin figere, to fix. 
 Curiously enough Fr. poisson (a fish) 
 seems formerly to have been used for a 
 peg fixed in the ground. In the metri- 
 cal account of the siege of Carlaverock 
 in the time of Edward II., we read of 
 tents being erected " with many a pin 
 driven into the ground," — meint poisaon 
 en terreficMe (Nichols's translation, p. 
 65). 
 
 It is, however, the last quoted word 
 which is identical with our fish. Com- 
 pare O. Eng. ficche, to fix, ficcMng, fix- 
 ing, " No but I schal se in his hondis 
 the ficcMng of nayhs. ... I schal not 
 bUeue."— WycUffe, St. John, xx. 25. 
 
 He was not long in discovering that staking 
 shillings and half-crowns, instead of counters 
 and "Jish" . . . was a very different thing to 
 playing vingt-et-un at home with his sisters 
 lor love. — Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, 
 Pt. I. ch. xi. 
 
 Fist-ball, 1 popularnamesforthe 
 
 FuEZE-BALL, ) fungus lycoperdon, or 
 puff-ball. The first part of the word 
 represents Gei. feist, Dut. veest (crepi- 
 tus), alluding to the pop or offensive 
 explosion of dust it makes when broken. 
 
 In Suffolk it is called a foist. Dry- 
 den caUs it a fuzz-hall. Bacon a fuzzy- 
 hall. See BuLFiST. 
 
 There is a bag, or fuzzy-ball, growing com- 
 mon in the fields . . . full of light dust upon 
 the breaking. — Sylva Sylvarum, Works, vol. 
 ix. p. 264 (ed. 1803). 
 
 Fives, also spelt vives, a disease in 
 horses, a swelling of the glands, is from, 
 the French avives, Ger. feifel, Sp. ahi- 
 vas. It. vivole, L. Lat. vivolcB, the glands 
 of a horse. M. Littre holds that Fr. 
 avives is from vive, because horses were 
 supposed to contract the disease from 
 drinking eoMX vies or vavivees ! 
 
FLASH 
 
 ( 122 ) 
 
 FLIBT 
 
 Flash, a Suffolk word for to trim a 
 hedge by cutting off the overhanging 
 brush [Old Gauntry and Farming 
 Wwds, E. D. S. p. 143), is no doubt a 
 corrupted use oi plash, to cut and lay a 
 hedge, orig. to interweave its spreading 
 branches into a fence, to pleach or plait 
 it (Fr. plesser, Lat. pUcare). See 
 Splash. 
 
 Flat, a set of rooms comprised in 
 one storey of a house, as if all upon the 
 one level, is the Icelandic fkt, A. S. 
 flett, Dan. fled, O. H. G. flazi, Prov. 
 Orer.fletz, a dweUing, chamber, room, 
 house. 0. Eng. vlette, a floor {La^a- 
 men's Brut, ab. 1205). 
 I schal stonde lijni a strok, stif on ]iis Jiet. 
 Sir Gawayne, 1. 294 (ab. 1320). 
 But fayre on kneus ]iey schule hem sette, 
 Knelynge doun vp on thejiette. 
 
 J. Myrc, Instruction for Parish Priests, 
 
 1. 273 (E. E. T. S.) 
 
 An hep of gii'les sittende aboute the^et. 
 
 Potitieat Songs, p. 337, 1. 309 (temp. 
 
 Ed. II.). 
 
 I felle vpon Jjat floury _/?a3f. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 2, 1. 57. 
 Flet, a floor, a story of a house, commonly 
 ajiat. — Jamieson, Scottish Diet, 
 
 Scot.jfei, a saucer, Banff /ai (Gregor), 
 znplate, platter, 
 
 Flattbe dock, a Cheshire word for 
 pond weed. Flatter is for jloter ^^ float- 
 ing ; compare " floter-graese," gramen 
 fluviatile {Gerarde, Herball, p. 13) ; old 
 Eng. fleathe, the water-lily, fleot wyrt, 
 float wort (Cockayne, Leechdoms). 
 
 Flavour is probably identical, as 
 Wedgwood notes, with Scottish flewa/re, 
 fleure, a smell, scent (Gawin Douglas), 
 Freneh_^Mrer, to yield an odour, which is 
 merely another form (? influenced by 
 Jlev/r) of flairer (Scheler), 'Prov. flairar, 
 Lat. fragrare, to yield a scent. Flaur 
 {J&mieson), flaivare, no doubt became 
 jlavoivr from the analogy of savour. 
 Old Eng. flayre, flaume. 
 And alle swete savours )>at men may fele, 
 Of alkyn thing ]p&t here savours wele, 
 War noght bot als stynk to regard of Jjat 
 
 fiuyre 
 J>at es In Ipe cet^ of heven swa fayre. 
 
 Pricke of Conscience, 1. 9015-9018. 
 So hechftauorei of frytes were. 
 
 Alliterative Poems (14th cent.), p, 3, 
 1. 87. 
 Flbegabie, a Scotch word for a whim 
 (Jamieson), is a corrupt form oifeegary, 
 
 i.e. a vagary, a wandering thought 
 (from Lat. vagari, to wander), with a 
 mistaken reference to flee. 
 
 Fe^iirii,c[.d. Vagary, avagando, a roving or 
 rooming about. — Bailey. 
 
 In the Holdemess dialect of E. York- 
 shire it takes the form of frigary; m 
 W. ComwaU. flay-gerry (M. A. Court- 
 ney). 
 
 Flight of states. FUght in this 
 CTirious expression is perhaps the same 
 word as the Icelandic flet, a set of 
 rooms, O. H. Ger. flazi, Prov. German 
 flstz, A. San-fliett, and so would mean 
 the series of stairs joining one flat or 
 storey with another. See Flat. 
 
 Flinty-mouse, said to be a name for 
 the bat in some parts of England (T. P. 
 T. I)yer, Eng. Folhlore, p. 115), is a 
 corruption of the word flitienrmouie, old 
 'Eng.flfyndermotise, fliichermouse ( B. Jon- 
 son), Ger. fljedermaus. Cf. 0. Eng, 
 vUnd/re, a moth (Ayenbite, 206). 
 
 Thenne cam . . . the fiynderrnowsAai Hii 
 wezel.- — Caxton, Reynard the Fox, 1481, p. 
 112 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Giddy Jiitter-mice with leather wings. 
 
 B. Jonson, The Sad Shepherd, ii. 2 
 (p. 500). 
 
 Fliet, according to Prof. Skeat, is 
 the same word as Scottish _/JjVd, to i&t, 
 fliirdie, giddy, A. Sax.jffecw-diam, to trifle, 
 fleard, a foolish thing, a piece of folly 
 {Etym. Bid.). Cf. Banff, flird, to trifle, 
 with the notion of going from place to 
 place, "He's a fArdin' aboot bodie, 
 he'll niver come to gueede " (W. 
 Gregor, Banff. Glossa/ry, p. 48). The 
 old form of the word isflu/ri. 
 Hath light of love held you so softe in her 
 lap? 
 
 Sing all of greene willow ; 
 Hath fancy provokte you ? did love you in- 
 ti-ap 1. 
 
 Sing willow, willow, willow; 
 That now you be Jlurting. and will not 
 abide. 
 The Gargems Gallery of Gallant Imentism, 
 1578, p. 133 (ed. 1814). 
 Skars and bare weedes 
 The gaine o' th' mai-tialist .... 
 .... nowjiurted 
 By peace for whom he fought. 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 2, 1. 19, 1634 
 (ed. Littledale). 
 It is probable that in the sense of 
 amorous trifling the word has been in- 
 fluenced both in form and meaning by 
 Fr. "fiev/reter, lightly to pass over; 
 
FLIBT 
 
 ( 123 ) 
 
 FLUSH 
 
 only to touch a thing in going by it 
 (inetaphorically from the little Bees 
 nimble skipping from flower to flower 
 as she feeds)," — Cotgrave ; just as the 
 cognate word in Spanish, jhrear, means 
 "to dally with, to trifle" (Stevens, 
 1706). Anyone who has observed a 
 butterfly skimming over a gay parterre 
 on a hot summer's day will admit that 
 its " airy dance " is no unapt compari- 
 son for the course of that frivolous and 
 ephemeral creature, whether male or 
 female, which is known as " a flirt." 
 
 ( 1 ) With regard to the form, compare 
 the term " flurt-siik," i.e. " floret silke, 
 cowrse silke " (Ootgrave, s.v. filoselle), 
 from the French flewet (Ger. floret- 
 seide), and so := " flowered " sUk; like- 
 wise the heraldic term " crosse flurt " 
 (FuUer, Church History, ii. 227-228, 
 ed. Tegg), q.d. croixfleuretee, a flowered 
 cross, "croixfkyrencee" (Cotgrave). 
 
 ■A- py5t coroune 3et wer jjat gyrle, . . . 
 'Wyihjiurted flowreS perfet vpon. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 7, I. 208 
 (14th cent.). 
 
 (2) With regard to the meaning, in 
 many languages an inconstant lover 
 is compared to a bee or butterfly which 
 fUts hghtly from flower to flower. See 
 The Wordr-Hunter's Note-Booh, p. 35, 
 seq. 
 
 The rose of old, they say, was white, 
 Till Love one day in wanton flight. 
 Flirting away from flower to flower, 
 A rose-tree brushed m evil hour. 
 
 Temple Bar Mag, No. cxxvi. 
 p. 285. 
 
 A gay insect in his summer-shine, 
 The fop, light-fluttering, spreads his mealy 
 wings. 
 
 Thomson, Seasons, Winter. 
 
 The light Coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair, 
 And sport and flutter in the fields of Air, 
 Pope, Rape of the Lockj 1. 66. 
 And as for the bee 
 And his industry, 
 
 I distrust his toilsome hours ; 
 For he roves up and down 
 Like a " man upon town," 
 
 With a natural taste for flowers. 
 
 C. Lever, Oyie of Them, ch. vii. 
 
 From a difi'erent point of view, a 
 oomphment or pretty love-speech is 
 called in French wne fleurette, " Cida- 
 lise est joUe et soufire la fleurette " 
 (Le Boux, Diet. Comique, p. 270). 
 Hence ^Mre^er,babiUer, dire des riens 
 (Littre). 
 
 Floeamor or Florinier, Fr. fleur 
 d'amour, owes its name to its Latin 
 appellation amaranthus being mis- 
 understood as if compounded of amor, 
 love, and anthus, flower (Prior). 
 
 Flotilla, a small fleet, is a Spanish 
 word, dimin. form oiflota, a fleet, akin 
 to Fr. fi^tte (0. 'Er.flfite), flatter, to float, 
 from Lat. fluctuare, to swim, fluctiis, a 
 wave. It was no doubt influenced by 
 the really distinct words A. Sax. flota, 
 a ship, Icel. fl,oti, a raft, Dut. vloot 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Flower, a Sussex word for flaor, of 
 which it is a corruption. Cf. Flower- 
 hanh and Floor-hank, an embankment 
 at the foot of a hedge. Similarly in 
 the French phrase a flew de, on the 
 same level, fl£ur seems to be corrupted 
 from Ger. flar, Dut. vloer, our " floor " 
 (Scheler). 
 
 Phylerno gettes Phylotus faste by the graie 
 bearde, and by plaine force puUes hym doune 
 on the flower. — Riche His Farewell (1581), 
 p. 208 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Flower armour, in Tusser, Fine 
 Hunch-ed Fointes of Good Huslandrie, 
 1577, Flower armor in ed. 1580 (E. D. 
 Soc. p. 95), a name for the plant ama- 
 ranthus, is a corruption of Floramor, 
 which see. 
 
 Flush, in the sense of level, a car- 
 penter's term, has not been explained. 
 It is perhaps only a softened form of 
 Ger. flach, level, flat ( = Greek plaa>, a 
 plain surface). 
 
 Flush, a Wiltshire word for fledged 
 (E. D. Soc. Reprints, B. 19), is a per- 
 verted form of oli'Eng. flygge (Norfolk 
 flagged), able to fly, from A. Sa,-K.fliogan, 
 to fly. They " am ryght flygge and 
 mery." — Paston Letters, iv. 412. 
 
 Flygge, as bryddys. Maturus, volatilis. — 
 Prompt. Purvulorum (c. 1440). 
 
 Prov. Eng. fliggurs, birds that can 
 fly. Hence the slang term "fly," 
 knowing, wideawake, able to shift for 
 oneself. Of the same origin, no doubt, 
 is " a. flush of ducks," i.e. aflight ; "to 
 flMsh a covey," to make it take wing 
 (Sussex, to ^'S'^i); and Shakespeare's 
 "as flush as May " {Hamlet, iii. 3) = 
 fuU-blown, mature ; Wilts flitch, pert, 
 hvely. 
 
FLUSHED 
 
 ( 124 ) 
 
 FOOL 
 
 Fledge was used formerly where we 
 would now use " fledged." George 
 Herbert calls skeletons — 
 
 The shells oi fledge souls left behinde. 
 The Temple, Death. 
 
 And says that pigeons — 
 
 Feed their tender offspring, crying, 
 When they are callow ; but -withdraw their 
 
 food 
 When they are fledge, that need may teach 
 
 them flying. 
 
 Providence. 
 
 To zee the crisimore, by peep o' day, in 
 his leet scrimp jerkin, like a bard that isn't 
 flush. — Mrs. Palmer, Devonshire Courtship, 
 p. 26. 
 
 The birds have flushed and flied. — M. A. 
 Courtney, W. Cornwall Glossary, E. D. S. 
 
 Flee, astutus, calidus. — Levins, Manipalus, 
 46,32. 
 
 Flushed, in suoli phrases as "fiushed 
 with success," "flushed with victory," 
 as if heated, excited, so that the face is 
 suffused by a flush, of blood from the 
 accelerated action of the heart, is really 
 a corruption of the older expression 
 fleshed, the metaphor being taken from 
 the chase — dogs becoming more eager 
 and excited when once they have tasted 
 the flesh of their prey. " The Hounds 
 are flesh' d and few are sadd." — Old 
 BaUad in Nares. Bailey gives 
 "Flushed, Fleshed, encouraged, put 
 in heart, elated with good success." 
 Similarly flusher, a provincial name 
 for the shrike or butcher bird (Atkin- 
 son, Brit. Bwds' Fggs, p. 31), must 
 originally have been flesher, an old 
 word for a butcher ; cf. its names, Lat. 
 Icmius (butcher), " murdering pie," 
 Ger. neuntodter, it being a slaughterer 
 of small birds. 
 
 Attin6, provoked, incensed, also fleshed or 
 fastened on. — Cotgrave. 
 
 His whole troops 
 Exceed not twenty thousand, but old soldiers 
 Flesh'd in the spods of Germany and France, 
 Inured to his command, and only know 
 To fight and overcome. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, The False One, 
 
 The tyrant Ottoman .... is fleshed in 
 triumphs. — Glanville, Sermons [Latham], 
 
 So fleshment in Shakespeare for the 
 elation or pride of victory. 
 
 [He] in the fleshment of this dread exploit 
 Drew on me here again. 
 
 King Lear, ii. 2, 1. 130. 
 
 Although they were flesh'd villains, bloody 
 dogs. 
 
 Richard III. iv. 3, 1. 6. 
 Full bravely hast thou fl^esh'd 
 Thy maiden sword. 
 
 1 Hen. IV. V. 4, 1. 132. 
 He that is moat fleshed in sin commits it not 
 without some remorse. — Hales, Rem. p. 165 
 [Todd]. 
 
 A prosperous people flushed with great 
 victories. — Bp. Atterbury, Sermons [Latham]. 
 Such things as can only feed his pride 
 and flush his ambition. — South, ii. 104 
 [Todd]. 
 Lo ! I, myself, when flush'd with fight, or 
 
 hot, . . . 
 Before I well have drunken, scarce can eat. 
 Tennyson, Idylls, Enid, 1. 1508. 
 
 Fodder, food for cattle, is an altered 
 form of food, A. Sax. fdda, confused 
 perhaps with the cognate words, Icel. 
 fd^r, Ger. futter, which denote (1) a 
 lining, (2) a quantity of hay, fodder. 
 Cf. Goth, fodr, a sheath. It. foden, 
 lining, a sheath, Dut. voeren, to hne, 
 O. Fr. forre, (l) a sheath, case (Eng. 
 fw)-), (2) fodder (Eng. forage). Could 
 the food of cattle possibly have been 
 regarded astheUning of their stomacbs, 
 as the justice had his fair round paunch 
 with good capon Uned ? 
 
 Theca, fodder. Coriti, hoge-fodder. — 
 Wright, Vocabularies (10th cent.), p. 41. 
 
 FoGLE, a slang word for a handker- 
 chief — ^perhaps of University origiu— 
 seems to be merely an Anghcized form 
 of Lat. /ocafe, a neck-cloth {torfa/ucak, 
 from fauces, the jaws), on the model of 
 slang ogle, an eye, := Lat. oculusjuggh 
 r= Lat. jocuhts. 
 
 The bird's-eye fogle round their necks has 
 vanished from the costume of inn-keepers.— 
 A. Trotlope, Can You Forgive Her, vol. i. 
 p. 96. 
 
 "If you don't t&ke fogies and tickers — . . • 
 If you don't take pocket handkerchers and 
 watches," said the Dodger, reducing his con- 
 versation to the level of Oliver's capacity, 
 " some other cove will." — C. Dickens, Oliver 
 Twist, ch. xviii. 
 
 FoLKSAL (Norfolk), the forward part 
 of the vessel, where the sailors hve ; as 
 if the sail or hall of the folk, for fore- 
 castle {PMlolog. 8oc. Trans. 1855, p. 
 32). 
 
 Fool, in " gooseberry fool," it has 
 often been said, is corrupted from the 
 French fouler, to crush ( Graham, BooJi 
 ahout Words ; Kettner, Booh of tk 
 
FOOL 
 
 ( 125 ) 
 
 FOEGE 
 
 Tahle, p. 221 ; Sai. Beview, Feb. 24, 
 1877, p. 243). 
 
 Fouler, however. It. follaure, seems 
 only to have been used for trampHng 
 or crushing with the feet, to throng, 
 and not in the general sense of mash- 
 ing or reducing to pulp. A parallel is 
 nevertheless afforded in Fr. marc, the 
 residuum of pressed fruits, which 
 Scheler derives from marcher, and 
 macaroni from maccare, to bruise or 
 ci-ush. So jam was probably at first 
 i}cviii jammed or crushed, and then pre- 
 served. 
 
 Fall to your cheese-cakes, curds, and clouted 
 
 cream, 
 \o\iX fools, your flawns. 
 
 Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd, 
 act i. sc. 2. 
 
 It. rauioli, a kinde of clouted creame or 
 foole. — Flot'io. 
 
 In the old cookery book, Liber Cure 
 Cocorum, ab. 1440, /oZe (the old spell- 
 ing of fool) occurs in the sense of a thin 
 paste made of flour and water, e.g. in 
 compounding a Crustate of fiesshe the 
 direction is given — 
 
 Fyi'st make a fok ti-ap [=: dish] )jou mun 
 (p. 40, ed. Morris). 
 
 And for Tartlotes — 
 
 Make a fole of doghe, and close bis fast 
 (p. 41). 
 
 It is probable that fool, like Fr. fou, 
 fol, being applicable to anything light, 
 frothy, or unsubstantial, was used spe- 
 cifically for a dish consisting of cream, 
 &c., whipped into a froth, — food the re- 
 verse of solid and satisfying. We may 
 compare with this vol-au-vent, origi- 
 nally vole et vaine, an idle empty thing ; 
 vole, light puff paste ; souffle, a dish 
 made with eggs beaten into froth, &c., 
 from souffler, to puff or blow ; and our 
 own trifle, moon-shine, and perhaps 
 sillabub (Prov. Eng. sillybauk), as 
 names for light sweet dishes. The 
 primitive meaniug of fool (Lat. follus) 
 seems to be something puffed up or 
 inflated hke a foot-baU {The Word- 
 Hunter's Note-Booh, p. 209). Other- 
 wise we might have supposed the word 
 to have denoted a dish so dehcious 
 that it ensnared, or befooled one, into 
 over-indulgence, hke the Itahan " Gac- 
 cia sapiente [' wise-catcher '] , a kinde 
 of Custard or Deuonshire white-pot or 
 Lancashire /ooZe." — Florio, 1611. 
 
 FooTY, paltry, mean, contemptible, 
 until recently only in provincial use, 
 has no connexion with foot, as a would- 
 be etymologist once imagined, compar- 
 ing Lat. pe(d)jor and pe{d)s, as if low, 
 base (A. E. Fausset, Horn. Iliad), is 
 N. 'Eng. fouty, poor, mean, Hast foutry 
 (Wright), Soot, fouty, mean, also ob- 
 scene, indecent ; compare Scot, f outre, 
 fouttour, a term of the greatest con- 
 tempt, French fouiu, a scoundrel, a 
 fellow of small account, from foutre, to 
 leacher (Cotgrave), Ija.t. fuitiere. 
 
 A foutre for thine office ! 
 Slmkespeare, 2 Hen. IV. v. 4, 1. I"i0. 
 
 Mr. Atkinson, however, compares 
 Swed. futtig,TpaXtry {Cleveland Glossary, 
 p. 197). 
 
 Forced meat, stuffing, i.e. fa/rced 
 meat, from fmxe or force, to stuff or 
 cram, Fr. farcer, Lat. fardre, to 
 cram. 
 
 Farcyd, as metys. Farcitus. — P rampi. 
 Parviilorum. 
 
 Better, I wys, then Amadis de Gaule, 
 Or els the Pallas /orced with Pleasure. 
 F. Thynne, Debiiti' between Pride and Lowliness, 
 (ab. 1568), p. 67 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Wit larded with malice, and malice forced 
 
 with wit. 
 Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, v. 1, I, 63. 
 
 Force him with praises. 
 
 Ibid. ii. 3. 
 
 If this be the fruit of our life .... to fill 
 and farce our bodies, to make them shrines 
 of pride .... I know not well what to say 
 to it. — Bp. Andrewes, XC Sermons, fol. p. 
 491. 
 
 Fors hit with powder of canel or gode 
 gynger. — Liber Cure Cocorum, p. 31 (1440). 
 
 Farse ]po skyn and perboyle hit wele. — Id. 
 p. 26. 
 
 Farce thy lean ribs with hope, and thou wilt 
 
 grow to 
 Another kind of creature. 
 
 Massinger, Believe As You List, iii. 2. 
 
 Force, in the phrase " to force a 
 lock," it has been supposed is a cor- 
 ruption of Fr. faulser, to pierce or 
 breakthrough (Wedgwood). Compare 
 " Faulser les gonds. To /orce, orbreake 
 asunder, thehindges" (Cotgrave). At 
 aU events, Shakespeare uses forced as 
 meaning "falsely imputed," izfaulse, 
 forged, feigned. When Leonato dis- 
 owns his child with the words, " Take 
 up the bastard," Pauhna rejoins. 
 
FORGETFUL 
 
 ( 126 ) 
 
 FOEM 
 
 For ever 
 Unvenevable be thy hands, if thou 
 Tiikest up the princess by that forced base- 
 ness 
 Which he has put upon 't ! 
 
 The Winter's Tale, ii. 3, 1. 78. 
 
 FoEGETFiTL is by a mistaken analogy 
 compounded with -ful, the original 
 form being old 'Eng. forgitol ; similarly 
 swicful in Lasamon's Brut (ab. 1205) is 
 for swicol, deceitful {Oliphant, Old and 
 Mid. Eng. p. 247). Compare 0. Eng. 
 gifol, — Prov. Eng. givish, openhanded, 
 the opposite of the old word gripple 
 (Hall, Satires), griping, stingy, which 
 must be from a form gripol ; witol, 
 knowing, sometimes corrupted to wit- 
 all ; etol, a glutton, &o. 
 
 Forget, 0. Eng. forgitan, meant 
 originally "to throw away," then to 
 dismiss from memory, root gha(n)d, 
 Lat. {pre-)liendo (Sweet, Gregory's Pas- 
 toral bare, p. 482). 
 
 Ten fling ben t>e letten men of here scrifte 
 .... J^orgetelnesse, nutelnesse, recheles, 
 shamfestnesse, &c. — Old Eng. Homilies, 2nd. 
 Ser. p. 71 (12th cent.). 
 
 FoRE-GO, to give up, a mistaken 
 orthography oi for-go, A. Sax. for-gan, 
 from the false analogy oi fore-run, fore- 
 see, fore-know, fore-hode, &o., where /ore 
 is A. Sax. fore (= Ger. vor), before. 
 
 For-go, however, like for-lid, for- 
 hear, for-gei, forsake, contains the par- 
 ticle (A. S., Dan., Icel.) for, — Ger. ver. 
 "Flesohs forgon oper viseh (To forgo 
 flesh or fish)." — Ancren Biwle, p. 8. 
 
 Foreign, spelt with g from a false 
 analogy with words like reign, arrraign, 
 &o. The more proper form would have 
 been forain or foran. Of. Spanish 
 forano, Fr. foradn, Lat. foraneus, from 
 foris, abroad. See Sovereign. The 
 brotliers Hare used the form forein 
 (Guesses at Truth), Chaucer foreyne. 
 An intrusive g was formerly found in 
 many other words, e.g. Gower writes 
 atteigne, ordeigne, restreigne. 
 
 To be safe from the fm'reine enemy, from 
 the wolfe abroad, is a very great benefit. — 
 Bp. Andrewes, Of the Giving Cmsar his Due. 
 
 Fcrt-einers may take aim of the ancient 
 English Customs ; the Gentry more floting 
 after forrein fashions. — T. Fuller, The Holy 
 and Profane State, p. 106 (1648). 
 
 Our modern word is perhaps, to some 
 extent, a representative of old Eng. 
 fewrene, distant, A. Sax. feorron, far 
 
 away (from /eorr, far), merged into the 
 French word. 
 
 A king Jjet luuede one lefdi o{ feorrene 
 londe. — Ancren Riwle, p. 388. 
 
 Deer waeron manega vri{ feorran (There 
 were many women afar off). — S. Matt, xxvii. 
 55 (A. Sax. Vers.). 
 
 So moche folc offurrene londe: jjat J)u 
 clipest herto. — Lives of Saints, S. Katherine, 
 1. 20 (Philolog. Soc. 1858), ab. 1310. 
 
 FoEB-SHOEE. The first part of the 
 word seeing to be the Icelandio fja/ra, 
 the ebb-tide, the beach, as in fjm'u-lori, 
 the sea-board (see Cleasby and Vig- 
 fusson, S.V.), Shetland fiorin, the ebb 
 shore, Norweg. fjora (Edmonston, 
 Philolog. Soc. Trans. 1866). 
 
 FoREYN, 1 acess-poolordrain(Gfo«- 
 FoEEiNB, J sary of Arehiteetwre, Par- 
 ker), is probably a derivative from 
 Lat. forica (cf. Lat. foria, diarrhoea, Fr. 
 foire), and assimilated to the old word 
 foreine, as if a place without (foraneus). 
 From forica comes also forahers, a cant 
 term for the latrines at Winchester 
 School. 
 In to a chambre forene )je gadelyng gan 
 
 wende, 
 jjat kyng Edmond com ofte to, & in );e dunge 
 
 jjar 
 Hudde hym \>ere longe, fjat none man nas y 
 war. 
 Uobt. of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 310. 
 
 FoEEMOST, SO spelt as if denoting 
 most (i.e. mo-est, superl. of nw),fore or 
 forward, is a corrupt form of 0. Bng. 
 formest, foremeste (Maundeville), Le. 
 O. Eng. /o?'me (A. S. forma), a superla- 
 tive of fore, -1- -est, and so a pleonastic 
 form (as if firstest, primiissi/nms). See 
 Morris, Accidence, p. 109. 
 [jere fie pres was perelouste' he priked in 
 formest. 
 
 William of Palerne, 1. llyl, ab. 1340 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 Form (pronounced form, with the o 
 as in no), (1) a long seat or bench, (2) 
 a class of pupils (originally) occupying 
 the same bench, has generally been re- 
 cognized as identical with /orm (rhym- 
 ing with stm-m), Lat. forma, a shape, 
 figure, or model. They are kept sepa- 
 rate, however, in the Promptorkim Pof- 
 vulorum (ab. 1440). 
 Forme, Forma. 
 
 Foorme, longe stole. Sponda. 
 And so in Bailey form and fowm. 
 As Lat. forma, a model or rule (cf. 
 
FOESAEE 
 
 ( 127 ) 
 
 FOX 
 
 formula) , corresponds to Sansk. dha/rma, 
 an established rule, law, from the root 
 dhar, to stand firm, so form, old Fr. 
 forme, Low Lat./ormni, a choir stall or 
 bench, in all probability corresponds 
 to Greek th/ro-nus (for thor-nus), thrd- 
 nos, fhre-nos, a, seat, bench, or stool, 
 TisA. forxis, a row of seats in the circus, 
 all from the same root dJiar, whence 
 also Lat. fwmus. Compare old Lat. 
 formiis, warm, r: Gk. thermos ; Lat. 
 foris, zz Gk. fhura, Sansk. dvar. 
 
 How drink gaed round, in cogs an' caups, 
 Amang thefumn and benches. 
 
 Bums, Poems, p. 18 (Globe ed.). 
 
 It would not as well become the state of 
 the chamber to haue easve quilted and lyned 
 forms and stools for the Lords and Ladyes to 
 sit on (which fashyon is now taken up in 
 every raarchawnts hall) as gi-eat plank^orms 
 that two yeomen can skant remoue out of 
 theii' places. — Sir J. Harington, Nugte An- 
 tiquie, vol. ii. p. 173. 
 
 FoBSAKE, a compound of Eng. sake, 
 A. Sax. sacan, to strive, fm'-sacan, to 
 contend against, seems to have been 
 assimilated in meaning to A. Sax. for- 
 secgan, io for-say, deny (Ger. ver-sagen), 
 refuse, and then in a secondary sense 
 to renounce, give up, abandon. 
 
 S. Peter . . . departed leavyng behinde him 
 
 myselfe, 
 Velvet Breeches, and this bricklayer whoybr- 
 
 sooke to goe into 
 Heaven because his wife was there. 
 
 Greene, Newes both from Heaven and Hell, 
 1593. 
 If a man me it axe, 
 Six sithes or seven, 
 1 forsake it with othes. 
 
 Piera Plowman. 
 And who-so be chosen in ofiyce of Alder- 
 man, and he forsake [i.e. refuse] ye offyoe, he 
 shal paie, to amendement of ye list, j . li. wax. 
 — English Gilds, p. 103 (ed. Toulmin Smith). 
 Thou maist nat forsaken (=:negare non 
 possis). — Chaucer [in Richardson]. 
 
 Spenser has the form to forsay as 
 well as to forsake. 
 
 Her dalliaunce he despis'd, and follies did 
 forsake. 
 
 Faerie Qtieene, Bk. II. vi. 21. 
 But shepheard must walke another way, 
 Sike worldly sovenance [= remembrance] he 
 jQUStf&rsay. 
 
 Shepheard s Calender, Maye (Globe ed. 
 p. 458;. 
 Shepheardes bene_/brsai/(i 
 From places of delight. 
 
 Id. lulye (p. 467, 1. 69). 
 
 Founder, a N. Ireland word for a 
 cold or catan-h, as " The boy has got a 
 founder" (Patterson), is a corruption 
 of Fr. morfondre, to catch cold, from 
 moroe, mucus, and fonAre, to melt, 
 cause to run. From the first part of 
 the same word comes O. Eng. mwr, a 
 cold. So to founder (of a horse), to 
 coUapse, is Fr. se fondre, "to melt, 
 waste, consume away, to sinke down 
 on a sudden " (Cotgrave) ; Lat. fun- 
 dere. 
 
 Fox, a term for a sword frequent in 
 the EHzabethan dramatists, may per- 
 haps be the French faux, faulx, Lat. 
 falx, a " falchion." 
 
 Thou dy'st on point of fox. 
 
 ', Hen. V. iv. 4. 
 
 William Sharp for bilboes, /o«s, and Toledo 
 blades. 
 
 The Famous History of Captain Thos. 
 
 Stukely, I. 574 (1605). 
 O, what blade is't ? 
 A Toledo, or an English Fox. 
 Webster, The White Devil, sub fin. 
 (1612). 
 
 Fox, a cant term for to make, or 
 become, drunk, perhaps akin to Fr. 
 fausser, as if to disguise (?). Of. also 
 the French fausser, or faulser, to pierce 
 or broach a cask, whence faussei, a, 
 faucet for a hogshead. Fuller uses 
 fauxety for faussete (falsity) (Davies, 
 8upp. Eng. Olossa7-y), with allusion to 
 Guy Faux. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Pepys dined at my house . . . 
 whom I did almost fox with Margate ale. — 
 Oct. 26, 1660, Pepys' Diary (Bright's ed. vol. 
 i. p. 205). 
 
 Malligo glasses_/ba,' thee. 
 
 Middleton, Span. Gipsey, iii. 1. 
 
 But as the humble tenant that does bring 
 A chick or eggs for 's offering, 
 Is ta'en into the butt'ry, and does fox 
 Equal with him that gave a stalled ox. 
 
 J. Jephson, Commendatory Verses to 
 Lovelace's Poems. 
 Then /ox me, & He fox thee ; 
 then lets agi-ee, & end this fray. 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 54, 1. 43. 
 
 The sole contention who can drink most, 
 and fox his fellow soonest. — Burton, Anatomy 
 of Aelancholy, I. 2, ii. 2. 
 
 It is worth noting, however, that in 
 Icelandic fox is a fraud or deception 
 (Cleasby, 167), and perhaps to fox is to 
 beguile or fuddle one. Fuzzed (=z 
 fuddled) is perhaps related. 
 
FOXED 
 
 ( 128 ) 
 
 FRAME 
 
 Foxed. A print or book is said to be 
 foxed, when the paper has become 
 spotted or discoloured by damp. In 
 Warwickshire the same term is applied 
 to timber when discoloured by incipient 
 decay. It is, no doubt, the same word 
 as the West country foust, soiled, 
 mouldy, and fust, to become mouldy, 
 Scot, foze, the same. Compare fouse, a 
 Craven form of fox. Fust is from 
 O. Fi.fuste, "fusty," originally smelling 
 of the cask {fust, from Lat. fusiis). 
 " They stanke like fustie barrells." — 
 Nash, Pierce Penilesse, p. 33. 
 
 Pox-GLOVE. It might be argued 
 with some plausibility that this is a 
 corruption of folh's-glove, just as Fox- 
 hall in Pepys' Diary (May 29, 1662), 
 now Vauxhall, is a corruption oiFulhe's 
 Hall. The Digitalis, with its fingerlike 
 flowers suggesting a glove, is considered 
 sacred to the " good people " or fairy 
 folks in most parts of the British Isles 
 and Ireland; witness the names, Che- 
 shne. Fairies' Petticoat ; East AngUa, 
 Fairy -tliimhle; N. Eng. Witches' -thim- 
 lle ; Irish, Fairy-cap, Fairy-hell, Fairy- 
 weed, Fairy-glove. In Welch it is called 
 menyg ellyllon, "fairy's gloves," hysedd 
 y ellyllon, " fairy's-fingers," hysedd y 
 cwn, " dogs'-fingers." In Irish sid- 
 heann, from sidhe, a fairy, where sid- 
 heann, pronounced sheeaun, the folks' 
 plant, has a confusing resemblance to 
 sinneach, or sionnach, pronounced sMn- 
 nagh, the fox. Other Irish names are 
 siothan-sleihhe (connected perhaps with 
 siotliachan,{a.irj),aja.&mea/racdn,"t'him- 
 ble plant." Cf. also " Lady's-fingers," 
 Ger. fmgerhut, French gantes de notre 
 dame ; " gantelee, the herb called Fox- 
 gloves, our Ladies gloves " (Cotgrave), 
 old Eng. wantelee, Cumberland and 
 Yorks. Fairy-fUigers, Whitby Fox-fin- 
 gers ; Low Lat. cirotecaria, from Gk. 
 cheirotheke, a glove. 
 
 See The Gardener's Chronicle, July 
 15, 1876, p. 67; Lady Wilkinson, 
 Weeds and Wild Flowers ; Joyce, Irish 
 Naiines of Places, 2nd Ser. p. 311 ; Hunt, 
 Eomances and Drolls of the West of 
 England, vol. i. p. 127 ; Crofton Croker, 
 Legends of Killarney, p. 14 ; Britten 
 and Holland, Fng. Plant Names, E. 
 D. Soc, p. 178 ; Cockayne, Leechdoms, 
 Wortcunning amd Starcraft, vol. iii. 
 Glossary. 
 
 The old English form Foxes ghfa 
 (Cockayne, Leechdoms, &o., vol. i. p. 
 266) shows that the obvious meaning 
 is, after all, the correct one. 
 
 Buglosse, foxes glofa. — Wright, Vocah\ii- 
 lanes (11th cent. ', p. 67. 
 The Norwegian name is rev-Uelde, 
 "fox-bell." Fox's glove is not a more 
 whimsical name for the d/igitalis than 
 cuckoo's breeches in French for the cow- 
 slip (hrayes de cocu), and cuckoo's hook 
 in Welsh for the wild hyacinth {hwtias 
 y gog). 
 
 Fox's PAW, TO MAKE A, is quoted by 
 Mr. Scheie de Vere {Studies in EngUsh, 
 p. 205), as a provincial phrase, and ex- 
 plained to be a corruption of Pr. faire 
 un faux pas. I cannot find it men- 
 tioned elsewhere, and his other inac- 
 curacies and mistakes, even on the 
 same page, would render his authority 
 for this assertion very desirable. 
 
 Fractious, peevish, umnanageable, 
 bears a deceptive resemblance to Lat. 
 fractus, broken, weak, Shakespeare's 
 fracted, fracture, &c. It is, no doubt, the 
 same word as Prov. Eng. fratclied, res- 
 tive (Wright), Cleveland fratch, to 
 quarrel, or squabble angrily (Atkinson), 
 old Eng. "fracchyn [to creak] as newe 
 cartys, al. frasMn." — Prompt. Pan. (so 
 Skeat, Ftym. Diet.). Cf. perhaps Scot. 
 frate, to chafe by friction, 0. Eng./j'ea<, 
 to scold. 
 
 Feamb, in the following passage of 
 the Authorized Version is probably 
 generally understood as meaning "He 
 could not shape his lips so as to pro- 
 nounce it rightly," as if an unusual 
 use oiframie, A. Sax./remma»,tomake, 
 do, effect. 
 
 He said Sibboleth ; for he could not/ramc 
 to pronounce it right. — Judges, xii. 6. 
 The real meaning is " He could not 
 succeed, was not able, to pronoimce it 
 right," 0. Eng. and Scot. /ra»ie, to suc- 
 ceed, A. Sax./rewMTO, to profit, " HwsBt 
 frema]j ssnegma menn " [What profitetb 
 it any man] . — S. Matt. xvi. 26. Cf. 
 Icel. frenija, to further. Both fremim 
 and fremman are froin fram, strong, 
 good,/re?ne, useful (Bttmiiller,p. 370), 
 Ut. to further or -put foi'wa/rd (fram). 
 
 In the Leicestershire dialect /roDW, 
 to contrive or manage to do a thing, is 
 stiUinuse; e.g., "A cain't/recmtodew 
 
FBATEBY 
 
 ( 129 ) 
 
 FEEE 
 
 nootlunk as a'd ought." — Evans, Glos- 
 sary, p. 154 (E. D. S.). 
 
 Framynge, or afframynge, or wynnynge. 
 Lucrum, 1/molumentum. — Promptorium Par- 
 vuioi'um. 
 
 When they came to the Shaw burn, 
 
 Said he, " Sae weel we frame, 
 I think it is convenient 
 That we should sing a psalm. 
 Battle of PhUiphaugh,n. 13-16 (Child's 
 Ballads, vol. vii. p. 133). 
 
 " Well, how's that colt o' yours likely to tarn 
 out ? Wheea ! 't frames weel." The new ser- 
 vant "frames well," when appearing likely 
 to fill her place well, — Atkinson, Cleveland 
 Glossarif, p. 199. 
 
 In the following the word is dif- 
 ferent : 
 
 He could well his glozing speaohes /ranw. 
 Spenser, F. Queene, III, viii. 14. 
 
 His wary speech 
 Thus to the empyreal minister hefrajned, 
 Milton, Par. Lost, v. 460. 
 
 Feateky, ) an old word for the re- 
 
 Peatby S feotory of a monastery 
 (see Tyndal, Wwhs, ii. 98, Grindal, 
 Worhs, 272, Parker Soo. Edd.), as if 
 the common-room of the brotherhood 
 (fratres), is a corruption oi freitour, or 
 "freyiowre " (Prompt. Parv.), 0. Pr. 
 refretmr, Low Lat. refectorium. Cf. fer- 
 ma/ry for infermary. " Fraier-house, 
 or Fraiov/r, the refrectory or hall in a 
 monastery" (Wright). 
 
 See Skeat, Notes to Piers the Plow- 
 man, p. 97. 
 
 Similarly Fr. frairie, an old word for 
 a feast or repast (e.g. " Un loup etant 
 de frairie." — La Fontaine) has been 
 misunderstood as another usage of 
 frairie, a confraternity met together for 
 purposes of festivity (Cheruel, Diction- 
 rudre Bistoriqae des Institutions, torn. i. 
 p. 452). 
 
 Afrayter or place to eate meate in, refec' 
 torium,. — Willuil, Dictionary, ed. 1608, p, 250. 
 
 Freres in here_/reJ(our shuUe fyude Jpat tyme 
 Bred with-oute beggynge. 
 
 Langland, Vision of Piers the Plowman, 
 Pass. VI. 1. 174, text C. 
 Where so ever sum eate, a serten kepe the 
 froyter.—Bate, Kynge lohan, p. 27 (Camdeu 
 Soc). 
 
 Fermery and fraitur with fele mo houses. 
 Pierce Ploughmans Crede, 1. 212 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 Concernynge the fare of their /roi/ter, 
 I did tell the a fore partly. 
 
 But then they have gest chambers, 
 Which are ordained for strangers. 
 
 Rede me and be nott wrothe, 1528, 
 p. 85 (ed, Arber). 
 The words " Refectory " and " Fratri) " or 
 " Frater House " — " dpmus in qaa fratres una 
 comedunt in signum' mutui amoria " — are 
 practically synonymous. Indeed " Fratry " 
 was at one time the more popular designation 
 in England, though Carlisle is probably the 
 only place where it has survived the crash of 
 the Dissolution. So obsolete, in fact, has the 
 term become, that it's very meaning has been 
 forgotten. — Saturday Review, vol. 51, p. 267. 
 
 Freckle, so spelt as if a dimin. form 
 oifreah, a streak, like specMe, spangle, 
 &c., is an altered form of O. Eng. 
 frecken (Palsgrave, 1530), frakne 
 (Chaucer), frakine (Prompt. Parv.) ; 
 and so in the cognate languages, Swed. 
 frakne, loeLfreknMr. We may perhaps 
 cf. A. Sax. fracness, turpitudo, a dis- 
 figurement (EttmliUer, p. 365). "A 
 Freken, neuus." — Levins, Mampulus, 
 1570, 60, 46. 
 
 Febe, frequently in old Eng. used of 
 ladies in the sense of lovely, amiable, 
 noble, esp. in the combination " fair 
 and free," " feyr and fre," and often 
 apphed to the Virgin Mary, as in the 
 carol " When Christ was bom of Mary 
 free," is perhaps a distinct word from 
 free, at liberty (= Goth, freis). Its 
 congeners seem to be A. Sax. freo, a 
 fair woman, O. Sax./n, Lombard, frea, 
 a lady, Frigg, the Northern Venus, 
 Freyia (cf. Ger. from-, Thorpe, N. My- 
 thology, i. 33) ; also A. Sax. fred, lord, 
 Goth, frauja (Ettmiiller, p. 371, Die- 
 fenbach, Goth. Sprache, p. 398). Con- 
 firmatory are Scot, frea, a lady, fre, 
 beautiful, frely, a beautiful woman, 
 Icel. fri, a lover, Dan. frier, a wooer, 
 loel.frjd, to pet, Goth, frijon, to love, 
 Sansk. pri, to love or please. 
 She is fayi' and she is fre. 
 
 Havelok the Dane, 1. 2876. 
 The maid/re, that here the [Jesus] 
 So swetlich under wede. 
 
 ReliquiiE Antiqute, vol. ii. p. 193. 
 Ysonde men calleth that fre, 
 With the white hand. 
 
 Sir Tristrem, p. 179 (ed. Scott), 
 ab. 1250. 
 Jjis maiden is suete ant fre [= noble] of blod, 
 briht & feyr, of milde mod. 
 
 Boddeker, Alteng. Dichtungen, p. 218, 1. 7. 
 Menskful maiden of myght, 
 feir a,nt fre to fonde. 
 
 id. p. 168, 1. 8. 
 K 
 
FBEEBOOTEB 
 
 ( 130 ) 
 
 FBESH-WOLD 
 
 For first whan ]>ejre was in f;e forest fownde 
 
 in his denne, 
 In comely cloJjeB was he clad* for any kinges 
 
 sone. 
 
 William of Paleme, 1. 505 (ed. Skeat). 
 
 Freebooter, Ger. freiheuter, Dan. 
 frihytter, Dutch vrijhuiter, are supposed 
 to be corruptions of the It. flihustiero, 
 American filihusier, from the Spanish 
 flildte, Icelandic _^2/ (fley-Mtr ?), a swift 
 ship, a "fly-boat." Vid. Cleasby, Ice- 
 landic Diet. s. V. Fley, p. 160. Oomipare 
 O. Pr. frihustier (Scheler), Fr. flibustier, 
 O. 'Eng.JUhustier, a pirate or buccaneer, 
 JiUhuster. 
 
 De Quincey using the worcL flihustier 
 remarks that in the United States 
 JovuTials it is always -written filUhusters. 
 He adds incorrectly, 
 
 Written in whatsoever way, it is under- 
 stood to be a Franco-Spanish eon-uption of 
 the English word freebooter. — Works, vol. i. 
 p. 6. 
 
 Fkeed-stool, a seat near the altar in 
 churches to which offenders fled for 
 sanctuary (Bailey, Wright), so spelt 
 perhaps from the idea that they were 
 there freed from punishment, is a cor- 
 rupted form of A. Sax. frii-stol, " seat 
 of peace," an asylum (Chron. Sctxon, 
 1006). 
 
 Fuller says that on the church of St. 
 John of Beverley, Athelstan " bestowed 
 a, freed- stool with large privUedges be- 
 longing thereunto." — Chwrch Hist. II. 
 V. 9. (see Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossary, 
 s. v.). Spelman says that the inscrip- 
 tion on this seat was, " Haec sedes la- 
 pidea Freedstol dicitur. i. Paois cathe- 
 dra."— GZossaiwrn., p. 298 (1626). 
 
 Similarly free-hoa/rd, a strip of land 
 outside the fence of an estate only par- 
 tially belonging to the proprietor, some- 
 times spelt frith-hord, must originally 
 have been " a border of peace," /riS, a 
 neutral territory. 
 
 Febe-martin, the name given in 
 many parts of England to a female 
 calf of twins, when the other is a male ; 
 such an animal beingregarded as barren, 
 and I beheve with good reason. Free 
 here seems to be a contracted form of 
 ferry seen in Scotch ferry-cow, one not 
 in calf. Compare Scotch/eroio, not carry- 
 ing a calf (of. A. Sax. /ear, loel.farri, 
 a bullock). Martin is the same word 
 as Scotch mart, a cow or ox, so called 
 
 from being usually slaughtered at Mar- 
 tinmas for winter provision, Ir. mart; 
 cf. Mod. Gk. marti, a fatted sheep for 
 the festival of San Martino. 
 
 Free-mason, a word first found, it is 
 said, in a document dated 1396, " La- 
 thomos vocatos^emaceoms," i.e. "stone- 
 cutters called freemasons," is regarded 
 by some (G. F. Fort, Early Eist. aid 
 Antiqmties of Freemason/ry, pp. 189, 
 seqq. ; Scheie de Vere, Studies in Eng- 
 lish) as a contracted form oifrere-magon, 
 a brother-mason, a term constantly 
 used in the Order. Fr. franc-magon, 
 Ger. frei-maurer, &c., are late forma- 
 tions, prob. borrowed from the English; 
 but an early instance of frere-magon is 
 a desideratum. In the Journal de I'avo- 
 cat Barbier, Mars, 1737, it is said "Nos 
 seigneurs de la cour ont invente tout 
 nouvellement, un ordre appele des/ri- 
 massons, S, I'exemple de I'Angleterre " 
 (Cheruel, Diet. Historique des Institu- 
 tions, s. V. Soci&tes Secretes). 
 
 The Company of Masons, otherwise call'd 
 Free Masons, were us'd to be a loving Brother- 
 hood for many ages ; yet were they not regu- 
 lated to a society, till Hen. 4. Their arms 
 sable, on a cheuron between 3 castles argent, 
 a pair of compasses of the first, — J. Homil, 
 Londinopolis, p. 44 f 1654). 
 
 French, a Scotch corruption of finch, 
 a small bird, as hull-french, green-french, 
 gowi-french. 
 
 French disease, probably a mis- 
 translation of galle (a skin disease), gd- 
 leux, &c., as lif identical with Oallus. 
 Cf. French crown, Nares. 
 
 Frensicke, in Levins, Mannpuhs 
 Vocabulorum, 1570, 121, 1. 28 (glossed 
 phrenetiaus), as if compounded with 
 sicTc, is a corrupt form oi frenzie,fmiir 
 sical =: mad (see Davies, Sitpp. Eng. 
 Glossa/ry, s. v. v.), 0. Eng. " Frenesy,' 
 sekenesse, Frenesis, mania." — From^t, 
 Parv. Lat. Greek, ph~enesis, disorder 
 of the phren, or senses. 
 
 Fresher, a small frog (Norfolk). 
 From 0. Eng./rosc/ie,/ross7ie (WyoUffe), 
 Qer.frosch, Dan./rosfc (afrog). "Froke, 
 orfrosche, Bana" {Pr. Parv.). 
 
 I thought by this a lyknesse whiche hier a 
 fore tyme byfylle to the frosshis. — Caxtim, 
 Reynard the Fox, p. 37 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Feesh-wold, ^ the Cleveland form of 
 
 Frbsh-wood, S threshold, i. e. thresh- 
 
 wold, A. Sax. fiersc-wald, hoisc-wold 
 
FRET 
 
 ( 131 ) 
 
 FBOG 
 
 "Wycliffe has frexfoold 
 Compare O. Eng. fursti 
 
 (Atkinson). 
 (Zeph. i. 9). 
 
 = thirsty. 
 
 Feet, a stop on the handle of a 
 stringed instrument, orig. a thin metal 
 band, is no doubt the same word as O. 
 Fr. frete, for feretie, dimin. of fer, an 
 iron. Bo fret, to corrode or eat away, 
 is a contracted form of for-eat (see 
 Skeat, Etym. Diet., s. v. v.), and Ger. 
 frett of fetret. 
 
 Frieze, in architectiu:e, the part of 
 the entablature between the architrave 
 and cornice, has often been confounded 
 with frieze, coarse cloth (so Cotgrave, 
 Diez). There can be little doubt that 
 the orig. meaning was an ornamental 
 band (of sculptured work, &c.), and 
 that the word is identical with Fr./reze, 
 a ruff, O. Span./reso, " a kind of fringe 
 or silke lace, or such Uke to set on a 
 garment" (Minsheu), Ital.frisOtfregio, 
 a fringe, lace, border, an embroyderie 
 or any ornament and garnishing about 
 clothes ; also a wreath, crowne or chap- 
 let (Florio), a variety oi frigio, a kind 
 of worke in Architecture, also a kind of 
 tune or melodie (Id.). There is httle 
 doubt that these Itahan words are from 
 Lat. phrygius, meaning embroidered, 
 also apphed to certain stirring strains 
 of music. The Phrygians appear to 
 have been celebrated for their skill in 
 embroidery, as Plautus uses phrygio :^ 
 embroiderer (It. frigions). Moreover 
 in Low Lat. phrygium and plwysum 
 were used for an embroidered border. 
 
 As for Embroderie it selfe and needle-work, 
 it was the Phrygians inuention : and here- 
 upon embroderers be called in Latine Pkry- 
 giones. — Holland, Plinies Nut. History, vol. 
 1. p. 228(1634). 
 
 Fringes. " Biding the fringes," a 
 phrase once used in Dublin, is a cor- 
 ruption of " Biding the franchises," a 
 custom formerly observed by the Cor- 
 poration (Irish Pop. Superstitions, p. 
 34). 
 
 Feisket, " an unrecorded word " 
 (Grosart) in Su* John Davies' Enter- 
 tainment of Q. Elizabeth at Harefield 
 ( Works, vol. ii. p. 246), is most probably 
 a frog, a diminutive of old Eng. frosTc, 
 A. Sax. frosc, frox (Icel. froshr, O. H. 
 Ger. /rose, Gev.frosch). Bee Fresher. 
 
 Yesternight the chatting of the pyes and 
 
 the chirkinge of the frisketts did foretell as 
 much [viz., the commg of strangers]. — Op. 
 cit. 
 
 The word was apparently conformed 
 to frisk, to leap. 
 
 i5o can {Sor up swUcfroskes here. 
 [Then came there up such host of frogs.] 
 Genesis and Exodus, 1. 2969 (ab. 12o0). 
 
 Frisky, in Meadow Frisky, a Suffolk 
 name for the plant festuca pratensis, is 
 a corruption of fescue. (Britten and 
 Holland.) 
 
 Frizzle, a Scotch word for a steel to 
 strike fire irom a flint, and for the 
 hammer of a gun or pistol, as if to 
 burn up quickly as hair does in the fire, 
 seems to be a corruption of the syno- 
 nymous Fi. fusil (Jamieson). 
 
 Frog, a part of a horse's foot, " a 
 Frush on a Horse's foot " (Bailey), 
 " Frush, the tender Part of a Horse's 
 Heel, next the hoof" (Id.). Frog here 
 is a corruption of old Eng. frush (for 
 fursh, forg), the forked part, Fr. fowrche, 
 fourchette, from Lat. fwrca, a fork. It. 
 forchetta, " a disease in a horse called 
 the rmiuing frush" (Florio). Compare 
 for the form of the word, frogon, a prov. 
 word for a poker (Wright), Lincolnshire 
 fruggin, =: Fr. fourgon, an Oven-forke, 
 (Cotgrave), It.forcone, a great fork. For 
 the meaning compare Ger. galel, (1) a 
 fork, (2) a horse's frog. And yet, curious 
 to observe, the Greek word, hdtrachos, a 
 frog, denotes (1) the reptile, (2) a part 
 of a horse's foot. 
 
 Sfettouare is by Grisoni taken for the 
 opening or cutting of the frush of a horse 
 away. — Florio, Neuj World of Words, 1611. 
 
 Frog (of a horse) : frush :: frog (the 
 reptile) : Ger. frosch (cf. Prov. Eng. 
 fresher, a young frog). 
 
 The Frush is the tenderest part of the 
 hooue towardes the heele, called of the Italians 
 Fettone, and because it is fashioned like a 
 forked head, the French men cat it Furchette, 
 which word our FeiTers, either for not know- 
 ing rightly how to pronounce it, or else per- 
 haps for easinesse sake of prouunciation, do 
 make it a monasillable, & pronounce it the 
 Frush. — Topsell, History of Foure-fooled 
 Beasts, p. 416, 1608. 
 
 Frog, an embroidered ornament on 
 a coat or frock, seems to have been 
 originally a frock- or frog -ornament. 
 Compare 
 
 Frogge, or frohe, munkys abyte, Flocus. — 
 Prompt. Panmlorum (1440). 
 
FBONTEB 
 
 ( 132 ) 
 
 FULMEEBB 
 
 Low Lat. froccus and floccus, a long 
 garment. 
 
 He is none of your second-rate riding- 
 masters in nankeen dressing-gowns, with 
 brown _/?'0o-s, but the regular gentleman atten- 
 dant on the principal riders. — C. Dichens, 
 Sketches by Boz, p. 72 (ed. 1877). 
 
 Feontbr, a Scottish term for a ewe 
 in her fom-th year, is contracted from 
 four-winter (A. 8ajX.feower-wintra,qaa.d- 
 riennis). Similarly frundel, a North 
 country word for a measm'e of two pecks 
 (Bailey), also spelt frundelK, furundel, 
 is for fourthen-deal or fu/rthindele (A. 
 Sax./eor<5a?i d&l), the four&i part (? of 
 a bushel), like halfendeal and eytendele. 
 
 Compare Scot, gimmer, a one year old 
 lamb, Icel. gynibr, Welsh gafr, a one- 
 year old goat, from gam (ghiam), O. 
 Welsh gaem, winter (= Mems, Greek 
 cheimon), (Ehys, Welsh Philology, p. 
 432) ; G-k. cMmaira, orig. a ivinterling 
 goat ; PrOY. Eng. quinfer (for twinter, 
 i.e. two-winier), Lincolns. iwiniy, a 
 sheep of two winters ; Frisian, enter, 
 and twinter, a colt of one, and two, 
 winters old ; Lat. himus, trimius, for K- 
 himus, tri-himus, two and three winters 
 old {hiems). 
 
 Fhontispiece, so spelt as if to denote 
 the piece that fronts a book, is a corrupt 
 form of Old Eng. frontispice, Fr. fronti- 
 spice, Lat. frontispidum, from /rows and 
 aspicio, the front of a building. 
 
 The Windows also and the Balcone's must 
 be thought on, there are slirewd books, with 
 dangerous Frontispices set to sale. — Milton, 
 Arenpagitica, 1644 (ed. Arber, p. 60). 
 
 What can be expected from so lying a 
 t'rontispke, but suitable falshooda? — t'ulkr, 
 Mixt Contemplations. 
 
 Such, both for Stuff, and for rare artifice, 
 As might beseem som royall Frontispice. 
 
 Sylvester, Du Barius, p. 464 (1621). 
 
 The word in German is sonaetimes 
 popularly corrupted into frontenspitze, 
 as if from spitze, a head or point. 
 
 Similarly the preface is not, as might 
 be imagined, the foreface to the book, 
 but the fore-speech, A.-Sax. fore-sposc, 
 Lat. prcB-fatiiim, what is said before- 
 hand to the reader. 
 
 Fkown, always used now with the 
 specific meaning " to knit the brows or 
 wrinkle the forehead " (BaUey), as if 
 akin to frounce, Fr. fronser le front, to 
 frown or knit the brows (Cotgrave), Le 
 
 fronds du sourcil, the knitting of the 
 eyebrows (Id.), S-p.fruncir las cejas,to 
 frown, corresponding to a Lat. fron- 
 tiare, to contract the forehead (front). 
 Wright [Frov. Diet.) gives frownce, a 
 frown or wrinkle; "With that sehe 
 /roMMcei/i up the brow "( Gower) ; "J'roMiti. 
 ynge, Fruncaoio, rugaaio" [Prompt, Par- 
 vulorum). Etymologists, however, are 
 unanimous in identifying the word with 
 Fr. (re-)frogner, (re-)frongner, to look 
 sullen, frown. It. (in-)frigno, frowning, 
 Lombard, frignare, make a wry face, 
 whine, Prov. Swed. fryna, Horweg. 
 fr'mjna, the same (Diez, Scheler, Skeat). 
 
 He seeth her front is large and pleine 
 Withoutey'rounce of any greine. 
 
 Gower, Confebsio Ainantis,Yo\. iit 
 p. 27 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 Some frounce their curled heare in courtly 
 guise. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, I. iv. 14. 
 
 FuLMEKDE, an old name for the pole- 
 cat, O. Eng. fulmarde, so spelt as if 
 compounded of O. Eng. ful, foul, and 
 Fr. merde, dung, filth (Lat. merda), with 
 allusion to its offensive smell, and so 
 actually understood sometimes [e.g. 
 Smiles, Life of a Scotch Naturalist, p. 
 116), is an incorrect form oi fowmart, 
 fulmart, which " are contractions of 
 foul martin, a name apphed to it in 
 contradistinction to the sweet martin 
 on account of its disgusting odour" 
 (Bell, History of British Quai/rupeh). 
 
 For J>e fox and )>e foulmert jpai ar botht fals. 
 Bernurdiis, De Cum Hel Familiaiis, 
 p. 20, 1. 74. 
 
 In the churchwardens' accounts of 
 the parish of Kendal for the year 1666, 
 among the various sums paid for the 
 heads of vermin are twopence for that 
 of a " foulmart," and foiu'pence for that 
 of a ■' cleanmart " {Transactions of ih 
 Gumherland and Westmoreland AnMq. 
 and Archceolog. Sodety, 1877). 
 
 Foumart therefore is not compoiinded 
 with Fr. fouine, the foiae or beech- 
 martin (Cotgrave), Lat. fagina (Wedg- 
 wood, Morris). 
 
 ()e fox & \iE fobmrde to [je fiyth wyndeS. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 52, 1. 634. 
 
 On the nighte tyme . . . nyghtecrowea and 
 poulcattes, foxes and _/imm«r(/es, with all other 
 vermine and noysome beastes, vse mooste 
 styrringe. — R. Ascham, Toxophilus, 1M5, 
 p. 52 (ed. Arber). 
 
FULSOME 
 
 ( 133 ) 
 
 FUND 
 
 Haue yon any rats or mise, polecats or 
 
 weasels ? 
 Or is there any old sowes sick of the measles ? 
 I can Aestxojfulmers and catch moles. 
 
 The Mariage of Witt and IVisdome, p. 39 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 A Fidmare, martes. — Levins, Manipulus, 
 1570, 28, 47. 
 
 Fulsome, a word generally used now- 
 only of flattery or praise, in the sense 
 of gross, extravagantly overdone, is 
 given by almost every dictionary as 
 another form oi foul-some, from A. Sax. 
 ful, foul, impure. It is probably, how- 
 ever, the same word as Old Eng. follh- 
 summ, which appears in Orminn (about 
 1200) in the sense of compliant, and 
 this I take to be a derivative of A. 
 Sax. folgian, to follow, foU^henn in Or- 
 minn ; the original meaning then would 
 hefollow-scme, fawning, imitative, apish 
 Kke a parasite. Compare 
 Fotwi/nge of manerys or condycyons, Imitacio. 
 Prompt Pufv. 
 
 Similar words are humoursome and 
 haxom (= bow-some), apt to humour 
 or bow to the wishes of another. 
 
 When Shylock describes Jacob's fraud 
 upon Laban, he says the skilful shep- 
 herd peeled certain wands and 
 
 Stuck them up before the fulsome ewes. 
 
 The word here makes best sense when 
 understood as meaning " sequacious," 
 apt to follow where led, ready to imitate 
 or copy [so. in their ofispring] what is 
 set before them [viz. the parti-coloured 
 rods] . Merchant of Venice, i. 3, 1. 88. 
 
 There is no doubt, however, that at 
 an early period the word was understood 
 as a compound oifull, e.g. the Frompto- 
 rium Farvulorvm, has " Fulsiinesse of 
 mete, sacietas," and Golding in his Ovid 
 renders pleno ubere by "fulsome dugs." 
 This tart is swate and /ii/some [= cloying]. 
 M. A. Courtney, W. Cornwall Glossary, 
 E. D. S. 
 And so in old English — 
 
 8e vii fulmm geres faren [the seven abun- 
 dant years pass]. — Genesis and Exodus (ab. 
 1250), 1. 2153. 
 
 We ben as fulsom i-founde • as );ou3 we fed 
 were. 
 
 Alexander and Dindimus, 1. 497 (ab. 
 1340). 
 In hals 
 
 Carthusian fasts sindfulsome Bacchanals 
 
 Equally I hate. Meane's blest. 
 
 Dr. Donne, Poem.s, 1635, p. 130 
 (Satire IL). 
 
 His lean, pale, hoar, and withered corpse 
 grew fulsome, fair, and fresh. — Golding- 
 ITrench, Select Glossarii]. 
 
 Later writers seem generally to have 
 connected the word with foul (A. Sax. 
 ful). Thus Bp. Hackett says, some " to 
 prove that everything without Faith is 
 fulsom and odious," reported the unbe- 
 lieving Jews to be " nasty smelling " 
 (Century of Sermons, 1675, p. 805 ; and 
 so Bp. Hall, who in his Occasional 
 Meditation,, cxxviii., "On a flower-de- 
 luce," says, " This flower is but un- 
 pleasingly fulsome for scent " (1634, 
 Woi-ks, xi. 172, Oxford ed.). 
 
 Fulsome, foedus. — Levins, Manipulus, 
 1570,162,1.9. 
 
 The worst [air] is . . . where any carkasscs 
 or carrion lyes, or from whence any stinking 
 fulsom smell comes. — Burton, Anatomtf of Me- 
 lancholy, I. 2, ii. V. (p. 157, ed. Ifith). 
 But one poor walk . . . 
 So fulsome with perfumes that 1 am fear'd, 
 iUy brain doth sweat so, 1 have caught the 
 plague ! 
 
 B. Jonson, Every Man out of His 
 Humour, ii. 2 (p. 43). 
 
 They [the Jews] have a kind of fulsome 
 scent, no better than a stink. — Howell, Letters, 
 Bk. I. 6, xiv. (1633). 
 
 Scot, fowsum is used with both mean- 
 ings, (1) rather too large, luscious {full), 
 (2) filthy, nauseous (foul). 
 
 Fumitory, the name of the fumaria 
 officinalis, so spelt as if having the same 
 termination as pell/itoi'y, territory, fac- 
 tory, promontory, refectory, oratory, dor- 
 mitory, is corrupted from Fr. fumitcrre, 
 " earth-smoke," Lat. fumus terrre, it 
 being an old belief that this plant was 
 generated without seed from the fumes 
 or vapours rising from the earth (see 
 Prior, S.V.). Compare godliuma, a San- 
 skrit word for wheat, literally the smoke 
 or incense of the earth. 
 
 Another corruption is It. fummo- 
 sterno. 
 
 Fond, a sum of money set apart for 
 a certain purpose, a store or supply of 
 anything, TJie Funds, Government 
 Stock paying interest, the same word 
 as Fr. fond, " A Merchants Stock, 
 whether it be money, or money worth." 
 The word, both in French and English, 
 has heen generally regarded as a deri- 
 vative of Lat. fundus, an estate, land as 
 a permanent source of income, the foun- 
 dation of wealth. 
 
FUBBELOW ( 131 ) OABBIEL HOUNDS 
 
 Fond, a merchant's stock, however, 
 is plainly a contraction of old French 
 fondegue, a merchant's ware-house or 
 storehouse (Ootgrave), also spelt fon- 
 dique, fondnc, = It. fondaco, Span, fun- 
 dago, a storehouse, Portg. alfandega, a 
 custom-house, all which are from the 
 Ar&hio fonduq, ahouse to receive strange 
 merchants, a dep&t or hostelry. The 
 Arabic word itself comes from the 
 Greek pandocheion (" the aU-reoeiver "), 
 an inn (Devic), or pandolteion, adopted 
 in the later Hebrew as pMMtZajCMishna). 
 Thus fund, stock, Fr.fond, has only an 
 accidental resemblance to fond, land, 
 Lat. fundus, to which it has been as- 
 similated. 
 
 FuKBELOw, a corruption of Fr. fal- 
 lala (" un volant "), Ger. falhel, Sp./«r- 
 fala, a flounce, and akin to Fr. fariboles, 
 flim-flams, nonsense, Eng. fallal, It. 
 farfalla, a butterfly, &c. 
 
 See the quotation from The Spectator, 
 under Faethingale. The word is said 
 to have been invented in the 17th cen- 
 tury by M. de Langlee, marshal of the 
 King's armies (Cheruel, Dictionnaiire 
 des Institutions, s. v. Falhala). 
 
 Compare " Flounces, feathers, fallals, 
 and finery." — Thackeray (see Davies, 
 Supp. Eng. GIossoa-ij, p. 231). 
 
 FuBLOUGH, a soldier's leave of ab- 
 sence, is (as Bailey noted) a corruption 
 of Dutch ver-lof (= for-leave) ; of. Dan. 
 forlov, Ger. verlauh. When first intro- 
 duced the word was probably pro- 
 nounced "furlof," and spelt furlough, 
 from analogy to cough, trough, &c. The 
 written word then being more common 
 came to be mistakenly pronounced fu/r- 
 low as at present. Words hke cough 
 have undergone great changes of pro- 
 nunciation, e.g. " Hie tussis, the cowe." 
 — Wright, Vocabula/ries (15th csnt.), p. 
 267 ; " Bowghe, al. row, Hispidus." — 
 Prompt. Pa/rv. 
 
 Cf. W. Cornwall, Iroft ^= brought, 
 hoften = bought ; Prov. Eng. dafter = 
 daughter, &c. "Whoso him hethoftj 
 Inwardly and oft." — Old Epitaph in J. 
 Taylor's Holy Dying, ch. iii. 9, 6. 
 
 Pnss-BALL, \ the name of a weU- 
 
 Fuzz-BALL, ) known fungus (ii/cqper- 
 
 don), is not so called from the fine dust 
 
 or fuzzy matter which it contains, but 
 
 is a corruption of O. Eng. /s, a blowing, 
 
 fizz, feist, foist, = Fr. vesse. Cf. vem 
 de hup, " The dusty, or smoakie Toad- 
 stoole, called a Fusse-hall, Puckfusse, 
 Bull-fyste, Pufiyste, Wolves-fyste."- 
 Cotgrave. See Bulfist. 
 
 The latter part of puch-fusse is iden- 
 tical with the first part oi fuzz-hall. 
 
 PufFes Fistes are commonly called in Latine 
 Lufi Crepitus, or Woolfes Fistes ; in Italian 
 Vescie de Lupo ; in English PufFes Fistes, & 
 Fusxbals in the north. — Gerarde, Herhal, p. 
 1386 (1597). 
 
 A little _/t(s(-6aU pudding standee 
 By ; yett not blessed with his handes. 
 Berrich, Poems, p. 471 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 G. 
 
 Gabriel Hounds, the name given 
 in the Northern counties of England to 
 a yelping sound heard in the air at 
 night, resembling somewhat the cry of 
 hounds, and behoved to portend deatk 
 or calamity. In Leeds this pheno- 
 menon is called gabhle-retchet, and is 
 held to be the souls of unbaptized chil- 
 dren flitting restlessly around their 
 parents' abode (Henderson, Folklore of 
 the N. GounUes, p. 99.). The Devon- 
 shire word is Wish-hounds (or Odin's 
 Hounds), Cornish Dandy-dogs (Kelly, 
 Indo-European Tradition, p. 281; 
 Hunt, Drolls, ^c, of W. England, p. 
 150), Welsh OwmAnwm, Sell Hounis; 
 cf Dan. Belrdkher, of the same mean- 
 ing. The noise in question is undoub- 
 tedly the cry of a flock of wild geese 
 passing overhead. 
 
 The old English word for the weird 
 sound was Gahrielle rache, or Qabriel 
 ratches, rache or ratche being a hound 
 (A. Sax. rcBcce), and Gabriel being a 
 corrupted form for an old ■worigaharen, 
 a corpse, the whole, therefore, signify- 
 ing a corpse-hound (zz Dan. Mghmd, 
 cf. 0. Eng. lich fowle). " Lyche, dede 
 body, Funus, gabares .... in Oabml 
 dicit [? diciturj gaba/ren, vel gabbaren." 
 — Prompt. Parvulorum. See an excel- 
 lent note in Mr. Atkinson's Cleveland 
 Glossary, p. 203, where he quotes Oah- 
 ba/rcB vel Gabbares, dried corpses or 
 mummies, from Facciolati. S. Augus- 
 tine says that the Egyptians call fteir 
 mummies Gahbaras (Serm. c. 12), and 
 Wilkinson observes that the word stUl 
 
GAD-FLY 
 
 ( 135 ) 
 
 GAINLY 
 
 used for a tomb in Egypt is gah; or 
 gohber {Ancient Egyptians, iii. p. 462). 
 However, Gabriel is, according to the 
 Babbias, the angel of death for the 
 people of Israel whose souls are en- 
 trusted to his care. The Talmud de- 
 scribes him as the spirit that presides 
 over Thixnder. (Wheeler, Noted Names 
 of Fiction, p. 143.) 
 
 He the seven birds liatli seen, that never part, 
 Seen the Seven Whistlers in their nightly 
 
 rounds. 
 And counted them : and oftentimes will stai-t — 
 For overhead are sweeping Gabriel's 
 
 Hounds 
 Doomed with their impious Lord, the flying 
 
 Hart 
 To chase for ever, on aerial gi'ounds ! 
 
 Wordsworth, Poems of' the hnaghmtion, 
 Pt. II. xxix. 
 
 In an old Hst of Colliers' " Signes and 
 Waminges " was one : 
 If Gabriel's houndes ben aboute doe no worke 
 
 tliat daye. 
 Dr. Plott mentions a noise he heard in 
 the air which he j udged to be a flight of wild 
 geese; but the miners at that time (16.50) 
 judged it to he caused by the hounds of the 
 angel Gabriel. — Cassell's Magazine, vol. ii. p. 
 126 (New Series). 
 
 This wild cry is in some parts of 
 Yorkshire regarded as a warning of ap- 
 proaching death. 
 
 Oft have I heard my honoured mother say 
 How she hath listened to the Gabriel Honnds — 
 'J'hose strange, unearthly, and mysterious 
 
 sounds 
 Which on the ear through murkiest darkness 
 
 fell; 
 And how, entranced by superstition's spell. 
 The trembling villager not seldom heard 
 In the quaint notes of the nocturnal bird. 
 Of death premonished, some sick neighbour's 
 
 knell. 
 
 John Holland, 
 
 See Monthly Packet, vol. xxiv. p. 126. 
 
 Gad-fly has generally been con- 
 sidered another form of goad-fly, from 
 A. Sax. gad, a goad. However, that 
 compound is not found in the oldest 
 English ; it may very probably be the 
 same word as gand-fluga, the Icelandic 
 name of the insect, the loss of m in a 
 word being of frequent occurrence, as 
 in goose for gans, tooth for tonth. Gand- 
 fluga itself is synonymous with Icel. 
 gald/roj-fluga, i.e. the witch-fly or fly- 
 fiend, such as the oestrus that persecuted 
 the boviform lo in the Prometheus 
 Vinctus. 
 
 Gadling, an idle person (Bailey), as 
 if a vagrant or vagabond, one who goes 
 gadding about (cf gadabout, Davies, 
 Supp. Eng. Glossary), is old Eng. 
 gadeling, a companion or comrade, A. 
 Sax. gad-eUng, from gmd, society, com- 
 pany. 
 
 A lujjer gadelyng was ys sone, bojie at one 
 rede. 
 
 Uobt. of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 310 
 (ed. 1810). 
 Jjou shalt hauen a gadelini^, 
 Ne shalt j^ou hauen non o^er king. 
 
 Havelok the Dane, 1. 1122. 
 
 Gad so ! I think I have met this 
 form of trivial oath in some of the 
 older dramatists, as if a disguised foi-m 
 of " So help me Godl" 
 
 It is probably a corrupted form of 
 O. Eng. catso, a low term of reproach, 
 It. cazzo, a petty oath (Florio), and so 
 a remnant of the phallic abjuration of 
 the evil eye, like the vulgar Spanish 
 carajo 1 
 
 Mai. Lightning and thunder ! 
 Pietro. Vengeance and torture ! 
 Mai. Catso! 
 
 Webster, Tlie Malcontent, i. 1 (1604). 
 
 An Hebrew born, and would become a Chris- 
 tian; 
 Cazzo, diabolo ! 
 
 Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, iv. 1 (1633). 
 
 Gainage, all plough tackle and im- 
 plements in husbandry (BaUey), Gain- 
 ERY, tUlage or husbandry, the profits 
 thence arising (Id.), is the French gag- 
 nage, pasturage, pastiu?e-land, from O. 
 Pr. gaigner. It. guadagnare, and these 
 from O. H. Ger. weidenon, to pasture. 
 These words bear no connexion with 
 goAn, profit, Icel. gagn. (See Skeat, 
 Etym. Diet. s. v. Gain.) 
 
 Gainly, graceful, elegant, suitable, 
 0. Eng. gain, now only used in the 
 negative word ungainly, so spelt as if 
 connected with gain, as we say that 
 anything attractive gains upon one, or 
 is winning. It is identical with Icel. 
 gegn (Swed. gen, Dan. gjen), serviceable, 
 ready, kindly, (of a road) short (as in 
 N. Eng.). Cf. Prov. Eng. gain, handy, 
 convenient ; gadnsome (Massinger) . 
 
 fiat art so gaynly a god & of goste mylde. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 57, 1. 728 
 (ed. Morris). 
 To wham god hade geuen alle jititgayn were. 
 Id. p. 44, 1. 259. 
 
QAIT 
 
 ( 136 ) 
 
 GALLO-SHOES 
 
 Gait, a person's manner of walking, 
 formerly always spelt gate, generally 
 miderstood as the way he gaeth or goeth 
 (Eichardson), Scot. " gae your own 
 gciAt" has no connexion with the verb 
 to go. Gate, a manner or way, orig. a 
 path, street, or entrance (Icel. gata, 
 Goth, gatwo), is that by which one gets, 
 or arrives, at a house or place, from A. 
 Sax. gitan, to get or arrive at (Skeat). 
 Cf. old Eng. " Get, or maner of custome. 
 Modus, consuetudo." — Prompt. Fcvrv.; 
 " Get, or gyn' (or gyle), Machina." 
 (Id.) 
 Him thought he rode al of the newe get. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, Prologue, 1, 684. 
 Good gentlemen, go your gait, and let poor 
 Tolk pass. 
 
 King Lear, iv. 6, 1. 242. 
 All the griesly Monsters of the See 
 Stood gaping at their gate, and wondered 
 them to see. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, III. iv. 32. 
 She hadna ridden a mile o' gate. 
 Never a mile but ane. 
 
 Sir Roland, 1. 30 ( Child's Ballads, 
 vol. i. p. 225). 
 They beare their bodies vpright, of a stately 
 eate, and elated countenance. — G. Sandys, 
 Travels, p. 64. 
 
 A man's attire, and excessive laughter, and 
 gait, shew what he is. — A. V. Ecclus. xix. 30. 
 An' may they never learn the gaets 
 Of ither vile wanrestfu' pets ! 
 
 Burns, Poor Maitie, p. 33 
 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Galdeagon, a Scotch word for a sibyl 
 or prophetess, has nothing to do with 
 a dragon — as had the ancient sorceress 
 Medea — but is a corrupted form of Ice- 
 landic gald/ra-Tcona, a witch (ht. a sor- 
 cery-woman), from giaMr,A.Sax.(jreaHo»', 
 song, charm, witchcraft (Cleasby). 
 
 Gale, a weU-knowu word in Ireland 
 for rent due, or the payment of rent, is 
 a contracted form of O. Eng. gavel, 
 which is also spelt gabel, A. Sax. gafol, 
 Pr. gabelle, It. gahella, all apparently 
 from the Celtic. Cf. Ir. gabhail, a 
 taking, Gaelic gabhail, a lease, tenure, 
 or takmg, from gahh, to take or hold ; 
 Welsh gafael. 
 
 He seyb (;at he is godes sune, and is a ded- 
 
 lich mon. 
 And he vor-beod oesares gauel [= tribute]. 
 Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 46, 1. 329. 
 
 Gale, in the Scotch phrase " a gale 
 of geese," i.e. a flock of geese, is a con- 
 
 tracted word from loel. gagl, a \rild 
 goose (Cleasby), which is evidently 
 formed from the verb to gaggle, to make 
 a confused noise, especially used of 
 geese. 
 
 A faire white goose bears feathers on her 
 
 backe. 
 That gaggles still, much like a chattering pye, 
 T. Churchyard, Pkasunt Conceit 
 penned in Verse, 1693. 
 Ga^e/3/Jt', or cryyii' as gees. Clingo. 
 
 Prompt. Parvulorum, '■» 
 They gaglide fforth on the grene, ffor they 
 greved were. 
 
 Deposition of Ricluird II. p. 18 
 (Camden Soc). 
 ioielinge, chattering, occurs in The Ouil ani 
 Nightingale, 1. 40. 
 
 Gallic disease, morbus galKeus, 
 owes its name, perhaps, to a confusion 
 of gallus, galUcus, with Fr. galle (gale), 
 a galling or itching of the skin, a scab 
 or scurf, galleux, scabby, " galoise, a 
 scurvy trull, scabby quean, mangy 
 punk." — Cotgrave. 
 
 My Doll is dead i' the spital 
 Of malady of' France. 
 
 Hen. V. act v. so. 1. 
 
 Galligaskins, " a sort of wide slops 
 or breeches used by the inhabitants of 
 Gascoign [or Gascony] in France."— 
 BaUey. This definition seems to have 
 been invented to account for the name. 
 The word is probably for gwrigascam or 
 ga/rguesguans, from 0. Fr. gan-gueiqms 
 (Cotgrave), a corrupt form of gregues- 
 ques (otherwise gregues, 0. Eng. gregs, 
 wide slops)=: Ital. Grechesco, " GreeMsh 
 trowsers " (Skeat, Wedgwood). 
 
 Others [make] straight trusses and diuells 
 breeches, some gaily gascoynes, or a shipmans 
 hose.— T. Nash, Pierce Penilesse, 1592, p. 20 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Sir Rowland Russet-Coat, their dad, goes 
 sagging euerie day in his round gascoynes of 
 white cotton. — Id. p. 8. 
 
 Gallo-shoes, a corrupt speHing of 
 galoches, as if Gallic shoes. 
 
 Galloches, or galloshoes, are the wooden 
 sabots worn by the French peasants, and the 
 name has been transferred to the overshoes 
 of caoutchouc which have been recently in- 
 troduced. — I. Taylor, Words and Places, p. 
 425 (2nd ed.). 
 
 Similarly Diez thinks Fr. galoche, Sp. 
 galocJia, It. galosaia, are from Lat. gal- 
 lica, a Gallic shoe. These words are 
 really derived from Low Lat. cakpedk, 
 (calop'dia), a wooden shoe, and that 
 
GALL0W-GLA8S ( 137 ) 
 
 GAME 
 
 from Greek JcaTo-pddnon, a " wood- 
 foot" or last (Soheler, Brachet). 
 
 Gallachej Callopedium. 
 
 Galache, or guloclie, vndyr solynge of 
 mannys fote (al. galegge), Crepitum, Crepita. 
 — Prompt. PavmUorum (ii40). 
 
 Ne coude man by twenty thousand pai-t 
 
 Conb'efete the sopliimes of his art ; 
 
 Ne were worthy to unbocle his galocJi^ 
 Chancer, Squiere^ Tale, 1. 10869, 
 
 The Gild of Cordwainers were bound 
 to make search for aU 
 
 Botez, botwez, schoez, pyncouz, galegezy 
 and all other ware perteyning to the saide 
 crafte, which is desceytously wrought. — Eng. 
 GildSf p. 332 (ed. Toulmin Smith). 
 As is fe kinde of a knyghf jiat comefi to be 
 
 doubed 
 To geten hus gilte spores' and galoches 
 y-eo[u]ped. 
 W. Langlandj Vision of Piers Plowman, 
 C. xxi. 12. 
 
 It is curious to find galoshes, now 
 suggestive of a valetudinarian curate, 
 thus an essential part of a mediseval 
 knight'sequipment. Compare GaZZozza, 
 " a kind oigcdlages, star-tops, or wooden 
 pattins " (Florio, ifew World of Words, 
 1611), as if connected with gaJlozzare, 
 gaileggiare, to cooker or pamper. 
 My hart-blood is wel nigh frorne, I feele, 
 And my gatage growne last to my heele. 
 Spenser, Shepheards Cal., Feb., 1. 244. 
 
 Pepys mentions that Lady Batten on 
 Nov. 15, 1665, dropped "one of her 
 goloshes" (Diary, vol. iii. p. 304, ed. 
 M. Bright). 
 
 GAMiOw-GLASS. This English-looking 
 word for a native Irish soldier (cf. O. 
 Eng. gallow, to frighten), spelt gallin- 
 glass in Hist, of Captain Stukehj (see 
 Nares), is Irish galloglach, a fighting 
 gillie, from giolla, a servant, and gleac, 
 a fight (O'Eeilly). 
 
 Spenser says an armed footman the 
 Irish " call a galloglass, the which name 
 doth discover him to be also auncient 
 English, for gallogla signifies an Eng- 
 lish servitour or yeoman" (State of 
 Ireland, p. 640, Globe ed.), erroneously 
 regarding it as compounded of gall, a 
 foreigner, an Englishman, and oglach, 
 a servant or soldier. 
 
 A mighty power 
 Of gallow-gUisses and stout kernes 
 Is marching hitherward in proud array. 
 
 2 Hen. VI. iv. 9. 
 
 Gally-pot, 1 originally grZej/e-poi, Dut. 
 Gallipot, \ gley-pot, glazed pottery. 
 
 Similarly glazed tiles were called galley- 
 tiles (Wedgwood). 
 
 You may be sure he is but a gallipot, full 
 of honey, that these wasps horer about. — 
 Adams, The Soul's Sickness ( Works, i. 503). 
 
 Gambol, an incorrect form of the 
 older word gamhold (Phaer), or gam- 
 hauld (Udal), for gmnhaud (Skelton), 
 which stands for O. Fr. gambade, a 
 gambol. It. ganibata, a kicking about 
 of the legs (gamba), Skeat. Here the I, 
 which was originally an intruder, has, 
 cuckoo-like, supplanted the rightful 
 letter d. 
 
 Game, in the slang plirases " a game 
 leg," " a game finger," i.e. crooked, 
 disabled, is in all probability derived 
 from the Welsh and Irish cam, crooked, 
 Corn, gam, Indo-European verbal root 
 hami,to bend (vid. Pictet, Origines Indo- 
 Ewrop. torn. ii. p. 213). So the word, 
 though unconnected with game, to sport 
 or play, would be akin to gambol. For 
 "gambols, games or tumbling tricks 
 played with the legs," as Bailey defines, 
 is from the French gambiller, gambier, 
 to wag the legs, leap (cf. gambader, to 
 show tumbling tricks), and these words 
 from gambe, jambe, a leg. Cf. Somer- 
 setshire gamble, a leg, Eng. slang 
 gamh, a leg. It. and Sp. gamba (viol di 
 gamba, " a leg-violin "), O. Sp. camba, 
 cama ; also Eng. gammon. It. gambone, 
 Pr. jambon, Ir. gambun, a leg. But 
 gambe, the leg, as in most beasts, is a 
 limb remarkable for bends and crooks, 
 and so is allied to 0. Fr. gambi, bent, 
 crooked, Gk. hampe ("as crookled as a 
 dog's hint-leg " is a Lincolnshire pro- 
 verb), from the root cam, crooked, seen 
 in 0. Eng. ham, wrong, slang gammy, 
 bad, worthless, &o. Of. gambrel, a 
 crooked stick, and cam/rel, Welsh cam- 
 bren ; Devon, ganvmerel, the small of 
 the leg ; Davy 0am, crooked David ; 
 Greek Mrmnaros, Lat. carmnarus, a 
 lobster, from its twisted claws (cf. 
 "tortoise," from Lat. tortus, twisted.) , 
 O. Fr. gamma/re, gambre, Swed. hum- 
 mer, whence Fr. homa/rd. Eng. ha/m 
 (the bent or curved part) probably 
 stands to gam(b), cam, as Swed. hum- 
 mer does to camvma/rus. 
 
 Those [calves] are allowed for good and 
 sufficient whose taile reacheth to the joint of 
 the haugh or gambrill, — Holland's Pliny, fol. 
 1634, torn. i. p. 225. 
 
GAMBONE 
 
 C 138 ) 
 
 GAUNTLET 
 
 Scott speaks of "the devil's game 
 leg " (St. Bonan's Well). See Davies, 
 Supp. Eng. Glossa/ry, s.v. 
 
 Gambone, an occasional mis-spellmg, 
 from a notion that it had something to 
 do with hone, of gammon, part of the 
 leg of a pig, Fi.jamhon, O. Fr. gambon, 
 from gamhe, a, leg, radically the same 
 word as ham. See Game. 
 
 Gammon of bacon, formerly -written Gam- 
 bone. — Reliquiie HearniantK, Oct. 16, 1710 
 (Lib. Old Authors,!. 207). 
 
 The custom of the gambone of bacon is still 
 kept up at Dunmowe. — Ibid. iii. 73. 
 
 Gammon, a slang word for to delude 
 or cheat one, and as an interjection 
 ga/m/mon I hmnbug 1 nonsense ! is a cor- 
 rupted form of the old Eng. gamene, to 
 mock, Icel. gaman, fun. Hence As- 
 cham's spelling gamn, gamming. 
 
 Gamninge hath ioyned with it a vayne pre- 
 sente pleasure. — I'oxophiliiSj 1545, p. 51 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 Hweet sceal ic <Sonne buton . . . habban me 
 
 Saet to gamene. 
 [What can I do but hold it in mockery.] 
 
 King Alfred, Gregory's Pastoral, p. 249, 
 Part I. 
 Nowe by [my] soverante I sweare, 
 And priucipallitie that I beare 
 In hell pyne, when I am theii', 
 A gamon I will aseaie. 
 
 The Chester Plays, vol. i. p. 201 
 (Shaks. Soc.) 
 And adam is to eue cumen, 
 More for erneste dan for gamen. 
 Genesis and Erodus, 1. 411 (ab. 1250). 
 They gammons him about his driving. — 
 Dickens, Pickwi£k, ch. xiii. 
 
 See Davies, Supp. Eng. Olosswry. 
 
 Gammouthe, the gamut, Palsgrave, 
 1530, a corrupt spelling. Gamwiismade 
 up of ganvme {= Greek gamma, G.), the 
 old name of the last note of the musical 
 scale, and iii the first note formerly of 
 the singing scale. 
 
 His knavery is beyond Eia, and yet he 
 saves hee knows not Gam ut. — J. Lilly, 
 Mother Bombie, ii. 1. 
 
 New physic may be better than old, so may 
 new philosophy; our studies, observation, 
 and experience perfecting theirs ; beginning 
 not at the Gamoth, as they did, but, as it were, 
 at the Ela. — T. Adams, Sermons, vol. i. p. 472. 
 
 Gandbeglass, an old popular plant- 
 name, is, no doubt, another form of 
 gandlegoss, or gandergoose, the orchis. 
 See Oandlegostes. 
 
 Among the daisies and the violets blue. 
 Red hyacinth, and yellow daifadil, 
 Purple narcissus, like the morning rayes, 
 Pale ganderglass and azure culverkayes. 
 
 I. Walton, Compleat Angler (1653), 
 p. 22 (Murray repr.). 
 
 Gaeganet, so spelt by Stanyhurst 
 (Davies, Supp. Eng. Ghssa/ry, s. v.), as 
 if iti meant a coUar or chain encircling 
 the gaffgate or throat, as gorget, a piece 
 of armour, does the gorge (cf. gargoyk, 
 gargel, orig. a throat, gargle, &o.),isn 
 corrupt form of carcanet, a jewelled 
 collar. 
 
 Gaen, an incorrect modern coinage, 
 meaning to store grain, formed from 
 ga/rner, a granary (O. Fr. gender, for 
 grenier, Lat. granaria) , i.e. a " grainery," 
 as if that which garns. 
 
 Ye symbols of a mightier world 
 
 That Faith alone can see — 
 Where angels gam the golden grain. 
 Haiuest Hymn, The Guardian, 1880. 
 
 Gaenet, a provincial name for the 
 fish trigla Mrundo (SatcheU, E. D. S.), 
 is a corruption of gurnet, old Eng. gw- 
 na/rd, from Fr. grognard, grongna/rd, as 
 if " the grunter," in allusion to the 
 grunting noise (Fr. grogner) it makes 
 when taken out of the water. Com- 
 pare orooner, another popular name for 
 the same fish. 
 
 Gattbeidge, the name of a species 
 of cornel tree to which Dr. Prior as- 
 signs a (hypothetical ?) French form 
 gaitre rouge, is a variant of gaiter, 0. 
 Eng. gaitre, the cornus sangwnea, and 
 a derivative of A. Sax. gad, Icel. gaMr, 
 a goad or pin. It is also called Frid 
 timber (Gerard, p. 1283). 
 
 A day or two ye shul ban digestives 
 
 Of wormes, or ye take your laxatives, . . v 
 
 Of catapuce, or o{ gaitre-beries. 
 
 Chaucer, The Nonnes Preestes Tali. 
 
 Gauntlet, in the phrase "running 
 the gauntlet," is corrupted from the 
 older expression ' ' to run the ga/dl/>p6> 
 i.e. to run through a company of sol- 
 diers, standing on each side, making a 
 Lane, with each a Switch in his hand to 
 scourge the Criminal" (Bailey), Scot. 
 goadloup (a distinct corruption), Swod. 
 gat-lopp — gata meaning a lane or path 
 (= Ger. gasse), and lopp, a course, or 
 the act of running, akin to leap. Thsi' 
 word was probably introduced into 
 England, as Dr. Dasent remarks, m 
 
OAFNTBEE 
 
 ( 139 ) 
 
 GENEVA 
 
 the time of the Thirty Tears' War. 
 (Jest and Earnest, vol. ii. p. 25.) The 
 German phrase is gassen laufen. 
 
 Some said, he ought to be tied neck and 
 heels; others that he deserved to rare the 
 ganthpe. — H. Fielding, Hist, of a Foundling, 
 bk. vii. oh. 11. 
 
 Having rode f/ie^aunt/ethere . . . a tremen- 
 dous battery of stones, sticks, apples, turnips, 
 potatoes, and other such variety of mob am- 
 munition was opened upon him. — Southey, 
 Life of Wesley, vol. ii. p. 21 (ed. 1858). 
 
 Synonymous is the Scotch word loupe- 
 garthie, running through the hedge, or 
 enclosure, raade by the soldiers. 
 
 GrATTNTREE, a frame to set casks on, 
 a corruption of gauntre or gaimtry, Pr. 
 chantier, " a Oauntrey, or Stilling, for 
 Hogs-heads, &c., to stand on" (Cot- 
 grave), from Lat. cantherivs, (1) a 
 horse, (2) a prop, a trestle. Hence 
 also It. cantiefre, Portg. cantiero, Bavar. 
 gander. 
 
 Cantherius is the same word as Gk. 
 Tcanthelics, Tcanthos, a pack-ass, akin to 
 Zend Tcathva, an ass. 
 Meanwhile the frothing bickers, soon as filled, 
 Are drained, and to the gauntrees oft return. 
 Grahame, British Georgics. 
 
 So a mare in Scotch, and a horse in 
 Prov. EngUsh, are used for a frame or 
 cross-beam upon which something is 
 supported. 
 
 A hogshead ready horsed for the purpose of 
 broaching. 
 
 T. Hardy, Under the Greenwood 
 Tree, vol. i. p. 13. 
 See Pullet. 
 
 Gavelkind, an equal division of a 
 father's lands at his death among all 
 his sons (Bailey), takes its present 
 form from a supposed derivation from 
 old Eng. gamel (A. Sax. gafol), tribute, 
 and hmd, as in man-hind. Verstegan 
 supposed it was give-all-Mnd, i.e. "Give 
 aU children " [sc. a share] ! It is 
 merely an adaptation of Irish gabhail- 
 dne, a family (oine) tenure [gabhaM), 
 Skeat. See Gale. 
 
 Gawky, awkward, ungainly. It is 
 difficult to suppose that this word has 
 not been influenced by Fr. gauche, left- 
 handed, awkward, which indeed seeras 
 to be connected. Soheler compares 
 gauUck hand, left hand, which Bailey 
 gives as a N. Eng. word. Of. also Yorks. 
 gawTeshaiw, a left-handed man (Wright). 
 The immediate origin, however, is 
 
 D, ) a dog that hunts by 
 B, J night, Lat. 
 
 gawTc, a cuckoo, metaphor, a simple- 
 ton, geek (Shakespeare), A. Sax. gedc, 
 Icel. gauhr, Ger. gauch, a cuckoo, a 
 fool. (B6eQ\es±,I!tym.Bict.) Gawish, 
 foolish (Adams, i. 502), gavij, gauvy, 
 gawcum, a simpleton (Prov. Eng.), are 
 perhaps connected. 
 Conceited gowk ! puff'd up wi' windy pride. 
 
 Bams, Brigs of Ayr (Globe ed. p. 26). 
 Now gawkies, tawpies, gowks, and fools . . . 
 May sprout like simmer puddock-stools. 
 
 Id. Verses at Selkirk (p. 122). 
 
 Gaze-hound, 
 
 Gast-hound, 
 (Bailey). The first part of the word is 
 probably a corruption of the Low Latin 
 name, notwithstanding this statement 
 of TopseU : 
 
 The gasehound, called in latine Agasceus, 
 hath his name of the sharpenes and stedfast- 
 nes of his eie-sight . . . For to gase is ear- 
 nestly to view and behold, from whence 
 floweth the deriuation of this Dogs name. — 
 Historie of Four-Footed Beasts, 1607, p. 179. 
 
 Du Cange gives no such word, how- 
 ever, as agasosus. 
 
 Gazels, a Sussex word for black 
 currants (Parish, Glossary), is probably 
 from Pr. groseilles, corrupted to gosels, 
 just as goose-herry of the same origin is 
 for groos-herry. 
 
 Gemini I an exclamation of surprise, 
 as if a heathenish adjuration of the con- 
 stellation of the Twins, Lat. Gemini, is 
 identical with Ger. JemAne! Dut. 
 Jem/y,Jermnil (Sewel), which are shor- 
 tened forms of Lat. Jesit domine (An- 
 dresen, Volksetymologie, p. 129), or per- 
 haps merely from Jesu meus (It. Giesu 
 mio). Similar disguised oaths are Ger. 
 Je ! Serrje ! Jerum! Potz! (for GoUs) ; 
 Eng. La! Law! for Lord! 
 
 Geneva, a name for gin, as if it came 
 from the place so called, is a corruption 
 of the Prench gemibm-e, Dut. jenever, It. 
 ginepro, all from Lat. juniperus, the 
 juniper (Prov. Eng. jenepere, old Eng. 
 jenefer), the berries of that tree being 
 employed as an ingredient in its manu- 
 facture. 
 
 Theriaque des Alemans, the juice of Gineper 
 ben-iee extracted according unto Art. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 In Spanish formerly there was the 
 one word ginebra for the town of 
 Geneva and the tree called juniper 
 (Minsheu). 
 
GENII 
 
 ( 140 ) 
 
 GERFALCON 
 
 The junipers are of immense size and 
 flavour tin the Himilajra] ; but most people 
 prefer to have their junipers by way of Hol- 
 land or Geneva. — Andrew Wilson, The Abode 
 of Snow, p. 83 (2nd ed.). 
 As if gin came from Geneva as Hollands 
 do from Holland. 
 
 The poor muse, for less than half-a-crown, 
 A prostitute on erery bulk in town, . . . 
 Clubs credit for Geneva in the mint. 
 
 Youna, Satire IV. 
 'Tis a sign he has ta'en his liquor ; and if you 
 
 meet 
 An officer preaching of sobriety, 
 Unless he read it in Geneva print. 
 Lay him by the heels. 
 
 Massinger, The Duke of Milan, i. 1. 
 
 Genii, a name given to certain power- 
 ful beings in the Arabian mythology, 
 as in Tales of the Oemii, is corrupted 
 from Arab, jirm, under the influence 
 of the Lat. genius, a tutelary spirit. 
 See Keightley, Fairy Mythology, p. 25. 
 Pars, jiwih frouijan, spirit, life, Turkish 
 jiTMi, a spirit, yaw, a soul. Mr. I. Taylor 
 compares Chinese sMn or jin, spirit, 
 Etruscan hin, a ghost (Etruscan Re- 
 searches, p. 108, seq.). 
 
 The Arabians and Persians had an equal 
 advantage in writing theii' tales from the genii 
 and fairies, which they believe in as an article 
 of their faith. — H. Fielding, Hist, of a Found- 
 ling, bk. xvii. ch. 1. 
 
 And when we came to the Lapland lone 
 The fairies war all in an-ay, 
 
 For all the genii of the north 
 War keeping their holiday. 
 
 Ilogg, The Queen's Wake. 
 
 What need, then, that Thou shouldest come 
 to my house ; only commission one of these 
 genii of healing, who will execute speedily 
 the eiTand of grace on which Thou shalt send 
 him. — Abp. Trench, Miracles, p. 228 (8th ed.). 
 
 Gentry, gentility, nobleness, gentle- 
 ness, is a corruption of the older form 
 gentrise (perhaps mistaken for a plural), 
 O. Fr. genterise, for gentiUse (? Lat. 
 gentiUtia), Skeat. Genterise in Ancren 
 Miwle. 
 Vor case J>at mySte come, vor hyre gentryse. 
 
 Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 434. 
 J>is iesuB of hus gentrise shal louste in peers 
 Armes. 
 
 Vision of Piers the Plovmian, C. xxi, 
 21 (Skeat). 
 To have pride otgentrie is right great foly. 
 Cfmucer, Persones Tale, De Superbiu. 
 \>e geniryse of luise & lerusalem )>e ryche 
 Wats disstryed wyth distres, & di-awen to \>e 
 er);e. 
 
 Alliterative Poems,- p. 70, 1. 1160 
 • (ed. Morris). 
 
 If it will please you 
 To show us so much gentry and good will. 
 Shakespeare, Hamlet, ii. 2, 1. 21. 
 But, think you, though we wink at base re- 
 venge, 
 A brother's death can be so soon forgot! 
 Our gentry baffled, and our name disgrac'd! 
 Heywood and Rowley, Fortune by iMnd 
 and Sea, p. 19 (Shaks. Soc). 
 Gentry and baseness in all ages jar ; 
 And poverty and wealth are still at war. 
 . Id. p. 42. 
 
 The modern meaning of " gentle- 
 folks," a collective noun, opposed to the 
 commonalty, as if the aggregate of the 
 gent or gentle, arose probably from a 
 false analogy to words like infantry, 
 yeoma/n/ry, soldiery, &c. 
 
 Gerfalcon, \ I think it may be 
 
 Gyrpaloon, • shown that all these 
 
 GiERFALCON, words are false deri- 
 
 vationsfrom an assumed connexion with 
 
 Lat. gyrare, to move in circles, or with 
 
 Ger. geier, a vulture. 
 
 The old Eng. form is gerfaucm ' 
 (Prompt. Pa/rv.), Low Lat. gero-falco, 
 and this is, I think, for Merofaucon, 
 the sacred falcon (Greek Merbs). " Ger- 
 falcon sacre." — Palsgrave. For the 
 meaning compare Greek hiefram, a hawk 
 or falcon, from Meros, sacred (zz Etnis- 
 can aracus) ; O. Eng. saker, Fr. saere, 
 It. sagro, a hawk, from Lat. saeer, 
 sacred ; Ger. weihe, O. H. Ger. wih), a 
 kite, from weihenjto make sacred. 
 
 The Mod. Greek word gierdU, a fal- 
 con, from hierax, shows that Jmro-fdco 
 would readily pass into gero-falco and 
 ger-falcon. 
 
 The transition from Mer- to ger- or 
 jer is of frequent occurrence, e.g., Oera- 
 pigra, an old Eng. name for a drug, 
 in Boohe of Quinte Essence, p. 3 (B.E.T. 
 Soc, otherwise spelt ierapigra, p. 29), 
 Span, geripliega, " a drug called Ewa 
 Piora " (Minsheu), from ^ Greek Mm 
 pihra. Old Eng. gerarchie (Gower, G. 
 A. iii. 145), It. and Sp. gerarcJiia, for 
 Merarchia, and so Dunbar speaks of 
 " the blisfull soune of chera/rchy " [Th 
 Thrissill and the Bois, cant. ix. 1503). 
 Low Lat. gerohotana for hierolotana. 
 Old Eng. gerihjdbum (LeecMoms, ^c, 
 Cockayne), for hierihulbvM,. So It. 
 geroglifico, a Hieroglyphic ; geracliMe, 
 another form of Ideradte, " falcon- 
 stone" (Plorio), Lat. hieraaiiis; compare 
 also Jerome, Fr. Gerome, Sp. Oero: 
 
GEBMANDEB 
 
 ( 141 ) 
 
 GIBBEBIS3 
 
 LowLat. Oeronomus,iroia Hieronymus; 
 Jcw-TOwfe, a tributary of the Jordan, from 
 Gk. Mieromaas ; Jerusalem and Hierou- 
 salem, Ilierosoluma ; jacynth zz. hya- 
 cinth; Fi.jusguiame from hyoscyamvas, 
 henbane, &c. 
 
 If this view be correct, then the forms 
 gler -falcon, gyr-falcon, L. Lat. gyrofalco, 
 have been corrupted by false deriva- 
 tion. Geicrfalke, a ger-faloon in Ger- 
 man, is according to Karl Andresen an 
 assimilation of the Lat. gyrofalco, the 
 falcon of circling flight, to Ger. geier, a 
 ■vulture. (Compare Greek Mrhos, the 
 circling flier, a falcon.) 
 
 'Tis well if among them you can clearly 
 make out a lanuer, a sparrow-hawk, and a 
 kestril, but must not hope to find your f;ier 
 falcon there, which is the noble hawk. — Sir 
 Thos. Browne, Of Hawks and Falconry, Works 
 (ed. Bohn), vol. iii. p. 218. 
 
 If I beare downe thee, 
 
 The Jerffaucon shall goe with mee 
 JVIaugi'e thy head indeed. 
 Percy Folio MS. Tol. ii. p. 451, 1. 976. 
 
 Professsor Pictet points out that 
 saare, L. Lat. sacer, a falcon, has really 
 only an indirect connexion with sacer, 
 sacred, the former being the Arab, sakr, 
 Pers. shahrah, a falcon (cf. Sk. gahima, 
 a vulture), traceable to Sansk. gahra, 
 strong, powerful, whence also comes 
 Lat. sacer, sacred (of. Eng. hale, whole, 
 and holy). In exactly the same rela- 
 tion Gk. hierax stands to hieros, which 
 := Sansk. ishira, strong, sound, lively. 
 On the saoredness of the falcon, see 
 Gubematis, Zoological Mythology, vol. 
 ii. ch. 2. 
 
 Germander, Fr. gaman&ree, a hete- 
 ronym from Gk. chammd/rys, a low oah- 
 leaved plant, xajiai, on the earth, and 
 SpuQ, oak (Haldeman), assimilated to 
 " oleander." 
 
 Ghostpel, a strange speUing of gos- 
 pel, froih a confusion with ghost, ghostly 
 (— spiritual), used by Giles Fletcher, 
 who speaks of 
 
 Nonnius translating all Sainct John's 
 Ghostpel into Greek Terse. — Christs Victorie 
 in Heaven, To the Header, 1610, p. 115 (ed. 
 Grosart). 
 
 Prof. Skeat has shown that gospel is 
 not originally the " good spell " or story 
 (A. Sax. gdcl), as has been generally as- 
 sumed from the time of Orminn, who 
 says " GoddspeH onn Ennghssh nem- 
 mnedd iss god word and god ti]iewnde,'" 
 
 but A. Sax. godspell (A. Sax. God), i.e. 
 " God's story," viz. the life of Christ. 
 
 Camden took a correct view of the 
 word: 
 
 The gladsome tidings of our salvation which 
 the Greeks called Evangelion, and other Na- 
 tions in the same word, they [the old Eng- 
 lish] called Godspel, that is, Gods speech. — 
 Remainesconcerning Britaine, p. 25 (ed, 1637). 
 And we hen proued J)e prijs' of popes at Rome, 
 And of gretest degre* as godspelles tellef;. 
 Pierce the Ploughman^ s Crede, 1, ^57 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 
 Gibberish, generally understood, in 
 accordance with its present spelling, to 
 be derived from gihber, to chatter or talk 
 inarticulately (Wedgwood), is probably 
 a corruption of theoldEngUshGeJeWs/ior 
 Gebrish, that is, the uninteUigible jargon 
 of alchemy, so called from Gebir ( Gibere 
 in Gower, G. A. iii. 46), the founder 
 of the Arabian school of chemistry and 
 a proHflc writer on alchemy, who flou- 
 rished about the beginning of the 9th 
 century. Geber-ish modelled on Scot- 
 tish, Irish, Swedish, &c. 
 
 All you that faine Philosophers would be, 
 
 And nightand day inGeber's Kitchin broyle, 
 Wasting thechipps of Ancient Hermes Tree, 
 Weening to turne them to a pretious Oyle, 
 The more you worke the more you loose and 
 spoile. 
 Sir Edward Kelle, Ashmole's Theatriim 
 Chemicum, p. 324. 
 
 Thus I rostyd and boylyd as one of Gebers 
 
 Cooks,' 
 And oft tymes my wynnynge in the Asks I 
 sought. 
 George Ripley (1471 ), up. cit. p. 191. 
 
 This extraordinary work, with its 
 ever-recurring enigmas about the Green 
 Lion, Hermes Bird, &c., and cabahs- 
 tical language, is, as Ashmole truly re- 
 marks, " difiicult to be throughly and 
 perfectly understood." It ie, in fact, 
 gihherish to the uninitiated. Such out- 
 landish words as we find here and in 
 Chaucer's Ghanones Yemannes Tale, 
 
 with its 
 
 Descensories, 
 Viols, croslettes, and sublimatories, 
 Cucuribtes, and alemhikes eke, 
 
 would naturally make the art which 
 employed them a byword for unintel- 
 Ugible speech. Compare Pr. grimoire, 
 
 ' Similarly Norton in his Ordinall (ch. vii. 
 sub init.) uses Gebars Cookes for Alchemists. 
 
0IBBEBIS3 
 
 ( 142 ) 
 
 OIBBEBISH 
 
 uniateUigible tali, originally exorcisms, 
 from gramma/ire, literature, Latin. 
 
 Fuller, for instaBce, commenting on 
 the words of Sir Edward Kelley, quoted 
 above, makes the remark, 
 
 As for the high conceit he had of his own 
 skill in Chemistry it appeareth sufficiently in 
 the heginning of his own works, though I 
 confess myself not to understand the Geberlsh 
 of his language. — Worthies of' England j vol. 
 ii. p. 473(ed. 1811). 
 
 If we could set it down in the ancient 
 Saxon, I meane in the tongue which the Eng- 
 lish used at their first an-ivall here, about 
 440 yeares after Christs bii'th, it would seeme 
 most strange and harsh Dutch or Oebrish, as 
 women call it. — Camden, Renuiines concerninge 
 BHtaine, p. 22, 1637. 
 
 The Lyon Greene, 
 He ys the meane the Sun and Moone be- 
 
 tweene ; 
 Of joynyng Tynctures wyth perfytnes. 
 As Gefre?- thereto beryth wytnes. 
 
 Geo. Ripkif, Compound of Alchymie 
 (Ashmole, p. 125). 
 
 The best approyed Authors agree that they 
 [guns] were invented in Gei-manie by Ber- 
 thold Swarte, a Monke skilfiiU in Gebers 
 Cookery or Alchimy. — Camden, Remaines, p. 
 19 (1637). 
 
 Ben Jonson in The Alchemist puts 
 into the mouth of Subtle such plu-ases 
 as " imbibition," " reverberating in 
 Athanor," " to the Aludels," &c., on 
 which Surly observes 
 
 What a brave language here is ! next to 
 canting. 
 
 And a little afterwards. 
 
 What else are all your terms. 
 
 Whereon no one of your writers 'grees with 
 
 other 1 
 Of your elixir, your lac virginis, 
 Your stone, your med'cine, and your chry- 
 
 sospei-me, . . . 
 Your oil of height, your tree of life, your 
 
 blood, 
 Your marchesite, your tutie, your magnesia, 
 Your toad, your crow, your dragon, and your 
 
 panther ; 
 Your sun, your moon, your firmament, your 
 
 adrop, 
 Your lato, azoch, zernich, chibrit, heau- 
 
 tarit, . . . 
 And worlds of other strange ingredients, 
 Would burst a man to name? 
 
 Act ii. so. 1. 
 
 In the same scene Subtle asks, 
 
 Is Ars sacra 
 Or chrysopoeia, or spag^Tica, 
 Or the pamphysic, or panarehic knowledge, 
 A heathen language? 
 
 To which Ananias replies, 
 Heathen Greek, I take it. 
 
 Act ii. sc. 1 ( Works, pp. 248, 250). 
 
 Peter. It is a very secret science, for none 
 almost can understand the language of it. 
 Sublimation, almigation, calcination, rubifica- 
 tion, encorporation, circination, sementatioc, 
 albification, and fermentation ; with as many 
 termes impossible to be uttered, as the arte to 
 bee compassed. 
 
 Raffe. Let mee crosse myselfe, I never 
 heard so many great devils in a little moniies 
 mouth. . . . What language is thisl doe 
 they speak so? — J. Lilly, Gallathea, ii. 3 
 (1592). 
 
 On the studied obscurity of writers 
 on alchemy, the " Viccar of Maiden " 
 remarks in his EwnUng of the Greene 
 Lyon, that their 
 
 Noble practise doth hem teach 
 
 To vaile their secrets wyth mistie speach. 
 
 He had sworn to his master 
 That all the secrets I schould never undog ^ 
 To no one man, but even spread a Cloude 
 Over my words and writes, and so it shroud. 
 
 The occurrence oigiVbryslie, however, 
 in The Interlude of Youth, 1557, renders 
 it possible that geberish may itself be 
 the corruption, though the hard g of 
 gibberish, dissociating it from gibber 
 (jabber), seems to point the other way. 
 He plag'd them all with sundry tongues' con- 
 tusion. 
 Such gibrish, gibble-gabble, all did fangle. 
 Some laugh, some fret, all prate, all diflerent 
 
 wrangle ; 
 One calls in Hebrew to his working mate. 
 And he in Welch, Glough whee comrage doth 
 prate. 
 John Taylor, The Severall Seiges,S\C.,ofthe 
 Citty of Jerusalem (1630). 
 Strike, strike our saile (the Master cries) 
 
 amain, 
 Vaile misne and Sprit-sail : but he cries in 
 
 vain; 
 For, in his face the blasts so bluster ay. 
 That his &ea.-gibberish is straight born away. 
 /. Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 491 (1621). 
 
 [The bmlders at Babel] 
 Som howl, som halloo, sum do stut and strain, 
 Each hath his gibberish, and all striae in rain 
 To finde again theii- know'n beloved tongue. 
 Jd. p. 555. 
 
 Another alchemist, who, if he did not 
 originate a word expressive of unmean- 
 ing language, at least had it sometimeB 
 fathered on him, was Paracelsus, for- 
 merly often called Bombast. 
 
 " Bombast swelling blustering non- 
 sense, also fustian " (Plorio), is perhaps 
 
GILLY-FLOWEB ( 14,3 ) 
 
 GINGERLY 
 
 the same word as iomhase, bombasin 
 (see Fuller, Worthies, ii. 239), cotton 
 stuff formerly used for padding, but in- 
 fluenced by a reference to him who as- 
 sumed the high-sounding name Aureo- 
 lus PhUippus Theophrastus Paracelsus 
 Bombastus, and was notorious for his 
 " loud boasting " and " braggadocio " 
 (FrisweU, Varia, p. 166). Hence the 
 pame of the biu'lesque hero Bombastes 
 Furioso, designed to out-Herod the in- 
 flated nonsense of modem tragedies. 
 
 Dr. Donne speaks of " the vain and 
 empty fulness in Paracelsus' name." 
 — Essays'in Divinity (1651), p. 119, ed. 
 Jessop. According to Ignatius Ms Con- 
 clave (p. 123), when Lucifer asked him 
 who he was, and he answered, " Philip- 
 pus AureoluB Theophrastus Paracelsus 
 Bombast of Hohenieim," Satan trem- 
 bled at this as if it were some new kind 
 of exorcism. Ben Jonson says alche- 
 mists " pretend, under the specious 
 names of Geber, Arnold, Sully, Bombast 
 of Hohenhein, to commit miracles in 
 art " (Mercury Vindicated From the 
 Alchenmts). 
 
 Bumbastus kept a devil's bird 
 Shut in the pommel of his sword. 
 Butler, HudibraSy Pt, II. canto iii. 
 
 GiLLY-FLOWEE, a Corruption of gillo- 
 fer, gilofre, or gilly-vor (which occurs in 
 the Winter's Tale, iv. 4), Pr. gi/roflie. 
 It. garofalo, Mod. Gk. garophalo, Lat. 
 caryophyllum, Gk. haru6phullon. 
 
 Barberies, Pinks, or Shops [sops] of wine, 
 feathered Gitlmers, small Honesties. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Gelofre, Ancren Riwle, p. 370; gilo- 
 fre, Kyng Alixaunder, p. 280 ,• ielofer, 
 Skelton, Phyllyp 8pa/rrow, 1. 1053 ; 
 gerraflour, G. Douglas, Eneados Pro- 
 hug. Buh XII. 
 
 With cloves of gelofer hit broch jjou shalle. 
 Liber Care Cocarum, p. 26. 
 
 All maner of flowers of the feld and gar- 
 dennes, as roses, gelevors, — H. Macht/n, Diary, 
 1559, p. 203 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Gin, a snare, trap, a cunning device, 
 0. Eng. gynne, seems to bear some re- 
 lation to O. E. engyn, Fr. engin, a fraud 
 or mechanical instrument, an engine. 
 It has also been derived from loel. 
 gitma, to dupe (Skeat). It seems to 
 me to be a native Enghsh word, re- 
 presenting A. Sax. girn, gym, trans- 
 posed forms of grin, gryn, a snare or 
 
 trap (compare Prov. Eng. girn, to grin 
 with the mouth ; urn for run ; urd for 
 red (red); grass, A. S. gxrs, &c.) : r 
 being omitted as in speah, for A. Sax. 
 sprecan. The two words, however, are 
 found co-existent and distinct at an 
 early date. 
 
 Swa sw4 grin he becymjj on ealle [as a 
 snare it cometh on all]. — A. Sax. Vers. S. 
 Luke xxi. 35 (995). 
 And panteris preuyliche' pight vppon Jje 
 
 grounde, 
 With grennes of good heere' \ia,t god him-self 
 made. 
 
 Richard the Redeies, Pass ii. 1. 188 
 (1399), ed. Skeat. 
 1 fand the woman mar bitter na the ded, 
 
 quhilk is 
 The gyrne of the hunter to tak the wild bestis. 
 Ratis Raving, p. 21, 1. 695 (ed. 
 Lumby). 
 Satan . . . setteth his snares and grinnes. 
 Udal, Erasmus, p. 37 verso. 
 
 "The gren shal take him by the 
 heele," Genevan Version, Job xvui. 10; 
 " The proude ... set grennes for me," 
 Id. Ps. cxl. 5, and so Ps. cxli. 9. The 
 A. v., 1611, in these passages has grin, 
 which the printers have now changed 
 to gin. 
 
 Even as a bird/out of the foulers grin. 
 Stemhold and Hopkins, Ps. cxxiv. 7 
 (1599). 
 Laqs, a snare, ginne, or grinn£. — Cotgrave. 
 But vnder that same baite a fearful grin 
 Was readie to intangle Him in sinne. 
 G. Fietchei; Christs Victorie on Earthy 
 29 (1610). 
 So j^at we mai noght negh it nere 
 Bot-if we may with any gyn 
 Mak |;am to do dedl^ syn. 
 
 Legends of the Holu Rood, p. 96, 1. 
 318 (E. E. T. S.) 
 Ihesus as a gyaunt* with a gttn come|) Sonde, 
 To breken and to bete a-doun- alle Jiat ben 
 a-gayns hym. 
 
 Vision of Piers the Plomwan, 
 C: xxi. 264. 
 Uele ginnes hejj {le dypuel vor to nime fiet 
 volk be f?e fjrote. — Ayenbiie of Inwyt, p. S-i 
 (1340). 
 
 |;et ne is agryn of ]>e dyeule. — Id. p. 47. 
 No Ermines, or black Sables, no such skins, 
 As the grim Tartar hunts or takes in Gins. 
 J. Howell, The Vote or Poem-RoyalL 
 1.17 (1641). 
 
 GiNGEELY, in the phrase "to walk 
 gingerly," is perhaps frona an old Eng- 
 lish word gingraUc, like a (A. Sax.) 
 gingra, or young person, from A. Sax. 
 
OINOEBLINE 
 
 ( 144 ) 
 
 GLA0I8 
 
 ging, young, tender. So the meaning 
 would be to walk mincingly, trippingly, 
 or delicately, as Agag came to Saul (1 
 Sam. XV. 32) = Greek, a^pSig jiaivuv 
 (Euripides). In provincial English 
 ginger means dehcate, brittle. 
 
 Prithee, gentle officer, 
 Handle me gingerly, or I fall to pieces. 
 Massinger, The Parliament of Lme, v. 1. 
 
 After this was written I found that 
 gingerly is actually the word used by 
 Bp. Patrick to describe Agag's gait. 
 
 He came to him with a soft pace, treacling 
 gingerly (as we speak) after a nice and deli- 
 cate manner. — Commentary, in loco. 
 
 Mistris Minx . . . that lookes as simper- 
 ingly as if she were hesmeared, and lets it as 
 givgerly as if she were dancing the canaries. 
 — T. Nash, Pierce Peniksse,i592, p. 21 (Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 
 Measter . . . was slinking down, tiptoe, so 
 gingerly, shrumping his shoulders, that he 
 mist his vooting. — Mrs. Palmer, Devonshire 
 Courtship, p. 25. 
 
 Walk circumspectly, tread gingerly, step 
 warily, liftnot up one foot till ye have found 
 sure footing for the other. — John Trapp, Com- 
 mentary, 1647 (1 Peter iii. 17). 
 
 Alkr a pas menu, to go nicely, tread gin- 
 gerly, mince it like a maid. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Archbishop Trench quotes gingerness 
 from Stubs's Anatomy of Abuses, 1585, 
 " Their gingerness in tripping on toes 
 hke young goats " (On some Deficien- 
 cies in owr English dictionaries, p. 22). 
 
 Ginger is found in Kemble's Charters, 
 and gingra in the Anglo-Saxon version 
 of the Gospels, with the meaning of 
 younger. "Ac gewurSe he swi sw4 
 gingra, se 6e yldra ys betwux eow 
 (Luke xxii. 26, a.d. 995)," But he that 
 is the elder among you becometh even 
 as the younger. 
 
 Dus art tu ging and newe, 
 ForSward be Sutrewe. 
 Morris, Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 7, 1. 214. 
 ^eginge wimmen of <5in lond, 
 faiger on sigtB and softe on hond. 
 
 Genesis and Exodus, 1. 4050. 
 
 GiNGEELiNE, an old word for " a 
 yellowish colour" (Wright, Diet, of 
 Prov. and Obsolete English), does not 
 mean <7?'m(/er-coloured, as it would seem 
 at first sight, but is a corruption of It. 
 gialloUno, a diminutive of jrmHo, yellow. 
 
 Giullolino, a kinde of colour called now 
 adaies a Gingirline. — Ftorio, New World of 
 Words, 1611. 
 
 From this perhaps come ginger, a 
 
 pale red colour, and ginger-pated, red- 
 haired (Wright). 
 
 GiNGLBS, an incorrect form in Fuller, 
 " The gingles or St. Anthony his fire " 
 (Church Hist. IX. i. 60), of shingles, so 
 called because it sometimes encircles 
 the patient like a girdle, Lat. oingula. 
 
 Gin slings, a slang name for a beve- 
 rage composed of gin, soda water, 
 lemon, and sugar, is said to be a cor- 
 ruption of John Collins, the name for- 
 merly given to it, and still in use in 
 America. The transitions must have 
 been John-G'llings, John-slihgs, 6in- 
 slings. John Collins, its inventor, was 
 a well-known waiter at Limmer's Hotel, 
 Conduit Street. (Notes and Qttme8,6th 
 S. ii. 444). 
 
 Gist, an old orthography of guesi,, a 
 receiver of hospitahty, O. Eng. gest, 
 A. Sax. gaest, gest, perhaps from some 
 confusion with giste, a lodging (cf giii- 
 nen, to lodge, gistninge, hospitality), all 
 wliich words occur in the Anoren iMiofe 
 (ab. 1225). 
 
 5if eni haueS deore gist (= guest, p. 
 68) ; " f;e gode pilegrim . . . hieiS toward hie 
 giste " (= lodging, p. 350). 
 {;ai toke Jjair gesting [^ lodging] in )« tun. 
 Cursor Mundi, Mmi'is Spec. p. 71, 1. 71. 
 
 The contrary change is found in 
 GtTEST-TAKEE, which See. 
 
 GiTHOEN, an old corruption of gittem, 
 0. Eng. giterne, gyterne (Prompt. 
 Parv.), 0. Fr. guiterne, another form of 
 guiterre, guitare, a " guitar," all from 
 Lat. cithara, Greek Ktlidra, a lyre ; of. 
 Chaldic hathros, a harp (Dan. Hi. 5). 
 See CiTHOEN. 
 
 Twa or thrie of our condisciples played 
 fellon Weill on the virginals, and another on 
 the lut and githoru. — J. Melville, Diary, 157*, 
 p. 29 (Wodrow Soc). 
 
 Herrick has the strangely corrupt 
 form gotire. 
 
 Touch hut thy lire, my Harrie, and I heare 
 
 From thee some raptures of the rare gotire. 
 
 Hesperides, p. 296 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Glacis, an easy slope in fortification, 
 Fr. glacis, apparently a place as smooth 
 as ice (glace), from glaaer, to cover with 
 ice (Littre). It is perhaps only Low 
 Lat. glatia, smoothness, from Ger. 
 glait, smooth, even ; glatte, smooth- 
 ness (Mahn). The old Fr. form is 
 glassis (Cotgrave). Compare Fr. gKS- 
 
GLANCE 
 
 ( 145 ) 
 
 GLOZE 
 
 ser, to glide, from Ger. gUi-sen, glit- 
 
 Glanck, to strike and turn aside, as 
 an arrow from a tree, or a lanoe fr-om 
 a breastplate, apparently to be re- 
 flected like a gleam of light, or touched 
 as by a hasty look which is instantly 
 averted, is, according to Dr. R. Morris, 
 a nasahzed form of O. Eng. glace, to 
 glance, to polish, from Pr. glacer, 
 glaoier, to shp or slide [as on ice, 
 glacies] . Compare — 
 
 Glactfiigej or wronge glydynge of boltys 
 or arowys (al. g'lansyng'), Devolatus. — 
 Prompt. Parvuloruni. 
 
 Suche gladande glory con to me glace. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 6, 1. 171 (see 
 note, p. 152). 
 
 This seems shghtly doubtful. Prof. 
 Skeat compares Prov. Swed. glinta, 
 glcinta, to slide or glance aside {Etym. 
 Diet. s. v.). Cf. Scot, and O. Eng. ghnt, 
 to shde or sUp. 
 
 The damned arrow glanced aside. 
 
 Tennijson, Oriana, 1. 41. 
 
 Glass-slippee, Vr.pantoufle de verre, 
 the material of Cinderella's famous 
 shpper in our version of the story, 
 according to Mr. Kalston is altogether 
 a mistake. In the oldest French ver- 
 sion the word employed with reference 
 to it is veir, the heraldic term for pearl, 
 and this in the course of transcription 
 must have been altered to verre, glass. 
 The shpper probably was merely em- 
 broidered with pearl. Others have 
 supposed that Perrault's panfovfle de 
 verre is a corruption of pantoufle de 
 voir, i.e. a shpper of squirrel fur. 
 
 From a similar play on words voir, 
 the heraldic fur, is represented by 
 pieces in shape of little glass pots, 
 verres, argent and azure. — Chambers, 
 CyclopcBdia, s.v. Fur. In old Eng. 
 verres are glasses. 
 
 She . . . . lepte upon the horde, and threw 
 downs mete, and drinke, and brake the 
 veiTes, and spilt alle that there was on the 
 horde. — Book of the Knight of La Tour- 
 Landry, p. 27 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 Glass-woem, ) old and provincial 
 Glaze-woem, S words for the glow- 
 worm, the former used by Moufet, the 
 latter by Lily. The first part of the 
 word is identical with Scot, gloss, a 
 glowing fire, glose, a blaze, loel. glossi, 
 yBi blaze, Prov. Swed. glossa, to glow. 
 
 glasa, a glowing, M.H. Ger. glosen, to 
 glow. Cf. Mid. Eng. glisien, to shine, 
 Ger. gleisscn. Another old name for 
 the insect is gloherde or ghiMrd. 
 
 Gloey-hole. It was long a puzzle to 
 me why a cupboard at the head of a 
 staircase for keeping brooms, &c. 
 (Wright), or a person's " den " or retreat, 
 which is kept in chronic htter and un- 
 tidiness, or in general any retired and 
 uncared nook, should be popularly 
 called a glory-hole. I have Uttle doubt 
 now that the first part of the word has 
 nothing whatever to do with glo^'y, 
 renown (Lat. glwia), but is the same 
 word as old Eng. " gloryyn', or wythe 
 onclene |)ynge defoylyn'. Macule, de- 
 turpo." — Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 
 Compare Prov. Eng. glory, and 
 glorry, greasy, fat ; Cleveland, glor, 
 mere fat, glor-fat, excessively fat (Atkin- 
 son). Fletcher has "not all glory fat " 
 (HaUiwell), and Fuller says that the 
 flesh of Hantshire hogs — 
 
 Though not all ghtre (where no bancks of 
 lean can be seen for the deluge of fat) is no 
 less delicious to the taste and more whol- 
 some for the stomack. — Worthies of England, 
 vol. i. p. 401 (ed. 1811). 
 
 Cf. also O. Eng. glare, mire, and 
 Scot, glorg, to bemire. Thus glory- 
 hole is no more than a dfrty hole, an 
 untidy nook. The paraUehsm of Fr. 
 gloriette (Sp. glorieta), a bower, for- 
 merly a httle room in the top of a 
 tower, is curious. 
 
 Gloze, to flatter, 0. Eng. glosen, has 
 often been regarded as only another 
 form of to glaze, to- throw a gloss, or 
 bright lustrous appearance, over one's 
 language, to speak in a pohshed spe- 
 cious style : cf. " Glacyn or make a 
 Jjynge to shine, Olasinge in scornjmge, 
 Intulacio " [Frompt. Farv.) ; " I glase 
 a knyfe to make it bright, je fourbis " 
 (Palsgrave) ; O. Eng. glisien, to gHsten, 
 Ger. gleissen, to shine, also to dissemble 
 or play the hypocrite ; Icel. glys, finery, 
 and glossi, a blaze, Soot, glose, gloze, to 
 blaze. For the meaning, cf. " Smooth 
 not thy tongue with filed [= polished] 
 talk." - Tlie Fassionate Pilgrim, 1. 306 
 (Globe Shaks. p. 1056) ; and compare 
 the following : — 
 
 These . . . are vanitas vanitatum; that 
 file, and glaze, and whet their Tongues to 
 Lies, the properest kind of Vanitie ; which 
 
 L 
 
GOAVLOUP 
 
 ( 146 ) 
 
 GOOD 
 
 call Euill, Good, and Good, Euill (sood 
 Deuills) for a Reward. — S. Purchas, Micro- 
 cosmus or The Hutorie of Man, p. 621 (1619). 
 Every smooth tale is not to be beleeved ; 
 and every glosing tongue is not to be trusted. 
 ~~H. Sinlthj SennoTiSj 1639. 
 
 Gloze meant originally to interpret 
 or explain, to make a comment or 
 gloss, Fr. glose, Lat. glossa, a word re- 
 quiring to be explained, Greek glossa, 
 a tongue, a foreign word (needing ex- 
 planation) ; hence glosswry. The con- 
 notation of deception, flattery, is per- 
 haps due to the confusion above. 
 
 Glose textys, or bookys, Gloso. 
 GlosyTl', or flateryn', Adulor, blandior. 
 Prompt. Parmiloriim. 
 Loke in )je sauter glosed 
 On ecce enim ueritatem dilexisti. 
 
 Langland, Vision of P. PlowmaUj 
 vii. 303, text C. 
 
 Wher-on was write two wordes in J>is wise 
 
 Ibid. XX. 12. 
 Ac tho hii come, hii nadde of him, bote is 
 
 olde wone, 
 Glosinde wordes & false. 
 
 Robert of Gloucester, p. 497 (ed. 1810). 
 For he could well his glazing speaches frame 
 To such vaine uses that him best became. 
 Spenser, F. Queeue, III. viii. 14. 
 And as the aubstaunoe of men of worsohy ppe 
 that wylle not glose nor cory favyl for no 
 parcyallyte, they cowthe not undyrstond that 
 alle thys ordenaunce dyd any goode or harme. 
 — GregOT\j's Chronicle of London (1461), 
 p. 214 (damden Soc). 
 
 Well, to be brefe with outen glnse, 
 And not to swarve from our purpose, 
 Take good hede what I shall saye. 
 
 Rede me and be nott wrothe, 1528, 
 p. 39 (ed. Arber). 
 
 GoADLoup, a Scotch word for the 
 military punishment called the gants- 
 lope in modern Enghsh, both which 
 words are corruptions of Swed. gast- 
 lopp, a " lane-course." See Gaunt- 
 let. 
 
 Goat, a Lincolnshire word for a 
 sluice or drain. 
 
 " A goat, or as you more commonly 
 call it a sluice." — Instruction for a 
 Committee of 8 ewers, lG6i (Peacock). 
 
 O. Eng. "gote, or water schetelys, 
 Aquagiwm " (Prompt. Pa/rv. ab. 1440) 
 Northampton, gout (Sternberg). 
 As water of dyche, 
 Ojjer goteS of golf bat neuer charde. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 18, 1. 608. 
 
 As gates out olguttars. 
 
 K. Aleiaunder, p. 163. 
 
 The Three Goats, a tavern sign at 
 Lincoln, was originally the Thrm 
 Oowts, gutters, or drains (Ger. gosse), 
 which are known to have existed there 
 (M. Miiller, (7/wps, vol. ii. p. 530). Bay 
 gives as a Northumberland word Gofe, 
 a flood-gate, from A. Sax. gedtcm, to 
 pour [of. gedtere, a pourer, Orosiug], 
 Dut. gote. 
 
 Other forms of the word are gcwi, 
 gut, gutter, goyt, got, a drain or water- 
 course (cf. Fr. igout). An old church 
 in Lincoln still bears the name of 
 8. Peter at Gowts. We ought, perhaps, 
 to connect these words with gutter, 
 O. Eng. goiere ; but cf. O. Fr. goutiere, 
 a channel for drippings (Lat. 
 
 GoAT-WBED, a pop. name of the plant 
 JEgopodium podegraria, seems to be a 
 corruption of its other name, gout-weed 
 and gout-wort. 
 
 GoD-«ppBL, i.e. " good-apple," a, 
 gttasi- Anglo- Saxon name for the quince 
 (Somner), is apparently a corruption 
 of CoD-^ppEL, which see. 
 
 Goggle, in goggle-eyed, having full 
 rolling eyes, Ir. gogshmleach, from gog, 
 to move shghtly, and siMl, the eye, is 
 used by Wycliffe as equivalent to Lat. 
 codes, with which it has probably no 
 connexion (Skeat). Gocles, one-eyed, 
 is a Latin corruption of Gk. hylchps 
 (Mommsen), or from ca (=. one) -f 
 oculus (Bopp). 
 
 It is good to thee for to entre gogil j/ied in 
 to rewme of God, than havynge twey y3en 
 for to be sent in to belle of her.— S. Mark 
 ix. 47. 
 
 Gold, a Somerset name for the sweet 
 willow, formerly called gcmle {Myrim 
 gale). 
 
 Good, in the Scottish expression " to 
 good, or guid, a field " (Jamieson), mean- 
 ing to manure it, as if to do it good, or 
 ameliorate its condition (cf. W. Corn- 
 wall goady, to fatten), Uke the Latin 
 phrase Iceta/re agrum, to make a field 
 joyful, to manure it (whence tocwnen, 
 It. letame), is the same word as Dan. 
 gitjide, to dung or manure, Swed. g^ 
 to manure, or make fat, Shetland gv3r 
 den, manure (? compare Hind. kM, 
 dung, manure). But GfflL mailmA, 
 to manure, is from maith, good. The 
 
GOODIES 
 
 ( 147 ) 
 
 GOOD TEABS 
 
 •verb good, to make good, was once in 
 use. 
 
 Greatness not gooded with grace is like a 
 beacon upon a high hill. — T. Adams, God's 
 Bounty, Sermons, i. 151. 
 
 G-ooDiES, a colloquial name for sugar 
 sweetmeats given to children, as if 
 "good things," like Fr. bonbons, has 
 been identified by Mr. Atkinson with 
 Prov. Swed. gutia/r, sweetmeats, Swiss 
 guteli. It is perhaps the Gipsy goodly, 
 gudlo, sugar, sweet. 
 
 Good-bye, a corruption of God be 
 wi' ye, just as "good speed " is some- 
 times incorrectly used for " God speed 
 (you)." " Ood speed, fair Helena ! " 
 (Mid. N. Bream, i. 1). 
 
 God B' w' y'! with all my heart. 
 
 Sir J. buckling, Fraginenta Aurea, 
 1648, p. 40. 
 AUan Eamsay ends his poetical 
 Epistle to James Arhuckle (1719) 
 with — ■ 
 
 Health, wit, and joy, sauls large and free, 
 Be a' your fates — sae God be wC ye. 
 You are a treacherous villaine, God bwy yee. 
 Marston, The Malcontent, i. 5, Works, 
 ii. 216 (ed. Halliwell). 
 Time. G odden, my little pretie priuat Place. 
 Place. Farewell, godhwy Time. 
 
 Sir J. Davies, Poems, ii. 249 (ed. Grosai't). 
 Shaking me by the hand to bid me God- 
 by'e, [he] said he thought he should see me 
 no more. — J. Evelyn, Diary, May SI, 1672. 
 God buy you, good Sir Topas. 
 
 Twelfth Night, iv. 2, 1. 108 (1st 
 folio). 
 
 So spelt, perhaps, from a confusion 
 with " God save you," bvy ■=. redeem. 
 
 It has often been supposed that the 
 words good and God are etymologically 
 identical. 
 
 If that opinion were not, who would ac- 
 knowledge any Godi the verie Etimologie 
 of the name with vs of the North partes of 
 the world declaring plainely the nature of 
 the attribute, which is all one as if we sayd 
 
 food [bonus'] or a giuer of good things. — G, 
 'uttenham. Arte of Eng. Poesie, 1589, p. 44 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 God is that which sometime Good we nam'd, 
 Before our English tongue was shorter 
 fram'd. 
 
 Nath. Baxter, Sir Philip Sydney's 
 Ourania (1606). 
 An indifferent man may judge that our 
 name of the most divine power, God, is . . . 
 derived from Good, the chiefe attribute of 
 God. — Camden, Remaines, 1637, p. 33. 
 
 They have long been proved to be 
 fundamentally distinct : good (A. Sax. 
 gdd, Goth, gods) either zi (1) fit, suit- 
 able (Fiok), or (2) = Sansk. hhyata, 
 famous, known (Benfey) ; whereas 
 God (A. Sax. God, Goth, guth) prob. 
 =:Pers. hhoda, Tcliuda, God, i.e. Ichavud 
 (self) -f- ay (coming), (Johnson, Pers. 
 and Arab. Did.), Zend hhadhata, self- 
 existent (Diefenbach, Goth. 8pr. ii. 416). 
 On the Eunic monuments Ku]i is God 
 (G. Stephens, Thor the Thunderer, 
 p. 32). Bums uses Gude {=: good) 
 for God : " Gude keep theefrae a tether 
 string! " (Works, p. 33, Globe ed,). 
 
 Goodman. Messrs. Eastman and 
 W. A. Wright in their excellent Bible 
 Word-Booh, make a suggestion that 
 goodmhan, an old Eng. word -for the 
 master of the house (e.g. Prov. vii. 19, 
 Matt. XX. 11) or a yeoman, is a corrup- 
 tion of A. Sax. gummann or guma, a 
 man (whence brydguma, a bride-grrooTO), 
 and that good-wife [or goody, cf. house- 
 wife and )viissy'\ was formed in imita- 
 tion of the corrupted word. 
 
 Gunmiann, which occurs in Beowulf, 
 would seem to be a pleonastic com- 
 pound of guma (which has been re- 
 ferred by Grimm to A. Sax. gedman 
 (gyman), to care, guard, keep, or rule) 
 and man. However, goodman is found 
 in old Eng. for the master of a house, 
 so there are no grounds for this sug- 
 gested corruption (see Skeat). More- 
 over guma ~ O. H. Ger. gomjO, Goth. 
 guman, Lat. homo (Fiok). 
 
 The said day [Nov. 25, 1646] compeired 
 William Seifvright . . . being accused of 
 sorcerie, in alloting and giuing over some 
 land to the old goodman (as they call it) 
 [^ devil], — Presbiftery Book of Strathbogie, 
 p. 71 (Spalding Club). 
 
 Good years, in Shakespeare, is a 
 corruption of the word " goujeres," a 
 loathsome disease, from Fr. gouge, a 
 punk or camp-wench. " The good 
 yeeres shall devoure them flesh and 
 fell."— iear, v. 3 (fol.). 
 
 "What the good-jer!" is Dame 
 Quickly' s expletive in The Merry Wives 
 of Windsor, act i. sc. 4, 1. 127. 
 
 Goodger, a provincial word for the 
 devil, may be the word intended. (Vid. 
 Notes and Queries, 5th S. v. p. 202.) 
 
 A'scat the things about as thof tlie goodger 
 was in en. — Devonshire Courtship, p. 8. 
 
GOODY'S EYE ( 148 ) 
 
 GOOSE 
 
 Seeke not, I pray you, that that pertaineth 
 not to you. What a goodt/ere haue you to 
 doe to meddle in hLs matters ?— rT. 'North, 
 Morall Phibsophie of the Ancient Sages, 1601, 
 p. 22 verso. 
 
 Who at her first coming, like a simple, 
 ig'norant Wooman, after her homely manner, 
 tJius bluntly saluted him : " What a good 
 yeare. Master More, I mei'vaile what you 
 mean." — Wordsworth, Eccles. Biography, vol. 
 ii. p. 139 (ed. 1810). 
 
 The corruption was made perhaps 
 with a reminiscence of the Italian 
 phrase — 
 
 Mai* anno, an ill yeere, continuall trouble, 
 vsed in Italie for a Curse to ones enemie, as 
 II mal' anno che Dio ti dij, an ill yeere God 
 giue thee. — Fiorio. 
 
 So in Chaucer — 
 God g;iTe the monke a thousand last quad 
 yere. 
 
 Prologue to The Prioresses Tale. 
 
 Which seems to mean " God give the 
 monk a thousand (fold) hurden of 
 bad years." 
 
 Goody's eye, a Somerset name for 
 the plant sahia scla/rea, is a corrup- 
 tion of another popular name Ood's 
 eye (Britten and Holland). Godes-eie, 
 Christ's eye, and Ghar-eye, seem free 
 renderings of its Low Lat. name sclarea 
 {? ex-clarus). See Cleae-eye. 
 
 Oculus Christi is also a kinde of Clarie, but 
 lesser. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. 627 {l&'JT). 
 
 GooL-FRENOH, Somerset word for the 
 goldfinch. In Antrim it is called the 
 gold-flmch and gold-spring (Patterson). 
 
 Goose, a certain symptom of the lues 
 venerea, a bubo, frequently alluded to 
 in the old dramatists, is perhaps a cor- 
 ruption of gougeres, vid. Good-years. 
 
 Goose, a tailor's iron for pressing 
 seams. 
 
 Come in, taylor ; here you may roast your 
 goose. — Macbeth, ii. 3. 
 
 The word probably meant originally 
 any large mass of iron, compare Swed. 
 gos, a pig of iron, Ger. gam, a great 
 lump of melted iron, Fr. gueuse, " a 
 great lump of melted iron, rude, and 
 unfashioned, even as it comes from 
 the furnace" (Cotgrave, in Eabelais 
 gueuse), all no doubt near akin to Ger. 
 guss, metal, founding, gusseisen, cast 
 iron, giessen, to pour, to found, gosse, a 
 drain. 
 
 The term goose would readily be ap- 
 
 plied to a mass of melted metal from 
 the analogous usage of sow, pig, Gk. 
 debpMs, a dolphin, &c. T. Eow, in the 
 Oentleman's Magazine, June, 1774, re- 
 marks that smoothing-irons "were 
 made at first of hammered iron, but 
 now are generally made of sow-metal, 
 but are still called irons." Belated 
 words are, 0. H. Ger, giuzan, Swed, 
 giuta, Dan. gyde, A. Sax. gedtan, Goth. 
 gjutan, loel. gj6ta, to cast metal. 
 
 I beg on my knees to have Atropos the 
 tailor to the Destinies ... to heat the iron 
 goae of mortality, and so press me to death. 
 — Massinger, The Virgin Martyr, iii. 3 (p. 19, 
 ed. Cunningham). 
 
 Goose, used as a synonym for a 
 simpleton or fool, is, as Bishop Stanley 
 has observed, a " proverbial hbel " on 
 a bird remarliable for its intelligence. 
 
 It has qualities, we might almost say of 
 the mind, of a very singular character. . . . 
 There are no animals, biped or quadruped, 
 so difficult to deceive or approach, their sense 
 of hearing, seeing, and smelling bein^ so 
 extremely acute ; independently of which 
 they appearto act in so organized and cautious 
 a manner, when feeding or roosting, as to 
 defy all danger. — History of Birds, p. 352 
 (7th ed.). 
 
 Among the ancient Egyptians the 
 fiHal affection of the goose was con- 
 sidered so exemplary to men that it 
 was made the ideograph of "a son." 
 
 It may credibly be thought also, that this 
 creature hath some sparks (as it were) of 
 reason, understanding, and learning.— Hoi- 
 land, Pliny's Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 280, 1634. 
 
 Accordingly, a band of crusaders in 
 the time of our Henry II., saw nothing 
 ridiculous in having a goose carried m 
 a standard at their head. Indeed, it 
 is only in modem times, and that as 
 we shall see through a verbal miscon' 
 ception, that the name of this wise bird 
 has become the very antithesis of its 
 true character. Its carefulness has 
 been warmly eulogized by Soaliger, 
 who declares it the very emblem of 
 prudence. 
 
 When Frederick Nausea, Bishop of Vienne, 
 desired in his panegyric on St. Quintin to 
 convey a fitting idea of the sobriety, chastity, 
 and vigilance of that eminent personage, he 
 could not express himself more forcibly ttua 
 by asserting the holy and virtuous man 
 closely resembled a goose. Had folly bM" 
 esteemed a prominent characteristic of the 
 bird, the saint would hardly have been 
 likened to it ; but it is only ignorance of the 
 
GOOSEBEBBY 
 
 ( 149 ) 
 
 GOOSE-EOBN 
 
 dtu'kest hue that ventures to poi'tray the 
 goose as deficient in sagacity or intelligence. 
 — Comhill Magazine, vol. viii. p. 203. 
 
 I would suggest, therefore, that goose, 
 in the sense of simpleton, is a survival 
 of the Scandinavian gusi, a fool, found 
 in Swedish, derived from old Swed. 
 gusa, to blow (cf. "gust"). — G. Ste- 
 phens, Old Nwthern Bunic Monuments, 
 p. 925 ; just as O. Norse gdli, a fool 
 (Dan. gal, mad), is near akin to a gale 
 of wind (Wedgwood) . Windy inflation 
 is the root idea of " fool," and many- 
 other words of the same signification. 
 
 Here lyes Benjamin Johnson dead, 
 And hath no more wit than [a] goose in his 
 head. 
 
 B. Johnson's Conversations, iSfc, p. 36 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 GoosEBEKRY. Whatever be the ori- 
 gin of this word, whether it be akin 
 to the German hroMsheere, the rough 
 hairy berry, from hroMS, rough (com- 
 pare Dan. stikkelsbaer, Swed. stichelbdr, 
 " the prickly berry," andperhaps Dutch 
 hruysbeezi, from hroes, frizzled, bristly, 
 Sp. crespina, Lat. uva crispa), which 
 seems most probable, or, as Dr. Prior 
 thinks, from Pr. groseille (which is it- 
 self a corrupted form from Ger. hraii- 
 sel), it certainly has no connexion with 
 "goose." 
 
 The Dutch hruysleezi has been assi- 
 milated to hruys, a cross. Oarherry, 
 the North country name for this fruit, 
 is according to Mr. Atkinson akin to 
 A. Sax. and Norse gar, a point or 
 prickle, and gorse, the prickly plant 
 (Cleveland Glossa/ry, s.v.), which in 
 N. W. Lincolnshire is called gross 
 (Peacock), whence perhaps goss-herry 
 (" Prickly goss and thorns." — Tempest, 
 iv.-l) ; but this is unlikely. Mr. Timbs 
 says that roasted geese used in the 
 olden time to be stuffed with goose- 
 berries, and thence came their name 
 (Nooks amd Corners of Eng. Life, 
 p. 163), but this is more than doubtful. 
 Gooseberry may be for grooseberry, as 
 speak for spreah, speckh for spreckle, 
 gin for grin; compare Welsh grwys. 
 Prof. Skeat says the orig. form must 
 have been groise-herry, where groise m 
 M. H. Ger. krus, curling, crisped, i.e. 
 hairy, and so "goose-berry" is the 
 hairy-berry. A Scotch form is groser. 
 
 George Gordoune being cited befor the 
 
 session of Rynie for prophaneing the Sabbath, 
 by gathering grosers in tyme of sermon . . . 
 appealed to the presbyterie. — Presbytery 
 Book of Strathbogie (1636), p. 9. 
 
 GoEDiAN, used absurdly by Keats as 
 a verb meaning to knot, from some 
 confused reminiscence of the fabled 
 " Gordian knot," so called because 
 tied by Gordius, King of Phiygia, with 
 the oracular prediction that whoever 
 should undo it would reign over the 
 entire of Asia. 
 
 She had 
 Indeed, locks bright enough to make me 
 
 mad ; 
 And they were simply gordian*d up and 
 braided. 
 Endymion, Bk. I. Poems, p. 19 (ed. 1869). 
 
 GooSE-DANCiNG, a kind of masque- 
 rade, indulged in at Christmas and 
 other festivals in Cornwall, ScUly 
 islands, &c., originally geese dancing, 
 i.e. guise dancing (dance-deguise), a 
 species of mumming performed by the 
 gwizards or masquers. — Hunt, Broils, 
 ^c. of West of England, i. 37 and 307. 
 
 The young people exercise a sort of 
 gallantry, callea Goose Dancing, when the 
 maidens are dressed up for j'oung men, and 
 the young men for maidens; thus disguised 
 they visit their neighbours in companies, 
 where they dance and make jokes upon what 
 has happened on the island. — Heath, Islands 
 ofSciUy, p. 125(1750). 
 
 Compare Scot, gyser, a mummer, 
 and gyse, to masquerade. 
 
 The loons are awa through the toon gyrin'. 
 — Gregor, Banff Glossary, p. 72. 
 
 Disguise was the old English word for a 
 masque. — Ben Jonson, The Masque of Augurs. 
 
 See also M. A. Courtney, W. Corn- 
 wall Glossary, s.v. Giz' JDanee, and 
 P. Q. Couch, E. Cornwall Glossary, 
 S.V. Goosey Dance. 
 
 GoosE-HOEN, Scottish giise-horn, as 
 the ingredient of a recipe, sounds as 
 apocryphal as "pigeon's imlk," or as 
 the "goat's wool" and "ass's fleece" 
 of the ancient classics. It is a curious 
 corruption of Scot, gwissern, Linoolns. 
 glvizzern (Bailey, 1753), old Eng. gys- 
 erne (Prompt. Pm-v.) and giser, the giz- 
 zard of a fowl, Fr. gesier, from Lat. 
 gigemmi. Compare Git-hoen for git- 
 tern, CiTHOBNB for cittern. Goshorne 
 in the Beliguce Antig. vol. ii. p. 176, is 
 probably the same word. 
 
 A Powder for the winde in the body. Take 
 
G008E-8SABE 
 
 ( 150 ) 
 
 GBAMPU8 
 
 Anniseed, Caroway-^eed, Jet, Amber-greese., 
 red Coral, dried Lemon or Orange peels, 
 new laid Egg shels dried, Dates Stones, 
 pillings of Goose-horns of Capons & Pigeons, 
 dried Horse-radish-roots, of each half a 
 Scruple in fine powder well mixed, and take 
 half a Scruple thereof every morning in a 
 Spoonful of Beer or white Wine. — The 
 Queens Closet Opened, p. 77 (1658). 
 
 Goose-share (Turner, Herhall), or 
 Goose-sha/reth, a name for the plant 
 galmm apmine, is a coiTuption of its 
 old name goose -hemffe (W. Coles, 
 Adam in Eden), A. Sax. gos-hegenfe, 
 "goose-hedge-reeve," the reeve that 
 guards the hedge and arrests the geese 
 passing through (Prior). SeeHAlEOUGH. 
 
 Grateron, the small bur called Goose-share, 
 Goose-grass, Love-man, Cleaver, and Claver. 
 — Cotgrave. 
 
 ■ GouKSTtJLE, a Scotch word for an in- 
 strument of punishment, as if a " fool's 
 stool," from gouh, a fool, is a corrup- 
 tion of cack-stool. See Cock-stool. 
 
 On the 24th Feb. 1564. James Gardiner 
 " for iniuring of the provest publicklie," was 
 " sett on the goukstulis four houris on the 
 merkat day." — Linlithgow Burgh Records 
 (Daliiell, Darker Superstitions of' Scotland, 
 p. 684). 
 
 Geaft, a modem and corrupt form 
 of graff, O. Eng. graffen, to insert a 
 scion, where the final t is perhaps due 
 to the p. participial form grafi^zgrafted ; 
 graff, a scion, Fr. greffe, is properly 
 a slip pointed Hke a pen or pencil, Lat. 
 grwphium, Gk. graphion, a writing in- 
 strument (Skeat). On the other hand 
 lift is sometimes used as a p. parte, as 
 if zz lifed, " The ark was lift up " 
 (Gen. vii. 17, xiv. 22, &o.), and ballast as 
 if ballas'd, " Their weak hallac't souls " 
 (Ford, Honor Triumphant, 1606). 
 
 They also .... shall be graffed in ; 
 for God is able to ^rajf them in again. — A. V. 
 Rom, xi. 23. 
 
 Giyfftin, or graffyn, Insero. — Prompt. Par- 
 vuloruin. 
 
 Grufte, or gryffe of a tree, ente. — Pals- 
 grave, 1530. 
 
 Grain, in the phrase " Against the 
 grain," i.e. running counter to one's 
 natural iuchnation or disposition, as 
 the saw or plane does against the direc- 
 tion of the fibres in wood, called its 
 grain, is possibly a popular corruption 
 of " Against the gre," which was also 
 in use with the same signification, 
 Fr. gre, wish, hking, humour (e.g., a 
 
 gre, mal gre). The phrase " to take in 
 gre, or gree," i.e. in good part, kindly, 
 is common in old writers ; Pepys says, 
 " He is against the gre and content 
 of the old Doctors made Judge" (Diary, 
 March 27, 1667). 
 
 Similarly the Scottish threat, " I'll 
 gie him his gray," i.e. a drubbing (as 
 if payment, full satisfaction, his heart's 
 desire), is no doubt a ludicrous use of 
 Fr. gre, desire (cf. faire gre), Jamieson. 
 In vulgar English this sometimes ap- 
 pears as " I'LL give him his grains." 
 
 Our judgments must needs give assent to 
 God; but because his precepts go against 
 the grain of our affections .... we settle 
 upon the Grecian resolution, though more 
 seriously, not to be so troubled for our souls 
 as to lose a moment of our carnal delights.— 
 T. Adams, Sermons, vol. i. p. 198. 
 
 Grains, a Prov. word for the prongs 
 of a fork ( Old Country Words, B. D. S. 
 p. 145). Grain, used also for the junc- 
 tion of a branch with the tree, and for 
 the bifurcation of the body, the groin 
 (cf. Ir. gabhal), is loel. grein, a branch, 
 a fork. 
 
 A Grain-staff,3. Quarter-Staff, with a short 
 pair of Tines at the End, which they call 
 Grains. — Ray, South and East Country Words. 
 
 Geameecy, also spelt Grammerey 
 (as if grand merd, great thanks, " gran- 
 dem mercedem dot tihi Deus," i.e. God 
 give you a great reward), " I thank 
 you " (Bailey, Skeat), and so Chaucer: 
 Grand mercy, quod the preest, and was ful 
 glad." 
 
 The Chanones Yemannes Tale. 
 
 is a corruption of Grant mercy ! 
 
 We see the beginning of what was to 
 become a well-known English oath, 
 says Mrs. Oliphant, in 
 
 Ye, he seyde, graunte mercy. 
 
 Robt. Manning, Handlyng Synne, 
 p. 323 (1303). 
 She saith : Graunt mercti, leve sir, 
 God quite it you, there I ne may. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amnntis, vol. iii. p. 317 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 Scottish folk corrupted it into Oray 
 mercies ! as an exclamation of surprise 
 (Jamieson). 
 
 Grampus, " a fish like a whale, bnt 
 less " (Bailey), formerly spelt grrnid- 
 pisce, as if the great fish. But as no 
 such form is found in French, the word 
 is probably a corruption of A. Sax. 
 hrdnfisc, a whale-fish (Mahn). 
 
GRANGE 
 
 ( 151 ) 
 
 GRASS 
 
 Give me leave to name what fish we took ; 
 they were Dolphins, Bonetaes, Albioores, 
 Cavalloes, Porpice, Grampassii (the Susmari- 
 niis), &o. — Sir Thos. Herbert, Travels, p. 401 
 (1665). 
 
 Grange, an old Scotch corruption of 
 grains, the branches of a burn towards 
 the head. See Grains. 
 
 At Threeburn Grange, in an after day, 
 There shall be a lang and bloody fray. 
 Thomas of Erceldoiiue, 
 
 Gbant, from 0. Fr. graunter, groan- 
 ier, originally craanier, creanier (from 
 Low Lat. creanto/re, credentare, to as- 
 sure, accredit), influenced perhaps in 
 spelling by confusion with O. Fr. ga- 
 rantir, of the same meaning (Skeat, 
 Etym. Diet.). But of. grate beside Lat. 
 orates. 
 
 Gkape-shot, a quantity of broken 
 pieces of iron and miscellaneous mis- 
 siles discharged from a gun, is evi- 
 dently another form of Icel. grdf, sleet, 
 used poetically of arrows, the form in 
 prose being hra/p, krofpi. The curious pa- 
 raUehsm, however, of Swed. d/ruf-hagel, 
 grape-shot, from drufva, a grape, must 
 be taken iato consideration. 
 
 Compare Gray's "Iron sleet of arrowy 
 shower," Vir^'s "ferreus ingruit 
 imber" (Mn. xii. 284), and "Hastati 
 spargunt hastas, fit ferreus im6er" (Bn- 
 nius, Ann. viii. 46). 
 
 Gray's line seems modelled on Mil- 
 ton's 
 
 Sharp sleet of arrowy showers. 
 
 Par. Regained, iii. 323, 
 
 and this on Spenser's "sharp showre 
 of arrowes " (F. Queene, V. iv. 38). 
 
 In old Enghsh shower is a storm of 
 arrows, a battle, A. Sax. scur. 
 Th6 shall haue many a sharpe shower, 
 both the King & Tryamore, 
 They shaU never haue peace. 
 Percii Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 112, 1. 929. 
 
 Compare A. Sax. isern-scur (iron- 
 shower), a battle, scur-beorg, a battle- 
 ment. 
 
 Oft gebM isern scur, 
 ))onne str^ia storm . , . 
 Scoc ofer scyld-weall. 
 
 Beowulf, 1. 3116 (8th cent.). 
 Oft he abode the iron-shower ; the storm 
 of arrows flew over the shield-wall. 
 
 Geass-man, a Scottish term for a 
 tenant who has no land, but is only a 
 "cottar," seems a paradoxical forma- 
 tion. However, the word has nothing 
 
 to do with grass. Another form of it 
 is gerss-man, or gers-man, for gersom- 
 wian, i.e. one who pays gersom, gressom, 
 or grassom, which is a sum paid to a 
 landlord by a tenant on entering a 
 farm, old Eng. gersom, payment or 
 reward, A. Sax. gaersuma, a fine or pre- 
 mium, gersume, a treasure. Holland 
 says Norwich paid " an hundred shil- 
 lings for a gersume [a fine] to the 
 queene" {Gamden, p. 474). 
 
 He ne bere<5 no gursum. — Ancren Riwle, p. 
 350. 
 
 Grass-widow, a provincial term for 
 a woman who is a mother and not 
 married, also for a wife in the absence 
 of her husband. It might seem that 
 grass here is for grace, pronounced in 
 the French fashion, old Eng. gras, as if 
 a widow by grace or courtesy ; indeed 
 the Suffolk form is grace-widow (Moor). 
 A grass hand is a term used among 
 printers, and means (I believe, for I 
 cannot find it in any glossary) a tem- 
 porary or supernumerary workman, a 
 hand by grace or sufferance, as it were, 
 in contrast to the regular and perma- 
 nent staff of employees. 
 
 The word, however, is not pecuhar 
 to Enghsh. In Low German it appears 
 as gras-wedewe, in Swedish as grixs- 
 enha, ht. "grass-widow" (Tauchnitz 
 Diet.) , Prov. Dan. grcBsenka. Compare 
 the nearly synonymous Ger. stroh- 
 wittwe, " straw- widow." It has been 
 conjectured that the Scandinavian 
 words, which are doubtless the origi- 
 nals of our own, are colloquial forms 
 oi grcBdesenka, from gradig, longing (our 
 "greedy"), meaning one who yearns 
 or longs for her husband in his absence, 
 like the Belgian hcBchwedewe, from 
 hcBcken, to feel strong desire. Cf. old 
 Eng. grees, greece, a step, from gradus, 
 (See Atkiason, Cleveland Olossa/ry, p. 
 231.) OradAg, Dan. graaMg, is cog- 
 nate with Gotliic gred/as, Ir. gradh, love 
 (agra), Sansk.j'Wd^, to desire or long for. 
 
 Grass, heart of. To take, a corrup- 
 tion in old authors of the once familiar 
 phrase " to take hea/rt of grace," i.e. to 
 be of good courage. 
 
 Persuaded thereunto by her husbandes 
 lelosye, [she] tooke harte atgrasse, and would 
 needes trie a newe conclusion. — Tell-Trothes 
 New-Yeares Gift, 1693, p. 23 (New Shaks. 
 Soc. ). 
 
GBAVING-DOGK ( 152 ) 
 
 GBEAT 
 
 Taking hart at grasse, drawing more neere 
 him, I praied him to tell me what Purgatory 
 is. — Tarlton's Jests, p. 57 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Graving - dock is probably con- 
 sidered by most persons to be derived 
 from grave, to dig out or excavate 
 ("gravynge, or delvynge, Fossio." — 
 Prompt. Pa/rv.). It was originally a 
 dry dock where the bottom of a ship 
 could be pitched or graved, i.e. smeared 
 with graves or greaves, grease or refuse 
 tallow, Prov. Swed. grevar. 
 
 To grave a ship [sea-term] to preserve the 
 calking by dawbing it over with tallow, train- 
 oil, &c., mix'd. — Bailey, Diet. 
 
 Geavy, a corrupt spelling apparentlji 
 of old Eng. grovy, "Hec promulada, 
 grovy." — Wright, Vocahula/i-ies (15th 
 cent.), p. 266. The original meaning 
 seems to have been ^^oi-Uquor, potage, 
 from old Eng. greovaz=o]la, (A. Sax. Vo- 
 cabulary, 10th or 11th cent., Wright, 
 p. -288). The word perhaps was con- 
 founded with grave, graves, grea/ves, tal- 
 low refuse, from which indeed Prof. 
 Skeat derives it. But gravy does not 
 seem to have meant fat, but the juice of 
 the meat. Chapman speUs it grea/oy, 
 and distinguishes it from fat, " Their 
 fat and greavde" (Odys. xvui. 63). . 
 
 Gkay-mile, I a name for the plant 
 
 Geay-mylb, j Uthospermum officinale 
 (" gray millet ") in Turner, Herhal, ii. 
 40, GraynviU in Cotgrave, O. Eng. 
 forms gromel, grumelle, gremM, and 
 gromwell, Fr. gremil. The Latin name 
 of the plant having been gramem (or 
 grarmm) soKs, and miUirni, these words 
 may have coalesced into the above 
 popular names (Prior). 
 
 Boddeker says the origin is Lat. 
 granum milii. 
 
 Asa gromi/l in grene grene is Jie grone. — 
 Johori, 1. 37 {Alteiig. Diclitungen, p. 146). 
 
 In milium so/is, the epithet of the sun 
 hath enlarged its opinion ; which hath, indeed, 
 no reference thereunto, it being no more than 
 tithospermon, or grummel, or rather milium 
 soler; which as Serapiou from Aben Julie! 
 hath taught us, because it grew plentifully 
 in the mountains of Soler, received that ap- 
 pellation. — Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudadoxia 
 E-pidemica, Works, vol. i. p. 214 (ed. Bohn). 
 Gilofre, gyngure, & gromyli/oun.. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, 'p. 2, 1. 43. 
 
 Geaze, to scrape slightly and super- 
 ficially, formerly spelt grase, seems to 
 be merely an assimilation of rase (Fr. 
 
 raser, to touch or grate on a thing in 
 passing by it.- — Cotgrave), to graze, to 
 crop the surface of the sward as cattle 
 do (lit. to grass), or perhaps to graie 
 (Skeat). So Fr. grat is not only a 
 scratching or scraping, but pasture or 
 grazing for cattle (Cotgrave). 
 
 Great, a colloquial expression for in- 
 timate, famiUar, favourite, fast friends, 
 as "They are very great with the 
 Browns," was formerly in general use ; 
 also for favourite, much affected, as 
 " That is a great word of yours." The 
 Dorset folk have "to be gret" (=veiy 
 friendly), Barnes; the Scottish griis 
 " They two be very gret." — Sternberg, 
 Northampton Glossa/ry. 
 
 A little National School girl in Ire- 
 land once explained that the Cate- 
 chism phrase, " to be in charity with all 
 men," meant " to he great with them." 
 Bp. Hall remarked that " Moses was 
 great with God" [Contemplations, Bk. 
 vii. 1). 
 
 Lady Castlemaine is still as great with the 
 King. — Pepys's Diary, vol. ii. p. 5 (ed. M. 
 Bright). 
 
 "No snail " 's a great word with him.— iJ. 
 Brome, A Jovial Crew, v. 1 (1652). 
 
 The Lord Boid was grait with the Regent, 
 and haid a cusing in our College. — J. Mel- 
 ville, Diary, 1.578, p. 69 (Wodrow Soc). 
 
 As to the origin of this word it is 
 difficult to speak with confidence. Put- 
 ting aside A. Sax. grii, peace (notwith- 
 standing the analogy of si6, related, from 
 A. S. sib, peace) ; A. Sax. gredda, the 
 bosom; Ir. gradh, dear, beloved (Sansk. 
 grdh, to desire), we may probably see 
 in this "great" a derivative of A. Sax. 
 gretan, to know familiarly (orig. to 
 welcome or "greet"), Ger. griissen. It 
 is possible, however, that it is identical 
 with " great," large, — to be thick being 
 a phrase quite analogous, — and may 
 mean "of much account," "of high 
 value." In the provincial dialects the 
 two words are kept distinct, e.g. " Thai 
 bee turble grait " (= very close friends), 
 hnt gurt {=: magnus) (P. T. Elworthy, 
 Gramviar of W. Somerset); while in N. 
 England gryth is intimate, and grait, 
 gert, is great. 
 
 " He docs not Top his part " — A gre it word 
 with Mr. Kdward Howard. — BucdrnffAami 
 The Rehearsal, Key 1704, p. 70 (ed. Arber). 
 
 As great as the Devil and the Earl of Kent. 
 — Swijl, Polite Conversations. 
 
GBEOIAN STAIBS ( 153 ) GBET-HOVND 
 
 Grecian Stairs, at Lincoln, origi- 
 nally the Greesen, i.e. the steps, plural 
 of the old Eng. greese, grize, or gree, a 
 step.— M. Miiller, Chips, ii. p. 531. 
 
 Greece, in the phrase a haii of 
 Greece, a fat hart, in old haUads, is for 
 "hart oi grease," O.Fr. graisse, fatness 
 (gras, fat, Lat. crassus). 
 
 Which of you can kill a bucke, 
 
 Or who can kill a doe ; 
 Or who can kill a hart of Greece, 
 Five hundreth foot him fro. 
 IngUdeiv, Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire, 
 p. 53. 
 
 Grey, when used specifically for a 
 horse or steed, bears a curious resem- 
 blance to, and may possibly be the same 
 word as, the Gipsy grey (Pott), grye 
 (Smart), gra (foreign Gipsy, Borrow, 
 Grellman), a horse. Of. Hind, ghord, a 
 horse, ghori, a mare. However, it raust 
 be remembered that horses frequently 
 got names from their colour, e.g. Bay- 
 ard, Liard, Blanchard (Scot, hhnk), 
 Pavel, Ball, Sorrell, Dun, Grizzle, and 
 cf. " Scots' Greys." 
 Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, 
 That cost thy life, my gpallant grey ! 
 
 Scott, Lady oftlie hake, I. ix. 
 He look'd — he knew the raven's prey, 
 His own brave steed: — "Ah! gallant ffr«/.'" 
 
 Id. IV. XX. 
 " Gae saddle to me the black," he cried, 
 
 " Gae saddle to me the gray ; 
 Gae saddle to me the swiftest steed, 
 To hie me on my way." 
 Lord Barnaby, 1. 48 {Child's Ballads, 
 
 vol. ii. p. 309). 
 He spurr'd the gray into the path, 
 
 Till baith his sides they bled. 
 Auld Maitlaud (^Ibid. vol. vi. p. 225). 
 
 .Grey bird, a name for the thrush 
 in W. Cornwall (M. A. Coiirtney), and 
 Sussex (Parish), recalls its Fr. name 
 grive, which is perhaps akin to griveler, 
 to pilfer {gripper, " gripe," &o. — 
 Soheler), as if the plunderer, sc. of the 
 vines. Of. the names, Ger. iveind/rossel, 
 weingart wgel; mavis, Fr. mauvis 
 ( ? imderstood as malum vitis) ; and 
 the proverb " SoM comme une grive." 
 
 Grey-hound, so spelt as if called 
 from its grey colour, A. Sax. grmghund, 
 greghund (from grceg, greg, grey), is 
 l)roperly the Graian or Greoian (A. Sax. 
 Grcec, Chic) dog, canis grams. Scot. 
 gray dog. — So I. Taylor, Woi'ds a/nd 
 Places, p. 415 (2nd ed.). 
 
 Among the diners kinds of hunting Dogs 
 the Grey-hound or Grecian Dog, called The- 
 reuticos or Elatica (by reason of his swift- 
 nesse) .... deserueth the first place. — 
 Topsell, Historic of Four-Jooted Beasts, 1608, 
 p. 14»t. 
 
 Grehownde (al. gresehownde), Leporarius. — 
 Prompt. Puroulorum. 
 
 It was also known in Scotch as the 
 grey, grew (cf. old Eng. greiu z:: greek), 
 grewhund, and grewan (Jamieson), old 
 Eng. grewnd. 
 
 'The counterpart of this conversion 
 of graian into grey occurs in an old 
 epigram on Lady Jane Grey, who " for 
 her excellency in the Greek tongue was 
 called for Greia, Graia, and this made 
 to her honour iu that respect. 
 
 Miraris lanam Graio sermone valere ? 
 
 Quo nata est primdm tempore, Graia fuit. 
 Camden, Remaines, 1637, p. 163. 
 
 Similarly in Spanish galgo, a grey- 
 hound, is from gallicus canis (Diez). 
 
 Compare spaniel, the Spanish dog, 
 Lat. molossus, a mastiff (i.e. the Molos- 
 sian, from Epirus), tiirhey, Fr. dinde 
 (pouletd'Lide), Ger. halehuter, canary, 
 and many other bfrds and animals 
 named after the countries from which 
 they were introduced or were sup- 
 posed to come. 
 
 Otherwise we might identify the first 
 part of the word with Icel. grey, Gaelic 
 gregh, Ir. grech, a hound. Spehnan 
 says : "A Greyhound, Ovidio canis GalU- 
 ciLs, sed proprie magis Britanndcus " 
 [Glossa/rium, 1626, s.v. Ganis). A dis- 
 tinct corruption is old Eng. grif-hound 
 {King AVysaunder, 1. 5284), with which 
 agrees old Dutch griip-hund (Kilian), 
 as if the dog that grips its prey. 
 
 In the Constitutions of King Canute 
 concerning Forests occur the words : — 
 
 Nullus mediocvis habebit nee custodiet 
 Canes, quos Angli Greihounds appellant. — 
 Spelmun, Glossarium (1626), p. 290. 
 
 Tristre is \>er me sit mid i>e greahundes forte 
 kepen \:e hearde. [A tristre is where men 
 wait with the greyhounds for to meet the 
 herd]. — Anci'en Riwle, p. 332. 
 
 (je hare yernfi, );e gryhond hym uol3"Jj 
 [The hare runneth, the greyhownd him fol- 
 loweth]. — Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 75 (1340). 
 As Sonne as I can renne to the laye. 
 Anon the greyhondys wyl me have. 
 
 E. Eug. Miscellanies, p. 46 (Warton 
 Club). 
 
 The Greyhownde called Leporarius, hath 
 his name of this word Gre, which word 
 soundeth gradus in latine, in Englishe degree. 
 
OBID.IBON ( 154 ) OBIG 
 
 Wi' jumping and thumping 
 The verra girdle rang. 
 
 Burns, Works, p. 48 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Griffin, a term applied in India to 
 a novice or green-horn. Can this be 
 from Fr. griffon, griffoneur, one who 
 writes badly, and so a backward pupil, 
 a novice or bejaune ? 
 
 GBia. The proverbial expression 
 " Merry as a grig " is probably a cor- 
 ruption of the older " Merry as a Oreek" 
 The word has been generally under- 
 stood to mean a small, wriggling eel, 
 so called perhaps from its colour, A. 
 Sax. grceg, gray, just as another fish 
 has been named a "grayling." As 
 "grig," however, is a provincial term 
 also for the cricket, as it were the gray 
 insect, in Icelandic grd-magi, "gray- 
 maw" (compare the "gray-fly" of 
 Milton's " Lycidas "), it is more natural 
 to suppose that the phrase is synony- 
 mous with another equally common, 
 " as merry as a cricket; " the cheerful 
 note of the cricket, even more than its 
 lively movements, causing it to be 
 adopted as an exemplification of merri- 
 ment. Holland has "grig hens" 
 (Phny, i. 298), cf. W. Cornwall grig- 
 gan, a grasshopper (M. A. Courtney, 
 E. D. S.). 
 
 The high-shoulder'd grig, 
 Whose great heart is too big 
 For Ills body this blue May mom. 
 Lord Lytton, Poems (Owen Mere- 
 dith). 
 
 But grig is probably a popular sub- 
 stitute for Oreek. Gotgrave, for example, 
 explains gouinfre, " a madcap, Mierri/ 
 grig, pleasant knave," gringalet, "a 
 merry grig, pleasant rogue, sportfuH 
 knave." Cfrec, gregeois, griesehe, gregue, 
 are various French spellings of the word 
 Oreek (compare " gregues, foreign hose 
 [i.e. Greek], wide slops, gregs" (Cot- 
 grave) ; and the word gringalet, a merry 
 grig, may be only another form of 
 grigalet or gregalet, a diminutive of 
 grec, i.e. a greekling, grmaidus, n being 
 inserted as in the old French term for 
 holy water, gringoriane, a corrupted 
 form of gregoriane, " so termed," says 
 Gotgrave, "because first invented by 
 a Pope Gregory." 
 
 From the effeminacy and luxurious 
 living into which the later Greeks de- 
 generated after their conquest by the 
 
 Because among all dogges these are the most 
 principall, occupying the chiefest place, and 
 being simply and absolutely the best of all 
 the gentle kinde of houndes. — A, Fleming, 
 Cairn of Eng. Dogges, 1.576 (p. 40, repr. 
 1880). 
 
 Yet another false etymology is this 
 of Fuller's : — 
 
 I have no more to observe of these Grey- 
 hounds, save that they are so called (being 
 otherwise of all colours), because originally 
 imployed in the huntins of Grays ; that is, 
 Brocks and Badgers. — Worthies of England, 
 vol. ii. p. 4 (ed. 1811). 
 
 Grid-iron, formerly spelt gyrdiron 
 (Levins), gredyrnej'WyclxSe (Ex. xxvii. 
 4), is a corruption of old Eng. gredire, 
 a griddle, another form of Welsh 
 grMell, gradell, a griddle, also a grate 
 (SpurreU), Ir. greidell (haec creteUa). 
 These words, as well as old Welsh 
 gratell, are from L. Lat. graticula, for 
 craticMla, a dim. of cratis, a hurdle, a 
 barred grate (Zeuss ; Whitley Stokes, 
 Irish Olosses,-p.4S; Ebel, GelUcStuiMes, 
 p. 101). A griddle is thus a gratel or 
 little grate. Prom the same source 
 come It. gradella, Pr. greille, Eng. grill 
 (Diez). Prof. Skeat less probably holds 
 to a Celtic origin, and so HaJdemann 
 {Afiees, p. 178). 
 
 Nes Seinte Peter .... istreiht o rode, 
 and Seint Lorenzo ^e gredil. [Was not 
 S. Peter stretched on the cross, and S. 
 Lawrence on the gridiron']. — Ancren Rimle, 
 p. 362. 
 Vp a gredire hi leide him se))J3e ; ouer a gret 
 
 fur and strong 
 To rosti as me dej? verst flesc. 
 
 Juife of it. Quiriac, Legends of Holy 
 
 Rood, p. 58, 1. 504 (E. E. T. S.)." 
 
 \>e King het bat me scholde anon : vpe a 
 
 gridire him do 
 And roste him wib fur & pich. 
 
 Life of S. Christopher, 1. 203 (Philolog. 
 Soc. 1858, p. 65). 
 
 Grifdyryne, Graticula, craticulum. 
 
 Rost yryn, or gradyryn, craticula, crates. 
 Prompt. Parvuiorum (1410). 
 
 Jje gredime & jje goblotes garnyst of syluer. 
 ALliteratine Poems, p. 73, 1. 1277 
 (14th cent.). 
 
 Their Boucan is agredirore of fowre cratches, 
 set in the ground, a yard high, and as much 
 asunder, with billets laid thereon, and other 
 stickes on them grate-wise. On this they 
 rost the flesh. — Purchas, Pilgrimages, America, 
 Bk. viii. ch. 5, § i. p. 1037. 
 
 The Scotch have altered griddle to 
 girdle. 
 
OBIG 
 
 ( 155 ) 
 
 GROUNDS 
 
 Romans, their name became a b3rword 
 for lon-vivants, good fellows, or con- 
 vivial companions. 
 
 She [Maria Ctesarissa] abruptly vented 
 herself in these expressions, " Greece la 
 grown barbarous and quite bereft of its 
 iormer worth ; not so much as the mines of 
 valour left in you, to reach forth unto pos- 
 terity any signes that you were exti'acted 
 from brave ancestors .... The merri/ Greek 
 hath now drowned the proverb of the valiant 
 Greek." — T. FulLer, The Profane State, p. 465 
 (1648). 
 
 The boonest Companions for drinking are 
 the Greeks and Ge}-mans ; but tlie Greek ia 
 the merrier of the two, for he will sing, and 
 dance, and kias his next companion ; but the 
 other will drink as deep as he. — Howell, Fam. 
 Letters (1634). Bk. ii. 54. 
 
 " No people in the world," it has 
 been said, " are so jovial and merry, so 
 given to singing and dancing, as the 
 Greeks " (P. Gordon). So Bishop HaU, 
 in his " Triumphs of Rome," having 
 spoken of the wakes. May games, 
 Christmas triumphs, and other con- 
 vivial festivities kept up by those trnder 
 the Roman dition, adds these words — 
 " In all which put together, you may 
 well say no Greek can be merrier than 
 they.". In Latin, grcecari, to play the 
 Greek, meant to wanton, to eat, drink, 
 and be merry. 
 
 [They drank cupsj sometimes as many 
 together as there were letters contained in 
 the names of their misti'esses. Insomuch that 
 those were provei'bially said to Greeke it, 
 that quaft in that fashion. — Sandys^ Travels, 
 p. 79. 
 
 Shakespeare says of Helen, " Then 
 she's a merry Oreeh indeed " (Troilus 
 and Cressida, i. 2), and the phrase 
 occurs repeatedly in other vsriters of 
 the same period. Cotgrave defines 
 averlan to be " a good fellow, a raad 
 companion, merry Greeh, sound drunk- 
 ard ; " while Miege gives " a meiTy 
 grig, un plaisant conipagnon," and 
 " They drank till they all were as 
 merry as grigs " occurs in " Poor 
 Robin's Almanac," 1764. We can 
 easily perceive that the latter phrase, 
 both in sound and signification, arose 
 out of, or was at least fused with, the 
 older one " as merry as a Greek." 
 That the connexion between the two 
 was remembered and recognized so 
 late as 1820 is proved by the following 
 quotation, which I take from Nares — 
 
 A true Trojan and a mad merry grig, 
 though no Greek.— Barn. Jon™, vol. i. p. 54. 
 
 Matthew Merygreeke, the "needy 
 Humorist" in Udall's Ralph Boister 
 Bolster (1566), says : — 
 
 Indeede men so call me, for, by him that us 
 
 bought. 
 Whatever chance betide, I can take no 
 thought. 
 Act i. sc. 1 (Shaks. Soc. ed. p. 2). 
 I'll cut as clean a caper from the ladder, 
 As ever merry Greek did. 
 
 Masslnger, The Bondman, v. 3 (sub 
 fin.). 
 In Sussex grig by itself means gay, 
 merry. " He's always so grig " (Parish, 
 Glossary, p. 50). 
 
 I left the merry griggs .... in such a 
 hoigh yonder ! such a frolic ! you'll hear 
 anon. — R. Brome, A Joviui Crew, i. 1 (1652). 
 Let us hear and see something of your 
 merry grigs, that can sing, play gambols, and 
 do feats. — Id. ii. 1 . 
 
 Geimask, in the old play of The 
 Women's Conguest,1671 CSiaieB). "No 
 more of your grimasks," seems to be a 
 corruption of grimaces, under the in- 
 fluence of mask. 
 
 Grinning swallow, a Scottish name 
 {orgroviD.disel,alsogrundieswallow,grun- 
 dieswally, are corruptions of A. Sax. 
 grundswelge (Britten and Holland). 
 
 Gbizzle, a name for the gooseberry 
 in some parts of Scotland, is a cor- 
 rupted form of grosel, Fr. groseille, Lat. 
 grossularia. 
 
 Geoom, formerly any kind of man- 
 servant, seems to be a corrupted form 
 of old Eng. gome, A. Sax. guma 
 (^ O. H. Ger. gomo, Lat. homo, stem 
 gamon, the " earth-bom," akin to Lat. 
 humus, the ground, Gk. chamai. Pick), 
 the r being due to a confusion with 
 Icel. grom/r, a boy, O. Dut. gram, 0. Fr. 
 gromme, whence gromet, a valet, and 
 gourme de chamih-e (See Scheler, s.v, 
 Gourme) . 
 
 And gomes of gowrlande sail get vp Jrar 
 baneris. — BerTuirdus de cura rei famulians,, 
 p. 26, 1. 117(E. E. T. S.). 
 
 Hire meiden mei techen sum Intel meiden 
 j:et were dute of forto leornen among gromes 
 [=boys]. — Ancreii Rii^le, p. 422. 
 Ich am nou no grom, 
 Ich am wel waxen. 
 
 Havelok the Dane, 1. 790. 
 
 Geounds, the dregs or sediment of 
 coffee or other liqiiids, so spelt as if it 
 
GROUNDSEL 
 
 ( 156 ) 
 
 GBOW-GBAIN 
 
 signified the ground or bottom precipi- 
 tated by a liquor (A. Sax. grund), is 
 really the same word as grouts, the lees 
 or grains left after brewing, with n 
 inserted, as is common, A. Sax. grut 
 (Lmce Boo. iii. lis. Cockayne), Dutch 
 gruyte, Low Dutch gruus, Gal. gruAd, 
 dregs. Norm, grut, connected with 
 grit, groats, A. Sax. gredt, Ger. griitze. 
 Cf. W. Cornwall grudglings, dregs, Ang. 
 Ir. gradiians, " Groundes, lyse of any 
 lycoure, &"(Palsgrave, 1530). " Grown- 
 desope of any lyooure, Fex, sedimen" 
 (Prompt. Faro. c. 1440). Orminn, 
 about 1200, says " Mss winniss drunn- 
 kenn to l^e grund" (vol. ii. p. 133) ; he 
 means, no doubt, to the lees, and not 
 as Mr. Ohphant curiously interprets 
 it, " down to the ground " ^ omnino 
 Old and Mid. English, p. 219). 
 
 A' com'd in heal'd witli .... grute 
 [coTered with mud]. — Mrs. Palmer, Devon- 
 shire Courtship, p. 6. 
 
 Grute, Greet, coiFee grounds, finely pul- 
 verized soil Growder, soft granite used for 
 scouring. — M. A. Courtney, W. Cornwall 
 Glossary, E. D. S. 
 
 The nasalized form is also found in 
 Celtic grunndas, dregs. 
 
 Geoundsel, the name of the plant 
 Senecio, assimilated to groundsel or 
 groundsil, the threshold of a door 
 (Bailey), was oiigmaRjground-swallov}, 
 A. Sax. grund-swelge, from swelgan to 
 swallow or devour. It is still called 
 in Scotch and Prov. Eng. grundy- 
 swallow (Prior). Compare, however, 
 Ir. grunnasg. An old form of the 
 word is groundswell, as if that where- 
 with the earth teems. 
 
 This groundswell is an Iieavbe mucli like in 
 shape vuto Germander. — P. Holland, Plinie's 
 Nat. Hist. (1634), vol. ii. p. 238. 
 
 Senecio, grund-swylige. — Wrighfs Vocabu- 
 laries, p. 68. 
 
 Levins has the corrupt form grene- 
 swel (Manipulus, 56, 1570), but not 
 grounsoyle, p. 215 (as Skeat), which is 
 a distinct word. 
 
 Geovel. This verb seems to have 
 originated in the mistaken notion that 
 groveling, in such phrases as " to lie 
 groveling," was a present participle. 
 The word, however, is really an adverb 
 and to be analyzed, not into grovel -1- 
 ing, but into grove -I- ling, i.e. groof- 
 loiig, along the groof or groufe, an old 
 
 English word for the beUy. Similar 
 forms are headling and headlong, flat- 
 ling and flatlong, da/rkUng and darhlong. 
 Prof. Skeat, I find, has come to the 
 same conclusion, comparing Icel. ligg- 
 Ja a grufu, to lie on one's belly (Cleasby, 
 218). " They fallen groff, and crien 
 pitously." — Chaucer, 0. Tales, 1. 951. 
 
 The Lord steirit upe an extraordinar mo- 
 tion in my hart, quhilk maid me atteaos, 
 being alean, to fall on gruifftothe ground.— 
 J. Melville, Diary, 1571, p. 24. 
 
 Layin mysel doun a' my length on my 
 grufe and elbow. — Wilson, Noctes Ambrosianis, 
 vol. i. p. 293. 
 
 Grovelynge, or grovelyngys, Suppine.— 
 Prompt. Parv. 
 
 To make grufelynge, supinare. — Cath. 
 Anglicum. 
 
 ft is natures check to us, to have our head 
 beare upward, and our heart groiiell below,— 
 Bp. Andrewes, Sermons, p. 753 (fol.). 
 
 Grouelyng to his fete fiay felle. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 33, 1. 1120 
 (14th cent.). 
 
 Flat on the ground himself he grooeling 
 throwes. 
 
 Syloesterj Du Bartas, Div. Weeha 
 S; Workes, p. 338 (1621). 
 
 Holland (1609) has the spelling 
 grovelong, and womhelyng in Kyng AM- 
 sounder (1. 5647) occurs in a like signi- 
 fication. Somewhat similarly, to lant, 
 a piece of modem slangfor putting one's 
 self on regimen as Mr. Banting did, 
 was the audacious coinage of some 
 laconic wit who resolved that gentle- 
 man's name into a present participle. 
 The verb to sidle owes its existence 
 to a like mistake (see infra); and 
 to darkle has been evolved out of the 
 adverb da/rkUng. Compare edgling 
 (Cotgrave, s.v. Az). 
 
 People .... rush upon death and chop 
 into hell hlindling. — Ward, Sermons, p. 57 
 (ed. Nichol), 1636. 
 
 Gbow-geain, an old corruption of 
 grogrami, formerly spelt grogran, from 
 Fr. gros grain, stuff of a coarse grain. 
 
 Wither in his Satires speaks of 
 
 Turkey Graw-graines, Chamblets, Silken Rash, 
 And such like new devised foreign trash. 
 
 Banffshire grow-grey, understood as 
 cloth made of the natural grey wool 
 as it grows, is doubtless the same 
 word. 
 
 She keeps hir man weel happit wee grow- 
 g rey. — Gregor, Banff G lossary . 
 
GBOWLEB 
 
 ( 157 ) 
 
 GUM 
 
 Growler, a slang term for a four- 
 wlieeled cab, refers to its slow pace cora- 
 pared with the two-wheeled hansom, 
 and is only another form of " crawler," 
 compare old Eng. growl, to crawl ; 
 growling, the premonitory shivering of 
 ague ; apparently akin to Fr. grouller, 
 grouiller, to move, stir, give signs of 
 life, . . to swarme, abonnd, or break 
 out in great numbers (Ootgrave), gros- 
 ler, orosler, orouler, to shake, tremble. 
 These latter forms seem to be from O. 
 Fr. crodler (m-oiler), Prov. crotlar, from 
 Lat. corotulare, to roll together (Diez). 
 " He died of lice continually growling 
 out of his iSeshe, as Scylla and Herode 
 did." — Udal, Erasmus's ApopMhegmes, 
 1564. On the other hand crawl was 
 sometimes used for growl. See Davies, 
 Supp. Eng. Olossa/ry, s. w. • 
 
 Gttaed-fish, a provincial name for 
 the Belone vulgaris (i.e. needle-SiBh), is 
 a corruption of its ordinary name gar 
 or gar-fish, from A. Sax. gar, a spear, 
 Icel. geirr, so called from its sharp- 
 pointed snout. Compare its other 
 names, gore-hill, long-nose, sea-needle, 
 sea-piTce, wha/up-fish, i. e. curlew-fish 
 (Satchell, E. D. S.). 
 
 Guerdon. If the rights of every word 
 were strictly regarded, instead of guer- 
 don we should use some such form as 
 wUhloan, or witherloan. Our Anglo- 
 Saxon forefathers had the word wiier- 
 ledn for a recompense, literally, lean, 
 a loan, wage, or reward, w<5er in return 
 (or as a set-off, &c., for work done), 0. 
 H. Ger. widarlon. This word being 
 adopted into the Eomance languages, in 
 which Lat. donMm, a gift, was farniliar, 
 but lean. Ion, strange, was changed into 
 guiderdone in Italian (Low Lat. wider- 
 donum), guerredon (as if "war-gift ") 
 and guerdon in old French, galajrdon 
 (for gada/rdon) in Spanish. From the 
 French we received back our mutilated ■ 
 loan-word, as guerdon. (Diez.) 
 
 It is good to senie suche a lorde that gar- 
 doneihe his seruaunt in suche wise. — Book of the 
 Knight of La Tour-Landry, p. 4(E. E. T. S.). 
 
 [They] doen their serriee to that soveraigne 
 
 Dame, 
 That glory does to them for guerdon graunt. 
 Spenser, F. Queene, I. x. 59. 
 
 Guest, an old form of ghast or ghost. 
 Soot, ghaist, as if the soul were regarded 
 as an inmate of the bodily house. 
 
 Breathlesse th6 lyen, 
 Gaping against the moon ; their guests were 
 
 away. 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. i. p. 232, 1. 401 (ghosts, 
 Lyme MS. J. 
 
 Guest-taker, another form of gist 
 taker (otherwise agister), quoted by 
 Mr. Wedgwood from Bailey, meaning 
 one who takes in cattle to pasture (Fr. 
 giste, gite), as if one who plays the host 
 to his neighbour's cattle. (Philolog. 
 Trans. 1855, p. 69.) 
 
 Oiste is from gesir, to lie (Lat. jacere), 
 and means properly a resting-place ; 
 of. Fr. ci git, here Kes, common in epi- 
 taphs. The gist of a matter is how it 
 lies. Holland uses gist for a halting- 
 place ornight's lodging. "The guides . . 
 cast their gists and journeys " (Idvy, p. 
 1193.) 
 
 Kennett says that "to gise or juice 
 ground, is when the lord or tenant 
 feeds it not with his own stock, but 
 takes in other cattle to agist or feed it." 
 — Parochial Antigmties (1695), B. D. 
 Soc. Ed. p. 13. 
 
 Guinea-pig, is supposed to be a cor- 
 ruption of Gv/iana-pig, as it came from 
 S. America, and chiefly from Brazil 
 (Skeat, Etym.Bict.). 
 
 Gum, when used in the sense of an 
 exudation or secretion from a sore, the 
 eyes, &c., is a corruption of old Eng. 
 gownd (pus, sanies), A. Sax. gund, 
 matter (Lmce Boc, I. iv. 2, Cockayne). 
 Compare Hind, gond, gum. 
 
 Gownde of jje eye. Ridda albugo. — Prompt. 
 Parv. 
 
 The adjectival form of the word, 
 generally applied to the eyes, is gunded, 
 gownd/y, gunny (Yorks.), gownd/ye (Skel- 
 ton). 
 
 In the following from Shakespeare 
 gowne seems to be the same word, in 
 the sense of secretion : — 
 Our poesy is as a gowne which uses [oozes] 
 From whence 'tis nourisht. 
 
 Timon of Athens, i. 1 (1st Fol. 1623). 
 
 When the same writer, with refer- 
 ence to horses, speaks of 
 The gum down-roping from their pale-dead 
 
 eyes, 
 the word is possibly the same. 
 
 So the red-gum, an eruptive humour 
 mentioned in Langham's Garden of 
 Health, 1579, is "reed gownde," in Pals- 
 
GFM-BBAGON 
 
 ( 158 ) 
 
 HAGGABD 
 
 grave, 1530, " Bedgownd, sekenesse of 
 yonge chyldryne, Scrophulus," in the 
 Prortvptoriiim Farvulorwm, ab. 1440. 
 
 Sadegownde, Vision of Piers Plow- 
 man, c. xxiii. 83 (on which See Prof. 
 Skeat's note). 
 
 In Gawain Douglas's Sohes ofEnea- 
 dos, gwm is used for an exhalation or 
 mist, see Olosscury, s. v. 
 
 Devonshire Barn-gum, some inflam- 
 matory skin disease, is perhaps Badrn, 
 or child's gum {Exmoor Courtship, 1. 
 557, E. D. S.). 
 
 As soon as ever he saw the child he said 
 just as we did, that it was nothing in the 
 world but the red gum. — Jane Austen, Sense 
 and Sensibilit)!, vol. iii. oh. 1. 
 
 GtJM-DEAGON, 0. Eng. draga.nt, Fr. 
 dragagant, altered from iragacantlie, 
 Greek tragahdntha, the "goat-thorn," 
 Spanish dra-gante, " a kinde of gumme 
 that bumeth " (Minsheu). In Latin the 
 form dragantum is found as well as 
 tragacanthum. 
 
 GuTTA Pekcha, so Called as if ffom 
 Lat. guUa, a drop, denoting the exuda- 
 tion from the tree, is an AngKcizedform 
 of the Malayan name, getahper^ah,i.e. 
 " gum of Sumatra" (Soheler), some- 
 times spelt gatah pertcha (Devio). 
 PercJia (or as the French spell it, 
 Pertjah) is the native name for Sumatra, 
 whence the gum was originally brought, 
 being obtained there in abundance. (P. 
 M'Nair, Perak and the Malays.) 
 
 Gyr-palcon, apparently so called 
 from its gyrating ilight, like old Eng. 
 "wheel-hawk," "Fulco, hweal-hafoc." 
 — Wright's Vocabularies, p. 77; but 
 see Gekpalcon. 
 
 Girqf'alcones a giro dicti sunt eo quod in 
 girum et circuitus multos tempus expendunt. 
 ■ — Aleic. Neckam, De Nat. Rerum, chap. xxvi. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hack-bkrby, a North-country name 
 for the fruit of Prunus Padus, is a cor- 
 ruption of Heg-herry, i.e. Hedge-berry, 
 A. Sax. hege, hedge. Cumberland chil- 
 dren say " we caw them hegherries be- 
 cause they heg our teeth," ie. set them on 
 edge.— Britten and Holland, Plant- 
 Names, p. 253. Another corruption is 
 Sag-herry, 
 
 Hackbush, an obsolete name for a 
 heavy hand-gun (Wright), is an evident 
 corruption of haquebut, i.e. a "hook- 
 but," according to Sir S. D. Scott, from 
 its stock being hooked or bent. (TAe 
 British Army, vol. i. p. 258), but see 
 Aequbbdss, supra. 
 
 Wright also gives the form shagebush, 
 Harquebush occurs in Elizabefli'a in- 
 stnictions to the Erie of Bedford (Scott, 
 op. oit., p. 351). 
 
 Hackbct, ) old names for the arque- 
 HagbuT, ) bus (O. Fr. haquebuie, asif 
 connected with buter, to thrust), are 
 corruptions of Dut. haahhis, the gun, 
 bus, with a hook, hook, or support from 
 which it was fired. 
 
 Had bather, an idiomatic use, as in 
 the sentence " I had rather starve than 
 be dishonest," meaning I prefer, wish 
 sooner (Lat. malo, i.e. ma^e-volo), seems 
 to have been evolved out of the cUpt 
 and colloquial idiom I'd rather. Pud 
 rather, for I would ratJier, i.e. I should 
 will or wish rather, misunderstood as 
 1 'ad rather, I had rather. The phrase 
 in other moods and tenses consequently 
 does not exist. Cf. " I had as Hef," and 
 see Craik, English of Shakespeare, p. 
 102. 
 Than such faire words I'de rather the fowle, 
 
 Vntuned schreeching of the doleful! owle 
 Or heare the direfull mountaine-wolfe to 
 howle. 
 
 T. Fuller, Davids Heavie Punishment, 26 
 (1631). 
 
 I had rather be a kitten and cry mew. 
 
 Shakespeare, 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 
 
 I had rather be a dog and bay the moon. 
 Id., Julius CtEsar, iv. 3. 
 
 Haggard, thin, worn-looking, so 
 spelt as if the original meaning was 
 farouche, wild-looMng, Kke a haggard 
 or untamed hawk ; of. " hagard, that 
 has a fierce or wild look." — Bailey. 
 , It is really, says Prof. Skeat, a corrup- 
 tion of hogged (Lestrange, Gray), i.e. 
 thin and scraggy like a hag or witch 
 (Etym. Diet. s. v.). 
 
 Bailey, however, gives " hagger, lean, 
 thin," which surely must be equated 
 with Ger. hager, thin, hagern, to grow 
 lean (cf. Cornish hager, ugly, "Welsh 
 hagr). Scheler notes that in German 
 hager -folk (lean-falcon ) is a popular cor- 
 ruption oiliaga/rt-falk, a haggard-falcon. 
 
 0. Pr. heingre, lank, Norm, haingre, 
 
3AG-B0PE8 ( 159 ) HALF SEAS OVEB 
 
 sickly, which might seem to be allied, 
 are from Lat. mger, sick, with an in- 
 trusive n. A haggard hawk is one used 
 to hve in the liedges or hags (A. Sax. 
 hege), as a ramage was one that lived 
 in the branches (rames), cf. savage 
 (salvage), Kving in the woods (sUvcb). 
 
 No colt is so unbroken, 
 Or hawk yet half so haggard or unraann'd ! 
 
 B. JoiisoUj The Sad Shepherd, act iii. sc. 1 
 (Works, p. 501). 
 Fancy, that wild and haggard faculty, 
 Untiimed in most, and let at random fly. 
 Was wisely govempd, and reclaimed by thee. 
 
 J. Oldham, Upon the Works of B. Jonson, 3 
 (1678). 
 
 The first yeere of her trade she is an eyesse, 
 scratches and cryes to draw on more affec- 
 tion : the second a soare : the third a ramage 
 whoore; the fourth and fift, she's an inter- 
 mewer, preies for herselfe, and ruffles all she 
 reaches; . . . now shee growes weary and 
 diseas'd together . . . the next remove is 
 haggard, still more cunning ; and if my ai't 
 deceive me not, more crazy. — Sir Thos. Over- 
 burii. Characters, Works, p. 83 (ed. Rimbault). 
 
 Dryden has the curious spelling hag- 
 
 Some haggared Hawk, who had her eyry nigh, 
 Well pounced to fasten, and well winged to 
 
 fly- 
 
 The Hind and Panther, Part III. 1. 1116. 
 His wild disordered walk, his haggered eyes. 
 Id. Part 1. 1. 166. 
 
 Hag-bopes, a Somerset name for the 
 wild clematis or traveller's joy, from A. 
 Sax. hege, hage, a hedge, Dut. haag. 
 
 Haie-gbass, an imitation of its Latin 
 name aira (Prior). 
 
 Haibup, ) North country names 
 Haikough, > for the plant gfaMitmapa- 
 rine, or goose-grass, also hay-rough, are 
 corrupt forms of ha/r'if, its name in other 
 places [not from aniraagined Fr. heriffe, 
 rough, bristling, as Britten and Holland, 
 p. 242, which is merely a misreading of 
 herisse, with long s's, in Cotgrave ; but] 
 O. Eng. hayryf, A. Sax. hegerife (Som- 
 ner), apparently iarhege-reafaoi "hedge- 
 reaver," hedge-robber, so called from 
 its habit of catching or laying hold of 
 anything that touches it. For the same 
 reason it was called " of som Philan- 
 thropos, as though he should say, a 
 mans friend, bicause it taketh hold of 
 niens garments." — Oerard, Herbal, p. 
 964. Compare its names cleavers and 
 catch-weed ; and country-lawyers, a 
 
 Leicestershire word for brambles, as 
 fleecing what they seize on. 
 
 Hayryf, herbe, Rubea. — Prompt. Parvulo- 
 rum. 
 
 The whole plant is rough, and his rugged- 
 nes taketh holde of mens vestures and wool- 
 len garments as they pass by. — Gerard, Herbal 
 (1597), p. 964. 
 
 Haiky-mouse, and Aiby-mouse, 
 names for the bat in W. Cornwall 
 (Courtney), are perhaps corrupted 
 forms of A. Sax. hreremus, a bat (the 
 rearing or flying mouse, from hreran, to 
 agitate), Prov. Eng. rere-mouse. 
 
 Half an eye, in the phrase " one 
 may see it with half an eye," i.e. at a 
 glance, easily, seems to have meant 
 originally with half one's ordinary 
 sight {acie dimidiatd), old Eng. halfen- 
 eye (like half en-deal), a term which 
 Spenser applies to the one-eyed Mal- 
 becco. 
 
 And our curate is called no double 
 A papiste London throughout ; 
 And truth is it, they do not lye : 
 It may be sene wyth halfe an eye. 
 Doctour Doubbk Ale, 1. 210 (Early 
 Pop. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 313). 
 So perfect in that art was Pai'idell, 
 That he Malbeccoes halfen eye did wyle ; 
 His halfen eye he wiled wondrous well. 
 And Hellenors both eyes did eke beguyle. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, III. x. 5. 
 What craft, deceite and robbery can there 
 bee in dice playing ? Are not the little dice 
 cast downe vpon the table, that euery man 
 may see them that hath but halfe an eye, and 
 may easily tell euery pricke and poynt vpon 
 them ? — J. Noi'thbrook, Treatise against Dic- 
 ing, Dancing, &c., 1577, p. 117 (Snaks. Soc). 
 
 Half-pace, a technical word for a 
 raised floor, platform, or dais, is a cor- 
 rupt form of the old word hal-pace or 
 haJ-pas, which apparently stands for 
 hault-pace, Fr. hatit pas, "high step," 
 old Eng. hauiepace (Hall's Ohrondcle). 
 See Glossa/ry of Architecture, s.v. 
 
 Each stair also in the half way having a 
 pause or half-pace which is very large and 
 square, flagg'd with Porphyre, and lined at 
 the sides with a brighter coloured Marble 
 than the rock, which divides tbe double stair, 
 and above the half-pace winds the contrary 
 way to what it is below. — Sir Thos. Herbert, 
 Travels, 1665, p. 147. 
 
 Half seas ovee, a popular phrase 
 for partially drunk, tipsy, is perhaps a 
 modification of the old expression upsee, 
 understood as over sea, frequently used 
 
HALI-WOBT ( 160 ) 
 
 EANDOUFFS 
 
 by old writers in the phrases to drink 
 upsee Butch { Jonson), and upse-freeze 
 (Dekker), said to be for op zyn fries, 
 "in the Frisian fashion" (Nares). 
 Thus the meaning would be half way 
 to total inebriety. Wright gives over- 
 seen := tipsy (Prov. Diet.) which may 
 be connected. 
 
 To title a drunkard by we (loath to give 
 him such a name so gross and harsh) strive 
 to character him in a more mincing and 
 
 modest phrase, as thus One that 
 
 drinks upse-freeze. — T, Heywoodj Philocotko- 
 nista. 
 
 Hali-wokt, i.e. Holy Wort, an old 
 Eng. name for the plant Fumaria 
 bulhosa, ia a corrupt form of Hole-wwi 
 or Hollow-root, RaxMx cava (Cockayne, 
 LeecJidoms, &c. vol. iii. Glossary : Ger- 
 ard, Eerhall, p. 930). 
 
 Halloween, according to Mr. Oli- 
 phant, is not, as generally understood, 
 a contraction of [All] Hallow's een. All 
 Saiats' Eve(n), but the modernized 
 form of old Eng. halehenes (or haleiene) 
 in the Anoren Bdwle, p. 94, A. Sax. 
 halgana (sanctorum), a genitive plural. 
 He observes that some churches dedi- 
 cated to All Saints or All Hallows 
 were formerly called All Hollcmds. — 
 Oliphant, Old and Mid. Eng. p. 272. 
 The Ancren Bmole has also the form 
 Al/re halewune dei (p. 412). So Hallow- 
 mass (Shakespeare) is for All Hallows' 
 Mass, from Mid. Eng. Jialowe, a saint, 
 A. Sax. hdlga (See Skeat, Etym. Bid. 
 
 S.V.). 
 
 \>e Tapeners .... fram alle halowenett/d 
 for here work shuUen take for jie cloth 
 xviij .d. : firam j^e annunciation of oure lady, 
 and of |;at tyme for to an-o)jer tyme of ai- 
 habwene, ij.s. — English Gilds, p. 351 (Ed. 
 Toulmin Smith). 
 
 Uor alle his haluwene luue [For the love of 
 all his saints]. — Ancren Riwle, p. 330. 
 
 About all-hallantide (and so till frost 
 comes) when you see men ploughing up 
 heath ground, or sandy-ground, or green- 
 swards, then follow the plough. — I. Walton, 
 Coinpleut Angler (1653), chap. xii. 
 
 Frydaye, thatwas the xxx. day of Octobre, 
 we made sayle, but the wynde arose eftsones 
 so cotrariously ayenst vs, that we were fayne 
 to faj'le to an acre by the coste of the sayd 
 yleofAlango, .... and there we lay Sater- 
 daye, Alhalowe Euyn, all daye. — Pylgrirmige 
 o/' Syr R. Guylforde, 1506, p. 59 (Camden 
 Soc.j, 
 
 Hammek-bleat, a name for the snipe 
 in the Cumberland dialect. From the 
 
 resemblance of the summer note of the 
 bu'd to the bleat of a goat, it has been 
 called in French chevre volant, in Scotch 
 the heather -hleai (Johns, British Birds 
 in their Haunts, p. 447). Hammer- 
 hleai is probably a corruption of 0. 
 Norse Jinfr, A. Sax. hafer, a goat, and 
 bleat (Ferguson, Glossary, s. v.). The 
 snipe is also called in Scotch the earn- 
 (neagle) hleafer, heron-hhiter, andyarn- 
 hUter. In Libia's vocabulary (10th 
 cent.) occurs " Bicoca, hcefer-Umte vel 
 pun " (Wright, Vocabula/riss, p. 21, and 
 again s. v. Bugiuni, p. 28) ; A. Sax. 
 hmfer-hlxt, bleating of a goat. 
 
 When you say that in breeding-tim6 the 
 cock-snipes make a bleating noise, and I a 
 drumming (perhaps 1 should rather have said 
 a humming) I suspect we mean the same 
 thing. — G'. White, Nat. Hist, of Selbornt, 
 Letter 39. 
 The laverock and the lark, 
 The baukie and the bat, 
 The heather-bleet the mire-snipe, 
 How many birds be that ? [Ans. Three.] 
 Chambers, Pop. Rhumbs of Scotlxind, p. 42 
 (1842). 
 
 Hammer-cloth, the covering of a 
 coach-box, is said to have been origi- 
 nally hamper-cloth, the box in early 
 times having been nothing more 
 than a large pannier, hamper, or 
 hanaper. The hanaper, old Eng. hamj-- 
 pere {Prompt. Parv.) was a receptacle, 
 sometimes made of wood, for cups, Pr. 
 hanap, A. Sax. Amcep. T. L. 0. Davies 
 quotes an instance of ha/mer-cloth from 
 a document of the time of Queen Mary 
 (Supp. Eng. Olosswry). 
 
 I have not been able to verify this 
 derivation, but it seems more probable 
 than that ha/mmer denotes a (bear-sldii) 
 covering, Icel. hamvr (A. Sax. hcmw), 
 a covering, as asserted in Phihlog. 8oc. 
 Trans. 1855, p. 32. So, however. Prof. 
 Skeat, who regards it as an adaptation 
 of Dut. hemel, an arched roof, " the 
 testem of a couch [not "coach"]."— 
 Sewel. 
 
 Hammeegeate is the disguise that 
 the verb to emigrate assumes in N. W. 
 Lincolnshire (Peacock, Glossa/ry). 
 
 Handcuffs. This word for manacles, 
 as if euphemistically cuffs for the licmdt, 
 is a corruption of A. Sax. hcmd-ayps 
 (which was perhaps mistaken for a 
 plural), cops or cosp denoting a fetter 
 (of. cispan, to fetter). In provincial 
 
HANDIGBA FT 
 
 ( 161 ) 
 
 EANDSENYIE 
 
 Enfclish cops is still used for the con- 
 necting crook of a harrow, and cosp 
 for the fastening of a door. Welsli 
 cyffion, stocks [?Eng. gyves], cosp, 
 punishment, Gael, ceap, stocks, also to 
 catch or hold, Lat. caprrc, are probably 
 related. Slanica, Jiandcops. — Wright's 
 Vocahdaries, p. 95. 
 
 Handicraft, a corruptian of hand- 
 crnft, A. Sax. hand-crceft, a trade, from 
 a false analogy to handiworh, I. e. hand- 
 iworlc, O. Eng. liond-iiverc, A. Sax. 
 hand-geweorc, geiveore being another 
 form oiiveorc (see Skeat, Efyni. Did., 
 s.v.) 
 
 Hence risen learned men in ecbe estate, 
 Cooningr in handii craft and facultie. 
 F. Thtjnn, Debute between Pride and Lowli- 
 ness (ah. 1568), p. 22 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Hand-op-gloey, the hand of a per- 
 son who had been hanged prepared with 
 certain superstitious rites, and used by 
 housebreakers "to stupify those to 
 whom it was presented, and to reader 
 them motionless, insomuch that they 
 could not stir any more than if they 
 were dead." See an account of the 
 charm by Grose, translated from Les 
 Secrets du Pefit Albert (1751), in Brand, 
 Fop. Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 278 (ed. 
 Bohn). 
 
 The whole formula probably arose 
 from a misunderstanding of the French 
 term main-de-ghire, a. nteme for the 
 mcmdragora, a plant of notoriously 
 magical properties, and a corruption of 
 iixandragore, which Cotgrave gives with 
 the alternative forms mandegloire and 
 mand/regloire. " 3Iain de glaire, the 
 name of a pretended charm made with 
 the root of mandragoras prepared in a 
 certain manner, to which impostors 
 attribute the power of doubling the 
 money to which it is apphed. It is an 
 alteration of mandegloire, which in its 
 turn is an alteration of mandragore. 
 Eesulting from this disfigurement of 
 the word is main-de-gloire, the name of 
 another pretended charm, which is 
 made with the hand of one who has 
 been hanged, enveloped in a grave 
 cloth" (Littre). 
 
 Here is the description of it given by 
 Mr. Dousterswivel: — 
 
 De liand of glory is vary well known in de 
 countries where your worthy progenitors did 
 live — and it is hand cut oiF from a dead man, 
 
 as has been hanged for murther, and dried 
 very nice in de shmoke of juniper wood; and 
 if you i)ut a little of what you call yew wid 
 your juniper, it will not be any better — 
 that is it will not be no worse — then you do 
 take something of the fatsh of de hear, and 
 of de badger, and of t\p gieat eber, as you 
 call de grand boar, and of de little sucking 
 child as has not been cliristeued (for dat is 
 very essentials), and you do make a candle, 
 and put it into de lumd of g lorn at de proper 
 hour and minute, witli de proper ceremonish, 
 and he who seeksh for treasuresh shall never 
 find none at all. — Scott, The Antiquarii, chap, 
 svii. 
 
 For the remarkable " Stainmore 
 story" about the Hand of Glwy, see 
 Monfhlij Paclict, vol. xxiv. p. 253. 
 
 From the earliest times the man- 
 drake has been used for charms and 
 love philtres (Gen. xxx. 14), whence its 
 name Circsea, and " Devil's apple " an 
 Arabic name for its fruit. It really 
 possesses a soporific and intoxicating 
 power, and was formerly used as an 
 ansesthetic, like chloroform at present. 
 " It is an ordinary thing to drink it . . 
 before the cutting or cauterizing, 
 pricking or launcing of any member, 
 to take away the sence and feeling of 
 such extrerae cures. And sufficient it 
 is in some bodies to cast them into a 
 sleep with the smel of Mandrage against 
 the time of such Chirurgery. ' ' — -Holland, 
 Pliny's Nat. Hist, vol. ii. p. 235. See 
 also Bochart, Opera, vol. iii. p. 865. 
 Compare Mandeagon. Hence, no doubt, 
 the supposed stupifying power of the 
 main-de-gloire. The belief that it was 
 produced under the corpse of one 
 hanged may have contributed to the 
 ghastly form assumed by the charm. 
 
 There haue been many ridiculous tales 
 brought vp of this plant, whether of olde 
 wines or some runnagate surgeons or phisick- 
 mongers. . . . Thay adde further, that it is 
 neuer or verie seldome to be founde growing 
 naturally but vnder a gallows, where tlie 
 matter that hath fallen from the dead bodie, 
 hath giuen it the shape of a man. — Gerarde, 
 Herbal, p. 281. 
 
 Handieons, a corrupt form of and- 
 irons [Glossai-y of Arcliitect^we, Parker). 
 See s. V. Endieons, the quotation from 
 Quarles. 
 
 Handsenyie, a word used in old 
 Scotch writers for a standard, token, 
 or standard-bearer (Jamieson), is a 
 corruption of the Scotch an.senye, or 
 
HANBSA W 
 
 ( 162 ) 
 
 HANGNAIL 
 
 ensenyie, old Eng. ancien, ancient, Pr. 
 enseigne, " ensign," Lat. insignia. 
 
 Handsaw, in the proverbial expres- 
 sion " to know a hawk from a handsaw " 
 (Hamlei, ii. 2, 396), was no doubt origi- 
 nally a hemshaiv, which is a corruption 
 of the older form heronsewe, apparently 
 altered from Pr. hh'onneav,, a young 
 heron, under the influence of hernshaw, 
 a heronry, a shaw or wood frequented 
 by herons (Skeat). 
 
 Minerva's hermhaw and her owl 
 Uo both proclaim, thou shalt control 
 The course of^hings. 
 B. Junson, The Masque of Augurs (1622). 
 
 Handwhyle, an old Bng. word for a 
 
 short space of time, A. S. hand-hwil, as 
 
 if the turning of a hamd (Jiand-hwyrfl), 
 
 Thus Langland says the Latin fathers. 
 
 Harowede in an hand-whifle'a\ holy Scripture. 
 
 Vision of Piers Ptowmany C. xxii. 272 
 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 
 Herkings now a hondqwite of a high cas. 
 
 Altiierative Troy-book, 1. 7346 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 HandwMle, in consequence of the in- 
 stability of the aspirate, may veiy well 
 be for and-while, a breathing-tiuie, 
 which gives a much better sense, from 
 the old Eng. ande, aande, breath, other 
 forms being onde, oonde (Prompt. 
 Parv.), ende, Scot, aynd, Icel. anda, to 
 breathe, Swed. dnde (cf. Lat. an-imus, 
 Gk. an-emos). The Scotch have hand- 
 while, hanlawhile. Old Eng. and, 
 breath, was sometimes written hand, 
 e.g.— 
 
 His nese ofte droppes, his hand stynkes. 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, I. 775. 
 While itself (Goth. Ivaeila) seems origi- 
 nally to have meant a rest, a cessation 
 of labour, a period of repose, being im- 
 mediately akin to Eunic huiler, he re- 
 poses, or sleeps (G. Stephens), Goth. 
 \g3,)hueilan, Icel. and Scand. hvila, 
 hviie, 0. H. G. wilon, to rest. 
 
 Gray correctly describes a hand/while 
 in his Ode on the Spi-ing — 
 
 Still is the toiling- hand of care. 
 The panting herds repose, &c. 
 
 Handy, a word used in the North 
 of Ireland and elsewhere for conve- 
 nient, near, as if "close at hand," e.g., 
 " The church is qiiite handy," is a cor- 
 ruption (and indeed a reversion to the 
 radical meaning) of the old English 
 hende, near, later hendi, A. Sax. gehende. 
 
 Ge witon Sast sumor ys gehende [Ye know 
 
 that summer is near]. — A. S. Version, S. 
 
 Luke, xxi. 30. 
 
 An oSer stret he makede swiSe hendi. 
 
 Layamon, Brut (ab. 1205), vol. i. p. 206. 
 I nas neuer 5et so hardi- to nesh hira sohende. 
 William ofPalerne, 1. 278 (ab. 1350) 
 ed. Skeat. 
 
 Nothing can lie so handu together as our 
 two estates. — H. Fielding, Hist, of a Found- 
 ling, book vi. ch. 2. 
 
 Handy seems also to be used in Wilt- 
 shire as a preposition =: near, as Prof. 
 Skeat quotes from the Monthly Maga- 
 zine, 1812, "hand^i ten o'clock" (E. 
 D. Soc. Eeprint, B. 19). 
 
 Hangee, a broad, short, crooked 
 sword (Bailey), so spelt as if named 
 from its hanging by the side, just as the 
 straps by which the weapon was sus- 
 pended from the belt were also formerly 
 called hangers. Similarly hcmgm; its 
 name in Dutch, seems to be from 
 hangen (Sewel, 1708). 
 
 Zagaglia, ... a iauelin. Also a Turkish 
 Bword or Persian Cimitary. Also a short 
 bending sword called a hanger. — Florio, Ital. 
 Diet. 1611. 
 
 Mahus, a faulchion, hangar, wood-knife.— 
 Cotgrave. 
 
 In the one .hand he had a pair of saddle- 
 bags, and in the other a hamper of mighty 
 size.— H. Fielding, Works, p. 693 (ed.l84i). 
 
 The word is really a corruption of 
 the Arabic hhandjar, a sabre, whence 
 also Pr. cangia/r, hhanjar, and aljmge 
 [■zz al-lihandjo]-), Devic. 
 
 Yataghan, kandjar, things that rend and 
 
 rip. 
 Gash rough, slasK smooth, help hate so many 
 
 waj'-s. 
 
 Browning, A Forgiveness. 
 
 Eawlinson would identify the Persian 
 hhandjar with the saga/ris of the Mas- 
 sagetsB, comparing the Armenian saa; 
 Lat. securis (Herodotus, vol. i. p. 351). 
 Purther corruptions seem to be w/m'w- 
 gar, whiniard, and Whinyaed, which 
 see. 
 
 Hangnail, a piece of abraded skin 
 beside the finger-nail, so called as if to 
 denote that which hangs beside the 
 nail, Prov. Eng. angnail, A. Sax. mg' . 
 naegl, apparently that which wngmsMt: 
 the nail (from ange, pain, trouble), ihe 
 same word as old Eng. 
 
 Laser fetcheth out by the roots the agneU 
 or corns in the feet. — Hoilund's Pliny, io\. 
 1634, torn. ii. p. 13-1. 
 
HABDSHBEW 
 
 ( 163 ) 
 
 HASTENEB 
 
 5[ardshkew, "a kind of wild mouse" 
 (Bailey), a corrupted form oi erd-shreiv, 
 or earth-shrew, the shrew-mouse. 
 
 Hakdymouse, a Northampton name 
 for the shrew-mouse, is a similar cor- 
 ruption. 
 
 Toparagno, a Night-bat. Also the hardie- 
 shrmi'. — Florio, New World of Words, 1611. 
 
 Hake's beakd, a popular nanae for 
 the plant mullein (also formerly called 
 Bear's heard, Florio, s. v. Verhasco), is 
 perhaps a, mistaken translation, says 
 Dr. Prior, of its Italian name tasso 
 harlasso (as if bearded badger), which 
 is itself a manifest corruption of the 
 Latin Thapsus Verhascum. 
 
 Harpees-cobd, a corruption of harp- 
 sicord in old writers, Fr. harpechorde 
 (Cotgrave). 
 
 Arpicordo, an instrument like Clarigols 
 called a harpers cord. — Florio, Neiu World of 
 Words, 1611. 
 
 Haepins iron, a corrupt form of 
 harpon-iron, a harpoon, formerly spelt 
 ha/rpon, Fr. harpon, Dut. harpoen, It. 
 to/rpagone, from Lat. harpago(n). 
 
 Captain Andrew Evans striking one at the 
 Moritius with his harping iron, and leaping 
 into the sea to make short work with his 
 Stelletto, was so crusht by the Mannatee 
 who circled him, that he died .shortly after. 
 —Sir Thos. Herbert, Travels, 1665, p. 27. 
 
 After a long conflict it [a whale] was 
 kill'd with a harping yron, struck in the head, 
 out of which spouted blood and water by two 
 tunnells, and after a horrid grone it ran quite 
 on shore and died. — /. Evelyn, Diary, June 
 3, 1658. 
 
 Haeping Johnny, a Norfolk name 
 for the plant Sedum Telephiim, is 
 clearly a corruption of Orpine (Johnny). 
 See Orphan John. 
 
 Harridan, a contemptuous term for 
 an old woman, a withered old beldame, 
 which has been regarded as a deriva- 
 tive of hairried, worried, exhausted, 
 worn out (Bichardson), is most pro- 
 bable an Anglicized form of Fr. aridelle, 
 or haridelle," a lean or carrion tit ; an 
 ill-favoured fleshless jade ; also, an 
 Anatomy, or body whereon there is 
 nought left but skin and bone" (Cot- 
 grave), and that a derivative of aride, 
 dry, withered, without sap (Lat. ari- 
 dus.). In Mod. French haridelle is also 
 applied to a thin scraggy woman. In 
 the Wallon dialect tnvtte is an Ul-con- 
 
 ditioned horse, cow, or ass (Sigart), 
 Liege hwrotte. Compare crone, origi- 
 nally a toothless old ewe, jade, abroken- 
 winded horse, rampihe, a decayed old 
 tree. 
 
 What Lapland witch, what cunning man, 
 Can free you from this haridan > 
 
 Parson, Imitations of Horace, lib. i. ode 34. 
 But just endured the winter she began, 
 And in four months a batter'd Harridan. 
 And nothing left, but wither'd, pale, and 
 shrunk. 
 Pope, Poems, p. 472, 1. 25 (Globe ed.). 
 
 C'est le propre d'un cheval puissant, et a 
 I'eschine forte, quand il part promptement, 
 et est ferme en son arrest. Une haridelle qui 
 court la poste, ira plusieurs pas apres qu on 
 luy a tire la bride. Qui est cause de cela! 
 C'est sa foiblesse. — L'Esprit da Franpois de 
 Sales, torn. i. p. 146 (,ed. 1840). 
 
 Harrier, a modem orthography of 
 harier, as if (like harrier, a kind of 
 buzzard) named from its harrying its 
 prey (so Bailey), disguises its true 
 meaning, har{e)-ier, or hare-hound 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Harry Soph, or Henry Sophister, 
 a name at Cambridge for one who has 
 kept all his terms but has not taken 
 his degree, was probably originally 
 Sarisoph, i. e. ipiao^og, valde eruditus 
 (Wordsworth, Unmersity Life in Eigh- 
 teenth Gent. p. 644). 
 
 Harvest-row, a Wiltshire word for 
 a shrew-mouse, probably corrupted 
 from harvest-sJm-ow or -shrew (B. 
 Dialect Soc. Eeprints, B. 19). 
 
 Haskwoet, an old name for the plant 
 campanula irachelium, as if good for 
 the hash or hoarseness, appears to have 
 been adapted by Lyte from the Grerman 
 halscrxiyt (neck-plant). He says they 
 are "soveraigne to cure the payne and 
 inflammation of the necke, and inside 
 of the throte." — Britten and Holland, 
 p. 244. Cf. Cleveland ha/use, the neck, 
 n Scand. hals. 
 
 Hastener, a tin screen used to re- 
 flect the heat of the fire on meat when 
 roasting, so called as if it derived its 
 name from hastening the operation, is 
 really a corruption of the old and pro- 
 vincial Eng. hosteler or hastlere, " jiat 
 rostythe mete (orroostare), assator, as- 
 sarius." — Prompt. Parvulorvmi; " Has- 
 tener, a screen for the purpose of has- 
 tening the cooking of meat (!)." — Stern- 
 
EATGE-EOBN 
 
 ( 164 ) 
 
 EATTEB 
 
 berg, Nortliainpfon Glossary. Similar 
 words are haistry, the place for roasting 
 meat ; hastery and liasieletes, a kind of 
 " rostyd mete ; " Prov. Eng. haste, to 
 roast ; 0. Fr. hastcur, Lat. Jiastator, he 
 who roasts; all from Pr. haste {hate), a 
 spit or broach, hnMelle, a skewer, as it 
 were the spear (Lat. hasta) on which 
 the meat is transfixed and suspended 
 before the fire. 
 
 In the Wallon dialect of N. France 
 hate-levee, a piece of roasted bacon, 
 seemingly une piece levee a la hate, or 
 dressed in haste, is of similar origin, 
 being from Flemish hasten, to roast. 
 Dr. Sigart thinks that levee here is a 
 corruption of Flem. lever, a fiver, and 
 that the dish originally (like Fr. hi'de- 
 reau, Flem. snede lever) consisted of 
 pig's liver grified (Dictiormaire du 
 WaMon de Mons, p. 208). 
 
 Hatch-hoen, a Lancashire word for 
 an acorn or acharne, Cheshire atcliern. 
 See Acorn. 
 
 Hatchment, an escutcheon erected 
 over the door where a person has died, 
 is a corruption of atcMevement, an old 
 spelling of achievement, i.e. a coat-of- 
 arms commemorative of some exploit 
 achieved by himself or his ancestors. 
 The word has been assimilated to 
 hatchment, the ornament of a sword- 
 hilt, hatch, to engrave with lines heral- 
 dically, to inlay vidth silver, to adorn ; 
 Fr. hacher. H is often found prefixed 
 to a word where it has no right to be, 
 e.g. old Fr. hache (Cotgrave) = ac/ie, 
 parsley; hermit for eremite i hostage iov 
 ostage ; howlet for owlet ; huisher, heme- 
 raulds (HoUand) for usher, emeralds ; 
 holder (Ascham) for alder ; in the in- 
 scriptions of the catacombs hossa, lior- 
 dine, hoMtum, &c., are found for ossa, 
 ordine, ohitum, &c. Compare Hos- 
 tage. 
 
 Similarly, it ought to be hit, as it 
 once was. Usher was formerly huscher 
 (Tristrem, p. 40), Fr. huissier ; able, 
 hable (Lat. liahiUs) ; ariiclmka, harti- 
 chohe ; ugly, hugly (Levins) ; ostler, 
 hustler ; ortolan, hortolan ; a/rhotir, har- 
 bour. 
 
 On the other hand, harmony used 
 once to be spelt armony ; Ivymn, ymn ; 
 hellebore, ellebm-e (Holland) ; hypocrite, 
 ipocrite ; heresy, formerly erisie ; host, 
 0. Eng. oste; hermit, formerly and pro- 
 
 perly, eremite. In old texts harm, hend, 
 herl, helder, howle, hox, &o., are frequent 
 forms of oA'm, end, ea/rl, elder, owl, ox, 
 &c. 
 
 As a remarkable instance of the per- 
 versity of Cockney pronunciation may 
 be mentioned Holborn, originally Old 
 Bourne, which has lately been changed 
 back again into 'Olborn. A song be- 
 ginning "As I was going up 'Olhorn 
 'ill," was some years ago popular in the 
 music halls of Loudon. 
 
 Hattee, in the phrase, " As mad as 
 a hatter," a proverbial libel on a quiet 
 class of tradesmen — stereotyped for the 
 present generation in the excellent 
 fooling of Alice in Wonderland — is per- 
 haps a popular survival of the old Eng- 
 lish word hetter, meaning furious, 
 violent, inflamed with anger. It still 
 survives in various senses in the Pro- 
 vincial dialects, e.g. hetter, ill-natured, 
 bitter, keen (North), spiteful, malicious 
 (Northampt. Sternberg); Scot, heitle, 
 fiery, irritable ; Cheshire hattle, wild ; 
 A. Sax, hoetol, hot, furious, from A. Sax. 
 hut, hot ; Icel. heitr, Swed. het. Com- • 
 pare also O. Eng. hethele, a hot iron ; 
 hotter, to boil (North) ; hotterin, boiling 
 with passion (Craven) . Thus the phrase . 
 would mean, As mad as a person hot 
 with passion — Ira breads furor. Cf. 
 " But for her I should ha' gone Iwihe- 
 ring mad." — Dickens, Hard Times, 
 chap. xi. Compare also Goth, haiis, 
 wrath, hatan, to hate, connected with 
 Sansk. h'anda, hot, flaming, passionate 
 (Bopp). 
 
 Hatterliche, hetferly in old Enghsh 
 =: violently, angrily, fiercely. 
 
 He het hatterliche sti'upen hire steortnaket. 
 —Liflude of S. Julhiiia (1230), p. 16 fE. E. 
 T. S. ). [lie bade savagely to strip her stark- 
 naked.] 
 
 He braydes to Jje quene, 
 & hent hire so hetterly ' to haue hire a-sti'an- 
 geled. 
 
 William of Paleme, 1. 150. 
 
 The Alliterative Poems say of Jonah : 
 Jjen hef [ = heaved] vp )je hete & heterl} 
 
 breniied . . . 
 Witlj hatel anger & hot, heterly he callpj- 
 P." 102, 1. 4Sl. 
 
 Hatture is an old spelling of hotter- 
 On heom is mony yrene beond, 
 |:at is hattnre |;ene Jje brond. 
 Old Eng. MiiceUaiiii, p. 151, 1. 254. 
 
 An absurd comparison has been in- 
 
HAUF-BOGK'T ( 165 ) 
 
 HA WKEB 
 
 stituted with the French "II raisonne 
 eomme une hultre." An oyster may be 
 stupid, but scarcely mad. 
 
 Hauf-rock't, a word apphed to a 
 simple, half-witted person in the Hol- 
 derness dialect (E. Yorkshire), pro- 
 nounced auf-raoli, as if to denote one 
 not sufficiently rooked in the cradle. It 
 is really a corruption of anf-, alf-, or 
 elf-wclced, rooked by the fairies, a 
 changeling. Half-rocked in Wright. 
 
 So Cumberland hofe-ihicl-, foolish, is 
 no doubt for aitf-ihich, i.e. thick or 
 intimate with the fairies (A. Sax. n-'Jfr, 
 Icel. aJfr), "not all there," but partly 
 in another world ; Lonsdale lioafcn, a 
 half-witted person; Cleveland hoaring, 
 hoavish, hawvisli, aiovish, awfish, silly, 
 for elvinh; old Eng. ehnsch (Chaucer), 
 Ger. elhiscJi. 
 
 A meer chans^eling;, a very monster, an 
 ante imperfect, her whole complexion sa- 
 vours. — Burton, Anatomy of Melaiicjwln, III. 
 ii. 4, 1. 
 
 Haughty, a corrupt modern spelling 
 of hauty, haut, hauU, Pr. hauU, Lat. 
 alius, lofty, from a false analogy to 
 such words as naughty, doughty, taught, 
 camghi, where the g is organic. 
 
 The h initial is probably owing to 
 the reflex influence of Ger. hoch. Die- 
 fenbach suggests a comparison with 
 Prov. Eng. highty, pleasant, cheerful, 
 A. Sax. hyht, hope, joy, &c. — Qoth. 
 Spraclie, ii. 576. 
 
 His corage also hault and fearce, which 
 faylyd hira not in the very death. — Polydore 
 Vet-gil, Eiii^Ush tiistory (temp. Hen. VIII. 
 Camden Soc), p. 227. 
 
 After that Mens strife-hatching- haut Ambi- 
 tion 
 Had (as by lot) made this lowe World's par- 
 tition. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 287 (1621). 
 
 Then stept forthe the duke of Suffolke . . . 
 and spake with an hault countenaunce. — 
 Cavendish, Lif'eofWohey, ll'ordsworth, Eccles. 
 Biog. vol. i. p. 435. 
 
 Milton speaks of the "jealous hauii- 
 nesae of Prelates and Cabin Counsel- 
 lours " [Areopagitica, 1644, p. 33, ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 But as ciuilitie and withall wealth en- 
 creased, so did the minde of man g'rowe 
 dajly more haultie and superfluous in all his 
 deuises. — G. Puitenham,Arle of Eng. Poesie, 
 1589, p. 52 (ed. Arber). 
 
 There are some . . . like unto vessels 
 
 blowne up with winde, filled with a hiiiitie 
 spirit. — Wm. Cuujier, Heaven Opened (1611), 
 p. 76. 
 
 \Vho ever thinkes through confidence of 
 
 miglit. 
 Or through support of count'nance proud and 
 
 hault 
 To wrong the weaker, oft falles in his own 
 
 assault. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, VI. ii. 2.'3. 
 
 Haveedeil, a Cheshire name for the 
 Narcissus, is a corrupted form of old 
 Eng. affadyl, Lat. and Greek asphode- 
 lus, the " daffodil," 0. Pr. affrodiUe 
 (Cotgrave). 
 
 Hawboy, more commonly written 
 hautboy, a corruption of the Fr. haut 
 hois. See Hoboy. 
 
 Now give the Jmutboys breath ; he comes, he 
 comes. 
 
 Dryden, Alexander s Feast, 1. 5.^. 
 They skip and dance, and marrying all their 
 
 voices 
 To Timbrels, Hawboys, and loud Cornets 
 
 noises, 
 Make all the shoars resound, and all the 
 
 coasts. 
 With the shrill Praises of the Lord of Hoasts. 
 J. Sylvesier, Dn Bartas, p. 364 (1621). 
 
 Hawkee has been supposed to have 
 somethiag to do with haiohs, and to 
 have had its origin in days of falconry, 
 when the man who bore the " cadge " 
 or cage on which the hawks were 
 perched was known as the cadger. 
 Hawker, an ordinary Enghsh term for 
 a travelling merchant or "colporteur," 
 has a similar origin (!). — Sat. Review, 
 Jan. 81, 1880, p. 144. " Hawker " has 
 no more connexion with "hawks" than 
 "cadger" with "cage." It is a dis- 
 guised form of huaher (fem. huckster), 
 from old Eng. hack, to peddle, Prov. 
 Eng. huker (Atkinson, Gleveland Glos- 
 sary), Ger. Iwcker, hbker (prob. one who 
 runs up the price, akin to auctioneer). 
 
 If we will stand huching with him, we 
 might get a great deale more. — Up. Andrewes, 
 Temptation of Christ, p. 51 (1642). 
 
 Belated words, then, are old Eng. 
 oker, increase, usury, Ger. wucher, 
 Dut. woeker, and Lat. augere, to in- 
 crease. 
 
 Hwkstare (al. hukstere), Auxionator, auxio- 
 nati-ix. — Prompt. Parvulomm. 
 
 ^HCciojioi-iHS, a hukstere: Auccio, ekynge : 
 Auccionor, to merchaunt and huh. — Medulk, 
 [Way]. 
 
 I hucke, as one dothe that wolde bye a 
 
EAWK-NUT 
 
 ( 166 ) 
 
 HBABT 
 
 thing good cheape, le karcelte, and le mar- 
 chande. — Palsgrave. 
 
 Prof. Skeat thinks that the hucl-er 
 (Dut. heulcer, Dan. hohre) meant origi- 
 nally "a crouoher," one who 7iucks,i.e. 
 hows or stoops, under a burden (sc. a 
 pedlar's pack), comparing Dut. hucJcen, 
 to stoop, Icel. hohra, to crouch. 
 
 I hear thee not at all, or hoarse 
 As when a hawker hawks his wares. 
 Tennysojij The Blackbirdf Poems, p. 68. 
 
 Hawk-nut, a corruption of Jiog-nut 
 (hunhtm flexuosum), sometimes found. 
 — Britten and Holland, p. 245. 
 
 Haws. This name for the fruit of 
 the haw-thorn arose from the supposi- 
 tion that hmu-thorn was the plant that 
 bears haws, whereas its name really 
 imphes the thorn which grows in the 
 haw, hay, or hedge, A. Sax. haga, 
 hege, Ger. hage (Prior). They are 
 provincially known as hagues or hangs. 
 
 Hay, in the old military term "to 
 draw up in Hay " (it occurs in Capt. I. 
 Cruso's Military Discipline, 1689), i.e. 
 in single line, in a row hke a hedge 
 (A. Sax. hege), ::: Fr. en haie, L. Lat. 
 haia. — Scott, The British Army, vol. ii. 
 p. 15. 
 
 Hay-suck, 1 Provincialnamesforthe 
 Hay-sag, f hedge-sparrow, the for- 
 mer in Gloucestershire, the latter in 
 Leicestershire, are corruptions of the 
 old English heisugge, A. Sax. hege- 
 sugge. 
 
 Other corrupted forms probably are 
 the Leicestershire hedge-jug, a kind of 
 titmouse, and, in the Eastern coun- 
 ties, hay-jach, the white-throat. See 
 Isaac. 
 
 3et tbu singst worse thon the hei-sufn^e, 
 3at fiisth bi gruiide among the stubbe. 
 The Owl and Nightingale, 1. 506 
 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Hazel, as a colour name, applied 
 generally to eyes of a greyish brown, 
 has been regarded as an abbreviation 
 of " hazel-nut-coloured," hke chestnut. 
 This seems doubtful when we compare 
 A. Sax. hasu, dark grey, tawny (ap- 
 plied to a wolf or eagle), Icel. Jioss, 
 grey, dusky (Cleasby), corresponding 
 to Lat. crnsius, grey (usually of the 
 eyes, probably hazel), and perhaps 
 connected with Sansk. gjdna-s, smoke, 
 and qjama-s, dark-coloured (Curtius, 
 
 ii. 128). If this be the origin, the word 
 is near akin to haze, originally a grey 
 mist (Skeat). In Northampton hazel 
 is appUed to mould or loam ; in Cleve- 
 land a roan-coloured beast is described 
 as haded (Atkinson). 
 
 All the spirit deeply dawning in the dark of 
 hazel eyes. 
 
 Tennyson, Lockshy Hall, 1. 28. 
 
 Hazekd. In the North of Ireland 
 linen is said to be hazerded when par- 
 tially dried. " Them clothes are not 
 dry at all; they're only hazerded" (Pat- 
 terson, Antrim and Down Glossary, 
 E.D.S.). This is the same word as 
 Prov. Eng. haze, to dry linen, 0. Eng. 
 hazle, to dry, O. Fr. hasler, to expose 
 to the sun, bleach, hasU, sun-burnt, 
 Northamp. hazzled, dry and rough (of 
 the skin), A. Sax. haso, dry, Acts, husky, 
 hoarse ; cf. Sansk. gush, to diy. 
 
 Thou who by that liappie wind of thine 
 didst hazle and drie up the forlorne dregges 
 and slime of Noahs deluge. — Rogers, Naaman 
 the Syrian, p. 886 (1641;. 
 
 Head-gkow, or head-grove, a Shrop- 
 shire word for after-grass (Hartshome, 
 Salopia Antigua), is a corruption of 
 old Eng. edgrow, Prov. Eng. edgrew 
 (Cheshire), which, according to Bp. 
 Kennett, is from A. Sax. ed, again 
 ( := Lat. re-), and growan. 
 
 Edgrow ( al. ete growe), gresse. Bigeiinen, 
 regermen. — Pronipi, Parv. 
 
 The first part of the word is, how- 
 ever, evidently the same as Prov. Eng. 
 eddish (variously corrupted into etch, 
 ersh, esh), A. Sax. edisc, after-math, 
 which may be equated with the 0. H. 
 Ger. word azuuisc, which glosses cwl- 
 tura in the Vocabulary of S. Gall (7th 
 cent.), Goth, atisks, a cornfield (Mark 
 ii. 23). 
 
 Heabse, "among Hunters is a Hind 
 in the 2nd Year of his (I) Age" (Bafley, 
 Diet. B. v.), evidently a corruption of 
 the Ger. hirsch, a stag, a hart, origi- 
 nally, no doubt, the "horned" animal, 
 'akin to Greek heraiff-s, horn, Hke 
 Esthon. hirw, a stag, Welsh carw, Lat. 
 cervus, and Eng. Imrt, A. Sax. heart. 
 See Diefenbach, Goth. Sprache, ii. 539. 
 
 Heiaet, in the somewhat pecuhar 
 idiom, " to learn by hea/rt," may just 
 possibly be a coiTuption of rote, Scotch 
 ratt {^..g.,ratt rime, a poem repeated by 
 
HEART AT GBASS ( 167 ) 
 
 HEIFER 
 
 rote), i.e. ruf, routine, or a beaten way. 
 "Boot, of vse and custome (rot, or vse 
 in custom). Habitus, consuetudo." — 
 Prompt. Fwrv. 
 
 For the metathesis of rote, rati ( ? 
 hrat) into hart, heart, compare Dan. 
 orne, a wild boar, with provincial Norse 
 rone, Icel. runi, Shetland ninnie; 
 "horse," A. Sax. Ws, with Arcs; "hard," 
 Goth, hardu-s, Gk. Mrios, and Icrdtos ; 
 "run," with A. Sax. yrnan, O. E. urn, as 
 'wrdio!rred(rud). " Heart," thoiigh used 
 for the intellectual faculty in other 
 languages (e.g. Lat. re-cord-ari, to re- 
 member), does not seem to have been 
 so used in Enghsh. 
 
 A good memory to learn and get tlie Parts 
 by heart or wrote [rote]. — Address to the 
 Readers, Duchess ofNewcastle's i^tatjs, 1662. 
 
 Hea/rt, O. Eng. hurte (Life of BeJcet) 
 is in Sanskrit hrid, and Greek kardia 
 is in Doric hradia. 
 
 Hbaet at gkass, i.e. heart of grace, 
 
 Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber), pp. 65, 274. 
 
 Compare 
 
 Thou takest hart of grasse, wyfe, not hart of 
 grace. 
 
 Cum gTasse, cum grace, syr, we grase both 
 in one place. 
 
 Heifmood (Spenser Sec. ed.), p. 140. 
 
 [N'. & Q. 4th S. III. No. 56, p. 76.] 
 
 I could not but smile at the madde merrye 
 
 docti-ine of my freend Richard, and therefore 
 
 taking hart at grasse, drawing more neere 
 
 him, 1 praied him to tell me what Purgatory 
 
 is, and what they be that are resident there. 
 
 — Tarltons Neioes out of Purgatorie, 1590, p. 
 
 57 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 These foolish puling sighs. 
 
 Are good for nothing, but to endanger but- 
 tons. 
 
 Take Iieart of grace, man. 
 
 W. Cartwright, The Ordinary, act i. sc. 2 
 (1651). 
 
 Heart Liver, a name for the plant 
 medicago mactdata, is a corruption of 
 the more common term Heart-clover. 
 — Britten and Holland. 
 
 Heart-seed, a Buckinghamshire 
 corruption of Heart's-ease (viola tri- 
 color). 
 
 Heather-bill, a Banff name for the 
 dragon-fly (Gregor), elsewhere in Scot- 
 land called the ather-hill, i.e. adder- 
 bUl, in allusion no doubt to its long 
 shape. 
 
 Heather-bleat, a Scottish name 
 for the snipe, is a corruption of old 
 
 Eng. hcefer-hlcete, 
 Hammer-bleat. 
 
 goat-bleat. See 
 
 Heathnicall is Pliillip Stubbes' 
 spelling of the word ethrUcal (Greek 
 ethnicos, pertaining to the Gentiles), 
 which he also gives as Jiethnicall (Ana- 
 tomie of AUtses, 1585, pp. 211, 222, ed. 
 1836), evidently misled by the false 
 analogy of heathen, the heath-dweller. 
 " Bentley would hardly have discom- 
 mended Stubbes' word ; for he gravely 
 tells us : ' The word heathen comes 
 from tevij."~-Worhs, vol. iii. p. 129." — 
 Fitzedward Hall, Modern English, p. 
 155. 
 
 The Consul of Rome and his wife were both 
 Ethnicks.—A. V. Translators to the Reader. 
 
 Heavel, \ provincial names for 
 
 Evil-eel, J the conger (Satchell), 
 Scot, heawe-eel, all from Swed. hafs-dl, 
 sea-eel, conger, from Swed. and Icel. 
 haf, the sea, Dan. hav. Compare Shet- 
 land haaf-fishing, deep-sea fishing, haof- 
 fish, the great seal. 
 
 Heaver (Kentish), acrab,fromA. Sax. 
 hcefern (Lmtx Boc. I. iv. 2, Cockayne), 
 and that from hcefer, a fork (hcBfer-hite, 
 a pair of pincers). — Philolog. Soc. 
 Trans. 1858, p. 101. 
 
 Hcefer, meaning fork, is, however, 
 hypothetical ; and A. Sax. hcefern 
 (hceiern) is, perhaps, identical with 
 Gk. harahos, Lat. cairabus, crabro, s-ca- 
 rahcBUS, Egypt, hrh, clwb, chpr, a beetle. 
 Cf. Cornish gaver, a crayfish (Polwhele). 
 Or more probably, perhaps, like hafuc, 
 hawk, it is akin to A. Sax. habban 
 (Lat. capere), and means " the seizer." 
 
 Heel, to lean over, as a ship does in 
 a heavy wind, is a corrupt form of held 
 or hild, O. Eng. helden, hilden, A. Sax. 
 hyldan, heldan, to incline, tilt, or bend ; 
 cf. Dan. helde, to slant (Skeat), Dut. 
 hellen, to incline, bend, heel as a ship 
 (Sewel). 
 
 Heldyn', or bowyn', Incline, flecto, deflecto. 
 Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 
 Ye bote begynneth to hylde. 
 
 Palsgrave, 1530. 
 
 To heald, as when you pour out of a Pot. 
 Ray, North Country Words. 
 
 Me schal helden eoli and win beo<5e ine 
 wunden [They shall pour oil and wine both 
 into the wounds]. — Ancren Riwle, p 428. 
 
 Heifer, 0. Eng. heafre, A. Sax. 
 heafor, would seem originally to have 
 
HEIGHT 
 
 ( 168 ) 
 
 EENGEMAN 
 
 meant the bounding animal (cf. Lat. 
 v'ltulus, a calf, and vitulari, to skip), 
 from the Sanskrit root cap, camp, to 
 go (? or bound) ; whence also comes 
 in Greek hdpros, the boiinding boar, in 
 Latin caper, the bounding goat, Scand. 
 hafr, and A. Sax. haefer, a he-goat 
 (near akin to heifer) ; and probably 
 also Lat. cabaUtis, a horse, Ir. capall 
 (cf. Sansk. aapala, swift. — Pictet, Oj'i- 
 gines Indo-Europeenes, tom. i. pp. 347, 
 368). 
 
 Heafor seems to have been regarded 
 as a compound word in old Enghsh, 
 and is frequently written heuhfore, i.e. 
 "high-stepper," with allusion to its 
 rearing and frisky movements, as if 
 from hedh, high, and fwran, to go (Ett- 
 miiller, and Morris, who compares 
 heah-deor, a roe-buck. Accidence, p. 87). 
 Other old forms are liehfere [Prompt. 
 Farv.), hecfcn'de, Prov. Eng. lieclnfor, as 
 if from heck, an enclosure, hke Dutch 
 hoJclieling, a heifer, from hok, a pen. 
 
 Prof. Skeat thinks the last part of 
 the word is A. Sax. fi'.ar, an ox, and 
 that the original meaning of hedh-fore 
 was " a high (i.e. full-grown) ox." But 
 the word seems always to have meant 
 specifically a young cow. 
 
 \'ou are cruel in compelling your childrpn 
 (for weiilth) to goe into loathed beds, for 
 therby you make them bond-slaues : what 
 ploughman is so foolish to yoake young hec- 
 jars and old bullocks togetlier? yet such is 
 your husbandry. — T. Decker, Seuen deadly 
 Sbines oj London (1606), p. 44 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Height, a corruption of the older 
 form lieigfh (Holland's Camden's Bri- 
 tain, p. 637), highth, heighthe, A. Sax. 
 liedhSu. 
 
 And all strong ston wall • sterne opon hei]ye. 
 Ltiiigimil, Pierce lite Ploughman's Crede, 
 1. 'JIS. 
 Heiithe, Altitude, Culmen. — Prompt. Pur- 
 viilonim. 
 
 The a-^cending pile 
 Stood fix'd her stately Iti^Jiih. 
 
 Milton, Par. Lost, i. 723. 
 In tlie middle part of tlie Quire there stood 
 two Cherubins, made ofOliue wood, couered 
 all ouer with fine gold, whose faces and 
 formes were like vnto young children, tlie 
 heighth of them was ten ells. — Llinerurium, 
 Triiuels of the Holy Palriurchs, Sc, 1619, p. 
 12. 
 
 Hell-eakes, spring-teeth rakes, so 
 called " on account of the great quan- 
 tity of work they dispatch in a short 
 
 time" (Old Country and FoA-ming 
 Words, E. D. S., p. 121), is a corruption 
 of the older form heel-rahes, or per- 
 haps of ell-rakes, which is also found. 
 
 Helpmeet, a very common corrup- 
 tion of the word help-mate, under the 
 influence of Genesis ii. 18, "I wiU 
 make him an help meet for him," i.e. 
 suitable for him. Helpmeet, therefore, 
 is merely help-fit. 
 
 Woman .... (is) a. helpnwet to the Teu- 
 ton. — Cox, Mythology of Aryan Nations, vol. 
 i. p. 67. 
 
 It is so spelt also in Miss Yonge, 
 Womankind (passim) ; Dasent, Oaford 
 Essays, 1858, p. 212 ; Paber, On Re- 
 generation, p. 107 ; Eoberts, Oriental 
 Ilhtstrations, p. 3 ; Contemporary Se- 
 view, April, 1876 ; Oua/i-dian, Sept. 22, 
 1875 ; Clement of Alexandria, Trans, 
 in Ante-Nicene Library, vol. i. p. 128 ; 
 Charles Kingsley, Life, vol. i. p. 467 ; 
 Hawlcsfonc, vol. i. p. 85 (2nd ed.). 
 
 The man whom we have recommended as 
 a stimulating helpmeet proves unsatisfactory. 
 — The Saturday Review, July 24, 1880, p. 
 
 The word translated help-meet {(zer) is 
 masculine. — M. D. Conway, Detnonology and 
 Devil-Lore, vol. ii. p. 80. 
 
 Help-mate seems a correct formation, 
 like the old word copesmate. 
 
 Mr. Fitzedward HaU, who strangely 
 enough holds help-mate to be a corrup- 
 tion of help-meet, quotes the compound 
 meet-help from Bp. Sprat (1692), and 
 "meet helper" from WiOiam Strode 
 (1636). 
 
 He adduces instances of the classical 
 word helpmate from Macaulay, Foots, 
 Centlivre, Colman, Wordsworth, Lamb, 
 Southey, Kingsley, and Euskin.— 
 Modern English, p. 156. 
 
 HENB.iNE, A. Sax. henne-helle, "a 
 hen-bell." Perhaps the original form 
 was hengc-helle, hanging bell, especially 
 since, in mediffival Latin, the plant 
 was called symphoniaca, a ring of bells. 
 
 With tlie experience of its poisonous 
 quality, and the natural tendency to explain 
 an unaccountable name into something intel- 
 ligible, Henbell has become Henbane. — Prior. 
 
 Henne-helle, the hyoscyamus, occurs 
 in LocrJidoms, Wortciinning, &c., ed. 
 Cockayne, vol. i. p. 94. 
 
 Henchman, formerly spelt hcinsnum 
 (Bailey), hcnscman (Udal), hemlmmn 
 
HENCHMAN 
 
 ( 169 ) 
 
 HEBE 
 
 {Flower and the Leaf, 1. 252), and 
 henxman, is probably for heng'st-man, 
 a " horse-man " or groom, from old 
 Eng. Jiengest, a horse (of. Dut. and Ger. 
 hengst, a horse) ; so Spelman, Blount, 
 1691, and Skeat, Etym. Bid. 
 
 He}ixme}i, vj enfauntes, or more as it shall 
 please the king-e. — Household Book oj' Edward 
 JF. p. 4-t (Antiq. Soc). 
 
 Phrases as neatly deckt as my Lord Majors 
 hensmen. 
 Jack Drains Eiitertriinementj act i. 1. 337 
 (1(516). 
 Hei/ncemann (al. henchemaniie), Gerolocista. 
 — Prompt. Parvulornm. 
 Those Proctors of Beelzehub, Lucifer's hench- 
 bous. 
 
 Randotph^ Tlie illumes Loohing-GtasSj 
 
 act i. bC. 4. 
 
 The very next dish was the mayor of a town» 
 
 With a pudding of maintenance thrust in 
 
 his belly, 
 
 Like a goose in the feathers, drest in his gown, 
 
 And his couple of hinch-botis boil'd to a 
 
 jelly- 
 
 B. Jonsoriy The Gipsies Metamorpliosed 
 ( Works, p. 626). 
 " Malise, what ho ! " — his henchman came ; 
 *' Give our safe-conduct to the Gramme." 
 Scott, Ladif of the Lake, canto II. xxxv. 
 
 At an early period the .word came to 
 be regarded as haunch-man, as if one 
 ■who stands by the haunoh or side of his 
 chief to support or defend him (Lat. 
 tegere latus. — Horace), like flunhey, a 
 "flanker," from Fi. flan'j^urr, "to be at 
 one's elbow for a heljj at need " (Cot- 
 grave) ; sidesman, formerly sideman, an 
 assistant ; Soot, hackman ( =i It. codla- 
 tore), a follower in war, a henchman. 
 For the vowel change, compare Cum- 
 berland hench, to jerk a stone from the 
 haunch. 
 
 Item my Lordis Hansman iij Vonge 
 Gentyllmen in Houshold at their Frendis 
 fyndynge ij =z v. — l^orthiimberland Haushotd- 
 Book, p. 40. 
 
 Haunsmen or Hanshmen (more frequently 
 written Henchmen or Henxmen) was the old 
 English Name for the Pages, so called from 
 then' standing at their Lords Haunch or side. 
 — Ibiti, Bp. Fercii's note, p. 434. 
 
 This officer [the henchman] is a sort of 
 secretary, and is to be ready, upon all oc- 
 casions, to venture his life in defence of his 
 master: and at drinking-bouts he stands be- 
 hind his seat, at his haunch, from whence his 
 title is derived, and watches the conversa- 
 tion, to Bee if any one offends his patron. — 
 Letters from Scotland, ii. 108 (1754;. 
 
 In a memorandum of certain dresses 
 
 delivered from the office of the Bevels 
 to the City of London, for the corona- 
 tion of Edward VI. occur, 
 
 Two cotts of Imnclieinen, of tynsyll and 
 orymsyn vellvett, panyd together. 
 
 The Loselii Manuscripts, p. 68. 
 
 Herald, 0. H. Ger. Rari-old(wb.ence 
 th.ena.raeIIarold),i.e.IIari-wold,"ai-m.y- 
 strength," a warrior, has acquired the 
 specific sense of an officer who makes 
 proclamations from being confused 
 with O. H. Ger. foraharo, a herald, 
 from forharen, to proclaim (Skeat, 
 Etyin. Did. s.v.). 
 
 Herb of Eepentance, a popular 
 nanae for the plant me, Lat. mta, from 
 a confusion with me (A. Sax. hreoio-an; 
 cf. Ger. reue), to be sorry. Otherwise 
 Herb of grace. 
 
 He must avoid the crimes he lived in ; 
 
 His Physicke must be Rue (ev'n Rue for 
 
 sinne ) 
 Of Herb of Grace, a cordiall he must make; 
 The bitter Cup of true Rejientance take. 
 
 G. IViiher, Britains Remembrancer, 
 p. .59 recto, 1628. 
 
 I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace. 
 Shakespeare, Richard Ij, iii. 4. 
 
 The spirit . . . prescribes him three herbs ; 
 first, rue, or herb of grace, which is repent- 
 ance : this teacheth him to sorrow for his 
 strife and emulation, and purgeth away the 
 bruised blood. — T. Adams, A Contemplation 
 of the Herbs, Works, vol. ii. p. 465. 
 
 Herb Paris. Paris is here generally 
 assumed to be a proper name, as in its 
 Latin designation Paris quadrifolia. It 
 is properly the genitive of pa/)-, a pair, 
 he^-ha paris being the herh of a panr or 
 betrothed couple, so called in reference 
 to its four leaves being set on the stalk 
 Uke a truelove-knot, whence its other 
 name Herh Truelove (Prior). 
 
 Herby-grass, a provincial corruption 
 of Shakespeare's " herb o' grace " 
 [Hamlet, iv. 6), a popular name of rue 
 lOornUll Mag., July, 1865). Herbe- 
 grass in N.W. Lincolnshire (Peacock). 
 See Herb of Bepentance. 
 
 Here, an old spelhng of ear, A. Sax. 
 edre, from a not unnatural assumption 
 that it was akin to hear, A. Sax. heran. 
 The two words, though of distinct 
 origin, bear a deceptive resemblance in 
 the cognate languages, e.g. Icel. eyra, 
 ear, heyra, to hear ; Dan. Ore and hbre ; 
 
HEBBING-SUE 
 
 ( 170 ) 
 
 HI OK WAY 
 
 Put. om- and hooren; Goth, auso and 
 hausjan. 
 
 He rowned in one of his felawes heres, and 
 saide, " after dyner y wille assaie my wifF, 
 and bidde her lepe into the basin. — Book of 
 the Knight of La Tour- Landry, p. 27 
 (E. E.T.S.). 
 
 Herynge of here, Auditus. — Prompt. Par- 
 vulorum (King's Coll. MS.). 
 
 Hebring-sue, a mistaken spelling of 
 the name of the common heron, Eng. 
 heronsew, heronshaw (see Handsaw], 
 from a mistaken notion that the bird 
 " pursues (0. Eng. sues) the herrings " 
 (Atkinson, Cleveland Glossary, p. 258). 
 Cf. herrin-seu (Holderness dialect), 
 heronsewe (Chaucer), hernshaw (Spen- 
 ser). 
 
 Hessians, 1 boots coming up 
 
 Hessian-boots, J high on the legs 
 (a word overlooked in, I think, all the 
 dictionaries), as if boots resembling 
 those worn by Hessian troopers, seems 
 to be only the modem and pohte form 
 of the old word " huseans, a sort of 
 Boots or Spatterdashes " (Bailey), 
 Scottish husMons, stockings without 
 feet, gaiters. Hessians, then, are boots 
 and gaiters in one, huseans; and this 
 the more likely, as Hussicm is found as 
 a popular pronunciation of Hessian. I 
 have hedrd an Irishwoman say, " Let 
 her catch a Hussian for herself, " mean- 
 ing, "Let her get a husband of her 
 own " (and not flirt with mine). Scot. 
 huslnons is also found as hoesMns, 
 hoshens (Jamieson), which is for Iws- 
 hins, a diminutive of hose, old Eng. 
 liohshynes (for lioslcynes, Skeat). 
 But Willie's wife is nae sae trig, 
 She dights her grunzie wi' a huskion. 
 
 Burns, Works,-p. SOT (Globe ed.). 
 
 " She wipes her mouth with a stock- 
 ing" (not a " cushion ", as the Globe 
 editor imagined). 
 His hosen ouerhongen his hokschynes ' on 
 
 eueriche a side, 
 Al beslombi-ed in fen ■ as he );e plow folwede. 
 Fierce the Plougltmans Crede (ab. 1394), 
 1. 426(ed. Skeat). 
 
 Similar in meaning was Fr. houseau, 
 " a course drawer worn over a Stocking 
 in stead of a Boot." — Cotgrave. 
 
 The "Hessian boot " was introduced 
 in the reign of George III. (J. E. 
 Planche, Cyclopcsdia of Costume, i. 48.) 
 In GiUray's caricature, " Monstrosi- 
 ties of 1799," a beau wears "large 
 
 Hessian boots," projecting above the 
 knee in front, with pendent tassels (see 
 Wright's CaHcaiure History of the 
 Georges, p. 543). 
 
 Beneath are ranged in rows all varieties of 
 boots and shoes, from the vamped up Hes- 
 sians and Wellingtons down to the faded 
 white satin slipper. — Saturday Review, Aug. 
 7, 1880, p. 170. 
 
 Heyday I an interjection, assimilated 
 like well-a-day, to alack-a-da/y, seems 
 to be identical with Ger. hey da! heysa! 
 hoity in hoity-toity ! and, perhaps, con- 
 nected with 0. Fr. hait, pleasure, joy. 
 It is spelt highday! in Shakespeare, 
 Tempest, ii. 2, 190 (1623). The Uydmj 
 (of youth, &o.) is really for high day 
 (Mid. Eng. hey day). — Skeat. Smollett 
 speaks of " the high-day of youth and 
 exultation." See Davies, Supp. Eng. 
 Glossary, s.v. High Day. 
 
 Hic-COUGH, a frequent spelling of 
 hiccup (formerly hiohock, Howell), a 
 word meant to imitate the sound pro- 
 duced by the convulsion of the dia- 
 phragm. 
 
 Senglot the hickock, a yexing. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Compare Holstein Imckup, Fr. ho- 
 guet (O. Eng.'/iic/cei), Swed. hicka, the 
 hiccough. 
 
 Hew- HOLE, a provincial name for the 
 green woodpecker {Pious vin-idis). — 
 Johns, British Birds in their Ha/wnts, 
 p. 295. A corruption of heighaw. 
 
 Oriot, a Heighaw, or Witwall. — Cotgrave. 
 Picard huyau, 0. Eng. hewel. 
 
 It. sgaio, a birde called a Huhole. — Ftorio. 
 
 But most the }iewel's wonders are, 
 
 Who here has the holtselster's care ; 
 
 He walks still upright from the root, 
 
 Measuring the timber with his foot. 
 Marvett, Poems, p. 33 (Murray repr.). 
 
 The name heighaw is imitative of its 
 laughing cry (Uke ha-ha! hee-limii! 
 guffaw), akin to Sansk. kakh, to laugh 
 (Lat. cachinnus) ; cf. its other names 
 yaffle and yappingale, a barker. 
 
 The undulating iiight and laugh-like cry of 
 the Green Woodpecker used to be more com- 
 mon than they seem to be now. — J. C. Atkin- 
 son,, Brit. Birds' Eggs, p. 63. 
 
 See Hiokway. 
 
 Hickway, 1 old names for the wood- 
 
 Hickwall, J pecker, still in provin- 
 cial use. Hickwell, Bailey. 
 
MIDDLE 
 
 ( m ) 
 
 HINDBANGE 
 
 Pic, a woodpecker, Hickwaii, Greenpeak. — 
 Cofg-rauc. 
 
 ficchiouirde, a greene pecker or hiclte way. 
 — Fto'io. 
 
 Other forms are heyJtoe, heighaw, 
 hygh-wlicle, hicMe, Inckol, and hecco. 
 The laughing hecco, then the countevsetting 
 jay. Drayton, Polyotbion, Song 13. 
 
 See Hew-hole. 
 
 Another popular name for this bird 
 is Equal, Eaqual. 
 
 I observe Mr. Morris spells the name I 
 have written Eiiqitut in the tbrm Ecle. 1 have 
 no idea of the origin or etymology of either 
 form. — J. C. Atkinson, British Birds^ ^SS^t 
 p. 62. 
 
 These are evidently but different pro- 
 nunciations of hichle, hiclwl, or hicJnuall. 
 
 Hecco, in all probability, properly 
 means the haclier, and was so called 
 from its characteristic habit of pecking 
 old timber in search of insects ; Picard. 
 liequer, to hew wood. Compare It. 
 piccMo, " a knocke, a pecke, a clap, a 
 iob, a snap, a thumpe or great stroke. 
 Also, a bird called a wood hacker, a 
 wood wall, a wood pecker, a tree iobber, 
 a IvicTcway, a iobber, a spight, a snapper ' ' 
 (J?lorio). So Lat. picas was probably 
 the pecher, Ger. haumhacher, Dan. trcB- 
 pikher, W. cnocell y coed (knocker of the 
 wood), Gk. druoholdptes (wood-striker), 
 Swed. vedTcnar; and so another bh-d is 
 called the nut-hatch. 
 
 HiDDLE, To, to conceal or keep secret, 
 a Scotch verb developed out of the 
 word Mdlins, secretly, an adverbial 
 form, as if it were hidling, a present 
 participle. For similar mistakes, com- 
 pare Gkovel and Sidle. Vid. Jamie- 
 son, s.vv.. Notes and Queries, 5th S. 
 VI. 210. 
 
 High jinks, now sometimes used in 
 the sense of a mad frolic, or great fun, 
 was originally a Scotch game, some- 
 what Uke forfeits, the penalties going 
 to pay the reckoning for drink. This 
 was sometimes written hy jinks, and is 
 probably derived from liy, haste (A. Sax. 
 hige), a,nd. jink, to dodge, cheat, or move 
 nimbly, the game, as explained in a 
 note to the following passage, requh-ing 
 both dodging and quickness. 
 
 Aften in ilaggy's at hy-jinks, 
 We guzzl'd ycuds, 
 
 Till we could scarce, wi' hale out-drinks, 
 Cast off our duds. 
 Ramsay, Etegy on Maggy Johnston (1711). 
 
 The frolicsome company had begun to 
 practise the ancient and now forgotten pas- 
 time of High Jinks. — Scott, Guy Mannering, 
 oh. xxxvi. 
 
 And you wha laughing scud brown ale, 
 
 Leave jinfcs a wee, and hear a tale. 
 
 Ramsay, The Monk and the Milter's Wife. 
 Our Batt can dance, play at high jinks with 
 
 dice. 
 At any primitive orthodoxal vice. 
 
 Batt ufon Batt, &c., 1694, p. 5. 
 
 Miss Famine, who is the girl for our 
 money, raises the question, whether any of 
 them can tell the name of the leader and 
 prompter to these high jinks of hell. — De 
 Qninceij, Works, vol. xi. p. 85. 
 
 HiGH-STKiKEs, slang for Hysterics. 
 
 HiGHT, the perfect tense (" was 
 called") of the old Eng. verb hatan, to 
 call or be called, = 0. Eng. het, MM, 
 corresponding to the reduplicated per- 
 fect in Gothic haihait from haitan. 
 
 The g seems to have crept in from a 
 mistaken analogy with pig/ii := pitched, 
 tight := tied. 
 
 Johan hight that con, and Alayn hight that 
 other. 
 
 Chaucer, The Reeoe's Tate. 
 
 HiGH-TAPEE, \ popular names for the 
 
 Hag- taper, J jAsbntverhascttm Thap- 
 sus, probably from A. S. hege or hega, 
 a hedge, and taper, its stalks when 
 dipped in grease being formerly used 
 for burning (Prior). 
 
 Verbasco. Taper-wort, Ling-wort, High- 
 taper, Bigtaper. — Florin. 
 
 Moulaine, MuUeine, WooU-blade, Long- 
 wort, Hares-beard, Hig-laper, Torches. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Other names for it are herba lumi- 
 naria, Gandlewich (N. Somerset), old 
 Eng. Gandlewyrt {Leechdoms, Wcni- 
 cunning, &o., ed. Cockayne, vol. iii. 
 Glosscm-y). 
 
 HiGH-YEAE-OLD, a Teviotdale word 
 for a heifer or beast of a year and a 
 half old, is a corrupted form of 
 heiyearald, which is for hellier-, or half- 
 year-, auld (Jamieson). 
 
 HiLL-TEOT, a name for the plant 
 dauaus coA-ota in the New Forest, is a 
 corruption of the more frequent eltrot 
 (Britten and Holland). 
 
 HiNDEANCE is a hetcronym of the 
 Belgian hindernis, i.e. hinder-ness, as- 
 similated to entrance, semblance, &c. 
 — Haldeman, Affixes, p. 113. 
 
HIPPODAME 
 
 ( 172 ) 
 
 HOABST 
 
 HiPPODAME, a corrupt form of the 
 name of "the sea-horse called in Greeke 
 Hip^wtomos " (Topsell, Historie of Four- 
 footed Beasts, p. 328), more correctly 
 Mppo-potavios, " river-horse." 
 They trembling stood, and made a long broad 
 
 dyke 
 That his swift charet might have passage 
 
 wyde 
 Which four great Hippodames did draw in 
 
 teniewise tyde, 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, III. xi. 40. 
 
 His, as the sign of the possessive 
 case, in such phrases as "for Jesus 
 Christ 7ms sake " (Prayer for all sorts 
 and conditions of men), " The King his 
 crown," " Grod his wrath," commonly- 
 used in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 ' centuries for what we would now write 
 " Christ's sake," " The King's crown," 
 " God's wrath," is a mistaken ortho- 
 graphy of the old EngUsh genetival 
 form -is ia " Ghristis sal;e," " Kingis 
 crown," " Ooddes wrath." The posses- 
 sive pronoun his heing anciently written 
 in many instances is or ys. King-is eroicn 
 readily resolved itself into King his 
 crown. Compare — 
 
 That enduryd fro Neixe yere ys day tylle the 
 Anjmncyacyon of otire Ladynexte sovvynge. 
 — Tl'. Gregory, Chronicle of London, p. 59 
 (Camden Soc). 
 
 And on Mary Magdelene ys day the kyng 
 
 hylde hys counselle at Cauntyrbury wliythe 
 
 a grete party of hys lordys. — Id. p. 178. 
 
 The whiche is man and hus make " and moll- 
 
 kre-is issue. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, xix. 236, text C. 
 
 "Man and his mate and wife's 
 issue " ( := mulieris proles) ; another 
 MS. has actually improved this into 
 " TiioiUere Jier issue." See SheSit, Notes, 
 p. 282 in loco. 
 Now mot ich soatere his sane ' setten to schole. 
 
 Pierce the Ploughrtmns Crede, 1. 744. 
 I presented vnto your liking Robin Good- 
 Jeltow his newes. 
 The Passionate Morrice, 1593, p. 49 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Hence when Chaucer tells us that 
 " hevenes lorde " (or, as it might have 
 been printed, "heaven Ms lord") 
 "hath wonne Temis his love;" when 
 Secretary William Knighte (1527) 
 writes of "the Quene his affaires and 
 secretes," and the Duke of Norfolk 
 (1524) speaks of "the Quene is good 
 favotu-," we can see at once that these' 
 are manifest resolutions of the older 
 
 English Venus-is love, the Quen-es 
 affoAres. We even find " other mem Us 
 lippes " in Ascham, and '^ women Im 
 homys " in Lydgate, formed out of 
 men-es lippes, and women-cs liormjs. 
 Such later forms as " Queen Elizabetli 
 her reign " are intensifications of the 
 old error. See a fuU and interesting 
 note in Mr. Fitzedward Hall's Modem 
 English, p. 855, to which I am indebted 
 for much of the above. 
 
 The time-honom'ed formula of appro- 
 priation, " John Nokes his book," has 
 scarcely yet ceased among cotmtry 
 folks to be inscribed on the fly-leaf of 
 their bibles. When the old error as- 
 sumes a learned garb it looks more 
 grotesquely amusing. In a copy of 
 Stephen's Name of the Beast, 1656, 1 
 have seen a book-plate with the inscrip- 
 tion, " Kichard Baker, ejus Liber, Nov. 
 25, 1721," and in Cooper's Heaven 
 Opened, 1611, the writing, "John Lea 
 ejus Liber, 1752." 
 
 Hives, a term (apparently modem, 
 and overlooked in most dictionaries) 
 for small risings in the skin attended 
 with great itching, is a naturahzed and 
 corrupted form of Spanish havas, de- 
 noting (1) beans, (2) "also great [bean- 
 Uke] pimples caus'd by too much Blood, 
 or Heat of Blood." — Stevens, Sfan,. 
 Diet., 1706, which is from hat. f aha, a 
 bean. Compare It. " lentigini, pimples 
 or freckles in the face red and wan 
 like lentils." — Florio. 
 
 HoAE-HOUND, \ the name of the plant 
 HoRB-HOUND, J marruhiu7n,a.siiti:om 
 A. Sax. hdr, hoary, and himd, a hound, 
 is a corruption of the A. Saxon name 
 hara.-lmne, or harhune (Cockayne, 
 Leeahdoms, vol. iii. Glossary), where 
 hune corresponds to Lat. cun-ila, Greek 
 Icnn-ile, a strong-scented plant (Skeat). 
 The curious form given by Bosworth, 
 hara-hunig, " hare's-houey " (if autho- 
 rized), is a fresh corruption. 
 
 HoAEST, a Lincolnshire word for a 
 cold on the chest, as if that wliich 
 makes one hoarse (Lincolns. Iwarst), is 
 a corrupt form of 0. Eng. Jwst, a cough, 
 Dan. lioste, Dut. hoesfe, A. Sax. hwcost, 
 a wheeziness ; cf. O. Eng. hoose, to 
 cough (Pr. Parv.), Cleveland Iwoae, to 
 wheeze. See Boast, in Davies, Sn^pp. 
 Eng. Glossa/ry. 
 
SOBOY 
 
 ( 173 ) 
 
 BOG-TONE 
 
 HOBOY, in North's Phifarch [Life of 
 Augustus) howhoij, a naturalized ibrm 
 of Fr. hrutbois, Mod. Eng. ohoe, a high 
 toned instrument of wood. See Haw- 
 boy. 
 
 The Case of a Treble Hoe-hoii was a J\Iim- 
 sion for him. — Sliaket-peare, 2 lienrq I K. iii. 2 
 (1623). 
 
 HoBTHRusH, \ provincial names for 
 HoBTHRUST, j a spirit famous for 
 whimsical pranks. The last part of 
 the word seems to be identical with A. 
 Sax. j3!/)'s, O. Norse ]iurs, a giant, or 
 spectre. 
 
 Eoh is perhaps the same as auh, au'f, 
 alb, 0. N. alfr, an elf, seen in Oberon 
 {Alberon), the dream goblin ; cf. Hoi- 
 gohlin. It seems to be the same as the 
 " lubber-fiend " of Milton's L' Allegro. 
 
 HoGMANY, \ an old name given to 
 
 HoGMENAY, / New Year's Eve, or a 
 New Year's gift, in Scotland and the 
 North of England, is said to be a cor- 
 ruption of Au gui menez (On to the 
 mistletoe !), the cry used by mummers 
 at that season, and a survival of the 
 Druidical cultus. Certainly a practice 
 almost identical did prevaO. in France. 
 Cotgrave gives an old word, " AguiUcm- 
 neiif, and Aii-guy-V an-neuf, the voice 
 of Country people begging small pre- 
 sents, or new-years gifts, in Christmas ; 
 (an ancient tearme of rejoyciag, de- 
 rived from the Druides ; who were 
 wont the first of January, to go unto 
 the woods, where having sacrificed, 
 and banqueted together, they gathered 
 Misletow, esteeming it excellent to 
 make beasts fruitfull, and most sove- 
 raigne against all poyson." Menage 
 states that in Touraine they say Agui- 
 lanneu, that the Spaniards call presents 
 made at Christmas Agmnaldo, and that 
 in Normandy poor people when asking 
 alms on the last day of the year, call it 
 Soguinanno. 
 
 Hogmyne night was one of the festi- 
 vals renounced by the Puritans (Law's 
 Memwialls, p. 191). 
 
 The cotter weanies, glad an' gay . . . 
 
 Sing at their doors for Hogmanay, 
 
 Nicol. 
 
 See Hampson, MecKi JEvi Kalenda- 
 rium, vol. i. pp. 122-124 ; Brand, Pop. 
 Antiqmiies, vol. i. p. 458 ; Cheruel, 
 Did. des Institutions, s.v. G^ii. 
 
 Hogg, formerly " Hogoo, a high 
 
 savom- or reUsh " (Bailey), a popular 
 corraption of Fr. haut gout. Compare 
 fogo, an old slang word for a stench. 
 
 It Avas hogi), I surmise, that suggested the 
 vulgar Jogo, At lirst, probably, fogo was 
 added to hogo, for the sake of jingle; and 
 then, as the word, from resemblance to /iiiigft, 
 Joli, intrinsically conveyed the idea of dis- 
 gust, hogo Jogo was shortened to ,' Of 0. Again, 
 in holt^ .'i):;i), the lialii may be a corruption of 
 ''"£'■ — ''■ ^■^""' ^i'"'"'" English, p. 127. 
 
 To give the sawce a hogoe, let the dish 
 (into which you let the Pike fall) be rubed 
 with it [garliok]. — /. IValton, Compkat 
 Angler, chap. vii. 165 i. 
 
 Sure 1 am, our Palate-people are much 
 pleased therewith, [garlick] as giving a deli- 
 cious hault-gust to most meats they eat, as 
 tasted and smelt in their sauce, though not 
 seen therein. — T. Fuller, Worthies of Eng- 
 land, vol. i. p. 206. 
 
 Hogshead, supposed to be boiTOwed 
 from old Dutch ox-hoofd, au " ox-head " 
 (so Dan. ox-hoved, (jer.ox-hoft), a hogs- 
 head. But compare the Irish tocsaid, 
 the Gael, tocsaid, or, togsaid (perhaps 
 from GaeHc tog, to brew. — Phihlog. 8oc. 
 Trans., 1857, p. 69), a hogshead. 
 
 He ate and drank, and when he had 
 enough he went under a togs.iid (hogshead). 
 — Cumphetl, Pop. Tales of the W. Highlands, 
 vol. ii. p. 294. 
 
 Hogshide is another mistaken ortho- 
 graphy in Sir Thos. Urquhart's Trans- 
 lation of Rabelais, bk. iii. ch. xv. 
 
 The mysrewie of the kyngys galentys at 
 Ludlowe, whenn they hadde drokyn i-nowe 
 of wyne that was in tavernys and in othyr 
 placys, they fuUe ungoodely smote owte the 
 heddys of the pypys and hoggins hedys of 
 wyne, that men wente wete-scliode in wyne. 
 . — Gregory's Chronicle of London, 1460, p. 207 
 (Camden Soc). 
 
 There was gevyn commandement to the 
 Lord Mayor, that there should be a great 
 bonfyre at Powles Church door, and there to 
 be set a hoggins head of lede and another of 
 claret for the people to drink that wolde. — 
 Grey Friars' Chronicle, March 9, 1,525. 
 The other was by trade a Vintener, 
 That had full many a hoggeshed looked*n. 
 
 F. Thynn, Debate beiween Pride and Low- 
 liness (ab. 1568), p. 30 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 HoG-TONE, an old Scotch corruption . 
 of the word acton, which is also spelt 
 aJceton, Jiaheton (Chaucer, Bime of Sir 
 Thopas), hacrfueton (Spenser, Faerie 
 Queene, II. 8, xxxviii.), Fr. liogueton, 
 auqueion, Prov. alcoto, a cotton stuffed 
 or wadded coat, Sp. algodon, cotton. 
 The acton was a loose quilted frock 
 
EOIDEN 
 
 ( 174 ) 
 
 HOLIOEE 
 
 worn under armour to prevent it bruis- 
 ing the body, and was identical with 
 the gambeson (Sir S. D. Scott, The 
 British Army, vol. i. p. 201). 
 
 HoiDBN, \ formerly a clownish ill- 
 HoYDEN, / bred person of either sex 
 (see Trench, Select Glossary, s.v.), is a 
 naturalized form of Dutch hey den, (1) 
 a dweller on the heath, a wild man, (2) 
 a heathen, (3) a boor. The spelling 
 was altered perhaps to accommodate 
 it to the old verb hoit, or hoyte, to romp. 
 " Let none condemn them for Eigs 
 because thus hoiting with boys." — T. 
 Fuller, Pisgah Sight, Pt. II. p. 110 
 (1650). 
 
 Vastibousier, A lusk, lubber, loggar-bead, 
 lozell, hoiden, lobcock. — Cotgrum. 
 
 Hold, " of a ship, that part between 
 the Keelson and the lower deck where 
 the Goods, Stores, &c are laid up " 
 (Bailey), as if that which holds or con- 
 tains the cargo, is really an altered 
 form of 0. Eng. hole, the hollow part of 
 a ship, A. Sax. hoi, a hollow or hole, 
 Dut. hoi, a cavity, also the ship's hold 
 (Sewel). Hull is probably the same 
 word, just as the hull of pease was also 
 formerly spelt hoole (Prompt. Pa/rv.). 
 
 Hoole of a schyppe (al. hoile) Carina. — 
 Prompt. ParviUorum. 
 
 Other instances of excrescent d are 
 the following : — Boun-d (homeward, 
 &o., 0. Eng. houn), gizzair-d (O. Eng. 
 giser), haza/r-d (Sp. aza/r), hind (a ser- 
 vant, O. Eng. hine), moul-d, roun-d (to 
 whisper), soun-d, stran-d (of rope), 
 woun-d; of. hes-t, peasan-t (Fr.paysan), 
 pheasan-t, parchmen-t, tyran-t, 0. Eng. 
 ancien-t (= ensign), graf-t, O. Eng. 
 al4em-t ; vulgar Eng. swoun-d, gown-d, 
 to drown-d, schola/r-d, salmon-d,orphan-t; 
 old Eng. vil-d, anvel-d, ganvmon-d, luh- 
 ha/i'-d. 
 
 Hold, \ as used of a player at the 
 h5ld, / game of biUiards, who is 
 said to have held a ball when he has 
 driven it into one of the holes or 
 pockets, is, according to Mr. Blackley, 
 a grammatical perversion of " He 
 holedit," misunderstood as lu>ld{Word 
 Gossip, p. 74). The same writer main- 
 tains that the verb to toll arose from 
 told, in such phrases as " the kneU was 
 told," i.e. counted, the number of con- 
 cluding strokes being significant of the 
 
 sex of the deceased, which was mis- 
 understood as tolled. This seems very 
 doubtful. 
 
 HoLDEB, a Wiltshire man's oorrup- 
 tion of halter, as if that which holds in 
 a horse, &c. Halter itself is an altered 
 form of A. Sax. healfter, a noose or 
 halter ; cf. 0. Dut. and G. hdfter 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Holes. The phrase to pick holes, 
 meaning to find fault, as if to detect a 
 weak spot (a chink in one's armour), 
 as in Burns' lines — 
 
 If there's a hole in a' your coats, 
 
 I rede you tent it, 
 A chield's amang you taking notes, 
 arose, not improbably, from a mis- 
 understandiQg of the Prov. Eng. to hole, 
 meaning to calumniate, from A. Sax. 
 hoi, detraction. 
 
 Oil vor . . . hoaling and halzening, or cuff- 
 ing a Tale. 
 Exmoar Scolding, 1. 297 (E. D. S., see note 
 p. 135;. 
 
 HoLiDAME, an occasional corruption 
 in old books of holidom or haUdoni, A. 
 Sax. haUgdom, i.e. holiness, the Chris- 
 tian faith, -dom being the same termi- 
 nation as in Christendom; hingdom, 
 Ger. heiligthum, Icel. helgid&im; so 
 spelt as if to denote the holy Virgin, 
 e.g. " So help me God and hoVAda/im." 
 — BuUein, BooTo of the Use of Sich Men, 
 1579, fol. 2 6. 
 
 By my holy dam, tho I say it, that sliuld 
 not say it, I thinke 1 am as perfect in my pipe, 
 as Officers in poling. — facke Drums Enter- 
 tainevient, act i. 1. 4 (1616). 
 
 In Icelandic helgir d&marr denotes 
 sacred relics. 
 
 So helpe me god, and hoUydam, 
 Of this 1 wolde not geve a dram. 
 Heywood, The Four P's (Dodsley, i. 82, 
 ed. 1825). 
 I shalbe redy at scott and lotte, and all 
 my duties tnily pay and doo .... so helpe 
 me god and holiidnme, and by this boke. — 
 English Gitds, p.' 189 (,E. E. T. S.). 
 
 HoLioKE, i.e. holy oak {Holy Eoh, 
 Huloet), an old form of the word holly- 
 hock (Lat. Alcea), which seems to be 
 from A. Sax. hoc, Welsh Iwcys, a mal- 
 low. The first part of the word is hdbj 
 not holly. See Hollyhock. 
 
 HoLiokes, red, white, and carnations.^ 
 Tusser, Fiue Hundred Pointes (E. D. Soc. 
 p. 96). 
 
HOLLIGLAS 
 
 ( 175 ) 
 
 EONEY-MOON 
 
 The word is spelt Iwlly-oah in Wliite 
 and Markwick's Naiwalisis Calendar, 
 hoUy-olces in Bacon, Of Oa/rdens (1625) 
 (Essays, p. 557, ed. Arber). 
 Bright crown imperial, kingspear, holyhocks, 
 Sweet Venus-navel, and soft lady-smocks. 
 B. Jonson, Pan's Anniverstiri^, 1625, Works, 
 p. 643. 
 
 HoLLiGLAS, a 16th cent. Scotch word 
 for a character in old romances, is 
 another form of Howleglas, Oiolglass, 
 or Eulenspiegel, 
 
 Holly-hock. HoUy- here has no- 
 thing to do with the tree so called. Dr. 
 Prior thinks that the original form 
 may have been cauli- or coley-Tioch, but 
 this seems altogether doubtful. Hock 
 is evidently O. Eng. hocce, A. Sax. Iwc, 
 the mallow, which is also called the 
 Hock-herb. The incorrect form Jiolly- 
 oak is found in G. White's Selborne, 
 pp. 326, 330 (Nat. Hlust. Lib. ed.), and 
 holU-oak in Skinner's Etymologicon, 
 s.v. (1671). See Holioke. The old 
 form of the word was Holy Jiocke, ap- 
 parently so called because it was in- 
 troduced from th^ Holy Land (ef. its 
 Welsh name hocys lendigaid, i.e. 
 " blessed mallow," Skeatj, whence 
 corruptly holly-hock. 
 
 Holy Hokke, oi* wylde malowe, Altea, 
 malviscus. — Prompt. Parvutorum (1440). 
 
 Rose d'outre mer, the garden Mallow, 
 'called Hocks, and Holyhocks. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Holm-oak, the ilex or evergreen oak, 
 as if connected with holm, a water-side 
 flat, is from O. Eng. holme, the holly 
 {Prompt, Parv.), which is a corrupt 
 form of holin, A. Sax. holen, holly. 
 
 Ilex is named of some in English Holme, 
 which signifieth Holly or Huluer, — Gerarde, 
 Herbal, p. 1159. 
 
 Holy-stone, the name given by 
 sailors to the stone with which they 
 scrub the decks, has not been explained. 
 It is perhaps the same word as A. Sax. 
 healh-stan (apparently a " covering- 
 stone," from helan, to cover), cited by 
 EttmiiUer (p. 458) from ^Ifric's Ghs- 
 sa/ry, with the meaning of crust. The 
 first part of healh-stan [hal-stan) would 
 easUy be confounded with hdUg, holy, 
 though rather akin to hell. Perhaps, 
 however, healh- is really akin to healoc, 
 a hoUow, Iwlh, hollow, with allusion to 
 the light porous nature of pumice- 
 stone — and BO the true form of the 
 
 word would be holey-stone, the stone 
 fuU of holes or hollows. For the same 
 reason, perhaps, a perforated stone 
 used as a charm is called in Cleveland 
 a holy-stone. From a humorous mis- 
 understanding, seemingly, of the first 
 part of the compound, holy-stones of 
 small size are known to sailors as 
 "prayer-books" (Dana). Compare 
 Haliwoet. 
 
 HoMB-LY, an old corruption oilwmily 
 (Greek liomilia), as if a plain famihar 
 discourse in the language of the com- 
 mon people. 
 
 But howe shall heereadthys hooke, as the 
 Homilies are read? Some call them homelies, 
 and in deed so they may be wel called, for 
 they are homeli/ handled. For though the 
 Priest read them neuer so well, yet if the 
 parish like them not, there is such talking 
 and bahling in the church that nothing can 
 be heard : And if the Pavishe be good and the 
 priest naught, he will so haoke and choppe 
 it, that it were as good for them to be with- 
 out it, for any word yt shall be understand. 
 — Latimer, Sermons, p. 37, verso. 
 
 A more curious corruption is humhles 
 in Lever's Sermons, 1550 : — 
 
 But the rude lobbes of the counti-ey, 
 whiche be to symple to paynte a lye, speake 
 foule and truly as they lynde it, and saye : 
 He minisheth Gods sacraments, he slubbers 
 vp his seruice, and he can not reade the 
 humbles. — P. 65 (ed. ArberJ. 
 
 HoNEY-MOON, as if mellis luna, " The 
 first siveet month of matrimony," is no 
 doubt the same word as leel. hjdn, a 
 wedded pair, man and wife, hjdna-hand, 
 matrimony, h/jdna-sceng, marriage bed. 
 Another related word is Icel. hyndttar- 
 manu'Sr, "wedding-night month." Hy- 
 nott, the term applied to the wedding- 
 night, is near akm to hju, family, man 
 and wife, whence hju-skapr, matri- 
 mony, and to hi-hyU, home, Ger. hei- 
 rath, A. Sax hiwa, "hive," HeUaud 
 hiwa, wife (vid. Cleasby and Vigfusson). 
 Thus the real congener of honey-moon 
 is not honey, A. Sax. hunig, but the 
 hive in which it is made, A. Sax. to-, 
 a house, Goth, heiva, akin to A. Sax. 
 hina, one of the household, a domestic, 
 or hind ; home, Goth, haims ; Lat. oivis, 
 Greek keimai, Sansk. si, to Ue. Cf. Ger. 
 heurdth, marriage. 
 
 Marriage, like the useful bee, builds a 
 house and gathers sweetness from evei'y 
 flower, and labours, and unites into societies 
 
HOOK 
 
 ( 176 ) 
 
 EOPEABLOT 
 
 and republics. — J. Tuiilnr, The Murriage 
 Ring. 
 
 On the model of honey-moon, once 
 translated nielKlune in the pages of 
 Punch,, seems to have been formed Ir. 
 mie-na-mallaJi, as if from mis, month, 
 and mi'dla, genitive of mil, honey (but 
 of. mnJlali, shamefaced, modest). 
 The iHe-nfi-maliah now is past ■ 
 O \Virra-Stliru ! Win-a-sthru ! 
 
 Gerald Griffin, The Coiner, ch. vii. 
 So Strength and Beauty, hand in hand, 
 Go forth into the honey'd land, 
 Lit by the love-moon g'olden grand. 
 Geruld Masseti, The Bridal, Paeim,, p. 39. 
 
 Other names for the honeymoon are 
 Dut.wiftroodsifeeA; (white-bread-week), 
 Swed. smehmdnad (caress month), 
 Welsh mis yr ofiaeth, month of blan- 
 dishment. 
 
 Hook, in such cant phrases as, " I 
 will, — with a hook," i.e. you may 
 imagine it if you like, but I won't; I 
 am only joking ; is the same word as 
 lionx, hocus, hoolcey, Gipsy holcha, to 
 lie (Borrow), hoolcer, liohkeny, a lie or 
 deception ; Eomnanian Gipsy hohao, 
 a he (Leland, Eng. Gipsies, p. 81). 
 Hence hokey-pokey, lioms-pocus, hanky- 
 panky, Gipsy huckeny pokee, a swindle. 
 Hind, hoggu-hazee {Id. p. 141). 
 
 A Hocus-pocus [=: juggler] . . . performed 
 rare tricks of activity. — Sir T. Herbert, 
 Travels, 1665, p. 133. 
 
 HooKEE, a kind of fishing vessel of 
 heavy build (Croker, Ballads of Ire- 
 land, p. 151), is no doubt the same 
 word as 0. Fr. hevrcque, by which 
 Palsgrave (1530) explains " Hulke, a 
 shyppe;" and "Hurque, a hulk" (Cot- 
 grave) ; " Orque [for Hwque] a Hulk 
 or huge ship " {Id.) ; Low Lat. hvlka, 
 hulciis ; all from Greek hollcds, a ship 
 that is towed, a ship of burden {iiXsas, 
 from IXkhv, to drag). " Hidke, shyppe, 
 Hulcus" {Ffompt. Tarculorum), is only 
 a variant. See Skeat, Etym. Bid. s.v. 
 Hulk. Scot, houk, a large ship. 
 
 Their galleons, galleasses, gallies, vrcas, 
 and zabras were miserably shattered. — Oldijs, 
 Life of Raleigh. 
 
 Hawker, a Vessel built like a Pink, but 
 masted and ri£,'ged like a Hoy . — Baiteii. 
 The meikle houk hym bare, wn^ Triton 
 callit. 
 
 G. Douglas, Bules ofEneados, p. 321, 1. 55. 
 
 Hourqu!', a Hulke or huge Flie-boat.— 
 Cotgrave. 
 
 Hoop, a provincial Eng. name of ths 
 bullfinch in Wiltshire, Cornwall, Som- 
 erset, &c., is a corruption apparently 
 of ope [cf. O. Eng. a nope for an one], 
 alp {Systema Agriculturce, 1687), a 
 bullfinch, alpe {Prompt. Parvulormn), 
 also spelt olf, olph, aupe, and awbe. 
 
 Be als just to aa-f-pis and owlis 
 As unto pacokkis, pajiingais, or crennis. 
 W. Dunbar, The Thri^ntl and the Rois, 18 
 (1503). 
 The tatling Awhe doth please some faacie 
 
 wel. 
 G. Gascnigne, Complaynt of Philomene, 1576, 
 p. 88 (ed. Ai-ber). 
 
 Hooter, an American word for a 
 whit, as " I don't care a hooter for 
 him," seems to be a corruption oiiota. 
 — Bartlett, Diet, of Americamsms, p. 
 295 (4th ed.). 
 
 Hope, in the military phrase a For- 
 lorn Hope (Fr. enfans perdus), as if a 
 body of desperate men who have aban- 
 doned all hope of surviving, is the same 
 word as Dut. hoop, a troop {verloren 
 hoop, a lost, i.e. death-doomed, band), 
 Swed. hop. Compare Ger. haufe, a 
 crowd, O. Norse liopr, A. Sax. heap, a 
 troop, Juip, a circle or band of men 
 (Uke Lat. globus). These words seem 
 to correspond to Pohsh kupa, Lat. 
 cop-ia, just as Jiopie (nspemre), Dut. 
 hoopen, Ger. hoffen, do to Latin cvp-io. 
 With h6p, a hoop or a company, com-' 
 pare ring (A. Sax. hring, loel. hin^r) 
 in ring-leader, whence also harangue, 
 to address a ring or crowd. (So Lat. 
 turha is connected with turho.) Of. 
 old Eng. lieep, a crowd, "The here 
 sprange vp . . . . emonge an heep of 
 wyuis." — Caxton, Beynard tlie Fom 
 (1481), p. 16 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Engla heapas, "troops of angels." — ^Ifric 
 (see Cockayne, Spoon and Sparrow, p. 78). 
 
 Among this princely heap, if any here . . . 
 
 Hold me a foe. 
 
 Shakespeare, Rich. III. ii. 1, 53. 
 
 Blachanidas with his strangers gaae such 
 a lusty charge vpon certaine slingera and 
 archers, being the forlorne hope whom Philo- 
 pcemen had put before the battel! of the 
 Achaians to begin the Skirmish, that he ouer- 
 threw them, and made tliem flie withall.— 
 Sir Thos. North, Plutarehs Live^, p. Si% 
 1612. 
 
 HoPHAELOT, an old name for a coarse 
 kind of coverlet, is a corrupt form of 
 hap-harht, from the old verb hap, to 
 
EOBNDOON 
 
 ( 177 ) 
 
 E0BN8 
 
 wrap or cover up, exactly eorrespond- 
 ing to the jocular tenawrap-rascal, for 
 an overcoat, current in the last cen- 
 tury, e.g. "A Joseph, wra^-7-ascal," 
 &c., is Gay's annotation on the sur- 
 tout, " By various names in various 
 countries known." — Trivia, hk. i. 1. 
 57. Sap-harlot, a coarse covering, is 
 found also in provincial English 
 (Forby). 
 
 " Our fathers . . . have lieu full oft upon 
 straw pallets, on rough mats, covered onelie 
 with a sheet, under coverlets made of dags- 
 wain or hophariots (1 use tlieir own termes). 
 — Harrison, Descriptimt rf England, in Holin- 
 shed's Chrojiicles, i. 188. 
 
 A weU-known antiquarian explains 
 the word as follows : — 
 
 Harlot was a teim applied to a low class 
 of vagabonds, the ribalds, who wandered 
 from place to place in search of a living ; 
 and the name appears to have been given to 
 this rug as being only fit to be the lot or hap 
 of such people (!). — Wright, Homes of Other 
 Daifs, p. 415. 
 
 The word is given by Bailey in the 
 form of liapperlet and happarlet, which 
 seems to be an assimilation to " cover- 
 let." 
 
 Happyn or whappyu' yn clo)jys.- 
 Parv. 
 
 -Prompt. 
 
 These weders ar cold and I am ylle 
 happyd. — Toionley Mysteries, p. 98. 
 
 HoENDOON, a Cumberland word for 
 a lunch about ten in the morning 
 (Dickinson), a corruption of old Eng. 
 undei'n, nine o'clock, a meal at that 
 hour, properly "between-times," some- 
 thing taken hetween breakfast and din- 
 ner, old Eng. under, Ger. unter, Goth; 
 undar, Lat. inter, between. 
 
 HoEN-MAD, 1 raving mad, literally 
 HoBN-woOD, / hrain mad, from A. 
 
 Sax. hnernes, the brains (Fhilolog. 8oc. 
 
 Proceedings, vol. iii. p. 94). Compare 
 
 ham-pan, herne-pan, the brain-pan or 
 
 skuU. 
 
 I shall heipe thee witterlye. 
 To take hym downe devoutlye 
 Though Cayphas goe home-wood therby, 
 And all his meanye. 
 
 Chester Mysteries (Shaks. Soc), vol. ii. 
 p. 68. 
 
 [The editor, Mr. Wright, quite misunder- 
 stood the origin of the word when he here 
 suggested, " perhaps mad with jealousy," 
 referring to a cuckold's "horns."] 
 
 If I have horns to make one mad, let the 
 
 proverb go with me, 
 I'll be horn mad. 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 5. 
 
 Unless yon are of a most settled temper, 
 Quite without passion, I shall make you 
 Horn-mad with j ealousy. 
 
 S. Miirmion, The Antiquary, act ii. sc. 1 
 (1641). 
 Ho}-ne-wood he was, he was about to strike 
 All those he met, and his own flesh to teai'e. 
 Sir John Harrington, Ariosto, xxviii. 44. 
 It will set him on a fire &make him horn- 
 mad.— Holland's Pliny, fol. 1631, tom. ii. p. 
 135. 
 
 Yet I'm not mad. 
 Nor horn-mad, see you ? 
 
 Jonson, The iox, act iii. sc. 5. 
 
 Did I tell you about Mr. Garrick, that 
 the town are horn-mad after. — Thos. Gray, 
 Letters. 
 
 Compare Scot, hams, brains, Ger. 
 htm, Swed. hjerna, Dan. hjeme, Icel. 
 hvern or hv'&rn, bones of the head, 
 Gotli. hivairnei, Lat. cranium, zz 
 Kpaviov. " Hernys or brayne (or ha/>~- 
 neys). Cerebrum." — Prompt. Parvu- 
 lorum. 
 'V*'itiiJi,f,fo, and/um .' 
 
 I smell the blood of a Christian man ! 
 Be he dead, be he living, wi' my brand 
 
 I'll clash his hams frae his ham-pan ! 
 Child Rowland and Burd Ellen, 1. 40 (Child's 
 Ballads, i. 251). 
 
 HoENS, when given to Moses as a 
 distinctive mark, e.g. in Michael An- 
 gelo's well-known statue, in an older 
 figure in Boslin chapel, and in most 
 mediaeval representations of the law- 
 giver, afford a curious instance of a 
 misunderstanding being stereotyped in 
 stone. In Exodus xxxiv. 29, seqq. it 
 is said that when Moses came down 
 from the mount his face shone. The 
 verb for this in the Hebrew is qaran, 
 to emit rays, originally to put forth 
 horns, from qeren, a horn. " This 
 meaning has developed itself from a 
 comparison of the first rays of the 
 rising sun, which shoot out above the 
 horizon, to the horns of the gazelle, a 
 comparison which is met with in the 
 Arabian poets." — Keil. So the correct 
 translation of Habakkuk iii. 4 : — " He 
 had horns coming out of his hand," 
 would be, as in the margin, "bright 
 beams." St. Jerome made unfortu- 
 nately a similar mistake in rendering 
 " his face shone " in the passage in 
 
 N 
 
B0BN8 
 
 ( 178 ) 
 
 E0B8E 
 
 Exodus, according to its primitive 
 meaning, faciem esse cornuiam, " his 
 face was horned." From this misren- 
 dering sprang the homed Moses of the 
 sculptors and painters, with some re- 
 ference perhaps to horns as a symbol 
 of power, which in this sense are as- 
 signed to Alexander and others on 
 coins. See Bp. Wordsworth on Ex. 
 xxxiv. 29 ; Smith, Bihle Bid. s. v. 
 Soii'n ; Gale, Gowrt of Gentiles, bk. ii. 
 p. 13 ; Sir T. Browne, Works, vol. ii. 
 p. 29 (ed. Bolm) ; Notes and Queries, 
 5th S. ix. 453. 
 
 Compare the use of Lat. corusca/re, 
 
 (1) of animals, to butt with the horns, 
 
 (2) of fire, to flash or gleam ; axii juha/r, 
 a beam of hght, itovajuba, a crest or 
 tuft of hair. 
 
 Bishop Jeremy Taylor seems to have 
 had a correct understanding of the 
 matter, as he says the sun " peeps over 
 the Eastern hills, thrusting out his 
 golden horns, like those which decked 
 the brows of Moses when he was forced 
 to wear a veil, because himself had 
 seen the face of God." — Holy Dying, 
 p. 16, Oxford ed. 
 
 Coleridge strangely enough, though 
 bearing this passage in mind, stands 
 up for the literal and material repre- 
 sentation of the horns. 
 
 When I was at Rome, among many other 
 visits to the tomb of Julius II., I went 
 thither on«e with a Prussian artist, a man of 
 genius and great Tivacity of feeling. As we 
 were gazing on Michael Angelo's Moses our 
 conversation turned on the horns and beard 
 of that stupendous statue ; of the necessity of 
 each to support the other; of the superhuman 
 effect of the former, and the necessity of the 
 existence of both to give a harmony and in- 
 tegritji both to the image and the feeling ex- 
 cited by it. Conceive them removed, and 
 the statue would become un-natural without 
 being super-natural. We called to mind the 
 horns of the rising sun, and 1 repeated the 
 noble passage from Taylor's Holy Dying. 
 That horns were the emblem of power and 
 sovereignty among the Eastern nations, and 
 are still retained as such in A byssinia ; the 
 Achelous of the ancient Greeks ; and the 
 probable ideas and feelings that originally 
 suggested the mixture of the human and the 
 brute form in the figure by which they rea- 
 lized the idea of their mysterious Pan, as 
 representing intelligence blended with a 
 darker power, deeper, mightier, and more 
 universal than the conscious intellect of man, 
 than intelligence; — all these thoughts and 
 recollections passed in procession before our 
 
 minds.— Biographia Literaria, ch. xxi. p. 208 
 (ed. Bell and Daldy). 
 
 Cotgrave (s.v. Moyse) remarks that 
 his — 
 
 Ordinary counterfeit having on either side 
 of the head an eminence, or lustre aiising 
 somewhat in the form of a home, hath em- 
 boldened a profane author to stile cuckolds, 
 Parents de moyse. 
 
 Pharaoh Miamun Nut is described 
 on the monuments (b.c. 700) as "the 
 lord of the two horns." — Brugsoh, 
 Egypt under the Thcuraohs, vol. ii. p. 
 250. In Arabic al-gazdld, " the gazelle 
 rises" (= "The Hind of the Dawn," 
 Ayyeleth hash-shaohar, of Psahn xxii. 
 1), is a way of saying "the sun rises," 
 his spreading rays suggesting theioms 
 of the animal (Goldziher, Mythohgy 
 among the Ilehreios, p. 178). 
 
 HoEEiD-HOEN, a term of reproach 
 amongst the street Irish, meaning a 
 fool, or half-witted fellow, from the 
 Anglo-Irish oTOadAdMm, Irish and Gaelic 
 amadan, from amad, an idiot, corre- 
 sponding to Sansk. amaii,, mind-less- 
 ness, folly (^ Lat. a-mentia). 
 
 What d'you mane, you horrid horn, Ly 
 selling such stuff as that ? — Mayhew, London 
 Labour and the London Poor, i. p. 207. 
 
 You omadhawn ... I was only puttin' up 
 a dozen o' bottles into the tatch of the house, 
 when you thought I was listenin'. — W. Car- 
 leton , Traits and Stories of Irish Peasantrtj, vol. 
 i. p. 287 (1843). 
 
 HoBSE, To, an old verb meaning to 
 raise, elevate, especially one boy on 
 the back of another for a floggiag, 
 seems to be a corruption of Pr. hamser, 
 or perhaps of hoise, Dut. hysseu 
 (Sewel). Hausser (Prov. ausar, akaif, 
 It. alza/re) is from Low Lat. altiare, to 
 make high (Lat. altus). Compare Ke- 
 HOESE. Of the same origin perhaps is 
 the provincial word horse, a plank or 
 cross-beam upon which anything is 
 supported. 
 
 A hogshead ready horsed for the process of 
 broaching. — T. Hardy, Under the Greenwood 
 Tree, vol. i. p. 13. 
 
 Andrew *was ordered to horse and Frank 
 to flog the criminal. — H. Brooke, Fool of 
 Quality, i. 232 [Davies]. 
 
 Mr. Green remembered to have heard that 
 the great Newton was horsed during the time 
 that he was a Cambridge undergraduate.— 
 Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, Pt. I. 
 ch. ii. 
 
 HoESE, a marine term for a rope 
 
EOBSE-BEEOR 
 
 ( 179 ) 
 
 HOSTAQE 
 
 made fast to one of the fore-mast 
 shrouds (Bailey), as " the Jwrse of the 
 yard-arm," "^seofthemizzen sheet," 
 is a corruption apparently of the older 
 form haiose, originally halae, from Icel. 
 Mis, Dan. and Swed. hah, (1) a neck, 
 (2) the tack of a sail, end of a rope ; 
 leel. hMsa, to clew up a sail. The 
 same word as hawser (see Skeat, Etym. 
 Diet. S.V.). 
 
 Horse, a thick rope used for hoisting some 
 yard or extending a sail. — Falconer, Marine 
 Dictionary, 
 
 The French haussitfre, which has 
 been partially assimilated to hausser, 
 to hft, is the same word, having for- 
 merly been written aussiere and hau- 
 siere (Scheler). 
 
 Horse-beech, a name of the horn- 
 beam tree, is a corruption of the more 
 correct word hurst-heech, the heeeh of 
 the hurst, A. Sax. hyrst, or shrubbery 
 (Prior). 
 
 HoESE-cocK, a Scotch name for a 
 species of snipe, seems to be for horse- 
 gouk, of a similar meaning, and both 
 corruptions of Swed. horsgbh. 
 
 HoESE-couKSEE, a horsB-dealer. 
 Courser, here, old Eng. "Corsoure of 
 horse, mango " (Prompt. Parv.), is a 
 corruption of Fr. courtier, cowratier, a 
 breaker, horsesoourser (Cotgrave), It. 
 curatiere, a broker or factor who has 
 the care (Lat. cu/i-a) or management of 
 a business (Diez). 
 
 He can horse you as well as all the corsers 
 in the towne, courtiers de chevaulx. — Pals- 
 grave, 1530. 
 
 HoES-HEAL, I A. Sax. hors-helene. 
 
 HoES-HEBL, 3 This plant owes its 
 name to a double blunder about its 
 Latin title inula Selenium. ; hinnula, a 
 colt, being evolved out of inula, and 
 heal or heel out of Hel-emiumi. It was 
 on the strength of its name employed 
 by apothecaries to heal horses of scabs 
 and sore heels (Prior). 
 
 HoESE MINT, name of the mentha 
 sylvestris, has no connexion with horse, 
 but is a corrupt form of Swed. hors- 
 mynta. East is a horse in Swedish. 
 
 HoESE-STEONG, I names for the 
 
 Haesteong, J- ]^lant peucedanum, 
 
 HoEESTEONG, J have no connexion 
 
 with strong nor Jiorse, but are deriva- 
 
 tives of Dut. har-strang, Ger. hm-n- 
 'sirang, strangury, for which com- 
 plaint it was considered a specific 
 (Prior). Florio (s.v.PeMcedcmo) spells 
 it hare-strang, Cotgrave (s.v. Peuce- 
 dane), horse-strong and hore-strange ! 
 
 HoETYAED, a frequent old spelling 
 (e.gf.in Holland, Plirdes Natu/raM His- 
 torie, vol. ii. p. 236) of meha/i-d, old Eng. 
 orcerd and ortgeard, Scotch ivorcha/rd, 
 wortchat, A. Sax. wyrt-geard, i.e. " wort 
 yard " (cf. wyrt-tun, A. Sax. Luke xiii. 
 19), as if a mongrel compound of Latin 
 hortus, a garden, and Eng. yan-d. King 
 Alfred uses the word ortgeard. 
 
 To plantianne & to ymbhweorfanne swse 
 SB cecrl de^ his ortgeard. — Gregory's Pastoral, 
 p. 292 (ed. Sweet). 
 
 [To plant and tend as the churl doth his 
 orchard.] 
 
 Hyra feldas mid weortum hlowende, 
 & hyra orcerdtis mid sepplura afyllede. 
 
 Thos, Wright, Popular Treatises on 
 Science (10th cent.), p. 10. 
 
 [Their fields with plants blowing, and their 
 orchards with apples filled.] 
 
 For the loss of the initial lo compare 
 ooze, O. Eng. woze ; old Eng. oof for 
 woojf, and oothe for wood, mad, Ger. 
 wuth {Prompt. Pa/rv.) ; Scot, oo for wool, 
 &c. 
 
 Giardino, a Garden, an Hort-yard. — Florio. 
 
 Cerasaro, a cherry man or hortyard. — Id. 
 
 Built by sweete Siren ; said to be built by 
 
 Sterne Phaleris : his Empires happy glory. 
 
 Call'd, the Taxe hortyard of faire Cyprades. 
 
 G. Sandys, Travels, p. 253. 
 
 Luther called Paradise in his discourse of 
 Germanie, a pleasant Garden, Eccl. 2. 
 Munster an Orchyeard, and in the Bible it is 
 called Eden. — Itinerarium, Trauels of the 
 Holy Patriarch, &c., 1619, p. 73. 
 
 Hostage, 0. Fr. hostage, has no right 
 to the initial h (which has been pre- 
 fixed from a false analogy to host, hos- 
 tile, hospitable, &c.), as we see by com- 
 paring It. ostaggio, Prov. ostatge, which 
 are from Low Lat. ohsidaticum, from 
 Lat. obsidatus, surety-ship, dbse[d)-s, a 
 hostage (Diez). In old French the 
 word seems to have been brought into 
 connexion with hoste, an inn-keeper, 
 and hostel, an inn ; compare Ootgrave's 
 definition, "Hostage, An Hostage, 
 Pawne, Surety, Pledg (A term of pay- 
 ment being expir'd, the Debtor must 
 deliver Hostages ; to wit, three or four. 
 
BOT G0GELE8 ( 180 ) 
 
 E0U8ING8 
 
 wlio goe to an Inne, and there continue 
 . . . untill lie have taken order." 
 
 Hot Cockles, an old English game, 
 a description of which will be found ia 
 Brand's Popular Antigmtiea, vol. ii. p. 
 421 (ed. Bohn), is said in Bailey's Bic- 
 tionary, s.v., to be the French Hcmtea 
 Ooguilles, but I cannot find that this 
 expression was ever ia use as asserted. 
 Skinner says " Hautes Ooguilles, i.e. 
 verbatim Altse Cochleae, q^uia nates, 
 quae aHquo modo rotunditate su& Coch- 
 leas referunt, in hoc lusu, incurvato 
 corpore, sustoUuntur." — Etymologioon, 
 s.v. 1671. 
 
 Aubrey says, " I have some reason 
 to beheve that the word cocMe is an old 
 antiquated Norman word which signi- 
 fies nates." — Thom's Anecdotes and 
 Traditions (Camden Soc), p. 96. 
 
 Gochles here, however, may be only 
 another form of cochals, an old Eng. 
 word for the hips, which in the game 
 became hot from striking ; compare 
 hot-hands, a children's game where the 
 hands of the two players are struck to- 
 gether in a regular alternation. 
 
 As at hot-cockles once I lay me down, 
 
 I felt the weighty hand of many a clown. 
 
 Gay. 
 
 Cochal seems to be identical with 
 the old Eng. hohyl, huclde, the hip (the 
 Iwugh or hoeh ?), Prov. Eng. huggan, 
 hug-hone, the hip, Lat. coxa, coxendise, 
 hip, coram, the hinder part, Greek 
 hoclione, JcohJcux. " Root, a Coclcal or 
 huclde-hone," "kooien, to play at 
 Gochals." — Sewel, Butch Bid. 1708. 
 
 Cochai, a game that boyes used with foure 
 fcucfcte-bones, commonly called cochaU. — No- 
 menclator. 
 
 Carnicol, a game with huckle bones called 
 Cock-al. — Minsheu, Span. Diet. 16T3. 
 
 Machyn, in his Biary (1554), relates 
 how a " grett blynd here broke losse " 
 and caught a servingman "by the 
 hoTcyll-hone" (p. 78, Camden Soc). 
 We may compare Gipsy coo/ufeooZos, Jcoka- 
 los, cocal, a bone. Mod. Greek, hoTc- 
 kalon. 
 
 Nor made of glasse, or wood or stone, 
 
 But of a little transverce bone ; 
 
 Wliich boyes, and bruckel'd children call, 
 
 ( Playing for points and pins ) cockaLl. 
 
 Hernck, Hesperides, p. 96 (ed. 
 Hazlitt). 
 
 OocMe-hread, in "the wanton 
 sport which," Aubrey tells us, "young 
 
 wenches have," and which " they call- 
 moulding of coclde-hread," is no doubt 
 of the same origin, as it appears to 
 have been an exercise performed by the 
 players while squatting down on their 
 houghs or "hunkers " (see Brand, vol. 
 ii. p. 414). 
 
 Hound's tree, a mistaken synonym 
 of Dog- WOOD, which see. 
 
 HouE, in the phrases good hour ~ 
 "good luck," and in a good how ~ 
 " with a good omen," luckily, happily 
 (like Lat. /efo faustutngue sit, absit 
 omen), is an adoption of Pr. a la honne 
 heure, happily, fortunately, as if " in a 
 good hour," where la bonne heme is 
 perhaps a perverted form of le hon hew, 
 good fortune, good luck. This word 
 heur (old Eng. ure) has no connexion 
 with heure, hour (Lat. hora), but is 
 identical with old Pr. heiir, eiir, aur, 
 Wall, aiveure, Prov. agw, augur, Sp. 
 agiiero, from Lat. augwrium. Hence 
 honheur, inalheur, and hewreux (not 
 from horosus, as if timely, seasonable, 
 but n; L. Lat. auguriosus), Diez, Sohe- 
 ler. Compare the proverb, " Le hon 
 heur tost se passe qui n'en a soing. 
 Good fortune quickly slips from such 
 as heed it not." — Cotgrave. Thus the 
 proper signification of this expression, 
 " In a good hour be it spoken," would 
 be "with a good omen or augury (0. 
 Pr. en hon aiir). It must be admitted, 
 at the same time, that "hour " is used 
 similarly in other Romance languages, 
 e.g. Sp. en huena hora, norahuena, good 
 luck. In the first of the following quo- 
 tations good hour is imquestionaWy 
 hon heur ( =^ honum augmriwm). 
 Who, on the other side, did seem so farre, 
 From malicing, or grudging his good, hour. 
 That all Le could he graced him with her, 
 Ne ever shewed signe of rancour or of jarre. 
 Spenser, F. Queene, VI. x. 39. 
 
 Yet myself (in a good hour be it spoken 
 and a better heard) was never sick, neither 
 in the camp nor the castle, at sea or on land. 
 — Sir J. Hanington, Nuga Antiqum, vol. ii. 
 p. 14. 
 
 Yea, in a good howre he it spoken, T have 
 tyl'd in London. — Copley, Wits, Fits, and 
 Fancies, 1614. 
 
 House-like, a fanciful spelling of 
 house-leeh in Holmes and Lyte, as if 
 named from its attachment to houses. 
 
 Housings, the covering or trappings 
 
HOWBALL 
 
 ( 181 ) 
 
 BOW LEE 
 
 of a horse, so spelt no doubt from a 
 confusion with house, Jiousing, just as 
 coat is really akin to cote, hood to hut, 
 cassoch to Lat. cctsa, a house (cf. Gk. 
 Icdsas, housings). Compare " The wo- 
 men wove hangings for the grove." — 
 A. V. 2 Kings, xxiii. 7, Heb. "houses." 
 
 The Satyres were first vttered in their hal- 
 lowed places within the woods, . . , because 
 they had no other housing- fit for great assem- 
 blies. — G. Puttenhiim, Arte of Eiig. l*oem, 
 1589, p. 51 (ed. Arber). 
 
 The more correct form would be 
 houssings, or houss (Dryden), from Fr. 
 housse. Low Lat. housia, husia (perhaps 
 for hulsia, akin to Dut. hulse, and htish, 
 Skeat). Compare Welsh hws, a cover- 
 ing, hwsan, a hood. 
 
 Saw the superb funerall of the Protector. 
 He was carried from Somerset House in a 
 velvet bed of state di-awu by six horses, 
 kouss'd with the same. — J. Evelyn, Diary, 
 Oct. 22, 1658. 
 
 HowBAiL, an old word for a simple- 
 ton, another form of North Eng. hohhil, 
 holhald, O. Eng. hoberd, of the same 
 meaning. Cf. hoh, a country clown, 
 ITohKnol, "a fained country name" 
 {Shepheard's Oalender, Jan.). It is no 
 doubt the same word as Hob, a tricksy 
 spirit, Hoh-thrush (? for Hoh-thurse), 
 which Mr. Atkinson regards as zz'06,= 
 aub, := AiiB, :::: elf, just as Oberon = 
 Aubcron ^ Alberon ( Gleoeland Glossa/ry, 
 p. 263). Compare Cleveland hauvish, 
 simple-witted, for aimish, 0. Eng. el- 
 visch ; awf, a fool (" oaf"), also a fairy 
 = O. Norse alfr, an elf. 
 Ojjer hobbis 3e hadden of hurlewaynis kynne. 
 
 Richard the Redeles, i. 90 (1399). 
 Then to the Master of the daunsing schoole. 
 And eke the JMaster of the dysing house. 
 The worst of them no howbali, ne no foole. 
 F. Thynn, Debate between Pride and 
 Lowliness (ab. 1568) p. 48 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 Ye shall not (she sayth) by hir will, marry 
 
 hir cat. 
 Ye are such a calfe, such an ass, such a 
 
 blocke. 
 Such a lilburne, such a hoball, such a lob- 
 cocke. 
 IV. Udall, Ralph Roister Doister (1566), 
 iii. 3, p. 40 (Shaks. Soc). 
 On lofte, sere hoberd, now ye be sett. 
 The Coventry Mysteries, p. 325 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 HowDiE, a name for a midwife in the 
 northern counties, which Mr. Atkin- 
 
 son holds to be corrupted from O. Norse 
 jOd, parturition (Gleveland Ghssary, 
 S.V.), has apparently been popularly 
 assimilated to How-dec, How d'ye ? the 
 customary sakitation of the sage femme 
 on approaching her patient. In any 
 case that popular etymology would 
 seem to have influenced the form of 
 the word. The Scotch verb hotod, to 
 play the hoivdie, would then come from 
 the substantive. Compare also Houdee, 
 and Hou-do-ye, a sycophant or flatterer 
 [who speaks one fair with poUte greet- 
 ings] , as " She's an auld houdee." — 
 Jamieson. Cf. Ger. ja-herr, and our 
 " Hail-fellow-well-met," intimate as a 
 boon companion. 
 
 Wae Howdie gets a social night. 
 
 Or plack frae them. 
 
 Barns, Scotch Drink, Poems, p. 8 
 (Globe ed.). 
 Such was thy suddain how-dee [= greeting] 
 
 and farewell, 
 Such thy return the angels scarce could tell 
 Thy miss. 
 
 Fletcher [Nares]. 
 
 In Ireland " a pretty hotv d'-ye-do " 
 is a popular expression for an embroglio, 
 contretemps, or disordered state of affairs ; 
 otherwise a "mess" or "kettle-of- 
 fish." Similar instances of coUocjuial 
 phrases or interrogations originating 
 new words or names for things are the 
 following : — in vulgar French Gastw, an 
 hospital, from Qu'-as-tu ? the doctor's 
 first question, as if a " What' s-it-wi' - 
 you?" : Tin Qu'as-tu-la{a,Whai-'ave-ye- 
 there?), a custom-house officer [Diet, 
 de V Argot Parisien, p. 82). Tin Vasitas, 
 a little window to spy wlaat is passing, 
 a casement, from Ger. Was ist das ? a 
 " What-is-that " (Scheler). Un de- 
 croche-moi-ga, an old clothes (or Hand- 
 me-down) shop. So Gargantua, the 
 name of Rabelais' gigantic hero, is a 
 corruption of Que grand tu as! his 
 father's first exclamation on seeing 
 him ; and Kanevas was a nickname of 
 Schubert from his habit of asking about 
 every new acquaintance, " Kann cr 
 was?" "What can he do?" Com- 
 pare manna, originally man hu, 
 " What is it ? " the inquiry made by 
 the Hebrews when they first saw the 
 substance upon the ground (Ex. xvi. 
 15). 
 
 HowLEB, ) the Lincolnshire name 
 OwLEK, i of the alder tree, is a 
 
EUGKLE-BEBEIES ( 182 ) EUMBLE-BEE 
 
 corruption of A. Sax. air, Prov. Eng. 
 oiler, Ger. eller. 
 
 HuoKLE-BEREiES, "1 popular names 
 
 HuETS, [for bilberries 
 
 Whoetle-beebies, ] ( Vacdmium) in 
 
 Whoets, J various parts 
 
 of England, are variants of hv/rtle- 
 
 berries, itself a corruption of the old 
 
 English heorot-beriges, "hart-berries," 
 
 from heorot, a hart. 
 
 HuDDBE-MOTHEE, an old corruption 
 of hugger-mugger, clandestinely, in 
 secret, which seems to be compounded 
 of hugger, an old verb meaning to lie 
 hid (cf. 0. Bug. hugge, to crouch 
 huddled up, Icel. huka, to crouch, Ger. 
 hocken), and mugg&r ^ Swed. i mjugg, 
 clandestinely (cf. mug, much, to hide, 
 O. Er. muchder, mucer, cur-mudgeon 
 (Skeat); muggard, sullen (Exmoor). 
 Thus the primitive signiiication would 
 be "crouching in hiding," as a person 
 does when concealing himself in a 
 comer. Cf. Scot, mohre, to hoard ; O. 
 Eng. moherer, a miser [Old Eng. Mis- 
 cellany, p. 214). 
 
 If ahotinge faulte at any tyme, it hydes it 
 not, it lurkes not in corners and hudder" 
 mother, but openly accuseth and bewrayeth it 
 selfe. — K. Ascham, Toxophiltis, Ibib, p. S6 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 And Set I pray \>e, leue brojier, 
 Kede J^ys ofte, and so lete ojjer, 
 Huyde hyt not in hodymnke, 
 Lete other mo rede ]>ys boke. 
 J. Myrc, Instructions for Parish Priests 
 (ah. 1420), p. 62, 1. 2032. 
 
 We hare done but gi'eenly 
 Id hugger-mugger to inter him. 
 
 Shakespeare, Hamlet, iv. 5. 
 
 In Banffshire Ivudge-mudge is to 
 whisper or talk in a suppressed man- 
 ner. 
 
 The twa began to hudge-miidge wee ane 
 anither in a corner. — Gregor, Banff Glossary, 
 p. 83. 
 
 Hum, \ old words for malt 
 
 Humming, / liquor, especially strong 
 ale. Humming seems to be a corrupted 
 form of Low Lat. hummtiKna, beer, de- 
 rived from Low Lat. humulus, huniblo, 
 the hop, Icel. humall, Dan. and Swed. 
 humle, Belg. Jiommel, the hop, A. Sax. 
 hyniele [?J . Hum would be an abbre- 
 viated form of this, as hoch for hoch- 
 heimer, rum for rumbooze, &c. 
 
 Fat ale, brisk stout, and humming clamber- 
 crown. 
 Epilogue to Adelphi, 1709, LtisusAlteri 
 
 Westmonasterienses, p. 8. 
 A glass of wine or humming beer 
 The heart and spirit for to cheer. 
 
 Poor Robin, 1735. 
 What a cold I have over my stomach; 
 would I 'd some hum. — Beaumont and Fletcher, 
 Wildgoose Chase, ii. 3. 
 
 Compare the foUowing : — 
 
 Bere, a drynke, Hummulina, vel hummuli 
 potus, aut cervisia hummulina. — Prompt. 
 Parv. c. 1440. 
 
 Humble, in the sense of hornless, 
 applied to a cow, ewe, deer, &c. {e.g. 
 in the definition of holla, hollotr, in 
 Cleasby's Icelandic Dictionary), is a 
 corrupt form of Scotch and Northern 
 Eng. hummiel, hummle, homyll, without 
 horns; " Hummled, hornless, as 'a 
 hummled coo,' a cow without horns." 
 — Soldemess Glossary (Eng. Dialect. 
 Soc). So hurmneld in the Cleveland 
 dialect (Atkinson). Compare Scotch 
 humUe, humloch, a hornless cow ; N. 
 Eng. humble, Scot, hurtvmel, to break 
 off the beards of barley witli a flaU. 
 All these words are akin to Prov. Eng. 
 hamel, to lame, Ger. hamvmel, a wether, 
 A. Sax. hameUan, Icel. hamla, to maim 
 or mutilate. 
 
 Humble-cow, a cow without horns. — 
 Parish, Sussex Glossary. 
 
 That was Grizzel chasing the humbU-ctm 
 out of the Close. — Scott, Guy Manneriiig, 
 ch. ix. 
 
 It will come outyet, like hommel corn. — 
 A. Hishp, Scottish Proverbs, p. 192. 
 
 The A. Sax. homela, homola, a per- 
 son who has his head shaved for the 
 pillory, a fool (Bosworth), is obviously 
 the same word (compare Irish mad). 
 The base is Goth, hamfs, manned ; and 
 hamper, to impede, is substantially the 
 same word (see Skeat, Etym. Diet., 
 
 S.V.). 
 
 In the following citation from Hol- 
 land's PUny (1634), humbled seems to 
 bear the sense of broken, chapped, 
 abraded. 
 
 If one lay them [Rapes or Turnips] very 
 hot to kibei or humbled heeles, they wil cure 
 them. — Nat. History, torn. ii. p. 38. 
 
 Humble-bee, a name for the wild 
 bee (Copley, 1596, Whiting, 1638) some- 
 times imagined to denote its inferiority 
 to the hive bee, 0. Eng. humhjl-hee, is 
 
HUMBLE-PIE 
 
 ( 183 ) 
 
 EUNGABIAN 
 
 merely another form of hummel-lee or 
 humming-hee, from the old verb hummel, 
 to hum ; compare Ger. hummel, a hum- 
 ble-bee, from ^mmew, to hum. Another 
 name ^ven to the insect for the same 
 reason is Immble-hee, Scot, humhee, hom- 
 hell, hwnvml, Greek h&nibos. Hind. 
 Ihawnra, Bengal, hhrnnra, Sansk. 6am- 
 bhwra, the bee that lums or humbles — 
 " faoit hombum " ( Varro). Compare 
 drone, A. Sax. dran, and Sansk. druna, 
 a bee. " Bombare, to hmn or buzze'as 
 bees doe." — Florio, Rew Wwld of 
 Words, 1611. 
 
 Some authors [e.g. Dr. Johnson] inconver- 
 sant in natural history have most erroneously 
 imagined them in consequence of the above 
 name to be destitute of a sting. — Shaw, Na- 
 turatisfs Miscellany. 
 
 Mekle Latyne he did mummill 
 I hard na thing but htbmmill bummill, 
 He schew me nocht of Goddis word. 
 Sir D. Lyndesay, Kitteis Confesdoun, 
 1.45 (IForfo, p. 581). 
 
 So an old Lincolnshire woman once 
 compared a drowsy preacher to a 
 "bum'el-bee upon a thistletop," which 
 recalls a similar remark of Tennyson's 
 Northern Fwrmer — ■ 
 
 I 'eerd *um a bummin' awaay loike a buzzard- 
 clock ower my 'ead. 
 
 Poems, p. 267 (1878). 
 The loudest bummer's no the best bee. — A. 
 Hislop, Scottish Proverbs, p. 283. 
 Here is a box ful of humble bees, 
 That stonge Eve as she sat on her knees, 
 Tastynge the finite to her forbydden. 
 Heywood, The Four P's (Dodsley, i. 
 81, ed. 1825). 
 Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing. 
 
 Shukespeare, Troilus and Cressida, 
 V. 10, 42. 
 Lyke the humbling/ After the clappe of a 
 thundring. 
 Chaucer, House of Fame, lib. ii. 1. 531. 
 A rich mantle he did weare. 
 Made of tinsell jossamere, 
 Dyde crimson in a maiden's blush ; 
 Linde with a bumble bee's soft plush. 
 Herrick, Poems, p. 431 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 2 humming birds not much bigger than our 
 humble bee, — Evelyn, Diary, July 11, 1652. 
 
 Humble-pie, in the phrase " to make 
 one eat humble-pie," meaning to hu- 
 miliate him or bring down his pride, is 
 a corrupted form and perverted use of 
 the name of a dish once popular, viz., 
 umble-jpie, a pie made of the v/mbles or 
 internal parts of a deer. 
 
 The homhuls of the do w. 
 
 Carol (15th cent.) bryngyng in the 
 Bores Head. 
 Mrs. Turner ... did bring us an umble 
 pie hot. — Pepys, Diary, vol. ii. p. 266 (ed. 
 Bright). 
 
 Lacy. What have you fit for breakfast?. . . 
 
 Mar. Butter and cheese, and umbles of a 
 deer. 
 Such as poor keepers have within their lodge. 
 Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay 
 (1594), sub Jin. 
 Skinner writes the word " humbles," 
 and considers it, probably correctly, as 
 derived from umbilicus, "the parts 
 about the navel." It is, perhaps, from 
 A. Sax. ]>umles, the bowels or thumbles, 
 understood as th'umbles. An old spel- 
 ling was numbles, e.g. 
 
 PriEcordia, the numbles, as the hart, the 
 splene, the lunges, and lyuer. — Elyot. 
 
 Noumbles of a dere, or beest, entrailles. — 
 Palsgrave. 
 
 Nowmelys of a beest. Burbalia. — Prompt. 
 Parv. (vid. Way's note). 
 
 Take the noumbles of calf, swyne, or of 
 shepe, — Forme of Cury, p. 6. 
 
 Then dress the numbles first, that Y recke 
 Downe the auauncers kerne that cleueth to 
 the necke. 
 Book of St. Albans, How ye shall breke 
 an Hart. 
 
 The Sussex folk have devised on the 
 same model the phrase " to eat cai-p- 
 pie " for submitting to another person 
 carping at one's actions. 
 
 HnNttAKiAN, an old name for a species 
 of horse, is borrowed from Fr. hongre, 
 a gelding (also an Eunuch, a Himga- 
 rian). — Cotgrave. The French name 
 is sp,id to have originated in a mis- 
 take as to the meaning of the German 
 word Wallach, a gelding, Gantherius 
 [compare Swed. vallack, a gelding, 
 vallacha, to castrate, perhaps akin to 
 Swed. gdlla, to geld, Greek gallos, a 
 eunuch], which was popularly sup- 
 posed to mean brought from Wallachia 
 or Hungary, and therefore synonymous 
 with Hongre or Hunga/rian (Wachter). 
 But see the quotation from Topsell. 
 
 Our English Horses have amediocrity of all 
 necessary good properties in them ; as neither 
 so slight as the Barbe, nor so slovenly as the 
 Flemish, nor so fiery as the Hungarian. — T. 
 Fuller, Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 491. 
 
 The Hunnes bring vp their Horsses hardly 
 . . . These Hunnian Horsses, else where he 
 calleth them Hunnican Horsses, and the same 
 in times past Hunnes : but they are called a 
 
BTION OBY 
 
 ( 184 ) 
 
 ETT8BAND 
 
 daies Vngarian Horsses. — Topsell, Histari/ of 
 Four-footed Beasts, p. 288 (1608). 
 
 Htion cey, an absurd orthography 
 of Hue and cry, as if it had something 
 to do with Sir Huon, famed in the ro- 
 mances of chivalry. 
 
 Scarce findes.the doore, with faultring foot he 
 
 flies, 
 And still lookes back for fear of Hu-on cries. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 193 (1621). 
 
 Hue, a shout, is O. Fr. huer, akin to 
 hoot. Compare Fr. huyer, " to hoot at, 
 shout after, exolaime on, cry out upon, 
 follow with Jme and cry." — Cotgrave. 
 
 How shall 1 answer Hue and Cry, 
 For a Roan-Gelding- twelve Hands hig:h ? 
 Butler, Hudibras, Pt. II. cant. i. 1. 693. 
 
 HuREiCANE. Thiswordwas once sup- 
 posed in accordance with its spelhng to 
 he a storm or tornado that hurries the 
 canes away in the plantations, and a 
 support for this derivation was sought 
 in the Lat. word calanvitas, a calamity, 
 an injury to the canes, calami (cf. hurle- 
 Mast, a. whirlwind. — Wright). But 
 hurricane, Fr. ouragan, Sp. huracan, 
 Ger. orhan, is a corrupted form of a 
 native American word, Hii/raJcan, the 
 Tempest-god. 
 
 When the ships were ready to depart, a 
 temble stoim swept the island. It was one 
 of those awful whirlwinds which occasionally 
 rage within the tropics, and were called by the 
 Indians ^^ furicanes," or " uricans," a name 
 they still retain with trifling variation. — W. 
 Irving, Columbus, bk. viii. eh. 9. 
 
 The Elements grew dreadful, the wind ror- 
 ing, and the sea so sublime and wrathful, and 
 for three days space raging with such fury 
 that we verily believed a if erocoTie was begun, 
 which is a vast or unwonted tumor in the 
 Ayre, called Euroclydon in the Acts, a Tem- 
 pest so terrible, that houses and trees are but 
 like dust before it ; many ships by its violence 
 having been blown a shoar and shattered. — 
 Sir Thos. Herbert, Travels, 1665, p. 41. 
 Not the dreadful spout, 
 Which shipmen do the hurricane call, 
 Constringed in mass by the Almighty sun. 
 Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear. 
 Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, 
 V. 2, 174. 
 
 When the winds are not only wild in a 
 storm, but even stark mad in a herricano, who 
 is it that restores them again to their wits, 
 and brings them asleep in a calm 1 — T. Fuller, 
 Holy State, p. 122 (1648). 
 
 Nor will any wonder at this wild Hericano 
 blowing at once from all points of the Com- 
 pass, wnen he remembers that Satan is styled 
 
 the Prince of the power of the air. — T. Fuller, 
 Pisgah Sight, pt. ii. p. 35 (1650). 
 
 in the year of our Lord 1639, in November, 
 here happened an Hirecano, or wild wind, 
 which, entering in at the great East-window 
 blew that down, and carried some part there- 
 of, with the picture of Lord Coventry, .... 
 all the length of the gallery.— T. Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 338 (ed. 
 1811). 
 
 Nash speaks of "furicanos of tem- 
 pests," as if a mad raging wind. 
 
 Hurts, a contracted form of Hurtle- 
 terries or Whortleherries (Lat. vacoi- 
 nium), which is to all appearance a cor- 
 ruption of the A. Saxon Iieorotlerige, the 
 "hart-berry" from heorot or Jieort, a 
 hart. Similarly hindherry was an old 
 name for the raspberry. 
 
 Nothing more have I to observe of these 
 Berries, save that the antient and martial 
 family of the Baskervills in Herefordshire 
 give a Cheveron betwixt three if uKsproper for 
 their Arms. — Fuller, Worthiesof EngUind, vol. 
 i. p. 271 (ed. Nichols). 
 
 Hnrtberries — In Latine Vaccinia, most 
 wholsome to the stomach, but of a very asti'in- 
 gent nature ; so plentiful in this Shii'e, that 
 it is a kind of Harvest to poor people. — T. 
 Fuller, Worthies, Devonshire, vol. ii. 271 (ed. 
 1811). 
 
 St Humphrey Baskervile .... beareth Ar- 
 gent, a Cheveron Gules, between three Hewrts 
 proper. These are a small round berry of a 
 colour between black and blew, growing up- 
 on a manifold stalk about a foot high on 
 Mountains in Wales FoiTests and Woodland 
 grounds. Some call them Windhen'ys, others 
 Heurtle berries. They are in season with 
 strawberries. They are called also Bill 
 berries. — T. Dingley, History from Marble 
 (temp. Chas. II), p. ccix (Camden Soc). 
 
 Husband does not etymologically 
 denote, as was long supposed, the land 
 that holds the Iwuse together. It is the 
 English equivalent of Swed. hushonde, 
 Icel. hushdndi, which is properly a par- 
 ticiple contracted from hushdandi or 
 hushuandd ( iOndi being a tUler or owner, 
 from Ma, to tOl, to occupy, Goth, go- 
 hauan), and so the primitive meaning 
 of the word is the master or good-man 
 of the house (Cleasby). Tusser, there- 
 fore, was mistaken when he wrote 
 The name of a husband, what is it to sale? 
 Of wife and the household the ba7id and the 
 stale. 
 
 Tusser, 1580, E. D. Soc, p. 16. 
 
 See my guardian, her husband. Unfash- 
 ionable as the word is, it is a pretty word: 
 the house-band that ties all together : is not 
 
HUSKY 
 
 ( 185 ) 
 
 IGE-SHAGELE 
 
 that the meaning? — Richardson, Sir C. Gran- 
 dison, vi. 375. iDavies, Supp. Eiig. Gteari/.] 
 Camden pointed out the true origin : — 
 Bond, that is Paterfamilias, as it is in the 
 booke of olde terms belong-ina^ sometimes to 
 Saint Augustines in Canterburie, and wee re- 
 tains it in the compound Husband. — Remaines 
 Concerning Brituine, 1637, p. 126, 
 
 The following moralizing of a Scripture 
 subject is therefore baseless : — 
 
 The ties that bound her to the land of Moab 
 had been snapped by the hand of death. In 
 the death of her husband tliere was the dis- 
 ruption of the house-band. In the deaths of 
 her two sons who had become husbands, the 
 only qtlier bands or bonds that could keep to- 
 gether for Naomi a home in Moab were burst. 
 — The Pulpit Cimimentary, Ruth (i. 6), p. 13 
 (1880). 
 
 The latine Terbe colere ... is to tille or to 
 housbande, as grounde or -any other semble- 
 able thyng is housebanded. — Udall, Apoph- 
 thegmes of Erasmus, 1542, p. 265 (ed. 1877). 
 You houiband, you harte, you joy & you 
 
 pleasure. 
 You King & you Keyser, to her only trea- 
 sure. 
 
 Apius and Virginia, 1575 (O. P. xii. 
 346, ed. 1827). 
 
 God defende thei should be so foolishe to 
 give their maidens to their housebandes ; I 
 would wish them rather themselves to take 
 their menne. — Riche his Farewell to Militarie 
 Profession, 1581, p. 129 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Mr. Purnivall has an exhaustive 
 excursus on " bondman," which has no 
 connexion with hands or Innd'mg (of. 
 Dan. londe, a peasant), in Bja. Percy's 
 Folio M8., vol. ii. p. xxxiii. seq. He 
 there quotes hus-honda (a householder) 
 from A. Sax. Gospels (8th cent.), hus- 
 hunda from Saxon Chronicle, 1048. 
 
 Husky, somewhat hoarse and dry in 
 the throat, has no connexion with 
 husks, the dry coverings of seeds (nor 
 yet with the Zend hiislco, dry !), but is 
 probably another form of Prov. Eng. 
 hashy, dry, rough, unpleasant feeling 
 {e.g. Sternberg, Northanvpt. Glossary). 
 Compare Lincolns. husk, dry, parched 
 (Wright), N. Eng. and Scot, hask, 
 dry, rough, parched (akin to Dan. 
 hj/rsk, "harsh," 0. Eng. "hwrske, or 
 haske, as sundry frutys, Stipticus." — 
 Frompt. Pa/rv.). " He hath a great 
 haskness (izasthma)." — Horman. Cf. 
 perhaps 0. Eng. hoos, A. Sax. has, 
 hoarse. Eiohardson and Skeat regard 
 husky as a corruption oihusty or hausty, 
 inclined to cough. 
 
 HussiF, \ a widely diffused word for 
 HuzziF, / a pocket-case for needles 
 and thread, as if for huswife, house- 
 tvife, which is sometimes the spelling 
 used, Scot, hussey. According to Pro- 
 fessor Skeat this is a corruption of Ice- 
 landic husi, a case for needles. (Dic- 
 kinson, Gumherland Glossary, s. v.) 
 
 Mrs. Anne, I have dropt my hussy. — 
 Richardso}!, Pamela, i. 162. ^Davies, Supp, 
 Eng. Glossary.^ 
 
 IcE-BONB, a provincial name for the 
 aitch-bone or edge-bone of beef 
 (Wright). See also Parish, Sussex 
 Glossary, s.v. 
 
 I remember a pleasant passage of the cook 
 applying to him [Jackson] for instructions 
 how to write down edge bone of beef in his 
 bill of commons. He decided the ortho- 
 gi-aphy to be — as I have given it — fortifying 
 his authority with such anatomical reasons 
 as dismissed the manciple leai-ned and happy. 
 Some do spell it yet, perversely, attch bone, 
 from a fanciful resemblance between its shape 
 and that of the aspirate so denominated. — 
 C. Lamb, Old Benchers of the Jnner Temple, 
 Elia, p. 58 (ed. 1840). ' 
 
 Ice-shackle, an old corruption of 
 icicle, and still used provincially. The 
 Dorset word is an ice-candle, the Cleve- 
 land ice-shoggle. The word icicle is 
 compounded of ice and ickle (Prov. 
 Eng.), a stalactite, Prov. Swed. ikkel 
 (a pointed object), A. Sax. gicel, " Stiria, 
 ises gicel." — Wright, Vocabularies, p. 
 21 ; Prov. Dan. egel. So the correspond- 
 ing forms are Pris. is-jokkel, Prov. 
 Swed. ais-ihkd, A. Sax. ises-gicol, Dut. 
 ijs-kegel. Cf. Prov. Swed. is-stikkel. 
 The daggers of the sharpened eaves. 
 In Memarium, cvi. 
 Ysekeles [al. iseyokels'] in eueses ■ Jjorw hete of 
 
 be Sonne, 
 Melteth in a mynut while • to myst & to 
 
 watre. 
 
 Langland, Vision of Piers Plowman, 
 B. XX. 228. 
 
 The latter part of the word, -icMe, 
 Scand. jokull (an icicle or ice-berg), is 
 itself cognate with ice, A. Sax. is, Icel. 
 iss, Zend i<;i (M. Miiller, Chips, iv. 248), 
 which have been connected with Pers. 
 yach, old Pers. yah, and Sansk. yacas, 
 brightness, as if ice were originally 
 named from its sparkling brilUancy 
 
I0E-8I0KLB 
 
 ( 186 ) 
 
 ILLUSTRIOUS 
 
 (Pictet, Origines Indo-Burop. i. 96, 
 
 and so Grimm). Thus we would have 
 
 Yog- (bright) 
 
 I 
 
 A. Sax. is 
 
 Seand. jahi, jokuU 
 
 -ickle. 
 
 Eng. ice 
 
 Ikylj stiria. — Prompt. Parvubrum. 
 
 Esclarcyl, en ychek (Gloss in Way). 
 
 Iggle, and aigle, an icicle. — Eiwns, Leices- 
 tershire Glossary, E. D. S. 
 
 Otherwise ice (is, Ger. eis) might be 
 identified with is, isa, the base of A. 
 Sax. isen, iron, Goth, eis-wrn, Ger. eis- 
 en, as if " the iron-hard." Prof. Skeat, 
 with less probability, I think, regards 
 iron (isen), as having got its name from 
 ice (as i£ ice-en). Compare the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 When the cold north wind bloweth, and 
 the water is congealed into ice . . it clotheth 
 the water as with a breastplate. — Ecclesixisticus, 
 xliii. 20. 
 
 So Greek pagos, pegos, " the fixed," rr 
 ice, with which Prof. Blackie would 
 equate Gaeho eigh, with the usual loss 
 of initial p. Of. " Elvers . . . murmur 
 hoarser at the fieeing frost." — Thomson, 
 Winter. 
 
 Ice-sickle, a corrupt form of icicle, 
 the s of the first part of the old com- 
 pound is-icMe having coalesced with 
 the latter part. Compare Scouese. 
 The [ongeyse syctes at the hewsys [:^eaveses] 
 honge. 
 
 Cyt. and Upl. (Percy Soc. xxii. 3). 
 Scoladura, any downe-hanging and drop- 
 ping ise-sickles. — Florio. 
 
 Ghiacciuoli, ice-sic/f/es. — Id. 
 For it had snowen, and frosen very strong, 
 
 With great ysesycles on the eues long. 
 The sharp north wynd hurled bytterly. 
 And with black cloudes darked was the 
 
 sky. 
 The Hie Way To The Spyttel Hous, 1. 102 
 (Early Pop. Poetry, vol. iv. p. 27). 
 When Phoebus had melted the " sickles " of ice, 
 
 With a hey down, &c.. 
 And likewise the mountains of snow. 
 Bold Robin Hood he would ramble away. 
 To frolick abroad with his bow. 
 
 Ritson, Robin Hood and the Ranger, 
 XX. 11. 1-5. 
 
 Idle-headed, the original expression 
 of which addle-headed is a corruption, 
 as if having a head fidl only of corrupt 
 matter, Uke an addled egg,~" The 
 moiildy chambers of the dull idiot's 
 braiu," — and_so addle -pate, a simpleton. 
 
 Addle means, not disease (Skeat), but 
 corruption, and is from Welsh haM, 
 rotten, corrupt, hadb/d, corrupted, 
 hadlu, to decay (perhaps oiiginaUy to 
 run to seed, hadu, from had, seedy ; cf. 
 "seedy"). In Sussex addle-pool is a 
 dunghiU puddle. On the other hand 
 idle-headed (=:Dut. Udel van hoofie; 
 empty-headed, mad. — KiKan), is from 
 A. Sax. idel, empty, vain, Dut. HM, 
 Ger. eitel, vain, conceited (correspond- 
 ing to Greek itha/rds, pure, clear, as if 
 sheer, downright. — Skeat). 
 
 8a, swungon hig <5one, and idelne hine for- 
 leton [They swinged him and sent him 
 away empty]. — A. Sax. Gospels, St. Luhe, 
 XX. 10. 
 
 Hee [John Segar, a rescued seaman] be- 
 came idle-headed and for eight days space, 
 neither night nor day, took any naturall rest, 
 and so at length died for lack of sleep. — Hak- 
 luyt. Voyages, vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 108. 
 
 Idel-gild, an A. Saxon word for 
 idolatry, from idel, vain, idle, and gild, 
 worship, has perhaps a conscious refe- 
 rence to idoZ-worship, Lat. idololaMa. 
 This word recalls the paronomasia of 
 Habakkuk ii. 18, Heb. ^elil Hllem, 
 "idle idols" (A. V. "dumb idols"). 
 Compare — 
 
 For Sour ydil idolus ' don Sou ille wirche. 
 Alexand£r and Dindimus (ab. 1350), 
 1. 764 (ed. Skeat). 
 
 Idolatry, Pr. idolatrie, popular cor- 
 ruptions of idololatry, idololatrie, from 
 Lat. idololatria, Greek eidoh-latreia, 
 "idol-worship." 
 
 So hippotamus (Topsell) is a popular 
 pronunciation of hippopotamus; and 
 ignomy occurs in Shakespeare for igno- 
 miny, physnomy in Topsell ioi physiog- 
 nomy. 
 
 First IdoloUtros, whose monstrous head 
 Was like an ugly fiend, his flaming sight 
 Like blazing stars, the rest all different : 
 For to his shape some part each creature lent ; 
 But to the great Creator all adversely bent. 
 P. Fletcher, The Purple Island, vii. 28 
 (1633) ed. 1783. 
 
 Ill-convenient, a widely diffused 
 popular corruption of in-convenient, e.g. 
 W. D. Parish, Sussex Glossary. 
 
 Illusteious, an irregular formation, 
 from a mistaken analogy to words like 
 famous, glorious, industrious (= Lat. 
 foffn-osus, glori-osus, industri-osw), of 
 Fr. illustre, Lat. illustris {Ske&t, Mtym. 
 Diet. S.V.). "Just like illusirioM is 
 
ILL-THING 
 
 ( 187 ) 
 
 IMBEOIL 
 
 our forefathers' enomvious [Warburton] 
 — from enormis or enorme — which we 
 are not to account singularly mon- 
 stnious, as the same forefathers wrote 
 very allowably."- — F. Hall, Modern 
 English, p. 289. 
 
 Ill-thing, a Devonshire word for 
 erysipelas or St. Anthony's fire, has all 
 the appearance of being a corruption. 
 It is perhaps from some O. Eng. word 
 Uke adding (ylding), from cbU, celed, 
 fire, like A. Sax. celedneys, a burning 
 or inflammation (?). Cf. Devon, al- 
 lernhatch, a burning boil, prob. from 
 A. S. xlan, to burn, and lotch {Exmoor 
 Scolding, 1. 24). 
 
 Imbecil, formerly pronovmced im- 
 hec-il, an old verb, used by Bp. Jeremy 
 Taylor for embezzle, of which word it 
 may be the original, and so the primi- 
 tive meaning would be to enfeeble or 
 impair a property or an3rthing entrusted 
 to one, to waste, squander, or misap- 
 propriate it. To imheeil is from Lat. 
 inibecillus, feeble (cognate probably 
 with iaceolus, Greek hahelos,^ weak, 
 effeminate), but conformed to the verb 
 to hezzle, to guzzle, drink hard, con- 
 sume in riot. Thus Thos. Fuller 
 speaks of some " that sit drinking and 
 hezzling wine abroad, whilst ' their ' 
 family are glad of water at home" 
 {Commentary on Ruth, i. 1), and Bp. 
 HaU speaks of a drimkard as " the 
 Bwoln lezzle at an alehouse fire" 
 (Satiree, v. 2). 
 
 They swear, bezzel, covet, and laugh at him 
 that tells them they sin. — T. Adams, Sermons, 
 vol. i. p. 462. 
 
 Time will come 
 When wonder of thy error will strike dumb 
 Thy hezzled sense. 
 
 Marston avd Webster, The Malconteiit, 
 1604, act ii. sc. 2. 
 
 However, this hezzle may itself be 
 from haceolus, an impotent, lewd per- 
 
 ' The old derivation of imbecillus was in 
 bacuh, one that supports himself on a stick, 
 just as in David's curse on Joab, " One that 
 leaneth on a staff," is used to denote a weak, 
 infirm person (2 Sam. iii. 29). In Icelandic 
 certainly staf-karl, a " staflF-carle," denotes 
 an old and infirm person, one, according to 
 the Sphinx's riddle, who in the evening goes 
 upon three legs. The radical character in 
 Chinese for ni, sickness, infirmity, is the 
 picture of a man leaning against a support. 
 — Edkins, Chinese Characters, p. 26. 
 
 son, and teazled is still used in Sussex 
 for wearied out, exhausted (Parish, 
 Glossary). Cf. " I embesell, Je cele " — 
 Palsgrave, Lesdaardssement, 1530. 
 
 They that by negligence imbecil other 
 men's estates, spoiling or letting anything 
 perish which is entrusted to them. — Taiilor, 
 tioly Diiing, ch. iv. sect. viii. p. 168 (Ox- 
 ford ed.). 
 
 Compare with this — 
 
 It is a sad calamity that the fear of Death 
 shall so imbecil man's courage and under- 
 standing. — Id. p. 99. 
 
 Imhedlity was formerly used for 
 weakness generally, e.g. Hooker speaks 
 of obedience of wives as " a duty where- 
 unto the very imhedlity of their nature 
 and sex doth bind them" {Ecdes. Po- 
 lity, vol. ii. p. 66, ed. Tegg). 
 
 God by his mighty works convinceth Job of 
 ignorance and of imbecility [= impotence]. 
 — A. V. Heading to Job, chap, xxxviii. 
 
 It should teach us . . . that we do not any 
 way abuse and imbezell that substance that 
 God means to grace. — M. Day, Doomes-Day, 
 1636, p. 240. 
 
 Mr. Haoluit died, leaving a fair estate to 
 an unthrift son, who entbez&led it. — Fuller, 
 Worthies of England. 
 
 Henry More says that the Church 
 " would not so much as embesell the 
 various readings " of Scripture {Mys- 
 tery of Godliness, b. vii. c. 11), and 
 Howe, that time is "too precious to 
 be embezzled and trifled away," see 
 Archbishop Trench, Select Glossary, 
 s.v. Embezzle. 
 
 By theae Comets he would embezzle the ex- 
 cellencie of his worke. — 2'hos. Lodge, Works 
 of Seneca, V. 900 (1614:). 
 
 By which Dealing he so imhezzkd his Estate, 
 that when his Brother and he came to an 
 Account, there remained little or nothing for 
 him to receive. — Anatomy of tfie English Nun- 
 nery at Lisbon, 1622. 
 
 It would be a breach of my Triist to con- 
 sume or imbezil that Wealth in Excessive 
 Superfluities of Meat, Drink, or Apparel.— 
 Sir M. Hale, Contemplations, pt. i. p. 312 
 (ed. 1685). 
 
 It is their [sluggards'] nature to waste and 
 embezzle an estate. — Barrow, Sermons, Of In- 
 dustry in general. 
 
 The same view as I have here taken 
 has been adopted by Professor Skeat 
 {Notes and Queries, 5th S. x. 461), who 
 quotes from a 15th century poem, The 
 Lament of Mary Magdalen ; — 
 
 Not content my dere love thus to quell 
 
 But yet they must embesile his presence. 
 
IMBBEW 
 
 ( 188 ) 
 
 INGENTIVB 
 
 He also adduces the following from 
 Palsgrave (circa 1530). 
 
 I embesyll a thynge, or put it out of the 
 way, Je suhstrays. He that embesylleth a 
 thyng intendeth to steale it if he can convoye 
 it cleuly. 
 
 " They " so imbtcill all theyr strengthe 
 that they are naught to me. 
 
 Drant, Horace, Sat. i. 5. 
 
 This is imbesylynge and diminyshe of their 
 power and dominion. — UcUiL, Revelation, 
 c. 16. 
 
 Finally, Archbisliop Sharp observes 
 in his Sermons (vol. i.), that rehgion 
 "wOl not allow us to embezzle our 
 money in drinking or gaming." Bp. 
 Andrewes uses the word in the modem 
 sense, " The son must not falsely pur- 
 loin or emliezzle from his parents " 
 (Pattern of GatecMstical Doctrine, 1641, 
 p. 187, Ang. Oath. Lib.). 
 
 Imbeew, an occasional spelHng, as if 
 connected with brew, of imbrue, to 
 drench or soak, from Fr. s'emZwtter, "to 
 imbrue or bedabble himself with." — 
 Cotgrave ; " Embreuver, to moisten, be- 
 deaw, soak in." — Id. (cf. descry and 
 descrive), from embevrer, It. imbevere, 
 Lat. imbibere, to drink in (Wedg- 
 wood). 
 
 Implement, so spelt as if frotn a Lat. 
 'hnpleinenhim, from implere, that wliich 
 fills up or supplies one's need, a ser- 
 viceable tool, is really the same word 
 as employment, that which is employed 
 in a handicraft or trade, from Fr. em- 
 plier, employer, Sp. emplear, to imploy 
 (Minsheu), which is only another form 
 of imply, both being from Lat. impli- 
 carre. The original meaning of employ 
 would seem to be " to bring or twn 
 info use," to introduce as a factor or 
 means to an end. 
 
 Compare the following : — 
 
 Lysander solus, with a croio of iron, and a 
 hutter, which he lays down, and puts on his 
 disguise again. . . . 
 See, sweet, here are the engines that must 
 
 do't, 
 Which, with much fear of my discovery, 
 I haTe at last procur'd. 
 
 My stay hath been prolong'd, 
 
 With hunting obscure nooks for tliese employ- 
 ments. 
 The ll'idows Tears (1612), act v. sc. 1 
 {Old Plays, vi. 192, ed. 1825). 
 
 Of such dogges as keep not their kinde, 
 ... it is not necessarye that 1 write any 
 more of them, but to banishe them as vn- 
 
 profitable implements, out of the boundes of 
 my Booke. — A. Fleming, Caius of Eng. 
 Dogges, 1576, p. 34 (repr. 1880). 
 
 Imposthume, an abscess, as if an 
 "on-come," imposition, something laid 
 on one as an infliction, is a corruption of 
 the older form oposiitme, aposiem, Greek 
 apostema, an abscess. 
 [He] wringing gently with his hand the 
 
 wound 
 Made th' hot impostume run upon the gi'ound. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 123 (1621). 
 
 The inner flesh or pulp [of a gourd] is 
 passing good for to be laid vnto those impos- 
 tumes or swellings, that grow to an head or 
 suppuration (which the Greeks call Aposte- 
 mata). — Holland, Pliny's Nat. Hist, ii, 38 
 (1634). 
 
 Bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas, lime- 
 kilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ache, and 
 the rivelled fee-simple of the tetter, take and 
 take again such preposterous discoveries ! — 
 Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, W. 1, 28. 
 
 Impoverish, a corrupt form of appo- 
 verish, Fr. appovrlr, to beggar, opjJo- 
 vrisse-menf, impoverishment, Lat. ad- 
 pauperare, as if compounded with i'm= 
 in (Skeat). For a similar corruption 
 of the prefix, compare im-posthumr, en- 
 sample, and in-swe for as-sure, Fr. as- 
 sewer, Lat. ad-securare. See Advance, 
 Entice, Invoice, and Inveigle. 
 
 Impress, to constrain men to servo 
 in the navy, as it were to press them 
 into the service, is a corrupt form of im- 
 prest, and has no connexion withraspress 
 the derivative of Lat. impressns, im- 
 primere, to press in. See Peess. 
 
 If proper colonels were once appointed . . . 
 our regiments would soon be filled withoutthe, 
 reproach or cruelty of an impress. — Sam. 
 Johnson, The Idler, No. 5. 
 
 Incentive, that which provokes oi 
 instigates, is commonly supposed to be 
 connected with incendiary, inccndive 
 (Eichardson), as if that which inflames, 
 kindles, or set's one on fire (Lat. inoen- 
 dere). The Latin incentivus, however, 
 from which it is derived, is used of that 
 which gives the note, or strikes up the 
 tune, and sets the other instruments 
 going, akin to incentor (" the same as 
 incendiary." — Bailey!), a precentor, in- 
 centio, a tuning up, all from in-einere, 
 to play on an instrument. Incentive, 
 therefore, is cognate, not withtoiwcnu, 
 but with incantation and enchcmtiMnt. 
 The stirring music of the band is an 
 incentive to soldiers going into action. 
 
INGABNAOYON ( 189 ) 
 
 INTEREST 
 
 Milton, with apparently the false 
 analogy in his mind, says of the fallen 
 angels when preparing their infernal 
 artUlery, 
 
 Part ijicentive reed 
 Provide, pernicious with one touch to fire. 
 Par. Lost, bk. vi. 1. 520. 
 
 Incaknacyon, in Turner, an old cor- 
 ruption of Carnation, which see. 
 
 Inch-pin, a curious old word for the 
 lower gut of a deer (BaUey), and espe- 
 cially its sweet-bread (Nares), has all 
 the appearance of being a corruption. 
 It is, perhaps, another form of linch- 
 pin, used for a part of the stag attached 
 to the doucets, and linch may be a 
 softened form of old Eng. Unh, a sau- 
 sage (Bailey), " lynhe or sawcistre, 
 hiila." — Prom]pt. Pai'vuloruni; origi- 
 nally a pudding or gut, e.g. " Andouille, 
 a Unke or chitterling, a big hogs-gut . . 
 seasoned with pepper and salt." — Cot- 
 grave. So inMe, tape, is from O. Eng. 
 lingel, 0. Fr. ligneul. 
 
 Mur. I gave them 
 
 All the sweet morsels call'd tongue, ears, and 
 dowcets ! 
 Rob. \\\iin and the hick-pin? 
 
 Ben Jonson, iiad Shepherd, i. 2 ( IVorks, 
 p. 49-1). 
 And with the fatt, 
 And well broyl'd inch-pin of a batt, 
 A bloted eare-wigg, with the pythe 
 Of sugred rush, hee gladds hym with. 
 Herrick, Poems (ed. Hazlitt), p. 472. 
 
 Income, a boil (Peacock, Glossary of 
 Manley and Gorringliam, Lincolnshire. 
 Ferguson, Cumherland Glossary.). 
 
 The same word as old and prov. Eng. 
 a/fbconie, uncome, an ulcerous swelling 
 rising unexpectedly (Wright), properly 
 an " on-come," identical with Icel. 
 akoina, u-hvama, an on-come or visita- 
 tion, a wound, an eruption (Cleasby, 
 p. 41). Compare Scottish income and 
 oncome, an access or attack of disease, 
 otherwise anom-/aZZ(andperhaps Devon 
 implngang, an ulcer, Somerset nimpin- 
 gang, a whitlow), Fr. mal d'aventv/re. 
 
 Adventitius morbus, syckenes that cometh 
 without our defaute, and of some men is 
 callyd an vncome. — Elyot. • 
 
 A fellon, vncomme, or catte's haire [:=whit- 
 \ovf^, farunculns. — Buret. 
 
 What makes you lame? A tuk' it first wi' 
 an income in ma knee. — Patterson, Antrim and 
 Down Glossary, p. 55, E. D. S. 
 
 Pterigio, a wnitflaw, an incom or fellon at 
 the fingers ends. — Florio. 
 
 The same [Persicai'ia] brused and bound 
 vpon an impostume in the ioints of the fingers 
 (called among the vulgare sort a fellon or 
 vncome) . . taketh away the paine. — Gerarde, 
 Herbal, 1597, p. 362. 
 
 Indelible, an incorrect spelling of 
 indelehle (Bacon), the old form, Fr. in- 
 delehle, Lat. indclehilis, from false ana- 
 logy to words hke hoiT-ihle, terr-ihle, 
 Lat. liorribilis, terrihiUs (Skeat). 
 
 Innermost, a double corruption of 
 old Eng. innemest, A. Sax. innemest, 
 i.e. innem (a superlative form ^ innest, 
 Lat. imus) -f est (superlative suf&x), 
 from a false analogy to inner (A. Sax. 
 innera) and most. Inmost itself should 
 rather have been inmest. Skeat, Etym. 
 Diet. a. V. In. 
 
 Bote J^e iiiemaste bayle, I wot, 
 Bi-tokenei? hire holy maidenhod. 
 
 Castel Off Loue (1320), 1. 809. 
 
 Inqdike, a frequent spelling of on- 
 quire, as if we took the word directly 
 from Lat. inquiro, instead of mediately 
 through Fr. enqueriv. So intend for 
 old Eng. entende, Fr. entendre; inter, 
 for old Eng. enter, Fr. enterrer ; intreat 
 for entreat ; intrench for entrench, and 
 interview for old Eng. enter-view, old 
 Fr. entreveu. 
 
 At the enter-view and voice of the blessed 
 Virgin Mary, he (then a babe) gave a spring 
 in the womb of Elizabeth his Mother. — Bp. 
 AndreweSj Sermons, p. 66, fol. 
 
 Instep. " It is clear that instep is a 
 coiiTiption of an older instop or instup ; 
 and it is probable that the etymology is 
 from in and stoo}}, i.e. the ' in-bend ' of 
 the foot ; and not from in and step 
 which makes no sense." — Prof. Skeat, 
 Etym. Diet. 
 
 Le montant du pied, the instup. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Poulaine, .... shooes held on the feet by 
 single latchets running overthwart the instup. 
 —Id. 
 
 The forepart of this pedium is called the 
 instep. — H. Crnohe, Description of' the Body of 
 Man, 1631, p. 735. 
 
 Interest, verb, to concern or engage 
 the attention of a person, is an altered 
 modem form of old Eng. interess, Fr. 
 interesse, " interessed or touched in" 
 (Cotgrave), It. inieressare, from Lat. m- 
 teresse, to concern. From a confusion 
 with interest, profit. 
 
 Not the worth of any living wight 
 May challenge ought in Heavens interesse. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queeue, VII. vi. 38. 
 
INTIMATE 
 
 ( 190 ) 
 
 ISAAC 
 
 If tins proportion " whosoever will be 
 saved " be restrained only to those to whom 
 it was intended, and for whom it was Com- 
 posed, I mean the Christians, then the ana- 
 thema reaches not the heathens, who had 
 never heard of Christ and were nothing in- 
 teressed in that dispute. — Dryden, Religio 
 Laici, Preface (Globe ed.), p. 187. 
 
 Not that tradition's pai'ts are useless here 
 When general, old, didnteressedj clear. 
 Id. Religw Laid, 1. 335. 
 
 Intimate, in the sense of farailiar, 
 close (friends), an incorrect form of the 
 older word inUme (Digby), Fr. intinie, 
 inward, hearty, deer, intirely affected 
 (Cotgrave), Lat. intimus, innermost, 
 intimate, due to a confusion with in- 
 timaie, to bring in (news), announce 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Intrust money, a corruption of in- 
 terest money (Peacock, Glossary of Man- 
 ley and Corringham). 
 
 Invoice has nothing to do with 
 either in or voice, but, like many other 
 book-keeping terras, comes from the 
 ItaUan, and is a corrupted form of 
 a/vviso, a notice or " advice " (Lat. ad- 
 visus), a bill of particulars as to goods 
 despatched, &c. See Inveigle. The 
 word was perhaps influenced by Fr. 
 envoi, a sending or consignment. 
 
 Inveigle is not, as it appears, com- 
 pounded with in (as if from It. invog- 
 liare, to bring one to his will), but a 
 corrupt form of Fr. aveugler, " to blinde, 
 hudwmke, deprive of eyes, or sight " 
 (Cotgrave), and so to entice or entrap, 
 from aiveugle, blind. It. amocolare, all 
 from Low Lat. ahoculus, eyeless, like 
 amens, mindless. Wedgwood quotes 
 from Froude, Hist., vol. v. p. 132, a 
 document dated 1547, wherein the 
 Marquis of Dorset is said to have been 
 "seduced and aveugled by the Lord 
 Admiral." The in was perhaps due to 
 the icfea that the word meant to draw 
 in or ensnare. 
 
 This word " significatiue " . . . . doth so 
 well serve the turn, as it could not now be 
 spared : and many more like vsurped Latine 
 and French words, as "methode," " methodi- 
 cal! " . . . "inueigle," — G. Puttenham, Arte 
 ofEng. Poesie, 1589, p. 159 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Most false Duessa, royall richly dight, 
 
 That easy was t' inveigle weaker sight. 
 Upenser, Faerie Queene, I. xii. 32. 
 
 For a similar foisting in of the pre- 
 position in-, en-, compare invoice = It. 
 
 awiso, an advice ; entice = Fr. attiser; 
 ensample = excmiple ; enlarge = alargi 
 (Wychffe), Fr. esla/rgir; engrieve 
 (Chaucer, Spenser) =: aggrieve ; enaum- 
 her = O. Eng. acombre and accombre 
 {Townley Mysteries), &c. 
 
 Perhaps a connexion was imagined 
 with in/ueigh {inveMcle ?), Lat. invehere, 
 to take or carry in (whence imvecticms, 
 feigned). 
 
 Ieon-haed, Yronhmd (Gerarde), old 
 Eng. Isenhearde, further changed pro- 
 vincially to JSfsellwrn (Cockayne), 
 popular names for the plant Gentawrea 
 nigra {Leechdoms, Wortounniiig, ^c, 
 vol. iii. Glossary), are corruptions of 
 Iron-head, another popiilar name for the 
 same (Prior). Gerarde gives yronhard 
 as a name of the knapweed (i.e. knob- 
 weed), the same plant, which has "a 
 scaly head or knop beset with most 
 sharpe priokes " (Herhall, 1597, p. 
 588). 
 
 Ieon-mold. Th« latter part of this 
 word is the same as mole, a spot on the 
 skin, Scotch ma/il, A. Sax. mdl, Ger. 
 mahl, a spot or stain, Swed. mal, Goth. 
 mail, Sansk. mala, dirt, Greek mSas, 
 black; 
 
 One yron Mole defaceth the whole peece of " 
 Lawne. 
 Lyly, Euphues, 1579, p. 39 (Arber ed.). 
 
 Mole is an old Eng. word for a soil 
 or smirch. 
 
 J>i best cote, hankyn, 
 Hath many moles and spottes • it raoste ben 
 ywasshe. 
 Langland, Vision of P. Plffwman, xiii. 
 315, text B. 
 It was moled in many places • with many sondri 
 plottes. 
 
 Ibid. 275. 
 
 Isaac, a provincial name for the 
 hedge-sparrow, is a corruption of hei- 
 sugge, which is found in Chaucer :— 
 Thou murdrer of the heysugge onthebraunch. 
 
 The Assembly of' Foules, 1. 612, 
 and in Owl and Nightingale, 1. 505. 
 
 Heissagge, an Hedge sparrow. — Bailey. 
 
 A. Sax. hege-sugge, where hege is 
 hedge, and sugge (or sucge) apparently 
 the fig-pecker, beocafioo, or titlark 
 (Greek suhalis, = Lat. ficedula, from 
 ficus). " Cicada, vicetula [=/ce(to!a]i" 
 heges-sugge." — Wright's Vocabidaries 
 (Mifric, 10th cent.), p. 29. See Hay- 
 suck. 
 
ISINGLASS 
 
 ( 191 ) 
 
 I WISSB 
 
 It is worth noticing how our peasants have 
 recognized in birds " the sweet sense of kin- 
 dred." The hedge-span-ow is still in some 
 parts Isaac. The red-breast as long as the 
 English language lasts, will have no other 
 name than Robin, the Jean le rouge-gorge of 
 Normandy". — The CornhUl Magaziney JulVf 
 1865. 
 
 Isinglass, a kind of gelatine used in 
 confectionery, formerly sometimes spelt 
 icing-glass, as if a glassy substance for 
 idng viandes or making jelly (Fr. 
 gelee, from Lat. gelu, frost), is a corrup- 
 tion of Dut. huyzenhlas, ising-glass 
 (Sewel, 1706), Ger. hausenhlase, Dan. 
 hus-Was, the bladder (bias, hlase) of 
 the sturgeon (huyzen, hausen, L. Lat. 
 huso), out of which it is manufactured 
 on the Danube and elsewhere. 
 
 Island, more commonly and cor- 
 rectly written iland until far on in the 
 18th century, is the A. Sax. edland, 
 "water-land" (EttmiiUer, p. 57), also 
 igland {Id. p. 35), from ig, an isle ; cf. 
 Ger. eiland. A. Sax. ed, water, is the 
 same word as Icel. a, O. H. Ger. aha, 
 Goth, ahva, Lat. aqua. Compare 
 ey-ot (ait), a Uttle island. 
 
 The present orthography arose from 
 a supposed connexion with isle, 0. Fr. 
 isle, from Lat. insula (perhaps origi- 
 nally a detached portion of the mainland 
 which has taken a hound into the sea, 
 in-sul-, Mommsen). We even find the 
 spelling iseland, which would seem to 
 imply that the s was sometimes pro- 
 nounced. 
 
 The Dogges of this kinde doth Callimachus 
 call Melitseos, of the Iseland Melita, in the 
 sea of Sicily. — A. Fleming, Caius of Eng. 
 Dogges (1576), p. 20 (repr. 1880). 
 
 The Persian wisdom took beginning from 
 the old Philosophy of this Iland. — Milton, 
 Areopagitica, 1644, p. 68 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Ev'n those which in the circuit of this yeare. 
 The prey of Death within our Iland were. 
 G. Wither, Britain's Remembrancer, 
 1628, p. 111. 
 
 The German eiland, which seems to 
 mean "egg-land," from ei, an egg, being 
 fancifully regarded as swimming in the 
 sea as the yolk does in the white of an 
 egg, is of the same origin ; compare 
 Dut. eyland (Sewel), Icel. eyland. 
 
 Another corruption is presented in 
 Mid. High Ger. einlant, as if a land 
 lying alone [ein). Perversely enough 
 isle (as Professor Skeat notes) was fre- 
 
 quently written He or yle. Thus Robert 
 of Gloucester says of England, 
 
 [je see go> hym al a boute, he stont as an yle. 
 
 Chronicle, p. 1, 1. 3 (ed. 1810). 
 Base Neutrals, who have scandalized much 
 And much endanger'd those who doe contend 
 This lie from desolation to defend. 
 
 G. Wither, Britains Remembrancer, 
 1628, p. 115. 
 
 Isle, " in architecture are the sides 
 or loings of a building " (Bailey), an old 
 speLUng of a4sle, which seems to be 
 from Lat. axilla, a wing (cf Fr. aile), as 
 if it denoted the parts isolated or de- 
 tached from the nave. Isle, aisle, as 
 appUed to the passage between the 
 pews, seems to be a confusion of Fr. 
 aile, with alUe, an alley or passage. 
 Alley is the common word for it in 
 Leicestershire (Evans). 
 
 The isle had been spoiled of its lead, and 
 was near roofless. — H. Hurington, Nugm An- 
 tiquie, vol. i. p. vi. (1779). 
 
 I started up in the Church isle witbe my 
 Poetrie. — Id. p. xii. 
 
 Nature in vain us in one land compiles 
 
 If the cathedral still shall have its isles. 
 Marvell, Poems, p. 91 (Murray repr.). 
 
 The Cross Isle of this Church is the most 
 beautiful! and lightsome of any I have yet 
 beheld. — T. Fuller, Worthies of England, vol. 
 ii. p. 436. 
 
 For indeed, Solutum est templiim hoc, this 
 temple of his body . . . The roofe of it ( His 
 head) loosed with thornes; the foundation 
 (His feet) with nailes. The side Isles (as it 
 were) his hands both likewise. — Bp, Andrewes, 
 Sermons, p. 487, fol. 
 
 In one ile lies the famous Dr. Collins, so 
 celebrated for his fluency in the Latin tongue, 
 — J. Evelyn, Diary, Aug. 31, 1664. 
 
 I WIS, \ quasi-archaic forms some- 
 I wissE, J times used in pseudo-an- 
 tique writings, as if the first pers. siog. 
 of a verb to wis, meaning to know, is a 
 mere misunderstanding of old Eng. 
 iwis, ywis, certainly. 
 
 Vor siker fjou be, Engelond is nou jjin, iwis. 
 Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle, 
 (Morris, Spec. II. p. 4). 
 I wis your grandam had a worser match. 
 Shakespeare, Richard III. i. 3, 102. 
 An you play away your buttons thus, you 
 will want them ere night, for any store I see 
 about you ; you might keep them, and save 
 pins, I wiiss. — Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, act 
 IV. sc. 1. 
 
 In the Percy FoUo MS. i-wis (with 
 a hyphen) occurs frequently for A. Sax. 
 geivis, certainly. 
 
JAGK.A-LEG8 ( 192 ) JACK-STONES 
 
 The Sheriffe he hath Made a. cry 
 heele have my head I-wis. 
 
 Vol. i. p. 19, 1. 9. 
 And what for Weeping much & warle, 
 A-sleep,e I-wis this knight fell. 
 
 Id. p. 146, 1. 59. 
 
 But once at least it is mistaken for 
 the pronoun and verb. 
 3 pottles of wine in a dishe 
 They supped itt all off, as I wis. 
 All there att theii' partinge. 
 
 Id. Tol. ii. p. 583, 1. 626. 
 
 Jack-a-lbgs, a North Eng. word for 
 a clasp knife, Scottish jockteleg. Tliis 
 curious word is, according to Jamie- 
 son, a corruption of Jacques de Liege, 
 the name of a celebrated cutler, by 
 whom this kind of knife was originally 
 made. 
 
 An' gif the custocts sweet or sour, 
 V'Ji\jocktelegs they taste them. 
 
 Burns, Hctlloween {Works, Globe 
 ed. p. 45). 
 Similarly, to stick a knife into any- 
 thing "up to the law/prey " was an ex- 
 pression formerly in use in Ireland, 
 meaning up to the end of the blade, 
 near the haft, where the name of a well- 
 known cutler named Lamprey was 
 commonly inscribed. 
 
 Jack-call, "| is a corrupt form of 
 
 Jackal, / Fr. chacal, G-er. scha- 
 
 hal, Pers. shakal, Sansk. pigala, Heb. 
 
 shual. Compare Gipsy yaccal and 
 
 jiihel, a dog. 
 
 The next being the noble Jack call, the 
 Lion's Provider, which hunts in the Forest 
 for the Lion's Prey. — A collection of strange 
 and wonderful creatures from most parts of the 
 world, all alive [to be seen in Queen Anne's 
 time at Charing Cross]. — Memoirs of Bartho- 
 lomew Fair, ch. xvi. 
 
 Jach-call is also the spelling in the 
 Spectator, 1711, and in Dryden [Plays, 
 vol. iv. p. 296). 
 
 A rabble of Arabians and Persians board- 
 ing her and li^e jackalls with hunger-starved 
 fuiy and avarice tearing her asunder. — Sir 
 T. Herbert, Travels, 1665, p. 115. 
 
 Heb. sliudl (or shughal), a fox or 
 jackal. Song of Songs, ii. 15, is said 
 to be from shoal, to go down, to bur- 
 row. Dr. DeUtzsch (in loc. cit.) says 
 this is quite a distinct word from the 
 
 Persian-Turkish sJiaghal, our "jackal," 
 which comes from the Sanskrit crgala, 
 the howler. 
 
 Jackeman, an old word for a cream 
 cheese (Wright). 
 
 Chease made uppon russhes, called a fresshe 
 cheese, or jackeman. Junculi. — Klyot. 
 
 The synonymous Fi.joncheejU.gvun- 
 cata (from Lat. juncus, a rush), would 
 lead us to suppose th&t jaclc-man was a. 
 corrupted form of some word hke Fr, 
 joncTiement, and that jonc was trans- 
 formed into Joch or Jach. 
 
 Fr. " Jonchee, a green cheese, or fresh 
 cheese made of milk,thats curdled with- 
 out any runnet, and served in a fralle 
 of green rushes." — Cotgrave. 
 
 It. " Giuncuta, any jimket, but pro- 
 perly fresh cheese and oreame, so called 
 because it is sold upon fresh rushes." 
 — Florio. 
 
 Junket is still a Devonshire word 
 for curds and clouted cream, and to 
 junket is to feast on similarly dehciouB 
 viands. 
 
 Cf. Fr. fromage, from It. formaggio, a 
 cheese, so called from the forma or 
 frame on whichitis shaped. It is curious 
 to note that junket, a delicacy, is ety- 
 mologically near akin to the sailor's 
 junk, notoriously coarse and unpalat- 
 able fare, so called from being as 
 tough as an old cable, originahy a rope 
 made of rushes, Portg-^iMico (Skeat). 
 
 Jack-of-the-Bdttery, a trivialname 
 for the plant sedum acre. Dr. Prior 
 ingeniously conjectures that it is a cor- 
 ruption of Bot-theriacque (it being used 
 as a treacle or anthelmintic) into hut- 
 tery-Jack. But where is this Bot-theri- 
 acque to be found ? 
 
 Jack-stones, the name which chil- 
 dren in Ireland (and probably else- 
 where) give to the pebbles with which 
 they play a game like the EngUsh Ms 
 or dibstone, throwing them up and 
 catching them alternately on the front 
 and back of the hand. It is a corrup- 
 tion of chack-stones, Scot, chuchie- 
 stones, from chuclc, to toss or throw 
 smartly out of the hand. 
 
 Cailleteau, a clmck-stone or little flint stone. 
 — Cotgrave. 
 
 Every time their taes caught a bit crunkle 
 on the ice, or an imbedded chmky-stane.— 
 Wilson, Nodes AmbrostAina;, i. 102. 
 
 The chucky-stones are oftener dry than wet 
 
JAOK B0BIN80N ( 193 ) 
 
 JEMMIES 
 
 at the side of the burn. — S. R. Whitehead, 
 Daft Davie, p. 116. 
 
 The Piirim of Scripture ... is conjec- 
 tured the origin of jacks or chiicla in Scotland, 
 as played with stones — perhaps derived from 
 the barbarous Latinity jotticos. — Dali;eU, 
 Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 523. 
 
 Jack Eobinson. " Before one could 
 say Jach Robinson," is a way of saying 
 in an instant or jiffy. Halliwell quotes 
 "from an old play," without further 
 specification. 
 
 A warke it ys as easie to be doone, 
 As tys to saye, Jacke ! robys on. 
 
 So the original phrase would mean, 
 Jack, on mth yow clothes ! This needs 
 confirmation. 
 
 Jandbbs, an old English name for 
 the jaundice (Fr. jaunisse, yellowness) 
 still popularly in use in lieland and 
 some of the western counties of Eng- 
 land, the words being assimilated to 
 the names of other diseases, glanders, 
 malanders, sallenders, and regarded as 
 a plural. 
 
 Thence came the blaeke landers, the dis- 
 coloured face, and the consumption of such 
 as rotted inwardly. — Thas. Lodge, Translation 
 of Seneca, 1614, p. 403. 
 
 Jaulnisse, ihejaundies, also the yellows. — 
 Cotgrave. 
 
 Jaunders, jaundice. — N. W. Lincolnshire 
 (Peacock). 
 
 Holland in his translation of Pliny, 
 fol. 1634, speaks of " an old jaunise or 
 overflowing of the gall" (vol. ii. p. 
 134). The Holderness folk, E. York- 
 shire, will inquire " Is it yallow joracfs, 
 or black, she's gotten?" — Glossary, 
 Eng. Dialect Soc. 
 
 Janet-flowee, apparently the same 
 asjonette, a Scottish name for the marsh 
 marigold, which stands for Fr. jaunette 
 ( Jamieson). A little tawny dog of my 
 acquaintance so named in a similar 
 manner came afterwards to be fami- 
 liarly known as Johnette, Johnny, and 
 John. 
 
 Jaunty, dashing, showy, fine, ele- 
 gant, dandified. This word, which 
 has evidently been assimilated to the 
 verb to jaunt, is derived through the 
 fonns jenty, genty, from Fr. gentil, 
 pretty, fine, well-fashioned. 
 
 Sae jimply lac'd her genty waist 
 That sweetly ye might span. 
 Bums, Bonnie Ann (Globe ed. 
 p. 211). 
 
 Jamieson defines genty as neat, ele- 
 gantly formed, and of dress, giving the 
 idea of gentility. Others forms are 
 jauntee (Durfey),an evident imitation of 
 the French pronunciation, janty (Wy- 
 cherley, 1677), jainty {Spectator, vol. v. 
 p. 236, 1711-12). Compare jew«ie (As- 
 cham. Schoolmaster, ed. Mayor, p. 3), 
 jantyl {■=. gentle), jentleman, jentiles, 
 &o. So in 'French jante and gente are 
 names for the felloe of a wheel (Cot- 
 grave). Cf. Dut. jeni [a borrowed 
 word] , neat, handsom. — Sewel, 1708. 
 The word came in apparently in the 
 18th century •with French fashions, 
 and meant originally modish, styUsh, 
 elegant — not buffoonlike, as Prof. Skeat 
 says, mistaking the origin of the word. 
 There seems to be no evidence of the 
 existence of an Eng. word jaunt, to 
 play the fool. 
 
 Is it reasonable that such a creature as this 
 shall come from a. Janty part of the town, and 
 give herself such violent airs. — The Spectator 
 (1712;, No. 503. 
 
 Yonr janty air and easy motion. — Id. De- 
 dication to vol. viii. 
 Sober and gi-ave was still the garb thy muse 
 
 put on, 
 No tawdry careless slattern di'ess. 
 
 But neat, agi-eeable, a.ni jaunty 'twas, 
 Well fitted, it sate close in every place, 
 And all became, with an uncommon air and 
 
 grace. 
 J. Oldham, Upon the Works of Ben Jonson, 5, 
 Poems, p. 66 (ed. Bell). 
 
 Compare the spelling in the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 Truely, you speake wisely, and like a.jan~ 
 tleu;oman of foureteene years of age. — Mars- 
 ton, Antonio and Mellida, Pt. I. act. v (vol. i. 
 p. 63, ed. Halliwell). 
 
 Jaw Box, \ Prov. words for a scullery 
 Jaw Tub, ) sink (Patterson, Antrim 
 and Down Glossary, E.D.S.), Soot, jaiv- 
 hole (Guy Mannering) . Jaio is perhaps 
 the same word as Fr. gdchis, puddle, 
 slop, from gdcher, to rinse, old Fr. 
 waschier, to soil, 0. H. Ger. waskan, to 
 ivash. In Scottish jaw is to pour. 
 Then up they gat the maskin-pat, 
 And in the sea did Jaw, man. 
 Burns, Poems, p. 221 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Jemmies, an old provincial word for 
 hinges (Gentleman's Magamne, Deo. 
 1793), is the same word wliich is some- 
 times pronounced jinvmers, jimmels, O. 
 
JEMMY 
 
 ( 194 ) JESSE'S FLO WEB 
 
 Eng. gimmal, gimmow, from Fr. jnnieUe, 
 a twin, a pair (of hinges, rings, &c.), 
 Lat. gemellus, from gemiwus. Herriok 
 speaks of " a ring of jimmals," i.e. a 
 double ring. 
 
 Anamnestes, his Page, in a graue Satten 
 suite purple, Buskins, a Garland of Bayes and 
 Rosemary, a gimmal rinff with one linke 
 hanging. — Lingva, ii. 4 (1632), sig. D. 
 I think, by some odd gimmors or device 
 Their arms are set like clocks, still to strike 
 on. 
 Shakespeare, I Hen. VI. i. 2, 1. 42. 
 
 Prom the latter use of gimmer, as a 
 contrivance or piece of machinery (so 
 Bp. Hall), no doubt arose the slang term 
 jenrniAj for a crow -bar. 
 They call for crow-bars — jemmies is the 
 modern name they bear. 
 
 Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends. 
 
 Jemmt, an old slang term defined 
 in the following quotation : — 
 
 A cute man, is an abbreviation of acute, . . 
 and signifies a person that is sharp, clever, 
 neat, or to use a more modern term, jemmy. — 
 Gentkman's Magazine, Sept. 1767. 
 
 Todd gives it in the meaning of 
 spruce as a low word. It is evidently 
 the same as Scotch jimrrvy, meaning 
 handy, dexterous, neat, dressy, jimp, to 
 leap, a.nd jimp, neat, gym, neat, spruce 
 (Douglas). 
 
 Jemmy-John, a large wicker-cased 
 bottle, a corruption of demnjohn, itself 
 a corrupted form of the Arabic damagan, 
 and that from the Persian glass-making 
 town of JDamaghan. 
 
 Lord Strangford, however, derives 
 dem/i-john, Fr. dwme-jaune, from the 
 Lat. dimidiana {Letters and Papers, p. 
 127). 
 
 Jeopaedy, old Eng. juperdy, so spelt 
 instead of jeopa/rty, old Eng. jupartie 
 (juherte, Siege of Rhodes, 1419, pp. 
 150, 155, Murray repr.; jeohertie, Har- 
 ington), from an idea that the original 
 was Fr.^eM perdu, a lost game. (Com- 
 pare the old Fr. proverb, A vray dire 
 perd on le ieu, rz. By speaking truth 
 one jeopards aU. ) The correct old form 
 "waajupcurtie or juperti, which occurs (for 
 the first time, says Mr. Oliphant) in 
 Lame Sirriz, a translation from the 
 French, about 1280 ; and this is from 
 Fr. jell parti, a state of the game equally 
 divided, an even chance whether a 
 player will win or lose, a hazardous or 
 
 uncertain position. Tjrrwhitt quotes 
 from Froissart, " lis n'estoient pas \ 
 jeu parti centre les Franqois" {Chancer, 
 p. 206, ed. 1860), and the mediaeval 
 Latin phrase yocwsporii^Ms. A mediae- 
 val game consisting of enigmatical 
 questions and answers was called feyew- 
 pa/rti. — Cheruel, Lictionnaii-e des Insti- 
 tutions, tom. ii. p. 622. The primitive 
 meaning is apparent in the following 
 from a " Mery BaUett" (Cotton MS.), 
 contributed by Mr. Fumivall to N. ^ 
 Q. 5th S. xii. 445. 
 
 Now lesten a whyle & let has singe 
 to this Desposed companye, 
 how maryage ys a mervelous thinge, 
 A holly disposed Juperdie. 
 It schuld be a grettere juperdy to Kynge 
 Edwarde thenne was Barnet felde. — Wark- 
 worth's Chronicle (ab. 1475), p. 20, Camden 
 Soc. 
 
 Men mycht have sen one euery sid begwn 
 Many a fair and knychtly luperty 
 Of lusty men, and of 3ong chevalry. 
 
 Lancelot of the Laik, 1.'2548 (E. E. T. St.). 
 Whan he thurgh his madnesse and folie 
 Hath lost his owen good thurgh jupartie. 
 Than he exciteth other folk therto. 
 
 Cliaucer, Canterbury Tales, 1. 16:210-12. 
 He set the herte in jeop^rtie 
 With wishing and with fantasie. 
 Gnwer, Conf. Amantis, vol. i. p. 319 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 So lang as fatis sufFerit hym in ficht 
 To exerce pratikkis, iupertye and slicht. 
 G. Douglas, Bukes of Eneados, 1553, 
 p. 389, 1. 45 (ed. 1710). 
 
 Jebked beef, dried beef, is a corrup- 
 tion of the Peruvian chwrK, prepared 
 meat (Latham). Prof. Skeat quotes :— 
 
 Flesh cut into thiu slices was distributed 
 among the people, who converted it into 
 charqui, the dried meat of the country. — 
 Prescott, Conquest of Peru, c. v. 
 
 Jerusalem Artichoke, a corruption 
 of It. girasole, " turn-sun," the sun that 
 turns about, the sunflower. By a 
 quibble on Jerusalem the soup made 
 from it is called " Palestine " (Prior). 
 It. girasole, " the turne-sole or sunne- 
 flower " (Florio), is from giirare, to turn, 
 and sole, the sun. 
 
 Jesse's flower, a corruption of 
 jessamne (from Persian jasmin, "fra- 
 grant "), used by Quarles (0. S. Jerram, 
 Lycidas, p. 78), from a false analogy, 
 perhaps, to Aa/i-on's Beard, Solonwn's 
 Seal, and similar plant-names. 
 
JEW'S-BEABD 
 
 ( 195 ) 
 
 JEWS' TIN 
 
 The lowly pink, the lofty eglantine ; 
 
 The blushing rose, the queen of flowers and 
 
 best 
 Of Flora's beauty ; but above the rest 
 Let Jesse's sov'reign ftawer perfume my qualm- 
 
 ing breast. Quarles, EmbleinSf v. 2. 
 
 Jew's-beabd, a local name for the 
 plant house-leek (E. I. King, Shetches 
 and Studies), is a corruption of Fr. jou- 
 harle, " Jove's-beard," Low Lat. Jovis 
 larba, It. tarha di Giove, Prov. harha- 
 gol, Ger. donnerhaert, " Thor's beard." 
 Being sacred to the Thunder-god, and 
 deemed a protection against lightning, 
 it was freciuently planted on the roof of 
 the house. 
 
 One of the enactments of Charle- 
 magne's Capitular Be ViUis Imperia- 
 lihus (o. 70, A.D. 812) is " Hortulanus 
 habeat super domum suam Jovis bar- 
 ham." Hence its old Eng. name hami- 
 wyrt, "home-wort," as well as ]iunar- 
 imjrt, " thunder- wort " (Cockayne, 
 Leechdoms, &c.). 
 
 Howsleke, herbe, or sengrene, Barba Jovis, 
 semper viva, jubarbium. — Prompt. Parva- 
 lontm, 
 
 Jew's ear, a popular name for a cer- 
 tain fungus resembling the human ear, 
 is a corruption of Judas' ear, Ger. 
 Judas-sch/uiamm, Lat. auricula Judoe. 
 It grows usually on the trunk of the 
 elder, the tree upon which Judas is 
 traditionally reported to have hanged 
 himself. Richard Flecknoe, Biarium, 
 1658, p. 65, speaks of a certain virtue 
 of alder- wood which 
 
 From Judas came 
 Who hang'd himself upon the same. 
 Vid. Brand, Pop. Antiquities, 
 vol. iii. p. 283. 
 For the coughe take Judas eare, 
 With the parynge of a peare. 
 
 Bale, Three Laws of Nature, 1562. 
 O. Eng. oryelle is the alder-tree. — 
 Prompt. Fanv. Vid. oreille de Judas. — 
 Cotgrave. Cf. Chinese muh urh (Kidd's 
 China, p. 47). 
 
 In Jews' ears something is conceived ex- 
 traordinary from the name, which is in pro- 
 priety but fungus sambucinus, or an excres- 
 cence about the roots of elder, and concerneth 
 not the nation of the Jews, but Judas Iscariot, 
 upon a conceit he hanged on this tree ; and 
 is become a famous medicine in quinsies, sore 
 throats, and strangulations, ever since. — Sir 
 Thos. Browne, Works, vol. i. p. 214 (ed. 
 Bohn). 
 
 There is an excrescence called Jew's-ear, 
 that grows upon the roots and lower parts of 
 
 trees, especially of alder and sometimes upon 
 ash. — Bacon, Sijlva Sylvarum, Works (1803), 
 vol. ix. p. 264.' 
 
 The Mushrooms or Toadstooles which grow 
 vpou the trunks or bodies of old trees, verie 
 much resembling Auricula Indie, that is 
 leives eare, do in continuance of time growe 
 vnto the substance of wood, which the 
 Fowlers do call I'ouchwood. — Gerarde, Herbal, 
 p. 1385. 
 
 The hat he wears. Judos left under the elder 
 when be hanged himself. 
 Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, act iv. 
 sub iin. (1633). 
 
 Jew's-harp, a small instrument of 
 iron played between the teeth, Lincoln- 
 shire Jew-trump. The first part of the 
 word is probably the same that is seen 
 in the synonymous Cleveland word 
 gew-gow (Holderness geio-gaw), which 
 Mr. Atkinson identifies with O. Norse 
 giga, Swed. giga, a Jew's-harp, Dan. 
 , gige, Ger. geige, a musical instrument. 
 It was probably a Scandinavian inven- 
 tion. Compare the following — 
 
 They [the urns] contained .... knives, 
 pieces of iron, brass, and wood, and one of 
 Norway a brass gilded Jew's harp. — Sir Titos. 
 Browne, Hydriotaphia, 1658, vol. iii. p. 21 
 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 Gewgaw seems originally to have 
 been used in the special sense of a rustic 
 musical instrument, e.g. " Pastor sub 
 caula bene cantat cum calamaulS. The 
 scheperd vndyr \>e folde syngythe well 
 wythe hys gwgawe \>e pype." — Promp- 
 torium Parv. s. v. Plowte (about 1440). 
 The modern meaning of a trivial toy, 
 a showy bauble, must then be a secon- 
 dary one. 
 
 Gugaw, idem quod Flowte, pype, giga. — 
 Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 
 ' On this Mr. "Way remarks that Fr. 
 gigue. It. giga (a fiddle), may be from 
 Gk. gigras [? giggras] , a kind of flute. 
 J. PoUux m.entions the gigla/rus as a 
 small sort of pipe used by the Egyp- 
 tians. — Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, 
 vol. i.p. 487 (ed. Birch). If this should 
 be connected, it would trace up our 
 Jew's harp to a curious antiquity. 
 let me hear some silent Song, 
 Tun'd by the Jew's-Uump of thy tongue. 
 Randolph, The Conceited Peddler, 
 Works, p. 48. 
 Is Clio dumb, or has Apollo's Jew's-tnimp 
 By sad disaster lost her melodious tongue t 
 Id., The Jealous Lmers, p. 114. 
 
 Jews' tin, a name given in Cornwall 
 
JIGGEB 
 
 ( 196 ) 
 
 JOHN DO BY 
 
 to lumps of smelted tin found inside 
 the so-ealled Jews' houses, which is per- 
 haps for dshyi-houses, tshey or dzJiyi 
 (old Cornish ty), a house, being used 
 especially for smelting-houses (M. 
 MiiUer, Chips, vol. iii.)- 
 
 Probably this is merely house tm, or the 
 tin found in the houses. — Chas. Kingsley, Life, 
 vol. ii. p. 238. 
 
 The title of Jews' House is given by the 
 country people to an old smelting house — a 
 narrow shallow pit with a small quantity of 
 charcoal ashes at the bottom, and frequently 
 pieces of smelted tin, the last being called 
 Jeivs' Bowls. — J. 0. Halliwell, Rambles in Wes- 
 tern Cornwall, p. 51. 
 
 JiGGBE, a popular name for the West 
 Indian flea, as if so caUed from its jig- 
 ging or quick moveraent, is a natura- 
 lized form of chigoe, its native name. 
 
 Yet, how much is owing to themselves is 
 plain from this circumstance, that numbers 
 are crippled by the jiggers, which scarcely 
 ever in our colonies affect any but the negroes. 
 — Southey, Letters, vol. ii. p. 201. 
 
 Jilt, to throw one over as a flirt does, 
 is a contracted form of jillei, a diminu- 
 tival form oijyll, a flirt, a hght woman, 
 originally a common feminine name, 
 derived from Julia. Thus Jillet zz. 
 Juliet, Fr. JuKette, It. OiuUetta. The ex- 
 pressions gill-flirt, flirt-gill, fldrt-gillian, 
 are of frequent occurrence in old writers. 
 This use of jill was prob ably determined 
 by the similar word giglet, a giddy, 
 wanton woman, old Fr. gigues, a jig- 
 ging, flighty girl (Skeat). Qojockey, to 
 cheat, was originally only the Scottish 
 form of Jack. 
 
 A jillet brak his heart at last, 
 111 may she be ! 
 Burns, Poems, p. 71 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Jo, } in Scotch an endearing ex- 
 JoE, S pression of famUiarity, as in 
 " John Anderson, my jo," is said to be 
 a corruption of Fr. joie, as if nwnjoie, 
 my darling (Jamieson). Joy is also 
 given as a Scottish word for darling. A 
 large number of Scottish words, it is 
 well known, are borrowed from the 
 French. Bums says of Poesie : — 
 And och ! o'er aft thy joes hae starv'd 
 'Mid a' thy favours ! 
 
 On Pastoral Poetry, Poems, p. 114 
 (Globe ed.). 
 
 John Dory, \ the name of this 
 
 Johnny Dory, 3 fish is said to be a 
 
 barbarous dismemberment and corrup- 
 
 tion of "janitore, a name by which this 
 fish is famiUarly known at Venice and 
 elsewhere ; the origin of the term jam- 
 tore, as apphed to the dory, seems to be 
 the following : St. Peter, represented 
 with the triple keys ' of hell, of hades, 
 and of heaven ' in his hand, is called, 
 in his quasi-official capacity, iljamtme 
 (The Gate-keeper), and this fish, shar- 
 ing with the haddock the apocryphal 
 honour of having received the apostle's 
 thumb-mark, is called in consequence 
 8t. Peter's fish, "and by metonomy, il 
 janitore." The ancient Greek name 
 for the dory having been Zeus, i.e. 
 Jupiter, it is not improbable the great 
 saint of the Eoman church was chosen 
 (as in other instances) to take the place 
 of the dethroned Thunderer. (So Bad- 
 ham, Prose Halieutics, p. 229.) We 
 may compare with this, imperatore, a 
 a popularname at Genoa for the sword- 
 fish, so called because the Italian im- 
 perators were commonly represented 
 sword in hand. PUny gives in a hst 
 of fishes, "the Emperour with a Sword, 
 called Xiphias " (Holland's Trans., yoI. 
 ii. p. 452, 1634). The Arabs call a cer- 
 tain fish found on their coasts Sultcm 
 el-Bahr, Sultan of the Sea. St. Peter 
 having been ever regarded as the patron 
 saint of fishermen and fishmongers, 
 certain boats plying on the Thames 
 were called Peter-hoats; the armorial 
 bearings of the Fishmongers' Company, 
 London, are his cross-keys ; watermen 
 and fishermen were sometimes called 
 familiarly Peter, Peter-men (Wright). 
 Similarly a plant that grows on the sea- 
 shore is called Saint Pierre or samphire, 
 and a little bird that seems to walk the 
 water, like the saint, is named the 
 petrel. That the dory was familiarly 
 known as St. Peter's fish the following 
 wiU show : — 
 
 It. P^sce San Pietro, a Dory or Gold- 
 fish.— Fto-w, 1611. 
 
 German, Petermann, Peter.'ifisch, the dory. 
 
 French, St. Pierre, the John Dory; see 
 Cotgrave, o. v. Poisson. 
 
 DoREE, St. Peter's fish.—Bp. Wilkins, 
 Essay towards a Philosophical Language, 1668. 
 
 The faber mari7ius, ... we often meet with 
 it in these seas, commonly called a peter-Jish, 
 having one black spot on either side the 
 body ; conceived the perpetual signature, 
 from the impression of St. Peter's fingers, 
 or to resemble the two pieces of money which 
 St. Peter took out of this fish.— Sir Thus. 
 
JOENNY-DABBIES ( 197 ) 
 
 JOYLY 
 
 Brawtie {Fishes of Norfolk, 16(58), Works, vol. 
 iii. p. 328(ed. Bohn). 
 
 We may perhaps compare Mod. 
 Greek christo-psaron, the trout, and 
 halilut, the holy fish. 
 
 Holland seems to have derived the 
 dory, or dwee as he spells it, from Fr. 
 doree, gilded (It. dorata), and so Mr. 
 Wedgwood, Philolog. Transactions, 
 1855, p. 63, and Prof. Skeat. 
 
 The Doree or Goldfish, called Zejis and 
 Faber. — Pliny, Natitrall History, torn. i. p. 
 247 (1634). 
 
 Mahn (in Webster) thinks it is from 
 jaune doree, the golden yellow fish, an 
 uulikely combination. John or Johnny 
 is no doubt only a popular prenomen 
 Sisinjack-pihe, jack-daw, &c. The fol- 
 lowing from Alexander Neckam, who 
 died in 1217, seems conclusive, and the 
 janitore theory therefore faUs to the 
 ground. 
 
 Gustum doretE quae nomen sumpsit ab auro. 
 — De Laiidibus DivirKE Sapientiie, 1. 561. 
 
 Southey seems to have thought that 
 the fish has its name from a human 
 prototype. 
 
 Would not John Dory's name have died 
 with him, and so been long ago dead as a 
 door-nail, if a grotesque likeness for him had 
 not been found in the fish, which being called 
 afler him, has immortalized him and his ugli- 
 ness (yid. The Doctor, p. 310) 
 
 Compare the old ballad oiJohn Dory 
 in Child's Ballads, vol.viii. p. 194. 
 
 Gayton in his Pleasant Notes upon 
 Bon Quixot, 1654, raentions as popular 
 heroes, quite as illustrious as Palmerin 
 of England, " Bevis of Southampton, 
 Sir Eglamore, John Dory, the Pindar 
 of Wakefield, Eobin Hood, or Clem of 
 the Cluff" (fol. p. 21). The name of 
 the fish was no doubt assimilated to 
 that of the well-known pirate. 
 
 JoHNNY-DABBiES, a nickname for 
 poUcemen, is said to be a corruption of 
 the French gens-d'armes (Slang Diet. 
 S.V.). Schandarm is a popular corrup- 
 tion in German of the same word, as 
 if from schand (shame) and arm (poor). 
 Other forms are standairm in Aachen, 
 and standdr, schandar in Bavaria 
 (Andresen, Volksetymologie). 
 
 JoKE-FELLOw, a Sootch word for an 
 equal or intimate acquaintance (Jamie- 
 son), is an obvious corruption of (ioit^r- 
 fellow) yohefelloiv. 
 
 Jolly-boat, an Anglicized form of 
 Dan. jolle, a yawl, Dut. jol, Swed. julle. 
 Yawl is the same word disguised by 
 a different spelling. 
 
 Jordan, an old name for certain 
 household utensils of common use, 
 occurring in Chaucer {Prologue to the 
 Pardoneres Tale) and in Hollinshed, 
 who speaks of " two jorden pots," is 
 doubtless the Danish jord (jorden), 
 earth, as if an earthen pot. Cf . jurnut, 
 a provincial word for the pig-nut, Dan. 
 jord-nipd. So turreen, i. e. a terrene 
 vessel. 
 
 Ich shal Jangly to )jys Jordan' witbhus Juste 
 wombe. 
 Langtand, Vidon of Piers Plowman, Pass. 
 
 xvi. 1. 92 (text C). 
 lurdone . . . Jurdanus, madetla. — Prompt, 
 Parvulorum. 
 
 Joy-birds, a name commonly given 
 by the country-folk about Tedworth, 
 on the borders of Wiltshire and Hamp- 
 shire (and probably elsewhere), to the 
 jay-lirds or jays, which abound in the 
 forest of Savemake, not far distant. 
 This corruption is a curious instance of 
 a reversion to the original meaning of 
 a word, Fr. geoA, formerly gai, Prov. 
 gai, jai, Sp. gaijo, the jay, denoting 
 properly the bUthe and gay bird (with 
 reference perhaps to its vari-coloured 
 plumage), being derived from Fr. gai, 
 Prov. gai, Sp. gayo, lively, gay. 
 
 The jay was formerly used as a pro- 
 verbial comparison for one exceedingly 
 "joUy." 
 
 Heo [z= she] is dereworthe in day, 
 
 Graciouse, stout, and gay, 
 
 Genti!,jo/^/50 the jay. 
 Lyric Poetry ( ab. 1320 ), p. 52 (Percy Soc. ), and 
 'Boddeker, Altenglische Dichtungen, p. 169. 
 
 JoYLY, an old spelling of jolly, as if 
 another form of joyous, joyful. Jolly, 
 Fr. joli, old Eng. joUf, old Fr. jolif, 
 Ital. giuUvo, "iolly, glad, fuU of ioy" 
 (Florio), are said to be derived from 
 Icel. J6l, Yule, the season of rejoicing 
 (Diez). Compare, however. It. giuUo, 
 blithe, merry, giuUare, to glad or be 
 iolly (Florio), and giullaro, a jester 
 (giullare, to play the jester), shortened 
 from giocola/ro, Lat. joaida/rius, jocu- 
 Im-is, a jester. The speUing joyly is of 
 frequent occurrence in the Apoph- 
 thegms of Erasmus, 1542 :— 
 
 Xenocrates the philosophier was of a more 
 
JUBILEE 
 
 ( 198 ) 
 
 JUG 
 
 soure nature, a ioylie feloe in some other re- 
 
 spectes. — P. xxTi. (Reprint 1877). 
 
 That yemaie bee an hable manne, to enioie 
 
 the possession of that ioyly fi-uictefull Seig- 
 
 niourie. — Id, p. xxviii. 
 
 I am that ioyly feloe Diogenes the doggue. 
 
 —Id. p. 153. 
 
 When I of any ioylUe ioy 
 or pleasure do assaye. 
 Drant, Horace, 1567, F. vi. verso. 
 
 See Notes and Queries, 6th S. ii. 522. 
 If-ye be suche ioytu felowes that ye feare 
 
 not the wrathe or dyspleasure of officers, 
 
 whan as ye do euyll, yet gTope youre owne 
 
 conscience. — Thos. Lever, SemionSy 1550, p. 
 
 45 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Besides all that, my foote is woorth thy yard, 
 
 So am Ijoliff&yre and precious. 
 H. Thynn, Debate between Pride and Lowli- 
 ness (ab. 1568), p. 12 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Jubilee, a season of rejoicing (Lat. 
 juhilwus), no doubt popularly connected 
 with jubilant and jubilation, from Lat. 
 jubilare, to shout for joy, to rejoice, is 
 a distinct word derived from Heb. 
 yobel, the sound of a trumpet, espe- 
 cially on the year of remission (Smith, 
 Diet, of Bible, i. 1151). However j/aiaZ, 
 the root of yobel, and Lat. jubil-, are 
 both probably imitative of aresounding 
 cry or note. 
 
 After which he proclaims a Juhile, which 
 was celebrated with all maimer of sports and 
 pleasures imaginable. — Sir Thos. Herbert, 
 Travels, 1665, p. 10-1. 
 
 Judas tree, a kind of carob tree, 
 said to be so called because Judas 
 Iscariot hanged himself thereon, Lat. 
 arbor Judm [ = Cerois sihquastrum] , is 
 apparently a mistaken rendering of Sp. 
 an-bol JucUa, i. e. the bean tree, which 
 gets its name from its bean-hke pods ; 
 judia being the Spanish word for 
 French beans (Minsheu). Gerarde says 
 that " This shrub is founde in diners 
 prouinces of Spaine," that it bears 
 "long flat cods," i.e. pods, with seeds 
 hke lentils, and that " it may be 
 called in 'English. ludas-tree, whereon 
 ludas did hang himselfe, and not 
 vpon the Elder tree, as it is saide." 
 — Herbal, p. 1240. It may however 
 be noted against the above conjecture 
 that Puloi mentions un carrubbio, a 
 carob-tree, as that from which the 
 traitor suspended himself [Morgante 
 Maggiore, xxv. 77). 
 
 Judy-cow, a name for the lady-bird 
 insect in the dialect of Cleveland, may 
 
 possibly be, as Mr. Atkinson suggests, 
 a corruption of the French name vadie 
 a Dieu (vache de JDieu), partly trans- 
 lated and the rest corrupted (cow-de- 
 Dieu), and then inverted (as cow-lady 
 for lady-cow in the salme dialect, Frauen- 
 Kuhlein, Bete de la Vierge), and so 
 would result Dieu-de cow, judy-cow. 
 All this, however, is only conjecture. 
 Jug, a small pitcher, apparently a 
 famihar name of endearment at first 
 for that which suppUes drink to the 
 couapany, Jug (Jugge, and Judge) 
 being a woman's pet name, equivalent 
 to Jenny or Jannet (see Cotgrave, s. v. 
 Jehannette), but originally from Juditha 
 (Yonge, Glwistian Names, vol. i.p. 63). 
 It was formerly used as a canting term 
 for a Hght woman, see Davies, Bupji. 
 Eng. Glossary, s. v. In Leicester- 
 shire jugg is still the name of sun- 
 dry small birds, as bank-jugg, the wil- 
 low-wren, hedge-jugg and juggywren 
 for jenny-wren (Evans, E. I). S.). 
 The earlier form of the word appears 
 to have been jach, a name long given 
 to a kind of leathern jug, and this is no 
 doubt identical with A. Sax. ceac, a 
 pitcher, which would become chach or 
 jach (see Skeat, Etym. Diet. s. v. Jade 
 (1). Old Eng. jubbe, a jug (Chaucer), 
 probably contributed to the corruption. 
 
 Jug, in the old slang expression, 
 " The stone jug," for a prison, not- 
 withstanding the curious parallelism 
 of the Greek Tch'amos, denoting both a 
 jug and a prison, is evidently a corrup- 
 tion of the Scotch word jugg, generally 
 used in the plural in the forms juggs, 
 jougs, jogges, a kind of piUory in which 
 the criminal used to be confined by an 
 iron collar which surrounded his neck. 
 It is the same word as Fr. joug, Dut. 
 juh, Lat. jugum, a " yoke." A person 
 confined in this instrument was said to 
 be jogged ; the iron jug, with its par- 
 tial and temporary confinement, readily 
 suggested the name of stone jug for the 
 more complete and protracted incarce- 
 ration of the prison cell. The parish 
 juggs were still to be seen a few years 
 ago at the little country church of 
 Duddingston, under Arthur's Seat, 
 not far from Edinburgh (Notes and 
 Queries, 5th S. x. 214). A representa- 
 tion of one is given in CJiambers' Gyclo- 
 ~ia, s. V. 
 
JULIENNE 
 
 ( 199 ) 
 
 JUNETIN 
 
 Some vent to jug for dirty tays. 
 C. G. Lelandj The Breitmawi BalladSj 
 p. 15 (1871). 
 
 The bretlirein ordained thaitn both, for 
 thair drinking in tym of diviu service, and 
 for thair suspect behaviour, to pay, ilke ane 
 of thame, four merkis of penalte, and to sitte 
 on the stoole of repentance tuo Soondays, or 
 then to redeem thameaelfs be stand ina- in 
 jog^is and brankis. — The Presbijteri/ Book of 
 Sti-athbogie, 1631 (Spalding Cliib), p. 6. 
 
 Quhen the minister said he sould cause 
 put him in joggis, that thei hard him say 
 that neither he nor the best minister vithin 
 seven myles durst doe so much. — Id. 1614, 
 p. 46. 
 
 You had betther neither make nor meddle 
 wid him ; — jist put him out o* that — but 
 don't rise yer hand to him, or he'll sarve you 
 as he did Jem Flanagan ; put ye three or four 
 months in the Stone Jug. [Note, "A short 
 periphrasis for Gaol."] — W. Carleton, Traits 
 and Stories of Irish Peasantry, vol. i. p. 286 
 (1843). 
 
 " Six weeks and labour," replied the elder 
 girl, with a flaunting laugh ; " and that's 
 better than t/ie stone jug, anyhow; the mill's 
 a deal better than the Sessions." — C. Dickens, 
 Sketches by Boz, p. 187 (ed. 1877). 
 
 Julienne. This soup owes its name 
 to a curious series of corruptions, if the 
 account given in Kettner's Booh of the 
 Table he correct. One distiuctive in- 
 gredient in its composition, it seems, is 
 (or was) wood-sorrel, which in Itahan, 
 as iu other languages, is popularly 
 known as Alleluia, probably because 
 its temate leaf was considered an em- 
 blem of the Trinity. Alleluia became 
 corrupted iuto luggiala (Florio), lujula, 
 and juliola, and this name, on being 
 introduced into France by Catherine 
 of Medici's Itahan cooks, was finally 
 Frenchified into Julienne. Cf. L. Lat. 
 Luzula (campestris), called in some 
 parts of Cheshire Ood's grace. 
 
 J0LT-FLOWEE, a mis-spelliug of gilli- 
 flower sometimes found, itself a corrup- 
 tion of 0. Eng. gilofer, Pr. giroflee, It. 
 garofalo, Mod. Greek garophalo, Greek 
 harudphullon ("nut-leaf"). Low Lat. 
 gariofihim. [Compare June-bating.] 
 Thou caught'st som fragrant 'Rose, 
 Som Julyfiowr, or som sweet Sops-in-wine, 
 To makea Chaplet, thy chaste brows to binde. 
 
 Sylvester, Uu Burtas, p. 304 (1621). 
 The spelling has been influenced by the 
 fact that, as Bacon observes, 
 
 In luly, come Gillyflowers of all varieties. 
 — £ssai/s, 1625, p. 556 (ed. Arber). 
 
 It is observed, that Julyfiowers, sweet- 
 
 williams, and violets, that are coloured, if 
 they be neglected .... will turn white. — 
 Bacon, Sytva Sylvarum, Works{ed. 1803), vol. 
 ix. p. 246. 
 
 Both stock-July-flowers and rose campion, 
 stamped, have been successfully applied to 
 the wrists in tertian or quartan agues. — Id. 
 vol. ix. p. 268. 
 
 Yonn Iulyflow*rs, or the Damaake Rose, 
 Or sweet-breath 'd Violet, that hidden growea. 
 G. Wither, BriUiins Remembrancer, 
 p. 137 verso, 1628. 
 You are a lovely July-flower, 
 Yet one rude wind, or rufflmg shower, 
 Will force you hence, and in an houre. 
 
 Herrick, Hesperides ( Works, ed. 
 Hazlitt), p. 92. 
 The July-flower that hereto thviv'd, 
 Knowing herself no longer liv'd. 
 
 ■Lovelace, Aramantha, Poems, ed. 
 Singer, p. 93. 
 The July-flower declares his gentleness; 
 Thy me, truth ; the pansie, hearts-ease maidens 
 call. 
 Drayton, Ninth Eclogue, p. 436 (ed. 1748). 
 Of flowers Jessamins, Roses, Melons, Tu- 
 lips, Julitflowers, lac.— Sir T. Herbert, Travels, 
 1665, p.' 128. 
 
 Jump, as applied sometimes to a spe- 
 cies of dance music, is a corrupt form 
 of dump, a slow and solemn dance 
 (Stainer and Barrett, Mtisical Dic- 
 tionary). So jumpish is found for 
 dumpish (Nares). 
 
 Junetin [q. d. Apple of June\, a 
 smaU apple, which ripens first (BaUey), 
 sometimes spelled "June-eating " (com- 
 pare Sp. mayota, May-fi-uit, the straw- 
 berry), seems to be corruptedfrom genit- 
 ing, also given by Bailey, " a sort of 
 apple." Kettner, Booh of the Table, 
 spells it joanneting (p. 34). 
 
 Another form of the same word is 
 jonette, an old Eng. name for an early 
 ripe pear. 
 
 As pees-coddea and pere-Jonettes ■ plomea and 
 chii'ies. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, Pass. xiii. 
 1. 221, text C. 
 
 Professor Skeat is of opinion that 
 this word, as weU as genniting, an early 
 apple, is ultimately derived from JeoM, 
 through probably 0. Fr. Jeanmet, Jean- 
 neton, a diminutive, the reference being 
 to St. John's day, June 24, when per- 
 haps it became ripe. In his note, in 
 loco, he quotes : — 
 
 In July come . . . early peai-es, and 
 plummes in fruit, ginnitings. — Bacon, Essay 
 46 (1625, Arber ed. p. 556). 
 
JUNK 
 
 ( 200 ) JUST-BEAST 
 
 Pomme de S. Jean, S, John's apple, a kind 
 of soon-ripe sweeting. Hastivel, a soon-ripe 
 apple, called tlie St. John's apple. — Cotgrave. 
 
 This early apple or pear is still callecl 
 St. Jean. — P. Lacroix, Manners, ^c, of 
 Middle Ages, p. 116. 
 
 The Joannetiiig or St. John Apple, 
 like the Margaret, the Maudlin, and 
 the Lukewards apple, reminds us of 
 the old custom of naming fruits and 
 flowers frona the festivals of the church 
 nearest to which they respectively 
 ripened or bloomed. Compare Lent 
 Uly, Lent rose, Michaelmas daisy, Christ- 
 mas rose, Ma/y (=: Hawthorn), Thistle 
 Barnaby, Oang-floioer or Bogation- 
 fbwer (Skinner), St. Barbara's cress, 
 St. James wort, Si. John's wort, St. 
 Peter's wort. Pasque-flower (zzl^aster 
 flower), Fr.pasquerette (Cotgrave), Dan. 
 pasTe-lilja, Ger. pfingst-rosen, Low Ger. 
 pinhsten, the "Whitsuntide gilliflower. 
 Especially we may notice here the 
 German Johannis-apfel, -heere, -blume 
 (= daisy), -kafer, -hraut, -ritte (= 
 meadow sweet), -wurmchen, all of 
 which make their appearance about the 
 feast of St. John Baptist, or Midsum- 
 mer's Day. (See Yonge, History of 
 Christian Names,Yol.i. p. 110.) Finally 
 we have the assertion of Messrs. Brit- 
 ten and Holland that the John-apple or 
 Apple- John, well known ia Cheshire, is 
 so called because it is ripe about St. 
 John's Day (Eng. Plant-Names, p. 
 14). Gerarde gives a representation of 
 a " Jennetting Peare, Pyra Prcecocia." 
 —Herbal, p. 1267. 
 
 Pomg-ranat trees, Fi^ trees, and Apple 
 trees, line a very short time : & of these the 
 hastie kind or JenUings continue nothing so 
 large as those that bear and ripen later. — 
 P. Holland, Pliny's Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 495 
 (1634). 
 
 If you lone frute, forsooth, wee haue^'entt- 
 iiigs, paremayns, russet coates, pippines, able- 
 johns, and perhaps a pareplum, a damsone, I 
 or an apricocke too. — Sir John Davies, Works, 
 vol. ii. p. 248 (ed. Grosart). 
 
 Yet, tho' I spared thee all the spring, 
 Tliy sole delight is, sitting still. 
 With that gold dagger of thy bill 
 To fret the suimner Jenneting, 
 
 Tennyson, The Blackbird, Poems, 
 p. 68. 
 
 Junk, a Chinese vessel, B^p.junco, so 
 spe]t,perhaps, from some imagined con- 
 nexion with the naval term junk (so 
 
 Bailey), is a naturalizedform of Chinese 
 chw'an, a ship (Skeat). 
 
 Into India these Persees came ... in five 
 •Tuncks from Jasquez. — 5ir T. Herbert, Travels, 
 1665, p. 55. 
 
 JuEY-MAST, " a yard set up instead of 
 a mast, which has been broken down 
 by a storm or shot" (BaUey), is pro- 
 bably for an inju/ry mast. "With less 
 hkelihood it has been considered to be 
 a joury mast, i. e. a mast for the day 
 (Pr. jour), temporary. Prof. Skeat 
 holds the first part of the word to be 
 a corruption of Dan. kiiire, driving, as 
 if " a driving-mast," which does not 
 seem very likely either. 
 
 Just, when used adverbially in such 
 sentences as " It is just ten o'clock," 
 " The water was just to the knee," " He 
 was just late," is a derivative, not of 
 French ^Msfe, Jjid, Justus, but of French 
 ^'jouste, neer to, nigh adjoining, hard 
 by, towards, beside," also old Fr. (16th 
 cent.)_;'oMa!fe, It. giusta. Pro v. joste, from 
 Lat. juxta, near. Hence also to joust 
 or just, to come near, jostle, or tilt 
 against each other, Fr. jouter, 0. Fr. 
 jouster. It. giustare, Span.^Mstor, Prov. 
 jostar. The primitive meaning oi juxta 
 was adjoining, from jug-, the root oijun- 
 gere. 
 
 •Mr. Oliphant remarks that the ear- 
 liest use of just is in the sense of even,, 
 right [i. e. of position] , e. g.. 
 
 His hode was Juste to his chynne [Juita 
 mentum]. — Percivaland Isumbras,p.tl. 
 
 " It is curious," he adds, " that Just should 
 be found in this sense before its meaning of 
 eqnitii appeai'ed in England." — Old and Middle 
 English, p. 568. 
 
 He evidently confounds here two dis- 
 tinct words. 
 
 JusTACOAT, a Scotch word for a waist- 
 coat with sleeves, is said by Mr. Wedg- 
 wood {Plvilological Transactions, 1855, 
 p. 66) to be from Fr. just au corps. 
 The Scotch forms in Jamieson are 
 justicoat,justiecor, sknAjeistiecor, derived 
 as above. 
 
 Just-beast, a Sussex word for a 
 beast taken in to graze, also called a 
 joist-beast, a corruption of agist-heast, 
 i. e. one taken for agistment or pasturage 
 (Parish). 
 
 Compare Cumberland jyste, to agist, 
 to put cattle out to grass upon ano- 
 
KANOABOO 
 
 ( 201 ) EUTTLE OF FISH 
 
 tlier'sfarm (Dickinson), Westm. 
 fields," i.e. agisted {Old Country Words, 
 E. D. S. p. 122). 
 
 K. 
 
 Kangaroo, a name popularly given 
 in some places to a certain class of 
 fungi. An enthusiastic mycologist, 
 writing in the Saturday Review (Sept. 
 1876), cites— 
 
 The remark of a sbarpish lad who guided 
 us not long ago tlirough the beautiful woods 
 of Piercefield, and interrupted our triumph 
 over a rare find of curious fungi with the 
 caution, " You munna eat them kangaroos." 
 We presently learned that this was the generic 
 name which his careful mother had taught 
 him to attach to mycologic growths. Two 
 days later, a middle-aged bailiff pronounced 
 upon a fungus on which we had stumbled 
 that it was not a mushroom, but a canker. 
 
 It is of this latter word, no doubt, that 
 kangaroo is a corruption. 
 
 Keelson, a piece of timber in a ship 
 next to the keel, helsine (Chapman). 
 Prof. Skeat observes that in the cognate 
 languages the word bears the apparent 
 meaning of "keel-swine," e.g. Swed. 
 liol-svin, Dan. Ttjol-sviin, Ger. hiel- 
 schwein ; but that those words were 
 no doubt at first " keel-sj'H," as we see 
 by comparing the Norwegian form kjol- 
 svill. The suflBx svill (= Ger. schwelle, 
 a sOl), not being understood, was cor- 
 rupted (1) to swine, and (2) to son. 
 
 Kenebowe, a curious old corruption 
 otMmbo in the phrase " arms a-kimbo," 
 as if in a keen (or sharp) low (or curve). 
 
 The host ... set his bond iu kenebowe. 
 Tale o/Beryn, 1. 1838 (ed. Furnivall). 
 
 The proper meaning of a-Mmho is on 
 kam how, " in a crooked bend " (Skeat, 
 Etym. Bid. s. v.). For kam, see Game. 
 
 Kenning, a Cornish word for a white 
 speck forming on the cornea of the eye, 
 as if a defect in the ken (= the sight). — 
 Polwhele, Traditions and Becollections, 
 ii. 607. It is a corruption of kerrmng 
 also used, i. e. the growth of a kern or 
 horny opacity. 
 
 Kenspeckle, a Scottish word mean- 
 ing easily recognizable from a distance, 
 conspicuous, remarkable, is perhaps for 
 conspeckable, Lat. conspicahiUs (^ con- 
 spicuus), conspicuous ; just as ken is 
 
 identical with Eng. con, to know, and 
 kent, a long pole, with Lat. contus ; cf. 
 hunsence, = consent. — Anwen B-iwle, ]). 
 288. It is also in use in Lincolnshire 
 (Peacock). In the Holderness dialect 
 (E. Yorkshire) it appears as kensbaek; 
 in Antrim and Down, kenspeckled 
 (Patterson); in BaUey's Diet, ken- 
 
 For the last six or seven years, these 
 showers of falling stars, recurrent at known 
 intervals, make those parts of the road ken- 
 speckle (to use an old Scottish word) — i.e. 
 liable to recognition and distinguishable from 
 the rest. — De Qainceif, Works, vol. iii. p. 195. 
 
 She thought it more prudent to stay where 
 she was [on the top of the coach], thougli it 
 might make her look kenspeckle. — Daft Davie, 
 iSfC, S. R. Whitehead, p. 213. 
 
 Keenel, an old word for a battle- 
 ment, is a corrupt form of crenelle, old 
 Er. ca/rnel, cn-enel (Mod. Fr. Cfr&neau), 
 from aren, cran, a notch or indentation, 
 Lat. arena. Hence " crenellated," fur- 
 nished with battlements. In Low Lat. 
 the word is spelt qua/rnellus (O. Fr. 
 mur quernele), as if " foramen quadra- 
 tum," a square aperture. 
 Wallis & kirnels stoute )je stones doun bette. 
 Langtoft, Chronicle, p. 326. 
 On hym there fyl a gret kernel of ston. 
 St. Graal, vol. ii. p. 388, 1. 432. 
 And fie camels so stondejj vp-riht, 
 Wei i-planed and feir i-diht. 
 
 Castet of Loue, 1. 695, ab. 1320. 
 jpe komli kemeles ' were to-clatered wijj en- 
 gines. 
 
 William of Paleme, 1. 2858. 
 
 Kekb-stone, an incorrect spelhng of 
 curb-stone, that which cv-rhs or con- 
 fines a pathway, and marks it off from 
 the road, so written perhaps from an 
 imagined connexion with Ger. kerbe, a 
 notch, groove, or indentation. 
 
 By the West side of the aforesaid Prison, 
 then called the Tunne, was a fair Well of 
 Spring water, curbed round with hard stone, 
 but in the year 1401 the said Prison house 
 . . . was made a Cestern for sweet water.' — J. 
 Hffwell, Londinopotis, p. 77. 
 
 Keeseymere, a fine stuff, is a corrup- 
 tion of cassimere, the old form of cash- 
 mere, a material originally brought from 
 Cashmere in N. India. It was assimi- 
 lated to kersey, the name of a coarse 
 cloth originally, perhaps, manufactm-ed 
 at Kersey, in Suffolk (Skeat). 
 
 Kettle of Fish, a colloquial phrase 
 
KBY 
 
 ( 202 ) 
 
 KIOK 
 
 for an embroglio, "mess," or contre- 
 temps, a perplexing state of affairs, per- 
 haps originally denoted a net full of 
 fish, which, when drawn up with its 
 plunging contents, is eminently sug- 
 gestive of confusion, flurry, and dis- 
 order. Compare hiddle {Mdellus), a fish- 
 ing weir, and keddle or Icettle-net, a large 
 stake-net. Compare perhaps Scot. Mttle, 
 to puzzle or perplex. See Davies, Supp. 
 Eng. Glossary, s. v., who quotes. 
 
 Fine doings at my house ! a pretty kettk of 
 Jish 1 have discovered at last. — Fieldingf 2 . 
 Jones, blc. xviii. ch. 8. 
 
 Key, formerly a common spelhng of 
 quay, from an idea that it meant that 
 which shuts in vessels from the high 
 sea, just as lock is an enclosure in a 
 canal. Thus Bailey defines " Key of a 
 Eiver or Haven, a Wharf, also a Station 
 for ships to ride, where they are, aa it 
 were, loclced in with the land," and so 
 Eichardson. But quay, Fr. quai, a dis- 
 tinct word, is frona Welsh cae, cai, an 
 enclosure. Compare W. caeth, bound, 
 confined, which Ebel (through a forna 
 cacht) deduces from Lat. captus (Gel- 
 tic Studies, p. 100). 
 
 Keyage, or botys stondynge, Ripatum. — 
 Prompt. Parvuiorum. 
 
 Quai, the key of a river, or haven. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Item, that the slippe and the keye, and the 
 pavjment ther, be ouerseyn and repared. — 
 Ordinances of Worcester, Eng. Gilds, p. 374 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 I do not look on the structure of the Ex- 
 change to be comparable to that of Sir The. 
 Gresham in our Citty of London, yet in one 
 respect it exceeds, that ships of considerable 
 burthen ride at the very ketj contiguous to it. 
 — J. Evelyn, Diary, Aug. 19, 16-11. 
 
 It has twelve faire churches, many noble 
 houses, especialy the Lord Devereux's, a 
 brave kay and commodious harbour, being 
 about 7 miles from the maine. — Id. July 8, 
 1656. 
 The crew with merry shouts their anchors 
 
 weigh. 
 Then ply their oars, and brush the buxom sen, 
 While troops of gathered Rhodiane crowd the 
 key, 
 Dryden, Cimon and Iphigenia, 1. 614. 
 
 Key-oold, a frequently occurring ex- 
 pression in old writers, as if to denote 
 " as cold as an iron key." I would 
 suggest, merely tentatively, that the 
 origiaal was hele-cold, i.e. " chUl-oold," 
 from A. Sax. cilan, to cIilH, Prov. Eng. 
 heel, or Icele, to cool ; the word, as to 
 
 its formation, being a kind of intensive 
 reduplication, like tip-top, tee-total. Cf. 
 heale, a cold, Lincolnshire. — Bay, M. 
 Gauntry Words. 
 
 Either they maiTy their childi-en in their 
 infancy, when they are not able to know 
 what loue is, or else matche them with in- 
 equallity, ioyniiig burning sommer with keu- 
 cold winter, their daughters of twenty yeares 
 olde or vnder, to rich cormorants of three- 
 score or vpwards. — J. Lane, Tetl-Trotlies H^ew- 
 yeares Gijt, 1593, p. 5 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Poor key-cold figure of a holy king. 
 Shakespeare, Richard III. act i. sc. 2. 
 
 A fire to kindle in us some luke-warme, or 
 some key-cold affection in us to good. — Bp, 
 Andrewes, Sermons, fol. p. 607. 
 
 But compare the following : — 
 For certes there was never keie, 
 Ne frosen is upon the walle 
 More inly cold, than I am alle. 
 
 Gower, Confessio Amantis, vol. iii. p. 9. 
 
 Keys, the Anglicized name of the 
 local parliament of the Isle of Man, is 
 evidently a corruption of the first sylla- 
 ble of the vernacular name, Kia/re-as- 
 feed, " The Four-and-twenty," so eaUed 
 from the number of representatives. 
 
 The power of making- and repealing laws 
 rested with the Ketjs. — The Manx Society Pub- 
 lications, vol. xiii. p. 113. 
 
 Camden gives the fanciful explana- 
 tion — 
 
 The Keys of the Island ai'e so called because 
 they are to lay open and discover the true 
 ancient laws and customs of the island. — 
 Britannia, Isle of Man (ed. 1695). 
 
 Kick, a slang word for fashion, vogue, 
 is not, as it might seem, a corruption of 
 Fr. chic, but the same word as Prov. 
 Eng. Jcich, a novelty, a dash, Mchj, 
 showy (Norfolk), old Eng. " Kygge, or 
 ioly (al. hydge), Jocundus, Mlaris."— 
 Prompt. Parvuiorum. 
 'Tis the kick, I say, old un, I brought it 
 down. Dibdiit. 
 
 I cocked my hat, and twirled my stick. 
 And the girls they called me quite the kick. 
 George Colimn. 
 
 " He's in high kich " is a proverb in 
 the Craven dialect. Compare Prov. 
 Eng. hedge, brisk, lively (Suffolk), 
 Scotch hichy, showy, gaudy, hidgie, 
 cheerful ; Swed. hdch, brave, brisk, 
 Ger. leech, akin, no doubt, to qmA; 
 Icel. hijhr, another form of hvihr, quick, 
 lively; O. H. Ger. hech, Dan. Uali. 
 See Diefenbach, Goth. Sprache, ii. 482. 
 
KICKSHAWS ( 203 ) KILL-BIDGE 
 
 In Banffshire they say, "He tried 
 on 's kicks wee me," i. e. tricks ; and 
 " She geed kickin' up the street," i. e. 
 walkipg -with a silly haughty air (Gre- 
 gor). 
 
 KiOK-SHAWs, French ragouts orsauces 
 (Bailey), or generally any Ught made- 
 dishes of an unsatisfying nature, is an 
 Anghcized form of Fr. quelgue chose, 
 "something," anything trivial, the ter- 
 mination -shaw being perhaps mentally 
 associated with pshaw I a term of con- 
 tempt. The Germans have twisted the 
 same word into geckschoserie, foolery, 
 as if compounded with geek, a simple- 
 ton (Andresen, Deutsche Volksetynw- 
 logie, p. 40). Cf. our " gooseberry /ooZ" 
 and " siUi-bub." 
 
 Gervase Markham, in his English 
 Housewife, alleges as instances of her 
 skill " quelguechoses, fricassees, devised 
 pastes," &c., and "Whitlock, in his 
 Zootonvia, considers " guelgues clioses, 
 made dishes of no nourishing." 
 
 Paper Qiielk-chose never smelt in Scholea. 
 — Duvies, Muse's Sacrifice, p. 5. 
 Onely let mee love none, no not the sport 
 From countrey grasse, to comfitures of Court, 
 Or cities quelqiie choses, let not report 
 My minde transport. 
 
 Dr. Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 8. 
 
 Bishop Hall has the word still tm- 
 naturahzed, " Fine quelqtieschoses of 
 new and artificial composition;" Cot- 
 grave defines Fricandeaux as " quelk- 
 choses made of good flesh and herbs 
 chopped together," and Dryden shows 
 the word in a state of transition. 
 
 Limberham. Some foolish French quelque- 
 chose I wan-ant you. 
 
 Brainsick. Quelquechose ! ignorance in 
 supreme perfection ! He means a kekshose. 
 The Kind Keeper [in Wedgwood]. 
 
 This latter form seems eventually to 
 have been mistaken for a plural, as 
 kickshoe is used by Lord Somerville 
 (Memorie of the Some')'villes),s,ia.di kecsho 
 in an old MS. cookery book (Wright 
 s. V. Eyse). But kickshawses (Shaks. 
 Twelfth Night, i. 3, 122) and kickeslwses 
 (Featley) were formerly in use. 
 
 She can feed on hung beef and a barley 
 pudding without the help of French kickshaws. 
 — The Ctiuntiy Farmer's Catechism, 1703. 
 
 Ye shall haue a Capon, a Tansie, and some 
 kiek-showes of my wits. — Jacke Drums hnter- 
 tainement, act ii. 1. 424 (1616). 
 
 Picking here and there upon kickshaws and 
 
 puff paste, that have little or no substance in 
 them.— Thos. Brooks, Works (Nichol's ed.), 
 vol. iv. p. 134 (1662). 
 
 Milton speUs it kicksJioes. 
 
 Some pigeons, Davy, a couple of short- 
 legged hens, a joint of mutton, and any 
 pretty little tiny kickshaws. — Shakespeare, 
 2 Hen. IV. v. 1, 1. 29. 
 
 Kidnap, to steal a child, i. e. to nab 
 a kid; the latter slang term for a 
 child being perhaps the same as Dutch 
 and German kind, just as kip, another 
 slang word, is the same as Dutch kni;p. 
 See Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossary, s. v. 
 Kid. 
 
 Kidney, an assimilation to other 
 words ending in -ey (such as attorney, 
 chimney, money) of old Eng. Iddnere, 
 which is a compound word meaning 
 literally " beUy-reins." Kid (Prov. 
 Eng. kite, the stomach) is A. Sax. cinS, 
 the womb or stomach, Scaud. kviir, 
 Goth, quijpus, and " neere of a beest, 
 Een" (Prompt. Parv.)is akidney, "the 
 reins," Dan. nyre. 
 
 "Eeynoun, kydeneyre." — Old MS. 
 See Prompt. Parvulorum, p. 353. I find 
 that this is also identically the view of 
 Prof. Skeat, Etyin. Diet. s. v. 
 
 J3ei schul offre twey kideneiren. — Wycliffe, 
 Levit. iii. 33. 
 
 Take fio hert and >o my druv and Jje kydnere, 
 And hew horn smalle, as I j^e lere. 
 
 Liber Cure Cocorum, p. 10. 
 
 Kilderkin, a small cask, a corrup- 
 tion of Dut. kinde.ken, the same, origi- 
 nally a " child-kin," and then a barrel 
 of infantine dimensions, from kind, a 
 chUd. 
 
 KiLLESSB, 1 old words for a groove or 
 CuLLiDGB, J channel (Parker, (xZossari/ 
 of Architecture), are corruptions of Fr. 
 couUsse, something that slides, a port- 
 cullis, or the groove it slides in, from 
 couler, to slide, to trickle, Lat. colare, 
 to per-colate. 
 
 KiLL-EiDGB, an ancient corruption of 
 the name of the plant culrage {Poly- 
 gonum hyd/ropiper), "Water-pepper, or 
 arsenicke, some call it kill-ridge, or 
 culerage." — Nomenalator, 1585. 
 
 Curage,The herb Waterpepper . . Killridge, 
 or culerage. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Oiderage, another name for the same 
 plant, is a corruption of Pr. cidrage. 
 Gowitch, according to Mr. Cockayne, is 
 
KINDNESS 
 
 ( 204 ) KING-00U6E 
 
 only another form of cul/rage [?] . — 
 Leechdoms, vol. iii. Glossary, s. v. Ears- 
 merte. 
 
 Kindness, a name given to a disease 
 ■which prevailed in Scotland a.d. 1580, 
 was probably, as Jamieson suggests, a 
 vulgar corruption of (quinance) squin- 
 ance, squinancy, the old forms oi quinsy, 
 from 'Bx.sq'amance, Lat. C2/wamc/je,Greek 
 hunanche, a dog- throttling. 
 
 King, a contracted form of old Eng. 
 hining, A. Sax. cyning. Prom a mis- 
 understanding of the cognate words, 
 O. H. Ger. and old Sax. hurdng, O. Low 
 Gar. ciming, Dut. homng, Swed. konung, 
 Icel. Iconungr, as if derived from Goth. 
 Tiunnan, Icel. kurma, Dut. hunnen, A. 
 Sax. cunnan, to know and to be able 
 (so Helfenstein, Gomp. Orammm; p. 
 33), originated the idea that the Mng is 
 properly he who can, or possesses power, 
 because he kens or has cunning ; since 
 knowledge is power, and might is right, 
 according to Carlyle's favourite doc- 
 trine. (So Verstegan, Smith, Bailey, 
 Richardson ; also Jenkin on Jude, p. 
 181.) 
 
 This etymology is of considerable 
 antiquity. In a homily of the 12th 
 century it is said, 
 
 Elch man fie lede<5 is lif rihtliche ... is 
 cleped king, for fiat he kenned eure to rihte. 
 — Old Eng. Homilies, 2nd Sw. p. 45 (ed. 
 Morris). 
 
 King fi-om Conning, for so our Great-grand- 
 fathers called them, which one word implyeth 
 two most important matters in a Governour, 
 Power and Skill. — Camden, Remaines Concern- 
 ing Britaine, p. 34, 1637. 
 
 The Commander over Men ; he to whose 
 will our wills are to be subordinated, and 
 loyally suri'ender themselves, and find their 
 welfare in doing so, may be reckoned the 
 most impoi-tant of Great Men. . . . He is 
 called Rex, Regulator, Roi : our own name 
 is still better; King, Xiinnm^, which means 
 Ctfn-nin^, Able-man. — T. Carlisle, On Heroes, 
 Lect. VI. 
 
 Kinf^ is Kon-ning, Kan-ning, Man that/c7iou;5 
 or cans. — Id. Lect 1. 
 
 The only Title wherein 1, with confidence, 
 trace eternity, is that of King. Konig (King) 
 anciently /iL07t7jiTt^,means Ke7i-7iin^(Canning^, 
 or which is the same thing Can-ning. Ever 
 must the Sovereign of Mankind be fitly en- 
 titled King. — Sartor Resartus, bk. iii. eh. 7. 
 
 O. Eng. Mn-ing (old Frisian hining) 
 meant originally "son of the kin," i.e. 
 a chief chosen by the tribe (Ger. hur- 
 fUrsf) ; kin- being the same word as A. 
 
 Sax. cyn, a tribe or kin, Icel. hyn, 0. 
 H. Ger. kunni, Goth, hum, race; and 
 -ing, a patronymic termination, mean- 
 ing " son of," as in Athel-ing, Woden- 
 ing (Eask, A. Sax. Orammar, p. 78). 
 So Diefenbach, OotJi. Spraclie, h. 464 ; 
 Stratjnann, Skeat. Compare " The 
 king is near of hin to us." — 2 Sam. 
 xix. 42 ; A. Sax. i>edden, a king, from 
 l>edd, the people ; \>eod-cyning (Beowulf, 
 1. 2, and 3008), a king belonging to the 
 people ; and A. Sax. d/iighten, a lord 
 (Icel. drdttinn), from d/right {dir6tt), the 
 people. 
 
 The king is the representative of the race, 
 the embodiment of its national beino;, the 
 child of his people, and not their father. 
 A king, in the old Teutonic sense, is not the 
 king of a country, but the king of a nation. 
 The Teutonic king is not the lord of the soil, 
 but the leader of the people. — Freeman, The 
 Norman Conquest, vol. i. p. 77. 
 
 The king, says Cardinal Pole, is the head 
 and husband of the people, the child, the 
 creature, and the minister of the two— 
 populus enim Regem procreat. — Id. p. 584. 
 
 Dans I'origine, le peuple souverain cr6a dea 
 rois pour son utility. — De Cherrier, Histoin 
 de Charles VIII. i. 76. 
 
 Nu ! ^in ciining ^6 cymjj to. — A. Saj, Vers. 
 S. Matt, xxi.' 5. 
 & fie wule he was out of Engelond ■ Edgar 
 
 Ajjeling 
 fiat rist eir was of Engelond • & kunde to he 
 king. 
 Robt. of Gloucester, Chron., Morris 
 Spec. p. 15, 1. 422. 
 
 He thought therefore without delay to rid 
 them, as though the killing of his kinsmen 
 could amend his cause, and make him a 
 kindlii king. — Sir T. More, History of King 
 Richard III. 
 
 King, Ger. konig, has also been iden- 
 tified with Sansk. ganaha, a father, 
 which is rather a word closely related, 
 root gan, to beget, whence genus, hin. 
 
 King-cough, given by Bailey as a 
 North country word for the cMn-anigh, 
 or hooping-cough, is a corruption of 
 kink-cough. (See Chin-cough.) It is 
 found also in N. W. Lincolnshire (Pea- 
 cock), in the Holdemess district, B. 
 Yorkshire, and in Cumberland (Dickin- 
 son). An old MS. of the 15th cent, says 
 " fiis erbe y-dronke in olde wyne helpil' 
 Jie Kynges hoste " ( = king-cough), 
 while another heals " fie chynhe and I'e 
 olde cogh" (Way). Skinner quotes 
 kin-cough as a Lincolnshire word, and 
 the verb kinchen, to breathe with dififi- 
 
KINGDOM 
 
 ( 205 ) 
 
 LAMB -MASS 
 
 culty. Compare Swed. Mk-hosia, cliin- 
 cough, Dut. hink-hoest. 
 
 Kingdom is properly no compound 
 of Mng with the suffix -dom, as if the 
 state or condition of a king, though it 
 has long been regarded as such. The 
 Old Bng. form of the word is Jdnedom, 
 A. Sax. cyneddm, where the first part of 
 the compound is cyne (adj.), royal. — 
 Skeat, Etym. Did. 
 
 Ich chuUe sclieaweu ... to alle kinedomes 
 )jine scheomeful sunnen, to |ie kinedome of 
 eor^e, & to {je kinedoine of heoaene. — Ancren 
 Riuile, p. 322. 
 
 [He] cowfie vche kyndam tokerue & keuer 
 ■when hyjn. lyked. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 85, 1. 1700. 
 
 Kit, a small violin, contracted (per- 
 haps under the influence of catling, and 
 cat-gut, TdtUng and hitten) from A. Sax. 
 cy there, a cittern, a word borrowed from 
 Lat. dthwra, a lyre, whence also gwita/r 
 and Ger. zither. 
 
 Kitty, a provincial word for a wren 
 {e.g. Parish, Sussex Glossary), is a cor- 
 ruption of cutty, a name also given to it, 
 descriptive of the shortness of its tail ; 
 compare Welsh cwta, short, bob-taUed, 
 cwt, a tail, or s-cut, amtiar, a coot, cwtyn, 
 a plover. " The little Mtty-wren must 
 once have been St. Catherine's bird," 
 writes Miss Yonge, History of Chris- 
 Han Names, vol. i. p. 270. 
 
 Kitty-witch, a Norfolk word for a 
 cockchafer, from the A. Sax. wicga, 
 seen also in eax-wig. — Philohg. 8oc. 
 Trans., 1858, p. 103. 
 
 Knot, the name of a snipe-like bird, 
 Tringa Ganutus, is said to have its 
 name from King Oanute, with whom 
 it was a favourite article of food 
 (Camden). Cf. Jcnot, nodus, and Swed. 
 icrmi, leel. Icnutr. 
 
 The knot that called was Canutus' bird of old 
 Of that great king of Danes his name that 
 still doth hold. Drayton. 
 
 Now as the Eagle is called JotIs Ales, so 
 here [Lincolnshire] they have a Bird which 
 is called the Kings' Bird, namely Knut's, 
 sent for hither out of Denmark at the charge, 
 and for the use, of Knut, or Kanutus, King 
 of England. — T. Fuller, Worthies, vol. ii. p. 2. 
 
 L. 
 
 Laborinth, an incorrect spelling, as 
 if connected with labo^- (Cotgrave), Low 
 
 Lat. lahorinius, of labyrinth, Lat. laby- 
 rinthus, from Greek lahurinthos. The 
 Greek word has been regarded as 
 another form of lavurinthos, from lavra 
 (Xafpa) or laura {\aipa), a lane, as if a 
 place full of lanes or alleys. It is pro- 
 perly a corruption of an Egyptian 
 word. 
 
 Ladder to Heaven, a trivial name 
 for the plant Solomon's seal. Dr. Prior 
 conjectures that it may have originated 
 in a confusion of seel de Salamon, or 
 de Notre Da/me, with echelle de 8. or de 
 N.D. 
 
 Lady's smock, an old popular name 
 for the ca/rdamine or cress, in North- 
 ampton applied to the great bind weed. 
 It was perhaps indefinitely used at first 
 for any common plant with a white 
 flower, and may possibly be the same 
 word as old 'Eng.lustmoce (Lcece Boc, I. 
 xxxviii. 3), A. Sax. teforeoca, lust wort, 
 sundew (drosera) [?J . 
 
 Lamb, in certain cant phrases, as " to 
 give one lamb and salad," i.e. a sound 
 thrashing, lamb-pis, a flogging, is doubt- 
 less the same word as Prov. and old 
 Eng. lam, to beat or drub, lamming, a 
 thrashing (Lincolns.), originally to' 
 strike with the hamd, Ir. lamh, 0. Norse 
 lamr. 
 
 Dauber, to beat, swindge, lamme, canvass 
 throughly. — Cotgrave. 
 
 De Tellers ash lam de Romans dill 
 
 dey roon mit noses plue. 
 Leland, The Breilmann Ballads, p. 104. 
 
 I once saw the late Duke of Grafton at 
 fisticuiFs, in the open street, with such a fel- 
 low, whom he lamb'd most horribly. — Misscm, 
 Travels over England, p. 305 (ed. 1719). 
 Compare smack, to slap, to give a sound- 
 ing blow to one, and Irish smac, the 
 palm of the hand. However, the true 
 cognation may be Icel. lama, to bruise, 
 lame, A. Sax. lama; cf. Scot, lamp, to 
 beat. 
 
 Lamb-mass, an old misunderstanding 
 oi Lammas (Day), the iirst of August, 
 "because the Priests used to get in 
 their Tithe-iamis on that Day" 
 (Bailey); " Lanvmesse, Festum ag- 
 nm-um' ' ( Prompt. Parvtdorum, ab . 1440) . 
 Lam is the ancient form of lamb. A 
 mass said on that day was accordingly 
 esteemed very beneficial to lambs 
 (Southey, Common Place Book, vol. iv. 
 p.^ 122). But Lammas is A. Sax. hldf- 
 
LAMB-SKIN-IT ( 206 ) 
 
 LANCEGAY 
 
 mcesse, loaf-mass (in Saxon Chronicle, 
 an. 913), the day when an offering of 
 new wheaten bread was made, as a 
 thanksgiving for the fruits of com. 
 
 By ))is lyflode we mote lyue ■ tyl lammasse 
 
 tyme ; 
 And by |jat, ich hope to haue ' beruest in my 
 crofte. 
 Langland, Vision ofP, Plowman, C. ix. 315 
 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 Tbat tbe Sberiff and Bailly bunt tbe Wolf 
 thrice in the Yeaa- betwixt St. Mark's day 
 and Lambmass; and that the Country rise 
 with them to that end. — Acts of Scot. Pari., 
 Jac. VI., Par. 14, cap. 87. 
 
 Lamb-skin-it, " a certain game at 
 cards" (Bailey, Dictionary), as if to 
 imply the game at which an innocent 
 tyro would be ileeced, or as the phrase 
 goes, a pigeon would be plucked (Chau- 
 cer's "to pull a finch"), is a corrup- 
 tion of Fr. lansquenet, " a Lance-knight, 
 or German footman ; also, the name of 
 a game at cards." — Cotgrave. See 
 Lance-knight. 
 
 Lamb's quaktbes, a popular name 
 for the plant atriplex patula, is perhaps 
 only Lammas quarter, called so fi'om its 
 blossoming about the 1st of August, the 
 season when the clergy used to get in 
 their tithes (Prior), A. Sax. hlaf-mcesse. 
 
 Lamb's-wool, the name of an old 
 EngUsh beverage, of which the chief 
 ingredients were ale and roasted apples, 
 is said to be a corruption of lamasool, 
 from the "ancient British" la maes 
 ahhal, "the day of apples," i.e. the 
 autumnal feast of apple gathering, 
 when it used to be drunk (Chamhers' 
 Cyclopcedda) . In Irish indeed la is day, 
 mas is collected, and aVIial is an apple, 
 and formerly this drink, as well as 
 apples, was partaken of at the autumnal 
 feast of All Halloween (Brand, Pop. 
 Antiq., i. 396, ed. Bohn), but this Celtic 
 name needs confirmation. It is first 
 mentioned, I tliink, by General Val- 
 lancey, while lamhs-wool is found in the 
 16th century. The Scotch word is 
 lamoo. 
 
 Next crowne the bowle full, 
 With gentle lamhs-wooU, 
 Adde sugar, nutmeg, and ginger. 
 Herrich, Poems, p. 340 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 \yith Mahomet wine he dammeth with intent 
 I'o erect his paschal lamb's wool Sacrament. 
 Absalon's Xine Worthies (see Dryden's Poems, 
 p. lOr, Globe ed.). 
 
 Gerarde, writing in 1597, says : — 
 
 The pulpe of the rested Apples . . mixed 
 in a wine quart of faire water, laboured to- 
 gither vntill it come to be as Apples and Ale, 
 which we call Lambes Wooll . . doth in one 
 night cure . . . tbe strangurie. — Herball p. 
 1276, fol. 
 
 Peele in his Old Wiues Tale, 1595, has: 
 Lay a crab in tbe fire to roast for hmh's- 
 
 wool. — p, 446, ed. Dyce. 
 
 The lambs' -wool, even in the opinion of my 
 
 wife, who was a Connoisseur, was excellent. 
 
 — Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xi. 
 
 Lampee eel, a Scotch corruption of 
 lamprey ( Jamieson), found also in pro- 
 vincial English (Wright). 
 
 The Lamprey, or, as it is called here [in 
 Banffshire], the Lamper eel, is often met with. 
 — Smiles, Life of Edward, theScotch Naturalist, 
 p. 426. 
 
 In W. Cornwall it is called the lumping 
 eel (M. A. Courtney, Olossary,:E\. D.S.). 
 
 Some odde palace lampreeVs that ingender 
 with snakes, and are full of eyes on both 
 sides, with a kinde of insinuated humblenesse, 
 fixe all their delightes upon his brow. — /. 
 Marston, The Malcontent, i. 5 ( Worlis, ii. 'il6, 
 ed. Halliwell). 
 
 Lamprey, Fr. lamproie, Sp. la/mprea, 
 It. lampreda, has generally been under- 
 stood to be from a Low Lat. lam-petra, 
 i.e. lamhens petram, "hck-stone," from 
 its attaching itself to rocks by its mouth. 
 The Breton name lamprez, from lampr, 
 sUppery, and Welsh lleiprog,iroTa lleip; 
 "limber," probably point to the true 
 origin, and in that case the above forms 
 would be instances of corruption due 
 to false derivation. For the inserted 
 m compare limpet from Greek lepa{d)s i 
 and limp beside Welsh lUpa, flaccid. 
 Compare also Umber, Swiss lampig, 
 Bav. lamnpecht, flaccid. 
 
 Mylke of almondes Jjerto \>ou cast, 
 jjo tenche or lampray do to on last. 
 
 Liber Cure Cocorum, p. 10. 
 
 Lampreys — In Latine Lampetrae, a lam- 
 bendo petras, " from licking the rocks," are 
 plentif'ull in this and the neighbouring Coun- 
 ties in the River of Severn. A deformed 
 Fish, which, for the many holes therein, one 
 would conceive Nature intended it rather for 
 an Instrument of Musick then for man's 
 food.— T. Fuller, Worthies of England, vol. 
 ii. p. 465. 
 
 Lancegay, the name of an old wea- 
 pon, apparently a spear or javelin, pro- 
 hibited by the statute 7 Rich. III. 
 
LANOE-KNIGHT ( 207 ) LANT-HOBN 
 
 He worth upon his stede gray, 
 
 And in his hond a launcegay, 
 A long swerd by his side. 
 Chaucev, The Rime of Sir Thopas, 1. 13682. 
 " Lawncegay, Lancea." — Prompt. Parv. 
 Mr. Way thinks that lance-gaye (men- 
 tioned byGuillaume de St. Andre in the 
 14th cent.) or lance-guaye may be the 
 same as the arahegaye of the Franks, 
 and derived from the name of the 
 Eastern or Moorish weapon, called 
 assagay, arzegaye, or zagaye. L'assagay 
 would readily pass into lancegay. Sp. 
 "Azagdya, a iavelin, a Moores weapon." 
 — Minsheu, is for al-zagaya. Prof. 
 Steat thinks the word is contracted 
 from lance-zagaye. De Comines men- 
 tions that the Albanian Stradiots 
 [=: urpaTiwrai] were armed with a short 
 pike called an arzegaye pointed with 
 iron at both ends. — Sir S. D. Scott, 
 The British Army, vol. ii. p. 14. The 
 assegai of savage warfare, a word with 
 which we became painfully famihar in 
 our conflict with the Zulus, is not a 
 native term, but borrowed from the 
 the Europeans. Cotgrave has zagaye 
 and azagaye, "a fashion of slender, 
 long and long-headed pike used by the 
 Moorish horsemen." It is the Berber 
 zagaya (Devic). 
 
 The male sort from their infancy practise 
 the rude postures of Mars, covering their 
 naked bodies with massie Targets, their right 
 hand brandishing a long but small Azasuay 
 or lance of Ebony, barbed with iron, kept 
 bright, which by exercise, they know how to 
 jaculate as well as any people in the Uni- 
 verse. — Sir Thos. Herbert, Travels, 1665, p. 23. 
 
 That no man go armed, to here lauiicegaues, 
 Gleyves, Speres, and other wepyn, in dis- 
 torbynge of the Kvnges pease and people. — 
 English Gilds, p. 388 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 To speake of lesser weapons, both defensive 
 and offensive, of our Nation, as their Pauad, 
 Baselard, Launcegay, &c., would be endlesse 
 and needlesse, when wee can doe nothing but 
 name them, — ■Camden, ReimiiTies Concerning 
 Britaine, 1637, p. 204. 
 
 Lance-knight, a foot soldier, French 
 lansquenet, " a Lance knight, or German 
 footman " (Cotgrave), is not, as Skin- 
 ner thought, derived from lamce, biit a 
 coiTuption of Ger. lands-lcnecht, a coun- 
 try man, lit. a land's-knight. 
 
 His garmentes were nowe so sumptuouse, 
 all to pounced with gardens and jagges lyke 
 a rutter [i.e. Ger. ritter, knightj of the 
 launce knyghtes. — Sir W. Barlowe, Dialogue 
 describing the originall Ground of these Lu- 
 
 theran Faccions. — Southeu, Life of Wesley, 
 vol. i. p. 358. 
 
 The lansquenets were mercenaries 
 that Charles VIII. took into his pay ; 
 they composed a large part of the 
 French infantry in the 16th century 
 (Cheruel). Compare " Lanceman, a 
 oompatriote or countreyman [LanJs- 
 mann] ; a word which the Frenchman 
 borrows of the Dutch to mock him 
 withall. ' ' — Cotgrave. 
 
 Well, now must I practise to get the true 
 
 farb of one of these lance-knights. — B. Jonson, 
 '.very Man in his Humour, ii. 2 ( Works, p. 9). 
 
 Land iron, a corruption of andiron, 
 Fr. landder, O. Eng. andyar, awnderne 
 {Prompt. Parv.), Low Lat. andena, an- 
 deria. The word has certainly no con- 
 nexion with either land or iron. See 
 Andiron, Endibon. 
 
 One iyron potte and one land iiiron. — In- 
 ventory, 1685 (in Peacock's Glossary ofManley, 
 &c.). 
 
 Langley-bbef, in W. Ellis's Prac- 
 tical Farmer, 55, a corruption of langue- 
 de-hceuf, a name of the HelmintMa 
 EcMoides. ' 
 
 Lantern, given in Wright's Diction- 
 ary of Ohsolete and Provincial English 
 as a word for a reading desk, is a cor- 
 ruption of letteron, a lectern, Fr. luirin. 
 
 Lectern was also spelt lettern, letirone, 
 and leterone. See Prompt. Pan-vulwum, 
 under the latter word. See Lectern. 
 
 Lant-horn, so spelt with reference, 
 probably, to the material with which 
 it was commonly glazed, is a corrupt 
 form of lantern, Fr. lanterne, from Lat. 
 lanterna, laterna, itself a corruption (for 
 lampterna) of Greek lampter, a light, a 
 lamp. 
 
 Our soules now-sin-obscured Light 
 Shines through the Lanthom of our Flesh so 
 
 bright. 
 
 Sylvester, Du, Bartas, p. 136 (1621). 
 The Moon pull'd off' her veil of Light 
 That hides her Face by Day from bight . . . 
 And in the Lanthom of the Night 
 With Shining Horns hung out her Light. 
 Butler, Hudibras, II. ii. 1. 905. 
 To thy judgement [she] looks like a mard 
 in a lanthom, whom thou couldst not fancy 
 for a world, but hatest, loathest and would.st 
 have spit in her face. — Burton, Anatomy of 
 Melancholy, III. ii. 4, 1. 
 
 With the form lant-horn may be 
 compared Swed. Jwrn-lyMa, a lantern 
 with horn sides. 
 
LANTHOEN LILIES ( 208 ) 
 
 LABK 
 
 AsBer claims for King Alfred the 
 honour of being the original inventor 
 of horn lanterns, which by a skilful 
 device he caused to be made of wood 
 and cow's horns ; " Consilio artificiose 
 atque sapienter invento, lanternam ex 
 lignis et hovinis cormibus puloherrime 
 oonstruereimperavit." — WiightjEssays 
 on Archceology, vol. i. p. 179. 
 
 Lanthobn Lilies, a Warwickshire 
 name for the Narcissus, in the Isle of 
 Wight lantern KUes, are corruptions of 
 Lenten liUes, so called from the season 
 of their flowering. — Britten and Hol- 
 land. 
 
 So the Scotch have lentrin kcdl and 
 lanten kml, for " Lenten kail." 
 
 Lantobn, a northern provincial word 
 (Wright), meaning " at a distance," is 
 a corruption of the French lointain. 
 Similarly It. lanternare, " to goe loiter- 
 ing about "(also "to makelanthornes"), 
 lanternaro, an " idle loyterer " (Florio), 
 are near akin to Dut. lenteren, Bret. 
 landar (of. Diez, s. v. Lendore), our 
 "loiter," (cf. Wedgwood, s. v.), Lat. 
 lateo. So Icmterner, in Cotgrave, to dally, 
 play the fool, or loiter. 
 
 Lanyaed, a nautical term for a rope, 
 is a corruption of French lamiexe, a long 
 strap, O.Eng.famere (=ligula. — Prompt. 
 Pwv., ab. 1440), lanyer (Palsgrave, 
 1530), layner (Wychffe, Gen. xiv. 23), 
 a thong, lamer (Chaucer) ; Norfolk 
 la.nyer, the lash of a whip. Fr. lanm'e 
 was perhaps originally a woollen band, 
 Lat. ZaracwmSjfrom lana, wool (Scheler). 
 Laner. — Holland, Gamden's Britannia, 
 p. 542. 
 
 Laplovb, a Scottish name for the com 
 convolvulus, is apparently that which 
 laps or enfolds the leaves, Scand. lof, of 
 the plant,as in Prov. Swedish it is called 
 luf-binde, the leaf-binder (Jamieson). 
 
 Lap-stone, is not, as might naturally 
 be supposed, the stone which the shoe- 
 maker places in his lap to hammer 
 leather upon it, but the cohhle-stone, 
 from Dutch lappen, to cobble or patch, 
 lapper, a cobbler, lapwerh, cobblery. 
 
 Lapwing, the peewit, derives its name 
 not from the lapping or flapping of its 
 win^s, nor yet from their lifting, as if 
 the old Eng. form were hleaf-ivinge 
 (Leo), from A. Sax. hlifian, to rise, soar, 
 
 be lifted up (Bosworth). Cf. its Prench 
 name vannecm, the winnower, Lat. 
 vanellus. The old forms lapwinhe. Vim- 
 wynche, A. Sax. hledpewince, show tliat 
 the word has nothing to do with lap or 
 wing. The first part of the compound 
 is connected with A. Sax. hledpan, to 
 run or leap, says Prof. Skeat, the latter 
 part with winh, O. H. Ger. winchen, M. 
 H. Ger. winken, to vacillate, waver; 
 so that the whole ("leap-winker") 
 means the bird " that turns in run- 
 nmg." 
 
 Hy bye)) ase [je Ihapwimche jjet ine uel)* 
 ffilth] of man makejj his nest. — Ai/enbUe of 
 InwytClSiO), p. 61. 
 
 iMpuiynke, or wype, byrde, Upipa.— 
 Prompt. Parvutorum. 
 
 Cucurata, hleape-wince. — Wright's Vocabv^ 
 laries, p. 62. Leepwynke. — Wyciijfe. 
 
 They begynne al redy to do wel, that one 
 catcheth wel a chykeu, and that other a 
 pullet. They conne wel also duke in the 
 water after tapwynches and dokys. — Caiton, 
 Reynard the Fox, 1481, p. 60 (ed. Arber). 
 
 They will do it, and become at last imen- 
 sati, void of sense ; degenerate into dogs, 
 hogs, asses, brutes ; as Jupiter into a bull, 
 Apuleins an asse, Lycaon a wolf, Tereas a 
 Uip-uimg. — Burton, Anatomy of Metamholy, 
 III. ii. 4, 1. 
 
 Lark, a colloquial and vulgar term 
 for a frolic, playing, sporting, or in- 
 dulging in practical jokes (sometimes 
 more emphatically called sJcy-la/rhing), 
 as if to gambol and disport oneself like 
 the merry bird of dawn, " The jolly 
 bird of hght " (Lovelace), "Lafestiva 
 lodoletta" (Aleardi). 
 
 Earley, cheerfull, mounting Larke, 
 Light's gentle vsher, Morning's dark, 
 In men*y notes delighting. 
 Sir John Davies, Hymnes to Astrtea, V. 
 
 " We should be as gay as Im-lcs," says 
 Mr. Brass in the Old Gwiosity Slop, 
 ch. Ivi. " The kitchen boys were all as 
 gay as larlcs." — T. L. Phipson, Biogra- 
 phical Sketches of Violinists, p. 9. 
 
 It is really a corruption of the old 
 Eng. lak, A. Sax. lac, play, sport, 0. 
 Eng. laik, to play, Gothic laiJes, sport, 
 laikan, to skip or leap for joy. 
 
 In the Gothic version of the parable 
 of the Prodigal Son, when the elder 
 brother returned, he heard laihiw, 
 " larking," going on in the house {Luh 
 XV. 25). 
 
 And the answer of the ladies makes us 
 aware that they ai-e fresh from larking in 
 
LATE-WAKE 
 
 ( 209 ) 
 
 LAW 
 
 Ireland and France. — De Quincey, Works, 
 vol. xi. p. 85. 
 
 Late-wake, a corruption of lake-wake 
 or lyhe-wake,i. e. body-watch, or waking 
 of the dead, 0. Eng. liche-wake, from A. 
 S. lie (a corpse) and wwcce (a watch) ; 
 " Lyche, dede body."- — Pr. Parv. Of. 
 Dut. Hjk, a corpse, Icel. lih, Goth. leik. 
 
 Ne how Aroite is brent to aslien cold; 
 Ne how the liche-wake wasyhold 
 All thilke night, ne how the Grekes play 
 The wake-plaies ne kepe I not to say. 
 
 Chaucer, The Knightes Tuk, 1. 2960. 
 
 ** In gude ti'oth it will be a puir It^ke-wake, 
 unless your honour sends us something to 
 keep us cracking." 
 
 " You shall have some whiskey," answered 
 Oldbuck, "the rather that you have pre- 
 served the proper word for that ancient cus- 
 tom of watchmg the dead. — You observe. 
 Hector, this is genuine Teutonic, fi-om the 
 Gothic Leichnam, a corpse. It is quite erro- 
 neously called Late-wake, though Brand 
 favours that modem corruption and deriva- 
 tion." — Scott, The Antiquary, ch&p. xl. 
 
 Latchet, an old word for the thong 
 of a shoe, as if that which latchs or 
 fastens it (of. latch of a door), from the 
 old verb latch, to catch or fasten, old 
 Eng. lacche, A. Sax. Iceccan. It is 
 reaUy a httle Zace,Pr. lacet (It. laccietto), 
 from old Er. laqs, Lat. laquens, anoose. 
 See The Bihle Word-Book, p. 287; 
 Skeat, Etym. Bict. s. v. Laclict of a 
 schoo, Tenea. — Pronvpt. Pai-uulorum. 
 A latchet wherwith they fastened their 
 legge hameys, Pasciola. — Baret, Al- 
 vearie, s. v. Bande. 
 
 A stronger then I commeth after me, whos 
 shue latchett I am not worthy to stoupe 
 downe and vnlose. — Tyndale, S. Marke, i. 7 
 (1526). 
 
 [Peahens] are wont to lay by night, . . and 
 that from an high place where they perch : 
 and then, vnlesse there be good heed taken 
 that the eggs be Uitched in some soft bed 
 vnderneath, Uiey are soone broken. — Holland^ 
 Pliny's Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 301 (1634). 
 
 Latmne, a house of office, Lat. la,- 
 trim, which would seem to be a deri- 
 vative of lateo, to be hid, as if it meant 
 a house or place retired, concealed, or 
 kept out of view, is really a contracted 
 form of toaWma (from toare, to wash), 
 denoting (1) a bath, (2) a place that can 
 be flushed or washed out, Ueu d'aisance. 
 Cf. Fr. lavement. In Nash's Lenten 
 Stuff e, " lanterneman or groome of 
 Hecate's close-stoole " (Davies, Supp. 
 
 Eng. Olossa/ry) looks like a corruption 
 of latrine-man. 
 
 Laudanum. " A medicine extracted 
 out of the purer Part of Opiiim, so called 
 from its laudable QuaUties" (Bailey) — 
 as if from Lat. laus, laudis, praise — iB 
 a corrupted spelling of Lat. ladanum, 
 Gk. ledanon, the juice obtained from 
 the plant lada or ledon, the oistus Greti- 
 cus, Arab ladan ; cf. Heb. lot (translated 
 "myrrh," A. V. Gen. xxxvii. 25). Some- 
 what similarly the lark, Lat. alauda, 
 was once supposed to take its name a 
 laude diei, from its singing lauds (Neo- 
 kam, Be Nat. Rerum, cap. Ixviii.). 
 
 For the infirmities proper to the guts, & 
 namely the worms there breeding Ladanum 
 of Cypresse is soueraigne to be taken in 
 drinke. — Hollands, Pllnys Nat. History, vol. 
 ii. p. 253(1*34). 
 
 Laystall, a dust-hole or ash-pit, 
 seems to denote a stall where dust and 
 rubbish may be laid, but is really a cor- 
 ruption of laye-stowe (Fabyan) , an empty 
 or unoccupied place, where any filth or 
 rubbish may be thrown. Lay here is 
 the old Eng. ley, leye, Scot, lea, untiUed, 
 vacant, unoccupied, corresponding to 
 Prov. Dan. leid, Ger. leede, Dut. ledig, 
 of the same meaning (see Wedgwood, 
 S.V.). Compare " IJai/, londenottelyd." 
 — Prompt. Pa/rvulorum. Lea, a meadow, 
 A. Sax. leah, and Prov. Ger. loh, a 
 morass, are alhed (Skeat). 
 
 This place of Smythfeelde was at y' daye a 
 laye stowe of all order of fylth,& the place where 
 felons, & other tiasgressours of y' Kynges 
 lawis, were put to execucio. — Fabyan, Chro- 
 nicles, p. 254 (ed. 1811). 
 
 Scarse could he footing find in that fowle 
 way. 
 For many corses, like a gi-eat Lay-stall, 
 
 Of murdred men, which therein strowed 
 
 lay . 
 Without remorse, or decent funerall. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, I. v. 53. 
 
 Lavendek-watee, French eau-de- 
 lavande, the original signification, ac- 
 cording to M. Scheler, being perfumed 
 water for toilet purposes, esp. used in 
 washing, It. lavanda z= lavage, from 
 Lat. lava/re. But the lavender water of 
 commerce is distilled from lavender. 
 
 Law, in the compound words mother- 
 in-law, father-in-law, &c., is not the 
 same word as law = lex, as if a legal- 
 mother, or a father in the eyes of the 
 law (which those connexions are not), 
 
LAW 
 
 ( 210 ) 
 
 LAY-LOGK 
 
 but the modern form of old Eng. lage, 
 marriage, GotHo Kwga, marriage, liu- 
 gan, to marry, Frisian logja, to give 
 in marriage. 
 
 To wife in lage he hire nam. 
 Genesis and Exodus, 1. 2764 (ed. Morris). 
 Thus parents-in-law properly means 
 parents in (or by ) marriage. The above 
 words are probably near akin to A. 
 Sax. licgan, to lie down, Prov. Eng. to 
 lig, whence leger, a bed, a "lair," leger- 
 team, matrimony; Ughie, "concubin- 
 age, which northward they call a UgKe " 
 (Nicholson, on Oateclmm, 1661) ; com- 
 pare Greek Uchos, lektron, bed, mar- 
 riage, dlochos, a wife, &c. ; also A. Sax. 
 logjan, to place or lay down. Stanyhurst 
 uses lawdaughter and lawfather for 
 daughter-in-law and father-in-law. 
 Soon to King Priamus by lawi thus he law- 
 father helpino^. 
 Aeneid, ii. 354 lUavies, Supp. Eng. Glossary']. 
 
 Law, in the phrase "to give one so 
 much law," i.e. in running a race to 
 allow one's competitor a start of so 
 many yards or feet in advance, seems 
 properly to mean a concession, and to 
 be a corrupted form of A. Sax. leaf, 
 leave, permission. (This law has with 
 less probabiUty been connected with 
 A. Sax. Idf, old Eriesic la/wa, what is 
 left.— PUlog. Soc. Trans., 1855, p. 278.) 
 So the O. Eng. " lefuUe, or lawfuUe, 
 Licitus " {Prompt. Parv.),:=A. Sax. 
 ledf-ful, permissible, leveful (Wychffe), 
 was confounded with " lawfulle, legiti- 
 mus" {P.P.), from A. Sax. lagu,la,w. 
 These words were formerly kept dis- 
 tinct, as in the old phrase "in lefull 
 things and lawful " (vid. Way, Prompt. 
 Parv.-p. 366). Cf. '' im-lough," bom 
 Dutch ver-Zd/, leave; Dan. lov, leave 
 (and lov, law), Swed lof. See Leave. 
 
 This winged Pegasus posts and speeds 
 after men, easily gives them law, fetches them 
 up again, gallops and swallows the gi'ound 
 he goes. — Samuel Wardj Life of Faith in 
 Death (d. 1653). 
 
 Law 1 ) a feminine expletive, is pro- 
 La 1 ) bably not a corruption of 
 Mr. Pepys' Lord I but a survival of 
 old Eng. la, eala, wala, an interjection 
 of surprise. In the Anglo-Saxon ver- 
 sion of John ii. 4, Christ addresses his 
 mother, " Ldwif, hwEetisme and Se ? " 
 (Ohphant, Old and Mid. Eng., p. 72). 
 
 Lawful, when used in the sense of 
 
 allowable, permissible, as in " All 
 things are lawful unto me, but all 
 things are not expedient." — A.V. 1 Car. 
 vi. 12, is no compound of Law aad full. 
 It is the old Eng. lefvl, or leeueful,ie. 
 leave-fid. 
 
 Leful, written Leveful hy VViclif and de- 
 rived fi'om the Anglo-Saxon leaf, English 
 leave, signifies what is allowable, permissible, 
 while lawful is what is legal, according to 
 law. But we find in Old English authors 
 constant mistakes in the use of the two tenns. 
 Leful trespassed upon lawful, and in fact is 
 
 so rendered in most of the glossaries 
 
 This confuaioh of terms, at first perfectly 
 distinct with respect to meaning and etymo- 
 logy, seems to have arisen from an endeavour 
 to give significance to a word, or to some part 
 of a word that had lost the power of explain- 
 ing itself. — Morris, Philolog. Soc. Transactions, 
 186"<!-3, p. 86. 
 
 It is nat leful to thee for to haue hir. — Wy- 
 cliffe, S. Matt. xir. 4. 
 
 Hit ys nat lawfull for the to haue her.— 
 Tyndale, ibid. 
 
 What don 3e this, that is not leefful in 
 iahotisl—Wyctiffe, S. Luke, vi. 2. 
 
 Lay figuee, as if the figure on which 
 artists la/y the drapery as a study for a 
 picture, was formerly called a "lay 
 man," i.e. " a statue of wood whose 
 joints are so made that they may be 
 put into any posture" (Bailey, 1736). 
 It is the Dutch lee-man, for lede-mcm, 
 from led or lid, a joint, Ger. gUed, and 
 so means a jointed figure hke a Dutch 
 doU. — Wedgwood, Notes and Qmems, 
 5th Ser. V. p. 436. 
 
 The German word is gUedermmin. 
 Compare A. Sax. Hi, Prov. Eng. Uth, a 
 limb or joint (also the clove of an 
 orange), 0. H. Ger. Ud, Goth. Uthas, 
 and perhaps Eng. lithe, flexible, active 
 Hmbed (Diefenbach, Ooth. Sprache, vol. 
 ii. p. 142). 
 
 The Spectator speaks of miUiners fur- 
 nishing ladies with new fashions " by 
 means of a jointed baby [i.e. doU] , that 
 came regularly over once a month, 
 habited after the manner of the most 
 eminent toasts in Paris " (No. 277). 
 
 With lay, a joint, Dut. lid, Ger. glkd, 
 and lay, a song, Ger. Ued, compare 
 Greek nielos, (1) a Umb, (2) a song. 
 
 Lay-lock, a North country corrup- 
 tion of Ulac {Holderness Ohssairy, Eng. 
 Dialect Soc), Sp. Ulac, of Persian ori- 
 gin. 
 
 "Sweet laylocks bloomed" oooum 
 
LEAOEEWHITE ( 211 ) 
 
 LEAVE 
 
 in the Scotch ballad, 'Twas within a 
 imle of Eddnbmv' toon. 
 
 Bacon in his Essays (1625) calls it 
 "the Leiache Tree" (p. 556, ed. Arber). 
 In some parts of Scotland the word is 
 corrupted into lily-oak. 
 
 A foantaine of white marble .... set 
 round with six trees called lelach trees. — 
 Siirveiff 1650 \_DavieSj Supp. Eng. Giossai'y'\. 
 
 Leachewhite, an old word for a fine 
 to punish fornication {Lease of Manor 
 of Scatter, 1537), is a corruption of 
 lecher-wite, from A. Sax. wite, a fine. 
 
 Lead, an old word for a cauldron or 
 kettle, as if one made of lead (Uke "cop- 
 per" commonly used for a cauldron), for 
 which that metal would be a particu- 
 larly imsuitable material. It is pro- 
 bably a corrupted form of Gaehc luchd, 
 a pot or kettle, Irish luchd. 
 Mowe hawme .... 
 To burne vnder lead. 
 
 Tvsser, 1580, E. D.Soc. p. 125. 
 And y shal yeue fie ful fail- bred, 
 And make be broys in fie led. 
 Havelok the Dune, 1. 924 (ed. Skeat). 
 Also beoiS his ese-puttes 
 ase a bruf^en led. 
 Old Eng. Miscelknii, p. 182, 1. 242. 
 
 Then he led him into steddie 
 werhaswas a boyling leade, 
 & welling ■ Tppon Lie. 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. i. p. 99, 1. 238. 
 His eyen steep, and roUyng in his heed, 
 That steiued as a foraeys of a teed. 
 Chaucer, Prol. Cant. Tales, vol. ii. p. 7 
 (ed. Morris). 
 The xiij day of Marche Fryday, was a 
 mayde boy Id in Smj'thield in a grete led, for 
 poysenyng of many y' she had doon. — 
 Chronicle (1540), Camden Miscellantf, vol. iv. 
 p. 16. 
 
 Leaguer, an old word for the camp 
 of an assailing army, is an assimilation 
 to league of Dut. leger, an army or 
 camp {also a bed or lair, which is the 
 same word), Hterally that which lies 
 (in position before a town), from Dut. 
 leggen, to lie. Hence to he-leaguer. Gf. 
 Ger. lager. 
 
 He shall suppose no other but that he is 
 carried into the leaguer of the adversai-ies, 
 when we bring him to our own tents. 
 Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Welt, 
 iii. 6, 1. 28. 
 
 Leaguer, a false spelling of the old 
 word leiger, or ledger (Dut. legger), an 
 ambassador, one who Ues (A. Sax. Me- 
 
 gan) or resides in a foreign country to 
 guard the interests of his own sovereign, 
 as if it denoted one empowered to make 
 a league or terms of peace. 
 
 Rural shades are the sweet sense 
 
 Of piety and innocense ; 
 
 They are the meek's calm region, where 
 
 Angels descend and rule the sphere ; 
 
 When Heaven lies teaguer, and the Dove 
 
 Duely as dew comes from above. 
 
 H. Vanghan, Sacred Poems, 1650, p. 225 
 (Repr. 1858). 
 
 Sir Henry "Wotton's jest is explana- 
 tory, " An Ambassador is an honest 
 man sent to lye abroad for the Com- 
 monwealth " (Beliqtiim Wottomiaiice, 
 1672). So a ledger (book) is one that 
 lies ready at hand on the desk (cf. O. 
 Eng. a coucher), and ledger-hait is one 
 that lies at rest or fixed (Iz. Walton, 
 Complete Angler, p. 68, Eepr. Mur- 
 ray). 
 
 Newes of my morning Worke . . . That 
 sleepe is deaths /ei^er-ambassadour. — Sir T. 
 Overbury, Newes, p. 189 (ed. Rimbault). 
 
 Leason, a term of cookery denoting 
 a thickening for sauces, is a corruption 
 of Fr. liaison, what serves to bind them 
 together (Kettner, Booh of the Table). 
 
 Leather, used in Scotland, Ireland, 
 and Prov. EngUsh, for to flog or beat 
 soimdly, as if to lash with leather 
 thongs (A. Sax. leier). It is the old 
 Eng. USere, used in the same sense, 
 Scot, leather, to belabour or work ener- 
 getically (Gregor, Banff Olossa/ry) ; cf. 
 A. Sax. (^t6-)lHian, to tear (to limb, 
 from li^u, a limb), WSere, a sUng; Prov. 
 Eng. liiher, supple, pUant, Uthe,toiaaM.e 
 supple, Cleveland leathe. 
 
 Hot him ut hetterliche — )je fule kur dogge 
 — & tHere to him lu<Serliche mid te holie 
 rode steue [Order him out sternly, the foul cur 
 dog, and leather him severely with the staif 
 of the holy rood]. — Ancren liiwte, p. 291. 
 
 Leave. "When a person leaves, or de- 
 parts from, a place or company {disce- 
 dAi), he is said "to take his leave," and 
 the word in either case is no doubt 
 popularly supposed to be the same (as 
 if discessionem capere). The true mean- 
 ing of the phrase is "to take permis- 
 sion " {licentiam capere), i.e. to with- 
 draw ; leave being old Eng. leus, A. Sax. 
 leaf, permission (from lyfan, to permit), 
 and identical with the -lough of fw- 
 lough (^ Dut. ver-lof permission to be 
 absent, leave, Ger. wr-lauh), Icel. leyfi. 
 
LWTEBN 
 
 ( 212 ) 
 
 LEI8UEE 
 
 Cf. " By your leave," with your per- 
 mission, "to ask leave," "to give 
 leave " (See Skeat, Etym. Did. s. v.). 
 Therat alle the kynges loghe, 
 What wondur was thowe ther were no 
 
 swoghe 1 
 They tolte ther leve that tyde ; 
 With trumpys and with mery aonge, 
 Eche oon went to hys own londe, 
 With Toye and grete pryde. 
 The Emperor Octavian (14th cent.), H. 1720- 
 1725 (Percy See). 
 But taketh his leve, and homeward he him 
 
 spedde ; 
 Let him heware, his nekke lieth to wedde. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 1219. 
 And so it were to me lever, 
 Than such a sighte for to leve, 
 [f that she wolde give me leve 
 To have so mochel of my will. 
 Oower, Conf, Amantis, vol. iii. p. 8 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 Luf lokes to luf & his leue takes. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 48, 1. 401 (ed. Mon-is). 
 These graces though they shall leave the 
 fioule in Heaven, hecause she should not need 
 them, yet they shall not forsake her while she 
 abides in the porch, hut shut heaven doore 
 upon her ere they take their leave. — D. Rogers, 
 Naaman the Si/rian, 1641, Ep. Dedicatory, 
 p. i. 
 
 He that described his manner of departure 
 from his mistresse, said thus not much to be 
 misliked, 
 
 I kist her cherry lip, and took my leaue : 
 For I took my leaue and kist her; And yet I can- 
 not well say whether a man use to kisse before 
 hee take his leaue, or take his leaue before 
 he kisse, or that it be all one husines. It 
 seenies the taking leaue is by using some 
 speach, intreating licence of departure : the 
 kisse a knitting vp of the fai-ewell, and as it 
 were a testimoniall of the licence without 
 which herein England one may not presume 
 of courtesie to depart, let yong Courtiers 
 decide this controuersie. — G. Puttenham, 
 Arte ofEng. Poesie, 1589, p. 181 (ed. Arber). 
 In the following, lycence is used in the 
 sense of leave of absence. 
 'J'han for a space he taketh Lycence, 
 God wot as yet he [be] payd for none ex- 
 spence ; 
 And so departeth. 
 
 The Hye Way to the Spyttel Hous, 1. 495. 
 
 Lectern, a reading-desk in a church, 
 apparently that from which the lections 
 (or lessons) of Scripture are read out of 
 the ledionajry (Lat. lectio, a reading), 
 and so given by Bichardson. It is really 
 the Low Latin leotrinum, from Low 
 Lat. lectrum, a pulpit or reading-desk, 
 properly that on which a book rests. 
 
 from Greek lektron, a couch (akin to 
 Lat. leotus, a couch, litter, Ke, Imr, &c.). 
 ■ — Skeat. Compare concher, the re- 
 gister-book of a corporation ; and ledger, 
 an entry-book that lies (ready at hand), 
 Ger. lager-huch. 
 
 Leedging, used in the sense of heal- 
 ing or cure in the Percy FoTao M8., is 
 from Fr. alleger, to allay, assuage, or 
 mitigate one's hurt, but confounded 
 with leechinge, which is a various read- 
 ing in loc. 
 
 Sir Cawlines sicke, & like to he dead 
 
 Without and a good leedginge. 
 
 ffeitch yee down my daughter deere, 
 
 Shee is a Leeche ffuU ffine. 
 
 vol. iii. p. 5, 11. 37-40. 
 
 Leese, a technical term used in the 
 manufacture of playing cards, meaning 
 to burnish or polish the cardboard by 
 rubbing with a smooth flint, is cor- 
 rupted from the French Ksser, to 
 smooth or polish {Transaotions of 
 Fhilolog. 8oc. 1867, p. 65). 
 
 Left. The left hand is not, as has 
 been often asserted, that which is left 
 or unused, as is proved by the Belgio 
 and Lower Saxon lufte, hicht, luohter. 
 It may be akin to Lat. Icevus, left, 
 Greek laios, Church Slavonic levii. 
 
 Pictet thinks that Greek laios for 
 lavios corresponds to a Sanskrit form 
 lavya (lavandus, sinister). — Origines 
 Indo-Ev/rop. tom. ii. p. 491 ; Curtius, 
 Grisch. Etymologie, p. 328; Garnet, 
 Fhilolog. Essays, p. 66. 
 
 Lyft in old EngUsh seems to have 
 meant weak, powerless, disabled 
 (Skeat), and the left hand is in other 
 languages often regarded as the useless 
 liand, e.g. It. manca (the maimed), 
 Prov. man seneco (the aged or weak 
 hand). See Diez, s. v. Oauche. 
 
 Leg powster, an old Scotch expres- 
 sion for a state of health in contradis- 
 tinction to death bed, e.g. a will made 
 in leg powster, is a ludicrous corruption 
 of the forensic phrase Uege poustie. 
 
 Leisure, an assimilation to other 
 words ending in -we, such as censure, 
 figure, measwe, structwre (Lat. censwa, 
 figura, &c.), of leiser, old Eng. leyser, 
 old Fr. leisir, (1) to be permitted, (2) 
 leisure, from Lat. licere, to be allowed. 
 Similarly pleaswe from Fr. pladslr. 
 
 Whan ))ou sees leysere >at he ne perceyue 
 
LEMON DAB { 213 ) 
 
 LETTUCE 
 
 ]}i witte. — Langtoft's Chronicle, p. 229 (ed. 
 1810). 
 
 Lemon dab, a certain species of dab 
 or flounder, "is commonly called so at 
 flsh-staUs" (BaShsiui, Prose HaUeutics, 
 p. 358). The name is a corruption of 
 Pr. Imiande ("limand dab"), platessa 
 limanda, so called because its rough 
 skin resembles, and is used for, a jUe, 
 Uina. A somewhat similar fish is called 
 a lenwn-sole, the scientific name of 
 which is Solea Auriamtiaca, i.e. " Orange 
 sole," apparently a fresh corruption. 
 
 Lent, a Scotch term for the game at 
 cards more commonly called Loo, as if 
 (which Jamieson actually supposed) 
 because it was played more especially 
 during I/e»#, is a corruption of the word 
 Lant, which is also found. 
 
 Lant is merely the head, just as Zoo 
 is the tail, of the word Lcmterloo (which 
 was perhaps understood as Lant or 
 loo), formerly spelt lang-irilloo (Shad- 
 well, A True Widow, 1679, activ.) and 
 lantraton (which Mr. 0. Wordsworth 
 thinks is fvom Fr. Ventrefien, conversa- 
 tion. — University Life in EighteenthCen- 
 twry, p. 517). The origin is probably Pr. 
 lanturhb, nonsense! (Skeat). Lant is 
 stUl used for the game of loo in N. W. 
 Lincolnshire (Peacock), and lanter in 
 Cumberland (Ferguson). 
 
 At hnter the caird lakers sat i' the loft. — 
 Dickinson, Cumberland Glossary, E. D. S. 
 
 Letteemaeeday, an old Scotch term 
 for the day of the birth of the Virgin 
 (Jamieson), is evidently a corruption 
 of (our) Lady Mary's Bay. 
 
 Lettbron, a Scotch term for a desk, 
 is a corruption of lettrin, old Eng. let- 
 torne, O. Fr. letrin, Fr. lutrin, a lectern, 
 or reading stand. 
 
 In silke t;at comely clerk was clad. 
 And ouer a lettorne leoned he. 
 Early Eng. Poems ( Philolog. Soc. 1858), 
 p. 124, 1. 18. 
 
 Lettuce is frequently found as the 
 sign of an alehouse ; e.g. The Oreen Let- 
 tuce is (or was) the designation of one 
 in Brownlow Street, Holbom (Brand). 
 
 Lettuce here, and in the sign of The 
 Bed Lettuce, or as anciently spelt, " a 
 red lettice " (Chapman, All Fools, sign. 
 H 4), is a corruption of lattice, which, 
 when painted red, was once the com- 
 mon mark of an alehouse. Hence 
 
 Shakespeare's " red-lattice phrases." 
 — Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. 
 
 As well knowen by my wit as an ale-house 
 by a red lattice. 
 
 The known ti-ade of the ivy bush or red let- 
 tice. — Braithwait, Law of Drinking, 1617 
 ( Preface). 
 
 First, you must swear to defend the honour 
 of Aristippus, to the disffi-ace of brewers, ale- 
 wives, and tapsters, and profess yourself a 
 foe, nominalis, to maltmen, tapsters, and red 
 lattices — Randnlph, Aristippus, 1630, Worlts, 
 p. 13 (ed. Hiizlitt). 
 
 All the vacation hee lies imboag'de hehinde 
 the lattice of some blinde, drunken, bawdy 
 ale-house. — Sir T. Oi>erbiiry, Characters, p. 
 162 (ed. Rimbault). 
 
 I take a corner house, and sell nut-brown. 
 Fat ale, brisk stout, and humming clamber- 
 crown, 
 I'll front my window with a frothy boar. 
 And plant a new red lettuce o'er my door. 
 
 Epilogue to the Adelphi, 1709, Lusus Alteri 
 Westmonasterienses, p. 8. 
 
 I am not as well knowne by my wit as an 
 alehouse by a red lattice. — J. Marston, An- 
 tonio and Meliida, Pt. I. act v. 
 
 The alehouses are their nests and cages, 
 where they exhaust and lavish out their 
 goods, and lay plots and devices how to get 
 more. Hence they fall either to robbing or 
 cheating, open courses of violence or secret 
 mischief, till at last the j ail prepares them for 
 the gibbet. For lightly they smg through a 
 red lattice, before they cry through an iron 
 grate.' — T. Adams, The Forest rf Thorns, 
 Works, ii. 480. 
 
 Where Red Lettice doth shine, 
 'Tis an outward sign 
 
 Good ale is a traffic within. 
 
 The Christmas Ordinary, 1682. 
 
 He called me even now, my lord, through 
 a red lattice. — Shakespeare, Ben. IV. Pt. II. 
 
 See Hotten, Hist, of Signboards, p. 
 375 ; Brand, Pop. Antiquities, vol. ii. 
 pp. 351-355 ; Way, in Prompt. Pa/rv. 
 s.v. Geny; Soane, New Curiosities of 
 Literature, vol. i. p. 89. 
 
 This lattice is said to have been originally 
 the chequers, which were the arms of the 
 Warrens, Earls of Surrey (chequy or and 
 azure), and were affixed to public houses in 
 order to facilitate the gathering of dues for 
 those noblemen who had the grant of licens- 
 ing them. — C. N. Elvin, Anecdotes of He- 
 raldry, p. 167. 
 
 S imil arly Lettice-cap, a coif of net- 
 work, occurs in the plays of Beaumont 
 and Fletcher, and is a corruption of 
 lattice-cap. Minsheu, in his Spanish 
 Dictionary, gives "A Lettise bonnet or 
 cap for gentlewomen, Albanega ;" "A 
 
LEVANT 
 
 ( 2U ) 
 
 LEVANT 
 
 Lettise window, v. Lattise," and " Let- 
 tise an herbe, Lecfmga." 
 
 Levant. A defaulter who runs away 
 from his creditors is said to levant, as 
 if to go on a cruise to the furthest ex- 
 tremity of the Mediterranean, a phrase 
 of considerable antiquity; cf. in French 
 " Faire voile en Levant, to saU East- 
 ward; to be stolne, filched, or pur- 
 lojmed, away" (Cotgrave). 
 
 The Levant, as a word for the East, 
 is from lever, to rise. It. levare, mean- 
 ing the rising, or (as Gray calls it) 
 " the levee of the Sun ;" and the phrase 
 in question is a sort of calembow on the 
 verb levei; to Uft or carry away, =z Eng. 
 "to convey;" Sp. levantar, to hft up, 
 raise, weigh anchor (Minsheu), de- 
 camp. Our slang verb to Hft, meaning 
 to steal (also to cl/ift), as in slwp-lifting, 
 is of a different origin, being near akin 
 to Goth, hlifan, to steal, hliftus, a thief, 
 Gk. Idepto, Ideptes. To Levant, or sa{l 
 for the Levant, is one of a numerous 
 class of jocular phrases framed on the 
 same model, with a quibbling allusion 
 to local names ; e.g. the sleepy are said 
 to be off to Bedfordshire or the Land of 
 Nod ; the gullible are sent to the Scilly 
 Isles or Greenland; the dinnerless to 
 Peckham ; the bankrupt to Beggwr's 
 Bush. In France, to be upset is aller a 
 Versailles; a dunce is. recommended a 
 course a Asnieres (as we might recom- 
 m.end an impudent fellow to Brase- 
 nose) ; a person is sent about his busi- 
 ness by being despatched to the Abbey 
 of Vatan (va-t-en). — Tylor, Macvullan's 
 Mag. vol. xxix. p. 505. 
 
 We in England bid him go to Jericho, 
 an old phrase : — 
 
 Let them goe to Jericho, 
 And n'ere be seen a^aine. 
 Merciu-ius Aulkus, March 25-30, 1648. 
 
 He who snores in Leicestershire is 
 one who comes from Hog's Norton 
 (hogs' snorting !) ; the eccentric are 
 said to live in Queer Street, or in Bo- 
 hemia ; the fanciful are said to have 
 castles in Ayrslvvre; a ne'er-do-weel 
 who may one day be hanged is in 
 Scotch a Hempshire gentleman. So in 
 Ehzabethan English, one who deserved 
 to be whipt was sent to Bircliing Lane, 
 and if penitent bidden to come home 
 by Weiying Gross ; those in want of 
 food were Hungarians. The narrow- 
 
 minded cit, or lover of good cheer, is a 
 denizen of Oocagne, It. Gocagna. Com- 
 pare also the French phrase " voyager 
 en Oornouaille [to sail to Cornwall] , To 
 wear the horn " (Cotgrave), i.e. to be 
 cornutus, or to be made a cuckold, 
 which is also found in Itahan, " Dorma 
 die manda il ma/rito in GornouagUa 
 senza barea, a woman that sendeth her 
 husband into the land of Cornewale 
 without a boat, that is cuokoldeth 
 him " (Plorio). The nearest parallel, 
 however, to levant is It. Picairdia, the 
 country of Picardie, but used for a 
 place where men are hanged; andwr' 
 in picardia, to goe to the gaUowee, or 
 to be hanged " (Florio), with allusion 
 to pica/re, to rogue or cheat. 
 
 Never mind that, man ; e'en boldly run a 
 levant. — Fielding, History of a Foundtinf, 
 bk. viii. ch. 12. 
 
 The foUowing are in Fuller's Wor- 
 tMes of England: — 
 
 *' He was bom at Little Wittham " [Lincoln- 
 shire] ... It is apply ed to such people as are 
 not overstock'd with acutenesse. — Vol. ii. 
 p. 7. 
 
 " He must take him a house in Turn-again 
 Lane " [London] . . is applied to tliose, 
 who, sensible that they embrace destructive 
 courses, must seasonably alter their mamiers. 
 —Id. p. 59. 
 
 He that fetcheth a Wife from Shrews-bury 
 must can-y her into Staff'-ordshire, or else shall 
 live in Cumber-land-. — Id. p. 254. 
 
 " You are in the high way to Needham '' 
 [Suffolk] — said to them who do hasten to 
 poverty. — Id. p. 326. 
 
 " He doth sail into Cornwall without a 
 Bark". . . this is an Italian Proverb, where 
 it passeth for a description (or derision rather) 
 of such a man who is wronged by his wile's 
 disloyalty. — Id. vol. i. p. 210. 
 Then married men might vild reproaches 
 
 scorne, 
 And shunne the Harts crest to their hearts 
 
 content, 
 With cornucopia, Cornewall, and the home. 
 Which theii' bad wiues bid from their bed be 
 sent. 
 Lane, Tom Tel-Trolhs Message, 1. 676 
 (1600), (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 I repaired to Delphos to ask counsel of 
 Apollo, because I saw myself almost arrived 
 at Oraoesend, to know it I should bring up 
 my son suitable to the thriving trades of this 
 age we live in. — Randolph, Heii for Honestii, 
 i. 1, Works, p. 388 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 We may compare with the above : — 
 in French, aller a Gachan (a village near 
 Paris), to hide one's self {se cacher) 
 
LEVEL-GOIL 
 
 ( 215 ) 
 
 LIFE-GUABD 
 
 from one's creditors. — Le Roux de 
 Linoy, Proverhes Frangais, torn. i. p. 
 329 ; aller a Patras, to be gathered to 
 one's fathers (ad patres) ; etre de Lunel, 
 to be a lunatic ; aller a Rouen, to go to 
 ruin : in German, nach Bethlehem gehen 
 (go to B«cZ-lam), and nach Bettingen 
 gehn (to go to Bettingen, a village near 
 Basle), for zu Bette gehen (to go to 
 bed) ; Fr ist aus Anhalt (He is from 
 Anhalt, as if haltan, he holds fast), 
 meaning he is a miser ; Fr ist ein 
 Anklamer (cf. airiklammem, to cling to 
 one), he is importunate. — See Andre- 
 sen, Volhsetymologie, p. 36. 
 
 Level-coil, an old word used by 
 Jonson and others for a riot or distur- 
 bance (vid. Marvell's Poems, p. 117, 
 Murray's reprint), is from the French 
 leve cul, and originally signified a romp- 
 ing game. " To play at levell coil, jouer 
 a cul leve, i.e. to play and Uft up yaiw 
 iaile when you have lost the game, and 
 let another sit down in your place " 
 (Minsheu); Provengal Ze«jai-coMa.. Com- 
 pare French lascule, see-saw, from has 
 and cul; hasculer (Ootgrave) ; old Eng. 
 Upiails-all, a riotous game. 
 
 As my little pot doth boyle ; 
 We will keep this levell-coyte ; 
 That a wave, and I will brings 
 To my God, a heave-offering. 
 
 Herrick, Noble Numbers, Poems, 
 p. 425(ed. Hazlitt). 
 So they did, & entered the parlour, found 
 all this Uuell coyU, and his pate broken, his 
 face scratcht, & leg out of joynt. — jR, Ar- 
 min, Nest of Ninnies (1608), p. 28 (Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 Tav. How now ! What coil is here ? 
 Black. Levet'Coil, you see, every man's pot. 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Faithful Friends, i. 2. 
 Whose soul (perhaps) in quenchlesse fire 
 
 doth broile, 
 Whilst on the earth his Sonne keepes leuell 
 
 coile. 
 Tat/lor the Water-Poet, Workes, 1630, p. 260. 
 A daily deluge over them does boil, 
 The earth and water play at level coil. 
 Andrew Marvell, The Character of Holland. 
 
 LicKSTONE, a hteral rendering of the 
 name of the lanvprey, which was sup- 
 posed to be Icmiiens-petram. 
 
 Liege, often used as if meaning 
 faithful, trusty, loyal, yielding true ser- 
 vice, as a "liege man," a "Uege vas- 
 sal." It is easy to see, says Prof. Skeat, 
 that this sense is due to a false ety- 
 
 mology which connected the word with 
 Lat. ligatus (from ligare, to bind), as if 
 hound to his lord by feudal tenure, 
 owing allegiance. (SoSpelman, Bailey, 
 Way.) In exact contradiction to the 
 popular notion, the original meaning 
 was free, and the word was appUed to 
 the lord, as " oure lyge lord " (Robert 
 of Gloucester). It is old Eng. lege, 
 lige, Fr. Uge, old Fr. liege, Low Lat. 
 ligius, 0. H. Gar. lidic, free to go 
 one's way, from Udan, to go. A liege 
 lord seems to have been a lord of a free 
 band, and his lieges or men owed their 
 name to their freedom, not to their ser- 
 vice. See Skeat, Etym. Fiat. s.v. 
 Lordinges, 5e ben my lege men- (jat gode ben 
 & trewe. 
 
 William of Palerne, 1. 2663. 
 Lyche, lady or lorde, Ligius. — Prompt. Par- 
 vulorum. 
 
 The Baron has been with King Robert his 
 
 liege. 
 These three long years in battle and siege. 
 Scott, Waverley, oh. xiii. 
 .... Sterne fortunes siege, 
 Makes not his reason slinke, the soules faire 
 
 liege. 
 Whose well pais'd action ever rests upon, 
 Not giddie humours, but discretion. 
 
 Marston, Antonio and Metlida, Pt. II. 
 act i. sc. 5. 
 
 Life-belt probably means etymo- 
 logicaUy a ftoi^-belt, from Dut. lyf, 
 Swed. Uf, Ger. leib, the body. 
 
 Compare Ger. Idh-hinde, a girdle, 
 leib-gurtel, a body-belt ; Dutch hjf-hand, 
 a sash or girdle ; Swed. Uf-roch, a close- 
 fitting coat. 
 
 LiFE-GUABD, i.e. hody-gaaxi, the first 
 part of the word corresponding to Swe- 
 dish "lif" ( rz Ger. leib, body), said 
 to have been introduced in the I'hirty 
 Tears' War (vide Dasent, Jest and Far- 
 nest, ii. p. 25), but it is certainly older. 
 Similar formations in Swedish are Uf- 
 vaht, body-guard; Uf-page, lif-hirurg, 
 page and surgeon in ordinary ; lif-d/ra- 
 gon, dragoon of the body-guard. Com- 
 pare Dutch lijf, the body, whence lijf- 
 garde, lijf-schnihende, ahfe-guard ; Ger. 
 leibga/rde, a body-guard. So Dut. lijf- 
 hnecht (body-servant), a footman. 
 
 The Swiss have leihgatiner (body- 
 gardener), a blundering form of leih- 
 ga/rde. See Life-belt. 
 
 " The King's Body guaird of yeomen 
 of the guard " was instituted by Henry 
 
LIFT 
 
 ( 216 ) 
 
 LIKE 
 
 VII. in 1485, probably on tbe model of 
 " La Petite Oa/rde de son corps " or- 
 ganized by Louis XI. in 1475. But 
 the " King's Life Guards " are first 
 mentioned in the reign of Charles I. 
 See ElHs, Orig. Letters, 2nd S. vol. iii. 
 p. 310. 
 
 Know also that the Cherethites were a kind 
 of ij/egarrf to King David. . . What unlikely- 
 hood was it that Uarid might entertain Prose- 
 lyte Philistines, converts to the Jewish reli- 
 gion, if there were such, to be attendants 
 abmU his body 1 Not to instance in the French 
 Kings double gard of Scots and Switzars, as 
 improper to this purpose. — T. Fuller, Pisgah 
 Sight, 1650, p. 217. 
 
 Then three young men, that were of the 
 guard that kept the King's body, spake one 
 to another. — A. V, 1 Esdms, iii. 4. 
 
 Lift, an old verb meaning to steal, 
 stUl used in shop-lifter, one who pilfers 
 from shops, and cattle-lifting, cattle- 
 stealing, has sometimes been under- 
 stood as to raise, take up, and carry 
 off (Eichardson), like It. levare, to take 
 or set away, to remove, levante, an up- 
 taker, a bold pilfrer (Plorio). It has 
 nothing to do with lift, to raise, but is 
 (like graf-t for graff) an incorrect form 
 of liff, cognate with Goth. hUfan, Lat. 
 clepere, Greek kleptein, to steal (Diefen- 
 bach, ii. 669). Klepto-mamia is a mama 
 for lifti/ng. 
 And so whan a man wold bryng them to 
 
 thryft. 
 They wyll hym rob, and fro his good hym 
 Mi. 
 
 The Hye Way to the Spyttel Hous, 1. 298. 
 Is he so young a man and so old a lifter ? 
 Shakespeare, Troitus and Cressida, 
 i. 2, 129. 
 
 He that steals a cow fi*om a poor widow or 
 a stirk from a cottar is a thief; he that lifts a 
 drove from a Sassenach laird, is a gentleman- 
 drover. — Scott, Waverley, chap, xviii. 
 
 Like. To Uhe has often been under- 
 stood to signify the attraction which 
 we feel towards those who are Uke our- 
 selves in tastes and dispositions ; nolle 
 et velle eadem being one chief bond of 
 love. 
 
 Every beast loveth his like, ... all flesh 
 consorteth according to kind, and a man will 
 cleave to his like. — Ecclus. xiii. 16, 17. 
 
 For ech ]ping louejj his iliche, so sai)j Jie hoc 
 iwys. 
 Early Eng. Poems, Judas Iscariot, 1. 66 
 (ed. Fm-nivall). 
 An hypocrite liketh an hypocrite because 
 
 he is like unto him. — Bp, J. King, On Jomh 
 (1594), Lect. ii. 
 
 Compare also the following : 
 For wel louus euery lud • [jat liche is him 
 
 tille. 
 Alexander and Dindimus (ab. 1350), 1.1041. 
 
 " Every man loves well what is Ulce 
 to himself," or as the old proverb has 
 it, "Like wiU to hke." — Heywood. 
 
 'Sl5 ahi Tov ofAolov aysi fleof djj tov ofioto^. 
 Homer, Odys. xvii. 218. 
 Good [God] evermore doth train 
 With like his like. 
 
 Chapman, Odyss. xvii. 283. 
 The Greeks also had a saying, "Like- 
 ness is the mother of love " (see Bay, 
 Proverbs, sub " Birds of a feather "). 
 Lilce will to like, each creature loves his kind. 
 Chaste words proceed still from a bashful! 
 minde. 
 Herriek, Hesperides, Poems, p. 342 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 Hence is it that the virgin neuer loues, 
 Because her lilw she finds not anywhere ; 
 For likenesse euermore affection moues. 
 
 Sir J. Davies, Poems, vol. ii. p. 82 
 (ed. Grosart). 
 Custome and company doth, for the most 
 part, simpathize together, according to the 
 
 f)rouerbe. Simile Simiti gaudet, like will to 
 ike, quoth the Deuill to the Collier. — B. 
 Rich, Honestie of this Age (1614), p. 48 (Percy 
 Soc). 
 
 For all thinge loueth that is lyke it selfe. 
 The Parlament of Byrdes, Eng. Pop. Poetry, 
 iii. 180. 
 
 The same idea occurs in Sterne, Ser- 
 mons, iv. 49, 50; cf. Whitney, Lam- 
 guage, p. 108. Archbishop Trench 
 thinks that to like a thing was origuiaUy 
 " to compare.it with some other thing 
 which we have already before our 
 natm-al, or our mind's, eye," this pro- 
 cess of coraparison giving rise to plea- 
 surable emotion. 
 
 • That we like what is like, is the explanation 
 of the pleasure which rhyme gives us.— 
 Notes on the Parables, p. 24 (yth ed.). 
 
 But "like" (zTsimUis), old Eng. 
 liche, hkeness, is a distinct word, being 
 akin to A. Sax. lie, form, body, Dut. 
 lijk, Ger. leiche, Goth. (ga-)leilcs. 
 
 The oldest usage, moreover, of the 
 verb seems to have been impersonal, 
 " It lilies me," i.e. pleases me, is to my 
 taste, Norse lilca, Dutch lijken, Goth. 
 leikan, to please. Mr. Wedgwood 
 thinks the original meaning was "it 
 relishes, or tastes pleasant" (comparing 
 
LIKE-O WL 
 
 ( 217 ) 
 
 LIMN 
 
 Ger. schviecken), and correlates Fr. 
 lecher, Eng. licherish, Kkerous, &o., Lat. 
 Ugurio. Compare Wceful, pleasant, 
 dainty, in old English. 
 
 Of fleis, of fisse, and rich met, 
 |je likf'uUist jjat man mai et. 
 Earlit Erto-, PoemSj Land of Cockaygne, 
 11. 55, 56. 
 
 From the same root seemingly is 
 lihely used in the sense of proper, fit, 
 comely, well- conditioned, i.e. pleasing- 
 like {placenti-slmlis), not probable (to 
 succeed), like to one that wiU suit (as 
 a simili-sinvilis ; since -ly is for UJce). 
 
 " Who is that pretty girl with dark eyes ? " 
 " That is Hetty Sorrel," said Miss Lydia Don- 
 nithorne, *' Martin Poyser's niece — a very 
 likelii yonng person, and well-looking too." — 
 G. Eliot, Adam Bede, ch. xxt. (p. 237). 
 
 When Herodias' daughter danced 
 before the company, the A. Saxon ver- 
 sion says "hit Ucode Herode " {Matt. 
 xiv. 6). 
 
 Conan, Jie kynges neuew, ne likede not Jjis 
 game. — Robert oj Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 92 
 (ed. 1810). 
 
 Comewaile hym likede best. — Id. p. 21. 
 
 That it may Luke you to cause hym have in 
 reward one hundred pownde. — Sir Thos. 
 More (1529), Ellis, Orig. Letters, Ser. 3, vol. i. 
 p. 270. 
 
 Before man is life and death ; and whether 
 him liketh shall be given him. — A. V. Lccle- 
 siasticus, xv. 17. 
 
 Like-owl, " A shrichowle, a Uhe- 
 owle " [Nomendator], a corruption of 
 lich-owl, a provincial word for a screech- 
 owl, from liche, lAch, a corpse, as in 
 Uch-gate. 
 
 Drayton speaks of 
 The shrieking litch-awl that doth never cry 
 But boding death, and quick herself inters 
 In darksome graves, and hollow sepulchres. 
 
 Lily oak, a popular name in some 
 parts of Scotland for the lilac (Jamie- 
 son), of which word it is a corrup- 
 tion. 
 
 Lilly Koyal, a South country name 
 for the plant mentJia pulegium, is a cor- 
 ruption of puUall royall (Britten and 
 HoUand). 
 
 Lillie riall is Penniroyall. — Gerarde, Sup- 
 plement to the General Table. 
 
 Limb, formerly Km, A. Sax. Urn, so 
 spelt probably from a false analogy to 
 limh, an astronomical term for the edge 
 or border of the sun or moon, which is 
 
 from Lat. limhus, It. lerribo, a skirt or 
 border. 
 
 When any of the members or Urns were 
 broken with the fall, a man that saw them 
 would say they were broad holes and huge 
 caues in the ground. — Holland, Plinies Nutu- 
 rall Histories, vol. ii. p. 494 (1634). 
 
 Limb, as an astronomical term for 
 the utmost edge or border of the disk 
 of the sun or moon, when it is being 
 echpsed, &c., has nothing to do with 
 limb, a member, but is a borrowed 
 word from It. lemlo, Lat. limlus, a 
 border. 
 
 Limb, a provincial term for a mis- 
 chievous or wicked person, as " He's a 
 perfect limib," " a devil's limh," seems 
 to be the same word as Scot, limm, a 
 profligate female, limvmer, a scoundrel, 
 a worthless woman. 
 
 Limb, as the name of a tree, is a 
 corruption of the older form Kne (its 
 name still in Lincohishire), which is 
 itself corrupted from A. Sax. and Swed. 
 lind, Ger. linde, a linden; perhaps, 
 originally, the smooth wood, akin to 
 Ger. gelind, smooth, Icel. linr (Skeat). 
 
 Wilow, elm, plane, ash, box, chestein, lind, 
 laurere. 
 
 Chaucer, The Knightes Tale, 1. 2924. 
 Lef is lyht on lynde. 
 
 Boddeker, Alteng. Dichtungen, p. 166, 1. 3. 
 
 The female Line or Linden tree waxeth 
 very great and thicke, spreading foorth his 
 branches wide and far abroad, being a tree 
 which yeeldeth a most pleasant shadow, vnder 
 and within whose boughes may be made 
 braue sommer houses and banketting arbors, 
 bicause the more that it is surcharged with 
 waight of timber and such like, the better it 
 doth flourish. The barke is brownish, very 
 smooth and plaine on the outside. . . . The 
 timber is whitish . . . yea very soft and 
 gentle in the cutting or handling. — Gerarde, 
 Herbal, p. 1298. 
 
 Limn has been generally understood, 
 in accordance with the spelling, to be a 
 contracted form of Fr. enluminer, to 
 illuminate, illustrate, or paint in bright 
 colours (Skeat, Eiohardson, Trench, 
 Wedgwood). An old spelling, how- 
 ever, is lim, to paint, from A. Sax. Urn, 
 a limb, properly ' ' to limb out, " to figure, 
 to delineate the parts of a body. Spen- 
 ser has Umming for painting, which is 
 the A. Sax. liming. J. Mayne in his 
 Translation of Luoian has limbe, to 
 paint ; and so Sir Thos. Browne, 
 
LINGE.PIN 
 
 ( 218 ) 
 
 LIQUOBIOE 
 
 Let a painter carefully limbe out a million 
 of faces, and you shall find them all different. 
 — Religio Medici, 1642. 
 
 Cf. A. Sax. lim-geleage, form or linea- 
 ment. 
 
 He who would draw a faire amiable Lady 
 limbes with an erring pencil. — Jaspar Mayne, 
 Lucian {Epistle Dedicatory), 1663. 
 Liv'd Mantuan now againe 
 That fasmall Mastix to limme with his penne. 
 
 Donne, Poems, p. 97, 1635. 
 Where statues and Joves acts were rively 
 
 limb [read limb'd^, 
 Boyes with Dlack coales draw the vail'd parts 
 
 of nature. 
 Marston, Sophonisba, iv. 1, WorUs, i. p. 197 
 (ed. Halliwell). 
 
 The 6 in limb is no organic part of 
 the word. Even Ume (A. Sax. Um, =z 
 calx) was formerly spelt Umle. 
 
 Wormes . . . are wont to doe much hurt 
 to Fornaces and Limbekills where they make 
 Limbe. — Topsell, Historie of Serpents, p. 314 
 (1608). 
 
 Idm, gluten, is given among words 
 appropriate to painting in Wright's 
 Vocabulwries (11th cent.), p. 89. 
 
 The form lymn is of great antiquity, 
 as in the Prom/ptorium Pa/rvulorum, 
 about 1440, we find, " Lymnyd, as 
 bookys (Cambridge MS. Ivmymd), Elu- 
 cidatus." 
 
 " Lymnore (Oamb. MS. Itmdnour) 
 Elucidator .... alluminator, illumi- 
 nator." 
 
 Johannes Dancastre, Itimeno^. — English 
 Gilds (1389), p. 9 (E. E.T. S.). 
 
 LimM was probably a compromise 
 between Um and lumin, two words 
 originally distinct. 
 
 He became the best Illuminer or Limner of 
 our age, employed generally to make the 
 initial letters in the Patents of Peers, and 
 Commissions of Embassadours, having left 
 few heirs to the kind, none to the degree of 
 his art therein.— T. Fuller, Worthies of Eng- 
 land, vol. i. p. 167 (ed. 1811). 
 
 Lymne them ? a good word, lymne them : 
 whose picture is this ? — J. Marston, Works, 
 vol. i. p. 55 (ed. Halliwell). 
 
 As m the two days stay there it was im- 
 possible I could take the full of what I am 
 assured an expert Limhncr may very well 
 spend twice two moiieths in ere he can make 
 a perfect draught. — Sir T. Herbert, Travels, 
 1665, p. 153. 
 
 Similarly, Uminous is sometimes 
 found for Vwminous : — 
 
 So is th'eye [ill affected] if the coulour be 
 sad or not liminous and recreatiue, or the shape 
 
 of a membred body without his due measures 
 and simmetry. — G, Puttenham, Arte oj Eng, 
 Poesie, 1589, p. 268 (ed. Arber). 
 
 LiNOH-PiN. lAndh here is a corrupted 
 form, from confusion with Unk (A. Sax. 
 hlence), of old Eng. Uns, A. Sax. lyms, 
 an axle-tree, Dut. luns (Skeat, Etym. 
 Did.). 
 
 LiNE-HOTiND, quoted from GUius's 
 WMmzieshy Nares, as if called from the 
 line in which he was led, is a corrupt 
 form of lime-hound, a sporting dog 
 held by a lyme or thong, Fr. li/nmr. 
 
 Link, a torch, a corruption of Unt, 
 seen in old Eng. Unt-stoch, a stick to 
 hold a gunner's match ; while Imt again 
 owes its form to a confusion with Urd, 
 scraped Unen, being properly limt, the 
 Scottish word for a torch or match, 
 Dan. Iwnte, Swed. Iwnta, Dut. tai 
 (Skeat, Etym. Diet). 
 
 Lint-white, Scot. TAnt-guhU, an old 
 name for the linnet, is a corruption of 
 A. Sax. Unet-wige (Ettmiiller, p. 187), 
 where Unet is from Un, flax, Lat. Unmii 
 (cf. its scientific name Unota cannabina, 
 Pr. linotte), and wige is perhaps the 
 same word as A. Sax. wiga, a soldier or 
 warrior, with allusion to the handsome 
 appearance of the male bird, with its 
 red poll and rose breast. 
 
 Liquorice, the name of a well-known 
 sweet root. Low Lat. Uquirioia, so spelt 
 as if connected with Lat. Uguor, Uyurio, 
 Ungo, Grk. leicho, to lick (Ger. lahntze), 
 is a corrupted form of Lat. and Greek 
 ghjcyrrhiza, := " sweet-root." In Prov. 
 German it is sometimes called lecker- 
 zweig, "Hcker-twig" or dainty-stick. 
 Other corruptions are Fr. regUsse, old 
 Fr. reculisse (for legrisse, lecurisse) ; It. 
 regolizia for legorizia; Wallon dialect 
 &)-cuUsse (Sigart). 
 
 The excellent Liquorice [Lat. glycyrrhisii] 
 is that which groweth in Cilicia, .... and 
 hath a sweet root which only is vsed in Phj- 
 sick. — Holland, Pliny's Nat. History, Tol. ii. 
 p. 120 (1634). 
 
 Whan that the firste cock hath crowe, anon 
 Up rist this joly louer Absolon, 
 And him arayeth gay, at point devise. 
 But first he cheweth grein and licorise, 
 To smellen sote, or he had spoke with here. 
 cLucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 3692. 
 
 Glycyrize, or Liquoris England af- 
 
 fordeth hereof the best in the world for some 
 uses ; this County the first and best in Kng- 
 
LIQUOBOUS 
 
 ( 219 ) 
 
 LirE 
 
 land. • . • . But Liqiioris, formerly dear and 
 scai'oe, is now grown cheap and common, 
 because growing in all Counties. Thus plenty 
 will make tlie most precious thing a drug, as 
 Silver was nothing respected in Jerusalem in 
 the days of Solomon. — T. Fuller, Worthies (if 
 Emland, vol. ii. p. 205. 
 
 Take Liquoiish cut small, Anniseed comfits 
 with one skin of Sugar, of each two ounces. — 
 The Queens Closet Opened, 1658, p. 178. 
 
 LiQDOEOUS, a corrupt spelling of le- 
 cherous, from Pr. lecher, to lick up, 
 whence " leschewr, often licking, lico- 
 rous" (Cotgrave). Cf. Dan. IceMer, 
 dainty, nice. Thus lecherous meant (1) 
 gluttonous, (2) lewd. 
 
 " Liquorous lust" occurs in Turber- 
 ville's Tragicall Tales, 1587 (Wright). 
 The forms liquorish, Uckoroua, and Ulce- 
 rous are also found. 
 
 A proud, peevish, flii't, a liquorish, prodigal 
 quean.— Bitrfon, Anatomy of Melancholy, loth 
 ed. p. 66. 
 Lo ! loth [= Lot] in hus lyue ■ {iorw leche- 
 
 rouse drynke 
 Wikkydlich wroghte " and wratthede god 
 
 al-myghty. 
 Langland, vision of Piers Plowman, C. ii. 25, 
 
 And after I began to taste of the flessh 
 therof 1 was lycourous, so that after that I 
 wente to the gheet, in to the wode. — Caxtou, 
 Reynard the Fox, p. 34 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Why dost thou prie, 
 And turn, and leer, and with a licorous eye 
 
 Look high and low ? 
 
 G. Herbert, Temple, The Discharge, 
 
 No woman shulde ete no lycorous morselles 
 in the absens and withoute weting of her 
 husbond. — Book of the Knight o/ La Tour 
 Landrj/, p. 2a(E. E. T. S.). 
 
 She there ete a soupe or somme lycorous 
 thyng. — Cuxton. French, " Elle la men^oit 
 la souppe au matin ou aucune lescherie, ' — 
 Id. p. 207. 
 
 — Mothers shall run and fetch, 
 Their daughters (ere they yet be ripe) to 
 
 satisfy 
 Our liquorish lusts. 
 
 Randolph, The Jealous Lovers, ii. 2, p. 92 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Ah, Tom, Tom, thou art a liquorish dog. — 
 Fielding, History of u Foundling, bk. v. 
 ch. xii. 
 
 LiBICtJMPHANCY, LlBICON-FANCY, 
 
 "The honey-suckle, rosemary, Liri- 
 cumphancy, rose-parsley " (Poor Rohin, 
 1746), is evidently a corruption of lily 
 convallis, lily of the valley. 
 
 Lists, ground enclosed for a tourna- 
 ment, a corruption of Usses, O. Fr. lisse, 
 liw, It. licda, a barrier or palisade. 
 
 Low Lat. KowB, barriers, perhaps akin 
 to lie/mm, a thread, or girdle, and so an 
 enclosure (Skeat). The word was per- 
 haps confused with Ust, A. Sax. list, a 
 stripe or border. 
 
 Litmus, a kind of blue dye, formerly 
 spelt litmose (Bailey), is a corruption of 
 lakmose, Dut. lahmoes, from lak, lac, 
 and moes, pulp ; Ger. lachmMSs, litmus 
 (Skeat). The word has evidently been 
 assimilated to Shetland lAtt, indigo, to 
 litt, to dye indigo blue (Edmonston) ; 
 Scot, lit, to dye ; old Eng. " lytyn' 
 clothys, Tingo " (Prompt. Parvulorwm) ; 
 loel. lita, to dye. Hence Ulster, a dyer, 
 and the proper name Lister. 
 
 Litter, the brood or progeny of an 
 animal brought forth at a birth, so 
 spelt as if identical with Utter, a bed 
 (Fr. litiei-e, Lat. lectaria), as parturient 
 women are still said to be "brought to 
 bed," or "in the straw." It is really 
 identical with Icel. latr, Uttr, a place 
 where animals produce their young 
 (from leggja. to lay; cf. Prov. Eng. 
 lafter, the laying of a hen). — Skeat, 
 Etym. Did. 
 
 Lytere or forthe brynggynge of beestys. 
 Fetus, fetura. 
 
 Lytere of a bed, Stratus. — Prompt. Parvu- 
 lorum. 
 
 Live, when used as an adjective in 
 the sense of living, as in "live stock," 
 " a live ox" {Ex. xxi. 35), has origi- 
 nated iu a misunderstanding of the 
 idiom "the ox is alive," where alive is 
 properly an adverbial usage, old Eng. 
 on-live, A. Sax. on life, " in life." It 
 would be a similar error if we spoke 
 of " a sleep child," instead of a " sleep- 
 ing," because we say " the child is 
 a-sleep," i.e. old Eng. on sleep, "in 
 sleep." Cf. "David fell OTOsZeep." — Acts 
 xiii. 36. Indeed Chaucer actually does 
 use sleep for sleeping, when speaking of 
 the vision which he saw. 
 
 Not all waking, ne fuUe on sleepe, 
 he describes it as 
 
 In plaine English evill wi-itten, 
 For sleepe writer, well ye witten. 
 Excused is, though he do mis. 
 More than one that waking is. 
 
 Chaucer's Dream, 1597. 
 
 Both a-fire and on Jh-e are still in 
 use. 
 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me 
 
LIVULIEOOD 
 
 ( 220 ) 
 
 LOAD-STAB 
 
 having a live coal in his hand. — A. V. Is. 
 vi. 6. 
 
 The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid 
 Will make or man or woman madly dote 
 Upon the next live creature that it sees. 
 
 Shakespearej Mids. Night's Dream, ii. 1, 172. 
 
 Similarly, lone {lonely, Innesome), 
 solitary, "A poor lone woman " (Shaks. 
 2 Hen. IV. ii. 1, 35), is a corruption of 
 alone, i.e. all-one, altogether single. 
 
 Livelihood, so spelt as if it were a 
 similar formation to UkeUhood, false- 
 hood, &c., is a corruption of the O. Eng. 
 Uflode, lyvelode, A. Sax. lif-TAde, life's 
 support, maintenance, from lif, life, 
 and lad, way, " way of life," or "food 
 for a voyage," IdcVu, (viaticum). Cf. 
 lode, the course of the ore in a mine. 
 " Hieron has a sermon, the dedication 
 to which is dated in 1616, entitled The 
 Ghristia/ns Live-loode. Philemon Hol- 
 land has livelode in his Gyropcedia 
 (1632), p. 128." — Pitzedward HaU. 
 The real old word livelihood, lyvelyhede, 
 meant liveliness, quickness, with which 
 liflode was confounded. 
 
 Thus the change of livelode to livelihood is 
 what was to be expected ; Livelihood being the 
 more intelligible form would naturally sur- 
 vive, existing for some time with two mean- 
 ings and eventually retaining the one proper 
 to livelode, the other being supplied by " live- 
 liness."— Mor?-is, Philolog. Soc. Trans. 1862-3, 
 p. 88. 
 All nis not good to ]>e gost ■ J^at Jie bodi 
 
 lykej;, 
 Ne luflode to \ie licam ' jsat leof is to ^e soule. 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, Text A, 
 Pass. 1. 35. 
 
 Folc sechen to his wunienge for to sen his 
 holi liflode. — Old Eng. Homilies of i2th Cent. 
 2nd S. p. 127 (ed. Mon-is). 
 
 He must . . . get truly his lyfloode wyth 
 swynke and traueyle of his 'bodye. — The 
 Fesliul, Caa:ton, 1483, a. ii. 
 
 Sir Thomas Wiat says : — 
 
 [The feldishe mouse] 
 Forbicause her liuelod was butthinne, 
 Would nedes go se her townish sisters 
 house. 
 
 Satires, 1. 1. 3 (ab. 1540). 
 Christ . . . wold not curse hem jjat de- 
 noied to him harborow and lifelod, but ]"e- 
 prouid his disciplis askyng veniawns. — Apo- 
 logy J'or the Lollards, p. 21 (Camden Soc). 
 He hath full suffisaunce 
 Of livelode and of sustenaunce. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amuiitis, vol. iii. p. 28 
 ' (ed. Pauh). 
 
 LoAOH. Tlie phrase "to swallow 
 
 Cupids like loaches " occurs in The Trim 
 to the Jubilee, and has been understood 
 by some, in accordance with the spell- 
 ing, to signify the fish of that name. 
 Nares, indeed (s. v.), quotes an in- 
 stance of one being swallowed in wine. 
 Compare, however, "Looch, oxLohoa, 
 loch, or lohoch, a thick medicament, 
 that is not to be swallowed at once, but 
 to be licked, or suiSfered to melt in the 
 mouth, that it may have more effect 
 upon the parts affected." — Vieyra, For- 
 tuguese Dictionary. 
 
 Great vse there is of it in those medicines 
 which be held vnder the tongue, so to re- 
 solue & melt leasurely — [margin] such as be 
 our Ecligmata or Lochs. — Holland, Pliny's 
 Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 120. 
 
 They are good m a loche or licking medi- 
 cine for shortnes of breath. — Gerarde, Herbal, 
 p. 47. 
 
 Loch, Lohoc, A Loche or Lohoche ; a liquid 
 confection or soft medicine, that's not to be 
 swallowed, but held in the mouth untill it 
 have melted. — Cotgrave. 
 
 A Stick hereof [of Licorice] is commonly 
 the Spoon prescribed to Patients, to use in 
 any Lingences or Loaches. — T. Fuller, Wor- 
 thies of England, vol. ii. p. 205. 
 
 Oh, what an ebb of drink have we. 
 Bring, bring a deluge, fill us up the sea, 
 Let the vast ocean be our mighty cup, 
 We'll drink it, and all it's fishes too, like 
 loaches, up. 
 /. Oldham, A Dithyrambic, 7 ; Poems, p. 53 
 (ed. Bell). 
 
 LoAD-STAE, ^ mis-spehings, from 
 LoAD-STONE, S false analogy, of 
 lode-sta/r and lode-stone, i.e. the star or 
 stone that leads or guides one on his 
 way, A. Sax. Idd, a way. We still 
 speak of a lode in a mine. Cf. Icel. 
 lei^wr-stjarna, a way-star, lei^a/r-steiMn, 
 a way-stone. 
 
 An old word for a leader or guide 
 was lodesman (Chaucer, Gower), hdnjs- 
 manne {Prompt. Farv.), A. Sax. m- 
 man. Cf. O. Pr. laman, a pilot. Ldd 
 is near akin to Icedan, to guide or 
 lead. 
 
 Treuly y folowyde euermore my duke and 
 lodisman sent Nicholas. — Revelation to the 
 Monk of Evesham (1486), p. 106 (ed. Arber). 
 
 The Dutch word is hodsman, which 
 has been assimilated to hod (lead), a 
 sounding-lead, looden, to sound, looit- 
 sen, to pilot ; piht itself being Dut. pey- 
 loot, another form of peyl-lood, a sound- 
 ing-lead, from peylcn, to sound (Sewel). 
 
LOAF ABOUT ( 221 ) 
 
 LOOUSTS 
 
 Tlier saw I how woful Calistope, . . 
 Was turned from a woman til a here, 
 And after was she made the todesterre. 
 Chaucer, Kiiightes Tale, 1. 21)61. 
 To that cleere maiestie which in the North 
 Doth like another Sunne in glory rise ; 
 Which sttmdeth iixt, yet spreads her heavenly 
 worth ; 
 Loadstone to hearts, and badstarre to all 
 eyes. 
 Sir John Davies, Poems, 1599, vol. i. p. 9 
 (ed. Grosart). 
 What makes the loadstone to the North ad- 
 
 uance. 
 His subtile point, as if from thence he found 
 His chiefe attractiue vertue to redound. 
 
 Sir John Davies, Orchestra, 56 (165!2 ). 
 
 Bp. Andrewes says of the star in the 
 east : — 
 
 It is not a star onljr, but a Load-star: And 
 whither should . . it lead us, but to Him, 
 whose the star is? to the Stai's Slaster. — 
 Sei'tnons, fol. p. 143. 
 
 Prior uses the ctirious expression, 
 "haded needles" of the compass 
 {Alma, 747, Davies, p. 381). It has 
 been conjectured that lode-stone, appa- 
 rently a true EngKsh word, may be an 
 adaptation of Lydian-stone, Lat. lapis 
 Lydius, the touchstone, just as Magnet 
 takes its name from Magnesia, a Lydian 
 city. — I. Taylor, Words ^ Places, p. 
 417 (2nd ed). 
 
 Loaf about (to), a verb formed from 
 the substantive " loafer,'' as if it meant 
 one who "loafs," or loiters about for 
 the sake of a loaf, hke old Eng. hribour, 
 a vagabond, from bribe, a piece of bread. 
 " Loafer," however, is the German Idu- 
 fer, lamdldufer, Prov. Ger. lofer, a vaga- 
 bond, an unsettled roamer about the 
 country ; Whitby land-louper ; old Eng- 
 hsh a land-leaper or land-loper. " I 
 was a landloper as the Dutchman saith, 
 a wanderer." — Howell, Fam. Letters, 
 1650. Icel. hloMpingi, vagabonds, from 
 hlaupa, lopa, to run away, our "leap;" 
 Dut. loopster, a gadding gossip (Sewel). 
 
 A land-loper, as Professor Skeat ob- 
 serves, was once a common name for a 
 pilgrim; " Villoiier, a vagabond, land- 
 loper, earth-planet, continuall gadder 
 from towneto towne" (Cotgrave). The 
 phrase to lepe ouer lond := be a pilgrim, 
 occurs in Vision of Piers Plowman, 
 Text A. Pass. v. 1. 258, and so lamde- 
 leperes hermytes z: vagabond hermits. 
 Id. Text C. Pass. xvii. 337 ; Cleveland 
 landlouper, one who runs away from 
 
 his creditors ; Dan. landlober, a vagrant. 
 Compare lope in Davies, Stipp. Eng. 
 Glossary. 
 
 Bvt such Travellers as these may bee 
 termed Land-topers, as the Dutchman saith, 
 rather than Travellers. — /. Howell, Instruc- 
 tions for Forraine Travell, 164SI, p. 67 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 Shoeblacks are compelled to a great deal 
 of unavoidable loajing; but certainly this one 
 loafed rather energetically. — H. Kingsley, 
 Ravenshoe, ch. xli. 
 
 See Davies, Supp.Eng. GlossoA-y, b.v. 
 
 Lobster, for lop-ster, A. Sax. 
 loppestre, lopystre (Ettmiiller, p. 169), 
 so spelt as if an independent formation 
 in English from old Eng. lope, to leap 
 (A. Sax. hledpan, Ger. laufen, Icel. 
 hlaupa), with the termination -ster, 
 and so meaning the " leap-ster," or 
 bounder, like old Eng. loppe, a flea ; 
 of. old Eng. liledpestre, a dancer, hoppe- 
 stere, a hopster, daunstere, "songster," 
 &o. Lopystre, however, is from lopusi-a, 
 the same word as Lat. locusta, denoting 
 a leaping animal — (1) on land, a locust ; 
 (2) in the water, a lobster ; from Sansk. 
 root langh, to jump (whence also 
 A. Sax. leam, the leaping salmon). Cf. 
 Lat. equus zz Gk. hippos. Sylvesteruses 
 lobstarize for to leap or run back. See 
 Look-chest. 
 
 From locusta comes also Er. lan- 
 gouste, " a locust or grasshopper, also 
 a kind of lobster " (Cotgrave). See 
 
 ■ LONGOYSTEE. 
 
 Lobster, a name for the stoat in the 
 eastern shires (Wright), is a corrupted 
 form of lop-stm-t, hanging tail, a lumpy 
 tail ; compare chibster, its name in the 
 Cleveland dialect, i.e. club-start, " club- 
 taU," from A. Sax. steort, Dan. stiert, 
 Swed. sfjert, the tail. 
 
 In Lincolnshu-e the animal is called 
 club-tail, from its short stiff tail. 
 
 In Caius, Of EngUshe Dogges, 1576, 
 he observes that some are good for 
 chasing " The Poloat, the Lobster, the 
 Weasell, the Oonny, &c." (p. 4, repr. 
 1880). 
 
 Lootjsts, a popular name for the 
 mawkishly sweet bean-pods of the 
 Kharub tree (Geratonia siUqua). — ■ 
 Thomson, Land and the Booh, p. 21. 
 It is also called " St. John's bread- 
 tree " (Ger. Johannis Brodtbaum), from 
 an idea that it furnished the Baptist 
 
LOGKGHEST 
 
 ( 222 ) 
 
 LODGE 
 
 vfith food in the wilderness. The name 
 hcusts perhaps originated in some con- 
 fusion of Kipana, " little homs," the 
 Greek name of the pods, Luke xv. 16 
 (whence Ger. Bocksliomhaum, as aname 
 of the tree), with Kipajijivi,, cerambyx, 
 Kapa/3of, Lat. cairahus [zz locusta), 
 homed insects. Of. "Hornet," Ger. 
 holzhock, "stag-beetle," cerf-volant. 
 
 A somewhat similar mistake is the 
 rendering of aKtpatos (guileless, lit. 
 "unmixed"), " Ha/rmless as doves" 
 (A.V. St. Matt. X. 16), as if from a and 
 Kipas, un-homed {sine cornu, Bengel), 
 without means of offence. — Trench, on 
 A. Version, p. 125. Increase Mather, 
 making a like blunder, says : — 
 
 The thunderbolt was by the antiente 
 termed Ceraunia because of the smell like 
 that of an horn [xEpac] when put into the fire, 
 which does attend it. — Remarkable Provi^ 
 dmees, p. 81 (ed. Oifor). 
 
 LocKCHBST, a provincial name for 
 the wood-louse (Wright), also called 
 lockcJiesier in Oxfordshire {locchester, 
 Prompt. Fcurv.), is perhaps formed on 
 the analogy of the ancient and syno- 
 nymous name lohdore ("wyrme, mul- 
 tipes." — Prompt. Pa/rv.), misunder- 
 stood as loch-door. But lohdore, also spelt 
 lugdorre, is compounded of licg (?a 
 worm) and dor, A. Sax. dora, a chafer 
 or drone. Dr. Adams thinks that loch- 
 chester is from lok-estre, i.e. log- or hcg- 
 ( =: slow) + estre (an A. Sax. termina- . 
 tion), " the sluggish insect" (Tramsac- 
 iionsofPMlohg. Soc. 1860-1, p. 9). It 
 is simpler, however, to suppose that 
 lock-chester, lokestre, is merely an An- 
 glicized form of locusta, the Latin word 
 for a lobster as well as for a locust. In 
 Prov. Eng. cockchafers are commonly 
 called locusts. The wood-louse is ac- 
 tually called a lobstrous-louse in the 
 North country dialects, with reference, 
 no doubt, to its flexile and armour- 
 plated back, which closely resembles a 
 lobster's tail, whence it is also named 
 an armadillo. See Lobstee. 
 
 My friend, Mr. Halliwell, walking in a 
 garden in Oxfordshire, accidentally over- 
 heard the gardener talking about LockcbesterSj 
 and immediately asking him what these were, 
 received for answer tliat they were woodlice. 
 On a further inquiry he ascertained that lock- 
 chest, or lockchester, was not an uncommon 
 word in some parts of Oxfordshire for a 
 woodlouse, although it was rapidly going 
 
 out of use. — T. Wright, Archccobgical Essays, 
 vol. ii. p. 47. 
 
 LoNGOYSTBE, the crayfish {W. Gon- 
 wall Ohssa/ry, M. A. Courtney), so 
 called as if one of the bivalve species 
 (and the word is actually explained in 
 the publications of a learned society to 
 be " a sort of oyster." — Gamden 8oc. 
 Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 8), is a corruption 
 of the French langouste, " a kind of 
 Lobster that hath undivided cleyes, or 
 long beake (or bearde) and prickles on 
 her back," also " a Locust, or Grass- 
 hopper." — Cotgrave. Langousteisiiom 
 the Latin locusta. (Compare Welsk 
 llegest, a lobster.) See also Skinner, 
 Etymologicon, s. v. Longoister; Ebel, 
 Celtic Studies, p. 103. 
 
 Langosta is in old Spanish a locust 
 or grasshopper (Minsheu), in modem 
 a lobster, while langostina is a prawn 
 (H. J. Eose). Bishop Wilkins in his 
 Essa/y towards a Philosophical Lam- 
 guage, 1668, groups with "Lobster," 
 " Long oister, Locusta marina " (p. 128, 
 fol.). 
 
 In old English languste is the locust, 
 e.g. .— 
 
 Wilde hunie and languste his mete, and water 
 was his drinke. 
 * OUi Eng. Homilies ofl^th Cent. 2nd S. 
 p. 127 (ed. Morris, E. E. T. S.) 
 
 In the Adriatic this fish [Faldnmiis 
 vulgaris) is known as agosta or aragosta, 
 the initial I having been mistaken for 
 the article. " Of Locusts of the sea, or 
 Lobster " is Holland's title to 
 Nat. History, bk. ix. ch. 30. 
 
 Locust, a fish like a lobster, called a long- 
 oister. — Kersey, Dictionary, 1715. 
 
 Presents ... of Mr Sheriff, 2 hogsheads 
 of beer, 2 carp, a isle of sturgeon, a isle of 
 fresh salmon, 1 pike, 3 trout and 1 Img 
 oyster. — Expenses of the Judges of Assize^ 159^* 
 ( Camden Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 37). 
 
 Lodge. Corn is said to be lodged 
 when it lies flat, beaten down by storm 
 or rain. This can scarcely be the same 
 word as lodge, to dweU or sojourn, Fr. 
 hger, originally to occupy a hut, 0. Eng. 
 loge, Pr. loge, from Low Lat. IwiMa, a 
 leafy bower (Scheler). It is perhaps a 
 survival of A. Sax. logjan, to place, set, 
 or put together, akin probably to Goth. 
 lagjan, to lay. So lodged would be 
 equivalent to laid. Ettmiiller co-ordi- 
 nates logjan with A. Sax. loh, place 
 (? ci. li&t. locus, locoA-e). Compare tow, 
 
LOFTSANG 
 
 ( 223 ) 
 
 LOBD 
 
 old Eng. hogh, Dut. laag, Icel. lagr, 
 originally " lying flat," from the base 
 lag, to lie. 
 
 Also we maj number among the faults in- 
 cident to corne their rankenesse ; namely, 
 wlien the blade is so ouergrowne and the 
 stalke so charged and loden with a heauie 
 head that the corn standeth not Tpri^ht, but 
 is lodged & lieth along. — Holtandj Pliny N, 
 Hist. i. 574. 
 Though bladed corn he lodged and ti'ees blown 
 
 down. 
 
 Shakespeare, Macbeth, iv. 1, 55. 
 Our sighs and they [tears] shall lodge the 
 
 summer corn. 
 And make a dearth in this revolting land. 
 Id. Richard II. ill. 3, 163. 
 
 LoPTSANG, an old Eng. word for a 
 hymn or song of praise in The Early 
 Eng. Psalter, Ps. Ixiv. 2, as if a high or 
 lofiy song (0. Eng. lofie, the air), is an 
 incorrect form of A. Sax. lof-sang ( zz 
 Ger. loh-gesang), from 0. Eng. lofe, 
 praise, A. Sax. lof. Loue song in the 
 following is perhaps the same word: — 
 Tech me, iesu, fji loue song, 
 wi)> suete teres euer among. 
 Boddeker, Alteng. Dichtungen, p. 204, 1, 1.56. 
 Lof-sang syngen to God 3erne 
 Wifj such speche as he con lerne. 
 
 Castel of Loue, 1. 30. 
 
 Look'em, \ are given by Wright as 
 Lewcome, / provincial words for a 
 window in the roof. They are corrup- 
 tions of the old word lucayne, Er. lu- 
 carne, from Lat. lucerna, a lantern. 
 Compare Goth, lucarn, Ir. luacharn, 
 Wei. llygorn. In the French argot 
 hiisanie is a window (Nisard, Livres 
 Populaires, tom. ii. p. 374). 
 
 LoosE-sTEiFE, a popular name of the 
 plant hjsimachia, is a translation of that 
 word into its component elements, 
 Greek lusis, a loosing, and maeJie, a 
 fight. According to Pliny, however, it 
 was called after a King Lysimachvs 
 (Prior). 
 
 Lysimachie, Willow-herb, Loose-strife, 
 Water- willow. — Cotgraoe. 
 
 Lifsimachia, as Dioscorides and Plinie doe 
 write, tooke his name of a speciall vertue that 
 it hath in appeasing the strife and unrulinesse 
 which falleth out among oxen at the plough, 
 if it be put about their yokes ; but it rather 
 retaineth and keepeth tbe name Lysivmchia, 
 of King Lysimachus the Sonne of Agathoclea, 
 the first finder out of the nature and vertues 
 of this herbe, as Plinie saith. — Gerarde, Her- 
 bal, 1597, p. 388. 
 
 Lose, a corrupt form (for leese) of 
 old Eng. lesen, or leose,m (past parte. 
 loren, lorn), A. Sax. ledsen {z=am.iUere, 
 to lose), which has been assimilated to 
 old Eng. losien, to loose (past parte. 
 lost), A. Sax. losian, to become loose 
 (Skeat, Etymolog. Dictionary). The old 
 word leasing, lying (Psalm iv. 2), A. 
 Sax. ledsung, is near akin. 
 
 Leesynge, or lyynge, Mendacium. 
 Lesynge, or thyngys lostn, Perdicio. 
 LosyTl^ or vnbyndyn', Solvo. 
 
 Prompt. Paruulorum. 
 
 Whose song lernefi, olt he ne lese]p ; 
 Quofi Hendyng. 
 Proverbs of' Hendyng, 1. 46. 
 
 " Hasardry is very mother of lesinges." .... 
 Trulye it maye well be called so, if a man 
 consydre howe manye wayes, and how many 
 thinges, he loseth thereby, for firste be ioseth 
 his goodes, he loseth his tyme, he loseth 
 quycknes of wyt, and all good lust to other 
 thinges, he loseth honest companye, he loseth 
 his good name and estimation, and at laste, 
 yf he leaue it not, loseth God, and Heauen 
 and all. — R. Ascham, Toxophilus, 1545, p. 54 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 LoKD, an old slang term for a hump- 
 backed person. It is dubious whether 
 this niokliame has originated in a popu- 
 lar grudge against the nobility, or in a 
 sort of mock respect for the cripple. 
 At all events we must probably set 
 aside as mere curious coincidences the 
 medical term, "lordosis, the bending of 
 the backbone forward in children " 
 (Bailey), Greek lordds, bent forwards. 
 Low Lat. lordicwre, to walk with bent 
 back, as these words are not likely to 
 have been known to the populace. It 
 may possibly be another use of the old 
 English loord, lordain, Iwrden, or lour- 
 den, a maladroit cloviTiish fellow who 
 cannot, or wUl not, work for his hving, 
 a sluggard. "Lorel, or losel, or htrdene 
 (lordayne), Lurco." — Prompt. Parvulo- 
 rum. This is the same word as Pr. 
 loiJ/rd (O. Er. lorde), heavy, clumsy, 
 loutish, sottish, unhandsome, It. lordo, 
 foul, filthy. Low Lat. liM-dus, from Lat. 
 Iv/ridus, discoloured, ghastly. 
 
 A laesy loord for nothing good to donne. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queerie, III. vii. 12. 
 
 Latimer speaks of " lording loyterers " 
 (The Ploughers). 
 
 My lord, a hunch-back. — Patterson, Antrim 
 and Down Glossary, E. D. S. 
 
 She invariably wound up at night with a 
 
LOVAGE 
 
 ( 224 ) 
 
 LOVE 
 
 mad fighting fit, during which " mv tord " — 
 vulgar slang for hunchback — was always 
 thrashed unmercifully.— TAe Standard, Dec. 
 6, 1879. 
 
 He [James Aunesley] was in derision 
 called my lord, which the mistress of the house 
 hearing called him, and seeing he had no de- 
 formity to deserve the title, as vulgarly given, 
 Tell me, says she, why they call you my lard. 
 —The Patrician, vol. i. p. 310 (1846). 
 
 That a deformed person is a Lord 
 
 After a painful investigation of the rolls and 
 records under the reign of Richard the Third, 
 or " Richard Crouchback," as he is more 
 usually designated in the chronicles, — from a 
 traditionary stoop or gibbosity in that part — 
 we do not find that that monarch confeiTed 
 any such -lordships as here pretended, upon 
 any subject or subjects, on a simple plea of 
 " conformity " in that respect to the " royal 
 nature." — C. Lambj Essai;s of Elia. 
 
 I euer haue beene a sworne enemy to la^e 
 lurdens. — Tell Trothes New Yeares Gift, 1593, 
 p. 3. 
 
 Syker, thous but alaesie hard. 
 Spenser, Shepheards Calender, Julye, 
 
 [On which E. K. comments " A loorde was 
 wont among the old Britons to signifie a 
 horde," and " Lurdanes = Lord Danes " !] 
 
 It is observable, in this connexion, 
 that in the Vision of Piers Plowman 
 Pass. xxi. 107, where the C.-text has 
 hrdlings, the B.-text has Im'deynes, 
 clowns (Skeat, Notes, in loco). 
 
 The analyzing of lurden or lordain 
 into Lord Dane is a very old bit of 
 " folk's-etymology :" — 
 
 The comon people were so of them op- 
 pressed, y' for fere & drede, they called them, 
 in euery such house as they had rule of, lord 
 
 Dane This worde lorde Dane was, in 
 
 dyi'ision and despyte of the Danys, tourned 
 by the Englysshemen into a name of op- 
 probie, and called Lardayn, whiche, to our 
 dayes, is natforgoten but whan one Englisshe 
 man woU rebuke an other, he woU, for tlie 
 more rebuke, call him Lurdayn. — Fabyan, 
 Chronicle, p. 205 (ed. 1811). 
 
 LovAGE, 0. Eng. love-ache, as though 
 it were love-parsley, is a corruption of 
 Fr. Uveche, levesche, Low Lat. levisti- 
 mmi, from Lat. ligusticum, the Ligurian 
 plant. 
 
 Loveache, herbe, Levisticus. — Prompt. Par- 
 vulm^mi. 
 
 Another old Eng. form is 1/ufuste. 
 See LuFESTiCE. 
 
 Similar corruptions are Belg. leve- 
 stock, Uefstichcl, Ger. liehsiocjcel, as if 
 " dear little plant." 
 
 The distilled water of Lavage, cleereth the 
 sight, and putteth away all spots, lentiles, 
 freckles, and rednes of the face, if they be 
 often washed therewith. — Gerarde, Herbal, 
 p. 855. 
 
 Take a handfuUe of herb lovache, 
 And anojjer of persely. 
 
 Liber Cure Cocorum (1440), p. 18. 
 
 As for Loueach or Liuish, it is by nature 
 wild and sauage, and loueth alone to grow of 
 it self among the mountains of Liguria, 
 whereof it commeth to haue the name Ligm- 
 ticam, as being the naturall place best agi'ee- 
 ing to the nature of it. — Holland, Plinies Nat, 
 Hist. 1634, vol. ii. p. 30. 
 
 Love, an old name for a game 
 (Wright) played by holding up the 
 fingers behind the back of a blindfolded ■ 
 person, sometimes with the words, 
 " Buckl Buck! How many fingers do 
 I hold up ? " (Lat. rmca/re). This game, 
 which is very widely diffused, was 
 called in French amour; "Jouer a 
 I'cmiour, One to hold up his fingers, 
 and another, turned from him, to ghesse 
 how many he holds up" (Cotgrave), 
 whence came Eng. love. The French 
 phrase, however, is corrupted from 
 jouer a la mourre ; mourre being " the 
 play of love, wherein one turning his 
 face from another, guesses how many 
 fingers he holds up " (Cotgrave), iden- 
 tical with It. mora, " a kind of game 
 much used in Italy with casting of the 
 fingers of the right hand, and speaking 
 of certaine numbers ' ' ( Florio), probably 
 from Lat. mora/ri, to play the fool, Gk. 
 mores, a fool. 
 
 If any unlearned person or stranger should 
 come in, he would certainly think we were 
 bringing up again among ourselves the coun- 
 trymen's play of holding up our fingers 
 (dimicatione digiio>-um, i.e. the play of tone). 
 — Bailey, Erasmus's Colloquies, p. 159 [see 
 Davies,Supp. Eng. Glossary^. 
 
 Love, as used in sundry games with 
 the meaning of nought, as in the phrases 
 "to play for love," "ten to love, "love 
 all," is perhaps the same word as loel. 
 lyf, denoting (1) a herb or simple, 
 {'2.) anything small or worthless, as in 
 the Edda of Ssemund, " ekki hjf," not 
 a whit (Magnusson, Journal of PMh- 
 logy, vol. V. p. 298). Cognate words 
 are old Dan. Wv, Swed. luf, 0. H. Ger. 
 lupi, A. Sax. lib (Cleasby, p. 400). So 
 lyf seems to have been used in old 
 Enghsh for a whit or small particle :— 
 
LOVE-APPLES ( 225 ) 
 
 LUBBIGAN 
 
 "Yit I pi-eye i>e," quod pers' " par Charite, 
 
 Sif f ou Conne 
 Eny li{f' of leche Craft" lere hit me, my deore. 
 Langland, Visinii of P. Phiuman, 
 A. vii. 241. 
 
 It is more likely, however, that love is 
 here the ordinary antithesis to money, 
 as in the phrases " to play for love [of 
 the game] and not for money," "not 
 to be had for love or money." 
 
 I sometimes . . play a game at piquet for 
 love with my cousin Bridget — Bridget Elia. 
 — C. Lamb, Essays nf Elia {Works, p. 356, 
 ed. Kent). 
 
 Love-apples, Fr. Fommes d'amour, 
 Lat. poma amoris, all corruptions of It. 
 pomi dei Mori, or Moon's' apples, hav- 
 ing been introduced as mala ^ihAopica 
 (Prior). 
 
 Apples of Loue do growe in Spaine, Italie, 
 and such hot countries, from -whence my selfe 
 haue receiued Seedes for my garden, where 
 they do increase and prosper. — Gerarde, Her- 
 bal, 1597, p. 275. 
 
 Lover, a North country word for a 
 chimney, or more properly the lantern 
 or aperture in the roof of old houses 
 through which the smoke escapes. " It 
 is plainly the Icelandic li&ri (pro- 
 nounced liowri or Uovri), Norweg. More, 
 West Gothland liura, a sort of cupola 
 serving the twofold purpose of a chim- 
 ney and a skylight. Liih-i is evidently 
 derived frora lids, light, analogous to 
 Pr. luca/rne." — Gamett, PhMolog. Es- 
 says, p. 62. 
 
 Prof. Skeat, however, shows clearly 
 that lover is reaUy from old Fr. I'overt, 
 I'cmoeri, i.e. " th' opening," and quotes 
 the Une — 
 
 At loners [lomiert, Fr. text], lowpes, 
 archers [it] had plente. — Partenay, 1175. 
 
 1 presume to shroud the same vnder the 
 shadow of your wings, oud to grace it with 
 the louer of your honorahle name, that enuy 
 may be quite discouraged from giuing any 
 sharjje assault, or at the least her noysome 
 smoke ascendmg to the top, may liude a 
 vent whereby to vanish. — Howard, Defensative 
 against the Poi/son of Supposed Prophecies 
 (1620), Dedication. 
 
 Ne lightned was with window, nor with 
 lover. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, VI. i. 42. 
 
 Lover of an howse, Lodium, umbrex. — 
 Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 
 LoVEBTiNB, a term which Julia, in 
 the old comedy of Patient Orissil 
 
 (1603), applies to her three inamorati, 
 is apparently a corruption of Uhertine. 
 There are a number here that have beheld 
 . . these gentlemen loveriine, and myself a 
 hater of love. — Act v. sc. 2 (Shaks. Soc. ed.), 
 p. 89. 
 
 LowEE, now generally applied to the 
 sky when gloomy and overcast, so spelt, 
 perhaps, from an idea that it indicated 
 a lowering or descent of the clouds, is 
 the same word as old Eng. lour, to 
 frown or look surly, Dut. loeren, to 
 frown. 
 
 Perhaps we laugh to heare of this, that 
 such dead hlockes and lovyring louts as many 
 of us have beene to this day, . . should be- 
 come any other, — D. Rogers, Naaman the 
 Syrian (1641), p. 887. 
 
 The sky is red and lowring. — A. F. St. 
 Matt. xvi". 3. 
 
 So loked he with lene chekes ' lourede he 
 foule. 
 
 Langland, Vision of P. Plowman, 
 A. Pass. V. 1. 66. 
 
 Ltjbbekkin, the name of a certain 
 species of fairy in old writers, as if the 
 little luhher (cf. Milton's "ZttSfcerfiend "), 
 seems to be corrupted from Lubkican, 
 which see. 
 
 As for your Irish Lubrican, that spu'it 
 Whom by preposterous charmes thy lust hath 
 
 raised 
 In a wrong circle, him lie damne more 
 
 blacke 
 Then any tyrant's soule. 
 
 Dekker, Hmest H'hore, Pt. II. (1630). 
 By the Mandrakes dreadful groanes, 
 By the Lubricants sad moanes. 
 
 Drayton, Nymphidia, 417. 
 
 Lubbeb's Head, the sign of an inn, 
 is an old corruption of The Leopard's 
 Head (Hotten, History of Signboards, 
 p. 147). 
 
 He is indited to the Lubber's-head in Lum- 
 bert Street. — Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV. ii. 
 1,30. 
 
 LuBEiCAN, an old corruption of lepri- 
 chaun, the name of a species of Irish 
 fairy, generally seen in the form of a 
 diminutive cobbler, and endowed with 
 the Protean faculty of shpping through 
 the hands of his seizer, if not stead- 
 fastly watched; so written as if con- 
 nected with Lat. hibricus, slippery. In 
 Dekker's Honest Whore, Pt. II. (1630), 
 a jealous husband speaks of the Irish 
 Lubrican. 
 
 Brand, Pop. Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 
 58 (ed. BohnJ, compares with this: — 
 
 Q 
 
LUOE 
 
 ( 226 ) 
 
 LUSCIOUS 
 
 I'll be no pander to him ; and if I finde 
 any loose Lubrick 'scapes in him, I'll watch 
 him. — Witch of Edmonton, p. 32, 1658. 
 
 This pigmy sprite is also known 
 by the names of Vuprachaim, lurioane, 
 loughryman, and leithhhragan, as if 
 from Ir. le-ith, one, hrog, shoe, an, 
 maker (O'Eeilly). The more correct 
 designation, it seems, is luchorpdn, 
 "Little-body," from lu, small, and 
 corpdn, a body (Whitley Stokes, see 
 Joyce, Irish Place-Names, 1st Ser. p. 
 183 ; Oroker's Fairy Legends, p. 105, 
 ed. Wright). 
 
 Luce, the old Eng. name for the 
 pike, Lat. lueius, is not probably a de- 
 rivative of luceo, to shine (like " bleak," 
 the river fish, from Ger. hUcken, to 
 gleam), but of Greek lukos, a wolf, on 
 account of its wolf- like rapacity. The 
 voracious fish which is named lukos in 
 Greek, lupus in Latin, is no doubt the 
 pike. 
 
 LuFESTiCE, 7 Anglo-Saxon words 
 LuF-STiccE, y for the plant lavage, 
 as if derived from luf, love (under which 
 word Dr. Bosworth in his Sidiona/ry 
 actually ranges them I), and stice or 
 sticce, are corruptions of the Low Latin 
 name lemsticum, for Lat. Ugusticum. 
 Compare the German corruption Ueh- 
 sibckel, and see Lovaoe. 
 
 Lump, in the colloquial and vulgar 
 phrase " to lump it," meaning to take 
 things as "they come, in the l/ump or 
 gross as it were, without picking and 
 choosing, e.g. " If he don't like it he 
 may himp it ;" " She must lump it," 
 says Mrs. Pipchin in JDomhey. Mr. 
 Oliphant regards this word as a cor- 
 ruption of old Eng. lomp {Legend of St. 
 Margwret), A. Sax. gelamp, it happened, 
 and BO to Zwrnp would be "to take what 
 may chance" (Old and Mid. Eng. p. 
 255). The A. Sax. verb is ge-Umpan, 
 to happen or occur; past parte, ge- 
 hxmpen. 
 
 God hit wot, leoue sustren, more wunder 
 ilomp [a greater wonder has happened]. — 
 An^ren Rlwle, p. 54. 
 
 Nyf oure lorde hade ben her lode5-mon hem 
 had lumpen harde. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 49, 1. 424. 
 
 Lupine, Lat. lupinus, as if the wolf's 
 lean, from lupus, a wolf, and so Vene- 
 tian fava lovina, is probably of a com- 
 mon origin with Greek lopos, a husk, 
 
 lepo, to peel or hull (Prior), Polish 
 Ivpina, a husk. 
 
 LuKE-WAEM. Luhe, formerly used as 
 an independent word meaning tepid, is 
 an altered form of old Eng. lew (Wy- 
 cliffe), A. Sax. hleo ; cf. Ger. hu, Dut. 
 laauw, Dorset lew (Barnes, PMlolog. 
 Soc. Trans. 1864; and so Skeat). It 
 has been assimilated evidently to A. 
 Sax. wkec, tepid, weakly warm (cf. 
 Goth, thlakwus, weak, tender. — Diefen- 
 bach, Ooth. Sprache, ii. 710). 
 
 Lewhe not fully bote, Tepidua. — Prompt, 
 Parvulorum, 
 
 With-drow );e knif, bat was feme 
 Of Jje sell children blod. 
 
 Bavelok the Dane, 1. 499. 
 Boyle hit in clene water so fre, 
 And kele hit, Jjat be be bot lue. 
 
 Liber Cure Cocorum^ p. 33. 
 As wunsum as euer eni vilech weter [As 
 pleasant as ever any luke water]. — St. Ju' 
 liana, p. 70 (1230). 
 As if thu nymest rist hot water, and dost 
 
 cold ther-to, 
 Thu bit mist maki wlak and entempri so. 
 I'Frin/tt, Pop. Treatises on Science, p. 138. 
 Be wop . . cume<5 of \>e wlache heorte 
 [Weeping cometb from the warm heart].— 
 Old Eng. Homilies, 2nd Ser. p. 151 (ed. 
 Morris). 
 
 LupAERD, an old spelhng of leopard, 
 apparently frora some confusion with 
 Lat. lupus, a wolf. 
 
 Tho spack Sir firapeel the hipaerd whicke 
 was sybbe somwhat to the kynge, and saide, 
 sii'e kyng how make ye suche a noyse ye 
 make sorrow ynough tbaugh the quene were 
 deed. — Caxton, Reynard the Fox, 1481, p. 52 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Luscious is a corruption of old Eng. 
 Ucious, delicious, near akin to old Eng. 
 TAckorous, lickerish, dainty ; Cheshire 
 lichsome, pleasant ; Ger. hcker, Fr. 
 lecheur, lecher, A. Sax. Uccera, a gour- 
 mand, glutton (orig. " one who Uoks 
 his lips "), under the influence of Imh, 
 rank, juicy, It. lussa/re, htsswriare, to 
 grow rank, orig. to live in voluptuous- 
 ness or luxury. 
 
 Bp. Haoket uses Ucious in the sense 
 of luscious : — 
 
 He that feeds upon the letter of the Text 
 feeds upon Manna ; he that lives by the Alle- 
 goric feeds upon Ucious Quails. — Century of 
 Sermons, p. 515, fol. 1675. 
 
 She leaves the neat youth, telling his 
 lushious tales, and puts back the serving- 
 mans putting forward, with a frown.— Sir 
 
LUTESTRING 
 
 ( 227 ) 
 
 MAN 
 
 Thos. Overbury's Works, p. 47 (ed. Rim- 
 bault). 
 
 LuTESTEiNG, a name for a certain 
 lustrous or glossy silk fabric, is a cor- 
 ruption of lustring, Ft. lustrine, from 
 lustrer (Lat. lustra/re), to shine. (Vide 
 Skinner, Prolegom. Etymohgica). 
 
 To wash point-lace, tiffanies, sarsnets, a- 
 la-modes, lutestrings, occ. — Female Instructor 
 (Naves, s.v. Point-lace). 
 
 I was led to trouble you with these obserra- 
 tions, by a passage which, to speak in lute- 
 string, I met with this morning, in the course 
 of my reading. — Letters of Junius, No. 48. 
 
 Within my memory the price of lutestring 
 [as a material for scarfs] is raised above two- 
 pence in a yard. — The Spectator, No. 21 
 
 (mi). 
 
 M. 
 
 Mackin, \ in the old popular oath, 
 Mackins, J " By the'macfo'TOS," is no 
 doubt a corruption of may-Mn or maid- 
 Mn {Get. madchen), like lakin ior lady- 
 kin. Thus the adjuration is "by the 
 Virgin " (O. Eng. may, A. Sax. mtsg, a 
 maid), "by our Lady." It is probably 
 from a misunderstanding about this 
 old Eng. may, or from some mere play 
 on the word, that the month of May is 
 now regarded as especially dedicated to 
 the Virgin. 
 
 I would not have my zon Dick one of these 
 bogts for the best pig in my sty, by the mac- 
 kins. — Banilolph, The Muses Looking-glass, iv. 
 4 {Works, p. '253). 
 
 Mackninny, a curious word for a 
 puppet-show used by North, is perhaps 
 a corruption of Fr. mecamque, a me- 
 chanical contrivance, an automaton 
 worked by concealed mechanism. 
 
 He could . . represent emblematically the 
 downfall of majesty as in his raree-show and 
 mackninny. — Examen, p. 390 [_Davies, Supp. 
 Eng. Glossary~\. 
 
 Madefelon, 1 old English names 
 Madfeloun, > for the plant centau- 
 Matfellon, J rea nigra, are corrup- 
 tions of its Latin name ma/ratriphyllon, 
 Gk. marathrou phullon, "fennel-leaf." 
 Prior, Fop. Names of Brit. Plants. 
 
 Mad-nep, a trivial name for the cow- 
 parsnip, is a corruption of mead-nep. 
 Similarly 
 
 Mad-woht, the asperugo procumhens, 
 is the Dutch meed, "madder," instead 
 of which its root was used (Prior). 
 
 _ Madbigal, Sp. Fr. mad/rigal. It. mad- 
 rigale, madriale, originally mand/riale, 
 lb pastoral song, from Latin and Greek 
 mandra, a sheep-fold. The word was 
 perhaps mentally connected with mad- 
 ~rugar (Sp. and Portg.), to rise, (L. Lat. 
 maturicare from m.atunis) to rise early, 
 as if a " moming-song," hke aube and 
 auhades, and serenade "evening song," 
 from sera. The Italian word has also 
 been analyzed into mad/re gala, " song 
 of the Virgin," Quarterly Review, No. 
 261, p. 162, but incorrectly. 
 
 For the omission of the n compare 
 muster, It. mostra, from Lat. monstrare, 
 to make a show, to display. 
 
 Magweed, a local name in some parts 
 of England for the ox-eye daisy {chry- 
 santhemum leueanthemum), is said to be 
 a corruption of Fr. margue>'ite, a daisy, 
 the symbol of S. Margherita of Cor- 
 tona. (C. Yonge, Hist, of Ch/risUan 
 Namies, vol. i. p. 265.) 
 
 Maiden-pink, said to be a mistake 
 for mead or nieadow-pinlc (Prior). 
 
 Make-bate, a popular name for the 
 plant polemonium {coeruleum), which 
 was translated as if a derivative of 
 Greeh pdlemos, war (Prior). Compare 
 Loose-strife, a mis-rendering of lysi- 
 machus. 
 
 Makinboy, a name for the plant 
 Euphorhia Inberna, is an anglicized 
 form of the Irish mahhih-hwee := " yel- 
 low-parsnip " (Britten and Holland). 
 
 Mackenboy, a sort of spurge with a knotted 
 root. — Bailey, Dictionary. 
 
 Maiecolye, an old and incorrect 
 spelling of melancholy, as if it were the 
 evil choler (Wright), Lat. malus. 
 
 Man, a conical pillar of stones erected 
 on the top of a mountain. " Such cones 
 are on the tops of all our mountains, 
 and they are called men." — Coleridge. 
 (Dickinson, Cumberland Glossary, E. 
 D. S.). An evident corruption of Keltic 
 maen, a stone. 
 
 Man, vb. a falconer's term for train- 
 ing a hawk into obedience to his com- 
 mands, to tame, has often been under- 
 stood to mean to accustom the bird to 
 the society of man. For instance Nares 
 commenting on Juliet's expression 
 " my uwmann'd blood " {Rom. and Jul. 
 iii. 2), says the term is appUed to a 
 
MANDABIN 
 
 ( 228 ) 
 
 MANNEB 
 
 hawk "not yet made familiar with 
 man." The true meaning of to man, 
 or mann, is to accustom to the hand, 
 Fr. main, Lat. manus. So manage was 
 originally to handle, to control a horse 
 by the hand, It. maneggio, from mano, 
 the hand, Fr. mamier, to handle, mam- 
 dble, tractable. 
 
 Compare Lat. mansuetus, Gk. chei- 
 roethes, accustomed to the hand. So Gk. 
 palamdomad, to manage, from palame, 
 the hand. 
 
 Unmanned, a tei-m in falconry, applied to a 
 hawk that is not yet tamed, or made familiar 
 mith man.—T. Wright, Diet, of Obsnlete and 
 Prov. English. 
 
 In time, this Eagle was so throughly mann'd, 
 Tbat from the Quarry, to her Mistress hand 
 At the first call 't would come, and faun upon 
 
 her. 
 And bill and bow, in signe of love and hon- 
 our. 
 J. Sylvester, Du Bartas (1621), Works, 
 p. 112. 
 Another way I have to more my haggard. 
 To make her come and know her keeper's 
 call. 
 
 Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, iv. 
 1, 207. 
 
 Mandaein, a title given to certain 
 Chinese officials (not of native origin) is 
 probably an Indian word corrupted 
 from the Sanscrit niantrin, a counsellor 
 or minister, and assimilated in the 
 Portuguese mandavim, to mandar, Lat. 
 
 Mandkagon, an old name for the 
 plant mand/ragoras. 
 
 In English we call it Mandrake, Mandrage, 
 and Mandragon. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. 281 
 (1597). 
 
 The white Mandrage some name Arsen, 
 the male. — Holland, Pliny's Nat. Hist. vol. ii. 
 p. 235 (1634). 
 
 Mandragore, mandrake, mandrage, man- 
 dragon. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Mandrake, a corruption of old Eng. 
 mandrage, Lat. mand/ragoras, was long 
 supposed to grow in the shape of a man. 
 See the curious figure in Berjeau, The 
 Bookworm, vol. iii. p. 56, and Brand, 
 Pop. Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 12, ed. 
 Bohn. The following amazing state- 
 ment in a volume lately pubhshed is a 
 popular etymology with a vengeance, 
 
 The mandrake, so called from the German 
 mandragen, resembling man, was, &c. ! — 7'. 
 P. T. Dyer, Eng. Polk-torej p. 30. 
 
 [ He knows] where the sad mandrake grows 
 Whose groans are deathful. 
 
 B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2. 
 So, of a lone unhaunted place possest. 
 Did this soules second Inne, built by the 
 
 guest. 
 This living buried man, this quiet wandrake, 
 rest, 
 
 Donne, Poems (1635), p. 309. 
 
 Many molas and false conceptions there 
 are of mandrakes. The first, from great an- 
 tiquity, conceiveth the root thereof resem- 
 bleth the shape of man ; which is a conceit 
 not to be made out by ordinary inspection, or 
 any other eyes, than such as, regarding the 
 clouds behold them in shapes confonnable to 
 
 pre-apprehensions Illiterate heads 
 
 have been led on by the name, which in the 
 first syllable expresseth its representation; 
 but other have better observed the laws of 
 etymology, and deduced it from a word of the 
 same language, because it delighteth to grow 
 in obscure and shady places ; which deriva- 
 tion, although we shall not stand to maintain, 
 yet the other seemeth answerable unto the 
 etymologies of many authors, who often con- 
 found such nominal notations. — Sir Thos, 
 Browne, Works, vol. i. p. 192 (ed. Bohn). 
 Sweet as a screech-owl's serenade. 
 Or those enchanting murmurs made. 
 By th' husband mandrake and the wife 
 Both bury'd (like themselves; alive. 
 S. Butler, Hudibras, Pt. iii. canto i. 
 
 Mangel wurzel, i.e. in German 
 " scarcity root," is properly mangold 
 wurzel. 
 
 Mangiants, Easter, a curious popu- 
 lar name for the plant pohjgorvum Bis- 
 torta in Cumberland and Westmore- 
 land, also spelt may-giants, magiants, 
 mun-jiands, ment-gions. Of doubtful 
 origin, perhaps from Fr. manger (Brit- 
 ten and Holland). 
 
 Manna, Gk. iiawd, in Bwruch i. 10 
 (A. V. " Prepare ye manna, and offer 
 upon the altar of the Lord our God "), 
 is a corrupt form in Hellenistic Greek 
 (also fiavad) of Heb. mincha, an offering. 
 — Ewald, Antiquities of Israel, p. 36. 
 
 Manner, in the old law phrase " to 
 be taken with the mannsr," i.e. red- 
 handed, or in the very act of commit- 
 ting a crime, with the thing stolen in 
 one's possession, is a corruption of the 
 older form mainom, 0. Fr. mainmwe 
 (or manoiuvre), possession. Compare 
 " Manouvrer, to hold, occupy, possesse 
 (an old Normand word)."— Cotgrave. 
 Blackstone defines "A thief taken with 
 the mainour (or mainowere), that is 
 
MANNEB 
 
 ( 229 ) 
 
 MANTUA 
 
 with the thing stolen upon him in manu 
 (in his hand)." Law Lat. cum manu- 
 opere captus. 
 
 In the Baron of Bradwaidine's Char- 
 ter of 1140 (Kemble) occur the terms 
 " infangihief et outfangthief, sive hand- 
 habend,siYe bak-harand." In old Scotch 
 law phrase the thief was said to be 
 caught with the fang {i.e. with the thing 
 in his grasp, A. Sax. fang), or hah-he- 
 rmid, or hand-habend (C. Innes, Scot- 
 land in Mid. Ages, p. 182). 
 
 The Fehm-Law enumerated three tokens 
 or proofs of guilt in these cases ; the Ha- 
 bende Hand (having hand), or having the 
 proof in his hand ; the Blickende schein (look- 
 ing appearaace) . . . and the Gichtige Mund 
 (faltering mouth). — Secret Societies of Mid. 
 Ages, p. 332. 
 
 Felons inome hond-habbing 
 For to suffre jugement. 
 King Horn and Floriz, ab, 1280, p. 70 
 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 villain, thou stol'st a cup of sack eigh- 
 teen years ago, and wert taken luith tlie man- 
 ner. — Shakespeare, 1 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 
 
 Even as a theife that is taken, with the 
 maner that he stealeth. — Latimer, Sermons, 
 p. 110. 
 
 Mainour, alias Manour, alias Meinour. From 
 the French Manier, i, manu tractare : In a 
 legal sense, denotes the thing that a Thief 
 taketh away or stealeth. As to be taken with 
 the Mainour, PI. Cor. fol. 179, is to be taken 
 with the thing stoUen about him. — Cowel, 
 Interpreter (ed. 1701). 
 
 Prendre aufaict Jiagrant. To take at it, or 
 in the manner ; to apprehend vpon the deed 
 doing, or presently after. — Cotgrave, s.v. 
 Flagrant. 
 
 As we were is.suing foorth, we were be- 
 wrayed by ye barking of a dog, which caused 
 the Turkes to arise, and they taking vs with 
 the maner stopped vs from flying away. — E. 
 Webbe, His Trauailes, 1590, p. 28 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 Mr. Tow-wouse, being caught, as our 
 lawyers express it, with the manner, and 
 having no defence to make, very prudently 
 withdrew himself. — H. Fielding, Joseph An- 
 drews, bk'. i. ch. xvii. 
 
 Manner, a Lincolnshh-e corruption 
 of mamwre, which is merely a shortened 
 form of manceuvre, originally used for 
 tillage in general. 
 
 No inhabitant shall bring his manner into 
 the stveete. — Town Record, 1661 (Peacock). 
 
 In Antrim and Down manner is used 
 in a wider sense for to prepare, which 
 is closer to the etymological meaning, 
 "to work with the hand," manoeuvre, 
 It. manovrare, Lat. manu opera/ri. Thus 
 
 land is said to be well mannered by the • 
 frost, and flax is mannered by being 
 passed through rollers (Patterson). To 
 manure was formerly used for any sort 
 of agricultural handUug or treatment. 
 
 Voluntaries for this service he had enough, 
 all desiring to have a lash at the dog in the 
 manger, and every mans hand itching to 
 throw a cudgel at him, who like a nut-tree 
 must be manured by beating or else would 
 never bear fruit. — 2 . Fuller, The Holy Warre, 
 p. 59 (1647). 
 
 Manpeeamble, a Leicestershire word 
 for a kind of apple, is a popular corrup- 
 tion of nonpareil (Evans, Glossary, E. 
 D. S. p. 190). 
 
 Mankent, a Scotch term for homage 
 done to a superior (Jamieson), as if a 
 rent, or something rendered, is a cor- 
 ruption of the older form manred, man- 
 redyn, A. Sax. man-red or man-rdeden, 
 the state of being the man (or homo) of 
 a lord, vassalage, homage (cf. hatred, 
 hindred, where the termination is the 
 same). Man/rede occurs in The Bigby 
 MS. ab. 1290, Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 
 26. 
 
 Mansworn. In the north of Ireland a 
 perjured person is said to be mansworn 
 (Patterson, Antrim and Down Glos- 
 sary), perhaps with some idea that he 
 has casuistically taken the oath to man, 
 and not to God. 
 For m,on-sworne, & men-scla3t & to much 
 
 drynk 
 For );eft, & for ]jrepyng, vn-[;onk may mon 
 
 haue. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 42, 1. 183. 
 
 It is 0. H. Ger. meinsweridi, perjury, 
 from main, mein, stain, injury, bad, 
 O. Norse viein, crime (Morris). 
 
 Mangle, to mutilate or tear, for man- 
 Icel, a frequentative form of old Eng. 
 manhen, " Manlcltyn, or maymyn, Mu- 
 tUo." — Prompt. Parvulorum ; that is, to 
 render maimed ; Lat. mancus (Skeat). 
 It has perhaps been assimilated in form 
 to mangle, Dut. mangelen, to roll linen, 
 to crush as with a mangonel or war- 
 engine, Lat. manganum, Greek mdn- 
 ganon. 
 
 Mantua, as in mantua-maker, an old 
 word for a lady's cloak or mantle, as if 
 socaUedfromhavtngbeenmade sX Man- 
 tua, in Italy. So I. Taylor, Wo^-ds and 
 Places, p. 424 ; and compare the witty 
 adaptation of Vergil's line, ascribed to 
 
MANY 
 
 ( 230 ) 
 
 MABBLES 
 
 Dean Swift, when a lady's mantle 
 knocked down and broke a valuable 
 fiddle, " Maniua, vss miserae nimium 
 vicina Cremonae t " It is evidently a 
 corrupted form of Fr. manteau, mcwde, 
 It, and Sp. manto, a mantle, from Lat. 
 maniellum. 
 
 " Mantoe or Mantua gown, a loose 
 upper garment." — Phillips, 1706. Si- 
 milarly portmantua (Dryden), port- 
 manfue (Cotgrave), are variants oiport- 
 manteaw. 
 
 Many, an old word for a household, 
 or a body of retainers, or retinue of 
 servants, so spelt as if identical with 
 many ( = Lat. mulU), A. Sax. manig, 
 and significant of a multitude, or nu- 
 merous attendance. It is really a cor- 
 rupt form of the older word meinie, 
 menyee, mainee, a household, derived 
 from 0. Fr. " mesvAe, a meyny, family." 
 — Cotgrave ; also spelt meisnie or mais- 
 me, identical with It. masnada, a fa- 
 mily or troop. Low Lat. mansnada, 
 mansionata, a household, the contents 
 of a mansion, Lat mansio (see Skeat, 
 Etym. Diet. s.v. Menial) . This meinie 
 is therefore near akin to menage, house- 
 hold arrangement, old Fr. mesnage, a 
 household, for maisonage, from maison, 
 a mansion. It is confounded with 
 mamy in most dictionaries, but the 
 meinie might be few or numerous, and 
 there is no contradiction when Sir John 
 Maundevile in his Travels writes of a 
 "few many," p. 226 (ed. HaUiwell). 
 
 Alle the mei^nees of hethene men scliulen 
 worschipe in his si3t. — Wycliffe, Psalms, xxi. 
 28. 
 
 Vor be man is ojjerhujl zuo out of his 
 wytte, pet ha beat and smit and wyf and 
 cJiildren and mayiw. — Ayenbiie of Inwyt, p. 
 30 (1340). 
 
 Alswa fadirs, and modirs, at |.-at day, 
 Sal yhelde acount, bat es to say, 
 Of sons and doghtirs Jjat |;ai forthe broght, 
 ]je whilk f:ai here chastied noght 
 And loverds alswa of |:air meigtic. 
 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 5871 . 
 
 Moyses, my T-ord gyifes leyf, 
 Thi meneue to remev^e. 
 Townetey Mysteries, Pharao (Marriott, 
 p. 104). 
 
 Me my nnya my master with mowth told unto 
 
 his menyee. 
 That he shuld thole fuUe mekille payn and 
 
 dy apon a tree. 
 
 Miracle Plays, Crucijixio, p. 150 (ed. 
 Marriott). 
 
 And so befell, a lord of his meinie, - 
 That loved vertuous moralitee, 
 Sayd on a day betwix hem two right thus, 
 A lord is lost, if he be vicious. 
 
 Cliaucer, Canterbury Tales, 1. 7627. 
 His possessioun was . . . fyue hundrid of 
 femal assis, and ful myche meynee. — Wycliffe, 
 Job i. 3. 
 
 The man whiche bought the Cowe com- 
 meth home, peraduenture he hath a many of 
 children, and hath no more Cattell but this 
 Cow, and thinketh hee shall haue some milke 
 for his Children. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 156 
 verso. 
 
 And after all the raskall many ran, 
 Heaped together in rude rabfement, 
 To see the face of that victorious man. 
 Spenser, Faene Queene, I. xii. 9. 
 Yet durst he not his mother disobay, 
 
 But her attending in full seemly sort, 
 Did march amongst the manii all the way. 
 Id. IV. xii. 18. 
 Forth he far'd with all bis many bad. 
 
 Id.'V. xi.3. 
 They summon'd up their meiny, straight took 
 horse. 
 
 Slialcespeare, Lear, ii. 4, 35. 
 O thou fond many, with what loud applause 
 Didst thou beat heaven. 
 
 Id. 2 Hen. IV. i. S, 91. 
 See Abbott, ShaTcespea/iian Oram- 
 mar, p. 63. 
 
 Menial, servile, now probably some- 
 times confounded with mean, 0. Eng. 
 men£, low, base, merely denotespertain- 
 ing to a household or a domestic ser- 
 vant, old Eng. meyneal (WyoUffe), 
 msineal. 
 
 A retainer was a servant not menial (that 
 is, continually dwelling in the house of his 
 lord and master), but only wearing his livery 
 and attending sometimes upon special occa- 
 sions upon him.— Strype, Memorials, v. 5, p. 
 302.— [Southey, C. Place Book, vol. i. p. 
 495.] 
 
 Also my meyneal frendis Seden awey fro 
 me.— WycliffejJob vi. 13 (Clarendon Press 
 ed.). 
 
 Marbles, pellets of baked earth, 
 used in a variety of schoolboy games, 
 as if made out of mairhle, which, I be- 
 lieve, they never are. 
 
 The word is not improbably a cor- 
 ruption of Fr. marelles, mirelles, used 
 also in boyish games (see Cotgrave, s.v. 
 Jlerellea). So ma/rUe-thrush, a provin- 
 cial word forthe miBsel-thrush( Wright), 
 may be for nvirle-tlvrush, Fr. merle, " a 
 Mearle, Owsell" (Cotgrave), also akind 
 of thrush, Lat. merula; and in mwi- 
 penny miracle z: nine men merils, me- 
 
MARBLES 
 
 ( 231 ) 
 
 MABE 
 
 rils (Pr. merelle, Lincolnshire marvils, 
 Holderness mahvil), seems to have been 
 confounded with merveille. Contrari- 
 wise marl is found for tnarvel (Wright). 
 In Leicestershii'e marls is the ordi- 
 nary name for these boys' playthings, 
 and they were commonly manufactured 
 out of marl. Mr. Evans tliinks that 
 marble may be a popular expansion of 
 this word {Glossary, E. D. S. p. 190). 
 
 Marbles, a slang word for furniture, 
 moveables, personal effects, is from Fr. 
 meuhles, i. e. Lat. mohilia, moveable 
 property. 
 
 March-pane, a biscuit composed of 
 sugar and ahnonds, probably somewhat 
 like a macaroon, also called massepain, 
 and corruptly in mediaeval Latin Mar- 
 tU panes (Timbs, Noolcs and Corners 
 ofEng. Life, p. 198). 
 
 Dull country madams that spend 
 Their time in studying receipts to make 
 March-pane and preserve plumbs. 
 
 Wits (in Nares). 
 
 It is from Pr. massepain, O. Pr. mar- 
 sepa/in. It. marzapame, Sp. mazapan, 
 the first part of the word being pro- 
 bably Lat. and Gk. maza, a cake. 
 
 There be also other like Epigrammes that 
 were sent vsually for new yeares ffiftes or to 
 be Printed or put vpon their banketting 
 dishes of suger plate, or of march puines. — G. 
 Puttenham, Arte of Eng, Poesie (1589), p. 72 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Item, a well-grown lamprey for a fife ; 
 Next some good cm'ious march-panes made 
 
 into. 
 The form of trumpets. 
 
 Cartwright, The Ordinary, act ii. sc. 1 
 (1651). 
 
 Mare, A. Sax. mere, feminine of 
 mearh, a horse, has sometimes been 
 absurdly confused with Fr. mere, 
 mother, as if the ma.re denoted origi- 
 nally the mother of the stud, the dam 
 (Fr. dame), as opposed to the sire. Thus 
 a distinguished scholar speaking of the 
 ancient Egyptian language says, " The 
 name of the female horse was ses-mut, 
 the last word either expressing ' mother, ' 
 Uke the English 'mare,' or the plural." 
 — Dr. S. Birch, in WilMnson, Ancient 
 Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 299 (ed. 1878). 
 At this rate a filly ought to mean 
 "imghter," Fr. fille. 
 
 Mare, or Nightmare, an incubus, 
 regarded as an evil spirit of the night 
 
 that oppresses men during sleep, is A. 
 Sax. mara, Dan. mare, Ger. mahr, 
 Euss., Swed., Icel. and 0. H. Ger. 
 mora, all no doubt identical with 
 Sansk. mara, mar, a kiUer or destroyer, 
 a devil (M. Williams, SansJc. Diet.), 
 from the root mar, to crush or destroy. 
 C£ Wendish rmirawa ; Prov. Pr. marh, 
 nightmare (Liege) ; machwia (Namur), 
 apparently from Bret, madia, to op- 
 press. 
 
 See Maury, La Magie et V Astrologie, 
 p. 253. 
 
 The word has frequently been con- 
 founded with its homonym mare (A. 
 Sax. mere), a female horse ; e.g. by 
 Captain Burton, Etruscan Bologna, p. 
 225; and the incubus has actually 
 been depicted by Fuseh, in consequence, 
 as visiting a sleeper in the shape of a 
 snorting horse or ma/re. Compare Dut. 
 nacht-merrie, a nightmare, assimilated 
 to merrie, a mare. 
 The forest-fiend hath snatched him — 
 He rides the night-mare thro' the wizard 
 woods. Maturin, Bertram. 
 
 Compare "the night-mare and her 
 nine-foals " (Pol. nine-fold). — Lear, iii. 
 4. In W. Cornwall nag-ridden is 
 troubled with the night-mare (M. A. 
 Courtney). 
 On Hallow-Mass Eve the Night-Hag will 
 
 ride. 
 And all her nine -fold sweeping on by her 
 
 side. Scott, Wavertey, ch. xiii. 
 
 Topsell, in his account of horses, 
 thinks it necessary to include the night- 
 mare. 
 
 Of the night Mare. — This is a disease op- 
 pressing either man or beast in the night 
 season when he sleepeth, so he cannot drawe 
 his breath, and is called of the Latines Incubus. 
 It commeth of a continual crudity or raw 
 digestion of the Stomach, from whence grosse 
 vapors ascending vp into the head, do op- 
 presse the braine, and al the sensitiue powers, 
 BO as they cannot do their ofiice, in giuing 
 perfect feeling and mouing to the body . . . 
 But I could neuer learn that Horses were 
 subiect to this disease. — Topsell, The History 
 of Foure-footed Beasts, p. 253. 
 
 This account is also given verbatim 
 in T. Blundevill, The fower chiefest 
 Offices belonging to Horsemanship. 
 
 My night fancies have long ceased to be 
 afflictive. I confess an occasional night-mare ; 
 but I do not, as in early youth, keep a stud 
 of them.— C. Lamb, Works (ed. Routledge), 
 p. 393. 
 
MABE-BL0B8 
 
 ( 282 ) 
 
 MARMOSET 
 
 Jesu Crist, and Seint Benedight, 
 Blisse this hous from every wicked wight, 
 Fro the nightes mare, the wite Pater-noster; 
 Wher woneat thou Seint Peters suster. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 3486 (Tyrwhitt). 
 
 Nyghte maref or mare, or wytche, Epialtea 
 vel eMaltes. — Prompt. Parvutarum. 
 
 Pacolet's horse is for their lords, and the 
 night-mare or ephialtes for their viragoes. — 
 Gayton, Festivous Notes, p. 192. 
 
 The Latins seem to have attributed 
 this nocturnal oppression to the Fauni, 
 or gods of the woods and fields (of. A. 
 Sax. wuciu-incere, the wood-mare, a 
 nymph). Pliny says the peony "is 
 good against the fantastical! illusions 
 of the Fauni which appeare in sleep " 
 (hb. 25, cap. iv.), on which Holland 
 remarks, "I suppose he meaneth the 
 diseases called Ephialtes or Incubus, 
 i.e. the night Mare " {Nat. Hi^t. 1634, 
 vol. ii. p. 214). 
 
 Ephialtes in Greek, in Latine incuhus .... 
 is called in English the mare. — .Barrough's 
 Method of Physic, 1624. 
 
 Skelton, Philip Spatrow, speaks of 
 Medusa as — 
 
 That mare 
 That lyke a feende doth stare. 
 
 [Vid. Nares.] 
 
 In some parts of Germany, the nightmare 
 is simply called Mar or Mahrt. It is a mare 
 or horse figure. At the same time it reminds 
 us, by name as well as by some of its attri- 
 butes, of the Vedic spirits, departed souls, or 
 storm phantoms,— the Mdruts, who assist 
 Indra with their roaring tempest-song in 
 the battle he has to fight, — even as the 
 Valkyrs assist Wodan. The special connec- 
 tion of the North-German Mar with the 
 Valkyrs or shield-maidens, those terrible 
 choosers of victims that came on horseback 
 from the Cloud-land of the Odinic creed, is 
 proveable through the name which the night- 
 mare still bears in Oldenburg. It is there 
 called die Wal-Riderske,—tha,i is, the Little 
 Battle-Rider, or Little Carrier of the Slain. 
 — K. Blind, in the Nineteenth Century, No, 
 88, p. 1109. 
 
 Maee-blobs, a trivial name for the 
 caltha palustris, is said to be from A. 
 Sax. mere, a marsh, and hloi, a bladder 
 (Prior). 
 
 Marigold, formerly spelt Mary 
 Gowle, is supposed to have been a cor- 
 ruption of A. Sax. {mersc-) mea/r-gealla, 
 i.e. (marsh-) horse-gowl (Prior). But 
 gold (Chaucer) was an old name for the 
 plant, and it was traditionally regarded 
 as sacred to Mary the Virgin. Com- 
 
 pare the "winking Mary-huds" of 
 OymleUne, ii. 3. 
 
 The noble Helitropian 
 Now turns to her, and knows no sun. 
 And her glorious face doth vary. 
 So opens loyal golden-Mary. 
 Lovelace, Aramantha, Poems, ed. Singer, 
 
 p. 93. 
 W. Forrest, writiug of Queen Maiy, 
 says: 
 She may be called Marygolde well, 
 
 Oi Marie (chiefe) Cbristes mother deere 
 That as in heaven she doth excell. 
 
 And golde on Earth to have no peere. 
 So certainly she shineth cleere. 
 
 In grace and honour double fold. 
 The like was never erst seen heere 
 Such as this flower the Marygolde. 
 
 In a ballad of the time of Queen 
 Mary, we find — • 
 To Mary our Queen, that flower so sweet. 
 
 This marigold I do apply: 
 For that name doth seme so meet. 
 
 And property in each party. 
 [C. Hindley, Tavern Anecdotes and Sayings, 
 p. 239.] 
 This riddle, Cuddy, if thou canst, explain . . . 
 " What flower is that which bears the Virgin's 
 
 name, 
 The richest metal added to the same?" 
 
 Gay, Pastoralt. 
 
 Marigolds, it is said, are particularly 
 introduced in Lady chapels as appro- 
 priate ornaments. 
 
 Maeling, a cord for binding round 
 ropes, so spelt as if a substantive in 
 -ing (A. Sax. -ung), like plankmg, rig- 
 ging, shipping, is a corrupt form of 
 mairline, a " bind-Hne," Dut. marUjn, 
 from ma/rren, to bind, tie, or moor, and 
 l/)jn, a line. Other corruptions are 
 Dutch ma/rling, and marl-reep for mar- 
 reep [resulting from a false analysis, 
 ma/rl-ing instead of ma/r-ling] (Skeat, 
 Htym. JJict. s.v.). 
 
 Some the galled ropes with dauby marling 
 bind. 
 
 Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, 148. 
 
 Marmoset, a small American mon- 
 key, is Pr. ma/rmousei, old Fr, ma/r- 
 moset, meaning (1), something made 
 of ma/rhle (Lat. marmor),marinoretumi 
 (2), esp. the spout of a fountain, a gro- 
 tesq[ue figure through which the water 
 flows ; (3), any antic or puppet (of. 
 grotesque, originally pertaining to a 
 grotto) ; and (4), an ape or monkey. 
 This last meaning of the word was evi- 
 dently determined through a confusion 
 
MABMOT 
 
 ( 233 ) MABY-B0NE8 
 
 with the somewhat similar, but quite 
 unrelated word, Fr. ma/rmot, marmotte, 
 It. marmotta, a little monkey or mar- 
 moset (Skeat, Etym. Bid. s.v.). 
 
 She had a grete mouth with longe teeth. . 
 ... I wende hit had be a mermoiise or baubyn 
 or a mercatte. — Cajton, Reyiiard the Fox 
 (1481), p. 98 (ed. Arber). 
 
 He wente forth into that fowle stynkyng 
 hool, and fonde the murinosette. — Id. p. lOJ. 
 
 Arte is ... . onely a bare immitatour of 
 natures works, following and counterfeyting 
 her actions and effects, as the Marmesot doth 
 many countenances and gestures of man. — 
 G. Futtenhatn, Arte of Eng. Poeskj 1589, p. 
 310 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Marmot, a moimtain rat. It. ma/r- 
 nwtio, 0. Fr. ma/rmotcm, owes its pre- 
 sent form, no doubt, to some confusion 
 with Fr. inarmot, It. marmotta, a little 
 monkey (apparently for mermot, from 
 old Fr. merme, little. — Skeat). The 
 typical form is the Grisons murmont, 
 from Lat. mur(-em) mont{anum), 
 " mountain-mouse." Compare old Fr. 
 marmontcdn, O. H. Ger. muremunto. 
 
 Mabquisate, a corrupt form of the 
 name of the mineral called marcasite, 
 Ger. ma/rkadt, as if connected with 
 maarquis ; from Arab, marqachltha. 
 
 The mountains are not without Marqiiisate 
 and Minerals, which but by search are not to 
 be discerned. — Sir Thos. Herbert, Travels, 
 1665, p. 16. 
 
 Mabky, comb up 1 This ejaculation 
 is said to be a perversion of the phrase, 
 ma/rry, go up ; ina/rry gvsp in Sudibras, 
 i. 3, 202 ; marry gip, Bartholomew Fair, 
 act i. ; the forms marry gup, marry gep, 
 and marry gip being also found. These 
 latter, as Dyce has pointed out, are 
 shortened forms of Mary Gipcy ! ad- 
 jured by Skelton in his Ga/rlande of 
 LoMrell, 1455, i.e. S. Marie Egypcien, 
 St. Mary the Egyptian, frequently 
 alluded to by old writers. See Prof. 
 Skeat, Notes to Vision of Piers Plow- 
 man, p. 353. 
 
 Gard. Marry gip, minx ! 
 Phil.. A fine word in a gentleman's mouth ! 
 T'were good youi* back were towards me ; 
 
 there can I, 
 Read better content than in the face of lust. 
 /. Heywood, The Fair Maid of the Exchange, 
 p. 45 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Maequeteie, chequered inlaid work 
 in furniture, from Fr. margueter, to 
 stipple, or put in the lights and shades 
 
 of a picture, to spot, as if connected 
 with marguer, to mark, is, according to 
 Diez, really near akin to It. maccMa/re, 
 to spot, Sp. macar, It. macchia, a spot 
 or stain, from Lat. maoula. 
 
 Marshall is sometimes used as if 
 identical with martial, as in this line 
 from Peele's Farewell, 1589. 
 The times of truce settle down by marshall 
 lawe. 
 
 A commission given by Charles I. to 
 Thomas, Earl of Arundel, in 1640, to 
 be captain-general, empowers him 
 " to use against the said enemies, 
 traitors, and rebels, .... the Law 
 called Ma/rshal-Law, according to the 
 Law-Marshall." — Eymer. On the other 
 hand, martial (Kke Mar(t)s, the war- 
 god) is sometimes written incorrectly 
 for marshal (originally meaning a 
 "horse-servant," O. H. Ger. marra- 
 schalh, then a master of the horse). 
 
 They when they ride in progi-esse send 
 their flarbingers before to take up lodgings, 
 and Martiak to make way. — Daniel Featley, 
 Clavis Mystica, p. 31 (1636), fol. 
 
 Maeten, a sort of weasel, O. Fr. 
 mwrtin, so spelt perhaps from a confu- 
 sion with the personal name Ma/rtin 
 (which was once in French a familiar 
 name for the ass, as it is stUl in Eng- 
 Ksh for a species of swallow). It is a 
 contracted form of old Eng. marter-n 
 (the excrescent n having swallowed up 
 the organic r, as in gamhol for gamhold, 
 i.e. gamhaud, the I has driven out the 
 ■d), from old Eng. and old Fr. martre. 
 Low Lat. ma/rturis (see Skeat, s.v.). 
 
 Mary-bones, the large bones of the 
 legs, the knees, spelt marihones in Dry- 
 den's Sir Martin Mar-all, act ii. sc. 2, 
 is not, as it has been sometimes under- 
 stood, the bones on which our fore- 
 fathers went down to pray to Mary, 
 the Blessed Virgin, but another form 
 of marroio -hones, mary being an old 
 Eng. word for marrow. "Mary, or 
 marow of a boon (marwhe,) Medulla." 
 — Prompt. Parv., 1440. So marrow, a 
 mate or fellow, O. Eng. marwe, is pro- 
 bably from Fr. mari, a husband. 
 Arrived, by pure necessity compelled, 
 On her majestic mary-bones she kneeled. 
 Dryden, Wife of Bath her Tale, 1. 191. 
 A coke they hadden with hem for the nones, 
 To boile the chikenes and the marie bones. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 382. 
 
MABT 
 
 ( 234 ) 
 
 MATTRESS 
 
 To which I resemble poore scullians, that, 
 fi'om turning spit in the chimney corner, are 
 on the sodayne hoysed vp from the kitchen 
 into the wayting chamber, or made barons of 
 the beaues and marquesses of the mary-hoanes, 
 —T. Nash, Pierce Feniksse (1592), p. 21. 
 Tendre browyce made with a mary-boon, 
 For fieble stomakes is holsum in potage. 
 Lydgatej Order of Fooles, 
 
 Mary is the old Eng. form of ma/rrow, 
 otherwise ma/rwhe, A. Sax. mearh (loel. 
 rnergr), a word. wMch was perhaps 
 Bometimes confounded with the old 
 Eng. meruwe, tender (A. Sax. mearu, 
 0. H. Ger. niaro). 
 
 Out of the harde bones knocken they 
 The Ttmryj for they casten nought away. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 12476. 
 
 The force whereof pearceth the sucke and 
 marie within my bones. — Palace of Pleasure, 
 ii. S 5 b. 
 
 Mart, Letters of, as if Letters of 
 Wa/r {Mm-t, from Mars, being an old 
 poetical word for war), permission to 
 make reprisals in time of war (Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher), is a corruption of 
 letters of marque, found in the Eliza- 
 bethan writers. The law of marque, 
 Fr. droit de ma/rqiie, L. Lat. jus mar- 
 cMum, was the right to cross the borders 
 or marchs (mardias) and plunder the 
 enemy's country. 
 
 Martir, the name given to a beast 
 killed at Martinmas as provision for 
 the winter, in the old romance of Sir 
 Tristrem (about 1220) — 
 Bestes thai brae and bare ; 
 
 In quarters thai hem wrought ; 
 Martirs as it ware. 
 That husbond men had bought. 
 Fytte First, xlii. (p. 32, ed. Scott). 
 
 Such a beast is stiU called in Scot- 
 land a ma/rt; and it is this word which 
 is here corrupted, perhaps under the 
 influence of Scotch martyr, to hew 
 down, to butcher. It is cnrious to find 
 ma/i-ti in modern Greek as a word for 
 a fatted sheep, so called from the fes- 
 tival of San Martino. — Lord Strang- 
 ford. Letters and Fapers, p. 112 ; Irish 
 mart, a beef, a cow. 
 
 What a prime Mart, James ! 
 Wilson, Nodes Ambrosianse, vol. i. p. 133. 
 
 Mash, to " make " tea, to infuse or 
 set it to draw (Leicestershire) — 
 
 You put the tea in the oven to mash before 
 you went to chapel. — Round Preacher 
 
 (Evans, Lincolnshire Glossary, p. 191, E 
 
 b. s.)— 
 
 is a survival of the old Eng. masche, to 
 mix, " Maschyn, yn brewynge, misceo," 
 akin to Lat. m/iscere, and rrm. Hence 
 also mashing-pat (Bums), a tea-pot. 
 See Skeat, s.v. Mash. 
 
 Mathook, a corrupt form of mattock 
 (A. Sax. mattuc, Welsh matog), quoted 
 in Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossary, from 
 North's Examen. 
 
 Libels served as spades and mathooks to 
 work with.— P. 592. 
 
 Matrass, a chemical vessel, Fr, 
 matras, old Fr. matelas, a kind of violl 
 or bottle (Ootgrave), seems to be a de- 
 rivative of Lat. matula, a pot or vessel. 
 Haldeman thinks it was a vessel shaped 
 like a Gallic javelin, matara; Devio 
 would connect it with Arab, maia/ta, a 
 leathern vessel, which seems less pro- 
 bable. 
 
 Mattress, a technical term in the 
 manufacture of playing cards, applied 
 to those which are rejected for some 
 defect, afterwards to be made up and 
 Bold at a cheaper rate, is an Anghcized 
 form of Fr. maitresse, which is similarly 
 used. Compare " Trialle. Onnomme 
 ainsi les cartes les plus imparfaites, 
 mais qui neanmoins peuvent entrer 
 dans les jeux : quelques-uns leur don- 
 nent le nom de Maitresses." — Du Mon- 
 ceau. Art du Ga/rtier, 1762. — Trans, 
 Philolog. Soc, 1867, p. 56. 
 
 Mattress, sometimes incorrectly re- 
 garded as an expanded form of mat, A. 
 Sax. meatta (Lat. matta), is the same 
 word as old Fr. materas, derived from 
 Arab, matrah, something thrown down 
 (to lie upon), a bed. 
 
 The word for "bed" or "couch" is not 
 that which denotes Ae Oriental mat, or mat- 
 tress, on which the Jews stretched themselves 
 for repose, .... but the Roman triclinium, 
 the divan, or raised couch. — S. Cox:, The E:c- 
 positor, 2nd Ser. No. 3, p. 184. 
 
 The two words coincide very closely 
 in meaning, as is seen in the following 
 quotations. 
 
 Monie o<5re swuche weopmen & wummen 
 mid hore greate maten & bore herde beren, 
 neren beo of gode ordre 1 [Many other such 
 men and women with their coarse mattresses 
 and their hard hair -cloths, were not they of 
 good order?]— 4ncre« Riwle (1225), p. 10. 
 
 I'll have no mats but such as lie under the 
 
MAUD 
 
 ( 235 ) 
 
 MEED W IF 
 
 feather-bed. — Centlivre, Beau's Duel, iv. 1 
 \_DavieSj Supp. Eng, Glossary']. 
 
 Maud, a Sootcli word for a plaid 
 worn by shepherds, also written maad, 
 which Jamieson connects with old 
 Swed. mudd, a garment made of 
 skins. 
 
 A shepherd's maud wrapped round his per- 
 son. — Mrs. TroUopej Michael Armstrong, ch. 
 xxviii. [Davies]. 
 
 Matjl-stick, a corruption of Ger. 
 maler-stoch, i.e. "painter's-stick,"from 
 maler, a painter, malen, to paint, from 
 Ger. mahl (old Bng. maal, a spot or 
 stain, A. Sax. mdl, a mole or mark, 
 "iron-moul-d"), akin to Lat. macula, 
 a spot. 
 
 Maw-seed, Ger. magsamen, poppy- 
 seed, not from magen [A. Sax. niaga\ , 
 the mair, hut Pol. mak, Gk. mekon, the 
 poppy (Prior). 
 
 Mayduke cheeeies, originally Ifetioc 
 cherries, named after the district in the 
 Gironde, S. Prance, from which they 
 were introduced. Medoc is from Lat. 
 in mediis aquis, between the two rivers, 
 hke Mesopota-nvia. 
 
 Mat-weed, a popular name for the 
 wild chamomile or pyrethrum pa/rthe- 
 nium, is so called, not from the month 
 it flowers in, hut from the 0. Eng. 
 may, a maiden, it being esteemed use- 
 ful for hysterics and other feminine 
 complaints. Other names for it are 
 " Mayde wede, or maythys (mayde- 
 wode, maydenwede), MeUissa, ama- 
 rusca" (Prompt. Parv.), maghet, A. 
 Sax. mageies aU. from mcep<S, a maid. 
 Cf. its Greek name parthemion, virgin- 
 wort. " Weed " represents the termina- 
 tion of A. Sax. mageie, oxeye, may- 
 weed, wild chamomile (Bosworth). 
 
 Mazzaeds, a popular name for the 
 wild cherry, is said to be from Low 
 Lat. manzar, bastard, spurious (Prior), 
 a word of Hebrew origin. 
 
 Meadow-sweet is, according to Dr. 
 Prior, a corruption of its older name, 
 mead-sweet, mead-wo^-t [? mead's-wort] , 
 A. Sax. mede-wyrt (cf. Dan. miod-wrt, 
 Swed. miod-ort), its flowers being used 
 to flavour mead. Another oorruption 
 is Maid-sweet (Old Country and Fa/rm- 
 ing Words, B. D. S. p. 32). 
 
 The metall first he mixt with Mediewart, 
 That no enchauntmeut from his dint might 
 save. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, II. viii. 20. 
 
 Meddle, literally to r)m oneself up 
 with the affafrs of others (Fr. medler, 
 orig. mesler, through Low Lat. miscu- 
 la/re, from Lat. mdsceo), seems to owe 
 something of its form and meaning to 
 the old Eng. verb middel, to intervene, 
 as if to come between where one is not 
 wanted. Cf. Icel. me^al, among. 
 
 Forsothe now the feeste day medlinge 
 Ihesu wente vp in to the temple. — Wyctiffe, 
 John Tii. 14 (1389). 
 
 Thei weren meddlid [= mixed] amon^ 
 hethene men, and lerneden the werkia of 
 hem. — Id. Psalms, cv. 35. 
 
 Why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt. — 
 A. V. 2 Kings xiv. 10. 
 
 Medlar, derived from Fr. meslder 
 (Lat. mespilus), on the model of the 
 verb to meddle, from Fr. mesler (Prior). 
 Prof. Skeat observes that medlar is 
 properly the tree that bears medles, 
 which is the old name of the fruit. 
 
 Meedwip, quoted by Jamieson as an 
 old Scotch form of midioife, as if the 
 wife or woman who attends for a meed 
 or reward (A. Sax. mdd), a derivation 
 approved by Archbishop Trench, after 
 Skinner, Junius, and Verstegan. In- 
 deed, Wychffe has meed- wijf and mede- 
 wijf, as well as 'myd-wijf. Midwife, 
 however, is the correct form, being 
 compounded with old Eng. mid, myd, 
 Ger. mit, Dan. med, with (cf. Greek 
 meta), i.e. the wife who is with, or by, 
 another to help in need (so Strat- 
 mann) ; Ger. hei-frau, Sp. comadre. 
 The word accordingly corresponds, not 
 to A. Sax. med-wyrhta, "meed-wright," 
 a hired servant, but to mid-wyrhta, 
 " with-wright," a coadjutor or assis- 
 tant. SiHularly Lat. oh-stetrix, a mid- 
 wife, is one who stands by to help (cf. 
 ad-sisto) ; Icel. nmr-hona, i.e. " near- 
 wife " (cf. ncera, to nurse, lit. to draw 
 near (nmr), Ger. nahren, A. Sax. gene- 
 ran, and also nesan, neds-ian, to visit) ; 
 Icel. ndveru-Tcona (presence woman), 
 yfirsetu-hona (over-sitting woman). 
 And teche the mydewyf neiier the latere, 
 That heo haue redy clene watere, 
 Thenne bydde hyre spare for no schame, 
 To folowe [^ baptize] the chylde there at 
 
 bame. 
 J. Myrc, Instructions for Parish Priests, 1. 90 
 j(E. E. T. S.). 
 
MEEBSOHA UM 
 
 ( 236 ) 
 
 MEBE-GBOT 
 
 Another old corruption is mcdd- 
 
 mfe. 
 
 I war maist ingrat if I sould forget my 
 guid, godlie, and maist courteus Lady, my 
 Lady Wedriaghton, wha wated on mair cair- 
 fuUie then the maidwyffj and receavit him 
 from the wombe in hir awin skirt, and find- 
 ing him nocht livlie, maid hast to the fyre, 
 and thrusting in her curshar, brunt it, and 
 helde to his naisthriUes, wherby he quicned 
 and kythed signes of lytF. — J. NLelmlle, Diary, 
 1584, p. 221 (Wodrow Soe.)- 
 
 Meeeschaum, a fine sort of clay out 
 of wlucli pipes are manufactured, a 
 German word apparently meaning 
 " sea foam," meer schmm, seems ori- 
 ginally to have been a corruption of 
 the Tartaric name myrsen. (Mahn in 
 Webster.) 
 
 Melicotton, an old name for a fruit 
 generally considered to be a peach 
 (Bailey, Nares, &c.), with an imagined 
 allusion to the downy or cottony soft- 
 ness of that fruit, as in the quotation 
 from Jonson. It is really, however, 
 the quince. It. mele eotogna, Lat. malum 
 cotoneum or aydonium, Greek melon 
 Tcvbdonion (Gerarde, Herhal, p. 1264), 
 that is the " Oydowian apple," origi- 
 nally brought from Cydonia in Crete. 
 Quince, old Fr. coingz, coignasse, is of 
 the same origin. 
 
 Alas, you have the garden where they grow 
 still ! A wife here with a strawberry breath, 
 cherry-lips, apricot cheeks, and a soft velvet 
 head, like a inelicotton. — B. Jonson, Bartholo- 
 mew Fair, i. 1, Works, p. 307. 
 
 Peaches, apricots, 
 
 And Matecotoons, with other choicer plums, 
 
 Will serve for large-sized bullets ; then a 
 
 dish. 
 Or two of pease for small ones. 
 
 Cartwright, The Ordinary, ii. 1 (1651). 
 
 Menage, an old form of manage, to 
 control a horse by the hand, to handle, 
 Fr. manege, It. maneggio, a handling, 
 from mano, Lat. manus, the hand ; so 
 spelt as if derived from Fr. mener. It. 
 menare, to lead or conduct, from Low 
 Lat. mina/re, to drive cattle. On the 
 other hand, menagerie is not, as one 
 might imagine, the place where wild 
 beasts are managed or controlled (of. 
 managery = management, Bp. Sander- 
 son, Sermons, ii. 214, fol.), but origi- 
 nally the place where the animals of a 
 household, Fr. menage, were kept 
 (Skeat). 
 
 A goodly person, and could menage faire, 
 His stubborne steed with curbed canon bitt, 
 Who under him did trample as the aire. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, I. vii. 37. 
 Next after her, the winged God him selfe, 
 Came riding on a Lion ravenous, 
 Taught to obay the menage of that Elfe. 
 Id. III. xii. n. 
 The hot horse, hot as fire. 
 Took toy at this, and fell to what disorder, 
 His power could give his will, bounds, comes 
 
 on end. 
 Forgets schoole-dooing, being therein traind, 
 And of kind mannadge, 
 
 Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 4, 
 69 (1634). 
 
 Mbkecat, an old name for a mon- 
 key, Ger. meerkatze, as if a long-tailed 
 animal like a cat (Teatze), from beyond 
 sea, mere (Ger. meer). It is really, says 
 K. G. Andresen, a borrowed word from 
 Sanskrit marTcata, an ape {Beutsche 
 Volksetymologie, p. 6, 1876). Of. 0. E. 
 mere-swyne, a dolphin, Ger. meeir- 
 
 Ther laye in a grete ape with tweyne 
 grete wyde Eyen ... I wende hit had be a 
 mermoyse, a baubyn, or a mercatte, for 1 sawe 
 neuer fowler beest. — Caxton, Reynard the Fox, 
 1481, p. 98 (ed. Arber). 
 
 There is an opinion that this kind of Ape 
 [the munkey] is generated of a wilde-cat 
 very like an Ape ... it is called of the 
 Italians Gatto maimone . . . of the Germans 
 Meerkat!, that is the cat of the sea. — Topiell, 
 Hist, of Four-Footed Beasts, p. 6. 
 
 Meee-gk(5t, A._ Saxon word for a 
 pearl, as if a sea-particle; mere beiag 
 the sea, and grot, gredt, an atom or 
 grain of sand, similar to the Sanskrit 
 rasopala, " water-stone," a name for 
 the pearl. It is a corruption from Lat. 
 margarita (Goth, ma/rkreitus) Gk. vuir- 
 garitis. Compare Sansk. marakata, 
 smaragdus. 
 
 Margarita, meregrota. — Wright's Vocaiit- 
 laries (11th cent.), p. 85. 
 
 A similar perversion is found in the 
 old High German msrigrioiz, nmi- 
 hreotz, Mid. High Ger. mergrietz, "sea- 
 gravel," all through Gothic mm-hreitus, 
 from margarita (Grimm, Andersen). 
 See also Diefenbach, Ooth. Sprache, ii. 
 54. 
 
 The Greeks haue no such tearms for them 
 [pearls], neither know how to cal them : nor 
 yet the Barbarians, who found them fiist out, 
 otherwise than Margaritic.— Holland, Pliny i 
 Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 255. 
 
 For the sowle is the precious margitanle 
 
MEBBY-MAID 
 
 ( 237 ) 
 
 MESLINS 
 
 vnto God. — The Book of the Knight of La Tour 
 Landrxi, p. 157 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 Without it [the Temple] was of smooth 
 polisht white Marble stone, excellently beau- 
 tiful! and faire to the eye, much resembling 
 the colour of anie Peai'le, Vnit, or Margaret. 
 — Itinerariamor Trauetsofthe Holy PatriarchSj 
 SfC, 1619, p. 12. 
 
 Mbeey-maid, a corruption of mer- 
 maid in use among the peasantry of 
 Cornwall (Hunt, Broils, ^c, of West 
 of England, i. 157). Mer-maid itself 
 does not properly denote a maid of the 
 sea, Fr. mer, but a maid of tlie mere or 
 lake, A. Sax. mere, being an altei-ed 
 form of old Eng. mere-r)imden (Skeat). 
 Another corruption is presented in the 
 following advertisement of a Bartholo- 
 mew Play (o. 1700) :— 
 
 There in the Tempest is Neptune, with 
 his Triton in his Chariot drawn with sea- 
 horses and Mair Maids singing. 
 
 Meeet-teee, a provincial name for 
 the wild cherry-tree, and m,erry, a wild 
 cherry, from Fr. merise (Lat. mmcea, 
 merica), which was mistaken for a 
 plural ; so cherry from Fr. cerise, and 
 old Eng. puny, vermin, from Fr. pu- 
 naise (Cotgrave, s.v.). 
 
 Meslins, a Lincolnshire word for 
 the measles (Peacock), as if connected 
 with meslin, otherwise spelt nmjslen 
 (Tusser), messling (Cotgrave), nvislin 
 (Leland), miscellan (Plot), from Lat. 
 miscellanea, mixed com, and intended 
 to denote the corny or grantilated ap- 
 pearance and feel of the body when 
 affected with the disease. The word is 
 really identical with Dutch maselen, 
 maeselen, measles, orig. spots. Thus 
 Cotgrave gives " grain (hernage), mes- 
 seUn or Wheat, Rie, and Barly min- 
 gled together," and " grains de lad/rige, 
 spots of leprosie, mezild spots." It is 
 interesting to note that this grain-like 
 condition of the skin in measles has 
 given names to the disease in various 
 languages derived from seeds, peas, 
 beans, lentUs, or other pulse. The per- 
 ception to the touch as of peas or shot 
 beneath the skin is now, I beUeve, re- 
 garded by doctors as a diagnostic 
 symptom of smaU-pox, differentiating 
 it from measles. Dr. Mavor notes on 
 Tusser's use of the word measUng, that 
 " measles in hogs are small round glo- 
 bules or pustules that lie along the 
 muscles." — Tusser, Worhs, E. Dialect 
 
 Soc, ed. p. 250. We should remember, 
 however, that in primitive time all 
 zymotic diseases were roughly grouped 
 under one or two general terms, which 
 afterwards became narrowed and indi- 
 viduaUzed in meaning. A curious 
 similarity of origin is presented in the 
 words following : — • 
 
 1. Sansk. mdsha, masura, denoting 
 a bean or lentil (Hind, masur), is also 
 used for a cutaneous eruption, pimples 
 or pustules,especially small-pox, whence 
 old Grer. meisa, small-pox, misal, le- 
 prosy, Ger. m<i.seren, measles, Dut 
 maeselen, mazelen, Eng. " measles.' 
 (Cf. old Ger. masar, mdsd, Ger. maser. 
 a spot or mark in wood.) — Piotet, 
 Origines Indo-Mv/ropeenes, torn. i. p 
 285. 
 
 2. In Hindustani mata/ria a pea, and 
 mdtd the small-pox. 
 
 3. In Arabic adas signifies beans, 
 and also pustules in the skin. 
 
 4. In Persian, pes, pisi, leprosy, 
 Kourd. pis, Armenian pisag, hisag, 
 small-pox, are near akin to Sansk. 
 peft, a pea, Gk. pison, Lat. pisum, Ir. 
 pis, Welsh pys, Eng. "pea." — Pictet, 
 torn. i. p. 288. 
 
 In Bishop Corbet's Elegie upon the 
 Death of the Lady Haddington who dyed 
 of the Small Pox (1648), he uses this 
 apostrophe : — 
 
 Oh thou deform 'd unwoeman-like disease. 
 That plowst up flesh and bloud, and there 
 sow'st pease. 
 
 It is a curious survival, apparently 
 of the doctrine of signatures, that in 
 some parts of Germany it is recom- 
 mended that children in the measles 
 should be washed with water in which 
 peas have been boiled (Kelly, Indo- 
 Em-op. Tradition, p. 300). 
 
 6. Pers. cicak, small-pox, cacai, a red 
 spot, is most probably the same word 
 as sisah, sishdk, pulse, in the same 
 language, and a reduplicated form of 
 Sansk. ^Tca, pulse. 
 
 6. Similarly, in Illyrian seesoe is the 
 smaU-pox, while socivitsa, Euss. sooe- 
 vitsa, are names for the lentil. — Pictet, 
 tom. i. p. 291. 
 
 7. Hives, a shght rising in the skin 
 attended with great itching, is from 
 Sp. hava, a bean, in which language 
 " hdvas are also great pimples caus'd by 
 too much Blood, or Heat of Blood." — 
 
MESLIN8 
 
 ( 238 ) 
 
 MIGA 
 
 Stevens, Spamsh Diet, 1706. This 
 word is derived from the Lat. faba, a 
 bean. 
 
 So It. fave, " all manner of beanes, 
 Also kernells or agnels that come be- 
 tween the flesh and the skin." — Florio. 
 
 8. In Latin lentigo, from lens, a len- 
 til, is an eruption of the skin, or freckles ; 
 and lenticula has the same meaning. 
 Prom the latter comes Fr. lentilles, 
 " round specks, redpimples, wan, small, 
 and lentill-resembling freckles, on the 
 face or hands." — Cotgrave. 
 
 9. A wMiofry eruption, or fever, is 
 one characterized by a number of small 
 red pimples, hke millet-seeds, Lat. mi- 
 Ua/rius, pertaining to millet, imlium. 
 The German name is Mrsefieher from 
 hirse, millet. Similarly 
 
 10. Lat. panus, an ear of millet, is 
 also a swelling or tumour. Senepion, 
 the Provengal word for measles, is from 
 Lat. sinapi, mustard-seed. 
 
 11. In Latin cyicer, a chick-pea, would 
 seem also to have been used for a wart 
 or excrescence, as Plutarch says that 
 " Cicero had a thing upon the tip of his 
 nose, as it had bene a little wart, much 
 like to a cich pease, whereupon they 
 sirnamed him Gicero" (North's Trans. 
 p. 859, ed. 1612). 
 
 Cicero, that wrote in prose 
 
 So called from rouncival on's nose. 
 
 Musarum Delicite, 1656. 
 
 Diez thinks that the Mid. Lat. ced- 
 nus, a swan, got its name from deer, 
 with reference to the excrescences on 
 its bin. Ghichen-poeh may perhaps be 
 connected with chicle, chicTcling, Fr. 
 ehiche, rather than with " chicken." 
 
 12. Sansk. humbhilia, having a swell- 
 ing on the eyehd like the seed or grain 
 of the plant humhhlha or Pisiia Strati- 
 ales. Similarly 
 
 13. Lat. hordeolus, a grain of barley, 
 is used for a sty on the eye. A modern 
 form of this is Fr. orgeol, " a long wart 
 resembling a barley corn, and growing 
 on the edge or corner of an eie-lid." — 
 Cotgrave. Compare Ger. gerstenkorn, 
 a barley-corn, also a sty ; O. Eng. neb- 
 corn (face-grains) ■=. pimples (Cockayne, 
 Leechdoms, &c., i. 118). 
 
 14. Glanders, O. Fr. glandre, is a 
 disease in horses resembling glandules 
 (Lat. glandula, glan{d)s), i.e. acorns. 
 It. ghiandole, " agnels, wartles, or ker- 
 
 nels in the throat. Also the glandera 
 in a horse. Also the meazels in a hog." 
 " Ghiandoso, full of Acomes. Also 
 glandulous or full of wartles. Also full 
 of the glanders as a horse, or of the 
 meazels as a hog." — Florio. 
 
 15. Sivvens, a Scotch name for a 
 certain disease with spots resembliiig 
 raspberries, .also the itch, is from mven, 
 a raspberry. So Frambesia is the tech- 
 nical name for a disease, in the West 
 Indies called Yaws, in which the erup- 
 tion is like a raspberry, Fr. framloise. 
 In Cumberland excrescences on the 
 under parts of cattle, resembling rasp- 
 berries or hineberries, are termed ytro- 
 berries (Dickinson). And, finally, a 
 tumour on the legs of horses is called 
 a grape. 
 
 Prof. Skeat maintains that measles 
 (old Eng. maysilles, mmsils, maseUs) 
 is a totally distinct word from nwsel, a 
 leper {meselled, leprous), which is from 
 Lat. misellus {i.e.miserulus,hom miser), 
 a wretched being. 
 
 Ye, sir, sich powder apon us dryfys, 
 Where it abides it makes a blayn, 
 Meselle makes it man and wyfe. 
 
 Miracle-Plays, Phamo, p. 104 (ed. 
 Marriott). 
 
 Bot ye Ebrewes, won in Jessen, 
 Sballe not be markyd with that measse. 
 Id. p. 98. 
 
 And som, for ^e syn of lechery, 
 Sal haf als l>e yvel of meselry. 
 Hampote, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 3001. 
 
 She had enuye and despite of her brother 
 of the whicbe she had displesaunce to God, 
 and he made her become meselle, so that she 
 was putte awey, and departed from alle the 
 pepille. — The Book of the Knight of La Tour 
 Landry, p. 90. 
 
 And take ye kepe now, that he that repre- 
 veth his neighbour, either he repreveth him 
 by som harme of peine, that he hath upon 
 his bodie, as Mesel, croked harlot ; or by som 
 sinne that he doth. Now if he repreve him 
 by harme of peine, than turneth the repreve 
 to Jesu Christ, for peine is sent by the right- 
 wise sonde of God, and by his suflrance, be 
 it meselrie, or maime, or maladie. — Chaif^er, 
 Canterbury Tales, p. 160 (ed. Tyrwhitt). 
 
 Mica, ghttering particles of a silvery 
 mineral found in granite and other 
 stones, is no doubt only the Latin word 
 miea, a crtmib or particle, but applied 
 to the mineral from a notion that :t 
 was related to Lat. micare, to shine or 
 ghtter (Skeat, Etym. Diet). 
 
MIDDINO 
 
 ( 239 ) 
 
 MILDEW 
 
 )ING, \ a provincial and espe- 
 )EN, j oii " 
 
 MlDDING, 
 
 Midden, / oially a North cotintry 
 word for a dunghill, old Eng. nvyddyng 
 and nvyddyl (Prompt. Parv., c. 1440), 
 " so termed possibly," says that usually 
 most accurate antiquarian, Mr. A. Way, 
 "from its position in the fold-yard." 
 
 It is the A. Saxon middling, Dan. 
 rmpdding, which is for mfgdynge, from 
 mfg, dung (compare Eng. "muck," 
 0. Norse rmjK, A. Sax. mix, meox, 
 dung), and dynge, a heap, Icel. myhi- 
 dyngja. 
 
 A fouler myddyng saw )]0U never nana, 
 jjan a man es, with flescbe and bane. 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 629. 
 
 Middling, a corrupt spelling of mid- 
 Un, A. Sax. midlen. So we find in old 
 authors such speUings as luooling 
 (Pepys) for woolen, Tcitching for hitchen, 
 "No hitching fire, nor eating flame." 
 — Sir John Suckling, Fragmenta Aurea 
 (1648), p. 12. 
 
 MroDLE-BAHTH, old Eng. m/iddle-erd, 
 an old word for the world, A. Sax. mid- 
 dcm-eard, is a corruption of middan- 
 geard (EttmliUer, p. 214), the original 
 form, i.e. " The middle region," the 
 earth as distinguished from heaven 
 above and hell beneath, from geard, a 
 region, enclosure, or " yard ; " cf. Mid. 
 H. Ger. mMil-gu/rt. But the form in 
 the A. Saxon gospels is middan-ea/rd. 
 As it vel of him sulue, Jjo he deide on Jje rode, 
 }iat Jjoiu al J>e middelerd derk hede jjer was 
 inou. 
 Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, p. 560 
 (ed. 1810). 
 Ic eom middati-eardes leoht, 5a hwile <Se ic 
 on middan-earde eom. — S. John, is.. 5. 
 Emperours and kynges they knele to my kne, 
 Eyeiy man is a ferde whan I do on hym 
 
 stare 
 For all mery medell erthe maketh mencyon 
 of me. 
 The Wm-lde and the Chylde (1522), 0. 
 Plays, xii. 315. 
 Take thy leave of sun and moon, 
 And also of grass and every tree. 
 This twelvemonth shalt thou with me gone, 
 And middle earth thou shalt not see. 
 
 Thomas of Ercildoune {Robert's Ballads, 
 p. 360). 
 
 Mildew. The etymological diversi- 
 ties of this word are remarkable. 
 
 The A. Sax. form msle-dedw sugges- 
 ted mehi, meal, as its origin, in allusion 
 to its powdery appearance, and so Ger. 
 
 mehlthau, "meal-dew." But Mid. 
 High Ger. miltou, O. H. Ger. militou, 
 Mid. Lat. mel roris, as if honey-dew, 
 prestippose a connexion with Lat. mel, 
 Goth. mMths, honey. 
 
 The Gaeho mill-clieo, which was pro- 
 bably borrowed from the EngHsh word, 
 seems to mean a " destructive mist," a 
 blight, from mill, to injure, and ceo, a 
 mist. 
 
 The original of all these words may 
 no doubt be recognized in the Greek 
 miltos, which signifies a mist or mildew 
 on corn (? of a reddish nature), as well 
 as red-earth, ruddle. Compare Lat. 
 3, (1) redness, (2) mildew; Ir. 
 
 derge, (l) redness, (2) rust (W. Stokes) ; 
 Eng. rust, connected with Lat. russus, 
 russet, red. Other forms are M. H. 
 Ger. milchiou, Prov. Ger. milb-thau 
 (? mothdew), and meld/reclc. Compare 
 A. Sax. mil-dedw, honey dew (Ett- 
 miiller), also mele-dediv, Dutch meel- 
 dauw, Dan. meeldug. That the first 
 part was properly understood as honey, 
 is proved by the Dutch honig-dauw, 
 Dan. honning-dug, Swed. hanings-dagg, 
 which are other terms for mildew 
 (Aufrecht, Philolog. Soo. Trans., 1865, 
 p. 5). 
 
 Ihesu swete ihesu ... mi huuiter, mi hali- 
 
 wei. 
 Swetter is munegunge of t>e )>en mildeu o 
 
 mu8e. 
 Old Eng. Homilies, 1st Ser. p. 269. 
 
 [Jesu, sweet Jesu . . . my honeydrop, 
 my balm. Sweeter is the remembrance of 
 thee than honey in the mouth.] 
 
 Myldew, Uredo. — Prompt. Parvulorum, 
 1440. 
 
 Some will have it called Mildew, quasi Mal- 
 dew, or Ill-dew, others Meldew or Honey-dew, 
 as being very sweet (oh, how lushious and 
 noxious is 1 lattery ! ) with the astringency 
 thereof causing an atrophy or Consumption in 
 the Grain. His etymology was peculiar to 
 himself who would have it termed Mildew, 
 because it grindeth the Grain aforehand, 
 making it to dwindle away almost to nothing. 
 — T. Fuller, Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 
 47. 
 
 The Honny of Bees is longer kept pure 
 and fine, than any Manna or Meldew, or rather 
 it is not at all subject to corruption. — Topsell, 
 Historie of Serpents, p. 65. 
 
 lips, no lips, but leaves besmeai-'d with 
 
 mel-dew ! 
 dew, no dew, but drops of honey-combs ! 
 O combs, no combs, but fountains full of 
 
 tears ! Albumazar, act ii. so. 1. 
 
MILK 
 
 ( 240 ) 
 
 MILLINER 
 
 Milk, in Shakespeare's " milk of 
 human kindness " (Macbeth, i. 5), may 
 possibly be a reminiscence of the old 
 Eng. word mice, mercy, confused with 
 mylche, milk (of. A. Sax. mile, meolc, 
 milk). 
 
 In cvjstes milce ure hope is best. 
 
 Old English Miscellany ( K. E. T. S. ed. 
 
 Morris), p. 25, 1. 802. 
 
 Mylce fjer nas myd hym non. 
 Robert of Gloucester, Ckronicle, p. 389 
 (ed. 1810). 
 
 So a writer in Parker's excellent 
 Tracts for the Ghristia/n Seasons, says, 
 " We wish that more of the milTi of 
 charity ran in their veins, and gave 
 sweetness and softness to their speech." 
 — vol. iii. p. 9. 
 
 There seems a general relationship 
 to exist between the words following, 
 A. Sax. milts, mercy, miltsian, to pity ; 
 milsc, milisc, mild ; mil, nvile, honey 
 (Lat. meZ, mulsum) ; malsc, tender (Ett- 
 miiller), Goth, -malshs; milcjan, to milk 
 (mulgere) ; O. Eng. " mylche, or mylke, 
 of a cow, lac" (Prompt. Pa/rv.), "mylche, 
 or mylte (or spleen), splen." — Id. (i.e. 
 the soft and milk-hke, milt); Prov. 
 Eng. melch, soft, warm, and damp (of 
 the weather, Lincolns. and Yorks.). 
 " Milche-hea/rted " occurs in Huloet's 
 Abcedarium, 1552 (^tender-hearted). 
 The instant hurst of clamour that she made . . 
 Would have made milch the burning eyes of 
 heaven. Hamlet, ii. 2, 1. 539. 
 
 Milksop, a term of contempt for an 
 effeminate man, as if one as soft and 
 mild as a sop of bread soaked in mUk, 
 is a corrupted form of the old English 
 mellc slope, meaning a bag for (strain- 
 ing) mUk, which occurs in Eobert Man- 
 ning's Handlyng Synme, p. 18 (1303). 
 Alas, she saith, that ever I was yshape 
 To wed a milksop, or a coward ape. 
 
 Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 1. 13916. 
 
 Mill, a slang term for a fight, is not 
 (as Max MiiUer considers) traceable to 
 the idea of bruising and pounding as in 
 a corn-mill, but is a corrupt form of 
 the Scot. meZZ, a conflict (Barbour's 
 Bruce), to mell, to intermingle, join in 
 battle. Lowland Scot. melU, or mella/y, 
 a fight, battle, or melee, 0. Fr. meslee, 
 all from a Latin verb misculare (from 
 miscere), to intermingle. — Skeat, in N. 
 and Q., 5th S. vi. 186. 
 
 MiLLEE, a common popular name 
 
 for the white moth which flies in the 
 twilight, also the dMSty mailer, ormilhrd 
 (Wilts., Akerman), sometimes called 
 the mealer, as in East AngHa, as if the 
 moth that covers what it touches with 
 meal. Compare Grison fafaritma, Sard, 
 faghe-farina, a butterfly, as if Lat. foe 
 fa/rinam, " make meal " (but really, no 
 doubt,rz It. farfaglione, farfallaj—Lsd. 
 papilio(n). 
 
 These words are probably extensions 
 and corruptions of the Danish nupl, a 
 moth; m/plle and WKfiller beingthe words 
 in that language for miU and miller 
 respectively. M^l (Goth, mafo.amoth), 
 would denote etymologically "that 
 which frets or consumes" (garments), 
 from the root mar, to rub, grind, or 
 destroy. The name miller was con- 
 sidered appropriate on account of the 
 mealy dust that the insect leaves be- 
 hind when handled. Hence the nur- 
 sery interrogation : — 
 
 Millery, millery, duatipoU, 
 How many sacks have you stole? 
 
 Haltiwell, Nurseiy Rhyntis. 
 Similarly a large caterpillar is ad- 
 dressed by Worcestershire children, as 
 nvillad, a miller. 
 
 A millad, a mollad, 
 A ten o'clock schollad. 
 
 Wright, Prov. Diet. 
 
 However, in the WaUon patois a beetle 
 with whitish wings is termed nn meii- 
 nier, a miller (Sigart), 
 
 Milliner, formerly millener, so spelt 
 from a general misapprehension that it 
 was derived from rmllenarius, as if it 
 denoted a dealer in the thousand (rmlle) 
 little articles which go to make up the 
 world (mnindus) of woman. 
 Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet. 
 Fropertius. 
 
 Haberdasher — in London also called Mil- 
 lenier a Lat. mille, i.e. as one having a thou- 
 sand small wares to sell. — Mimheu, Dic- 
 tionary, 1627. 
 
 A millener, a Jack-of-all-trades, Propola, 
 institor; q.d. miltermrius or mille mercum 
 venditor, pantopola. — Littleton, Eng. Lai. 
 Dictionary, 1677. 
 
 Millener (of mille, L. a thousand), a Seller 
 of Ribbons, Gloves, &c. — Bailey. 
 
 The word is really a corrupted form 
 of Milaner, one who dealt in gloves, 
 laces, and other articles of finery for 
 which Milan was famous. In the 
 Second Dialogue appended to Stevens, 
 
MILLINER 
 
 ( 241 ) 
 
 MINIATUBE 
 
 Spanish Dictionary, 1706, occurs the 
 following: — • 
 
 Margaret. Now let us go to the Milleners 
 , . . Show me some \V omens Heads, White 
 Crape, Laces, &c. . . . All this is course, I 
 would see finer. 
 
 To this "Master Milliner" re- 
 sponds : — 
 
 Then in this Box you will see the Rarity 
 of the World, it is all Milanese Work. 
 
 This passage of Stevens is borrowed 
 from The Pleasant and DelightfuU Dia- 
 logues in Spanish and English, by John 
 Minsheu, 1623 (p. 13), wherein Mar- 
 garet and Thomas enter a shop and 
 ask for — 
 
 Wires of silver, hone worke or bone lace, 
 stitched worke, head attire of all sorts, . . . 
 fine hoUan'd, cambricke, and other sorts of 
 linnen. 
 
 To whom the Merchant, 
 
 In this chest shall your worship see the 
 priucipallest that is, all is worke of Milan. 
 
 Thomas. Worke of Milan, see me but touch 
 me not. [Because they ai-e toies, if you 
 touch them they breake in peeces.] 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher use the ex- 
 pression Milan sMns, apparently for 
 fine gloves (Nares), and the best bells 
 for hawks were called Milans, because 
 imported from Milan (I. Taylor, Words 
 and Places, p. 424). 
 
 For its sUk hose and bonnets in par- 
 ticular Milan was celebrated. In the 
 Inventory of Henry VIII.'s wardrobe 
 mention is made of " a pair of hose of 
 purple silk and Venice gold .... 
 wrought at Milan, and one pair of hose 
 of white silk and gold knits, bought of 
 Christopher MiUener " [i.e. the Mil- 
 aner). HaU, the chronicler, speaks of 
 some who wore "Myllain bonnets of 
 crymosyne sattia drawn through with 
 cloth of gold," and in the roll of pro- 
 visions for the marriage of the daugh- 
 ters of Sir John Nevil (temp. Henry 
 VIII.) the price of " a Millcm, honnet 
 dressed with agletts" is marked at lis. 
 See Knight's Pictorial Shdkspere, 
 Comedies, vol. i. pp. 16, 17. Millan or 
 Millain was the old spelling of Milan. 
 He sayes, Collen brand lie haue in my hand 
 & a Miliaine knife fast by me knee. 
 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. i. p. 68. 
 
 The Milaners (or natives of Milan) of Lon- 
 don constituted a special class of retail dealers. 
 They sold not only French and Flemish 
 cloths, but Spanish gloves and girdles, Milan 
 
 caps, swords, daggers, knives, and cutlery, 
 needles, pins, porcelain, glass, and various 
 articles of foreign manufacture. All that 
 remains of this once important class of 
 tradesmen is but their name of "milliner," 
 which is still applied to dealers in ladies' caps 
 and bonnets. — Quarterly Review, No. 239, 
 p. 69. 
 
 How many goodly cities could I reckon up, 
 that thrive wholly by trade, where thousands 
 of inhabitants live singular well by their 
 finger ends, as Florence in Italy by making 
 cloth of gold ; great Millan by silk, and all 
 curious works : Arras in Artois by those fair 
 hangings, — Barton, The Anatomy of Melan- 
 choly, p. 63 (16th ed.). 
 
 Million, an old corruption of melon, 
 still common in America (Bartlett). 
 
 Musk million, in April and May. — Tusser, 
 1580, E. D. Soc. p. 94. 
 
 Melon, a Melon, or Million. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Sylvester notes that the seas have — 
 As well as Earth, Vines, Roses, Nettles, Mil- 
 lions, 
 Pinks, Gilliflowrs, Mushroms, and many 
 
 millions 
 Of other plants. 
 
 Vu Bartas, p. 92 (1621). 
 
 Taylor the Water Poet (1630) speaks 
 of musk-mellions. " Ohamaeleon " is 
 similarly disguised when Idlenis in the 
 old interlude of The Mariage of Wit 
 and Wisdmn, says — 
 
 1 cane turne into all 
 Coullers like the commillion. 
 
 P. 58 (Shaks. Soc. ed.). 
 
 Mill-mountain, a trivialname for the 
 plant Unum catharticum, is, according to 
 Dr. Prior, arbitrarily constructed out of 
 the Lat. oha-mceZ-inum montanum, Gk. 
 chamai-Unon, ground flax. This seems 
 unhkely. 
 
 Milt, the soft roe of fishes, so spelt 
 as if identical with milt, the spleen of 
 animals, A. Sax. nvilte, Dan. Tnili, Ger. 
 7mlz. It is really a corruption of milh, 
 so called from its resemblance to curd 
 or thick milk, as we see by comparing 
 Dan. fishe-melh, " fish-mUk," milt ; 
 Swed. mjolhe, from mjolh, milk ; Ger. 
 milch, milk, nult (see Skeat, Etym. 
 Diet. S.V.). 
 
 Mylche, or mylke of a cow, lac. 
 
 Mylche, or mytte (or spleen), splen. 
 
 Prompt. Pai'vuhrum (1440). 
 
 Miniature, Ger. nvimatv/r. It. m/ima- 
 tv/ra, now generally understood to mean 
 a painting or portrait on a smaller scale 
 
 B 
 
MISLEST 
 
 ( 242 ) 
 
 MOSAIB 
 
 than the ordinary, a picture in little, 
 as if from Lat. mnm; minus, less, 
 originally denoted a rubricated figure 
 or vignette drawn with minium (Ger. 
 mennig), vermilion or red lead, from 
 It. miniwre, to paint with vermihon. 
 
 MiSLEST, in the Cheshire dialect, a 
 corruption of molest, used also in Lei- 
 cestershire (Evans, Glossa/ry, E. D. S.). 
 
 Mis-PEisiON. \ In these synony- 
 Mis-TAKE. / mous words, a tailing 
 or prision (0. Fr. -prison, from Lat. 
 prehensio, Low Lat. prensio), amiss, 
 the prefix mis would seem to be the 
 same particle in each case. But in 
 misprision, old Fr. mesprison {zz Mod. 
 Fr. meprise), mis stands for old Fr. 
 mes. Span, mcnos, frora Lat. nvinus, 
 less (than is right), wrong, badly; so 
 misalliance (Fr. mes-alliance), mischance 
 (Fr. mes-chance) . In TOS-tofce, the pre- 
 fix is A. Sax. mis; Icel. Dan. and Dut. 
 nvis-, Goth, missa-, meaning wrongly ; 
 near akin to old Eng. misse, a fault or 
 error, M. H. Ger. misse, an error, Dut. 
 mis, and miss, to fall short of, not to 
 hit; so mis-lelieve, mis-carry, mis-lead, 
 mis-deed. A similar distinction is pro- 
 bably to be made with regard to the 
 prefix in the synonymous words mis- 
 name and mds-nomer (for Fr. mes- 
 nommer). 
 
 Misty, when applied to a person's 
 language, views, or philosophical opi- 
 nions, which are said to be misty when 
 vague and obscure, not clear and in- 
 telligible, would seem naturally to be a 
 mere metaphorical use of misty, enve- 
 loped in mist or fog, hazy, dark, A. Sax. 
 mist, darkness. It is remarkable, how- 
 ever, that in old English misty, mysty, 
 used in the same sense of dark, hard to 
 be understood, having a hidden mean- 
 ing, is only another form of mystic, 
 mysterious ; there was perhaps a con- 
 fusion of A. Sax. mistig, misty, with 
 Low Lat. misticus, Lat. mysticus. 
 Compare nvysti-fy (for mystic-fy), to 
 render mysty or mysterious, to puzzle 
 or baffle one's comprehension. 
 
 Mysty, or prevey to mannys wytte, Mis- 
 ticus, 
 
 Mystery, or prevyte, Misterittm. 
 
 Prtmiptorium Pwvulorum, p. 340. 
 Mysiu, or rooky, as the eyre, Nebulosus. 
 
 U. 
 
 Bot in be appocalipse apparty, 
 Es sayd fnis ful misty ly, 
 ..." his fete er Hie latoun bright 
 Als in a chymn^ brynnand light." 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, ab. 1340, 
 1. 4368. 
 
 Thise philosophres speke so mistily 
 In this craft, that men cannot come therby, 
 For any wit that men have now adayes. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 16864. 
 
 And than hir joy, for aught I can espie, 
 Ne lasteth not the twinckling of an eye. 
 And somte have never joy till they be deed, 
 Wliat meaneth this ? what is this mistiheedl 
 Ctutucer, Tlie Complaint of Mars and Venus, 
 
 1. 225. 
 Ry3t so is vch a Krysten sawle, 
 A longande lym to )je mayster otmyste. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 14, 1. 462. 
 
 Wbensoeuer by your similitude ye yiiW 
 seeme to teach any moralitie or good lessons 
 by speeches misticall and darke, or farre fette, 
 vnder a sence metaphoricall applying one 
 naturall thing to another, or one case to 
 another, inferring by them a like consequence 
 in other cases, the Greekes call it Parabola, 
 which terme is also by custome accepted of 
 vs, neuerthelesse we may call him in English 
 the resemblance misticall. — G, Puttenham, 
 Arte of Eng. Poesie, 1589, p. 251 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 The very mistiness of the Prime Minister's 
 own words, and the repugnance he exhibits 
 to endorse or accept plain and explicit lan- 
 guage upon the subject from anyone else, lead 
 us to suspect that the Government have not 
 succeeded so fai' in picturing with any legal 
 definiteness what it is they want the Govern- 
 ment of the United States to consider. — The 
 Standard, June 21, 1881, p. 4. 
 
 MixHiLL, given by Grose as a Ken- 
 tish word for a dunghill, is a corrup- 
 tion of mixen, a dungheap, from A. 
 Sax. meox, dung, akin to Ger. mkt, 
 dung, Goth, maihstus. 
 
 \>et coc is kene on his owune miienne. 
 [The cock is brave on his own dunghill.]— 
 Ancren Riuile, p. 140. 
 
 MocKAW, an old spellmg of macaw, 
 with some allusion, perhaps, to the mi- 
 micking powers of parrots. 
 But, Caleb, know that birds of gentle mind 
 Elect a mate among the sober kmd. 
 Not the mochaws, all deck'd in scarlet pride 
 Entice their mild and modest heai-ts aside. 
 
 Gay, Eclogues, Poems, vol. ii.p. 78 (1771). 
 
 MoHAiE, Fr. moire, old Fr. mohere, 
 moulimre, Wallaoh. moilo, Ger. mohr, 
 all perhaps from an oriental word 
 moiaca/r, a kind of camlet (so Skinner, 
 S.V.). As a form mire is quoted by 
 
MOILED 
 
 ( 243 ) 
 
 MONKEY-FEE 
 
 Littre from a document of the 13th 
 century, it is probable, as Scheler re- 
 marks, that the English word is a 
 transformation made luider the influ- 
 ence of " hair," and not, as Diez thinks, 
 itself the origin of Fr. niovre. Mr. 
 Isaac Taylor thinks that it was origi- 
 nally the fabric manufactured by the 
 Ifooj-s or Arabs in Spain ; but M. 
 Devic traces the origin correctly to the 
 Arabic mokhayyar, a cloth made of 
 goat's hair (cf It. mocajardo). 
 
 Moiled, bare, apphed in Antrim and 
 Down to a bare-looking building (Pat- 
 terson, Glossary), also moily, hornless, 
 a hornless cow (Id.), are Anglicized 
 forms of Irish maol, shorn, bereft of 
 horns. 
 
 Moil, an old corruption of the word 
 mule, A. Sax. mul, Lat. nu'ihis (prob. 
 for nmclus ; ef. Greek muklos, an ass), 
 as if it meant the labouring animal, 
 a drudge, from moil, to toil laboriously 
 (cf. Lat. moles, Gk. molos, &c.). The 
 Gipsy name for a donkey is 'moila 
 (Smart). 
 
 As the Athenians made a law, when they 
 builded their temple called Hecatompedon : 
 that they should suifer the moytes and mulets 
 that did seruice in their cariages about the 
 building of the same, to graze everywhere, 
 without let or trouble of any man. And they 
 ' say there was one of their moiles thus turned 
 at liberty that came' her selfe to the place to 
 labour. — Sir Thos. North, Lives of Plutarke, 
 p. 348 (1610). 
 
 Sir Thomas Overbury says the 
 Creditor — 
 
 Is a lawyers moyle, and the onely beast upon 
 which he ambles so often to Westminster. — 
 Miscellaneous Works, p. 160 (ed. Rimbault). 
 
 Mulet, a Moyle, Mulet, or gi-eat Mule. — 
 Cotgrave, Diet, s.v. 
 
 In W. Cornwall mule is to work 
 hard, and moyle, a mule (M. A. Court- 
 ney). 
 
 MoiLLEEE, an old Eng. word for a 
 woman or wife, derived from the old 
 Pr. moillere, also found in the forms 
 umiUer, moillier, momllier, as if the soft 
 sex, from Fr. mol, molle, mouiller (Lat. 
 mollis), while in reality it is from Lat. 
 muUer, a woman (compare A. Sax. 
 m£owle, a maid). 
 As ]ire persones palpable • is pureliche bote 
 
 man-kynde, 
 The which is man and hus make • and moillere- 
 
 So is god godes sone ■ in [jre persones ]je 
 
 trinite. 
 Langhnd, Vision of Piers the Plovmian, Text C. 
 
 Pass. xix. 11. 235-7, ed. Skeat (see his 
 
 note in loc). 
 " Malier, quasi mollior," saith Varro, a de- 
 rivation upon which Dr. Featley thus com- 
 menteth ; " Women take their name in Latin 
 from tenderness or softness, because they are 
 usually of a softer temper than men, and 
 much more subject to passions, especially of 
 fear, grief, love and longing." — Sauthey, The 
 Doctor, p. 558. 
 
 Compare the soothsayer's interpre- 
 tation of the word in Gymieline, 
 V. 5:— 
 
 The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daugh- 
 ter. 
 Which we call "mollis aer;" and "mollis 
 
 aev " 
 We term it '* rnulier." 
 
 A somewhat pretentious book lately 
 published. The Biblical Things Not 
 Oenerally Known, makes good its title 
 by soberly stating that muUer is from 
 Lat. molUor, as if the softer sex.^ It is 
 probably akin to mulgere, Gk. amelgS, 
 A. Sax. meoluo, from the Sanskrit root 
 mrij, and so would mean " the milk 
 giver," "the suokler" (Benfey). 
 
 Mole, the small burrowing quad- 
 ruped, is a contraction of mould-warp, 
 ox mold-warp (Shakespeare), or mold- 
 werp (WycUffe), Icel. mold-va/rpa, the 
 animal that wa/rps, or throws up, the 
 mould. 
 
 With her feete she diggeth, and with her 
 nose casteth awaye the earth, and therefore 
 such earth is called in Germany mat werjf, 
 and in England Molehill. — Topsell, Historic 
 of Fowl e-footed Beasts, 1608, p. 500. 
 
 On the other hand, mold is some- 
 times incorrectly used for mMe, a mark 
 on the body. See Ieon-mould and 
 Maul-stick. ' 
 
 Upon the litle brest, like christall bright, 
 She mote perceive a litle purple mold. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, VI. xii. 7. 
 
 Monkey-pee, a Kentish word for the 
 wood-louse, originally "a molti-pee," 
 
 ■ In the same place, § 160, this ingenious 
 writer observes tnat woman is formed from 
 man, with the prefix wo- distinctive of sex. 
 Sir Thos. Urquhart's epigram was better than 
 this, and almost as correct. 
 "Take man from woman, all that she can 
 
 show. 
 Of her own proper, is nought else but wo." 
 
MONGOOSE 
 
 ( 244 ) 
 
 M08AIG 
 
 i.e. multipes (0. Eng. and West, 
 " many-feet "), the Latin word, no 
 doubt, being mistaken for a plural. 
 See PUlolog. Soc. Tram., 1860, p. 16. 
 
 Mongoose, a small Indian quad- 
 ruped, is a corrupted form, probably, 
 of some native oriental word, which 
 appears in French as mangouste 
 (Buffon). 
 
 The boy importuned me for Bakshish to 
 exhibit a fight between a snake held in his 
 hand and a mongiwse concealed in a basket. — 
 M. Williams, Modern India, p. 28 (1878). 
 
 Mood, a state of mind, is sometimes 
 confused with mood, a certain character 
 of music depending on the intervals in 
 the scale, as "the Doric mood," Lat. 
 modus, whence also the grammatical 
 maod or mode of a verb. 
 
 That strain I heard was of a higher rrwod. 
 Milton, Lycidas, 1. 87. 
 
 It is really the same word as O. Eng. 
 mood, wrath, A. Sax. mdd, naind, Icel. 
 m(56r, Ger. muth, impulse, Goth, mods, 
 wrath. A moody person is one inclined 
 to wrath. 
 
 Jiin woundes & Jjin holy blod 
 Made hire huerte of dreori mod. 
 Boddeker, Alteng. Dichtungen, p. 201, 1. 64. 
 
 With egre mode and herte full throwe, 
 The stewardes throte he cut in two. 
 
 The Squyr of Lowe Degre, 1. 1018. 
 
 J>o he com to f* temple, and wolde prechi, 
 He vunde Jjer-ynne chepmen. ]jetweremody 
 J>eyh hi were prute, he heom vt drof. 
 
 Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 39, 1. 75. 
 And sone he cam in-to <5at lond, 
 A modi stiward he Sor fond, 
 Betende a man wid hise wond. 
 
 Genesis and Exodus, 1. 2713. 
 
 To the feminine mind in some of its moods 
 all things that might be, receive a temporary 
 charm from comparison with what is. — G. 
 Etiot, Adam Bede, ch. xiv. 
 
 MoBAL, a common corruption of 
 model in Ireland and the provincial 
 dialects of Enghsh, e.g. " He's varry 
 moral of his fayther." — Holderness 
 Dialect : W. Corwwall Olossa/ry, M. A. 
 Courtney. 
 
 Loike 'is faither ? Whoy, a's the very 
 moral on 'im. — Evans, Eeicestershire Glossary, 
 p. 195, E. D. Soc. 
 
 MoRE-poTJND. In an old Treatise on 
 Diseases of Cattle, quoted by Nares, is 
 mentioned " The Sturdy, Turning- 
 evill, or More-found." It is a corrup- 
 
 tion of morfond, a disease in horses, Pr. 
 morfond/re. See Founder. 
 
 MoEKis. \ Morris, an old game 
 MoEALS. / played with cotmters or 
 pegs on lines scored either on the 
 ground or on a board, and mentioned 
 by Shakespeare [Mid. Night Dream, ii. 
 2) in the form " Nine men's morris," 
 is a corruption of morals, with an allu- 
 sion to the well-known morris (or 
 Moorish) dance, which the intricated 
 movements of the pegs was fancied to 
 resemble. The word morals itself, 
 quoted by Dr. Hyde in the phrases, 
 nine men's morals, three men's rmrals 
 (vid. Brand, Pop. Antiguities, vol. ii. 
 p. 431, ed. Bohn), is a corruption of 
 merits or merrils, Fr. marelles, m^elles. 
 " Lejeu des marelles, The boyish game 
 called Merils, or five-penny Moms; 
 plaied here most commonly with 
 stones, but in France with pawns, or 
 men inade of purpose, and tearmed 
 Merelles." — Cotgrave. Merelle or ma- 
 relle is only the fem. form of mereau, a 
 counter, which is traced by Scheler 
 (througli marellus, mairell/us) to Lat. 
 matrellus, from matara, a spear, a 
 Celtic word meaning, perhaps, origi- 
 nally something thrown, jeton : root 
 mat, to throw (Lat. mittere). In tlie 
 form nine-pemvy miracle, also quoted 
 by Dr. Hyde (Zoo. dt), miracle would ' 
 seem to have resulted from a confusion 
 of Pr. mSrelle' -wiUi meneille, even as 
 our playground moMes have sometimes 
 been turned into marvels. Conversely 
 to the above, mivles, a Scotch word for 
 the measles, seems to have been de- 
 rived from the French nrnrMlles. 
 
 . Diefenbach connects Fr. mtreUes, 
 ma/rolles, O. Fr. mereau, a pebble, 
 Netherland ma/rellen, to play with peb- 
 bles, Mid. Lat. marella, merelli, playing 
 stones, with Mid. Lat. margella, a coral 
 bead, Greek mdrgaron, a pearl, and 
 mairga/rites {Goth. Spraclie, ii. 54). 
 
 MoETAE BOARD, as a name for a col- 
 lege cap, is perhaps not originally de- 
 rived from the square implement of 
 the wall-plasterer, but a reminiscence 
 of the old French term nmrtier, a species 
 of cap worn by the clergy and graduates 
 (Gattel), and by the Lord Chancellor 
 and others on high days (Cotgrave). 
 
 Mosaic, an artistic arrangement of 
 vari-coloured marbles, &c., in a manner 
 
MOTHER 
 
 ( 245 ) MOTHEB-OF-PEABL 
 
 worthy of the nmse, Fr. mosaique, Sp. 
 mosaioo. Low Lat. mosaicum, musaicum, 
 seems to have in some way been con- 
 nected with the name of the Jewish 
 lawgiver. An eminent living prelate 
 (the same who found Jew crystallized 
 in jewel) discovered Moses petrified in 
 mosaic, and moralized accordingly on 
 the degeneracy of Israel ! Marvel had 
 a truer insight when he wrote 
 Music the mosaic of the air, 
 
 both words being from Greek mousa, 
 the muse. Cf. the forms Fr. nvusif, It. 
 musaico, Get. nmsiv-. Low Lat. musi- 
 «ttm (sc. opus). 
 
 The Taught be garnysshed with golds and 
 byse with dyuers storyes of as subtyll musiin 
 [? musyv] worke as maye be. — The Pylgrymage 
 of Syr R. Guylforde, 1506, p. ST (Camden 
 See). 
 
 The deep indentings artificiall mixt 
 Amid Mum'iks (for more ornament) 
 Haue prizes, sizes, and dies diifei'ent. 
 /. Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 442. 
 
 In the bottom of this liquid Ice 
 Made of Mus'dick work, with quaint denies 
 The cunning work-man had continued to trim 
 Carpes, Pikes, and Dolphins seeming even to 
 
 swim. Ibid. p. 435. 
 
 No less admirable was the Art, of that 
 kind the Arabs call Marhutery, but the Jews 
 Mosaick [!] ; a composition of many small 
 pieces of Marble variously coloured. — Sir T, 
 Herbert, Travels, 1665, p. 146. 
 
 The base deed of fallen Judaism round the 
 Holy Sepulchre is avenged in the wretched 
 caricatures of the children of Abraham, who 
 haggle with the drunken and the hungry over 
 second-hand clothes, and sell jnosaics and 
 jewellery, the verif words being a witness against 
 them, — The Leading Ideas of the Gospels, p. 
 16 (1872). 
 
 Miss F. E. Havergal prefaced the 
 last outpourings of her pious muse with 
 these appropriate hnes : — 
 
 Master, to do great work for thse, my hand 
 Is far too weak ! Thou givest what may 
 
 suit — 
 Some little chips to cut with care minute, 
 Or tint, or grave, or polish. * * * * 
 Set each stone by thy master-hand of grace, 
 Form the mosaic as thou wilt for me, 
 And in thy temple-pavement give it place. 
 Life Mosaic, 1880. 
 
 Mother, the dregs or cloudy sedi- 
 ment formed in vinegar, &c., Ger. 
 moder and mutter {e.g. essich/m/atter), is 
 a corrupted form of mudder. Low. Ger. 
 nmdder, mud, Swed. and Dut. modder. 
 
 High Ger. motter, connected with 
 moder, and High Ger. wAid, Dan. mud- 
 der, mud. Of. Wallon mutri, mouldy 
 (Sigart). 
 
 A curious coincidence is Gk. graus, 
 (1) an old woman, (2) scum of liquor. 
 
 Mood, the mother of vinegar. — Williams 
 and Jones, Somerset Glossary. 
 
 Unhappily the bit of mother from Swift's 
 vinegar-barrel has had strength enough to 
 sour all the rest. — J. R. Lowell, My Study 
 Windows, p. 95. 
 
 Mother Carey's chickens^ It has 
 been suggested that Mother Garey in 
 this sa0.o?s expression for the stormy 
 petrels is a corrupted form of mater 
 cara, as if oiseaux de Notre Dame, aves 
 Sanaice Marim, but this wants confir- 
 mation. Certainly swallows are called 
 ucoelK della Madonna in the valleys of 
 Tirol, the lark is named Our Lady's 
 Hen in Orkney (Jamieson), and mario- 
 nette is a provincial name of the buf- 
 fel-headed duck ; Icel. mdriatla, the 
 wagtail. Cf. Gertrude's Bird, the great 
 black woodpecker, 8i. Cuthherfs Duck, 
 &c. 
 
 Mother woot, a driver's cry to his 
 horses in Surrey, is for 'm hither, wolt, 
 i.e. come hither, wilt thou. So the Lin- 
 colnshire moch-mether-hauve ! turn to 
 the left, seems to be mog-come-hither- 
 half, i.e. move on, come (to the) hither 
 side (Skeat). 
 
 Mo'CHEr-of-Pearl, so called as if the 
 bearer of pearl, the matrix in which it 
 is produced (Hke the Arabic expres- 
 sions "mother of wine "r: the vine, 
 " son of the sea"zza pearl) is perhaps 
 a misunderstanding of Fr. mere-perle, 
 mother of pearl (Cotgrave), as if con- 
 founded with mitre, mother; whereas 
 this, Kke metre goutte, the first juice of 
 ,the grape, and mire laAne, is derived 
 from Lat. m&i'us (old Fr. mere), pure, 
 excellent of its kind (Scheler). But 
 then Ger. perlenmiutter, Dan. perlemor, 
 " pearl-mother," It. mad/re perla, must 
 be corruptions also. In any case motheir- 
 pea/rl, and not motJier-of-pea/rl, seems 
 to be the original form. 
 
 This shell-£sh which is the Mother of Pearle, 
 differs not much in the maner of breeding and 
 generation from the Oysters. — Holland, 
 Pliny's Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 254. 
 
 Some say that these mj)ther-pearles haue 
 their Kings and Captaines. — Id. p. 255. 
 
MOUND 
 
 ( 246 ) 
 
 MOOSE-WEB 
 
 Thereby his mortal! blade full comely hong 
 In yvory sheath, ycarv'd with curious slights, 
 Whose hilts were burnisht gold and handle 
 
 strong 
 Of mother perle ; and buckled with a golden 
 
 long. 
 
 Upenser, Faerie Queene, I. vii. 30. 
 
 Mound, a hillock or small elevation 
 of earth, has heen altered both in form 
 and meaning from being confounded 
 with mount (Lat. mon{t)s, Pr. mont). 
 It is really the modem form of A. Sax. 
 immd, a protection, used in the sense of 
 an earthen defence (0. H. Ger. mwnt). 
 Compare ha/rrow, a raised mound (Ger. 
 herg, a mountain) , near akin to A. Saxon 
 heorgcm, to protect. Motmt was formerly 
 used for an embankment of earth 
 (North), and so A. V. Jer. vi. 6. 
 
 Mound, an heraldic term for the re- 
 presentation of a globe surmounted by 
 a cross, denoting the ascendency of 
 Christianity over the wwld, is a cor- 
 ruption of Fr. monde, Lat. mund/us. 
 Mounde for world occurs in old Eng- 
 hsh:— 
 
 Synneles y bare fje yn to jjys mounde, — 
 Jiobt. MannyngCj Meditacijuns on tlie Soper of' 
 our Lorde, 1. 942 (ab. 1315). 
 
 There was found a deuice made peraduen- 
 ture with King Philips knowledge, wrought 
 al in massiue copper, a King sitting on horse- 
 backs vpon a monde or world, the horse 
 prauncing forward with his forelegges as if 
 he would leape of, with this inscription Non 
 stifficit orbis, meaning, as it is to be conceaued, 
 that one whole world could not content him. 
 — G. Puttenhamj Arte of' Eng. Poesie, 1589, 
 p. 118 (ed. Arber). 
 
 [He] seems halfe ravisht when he looks upon 
 That bar, this bend ; that fess, this cheveron ; 
 This manch, that moone; this martlet, and 
 that mound. 
 Heri-iclc, Poems, p. 316 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Mouths, in the sense of grimaces, as 
 in the Prayer Book version of the 
 Psalms (xxxv. 15), "making mouths at 
 me, and ceased not" (r: mocking me), 
 is a corruption of old English mowes ; 
 mowe being a contemptuous grin or 
 projection of the lips in ridicule, Fr. 
 moue, old Fr. moe, from Dutch mouwe, 
 a, protrusion of the lower Hp. So to 
 mahe a nwioe, Fr./oire la moue (=: Pro v. 
 Fr. fairs la lippe) rr Dutch mouwe 
 maken (Diez). 
 
 " Make hym {"e mowe " occurs in the 
 Handlyng Synne, p. 125, and Hamlet 
 
 speaks of some " that would make- 
 mows " at his uncle (act ii. sc. 2). 
 
 The Bible 'Word-Boole (Eastwood and 
 Wright) notes that the original reading 
 in the Prayer Book passage was mowes 
 or mows, which retained its place as 
 late as 1687, and that in the following 
 from Hamlet (iv. 4) the same alteration 
 has occurred : — 
 
 Whose spirit with divine ambition puff 'd 
 Makes mouths at the invisible event. 
 
 So Cotgrave gives " moue, a nwe, or 
 mouth; an ill favoured extension or 
 thrusting out of the lips," and " Gri- 
 macer, to make a face or a wry mouth, 
 to mowe." 
 
 Mowe or skorne, Vangia vel valgia." — 
 Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 
 Moware or makere of a mowe, Valgiator. — 
 Id. 
 
 I moo, I mocke, I mowe with the mouthe, 
 ie fays la moue. — Palsgrave, Lesclaircusement, 
 1530. 
 And hot if thou can, we wille not trow, 
 That thou hast saide, bote make the mow 
 When thou syttes in yond sett. 
 Miracle Plays, Crudjiiio, p. 140 
 (ed. Man-iott). 
 Thei scornyden me with mowwng-, thei g;na3- 
 ^denonme " ' ' ' ,. ..^ ^ . 
 
 xxxiv. 16. 
 
 tiden on me with her teeth.- 
 
 mwyng, th 
 -Wyctiffe, 
 
 Psalms, 
 
 This sowne was so full of japes, 
 As ever mowes were in apes. 
 
 Chaucer, The House of Farm, 
 bk. iii, 1. 716. 
 I can mowe on a man, 
 And make a lesynge well I can 
 And mayntayne it ryght well than. 
 The Worlde and the Chytde, 1522 
 (Old Plays, xii. 311). 
 Wyfe, quoth he, then must I nedes know. 
 What is your wyll, then, for to haue: 
 At me you must neither mocke nor mow, 
 Nor yet loute me, nor call me knaue. 
 
 Black-Letter Ballads (Lilly ed), p. 130. 
 And other-whiles with bitter mockes and 
 
 mowes. 
 He would him scorne, that to his gentle 
 
 mynd. 
 Was much more grievous then the others 
 blowes. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, VI. vii. 49. 
 
 MousE-BAELEY, Ger. maus-gerste, Lat. 
 hordeum mwrirmm, is, according to Dr. 
 Prior, a mistake for hordeum mwrale, 
 " ivall-'barley," so called from its grow- 
 ing about walls. 
 
 MousE-WEB, 1 Scotch names for a 
 
 MoosE-WEB, / spider's web, or for 
 
 the gossamer, Cleveland nmzweb, nrnn- 
 
MOW DIE WART 
 
 ( 247 ) 
 
 MULL 
 
 loipe. The first part of the word is 
 most probably, as Mr. Atkinson has 
 pointed out, a corruption of mesh, 0. 
 Norsemiosfcyt, Swed. mas/c IX, Dan. masfce, 
 Ger. masche. Compare 8pinner-mesh, 
 a Cleveland word for the spider's web. 
 
 MowDiEWAKT is a corruption of 
 moldiwarp the mole used by the Ettriok 
 shepherd in the Nodes Amhrosiance, 
 vol. i. p. 68. In Banffshire mothAewort 
 (Gregor). 
 
 Muck, in the phrase " to run a much," 
 meaning to pursue a raad and reckless 
 career, jostling or overturning all one 
 meets, perhaps so spelt with some idea 
 that the violent exertion throws the 
 runner (like Mr. Thornhill's gay ladies) 
 into " a muck of sweat." 
 
 Frontless and satire-proof, he scours the 
 
 streets. 
 And runs an Indian muck at all he meets. 
 Dryden, The Hind and Panther, 1. 1187. 
 
 It is a corruption of amoTc, a native 
 word for a kind of mania or uncontrol- 
 lable fury among the Malays, which im- 
 pels the sufferer to rush madly onward, 
 striking right and left with his kris. 
 " The first warning of such an event is 
 given by the cry of ' Amxih, amoh ! ' 
 when there is a rush, and people fly 
 right and left to Shelter ; for the runner 
 makes no distinction between friend 
 and foe ; his eyes are indeed dark, and 
 he is blind to everything but the intense 
 desire to kill all he can before he ren- 
 ders up his own wretched life."— 
 M'Nair, Perah and the Malays, p. 212- 
 214. 
 
 He was upon the design of moqua ; that is, 
 in their language, when the rascality of tJie 
 Mahometans return from Mecca, they pre- 
 sently take theii- axe in their hands, which is 
 a kind ot" poniard. . . . with which they run 
 through the streets, and kill all those which 
 are not of the Mahometan law, till they be 
 killed themselves. — Tavernier, Voyages, ii. 
 p. 199. 
 
 Drawing their poisoned daggers, tliey cried 
 a mocca upon the English. — Id. p. 202. 
 
 Muddy-want, a Somerset name for 
 the mole or mauldi-ioarp, 
 
 MuDWALL, a name for the bee-eater 
 (apiaster), Johnson, Webster, also spelt 
 modwall (Bailey), is no doubt a corrup- 
 tion, but of what I cannot say. 
 
 MuGWEED, a name for the plant as- 
 perula odorata, also mugwet (Gerarde), 
 
 are corruptions of Fr. muguet, 0. Pr. 
 musquei, Lat. museatus, " musk-scent- 
 ed " (Prior). 
 
 Mug, a vulgar word for a face or 
 mouth (especially an ugly one), stands 
 for murg, Scot, morgue, a solemn face, 
 mtvrgeon, to mock by making mouths 
 (Jamieson), from Fr. morgue, a sour 
 face, a solemn countenance, morguer, to 
 look sourly; of. Languedoc, murga, 
 countenance. 
 
 MuG-woET, A. Sax. mucg-wyrt, a 
 popular name of the plant Artemisia 
 vulgaris, O. Eng. wyrmwyrt, is said to 
 be from O. Eng. mogJie or mough, a 
 maggot or moth (Prior). It was an- 
 ciently believed to be a corrupted form 
 of motherwort, " Mugworte, herbe, 
 idem quod moder worte." — Prompt. 
 Parvulorum. On this Mr. Way quotes 
 fi:om the Arimdel MS. : — "Mogwort, al 
 on as seyn some, modirwort : lewed folk 
 fiat in manye wordes conne no ryst 
 sownynge,but ofte shortjm wordys, and 
 changyn lettrys and silablys, i>ey co- 
 ruptyn ]>6 o. in to u. and d. in to g. and 
 syncopyn i. smytyn a-wey i. and r. and 
 seyn mugwort." jElfric glosses it 
 matrum heria, the CathoUcon Anglicum 
 mater herharum. 
 
 Mr. Cockayne thinks old Eng. mugc- 
 wyrt, mucgivyrt, is properly " midge - 
 wort" (mi/ cf? := midge). " Heo aflig- 
 deofulseocnyssa " (It puts to flight 
 devilsickuess, i. e. epilepsy). — Leech- 
 doms, Wortcunrnng, and Starcraft, vol. 
 i. p. 102. 
 
 Mule, or mule-jenny, a machine used 
 in spinning cotton, is an anglicized form 
 of Ger. miihle, a mill, M. Ger. mule 
 (Webster), Lat. mola, a mill, whence 
 Fr. meule, a mill-stone. It. muUno. 
 Compare It. moUnello, a spiiming-wheel 
 (Plorio). 
 
 Mull, to warm wine or ale with 
 sugar and spice, has been evolved out 
 of m/iiMed, in the phrase rmMed ale, mis- 
 understood as a part participle. But 
 mulled ale is a corruption of old Eng. 
 muld-ale or mold ale {Prompt. Parvu- 
 lorum), a funeral ale, literally mould- 
 ale, ale provided when a person is 
 interred or committed to the mould. 
 Cf. Scot, mulde-^mete, a funeral banquet ; 
 Icel. molda/r, a funeral. The word was 
 probably confounded with old Eng. 
 
MULLEIN 
 
 ( 248 ) 
 
 MUSE 
 
 mullen, to powder, with allusion to the 
 grated spices which the beverage con- 
 tained. — Prof. Skeat, Etym. Diet. s.v. 
 It may possibly have been influenced by 
 Fr. mouiller, to render softi to mellow, 
 Lat. molUre. Shakespeare uses 'nvu.lled 
 for stupefied, softened. Goriolanus, iv. 
 5, 239. 
 New cyder mull'd, with ginger warm. 
 Gay [in Johnson] . 
 
 There was a tun of red port wine drank at 
 his wife's burial, besides mulled white wine. 
 — Misson, in Brand Pop. Antiq, ii. 240 (ed. 
 Bohn). 
 
 The thief of a poet sang the lampoon for 
 him . , . over a quart of mulled beer. — P. 
 Kennedy, 'Evenings in the Duffrey, p. 305. 
 
 Compare O. Eng. moweld (i.e. mould) 
 rr mouldy, moulded. 
 
 ]je ruste of jjat moweld mon6 
 
 Agayne f>am fian sal wittnes be. 
 
 Hampole, Pi'icke of Conscience, 1. 5571. 
 
 Mullein, Fr. molene, the name of a 
 plant, might seem to be so called from 
 its soft downy leaves (hke the Flea- 
 iane Mullet from Fr. mollei, soft), Fr. 
 mol, Lat. mollis, soft. Compare its 
 names woolen, Ger. woll-hromt, L. Lat. 
 lanaria. It is probably, however, the 
 plant which attracts the moiAs (Gerarde, 
 p. 634), hlattaria, from Dan. rrupl, a 
 moth, Goth. Tnalo (Diefenbach, Wedg- 
 wood, Skeat). 
 
 The male Mullein or Higtaper hath broade 
 leaues, very soft, whitish and downie. — Ge- 
 rarde, Herbal, p. 629. 
 
 Mullet, in heraldry a figure like a 
 star with five points, usually the dis- 
 tinguishing mark for the third brother 
 (Bailey), was originally molet, the rowel 
 of a spur, Fr. molette, properly a Utile 
 mill, from Lat. mola, a roill. Cf. Fr. 
 mouUnet, a little wheel. 
 The fader the hole, the eldast son different, 
 quhiche a labelle ; a cressent the secound ; 
 third a molet ; the fourt a merl to tent. 
 
 Boohe of Precedence, S^c. p. 95, I. 45 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 The stede was whyte as any mylke. 
 The brydylle reynys were of sylke, 
 The mokttys gylte they were. 
 
 Ociavian, 1. 720 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Munificence, bountifulness, Lat. 
 munificentia, a derivative of Lat. mum- 
 ficus, bountiful, from munus, a present 
 (or duty) and facere, to make, and so 
 "present-making," is cm-iously used by 
 Spenser in the sense of defence or for- 
 
 tification, evidently on the false as- 
 sumption that the word was akin to 
 muninienf, nvuniiion, Lat. vmnire, to 
 fortify, moenia, defensive ramparts. 
 Until that Locrine for his Realmes defence. 
 Did head against them make and strong mutii- 
 Jicence. 
 
 Faerie Queene, II. x, 15. 
 
 MuNTiN, a Leicestershire word for 
 the mwrmion or mullion of a window, 
 confounded probably with " nwmtmn 
 or upright beam in a building, Fr. 
 montant." — Sherwood, Eng. -French 
 Did. 1660. 
 
 Other forms are mutton, monion, 
 mowijal, moynel (Parker), Fr. moignon, 
 a stump, akin no doubt to Ital. monco, 
 maimed, Lat. mancus. The iminmon 
 of a window is the central stump before 
 it branches off into tracery (Skeat). 
 
 Muscovado, the name given to raw 
 sugar as imported into this country 
 (Latham, Bid. s.v.), is the Spanish 
 word mascabado assimilated to such 
 words as muscadine, muscatel, muscovy. 
 
 Sp. and Portg. mascabado, um'efined 
 (sugar), is from mascahar, to depreciate, 
 the same as Sp. menoscabar, from nias 
 or menos (less) and caho (head).— M. 
 KouMn. It is thus radically the same 
 word as mAsclvief, old Fr. mischief, mis- 
 fortune, injury, Sp. msnos-cabo, bad 
 result, depreciation, loss. 
 
 Muscovy duck, a corruption oimmik- 
 duch, which " derives its name from its 
 exliahng at times a strong odour of that 
 drug. The term Muscovy is wholly 
 misapphed, since it is an exclusive 
 native of the warmer and tropical parts 
 of Axnerica and its islands." — NuttaU, 
 Ornithology of the United States, p. 
 404. [Latham, Bictionanry, s.v.] 
 
 Muse, to ponder or meditate, formerly 
 to study, Fr. muser, so spelt as if the 
 word meant to cultivate the muses, Lat. 
 muscB, (1) the goddesses of learning, 
 (2) studies (Gk. mousai), and so gene- 
 rally imderstood (Coleridge, Eichard- 
 son). Book titles hke "Musings in 
 Verse," were doubtless adopted with 
 this idea. 
 
 Mowsyn, or privelj stodyyn (al. stondyn a 
 dowt;, Muso, musso. — Promptorium Parvuto- 
 rum, 1440. 
 
 I muse my mother 
 Does not approve me further. 
 
 Shakespeare, Coriolimus, iii. 2, 8. 
 
M USER AT 
 
 ( 249 ) 
 
 MUSH-BOLL 
 
 In this passage muse means to wonder. 
 I'lie primitive meaning, however, of 
 the French muser is seen in its use as 
 a term of the chase to use the nose 
 {muse, museau), of a dog to lay it to 
 the ground, of a stag to hft it in the 
 air. A male deer is said faire la muse 
 when it lifts up its muzzle (Cotgrave). 
 From snif&ng the air or being in a state 
 of open-mouthed expectation (which is 
 also the origiaal meaning of abide) came 
 the sense of pausing or pondering. 
 Compare It. mMsa/re, "to rause, to sur- 
 mise, also to goe idly up and downe, 
 or to hold ones muzzle in the air" 
 (Florio). These words are derivatives 
 of Fr. rmiseau, old Fr. musel (Eng. 
 " muzzle "), Prov. rrmrsel, It. muso (for 
 mwrso), from Lat. morsus, (1) a bite, (2) 
 an open mouth (Diez). Similarly Wy- 
 cliffe uses mussel f or " morsel : " — " This 
 man forsakith treuthe, She, for a m,ussel 
 of breed." — Proverhs, xxvui. 11. 
 
 Almost identical is the meaning of 
 the transitive verb amuse, Fr. amuser, 
 to hold folks at gaze, to make them 
 muse, to engross their attention, for- 
 merly, so far from diverting them, to 
 make them sad. " Donner la muse a. 
 To amuse, or put into dumps, to drive 
 into a brown study." — Cotgrave. 
 
 Bishop Hacket says : — 
 
 A glorious splendor fiU'd the mountain 
 where Christ was transfisur'd, and it did 
 amuse Peter, James, and John. — Century of 
 Sennom, 1675, p. 31, fol. 
 
 John Howe begins a sermon on the 
 untimely death of a most hopeful young 
 gentleman cut off in his prime by ob- 
 serving : — 
 
 The peculiar occasion of this present so- 
 lemnity may be somewhat amusing to nar- 
 rower and less considering minds. — The Re- 
 deemer's Dominion over the Invisible Worlds 
 
 Fuller in his Church History speaks 
 of one " Being amused with grief, fear, 
 and fright " (bk. ix. § 44). 
 
 I amused a long while 
 Upon this wall of berile, 
 That shone lighter than a glas. 
 
 Chaucer, The House of Fam£, bk. iii, 
 
 MnsH-KDMP, an old corruption of 
 nmshvom, old Fr. mouscheron. 
 A night grown mushrump. 
 
 Edward II. (Nares). 
 
 MusKEAT is said to have been origi- 
 nally and properly an American word 
 h, and that a corruption of a 
 
 native Indian word moushouessou. So 
 " moose " is from the native word mcus- 
 souh, and " skunk " from sagankou. 
 (Bryant and Gay, Hist, of United States, 
 voL i. p. 319.) 
 
 Muslin-kail, a Scottish word for 
 broth made of barley and greens. 
 I'll sit down o'er my scanty meal, 
 Be't water-brose, or muslin-hiil, 
 Wi' cheerfu' face. 
 Burns, To James Smith, Globe ed. 
 p. 35. 
 Penny wheep [=: beer] 's gude enough for 
 muslin-kail. — A. Hislop, Proverbs of Scotland^ 
 p. 246. 
 
 This muslin is for mashlin or meslin, 
 mixed grain {miscellanea, barley, oats, 
 &c.). 
 
 MussuLMBN is sometimes used by 
 inaccurate writers as the plural of mus- 
 suhnanCPeis. musulmdn,a true believer), 
 a Mohammedan, instead oirrmssulmans, 
 as if the last part of the word was our 
 Enghsh word man. One might equally 
 weU use taUsmen for talismans. 
 
 The word Isldm denotes " an entire devo- 
 tion to the will of another," and from this the 
 Arabians derived the term Moslem or Muslim. 
 i.e. one who has entirely submitted himself 
 to the will of God, and is consequently, " in 
 a state of salvation" (Satam or AsUima). 
 The dual Muslimdni, has most commonly 
 been substituted for these terms by Eastern 
 nations ; and hence the various forms of that 
 name employed by European writers — of 
 Muselman, MussulTmin, Mussulmans, Mussel- 
 men, &c. as applied to the professors of the 
 Mahometan taith. — Cyclopedia of Religious 
 Denominations, p. 333. 
 
 MussHELL, an old Eng. form of 
 muscle or mussel, the shell-fish, Lat. 
 musculus (a little mouse), occurs in the 
 King's CoU. Cambridge MS. of the 
 Promptorium, Parvulorum. Another 
 corruption of musculus seems to be 
 Welsh rmsgl, misglen, a muscle. 
 
 Muss-EOLL, ) old names for the nose- 
 
 MusE-ROLL, ) band of ahorse's bridle, 
 as if the roll for the animal's mus 
 (zi mouth, old Eng.), are corruptions of 
 Fr. rrmserolle, a noseband, a derivative 
 of museau, the muzzle. It. muso, which 
 is from Lat. morsus, (1) a bite, (2) the 
 open mouth (Diez). 
 
 Martingal, a thong of leather fastened at 
 one end to the girts under the belly, and at 
 the other to the muss-roll. — Bailey. 
 
 Musoli6ra, a muzle, a museroU, a muffler. — 
 Flono. 
 
Mr SONG 
 
 ( 250 ) 
 
 MYSTEBY 
 
 My Song ! a Cleveland expletive, is 
 a corruption of an ancient oath La 
 Sangue ! La Sangue Lieu ! (Atkin- 
 son). 
 
 Mystery, when applied to an early 
 religions play and to a mechanical art 
 or trade to which an apprentice is bound, 
 as if denoting some secret or recondite 
 knowledge kept from the outer world 
 and imparted only to those duly ini- 
 tiated, is a corruption of old Fr. ■nies- 
 tier (Portg. ndster, It. mestiero, Prov. 
 mestier, Sp. menester), fromLatin nvinis- 
 teriwm, a religious ministry or service. 
 Though mystery, more properly iivistery, 
 old Bng. rmster, a handicraft, closely 
 corresponds to Fr. metier (mestier), a 
 trade or business, it may also repre- 
 sent the Norm.-Pr. maisterie, science, 
 knowledge. It. mmstria (from m/x-gister), 
 the mastery of a thing, " also skiU, In- 
 dustrie, cunning, arte and wit " (Florio), 
 mcBStrare, " to maister, to teach, to in- 
 struct." Mistery would come from 
 maisterie, just as mister from tnaster, 
 mistress from mai{s)tresse, and mistral, 
 the N.W. wind, from mastral, mcBstro, 
 the masterful wind. 
 
 (1) Mistery ^i old Eng. mistere, a 
 trade, old Fr. mestier. 
 
 Of f)is mestere serueS Jjeo uniselie ontfale 
 i^e deofles kurt [of this art (viz. grimacing) 
 maketh use the unhappy envious in the 
 devil's court]. — Ancren Kimle, p. 212. 
 
 Marthe mester is uorto ueden & schruden 
 poure men, ase huselefdi [Martha's business 
 IS for to feed and clothe poor men, as house- 
 lady]. — Id. p. 414. 
 
 Wyfi-oute pacience non necomjj to perfec- 
 cion. Jjerof we yze]? uorbisne ate leste ine 
 alle (je mestyeres Jietme de); mid hand [With- 
 out patience none cometh to perfection. 
 Thereof we see example at least in all the 
 crafts that one practises by hand]. — Ayenbite 
 oflnwyt (1340), p. 167. 
 
 Rihtes mester hit is and wes, 
 In vche dom Pees to maken. 
 
 CastelL off Loue, 1. 479. 
 
 And on Se sexte hundred ger 
 Wimmen welten "weres mesier. 
 
 Genesis and Exodus, 1. 532 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 [^\'omen exercised men's arts.] 
 
 Of all the comun people about, 
 Withinne burgh and eke without, 
 Of hem that ben artificers, 
 Whiche usen craftea and mestiers, 
 Whose art is cleped mechanique, 
 And though they ben nought alle like, 
 
 Yet netbeles how so it falle, 
 lawe mot governe hem alle. 
 
 Gower, Confessio Amantis, vol. iii, 
 
 p. 142 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 In youthe he lerned hadde a good mistere, 
 
 He was a wel good wright, a carpentere. 
 
 Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 1. 615. 
 
 Shame light on him, that through so false 
 
 illusion. 
 Doth turne the name of Souldiers to abugion, 
 And that, which is the noblest mysterie, 
 Brings to reproach and common infamie ! 
 Spenser, Mother Hubbards Tale, 1. 2:22. 
 And bad him goe his waye such as he was. 
 The selaunder of an honest misterye. 
 
 - F. Thynn, Debate between Pride and' 
 Lowliness (ab. 1568) p. 48 (Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 Leaning these manner of dissimulations to 
 all base-minded men, and of vile nature or 
 misterie, we doe allow our Courtly Poet to be 
 a dissembler only in the subtUties of his arte. 
 — G. Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, 1589, 
 p. 308 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Alciim. But what stripling is this ? 
 Peter. One that is desirous to leai'ne your 
 
 craft. 
 Akum. Craft, sir boy ! you must call it 
 
 mysitery. 
 R^ffe. All is one, a craftie mystery, and a 
 mysticall craft. 
 J. Lilly, Galluthea, act ii. sc. 3 (1592). 
 Every manuary trade is called a mystery, 
 because it hath some slight or subtlety of 
 gayning that others cannot iooke into. Every 
 man cannot be a carpentour of his owne for- 
 tune. — Mannighum's Diary, April 10, 1603, 
 p. 166 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Euery Printer offending therein shall be 
 for euer hereafter disabled to use or exercise 
 the Art or Mysterie of Printing.— Decree of 
 Starre-Chamher, Concerning Printing, 1637. 
 
 It is strange to find a critical writer 
 thinking that this mystery is the Greek 
 musterion, " something kept secret." 
 
 There is common to nearly all arts and 
 mysteries (as the old term itself implies) a 
 certain jealousy of the outside world, which 
 is distinct from any individual reticence pro- 
 duced by the fear of competition.— Saturitt.1/ 
 Review, vol. 48, p. 657. 
 
 There are certain mysteries or secrets in all 
 trades, from the highest to the lowest, from 
 that of prime-ministering to this of authoring, 
 which are seldom discovered unless to mem- 
 bers of the same calling.— fieUing, .?'««?'> 
 Andrews, bk. ii. ch. 1. 
 
 A mystery play was one acted by a 
 guUd of handicraftsmen, such as tlie 
 carpenters, the lorimers, &c. See M. 
 Petit de JuUevUle, Les Mysieres.^ 
 
 (2) Mistery, perhaps = maistrie, old 
 Eng. meistre. Cf. Ger. meisier, master. 
 
MYSTERY 
 
 ( 251 ) 
 
 NAIL 
 
 Maliterie, a Mystery, a masterly action, 
 Magistracy, masterly workmansliip. — BaUey, 
 Dictionary. 
 
 Maisti-y, skill, is frequent in old Eng. 
 writers. Sir Thos. More, for instance, 
 speaking of Wyclifie's Translation of the 
 Bible, says : — 
 
 These thinges lie so handled ( which was no 
 great imiistry) with reasons probable & 
 likely to ley peple & vnlerned that he cor- 
 rupted in his time many folke in this realme. 
 — Dialogue concemynge Heresyes (1528), bk. 
 iii. ch. 14. 
 
 Madstery and magistery were used 
 Bpeoifioally by the Alchemists for their 
 own mystery. 
 
 Oar Magistery is Three, Two, and One, 
 The Animall, Vegitable, and Mineral! Stone. 
 
 Thus who can worke wisely 
 Shall attain unto our Maistery. 
 
 Bbomejields Blossoms {Ashmole, 
 Theat. Cliemiciinij p. 323). 
 The Maistery thou gettest not yet of these 
 
 Planets seaven, 
 But by a misty meaning knowne only unto 
 us. 
 
 Id. {op. cit. p. 315). 
 In the same collection is a poem on 
 the Mistery of Alchymists, by Geo. 
 Eipley (p. 380). 
 
 Or oez par maisterie que li chars signifie. 
 Philip de Tluiun, The Bestiary (12th 
 cent.), 1. 153. 
 [Now hear by science what the cart signifies.] 
 His penance was forgeten, he asked for his 
 
 archere, 
 Walter Tu'elle was haten, maister of that 
 miste)'. 
 
 Robert of Brunne, Lan^toft's Chroii, 
 p. 94 (ed. 1810). 
 \}et haue^ to muche jneistrie on monie [That 
 hath too much mastery over many]. — Ancren 
 Riwle, p. 140, and so mesterie, p. 108. 
 It were a lytell maystry 
 To make a blynde man to se 
 As suche a yerde trvely. 
 
 The Smyth and His Dame, 1. 82. 
 Gramercy, syr, sayd she. 
 For thov hast wrovght on me ; 
 It was a fvll great maystry^ 
 As I vnderstande ; 
 I was blynde, nowe may I se. 
 
 Id. 1. 168. 
 
 It is curious to observe words so dif- 
 ferent as Lat. magister (from magis), 
 one greater, a master, and minister 
 (from minus), one less, a servant, yield- 
 ing a word of the same form, mistery, 
 knowledge, craft, and mistery, a reli- 
 gious play. 
 
 Mysterious, a Derbyshire woman's 
 corruption of the plant-name mezereon, 
 with the explanation, " We call it the 
 mysterious plant, sir, because its flowers 
 come out before its leaves." — Britten 
 and Holland. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nacker, a provincial word for a 
 drum in N.W. Lincolnshire (Peacock, 
 Glossary), probably mentally associated 
 with words like nacjcer, to snap the 
 finger, knack, knock, &c., is the old 
 Eng. naker, nakyre, Er. nacaire, na- 
 quaire, Low Lat. naca/ra, Arab, naqarah, 
 a drum. 
 
 & ay jie nakeryn noyse, notes of pipes, 
 Tymbres & tabornes, tulket among. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 77, 1. 1414. 
 
 Nacornb, an old Eng. word for a 
 sort of kettledrum, but sometimes 
 taken to be a wind-instrument like a 
 hoboy, and so called as if compounded 
 with come, a horn, is a corrupt form 
 of naker, nauguayre, from the oriental 
 word naqarah, a drum. 
 
 Nacorne, ynstrument of mynstralsye. Na- 
 bulum. — Prompt. Parv. (vide Way's note). 
 
 Nag-nail, a provincial word for a 
 sore at the root of a finger-nail, as if 
 that which nags or gnaws the nail, is 
 perhaps only another form of 0. Eng. 
 ang-ncegele (ang =: sore, pain). (See 
 Hang-nail.) But compare Icelandic 
 anneglwr, the skin round the finger- 
 nail, a corruption of which is aum- 
 neglur (an agnail), as if " sore-naU," 
 from awnvr, sore. 
 
 Nail, a provincial word for a needle 
 in East Cornwall (Couch, E.D.S.), is 
 an assimilation to nail, a spike of metal 
 (A. Sax. ruBgel), of old Eng. nelde, 
 neelde, a transposed form of nedle, a 
 needle, A. Sax. nmdl. Compare Dan. 
 naal, Icel. ndl, Dutch naald, a needle, 
 beside Ger. nadel, O. H. Ger. nddela, 
 Goth, nethla, originally " the sewer," 
 cognate with G!er.nahen,to sew. Needle, 
 which in Oammer Gurtonrh.ym.es with 
 feele, is in Shakespeare often pro- 
 nounced as a monosyllable, very much 
 like neeld, and the d, as in vild (vUe), 
 may have been scarcely perceptible 
 (Abbot, 8hakspearian Grammar, p. 
 846). 
 
NANOY-PBETTY ( 252 ) 
 
 NIGH-EAND 
 
 AUe Jjeos ^inges . . . ne beo<S nout wurS a 
 netde, — Ancren Riwl£^ p. 400. 
 Naked as aneeUle ' and nonhelp aboutehym. 
 
 Piers Pbwmanj text C, xx. 56. 
 We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, 
 Have with our nec/ds created both oneflower. 
 Shakespeare, Midsummer IV. Dream, 
 iii. 2, 205. 
 
 Nancy-pketty, a Scotch name for the 
 plant London Pride, a corruption of 
 None- so-pretty (Jamieson). It is found 
 also in the Holderness dialect of E. 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 Lords and ladies, love in a mist, none so 
 pretty, true love of Canada, and bachelor's 
 buttons. — Nares, Think-I-to-Mt/self, ii. 41. 
 
 Napoleon, a popular corruption in 
 the Isle of Wight of the plant-name 
 irifolmm (incamatum). — Britten and 
 Holland. 
 
 Naeeow-weiggle, a corruption in 
 the Eastern counties of the provincial 
 word "an erri-wiggle," A. Sax. emr- 
 imgga, an earwig. — Fhilolog. 8oc. 
 Trans. 1858, p. 97. 
 
 Neae, used in the provincial dialects 
 {e.g. Sternberg, Northampton Olossa/ry) 
 and colloquial Bnghsh with the mean- 
 ing of parsimonious, stingy, is in all 
 probability a corrupted form of old 
 Eng. hnedw, sparing, niggardly (Oced- 
 mon, 171, 5), influenced, it may be, by 
 the synonymous word close, understood 
 as hard-by, instead of tight-fisted, 
 having one's bowels of compassion shut 
 up. Hnedw, Icel. hnbggr, seems to be 
 akin to A. Sax. gnagan (? hna^an), to 
 gnaw or nag, SweA.gnaga, Lincolnshire 
 gnag, Ger. nagen, Norse nagga, and to 
 mean one who gnaws and scrapes his 
 bones, a cheese-paring skinflint. Iden- 
 tical with this is Danish gnier, a miser, 
 a griping penurious fellow, which, as 
 well as gnidsh, stingy, is from gnide, 
 to rub. Cf. old Eng. gnede, stingy 
 (Havelock the Bane, 1. 97). Parallel and 
 related are niggard, old Eng. nygun 
 (Handlyng Synne, 1. 5578), from Icel. 
 nyggja, to rub, scrape, or gnaw ; nugg- 
 jen, stingy, Swed. njugg. Also Greek 
 gniphm, a miser, TcnApds and slcnipds, 
 niggardly, from hnizo, to scrape, slcmpio, 
 to nip or pinch. Compare Cumberland 
 scrohy, parsimonious, akin to Dut. 
 schrobben, Gael, sgrioif to scrape. 
 
 A company of studious paper-worms, & 
 leane schollers rmd n iggardly scraping Vsurers. 
 — Lingua (1632), act iii. sc. 2. 
 
 This nea/i; penurious, occurs in 
 Mabbe, The Bogue (1623), part i. p. 
 107, and in Miss Burney's GeeiKa, 
 book ii. ch. 9 : — " Miss, he's so near it's 
 partly a wonder how he lives at all." 
 See Pitzedward Hall, Modern EngKsh 
 p. 243. 
 
 As he is very careful of his fortune I always 
 thought he lived in a near manner.— 7/ie 
 Spectator, No. 402. 
 
 Mr. Barkis was something of a miser, or, 
 as Peggotty dutifully expressed it, was " a 
 little near." — Dickens, David CopperJieU, 
 ch. X. 
 
 The word has perhaps partially 
 coalesced with old Eng. na/re, narrow, 
 confined, A. Sax. mecww, close, restricted, 
 "narrow;" compare "Hit is somdel 
 nare." — Wright, Pop. Treatises on 
 Science, p. 139, 1. 318. Indeed nmrow 
 is found in the sense of close-fisted, 
 parsimonious. 
 
 Be not too narrow, husbandmen ! but fling 
 From the full sheaf, with charitable' stealth. 
 The liberal handful. 
 
 Thomson, The Seastms, Aittumn. 
 
 Neaeee, an incorrect and somewhat 
 modem formation based on the assump- 
 tion that nea/r is a positive, whereas 
 this word, A. Sax. near, is really the 
 old comparative of the adverb nedh, 
 nigh, Goth. nehw. Thus near-er is a 
 pleonastic comparative just equivalent 
 to nigh-er-er (Morris, Skeat). Compaie 
 the following where near = more nigh. 
 The nere to the Church the farther from 
 God. — Heywood, Proverbs, C. 
 With this Chanon I dwelt have seren yere, 
 And of his science am I never the mre. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 16189. 
 At alle peryles, quod )je prophete, I aproche 
 hit no nerre. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 91, 1. 85. 
 Your sighes yow fet from farre. 
 And all to wry your wo : 
 Yet ar ye nere the narre. 
 Men ar not blinded so. 
 
 Tottel's Miscellany (1557), p. 58 
 (ed. Arber). 
 Doe not imitate those foolishe Patientes, 
 ■which hauing sought all meanes of recouery, 
 and are neuer the neere, run vnto Witchcraft. 
 — S. Gossan, Sehoole of Abuse (1579), p. 60, 
 ed. Arber. 
 
 He loued her more then seuen yere, 
 Yet was he of her loue neuer y' mre. 
 The Squyr of Lowe Vegre, 1. 18. 
 
 Nbae-hand, ) as in the sentence 
 
 Nigh-hand, J "He was wigh-luiid 
 
 drowned before I reached him," A. Sax. 
 
NEAT 
 
 ( 253 ) 
 
 NEEB-FIBB 
 
 nedh-hand, almost, nearly, is not com- 
 pounded, according to Dr. Morris, with 
 hand (= manii:s), but with an old ad- 
 verbial termination (of. A. Sax. nedn, 
 nearly). 
 
 I am nere Juinde dold [= stupified], so long 
 have I nappyd. 
 
 Townley Mi/steries, Pastores, 
 The Lady searched my wounds full scone, 
 Shee gave me drinke for to restore, 
 for neere hand Tvas I bled before. 
 
 Percij Folio MS. vol. i. p. 362, 
 1. 244. 
 Unto Eld so gan he pas 
 |jat al his hare nerehand white was. 
 Cott. MS. See Priche of Comcience, 
 ed. Morris, p. "308. 
 
 Neat, cattle of the ox species, aooord- 
 ing to a popular etymology as old as 
 the time of Alfred, are so called because 
 wyton, they know naught, have no wit 
 or understanding, the word being re- 
 garded as a derivative of A. Sax. nitan 
 (r: me witan) not to know, like old 
 Eng. not for ne not. 
 
 To those who are not aware of it, it might 
 be interesting to know that neat is a com- 
 pound word, answering exactly to the Greek 
 Alogon [irrational], although the latter is 
 confined to horses, and the former to cattle. 
 —Sat. Review, Aug. 6, 1881, p. 181. 
 
 But neat, A. Sax. nedt, Scot, nout 
 (and noli), Icel. naut, mean etymologi- 
 cally the beasts useful to man, from A. 
 Sax. nedtan, to make use of, Icel. njota 
 (see Skeat, Etym. Bid.). So a cow 
 that is a good rnilker is said to be " of 
 good note," i.e. profit. See Not- 
 able. 
 
 Neddy, a familiar term for a simple- 
 ton, has nothing to do with the name 
 Edward. In Cheshire the word ap- 
 pears as " an eddy," which seems to be 
 the same word as A. Sax. eadig, happy, 
 blessed (from edd, happiness), the idiot 
 or umocent being universally regarded 
 as a favourite of Heaven, " Badig ys 
 Be fieow" (Blessed is that servant). — 
 Matt. xxiv. 46. So silly originally 
 meant happy, A. Sax. smlig ; sachless, 
 in Prov. Eng. (A. Sax. sac-leas), (1) 
 gmltless, (2) witless. Of. Fr. Sewei, orig. 
 blessed ; Ger. albern, orig. kind ; Gk. 
 euHhes, &c. In early Enghsh a fool 
 was sometimes oaXlBdiBad-wine(BdM3in; 
 see J. C. Robertson, Materials for Hist, 
 of Thos. Beeket, vol. i.) ; in A. Saxon 
 Bad-vine (Icel. aud-vinr) means an 
 
 easy friend, one soft and kind. Simi- 
 larly auiuwn, the Icelandic form of 
 Edwin, is popularly used for a nonen- 
 tity. Cornish easy, idiotic, is perhaps 
 a corruption of eady (O. E. eath =; 
 easy). 
 
 Assuer an Ebreuwish is eadi an English : 
 }iet is ure Louerd, jjet is eadi ouer alle [As- 
 suer in Hebrew is blessed in English ; that 
 is our Lord, that is blessed over all] . — Ancren 
 Riwle, p. 146. 
 
 Nbedcbssity, a common corruption 
 of " necessity " in Scotland and N. Ire- 
 land. SiniU.a,rlj ill-convenient ioi "in- 
 convenient." 
 
 Need-fiee, Scotch neid-fyre, " fire 
 produced by the friction of two 
 pieces of wood" (Jamieson), Low Ger. 
 nodfure (1593), niedfyr in the Capitu- 
 laries of Ca/rloman (8th cent. ; see E. 
 B. Tylor, Barly Hist, of Mankind, pp. 
 256 seg. 3rd ed.), is not fire so obtained 
 when in wamt of better as we might 
 imagine, but literally "friction fire," 
 need being another form of hnead, and 
 from the old Enghsh gnidan, to rub, 
 Dan. gnide, Swed. gnida, to rub (com- 
 pare Swed. gmd-eld, "rub-fire "zz need- 
 fire, gnidsten, rub-stone). 
 
 Nime senne sticcan & gnid to sumum fiinge, 
 hit hata<S Jpser-rihte of a am fyre ]pe him on 
 luta^. — Astronom. Treatise of 10th Cent, in 
 Wright, Pop. Treatises on Science, p. 17. 
 
 [Take a stick and rub it to something, it 
 heateth straightway with the fire that lurketh 
 in it.] 
 
 Ger. nothfeuer, of the same meaning, 
 though seemingly compounded with 
 noth (cf. Goth, nauthjan, Icel. nauda, 
 Dan. v<j>de, to force, as if " forced fire "), 
 is probably of the same origin. Com- 
 pare A. Sax. nedan, to force ; " ned 
 swot," forced sweat. — Ancren Riwle, 
 p. 110. 
 
 Tine-egan, or Neidfyre,i.e. forced fire. All 
 the fires in the house being extinguished, 
 two men produced a flame of potent virtue by 
 the friction of wood. This charm was used 
 within the memory of living persons, in the 
 Hebrides, in cases of murrain among cattle. 
 — Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth, note to 
 ch. xxvi. 
 
 Needfires used to be lighted on the occa- 
 sion of epidemics occurring among cattle, and 
 the custom is still observed here and there to 
 this day. Wherever it can be traced among 
 people of German or Scandinavian descent, 
 the fire is always kindled by the friction of a 
 wooden axle in the nave of a waggon wheel, 
 or in holes bored in one or two posts. — W. 
 
NEOBOMANGEB ( 254 ) NEVEB-TEE-LESS 
 
 Keltii, Curiosities of Indo-European Traditicn 
 and Folk-lore, p. 48. 
 
 Negeomancer, ) old spellings of ne- 
 Nygeomancee, ) (?comamcer,from Gk. 
 nehrdmantis, a diviner (mantis) that 
 consults the dead (nekros), following 
 the Italian negromante, Sp. and Portg. 
 mgromanie, 0. Fr. nigremance, as if 
 from It. negro, Lat. wiger, black, and 
 denoting one that deals in the blach 
 art, Sp. magia nagra. 
 
 Negromancers put their trust in their circles, 
 within which thei tbinke them self sure 
 against all y deuils in hel. — Sir Tlwmas More, 
 Works, p. 120 b. 
 
 On the next page the same ■writer 
 speaks of " nygromancers that put theyr 
 confydence in the roundell and oerole 
 on the grounde." 
 
 Compare the following definition : — 
 
 It, negrojnantia, a nigromancie, enchanting;, 
 or the blacke arte by calling. — Florio. 
 
 Negromunte, a nigromant, or enchanter, that 
 raiseth, calleth up, and talketh with the 
 spirits of dead bodies. — Id. 
 
 Low Lat. nigromansia dicitur divinatio 
 facta pernigros [q. d. the shades of the de- 
 parted]. — Vocabulary, 14:75 {Trench, Eng. P. 
 and P. lect. T.). 
 
 for he sal (jan shew wonders many 
 Tliurgh enchauntementes and nugromancy. 
 
 Pricke of Conscience, p. 117, 1. 4286. 
 Of calculacion and negremauncye 
 
 Also of augrym and of asmatryk . . . 
 In alle this scyens is non us lyke. 
 
 The Coventry Mysteries, p. 189. 
 
 Nigromancye and perimancie • \ie pouke to 
 Rise makefj. 
 Vision of Piers Plownuin, Pass. XL 
 1. 158, text A, E.E.T.S. 
 
 Nigrantauncers are thei that hi figeria or 
 markyngis vpon the dead body of best or of 
 man, thus enforoith to geit wityng. — Apology 
 for the Lollards, p. 95 (Camden Sec). 
 Trust not, ne love not Negromancy, 
 For it is a property of the Devill" to lye. 
 Norton, Ordinall of Alchemic (ed, 
 Ashmole), p. 101. 
 For rather er he shulde faile. 
 With nigromaunce he wolde assaile, 
 To make his incantacion 
 With bote subfumigacion. > 
 
 Gower, Confesdo Amantis, vol. iii. 
 p. 45 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 And the third sister, Morgan le Fay, was 
 put to schole in a nunry, and there shee 
 learned so much that shee was a great clarke 
 of nigromancy. — Sir T. Malory, History of 
 King Arthur (1634), vol. i. p. 6 (ed. 
 Wright). v \ 
 
 I haue brought a boye to thee. 
 Which hath wrought me moche wo : 
 He is a grete nygromancere, 
 In all Orlyaunce is not bis pere, 
 As by my trouth I trowe. 
 
 A mery geste of the Frere and the 
 Boye, 1. 429. Early Popular 
 Poetry, vol. iii. p. 79. 
 
 A negro stood by us trembling, whom we 
 could see now and then to lift up his hands 
 and eyes, muttering his black Art as we ap- 
 
 firehended, to some hobgoblin, hut (when we 
 east suspected) skipt out, and as in a lim- 
 phatick rapture unsheath'd a long skean or 
 knife which he brandisht about his head seven 
 or eight times, and after as many mutterin? 
 spells put it up again, then kissed the earth 
 three times, which done, he rose, and upon a 
 sudden, the skie cleared and no more noise 
 affrighted us. — Sir Thomas Herbert, Travels, 
 1665, p. 29. 
 
 Exactly the same misunderstanding 
 is exhibited in the Mid. High. Ger. 
 word nigromanzie. 
 
 Neither, a corrupted form, from a 
 desire to assimilate it to either, of 
 the old Eng. nother, A. Sax. ndw^er, 
 which is a contraction of nd-hwm^er, i.e. 
 " no- whether," not either (z: Lat. 
 neuter, ne-uter). Other old forms are 
 ncmtlier, nouther, nowther (see Skeat, 
 Etym. Bid. s.v.). 
 
 Vor her hors were al astoned, and nolde after 
 
 wylle 
 Sywe nojjer spore ne brydel. 
 
 Robert of Gloiicester, p. 396. 
 
 Jjat felde I naw\>er reste ne trauayle. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 32, 1. 1087. 
 
 Nother by hire wordes ne hire face, 
 Beforn the folk, ne eke in hir absence 
 Ne shewed she that hire was don offence. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 8798. 
 
 Nethermost, so spelt as if it meant 
 "most lower," is a false form due to a 
 popular etymology which connected 
 the ending with most ; it is really a cor- 
 ruption of A. Sax. mSemesto ( := Lat. 
 infi-nvus), from to', down. Niiem-est is 
 really a double superlative form, Uke a 
 Latin injvm-issimvus (see Skeat, Etym. 
 Diet. S.V.). 
 
 The nethermost chamber was five cubits 
 broad. — A. V, 1 Kings, vi. 6. 
 
 Nevek-the-less, a corruption of the 
 older form natheles (understood as 
 ne'ertheless), A. Sax. Jwf \ie lms,.no the 
 less, i.e. not the less. Here )?e is for 
 W, the instrumental case of the article, 
 " non eo minus ; " as in " the more the 
 
NIBBLETIES 
 
 ( 255 ) 
 
 NICK-NAME 
 
 merrier," i.e. in that (proportion) it is 
 more, in that it is the merrier (Skeat). 
 Now wolde God mighta suffice 
 To tellen all that longeth to that art ; 
 But jiathetess, yet wol I tellen part. 
 
 Chamer, Cant. Tales, 1. 16186. 
 Nnheles he wolde iwite hwuder he were 
 iled [Nevertheless he would know whether 
 he were led]. — Old En/;, iliscetlany, p. 43, 1. 
 214. 
 
 Nau])eles ^333 hit schowted scharpe. 
 
 ALliterutive Puems, p. 26, 1. 877. 
 And na\.eUs hi nome alle {;re, and toward 
 toune here. 
 
 Legends of the HdIq Rood, p. 
 44, 1. 307. 
 
 NiBBLETiES, a Cumberland corrup- 
 tion of "novelties." 
 
 Wi' nibbleties as guod as nyce. 
 
 Stagg. 
 
 (Dickinson, Supplement, E.D.S.) 
 
 Nick, in the popular expression 
 " Old Nick," meaning the devil, has no 
 connexion with Nicholas, but is a sur- 
 vival of old Bng. mcor, a goblin, origi- 
 nally a water-monster, human above, 
 fish or serpent below, Icel. nyhr, O. H. 
 Ger. nichus, Dan. nfJc, Swed. ndTc, Ger. 
 nix. 
 
 On ySum sl6g niceras nihtes. 
 
 Beowulf (8th cent.), I. 422 
 (ed. Arnold). 
 [On the waves he slew the nixes of the night.] 
 
 See S. Baring-Gould, Iceland, p. 
 148; Douce, Illustrations of SJiahs- 
 peare (1839), p. 240 ; Walker, Selections 
 from Gentleman's Mag. ii. 215 ; Thorpe, 
 Northern Mythology, ii. p. 20 ; Nares, 
 
 B.V. 
 
 Mr. Wedgwood thinks the original is 
 the Plat-Dutch rnikker, an executioner 
 (Philolog. 80c. Trans. 1856, p. 12). 
 
 Butler says : — 
 Nick Machiavel had ne'er a trick, 
 Though he gave his name to our Old Nick, 
 But was below the least of these. 
 
 Hudibras, pt. iii. canto 1. 
 
 And so Eamsay : — 
 
 Fause flatt'ry nane but fools will tickle, 
 
 That gars me hate it like aidd Nicol. 
 
 Epistle to Arbuckle (1719). 
 
 Out vpon it ! how lono; is Pride a dressing 
 herselfe t Enuie, awake T for thou must ap- 
 peare before Nichnlao Malevolo, great muster- 
 master of hel. — T. Nash, Pierce Peniless's 
 Supplication to the Devil, p. 31 (1392), Shaks. 
 Soc. ed. 
 
 Similarly Old Scurry is said to be 
 
 corrupted from I>an.Erio ("Old Eric"), 
 applied to the devil, and Old Scratch 
 from Sch-atz or Schrat, a satyr or spu-it 
 of the woods (Thorpe). 
 
 Dan Michel says of flatterers and 
 slanderers : — 
 
 bise bye); \>e tuo nykeren ]pet we uynde}; ine 
 bokes of kende of bestes. Vor hy bye(j a 
 ssewynge of )je 3e )jet me klepej; nykeren, \>et 
 habbejj bodyes of wylinan and tail of uisssse 
 [These be the two nickers that we find in 
 bokes of natural history. For they be a 
 phenomenon of the sea that men call nickers 
 that have bodies of woman and tail offish]. 
 — Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 61 (1340). 
 
 Tho cryde he alas me growleth of thyse 
 fowle nyckersj Come they out of belle, men 
 may make deuylles a ferd of hem. goo and 
 drowne them that euyl mote they fare I sawe 
 neuer fowler wormes, they make al myn beer 
 to stand right vp. — W. Caxton, Reynard the 
 Fox, p. 100 (1481), ed. Arber. 
 
 " What is a nicor, Agilmund? " asked one 
 of the girls. "A sea-devil who eats sailors." 
 — C. Kingsley, Hypatia, ch. xii. 
 
 NiOK-NAME, so spelt as if meaning a 
 name that mocks, or slanders, or, in 
 old English, nichs one. Compare Ger. 
 nechen, to banter, rally, or tease. , 
 
 Nychiame, brocquart. — Palsgrave, Les- 
 claircisseinent, 153-). 
 
 Susurro, a priuye whisperer, or secret car- 
 rytale that slaunderetb, backebiteth, and 
 nicketh ones name. — Junius, Nomenclator, by 
 John Higins, 1585. 
 
 The Greeks . . . nicked Antiochus Epi- 
 phanes, that is, the famous, with Epimanes, 
 that is, the furious. — Camden, Remaincs con- 
 cerning Britaine (1637), p. 158. 
 
 Fuller, speaking of the old local pro- 
 verb, " Banbury zeale, cheese, and 
 cakes," said to have originated in an 
 old misprint for "Banbury veal," re- 
 marks : — 
 
 But what casual in that, may be suspected 
 wilful in the next and last Edition anno 1637, 
 where the error is continued out of design to 
 nick the Town of Banbury, as reputed then 
 a place of precise people, and not over-con- 
 formable in their carriage. — T. F-uller, The 
 Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 220. 
 
 I call to mind an Anagram which the Pa- 
 pists made of Reverend Calvin — " Calvinus, 
 Lucianus.*' And now they think they have 
 nicked the good man to purpose, because Lu- 
 cianus was notoriously known for an Atheist, 
 and grand Scoffer at the Christian Religion. 
 — T. Fuller, The Worthies of Eiigland, vol. ii. 
 p. 538. 
 
 Believe me, Sir, in a little time you'll be 
 nick'd the town-bull. — Princess ofCleve, 1689 
 [Nares]. 
 
NIDDYWIT 
 
 ( 256 ) NINE-MAN'S-MABBIAOE 
 
 " How happie, how cleane would this our 
 Armie be, were it but purged from Tails and 
 Long-tailes ! " Tbat the Engliah were nicked 
 by this speech, appears by the reply of the 
 Earle of Salisbury, following still the meta- 
 phor : " The Son of my father shall presse 
 thither today, whither you shall not dare to 
 approach his Horse-taile." . . . If any demand 
 how this nick-nams (cut off from the rest of 
 England) continues still entailed on Kent? 
 The best conjecture is, because that County 
 lieth nearest to France, and the French are 
 beheld as the first founders of this aspersion. 
 — T. Fuller J The Worthies of EvgUind, vol. i. 
 p. 486. 
 
 Warbeck, as you nick him, came to me. 
 Ford [in Webster]. 
 
 Ye haue a figure by which ye play with a 
 couple of words or names much resembling, 
 and because the one seemes to answere th* 
 other by manner of illusion, and doth, as it 
 were, nick him, I call him the Nicknamer. — 
 G. Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie p. 212 
 (1589), ed. Arber. 
 
 Skylark grew to be her ordinary appellation, 
 shortened, indeed, to Skylie — the nickname 
 nicked. — Mr&. Whitney, 'Ike Gayworthys, ch. 
 xxvi. 
 
 Compare in German spitzname, a, 
 nickname, often popularly derived from 
 spitzen, to clip or sharpen, spUzig, 
 keen, sharp (Andresen, Volksetymo- 
 logie). 
 
 Similarly Spenser uses nip for to 
 slander : — 
 
 To heare the Javell so good men to nip. 
 Mother Huhberds Tale, Globe ed. p. 519. 
 
 Nichname, however, which might be 
 supposed to correspond to a French 
 nom de mque, " name of mockery " (cf. 
 faire la nique, to mock), was originally 
 . a nekename, formed, by agglutination 
 of the final n of the article to the sub- 
 stantive, from an ekename, i.e. an 
 added name (cf. " addition "::: title), 
 from eke, to increase. Compare old • 
 Eng. sekeness = sickness. 
 
 Neke name, or eke name. Agnomen. — 
 Promptorium Parvulorum, 1440. 
 
 An ekname, agnomen. — Catholicon Angli- 
 cum, 1483 [Way]. 
 
 Agnomen, an ekeiiame, or a surename. — 
 Medulla. 
 
 Compare Swed. oknamn, Icel. auk- 
 nefni, and auka-nafn, i.e. an eke-name, 
 an additional name of a descriptive or 
 defamatorynature, from auM, addition, 
 A. Sax. eaca, Ger. auch, Eng. eke. Simi- 
 lar are Lat. agnomen, i.e. ad-{g)nomen ; 
 Eng. surname, i.e. super-name; It. 
 sopranome, "a by or nickname" 
 
 (Florio) ; Fr. sobriquet, from supricm 
 (supra); Ger. zu-namie, 0. Eng. (o- 
 namie. " Hys toname ys Grostest."— 
 Handlyng 8ynne, p. 150. 
 
 Ac [who] so rede); of [}je] riche • jje reuers 
 
 he may fynde. 
 How god, as )je godspel telle)) • gyueji hem 
 foul tow-name. 
 Vision concerning Piers the Plowman, Pass 
 xiii. 1. 210 (1393), Text C. 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 So vayr erytage, as ych abbe, yt were me 
 
 gret ssame, 
 Vor to abbe an louerd, bote he adde an too 
 name. 
 Robert of Gloucester, ChronieU, p. 431 
 (ed. Hearne). 
 Thai theifs that steills, and tursis hame 
 Ilk ane of thame hes ane lo-name. 
 Will of the La wis 
 Hab of the Shawis. 
 Maitland, Aganis the Thievis of LiddisdaiL 
 
 Compare also Ger. heinanie, Bug. by- 
 name, Gael, leth-am/m, leas-adn/m {a siie- 
 name), nickname (from leas, leth); 
 Bret, leshano, a nickname, from Uz 
 (side, Lat. latus) ; and, according to 
 Wedgwood, Lap. Uke namm, Esthon. 
 Uig nim/im, a by-name, from Uki, Kggi, 
 by, near; patois de Plandre nom-g'U 
 (i.e. nom jete), a nickname, a name 
 flung at one. 
 
 NiDDYWiT, a provincial word for a 
 simpleton (Wright), as if compounded 
 with wit, is perhaps a corruption of d 
 nid/iot for am idiot; like rddg^ iqr idiot 
 (Nares) ; assimilated to mddj/, mcKcoci, 
 a fool. A similar corruption, wfectti for 
 "idiot," as if compounded withwut, 
 wit, occurs in Professor Wilson's Noetes 
 AmhrosiancB. 
 
 Night-shade, the Bella-donna. If 
 Dr. Prior be correct in his ingenious 
 surmise, the name of this plant affords 
 a very curious instance of corruption 
 by false derivation. Its officinal name 
 in Latin is solatrwm, i.e. soother or 
 anodyne (from solari, to soothe), and 
 this, it is supposed, was resolved into 
 sol- -\- atrum, as it were " sun-dark- 
 ened," an echpse, nigM-sMde. I have 
 known a schoolboy, by a similar mis- 
 take as to the instrumental termination, 
 suggest that Lat. feretrum, a bier, was 
 compounded oifeire and atrum, as if a 
 " sable-bearer." 
 Nine-man's-makeiage, ) Derbyshire 
 Theee-man's-maeriage, y words for 
 
NINEPENOE 
 
 ( 257 ) 
 
 NOAH'S ARK 
 
 a children's game played with nine or 
 three men on a board divided into 
 squares. Whichever of the two players 
 first gets three of his men into a row 
 wins. {Notes and Queries, 5th S. viii. 
 p. 218.) Tliis is evidently a corrupted 
 form of the " Nine men's morris " 
 alluded to by Shakespeare : — 
 
 The Nme men^s moiTi.s- is fill'd up with mud. 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii. sc. 2. 
 See MoEKis. 
 
 NiNEPENOE, Right as, a slang phrase 
 meaning perfectly correct, apparently 
 a corruption for "right as mnepins," 
 which are carefully set up in the 
 proper rhomboidal disposition. 
 
 Nines, in the colloquial phrase, 
 "dressed up to the nines," i.e. to the 
 highest degree, to perfection, something 
 like the French tire a quatre epingles, is 
 unexplained. We may hazard a con- 
 jecture that it is a corrupted form of 
 " dressed up to the neyen," or " nine," 
 found in old English for eyes, old plu. 
 eyen, eyne. 
 
 He can without hurting hia conscience 
 praise the Spanish poor women up to their 
 ei/es. — H. J. Rose, Among the Spanish People, 
 i". 13. 
 
 Gibhs hits aff a simple scene o' nature to 
 the nines. — Prof. Wilson, Nodes Ambrosiame, 
 vol. i. p. 315. 
 
 Thou paints auld Nature to the nines. 
 
 In thy sweet Caledonian lines. 
 
 Bums, Poem, on Pastoral Poetry 
 (Globe ed. p. 114). 
 
 A blacked up 'is butes, an' a sheared an' n 
 
 drest 
 Proper up to the noiTies in his new Soondaj- 
 best. 
 Ar Obadoyer, Evans, Leicestershire Glossari], 
 p. 35, E.D.S. 
 
 Davies, Supp. Eng. Olossa/ry, cites 
 the following : — 
 
 He's such a funny man, and touches off the 
 Londoners to the nines. — Golt, Ayrshire Le- 
 gatus, ch. viii. 
 
 He then . . . put his hand in his pockets, 
 and produced four beautiful sets of handcuffs 
 bran new, and polished to the nine. — Reade, 
 Never too Late to Mend, ch. Ixv. 
 
 "Pinkie Mme"(^eyes) occurs in 
 Lodge's Wounds of Civil War (Dod- 
 sley. Old Plays, viii. 63) ; Pink nyez, in 
 Laneham's Letter from KeniVwprth 
 (BaUad Soc. ed. p. 17); Yorks. meeji ; 
 Old Eng. thi nynon for thin ynon, thine 
 eyes. 
 
 As y lift vppe my nyes that were sore of 
 weping . . . y felte some dropys fallyng don 
 to me. — The Revelation to the Monk of Eve- 
 sham, 1196, p. 31 (ed. Arber). 
 
 However, we frequently find num- 
 bers used with an indefinite latitude of 
 meaning, e.g. " As pretty as Seven," a 
 German phrase for very pretty, which 
 has given a name to one of Ludwig 
 Beohstein's popular stories ; nine-mur- 
 der, Ger. nevmtodter, a name for the 
 shrike or butcher-bird; Span, mata- 
 siette, "kill-seven," &c. ; " a nine-days' 
 wondei*; " "a nine days' glory" 
 (Vaughan, 1650). 
 
 It is to be observed that the W. 
 Cornwall folk have the phrase, 
 "Dressed up for the nones," i.e. for 
 the nonce, for the special occasion, 
 and as they also use nines for nones or 
 nonce (M. A. Courtney, Glossary, E. D. 
 S. p. 40), this is no doubt the real 
 origin. " Eor the nonoe " or " nones " 
 is in old Eng. "for then ones," i.e. for 
 the once. 
 
 A wlech bea<5 iwlaht for [jen anes in forte 
 beaSien. — St. Juliana, p. 71 (ed. Cockayne). 
 
 [A wann bath tempered for the nonce (lit. 
 once) for to bathe in.] 
 
 Nine shillings, a slang expression 
 for cool audacity, evidently corrupted 
 from the French nonchalamce (Slang 
 Diet.). 
 
 Ninny-hammer. Mr. S. Baring- 
 Gould thinks this word may be an 
 Anglicized form of Icelandic nei (a ne- 
 gative) and eiwn-hammwr, a man in his 
 right senses (Iceland, Its Scenes and 
 Sagas, p. 160). Compare nincompoop 
 from non compos, "a gra&tnum-cumpus " 
 in Tennyson's Northern Gohhler. 
 
 Noah's Aek, a popular name for a 
 certain formation of the clouds when 
 resembling an ark or ship (Sternberg, 
 Northa/mpt. Glossary; Halliwell). In 
 Cleveland it is called Noe-ship. Mr. 
 Atkinson observes that in Denmark 
 when the clouds arrange themselves in 
 this way the countryman says, "The ark 
 is built" (ArTcen hygges). Such an ap- 
 pearance is called there Noa-skeppet 
 " Noe's ship," a name which is said to 
 be derived, not from the Noah of the 
 Bible, but from Noe or Noen, a corrup- 
 tion of the name Odin still very gene- 
 rally current in North Scania and parts 
 of Warend. Noa-sheppet consequently 
 
NOB 
 
 ( 258 ) 
 
 NOON-SHUN 
 
 must be the same as Odens-sheppet. 
 It is considered indicative of rain both 
 in Denmark and England. Odin was 
 the god of the waters, and his " ship of 
 gold " appears in more folk-lore notions 
 than one. Hence the easy substitution 
 of Noah for Noe ( = Odia) and the arh 
 for the sKp (Oleveland Glossary, p. 605). 
 
 Nod, a provincial word for the nape 
 of the neck in Surrey (Leveson-Gower) 
 and Sussex (Parish), as if that which 
 nods, the joint which enables one to 
 bend the head. It is really the pro- 
 jecting Jcnot at the back of the neck 
 surmounting the spine, and stands for 
 Jcnod, := Dut. hnod, Icnodde, a knob, 
 Icel. hnuir, Lat. {g)nodus, and so is 
 only another form of Icnot. I have 
 heard an intelligent Enghsh girl call 
 this bony protuberance " the knot of the 
 spine." So in Italian nodo del collo is, 
 the nape of the neck, and nodello (a 
 little knot) is "the turning joynt in the 
 chine orbacke-bone." — Florio ; and in 
 Latin nodus is used for a vertebra, 
 " Cervix articulonim Modis jungitur." — 
 PUny. Compare Lat. cer-vke, the neck, 
 the nape, the "head-binder" {cara- 
 vinciens), originally a bone of the neck, 
 and hence commonly used in the plural, 
 cervices, a neck. Noddle, a ludicrous 
 name for the head (for hnoddel), old 
 Eng. nodyl, the nape of the neck- 
 (Prompt. Parv.), is the same word. 
 
 Nod of the neck, the Knape, Kent. — Ken- 
 n&tt, Purochiul Antiquities, 1695, E.D.S. 
 
 It catohed me right across the nod of my 
 neck. — Parish, Sussex Glossary. 
 
 This joint [of the ridge-bone] or knot 
 abouesaid they call Atlantion, and it is the 
 very first spondyle of ihem all. — Holland, 
 Pliny's Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 310. 
 
 NooN-SHUN, a mid-day repast, or 
 luncheon (Brown, Brit. Pastorals), as 
 if, hke the words noon-scape and noon- 
 ing, it meant a retreat from the noon- 
 tide heat, is no doubt a corruption of 
 otuncheon, a lump of food, nunch or 
 nunc, a thick lump ; just as luncheon, 
 with which it came to be confounded, 
 meant originally a large lump of bread 
 or other food, and so huneheon, a large 
 hunch. Halliwell gives nuncheon as a 
 " lump of food suf&cient for a luncheon, 
 Kent." 
 
 Noonchion or Nunchion, of bread, or any 
 edible, a great piece, enough to serve for the 
 nooning or dinner of any common eater. — 
 
 Kennett, Parochial Antiquities (E. D. Soc 
 ed.), 1695. 
 
 Nummet, a luncheon, lit. noon-mmt.—Brii- 
 ton. Beauties of Wiltshire, 1825 (E. D. 
 Soc. ed.). 
 
 Nuncheon, formerlj' noonchyne, i.e. the noon 
 cut or slice. — Id. 
 
 They took a comfortable noonchine together. 
 — Graves, Spiritual Quixote, bk. ix. ch. 6. 
 The good Earl of Cassilis, in his breakfast, 
 Had nooning, dinner, supper, all at once. 
 Sir W. Scott, Auchindeane, act ii. so. 1, 
 
 He sits without motion, except at such 
 times as hee goes to dinner or supper, for 
 then he is as quicke as other three, eating 
 sixe times euerie day. [margin] Videlicet, 
 before he come out of his bed, then a set 
 breakfast, then dinner, then after noones 
 nunchings, a supper, and a rare supper.— T. 
 Nash, Pierce Penniless^s Supplication U/ the 
 Devil, p. 56 (1592), Shaks. Soc. 
 
 In the ende our good neighbour came home 
 to her husband with a painted face, as if shee 
 had beene at her imntions with cats. — Tell- 
 Trothes New-Yeares Gift (1593), p. 13 (New 
 Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Of old we had breakefastes in the fore- 
 noone, beuerages or nuntions after dinner, 
 and thereto reare suppers. — Holinshed, Chro- 
 nicles, i. 170. 
 
 What then, is there nothing in the Sacra- 
 ment but bread and wine, like an hungry ^um- 
 scion ? Nay, we say not that the Sacrament is 
 nothing but a bare sign. — H. Smith, Sermons, 
 p. 63 (1657). 
 
 Nuncheon, " an aftemoones repast " 
 (Sherwood, Dictiona/ry, 1632), was 
 turned " into noonchion, or noonohym, 
 and eventually into noon-shun, as if the 
 meal eaten by labourers while shunning 
 the mid-day heat. 
 
 Harvest folkes, .... 
 On sheafes of corne, were at their noonshuns 
 close. 
 W. Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, 1616. 
 
 Compare — 
 
 Nooning, beavre, drinking, or repast ad 
 nonam, three in the afternoon, called by the 
 Saxons non-mccie, in y= North parts a nom- 
 chion, an afternoon's nunchion. — Bu. Kennett. 
 
 Nmimete, Merenda. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Merenda, breakfast, or noone meate. — Tho- 
 mas, Ital. Grammer, 1548. 
 
 In provincial English there are many 
 instances of meals being named from 
 the hour at which they are usually 
 eaten. Thus in Sussex an elevener is a 
 luncheon ; among the haymakers and 
 reapers of Durham a /oJtro'ctoci is their 
 afternoon meal (Parish, Sussex Glos- 
 sary) ; foursee (for fours) is an East 
 Anglian word for the repast of labourers 
 
NOSE-BLEED 
 
 ( 259 ) 
 
 NOTABLE 
 
 at four o'clock, 'levenses (for elevens) 
 the same at eleven (E. D. Soc. Reprint 
 B. 20) ; Norfolk fovmngs, Northampt. 
 fow-o' clock, an afternoon meal at that 
 hour ; Scot, four-liours, an afternoon 
 tea, forenoon, a luncheon, twal-hov/rs, a 
 noon-tide meal (Jamieson). Compare 
 Fr. patois none, a mid-day repast, old 
 Pr. noner, to dine (from none, noon, 
 Scheler) ; Ger. miitag-essen, dinner (at 
 any hour) ; Span, siesta, " the heat of 
 the day from noon forwards, so called 
 from hora sexta " {i.e. the sixth hour, 
 noon). — Stevens, a mid-day rest; Span- 
 ish once, a lunch, literally, the eleven 
 o'clock meal (Ford, Gatherings from 
 Spain, p. 117), the more correct word 
 for luncheon heing merienda, from 
 lie, the twelve or mid-day meal 
 
 Prof. Skeat, however, quoting none- 
 chencke, donations to drink, from 
 EUey's Memorials of London (27 Ed. 
 III.), maintains that nuncheon is from 
 Twne, noon, and schenche, a pouring out 
 of drink (A. Sax. scencan, to skink, or 
 pour out drink), and so means a mid- 
 day draught. 
 
 Nose-bleed, an old popular name 
 for the plant yarrow or inillefoil, be- 
 cause " the leaues being put into the 
 nose do cause it to hleede" (Gerarde, 
 Herlall, p. 915), is in old Eng. ?iosZ)Me, 
 which, according to Mr. Cockayne, is 
 for mieshloed, i.e. "sneeze-leaf" (A. Sax. 
 iled, hlced, a blade, and niesan, toneeze 
 or sneeze), being otherwise called smeeze- 
 wort, Lat. sterrmiamemtoria, Gk. ptar- 
 miee (Leechdoms, Sj'c, vol. iii. Glossary). 
 But see Britten and Holland, s.v. 
 
 Notable, an old word still in provin- 
 cial use, meaning useful, active, thrilty, 
 profitable, especially in housewifery, 
 sometimes spelt nottable, is distinct 
 from the classically derived word to 
 which it has been partially assimilated, 
 and with which it is sometimes con- 
 founded. The whole of the following 
 passage from a critical article in the 
 Satv/rday Review (Jan. 4, 1879) is based 
 upon the assumption that there is but 
 the one word notable, viz., worthy of 
 being noted, remarkable, but used with 
 a difference of signification which it 
 does not attempt to explain : — 
 
 Notable had once fallen so much out of 
 fashion that Johnson in his Dictionary says 
 
 that it is now scarcely used but in irony. In 
 Northcote's Life of Reynolds there is an 
 amusing instance of the double signification 
 of the word. He had^ he said, long wished 
 to see Goldsmith. Sir Joshua suddenly in- 
 troduced him to the great writer, saying, 
 " This is Dr. Goldsmith ; pray why do you 
 wish to see him ? " "I was much confused," 
 writes Northcote, " by the suddenness of the 
 question, and answered in my hurry, * Be- 
 cause he is a notahle man.' " This, in one 
 sense of the word, was so very contrary to 
 the character and conduct of Goldsmith that 
 Sir Joshua burst into a heai'ty laugh, and said 
 that Goldsmith should in future always be 
 called the notable man. 
 
 The apparent incongruity was in the 
 no'table, or noteworthy, author being for 
 a moment regarded as not'able (pro- 
 nounced nottable), i.e. thrifty and pru- 
 dent. Similarly Goldsmith's creation, 
 the simple, homely, and thrifty house- 
 wife Mrs. Primrose, is described by him 
 as " a good-natured notable woman," 
 with the explanatory observation added , 
 " she could read any English bookwith- 
 out much spelling ; but for piokUng, pre- 
 serving, and cookery, none could excel 
 her. She prided herself also upon 
 being an excellent contriver in house- 
 keeping." — Worhs, Globe ed. p. 1. It 
 is of course this native and idiomatic 
 notahle that Johnson remarked was but 
 rarely used in his time, and not the 
 classical notable (=: remarkable, noto- 
 rious), which has never been out of 
 fashion. Its true origin and acceptation 
 may be traced by a comparison of the 
 quotations here appended, which show 
 it to be compounded of old Eng. not- 
 ( = profit) and the French termination 
 -able, and so ^profit-able, thrifty, or 
 " fendy " as they say in Cumberland. 
 
 Note, dede of occupacyon, Opus, occupacio. 
 — Prompt. Pai-vulorum (ab. 1440). 
 
 In the old mystery play of The 
 Deluge, when Noah's shrewish wife is 
 received into the ark with the words : 
 
 Welcome, wife, into this boate ! 
 she rephes, with a slap on his cheek, 
 
 And have thou that for thy note. 
 [i.e. for thy benefit or pains.] 
 
 Marriot, Miracle Plays, p. 11. 
 
 In Lancashire a cow is said to be of 
 good note \i.e. profit] when she gives 
 Tnilk a long time (PhAlolog. Transac- 
 tions, 1855, p. 278). The following is 
 an instance of the verb : — 
 
NOTWITESTANBING ( 260 ) 
 
 NUT 
 
 He binam him alle Jie mihte \>e he hadde 
 nutted fram J;e biginninge of i>e -worelde. — 
 Old Eng. Homilies, 2nd Ser. p. 23. 
 
 [i.e. He [Christ] took from him [the devil] 
 all the power that he had enjoyed from the be- 
 ginning of the world.] 
 
 The AlUterative Poems say that Bel- 
 shazzar spent his time — 
 
 In noti/ng [^ enjoying] of nwe metes & of 
 nice gettes. — P. 75, 1. 1334. 
 There may no note be sene 
 For sich small charys. 
 
 Town ley Mysteries, Pastores. 
 
 Your honourable Uncle Sir Robert Mansel 
 . . . hath been very notable to me, and I 
 shall ever acknowledge a good part of my 
 Education from him. — Howell, Letters, book 
 i. sect. 2, letter 5 (1621). 
 
 Those whom they call good bodies, notable 
 people, hearty neighbours, and the purest 
 goodest company in the world, are the great 
 offenders in this kind [i.e. plain speaking]. 
 —The Spectator, No. 300. 
 
 In the days and regions of notable personal 
 housewifery . . grandmother's treasures of 
 porcelain gathered and came down . . to 
 second and third generations. — Mis. Whitney, 
 Oayicorthys, ch. i. 
 
 St. Fanny was a notable housewife. Her 
 house was a temple of neatness. — Douglas 
 Jerrold, Jokes and Wit, p. 207. 
 
 The good dame at the great fann house, 
 who was to furnish the [communion] cloth, 
 being a notable woman, thought it best to 
 save her clean linen, and so sent a foul cloth 
 that had covered her own table for two or 
 three Sundays before. — G. White, Natural 
 History of Selbome, p. 235 (ed. 1853). 
 
 A comely, bowerly 'oman her was — a 
 notable, thorough-paced, stewardly body. — 
 Mrs. Palmer, Devonshire Courtship, p. 11. 
 
 Farmer Sandford, in Sandford and 
 Merton {sub fin.), says he was born " of 
 a notable mother." 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Montague (b. 1720), 
 speaking of the reapers and haymakers 
 in the South, observes : — 
 
 I think our northern people are much more 
 notable. Their meals are more plentiful and 
 less delicate — they eat coarse bread and drink 
 a great deal of milk. 
 
 But she was, I cannot deny, 
 The soul of notiibility ; 
 She struggled hard to save the pelf. 
 Combe, Dr. Syntax, Tour I, c. xxvi. 
 [Davies]. 
 Nottable, active, industrious, thrifty in 
 household matters. — Holderness Dialect, E. 
 Yorh. (E. Dialect Soc). 
 
 The word is found with the same sig- 
 nification in Cumberland {Dickinson's 
 Glossary, E.D.S.), and even in Sussex : 
 
 "Nottable, thrifty, industrious." Mr. 
 Lower says that this word is never ap- 
 plied in Sussex to a man. " Mrs. AU- 
 bones she be a nottable 'ooman, sure- 
 lye ! " So Mr. Parish {Sussex Glossary), 
 who incorrectly identifies the word with 
 Pr. notable. It is really a derivative of 
 Prov. Eng. to note, to use, to profit, 
 Lancashire note, use, business, old Eng. 
 note, use, occupation, business {Owl 
 and Nightingale, 51), A. Sax, notu, 
 use, utility, notja/n, to use or occupy, 
 also nedtan, mytUe, useful, Goth, niutm, 
 to receive joy from (Ettmuller). Of. Ger. 
 nUtzen, Dut. ge-neiten, Icel.. njdta, to 
 use or enjoy. 
 
 Notwithstanding, a modernized 
 form of old Eng. nought-withstandrng, 
 i.e. naught opposing, nothing standing 
 in the way, Lat. mhilo obstante. But not 
 itself was originally nought or namgU, 
 A. Sax. nd-wiht, no whit. See Skeat, 
 Etym. Diet. s.vv. 
 
 For nought withstanding all the fare 
 Of that this world was made so bare, 
 And afterward it was restored. 
 Among the men was nothing mored 
 Towardes God of good living. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, vol. ii. p. 181 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 "Now WELL I NOW WELL I" an ex- 
 clamation common in old Christmas 
 songs and carols, is a corruption oimel, 
 Pr. noel, fsom Lat. natal/is {dies), 
 Christ's natal day. 
 
 Pottys and pens and boUis for the feat of 
 Nowell.—MS. Laud, 416. 
 
 On Christmas-Eve, in former days, .... 
 those who were in the mine would hear 
 voices melodious beyond all earthly voices, 
 singing, "Now well I now well!" and the 
 strains of some deep-toned organ would shake 
 the rocks. 
 
 " Now well! now well! the angel did say, 
 To certain poor shepherds in the fields who 
 
 lay _ 
 
 Late in the night, folding their sheep.' 
 E. Hunt, Romances and Drolls of W. mgland, 
 2nd Ser. p. 123. 
 
 Nut, a vulgar word for the head, as 
 in the school-boy phrase in playing at 
 leap-frog, "tuck in your mti," is perhaps 
 only a corrupt form of Prov. Bng. Mi, 
 the occiput, originally a hnot, knob, or 
 protuberance ; see Nod. Compare mU, 
 to poll the hair. Chaucer has not-lKd, 
 which has been understood to mean a 
 head like a mit, old Eng. note (Tyr- 
 whitt). 
 
NUTEAWEE 
 
 ( 261 ) 
 
 OGTEMBEB 
 
 A not-hed hadde he, with a broune visage. 
 Cant. Tales, 1. 109. 
 
 Thou hiotty-pated Foole, thou Horsou ob- 
 scene g'reasie Tallow Catch. 
 
 Shakespeare, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4 
 (lat fol. 1623). 
 
 However, the Bomanoe nuca, Fr. 
 rmgue, the nape of the neck, seem to 
 be from Lat. riMC-s, nux (Diez). 
 
 NuTHAWKB, the explanation attached 
 to the word piaiM in the old Latin-Eng- 
 hsh dictionary called Ortus Vooabu- 
 IffTum, as if the bird that hawhs at nuts 
 as its prey, is a corrupted form of nut- 
 hack or nut-hatch, the bird that hacks 
 and cleaves nuts. 
 
 Nothagge, a byrde, iaye. — Palsgrave. 
 Nothak, byrde. Pious. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 The nuthake with her notes newe, 
 The sterljrnge set her notes full trewe. 
 The Squyr of hmiie Degre, 1. ,56. 
 
 NnzzLE, \ " to hide the Head as a 
 NosELL, /young Child does in its 
 Mother's Bosom" (Bailey), as if to go 
 noseUng (or nose-long), to push with 
 the nose, or nosel, or nozzle, as Spenser 
 speaks of " a nousKng in.ole"{F. Queene, 
 TV. xi. 32), "Like Moldwarps nous- 
 ling still they lurke '' (OoUn Chut, &o., 
 1. 763), " Ever sense I noozled the 
 nepple." — Uncle Jan Trenoodle (Cor- 
 nish dialect), " The hogs would nuzzel 
 ... in the straw." — Observations in 
 Husbandry (E. Lisle), 1757, p. 331. In 
 Somerset noozle is to nestle (Wright). 
 
 So glow'd the blushing hoy, lifting his 
 burning cheek from Venus' kiss ambrosial, 
 nuzzling to her breast.-7-J?armgtort, NugcE 
 Antiq. vol. ii. p. 88. 
 
 To mizzle, however, old Eng. nousle, 
 nusle, nosell, was originally to nursle 
 or nowsle, to fondle, cocker, nurse, or 
 rear up. Perhaps nuzzle, to nose, was 
 a distinct verb, to which nursle was 
 assimilated. 
 
 First they nosell them in sophistry and in 
 henefundatum. — W. Tyndale, Obedience of « 
 Christen Man, 1528. 
 
 Whom, till to ryper yeares he gan aspyre, 
 He nousled up in life and manners wilde. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, I. vi. 23. 
 
 Now adays, says he, our women do so 
 nuzzle their little Imps in their Cradle, that 
 they suck in vanity as soon as they take the 
 dug. — Bp. Backet, Century of Sermons, p. 6 
 (1675). 
 
 So thence him farre she brought 
 Into ajcave from companie exilde. 
 In which she noursUd him till yeares be 
 raught. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, V. i. 6. 
 
 Consider with what fruit we requite God 
 for this seventy yeares of his Gospel past, by 
 nouzeling up among us a generation that know 
 no more of sinne, Christ, Judgement day, 
 then the swine at the trough, but rather 
 trample upon these pearles ! — D. Rogers, 
 Naaman the Syrian (1641), p. 348. 
 
 A sort of bald Friers and knavish shave- 
 lings ... as in all other things, so in that, 
 soughte to nousell the common people in igno- 
 raunce. — -E. A'. Glosse on Spenser, Shepheards 
 Calender, June. 
 
 Martyrs— This County [Cumberland] af- 
 fordeth none in the Raign of Queen Mary ; 
 whereof accept a double reason. First, the 
 people thereof were nuzell'd in Ignorance 
 and Superstition. — T. Fuller, The Worthies of 
 England, vol. i. p. 235, 
 O impe of Antichrist, and seede of the devyll ! 
 Borne to all wickednesse, and nusled in all 
 evyll. 
 ]^ew Custome, act iii. sc. 1. (1573). 
 
 So nosil (Wright) ^z nursel, to en- 
 courage or uphold (Bailey). 
 
 Nwrse is a contracted form of nourice 
 (Spenser), nourish (Shakespeare), Fr. 
 nourice, Lat. nmiric-em. 
 When at their mother's moisten 'd eyes babes 
 
 shall suck ; 
 Our isle be made a nourish of salt tears. 
 
 1 Hen. VI. i. 1. 
 
 o. 
 
 Oak-cobn, a common misunderstand- 
 ing of Acorn, which see. 
 
 Ocom, or acorn, frute of anoke (al. occorne 
 or akorne) Glans. — Prompt. Parvtilorum. 
 
 Obsequies, Fr. ohseques. Span, oise- 
 quias. Late Lat. ohsequice, funeral rites, 
 corrupted perhaps from the more com- 
 mon word exsequicB {Qie following forth 
 to the grave), with a reference to the 
 ohsequium or dutiful regard and com- 
 plaisance of the attendant friends. 
 That father lost, lost his, and the survivor 
 
 bound 
 In filial obligation for some term 
 To do obsequious sorrow. 
 
 Shakespeare, Hamlet, i, 2, 1. 92. 
 
 OcTBMBEE, an old assimilation of 
 October to the names of the preceding 
 and two foUovnng months, is quoted by 
 
OBD . 
 
 ( 262 ) 
 
 OILIFLAME 
 
 Hampson (Med. Aevi Kalendarvwm, ii. 
 296) from a Saxon Menologium, also 
 the following from a Metrical Kalendar 
 (Galba), op. dt. i. 415 : — 
 Octembrein libra perfundet lampide mensem. 
 
 Odd or Od, a corrupt form of the 
 name of the Deity in mincing oaths to 
 avoid being openly profane, e.g. Od's 
 pitiMns! (by God's pity). — Oymb.iv.'i; 
 Odd's hodihins! (His body); Od's 
 plessed will. — Merry Wives of Windsm; 
 i. 1. 
 
 Odds-and-ends, and sometimes cor- 
 ruptly orts-and-ends, which is the 
 phrase in East Angha (E. D. Soc. JBe- 
 prini B. 20); oris or odds being the 
 Mid. Eng. ords, fragments (of victuals, 
 &c.). "Ord and ende " in Gmdmon, 225, 
 30, signifies beginning and end (Btt- 
 miiller) ; A. Sax. ord, a point, or be- 
 ginning ; and so odds-and-ends means 
 etymologically "points and ends," 
 scraps. Odd, strange, irregular, is how- 
 ever itself the same word as A. Sax. 
 ord, a projecting point, an unevenness 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Letten after \>e abbot fsende, 
 Aiit tolden him \te ord &; ende. 
 
 Manria, 1. 184, Boddekei; Atteng. 
 Dicht. p. 262. 
 
 In Chaucer the phrase appears in 
 the corrupt form "word and ende." 
 Lucan, to thee this storie I recommende . . 
 That of this storie writen word and ende. 
 
 Canterbury Tales, 1. 14639 (ed. Tyrwhitt). 
 
 Office, a provincial corruption of 
 efese, the eaves of a house; Devon. 
 ovvis, old Eng. ovese. In an old Bes- 
 tiary it is said the spider spins her web 
 " o rof er on ouese," in roof or in eaves 
 {Old Eng. Miscellany, :E,.^.1.S. p. 15, 
 1. 465). Compare O. H. Ger. opasa, 
 M. H. Ger. ohse, eaves, akin to Eng. 
 over, as if that which projects over. 
 
 Of-l^te, J an old English word for 
 Of-lbte, j the sacramental bread 
 or wafer used in the Mass (Bosworth, 
 Anglo-Scue. Diet. ; Morris, Old Eng. 
 Homilies, 2nd Ser. p. 242) ; also oveleie, 
 as if a derivative of qf-lwtan, to leave, 
 and so an offering (cf. Icet {jser );tne lao, 
 leave there thine offering. — S. Matt. vi. 
 24). It is really, as might be expected, 
 like other old ecclesiastical words, of 
 Latin origin, being a corruption of 
 oblata, the sacramental wafer or host, 
 
 literally bread offered in sacrifice (Lat 
 ohlaius, offered). .So oblations ia the 
 Enghsh communion office are under- 
 stood to mean the elements offered on 
 the Holy Table. From oblata also 
 come old Fr. oblaie, oblee, Mod. Fr. 
 ouhlie (Ger. oblate, a wafer), old Eng. 
 obly, obley, oble. 
 
 For >i mai godes word turnen \>e ouekte 
 to fleis, and >e win to blod [Because God's 
 word can turn the wafer to flesh and the wine 
 to blood].— OW. Eng. Homilies, 2nd Ser. d. 
 99, 1. 6 (E.E.T.S). ^ 
 
 Obly, or vbly (brede to sey wjthe masse), 
 Nebula. — Prompt. Parvnlorum, p. 361. 
 
 Nebula, noble [i.e. on oble}. — MS. in Way, 
 note in loco. 
 
 Op- SCAPE, an old corruption of escape, 
 as if compounded with of. -Escape, 
 from old Pr. esahapper, escaper, It. scop- 
 pare, from a Low Lat. excappare, meant 
 originally to ex-eape, to shp out oi one's 
 cape or cloak (e» cappd), to elude a pur- 
 suer by leaving one's garment in his 
 hand. 'Thus Joseph hteraUy " es-caped " 
 from Potiphar's wife (Gen. xxxix. 13), 
 and the young man in the Gospels from 
 the servants of the chief priests, when 
 " he left the hnen cloth and fled from 
 them naked" (S. Mark, xiv. 52). 
 
 ber adde vewe alyue of scaped in jse place 
 [Inere had few escaped alive in the place]. 
 — Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 398, 1. 5 
 (ed. 1810). 
 
 Jie erl hadde so g^-et help jjat he of scapede 
 wel inou. — Id. p. 570, 1. 14. 
 
 The same writer uses of-serve for ob- 
 serve, and of-ssamed for ashamed; 
 WyolifEe has of-brode for a-hroad [on- 
 broad). 
 
 They strove to take him, and he was fain 
 to slip ofl' his linnen, and run away from 
 them naked, as Joseph did when he left his 
 cloak with his light Mistris, when he slipt 
 from her : which sheweth how void of shame 
 and modestie they were, to offer such vio- 
 lence to a stranger, that bee could scarse 
 scape their hands naked. — H. Smith, Semmis, 
 1594, p. 38r (ed. 1657-). 
 
 OiLiFLAMB is the strangely perverted 
 form that John Stowe the chronicler 
 gives to the word oriflamme in his ac- 
 count of the battle of Gressy :— 
 
 The French King commaunded his banner 
 called ailiflame to be set \x-f.— History, p. 379, 
 Qto. 1600. 
 
 On which the margin suppKes this de- 
 lightfully naive commentary : — 
 
071 S 
 
 ( 263 ) OLD-FATHEB 
 
 The French banner of oid'e^mc signified 
 no mercy more then fire in oile. 
 
 The sacred banner of St. Denis was 
 called oriflamme, L. Lat. auriflamma, 
 from its golden flagstaff and crimson 
 flag that streamed like aflame or fiery 
 meteor ; with which we may contrast 
 Portg. lahareda, a flame, derived from 
 Lat. lahanim, a banner. (See Spelman, 
 Glossary, s.v. Auriflartiba ; Du Cange, 
 s.v. ; Dante, Paradt'so, xsxi. 127.) This 
 banner, first borne by Charlemagne, 
 was called " Eomaine," afterwards 
 "Montjoie." It is mentioned in the 
 Chanson de Roland : — ■ 
 Montjoie, ils orient ! Euti-e Eux est Charle- 
 
 mag^ne ; 
 Geofii'oy d'Anjou y porte VOriflamme, 
 Fut de Saint Pierre, et avait nom Komaine ; 
 Mais de Montjoie son nom la prit echange. 
 
 See F. Marshall, International Vani- 
 ties, pp. 196 segg. 
 Quod cum jiamma habeat vulgariter aurea 
 
 nomen. 
 Omnibus in bellis habet omnia signa preire. 
 GuiUauine ie Breton [in Du Cang-e]. 
 
 Sir Reynolde Camyan baneret — that daye 
 bare the oruflambe, a speciall relyke that the 
 Frenshe kynges vse to here before them in all 
 'battayles. — Fabyan, Chronicles, sub anno 
 135.5, p. 467 (ed. 1811). 
 
 Oils, a Susses word for the beards 
 of barley (Parish; also Old Country and 
 Faming Words, E.D.S. p. 65), is a 
 corruption of old Eng. eiles, in the 
 Essex dialect ails, A. Sax. egle or egl, 
 an ear of corn, from the root ac, to be 
 sharp ; compare eglan, to prick, eglia/n,, 
 to feel pain, to ail. 
 
 The eiles or beard upon the eare of corne. 
 — HoUyband, 
 
 The Dorset word is hoils, Suffolk 
 hauels. 
 
 Ointment, a corrupt spelling of old 
 Eng. oinement, oynement (Wychffe), old 
 Pr. oignement (:= Lat. unguentum), due 
 to a confusion with the verb anoint, as 
 if for anointment (Skeat). 
 
 Oifnement, or onjment, Unguentum. — 
 Prompt. Farvulorum. 
 
 Ne oinement that wolde dense or bite. 
 
 That might helpen of his whelkes white. 
 Chaucer, Cunt. Tales, 1. GSi. 
 
 All Jjat maken . . charmes with oynementes 
 of holy chircb. — J. Mi)rc, Imtructions for 
 Parish Priests, p. 23, 1. 734. 
 
 Old Espebl, a legendary being about 
 whom a traditional belief (? still) lingers 
 
 in the co. Limerick, is a reminiscence 
 of the universally popular Eiden-spiegel, 
 Oiol-spiegle ( Jonson), or " Owl-glass " 
 (Pr. Tiel-TJlespiegle, old Eng. Tyll 
 Howleglass), introduced by the Ger- 
 mans of the Palatinate. (See Thorns, 
 Lays and Legends of Various Nations, 
 Ireland, 1834.) 
 
 Old Scottish writers transformed 
 the wanton jester into Holieglass 
 (e.g. Sempill, Legend of the Bischop 
 of 8t. Android). James Melvill in his 
 Liary, 1584, enumerates with those 
 "maist infamus amangs the peiple, 
 theiffs, drunkards, gluttones . . . hoU- 
 glasses, comoun triokers and deceavers " 
 (Woodrow Soc. ed., p. 176). Jonson 
 describes Howleglass as — 
 
 Much like an ape, 
 
 With owl on fist, 
 
 And glass at his wrist. 
 The Fortunate Isles, 1626 ( Works, ed. 
 Moxon, p. 650). 
 
 In several languages, as in his own, an 
 Fulenspieglerei and Espieglerie, or dog's trick, 
 so named after him, still by consent of lexi- 
 cographers, keeps his memory alive. — T. 
 Carlyte, Essays, vol. ii. p. 287 (ed. 1857). 
 
 Old-fathbe, a Sussex word for the 
 person who gives away the bride, it 
 not being customary among the labour- 
 ing classes for the father to be present 
 at the ceremony (Parish). This is ob- 
 viously the same word as eld-father, a 
 father-in-law, as if another meaning of 
 A. Sax. ealdfceder, a grand-father. It 
 is probable, however, that eldfather is 
 a corrupted form of old Eng. elfadyr 
 (:= socer. — Prompt. Fwv. and Cath. 
 Ang.), compounded with el {=. alius, 
 other), as if " another father," hke el- 
 land, another (i.e. a foreign) land, el- 
 \>eod, another people, a foreigner. Of. 
 O. Eng. eld-^noder, el-moder, N. Eng. 
 ell-mother, a mother-in-law. 
 
 However, ealdafceder (= socer) is 
 found at an early period in the Old 
 English Honvilies, 2nd Ser. 
 
 Similarly alder -fvfst, alder-last, are 
 frequent in old English for aller-fkat, 
 aller-last, first or last of all, with a d 
 intrusive ; and alder, the tree, zz. N. 
 Eng. eller, A. Sax. ok, Ger. eller. 
 
 Mr. Atkinson in his Cleveland Glos- 
 sary gives " Ehnother, a step-mother," 
 explaining it as I have done here ; and 
 so Kay, " An el-mother, Oumb. a step- 
 mother." — North Country Words, p. 28 
 
OLD-EOT 
 
 ( 264 ) 
 
 OBANGE 
 
 (ed. 1742). "Ell-mother, [Welsh] Ail, 
 the second. So that perhaps a step- 
 mother might be called the second 
 mother." — Id. p. 94. Compare Welsh 
 mah aill, " other son,'' an adopted son. 
 
 Old-eot, a Somerset name for the 
 plant cow-parsnip [heraoleum spondy- 
 lum), Williams and Jones, Somerset 
 Glossa/ry, is probably only another form 
 of eltrot, a popular name for the wild 
 parsley. 
 
 Oldstek, a modem coinage for an 
 elderly person used by Thackeray and 
 H. Kingsley (see Davies, Supp. Eng. 
 Glossary), from analogy to youngster. 
 The termination -ster properly denotes 
 the agent, and is suffixed to verbal 
 stems, see Morris, Eng. Accidence, p. 
 89. 
 
 Oleander, Pr. oleandre. It. oleand/ro, 
 Sp. oleand/ro and eloend/ro, Portg. loen- 
 d/ro, as if connected with olea, the ohve, 
 oleaster, the wUd olive, is, according to 
 Diez, really from the Low Lat. loran- 
 Arum, which again is a corruption from 
 rhododendirum, influenced by laurus. 
 
 Oliver, a Devonshire word for a 
 young eel (Wright), is a corrupted form 
 of the synonymous West country word 
 el/Der. 
 
 Defoe mentions elver-calces, made 
 out of Httle eels, as a Somerset deli- 
 caoy (Tour tli/ro' Great Britain, ii. 306). 
 
 Onesprute, a " spirting upon," in 
 the Ncn-thwmhrian Psalter, seems to be 
 a curious adaptation of the Lat. ins'pi- 
 ratio, a breathing upon, the word in the 
 Vulgate (A. V. " blast "). 
 And growndes of ertheli -werlde vnhiled are, 
 For ]>i snibbing, Lauerd myne ; 
 For onesprute of gast of wreth Jjine. 
 
 Psalmxvii. [A. V. xviii.], 16. 
 
 On-ten-toes, " A Goose-on-ten-toes," 
 a Michaelmas goose, is an old popular 
 misunderstanding of a goose-intentoe, 
 which is thus defined by Bailey, " a 
 goose claimed by custom by the Hus- 
 bandmen in Lancashire upon the 16th 
 Sunday after Pentecost, when the old 
 Church Prayers ended thus, ac bonis 
 operibus jugiter prsstet esse intentos." 
 — Collect for 17th Sunday after Trinity. 
 See Brand, Pop. Antiq. i. 367 (ed. 
 Bohn). 
 
 Somewhat similarly legem pone was 
 formerly a proverbial phrase for ready 
 
 money, from those words occurring as 
 the opening ones of the Psalms on the 
 first quarterly pay-day of the year, viz. 
 Lady Day, March 25th (vide Nares). 
 
 On the batter, a slang phrase for a 
 bout of low debauchery, riotous Kving, 
 might be imagined to be another usage 
 of Prov. Eng. hatter, to wear out, "wear 
 and tear ; " or a connexion might be 
 supposed with Fr. " latre les rues, to re- 
 veil, jet, or swagger up and down the 
 streets a nights." — Ootgrave; "lateur 
 de pavez, a pavement-beater, a dissolute 
 or debauched fellow." — Id. These 
 French phrases, indeed, accurately 
 convey the original meaning of the 
 English expression, although it lias 
 nothing to do with hattre, to beat. It 
 is of Anglo-Irish origin, and signifies 
 " on the street," " on the road," from 
 the Irish word Idthar, a road (originally 
 a road for cattle, from bo, a cow), in 
 some parts of Ireland pronounced 
 hatter, as in the place-names, Bat- 
 terstown, Greenbatter, Stonybatter, 
 Booterstown. See Joyce, Irish Names 
 of Places, 1st Ser. pp. 44 seq. 357. 
 
 As for the word Bater that in English pnr- 
 porteth a lane bearing to an highwaie, 1 take 
 It for a meere Irish word that crept unawai'es 
 into the English. — Stanihurst, Descriftion of 
 Ireland, p. 11. 
 
 Orange, Fr. orange, so spelt as if it 
 meant the golden fruit, cuurea mala, 
 poma aurantia, pomme d'or (compare 
 Ger. pomeranze, Swed. pomerams, Welsh 
 eur-afal, "golden-apple," the orange), 
 is a corruption of the Low Lat. a/rcmgia, 
 It. aramcia, Sp. na/ranja, aU from Pers. 
 ndrenj, Arab, naranj, Sansk. ndranga, 
 an orange-tree. The strictly correct 
 form of the word would therefore be a 
 narange. Compare Milanese VAwam, 
 Venetian naranza. 
 
 The Sanscrit ndranga, conti-acted 
 from naga-ranga (ndga, a serpent or 
 "snake," &ndranga, a bright colour), 
 is suggestive of the dragon-guarded 
 golden apples of the Hesperides, the 
 kingdom of the ndgas. 
 The veluet Peach, gilt Orenge, downy Quince. 
 J. Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 59 (1621). 
 
 " Oronge, fruete, Pomum citriaum " 
 is mentioned in the Promptorium Par- 
 vulorum about 1440, and poma de 
 Orenge are recorded to have been ob- 
 
OBGHAL 
 
 ( 265 ) 
 
 OBN-DINNEB 
 
 tained from a Spanish ship at Ports- 
 mouth in 1290. 
 J>e fayrest fryt [at may on folde growe, 
 As orenge & ojjer fryt & apple garnade. 
 AUiterative Poems (14th cent.), 
 p. 67, 1. 1044. 
 
 Obchal, ) It. orcello, " Orchall- 
 Obchella, ( Aearbe to dye Purple 
 with " (Florio), also oricello, Span, or- 
 chilla, as if of the same origin as Pr. 
 archal, It. oricalco, Lat. aurichalcwm, 
 and so often mistakenly defined as a 
 stone (e.g. Bailey and Kaltschmidt), is. 
 a transformation of It. roccella, properly 
 " a httle hohen which grows on the 
 rochs [rocceUe] of Greek isles and in 
 the Canaries, and having drunk a great 
 deal of hght into its httle stems and 
 button-heads will give it out again as 
 a reddish-purple dye, very grateful to 
 the eyes of men." — Gr. Ehot, Bomola, 
 oh. xxiviii. Cf. 0. Fr. miroAt for re- 
 trmi. 
 
 Ordeal, pronounced or-de'-al, from a 
 notion that the word is of foreign deri- 
 vation, like re-al, ether-e-al, whereas it 
 is purely English, or-deal, i.e. an out- 
 deal, or dealing out of judgment, a de- 
 cision. Old Eng. or-dal, A. Sax. or-del 
 {or =: out), Dut. oor-deel, Ger. v/r-tlieil 
 (Skeat, Etym. Diet). 
 Whan so you list, by ordal or by othe, 
 By sort, or in what wise so you lest, 
 For love of God, let prove it for the best, 
 Chaucer, Troitus and Cressida, 
 bk. 3, 1. 1048. 
 
 Orb, sometimes used in the distinc- 
 tive sense of gold, or golden radiance, 
 no doubt from a supposed connexion 
 with Er. or, It. oro, Lat. awum. It 
 seems to be the same word as A. Sax. 
 dr, bronze, brass, Lat. ms, osris (see 
 Skeat, Etym. Bid. s. v.). 
 Like some ore among a mineral of metals base. 
 
 Shiikespeare, Hamlet, iv. 1. 
 So sinks the daystar in the ocean bed, 
 And yet anon repairs his drooping head. 
 And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled 
 
 ore 
 Flames in the forehead of the morning sky. 
 • Mitton, hycidm, 1. 171 (see Jerram, 
 note in loc. ). • 
 
 A golden splendour with quiverino; ore. 
 , Keats, Endymion, bk. ii. 
 
 Ok ever, frequent in old authors in 
 the sense of before, ere that {hut. prius- 
 quam), probably stands for or ere, mis- 
 understood as or e'er, where or itself 
 
 means before, being the old Eng. a/r, er, 
 A. Sax. air, ere, to which ere was after- 
 wards pleonastically added. 
 Two long dayes iourney (Lords) or ere we 
 meete. 
 
 Shakespeare, King John, iv. 3. 
 
 The lions . . . brake all their bones in pieces 
 or ever they came at the bottom of the den. — 
 A. V. Dan. vi. 24. 
 
 We, or ever he come, are ready to kill him. 
 — Id. Acts xxiii. 15. 
 
 Long or the bright Sonne up risen was. 
 Chaucer, Flower and Leaf, 27. 
 
 See Bihle Word-Booh, s.v. or ; Skeat, 
 Etym. Bid. s.v. 
 
 Organs, a name for the herb penny- 
 royal occurring in Witts Becreations, p. 
 85, is a corruption of its scientific 
 name origan, origanvmi, Greek origanon 
 ("mountain-pride"), marjoram. 
 
 "I'd make et treason to drink ort but organ 
 tey." — Mrs. Palmer, Devonshire Courtship, 
 p. 7. 
 
 Origin, a word in Tjmdale's version 
 of the Bible translating Heb. ted, an 
 animal of the antelope species. Autho- 
 rized Version, "the wUd ox," is a cor- 
 rupted form of Lat. orygem, the word 
 in the Vulgate, which is the accusative 
 of oryx, Greek orvx {orugos), a wild 
 goat. 
 
 These are the beastes which ye shall eate 
 of, oxen, shepe, and gootes, hart, roo, and 
 bugle, hjrt-goote, unicorn, origin, and came- 
 lion." — Deut. xiv. 5 (Tyndale). 
 
 For particulars as to the oryx, see 
 Bochart, Opera, vol. i. p. 945, ed. 1682 ; 
 Smith, Bible Did. s.v. Ox. 
 
 Orn-dinnbb, a meal between-times, 
 Prov. Eng. (Boucher, Suppl. to John- 
 son), is a corruption of orndern, undern, 
 an old Enghsh name for the hour of 
 tierce, or nine o'clock in the morning, 
 sometimes the morning generally. (See 
 Hampson, Med. Aevi Kalend. ii. 381 ; 
 Ettmiiller, Lex. Anglo-Sax. p. 47). 
 
 The true form, as Garnett remarks, 
 is undern, A. Sax. undern, compare 
 Goth, undatwn, Ger. untern, properly a 
 between time {unter := Lat. inter, Sk. 
 OMta/r). — PMlolog. Essays, p. 59. 
 
 Orndorns, Cumberland, Afternoons Drink- 
 ings. — Ray, North Country Words^ p. 47 (ed. 
 1742). 
 
 Riht to-genes ^e undrene alse \>e holi 
 songere seiS on his loft songe [Right to- 
 wards the third hour as saith the holy singer 
 
OBFHAN.JOEN ( 266 ) 
 
 OUNGEL 
 
 in his song of praise]. — Old Eng, Homilies, 
 2ncl Ser. p. 117. 
 
 Were thritt^ trentes of masse done, 
 Betwyx vndur and none, 
 My saule were socurt ful sone. 
 
 Anturs of Arthur at Tarnewathelan, 
 St. xvii. 
 
 Oephan- John, an East AngKan name 
 for the plant sedum telepMum (E. D. 
 Soc. Eeprint, B. 20), is an evident cor- 
 ruption of its usual name orpine or 
 orpin, Ft. orpin. The latter word is a 
 mutilated form of orpiment, which is 
 itself derivedfrom Lat. auri-pigmentum, 
 " gold paint," yeUow arsenic. The 
 plant was so called from its yellow 
 flowers, which resemble orpiment. 
 
 OBTHop.a;Dic, a definitive term ap- 
 plied to a certain class of hospitals 
 wherein deformities of the feet are 
 surgically treated, so spelt as if (Hke 
 encyclopcedm) it were a derivative of 
 Greek paideia, the treatment or train- 
 ing (of a child, pa/is), seems really to be 
 a mongrel compound of Greek orthOs, 
 straight, and Lat. ped-s {pes), the foot, 
 and consequently a corrupt spelling of 
 orthopedic, which is also found. 
 
 X. Y. . . sends me some strings of verses 
 — candidates for the Orthopedic Infirmary, all 
 of them. — 0. W . Holrms, Autocrat of the 
 Breakjast Table, ch. xii. 
 
 Fr. orthopedie is understood as a deri- 
 vative oipmdeia (Scheler). 
 
 OssPEiNGER, a form of the *ord os- 
 p^-ey, O. Eng. ossifrage, L. Lat. ossi- 
 fraga, " the bone-breaker," occurring 
 in Chapman's Homer, Iliad, xvui. 557 
 (Eastwood and Wright, Bihle Wm-d- 
 Booh, s.v. Ossifrage). 
 
 Othebguess, a frequent corruption 
 of otherguise, or oiherg'ates (Shakes- 
 peare), rz otherwise. See Anotheb- 
 
 GUESS. 
 
 I co'd make othergess musick. 
 
 Fkcknoe, Love's Kingdom, 1664. 
 You have to do with other-guess people 
 now. — Smollett, Roderick Random, ch. xlvii. 
 [Davies]. 
 
 Otter, a slang word for eightpence, 
 from the It. otto (eight), Lat. oato. See 
 Beware. 
 
 OvEEENYiE, an Aberdeenshire name 
 for the plant southernwood, is a cor- 
 ruption of averoyne, old Fr. ahroigne, 
 Picard. avrogne. Ft. aurone, aU firom 
 Lat. ah-oionum. In the Eouohi patois 
 
 the word is ivrone, as if connected with 
 imrogne, ivre, drunk. 
 
 OvERLOFT, \ a Scottish word for the 
 OvERLAFT, / upper deck of a ship, as 
 if the loft over-h%aA (Scot, hft, lafl, a 
 floor, a gallery), is a corruption of old 
 Eng. overlope or overjqope, now orlop, 
 which, like many other of our naval 
 terms, we have borrowed from the 
 Dutch. It is Dut. overloop, the deck, 
 literally that which runs {loopt) over or 
 across {over) the vessel from side to 
 side (Ger. Uherlavf). 
 
 Baladore, the onerlope or ouer deck of a 
 ship. — Florio, It. Diet. 1511. 
 
 Thare hetchis, and thare ouerloftis syne they 
 
 bete, 
 Plankis and geistis grete square and mete, 
 Into thare scbippis joynand with mony ane 
 dint. 
 G. Douglas, Bukes of Eneados, 1553, p. 
 153, 1. 2 (ed. 1710). 
 The bott wanting ane ovxrlaft, the seall 
 was carsen ower hir ta end, and ther I leyed 
 upe'. — Jan. Melvlll, Diary, 1584 (Wodrow 
 Soc. p. 168). 
 
 Another Scottish corruption is mer- 
 lap (Jamieson), as if that which laps 
 over the sides of the ship. 
 
 Oughts, used for leavings by Lisle, 
 1757 {Old Country Words, E.D.S. p. 
 65), is a corruption of orts, remnants of 
 a meal, leavings. Old Dut. oorete, i.e. 
 not-eaten, a scrap left out or over 
 after eatitig (Skeat). " Awghts, frag- 
 ments of eatables. Heref. and Sussex" 
 (Wright). Anothercorruption is Scot- 
 tish worts, refuse of fodder (Jamie- 
 son). 
 
 Ortus, releef of beestys mete. Ramentum. 
 — Prompt. Parvuloi-um. 
 Let him have time to live a loathed slave, 
 Let him have time a beggar's arts to crave, 
 And time to see one that by alms doth live 
 Disdain to him disdained scraps to give. 
 Shakespeare, hacrece, 1. 987. 
 
 OuNCEL, the name sometimes given 
 to a kitchen utensil for weighing goods, 
 the weight being determined by the 
 depression of a spring and marked on 
 a graduated scale, is a corruption of 
 the older term auncel, which has been 
 assimilated to the word ounce as if it 
 meant an oMwce-weigher. 
 
 Awncel weight as I have been informed 
 is a kind of weight with scales hanging, or 
 hooks fastened at each end of a staff, which a 
 man tifteth up upon his forefinger or hand. 
 
OUST 
 
 ( 267 ) 
 
 OUTRAGE 
 
 and so discernetli the equality or difference 
 between the weight and the thing weighed. 
 — Coweli, Interpreter, 1658 (in Wright). 
 
 Aunccr is fotmd in Piers Plouhman. 
 It is a derivative perhaps of the French 
 hausser, to raise or lift up. Cf. en- 
 hmmce; East AngUa houndngs for 
 housings. 
 ])e pound l»at hue paiede hem by • peised a 
 
 quarter 
 More J>an myn A uncel • whenne ich weied 
 treuthe ? 
 Langlundf Vision of Piers the Plowman, 
 Pass. vii". 1. 22i, text C. 
 
 On this Mr. Skeat quotes " one ba- 
 lance called an auncere " in 1356, from 
 EUey's Memorials of London, p. 283, 
 observing that it was a kind of steel- 
 yard with a fixed weight and a movable 
 fulcrum, which was obtained by raising 
 [haimsing] the machine upon the fore- 
 finger. 
 
 Sewel, in his Butch Dictionary, 1708, 
 gives " Auncel, een Onster," the latter 
 word apparently from ons, an ounce, 
 which may have favoured the English 
 corruption. 
 
 Oust, so spelt perhaps from a eon- 
 fusion with out, G-er. aus, as if to turn 
 out, is an Anglicized form of the old Er. 
 oster, to remove, Mod. Fr. oter. 
 • 
 OuTDACious, a vulgar corruption of 
 amdadous. Davies, Sujpp. Eng. Glos- 
 sary, quotes an instance from Mrs. 
 Trollope, and the following : — 
 
 'E were that outdacious at 'ciam. 
 
 Tennyson, The Village Wife, 
 
 Odt-hees, ) Old English words for a 
 Ut-hest, j clamour or out-cry. 
 Yet saw I woodnesse laughing in his rage, 
 Armed complaint, outhees, and fiers outrage. 
 Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 1. 2014. 
 My bodye is all to-rente 
 With outhes false alwaie fervente. 
 Chester Mysteries (Shaks. Soc), 
 vol. ii. p. 191. 
 Ar ich utheste uppon ow grede. 
 The Owl and I\ ightingaU, 1. 1696. 
 
 The word so spelt, as if compounded 
 of A. Saxon ui, out, and hcBS, a hest or 
 command, is a corruption of the Low 
 Latin hutesium or uthesium, a.hae-a.nd- 
 cry. Other forms of the word are out- 
 heye [Robert of Brunne, 14th cent.), 
 owtaa [Prompt. Pa/rvulorum, c. 1440), 
 ouias [Paston Letters, 1451), and per- 
 haps utis [Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. ii. 
 
 4, 1. 18). Hutesium is near akin to old 
 Eng. huten [Omudum), Swed. huta, to 
 hoot, Fr. huer. Vid. Notes and Queries, 
 5th S. vii. 503 ; viii. 24. 
 
 Then bee singeth as wee use heere in Eng- 
 lande to hallow, whope, or showte at houndes, 
 and the rest of the company answere liim 
 with this Owtis Igha, Igha, Igha I — Hak- 
 lui/t, Voiages, vol. i. p. 284 (1598;. 
 
 Bale uses the verb outas, to shout or 
 proclaim. See Davies, Sujjp. Eng. 
 Glossary. 
 
 Outrage, otjtkageous, has nothing 
 to do with letting one's rage out, as we 
 might imagine when we say that a per- 
 son who did not control his passion be- 
 came quite outrageous, but is from the 
 old Fr. oultrage, oultrageux. It. oltrag- 
 gio, a going beyond the limits of pro- 
 priety, excess, unbounded violence, 
 from old Fr. oultre, beyond. It. oltra, 
 Lat. ultra; Mod. Fr. outrager. 
 
 Owterage, or excesse. Excessus. — Prompt. 
 Pai^alorum. 
 
 Aquai'ius hath take his place 
 And stant well in Satornes grace, 
 Which dwelleth in his herbergage 
 But to the Sonne he doth oultrage. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, vol. iii. p. 125 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 Alexander Hume, in the beginning 
 of the 17th century, evidently con- 
 sidered the word a native compound : — 
 
 Hyphen is, as it wer, a band uniting whol 
 wordes joined in composition ; as, a hand- 
 maed, a heard-man, tongne-tyed, out-rage, 
 etc. — Orthographie of the Britan Tongue, p. 
 23 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 An old corruption is outrake, found 
 in the Cursor Mundi (14th century), as 
 if from rahe, to wander about and play 
 the vagabond. 
 
 And if yee do suilk an outrake 
 Ful siker may yee be o wrake. 
 Vol. i. 1. 4133 (E.E.T.S.), Cotton MS. 
 [where other readings are outerake 
 and utrack']. 
 Of bothe jjer worldes gret outrage we se 
 In pompe and pride and vanite. 
 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 1517. 
 Here I moue you my Lordes, not to be 
 gredy and outragious in inhaunsing, andrays- 
 ing of your rentes. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 6S. 
 There be iiij. rowes . . . of pylers through- 
 out ye church, of ye fynest marble yt may be, 
 not onely mei'uaylous for ye nobre but for ye 
 outragynus gi'etnes, length, and fayrenes there- 
 of. — Pylgrymoge of Sir B. Guylforde, 1506, p. 
 36 (Camden Soc). 
 
OUTSTBAPOLOZrS ( 268 ) 
 
 OXLIP 
 
 Now Chichevache may fast longe, 
 And dye for al her crueltee ; 
 Wymmen han made hemselfe so stronge, 
 For to oiUrai/e humylite. 
 
 Lydgate, Chichevache and Biicame. 
 Yet sawe I woodnesse laughing in his rage, 
 Armed complaint, outhees, and fiers outrage. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 2014. 
 
 OuTSTEAPOLOUS, a Scotcli corruption 
 of obstreperous. 
 
 OwLBE, an old word for a smuggler 
 of wool when its export was prohibited, 
 as if " one who goes abroad o' nights 
 like an owl" (Bailey), is a corruption 
 of wooler. Defoe speaks of " the OwUng 
 Trade,or clandestine exporting of wool," 
 and SmoUett has owl for wool. See T. 
 L. O. Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossary, 
 s.vv., who also quotes. 
 To gibbets and gallows your mvkrs advance. 
 7". Brown, Tror/cs, i. 134. 
 
 Compare Icel. ull, Scot, oo, wool; 
 ooze for old Eng. woze ; old Eng. oof 
 and oothe {Prompt. Parv.)ioic woof ajxi 
 loood, mad ; oade for woad (Davies, 
 Glossary). 
 
 Own, in such phrases as " I own it 
 was my fault," " I own I was mis- 
 taken," " I own to that impeachment," 
 meaning I plead guilty, grant, or con- 
 cede that it is true, seems to signify I 
 appropriate, or take to myself, the 
 accusation or mistake, acknowledging 
 it to be my own (mea culpa peccavi), as 
 in the lines of a well-known hymn, 
 Teach us to feel the sins we own. 
 And hate what we deplore ; 
 
 so spelt as if connected with A. Sax. 
 agan and alinian, to own, possess, or 
 have (Goth, aigan, Ger. eigen). It is 
 reaUy the modern form of A. Sax. 
 Rinnan, to grant or concede. 
 
 Ge nowen nout unnen |;et eni vuel word 
 kome of ou ; uor schandle is heaued sunne 
 [Ye ought not to allow that any evil word 
 come from you, for scandal is a chief sin]. — 
 Ancren Riwle, p. 380. 
 
 He on Jje Mucliele more [He grants thee 
 much more], — Proverbs of Alfred, 1. 241 (Old 
 Eng. Misc. p. 116). 
 
 I ever fear'd ye were not wholly mine ; 
 And see, yourself have own^d ye did me wrong. 
 Tennyson, Merlin and Vivien,\. 165. 
 
 YES ! YES ! The proclamatory 
 phrase wherewith the crier of the 
 comets calls for silence, attention to the 
 matter in hand, is a modern perver- 
 sion of the old Norman Oyez! Hearkenl 
 
 Oez le altre nature [Hear the other nature]. 
 Oies escripture [Hear scripture]. 
 
 Philip de Thaun, Bestiury, 11. 452 
 and 468. 
 Search. Fii'st, crie oyes a good while .... 
 Idlenes. Oyes ! oyes ! oyes ! oyes ! [very often. 
 The Mariage of Witt and Wisdome, p. 42 
 
 (Shaks. Soc. ed.). 
 Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy oyes. 
 Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, 
 V. 5, 45. 
 On whose bright crest Fame with her loud'st 
 
 Oyes 
 Cries "this is he." 
 
 Id. Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5, 143. 
 
 Oystee-loit, an old name for the 
 plant polygonum historta, also oster Ind 
 (Tui-ner), is a corruption of Belg. 
 oosfer-lucye, L. Lat. ostriacmn, astro- 
 lochia, for a/ristolochia. Other names 
 for the same, and similarly derived, 
 are osterichs and ostrich. 
 
 So cMna-asters in the mouth of a 
 Devonshire gardener became chma- 
 oysters. 
 
 Oister-loit, the Herb otherwise call'd Snake- 
 weed. — Bailey. 
 
 Oystee op veal is a provincial word 
 for the blade-bone dressed vrith the 
 meat on (Wright). It is perhaps a 
 corruption of the word oxter, Scot. 
 ouster (Lat. axilla), the arm-pit or 
 shoulder. Compare Scot. OMse for oa;; 
 oshin for oxgang. 
 
 Ye might hae been lugged awa to the 
 Poleesh-office, wi' a watchman aneath ilka 
 oxter. — Nodes AmbrosiantE, vol. i. p. 113. 
 
 OxHEAD, another form of Hogs-hbad 
 (q.v.). Smiles, in The Huguenots, 
 quotes from a wine-bOl dated 1726: — 
 
 Oxhead of Clarate, pi-ise agreed, £11. 
 
 Oxhead of Benioarlo at 2s. 6d. per gal. 
 
 Compare Dut. oTcshoofd or oxhoofd, 
 " a Hogs-head, a certain wine cask " 
 (Sewel, Woordenhoek, 1708), Swedish 
 ox-hufvud. 
 
 OxLiP, so spelt as if the plant was 
 named from some fancied resemblance 
 to the Ups of an ox, is an incorrect form 
 of ox-slip, A. Sax. oxan-slyppe, the shp, 
 slop, or plat of an ox (Skeat, Etym. 
 Diet.). See Cowslip. Gerarde has 
 the forms oxe Up, oxelip, and oxesVp. 
 
 The greater sort called for the most part 
 Oxesiips and Paigles. — Herbal, p. 637. 
 
 For the merging of s in the x, see 
 
 EVEEHILLS. 
 
OXNA-LTB 
 
 ( 269 ) 
 
 PAINTEB 
 
 Where oxiips and the noddiag violet grows. 
 Shakespeare, Midsummer N. Dream, 
 ii. 1,250. 
 As cowslip unto oxlip is, 
 So seems she to the hoy. 
 
 Tennyson, The Talking Oak. 
 
 OxNA-LYB, an Anglo-Saxon corrup- 
 tion of Latin oxylwpathum, Greek 
 oxuldpathon, a kind of dock (Lye, in 
 Bosworih), as if denoting " ox-bewitch- 
 ment." 
 
 }a Sootcli word, as if 
 
 Packmantie, 
 
 PooKMANTEATj, / a 'pack, poch, poke, 
 or bag, for holding a cloak, is a corrup- 
 tion oi portmanteau. 
 
 Packwax, a tendon or sinew in the 
 neck of animals, old Eng. " Paxwax, 
 synewe " (Prompt. Parv.),fax; wax, and 
 fex wex, which is supposed to mean 
 "hair (A. Sax. feax) growth " (wax), 
 hke Ger. haar-wachs, the back of the 
 neck where the hair-growth begins. 
 The Scot, flx-fa/x, and fanr-liair, a name 
 for the same, Banff, fite-hair, i.e. white 
 hair, which the texture of this tendon 
 closely resembles, would lead us to 
 suppose that the original form may 
 have been fceger-fea^ (whence the sur- 
 name Fairfax), fair-hair. It used also 
 to be called maiden-hair in Scotland 
 (Jamieson). 
 
 H. Grooke, speaking of the ligament 
 which connects the spine and head, 
 
 In heastes of burthen it is very thicke for 
 more sti-ength, and of all the Ligaments of 
 the body is refused for meat ; yet saith Vesa- 
 lius some commend it to he eaten to make the 
 haire grow long. It may be (saith he) be- 
 cause it is easily dissolued as it were into 
 yellow haire. — A Description of the Body of 
 'Mcui, 1631, p. 916. 
 
 Paddock, a small enclosure, is a cor- 
 ruption (perhaps due to some confusion 
 wUhpaddock, a toad) oiparrock, A.Sax. 
 pearroc, the' original form of [par'h) 
 park. See Skeat, Etym. Bid., s.v. 
 
 Paddy-noddy, a word for a tedious 
 rigmarole speech in the Holderness 
 dialect of E. Yorkshire, is perhaps a 
 corruption of pater-nosier, that Latin 
 prayer being used as a by-word for 
 something unintelligible, Fr. patenotre. 
 
 Padeoll, a corruption o{ patrol {An- 
 
 trim amd Down Glossary, Patterson), as 
 if a roll or circuit on a fixed pad or 
 path. 
 
 Pagod, the older English form of 
 pagoda, " an image worsliipped by the 
 Indians and Chiaeses, or the temple 
 belonging to such anidol " (Fr. pagode), 
 wasformerly understood (e.g'.by Bailey) 
 to be a contracted form of Pagans- God. 
 Even Wedgwood thinks that the Portu- 
 guese word pagode is from pagdo, a 
 pagan. It is really a corrupted form 
 of Pers. hui-khoda, an idol-house, from 
 hut, an idol, and hhoda, a house. Devio 
 spells the Persian word pouthoude. 
 
 Sir Thos. Herbert uses pagod for an 
 image or idol : — 
 
 Upon the culmen has been a Pagod, which 
 the inhabitants thereabouts say was Jamsheat, 
 he that succeeded Ouchang. — Travels, 1665, 
 p. 159. 
 
 Upon the same declivity or front of the 
 mountain in like sculpture is figured the 
 Image of their grand Pagotha : A Dfemon of 
 as uncouth and ugly a shape as well could be 
 
 imagined And albeit this Pagod as to 
 
 form be most terrible to behold, yet in old 
 times it seems they gave it reverence. — Id. 
 p. 156. 
 
 Painim, ) frequently but incorrectly 
 
 Paynim, j used for a single heathen, 
 whereas the proper meaning of the 
 word is an aggregate of pagans, or a 
 pagan land, "Agesfuntiisinxpaynyme." 
 — King Horn, 803. It is from old Fr. 
 paienisme, paganism, Lat. pagamismus 
 (Skeat). So fcdry, now used for a single 
 elf, was originally /aerie, the land (or 
 assemblage) of the fays; hke Jeivry 
 (Jewerye, Chaucer), a collection of 
 Jews, or the land of the Jews ; and 
 dairy (old Eng. deyerye), the place of 
 the dey or milk-maid. Cf. yeomanry, 
 infantry, &c. 
 
 Paynyn (or Paynim), Paganus. — Prompt. 
 Parv. 
 
 At last the Paynim chaunst to cast his eye . , , 
 Upon his brothers shield. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, I. v. 10. 
 
 And ihesu crist )jet for us wolde an erjie 
 be (i)-hore. and anured of fjo j^rie kinges of 
 painime. — Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 28 (E. E. 
 T. S.). 
 
 So fiat in \>e fyrmament ]mt folc JjoSte hii sey 
 A long suerd, red as fur, i>e poynt ssarp ynou. 
 And ouer paynyme Estward jjat poynt hem 
 )303te drou. 
 Robt. of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 395. 
 
 Paintee, a nautical term for a rope 
 
PAINTEB 
 
 ( 270 ) 
 
 PAMPEB 
 
 wherewith a punt is towed, or made 
 fast to a buoy, is no doubt the same 
 word as the Irish pdinte, a cord, which 
 Kctet identifies with Sansk. panhti, a 
 line, from the root pac, to extend 
 (Langues Geltiques, p. 17). 
 
 Prof Skeat regards it as identical 
 with old Eng. panter, a noose, old Fr. 
 pantiere, a snare, from Lat. panther, a 
 hunting-net, Greek paniheros, catching 
 every (pan) beast (ther). 
 
 It is of little use to have a great cable, if 
 the hemp is so poor that it breaks like the 
 painter of a boat. — G. Macdonald, The Sea- 
 board Parishj p. 584, 
 
 Paintbe, an American name for the 
 puma, a corruption of panther. — Wood, 
 Natural IListory, Mammalia, p. 163. 
 
 Paint-house. This form of pent- 
 house is quoted in Wright from a work 
 of the date 1599. Compare Derbyshire 
 'ice. See Pent-housb. 
 
 Pallecote, an old form (Bailey) of 
 the word we now write paletot, a loose 
 overcoat, as if compounded with cote, a 
 coat, is perverted from palletoque, old 
 Eng. paltoh, Pr. palletoc, derived from 
 old Dnt pali-roc, pals-roch, i.e. " palace- 
 coat," a court dress, holiday attire 
 (pals zizpalace). See Skeat, Etym. Diet. 
 s.v. 
 Proude preostes cam with hym ■ passend an 
 
 hundred; 
 In paltolces and pikede shoes. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, C. xxiii. 219. 
 
 Paltoli, Baltheus. — Prompt. Paw. 
 
 Palsy might seem to be a derivative 
 of Greek palsis, a shaking (from pallo, 
 to shake), with reference to the tremor 
 which sometimes accompanies it. It 
 is merely the modem form of old Eng. 
 palesy, palasie (Wycliffe), or parlesy, 
 Pr. pa/ralysie, from Greek pardlusis, a 
 loosening or relaxation of the hmbs, 
 and so the same word as pairalysis. 
 The shaking Palsey and saint Fraunces fire. 
 Spenser, F. Queene, I. iv. 35. 
 Of -parlesy war helid grete wane, 
 And dum and defe ful maniane. 
 Legends of the Holy Rood, p. 130, 1. 300 
 (E. E.T.S.) 
 Som for ire sal have als Jje parlesy, 
 i>s,t yvel jje Baul sal grefe gvetely. 
 Hampole, Prieke of Conscience, 1. 2997. 
 Of that disease which is called paralysis, 
 resolution, or the dead palsy, wherein some- 
 times sense alone is lost, sometimes motion 
 
 alone, and sometimes both together perish, I 
 intend not to speak. ... 1 would corapai'e 
 it to that corporal infirmity which physiciaas 
 call tremorem, and some vulgarly, the palsy ; 
 wherein there is a continual shaking of tie 
 exti-emer parts; somewhat adverse to tlie 
 dead palsy, for that takes away motion, and 
 this gives too much, though not proper and 
 kindly. — T. Adams, Sermons, vol. i. p. 487. 
 
 Palter, to shuffle, prevaricate, play 
 fast and loose, in old Enghsh to run on 
 (of a babbling tongue), has been gene- 
 rally regarded as a derivative of Prov. 
 Eng. paltry, trash, rubbish, Swed. pal- 
 tor, rags (see Skeat, Etym. Diet., s.v.). 
 It is perhaps the same word as It. 
 "paltonire, to palter, to dodge, to 
 cheate, to loiter" (Plorio), bompal- 
 tono (also paltoniere), " a paltrie knave, 
 or varlet, a roguing companion, a base 
 raskall " (Id.); cf. old Fr. pautener, a 
 vagabond, a loafer ( Vie de St. AuUn, 
 1. 460, ed. Atkinson), old 'Eng. poMtener, 
 a rascal (K. Alysaunder, 1. 1737) ; aU 
 from Lat. paUtari (a frequentative of 
 pala/ri), to wander about, to vagabon- 
 dize. Compare Prov. Eng. pamlinng, 
 pilfering (Kent). 
 
 Now I must . . , dodge 
 And palter in the shifts of lowness. 
 
 Shakespeare, Ant. and CUopatra, iii. 11, 63, 
 Who never sold the truth to serve the hour 
 Nor palter'd with Eternal God for power. 
 Tennyson, Ode on Wellington. 
 
 Pamper. Milton, in the following 
 passage, apparently uses this word as 
 if it were a derivative of Pr. pamprer, 
 to abound in a too luxuriant growth of 
 vine leaves, from pampre, Lat, pampi- 
 nus, the tendril or leaf of the vine. 
 
 Fruit-trees over-woody reach'd too far 
 Their pamper'd boughs, and needed hands to 
 
 check 
 Fruitless embraces. 
 
 Paradise Lost, bk. v. 216. 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 Pamprer, to fill, furnish, or cover with Vine 
 leaves. — Cotgrave. 
 Meane while, shore up our tender pamping 
 
 twig. 
 That yet on humble ground doth lowely he. 
 Heywood, Fair Maid of the Exchange, 
 Prohgus. 
 
 It is really formed from old Eng. 
 pampe, to fatten up or feed sumptuously, 
 Low Ger. pamtpen, to live luxuriously, 
 vulgar Ger. pampen, to cram; all origi- 
 nally meaning to feed with pap (Low 
 Ger. pampe, a nasalized form of pap), 
 
TANG 
 
 ( 271 ) 
 
 PARADISE 
 
 and so to cooker, like a delicate child. 
 See Skeat, s.v. 
 
 The noble Soule by age growes lustier, 
 Her appetite, and ber digestion mend ; 
 We must not sterve, nor hope to pamper her 
 With womens milke, and pappe, unto the end. 
 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 156. 
 Our health that doth the web of woe begin. 
 And pricketh forth our pampred flesh to sin. 
 By sicknesse soakt in many maladies, 
 Shall turn our mirth to mone, and howling 
 cries. 
 S. Gosson, Speculum Humanum, 1576. 
 Good mistress Statham . . . doth pymper 
 me up with all diligence, for I fear a con- 
 sumption. — Latimer, ii. 386 (Parker Soc). 
 
 Pang, a sharp pain, a stitch, is the 
 modern form of old Bng. prange, or 
 pronge, a throe or severe pain, the same 
 word as prong, the sharp tine of a fork 
 (from prog, Welsh procio, to prick or 
 stab). Its present form is probably due 
 to some confusion with Fr. poign-, 
 pricking, as vapoignavi, piercing, foinct, 
 a stitch in the side, Lat. pungen[t)s ; 
 or with ¥1. poigne, a seizure or grip 
 (Skeat). 
 Palmee, \ old names for the 
 
 Palmee-worm, ) caterpillar (.4. V. 
 Joel, i. 4 ; Artws, iv. 9), so called per- 
 haps from the resemblance of the hairy 
 species to the catkin of a willow in pro- 
 vincial English caUed a palm, — 
 
 The satin-seining palm 
 On sallows in the windy gleams of March. 
 
 Tennyson, Vivien. — 
 
 Ger. palme, Low Ger. palme, a bud or 
 catkin (cf. Lat. palmes, a vine-sprout). 
 So catkin and caterpillar are both 
 named from a fancied likeness to a cat. 
 At an early period, however, the word 
 came to be identified with palmer, a 
 pilgrim, with allusion to the wandering 
 habits of the insect. In the western 
 counties it is called a haU-palmer (as if 
 holy-pahner), perhaps a corruption 
 from hairy-palmer, due to the reUgious 
 associations connected with the pahner 
 or pilgrim. See Adams, Philolog. 8oc. 
 Trans. 1860-1, p. 95. HaUiwell and 
 Wright, from not understanding that 
 mdllepes and multipes were used as 
 mediaeval names for the caterpillar, 
 give palmer, incorrectly, as meaning a 
 wood-louse. 
 
 Millepieds the worme, or vermine, called a 
 Palmer. — Cotgrave, 
 
 CourtiUiere, A kind of Pa/mcr, or yellowish, 
 and many legd vermin. — Id. 
 
 There is another sort of these Catterpillers, 
 who haue no certaine place of abode, nor yet 
 cannot tell wliere to find theyr foode, but like 
 vnto superstitious Pilgrims, doe wander and 
 stray hither and thither, (and like Mise) con- 
 sume and eate vp that which is none of their 
 owne ; and these haue purchased a very apt 
 name amongst vs Englishmen, to be called 
 Palmer-worms, by reason of their wandering 
 and rogish life (for they neuer stay in one 
 place, but are euer wandering) although by 
 reason of their roughnes and ruggednes, some 
 call them Beare-wormes. They can by no 
 means endure to be dyeted, and to feede vpon 
 some certaine herbes and flowers, but boldly 
 and disorderly creepe oner all, and tast of all 
 plants and trees indifferently, and liue as 
 they list. — Topsell, History of SerpenU, 1608, 
 p. 105. 
 
 Pansy, old Eng. pa/unce, is derived, 
 as everybody knows, from Fr. pensee, 
 thought. It has been conjectured that 
 pensSe may be a corruption of Lat. 
 panacea, Gh.. pandkeia, "heal-all." The 
 Latin word seems to have been used 
 with great latitude of meaning, and 
 may perhaps have been transferred (as 
 the name Hea/rtsease also was) amid 
 the general confusion to the viola tri- 
 color. 
 
 Now the shining meads 
 Do boast the paunce, the lily, and the rose. 
 Jonson, The Vision of Delight. 
 
 Cf. Fr. pa/nser, to heal, orig. to take 
 care of, the same word as penser. 
 
 Pantable, an old word for a kind of 
 shoe or shpper, as if from table, Ger. 
 tafel, a board (a German lamd-tafel is 
 compared), is used by Lyly; Massinger, 
 and others (Nares). 
 
 It is a corrupted form of the common 
 old word pamtofle, a shpper, Fr. ^cm- 
 toufle, which seems to be ior patoufle 
 (cf. Dut. pattuffel, Piedm. patofi), from 
 patte. See Scheler, s.v. Another cor- 
 ruption is presented in the Catalonian 
 plantofa, as if from pla/nta, the sole of 
 the foot. 
 
 Panthee, apparently the animal 
 which partakes of the characteristics 
 oi every heast, Greek panther {pan, every, 
 tlier, beast), is probably corrupted from 
 Sanskrit punda/rika, a leopard (Piotet, 
 Benfey). See Painter. 
 
 Paradise. This word we have bor- 
 rowed from the Greek, where it is 
 speUed pa/rddeisos, as if compounded 
 with the preposition para, beside. The 
 Greeks in turn borrowed it from the 
 
PARAGON 
 
 ( 272 ) 
 
 PABK-LEAVES 
 
 Zend or old Persian word pairidaeza, 
 compounded of pii''* ( — Grk. peri, 
 around), and dez, a heap. So the strictly 
 correct form would be peridtse, a place 
 heaped around, a oircumvallation or en- 
 closure, a park or garden, the latter 
 being the sense the word bears in 
 Greek, and so pa/rdes in Hebrew {Song 
 of Songs, iv. 13). — Spiegel, Justi, De- 
 litzsch. 
 
 M. Littre observes that daeza (in 
 pawridaeza) is a rampart, =: Sansk. 
 deha, Gk. teichos. So pcm-i-daeza ex- 
 actly corresponds to Greek peri-teichos. 
 
 Pabagon, a complete model or pat- 
 tern, so spelt from false analogy to 
 words hike pentagon, heptagon, &c. (Pr. 
 and STp. paragon), IB a word made up of 
 the two Spanish prepositions para com, 
 in comparison with (others), and so 
 one that may be compared with others, 
 a model or standard. See Skeat, s.v. 
 With his faire paragon, his conquests part 
 Approaching nigh, eftsoones his wanton hart 
 Was tickled with delight. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, IV. i. 33. 
 
 Paeallelopipbd, so spelt as if the o 
 was the ordinary connecting vowel of 
 compounds, as in camelo-pard, serio- 
 comic, Grmco-Roman, is a corrupt form 
 of parallelepiped, from Lat. parallel- 
 epipedwm, Greek pa/ralUl-epipedon, 
 " parallel-plane " (epipedon, a plane). 
 — Skeat. 
 
 Parboil, to boil partially or insuffi- 
 ciently, understood as pa/rt-hoil (hke 
 pa/rtahe, for part-take, and participate, 
 to take a part of), owes its meaning to 
 an ancient misunderstanding of old 
 Eng. parhoyle, which once meant to 
 boil thoroughly, old Fr. paa-bomllir, Lat. 
 per-lulUre, to boil thoroughly. The 
 par- corresponds to Lat.^er, thoroughly, 
 as in par-don = Lat. per-donare. 
 
 ParbuylyJl mete, Semibuliio [al. parbuUio]. 
 — Prompt, Parvulorum. 
 What a rare cat (sweet hart) have we two 
 
 got, 
 That seeks for mise even in the porredge- 
 
 pot. 
 Nay, wife, (quoth he) thou maist be won- 
 
 der'd at. 
 For making porredge oia,perboild cat. 
 
 S. Rowlands, Four Knaves, 1613, p. 74 
 (Percy Soc). 
 But from the sea, into the ship we turne 
 Like parboii'ld wretches, on the coales to 
 
 hurrie. Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 152. 
 
 Parchment, an old name for a spe- 
 cies of lace, as if made on a pattern 
 traced on parchment. 
 
 Nor gold nor silver parchment lace 
 Was worn hut by our nohles : 
 Nor would the honest, harmless face 
 Weare ruffes with so many doubles. 
 Roxburghe Ballads, The Map of MocUeg^^ar 
 Hall, 
 
 It is really a corruption of Fr. passe- 
 ment, lace (Ootgrave, 1660), " a lace, 
 such as is used upon livery clothes" 
 (Miege, 1685), in ordinaryusage a nar- 
 row tissue of sUk, gold tinsel, &c., such 
 as ribbons (Gattel), galloon trimming, 
 gold or silver braid. 
 
 It was proposed in a parliamentary 
 scheme, dated 1549, that no man under 
 the degree of an earl should be allowed 
 to wear " passamen lace." — The Eger- 
 ton Papers, p. 11 (HaUiwell, s.v.) ; see 
 Notes and Queries, 5th S. ix. 7, 231. 
 
 The French word passement itself is 
 not, as it would appear at first sight, a 
 derivative of passer, with the customary 
 suffix -ment, but a corruption of Sp. 
 pasamdno, lace, a border, originally a 
 balustrade along which the hand 
 (mama) passes (pasa/r), — Covarruvias, 
 Diez, Soheler ; just as guard is a very 
 common word in the Ehzabethan 
 writers for the trimming, lace, or facing 
 of a garment. Hence It. passamano, 
 "any kind of lace* for garments" 
 (Florio). A fresh corruption is pre- 
 sented in Ger. posament, laoe. 
 
 Figures and figurative speaches, ... be 
 the flowers as it were and coulours that a 
 Poet setteth vpon his language of arte, as the 
 embroderer doth his stone and perle, or passe- 
 ments of gold vpon the staffe of a Princely 
 garment. — G. Puttenham, Arte of Eng, Poesie 
 (1589), p. 150 (ed. Arber). 
 
 A faire blaoke coate of cloth withouten sieve, 
 And buttoned the shoulder round about ; 
 Of xx* a yard, as I beleeve. 
 And layd upon with parchment bee without. 
 F, Thifnn, Debate between Pride and Lowliness 
 ' (ab. 1568), p. 19 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Ahove this he wore, like others of his age 
 and degree, the Flemish hose and doublet, 
 . . . slashed out with black satin, and passa- 
 mented (laced, that is) with embroidery of 
 black silk. — Scott, Fair Maid of Perth, chap. 
 iv. sub init. 
 
 Park-leaves, a popular name for 
 the plant hypericum, Gk. Tmperilvn, of 
 which this, as well as its French syno- 
 nym parcmur, " by-heart," are no doubt 
 
PARI8-0ANDLE ( 273 ) 
 
 PASSIONS 
 
 corrnptions, with some reference per- 
 haps to its perhcd (or pricked) leaves 
 (Prior). 
 
 Paeis-candle, a large wax-candle, 
 apparently a corruption of perch- or 
 parch-candle, one set on a perch ; other- 
 wise called a perchei: Compare Pe- 
 rish. 
 
 Jly lord Mayor bath a pei-c/i to set on his 
 perchers when his gesse be at sapper. — Culf- 
 hill, Answer to Martiall, p. 300 [Bavies]. 
 
 Parma oitty (Skinner), a corruption 
 of spermaceti. According to Minsheu 
 fi-om the city of Parma .' 
 
 Parmaceti for an inward bruise. 
 
 Hen. IV. Pt. Li. 2,1.58. 
 
 Parsley, Fr. ijprsil, Low Lat. petro- 
 sUlum, Lat. petroselinum, from Greek 
 petro-selinon, rock-parsley, was some- 
 times regarded as a derivative of Lat. 
 parens, sparing, parcere, to spare. 
 
 Parsley, or Frugality.— Declines a man's 
 estate in this world, as if" his hand had scat- 
 tered too lavishly, there is an herb in this 
 garden ; let him for awhile feed on it — 
 parsley, parsimoni/. Hereon he «'ill abridge 
 himself of some superfluities ; and remember 
 that moderate i'are is better than a whole col- 
 lege of physicians. — T. Adams, Contemplation 
 of Herbs, Works, ii. 464. 
 
 Paesley-pbrt, \ a popular name for 
 Parsley-pieet, J the plant alclie- 
 'nvilla, is a corruption of the French 
 percepierre, "pierce-stone," from its 
 supposed ef&cacy in cases of calculus 
 (Prior, Bailey). 
 
 Paesnep, \ a corruption of old Fr. 
 
 Paesnip, / paetenaque, Lat. pasti- 
 naca, from a desire probably to assimi- 
 late the word to twmp or turnep. 
 
 Partisan, an old species of battle- 
 axe, is a corruption of Fr. pertmsa,nc, 
 which seems to be from pertuiser, to 
 pierce {pertuis, a hole), from Lat. per- 
 iusus, perhmdere, to strike through. 
 However, the ItaUan word is parteg- 
 giana, a partesan, a iavelin, and par- 
 teggiano, a partyman (Florio). Skeat 
 thinks that the word is an extension of 
 0. H. Ger. partd, M. H. Ger. han-fc = 
 Eng. {hal-)berd, a battle-axe. 
 
 An Eagle chanced to snatch a Partisane 
 out of a Souldiers hand ; and thereupon some 
 gathered a likely comfort, that the tyranny 
 whereby the people were suppressed and 
 trodTnderfoot,shouldhaueanend.— -fiouwrrf. 
 
 Defeiisative against the Poysou of Supposed 
 Prophecies, 1620, p. 16. 
 
 The labourers do go into the fields with 
 swords anil partizans, as if in an enemies 
 countrey, bringing home their wines and oiles 
 in hog's-skins. — Sandys, Travels, p. 7. 
 
 Compare part-eisen, a colloquial cor- 
 ruption of partisan (as if from eisen, 
 iron), which may be frequently heard 
 in Germany (Andresen). 
 
 Partner, so spelt as if a direct deri- 
 vative from part, is a curious corrup- 
 tion, due to a misreading, of old Eng. 
 pa/rcener, from old Fr. parsonnier, Low 
 Lat. partitionariua, a partitioner or 
 sharer (Skeat). 
 
 I am parcener of alle that dreden thee; and 
 kepen thin heestis. — VVycliJ^e, Ps. oviii. 63. 
 
 Passage, an old game played with 
 three dice, is said to be the French 
 passe dAx (Wright). 
 
 Passavant, an old Eng. corruption 
 of pursuivant, as if one who goes before 
 {passe avant), and not one who follows 
 [poursuit), a herald, Fr. powsmvant. A 
 Scottish perversion of the same is pur- 
 serhand ( Jamieson). 
 
 In W. Cornwall a fussing meddle- 
 some person is said to be puasivant'mg , 
 that is, going about making inquisitions 
 and visitations like a, pursvAvant (M. A. 
 Courtney, Glossary, p. 45). 
 
 Pass-plower, an old name for the 
 anemone pulsatilla, a corruption of 
 pasgue-flower, the flower that blows at 
 the passover or Easter time, Fr. pas- 
 ques, 6h.pascha. 
 
 Pulsatille, Pulsatil, Pasque fioicer, Passe* 
 Jiower, Flaw-flower. — Cotgnive. 
 
 After them a second kind oi Passe-fiower or 
 Anemone, called also Leimonia, beginneth 
 to blow. — Holland, Pltnii's Nat, Hist, vol. ii. 
 p. 92. 
 
 Passing-measure, ) a slow dance, is 
 Passy-measdre, > a corruption of 
 Passa-measuee, J passamezzo from 
 
 the Itahan {passo, a step, and mezzo, 
 
 mean, middle). 
 
 Prithee sit stil, thou must daunce nothing 
 
 but the passing measnres, — Lingua iii. 7 
 
 (1632). 
 
 Then he's a rogue, and a possy measures 
 panyn. 
 Shakespeare, Twelfth Kight, v. 1. 206. 
 
 Passions, > popular names for a cer- 
 
 Patienoe, J tain species of dock or 
 
 sorrel (polygonum Bistorta), appear to 
 
 T 
 
PASS-LAMB 
 
 ( 274 ) 
 
 PATBIGK 
 
 be corruptions of the Italian name 
 under which it was introduced from 
 the south, lapazio (Lat. lapathum), 
 from its simUarity of sound to la 
 Fassio, the Passion of Our Lord (Prior). 
 
 In Cheshire it is called Patient Dock. 
 
 Mist. Maif. Good Sir, lend me patience. 
 
 'May. I made a sallad of that herb. 
 
 Webster, Northward Ho, i. 3. 
 
 You may recover it with a sallet of parsly 
 and the hearbe patience. — Look about you, 
 1600, Sig. C. 3. 
 
 Pass-lamb, a corrupt form of pashe- 
 lamb or paschal-lamh, with reference to 
 the passing over of the destroying angel 
 at the first passover, from Lat. and 
 Greek paschi, the passover (a word 
 often brought into connexion with 
 Greek^ascZio, to suffer, by early writers) , 
 from Heb. pesach, a passing over. See 
 Pass-plowee. 
 
 Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossa/ry, quotes 
 the following : — 
 
 I will compare circumcision with Baptism 
 and the pass lamb with Christ's Supper. — 
 TyndaLe, iii. 245. 
 
 There's not a house hut hath som body slain. 
 Save th' Israelites, whose doors were markt 
 
 before 
 With sacred Pass-ia.m6's sacramentall g;ore. 
 Sylvester, The Lawe, .5b3. 
 
 Pass-poet, Fr. passe-port, a safe con- 
 duct or permission to pass the gates 
 (partes) of a town, seems to have super- 
 seded and been confounded with passe- 
 par-tout, a permit to travel every- 
 where. 
 
 A travelling warrant is called Pasport 
 whereas the original is Passe per tout. — 
 Howell, Letters, iv. 19 (p. 475, ed. 1754). 
 Thus wildly to wander in the worlds eye, 
 Withouten pasport or good warrantye. 
 
 Spenser, Mother Hubberds Tale, p. 514 
 (Globe ed.) 
 
 Pastatjnce, an old word for pastime, 
 spelt so as to range with plea,saunce, is 
 an Anglicized form of Fr. passe-temps, 
 old Eng. pastans [for pass-tense] . 
 Now herkis sportis, myrthis and mery plais, 
 Ful gudely pustance, and mony sindry wayis. 
 G. Douglas, Bakes oj Eneudos, p. 126, 1. 2 
 (ed. 1710). 
 
 Paste-eggs, \ also called Pace-eggs, 
 Past-eggs, j eggs stained various 
 colours, customarily given as a present 
 at Easter in the olden time, a corrup- 
 tion of Pasche-, or Pasqwe-, eggs, i.e. 
 "Passover eggs." See Brand, Fop. 
 
 Antiquities, vol. i. p. 168-175 (ed. 
 Bohn). Dutch paasch eyeren, Priesic 
 peashe aaien. 
 
 Oeufs de Pasques, Past-e^gs ; eggs given to 
 the children at Easter. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Holy Ashes, Holy Pace eggs, and Flams 
 Palmes, and Palme Boughes. — Beehive of the 
 Romishe Church, 1579. 
 
 In some part of the North of England such 
 eggs are still also presented to (Siildren at 
 Easter, and called paste (pasque) e^gs — 
 Arch, XV. 357 (1806) [in Davies]. 
 
 Fase, Wycliffe's word for the pass- 
 over {Exod. xii. 21, 43, ForshaU and 
 Madden), is a corruption of Lat. phase 
 (Vulgate) = Eng. pace, pasch, Lat. 
 pascha. 
 
 M. Mei'y. Nay for the paishe of God, Int me 
 now treate peace. — Udall, Rmster Doister, 
 iv. 3 (p. 65, ed. Arber). 
 
 M. Mery. A way for the pashe of our sweete 
 Lord lesus Christ. — Id. iv. 8 (p. 78). 
 
 Item, that part of the act maid be the 
 Quoin Regent in the parliament haldin at 
 Edinbruche, 1 Februar 1552, giving speciall 
 licence for balding of Peace and /Jnill [i.e. 
 Easter and Yule] . — J. Melville, Diary, p. 297. 
 
 Patience, an old name for a species 
 of dock, seems to have been derived 
 from Fr. lapace, It. lapazio, lapato (Lat. 
 lapathium, lapathum.sorrel), misunder- 
 stood as la patience ; Low Ger. patich. 
 See Passions. 
 
 Lapace, The ordinary or sharp-pointed 
 Dock. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Lupas, Patience, Monks Rhewbarb. — Id. 
 
 Patientie, herbe Patience. — Id. 
 
 Lapato, the wild Docke or Patience,— 
 Florio. 
 
 Cf. L. Lat. patientia (Pictet, Orig. Indo. ■ 
 Em-op. i. 308). 
 
 He is troubled, like Martlia, about many 
 things, but forgets the better part. Give him 
 some juice of bulapathtim, which is the herb 
 patience. " For he hath need of patience, that 
 after he hath done the will of God, he might 
 receive the promise." — T. AdoTns, The Souls 
 Sickness ( Works, i. 505). 
 
 Bulapathum ; the herb Patience. — Is a man, 
 through multitudes of troubles, almost 
 wrought to impatience, and to repine at the 
 providence of God, that disposeth no more 
 ease ? Let him fetch an herb out of the 
 garden to cure this malady : bulapathum, the 
 herb patience. . . . God hath an herb which 
 he often puts into his children's salad, that is 
 rue : and man's herb, wherewith he eats it, 
 must be lapathum, patience. — T. Adams, A 
 Contemplation of the Herbs, Works, vol. ii. 
 p. 461. 
 
 Patrick, the Scotch word for a pmi- 
 
PATTER 
 
 ( 275 ) 
 
 PATTER 
 
 ridge, old Eng. partriche, Pr. perd/iix, 
 Lat. and Greek perdim. 
 
 Let the creturs mak their ain nests, .... 
 like pheasants, or patricks, or muirfbwl. — 
 Nodes Ambrosianie, vol. i. p. ■iS. 
 
 The whurr o' a covey o' paitrich. — Id. 
 p. 327. 
 
 The Patrt/che Quayle and Larke in fields 
 Said, her may not auayle but spere and sheld. 
 
 Parlament of Byrdes, Hurlif Pop. Poetry, 
 ' iii. 173. 
 
 Patter, a slang term for the lan- 
 guage of street-folk, especially for the 
 professional talk or harangue of show- 
 men and jugglers, is not, as has been 
 thought (Wedgwood), and as the spell- 
 ing would suggest, the same word as 
 patter, to yield a quick succession of 
 reiterated sounds Uke hail or little feet 
 (Fr. paite, Greek patein) ; compare pit- 
 a-pat, Fx.pati-pata, Maoripata, Manchu 
 pata-pata, to patter, Sansk.^oi, to fall, 
 words formed from the sound (see 
 Tylor, Primitive Gultv/re, vol. i. p. 192). 
 So Jonson speaks of " the ratling pit- 
 pat noise" of boys with their pop-guns 
 {Petition of Poor Ben). 
 
 The original word was to pater, i.e. 
 to paternoster, or gabble over the Lord's 
 Prayer in Latin, as people were accus- 
 tomed to do in pre-Eeformation times, 
 repeatedly in rapid succession. 
 
 Compare Wallon paterliJcer, to say 
 one's prayers often (Sigart). 
 
 Shee was not long in bibble babble, with 
 saying she wist not what . . . she doth not 
 as our Papistes doe, which prittle prattle a 
 whole day uppon theyr Beades, saying our 
 Ladies Psalter. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 306, 
 verso. 
 
 How blind are they which thinke prayer to 
 be the pattering; of many words. — TynduU, 
 Workes, p. 232 [Richardson]. 
 
 Longfellow happily combines the 
 meanings of the two words when he 
 makes — 
 
 The hooded clouds, like friars, 
 
 Tell their beads in drops of rain, 
 And patter their doleful prayers. 
 
 Midnight Mass for the Dying Year. 
 I have part of my padareeiis to say, before 
 I get to the chapel, wid a blessin'. — W. Carte- 
 ton, Traits and Stories of' Irish Peasantni, 
 vol. i. p. 353 (ed. 1843). 
 
 And King Arthur gave her a rich patre of 
 beads of gold, and so shee departed. — Malory, 
 King Arthur, vol. i. p. 301 (1634), ed. Wright. 
 (jou cowjjeS neuer god nau>er plese ne pray, 
 Ne neuer naw|;er pater ne crede. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 15, 1. 485 (ed. Morj-is). 
 
 So pater is popularly used in French, 
 and paAdAr in Irish, as a short name 
 for the Paternoster. It was " a super- 
 stitious conceit," as Archbishop Leigh- 
 ton (d. 1684) remarks in his Exposition 
 of the Lord's Prayer, " to imagine that 
 the rattling over these words is suffi- 
 cient to prayer." Hence come such 
 phrases as " Al thys was done as men 
 say in a pater noater wyle." — Paston 
 Letters, vol. i. p. 14 (ed. Fenn), that is, 
 in a moment. "Indeed there is no- 
 thing sooner said, we may do it in a 
 Pater-noster-wMle." — Farindon, Ser- 
 mons, vol. iv. p. 241 (ed. Jackson). 
 Langham {Garden of Health, 1597) 
 directs an onion to be boiled " while 
 one may say three paternosters." 
 Among the Eoman Cathohcs along 
 the Rhine, the repetition of this prayer 
 is still the measure of time for boihng 
 an egg ! 
 
 It is easy to see, then, how pater, to 
 gabble a prayer mechanically, would 
 mean after a time to babble or reel off 
 any set form of words. Similarly the 
 Spaniards say en un crMo { n in the 
 twinkling of an eye. — LaVidade Lazaro 
 de Tormes, 1595, p. 67), " en menos 
 que vn credo, in lesse time then a man 
 might say his beleefe or creed " (Min- 
 sheu) ; and " venir en un santiamen, to 
 come in the twinkling of an eye : From 
 the first and last words of a prayer 
 omitting all the rest for brevity " (Ste- 
 vens, Span. Diet. 1706). Genin quotes 
 a French phrase, " Oette pluie n'a dure 
 qa'unes septsattmes, comme aujourd'hui 
 cinq Pater et cinq Ave " {Bem-eations 
 Philolog. torn. i. p. 129), i.e. the seven 
 penitential psalms. No wonder that 
 hreviarium, the breviary, degenerated 
 into Fr. " Breborions, old dunsicall 
 bookes, also the foolish oharmes or 
 superstitious prayers used by old and 
 simple women against the toothache, 
 &c." (Ootgrave), and finally became 
 h-imhorion, a trifle or thing of Httle 
 worth. 
 
 The street sellers of stationery, literature, 
 and the fine arts . . . constitute principally 
 the class of street-orators known in these 
 daj'S as ^^ patterers," and formerly termed 
 "mountebanks," — people who, in the words 
 of Stmtt, strive to " help oft' theii' wares by 
 pompous speeches, in which little regard is 
 paid either to truth or propriety." — H. May- 
 hew, London Labour and London Poor, vol. i. 
 p. 227. 
 
PATTEBEBO 
 
 ( 276 ) 
 
 PAWN 
 
 It iR not possible to ascertain with any cer- 
 titude wliat the patterers are so anxious to 
 sell, for only a few It^ading words are audible. 
 —Id. p. 236. 
 
 Tyb. Lorde! how my husbande nowe doth 
 patter, 
 And of the pye styl doth clatter. 
 
 Heywoodj Dialogue on Wit and FoUi/, 
 p. xxxvii. (Percy Soc). 
 Ever he paired on theyr names faste, 
 Than he had them in ordre at the laste. 
 Hold the Plowman Lerned hia Paternoster, 
 U. 159-160. 
 
 On the strength of this passage Prof. 
 Skeat restored what is no doubt the 
 true reading in the following : — 
 A and all myn A. b. c. • after haue y lerned, 
 And paired in my pater-noster * iche poyut 
 after ojjer. 
 Peres the Ploughmans Crede (ab. 1394), 
 11. 5-6. 
 The Prestes .... doo vnderstonde no 
 latine at all : but synge & saye and patter all 
 daye with the lyppes only that which the 
 herte vnderstondeth not. — W. Tyndale, The 
 Obedience of a Christen man (IS'SiS), fol. xii. 
 Forth came an old knight 
 Pattering ore a creede. 
 The Boy and the Mantle, 1. 82 (Child's Bal- 
 lads, vol. i. p. 11). 
 Whom shoulden folke worshippen so, 
 But us that stinten never mo 
 To putren while that folke may us see. 
 Though it not so behind hem be. 
 
 Romainit of the Rose, 1. 7195. 
 I have more will to ben at ease 
 And have well levt^r, sooth to say, 
 Before the people putter and pray. 
 
 let. 1. 6794. 
 Henee in Scotch to patter meant to 
 mutter or talk in a low tone, with 
 which Jamieson compares Armorican 
 pateren, to say the Lord's Prayer. 
 Bishop Gawin Douglas says, " Preistis 
 suld be Fatteraris " {Buhes of Eneados, 
 1553, Bk. viLi. Prologue), i.e. men of 
 prayer, on which the editor (1710) re- 
 marks, " In some places of England 
 they yet say in a derisory wajtopiatter 
 out prayers, i.e. mutter or mumble 
 them." 
 
 Surularly joA-gon, which has been in- 
 correctly equated with old Bug. chirJc, 
 cearcian, is Fr. jargon, gibberish. It. 
 gergo, from gergare, "to speake the 
 pedlers frenoh . . . the gibbrish or the 
 rogues language" (Florio), which may 
 be only another form of chercare, 
 chimcare, to play the clerk (eherco, 
 chierico, from Lat. dcricus, clericare), 
 then to speak Latin or a tongue " not 
 
 understanded of the people," to speak 
 unintelligibly. (The word was pro- 
 bably confounded with jargouiller, to 
 warble or chatter of birds, ht. to use 
 the ja/rgeul, or throat, Eug. ga/rgle.) 
 
 From the same source probably 
 comes the old slang word jarhermn, 
 one who can write and read, and some- 
 times speak Latin (Harman, 1573; 
 Luther, Boole of Vagabonds, p. xsdx. ed. 
 Hotten ; Fraternitye of Vacabondes, 
 1575). 
 
 So cant is from Lat. cantare, to sing 
 or intone a Service. Throughout the 
 Middle Ages, any strange speech, and 
 even the chatter and singing of birds, 
 was called latin, It. latino, old Eng. 
 Zedem,thelanguage of the Church having 
 become aby- word for imintelhgible lan- 
 guage. 
 
 E cantino gli augelli 
 
 Ciascuno in suo latino 
 
 Da sero e da mattino. 
 
 Dante, Canzone V. Opere, vol. v. p. 548 
 
 (ed. 1830). 
 
 Si oisiaus dit en son latin 
 
 Entendez, fet il a mon lai. 
 
 7.e Lai de Voisekt, 
 She understood wel every thing 
 That any foule may in his leden sain. 
 Chaucer, The Squieres Tale, 1. 10749. 
 
 In W. Cornwall talk or a song, &c., 
 monotonously repeated, is " the same 
 old lidden " (M. A. Courtney, E. D. S. 
 p. 34). 
 
 Pattbkeeo, an old-fashioned cannon 
 for throwing grape-shot, as if from its 
 pattering or pelting like hail, is really 
 the Sp. pedrero, Fr. perrier, a machine 
 for throwing stones, piedra, pierre 
 (Tylor, Prim. Culture, i. 194). 
 
 He planted his courtyard with patereroes 
 continually loaded with shot. — Smollett, Pere- 
 grine Pickle, ch. i. 
 
 See Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossary, 
 s.vv. Paierero and Petrarry. 
 
 Patty, a little pie or tartlet, as 
 oyster-patty, apparently akin to pat, is 
 an Anghcized form of Fr. pais, 0. Fr. 
 paste, a pasty, Lat. pasta, Gxe&k. paste, 
 a (salt) besprinkled lump. Curious to 
 observe, these words have no connexion 
 with It. pastelh, a little cake, or pie, 
 pasto, food, Lat. pastillus, a Uttle loaf, 
 which are from Lat. pastus, food. 
 
 Pawn, a name for the peacock ocoyir- 
 ring in Drayton's Mooncalf, " Garish 
 
PAT 
 
 ( 277 ) 
 
 PEABMAj.1, 
 
 as the pawn" is a corruption of tlie 
 French paon. 
 
 Pat, to cover with pitch, is from the 
 old Pr. empoier, to pitch (French poix, 
 pitch), poixer, to bepitch (Cotgrave), 
 Span, pegar, empegar, from Lat. picare, 
 to pitch (pix, pitch). So pay, to dis- 
 charge a debt, Pr. payer. It. paga/re, is 
 from Lat. paca/re, to pacify (a creditor), 
 pane, peace. 
 
 Compare the proverb, " The devil to 
 pay, and nopitcli hot," where the allu- 
 sion is said to be to a certain seam, 
 called by sailors the " devil," from its 
 awkwardness to caulk, which requires 
 to be pitched. 
 
 With boiling pitch, another near at hand, 
 From friendly Sweden brought, the seams 
 
 instops, 
 Which well paid o'er the salt sea waves 
 
 withstand 
 And shake them from the rising beak in 
 drops. 
 
 Dri^den, Afiyius Mirabilis, St. 147. 
 
 Whom the Duke of Buckingham did 
 soundly beat and take away his sword, and 
 make a fool of, till the fellow prayed him to 
 spare his life . . . and I wish he had paid this 
 fellow's coat well. — Pepys, Diury, July 22nd, 
 1667. 
 
 Pea, a weight used with the steel- 
 yard (South Eng.) is a corruption of 
 the French poids, confounded with 
 pais, a pea. Poids itself owes its form 
 to a false etymology, being a deriva- 
 tive, not of Lat. pondus, but of pensum ; 
 of. old Fr. pens, pes, pais, Ital. peso 
 (Littre, Histoire de la Langue Fran- 
 gaise, tom. i. p. 65). 
 
 Pea, an old and provincial name for 
 the peahen (Nares, Wright), which 
 word is itself perhaps a corruption of 
 the French paon (Prov. Eng. poMn), 
 Lat. pavo{n}. Compare old Eng. po, 
 A. Sax. paive (Ger. pfau), whence old 
 Eng. pocol; a peacock. 
 
 A pruest [= priest] proud as^e a po. 
 
 Political Songs, temp. Ed. 1. p. 159 
 (Camden Soc.;. 
 
 Pea-goose, a corruption of peak- 
 goose (Beaumont and Fletcher, Prophe- 
 tess, iv. 3) or peeh-goose, a goose that 
 peaks or looks sickly. 
 
 If thou be thrall to none of theise, 
 Away, good Peek ^oos, hens, John Cheese. 
 R. Ascham, Schotenuister, 1570, bk. i. 
 p. 54 (ed. Arber). 
 Gabriel Harvey has the false spelling 
 
 pick-goose, " The bookworm was never 
 but a pickgoose " (Trench, Eng. Past 
 and Present, Leot. iii.). 
 
 Benet, a ninnyhammer, a pea-goose, a coxp, 
 a silly companion. — Cotgiaoe. 
 
 Respect's a clowne supple-jointed, cour- 
 tesie's a vei-ie peagoose ; 'tis stiffe iiam'd 
 audacity lliat carries it. — Chapman, M.ms. 
 D^Oiive, act iii. 
 
 The phlegmatic peagoose Asopus. — Ur- 
 ijuhart's Rabelais, bk. iii. ch. xii. [in Davies]. 
 
 Pea-jacket, a rough overcoat worn 
 by sailors, sometimes written P-jackcf, 
 and regarded as an abbreviation of 
 pilot-jacket (Wright). The first part of 
 the word is Dut. pij, pije, a rough coat, 
 seen also in old Eng. court-py, a short 
 cloak. 
 
 A kertil & a courtepy. —Piers Plowman, 
 A. V. 63. 
 
 Philip Bramble was a spare man, about 
 five feet seven inches high : he had on his 
 head a low-crowned tarpaulin hat; a short 
 P-jucket (so called from the abbreviation of 
 pilot-jacket) reached down to just above his 
 knees. — Copt. Man-yat, Poor Jack, ch. xxii. 
 p. 1.53(1840). 
 
 Peael-baklby, probably a corruption 
 oipiill-, ox pilled-, harley. 
 
 Pilleit, pele, monde, whence pilled-barley. 
 ' — R. Sherwood, Eiig. -French Diet. X66i) 
 [Wedgwood]. 
 
 Orge 7raoiic/^, a kind of Barley whose huskp, 
 when it is ripe, fals from it of it selfe — pilled 
 and cleansed Barley. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Pearling, in the Scottish dialect a 
 kind of lace, and pearl, a seam-stiteh 
 in a knitted stocking, so spelt appa- 
 rently from some fancied resemblance to 
 a pearl or bead, hke Fr. jil perle, hard- 
 twisted thread (Cotgrave), are less cor- 
 rect forms of Eng. purl, an edging for 
 bone lace, contracted from purfle, a de- 
 rivative of Fr. pourjiler, to border, It. 
 porfilo (an outline), porjilare, the same 
 word as prpjile. On the other hand, 
 compare Puel. 
 
 Parte, a term in knitting, the act of invert- 
 ing iJie stitches (iXorfolk). — Wright, Frov. 
 Diet. 
 
 Pbarmain, a variety of pear, is pro- 
 bably not from Fr. poire and magne, 
 great, as has been supposed (iS'a^. Be- 
 vieiv, vol. 46, p. 538), since Cotgi-ave 
 gives " Poire de permain, the permaAn 
 pear.'' It may, perhaps, from the anS.- 
 logy of poire de garde, a warden, or 
 keeping, pear, be derived from a verb 
 permanoir, as if jjoiVe de permanence. 
 
PEA8WEEP 
 
 ( 278 ) 
 
 PEEP 
 
 Rough Elliott, Sweet Pearmain.— Philips, 
 Cyder, 1700. 
 
 Peaswbbp, a name sometimes given 
 to the lapwing, is properly a mere imi- 
 tation of its cry. Compare its names, 
 ■peewit, ie-wit, teu-fit, tinvliit; Scot. 
 peeweip, pit-cake, tuguheit, tJdeve's-neck; 
 Ger. kibitz; Dut. piewit, kiewit; Fr. 
 duchmt ; American Phcehe^-bi/rd). — 
 Bartlett. 
 
 The laverock, the peasweep, and skirlin' pick- 
 maw 
 Shall hiss the bleak winter to Lapland awa'. 
 Andrew Scott, Rural Content. 
 
 The Eussian peasant hears the bird 
 crying Feet ! T^eet 1 i.e. Drink I Drink I 
 from pit, to drink. 
 
 Peel-beae, a Devonshire word for a 
 pillow-case (Wright), is a corruption of 
 pilwebere or pUloivbere. 
 
 Peel-ceow, Pilcrow (Tusser), pyl- 
 crafte [Prompt. Pan.), a printers' term 
 for the mark of a pa/ragraph, of which 
 word it is a corruption. 
 
 Why a peel-crow here ? 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Nice Valour, iv. 1. 
 In husbandrie matters, where Pilcrowe ye 
 
 finde, 
 That verse appertaineth to huswiferie kinde. 
 Tusser, 1580 (E. D. Soc), p. 2. 
 
 Peeled, in the Authorized Version of 
 Isaiah xviii. 2, 7, "a nation scattered 
 and peeled," Ezek. xxix. 18, "every 
 shoulder ^a,s peeled," signifies, not de- 
 prived of skin (Lat. pellis), but stript of 
 haAr (Lat. pilus, Fr. poil), robbed, Fr. 
 pilU, and translates the Vulgate depi- 
 laius. 
 
 Compare 
 
 " Pyled as an ape." 
 
 Chaucer, Cunt. Tales, 3933. 
 
 Peel'd priest. 
 Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI. i. 3. 
 Pyllyd, or scallyd. Depilatus. — Prompt. 
 Parv. 
 
 Pylled as one that wanteth heare, pellu. — 
 Palsfirave. 
 
 Pitlid prechouris. — Coventry Mysteries 
 (Shaks. Soc), p. 384. 
 
 (See Way's note in Prompt. Parv.) 
 Whan they be myghty and doubted, thenne 
 
 ben they extorcionners and scatte and pulle 
 
 the peple. — Caxton, Reynard the Fax (1461), 
 
 p. 114 (ed. Arber). 
 
 But govern ill the nations under yoke, 
 Peeling their provinces, exhausted all 
 By lust and rapine. 
 
 Milton, Par. Regained, iv. 137. 
 
 So pillage is properly " fleecing," 
 from Fr. piller (old Eng. pill, to plun- 
 der), Lat. pilare, to deprive of hair; 
 words often confounded with peel, to 
 take off the skin or rind, Fr. peler. It. 
 pelare, from Lat. pellis, skin. 
 
 Peelshot, a Scotch word for the 
 dysentery in cattle, seems to be the 
 same word as pilsowcht, also a cattle 
 disease, which has been resolved into 
 pil, an arrow, and Teutonic sucht, sick- 
 ness, as if " the arrow sickness " (Jamie- 
 son). 
 
 Peep, in the phrase " Peep of Day," 
 does not refer to the " opening eyeUds 
 of the mom " (Milton), when the day, 
 as it were, looks forth timidly over the 
 dark horizon, but is the substantival 
 form of the old verb peep, " to cry like 
 a chicken " (Bailey), — 
 
 Pepier, to peep, to cheep, or pule, as a 
 young bird in the neast. — Cotgraoe, — 
 Lat. pipire (vid. A. V. Is. vui. 19, x. 
 14). 
 
 Pypynge, crye of yonge bryddys. — Prompt. 
 Parv. 
 
 So pesp of day corresponds to the 
 old Eng. : — 
 
 At daye pype, a la pipe da jour. — Palsgrave, 
 (1630),— 
 
 and denotes that moment at break of 
 day when the birds begia to record and 
 essay their earhest notes, as in Tenny- 
 son's wonderfully beautiful lines : — 
 Ah sad and strange as in dark summer's 
 
 dawns 
 The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds 
 To dying ears, &c. 
 
 The corresponding term at the close 
 of the day is Fr. " lapipee du Sor, the 
 edge of the evening" (Cotgrave), with 
 reference to their vesper song. 
 
 The utber [dove], at my hamcoming on 
 the morn, as 1 was washing my hands, cam, 
 lighted at my futt, and pitiusly crying, 
 "Pipe, pipe, pipe!" ran a litle away from 
 me . . . and parting from me with a pitifuU 
 piping, within twa or thrie houre died also.— 
 J. Mekitle, Diary, 1588, p. 270. 
 
 Compare Scotch creek of day, shreigh 
 (or skreek) of day, the dawn, connected 
 with skreigh, a shrill cry, shry, the noise 
 of fowls. (A shower about the time of 
 daybreak is popularly " the cry of the 
 morning.") 
 
 So " the g'r j/jrj/jM/e of the day e " is an old 
 
 English expression for the dawn ; Scot. 
 
PELLITOBY 
 
 ( 279 ) 
 
 PERIWINKLE 
 
 gnjJdng, greMng, the peep of day ; Shet- 
 land greeh, daybreak ; Dut. hriehen, 
 peep of day (Sewel) ; all allied to creah, 
 to emit a sharp sound. It is quite 
 possible, however, and even probable 
 from the frequent interchange of words 
 expressive of sound and hght, that a 
 word like pipe, denoting a small faint 
 cry, a chirp, would eventually come to 
 be applicable to the faint light of in- 
 cipient day. 
 
 Compare the following : — 
 The moiTowe graye no sooner hath begunne 
 To spreade his light euen peping in our iyes, 
 When he is vp and to his worke yrunne. 
 r. Sachinlle, Mirroui-for Magistratesj 40 
 (1363). 
 
 They came post-haste ; for the Sunne did 
 no sooner peepe, but even at the verie breake 
 of the day, they were all ready to flocke unto 
 tile Judge ag'ainst him. — H. Smith, SermnnSj 
 p. 388. 
 Tile early morn let out the peeping day. 
 
 And strew 'd his path with splendid mari- 
 
 The moon grows wan^ and stars flee all away, 
 Whom Lucifer locks up in wonted folds. 
 P. Fletclief, The Purple Istand, canto xi. 
 St. 1. 
 In a morning up we rise. 
 
 Ere Aurora's peeping, 
 Drink a cup to wash our eyes, 
 
 Leave the sluggard sleeping. 
 I. Walton, Compleat Angler (1653), 
 chap. xi. 
 
 Pellitoey, an herb (Bailey), Sp. 
 peliire, a corruption of Lat. pyrethrum, 
 Greek purethron, the fiery plant ( pur, 
 fire), so called from its hot taste (Ge- 
 rarde. Herbal, p. 619). Quite distinct 
 from this is pelliiory, the name of a 
 wUd flower that grows on waUs, which 
 stands for pa/ritory, Fr. paritoire, Lat. 
 parietaria, the flower that grows on 
 walls [par-ietes). The name " pelUtory 
 of Spain " was sometimes incorrectly 
 given to the plant " imperatoria or 
 Masterwoort" (Gerarde, 619, 848), ap- 
 parently from a confusion of impera- 
 toria with parietm-ia. 
 
 Take persole, peletre an oyns, and grynde. 
 — Liber Cure Cocorum, p. 27. 
 
 Pennant, another form of pennon, 
 Pr. pennon. It. pen/none, a flag or 
 streamer, from Lat. perma, pinna, a 
 wing, flap, assimilated partly to the 
 word pendant, like the Sp. pendone (a 
 flag), as if from pendere, to hang. 
 
 Vpon the wall a watchman standeth con- 
 
 tinually, to discouer the shipping that ap- 
 procheth : who hangs out as manie flags as he 
 descrieth vessids ; square if ships, it gallies 
 pendents. — Sitndijs, Travels, p. 6. 
 
 A furious tempest suddenly arising, the 
 main-mast was split in pieces with a clap of 
 tliuuder;the;)eiid«nt on tlie top of the main-top- 
 mast was burntto ashes. — Mather, Providences 
 in New England, p. 77 (ed. Offer). 
 
 Penny-royal, a corruption of its old 
 English name puliol royal (Dut. poley), 
 Lat. pulegium regium. 
 
 Pulege, Pennif royall, Puliall royal, Pud- 
 ding-grasse, Lurkydish. — Colgrave. 
 
 Pi^leol Rif^il, Origonum. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Tusser, 1580, spells it peneriall, and 
 pencdriall (E. D. Soo. pp. 94, 95). 
 
 Doth poverty fasten her sharp teeth in a 
 m.in's sides, and cannot all his good industry 
 keep want from his family 1 Let him come 
 to this garden for a little pennv-ioi/<i', content. 
 ... He gathers hence infallibly, that God 
 will bless his honest endeavours ; and whiles 
 he is sure of God's benediction, he thinks his 
 penntf-roytil, his poor estate, rich. — T. Adxims, 
 W^orks, ii. 463. 
 
 In Mid. High Ger. pulegium became 
 polenlcrut, as if the Polish plant ; in 
 French pouliot, and thence corruptly 
 WaHon polue, pouye. 
 
 Penny-widdie, a Scottish word for a 
 small dried haddock not split, is a cor- 
 ruption of pin-the-widdAe (Jamieson), 
 perhaps so called from being hung on a 
 widdie or withy. 
 
 Penny- WINKLE, \ as names of a small 
 
 Periwinkle, J sheU-fish, are cor- 
 ruptions of its ancient name, A. Sax. 
 pine-winda (Skeat), which was assimi- 
 lated to the plant-name penwinkle, 
 which stands for old Eng. peruenhe, 
 Lat. pervinca. Permy-winhle therefore 
 is nearer to the original. 
 
 iVIany giue counsell for the cough ... to 
 drinke in hot water tiie flesh of a raw per- 
 winckle well punned. — Hollund, Plinies Nat. 
 Historie, vol. ii. p. 442. 
 
 The first part of the word, A. Sax. 
 pine, old Eng. pyne, is borrowed from 
 Lat. pina, or pinna, Greek pinna, a 
 shell-fish : the meaning of the com- 
 pound, therefore, is the wreathed, or 
 turbinated, sheU-fish. 
 
 At last the Romans made a pi/ne [Lat. 
 pina] of copper and gilt and sette it m a ryght 
 hyghe place. And it is sayde all the pro- 
 vynces were entaylled and graven merveyl- 
 lously wythin that pyne. — Caxton, Golden 
 Legend, 1483, fol. 197. 
 
PEN8IL 
 
 ( 280 ) 
 
 PERFORM 
 
 In Acainaniathere is a little Coclile called 
 Pinna [i. a Nacre] which engendretli such 
 [pearls]. — Holland, Ptinies Nat. Hist. vol. 
 i. p. 256. 
 
 The following refer to the flower : — 
 
 A gerland otperuenhe set on ys heved. 
 Polilical iio7igs (ed. Wright), p. !^18. 
 
 Heo is lilie of larg-e.sse, 
 Iho is paruenke of prouesse. 
 
 Boddelcer, Allen!'. Dithtnngen, 
 p. 170, 1. 52. 
 
 As for the PervincU it contiiiueth fresh and 
 greene all tlie j'eare long. — Hollandj Plinies 
 Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 92. 
 
 Pensil, a Somerset word for- a boil, 
 also spelt pinsiml and pinswheal, in the 
 Dorset dialect pin-sweale, a boU or 
 pimple, apparently from A. Sax. pin, 
 pain, and swelan, to burn. 
 
 In Devonshire the word appears as 
 pinsole (to cure whicb. a curious charm 
 is given in the Transactions of the De- 
 vonshire Association, vol. is. p. 96), and 
 pinsuiill. 
 
 A' is cruel a' troubled wi' pinswills and 
 nimpingan.us. — Mrs. Palmei', Devonshire 
 Cimrtship, p. 32, 
 
 Pbnthodse, a corruption of pentice, • 
 a sloping shed, Fr. appentis, It. pendice, 
 Lat. appendix, sometbing hanging on 
 bj', or appended to, another, an out- 
 bouse or sbed, from pendere, to hang. 
 The name for such an erection in the 
 Dorset dialect is a hangen-house. 
 
 Other forms are appenticium, penteee, 
 (Parker, Glossary of Architecture) ; Fr. 
 " soiipendue, a, pent-Jioitse, jutty, or part 
 of a building that juttietb beyond, or 
 leanetli over, the rest " (Cotgrave). 
 Wash-house, work-lwuse, hahe-house, 
 being vulgarly pronounced washus, 
 worlrus, halcus, so pentis, pentice, was 
 mistaken for pentus, and resolved by 
 " correct " speakers into pent-house. 
 
 From the storke in the top of the Firre 
 tree, to the S-n-allow that huildeth under every 
 pent-house,- — Bp. Aiidrewes, Sermons, fol. p. 
 199. 
 
 Pentiice of anhowseende, Appendicium. — 
 Prompt. Paivntorum, 
 
 A pentis, appendix. — Cath. Anglicum. 
 
 Caxton speaks of 
 
 The rayne watres that fiUen doune a-long 
 tlie thackes oithappentyzch and houses.— Bo/ce 
 of the Fuiit of Amies, pt. ii. c. 17. 
 
 To-falle, sclmdde (orshedde), appendicium, 
 appendix.— Prompt. Parvulonim. 
 
 How, if on Swithin's feast the welkin lours 
 And ev'r}' penthouse streams with hasty 
 
 show'rs, 
 Twice twenty days shall clouds their fleeces 
 d:aiii. 
 
 Gay, Trivia, bk. i. 1. 185. 
 In the Wallou dialect of French, a 
 pent-house iu called une ziointe, orig. 
 " fournU fait dzaointe," which is a cor- 
 ruption of the word adjacent, mistaken 
 for d zacinte (Sigart). 
 
 Peecock, a kind of early apple 
 (Wright), bova prmcox, early ripe. Bee 
 Peincook. 
 
 Pebfobm, so spelt as if compounded 
 of Lat. per and forma/re, to do or form 
 thoroughly, is a corrupted form of old 
 Eng. peifourn or parfourn, Fr. ■pair- 
 fourrm, to accomplish or furnish 
 thoroughly. The form pa/ifurmjsh is 
 also found. See parfomrr, parfownir 
 (Boquefort). Similarly Prov. formir, 
 corresponds to Fr. fownir, It. fornire 
 (Diez), probably from O. H. G. frum- 
 jan, Groth. frtima (Littre). 
 
 Parformyn, or fulfyllyn, Perficio. — Prompt. 
 Parv. ab. i440. 
 
 le achieue, declared in I parforme. — Pak- 
 grare, 1539. 
 
 In an ancient poem entitled — 
 
 Here Begynneth The Justes Of The Moneth 
 of Maye Parjurnpsshed And Done By Charles 
 brandon, Thomas Knyuet, Gyles Capell, and 
 Wyllyam Hussy. The xxii yere of the reygne 
 of our Souerayne lorde Kynge Henry the 
 seuenth. 
 
 occur these lines : — 
 On horsbacke mounted for to proue tlieyr 
 
 myght 
 
 Two seruauntes of this lady of delyte .... 
 
 . . That to parfurnysshe theyr chalenge dyde 
 
 entende. 
 
 Early Pop. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 116, 1. 69. 
 
 Lo ! suche a wrakful wo for wlatsume 
 
 dedeS 
 Parformed \je hySe fader on folke ]:at he 
 made. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 52, 1. 542. 
 I parfoumed \>e penaunce • J>e preast me 
 enioyned. 
 
 Vision of Pier.-, the Plowman, B. v. 6)7 (ed. 
 Skeat). 
 
 He that thenkith schrewid thingis with 
 iSen astonyed, bitith hise lippis, and par- 
 formeth yuel. — W'yclifj'e, Proverbs, xvi. 30. 
 
 Nowe it remaineth that we deliuer ynto 
 you the DoggeS of a mungrell or a.currislie 
 kinde, and then will wee perfoiirme ourtaske. 
 — .1. Fleming, Cuius of Eng'. Oogges, l')76, p. 
 33 (repr. 1880). 
 
PERISH 
 
 ( 281 ) 
 
 FEET 
 
 Pekish, as used in the phrase, " I 
 am 'perished with the cold," i.e. pene- 
 trated through and through (e.g. Evans , 
 Leicestershire Ghssary),is undoubtedly 
 a corrupted form of the provincial and 
 old Bng. persch, persh, or perrilie, to 
 pierce, Pr. perc&)\ old Fr. perhiisier, It. 
 (perda/re) pertugiare, from Tjikt. pcrtusus 
 [pertundo), through a form pertusia/re. 
 
 Peercpiot, or boryns^e (perchinge, or per- 
 singe) Perioracio. — Prompt. Parv. ab. 1440. 
 
 J^are was a knyg:hte redye with a spere and 
 perchede Ipe syde of Ihesu. — Retigious Pieces 
 (ab. 1440;, K.E.T.S. p. 42. 
 
 Perche myne herte for pure petie. — Id. 
 p. 85. 
 
 Persh, persch, are found in Merlin 
 (ab. 1450), E.E.T.S. pp. 155, 327. 
 
 His 4 sonnes were all a bowne 
 ifor to perish his Acton, 
 double Blaile and plate. 
 Percy Folio US. vol. ii. p. 460, 1. 1246. 
 
 Eiohard Hawkins mentions that in 
 an engagement with the Spaniards off 
 Quito in 1594, he received a wound — 
 
 Throuo;h the arm, perishing the bone, and 
 cutting the Sinewes close to the arme-pitte. — 
 The Hawkinses Voyages, Hakluyt Soc. 
 His hert was perysshed with very compas- 
 syon. 
 Liije of Joseph of Armathia, 1520, I. 13 
 (E.E.T.S. No. 44, p.o7). 
 In the Cleveland dialect, perching, 
 peercMng, is piercing, penetrating, of 
 the cold, or a cold wind ; perishment, a 
 thorough chill (Atkinson). 
 
 It's a pearchan cold* wind, this! — Dickin- 
 son, Cumberland Glossary, p. 71. 
 
 Curious to say, parch, to scorch or 
 burn sUghtly, may be substantially the 
 same word ; compare " Pa/rclvyd, as 
 pesys, or benys, Fresus [i.e. ground or 
 crushed] ." — Prompt. Pcurv. ; Lat./a6cB 
 /resce, ground (? split) beans ; " Paarche 
 pecyn, or benys, Frigo." — Id. The 
 word seems to have meant (1) to split 
 or grind peas or beans, and (2) to toast 
 them. 
 
 For the same word being indicative 
 of the action both of heat and cold, 
 compare Lat. wro, (1) to burn, (2) to 
 frost-bite, and Milton's " The parched 
 air hums frwe \zzi frosty] ." Perish, 
 however, was formerly used as a tran- 
 sitive verb, meaning to destroy. 
 
 He mas Jjan vowes, and cryes on Crist, 
 
 For, he es afered jjat lie sal be peryst. 
 llampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 2943. 
 
 Periwig, old Eng. perwicJca, a cor- 
 ruption of Dutch peruiTc, "peruyTc, a 
 perwig " (Sowel, 1708), Pr. perruque. 
 It. perruca, Sp. pelucn, Sard, pilucca, 
 from Lat. pilus, hah\ Wig is the result 
 of dropping the first part of the word, 
 which was perhaps mistaken for a 
 jjrefix, perl- ; uhe instead of pertilte 
 (which is the same word) would be a 
 parallel formation. 
 
 His disshevel'd beames, and scattered fires 
 Serve but for Ladies Periwigs and Tyres. 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 201. 
 
 For which bald place, the Reader (if so 
 pleased) may provide a pereuiake, and with 
 his pen insert such Sheriffes as come to his 
 coi»'nizance. — T. Fuller, Worthies oj England, 
 vol. i. p. 73. 
 
 i\ay, after that his chinue hath lost his 
 
 pride, 
 'Twill put him to a periwigge beside. 
 
 i'. Rowlands, Four hiiaves, 1611, p. 52 
 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Peelings, 7 otherwise " Purlins, 
 Pdelings, J pieces of Timber which 
 lie across the Bafters on the inside, to 
 keep them from sinking in the middle 
 of their Length" (Bailey), is a corrupt 
 form of the old word pwlmjnes, " pro- 
 longations," from a French pour- 
 loigner, ■=. Lat. prolongare. 
 
 A contract for putting a roof on the 
 chapel of St. John atte hiU in Bury, 
 1438, agrees that it shall have " atwix 
 iche two princepals a purloyne, a iope, 
 and iiij sparrys." — Parker, Glossary of 
 Architecture, s.v. Jopy. 
 
 Perrb, an old Eng. name for the 
 
 pearl, Fr. perri (from pierre, petra), 
 
 ■ which appears anciently, as Mr. Way 
 
 observes, to have been considered a 
 
 precious stone, O. Eng. pery, perreye. 
 
 Perre, perle, Margarita. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Peerle, a stone, perle. — Palsgrave. 
 
 A perle stone, margarita. — Oath. Ang. 
 
 Pert, saucy, impudent, is no doubt 
 often regarded as being merely the ac- 
 cented syllable of im-pert' -inent (like 
 slang 'tec' for a de-tec -tive), or of mal-a- 
 pert' (Fr. mal apert — ill-bred). It is 
 really the same word as Prov. Eng. 
 peart, perh, brisk, hvely, Welsh pert, 
 percus, smart, pert ; Eng. to perh 
 (Skeat). 
 
 And she was proud, and pert as is a pie. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 3948. 
 
PERUSE 
 
 ( 282 ) 
 
 PESTER 
 
 When he. perceyues Don Cortez here so 
 
 yeartGj 
 May wel] be mindefuU of his own deserte. 
 A', Gosson, see School of Abuse (ed. Arber), 
 p. 78. 
 
 Peruse, to read attentively, is pro- 
 bably no derivative, as it appears at 
 first sight, of Lat. peruti, perusus, to 
 use thoroughly, but a corruption of 
 ferwise, the old way of writing pervise 
 (so Andresen, Volkseiymologie, p. 22, 
 and Webster), Lat. pervisere (from per- 
 video), to view thoroughly, to scan, 
 survey, or examine closely, which is 
 the original signification oi peruse also. 
 In a letter of Leicester to Walsingham, 
 dated 1588, he gives particulars of his 
 visit " to peruse " the fort at Gravesend 
 and at Tilbury (Sir S. D. Scott, The 
 British Army, vol. i. p. 370). With 
 peruse for pervise we may compare old 
 Eng. rule for reuel, the old way of 
 writing revel (and so rms-rule formerly 
 at Christmas - tide for mis-revel. — 
 Douce), e.g. Seuel, Beuelowre (Prompt. 
 Parv. c. 1440). " North Eng. reul, to 
 be unruly." — Wright. So " This un- 
 civil rule ' ' ( Twelfth Night, ii. 3) = noisy 
 sport, revel. Dyce quotes from Cole's 
 Lat. Dictionary, " Rule (stir), Tu- 
 multus." 
 
 How now, mad spirit ! 
 What night-rule now about this haunted 
 grove ? 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2, 1. 4. 
 
 Cf. O. Eng. recure tor recover, em-few 
 for couvre-feu, laundress for lavandrcss, 
 aumire for auenture. Somewhat simi- 
 lar contractions are rule, 0. Pr. ruile, 
 from Lat. regula ; tile, 0. Fr. tuile, from 
 Lat. tegula; roster, a list of men on 
 active service (?for reister), old Eng. 
 reiester, i.e. register [rejister). In Have- 
 lok the Dane, 1. 2104, reure occurs for 
 reaver, robber ; and so poor, 0. Eng. 
 poure (for povre rr Fr. pauvre), " To 
 begge of the pover and nedy." — Bede 
 me and he nott lorothe, p. 76 (1528) ; 
 Leveson spelt Lusun in Machyn's Diary 
 (1560), p. 245, and still so pronounced ; 
 Devonshire ranish for ravenish, shewl 
 or showl for shovel ; West country raivn 
 iov raven; Soot, deil ior devil ; old Eng. 
 pament,paimnent, ior pavement; manure 
 from manoeuvre ; Lat. miitare for movi- 
 tare ; nuntius for noventius. 
 
 I therefore most feruently stu-red up by 
 your gracis comforte in pervsying my saied 
 
 Dictionarie have prooeded to the correction 
 and amplificacion thereof in suche fourme as 
 hereafter foloweth. — Bibliotheca Eliotx Elio- 
 tis Librarie, 1545, Preface. 
 
 Further I am not to wade in the foorde of 
 this discourse, because it was my purpose to 
 satisfie your expectation witli a short treatise 
 (most learned Conrade) not wearysoEae for 
 me to wryte, nor tedious for you to peruse. — 
 A. Fleming, Caius of Eng. Dogges,15?6,p.3B 
 (repr. 1880). 
 
 Perusing yesternight, with idle eyes, 
 The Fairy Singer's stately tuned verse, 
 ... I streight leapt ouer to the latter end. 
 T. Nash, Pierce Penilesse, 1592, p. 92 
 (Shales. Soc). 
 
 Thus perusing all the ladies and gentle- 
 women, to some they loste, and of some they 
 wonne. — Cavendish, Life of Wotseij, Words- 
 worth, Eccles. Biog. vol. i. p. 359. 
 
 I climbed the Hill, pei-us'tf the Crosse 
 
 Hung with my gaine, and his great losse. 
 Vaughan, Silex Scintillaus, 1650, 
 The Search. 
 
 Pester, to trouble, harass, or annoy 
 (by importunity, &c.), is popularly con- 
 nected with pest (Lat. pestis), as if to 
 plague one, and so identical with Fr. 
 empester, to set the plague on, give the 
 plague unto (Ootgrave),empesie, plaguy, 
 pestilent, pestiferous (Id.). Thus Bailey 
 and Eichardson. When St. Paul was 
 accused of being " a pestilent fellow" 
 (Greek "a plague "), Acts xxiv. 5, to 
 the Jews, in modem parlance he would 
 be said to have pestered them, just as a 
 very troublesome person is sometimes 
 called " a regular pest." The old 
 meaning, however, was to embarrass, 
 to clog, to throng, to crowd, originally 
 to fetter or impede, and so encumber 
 or deprive of free action ; and it is de- 
 rived from old Fr. empestrer, to pester, 
 intricate, intangle, trouble, incumber 
 (Cotgrave), Mod. Fr. empetrer; It.' 
 impastojare (" impastojato, put into 
 shackles, or fetters, or pasterns." — 
 Florio), to fetter or shackle; hterally, 
 to confine with a pastern or horse's 
 clog, pastoja or pastora. Low Lat. pas- 
 torium, a shackle for cattle at pastwe, 
 a pasturing tether (Diez). 
 
 So many dishes shalyou haue pestering the 
 table at once, as the unsaciableat ifellow, the 
 devouringst glutton, or the greediest como- 
 rant that euer was, can scarce eate of euery 
 one a little. — Stubbes, Anatomic of Abuses, p. 
 59. 
 
 They could not close their ranks in the 
 front, nor ioyne them together in the middest 
 of the battel! . . . and to iight hand to hand 
 
PETER 
 
 ( 283 ) 
 
 PETTITOES 
 
 they were so pestered behind, that one throng-ed 
 and overlaid another. — North, PliUarch(Pta- 
 minius), p. 384 (1612). 
 
 Let but Falstaff come, 
 Hal, Poins, the rest, you scarce shall have a 
 
 room 
 All is so pestered. 
 
 Leonard Oigges, Verses to Shakspere. 
 
 I pray you look into the streets, and the 
 chambers or lodgings in Fleet Street or the 
 Strand, how they are pestered with them 
 (coaches) especially after a mask or a play 
 in the court. — John Taylor, The World runs 
 on Wheels, 
 
 Which [cauonizaition] the Pope is very 
 sparing to confer ; First, because sensible 
 that multitude of Saints abateth veneration. 
 Secondly, the kalender is filled (not to say 
 pestered) with them, justling one another for 
 room, many holding the same day in copart- 
 nership of festivity.-^ 7'. Fuller, Worthies of 
 England, vol. i. p. 8 (ed. 1811). 
 Or saw the chui'ches, and new calendar, 
 Pester'd with mongrel saints and relics dear. 
 Bp. Hall, Satires, bk. iv. sat. 7. 
 
 We may suppose the multitudes had not so 
 pestered the Town but that one Lodging might 
 be spar'd, if there were horse-room in the 
 Stable, as itappears there was, because Christ 
 lay in the manger. — Bp. Racket, Century of 
 Sermons, 1675, p. 9. 
 
 Petee, a Scandinavian name for 
 The pious bird with the scarlet breast 
 Our little English Robin, 
 
 Peter Bonsmad in Norway, looks like 
 a perversion of its name in southern 
 Europe, It. pettorosso, pettirosso, a 
 Eudcooke or Eobin-red-breast (Florio), 
 Sp. petiroxo. 
 Art thou the Peter of Norway boors ? 
 
 Their Thomas in Finland, 
 
 And Russia far inland? 
 The bird, that by some name or other 
 All men who know thee call theii- brother ? 
 Wordsworth, Poems of the Fancy, xv. 
 
 Peteb, an old English name for the 
 plant ^ereirimi (i.e. pyrethrum), of which 
 word it is a corruption. Cf. Pelli- 
 
 TOKY. 
 
 Petyr, herbe (also peretre, and pertyr). 
 Peretrum. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Petyr, propyr name. Petrus. — Id. 
 
 The same word has been curiously 
 corrupted into different proper names. 
 See Bertkam. 
 
 Petee, in Blue Peter, the name of a 
 flag (a white square on a blue ground) 
 which is hoisted to give notice that a 
 vessel is about to set sail, is sometimes 
 said to be a corruption of Fr. partir (to 
 
 depart). Malm (Webster, Biat. s.v.) 
 suggests with more probability that it 
 is for Blue liepeater, one of the British 
 signal flags. 
 
 Petek-geievous, a Sussex word for 
 fretful, whining, e.g. " AVhat a peter- 
 grievous child you are I " Mr. Parish 
 thinks may be from Fr. petit-grief, but 
 this seems doubtful. 
 
 Petbe-see-me, a wine mentioned by 
 Taylor the Water Poet, and in Middle- 
 ton's Spanish Gipsey, iii. 1, also called 
 Peier-semine, is a corruption of Pedro 
 Ximenes. 
 
 The Pedro Xinienes, or delicious sweet- 
 tasted grape which is so celebrated, came origi- 
 nally from Madeira, and was planted on the 
 Rhine, from whence about two centuries 
 ago one Peter Simon brought it to Malaga, 
 since when it has extended over the south 
 of Spain. — Foid, Gatherings from Spain, p. 
 1J2. 
 
 1 am phlegmaticke as may be, 
 Peter see me must inure me ; 
 
 I am sanguine for a Ladie 
 
 And coole Rhenish shall conjure me, 
 
 Brathwaite, Vandunk's Four Humours, ^c. 
 1617. 
 
 Peteonel, an old fire-arm, so called, 
 not, as would appear at first sight, 
 from discharging stone bullets, like the 
 perriere or paterero {irom pierre, petra], 
 but from its being discharged from the 
 breast (Fr. poitrine, Lat. pectus), its 
 French name being poictrinal. So 
 petrel, a breastplate, is from Fr. poict- 
 rail. 
 
 Petticoat tails, a Scotch name for 
 a species of tea-cake, a corruption of 
 petits gatels, httle cakes ; the name and 
 the thing are said to have been intro- 
 duced by Mary Stuart. 
 
 Never had there been such slaughtering of 
 capons and fat geese and barn-door fowls — 
 never such boiling of reested hams — never 
 such making of car-cakes and sweet scones, 
 Selkirk bannocks, cookies, and petticoat-tails 
 — delicacies little known to the present gene- 
 ration. — Scott, Bride of Lamm^rmoor, ch. 
 xxvi. {sub init.) 
 
 Pettitoes, so spelt as if it denoted 
 little toes, is said to be " a corruption of 
 Norm, petots, little feet (Patois de Brai), 
 so modified as to give the word an ap- 
 parent meaning in Enghsh " (Wedg- 
 wood). 
 
 It. Peduccii, all manner of feete, or petitoes. 
 — Florin. 
 
PHABAOE 
 
 ( 284 ) 
 
 PHILOMOT 
 
 Pharaoh, the name of an old game 
 in the comedy Which is the Mem ? (p. 
 60), by Mrs. Cowley, is a corrupt spell- 
 ing of faro, apparently from It. faro, 
 " I will do or make." 
 
 Faron, a sort of game. — Bailey. 
 
 The Princess Craon has a constant pharuoh 
 and supper every night. — Horace Watpole, 
 Letters (ed. Cunningham), vol. i. p. 53 
 (1740). 
 
 Nannette last night at twinkling Pharaon 
 play'd. Ga\i to Pulteney. 
 
 May I never taste the dear delight of 
 breaking a Pharaoh bank. — The Way to Keep 
 Him, act i. (1760) [in Davies]. 
 
 Pharisees, a popular corruption in 
 Sussex, Hampshire, and elsewhere, of 
 "fairies," old Scotoh. phairies or pha- 
 reis, the guid wiohtis (J. G. Dalyell, 
 Darher Superstitions of Scotland, p. 
 538). Cf. Manx/e»-m7i, a fairy. 
 
 A preacher in a country village once 
 preached on the text, *' There was a man of 
 the Pharisees named Nicodemus — The same 
 came to Jesus by night." An old woman of 
 the parish said she liked the discourse very 
 mucn indeed, '* And I always did hear say 
 that it was by night the fairies danced on 
 Harborough Hill.— fieu. J. M. Neale, Mediie- 
 val Preachers, p. xlvii. 
 
 Philbekt, ) a corrupt spelling of 
 Philbekd, 3 fUbert or filberd, the 
 hazel-nut, from a mistaken notion that 
 it was " so named of Philihert, a King 
 of Prance, who caused by arte, sundry 
 kinds to be brought forth." — Peaoham. 
 But thou art of those harvesters I see 
 Would at one shocke spoils all the philberd 
 tree. Peek, Eglogue, 1589. 
 
 The Philibert that loves the vale, 
 
 And red queen apple, so envide 
 Of school-boys passing by the pale. 
 Peuchum, l^mbtems, 161:2 [Kichardson] . 
 
 Filberd, old 'Eng. fylberde, Prov. Eng. 
 jilbeard (Cheshire, and so Tusser), 
 would seem to signify the nut which 
 completely jftHs the beards of the calyx, 
 instead of projecting beyond them 
 (Wedgwood), and indeed beard-tree is 
 a popular name for the tree which pro- 
 duces the filbert, Cwylus avellana 
 (Britten and Holland) ; compare the 
 German name baoi-misz, " beard-nut." 
 Beard, then, must bean undoubted part 
 of the word, but fil- has nothing to do 
 with the verb to fill, being a relic of the 
 medieval name of the nut, fiUum, for 
 phyllum (Greek phdllon), the tree being 
 QaUeH phyllis (Greek phullis). 
 
 Fylberde, notte, FiUum. 
 Fdberde, tree, Philtis. 
 
 Prompt. Parvulorum (c. 1440), 
 On this latter word Gower has woven 
 a story : — 
 
 That Phillis in the same throwe 
 Was shape into a nutte-tre. 
 That alle men it might se ; 
 And after Phillis philliberd 
 This tre was cleped in the yerd : 
 And yet for Demephon to shame, 
 Into this day it bex'eth the name. 
 Confessio Amantis, vol. ii. p. 30 (ed. 
 Pauli). 
 
 Filbert, then, would originally have 
 been a mongrel compound, p/M//Ito-!ie«(J 
 {z^ "leafy-beard "), philliberd. 
 
 Filherds are couered with a soft bearded 
 huske. — Hoitand, Plinies Nat. Hist. vol. i, p. 
 446. 
 
 Instead of flowers [of the Filberd] hang 
 down catkins, aglets or blowings, slender and 
 well compact ; after which come theNuts stand- 
 ing in a tough cup of a greene colour; and 
 lagged at the vpper end, like almost to the 
 beards in Roses. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. 12o0. 
 The fftlbyrdes hangyng to the groiid, 
 The fygge-tre, and the maple round, 
 And other trees there was mane one. 
 The Squyr of Lowe Degre, 1. 39. 
 
 The pith or meat [of the Coco-nut] is above 
 an inch thick, and better relisht then our 
 Philberts, enough to satiate the appetite of 
 two reasonable men. — Sir Thos, Herbert, 
 Travels, 1665, p. 30. 
 
 Philippine. Wlien a person lights 
 on a nut with a double kernel, it is 
 customary in some places for the finder 
 to challenge one of the company to be 
 his or her Fhilippine, it being under- 
 stood that whichever at their next 
 meeting is the first to cry PMUppirK ! 
 will be entitled to a pair of gloves or 
 other forfeit. A nut of the kind de- 
 scribed is also called a Philippine nut. 
 This custom has not been noticed, I 
 think, in any volume of folk-lore, but 
 may be traced in Ireland, England, 
 •and America. The word would seem 
 to be borrowed , from Ger. Philip- 
 pinchen, used in the sense of a sweet- 
 heart or valentine, a ooiTUption of F/eJ- 
 licbchen. The Americans sometimes 
 incorrectly spellit philopena (Bartlett). 
 See Notes and Queries, 6th Ser. iv. 
 174. 
 
 Philomot, an old' word denoting a 
 certain pale yellow tint, assimilated in 
 its form to words like philomath (de- 
 rived from the Greek pUlos), is a cor- 
 
PELEGME 
 
 ( 285 ) 
 
 PIGGESNIE 
 
 ruption of the French. fruiUe morfe, and 
 BO implies tlie colour of a dead leaf. 
 
 One of them [the hoods] wasblu^, another 
 yellow, and another phllomot. — Addismij The 
 Spectator, 1711, No. 26,1. 
 
 Swift {Adviae to Servants) speaks of 
 a filemot colour, and Woodward {On 
 Fossils) of a,foliomori colour. 
 
 Phlegme, an old incorrect form of 
 phleam, a lancet (commonly spelt/Zeam), 
 from Ijat. phleioiomum, Qreekphlebo-iS- 
 ■mow,="vein-cutter," whence alsoM. H. 
 Ger. fliedeme, and Fr. flanvme. The 
 Eng. word has passed through the 
 stages phlebotomum, phle'iomum, phle- 
 'omum, phle'am. 
 
 The Phlegme or lancat, is that Instrument 
 wherewith they vse to open a Veine, and 
 may be of vse m tender and Soft parts, and 
 where the Apostemation is outward. — H. 
 Crooke, Practise of Chimrgeri/, 1631, p. 3. 
 
 Piano eosb, a corruption of Peony 
 Rose {Antrim andDoion Glossary, Pat- 
 terson). 
 
 Pick-axe is a modem corruption of 
 the old 'Eng. pilceys or pyheys {Prompt. 
 Parv.; Robert of Brunne), or piliiois; 
 Somerset pecJcis (Williams and Jones, 
 Glossary) ; picoise (Wycliffe, 1 Kings 
 xiii. 20) ; old Pr. picois. 
 
 Tlmrske . . . markyd out there the fore- 
 said place withe an iron pukkes.' — Deposition, 
 quoted in Stanley's iVestminster Abbey, p. 313. 
 Ech man to pleye with a plouh • apycoyse ojier 
 a spade. 
 II-'. Langland, Vision of P. Plowman, C. 
 Pass. if. 465 [see Skeat's ed. pt. 4 
 (Notes), p. 72]. 
 
 PiB-POWDEE covRT^ 3. court attached 
 to fairs in the olden time, having sum- 
 mary jurisdiction to arrange disputes 
 between buyer and seller, literally 
 " The wayfarer's court," from Fr. pieds 
 poudn-eva;,-= Scot, dustifute, " a fairand 
 man." Vid. Morley, Memoirs of Bartho- 
 lomew Fair, pp. 76-79 ; Soane, New 
 Curiosities of Literature, ii. 161. 
 
 Pie poudreux, etranger, raarchand forain, 
 qui court les foires. — Roquefort. 
 
 Is this well, goody Joan, to interrupt my 
 market in the midst, and call away my cus- 
 tomers! Can you answer this at the pii- 
 poudres? — Ben Jonson, Bartholomew fair, 
 iii. 1. 
 
 He was an officer in the court of pie-poiidrcs 
 here last year. — Id. W. 1. 
 
 Pig And Whistle, as the sign of an 
 inn, was once in Danish, it is said, 
 
 Pige Washael, the maiden's greeting, 
 i.e. the salutation of the B. Virgin 
 (Miss Yonge, Christian Names, i. 267). 
 But this is more than doubtful ; see 
 Hotten and Larwood, Hist, of Sign- 
 hoa/rds, p. 437 (3rd ed.). 
 
 PiGQESNiE is given by Dr. Prior as 
 an old popular name of the pink, being 
 applied, in conjunction with the prime- 
 role or primrose, as a complimentary 
 term to a lady in Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 
 1. 3268. Tyrwhitt thought it meant a 
 "pig's eye" ! Another form is pinch- 
 anie, a term of endearment (Wright). 
 Pigamy and pichanniny are probably 
 the same word. It has been considered 
 a corruption of pinksten-eye, i.e. Low 
 Qer . pingsten, Ger. pjingsten (=: Greek 
 pentehoste), Whitsuntide, and eye-=.'Pr. 
 millet (Lat. oceZtes), denoting (l)alittle 
 eye, (2) a pink {Pop. Names of Brit. 
 Plants). Compare Spinks iz Dut. Pink- 
 ster-hhem ; Ger. pfingstroso, the peony ; 
 Dan. pash-lilfa, the daffodil ; Lent-Uly, 
 Gang-flower, Michaelmas daisy, Christ- 
 ■)nas rose, &c. 
 
 More probably piggesnie is another 
 form of pinhande or pinhm/e, one with 
 small twinkling eyes (cf. Lat. ocellenvi! 
 as a term of endearment, Plautus), 
 from Prov. and old Eng. pinlc, to wink 
 or twinkle (Dut. pinken, pinkoogig) . 
 Upon drynkynge my eyse will be pynkynge. 
 
 Hey wood. The Four P's (Dodsley, i. 72, 
 ed. 1825). 
 Though his iye on us therat pleasantlie pinke. 
 Heijwood, Spider and Flie, 1556. 
 
 Them that were pinke-eied and had very 
 small eies they termed oceU(B. — P. Holland, 
 Pliny N. Hist. 1634, vol. i. p. 335. 
 
 Laneham has j^ink n/yez, which comes 
 very near to pinkanye, and Shake- 
 speare : — 
 
 Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne. 
 
 Antony and Cleop, ii. 7. 
 
 I find by her stink 
 And the pretty pretty pink 
 Of her nyes, that halt wink, 
 That the tipling feast. 
 With the doxy in the nest. 
 Hath turned her brain 
 To a merry meiTy vein. 
 
 Brome, A Jovial Crew, ii. 1. 
 R. Royster. What, she will helpe forward 
 
 this my sute for hir part, 
 ill. Mei-y. Then ist mine owne pygs nie, 
 and blessing on my hart. 
 Udall, Roister Doister, i. 4, p. 27 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
PIGS 
 
 ( 286 ) 
 
 PIN 
 
 M. Merij. To mine owne deare coney birde, ■ 
 
 swete heart, pigsny 
 Good Mistresse distance present these by 
 
 and by. Id. p. 50. 
 
 All the bumbast, epithetes, patheticall ad- 
 juncts incomparably fair, curiously neat, 
 divine, sweet, dainty, delitious, etc. pretty 
 diminutives corculam^ suavioiam, etc, pleasant 
 names may be invented, bird, mouse, lamb, 
 puss, pigeon, pigmeif, kid, bony, love, dove, 
 chicken, etc, he puts on her. — Burtoriy Arut' 
 tomi) of Melancholti, III. ii. 4, 1. 
 
 Pigs, in the common sayings, 
 " Please the pigs," " Please God and 
 the pig's," is the Somerset pigs, fairies 
 01 pixies, probably akin to Puch (as if 
 pucTcsy), Icel. puTci, Welsh jpwca, Corn. 
 hucha, a goblin. 
 
 PiKE-STAFP. The proverbial simile, 
 " As plain as a pihe-staff," is an old 
 corruption of " As plain as aipadc-siaff," 
 which is the common form of the say- 
 ing in Leicestershire (Evans, Glossary, 
 E.D.S.), the paclc-staff being the stick 
 on which the packman or pedlar carries 
 his pack over his shoulder. 
 Some say my satires over loosely flow, . 
 Not, riddle-like, obscuring" their intent ; 
 But, pack-staff plain, utt'ringwhat thing they 
 meant. 
 J. Hall, Satires, 1597, Prologue, bk. iii. 
 (ed. Singer). 
 His honestie 
 Shall he as bare as his anatomie, 
 To which he bound his wife. O, packstaffe 
 
 rimes ! 
 Why not, when court of stars shall see these 
 crimes ? 
 Marston, Scourge of Villanie, 1599, Sat. I. 
 
 ( Works, iii. p. 2-19, ed. Halliwell). 
 You make a doubt, where all is as plaine as 
 a pike staffe; you seeke a knot in a bulrush, 
 in which is never any at all. — R. Bernard, 
 Terence in English, 1641, p. 89. 
 
 But pike-staff is an old word, occur- 
 ring in Laugland : — 
 
 My plow-fote shal be my pyk-siaf. — Vision 
 of Piers Plowman, B. vi. 105, 
 
 Pile, when used of a large and 
 stately building, as Westminster Abbey 
 might be spoken of as a splendid pile, 
 generally xmderstood to be only another 
 use oipiile, a heap, as if referring to the 
 vast accumulation of stone and mate- 
 rial used in its erection, is old Eng. 
 pile, a castle, Scot, pele, peel, or peill, 
 a fortress or stronghold ; north Eng. 
 peel and. pile, a tower (Wright) ; Welsh 
 pill, a stronghold or castle, still found 
 
 in the Pile of Ponldray {Phihlog. Proc. 
 vi. 131) ; the same word as pile, a large 
 stake driven into the earth as a support 
 for a foundation, then a pier or pillar 
 from Lat. pila, a pier or pillar. Pile 
 a heap, a round mass, is from the Lat. 
 plla, a ball. 
 
 Pere, or pyle of a brygge or other funda- 
 ment, Pila. — Prompt. Pai-vnloj'um. 
 
 The numerous peels along the border are 
 an evidence of the insecurity arising from 
 border warfare in times when every man's 
 house was, in a literal sense, his castle also. 
 — /. Taylor, Words and Places, p. 262 (2nd 
 ed.). 
 
 By an interesting coincidence Words- 
 worth's " Elegiac Stanzas suggested by 
 a Picture of Peele Castle " begin with 
 the hne, 
 
 I was thy neighbour once, thou rugged Pile, 
 They left neither pile, village, nor house 
 standing unburnt. — Expedition in Scotland, 
 1544 [Davies]. 
 
 Swinburne, a little castle or pile, which 
 gave name unto a worthy family. — Holland's 
 Camden, p. 806 [Davies]. 
 
 Though I cannot as an architect, 
 In glorious piles or pyramids erect, 
 Unto your honour ; I can tune in Song 
 Aloud ; and, haply, it may last as long. 
 Ben Jonson, Undei'wood, xcv. 
 
 PiLL-CEOw, J old corruptions of 
 
 Pylceaet, ) the word paragraph, 
 through the old Eng. forms pargrafte 
 (Ort.us), paragraffe, and used for the 
 printers' mark shaped thus IT, which 
 the French term a fly's-foot, pied-de- 
 moucJie. 
 
 Paragraphe, a paragraffe, or Pill-crow, a 
 full sentence, head,Af' title. — Cotgrave, 
 In Husbandry matters, where Pilcrowe ye 
 
 finde. 
 That verse appertaineth to Huswiferie kinde. 
 Tussey, Points of Husbandry. 
 
 Pylcrafte, yn a booke (pilecrafte) Asteris- 
 cus, paragraphus. — Prompt. Part). 
 
 Paragrapha, pylcraft in wry(t)ynge.— Mc- 
 dulla. 
 
 PiLLEY-STAiEEs, a Scotch word used 
 in Pitseottie, is regarded by Jamieson 
 as a corruption oi pilasters. 
 
 Pin is regarded by Dr. Morris as the 
 modern form of old Eng. preon (prin), 
 from which the r has been lost {Eng. 
 Accidence, p. 73, 2nd ed.). In that 
 case it is the same word as Scot, prin,, 
 prein, or preen, a pin made of wire, 
 A. Sax. predn, a needle, Icel. pri&n, 
 Dan. preen, G&el.prin. Compare Cleve- 
 
PIN 
 
 ( 287 ) PIN AND WEB 
 
 land piin-cod, a pincushion (Atkinson). 
 Then old Eng. pin, pmne, a wooden 
 peg, Keltic pinne, a peg, Dut. phi, Lat. 
 pinna, a "pen," must be a distinct 
 word, to which pin {prin), the toilet 
 requisite, was assimilated, just as old 
 Eng. grin, a snare, is merged in gin. 
 
 Pijnne, of metalle, as yryne or ojjer lyke, 
 Spintrum. — Prompt. Parvuloriun. 
 Kuery wyndowe by and by, 
 On eche syde had there a gynne, 
 Sperde with many a dyners jtyiive. 
 
 The Sqittir of Lowe Degre, 1. 98. 
 Gol prenes and ringes 'wiS hem 
 Diep he is dalf under an ooc. 
 * Stortf of GeJiesis and Exodiis (1250), 
 p. 54, 1. 1873. 
 A' your cocks, and a' your reests, 
 1 value not a prin; 
 For I'll aw a' to Me°;gie's bower, 
 I'll win ere she lie down. 
 
 The Drowned Lovers, 1. 16(C/u/d's 
 Ballads, Tol. ii. p. 176). 
 A few lines later occurs pin = peg : — • 
 Then he is on to Meggie's bower. 
 And tirled at the pin. Id. 1. 42. 
 
 ■ My memory's no worth a preen. 
 Burns, Poems, p. 80 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Pin, in the phrase "to he in merry 
 pin," i.e. in a cheerful, joyous mood, 
 has been generally considered to have 
 some reference to the old custom, said 
 to have been introduced by Dunstan, 
 of ha-idng pins or pegs fixed in tankards 
 to define each man's proportion of 
 liquor; see Fuller, GJiv/rchHist. iii. 17. 
 It was enacted by the Council of Lon- 
 don (a.d. 1002), " Ut presbyteri non 
 eant ad potationes, nee ad pirmas hi- 
 bant." He who drank more than his 
 share, it was conceived, might be de- 
 scribed as "in a merry pin." This 
 seems a somewhat forced explanation. 
 It is much more likely that pin, 0. 
 Eng. pinn, is a corruption of Pr. point 
 (compare to pill and Fr. poiler ; pitch, 
 Pr. poix; pintel and pointel ; to pin or 
 pynd (cattle) and pound). Cotgrave 
 explains point, " the state or issue of a 
 cause ; also, the order, trimme, array, 
 pUght, health, estate, case, taking, one 
 is in," e.g. " En ton poind, handsome, 
 faire, fat, well Uking, in good taking; " 
 Scot, "in gooi point" (Jamieson) ; so 
 etre in gaillard point, would mean "to 
 be in merry trina or pin." 
 Ech lyme faire i-strei3t also, in god point as 
 he were. 
 
 ISih Cent. Poem, in Wright, Pop. 
 Treatises on Science, p. 140. 
 
 Nowe set thy hert on a mery pyn. 
 Interlude of the Four Elements (Percy 
 Soc), p. 47. 
 
 To be set on the merry pinne. Estre en ses 
 goguettes.— R. Sherwood, Eng. and French 
 Diet. 1660. 
 
 Each sett on a mery pin. 
 Percy Folio MS. Fryar djf Boye, 1. 484. 
 
 But I haue sett her on such a pinn, 
 King Adler shall her neuer winne. 
 
 Id. vol. ii. p. 297, 1. 34. 
 The Callender, right glad to find 
 His friend in merry pin. 
 
 Couyper, John Gilpia. 
 
 Calamy describes Thos. Puller as a 
 gentleman " who was generally upon 
 the merry pin." — Memoirs of Howe, p. 
 20 (ed. 1724). The old form of the 
 phrase, " On a merry pin," would 
 favour the first-mentioned hypothesis. 
 
 Kine Edgar, because his subjects should 
 not offend in swilling, and bibbing, as they 
 did, caused certaine yron cups to be chayned 
 to everie fountaine and wells-side, and at 
 everie vintner's doore, with yron pins in them, 
 to stint euery man how much he should 
 drinke ; and he that went beyond one of 
 those pins forfeyted a pennie for everie 
 draught. — T. Nash, Pierce Penitesse, 1592, p. 
 54 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 That priests should not go to public drink- 
 ings, nee ad pinnas bibant, nor drink at pins. 
 This was a Dutch trick (but now used in 
 England) of artificial drunkeness out of a cup 
 marked with certain pins. — 2\ Fuller, Church 
 Hist. Ill . ii. 3. 
 
 He will. 
 Imagine only that he shall be cheated, 
 And he is cheated : all still comes to pass, 
 He's but one pin above a natural. 
 
 W. Cartwright, The Ordinary, ii. 3. 
 
 Pin and web, an old name used by 
 Shakespeare for a disease of the eye 
 which resembles a white web or veil 
 drawn across the sight, a cataract, is 
 partly a corruption, partly a transla- 
 tion, of It. panno dell' occhio, "a pin 
 and a weh in the eye " (Florio), from 
 pa/ano, Lat. pan/rms, a cloth. This use 
 has arisen from a confusing of panno 
 with pano, an agnel, wartle, or kernel, 
 a bote swelling, a duskish spot (Florio), 
 Lat. pdnus, a swelling or tumour, Low 
 Lat. pannus. Cf. "panmi del viso, 
 freckles in the face." — Florio. Gas- 
 coigne uses the more correct expression, 
 " j-jimwe or wehhe." 
 
 This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet . . . 
 he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, 
 and makes the hare-lip. — King Lear, iii. 4. 
 
PIN-FOLD 
 
 ( 288 ) 
 
 PIT 
 
 All eyes 
 Blind with the pin and web but theirs. 
 
 Winter's Tale, i. 2. 
 CatarattOj a dimnesse of sight occasioned 
 by humores hardned in the eies called a 
 Cataract or a pin and web. — Ftnru\ 
 
 Penne, a disease of the eye, occurs 
 in Leechdoms, Wortcunwing, &c., ed. 
 Cockayne, vol. i. p. 374. 
 
 Pin-fold, a pound for cattle, and 
 pinner, an old name for one who im- 
 pounds them, so spelt apparently on 
 the assumption that these words were 
 derived from old Eng. pin, pinnen, 
 another form of old Eng. pennen, to pen 
 or shut up (originally to fasten with a 
 pin or peg). 
 
 If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold T would 
 make tliee cai'e for me. — Shakespeare, K. Lear, 
 ii. 2, 1. 10. 
 
 Piinfolde, Inclusorium. — Prompt. Paiv. 
 
 Pynnyn, or spere wythe a pynne, Conca- 
 villo. — Id. 
 
 Pin-fold, however, stands for pind- 
 fold, old Eng. pynde.folde, pondfold, 
 pound-fold ; and pinner for old Eng. 
 pinder, pynda/re, from A. Sax. pyndan, 
 to impound or shut up (Skeat). 
 Pro l^e poukes pnundfalde ' no maynprise may 
 ous fecche. 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, C. xix. 282. 
 There is neither knight nor squire, said the 
 
 pind'erj 
 Nor baron that is so bold. 
 
 Dare make a trespas to the town of Wake- 
 field 
 But his pledge goes to the pinfold. 
 
 Ritson, Robin Hood, vol. ii. p. 16. 
 As for Pindar, 'tis a peculiar word and 
 office in the north of England, that implies, 
 one that looks after strays, and the like, being 
 muchthe sSiine as poand-lieeper in the southern 
 j)arts of the kingdom. — Hist, of George a 
 Green, 1706 (Thorns, Early Eng, Prose Ro- 
 mances, ii. 155). 
 
 Pinions, the refuse wool after comb- 
 ing (Somerset), ::: Fr.peignages, is from 
 the Fr. peigner, to comb. 
 
 PiNK-OF-MY-JoHN, Or Pinlc-o'-my- 
 Jolin, a provincial name for the pansy, 
 would seem to be a corruption of 
 pinkenny-JoTm (in Wright), pinhany or 
 pinckanie, being a term of endearment, 
 sometimes written piggesrne (which 
 see). 
 
 Pip, a horny substance growing on 
 the tongue of fowls, perhaps regarded 
 as the same word as pip, a kernel or 
 
 seed, and indeed the Span.^epiia bears 
 both meanings, is old Eng. pyppe, Pr, 
 pepie, It. pipiia, all from Lat. piiwita, 
 plegm, the pip. 
 
 PiPiSTEELLB, a name for a species of 
 bat, which would seem to refer to its 
 piping or making a shrill noise (cf. It. 
 pipire, to chirp), is borrowed from It. 
 pipistrello, a corruption, through the 
 forms vipistrello, vespistrelh, of vesper- 
 tillus for Lat. vespertilio, the bu'd of 
 evening (vesper), a bat. 
 
 PiPKAGE, \ popular names for the 
 PiPPEEiDGE, J barberry, are corrup- 
 tions of Fr. pepin rouge, "red pip," old 
 Eng. piperounge (Prior). 
 
 Pips, the spots or marks on cards, so 
 spelt as if named from their resem- 
 blance to the pips or seed of fruit, is a 
 corruption of picks, which is the word 
 for diamonds at cards, and sometimes 
 spades, in old and provincial EngUsh; 
 " A diamond or pi<Ae at cards." — Min- 
 sheu, 1627 ; from old Fr. picque, piqne, 
 aspade (Skeat). So "jiicfe and hearts" 
 (the red pips), is a provincial phrase 
 for red spots on the body (Wright). 
 See Taylor, History of Playing Ga/rds, 
 p. 233. 
 
 PiEOUETTE, a quick turn in dancing, 
 Fr. pirouette, a whirling about, a whir- 
 ligig, a diminutive of Prov. Fr. pi/rone, 
 a whirUgig, a little wheel (Guernsey), 
 so spelt from a supposed connexion 
 with roue, a wheel, as if a rotatory 
 wheeling motion, is only another form 
 of Eng. piris or pirry, a whirlwind 
 (Skeat). See Beeey. 
 
 PiSH-MOTHEE, a Scottish name for an 
 ant (Jamieson), is a corruption oi pis- 
 mire, the latter part of the word, old 
 Eng. r)iire, an ant, Icel. maurr (Dan. 
 myre), being confused with mother 
 (Dan. mor). 
 
 PiSMiEE, a name in the Orkneys 
 given to a steel-yard (Bdmondston), is 
 a corruption of hismare, an instrument 
 for weighing, Dan. hismer, Icel. hismmri, 
 Ger. besem. 
 
 Pit, in the phrase, " the pit of a 
 theatre," apparently the part sunken 
 like a well (Lat. puteus), where the 
 " groundlings " sit, may be, as Mr. 
 Wedgwood conjectures, from ST^.pdtio, 
 the central court of a house, but Piedm. 
 
PITTANGB 
 
 ( 289 ) 
 
 FLIGHT 
 
 platea, the pit of a theatre ( = It. piazza, 
 hat. platea), is a different word. Pr. 
 parterre, the pit, orig. = a floor, or plot 
 of ground. 
 
 Pittance, old Eng. pitance, Fr. 
 pitance, It. pietanza, a small allowance 
 of food or money, as if something doled 
 out to the poor from pity (old Fr. pite) 
 or piety, Uke oiu" phrase, " to give 
 charity," and ahns from Greek eleemo- 
 mne, pity. Compare the following : — 
 
 Pytawnce, Pietancia. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Puitanza, a pittance or allowance of meate 
 and drinke. But properly any almes giuen 
 for pitties sake or for the loue of God, namely 
 to poore begginff Frieres, consisting of meate 
 and drinke. — Florio, New World of Words, 
 1611. 
 
 Item 23rd. He bids them distribute their 
 pittances, ^' pitancias," regulai'ly on obits, &c. 
 [Note — Pitancia, an allowance of bread and 
 beer, or other provision to any pious use. — 
 Kennet]. — G. White, Antiquities of Selbome, 
 Letter xiv. p. 234 (ed. Jardine). 
 
 The same word which in the Hebrew 
 signifies " righteousness," in other Oriental 
 languages, especially Syriac and Arabic, is 
 commonly used for alms ; . . . and is ordi- 
 narily translated by the LXX. IXEnjuoirijvn, 
 " almsgiying," or " ehari^." — Bp. Beveridge, 
 Sermons, Tol. iv. p. 336 (Oxford ed.). 
 
 Justitia est portio vini qufe monachis ad 
 refectionem mmistrabatur ; et cibi diurna 
 portio.— Du Cange. 
 
 The oldest form of the word, however, 
 is Low Lat. pictantia, an allowance of 
 food given to monks of the value of a 
 picta, a small coin. So Fr. pitance, 
 from old Fr. pite, a farthing (Skeat). 
 Ther is payn and peny-ale • as for a pytaunce 
 y-take. 
 Vision (f Piers the Plowman, C. x. 92. 
 
 ForgoS enne dei our pitaunce [Forera 
 your pittance for one day]. — Ancren Riwle, 
 p. 412. 
 
 Plant, a slang term for a piece of 
 cheating or trickery, an imposture, 
 "That's a tegalax plant," seems to be 
 the same word a,s plant, an old French 
 form of plan, " the ground-plat of a 
 building" (in Ootgrave). The transi- 
 tions of meaning would thus be, plan, 
 a plane or flat surface (Lat. planus), 
 the design of a building, &c., drawn 
 out on a flat surface, any plan or 
 scheme, a design or project for entrap- 
 ping or deceivLQg another, " a plant." 
 Compare the evil meaning which has 
 been acquired by the words schermng, 
 designing, plotting. 
 
 "I was away from London a week and 
 more, my dear, on a plant," replied the Jew. 
 — Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xxxiz. 
 
 Plashee, ) North country 
 
 Plashib, V names for plaice, as. 
 
 Plash-fluke, ) if to denote the 
 splashing and bounding motions of the 
 fish when caught, are corruptions of 
 the word ^ Wee (in some districts called 
 plaish), old Fr. jsZaj's, from Lat.pZaiessa, 
 a flat fish (Greek pMtos, flat). 
 
 Plat, an old spelling oiplot, a patch 
 of ground, A. Sax. ^Zoi, as if it meant a 
 flat piece, a plateau, old Eng. plat, flat, 
 Fr. plat. 
 
 Platoon, a body of soldiers, so spelt 
 from false analogy to words like pla- 
 teoM, platform, &c., is a corruption of 
 Fr. peloton, a circular group, a knot, or 
 company (of. Lat. globus), from pelote, 
 a ball or pellet. 
 
 Plaudit, applause, so spelt as if it 
 were the Lat. plaudit, he applauds, 
 third pers. sing, (like audit, credit, 
 tenet), is an incorrect form of the older 
 aploMdite (Bailey), i.e. clap your hands, 
 the actors' concluding words to the 
 audience on the Eoman stage, second 
 pers. plural of Lat. verb plaudo. The 
 word was sometimes mistaken as a 
 dissyllable, as if the final e was silent, 
 and sometimes as plaudity, with a 
 ■plvxtii. plamdities (Toumeur). — Skeat. 
 
 Play-faib, a Scotch corruption of 
 the word play fere, a play -fellow, from 
 fere, a companion (cognate with Lat. 
 par, Eng. joeer, an equal). 
 
 Pleny-tidbs, as it were fall tides, is 
 probably a corrupted form oi plenitudes 
 (Lat. plenitudo, fulness). 
 
 Let rowling tears in pleny-tides oreflow, 
 For losse of England's second Cicero. 
 Greene, Groatsworth of Wit, sub Jin. 
 
 Plight, an old verb meaning to fold, 
 so spelt from a false analogy to words 
 like pKght (:z condition), fight, nvight, 
 tight (compare spright, an old spelling 
 of sprite), is an incorrect form of pKte, 
 old 'Eng. pUten, to fold, another form 
 oi pleat or plait (Skeat). 
 Time shall unfold what plighted cunning 
 hides [Globe ei. plaited]. 
 
 Shakespeare, K. Lear, i. 2, 283, 
 
 Compare with this " God's wisdom 
 has double folds." — Job xi. 6 (Gesenius, 
 410), opposite to sim-plex, single-fold, 
 
 u 
 
PLOT 
 
 ( 290 ) 
 
 PLUBI87 
 
 simple; Scot, ane-fald, Ger. em-fali. 
 So (htpUdty ^ double-foldedness. 
 
 All in a silken Camus lilly whight 
 Purfled upon with many a folded plight. 
 Spenser, F. Queene, II. 3, 26. 
 Some gay creatures of the element, 
 That in the colours of the rainbow live, 
 And play in the plighted clouds. 
 
 Milton, Comus, 1. 301. 
 Pure spirit that rapt'st aboue the Firmest 
 
 Sphear, 
 In fiery Coach thy faithfull Messenger, 
 Who smiting lordan with his pleighted 
 
 cloak, 
 Did yerst divide the Waters with the stroak. 
 J. Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 72. 
 
 Plot, a design or conspiracy, appa- 
 rently formed from pht or plat, the 
 plan of a building, plat-form, a scheme 
 or plan (Shakespeare), |3to<, to lay out 
 a ground or plot (so Wedgwood), is 
 really a shortened form of complot, Pr. 
 complot, a conspiracy, in old Pr. a 
 crowd or throng (see Littre, Hist, de la 
 Langue FrangaAse, i. 208), from Lat. 
 compUcitum {compKc'tum), " a comph- 
 cation," an involved or intricate busi- 
 ness, from complicare, to fold together, 
 to interweave. So one involved in a 
 plot is a complice or accomplice, Lat. 
 complex. Compare Lat. siotela, a sew- 
 ing together, a trick or device ; chlos 
 necten-e and suere ; Greek SoXovt tt-Xskuv, 
 pdiTTHv ; Heb. drabh, (1) to weave, (2) 
 to act cunningly, plot ; " He gan to 
 ■weave aweb of wicked guyle." — Faerie 
 Queene, II. i. 8. 
 So forth they forth yfere make their pro- 
 
 gresse, 
 And march not past the mountenaunce of a 
 
 shott 
 Till they arriv'd whereas their purpose they 
 did plott. 
 
 Spenser, F. QueeTie, III. xi. 20. 
 Revenge now goes. 
 To lay a complot to betray thy foes. 
 
 Shakespeare, Titus Aridronicus, v. 2, 147. 
 
 Plough, in the University phrase 
 " to be ploughed," i.e. to fail in passing, 
 to have one's examination stopped, 
 seems to be a wilful perversion of the 
 probably older, and certainly more in- 
 telligible, term, "to he phiched," to be 
 divested of all one's superficial plumage 
 of knowledge, stuck on for the occasion, 
 and be rejected as an unqualified pre- 
 tender, like the magpie in the fable. 
 Pluck, Ger. pfliiclien, appears to have 
 been sportively confounded with 
 
 plough, Ger. pfiigen, from pflmg, » 
 plough (0. Fris. phch), akin to pflock, 
 a peg or plug. 
 
 The fate of the idle pass-man is pre- 
 dicted with painful accuracy in an 
 ancient poem : — 
 
 I shall so puUe him, if I can 
 That he shall in a fewe stoundes 
 Lese all his markes and his poundes, . . , 
 Our maidens shall eke p/uclte him so, 
 That him shall neden fethei'S mo. 
 
 Romuwnt of the Rose, 1. 5983. 
 He went to college, and he got plucked, I 
 think they call it. — C. Bronte, Jane Ewe, 
 ch. X. 
 
 He had been a medical student, and got 
 plucked, his foes declared, in his examina- 
 tion. — C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. xx. 
 [Davies] . 
 
 Plough-stilt, a word for a plough- 
 handle in N. W. Lincolnshire, sKU 
 being a corruption of stert or start, a 
 handle, A. Sax. steort. Cf. Ger. pflug- ' 
 stert. 
 
 Plum anb Feathbbs, a tavern sign 
 near Oxford, was originally the Prince 
 of Wales' Plums of Feathers (M.Muller, 
 Lectures, 2nd ser. p. 530). 
 
 Plume-dames, an old Scotch word 
 for damsons, quoted by Jamieson from 
 Acts James VI., is from phim-dammes, 
 i.e. Damascene plums ; cf. Bammes, 
 damask- work ; Damm/ys, Damascus 
 (Jamieson). Bhtmdam/rms, another 
 form of the word, is used for prunes. 
 
 Plumpendicular, a popular corrup- 
 tion of perpendJicular, as if hanging or 
 falling plump down, like a builder's 
 plumh. 
 
 The rain that rained one plumpeniikkaU 
 pour, 
 As you may say enough to ha di'owned Muster 
 Noah. 
 
 Summatfrom Suffolk, N. and Q. 6th 
 S. IV. 226. 
 
 Plueisy, an old orthography of 
 pleurisy (i.e. plewitis, a disease of the 
 pleura, the rib or side), has been warped 
 both in form and meaning from a sup- 
 posed connexion with Lat. phis,plwis, 
 more. In old writers its common ac- 
 ceptation is overmuchness, plethora, 
 excess. Richardson actually throws it 
 into the one group with plwraXl 
 
 Thy pbirisy of goodness is thy ill. 
 Ford, fis Pily She's a Whore, iv. 3. 
 
POKEB 
 
 ( 291 ) 
 
 POLICY 
 
 Goodness growing to a piurisi/ 
 Dies in his own too much. 
 
 Hamtet, iv. 7, 1. 118. 
 
 Aroite in The Two Noble Kinsmen 
 (v. 1, 66) addresses Mars as one 
 that — 
 
 Cur'st the world 
 0' the pluresie of people. 
 
 See Littledale's note in loco. 
 Thy plunsii of goodness is thy ill, 
 Thy virtues vices, and thy humble lowness 
 Far worse than stubborn suUenness and 
 pride. 
 
 Massinger, The Unnatural Combat, iv. 1. 
 
 But this man pi-oved no good Church Phy- 
 sician, had she been sick of a Plurisey, too 
 much abounding with bloud as in ages past, 
 then such bleeding Physick perliapa might 
 have done it no harm. — Harington, Nugte 
 Antiquce, i. 103. 
 
 Long since had this land been sick of a 
 plurisie of people, if not let blood in their 
 Western Plantations. — T. Fuller, Holy State, 
 p. 91 (164«). 
 
 Pluresie or Pleuresie, with what medicines 
 it is cured. — Holland, Plinks Nat. Hist. vol. 
 ii. Index. 
 
 Even if we regard this as a distinct 
 word from plev/risy (with Dyce, Re- 
 marlcs on Editions of Shakspere, p. 218, 
 and Skeat), it has evidently been as- 
 similated to it in form. 
 
 PoKEE, the American name for a 
 game of cards, is a corruption of the 
 old English " Post and Paire," through 
 a contracted form Po'per. See E. S. 
 Taylor, History of Playing Cards, p. 
 451. 
 
 Now Post and Pair, old Christmas 's heir, 
 Doth make a gingling sally. 
 
 Ben Jonson, Masque of Christmas. 
 
 PoLE-AXE, which Bichardson defines 
 to be " an aze affixed to a pole," is un- 
 doubtedly the same word as the Ice- 
 landic hol-ox, an axe for felling trees 
 (Cleasby, p. 72), Swed. hoVyxa, from 
 hola, to fell trees. Scotch forms are 
 bullace and halax. Another corrupt 
 spelling is poll-axe, as if an axe to 
 smite one on the poll or head. 
 
 Foorth he took his Polax or mall, 
 And hit Dane Hew vpon the head 
 That he fel down stark dead. 
 
 A Merry Jest of Dane Hew, 1. 204. 
 With what wepen did they hym kyll, 
 Whether with polaxe or with bill '! 
 A goode felowshippe lightly tell. 
 Roy and Barlowe, Rede me and be nott wrothe, 
 1528, p. 38(ed.Arber;. 
 
 His foote-men fower in number about him, 
 bearing each of them a gilt poU-axe in their 
 handes. — Cavendish, Life of Wolsey ( Words- 
 worth, Ecctes. Biog. vol. i. p. 354.). 
 
 Pole-axe is the spelling in Claren- 
 don's History of the Rebellion, and Le- 
 land's Collectanea ; in Orminn (ab. 
 1200) the word appears as bulaxe, re- 
 presenting the Scandinavian paloxi, 
 holoxi; in Religuim Antiquae, ii. 176, 
 boleax. 
 
 Pole-cat, so spelt as if the Pole or 
 Polish cat, and indeed it is so explained 
 by Johnson, Bailey, Eichardson, and 
 Mahn. It is rather, however, from the 
 old French pulent, stinking, the offen- 
 sive smell of the animal being prover- 
 bial, pole- being etymologically akin to 
 A. Sax. fO,, "foul," Goth, fuls, Icel. 
 fidl, Fr. pouaare (nasty), Lat. pvier, 
 Sansk. pwy, to stink. (See also Parrar, 
 Chapters on Language, p. 175 ; Coc- 
 kayne, Spoon and Sparrow, p. 110 ; 
 Morris, Accidence, p. 209.) Compare 
 the Frenoh putois, iromputere, to stink. 
 It. puzzola, " a Pole-cat, a stinking 
 thing " (Florio), from puzza/re, to 
 stink; Eng. fulma/i-t, the " foul- 
 martin;" and fitch, fitchew, 0. Er. 
 fissaii, Dut. _/isse, from Scand./fsa, ^se, 
 to fist, fizzle, or emit an evil odour. 
 Prof. Skeat conjectures that the original 
 form may have been pool-cat, the oat 
 living in a hole (Celtic jjoW). 
 
 The difference of a Poul-eat from the wild- 
 cat is because of her strong stinking savour, 
 and therefore is called Putorius of Putore 
 because of his ill smell. — Topsell, Hist, of 
 Foure-footed Beasts, p. 219. 
 
 Polecat is probably nothing more than the 
 Polish cat. Foumai't, fulmart, fulimart are 
 conti-actions of foul marten, a name applied 
 to it in contradistinction to the sweet marten, 
 on account of its disgusting odour. — Bell, 
 History of British Qmidrupeds ( Latham, Diet. 
 
 S.T.). ' 
 
 And eke ther was a polhat in his hawe. 
 That, as he sayd, his capons had yslawe. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 12789. 
 How should he, harmless youth, how should 
 
 he then 
 Who kill'd but poulcats, learn to murder 
 men ? 
 
 Gay, The What D'ye Call It, i. 1. 
 
 Policy, a Scotch word for the 
 pleasure-grounds about a gentleman's 
 house. The origin of the word has 
 not been satisfactorily explained. 
 Jamieson says it is from Fr. police. 
 
POLICY 
 
 ( 292 ) 
 
 PONTIFF 
 
 but I cannot find that this word was 
 ever used in a similar sense. I would 
 suggest with some confidence that it is 
 a somewhat corrupted form of Fr. pa- 
 Usse, "paUsadoed, staked, or paled 
 about," from paUsser, "to impale, to 
 inclose with pales, to defend with paU- 
 sadoes " (Cotgrave), and so := a piece 
 of ground paled off, a park, or enclo- 
 sure. It is well known that a large 
 number of French words have been 
 naturalized in Scotch. See also Twiss's 
 Tow in Ireland, p. 73. 
 
 I Tisited the policies of Couon House a full 
 quarter of a century after this time. — Hugh 
 Millerj My Schools and School iiasters, p. 216 
 (ed. 1869). 
 
 For the change of vowel compare 
 Eng. pole with Fr. pal, Lat. palus; 
 pollamer, ' ' to play the Sycophant, to 
 flatter, or sooth " (Bailey), from pal- 
 laver. Port, palavra, a word, Sp. pa- 
 labra, from Lat. parabola (It. pa/rola, 
 Fr. parole), i.e. nothing but words. 
 Wodes no foreste withouten palaised parte. 
 Robt. Brunne, p. 110. 
 
 It is not every field or common which a 
 gentleman pleases to surround with a wall or 
 paling, or to stock with a herd of deer that ia 
 thereby constituted a legal park. — Blackstone, 
 Commentaries, b. ii. c. 3 (in Richardson). 
 Within fermans and parkis clovss ofpalys. 
 
 G. Douglas, Prolong ofxii Buh of Eneados, 
 1. 176 (1513). 
 
 Policy, a contract entered into by an 
 insurance office to pay conditionally 
 certain moneys, Fr. police, Sp. poUza, 
 It. poUzza, a bill or schedule, is from 
 Low Lat. polAticwm, poleticum, a cor- 
 ruption oi polyptichiim, aregiater, from 
 Greek pohiptuchon, a " many leaved " 
 document, from polws, many, and 
 ptuche, a fold. Hence also Fr. pouille, 
 a church register (see Cheruel, Did. des 
 Institutions, s.v. Polyptigue), and pos- 
 sibly powlet ("a puUet "), a love- 
 letter. 
 
 PoLLiE-cocK, a Scotch word for a 
 turkey, also called a powie, is a corrup- 
 tion of the French poulet or poule 
 d'Inde. 
 
 PoLLY-PiKELET, a famUiar and child- 
 ish word for a sort of crumpet or tea- 
 cake, which I remember to have heard 
 some thfrty years ago in Ireland, is 
 probably a corrupted form of the old 
 word " hara-piclclet [Welsh] cakes 
 
 made of fine flour, kneaded ~ with 
 yeast." — Bailey ; from Welsh lara, 
 bread, and perhaps some derivative of 
 pigo, to prick. 
 
 Popelins, soft cakes made of fine flower 
 kneaded with milk, sweet butter, and yolks 
 of eggs ; and fashioned, and buttered, like our 
 Welch Barrapyclids. — Cotgrave. 
 
 PoNEY-cocK, a Scotch word for a 
 turkey, also written poiirde, or powm, 
 is a misapplication and corruption of 
 poune, aipowin, the peacock, Pr. pmn, 
 'La,t.pamo{n). 
 
 Pontiff. \ The Latin wordf on- 
 PoNTiPiCAii. j tifex, which is the 
 origin of ours, seems on the face of it 
 to be derived from $on(t)s, a bridge- 
 and fatno, to make, as if the Eoman 
 priest was originally charged with the 
 construction and maintenance of 
 bridges. In allusion to this Longfellow 
 
 Well has the name o{ Pontifex been giyen 
 Unto the Church's head, as the chief builder 
 And architect of the invisible bridge 
 That leads from earth to heaven. 
 
 The Golden Legend, v. 11. 7-10. 
 
 Milton actually uses the expression 
 "pontifical a/rt " for the art of bridge- 
 making, and pontifice (Uke cedafice) for 
 the bridge buUt. 
 Now had they brought the work by wondrous 
 
 art 
 Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock. 
 Over the vex'd abyss. 
 
 Paradise Lost, x. 11. 312-314. 
 
 This new wondrous pontifice. 
 
 Id. 1. 348. 
 
 Curtius thinks that the poniifices 
 were indeed originally the " bridge- 
 makers," or more generally "road- 
 makers," Lat. pon{t)s being cognate 
 with Gk. pdtos, Sansk. patha, a way or 
 path (Oriech. Etymologie, i. 235), 
 A. Sax. paS. 
 
 So Mommsen — 
 
 The five " bridgebuilders " {pontifices) de- 
 rived their name from their function, as 
 sacred as it was politically important, of 
 conducting the building and demolition of 
 the bridge over the Tiber. — History of Rome 
 (Eng. trans.), vol. i. p. 178. 
 
 The clergy were literally the great 
 road-makers of the middle ages, many 
 of the best roads in Spain and elsewhere 
 having been constructed by them for 
 the benefit of pilgrims to the most fre- 
 
PONY 
 
 ( 293 ) 
 
 POOB JOHN 
 
 quented shrines (vid. Ford, Oatheringa 
 from Spain, p. 42). Among the me- 
 diseval guilds was one of bridge- 
 builders, " associated for the building 
 or keepiag in repair of bridges for the 
 use of wayfarers — of pilgrims above 
 aU " (Trench, MeddtBval Ghv/rch His- 
 tory, p. 412). 
 
 The order of bridge-builders at Avignon, 
 with the peculiar love of punning which 
 characterized the middle ages, were called 
 fratres pontificales ', and sometimes fratres 
 pontis and factores pontium. — Wright, Essays 
 on Archeology, vol. ii. p. 139. 
 
 He was venis Pontifex, in the grammatical! 
 notation thereof, building a fair Bridge at 
 Braundsford (within three miles of Wor- 
 cester) over the river Teme. — T. Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 468. 
 
 Professor Francis Newman, however, 
 is probably right in his conjecture that 
 the primitive form ofpontifeso -wsLspom- 
 pifex, i.e. one who holds a religious pro- 
 cession (Gk. pompe), supported as it is 
 by the Umbrian word pontis (in the 
 Iguvine Tables) ^pompi's, Gk.pompms 
 (Philolog. Soc. Trans. 1864). Compare 
 old It. ponvpe, Oscan ponte, Gk. pempe 
 ( zzpente, Trevre) ; and Pontvas, for Pomp- 
 tius, = PompeiiAs, =: Quinctius. Lange, 
 indeed, supposes that pontifex may 
 have originally meant "Five-maker" 
 (Fiinfmacher), as they were five in 
 number. 
 
 Pont, a sporting term for a sum of 
 money wagered as a bet, £25 says the 
 Slang Dictionary, ^50 says Wright's 
 Provincial Hictiona/ry, is probably, like 
 many other cant words, borrowed from 
 the gipsies. Cf. Slang poona, a sove- 
 reign, poimd, Scotch pun\ used with a 
 considerable latitude of meaning for a 
 sum of money. 
 
 Pool, a term appUed to the money 
 staked in certain games, so called as if 
 from the pool-like hoUow or depression 
 in the gaming-table in which the stakes 
 are placed. It is evidently an Angli- 
 cized form of Fr. poule, which Gattel 
 thus defines, " ll certains jeux de cartes, 
 quantite d'argent ou de jetons dont 
 chacun des joueurs contribue h, son 
 tour, et qui demeure i celui qui gagne 
 le coup. Au Trictrac et k quelques 
 autres jeux, faire v/ne poule, jouer une 
 poule, faire une partie ou tous les joueurs 
 mettent une certaine somme chaque 
 fois qu'ils entrent au jeu, et qui de- 
 
 meure en entier i celui qui a gagne 
 tous les autres de suite." 
 
 Poor John, an old Enghsh name for 
 the hake fish when dried and salted. 
 It was esteemed a coarse kind of food, 
 probably Uke hng, but from its fre- 
 quent mention in old writers must 
 have been in common use. 
 
 A drie fishe called poore John, 8d. — Ex- 
 penses of Judges of Assise, 1598-9 (Camden 
 Soc. Miscell. vol. iv. p. 32). 
 
 There appear'd a fish call'd a poor John, 
 Cut with a lenten face, in my own likeness, 
 Massinger, The Picture, act iii. so. 1. 
 
 Bret. A Spaniard is a Camocho, a Calli- 
 manco, nay which is worse a Dqndego, and 
 what is a Dondego ? 
 
 Clown. A Dondego is a kind of Spanish 
 stock-fish or poor John, 
 
 Bret. No, a Dondego is a desperate Viliago, 
 a very Castilian, God bless us. 
 
 Dehher and Wekster, Famous Historie of 
 Sir Thomas Wyat, 1607. 
 
 I would not be of one that should command 
 
 me 
 To feed upon poor John, when I see pheasants 
 And partridges on the table. 
 
 Massinger, The B^negado, i. 1. 
 
 How could the Dutch but be converted, when 
 The A postles were so many fishermen ? . . . . 
 Though Herring for their God few voices 
 
 missed. 
 And Poor-John to have been the Evangelist, 
 Marvell, Satires (Mun-ay's ed.), p. 117. 
 
 'Tis well thou art not fish ; if thou hadst, 
 thou hadst been poor-John. — Shakespeare, 
 Rom. and Jul., act i. sc. 1. 
 
 Stale Barrel'd, and Bisket Browne, 
 Salt-butter, that like Soape doth smell, 
 Rusty Bacon, rotten Foore John, 
 And Stinking Anchovaes we sell. 
 
 Sir Wm. Davenant, Works, fol. 1673, 
 p. 337. 
 
 See also Hall, Satires, p. 97 (ed. 
 Singer) ; Harington, Epigrams, ii. 50. 
 
 It has been ingeniously conjectured 
 that " apoor-John," is merely a popular 
 corruption of Fr. habordean, Eng. ha^er- 
 dine, cheap salt-fish, though in the fol- 
 lowing passage they seem to be distin- 
 guished : — 
 
 His dayntie fare is turned to a hungry feast 
 of dogs and cats, or haberdine and poore John, 
 at the most. — Nash, Pierce Peniksse, His Sup- 
 plication to the Deuill, 1592 (Shaks. Soc. ed. 
 p. 19). 
 
 Habordean, haberden (Tusser, 1580), 
 is the same word as Ger. laberdan, 
 " salted cod-fish, Aberdeen fish " (Kalt- 
 
POPE 
 
 ( 294 ) 
 
 POPINJAY 
 
 Schmidt), Dutch lahberdan, older Dutch 
 aberdaan (Sewel). 
 
 There is a Rhine fish not unlike the had- 
 dock, which those of the district salt and dry 
 much after the manner of the Scotch. They 
 call it aberdanum. — Badhamj Prose HalieuticSf 
 p. 334. 
 
 Like the finnin (or findon) haddock it 
 derived its name from the place where 
 it was cured. 
 
 Heine naentions a Dutchman "in- 
 vestigating the distinction between 
 Kabeljaw, Laberdan, and Saltfish, and 
 finding out that they were at bottom 
 one and the same" (Stigand, H. Heine, 
 i. 347). 
 
 Pope, a Northampton name for the 
 common red poppy (Wright), with an 
 imagined reference to the scarlet vest- 
 ments of the Bishop of Borne and his 
 cardinals, is obviously a corruption of 
 old Eng.^opy, A. Ssa.popig, the poppy, 
 from Lat. papaver. 
 
 Popy, weed, Papaver. — Prompt. Parv. 
 There is growend upon the g;i*ound 
 Popy, which bereth the sede of slepe. 
 Gower, Conf. AmantiSj vol. ii. 
 p. 102. 
 
 toPE, altered from A. Sax. pdpa 
 (Fr. pape), Lat. papa, father, perhaps 
 under the influence of Lat. pdfa, a 
 priest's minister, a sacrificial priest. 
 Wyclifi'e thought it was derived from 
 the Latin interjection papm! wonder- 
 ful! Greek papai! popm! Compare 
 Florio's account of popinjay, s.v. 
 
 So weren cristis apostlis betere Jjan ony 
 pope of rome. For Jjis name is newe foundun, 
 &. it betokenz|: wundirj'ul ; for summe j^enken 
 it gi-eet wundir J>at worldly glory & hooly- 
 nesse ehulden be knyttid in o persone. — Un- 
 printed Works ofWydiffe, p. 471 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 Pop-GUN would seem to be beyond 
 question the miniature gun that goes 
 pop ! (Fr. pouf!) and yet the history of 
 the word when traced back suggests a 
 different origin. The earliest mention 
 of the word is probably in the Promp- 
 toriwm Pa/rvulorum, about 1440. 
 
 " Powpe, holstykke (al. hole styke), 
 Capulus (vel caupulus)," that is, a 
 "hollow stick," a pop-gun (Way). 
 With this agrees " Poupe for a chylde, 
 Poupee." — Palsgrave, JjescZmroissemeTO^, 
 1530. Cotgrave defines Fr. poupee 
 (from Lat. pupus, pupa, a boy, a girl), 
 as "a baby, a puppet or bable," i.e. a 
 doll, a bauble, or as we would now say, 
 
 a toy. Pop-gwn is therefore properly a 
 poup-gpn, a "toy-gun" for a child, 
 Cf. poppet for puppet, and It. poppare, 
 puppare,to suck (play the hahj),popfa, 
 a teat, and loUi-^qp ; Scottish pippen, 
 a doU, with which Jamieson compares 
 Teut. poppen, playthings. 
 
 Popgun was formerly corrupted into 
 potgun, which was the name of an an- 
 cient piece of ordnance. 
 
 Scbpus . . a potgun made of an elderae 
 sticke, or hollow quill, whereoutboyesshoote 
 chawen paper. — Nomenclator, 1585. 
 
 Jonson in his lIwmMe Petition of Poor 
 Ben speaks of 
 
 The ratling pit-pat noise 
 Of the less poetic hoys, 
 When their pot-guns aim to hit 
 With their pellets of small wit. 
 
 Works, p. 719 (ed. Moxon). 
 . . Me thinks, those things, in which 
 The world appeares most glorious, and most 
 
 rich, 
 Are no more worthy of my serious hopes, 
 Then Ratles, Pot-guns, or the Schoole-boyes 
 Tops. 
 G. Wither, Britain's Remembrancer, To . 
 the King, 1628. 
 
 Popinjay is not the jay that pops 
 about, or is frequently popped at as a 
 mark (vid. Cotgrave, s.v. papegay), Fr. 
 papegai, Sp. and Portg. papagay, Med. 
 Greek papagas, butthe " priest's (pope's) 
 cock," being a corrupted form of Fr. 
 papegau (Cotgrave, gau =; cock), Mod. 
 Greek papagallos, It. pappagallo, papa- 
 gallo, from papa, a priest (a class who 
 were noted bird-fanciers, Diez) and 
 gallus, a cock. In Greek pappos de- 
 noted some small bird. Compare par- 
 roquet. It. pa/rrocchetto, orig. a priest- 
 ling {ixoTnpa/rochus) ; Prov. Eng. pope, 
 Dan. dompap (lord pope), the buflfindi ; 
 Fr. prestrot, a priestling, a httle bird 
 resembhng a hnnet (Cotgrave); Fr. 
 moine, moineau. It. monaco (monk), Fr. 
 nonnette, Sp. fraile, names of birds. 
 
 The earhest mention I have found of 
 the word is in Alexander Neckam 
 (died 1217), who explains it as follows : 
 
 Psittacus, qui vulgo dicitur papagabio, id 
 est, principalis seu nobilis gabUi. — De Naturis 
 Rerum, lib. i. cap. xxxvi. 
 
 Apparently " the pope of chatterers." 
 Others, however, interpret the word 
 as meaning the " talking cock," com- 
 paring Bav. pappel, a parrot, Ger. 
 papipdn, to babble or chatter, It. pap- 
 
POPPET 
 
 ( 295 ) POBE-POINT 
 
 pm-e, to prattle, Prov. Eng. popph, to 
 talk nonBense {T^foiiol^), popping, chat- 
 tering. " Hold thy popping, ya gurt 
 Washamouth." — Exmoor Scolddng, 1. 
 138 (B.D.S.). 
 
 If a pcipingati speake she doth it by imita- 
 tion of mans voyce artificially. — PiMenhum, 
 Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 312 (ed. Arbet). 
 
 Florio has the curious entry : — " Pa- 
 pagallo, a wonderfuU Cocke ; for Pape 
 is admirable [i.e. a word of admira- 
 tion, ' as gods ! oh I ' Greek poppa?] and 
 Galio, a Cocke." — New Wm-ld of Words 
 (1611). 
 
 Pyes & j}a'peiaijes purtrayed with-inne 
 As )jay prudly hade piked of pomgarnades. 
 AUiterative Poems, p. 79, 1. 1466. 
 
 He is papeiai in pyn jjat beteb me my bale. 
 Boddeker, Alteng. Dicht. p. 143, 
 1. 21. 
 
 Poppet, a familiar term of endear- 
 ment for a baby, a darling, with a 
 latent reference, perhaps, to itspopping 
 up and down when dandled, is a sur- 
 vival of old Eng. popet, a doll, old Er. 
 poupette, a little baby, a diminutive of 
 Lat. pupa, a girl, and so the same word 
 as "puppet." 
 
 Papet, for childre to play with, "powpie. — 
 Palsgrave, Lesclaircissement, 1530. 
 
 This were a popet in an arme to enbrace 
 For any woman, smal and faire of face. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 13631. 
 
 PoppT-HEADS, the name given to the 
 elevated ornaments often carved at the 
 end of church pewsj is said to have no 
 connexion (as might maliciously be 
 supposed) with the somniferous papaver. 
 According to the researches of the Ec- 
 clesiological Society the mediaeval form 
 of the word was poppma, pawpada, and 
 " seems to mean a bundle of clouts or 
 rags tied up intosomething like ahuman 
 figure ; — much such a resemblance as a 
 child's rag doll bears to the same thing ' ' 
 {Handbook of Eng. Eccledology, p. 105). 
 If this be correct, poppy here is the 
 same word as Pr. powp^e, " a puppet, 
 or bable, a distafCe full of flax, &c." 
 (Cotgrave), Lat. pupa, a little girl, our 
 "puppet" and "puppy." 
 
 PoECUPiG, a provincial Eng. name 
 for the porcupine, Scot, porh-pih, is a 
 corruption of the French pore-epic, old 
 Pr. porc-espi, Lat. poreus spicatus, " the 
 spiky pig." 
 
 You would have thought him for to be 
 Some Egyptian porcu-pig. 
 
 The Dragon of Wantley. 
 
 Poke blind, a mis-speUing of the 
 word pwrhlind found in writers of the 
 16tli and 17th centuries, as if it meant 
 so defective in sight that one has to 
 pore or peer ( 0. Eng. powem) very closely 
 to distinguish an object. The oldest 
 form of the word, however, is pur blind 
 (written separately), i.e. pure (= alto- 
 gether, absolutely) blind {mere ccbcus). 
 
 Me ssolde puUe cute bobe hys eye, & make 
 hym pur blynd. — Robt. of Gloucester, Chroiiicle 
 (ab. 1298), vol. iii. p. 376 (ed. 1810). 
 Where another version has starTce 
 llynde. WyoUffe (1389) has pure- 
 blynde (Ex. xxi. 26, Vulg. luscos), and 
 so the Promptorium Parvulorum (ab. 
 1440), " PuA-blynde,luscns." We have 
 now reverted to the original spelhng, 
 but retained the meaning of poring or 
 partially blind (so Skeat, with whose 
 article, Etym. Bid., s.v. this indepen- 
 dently written closely agrees). 
 
 The dust or powder heerof [of Pussballs] 
 is very dangerous for the eies, for it hath 
 beene often seen that diuers haue beene pore 
 biinde euer after, when some small quantitie 
 thereof hath beene blowen into their eies. — 
 Gerarde, Herball, fol. p. 1387 (1597). 
 The visage wan, the pore blind sight, 
 The toil by day, the lamp at night. 
 Sir Wm. Blackstone, The Lawyer's 
 Farewell to His Muse. 
 
 The dung of cocks and capons . . is singu- 
 lar good for those that be pore-blind or short- 
 sighted. — Holland, Plinies Nat. Hist. ii. 
 367 (1634). 
 
 Which [Fuzz-balls] being troden vpon do 
 breath foorth a most thinne and fine powder, 
 like vnto smoke, very noisome and hurtfull 
 vnto the eies, causing a kinde of blindnes, 
 which is called Poor-blinde, or Sand-blinde. 
 Gerarde, Herball, p. 1385. 
 Thus heartlesse hares with purblind eyes do 
 
 peere 
 In the dead lyon's pawes, yea dastard deere 
 Over his heartlesse corps dare domineere. 
 T. Fuller, Davids Hainous Sinne, 1631, 
 St. 47. 
 
 PoKK-POiNT, an old Eng. name for 
 the porcupine, as if the pig with the 
 sharp points, is a corruption of the still 
 older name porhepyn, O. Pr. pore espin 
 (Palsgrave), i. e. the pig with the pins 
 or spines (Lat. spina, a thorn). 
 
 Poork poynt, beste (also, porpoynte and per- 
 poynt), Histi-ix. — Prompt. Pan. 
 
 From pork-point or por-point came 
 
POBBIDOE 
 
 ( 296 ) 
 
 POT 
 
 ■the old Eng. name of the animal, por- 
 
 The xxiiij day of Feybruarii was bered ser 
 Wylliam Sydnay knyght, in the contey of 
 Kentt, at ys plasse callyd Penthurst, with ij 
 harolds of armes, . . . ys target, and mantyll, 
 and helmett, and the crest a bluw porpyntyn. 
 — Machyn's Dim-y, 1552-3, p. 31 (Camden 
 See). 
 
 He gaue for his deuice the Porkespick with 
 this posie pres et loign, both farre and neare. 
 For the purpentines nature is, to such as stand 
 aloofe, to dart her prickles from her, and if 
 they come neare her, with the same as they 
 ■stick fast to wound them that hurt her. — G. 
 Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, 1589, p. 118 
 (ed. Arher). 
 
 P. Holland has given the word a new 
 twist into porTcpen, with allusion to its 
 sharp pens or quills. 
 
 The Porkpens come out of India and Africa. 
 — Plinks Nat. Hist. Tol. i. p. 215. 
 
 PoKEiDGE, a kind of thick gruel or 
 soup, is old Eng. porree, old Fr. porree, 
 assimilated to pottage, Pr. potage, from 
 pot. It perhaps stands for porreties, 
 plu. oiporette, broth. It. porrata. 
 
 PoETENAUNOB, an old spelling of ap- 
 pv/iienance (Wyoliffe, Gem. xixi. 36), 
 generally used of the intestines or offal 
 of an animal, as if from Er. porter. It 
 denotes properly what pertains, or is 
 appended, to the head (compare phack, 
 Prov. Eng. gather and race, Dorset 
 Twnge (for hang), the heart, Uver, and 
 lights of an animal, all that can be torn 
 away so as to hang together). — A. V. 
 Exod. xii. 9. 
 
 Partenaunce of a beest, Fressevre. — PalS' 
 grave, LesicUiircissement, 1530. 
 
 Portenaunce, of a thynge. Pertinencia, in 
 plurali excidie. — Prompt. Parvulorum (c. 
 1440). 
 
 The duke is the head, and I, Blurt, am the 
 purteTiance. 
 Middleton, Works, i. 302 (ed. Dyce). 
 The shaft against a rib did glance 
 And gall him in the purtenance. 
 
 Butler, Hjtdihms, pt. i, c. 3, 1. 318. 
 
 PoHT-HOSB, an old word for " a cer- 
 tain kind of service book, e.g. on my 
 Porthose I make my oath, — an expres- 
 sion strange and full of difficulty" 
 (Skinner, Etymohgicon, 1671, Pt. 2. 
 
 S.V.). 
 
 It is variously spelt portos, portesse, 
 portuas, portas, and is a corruption of 
 the Fxench porte-hors, ' ' a carry-abroad,' ' 
 ]Jat. portijorium (from portare foras). 
 
 It was a clerical vade-mecmn or port, 
 able breviary, "which the clergy mlglit 
 take along with them as a ready 
 manual for all ordinary occurrences " 
 (Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical bio- 
 graphy, vol. ii. p. 237, ed. 1810). See 
 also Palmer, Origines LitmrgioB, vol i 
 p. 208 (ed. 1832). 
 
 Among the bequests of the Black 
 Prince's Will, 1376, occurs the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 Ycelx missal et portehors ordenons a aervir 
 perpetuelement en la dite chappelle. 
 
 They find them by «hance in their popish 
 pcrrtifoliums and masking books. — Bale, Select 
 Works, p. 175 [Davies]. 
 
 Posthumous, surviving, 'Fx.posthume, 
 BO spelt as if born after the father was 
 waier groimd {post hwmtm) , is, of course, 
 only the Latin posturrms, the superla- 
 tive of post, afterwards. 
 
 Sylvester speaks of the silk-worm 
 Leaving a Post-hume (dead-liue) seed be- 
 hinde her. 
 
 Du Bartas, p. Ill (1621), 
 
 and Vaughan the SUurist calls books, 
 Man's posthume day 
 
 The track of fled souls, and their milkie way. 
 SiUx Scintillans, 1650. 
 
 Postmaster, an academic word, one 
 who has a certain allowance or portion 
 at one of the Universities, just as sizar 
 is one who enjoys a size at commons. 
 
 The second brother of A. Wood became 
 one of the portionists or postmasters of Menon 
 College.— it/c o/ .4. Wood, p. 10. 
 
 Postmaster is said to be a contracted 
 form of portion-master, liSit. portiomsttB 
 magister. 
 
 PosTUEE-MAKEB, a merryaudrew, is, 
 according to Mr. Wedgwood {Fhilohg. 
 Trans. 1855, p. 69), a corruption of 
 Dut. hoetsen-maeclcer, Ger. possen- 
 macher, from possen, tricks, but this I 
 doubt. 
 
 Pot, a North ooimtry word for a deep 
 pool or hole in the bed of a river. 
 " The deep holes scooped in the rock 
 by the eddies of a river are called pots; 
 the motion of the water having there 
 some resemblance to a boiling cai(Jro»." 
 So Sir Walter Scott (Minstrelsy of the 
 Scottish Border, ii. 188, ed. 1861) in a 
 note on the following passage : — 
 The deepest pot in a' the linn 
 They fand Erl Richard in. 
 
 Earl Richard. 
 
POTENT 
 
 ( 297 ) 
 
 POTTINOAB 
 
 Fot is also used in Scottish for a pit 
 or dungeon, and is the same word as 
 old Eng. put, putte, a pit, A. Sax. pyt, 
 Lat. puteus, a well or pit. Dunbar 
 speaks of " the pot of hell." 
 And Tthii' sum thare with gan sohete ful hot 
 Deip in the soroufuU grisle hellis pot. 
 
 G. Douglas, Bukes of Ejieados, p. 108, 
 
 1. 16 (ed. mO). 
 O an' ye gang to Maggie's bower, 
 Sae sair against my will, 
 The deepest pot in Clyde's water, 
 My malison ye's feel. 
 
 The Drowned Lovers, 1. 28 (Child's 
 Ballads, ii. 176). 
 
 Hence, probably, may be explained 
 the old popular phrase, " To go to pot," 
 originally " to go to the pot," i.e. to the 
 pit or pot of destruction, the bottomless 
 pit, and so to be ruined or destroyed, 
 to perish. Wedgwood compares Prov. 
 Swed. far te putten ! go to hell ! 
 
 In Shakespeare's Ooriolanus, when 
 Marcius pursues the Volscians within 
 the gates of Corioh, and one of his 
 soldiers exclaims : — 
 
 See, they have shut him in ; 
 they all cry out : — 
 
 To the pot, I warrant him. 
 
 Act i. sc. 4. 
 Aussi tost meurt vache comme veau. As 
 soon the young, as old, goes to the pot. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Then goeth a part of little flock to pot and 
 the rest scatter. — Tyndale, Works, iii. 110 
 (Parker Soc. ed.). 
 Creweltie. Thou wouldest not sticke to bring 
 
 thine owne brother to payne. 
 Avarice. Ha, ha, ha ; no, nor father and 
 mother, if there were ought to be got. 
 Thou mightest aweare, if I could, I would 
 bringthem to the pot. 
 
 New Custome, 1573, act ii. sc. 3. 
 Flawn. Why, the weakest goe to the pot still. 
 Mam. Thatjest shall saue him. 
 
 Jacke Drums Entertainment, act i. 
 1. 218 (1616). 
 The rhyming Monsieur, and the Spanish 
 
 Defy or court, alia one, they go to pot. 
 Dryden, Epilogue to The Tempest, 1667. 
 He was conniv'd at and kept in his place, 
 otherwise he had infallibly gon to the pot. — 
 Life of A. a Wood, sub anno 1648, p. 39 
 (ed. Bliss). 
 
 If Cannibals they be 
 
 In kind we doe not know ; 
 And if they be, then welcome we. 
 To pot straightway we goe. 
 
 Ballad of'R. Baker, in Hakluyt's 
 Voyages, 1563. 
 
 Latimer seems to have understood 
 the expression with reference to the 
 melting pot of the refiner : — 
 
 You see by dayly experience that the most 
 part of wicked men are lucky in this worlde, 
 they beare the swing, all thynges goeth after 
 their myndes, for God letteth them haue 
 their pleasures here. And therefore this is 
 a comon saying : The more wicked, the more 
 luckye : but they that pertaine to God, they 
 shall inherite euerlastyng life : they must 
 goe to the pot, they must suffer here according 
 to the Scripture. — Sermons (1552), p. 183. 
 
 The explanation is comphcated by 
 the curious statement in Pierce the 
 Ploughmans Crede (1394), that useless 
 friars were sometimes put out of the 
 way 
 
 wijj pottes on her hedes. 
 
 1. 614. 
 vnder a pot he schal be put • in a pryvie 
 chambre. 1. 627. 
 
 Potent, an old English word for a 
 crutch occurring in Chaucer, would 
 more correctly be a, patents, being from 
 the French potenoe, a crutch, Low Lat. 
 potentia, a support. 
 
 In heraldry a cross Potent is one each 
 arm of which resembles a crutch. 
 
 PoT-SHATiGH, the Scarcely recogniz- 
 able form which Pasha wears in Sir 
 Thos. Herbert, corresponds closely 
 enough to the original Persian word, 
 which is pad-shdh, a sovereign or em- 
 peror, from pad, protecting, and shah, 
 a king. 
 
 To speak truly, the Fot-shaugh had then no 
 affection for him, when probably by reason 
 of his old-age he was disabled to do him 
 further service. — Sir Thos. Herbert, Travels, 
 1665, p. 221. 
 
 Here we met the Pot-shaw again. — Id. p. 
 220. 
 
 The word translated " governor " in 
 A.V. 1 Kings X. 15, Ezra v. 3, is in 
 Hebrew pechdh, which seems to be an 
 adaptation of Fers. pdd-shdh, explained 
 by M. Miiller to be pad (Sansk. pati, 
 lord, Greek pdsis) + shah (the remains 
 of Cuneiform hhsh&yathvya, king), see 
 Pusey on Daniel, pp. 670-72. 
 
 PoTTiNSAE, Scotch for an apotheca/ry, 
 influenced in form apparently by the 
 word potiinger, a jar, an earthen vessel, 
 as if it meant the man of gallipots, ac- 
 cording to Swift's jesting derivation, 
 " a-pot-he-carries." Compare the old 
 Eng. potygare, potecary ; Scotch poti- 
 
POU BE 80IE ( 298 ) 
 
 PBE8S 
 
 ga/ries, drugs, pottingry, the apothecary's 
 art. 
 
 In pottingry he wrocht great pyne ; 
 He mordreit mony in medecyne. 
 
 Dunbar. 
 Pharmacopile, Tulgo le Poltinger. — Bards- 
 lei), Hist, of Surnames, p. IT'S [where the 
 meaning is mistaken]. 
 
 Compare Potecarry, a provincial word 
 for an apothecary. 
 
 A parallel is afforded in German 
 folkspeech by topfirdger, pot-carrier 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Potr DE soiE, \ the French name 
 Poult de soie, /of a species of thick 
 silk stuff, is doubtless only another 
 form of the English word, padisoy, 
 Scot. podAisoy,poddasway,cojwpoundedL 
 of Fr. padoue and soie, i.e. Padua silk. 
 Fr. padou is a sort of silk ribbon tissue 
 originally manufactured at Padua 
 (Gattel). 
 
 Poundgaenet, a corruption of pome- 
 granate (Wright). 
 
 PouECTJTTEL, a fish mentioned in 
 Holland's Pliny, seems to be a cor- 
 rupted form of the name pmi/rcontrell, 
 which he also apphes to it. Under the 
 head of the " Polypus or Pourcontrell 
 kind," he says, "As for the Many -feet 
 or Pourcuttels they he hidden for two 
 months together, and aboue two yeares 
 they liue not." — Naturall History, torn, 
 i. p. 250 (1634). 
 
 Pbess, To, to enlist soldiers, to con- 
 strain men to serve in the navy, origi- 
 nally to prest, or take them into the 
 service by giving them prest-Taoney 
 {i.e. ready money, an earnest), or some- 
 thing in prest (Lat. jircesfo, O. Fr. prest, 
 Fr. pret, ready, in which sense prest 
 occurs in Shakespeare, Mer. of Venice, i. 
 1. ) . So spelt as if it primarily meant to 
 force men to serve on compulsion, like 
 the French forgat from forcer, and It. 
 sforzati, galley-slaves perforce (Florio). 
 But prestmen (Chapman, Od. iv.) de- 
 noted hired men, in contrast to bond 
 men, and prest in Bacon is a loan, 
 money advanced. 
 
 When -went he, or with what train dignified t 
 Of his selected Ithacensian youth ? 
 Prest men, or bond men, were theyf Tell 
 the truth. 
 
 Chapman, Odysseys, bk. iv. 1. 861 
 (ed. Hooper). 
 
 He should have by the way of a prest a 
 
 thousand markes of his pension out of Win- 
 chester. — Cavendish, Life of Wolseti, Wardt- 
 worth, Eccles. Biog. vol. i. p. 482. 
 
 Souldiers, late prest, are now supprest ; 
 
 Crost and cassierd from further pay. 
 J. Sylvester, Epigrams, Works, p. 615. 
 
 In the following, prest means ready 
 at hand, vidlling to serve as volun- 
 teers : — 
 White (Swan-like) wings, fierce talons, al- 
 
 waies prest 
 For bloody battaUs. 
 
 Sylvester, Vu Bartas, p. 106 (1621). 
 The winged Legions, 
 That soar aboue the bright Star-spangled 
 
 Regions, 
 Are ever prest, his powrfull Ministers. 
 
 Id. p. 143. 
 
 Though the Rulers of the earth takecounsel 
 
 against the Lord and against his Christ, yet 
 
 there is an Army always prest in the air.— 
 
 Hacket, Century of Sermons, p. 66, fol. 1675. 
 
 Prest came to be mistaken for a past 
 participle, as if pressed. Compare the 
 following: — 
 Must grandson Filbert to the wars be 
 
 prest? . , . 
 O tyrant Justices ! have you forgot 
 How my poor brother was in Flanders shot? 
 You press'd my brother — he shall walk in 
 
 white .... 
 Now will you press my harmless nephew too f 
 
 Gay, The What D'ye Call It, act i. sc. 1. 
 
 We to a Committee of the Council to dis- 
 course concerning pressing of men. — Peyys, 
 Diary, Feb. 27th, 1664-5. 
 
 I yesterday expressed my wonder that John 
 Hay, one of our guides, who had been p-essed 
 a-board a man-of-war, did not choose to con- 
 tinue in it longer than nine months, after 
 which time he got off. — BoswelL, Jourtuil of a 
 Tour to the Hebrides, Aug. 31. 
 
 He [John Newton] went to sea at eleven 
 years old. Presently we find him impressed 
 into the navy, and there, through his father's 
 influence made midshipman. — Saturday lU- 
 view, vol.51, p. 201. 
 
 Privy-Seals were common in her [Eliza- 
 beth's] Days, and pressing of Men more fi^e- 
 quent, especially for Ireland, where they were 
 sent in Handfuls. — J. Howell, Famiiiar 
 Letters, bk. iv. 12. 
 
 Press, a cupboard, is generally re- 
 garded as being a derivative of Lat. 
 pressorium, an instrument for pressing 
 or compressing, used for the receptacle 
 wherein clothes or Unen are pressed. 
 However, Bret, pres, armoire, a cup- 
 board (dialect of Leon), Gael, pn-eas, a 
 wooden case, armarium, are suggestive 
 of a Celtic origin (Ferguson, Cvmher- 
 
PBESS-GANG ( 299 ) 
 
 PBIME 
 
 land Glossary, s.v.). Compare Welsh 
 pres, saApreseb, a crib. 
 
 A presse for cloths, pressorium. — LevinSf 
 Manipulus (1570), 8-1, 30. 
 
 Those of JNIarchia .... do put it into 
 chests and presses among clothes, to presei-ue 
 them from moths or other vermine. — Gerarde, 
 Herbal, p. lUl. 
 
 Press-gang, ) a party of men em- 
 
 Pbess-money, / ployed to enlist men 
 for the royal service by giving them 
 prest-money. It has nothing to do with 
 the verb press, to urge, impel, or con- 
 strain. 
 
 Preste money, of Fr. prest, Lat. prasto, ready 
 at hand. Earnest-money commonly given to a 
 Soldier when he is listed, so called because it 
 hinds the Receiver to be ready for service at 
 all Times appointed. — Baileti. 
 
 The King covenants to pay half of the first 
 quarter's wages in advance. This was the 
 prest-money, .... [or part of their wages 
 paid in advance on engaging them. "On 
 peut de plus ici observer le terme de prest, 
 qui est encore aujourdhui en usage parmi les 
 troupes, pour signifier une avance de quelque 
 argent qu'on fait aux soldats." — Daniel, 
 Milice Franc, torn. i. liv. iv. ch. 2.] — Sir 
 S. D. Scott, 'The British Army, vol. i. p. 280. 
 
 Yom* Lordship is likewise to take orders 
 that there be prest, and sent with the said 
 soldiers, one Drum and Drummer to every 
 100 men.— Letter, 1640 {Scott, op. cit. p. 
 407). 
 
 ^■RESTiDiaiTATO^,'Fr. prestidigitatem; 
 a juggler or conjurer, so spelt as if it 
 meant a " quick-fingered " fellow, from 
 preste, quick, and digitus, a finger, per- 
 haps from the analogy of leger-de-mmn 
 " hght-of-hand " (cf.prest-weille, quick- 
 eared). This is quite a recent forma- 
 tion and a corruption of the older word 
 prestigiateur, "aJugler,a cheating Con- 
 jurer" (Cotgrave), Eng. prestigiator 
 (Henry More), It. prestigiatore, all from 
 Lat. prestigiator, a juggler, and that 
 from prmstigice, a deception or sleight 
 of hand, ht. that which dazzles the 
 sight (cf. Fr. prestige), from prcs-stin- 
 guere, to obscure or baffle (so. the 
 
 In the Autobiography of Bohert 
 Houddn it is stated that one Jules de 
 Rovere, a professor of sleight of hand, 
 beiug of noble birth, created this word 
 as an appropriate title for himself, in- 
 stead of the vulgar name escanwtew. 
 
 The first his honest, hard-working hand ; 
 the second his three-fingered Jack, his pres- 
 
 tidigital hand. — Reade, Never too late to mend, 
 ch. vi. l_Davies']. 
 
 Peial, an old term at cards, is a cor- 
 ruption of pair-royal, which denoted 
 three kings, three queens, &o., and is 
 frequently used in old authors for any 
 triad or three. The word came to be 
 written ^eiTj/aM, and finally prial (see 
 Nares, s.v.), from false analogy to words 
 like espial, trial, &ci Indeed, pair- 
 royal was sometimes used to rhyme 
 with trial, e.g. by Quarles in his Em- 
 blems. For similar compressions of 
 words, compare sTceg for such-egg, a 
 Northampton word for a fool (Stem- 
 berg) ; pifler for pipe-filler (Wright) ; 
 proxy for proc-cy, fromi procuracy ; sex- 
 ton for sac-stan, from saaristan. 
 Is crazy time gi*own lazy, faint or sick. 
 With very age ? or hath that great pair-royal 
 Of adamantine sisters late made trial 
 Of some new trade ? 
 
 Quarles, "Emblems, bk. v. 7. 
 
 Prick-madam, a popular name for 
 the plant sedum, is a corruption of the 
 French trique-madame, for triacque a 
 madame, Lat. theriaca, as it were 
 " lady's-treacle." 
 
 Erithales — which some take to be Prich- 
 madame of the French Triqjie-Madame. — 
 Holland, Ptinies Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 237. 
 
 So Gerarde, Herlal, p. 414. 
 
 Pride, the trivial name for the small 
 river lamprey {Ammioocetes Bran- 
 chialis), one of the lampridce. It. lam- 
 preda, from which perhaps it is de- 
 rived. It is sometimes called the sand- 
 pride or sand-prey. 
 
 The fresh-water lamprey, or pride, is about 
 half the size of the sea lamprey. — Badham, 
 Prose Halieiitics, p. 445. 
 
 Prime, to prepare a firearm for im- 
 mediate service (by putting powder on 
 the nipple), has no connexion with Lat. 
 primus, Eng. prime, first (as if the first 
 thing to do), but is a corrupted form of 
 the verhprein (Dunbar), proim, or prune, 
 to dress or trim. Proin, also spelt 
 proigne, is probably from Fr. provigner. 
 Low Lat. propaginare. 
 
 To prime is stiU a provincial word 
 for pruning or triming trees (Forby), 
 while conversely the primnng of a gun 
 was formerly called pruning (Florio, 
 1611). The old meaning of pi'une, 
 proin, was to dress, or trim one's self, 
 esp. of birds, to arrange tlie plumage. 
 
PBIME-GOGK 
 
 ( 300 ) 
 
 PBIMB08E 
 
 He pruneth him and piketh, 
 As doth an hauke, whan him wel liketh. 
 
 GoweVj CoTif* Amantis. 
 He kembeth him, he proineth him and piketh, 
 He doth all that his lady lust and liketh. 
 
 CImucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 9885. 
 The popeiayes perken SLudpniynen fol proude. 
 
 Cekstin and Susanna, 1. 81. 
 The swans did in the solid flood, her glass 
 Proin their fair plumes. 
 
 Martowe, Hero and Leander, 1598 
 ( Works, p. 297). 
 
 Doe men proyne 
 The straight yong bowes that blush with 
 
 thousand blossoms. 
 Because they may be rotten? 
 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 6, 244 
 (ed. Littledale). 
 
 The blinded Archer-boy, like larke in showre 
 
 of raine 
 Sat bathing of his wings, and glad the time 
 
 did spend. 
 Under those cristall drops, which fell from 
 
 her faire eies 
 And at their brightest beames him proynd in 
 lovely wise. 
 
 Spenser, Mourning Muse of Thestylis 
 (p. 565, Globe ed.). 
 
 His royal bird 
 Prunes the immortal wing and cloys his beak 
 As when his god is pleased. 
 
 Shakespeare, Cymbeline, v. 4, 118. 
 
 A husband that loveth to trim and pamper 
 his body, causeth his wife by that means to 
 study nothing else but the tiicking and prun- 
 ing of herself. — Holland, Plutarch's Morals, 
 p. 318 [Trench]. 
 
 Night's bashful empress, though she often 
 
 wane, 
 As oft repeats her darkness, primes again. 
 
 Quarles, Emblems, bk. iii. 1, 1. 11. 
 Keep close your pris'ner — See that all's pre- 
 
 par'd. 
 Prime all your firelocks — fasten well the 
 stake. 
 Gay, The What D'ye Call It, ii. 1. 
 
 Davies, 8^l^p. Ung. Olossa/ry, quotes : 
 When she was primmed out down she came 
 
 to him. — Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe, iii. 37. 
 Tell dear Kitty not to prim up as if we had 
 
 never met before. — Mdme. D'Arblay, Diary, 
 
 ii. 108 (1781). 
 
 Pkime-cook, ^ old English -words 
 Peinoocke, (for a pert, forward 
 Peincocks, f youth, are corrup- 
 Peincy-cock, ) tions of the Latin 
 
 prcBcox, precocious, early ripe (jprce and 
 
 coquere). 
 Wright gives prime-cocfc- Soy, a novice, 
 
 of similar origin ; compare : — 
 
 Herba da buof, .... used often for a 
 
 prime~cock-boy, a fresh man, a nouice, a milke- 
 sop, a boy new come into the World. — Ftorii, 
 
 You shall heare a caualier of the first 
 feather, a princockes that was but a page the 
 other day in the court, and now is all to be 
 frenchified in his souldiours sute, stand ypon 
 termes with " God's wounds ! you dishonour 
 me, sir." — T. Nash, Pierce Penilesse, 1592 
 p. 5"2 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 I have almost these two yeares cast in my 
 head, how I might match my princoch wii 
 Stellio's daughter. — J. Lilly, Mother Bombie, 
 act i. sc. 3 (ed. Fairholt). 
 
 Peiminaey, an old popular word for 
 a-Bcrape, difficulty, or trouble, is a cor- 
 ruption of prcBrrmrdre, which was once 
 used in the same way. " To fall into 
 a Premumre is to involve one's self in 
 trouble." — Bailey. The allusion is to 
 the penalties incurred under the Statute 
 of Prsemimire, long a popular bug-bear, 
 as being fertile in vexations and troubles 
 {Notes and Queries, 5th S. vii. 119), 
 
 I desant want to git myself intiv a primi- 
 nary. — Whitby Glossary, F. K, Robinson 
 (Eng. Dialect Soc). 
 
 The following citations are from 
 Davies, 8upp. Eng. Ohssa/ry : — 
 
 So my lady has brought herself into a fine 
 premunire. — Centlivre, The Gamester, activ. 
 
 I, seeing what a priminary I had by m^ 
 badness brought myself in, I saw that it 
 could not be avoided. — Letter of Robert Ymng, 
 1680 (Harl. Misc. VI. 334). 
 
 Compare exTcim/rdcate, an Irish pro- 
 nunciation of excomrmmicaie. 
 
 If you don't, by the blessed St. Dominick 
 I'll exkimnicate ye both. — Carletmi, Traits and 
 Stories of the Irish Peasantry, i. 69. 
 
 Peim-peint, a popular name for the 
 privet plant, is a corruption of I^. 
 prime-printemps, earliest spring. 
 
 The most excellent is the greene coloured 
 Catterpillai-, which is found vppon that great 
 bushy plant, vsually termed Priuet or Prim- 
 print. — Topsell, Hist of Serpents, p. 103 (1608). 
 
 Peimeosb has nothing to do with 
 rose, but is a corruption of the old Eng- 
 hsh word pryme rolles or primerole, be- 
 ing the same word as Fr. prmverole, 
 It. primaverola, diminutive of prima- 
 vera, i.e. prirrmla veris, " the firstlingof 
 spring " (Prior). Florio, It. Diet. 1611, 
 has both primrosa and priimera. 
 Chaucer has pryme-rose, and so the 
 PromptoriumPanmloriim,"Frymerose, 
 
 primula;" hut primerols occurs ia 
 Wright's Lyric Poetry (Percy Soc), p- 
 26. 
 
PRINT 
 
 ( 301 ) 
 
 PBOVENBEB 
 
 The apparent, but mistaken, ety- 
 mology is taken as granted in the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 And, gazing, saw that Rose, which from the 
 
 prime 
 Derives its name. 
 
 Wordswortkj The River DuddoTij zxii. 
 For the latter Part of January, and Feb- 
 ruary, .... Prime-roses, Anemones, The 
 Early Tulippa. — Bacon, Essaj/s (1625), p. 556 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Primrose Peerless, a popular name 
 for the narcissus. Dr. Prior thinks may 
 have arisen from primula paralyseos 
 (properly the oowshp), i.e. the narcotic 
 spring flower. 
 
 Prim-rose, first-borne child of Ver, 
 Merry spring-time*s herbinger 
 With her bels dimme. 
 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1, 1. 9 
 (ed. Littledale). 
 Here plucks the Cowslips, Roses of the pritne, 
 There Lavander, sweet Marjoram, and 
 Thyme. 
 
 G. Wither, Britains Remembrancer, 
 p. 137, verso, 1628. 
 jje primerole, he passe):, fje panienke of pris. 
 Boddeker, Alteng. Dicht. p. 145, 1. 13. 
 That is the monthe belongende 
 Unto this Signe, and of his dole. 
 He yiveth the firste primerole. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, vol. iii. 
 p. 125 (ed. Pauli). 
 Print, a shortened form of primet, 
 priniprint (from French prim^ prin- 
 temps), is a provincial word ^or the 
 privet. 
 
 Be gamesome, whiles thou art a goodly crea- 
 ture. 
 The flowers will fade that in thy garden 
 
 grew, 
 Sweet violets are gather'd in the Spring, 
 White primil falls withouten pitying. 
 
 Oliphant, Musa Madrigalesca, p. 280. 
 Her watchmen, arm'd with boughie crest, 
 A wall ofprim hid in his bushes bears. 
 Shaking at euery winde their leauie spears. 
 While she supinely sleeps, ne to be waked 
 fears ! 
 G. Fletcher, Christs Victorie on Earth, 
 at. 44. 
 PEiVY,anold English name (Tusser) 
 for the privet plant, corrupted from its 
 name primet, primprint, Fr. prims prin- 
 temps (Prior). For the interchange of 
 V and m, compare malmsey for old 
 Eng. malvesie ; It. vermena for verierM; 
 Swed. hwmm, r: haven. 
 
 The borders round about are set with 
 priuie sweete. — N, Breton, Daffodils and Prim- 
 roses, p. 3. 
 
 Set priuie or prim, 
 Set boxe like him. 
 
 Tusser, 1580 (E. D. Soc), 
 p. 33. 
 
 Profoecb, a Scottish word quoted by 
 Jamieson from Monro's Expediiions, for 
 the " provost-maieshal" of an army, is 
 no doubt a corruption of the first part 
 of that word. Our " provost " is itself 
 a perverted form from Lat. propositus 
 (one set before others), which is crushed 
 out of all resemblance in the Gei-man 
 prohst (also profos). The old Eng. 
 form was prdfost, Pr. prevot, Sp. pre- 
 hoste. Compare old Scottish perforce, 
 the title of a military officer in Ads 
 Ohas. I. (Jamieson), meaning pro- 
 bably a "provost marshal." 
 
 Proposai. ) Who would not ima- 
 
 Proposition. ) gine that in the 
 phrase, " I have a proposition to 
 make," he might substitute the word 
 proposal, not only as strictly synony- 
 mous, but etymologically identical? 
 And yet the words have no real con- 
 nexion. Proposal is, of course, from 
 propose, Fr. proposer, where poser is de- 
 rived — not from Lat. ponere — but from 
 Lat. pausare, to rest or pause (after- 
 wards " to make to rest, to set," from 
 a confusion with ponere), from Greek 
 pausis, a ceasing or pause (Diez, 
 Littre). 
 
 On the other hand, proposition comes 
 through the French from Lat. proposi- 
 tio{n), derived fr-om propositus, past 
 parte, oiproponere, to set before. 
 
 Similarly deposal (from de-pauscvre) 
 is unrelated to deposition (from de- 
 ponere) ; and compose has no affinity 
 with composition, nor impose vrith im- 
 position. See PuEPOSE. 
 
 Prof. Skeat remarks that this extra- 
 ordinary substitution of Low Lat. 
 poMsanre for Lat. ponere, the meaning of 
 which it usurped, whilst in aU com- 
 pounds it completely thrust it aside, is 
 one of the most remarkable facts in 
 French etymology (Etym. Diet. s. v. 
 Pose). 
 
 Peovendee, old Eng. prouende, Fr. 
 provende (Ger. pfrilnde). It. profenda, 
 so spelt as if, like the word provision 
 (Ger. proviant), it denoted something 
 provided, Lat. providenda (from provi- 
 dere), is really a corrupt form of It. 
 prevenda and prebenda, Sp. preienda. 
 
PRUNELLA 
 
 ( 302 ) 
 
 PULLEY 
 
 Fr. prebende, all from Lat. prmhenda, 
 things to be supplied, sustenance. 
 
 Peunella, a plant-name, as if a little 
 plum, a diminutive of TiaAi.prunus, is a 
 modification of Brunella {Brrniel in 
 Gerarde), which is formed from the 
 German die Branne, a kind of quinsy, 
 for which this plant was deemed a 
 specific. Salmon, English Physic, p. 
 753, speaks of a " sorethroat called 
 Pruna." See Britten and Holland, 
 Eng. Plant-Names, p. 68 (E. D. Soc). 
 Another name for it is Brown-wort, old 
 Eng. hrunwyrt, hrunethan {Cockayne, 
 Leechdoms, Lceee Boc, I. iv. 6). 
 
 Peutene, an old Eng. name of the 
 plant Southernwood (Cockayne, Leech- 
 doms, Woricunning, &c., vol. iii.. Glos- 
 sary), as if connected with prutian, to 
 be proud or stately, is a corruption of 
 its Latin name abrotonum. 
 
 PuBLiSHT, in the curious Scottish 
 phrase, " a weel-puhlisM bairn," i.e. a 
 plump, weU-conditioned child (Jamie- 
 sou), perhaps denotes properly weU- 
 nourished, and is a derivative of Lat. 
 pabulum, food, nourishment, pabulari, 
 to feed, as i£pabUsht. 
 
 PuoK-FiST, a popular name for the 
 fungus Lycoperdon {pet du loup), and 
 of much the same meaning, being com- 
 pounded of old Eng. fist (Ger. feist), 
 the explosion which the puff-ball makes 
 when struck, and Puck, the merry wan- 
 derer of the night. Other names are 
 The Devil's Snuff-box, Ir. cos-a-phooha, 
 " Puck's-foot." 
 
 Fungus Orbicularis, or Lufi Crepitus, .... 
 in English Fusse bals, Pitcke Fusse, and Bul- 
 fistsi. — Gerarde, Herball, fol. p. 1385 (1697). 
 
 All the sallets are turn'd to Jewes-ears, 
 mushrooms and Puchfists. — Hei^wood and 
 Brome, La7icashire Witches, 1634, sig. E 4. 
 
 Do you laugh 7 you unseasonable puchjist ? 
 do you grin ? — Webster, Northward Ho, i. 2. 
 
 Now the 'spital-housf on the Ptick-Jist tribe 
 of them, — Randolph, Ueyjor Honesty, ii. 3. 
 
 Pudding, more correctly puddin, Fr. 
 houdin, Welsh poten, has been con- 
 formed to the present participial form 
 and that of substantives in -imj' (A. Sax. 
 -^mg), such as a "roasting," " a boil- 
 ing." Similarly "chicking," "capting," 
 may sometimes be heard as vulgar pro- 
 nunciations of "chicken," "captain," 
 and I have seen in old letters cussing 
 
 for cousin. KitcMng is frequently in 
 old writers for hitchen. 
 
 A bad hitching did for ever spoil the good 
 Meat of the Bishop of LandaflPe. — T. Fuiler 
 Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 164 (ed 
 1811). 
 
 No hitching fire nor eating flame.— .Sir J, 
 Suchling, Fragmenta Aurea, 164S, p. 12. 
 
 Pepys speaks of " wooling knit 
 stockings" (DioA-y, July 16, 1667). 
 
 Pulley, so spelt as if connected with 
 the verb to pull. Li John Hookham 
 Frere's burlesque mathematical poem, 
 The Loves of the Triangles, the Une, 
 The obedient pulley strong Mechanics ply, 
 is accompanied by the annotation : — 
 
 Pulley — so called from our Saxon word 
 Pull, signifying to pull or Aid.w.— Works, 
 vol. i. p. 90." 
 
 It is, however, the old Eng. pohym 
 (Prompt. Parv. ah. 1440), pullayne 
 (Palsgrave, 1580), Fr. pouUe, Sp. jofea, 
 poUn, identical with Fr. poulwin, a colt 
 or foal, also a pulley-rope (Gotgrave), 
 Prov. poli. The idea common to botii 
 is that of a carrier or weight-bearer. 
 
 Comparable with this and nearly re- 
 lated are Sp. potro, a wooden stand, !Pr. 
 poutre, a cross-beam, same as Sp. poi/ro, 
 It.poledro, Low 'L&t.poledrus,pullelr'm, 
 a colt, Gk. polos. Hence also Ger. 
 falter, a rack (Diez). 
 
 How ^roughtest thou me ones in to the 
 welle where the two bokettys henge by one 
 corde rennyng thurgh one poiley whiche 
 wente one vp and another doun. — Caxton, 
 Reynard the Fox, 1481, p. 96 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Machines or appUances used for 
 carrying, lifting, or supporting weights 
 are often called by the names of beasts 
 of burden, such as horse, mule, ass, e.g. 
 It. asinone, a great ass, — also " an en- 
 gine to mount a piece of ordinance" 
 (Florio). It. caualetto, " any little 
 nagge or horse, — also any tressel, or 
 saddlers or Armorers woodden horse " 
 (Florio). Fr. chevaht, Eng. "horse," 
 a stand for towels, clothes, &c. " Easel," 
 a painter's tressel, Ger. esel,ljiX.asellm, 
 a little ass. 
 
 Gk. Ullihas (KiXXi/3ae), of the same 
 meaning, is from hillos (ki'Woc), an ass. 
 .Gk. onos (ovoe), an ass, also a windlass. 
 Sp. and Port, muleta, a crutch, from 
 mulus, a mule. It. bordone, Fr. bow- 
 don, a pilgrim's staff, from bwrdo, a 
 mule. " Gauntree," a frame to set 
 
PULF-FISH 
 
 ( 303 ) 
 
 PUBLIEU 
 
 casks upon, Fr. chcmtier, is the Latin 
 ca/ntherius, a pack-horse, also a prop, a 
 rafter. Lat. egtrnleus, a young horse, 
 also a wooden rack. 
 
 Pr. Imtrriquet, a handbarrow, is from 
 hownigue, Sp. and Port, hm-ro, an ass, 
 Low Lat. huricus, a nag. 
 
 O. Eng. somer, a bedstead, is the 
 French somitr, sommier, a sumpter- 
 horse, also a piece of timber called a 
 summers Prov. sauma, a she-ass, from 
 the Lat. sagmarius, a pack-horse. The 
 Persian iahrah denotes a cow, and also 
 a clothes-horse ; hakarah, a pulley. 
 
 Pulp-fish, or Poulpb, an old name 
 for the octopus or cuttle-fish, as if de- 
 noting its pulpcms or fleshy nature (Fr. 
 ;poulpe, •polpe. It. polpa, Lat. pulpa, 
 flesh), is a naturalized form of Fr. 
 poulpe, the Pourcontrell or many-footed 
 fish (Cotgrave), It.polpo, whiola Florio 
 defines " a Pulpe-fish, a Pourcontrell, 
 a Many-feete or Cuttle-fish." These 
 are only contracted forms of polype, It. 
 polipo, from Lat. polypus, Greek polu- 
 pous, " many-foot." The forms Fr. 
 powrpe. It. porpo, which are also found, 
 recall a curious perversion of the patho- 
 logical polypus in the case of a poor 
 woman I once knew who complained 
 much of the sufferings she experienced 
 from a porpoise in her inside. 
 
 Punch, in the popular phrase, " to 
 punch one's head," i.e. to thump or 
 pound it, as if identical with punch, to 
 perforate or make holes, is a corruption 
 oi punish, just as in old Eng. vcmsh is 
 found for vanish and pulah for polish 
 (Skeat, Etym. Diet.). On the other 
 hand compare Perish. 
 
 PunchyW', or chastysyn' (al. punysshen), 
 PuniOf castigo. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Punchynge (al. punysshinge ), Punicio. — Id. 
 Putichyn', or bunchyfl', Trudo, tundo. — Id. 
 
 Punch, the humpbacked hero of the 
 street drama, apparently the same 
 word as punch, a thick, stout person 
 of small stature (Gregor, Banff. Glos- 
 sary), punchy, pot-beUied. 
 
 Staying among poor people there in the 
 ally did hear them call theii' fat child Punch, 
 which pleased me mightily, that word being 
 become a word of common use for all that is 
 thick and short. — Pepys, Diary, April 30, 
 1669 (ed. Braybrooke). 
 
 It is reaUy a contraction of Pun- 
 chinello, which is a corruption of It. 
 
 puloinello, pulclnnlla, a buffoon, a pup- 
 pet, orig. a chickhng (i.e. a httle pet), 
 from puloino, a chicken. Oheruel adds 
 that the Maccus, or buffoon of the 
 Atellane Farces, is represented in an- 
 cient designs with a long nose like a 
 chicken's beak, and that he was the 
 original of the French policMnel {Hist, 
 des Institutions, p. 996). 
 
 Puppy, a coxcomb, a conceited fop, 
 formerly " an unexperienced raw fel- 
 low" (Bailey), is not a figurative use 
 oi puppy, a little dog, but derived from 
 Pr. poupin, or popin, spruce . . nice, 
 dainty, prettie, se popiner, to trimme or 
 trick up himselfe (Cotgrave), poupper, 
 to dandle or cocker {Id.), poupee, a 
 puppet or doU ; all from Lat. pupus, a 
 boy, a chUd. Puppy, a whelp, is of 
 the same origin. Compare Prov. Eng. 
 poppin, a puppet (^orhy), poppy, soft, 
 tender (Wright). 
 
 Popyn, ohylde of clowtys (or moppe). Pupa. 
 — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Puree, a vegetable soup, Fr. puree, 
 so spelt as if it denoted a clear soup, 
 from Pr. pur, pure, is old Eng. puree, 
 pore, or pm-ree, old Pr. poree, pottage 
 made of beets or with other herbs (Cot- 
 grave), It. porrata, leek-soup' (Florio), 
 from Lat. porrum, a leek. 
 
 Porre, or purre, potage, Piseum, vel pisea. 
 — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Eecipesfor " Blaunched Powow/," and 
 " Porry of white pese," are given in 
 Liber Dure Gocorumi, p. 44. 
 
 Pr. poiree is a distinct corruption. 
 
 Purl, spiced ale, apparently 'con- 
 nected with pu/rl, to flow with a mur- 
 muring sound, Swed. porla, to bubble 
 along, is, according to 'Prof. Skeat, a 
 corruption oi pearl, so called with re- 
 ference to the pearl-like bubbles resting 
 on its surface, Fr. perle, Ger. perlen, to 
 bubble, to pearl. For a contrary change 
 see Pearling. Compare the follow- 
 ing:— 
 O for a heaker full of the wai'm South, 
 
 Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, 
 With beaded babbies winking at the brim 
 Keats, Ode to a Nightingale,- St. 2. 
 
 Purlieu, now applied to the borders 
 or environs of any place, especially to 
 the slums or bad part of a neighbour- 
 hood, meant originally the outskirts of 
 a forest, so spelt as if denoting a place 
 (Pr. Ueu) exempt or free (Fr.piur) from 
 
PUBLOIN 
 
 ( 304 ) 
 
 PUB8Y 
 
 the forest laws, disforested. The 
 proper meaning, however, is, as BaUey 
 gives it, " all that space near any Forest 
 which being anciently Forest, is after- 
 wards separated from the same by Per- 
 amhulation," Uterally perambulated (as 
 formerly parishes used to have their 
 bounds beaten), being a corruption of 
 pv/rley, or pv/rUe, an Anghcized form of 
 old Fr. pv/ralee, pouralUe (Wedgwood), 
 ■i.e. a going through, a perambulation. 
 The proper meaning, therefore, is the 
 borders of a forest. 
 
 Nares quotes the phrase, " to hunt 
 inpwley." — Bandolph, Muses Loohing- 
 Qlass (Old Plays, ix. 244), where 
 Hazhtt (1875, p. 247) prints pwrUeu. 
 Compare " Pmrel-way, the boundary 
 line of a parish." — Wright. 
 
 Oil ! if these purlieus be so full of danger, 
 Great God of hearts, the world's sole aov'- 
 
 reign ranger, 
 Preserve thy deer. 
 
 F. Quarks, Emblems, bk. iii. 9 
 (p. 123, ed. 1865). 
 His greatest fault is, he hunts too much in 
 the purlieus. 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, ir. 1. 
 
 But every moderne god will now extend 
 His vaste prerogative as fan-e as Jove. 
 To rage, to lust, to write to, to commend,. 
 All is the purlewe of the God of Love. 
 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 47. 
 There was much Land disafforested, which 
 hath been called Pourlieus ever since, where- 
 of there were appointed Rangers. — J. Houiell, 
 Familiar Letters, bk. iv. 6. 
 
 PuKLOiN. I cite this word in order 
 to npte that the most learned of the 
 translators of the Authorized Version 
 attached a meaning to it, where it 
 occurs in Titus ii. 10, indicating the 
 duty of servants, — " Not pv/rloimng, 
 but shewing aU good fidelity," — cmi- 
 ously different from the general accep- 
 tation. The word in the Greek is 
 vo(j(j>tiofiai, which means either (1) to 
 put aside or away (voo-^i) for one's self, 
 to appropriate, steal, or (2) to go aside 
 or away, to withdraw, to retire (com- 
 pare the two meanings of " to steal 
 away"). It is in the latter sense that 
 Bishop Andrewes understood the word, 
 as is plain from the following pas- 
 
 Rules of behaviour in divine service — 5. 
 Depart not from it till it be ended ; Exod. 
 xxxiii. 11, Joshua " departed not out of the 
 tabernacle;" Tit. ii. 10, " not purloining ;" 
 
 For as we pray that God should hear as 
 .... so we should take heed we go not 
 from Him. — Pattern of Catechistical Doctrine 
 (1641), p. 139 (Oxford ed.). 
 
 Pwrloin was originally to put away, 
 old Eng. " pwlongyn or prolongyn, or 
 put fer a-wey, Prolongo, aheno."— 
 Prompt. Parvulorum; proloyn (Wy- 
 cliffe ) ; old Fr. pwloigmkr, Low Lat. 
 prolongaare, to be, or to set, far away 
 (Lat. longe, Fr. loin). Andrewes was 
 no doubt led to give the word this un- 
 usual meaning from a reminiscence of 
 the kindred old Eng. verbs forloin, to 
 go away, depart, forsake, and esloin, to 
 put away, remove, banish, withdraw. 
 Vch freke forbyned fro jje rySt wayeS. 
 [Each man departed from the right ways.] 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 45, 1. 282 
 (ed. Morris). 
 hay forloyne her fayth & folSed o);er goddes. 
 Id. p. 70, 1. 1165. 
 
 For esloin or eloin, old Pr. esloigner, 
 zz Lat. ex-longa/re, compare : — 
 From worldly cares himselfe he did eskyne. 
 Spenser, Faerie QueenCj I, iv. 20. 
 I'll tell thee now (deare Love) what thou shalt 
 doe 
 To anger destiny, as she doth us, 
 How I shall stay, though she esloigne me 
 thus. 
 
 Donne, Poems, p. 24 (1635). 
 
 Upon the roofe the bii'de of son'owe sat 
 
 Elonging ioyfuU day with her sad note. 
 
 G. Fletcher, Chmts Victorie on fitrt/i 
 
 (1610), St. 24. 
 
 PuBPOSE, an intention, old Eng. 
 porpos, from old Fr. pott/rpos, Lat. pro- 
 positum, something set before one, a 
 design, has no etymological connexion 
 vrith the verb pwrpose, to intend, with 
 which it is naturally and invariably 
 associated. To purpose, Pr. pwr-poser, 
 is from Lat. pro +pausa/re, to rest (lay 
 down, set) before one, as an object to 
 be attained, to propose (Skeat). See 
 Peoposal. 
 
 PuBSY, " over-fat, short, or broken- 
 winded" (Bailey), is no necessary 
 symptom of the moneyed man who has 
 a well-filled purse, but is a corruption 
 of Fr. poussif, "pursie, shortwinded" 
 (Cotgrave), from the old verb ^Jowsser in 
 the sense of to pant, Lat. pulsare. Old 
 Eng. forms axe pwrcy, pv/rcyf. 
 
 Purcy, in wynd drawynge. Cardiacus.— 
 Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 
 Purciff, shorte wynded, .... Pourcif.— 
 Palsgrave, 
 
PUSH 
 
 ( 306 ) 
 
 QUAFF 
 
 Compare Limousin iioitssd, to breathe 
 ■witli difficnlty ; It. holso, asthmatic, 
 broken-winded, holsma, pursiness (for 
 polso, &o., irovapolsare, to pant), which 
 bears a similarly deceptive resemblance 
 to boha, lorza, a purse ; old Fr.poulsif. 
 All these words are from Lat. pulsarc, 
 to pant, to beat violently. 
 
 Fursy insolence shall break his wind 
 With fear and horrid flight. 
 
 Timon rf Athens, v. 4, 1. 11 
 '(Globe ed.). 
 
 A fursie man, or that fetcheth his breath 
 often, as it were almost windlesse. — Bartt. 
 
 Pursy, cardiacus. — LevinSj ManipuUiSj 108, 
 37 (1570). 
 
 A piii'sie double chind Lana, riding by on a 
 sumpter-horse with prouander at his mouth, 
 and she is the Litter-Driuer : shee keepes 
 two Pages, and those are an Irish Beggar 
 one the one side, and One that sayes he has 
 been a Soldier on the otlier side. — Dehker, 
 Seven Deadly Sianes of London, 1606, p. o4 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Let but our English belly-gods punish 
 their pursie bodies with strict penaunce. — T. 
 Nash, Pierce Penilesse, 1592, p. 51 (Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 
 Push, a common old word for a 
 bhster or pustule, as if that which 
 pusJis up through the skin, like Fr. 
 Bouton, a botch or pimple, from holder, 
 to push up as a bud, is probably only 
 a naturaUzed form of Fr. poche, a pus- 
 tule (Skeat), originally a little sac, 
 "pouch," "poke," or "pock-et," and 
 so near akin to poch. As poche does 
 not seem to have borne the above 
 meaning in old French {e.g. ia Cot- 
 grave), push seems to me to be more 
 likely identical with Lat. p«sa, a bhster, 
 implied in Lat. pusula, and pustula, a 
 bubble or blister, originally something 
 blown up or inflated, akin to Greek 
 phusa, a bellows, a blast, philsalis, a 
 bladder, phuske, a blister. Compare 
 also Dan. puse, to swell up, and Lith. 
 pusle, a bladder or pimple. 
 
 If it be pouned with barly meale and laide 
 to pushes, it taketh them away. — Gerarde, 
 Herbal, p. 949. 
 
 The root being dried and incorporat with 
 rosin . . . discusseth and healeth the swelling 
 kernels behind the eare ; the angrie pushes 
 also and biles in other Emunctories called 
 Pani. — Holland, Pliny, vol. ii. p. 36. 
 
 It was a Prouerb, amongst the Grecians; 
 that. He that was praised to his Hurt, should 
 haue a Push rise upon his nose. — Bacon, 
 Essays, xxix. (1625), p. 35.5 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Pdttee, a Scotch word for a short 
 
 piece of ordnance, as if from to put, in 
 the sense of casting or throwing a 
 heavy stone, &c., is a corruption of 
 petard, old Eng. petarre, Fr. petm-d, 
 that which makes a crack or explosion 
 {pei). 
 
 PuTTOCK-SHRouDS, a naval term, a 
 corruption of fuUoclc, i.e. foot-hoolc, 
 shrouds. Puttoch is a kite. 
 
 He actually arrived at the puttoch-shrovds. 
 — Smollett, Roderick liundom, ch. xxvii. \_La- 
 tham. Diet, s.v.] 
 
 Pyramid, Greek pv/ramiid-s, pwams, 
 so spelt as if connected with pin/r, fire 
 (whence ^2/re), from its resemblance to 
 the tapering shape of a flame, "For 
 fire by nature mounteth like a Fyramiis, ' ' 
 as Seneca remarks ( Works, translated by 
 Lodge, p. 787, 1614), and the triangular 
 figure A, from the same resemblance to 
 an upward-tending flame, was the sym- 
 bol of Siva (Cox, Aryan Mythology , vol. 
 ii. p. 114). The word is no doubt of 
 Egyptian origin, probably from pi-rami, 
 "the lofty," from ram, ararn, to be 
 high (S. Birch, in Bwnsen's Egypt, 
 vol. V. p. 763). Brugsch says that in 
 Egyptian pir-am-us is " edge of the 
 pyramid," and ahumir, a pyramid 
 [Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol. i. p. 
 73). 
 
 The Taper is the longest and sharpest tri- 
 angle that is, and while he mounts vpward 
 he waxeth continually more slender, taking- 
 both his figure and name of the^Ve, whose 
 flame if ye marke it, is alwaies pointed, and 
 naturally by his forme couets to clymbe ; the 
 Greekes call him Pyramis of •jtup, — G. Putten- 
 ham. Arte of Eng. Poeiie (1689), p. 108 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 This epithet has an old traditional conse- 
 cration to Venus, and in such an application 
 springs upward like a pyramid of Jive into a 
 far more illimitable and imaginative value. — 
 De Quincey, Works, vol. xi. p. 100. 
 
 Wordsworth says that church spires 
 sometimes — 
 
 When they reflect the brazen light of 
 a rich, thouo-h rainy, sunset, appear like a 
 pyramid of flame burning heavenward. — See 
 The Ecclesiastic, iii. 74 (1847). 
 
 Quaff shotild properly be to quaft 
 (occurring in Of the Olde God and the 
 Neioe, 1534, sig. O), from old Eng. 
 quaught, which was no doubt mistaken 
 
 X 
 
QUAGMIBE 
 
 ( 306 ) 
 
 QUAINT 
 
 for a past participle (compare Press), 
 Soot, loaught, waucht, to quaff or swig, 
 waught, a large draught of drink ; " A 
 waught of ale." — Eamsay. 
 
 Iquaught, I drink all out. — Palsgtave, 1530. 
 Compare Icel. vohva sig (to moisten 
 one's self), to driak, to slake one's thirst 
 (Cleasby, 721). Qu often takes the 
 place of w in Scotch. 
 Do waitcht and drink, bring cowpis full in 
 handis. 
 
 G. Douglas, Bukes of Uneados, p. 250, 1. 47. 
 
 We'll tak a right guid wiRie-waught, 
 For auld lang syne. 
 
 Burns, Poems, p. 227 (Globe ed.). 
 
 QuAGMiBB, formerly sometimes spelt 
 quake-mire, as if the mwe that quakes 
 or is (Prov. Eng.) quaggy or quaky, 
 is a corruption of the old Eng. 
 quAch-nme, a bog that seems qidck 
 or ahve because it shakes or moves, 
 just as qwick-silver is moving silver, 
 and quAck-sand, moving sand. Com- 
 pare Dan. quxg, living, and qiia>g- 
 land and quik-sand, quicksand. The 
 change was the more natural as quick 
 is near akin to quake, A. Sax. owacian, 
 cweccan, to move or shake ; see Diefen- 
 bach, Ooth. Spraelie, ii. 483. 
 
 Quickmire, a quagmire, Devon. — Wright, 
 Prov. Dictionary. 
 
 Compare the following : — 
 
 Lo, ]>e erthe for heuynesse • jjat he wolde dej) 
 
 suffre, 
 Quakede as quike jjyng. 
 
 Visio7t of Piers Plowman, C, xxi. 259. 
 
 All wagged his fleche • as a quyk myre. 
 Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, 1. 226 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 When the sand of the Goodwins is 
 observed to be in a shifting, moving 
 condition, it is still said by sailors to be 
 " ahve." 
 
 At low tide a portion of the sand is dry and 
 hard, . . . but as the water again flows over 
 any part of it, that part becomes, ae the sailors 
 say, " all alive," soft and quick, and ready to 
 suck in anything that lodges upon it. — J .Gil- 
 more, Storm Warriors, p. 87. 
 
 Compare with this old Eng. quitch 
 (to be Uvely), to stir or move ; quaggy, 
 a Prov. word for shaky, " Quaggy bog- 
 earth" (Ellis, Mod. Susbandman, IV. 
 iv. 42) ; Prov. Eng. quoh, a quick-sand 
 or bog (West), quoh-nvire (Shrops.), 
 " quahhe or quagmire." — Minsheu, 
 1617 ; quave, to shake. Other forms 
 
 of the word are wag-mire and i 
 mire. 
 
 For they bene like foule wagnwires overgrast 
 That if thj' galage once sticketh fast, ' 
 
 The more to wind it out thou doest swinck. 
 Thou mought ay deeper and deeper sinck, 
 Syenser, Sheplieards Calender, September. 
 It was a great deep marish or quauemire 
 through the middest whereof the riaer called 
 Apsus did run, being in greatnesse and swift, 
 nesse of streame, very like to the riuer of 
 Penevs. — North, Plutarch, p. 381 (ed. 1612). 
 
 Quail, to blench, shrink, or cower 
 from fear, meant formerly to pine or 
 die, and the true orthography should 
 be queel or queal, it being old Eng. 
 quelen, to perish, from A. Sax. cwelan, 
 to die (Dut. quelen, to pine away). 
 Compare Devonshire queal, to faint 
 away. See Skeat, Etym. Bid. s.v. 
 
 The word appears to have been 
 warped in shape and meaning from 
 having been confounded with quail, an 
 old and provincial verb meaning " to 
 curdle as milk" (Bailey, Wright), 
 which is a naturahzed form of old Fr. 
 cailler, coailler (It. gwag'Jiare), to curdle, 
 Lat. co-agulare. 
 
 Qualyn, as mylke, and other lycowre. Co- 
 agulo. — Prompt. Pai'vulorum, 1440. 
 
 I quayle, as mylke dotthe, i.e. quaillebotte. 
 — Palsgrave, 1530. 
 
 [Laser is given] to such as haue supped off 
 and drunk quailed milke, that is cluttered 
 within their stomack. — Holland's Pliny, fol. 
 1634, torn. ii. p. 134. 
 
 The word was then conceived to 
 have originally meant to have one's 
 blood curdled or congealed with fear, 
 just as It. cagliare, to curdle, came also 
 to be used with the meaning " to quail 
 in one's courage, to be afraid, to hold 
 one's peace." 
 
 And let not seai-ch and inquisition quail 
 
 To bring again these foolish runaways. 
 Shakespeare, As You Like It, ii. 2, 1. 21. 
 The braunch once dead, the budde eke iieedeS 
 must quaile. 
 Spenser, Shepheards Calender, Nov. 
 
 Her . . . look'd like wan r;uoi/inj[= faint- 
 ing] away. — M. Palmer, Devonshire Courtship, 
 p. 8. 
 
 Quaint, formerly used in the sense 
 of pretty, elegant, handsome, dainty, 
 old Eng. quoynt, cwoint, coint, from Fr. 
 " coint, quaint, compt, neat, fine, spruce. 
 brisk, smirk, smug, dainty, trim, tricked 
 up."— Cotgrave. This meaning origi- 
 nated in the assumption that the word 
 
QUANDABY 
 
 ( 307 ) 
 
 QUABBY 
 
 was identical with compt, Lat. comptus 
 (from comn), neat, spruce, nicely- 
 dressed. It is really the same word as 
 It. conto, known, noted, and derived 
 from Lat. oognitus, known, and meant 
 
 (1) well-known, famous, remarkable, 
 excellent, (2) handsome, fine. Wedg- 
 wood well contrasts with this uncouth 
 1= in-cognitus] , (1) unknown, strange, 
 
 (2) awkward, ungraceful. It follows 
 that ac-quaint, to make known (from 
 Lat. ad and cogmtus), is radically the 
 same word, but here again old Fr. 
 accoini, .acquainted, came also to be 
 used for " neat, compt, fine, spruce" 
 (Cotgrave). 
 
 ]jeoBkointe [al.cwointe] harloz Jiet scheawe<S 
 forS hore gutefestre [Tnose notorious harlot!) 
 that show fortli their dropping ulcers]. — ■ 
 A-ncren Riwle, p. 328. 
 
 WiJ) how coifnte cuntenaunce " he cuuerede 
 hire after. 
 William of Paterne, 1. 2824 (ed. Skeat). 
 
 Greene speaks of a lady who had seen 
 a handsome man " sitting in a dump to 
 think of the guaintness of his person- 
 age " (Nares); compare "My quaint 
 Ariel." — Tempest, i. 2. 
 
 For a fine, quaint, graceful and excellent 
 fashion, yours [a gown] is worth ten on't. — 
 Shakespmre, Much Ado, iii. 4, 1. 23. 
 
 Fropelet, a dapper, neat, spruce, quaint, or 
 compt fellow. — Cotgrave, 
 For Amoret right fearefuU was and faint, 
 Lest she with blame her honor should attaint, 
 That everie looke was coy and wondrous 
 quaint, 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV. i. 5. 
 
 QuANDAEY, a perplexity, is, according 
 to Prof. Skeat, a curious corruption of 
 old. Eng. wand/reth, ivand/rethe, evil 
 phght, adversity, from Icel. vcmd/rceisi, 
 dif&oulty, assimilated apparently to 
 words beginning with qu of Latin 
 origin, like quantity, quaternary, &o. 
 
 ]pe sexte vertue es strengthe . . . euynly to 
 suffire Jpe wele and )je waa, welthe or wan- 
 dreth. — Religious Pieces (ab. 1440), p. 11 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 And folc sal thol wandreth and ten, 
 For folc sal duin for din of se. 
 
 Eng. Metrical Homilies, p. 21 (ed. Small). 
 
 [People shall suffer perplexity and sorrow, 
 for people shall faint for the noise of the 
 sea.] 
 
 He quandaries whether to go forward to 
 God, or . . . turn back to the world. — Thos. 
 Adams, Sermons, vol. i. p. 505. 
 
 QuABBEL, a dispute or contention, 
 
 spelt so as to correspond to old Eng. 
 quarrel, a square-headed arrow (from 
 Lat. quad/rellus), stands for querel, old 
 Eng. querele, old Er. querele, from Lat. 
 querela, a complaint ; compare queru- 
 lous. In the Authorized Version quojr- 
 rel is stiU used for complaint (Levit. 
 xxvi. 25), and so in the Prayer Book 
 version of the Psalms, "stand up to 
 judge my quarreV (xxxv. 23). 
 
 Forgiving one another, if any man have a 
 quarrel against any. — A, V. Colos. iii. 13 
 [margin, complaint, and so Revised Version] . 
 
 For God foond quereis in me, therfor he 
 demyde me enemy to hym silf. — Wycliffe, 
 Job xxxiii. 10. 
 
 Querel, pleynte, Querela. — Prompt. Parvu- 
 lorum. 
 
 Quarrelous, quarrelsome (Shake- 
 speare, Gymieline, iii. 4), is querulous 
 in Holland. 
 
 There inhabit these regions a kind of people, 
 rude, warlike, ready to fight, querulous, and 
 mischievous. — Holland, Camden's Scotland, p. 
 39 [Trench]. 
 
 QuAREY, a fowl flown at and killed, 
 originally a reward given to Hounds 
 after they have taken the game 
 (BaUey), is an Anghoized and corrupted 
 form of old Fr. curee or coree, the same 
 (Cotgrave), properly the intestines, 
 which (hke Sp. corada, entrails) is from 
 Low Lat. corata, the pluck, tJie heart 
 and its appurtenances, from Lat. cor, 
 the heart (old Fr. qiwr, quer). Com- 
 pare Norm. Fr. cu/raille. Vie de 8t. 
 Auban, 1. 266 (ed. Atkinson). 
 
 But when the Falcon (stooping thunder-like) 
 
 With sudden souse her to the ground shall 
 strike ; 
 
 And with the stroak, make on the sense-less 
 ground 
 
 The gut-less Q,uar, once, twice, or thrice, re- 
 bound. 
 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 361. 
 
 The small guttes to the lyghtes in the deres, 
 Aboue thehert, of the beast, when thou them 
 
 reres. 
 With all the bloud that ye may get & Wynne, 
 Altogether shall be take, and laid on the 
 
 skynne. 
 To gyue your houndes, that called is, Y wis. 
 The querre, aboue the skynne, for it eaten is. 
 Book of St. Albans, How ye shall breke 
 an Hart. 
 
 The forster for his rightes, 
 
 The left schulder yaf he ; 
 
 With hert, liner, and lightes, 
 
 And blod tille his quirrl. 
 Sir Tristrem, St. xlvi. (ed. Scott). 
 
QUABT 
 
 ( 308 ) 
 
 QUAVE 
 
 Her from the qiiarreif he away doth drive, 
 And from her griping pounce the greedy prey 
 doth rive. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, V. iv. 42. 
 Let Reason then at her own quarry fly, 
 But ho w can finite g:rasp infinity ? 
 
 Dryden, Hind and Panther, Pt. I. 1. 105. 
 
 QuAET, a provincial word meaning to 
 go contrary to, to plough transversely 
 or across, to disagree, fall out (Atkin- 
 son, Gleveland Olossa/ry), is no doubt 
 identical with to thwart, Icel. Jwerr, i>vert, 
 a-thwart, across, old Swed. twar, twdri, 
 Dan. tvmr, tvcert, old Ger. twerh. Mid. 
 Gar. thwaws, Goth. ]>wairhs (angry), 
 A. Sax. {weor/i ; compare Ger. quei; 
 transverse. Low Ger. queer, across, ob- 
 liquely, Eng. " queer," pecuhar, out 
 of the straight hne. See Diefenbach, 
 Gothisch. 8prache, ii. 720. For lev = ]>v, 
 cf. Icel. hvistr and tvistr, hvisl, and 
 ivlsl; N. Eng. twill for qmll, twilt for 
 qvMt ; Dan. traiie, a crane. Hence, no 
 doubt, the verb quarter, to cross a road 
 obliquely in driving. Mod. Fr. cartayer, 
 the same (which Littre derives from 
 quatre, as if to cut the road in four !), 
 and perhaps qua/rtermg, a sea-term. 
 Railing obliquely, " neither by a wind, 
 nor before wind, but, as it were, be- 
 twixt both " (Bailey). 
 
 Comx^are Scottish tJuyrier, across, 
 a-thwart, to thorter, to go athwart, to 
 cross the furrow obliquely in ploughing 
 [:r: quarter] ; so thorter-, thwa/rter-, and 
 quarter-, ill, a disease of cattle. 
 
 The postilion (for so were all carriages 
 then driven) was employed not hy fits and 
 starts, but always and eternally, in gwarterin^, 
 i.e. in crossing from side to side, according 
 to the casualties of the ground. — tie Quinccy, 
 Works, vol. xiv. p. 296. 
 
 The two adverse carriages would therefore, 
 to a certainty, be travelling on the same side ; 
 and from this side, as not being ours in law, 
 the crossing over to the other would, of 
 course, be looked for from us. . . . And every 
 creature that met us, would rely upon us for 
 qiuirteritig. — De Quincey, Works, vol. iv. p. 334. 
 
 Quarter, as in the phrase " to give 
 one no quarter," =: to show him no 
 mercy, is " the sparing of the hves and 
 giving good treatment to a conquer'd 
 enemy" (Bailey); Fr. " qua/rtier. 
 Quarter, or fair war, where Souldiers 
 are taken prisoners, and ransomed at a 
 certain rate." The original meaning 
 seems to have been to keep prisoners 
 taken in war in quarters or lodgings. 
 
 and not to put them to the sword 
 (Littre). This word for enforced resi- 
 dence or detention is perhaps from old 
 Eng. quartern, a place of confinement, 
 a prison, A. Sax. cweart-drn, cwert-mn, 
 a prison (interpreted as a "house (arm) 
 of lamentation {civeart)." — Ettmiiller 
 p. 403). Can it possibly be acorruptform 
 of carc-ern 1 see Quyer-ktn, and com- 
 pare Fr. chourtre for oharcre, from Lat. 
 career. Quarters in the ordinary sense 
 of lodgings would then be a modified 
 use of the same word ; but quarter, Fr. 
 qua/rtier, a neighbourhood, a district of 
 a town, is from Lat. quartarius, a fourth 
 part. Thus Herod at first showed 
 John the Baptist some quarter, "He 
 beolysede lohannem on cwearteme," A. 
 Sax. Version, 8. Luhe, iii. 20, i.e. he 
 shut him in prison. 
 
 \ie lichame >esholde ben be soule hihthclie 
 bure, makeS hire to ateliche quarlerne [The 
 body that should be the soul'sjoyous chamber, 
 he maketh for her a horrible prison].— OM 
 Eng. Homilies (12th cent.), p. 213 (ed. 
 Morris). 
 
 He diden heom in quarteme. — Peterborough 
 Chron. sub ann. 1137. 
 
 They do best, who, if they cannot but ad- 
 mit Loue, yet make it keep Quarter: And 
 seuer it wholly, from their serious Affairs, 
 and Actions of life. — Bacon, Essays, Of Lorn, 
 1625, p. 447 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Latimer plays on the word quarter- 
 master, one who provides quarters. 
 
 But they do it because they will be qmrter 
 'maister with theyr husbandes. Quarter 
 maisters ; Nay halfe maisters : yea some of 
 them wil be whole maysters. — iMtimer, Ser- 
 mons, p. 107 verso. 
 
 QuAETEK Sessions Eosb, a garde- 
 ner's corruption of Fr. rose de quaire 
 saisons. 
 
 QuARTBS, said to be an old French 
 name for playing cards (E. S. Taylor, 
 History of Flaying Cards, p. 89), as if 
 associated with the idea of the fow 
 suits (quatre, Lat. quatuor) rather than 
 with the paper or card-board [mrie, 
 Lat. charta) of which they are made. 
 
 QuAVE, an old Eng. form of loave, a 
 billow, as if derived from quaiie, to 
 shake, to move up and down (whence 
 quaver). 
 
 Al hali Kirc, als thine me, 
 Mai bi this schippe takened be, 
 That Crist rad in and his felawes, 
 Imang dintes of gret qitmoes. 
 Eng. Metr. Homilies, p. 135 (ed. Small). 
 
QUEEN 
 
 ( 309 ) 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 Compare— 
 
 Quelle alle Jjat is quik -with qnauende flodes. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 46, 1. 324. 
 )je wal wagged and clef • and al Jie worlde 
 quaiufd. 
 Vision of P. Plowman, B. xviii. 61. 
 The waterish Fenne below 
 Those ground-workes laid with stone uneath 
 
 coulde beare 
 (So quaving soft and moist the Bases were). 
 Holland, Camden, p. 530 [Davies]. 
 
 Wave, old Eng. "loaiue, of the see or 
 other water " {Prompt. Parv.), A Sax. 
 wcBff (Ger. wage), Icel. vdgr, Goth, wegs, 
 is etymologically that which wags or 
 undulates, from A. Sax. wagian, Goth. 
 wagjan, to wag or shake, Icel. vega. 
 Hence also Fr. vague, a wave, which 
 was probably imagined to have a con- 
 nexion with vaguer, to wander (Lat. 
 vagari), as if denoting a loandering or 
 restless volume of water, like Lat. 
 "vaga sequora" (Propertius), and 
 Tennyson's "fieldsof wandering foam." 
 
 Queen, the name of a piece in chess, 
 it has been conjectured is an adapta- 
 tion of its foreign names, Fr. Dame, It. 
 Donna, Fr. Vierge, which were sugges- 
 tive of the Virgin Mary. But Vierge is 
 a corruption of the older Fr. fierge, 
 fierce (old Eng. fers), from Low Lat. 
 fercia, farzia, which is merely a Latin- 
 ized form oifa/rz or ferz, a counsellor or 
 minister, the name of the piece in Per- 
 sian. However, this is improbable, as it 
 was called JRegina as early as the 12th 
 century. See D. Forbes, History of 
 Ghess, pp. 92, 209 ; Basterot, Jeu des 
 Echecs, p. 17. 
 
 The kynge is the highest, and the queene 
 (whiche some name amasone or layde) is the 
 next. — 3. Rowbotham, The Pleasaunt and wittie 
 Playe of the Cheasts, 1562. 
 
 And whan I sawe mj fers away, 
 Alas, I couth no lenger play. 
 
 The Bnoke of the Dutchesse, 1. 655. 
 Although I had a check, 
 To geue the mate is hard. 
 ***** 
 
 For I will so prouide, 
 
 That I will hare yoweferse. 
 
 And when joaiferse is had. 
 And all your warre is done ': 
 
 Then shall your selfe be glad 
 To ende that you begon. 
 Tottel's Miscellany, 1557, p. 21 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Queer, an old and Scottish form of 
 quire or clioir. 
 The majority of parish churches seem to 
 
 halve had a small apartment called the queer, 
 which is thought to have been used for bap- 
 tisms, marriages, and masses. — Guide to the 
 Land of Scott (quoted in Notes and Queries, 
 5th S. vii. 306). 
 
 Herie ye hym in a tympane and queer ; 
 herieye hym in strengis and orgun. — WycUffe, 
 Ps. cl. 4. 
 
 QuEBT, an Anghcized form of Lat. 
 quoere, enquire, imperative of quoerere, 
 to seek, originally no doubt a marginal 
 annotation made in reading a book, 
 meaning "investigate this, " assimi- 
 lated to enquiry, &o. So we have jury 
 for Vx.jwee, levy for lev&e, motley for 
 mattele, puny ior puis-ne. 
 
 He objects, " Peradventure the woman 
 shall not be willing to follow me." At last 
 being satisfied in this qutzre, he takes the oath : 
 as no honest man which means to pay, will 
 refuse to giue his bond if lawfully required. 
 —Fuller, Holy State, p. 20(1648). 
 
 For men to think that they shall drive away 
 dajmons by any such means is folly and super- 
 stition. 1 shall add no more in answer to the 
 first qutcre proposed. — Mather, Remarkable 
 Providences, p. 187 (ed. Offor). 
 
 The only qutere which this Article, or this 
 part of the Article will admit, is, whether by 
 his burial we are to understand the interring 
 or dnpositure of his body in the monument. 
 —Thos. Jackson, IVorks, 1673, vol. ii. p. 928. 
 
 Quest, or queest, a name for the wood- 
 pigeon (wood-quest, Columha Palum- 
 biis), supposed to have been so called 
 from its plaintive note, Lat. questus, 
 complaint (Bailey). Of. "Turtur (/emii." 
 —Vergil, Ed. i. 59. 
 
 Deep-toned 
 The cushat plains ; nor is her changeless -plaint 
 Unmusical. 
 
 Grahame (^Johns, British Birds in their 
 Haunts, p. 330). 
 The stock-dove only through the forest coos. 
 Mournfully hoarse; oft ceasing from his 
 
 plaint, 
 Short interval of weary woe ! 
 
 Thomson, Seasons, Summer. 
 Coulon ramier, A Queest, Cowshot, Ring- 
 dove, Stockdove, wood-culver. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Quest, however, is beyond doubt 
 a contracted form of cushat, A. Sax. 
 cusceote (cf. request, contracted from Lat. 
 requisitus). See OowsHOT supra. 
 
 The wings of two bustards, the feet of four 
 quest-doves . . . and a goblet of Beauvois. — ■ 
 Urquhart, Rabelais, Bk. II. ch. xxvii. 
 [Davies] . 
 
 Questions, for cushions, occurs in the 
 following extract from a letter dated 
 1582, quoted by HaUiweU and Wright 
 
QUIGHT 
 
 ( 310 ) 
 
 QUILL 
 
 in tlieir edition of Nares' Glossary : — 
 " Her Majestie did stand upon the car- 
 pett of the olotlie of estate, and did all- 
 most leaue upon the questions." 
 
 Another old form is quishm; com- 
 pare Ger. Mssen, Jcissen, Fr. coussin. 
 It. cuscino, all from Lat. culcita. 
 
 Qdight, an old and incorrect speUing 
 of quite, from a supposed analogy to 
 such words as might, right, Ught, &c., 
 where the g is organic. 
 Noblest hearts proudly abandon quight 
 Study of Hearbs, and country-llfes delight. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartus, p. 69 (1621). 
 And, whiles he strove his combred clubbe to 
 
 quight 
 Out of the earth, with blade all burning bright, 
 He smott off his left arme. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, I. yiii. 10. 
 
 Quill. The explanation of this word 
 in the following passage has long been 
 the opprobrium of commentators. 
 
 My masters, let's stand close ; my lord pro- 
 tector will come this way by and by, and 
 then we may deliver our supplications in the 
 qaiU. — Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. i. 3, 11. 1-4. 
 
 Some have supposed this to mean "in 
 writing," as if "in the pen" could con- 
 vey that sense. Nares thought that it 
 might signify " in form and order, like 
 a quilled ruff'M Dyoe quotes a con- 
 fident assertion of Singer that it means 
 in the quoil or coil, i.e. the bustle or 
 tumult (2nd ed. vol. v. p. 202). In an 
 old Eng.-Latin Dictionary, " In the 
 quill " is said to be rendered ex com- 
 jpacio, i.e. by joint action, combinedly. 
 This would lead us to regard quill as a 
 corrupt form of Fr. cudlU, gathered 
 together, cueillette, & collection, cueilUr, 
 to gather, from Lat. colligere, especially 
 since Wychffe has quylei and quelei, a 
 gathering or collection (Lev. xxiii. 36, 
 Deut. xvi. 8). So " in the quill " would 
 correspond to "in the quylet" (en 
 (Meillelte, ex collecto), and would imply 
 that the petitioners made their suppU- 
 cation altogether and by joint action. 
 Possibly this may be an instance of the 
 use of the old word quill, a stream 
 (compare Ger. quelle ; old Eng. cwellen, 
 0. Dut. and 0. H. Ger. quellen, 
 to bubble up ; " |je welle . . kvelt>," 
 Ayenhite, 248 ; Dan. Klde, a spring or 
 fountain, Cleveland held), which I 
 cannot find registered in any of the 
 dictionaries, though it occurs in Bp. 
 Andrewos' Sermons. 
 
 Quasi fluvius Pax (saith Esay) Peace as a 
 water-streame, the quills whereof make glad 
 the city of our God (p. 106, fol.). 
 
 The meaning then would be that tlieir 
 petitions were brought to bear "in a 
 stream," with a united and well- 
 directed effort, upon the protector. In 
 Ireland there is a coarse phrase of the 
 same origin, by which persons who are 
 great chums, or hail-fellows-weH-met, 
 are said "mingere in uno qwiU 
 (=: rivulo)," " They p — in the same 
 qwill." 
 
 He would have us believe that he and the 
 Secretary p — d in a qidll ; they were con- 
 federates in this No Fanatic plot. — Sorth, 
 Examen, p. 399 [Davies]. 
 
 MarveU has the phrase in a some- 
 what altered form : — 
 I'll have a council shall sit always still. 
 And give me a license to do what I will; 
 And two secretaries shall p — [mingent] 
 
 through a quill. 
 
 Poems, p. 188 (Murray repr.). 
 Thou runn'st to meet thy self's pure sti-eams 
 
 behind thee. 
 Mazing the Meads where thou dost turn and 
 
 winde-thee. 
 Anon, like Cedron, through a straighter 
 
 Quill, 
 Thou strainest out a little Brook or Rill. 
 J. Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 433 (1621). 
 
 Quill, as a term in millinery, to 
 gather or plait into small folds or pipes 
 like quills (just as the folds of the 
 ancient ruff were termed qmlli), is most 
 probably a naturahzed form of Fr. 
 cueillir, to gather, from Lat. colUgere 
 (Eng. to cuU), 0. Fi.coilUr. Of Guern- 
 sey enquiller, to plait ("Wedgwood). 
 Wychffe has quylet, quelet, a gathering 
 (collectio), Lev. xxiii. 36, Deut. xvi. 8. 
 Quill, a ruff, seems to be the same 
 word, Sp. cuello, a ruff (Minsheu), in- 
 troduced into Bnghsh as quellio. 
 
 Your carcanets 
 That did adorn your neck, of equal value : 
 Your Hungerland bands, and Spanish quellio 
 
 ruffs; 
 Great lords and ladies feasted to survey 
 Embroider'd petticoats. 
 
 Massinger, The City Madam, act iv. so. i 
 (p. 447, ed. Cunningham). 
 
 From Fr. cueilUr, to gather or coUeot, 
 also come N. Eng. qwile, quyle, coil, to 
 gather hay into cocks, quile, a hay- 
 cock, and probably Devon quiUy, to 
 harden or dry (? orig. to shrivel or 
 gather up). Quillet, an old word for 
 a croft or small parcel of land, especially 
 
QUILT 
 
 ( 311 ) 
 
 BAOE 
 
 a detached portion of one ooimty, &o., 
 located in another, is doubtless from 
 Fr. cueilleUe, a collection or gathering, 
 a small piece gathered out from a 
 larger. 
 
 Thia family would not think itself the lees, 
 if any little quillet of grownd had been con- 
 veyed from it. — Domie, in Z. Grey*s note to 
 Hudibras, III. iii. 748. 
 
 Over Seile . . . though surrounded by 
 Derbyshire is yet a quillet or small parcel of 
 Leicestershii'e. — Peck, in loc. cit. 
 
 " SufiFolk Stiles." — It is a measui'ing cast, 
 ■whether this Proverb pertaineth to Essex or 
 this County; and I believe it belongeth to 
 both, which, being inclosed Counties into 
 petty quillets', abound with high stiles, 
 troublesome to be clambred over. — T, Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 326. 
 
 QoiLT seems to owe its present form 
 to a supposed connexion with the 
 verb to guill (as if guilt zizqinlled), in 
 allusion to the panels or patterns 
 which were formed on it by through- 
 stitching, as on dv/vets still (Eichard- 
 son), or the quilledhoideriagwith which 
 it was surroimded. The older form was 
 cowlte. 
 
 3were beon thi castles and thi toures? thi 
 chaumbers and thi riche halles ? .... 
 Thine co-wltes and thi covertoures 1 
 
 Debate of the Body and the Soul (13th 
 cent.), 1. 15. 
 
 Cowlte is Fr. courte, coulte, old Fr. coute, 
 cowtre. It. coltre, coltra, Lat. ouloiia, 
 culcifra, a wadded covering, a cushion. 
 
 See COUNTEK-PANE. 
 
 The sharpe Steele, arriving forcibly 
 On his broad shield, bitt not, but glauncing 
 
 fell 
 On his horse necke before the quilted sell. 
 Spenser, Faei^ie Queene, II. v. 4. 
 
 Quintal, a term for an hundred 
 pound weight (Bailey), French and Sp. 
 quintal, It. quintale, have no connexion 
 with Lat. quintus, but are derived from 
 Arab. Mntdr (qintar) of the same 
 meaning. This latter word (adds Prof. 
 Skeat) is from Lat. centum., a hundred. 
 
 QuivBK, a case for arrows, is an 
 altered form of old Eng. quequer (see 
 Cockayne, Spoon and Spa/rrow, p. 129), 
 A. Sax. cocer (cf. Ger. hooher), to which 
 it stands iu the same relation that 
 quimer, to quake or tremble, does to Lat. 
 querquerus, shivering, querquera, the 
 ague. Old Fr. cuivre, coudre, is of the 
 same origin. 
 
 To a quequer Roben went 
 A °;od bolt owthe he toke. 
 Robyn Hode and the Potter, 201. 
 Quyvei , for to putt yn boltys, Pharetia. — 
 Prompt. Parv. 
 
 QuYEE-KYN, an old slang name for a 
 prison in Harman's Caveat for Com- 
 mon Owsetors, 1567, as if a queer hen, 
 i.e. an evil house, from quyer, quier, 
 naughty, bad, and Teen, a house. It 
 probably is in reaUty a corruption of 
 A. Sax. carccern, cwrcern, a prison; 
 which itself seems to denote a house, 
 cBrn, of care, care, but is obviously cor- 
 rupted from Lat. career. Similarly Fr. 
 cha/rtre [iov charcre, frova career), Sj'piiBon, 
 came to be used for sadness, languish- 
 iug, decay. Compare, " A Quire Bii-d 
 is one that came lately out of prison" 
 (Fraterrdtye of Vaoahondes, 1575), as 
 we would say, " a jaU bird." 
 
 B. 
 
 Babbit, to channel boards, and 
 Babbeting, the overlapping of the 
 edges of boards planed so as to fit, are 
 corruptions from the verb to ratibate 
 (see Eebate), Fr. robot, a plane. 
 " Rahet, yonge eonye, cunicellus," also 
 "3rrynetool of carpentrye, Euncina." 
 — Prompt. Farv. 
 
 Bace, in the expression "a race oi 
 ginger," is the O. Fr. raiz, a shortened 
 form of racme (Lat. radic-s), i.e. a root 
 of ginger, 0. Eng. rasyn. 
 
 1 holde a penny that I shall grate this lofe, 
 or you can grate a rasyn of gynger. — Pals- 
 grave, Lesclaircissement, 1530. 
 
 I must have saffron to colour the warden 
 pies, mace, ... a race or two of ginger. — 
 The Winter's Tale, act iv. so. 3. 
 
 I spent eleven pence, besides three rases of 
 ginger. — Lodge, Looking glassefor London and 
 England. 
 
 A dainty race of ginger. 
 B. Jonson, The Metamorphosed Gipseys. 
 
 Racy, full of flavour or essential 
 quahty, would naturally seem to mean 
 fuU of the flavour of the race or root, 
 distinguished by radical qualities, as 
 Cowley speaks of "racy verses" in 
 which we 
 
 The soil from whence they came taste, smell, 
 and see. 
 
 The real sense is having the spirit of 
 
EAOEITIS 
 
 ( 312 ) 
 
 BAGKET 
 
 tlao breed or race, Fr. face, Sp. raza, 
 It. razza, lineage, family, words derived 
 from 0. H. Ger. reiza, a line (sc. of de- 
 scent), which have been altered under 
 the influence of Lat. raddx, a root (see 
 Skeat, s.vv.) 
 
 Eachitis, the learned name of the 
 disease popularly termed rickets, as if a 
 disease of the hach, Greek rachis 
 (rhachis), was invented by one Dr. 
 Glisson in 1650 in order "to free the 
 English name from its barbarousness," 
 on the supposition that it was a pro- 
 vincial corruption. Rickets is really 
 the original and native word from rich 
 (e.g. " to rick one's ankle," i.e. to strain 
 it), old Eng. wrick, to twist (akin to 
 luring), Swed. vricka. It denotes the 
 state of being rickety, i.e. weak on one's 
 legs, tottering, deformed, twisted 
 (Skeat). Of. also Icel. rj/fefor, a rough 
 pull or movement, a spasm, Dan. ryh. 
 See 2V". and Q. 6th S.i. 209, 362, 482 ; 
 ii. 219, to which I am indebted for 
 some of the following quotations : — 
 
 It has occurred in this, as in other in- 
 stances, that the vulgar had recog^nized or 
 given a name to the disease, before medical 
 men had discriminated its nature. . . . The 
 first account of the disease is that of Dr. 
 Glisson, published in the year 1650. In this 
 treatise we are informed that the rickets had 
 been first noticed in the counties of Dorset 
 and Somerset about thirty years before, 
 where it was vulgarly known by this name. 
 . . . Its first appearance, as a cause of death, 
 in the bills of mortality in London, was in 
 the year 1634. . .'. With a view of accommo- 
 dating a classical name both to the vulgar ap- 
 pellation and to the symptoms of the disease, 
 Glisson invented the term rachitis, i.e. spinal 
 disease, since the curvature of the spine which 
 ensues is one of the most prominent symp- 
 toms. — Rees, Encycloptsdia, vol. xxx. (1819). 
 
 The new disease. — There is a disease of in- 
 fants, and an infant-disease, having scarcely 
 as yet got a proper name in Latin, called the 
 Rickets ; wherein the head waxeth too great, 
 whilst the legs and lower parts wain too little. 
 — T. Fuller, Meditations on the Times, xx. 
 (1647), p. 163 (ed. 1810). 
 
 Dr. Daniel Whistler, writing in Latin 
 in 1645, says that " The Rickets, which 
 seems first to have become prevalent 
 during the last twenty-six years or so, 
 is reported to have got its name from 
 the surname of a certain practitioner 
 who treated it empirically." Others, 
 he adds, think that the word comes 
 from Dorsetshire, where persons who 
 
 draw their breath with difficulty (afre- 
 quent symptom of this disease) are said 
 io rucket. 
 
 Ostenta Carolina ; or the late calamities of 
 England with the authors of them ; the great 
 happiness & happy government of K.Charles 
 II. ensuing, miraculously foreshewn by the 
 fino;er of God in two wonderful diseases, the 
 Rekets & King's Evil ; wherein it is also 
 she wen & proved, I. That the Rekets after a 
 while shall seize on no more children, but 
 quite vanish through the mercy of God & by 
 means of King Charles II. By John Bird 
 1660. 
 
 In this extraordinary work the author 
 expresses his belief that rekets is for 
 regets, and this for regents ( ! ), the dis- 
 ease being due in some mysterioios 
 manner to the poUtical iniquities of 
 " the authors of otir late calamities," 
 who " according to the name of the 
 disease " were nothing else hut regents! 
 He testifies that The Rekets " was not 
 heard of in our fathers times, but be- 
 gan in our memory, and not many 
 years ago . . in either Dorset or Somer- 
 setshire." 
 
 About 1620 one Ricketts of Newbery, per- 
 haps coiTuptly from Ricards, a practitioner in 
 physick, was excellent at the curing children 
 with swoln heads & small legges ; & the dis- 
 ease being new & without a name, he being 
 so famous for the cure of it they called the 
 disease the ricketts ; as the king's evill fi-om 
 the king's curing of it with his touch; & 
 now 'tis good sport to see how they vex their 
 lexicons, h fetch it from the Greek 'ripi:, 
 the back bone. — Aubrey, Nat. Hist, of Wilt- 
 shire, p. 74. 
 
 Cavil. Hospitals generally have the rickets, 
 whose heads, their Masters, grow over-great 
 and rich, whilest their poor bodies pine away 
 and consume. 
 
 Answer. Surely there is some other cure for 
 a ricketish body, than to kill it. — T. Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 34 (ed. 1811). 
 
 No wonder if the whole constitution of 
 Religion grow weak, rieketty, and consump- 
 tuous. — Gauden, Tears of the Church, p. 262 
 [Davies]. 
 
 Rickets is a rustic word for the stag- 
 gers in lambs {Old Country and Farm- 
 ing Words, E. D. S. p. 107). 
 
 Backet, the game of tennis, the bat 
 with which it is played, so spelt as if 
 called from the sharp clattering noise, 
 or racket, made by the ball as it is 
 driven about the court (so Eiohardson, 
 Wedgwood), of. Gael, racaid, noise, 
 Scot, rack, a crash. It is really the 
 Anglicized form of Fr. ragueife. It. 
 
BAG OF MUTTON ( 313 ) 
 
 RAKEHBLL 
 
 rnchetta, Sp. and Portg. raqaeta, wMoh 
 denoted originally the palm or flat of 
 the hand with which the hall was struck 
 before the hat was introduced. Com- 
 pare old Fr. rachette, Portg. rasqiicta, 
 the wrist. All these words are from 
 Low Lat. racha, which is from Arab. 
 raha, the palm of the hand (Devic). 
 Compare Pr. Jeu de paume. 
 
 Les OS de la rachette de la main qui sont 
 huit. — H. de MondevUle [ Littr^, s. v.] . 
 
 The Saturnine line going* from the rascetta 
 through the hand, to Saturns mount, and 
 there intersected by certain little lines, argues 
 melancholy. — Burton^ Anatomy of Melait- 
 c/w/v, I. ii. 1, 5. 
 
 Canst thou plaien rahet to and fro. 
 
 ChaitceTj TroiU(s and Creseide, 
 bk. ir. 1. 4(il. 
 The mayster deyyll sat in his jacket. 
 And all the soules were playinge at racket. 
 None other rackettes they hadde in hande, 
 Save every soule a good fyre brand. 
 
 Heywood, the Four P's ( Dodsley, 
 O. P. i. 91, ed. 1825). 
 Th' Hail, which the VVinde full in his face 
 
 doth yerk 
 Smarter than Racquets in a Court re-ierk 
 Balls 'gainst the VValls of the black-boorded 
 
 house, 
 Beats out his eyes, batters his nose, and 
 brows. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, Div. Works and 
 Weeks, 1621, p. 392. 
 
 In Italian sometimes by transposition 
 of letters raehetta was changed into 
 a/reheito, as if a httle how (Florio). 
 
 Eag of Mutton, ) colloquial 
 
 SoEAG OF Mutton, f forms of rack 
 of mutton, A. Sax. hracea, the neck or 
 back part of the head, akin probably 
 to A. Sax. hrycg, the back, a "ridge," 
 Dan. ryg, Ger. rilch, Gk. rJidcMs. 
 Lucio. . . . Methought there came in a leg 
 
 of mutton. 
 Dro. What all grosse meat? a rac/te had been 
 dainty. 
 
 Lilly, Mother Bombie, iii. 4. 
 
 Back, the back. A rack of mutton, dorsum 
 mile. — Kennett, Parochial Antiquities, 1695 
 (E. D. Soc. ed.). 
 
 At dinner, plumb-broth, a chicken, a 
 rabbet, rib of a rack of mutton, wing of a 
 capon, the merry-thought of a ben. — Burton,' 
 Anatomy of Melancholy, I. ii. 2, 2. 
 
 He laboured so to the quene that he gate 
 leue for to haue as moche of the beres skyn 
 ypon his ridge as a foote longe. — Caxton, 
 Reynard the Fo.x, 1481, p. 45 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Bakehell, a dissolute fellow, a de- 
 
 bauche, formerly spelt 7'akel, has been 
 regarded as a derivative from Fr. ra- 
 caille, the rascality or outcasts of any 
 company (Cotgrave), which Littre con- 
 nects with raca, the Syriac term of 
 abuse mentioned in the Gospels, Diez 
 with Icol. rachi, Ger. raclcer, rekel, a 
 dog, like canaille, from canis. 
 
 The nikehellye route of our ragged rymers* 
 — E. K[irke~\, Epistle to G. Harvey, prefixed 
 to Sheph£ards Calender. 
 And farre away, amid their rakehell bands, 
 They spide a Lady left all succourlesae, 
 Crying, and holding up her wretched bauds. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, V. xi. 44. 
 
 Kerne, kigbegren, signifieth a shower of 
 hell ; because fliey are taken for no better 
 than rakehells, or the devil's blacke garde. — 
 Stanihurst, Description of Ireland, ch. 8, fol. 
 28. 
 
 It might be questioned whether 
 raTcel was not evolved out of old Eng. 
 reJcheles (:= negligens, Prompt. Farv.), 
 i.e. reckless or retohless. We find the 
 two words brought together in the 
 following : — "Enfans sans souci, Care- 
 lesse children, retchlesse fellowes, dis- 
 solute companions, . . . also a certain 
 rakehelly generation of juglers or tum- 
 blers." — Cotgrave, s.v. Souci. Com- 
 pare Prov. Eng. rackle, rash, rachless, 
 careless, rack, to reck or care. Chaucer 
 has rafceZ =: rash, rakelnesse zz rash- 
 ness. 
 
 O rakel bond, to do so foule amis. 
 
 O troubled wit, o ire recchelis .... 
 
 O, every man beware of rakelnesse. 
 
 Manciples Tale, 11. 17227, 17232 
 (ed. Tyrwhitt). 
 
 He Jiat is to rakel to renden his cloJpeS 
 Mot efte sitte with more vn-sounde to sewe 
 hem togeder. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 104, 1. 527. 
 
 Rahyl, insolens. — Levins, Manipulus, 1570, 
 129, 8. 
 
 Oure wytte were rakyl and ovyr don bad. 
 To iForfete ageyns oure lordys wylle 
 In ony wyse. 
 Coventry Mysteries, p. 24 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 As well in steryng or to be bessy with takle : 
 A galey rower schuld not be to rakle. 
 
 Piers of Fullham, 1.^80. 
 
 But rake-hell, O. Eng. rakel, Cleve- 
 land ragel, ragil, Holderness raggil, 
 Cumberland raggelt (Ferguson), a dis- 
 solute, good-for-nothing fellow, pro- 
 bably have their true cognates in old 
 Swed. rcekel, Swed. rakel, Dan. roekel, 
 a worthless fellow, Icel. reikall, wan- 
 
BAM 
 
 ( 314 ) 
 
 BAMMI8H 
 
 dering, vagabond, all akin to Icel. reika, 
 to wander, to rahe, or run wild, to 
 Bwerve from one's course. 
 
 We laye there styll in wondre grete trybu- 
 l^cion and fere, for if our galye had fallen to 
 rakifnge and draggynge ayen, we hadde ben 
 all loste. — SirR. Guytforde,Pilgritnage,1506, 
 p. 65 (Camden Soc). 
 
 " She is too noble," he said, " to check at pies. 
 Nor will she rake; there is no baseness in 
 her." 
 
 Tennyscm, Merlin and Vivien. 
 
 Enfans de choeur de la messe de minuict. 
 Quirresters of midnights masse ; night walk- 
 ing rakehels. — Cotgrave. 
 
 A Rakehell, Malua, tetricus. — Levins, Mani- 
 pulus (1570), 57, 21. 
 
 A multitude of rakeheh of all sorts. — 
 North's Plutarch, Life of M. Brutus (1612). 
 
 When he was a school-boy at Winchester 
 [Dr. Twiss] saw the phantom of a school- 
 fellow of his, deceased (a rakehell), who said 
 to him, " I am damned," This was the occa- 
 sion of Dr. Twiss's (the father's) conirersa- 
 tion, who had been before that time, as he 
 told his son, a very wicked boy. — J. Aubrey, 
 Miscellanies, p. 87 (Lib. Old Authors). 
 
 The flowred meades, the wedded birdes so late 
 Mine eyes diacouer : and to my minde resorte, 
 The ioly woes, the hatelesse shorte debate, 
 The rakehell lyfe thatlonges to loues disporte. 
 Tottel's Miscellany, 1557, p. 11 
 (ed. AVber). 
 
 However, the phrase to rake hell was 
 used at an early date with the mean- 
 ing to have recourse to necromancy, to 
 raise the devil, to have recourse to 
 desperate measures, to leave no stone 
 unturned. Wedgwood compares Low 
 Ger. hollefibessem, hell-besom, Dut. 
 helleveeg, sweep-hell, used as terms of 
 abuse. 
 
 Such an ungratious couple a man shall not 
 fmde agayne, if he raked all hell for them. — 
 R. Ascham [in Richardson]. 
 
 Ye cannot, I am sure, 
 For keping of a cure 
 Fynde such a one well. 
 If ye shulde ra/ce hell. 
 
 Doctor Doubble Ale, 1. 430. 
 And in your ayde let your great God come 
 
 too: 
 Let him rake Hell, and shake the Earth in 
 
 sunder. 
 Let him be arm'd with Lightning and with 
 Thunder. 
 
 J. Sylvester, D« Bartas, p. 415 
 (1621). 
 She mutters strange and execrable Charmes : 
 Of whose Hell-raking, Nature-shaking Spell, 
 These odious words could scarce be hearkned 
 well. Id. p. 426. 
 
 Not thaw ya went to r'dUke out Hell wi' a 
 smaU-tooth cbamb. 
 
 Tennyson, The VilkgeWife. 
 
 Although a Magus was an innocent Artist 
 at first, yet some of the tribe were so far cor- 
 rupted in their knowledge, that Magick waa 
 accounted no better than raking hell, and 
 charming infernal spirits for satisfaction.— 
 Hacket, Century of Sermons, 1675, p. 119, 
 
 It seldom doth happen in any way of life 
 that a sluggard and a rake-hell do not go to- 
 gether ; or that he who is idle^ is not also 
 dissolute. — Barrow, Sermons, Of Industry in 
 General. 
 
 Eam, \ old names for the 
 
 Bain-beert, 3 buckthorn, are cor- 
 ruptions, through the forms ramne, It. 
 rarmo, ofTisA. rhamnus, Greek rfeimms. 
 A Low Ger. corruption of the same is 
 Bhine-herrj. 
 
 Ranno, hot, . . also Ramne, Christs-thorne, 
 Harta-thorne, Way-thome, Bucke-thorne, or 
 Bam6ern/-thorne. — Florio. 
 
 This Ramme is found on the sea bants of 
 Holland. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. 1152. 
 
 Christes Thome or Ram of Lybia is a very 
 tough and hard shrubbie tree. — Id. p, 1153, 
 
 In lowe Dutch they call the fruit or berries 
 Rhijnbesien, that is, as though you shouldsay 
 in Latine Baccte Rhenan^, in English Rhein- 
 berries. — Id. p. 1155. 
 
 Eammalation-Day, a name given to 
 Bogation Monday in the Holdemess 
 dialect, E. Yorkshire (Olossa/ry, B. D. 
 Soc), with allusion apparently to the 
 rammeling or ra/mhUng around the 
 parish boundaries that takes place on 
 that day, is a popular corruption of 
 Perambulation Day, the meaning being 
 the same. Compare rammle, to ramble 
 (Whitby), the 6 being a modem impor- 
 tation, rame, to roam (Holdemess). 
 
 For ii'uit on Perambnlation Day, £t 0. 
 Churchwardens' Account {Brand, Pop. 
 Antiq. i, 205. 
 The Country Parson is a lover of old cus- 
 toms Wherefore he exacts of all to be 
 
 present at the Perambulation, — G. Herbert, 
 Country Parson, 1632, ch. xxxv. 
 
 Eammish, a provincial word, mean- 
 ing (1) violent, untamed, (2) rank, 
 pungent (Wright), has no connexion 
 with the butting and ill-savoured ram 
 (of. Lat. hvreus), but is a corrupt form 
 oiramage, (1) wUd, untamed, (2) hav- 
 ing a game taste, from Fr. ramage, 
 living among the branches {rarms, 
 ramee, Lat. ramus, a branch), of birds 
 " ramage, wild " (Cotgrave). A ramage 
 
BAMPABT 
 
 ( 315 ) BANGED-DEEB 
 
 hawk was the correct term for a wild 
 unreclaimed bird in falconry. 
 
 Compare savage. Old Eng. salvage, 
 Fr. sauvage. It. selvaggio, from Lat. 
 silvaticus, living in the wood {silva) ; 
 haggard, wild (of a hawk), living in 
 the hedge (hag) ; and wild, Goth, ivil- 
 theis, perhaps connected with weald, a 
 wood. 
 
 Though rarmmish has undoubtedly 
 superseded ramage in the above senses, 
 it is itself an old word ; and Prov. 
 Eng. ram is fetid, high-scented, offen- 
 sive, Dan. ra/m. Compare the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 For all the world they stinken as a gote ; 
 Hir savour is so rammish and so hote. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales,}, 16355. 
 Else he is not wise ne sage 
 No more than is a gote ramage. 
 
 Id. RoTtuLunt of the Rose, 1. 5384. 
 Do you not love to smell the Roast 
 Of a good Rammish Holocaust? 
 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, 
 p. 169. 
 
 So Scot, raimmage, rash, furious, 
 rammaged, mad with drink ; rammvish, 
 deranged, crazy (Jamieson). 
 
 Eampaet, an incorrect form of ram- 
 pa/r, Old Eng. ramper, rampvre, rami- 
 pyre, old Er. rempa/r (It. riparo, a de- 
 fence), from Fr. rerrvpa/rer (= Lat. re- 
 im-parare), to defend. 
 
 The i is excrescent as in pagean-t 
 (0. Eng. pagyn, Wydiffite Worlcs, p. 
 206, E. E. T. S.), tyran-t, parohmen-t, 
 peasan-t, pheasan-t, ancien-t. 
 
 Eampeb eel, a Scotch word for the 
 lamprey (Jamieson), of which word it 
 is apparently a corruption, just as ram- 
 plon, another Scotch term for the same 
 fish, is from the French lamproyon. 
 Compare Lampee eel, the lamprey. 
 
 Jamieson gives a curious old Scotch 
 word for this fish, a/rgoaeen, as if Argus- 
 een, having as many eyes as Argus; 
 Prov. Eng. mne-eyes. 
 
 Eampikb, a contemptuous term in 
 some parts of Ireland for an old woman, 
 synonjTnous with harridan or beldame, 
 is the same word as old Eng. ra/mpick, 
 a tree which begins to decay at the top 
 through age (Bailey), more correctly 
 spelt ranpich. 
 
 Only the night-crow sometimes you might see 
 Croking to sit upon some rawpich tree. 
 
 Drayton, The Moone-calf. 
 
 Baunpick is still used in Leicester- 
 shire, and applied to anything bare of 
 bark or flesh, as if raven-picked (Evcms, 
 Ghssa/ry, E.D.S., p. 223). So Baven- 
 stone is pronounced iSaMmaow, andshcrvel, 
 showl (id. p. 8). Of. West Eng. rawn, 
 to ravin ; and see Pebuse and Rule. 
 An old form of the word is rownsepiok. 
 
 Over his head he sawe a rownsepifk, a bygge 
 bough leveles. — Morte d' Arthur, i. 181 
 [Nares]. 
 
 Eams-claws, a Somerset name for 
 the crow's foot, looks hke a corruption 
 of ranunculus, its scientific name. In 
 Dorset ram's clas. 
 
 Eanoed-deee, I old forms of the 
 
 Eange-deer, S word rein-deer, de- 
 rived from the French ranger, rangier, 
 TJap. raingo, Norweg. hreingyr. Low 
 Lat. ramgifer. See Eein-deer. 
 
 Olaus Magnus in his History of the 
 Northern Nations (translated by Strea- 
 ter, 1658), says that it is named the 
 " ranged-deer," because "the instru- 
 ment placed upon the horns to enable 
 it to draw the sledges of the Lap- 
 landers is called in their language 
 raneha.'' 
 
 The Ranged Deer was the sign of the King's 
 
 gunsmith in the Minories, 1673 This 
 
 ranged deer was simply intended for the Rein- 
 deer, which animal had just then newly come 
 under the notice of the public ; their know- 
 ledge of it was still confused, and its name 
 was spelled in various ways, such as, rain- 
 deer, ruined-deer, range-deer, and ranged-deer, 
 — Larwood and Hotten, History of Sign-boards, 
 p. 165. 
 
 This beast is called by the Latines Rangi- 
 fer, by the Germains Rein, Reiner, Raineger, 
 Reinssthier, by the French Raingier, and 
 Ranglier, and the later Latins call it Reingus. 
 .... This beast was iiret of all diBooueredby 
 Olaus Magnus in this Northerne part of the 
 world, towardes the poale Artique, as in Nor- 
 way, Swetia, and Scandinauia, at the first 
 sight whereof he called it Raingifer, quasi 
 Ramifer, because he beareth homes on his 
 head like the boughes of a tree. — Topsell, 
 History of Four-footed Beasts (1608), p. 591. 
 
 Rangleer, a kind of stag so called by 
 reason of his lofty horns, resembling the 
 Branches of trees. — Bailey. 
 
 Cerframe, a raine-deere. — Cotgrave. [As 
 if from its branching antlers.] 
 
 Rangifero, a Rame-deare, a beast in the 
 Northren could countries of the bignesse of 
 a Mule. — Florio, New World of Words, 1611. 
 
 The first part of the word ram-deer 
 was evidently brought into connexion 
 with old Fr. ram {= raim), a bough. 
 
BANOEB 
 
 ( 316 ) 
 
 BASTYLBOW 
 
 Eanger, applied to a forester, as if 
 so called because it is his duty to range 
 up and down through the woods. Mr. 
 Wedgwood is of opinion that the jvord 
 is a corruption of raniagewr, the name 
 by which the guardian of the forest 
 was formerly known in France, hterally 
 he who oversees the ramage (Mid. Lat. 
 ramagium) or right of cutting branches 
 (Lat. rarnius). Compare Northampton 
 ramgewood, brushwood, with Fr.ramclie, 
 rains, rain, raim, a branch. 
 
 Rank, used in the sense of strong- 
 smelhng, offensive, is old Eng. rank, 
 strong, proud, A. Sax. ranc, altered in 
 meaning through confusion with old 
 Fr. ranee, fusty, Lat. rancidus, rancid. 
 
 Eansack, to search thoroughly, to 
 search for stolen goods, old Eng. ra/n- 
 saken, Icel. rarmsaha, to search a house 
 (Swed. ransaka). The first part of the 
 word is Icel. rann, a house (= Goth. 
 razn), the latter part is not (as might 
 be imagined fcom the spelling) sack, to 
 plunder or rummage for booty, as when 
 we speak of sacking a city, but from 
 sxkja, to seek (Cleasby, 617), akin to 
 A. Sax. seca/n, to seek (Ger. suchen). 
 The word was sometimes used as if it 
 meant to plunder. Compare the follow- 
 ing :— 
 
 We sack, we. ransack to the utmost sands, 
 Of native kingdoms, and of foreign lands, 
 We travel sea and soil, we pry, we prowl. 
 We progress, and we pro^ from pole to pole. 
 F. Quarles, Embleins, bk. ii. 2. 
 They did not, as our church-saclcers and 
 ransackers do, rob God with the right hand, 
 and give him a little back with the left ; take 
 from him a pound, and restore him a penny. 
 ■ — T, Adams, God's Boicnty, Sermons^ i. 144. 
 In what vile part of this anatomy 
 Doth my name lodge ? tell me, that I may sack 
 The hateful mansion. 
 
 Shakespeare, Rom. and Juliet, iii. 3, 108. 
 
 He gan hem ransaken on and on. 
 
 And fond it iSor sone a-non. 
 
 Gen£sis and Exodus, 1. 2324. 
 
 Eappbd, an incorrect form of rapt, 
 Lat. raptus, ravished, enraptured, as if 
 the past parte, of a verb to rap. See 
 Weapped. 
 
 Confused forms flit by his wandering eyes. 
 And his rapped soul s o'erwhelmed with ex- 
 tasies. 
 
 Maxuirll, Poems, p. 175 (Murray 
 repr.). 
 
 However, there was in old Enghsh a 
 
 verb rappe, rape, to hurry away, or 
 ravish, which no doubt was merged in 
 the classical rapt of later writers, the 
 recognized adjectival form of raptwe. 
 We even find rapted for enraptured 
 (Nares). 
 
 We shall dye euery one of vs ; yet some 
 shall be rapt and taken aliue, as Sainct Paula 
 sayth. — LatimeVj Sermons^ p. 113 verso. 
 
 Eaee, somewhat raw, underdone, in- 
 sufficiently cooked (Prov. Bng.,Ireland, 
 United States), has been confused with 
 rare (Lat. rartis), thin, scarce (so 
 Bailey), and with Prov. Eng. raire, 
 early, soon (Devon), as if too soon 
 taken from the fire, too quickly done, 
 a contraction of rather, like or from 
 other, smoor (Eamsay) for smother (so 
 Wedgwood). Compare the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 The broccolow are rare \=z early] this year. 
 We go to bed pretty rare on Sundays. — M. 
 A. Courtney, W. Cornwall Glossary, L.D.S. 
 O'er yonder hill does scant the dawn appear, 
 Then why does Cuddy leave his cott so reor? 
 
 [Note. — An expression in several counties 
 of England for early in the morning.] — Gay, 
 Poems, i. 69. 
 
 It is really the old Eng. "fere, or 
 nesche, as eggys, Molhs."— ^romjji. 
 Parv. ; A. Sax. hrSr, half-oooked, /wercm, 
 to half-cook (Cockayne, Leechdoms, iii. 
 Glossary) . Kennet spells it reer. 
 
 One reare rested chick. — Harington, Epi- 
 grams, iv. 6. 
 
 Compare Icel. hrar, raw, old Ger. 
 rawer (for hrawer), which Pictet con- 
 nects with Lat. cruor, as if scmglcmt, 
 Sansk. krura, crude, Welsh arau, gore 
 [Orig. InAo-lSti/r. ii. 20). 
 
 Eake-lines, \ names for the trans- 
 Eattlings, J verse ropes in the rig- 
 ging of a ship which form u, ladder, 
 are corruptions of rat-Unes. Perhaps 
 connected withDan. rat-line, a "wheel- 
 line " or tUler-rope, from rat, a wheel 
 (Lat. rota). 
 
 Eastylbow, an old name for the 
 " wede, Mesta homs," or rest-harrow, 
 in the Fromptorium Parvuloriim (ab. 
 1440), which Gerarde (Herlal) names 
 Arresta hovis, in French arreste la/uf. 
 It is from the latter that the word is 
 corrupted. 
 
 It is sooner founde then desired of hus- 
 bande men, bicause the tough and woodie 
 rootes are combersome vnto them, by reason 
 
BAT 
 
 ( 317 ) 
 
 BAW-MOUSE 
 
 they do staie the plough, and make the men 
 ^tande. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. 1142. 
 
 Eat. Tlie colloquial expression " to 
 smeU a rat," meaning to conceive a 
 suspicion, suspect something wrong, 
 has been explained as a perverted 
 translation of the German unrath wit- 
 tern (Blackley, Word-Gossip, p. 55). 
 "To smell a rat" is actually Kalt- 
 schmidt's definition of unrath merlcen, 
 unrath being filth, waste, mischief. 
 The knowing look of an excited temer 
 when he has scentedhis enemy is quite 
 sufficient to account for the phrase, 
 originally no doubt a sporting one, and 
 it needs no other explanation. 
 
 Bttbuto. "Whoop! Whither is my brother 
 basket-maker gone ? ha ! let me see : 1 smell 
 a rat. — Patient Grissil, act iv. sc. 2 (1603), 
 Shaks. Sec. ed. p. 65. 
 
 I smell a riit ; 
 And, if my brain fail not, have found out all, 
 Your drifts, thoug-h ne'er so politicly carry'd. 
 
 May, The Old Couple, 1658, act iii. sc.l. 
 
 Moch mony being sett vpp, and moch more 
 to sett, the Pope being the younger 55, 
 though it weare the greatest game of the 
 cardes, yet smelling the rati, for they be all 
 nasuti, and mistrusting, as it was indeed, 
 that thear was and elder game on the boord, 
 gaue it oner. — Haringtnn, Niig(E Antiqufe, 
 vol. ii. p. 195. 
 
 No I do smellafox sti-ongly. — The Roaring 
 Girl, i. 1 (1611). 
 
 Eat, a Scotch word for a " wart," is 
 another form of wrat. Old Eng. wret, 
 A. Sax. weart, Icel. varta, Ger. warze 
 (cf. Lat. verruca). So Dutch wratfe 
 for werte, Prov. Eng. ivret, a wart 
 (Forby). 
 
 Wrette, or werte yn a maanys skynne, 
 Veruca. — Prompt. Parviilorum. 
 
 The erbe Eliotropia is called vemtcaria, 
 wrotwork, bycause it destruyeth and fordoth 
 wrottys [VVay, in locol. 
 
 Rate, to rate, or give one a rating, 
 meaning to scold or chide sharply, so 
 spelt as if it were another use of rate, 
 to tax one [with an offence] , or lay it 
 to his charge, from rate, Lat. rata (sc. 
 pa/rs], a fixed proportion, an assessment 
 or valuation (so Wedgwood), is really 
 another form of old Eng. rette, to 
 reckon or charge to one's account (e.g. 
 Wychffe, Gen. xv. 6 ; Numb. xxiv. 9 ; 
 Deut. xxi. 8 ; Gal. iii. 6 ; Jam. ii. 23, 
 where it translates the Vulgate reputare ; 
 and Eom. iv. 8 ; Philem. 18, where it 
 translates imputa/re). " God was in 
 
 Crist . . . not rettynge to hem her 
 giltis."— Wychffe, 2 Cor. v. 19, = non 
 reputans iUis delicta ipaorum ( Vulgttte). 
 
 O. Eng. rette (or a-rette) is from old 
 Fr. reter, to reproach, Sp. retar, old Sp., 
 Portg., Prov. reptar, Grison raviclar, aU 
 which are from Lat. reputare. The 
 forms rehete( Towneley Mysteries ) , rahate 
 (Udal), are curious. 
 
 Rectyn, or rettyn, or wytyn [= blame], 
 Impute, repute, ascribo. — Prompt. Parvu- 
 torum. 
 
 Battlemotjse, an old name for the 
 bat, is a corruption of its A. Saxon 
 name h/rea)>emus (Cockayne, Iieedi- 
 doms, Starcunning, &c., vol. iii. Olos- 
 
 By this means Philino serued all turnes 
 and shifted himself from blame, not vnlike 
 the tale of the Ratttemouse who in the warres 
 proclaimed betweene the foure footed beasts, 
 and the bii'des, beyng sent for by the Lyon 
 to be at his musters, excused himselfe for 
 that he was a foule and iiew with winges ; 
 and beyng sent for by the Eagle to senie him, 
 sayd that he was a foure footed beast, and by 
 that craftie cauill escaped the danger of the 
 warres, and shunned the seruice of both 
 Princes. — G. Puttenliam, Arte of Eng. Poesie, 
 1589, p. 148 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Raven-teee, a Scotch form of the 
 word roivan-tree, or roun-tree, the moun- 
 tain ash. 
 
 The raven tree was good to keip upon both 
 man and beist. — North Berwick Kirk Session 
 Register, 1663 (Balyell, Darker Superstitions 
 of Scotland, p. 139). 
 
 Eawbone, a name for the radish, is 
 a corruption of rabone (Gerarde, p. 
 184), Sp. rabano, Lat. raphanus. The 
 Spanish word seems to have been as- 
 similated to rabo, a tail, with reference 
 to the tail-like shape of its tap-root. 
 
 Raw-mouse, a hat (Somersetshire), 
 is a corruption of rere-inouse, A. Sax. 
 hrere-mus, from hresran, to move, agitate 
 (the wings), and so the flying mouse. 
 To which I leap'd, and left my keel, and high 
 Clamb'ring upon it did as close imply 
 My breast about it as a reremouse could. 
 
 G. Chapman, Odysseys, bk. xii. 1. 610. 
 The Rere-mouse or Bat alone of all crea- 
 tures that fly, bj-ingeth forth young aliue. — 
 Holland, Plinies Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 301. 
 Some war with rere-mice for their leathern 
 
 wings. 
 To make my small elves coats. 
 
 Shakespeare, A Midsummer N. Dream, 
 ii. 2, 5. 
 
BAT-GBASS 
 
 ( 318 ) 
 
 BEGOIL 
 
 Eat-geass, a popular name for loUwrn 
 perenne. The first part of the word re- 
 preEients Pr. imme, drunkenness, from 
 the supposed intoxicating quality of 
 some species (Prior). In the north 
 of England it is named d/runh, in 
 Latin loUwni termilentum, drunken dar- 
 nel. Crap or crappe, which is also 
 apphed to it, and has not heen ex- 
 plained, is probably from the Latin 
 crapula, the effects of drunkenness. 
 
 Beach, a popular form of retch, to 
 vomit, as if to extend or strain forward, 
 like vulgar Eng. Tisave (used in this 
 sense in Holland's PUny). Betch is 
 not, as has been supposed, a derivative 
 of It. recere, to vomit (from Lat. rei- 
 eere, rejicere, to cast up), but of A. Sax. 
 hrcecan, to vomit (Ettmiiller, 602), 
 Norse Ti/rceJcja. Hence also old Fr. 
 racher, to spit up, Prov. racar, Wallon 
 rechi, and Pr. oracher. Compare Prov. 
 Eng. wreak [better reak], a cough, 
 Westm. (Wright). 
 
 This is a medicine that would not bee 
 rainistred inwardly to fearefuU, timorous, 
 and faint-hearted persons . . . and least of 
 all vnto those that spit or reach vp bloud. — 
 Holland, Plinies Nat. Hist. Tol. ii. p. 219. 
 
 Beadily, in such phrases as " to give 
 readily," " I readily promise to do so," 
 i.e. willingly, without reluctance, is for 
 O. Eng. hrcedlice, speedily, immediately, 
 iromJiroed, IvrceS, swift, quick, a distinct 
 word from rxdi's, prepared (in Orrmin), 
 which is a derivative of r&d, rdd, ready, 
 prepared. 
 
 Blithe ther of was he 
 
 And redily yaf him sa 
 Of wel gode mon6, 
 
 Ten schillinges and ma. 
 Sir Tristrem, i. 56 (ed. Scott). 
 
 Bebate, to plane boards so that the 
 overlapping edges will fit one another, 
 so spelt (e.g. in Bailey) as if the same 
 word as rebate, to lessen or diminish 
 (also to blunt the edge of a sword), Pr. 
 rebatire, to beat back, is a corruption of 
 rahhet [rahbot, Holland), from Pr. ra- 
 boter, to plane or level, which stands 
 for rabouter {i.e. re + ad + hoter, "re-a- 
 but"), to thrust back. See Skeat, 
 Etym. Diet. s.v. 
 
 Beokling, a puny infant, the smallest 
 m a litter, is more correctly wreoMing 
 (Holland, PUny), which is the form in 
 
 the Cleveland dialect (Atkinson), and 
 in Cumberland (Ferguson). Other 
 forms of the word are wrackUng, neh- 
 limg, writKng. Compare Scot, vjrig, a 
 puny child, the feeblest bird in a nest, 
 Prov. Dan. wraig, wrobgUng, Low Gar. 
 wrak, a poor contemptible creature, 
 originally anything refuse or rejected, 
 Swed. vrak, refuse, Old Dan. vraike, to 
 cast out. The word is thus akin totwecJ, 
 ivreckage, and wretch. 
 
 A mother dotes upon the reckling child, 
 More than the strong. 
 
 Taylor, Philip van Artevelde, 
 pt. ii. T. 3. 
 Was one year gone, and on returning found. 
 Not two but three ; there lay the reckling, one 
 But one hour old ! 
 
 Tennyson, Merlin and Vivien, 1. 559. 
 
 Eecognise, so spelt from analogy to 
 baptise, catechise, symbolise, &c., seems 
 to have been evolved out of the sub- 
 stantive recognisance, old Fr. recoigni- 
 sance, recognoissance. Boyle used the 
 form recognosce, going back direct to 
 Lat. recognoscere. 
 
 The examiner [Boyle] might have remem- 
 bered, . . . who it was that distinguished his 
 style with ignore and recognosce. — Bentieif, 
 Woi-kSa i. liv. 
 
 Similarly, to agnize was formed out of 
 
 The very agnizing and celebrating of them 
 fills our souls with unspeakable joy. — Bew- 
 ridge, Works, vol. iii. p. 122 (Oxford ed.). 
 
 Eecoil, so spelt as if derived from 
 Pr. re-cueilTAir, Lat. re-colligere, to draw 
 one's self together, to shrink as a, coil of 
 wire does when extended (cf. coil from 
 cueilUr), is a corruption of the older 
 form recule, Pr. reculer, to turn tail 
 {cul, Lat. cuius), just as to start hack 
 is connected with old Eng. stert, steort, 
 the taU. 
 
 They bound themselves by a sacred lay and 
 oth to fight it out to the last man, vnder 
 paine of (ieath to as many as seemed to turne 
 backe or once recule. — Holland, Plinm 
 Natardll Historic, vol. ii. p. 495, 1634. 
 
 Teucer with his bowe made them recule 
 backe agayne, when Menelaus tooke hym to 
 his feete, and ranne .\waye. — B. Ascham, 
 Toxophilus, 1545, p. 68 (ed. Arber). 
 
 So thay marchyd forward, and so the »une3 
 shott, and the morespykes encontered to- 
 getlier with gratt larum, and after reciilyd 
 bake again. — Machifii, Diary, 1559, July 1 
 (p. 202, Camden So"c.). 
 
BEGOUNSEL 
 
 ( 319 ) 
 
 BED-GUM 
 
 Oft he made him stagger as unstayd, 
 And oft recuiie to shunrie his sharpe despight. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, VI. i. 20. 
 Thus whea this Courtly Gentleman with 
 
 toyle 
 Himselfe hath wearied, he doth recoyle 
 Unto his rest. 
 
 Spenser, Mother Hubberds Tale, 
 11. 753-756. 
 Whan the Normayns sawe them recule 
 backe, they had maruell why they dyde so. 
 — Lord Berners, Froissaj-t, 1523, cap. i. 
 Next morne when early Phoebus first arose 
 (Which then arose last in Vriah's sight) 
 Him Joab in the forfront did dispose 
 From whom the rest recoytid in the fight. 
 Fuller, Davids Hainous Sinne, 1631, 
 St. 4«. 
 
 Becotjnsel, the form used every- 
 where by Wyeliffe in his Bible for re- 
 condle {e.g. 2 Cor. v. 18, Deeds vii. 26, 
 &c.), as if to advise over again, or try 
 new counsels. 
 
 Go first for to be recounseilid to thi brother. 
 —S. Matt. T. 24. 
 
 Eecount, to relate or rehearse, is 
 not a native compound like re-count, to 
 number over again, but should properly 
 be racount ( compare Eefine, for raffine), 
 being derived immediately from Fr. 
 raconter, to tell or relate a story, from 
 re- and old Fr. aconter (r: confer), Lat. 
 re-ad-eomputare. 
 
 Recovbe, to become convalescent, 
 sometimes imagined to be identical 
 with re-cover (Fr. cous^ir, Lat. co- 
 operire), as if the reference were to an 
 open wound covering over a,gain (Trench, 
 Bichardson), a false analogy being as- 
 sumed in heal (A Sax. h&lan, to make 
 hale), as if from A. Sax. helan, to cover. 
 The word properly means to regain or 
 get back (one's health), or, as the 
 Americans say, to recuperate, being 
 derived through Fr. recouvrer (It. ri- 
 covera/re) from Lat. recmperare, to ob- 
 tain again, originally to make good, 
 from old Lat. cuprus, good (Corssen, 
 Littrd). It was, no doubt, confused 
 with old Eng. cover, coveren (see Strat- 
 mann), also akoveren, A. Sax. acofrian, 
 to recover from sickness (Cockayne, 
 Leechdoms, vol. iii. p. 184), which it 
 eventually superseded. Diefenbach 
 suggests a connexion for these latter, 
 words with old Swed. hofra, to profit, 
 increase, progress, Scand. Icober, useful, 
 good, old Dut. Jcoever, abundant, hoe- 
 
 veren, to gain, old Eng. gmver, lively, 
 A. Sax. caf, swift, quick, Icel. dhafr, 
 eager, earnest {Ooth. Sprache, ii. 484). 
 
 He drinketS bitter sabraz uorto akoueren his 
 heale [He drinketh bitter sabraz for to recover 
 his health], — Ancren Riwle, p. 364. 
 
 Nan naueS neauer mare hope of nan a- 
 couerunge [None hath ever more hope of 
 any recovery]. — Old Eng. Homilies, 1st Ser. 
 p. 251 (ed. Morris). 
 
 When he is seke, and bedreden lys, . . . 
 ban er men in dout and noght certayn, 
 Wethir he sal ever cover agayn. 
 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 811. 
 Yf that he mouthen heled be. 
 For yf he mouthe couere yet, . . . 
 Mi-self shal dubbe him to knith. 
 
 Havelok the Dane, 1. 2042. 
 [He] siked >anne so sore • )>e soJjo forto telle, 
 fat uch wish jjat it wist • wend he ne schuld 
 keuer. 
 
 William of Palerne, 1. 1488. 
 The lady was wyth the quene. 
 With myrthe and game them betwene 
 To covyr hur of hur care. 
 
 Romance of Octavian, 1. 522 ( Percy 
 Soc.) 
 
 Early instances of recoiir, recwe, for 
 recover, are these : — 
 
 Recuryn, of sekenesse. Convaleo, recon- 
 valeo. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 ]30u hit sselt wel recouri, jjou art yong, 
 and sti-ang, Jiou sselt libbe long. — Ayenhite 
 oflnwyt (1340), p. 32. 
 
 This loue is not for to recouere ony worship, 
 but alle dishonour and shame. — Knight of La 
 Tour Landry, p. 179 (B.E.T.S.). 
 
 Eedcoal, a Scotch term for the 
 horse-radish, also spelt red-coll, is a 
 corruption of the name rot-coll, the 
 horse-radish, said to be from the old 
 Swedish rot, root, and Jcoll, fire, as it 
 were the " hot-root " ( Jamieson). But 
 Swed. Jcol is merely coal. The word is 
 probably due to some confusion with 
 Swed. rot-h&l, bore-cole [root-cole], 
 otherwise Jcdl-rot, turnip-rooted cole. 
 Gerarde says that the ancients con- 
 founded the radish with " coole worts " 
 {nerhal, p. 188), and that the horse- 
 radish "is called in the north part of 
 England red-cole " (p. 187). 
 
 Eed-gum, \ an infantile disease, is 
 Eed-gown, / a corruption of old 
 Eng. red-goiwide, A. Sax. gund, a 
 purulent discharge. See Gum. 
 
 Soft Child-hood puling 
 Is wrung with Wonns, begot of crudity, 
 Are apt to Laske through much humidity : 
 
BED LETTUCE ( 320 ) 
 
 BEGALE 
 
 Through their salt phlegms, their heads are 
 
 hid with stalls, 
 Their Limhs with Red-gums and with bloody 
 balls. 
 
 J. Siilvester, Du Biirtas, p. 212. 
 Stale chamber-lie . . . cureth the red-gomb 
 in yong infants. — Holland, P/iwy's Nat. Hist. 
 ii. 307. 
 
 Ebd Lettuce, an old word for a 
 tavern, is a corruption of red lattice, 
 which was the distinctive mark of 
 these houses. 
 
 Your red lattice phrases. — Merry Wives of 
 W. ii. 2. (Vid. Douce's lUmtr. oj Shakspere.) 
 
 See Lettuce. 
 
 Eedoubt, a term in fortification, a 
 small fort, is the Pr. redoute, reduH, It. 
 .ridoifo, a Uttlefort, Lat. red/uctus, with 
 the 6 inserted from the false analogy 
 of redoubted, dreaded, redoubtahle, for- 
 midable ; Fr. redoubter, to dread. Re- 
 doubt is properly a stronghold to retreat 
 to, identical with " reduct, an advan- 
 tageous piece of ground, entrenched . . . 
 for an army to retire to in case of a 
 surprize." — Bailey. 
 
 And made those strange approaches by false- 
 brays, 
 Reduits, half-moons, horn-works, and such 
 close ways. 
 
 B. Jonson, Underwoods. 
 8 Oct. I passed by boate to Bruges, taking 
 in at a redoutt a convoy of 14 musketeers. — 
 J. Eveltin, Uiary, 1641. 
 
 Ebfinb would more properly be 
 spelt raffine, being derived from Fr. 
 raffiner, i.e. re-affiner, and not a direct 
 compound of re and _/im; cf. the cognate 
 forms. It. rafinare, G-er. raffini/ren, Dan. 
 raffinere, &c., all from re and Low Lat. 
 a^Jmare. 
 
 Eefeain, the recurring or repeated 
 part of a poem, an antistrophe, Fr. 
 refrain, Prov. refr-anh. Span, refran, 
 which are respectively from refrairadrre, 
 refranher, =: Lat. refrangere, to break 
 off. So a refrain is that which breaks, 
 or interrupts, the sequence of strophes, 
 an intercalated verse (Diez and Scheler). 
 You tip your speeches with Italian " motti," 
 Spanish " refranes," and English "quoth 
 
 he's." Believe me. 
 There's not a proverb salts your tongue, but 
 
 plants 
 Whole colonies of white hairs. 
 
 Albumazar, act iv. so. 13. 
 
 Eefuit, in old English a place of 
 escape to flee to for safety, is apparently 
 
 a corruption of refrige (Lat. refugvwm), 
 assimilated to Pr. refwite, flight, escape, 
 from refidr, to fly. 
 
 [lat Almilti God, Jiat may best, 
 Send 3ow sum refuit and sum rest. 
 Old Eng. Misceltanii, p. 231, 1. 282. 
 And the Lord is maad refuiit, ether help, 
 to a pore man ; an helpere in ccuenable tymes 
 in tribulacioun. — Wiicliffe, Ps. ix. 10. 
 
 For thou art my stidefastnesse ; and my 
 refuit, — Id. Ps. Ixx. 3. 
 
 To Walys fled the cristianytee 
 Of olde Britons, dwellynge in this He ; 
 Ther was hir refut for the mene while. 
 Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, 1. 546. 
 
 Ebgalb, to feast, has often been 
 understood as meaning to entertain 
 regally, or royally, Pr. regalement; Lat. 
 regaliter (so Bailey, Skinner). 
 
 Se regakr, To make as much account, and 
 take as great care, of himself, as if hee were a 
 king. — Cotgrave. 
 
 A table richly spread in regal mode. 
 With dishes piled, and meats of noblest sort 
 And savour. 
 
 Milton, Pur. Regained, ii. 340. 
 For thy Gates rich Alexandria drugs, 
 Fetch'd by carvels from .Egypt's richest 
 
 streights. 
 Found in the wealthy strand of Africa, 
 Shall royalize the table of my king. 
 
 Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay 
 (1594), p. 166 (ed. Dyce). 
 
 Compare old Eng. emperialle, to deck 
 royally. 
 
 )>an emperialle J)y Cuppeborde 
 With Siluer & gild fulle gay. 
 The Babees Book, p. 131, 1. 231 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 To regale, regalar, tratar regiamcnte ou com 
 regalo. — Vieyra, Portngnese Diet. vol. ii. 
 
 However, Fr. regaler {S'p.regalm; It. 
 regalare) is derived from old Pr. gcder, 
 to enjoy one's self, to be liberal, to enter- 
 tain with good cheer, old Pr. gale. It. 
 gala, mirth, good cheer. Cf. 0. H, 
 Ger. geil, merry, wanton, luxurious, 
 Goth. gaiJjan, to gladden. So regale is 
 to keep a gala-ia.y or festival. Begale, 
 a feast (Cowper) is also found in the 
 forms regalia (D''Dxiej),regaMo andre- 
 galo (Walpole) ; see Davies, Swpp.Eng. 
 Glossary, s.w. 
 
 I thank you for the last regalo you gaueme 
 at your lUusajum, and for the good Company. 
 —Howell, Letters (1635), bk. i. sect. 6, 20. 
 • Tlie fatal end of their journey being con- 
 tinually before their eyes, would not alter and 
 deprave their palate "from tasting these re- 
 galias !—CoUon, Montaigne's Essays, ch. xvi. 
 
BEHOBSE 
 
 ( 321 ) 
 
 BEMNANT 
 
 For 'tis, like Turks witli hen and rice to treat, 
 To make regalios out of common meat. 
 
 Dryden, Epilogue to The Wild Gallant, 
 1667, 1. 12. 
 
 Eehokse, an old English term for 
 laying on the colours thickly in paint- 
 ing, in impasfo, is a corrupt form of Fr. 
 rehausser, or rehaulser, to heighten or 
 enhance. 
 
 Rehaulser, to raise, or set higher, to place 
 above; also (in Painting, &c.) to rehorse, 
 heighten ; to leeve, to imbosse. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Rehaulsement, a rehorsing, heightening. — 
 Id. 
 
 Eeign, an old spelling of rein, as if 
 it were the governing power {regnum) 
 which directs (regit) a horse's move- 
 ments. " Beine, the reigne of a hridle " 
 (Cotgrave). Oom.pare Prov. regna. 
 However, when we find that the 
 Itahan for rein is recUna, Portg. redea, 
 we may rather believe that it is a deri- 
 vative, as Diez holds, of the Latin re- 
 tinere, to hold back. 
 
 Apes haue heene taught to leape, singe, 
 driue Wagons, vai^nng and whipping the 
 Horses very arti6cially. — Topsell, Foure-jboted 
 Beastes, p. 3(1608). 
 
 Ebin-debe, \ so spelt as if to denote 
 Eain-deee, / the deer that runs in 
 harness with a rein, is a corruption of 
 the A. Sax. hran, Swed. ren, Dan. rens- 
 (dyr), Pr. renne, Lat. reno or rheno 
 (Cassar). Topsell, History of Foure- 
 footed Beasts, spells it Bceyner and 
 Bcdnger. He says, " This beast was 
 first of aU discouered by Olaus Magnus 
 
 at the first sight whereof he 
 
 called it Baingifer, quasi Bamifer, be- 
 cause he beareth homes on his head 
 hke the boughes of a tree," p. 591 
 (1608). The Germans make it renn- 
 thier, as if "the running beast," from 
 rennen, to run. The spelling rain- 
 seems due to a confusion with Fr. roAn, 
 a bough, as if a branching antler. See 
 Eangbd-deeb. 
 
 It is a word probably of Finnish 
 origin. " \>& deor hie hata<5 hranas." — 
 K. Alfred, Orosius, i. 1, § 15. In Ice- 
 landic, where it is not a native term, 
 the animal is called hreinn (which is 
 also the word for clean, A. Sax. hran, 
 Eng. "rinse"). Pictet (Origines Indo- 
 Bv/rop. tom. i. p. 439) suggests that the 
 word may be contracted from ha/rana, 
 = Sansk. cwrana, calana, a stag. Other 
 names, or forriis of the name, are Fr. 
 
 ranger, rangier, Norweg. hreingyr. 
 Prof. Skeat regards the word as mean- 
 ing undoubtedly the pastured or domes- 
 ticated animal, from the Lapp reino, 
 signifying "pasture" (N. and Q. 6th. 
 S. i. 363). 
 
 He had of his owne breed 600 tame deere 
 of that kinde which they call Rane Deere : 
 ... a beast of gi'eat value, and marueilously 
 esteemed among the Fynnes. — Hakluyt's Voy- 
 «>res, 1598, p. 5. 
 
 Haste my raindeer, and let us nimbly go. 
 The Spectator, No. 406. 
 
 A sharp controversy, arising out of a 
 wager as to the true spelling of this 
 word, was carried on in the papers, 
 Nov., 1862. 
 
 Professor Stephens observes that 
 hran, a rane or rein, was originally 
 apphed to any large creature, first to 
 the whale, e.g. Eunic hron, Gaelic r6n 
 rdin, the seal, and then to the reindeer, 
 e.g. Icel. hreinn. — Old Northern Bwmc 
 Monuments, p. 943. 
 
 Eeins, the common Bible word for 
 the kidneys, is the French reins, Lat. 
 ren, rerds. It has apparently been 
 assimilated in its orthography to the 
 reins of a bridle, 0. Fr. reins. 
 
 The gall [of a hedgehog], with the braine 
 of a Bat and the milke of a Dog, cureth the 
 raines. — Topsell, History of Four-footed Beasts, 
 p. 280, 1608. 
 
 Eelict, an occasional mis-spelling of 
 relic (Fr. relique, Lat. reliqmoe, remains, 
 leavings), as if from Lat. reUdum, some- 
 thing left. On the other hand, a de- 
 ceased person's widow is sometimes 
 popularly spoken of as his relic. 
 'Tis baalish gold in David's coin disguised ; 
 Which to his house with richer relicts came 
 While lumber idols only fed the flame. 
 
 Tate, in Dryden' s Absalom and Achi- 
 tophet, pt. ii. 1. 645. 
 Adore the purple ra^ of majesty, 
 And think t a sacred relict of the sky. 
 Oldham, Satire on the Jesuits, sat. i. 
 
 Eemedy, a term in use at Winchester 
 CoUege for a partial hohday, when the 
 boys are let off certain work, is a cor- 
 ruption of remi-day, which is for re- 
 mdssion-dwy (dies remissionds). — H. C. 
 Adams, Wykehamca, pp. 289, 431. 
 
 Eemnant must have been originally 
 only a vulgar pronunciation of rema- 
 nent, Lat. remanen(i)s, a remaining 
 (portion), what is left, a residue. Simi- 
 
 Y 
 
BEN ATE 
 
 ( 322 ) 
 
 BETABLE 
 
 lar popular contractions are enmity for 
 enemity or emimity {in-amiiy) ; fortnAght 
 for forten-night {fourieen-might) ; mint 
 for minet ; plush for peluche ; platoon 
 for peloton; sprite {or spi/rite; S/rgeior 
 
 Tlie remnaunt toke his seruantes and in- 
 treated them vngodly and slewe them. — Tyn- 
 dale^ S. Matt. xxii. 6. 
 
 The remnant tooke his seruants and in- 
 treated them spitefully and slew them. — A. V. 
 ibid. (1611). 
 
 Eenate, an old name for a species 
 of apple, as if it denoted pomum rena- 
 tum, one that had been regenerated or 
 renewed in its nature (LaX.re-natus) by 
 grafting, is a corruption of renet, rennet, 
 or reneting, a sort of pippin (Bailey), 
 which is but an Anglicized form of Fr. 
 reinette, " the queen apple," a russeting. 
 Gerarde (Eerhall, p. 1274, 1597) gives a 
 figure of " The Quining, or Queene of 
 Apples, Malum reginale," which may 
 be the fruit in question. 
 
 I am informed that Pippins graffed on a 
 Pippin stock are called Eenates, bettered in 
 their generous nature by such double extrac- 
 tion. — Thos. Fuller, Worthies of England, vol. 
 ii. p. 3 (ed. 1811). 
 
 When a Pepin is planted on a Pepin-stock, 
 the fruit growing thence is called a Renate, a 
 most delicious apple, as both by Sire and 
 Dam well descended. Thus his blood must 
 needs be well purified who is gentilely born 
 on both sides. — T. Fuller, Holy State, p. 138 
 (1648). 
 
 Richard Hanys, fruiterer to King Henrie 
 the 8, planted . . . tlie temperate pipyn and 
 the golden renate. — hamharde, Perambulation 
 of Kent, 1596 [in Wright]. 
 The renat, which though fii-st it from the 
 
 pippin came, 
 Growne through his pureness nice, assumes 
 that cui'ious name. 
 
 Drayton, Folyolbion, Song 18. 
 
 Revnette, the French name of the 
 fruit, is also frequently spelt rainetfe, 
 and is thought to have been so called 
 from its being spotted like a little frog 
 (rainette, from raine, Jj&t.rana), Gattel, 
 Soheler, &c. Compare ranunculus, orig. 
 a Httle frog. 
 
 Nor is it every apple I desii'e. 
 Nor that which pleases ev'ry palate best ; 
 'Tis not the lasting deuzan I require : 
 Nor yet the red-cheek'd queening I request. 
 Quarks, Emblems, bk. v. 2. 
 
 Eendeb, when used as meaning to 
 melt or hquefy lard, fat, &c., has no 
 connexion with its homophone ( z= Pr. 
 
 rend/re. It. rendere Lat. reddere), but is 
 the same word as Dan. rinde, rende, to 
 run, to flow, Icel. rerma, to cause to 
 run, to liquefy, A. Sax. rinnan. 
 
 Eepine, bo spelt as if meaning to 
 pine or feel a renewal of pain at the 
 thought of something, is in Proissart 
 spelt repoyne, which is from Fr. re- 
 poindre, to prick again, Lat. re-pungere 
 (Wedgwood), or perhaps from Lat. re- 
 poenitere [?]. 
 
 They . . . repoyned in that they had sende 
 to the kynge as they did. — Lord Bemers, 
 Froissart, cap. cxxx. (1523). 
 Repining courage yields 
 No foote to foe : the flashing fier flies. 
 As from a forge, out of their bui'ning shields. 
 Spenser, Faeji^ Queene, I. ii. 17. 
 
 Repose is not derived, as used gene- 
 rally to be imagined, from Lat. reporw, 
 reposm, to place back. Just as " pose " 
 is from Fr. poser, Sp. posa/r. It. posa/re, 
 Prov. pausar, Low Lat. pOMsare, to give 
 one pause, bring him to a stand-BtUl, 
 to puzzle him, so " repose " is Fr. re- 
 poser, Sp. reposar, It. riposa/re, Prov. re- 
 pausar, Low Lat. re-pa/usa/re, from Gk. 
 pausis, a cessation. A Spanish inn 
 whereat to put up for the night is called 
 the posada. 
 
 Eepeimand, from the Latin reprirmn- 
 dMS, deserving to be checked, owes its 
 present form to a supposed analogy 
 with demand, command, &c. 
 
 Eepeievb, old Eng. repreve, seems to 
 be an assimilation to heUeve, conceive, 
 receive, &o., of old Fr. repreuve/r, re- 
 prover, from Lat. re-proha/re, to try or 
 prove over again, to re-consider a sen- 
 tence, just as the synonymous word 
 respite (Lat. respectus) meant originally 
 a re-consideration. 
 
 Eetable, an architectural term for 
 the ledge raised above the communion 
 table (or altar), on which the cross and 
 vases of flowers are placed in churches, 
 Fr. retable. The word seems irresis- 
 tibly to suggest the idea of a contre- 
 table, or a repetition of the talle proper. 
 However, restaule (for restahle), the old 
 French form of retable, shows that the 
 true origin of the word is Low Lat. re- 
 stahiUs, just as re-stabilire is oiretablir; 
 and so retahle in an architectural sense 
 would mean something fixed or erected 
 behind the altar, a back-support. An 
 
BEVEL 
 
 ( 323 ) 
 
 REYNOLD 
 
 older English form retaiile is given in 
 Eev. F. Lee's Glossary of Liturgical 
 and Ecclesiastical Terms. It may be 
 noted as decisive of the matter that the 
 prefixre- is never compounded directly 
 with a substantive. Thus retable is 
 la/mhris retabU (restahilitixs). 
 
 Revel, to make merry, especially in 
 the night-time, generally regarded as 
 identical with Pr. reveiller, to waken or 
 keep awake, and so to keep late hours 
 (so Bailey). Compare riveillon, Sbzaesl 
 taken late at night. In former times 
 .watch, to wake, had precisely the same 
 meaning, to spend the night in riot and 
 drinking. See Dyce, Bemarhs on Edi- 
 tions of Shakespeare, p. 210. 
 Withdraw your hand fro riotous u-atchyng. 
 Lydgate, Fall of Princes, b. ix. fol, xxxi. 
 His liedewas heuyfor watching ouer nyghte. 
 Skelton, Bowge of Courte ( Works, i. 43, 
 ed. Dyce). 
 Late watchings in Tauerns will wrinokle tliat 
 face. 
 The Wandering Jew, 16t0, sig. D. 
 Hostesse, clap to the doores : watch to 
 night, pray to morrow. Gallants, Lads, 
 Boyes, Harts of Gold, all the good Titles of 
 Fellowship come to you. — Shalcespeare, 1 Hen, 
 IV. ii. 4 (1623). 
 
 So when Hamlet says, 
 The king doth wake to-night and takes his 
 
 rouse. 
 Keeps wassail. Hamlet, i. 4, 9, — 
 
 he immediately goes on to characterize 
 it as " a heavy-headed revel," 1. 17. 
 
 Watchfulness as it is only a restraint from 
 bodily sleep is not that which I urge and en- 
 force ; this is a season wherein I know its 
 much in use, to sit up late ; they that intend 
 games and revels, and pastimes are watchful 
 enough, though they turn the night into day, 
 and the day like heavy sluggards into night. 
 — Hacket, Century of Sermons, p. 18. 
 
 The following play upon words is 
 qtiite in the manner of folks-etymo- 
 logy :— 
 The on'y thing like revellin' thet ever come 
 
 to me, 
 Wuz bein' routed out p' sleep by thet darned 
 
 revelee [z= reveille']. 
 
 J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers, No. 8. 
 
 Bevel, old Fr. reveler, is really akin 
 to old Fr. reoeleiiiX, wanton, lascivious, 
 unruly, outrageous (Cotgrave), revele, 
 extravagant, revel, reviel, reviau, enjoy- 
 ment, merry-making, riot (Soheler), 
 from Dut. revelen, to dote, to wander in 
 mind, to rave, old Dut. ravelen. -These 
 
 words again are derived from old Fr. 
 resver, raver. Mod. Fr. rever, to dote or 
 rave. Fr. rever, reve, comes through the 
 forms rama. Low Lat. rahia, from Lat. 
 rabies, madness. Bevel is thus near 
 akin to rame and rage. Bevdllon is per- 
 haps for revelon, and assimilated to ri- 
 veiller (Soheler). 
 And in twenty places mo than there. 
 Where they make reuetl, and gaudy chere. 
 With fyll the pot fyll, and go fyll the can. 
 The Hye Way to the Spyttel Hous, 1. 245. 
 
 Ebvell-coyle, a word used occa- 
 sionally by Taylor the Water-poet in 
 the sense of riot, disorderly living, as 
 if a compound of revel and old Eng. coil, 
 trouble, tumult, is a corruption of the 
 old word level-coil (from lever cul, to lift 
 one's tail, i.e. to leave one's seat and 
 scramble for another, as in the game of 
 Puss and Four Corners). 
 To dance, sing, sport, and to keepe revell- 
 coyles. Workes, 1630. 
 
 Eeynold, \ an old name for the fox, 
 
 Eetnolds, J still in provincial use, 
 is a corruption of Beyna/rd, a distinct 
 name. 
 
 When a fox has visited the poultry- 
 yard, a Sussex man will say, " Mus 
 Beynolds [i.e. Master Eeynard] come 
 along last night — He helped hisself " 
 (Eev. W. D. Parish, Glossary, p. 94). 
 But th' Ape and Foxe ere long so well them 
 
 sped . . . 
 That they a Benefice twixt them obtained ; 
 And craftie Reynold was a Priest ordained. 
 Spenser, Mother Huhherds Tale, 1. 553. 
 
 Raunold, the fox, may well beare vp his 
 tayle in the lyon's denne, but when he comes 
 abroad, he is afraide of euerie dogge that 
 barkes. — Nash, Pierce Penilesse (1592), p. 23 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 There was a superstitious aversion in 
 many countries to give the fox his true 
 name. In England he is also frequently 
 called a Gharley. 
 
 Beynard, old Eng. Beynart, is Low 
 Ger. Beynaert, Beinaert, and Ger. Bein- 
 hart, for Beginhart, or more properly 
 Baginohard, a name descriptive of the 
 animal's cunning (J. Grimm, Beinha/rt 
 Fuchs, p. ocxl.), strong (hard, Goth. 
 hardus, = Gk. hartus) in counsel [ragin, 
 Goth, ragin). " Ffor reynart is a 
 shrewe and feUe and knoweth so many 
 wyles that he shal lye and flatre and 
 shal thynke how he may begyle deceyue 
 and brynge yow to some mockerye," 
 
BEODOMONTADE ( 324 ) 
 
 BIDING 
 
 says Oaxton (Reynard, the Fox, 1481, 
 p. 11, ed. Arber), translating, 
 
 Reinaert es fel ende quaet 
 
 hi sal hu smeken ende lieghen 
 
 mach hi, hi sal hu bedrieghen 
 
 met valschen w6rden ende met sconen. 
 Willenij Van Den Vos Reinaerde, 1. 464. 
 
 Reynold, whence our surname Eey- 
 nolds, is a familiar form of Reginald. 
 
 This confusion of the two names is 
 an old one. In B. Morysine's Exhmia- 
 tion to Styrre all EngPyshmen to the De- 
 fence of their Oountreye, 1559, " Eey- 
 nolde Pole the Cardinal" is referred to 
 as Reyna/rd : — 
 
 Percase the Bishop of Rome is persuaded 
 that men here are of two sorts, some yet re- 
 maining his true fi'iends. Reynard, his man, 
 may put this in his head. 
 
 It IS a common superstition not to call the 
 fox by his right name, whence the variety of 
 names in diiferent Languages. — Cleasbii, Icel. 
 Diet. p. 167, s.v. F6a. 
 
 Ehodomontadb, an incorrect spelling 
 of rodomontade used by De Quincey, 
 from a false analogy to rhapsody, rheto- 
 ric, rhododend/ron, and other words de- 
 rived from the Greek. A similar ruis- 
 takeisr%mefor i-iroe. "Eodomantade " 
 is swaggering language such as befits 
 Rodomonte, the hero of Ariosto's Or- 
 lando Fv/rioso. 
 
 It. rodomontada, a boast, a brag, a cracke, 
 or vaineglorious ranting. — Fbrio. 
 
 Hast heard o' th' loud Rhodomontade 
 That t'other Day Jupiter made 1 
 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, 
 Poems, p. 275. 
 
 Ehyme, a corruption of "rime," from 
 a supposed connexion with rhythm, 
 Greek rhythmos. "Eime," or "ryme," 
 is the word in Milton, Shakespeare, and 
 all old English writers. A. Sax. rim, 
 Fr. rime. It. and Sp. rvma, Ger. reim, 
 Sw. and Dan. rim, Icel. riwKJt. (See also 
 P. Hall, Modern English, p. 158.) 
 
 Rifme, Rithmicus vel rithmus.— Pi'ompt. 
 Parvulorum. 
 
 Man og to luuen Sat rimes ren, 
 <5e WisseK wel 8e logede men. 
 [Man ought to love that rhymes course, that 
 teacheth well the lewd men.] 
 
 Genesis and ExodiLS, 1.1. 
 Here y scbal beginnen a rijm, 
 Krist us yeue wel god fyn. 
 
 Hauelock the Dane, 1. 21, ed. Skeat. 
 Seye a pafer-noster stille, 
 For him jjat haueth Jje rymle] maked. 
 
 Id. 1. 2998. 
 
 And thanne y made this boke. But j wolde 
 notsetteitin mme, but in prose, forte abreg^e 
 it, and that it might be beterand more pleinfy 
 to be understond. — Boke of Knight of La 
 Tour Landi'y, p. 3. 
 
 This was a pretie phantasticall obseruation 
 of them, and yet brought their meetres to 
 haue a maruelous good grace, which was in 
 Greeke called puQfAo; : whence we haue de- 
 riued this word ri/mc, but improperly and not 
 wel because we haue no such feete or times 
 or stirres in our meeters, by whose sim- 
 pathie or pleasant conueniencie witli th' eare, 
 we could take any delight: this 9'tl/imusof 
 theirs, is not therefore our rime but a certaine 
 musicall numerositie in vtteranoe, and not a 
 bare number as that of the Arithmeticall 
 computation is, which therefore is not called 
 rithmus but arithmus. — G. Puttenham, Arte of 
 Eng. Poesie ( 1589), p. 83 (ed. Arber). 
 And vow you'le be reveng'd some other time 
 And then leave me to make the reason rime. 
 S. Rowlands, The Four Knaves (1611), p. 87 
 (Percy Soc). 
 
 EiBAND, ) an incorrect speUing 
 EiBBAND, S (Cowper), as if com- 
 pounded with land, of riVbon, old and 
 prov. French riban, Low Lat. rulanm 
 (1367, Littre), perhaps connected with 
 Lat. rubens, red (the Fr. word was 
 sometimes spelt mien, Scheler). Die- 
 fenbach suggests a connexion with 
 Goth, raip, a thong, Dan. reeh, Gael, 
 rib, Icel. reip, Eng. rope and reef ( Ooth. 
 Spraohe, ii. 163). The nautical term 
 rib-bamd, a thin lath, is distinct. 
 With ribands pendent flaring 'bout her head. 
 Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, 
 iv. 6, 42. 
 A ribband did the braided tresses bind. 
 The rest was loose, and wantoned in the 
 wind. 
 Dryden, Palamon and Arcite, bk. i. 1. 185. 
 
 EiCB, a Sussex word for underwood 
 cut sufficiently young to bear winding 
 into hedges or hurdles, is the modem 
 form of A. Sax. hris, a thin branch 
 (Parish). 
 
 EiDiNG, a corrupted form of the word 
 trithing, i.e. a thiirding or tliird part of 
 a shire. The ancient appellations wyr- 
 treding, sudtredmg, were mistakenly 
 analyzed into nort{h)-rednng, sudt- 
 reding (south-riding), in place of mor'- 
 treding, svd-tredmg (nor'-thriding, sou'- 
 thriding). 
 
 In Domesday Book trithing is the 
 name ,of the three divisions of York- 
 shire and Lincolnshire. The counties 
 of Cork and Tipperary have in modem 
 
BIO 
 
 ( 325 ) 
 
 BIGMABOLE 
 
 times been divided into ridings, but 
 there are only two thirdings in each of 
 those shires. 
 
 A French writer once thought it ne- 
 cessary to inform his readers that a 
 certain learned Society in the "West 
 Biding was not a " Societe hippique " 
 (Wheatley, What is an Index ?). 
 
 Big, a riotous or wanton course, 
 seems to be a corruption of the older 
 form reah or reeh. 
 
 Little he dreamt when he set out 
 Of running such a rig. 
 
 Coicper, John Gilpin. 
 
 Davies, Supp. Eng. Olossary, quotes 
 the following : — 
 
 Love and Rage kept such a reakes that I 
 thought they would hare gone mad together. 
 — BretoHj Dream of Strange Effects, p. 17. 
 
 It were enough to undo me utterly, to fill 
 brimful the cup of my misfortune, and maice 
 me play the mad-pate reeks of Bedlam. — 
 Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. iii. ch. ix. 
 
 Bia-ADOWN-DAISY, an old Scotch 
 name for a dance performed on the 
 grass, as if a rig or frolic, that beats 
 down the daisies, is a corruption of 
 Eng. rigadoon, Pr. rigadon, rigodon, 
 originally rigaudon, a lively dance, so 
 called after one Bigaud, its inventor 
 (Littre). Somewhat similarly down- 
 sella, the name of an old dance 
 (Wright), is from It. donzella. 
 
 We danced a rigadoon together. — The 
 Guardian, No. 154. 
 
 " Yes," sez Johnson, " in France 
 They're beginnin' to dance 
 Beelzebub's own rigadoon," sez he. 
 J. R. Lowell, The Biglow Papers, No. 5. 
 
 Righteous, a mis^peUing of right- 
 wise, old Eng. rigJitwis, A. Sax. rihtwis, 
 from a false analogy to such words as 
 plenteous, lounteous, &c. A similar 
 malformation is the Scotch wrongous. 
 
 Fore hel is not ordend fore ry^twyse mon, 
 Bot fore hom ]>at semen J^e fynd. 
 
 Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 221, 1. 340. 
 Seven sythes at the lest of the day 
 The ryghtwys falles. 
 tlampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 3432, 
 Welcome right-wise king, & Joy royall, 
 he that is grounded with grace ! 
 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. iii. p. 237, 1. 9. 
 The ryghtwjs peple ben al loste, trouthe 
 and rightmfsnes ben exyled and fordriuen. — 
 Caxton, Reynard the Fox, 1461, p. 117 (ed. 
 Arber;. 
 
 To Ceasar gene tribute, taxe, subsidie, and 
 all other dueties perteining to him, as to haue 
 
 hym in thy honour and reuerence : to obey 
 his iust lawes and Hghtwise commaunde- 
 ments. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 94 verso. 
 
 EiGMABOLE, an unmeaning harangue, 
 a long and rambling discourse, is a 
 corruption of old Eng. ragman-roll, a 
 catalogue or roll of names, sometimes 
 applied to a papal buU, and to an old 
 game in which a roll of parchment 
 played an important part. The essen- 
 tial idea seems to have been a long 
 document containing many items. The 
 original form was Bagman's roll, i.e. 
 the Devil's roll — Bagman (Swed. rag- 
 gen) being an old name for the devil. 
 See Skeat, Notes to P. Plowman, pp. 
 13, 378. 
 
 Fescennia Carmina I dooe here translate 
 accordyng to our Englyshe proverb a rag- 
 man's reive, or a bible. For so dooe we call 
 a long geste that railleth on any person by 
 name or toucheth a bodyes honesty somewhat 
 near. — Udall. 
 
 WiJ, merkes of marohauntes ■ y-medled by- 
 
 twene, 
 
 Mo Jian twenty and two • twyes y-noumbred, 
 
 jser is none heraud Jjat haf» ■ half swich a 
 
 rolte, 
 
 Ri5t as a rageman ' haj? rekned hem newe. 
 
 Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, 1. 180. 
 He blessede hem with bus [breuet] • and 
 blerede hure eye[n]. 
 And raghte with bus rageman • ryngea and 
 Broches. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, C. i. 73. 
 Venus, which stant withoute lawe, 
 In none certeine, but as man di'awe 
 Of Rageman upon the chaunce. 
 She laith no peise in the balaunce. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, vol. iii. p. 355. 
 Tutivillus. Here a rolle of ragman of the 
 rownde tabille. 
 Of breff'es in my bag, man, of synnes dampna- 
 bille. Towneley Mysteries, Juditium. 
 Explicit Ragmannes rolle, 
 Lenvoy of the prynter 
 Go Ijrtyl rolle, where thou arte bought or 
 
 solde, 
 Among fayre women behaue the mannerly : 
 
 And yf that they do blame the wrongfully, 
 Excuse thy prynter and thy selfe also, 
 Layenge the faute on hynge Ragman holly 
 Whiche dyde the make many yeres ago. 
 
 W. de Worde, Ragmannes Rolle. 
 
 Bagmen alone came to be used in 
 Scottish for a rhapsody or discourse. 
 Of my bad wit perchance I thoobt haue fenit 
 In ryme an ragmen twise als curiouse, 
 Bot not he tuentye part sa Sentencius. 
 
 G. Douglas, Bukes of' Eneados, p. 8, 1. 25. 
 
 A further corruption is rig-my-roll. 
 
BISEB 
 
 ( 326 ) 
 
 BOAM 
 
 You must all of you go in one rig-my-roll 
 way, in one beaten track. — Richardson, Sir 
 C. Grandisorij vi. 155. 
 
 EisEB, a provincial word used in 
 Warwickshire for a pea-stick (Wright), 
 as if that which lifts up the plant or 
 helps it to rise. 
 
 There can be little doubt that this 
 is only another form of Prov. Eng. 
 rise (rice), branches, pease-straw, old 
 Eng. rise, ris, a branch, A. Sax. hris, a 
 thin branch, Dan. ri/is, brushwood, a 
 rod. See BiOB. 
 
 The wodeward waiteth us wo that loketh 
 under rtfs. 
 Wright, Political Son^s, p. 149 (temp. 
 Ed. I'l.). 
 Here is pepyr, pyan, and swete lycorys, 
 Take hem alle at thi lykyng, 
 Bothe appel and per and gentyl rys, 
 But toKche nowth this tre that is of cun- 
 nying. 
 
 Coventry Mysteries, p. 82 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 EivBL, \ a wrinkle, are corrup- 
 EiVELiNG, i tions of writhel, writhe- 
 ling, from writhe, to twist, Swed. wrida, 
 Dan. vride. So Prov. Eng. writhled, 
 withered, originally shrivelled, wrin- 
 kled. Compare Queen-hive (Pepys)for 
 Queen-hithe ; Tcif (Sylvester) for kith ; 
 Prov. Bug. fill-horse, fistle, f/rsty, for 
 thill-horse, tlvistle, thirsty. 
 Sylenus now is old, I wonder, I 
 He doth not hate his triple venerie. 
 Cold, writhled eld, his lives- wet almost spent, 
 Me thinkes a unitie were competent. 
 
 Marston, Scourge of Villanie, sat. iv. 
 I vow'd your breasts for colour and propor- 
 tion 
 Were like a virithel'd pair of o'erworn foot- 
 balls. 
 Randolph, The Jealous Lovers, act ii. sc. 3 
 (1632). 
 But cursed cruell be those wicked Hags, 
 Whom poysonous spight, envy, and -hate 
 , have won 
 
 T' abhorred sorcery, whose writhled bags 
 Fould fiends oft suck, and nestle in their 
 loathsome rags. 
 H. More, Pre-existence of the Soul, st. 47. 
 Alle my lymes ben dryuun in to nouSt. 
 My ri/ueliingis seien witnessyng aSens me. — 
 Wyciiffe, 'Job xvi. 8, 9. 
 
 This .... is much used to take away 
 riuils, and so smooth the skin both of the face 
 and also of the whole body besides. — Holland, 
 Plinies Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 38. 
 I'll give thee tackling made ofrivell'd gold, 
 AVound on the barks of odoi*ifei'Ous trees. 
 Marlowe, Dido Queen of Carthage, act iii. 
 (1594), p. 261 (ed. Dyce). 
 
 It [gi'ief ] dries up the bones ; . . . makea 
 them hollow-ey'd, pale, and lean, furrow- 
 faced, to have dead looks, wrinkled brows, 
 riveled cheeks, dry bodies. — Burton, Anatomy 
 of Melancholy, I. ii. 3,4. 
 Then drooped the fading flowers (their beauty 
 
 fled) 
 And closed their sickly eyes, and hung the 
 
 head. 
 And rivelled up with heat, lay dying in their 
 
 bed. 
 Dryden, The Flower and the Leaf, 1. 378. 
 
 BoAM is probably of a radical iden- 
 tity with rarrible (?for ramvmle), Dut. 
 rarrmieln, to rout about, old Dut. rom- 
 melen, to move hither and thither. It 
 first appears, says Mr. Ohphant [Old 
 and Mid. Eng., p. 249), in Layamon's 
 Brut (vol. i. p. 335), ab. 1205, as rame- 
 den, the perfect of ram. This at an 
 early period assumed the form of rome, 
 to walk about. 
 For though we slepe, or wake, or rome, or 
 
 ride, 
 Ay fleth the time, it wol no man abide. 
 
 Chaucer, The Clerkes Tale. 
 
 Mr. Wedgwood would connect the 
 word with A. Sax. rym, Ger. rcmm, 
 Icel. rum, as if to room abroad or range 
 at large, comparing to expatiate, Ger. 
 spazieren, Lat. spatiari, to walk abroad, 
 from spatium, an open space. So Dut. 
 ruymen, to make room, give away, with- 
 draw (Sewel), Ger. raiMJieJi. 
 
 We certainly find an old Eng. i-wm or 
 room, to clear or make a way for one's 
 self, A. Sax. ryman, and rumian. 
 Hii aliste with drawe suerd, with matis 
 
 mani on, 
 & with mani an hard stroc rumede hor wey 
 
 anon. 
 Robt. of Gloucester's Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 536 
 (ed. 1810). 
 
 This also appears as reme, to make 
 room or clear a passage in Kyng Aly- 
 sounder, 1. 3347. 
 
 And thochtfuU luflaris rowmys to and fro. . 
 G. Douglas, Prolong to Xlt Buk ofEneados, 
 1. 201 (1513). 
 Kynges and knihtes • scholde kepen hem bi 
 
 Reson, 
 And Rihtfuliche Raymen • Jse Bealmes a- 
 bouten. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, A. i. 93. 
 Many of his lignage myght not fynde in 
 their hertes to see hym dye but token leue 
 soroufuUy and romed the court. — Caxton, Rey- 
 nard the Fox (1461), p. 31 (ed. Arber). 
 
 On the morow erly he mymed his castel 
 and weute with grymbart. — Id. p. 61. 
 
BO AM 
 
 i 327 ) 
 
 BO AM ■ 
 
 These burdes I joyne together, 
 To keep ts safe from the wedder, 
 That we may rome both hither and thider, 
 And safe be from this floode. 
 
 Chester Mi/steries, The Deluge. 
 
 When hee was in his bayne, the queene 
 and her daughter La beale Isoud roumed up 
 and dowue in the chamber. — Malonii, Hht. 
 of King Arthur (1634), Tol. ii. p. 22 (ed. 
 Wright). 
 
 However this may be, rome or roam 
 soon came to be regarded as meaning 
 to wander about like a pilgrim who 
 travels toward Borne [of. loel. B6m-f&); 
 Bdm-feri, a pilgrim to Eome [Gospa- 
 tridus romefare occurs in the Bivise de 
 Siohbo, A.D. 1200), Buma-vegr, a pil- 
 grimage] , from the analogy of the fol- 
 lowing :^ 
 
 It. romeo, a roamer, a.wandrer, a Palmer 
 for deuotion sake ; . . . Romeare, to roame or 
 wander Tp and downe as a Palmer or solitarie 
 man for deuotion sake. — Florio, 1611. 
 
 Compare old French romier, and 
 Spanish "romero, a Pilgrim, so called 
 because most Pilgrimages were for- 
 merly to Eome" (Stevens, 1706) ; Prov. 
 romerage, pilgrimage. Eome, it should 
 be remembered, was formerly pro- 
 nounced the same as room.- 
 
 Roome is come to bee the cytye whear owr 
 Lord was crucyfyed (for I ame sewr none of 
 his pure stamp beleeue that Christe sayd to 
 Peeter at iioome-gate, Vado iterum crucifigi). 
 — Harington, NugtE Antiqutef vol. i. p. 269. 
 
 Win. This Rome shall remedy. 
 War. Roam thither, then. 
 
 are, 1 Hen. VI. iii. 1. 
 
 Dante says that " people that go on 
 the service of God" are called ^aZmers 
 (palmerj) when they bring back the 
 palm from beyond sea ; pilgrims (pere- 
 grind) when they go to the House of 
 Gahcia (i.e. di Santo Jacopo) ; and 
 "roamers inasmuch as they go to 
 Borne" — romei in quanto vanno a 
 Eoma. — Vita Nova, Opera, vol. iv. p. 
 723 (Pirenze, 1830). 
 
 The Bondeu family of Provence bear 
 the pilgrim's emblem, escallops, in their 
 coat-of-arms. 
 
 Miss Yonge, therefore, wrote with 
 curious fehcity when she said, ".Eest- 
 less roaming to take one opinion after 
 another always seemed to be a symptom 
 of the Oxford Tractarians who fell away 
 to the church of Borne." — Musings on 
 the GJmstian Yea/r, p. xxi. 
 
 Saunter will possibly occur to many 
 as a parallel. It is by no means cer- 
 tain, however, that sa/imter, or sanier 
 (1648), meant originally aller a la Sainie 
 Terre, though this account of the word 
 is given in Blount, OlossograpUa (1656), 
 and has been adopted by Archbishop 
 Trench and others. It is more probably 
 to journey about from holy place to 
 holy place, visiting the saints or sanc- 
 tuaries, and near akin to Span, samtero, 
 Fr. sodutev/r. Compare the following : — 
 
 Sentourete, pelerine ; un pelerin, dans notre 
 idiome, s'appelle u seiitoure, celui qui va 
 v^nerer les reliques des saints. — V. Lespy, 
 Proverbes du Pays de Biarn, 1876 (see Notes 
 and Queries, 5th S. x. 246). 
 
 Similarly in Scotch to palmer or 
 pawm£r is to go from place to place in 
 an idle, objectless sort of way. 
 
 The Palmers . . . were a class of itinerant 
 monks without a fixed residence . . . visiting 
 at stated times the most remarkable Sanctua- 
 ries of the several countries of the West. — 
 Chambers' Cycl(rp(zdia, s.v. Palmer. 
 
 When the Turkish pilgrim EvUyd, 
 one of the greatest travellers of the 
 seventeenth century, formed the reso- 
 lution of passing his Ufe in travelling 
 and visiting the tombs of the saints, 
 his biographer remarks that his name 
 EvUya ( zz Saints) thus became signifi- 
 cant, as he had always a predilection 
 for visiting those places of pilgrimage 
 (Travels of Evliya EfenAi, vol. i. p. v. 
 Oriental Fund Trans, ed.). In fact he 
 was a saunterer. Probably santon has 
 a similar meaning in the following 
 passage, though in Spanish and French 
 it now means a hypocrite : — 
 
 To every one of these principall Mosques 
 belong publicke bagnios, Hospitals, with 
 lodgins for Santons, and Ecclesiasticall per- 
 sons. — Sandys, Travells, p. 32, fol. 
 
 Saunteria sometimes used by country 
 folk as meaning, not a lazy, leisurely 
 walk, a stroU, but a journey, however 
 long and rapid> if undertaken for 
 pleasure. Late on a November after- 
 noon in 1879, I found myself in the 
 same compartment of a train bound for 
 Brighton with a respectable man, ap- 
 parently of the gardening class, and 
 his wife. They informed me they had 
 left Norwich before 11 o'clock that 
 morning, and were "taking a saunter" 
 to Brighton to see their son. 
 
 In the Exmoor Scolding, one girl calls 
 
BOAST 
 
 ( 328 ) 
 
 BOAST 
 
 the other "ya sauntering troant" 
 (1. 282), i.e. idle, dilatory. 
 
 EoAST, in the colloquial phrase to 
 rule the roast, meaning to domineer, or 
 have everything one's own way, as if 
 to preside over the chief dish and dis- 
 pense it as one pleases, has been ex- 
 plained by Wedgwood, with reference 
 to the primary meaning of the words 
 A. Sax. hrost, Dutch roest, as denoting 
 a rod, which is ruled or wielded by a 
 sovereign as an emblem of authority. 
 He cites the expression, "to rule the 
 rod " z= to be supreme, hold sway, from 
 the collection of Scotch poems called 
 the Evergreen. It seems more hkely, 
 however, that the original phrase was 
 to rule the roost, to tyrannize as a cock 
 does over the poultry yard. The domi- 
 neering character of the gallus gallina- 
 ceus has originated synonymous ex- 
 pressions, e.g. " To be cock of the 
 walk." To rule the rother {i.e. the 
 cattle) occurs in the same sense in the 
 Mirror for Magistrates, p. 382. Bichard- 
 Bon quotes from Jewell : — 
 
 Like bragginge cockes on the roujst, flappe 
 your whinges, and crow out aloude. 
 
 Ihon, duke of Burgoyn, .... ruled the 
 rost, and governed both kyng Charles the 
 Frenche kyng, and his whole realme. — Hall, 
 1548 [in iS'ares]. 
 
 Boost, the rod on which fowls perch, 
 and roast, the rod on which meat used 
 to be dressed, are but different uses of 
 A. Sax. hrost, above (Ger. rost). See 
 N. and Q. 6th S. iii. 170. 
 
 To rost was the old form of to roost. 
 
 Trees that growe long tyme be rosted in a 
 lytell whyle. — Polycronieon, 1527, f. 120. 
 
 Compare the following : — 
 Thou dotard ! thou art woman-tired, unroosted 
 By thy dame Partlet here. 
 
 Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, ii. 3, 76. 
 'Tis a purgatory, a mere limbo. 
 Where the black devil & his dam Scurrility, 
 Do 7'ule the roost, foul princes of the air ! 
 
 Randolph, The Muses Looking-Glass, activ. 
 sc. 5, 1638 (p. 255, ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Sylla Tulifng the roste, & bearyng all the 
 stroke in Some (saieth Plutarchus) was in 
 minde and wille to take awaie from Caesar, 
 Cornelia the doughter of Cinna the dictater. 
 — Apophthegmes of Erasmus, 1542, p. 294 
 (repr. 1877). 
 
 Let us not look heere to rule the roste, but 
 to be rosted rather of Rulers. — A . Kingesmyl, 
 Most Excellent and Comfortable Treatise, p. 20, 
 1577. 
 
 Whatsoeuer ye brage our boste, 
 My mayster yet shall reule the roste. 
 Debate of the Carpenters Tools (ab. 1500), 
 
 Nug(E Poetic(E, p. 17. 
 Thus th warty ng ouer thorn, 
 He ruleth all the roste 
 With braggynge and with host; 
 Borne vp on euery syde, 
 With pompe and with pryde. 
 Shelton, Why Come ye nat to Courte ? 
 (ab. 1520). 
 The Lawyer leapeth in, 
 Nay, rather leapes both ouer hedge and 
 
 ditch. 
 And rules the rost, but iewe men rule by 
 
 right. 
 G. Gascoigne, The Steel Glas, 1. 427 (1576). 
 Where champions ruleth the roste, 
 There dailie disorder is moste. 
 
 Tusser, Fiue Hundred PointeSj 1580 
 (E. D. Soc. p. 144). 
 Nay yf richesse myghte rule the roste, 
 Beholde what cause I have to hoste. 
 Heywood, The Four P's (Dodsley, i. 78, 
 ed. 1825). 
 By natures spite, — what doo I saye 1 
 
 Dooth nature rule the roste ? 
 Nay, God it is, say wel I may. 
 By whom nature is tost. 
 
 Black-letter. Ballads (1566), p. 243 
 (ed. Lilly). 
 Some of them wil be whole maysters, and 
 rule the roast as they list themselves.— 
 Latimer, Sermons, p. 107 verso. 
 And here they crake, hable, and make grete 
 
 boste 
 And amonge all other wolde rule the roste. 
 The Hye Way to the Spyttel House, 1. 959. 
 But these by the priuie entries of the eare, 
 slip downe into the hart, and with gunshotte 
 of affection gaule the minde, where reason 
 and vertue should rule the roste. — S, Gossan, 
 Schoole of Abuse, 1579, p. 32 (ed. Arber). 
 
 He rules the roste ; and when my honour- 
 able lord sales it shall be thus, my worship- 
 full rascall (the grome of his close stoole) 
 saies it shal not be thus. — Marstan, Eastward 
 Hoe, act ii. sc. 1, vol. iii. p. 25 (ed. Halli- 
 well). 
 
 Remember many years bygane, 
 When he that ruled us right was slain ; 
 Respect to Quality was lost, 
 Tinkers and Coblers ruled the rost. 
 
 Joco-Ser. Dis. p. 36. 
 
 The Monarch who of France is bight, 
 Who rules the Roast with matchless might. 
 
 Since William went to Heaven. 
 
 N. Rowe, Works, vol. ii. p. 283 (1766). 
 
 He . . . was looking forward to the days 
 when he himself would sit authoritative at 
 some board, and talk, and direct, and rule 
 the roast, while lesser stars sat round and 
 obeyed. — A. Trollope, Barchester Towers, vol. 
 i. oh. 3. 
 
EOGK-A-LOW 
 
 ( 329 ) 
 
 BOOT 
 
 BocK-A-Low, a popular term for an 
 overcoat, is a corruption of the French 
 roquelaii/re (Slamg Diet.), a species of 
 cloak brought into use by the Duke of 
 Boquelaure in the time of Louis XIV. 
 (Gattel). Cf Eng. a spencer. 
 Within the Roqu^laure's clasp thy hands are 
 
 pent, 
 Hands, that stretoh'd forth inrading harms 
 prevent. Grai/, Trivia^ bk. 1 1. 51. 
 
 BaUey spells it roccelo, Madame 
 D'Arblay rocolo and roquelo. 
 
 A connexion was perhaps imagined 
 with the old word rock, rochet, a cloak 
 (rochet) ; cf. Devon rochel, a woman's 
 cloak. 
 
 Muffled up in a plain brown rocolo. — Mad, 
 D'Arblay, Diary, vi. 333. 
 
 BoMAN BEAM, a sort of balance or 
 stiUiards, otherwise Called a stelleer 
 (Bailey), is not, as one might naturally 
 suppose, of Roman origin, but is the 
 same word as Pr. romaine and halcmce 
 romcdne, old Fr. romman (14th cent.), 
 Sp. roma/na. Low Lat. romana (Du 
 Cange), which are all from the Arabic 
 rommdna, a balance (Littre), originally 
 the movable weight or counterpoise, so 
 named from its shape resembling a 
 pomegranate, romman (Devio). The 
 word is thus akin to Heb. rimmwn, a 
 pomegranate. 
 
 Romaine, a Roman beam, a Stelleere. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Romana, a paire of ballanoe or scales to 
 weigh with, a pomgranate. — Minsheu, Spanish 
 Diet. 1623. 
 
 Book, the name of a piece in the 
 game of chess, is a corruption of It. 
 rocco, old Fr. roc, roquer, Sp. rogue. 
 The Itahan word rocco signifies not 
 only the chessman, but a roch, fort, or 
 castle,' and is itself a corruption of 
 Pers. rohh, Sansk. rolia, a boat — that 
 being the original form of the piece. 
 Prom this mistake arose its other 
 names torre, tour, castello, our "castle " 
 (D. Forbes, 3igt. of Ohess, pp. 161, 
 211). In old English writers it is 
 sometimes called a duhe. 
 
 E, There's the full number of the game ; 
 Kings and their pawns, queen, bishops, 
 knights and dukes. 
 
 J. Dukes ? They're called rooks by some. 
 
 E. Corruptively. 
 
 Le roch, the word, custodi^ de la roch. 
 The keeper of the forts. 
 
 Middleton, Gjtne of Chess, Induction. 
 
 The Bussian lodia, a boat, preserves 
 the original signification of the rook. 
 The Icelandic hrohr is an assimilation 
 of the foreign word to the name of the 
 crow, exactly as in English. M. Devic 
 thinks that the original of the word was 
 old Pers. rokh, a knight errant ; and 
 the primitive shape of the piece, an 
 elephant surmounted by a castle, the 
 castle finally predominating. See also 
 Basterot, Jeu des Echecs, p. 18. 
 
 In a curious old set of Scandinavian 
 chessmen, the hrohr is represented as a 
 warrior on foot. — Wright, The Homes 
 of other Days, 221. 
 
 Boot, to grub or turn up, as a pig 
 does the earth with its snout, so spelt 
 as if to eradicate or tear up by the 
 roots (" The wild boar out of the wood 
 doth root it up."— Ps. Ixxx. 13, P.B.V.), 
 was originally to wroot or wrote, A. Sax. 
 wrotan, Dut. wroeten. The initial w is 
 also lost in Dan. rode, Ger. rotten, Icel. 
 r6ta (? Lat. rodere). Nearly related is 
 write, A. Sax. writan, orig. to out or en- 
 grave. 
 
 Hie scrobs, a syvyn-wrotyng. — Wright's 
 Vocabularies, p. 271. 
 
 Right as a sowe wroteth in every ordure, so 
 wroteth she hire beautee in stinking ordure of 
 sinne. — Chaucer, The Persones Tale, p. 149 
 (ed. Tyrwhitt). 
 
 At one of the Rodings in Essex no Hogs 
 will root. — T. Fuller, Worthies of England, 
 vol. ii. p. 6 (ed. 1811). 
 
 Sum men ladeS here lif on etinge and on 
 di'inkinge alse swin, Jje uulieS and wrote^ 
 and sneuieiS aure fule [as swine that defile 
 and root and sniff ever foully] . — Old Eng. 
 Homilies, 2nd Ser. p. 37 (ed. Morris). 
 
 These enginers of m ischiefe, that like moles 
 doe lye and wrot in sinne, till they haue cast 
 vppe a mount of hatefull enormitie against 
 heauen, they may well be called the souldiers 
 of the deuil. — B. Rich, Honestie of this Age 
 (1614), p. 36 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Soon we shall drive back, 
 
 Of Aloibiades the approaches wild. 
 
 Who like a boar too savage, doth root up 
 
 His country's peace. 
 Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, r. 1, 167. 
 Come dunghill worldlings, you that root like 
 
 swine, 
 And cast up golden trenches where you 
 come. 
 
 Quarles, Emblems, bk. i. emb. 9 (1635). 
 
 Boot, curiously used by Bunyan in 
 the phrase " to learn by root of heart," 
 as if thoroughly, of a lesson committed 
 to memory so as easily to be repeated, 
 
B08E 
 
 ( 330 ) 
 
 BOUQH 
 
 is old Eng. " Booi, of vee and custom, 
 Habitus, consuetudo " (Trcmvpt. Parv.), 
 which is from Fr. route, a beaten track 
 or road, old Fr. rote ; originally to learn 
 par routine or pwr rotime (Ootgrave), 
 according to customary habit, in a 
 groove, mechanically. 
 
 I advise that thou put this letter in thy 
 bosome ; that thou read therein to thyself and 
 to thy children, until you have got it by root- 
 of-heart. — Pilgrims Progress, pt. ii, p. 11. 
 
 In the following the sense is dif- 
 ferent : — 
 
 Hee spake with a premeditate pride fi'om 
 his heart root, which passed not whether it 
 were sin or no, come what will come of it. — 
 H. Smith, Sermons, p. 171 (1657). 
 
 EosB, the sprinkler of a watering- 
 pot, the perforated head of its spout, is 
 a word overlooked in Latham and most 
 other dictionaries. It stands for roser, 
 Scottish rouser, rooser, a watering-pot, 
 from Fr. an-rosoir, arrousoir, which is 
 from Fr. arrouser, "to bedeaw, be- 
 sprinkle, wet, moisten, water gently " 
 (Cotgrave). Compare Sp. radar, to 
 bedew, besprinkle, old Fr. aroser, from 
 ad -t- roser, Fr. rosee, dew, Lat. ros, 
 Slav, rosa, Lith. rasas, Sansk. rasa, 
 water, liquid. 
 
 Des lermes aruste est sa face. 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 515 (ed. Atkinson). 
 La Providence est une source 
 Toujours prSte k nous arroser. 
 
 Malherbe [in Littr^]. 
 
 The French word was adopted into 
 EngUsh as a/rrowze, and sometimes 
 spelt arrose. 
 The blissefuU dew of heaven do's arrowze you. 
 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen (1634), v. 4, 1. 104 
 (ed. Littledale). 
 
 EosEMABY has no connexion either 
 with rose or Mary, but is the Latin ros- 
 ma/rimis, "sea-spray," so called from 
 its usually growing on the sea-coast 
 (Prior). Compare Danish rosma/rin, 
 ]?r. rosmarin, Low Lat. rosma/rinus. 
 The following passage, speaking of re- 
 lics of the medisBval cultus of the Vir- 
 gin stiU surviving in the names of 
 flowers, is doubly incorrect : — 
 
 The Rose (of) Mnrti is still among the most 
 fragrant, as the Mary-Gold is among the 
 gaudiest, in our gardens. — Church Quarterly 
 Review, April, 1879, p. 153. 
 
 Bosema/ry, which was once custo- 
 marily worn at weddings, seems by a 
 curious error to have been regarded as 
 
 a derivative of Lat. mas, ma/ris, a male, 
 and so connected with Fr. man, Lat. 
 maritus, a husband, as if rosa mmis, 
 rose de niari. 
 
 The last of the flowers is the rosemary 
 (Rosmarinus, the rosemary, is f(rr married 
 men), the which by name, nature, and con- 
 tinued use, man challen^eth as properly be- 
 longing to himselfe. — Roger Hacket, A Ma- 
 riage Present, 1607. 
 
 ( See Brand, Pop. Aniiqmiws, vol. ii. 
 p. 119, ed. 1854.) 
 
 His herbe propre is rosmarine, 
 "Which shapen is for his covine. 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, vol. iii. p. 132. 
 Fat Colworts, and comforting Perseline, 
 Colde Lettuce, and refreshing Rosmariiie, 
 Spenser, Muiopotmus, 1. 201. 
 Biting on annis-seed and rosemarine. 
 Which might the fume of his rot lungs refine. 
 J. Hall^ Satires, bk. iv. sat. 4. 
 The Roseirmrie Branch. 
 Grow for two ends, it matters not at all 
 Be't for my bridall, or my buriall. 
 
 Herrich, Hesperides (p. 249, ed. Hazlitt). 
 The xiiij day of July was mared in Sant 
 Mary Wolnars in Lumbard strett iij dowthers 
 of master Atkynson the skrevener ; . . . and 
 they whent to the chyi'che all iij on after 
 a-nodur with iij goodly cupes garnysshes 
 with lases gilt and goodly flowrs and ros- 
 mare. — Machyn, Diary, 1560 (p. 240, Cam- 
 den Soc). 
 
 Here is a sti-ange alteration : for the rose-' 
 mary that was wasbt in sweet water to set 
 out the bridall, is now wet in teares to fur- 
 nish her burial. — Decker's Wonderfuli Yeare, 
 1603. 
 
 KosTBK, the oflSoial list of regiments, 
 &o., on active service, seems to be a 
 corruption of register (as if rejister, 
 reister, roster), but the vowel change is 
 not easily accounted for. 
 
 The eighteen regiments first on the roster 
 for foreign service should be kept really fit 
 for service. — The Saturday Review, vol. 47, 
 p. 293. 
 
 EouGH, 1 to trump one's adversary's 
 EuFF, / card at whist (Wright), is 
 without question a derivative of the 
 Dutch word troef, a trump at cards 
 (Sewel), which was resolved _ into 
 f roe/, to ruff or rough. Troef itself, 
 like Dan. tromf, Scot, trumph, a card of 
 the principal suit, Eng. trump, is for 
 triumph (or winning) card, Lat. 
 triumphus. Contracted orthographies, 
 like t' ransacli (More), t' rum, for to 
 ransack, to run, occurring in old 
 writers, would favour this corruption. 
 
BOUND 
 
 ( 331 ) 
 
 BOUND 
 
 And change 13 no robbery. I have been 
 robbed, but not at ruff; yet they that have 
 robbed, you see, what a poor stock they have 
 left me. — Heywood and Rowley, Fortune by 
 Laud and Sea (1655), act v. sc. 3. 
 
 Saint Augustine compareth the Diuell in 
 bis greatest ruffe and iollity, vnto those eager 
 Labourers, which, digging at the mettals, 
 want neither will nor instruments. — Howard, 
 DeJ'ensative against the Poyson of supposed pro- 
 phecies, 1620, p. 9. 
 
 The following clear elucidation by a 
 Saturday Beviewer (vol. 48, p. 609) is de- 
 lightful: — "According to Eiohardson, 
 the primary meaning of ruff is eleva- 
 tion or exaltation, and the articles of 
 costume so denominated owe their 
 name to their being raised or puffed 
 out or up ; and this would explain the 
 use of the word ruff, instead of trump, 
 in the taking of tricks by a card of the 
 dominant suit of the deal." (1) 
 
 Bound, in modern slang to peach, 
 inform on, or give evidence against 
 one, perhaps with some idea of turning 
 round upon him treacherously, in old 
 Enghsh meant to whisper, and is a 
 corrupt form of roun or rowTie, A. Sax. 
 runian (Grer. raunen), akin to Icel. 
 run, a secret, a whispering, also a rays- 
 tic character, a Eune (Cleasby, p. 504), 
 Goth, runa, a mystery, a conference 
 (Diefenbach, ii. 177). 
 
 Roimyn togeder, Susurro. — Prompt, Par- 
 vulorum. 
 
 Heo runei> to-gaderes. 
 and spekef; of derne luue. 
 Old Eng. Miscellanti, p. 188, 1. 60. 
 
 [They whisper together and speak of secret 
 love.] 
 
 One roiided an other in the eare and sayd : 
 Erat diues. He was a rich man. A great 
 fault. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 64. 
 
 I rounded Habalais in the eare when he 
 Historified Pantagruell. — Lingua, ii. 1 
 (1632). 
 
 He rounded softly in their ears. — North's 
 Plutarch, Life of M. Brutus. 
 
 In the poHce reports of the Times of 
 March 15th, 1875, appeared the follow- 
 ing statement : — 
 
 The defendant wanted to take a large piece 
 of cheese away with him, which Clarke pre- 
 vented by speaking to the butler. On leaving 
 the house the defendant said, " What do you 
 mean by rounding upon me ? " and struck 
 him a violent blow on the side of the head. 
 
 He overstepped his time, but at last as his 
 wife said she would ' ' round " on him if he did 
 not go back, he gave himself up. — Police Re- 
 ports, Standard, Sept. 20, 1876. 
 
 Five years long, now, rounds faith into my 
 
 ears, 
 " Help Thou, or Christendom is done to 
 death ! " 
 Browning, The Ring and the Book, 
 canto 10. 
 See also Nares, s.v. 
 
 Bound, the cross piece or step of a 
 ladder, so spelt as if it denoted a round 
 step, it being commonly shaped hke a 
 cylinder (so Craik, English of Bhah- 
 spere, p. 128), is a corruption of old 
 Eng. ronde, a stick or stave, which per- 
 haps came to be confounded with Fr. 
 rond, round. 
 
 Te grene bowes beoS al uordi-uwede, & 
 forwurSen to druie hwite rondes [The green 
 boughs be all di-ied up, and degenerated into 
 dry white staves]. — Ancren Riwle, p. 148. 
 
 This round, ronde, seems to be only 
 a different forna of Scottish rum,g, roung, 
 a stick, staff, or cudgel, Eng. rung (old 
 Eng. rong), the bar of a ladder, Gael. 
 rang, Dut. rong, Icel. raung, Goth. 
 lirugga (pronounced fi/runga), a staff 
 (Diefenbach, Goth. Sprache, ii. 590). 
 Compare rung, the rib of a ship, A. Sax. 
 hrung, a beam, Icel. rong. 
 
 Then up she gat ane meikle rung. 
 And the gudeman made to the door. 
 The Wife of Aujihternaichty (Roberts, 
 Ballads, p. 549). 
 Auld Scotland has a raucle tongue, 
 She's just a devil wi' a ning. 
 
 Burns, Poems, p. 12 (Globe ed.). 
 Lowliness is young ambition's ladder, 
 Whereto the climber-upward turns his face ; 
 And when he once attains the upmost round, 
 He then unto the ladder turns his back. 
 Looks in the clouds, scorning the base de- 
 grees. 
 By which he did ascend. 
 
 Shakespeare, Julius CtEsar, ii. 1, 26. 
 Where all the roimds like Jacob's ladder rise, 
 The lowest hid in earth, the topmost in the 
 skies. 
 Dryden, Hind and Panther, pt. ii. 1. 221. 
 You'll have to begin at a low round of the 
 ladder, let me tell you, if you mean to get on 
 in life. — George Eliot, Mill on the Floss, 
 ch. X. 
 
 Bound, in such phrases as " to take 
 one roumdly to task," " to rate one 
 roundly," 
 
 Pray you, be round with him. 
 
 Hamlet, iii, 4, 
 
 meaning outspoken, unreserved, full, 
 plain, not circuitous, using no circum- 
 locutions, but going straight to the 
 point, is a distinct word from round. 
 
BOUND 
 
 ( 332 ) 
 
 BOUSE 
 
 circular. It is identical with the North 
 country word round, full, large, Dan. 
 rund, liberal, abundant, Swed. rund, 
 large, liberal. But Fr. rond also means 
 blunt, plain, open-hearted (Cotgrave), 
 which would suggest as possible transi- 
 tions of meaning, (1) round, (2) plump, 
 fuU, (3) free, outspoken. 
 
 Come roundly, roundly, come, what is the 
 matter ? 
 The Famous History of Captain Thomas 
 Stukeley, 1. 26 (1605). 
 
 Your reproof is something too round; I 
 should be angiy with you, if the time were 
 convenient. — Shakespeare, Henry V, iv. 1, 
 218. 
 
 Let his queen mother all alone entreat him. 
 To show his grief: let her be round with him. 
 Id. Hamlet, iii. 1, 191. 
 
 I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver, 
 
 Of my whole course of love. 
 
 Id. Othello, i. 3, 90. 
 
 At this the Fish did not bite ; whereupon 
 the King took a rounder way, commanding 
 my Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Pem- 
 broke to propound joyntly the same unto 
 him, (which the Archbishop had before 
 moved) as immediately from the King. — 
 ReliquiiB Wottonianic, p. 409 (1672). 
 
 The good woman, whether moved by com- 
 passion, or by shame, or by what ever other 
 motive, I cannot tell, first gave her servants 
 a round scold for disobeying the orders which 
 she had never given. — Fielding, History of a 
 Foundling, bk. viii. cb. 4. 
 
 EouND, V. a., a technical term in the 
 manufacture of playing cards, meaning 
 to trim the edges of the card-boards, so 
 as to make them straight and rect- 
 angular, is no doubt a corruption of 
 the French verb rogner, used in the 
 same sense, " dresser avec les ciseaux 
 les bords du Carton." — Transactions of 
 PMlohg. 8oc. 1867, p. 74. 
 
 EouNDBLAY, " a shepheard's dance, 
 sometimes used for a Song" (Dunton's 
 Ladies Dicti<)nary), is the French ron- 
 delet Anglicized and assimilated in its 
 termination to lay, a song, hke virela/y. 
 In Vaughan's JDaphnis it is actually 
 spelt as a compound word. 
 
 Here many garlands won at roundel-lays 
 Old shepherds hung up in those happy days. 
 Sacred Poems, p. 242 (ed. 1858). 
 
 Fr. rondelet ( ^ rondeau), a rime or sonnet 
 that ends as it begins. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Then haue you also a rondlette, the which 
 doth alwayes end with one self same foote or 
 repeticion, and was thereof (in my judge- 
 
 ment) called a rondelet. — G. Gascoigne, The 
 Steele Glas, 1576, p. 38 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Where be the dapper ditties that I dight 
 
 And roundelays and virelays so soot. 
 
 Davison, Poet, Rhaps. 60 (repr.). 
 
 Now instead of parley with courtly gal- 
 lants, shee singeth songs, carols, and romde- 
 layes. — Tom a Lincolne, 1635, Thorns, Early 
 Eng, Prose Romances, vol. ii. p. 280. 
 Who, listening, heard him, while he searched 
 
 the grove. 
 And loudly sung his roundelay of love. 
 
 Dryden, Paiaman and Arcite, bk. ii. 1. 78, 
 . . . The cock hath sung beneath the thatch, 
 Twice or thrice his roundelay. 
 
 Tennyson, The Owl, Song 1. 
 
 Lay itself is a perverted form of 
 A. Sax. leoth, =. Ger. Ued, a song. 
 
 Bound Eobin, a corruption of rond 
 ruhan, a circular band, a name given 
 in France to the method adopted by 
 some of&cers of the Government to 
 make known their grievances, so that 
 no one name should seem to stand 
 first {N. Ir Q. 5th S. vi. p. 157). 
 
 In Prov. EngUsh round-roVin is a 
 small pan-cake (Devon), and the word 
 was often irreverently used for the 
 sacramental wafer in the controversial 
 tractates of the Puritans in Eeforma- 
 tion times. It is used by Haoket for 
 a rebel or leader of sedition (see Davies, 
 Sijbpp- Eng, Olossary, s.v.). 
 
 Various emendations were suggested, 
 which it was agreed should he submitted to 
 the Doctor's consideration. But the quebtion 
 was, who should have the courage to propose 
 them to him? At last it was hinted that 
 there could be no way so good as that of a 
 Round Robin, as the sailors call it, which they 
 make use of when they enter into a con- 
 spiracy, so as not to let it be kuown who puts 
 his name first or last to the paper. — Bosmll, 
 Life of Johnson, vol. iii. ch. 3. 
 
 The abruptness of the interruption gave to 
 it the protecting character of an oral " round 
 robin,' it being impossible to challenge any 
 one in particular as the ringleader.— Be 
 Quincey, Autohiographie Sketches, Works, vol. 
 xiv. p. 46. 
 
 EouSB, a drinking bout, a carouse, is 
 the same word as Ger. rausch, dnmken- 
 ness, Dut. roes, Dan. rusende, be-ruset, 
 fuddled, intoxicated. Hence also Prov. 
 Eng. rouse, noise, riot, from which 
 (mistaken as a plural ?) row, a distur- 
 bance. 
 
 Dekker speaks of "the German's 
 upsy-freeze, the Danish rowsa " as dif- 
 ferent sorts of toping {Oul's Hornhoh), 
 
B UBBEB 
 
 ( 333 ) 
 
 BULE 
 
 In Germany every one hath a rouse in his 
 
 pate once a day. — J. Howell, Instructions for 
 
 Forraine Travell, 1642, p. 65 (ed. Arber). 
 
 The king doth wake to night and takes his 
 
 rouse. Shakespeare, Hamlet, i. 4. 
 
 Mar. We'll talk anon : another rouse ! we 
 
 lose time. [Drinks. 
 
 Masdnger, The Bonrlman, ii. 3, 
 Fill the cup and fill the can, 
 Have a rouse before the morn. 
 
 Tennyson, Vision of Sin, 1. 96. 
 
 EuDDEE, an old Eng. name for horned 
 cattle, is a corruption of roth&r, A. Sax. 
 hryier, hruier, hri^er, akin to Fris. 
 rither, Ger. rinder (-pest) from hrind, 
 and perhaps runt, an old cow. 
 
 KotAcrheasta,horned beasts, North Country. 
 — Bailey. 
 Foure ro\>eren hym by-fom • {lat feble were 
 
 worjjen. 
 Peres the Plouhman's Crede, 1. 431 (ab. 1394). 
 
 Boote, ... a serpent that liues by milke 
 ofrudder beasts. — Florio, 1611. 
 
 For |;isyl[on]dysbestto brynge for); tren, 
 & fiiiyt, & ro]peron, & ojjere bestes. — Trevisa, 
 Description of Britain [Morris and Skeat, 
 S'pecimem, i. 236]. 
 
 Euerych sowtere Jj' make)) shon of news 
 rojies lejier, shal bote, at Jjat feste of Estre, 
 twey pans, in name of shongahle [i.e. shoon- 
 gable, shoe-tax]. — E«g. Gilds, p. 359. 
 
 EuPFiAN has acquired its modem 
 sense of a brutally violent feUow, an 
 outrageous buUy, from its having been, 
 no doubt, popularly connected with 
 rough, which was formerly spelt ruff, 
 just as one of the coarse boisterous 
 canaille is now called " a rough." The 
 word may have been further influenced 
 by old Eng. ruff and ruffle, to raise a 
 tumult or disturbance, to be rough and 
 turbulent, to bully or swagger. Com- 
 pare Icel. rufinn, rough, uncombed, 
 and the following citations : — 
 
 Lacno, a dogs name, as we say Shag- 
 haire, Ruffe, or Ruffian. — Florio. 
 
 It. ruffiano, a ruffin, a swagrer, a swash- 
 buckler. — Id. 
 
 Ruff'o, a ruffian, a riffling roister ; . . . also 
 rude, ruffe, or rough. — Id. 
 
 Ruffare, to ruffle or make ruff. — Id. 
 
 Shakespeare speaks somewhere of 
 " the ruffian billows," and Chapman 
 of " the ruffnous pride of stonns and 
 tempests" {lUad, vi. 456). 
 A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements : 
 If it hath ruffian'd so upon the sea. 
 
 Othello, ii. 1, 7. 
 The night comes on, and the bleak winds 
 Do sorely ruffe. King Lear, ii. 4, 304. 
 
 The old meaning of ruffian was 
 curiously different, viz., an effeminate 
 curled darling, a minion (amasius), 
 having curly or bushy hair, which 
 would argue a connexion with Sp. rufo, 
 curled, It. arruffare, to ruflae, bristle, 
 stare with ones haire, to froimce. See 
 Trench, Select Glossary, where he 
 quotes from G. Harvey, "ruffianly 
 hair," from Prynne, "an effeminate, 
 ruffianly lock," and "ruffians .... in 
 their deformed grizzled locks and 
 hair." Compare also Homilies, p. 331 
 (Oxford ed.), Puller, Ghwrch Hist. vol. 
 i. p. 290 (Nichols' ed.) 
 
 She could not . . . mince finer, nor set on 
 more laces, nor make larger cuts, nor carry 
 more trappings about her, than our ruffians 
 and wantons do at this day. — H. Smith, Ser- 
 mons, p. 208 (1657). 
 
 We might infer from the following 
 that ruffian once denoted, not so much 
 roughness of behaviour, as roughness 
 of appearance, especially in the matter 
 of hair. 
 
 I will not write of sweatie, long, shag haire, 
 Or curled lockes with frisled periwigs : 
 The first, the badge that Ruffins vse to weare, 
 The last, the cognisance of wanton rigs. 
 
 Tom Tel-Troths Message, 1. 274 
 (Shaks. Soo.) 
 
 Let ruffins weare a bushe, 
 
 and sweat till well nigh dead. 
 In that Ime bald I care no rush, 
 but onely wipe my head. 
 
 Denham, Defence of a Bald Head, 
 in Register of Stationers' Com- 
 pany, li. 99 (Shaks. Soc.) 
 
 Pr. rufien, Sp. rufian, It. ruffiano, 
 Prov. Ger. ruffer, denote specifically a 
 bawd or pander, and a connexion has 
 been suggested for these with It. ruffa, 
 dirt, scurf, Fr. rouffe, as if morally 
 filthy (Diez, Scheler). 
 
 The following is mere folks-etymo- 
 logy:— 
 
 A swaggerer is one that plays at ruffe, from 
 whence he took the denomination of ruffyn. 
 — /. H. (^Gent), Satyricai Epigrams, 1619 
 [Brewer]. 
 
 Shall I fall to falling bands, and be a 
 ruff-an no longer ? I must ; I am now liege- 
 man to Cupid, .... Therefore, hat-band, 
 avaunt ! ruff, regard yourself ! gai'ters, 
 adieu ! — Heywood, Fair Maid of the Exchange, 
 act i. sc. 3 (Shaks. Soc. ed. p. 22). 
 
 EuLE, an old word for a tumult or 
 disturbance, is a contracted form of 
 revel (reuel), the v being vocaUzed as in 
 
BUMMEB 
 
 ( 334 ) 
 
 RUNAGATE 
 
 old Eng. recure, recomre, for recouer, 
 recover. See Peruse and Eetel. 
 
 Compare old Eng. reweyll, proud 
 {Lancelot of the Laih, 1. 2853), from old 
 Fr. revele, haughty; renule (Wycliffe, 
 Ps. ciii. 30), from renouveler, to renew. 
 
 In Devonshire rowl is a wake, a 
 rustic fair held on the anniversary of 
 the dedication of a church. 
 Vor why vor ded'st roily zo upon ma up to 
 Challacomb rowl. 
 
 Exmoor Scolding, 1. 2 (E. D. S.). 
 
 To reul, to be rude, to behave one's self un- 
 mannerly, to rig. A reuling Lad, a Rig'sby. — 
 Ray, Korth Country Words (p. 51, ed. 1742). 
 
 What for running for aqua vitae, posting 
 for ale, plying warm cloathes, and such like, 
 there was no lesse rule then is in a tauerne 
 of great resorte. — 2^he Passionate Morrice 
 (1593), p. 79 (Shaks. Soc.) 
 And at each pause they kiss ; was never seen 
 
 such rule 
 In any place but here, at bonfire, or at yule. 
 Drayton, Poiyolbion, xxvii. [Nares]. 
 
 When MalvoUo checks Sir Toby for 
 making a disturbance late at night, he 
 
 If you prized my lady's favour at anything 
 more than contempt, you would not give 
 means for this uncivil rule. — Twelfth Night, 
 ii. S, 132. 
 With alle jpe murines Jiat men may vise, 
 To Reuele with Jjise buyrdes briht. 
 A So7ig of Yesterday, 1. 15 (Philolog. Soc. 
 Trans. 1858, p. 133). 
 That he that is so by the saide fraternyte 
 electe to be a Maister, and he wolde refuse to 
 take the gouernaunce vppon hym, wherby a 
 inordynatt ruell schulde ensue, that then he 
 so electe, for his refuselh to paye XXs. — 
 English Gilds, p. 332 (E.E.T.S.). 
 All game and gle. 
 All myrthe and melodye, 
 All reuell and ryotte 
 And of host wy 11 I never blynne. 
 The Worlde and tlie Chylde, 1522 (O.P/aj/s, 
 
 xii. 313). 
 Here rule and revel appear side by 
 side : — 
 
 The Deuil hath his purpose this way, as 
 well as the other, he hath his purpose as well 
 by reuelling and keeping ill rule all night, as 
 by rising early in the morning, and banquet- 
 ing all daye. So the Deuil hath hys pur- 
 pose both wayes. — Latimer, Semwns, p. 108. 
 
 Edmmee, a large tumbler, as if for 
 rum, is the German romer, as if roomer 
 (Bailey). 
 
 Hostess meanwhile pours the wine into the 
 Hummers, and puts the sugar on the shives. 
 — The Comedy of the Prodigal Son, act iii. 
 
 Then Rhenish rummers walk the round 
 In bumpers every king is crowned, 
 
 Dryden, To Sir G. Et)tei-ege, 1.46. 
 
 EuNAGATE, an old word for a worth- 
 less, roving fellow, as if runaway, from 
 run and old Eng. gate {"rurmagate 
 slaves." — Golding), is a corruption of 
 renegade, 0. Eng. renegate, Pr. remgai, 
 It. rinegata, one who has denied or re- 
 nounced his faith or country, from Lat. 
 renega/re, whence also comes the Shake- 
 spearian word renege or renegw, to 
 deny. This latter BtUl survives ia Ire- 
 land, where I have heard a fanner's 
 wife condemning a neighbour for rene- 
 ging her religion. Vide Ps. Ixviii. 6 
 (Prayer Book version). 
 
 Idle vagabonds and loitering runagates.— 
 Homily against Idleness. 
 
 The devil is .... a vagrant rumgate 
 walker like Cain. — Adams, Works, vol. ii. 
 p. 45. 
 And must I hence, and leaue this certain 
 
 state. 
 To roam vnceitain (like a Runagate). 
 
 Sylvester, Hu Bartas, p. 308 (1621). 
 
 In the Genevan version of the Bible 
 the Lord says to Cain : — 
 
 A vagabond and a runnagaie shalt thou be 
 in the earth. — Gen. iv. 12. 
 
 Runagate, apostata. — Levins, Manipuhs 
 (1570), 40, 5. 
 
 RunTiagate or rebell, whyche forsaketh 
 allegiaunce or profession, apostita. — Huloet, 
 Bynd bundels to-geder to be I-brent, 
 
 Bynd spousebrekers with awouters. 
 And ranegates with raueners. 
 
 Old hng. Miscellany, p. 212, 1. 63. 
 Is there ony renogat among us fer as ye 
 
 knawe, 
 Or ony that pervertyth the pepil wyth gay 
 eloquens alon? 
 
 Coventry Mysteries, p. 384 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 I wyll not playe the runagate and go euery- 
 where, but 1 retourue agayne to my lather. — 
 Udal's Erasmus, John, fol. 886. 
 
 Ever since he fell from heaven he hath 
 lived like Cain, which cannot rest in a place, 
 but is a runagate over the earth, from door to 
 door, from man to man, begging for sins as 
 the starved soul begs for bread.— if. Smith, 
 Sermons, p. 486 (1657). 
 Hence, hence, ye slave ! dissemble not thy 
 
 state, 
 But henceforth be a turne-coate i-unmgate. 
 Marston, Satyres, 1. (vol. iii. p. 217). 
 
 My Lord Will-be-will was turned a very 
 rebel and rungate. — Bunyan, Holy War, 
 ch. iii. 
 
 We take you to be some vagabond nna- 
 gate crew. — Id. ch. iv. 
 
BUN GOTJNTEB ( 335 ) 
 
 BUSTY 
 
 A kitchin Co ig called an j'dle runagate 
 Boi), — The Fraiemitm of Vacabondes, 1575. 
 
 In Sussex, runagate is still in use for 
 a tramp or vagabond (L. J. Jennings, 
 Field Paths and Oreen Lanes, p. 45). 
 
 Bun counter. Sir John Stoddart 
 thought that this expression was a cor- 
 ruption of renccnmter, Pr. rencontre 
 (Philosophy of Language, p. 178), but 
 it may be doubted whether he was cor- 
 rect. 
 
 Shakespeare speaks of " a hound that 
 runs counter and yet draws dry-foot 
 well." — Gom. ofEn-cfTS, iv. 2. 
 
 EuNNABLE, a Norfolk word meaning 
 glib, loquacious, is no doubt a corrup- 
 tion of the old word renable, misunder- 
 stood as if a derivative of renne, to run, 
 while it is really a contraction of the 
 word reasonable. 
 
 Of tonge she was trew and renable. 
 
 Ywaine and Gawaine, 1. 208. 
 A "renabulle tonge," occurs in 
 Myrc's Duties of a Parish Priest; re- 
 •nabhj, in Chaucer, Freres Tale, 1. 211. 
 Besonable, in Vision of Piers the Plow- 
 man, Pars I. 1. 176, Text C, is renable 
 in Text B (see Skeat, Notes, in loc). 
 Hast («u also prowde I-be 
 Of any vertu fiat god 3af fie ? . . . 
 Or for (jow hast a renabulle tonge. 
 Or for thy body is fayr and long. 
 Myrc, l-nstructwns for Paiish Priests, 1. 1122 
 
 (E.E.T.S). 
 The gift whereof [of prayer] he may he 
 truly said to have, not that hath the most 
 rennible tongue ; for prayer is not so much a 
 matter of the lips as of the heart. — Bp. Hall, 
 Works, vol. vii. p. 487, ed. Pratt. 
 
 [The editor in his Glossary explains 
 rennible as running, voluble.] 
 
 EuSH, Friar Bush, a famous person- 
 age in old popular romances, was a cer- 
 tain " diveU " who found his way into 
 a certain iU-regulated house of religious 
 men " to maintaine them the longer in 
 their ungracious living." See The 
 Mistorie of Frier Bush -• Sow He came 
 to a House of Beligion to seehe service. 
 And being entertained by the Priow, was 
 first made Under Ooohe. Being full of 
 pleasant mirth and deUght for Young 
 People," 1620. He is styled Broder 
 russche in a Low German version (about 
 16th century), Frater Bauschius, in B. 
 Seidelius, Pa/rcBrrMB Ethicae, 1589, Bes 
 Teufeh russiger Brude/r in Grimm's 
 
 Marchen, ii. 84 [Thorns' Early Eng. 
 Prose Bomances, vol. i. p. 253, seg.]. 
 Bush here is no doubt a corruption of 
 Ger. rausch, q. d. "Brother Tipsy." 
 See also Nares, s.v. and Eouse above. 
 
 EussET-FEBS, a street moimtebank's 
 attempt at ratafie, ratafia. 
 
 They [wafers] goes at the bottom of the 
 russetjees cake. — Maiihew, London Labour and 
 the London Poor, vol, iii. p. 113. 
 
 Batafia is (not from rectifie, rectified 
 spirit, as Kettner, but) for 'raq-tafia, 
 Malay a/raq + tafia, rum-arrack, the 
 a/rrack or spirit called tafia (Skeat). 
 
 EusTY, in the colloquial phrase "to 
 turn rusty," used of a person who be- 
 comes stubborn, perverse, surly, chur- 
 Ush, or disobliging, probably from the 
 idea of no longer running smoothly, 
 but grating harshly like a key in a lock 
 that wants oiling, is in all probability a 
 corruption of resty, Fr. restif, stubborn, 
 that will not go forward (of a horse), 
 from Fr. rester, to stop, stand still, Lat. 
 restare. 
 
 In the Cleveland dialect a restive 
 horse is said to reist, to tahe reist, to be 
 reisted (Atkinson). Busty (stubborn) : 
 reist : resty, restive : Pr. rester, to hold 
 back : : Busty (rancid) : reast : resty, 
 reasty : Fr. rester, to stand too long, be 
 over-kept. Wright gives rusty :=reBtive 
 (Diet, of Prov. and Obsolete English), 
 and so Akerman's Wiltshire Glossary. 
 " Bust, to be restive or stubborn." — 
 Patterson, Antrim and Down Glossary. 
 
 On the second day, his brown horse. Ora- 
 tor, took rust, ran out of the course, and was 
 distanced. — Colman, The Gentleman, No. 5 
 [F. Hall, Mod. English, p. 251]. 
 
 Old Iron, why so rustij ? will you never 
 leave your innuendoes. — The Gtuirdian, No. 
 160. 
 
 In cart or car thou never reestit. 
 Bums, The Auld Farmer to his Auld Mare, 
 
 Maggie (p. 54, Globe ed.). 
 Rustynes of synne is cawse of these wawys, 
 Alas ! in this fflood this werd xal be lorn. 
 Coventry Mysteries, p. 47 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 The yeomen ushers of devotion, where the 
 master is too resty or too rich to say his own 
 
 ?rayers, or to bless his own table. — Milton, 
 conoclastes, c. xxiv. 
 Restive, or resty, drawing back instead of 
 going forward, as some horses do. — Phillips, 
 New World of Words [Trench, Sel. Glos- 
 sarif^. 
 
 Indeed the Skirmish at Martial's Elm . . . 
 fought 1642, made much Noise in men's 
 eares : . . and is remembered the more, be- 
 
BTJSTY 
 
 ( 336 ) 
 
 SAGK 
 
 cause conceived first to break the Peace of 
 this Nation, long restive and rusty in ease and 
 quiet. — T. Fuller, Worthies of iLngland, vol. 
 ii. p. 293. 
 
 EusTY, as applied to bacon in tlie 
 sense of rancid, with an imagined re- 
 ference, perhaps, to the yellowish rust 
 colour it then assumes, seems originally 
 and properly to have been reasfy (Tus- 
 ser) or resty ; that which has been 
 spoUed by over-keeping being said to 
 be reezed (Hall, Marston). 
 
 Rusty Bacon, rotten Poore John, 
 And stinking Anchovaes we sell. 
 Sir W. Davenant, Works, 1678, fol. p. 337. 
 Relant, musty, fusty, resty, reasie, dankish, 
 unsavoury. — Cotgrave. 
 
 I reast, I waxS ill of taiite, as bacon. — Pals- 
 grave, 1530. 
 
 Reeste, as flesche (resty). Rancidus. 
 Reestyn, as flesche, Ranceo. — Prompts 
 Parv. ab. 1440. 
 
 To seche so ferre a lytill bakon flyk 
 Which hath long hanggid, resty and tow. 
 Poem (ab. 1460), ReliqiiitE Antiquis, vol. ii. 
 p. 29. 
 A-reste, or resty as flesche (al. areestyd, 
 areest or reestyd), Rancidus. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 To do away Restyng of Venisone. — Forme 
 of Cury, p. 111. 
 
 For to save venysone from restyng, — Liber 
 Cure Cocorum, p. S3. 
 
 Holdemess reeasty, Cleveland reesiy, 
 rancid, reeze, to become so. The origin, 
 perhaps, is Fr. rester. 
 What acaderaick starved satyrist 
 Would gnaw rez^d bacon, or, with ink-black 
 
 fist. 
 Would tosse each muck-heap for some out- 
 cast scraps 
 Of halfe-dang bones, to stop his yawning 
 chaps ? 
 Marston, Scourge of Villanie, 1597, sat. iii. 
 ( Works, ed. Halliwell, p. 259). 
 Or once a week, perhaps for novelty, 
 lieez'd bacon soords shall feast his ramily. 
 Bp. Hall, Satires, b. iv. sat. 2, p. 81 
 (ed. Singer). 
 
 Bye-mouse, a name for the bat in 
 WUtshire and Gloucestershire, is no 
 doubt a corruption of rere-mouse, an 
 old name for the vespertilio, A. Sax. 
 hrere-mus, from hrercm {agitare, sc. 
 alas). See Baw-mousb. 
 
 S. 
 
 Saboth, a very common mis-spelling 
 formerly of Sabhath, from a confusion 
 with the "Lord God of Sahaoih," i.e. 
 
 of Hosts, in the Te Deum (Heb. tee- 
 haoth, armies). 
 
 At a Quarter Sessions held in Devonshire in 
 July, 1595, it is declared that church or parish 
 ales, May games, &c. , lead " to the great pro- 
 fanation of the Lord's Saboth. — A. H. A. 
 Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, p. 28. 
 
 The best, bathe of the Town and Univer- 
 sitie . . . resorted verie frequentlie to the 
 Collage everie Sabothe. — J. Meluill, Diaru 
 1586, p. 254. 
 
 Alvayes the brethren present thochthimto 
 be ane rogh ridder, and ordayned him, for 
 the brack of the Sabboth, to mak his repen- 
 tance, and pey four merkis penalty. — Pres/iu- 
 tery Book of Strathbogie, 1642, p. 28 (Spald- 
 ing Club). 
 
 And zealously to keepe the Sabbaths rest. 
 His meat for that day, on the eu'n was drest. 
 Harington, Epigrams, bk. i. 20. 
 
 Mr. Grove says of this word Sa- 
 haoih: — 
 
 It is too often considered to be a synonym 
 of, or to have some connexion with Sabbath, 
 and to express the idea of rest. And this not 
 only popularly, but in some of our most clas- 
 sical writers. Thus Spenser, Faery Queen, 
 [VII.] Canto viii. 2 :- 
 
 " But thenceforth all shall rest eternally 
 With Him that is the God of Sabaoth hight; 
 O that great Sabaoth God, grant me that Sa- 
 baoth's sight." 
 
 And Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 
 24:— 
 
 ". . . Sacred and inspired Divinity, the Sa- 
 baoth and port of all men's labours and pere- 
 grinations." 
 
 And Johnson, in the first edition of whose 
 Dictionary (1755) Sabaoth and Sabbath are 
 treated as the same word. And WalterScott, 
 Ivanhoe, i. ch. 11 (1st ed.) : — 
 
 " A week, aye the space between two Sa- 
 baoths.'* 
 
 But this connexion is quite fictitious. The 
 two words are not only entirely different, but 
 have nothing in common.— Smi(/i's Dictiomry 
 of the Bible, iii. 1064. 
 
 Sack, or Sherris sache, the drink so 
 frequently mentioned in old EngUsh 
 writers, was a dry Spanish wine, espe- 
 cially sherry (vide Nares, Ohssary, s.v.), 
 and is a corruption of the Spanish 
 Xeres seco, Fr. vin seo (Dut. sek), into 
 Sherry sack. Bp. Percy found the form 
 seek in an old account book, and it is 
 still, I beUeve, called seco in Spain. 
 Formerly it was conceived to have been 
 wine strained through a sack, like Hy- 
 pocras. Of. " SacM wine or wine 
 strained through a bag : hippooras." — 
 Nomenclator (in Wright, Prov. Bid.). 
 Isidore of Seville actually gives sacca- 
 
SACKS UT 
 
 ( 337 ) 
 
 SALAD 
 
 turn as a liquor (or light wine) made by 
 passing water and the dregs of wine 
 through a sack (Duoange, s.v.). Douce 
 (Ilhistrations of Shahspere, p. 257) 
 quotes from Guthrie's Tour through the 
 Grmiea a statement that the keeping 
 of wine in goat-skin aaclis " is a practice 
 so commonin Spain, as to give the name 
 of sack to a species of sweet wine once 
 highly prized in Great Britain." 
 
 But one much better versed in 
 " Spanish affairs " tells us that — 
 
 Sherris sack, the term used by FalstafF, no 
 mean authority in this matter, is the precise 
 seco de Xerez, the term by which the wine is 
 known to this day in its own country ; the 
 epithet seco or dry . . . being used in contra- 
 distinction to the sweet malvoisies and mus- 
 cadels, which are also made of the same 
 grape. — Ford, Gatherings from Spain, p. J 50. 
 
 Wyne sect, an old Scotch corruption 
 of Fr. vin sec, is quoted by Jamieson. 
 
 Get my lorde a cup of seche to comfort his 
 spirites. — Ponetj Treatise of Poiitike Power, 
 1556. 
 
 Ha, gentle Doctor, now I see your meaning, 
 Sack will not leaue one leane, 'twill leaue 
 him leaning. 
 
 Harington, Epigrams, bk. ii. T9. 
 
 Sackbut, a bass trumpet hke a trom- 
 bone, is Sp. sacabuche (as if a tuhe that 
 can be drawn out, from, sacar, to draw 
 out), corrupted from the Latin sambuca 
 (Ascham spells it sambuke), Greek 
 sambuke, Heb. sabka. 
 
 The saTO?mc(s,however, was a stringed 
 instrument, like a lyre, often of a tri- 
 angular form, and derived its name 
 seemingly from being made of elder- 
 wood, Lat. sabucus, samhucus. Com- 
 pare Latin huxus, (1) boxwood, (2) a 
 flute. 
 
 Vid. Etto, Pictorial Bible, on Dan. 
 iii. 10; Chappell, History of Music, vol. 
 i. p. 255 ; Eastwood and Wright, 
 Bible Wm-d-Book, s.v. Sahka was the 
 original Semitic name which the 
 Greeks, adopting the instrument, pro- 
 nounced sambuke (Pusey on Daniel, p. 
 24). 
 
 Such strange mad musick doe they play 
 vpon their Sacke-buttes. — T. Decker, Seven 
 Deadly Sim of London, 1606, p. 27(ed. Arber). 
 
 Sylvester spells it sagbut. 
 From a trumpet VVinde hath longer life 
 Or from a Sagbut, then from Flute or Fife. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 128 (1621). 
 Shawms, Sag-buts, Citrons, Viols, Comets, 
 Flutes. Id. p. 301. 
 
 Saint, a corrupt orthography of the 
 name of the old game called cent (be- 
 cause one hundred points won), quoted 
 by Nares from an old play : — 
 Husband, shall we play at saint f 
 It is not snint, hutcent, taken from hundreds. 
 Dumb Knight, 0. PI. iv. 483 (Nares). 
 
 Saintfoin, ^ old names for the lu- 
 St. Foin, i ceme, are corrupt 
 Sainct-foin, J spelhngs of the word 
 sainfoin, from Fr. sain, wholesome, and 
 foin, hay, Lat. sanum fcenum. All these 
 names appear to have arisen from a 
 misunderstanding of the other name 
 medica, i.e. the Median plant, as if it 
 meant medical or curative (Prior). 
 
 Saints' bell, a corrupt form of 
 sancius-bell, sometimes called emmce- 
 bell, sancte-bell, or sacring-bell ; which 
 was " A small bell used in the Eoman 
 Gathohc Church to call attention to 
 the more solemn parts of the service of 
 the mass, as at the conclusion of the 
 ordinary, when the words ' Sanctus, 
 Sanctus, Sanctus, Deus Sabaoth ' are 
 pronounced by the priest, and on the 
 elevation of the host and chahoe after 
 consecration." — Parker, Glossary of 
 Architecture. 
 
 Whene'er the old exchange of profit rings, 
 Her silver saints-bell of uncertam gains ; 
 My merchant-soul can stretch both legs and 
 
 wings, 
 How I can ran, and take unwearied pains ! 
 Quarles, Emblems, iv. 3. 
 Thou shalt bee constrained to goe to the 
 chiefe beame of thy benefice, . . . and with a 
 !se vp ' 
 — Nai 
 (Shaks. Soc), 1592. 
 
 Salad, Fr. salade, an old name for a 
 species of Ught helmet formerly worn, 
 also spelt salet, sallet, and celate 
 (Nares). See Su- S. D. Scott, British 
 Army, vol. i. p. 198. 
 
 Sallet, Fr. salade, is from Sp. celada, 
 It.' celata, Lat. ccelata (sc. cassis), en- 
 chased (Littre). 
 
 Salade, ne spere, ne gard-brace, ne page. 
 Chaucer, Dreme, 1. 1555. 
 
 But for a sallet, my brain-pan had been 
 cleft with a crow's-bill. — Shakespeare, 2 Hen. 
 VI. iv. 10. 
 
 He dyd on hym hys bryganders set with 
 gylt nayle, and his salet and gylte sporres. — 
 Fabyan, fol. p. 404. 
 
 Then for the neither [nether] part he hath 
 high shoone and then hee must haue a buckler 
 
 trice trusse vp thy life in the string of thy 
 sancebell. — Nash, Pierce Penilesse, p. 46 
 
SALAD OIL 
 
 ( 338 ) 
 
 SAMBO 
 
 to keepe of his enemies strokes : then he 
 must baue a sallet wherewith his head may 
 be saued. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 198 verso. 
 
 Salad oil, it appears, meant for- 
 merly not the refined oil to which we 
 now attach the name, but a coarse de- 
 scription used in polishing Ballets or 
 helmets. A correspondent of The 
 Gentleman's Magazine, writing in the 
 year 1774 (Sept.), says: — 
 
 People are very apt to imagine that this 
 sort of oil is named from its being used in 
 mixing sallads for eating, as if the true way 
 of writing it was sallad-oil ; but the oil used 
 in cookery was always of a better and sweeter 
 sort than that rank stuff called sallel-oiL The 
 truth is, the sallet was the headpiece in tlie 
 times that defensive armour was so much in 
 use, and sallet-oU was that sort of oil which 
 was used for the cleaning and briglitening it 
 and the rest of the armour. 
 
 So with the word tradn oil. There 
 are many, probably, who imagine that 
 it has something to do with railway 
 trains — perhaps with the lubricating of 
 their wheels — whereas it bore that 
 name long before trains were thought 
 of. See Tkain-oil. 
 
 Salaky, the common name of celery 
 in the Holdemess dialect (E. York- 
 shire) and among the peasantry of Ire- 
 land. 
 
 Salmon, "the great and inviolable 
 oath " of the Scottish gipsies (Sir W. 
 Scott), is probably a corruption of Fr. 
 serment (from Lat. sawamewiwra), which 
 it closely resembles in sound (F. H. 
 Groome). 
 
 She swore by the salmon, if we did the kin- 
 chin no harm, she would never tell how the 
 ganger got in. — Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiv. 
 
 They've taken the sacrament [rroath] to 
 speak the ti'uth. — F. H. Groome, In Gipsy 
 Tents, p. 32. 
 
 Salmon-bkicks. This curious term 
 for bricks not burnt enough, used in 
 Norfolk and Suffolk (Old Country and 
 Farming Words, E. D. S. p. 157), with 
 animagined reference, perhaps, to their 
 pinkish hue, is for sam/men or Sammy, 
 half-baked. So sam-sodden is half- 
 boiled ; and in E. Cornwall a " zam 
 oven " is one half-heated, " a door a 
 zam " is half closed. See Sand-blind. 
 
 Salsif?, a popular name for the 
 plant irapogon porrifolizis, Fr. salsifis, 
 has no connexion, as its appearance 
 would suggest, with Lat. salsus, salty. 
 
 but is a corrupti9n of Lat. solsequiim, 
 "the sun-follower." 
 
 Salt, used by Shakespeare in the 
 sense of wanton, lecherous, and still 
 applied to dogs, is apparently a mis- 
 understanding of Lat. salax, Fr. salace, 
 ready to leap, from salio, to jump or 
 leap, as if a derivative of sel, salt. 
 All the charms of love. 
 Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan lip. 
 
 Antony and Cleopatm, li. 1. 
 Yet, I protest, it is no salt desire 
 Of seeing countries . . . hath brought me out. 
 B. Jonson, The Fox, ii. 1. 
 Gifts will be sent, and letters which. 
 Are the expression of that itch. 
 And salt which frets thy suters. 
 
 Herrick, Hesperides, p. 186. 
 
 Salt-cellae. Cella/r here is a cor- 
 ruption of seller, old Eng. ealere, Fr, 
 saline, a receptacle for salt, Lat. sala- 
 rium (vas), from sal, salt. Thus salt- 
 cellar is a " salt-vessel for salt." 
 With a gyld salere, 
 Basyn and ewere, 
 Watyr of everrose clere, 
 They wesche ryjth thare. 
 Sir Degrevant, 1. 1392, Thornton 
 Romances, p. 235. 
 
 When Prester John is serued at his table, 
 there is no salt at all set one in any salt sel- 
 ler as in other places, but a loafe of Bread is 
 cut crosse, and then two kniues are layde 
 acrosse vpon the loafe.— E. Webbe, TramiUs, 
 1590, p. 25 (ed. Arber). 
 The salte also touche nat in his salere, 
 Withe nokyns mete, but lay it honestly. 
 On youre Trencboure, for that is curtesy. 
 
 The Babees Book, p. 7, 1. 161 (E.E.T.S.) 
 
 Saltier, in Shakespeare an inten- 
 tional corruption of satyr, with some 
 reference perhaps to Lat. saltare, to 
 dance, salt, a bound (B. Jonson), Lat. 
 saltus. " A dance of twelve Satyrs," is 
 annoimced with the words — 
 
 They have made themselves all men of 
 hair, they call themselves Saltiers, and they 
 have a dance which the wenches say is a 
 gallimaufry of gambols. — The Winter's Tale, 
 iv. 4, 1. 336. 
 
 Salve, to anoint, bears a deceptive 
 resemblance to Lat. salvus, sound, well, 
 salvaire, to save, solvere, to be well, but 
 is really akin to Goth, salbcm, Ger. 
 salhen, Gk. k-leiph-o, Lat. de-Uh-uo, 
 Erse laih, mire, mud, " slob," Sansk. 
 Up, to anoint. 
 
 Sambo, the ordinary nickname for ft 
 negro, often mistaken as a pet name 
 
SAND-BLIND 
 
 ( 339 ) 
 
 SANG BEAD 
 
 formed from Sam, Samuel, just as 
 Chloe is almost a generic name for a 
 female nigger, is really borrowed from 
 his Spanish appellation zanibo, origin- 
 ally meaning bandy-legged, from Lat. 
 scamhus, bow-legged, Greek shambds. 
 A connexion was sometimes imagined 
 'perhaps with Uncle Sam, a popular 
 name for the United States. 
 
 It is worth noting that Sambo's 
 favourite instrument, the har^o, essen- 
 tially modern and vulgar as it may 
 seem, is also, like his name, of Greek 
 origin. It has undergone a consider- 
 able metamorphosis in its transition 
 through the following forms, — baryore 
 (Miss Edgeworth), landore (Stowe, 
 Heywood), pandore (Drayton), Sp. 
 landurria, It. pandora, panditra, Lat. 
 pandura, a species of guitar supposed 
 to have been invented by Pan, Greek 
 pandoura (apparently from pan, all, 
 and do&ra, wood). Hence also Fr. 
 mandore, old Fr. mandole. It. mandola, 
 Eng. mandoline. 
 
 There shalbe one Teacher of Musick and 
 to play one the Lute, tJie Bandora, and Cyt- 
 terne. — Qiteene Etizahethes Achademy, Book nf 
 Precedence, p. 7 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 ^^'hat's her hair? 'faith to Bandora wires 
 there's not the like simile.^^Hej/u'ood, Fair 
 Maid of Eichange, act i. sc. 3. 
 
 Some learn'd eares prefer'd it have before 
 Both Orpharyon, VioU, Lute, Bandore. 
 Sir J. Hanngton, Epigrams, bk. iv. 91. 
 
 Sand-blind, partially blind, stands 
 for sam-hUnd, half-blind, from 0. Eng. 
 Sam, half; so sdm-cww (half-alive), 
 eam-ded (Kobert of Gloucester), sam- 
 ope (half open), Comw. sa/m-sodden 
 (half boiled), Lat. semi, Gk. ijiu-. 
 
 I have been sand-blind from my infancy. 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Love's Cure, ii, 1. 
 
 Shakespeare puns upon the word : — 
 
 More than sand-hlind, high gravell blind. 
 Merchant (yf Venice, ii. 2. 
 
 Berlue, Purblind, made sand-blind. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Luscus, he that is sand-blynde. — Wright's 
 Vocabularies (15th cent.), p. 225. 
 
 Which [Fuzz-balls] being troden vpon do 
 breath foorth a most thinne and fine powder, 
 like vnto smoke, veiy noisome and uurtfull 
 vnto the eiea, causing a kinde of blindnes, 
 which is called Poor-blinde, or Sand-blinde. 
 —Gemrde, Herbal, p. 1.S85. 
 
 The Sayntes haue not so sharpe eyes to see 
 downe from heauen : they be puree blinde. 
 
 and sande blynde, they cannot see so farre. — 
 Latimer, Sermons, p. 123 verso. 
 
 He is in more danger to be sand-blind 
 than a goldsmith. Therefore some call him 
 avidum, a non videndo. — T. Adams, The Soul's 
 Sickness {Works, i. 483). 
 
 Sand-pine, stated in the Proceed- 
 ings of the Philological Society, vol. v. 
 p. 139, to be the name of a kind of grass, 
 as if so called from the soil in which 
 it grows, is a corruption of Fr. saint- 
 foin. See Saint-poIn. 
 
 Sandeveb, the scoria of glass, which 
 seems at first sight to suggest the word 
 sand, is a corruption of the E'rench sain 
 de verre, the seam or fat of glass. 
 
 The matter whereof glasses are made . . . 
 while it is made red hot in the fornace, and 
 is melted, becomming liquide and fit to worke 
 vpon, doth yeeld as it were tifat Acting aloft. 
 This is commonly called Axungia vitri ; in 
 English Sinideuer ; in French Suinde voirre.— 
 Gerarde, Herbal, p. 429. 
 Soufre sour, & saundyner, &o)3er such raony. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 60, 1. 1036. 
 
 Sang-fKoid, coolnessy unconcern, 
 borrowed from the French, literally, 
 "cool blood" (compare "in cold 
 blood " =: deliberately, wilfully), is, 
 according to M, Soheler, probably a 
 corruption of the ancient expression 
 sens froid, cool judgment, like sens 
 rassis, sober judgment {Dictionnaire 
 d'Etymohgie Frangais, s.v. Sang.) 
 
 Sang Seal, "The Eeal Blood," a 
 name very frequently given to the 
 sacred dish which was used at the Last 
 Supper, in which Joseph of Arimathsa 
 was fabled to have coUeeted the Holy 
 Blood flowing from the five wounds, 
 and which finally, in mediaaval ro- 
 mance, became the mystic object of 
 quest to the Knights of the Bound 
 Table. 
 
 Sangreal, Part of Christ's most precious 
 blood wandering about the world invisible 
 (to all but chast eies) and working many 
 wonders, and wonderful cures; if we may 
 credit the most foolish, and fabulous History 
 of King Arthur. — Cotgrave. 
 
 The following is the colophon of 
 Caxton's edition of the said history, 
 1485, as " reduced into Englysshe by 
 syr 'Thomas Malory : " — 
 
 Thus endeth this noble and joyous booke, 
 entytled La Mort Dathur. Wotwythstand- 
 yng it treateth of the byrth, lyf, and aotes of 
 the sayd Kynge Arthur, and of his noble 
 knyghtes of the rounde table, theyr marveyl- 
 
SASH 
 
 ( 340 ) 
 
 8ATYBB 
 
 loug enquestes and adventures, thachyevyng 
 of the sang real, etc. 
 
 In the edition of 1634 the word ap- 
 pears as Sancgreall. 
 
 Right so there came by the holy vessel! of 
 the Sancgreall with all maner of sweetnesse 
 and savour, hut they could not readily see 
 who beare that holy vessel] ; but Sir Perci- 
 vale had a glimmering of that vessell, and of 
 the maiden that beare it, for hee was a perfect 
 cleane maide. ..." I wot well," said Sir 
 Ector, " what it is ; it is an holy vessell that 
 is borne by a maiden, and therin is a part of 
 the holy blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 blessed might hee bee." — History of King 
 Arthur, vol. iii. p. 27 (ed. Wright). 
 
 King Pelham lay so many yeeres sore 
 wounded andmight never be whole tillGalahad 
 the haut prince healed him in the quest of the 
 Sarwgreal, for in that place was part of the 
 blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that Joseph 
 of Arimathy brought into this land. — Malory, 
 Historic of King Arthur, 1634, vol. i. p. 83 
 (ed. Wright). 
 
 The holy Grale, that is, the real blood of our 
 
 Saviour Many of King Arthur's 
 
 Knights are in the same book represented 
 as adventuring in quest, or in search of the 
 Sangreal or Sanguis Realis. — Thos. Warton, 
 Observations on The Fairy Qu^en, vol. i. p. 49 
 (ed. 1807). 
 
 The subject of one of these great romances 
 is a search after the cup which lield the real 
 blood of Christ ; and this history of the Sang- 
 real forms a series of romances. — I. Disraeli, 
 Amenities of Literature, vol. i. p. 92. 
 
 Bang-real was prohably in some in- 
 stances understood as the blood-royal, 
 which is indeed the proper meaning of 
 the compound in old French, sanh real 
 in old Enghsh. For instance, Skelton 
 says of Wolsey, that 
 
 He came of the sanh royall 
 that was cast out of a bochers stall. 
 The Romaynes whare so ryche holdene. 
 As of the realeste blode that reynede in erthe. 
 There come in at the fyrste course, be-for the 
 
 Kynge seluene, 
 Bareheuedys that ware bryghte, burnyste 
 
 with syluer, 
 AUe with taghte mene and towne in togers 
 
 full ryche, 
 0£ saunhe realle in suyte, sexty at ones. 
 Morte Arthure, 11. 174-179 (E. E.T.S. ed.). 
 
 There is not the smallest douht, how- 
 ever, that this sang-real is a mere mis- 
 understanding of the old form ean 
 greal or seynt graal, where son or seynt 
 (otherwise spelt seint, sainci, or saint) 
 is holy, and greal or graal (otherwise 
 spelt graUe, grayle, old Span, grial, 
 Prov. grasal,grazal), derived from Low 
 
 Lat. gradella and grasella, diminutives 
 oi gradale, grasale, denotes a bowl or 
 plate. Oradella itself is a corrupted 
 form of cratella, a, diminutive of Lat. 
 crater, Greek hrater, a mixing-bowl. 
 (Compare O.Eng. g"rai/fe, a service-book, 
 from Low Lat. gradale; 0. Fr. paelle, 
 from Lat. patella ; Ft. grille, from lat. 
 craticula, crates.) 
 
 See a ftill note by Prof Skeat in 
 Joseph of Arimathcea (E. E. T. S. ed.); 
 p. sxxvi ; Seynt Oraal, ed. Pumivall ; 
 Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of Middle 
 Ages, p. 604 seqq. ; Athenasum, April, 
 9, 1870, p. 481; Didron, Ghistim 
 Iconography, vol. i. p. 270. 
 
 Li aussi nous dist estie un flasque de 
 sang greal, chose divine et i pen de gents 
 connue. — Rabelais, (Euvres (ed, Barr6), p. 
 453. 
 
 Which table round, Joseph of Arimathie, 
 For brother made of the saint gral only. 
 
 Harding, Chronicle of Eng. Ki ngs, 1543. 
 Hither came Joseph of Arimathy, 
 Who brought with the holy grayle, they say, 
 And preacht the truth ; but since it greafly 
 did decay. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Qveen, II. x. 53. 
 And down the long beam stole the holy 
 
 Grail, 
 Rose-red with beatings in it, as if alive. 
 Tennyson, The Holy GruU. 
 
 Sash, the wood-work of a window 
 which retains the panes, formerly spelt 
 chasse, is the French chdsse, or chassit, 
 a frame or setting in which the glass is 
 enchased or encased, the same word as 
 Fr. caisse. It. cassa, Lat. capso, a 
 case. 
 
 The tumid bladder bounds at every kick, 
 bursts the withstanding casements, the c/iass]/s, 
 Lanterns, and all the brittle vitrious ware. 
 Shaftesbury, Characteristicks, vol. iii. p. 14 
 (1749). 
 The primitive Casements raodell'd were no 
 
 doubt. 
 By that thro' which the Pigeon was thrust 
 
 out, 
 Where now whole Sjshes were but one great 
 
 Eye. 
 T' examine and admire thy Beauties by. 
 Cotton, Wonders of the Peaks, Poems, 
 p. 345. 
 
 Satyee, a frequent old spelling of 
 satire, a poem rebuking vice, Lat. sa- 
 tira, saiwa (from sater, full), (1) adish 
 full of different ingredients, a medley 
 or oho, (2) a poem on different sub- 
 jects, a satire. The word was con- 
 founded {e.g. by Wedgwood) with saty- 
 
SAUOB-ALONE 
 
 ( 341 ) 
 
 SAVING-TREE 
 
 rua, a Greek satyric drama, in which 
 satyrs (Lat. satyri, Greek saturoi) were 
 introduced. Ben Jonson uses satyrs to 
 translate sa<2/'''' satyric dramas, Horace, 
 Be Arte Foet.l. 235:— 
 Nor I, when I wi-ite satyrs, will so love 
 Plain phrase, my Pisos, as alone t' approve 
 Mere reigning- words. Works, p. 733. 
 
 When Lynns thinks that he and I are friends, 
 Then all his Poems unto me he sends, 
 His Disticks, Satyrs, Sonnets, and Exameters. 
 Harington, Epigrams, bk. i. 67. 
 
 Satifre, a satyi*, an Invective or vice-rebuk- 
 inff Poem. — Cotgrave, 
 
 The said auncient Poets vsed for that pur- 
 pose, three kinds of poems reprehensiue, to 
 wit, the Satyre, the Comedie, and the Tra^e- 
 die : and the first and most bitter inuectiue 
 against vice and vicious men, was the Safyee : 
 which to th' intent their bitternesse should 
 breede none ill will, either to the Poets, or 
 to the recitours . . . and besides to make 
 their admonitions and reproofs seeme grauer 
 and of more efficacie, they made wise as if 
 the gods of the woods, whom they called 
 Salyres or Siluanes, should appeare and recite 
 those verses of rebuke, whereas in deede they 
 were but disguised persons vnder the shape 
 of Satyres. — G. Puttenham, Arte of Eng. 
 Poesie (1589), p. 46 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Adjourn not this virtue until that temper 
 when Cato could lend out his wife, and im- 
 potent satyrs write satires upon lust. — Sir T. 
 Browne, Works, vol. iii. p. 89 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 Sauce- ALONE, a popular name for the 
 erysimum alliaria, Ger. sasshraut. Dr. 
 Prior thinks it likely that the latter 
 part of the compound represents It. 
 aglione, Pr. aUoignon, garhck. So the 
 word would mean " garUck-sauce " in 
 reference to its strong alhaoeous odour. 
 
 Sauce alone is ioined with Garlick in name, 
 not bicause it is like vnto it in forme, but in 
 smell : for if it be brused or stamped it smel- 
 leth altogether like Garlicke. — Gerarde, Her- 
 bal, p. 630. 
 
 Saucy, pert, impudent, — sauce, im- 
 pertinence, — said to be a corruption of 
 Gipsy sass, impudence, also bold, for- 
 ward, which has been connected with 
 Hindu sdhas, bold (0. Leland, Eng. 
 Oypsies, p. 118), just as Gipsy har, a 
 garden, is from Pers. hahar. 
 
 A late English Romanist hath penned a 
 sawcy lecture of modern Romes Christian 
 Divinity . . . unto his late Sovereign Lord. 
 -~Thos. Jackson, Works, vol. iii. p. 975 
 (1673). 
 
 The word was, no doubt, understood 
 as meaning highly- seasoned, tart, 
 peppery, and derived from Fr. sauce, 
 
 which is a derivative of Lat. salsus 
 (1, salted, 2, witty), just as the French 
 say, 11 a ete Men sauce, he has been 
 sharply reprimanded (Gattel). 
 
 Shakespeare uses to sauce for to rate 
 or scold, and it may be questioned 
 whether the latter is not, after aU, the 
 true origin. I think it is. 
 
 I'll make them pay ; I'll sauce them. 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, act iv. sc. 3. 
 
 I'll sauce her with bitter words. 
 
 As You Like It, act iii. so. 5. 
 
 Tneptus is as much in English, in my phan- 
 tasie, as saucie or malapert. — Stanihurst, De~ 
 scriptian of Ireland, p. 13, in Holinshed, vol. i. 
 (1587). 
 
 We haue a common saying amongest us 
 when we see a fellow sturdy, loftie, and 
 proud, men say, this is a sancy fellow : sig- 
 nifying him to be a highmynded fellow, whiche 
 taketh more upon him then he ought to doe, 
 or his estate requireth : which thyng no 
 doubt is naught and ill : for euery one ought 
 to behaue himselfe according unto bis callyng 
 and estate : but he that will be a Cliristian 
 man, that intendeth to come to heauen, must 
 be a sausie fellow : he must be well poudred 
 [= pickled, corned] with the sause of afflic- 
 tion, not with proudnesse and stoutnesse. — 
 [Margin] Hee that will come to Heaven must 
 be saused. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 182. 
 
 Why did Christ vouchsafe to give him 
 [Satan] any answer at all ; whereas he might 
 .... have punished him for his sawcinesse ? 
 — Bp. Andrevies, On the Temptation, 1642, 
 p. 18. 
 
 Save, an old name for the plant sage 
 (Wright), is an Anghoized form of Lat. 
 salvia, sage, so named from its salva- 
 tory or curative properties (Lat. sal- 
 vare). It was a maxim of the school 
 of Sahtemum, " Cur morietur homo 
 cui salvia crescit in horto." Sage, 
 Fr. sauge (Ger. salhei), is the same 
 word. 
 
 The wholesome Saulge. 
 
 Spenser, Muiopotmos, I. 188. 
 And fermacies of herbes, and eke save, 
 They di'onken, for they wold hir lives have. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 2717. 
 
 Saving-teee, the Scottish name of 
 the plant jwnAperus sahina, or sahine. 
 It is believed to have the power of pro- 
 ducing abortion, and " takes its name 
 from this, as being able to save a young 
 woman from shame." — Gall. Enc. 
 (Jamieson). The word is, of course, 
 only a corrupt form of savine, Lat. sa- 
 lina (sc. herha), the plant from the 
 Sabine country. 
 
SAVOURY 
 
 ( 342 ) 
 
 SGABF-SKIN 
 
 Gerarde Bays that, " The leaues of 
 Sauine boiled in wine and drunke . . . 
 expelleth the dead childe and killeth 
 the quioke."— HerWZ, p. 1194 (1597). 
 In Yorkshire the plant is called hill- 
 bastard. 
 
 And when ] look 
 To gather fruit, find notliing but the savin- 
 
 tree, 
 Too frequent in nunnes' orchards and there 
 
 planted, 
 IJy all conjecture, to destroy fruit rather. 
 
 Middletoiif Game of Chess, C I h. 
 Those dangerous plants called cover-shame, 
 alias savin, and other anti-conceptive weeds 
 and poisons. — Ke/j/y to Ladies and Batcheiors 
 Petition (Harl. Misc. iv. 440). 
 The King has gane to the Abbey garden. 
 And pu Q the savin tree, 
 To scale the babe frae Marie's heart. 
 But the thing it wadna be. 
 
 Marie Hamilton, Roberts, Legendary 
 Ballads, p. 34. 
 For the womb, mugwort, pennyroyal!, 
 fetherfew, savlne. — Burton, Anatomy of Me- 
 lancholy, II. It. 1, 3. 
 
 Savotjey, Fr. aavoree. It. savoreggia, 
 is the Latin satureia, assimilated to 
 " savour," Lat. sapor (Prior). 
 
 Sauorie hath the taste of Time. — Gerarde, 
 Herbal, p. 461. 
 
 Other corrupt forms are It. santo- 
 reggia, and Fr. sarriette (from sarrie, 
 cf. Prov. 
 
 ]>er in cast persoley, ysope, saveray 
 l^at smalle is hakked by any way. 
 
 lAber Cure Co2orum, p. 44. 
 
 Saxon, the word for the sexton (i.e. 
 samstan) of a church in the Holder- 
 ness dialect, E. Yorkshire. 
 
 Scald, in the expression a "scald 
 head," i.e. scurfy, having an eruption, 
 tetter, or ringworm in the head, has 
 nothing to do with scald, to remove the 
 hair with boiling water (old Fr. esclial- 
 der, Lat. ex-cal{i)dare), but stands for 
 old Eng. scalled, having a scall or 
 tetter (Ooles). The original meaning 
 was probably bald. 
 
 Compare Icel. shalU, a bald-head, 
 Dan. shaldet, bald, Swed. sTcallot, bald, 
 Gael, sgall, baldness. Perhaps identi- 
 cal with A. Sax. calu, " callow," Ger. 
 Icahl, Lat. calvus, bald (Ferguson, Cum- 
 berland Olossa>-y, B.V.), Sansk. hhalati, 
 from which words an initial s seems to 
 have disappeared. 
 
 With skalled browes blak, and piled herd. 
 Chancer, Cant. Tales, 1. Ci'-29. 
 
 Scallyd, Glabrosus ; Scalle, Glabra.— 
 Prompt, Pail). 
 
 he dyaue, Jje doumbe, Jje ssornede, \>e seal- 
 lede.- — Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 224. 
 Lowsy and scalde, and pylled lyke as apes, 
 With soantly a rag for to couer theyr shapes. 
 The Hye Way to the Spyttel Hous, 1. 114. 
 In his heued he has be scall, 
 \>e scab ouer-gas his bodi all. 
 Cursor Mundi, I. 11820 (ed. .Mon-is). 
 Adam Scrivener, if ever it thee befall, 
 Boece or Troilus for to write new, 
 Under thy long locks thou maist have tlie 
 scall. 
 
 Chaucer to his Scrivener. 
 In that manner, it cureth the scats in the 
 head. — Holland, Plinies Nat. Llist. ii. 277. 
 
 It is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the 
 head or beard. — A. V. Levit. xiii. 30. 
 
 A fomentation . . . cureth the leprosie, 
 sourfe, and dandruffe, running vicers and 
 seals. — Holland, Plinies Nat. Hist. ii. 155. 
 Her crafty head was altogether bald. 
 And, as in hate of honorable eld. 
 Was overgrowne with scurfe and filthy scald. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, I. viii. 47. 
 
 Scantling, an Anglicized form of Fr, 
 ecliantillon, eschantillon, a small oantle 
 or corner-piece, Sp. escantillon. 
 
 SoAEABEE, a beetle in Beaumont an3 
 Fletcher, as if a certain kind of lee, is 
 Drayton's scarahie, the Latin scara- 
 
 The kingly Bird, that heares Joves thundei'- 
 
 clap. 
 One day did scorne the simple Scarahee. 
 Spenser, Visions of the Worlds Vanitie, iv. 
 
 ScAEF-SKiN, the outward skin which 
 seems to defend the body (Bailey), is 
 supposed by Wedgwood to be another 
 form of scurf-shin, akin to Bav. schm-f- 
 fen, scherpffen, to scratch, Ger. sdwi-f. 
 It is probably merely the skin which 
 scarfs up (cf. Macbeth, iii. 1), swathes, 
 or covers as with a bandage or scarf, 
 the underlying cuticle. Compare the 
 following : — • 
 
 The first containing or inuesting part is the 
 Cuticle, which the Greekes call Kpidermis, 
 because it runs upon the surface oi the true 
 skin. ... A moist vapour of the Blood 
 foaming or frothing up, and driuen forth by 
 the strength of the heat is condensed or 
 thickened by the coldnesse of the Aire, and 
 turned into a Cuticle, or Scarfe-skin, for so 1 
 thinke we may properly call it.— H. Croote, 
 Description of the Body of Man, 1631, p. 71. 
 
 Vnder this Curtaine or Sfaii:^e, lyeth the 
 true and genuine Skin which the Greekes coll 
 iipa.;, because it may be excoriated or flayed 
 off— 7d. p. 72. 
 
SGAVUNGEB'S DAUGETEB{ 343 ) 
 
 Scavenger's daughter, an old in- 
 strument of torture (H. Ainsworth, 
 Tower of London), is said to have been 
 so called because invented by Sir Wil- 
 liam Sheoington, Lieutenant of the 
 Tower, temp. Henry VIII. 
 
 SCIENCE 
 
 Scent, a corrupt spelling of the 
 older and more correct form sent, Fr. 
 senti/r, Lat. seniire, to perceive by the 
 senses, from a false analogy to words 
 like scene, sceptre, scion, science, where 
 the c is an organic part of the struc- 
 ture. 
 
 There is no more reason why we 
 should Virrite scent for sent than scense 
 for sense. Similarly site and situation 
 were formerly incorrectly spelt scite 
 and soituation. 
 
 Sylvester observes that a seasoned 
 butt- 
 Retains long after all the wine is spent 
 Within itselfe the liquors liuely sent. 
 
 Du JBartas, p. 170 (1621). 
 We have but sented the Sent, hut tasted the 
 Taste, nor dare we touch the Touch, lest it 
 distract us with it selfe in a new peregrina- 
 tion. — S. Purchas, Microcosmus, 1619, p. 113. 
 He that has a strong faction against him, 
 hunts upon a cold sent. — Sir John Suckli7ig, 
 Agtaum (1648), p. 6. 
 So sure and swiftly, through his perfect 
 
 sent. 
 And passing speede, that shortly he her 
 overhent. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, III. vii. 23. 
 
 School, a shoal offish, A. Sax. scolu, 
 or scoIm, a band or troop, perhaps 
 ultimately the same word as school 
 (Lat. schola), as if a following, retinue, 
 or band of disciples (Ettmuller, p. 
 693). 
 
 In the Beowulf, 1. 1317, hand-scale = 
 an attendant troop. Compare Dut. 
 school, an aggregate of fishes, birds, 
 &c. 
 
 " Shoal " formerly was not exclu- 
 sively used of fishes ; Sylvester speaks 
 of "shoals of birds" (Bu Bwrtas, p. 
 133, 1621). 
 
 Sculk of a fysshe, examen, — Prompt. Par- 
 vulantm. 
 
 A scoole of fysshe, examen. — Horman, Vul- 
 garia, 1519. 
 
 A knavish skull of hoyes and girles. 
 Warner's Albions England, 1592. 
 This straunge and merueylous fy she folow- 
 ynge after the scooles of inackrell came 
 rushinge in to the fisher-mens netts. — Ancient 
 Balkds and Broadsides, p. 145 (ed. Lilly). 
 
 There they fly or die, like scaled sculls, 
 Before the helching whale. 
 
 Sliakespeare, Tro. and Cressida, v. 4, 22. 
 
 A great shoal, or as they call it, a scool of 
 pilchards came with the tide directly out of 
 sea into the harhour. — Defoe, Tour thro' G. 
 Britain, i. 391 [Davis]. 
 
 We were aware of a school of whales wal- 
 lowing and spouting in the golden flood of 
 the sun's light. — Ra£, hand of the N. Wind, 
 p. 154 (1875). 
 
 Sculk, a troop or herd, is apparently 
 a diminutive form of the same word, 
 as in the following, which I take from 
 Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossary. 
 
 Scrawling serpents with sculchs of poysoned 
 adders. — Stunifhurst, Conceites, p. 138. 
 
 We say a flight of doves or swallows, a 
 bevy of quails, a herd of deer, or wrens, or 
 cranes, a skulk of foxes, or a building of 
 rooks. — W. Irving, Sketch Book (Christmas 
 Day). 
 
 ScHORBUCK, a word used by Holland 
 in his translation of Pliny in the sense 
 of sautrvy -. — 
 
 Some thinke this disease [viz. Stomacace] 
 to bee Schorbuck or Scorbute, which raigneth 
 yet at this day. — Naturall History, fol. 1634, 
 tom. ii. p. 213. 
 
 It is the German scha/r'bock, scurvy, 
 which is apparently a corruption of 
 scorhut. Low Lat. scorbutus (perhaps 
 for scrolutus, connected with scroh-is, 
 scrof-a, with reference to its disfigure- 
 ment of the skin), as if compounded of 
 hoch and score, shear, schoArhen, &c. 
 
 But compare Dut. saheu/r-huyk, Icel. 
 shyr-ljugr, scurvy (as if from shyr, curd, 
 and hjugr, a soft tumour) , which Oleasby 
 thinks may be from A. Sax. sceorfa, 
 Eng. scurf. 
 
 There is a disease (saith Olaus magnus in 
 his history of the northern regions) haunting 
 the campes, which vexe them there that are 
 besieged and pinned vp; and it seemeth to 
 come by eating of salt meates which is in- 
 creased and cherished with the colde vapours 
 of the stone wals. The Germaines call this 
 disease (as we have said) Scorbuck.—Gerarde, 
 Herbal, p. 325. 
 
 Science, an oldorthography of scion, 
 Fr. scion, forseoiow, from Lat. sectix>(n), 
 a cutting (Scheler). Compare " Where- 
 of I take this that you caU love to be a 
 sect or scion." — Othello, i. 3, 337. 
 
 Surculus ... A gi-affe or science. — No- 
 menclator, 1585. 
 
 Rejection, A young shoot, or sience, that 
 springs from the root, or stock, of a tree. — 
 Cotgrave. 
 
SGI8S0BS 
 
 ( 344 ) 
 
 SGOBN 
 
 A sience savours of the plant it is put into. 
 — Richard Sibbes, Works (ed. JVichol), vol. 
 vi. p. 528. 
 
 James i. 4, comparing divine truths to a 
 syanc.e engrafted into a plant. — Id. vol. iv. p. 
 368. 
 
 Scissors, so spelt as if from Lat. 
 soissores, cutters, from sdssus, scindo, to 
 cut, is a corrupted form of cizers, cizars 
 (Cotgrave, s.v. Forcette), Fr. ciseau, O. 
 Fr. cisel, Sp. cmcel, Portg. sizel, Low 
 Lat. ciselltis, all probably from Lat. 
 sidKcula, a small cutting instrument, 
 from sicilis, our " sickle," sica, a dag- 
 ger, near akin to secare, to cut. Simi- 
 larly chisel, which is ultimately the 
 same word, was anciently spelt scheselle 
 (Wright's Vocahiilaries, J). 276). 
 
 Looke if my cizerSj the pincers, the pen- 
 knife, the knife to close letters, with the bod- 
 kin, the ear-picker, and the seale be in the 
 case. — French Gardenfor Eng, Ladtfes . , . to 
 walke in, 1621 [Brand, ii. 131]. 
 
 Forcette, A cizar, a small paire of sheers. — 
 Cotgrave. 
 
 Ciseler, to carve or grave with a chisell ; 
 also to clip, or cut, with sizars. — Id. 
 
 Scollops, a cookery term for small 
 slices of beef, veal, &c., is a corruption 
 of collops (Kettner, Book of the Table, 
 p. 420), Swed. kalops, slices of meat. 
 So Fr. escalopes, supposed to be slices 
 of meat rolled up in the shape of a 
 scallop shell, en escalope (Scheler). 
 
 ScoEEL, an old Eng. word for the 
 sqiM/rrel{i.e. Jja,t. soi/u/ridus, Gk. sMouros, 
 " The tailrshade"), as if connected with 
 A. Sax. sceran, to cut, gnaw, or score, 
 with its sharp teeth. 
 
 Scorel, or equerel, beest, Esperiolus, scu- 
 rellus, cirogi'illus. — Prompt. Parvulorum, ab. 
 1440. 
 
 ScoEN. This word owes its present 
 form to the French ecorner, escomer, 
 to disgrace or disfigure, also in an older 
 sense, as we find it given in Cotgrave, 
 "to wnhorin, dishorn, or deprive of horns; 
 to gut, pull, or take from one a thing 
 which is (or he thinks is) an omanjent 
 or grace unto him ; to lop or shred off 
 the boughs of trees." The past parti- 
 piple escorne, unhorned, means also, he 
 tells us, " melanchohke, oijt of heart, 
 out of countenance, ashamed to shew 
 himself, as a Deere is, when he hath 
 cast his head ; . . . and hence, de- 
 faced, ruined, scorned, disgraced." 
 
 Florio, in his New World of Words, 
 
 1611, gives a hke account of the Italian 
 scornare, "to unhorne, to dishorae. 
 Also to scome, to mocke, to vUifie, to 
 shame." 
 
 Both these words appear to come 
 from a Low Latin form, d/iscornare or 
 excornwi-e, to render ex-cornis, or desti- 
 tute of horns. And inasmuch as to 
 deprive an animal of its horns is to de- 
 prive it of its chief glory and ornament, 
 to render it quite defenceless and des- 
 picable, the word by an easy transition 
 might become appUcable to any species 
 of contemptuous and dishonourable 
 treatment, e.g., " Sothli Eroude with 
 his cost dispiside him and scornyde him 
 clothid with a whit cloth" (WyoUffe, 
 Luke xxiii. 11). 
 
 However, it is almost certain that 
 the Enghsh word (and possibly the 
 French and Italian words) has been 
 accommodated to a false derivation, as 
 we see by comparing 0. H. Ger. skern, 
 derision, skernon, to mock. It. scherno, 
 schermre, old Fr. escharrmr, to mock 
 {Vie de Seint Auhan, ed. Atkinson, I. 
 233), aU of which (as Wedgwood sug- 
 gests) may have meant originally to 
 bespatter with dh-t, or despise as dross, 
 Dan. sham, Pro v. Eng. shorn, scam, 
 A. Sax. scea/rn, Icel. skarn, dtmg, dirt. 
 (Compare Greek skor, whence scorm, 
 dross, scum, Sansk. ^ahrt for sahart, 
 dung, and probably Lat. scurra, a 
 mocker, a buffoon, whence our " scur- 
 rilous ; " cf. Lat. coprea (::: Gr. koprias, 
 a filthy jester.) 
 
 So in Greek we find skuballzo, to re- 
 gard as dung, to have a contempt for, 
 to despise ; and St. Paul expresses his 
 •' scorn " for aU that the world could 
 give (Phil. iii. 8) by saying that he 
 counted it but dung or dross (sMhcda). 
 
 In Eobert Manning's MedUacyims on 
 the Soper of Our Lorde (ab. 1316), he 
 says Herod — 
 
 With a whyte clojie y[n] skorm bym he 
 clad (1. 500). 
 
 And a few lines afterwards — 
 
 With wete and eke dung bey hym defoule 
 (1. 507-). 
 
 Compare Banfifshire shwrn, to be- 
 daub with dung, and shard [dung] , a 
 term of contempt, " He's a capernee- 
 tious sJim-d o' a mannie " (Gregor). 
 
 /Scorm is said to occur for the first 
 time in the Old English Homilies of 
 
8G0UBSE 
 
 ( 345 ) 
 
 SGBAPE 
 
 the l'2th centfury, 2nd series (ed. 
 Morris), and next in the Ormulum, 
 about 1200 (Oliphant, Old and Mid. 
 Eng. p. 198). 
 
 In the Ancren Biwle (about 1225) 
 we find " Me to beot his oheoken, & 
 spette him a schorn," where another 
 MS. has scha/rne, p. 106 (Camden Soo.), 
 i.e. " They struck his cheeks and spat 
 on him in scorn." In Manning's ilancZ- 
 h/ng Synne (p. 100), about 1303, it 
 translates eschamir. 
 
 [He] make]? his bisemers and bis sconies, 
 and (jetwors is : bisemerej) andscornej) [je guode 
 men. — Aj/eiibite of Inwyt (1340) p. 22. 
 In schorn he was i.-wouden in purpH palle 
 wede. 
 Legends of t)w Holy Rood, p. 223, 1. 16 
 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 [In scorn he was wound in clothing of 
 purple pall.] 
 
 Drayton uses the word felicitously in 
 the line — 
 
 I scorne all earthly dung-bred scarabies. 
 Idea, Sonnet 31. 
 
 The same word is North Eng. sham, 
 shard, cow-dung, whence corruptly 
 sha/re in cow-share. 
 
 This fellow tumbled and fell into a cow 
 share. — Copley, Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1614* 
 
 Compare Shobn-bud. 
 
 ScouESE, 1 an old word for to change 
 
 ScoRSE, j (Bailey) or barter, still 
 
 used in many of the provincial dialects, 
 
 e.g. Somerset scorse, sguoace, Dorset 
 
 scwoee. 
 
 And there another, that would needsly scorse 
 A costly Jewel for a hobby-horse. 
 
 Drayton, The Moon Calf. 
 
 Scorse is frequently used by Spenser, 
 Jonson, andHarington (seeNares, S.V.), 
 and scowser as a substantive. The 
 older and more correct form, however, 
 is corse, or coyse [Gatholicon), Scot, cose ; 
 and an exchanger or dealer is courser 
 or cm-ser, e.g."Gorsoii/)-e ofhorse. Mango" 
 (Prowipi. Parv.). 
 
 He can horse you as well as all the corsers 
 in the towne, courtiers de chevaulx. — Palsgrave 
 (1530). 
 
 Courses- here is the same word as Fr. 
 courtiefT, a broker or dealer, O. Fr. 
 couratier. It. curatiere, one who has the 
 charge or care (Lat. cwa) of any busi- 
 ness, a factor (Diez ) . The forms scourse, 
 scowser, seem to have originated in 
 this way. The m.ost usual expressions 
 
 in which the word occurred wei'e ho^-se- 
 courser and liorse-coursing, and these 
 being to the ear undistinguishable from 
 hm'se-scourser, horse-scowsing, were fre- 
 quently spelt in this incorrect form; 
 e.g. " Gourratier de chevaux, A horse- 
 scourser." — Cotgrave. The simple word 
 afterwards retained the initial s which 
 it had acquired when compounded, e.g. 
 
 Courratage, Brokage, scoursing, horse- 
 scoursing. — Cotgra ve. 
 
 Come, Tommy, let es scorce. — Devonshire 
 Courtship, p. 38. 
 
 This catel gat he wit okering, 
 And led al his lif in corsing, 
 
 Fng. Metrical Homilies, 14th cent. 
 p. 139 (ed. Small). 
 What horse-courser ! you are well met. 
 Marlowe, History of Dr. Faustus, 1604 
 {Works, p. 96, ed. Dyce). 
 An horse scorser, he that buyeth horses and 
 putteth them away againe by chopping and 
 changing. — Nomenclator, 1585. 
 
 Will you scourse with him ? you are in 
 Smithfield, you may iit yourself with a fine 
 easy going street-nag. — B. Jonson, Bartho- 
 lomew Fair, iii. 1. 
 
 A bedlam looke, shag haire, and staring eyes. 
 Horse-courser's tongue for oths and damned 
 lyes. 
 S. Rowlands, The Four Knaves(i611), 
 p. 107 (Percy Soc). 
 I scorsed away a pair of diamond ear-rings 
 for these few onions, with a lady down at 
 the cottage yonder. — W. D. Parish, Sussex 
 Glossary, p. 99. 
 
 The resemblance of O. Fr. cosson, It. 
 cozzone, a horse-dealer, Lat. codo, is 
 probably accidental. 
 
 ScKAPE, in the colloquial phrase " to 
 get into a scrape," i.e. into a diflicultyy 
 to be embroUed in something that per- 
 plexes one or involves disagreeable con- 
 sequences, awaits a satisfactory solu- 
 tion. I have little doubt that it is the 
 same word as Prov. Eng. scrap or 
 scrape, meaning a trap, snare, or decoy 
 for birds. 
 
 Scrap, A place baited with chaff, corn, &c., 
 to catch sparrows. — Wright, Provincial Dic- 
 tionaru. 
 
 In defect whereof [i.e. fish, mice, and frogs], 
 making a scrape for sparrows and small birds, 
 the bitourmade shift to maintain herself upon 
 them. — Sir Thos. Browne, Works, vol. iii. p, 
 317 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 Mr. Wilkin's note on this passage is 
 " A scrape, or scrap, is a term used in 
 Norfolk for a quantity of chaff, mixed 
 with grain, frequently laid as a decoy 
 
SOBATOH 
 
 ( 346 ) SOBUBBY-GBASS 
 
 to attract small birds, for the purpose 
 of shooting ornettingthem." SoWor- 
 lidge, Diet. Busticmn, 1681. 
 
 A scrap, and scrap-nets, A place -n-here small 
 birds are fed, and lured to scrap about, till a 
 net falls and catches them. — Norfolk Words, 
 Tra-nsactions of Phitolog. Soc. 1855, p. 36. 
 
 The original meaning was no doubt 
 a snare, as we see by comparing Ice- 
 landic sTcreppa, a mouse-trap, from 
 shreppa, to slip. 
 
 I beg you'll do me the honour to write, 
 otherwise you draw me in, instead of Mr, 
 
 drawing you into a scrape, — Sterne, 
 
 Letters, xii. Aug. 3, 1760. 
 
 ScKATCH, in the expression " Old 
 Scratch," a vulgar name for the Devil, 
 Cleveland Aud-sorat, is doubtless the 
 same word as O. Norse skratti, Swed. 
 dialect shratten, the devil, shrat, shrate, 
 O. H. Ger. scrato, M. H. Ger. schrate, 
 schratze, a fiend, a ghost. 
 
 ScEATCH-cEADLB, a name sometimes 
 given to the game of Gat's-ceadlb 
 (which see), is a corruption of craich- 
 oradle, the creche or manger cradle. 
 
 ScRATOHiNGS, a word used in the 
 Midland counties for what is left behind 
 when lard is melted and strained, the 
 cellular substance of fat, seems to be 
 the same word as A. Sax. soread/wng, a 
 fragment, scrap, something left of food, 
 used in the Northumbrian Gospels for 
 the " fragments that remained." — S. 
 Matt. xiv. 20 ; screadian, to shred, 
 cut, M. H. Ger. shreitan, " screed," A. 
 Sax. sceard. Compare scrunchings, 
 scraps, leavings of food (Atkinson, 
 Clevelcmd Glossary). 
 
 She'd take a big cullender to strain her lard 
 wi', and then wonder as the scratchings run 
 through. — G. Elivt, Adam Bede, ch. xviii. 
 
 Screen, a frame for sifting gravel, 
 corn, &c. (Bailey), seems to be a dis- 
 tinct word from screen, a shelter (old 
 Eng. sorine, Fr. escrain, a "shrine"). 
 It is probably identical with Ger. 
 schranne, a railing or grate, a trellis- 
 work enclosure (O. H. Ger. scramna), 
 whence also 0. Fr. escraigne, a wattled 
 hut. Mod. Fr. Scraigne. There is no 
 connexion with It. sgranare, to sever 
 grain from the chaff, or with Lat. secer- 
 nere, to separate. 
 
 ScEBw, a sorry horse, is in Provin- 
 cial German schroes, connected with 
 
 schro, schra, schra, lean, meagre, in the 
 Westphalian dialect (ArcMv der Neue- 
 Ten Sprachen, LV. ii. p. 157), rough 
 coated, in bad condition, amd Low 
 Dutch schrae, poor, bare, Ger. schrt§, 
 rugged, rough. The original meaning 
 is probably to be seen in Icelandic 
 shrd, (1) dry shrivelled skin, (2) a scroll 
 of parchment. 
 
 A curious verbal parallel is exhi- 
 bited in Fr. ecrouelles, the king's evil, 
 =:It. scrofole, and ecrou, a screw,r;It. 
 scrofola. See Ceuels. 
 
 " Why, where the deuce did you get that 
 beast from, Cardonnel ?"..." Never saw 
 such a 5c;"eu) in your stables." — Miss Braddon, 
 Dead Men^s Shoes, ch. xxx. 
 
 ScEooGE, \ a vulgar word meaning 
 ScEOUGE, j to crush, squeeze, press, 
 or crowd [e.g. Evans, Leicester Olossary, 
 E. D. S., Cleveland shrudge), made 
 familiar in the language of literature 
 by Dickens's Ebenezer Scrooge, popu- 
 larly associated with screw (so Lye, 
 Bichardson ; — it is pronounced so-ewje). 
 Compare sorewdy, to crowd. — Bedford 
 (Wright). 
 
 It is the old Eng. scruze, to squeeze 
 or crush (Spenser, Hall), and seems to 
 have no native origin. It is perhaps 
 from Sp. estrujar, to press, strain, or 
 thrust, which is derived from Lat. a- 
 torculare, to press out (as wine from 
 grapes), torculum, a press, from torqueo, 
 to twist. 
 
 Then atweene her lilly handes twaine 
 Into his wound the juice thereof did scmze. . 
 Spenser, F. Queene, 111. T. 33. 
 "Ah, Oi wuU," shay says, scrowgin up, 
 " moy Obadoyer ! " — A. B. Evans, Leicester- 
 shire Glossary, p. 36 (E.D.S.). 
 
 I recollect I was goin' down from Augusty 
 some two years ago in the old stage that 
 Sammy Tompkins druv, and we had one of 
 the she-critters aboard — and she was a scrouger 
 I tell je.—Oi-pheus C. Kerr Papers (1862), 
 p. 230. 
 
 De people all did stare and scrouge 
 As thick as any fair. 
 
 Tom Cladpole's Jmtiey to Lunmn, 
 p. 26 (Sussex dialect). 
 Kit had hit a man on the head with the 
 handkerchief of apples for " scrowdging " his 
 parents with unnecessary violence. — Dickens, 
 Old Curiosity Shop, ch. xxxix. 
 
 ScEtTBBY-GEASS, a name for scwrvy- 
 grcbss in the Craven dialect, of which 
 word it is a corruption. Another per- 
 version is presented by the Icelandic 
 
SGULLEBY 
 
 ( 347 ) 
 
 SEAB-GLOTH 
 
 sharfa-kdl (sha/rfa-gras), as if from 
 shcvrfr, a cormorant (Shetland scarf). 
 
 ScDLLEEY, so Spelt as if it denoted 
 the place where dishes (O. Bng. sculls, 
 Pr. escvsllcs) were washed, is a cor- 
 ruption of old Eng. sguelery, sqmjlerey, 
 or squillary, a wash-house (compare 
 squeler, sguyler, sqiiiller, a washer or 
 scullion), from old Eng. swyll, swyle, 
 or squill, to wash or rinse, near akin 
 to Dan. skylle, to rinse or wash, Swed. 
 skblja, Icel. slcola, to wash, sTml, wash- 
 ing water. 
 
 Ful wel kan ich dishes sivilen. 
 
 Haveluk, 1. 919. 
 
 Sea-boabd, the coast-line, would be 
 more properly sea-lord, i.e. the sea- 
 border, from Pr. lord, A. Sax. and Icel. 
 lord, an edge. 
 
 Sea-Conny, an Anglo-Indian name 
 for a steersman, as if denoting one that 
 is cormy or canny about the sea., is the 
 Hindustani sukkdni, a steersman, from 
 sukhdn, the helm. 
 
 Seapoy is an occasional American 
 spelling of sepoy {spahi), — e.g. in India, 
 by P. E. Peudge, 1880,— which is from 
 Hind, sipahi, a soldier, one that uses 
 sip, a bow and arrow. 
 
 Seal, as applied in poetry to the 
 closing up the eyes or eyelids of an- 
 other, is a mis-spelhng sometimes found 
 of the old verb to seel, used to denote 
 the cruel process of passing a thread 
 through the eyelids of a hawk, in order 
 to render her tractable by producing a 
 temporary blindness. The analogous 
 expression of " eyehds sealed," or closed 
 in sleep, no doubt favoured the mis- 
 BpellTng, but it is strange to find it in 
 the pages of learned philologists like 
 Mr. Wedgwood, Etymolog. Bid. vol. i, 
 p. 314, 1859 ; compare also 
 
 Thine eye unhooded and unsealed. 
 
 Abp. Trench, The Falcon. 
 
 'Tis sorrow builds the shining ladder up, . . . 
 
 Whereon our firm feet planting, nearer God, 
 
 The spirit climbs, and hath it's eyes unsealed. 
 
 Lowell, On the Death of' a Friend's Child. 
 
 -0 that the pinions of a clipping dove, 
 Would cut my passage through the empty 
 
 air; 
 Mine eyes being seaVd, how would I mount 
 
 above 
 The reach of danger and forgotten care. 
 
 Quarks, Emblems, iv. 2. 
 
 Seal not thy Eyes up from the poor, but give 
 Proportion to their Merits, and thy Purse. 
 
 H. Vutighan, Silex Scintillans, 1650. 
 rie seal my eyes up, and to thy commands 
 Submit my wilde heart, and restrain my 
 
 bauds. 
 
 Id. The Hidden Treasure. 
 
 In time of seiTice seal up both thine eies. 
 Geo. Herbert, The Church-Porch. 
 
 It is derived from Fr. silhr, a less 
 correct form of ciller, " to seele or sow 
 up the eie-hds " (Cotgrave), from cil, 
 Lat. ciUum, the eye-lid. Compare It. 
 cigUare, to seel a bird's eyes (Plorio), 
 old Eng. to ensile. 
 
 But when we in our viciousness grow hard 
 (O mercy on't !) the wise gods sect our eyes. 
 
 Antony and Cleop, iii. 11. 
 She that, so young, could give out such a 
 
 seeming 
 To seel her father's eyes up close as oak. 
 
 Othello, iii. 3. 
 So God empal'd our Grandsii-es liuely look, 
 Through all his bones a deadly chilness strook, 
 Siel'd-vp his sparkling eyes with Iron bands. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 137 (1621). 
 Come, seeling night, 
 Skai'f up the tender eye of pitiful day. 
 
 Macbeth, iii. 1. 
 Sleep sieles bis eyes vp with a gloomy clowd. 
 Sylvester, p. 318 (1621). 
 
 Search, for cerch or cherch (Pr. cher- 
 cher, Lat. circa/re, to go round about, 
 go hither and thither), assimilated pro- 
 bably to the verb to sea/ree, to examine 
 by sifting, to choose out, to separate 
 from what is worthless, to cleanse ; 
 compare 
 
 But before yt they were plonged in the rj'uer 
 To searche theyr bodyes fayre & clere 
 Therof they had good sporte. 
 
 Cock Lorelles Bote, 11. 67-69. 
 
 Cemere, to sift, to search, also to chuse or 
 cull out. — Flono. 
 
 Tamiser, to scarce, to boult, to pass or strain 
 through a scarce. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Sasser, to sift, searce. — Id. 
 Let vs search deepe and trie our better parts. 
 Sir John Beaumont, Miserable State 
 of Man. 
 
 Efter beging light of God, and sersing the 
 Scripture by conference and reasoning dis- 
 cussit .... all with a voice, in a consent and 
 unitie of mynd, determines and concludes. — 
 J. Melville, Diaty, 1579, p. 78. 
 
 Seae-cloth, a corrupt speUing of 
 cere-cloth, i.e: a cloth prepared with 
 wax, Lat. cera, as if derived from sear, 
 dry. 
 
SEGT 
 
 ( 348 ) 
 
 SET 
 
 Linen, besmeared with gums, in the manner 
 of searctoth. — Bacon, Si/lva Sytvarumy Works 
 (1803), vol. ix. p. 29. 
 
 Sect, Lat. secta, so spelt as if a de- 
 rivative of sectus {seco), and meaning a 
 section or part cut off from a larger 
 body, e.g. the Church CathoUc, just as 
 schism means a rent, is reaUy for secuta 
 (from sequor), a following, sequela, or 
 party attached to the same leader. Cf. 
 sector, to foUow, for sec{u)tor. Secta in 
 classical Latin is frequently used as a 
 cognate accusative after sequor; in 
 Mid. Latin it denotes a series of things 
 following one another in due order, a 
 suit of clothes, a suit at law. Hence 
 also a set of china, &c. See Set. 
 He berifi );e sygne sf pouerte, 
 And in J^at secte cure sauyour • sauede al man- 
 kynde. 
 Langland, Vision of Piers the Plowman, 
 Pass. xvii. 1. 99, Text C. 
 And sitthe in cure secte • as hit semed, fiow 
 
 deydest, 
 On a fryday, in forme of man, feledest oure 
 sorwe. 
 
 Id. Pass. viii. 1. 130. 
 [Text B here has "in oure sute."] 
 
 Seeepaw, a name given in an English 
 document, 1715, to a certain Oriental 
 garment worn at Delhi (J. T. Wheeler, 
 Early Records of British India, p. 171), 
 is a corrupted form of sir-o-pa, fit. cap- 
 a-pie, a garment covering the person 
 from head to foot. 
 
 Selvage, a corrupt spelhng (from 
 false analogy to words liie bandage, 
 cordage, plumage) of selvedge, i.e. self- 
 edge, that part of a material which 
 makes an edge orhorder of its self vfith- 
 out being hemmed (compare Dut. self- 
 ende, self-egge, self-hant. — Wedgwood). 
 See Smallagb. 
 
 J>o ouer seluage he schalle replye 
 As towelle hit were fayrest in hye ; 
 Browers he schalle cast J^er-opon, 
 bat be lorde schulle dense his fyngers [on]. 
 The Babees Book, p. 321, 1. 664 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Sept, a clan (so spelt as if derived 
 from Lat. septus, fenced off, enclosed), 
 is a corruption of sect (Lat. secta, for 
 secuta), a " tail " or following, whioh is 
 also used for a clan. Compare Prov. 
 cepte, a sect (Wedgwood). 
 
 There is a Sept of the Gerrots in Ireland, 
 and they seeme forsooth by threatning kind- 
 nesse and kindred of the U'ue Giraldins, to 
 
 fetch their petit degrees from then' ancestors. 
 — Stanihurst, Descnptian of Ireland, p. 33, in 
 Holinshed's Chron. vol. i. 1587. 
 
 Every head of ^ery Sept, and every cbeif 
 of every kinred or familye, should be answer- 
 able and bound to bring foorth every one of 
 that kinred or sept under hym at all times to 
 be juBtifyed. — Spenser, View of Present State 
 of Ireland, p. 624 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Seraglio, It. serraglio, " a place shut 
 in, looked, or inclosed as a cloister . . . 
 also used for the great Turk's chief 
 court or household " (Plorio), an Ita- 
 hanized form of the Turkish SarmjU, a 
 woman belonging to the Sultan's 
 palace, sa/ray, a palace, a mansion, as if 
 from sen-are, to bolt or lock in, sera, a 
 bolt (Wedgwood), like Sp. ha/rras, a 
 prison, orig. bars. Cf. Hind, sarde, an 
 inn, Eng. caravan-sercd. 
 
 I passed by the Piazza Judea, where their 
 Seraglio begins'; for being inviron'd with 
 walls, they arelock'd up every night. — Eveltfii, 
 Diary, Jan. 15, 1645. 
 
 Serenade, Pr. seirenade. It. serenata, 
 Proven9al serena, properly an evening 
 song ; cf. serein, Sp. sereno, evening 
 dew. There was probably a confusion 
 between the words derived from serenus 
 and serus, e.g. sera (so. hora), It. and 
 Prov. sera, evening, Fr. soir. 
 
 With " serenade " compare Pro- 
 vencal alba, morning-song, Fr. aubade. 
 
 Sebvice-tree, a corruption of the 
 Latin cervisia, beer, whioh formerly was 
 brewed from its berries (Prior). It 
 might weU, however, be only a perver- 
 sion of its Latin name sorhus. 
 
 Crato utterly forbids all manner of fruits, 
 as peares, apples, plumns, cherries, straw- 
 berries, nuts, medlers, serves, etc. — Burton, 
 Democritus to Reader, p. 69. 
 
 Set, a number of things or persons 
 similar or suited to each other, a con- 
 nected series or sequence, — as "a set 
 of pearls," "a set of teeth," "a set of 
 studs," " a set of tea-things," " a set of 
 quadrilles," " ass< of thieves," — is gene- 
 rally understood to mean a number 
 set, i.e. placed or arranged, together, a 
 fixed or regular combination. It is 
 really, I have no manner of doubt, the 
 same word as suit, a regular sequence 
 or series, as " a su4i of clothes," a " svit 
 of cards" (old Eng. sywete), Fr. swite 
 (old Pr. suitte, seute), a following, 
 sequel, or succession, a connected series 
 or set, a retinue, or train of followers 
 
SETTEE 
 
 ( 349 ) 
 
 SETWALL 
 
 (compare " a e^dte of rooms,'' i.e. a set), 
 It. setta, a sect, a faction or companie 
 of one opinion (Plorio), all from Lat. 
 secta (for secmta, following), a sect, a 
 band or troop. Jamieson gives sete as 
 an old Scot, word for a legal suit or 
 prosecution. See Sect. In the follow- 
 ing sect refers to a crowd of beggars : — 
 Ah, Jesa mercy ! what man coud conieot 
 The mysery of suche a wretched sect. 
 
 The Hye Way to the Spyttel Hnuse, 
 1. 276. 
 We'll wear out, 
 In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great 
 ones. 
 
 Shakespeare, K. Lear, v. 3, 17. 
 
 That is, poUtical sets or parties. 
 If haply he the sect pursues, 
 That read and comment upon news ; 
 He takes up their mysterious face ; 
 He drinks his coffee without lace. 
 
 Prior, The Chamelson. 
 As sure a card as ever won the set. 
 
 Titus Andronlcus, iv. 1, 100. 
 He'll watch the horologe a double set, 
 If drink rock not his cradle. 
 
 Othello, ii. 3, 135. 
 I was there 
 From college . . . with others of our set. 
 Tennyson, Princess, Prologue, 1. 8. 
 wretched set of spari'ows, one and all. 
 Who pipe of nothing but of span'o w-hawks ! 
 Id. Geraint and Enid, 1. 278. 
 
 Settee, a slang term for sevenpence, 
 is a corruption of the Itahan sette (n; 
 Lat. septem). 
 
 Many of the cant words of the London 
 streets are of Italian origin, having 
 been learned from the organ-grinders, 
 image-carriers, &c., of that nationality, 
 e.g. saltee, pence, zz It. soldi, chinker 
 saltee, fivepence, zz aingue soldi. 
 
 It had rained kicks all day in lieu of saltees, 
 and that is pennies. — Reade, Cloister and 
 Hearth, ch, Iv. 
 
 Settle, when used with the mean- 
 ing to adjust or compose (a difference), 
 to render quiet or clear, to defray an 
 account, seems to be a distinct word 
 from settle, a seat or setting, A. Sax. 
 setl, setlwng, a setting (from set, A. Sax. 
 settan), and a corrupt form of old Eng. 
 saUle, to appease or reconcile, to be- 
 come calm, A. Sax. sahtlian, sehtlicm, 
 to reconcile (EttmiiUer, p. 622), from 
 saht, reconciled, saht, peace, Icel. sdtt, 
 an agreement, concord (see Wedgwood, 
 S.V.). Compare Swed. sakta (vb.), to 
 
 abate, moderate, subside, (adj.) gentle, 
 soft ; Ger. saoJite, soft, gentle. 
 When a sawele is sailed & sakred to drystyn, 
 He holly haldes hit his & haue hit he wolde. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 69, 1. 1140. 
 Hit [the Ark] so. tied on a softe day syn- 
 kande to grounde. 
 
 Id. p. 49, 1. 445. 
 I salle hym surelye ensure, that saghetylle 
 
 salle we neuer. 
 Are we sadlye assemble by cure selfene ones. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 331 (E.E.T.S.). 
 Muche sor3e fienne satteled vpon segge Jonas. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 100, 1. 409. 
 [Much sorrow tlien settled upon the man 
 
 Jonah.] 
 Now lofe we, now hate, now saghtel [= re- 
 conciliation], now strife. 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 1470. 
 
 In the Cleveland dialect the old pro- 
 nunciation and its old meaning of to 
 satisfy (as well as to abate or subside) 
 is still preserved, e.g. : — 
 
 Weel, it'll ha'e to be sae. Ah aims ; but 
 Ah's not sattted about 't [Well, it will have 
 to be so, I suppose ; but I am not satisfied]. 
 — Atkinson, Glossary, s.v. Settle. 
 
 Corn's sattled a vast sen last market. — Id. 
 
 Mahnd an' git him to satlle 't [Mind and 
 get him to receipt it, i.e. a bill]. — Id. 
 
 In Banffshire to sattle is to reduce a 
 person to peace or silence by a beating, 
 a scolding, &c., and anything that 
 silences a person is a sattler {i.e. a 
 paciiier, a "settler"). 
 
 I ga' 'im a. sattler at the ootset. — Gregor, 
 Banff Glossary, p. 147. 
 fje comli quen of palerne ' oft crist )jonked, 
 (jat hade hire sent of his sond • so moche ioye 
 
 to haue, 
 & hade settled hire sorwe ' so sone, jjat was 
 huge. 
 
 William of Palerne, 1. 4562. 
 
 They [Northampton folk] have an odd 
 phrase, not so usual in other places. They 
 used to say when at cudgel play (such tame 
 were far better than our wild battles) one 
 gave his adversary such a sound blow as that 
 he knew not whether to stand or to fall, that 
 he settled him at a blow. . . . The relicts and 
 stump (my pen dares write no worse) of the 
 long Parliament pretended they would settle 
 the Church and State, but surely had tl^ey 
 continued, it had been done in the dialect of 
 Northamptonshire ; they would so have settled 
 us we should neither have known how to have 
 stood, or on which side to have fallen. — T. 
 Fuller, Mixt Contemplations, xxvii. p. 44 
 (1660;. 
 
 Setwall, a popular name for the 
 plant valerian, is a corruption of 0. 
 
8HAFTMAN 
 
 ( 350 ) 
 
 SHAKES 
 
 Eng. eetewale, ssedualh, zeduar, from 
 tlie Mid. Lat. xedooar (Prior). 
 Kanel and satewaie. 
 
 Gy of Warwihe, 
 Gyngyure, & sedewale, ^ {>e ^ylofre. — 
 Boddeker, Alteng. Dicht. p. 146, 1. 40. 
 
 The form seatwell is quoted from an 
 old Scotch MS. of the 14th century in 
 Cosmos Innes, Scotland in the Mid. 
 Ages, p. 237. 
 
 Zedoar, Fi. zedoai/re, Sp. zedoivrio, 
 Portg. zedum-ia, are all derived from 
 the Arab-Persian eedwar, or jedwar 
 (Devio). A distinct corruption is It. 
 zettovario. 
 
 He himself was swete as is the rote, 
 Of licoris, or any setewate. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 3207". 
 It hath beene had (and "is to this day among 
 the poore people of our northerne parts) in 
 such veneration amongst them, that no 
 brothes, pottage, or phisicall meates are 
 woorth anything, if Setwall were not at one 
 end : whereupon some woman poet or other 
 bath made these verses - 
 
 They that will bane their beale, 
 Must put Seticall in their keale. 
 
 Gerarde, Herbal, p. 919. 
 
 Shaftman, an old word for a measure 
 of extent, -viz. from the top of the thumb 
 when spread out to the other side of 
 the palm, about six inches, is a corrup- 
 tion of O. Eng. schaftmonde (Morte 
 Arthure), A. Sax. scoeft-mund, " spear- 
 hand," from mund, a hand, or hand- 
 breadth, prob. the breadth of the right 
 hand. BaUey spells it shaftment, and 
 BO Ootgrave. In the Cleveland dialect 
 ahaffment is the circumference of the 
 wrist. 
 
 The thrust mist her, and in a tree it strake, 
 And enterd in the same a shaftman deepe. 
 
 Harington, Transl. of Ariosto, xxxvi. 56. 
 
 Couldier, A dwarf, . . . one that's bat a 
 Bhaftment high. — Cotgrave. 
 
 The same wound was a shaftnwn broad, 
 and had cut atwo many veines and sinewes. 
 — Malory, Historie of K. Arthur, 1634, vol. i. 
 p. 274. 
 
 Lette youre bowe haue good byg bend, a 
 shaf'temente and ii. fyngers at the least.— 
 -Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 112 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Shaoebushe, the name of a musical 
 instrument mentioned in the following 
 passage quoted by Nares from NichoVa 
 Progresses : — 
 
 In which barge was shalines, shagebushes, 
 and divers other mstruments of musicke which 
 played continually. — Cor. of Anne B. p. 2. 
 
 is the Spanish sacahuche, a eacfcimi 
 (q.v.). 
 
 May 3 (1495) To four shakbusshes for their 
 wages, £T. — Prwy Purse Kifenses of Henry 
 
 Shakebutt, an old mis-spelling of 
 aachhut. 
 
 Then shalmes and shaliehutts sounded in the 
 
 ayre, 
 But shrilst of all, the trumpet of renownp. 
 G. Peek, Honor oj the Order of the 
 Garter, 1593. 
 
 Shakes, in the slang and colloquial 
 phrase " It is no great shakes," mean- 
 ing it is nothing to boast of, not -worth 
 much, of inferior excellence (it occurs 
 in Byron), has never, I beUeve, been 
 satisfactorily explained. 
 
 It is probable that shakes here is 
 identical with the provincial word 
 shake, to brag (Wright), which must 
 be of ancient usage, as we find " 8cha- 
 ha/re, or craker, or booste maker, lac- 
 tator, philocompus," ia the Prom]i- 
 torium Fa/rmdorimi, about 1440. These 
 words are near akin to Dan. skogger-, 
 noisy, roaring (in slcogger-latter, roar 
 of laughter, &c.), Icel. sTcak, akakr, a 
 noise. For the change of meaningfrom 
 " making a noise," to " boasting," com- 
 pare crach, 0. Eng. arake, (1) any loud 
 noise, even a thunder-peal (so Shake- 
 speare, cf. "crack of doom"), (2) a 
 boast, a brag (cf. " a craeh regiment," 
 one to boast of) ; hrag, (1) to make a 
 loud noise (akm to hray, Lat./rajor), 
 (2) to boast. Thus " no great shakes " 
 would mean nothing to make a noise, 
 or brag, about. Otherwise we may 
 look for the origin in the provincial 
 word shalcea, a bargain (Wright), com- 
 paring Dan. shukhre, to peddle or 
 huxter, Icel. shakha, to balance. Hot- 
 ten asserts that in America "a fair 
 shake " is " a good bargain " (Slang 
 Bid. S.V.). These latter words seem 
 to be cognate with A. Sax. soacan, Icel. 
 skaka, to shake or wave (of the bal- 
 ance), just as weigh and wag are re- 
 lated. 
 
 Will Douglas, no great shakes at metre, did 
 write these lines. — T. Carlyle, CrommeU't 
 Letters, vol. ii. cvii. (note). 
 
 I saw mun stand on the poop, so plain as 
 I see you, no great shakes of a man to look to 
 nether : .there^s a sight better here to plase 
 me. — Kingsley, Westward Ho, ch. xxx. 
 
 He's nae great shake (i.e. he is of low 
 character). — Gregor, Banf. Gloisary. 
 
SHAMBBOGUE 
 
 ( 351 ) 
 
 SHABK 
 
 Shambeogue, a curious assimilation 
 of slwJmrtock to the word for the Irish 
 accent. 
 
 I could easily observe .... the Spanish 
 myrtle, the English oak, the Scotch thistle, 
 tlie Irish shambrngtie. — Spectator, No. 455 
 (171'2;, vol. vi. p. 223 (ed. 1816). 
 
 Shamefaced and Shambfacedness 
 (A. V. 1 Tim. ii. 9) are modern cor* 
 ruptions of the good old English shame- 
 fast, shamefastness, A. Sax. sceani-fcBsi, 
 scea/m-foestnes, i.e. fast or firm in mo- 
 desty (oomp. "sooth-fast," A. Sax.so<5- 
 faest). 
 
 Sylvester presents a transitional form 
 when he speaks of 
 
 Lust whose wanton flashes 
 A tender brest rak't-vp in ^hamefac^t ashes. 
 Bn Bartas, p. 20 (1621). 
 
 Wise, shamefast, and bringing forth goodly 
 children. — North's Plutarchj Life of'Jjycurgus, 
 
 The following passage will show how 
 naturally this perversion was likely to 
 arise : — 
 
 There is no man so faiTe from b^-ave and 
 Courtly behaviour, as a blusher ; those that 
 have shamefast affections, those that have a 
 divine touch and tincture of holiuesse in their 
 face. -^Martin Day, Doomes-Dai/, 1636, p. 
 182. 
 
 Also wymmen in couenable abite, with 
 schamfaatnesse and sobirnesse. — Wyclife, 
 1 Tim. ii. 9. 
 
 In this passage Tyndale has sham- 
 fastnea, the Geneva version shamefast- 
 nes, the A. V. 1611 shamefastnesse. 
 
 Schamefast sche was in maydenes schamefast- 
 nesse. 
 
 Chaucer, Doctor of Physic's Tale, 
 13470. 
 
 She is the fountaine of your modestee ; 
 You shamfast are, but shamefastnes it selfe is 
 shee. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, II. ix. 43. 
 
 In stede of the feruente deayre, which pro- 
 uoketh a chylde to be better than hys felovve, 
 lette a man be as muche stirred vp with 
 shamefastnes to be worse than all other. — 
 Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 141 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Be a certean schamfastnes of a bashfuU 
 nature, quhilk he pat in me, [God] sa keipit 
 me that I was nocht overcome nor miscaried 
 be na woman. — J. Melville, Diary, 15f 9, p. 79. 
 
 The shamefac't birds with one wing faine to 
 
 fly 
 
 Did hold theii- other fanne before their eye 
 For feare they should such filthinesse espie. 
 Fuller, Davids Heavie Punishment, 
 St. 32. 
 
 Sham-root, a corrupt form of sham- 
 rock, Irish seamrog. 
 
 And for my cloathing in a mantle goe 
 
 And feed on Sham-roots, as the Irish doe. 
 Withers, Abuses Stript and Whipt, 
 161r3, p. 71. 
 
 See also Crofton Croker's Ballads of 
 Ireland, p. 35. Shamrotes occurs in 
 Campion's Sisiorie of Ireland, 1571 
 (Eeprint, p. 25). 
 
 Taylor the Water Poet spells it 
 shame-rags. 
 
 Master Oscabath [= Uisge heatha'] the Irish- 
 man, and Master Shamnmgh his lackey. — 
 Sluirpham, The Fleire, 1610, act iii. 
 
 Shankee, a sore or botch in the groin, 
 &c. (Bailey), so spelt as if originally 
 a sore on the shank or leg, is an AngH- 
 cized form of Fr. chanm-e, from Lat. 
 cancer, a crab, appaxently so called 
 from its flesh-devouring malignity. 
 
 Helkiah Crooke, physician to James 
 I., in his Practise of Ghirurgery, 1631, 
 
 The Cancer aboue all Tumors hath most 
 need of theactuall Cautery, . . . and because 
 the fashion of a Crab doth represent the horrid 
 forme of thjit Vlcer, whence also it hath his 
 name ; you haue here a Crab figured to make 
 vnto you (as it were) a representation of" a 
 Cancer. — ^p. 6. 
 
 And thereupon the worthy old chi- 
 rurgeon subjoins the ef&gy of the crus- 
 tacean, claws and all complete, which 
 must have been very helpful in their 
 diagnostics to " the younger sort of the 
 Barber-Ohinirgians," for whom he 
 wrote. 
 
 With gentlest touch, she next explores, 
 
 Her shankers, issues, running sores. 
 
 Swift, Young Nymph going to bed. 
 
 For the initial change, compare 
 shanty, a wooden hut, from Fr. chan- 
 tier, a pile of logs. 
 
 Shabk, a sharper, rogue, or cheat, as 
 when a pettifogging attorney is termed 
 a "landshark," is generally regarded 
 as a figurative use of the word shark, 
 the voracious sea-monster. It is really 
 a slightly disguised form of Ger. schurke, 
 a cheat or knave, Dutch schurk, " a 
 shark, rascal" (Sewel, 1708), Dan. 
 skurk. The radical idea seems to be 
 scratching, scraping, or clutching, cf. 
 Dut. schurken, to scratch (Wedgwood), 
 scJwok, a covetous fellow. Of the same 
 origin are Fr. escroc, a swindler (Diez), 
 It. scrocco, " a wiUe shift namely 
 
SHARPS 
 
 ( 352 ) 
 
 SHED 
 
 for bellie-cheere," scroecare, " to shift 
 Bhamelessly for victuals at other mens 
 tables." — Florio. 
 
 To shark up and down, to go shifting and 
 shuffling about. — Baiteyj Diet. p.v. 
 
 Shark, a kind of Sea Wolf, the most rave- 
 nous of Fishes, which will chop a Man in two 
 at a Bite : Whence it is commonly used for a 
 sharping Fellow, who lies upon the Catch. 
 —Id. 
 
 The name of the fish, however, a 
 distinct word, is from Lat. carcha/rua. 
 
 Then Citizens, were sharkt, and prey'd upon. 
 In recompence of wi'ongs before time done 
 To silly Countrimen. 
 
 G. Wither, Britains Remembrancer, 
 1628, p. 116. 
 Two hungry sharkes did travaile Pauls, 
 Untill their guts cride out, 
 And knew not how with both theit wits, 
 To bring one meal about. 
 
 S. Rowlands, The Four Knaves (1611), 
 p. 9 (Percy Soc). 
 And carelesse knaves to spend their thrift : 
 And roaguish knaves to sharke and shift. 
 
 Id. p. 41. 
 But think not, gentle Madam, that 1 sliark 
 Or cheat him in it. 
 
 May, The Old Couple, v. 1. 
 And in the steed of such good-fellow sprites, 
 We meet with Robin-bad-fellow a nights. 
 That enters houses secret in the darke. 
 And only comes to pilfer, steale and sharke. 
 S, Rowlands, The Four Knaves (16X1), 
 p. 115. 
 Pander, Gull and Whore, 
 The doting Father, Shark and many more 
 Thy scene represent unto the life. 
 
 E. Fraunces, Dedicatory Verses, R^mdolph's 
 Works, p. 63 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 I will not have you henceforth sneak to 
 
 taverns 
 And peep like fiddlers into gentlemen's 
 
 rooms. 
 To shark for wine and radishes. 
 
 Randolph, The Jealous Lovers, 
 act iii. sc. 5. 
 Some Orders of Mendicant Friers wander 
 about and present themselves to the eyes of 
 men, but say not a word for an Alms. . . . 
 This is rather sharking than begging for bene- 
 volence. — Bp. Racket, Centura of Sermons, 
 p. 560 (1675). 
 
 Sharps, a name given to flour with 
 the bran in it, with a supposed reference 
 probably to the sharp silicious nature 
 of the husky ingredient, is the same 
 word as North Eng. sliaps, oats with- 
 out the grain, i.e. husks, Scot, sliaups, 
 husks, weak corn (s/wwyi^, podded), and 
 probably Icel. sMlpr, a sheath, the huU 
 
 or husk of corn being regarded as its 
 sheath. See Ferguson, Gvmherhnd 
 Glossa/ry, s.v. 
 
 Compare Prov. Dan. slcalp, the pod 
 or shell of peas, beans, &c. ; and scaup, 
 the Cleveland form of scalp. The r is 
 intrusive as in tieasv/re, partridge, pmsy, 
 hoarse, shrill, larh ( = frolic), pimpernel, 
 vagrant. 
 
 Shavee, a slang term for a fellow, 
 boy, or man, is from the Gipsy shavic, 
 chavy, or chavo, a child or son. Vid. 
 Simpson, Account of Gypsies, p. 334, and 
 Smart in Philohg. Soc. Trans, p. 28 
 1862-3. 
 
 To try the courage of so young a shaver. 
 Cranley, Amanda, 1635. 
 
 No one has ever given him credit for being 
 a cunning slmver. (Be it here observed in a 
 parenthesis that I suppose the word shaver in 
 this so common expression to have been cor- 
 rupted from shaveling, the old contemptuous 
 word for a priest.) — Southey, The Doctor, cb. 
 cliv. 
 
 And yet, wi' funny queer Sir John, 
 He was an unco' shaver. 
 
 For monie a day. 
 Burns, A Dream, p. 37 (Globe ed). 
 
 We have a long way to go and the chaves 
 [= children] are by themselves. — F. H. 
 Groome, In Gipsy Tents, p. 81. 
 
 Sheaf, \ the truckle or wheel of a 
 Sheave, J pulley, is properly the 
 shive, slice, or disc of wood, on which 
 the rope revolves ; other forms of the 
 word being Scot, schav, shave, Dut. 
 schijve, Ger. scheihe, Dan. slume, Swed. 
 sMfwa, a slice. 
 
 Shed, inWater-slied, which is defined 
 to be "a range of high land from which 
 water is shed or made to flow in oppo- 
 site directions " (Chambers, Etymolog. 
 Dictionary), is popularly regarded as 
 the same word with shed, to spill, pour 
 out, effuse (of liquids, e.g. tears, blood, 
 &c.), A. Sax^ sceddan, to pour out. 
 
 It is really a distinct word identical 
 with Prov. and old Eng. shed, seed, to 
 part or divide, shedding {seed), the divi- 
 sion or parting of the hair, A. Sax. 
 sceddan, Dan. skede, Dut. and Ger. 
 scheiden, Goth, skaidan, all meaning to 
 divide, sever, or separate (Diefenbach, 
 ii. 229). Compare Lat. sci{n)do, Sansk. 
 chlvid, to cut (Benfey). 
 
 Water-slied (Ger. wasser-scheide) is 
 therefore properly the parting of the' 
 
8EEEB-THUBSDAY ( 353 ) 
 
 SHELL 
 
 waters, a ridge that makes rivers to 
 flow this way and that. 
 The Sonne to schede ]pe day fra Jje nyght 
 And fie mone and jje sternes to tak [jaire 
 lyghte. 
 
 Religious Pieces (E.E.T.S.), p. 60, 1. 45. 
 
 They hezn't shed tha' hair straight, baii'n. 
 — Atkinson, Cleveland Glossary, p. 443. 
 
 This third chapter, -whicli by the will of 
 God we are entered upon, treateth in general 
 of the mercy of God towards Nineveh, and 
 skeddeth itself orderly into foiu* parts. — Bp. 
 John King, On Jonah (1594), p. 200 (ed. 
 Grosart). 
 
 Sheeb-Thuksday, an old popular 
 name for Maundy Thursday, the day 
 before Good Friday. Other spellings 
 were shere-, schere-, or scMr-, Thursday. 
 
 Ande cause whi it is called Schir Thursday 
 is this : for faders in olde dayes had in cua- 
 tome or vse for to scheer the heer that day 
 . . . and to make them honest withoute, 
 forthe ageynes Estyme Day (Harl. MSS.). 
 — Hampuni, Medii Aevi Kalendarium, vol. i. 
 p. 185. 
 
 Hit is also in Englistong schere jpursday for 
 in owre elde fadur dayes men woldon |jt day 
 makon scherim hem honest & dode here hedes 
 & clypon here heds.s. — Mirk, Festival of Ser- 
 mons (Hampsoit, ii. 351). See also Dyer, 
 Brit. Pop. Customs, p. 145. 
 
 The word, however, has nothing to 
 do with to shear, but is the old Eng. 
 sdr, pure, clean (Mod. Eng. sheer := 
 utter, mere), as we see by comparing 
 Icel. sMr-dagr, shiri-\>6rsdagr, Maundy- 
 Thursday, from sJcirr, pure, cleansed 
 from guilt, shira, to purify. It seems 
 to mean the day when men went to 
 confession and were absolved or cleansed 
 from their sins (of. Icel. shira, to bap- 
 tize). In the Lutheran Church it is 
 called ablasstag, absolution day; Fr. 
 Jeudy absolut, Sheer Thursday (Cot- 
 grave). Similarly the first week of 
 Lent used to be called " cleansing 
 week," " chaste week," A. Sax. cys- 
 wuce, pure week. 
 
 A-non after schere ]iursday, 
 Thow moste ohawnge byn oyle also, 
 jjat Jjey mowe be newed bo, 
 Myrc, Instructions for ParitJi Priests, 
 p. 20, 1. 642. 
 Lenton Stuff ys cum to the towne. 
 The clensimge weeke cums quicklye. 
 Old Ballad (see Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, 
 p. 105, Shaks. Soc). 
 
 The ancient Germans called Ash- 
 Wednesday Schuertay, i.e. day of abso- 
 lution (Hampson, ii. 358). 
 
 On Sher Thursday a man sholde do poll his 
 here, and clyppe "his berde, and a preest 
 sholde shave his crowne, soo that there sholde 
 nothynge be bytwene God and hym; and 
 thenne shryve theym, and make them clene 
 within his soule as without. — Festival, fol. 
 31, quoted in W^ordsworth, Eccles. Biography, 
 vol. I. p. 296. 
 
 The same authority says it " is called 
 sher thowrsda/yiox the people wolde that 
 daye shere theyr hedes." 
 
 Sheet-anchoe, another form oisJwot- 
 anchor, which occurs in Udall's Roister 
 Boister (cir. 1553), p. H (Arber re- 
 print). In the Cleveland dialect slwt- 
 ice is sheet-ice (Atkinson). 
 Compare — 
 For a fistela or for a Canker, 
 Thys oyntement is even shot anlcer. 
 The Four P's (Dodsley, vol. i. p. 82). 
 For truely of all men he is my chief banker 
 Both for meate and money, and my chiefe 
 shootanker. 
 N. Vdall, Roister Doister, i. 1 (p. 11, 
 ed. Arber). 
 The cheefest hold and shoot-anchor, that 
 godly Jonas found in the surges of distresse 
 was to aduance both heart and hands to God 
 alone. — Howard, Defensative against Poyson of 
 Supposed Prophecies, 1620, p. 8. 
 
 Sheldapple, an old name for the 
 chaffinch (Nomenclator, 1585), it has 
 been suggested is for sheld-alpe (Wedg- 
 wood), alpe being an old word for a 
 bullfinch (? or any finch), and sheld, as 
 in sheld/rahe, meaning variegated, parti- 
 coloured (Bay). Icel. skjoldungr, the 
 sheldrake, is so called, says Cleasby, 
 from the shield- (Icel. shjdldr)-]i'ke band 
 across his breast. 8hfdld/r is also used 
 for shield -like spots on cattle, &c. Com- 
 pare Ger. schildjmk and schildern, to 
 paint or mark. The form shell-apple 
 is also given (Mahn in Webster) ; 
 Cumberland shillapple (Ferguson). 
 
 Shell, with the meaning to remove 
 the husk of leguminous vegetables, e.g. 
 " to shell pease," as if to remove their 
 shell, has only an indirect connexion 
 with this latter word, the older form 
 being to sheal, or shals, or scale, Prov. 
 Eng. skill and sMll, to hull oats, A. Sax. 
 scelian, to decorticate, to separate the 
 skin, near akin to Dan. skille, Icel. 
 shilja, to part or divide. Cf. Goth. 
 shilja, a butcher, Greek skulls, to flay. 
 Scale and shell are of similar origin. 
 W. Cornwall " to shale peas " (M. A. 
 Courtney). 
 
SHILLING SEEDS ( 354 ) 
 
 SEOBE 
 
 ShBid, to uncover, as the shealing of beans, 
 pease, &c. 
 
 bhe.atf to shel or sheal milk is to curdle it, 
 or separate the parts. — Kennett, Parochial An- 
 tiquitiei, 1695 (K. i). Soc. ed.). 
 
 Fore Venus, Faune, 1 have beene shaling 
 of peascods. — Maraton, The Fawnej act iv. 
 
 Escailler des noix, to pill, or sfcafe, Walnuts. 
 — Cotgmve. 
 
 Schalt' notys, and o)3er schelle frute (schalifn 
 or schelle frute, scalyn or shillyn nottis). 
 En-uclio. 
 
 Schyllyn owte of coddys, Exsiliquo. — 
 Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 
 Take smalle notes, schale not kurnele. 
 
 As |?ou dose of almondes, fayre and we\e. 
 Liber Cure Cocorum (1440 _), p. SJ5. 
 I saw him carry a vpind-mell, 
 Under a walnote shale. 
 Chaucerf House of Fame , bk. iii. 1. 191. 
 
 Faggiolata, a tittle tattle or Aim flam tale 
 without rime or reason, head or foot, as wo- 
 men tell when they nhale peason. — Florio, 
 New World of Words, 1611. 
 
 Speak, unshale him quick. — Webster, The 
 Malcontent, act i. sc. 1. 
 
 Shilling seeds, a prov. word for the 
 husks of oats (Antrim and Down, Pat- 
 terson), is from shell or shale, to remove 
 the husk. See Shell. 
 
 Ship-weeck seems to have been 
 formed out of the older form ship-hreah, 
 old Eng. shipbreche (Wycliffe), A. Sax. 
 sMp-gehroe, the h being merged and lost 
 in the preceding labial ; just as we find 
 exult, emeri, expatiate, for exsult, exsert, 
 exspatiate, the s being swallowed up by 
 the preceding sibilant. Compare Lat. 
 naufragium. The old phrase was " to 
 break a ship" (L&t. navem frangere), 
 and no verb to im-ech seems to exist in 
 old EngUsh. 
 
 Sriphreging he suffurd thiise [al. lee. ship- 
 brekinge^ . 
 
 Cursor Mundi (14th cent.), vol. iv. 
 1. 20973 (E.E.T.S. ed.). 
 
 Mr. Oliphant connects wreck with 
 Scandinavian refe, something drifted 
 on shore {Early and Mid. English, p. 
 211). 
 
 A close parallel is seen in O. Eng. 
 bregirdle, a waist-band, used by Wychfie 
 (Jer. xiii. 1, 2, 4, 6), which is for brejce- 
 gi/rdle, breeches-girdle, hrehe being the 
 old form of breeches, cf. " Breche or 
 hrehe, Braccce " {Prompt. Parv.). 
 His sad wreak. 
 
 Both of Ulysses' ship and men. 
 
 His own head 'scaping scarce the pain. 
 Chapman, OdysseySjhk. xii. Argument. 
 
 And must I here my shipwracUed arts bemoan? 
 Dryden, Poems, p. 157, 1. 198 
 (Globe ed.). 
 To tempt the second hazard of a mack. 
 Id. Aurengzebe, act iv. sc. 1. 
 
 Shoes, Anothee pair of, a slang 
 phrase for something altogether diffe- 
 rent, is said to be a corruption of the 
 French phrase, Cest autre chose, Aose 
 being perhaps confounded with chom- 
 sure, chausser, &o. 
 
 "That, sir," replied Mr. Wegg, cheeringup 
 bravely, " is quite another pair of shoes."— 
 Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, vol. i. p. 142. 
 
 We'll show 'em another pair of shoes than 
 that, Pip, won't us ? — Dickens, Great Eipec- 
 tations, ch. xl. 
 
 Shoe-goose is the transformation 
 that the word siya-gosh, i.e. black-ear, 
 the Persian name of the lynx, under- 
 goes in A. Hamilton's E. Indies, i. 125 
 (vid. Yule, Ma/rco Polo, i. 354). 
 
 Shoot, or shute, a spout through 
 which the water falls from the roof of 
 a house, is corrupted from Pr. chute, a 
 faU. 
 
 Shoee, a vulgar corruption of sewer. 
 Hear, ye foul speakers, that pronounce the 
 
 air 
 Of stews and shores, I will inform you where, 
 
 &c. 
 
 Lovelace, To Fletcher Revived, 1649. 
 
 Thus weary of my life, at length 
 1 yielded up my vital strength, 
 W ithin a ditch of loathsome scent, 
 Where carrion dogs do much fi'equent : 
 The which now since my dying day, 
 Is Shoreditch call'd, as writers say. 
 
 Ballad oj Jane Shore, 11. 129-134. 
 
 On this Bp. Percy observes that "it 
 had this name long before, being bo 
 called from its being a common sewetr 
 (vulgarly shore) or drain." — Child's 
 Eng. and Scottish Ballads, vol. vii. p. 
 199. 
 
 Shoreditch, however, more probably owes 
 its appellation to the Soredich family, who 
 possessed the manor from an early date.— 
 Jesse, London, vol. ii. p. 419. 
 
 Stow, viTiting in 1603, spells it Sewers 
 ditch. Sowers ditch, and Soersditch, and 
 notes that it was called Soerditch 
 " more than four hundred yeares since 
 as I can prove by record." 
 
 From Holywell in the high street is a con- 
 tinual building of tenements to Seuiirs ditch. 
 —Sm-vay of London, p. 158 (ed. Thorns). 
 
SEOBE 
 
 ( 356 ) 
 
 8E0ET 
 
 Bird. Di'ar heart, what a foul sink of sins 
 
 runs here ! 
 Mis. Fill. In sooth, it is the common shore 
 
 of lewdness. 
 
 Randolph, The Muse's Looking-Glass, 
 act ii. sc. 3. 
 Then leaning o'er the rails, he musing stood, 
 And Tiew'd below the black canal of mud, 
 Where common shores a sullen murmui- keep, 
 AVhose torrents rush from Holborn's fatal 
 
 steep. 
 
 Gov, Trivia, hk. ii. 1. 171-174. 
 
 Cloacina was a goddess whose image Tatius 
 (a king of the Sabines) found in the common 
 shore. — A'ofe to Id. 1. 115. 
 
 The origin of the -word seiver has not 
 been elucidated. It may be demon- 
 strated, I think, that it is identical with 
 Fr. eoier, a sink. That word is not 
 (as Scheler gives it) a direct derivative 
 of old Fr. ei-e, water, but the mod. form 
 of esvii'r, a sinke, or channel, to void 
 water by (Cotgrave), old Fr. seuu-it-rr, 
 eseioiere, a channel, conduit, or drain ; 
 Liege patois swiweu, a sink that dis- 
 charges water, from saiive, to discharge 
 water ; Wallons de Mons saiire, to 
 drain, make trenches (see Sigart, Ghs- 
 saire, s.v.). All these words are com- 
 pounded of s or es from Lat. ex, and 
 old Fr. aA'we, eve, eave, eaue (derived 
 through a form aigue from Lat. aqua), 
 Liege aiwe, water. Hence Mod. Fr. 
 eoM, and our ewer, a water-jug (old Fr. 
 aiguiere). Thus seiver is hteraUy ex- 
 eicer (Lat. ex-aquaria), a pourer out of 
 water, like egout, a sewer, from ex and 
 gutta, a pourer out of drops. 
 
 Compare Languedoc ayguer, a 
 gutter, sink, or sewer, from aygue, 
 water (Cotgrave) ; old Fr. esseiioiiere, a 
 common sinke or Sewer, also eauier, a 
 gutter for the voiding of foul water 
 (Id.). 
 
 Scirer was popularly regarded as 
 meaning "that which sews," hence the 
 Prov. Eug. verb to sew, to drain land, 
 carry off water (WorUdge, Diet. Rus- 
 ticum, 1681 ; Parish, Sussex Glossary). 
 Compare Suffolk sew, to ooze out or 
 exude. For the form of the word com- 
 pare sample for example, square from 
 Lat. ex-quadra, spend for expend, &c. 
 
 Prov. Eng. serv, to dry up, is, I think, 
 a distinct verb, from old Fr. esuer, 
 essuier (Mod. Fr. essuyer), Prov. es- 
 sugar, Lat. ex-sucare, to draw off mois- 
 ture [sucus, succus). 
 
 Worth comparing with this is the 
 
 contrasted word — not registered in the 
 dictionaries — eneit' or cneaw, an old 
 term in aquatic falconry, used when 
 the hawk drove the heron or other fowl 
 into the water (en eau). Compare 
 old Fr. eneauer, to turn into water 
 (Cotgrave). See Edinburgh Bevieiu, 
 vol. cxxxvi. p. 353. 
 
 He went forth . . . unto the river, wher-e 
 finding of a mallard, he whistled oif his 
 faulcon . . . shee came down like a stone 
 and enewed it, and suddenly got up againe. — 
 Na^h, Quaternio. 
 
 To make your hawk(^ fly at fowle, wjiicli is 
 called the flight at the river ... let her 
 eiieto the fowle so long till she bring it to the 
 plunge. — Mtirkham, Treatise on Huuking. 
 
 [ When] the sharp cruel hawks they at their 
 
 back do view, 
 Themselves for very fear tiiey instantly ineaw. 
 [Margin: " Lay the fowls again in the water."] 
 Drat/ton, Song 20. 
 
 For best advantage to eneaw tlie springing 
 fowle again. 
 
 TurberviU, In Commendation oj 
 Hawking. 
 
 Shoen bud, an old name for the 
 common dung beetle, " Blatta, or 
 shorn hud, or painted beetle." — E. 
 Hohnes. It is a corruption of the 
 word sharnhode (sharnhudf. — Gower), 
 from A. Sax. scea/rn, dung, and howd or 
 hudde, a weevil, hke scearn-wifel, a 
 dung-beetle. 
 
 Jjet byejj {je ssaimboddes J>et beulej? J:e floures. 
 and louiefj jiet dong [These are the dung- 
 beetles that avoid the flowers, and love the 
 dung]. — Ayenhite of Inuyl, p. 61. 
 
 Shokn-bug, a provincial word for a 
 beetle, from A. Sax. scearn, dung. 
 
 Short, when applied to pastry, which 
 is said to " eat short " when crisp, 
 friable, or crinnbling, e.g. sliort-hread, 
 is the same as short, a technical word 
 meaning brittle (iron), otherwise shea/r, 
 Swed. shyi', Dan. sJk^r or ski<pr, brittle, 
 friable; compare A. Sax. scea/i-d, broken, 
 shreaded, sceard, a sheard or fragment, 
 Icel. shar^, a notch, Ger. schart, A. 
 Sax. sceran, to cut or share (cf. Prov. 
 Eng. shorts, refuse of com). 
 
 Hence short-tempered, said of one 
 whose composure is easily broken, 
 Prov. Eng. short, .peevish, easily pro- 
 voked, and probably the slang sMiiy, 
 ill-tempered, cross. Iron is said to be 
 red-sheer or red-short which is brittle 
 when red hot. 
 
SHOULDABYE ( 356. ) 
 
 SHUT 
 
 Shouldaeye, a ludicrous corruption 
 in the Chester Mystery Plays of the 
 word sudary, Lat. sudarium, Gk. sou- 
 darion, the word in the original Gospels 
 for the napkin which was used as one 
 of the Lord's grave-clothes. 
 
 A ! Fetter, brother, in good faye, 
 My LordK Jesu is awaye ! 
 But his shoulda^ye^ south to saye, 
 Lyinge here 1 fynde. 
 
 The Resurrection (Shalfs. Sec), 
 vol. ii. p. 98. 
 In this cornere the shete is fownde, 
 And here we I'ynde the sudaru, 
 In the whiche his hed was wounde, 
 Whan he was take from Calvary. 
 Coventry Mifsteries, The Three Maries, 
 p. 358 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 SJmddery seems to be another cor- 
 ruption of the same word. 
 
 A small, thin but fine Shuddery or Veil of 
 I.awn they draw afore their secret parts. — Sir 
 Thos. Herbert, Travels, 1665, p. 361. 
 
 Show-fdll, or slioful, bad money or 
 sham jewellery, is a cant term which 
 originated among the Jews, and is the 
 Hebrew shdfdl (or sh&phal), low, base, 
 vile, the word which David applied to 
 himself when he danced before the ark, 
 2 Sami vi. 22. Mayhew quotes show- 
 fulls, bad money, as a piece of coster- 
 mongers' slang. — London Labow and 
 London Poor, vol. i. p. 26. 
 
 It is curious to find the word once 
 used by the Kiug of Israel still livitig 
 in the vocabulary of a London coster- 
 monger. Compare sJiowful zz showy. 
 
 The Torch-bearers habits were likewise of 
 the Indian garb, but more strauagant than 
 those of the Maskers ; all showj'ully garnisht 
 with seueral-hewd fethers. — Chapman, Mascpie 
 of the Mid Temple. 
 
 Sheew-mouse is not the shrewd 
 mouse, the baneful or injurious mouse, 
 as generally regarded (Wedgwood, 
 Marsh, comparing "■welschrewedm.jB." 
 — Trevisa's Iligden, i.e. mischievous 
 mice." — PMlolog. Soc. Trans. 1866, p. 
 194), but the modern form of old Eng. 
 scredwa (JElfrio Gloss.), the field mouse, 
 "W. Cornwall screw, Antrim sarew 
 mouse (cf. Somerset shrew for screw), 
 apparently the same word as Prov. 
 Eng. sheer-mouse, the shrew mouse 
 (Kent, Sussex), A. Sax. scerfemus, a 
 rat or field mouse, lit. a rodent, from 
 sceorfan, to gnaw (Ettmiiller). Pictet 
 
 compares Ger. scher, sehermms, the 
 mole, old Ger. scero ; and TopseU says, 
 " The Hollanders call it JlfoZZmmsse, be- 
 cause it resembleth a Mole" {Eistfrrie 
 of Fowre-footed Beasts, p. 534, 1608). 
 
 " From the venomous biting of this 
 beast," says W. Turner, " we have an 
 english proverb or imprecation, I he 
 shrow thee, when we curse or wish 
 harm unto any man, that is, that some 
 such euil as the biting of this Mouse 
 maycome upon him " (Topsell, p. 535). 
 A horse suddenly seized with numb- 
 ness in his legs " was immediately 
 judged by the old persons to be shrew- 
 struck." — Bingley, see White, Sellorne, 
 p. 145 (ed. 1853). 
 
 It is a curious coincidence that in 
 the WaUon de Mons patois piquemelle 
 denotes a sharp-tongued woman and 
 also the shrew-mouse (see Sigart, Ohs- 
 sawe, S.V.). 
 
 When my vather's cows was shrew-struck 
 she made un be draed under a brimble as 
 growed together at the both ends, she a pray- 
 ing like mad all the time. — C. Kingstey, Alton 
 Locke, ch. xxi. 
 
 Shrub, a word formerly in use for a 
 kind of beverage resembling punch, is 
 a contracted form {siruh, s'ruh) of sirup 
 or syrap, Fr. sirop, old Fr. ysserop, It. 
 siroppo, sdroppo, Sp. xa/rabe, all from 
 Arab, sha/rab, drink, beverage, a deriva- 
 tive of sharib, to drink. Of the same 
 origin are sherbet, Fr. sorbet. It. sorbetto, 
 Arab, sliorba, in Turkish pronounced 
 shorbet (Devic). 
 
 " I smoke on srub and water, myself," 
 said Mr. Omer. — Dickens, David Copperfield, 
 ch. XXX. 
 
 Shut, in the phrase " To get shut of 
 a thing, to get rid of, to clear one's self 
 of a thing" (Bailey), still colloquially 
 used in Ireland and in provincial Eng- 
 lish, seems to be corrupted from an 
 older expression "to get shot of," i.e. to 
 get cast off, delivered, quit, or free from 
 a clinging enctmibranoe, from A. Sax. 
 sceotan, scyttan (Icel. shjota), to shoot. 
 Shot and shut indeed are in old Eng. 
 identical (y-shote, y-scheot). 
 
 His voice had a twang in it— in the dialect 
 I mean, — reminded me of a little tonOTe, 
 which 1 think sweeter — sweeter than the last 
 toll of St. Dunstan's will sound, on the to 
 that 1 am shot of my indentures.— Sir "■ 
 Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. ii. 
 
SEUTTLE-GOGK ( 357 ) 
 
 SIGHT 
 
 And thin 'e coom'd to the parish wi' lots o' 
 
 Varsity deht 
 Stook to his taai'l they did, an' 'e 'ant got shut 
 on 'em yet, 
 
 Tennyson, Northern Farmer, New 
 Style, yiii. 
 
 In the Cleveland dialect the phrase 
 is "to get shot of" or " on." 
 
 Ah's noo getten fairly shot on 'em. 
 
 Willy caan't get shot ov 'is meear, nae 
 ways. — Atkinson, Cleveland Glossary, p. 448. 
 
 So if you would be shut of these moorish 
 briers, the course is to destroy their nests. — 
 T, Adajns, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 460. 
 
 Compare Lancashire shoot, to get rid 
 of, reject, eliminate. 
 
 I'll gie ya fifteen shillin a-piece for there 
 hundred cows, an ya'U let ma shoot ten on 
 'em. — R. B. Peacock, Lonsdale Glossary, p. 73. 
 
 Shdttle-oock is said to he a corrup- 
 tion of shuttle-corh, a cork shot hack- 
 wards and forwards, Uke a shuttle 
 (Skeat). 
 
 I trow all wyll he nought, 
 Nat worth a shyttel-cocke. 
 
 Skelton, Why Come ye Nat to 
 Court, 1. 351. 
 
 SiBLK, To, in such phrases as to sidle 
 aloiig, or up to a person, i.e. to move in 
 an obhque or side-long direction, seems 
 to be a modern verb manufactured out 
 of the old adverb sidling (r: sidelong), 
 which owing to its form was misunder- 
 stood to be a present participle. So to 
 headle might have been evolved out of 
 old Eng. headUng, i.e. headlong, or to 
 middle out of middling, and so to grovel 
 actually has been formed out of the ad- 
 verb groveling {aloug the belly), which 
 see, and to darlcle out of darlcKng. The 
 learned Southey, I observe, writes the 
 word correctly as a compound : — 
 I am not, however, side-ling toward my ob- 
 ject crab-like. 
 
 The Doctor, p. 304 (ed. 1848). 
 
 Sideling, old Eng. sydelynge, Scot. 
 sydlyngis, is our modem side-long. See 
 an excellent paper by Dr. Morris in 
 FUlolog. 8oc. Trans. 1862, p. 104. 
 
 Some beame . . . passeth not forth ryghte, 
 but sydelynge and blenchynge. — Trevisa, 
 Glantvitla, f. cxxvii. 
 
 The horse wil halt and in his going he wil 
 go sideling. — Topsell, Hist, of Foare-footed 
 Beasts, 1608, p. 404. 
 
 Sgualembrato, a sidelin right-hand blow. — 
 Florio. 
 
 Sidelin to the fight they both came on. 
 Davidson's Seasons, p. 45. 
 
 Presently a little demon came sidling up. — 
 Ttulstoii, Russian Folk Tales, p. 273. 
 Dick heai'd, and tweedling, ogling, bridling, 
 Turning short round, strutting, and sidling. 
 Attested, glad, his approbation. 
 
 Cowper, Pairing Time Anticipated. 
 Such as retire from the Princes presence, 
 do not by and by turne tayle to them as we 
 do, but go backward or sideling for a reason- 
 able space, til they be at the wal or chamber 
 doore passing out of sight. — Puttenham., Arte 
 of Eng. Poesie, 1589, p. 300 (ed. Arber). 
 I sud be laith to think ye hinted, 
 Ironic satire, sidelins sklented. 
 On my poor Musie. 
 Burns, to W. Simpson, p. 78 
 (Globe ed.). 
 The main and great East light in the Chan- 
 cel, Sir Edward Barkham himself undertook, 
 and effected it at his own Charge, as the ex- 
 pression testifieth in the same Vvindow. The 
 other sideling by it ; but inclining more 
 southerly, Mr. George Whitmore, and Mr. 
 Nicholas Rainton, performed. — J. Howell, 
 Londinopolis, p. 55. 
 
 Now I was assailed right and left, till in 
 my own defence I was obliged to walk side- 
 ling and wary, and look about me, as you 
 guard your eyes in London streets, for the 
 horns thickened, and came at me like the ends 
 of umbrellas poking in one's face. — C. Lamb, 
 Works (ed. Routledge), p. 668. 
 
 Affery still remaining behind her apron, 
 he came stumbling down tiie kitchen stairs 
 candle in hand, sidled up to her, twitched her 
 apron off, and roused her. — Dickens, Little 
 Dorrit, ch. xv. 
 
 I myself ventured to sidle up to the group, 
 and put in a little word now and then. — 
 Russell's Memoirs of Thomas Moore, vol. i. p. 
 42. 
 
 Nothing seemed to move but a few der- 
 vishes, who, censer in hand, sidled through 
 the rows. — Burton, Pilgrimage to Mecca and 
 Medineh, 1856. 
 
 Sieves, an old spelling- of chives, Fr. 
 dves, Lat. cepa (Prior, s.v. Siethes). 
 
 Sight, frequently used in prov. and 
 old English in the sense of a crowd or 
 multitude, a great quantity, e.g. " a 
 sight of people," "a sight of money" 
 (Palsgrave), as if a spectacle, something 
 worth looking at, Scot, siclit, sichter, 
 a large number, "What a sicht of 
 cows I " Berwick sweoht, a multitude, 
 is perhaps the same word as A. Sax. 
 swedt, or swit (implied by swital), a 
 crowd or multitude, for swiJwt from 
 swihan, to be joined or gathered to- 
 gether (Ettmiiller, p. 760), the w being 
 slurred as in sister, A. Sax. sweostor; 
 sultry for sweltry ; soun-d, to swoon. 
 
SILVER TYPE ( 358 ) SINK-A-PAGE 
 
 &c. Compare Icel. sveit, a company, 
 party, or bevy ; Prov. Eng. swat, a 
 quantity (Lincoln, Cleveland), swiiher, 
 the same (Warwick). 
 
 Bight, a multitude, is found in the 
 prose Morte d' Arthur; and Juliana 
 Earners uses " a bomynable syghi of 
 monkes " for a large company of friars 
 (Marsh, Lectures on Eng. Language, 
 p. 125, ed. Smith). 
 
 Ve are come vnto the Moiinte Sion, . . . 
 and to an innumerable nght of angels. — Tyn- 
 date, Heb. xii. 22 (1534). 
 
 Silver type, with which certain 
 books are supposed to have been printed, 
 is said to be a mere misunderstanding 
 of Elzevir type (Chambers, Booh of 
 Bays, vol. i. p. 40). 
 
 I remember to have read, however, 
 in some old author, that Sir Henry 
 •Savile in his splendid edition of Chry- 
 Bostom, had honoured the golden- 
 mouthed orator with silver type. 
 
 SiMPKiN, the Indianized form of Eng. 
 " champagne." 
 
 SiMSON, \ a provincial name for the 
 
 Simpson, J common groimdsel, evi- 
 dently for sencion, which is also found, 
 its botanical name being senecio, Fr. 
 sene^on, as it were " old man " (senex), 
 from its hoary head when covered with 
 seed. 
 
 So in Latin pappus denoted (1) an 
 old man, a grandfather, (2) downy seed, 
 (3) groundsel. 
 
 Tliere is an herb called Grounds vrel, which 
 the Greeks name Erigeron, and we the Latinea 
 benecio, . . . The Greekes imposed that name 
 Erigerim because in the spring it looketh 
 hoarie, like an old gray beard. — P. Holland, 
 Vlimes Nat. Hist. (1634), vol. ii. p. 238. 
 
 Simpsnn, Groundsel, Senecio: Ess. Suff. — 
 Ray, South and East Coiititi-y Words. 
 
 SiNFULLE, an old Enghsh word for 
 houseleek, five-leaved grass, or cinque- 
 foil, of which latter word it is evidently 
 a corruption, Lat. quinquefoUum. Ett- 
 miiller ranges it among the compounds 
 of sin, ever, always, and defines it 
 " semper-vivum " {Lex. AngloSaxo- 
 nicum, s.v.) ! 
 
 Another corruption is sink-field. 
 
 Pentaphylle, Cinkfoile, Siukefield, Fivefin- 
 gergi-asse. — Cotgmve. 
 
 SiNGDLF, in Spenser (ed. 1590), a sigh 
 or sobbing, perhaps with some reference 
 to gulping in spasmodic respiration, is 
 
 a corrupt form of singult (in later 
 editions), Lat. singultus, a sigh. 
 There anhuse heapeof strejiiZ/eididoppresse 
 His strugghn^ soule, and swelhng throbs 
 
 empeacu 
 His foltering toungwith pangs of drerinesse. 
 Faerie Queme, III. xi. H. 
 
 Sink, a drain, a receptacle in con- 
 nexion with a sewer, apparently that 
 through which slops when poured out 
 sinh or subside, has probably no imme- 
 diate connexion with the verb sinh, A. 
 Sax. sinean. It seems to be a nasalized 
 form of Prov. Eng. sike or syhe, a drain 
 or watercourse (Cumberland, Cleve- 
 land), Scot, syh, sihe, a rill, A. Sax. 
 sic, a trench or watercourse (connected 
 with sihan, to ooze or percolate, to 
 sye. — BttmiiUer,p. 666), Icel. sih, a ditch 
 or trench, Prov. Dan. sige, a low place 
 where water collects, 0. H. Ger. ge- 
 sich. Conipare also Prov. Eng. sigger, 
 to leak, sig, urine, sod; drainage, sochy, 
 soggy, wet, swampy ; Icel. soggr, wet ; 
 Welsh soch, a drain; "soak," &c. 
 (Diefenbach, ii. 204). 
 
 A sinke, cloaca, sentina. — Levins, Mani- 
 puLus, 1570, 138. 
 
 Bedowin in donkis depe was euery sihe, 
 G. Douglus, Bakes ofEneados, 
 p. 201, 1. 10. 
 
 The Ureters, as two common Sewers, con- 
 vey the same to the Sinke, or greater Vault 
 the Bladder, thence to be exonerated. — S. 
 Parclms, Microcosmus, 1619, p. 43. 
 
 SiNK-A-PACE, the name of an old 
 dance in Shakespeare (Twelfth NigU, 
 i. 3), also written sinquepace, and «'»!- 
 que pace, is a corruption of Fr. dnq 
 pas. 
 
 II est vray qu'on ne dansa pas 
 La pavanne ny les cinq pas. 
 
 Loret, Mu.ie histonque (in Genin, 
 RecrMions Philolog. i. 395). 
 Or of his daunce observed cinquopas, _ 
 Save playne and simplie leaped for his joye, 
 His wyfe Mycholl ne liked of the grace, 
 Resembling him to a light head boye. 
 
 F. Ihynn, Debate between Pride and Low- 
 lin'ess (ab. 1568 ), p. 52 (Slmks. Soc). 
 Yet I can beare with Curios nimble feete, 
 Saluting me with capers in the streete, 
 Although in open view and peoples face, 
 He fi-onts me with some, spruce, neat, sinque- 
 pace. 
 
 Marston Satires, i. (vol. iii. p. 217, 
 ed. Halliwell). 
 France and Italy are like a die, which hath 
 no points between sink and ace, Nobility and 
 Pesantry.— Fuiter, Holy State, p. 105 (1648). 
 
SINEFIELD 
 
 ( 359 ) 
 
 SIB-NAME 
 
 SiNKFiELD, a popular name for the 
 ylant potentilla, a corruption oi cingue- 
 foil. See Sinfulle. 
 
 There be very many bastard names, where- 
 with 1 will not trouble your eares : in high 
 Dutch Jimffjingerkraiitt ... in Italian Cin- 
 <iue-fogUo: in French Quinte fueill£: in 
 Spanish Cinco en ramaf in English Cinkfoile, 
 Flue finger grasse, Fine leafed grasse, and 
 Sinkfield.—Gerarde, Herbal, p. 839. 
 
 SiKLOiN, a mis-spelling oisurlmn, Pr. 
 surlonge, the part above the loin (super- 
 lumbare), which has given rise to the 
 absurdly mythical story of this favou- 
 rite roast having been knighted by the 
 Merry Monarch. The joint was known 
 as a sn/rloyn some centuries before 
 Charles II. was bom. To stereotype 
 the mistake a double " sirloin " has 
 been styled a la/ron of leef, just as the 
 title of My Lord has been bestowed by 
 the Scotch on their favourite dish, the 
 
 Be not puffed up with knighthood, friend of 
 
 mine, 
 A merry prince once knighted a Sir-bin. 
 Tom Brownf Epigrum on the Knighting 
 of Sir It. BUickmare. 
 
 jYeu. But pray, why is it called a sirloyn 1 
 
 Lord Sp. \Vhy, you must know that our 
 King James I. who loved good eating, bein^ 
 invited to dinner by one of his nobles, and 
 seeing a large loyn of beef at his table, he 
 drew out his sword and knighted it. Few 
 people know the secret of this. — Swift, Polite 
 Conversation (Conv. ii.) [Daries]. 
 
 No, let me return again to onions and 
 pease-porridge then, and never be acquainted 
 with the happiness of a sirloin of roast-beef, 
 — Randolph, Hey for Honesty, act ii. sc. 2. 
 
 Love probably may, in your opinion, very 
 greatly resemble a dish of soup or a sirloin of 
 roast-beef.- — Fielding, Hist, of a Foundling, 
 bk. vi. ch. 1. 
 
 SiB-NAMB, Sire-name (WycUffe, Gen. 
 XXXV. 6), a mistaken spelling of sur- 
 name, i.e. the name, over and above 
 one's baptismal name' as if that in- 
 herited from one's sires, is Fr. sur- 
 nom, It. sopranome, Sp. sabre nombre, 
 Lat. super-nomen. 
 
 In the following extract from Bp. 
 Nicholson, while explaining the word 
 correctly he confounds it with the 
 Christian name : — 
 
 Every Christian bearing two names ; the 
 one of nature, which is the name of his house, 
 family, or kindred, and this he brings into 
 the world with him; the other of gi'ace, of 
 favour, being his Sirname,' that m over and 
 
 above added unto him {sobre nombre, superior 
 name). — Exposition of the Catechism, 1661. 
 
 "Where the Authorized Version men- 
 tions the super-added names of the 
 disciples, it speaks of " Simon whose 
 surnanw is Peter " (Acts x. 5), and 
 " John whose swrname was Mark " 
 (Acts xii. 12) ; we would now call these 
 Christian names. Perhaps sv/rname 
 meant originally the baptismal name. 
 At all events, these instances render 
 the follovring statement somewhat 
 doubtful : — 
 
 The surname, the name expressing a man's 
 relation, not to the kingdom of God, but to the 
 worldly society in which he lives, is only of 
 a much later growth, an addition to the other, 
 as the word itself declares. — Abp. Trench, 
 Study of Words, Lect. vii. 
 
 Cranmer's Bible (1539) presents the 
 form syrna/me in both the passages cited 
 above. Camden, however, spells the 
 word correctly, and explains it in ac- 
 cordance with modern usage : — 
 
 Surnames giuen for difference of families 
 and continued as hereditary in families were 
 used in no nation anciently but among the 
 Romans. . . . The French and we termed 
 them surnames, not because they are names 
 of the sire or the father, but because they are 
 super-added to Christian names, as the 
 Spaniards call them Renombres, as Renames. — 
 Renmin£s CoTicerning Britai7ie, p. 106 (1637). 
 
 Sirname, the Name of a Sire or Master of a 
 Family and Name. — Bailey, Diet. 
 
 It was fashionable for the Clergy (espe- 
 cially if Regulai's, Monks, and Friers) to 
 have their Surnumes (for Syr-names they were 
 not) or upper-names, because superadded to 
 those given at the Font, from the places of 
 their Nativity ; . . . Hence it is that in such 
 cases we seldome charge our margin with 
 other Authors, their Sirname being Author 
 enough to avow their births therein. — T. 
 Fuller, Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 53. 
 
 Nor is it proved, or probable, thatSergius 
 changed the name of Bocca di Porco, for 
 this was his suraame, or »entilitious appela- 
 tion. — Sir T. Browne, Works, vol. ii. p. 264 
 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 It might bee his sirename : but doubtless it 
 was first a nicname fastened on some of his 
 progenitors. — Dean Wrenne, Note in loc. cit. 
 
 Jjat is [nost] reisonable ne rect ■ to refusy 
 my sjrres sorname. 
 Langland, Vision of Piers the Flowmun, 
 Pass. iv. 1. 369, Text C 
 
 The ancestors of all such now a dayes in 
 our Country whose names doe end in son, or 
 whose Sirnames come from proper names, 
 have had other sirnames, and by some occa- 
 sion or other have lost them. — Verstcgan., 
 
SIB-BEVEBENOE ( 360 ) 
 
 SKULL 
 
 Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 1634, p. 
 308. 
 
 Tis not my person nor my play, 
 But my simame HolUday 
 That doth offend thee. 
 
 Verses ufim Cfferist] ClhurcK] play, 
 made hy Mr. HolUday, 1638. 
 
 My christian and sir-name begin and end 
 with the same letters. — The Spectator, No. 
 505(1712). 
 
 Ally sirrmmed Aben-hassen had no issue. 
 — Sir T. Herbert, Travels, p. 143 (1665), 
 
 He [Gildas] was also otherwise snr-stiled 
 Querulus, because the little we have of his 
 Writing is only "a Complaint." — T. Fuller, 
 Worthiesof England,yo\.ii. p. 286 (ed. 1811). 
 
 SiB-EBVEBBNCE, in old writers a com- 
 mon corruption of save-reverence or 
 saving yowr reverence, an apologetic 
 phrase used when mentioning any- 
 thing deemed improper or unseemly, 
 and especially a euphemism for stercus 
 himianum. " Oagada, a swrreverence." 
 —Stevens, 8p. Bid. 1706. 
 
 He has {sir reverence") kick'd me three or 
 four times about the tiring-house. — Ben Jon- 
 son, Bartholmnew Fair, Indu^ition. 
 
 His wife, sir-reverence, cannot get him 
 .... shift his shirt without his warrant. — 
 Id. act It. sc. 1. 
 
 Siege, stool, sir-reverence, excrement. — Bp, 
 Wilkins, Essay towards a Philosophical Lan- 
 guage, 1668, p. 241. 
 
 Thoo grins like a dog eeatin Sir Reverence. 
 • — Holderness Glossary, Eng. Dialect Soc. 
 
 Compare Span. salvonor :=. anus 
 (Stevens). 
 
 Whereas thou sayest, that in thy presence, 
 1 am of no regard ne countenaunce. 
 That is a lye, saving your reverence. 
 
 F. Thynn, Debate between Pride and Lowli- 
 ness (ab. 1568), p. 14 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 A pleasant ghest that kept his words in mind. 
 And heard him sneeze, in scorn said, keep 
 
 behind. 
 At which the Lawyer taking great offence. 
 Said, Sii', you might have us'd save-reverence. 
 Haringlon, Epigrams, bk, i. 82. 
 
 Skewee. It is absurd to suppose 
 that this is merely another form of 
 secure, as if the splinter of wood which 
 secures the meat from falling asunder 
 (so Blackley, Word-Oossip, p. 32), 
 though it is possible that with edu- 
 cated people that word may have exer- 
 cised a reflex influence, the usual form 
 of sTcewer in the provincial dialects 
 being skiver, which seems to be iden- 
 tical with shiver, a splinter, from sMve 
 or shive, to slice, Dan. skive, Icel. skifa, 
 
 to slice. Compare Ger. schiefer, a flake 
 or splinter. 
 
 Skin-the-lamb, a game at cards, a 
 corruption of lansquenet See Lamb- 
 
 SKIN-IT. 
 
 Skull. The once generally received 
 notion that our northern ancestors used 
 to drink at their banquets out of the 
 skulls of their enemies, appears to have 
 arisen from not nnderstandiag that 
 skull was a genuine old Teutonic word 
 for a cup. The belief that the heroes 
 of Valhalla drank their ale out of literal 
 skulls, or as Southey puts it— 
 
 Thought 
 One day from Ella's skull to quaff the mead 
 Their valour's guerdon — 
 
 is equally erroneous. In the death- 
 song of King Eagnar Lodbrok, he 
 consoles himself with the prospect of 
 drinking beer in Odin's palace "out of 
 curved horns." This Professor Eask 
 has shown to be the true rendering, 
 and not " out of the skulls of our ene- 
 mies," as it used formerly to be tranS' 
 lated (MaUet, N. Antiq. p. 105). SI " 
 old Eng. scale and schal, a cup or bowl, 
 Scot, skul, skull, is the same word as 
 Icel. skdl, a bowl, Swed. sMl, Dan. 
 skoal, Irish sgala (which latter Pictet 
 equates with Sansk. caluha, a small 
 vessel. — Langues Geltiques, p. 43), and 
 ultimately identical with scale (of a 
 balance) and shull, the brain-pan, the 
 "golden howl " of Eccles. xii. 6. Com- 
 , pare Goth, skalja, a tUe (Diefenbaeh, 
 ii. 233) ; and Fr. tete, from Lat. testa, 
 an earthen vessel. 
 
 Fick was led into the same incorrect 
 fancy that skulls of slaughtered foes 
 were used as beakers by the fact 
 that Indo-Europ. kwniVha signifies a 
 pot as well as the head (Wilkins, Owm 
 Coll. Lectures, p. 814). 
 
 The original and extraordinary blunder 
 lies with Glaus Wormius, the great Danish 
 antiquary, to whose authority poets and his- 
 torians bowed without looking further. . . . 
 It became universal, and a century passed 
 away without its being detected. It was so 
 familiar that Peter Pindai' once said that the 
 booksellers, like the heroes of Valhalla, 
 drank their wine out of the skulls of authors, 
 — L Disraeli, Amenities of Lilemture, yol. i. 
 p. 32 (ed. 1863). 
 
 And seruanz wai- at this bridale, 
 That birled'win ia cupp and schal, 
 
SEY-LABKING ( 361 ) 
 
 SLUG 
 
 Ami Mary bad that thai suld do 
 Al that Jesus said thaim to. 
 
 Eiig, Metrical Homilies, p. 120 
 (ed. Small). 
 For thir tithings ia flakoun and in skull 
 Thay skynk the wyne, and wauchtis cowpys 
 full. 
 G. Douglas, Bukes ofEneados, p. 210, 1. 6. 
 On we kest of warme milk mony a skul. 
 Id. p. 69, 1. 20. 
 . . . His wrath is achaufed. 
 For J>at i>at ones wat3 his schulde efte be vn- 
 
 clene 
 ta3 hit be bot a bassyn, a boUe, ojjer a scole, 
 [His wrath is kindled that a thing which 
 once was His should afterwards be unclean, 
 though it be but a basin, a bowl, or a cup.] — 
 Atliteraiive Poems, p. 69, 1. 1145. 
 
 Sky-labking, boisterous horse-play, 
 a stronger form of larlcing. See Labk. 
 
 I had become from habit so extremely 
 active, and so fond of displaying my newly 
 acquu'ed gymnastics, called by the sailors 
 ** sky-larking," that my speedy exit was often 
 prognosticated. — Marryat, Fr. Mildnmy, ch. 
 IV. [Davies]. 
 
 Sleeper, a beam of timber used as a 
 support to railway metals, perhaps 
 from the French somrmer, from a notion 
 that that word was connected with 
 sommeil, sleep (Blackley). But dormer 
 or dormant is a provincial term for a 
 beam in England, " Dormawnie tre, 
 Trabes" {Prompt. Paw.), "Dormant 
 tree, a great beam which lies across an 
 house, a sumner " (Bailey), " DormaMwi, 
 never removed " {Id.). 
 His table dormant in his halle alway 
 Stode redy covered alle the longe day. 
 Chaucer, Prologue Cant. Tales, 1. 355. 
 
 Sleeveless, in the phrase a sleeveless 
 errand, i.e. useless, unprofitable, is be- 
 yond doubt a corrupted form of some 
 other word now no longer in use. 
 AUan Eamsay (Chamber's Pop. .BcZ. p. 
 7) has the phrase " athieveless errand," 
 so that sleeveless not improbably may 
 be a corruption of the Scottish thieve- 
 less, or thewless, devoid of thew or ser- 
 vice, akin to A. Sax. fiedra, to thrive, 
 "thee," or profit, iieow, a servant. The 
 phrase occurs in Shakespeare, Troilus 
 and Gress. v. 4, and is punned upon by 
 Ben Jonson : — 
 It [the coat] did play me such a sleeveless 
 
 errand 
 As I had nothing where to put mine arms in, 
 And then I threw it oiF. 
 
 Tale of a Tub, iv. 4. 
 
 She cam wi' a right thieveless errand back. 
 
 Rarnsuy, Gentle Shepherd, i. 1. 
 
 Wi' thieveless sneer to see his modish mien. 
 
 He, down the water, gies him this guid-een. 
 
 Burns, Poems, p. 26 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Thieveless might become sieveless (cf. 
 sow-thistle and 0. Eng. thow-thistle, 
 has and hath, loves loveth, &c.), which 
 for the sake of euphony and sense 
 would become sleeveless. 
 
 She can make twentie steevelesse errands in 
 hope of a good turne. — Whimzies, or A New 
 Cast of Characters, p. 83 (1631). 
 
 The phrase occurs also in Heywood's 
 l^or^cs (1566), and The Spectator (1711). 
 Bp. Hall has " sleeveless rhymes " {Sa- 
 tires, b. iv. sat. 1), vid. Brand, Pop. 
 Antiq. vol. i. p. 132 (ed. Bohn). 
 Chaucer, Testament ofLove,u.. 334, has 
 " slevelesse words ; " Taylor the Water- 
 poet (1630), "a sleevelesse Taess&ge." 
 
 Shee had dealt better if shee had sent him- 
 selfe away with a crabbed answere, then so 
 vnmanuerly to vse him by sleeueles excuses. — 
 The Passionate Morrice, 1593, p. 65 (Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 
 My men came back as from a sleeveless Arrant. 
 Harington, Epigrams, bk. iii. 9. 
 
 That same j'oung Trojan ass, that loves 
 the whore there, might send that Greekish 
 whoremasterly villain, with the sleeve, back 
 to the dissembling luxurious drab, of as/eeye- 
 less errand. — Shakespeare, Troilusand Cressida, 
 V. 4, 10. 
 
 Slo-faib, a winter fair held in Chi-. 
 Chester in October, so called from the > 
 verb sloh, sleah, slagen, to slay, being 
 the fair when the slain beasts were 
 sold to be pickled down for winter 
 stores, no live cattle being brought to 
 market tUlthe following spring. — Notes 
 and Queries, 5th S. vii. p. 116. 
 
 Slobgh-heal, apopular name for the 
 prunella plant, is a corruption of its 
 older name self-heal (Prior). 
 
 Slow-wokm is the Norse sleva, Icel. 
 slefa, akin to Icel. slefa, slaver, to 
 drivel, slafra, to lick, Norse sieve, slime 
 (Morris and Skeat, Specimens, p. 309). 
 Dr. Adams regards slow-worm as 
 another form of slug-worm, lug-worm 
 {Transactions of Philolog. Soc.l86Q-l, 
 p. 9). 
 
 Slug, heavy shot, is from A. Sax. 
 (ge-)slagan, " to slay " or strike, akin 
 to slaugh-ter, Ger. schlagen, and slog, to 
 strike hard at cricket. 
 
8L UG-EOBN 
 
 ( 362 ) 
 
 SMOKE 
 
 This message lie sent in a siiigg-buUet, 
 being writ in cipher, and wrapped up in lead 
 and sealed. — PepiiSj Uuiriif Feb, 4thj 1664-5. 
 
 Slug-horn, as used by Browning, 
 Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set. 
 Childe Roland, sub Jin. 
 
 is evidently the same word as the 
 Scotch slughorne, the watchword of an 
 army, derived, according to Jamieson, 
 from Keltic eluagh, an army, and corn, 
 a horn. 
 
 The slughonie, ensenze, or the wache cry 
 W ent for the battall all suld be reddy. 
 O. Douglas, Bukes of Eneados, p. 230, 1. 37. 
 
 Smallage, an old popular name for 
 water-parsley [Apiv/m graveolens), ap- 
 parently a simple word hke herbage, 
 foliage, plumage, &c., is really a mongi'el 
 compound small-ache, the latter part 
 being Pr. ache, parsley, from Lat. 
 apium. It was so called in contradis- 
 tinction to the larger horse-parsley. 
 
 Smallage, as Pliny writeth, hath a peculiar 
 vertue againsi the biting of venemous spiders. 
 — Crerurde, Herbal, p. 863. 
 
 The leaves of this plant, which they termed 
 by the name of Maspetum, came very near 
 in all respects to those of smailach or persely , 
 — Holland, Plinies Nat, Hist.yol. ii. p. 8. 
 
 Smitee, an old corruption oiscimsta/r, 
 Pr. cimeteiTe, It. dmita/rra, more pro- 
 bably perhaps from Pers. shemshir, or 
 sMifnshir, than from Basque ai/me-ta/rra, 
 f sharp-pointed." Smiter is found in 
 Lilly's Dramatic Works, vol. i. p. 15 
 (Lib. Old Authors) ; smeeter in Dekker ; 
 " Gimieterre, A Scymitar, or smyter, a 
 kind of short and crooked sword, much 
 in use among the Tm:ks." — Cotgrave. 
 An old French form is sanneterre (Devio ) . 
 Hall (Ohron. p.543)speaksof "swordes 
 Hke semita/ries of Turkey." 
 
 Sam. But what is this, call you it your 
 sword 1. 
 
 Top. No, it is my simiier ; which I by con- 
 sti'uction often studying to bee compendious, 
 call my smitei: — Lillii, Endimion, net i. sc. 3 
 (vol. i. p. 15, ed. Fairholt). 
 
 Smoke, in the colloquial sense of 
 " to discover a secret, to find out, twig, 
 or understand one's meaning," has 
 nothing to do with smolce (A. Sax. 
 S7n£dc),fumus, but is a perverted form 
 of A. Sax. smedgen, to seek out, investi- 
 gate, or examine a matter {e.g. A. Sax. 
 Vers. Luke xxii. 23; John xvi. 19), 
 Bavarian scJimechen, to sniff or smell 
 out, Swiss erschmclckern, to smell out, 
 
 discover (Wedgwood). Compare A. 
 Sax. smedgan, to penetrate, 
 subtle (Ettmuller, p. 707). 
 
 Groom. . . . What are you? you have 
 been hang'd in the smoke sufficiently, that is, 
 smelt out already. 
 
 Notch. Sir, we do come from among the 
 brewhouses in St. Katherine's, that's true, 
 there you have smoked us ; the dock comfort 
 your nostrils! — Ben Jonson, The Masqm of 
 Augurs, Works, p. 930, 1622 (ed. Moxon). 
 
 The two free-bootera, seeing themselves 
 smnakd, told their third brother. — Dekker, 
 Lanthorne and Candklighi, 1620. 
 
 All's come out, sir. 
 We are smok'd for being coney-catchers : my 
 
 master 
 Is put in prison ; his she-customer 
 Is under guard too. 
 
 Massinger, The Renegado, act iv. sc. 1. 
 
 He was first smoked by the old lord Lafeu. 
 Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well, 
 hi. 6. 
 
 And yet through all this difference, 1 alone 
 Smoked his true person. 
 
 G. Chapman, Odysseifs of Homer, 
 bk.iv. 1.337r 
 
 Who the devil could think that he would 
 smake us in this disguise? — Kelly, The School 
 for Wives, act iii. sc. 5. 
 
 Besides, Sir, in this town, people are more 
 smoky and suspicious. — Foote, The Liar, act 
 i. sc. 1. 
 
 The orator grew urgent ; wits began to 
 smoke the case, as active verbs — the advocate 
 to smoke, as a neuter verb. — De Quincey, 
 Works, vol. xi. p. 86. 
 
 May not the word be from A. Sax. 
 smecccm, to taste ( ? or touch), past 
 parte, i-smohed, from smdc, a taste, 
 flavour, or "smack" (EttmiiUer, 705), 
 then to discover by tasting, to find out? 
 Compare — 
 
 Schrift set schal beon naked; jjet is 
 nakedliche imaked, and nout bisaumpled 
 feire, ne hendeliche ismoked [al. ismacked], — 
 Ancren Riwle, p. 316. 
 
 [Confession must be naked, that is made 
 nakedly, not speciously palliated nor gently 
 touched on.] 
 
 Smoalcy is found in the sense of sus- 
 picious. Davies, 8upp. Eng. Glossary, 
 quotes the following : — 
 
 I' gad, I don't like his looks, he seems a 
 little smoaky ; I believe 1 had as good brush 
 off. — Cibber, Prov. Husband, act ii. 
 
 A smoaky fellow this Classic, but if 
 Lucinda plays her cards well, we have not 
 much to fear from that quarter. — Foote, Eng- 
 lishman in Paris, act i. 
 
SNAILS 
 
 ( 363 ) SO LAB TOPEES 
 
 Snails ! a common expletive in the 
 old drama, should be written 'snails ! 
 or 's nails! i.e. Hisnails, or God's nails. 
 Compare the following : — 
 
 Muria. Though man that frayle is, 
 Swei'e armes and imks, 
 Braae, blode, sydea, passyon ; 
 Swete 8onne, regarde, 
 Your paynes harde, 
 Ye dyded for hyni alone. 
 New Notbroune Mayd vpoii the Passion 
 of Cryste, 1. 251. 
 His naijles, I would plague them one way or 
 
 another, 
 I would not misse him, no, if hee were mine 
 own brother. 
 
 New Custuine (1573), act ii. so. 3. 
 SnaiU! wherefore come all tht'se? Master, 
 here's not fish enough for us. — Patient Grissil 
 (1603). act i. sc. 1. 
 
 'SnuitSf my shoes are pale as the cheek of a 
 stew'd pander. — Rowley, A Match at Mid- 
 nightj act i. sc. 1. 
 
 Snap-sack, a corruption of knap- 
 sack (from Dut. Jcnap-zah, a provision- 
 bag, from Dut. hnap, eating). 
 
 Nor will it suffice to have raked up a few 
 Notions . . . any more than a Soldier who 
 had filled his Siuip-sach should thereupon set 
 up for Keeping House. — Memoiis of Dr. 
 Robt. South, 1717, p. 14. 
 
 Snow, a small sea-vessel, is from the 
 Low Ger. sna/ti, or snauschip, a boat 
 with a sharp prow or snout, smm ; as 
 Dutch sneh [navis rostrata) is from 
 snel, a beak. (See Wedgwood, s.v. 
 Smach.) 
 
 Far other craft our prouder river shows, 
 Hoys, pinks, and sloops; brigs, brigantines, 
 and snows. 
 
 Crabbe, The Borough, Letter J. 
 ( Works, p. 176, ed. 1866). 
 1 broke with them at last for what they 
 did on board of a bit of a snow. — Scott, Red- 
 gauntlet, ii. 156. 
 
 SoAK-FALCON, a term in falconry for 
 a young hawk that not having yet 
 moulted retains the red plumage of 
 its first year, is a corruption of the 
 French sawe, and has nothing to do 
 with its sowing flight. 
 Of the soatefaukon so I learne to fly. 
 That flags awhile her fluttering wings be- 
 neath. 
 Till she her selfe for stronger flight can 
 breath. 
 Spenser, Hymn of Heavenly Beautie, 1. 26. 
 
 SoAE-HAWK is not, as one might 
 naturally suppose, a hawk that soa/rs, 
 but a young hawk in its first year 
 
 "from the first taking her from the 
 eyrie, till she has mew'd or cast her 
 feathers" (Bailey), and is so called 
 from the reddish tint of its first 
 plumage. Thus Cotgi-ave gives not 
 only faulcon sor, " a soar Hawke," 
 but ha/renc sor, " a red Herring." Soar 
 therefore is the same word as Fr. sor, 
 sav/r, " sorrel," saurir, sorer, to redden. 
 It. soMro, perhaps from a Latin ex- 
 cm/reus. 
 
 Sodden, applied to bread or pastry, 
 which is said to be sodden when close 
 and heavy, the dough not having risen 
 properly, as if another usage of sodden, 
 the past parte, of seethe, to boil, with 
 an oblique reference probably to the 
 heavy indigestible nature of boiled 
 paste, is a corruption of sadden or sad, 
 which is the ordinary word in the prov. 
 dialects for heavy, solid, ill-baked 
 (bread). Compare soddy, sad, heavy, 
 North. (Wright), sadden, to harden, to 
 make solid, Lincoln. (Id.), old Eng. 
 sad, hard, sohd {Prompt. Pairv.), in 
 EUzabethan Enghsh serious, sedate, 
 in modern Enghsh downcast, sorrow- 
 ful. The original meaning was full, 
 satiated, A. Sax. sad, sated [sadicm, to 
 be full, be weary (Ettmiiller, p. 627), 
 Icel. sadd/r (and saitr), sated, 0. H. 
 Ger. sat, Lat. sativr, full, Goth. saj>s, 
 sads, full (see Diefenbach, Ooth. 
 Sprache, ii. 179). Compare Welsh sad, 
 firm, sadio, to make firm. The tran- 
 sition from fulness, satiety, to material 
 heaviness (as of bread) and mental 
 heaviness (of a man's mood) is easily 
 understood. 
 
 Soil, to feed cattle in the stall, seems 
 to be a corrupted form of Prov. Eng. 
 soul, to satisfy with food, Fr. saoul, 
 satiated, saouler, Prov. sadollar, Lat. 
 satulla/re, to sate, from Latin satullus, 
 satv/r, satis. 
 
 If the Horsse goe to jSo/7e in Aprill after 
 fiue daies bring him forth. — Topselt, Hist, of 
 Foure-J%oted Beasts, 1608, p. 330. 
 
 SoLAB TOPEES, the name given to the 
 pith hats worn in the East, as if " sun 
 hats," is said to be more properly sola 
 topees, so called from the material of 
 which the headdress is composed. Hind. 
 slwld, the pith of the plant JEschyno- 
 mene aspera. Compare Sebepaw, for 
 another corruption of an Oriental word. 
 
SOBBY 
 
 ( 364 ) 8P ABU-BONE 
 
 SoERY, SO spelled as if the adjectival 
 form of sorrow (with which it has no 
 real connexion) would more properly 
 be aorey or sory ; compare O. Eng. and 
 A. Sax. sarig, sad, Scot, sa/ry, A. Sax. 
 sar, a sore, 0. N. sdr. Sorrmo is A. Sax. 
 sorg, mourning, grief, sorgian, to grieve, 
 Goth, saurga. The two words are 
 often brought together, e.g. sorga sarost, 
 " sorest sorrow." — Cxdmon, 122, 19. 
 
 Sound, a false orthography of old 
 Eng. soun, Pr. son, Lat. son-us, the d 
 having originally been added on by 
 ignorant speakers, as in gownd, swoond 
 or swovmd, pound, to beat, for old Eng. 
 'poun or fwn ; hound, ready, for hown, 
 I have also noted in old writers chwp- 
 land ior chaplain; gammond ; sahnond 
 anveldioi arwih lawnd for lawn; cyna- 
 mond (Plorio) ; sarniond for sermon 
 schoUard; sold (Holland) for sole (fish) 
 to scand (Norden). See Kodnd (vb.). 
 
 He se3 fier ydel men ful stronge 
 & sa[y]de to hem with sobre soun, 
 " Wy stonde 3e ydel jjise dayeS longe." 
 AUiteraUve Poems, p. 16, 1. 533. 
 
 Sonans is short, yeet sowning in English 
 must hee long ; and much more yf yt were 
 sounding as thee ignorant generaly but falslye 
 dooe wryte; nay that where at I woonder 
 more, thee leai'ned trip theyre pennes at this 
 stoane, in so much as M. Phaer in thee verye 
 first verse of Virgil mistaketh thee woorde, 
 yeet sound and sowne differ as much in Eng- 
 lish as soUdus and sonus in Latin. — Stany- 
 hurst, JEn£ad, Preface [Davies]. 
 
 Sound, a corrupt form of swoon or 
 swownd, old Eng. swowne, A. Sax. 
 aswunan, to swoon (see Atkinson, 
 Cleveland Olossary, s.v.). 
 
 I waiTant your master is only in a sound ; 
 and I've a bottle of stuff in my pocket, that 
 will fetch him in a whiff. — Bickerstaffe and 
 Foote, Dr. Last in his Chariot, act ih. 
 
 Upon whose departure, with the paune 
 left of his resolution, my minion fel into 
 a sound. — The Passionate MonHce (1593), p. 
 79(Shak8. Soc). 
 
 Sounder, an old word for a- wild- 
 boar, is, 'I take it, for sunder, and means 
 the animal that hves apart, separate, 
 01 asunder (A. Sax. sundar, Icel. sundr, 
 Dut. sonder, Goth, sund/ro, a-sunder). 
 Compare old Eng. synglere, a wild- 
 boar, Fr. sanglier, from Lat. singuldris, 
 dwelUng alone ; Greek mondos (i.e. 
 lonely, solitary), the wild-boar ; Sard. 
 sulone, the same, from Lat. solus, alone. 
 
 It had so happened that a sounder (i.e. in 
 the ■ language of the period, a boai* of only 
 two years old) had crossed the track of the 
 
 ? roper object of the chase. — Scott, Qucntin 
 )uru!ard, i. 130. 
 
 A boor of the wode distriede it ; and a sin- 
 
 fuler wielde beeste deuouride it. — Wydiffe, 
 's. Ixxix. 14. 
 
 Sounder was also used for a herd of 
 swine. 
 
 When he is foure yere, a boar shall he be. 
 From the sounder of the swyne thenne de- 
 
 partyth he ; 
 A syngukr is he soo, for alone he woU go. 
 Book of St. Albans, ed. 1496, sig. a. i. 
 
 SouTHDENES, a curious old Corruption 
 in the Vision of Tiers the Flowm<m, 
 Pass, iii.l. 187, Text C, "somenoursand 
 'Southdenes," where other MSS. read 
 sopdenes and sodenes. It is for suddeneSi 
 i.e. sub-deans, which seems to have been 
 interpreted by the scribe as souih-denes. 
 Prof. Skeat (Notes in loc.) quotes south- 
 iailys, for suh-haAUffs, from a Poem on 
 the Evil Times of Edma/rd II. 
 
 Sovereign, a corrupt spelling of 
 sovran (Milton, Par. Lost, i. 1. 246), 
 from a false analogy to reign. Of. Fr. 
 souverain. It. sovrano, soprano, supreme, 
 from supra, above, Lat. superanus. 
 
 For Jupiter aboTen alle. 
 Which is of goddes soverain, 
 Hath in his celler, as men sain, 
 Two tonnes full of love di'inke. 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, vol. iii. p. 12. 
 
 Sow-thistle, 0. Eng. suwe-i 
 corruption of its older form thowthystil 
 (Pr. Pa/rv.),A. Sax. \iufe\nstel, or\>u]pistel, 
 O. Ger. du-tistel, " sprout-thistle," from 
 \>ufe, a sprout (Prior). Mr. Atkinson 
 questions this, adducing the Cleveland 
 swine-thistle, Swed. sroin-tistel, Dan. 
 svinetidsel, svinedild, Ger. soM-distel. 
 
 Sowthystylle, or thowthystylle, Rostrum 
 porcinum. — Prompt. Pai'vulorum. 
 
 In a 15th century MS. (quoted in 
 Wright's Homes of other Days, p. 312) 
 the word is STpelt ffoothestylle. Cf. far- 
 horough, fwsty, &c., for thairiorough, 
 tJwrsty, &o. 
 
 Spade-bone, an old word for the 
 blade or shoulder bone, is connected 
 with Prov. espatta, Portg. espddra, Sp. 
 espalda, It. spatola, Lat. spatula, Greek 
 spathe, a flat blade. " Spade " is of 
 the same origin. 
 
SPANISH BEEFEATER ( 365 ) 8PABB0W-BALLS 
 
 Spanish beefeater. This expression 
 is quoted without explanation in 
 PhUolcg. Soc. Proc. vol. v. p. 140, and 
 said to be a corruption of " Spina bifida 
 (a disease)." 
 
 Spabk, as a name for a self-sufficient 
 fop or conceited coxcomb, has pro- 
 bably no direct connexion with the 
 guttering particle of fire which we caU 
 a spark, any more than flunhey has to 
 do with Ger. flvnke, a spark. Mr. 
 Wedgwood connects the word with 
 Prov. Eng. sprag, sprach, quick, brisk, 
 as if a lively young man (compare Ir. 
 sprcdc, vigour, sprightliness), and 
 Cleasby further points out a connexion 
 with Icelandic sparhr, sprakhi, Uvely, 
 sprightly, also a dandy. See also Prof. 
 Skeat's Notes to Piers Plowman, p. 
 398. 
 
 Oft has it been my lot to mai'k 
 A proud conceited talking spark. 
 
 J, Merrick, The Cham(Eieon. 
 
 Other connected words seem to be 
 spry, nimble, brisk, Cumberland 
 sproag, a pleasure excursion, spree, and 
 perhaps spruce. In the following quo- 
 tation two MSS. have spa/i-Mich for 
 sprakKche, which here has the meaning 
 of spruce, dandified : — 
 
 Barfot on an asse bak ' bootless cam prykye, 
 With-oute spores oJ>er spare • and sprakliche 
 
 he lokede, 
 As is Jie kynde of a knyght • fiat comejj to be 
 
 doubed, 
 To geten bus gilte spores " and galoches y- 
 couped. 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, C. xxi. 1. 12 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 
 Save you, boon sparks ! Will't please you to 
 admit me 1 
 Cartwright, The Ordinary, act iii. sc. 5. 
 
 I will wed thee, 
 To my great widdowes daughter and sole 
 
 heire. 
 The lonely sparke, the bright Laodice. 
 
 Chnprnan, JViddowes Teares, act i. 
 
 Hitherto will our sparkfull youth laugh at 
 their great grandfather's English, who had 
 more care to do well, than to speake minion 
 like. — Canulen, Remaines, p. 25 (1637). 
 
 Vour persuasion, 
 Chid us into these courses, oft repeating, 
 Shew yourselves city-spa rfes, and hang up 
 money. 
 Massinger, The City Madam, act iv. sc. 2. 
 
 Let those heroike sparks whose learned 
 
 braine 
 Doth merit cliapletts of victorious bayes, 
 
 Make kings the subject of their lofty layes. 
 Thy worthlesse praysing doth their worth 
 
 dispraise. 
 Fuller, Davids Heavie Punishment, st. 64. 
 Draw near, brave sparks, whose spirits scorn 
 
 to light 
 Your hollow tapers but at honour's flame. 
 Quarles, Emblems, bk. i. emb. 9 (1635). 
 The ti"ue-bred spark, to hoise his name, 
 Upon the waxen wings of fame, 
 W ill fight undaunted in a flood, 
 That's rais'd with brackish drops and blood. 
 Quarles, Emblems, ii. 11. 
 Here I also saw Madam Castlemaine, and, 
 which pleased me most, Mr. Crofts, the 
 King's bastard, a most pretty sparse of about 
 15 years old, who, I perceive, do hang 
 much upon my Lady Castlemaine, and is 
 always with her. — Pepys, Diary, Sept. 7th, 
 1662. 
 
 No double entendres, which you sparks allow. 
 To make the ladies look — they know not 
 how. 
 
 Dryden, Love Triumphant, 1693, 
 Prologue, 1. 24. 
 For matter o' that, I had rather have 
 the soldiers than officers : for nothing is ever 
 good enough for those sparks. — Fielding, 
 Hist, of a Foundling, bk. viii. ch. 2. 
 He comes i' th' middle of their Sport, 
 And, like a cunning old Trepanner, 
 Took the poor Lovers in the Wanner, 
 And there, as one would take a Lark, 
 Trapp'd the fair Madam and her Spark. 
 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, 
 Poems, p. 239. 
 
 Cowper seems to have identified this 
 word with that for a luminous par- 
 ticle :^ 
 
 So, when a child, as playful children use. 
 Has burnt to tinder a stale last year's news, 
 Tbe flame extinct, he views the roving fire, — 
 There goes my lady, and there goes the 
 
 squire, 
 There goes the parson, oh ! illustrious spark. 
 And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the 
 
 clerk. 
 On some Names in the Biographia Britannica, 
 And so Ben Jonson : — 
 
 Thy son's a gallant spai'k and must not be 
 put out of a sudden. 
 
 The Poetaster, i. 1 (^Works, p. 108). 
 
 Sparrow-balls, > shoemakers' nails 
 Spareow-bills, j (provincial Eng.), 
 is perhaps a corruption of sparables, or 
 sperrahles (Herrick), dimin. form of 
 spar, which is a derivative of sperr or 
 spmr, to make fast, according to Ken- 
 nett, Paroch. Antiq. 1695. In Corn- 
 wall sparrows, sparras, or spars, are 
 wooden skewers used in thatching (T. 
 Q. Couch). 
 
SPABBOW GBAS8 ( 366 ) 
 
 SPOON 
 
 Cob clouts his shooes, and as the storj' tplls, 
 His thumb-nailes-par'd, tiifordhim sperrubles. 
 Herrickj Hesperides, Poems, p. S42. 
 
 Sparrow grass, a vulgar corrup- 
 tion of asparagus, and widely pre- 
 valent. Mr. S. E. Holes states that 
 upon one occasion being asked to 
 adjudicate at a rustic flower-show on 
 the merits of certain classes of wild 
 ferns and grasses, amongst the latter 
 he observed three cases of asparagus 
 being exhibited. Upon his saying to 
 the exhibitors that this was not con- 
 templated by the schedule, his igno- 
 rance was at once enhghtened, — 
 " Please, sir, it says ferns and grasses, 
 and this is sparrow grass." — Booh about 
 Eoses, p. 30. 
 
 The Lincolnshire folk shorten the 
 corrupted word, and wiU pohtely in- 
 vite a guest to have a "httle more 
 grass" (Peacock, Glossa/ry of Manley, 
 &c.). 
 
 Steele, in The Tailer, No. 150, has 
 sparagrass. Other old forms are spara- 
 gus, sparage, and sperage. 
 
 Spatch-cook, a name in cookery for 
 a chicken grilled in a particular man- 
 ner, as if an abbreviation of " despatch 
 cook " because it was hastily prepared, 
 was originally " sintchcoch," a corrup- 
 ted form of " spitstuck," i.e. en 
 h-ocliette. A spatch-cock fowl is one 
 spread on a skewer after having been 
 spht open at the back, just as a broiled 
 eel done on a skewer is called a spitch- 
 cocked eel (Kettner, Book of the Table, 
 s.v. p. 119). 
 
 ^Ve had a good deal of laughing at an 
 Irishman who was of our party, on»account 
 of a bull he had made at breakfast, and which 
 we called " half a nightingale " [bulbul], — 
 a sort of " spatch-cock nightingale." — Rus-^etl, 
 Memoirs of' Thos. Moore, vol. i. p. 317. 
 
 Yet no man lards salt- pork with orange-peel, 
 Or garnishes his lamb with spitchcoclcd eel. 
 A^'ii;-, Art of Cookery. 
 
 Will you have some cray-fish and a spitch- 
 cockl — Webster, Korthwurd Ho, i. 1. 
 Next we'll have true fat eatable old pikes, 
 Then a fresh turbot brought in for a buckler, 
 ^Vith a lon^ spitckcock for the sword adjoin'd. 
 Cartwnght, The Ordinarii, act ii. 8c. 1. 
 
 The first course consisted of a huge platter- 
 ful of scorpions spits-cocked. — 7. Brown, 
 Works,ii. 221. 
 
 ^\ hen thou cam'st hither (Captain-Swasher) 
 Scorch'd like a Herring, or a Rasher, 
 
 Sini 
 A 
 
 inc;'d like a Hog (fob ! thou stink'st still) 
 nd Spitch cock'd like a salted eel. 
 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque 
 Poems, p. 222. 
 
 Spirit, in the phrase " to spmt up a 
 man to an act," though at first sight it 
 seems to come from the Latin, is in 
 truth, says Mr. Ohphant, a disguised 
 form of the old to-spryttam, to excite, 
 spmt and sprout coming from the same 
 root (Old and Middle English, p. 77). 
 
 Splashing, a provincial word for the 
 interweaving of the branches of trees, 
 hurdle- wise, so as to form a low hedge, 
 e.g. Mr. Blackmore in Lorna Boone, a 
 Horiiance of Exmooi; speaks of a " ram- 
 part of ash, which is made by what we 
 call splashing," and shortly after he calls 
 this a "stout ashen hedge" {3rd ed. 
 pp. 231, 283). It seems to be a corrup- 
 tion of the more ordinary form to plash, 
 old Eng. to pleach (" A thick phached 
 alley in my orchard." — Much Ado about 
 Nothing, i. 4), akin to Lat. plecto, and 
 plico, Greek pleko, to twine or plait. 
 
 Women are not so tender fruit, but that 
 they doe as well, and beare as well u])on 
 beds, as plashed against walls. — Sir T. Over- 
 bury, Neices ( !Vorks,-p.l76, ed. Rimbault). 
 
 Splinter-bar, a name for the bar to 
 which a horse is harnessed in drawing. 
 Splinter seems to be a corruption of 
 sprinter for springtree, wiginally 
 spangtree, the tree or timber to which 
 (in provincial English) the horse is 
 spanged or yoked. Compare Ger. 
 spannen, to fasten, Dut. aans^mnneti, to 
 harness. Another form of the word 
 is spintree-ha/r ("Wedgwood). 
 
 Spoil, to injure, destroy, or render 
 useless, is another form of to spill 
 (A. S. spilla/n, to destroy, Dut. spmrn), 
 assimilated apparently to the other 
 verb " to spoil," Fr. deapou'dler, Lat. 
 spoliare. 
 
 Spoon, a slang term, now in very 
 general use, meaning to court or make 
 love, to phillis and philander, to show 
 a lover's fondness ; also " to be spooney 
 on a girl," " to be spoons," and 
 " spooney," one foolishly fond, a weak- 
 minded muff. These words were per- 
 haps popularly supposed to mean 
 " babyish, hke an infant that is spoon- 
 fed," or perhaps a reference was ima- 
 gined to the old notion that change- 
 
SPOBT 
 
 ( 367 ) SPBING-WALL 
 
 lings, who were generally idiots, were 
 substituted sometimes by the fairies 
 for healthy infants, these changelings 
 being in some instances veritable 
 spoons. 
 
 This is she [Mab] that empties cradles, 
 Takes out children, puts in ladies. 
 
 PoiUe, Eng. Parnassus, p. 333. 
 
 (See Brand, Pop. Aniiq. ii. 329 ; 
 Keightley, Fairy Mythology, 336.) As a 
 curious coincidence may be noted 
 Ger. liiffeln, to play the gallant, also to 
 eat with a spoon, liiffel, gallantry, and 
 a spoon. To spoon, borrowed pro- 
 bably from some of the provincial dia- 
 lects, seems to be akin to A. Sax. 
 sponere {spanerc), an alliirer or per- 
 suader, sponung {sparmng), ^eiauasion, 
 seduction, spartan (p. parte. sp)onen), 
 to entice or sohcit, the primitive form 
 of which was probably spunan, implied 
 by Teutonic un-spunalih, inexorable 
 (Ettmiiller, p. 712). Thus the original 
 meaning of spoon would be " to be se- 
 ductive or alluring " in one's looks and 
 manner, to woo. Compare spoon, the 
 implement, from A. Sax. spon, a thin 
 piece of wood. 
 
 Sport, in the college phrase to spoH 
 one's oah, i.e. to keep one's door barred, 
 to bring it into requisition, is regarded 
 by Mr. Ohphant as a cori'upted form of 
 the old Eng. verb spa^ran, to close or 
 bar, with a t suffixed to round it off, as 
 in "thou art,"£o-r O. Eng. ar (Old and 
 Mid. English, p. 76). But how would 
 this explanation account for the phrases 
 "to sport a new hat, a gold pin," &o., 
 i.e. to exhibit, wear, or call into requi- 
 sition? 
 
 Speight, an old and incorrect spell- 
 ing of sp-ife (anciently spin'fn, Lat. 
 spiritus, a breath, a vapour, an aerial 
 being), from the false analogy of such 
 words as light, night, right, sight, anight, 
 0. Eng. spight, &c., where the gh is 
 radical and organic (cf. Lat. luc-s, 
 rwct-s, red-US, Ger. sicht, macht, Lat. 
 de-spcct-us. &c.). The last-mentioned 
 word, on the other hand, in the form 
 ol spite, has been falsely assimilated to 
 rite, mite, kite, &c. Similarly, in The 
 Tu-o Nolle Kinsvien (1634), wrighter 
 occurs for writer (Prologue), hight (act 
 i. sc. 1, 1. 41) for kite, reqmght{v.4, 36) 
 for requite. 
 
 And Mars you know must Venus haue. 
 To recreate his spriight. 
 B. Googe, Eglogs, 1563,' p. 67 (ed. Arber). 
 Where flumes doe burue, and yet no sparke of 
 
 light, 
 And fire both fries and freezes the blasphem- 
 ing- s'pright. 
 G. Fletchei; Christs Trivmph oner Death, 
 St. 42. 
 
 Bacon has spi-ights for short arrows 
 used in sea fights, " without any other 
 heads save wood sharpened" (Natural 
 and E,rperimental History) [in Latham], 
 evidently for sprits (Dut. spriet). As an 
 instance of a similar mis-spelhng, Wil- 
 ham Fuller, Bishop of Lincoln, in his 
 will, 1675, directed his body to be 
 buried " according to the rights [ = 
 rites] of the Church of England " 
 (Bailey, Life of Tlws. Fuller, p. 624). 
 
 Sprightly. Professor Skeat in his 
 note on the word sprahliche, lively, in 
 Langland's Vision of Piers Plowman, 
 xxi. 10, Text C, says, "I much suspect 
 that our sprightly is a mere corruption 
 of sprahliche, with a change of vowel 
 due to confusion with sprite (spright). 
 Two things point to this — (1) that we 
 retain the gh in the spelling; and (2) 
 that the sense of sprightly is exactly 
 that of sprahliche, and therefore diffe- 
 rent from spritely, which would mean 
 fairy-lihe." Cognate with sprahliche 
 are Icel. sprmhligr, sprceh; sprightly, 
 Prov. Eng. sprach and sprag, hvely, 
 quick. See Spark. 
 Though now thy sprightly blood with age be 
 
 cold, 
 Thou hast been young; : and canst remember 
 
 still. 
 That when thou hadst the power, thou hadst 
 
 tlie wdl. 
 Driftlen, Sigismonda and Guiscardo, 1. 430. 
 
 Speinghold, an old Eng. name for 
 an engine of war used for casting darts, 
 stones, &o. (Mattliew of Westminster), 
 also written springold, springal. It is 
 from the French espringalle (also 
 espringarde), Prov. espringalo. It. sprin- 
 gare, to fling. 
 
 And eke within the castle were, 
 Springdlils, gonnes, bowes, and archers. 
 Rnmaitiit oj the Hom'. 1. 4191. 
 
 See Sir S. D. Scott, British Army, vol. 
 ii. p. 167. 
 
 Spking-wall, used in the ballad of 
 Auld Maiiland for an engine of attack, 
 as if that which springs a wall. 
 
SPBUGE-BEEB ( 368 ) 
 
 SQUINT 
 
 With spring-wall, stanes and goads of airn 
 Among them fast he threw. 
 It is a corruption of springal, Fr. esprin- 
 galle. See Speinghold. 
 
 Speuoe-bebb seems to be a corrup- 
 tion of Ger. sprossen-hier, that is, beer 
 made out of the sprouts or shoots 
 (sprossem) of the fir tree. Perhaps also 
 spruce-fir is for Ger. sprossen-fichte 
 (Wedgwood). 
 
 Spue-hawk, a Scottish name for the 
 sparrow-hawk (Dan. spwrv-hfg), of 
 which word it is a corruption. A Shet- 
 land corruption is spwrrie-how (Ed- 
 mondston). 
 
 Spukeings, a common provincial 
 word for the publication of the banns 
 of marriage in church, lit. " askings," 
 is in some places misunderstood as 
 referring to the equipment of a rider 
 when preparing himself for a race. 
 Mr. Peacock mentions that, in N. W. 
 Lincolnshire, a person who has been 
 once "asked" is said to have "one 
 spur on," when twice " a pair of spurs" 
 (Olosswry of Manley and Gorringham). 
 It is the substantival form of 0. Eng. 
 spw, to ask, — • 
 
 He purred him gentlye. 
 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. i. p. 394— 
 Old Eng. sfere, Scot, speir, spv/re, 
 A. Sax. spyricm, Ger. spitren, Icel. 
 spyria. In Shetland spurins are tidings, 
 tracings of anything sought for. 
 AUe l^at he spu?"edhjni in space he expowned 
 
 clene, 
 (jui'S Jm sped of )je spyry t (lat sprad hym with- 
 inne. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 83, 1. 1607. 
 
 [All that he asked him he expounded plain 
 at length through the help of the spirit that 
 was diffused within him.J 
 
 He bad his man to go and spire 
 A place, where she might abide. 
 Gower, Coiif. Amantis, vol. iii. p. 3^4. 
 Whi spyr ye not syr no questyons ? 
 I am oone of youre order and oone of your 
 sons. 
 
 Marinott, Miracle Plays, Juditium, p. 181. 
 
 He asked a countryman who was passing 
 to be so good as to tell him the name of the 
 Castle. The reply was somewhat startling — 
 " It's no the day to be speering sic things ! " 
 — E. B. Ramsay, Reminiscences of Scot. Life 
 and Character, p. 21 (10th ed.). 
 
 Squall. Fuller has the curious ex- 
 pression "squalling with the feet " for 
 walking awry, divaricating, straddhng. 
 
 William Evans was born in this County, 
 and may be justly accounted the Giant ofoiir 
 age for his stature, being full two yards and 
 a half in height : ... he was not onely what 
 the Latines call Compernis, knocking his 
 knees together, and going out squalling with 
 his feet, but also haul ted a little. — T. Fuller, 
 iVorthies of England, vol. ii. p. 120. 
 
 It is the same word as Cumberland 
 shawl, to walk crookedly (Ferguson), 
 old Eng. schayl {Prompt. Parv.), Prov. 
 Swed. shjala, to walk crookedly, Icel. 
 shjdlgr, wry, oblique, squinting. Com- 
 pare Cleveland slcell, to turn obliquely, 
 shelly, to squint (Atkinson), Cumber- 
 land shelled, awry, A. Sax. 
 "scowUng," squinting, Greek 
 crooked-legged, Lat. seelus (crooked- 
 ness), crime, all akin to Sansk. shhal, to 
 err, go wrong, deviate. 
 
 I shayle, as a man or horse dothe that gothe 
 croked with his legges. — Palsgrave. 
 
 Esgraitler, to shale, or straddle with the feet 
 or legs. — Cotgrave. 
 Schouelle-fotede was that schaike, and schay- 
 
 lande hyme semyde. 
 With schankes vn-schaply, schowande to- 
 gedyrs. 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 1099 (E. E. T.S.) 
 
 [Shovel-footed was the fellow and sham- 
 bling (not scaly, as Ed.) he seemed, with 
 unshapely shanks, shuffling together.] 
 
 Other, which were well legde, shaled with 
 their feete, or were splafooted ; and to be 
 briefe, they that trode right, were either 
 clouterly caulfed, tree like set, spindle 
 shankte, or bakerly kneed. — The Passionate 
 Morrice, 1593, p. 82 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Squint, more properly squincli, an 
 architectural term for a sUt made in the 
 pillar, &c., of a church to give a view of 
 the altar, is not from sqmnt, to look 
 askew, but is the same word as Prov. 
 Eng. sgumch, a crevice or crack in 
 boarding, squinwy, narrow, slender. 
 
 Hagioscopes, squints, or loriculje, are those 
 apertures which occur in different parts of 
 the church, usually in one or both sides of the 
 chancel-arch, to enable the worshippers to 
 obtain a view of the Elevation of the JHost. — 
 Handbook of Eng. Ecclesiology, p. 200. 
 
 Measter was . . . looking down dro' tlie 
 squinches in the planching. — Mrs. Palmer, 
 Devonshire Courtship, p. 25. 
 
 The word is probably akin to chink, 
 O. Eng. chynne (Ocoleve), A. Sax. 
 cinu, 
 
 [In the chancel of Bere Regis church the] 
 plain rude arch with its huge squints — mere 
 inartistic holes in the wall — was a part of the 
 
SQUIRE 
 
 ( 369 ) 
 
 STANDGALL 
 
 history of the fabric which it would be wrong 
 to remove. — The Saturday Review, vol. 50, 
 p. 106. 
 
 Squire, a common word in old 
 authors for a carpenter's square or rule, 
 is a naturalized form of old Fr. esquierre, 
 a rule, square, or measure (Cotgrave), 
 or esquert-e (Mod. Fr. equerre), Sp. 
 esquadra, from Lat. ex + quacb-a. 
 
 To allow such manner of forraine and 
 coulored talke to make the iudges affectioned, 
 were all one as if the carpenter before he be- 
 gan to square his timber would make bia 
 sqitire crooked. — G. Puttenhani, Arte of Eng. 
 Poesie, 1589, p. 166 (ed. Arber). 
 
 One melts the White-stone with the force of 
 
 Fire : 
 Another, leveld by the Lesbian Squire, 
 Deep vnder ground (for the Foundation) 
 
 ioins 
 Well-polisht Marble, in long massie Coins. 
 Sijlvester, Du Barlus, p. 464. 
 
 But temperaunce (said he) with golden 
 
 squire 
 Betwixt them both can measure out a meaue. 
 Spenser, F. Queene, II. ii. 58. 
 
 Quadrante,3, foure square, a squire or ruler. 
 — Fhrio* 
 
 Not the worst of the three but jumps twelve 
 foot and a half by the squier. — Shakespeare, 
 Winter's Tale, iv. 4, 1. 348. 
 
 Fat. If I travel but four foot by the squire 
 farther a-foot, I shall break my wind. — 
 1 Hen. IV. ii. 2. 
 
 Squieeility, a corruption of scur- 
 riUty, found in the old dramatists. 
 
 So long as your mii-th be void of all squir- 
 riUty 'tis not unfit for your calling. — Webster, 
 Westward Ho, ii. 1. 
 
 The heathen misliked in an orator squirilitie. 
 — Sta7iihurst, Description of Ireland, p. 16 
 (Holinshed, vol. i. 1587). 
 
 The word is an assimilation perhaps 
 to squire used in the sense of a pander 
 or pimp ("Wright, Nares). Somewhat 
 similarly chicanery is corrupted, in Ire- 
 land into jackeenery, as if the conduct 
 of a jackeen, or low cunning fellow, in 
 America into she-coonery, as if the con- 
 duct of a she 'coon, or racoon. 
 
 Staffold, a rustic assimilation of 
 scaffold to the native word staddle, a 
 stand or support. 
 
 I made my wheat-reek on staffblds. — E, 
 Lisle, Observations in Husbandry (1757), p. 
 223. 
 
 (See Old Coimtry andFm-ming Words, 
 E.D.S. p. 68.) 
 
 Stagger-wort, an old popular name 
 for the plant senecio Jacohcea, is pro- 
 bably a corruption of the form stagg- 
 wort also found, which ia its turn would 
 seem to be a corruption of the old 
 French name Herhe de St. Jacques, as 
 if 8t. Jacques wort, styacJee-wort, stagg- 
 wort. 
 
 [This plant] is called in Latine Herba S. 
 Jacobi, or S. Jacobijlos, and Jacobea ; in high 
 Dutch Sant Jacobs bloumen : in lowe Dutch 
 Sunt Jacobs Cruift : in French Fleur de S. Jac- 
 ques : in English S. James his woort ; the 
 Countrey people do call it Stagger woort, and 
 Stauerwoort, and also Ragwoorte. — Gerarde, 
 Herball, p. 219 (1579). 
 
 Standard, so spelt as if connected 
 with stand (Eichardson actually groups 
 it under the one head with that word), 
 as if a standing ensign, whereas it 
 really signifies an extended banner, 
 being the French etendard, It. stenda/rdo 
 from stendere, Lat. extendere. 
 
 Similarly in Mid. High German Fr. 
 etenda/rd became stanthart, as if from 
 
 Ac to fie batayle smot anon, as man wyjjoute 
 
 fere, 
 And byleuede dragon & standard, & stared 
 
 vaste ys honde. 
 
 Robert of Gloucester, p. 303. 
 
 Standard, as applied to a tree, a dis- 
 tinct word from standard, a banner, is 
 the same as standil or staddle, a tree 
 reserved at the feUiug of woods for 
 growth for timber (WorUdge, Diet. 
 Busticum, 1681), A. Sax. staiol, some- 
 thing standing firm. 
 
 His kingdom should not be like to coppice- 
 woods ; where the staddles being left too 
 thick, all runs to bushes and briers. — Fuller, 
 Holy State, p. 108 (1648). 
 
 Standgall, a name given to the wind- 
 hover or kestrel, according to H. G. 
 Adams, from its habit of remaining 
 almost stationary while hovering in the 
 air. He also gives as other names of 
 the same bird stonegall, steingall (Nests 
 and Eggs of Familiajr British Birds,^. 6) ; 
 which of these is the corrupted form, I 
 cannot say. Contracted from one or 
 other are N. Bng. stanchil, 0. Eng. 
 stamel. Mod. Eng. stannel. 
 
 Kestrel — (Falco tinnunculus). Also Wind- 
 hover, Creshawk, Hoverhawk, Stannel or 
 Stannel-hawk, — query, Stand-gale, as Mon- 
 tagu writes one of its provincial names Stone- 
 gall. Windhover certainly suggests the 
 
 B B 
 
STAB 
 
 ( 370 ) STABK-NAKED 
 
 meaning of Stajid-gaU, and that word would 
 be easily shorteneainto Stannel. — J. C. Atkin- 
 son, Brit. Birds' Eggs and Nests, p.jSO. 
 
 In an A. Sax. word-list of the 11th 
 century occurs — 
 
 Pellicanus, stan-gella \el wan-fota. — 
 Wright's Vocabularies, 
 
 With what win? the staniel checks at it ! 
 Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, ii. 5, 124. 
 
 Star, a word for coarse grass, bent, 
 in provincial and old Eng. {e.g. Have- 
 lok, 1. 939), is the Danish stmr, steer- 
 grass, Icel. stSrr, probably akin to Ger. 
 starr, stiff; "staring" of hair, :^ rough 
 and rigid. 
 
 Herewith the amorous spirit, that was so 
 
 kind 
 To Teras' hair, and Comb'd it down with 
 
 wind 
 
 # » » # 
 
 Would needs have Teras gone, and did refrain, 
 To blow it down ; which staring up, dismay'd 
 The timorous feast. 
 
 Marlowe, Hero and Leander, 5th Sestiad, 
 sub Jin. 
 
 Stae-boaed, the right side of a ship, 
 is the A. Sax. steor-hord, i.e. the steer- 
 board (Orosms; EttmUller, p. 739), Dan. 
 styrhord, Icel. stj&rn-horii, from stj&rn, 
 steering ; so the Icel. phrase a sfjdrn =: 
 on the starboard side. 
 
 He tooke his voyage directly North along 
 the -coast, hauing vpon his steereboord alwayes 
 the desert land, and vpon the leereboord the 
 maine Ocean. — Hakluyt, Voyages, 1598, vol. i. 
 p. 4. 
 
 Stab Chambbk, the despotic court 
 forming part of the old Exchequer 
 buildings in New Palace Yard, West- 
 minster. 
 
 The Starrs or contracts made between Jews 
 and Gentiles in this country before the expul- 
 sion of the Israelities from England under 
 Edward I. are said to have given to the place 
 where they were deposited the name of the 
 Star Chamber. — Blackstone. 
 
 The bonds of many a great baron . . . lay 
 pledged for security in the " star-chamber " of 
 the Jew. — J. B. Green, Stray Studies, p. 340. 
 
 Starrra, a covenant, is a corrupted 
 form of the Hebrew shetar. It is doubt- 
 ful, however, whether the name is not 
 derived from the stars with which the 
 ceUing was anciently decorated (Jesse, 
 London, vol. i. p. 221). 
 
 It is certainly translated as Camiera 
 Stellata, Ohambre des Estoylles, but this 
 may be from a misunderstanding of the 
 Enghsh name. 
 
 Milton plays on the word : — 
 
 This authentic Spanish policy of licencing 
 books . . . was the immediate image of a 
 Star-chamber decree to that purpose made 
 in those very times when that Court did the 
 rest of those her pious works, for which she 
 is now fall'n from the Stan-cswith Lucifer.— 
 Areopagitica, 1644, p. 79 (ed. Arber). 
 
 That in the Chamber of Starres, 
 All maters there he marres, 
 Clappyng his rod on the horde. 
 No man dare speke a worde. 
 Skelton, Why Come we nat to Courte ? 
 (ab. 1520). 
 Court of Star Chamber, so called from the 
 room in the king's palace at Westminster 
 having its ceiling decorated with stars. — 
 Mr, Burtt in Old London, p. 254. 
 
 Stakk- BLIND, utterly bliud, is a cor- 
 ruption of old Enghsh stmr-hUnd, from 
 starian, to stare, denoting the fixed and 
 open look of sightless eyes ; Icel. star- 
 hlinda, blindness, from sta/ra, to gaze 
 (Cleasby), A. Sax. stci/rebUnd(EttmWler, 
 p. 725). 
 
 Bi daie thee art stare-blind, 
 That thee ne sichest ne bou ne rind. 
 Owl and Nightingale, 1. 241. 
 
 Twenty-seven years he sate Bishop of this 
 See, till he was stark blind with age. — Fuller, 
 Wm^thies, ii. 11. 
 
 Staek-naked, old Eng. steorc-ndket 
 and steorinahet {Legend of S. Margwret, 
 ab. 1200, E.E.T.S. 1. 5), so spelt as if 
 from sterc, stearc, stiff, rough, an un- 
 likely compound; is, according to Mr. 
 Ohphant {Old cmd Mid. Eng.ip. 255), 
 a probable corruption of steort, the tail, 
 and nacod, i.e. bare to one's extremities, 
 utterly naked, the change fr-om t to c 
 being very common. 
 
 Bicleope J:ine sunne steoniaked; Yet is, ne 
 hele Jju nowiht of al Jjet lig {ler abuten. — 
 Ancren Riwle, p. 316. 
 
 [Name thy sin starknaked ; that is, cover 
 thou naught of all that lieth thereabouts.] 
 His fo fettefi hi in vche ende 
 And hajj i-strupt him al start Tiaked, 
 Of mist and strengfie al bare i-maked. 
 Grosseteste, Castel of Loue, 1. 432. 
 
 Vor steorc naked he was despuiled o^e 
 rode. — Ancren Riwle, p. 260. 
 
 [For he was stripped stark naked on the 
 cross.] 
 
 Horace Walpole seems to have ima- 
 gined that starh by itself meant naked. 
 
 Madame du Deffand came to me the instant 
 I an-ived, and sat by me whilst I stripped and 
 dressed myself; for as she said, since she 
 
STABLING 
 
 ( 371 ) 
 
 STAVE 
 
 cannot see, there was no harm in my being 
 stark. — Walpok, Letters, iv. Hi (1773). 
 
 STAELiNa, an old name for a penny, 
 popularly supposed to have been so 
 called because impressed with the figure , 
 of a star, as if it denoted a little star, is 
 a corrupt form of sterling, old Eng. 
 sierlynge, a standard coin, genuine 
 money, said to have been named after 
 the Easterlings (Low Lat. Esterlingi), 
 or German moneyers, by whom it was 
 first coined in England (Walter de 
 Pinchbeck, temp. Ed. I.; see Wedg- 
 wood, S.V.). The Merchants of the 
 Hansewere formerly known as Easter- 
 lings ; see the quotation from HoweU, 
 and that from Minsheu, s.v. Steel- 
 yard (2). The wise men from the East 
 are sometimes so called by the Old 
 Divines. 
 
 Min holy pai-don may you all warice, 
 So that ye oiire nobles or starlin^es, 
 Or elles silver broches, spones, rmges. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 12841. 
 
 )>e king of is tresorie eche 3er him sende 
 A certein sume of sterlings, to is line's ende. 
 Robert of Gloucester, p. 563. 
 
 The lesser payments were in starlings, 
 which was the only coin then current, and 
 
 stamp'd, which were pence so call'd 
 
 The baxon coines before the Conquest, were 
 pence of fine silver, somewhat weightier, and 
 better then the latter starlings, and the pro- 
 bablest Reason that is given, why it was star- 
 ling money, was, because in the ring or border 
 of the peny, there was a starre stamped. — 
 Howell, Londinopolis, p. 35. 
 
 In the time of his Sonne King Richard the 
 first, money coyned in the East parts of Ger- 
 many began to bee of especiall request in 
 England for the puritie thereof, and was 
 called Easterling money, as all the inhabitants 
 of those parts were called Easterlings, and 
 shortly after some of that Country, skilful in 
 Mint matters and allaies, were sent for into 
 this Realme to bring the Coine to perfection ; 
 which since that time was called of them 
 sterling, for Easterling, not from Sti'iveling 
 [Sterlmg] in Scotland, nor fiom a starre, 
 which some dreamed to be coined thereon ; 
 for in old deedes they are alwaiea called 
 Nummi Esterlingi, which implyed as much, as 
 good and lawfull money of England. — 
 Camden, Remaines concerning Britaine, 1637, 
 p. 184. 
 
 Then the Queen caused a Proclamation to 
 be published. That the Easterlings, or Mer- 
 chants of the Hans, should be treated and 
 used as all other Strangers were within her 
 Dominions, without any Mark of Difference, 
 in point of Commerce. — Howell, Fam. Letters, 
 bk. I. vi. 3 (1632). 
 
 That Lane takes its name of Shernwniers, 
 •such as cut and rounded the plates to be 
 coyned or stamped into Estarling pence. — Id. 
 Londinopolis, p. 326. 
 
 The cape from whence they [the Wise 
 Men] came affords one short note more, that 
 they were Easterlings. — Bp. Hacket, Century 
 of Sermons, 1675, p. 126. 
 
 There is no ale brewed among the Easter- 
 lings, but of mead there is plentie. — Hakluyt, 
 Voyages, 1598, p. 6. 
 
 Stave, a verse, stanza, or other por- 
 tion of a song, has been regarded as 
 a metaphorical use of stave or staff 
 (A. Sax. stcef, Icel. stafr, Goth, siahs), a 
 part of a hooped vessel, many of which 
 are set together in its construction I 
 (Wedgwood). Indeed Eunio verses 
 used sometimes to be cut on separate 
 sticks or staves of wood ; see the illus- 
 trations in Kitto, Pictorial Bible, vol. 
 iii. p. 550. It is really, however, 
 the same word as Icelandic stef, a 
 stave in a lay, the burden or refrain 
 of a song (Gleasby, p. 590), A. Sax. 
 stefen, stefn, a voice, sound, or concert, 
 old Eng. Steven {Owl and Nightingale, 
 1. 314). 
 
 He herd fra his hali kirke mi steuen. 
 Northumbrian Psalter (13th cent.), 
 Ps. xvii. 1. 17. 
 
 A. Sax. stefen, stcefen, 0. Eng. steven, 
 may have come to have been con- 
 sidered as a plural in -en, of a singular 
 stef, stcef, or stave. 
 
 Bishop Hacket actually uses staff in 
 his sermons : — 
 
 The next staff o{ the Song is, "and on 
 earth peace." — Century of Sermons, p. 7S, 
 fol. 1675. 
 
 Staffe in our vulgare Poesie I know not 
 why It should be so called, vnlesse it be for 
 that we vnderstand it for a bearer or sup- 
 porter of a song or ballad, not vnlike the old 
 weake bodie, that is stayed vp by his stafi'e 
 and were not otherwise able to walke or to 
 stand vpright. The Italian call it Stanza, as 
 if we should say a resting place. — Piittenluim, 
 Arte of Eng. Poesie, 1589, p. 79 (ed. Arber). 
 
 As in the former staff' of the song, so also 
 in this, there is a touch of a distrustful con- 
 science. — Bp. John King on Jonah (1594), p. 
 174 (ed. Grosart). 
 
 An Imperfect Ode, being but one Staff 
 Spoken by the prologue. 
 
 Webster, The Malcontent, act v. 
 sub fin. (p. 362, ed. Dyce). 
 
 You see how my author in the 55 Staffe of 
 this Canto hath delivered to us, that Beatrice 
 the mother of Bradamant, would never be 
 
STAVES-AGBE 
 
 ( 372 ) 
 
 STEELY ABB 
 
 wonne to accept Rogero for her sonne-in-law. 
 — Sir J. Harinf;ton, Orlando Furioso, p. 404. * 
 Rhythme royall is a verse of tenne silla- 
 bles, and seuen such verses make a stajfe. — 
 Gascoigne, Steele Glas, 1576, p. 38 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 A bird 
 Whom art had never taught staffs, modes, or 
 notes. The Lover's Melancholy. 
 
 In the Towneley Mysteries, Pasiores, 
 ■when the shepherds hear the angels' 
 song, one of them exclaims, 
 This was a qwant stevi/n that ever yit I hard. 
 Marriott, Miracle Plays, p. 132. 
 Whan I here of her vols the steven 
 Me thenkth it is ablisse of heven. 
 Gawer, Conf. Amantis, vol. iii. p. 30. 
 
 Staves-acre, a trivial name for a 
 species of larkspur, or Delphimum, is 
 the French staphiscdgre, Lat. staphis- 
 agria, which is the Gk. astaphisagria, 
 from astapMs, raisin, and agria, wild. 
 
 Staphisaigre, Stavesaker, Licebane. 
 
 Hei be aux pouiUeux, Licebane, Stavesaker. — 
 Cotgrave. 
 
 Astaphis agria . . . beareth bladders or 
 little cods more like than grapes .... also 
 we are assured that Staphis-acre loueth to 
 gi'ow in Sun-shine places. — Holtund, Plinies 
 Nat. Hist. ii. 148. 
 
 Staves-alter we must provide to kill lice. — 
 Nash's Lenten Stuff. 
 
 In phlegmatic cases they seldom omitted 
 stavesaker. — Sir Thos. Browne, Works, vol. iii. 
 p. 215 (ed. Bohn^. 
 
 Wag. Well, wilt thou serve me, and I'll 
 make thee go like Qui mihi discipulus 1 . . . 
 In beaten silk and stavesacre. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Clown. Oho, oho, staves-acre! why then 
 belike, if I were your man, I should be full 
 of vermin. — Marlowe, Doctor Fauslus, 1604 
 (p. 84, ed. Dyae). 
 
 Steel, a cant term among the lower 
 orders for the house of correction, or 
 "lock up," is a corruption oi Bastile. 
 
 Steelbow, in the Scottish phrase 
 " steelbow goods," meaning fixtures, 
 goods on a farm which belonging to 
 the landlord cannot be removed by a 
 tenant, is. identified by Jamieson with 
 the Alemannio stahline viehe, immov- 
 able (? standing, z^ permanent) goods. 
 
 No man in the Parish is more familial' with 
 . . . the feudal rights of the incoming tenant 
 to the mysteries of * ' steelbow."- — The Standard, 
 May 24th, 1880. 
 
 Steel-yard, a balance, as if a ya/rd 
 or rod of steel, is a corruption of the 
 older form stiliarde or stelleere. 
 
 Crochet, a Roman Beame, or Stelleere, a 
 beame of Iron or wood full of nicks or 
 notches, along which a certain peize of lead, 
 &c., playing, and at length setling towards 
 the one end, shews the just weight of a com- 
 ,modity hanging by a hooke at the other end. 
 — Cotgrave. 
 
 And so s.w. Levrault and Eomaine. 
 
 With the change from sieZteere [stelhr] 
 to stiUa/rd, and then to stilymd, steel- 
 ya/rd, compare lanyard, for laniard, 
 from Tr. laniere; KLlya/rd (Cotgrave) 
 for hilUard; poneya/rd (Puller, Wor- 
 thies, ii. 492) ior poniard; and, probably, 
 halya/rd for halUa/rd (Haldeman) ; stan- 
 dard (tree) for siander (Id.) ; hMard 
 for lubber ; whinyard for whiniaird ; pall- 
 yard (Middleton) for palliard. 
 
 Stelleere is, without doubt, the same 
 word as stiller, a north country word 
 for a piece of wood carried over a nulk- 
 pail to balance it (Wright), from the 
 old Eng. and Scotch still, stell, or steil, 
 to place, set, or regulate. Compare 
 Ger. steller, the regulator of a clock, 
 from stellen, to set or .regulate. The 
 cognate words are Icelandic stilla, to 
 regulate, arrange, put in order (whence 
 stilUr, "a regulator," i.e. a king), Dan. 
 stille, to set, level a gun, A. Sax. stillan, 
 O. Ger. sfcHam, Gk. stellein, Sansk.sfeaZ, 
 
 Borne to uphold creation in that honour 
 First nature stilde it in. 
 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1, 84 
 (Qto. 1634). 
 
 Thus steelyard, a regulator or balance, 
 has no more to do with steel than the 
 synonymous words, Scotch hismare, 
 Dan. bismer, Icel. bismari, Ger. hesenwr, 
 have to do with the Bessemer manufac- 
 ture of the same metal. 
 
 Eiohardson quotes styliarrde, from 
 Fabyan, Ohronycle, an. 1529 ; stiUard- 
 men from Bumet, Records, K. Ed/ui. 
 Remaines, vol. ii. pt. ii. b. u. ; stiUards 
 from Boyle, Works, vol. hi. p. 431. 
 
 Steelyard, as the name of a wharf, 
 " is not taken from steel, the metal, . . . 
 but from stapel-hoff, or the general house 
 of trade of the German nation." — Pen- 
 nant, London, The Steel-yard. Sir 
 Thomas Overbury says, " An Ingrosser 
 of Oorne . . . had rather be eertaine of 
 some forraine invasion then of the set- 
 ting up of the stilyard."—Wor'ks, p. 131 
 (ed. Bimbault). 
 
 Steelyard, in " Merchants of the 
 
STEM 
 
 ( 373 ) 
 
 STEBAET3LS 
 
 Steeh/ard," the name of a Flemish 
 guild of traders who had a house of 
 business on the banks of the Thames 
 from the time of Edward the Confessor 
 till 1597, arose from a mistranslation 
 of the name of their store, stael-hof, 
 which was a contraction of stapel-Jwf 
 or staple-yard. (See P. Martin, His- 
 twy of Lloyds.) 
 
 The High-Dutch of the Hans Towns an- 
 tiently much conversed in our Land (known 
 by the name of Easterlings) ... so that the 
 Steel-yard proved the Gold-yard unto them. 
 — Fuller, Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 66 
 (ed. Nichols). 
 
 Howell mentions as standing on the 
 east of Cosin Lane "the Steel-yard (as 
 they terme it), a place for Marchants 
 of Ahnain " (Londmopolis, p. 97). He 
 says that in 15th of Edward IV. this is 
 called "the Steel-house" (p. 99); the 
 merchants themselves he incorrectly 
 terms " Styliard Marchants " (p. 98). 
 
 Thay all (did shoot the) bryge be-twyn 
 xij and on of the cloke, and a-g(ainst) the 
 Steleard of Temea my lord chanseler mett 
 (them in his) barge. — Mackyn, Diary, Ibbi, 
 p. 75. 
 
 StiUiard is a place in London, where the 
 fraternitie of the Easterling Merchants, other- 
 wise the Merchants of the Haunse and Al- 
 maine, are wont to have their abode. It is 
 HO called StiUiard, of a broad place or court 
 wherein Steele was much sould, q. Steeleyard, 
 upon which that house is now founded. — 
 minshew. Guide into Tongues, 1617. 
 
 From him come I, to entreat you ... to 
 meet him this afternoon at the Rhenish wine- 
 house i' the StiUiard. — Webster, Westward 
 Ho, ii. 1. 
 
 Next to this lane on the East [Cosin Lane, 
 Dowgate Ward] is the Stele house, or Stele 
 yarde, (as they terme it) a place for Mar- 
 chantes of Almaine, &c. — Stow, Survey of 
 London, 1598, p. 184. 
 
 Men, when they are idle, and know not 
 what to do, saith one, "Let vs go to the 
 StilliardjURd drink Rlienish wine." — T. Nash, 
 Pierce Penilesse, p. 56 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Stem, used by Milton in the sense of 
 saihng iu a certain direction, literally, 
 to turn the stem (or prow) of a vessel 
 (A. Sax. stefn, stemn, Icel. stafn,stamn), 
 Uke Icel. stemna, stefna, to direct the 
 stem of the ship towards. This is a 
 distinct word from stem, to withstand, 
 or stand firm against, as "to stem a 
 torrent," which is from Icel. stemma, 
 to obstruct, stop, or dam up (especially 
 of a stream or fluid). 
 
 They on the trading flood 
 Through the wide ^Ethiopian to the Cape 
 Ply, stemming nightly toward the Pole. 
 
 Paradise Lost, bk. ii. 1. 642. 
 Step-, the prefix in " siep-mother," 
 " step-child," &c., is A. Sax. steup-, Ger. 
 stief-, Dan. stiv-, Swed. styf-, Icel. stjup- 
 (originally zz bereft, orphan), aU. near 
 akin to A. Sax; steupan, to bereave. 
 Tooke and others erroneously supposed 
 that the original form was sted-mother, 
 &o., one placed in stead of the real 
 mother, misled by the analogy of the 
 corrupt Danish words sted-moder, sted- 
 fader, sted-bam, &c. 
 
 A step-mother doth signify a sted-mother; 
 that is, one mother dieth and another commeth 
 in her stead: therefore that your love may 
 settle to those little ones as it ought, you 
 must remember that you are their sted-mother, 
 that is, instead of tlieir mother, & therefore 
 to love them and tender them, and cherish 
 them as their mother did. — Henry Smith, 
 Sermons, 1657, p. 44. 
 
 Ne liiete Ic eow steo-p-cild, ic cume to eow. — 
 A. Sax. Vers. Ino. xiv. 18. 
 
 Tre vnkynde ; );ou schalt be kud, 
 Mi sone step-moder • I • |:e calle. 
 
 Legends of the Holy Rood, p. 133, 1. 71. 
 [Tree unkind, thou shalt be shewn, My 
 son's step-mother I thee call.] 
 Jjat seint Edwardes fader was : f:at hia stip- 
 moder a-slouZ- 
 Life of St. Sinithin, 1. 88 (Philolog. 
 Soc. Trans. 1858). 
 
 Latimer uses the prefix step- as if it 
 meant alien, unnatural, tyrannical, 
 misled by the popular opinion about 
 step-parents. 
 
 You landlordes, you rentraysers, I may 
 saye you steplordes, you unnaturall Lordes, 
 you haue for your possessions yearely to 
 muche. — Sermons, p. 31 verso. 
 
 Stekakels, ia the old phrase "to 
 play one's stera.'kels," to storm or give 
 one's feelings free play — 
 
 I take onne, as one dothe that playeth his 
 sterakelSjje tempeste. — Palsgrave, Lesclaircisse- 
 ment, 1530 — • 
 
 is more than probably a corruption of 
 hysterics, hystericals, taken to be his- 
 sterics. 
 
 Why playest thou thy steracles on this 
 faschion. — Palsgrave, Acolastus, 1540. 
 
 So I have heard a nervous lady hu- 
 morously described by another as 
 being in high sterics, and I remember a 
 yeoman's wife once to have said of her 
 
STEW 
 
 ( 374 ) 
 
 8TI0KLBE 
 
 ailing child, " it went off in a kind of 
 faint or steric." 
 
 Southey, in one of Ms fits of literary 
 buffoonery, proposed that the word 
 hiccup should become in its objective 
 use hiscups or hercups, " and in like 
 naanner Histerics should be altered 
 into Herterics — the complaint never 
 being masculine " (The Bocior, p. 492, 
 ed. 1848). 
 Whan thou art sett upon the pynnacle, 
 Thou xalt ther pleyn a qweynt steracle, 
 Or ellys shewe a grett meracle 
 
 Thysself ffrom hurte thou save. 
 Coventry Mysteries, The Temptation^ 
 p. 209(Shaks. See). 
 The dead sayntes shall ehewe hoth visyons 
 
 and myracles; 
 With ymag'es and rellyckes he shall wurke 
 sterracles. 
 Bale, Kynge Johan, p. 39 (Camden 
 Soc). 
 
 Stew. A person in a state of fright 
 or commotion is colloquially said to be 
 " in a sieiv," and this is generally under- 
 stood to be the same word as stew, to 
 boil gently, as if the meaning was " in 
 hot water," "in a state of ebuUition," 
 " perspiring with suppressed emotion." 
 It is reaUy Prov. Eng. stew, pother, 
 vexation, disturbance, originally a cloud 
 of dust or steam ; Scot, stew, (1) dust, 
 vapour, steam, (2) a battle or fight, like 
 Lat. piilvis, dust, used metaphorically 
 for toil and conflict. This is the same 
 word as Low Ger. siuven, Dut. stuyven, 
 to raise dust, Dan. stOve, O.H. Ger.stiu- 
 han, Ger. staub, dust, Goth, stubjus, dust 
 (see Diefenbach, Ooth. Sprache, ii. 338). 
 Near akin is Cleveland stife, close, op- 
 pressive, stifling, and stuffy. " To make 
 a stew " is in Prov. Eng. to raise adust 
 or disturbance. ' Gawin Douglas uses 
 stew for the dust of battle : — 
 [Eneas] with him swyftly bryngys ouer the 
 
 bent 
 Ane rout cole hlak of the stew quhare he went. 
 Bukes of EneadoSj p. 426, 1. 6. 
 
 Thus the word has no more to do 
 with stew, to boil, than h-oil, a quarrel 
 or disturbance, em-hroil, to involve in a 
 quarrel (from Fr. hrouill&r, to jumble 
 together. It. hroglio, imh'ogKo, Gael. 
 hroighleadh, turmoil), have to do with 
 hroil, to fry. It may rather be com- 
 pared with the phrase to fume or he in 
 afuvio, i.e. in a fret or passion (com- 
 pare to vapowr), Lat. fumus, smoke, 
 Greek tlvumos, wrath, Sansk. dhumas, 
 
 smoke, near akin to O. H. Ger. tuml, 
 storm, Swed. and Dan. dunst, vapour, 
 Icel. dMst, dust, Eng. dust. 
 
 Stickadove, a corruption of the Lat. 
 jlos stcechados, a species of lavender that 
 came from the islands called Stcechades 
 (nowthe Hyeres), opposite to MarseiUes, 
 Gk. stoichades, standing in a row.. 
 
 Stechados, Steckado, or Stichadovej , . , 
 French Larender. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Stycadose occurs in a 15th century 
 MS. quoted in Wright, Homes of other 
 Bays, p. 312. 
 
 Here are other, as diosfialios, 
 
 Diagalanga and sticadosj 
 
 says the Poticary ui Heywood's The 
 Fov/r F's (Dodsley, i. 83, ed. 1825). 
 
 The name was ' perhaps popularly 
 imagined to have a reference to the 
 long siick-'&.& stalks and dotie-coloured 
 hue of the flower. 
 
 This lagged Sticudme hath many small stife 
 stalkes of a woody substance ; whereupon do 
 grow lagged leaues in shape like Tnto the 
 leaues of Dill, but of an hoarie colour ; on the 
 top of the stalks do growe spike flowers of a 
 blewish colour, and like vnto the common 
 Lauander spike. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. 470. 
 
 Sticklbk, which is now used for one 
 who is a precisian, and sticks up stoutly 
 for his rights or the observance of rules, 
 denoted formerly the moderator at a 
 contest who stood by to second or to 
 part the combatants. 
 
 I styckyll between wrastellers or any folkes 
 that prove mastries to se that none do otlier 
 wronge, or I part folke that he redy to fight, 
 Je me -mets entre deux. — Palsgrave, 1530. 
 
 Sticklers were long supposed to have 
 had this name from their carrying sticks 
 or staves of of&ce, like stewards, where- 
 with to interpose between the contend- 
 ing parties. (See Eichardson.Dtcj. s.v.) 
 
 It is, however, another form of old 
 Eng. stiteler (Coventry Mysteries), or 
 stightler, which is from old Eng. stistle, 
 A. Sax. stihtan, stihtiam, to rule, dis- 
 pose, or arrange. (See a good note 
 in Wedgwood, Etymolog. Diet, s.v.) 
 Unstithe for to stire or stightill the Realme. 
 Troy Book, 117. 
 When (jay com to J:e courte keppte wern fay 
 
 fayi-e, 
 StyStled with fie stewarde, stad in Jje halle. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 39, 1. 90. 
 
 [When they came to the court they were 
 fairly entertained, marshalled by the steward, 
 placed in the hall. 
 
STIM 
 
 ( 375 ) 
 
 STOBE 
 
 If we leuen J>e layk of cure layth synnes, 
 & stylle steppen in [je stySe he stii5tlez hym 
 
 selven, 
 He wyl wende of his wodschip & his wrath 
 leue. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 100, 1. 403. 
 [If we leave the sport of our loathsome sins, 
 and still advance in the path He Himself ar- 
 ranges, He will depart from His rage and 
 leave His wrath.] 
 
 )at ojjer was his stiward ^at stiyled al his 
 meyne. 
 
 William of Pale me, 1. 1199. 
 There had been blood shed, if I had not 
 stickled. 
 
 Cartwright, The Ordinary, iii. 3. 
 The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the 
 
 earth, 
 And, sticfcfcr-like, the armies separates. 
 
 Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, 
 act V. sc. 3. 
 'Tis not fit 
 That ev'ry prentice should, with his shop-club, 
 Betwixt us play the sticklers. 
 
 Haywood and Rowley, Fortune by Land 
 and Sea, 1655, p. 18 (Shaks. Soc). 
 Our former chiefs, like sticklers of the war, 
 Fu'st sought to inflame the parties, then to 
 poise. 
 Dryden, On the Death of Oliver Cromwell, 
 
 St. 11. 
 I am willing, for the love and kindness we 
 have always borne to each other, to give thee 
 the precedence, and content myself with the 
 humbler office of stickler. — Sir W. Scott, 
 Fair Maid of Perth, ch. xvi. 
 
 The note appended to this passage 
 is: — 
 
 The seconds in ancient single combats were 
 so called, from the white sticks which they 
 earned, in emblem of their duty, to see fair 
 play between the combatants. 
 
 Stim, in the phrase " I can't see a 
 stim or stimmer," i.e. not a whit or par- 
 ticle, Cumberland styme, Scot. " a 
 styme o' licht," a gleam or glimpse of 
 hght, is doubtless the same word as 
 A. Sax. sdma, Goth, sheima, Icel. skimi, 
 Ger. scMmmer, a shimmer or gleam of 
 light. Of. Swed. shymning, twilight, 
 shymla, to ghnmier. I have heard a 
 person ambitious of being thought a 
 correct speaker convert the idiomatic 
 stim into stem, as if it meant noi; even 
 as much as a stalk or stem, ne filum 
 gwidem. 
 
 She saw |?er-inne a lith ful shir. 
 
 Also brith so it were day . . . 
 
 Of hise mouth it stod a stem, 
 
 Als it were a sunnebem. 
 
 Havelok the Dane, 1. 592. 
 
 Therewith he blinded them so close, 
 A stime they could not see. 
 
 Robin Hood, i. 112. 
 I've seen me daez't upon a time ; 
 I scarce could wink or see a styme. 
 Burns, Poems, p. 161 (Globe ed.) 
 
 Stiekicks, a provincial word for 
 violent fits of iU-temper, hysterics, a 
 corruption of the latter word, evidently 
 tmderstood as " his sterics." 
 
 Ah seean cured liim o' them stirricks of his; 
 when they com on Ah put him inti rain- 
 watther tub. — Holderness Glossary (E. York- 
 shire). 
 
 Stonck, an old form of the name of 
 the slcunk [Mephitis mephitica, from the 
 Indian seganlcu, Bartlett, Diet, of Ameri- 
 canisms, p. 599, 4th ed.), is an evident 
 assimilation to stinh, stunk. 
 
 Thus the squnck, or stonck, of R/iy's Synop, 
 Quadr. is an innocuous and sweet animal ; 
 but when pressed hard by dogs and men, it 
 can eject such a most pestilent and fetid 
 smell and excrement, that nothing can be 
 more horrible. — G. White, Nat. Hist, of Sel- 
 borne. Letter 25, p. 60 (ed. 1853). 
 
 Stoneing, made of stone, a word 
 found in old documents, is a corrup- 
 tion of stonen, an adjective strictly- 
 analogous to wooden, earthen, golden, 
 hrazen, &o. 
 
 He pulled down a stoneing cross. — Letter, 
 dated 1643 {Notes and Queries, 5th S. viii. 
 497). 
 
 Ine stonme [iruh biclused heteueste [In a 
 stone tomb shut up fast]. — Ancren Riwle, p. 
 378. 
 
 The West Somerset folk stiU speak 
 of a stoanen wall. (See Elworthy, 
 Gramma/r of W. Somerset, p. 19.) 
 
 Stoeb, in the old idiom " to set store 
 by " a thing, i.e. to prize orvalue highly, 
 seems to be quite a distinct word from 
 store, a plentiful supply, abundance 
 (which is akin to re-store, Lat. re-stau- 
 rare, Wedgwood ; so to store, in-stau- 
 rme. Levins). It is, no doubt, the 
 Prov. Eng. stwe (adverb), much, 
 greatly, e.g. " He Ukes the situation 
 good stme [= very much] . — Atkinson, 
 Cleveland Glossary, p. 500; old. Eng. 
 star, A. Sax. sfdr, great, vast, Dan. star, 
 Icel. st&rr, great, important, — " [jat berr 
 st&rum;" it amounts to much, — very 
 frequently used as a prefix meaning 
 greatly, highly, exceedingly, e.g. stdr- 
 fjarri, very far, stdr-ilbr, very bad 
 (Cleasby, p. 596). Similarly "to set 
 
STOUT 
 
 ( 376 ) 
 
 STBIOKEN 
 
 sio'-e by "is to set much by, to appraise 
 highly {magm facere), opposed to " to 
 set light by." 
 
 I ne tell of laxatives no store. 
 
 Chaucer, Nonne's Pi-iest's Tale. 
 
 Store, used in the sense of a large 
 number, a great retinue, seems to be 
 another use of the same word, e.g. : — 
 
 He had possession of flocks, and possession 
 of herds, and great store of serrants. — A. V. 
 Gen. xxvi. 14. 
 
 With store of ladies, whose bright eyes 
 Rain influence, and judge the prize 
 Of wit or arms. 
 
 Miltun, L'AUegro, 1. 23. 
 For-))i her-to heref; . viii. store schire, and 
 on half schire [Therefore hereto belongetli 
 eight great shires and an half shire]. — Old 
 Eiig. Miscellany, p. 146, 1. 28. 
 
 ]per he yet on hunting for, 
 
 With mikel genge and swijje stor. 
 
 Havebk the Dane, 1. 2383. 
 [There he yet a hunting fared with much 
 company and exceeding strong.] 
 
 Stout, a Wiltshire word for the gad- 
 fly (Akerman), from A. Sax. stiii, a 
 gnat, fly, still used in this form in 
 Somersetshire. 
 
 Stow, in the slang phrase " stow 
 that" (n be quiet), "stow that non- 
 sense," which may be found in Dickens 
 (Hard Times) and Scott, comes from 
 O. Eng. stewen, and wi^stewen, to re- 
 strain (Oliphant, Old and Mid. Eng- 
 lish, p. 180), akin to stay, stop, stand. 
 Compare Shetland stoiv ! hush I silence I 
 
 Straight, old Eng. streyte, seems to 
 owe its spelling to a confusion with 0. 
 Fr. estroit, Prov. estreit, which are from 
 Lat. strictus, constrained, tight, narrow, 
 " strait." It is, however, the same word 
 as A. Sax. streM (akin to A. Sax. strmc, 
 strac, intense, rigid, Ger. and Bav. 
 stracJc), hterally stretched, direct, tense, 
 lying evenly between point and point, 
 past parte, of A. Sax. streocan (Ger. 
 strecken), to stretch. Compare "It 
 strei5te forth hise siouns tn to the see." 
 ^WycUffe, Ps. Ixxvui. 12. 
 [Sir Cador] girde3 sireke thourghe the stour. 
 
 Morie Arthure,l. 1792. 
 [Smites straight through the battle.] 
 
 Steap, an Anglo-Irish term of con- 
 tempt for a worthless female, hke Eng. 
 baggage, is a corruption of Ir. siriopach, 
 a harlot, also found in the forrns stri- 
 hrid striohoid, akin to O. Fr. strupre, 
 
 Sp. estrupar, Eng. strumpet, where m is 
 intruded (as in trumpet), hsA. stuprata, 
 debauched, from stuprvmi, harlotry; 
 " Vch strumpet Jiat ter is." — Boddeker, 
 AU-Eng. Dicht. p. 106, 1. 11. 
 
 Stricken, in the familiar phrase of 
 our English Bible, " well stricken in 
 years," is probably generally under- 
 stood to mean smitten or pierced by 
 the dart of time, struck down and dis- 
 abled. Ben Jonson actually uses the 
 words. 
 Our mother, great Augusta, struck with time. 
 
 Sejanus, iii. 1. 
 and Shakespeare, 
 
 Myself am struck in years. 
 
 Taming of Shrew, ii. 1, 362. 
 
 Stricken, however, seems here to 
 have no immediate connexion with 
 the verb to strike, but to mean ad- 
 vanced in years, far progressed in the 
 journey of life, from A. Sax. strican, to 
 go, to continue a course, connected 
 with streccan, to extend or stretch, Ger. 
 streiclien, to move rapidly along, to 
 wander, old Eng. stroke, stryhe, streke, 
 to roam. 
 
 Wijj Sterne stauesandstronge • j^eyouerlond 
 stroke]}. 
 Pierce the Ploiighman*s Crede, 1. 82 (c. 
 13!)4), ed. Skeat. 
 A lese of Grehound with you to streke, 
 And hert and hynde and other lyke. 
 
 The Squyr of Lowe Degre, 1. 763, Hasllii's 
 Early Pop. Poetry, vol. ii. 
 LoUeres lyuyng in sleuthe • and ouer-londe 
 strifkers. 
 Vision of Piers Plmvman, C. i. 159, 
 ed. Skeat. 
 
 , The words of the Greek translated 
 " They both were now well stricken in 
 years," are UteraUy "They had ad- 
 vanced, or made progress, in their 
 days " (Luke i. 7). Spenser speaks of 
 a knight "Well shot in yeares," F. 
 Queene, V. vi. 19. 
 
 From the same verb strican, to go, 
 comes the phrase to strike in, to enter 
 (i.e. into the conversation, dispute, 
 &c. ), as SirBoger de Coverley did when 
 he heard some people talking near him 
 in the theatre (Spectator), it being as 
 old as the time of Ormian (about 1200), 
 who has he strac inn. (See OUphant, 
 Old and Mid. English, p. 228.) 
 
 The foxe said not one worde but kneled 
 doun lowe to th[e]erthe vnto the kynge, and 
 to the quene and stryked him forth in to the 
 
STRING 
 
 ( 377 ) 
 
 STT 
 
 felde. — Caxton, lUynard the Fox, p. 104 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 Abraham was old and well stricken in age. 
 — (Margin, " gone into days.") — A. V, 
 Gentm, xxiv. 1. 
 
 He being already well striken in yeares 
 maried a young princesse named Gyneoia. — 
 Sidney, Arcadia, p. 9, 1. 48. 
 
 North uses the strictly synonymous 
 expression which follows : — 
 
 Being stepped in yeares, and at later age, 
 and past marriage he stole away Helen. — 
 Lives of Plutarke, p. 40, ed. 1612. 
 
 Sur le haut de son age, well stept into years, 
 — Cotgrave, s.T. Haut. 
 
 This Aglaus was a good honest man well 
 stept in yeares. — P. uollandj PUnies Nat. 
 History, vol. i. p. 180 (leS'l). 
 
 Fer step in age was he and aid. 
 
 G. Douglas, Bukes of Eneados, 
 p. 235, 1. 12. 
 Moth. A norioe 
 
 Some dele ystept in age ! So mote I gone, 
 This goeth aright. 
 
 Cartwright, The Ordinary, act ii. sc. 2. 
 
 String, a provincial word for race, 
 descent (Wright), seems to be a cor- 
 ruption of the old English word stren, 
 strene, strend, now "strain," A. Sax. 
 strynd, stock, race, from strynan 
 {strednan), to beget or breed. Yet 
 compare lineage from Lat. linea, a hne, 
 and see Eace. Moreover A. Sax. strenge, 
 a cord or string, was also used for a 
 hne of descent, e.g. " Of j^am strenge 
 com " [He comes of that stock] . — Al- 
 fred (EttmiiUer, p. 744). 
 
 He is of a noble strain, of approved valour 
 and confirmed honesty. — Shakespeare, Much 
 Ado, ii. 1, 1, 394. 
 
 Steipe, meaning race, kindred 
 (Wright), is no doubt a corruption of 
 the Latin stirps, siirpis, of similar sig- 
 nification, O. Eng. stirp. 
 
 Now leaving her stirp I come to her person. 
 — Sir R. Naiintofij Fragjnenla Regalia, 1630, 
 p. 14 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Steuck, in the phrase " well struck 
 in years," for the more common "well 
 stricken in years " (A. V. Gen. xvui. 11 ; 
 xxiv. 1 ; Josh. xiiL. 1), as if it meant 
 smitten or blasted by the withering in- 
 fluence of time, as a tree is struck with 
 bhght or decay. See Stricken. 
 
 Stuck, a thrust of a sword, in Shake- 
 speare, is a corruption of sioccata, the 
 Itahan term for a thrust in fencing, 
 from stocco, a short sword or tuck. 
 
 whence stock, a sword (Peele), old Eng. 
 stohe (Morte Arthwre, 1. 1436). 
 
 I had a pass with him, rapier, scabbard 
 and all, and he gives me the stuck in with 
 such a mortal motion, that it is inevitable. — 
 Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, iii. 4, 303. 
 If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck 
 Our purpose may hold there. 
 
 Hamlet, iv. 7, 1. 163. 
 
 St. Vitus Dance might seem to be 
 a corruption of Biphita, a name for this 
 nervous disease found in the writings 
 of Paracelsus and his followers (Eees, 
 CyclopcBdia, s.v.). " SipMta, a kind of 
 disease called Saint Vitus his dance " 
 (Plorio), (perhaps from a Greek xipMzo, 
 to dance). I have heard this word in 
 the mouth of a Wiltshire woman be- 
 come Viper's Dance, in that of a Surrey 
 woman St. Viper's Dance. 
 
 It is historically certain, however, 
 that the Chorus Sancti Viti "is so 
 called for that the parties so troubled 
 were wont to go to St. Vitus for help ; 
 and after they had danced there awhile 
 were certainly freed " (Bm^on, Ana- 
 tomy of Melancholy). When the "Dan- 
 cing Mania " visited Strasburg in 1418, 
 the sufferers were conducted to the 
 chapels of St. Vitus, near Zabern and 
 Kotestein, and many through the in- 
 fluence of devotion and the sanctity of 
 the place were cured. An ancient Ger- 
 man chronicle says, " Si. Vits Tanz 
 ward genannt die ]?lag," the plague 
 was caUed St. Vitus Dance. See 
 Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle Ages, 
 p. 84 (Sydenham Soc). 
 
 Sty, a small abscess or pustule on 
 the edge of the eyeUd, seems to be a 
 remnant of the old Enghsh word sty- 
 anye [Prompt. Farimlorum, o. 1440), 
 styonie (Levins, ManApulus, 1570), 
 which not improbably was understood 
 as " sty-on-eye." Styany, or stiany, is 
 stiU in use in Norfolk, styan or styne in 
 Cumberland and elsewhere, old Eng. 
 stian. Compare Norweg. stighijyna, 
 stigje, Low Ger. stieg. [? It. stidnze, 
 kibes or chUl-blains. — Florio.] 
 
 The marrow of a Calf, incorporate with 
 equall weight of wax and common oile or 
 oile Rosat, together with an Egge, maketh a 
 soueraigne liniment for the Stian or any other 
 hard swellings in the Eie-lids. — Holland, 
 Translation of PUnies Naturall Historic, 1634, 
 torn. ii. p. 324. 
 
 Stian seems to be for siying, old Eng- 
 
STYLE 
 
 ( 378 ) SUMMEB-GOOSE 
 
 stigend, from stigh, to mount or ascend, 
 A. Sax. sUgan, to ascend, and so de- 
 notes a rising or swelling. In jElfric, 
 Olosswry, 10th cent., occurs, 
 
 Ordeolus, stigend. — Wright's Vocahularies, 
 p. 20. 
 
 Styony, disease growyng within the eye- 
 liddes, Sycosis. — Huloet. 
 
 Sty-on-eye. — Leicestershire Glossari/, Evans, 
 E.D.S. 
 
 Sty-an-eye. — This is a small, troublesome, 
 inflamed pimple at the edge of the eyelid ; 
 the charm for reducing which is, rubbing 
 the part affected nine times with a wedding- 
 ling, or any other piece of gold. In the 
 Anglo-Latin Lexicon, 1440, occurs, " Styanye 
 yn the Eye," and in Beaumont and Fletcher's 
 Mad Lovers : 
 
 I have a sty here, Chilax ; 
 I have no gold to cure it, not a penny. 
 /. Timbs, Things not Generally Known, 
 p. 164. 
 
 By my own Experience, again, I knew 
 that a styan, (as it is called) upon the eyelid 
 could be easily reduced, though not instan- 
 taneously, by the slight application of any 
 golden trinket. — De Quincey, Works, vol. xiv. 
 p. 70. 
 
 Style, Ger. siyl, a mis-speUing of 
 " stile," stil, as if derived from Greek 
 stylus {(TTvXos), a pillar, in peristyle, &c., 
 instead of from Lat. stilus, a sharp- 
 pointed instrument, a pen, for stighis 
 {ci.sti{g)mulus, Gk. stigma, Ger. stichel, 
 from the root stig, to stick). In a letter 
 of Dr. Sam. Parr, dated 1807, he writes, 
 " The contents of your letter are so in- 
 teresting . . . and the stile so animated." 
 When this was printed in Notes and 
 Queries, 6th S. i. 129, it was thought 
 necessary to append a parenthetical 
 sic to the unusual orthography. 
 
 Finally resulteth a long and continuall 
 phrase or maner of writing or speach, which 
 we call by the name of stile. — Txtttenliam, 
 Arte of Eng. Poesie (1589), p. 155 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 This was her paramount stile above all 
 stiles ... to be the Mother of God. — Bp. 
 Montagiw, Acts and Moauments, p. bTT. 
 
 Subdue seems to be a derivative of 
 the Latin suhdere, to bring under, in- 
 fluenced as to form by the verb sul^u- 
 gare. 
 
 SucKBEY, a popular name for the 
 wild endive (in Tusser, 1580), or suc- 
 cory, is a corrupted form of Fr. cMcoree, 
 Lat. cichoriwn. 
 
 Succorie is not onely sowen in gardens, Tiut 
 groweth also by high waies sides. — Gerarde, 
 Herbal, p. 221. 
 
 SucKET, a common word in old 
 writers for sweet-meats or sugar-plums 
 (Drayton), 
 
 Sucket, spice, Succus. — Levins, Manipulus, 
 1573, col. 93. 
 
 is perhaps not from such (Fr. sucgote, 
 sucked gently. — Cotgrave), but from 
 sugar. Compare Suffolk sucker, a sweet- 
 meat, Scot, sucker, succur, Fr. suare, 
 Ger. zucker. It. zuochero, sugar. 
 
 And just a wee drap sp'ritual burn in. 
 And gusty sucker. 
 
 Burns, Scotch Drink. 
 
 The original meaning, however, of a 
 sucket was a slice of melon or gourd. 
 
 Carbassat, Wet sucket, made of the upper 
 part of the long white Pompion, cut in slices. 
 — Cotgrave, 
 
 It is, in fact. It. zuccata, " a kind of 
 meat made of Pumpions or Gourdes " 
 (Florio), from zucca, a gourd or pump- 
 kin, which is a shortened form of 
 cucuzza, a corruption of Lat. cucurhita 
 (Diez). 
 
 Bring hither suckets, canded delicates, 
 Weele taste some sweete meats, gallants, ere 
 we sleep. 
 Marston, Antonio and Mellida, Pt. II. 
 act V. sc. 5. 
 
 Ranciata, Sucket of Oranges, called Oran- 
 giada. — Florio. 
 
 " Rehearse the articles of your belief." 
 " I believe that delicacies, junkets, quotidian 
 feasts, suckets, and marmalades are very de- 
 lectable." — T.Adams,MysticalBedkm{Morks, 
 i. 276). 
 
 Summer, "a main piece of timber 
 that supports a building, an architrave 
 between two pUlars " (Bailey ; Kennett, 
 1695), is from Fr. sommier, a beam, 
 under part of a bed, originally a beast 
 of burden {somme), Lat. sagma/rius. 
 Compare Eng. hressomer, ■ breast-sum- 
 mer, and fore-summer, a Sussex word 
 for the front rail of a waggon. 
 
 SuMMEE-GOOSE, a provincial corrup- 
 tion and houleversement of the word 
 gossamer, as if it were goose-summer, 
 the original probably being godrSome\: 
 Compare mssom&r in Eobert of Glou- 
 cester for midsummer, and WMsson 
 Weke in the Fasten Letters for Whit- 
 sun Week. It has been conjectured, 
 however, with some probability that 
 sumimer-goose may have been originally 
 
SUMMERSET 
 
 ( 379 ) 
 
 SUBOOAT 
 
 summier-gauze, and that gossamer is the 
 inTersion. Other names for these airy 
 filaments certainly suggest the idea of 
 a fabric, or something spun or ■woven, 
 e.g. Cleveland Trmx-web, Ger. sommer- 
 faden, summer-threads, somimer-floclien, 
 summer-locks, sommer-webe, summer- 
 web, Marien faden, Marien-garn, Lady- 
 threads, Lady-yarn (Atkinson, Oleve- 
 land Olossary, p. 227). 
 
 With swmmer-goose we may compare 
 suriimer-colt, the Cleveland word for the 
 undulating steamy vapour that is seen 
 to play along a bank, &c., on a hot 
 summer's day, Scotch summer-couts 
 or sim/mer-couts. 
 
 Summerset, or Somerset, a double 
 corruption, summer-, somer-, for sohre 
 (= Lat. supra), and -set, from sault 
 ( zr Lat. saltus, a leap). Older forms 
 are somersaut (Harington, Browne's 
 Pastorals) and somerswult (Sidney), all 
 from Fr. soubresauU, It. soprasalto. 
 
 " From sommer, a beam, and sault, 
 French, a leap," says Walker in his 
 pronoimciag dictionary. " A leap by 
 which a jumper throws himself from a 
 learn and turns over his head " ! 
 Some do the sumjner-savlt, 
 
 And o'er the bar, like tumblers, vault. 
 
 Butler, Hudibras, pt. iii. canto 3. 
 
 Izaak Walton uses the strange form 
 siniber salts, as if two words : — 
 
 About which time of breeding the He and 
 She frog are observed to use divers siniber 
 salts, — The Compteat Angler, 1653 (Murray's 
 Reprint, p. 70). 
 
 So doth the salmon vaut, 
 And if at first he fail, his second somersaut 
 He instantly assays. Drayton. 
 
 He cust me ower on the uther bank with 
 the aedle betwix my legges, and his heid 
 going down, he lopes the supersauit. — James 
 Melville, Diary, 1587, p. 259 (Wodrow 
 Soc). 
 
 Then the sly sheepe-biter issued into the 
 midst, and surfim^rsetted and fiiptflappt it 
 twenty times above ground as light as a 
 feather. — Nashe, Lenten Stuffe [Davies]. 
 Fu-st that could make love faces, or could 
 
 doe 
 The valters sombersalts, or us'd to wooe, 
 With hoiting gambols, his owne bones to 
 
 breake 
 To make his Mistris merry. 
 
 Dojme, Poems, p. 324 (1635). 
 
 SuMPTER, a pack-horse, seems to 
 owe its modem form to the reflex in- 
 fluence of such words as sumptuous, 
 
 sumptua/ry, Lat. swmptus, sumptio, a 
 taking up (sc. on one's back). The old 
 Eng. form is somer, "He sende his 
 moder uij somers laden with money " 
 (Thorns, Early Eng. Prose Romances, 
 ii. 28), and this is from Fr. sommier. It. 
 somaro, Lat. sagmarius, a pack-horse, 
 derivatives of Fr. somme, Sp. salma, It. 
 soma, Lat. and Gk. sagma, a pack, from 
 saitein, to pack or load. 
 
 SuNDEK, a Cleveland verb meaning 
 to air in the sun, e.g. " Lay them 
 claithes cot to sunder a bit." — Atkin- 
 son. Perhaps the original form of the 
 word was sun-dry, from which sunder 
 was evolved, by a false analogy to sun- 
 der, to separate, the verbal of sundry, 
 several. 
 
 Sundew, a popular name of the 
 plant Drosera. 
 
 The hoater the Sonne shineth upon this 
 herbe, so much the moystier it is, and the 
 more bedewed, and for that cause it was 
 called Ros Solis in Latine, whiehe is to say 
 in Englishe, the dewe of the Sonne, or Sonne- 
 dewe.— if . Lyte, 1578. 
 
 It is, however, most probably a cor- 
 ruption of its German name sindau, 
 " ever-dewy " (Prior). Compare syn- 
 daw, O. Eng. name for Our Lady's 
 Mantle, and sengreen, " ever-green," 
 the house-leek {sin ■=. ever). 
 
 Sdn-dog, the phenomena of false 
 suns which sometimes attend or dog 
 the true when seen through a mist 
 (pa/rheUons). In Norfolk a sun-dog is 
 a light spot near the sun, and waten-- 
 dogs are Ught watery clouds ; dog here 
 is no doubt the same word as dag, dew 
 or mist, as "a little dag of rain " 
 {PMlohg. 8oo. Trams. 1855, p. 30). 
 Cf. loel. dogg, Dan. and Swed. dug, =. 
 Eng. "dew." In Cornwall the frag- 
 ment of a rainbow formed on a rain- 
 cloud just above the horizon is called a 
 weather-dog (E. Hunt, Romances and 
 Broils of West of England, vol. ii. p. 
 242). 
 
 At Whitby, when the moon is surrounded 
 by a halo with watery clouds, the seamen 
 say there will be a change of weather, for the 
 "moon dogs" are about. — T. F. T. Dyer, 
 Eng. Folk-lore, p. 38. 
 
 SuECOAT, an old word for " a coat of 
 Arms to be worn over other Armour, a 
 sort of Upper Garment " (Bailey), as if 
 a mongrel compound of Fr. swr, over. 
 
8UBLY 
 
 ( 380 ) SWAN-EOPPING 
 
 and coat (like Fr. surfcwt, ■pmrdessus, an 
 "over-all" or " over-coat," opposed to 
 soutane, an under-garment), is from Fr. 
 sitrcot, originally meaning " an upper 
 kirtle, or garment worn over a kirtle " 
 (Cotgrave). In Scottish it is an under- 
 waistooat. Sureot is from Low Lat. 
 sarcotus, sa/ricotus, a smock-frock, swr- 
 cotmm, a rochet, a derivative of sa/rica, 
 a garment put over one's ordinary 
 clothes. Akin, perhaps, to this are sarh, 
 Icel. serhr, Lat. serica, &c. The sur- 
 cotium or sarcoUum was usually made 
 of silk (J. E. Blanche, Gyclopcedia of 
 Costume, i. 490). 
 
 An altered form of sarcotus is Low 
 Lat. sa/rroius, whence Fr. sarrot or sar- 
 rau,a, blouse or smock-frock (Scheler), 
 WaUon saro, the same. 
 A duches dereworthily dyghte in dyaperde 
 
 wedis, 
 In a mrcott of sylke fuUe selkouthely hewede. 
 Morte Arthure, 1.3252 (E.E.T.S.). 
 The Sureotes white of velvet wele sitting 
 They were in cladde. 
 
 The Flower and the Leaf, 1. 141, 
 
 The ladies all in Sureotes, that richely 
 
 Puriiled were with many a rich stone. 
 
 Id. 1. 328. 
 
 Th' Arabian birds rare plumage (platted line) 
 
 Senies her for Sur-coat. 
 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 447. 
 
 Surly, often supposed to stand for 
 sour-h/, A..Sa,x. sur-lic (Bailey, Eichard- 
 son), meant formerly, not morose, 
 crabbed, churlish, but haughty, proud, 
 domineering, and is a corrupt form of 
 sir-ly, old Eng. serreU (for sere-li), i.e. 
 svr-lihe, like a signor, lordly, magis- 
 terial, haughty (old Eng. sere := sir). 
 On the other hand compare sir-name 
 for su/r-name. E. K.'s gloss on Spenser's 
 use of syrlye is " swrly, stately and 
 prowde." 
 
 Now William on bis Sterne stede • now stifli 
 
 foi'Jj rides, 
 So serreU jjurth pe cite ■ al him-self one. 
 
 William of Palei-ne, 1. 3316. 
 [He rides eagerly forth so lordly (or sir- 
 like, Skeat) through the city alone by him- 
 self.] 
 
 Like mister men bene all misgone, 
 They beapen hylles of wrath ; 
 Sike syrlye shepbeards ban we none, 
 They keepen all the path. 
 
 Spenser, Shepheards Calender. Julye, 
 1. 204. 
 
 Johnson regarded surly as having a 
 distinct meaning from sow .- — 
 
 Boswell. " Pray, Sir, have you been much 
 plagued with authors sending you their 
 works to revise?" Johnson. "No, Sir; I 
 have been thought a sour surly fellow."—. 
 Boswell, Life of Johnson, vol. iv. ch. 4. 
 
 Then also there is a decency in respect of 
 the persons with whom we do negotiate, as 
 with the great personages his egals to be 
 solemne and surly, with meaner men pleasant 
 and popular, stoute with the sturdie and milde 
 with the meek. — Puttenham, Arte of Eng, 
 Poesie (1589), p. 299 (ed. Arber). 
 
 SuBEENDEE is perhaps from Fr. ge 
 rendre, to give up one's self, as if from 
 an It. su/)'-rendere, Lat. suh-reddere. 
 There is no French verb su/rrend/re. 
 
 Swallow, the bird, A. Sax. swahwe, 
 Dut. zwaluw, Ger. schwalhe, 0. H. Ger. 
 sualewa, Dan. svale, Swed. svala, has 
 been ingeniously conjectured to be de- 
 rived from swale, a portico (Wachter). 
 Dr. Prior says suaZe is " a word retained 
 in Danish,^ and denotuig the broad ex- 
 tended eaves, the penthouse or lean-to 
 that surrounds farm-houses, to serve as 
 a passage from room to room, and for 
 storing winter fuel." Compare Icel. 
 svala, a swallow, and svalar, a balcony. 
 Thus swallow would be the " eaves- 
 bird." Cognate probably are Ger. 
 schwelle, " a siU," N. Eng. siles, main 
 timbers of a house. 
 
 SwAN-HOPPiNG, a corruption of the 
 original phrase " swun-upping," or 
 taking up of the young swans in the 
 Thames annually in order to mark 
 their beaks with the royal mark. 
 
 Just then passed by two City Companies in 
 their great barges, who had been a swan-hop- 
 ping. — Horace Walpole, Letters (1746), vol. ii. 
 p. 47. 
 
 The following notice of the ceremony 
 appeared in the Standard of August 8th, 
 1876 :— 
 
 Swan Hopping in the Thames. — Thp 
 animal celebration of this custom of swan 
 " upping," or taking up the young swans 
 on the Thames to mark them, was duly carried 
 out yesterday, the 7th of August, as required 
 by ancient charter. That the term " upping" 
 is the correct one may be gathered from the 
 orders to the gamekeepers in the reign of 
 Elizabeth, in which it is ordained " that the 
 upping of all those swan's, near or within the 
 said branches of the Thames, may be all upped 
 in one day." .... The bird of the first year 
 
 ' This must be a provincial word, as it is 
 not registered in Ferrall and Repp's iJon. 
 Diet., nor in Wolff's, 1779. 
 
SWAN'S-FEATHEB ( 381 ) SWEETHEABT 
 
 is taken up in the presence of the Sovereign's 
 swan herd, and a mark is cut in the skin of 
 tlie beak, the same as was upon the beak of 
 the parent bird. These marks ai-e entered in 
 a book and kept as " a register of swannes ;" 
 any found without such mark are confiscated 
 to the Sovereign. Considerable attention has 
 recently been directed to the historical aspect 
 of this ancient order of " swannes." 
 
 This order must be kept, that the upping of 
 all those swans, near or w^in the said braun- 
 ches of Tems, may be upped all in on day w' 
 the upping of the Tems, w"^"" is refered to Mr. 
 Mallard, of Hampton Courte, who hath the 
 ordering of the Tems. — Letter, 1593, Losely 
 ManuscriptSy p. 306. 
 
 How stately is he attended, when he goes 
 to take a view of the River, or a Swan-hop- 
 ping. — J. Howeil, LondinopoLiSj p. 395. 
 
 The swan-upping — that is, the catching and 
 taking up of the swans to place marks on the 
 cygnets and renew those on tlie old birds, if 
 obUterated — took place before the royal swan- 
 herdsman ; and the swan-herds wore swan- 
 feathers in their caps. — J. Timbs, London and 
 Westminster, vol. i. p. 81. 
 
 Swan's-feathek, a name for the long 
 rapier blade formerly affixed to a mus- 
 ket, is a corruption of Sweynes-feather 
 or Swine's-feathee (q.v.). 
 
 The Sweynes-feather was invented in the 
 reign of James I. During the civil wars its 
 name was sometimes corrupted into simn's- 
 featber. — Penny Cyclopizdia, s.v. Arms (vol. i. 
 p. 376). 
 
 Swaem, in the phrase " to swarm up 
 a tree " (it occurs, e.g. in Hughes' Tom 
 Brown's Schooldays), i.e. to scramble 
 up a tree by hugging it with the legs 
 and arms, in the Cumberland dialect 
 to swamiel, seems to be another form of 
 io sqmrm, which is used in the same 
 sense. It is probably near akin to O. 
 Eng. swarf or swerve, to climb, O. Fris. 
 swerva, to crawl, Bav. schwarheln. 
 
 Havingsiyarm'dsev'n score Paces up, or more, 
 On the right Hand, you find a kind of Floor, 
 Which turning back, bangs o'er the Cave 
 below. 
 
 Cotton, Wonders of the Peake, Poems, 
 p. 308. 
 
 Swaem, in the sentence " He was 
 80 troubled with swarms," quoted by 
 HaUiwell and Wright in their edition 
 of Nares' Glossary from Wilson's 
 James I., is a manifest corruption of 
 the word swaiome, a qualm (" A cold 
 swawme of feare." — Holland's Anvmian. 
 Marcel. 1609) , sometimes spelt sweame. 
 Compare Icel. svima, to be giddy, svimi. 
 
 giddiness, a swimming of the head, 
 A. Sax. svima, Dan. svimle, to be dizzy. 
 
 Women beeing newly conceiued and breed- 
 ing childe haue many swawmes come ouer their 
 heart. — Holland, Plinies Nut. Hist. ii. 146. 
 
 In old English swim or sweem is to 
 swoon; and so in Prov. Eng. sweem, 
 to swoon, sweemish, sweemy, faint 
 (Wilhams and Jones, Somerset Glos- 
 sary), Dutch zwym, a swoon, zwyinen, 
 to swoon, zioymelen, to become dizzy 
 (Sewel). We still say that the head 
 swims when it is dizzy and faint. 
 
 He swounnes one the swarthe, and one si™"* 
 fallis. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 4246 (E.E.T.S.). 
 Swythe y swyed in a sweem • jp&t yswet after. 
 The Crowned King, 1. 29 (ed. Skeat). 
 
 [Quickly I sank in a swoon that I sweat after.] 
 
 Hys body is smyte ny ]>e Jiai'mes, 
 He swelt with a swemelii swow. 
 Legends of the Holy Rood, p. 201, 1. 140. 
 
 [His body is smitten near the bowels, He 
 died with a swooning faint.] 
 
 A heavie feat of the tertian overtuk me, 
 that causit me keipe my hous twa dayes 
 befor that Sabathe ; and that sam morning it 
 seased sa on me that I swined and lay dead. — 
 J. Melville, Diary, 1586, p. 248. 
 
 SwEET-CiCELY. This pretty name 
 for the plant Myrrhis odoraia, so sug- 
 gestive of old English country life and 
 fair milkmaids, has no more to do with 
 the feminine name Cicely {icam GeciUa), 
 than Sweet- Alison (Lat. alyssum) has to 
 do with the old form of Alice. It is an 
 Anglicized form of Greek seseli,oi seselis. 
 
 Decoctions of wild chicory, water-cresses, 
 chervil, sweet Cecity, and cochlearid. — Sterne, 
 Tristram Shandij, vol. vii. chap. xxi. 
 
 SwEBTHBAET has often been regarded 
 as a corruption of an older sweetard, 
 parallel to such words as dullard, 
 drunkard, &c. (so M. Miiller, Stratifica- 
 tion of Languages), but incorrectly, as 
 no instance of the alleged original has 
 been found, and all old writers employ 
 the form sweet herte, e.g. .- — 
 
 And fare now well, mine owne sweet herte. 
 Chaucer, Troilus and Creseide, bk. v. 
 
 Ere that the Moone, dere herte swete. 
 The Lion passe out of this Ariete. 
 
 Id. bk. V. 
 Loo, myn herte swete 
 This yuell dyet 
 Shuld make you pale and wan. 
 
 The Ncrtbrowne Mayde, 1. 301. 
 
8WEFEL 
 
 ( 382 ) 
 
 SYBIL 
 
 fjat mie child mie swete hurte : scolde such 
 
 Jjin^ bitide, 
 Alias mie child mie suete fode ; )jat ich habbe 
 
 forf: ibroSt. 
 
 Life of' St. Kenelm, 1. 142 (Philolog. 
 Soc. Trans. 1858). 
 
 As be that said to his sweete hart, whom he 
 checked for secretly whispering with a sus- 
 pected person ; 
 
 And did ye not come by his chamber dore 1 
 And tell him that : goe to, I say no more. 
 G. Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, 
 1589, p. 178 (e'd. Arber). 
 My Mall, I mark that when you mean to 
 
 prove me, 
 To buy a Velvet gown, or some rich border, 
 Thou calst me good 5u;eet /leaW, thou awear'st 
 to love me. 
 
 Harington, EpigramSj bk. i. 25. 
 
 SwEFEL, \ an A. Saxon word for 
 SuEPL, / brimstone, as if connected 
 with swefian, to put to sleep [? stupify] , 
 so. by its fumes, Ger. schwefel, Dut. 
 zwavel, Goth, swihls, is probably a per- 
 verted form by metathesis of Lat. 
 sulfu/r, sulphwr, like Eng. surfel, swr- 
 
 Swill, the form that the good old 
 verb sweal takes in the mouths of some 
 persons who are afraid of being thought 
 vulgar if they speak too much alike to 
 their ' primitive forefathers. I have 
 heard a person of this kind remark 
 " That candle is swUling," when a mal- 
 formation of the wick was only heating 
 the tallow, and causing it to run. Com- 
 pare Dorset swedle or zweal, to singe or 
 scorch, A. Sax. swela/n (A. Sax. Version, 
 Marh iv. 6), Eng. "swelter," "sultry," 
 Ger. sehwelen, Icel. svmla, Sansk. sval 
 or'svan; to be warm, to beam. 
 
 Sylvester remarks that the sign of 
 Cancer doth 
 
 Briiig us yeerly, in his starry shell. 
 Many long dayes the shaggy Earth to sviele. 
 Du Bartas, p. 77 (1621). 
 
 SwiNACY, an old form of the word 
 which we now write qmnsy, but was for- 
 merly spelt sqwinzie, sgwinancy, all from 
 old Fr. sguinancie (It. sqmnanzia), from 
 Lat. cymanche, Greek himdngche, "a 
 dog-throttling." 
 
 Compare the following : — 
 
 This past : in-steps that insolent insulter 
 The cruell Quincy, leaping like a Vulture 
 At Adams throat, his hollow weasand 
 swelling. 
 
 J. Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 209. 
 
 When Abimelech sent Sarah back to 
 Abraham — 
 
 His wif and oSere birSe beren 
 ^a <5e swinacie gan him nunmor deren. 
 Genesis and Exodus (ab. 1250), 1. 1188. 
 
 [His wife and others bore children, thea 
 the quinsy did him no more harm.] 
 
 Som for glotoni sal haf [jare, 
 Als be swynacy, {lat greves ful sare. 
 nam-jiole, Pricke of Conscience, 2999. 
 
 With honey and salnitre, it is singular for 
 the Squinancie. — Holland, Plinies Nat. Hist. 
 vol. ii. p. 277. 
 
 The ashes of salt Cackerels heads burnt and 
 reduced into a liniment with honey, discusse 
 and resolue the Squinancie cleane. — Holland, 
 Plinies Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 442. 
 
 The third kind of Quinancy (called 5v- 
 naiiche) killeth Dogs, because it bloweth 
 vppe their chaps. — Topsell, Hist, of Foure- 
 fooied Beasts, p. 183. 
 
 SwiNE FEATHERS, Or swyn feathers, an 
 old implement of military warfare, con- 
 sisting of a stake five or six feet long, 
 tipped with iron, and used to fix in the 
 ground to receive a charge of cavahy, 
 is a corruption of sven-sh (n Swedish) 
 
 I would also have each dragonier con- 
 stantly to can-y at his gii'dle two swynfeathers 
 or foot pallisadoes. — A Brief Treatise of War, 
 1649 (MS.). 
 
 I may in this place reckon the Swedish 
 
 feathers among the defensive arms 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus was the first Swedish 
 king that used them. — Sir James Turner, Pal- 
 las Armata. 
 
 See Sir S. D. Scott, The British Army, 
 vol. ii. p. 34. 
 
 Swine-pipe, \ provincial names for 
 WiND-THEusH, J the Tii/rdus iUacus, 
 are said to be corruptions of wine-pipe 
 and wine-thrush, Ger. wein-d/rossel or 
 pfeif-cl/rossel, "the thrush that grapes 
 doth love" (Sylvester), also called 
 weinga/rt-vogel and grive de vindage 
 (Latham, in Athenosum, Sept. 21, 1872). 
 
 Sybil, more properly " sibyl," Lat. 
 Sibylla, Greek sttmlla, said to be com- 
 pounded of Bibs and lolla, the Doric 
 form of Dibs boule, "the counsel of 
 Zeus," the revealer of his will. In 
 Latin, however, silwlla would be the 
 natural derivative of the old word situs, 
 s k ilful, knowing. The speUing syhil is 
 due probably to the reflex influence of 
 such words as symbol, synod, sylph, 
 sylvan, syndic, &c. 
 
STOAMOBE 
 
 ( 383 ) 
 
 TABBY 
 
 Howell says of the Sibyls : — 
 They were called Siobut<E, that is, of the 
 Counsels of God : Sios, in the Eolio Dialect, 
 being Deiis. — Familiar Letters, bk. iv. 43. 
 
 Cleasby and Vigfusson, however, 
 suggest that the Greek sibulla may have 
 been an adopted word, through some 
 Scythian tribe, from the Norse, where 
 voha, which perhaps originally had an 
 initial s, svblva, has exactly the same 
 meaning, a sibyl, prophetess, or wise 
 woman. 
 
 Syoamoee, the Greek sukdmoros, as if 
 the fig-mulberry, from sukon, a fig, and 
 m&ron, mulberry, is really the Hebrew 
 sMknidh, frohi a verb shakam, to be sick, 
 its fruit being considered difBoult of 
 
 Syllable is an assimilation to other 
 words in -able, such as parable, fable, 
 constable, of old Eng. sylldbe, Greek 
 sullabe, Lat. syllaba. 
 
 Where it endeth a former S!/'ia6e it soundeth 
 longish. — B.Jcmson, Eng. Grammar, chap. iii. 
 
 Indeed, our English tong, hauing in vse 
 chiefly wordes of one syllabls . , . doth also 
 rather stumble than stand vpon monasyllabis. 
 — R. Ascham, Scholemaster, 1570, p. 145 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 Ascham, in The Scholemaster, writes sil- 
 labe ; Ben Jonson, in his Grammar, sijllabe; 
 and so writes Sii* F. H. Doyle, in his Lectures 
 on Poetrit{1869). The insertion of the super- 
 fluous / — which no language but ours exhi- 
 bits, and which does not appear in syllabic — 
 is easily accounted for. An / was slipped 
 into the -be of syl-la-be, to give the word a 
 more English appearance ; and, in course of 
 time, it got to be pronounced, and was wel- 
 come, as giving the organs of speech some- 
 thing more prehensible than before to take 
 hold of. This is only conjecture, of course. 
 —F. Hall, Modern English, p. 161. 
 
 Symbel, an old English word for a 
 banquet, e.g. Beowulf, 1. 2431 (ed. Ar- 
 nold), Icelandic swnbl (which Oleasby 
 thought might be compounded of sani- 
 (together) and bl, a feast), O. H. Ger. 
 sumbal, may with more probabUity be 
 regarded as a naturalized form, of Lat. 
 symbola, Greek sumhole, a feast to which 
 every one contributes his share. 
 
 Syben, afalse spelling of svren, Greek 
 seiren, a captivating nymph (from 
 seirdo, to enchain, seird, a rope, or 
 band), owing to a mistaken notion that, 
 like many other words, syrtes, syrma, 
 syrus, it took its origin from the Greek 
 
 verb syro {siko), to draw or drag for- 
 cibly. 
 
 Syren, in the sense of the unwhole- 
 some damp of eventide, a blight, a word 
 sometimes found in old writers, is a 
 corruption of serene of the same mean- 
 ing, Fr. serain, serein, Span, sereno, 
 apparently from Lat. serena (so. hora), 
 the evening regarded as the serene time 
 of the day, and influenced in meaning 
 by sera (the late hour), soir. 
 
 Serain, calm weather, the mildew or harm- 
 fiill dew of some summer evenings, also the 
 evening. — Cotgrave, 
 The fogs and the syrene offend us more. 
 Daniel, Queen's Arcad. i. 1. 
 They like the si/rens blast. 
 
 Ellis, Specimens, iii. p. 241. 
 Compare — 
 
 Some serene blast me. 
 
 B, Jonson, Fox, ii. 6. 
 Wherever death doth please t' appear, 
 Seas, serenes, swords, shot, sickness, all are 
 there. 
 
 Id. Epigram on Sir John Roe. 
 They had already by way of precaution 
 armed themselves against the Serena with a 
 candle. — Gentleman Instructed, p. 108 
 [Davies]. 
 
 Syvewarm, ) old Scotch words for 
 Syvewaein, j the first magistrate of 
 
 a town (Jamieson), corruptions of soi;e- 
 
 reign. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tabby, a. name for a striped or 
 brindled oat, as if marked hke tabby 
 (tabinet), a waved or watered silk (Pr. 
 tabis. It. tabi, Arab, attdbi, orig. the 
 name of the quarter of Bagdad where it 
 was manufactured, called after Prince 
 Attah. — Devic), just as Herrick calls 
 barred clouds " counter changed tabbies 
 in the ayre" (see Yonge, Ohristian 
 Names, i. 123). 
 
 There oanbehttle question that Tabby 
 here stands for Tibbie, a pet name for a 
 cat, derived from Tibalt or Tybalt 
 ( = Theobald), the proper name for 
 puss in the old Beast Epic of the Middle 
 Ages. 
 
 The title of the 10th chap, of Caxton's 
 Beynard the Fox (1481) is " How the 
 kynge sente another tyme tybert the 
 catte for the foxe, and how tybert spedde 
 with reynart the foxe." 
 
TAIL0B8 
 
 ( 384 ) TAS8EL-QENTLE 
 
 Tho' you were Tybert the long-tailed prince of 
 cats. 
 
 DekheVf Satiromastix* 
 
 Ben Jonson uses tiherfs for cats, and 
 Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet addresses 
 Tybalt as " Good king of cats " (iii. 1, 
 1. 80). 
 
 "Tailoes, Nine make a man," said to 
 be a corruption of " nine tcdlers (itself 
 corrupted from ieZZers) make it a man," 
 i.e. nine counting strokes a|t tbe end of 
 a knell proclaim the death of a male 
 adult (Blackley, Word Gossip, p. 76). 
 Cf.— 
 
 The nine sad knells of a dull passing bell. 
 Quarks, Emblems, bk. iv. 15. 
 
 At Woodborough the Passing bell consists 
 of three tolls thrice repeated for a man, and 
 two tolls thrice repeated for a woman. — 
 Jewitt, Half'hours among Eng. Antiquities, 
 p. 176. 
 
 An old homily for Trinity Sunday 
 declares that at the death of a man 
 three hells were to be rung as his knell, 
 and two bells for a woman (Hampson, 
 Med. Aevi Kalend. i. 294). 
 
 It is observable that Taylor the Water- 
 poet has a version of the phrase con- 
 formable to this, speaking of 
 
 The slander that three tayters are one man. 
 Works, 1630, iii. 73. 
 
 Compare the following : — 
 
 God made him a man, he hath made him- 
 self a beast ; and now the tailor (scarce a man 
 himself') must make him a man again. — 
 T. Adams, The Soul's Sickness, Works, i. 487. 
 
 Similarly taylor! was formerly the 
 customary exclamation of a bystander 
 when one came suddenly down on his 
 tail or back, another form evidently of 
 tailer I just as we often speak of one 
 " coming a cropper " or " taking a 
 header." Vide Midswnvmer Night's 
 Dream, ii. 1, and Nares, s.v. 
 
 Tallwood, wood cut up for firing, 
 Fr. tadlle, hois tcdlUs, from tailler, to 
 cut. 
 
 Tallwood, billets, faggots, or other firewood. 
 — Calthrop's Reports, 1670. 
 
 They are also to inquire after them, who 
 go to the Countrey, and ingrosse any Billet, 
 tall-wood. Fagot, Tosard, or other fire-wood. 
 • — J. Howell, Londinopolis, p. 393. 
 
 Tally-geaft, the form that telegraph 
 assumes in N. W. Lincolnshire (Pea- 
 cock). 
 
 Tangle, as a word for sea-weed, does 
 not refer to the matted and confused 
 mass in which the wrack is cast up 
 upon the shore, but is the same word 
 as Icel. liang, kelp or bladder-wrack, 
 also )mhgull, Dan., Scot, and Shetl. 
 tang. • 
 
 If with thee the roaring wells 
 
 Should gulf him fathom-deep in brine ; 
 
 And hands so often clasp'd with mine. 
 Should toss with tangle and with shells. 
 
 Tennyson, In Mem^riam, i. 
 
 Tansy, a Cumberland word for a 
 public-house ball (Ferguson), is ob- 
 viously the same word as Fr. darner, 
 to dance, Ger. tansen, O. H. Ger. (Km- 
 san, thinsoMi, to draw (lead along the 
 dance), Goth. {at-)thmsan, to draw 
 (Diefenbach, ii. 704). The word is 
 found in the Scottish children's rhyme 
 which they chant as they dance round 
 in a ring, 
 
 Here I gae round the jingie-ring, 
 And through my merrie-me-tansie. 
 
 Jamieson, 
 
 Hence possibly the phrase "some- 
 thing hke a tansy," used by Swift and 
 Sterne (Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossairy) 
 for conime il fam,t, in perfect order. 
 
 Taet, as a name for a pie or piece of 
 pastry, seems to have been accommo- 
 dated to tart, A. Sax. teairt, with refe- 
 rence to the subacid flavour of the fruit 
 of which it is composed. Tort would 
 more correctly correspond to It. torta, 
 Fr. tourte, Ger. torte. Low Lat. torta 
 (so. poms), i.e. " twisted bread," a 
 "twist" (cf. Welsh torth, a loaf). 
 However Scheler and Wedgwood think 
 otherwise. 
 
 Tassel, an old corruption of teasel, 
 A. Sax. tmsel. 
 
 Then is there a largo close called Tasel 
 Close, for that there were tassels planted for 
 the use of cloth-workers. — Stouie, Sm^ey, 
 p. 63 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Tassel, \ a species of hawk 
 
 Tassel-gentle, J frequently men- 
 tioned by the Ehzabethan writers, was 
 originally and more properly called a 
 tiercel or tiercel-gentle, Fr. tiereelet. 
 The male bird is said to have got this 
 name from being one tlwrd smaller 
 than the female. 
 
 O for a faulconer's Toice 
 To lure this tassel-gentle back again. 
 Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2. 
 
TEA OGGUPAOE ( 385 ) 
 
 TEMPT 
 
 The tercell egle, as ye know full wele, 
 The foule rovall, above you all iu degre, 
 The wise aniiworthie, the seci-et true as stele. 
 
 Chaucei-f Assembli/ of Foules, 1. ^96. 
 Having farre oif espyde a Tassel gent, 
 W'liich after her his nimble winges doth 
 straine. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, III. iv. 49. 
 
 Tea occupage, the name said to be 
 given to a tea-service in the County 
 Down, Ireland [Notes and Queries, 5th 
 S. vi. 858), is evidently a corruption 
 of equipage. 
 
 Teasiok, a Scotch word for a con- 
 sumption (Jamieson), a corrupt form 
 oi phthisic; so also Prov. Eng. tissich, 
 a tickhng cough (Wright), and perhaps 
 Gaeho teasach, a fever, as if from teas, 
 heat. Similarly Topsell uses Pursiche 
 for pursy or pursiness in horses [Four- 
 footed Beasts, p. 376). 
 
 Tea-tattling, the Cleveland term 
 for the equipment of the tea-table, tea- 
 things, has no reference to the gossip 
 that is indulged in over the social cup, 
 but is a corruption of tea-tackUng 
 (Atkinson). 
 
 Tea-totalebs, an occasional mis- 
 spelhng of tee-totalers, as if it meant 
 those who were totally for tea. Andre- 
 sen (p. 25) holds tee-total to come from 
 T. total, a shortening of Temperance 
 total. It is more likely to be an inten- 
 sive reduphcation giving a superlative 
 sense, as in tip-top for first-rate. 
 
 This giant had quite a small appetite . . . 
 and was also a tea-totaller. — Thackeray, Corn- 
 hill Magazine, vol. iv. p. 758. 
 
 On Richard Turner, a. hawker of fish at 
 Preston. 
 
 Beneath this stone are deposited the re- 
 mains of Richard Turner, author of the word 
 Teetotal, as applied to abstinence from all 
 intoxicating liquors, who departed this life 
 on the 27th day of October 1«46, aged 56 
 years. — R. Pike, ReinarkabU Blunders, Ad- 
 vertisements, Epitaphs, p. 154. 
 
 Tbethy, a Scotch word meaning 
 crabbed, ill-natured, as if, suggests 
 Jamieson, showing the te'jth [like a 
 snarUng dog] . It is evidently a less 
 correct form of Utty, ill-humoured, 
 testy, which he observes nearly resem- 
 bles North Eng. teety or teeihy, fretful, 
 fractious, " as children when cutting 
 their teeth " (Grose). Br()cket gives 
 teethy, and Atkinson (who mistakes the 
 
 derivation), teaty, tufty, testy, peevish, 
 touchy (Cleveland Glossary). An older 
 form is tetty. 
 
 If they lose, though but a trifle . . . they 
 are so cliolerick and tettji that no man may 
 speak with them.— Bui-ion, Anatomy of Melan- 
 choly, p. 119 [Nares]. 
 
 All these words I believe to be cor- 
 rupted forms of Pr. tetu, headstrong, 
 wilful, perverse (cf. enteie, obstinate, 
 self-wiUed), just as testy is from the 
 older Fr. testu, heady. 
 
 Tettish, and teatish, which Nares 
 quotes from Beaumont and Fletcher, 
 with the meaning of headstrong, wilful 
 (like a child, he thinks, peevish for 
 want of the teat .'), are further corrup- 
 tions. 
 
 Bay, however, gives " Toothy, Peev- 
 ish, crabbed." — North Country Words, 
 p. 63 (1742). 
 
 Teely, Teathy, peevish, cross. — E. B, Pea- 
 cock, Lonsdale Glossary. 
 
 I^ightly,' hee is an olde man (for those 
 yeares are most wayward and teatish) yet be 
 he neuer so olde or so froward. — Nash, Pierce 
 Penileise, 1592, p. 35 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Tempt, a bad orthography of tent, 
 Fr. tenter, Lat. tentare, a frequentative 
 of tendere, to stretch, and so means to 
 keep on the tenter hooks, to hold in a 
 state of tension or suspense, to make 
 trial of one's moral fibre, to prove or 
 test. This corruption is found also in 
 old Fr. tempter and Lat. temptare, and 
 seems due to a false analogy with 
 words like temper, temperate, temporal. 
 So attempt comes through an old Fr. 
 atenter from Lat. attentare. Compare 
 tent, to probe a wound, which is the 
 same word. Tentation is a common 
 old form [e.g. A. V. Exod. xvii. 7, marg.) 
 0£ temptation, and we still say tentative, 
 not temptative. On the other hand, 
 tense, the grammatical term, is an in- 
 correct form of tempse, Fr. temps. 
 
 Seinte Powel seiS — " Fidelis est Dens qui 
 non sinet nos temptari ultra quam possumus." 
 God, he seiS, is treowe: nul he neuer (jolien 
 fiet te deouel tempti us ouer jjet he isihS wel 
 bet we muwen i<5olien : aun i^e temptaciun 
 he haueS iset to Jje ueonde a merke, ase ).auh 
 he seide. — tempte hire so ueor, auh ne schalt 
 tu gon no furSer. — Ancren Riwie, p. 228. 
 
 And as for sin, he sufFei*ed the outward in- 
 vitement of tentation in gi'eat measure, but 
 not the inward rebellion of concupiscence to 
 which we are obnoxious. — Bp. nucket, Cen- 
 tury of Sermons, 1675, p. 206, 
 
 C C 
 
TENABLE WEDNESDAY ( 386 ) 
 
 TEST 
 
 Felle temptande tene towched his hert. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 45, 1. 283. 
 
 The tentation was no sooner in his heart but 
 the words were in his mouth. — H. Smith, 
 Sermans, p. 171. 
 
 In the following we liave the two 
 forms side by side : — 
 
 Gods tentation maketh us happy : Blessed 
 is he that endureth temptation, James i. but 
 the Deyils temptation brings us to misery.— 
 Bp. Andrewes, Preparation to Prayer, 1642, 
 p. 111. 
 
 God is faithful, which shal not suffer you 
 to be tempted aboue your strengthe : but shal 
 in the middes of the tentation ma^re a way, 
 that ye may be able to beare it. — 1 Cm\ x. 13, 
 Genevan Vers. 1.557. 
 
 Tenable Wednesday is stated by- 
 Gunning in his Lent Fast to have been 
 a name sometimes given to Wednesday 
 in Holy Week. Probably this was a 
 popular corruption of Tenehrm Wednes- 
 day, it being customary in the pre- 
 reformation church to put out the lights 
 at the evening service on that evening, 
 one by one, till the church was left in 
 darkness (tenehrce). See Blunt, Amw- 
 tated Book of Common Prayer, p. 98. 
 
 Hit is called wt diners men Tenables, but 
 holi chirch calleth it Tenebras, as Raccionale 
 Diuinorum seth, |;t is to sey, thicnes or derk- 
 nes to commemorate the betrayel of our lord 
 by night. — MS. Homili/, quoted in Hampson, 
 Med. Aevi Kalendarium, ii. 370. 
 
 Het is callyd wt 50W Temibulles, but holy 
 churche callyth hit tenebraSj js* is to say derk- 
 nesse. — Id. 371. 
 
 Compare Sp. 
 
 Tinieblas, certaine prayers or euensongs, 
 said in the night, the Wednesday, thursday, 
 and friday night next before Easter day, in 
 mournefull tune, and after euery Psalme to 
 put out a light till all be put out, and so to 
 say or sing Miserere in the darke, and then 
 depart. — Mimheu. 
 
 Ten-penny nails are not nails ten of 
 which may be got for a penny, but pro- 
 perly ten-pum'y or ten-pun' -noAls, i.e. 
 ten-pound, large nails, a thousand of 
 which will weigh ten pounds (the old 
 form of the verb to pownd was pun). 
 
 It is surprising how slowly the commonest 
 mechanical terms find their way into dic- 
 tionaries professedly complete. 1 may men- 
 tion, as instances of this, that penny, a de- 
 nomination of the sizes of nails, as a six- 
 penny, or a ten-penny nail, though it was 
 employed by Featly two hundred years ago, 
 and has been in constant use ever since, is 
 not to be found in Webster. — Marsh, The 
 Eng. Language, p. 126 (ed. Smith). 
 
 Six-penny, eight-penny, ten-penny nails, 
 are nails of such sizes, that a thousand will 
 weigh six, eight, or ten pounds, and in this 
 phrase, therefore, penny seems to be a corrup- 
 tion of pound. — Ibid, note in loco. 
 
 He fell fierce and foule upon the Pope him- 
 selfe, threatening to loosen him from his 
 chayre, though he were fastened thereto with 
 a tenpeny naile. — Abel Redivivus, 546. 
 
 Why, it's been at livery in the Harrow- 
 road, eating its head off, these two months. 
 Sent up the iron trade wonderful. Tenpenny 
 nails are worth a shilling now. — Jokes arid 
 Wit of' Douglas Jerrold, p. 189. 
 
 Ten toes. It has often been asserted 
 that the common folk of Lancashire 
 have sometimes called a Michaelmas 
 goose, " a goose on ten toes " (Nares, 
 Brand, Pop. Antiq. vol. i. p. 367, ed. 
 Bohn), and that this is a humorous 
 mistake for " a goose intentos," which 
 Blount asserts was a name given to the 
 bird because the old Latin collect for 
 the 16th Sunday after Pentecost (our 
 17th Sunday after Trinity) — about 
 which time it was usually eaten — ended 
 with the words "bonis operibus .... 
 intentos," " given to all good works." 
 Certainly Sundays were often fami- 
 liarly named from some striking word 
 or phrase which took hold of the imagi- 
 nation of the common people, e.g. Stir 
 up Sunday, Fig Sunday, Palm Sun- 
 day, &c. However, the whole of the 
 above account is very questionable, and 
 that the expression ever was used is 
 denied by Mr. Hampson, Med. Aevi 
 KalendaHwrn,, vol. i. p. 349. 
 
 Tent-woet, a popular name for wall 
 rue, was originally taint-wort, being 
 used as a cure for the taint or rickets 
 (Prior). 
 
 Tebmaoant, a corrupt speUing of 
 ptarmigan, in the works of Taylor the 
 Water Poet. 
 
 Heath-cocks, capercailzies and termagants. 
 The Pennyless Pilgrimage, 1618 (ed. 
 Hindley). 
 
 Test, to examine critically, to put to 
 the proof, to try one's veracity or trust- 
 worthiness, is sometimes mentally as- 
 sociated with attest, Lat. testis, a wit- 
 ness, testari, to testify, to call as wit- 
 ness, as if the original meaning were 
 to call into court as a witness, to bring 
 to book, "to the law and the testi- 
 mony." Thus Bailey gives " Test, Lat. 
 testimomum, an Oath appointed by act 
 
TEBBAPIN 
 
 ( 387 ) 
 
 THICK 
 
 of ParKament for renouncing the Pope's 
 supremacy," &c. It is really derived 
 from old Fr. test, a potsherd or earthen 
 pot, It. testo, " the test of sUuer or 
 gold — a Goldsmith's cruze or melting 
 pot " (Florio), Lat. iestum, an earthen 
 pot. 
 
 So " to test " a thing, or " put it to 
 the test," is properly to submit it to the 
 crucible or melting pot to assay the 
 quahty of its metal, and the word is 
 akia, not to testify, but to testy, heady, 
 Fr. testu, from teste, head (Mod. Fr. 
 tete), Lat. testa, a skull, originally an 
 earthen vessel. Compare It. coppellare, 
 from ccppella, a little cup, a cupel, "to 
 refine or bring gold or sUuer to his 
 right and due test or loye " (Florio). 
 
 In the following teste is a vessel for 
 assaying metals : — 
 Our cementing and fermentation, 
 Our ingottes, testes, and many thinges mo. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 16286. 
 Let there be some more test made of my 
 
 metal, 
 Before so noble and so gi-eat a figure 
 Be stamp 'd upon it. 
 
 Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, 
 act i. sc. 1, 1. 50. 
 Not with fond shekels of the tested gold. 
 Id. act i. sc. 2, 1. 149. 
 
 Test appears to have slumbered a long 
 while after the dajrs of Shakespeare. Our 
 countrymen [Americans] falsely have the 
 credit of reviving it ; and it is now accepted 
 English again. Even such a purist as Lord 
 Macaulay uses it more than once, and it is 
 found in the pages of Dr. Arnold. Abp. 
 Whately, Mr. De Quincey, Mr. W. E. Glad- 
 stone, and Mr. E. A. Freeman. — F. Hall, 
 Modern English, p. 300. 
 
 She cannot break through a well-tested 
 modesty. — Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe, vol. 
 iii. p. 187. 
 
 But I will test (as an American would say; 
 though, let it be observed, in passing, that I 
 do not advocate the use of Americanisms) — I 
 will test Mr. Campbell's assertion. — Southey, 
 The Doctor (1-vol. ed.), p. 397. 
 
 Terrapin, the American name of a 
 species of edible tortoise or turtle, for- 
 merly spelt tourwpin, terehin, and torope, 
 is a corruption of the Indian word 
 toarebe, a tortoise. — Bartlett, Diet, of 
 Americanisms, p. 699 (4th ed.). 
 
 Thames, in the proverbial sajdng, 
 " He win never set the Thames on 
 flre," is said to be a corruption of the 
 old word temse, a sieve or searce, Bel- 
 gian terns, It. tamiso, Dan. tamds. 
 
 N. Fris. terns, Dut. teems, Fr. tamis, so 
 called from the stuff of which it is made 
 (tammy). Similarly, in the Cleveland 
 dialect, which has temse in common 
 use, a Uffcmy is a sieve, properly one 
 made of the fine material called tiffany 
 (Atkinson, Glossary, s.v.). 
 
 " To set the temse on fire " would be 
 a hyperbolical way of saying to work it 
 so rapidly and energetically that the 
 frame grows hot and is in danger of 
 taking fire, and then, figuratively, to 
 challenge attention by more than ordi- 
 nary power or abihty. 
 
 However, as William Langland 
 (1393) uses th^ comparison of "a spark 
 of fire falhng in the Thames " for any- 
 thing that is utterly quenched and put 
 out, the phrase " to set the Thames on 
 fire " may very well have risen as an 
 hyperbole for doing something marvel- 
 lous or admirable, Thames being used 
 here (like Vergil's AchelMa pocula) as a 
 general word for water. 
 
 Wickede dedes 
 Farejj as a fonk of fujr • jjat ful a-myde 
 temese. 
 
 Vision of' Piers Phwnuinj Pass. vii. 1. 335, 
 Text C. 
 
 Cf.— 
 It is, to geue him, as muche almes or neede 
 As cast water in terns. 
 
 Hey wood. 
 
 And " to woke with i^emese," to moisten 
 the Thames with {Vision of P. P., Pass, 
 xviii. 71, Skeat, in Zoc). 
 
 Thick, as colloquially used in the 
 sense of famihar, intimate as bosom- 
 friends are, might seem to be a meta- 
 phorical use of tMck, Icel. J3 yhh; 
 thronged, stout, as if firmly united and 
 knitted together like the threads of 
 some closely woven material, compact 
 and fast in the bonds of friendship. It 
 certainly appears to have been so un- 
 derstood by Burns when he says of 
 The Twa Bogs, 
 Nae doubt but they were fain o' ither, 
 An' unco pack un' thick thegither. 
 
 Poems, p. 2 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Compare Scot, thra/ng, intimate. " To 
 make thick-m.'," to ingratiate one's self 
 with (Jamieson). 
 
 However, it is probably a distinct 
 word of Scandinavian origin, near akin 
 to Icel. iyyklcja (also Yihhja and \yykja), 
 to be esteemed or valued, Hhkja, to 
 know, to know one another, (Dep.) to 
 
THIEF 
 
 ( 388 ) 
 
 THOUGHTS 
 
 like or be pleased, \>ekhr, agreeable, 
 pleasant, Vokk, pleasure, liking (cognate 
 with thmlt and thank). Compare Dan. 
 tcelcke, grace, tmlckelig, pleasing, tmhlces, 
 to please, tah, thanks, tyhke, opinion, 
 pleasiire, but UjJc, thick. In the Craven 
 dialect (Yorks.) cronies are said to be 
 " As tMch as inkle-weavers," or " As 
 thick as thack " [n thatch] . 
 
 Newcome and I are not very //lic/c together. 
 — Tftackerayf The Neuxomes, ch. xxiv. 
 
 Thief, a popular name for an in- 
 equality in the wick of a candle, or 
 loose portion of it that falls into the 
 tallow, causing it to waste and smoke, 
 BO called as if it stole so nauoh of the 
 candle. It may be a derivative of the 
 A. Sax. i>efian, to rage, originally to be 
 hot or burning, akin to Lat. tepeo, 
 Sansk. tap, to be warm (see Pictet, 
 Origines Imdo-Euwpeennes, tom. ii. p. 
 507), and Icel. {jp/r, a smell [? of some- 
 thing burning] , tiffja, to emit a smell, 
 to stink. So swealing (the result of a 
 thiff) is from A. Skx. swelcm, to scorch 
 or burn. 
 
 The least known evil unrepented of is as a 
 (ftifi/' in the candle. — Sam. Ward, A Caatfrom 
 the Altar, Sertnons, 1636. 
 
 If there bee a theefe in the Candle (as we 
 use to say commonly ) there is a way to pull 
 it out; and not to put out the Candle, by 
 clapping an Extinguisher presently upon it. 
 —J. fiotveil, Forraine Travell, 1642, p. 77 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 If a thief he in his candle, blow it not out, 
 lest thou wrong the flame; but if thy snuffers 
 be of gold, snuff it. — Quarles, Judgment and 
 Merei/, p. 132 (Repr. 1807). 
 
 The candle will never burn clear while 
 there is a thief in it. — Thos. Broolis, Cabinet 
 of Choice Jewels, 1669, Works, vol. iii. p. 295. 
 
 Many break themselves by intemperate 
 courses, as candles that have thieves in them, 
 as we say, that consume them before their 
 .ordinary time. — Sibhes, Works, vol. iv. p. 355. 
 
 Un voleu-r ! un volenr ! cried Mrs. Nugent, 
 at an assembly. It turned out to be a thief 
 in the candle ! — Horace Walpole, Letters^ vol. 
 ii. p. 200 (ed. Cunningham). 
 
 An old name for the mushroora 
 growth on the wick of a candle was a 
 bishop, probably from the prelates of 
 the church in the troublous time of the 
 Eeformation having become a by-word 
 for ruthless burning. When milk was 
 burnt in boiling, the common saying 
 was, " The bishop has set his foot in 
 it." 
 
 Fungo, that firy round in a burning candle 
 called a bishop.- — Florio, 1611. 
 
 The value of the above conjecture is 
 lessened by the curious paraUeKsru 
 afforded by the Wallon dialect of 
 French, where larron is a part of the 
 wick of an unsnuffed candle which falls 
 bm-ning on the tallow and causes it to 
 melt (Sigart, Olossaire). 
 
 Thief, a provincial word for a bram- 
 ble, as if synonymous with " country 
 lawyer," another word for the same, 
 both apparently from the fleecing pro- 
 pensities of the genus Buhus (Evans, 
 Leicester-shire Glossary, E.D. S.). 
 
 The wicked are as briers and bushes that 
 rob the sheep of their coats, which come to 
 them for shelter. — T. Adams, Sernwns, vol. ii. 
 p. 479. 
 
 But thief is probably a corruption ; 
 compare A. Sax. i>efe-i>orn, i>yfe-i>m-n, 
 the tufty thorn, buckthorn, or bramble 
 (Cockayne ; Ettmiiller, p. 607), from 
 ^Hfe, fohage (tufty. — Cockayne), Mf, 
 luxuriant. Theve-thorn occurs in Ea/rly 
 Eng. Psalter, Ps. Ivii. 10, andWychffe 
 has the same word for bramble. Judges 
 ix. 14. 
 
 In The Owl amd the Nightingale, the 
 owl says, 
 
 Ich an loth smale fojle, 
 That floth bi grunde an hi thuvele. 
 
 1. 278 (Percy Soc. ed.). 
 
 [I am hateful to small fowl that fly by the 
 ground and underwood.] 
 
 Thief, a rustic word for a " young 
 ewe " in E. Lisle, Observations in Hus- 
 bandry, 1757. 
 
 As a ewe of the second year is also 
 called a two-teeth (Id. p. 361), it is pro- 
 bable that this word is a contraction of 
 tmoteef, a common pronunciation of 
 two-teeth. Compare Lat. bidens, a sheep, 
 and Sansk. shodant, a young ox, lite- 
 rally " six-teeth" (shash + dant). 
 
 Thirdbokough, an old name for a 
 constable (Ben Jonson, Tale of a Tub, 
 i. 1), is said to be a corruption of ^ead- 
 horough .[? th'headhorough], which is 
 the same as tithingman in the north, 
 or borsholder in the south [Gentlenum's 
 Magazine, July, 1774). See Spehnan, 
 s.vv. Headborow, Friborgus ; Prompt. 
 Parvulorum, s.v. Heed borow. 
 
 Thoughts, an old word for the 
 Thwarts of a boat, which see. 
 
THBEED 
 
 ( 389 ) TEBOUGH-STONE 
 
 ■ Theeed, an occasional spelling in 
 old authors of thread (A. Sax. ]>raed, 
 Dan. traad, Dut. draad, Icel. ]>rdir, 
 Ger. draht, a twisted line, from A. Sax. 
 ]>rawan, Dut. draayen, Ger. drehen, to 
 twist), as if it consisted of three fila- 
 ments, like twine, a cord of two strands. 
 It is also spelt third and ihrid, see 
 Nares. Compare It. trena, a, threefold 
 rope, fromLat. trinus; twill =r Lat. {dvi- 
 lic-s) hilix, a fabric of two threads ; 
 d/rill, drilling =: Lat. frilix, stuff of three 
 threads. So Shetland treed, a thread, 
 and tree, three (Edmonston). 
 
 Then, taking thrise three heares from off her 
 
 head, 
 Them trebly breaded in a threefold lace. 
 And round about the Pots mouth bound the 
 
 thread. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, III. ii. 50. 
 
 Small Cloudes carie water ; slender threedes 
 BOVfe sure stiches ; little heares haue their 
 shadowes. — S. Gossan, Schoote of Abuse,lbT9, 
 p. 16 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Three threads, in the phrase, now 
 obsolete, " A pint of three threads," is 
 a corruption of three thirds, and denoted 
 a draught, once popular, made up of a 
 third each of ale, beer, and "twopenny," 
 in contradistinction to "half-and-half." 
 This beverage was superseded in 1722 
 by the very similar porter or " entire." 
 — Ghamhers' Cyclopcedia, s.v. Porter. 
 
 Ezekiel Driver . . . having disorder 'd his 
 piaraater with too plentiful a mornino-'s 
 draught of three-threads and old Pharaoh, 
 had the misfortune to have his cart run over 
 him. — r. Brnwn, Works, ii. 286 [Davies]. 
 
 Threshold denotes etymologieally, 
 not the sill under the door of a barn 
 which holds in the threshing, but the 
 piece of wood which is well heaten or 
 trodden by the feet of those coming 
 and going, it being the old English 
 threswold, threshwald, A. Qsa.,]>ersowald, 
 from perscan, to beat or thresh, and 
 weald, wold, wood. 
 
 Al entr6 del bus est la lyme('the therswald, 
 a.\. threshwald). — Arundel MS. quoted by Way, 
 Prompt. Part), s.v. Ovijrslai/. 
 
 And she set doun hire water-pot anon. 
 Beside the threswold in an oxes stall. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, I. 8164. 
 
 In the dialect of Westmoreland and 
 Cumberland the threshold is called 
 threslvwood (Ferguson). 
 
 Wycliffe, in his translation of the 
 Bible, 1389, uses the forms threshfold. 
 
 thresfold, thrisfold (Porshall and Mad- 
 deti, Glossary, s.v.), as if it meant that 
 which folds, or pens in, the threshing. 
 
 Aubrey seems to use the word 
 as synonymous with threshing-floor. 
 Speaking of the times of the Plantage- 
 nets and Tudors, he says the barns 
 then stood on one side of the court- 
 yard : " They then thought not the 
 noise of the threshold Ul musique." 
 
 In Icelandic the word appears, pro- 
 bably in its primitive form, as iiresk- 
 jold); i.e. a threshing-ground (from 
 Wesl-ja and vollr, a field or paddock), 
 later a doorsill ; corrupted forms are 
 \jreslcilldi, jpreshalda, ]ireskolli, Woshuldr, 
 and, strangest of all, ]?repsljoldr, as if 
 from Wep, a ledge, and sTrjbld/r, a shield 
 or shelter (Gleasby). Cf. 0. H. Ger. 
 dirsciiwili, Dan. tmrshel. 
 
 A Devonshire corruption is drelcstaol. 
 
 Her ne'er budg'd over the drekstool from 
 wan week to another. — Mrs. Palmer, Devon- 
 shire Courtship, p. 10. 
 
 In the Vocabulaiy of S. Gall (7th 
 cent.), drisgvfK {i.e. drisc-vfli) is the 
 gloss on suhlimitare. 
 
 Thrice- oocK, a Leicestershire word 
 for the missel- thrush (Evans, E. D. S.), 
 represents A. Sax. fprisc (Sonmer), ap- 
 parently a variant of h'ostle, old Eng. 
 th-ystel. 
 
 Theodgh-stonb, a flat grave-stone, 
 so spelt from some confusion with 
 through, a bond-stone, which goes 
 through a wall entirely. It is old Eng. 
 " thurwhe-sfone of agrave, Saroofagus." 
 — Prompt. Parv., A. Sax. ]>ruh, i>urh, 
 a tpmb, Icel. fprd, a trough, stein-)'r6, a 
 stone-coffin, Ger. truhe, a chest. 
 
 The cors that dyed on ti'e was berid in a 
 
 stone. 
 The thrughe beside fande we, and in that 
 
 gi-ave cors was none. 
 
 The Towneieij Mysteri&s, p. 290. 
 
 See Parker, Glossary of Architeatv/re, 
 s.v. Through. 
 
 In Cumberland and Cleveland a 
 through or ihniff is a flat tomb-stone 
 as distinct from a head-stone (Fer- 
 guson, Atkinson). 
 
 Ine stonene ]prjih biclused lieteueste. Marie 
 wome &c Jjeos \}ruh weren his ancres buses. — 
 Ancren Riwle, p. 378. 
 
 [In a stone tomb (He was) shut up fast. 
 Mai-y's womb and this tomb were his an- 
 chorite houses.] 
 
THBUSH 
 
 ( 390 ) 
 
 TICK 
 
 Hi wende to |julke stede; jjer as heo was 
 
 ileid er, 
 & heuede yp jje lid of )je JjroiiS : & fonde 
 hire ligge J>er. 
 Early Eng. Poems (Phildlog. Soc.1858), 
 p. 70, 1. 168. 
 
 [They went to that place where she was 
 foimerly laid, and heaved up the lid of the 
 coffin and found her lying there.] 
 
 As a clot of clay )iou were for-clonge, 
 So deed in jprotii )>anue men Jjee [jrewe. 
 Hymns to the Virgin and Childj p. 13, 
 1. 32 (ed. Furnivall). 
 
 He hyne leyde in one pruh of stone, 
 (lat he hedde ne we imaked, to him self one. 
 Old Eng. MiscelUmy, p. 51, 1. 512 
 (E.E.T.'S.) 
 
 These London kirkyards are causeyed with 
 through-stan^Sj panged hard and fast thegither. 
 — Scottf Fortunes of' Nigelf ch. iii. 
 
 It will he but a muckle through-stane laid 
 doun to kiver the gowd — tak the pick till't, 
 and pit mair strength, man. — Scott, The 
 Antiquary, ch. xxv. 
 
 Thedsh, a popular name for an erup- 
 tion in the mouth or species of sore- 
 throat, has not been explained. As 
 thrush, the name of the bird, has been 
 formed out of ilvroatle, A. Sax. ]irosle, 
 Tprostle (Dan. and Ger. tfo-osseZ), old Eng. 
 thrtisiylle{ or tlwushAU) . — Prompt Pa/i-v. ; 
 so probably thrush, the disease, is only 
 a shortened form of throstle, for throtsle, 
 from A. Sax. Wot-swyle (Somner), a 
 throat-sweUing, inflammation of the 
 throat, or quinsy. Compare Ger. d/ros- 
 sel, the throat. 
 
 This morning I hear that last night Sir 
 Thomas Teddiman, poor man ! did die by a 
 thnoih in his mouth. — Pejiys, Dinry, May 13, 
 lti68. 
 
 For the contraction, compare North 
 Eng. tlvropple, to throttle or strangle, 
 also the windpipe, from old Eng. throie- 
 lolle, A. Sax. Vtot-holla. 
 
 And by the throte-bolle he caught Alein. 
 Clmucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 4271. 
 
 Thbush-lousb (North Eng.), the 
 Cheslip, woodlouse, or millepes, a cor- 
 ruption of 0. Eng. thu/rs-louse, i.e. the 
 insect of the thurse {thws and tlwisse. 
 — Wycliffe), A. Sax. thyrs := Puck, or 
 Eobin-goodfeUow, a goblin or giant. 
 Mouffet and Skinner thought it was 
 the insect sacred to the god Thor. See 
 Adams in Fhihlog. Soc. Trans. 1860, 
 p. 17 seqq. So Iwhthrush, a hobgoblin, 
 is probably for hobthurs {Notes and 
 
 Q^leries, 5th S. vii. 203). For the trans- 
 position, compare thrust, an old and 
 prov. form of thirst (Nares, Wright). 
 
 Thwaets, rowing benches, so called 
 as if seats placed athwart or across the 
 boat (A. Sax. thweorh, loel.thvert), have 
 no more connexion with thwairt than 
 irawsoTOs (cross-pieces) have with trans. 
 The word is a corruption of the older 
 form, " Thoughts, the rowers' seats in a 
 boat" (Bailey), which is itself a per- 
 verted form of A. Sax. ]>ofte, a rowing 
 bench, Mod. Icel. \>otta, old Icel. (iqpfa, 
 Dan. tofte, Swed. toft, Ger. dofl, Dut. 
 ddften. 
 
 Thoughts, seats whereon the rowers sit, 
 Doften.—Sewel, Dutch Diet. p. 648 (1708). 
 
 Bede has ge]?ofta for a companion or 
 ally, " one in the same boat." 
 
 Tick, in the phrase " to go upon tidk," 
 or " to obtain goods on tick," meaning 
 on credit, is a word of considerable 
 antiquity. 
 
 Every one runs upon ticlt, and thou that 
 had no credit a year ago has credit enough 
 now. — Diary oj Abraliam de la Pryme (Sur- 
 tees Soc), p. 110. 
 
 The Mermaid tavern is lately broke, and 
 our Christ Church men bear the blame of it, 
 our ticks, as the noise of the town will have, 
 amounting to 1,500^ — Letter of Prideaax, 
 Dean of Norwich, May, 1661. 
 
 I'll lend thee back thyself awhile. 
 And once more, for that cai'cass vile. 
 Fight upon tick. 
 
 Butler, Hudibras, Pt. I. canto iii. 
 
 Of Butler himself it is said by Oldham, 
 
 Reduced to want, he in due time fell sick, 
 Was fain to die, and be interred on tick. 
 
 Satires, 1683, Bell's ed. p. 234. 
 
 " My tich is not good," wrote Sedley, 
 1668. 
 
 It is a mutilated form of ticket, a 
 tradesman's bill, in which goods are 
 booked to one's credit, a person being 
 then said to "run on ticket." — Fuller. 
 
 No matter whether upon landing you have 
 money or no, you may swim in twenty of 
 their boats over the river upon ticket. — 
 Dekker, GuVs Hornbook, ch. vi. 1609. 
 
 Though much indebted to his own hack 
 and belly, and unable to pay them, yet he 
 hath credit himself, and confidently runs on 
 ticket with himself. — T. Fuller, Holy State, 
 1648, p. 114. 
 
 Compare ticket, a pass, giving the 
 entree into good society, an approxima- 
 tion to etiquette. 
 
TICK 
 
 ( 391 ) 
 
 TIGHT 
 
 Well dressed, well bred, 
 Well equipaged, is ticket good enough 
 To pass us readily througn every door. 
 Compel'^ Thii Task, bk. iii. 
 She's very handsome and she's very finely 
 dressed, only somehovf she's not — she's not 
 the ticket, you see. — Thackeray, The New- 
 comes, ch. vii. 
 
 Tick, one of the rural sports men- 
 tioned in Drayton's Polyolbion (xxx.): — 
 At hood-wink, barley-break, at tick, or 
 prison-base. (Naves, s.v.) 
 
 In Lincolnshire, Uchy -touch-wood. 
 
 It is probably a corruption of tig, a 
 game still popular with children in 
 most parts of Great Britain, the humour 
 of ■wluoh consists in evading the touch 
 of one of their number, who acts as 
 pursuer, an exemption from the lia- 
 bility to be touched being allowed on 
 certain pre-arranged conditions, such 
 as reaching and holding wood, iron, 
 &c. With tig compare tag in Lat. 
 ta{n)g-o, te-tig-i. 
 
 Compare Dut. tikhen. Low Ger. 
 ticken, to touch gently. 
 
 They all played tagg till they were well 
 wanned. — H. Brooke, Fool of Quality, i. 87 
 [Davies] . 
 
 In Queen Mary's reign tag was all the 
 play, where the lad saves himself by touching 
 of cold iron. — Brand, Popitlar Antiquities, ii. 
 443. 
 
 Tick, in the phrase " As fuU as a 
 tick," has been variously explained 
 as meaning, " as full as a bed-tick 
 is of feathers," or "as the blood- 
 thirsty insect, the tick, when it has 
 drunk to repletion." These are con- 
 fessedly mere conjectures. The ex- 
 pression is in all probability identical 
 with Plan comme enne digue, which is 
 found in the Wallon patois (Sigart), 
 meaning " Pull as a dihe or dam." 
 This saying would be full of signifi- 
 cance in the Low Countries, whence 
 probably it came to us. So ticTt would 
 be the same word as Ger. teich, A. Sax. 
 dik, Dut. dijh, Dan. dAge, Icel. dike, 
 old Pr. dique, Norfolk dick, dike. 
 
 Tight is generally regarded as having 
 been originally a past participle of to 
 tie, A. Sax. iygan, as a knot when fast 
 tied is said to be tight. Indeed, Spen- 
 ser uses tight for tied (A. Sax. tygde, 
 tyged) :— 
 
 And thereunto a great long chaine he tight. 
 Faerie Qneene, VI. xii. 34. 
 
 So Tooke, and Chambers, Etymolog. 
 Dictionary. 
 
 The word was formerly spelt thdght, 
 old Eng. thyht, and meant close, com- 
 pact, not leaking, as in water-tight, 
 Cleveland theet, water-tight, the same 
 word as Icel. Jjgiir, close, tight, not 
 leaking, Dan. test, staunch, "taut," 
 Prov. Swed. fjett, tjdtt, Dutch dicht, all 
 perhaps akin to thick, Ger. dick. 
 
 Orkney thight, close, so as not to ad- 
 mit water (Edmondston). 
 
 Thyht, hool fro brekynge, not brokyn, In- 
 teger, Solidus. Thyhtyn', or make thyht, In- 
 tegro, consolido. — Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 
 Gif t' vessel beean't theet, t' waiter '11 
 wheeze. — Atkinson, Ckvetand Glossuri/, p. 
 528. 
 
 This is that [cuticle] which serpents cast 
 euery yeere, we call it the Slough. ... It 
 is thighter or more compact than the skin 
 itself, whence it is that those watery humours 
 . . . doe easily passe through the skin, but 
 hang often in the Cuticle. [Margin] The 
 thightnesse of it manifested. — H. Crnoke. 
 Description of the Body of Man, 1631, p. 72. 
 
 Tight, when applied to a young 
 person in the sense of active, well- 
 made, lively, as for instance when 
 Arbuthnot speaks of " a tight clever 
 wench," seems to suggest the idea of 
 one well-knit, compact in iigure, and 
 girt for action, as opposed to loose- 
 limbed, flaccid, laxus, lazy. 
 
 Gie me the lad that's young and tight. 
 
 Sweet like an April meadow. 
 Ramsay, The Auld Man's Best Argurmnt. 
 Blythe as a kid, wi' wit at will. 
 She blooming, tight, and tall is. 
 Ramsay, Bessy Bell and Mary Gray. 
 Here the tight lass, knives, combs and scissors 
 
 spies, 
 And looks on thimbles with desiring eyes. 
 Gay, Pastoral, vi. 
 
 The old Eng. form of the word is 
 teyte, tayt, the original meaning pro- 
 bably being lively, playful, joyous, Icel. 
 teitr, glad, cheerful, A. Sax. tat — ■ 
 Jpe laddes were kaske and teyte. 
 
 Huvelok the Dane', 1. 1841 
 (E.E.T.S.)— 
 
 i.e. strong and active. In the same 
 poem we find men baiting bulls " with 
 hundes teyte " (1. 2331). 
 
 I schal biteche yow }po two Jiat tayt arn & 
 quoynt. 
 Alliterative Poems, ed. Morris, B. 871. 
 [Lot of his daughters — " I shall deliver 
 you the two that are lively and pretty."] 
 
TILEB 
 
 ( 392 ) 
 
 TIME 
 
 Gawin Douglas, in his Bukes of 
 Eneados, 1553, has taii, zz hvely, play- 
 ful:— 
 
 In lesiii'is and on leyis litill lamines 
 Full tait and trig socht bletand to thare 
 dammes. 
 
 Prologue to Booke XII. 
 
 Banff. Hcht, to tidy, and ticht, neat, 
 " a ticJit lass " (Gregor). 
 Thou fumblest, Eros; and my queen's a 
 
 squire 
 More tight at this than thou : dispatch. 
 
 Shakespeare, Antniiy and Cleoyatra, 
 act iv. sc. 4, 1. 15. 
 Hold, sirrah, bear you these letters tightly; 
 Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores. 
 Shakespeare f The MejTi/ Wives of Windsor, 
 act i. sc". 3, 1. 89. 
 He had a roguish twinkle in his eye. 
 And slione all glittering with ungodly dew, 
 It" a tight damsel chaunced to trippen by. 
 Thomson, Cattle of Indolence, Ixix. 
 
 By all that's good, I'll make a loving wife, 
 I'll prove a true pains-taker day and night, 
 I'll spin and card, and keep our children 
 tight. 
 
 Gay, The What D'ye Call It, i. 1. 
 
 O. Eng. tiie, fyfe, quickly {Stmy of 
 the Holy Rood, p. 81, 11. 690 and 704), 
 may perhaps be connected, Cumber- 
 land tite, quickly, wiUingly (Ferguson). 
 jjHn has a man les myght |3an a beste, 
 When he es born, and es sene leste; 
 P'or a best when it es born, may ga 
 A Is tite altir, and ryn to and fra. 
 
 Hampole, fricke of Conscience, 1. 471. 
 AUe men sal ban tiie up-ryse 
 In \e same .stature and )3e same bodyse 
 |:at Jjai had here in jjair lifedays. 
 
 Id. I. 49B1. 
 The erthe xul qwake, both breke and brast, 
 Beryelys and gravys xul ope ful tyth, 
 Ded men xul rysj^n and that therin hast, 
 And fi'ast to here ansuere thei xul hem dyth 
 Beifore Gody.s fface. 
 Coventry Mysteries, p. 18 (Shaks. Soc.) 
 Ma fa, I telle his lyfe is lome, 
 He shalle be slayn as tyte. 
 Townetey Mysteries, Crucipxio, p. 156 
 
 "(ed. Marriott). 
 After his other Sone in hast. 
 He send, and he began him hast. 
 And cam unto his fader tite. 
 
 Gotoer, Confess. Ainantis, iii. 60 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 Tiler, in Freemasonry "the name 
 of an of&cer stationed at the door of a 
 lodge, obviously comes from tadlleur 
 de pierre, the lapidicine of several me- 
 diaeval charters." — Encychpoidia Bri- 
 tannica, s.v. Freemasonry (ed. 9th), vol. 
 
 ix. ; Fort, Antiquities of Freemasonry, 
 p. 188. 
 
 Li mortelliers sont quite du gueit, et tout 
 tailmr de pierre, tres la tans Charles Martel 
 si come li preudome Ten oi dire de pere i 
 fils, — Regletnens sur les Arts et Metiers de 
 Paris, Boiteau, 13th cent, [fort, p. 464]. 
 
 Tills, an old corruption of lentils, as 
 if it were Lent-tils. 
 
 The country people sow it in the fields for 
 their cattle's food, and call it Tills, leaving 
 out the Lent, as thinking that word agi-eeth 
 not with the matter (!). — Parkinson, Thea- 
 trum Hotanicum, 1640, p. 1068 (Prior). 
 
 Wyeliffe has tillis for lentils, Ezek. 
 iv. 9. 
 
 Tilly vallt, an old exclamation of 
 contempt, meaning Nonsense ! Enb- 
 bish ! seems to be a coiTuption of old 
 Eng. trotevale, something trifliag, ajest 
 (Body and Soul, 1. 146), probably the 
 same V70rd as tutivillus or titimllus, a 
 demon who was supposed to haunt 
 choirs in order to pick up the slurred 
 syllables, false notes, and other trifling 
 mistakes made by the singers (Walcot, 
 Traditions of aihed/rals, p. 146), Lat. 
 titivilKtium, a trifle. 
 
 My name is TiUiinlliis 
 My borne is blawen ; 
 Frsgmina verborum Tutivillus coWigit liorum. 
 Towneley Mysteries, Jitditium, 
 
 **Is not this House" (quoth he) "as near 
 Heaven as my owne? " She not likinge such 
 talke answered, " Tillie vallie, tiliie vallie." — 
 Life of Sir Thos. More, Wordsworth Eccies. 
 B'iog. ii. 140. 
 
 Am I not of her blood ^ Tilluvally, Lady ! 
 Shakespeare, Twelfth Nighi, ii. 3, 83. 
 
 Tilleii-valley,MT. Level — which, by the way, 
 one commentator derives from tlttivdiitium, 
 and another from taUeij-ho- — but tilley-valley, 
 1 say — a truce with your politeness. — Scott, 
 The Antiquary, chap. vi. 
 
 Coquette, a tatling houswife, a titif.ll, a 
 flebergebit. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Time, when used in the sense of lei- 
 sure, favourable opportunity, as in the 
 sentence " I will attend to it when I 
 have time," would seem naturally 
 enough to be the same word as time, 
 A. Sax. tinia ^ Lat. tempus, and this is, 
 I may say universally, assumed to be 
 the case. Thus when the writer of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews says, "tims 
 would fail me to teU of" all the heroes 
 of faith (A. r. ch. xi. v. 32 ; " Deficiet 
 tempus." — Vulgate) ,most persons would 
 regard it as a change of construction 
 
TIME 
 
 ( 393 ) 
 
 TINKEB 
 
 merely, and not of words, if the verse 
 ran " I have no time to tell of" them 
 all. This latter word, however, time, 
 as meaning leisure, is an altered form 
 of Old Eng. toom, opportunity (Prompt. 
 Farv.), torn, <ome, a vacant or empty 
 (i.e. mioccupied) hour or period, Scot. 
 toom, empty, Icel. tdm, vacuity, leisure, 
 tmma, to empty ; compare Prov. Eng. 
 ieam, to empty, teem, to pour out (of 
 rain, &c.), Scot, ieym, teme, to empty, 
 all akin to Dan. tovi, Icel. fiimr, A. Sax. 
 torn. 
 
 And mani riche kingdon 
 
 J:ati to tell haue her na torn [al. tome, tamel. 
 Cursor ilundi (14th cent.), part i. 
 1. 2128(E.E.T.S.). 
 
 So in the Westphalian dialect torn is 
 leisure (ArcMv der Neueren Sprachen, 
 BaudLV. ii.p. 157), in Icelandic iWm'i, 
 at leisure (Oleasby, 638). 
 
 I haue no tome to telle • );e Tayl Jjat hem fol- 
 
 wejj 
 Of so mony Maner Men ' j^at on IMolde liuen. 
 Vision of Piers Flowmun, A. ii. 160 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 [Oae MS. has tiime here instead of tome.'\ 
 
 More of wele wat3 in J)at wyse, 
 fien I cowjie telle JjaS I torn hade. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 5, 1. 134. 
 [Than I could tell though I had leisure.] 
 
 3if 3e wolde tySt me a torn, telle hit I wolde. 
 id. p. 70, 1. 1153. 
 [If you would give me an opportunity I 
 would tell it.] 
 
 bei made her hors rennen in rees, 
 To stonde stille jjei had no tome. 
 
 Legends of the Holt/ Rood, p. 218, 
 1. 241. 
 Here may a man read )iat has tome, 
 A large proces of ]ie day of dome. 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 6249. 
 
 Of his trifuls to telle I haue no tome nowe. 
 The Destruction of Troy, 1. 43 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 But |:an had );e King bliue • ]je bodies take 
 Of alle (je gomes of gode • & gi-eij;li hem here 
 Til ]>e tentis, til {ley mist haue ■ torn hem to 
 berie. 
 
 IVilliam of Palerne, 1. 3778. 
 
 [Quickly bear them to the tents, till they 
 might have leisure to bury them.] 
 
 Of softe awakunge hii toke lute gome. 
 Vor to wel clojn hom hii ne yeue horn no 
 tome. 
 Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 557. 
 [Of soft awakening they took little care, 
 lor to clothe themselves properly they gave 
 them no leisure.] 
 
 Bot the king, that him dred sum thing, 
 Waytyt the sper in the cummyng. 
 And with a wysk the hed off sti-ak ; 
 And, or the tothyr had tot/me to tak 
 His suerd, the king sic swak him gaiff, 
 That he the hede till the harnys claiff. 
 
 Barbour, The Bruce, bk. iv. 1. 644. 
 
 We find the two words time and 
 tome brought together in the following 
 quotation from MS. Harl. : — 
 
 Tharfore Jjis ttjme I may noght cum 
 
 Telle ]pi lord 1 haue no tome. 
 
 (See Alliterative Poems, Morris, p. 203.) 
 
 But this tfime is so tore & we no tome haue, 
 We will seasse till, now sone, the sun be at 
 rest. 
 
 The Destruction of Troii, 1. 645. 
 
 Tinker, a corrupt speUingof the older 
 word, a tinkard, from the false analogy 
 of the usual form of the name of agents, 
 lover, labourer, cobbler, mend,er, &c., as if 
 it meant one who tinhs. Dr. Brewer 
 actually defines the word as a " person 
 who tiriks or beats on a kettle to an- 
 nounce his trade" {Diet. Phrase and 
 Fable, s.v.), and so Scot, tinkler. 
 
 Few things more sweetly vary civil life 
 Than a barbarian, savage tinkler talel 
 
 Christopher North. 
 
 Ferrastracci, a Tinckard, a mender of any 
 mettall-pieces. — Florio, Neu) World of Words, 
 1611. 
 
 Magnano, a Lock-smith, a Key-maker, . . . 
 a Tinkard, — Id. 
 
 A tinkard leaueth his bag a sweating at the 
 alehouse, which they terme their bowsing In, 
 and in the meane season goeth abrode a beg- 
 ging.— T/ie Fraternitye oj Vacahondes, 1575 
 (Repr. 1813, p. 5). 
 
 Tinkard, Welsh tincerdd, is from tin 
 (of. Ir. stanadoir, a tinker, from stan, 
 tin), and Gaelic, and Irish, ceard, a 
 smith ; e.g. Gaelic ceard stavin, a tin- 
 smith or tinker, or-cheard, a goldsmith, 
 Ir. ceard-oir. Old Ir. cerd, cert, com- 
 pare Welsh cerdd, art, Ir. creth,= 
 Sansk. krta, work, all from the root kr, 
 kar, to make. See Pictet, Origines 
 Indo-Europ. torn. ii. p. 125. TheWelsh, 
 however, claim the word as wholly 
 their own, explaining tincerdd as com- 
 pounded of tin, a tail, and cerdd, a 
 craft, meaning the lowest craft (Spur- 
 rell). The word is popularly associated 
 with tink, old Eng. tynke (Wycliffe, 1 
 Cor. xiii. 1), Welsh tine, Undo, to 
 tinkle, in allusion to the metallic ring 
 he makes when at work. 
 
TINKEB 
 
 ( 394, ) 
 
 TIBE 
 
 Have you any work for the Tinker, mistress ? 
 
 Old brass, old pots, or kettles ; 
 I'll mend them all with a tink, terry tink, 
 And never hurt your mettles. 
 E. A'e/Ziam, 1652, in Rimbault's Rounds, 
 
 Catches, S^c. p. 41. 
 He sware an' banned like a tinkler. — At- 
 kinson, Cleveland Glossary, p. bZ&. 
 
 Tinking Tom was an honest man, 
 Tirtk a tink, tink, tink, tink. . . . 
 Any work for the tinker, ho ! good wives. 
 Sam. Ackeroyd, Rimbault, p. 85. 
 
 Manhode. But herke, felowe, art thou ony 
 craftes man? 
 
 Fotye. Ye, Syr, I can bynde a syue and 
 tynke a pan. 
 
 The Worlde and the Chylde, 1522. 
 Be dumb, ye Infant chimes, thump not your 
 
 mettle 
 That ne're out-ring a tinker and his kettle. 
 Bp. Corbet, foems, 1648, p. 209 
 (ed. 1807). 
 
 I once did know a tinkling pewterer 
 That was the vilest stumbling stutterer. 
 That ever hack't and hew'd our native tongue. 
 Marston, Scourge of Vitlanie, sat. ix. 
 (vol. iii. p. 295). 
 But tho' his little heart did grieve 
 When round the tinkler prest her, 
 He feign'd to snirtle in his sleeve. 
 When thus the Caird address'd her — 
 " IVIy bonnie lass, I work in brass, 
 
 A tinkler is my station." 
 Burns, The Jolly Beggars, Poems, p. 51 
 (Globe ed. ). 
 " Is there a fire in the library?" ** Yes, 
 ma'am, but she looks such a tinkler.*' — C. 
 Bronte, Jane Eyre, ch. xviii. [Davies], 
 
 In the Quarter Sessions records of 
 the time of Queen Elizabeth (Devon- 
 shire), a man is licensed to exercise 
 the trade and "scyence of Tynkyng." 
 — A. H. A. Hamilton, Qua/rter Sessions, 
 p. 27. 
 
 So the Americans have coined a verb 
 to hurgle (Bartlett) out of hv/rglar, and 
 the Baily News (Oct. 28, 1880) writes 
 of " hurgUng circles." 
 
 TiEE, an old word for a headdress, 
 e.g. " Bind the tire of thine head upon 
 thee."— A. V. Ezek. sxiv. 17 (Heb. 
 peer, translated "bonnet." — Is.iii.20), 
 was originally attire, headgear (Jer. ii. 
 32; Prov. vii. 10; Ezek. xxiii. 15), 
 from which it was corrupted, probably 
 under the iniluence of a supposed con- 
 nexion with tiar, tiara, 
 
 If I had such a tire, this face of mine 
 Were full as lovely as is this of hers. 
 
 Shakespeare, Two Gent, of Verona, iv. 4. 
 
 See Wright and Eastwood, Bihh 
 Word-look, s.v. 
 
 Atyre or tyre of women, redimiculum.— 
 Prompt. Parvuiorum. 
 
 It has evidently been confounded 
 with tiare, " a round and wreathed or- 
 nament for the head (somewhat re- 
 sembling the Turkish Turbant) worn 
 in old time by the Princes, Priests, and 
 women of Persia " (Ootgrave), Lat. and 
 Greek tiara. 
 Of beaming sunnie raies, a golden tior 
 Circl'd his nead. 
 
 Paradise Lost, iii. 1. 635. 
 Ne other tyre she on her head did weare, 
 But crowned with a garland of sweet rosiere. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, II. ix. 19. 
 Your tires shall be upon your heads, and 
 your shoes upon your feet. — A. V. Esekiel, 
 xxiv. 23. 
 
 In the Cleveland dialect a tire is the 
 tinsel or metal edging of cabinets, cof- 
 fins, &c. (Atkinson). 
 
 His wife is more zealous and therefore 
 more costly, and he bates her in tyres what 
 she stands him in Religion. — John Eiirle, A 
 Church Papist, Micro-cosmographie, 1628. 
 
 My lady hath neyther eyes to see nor eares 
 to heare, shee holdeth on her way perhaps to 
 the Tyre makers shoppe, where she sbaketh 
 out her crownes to bestowe vpon some new 
 fashioned atire. — B. Rich, Honestie of this 
 Age, 1614, p. 18 (Percy Soc). 
 
 (These Apes of Fancy) that doe looke so 
 like ^(ti/re-makers maydes, that for the dainty 
 decking vp of themselves might sit in any 
 Seamsters shop in all the Exchange.— Jd. 
 p. 50. 
 
 Attire is itself a corrupted form of 
 Fr. attour {ato^lr), " a French hood, 
 also any kind of tire, or attire, for a 
 woman's head," which again is for the 
 old Fr. atom, a headdress, from atw- 
 ner, attourner, to attire, deck, or dress 
 (originally, to turn or direct aright; 
 cf. "dress," Fr. dresser, from direoWare, 
 to direct or set aright). See Cotgrave. 
 In the Bomaunt of the Bose, what is 
 called a lady's "attire bright and 
 shene " (1. 3713) is spoken of five lines 
 later as "her rich attour." Smollett 
 uses tour in the same sense: "Covering 
 her black hair with a light-coloured 
 tov/r." — Gil Bias, bk. iv. ch. 5. 
 
 Atyre for a gentilwoman's heed, atour. — 
 Palsgrave, LescLaircissement, 1530. 
 
 I'll gie to Peggy that day she's a bride, 
 By an attour, gif my guid luck abide. 
 Ten lambs at spaining-time. 
 A. Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd, iii. 2. 
 
TIT-MOUSE 
 
 ( 395 ) 
 
 TOAB-EATEB 
 
 Hore weaden beon of swuche scheape, & 
 alle hore aturn swuche bet hit beo eScene 
 hwarto heo beo<5 i-turnde. — Ancren Riwle, 
 p.426.- 
 
 [Their garments be of such shape and all 
 their attire such that it may be easily seen 
 whereto they be deroted.] 
 
 And then her Shield's so full of Dread, 
 With that foul staring Gorgon's Head, 
 Which, dress'd up in a Tour of Snakes, 
 The Sight so much more horrid makes. 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, p. 247, 
 
 Tit-mouse, from A. Saxon mase (Ice- 
 landic meisiTigr, the bird called a tit- 
 mouse, Dutch mosscJie, G-er. meise, a 
 small bird), and Icel. tittr, a tit or 
 sparrow, Orkney tiiing, a titlark. Com- 
 pare, Dutch, — 
 
 Mos, mosje, a sparrow, a mjisl<in, Mitfxh, 
 miissche, a spai'row. — Sewel, Dutch Diet. 
 1708,— 
 
 French moucef, a sparrow (Cotgrave) ; 
 and tit-la/rh, iom-tit, moor-tidy, in Cum- 
 berland the ground-lark. 
 
 And ek forthe the sulve mose 
 Hire thoukes wolde the lo-tose. 
 Oil/ und Nightingale, 1. 70 (Percy Soc). 
 [And also for that the same tit-mouse her 
 thoughts would thee injure.] 
 
 The Nightingale is sovereigne of song, 
 Before him sits the Titmose silent bee. 
 
 Spenser, Shepheards Calender, Nov. 1. 26. 
 Another sly sets lime-twigs for the Wren, 
 Finch, Linot, Tit-mouse, Wag-Tail (Cock and 
 Hen). 
 
 /. Sylvester, Da Bartas, p. 456. 
 
 As a natural consequence of the mis- 
 understood singular resulted a plural 
 tit-mice. 
 
 There is not much music among the Tit., 
 mice. — Broderip, Zoological Recreations, p. 20. 
 Not only at Crowes, Ravens, Dawes and 
 
 Kites, 
 Rookes, Owles, or Cuckowes, dare she make 
 
 her flights, . . . 
 At Wag tailes, busie Tiimise, or such like. 
 G. Wither, Britain's Remembrancer, 
 1628, p. 5. 
 A masque of birds were better, that could 
 
 dance 
 The raorrice in the air, wrens and robin red- 
 breasts, 
 Linnets and titmice. 
 
 Randolph, Amyntas, act i. sc. 3 (1638). 
 
 Tittle-bat, a provincial name for 
 the Httle fish Gasterosteus Tracfmrus, 
 known in literature as the prenomen 
 of the hero of Warren's Ten Thou- 
 sand a Tear is a corruption of its 
 more ordinary name stickle-hack (com- 
 
 pare hat, the bird, for old Eng. hack). 
 Other names for it are similarly de- 
 scriptive of its prickles, e.g. Bane- 
 stickle, Bonetickle, Jack Sharpling, 
 Pricklehack, Stickling (see SatcheU, 
 Glossary of Fish Names). 
 
 ToAD-EATEE. The suggestion that 
 toady, toad-eater, is derived from (a 
 hypothetical) Portuguese word todito, 
 from iocfo( =:Lat. totus), as if a fac-to- 
 tum, a do-all, who will stick at nothing, 
 but swallow everything he is required, 
 advanced by Archbishop Whately and 
 supported in Warter's ParocMal Frag- 
 ments, p. 196, will not stand examina- 
 tion. Its obvious meaning is the real 
 one, a person that will consent to sto- 
 mach anything, however repulsive (Pr. 
 avaler des couleuvres), to please his 
 patron, as in the following quotatiot : — 
 
 " See how accommodating we can be " 
 [says one of the versatile fraternity of para- 
 sites in Atha;neus, as translated by Dr. Bad- 
 ham]. " I, for instance, though certainly no 
 water-di'inker by choice, can, if necessary, 
 and my entertainer be hydrophilously- dis- 
 posed, transmute myself instantly into a fi'og ; 
 or if he be fond(nasty fellow !) of cabbages, I 
 can help him to demolish them like a cater- 
 pillar or snail." — Prose Haiieutics, p. 508. 
 
 The word originally meant a moun- 
 tebank's assistant, who ate, or pre- 
 tended to eat, toads, that his master 
 might show his skill in curing him 
 after partaking of fare reputedly so poi- 
 sonous (see Qua/rterly Review, No. 198, 
 p. 324). 
 
 Turn toad-eater to some foreign quack. — 
 Thomas Brown. 
 
 This Proverb is no more fit to be used 
 than a Toad can be wholsom to be eaten, 
 which can never by Mountebancks be so 
 dieted and corrected, but that still it remains 
 rank poyson. — T. Fuller, Worthies of Eng - 
 land, vol. i. p. 377. 
 
 And I well remember the time, but was 
 not eye witness of the fact (though numbers 
 of people were) when a quack, at this village, 
 ate a toad to make the country people stare, 
 afterwards he drank oil. — G. Wiiite, Nat. 
 Hist. ofSelborne, Letter 17 (1768>. 
 
 Lord Edgcumbe's [place] ... is destined 
 to Harry Vane, Pulteney's toad-eater. — Ho- 
 race Walpole, Letters, 1742, vol. i. p. 186. 
 
 The term " is explained as a novelty 
 by Sarah Fielding, in her story of 
 David Simple, published in 1744." — 
 Cunningham, note in loco. 
 
 We have seen mountebanks to swallow 
 dismembered toads, and drink the poisondus 
 
TOAB-FLAX 
 
 ( 396 ) 
 
 TOAST 
 
 broth after them, only for a little ostentation 
 and gain. —Bp. Hull, Occasional MeditationSj 
 Works, vol. xi. p. 180 (Oxford ed.). 
 
 Toad-flax, according to Dr. Prior, 
 has acquired its name from a blmider, 
 it having been identified with the plant 
 huhoiiium, which was so called from 
 being used to cure sores named lubops, 
 Lat. huhones. Biibomivm, was mistaken 
 for hufonium, from hufo, a toad, and 
 was explained to mean toad-wort^, " be- 
 cause it is a great remedy for the 
 toads " I 
 
 Dr. Latham, however, maintains that 
 toad-flaa; is that which is dead, Ger. 
 todt, or useless for the purpose to which 
 proper flax is appUed, just as toad-stone 
 denotes basaltic rock which is dead 
 (todt) or useless, as containing no lead- 
 ore (Dictionary, s.vv.). 
 
 ToADS-CAP, Norfolk toadshep, from 
 sleep, a basket. 
 
 Toady, a colloquial word for to flat- 
 ter, to fawn like a sycophant, has per- 
 haps nothing to do with toad-eater, as 
 generally assumed. In Prov. English 
 toadyis quiet, tractable, kindly, friendly, 
 a corruption of towardly, Cumberland 
 towertVy, Old Eng. toward, the opposite 
 of one who is froward [i.e. from-ward), 
 turned away, intractable, stubborn, 
 perverse, Fx.reveclie (from reversus). It. 
 ritroso (from retrorsus, retro-versus). 
 The original phrase was perhaps " to 
 be toady to one," i.e. obliging, offi.- 
 ciously attentive to him. 
 
 Why, that is spoken like a toward prince. 
 Shakespeare, 3 Hen. VI. li. 2, 66. 
 
 For sum bene devowte, holy and towarde, 
 And holden the ry3t way to blysse ; 
 
 And sum bene feble, lewde, and frowarde 
 Kow God amend that ys amys ! 
 
 Why I can't he a Nun, 1. 318 (Philolog. 
 Soc. Trans. 1858, p. 146). 
 
 A Caciques Sonne which was towardly in 
 his youth, and prooued after dissolute, beinp; 
 asked the reason thereof, said, "Since 1 was 
 a Christian, 1 haue learned to swear in va- 
 rietie, to dice, to lie, to swagger ; and now I 
 want nothing, but a Concubine (which I 
 meane to liaue shortly) to make me a com- 
 plete Christian." — S. Pnrchas, Pilgrirmiges, p. 
 
 not). 
 
 N ebuchadnezzar . . . chose the towardliest 
 children of the Israelites to train them up in 
 Idolatry, like the Popish Seminaries, that 
 they might be his instruments another day. — 
 H. Smith, Sermons, 1657, p. 22-t. 
 
 He's towardly, and will come on apace ; 
 His frank confession shows he has some grace. 
 Dryden, The Wild Gallant, Pro/oo-ue 
 1667, 1. 24. 
 
 Toast, a health proposed, or a belle 
 whose health is often drunk, so spelt 
 as if it had some reference to the pieces 
 of toast (pams toetns) frequently intro- 
 duced into beverages in former days, Js 
 a corruption of toss, which in Scottish 
 has the same meaning. " To toss a 
 pot " was th-e old phrase for to drink 
 it off at a draught, and toss-pot was an 
 habitual drinker. Wedgwood traces a 
 connexion with Ger. stossen, to cHnk 
 the glasses together in drinking, which 
 is also the meaning of tope, Sp. topar, 
 to knock, It. topa ! Compare also Fr. 
 choguer, to knock glasses, to carouse ; 
 Argot cric-croo, i ta sante (Nisard, 
 Hist, des LivresPopulam-es, ii.371). The 
 original form of the word, then, was 
 toss-t, or tos-t, t being excrescent as in 
 hes-t (A. Sax. Tims), truan-t, &c. See 
 Eampaet. 
 
 Bye attour, my gutcher has, 
 A hich house and a laigh ane, 
 A' forbye, my bonie seP 
 
 The toss of Ecclefechan. 
 
 Burns, Poems, p. 254 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Call me the Sonne of beere, and then contine. 
 Me to the tap, the tost, the turfe ; let wine, 
 Ne'r shine upon me. 
 
 Herrick, Hesperides, Poems, p. 82 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 That tels of winters tales and mirth. 
 
 That milk-maids make about the hearth. 
 Of Christmas sports, the wassell-boule, 
 That['sJ tost up, after fox-i'-th'-hole. 
 
 Herrick, Hesperides, Poems, p. 134 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 The plumpe challice, and the cup 
 That tempts till it he tossed up. 
 
 Id. p. 135. 
 
 In the Canting Vocabulary, " Who fosts 
 now?" is rendered "who christens the 
 health 1 " and " an old tost " is explained to 
 mean " a pert pleasant old fellow." 'J'he fol- 
 lowing passage shows plainly the etymology 
 of toss-pot .- it is extracted from the School- 
 master, or Teacher of Table Philosophy, 1583, 
 It. 35, " Of merry jests of preaching friers : 
 A certaine frier ti)ssivg the pot, and drinking 
 very often at the table was reprehended by 
 the priour." — Brand, Pop. Antiquities, ii. 341 
 (ed. Bolm). 
 
 What has she better, pray, than I, 
 
 What hidden charms to boast, 
 That :iU mankind for her should die 
 Whilst 1 am scarce a toost! 
 
 Prior, The Female Phaelon. 
 
TOM 
 
 ( 397 ) 
 
 TOM-GAT 
 
 But if, at first, he minds his hits. 
 And drinks champagne amono; the wits. 
 Five deep he toasts the towering^ lasses ; 
 Repeats you verses wrote on glnsses. 
 
 Prior, The VhameUon. 
 Then to the sparkling glass would give his 
 
 toast ; 
 Whose bloom did most in his opinion shine. 
 
 King, Art of Cookery, 1776, iii. 75, 
 For Hervey the first vrit she cannot be, 
 Nor, cruel Richmond ! the first toait fiar 
 thee, 
 i^. Young, Love of Fume, Satire, vi. 
 
 And if he be (as now a-days 
 Many young People take ill ^^'ays) 
 A Toss-pot, and a drunken Toast 
 It always is at his own Cost, 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, p, 243. 
 
 The word was assimilated to toast, 
 the frequent accompaniment formerly 
 of a draught. 
 
 Cut a fresh toast, tapster, fill me a pot, 
 here is money ; I am no beggar, I'll follow 
 thee as long as the ale lasts. — Greene, Loak- 
 ing-Glass for London and England, Works, 
 p. 127. 
 
 Tom, an old popular name for a 
 deep-toned bell, as " Great Tom " of 
 Oxford, of Lincoln, of Exeter, is pro- 
 bably not derived from St. Thomas of 
 Canterbury, or any other Thomas, but 
 seems to be an onomatopoetie word, 
 imitative of the booming resonance of 
 its toll, hke Fr, ton, Lat. tonus, Greek 
 Tovog, toncvre, to thunder, Sansk, tan 
 (see Farrar, Ghapters on Language, p. 
 181), Compare Fr. tan-tan, a cow-bell 
 (Cotgrave), tintoum; Gaelic and Ir. 
 tonn, and Welsh ton, a resounding bil- 
 low, " The league-long roller thunder- 
 ing on the reef" (Tennyson); Heb. 
 telurni, the great deep, " the hoarwing 
 sea " (Dryden) ; tom-tom, a drum, tam- 
 lour, all expressive of sound. 
 
 So " Dmg-dong, bell " (Tempest, i. 2, 
 403), and Dr. Cooke's round, "Bim, 
 Borne, beU," 
 
 Great Tom is cast, 
 
 And Christ- Church bells ring, , , , 
 And Tom comes last. 
 
 Matt. White (ab, 1630), Rimhault's 
 Rounds, Catches, S^c. p. 30. 
 No one knows why " Tom " should have 
 been twice selected for gi'eat bells, despite 
 the tremendous sentence passed by Dryden 
 on the name. Indeed Tom of Oxford is said 
 to have been christened Mary, and how the 
 metamorphosis of names and sexes was 
 efifected is a mystery, — Saturday Review, vol, 
 50, p, 670. 
 
 And know, when Tom rings out his knells, 
 The best of you will be but dinner-bells, 
 
 Bp. Corbet, On Great Tom of Christ- 
 Church, 1648, 
 
 Hee sent , . . withall a thousand pounds 
 in treasures, to be bestowed upon a great 
 bell to be rung at his funerall, which bell he 
 caused to be called Tom a Lincolne, after his 
 owne name, where to this day it remaineth in 
 the same citie, — Tom a Lincolne, ch, ii, 
 (1635), Thorns, Early Eng, Prose Romances, 
 vol, ii, p. 246, 
 
 AVe ascended one of the other towers after- 
 wards to see Great Tom, the larojeat bell in 
 England, — Southey, Don EspnelUi s Letters. 
 
 Tomboy, a romping girl, was con- 
 sidered by Verstegan and Eiohardson a 
 corruption of Old' Eng. tumhere (cf. 
 Wycliffe, Ecdus. ix. 4), a tvimbler or 
 dancer. In the A, Saxon version of 
 St.Matthew (xiv. 6),Herodias' daughter 
 tumbled before them, tumiude hefdran 
 Mm, and in many ancient MSS. she is 
 represented turning heels over head in 
 the midst of the company, like a tom- 
 hoy certainly. The word is, however, 
 more probably an intensified form of 
 "boy," torn corresponding to Scot, tum- 
 lus, anything large or strong of its kind, 
 Prov. Eng, tom-pin, tom-ioe (Wright), 
 thumb, &o. Compare Old Eng. tom- 
 rig, a hoiden ; Lonsdale tom-beadle, a 
 cockchafer, tom-spayad, a large spade 
 (E. B. Peacock), 
 
 Tumbe, to Dance, Tumbod, Danced, hereof 
 we yet call a wench that skippeth or leapeth 
 like a boy, a Tomboy, our name also of tum- 
 bling commeth here hence. — Verstegan, Res- 
 titution of Decayed Intelligence (1634), p. 
 234. 
 
 Some at Nine-pins, some at Stool-ball, 
 though that stradling kind of Tomboy sport 
 be not so handsome forMayds, as Forreiners 
 observe, who hold that dansing in a Ring, or 
 otherwise, is a far more comely exercise for 
 them. — J. Howell, Londinopolis, p. 399. 
 
 — A lady, 
 So fair ... to be partner'd. 
 With tomboys hired with that self-exhibition 
 Which your own coffers yield. 
 
 Shakespeare, Cymbeline, i. 6, 123. 
 
 Tom-cat has generally been regarded 
 as compounded with the shortened form 
 of Thomas, as the most common mas- 
 culine name, just as we speak of a 
 Jack-hare; e.g. Mr. Ohphant thinks 
 this word could scarcely have arisen 
 till after the death of St. Thomas of 
 Canterbury, which made the name 
 widely popular (Old and Mid. Eng. 
 
TOMMY 
 
 ( 398 ) TOPSTTUBVr 
 
 p. 39). Probably Tom liere has no 
 more to do with Thomas than carl, in 
 the older form oaurl-cat, has to do with 
 Charles as a Christian name ; it seems 
 to convey the idea of something large 
 and strong of its kind, as in torn-tit, 
 being akin to thwmh, the strong mem- 
 ber of the hand, A. Sax. thuma, Icel. 
 iTvwmall, from Sansk. root tu, to be 
 strong, whence also Lat. tumor, old 
 Eng. thee, theon, to thrive, Goth, theihan, 
 to thrive, grow, and perhaps Prov. 
 Eng. thumping, large, vigorous. Dr. 
 Morris {Adda-ess to Philolog. Soc. 1876, 
 p. 4) quotes from MS. Cantab. : — 
 
 The fifte fynger is the thowmbe, and hit has 
 
 most my5t, 
 And fastest haldes of alle the tother, forthi 
 
 men calks it ri^t. 
 You're oilers quick to set your back arid^e, — 
 Though 't suits a tom-cat more'n a sober bridge. 
 J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers, Poems, p. 493. 
 
 Tommy, a slang word for food, whence 
 tormny-sho]], a store belonging to an 
 employer where his workmen are 
 obliged to take out part of their earn- 
 ings ia tormny or food, is probably from 
 the Irish tiomallodm, I eat (Tylor). 
 
 Shall we suppose . . . that it [panis siccus] 
 is placed in antithesis to soft ana new bread, 
 what English sailors call "soft tommy?" — 
 De Quincey, The Casuistry oj Roman Meals, 
 Works, vol. iii. p. 254. 
 
 Tom Thumb is supposed to have ac- 
 quired his Christian name through 
 the reduphcation of his surname, Icel. 
 jpimiK, a mannikin, iiumlungr, an inch, 
 Ger. daumling (Fr. le petit Poucet), a 
 thumbhng, from Icel. ]>u,mall, a thumb, 
 Ger. daum, A. Sax. \>uma, Dan. tomme. 
 Thus Tom Thumb would be really 
 Thumh-thumh (Wheeler, Noted Ncmies 
 of Fiction, p. 364). Compare tom-toe, 
 the big toe, Icel. ipwmal-td, the thumb- 
 toe, or great toe. In children's game- 
 rhymes the thumb is Tom Thmnhkin, 
 Dan. Tommeltot, Swed. Tomme tott 
 (HalUweU, Pop. Rhymes and Nursery 
 Tales, p. 105). It is conjectured also 
 that Tamlane and Tom-a-lin of old 
 ballads is merely a corruption of the 
 Northern Thavmilin or ThumhUng. 
 
 Nor shall my story be made of the mad, 
 merry pranks of Tom of Bethlem, Tom Lin- 
 coln, or Tom a Lin (Tamlane), the devil's 
 supposed Bastard, nor yet of Garagantua, 
 that monster of men ; but of an older Tom, a 
 Tom of more antiquity, a Tom of strange 
 
 making, I mean Little Tom of Wales, no 
 bigger than a miller's thumb, and therefore 
 for his small stature, surnamed Tom Thumb, 
 — R. Johnson, Tom Thumb, 1621, Introd. 
 
 In Arthur's court Tom Thumb did live, 
 
 A man of mickle might. 
 The best of all the table round. 
 And eke a doughty knight : 
 His stature but an men in height, 
 Or quarter of a span. 
 Life and Death of Tom Thumb, 1630 
 (^Robert's Ballads, p. 82). 
 
 May 22. What makes me think Tom 
 Thumb is founded upon history, is the method 
 of those times of turning true history iuto 
 little pretty stories, of which we hare many 
 instances one of which is Guy of Warwick. 
 — Reliquia HeamiamE, 1734, vol. iii. p. 138. 
 
 ToNGUE-GBASs, a common name in 
 Ireland for the- cress, the pungent 
 flavour of which bites the tongue. 
 
 In the Holdemess dialect of E. York- 
 shire water-cresses are called watther- 
 
 Tooth and egg metal, a popular cor- 
 ruption (vid. W. Carleton's Traits a/nd 
 Stories of the Irish Peasantry, p. 190, 
 Pop. ed.) of the word Tutenag, or 
 Chinese copper, a species of metal Hke 
 German silver, compounded of copper, 
 zinc, and nickel. Dr. Chamook states 
 that a similar substance which the 
 Portuguese found in use in India and 
 China was called by them Teutonica, 
 and that this term subsequently caine 
 back to Europe ia the shape of Tutenag 
 {Verba Nominalia, s.v.). M. Devic, 
 however, agrees with De Sacy in hold- 
 ing tutenag, Portg. tutenaga, Pr. tou- 
 tenage, 0. Pr. tutunac and tintenague, to 
 be derived from a Persian toutzd-ndk, a 
 substance analogous to tutty, Pr. tuiie. 
 
 In the list of commodities brought over 
 from the East Indies, 1678, 1 find among the 
 druggs tincal and toothanage. , . . Enquire 
 also what these are. — Sir Thos. BroioTie, Works, 
 vol. iii. p. 456 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 Topsyturvy is a cm-ious corruption, 
 through the form topsi'-to'erway, of 
 topside-i'other-way. 
 
 The estate of that flourishing towne was 
 turned arsie versie, topside the otiur vme, and 
 from abundance of prosperitie quite exchanged 
 to extreame penurie. — Stanihurst, DescHptioji 
 of Ireland, p. 26, col. 2 (Holinshed, Chron. 
 vol.i. 1587). 
 
 His words are to be turned topside tother 
 way to understand them. — Search, Light of 
 Nature, vol. ii. pt. 2, c. 23 [Richardson]. 
 
TOF 
 
 ( 399 ) 
 
 TOVOET 
 
 With all my precautions how was my 
 system tuvned topside turvy! — Sterne, Trist. 
 Shandy, iii. 169 [Davies], 
 
 He tourneth all thynge topsy tervy. 
 Not sparyngf for eny symony, 
 To sell spretuall gyftes. 
 Rede Me and lie nott Wrothe, 1528, p. 61 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 A strange gentlewoman (some light hus- 
 wife belike) that was di*essed like a May 
 lady, and as most of our gentlewomen are, 
 was more soUicitous of her head tire, then of 
 her health . . . and had rather be fair than 
 honest (as Cato said) and have the common- 
 wealth turned topsie turvie ; then her tires 
 marred. — Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy , III, 
 ii. 3, 3. 
 
 He breaketh in through thickest of his foes. 
 And by his travail topsi-turneth then. 
 The live and dead, and half-dead horse and 
 men, 
 
 J. Sylvester, Da Bartas, p. 319, 
 
 Top, To sleep like a, has been as- 
 serted to be a corruption of a French 
 original " Dormir comme une taupe," to 
 sleep like a mole. It, topo, a mouse or 
 rat. Compare : — 
 
 The people inhabiting the Alpes haue a 
 common prouerbe, to expresse a drowsie 
 and sleepy fellow in the German tongue thus : 
 " Er musse synzyt geschlaffen haben wie ein 
 murmelthier." . . . He must needes sleepe 
 a little like the Mouse of the Alpes [i.e. a 
 Marmot]. — Topsell, Hist, of Foure-footed 
 Beasts, p. 552 (1608). 
 
 The expression is, however, derived 
 from the apparent repose and absence 
 of motion in a top when, rapidly re- 
 volving, it assumes a perfectly upright 
 posture, and is then said " to sleep." 
 Compare the French phrase, dormir 
 comme un sabot, sahot being an old word 
 for a top. 
 
 "Les vaisseaux qui 1& dormoient ^ 
 I'anore" (Froissart, v. iii. c, 52), i.e. 
 lay motionless. See Sleeper. 
 
 The expression is of considerable 
 antiquity, as it occurs ia The Two 
 Nolle Kinsman, 1634 : — 
 for a prieke now like a Nightingale, to put 
 
 my breast 
 Against. I shall sleepe like a Top else. 
 Act iii. sc. 4, 11. 25, 26 (ed. H. Littledale), 
 
 Touch, in the well-known passage — 
 One touch of natui'e makes the whole world 
 kin, 
 
 Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3, — 
 
 is 0. Eng, tache or tatch, a blot, fault, 
 or vice of nature, a natural blemish, 
 Fr, tache. It. tacca, tacaia. 
 
 It is a common tatche, naturally gevin to all 
 men . , , to watche well for theyr owne 
 lucre. — Chaloner, Mari<B Enconium (in 
 Nares). 
 
 Compare old Eng. touch, to infect or 
 stain (Wright) =: Fr. tacher. So Bacon 
 speaks of men being " touched with 
 pestilent diseases," and an insane per- 
 son is said to be " touched in the 
 head." 
 
 To kinde, ne to kepynge, & be waar of knaue 
 tacchis. 
 The A. B. C.of Aristotle, Bahees Book, p. 12. 
 
 Bursegaunt, we are foule deceiued in you 
 the tyme passed, for we wende that ye had 
 be a true knight, and ye are but a mocker, 
 and a iaper of ladies, and that is a foule 
 tache. — Knight of La Tour-Landry, p. 33. 
 
 Ne neuer trespast to him in teche of mys- 
 seleue. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 72, 1. 1230. 
 
 For evermore Love his servants amendeth. 
 And from all evill taches hem defendeth. 
 Chaucer, Cackow and Nightingale, 1. 192. 
 
 "Ah," said the cowheard, "I wend not 
 this, but I may beleeve it well, for hee had 
 never no tatches of me." — Malori/, Hist, of 
 King Arthur, 1634, vol. i. p. 96 (ed. Wright). 
 
 For he that is of gentle blood will draw 
 him unto gentle tatches, and to follow the 
 custome of noble gentlemen. — Id. vol. ii. 
 p. 6. 
 
 A wyfe that has an y veil tach, . 
 Ther of the husbond shalle haue a smache, 
 But Sif he loke well abowte. 
 The Tale of the Basyn, 1. 26 {Early Fop. 
 Poetry, iii. 45, ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 I gaf hym male and palster and made of 
 hym a pylgrj-m and mente al trouth, what 
 false touches can he, how can he stufiFe the 
 sleue wyth flockes. — Caxton, Reynard the Fox, 
 1481, p, 56 (ed. Arber). 
 
 His kynne and lignage drawe al afterward 
 from hym, and stonde not by hym, for his 
 falshede and deceyuable and subtyl touchis. — 
 Id. p. 78. 
 
 God forbid, but all euill touches, wanton- 
 nes, lyinge, piokinge, slouthe, will, stubburn- 
 nesse and disobedience, shold be with sharpe 
 chastisement, daily cut away. — Ascham, The 
 Scholemaster, 1570, p. 48 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Touchy, peevish, easily offended or 
 irritated, is generally understood to 
 mean, in accordance with the spelling, 
 over-sensitive to the touch, shrinking 
 or wincing at the slightest contact, Hke 
 the retractile " tender horns of cockled 
 snails," or the leaves of the sensitive 
 plant. Compare the quotations from 
 Cotgrave, Barnes, and Kay. 
 
TOUCH 
 
 ( 400 ) 
 
 TOT 
 
 You have a little infirmity — tactility or 
 touchiness. — Sydney Smithy Letters, 1831 
 [Davies]. 
 
 It is really the same word as old 
 Eng. techy, ietchy, titchy, morose, 
 peevisli, more properly tachie, tatchy, 
 faulty, corrupt, vicious (Fr. tacJie, 
 blemished), spoilt by a teche, tetche, 
 tatch, or tache, a spot, stain, or vice of 
 nature, hereditary blemish, Fr. tache. 
 See Touch. 
 
 Touchy (from touch), very irritable or sen- 
 sitive, impatient of being even touched. Noli 
 me tangere. — W. Barnes, Dorset Poems, 
 Gbssary. 
 
 Chatouilleux d la ■poincte, Quick on the 
 spurre . . . itchy, that will not endure to be 
 touched. — Cntgrave. 
 
 Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy. 
 
 Shakespeare, Rich. III. iv. 4. 
 
 Sir G. Carteret is titched at this. — Pepys, 
 Diary (ed. Bright), vol. iii. p. 317. 
 
 Titchy, morosus, difficilis. — Cole's Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 Tetch'e, or nianer of condycyone, Mos, 
 Condicio. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 A chyldis latches in playe shewe playnlye 
 what they meane. — Horrrmn, Vulgaria, 
 
 For hade )je fader ben his frende fiat hym 
 
 before keped, 
 Ne neuer ti'espast to him in teclie of rays- 
 seleue, 
 Alliterative Poems (14th cent.), p. 72, 
 1. 1229, E.E.T.S. 
 Ac I fynde if (» fader • be fake and ashrewe, 
 Jsat somdel jje sone ■ shal haue \ie sires tacches. 
 W, Langland, Vision of P. Plowman, Text B, 
 
 ix. 145 (1377, ed. Skeat). 
 This tecche had Kay take in his norice, that 
 he dide of Sowke. — Merlin, p. 135. 
 She breeds yong bones 
 And that is it makes her so tutchy sure. 
 King Leir and His Three Daughters, 1605. 
 Away these tachie humors flung. 
 
 Wit and Drollery [Wares]. 
 Ya purting, tatchy, stertling, . . . Theng. 
 — Exmoor Scolding, 1. 21 (see Mir. Elworthy's 
 note, p. 159). 
 
 Tetch, tohe restive or obstinate. — Ferguson, 
 Cumberland Glossary. 
 
 Mistetch, an ill or awkward habit acquired 
 through bad training. Mistetched^ having 
 acquired such a habit. — Atkinson, Cleveland 
 Glossai-y, p. 339. 
 
 Tetchy, quarrelsome, peevish. — E. B. Pea- 
 cock, Lonsdale Glossal^. 
 
 Mistetcht, That hath got an ill Habit, Pro- 
 perty or Custom. A Mistetcht Horse. I 
 suppose q. Misteacht, miataught, unless it 
 come from tetch, for distast, as it usually said 
 in the South, he took a Tetch ; a Displeasure 
 or Distast; this Tetch seems to be only a 
 
 Variation of Dialect for touch, and techey for 
 touchy, very inclinable to Displeasure or 
 Anger. — Ray, North Country Words d 4.i 
 (ed. 1742). ^' 
 
 And );et is aye fie fri queade techches of be 
 missiggeres. — Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 136. 
 
 [That is always the three bad faults of 
 slanderers.] 
 
 But yef the husbonde perceiuithe of the 
 wiff sum leude laches in her gouernaunce or 
 behauing, that he aught to be ielous.— Boot 
 of the Knight of La Tour-Landrii, n. 24 
 (E.E.T.S.). '^ 
 
 Nobille maydenes comen of good kyn ought 
 to be goodli, meke, wele lacked, ferme in 
 estate, behauing, and maners. — Id. p. 18. 
 
 This frantic fellow took tetch at somewliat 
 and run away into Ireland. — North, Life of 
 Ld. Guilford, ii. 286 [Davies]. 
 
 Hee is one that will doe more then he will 
 speake, and yet speake more then hee will 
 heare ; for though hee loue to touch others, 
 hee is teachy himself, and seldome to his own 
 abuses replyes but with his Fists. — John 
 Iilarte,Micro-cosmographie,16'28,A Blunt Man. 
 
 The tecky Leper is displeas'd, hee'l hence, 
 
 The Jordan-Prophet dallies against sence. 
 Quarles, Divine Fancies, p. 64 (1664). 
 
 This is no ao;e for wasps ; 'tis a dangerous 
 touchy age, and will not endure the stinging. 
 — Randolph, Hey for Honesty, The Intriiduc- 
 tion (1651). 
 
 It may be noted that tetch is an 
 American pronunciation of touch. 
 
 In the hardest times there wuz I ollei'8 
 tetched ten shillins. — J. R. Lowell, Bigtow 
 Papers, No. 2. 
 
 Touch an' hail, i.e. "Touch and 
 heal," a name for the St. John's wort 
 in Antrim and Down (Patterson), ffj/- 
 pericum, is evidently a corruption of 
 the old Eng. name tutsan, misunder- 
 stood as touch an'; — heal being then 
 added to complete the sense. 
 
 Tutsan, 0. Eng. tutsayne, is from Fr. 
 toute-saine, all wholesome. 
 
 Tot, in the old phrase " to take toy," 
 a fit of caprice or ill-humour, huff or 
 offence, seems not to have been regis- 
 tered in any of the dictionaries. It is 
 certainly distinct from toy, a plaything, 
 and probably identical with Scotch toit, 
 tout, a fit of ill-humour, Belgian foyi, a 
 draught of wind, a strong desire or 
 emotion. Compare Soot.toutiie, N.Eng. 
 totey, irritable ; Cleveland toit, to lark 
 or play the fool; 0. Eng. iotte, foohsh ; 
 and -tdty, in hoity-toity, formerly — 
 thoughtless, giddy, foolish (Wheatley, 
 Diet, of Beduplicated Words). 
 
TBAGK.POT 
 
 ( 401 ) 
 
 TBADE-WINDS 
 
 As they sometimes withdraw their lore 
 from their children upon slender dislikes, so 
 these many times take toy at a trifle. — Bp 
 Sanderson, Works, vol. i. p. 358 (ed. Jacob- 
 son). 
 
 The hot horse, hot as fire, 
 Tooke toil at this, and fell to what disorder 
 His power could ffive his will. 
 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen, act v. sc. 4, 
 1. 65(ed. Littledale). 
 Cast not thyne eyes to ne yet fro, 
 
 As thou werte full of toi/es : 
 Vse not much wagging with thy head 
 It scarce becommeth boyes. 
 
 The Babees Book, p. 80, 1. 332 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 To hear her dear tongue robb'd of such a joy. 
 Made the well-spoken nymph take such a 
 
 toy, 
 That down she sunk. 
 
 Marlowe, Hero and Leander, 5th Sestiad, 
 p. 301 (ed. Dyce). 
 
 She is one, she knows not what her selfe if 
 you aske her, but shee is indeed one that 
 ha's taken a toy at the fashion of Religion, 
 and is enamom-'d of the New-fangle. — J. 
 Earle, Micro-cosmographie, 1628, p. 63 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 Men. How now, my lady? does the toy 
 take you, as they say ? 
 
 AH. No, my lord ; nor doe we take your 
 toy, as they say. — Marston, The Insatiate 
 Countesse, act i. (vol. iii. p. 115, ed. Halli- 
 well). 
 
 The very place puts toys of desperation, 
 Without more motive, into every brain. 
 That looks so many fathoms to the sea 
 And hears it roar beneath. 
 
 Shakespeare, Hamlet, i. 4, 77. 
 These are so far from that old quare of 
 Christians, Quid faciemus t — What shall we 
 do ? that they will not admit the novel ques- 
 tion of these toytheaded times, what shall we 
 think? — T. Adams, Sermons, The Fatal Ban- 
 quet, vol. i. p. 221. 
 TsACK-POT, ) old Scotch words for a 
 Truck-pot, ) tea-pot, properly a pot 
 in which tea is drawn, the first part of 
 the word corresponding to Dan.ircsfcfce, 
 to draw (of tea), Dut. trehhen, Ger. tra- 
 gen. The Danes say, " Theen har ikke 
 trukhen nok," the tea has not drawn 
 enough (Perral, Eepp, and Eosing). 
 
 Tbade-winds, " winds which at cer- 
 taia seasons blow regularly one way at 
 sea, very serviceable in a traddng voy- 
 age " (Bailey), generally understood to 
 mean, as in this definition, winds which 
 favour trade or commerce. The proper 
 meaning is customary routine winds 
 which hold a certain well-defined 
 course, from Old and Prov. Eng. trade. 
 
 a beaten path, a rut in a road, a track, 
 a habit, a way of life, originally a trod- 
 den path, from A. Sax. tredan, to tread, 
 Dan. trcede, Icel. troia,Goth.trudan,to 
 tread. Compare Cleveland trod, a foot- 
 path, A. Sax. trod, Icel. trod, a roadway 
 to a farmstead, Prov. Swed. trad, a 
 pathway. 
 
 Trade, from meaning motion to and 
 fro, passing backwards and forwards on 
 a beaten track, has passed through the 
 sense of reciprocal intercourse, into 
 that of traffic, commerce, perhaps un- 
 der the influence of Pr. traite, trade, 
 Sp. trato (from Lat. tractiis), handling, 
 management, traffic. It. tratta. 
 
 Carr, h wheel-trade or wheel-rout. — Ken- 
 nett, Paroch. Antiquities (E. D. Soc). 
 
 A vast o' rabbits here, by the trade they 
 make. — Atkinson, CleveUind Glossaiy, p. 540. 
 
 A postern with a blinde wicket there was 
 A common trade to passe through Priarfi's 
 house. 
 
 Lord Surrey, JSneid, bk. ii. 1. 592 
 (ab. 1540). 
 
 Mr. Wedgwood has the apt quota- 
 tion — 
 
 Wyth wind at will the trad held thai. 
 And in England com rycht swyth. 
 
 Wynton, vi. 20, 65. 
 
 — I'll be buried in the king's highway 
 Some way of common trade, where subjects' 
 
 feet 
 May hourly trample on their sovereign's 
 
 head: 
 For on my heart they tread now whilst I live. 
 Shakespeare, King Richard II. iii. 3, 158. 
 Sti'eight gan he him revyle, and bitter 
 rate. 
 As Shepheardes cmTe, that in darke Eveninges 
 
 bhade, 
 Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes 
 trade. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, II. vi. 39. 
 
 It requireth of every man to return from 
 his evil ways, his ancient and accustomed 
 sins wherein he had travelled and traded 
 himself, and made it his walk a long time. — 
 Bp, J. King, Lectures on Jonah, 1594, p. 238 
 (ed. Grosart). 
 
 The term trade-uindsis of a doubtful origin 
 and signification. Some think that it has 
 been applied to these winds on account of 
 their constancy, trade originally signifying a 
 common course or track, the course treaded ; 
 and Hakluyt has the phrase, " the wind blow- 
 ing trade," i.e. a regular course. Others 
 think that it has been introduced by our sea- 
 men, because they considered these winds 
 more favourable to the promoting of trade 
 and commerce than any other wind they 
 
 D D 
 
TBAIN-OIL 
 
 ( 402 ) 
 
 TBAPE8 
 
 were acquainted with. — W. Wittich, Curiosi- 
 ties of Physical Gengmphii, i. 105. 
 
 Teach a child in the trade of his way, and 
 when liee is olde, hee shall not depart from 
 it. — Genevan Version^ Prov. xxii. 6. 
 
 So we travelled with this woman till we 
 brought her to a good trade, and at length 
 shewed her the Kinges pardon, and let her 
 go. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 125 verso. 
 
 Teain-oil, a species of coarse oil, is 
 now understood by most people to have 
 been so named from having to do with 
 the only trains with which they are 
 acquainted, viz., railway-trains, as if 
 used for lubricating their wheels. 
 Others have supposed that the word, 
 formerly spelt trainy oil, comes from Pr. 
 huile trainee, as if oil drawn off from 
 the fat or blubber {tradner, to draw), 
 like our " co\(!i-ckawn castor-oil" (so 
 Chambers, Etym. Bid.). It is really 
 from Dut. traan, whale-oyl, trane-oyl 
 (Sewel,1708), another usage of trcmn, a 
 tear, a dripping, traanen, to shed tears, 
 to trickle or run (as oil from blubber) ; 
 Swed. tran, and tranig, trainy; Ger. 
 thi-an, blubber oil, thrdne, a tear, a drop, 
 O. H. Ger. irahan. 
 
 Similarly tar, A. Sax. tern, teor, tyrwa, 
 Dan. tjere, Swed. fjOra, Icel. fja/ra, 
 might seem to be allied to iecur, A. Sax. 
 tea/r, tcer, taher (Goth, tagr), used also 
 for any dropping, distillation, or exu- 
 dation, such as pitch from the pine. 
 Compare halsames tear ( jElfric), — ' ' The 
 balsam tree weeps out a kind of gum, 
 like teans." — T. Adams, Worhs, i. 364; 
 Greek dakru, the tear of the pine:= 
 pitch (Medea, 1. 1197) ; It. lacrima, 
 " any kind of gum-drops, as Rosin or 
 Terpentine." — Plorio; "Arborum lacri- 
 mm." — Phny, xi. 6 ; " Thy ripe fruits 
 and thy liquors.'" — A. V. Ex. xxii. 29, 
 Heb. ''tear" (of thy trees); "mul- 
 berry-tree." — 2 Sam. xxiii. 24, Heb. 
 hdhah, the weeping, i.e. exuding, tree. 
 Compare Dan. taar, a drop of drink, 
 taare, a tear. Diefenbaoh, however, 
 connects iar with tree, Goth, triu (Goth. 
 Sprache, ii. 682). 
 
 Sylvester says of the balm : — 
 Whereof the rich Egyptian so endears 
 Eoot, bark and fruit, and much more the 
 tears. 
 Da Bartas, Divine Weekes, 1621, p. 181. 
 And where huge hogsheads sweat with trainy 
 
 oil. 
 Thy breathing nostrils hold. 
 
 Gay, Trivia, ii. 253. 
 
 Tbansom, a cross-beam, in a ship a 
 piece of timber that lies a-thwart the 
 stem (Bailey), is a naturalized form of 
 Lat. transtrum, a cross-beam, originally 
 a rower's bench, as if a timber going 
 across {trans) from side to side of the 
 vessel. This word itself is, however, a 
 corrupted form of a Greek thrdrmtron, 
 a diminutival form of thranos, a rowing 
 bench, akin to thrdnos, a stool. A 
 further corruption is transommer, as if 
 oompotmded with summer, Fr. soTmnier, 
 a beam of timber. 
 Forrests are saw'd in Transoms, Beams and 
 
 Somers, 
 Great Rocks made little, what with Sawes 
 
 and Hammers. 
 
 J. Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 464'. 
 
 Trapes, a colloquial term for an idle, 
 slatternly woman, is not, as we might 
 suppose, derived from Prov. Eng. trape, 
 to trail along in an untidy manner, as 
 if a draggle-tail, but from trapes,traipse, 
 to wander or saunter about, trapass, to 
 wander about aimlessly (Peacock, Mam- 
 ley and Oorringhami Glossary, N. W. 
 Lincoln.), Pr. trepasser, trespasser, to 
 pass beyond (one's own limits), be a 
 tramp or vagrant. 
 
 It wasn't vor want o' a good will, the litter- 
 legg'd trapes hadn't a' blowed a coal between 
 you and me. — Mrs. Palmer, Devomhire Court- 
 ship, p. 14. 
 
 Learnedly spoke ! I had not car'd, 
 If Pallas here had been preferr'd ; 
 But to bestow it on that Trapes, 
 It mads me ! 
 
 Cotton, BiirUsqu£ upon Burlesque, 
 Poems, p. 274. 
 Since full each other station of renown, 
 Who would not be the greatest trapes in 
 town. 
 
 E. Young, Satire VI. On Women. 
 
 The following are from Davies, Supp. 
 Eng. Glossary .- — 
 
 It's such a toil and a trapes up them two pair 
 of stairs. — Mrs. H. Wood, The Channings, p. 
 471. 
 
 The daughter a tall, trapesing, ti-oUoping, 
 talkative maypole. — Goldsmith, She Stoops to 
 Conquer, act i. 
 
 Compare with this Scottish stravaig, 
 to stroll or wander about idly, also of 
 classical origin, being a derivative of 
 Lat. extra-vagari, to wander beyond 
 the bounds, be extravagant, whence It. 
 stravaga/re, to wander, gad, or stray 
 beyond or out of the way (Plorio), 
 Prov. estraguar, old Fr. estraycr, and 
 
TBAYESTILE 
 
 ( 403 ) 
 
 TRIBULATION 
 
 Eng. stray. Cf. strange, from Lat. ex- 
 traneus. 
 
 He has gi'en up a ti'ade and ta'en to stra- 
 vaigin'. — A. HisUrp, Scottish Proverbs, p. 118. 
 Th* extravagant and erring spirit. 
 
 Hamlet, i. 1. 
 
 Prophecy did not extravagute into remote 
 subjects, beyond the Jewish or the Christian 
 pale. — Davison, On Prophecy, p. 71 (8th 
 ed.). 
 
 Teavestile, " applied to an author 
 when his Sense and stile is alter'd " 
 (Bailey), is a corrupt form of travesty, 
 Fr. travesiie, lit. a disguise or change 
 of vesture (tra/ns and vestis). 
 
 Teavellbr'sJoy. This popular name 
 for the clematis presents a curious in- 
 stance of a word originating in a mis- 
 taken etymology. The French name 
 for the plant is viorne, shortened from 
 Lat. vihurmmi (It. vibv/rno). This 
 being Latinized into viorna, was inter- 
 preted by Gerarde as vi{am)-ornans, 
 the plant which decks the road with 
 its flowers, and so cheers the traveller 
 on his way, andEngUshed accordingly 
 "Traveller's Joy." His own account 
 is as follows : — 
 
 [It] is called commonly Viorna qitasi vias 
 ornuns, of decking and adorning waies and 
 hedges, where people trauell, and thereupon 
 I haue named it the Traueilers Joie, — Gerarde, 
 Herball, p. 739 (fol. 1597). 
 Here was one [hut] that, snmmer-blanch'd, 
 Was parcel-bearded with the traveller's joy. 
 Tennyson, Ayimer's Field, 1. 153. 
 
 Teeasuee, an assimilation of Fr. tre- 
 sor. It. Sp. tesoro, Lat. Gk. thesav/rus 
 (a deposit of gold), to words like mea- 
 swre, scripture, verd/wre, portraiitwe, pic- 
 ture, ending in -we, Lat. -v/ra. 
 
 (jat es welth, als I sayde before. 
 Of worldly riches and iresore. 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 1266. 
 
 Trebn-waeb, given by Bailey as an 
 old word for " ea/rthen vessels," from 
 Fr. terrine, so spelt as if connected with 
 treen (i.e. tree-en), made of wood. 
 
 Treenware, Earthen Vessels. — Ray, North 
 Country Words, p. 63. 
 
 Teepan, to deceive or ensnare, has 
 no connexion with the surgical instru- 
 ment so spelt. The old form of the 
 word was to trapan, being from It. tra- 
 pana/re, to cheat. 
 
 Some deduce it from Drepano, It. Trapuni, 
 a city and port in Sicily, into which some 
 
 English ship having put under stress of 
 weather received a friendly welcome, and 
 afterwards by a breach of faith were forcibly 
 detained there. — Skinner. 
 
 Some tell it thus, that Plowden being of 
 the Romish perswasion, some Setters tra- 
 panned him (pardon the prolepsis) to hear 
 Masse. — T. Fuller, Worthies of England, vol. 
 ii. p. 254. 
 The ladies' hearts he did trepan. 
 My gallant braw John Highlandmah. 
 
 Burns, Poems, p. 50 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Forthwith alights the innocent trapann'd 
 One leads his Horse, the other takes his 
 Hand. 
 Cotton, Wonders of the Peake, p. 321. 
 
 Teiangles, a slang corruption of de- 
 hrium tremens. 
 
 Tei-bdoket, a name for the cucking- 
 stool, an old punishment for scolding 
 women. It consisted of a chair fixed 
 at the end of a long pole, in which the 
 offender was seated, and then ducked 
 in a horse-pond. 
 
 The tri-bucliet, a ducking-stool, seems to 
 have been the general chastisement formerly ; 
 and each of these towns had one of these in- 
 struments also. — T. Bond, Topographical 
 Sketches of the Boroughs of East and West 
 Looe, in Cornwall, 1823. 
 
 The word has nothing to do with try 
 or huckei, but is a corruption of trebu- 
 chet, which is used in the same sense, 
 Fr. t/rehuchet, a trap, from trehucher, to 
 stumble, trip, fall down, L. Lat. trebu- 
 chetv/m. " Tm-bichetum, a cokstole." — 
 Ortus. See Way, Prompt. Fm'vuloruiv, 
 p. 107. 
 
 Teibulation by a pseudo-etymology 
 has sometimes been regarded as a deri- 
 vative of Lat. tribulus, a thorny plant, 
 a thistle, from Greek tri-bolos, a " three- 
 pronged" instnmaent, a caltrop, a plant 
 with spikes or prickles ; with some 
 latent reference, perhaps, to the thorns 
 and thistles of the curse (Gen. iii. 18). 
 Thus the men of Succoth were in tri- 
 bulation when Gideon taught them 
 with "thorns of the wilderness and 
 briers " (Judges viii. 16). So teasel is 
 the plant by which wool is teased, 
 carded, or "vexed" (Dryden), and 
 compare Sp. eseolimoso, hard, obstinate, 
 from Lat. scolymos, a thistle, Banff 
 taisle, to vex or irritate (Gregor). 
 
 In reality, however, Lat. tribulafio 
 comes through trlbulare, to afflict or 
 press down, from tribuluin, a threshing 
 
TRIGE 
 
 ( 404 ) 
 
 TBIGK 
 
 inetruiaent, and denotes affliction as 
 that which morally separates the wheat 
 from the chaff, 
 
 Till the bruising flails of God's corrections 
 
 Have threshid out of us our vain affections. 
 
 G. Wither. 
 
 See Trench, Study of Words, Lect.ii. 
 
 The confusion of these two words 
 tribulus and tribulwm in ItaUan is com- 
 plete^ compare : — 
 
 Tribolo, a kinde of weapon like a flaile ; . . 
 also the caltrop thistle or rough teazle, vsed 
 also for a bramble, a brier, a tborne. Fare 
 il tribolo, to waile, lament, scratch their faces, 
 teare their haires, &c. 
 
 Tribolare, to afflict, vex, or bring into tri- 
 bulation — to breake, to bruise, or thresh 
 corne with a flaile — also to teaze clothes — 
 also to enbrier. — Fiorio, New World of 
 Words, 1611. 
 
 Dardar, the " thorns " of Gen. iii. 18, is 
 ti-anslated in the Vulgate by the Latin tribu- 
 lus (whence the English word "tribulation ") 
 i.e. Centaurea calcitrapa, the common thistle 
 of Palestine. — Sir J. Hooker, in Aids to Bible 
 Students, p. 50. 
 
 Latin words, . . . change their meaning 
 because their meaning never was thoroughly 
 understood. " Tribulation " very soon left off 
 suggesting thistles, just as "decimation" 
 has in our own day left off suggesting the 
 number ten, because " tribulation " and " de- 
 cimation " never so directly suggested the 
 meaning of " thistle " and " ten," as the 
 words "thistle" and "ten " did themselves. 
 — Saturday Review, July 8, 1876, p. 52. 
 
 Sins are fitly compared to thorns and 
 briars, for their wounding, pricking, and such 
 harmful offences. Therefore they ai'e called 
 inbuli, a tnbulando, from their vexing, op- 
 pression, and tribulation they give those that 
 touch them. The wicked are such calthrops 
 to the country, boring and bloodying her 
 sides ; either pricking the flesh, or tearing of 
 the fleece ; as briers and bushes that rob the 
 sheep of their coats, which come to them for 
 shelter. — The Foi-est of Thorns, T. Adams, Ser- 
 mons, vol. ii. p. 479. 
 
 Bernard compares afflictions to the teasle, 
 which, though it be sharp and scratching, is 
 to make the cloth more pure and fine. — T. 
 Brooks, The Privie Key of Heaven, 1665, 
 Works, vol. ii. p. 147. 
 
 Trial has ultimately the same mean- 
 ing of threshing and winnowing. 
 
 Tried in sharp tribulation, and refined 
 
 By faith and faithful wprks. 
 
 Milton, Par. Lost, xi. 63. 
 
 God therefore in his wisedome thinkes it 
 good to trie our faith and patience, by laying 
 aflliction upon us : . . . this is that Fan which 
 Christ is said to have in his hand, whereby 
 he purgeth his floure, and separateth the good 
 
 Corne from the Chaffe, Matth. 3.—Bp. An- 
 drewes. Preparation to Prayer, 1642, p. Ill, 
 
 Temptations ... be (as the Fatiiers call 
 them) rods to chasten us for sinnc committed 
 or to try and sift us. Mat. 3. 12, and so to take 
 away the chaffe, the fanne beii^ in the Holy 
 Ghosts hand. — Bp. Andrewes, TlieTemptatim 
 of Christ, 1642, p. 5. 
 
 Teicb cannot be connected with 
 thrice, as if in three moments (Richard- 
 son). It might seem to be the same 
 word as Prov. Eng. trice, a small bit 
 (Wright), a particle, sc. of time. Cf. Sp. 
 triza, a particle (Prov. trisar, to grind, 
 from Lat. tritus, tritiare). In Irish 
 treis is a while, a short time (O'EeUly). 
 It is perhaps to be identified more pro- 
 bably with Sp. tris, a crack, an instant, 
 Portg. triz or tris, a sharp, momentary 
 noise, like thebreakingof glass, also an 
 instant, as " EUe veyo num triz, he 
 came in a trice." — Vieyra. 
 
 To tell you what conceyte 
 I had then in a tryce. 
 The matter were to nyse. 
 J. Skelton, Phyllup Sparowe (1522), 
 
 1. 1130. 
 All sodenly as who saith treis. 
 
 Gower, Confessia Amantis. 
 
 Nicholas Udall seems to have re- 
 solved treis into trey {zz Pr. trois) and 
 ace, as if a throw at dice, Mke " deuce- 
 ace." 
 
 I wyll be here with them ere ye can say trey 
 ace. 
 Roister Doister (ab. 1550), act iii. sc. 3. 
 Now Pithias kneele downe, aske me blesayng 
 
 like a pretie boy, 
 And with a trise, thy head from thy shoulders 
 I wyll convay. 
 Edwards, Damon and Pithias, 1571 {Old 
 Plays, i. 252, ed. 1825). 
 There is no vsurie in the worlde so heynous 
 as the gaine gotten by this playe at dyce, 
 when all is gotten with a trice ouer the 
 thumbe, without anye trafioke or loane.— 
 Northbrooke, Treatise against Dyeing, &c., 
 1577, p. 129(Shaks. Sob.). 
 As, when two Gamesters hazard (in a trice) 
 Fields, Vine-yards, Castles, on the Chance of 
 
 Dice, 
 The standers-by diversly stird with-in. 
 With, some that This, and some that That 
 may win. 
 
 J. Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 453. 
 the charity of a penny cord ! it sums up 
 thousands in a trice. 
 
 Shakespeare, Cyntheline, v. 4, 170. 
 
 Trick, as an heraldic term, to draw 
 or etch a coat-of-arms with pen and 
 
TBIFLE 
 
 ( 405 ) 
 
 TRIVIAL 
 
 ink, representing the colours, metals, 
 &c., by the conventional dots, lines, 
 hatchings, &o., is the same word as 
 Dutch treahen, trehken, to draw or trace 
 outhnes, trek, a stroke of a pen, Dan. 
 trmk, the same, Icel. dt-dka, a streak, 
 Ger. tragen, Icel. d/raga, Goth, and 
 A. Sax. dragan, Lat. irahere, to draw. 
 Other uses are tricked out, i.e. blazoned 
 ornately hke a coat-of-arms ; old Eng. 
 trick =. Dan. trcek, a trait {ti-actum), 
 feature, or characteristic pecuharity : — 
 
 A heart, too capable of every line and trkk 
 of his sweet favour. — All's Well that Ends 
 Well, i. 1. 
 
 He hath a trkk of Coeur de Lion's face. 
 King John, i. 1. 
 
 A trick at cards, Dutch trek, is a 
 draught, haul, or with-d/rawing of them 
 from the table. This is probably a dis- 
 tinct word from trick, to cheat or de- 
 ceive, Pr. triclier, Prov. Eng. trucky, 
 cheating (Yorks.), Scotch trucow, tru- 
 kier, trucker, a deceitful, tricky person, 
 compare Ger. triigen, to deceive, trug, 
 a deceit or imposture, old Ger. trugi, a 
 trick, trimgan, to cheat, which words 
 Piotet connects with Sansk. druh, to 
 be mischievous, to hurt by enchant- 
 ments, dffogha, mahce (Origines Indo- 
 Eii/ropeenes, tom. ii. p. 636). Compare 
 also A. Sax. trucan, to fail, pine, grow 
 weak, Prov. Eng. truck (of a cow), to 
 fail to give mUk. 
 
 Trifle. ) The latter of these two 
 Teivial. I words has come to be 
 regarded as pretty much the adjectival 
 form of the former, but they have really 
 nothing in common. Trifle, in old 
 EngUsh tryfls, trufle, trofel, meant for- 
 merly a jest, a fable, a lying story, and 
 is the same word as Fr. trufle, truffe, a 
 gibe or jest, trufer, truffler, to mock, 
 flout, or jest, It. truffa, a cozeniug, 
 truffwre, to cheat. 
 
 Trivial is It. triuiale, "triuiaU, com- 
 mon, of small estimation, vsed or 
 taught in high-waies" (Florio), Lat. 
 tfivialis, pertaining to cross-roads, tri- 
 viiwn, when three roads (ires vim) 
 meet. The trivial name of a plant is 
 its roadside, vulgar or popular name, 
 A "trivial saying" formerly meant, 
 not a slight and worthless one, but one 
 often quoted and probably therefore 
 full of weight and wisdom, like Greek 
 
 paroimia, literally a wayside sa3ring, a 
 popular proverb. 
 
 [Jt] is a trivial saying, A very good man 
 cannot he ignorant of equity.— Bp. Racket, 
 Life of Williitms, pt. i. p. 57. 
 
 See Trench, Select Glossary, s. v. 
 Eichardson remarks that " Trivial and 
 Trifle bear a remarkable similarity in 
 sound and apphoation." The one has 
 certainly exercised a reflex influence 
 on the meaning of the other. A trivial 
 excuse, for example, is now perfectly* 
 synonymous with a trifling excuse. 
 Keble uses the word appropriately with 
 allusion to a beaten track. 
 
 The trivial round, the common task, 
 V\'ouId furnish all we ought to ask. 
 
 The Christian Year. Mo)'ning. 
 
 Similarly appropriate is Gay's use of 
 the word in his " Trivia or Art of Walk- 
 ing the Streets of London," 
 
 Yet let me not descend to trivial song, 
 Nor vulgar cii'cumstance my verse prolong. 
 Bk. ii. 1. 302.' 
 
 jjeos ant oSre trifles }pet he bitrufleS monie 
 men mide, schulen beon ibrouht te nouht mid 
 heale water ant mid )3e holi rode tockne. — 
 Aiicren Riwle, p. 106. 
 
 [These and other falsehoods that he he- 
 guileth many men with, should be brought to 
 nought with holy water and with the holy 
 rood sign.] 
 
 And huanne \>e mes bye)) y-come on efter 
 |:e ojjer : Jeanne bye); |je burdes and \:e trvfies 
 uor entremes, and ine \i\ae manere ge)* jdc 
 tyme. — Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340), p. 56. 
 
 [And when one dish comes in after another, 
 then jokes and jests are for entries.] 
 
 Many has lykyng trofels to here, 
 And vanit^s wille blethly lere, 
 And er bysy in wille and thoght 
 To lere ]at )je saul helpes noght. 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 186. 
 Treoflinge heo smot her and J)er : in ano|;er 
 
 tale sone, 
 })at holi man hadde gret wonder. 
 
 Life of S. Dunstan, 1. 75. 
 Trow it for no trufles, his targe es to schewe ! 
 
 Morte Arthurs, 1. 89. 
 I red thowe ti-ette of a trewe, and trofie no 
 lengere. Id. 1. 2932. 
 
 Not ydle only but also tryfiynge and busy- 
 bodyes. — Tyndale, 1 Tim. v, 13 (1534). 
 
 [So Cranmer's version, 1539,>nd the Gene- 
 van, 1557, translating <p}^vapoif tatlers, silly 
 talkers.] 
 
 But we ought not to trifle with God, we 
 should not mocke him, he will not bee de- 
 spised. — Latimer, Sermotis, p. I'lO. 
 
 Thou art mancipium paucs lectionis, an 
 ideot, an ass, nuUus es, or plagiarius, a trijier, 
 
TUIP MADAM ( 406 ) 
 
 TB UGH MAN 
 
 a Irivanl, thou art an idle fellow. — Burton, 
 Anatomi/ of Melaucholy, Democriius to the 
 Header, 
 
 Husbandes, desiring no more than con- 
 stancy, cannot content themseluea with their 
 desired felicity, but greeue their own soules 
 with tripheUs, and eate vppe their owne harts 
 through suspition of disloyalty. — Telt-Trothes 
 New-Yeares Gift, 1593, p. 31 (N. Shaka. 
 Soc). 
 
 Trip madam, a trivial name of tlie 
 sedum reflexwm, Fr. trippe madame, is 
 corrupted from triacque madaime (Prior) . 
 
 Teoll-my-dambs, an old word for a 
 game, sometimes called pigeon-holes, 
 is a corruption of Fr. irou-madame, the 
 game called Trunks or the Hole (Cot- 
 grave). 
 
 A fellow, sir, that I have known to go 
 about with troU-mij-cUimefi. — Wiitter'^ Tale, 
 act iv. sc. 3. 
 
 Troy-town, a provincial name 
 sometimes given to a labyrinth or maze, 
 formed of banks of earth. Norfolk 
 vOlagers call a garden laid out spirally 
 a " city of Troy." They say that Troy 
 was a town which had but one gate, 
 and that it was necessary to go through 
 all the streets to get to the market 
 place (Wright). The word is a corrup- 
 tion of the British caer-troi, " turning 
 town," or city full of turnings, from 
 Welsh troi, to turn. Cf. tro, a turn, 
 troad and troiad, a turning (Bret, tro), 
 these mazes having been common in 
 Wales. There is a hamlet called Troy- 
 toivn, probably onthesite of one of these, 
 four mUes from Dorchester. A certain 
 labyrinthine pattern is (if I remember 
 right) popularly known as "the walls 
 of Troy." 
 
 I lost my way ; 'twas a regular Tmy town. 
 — M. A. Coiirtneij, W. Cornwall Glossary, 
 p. 61. 
 
 Perhaps connected with old Eng. 
 throio, to twist, throe, and Lat. tor- 
 quere. 
 
 Troy- WEIGHT has been supposed to 
 be a corruption of the Fr. octroi, a tax, 
 a, grant, something authorized, as if a 
 pound Troy corresponded to livre 
 d'odroi, but this needs confirmation. 
 
 OctroiiBtromoctroyer, 0. Fr. otroier. 
 It. oiriare, Sp. otorgwr, Prov. autreyar, 
 autorgar, from auctoricwre, to authorize. 
 
 -1 am all redy toabey and accept your good 
 and noble wil in the honour wherto ye re- 
 
 quire me, the which with good hert I ottroye 
 and grauntyou. — History of Heli/as Knight'of 
 the Swanne, ch. iii. svbjin. 
 
 Teuchman, an interpreter, a word of 
 common occurrence in old writers, is a 
 corrupt form, Uke the French truchs- 
 man, Sp. trujaman, M. H. Ger. trage- 
 munt, of Arab, ta/rgomdn, irotafwrgarm, 
 to explain (Chaldee twrgvm, a transla- 
 tion), whence also It. d/ragomaimo, Fr. 
 d/rogman, L. Lat. dragumanus. 
 
 It. torcimanyio, an interpreter, a trouchman, 
 a spokesman. — Fbrio, 
 Whereby w' are stor'd with Truck-man, Guide, 
 
 and Lamp 
 To search all corners of the watery Camp, 
 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. (58 (1621), 
 Tears are his truckmen, words do make liim 
 
 tremble. R. Greene. 
 
 Then Finland-folk might visit Affrica, 
 The Spaniard Inde, and ours America, 
 Without a ti'U£h-nuin, 
 
 Siilvester, Du Bartas, p. 256 (1621). 
 
 The word probably was conceived to 
 have some connexion with truck, as if 
 the interpreter were the medium by 
 which ideas are exchanged or lartered, 
 indeed the word "interpreter" itself 
 (Lat. interpres) meant originally a fac- 
 tor, broker, or negotiator. 
 
 Sylvester observes that language 
 alters by occasion of trade, which 
 
 With hardy luck 
 Doth words for words barter, exchange and 
 truck. 
 
 Latelye toe mee posted from Joue thee 
 truck spirt, or herrald of Gods.— Sla)ii//rars(, 
 jEu. iv. 375 [Davies]. 
 
 The Earle, though he could reasonably 
 well speake French, would not speake one 
 French word, but all English, whether he 
 asked any question, or answered it, but all 
 was done by Truckemen. — Puttenham, Arte of 
 Eng. Poesie, p. 278 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Demosthenes complained . . . that Apollo 
 was become King Philips friend, as if the 
 Priests and truckmen had beene eyther so dis- 
 couraged with feare, or so dazeled with a 
 golden Sun ; as they and theirs neyther durst 
 nor would deliuer anything, that might tend 
 to the Kings pveiuiice.— Howard, Defeimitwe 
 against poyson of Supposed Prophecies, 1620, 
 p. 17 verso. 
 
 I send a solempne ambassadno the King's 
 Ma'e by an herrald, a trumpet, an orator 
 speaking in a straunge language, an inter- 
 preter, or a truckman with hym. — Loseli; 
 ManuscHpts, p. 33. 
 
 A valiant, learned, and religious King, 
 Whose sacred Art retuueth excellent 
 
TBUE-LOm KNOT ( 407 ) TBUE-TABLE 
 
 This rarely-sweet oelestiall Instrument ; 
 And Oauids Truckman rightly doth resound, 
 (At the Worlds end) his eloquencerenown'd. 
 J. Stflvester, Du BartaSj p. 434. 
 
 Trounche mem, in a passage quoted by 
 Sir S. D. Scott, The British Army, vol. 
 ii. p. 351 (who takes it to mean a trun- 
 cheon man .'), is evidently a further cor- 
 ruption of trmocJunan or truckman, in 
 Scottish trenchman : — 
 
 The Staff and Establishmentofthe Captain- 
 General were, a Secretai'y, another for the 
 French tongue, two surgeons, & trounche man, 
 &c. 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 And having by his trmmchman pardon crav'd, 
 Vailing his eagle to his sovereign's eyes, . . 
 Dismounts him from his pageant. 
 
 Peele, Polyhymnia, 1590. 
 This being trewlie reported again to him 
 be his trunshman with grait reverence he gaiff 
 thankes.^/ames Melville, Diary, 1588, p. 263 
 ( Wodrow Soc). 
 
 Dame Natures trunchman, heavens interpret 
 ti'ue. 
 England's Parnassus, p. 621 (repr.). 
 
 True-love knot has no etymologi- 
 cal connexion with love, although it 
 denotes the knot of engaged lovers, 
 being a derivative of the Daxiishtrolove, 
 to betroth or promise [love], fidelity 
 (tro), Icel. tru-lofa (;=. lofa a sina tru), 
 to pledge one's faith. 
 
 Herbe Paris riseth vp with one small ten- 
 der stalke two handes high, at the very top 
 whereof come foorth fewer leaues directly set 
 one against another, in maner of a Burgun- 
 nion Crosse or a true lone knot ; for which cause 
 among the auncients it hath beene called herbe 
 Trueloue. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. 3Sf8. 
 
 The Outside of his doublet was. 
 Made of the foure-leaued trueloue grass 
 
 Changed into so fine a gloss. 
 With the oyle of crispy moss. 
 R. Herrick, The Fayri-e Kings Diet and 
 Apparrell, Poems, p. 481 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Monli in his mantille he sate atte his mete, 
 With palle puret in poon, was prudliohe 
 
 piste, 
 1 rowlt with trulufes and tranest be-tuene. 
 AnUirs of Arther, st. xxviii. ( Three Met. 
 Romances, p. 13). 
 
 [Manly in his mantle he sat at his meat, 
 with cloak furred with peacock (?) was 
 proudly arrayed, encircled with trueloves and 
 knots between.] 
 
 Under his tonge a trewe love he here. 
 For therby wend he to ben gracious. 
 
 Chaucer, Cunt. Tales, 1. 3692. 
 
 This trueloue hnott, that tyes the heart and 
 
 will ' 
 
 When man was in th' extremest miserye 
 To keepe his heart from breaking, existed 
 still. 
 Sir J, Davies, Poems, vol. ii. p. %15 
 (ed. Grosart). 
 Thou sent'st me a true-love-hwt ; but I 
 Return'd a ring of jimmals, to imply 
 Thy love had one knot, mine a triple tye. 
 Hen'ick, Hesperides, Poems, p. 186 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 No, girl ; I'll knit it up in silken strings 
 With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots. 
 Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, 
 ii. 7, 45. 
 Three times a true-love's knot I tye secure, 
 Firm be the knot, firm may liis love endure. 
 J. Gay, Shepherd's Week, iv. 1. 116. 
 
 Truepenny, the name which Hamlet 
 apphes to the spirit of his father mov- 
 ing " in the cellarage " — 
 
 Art thou there, truepenny ? 
 
 act i. sc. 5 — 
 
 afterwards using the words, 
 
 Well said, old mole ! canst work i' the 
 earth so fast ] A worthy pioner ! 
 
 If Collier be correct in his assertion 
 that truepenny is used as a mining 
 term for some indication in the soil of 
 the direction of the ore (Dyce, Glossary 
 to Shakspere), this word may be, 
 like trepan, to bore, derived from Greek 
 trupdne, trupanon, a borer. Bailey 
 gives TruperwiAj as " a name given by 
 way of taunt to some sorry fellow; " 
 Casaubon says that he has.often heard a 
 crafty oldhunx called " an old trupenie," 
 and this he identifies with Greek tru- 
 panon, which was sometimes applied 
 to a stupid senseless fellow [Be Quatuor 
 Linguis Cormnentatio, 1650, pt. ii. p. 
 362). 
 
 Trepan, a boring instrument, either 
 for (1) perforating the skull, or (2) 
 breaking through the walls of a be- 
 sieged town (Sylvester), is a corruption 
 of Greek trupanon, a borer. 
 
 True-table, a word used by Evelyn 
 for a bagatelle or biUiard table, which 
 would seem to refer to the accuracy 
 with which it is levelled in order to lie 
 true, doubtless denotes a table fur- 
 nished with pigeon-holes, Fr. trous. 
 Compare Troll-my-dambs. 
 
 There is also a bowling-place, a tavern, 
 and a true-tabk, and here they ride their 
 managed horses. — Diarij of John Evelyn, 
 March 23, 1646. 
 
TB mip 
 
 ( 408 ) 
 
 TUMBLEB 
 
 Tkump, a term at cards, is corrupted 
 from triumph, Pr. triomphe. 
 She bas 
 Paok'd cards with Ceesar, and false plaj'd my 
 
 glory 
 Unto an enemy's triumph. 
 
 Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 12. 
 -A game without Civility or Law, 
 An odious play, and yet in Court oft seene, 
 A sawcy knaue to trump both King and 
 Queene. 
 Sir J. Harington, Epigrams, bk. iv. 12. 
 Honest men are turn'd up trump 
 1 shall find them in a lump 
 But every knave must have a thump. 
 
 Randolph, Hey for Honesty, act i. sc. 2. 
 (1651). 
 I finde this reason given by some men, be- 
 cause they have been formerly naught them- 
 selves ; they think they may be so served by 
 others, they turned up trumpe, before the 
 cards were shuffled. — Barton, Anatomy of Me- 
 lancholy, Pt. HI. iii. 1, Si. 
 
 Tkump, in the phrase " to trump up 
 a story," meaning to invent, foist, 
 or fraudulently concoct, Prov. Eng. 
 trump, to lie or boast, as if to sound a 
 blast on a trump or trumpet, is from 
 Fr. f/romper, to deceive, Sp. trompar, 
 to whip a top, lead in circles, deceive, 
 lead astray, trompa, a top. It. tromha, a 
 circling whirlwind, probably from Lat. 
 turho {truho? trumhof], with, inserted 
 m, as in strumpet, from Lat. stuprata 
 {strupata). So Diez. 
 
 B. Jonson says that Fortune "is 
 pleased to trick or tromp mankind " 
 (Wedgwood). 
 
 He nis not so trewe a knight as we wende, 
 for he is but a tromper and a iaper, no fors, 
 late us sende for hym. — Book of the Knight of 
 La Tour-Landry, p. 33 (E.E.T.S.). 
 When truth appear'd, Rogero hated more 
 Alcynas Irumpries, and did them detest 
 Then he was late enamored before, . . . 
 Now saw he that he Sould not see before, 
 How with deceits Alcynahad bene drest. 
 Sir J. Harington, Orlando Furioso, 
 bk. vii. St. 59 (1591). 
 Tbunk, the proboscis of an elephant, 
 has no connexion with trunh, the stem 
 or stock of a tree (Fr. tronc), but is 0. 
 Eng. trimk, a tube, a corruption of Fr. 
 trompe, a trump or trumpet, " also the 
 Snowt of an Elephant" (Cotgrave), 
 just as trunh in the Northern dialects 
 is used for trump at cards. The noise 
 made by the elephant blowing through 
 its trunk resembles the hoarse sound of 
 a trumpet, and is called " trumpeting " 
 (Sir J. E. Tennent, Nat. Hist, of Cey- 
 
 lon, -p. 91). In a MS. of the 15th cen- 
 tury the animal is depicted with an 
 actual trumpet for its proboscis (sbb 
 Wright, Archoeohg. Album (1845), p. 
 176). See Holland, PKmi/. vol. i. p. 353! 
 
 He made a trunke of yroE with learned 
 advice, crammed it with sulphure, bullet, 
 etc, — Camden, Eemaines (1637), p. 203. 
 
 He that should lift up his voice like a tram- 
 pet doth but whisper through a trunk.— Thus. 
 Adams, The While Deoil, Works, ii. p. 224. 
 Through optic trunk the planet seemed to 
 hear-. 
 Marvell, Poems, p. 162 (Murray repr.). 
 
 And see Andrewes, Temptation of 
 Christ, p. 51 (qto.).; Cotgrave, b.v. 
 Sarbacane. 
 Though God be our true glasse, through 
 
 which wee see 
 All, since the beeing of all things is hee. 
 Yet are the trunkes which doe to us derive, 
 Things, in proportion, fit by perspective, 
 Deeds of good men ; for by their beeing 
 
 here, 
 Vertues, indeed remote, seem to be neare. 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 257. 
 
 Tuberose, the name of the flower so 
 called {Polianthes tuberosa), is a corrup- 
 tion of the Fr. tubereuse, Sp. and Portg. 
 tuberosa, otherwise known as Jacinthe 
 des Indes. These words are derived 
 from Lat. tuberosus, which describes 
 the tuberculated form of the root. 
 
 I begged their pardon, and told them I 
 never wore anything but Orange-flowers and 
 Tuberose. — George Etherege. 
 
 Tumbler, an old name for a species 
 of hunting dog, understood to mean 
 the dog that tumbles or makes sharp 
 turns in coursing, originated in a mis- 
 take about the meaning of its French 
 name vautre (old Fr. voMltre, veltre, It. 
 veltro), as if connected with vautrer 
 (old Pr. veautrer, voltrer, It. voltolare, 
 Lat. volutare, to roU), to tumble, wal- 
 low, welter. So its Latin name ver- 
 tagus, was supposed to be derived 
 from vertere, to turn. However, ver- 
 iagus, or rather vertragus, from which 
 vautre (as well as Eng. fewterer, dog- 
 keeper) comes, is a GauUsh word mean- 
 ing "quick-runner," from Celtic ver 
 (an intensive particle) -I- irag, akin to 
 old Ir. traig, foot, Greek trecho, to run, 
 Goth, thragja, Sansk. trhsh (Zeuss, W. 
 Stokes, Irish Glosses, p. 44). 
 
 Among houndes the Tumbler called in 
 latine Vertagus, is the last, which commeth of 
 this worde Tumbler flowing first of al out of 
 
TUMULT 
 
 ( 409 ) 
 
 TUBBOT 
 
 the French fountaine. For as we say Tumble 
 so they Tumbierj reeeruing one sense and 
 signification, which the latinists comprehende 
 vnder this worde Vertere. — A . Fleming, 
 Caius of Eng. Dogges, 1576, p. 41 (repr.). 
 
 This Borte of Dogges, which compaseeth 
 all by craftes, fraudes, subtelties and deceiptes, 
 we Englishe men call Tumblers, because in 
 hunting they turne and tiimft/e, winding their 
 bodyes about in circle wise. — A. Fleming, 
 Caius of' Eng. Dogges, 1576 (p. 11, repr.). 
 So Topsell, Fourfooted Beasts, pp. 168, 180. 
 
 The word tumbler undoubtedly had it's de- 
 rivation from the French word tumbler [tom- 
 6«r] which signifies to tumble ; to which the 
 Latine name agrees, vertagus, from vertere, to 
 turn ; and so they do : for in hunting they 
 turn and tumble winding their bodies about 
 circularly, and then fiercely and violently 
 venturing on the beast, do suddenly gripe it. 
 — 77ie Gentleman*s Recreatian, p. 34, 1697 
 [Nares]. 
 
 Away, setter, away. Yet stay my little 
 tumbler, this old boy shall supply now. I 
 will not trouble him, I cannot be importunate, 
 I; I cannot be impudent. — B. Jotison, The 
 Poetaster, i. 1 {Works, p. 108). 
 
 Tumult, a Scotch term for a portion 
 of land connected with a cottar-house, 
 is probably connected with the old 
 Swed. tomt, area (Jamieson). 
 
 Turban, " a Turkish Ornament for 
 the Head made of fine linnen wreathed 
 in a rundle " (Bailey), seems in its 
 present form to have been assimilated 
 to the Latin turhen (a twist), as if it 
 meant a turbinated head-dress, or one 
 wreathed like a whelk. Old forms are 
 turlcmt, tii/rliand, turrihant, tuUpant, 
 toUpant; Fr. turban, It. tiMbante, Low 
 Lat. tulipamtus ; all from Pers. dul- 
 band, a turban, which is said to be 
 compounded of dMldi (du, two, + Idi, 
 fold) and band, a band. 
 
 Cotgrave defines turban (which he 
 also gives as turbant, tulbant), "a 
 Turkish hat of white and fine hnen 
 wreathed into a rundle, broad at the 
 bottome to inclose the head, and lessen- 
 ing, for ornament towards the top," 
 with apparent reference to turhinc', 
 "fashioned like a Top [Lat. turbin-] 
 sharp at the bottome and broad at the 
 top." 
 
 The Ambassadour standing up uncovered, 
 the Persian King (frolick at that time, or 
 rather in civility) took off his TuUpant. — Sir 
 Thos. Herbert, Travels, p. 313 (1665). 
 Elsewhere he spells it turbant. 
 They are not leap'd into rough chins and 
 tulipants. 
 
 Carturight, Royal Slave, 1651. 
 
 For soon thou might'st have passed among 
 
 their rant, 
 Wer't but for thine unmoved tuUpant. 
 
 Marvell, Poems, p. 104 (Murray's ed.). 
 
 See also Selden, Titles of Honour, p. 
 184 ; Usher, Annales, p. 284 ; Prideaux, 
 Connexion, vol. i. p. 464. 
 
 Shashes are long towels of Callico wound 
 about their heads : Turbants are made like 
 globes of callico too, & thwarted with roules 
 of the same ; hauing little copped caps on 
 the top, of greene or red veluet, being onely 
 worne by persons of ranke, and he the ^eatest 
 that weareth the greatest. — Sandys, Travels, 
 p. 63. 
 
 His entrance was ushered by thirty comely 
 youths who were vested in crimson Satten 
 Coats, their Tulipants were Silk and Silver 
 wreathed above with small links of Gold. — 
 Sir Thomas Herbert, Travels, p. 141 (1665). 
 
 In A World of Wonders, 1607 [p. 235], 
 turbant, an old spelling of turban, is found 
 marginally explained by tolibante. — F. Hall, 
 Modern Englisli, p. 112. 
 
 The Turke and Persian weare great tolibants 
 of ten,fifteene and twentie elles of linnen a piece 
 vpon their heads. — Puttenham, Arte of Eng. 
 Poesie, 1589, p. 291 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Spenser, strangely enough, seems to 
 have connected the word with Lat. 
 turris, and identified it with the turrita 
 corona (Ovid), the towering or turreted 
 ci'own, of Cybele, the turritamater (Vir- 
 gil), as he speaks of " old Cybele " 
 
 Wearing a Diademe embattild wide 
 With hundred turrets, like a Turribant. 
 
 Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 28. 
 
 Of the same origin is It. tuUpano, 
 Sp. tuUpan, whence old Eng. tutipan, 
 Eng. tulip, the flower which resembles 
 a gorgeous coloured turban, Sp. tuUpa, 
 Fr. tuUpe, Ger. tulpe. Gerarde says : — 
 
 After it hath beene some fewe daies flow- 
 red the points and brims of the flower turne 
 backward, like a Dalmatian or Turkes cap, 
 called Tulipan, Tolipan, Turban, and Turfan, 
 whereof it tooke his name. — Herball, p. 117 
 (1597). 
 
 Tulipan, the delicate flower called aTulipa, 
 or Tulipie, or Dalmatian Cap. — Cotgrave. 
 
 See TwiLLPANT. Ghisehn de Busbecq 
 (died 1592) first brought into notice the 
 hlac and the flower "which the Turks 
 call Tulipan," 
 
 TuEBOT, Fr. and old Dut. turbot, 
 Welsh torbwt, old Fr. tourboz (14th 
 cent.), perhaps acorruption of Thor-but, 
 Thor's but or flat-fish (hke Greek Zeus, 
 Jupiter,r:thedory). "Hio iitrio, a but " 
 (Wright's Vocabularies, p. 254). Com- 
 
TJJEEEN 
 
 ( 410 ) 
 
 TURNKEY 
 
 pare A. Sax. iunor-hodu, sparus (Id. 
 p. 55), ]mnor-lod (Ettmiiller), which 
 might become Thur-but, like TJiws-day 
 beside Ger. Bonners-iag, and Ger. 
 durrwurz, domonrz, and donnerwu/rz, 
 various names for the plant Gonyza 
 (0. H. Ger. Donor zz Thor). Perhaps 
 other corruptions of the same are thorn- 
 hut, Ger. doi-n-hui, like dorn- stein, dorn- 
 strahl, corrupt forms of Donr- (or 
 Donner zz Thor) -stein, -strahl (see G. 
 Stephens, Old N. Bunic Monwments, 
 p. 977). 
 
 Compare Dan. torsh, the cod, leel. 
 {lorsfc, beside Dan. torden (i.e. Thor-din), 
 thunder, Icel. Y6r-dwna. 
 
 He tok jje sturgiun, and ]ie qual, 
 And J)e twrbut, and lax with-al, 
 
 * * » » » 
 
 jse Butte, Jje scliulle }je |jornebake. 
 
 Haveiak the Dane, 1. 759. 
 
 Tureen, so spelt as if from the city 
 of Tv/rim, is an incorrect form of 
 terreen, Pr. terrine, properly an earthen 
 vessel, from terre, Lat. terra, earth ; 
 Fr. Argot tv/rin, pot de terre (Nisard, 
 Hist, des Livres Populaires, ii. 377). 
 Compare turrtieric, from Fr. terre-merite, 
 and turpentine for terehintMne. So 
 turnip (for ierre-neppe), terrce napus 
 (Earle, Eng. Plant-Names, p. 96). 
 
 Item, pour 6 litres et demie de lerbentine, 
 4s. — Carpenter's Bill, 1360, in Choice Notes, 
 History, p. 71. 
 
 Ttjek, an old word for a dwarf or 
 hunch-back, a short thick-set man, 
 seems to be merely a corruption of 
 Scot, durh, thick-set, duergh, a dwarf, 
 old Eng. dwerh, a dwarf (Lyheus Bis- 
 corms), dwarghe, Prov. Eng. dv/rgan, a 
 dwarf (Wright), derriclc, a fairy, a 
 pixy (Devon, Id.), A. Sax. dweorg, Dut. 
 dwerg, Icel. dvergr, M. H. Ger. twerc, a 
 dwarf, Ger. zwerg (cf. zioerch, awry). 
 Cf. Prov. Eng. dergy, ^hort, thick-set 
 (Wright). 
 
 Tiirchie, short and thick, sq uat, Perths. — 
 Jami£son, Scot. Dictionary. 
 
 Durgan, of short or low stature, as, he is a 
 durgan, a meer durgan. — Bp. Kennett, MS. in 
 Way, Prompt. Parv. s.v. Dwerowe. 
 
 Nanus, a dwarfe or a lytell Turke. — Ortus 
 (ibid.). 
 
 For the change from d to t, compare 
 old Eng. twk, a sword or dagger (1638, 
 Nares), which must be for dirk, Ir. 
 diiirc. 
 
 Item, ther is comen a new* litell Torh 
 whyche is a wele vysagyd felawe off the age 
 of xl. yere ; and he is lower than Manuell by 
 a hanffuU, and lower than my lytell Tom by 
 the schorderys [shoulders], and mor lytell 
 above hys pappe ; .... and he is leggyd 
 ryght i now.— TAc Paxton Letters, 1470, Tol. 
 ii. p. 394 (ed. Gairdner). 
 
 Into the hall a burne there cane : 
 
 He was not hye, but he was broad, 
 
 & like a turke he was made. 
 Both legg & thye. 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. i. p. 91, 1. 15. 
 
 Turkey. Broderip in his Zoological 
 Beoreations conjectured that this bird 
 may have been so called from the blue 
 or Tv/rquoise colour of the skin about 
 its head. 
 
 Les Barbillons et create d'ioeluy. 
 Sent de couteur a Vazurie proche, 
 
 Bebn, Portraits d'Oyseam, 1557. 
 
 Twrguois was formerly spelt Turhj ; 
 Sandys speaks of "the emerald and 
 Twrhy; " Pepys of a " ring of a Turhy- 
 stone" (Davies, iSupp. Eng. Ghssary). 
 
 TuHKBY-BiED, a Suffolk name for the 
 wryneck (Wright), is no doubt a cor- 
 ruption of twcoi, the name elsewhere 
 given to it. " Turcot" is the French 
 turcou. It. torlicollo, "wry-neck." 
 
 Tdbmoil, which seems to be com- 
 pounded with the verb nioil, to labour 
 or drudge, is an Anghcized form of 
 Welsh trwmael, from tra, excessive, and 
 mael, traffic, labour. The Welsh word 
 also takes the form trafael, extreme 
 effort, trouble, " travaU." 
 
 Turner, an old Scottish copper coin 
 (Jamieson), is a corruption of Fr. tow- 
 nois, a French penny (Cotgrave), from 
 Lat. Turonensis, so called because first 
 struck at Tours. So thaler, our " dol- 
 lar," is a shortened form of /oadims- 
 thaler, originally money coined in the 
 Joachims Valley (Ger. thai = dale), in 
 Bohemia (16th centm-y). It might 
 have been mentioned above that rap, 
 a stiver, in the phrase " Not worth a 
 rap," seems to be the same word as 
 rappen, a smaU Swiss coin, the hun- 
 dredth part of a franc, so named from 
 the head of a raven, Ger. rale, provin- 
 cially rape, which was figured upon it 
 (Chambers, Cychpoedia). 
 
 Turnkey. This name for the warder 
 of a prison has been supposed by some 
 to be a corruption of Fr. tourndquet ' 
 
TUBN-MEBIGK 
 
 ( 411 ) 
 
 TWILIGHT 
 
 (something that turns round), a turn- 
 stile (also a swivel, a screw), as if one 
 who gives ingress and egress. That 
 word, however, was never used in that 
 specific sense ; though a parallel usage 
 is presented in the slang term screw for 
 a warder {Slang Diet.). 
 
 Be sure you put Sheerness's letter in a 
 sealed euTelope. _ I find I have none, and it 
 is not ^ood enough to give it open to a screw. 
 What IS a screw f — A warder. — Examination 
 of a Convict, Standard, Nov. 1, 1877. 
 
 The prisoners .... seldom or ever 
 "round 'on the "screw;," ^nWice, betray an 
 officer, so long as he acts " square " with 
 them and their " pals " outside. — Five Years' 
 Penal Servitude, p. 59. 
 
 TuRN-MEEicK, a Corruption of fw- 
 nieric, is quoted from Markham's Cheap 
 and Oood Husbandry, 1676, in the last 
 edition of Nares' Glossary. Turmeric 
 itself is from Fr. terre-meriie. 
 
 TuKRETS, a word (not registered in 
 tlie dictionaries) for the rings of a 
 horse's harness through which the reins 
 are passed, so named now, perhaps, 
 from a notion that they stand out from 
 the coUar like turrets or little towers 
 from a castle, is in old English toretes 
 or torettes, rings, from Fr. touret, " the 
 annulet, or little ring wherehy a 
 Hawkes Lune is fastened unto the 
 Jesses" (Cotgrave), a dimin. of tom; 
 a turn, round, or circle (Prov. torn], 
 from Lat. tornus, Greek t&i'nos, a turn- 
 ing wheel. Compare Fr. tournet, a 
 ring in the mouth of a bit (Cotgrave). 
 About his char ther weuten white alauns, . . . 
 Colered with gold, and torettes filed round. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 2154. 
 
 The Rin^e [of the Astrolabe] renneth in a 
 manner oi^ a turet. — Treatise of Astrolabe 
 [Tyrwhitt, in loc. cit-l. 
 
 A collar .... with torrettes and pen- 
 (rauntes of silver and guilte. — IVarton, Hist. 
 ofEng. Poetry, p. 240 (repr. 1870). 
 
 No sooner had he presented to us his 
 mig hty Jovian baclf, . . . . whilst inspecting 
 professionally the buckles, the straps, and 
 the silvery turrets of his harness, than I 
 raised Miss Fanny's hand to my lips. — De 
 Qnincey, Works, vol. iv. p. 306. 
 
 As one who loves and venerates Chaucer 
 for his unrivalled merits of tenderness, of 
 picturesque characterisation, and of narrative 
 skill, I noticed with great pleasure that the 
 word torrettes is used Dy him to designate the 
 little devices througli which the reins are 
 made to pass. This same word, in the same 
 exact sense, 1 heard uniformly used by many 
 
 scores of illustrious mail-coach-men, to whose 
 confidential friendship I had the honour of 
 being admitted in my younger days. — Id. 
 Note in loco cit. 
 
 Turtle, the name of the sea-tortoise, 
 is a corruption of its old name tortor, 
 denoting the tortile (old Eng. tortyl, 
 Fr. toriille) or crooked (limbed) animal, 
 in allusion to its tortuous or twisted 
 feet, Lat. tortus. Compare the names 
 of the tortoise, Fr. tortue, Sp. and Portg. 
 toriuga. The forms It. ta/rtaruga, Fr. 
 ia/iia/rasse would seem to refer to the 
 tartarian or infernal ugliness of a beast 
 regarded as mis-shapen. 
 
 Thei are like the crane and the turtu that 
 turnithe her hede and fases bacward, and 
 lokithe ouer the shuldre. — Book of the hnight 
 of La Tour-Landry, p. 15. 
 
 Tweezers. This very English-look- 
 ing word for a pair of nippers used in 
 tweaking or twitching out hairs, &c., 
 formerly tweeze, a case of instruments, 
 is a naturalized form {eitwees) of Fr. 
 Stuis, etui, old Pr. estuy, thus defined 
 by Cotgrave, " a sheath, case, or box to 
 put things in, and (more particularly) 
 a case of little instruments, or sizzars, 
 bodkin, penknife, &c. now commonly 
 tearmed, an Ettwee." Compare Sp. 
 estuche. Mid. High Ger. stuche, Ger. 
 stauche, a case. Similarly tiveers, the 
 bellows at an iron furnace (Wright), is 
 from Fr. tuyere, a blast-pipe. 
 Here clouded canes 'midst heaps of toys are 
 
 found, 
 And inlaid tweezer-cases strow the ground. 
 Gay, The Fan, bk. i. 1. 126. 
 
 TwiG, to understand (Lincolnshire), 
 and commonly used in slang in the 
 sense of to notice or observe, is an 
 adaptation of Ir tuigim, I understand, 
 discern, or perceive. 
 
 " They're a twiggin' of you, sir,'' whis- 
 pered Mr. Weller. — Dickens, Pickwick Papers, 
 ch. XX. 
 
 A landsman said, " I twig the chap — he's 
 been upon the Mill." 
 Barham, Ingoidsby Legends, Misadventures 
 at Margate. 
 
 Whitley Stokes compares Ir. iwgiw, 
 old Ir. tuccu, with old Lat. tongere, 
 Goth, thagkjan, Icel. thekkja, Eng. 
 tMnh {Irish Glosses, p. 165). See 
 Thick. 
 
 Twilight, a cloth or napkin, is a 
 corruption of the word toilet, Fr. toi- 
 Icttp, dim. of toile, a cloth (Lat. tela). 
 
TWILLED 
 
 ( 412 ) 
 
 TWITTEB 
 
 Compare old Eng. twayle (Joseph of 
 Arimathie, 1. 285) for towel, Pr. iouaMe. 
 
 A toilet is a little cloth which ladies use 
 for what purpose they think fit, and is by 
 some corruptly called a twylight. — Ladies' 
 Dictionary [Wright]. 
 
 Fine twi-lights, blankets, and the Lord 
 knows what. — The Fifteen Comforts of 
 Matrimony, 1706, 
 
 Similarly I have heard a schoolboy 
 speak of making his twiUght. 
 
 It was no use doing the downy again, so 
 it was just as well to make one's twilight and 
 go to chapel, — Adventures of Mr. Verdant 
 Green, pt, ii. ch. 7, 
 But he once dead — 
 Brings her in triumph, with her portion, 
 
 down, 
 A twillet, dressing-box, and half a crown. 
 
 Dryden, DisappointTnent, Prologue, 1684, 
 1.50, 
 
 Twilled, in the subjoined passage of 
 Shakespeare, has greatly perplexed the 
 commentators. PioKefi probably means 
 decked with pionies (a provincial form 
 of peonies), standing here for marsh- 
 marigolds, which are so-called in the 
 Midland counties. Twilled seems to 
 mean furnished with twills, which is 
 a North country word for reeds, and 
 only another form of old Eng, quills, 
 reeds. It is " the very word to de- 
 scribe the crowded sedges in the shal- 
 lower reaches of the Avon as it winds 
 round Stratford " [Eddnhm-gh Reiview, 
 vol. cxxxvi. p. 366). 
 
 Compare Cumberland and Cleveland 
 twill, a quiU ; quylle, a stalke. Calamus 
 (Prompt. Farv.) ; Ir, cmlc, a reed 
 (O'EeiUy), 
 
 Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims, 
 \\'hich spongy April at thy best betrims. 
 To make cold nymphs chaste crowns. 
 
 Shakespeare, The Tempest, act iv, sc. 1,1. 65. 
 
 A Twill ; A Spoole ; from Quill. In the 
 South they call it winding of Quills, because 
 antiently, I suppose, they wound the Yarn 
 upon Quills for the Weavers, though now 
 tbey use Reeds. Or else Reeds were called 
 Quills, as in Latin, calami. — Ray, North 
 Country Words. 
 
 Twill-pant, the name of a flower 
 quoted by Eichardson from Chapman, 
 Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1625), under 
 the word Twill, a cane or reed, with 
 which he supposed it was connected, 
 is an evident corruption of tulipant, the 
 old name of the tuUp, so-called, like 
 the Martagon, or Turl-'scap\ily, from a 
 
 fancied resemblance to a twlan, olj 
 Eng, tulipant, of rich and varied 
 colours. 
 
 Twitch, a Lincolnshire word for 
 couch-grass (triiicumrepens), is another 
 form of quitch grass. A, Sax, cwice, from 
 cwic, vivacious. So Leicestershire 
 tmteh-grass (Evans), See Cocoh- 
 
 GBASS. 
 
 TwiTCH-BELL, a Cleveland word 
 for the common earwig. The first part 
 of the word is A, Sax, twicea ■=. wicga 
 (ear-wig), a beetle ; -bell is appai-ently 
 identical with ball, lol, loll. (See 
 Adams, in FUlolog. Soc. Proc. 1858, 
 p, 98). 
 
 TwiTCHE-Box, an old corruption of 
 touch-hom, a tinder-box, is quoted by 
 Nares, Glossary, s.v. 
 
 Twitter, a corruption of twit, to re- 
 proach or chide mahciously, itself an 
 abbreviated form of old Eng, atwyte, 
 A. Sax, ed-mtan, to viite or blame over 
 again (see White), Goth, id-weitjan, to 
 reproach, id-weit, reproach, fromweitan, 
 to know (akin to Eng. wit, Lat. videre), 
 Icel. vita, to know, vita, to fine. 
 
 And if he was so good to forgive me a 
 word spoken in haste or so, it doth not be- 
 come such a one as you to twitter me. — Field- 
 ing, Hist, of a Foundling, bk, viii, ch. 7 (p. 
 Ill, Works). 
 
 And 3if jjer is out to eadirifen, otSerlod- 
 lich, jjiderward heo schuleS mid ei^er eien. 
 — Ancren Riwle, p. 212, 
 
 [If there is aught to blame, or loathly, 
 there they scowl with either eye.] 
 
 Hore lates loken wai'liche, fiet non ne 
 edwite ham ne ine huse, ne ut of huse. — Id. 
 p. 426. 
 
 [Let them carefully observe their maiinerR, 
 that none may blame them, either in the 
 house or out of the house.] 
 
 Man, hytt was full grett dyspyte " 
 So offte to make me edwiite ! 
 Hymns to the Virgin and Child, p. 124, 
 1. 226 (ed. Furnivall). 
 Be not to hasty on brede for to bite 
 Of gredynes lest men the wolde attwile. 
 Stuns Puer ad Mensam, 1. 28 (Early 
 Pop. Poetry, iii. 25). 
 But God be thanked, said the foxe, ther 
 may noman endwyte me ne my lygnage ne 
 kynne of suche werkys, but that we shal 
 ac(]uyte vs. — Caxton, Reynard the Fox, 1481, 
 p. 115 (ed. Arber). 
 
 No man for despite 
 
 By worde or by write 
 
 His felowe to twite 
 
TYPHOON 
 
 ( 413 ) 
 
 UNION 
 
 But further in lionestie, 
 No good turnes entwite. 
 Nor olde sores recite. 
 Udaltj Roister Doistei'j ii. 3 (p. 36f 
 ed. Arber). 
 Which, as it was a speciall honour (and 
 wheresoever this Gospell is preached, shall 
 he told for a memoriall of her:) so was it 
 withall not without some kinde of enthwiting 
 to them (to the Apostles) for sitting at home, 
 so drowping in a corner. — Bp. AndreweSj 
 Sermons, p. 556 (fol.). 
 
 And evermore she did him shai'pely twight, 
 For breach of faith to her, which he had 
 firmely plight. 
 
 Spenserj Faerie Queene, V. vi. 12. 
 His misziggejj uoulliche and his clepyejj 
 ti'uons and ham ziggeb zuo uele atuytinges 
 and of folyes er fjan hi nam a3t yeue Jjet wel 
 is worj) ipet zeluer. — Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 
 194. 
 
 [(In giving alms to the poor some) 
 slander them foully and call them truants and 
 utter so many twittings and follies ere they 
 give them aught, that the silver is well 
 earned.] 
 
 Typhoon, a tornado or hurricane in 
 tlie Chinese seas, as if from the Gk. 
 typhon (rfffSiv), akin to typhus, (1) 
 smoke, mist, (2) stupor of fever. It is 
 composed of the two Chinese words, 
 iad, great, fung, wind (N. ^ Q. 4th 
 S. No. 43, p. 389). 
 
 Typhon, however, curiously enough, 
 ■was with the Egyptians the personifica- 
 tion of whirlwinds and storms, and is 
 described by Hesiod as a terrible and 
 outrageous wind (I'Aeoj'. 307). See Den- 
 nis, Cities and Gemeterks of Etrtma, 
 vol. i. p. 329, ed. 1878; Wilkinson, 
 Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 144 (ed. 
 Birch). 
 
 The extreme rarefaction of the atmosphere 
 now begins to operate as one of the causes 
 tending to the production of those terrible 
 hunicanes, or rushes of wind, called typhoons 
 (Tae-foong — " greatwind "), which arejustly 
 dreaded by the inhabitants of southern China ; 
 but which chiefly devastate the coasts of 
 Haenan, and do not extend much to the north 
 of Canton. The name typhoon, in itself a cor- 
 ruption of the Chinese term; bears a singular 
 (though we must suppose an accidental) 
 resemblance to the Greek rv^m. — Sir J. 
 Davis, The Chinese, vol. iii. p. 143 (ed. 1844.) 
 
 But if the clift or breach be not great, so 
 that the wind be constrained to turne round, 
 to roll and whirls in his discent, without fire 
 (i.) lightening, it makes a whirle-puiFe or 
 ghust called Typhon (i.)thestormeEcnephias 
 aforesaid, sent out with a winding violence. 
 — Holland, Plinies Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 24. 
 
 Typhon, moreover, or Vortex diifereth from- 
 Turben, in flying backe, and as much as a 
 crash from a cracke. — Id. p. 25. 
 
 The winde, which they call Tufan, is so 
 violent, that it driueth ships on the land, 
 ouer-throweth men and houses : it commeth 
 almost euery yeere once, lasteth foure and 
 twentie houres, in which space it compasseth 
 the compass. — S. Purchas, Pilgrimages, p. 
 520. 
 
 Francis Fernandes writeth, that in the way 
 from IMalacca to Japan they are incountred 
 with gi'eat stormes, which they call Tufons, 
 that blow foure and twenty houres, beginning 
 from the North to the East and so about the 
 Compasse. — Id. p. 681. 
 
 It may also be remembred, tliat during 
 this late tuffon, lightning was seen to fall and 
 hang like fire, sometimes to skip too and fro 
 about the Yards and Tackling of our Ships. 
 —Sir Thos. Herbert, Travels, 1665, p. 12. 
 The circling Typhon, whirl'd from point to 
 
 point. 
 Exhausting all the rage of all the sky, 
 And dire Ecnephia, reign. 
 
 Thomson, Seasons, Summer. 
 
 V. 
 
 Ulm-tkee, an elm, in Wychffe, 
 Isaiah xli. 19, is an assimilation to Eat. 
 ulmus, of old Eng. and A. Sax. elm 
 (loel. dlnw, Dan. and Swed. aim). 
 Similarly Ger. ulme, formerly ehne, has 
 been modified by ulmus (Skeat). 
 
 Underling, a Cleveland word for a 
 dwarfish, ill-grown child, seems to be 
 a mistaken expansion of the synony- 
 mous word urling in the same dia- 
 lect, Scot, wrluch, vide Atkinson, s.vv. 
 Urling, Orling. 
 
 Unequal is often used by early 
 writers as equivalent, not to Lat. mce- 
 guaUs, but to iniguus, unjust, unfair, 
 with which it was confused, e.g. A. V. 
 Ezek. xviii. 2S, and Geneva Version, 
 ilM. See Abp. Trench, Select Olos- 
 sa/ry, who quotes : — 
 These imputations are too common, Sir, 
 And easily stuck on virtue, when she's poor ; 
 You are unequal to me. 
 
 Ben Jonson, The Fox, act iii. sc. 1. 
 
 Union, an old word for a single 
 large pearl, Lat. unio, as if from imus, 
 one. It is more likely that the pearl 
 was so named from a fancied resem- 
 blance to the onion, Lat. imio (Fr. 
 oignon), just as "pearl " itself comes 
 probably from Lat. pirula, a little pear, 
 
UNREADY 
 
 ( 414 ) 
 
 UNRULY 
 
 and Lat. haoca denotes a berry and a 
 pearl. Umo again, in this latter sense, 
 may be only a Latinized form of a 
 Gaulish word (? oimmo). Compare 
 Gael, uinnean, Welsh wynwyn-in, Ir. 
 mrmeaniain, an onion (W. Stokes, 
 Irish Olosses, p. 102). 
 In the cup an union shall he throw 
 Richer than that which four successive kings 
 In Denmark's crown have worn. 
 
 Hamlet, v. 2. 
 
 Here was that Venus which had hung in 
 her ear the other Union that Cleopatra was 
 about to dissolve and drink up as she had 
 done its fellow. — Evelyn, Diary, Feb. 21, 
 1645, p. 138 (reprint, Murray). 
 
 Their [peai'ls] chief reputation consisteth in 
 these fine properties, namely, if they be 
 orient white, great, round, smooth and 
 weightie. Qualities I may tell you, not 
 easily to be found all in one : insomuch as it is 
 impossible to find out two perfitly sorted to- 
 gether in all these points, and hereupon it is, 
 that our dainties and delicates here at Rome, 
 haue deuised this name for them, and call 
 them Vnions ; as a man would say. Singular 
 and by themselves alone. — Holland, PUnies 
 Nat. Hist, vol. i. p. 255. 
 
 -■Elius Stilo doth report in his Chronicle, 
 that in the time of warre against Jugurtha, 
 the.faii'e and goodly great pearles began to 
 be named Vniones. — Holland, ibid. p. 257. 
 
 Marvell, speaking of the tulip, 
 
 Its union root they then so high did hold, 
 
 That one was for a meadow sold. 
 
 Poems, p. 6T (Murray repr.). 
 
 With the above extract from Pliny 
 compare — 
 Union ad nun ceste pere, nule ne pot eatre 
 
 plus chere. 
 Pur feo est union numee, jS. sa per n'ertmais 
 trovee. 
 
 Philip de Thnun, The Bestiary, 1. 1482 
 (12th cent.), ed. Wright. 
 
 [Unio is the name of this stone, none can 
 be more precious, therefore it is named unio, 
 its equal never was found.] 
 
 They are not those Unions, Pearles so 
 called, because thrifty Nature only aifordeth 
 them by one and one ; seeing that not only 
 Twins, but Bunches and Clusters of these 
 [diamonds] are found together. — 7'. Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 294. 
 
 ^y placing some of their dispersed medita- 
 tions into a chain or sequel of discourse, I 
 may with their precious stones make an 
 *' Oniony and compose them into a jewel. — 
 Jeremy Taylor, Holy Dying, ch. iv. sect. 4. 
 
 Uneeady, the sobriquet given in so 
 many popular histories of England to 
 Etlielred, as if the meaning were " un- 
 
 prepared " agahist his foes, is a mis- 
 understanding of the old Eng. words 
 rcsdZeas, devoid ofrcec^orcounsel.wirad, 
 bad advice. See Skeat, Notes to P. 
 Flowman, p. 271. 
 
 Ten years after their [the Danes'] first 
 visit we find the King, deservedly nicknamed 
 the Unready, purchasing the goodwill of the 
 invaders by a large sum of money.— Dam 
 and Lawson, Elemsntarif Hisi. of EnirUintl 
 p. 27. " " ' 
 
 Mr. Green, in his History of iU 
 English People (vol. i.), says of Ethel- 
 red: — 
 
 Handsome and pleasant of address, the 
 young King's pride showed itself in a string 
 of imperial titles, and his restless and self- 
 confident temper drove him to push the pre- 
 tensions of the Crown to their furthest ex- 
 tent. His aim throughout his reign was to 
 free himself fi'ora the dictation of the great 
 nobles, and it was his indifference to their 
 " rede " or counsel that won him the name of 
 *' ^^thelred the RedeUss." 
 
 Similarly Richard II. was popularly 
 known as the Bedeless. 
 Now Richard jje redeles * reweth on 30U self. 
 Langland; Richard the Redeles, 1399, 
 Pass. i. 1. 1 (ed. Skeat). 
 An vnredy reue * |;i residue shal spene. 
 That menye mothbe was [maister] ynne ■ in 
 a myntewhile. 
 Vision of Piers Pkwman, C. xiii. 217. 
 
 As an instance of the other word 
 unready, unprepared, Wychffe has— 
 
 Leest macedonyes .... fynden you vn- 
 redi. — 2 Cor. ix. 4. 
 
 Unruly has all the appearance of 
 being a derivative of rule, and is so 
 explained in aU the dictionaries, e.g. in 
 Bailey, " not to be ruled or governed ; " 
 " Vnruly, irregularis" {Levins, Mani- 
 puhis, 1570). Etymologically the word 
 has nothing to do with rule, and is to 
 be analyzed, not as un-rul{e)-y, but as 
 un-ru-ly (Morris), or more correctly 
 un-roo-ly, un-rest-ful, derived from old 
 Eng. urvroo, unrest, roo or ro, rest, akin 
 to Swed. and Dan. to, Icel. r6, rest 
 (A. Sax. row, pleasant), 0. H.Ger.r&a, 
 ruowa, Ger. ruhe, Sansk. ram, rest 
 Vnruly thus corresponds exactly to 
 Dan. uroUg, and means restless, turbu- 
 lent. The translators of ilie Authorized 
 Version probably connected the word 
 with rule, as they use it for a Greek 
 word meaning " disorderly " (1 Thess. 
 V. 14), "ungovernable" (Titus, i. 6and 
 10), " irrestrainable," "that cannot be 
 
UNRULY 
 
 ( 415 ) 
 
 UPBRAID 
 
 checked" (Jas. i. 8), " The tongue can 
 no man tame, it is an vnruly euill " 
 (1611), "An vmruely evyll" (Tyn- 
 dale, 1534), " An unpesible yuel " 
 WyoUffe, 1380). Abp. Trench quotes 
 ruly from Poxe {lEng. Past and Present, 
 Lect. iii.). A heathen stone, about 
 10th century, found m Sweden, has the 
 runic inscription, " Thonar roa uit! " 
 i.e. Thor give rest (G. Stephens, Thor 
 the Thunderer, p. 42). 
 
 Then goe you to your Soueraygne, 
 giue him obeysaunce duely ; 
 That done, withdraw your selfe asyde, 
 at no tyme prooue vnruely. 
 
 H. Rhodes, Boke of Nurture, 1. 368 
 (Baiees Book, p. 81). 
 We desyre you brethren, warne them that 
 are vnruly. — Tyndaie, 1534, 1 Thess. v. 1-1. 
 
 These people vsing to robbe and forrage, 
 were many times by the neighing of their 
 vnruly Horsses discouered. — Topsell, Hist, of 
 Four-footed Beasts, p. 324 (1608). 
 
 Those tha^ are well-skilled in handling 
 Horsses compell them from their vnrulinesse. 
 —Id. p. 288. 
 " Dere sone," saide scho (hym to), 
 " Thou wu'keste th[ise]lfe mekille unroo, 
 What wille thou with this mere do. 
 
 That thou base hame broghte ? " 
 Thornton Romances, Sir Perceval, p. 15, 
 1.364. 
 
 Booles, restless, occurs in the old 
 Eng. poem, Of u, mon Matheu t>ohte, 
 1.50:— 
 
 t>is world me wurche]? wo, 
 rooles ase l^e roo, 
 
 y sike for vnsete. 
 
 Boddeker, Altenglische Dichtungen, p. 186. 
 
 Ne mai vs ryse no rest, rycheis, ne to. 
 
 Political Songs, Boddeker, p. 103. 
 And thou thus ryfes me rest and to, 
 And lettes thus lightly on me, lo 
 Siche is thy catyfnes. 
 
 Towneiey Mysteries, Crucifixio. 
 Thare we may ryste ve with roo, andraunsake 
 cure wondys. 
 
 Mm-te Arthure, 1. 4304. 
 In (le holy gost I leue welle ; 
 In holy chyrohe and liyre spelle. 
 In goddes body I be-leue nowe, 
 A-monge hys seyntes to 3eue me rowe. 
 Myrc, Instructions of Parish Priests, p. 14, 
 1.447. 
 In me weore tacched sorwes two, 
 In {le fader mihte non a-byde. 
 For he was euere in reste and Ro. 
 Legends of the Holy Rood, p. 143, 1. 358. 
 
 Thus com ur Lauerd Crist us to 
 To bring us al fi'a, til rest and to . 
 Eng. Metrical Homilies, p. 14 (ed. Small). 
 
 How readily the word would come 
 to be regarded as meaning unruled may 
 be seen from the following, where Wat 
 Tyler's insurrection is spoken of : — 
 
 Theyse vnrulyd copany gatheryd vnto them 
 great multytude of the comons, & after sped 
 them towarde y« cytie of Lodo. — Fabyan, 
 Chronicles, 1516, p. 530 (ed. Ellis). 
 
 Upbraid, to reproach or revile one, 
 originally to cast something up to one, 
 A. Sax. up-gehregdan (Somner) and up- 
 abregdan (EttmiiUer, p. 318), was some- 
 time written abraid, as if identical with 
 old Eng. abraide, to start up, or draw 
 a sword, A. Sax. dbregdan, to draw 
 out, hregdcm, to turn or move quickly. 
 Compare Icel. bregma, to move swiftly, 
 draw a sword, start or make a sudden 
 movement ; Prov. Eng. hraide, to 
 start, leap, or strike. 
 How now, base brat ! what, ai-e thy wits 
 
 tliine own. 
 That thou dar'st thus abraid me in my land ? 
 'Tis best for thee these speeches to recall. 
 
 Greene, Alphonsus, King of Aragon, 1599, 
 p. 231 (ed. Dyce;. 
 
 Wright quotes from Bochas : — 
 
 Bochas present felly gan abrayde 
 
 To Messaline, and even thus he sayde. 
 
 Liche as he had befallen in a rage 
 [He] furiously abrayde in his language. 
 
 Latimer has the peouhar form em- 
 hrayd, as if compounded with en — m. 
 
 There was debate betweenethese two wiues. 
 Phenenna in the doyng of sacrifice, embrayded 
 Anna because she was barren and not fruit- 
 full. — Sermons, p. 61. 
 
 We see something of the original 
 meaning of the word in Prov. Eng. 
 upbraid, or as it is spelt in North 
 Eng. abraid, said of food which rises in 
 the stomach with a feehng of nausea. 
 
 In his maw he felt it commotion a little 
 and upbraide him. — Nash, Lenten Stuffe 
 [Davies] . 
 
 Here the meaning is, not (as has 
 been supposed) that the food reproves 
 the eater for over-indulgence, but that 
 it rises or starts up. 
 
 Upbraid, to cast a thing up to one, 
 is found in very early English. Where 
 Tyndaie has "That same also the 
 theves .... cast in his tethe " [Matt. 
 xxvii. 44, 1534), Wychffe has "The 
 theues .... vpbraiden hym of the 
 same thing." 
 
UPHOLSTEBEB ( 416 ) UPSEE FREEZE 
 
 In his earen he hefde, \>e heouenliche 
 Louerd, al [jetedwit, & al )jet vpbnid, & al {le 
 schorn, & alle fie soheomen Jiet earen muhte 
 iheren. — Ancren RiwlSj p. 108. 
 
 [In his ears he heard, the heavenly Lord, 
 all the twitting, and all the upbraiding, and 
 all the scorn, and all the shame, that ears 
 might hear.] 
 
 And als I stod my dom to her, 
 Bifor Jesus, wit dreri chei'. 
 Of fendes herd Ic mani upbrayd 
 And a boo was bifor me layd. 
 Eng. Metrical Homilies, p. 31 (ed. Small). 
 iie soun of oure Souerayn jsen swey in his 
 
 ere, 
 Jjat vpbraydes ))is burne vpon a breme wyse. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 101, 1. 430. 
 And alle he sufiFred here vpbrei/d, 
 And neuer naght aSens hem seyd. 
 R. Mannyng, Handlyng Synne, 1. 5844. 
 Ne dide to his neghburgh iuel ne gram, 
 Ne ogaines his neghburgh vpbraiding nam. 
 Northumbriin Psalter, Ps. xiv. 3. 
 
 Upholstereb, a reduplicated form 
 (\ik6fruii-er-er, poult-er-er) of upholster, 
 originally the feminine form of up- 
 holder, for upholdster. Old Eng. up- 
 holdere, "that sellythe smal thynges, 
 velaber" {Prompt. Parv.), is also a 
 broker or dealer in second-hand 
 goods. 
 
 Vp-holderes on Jie hul shuUen haue hit to 
 selle. 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, C. xiii. 218. 
 
 Gay uses upholder for an under- 
 taker, — 
 Where the brass knocker, wrapt in flannel 
 
 band. 
 Forbids the thunder of the footman's' hand, 
 Th' zipholder, rueful harbingei' of death. 
 Waits with impatience for the dying breath. 
 Trivia, bk. ii. 1. 470. 
 
 Uppbe-lbt, a Norfolk word for a 
 Bhoulder-knot, is a corruption of 
 epaulette. 
 
 Upeist, sometimes used as a pre- 
 terite r: uprose, e.g. — 
 
 The glorious sun uprist. 
 Coleridge, Ancient Mariner, part ii. — 
 
 and as a past participle r= uprisen, 
 e.g.— 
 
 [Maia] That new is uprist from bed. 
 
 Spenser, S. Calendar, 'March — 
 
 both from a mistaken view about the 
 old Eng. up rist — 
 
 Up rist this jolly lover Absolon. 
 
 Chaucer, Milleres Tale, 503— 
 i.e. upriseth, present third pers., sing. 
 
 So Spenser by a blunder used j/eife 
 as an infinitive, it being the past tense 
 of the verb to go, as if " goed." 
 Grante ous, crist. 
 Wit Jiin upmt 
 
 to gone. Amen. 
 Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 199, 1. 80. 
 
 Uproar is the Enghsh form of the 
 cognate Ger. aufruhr, and not a com- 
 pound of up and roar. (See Marsh'g 
 Lectures on Eng. Lang. ed. Smith, p. 
 380.) Ger. aufruhr, a disturbance, 
 tumult, or insurrection, is from mf- 
 riihren, to stir up, excite. So Dut. op- 
 roer, tumult, from roeren, to stir ; Dan. 
 op-ror, riot, uproar, from op-rore, to 
 stir up. Compare A. Sax. rcsran, to 
 rear or raise. The imcompounded word 
 roar or rore is found in old English 
 meaning an insurrection, rising, or 
 commotion. 
 
 Rore, ortruble amonge bepuple. Tumultns, 
 commotio, disturbium. — Prompt. Parvnlorum. 
 
 Thus should all the realme fal in a roare. — 
 Hall, Chronicle (see note in loc. cit.). 
 
 In the following the word is used 
 for a seditious rising or insurrection: — 
 
 Arte not thou that Egypcian which before 
 these dayes made an vproure and ledde OTit 
 into the wildernes .iiii. thousande men that 
 were mortherers? — Acts xxi. 38, TyndaU 
 Version, 1534. 
 
 For we are in ieopai-dy, to be accused of 
 thys dayes vprour. — Acts xix. 40, Geneva 
 Version, 1557. 
 
 Nay, had I power, I should. 
 Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, 
 Uproar the universal peace, confound 
 All unity on earth. 
 
 Macbeth, iv. 3. 
 
 Confusion beard his voice, and wild uproar 
 
 Stood ruled ; stood vast infinitude confined. 
 
 Milton, Paradise Lost, bk. iii. 1. 711. 
 
 But they sayd ; not on the holy daye, lest 
 there be an vproure amonge the people. — 
 Matt. xxvi. 5, Cranmer's Version, 1539. 
 
 Uproar, a playful perversion among 
 the populace of the word opera, as also 
 roa/ratorio of oratmio. 
 While gentlefolks strut in their silver and 
 
 satins 
 We poor folk are tramping in straw hat and 
 
 pattens ; 
 Yet as merrily old English ballads cansing-o. 
 As they at their opperores outlandish ling-o. 
 G. A. Stevens, Description of Barthohmw 
 Fair, 1762. 
 
 UpseeFreeze, in the phrase "to drink 
 upsee freeze," found in old writers with 
 
UPSHOT 
 
 ( 417 ) 
 
 UPSIDE-DOWN 
 
 the meaning of to drink in true toper's 
 fashion, is a corruption of the Dutch 
 op-zyn-fries, "in the Dutch fashion," 
 or a la nwde de Frise (Nares). 
 
 One tliat driaks wpse-freeze. — Heywoodj 
 Philocothonistu, 1635, p. 4ft. 
 
 Drunke according to all the learned rules 
 of Drunkennes, as Vpsii-Freeze, Crambo, 
 Parmizant. — Dekker, Seuen Deadly Siniusoj' 
 London, 1606, p. 12 (ed. Arber). 
 He with his companions, George and Rafe, 
 Doe meet together to drink vfsefreese. 
 Till they hare made themselves as wise as 
 
 The Times' Whistle, p. 60, 1. 1816 
 CE.E.T.S.). 
 
 Upshot, the result or denoument of 
 anything, is no doubt a corruption of 
 up-shut, which is the form in use in 
 Dorsetshire, and corresponds to the 
 synonymous word "conclusion" {i.e. 
 con-clusio, from con-clvdere), a " shut- 
 tiug-up." So "cockshoot" is found 
 for " cock-shut " (time), vid. Nares, s.v. 
 
 Vnder the great King of Kings this king 
 of men is substitute to his King with this vp- 
 shut — the one is for ever the King of Good- 
 nesse. — J. Forde, A Line of Life, 1620, p. 69 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 It is but their conceit of the cheapness ; 
 they pay dear for it in the upshot. The devil 
 is no such frank chapman, to sell his wares 
 for nothing. — Adams, The Fatal Banquet, 
 Sermons, vol. i. p. 201. 
 
 And when the upshot comes, perhaps the 
 mispleading of a word shall forfeit all. — T. 
 Adams, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 482. 
 
 I am now so far in oflFence with my niece 
 that I cannot pursue with any safety this 
 sport to the upshot. — Shakespeare, 2'welf'th 
 Night, act iv. sc. ii. 1. 77. 
 
 I thanke you, Irenaus, for this your gentell 
 paynes ; withall not forgetting, nowe in the 
 shutting up, to putt you in mynde of that 
 which you have fonnerlye half promised. — 
 Spenser, View of Present State of Ireland, 
 Globe ed. p. 683. 
 
 To conclude was formerly used in 
 exactly the same sense as the col- 
 loquial phrase " to shut a person up," 
 i.e. to confute, put to silence. 
 
 Bee|j nat a-ferd of);at folke ■ for ichshalssue 
 
 3ow tonge, 
 Connynge and clergie ' to conclude hem alle. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, C. xii. 280. 
 
 Prof. Skeat Ulustrates this by 
 citing : — 
 
 In all those temptations Christ concluded 
 the .fiend and withstood him. — Wordsworth, 
 Eccles. Biography, i. 266. 
 
 Upside-down is no doubt, as Prof. 
 Earle has pointed out in his PhMology 
 of the English Tongue (p. 432), an alte- 
 ration by a false light of old Eng. up- 
 so-down, i.e. up what (was) down, so 
 being the old relative pronoun. Wycliffo 
 lias the forms upsodown, upsedown, Ex. 
 xxiii. 8, Luke xv. 8. Eichardson quotes 
 from Vives the corruption upset down. 
 Compare Prov. Eng. backsevore. 
 
 Thee hast a' put on thy hat backsevore. — 
 Mrs. Palmer, Devonshire Courtship, p. 20. 
 
 What es man in shap hot a tre 
 Turned up \iat es dmin, als men may se. 
 
 Hampole, Pncke of Conscience, 1. 673. 
 
 Jjafor it es ryght and resoune, 
 fjat J>ai be turned up-sua-doune. 
 And streyned in helle and bonden fast. 
 Hampole, Pi'icke of Conscience, 1. 7230. 
 
 Truly (lis ilk toun schal tylte to grounde, 
 Vp-so-doun schal 3e dumpe depeto (;e abyme. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 99, 1. 362. 
 
 And shortly turned was all up so doun. 
 
 Both habit and eke dispositioun 
 
 Of him, this woful lover, dan Arcite. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 1081. 
 
 (lat fie kirk performe it solemply, candel 
 slekennid, bell ro[n]gun, and );e cros tumid 
 vp so doun. — Apology Jor the Lollards, p. 19 
 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Comonly Wonders falle more ayenst wo 
 than ayenst welthe as . . . the raynebowe 
 tourned up so downe. — Dives et Pauper, ch. 
 xxvii. 
 
 Thei turneden vpsedoun my feet, and op- 
 pressiden with her pathis as with floodis. — 
 Wycliffe, Job xxx. 12. 
 
 For Jjat Jiat is i>e fendis chirc[he], }iat ben 
 proude clerkis &c coueitouse, ]xi clepen holy 
 chirche to turnen alle J^ing vpsodown as anti- 
 cristis diciplis. — Unprinted Works of Wycliffe, 
 p. 119 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Ble thynketh this court is al torned vp so 
 doon, Thise false shrewes flaterers and de- 
 ceyuours arise and wexe grete by the lordes 
 and been enhaunsed vp. And the good triewe 
 and wyse ben put doun. — Caxton, Keynard 
 the Fox, 1481, p. 74 (ed. Arber). 
 God saue the queenes maiestie and con- 
 found hir foes, 
 Els turne their hartes quite vpsidowne, 
 
 To become true subiectes, as well as those, 
 That faythfuUy and truely haue serued the 
 crowne ! 
 Ancient Ballads and Broadsides, p. 535 
 (ed. Lilly). 
 They turned iustioe vpsidowne. Eyther 
 they would geue wrong judgement, or *ls 
 put of, apd delay poore mens matters. — 
 Latimer, Sermons, p. 63. 
 
 E E 
 
JIBE-OX 
 
 ( 418 ) 
 
 VABE 
 
 Josias began and made an alteration in his 
 childehood, he turned all ^'pside downe. — Id. 
 p. 62. 
 
 These that haue turned the world vpside 
 dawne, are come hither also. — Acts xvii. 6, 
 Aiithoriikd Version^ 1611. 
 
 Uee-ox, a wild ox or buffle (Bailey), 
 apparently compoundeii of Lat. urus, a 
 wildox(Ger. wr), and ox, Ger. auer-ochs, 
 an aurochs, ]ikeauer-hah'n; a heath-cock 
 or wild-cook, auer-henne, a heath-hen 
 or wnd-hen. It is noticeable that 
 " wild ox " in the Authorised Version 
 (Deut. xiv. 5) represents the Greek 
 orux (Lxx.), Lat. oryx (Vulg.) ; see 
 Boohart, Opera, vol. i. p. 948 ; Topsell, 
 670. May not ure-o.i; and aurochs be a 
 corrupt transliteration of orux ? Pictet 
 identifies Ger. auer-{ochs), Scand. ur, 
 Celt, uri, with Sansk. usra, a buU or cow 
 {Origines Indo-Ewop. i. 339). 
 
 Use, as a legal term for profit, benefit, 
 according to Mr. Wedgwood has no con- 
 nexion with use, Lat. iisus, but is an 
 altered form of Norman-French cues, 
 oes, oeps, ops, benefit, service, pleasure, 
 derived from Lat. opus, need. 
 
 Utterance, in old writers often used 
 in the sense of " to the last extremity " 
 of a contest, as if to the utter-most, even 
 to the utter or complete destruction of 
 one of the combatants (A. Sax. uter, 
 outer, extreme, ute, out). It is really 
 an AngUcized form of Fr. a. outrance, 
 O. Fr. oulirance, from O. Fr. oultre 
 (Mod. Fr. outre), beyond, Lat. ultra. 
 " Gombattre a oultrance, to fight it out, 
 or to the uttermost." — Cotgrave. 
 
 The famous actes of the noble Hercules, 
 Tliat so many monsters put to utterauncej 
 By his ffreat wisdoine and hye prowes. 
 
 iS'. Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, 1555, 
 p. 10 (Percy Soc). 
 Witli al thare ibrce than at the vterance, 
 Thay pingil airis vp to bend and hale 
 [They strive to bend and hale up oars]. 
 
 C. Douglas, Bukes of Eneados, p. 134, 1. 12. 
 And ze also fell bodyis of Troianis, 
 That war not put by Greikis to vterance. 
 
 G. Douglas, p. 331, 1. 49. 
 Rather than so, come fate into the list, 
 And champion me to the utterance. 
 
 Sfiakespeare, Macbeth, act iii. so. 1, 1. 72. 
 
 And now he proceeds to justify the word 
 of defiance to the outrance with which he has 
 leplied, even as with such only He could 
 reply, to the last proposal of the Tempter. — 
 Ahp. Trench, Studies in the Gospels, p. 53. 
 
 Vagabond, a common old speUing of 
 vagabond, as if an idle, empty fellow 
 from vacuus, idle, empty, vacare, to be 
 idle. 
 
 [Alcibiades] being before but a banished 
 man, a vacubond, and a fugitive. — North 
 Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades, Skeat's ed. u 
 300. 
 
 " The Fraternitye of Vaeabondes ; as 
 wel of ruflyng Vaeabondes as of beg- 
 gerly, etc." is the title of a tract printed 
 in 1575. 
 
 I'hese be ydle vacaboundes, lyuyng vpon 
 other mens labours : these be named honest 
 barginers, and be in dede craftye couetouse 
 extorcioners. — 2\ Lever, Sei^ons, 1550, p. 
 130 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Vade, a very common old spelling of 
 fade, no doubt from an imagined con- 
 nexion with Lat. vadere, to go, depart, 
 vanish, perish (Uke Fr. passer, Lat. 
 per-eo). Indeed, gone is often idiomati- 
 cally used for vanished, perished, with- 
 ered, e.g. Moore says of "the Last 
 Bose of Summer " : — 
 
 All her lovely companions 
 Are faded and gone, — 
 
 and a faded beauty is said to have 
 greatly "gone oS," passee. J'ade, origi- 
 nally used of a pale, weak colour, is 
 from Fr. fade, weak, faint, insipid 
 (Prov. fada), from Lat. fatuus, foolish, 
 tasteless. Compare old Eng. "fatyn, 
 or lesjm colour, Marceo." — Frompt. 
 Farv. ' 
 
 Couleur pasle, the decaied, raded, or imper- 
 fect yellow colour of Box-wood, &c. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good ; 
 A shining gloss that vadeth suddeuly; . . . 
 A doubtiul good, a gloss, a glass, a flower, 
 Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour. 
 Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgnm, 
 St. xiii. 
 When valyant corps shall yeeld the latter 
 
 breath ! 
 Shall pleasures vadel must puffing pride 
 
 decay 1 
 Shall flesh consume? must thought resigne to 
 clay? 
 T. Proctor, Mirror of Mutabilitu (Sel. 
 Poetry, ii. 400, Parker Soc). 
 A breath-bereaving breath, a vading shade, 
 Even in motion, — so, as it appears, 
 
VAIL 
 
 ( 419 ) 
 
 VALENTINE 
 
 He comes to tell us whereto we were made, 
 And, like a fi-iend, to rid us of our feares. 
 R. Brathifuitej Remains after Death, 1618. 
 
 'Baseth 
 Her trembling tresses never-vuding Spring. 
 /. Sylvester, Du Bartas, 1621, p. 181. 
 We, that live on the Earth, draw toward our 
 
 decay, 
 Our children fill our place awhile, and then 
 they vade away. 
 
 Surreii, Poems, Ecclesiastes. 
 
 The sweet flowers of delight vade away in 
 that season out of our hearts, as the leaves 
 fall from the trees after harvest. — T. Hoby, 
 in Southey, The Doctor, ch. clxxxiv. 
 
 But that he promis made, 
 
 When he didheer remaine. 
 The world should never vade 
 By waters force againe. 
 Ballad, 1570, in Tarlton's Jests, p. 129 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 I blindfold walk'd, disdaining to behold 
 That life doth vade, and young men must be 
 old. 
 Greene, Works, p. 303 (ed. Dyce). 
 
 Like sunny beames. 
 That in a cloud their light did long time stay. 
 Their vapour vaded, shewe their golden 
 
 gleames, 
 And through the persant aii'e shoote forth 
 their azure streames. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, Ill.ix. 20. 
 
 Spenser, however, uses vade as a dis- 
 tinct woiiirorafade, with the meaning 
 of to go (as in per-vade, in-vade) or de- 
 part. 
 
 Her power, disperst, through all the world 
 
 did vade; 
 To shew that all in th' end to nought shall 
 fade. 
 
 Spenser, The Ruines of Rome, sx. 
 
 Likewise the Earth is not augmented more. 
 By all that dying into it doe fade ; 
 For of the Earth they formed were of yore ; 
 How ever gay their blossome or their blade 
 Doe flourish now, they into dust shall vade, 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, V. ii. 40. 
 
 Vail, the old spelhng oiveil (O. Fr. 
 veile, Lat. velum), apparently from a 
 supposed connexion with the verb vale 
 or vcdl, to let down, Fr. avaler, from 
 0. Fr. aval, down (ad vallem; compare 
 "mount," Fr. monter, amont, up, from 
 ad montem). Valance, the httle curtain 
 let down at the sides of a bed, is from 
 avaler. The original meaning of de- 
 scending into a vale or valley comes out 
 clearly in the following : — 
 
 Till at the last I came into a dale, 
 Amid two mighty hills on eyther side ; 
 
 From whence a sweete streame downe dyd 
 avaU 
 And cleare as chi'istal through the same 
 
 did slide. 
 F. Thynn, Debate between Pride and Lowli- 
 ness (ab. 1568), p. 9 (Shaks. Soc). 
 Summe of the Jewes han gon up the 
 mountaynes, and avaled down to the valeyes. 
 — Sir J. Maundevile, Volage and Travaile, p. 
 266. 
 
 He n'old avalen neither hood ne hat, 
 Ne abiden no man for his curtesie. 
 
 Chaucer, Milleres Tale, Prol. 1. 3124. 
 At the last, when Phebus in the west, 
 Gan to avayle with all his beames mery. 
 
 iS. Bawes, Pastime of Pleasure, 1555, 
 p. 6 (Percy Soc). 
 [They] from their sweaty Coursers didam/e. 
 Spenser, F, Queene, II. ix. 10. 
 
 Vails, gratuities given to servants, 
 originally their perquisites or pecu- 
 Hum ; " profits that arise to officers or 
 servants, besides Salary or Wages " 
 (Bailey), probably from old Eng. avails, 
 profits, advantages. 
 
 It. paracore . . the Goosegiblets, or such 
 Cooke's vailes. — Florio, 1611. 
 
 We do not insist upon his having a cha- 
 racter from his last place : there will be good 
 vails. — Horace Walpole, Letters (1756), vol. 
 iii. p. 39. 
 
 Then the number of the stocke reserued, 
 all maner of vailes besydes, bothe the hyre 
 of the mylke, and the pryoes of the yonge 
 veales and olde fat wares, was disposed to 
 the reliefe of the poore. — T. Lever, Sermons, 
 1550, p. 82 (ed. Arber). 
 
 I have gotten together ... by my wages, 
 my vails at Christmas, and otherwise, to- 
 gether with my rewards of kind gentlemen, 
 that have found courteous entertainment here, 
 . . a brace of hundred pounds. — R.Broome, 
 A Jovial Crew, v. 1. 
 
 Ah ! if the vails be thus sweet and glorious 
 before pay-day comes, what will be the glory 
 that Cnrist, etc. — Sibbes, Precious Remedies, 
 1676 (vol. i. p. 77). 
 
 Their wages, their veils, is joy, peace, com- 
 fort. — Id. Works, vol. iii. p. 59. 
 
 Valence, an old word for portman- 
 teau, an evident corruption of Fr. 
 valise, which is from It. vaUgia, from 
 Lat. viduUtia, viduhis, a leathern bag. 
 
 Before him he had . . . his cardinalls hat, 
 and a gentleman carrying his valence (other- 
 wise called his cloak bag) which was made of 
 fine scarlet, altogetherembrodered very richly 
 with gold, having in it a cloake. — Cavendish, 
 Life of Wolsey, Wordsworth, Eccles. Biog. vol. 
 i. p. 381. 
 
 Valentine, a temporary lover spor- 
 tively botmd to another for a year, old 
 
VAMP 
 
 ( 420 ) 
 
 VABNISE 
 
 Ft. valanUn, is said to have no etymo- 
 logical connexion with St. Valentine of , 
 the Calendar, ontheday of whose mar- 
 tyrdom, February 14th (probably from 
 the fact of birds pairing at that time), 
 the amatory missives called " valen- 
 tines" are now sent. It comes from 
 galantine, a Norman word for a lover 
 (W. E. S. Ealston), Fr. galant, which 
 is iroTiigaler, to enjoy one's self, to give 
 one's self to pleasure, and connected 
 with It., Sp., Fr. gala, A. Sax. gal, 
 0. H. Grer. geil, wanton, proud. 
 
 Eabelais speaks of "Viardiere le 
 noble Valentin," i.e. a gallant (liv. iii. 
 ch. 8), on which M. Barre notes, "En 
 Lorraine . . les jeunesfiUes aul"Mai 
 Beohoisissaient un Valentin, c'est-a-dire 
 un galant." 
 
 Ye knowe wel, how on Saint Valentines day, 
 By my statute, and through my governance, 
 Ye do chese your makes, and after flie away 
 With hem, as I pricke you with pleasaunce. 
 Chaucer, Assembly of Fowtes, 1. 390. 
 
 Dame Elizabeth Brews, vsrriting to 
 John Paston in 1476-7, who was wooing 
 her daughter, says : — 
 
 And, cousin, upon Friday is Saint Valen- 
 tine's Day, and every bird chuseth him a make 
 [mate] ; and if it like you to come on Thurs- 
 day at night . . . I trust to God that ye shall 
 so speak to mine husband ; and I shall pray 
 that we shall bring the matter to a conclusion. 
 — Paston Letters, vol. ii. p. 104 (ed. Knight). 
 
 About the same time the young lady 
 addresses him as " Eight reverend and 
 worshipful and my right weU-beloved 
 Valentine." — Ihid. 
 
 Haile Bishop Valentine, whose day this is, 
 All the Aire is tliy Diocis, 
 
 And all the chirping Choristers, 
 And other birds are thy Parishioners, 
 
 Thou marryest every yeare 
 The lirique Larke, and the grave whispering 
 Dove. 
 Donne, Epithalamicn, or Marriage Song 
 on the Ladit Elizabeth, married on 
 St. Valentine's Day, st. 1. 
 As Diamonds 'mongst Jewels bright. 
 As Cinthia 'mongst the lesser Lights ; 
 So 'mongst the Northern Beauties shine, 
 So far excels my Valentine. 
 
 J. Howell, Familiar Letters, bk. i. v. 
 21 (1629). 
 
 Vamp, to mend or furbish up, origi- 
 nally to furnish boots with new upper 
 leathers, is corrupted from the older 
 word vampy, which was perhaps con- 
 founded withadjeotivalformslikeSaZmi/, 
 hairy, rusty, sandy, stony, &c., and 
 
 supposed accordingly to imply a sub- 
 stantive vamp. Vampy or vampay 
 (Bailey) is old Eng. " Vampey of a hose, 
 Auantpied " (Palsgrave), " Yawdfi 
 of a hose, vantpie" (7d.), the "fore- 
 foot," Fr. avant-pied, or upper part of a 
 shoe or stocking. 
 
 Vampe of an hoose. Pedana.— Prompt. 
 Parviiioi-um. 
 
 They make vampies for high shooes for 
 honest country plowmen. — Taylor the Water- 
 Poet, Works, 1630 [Nares]. " 
 
 Ine sumer 3e habbeS leaue uorto gon and 
 sitten baruot; and hosen wicSuten uaumpez,— 
 Ancren Riwle, p. 420. 
 
 [In summer ye have leave for to walk and 
 sit barefoot, and (to have) hose without 
 Damps.] 
 
 Van-coueier, I from Fr. avant- 
 Van-guard, J courier (0. Eng. 
 vaunt- courier), avant-gtwde. 
 
 Quid sendeth out his scoutes too Thpaters 
 to descry the enimie, and in steede of vaunts 
 Carriers, with instruments of musicke, play- 
 ing, singing, and dauncing geues the first, 
 charge. — Gosson, Schoote of Abme, 1579, p. 
 29 (ed. Arbet). 
 
 Vane, a weathercock, so spelt as if 
 connected with Pr. van, Lat. vanrms, 
 from its catching the wind (Kcliard- 
 son), or perhaps, on account of its pro- 
 verbial fickleness, from an association 
 with Lat. vanus, is an incorrect form 
 of /owe, A. Sax., Icel., and Swed./aM, 
 a streamer or banner, 0. H. Ger. fame, 
 Goth, fana, a cloth, akin to pome, pen- 
 non, and Lat. panrms (Diefenbach, 
 Goth. Sprache, ii. 362). Compare Dut. 
 vaan, a banner. For the change of/ 
 to V, compare Vade and Veneer ; old 
 Eng. vaile, vayn, vaire, &c., for fail, 
 fain, fair ; viaen foijusen, a female /m. 
 Similarly "Wyohffe uses vome indis- 
 criminately for to foam and to vomit 
 (Lat. vomere). — ForshaU and Madden, 
 Glossary, s.v. 
 
 O stormy peple, unsad and ever untrewe, 
 And undiscrete, and changing as a/ane. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 8872. 
 If speaking, why, a vane blown with all 
 
 winds ; 
 If silent, why, a block moved with none. 
 Shakespeare, Much Ado, iii. 1, 67. 
 
 Varnish, a Leicestershirewordmean- 
 ing to be fat and well-hking. A far- 
 mer's wife said that a "gal" she bad 
 taken in quite thin was become "fat 
 an' varnished " (Evans, Ghssary, 
 
VAUDEVILLE 
 
 ( 421 ) 
 
 VEIL 
 
 E.D.S.). It is a corrupt form of lar- 
 rdsh or harness of the same meaning. 
 See Bdenish. This usage reminds one 
 of Chaucer's line : — 
 Wei hath this miller vemishrd his hed. 
 Cunt. Tales, 1. 4147— 
 
 meaning he had drunk deep potations 
 of strong ale. 
 
 Vaudeville, so spelt as if com- 
 pounded with ville, a town, was origi- 
 nally "a counti'y ballade or song; a 
 Roundelay, or Virelay, so tearmed of 
 Vaudevire, a Norman Town, wherein 
 Olivier Bassel, the first inventor of 
 them, Uved." — Cotgrave. 
 
 The theatrical compositions called " Vaude- 
 villes " take their name from the old songs 
 called " Vaux-de-Vire," and these in turn 
 are named from the pretty valleys of the river 
 Vire. . . . Certainly the vaudevilles of the 
 
 firesent day have much more to do with the 
 ife of the city than -n-ith the quieter exis- 
 tence of the people who dwell by the river 
 Vire. — Satiiraaii Review, 
 
 See The Vaux-de-Vire of Maisire 
 Jecm le Houss, Advocate, of Vire. Edited 
 and translated by James Patrick Muir- 
 head, M.A. London : Murray. 1875. 
 
 Virelay, Fr. virelai (from virer), a cir- 
 cling song, rondeau, or roundel, was 
 once spelt verlay, and thus explained : — 
 
 Then is there an old kinde of Rithme called 
 Vertayes, deriued (as I haue redde) of this 
 worde Verd, whiche betokeneth Greene, and 
 Laye, which betokeneth a Song, as if you 
 would say greene Sondes. — Gascoigney Steele 
 Glas, 1576, p. 39 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Vautrat, a species of dog trained to 
 hunt the hoar in Prance in a particular 
 manner, and explained to mean " the 
 tumbler " in a volume entitled The 
 Present State of France, translated by 
 E. W., 1687 (see Saiiwday Review, vol. 
 46, p. 465), the word evidently being 
 considered a derivative of va/atrer, 
 0. Fr. veautrer, to tumble, wallow, or roll 
 over (Cotgrave), for voltre/r ■=.'L3,t. volu- 
 im-e. The word is really Fr. vaultre, 
 " a mungrel between a hound and a 
 maistiffe ... fit for the chase or hunt- 
 ing of wild Bears and Boars " (whence 
 vaultrer, to hunt with a vaultre). — 
 Cotgrave. It is It. veliro, Prov. veltre, 
 from Lat. vertragus, a word of Celtic 
 origin, perhaps from ver, intensi- 
 tive, and traig, a foot (Diefenbach). 
 Prom the French word came feioterer, 
 an old Eng. name for a hound-keeper. 
 
 Topsell, speaking of the vertagus, 
 says : — 
 
 This sort of DoggeS, which compaaseth all 
 by craftes, fraudes, subtilties and deceiptea, 
 we Pmglish men call Tumblers, because in 
 hunting they turne and tumble, winding their 
 bodyes about in circle-wise. — History of 
 Foure-footed Beasts, p. 168 (1603). 
 
 There is little doubt that he regarded 
 vertagus as akin to vertigo, a turning 
 round, verto, to turn, and so correctly 
 represented by tumbler in Enghsh. 
 
 Vedette, amihtary outpost, we have 
 borrowed from the French, where the 
 word means " a Sentry or court of 
 guard, placed without a fort or camp ; 
 and more generally, any high place 
 from which one may see afar off." — Cot- 
 grave. The French in turn is but the 
 Italian vedetta, "a sentinels standing- 
 place ; also a watch-towre, also a 
 beacon '' (Florio), so spelt as if derived 
 from vedere, to see, view, or survey, as 
 if a watch set to spy or reconnoitre the 
 enemy. Vedetta, however, is only 
 another form of veletta of the same 
 meaning, which is a diminutive of 
 veglia (veggia), a watch, a sentinel, from 
 Lat. vigilia (Diez, Scheler). For the 
 change from I to d, cf. Fr. anddon, from 
 Lat. amyhi/m; Portg. escacia, from Lat. 
 scala; also dautia, daorima, old Lat. 
 forms of lautia, lacrima. 
 
 Veil, vb., a mis-spelling of to vale, to 
 lower or let down, old Eng. avale, Pr. 
 avaler. See Vail and the quotations 
 there given. 
 
 This makes the Hollander to dash his 
 Colours, and veil his Bonnet so low unto her. 
 — Howell, Familiar Letters, book iv. 47. 
 
 Cardinal Pole, in 1556, ordered veiling of 
 bonnets and bending knees in Hereford 
 Cathedral, when the words were sung, jEt 
 Incarnattis ei Spiritu, and Et Homo foetus est. 
 — ill. E. C. Wulcott, Traditions and Customs 
 of Cathedrals, p. 117. 
 
 But all so soone as heau'n his browes doth 
 bend, 
 
 She veils her banners, and pulls in her 
 beames, 
 The emptie barke the raging billows send, 
 
 Vp to the Olympique wauea. 
 
 G. Fletcher, Christs Victorie on Earth, 
 1610, St. 36. 
 
 In the following passage from Bishop 
 Hacket's Sermons, which reads so curi- 
 ously like a contradiction to St. Paul's 
 injunction about public worship, to veil 
 the head is to vail, lower, or bow it : — 
 
vulbefabe 
 
 ( 422 ) 
 
 VIOIOUS 
 
 What a dissolute carriage it is tosee amaa 
 step into a Church and neither veil his head, 
 nor bend his knee, nor lift up his hands or 
 eyes to heaven 1 Who dwels there I pray 
 you that you are so familiar in the house ? 
 Could you be more saucy in a Tavern or in a 
 Theater. — Centurif of Sermons, 1675, p. 301. 
 
 They observed all the gentlemen as well as 
 labourers to vail bonnet and retire. — Life of 
 Bp. Frampton (ed. T. S. Evans), p. 116. 
 Then mayst thou think that Mars himself 
 
 came down, 
 To vail thy plumes and heave thee from thy 
 
 pomp. 
 Green, Orlando Ftirioso, p. 10? (ed. Dyoe). 
 Tho, whenas vailed was her lofty crest. 
 Her golden locks, that were in trammells ^ay 
 Upbounden, did them selves adowne display 
 And raught unto her heeles. 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Qtuene, III. ix. 20. 
 We shepheards are like them that vnder saile 
 Doe speake high words, when all the coast is 
 
 cleare, 
 Yet to a passenger will bonnet vaile. 
 
 Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, 1629, p. 224. 
 
 Vbldefaee, " a bird bigger than a 
 tbrush of the same colour," is Min- 
 sbeu's spelling of fieldfa/re (q.v.), ap- 
 parently from the resemblance of the 
 Spanish word gorgdl, which he is de- 
 fining, to c&rga, a faune, a calfe of a 
 hinde, and a desire to assimilate it to 
 the corresponding English "veal" 
 (veald), a calf. 
 
 Venbee, to superimpose a thin layer of 
 ornamental wood on a more common 
 sort, so spelt as if to denote the veined 
 or streaky appearance of the inlaid 
 wood (Lat. vena, a vein), is a corrupt 
 " form offin,eBr,J)a,n.finere, Ocer.fv/rmeren, 
 to veneer, originally to furnish (give 
 an additional ornament), from French 
 foiwnw, to furnish. See Perfobm. 
 
 The Italians call it pietre commuse, a sort of 
 inlaying with stones, analogous to the^rieer- 
 ing of cabinets in wood. — SmolUtt, France 
 and Jtalif, Letter XXVllI. 
 
 This '[Ash] wood and Walnut-tree . . . 
 makes the best fanneer. — Modern Husband' 
 man, VII. ii. 43 (1730). 
 
 Venue, a legal term for the neigh- 
 bourhood in which a wrong has been 
 committed, and in which it should be 
 tried, so spelt as if to denote the place 
 when the jury are summoned to come, 
 from Fr. venue, a coming or arrival, 
 like venue, in fencing, a coming on or 
 attack (also spelt venew and venny), is 
 said to be from Norm. Fr. vesine, visnet. 
 
 neighbourhood, Low Lat. visnetwn, 
 vicinetum, vicinity (Wedgwood). 
 
 The court will direct a change of the veniie 
 or visne (that is, the vicinia or neighbourhood 
 in which the injury is declared to be done). 
 — Blackstone [Richardson]. 
 
 VEEDiaEEASE, an old speEing of ver- 
 di-gris, French vert-de-gris (as if " green- 
 of-grey"), old Fr. vert de grim, which 
 have been regarded as corruptions of 
 verderis, Lat. vi/ride mris, green of cop- 
 per. 
 
 Vert-de-gris, Verdigrease. — Cotgrave, 
 In old French the word appears as 
 verte-grez ; the original of which Littre 
 thinks may have been vert cdgret, green 
 produced by acid (I'aigre). 
 
 Bole armoniak, verdegrese, boras. 
 
 Chaucer, C. Tales, 16258. 
 Compare Ambergeeasb. 
 
 Vbemin, Fr. verrmne. In Latin ver- 
 mina is applied to writhings or throes 
 of pain, but the word seems subse- 
 quently to have been confounded with 
 vermis, a worm. Cf. vermino, (1) to 
 writhe in pain, (2) to be troubled with 
 worms. 
 
 Vessel, a term in use at Wiaehester 
 College for a wrapper of paper, especi- 
 ally the half-quarter of a sheet of fools- 
 cap, is said to be a corruption of Lat. 
 fasoiculus through It. vassiola (H. C. 
 Adams, WylceJiamica,-p. 4iS8). 
 
 Vessel was used for theme-papers formerly at 
 Buiy School. — Vocabulari) of E. Anglia (E. 
 D. Soc. Reprint B. 20). 
 
 Vessel-cdps, a Cleveland corruption 
 of wasscdl-cups (Atkinson). In the 
 Holderness dialect (B. Yorkshire), a 
 Christmas carol-singer is called a uesseZ- 
 cup (or hezzle-cup) woman. Formerly 
 these singers used to carry about in a 
 box "Advent Images" of the Virgin 
 and Child (see Chambers, Booh of 
 Days, vol. ii. p. 725). Vessel-cupping at 
 Christmas is still kept up in the Isle of 
 Axholme (Sir C. H. J. Anderson, Lin- 
 coln Fochet Guide). On the other hand, 
 in Joseph of Arimathie, " wassckeles wilj 
 haly water " (1. 288) are vessels for holy 
 water ; wesselle, Ohev. Assigne, 1. 156. 
 
 Vicious, an incorrect form, as if de- 
 rived from Fr. videux (like vice from 
 Fr. vice), for vitious from Lat. vitiosus; 
 just as vitiate, formerly spelt violate 
 (Cotgrave, s.v. Vider), is from Lat. 
 
VILE 
 
 ( 423 ) 
 
 VISIOGNOMY 
 
 vitiare, and mtiosiUj, Lat. viUositas. A 
 Bunilar mis-spelling sometimes found is 
 negoeiate for negotiate, as if from Fr. 
 negooier, instead of Lat. negotiare. 
 
 ]>e venym & \>e vylanje & )?e vijcios fylj^e, 
 Jpatby-sulpeS manneS saule in vnsounde hert. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 53, 1. 575. 
 Thou mnist, dodged opinion, 
 Of thwarting cynicks. Today vitious. 
 List to their precepts j next day vertuoua. 
 
 MiirstDrt, Scourt^e of Vilianiej iv. 
 (vol. ill. p'. 266). 
 
 Vile, in the Percy Folio MS., is a 
 corruption of O. Eng. fele, numerous, 
 A. SiLX.fela (cf. Ger. viel). 
 
 Sir Lybius rode many a mile 
 
 Sawe aduentures many & vile 
 
 in England & in Wales. 
 
 vol. ii. p. 463, 1. 1318. 
 
 Viper's dance, the ordinary name 
 for St. Titus dance in Rutland. 
 
 Viper, a popular name in some 
 places for the fish trachimis draco, is an 
 alteration of its more common name 
 wiver, weever, weaver, or quaviver. See 
 Weaveb. 
 
 ViLLANY, formerly used in the specific 
 sense of foul or infamous language, was 
 perhaps popularly associated with vile, 
 as in the passage, " The vile person will 
 speak villany" (A. V. Is. xxxii. 6), 
 where the Genevan version, preserving 
 a parallehsm, has "The niggard will 
 speake of niggardnesse. ' ' Abp. Trench, 
 Select Glossary, quotes from Barrow on 
 Evil- Speaking : — 
 
 In our modern language it is termed vilUmy, 
 as being proper for rustic boors [Lat. viltuni}. 
 
 Scheler remarks that in French vil, 
 vile, has helped to fix the modern ac- 
 ceptation of vilain. Compare vilein, 
 base, irfferaie, vUeness (Gotgrave), wZemer, 
 to disgrace or revile, with vilete, vile- 
 ness, old Eng. vilitee (Elyot), baseness. 
 
 Efterward comjj )je zenne of yelpynge jiet 
 is wel grat, and wel uoul, wel uals, and v\-el 
 vileyn [Afterward cometh the sin of boast- 
 ing that is very great, and very foul, very 
 false, and very wicked]. — Ayenbite of Inwyt, 
 p. 59. 
 
 .4voy! hit is your vylaynye, Je vylen your 
 seluen. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 61, 1. 863. 
 To make our tongue so clerely paryfyed. 
 That the vyle tei'mes should nothing arage, 
 As like a pye to chatter in a cage, 
 
 But for to speke wyth rethoryke formally 
 In the good order, wythouteu vylaiiy. 
 
 S. Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, 1535, 
 p. 46 (Percy Sec). 
 He never yet no vilanie ne sayde 
 In alle his lif, unto no manere wight 
 He was a veray parfit gentil knight. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, Prol. 1. 70. 
 
 Vineyard is perhaps a corruption of 
 the old Eng. form vyner or vinere (Lat. 
 vinearium), which with the common 
 excrescence of d would become vyner-d, 
 just as old Eng. lanere became lanyard. 
 See further under Steelyard. Com- 
 pare old Eng. verger, a garden ( Chaucer) , 
 Pr. vergier, from Lat. virida/iium. Or 
 more probably vineyard is a fusion of 
 vyner with A. Sax. win-geard, winea/rd, 
 a "wine-yard" (Goth, weina-gard). 
 Compare : — 
 
 Manna ussatida weinagard. — S. Luke xx. 
 9, Goth. Version, 360. 
 
 Sum man plantode him wingeard. — Id. A. 
 Sax. Vers. 995. 
 
 Sum man plantide a vyner. — Id, Wycliffe, 
 1389. 
 
 A certayne man planted a vyneyarde. — Id. 
 Tyndule, 1526. 
 
 Thei settiden me a kepere in vyners; Y 
 kepte not my vyner. — Wycliffe, Song of' SolO' 
 mon, i. 5. 
 
 ViSNOMY, 1 are old corruptions of 
 
 VisiOGNOMY, i physiognomy (Greek 
 physiognomonia, the knowledge of a 
 man's nature (physis) by means of his 
 face or expression), from a supposed 
 connexion with visage, Pr. vis, the face 
 or countenance, Lat. visus, the appear- 
 ance. 
 
 It is recorded in The Perfect 
 Biwrnal, Nov. 23-30, 1646, that certain 
 evil-disposed persons broke into West- 
 minster Abbey and mutilated " the 
 ef&gies of old learned Camden . . . 
 broke off his nose, and otherwise de- 
 faced his msiognomy." 
 
 Spit in his visnomy. 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Woman Pleas'd, iv. 1, 
 The goodly ymage of your visnomy, 
 Clearer then cristall, would therein appere. 
 Spenser, Sonnets, 45. 
 Each of the Gods, by his like visnomie 
 Eathe to be knowen ; but Jove above them all, 
 By his great lookes and power Imperiall.^^ 
 
 Spenser, Muiopnimos (Globe ed.), p. 535. 
 Spenser also has the iorm physnoniie : — 
 Yet certea by her face and physnomie, 
 Whether she man or woman inly were, 
 That could not any creature well descry. 
 Faerie Queene, VIT. vii. 5. 
 
VOL-ATJ-VENT ( 424 ) 
 
 WAITS 
 
 The gradual contraction of this word 
 from an original physiognomony, 
 through physiogrwmy, physnomie, down 
 to phiz, is a curious instance of a com- 
 mon process. Compare synibology (De 
 Quincey) for symholology, and see Ido- 
 latry. Old French corruptions are 
 phlymouse and phlome (Cotgrave). 
 The old Eng. vise, face, perhaps 
 favoured the contraction to phiz. 
 
 That luel {lenne in genimyj gente, 
 Vered vp her vyse with y5en graye. 
 
 AUiterative Poems, p. 8, 1. 254. 
 
 [Raised up her face with gray eyes.] 
 
 VoL-Au-VENT. This term for a light 
 sweet dish, which we have borrowed 
 from the French (where it seems to 
 mean something like a "windy flight "), 
 was probably originally vole et vonne, an 
 old expression for anything empty, 
 light, or worthless (in this case unsub- 
 stantial). Scheler quotes i the word 
 vanvole, a futile, empty thing, from the 
 Momant du Benard (compare our kiajc- 
 shaws) ; Prov. iFr. voU = light puff 
 paste ; and veide z: hollow, loose, light. 
 See Fool. 
 
 W. 
 
 Waggoner, a nautical term for a 
 rentier or book of sea-charts, pointing 
 out the coasts, rocks, &c. (Falconer, 
 Marine Didiona/ry, s.v. ). An early folio 
 volxmie of charts by a Baron von Wa- 
 genaer originated the name. A Wa- 
 genaer became a familiar generic name 
 for any volume of a similar description, 
 just as a Bonet (Donatus' grammar) 
 was a common word formerly for any 
 grammar, something like our Lindley 
 Murray, or as we might call a lexicon 
 a Liddle-and-Beott, or a concordance a 
 Gruden. So Avinet, from Avienus, and 
 Usopet, from^Esop, are mediasval names 
 for a book of fables, and Fr. calepin, a 
 note-book or commonplace book, was 
 originally a word-book or lexicon com- 
 posed by Ambrose Oalepin towards the 
 end of the 15th century. So Dal- 
 rymple's Gha/rts are called The English 
 Waggoner. 
 
 The Captain .... called for the wagoner, 
 to enquire whither any rock had been ob- 
 served by others that had formerly used those 
 
 seas. — Life of Bp. Frampton (ed. by T. S. 
 Evans), p. 30. 
 
 The fuU title of the original volume 
 is — 
 
 Wagenaer, Lucas, Speculum nauticum 
 super navigatione maris occidentalis confec- 
 tum, continens omnes eras maritimas, Gallise, 
 Hispaniae, &o. in diversis mappis maritimis 
 comprehensum. Leyden, 1588, fol. 
 
 Waist-coat, Mr. Wedgwood claims 
 as a corruption from Fr. veste {Philolog. 
 Trans. 1855, p. 69), but this seems more 
 than doubtful. 
 
 Wainscoat, an old mis-spelLing of 
 wainscot (e. g. Pepys' Diary, vol. ii. 
 pp. 9, 61, ed. M. Bright), But. wagen- 
 schot, " wain-shutter," wainscot, ori- 
 ginally perhaps "wall-shutter;" cf. 
 Fris. wage, A. Sax. wah, a wall. 
 
 Waits, the nightly musicians at 
 Christmas time so called, have gene- 
 rally been regarded as those who wait, 
 wake, watch, or keep vigU (0. Eng. to 
 waite) during the night ; " wayte, 
 waker, vigil" {Prompt. Pa/rv.), being an 
 old word for a watchman, and Neokam 
 actually translating veytes by excuhim 
 (Wright, Vocahularies, 106). However, 
 waits seems from the first to signify 
 musicians generally. 
 
 Waytes on the walle gan blowe, 
 Knyghtis assembled on a row. 
 Torrent of Portugal [in Wright]. 
 
 It is used similarly in Kyng Ahj- 
 saunder, U. 4312, 7769, and is no doubt 
 the same word as waat, a hautboy, 
 Span, and Portg. gaita, a flageolet or 
 bagpipe, which are from Arabic goA'tah, 
 a flute (Diez). 
 
 They are generally met by women .... 
 who welcome them with dancing and singing, 
 and are called timber-waits, perhaps a corrup- 
 tion of timbrel-waits, players on timbrels [or 
 pipe and tabour], waits being an old word for 
 those who play on musical insti'uments iu the 
 streets.' — lorn Thumb's Travels, p. 96. 
 
 Bee Brand, Pop. Antiquities, vol. i. 
 p. 195, ed. Bohn. He quotes " wiA- 
 ful waits " from Ghristmas, a poem (p. 
 480), and Sir Thos. Overbury speaks of 
 " the wakeful ketches on Christmas 
 Eve," but this is nothing to the pur- 
 pose. 
 
 Mr. Chappell with less probability 
 regards the waight or hautboy as hav- 
 ing been so called from being played 
 by the castle waight or watchman. — 
 History of Music, vol. i. p. 260. 
 
WALL-ETED ( 425 ) 
 
 WANEORN 
 
 Here waiis are watchmen, spies in 
 ambush : — 
 
 He sett his waites bi )» stret, 
 If jjai moght wit {;aa kinges mett. 
 Cursor Mtindi (Specimens of Early 
 Eitg. ii. 74). 
 
 Wake, the track of smooth water left 
 behind her by a ship under sail, is a 
 naturahzed form of Fr. ouaicho (same 
 sense), sometimes spelt ouage, which is 
 the same word as Sp. aguage, a current, 
 from Lat. aqua,gium. 
 
 Wall-eyed, said of a horse when the 
 iris of the eye is white, as with a cata- 
 ract (" All white like a plaistered wall." 
 — Grose !), corresponds to Icel. vagl- 
 eygr of the same meaning (sometimes 
 corrupted into vald-eygir), from vagi a. 
 amga, Ut. "a beam in the eye," a dis- 
 ease, from vagi, a beam. Of. Swed. 
 vagel, a perch. 
 
 A horse with a wall-eye, glauciolus. 
 
 Baret, Alvearie, 1580. 
 
 In old English writers tvhall, whaule, 
 or whal eye denotes the disease of the 
 eyes called glaucoma, and Spenser 
 speaks of a bearded goat with 
 
 Whally eies, the signe of gelosy. 
 
 F. Q. I. iv. 24. 
 Compare — 
 
 Oeil de chevre, whall eye. 
 
 Cotgrave. 
 
 The form woldeneyed occurs in K. 
 Alysaunder, 1. 5274. 
 
 The vilest stroke, 
 That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage 
 Presented to the tears of soft remorse. 
 
 Shakespeare, King John, act iv. 
 so. 3, 1. 50. 
 
 Walnut, \ has no right to be 
 Wall-nut, / ranked among wall 
 fruit, as its name might suggest. It 
 was spelt formerly walshnui (Gerarde, 
 1595, p. 1252), A. Sax. ivealh-Jmut, and 
 := Ger. WiUsche Nwss, " foreign nut," 
 Dorset welsh nut. So Fr. gauge, from 
 0. H. Ger. walah ; Icel. val-hnot, Irish 
 gall-chno. In old English it was some- 
 times with the same connotation called 
 Frenoissen Jmutu, French nut (Leech- 
 doms, Wortcunning, &c., Cockayne, vol. 
 ni. Glossary). The German have also 
 wallnuss, as if from wall, a rampart. 
 
 Some difficulty there is in cracking the 
 name thereof: why Wall-nuts, having no affi- 
 nity with a Wall, whose substantial Trees need 
 to borrow nothing thence for their support. 
 
 Nor are they so called because walled with 
 Shells, which is common to all other Nuts. 
 The truth is Gual or Wall in the old Dutch 
 signifieth strange or exotick (whence Welsh 
 that is Foreigners) ; these Nuts heing no 
 Natives of England or Europe, and probably 
 first fetch'd from Persia, because called Nux 
 Persique in the French tongue. — Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 352 (ed. 
 Nichols). 
 
 Compare Ger. Wiilsche Bohne, = 
 Eng. French beans, i.e. foreign beans ; 
 Walscher hahn, a turkey (ef. Fr. poule 
 d'Inde, Dindon). 
 
 Ve opoed for ge-roasted Welsh-hens. 
 Breitnumn Ballads, p. 108 (ed. 1871). 
 Fagioli, feazols, welch beanes, kidney beans, 
 French peason. — Florio. 
 
 Similarly in Icelandic Valir (fo- 
 reigners) are the French, Val-la/nd, 
 France, vallcuri, one from foreign lands, 
 a pilgrim, whence no doubt the sur- 
 name Waller (cf. Ger. wallfahrten). 
 
 Wall-woet, an old popular name 
 for the dwarf-elder (JShulus), as if called 
 from its growing on walls, is old Eng. 
 wealwyrt (Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wort- 
 cunning, &c., vol. iii. Glossary) , properly 
 the " foreign plant " (A. Sax. wealh 
 wyrt, like walnut, from wealh-hnut), it 
 being popularly supposed to have been 
 introduced by the Danes, whence its 
 other name Dane-wort. We also find 
 the forms wal-wyrt (Wright, Vocahu- 
 lairies, p. 30, 10th cent.) and walle-wu/rte 
 (Id. p. 266, 15th cent.). Gerarde spells 
 it Wale woort and Wall woort {Herhal, 
 p. 1237). It seems also to have been re- 
 garded as a compound of A. Sax. wal, 
 slaughter, and as having got its name 
 from growing at Slaughterford, Wilts, 
 where many of the Danes were de- 
 stroyed (see Prior, s.v.). 
 
 The rootes of Wall woort boyled in wine 
 iind drunken, are good against the dropsie. 
 —Gerarde, Herbal, p. 1238. 
 
 The road hereabouts too being overgrown 
 with Daneweed, they fansy it sprung from the 
 blood of the Danes slain in battle ; and that 
 if upon a certain day in the year you cut it, 
 it bleeds. — D. Defoe, Tour thro' Great Bri- 
 tain, ii. 416. 
 
 Wandeeoo, the name of a baboon 
 found in Ceylon, Ger. luanderu, as if 
 called from its erratic habit, are natu- 
 ralized forms of Cingalese elvamdu. — 
 Mahn's Webster. 
 
 Wanhoen, the name of a plant of 
 
WANTON 
 
 ( 426 ) 
 
 WATEB-GBASS 
 
 the genua Kmmpferia, is a corruption 
 of the Siamese wcmhom. — Mahn's 
 Wehster. 
 
 Wanton, sometimes understood as 
 if it meant wanting (a mate), appetens, 
 licentious, is the old Eng. wantown, or 
 wan-towen, deficient in breeding, badly 
 brought up, A. Sax. warn (implying de- 
 ficiency) +towen {togen, p. parte, oitedn, 
 to lead or draw), educated. The word 
 is thus equivalent to un-towune, undis- 
 ciplined, and opposed to wel itowene 
 (Ancren Biwle), well-bred. See "Wedg- 
 wood, s.v. 
 
 Welsh gwantan, fickle, wanton, appa- 
 rently from gwcimiu, to separate (as if 
 " apt to run off"), is perhaps a borrowed 
 word. 
 
 Ma)\ You are a wanton. 
 
 Rob. One I do confess, 
 I want-ed till you came ; but now I have you, 
 I'll grow to your embraces. 
 
 -B. Jonsonj The Sad Shepherd, i. 2. 
 
 Yonge wantons, whose parentes haue left 
 them fayre houses, goods and landes, whiche 
 be visciously, idle, vnleaimedly, yea or rather 
 beastly brought Tp. — W. BuUeyn, Booke of 
 Simples, p. xxvii. verso. 
 
 Wanty, an old word for the girth or 
 beUy-band of a horse, still used in prov. 
 English {e.g. Parish, Sussex Glossary), 
 which Mahn thought to be connected 
 with Dut. wandt, want, tackling, rope- 
 work, rigging, is a corruption of wamib- 
 tie, a band or tie (A. Sax. tige) for the 
 wamb or beUy (A. Sax. wamh, old Eng. 
 iDonib, the belly). 
 
 A pannell and wanty, pack saddle and ped, 
 A line to fetch litter, and halters for head. 
 Tusser, Husbandry Furniture, p. 11 
 [Richardson] . 
 
 War-days, a Cleveland word for 
 week-days as opposed to Sundays, or- 
 dinary or working-days, is identical 
 with Dan. hverdag, a week day, lit. 
 "every day," from hver, every, Suio- 
 Goth. hwwrdag. Wa/rt-day (in Pea- 
 cock's Glossojry of Mamley, &c., Lin- 
 colnshire) is a further corruption. 
 
 Warden, as the name of a pear, is 
 from the French garde, " Poire de ga/rde, 
 a Wm'den, or Winter Pear ; a pear 
 which maybe kept [gm-dee] very long." 
 — Cotgrave. This disposes of the theory 
 that this variety was raised first by the 
 Cistercian monks of Wardon in Bed- 
 fordshire [The Herefordshire Pomona, 
 Pt. I.). 
 
 Wae-henIs given inBosworth,.4mjZo- 
 Saxon Dictionary, as a name for the 
 hen pheasant, underthe word wor-hana, 
 i.e. moor-hen (from wav/r, weed ?), of 
 which word it is a corruption. 
 
 Farsianus, Wor-hana. — Wright, Vocabula- 
 ries, 11th cent. 
 
 Warlock, a wizard, presents a curi- 
 ous instance of reiterated corruption. 
 The Enghsh word, as well as the Scotch 
 warlo, a wicked person, is the modern 
 form of old Eng. warlmue, A. Sax. waer- 
 loga, a " compact-har," one who has 
 belied or broken his (Isaptismal) cove- 
 nant (waer), an apostate ; in the Beo- 
 wulf (8th century) we have a similar 
 formation, tredw-logan, faith-breakers 
 (1. 2847, ed. Arnold). Waer-loga, how- 
 ever, is an Anglicized form of Icelandic 
 vari-lohTcur, hterally " ward-songs," 
 " guardian-songs " (as if from var^a, to 
 ward), charms, incantations, witch-' 
 craft ; but this also, as Cleasby points 
 out, is a corruption of wriar-hTckw 
 (or -loTcur), i. e. " weird-songs," speUs, 
 charms, from ^l/rir ^ A. Sax. wyrd, 
 " weird." 
 
 Jje warlaghe saide on-loft with vois ; — 
 " a ha Judas ! quat has ]>ou done." 
 Legends of the Holy Rood, p. 121, 
 1. 467. 
 Bi-leue|3 cure weoiTe . warlawes wode. 
 Old ting. Miscellany, p. 91, 1. 37. 
 
 In the foUovring Jonah's whale is 
 called a warlock : — 
 For nade ]>e hyje heuen kyng, jiurs his honde 
 
 myjt 
 Warded Jiis wrech man in u-arlowes guttej. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 96, 1. 258. 
 [For bad not the high king of heaven, 
 through his mighty hand, guarded this 
 wretched man in the monster's guts.] 
 
 Ye surely hae some wartoc/c-breef 
 Owre human hearts. 
 Burns, Poems, p. 34 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Waey-angle, an old name for a 
 " sort of Magpy, a Bird " (Bailey), is a 
 corruption of vjariangle, the shrike or 
 butcher-bird, Ger. wiirg-cngel, destroy- 
 ing angel. For instances of birds being 
 called angels, see Aechanqbl supra. 
 
 Watbr-croft, a Leicestershh-e word 
 for a water-bottle (Evans), a corruption 
 of water-ca/raffe. See Croft. 
 
 Watee-geass, a provincial corrup- 
 tion of u-ater-cress (Wright). Water- 
 grass-hill in Co. Cork is in the native 
 
WAVEB 
 
 ( 427 ) 
 
 WAY-BBEAD 
 
 Irish Cnocan-na-hiolraighe, the hill of 
 the waterwesses (Joyce, Irish Names of 
 Places, 1st S. p. 35). 
 
 Waiter -crashes is the Cumberland 
 form of the word (Diokinson), water- 
 creases that of the South London folk. 
 
 Waver, a provincial word for a pond 
 (Suffolk), old Eng. wayowre, stond- 
 inge water. Piscina {Prompt. Parv.), 
 are naturalized forms of Lat. vivarium, 
 a pond for keeping fishes ahve. Hence 
 also Fr. vivier, 0. H. Ger. wiwari, 
 M. H. Ger. wiwer. Mod. Ger. lueiher. 
 
 Wave wine, a name for the bind- 
 weed or convolvulus, otherwise wither- 
 wine, in Wilts, and Gloucestershire 
 {Old Country and Farming Words, p. 
 163). 
 
 Wat, in the nautical phrase " to get 
 under way," is most probably a distinct 
 word from wanj {^via), A. Sax. weg, 
 leel. vegr. 
 
 The wall of a Ship is the course or progress 
 which she makes on the water under sail. 
 Thus when she begins her motion, she is said 
 to he under waij ; and wlien that motion in- 
 creases she is said to have fi-esh way through 
 the water. — Falconer, Marine Diet. 
 
 The original meaning of the word 
 would seem to be " motion," and so it 
 may be a derivative of A. Sax. wegan, 
 to move (of. Ger. wdgen, Goth, loagjan, 
 Icel. vega, and perhaps Lat. vagari) ; 
 but perhaps A. Sax. weg itself originally 
 meant motion onward, a passage, a 
 journey, and then the road traversed, 
 a "way." From the cognate 0. H. Ger. 
 wagon, to move, altered into wogon 
 (whence Ger. wogen, to float), comes 
 Fr. vaguer, to set sail, vogue, a clear 
 passage, as of a ship in a broad sea 
 (Cotgrave). Consequently the phrase 
 "to be in vogue," i.e. to pass current, 
 Fr. etre en vogue, avoir la vogue, 0. H. 
 Ger. in wago wesan, exactly corre- 
 sponds to being " under way " {inter 
 viamdAMn). 
 
 Weigh, which is sometimes substituted 
 incorrectly in this phrase (from a con- 
 fusion with " weighing anchor"), was 
 occasionally written loay. It is radi- 
 cally the same word. 
 
 I will not have it to be preiudice to anye 
 body, but I offer it unto you to consider and 
 way it. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 86. 
 
 Sailea hoised there, stroke here, and Anchors 
 
 laid, 
 In Thames, w'^'' were at Tygris & Euphrates 
 waide. 
 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 304. 
 Oissa, the cry of Mariners hoisting sailes, 
 wayiiig of ancker, &c. — Florio. 
 
 Wat-bit, an old conatption of luee- 
 hit; see the citations. 
 
 "An Yorkshire ]Vay-bit." — That is, an 
 Over-plus not accounted in the reckoning, 
 which sometimes proveth as much as all the 
 rest. Ask a Country-man here on the high- 
 way, how far it is to such a Town, and they 
 commonly return, " So many miles and a 
 Way-bit;" which Way-bit is enough to make 
 the wearied Travailer surfet of the length 
 thereof .... But hitherto we have run along 
 with common report and false spelling (the 
 way not to win the race), and now return 
 to the starting place again. It is not Way- 
 bit, though generally so pronounced, but Wee- 
 bit, a pure Yorkshirisme, which is a small 
 bit in the Northern Language. — T. Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, ii. 495. 
 
 In some Places they [miles] contain forty 
 Furlongs whereas oui-s have but eight, un- 
 less it be in Wales, where they are allowed 
 better Measure, or in the North Parts, where 
 there is a wea-bit to every mile. — Howell, 
 Fum. Letters, bk. iv. 28. 
 
 Way-bit, a little piece, a little way, a Mile 
 and a Way bit, Yorksh. — Ray, North Country 
 Words. 
 
 11 n'y a qu'vne huqu^e (Much like our 
 Northern Weebit) You have but a little (saies 
 the clown, when you have a great) way 
 thither. — Cotgrave, s.v. Huqu^e. 
 
 Compare wee, a little bit, as in the 
 Scottish song, " We had better bide a 
 wee," short for weeny, A. Sax. hwmne 
 (Ger. wenig). 
 
 The kyng than vynkit a litill we. 
 And slepit nocht full ynkurly. 
 
 Barbour, The Bruce, bk. vii. 1. 183. 
 
 Wat-bread, the popular name of the 
 plantain, formerly spelt way-hrede, ivey- 
 hred (Gerarde, p. 340), is in old English 
 wmg-hrmde, weg-hrSede, i. e. " way- 
 spread," so called from its frequenting 
 waysides, from hrwdan, to spread. 
 Compare its foreign names, Dan. vej- 
 hred, Ger. wegehreit, weghreidt, " way- 
 spread," Dut. weegbree (Sewel), Prov. 
 Ger. wegwort. 
 
 Gif mannes heafod a3ce oSSe sar sy ge- 
 nimme weg brxdan wyrtwalen [ If a man's head 
 ache or be sore let him take the roots oiway- 
 breu'i']. — Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Star- 
 crajt, ed. Cockayne, vol. i. p. 81. 
 
 Way-bread, Plamtaiu, ab AS. Waeg-braede, 
 so called because growing everywhere in 
 
WAY-GOOSE 
 
 ( 428 ) 
 
 WEASEL 
 
 Streets and Ways. — Ray, North Country 
 Words, 
 
 Way-goose, the name of the annual 
 dmner given to journeymen printers 
 at the beginning of winter. " The 
 Master Printer gives them a Way-goose; 
 that is, he makes them a good feast, 
 &c." — Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, 
 1683. The word is a corruption of 
 wayz-goose, i.e. a stubble-goose, which 
 used to be the head dish at these en- 
 tertainments {N. ^. Q. 5th S. vi. 200). 
 Bailey gives wayz-goose, a stubble- 
 goose, and wayz, a bundle of straw. 
 Old Eng. wase, a wisp (Baret). 
 
 Way-ward, generally understood to 
 mean wilful, as if " turned everyone to 
 his own way" (Is. liii. 6), is for away- 
 wa/rd, old Eng. aweiwm-de, turned 
 away (O. Eng. awey, A. Sax. dweg), 
 perverted, perverse, obstinate, like 
 "froward," Prov. Eng. offish, shy, un- 
 social (Whitby), Fr. revkhe. It. rivesolo 
 (reversus), It. ritroso, stubborn (re- 
 trorsus). See Toady. 
 
 The first part of the word, away, 
 awey, aweg (A. Sax. on-weg, Dut. weg), 
 was perhaps confused with Prov. Ger. 
 awech, abig, affig, old Ger. awikhe, Icel. 
 of-ugr, turned the wrong way, whence 
 old Eng. awlce, perverse, wrong, and 
 awhwa/rd, old Sax. avuh, perverse, 
 evil. See Garnett, FMlolog. Essays, p. 
 66. 
 
 It is a totles bale ■ bi god (jat me fourmed, 
 t[o] willne after a wif • bat is a waywarde 
 euere. William of Paleme, 1. 3985. 
 
 That thou be delyuered fro an yuel weie, 
 and fro a man that spekith v>eiward thingis, 
 Whiche forsaken a riStful weie, and goen bi 
 derk weies .... whose wei£s ben weywerd, 
 and her goyingis ben of yuel fame. — Wycliffe, 
 Prov. ii. 12, 14. 
 
 He that goith simpli, schal be saaf ; he 
 that goith bi weiward weies, schal falle doun 
 onys. — Wycliffe, Prov. xxviii. 18. 
 
 Waxy, a vulgar word for angry, used 
 so far back as the time of Chas. I. (see 
 the quotation from The HamdltonPapers 
 relating to the years 1638-1650, Camden 
 Soc), is perhaps from the Scottish wex, 
 for vex, and so = Fr. vexe, from Lat. 
 vexa/re. So wax, to grow, was anciently 
 sometimes written wexe. In Lowland 
 Scottish w was often used for v. 
 The deuill fyndis a man weiit and torment 
 with seknes. 
 
 Ratis Raving, Hjc. p. 3, 1. 73 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Scot. " to be in a vex " or "went," a 
 state of vexation, corresponds to slang 
 "in a wax.." • 
 
 They wowld place such persons in inferior 
 commandis aa ar to deboch the affections of 
 the salers, from which being discouerid be 
 him makes him the moir waxy. — Sir W. Bel- 
 lenden to Earl of Lanerick, July 9, 1648, 
 Hamilton Papers, p. 229. 
 
 Davies, 8upp. Eng. Glossary, sup- 
 pUes the following instances : — 
 
 She's in a terrible wax, but she'll be all 
 right by the time he comes back from his 
 holidays. — H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. v. 
 
 It would cheer him up more than anything 
 if I could make him a little waxy with me. — 
 Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxiv. 
 
 Weaby, a Scotch word in Burns' hne, 
 Weary fa' the wajfu' woodie, 
 is a corruption of the old Eng. wary, 
 werg, a curse or malediction (Oliphant, 
 Old and Mid. Eng. p. 74), frequently 
 spelt warie (Havelok) and wery (Minot), 
 A. Sax. wergian, to curse, also wyrgan, 
 to harm, akin to worry. 
 I may wery the wye, thatt this werre mouede. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 699. 
 [I may curse the man that stirred up this 
 war.] 
 Ge ne schulen uor none jjinge ne warien, 
 ne swerien. — Ancren Riwle, p. 70. 
 
 [Ye must not for anything curse or swear.] 
 Crist warie him with his mouth ! 
 Waried wrthe he of norjj and suth ! 
 
 Havetok the Dane, 1. 434. 
 
 Weasel, an old name for the gullet 
 or windpipe, and sometimes for the 
 uvula or epiglottis, is a corruption of 
 A. Sax. wcBsend or wasend, Pris. wasend, 
 perhaps akin to A. Sax. hweosan, to 
 wheeze, Icel. hvmsa. Compare Bav. 
 waisel, the gullet (Wedgwood), and 
 perhaps the first part of Greek olso- 
 phdgos, the gullet or oesophagus, Pr. 
 oeson, the weason or throat-pipe (Cot- 
 grave). 
 
 Florio, New World of Words (1611), 
 defines Epiglotte to be "the couer or 
 Weasell of the throat." 
 
 Gallillo, . . . the weezell or little tongue at 
 the entrance of the throat, the throat boll. — 
 Minsheu, Spanish Diet. 1623. 
 If ye seek to feed on Ammon's fruits, . . . 
 The mastives of our land shall wony ye. 
 And pull the weesels from your greedy throats. 
 Peek, David and Beiksahe, p. 465 
 (ed. Dyce). 
 
 In the head, as there be several parts, so 
 there be divers grievances ... to omit all 
 
WEATHEE 
 
 ( 429 ) 
 
 WEB. LOOK 
 
 others which pertain to . . . mouth, palate, 
 tongue, wesel, chops, face, &c. — Burton, Aiia- 
 tomiioj Melanchoiii, I. i. 1. 3. 
 
 So I was asked, what he was that made 
 this restitution. But shoulde I haue named 
 hym ! nay they shoulde as soone haue thys 
 wesaunt of mine, — Latimer, Sermons, p. Ill 
 verso. 
 Forbid the banns or I will cut your wizzeL 
 The Citii March {Old Pluys, vol. ix.). 
 In-steps that insolent insulter. 
 The cruel Quincy, leaping like a Vulture 
 At Adams throat, his hollow weasand swel- 
 ling. 
 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 209 (1621). 
 Cut his wezand with thy knife, 
 
 Shakespeare, Tempest, iii. 2. 
 Campanula, a little bell. Also the weesUl 
 or little tongue of the throat, — Minsheu, 
 Spanish Dkt. 1623, 
 
 See Whistle, whieli is perhaps the 
 Bame word; and compare weasel-fish 
 {Motella vulgaris), which seems to be a 
 corruption of its othername whistle-fish 
 or v&stler. 
 
 Weathbe, To (a storm, &c.), is said 
 to be a corruption of the A. Sax, »oiS- 
 rian, to resist, to oppose successfully 
 (Haldemart, Affixes, p. 96), from A. Sax, 
 iOT'Ser=Scot. miher- (shins), 0. H, Ger. 
 widar, Ger. wieder, Goth. tmt>ra, Icel. 
 mSr, against. I doubt it. But com- 
 pare Lonsdale whitherin', strong and 
 lusty {Glossary, B. B, Peacocke). 
 
 Weather-head, a dolt or simpleton 
 (Sir W. Scott), as if changeable and un- 
 certain as the weather (ventosus), is a 
 corrupt orthography of wether-head, 
 having the head of a wether, A. Sax. 
 weSer, Goth, v"^' jts (Ger. widder). 
 Compare Lat. i^ervex, and vervecirmm 
 caput, a mutton-head. 
 
 Sir, is this usage for your Son? — for that 
 old weather-headed fool, 1 know bow to laugh 
 At him ; but you, Sir. — Congreve, Love Jot 
 Love, ii. 7 [Davies]. 
 
 The following seems to connect the 
 word with old Eng. wede, madness 
 (supposed to be produced by a worm in 
 the brain). 
 
 The ramme or wedder is the lodysman of 
 other shepe, and he is the male or man of the 
 oye, and is stronger than the other shepe, & 
 he is also called a wedder because of a worme 
 that he has in his hede & whan that begin- 
 neth for to stirre, than wyll he tucke and 
 fight. — L. Andrewe, Noble Litfe, Ft. I. sig. b. 
 i (back). 
 
 Or probably the writer was thinking 
 
 of the Lat. vervex, which was supposed 
 to be derived from vermis (and perhaps 
 vexare, as if " worm- vexed " 1). Com- 
 pare: — 
 
 Li multuns un verm ad. 
 Qui les corns li manjue, quant del barter se 
 
 argue ; 
 Pur 90 nument divin vervecem en Latin. 
 P. de Tlmun, Livre des Creatures, 1. 563. 
 [The sheep has a worm. 
 Which gnaws bis horns when he wants to 
 
 butt; 
 Wherefore divines name it vervex in Latin.] 
 
 Weaver, ^ the name of a fish, Tra- 
 
 Weevee, S chirms vipera, is a corrup- 
 tion of wiver, viver, or guaviver, French 
 vive and guivre, from Lat. vivus, Uving 
 (so called, from the length of time it 
 wUl continue to live when drawn out 
 of the water), or perhaps oi viper, which 
 is another name for the same. 
 The Weever, which altho' his prickles ve- 
 nom be. Drayton, Polyolbion. 
 
 Vive, the Quaviver or Sea-Dragon. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Dragon marin, the Viver or Quaviver, a 
 monstrous and venomous fish. — Id. 
 
 There is a little fish in the form of a scor- 
 pion, and of the size of the fish quaquiu£r. — 
 Bailey, Erasmuses Colloq. p. 393. 
 
 Compare the heraldic wivern, from 
 Vx.vwre, O. Fr. wivre, also givre, guivre, 
 from Lat. viper a (i.e. vivipara). 
 
 Weaver, a term apphed to watch- 
 makers, ivory-turners, and other han- 
 dicraftsmen in the Begisters of the 
 French Protestant Church, Thread- 
 needle Street, London, vol. 3, 1698- 
 1711 (see G. Smiles, The Huguenots, p. 
 468), is a phonetic corruption of Fr. 
 ou/vrier, O. Fr. uverier. Sigart quotes 
 the forms ej waif,j'waif, I work {Glos- 
 scdre de Wallon de Mons, s.v. Ouvrer). 
 
 Wed-look, popularly understood to 
 have a reference to the indissoluble 
 nature of the marriage bond, "the loyall 
 hnkes of wedlocks ' ' (Spenser, F.Q.I.yi. 
 22), whereby the contracting parties, as 
 it were, are fettered together for hfe, is 
 really the modern form of A. Sax. wed- 
 Ide, from wed, a pledge or engagement, 
 and lac, an offering or gift, a marriage 
 gift, cf. hrydldc. 
 
 The termination in hnowledge, old 
 Eng. cnowlach, cnow-lech, =: cnaw-lac, is 
 said to be the same. In the well- 
 known signboard of The Man Loaded 
 
WEEDS 
 
 ( 430 ) 
 
 WELL AD AY 
 
 with Mischief, or in other words carry- 
 ing his wife on his back, ascribed to 
 Hogarth, the chaia of Matrimony- 
 round his neck is fastened with a pad- 
 lock, labelled " Wed-lock " (see History 
 of Sign Boa/rds, Hotten, p. 456). 
 
 In prison slang a fetter fixed to one 
 leg is called a wife {Slang Dictionary). 
 In Irish a couple-beggar used to be 
 called cor-a-ccorrach, " foot-in-fetter " 
 (O'Eeilly). Compare Bands. In old 
 registers Lat. solutus, loose, unshackled, 
 is often used for a bachelor or unmar- 
 ried person. 
 
 Wedlock is a padlock. — Ray, Proverbial Ob- 
 servatio7is, p. 43 (ed. 1742). 
 An usage, 
 
 Swilk dar I undertake. 
 Makes theym brake thare wedldke. 
 
 Towneiey Mysteries^ Juditium. 
 Wastoures and wrecches • out of wedloke^ I 
 
 trowe, 
 Conceyued ben in yuel tyme * as caym was 
 on Eue. 
 Vision of Piers the Plowman, B. ix. 120. 
 
 Weeds, useless vegetation the spon- 
 taneous growth of the ground, has been 
 frequently confounded with weeds, 
 clothing, garments (now only used of 
 a widow's mourning garments), as if 
 the word denoted the vesture which 
 the earth puts on when "in verdure 
 clad." SoEiohardson, and Abp. Trench, 
 who says " IFeeds were wh atever covered 
 the earth or the person " (Eng. Past 
 and Present, Lect. IV.). Compare the 
 following : — 
 
 Metbocht freshe May befoir my bed upstude, 
 In weid depaynt of mony diverse hew. 
 
 Dunbar, Thistle and Rose, sub init. 
 The words, however, are perfectly 
 distinct, weed, a garment, feeing from 
 A. Sax. weed, vesture, Prov. Ger. 
 gewate, old Ger. giuuati, and weed, 
 herbage, from A. Sax. wedd, a plant, a 
 weed. 
 
 Gy( 3icyre5 wedd . . . God scryt. — A. Sax, 
 Version, Matth. vi. 30. 
 [If God clothe the weed of the field.] 
 Vnder vre wede vre kynde nom, 
 And al sofj-fast mon bi-com. 
 
 Grosseleste, Castel of Loue, 1320, 
 1. 658. 
 [Under our garb He took our nature and be- 
 came very man.] 
 Tell me, Ned Lacy, didst thou mark the maid, 
 How lovely in her Country-weeds she look'd I 
 R. Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar 
 Bungay, 1594 (p. 153). 
 
 I gave her twopence, reassumed my former 
 garb, and left my weeds in her custody. — H. 
 Brooke, Fool of Quatity, i. 191 [Davies]. 
 
 Weed-wind, a corruption of with- 
 wind, A. Sax. wHwinde, fromwiS, about, 
 and windan, to wind, the convolvulus 
 (Prior). 
 
 Weed-wind that is witbywind. — Gerarde, 
 Index. 
 
 Welcome has been generally re- 
 garded as a compound of well (A. Sax. 
 wel, Goth, waila, Ger. wohl) and cotiie 
 (A. Sax. cwma, a comer, ommian, to 
 come), as if, Uke It. ben-venuto, it 
 meant " come well," or under happy 
 circumstances (biem a/irive), similar to 
 welfa/re, welhorn (A. Sax. welhoven), 
 A. Sax. wel-dced (good deed, benefit, 
 Goth. waAla-deds). Itis really a shghtly 
 corrupted form of A. Sax. wilcuniel wil- 
 cwma, a pleasant or wished-for comer, 
 luiZ-cMmiaw, to receive gladly, to salute ; 
 where loil, pleasing, is of the samefamUy 
 as A. Sax. wille, wish, desire, will, loil- 
 Ian, to wish (Qo\h.wiljan, Ger. wol't 
 Like formations are A. Sax. wU-i 
 an acceptable guest, wil-hoda {mmtius 
 gratus), wil-dag, a wished-for day, wil- 
 gesii, apleasant companion(EttmiiIler, 
 p. 11). 
 
 And gyf ge <5a;t &n dojj Sa3t ge eowre 
 gebrCiSra wylcumiap, hwaet d6 ge m&re? — 
 A. Sax. Vers. (995), S. Matt. r. 47. 
 
 [And if ye only do this, that ye greet your 
 brethren, what do ye more ?] 
 
 Welladay, probably a modem cor- 
 ruption of the old English exclamation 
 welaway ! weilawey or walawa ! from 
 the analogy of lack a day! Spenser 
 further corrupted the word into weal- 
 away, as if absence of weal. The true 
 origin is A. Sax. wd Id wd, woe I lo! 
 woe ! 
 
 )30 hauelock micte sei " weilawei.'* 
 Havelok the Dane, 1. 570, ed. Skeat. 
 
 Harrow now out, and well away ! he cryde. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, II. vi. 43. 
 
 jjai cried, " alias and wayloway. 
 For dole what sal we do J;is day. 
 Legends of the Holy Rood, p. 95, 
 1.307. 
 
 In folks-etymology the word was an- 
 ciently regarded as being well-away, 
 absence of weal. Compare Caraway 
 understood as Oare-away. 
 
WEuL INK 
 
 ( 431 ) WELSH BABBIT 
 
 For wot no wiglit what werre is • per as pees 
 
 regneh 
 
 Ne what [is] witerliche wele • til wele-a-way 
 
 hym teche. 
 
 W. Langland, Vision of Piers Plowman, 
 
 C. xxi. 2;)9. 
 
 A! weelawaii! weel uiray! fals hert, why 
 
 wylt thou not brest, 
 Syn thi maystyr so cowardly thou hast for- 
 sake? 
 Coventry Mi/steries, p. S!98 (Shaks. Soc). 
 But weilawey ! |:at he ne wist • wJiat wo y 
 drye. 
 
 WiUiam of Palerne, I. 935. 
 They cryed so pitously, Alas and weleaway 
 for tlie deth of her dere suster coppen. — 
 Cuitmi, Reynard the Fox, p. 9 (ed. Arber). 
 Wel-awiit) the while I was so fonde, 
 
 To leave the good, that I had in haude, 
 la hope of better that was uncouth ! 
 
 Spenser, Shepheards Cat. Sept, 
 
 Well ink, a Cumberland name for 
 the plant Veromica {Beccabunga ; vide 
 Dickinson, Glossary, s.v.), of which 
 word it may he a corruption {wer'niV, 
 wer'ink, weVinh ?). 
 
 Welsh rabbit, a name for a dish of 
 toasted cheese, Fr. Wouelche Babette or 
 Lapin Oalhis (Kettner, Booh of Table, 
 p. 486). It has been frequently al- 
 leged that rabbit here is a corruption 
 ol rare-hit {e.g. by Archbishop Trench), 
 but no evidence has ever been produced 
 of the latter word having been so used. 
 Quite recently, indeed, some superfine 
 restaurants have displayed their learn- 
 ing by admitting " Welsh Ba/re-hits " 
 into their menus; but in the bills of 
 fare of mere eating-houses it is still 
 vulgar rabbit. The fact is, the phrase 
 is one of a numerous class of slang ex- 
 pressions — the mock-heroic of the eat- 
 ing-house — in which some common 
 dish or product for which any place or 
 people has a special reputation is called 
 by the name of some more dainty 
 article of food which it is supposed 
 humorously to supersede or equal. 
 Thus a sheep's head stewed with onions, 
 a dish much affected by the German 
 sugar-bakers in the East-end of Lon- 
 don, is called " a G-erman duck ; " a 
 LeicestersMre Plover is a bag-pudding 
 (Bay) ; a species of dried fish is " a 
 Bombay duck" in Western India; a 
 crust of bread rubbed with garhc is in 
 French slang " a capon ; " in Cam- 
 bridgeshire cow-heel is " a cobbler's 
 lobster " (Wright) ; red herrings are 
 
 variously known as " Norfolk capons," 
 " Dunbar wethers,'' or " Gourock 
 hams." " Sheep's head " is an old 
 name for a Virginian fish from which 
 something like mutton broth could be 
 made (Bailey). " Mummers' feed is a 
 herring which we call a pheasant," says 
 a strolling actor in Mayhew's London 
 Labour and London Poor, vol. iii. p. 151. 
 In French it is popularly called poulet 
 de ca/reme. A cheap dish composed of 
 liver, potatoes, &c., is termed " a poor 
 man's goose." Similarly a dish of 
 roasted cheese was regarded as the 
 Welshman's rabbit. So shrimps are 
 " Gravesend sweetmeats," and potatoes 
 " Irish apricots " or " Munster plums " 
 (Tylor, Macmillan's Magazine, April, 
 1874). In Scottish, " a Norloch trout " 
 was an old cant phrase for a leg of 
 mutton (Jamieson). 
 
 Cape Cod Turkeys= codfish ; Taunton Tur- 
 keys and Digby c/iic?ce)Ks' ^ herrings ; Albanii 
 Beef= sturgeon. — Barttett, Diet, of Ameri- 
 canisms, 4th ed. 
 
 The goes of stout, the Chough and Crow, 
 the welsh rabbit, the Red Cross Knight, 
 .... the song and the cup, in a word, 
 passed round merrily. — Thackeray, The New- 
 comes, ch. i. 
 
 The following I take from Davies, 
 Supp. Eng. Glossary : — 
 
 Go to the tavern, and call for your bottle, 
 and your pipe, and your Wetsh-rabbit. — 
 Graves, Spiritual Quixote, bk. vii. ch. 9. 
 
 A desire for welsh-rabbits and good old 
 gleesinging led us to the Cave of Harmony, 
 — Tftackeray, The Neuxomes, ch. i. 
 
 Compare the following : — 
 
 The Weavers' Beef of Colchester. — These are 
 Sprats, caughtheri^abouts, and brought hither 
 in incredible abundance, whereon the ])Oor 
 Weavers (numerous in this City) make much 
 of their repast, cutting Rands, Rumps, Sur- 
 loyns. Chines, and all Joynts of Beef out of 
 them, as lasting in season well nigh a quarter 
 of a year. — T. "Fuller, Worthies of England, i. 
 340. 
 
 A Yarmouth Capon. — That is, a Red-her- 
 ring. No news for creatures to be thus dis- 
 guised under other names ; . . But, to 
 countenance this expression, I understand 
 that the Italian Friers (when disposed to eat 
 flesh on Fridays) calls a Capon piscem e corte, 
 a fish out of the Coop. — Fuller, Worthies of 
 England, ii. l^T. 
 
 " Bristol Milk." — Though as many ele- 
 phants are fed as Cows gi'ased within the 
 Walls of this City, yet gi-eal plenty of this 
 metaphorical Milk, whereby Xeres or Sherry 
 
WENOH 
 
 ( 432 ) 
 
 WHA.T 
 
 Sack is intended. — T. Fuller, Worthies of 
 England, ii. i295. 
 
 See the somewliat similar phrases 
 under Levant, and add to the instances 
 there given : — 
 
 It was their sole refuge ; they might seelc 
 their fortune in another place and come home 
 by SpiUsburu [i-e. be upset], — Racket, Life of 
 Williams, i."208. 
 
 Wench, now a depreciatory term for 
 a young woman, is a shortened form 
 of old Bng. wenchel, which was pro- 
 bably mistaken for a diminutival form 
 in -el (from a false analogy to diminu- 
 tives like cockerel, kernel, satchel, pom- 
 mel, libel, dtadel, hottle, circle, &c.), and 
 implying therefore a primitive wench ; 
 pretty much as if we evolved a word 
 wat out of wattle (A. Sax. watel, waiul). 
 Similarly thrush has been formed from 
 old Eng. thrushill, throsle or throstle ; 
 date from datel or datle; almond from 
 amandel; Fr. ange from angel. Old 
 Eng. wenchel, used for a young person 
 of either sex, A. Sax. wencle, a maid, 
 seems to denote etymologically one 
 that is weak, being akin to A. Sax. 
 wencel, a weakling, wincel, offspring, 
 Prov. Eng. winkle, and wankle, feeble, 
 weakly, pliant, Soot, ivanhill, unstable. 
 " Quelen J^a wanclen." — Layamon, iii. 
 280 [Died the weakUngs, i.e. chil- 
 dren] ; A. Sax. wancol, wavering, A. 
 Sax. loincian, to bend, waver, wincan, 
 wican, to yield, to totter, Lat. vaoillare, 
 Sansk. vank, to bend, to go crooked. 
 Orminn calls Isaac a wenchel, and an 
 old Eng. poem makes the Virgin say 
 " Ich am Godes wenche." 
 
 He biseinte Sodome & Gomorre, were, & 
 wif, &c wenchel. — Ancren Riwle, p. 331 (var. 
 lee). 
 
 [ He Bank Sodom and Gomorrah, man, wo- 
 man, and child.] 
 
 J)e segge herde |jat soun to segor fiat Sede, 
 & jje wenches hym wyth fiat by ]>e way folSed. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 65, 1. 974. 
 [The man heard that sound that went to Zoar 
 and the women with him that followed by 
 the way.] 
 
 For that other is a powre woman. 
 She shal be cleped his wenche and his lemman. 
 Chancer, The Manciples Tale. 
 I am a gentil woman, and no wenche. 
 
 Id. Marchantes Tale, 1. 10076. 
 He painted also a minstrel wench playing 
 vpon a Psaltry. — Holland, Pliny, vol. ii. p. 
 530. 
 
 A wench went and told thejn. — A. V. 2 Sam. 
 xvii. 17. 
 
 Weywahd, a mis-speUing, and per- 
 haps misunderstanding, of 0. Eng. 
 wierde, loyrde, "weird," in the foho 
 editions of Shakespeare : — 
 
 The weijward sisters, hand in hand, 
 Posters of the sea and land. 
 
 Macbeth, act i. sc. 3. 
 
 Warburton and Tieck actually take 
 the word here for waywa/rd, wilful. 
 But Holinshed, whom Shakespeare 
 here is following, calls the witches the 
 weird sisters, and Gawin Douglas (1553) 
 gives the same title to the Parcse or 
 Fates : — 
 
 The weird Sisteris defendis that suld be wit. 
 Third Booke of Eneados, p. 80, 1. 48. 
 
 Cloto . . . anglice, one of the thre wyrde 
 Systers. — Ortus Vocabulorum, 1514. 
 
 It is the same word as 0. Eng^ 
 wierde, fate, destiny, A. Sax. tvyrd, Icel. 
 urUr. See Warlock. 
 
 Fortune, executrice of witrdes. 
 Chaucer, Tro. and Cres. b. iii. 618. 
 
 Whale, to beat soundly, is a vulgar 
 pronunciation frequently heard in some 
 places of " wale," or ^^ weal," or welt, 
 to raise stripes or wheals (A. Sax. woIm, 
 Goth. walMs) on the skin with a lash. 
 
 Wale, to beat with a stick. — Holderness 
 Glossary, Eng. Dialect Soc. 
 
 It. Lerie, the blacke or blew waks or 
 markes of a blow or stripe. — Florin. 
 
 Compare whaleing, boards used to 
 keep the bank of a drain from falling 
 in (Lincolnshire), with wale in gun- 
 wale, &c., Goth, wahbs, a staff, Icel. 
 vbl/r. 
 
 An attempt has been actually made 
 to bring this word into connexion with 
 the monster of the deep. WhaMing, 
 says an old encyclopsedia quoted with 
 approval by Jamieson {Scotch Diet. 
 S.V.), is "a lashing with a rope's end, 
 from the name of a rope called a whale- 
 Mne, used in fishing for whales." 
 
 What in somewhat, 0. Eng. mMch 
 what (Sir Thos. More) is for whit, 
 A. Sax. wiht, or wuht, a thing, a whit, 
 Gothic waiht, the same word which 
 enters into aught, A. Sax. awMt, " one- 
 whit," and noMght, A. Sax. nd-whit, 
 "no-whit." 
 
 Thus two things which are somewhat 
 different, are som^ whit (or particle) 
 
WEEAT-EAE 
 
 ( 433 ) 
 
 WE IN YARD 
 
 different. Wycliffe (1389) uses what 
 for lohit in the following passage : — ■ 
 
 The looues of two hundrid pens suifysen 
 not to liem, that ech man take a litle wliat, — 
 John vi. 7. 
 
 See Eastwood and Wright, Bible 
 Word Booh, s.v. Whit. " J^att iUke 
 whatt," the same thing, occurs in Or- 
 minn (ah. 1200), vol. ii. p. 293. 
 3e xal fynde hym a strawnge watt ! [== loigAi] . 
 The Coventry Mysteries (Shaks. Soc), 
 p. 294. 
 
 So in the phrase " I'U teU you what 
 now of the devil" (Massinger, Virgin 
 Mmiyr, hi. 3), what =: a whit, some- 
 thing (aligmd). But see Morris, His- 
 torieal Eng. Grammar, p. 122. 
 They pvayd him sit, and gave him for to feed, 
 Such homely what as serves the simple clowne. 
 That doth despise the dainties of the towne. 
 Spenser, F. Qxieene, VI. ix. 7. 
 
 Whkat-eae, the name of a bird, has 
 been considered a corruption of wMt- 
 tail (Wedgwood). It is reaUy a per- 
 verted form of the older word wheat- 
 ears for white-ears (from A. Sax. hvit 
 and ems, the tail or rimap), which was 
 mistaken for a pluxal. Exactly similar 
 is its other Eng. name the white-ramp, 
 Fr. ml hlcmc, the bird called a whittaile 
 (Cotgrave ; see also s.w. Blanculet and 
 Tiirk). 
 
 Wheat-ears is a Bird peculiar to this 
 County [Sussex], hardly found out of it. It 
 is so called because fattest when Wheat is 
 ripe, whereon it feeds; being no bigger than 
 a Lark, which it equalleth in the fineness of 
 the flesh, far exceedeth in the fatness thereof. 
 — T. Fulkr, Worthies of England, ii. 382. 
 
 " A Chichester lobster ,.a Selsey cockle, an 
 Arundell mullet, a Pulborough eel, an Am- 
 berly troutj a Rye hei-ring, a Bourn wheat- 
 ear," — Are the best in their kind, understand 
 it of those that aj-e taken in this Country. — 
 fUil, Proverbs (p. 262, ed. 1742). 
 
 Fain would I see the Wheatear show 
 In the dark sward, his rump of snow, 
 Of spotless brightness. 
 
 Bishop Mant, British Months. 
 
 Among the other common birds of China, 
 we must not omit a delicate species of orto- 
 lan, which appears in the neighbourhood of 
 Canton about the time when the last crop of 
 rice is cut. As it feeds on- the ears of grain, 
 it is for that reason called the " rice bird," in 
 the same way that the term wheat-ear is- ap' 
 plied to a similar description in the south' of 
 England. — Sir J. Davies, The Chinese, vol. iii. 
 p. Ill (ed. 1844). 
 
 Wheat-ear (Saxicola oenanthe) — Fallow- 
 chat, White-rump, White-tail, Fallow-smick, 
 
 Fallow-finch, Chocker, Chackbird, Clod- 
 hopper, with some other quainter names still, 
 which I have noted down, and yet another or 
 two common to the Wheat-ear and Stone- 
 chat, such as Stone-chacker. — J. C. Atkinson, 
 Brit. Birds' Nests and Eggs, p. 37. 
 
 I supposed that I was the iirst to dis- 
 cover the above origin, which is not 
 given in the dictionaries ; but after the 
 above was written I found the following 
 cited in Davies, Smpp.Eng. Glossary :— 
 
 There is . . . great plenty of the birds so 
 much admii'ed at Tunbridge under the name 
 of wheat-ears. By the by, this is a pleasant 
 corruption of white-a — e, the translation of 
 their French name cul blanc, taken from their 
 colour, for they are actually white towards 
 the tail. — Smolktt, Travels, Letter iii. 
 
 While, in the phrase "to while away 
 the time," i.e. to spend or pass it away 
 anyhow that it may not prove irksome, 
 BO spelt as if connected with while, 
 A.Sax. hwil, time,, is a perverted form of 
 to wile, i.e. to beguile, the time, like the 
 Latin idioms decipere diem, fallere 
 tempus. " Never whdle away time," 
 was one of Wesley's precepts to his 
 preachers. — Southey, Life of Wesley, 
 vol. ii. p. 72 (1858). 
 
 I amused myself with writing to white away 
 the hours at the Raven at Shrewsbury. — A. 
 J. C. Hare, Memorials of n. Quiet Life, vol. i. 
 p. 241. 
 
 Nor do I beg this slender inch, to whiU 
 The time a^ay, or safely to begniile. 
 My thoughts with joy, there's nothing worth 
 a smile. 
 
 Quarks, Embkms, bk. iii. 13. 
 
 Longfellow uses the correct form : — 
 Here in seclusion, as a widow may. 
 The lovely lady wiled the hours away. 
 Tales of a Wayside Inn, Works 
 (Chandosed.),p. 478. 
 Compare the following :— 
 The raral scandal, and the rural jest, 
 Fly harmless to deceive the tedious time. 
 And steal unfell the sultiy hours away. 
 Thomson, Seasons; Autumn. 
 
 Whintaed, an old word for a sword 
 (Wright). 
 
 But stay a while, unlesse my whinyard fail 
 Or is inchanted, I'le cut off th' intail. 
 
 Cleveland, Poems, 1651. 
 
 It is another form of whiniaird, a 
 crooked sword or Soimetar (Bailey), 
 which is itself from whinger or whingair, 
 a short sword, a word used in Suffolk 
 and in Scotland {e.g. in The Lay of the 
 Last Minstrel). 
 
WHIP.8T0GK ( 434 ) 
 
 WEI8KY 
 
 There's nane shall dare, by deed or word, 
 'Gainst her to wag a tongue or finger, 
 
 While 1 can wield my trusty sword. 
 Or frae my side whisk out a whinger. 
 A. Eumsay, The Highland Lassie. 
 
 Whinger is in all probability a cor- 
 ruption of Hangbe (which see) under 
 the influence of whinge or whcmg, to 
 give a sounding blow, to cut in sHces. 
 
 Closing with him, I gripped his sword arm 
 under my left oxter, and with my right hand 
 caucht his quhingar. — Jos. Melvilte, Diary, 
 1578, p. 70 ( Wodrow Soc). 
 
 This said, his Courage to inflame, 
 He call'd upon his Mistress' Name, 
 His Pistol next he cock'd anew. 
 And out his nut-brown Whinyard drew. 
 Butler, Hudibras, I. canto iii. 1. 480. 
 And whingers, now in friendship bare. 
 The social meal to part and share, 
 Had found a bloody sheath. 
 
 ■Scots, Lay of the Last Minstrel, 
 v. 7. 
 Tor the death-wound and death-halloo, 
 Muster'd his breath, his whinyard drew. 
 Lady of the Lake, i. 8. 
 Braquemar, a woodknife, hangar, whin- 
 yard . — Cotgrave. 
 
 "Whip-stock, the handle of a whip 
 (Twelfth Night, ii. 3), is most probably 
 a corruption of the older word wMp- 
 stalh, stalk (stawh) being still used in 
 provincial Eng. for a whip handle (Suf- 
 folk), Dan. stilh, a handle or stalk, cf. 
 Gk. stilechos, steled, Ger. stiele, 0. Eng. 
 stale, a handle. 
 
 Bought' you a whistle and a whip-stalk too. 
 Spanish Tragedy ( Dodsley, Old Plays, 
 ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 PhcEbus when 
 He broke his whipstocke, and exclaimd 
 
 against 
 The horses of the sun, but whisperd, to 
 The lowdenesse of his fury. 
 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen (16Si), i. 2, 
 1. 86 (ed. Littledale). 
 
 Whielpool, an old name for a whale. 
 May not this word be due to a confu- 
 sion between whale, A. Sax. hwal, with 
 the h, as so frequently, slurred in pro- 
 nunciation, and Prov. Eng. wale, a 
 whirlpool, N. Eng. weel, Soot, wele and 
 wheel, an eddy or whirlpool, A. Sax. 
 ivel (^Ifric; EttmiiUer, p. 78)? See 
 Whale for wale. 
 
 Mulasle, the sea-monster called a whirle- 
 poole. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Tinet, the Whall tearmed a Horlepool or 
 Whirlpool.— Id. 
 
 The Whales and IFftirfepoofes called BalajiiEB 
 take up in length as much as foure acres or 
 arpens of land. — Holland, Plinies Nat. Hist. 
 i. 235. 
 
 The vii. daye of October were two great 
 fishes taken at Graresend, which were called 
 whirlepooles. They wer afterward drawen up 
 above the bridge. — Stowe, Chronicle, anno 
 1566. 
 
 )30rnebak, thurk polle, hound fysch, 
 halybut, to hym )jat bathe heele, 
 AUe jjese cut in J;e dische as youre 
 lord etethe at meele. 
 
 J. Russell, Boke of Nurture, 1. 685 
 (Babees Book, p. 157). 
 
 Hecbelua Anglis (vtdixi) Horevocatur, & 
 alio nomine Horlepoole & VVirlepoole etiam. 
 — Aldrovandi Opera, p. 677 (in Babees Book, 
 p. 215). 
 
 Gurgens, wml. — Wright, Vocabularies, p. 
 80. 
 
 A Weel (Lancash), a Whirlpool, ab AS. 
 Wael, vortex aquarum. — Hay, North Countiy 
 Words. 
 
 Whyles owre a linn the burnie plays, 
 
 # ■# T^t ^(t 
 
 Whyles in a wiel it dimpl't. 
 
 Bums, Poems, p. 47 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Whisky, an Anglicized form of the 
 Keltic word uisge, water, in the Gaelic 
 and Irish expression uisge heatha, 
 " water of life," ecm de vie, aqua vitce. 
 
 In Ireland they are more given to Milk, 
 and strong-waters of all colours : The prime 
 is UsquebaughjWhich cannot be made anywhere 
 in that Perfection. — H&well, Familiar Letters, 
 bk. ii. 54 (1639). 
 
 Of. Crofton Croker, Ballads of Ire- 
 land, pp. 17, 67. 
 
 Mai. The Dutchman for a drunkard. 
 Maq. The Dane for golden lockes. 
 Mai. The Irishman for usqiiebath. 
 
 Marston, The Malcontent, act V. sc. 1. 
 
 Are you there, you usquebaugh rascal with 
 your metheglin juice ? — Randolph, Aristippus, 
 1636, Works, p. 27 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 To make Vsquebath the best Way.— Take 
 two quarts of the best Aqua Vitae, four 
 ounces of scraped liquorish, and half a pound 
 of sliced Raisins of the Sun. — The QMcen's 
 Closet Opened, 1658, p. 217. 
 
 In case of sickness, such bottles of Usque- 
 teug/i, black-cherry brandy. Cinnamon water, 
 sack, tent, and strong beer, as made the old 
 coach crack again. — Vanbrugh, Journey to 
 London. 
 
 At the burial of the poorest here tliere is a 
 refreshment given, consisting generally of 
 some whisquybeath, or some foreign liquor, 
 butter and cheese, with oat bread.— SincWr, 
 Statistical Acct. of Scotland, iii. 525 (in Brand, 
 Pop. Antiq. ii. 286). 
 
WHISTLE 
 
 ( 435 ) 
 
 WHITE 
 
 An English officer being in company with 
 a certain chieftain, and several other High- 
 land gentlemen, near Killichumen, had an 
 argument with the great man; and both 
 bemg well warmed with uskii, at last the dis- 
 pute grew very hot, — Letters from Scotland, 
 1754, li. 159. 
 
 Captain Hawie asked for usquebagh " where- 
 of Irish gentlemenare seldom disfurnished." 
 — Careui, Pacata Hibemia, vol. ii. p. 592, 
 1633. 
 
 Scuhae, the popular name for whisky 
 in Parisian pot-houses, is substantially 
 the same word, being an abbreviation 
 oiusqwebae, the French form of usgue- 
 laugh. 
 
 The Keltic msge is seen ia Wis-hech, 
 the Wash, Isca, TJsk, JJx, Ox-iordi, Exe, 
 Axe, Oiise, Ids, and many other river 
 names. 
 
 Whistle, in the popular and very 
 ancient expression, " to wet one's 
 whistle," i.e. to moisten one's throat, 
 to drink, might seem to be a corruption 
 of wea^an or wectsand, the wind-pipe, 
 commonly spelt in former times weesil, 
 imzzel (see Weasel), Bav. waisel, wazel, 
 A. Sax. wxsend (Diefenbach, i. 246). 
 
 Had she oones wett hyr whystyll she couth 
 syng fuUe clere 
 Hyr pater noster. 
 
 Tovmeley Mysteries, Pastores 
 (15th cent.). 
 Some doubt is thrown on this by the 
 analogous usage in. French of flute and 
 hrigot, a pipe or flute, for the throat, as 
 in the old phrase "boire k tire larigot." 
 Whistle, A. Sax. hwistle, is near fiihm 
 to weasand and Scot, whaizle, to wheeze 
 (Bums). 
 
 As auy jay she light was and jolif. 
 So- was nire joly whistle wel y wette. 
 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 4153; 
 
 Tis a match, my masters, let's ev'n say 
 grace, and turn to the fire, di'ink the other 
 cup to wet our whistles, and so sing away all 
 sad thoughts. — I, Walton, Compleat Angler, 
 1653, chap. iii. 
 
 But till we meet and weet our whistle, 
 
 Tak this excuse for nae epistle. 
 
 Bums, Poems, p. 150 (Glabe ed.). 
 
 He was, indeed, according to the vulgar 
 phrase, whistle-drunk; for before he had swal- 
 lowed the third bottle, he became entirely 
 overpowered. — Fielding, Hist, of a Foundling, 
 b. xii. ch. 2. 
 
 Whistle-fish, an incorrect name 
 for the weasel-ooA or gadMS rrmstela 
 (Latham). 
 
 White, in Northern English and N. 
 Ireland to out away a stick, &c., bit by 
 bit (perhaps understood as laying bare 
 the white wood), is the modern form 
 of old 'E,ng. thw%jte (Palsgrave, 1530), 
 A. Sax. \mitan, to cut. Cf. whittle, 
 A. Sax. hwytel, a knife ; Scot, wheat, 
 quhyte, to cut wood with a knife. 
 
 Her lile ans sprawl'd on the hearth, some 
 whiting speals. 
 \V. Hutton, A Bran New Wark, 1. 383 
 (E. D. S.), 1784. 
 
 A Sheffield thwitel bare he in his hose. 
 Chaucer, The Reves Tale. 
 
 White, as a slang term for blame or 
 fault (Grose), as in the phrase "you lay 
 all the white off yourself," or to white 
 == to blame, is a corrupted form of the 
 old Eng. and Scotch wite or wyte, A. Sax. 
 loitan, to know (something against one), 
 to impute, O. H. Ger. wizam. Cf. twit, 
 from A. Sax. edwitan, old Eng. wite, 
 a fine or punishment, A. Sax., wite, Icel. 
 iJiti. 
 
 To white, to blame (North Country). — 
 Bailey, Dictionary. 
 
 Oh, if I had but Rabby M'Corkindale, for 
 it's a' his tcyte ! — S. B. Whitehead, Daft Davie, 
 p. 221. 
 
 To white ; to blame : " You lean all the 
 white ofF your sell," i.e. You remove all the 
 Blame fi-om yourself. — Bay, North Country 
 Words. 
 
 }pe couherde was in care • i can him no-)jing 
 white. 
 
 Willium of Paleme, 1. ,i04. 
 
 JMore to wyte is her wrange, ]>en any wylle 
 gentyl. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 39, 1. 76. 
 
 For me weere (li sidis bojie pale & bloo ! 
 To chastise me |jou doist it, y trowe ; 
 Y wiyte my silf myne owne woo ! 
 
 Hymns to the Virgin and Child, p. 35, 
 1. 8 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 [I impute to myself my own woe.] 
 
 Forfii miself I wole aquite. 
 And berefi 3e soure oghae wite. 
 Gower, CoTif. Amantis {Specimens 
 of Early Eng. ii. 274). 
 
 Therefore he was not to wyte, 
 He sayd he wolde ete but lyte, 
 Tyll nyght that he home came. 
 
 A Mery Geste of The Frere and the 
 Boye, 1. 60. 
 
 1 1 is a comyn prouerbe An Enemyes mouth, 
 saith seeld wel, what leye ye, and wyte ye 
 myn Eme Reynart. — Caxton, Reynard the 
 Fox, p. 7 (ed. Arber). 
 
WHITE 
 
 ( 436 ) 
 
 WHITE-WALL 
 
 Ffourty pound or fy fty loie of hym thu fech, 
 So that thu hit hryng, lituU will I reoh, 
 Neuer for to white. 
 
 Tale of the Basyn, 1. 50. 
 Euer when I thinke on that hright bower, 
 White me not though my hart be sore. 
 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. i. p. 327, 1. 215. 
 Ye hev nought to lig white on, but your awn 
 frowardness. 
 
 W. Hutton, A Bran New Wark, 
 1. 250(E.D.S.). 
 
 Spenser has the word : — 
 Scoffing at him that did her justly wite, 
 She turnd her bote about, and from them 
 rowed quite. 
 Faerie Queene, Bk. II. Canto xii. 16. 
 Elsewhere he ineorreetly spells it 
 wight. 
 
 Pierce her heart with point of worthy wight 
 [i.e. deserved blame]. 
 
 Shepheard's Calender, June, 1. 100. 
 I wat the kirk was in the wyte, 
 In the wyte, in the wyte. 
 Burns, Works, Globe ed. p. 165. 
 Auld Caleb can tak the wyte of whatever is 
 taen on for the house. — Scott, Bride of Lam- 
 Tnermoor, oh. viii. 
 Alake ! that e'er my Muse has reason, 
 To wyte her countrymen wi' treason ! 
 
 Burns, Poems, p. 8 (Globe ed.). 
 
 White, vb. (Scotch), to flatter, pro- 
 bably akin to our " wheedle," Welsh 
 hud, illusion, charm, hudo, to allure, 
 beguile, hudol, enticing, alluring. Other 
 phrases are white-folk, wheedlers, white- 
 wind, flattery, whitie, whiteUp, a flat- 
 terer, whiting, flattery (Jamieson) ; 
 Cleveland whitehefi, cajolery; Cum- 
 berland whitefish, flattery, where fish 
 would seem to be pleonastic and akin 
 to Scot, feese, Swed. fjdsa, to cajole 
 (Ferguson) ; Lonsdale widdle, to be- 
 guile. 
 
 White flaw, 7 a popular name for 
 Whit-flaw, j a whitlow or small 
 abscess near the finger-nail, North 
 Eng. whick-flmiO. It seems properly to 
 denote a flam), break, or sore, about the 
 whii or which, Prov. Eng. for the qvdck 
 or living part of the naU. 
 
 The nails fain off by whit-fhwes. 
 
 Herrick, i. 178 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Nares quotes an instance of " white- 
 flaw " from Langham's Oa/rden of 
 Healtti. Bailey (s.v. pa/ronychia) spells 
 it whiteloe. 
 
 Some doth say it is a white fiawe vnder the 
 nayle. — Andrew Boorde, Breviary of Health, 
 I-. 265. 
 
 Perioniche, a white flawe. 
 
 Whytflowe in ones fyngre, Poil de chat, — 
 Palsp;rave. 
 
 Whytlowe (whytflowe, sore). Panarucium.— 
 Prompt. Parv. 
 
 The pouder of it [ Flower-de-lis] is much 
 used for whit-fawes. — Holland, Pliny, Nat. 
 Hist. ii. 105 (1634). 
 
 Gal-nuts . . . cure whitflaws, risings, & 
 partings of the flesh and skin about the naile 
 roots. — Id. p. 177. 
 
 A fellon take it, or some whit-flaw come. 
 
 For to unslate, or to untile that thumb ! 
 Herrick, Hesperides, Poems, p. 68 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 In Cleveland an agnail is callecf a 
 whittle, which is a corruption of wotwell, 
 elsewhere a wortwall. The first part 
 of the word is identical, no doubt, with 
 Dut. vraet, a place galled by rubbing 
 (Eng. wa/rt), Bav. fratt (Atkinson). 
 Compare O. Eng. w&rtwall. Soot. waH- 
 
 The powder of it [Horehoand] drie, is of 
 exceeding great efficacy to ripen a dry cough, 
 to cure gangrenes, whitejlaws, and wertwalls 
 about the root of the nails. — Holland, Pliny, 
 ii. 75 (1634). 
 
 A Wartwayle, pterigium.— teuins, Manipu- 
 lus, 1570, col. 199, 1. 21. 
 
 White Tsab, the name by which the 
 Emperor of Eussia is known through- 
 out Asia, Russian Biely Tswr, Mongol 
 TchagoM Khan, is a hteral translation 
 of the present corrupted form of the 
 Chinese character Mwamg, " emperor." 
 Originally this was composed of the 
 symbols denoting " one's self " and 
 "ruler," and so was equivalent to 
 " autocrat." But by the omission of a 
 stroke the symbol of " one's self" was 
 changed into the symbol of "white," 
 and hence the above title. Vid. Dou- 
 glas, Language of China, p. 19, 1875 ; 
 N. Sr Q. S. VII.p. 25. 
 
 Our Sovereign desires that the White Tzar, 
 following the example of his forefathers, 
 should not permit himself to be led away by 
 the greatness of the Empire with which God 
 has entrusted him. — F. Bumahy, A Ride to 
 Khiva, ch. xxvii. 
 
 White-wall, a Northampton name 
 for the wode-wale or golden oriole, old 
 Dut. wedewal. See Wittall. 
 jje wilde laueroc, ant wolc, & |je wodewale. 
 Boddeher, Alt.-Eng. Dichtungen, 
 p. 145, 1. 24. 
 No sound was heard, except from far away 
 The ringing of the whitwalt's shrilly laughter. 
 Hood, Haunted Home [Davies]. 
 
WHITE-WITOS ( 437 ) 
 
 WHOSE 
 
 White-witch, one employed to 
 counteract witchoraft or the Mack art, 
 a corruption of the Devonshire wMt- 
 loitch, and this, according to Haldeman, 
 is from the A. Sax. widh, Ger. wider, 
 against, contrary to, seen in mthatanA, 
 &c. 
 
 They are too near akin to those creatures 
 who commonly pass under the name of 
 "white witches." They that do hurt to others 
 by the devils help are called " black witches," 
 but there are a sort of persons in the ■world 
 that will never hurt any ; hut only by the 
 power of the infernal spirits they will un-he- 
 witch those that seek unto them for relief. I 
 know that by Constantius his law, black 
 witches were to be punished and white ones 
 indulged . . . Balaam was a black witch, 
 and Simon Magus a white one. — J. Mather, 
 Rtmarhabk Providences, p. 190 (ed. Offor). 
 
 The common people call him a wiaard, a 
 ■white-witch, aconjuror, a cunning-man, a ne- 
 cromancer. — Addison, The Drummer, act ii. 
 
 He was what the vulgar call a white-witch, 
 a cunning-man, and such like. — Scoti, Kenil- 
 worth, i. 170 [Davies]. 
 
 Whitsun-tide. \ Theseformshave 
 Whitsun- Monday. / originated in a 
 mistaken notion that Whitsimday was 
 compounded of Whitsun ( = Get.pfing- 
 lien) and day. However, as early as 
 the time of LaSamon we find white 
 sun('n)etide {l.B1524:), and hwUesun{n)e 
 dm, as three separate words, in Old 
 Eng. Homilies, vol. i. p. 209 (ed. 
 Morris). See Wit-Sunday. 
 
 Whole, a mis-spelling of hole, the 
 older form, A. Sax. hal, heel, Goth. 
 hails, Gk. Tmlos, Sansb. halya-s (fit, 
 sound, whole), from amistaken analogy 
 to who, which, when, white, &c. (M. 
 MiiLler). 
 
 W seems often to have heen prefixed 
 to words formerly at haphazard, and 
 thus we meet with such forms as what 
 for hot, whode for hood, whoot for hoot, 
 wrack for rack, wrankle for rankle, 
 whore for hore. Bp. Hacket speaks of 
 " a base or wragged piece of cloth " 
 (Sermons, 1675, p. 6), (see Wrapt, and 
 Weetchlessnbss). So wreake for 
 reck (Lyly, 1600) ; wroAj for ray (Cart- 
 wright, Wffrkes, 1651, p. 311) ; wrote 
 forroie(=routnie), (Skinner) ; whoode 
 for hood (Gerarde, Eerhall, p. 1247 
 (1597). 
 
 The blessed God shall send the timely Rain, 
 And holsom Windes. 
 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 375 (1621). 
 
 Tyndale in his version of the Bible 
 has "wholy goost" for Holy Ghost. 
 
 Whoop, a mis-spelling of the name 
 of the hoop, or hoopoe, as if it were 
 called so from its whooping cry, in 
 Ozell's translation of Babelais. 
 
 Pr. " Hupe, huppe, the whoope or 
 dunghiU cock " (Cotgrave). However 
 this, as well as Lat. upupa, Greek 
 epops, Pers. pupu, Coptic kukvpha, 
 Arab. hudhnd,'Pxo-7. Ger. wut-wut,iiia,y 
 be intended to imitate the cry of the 
 bird, which Mr. Yarrell says resembles 
 the word hoop, hoop, hoop. The French 
 word seems intended to be suggestive 
 of the bird's crest, hupe, just as puh, 
 one of its Persian names, is also a crest 
 or comb. 
 
 Whose. The w is no organic part 
 of this word. It has long been re- 
 garded as a derivative of Jure (A. Sax. 
 hyria/a, Dut. huwre'a),as\iVenusvenalis, 
 on the model of Lat. meretrix, from 
 mereo; Greek p6^-ne, from pernerm, to 
 sell ; Sansk. pav/ya, a harlot, from root 
 pan, to buy ; A. Sax. ceafes, cyfes, a 
 whore, akin to ceapian, to buy. How- 
 ever whore, A. Sax. hore, has no more 
 connexion with hi/re than have harlot, 
 hyren (Shaks.), and hov/ri (Hind. hur). 
 A. Sax. hor, hor-ewen, a harlot, old 
 Fris. har, 0. H. Ger. huor, fornication, 
 huora, a harlot, Icel. hora, O. Dut. 
 hoere, Ger. hvn-e, Goth, hors (Diefen- 
 bach, ii. 593), are aU doubtless near 
 akin (though the vowel is different) to 
 A. Sax. horh, horu, filth, horig, filthy, 
 old Eng. hore, horS, 0. Fris. hore, 
 0. H. Ger. horo, filth (Stratmann). 
 
 Hore, woman, JMeretrix. — Prompt. Parmi- 
 lorum. 
 
 Horel, or huUowre, Fornicator, . . . leno, 
 mechus. — Id. 
 
 So old Eng. hw, corruption, sin, 
 lewdness, horowe, foul, unclean ; Prov. 
 Eng. horry, Devon. (Wright) ; howerly, 
 dirty,foul,indecent,'Lincoln.(Peacock). 
 EttmiiUer (p. 449) connects A. Sax. 
 hare, whore, with a root form ha/ran, to 
 poux out, to urine (of. Ger. horn, urine), 
 just as Greek moich6s, an adulterer, is 
 akin to Greek micho, Lat. rm(n)go, to 
 urine, A. Sax. mige, meox, "mixen," 
 Goth, maihstus, dung (Grimm ; Curtius, 
 Griech. Etym. i. 163), Old Eng. rmix, a 
 scoundrel ( Wm. of Palerne, 1. 125). 
 
WEOBE 
 
 ( 438 ) 
 
 WHOBE 
 
 Compare Lat. matella (vase de cham- 
 bre), used for a harlot. 
 
 Tamar would not yield to Judat without a 
 hire. The hire makes the whore, 
 
 '* Stat meretrix certo quovis mercahilis sere, 
 Et miseras jusso corpore quaerit opes ; — " 
 
 " Compared with harlots, the worst beast is 
 
 good; 
 No beasts, but they, will sell their flesh and 
 blood." 
 
 Thomas Adams, Sermons, The Fatal 
 Banquet, vol. i. p. 223. 
 
 The following are instances of the 
 word in its literal meaning : — 
 
 They gathered dirt & mire fFuU (Fast, , i 
 Which beffore was out cast, 
 
 » » » • 
 
 They take in all their hore 
 That was cast out beffore ! 
 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. u. p. 473, 1. 1586. 
 
 Somtime envious folke with tonges horowe 
 Depraven hem. 
 
 Chaucer, Complaint of Mars and Venus, 
 1. 207. 
 
 Of vche clene comly kyude enclose seuen 
 
 makes, 
 Of vche horwed, in ark halde bot a payre. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 46, 1. 335. 
 
 We habbeS don of us Jje ealde man . (le us 
 horegede alle. and don on jje newe l^e clenseS 
 alle. — Old Eng. Homilies, 2nd Ser. p. 201. 
 
 [We have put off the old man ftiat defiled 
 us all, and hare put on the new that cleanseth 
 all.] 
 
 The following show the transition to 
 the sense of sin, miclearm.ess,lasciTious- 
 ness : — 
 
 Turtle ne wile habbe no make bute on . 
 and after (jat non . and forjji it bitocneS ]>e 
 clenesse . ]>e is bideled of ^le hore: fiat is 
 cleped hordom . j^at is aire horene hore . and 
 ech man jjat is ful Jjeroffe wapman oiSer wim- 
 man is h(yre. — Old Eng. Homilies, 2nd Ser. p. 
 49 (ed. Morris). 
 
 [The turtle will have no mate but one, and 
 after that none ; and therefore it betokeneth 
 purity that is distinguished from the unclean- 
 ness that is called whoredom, which is the 
 impurity of all impurities, and every one that 
 is defiled therewith, man or woman, is a 
 whore.] 
 
 luelmennish and forhored mannish acse^ 
 after fortocne of heuene . and hie ne shulen 
 hauen bute eorSliche. — Old Eng. Homilies, 
 2nd Ser. p. 81 (ed. Morris). 
 
 [An evil and adulterous generation ask 
 after a sign from heaven, and they shall have 
 only an earthly one.] 
 
 Har stides for to ful fille, |)at wer i-falle for 
 
 prude an hore : 
 God makid adam to is wille . to fille har 
 
 stides Jjat were ilor. 
 
 Early Eng. Poems (Philolog. Soc), 
 p. 13, 1. 18. 
 
 A seint Edmundes day ]ps king: jje gode 
 
 child was ibore. 
 So clene he cam fram his moder; wijjout 
 
 enie hore. 
 
 Id. p. 71, 1. 8. 
 
 Of one who lived in harlotry it is 
 said, 
 
 Seint Marie Egipciake in e^ipt was ibore 
 All hire Song lif heo ladde in sinne & in hore. 
 Cott. MS. in HampsoUj Med. Aevi 
 Kalendarium, li. 257. 
 
 8e me[i]stres of Sise hore-men, . . . 
 
 « » « * 
 
 ^e bidde ic hangen Sat he ben; 
 
 * # # # 
 
 He slug Zabri for godes luuen, 
 Hise hore bi ne<5e and him abuuen. 
 
 Genesis and Exodus, 1. 4074-82. 
 
 Vorte makien jse deofles hore of hire is 
 reou<5e ouer reou<5e. — Ancren Riwle, p. 290. 
 
 [For to make the devil's whore of her is pity 
 upon pity.] 
 
 Ich am a fal stod mere, a stinckinde h(yre. 
 —Id. p. 316. 
 
 [I am a foul stud mare, a stinking whore.] 
 
 Betere were a riche mon 
 Forte spouse a god womon, 
 
 J?ah hue [= she] be sumdel pore, 
 Jien to brynge in to his hous 
 
 A proud quene & daungerous 
 J)at is sumdel hore. 
 
 Boddeker, Alt. Eng. Dieht. p. 299. 
 
 Alle hai'lottes and horres 
 And bawdes that procures, 
 To bryng thaym to lures 
 Welcom to my See. 
 
 Towneley Mysteries, Juditium. 
 
 I schal schewe to thee the dampnacioun of 
 the greet hoore. — Wycltjfe, Kck. xvii. 1 {Bag- 
 sters Hexapla). 
 
 There are many instances of words 
 significant of laaciviousness, impurity, 
 or wickedness, being derived from 
 others meaning dirt, filth, mud, or 
 dung, e.g. Sp. cotorrera, a whore, from 
 cotorro, a sink of filth (Stevens). 
 
 One of your lascivious ingenderers ... the 
 very sinke of sensuality and poole of putn- 
 faction. — Man in the Moone, 1669. 
 
 Drab, a harlot, a filthy woman, Gael, 
 and Ir. d/i'ah, near akin to Gael, and Ir. 
 drahh, refuse, "draff," Icel. dirabha, to 
 dirty (cf lutea meretrix.— Plautus). 
 
WIGK 
 
 ( 439 ) 
 
 WIOE 
 
 Ladies of the mud, . . . 
 Nymphs, Nereids, or what Tulgar tongues 
 
 call drabs, 
 Who vend at Billingsgate their sprats and 
 crabs. Peter Pindar. 
 
 Madame de rebut [lady of refuse or offal], a 
 rascally drab, a whore. — Cotgrave, 
 
 Trull, Bret, irulen, akin to Ir. truail- 
 Im, I defile, Iruailled, corrupted ; Sp. 
 troya, a bawd, from L. Lat. troja, a 
 sow (Fr. truie), Sard, troju, dirty (Diez), 
 compare Gk. x°'P<>s ', It. zacca/i-a, a com- 
 mon filthy whore (Florio), from zacca- 
 raire, to bemire or dirty ; Fr. ruffien. It. 
 ruffiano, a pimp or bawd, connected 
 with It. ruffa, rufa, scurf, filth (Diez). 
 Icel. aaur-llfi, unclean life, fornica- 
 tion, aav/r-lifr, lewd, from saurr, mud, 
 dirt (Cleasby). We may also com- 
 pare smut, indecent talk, Cumberland 
 smutty, indelicate (Ferguson); hawdy, in 
 old Enghsh, dirty, filthy, bemired. 
 
 What doest thou heere I thou stinkest all of 
 the kitching ; thy clothes bee all biiwdi/ of the 
 grease and tallow that thou hast goten in 
 king Arthurs kitching. — Malory, King Arthur, 
 1634, i. 239 (ed. Wright). 
 Of brokaris and sic bavdry how suld I write 1 
 Of quham the fyltli stynketh in Goddis neis. 
 
 G, Douglas, Bukes of Eneudos, p. 96, 1. 52. 
 
 Dan. sTcarn, a scoundrel, orig. dung, 
 dirt (seeScoEN) ; scwrrilous, Lat. scwrra, 
 a low buffoon, connected with Greek 
 skor, dung (like hoprias, Lat. coen/wm) ; 
 old Eng. quede, evil, cognate with 
 A. Sax. Gwead, dung, filth (cf. " Dung 
 ofsunne [sin] ." — AnorenBiwle,Tp. 142); 
 0. Eng. gore, sin, A. Sax. gor, filth, 
 "gore;" Ir. cac, (1) dung, (2) evU 
 (? compare Greek icaKog). 
 
 With these compare Lat. mains, bad, 
 originally dirty, akin to Sansk. mala, 
 (1) dirt, filth, (2) sin, nialaha, a lewd 
 woman, Dut. mal, lewd, wanton ; in 
 contrast to holy, {w)hole, hale, A. Bax. 
 hdl, identical with Greek halds, fair, 
 beautiful (cf. " the beauty of holi- 
 ness "). 
 
 The w is an arbitrary prefix, as in 
 whole; bo" whorehead," Monh of Eves- 
 ham, p. 33 ; Percy Fol. M8. i. 327 ; old 
 Eng. whot for hot, A. V. 1611 {Beut. ix. 
 19). Compare Wbbtchlessness. 
 
 Wick, the part of a candle which is 
 lighted, the modem form of old Eng. 
 weehe, weke, A. Sax. wecce (EttmiiUer, 
 85) or weoca (Id. 103), evidently de- 
 rived from weoce, a rush, papyrus 
 
 (jElfrio), which was originally used 
 for a wick (Swed. vehe, Dan. vcege, 
 wick). In accordance with the widely- 
 spread conception that a candle or fuel 
 starts into life when it catches fire, and 
 dies when it ceases to burn, the wick 
 seems to have come to have been re- 
 garded as the living part of the candle, 
 and to have been confounded with the 
 North Eng. word wielc, hving, lively 
 (another form of qmch, A. Sax. cwic), 
 which is exactly paralleled by Icel. 
 hveyJcr, a wick, from TcveyTga, (1) to 
 quicken, vivify, (2) to kindle ; hceylcja, 
 a kindling (Cleasby). Compare " a Uve 
 coal" [Greek zdjpwron) ; Ir. beo-camneal, 
 a hve {i.e. lighted) candle ; Fr. tuer la 
 chandelle ; Span, mata/r (to kUl), to put 
 out a candle (Minsheu). 
 
 Ma chandelle est morte 
 Je n'ai plus de feu. 
 
 French Lullaby, 
 [Sparks] they life eonceiv'd, and forth in 
 flames did fly. 
 
 Spenser, F. Q. Til. xii. 9. 
 " Jack's alive," a burning stick 
 (HaUiwell, Nwrsery Rhymes, p. 213) ; 
 0. H. Ger. qmehihmga, tinder. (But 
 Tdndle, to bring forth young (of hares, 
 &c.), O. Eng. handle, is a distinct verb 
 from Tdndle, to light.) 
 
 From the same root giv, Sansk. jiv, 
 to Uve, which yields wich, quick, comes 
 Pers. jiba, wood for burning, that which 
 vivifies the fire. Compare Pers. zindah, 
 (1) hfe, living, (2) wick, tinder; also 
 Sansk. janyu, fire, from yam, to be born 
 (Pictet, Origines, i. 234, 235). 
 
 The analogy of a burning wick or 
 taper to a life which is gradually wear- 
 ing itself out is a commonplace in 
 poetry ; compare such phrases as " His 
 life is flickering in the socket ;" " Out, 
 out,briefca»Mite( = life)!" (Shakespeare). 
 So Sansk. dasd, a wick, also apphed to 
 a time of hfe, dasanta, end of a wick or 
 of hfe. 
 
 " ]pe candel of lijf bi soule dide tende : 
 
 To liste J)ee hom, resoun dide saye. . . . 
 
 Vnne ]je y holde my candelis eende, 
 
 It is past euensongeof my day. 
 
 Hymns to the \ irgin and Child, p. 70, 
 1. 374(E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Look upon thy burning taper, and there 
 see the embleme of thy life. — Quarles, Enchi- 
 ridion, Cent. W. 55. 
 
 By the time the present clamours are ap- 
 peased, the wick of his old life will be snuffed 
 out.— if. WalpoU, Letters, ii. 319 (17n2). 
 
WIDOW 
 
 ( 440 ) WILL-O'-THE-WISP 
 
 To husband out life's taper at the close, 
 And keep the flame from wasting by repose. 
 Goldsmith, Deserted [tillage. 
 Thus they spend 
 The little vnck of life's poor shallow lamp 
 In playing" ti*icks with nature. 
 
 Cowperj The Garden, bk. 3. 
 In yone tapirs ther be things iij, 
 Wax, week, and lyght, whiche 1 shall de- 
 clare . . , 
 Lorde, wax betokyneth thyn humanyte. 
 And week betokyneth thy soule most sweete. 
 Candlemas-Day, 1512 (Marriott, 
 Mystenes, p. 216). 
 For firste the wexe bitokeneth his manhede, 
 The weke his soule, the fire his godhede. 
 
 Lydgate [in Wright]. 
 Ye Weak of a candle, lichnus. — Levins^ 
 Manipulus, 1570, col. 206, 1. 45. 
 But true it is that, when the oyle is spent, 
 The light goes out, and weeke is throwne 
 away. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, II. x. 30. 
 The flaxe or weeke smoaketb. — D. Featley, 
 Clavis Mystica, 1636, p. 14. 
 
 WlBow, as a slang name of the gal- 
 lows, is no doubt the same word as 
 WiDDiE, ia the Scotch phrases, "To 
 cheat the widdie," i.e. escape the gal- 
 lows, and " The water 'U no wrang the 
 widdAe," " The water will ne'er waur 
 the luoocKfi," i.e. He who is born to be 
 hanged will never be drowned. Widdie 
 or woodne, originally meaning a halter, 
 is evidently the same word as our 
 " withy," A. S. wiiig, Scot, widdy, old 
 Eng. win, Ger. weide, Dan. vidie, a 
 wiUow twig, used in the sense of a rope 
 or halter made of wiUow twigs. The 
 gallows, however, is frequently styled 
 in slang " the widow " (in Ireland pro- 
 nounced " the widdie "), and hence, 
 perhaps, French la veuve, in the same 
 sense. 
 Her dove had been a Highland laddie. 
 But weary fa' the waefii woodie ! 
 
 Bums, Poems, p. 50 (Globe ed.). 
 
 WiDow-BiKD, Latinized as vidua,, the 
 name of a family of weaver-birds, is a 
 corruption of Whydaw-hi/rd, so called 
 from the country of Whyda/winWestem 
 Africa. 
 
 Widow wisse, a curious old popxilar 
 name for the plant Oenistella tinetcrna 
 (Gerarde, Index), looks Uke a corrup- 
 tion of wood-waxen, another name for 
 the same {Id. p. 1136), A. Sax. wndM- 
 lueaaje (Somner), (? ^z wood-growth). 
 
 William, in Sweet William., the name 
 
 of the plant BianiJms harhatus, it has 
 been ingeniously conjectured by Dr. 
 Prior, is the more formal presentation 
 of Willy, the older name of the same 
 flower ; and this Willy an Enghsh cor- 
 ruption of Fr. oeillet, which sounds 
 much the same, Lat. ocellus, a little 
 eye {Popular Namies of British Plamts, 
 
 B.V.). 
 
 WiLL-o'-THB-wisp. It seems highly 
 probable that the first part of this name 
 for the ignis fatuus is not the familiar 
 and contracted form of WilMam, but 
 akin to Icelandic villa, to bewilder, 
 villr, erring, astray, villa, a losing one's 
 way, e.g. villu-ndtt, a night of error. 
 In old English wyl, wylle, wandering, 
 having lost one's way, astray, is fre- 
 quently found, as in the phrase, " imlle 
 o wan," astray from abode, uncertain 
 where to go (Morris) ; also Uwille, to 
 lead astray, to bewilder, Swed. fdrvilla. 
 Wild and wilderness are then akin. 
 
 In East AngUa " to be led will" (cf. 
 O. Eng. mil, astray), is to be beguiled 
 as by a will-o'-the-wisp (E. D. Soc. 
 Eeprint B. 20). In some parts the 
 phosphorescent gleam from decayed 
 vegetable matter is called wild-fire, 
 where wild- ^ Icel. villi-, misleading, 
 
 Wild-fire is also called will-fire by 
 the Scotch, especially when denoting 
 fire obtained by friction (Tylor, Ea/rty 
 Eiet. of Mankind, p. 257, 3rd ed.). 
 
 Will-led, led away or bewildered by false 
 appearances, as a person would be who fol- 
 lowed Will o' Wisp. — W, D, Parish, Smsex 
 Glossary. 
 
 An old Norfolk woman, who conceived she 
 was prevented by some invisible power from 
 taking a certain path, and obliged conse- 
 quently to go to her work by another and 
 longer way, described herself as having been 
 "Will led," or "Led Will."— Cftoicc Notes, 
 Folk Lore, p. 241. 
 How Will -a- wisp misleads night-faring. 
 
 clowns. 
 O'er hills, and sinking bogs, and pathless 
 downs. 
 J. Gay, Shepherd's Week, vi. 1. 58. 
 Wimman wi<5 childe, one and sori, 
 In Se diserd, wil and weri. 
 
 Genesis and Eiodns, 1. 974. 
 [A woman (Hagar) with child, alone and 
 sad, in the desert, wandering and weary.] 
 The Kyng towai-d the rod is gane, 
 Wery for-swat and vill of vayn. 
 
 Barbour, Bmce, bk. vii. 1. 2. 
 
WINDLASS 
 
 ( 441 ) 
 
 WIND ORE 
 
 [The king toward the wood is gone, weary, 
 perspiring, and wild of weaning, i.e. uncei- 
 taiu of purpose.] 
 
 When I was wille and wariest 
 Ye harberd me fuUe esely 
 FuUe glad then were ye of youre gest. 
 Towneleif Mysteries, Juditium. 
 jjen watened jse wySe of his wyl dremes. 
 Alliterative Foems, p. 102, 1.473. 
 To lincolne barfot he yede. 
 Hwau he kam )3e[r], he was ful wit, 
 Ne hauede he no frend to gangen til. 
 Havelok the Dane, 1. 864. 
 All wery I wex and wyle of my gate. 
 
 Troy Book, 1. 2369. 
 Sone ware thay willid fra the way the wod 
 was so thick. — King Alexander, p. 102. 
 Adam went out ful wille o wan. 
 Cort. MS. in Morris, Allit. Poems, p. 214. 
 Sorful bicom (;at fals file [the devil] 
 And thoght how he moght man biwille. 
 Cott. MS. ibid. 
 
 Of the same origin seems to be the 
 German Willis, or young brides who 
 have died before their wedding-day, and 
 rise nightly from their graves to meet 
 in groups on the countiy roads, and 
 there give themselves up during the 
 midnight hour to the wildest dances 
 (H. Heine). 
 
 Windlass. \ The latter, which is also 
 WiNDLACB. / the older form, as if the 
 lace that winds up the weight or bucket, 
 is a corruption of old Eng. windas 
 (Chaucer ; cf. Dut. windas), which cor- 
 responds to Icelandic vind-dss, a wind- 
 lass, hteraUyawinding pole, {roravinda, 
 to wind, and dss, a pole or yard (of. 
 Goth, ans, a beam, Lat. asser. — 
 Cleasby) ; Ger. wind-achse, " wind- 
 axle." 
 
 Wist at J^e myndas weSen her ankres. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 92, 1. 103. 
 
 [Quick at the windlass ( they) weigh their 
 anchors.] 
 
 The former are brought forth by a wind- 
 latch of a trial to charge the latter with the 
 foulest of ci-imes. — North, Examen, p. 307 
 [Davies]. 
 
 The arblaat was a cross-bow, the windlace 
 the machine used in bending that weapon. — 
 Scoff, hanhoe, ii. 93 [Id.]. 
 
 WiNDOEE, a false orthography ot win- 
 dow, as if the word denoted the dore, 
 or door, that admits the loind, occurs 
 in Sam. Butler. Comijare Sp. ventana, 
 window, originally a vent or air-hole, 
 from Lat. ventus, wind. 
 
 Knowing they were of doubtful gender, 
 
 And that they came in at a windore. 
 
 Hudibras, I. ii. 213. 
 Windore is stiU used in the Lincoln- 
 shire dialect, and winder is the common 
 pronunciation of the Irish peasantry. 
 
 In Nicolas UdaU's translation of The 
 Apoihegmes of Erasmus, 1554, is found 
 " wiadore " and " prettie lattesse win- 
 dores " (pp. 26, 134, reprint 1877). Oil 
 this the editor, Mr. E. Johnson, re- 
 marks, glazed windows are supposed 
 to have been introduced in the twelfth 
 century as an improvement on dows 
 to shut out the wind; and " glaze- 
 windores " occur in Erasmus's preface 
 to the Paraphrase on St. Luke. See 
 also Paraphrase on the Acts, f. 68. 
 An approving Satv/rday Reviewer (Nov. 
 24, 1877, p. 661) adds :— 
 
 In Wright and Halliwell " windore " only 
 occurs as an unfathered various reading of 
 " window " ; and whilst Mr. Johnson admits 
 that Piers Ploughman, Chaucer, and Gower 
 have " window " or " windoe," he rests liis 
 argument on the form windore being used by 
 all the lower, and some of the middle class, 
 in Lincolnshire. The question awaits a fuller 
 collection of evidence. Mr. Johnson has at 
 any rate made a good case for the vulgar 
 form being the true one. 
 This, of course, is all wrong, and the 
 evidence is complete enough. Window, 
 cf. Swed. vindoga, Dan. vind-ue, is the 
 modern representative of early Eng. 
 windoge, A. Sax. wind-edge, Icel. vind- 
 auga, a window, literally a wind-eye, 
 the essential features of which are faith- 
 fully preserved in the Scotch windah, 
 windoch, win/nock. "Arches windoge 
 undon it is." — Genesis and Exodus (ab. 
 1260), 1. 602, ed. Morris. The form 
 windore was no doubt suggested by 
 the sjmonymous words, edg-dv/ru, " eye- 
 door," edg-\>yrl, " eye-hole," G-oth. 
 auga-dapro, O. H. Ger. augaiora. 
 Compare Sansk. vdtdyanam (wind- 
 passage), a window (Diefenbach, 
 i. 53). The window was perhaps re- 
 garded as the eye of the room ; while 
 on the other hand the eyes were con- 
 ceived to be the windows that gave 
 light to the body, e.g. Eccles. xii. 3 ; 
 "■fenestrcB animi " (Cicero). 
 His ei/es are crystal windows, clear and bright. 
 Qiiarles, On Fletcher's Purple Jsland. 
 
 When Satan tempted Eve, according 
 to a quaint divine : — 
 
 The old Sacriligious thcife when he first 
 
WWDBOW 
 
 ( 442 ) 
 
 WI8E.A0BE 
 
 tooke possession of thy temple brake in at 
 these windowes [her eyes]. — W. Streat, The 
 Dividing of the Hoof, 1654, p. 28. 
 They, waken'd with the noise, did fly, 
 From inward room to window eye, 
 And gently op'ning lid, the casement, 
 Look d out, but yet with some amazement. 
 
 Butler, Hiidibras, pt. i. canto 2. 
 Love is a Burglarer, a Felon 
 That at the Windore-'Eye does steal in 
 To rob the Heart. 
 
 Id. pt. ii. canto 1, ed. 1732. 
 How curiously are these Wiridowes [the 
 eyes] glased with the Horny tunicle which is 
 hard, thicke, ti-ansparent. — S. Purchas, Micro- 
 cosmtts, 1619, p. 88. 
 
 Life and Thought have gone away 
 Side by side. 
 Leaving door and windows wide. 
 
 Tennyson, The Deserted House, 
 Fowerti dais after Sis, 
 Arches windoge undon it is. 
 
 Genesis and Exodus, 1. 602. 
 Nout one our earen, auh ower eie ]}url£s 
 tuneS a3ein;idel speche. — Arwren Riwle, p. 70. 
 [Not only your ears, but also your eye 
 windows, shut against idle speech.] 
 
 Fenestra, eh-^yrL. — Wright, Vocabularies, 
 p. 81. 
 
 WiNDBOw, Scot, whvraw, hay or grass 
 raked up into rows (Scot, raws), in 
 order to be dried by the wind. A com- 
 parison with the Dutch windcl/rooge. 
 Low Dutch wind/rog, windd/rog, " wind- 
 dry," seems to show that the latter 
 half of the word is an accommodation 
 (Wedgwood). 
 
 In some South parts the borders of a field 
 dug up and laid in rows, in order to have the 
 dry mould carried on upon the land to im- 
 prove it, are called by this same name of 
 wind-raws. — Kennett, Parochial Antiquities, 
 1696 (E. D. Soc. ed). 
 
 A Wind-row ; the Greens or Borders of a 
 Field dugup, in order to the caiTyingthe Earth 
 on to the Land to mend it. It is called Wind- 
 row, because it is laid in Rows, and exposed 
 to the Wind. — Ray, North Country Words. 
 
 Winning, as applied to a person's 
 face or manner, in the sense of attrac- 
 tive, pleasant, is, no doubt, generally 
 understood to be from win, to gain or 
 earn (A. Sax. winnan, Icel. vinna), as 
 if procuring favour, and compare the 
 expression, " He gains upon one in 
 time." It is another form of winsome, 
 pleasant, A. Sax. wynsum, old Eng. 
 winly, A. Sax. ivynlic, from A. Sax. 
 wyrm,]oy, akin to Groth('!wi-)M)imam(£s, 
 (un-)joyous, Ger. wonne, delight, plea- 
 
 sure, and perhaps Lat. Venus, goddess 
 of delight, venustus, graceful (Diefen- 
 bach, i. 166). Compare also Icel. 
 vin/r, an agreeable person, a friend; 
 A. Sax. wine, Dan. ven, and the names 
 BaZd-MJMie, prince friend, Tf»»i/red, friend 
 of peace ; also Welsh gwen, fair, beauti- 
 ful (whence thename Gwendolen, " Pair- 
 browed "), Gwener, what yields bhss, 
 Venus. 
 
 When St. Juliana was plunged into 
 a vessel of boihng pitch. 
 
 Ha cleopede to drihtin ant hit colede anan 
 ant war<S hire as wunsum as euer eni wlech 
 weter. — Liflade of St. Juliana, 1230, p. 70 
 (E.E.T.S.). ' ' y 
 
 [She called on the Lord and it cooled anon, 
 and became as pleasant to her as ever any 
 luke(-warm) water.] 
 
 Vn-clannes to-cleues in corage dere. 
 Of Jjat wynnelych lorde |:atwonyes in heuen. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 88, 1. 1807. 
 [Uncleanness separates in the dear heart 
 of that gracious Lord that dwells in heaven.] 
 l)at was a perles place ■ for ani prince of er)«, 
 & wynli wi)3 heie wal ■ was closed al a-boute. 
 William of Palerne, 1. 749. 
 Wha sal stegh in hille of Lauerd winli, 
 Or wha sal stand in his stede hali ! 
 
 Northumbrian Psalier, Ps. xxiii. 3. 
 Jjo valance on fylour shalle henge with wyn, 
 iij curteyns strest drawen with-inne. 
 
 Boke of Curtasye, ab. 1430, 1. 448. 
 [The valance on a rod shall hang with 
 grace.] 
 
 Wipe, \ Lincolnshire names for 
 Py-wipe, / the lapwing, imitative of 
 its cry. Sopeewii, peaseweep, weep, Pr. 
 piette, d/ixhwlt, Dan. mhe, Scotch 
 tequhyt, pit-cake, Cleveland ieufit, 
 Dan. tyvUl (thieves 1), 0. Eng. fj/noM,, 
 Dutch hievit, Arabic Bu-teet (Father 
 of the cry " <eer'). 
 
 WisE-ACEB, a corruption of the Ger- 
 man Weissager (a " wise-sayer "), a 
 soothsayer, Dut. weissager, aU really 
 corrupted from the O. H. Ger. wizago := 
 A. Sax. witega, a prophet or seer, Icel. 
 vithi, a wiza/rd or wise man. " May I 
 ask, sir, how many acres make a wise- 
 acre ? " was Curran's retort to a duU 
 but wealthy lawyer who wished that 
 none should be admitted to the bar 
 who had not some landed property. 
 
 The wise-acre his son and executor, to the 
 ende the worlde might not thinke that all 
 that ringing was for the begger, but for his 
 father, hyred a trumpetter to stand all the 
 
WISE.HOBN 
 
 ( 443 ) WITOR-HAZEL 
 
 ringing-while in the belfrie, and betweene 
 every peale to sound his trumpet, and pro- 
 claime aloude and say, Sirres, this next peale 
 is not for R., but for Maister N., his father. 
 —Copley, Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1614, 
 p. 196. 
 
 Peter Gower a Grecian, journeyedde ffor 
 kunnynge yn Egypte, an[d yn Syria, and yn 
 everyche londe, whereas the Venetians hadde 
 plauntedde macomye, and wynnynge en- 
 trance yn al lodges of Mayonnes he lerned 
 muche, and return edde, and yn Grecia Blagna 
 wachsynge and becommynge a myghtye 
 wyseacre. — Certayne Questyuns . . . con- 
 cemyn^e the Mystery of Maconi-ye l_Gentle- 
 imns Magasine, July, 17S3] . 
 
 Besides, I wonder much ( Wise-aker) 
 Who t' was that made you a Man-maker. 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Biirtesque 
 (p. 155). 
 
 WiSB-HOEN, a Scotch word for the 
 gizzard, is a corruption of giidssei-n, 
 which is from Fr. gesier, Prov. Fr. 
 gigier, Lat. gigermm. See Gusehoen. 
 
 WiSEN WYND, in Scotch a ludicrous 
 name for the wind-pipe, is a corruption 
 of weasamd, as if from wisen, to he 
 parched, and wynd, an alley or pas- 
 sage. Compare its popular name, "the 
 red lane." 
 
 Wiss, To, a modem manufacture 
 from wisie, which is the past tense, not 
 of tdss (there being no such verb), but 
 of wot, or wat (to know). — Guest, in 
 PUlolog. 8oc. Proc. ii. 160. So I wiss 
 is a modern corruption of the common 
 old adverb i-wiss (certainly), i.e. y-wiss, 
 ge-wis. It takes the form of I wuss in 
 the mouth of Bristle in Ba/riholomew 
 Fair, "An you play away your but- 
 tons thus, you will want them ere 
 night, for any store I see about you ; 
 you might keep them, and save pins, 
 I wuss." — act iv. sc. 1. 
 Ac jjreo wateres principales : of alle oj^ere beo 
 iivis ^ 
 
 Humber & temese : seuerne Jie J>ridde is. 
 
 Lije of St. Kenelm, 1. 16. 
 In the Coventry Mysteries, 1468 (Shaks. 
 Soc), we find besides i-vyys, i-fownde zz 
 found, i-hnowe ■=. known, i-prest n 
 pressed, and i-num ^ understood, writ- 
 ten I num. 
 
 I have that songe fful wele I num (p. 158). 
 The farmers . . . were at their wittes ende 
 and wiste not what to doe. — North, Plutarch, 
 1595, p. 212. 
 
 In the following, however, ywist is 
 
 wrongly put for I wist, "Had I (only) 
 known," i.e. vain after-regret, 
 Most miserable man, whom wicked fate 
 Hath brought to Court, to sue for had ywist. 
 Mother Hubberds Tale. 
 
 Wistful, so spelt as if derived from 
 wini, A. Sax. wiste, the preterite of 
 witan, to know. But as this seems an 
 impossible combination (knew-ful !), it 
 is probably a corruption of wish-ful. 
 The A. Saxon wist-full means feasl- 
 fuU, plentiful. 
 
 Witch-elm, a corruption of wych- 
 elm, i.e. an elm used for malkingwyches, 
 whycches, or hutchs, A. Sax. hwcBcce 
 (Prior), Old Eng. wiae. — Lcece Eoc, I. 
 xxxvi. (Cockayne). 
 
 Butler. He [the Conjurer] has a long white 
 wand in his hand. 
 
 Coachm. I fancy 'tis made out of witch-elm. 
 Gardener. I waiTant you if the ghost ap- 
 pears he'll whisk you that wand before his 
 eyes, &c. — Addison, The D}nimm£r. 
 
 Noah's ark is called a wMch in the 
 following : — 
 
 Alle woned in fie whichche jje wylde & be 
 tame. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 47, 1. 362. 
 The chambre charged was with wyches 
 Full of egges, butter, and chese. 
 How the Plowman lerned his Paternoster. 
 Hutche, or whyche, Cista, archa. — Prompt. 
 Parv. 
 
 Archa, a whycche, a arke, and a cofyre. — 
 Medulla. 
 
 As for brasel, Elme, WucJi, and Asshe ex- 
 perience doth proue them to be but meane 
 for bowes. — Ascham,iiToxophilus, 1545, p. 113 
 (ed. Arber). 
 Harp of the North ! that mouldering long 
 
 hast hung 
 On the witch-elm that shades Saint Fillan's 
 spring. 
 
 iir W. Scott, Lady of the Lake, 
 cant. i. 1. 2. 
 
 Witch-hazel, ) popular names for 
 WiTCH-wooD, ( the rowan tree or 
 mountain ash, with an allusion to its uni- 
 versally beUevedpower of counteracting 
 the charms of witches, are corrupted 
 forms of wicTcen-tree, wich-tree, or wichy 
 (Wright), which must be from the pro- 
 vincial word wick, alive, living, as the 
 A. Sax. name is cwic-hedm,i.e. wick- tree, 
 and wice. See also wiggan-tree (Fer- 
 guson, Cumberland Glossary). Com- 
 pare, however, Ger. Zauher-straueh, 
 witch-tree, and see Henderson, Folk- 
 
WIT-SAFE 
 
 ( 444 ) 
 
 WIT-SUN BAY 
 
 lore of N. Gounties, p. 189 ; Atkinson, 
 
 Cleveland Olossa/ry, s.v. Witch. 
 Gerarde says : — 
 
 This Omus or great Ash is named ... in 
 English wilde Ash, Quicken tree, Quickbeame 
 tree, and Whkken tree. — Herball, p. 1290 
 (1597). 
 
 WiT-SAFB, frequently found in old 
 writers (e.g. Grafton), also in the forms 
 withsave (Barclay, 1570, and Wyat), 
 whytsafe, and wMtesafe, all corruptions 
 of the older form vouchsafe (WycUffe, 
 Bobert of Brunne), or as it came some- 
 times to be written, mutsafe, vowtsafe. 
 The first part of the word seems to 
 have been confused with old Eng. wite, 
 to guard or keep (A. Sax. be-mtan), as 
 if the meaning were to preserve or keep 
 safe, instead of to declare or warrant 
 one safe. Compare : — 
 Gode wardeins he eette, Tor to wite thut lond. 
 Robert of Gloucester, p. 487 (ed. 1810). 
 |;at {36 quen be of-sent saufwol ifouche. 
 William of Palerne, ab. 1350, 
 p. 133, 1. 4152. 
 If that Christe vowtsafed to talke with the 
 Devyill, why not M. Luther with a Jew i. — 
 Harington, NugcB AntiquiZj i. 267. 
 
 If her Highnes can vomtsaflo play somtyme 
 with her servawntes, according to theyr 
 meaner abilities, I know not why we her 
 servawntes showld skorne to play with our 
 equalls. — Harington, Nugce Antiqucc, ii. 178. 
 But Phebus, 
 All glistering in thy gorgious gowue, 
 Wouldst thou witsqfe to slide a dovvne 
 And dvrell with vs. 
 
 Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, 
 p. 245 (ed. Arber). 
 Howe be it though they be advoutrers, 
 Extorsioners, or whormongers, 
 Yf to be their frendes they witsave. 
 
 Rede me and be nott wrothe, 1528, 
 p. 84 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Y beseche you mekely . . that ye will with 
 saue to praye to god for me. — ReveUition to the 
 Monk of Evesham (1486), p. Ill (ed. Arber). 
 
 Y blessyd our lorde . . that he wolde white 
 safe to chaste me onworthy in a fadyrly 
 cliastment. — Id. p. 28. 
 
 and so whytsafe, p. 70. 
 
 His Holynea shold witsaff to confyrme it 
 by decre in the Consistory expresslye. — Ellis, 
 Orig. Letters, Ser. III. vol. i. p. 267 (1521). 
 Voutsaf'e to see another of their forms the 
 Roman stamp. 
 Milton, Areojiagitica (1644), p. 40 
 (ed. Arber). 
 and again, p. 48, and Paradise Lost 
 (1st ed.), 1667. 
 
 Wit-Sunday, 7 very old corrup- 
 WiT-SuNTiDB, 3 tions of Whitsim- 
 day, WMtstmtide, as if the church fes- 
 tival was so called from the wit or 
 wisdom with which the apostles were 
 endued on the Day of Pentecost by 
 the effusion of the Holy Spirit. 
 This day Witsonday is cald. 
 For wisdome and wit seuenfold. 
 Was gouen to the Apostles on this day. 
 Richard Rolle of hampok (d. 1358). 
 (jes dei is ure pentecostes dei. ]>et is ure Witte 
 sunnedei. — Old English Homiliei, (12th and 
 13th cent.), 1st ser. pt. i. p. 89 (E.E.T.S.) 
 
 WiUiam Langland, speaking of the 
 gifts of the Spirit, says : — 
 To somme men he 3af wit • [wijj] wordes to 
 
 shewe. 
 To Wynne with truthe ■ fiat jpe worlde askej;. 
 As preostes and prechours • and prentises of 
 
 lawe, 
 Thei to lyue leelly • by labour of tounge. 
 And by wit to wyssen ojjere ■ as grace wolde 
 hem teche. 
 
 Vision concerning Piers the Plowman, 
 1393, Pass. xxii. 11. 229-233 (Text 
 C. E.E.T.S.) 
 And so an ancient Play of the Sacra- 
 ment (c. 1461) : — 
 
 yea & also they say he sent them wytt & 
 wysdom 
 
 ffor to vnderstond euery langwage 
 when y= holy gost -to them Tdyd] come. 
 P. 120 {Philotog. Soc. Trans. 1860-1). 
 
 Wychffe's Bible has witsontide (1 Cor. 
 xvi. 8), Cranmer's, 1551, wytsontyde 
 (loc.dt.); Bobert of Gloucester TOiesoMe, 
 and wyttesonetyd : — 
 
 The Thorsdai the Witesone wouke to Lon- 
 done Lowis com. — Chronicle, Hearne's Works, 
 vol. iii. p. 512 (1810 ed.). 
 On this Heame cites in his Glossa/ry : — 
 
 Good men & wymmen this day is called 
 Wytsonday by cause the holy ghoost brought 
 wytte and wysdom in to Cristis discyples and 
 so by her prechyng after in to all cnstendom. 
 — Festyvall of Wynkyn de Worde, fol. liiii. a. 
 
 Passagestothe same effect, and almost 
 in the same words, are quoted from 
 the Harleian and Cottonian MSS. in 
 Hampson's MedU Aevi Kalendarium, 
 Glossary, s.YY. WittSonday, Wytsonday. 
 Other forms are Wissonday (Robert of 
 Brunne, Wyssontide (Gott. US. ),Whisson 
 wehe [Paston Letters). All these, how- 
 ever, as well as Wit Sunday, are corrup- 
 tions of toM-, or White- Sunday, 0. Eng. 
 hmit-Sunday, so called, it seems, from 
 the wliMe garments worn by neo- 
 phytes at this one of the great seasons 
 
WITTALL 
 
 [ 445 ) 
 
 WIT-ALL 
 
 for baptisms. In Layamon's Brut 
 (1205) it is White sunne tide; in tlie 
 Anaren Biwle (1225) luoite-sune-dei (p. 
 412) ; in the Saxon Chronicle (1067) 
 hmtan simnan daeg ; and in Icelandic 
 hoiiasunnu-dagr. See Picton, in Notes 
 and Queiies, 5th S. viii. 2 ; also 5th S. 
 i. 401 ; Cleasby and Vigfusson, s.v. hvitr; 
 Heame, Diary, vol. ii. p. 183. The 
 "Welsh word is sul-gwyn (white sun), 
 Whitsuntide (SpurreU). 
 
 Vaughan the Silurist has a poem on 
 White Sunday, beginning — 
 Wellcome, white day ! a thousand Suns, 
 Though seen at once, were hlack to thee ! 
 Silex Sciiitiltans, 1650. 
 
 It would not be easy to define the 
 exact reason why this festival was 
 named the Day of the White Sun. 
 Augustus Hare may have uncon- 
 sciously approximated to it when he 
 penned this reflection in his note-book 
 in 1831 :— 
 
 Whitsunday. — Who has not seen the sun on 
 a6ne spring morning pouring his rajs through 
 a transparent white cloud, filling all places 
 with the purity of his presence, and kindling 
 the birds into joy and song? Such, I con- 
 ceive, would be the constant effects of the 
 Holy Spirit on the soul, were there no evil in 
 the world. — Memorials of a Quiet Life, vol. i. 
 p. 372. 
 
 WMtsmnday was sometimes, on ac- 
 count of the resemblance of the names, 
 confounded with the medieval Bomi- 
 nica in Alhis (Sunday in Whites), or 
 first Sunday after Easter, which in 
 Germany is called Weisse Sonntag, in 
 Switzerland Wisse Sontig (White Sun- 
 day). 
 
 In ye returne of ye Kynge out of Irelonde 
 was a woder thynge shewed vnto hym vpo 
 Whitsondaye, which in the calender is called 
 Dominica in albU. — Fabyan, Chronicles, 1516, 
 p. 276 (Ellis' reprint). 
 
 WiTTALL, \ old English words for a 
 Wit-all, /patient cuckold, as if a 
 husband who wits all and is aware of 
 his own disgrace, has been considered 
 a corruption of A. Sax. wittol, knowing, 
 and the word is spelt wittol in Shake- 
 speare, Ford, and the old dramatists 
 (see Nares) . Wedgwood, however, holds 
 it to be a corruption of wood/wale, wit- 
 wall, wittal, the name of a bird whose 
 nest is often invaded by the cuckoo, and 
 so has the offspring of another palmed 
 off on it as its own, just as the cuckold 
 
 is one whohas been cuckooed, or wronged 
 by a cuckoo (Lat. cuculus), from the old 
 verb to cuckol. 
 
 Her happy lord is cuekol'd by Spadil. 
 
 Ymmg, Love of Fame, Sat. 6. 
 
 Jannin: Awittatl; one that knowes, and 
 bears with, or winks at, his wives dishonesty . 
 — Cotgrave, 
 
 Cock, cocuc, a cuckold, or wittall. — Id. 
 
 Mary cocji. The hedge-sparrow ; called so, 
 because she hatches, and feeds the Cuckoes 
 young ones, esteeming them her owne. — Id. 
 
 The same double entendre belongs to 
 Picard. liwyau, a greenfinch, It. hecco. 
 Mid. Lat. curruca. (See also Diez, s.v. 
 Gucco ; Brand, Pop. Antiq. ii. 196). 
 
 Sylvester uses cuckoo for an adul- 
 terer : — 
 
 What should I doo with such a wanton Wife, 
 Which night and day would cruciate my life, 
 With Jeloux pangs ? Sith every way shee 
 
 sets 
 Her borrow'd snares (not her owne hairs) for 
 
 Nets 
 To catch her Ciwkoos. 
 
 Du Bartas, 1621, p. 498. 
 
 The same poet caUs the cuckoo — 
 
 Th' infamous bird that layes 
 His bastard eggs within the nests of other. 
 To have them hatcht by an unkindely Mother. 
 
 Fond wit-wal that wouldst load thy witless 
 
 head 
 With timely horns, before thy bridal bed. 
 Hall, Satires, bk. i. sat. 7. 
 
 Singer's note on this passage is :— 
 
 A Saxon word from witan, to know, or, as 
 Philips says in his World of Woj'ds, " Witlall, 
 a cuckold that wits all, i.e. knows all, i.e. 
 knows that he is so." . . I find Skelton spells 
 this word wit-wold. 
 
 Or is it treason 
 For me, that am a subject, to endeavour 
 To save the honour of the duke, and that 
 He should not be a wittol on record t 
 
 Massinger, Duke of Milan, act iv. sc. 3. 
 
 What though I called thee old ox, egre- 
 gious wittol, broken-bellied coward, rotten 
 mummy? — Webster, The Malcontent, i. 1. 
 
 Witto/.'— Cuckold ! The devil himself hath 
 not such a name. — Shakespeare, The Merry 
 Wives of Windsor, act ii. sc. 2, sub fin. 
 
 You must know that all infidelity is not of 
 the senses. We have as well intellectual as 
 material wittols. These, whom you see de- 
 corated with the order of the book are triflers, 
 who encourage about their wives' presence 
 the society of your men of genius. — C. Lamb, 
 Works, p. 670 (Routledge ed.> 
 
WIT-WALL 
 
 ( 446 ) 
 
 WOMAN 
 
 Of Wittoll. 
 Well, let them laugh hereat that list and 
 
 scoffe it 
 But thou dost find what makes most for thy 
 profit. 
 
 Haringten, Epigrams, bk. i. 94. 
 Against a Wittalt Broker that set his wife to 
 sale. Id. Epigram 72. 
 
 Their young neighbour was wronged, and 
 dishonestly afiused, through his kind simpli- 
 city. Wherevppon this honest man was 
 dubbed amongst them & wittalt. — Tell-Trothes 
 New-Yeares Gift, 1593, p. 13(Shaks. Soc.) 
 Adulterate law, and you prepare the way. 
 Like wittals, th' issue your owne ruine is. 
 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 144. 
 There was no peeping hole to clear, 
 The wittuL's eye from his incarnate fear. 
 
 Quarles, Emblems, bk. i. 5. 
 
 Wit-wall, an old name for the wood- 
 pecker, is a corruption of wodewale. 
 See WooDWALL. 
 
 Lorion, The bh-d called a Witwall, Yellow- 
 beake, Hickway. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Woman, the modem speUing of old 
 Eng. wiman, wimman, oiwimmann,froia 
 A. Sax. wij-mamm, that is, the wife or 
 feminine member of the genus hovtio, 
 man. Compare leman or hmman, a 
 sweetheart, from old Eng. leof-man, i.e. 
 a lief or dear person. Wif is perhaps 
 from an A. Sax. verb wifan, to join or 
 weave, as if one who is joined or " knit 
 together " with another, akin to wefan, 
 to weave (EttmiiUer, p. 133 ; cf. Lat. 
 con-jux). 
 It was euere the quene thost, so muche so 
 
 heo mi3te thenche. 
 Mid conseil, otber mid sonde, other mid wim- 
 man wrenche. 
 Robert of Gloucester, Chrmicle, p. 535. 
 Wymmon war & wys, 
 of prude hue berejj )je pris, 
 burde on of Jie best. 
 Boddeher, Alt. Eng. Dichtungen, 
 p. 150, 1. 36. 
 [Woman wary and wise of prettyness she 
 beareth the prize, bride one of the best.] 
 
 Misled by the present incorrect ortho- 
 graphy, some have thought, Skinner 
 and Mr. Wedgwood among the num- 
 ber, that woman derives her name in 
 EngUsh from her physical conforma- 
 tion, as if she had been regarded in 
 primitive times as being distinctively 
 the "womb-man" (q. d. /jotoo uierataj, 
 adducing in attestation Pin. waimw, a 
 woman ; Sansk. vdma, (1) udder, (2) 
 woman, cognate with Goth, vwmha, 
 
 Icel. vdnib, Scot, wame, Eng. wovib. 
 So Samuel Purchas says of woman : — 
 
 The Place of her making was Paradise; 
 the matter (not Dust of the Earth, but) the 
 Ribbe of her Husband, a harder and heartier 
 part; the Forme, not a forming (as is said of 
 Adam), but a building, not a Potters yessell 
 formed, but a House builded for generation 
 and gestation, whence our language calls her 
 Woman, quasi Womb-Man. — Microcosmm, 
 1619, p. 473. 
 
 It should indeed be written wnmb-irmn, for 
 so it is of antiquity and rightly, the b. for 
 easinesse and readinesse of sound being in the 
 Pronountiation leff out ; and how apt a com- 
 posed word this is, is plainly seene. And as 
 Homo in Latin doth signifie both man, and 
 woman, so in our tongue the feminine also 
 hath as we see, the name of man, but more 
 aptly in that it is for due distinction com- 
 posed with worabe, shee being that kind of 
 man that is wombed, or hath the worab of 
 conception, which the man of the male kind 
 hath not. — Verstegan, Restitution of Decayed 
 hitelligence, p. 193. 
 
 We certainly meet other names for 
 the female sex having a similar con- 
 notation, e.g. old and provincial Bng- 
 hsh mautker or mother, a girl, beside 
 moder, the womb ; old Eng. mother, aa 
 in Lear, ii. 4 : — 
 0, how this mother swells up toward my 
 
 heart ! 
 Hysterica passim ! 
 
 Quean, Dan. quAind, Swed. qvmna, Gk. 
 gwne, Ir. coime, a woman, beside Lat. 
 ownrms (used also by Horace for a girl), 
 0. Eng. queint, all from the root joM, 
 " to bring forth ; " Heb. racham, (1) 
 the womb, (2) a girl or woman. 
 
 The word womb, however, was for- 
 merly, like the Scotch wame, used in 
 the most general way for the abdo- 
 men, and was not peculiarly appHcable 
 to women. Most modern philologists 
 see in wifman-, A. Sax. wif, Icel. iiif,. 
 Ger. weih, a derivative of the root ve, 
 vap, to weave, Icel. vefa, being so 
 named from her chief occupation in 
 primitive times. " The wife should 
 weave her own apparel," says Clement 
 of Alexandria, referring to Prov. xxxi. 
 19. Compare the words spinster, spim- 
 die-side, Fr. fuseau, " a spindle, also 
 the feminine line" (Cotgrave); qiie- 
 nomlle, a " distaffe, also the feminine 
 hne in a succession" (Id.); opposed to 
 the spea/r-side, Fr. lance, " a lance, also 
 the masculine hne in a pedegree" (Id.); 
 A. Sax. waspmam; " He worhte wmp- 
 
WONBEB 
 
 ( 447 ) 
 
 WOOL 
 
 mann and wif-mann," A. S. version 
 Matt. xix. 4, r: He made them male 
 and female. See also Pauli, Life of 
 Alfred, p. 225 (ed. Bohn). 
 
 Some popular etymologists liave un- 
 gaUantly, but witli curious unanimity, 
 resolved the word into woe-7nan. Com- 
 pare the note to Moilleee. 
 
 What be they? women'? masking in mens 
 
 weedes ? 
 With dutcbkin dublets, and with Jerkins 
 
 iaggde 1 
 With Spanish spangs, and ruffes set out of 
 
 i ranee, 
 With high copt hattes, and fethers flaunt a 
 
 flaunt? 
 They be so sure euen VVo to men indede. 
 Gascoigne, Steele GUis, 1576, p. 83 
 (ed. Arber). 
 Thus wormn, woe of men, though wooed by 
 
 men, 
 Still adde new matter to my plaintife pen. 
 
 Tom Tel-Troths Message, 1593, 1. 660 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 The inviter. It is a woman, " she saith to 
 him ; " but that name is too good, for she 
 hath recovered her credit : a woman, as she 
 brought woe to man, so she brought forth a 
 weal to man. — T. Adiims, The Fatal Banquet, 
 Sermons, vol. i. p. 160. 
 
 Look at the very name — Woman, evidently 
 meaning either man's woe — or abbreviated 
 from woe to man, because by woman was woe 
 brought into the world. — Sauthey, The Doctor, 
 p. 558. 
 
 WoNDBB is given in Wright's Frovin- 
 cial Dictionary as a Stafford word for 
 the afternoon. It is evidently a cor- 
 rupt form of the old English undern, 
 or " between time." See Okn-dinnee. 
 
 An husbounde man went into his gardeyn, 
 or vineyearde, at prime, and ayen at undren 
 or mydday. — Liber Festivialis, 1495 [in 
 Wright]. 
 
 WoNDBES, a Cornish word for a tin- 
 gling in the extremities producedbycold, 
 also called gwenders, which was per- 
 haps the original term, and of old 
 Cornish extraction. The latter is also 
 the Devonshire word. We may com- 
 pare Welsh gwyndraiv, numbness, stu- 
 por, and perhaps gwander, weakness, 
 debihty, from gwan, weak, akin to Lat. 
 vwnus, as W. gwener :=■ Lat. Veniis, 
 and W. gwennol, Com. guenmol, a swal- 
 low = Lat. vanellus, 
 
 I have the gwenders in my fingers. 
 
 I have the wonders for the first time this 
 winter. — M. A, Courtney, W. Cornwall Glos- 
 viry, E. D. Soc. 
 
 WooD-KOOF, a plant, asperula odoraia, 
 is said to be a corruption of wood-reeve 
 (the overseer of the wood). The Ger- 
 man name of it is Waldmeister, the 
 master of the wood (Blaokley, Word 
 Gossip, p. 140). But the old Eng. 
 names of it are wood/roofe, woodrowe, 
 woodrowell (Gerarde, p. 966), andioode- 
 roue, A. Sax. wudurofe. 
 
 When woderoue springe)?, 
 Boddeker, Alt. Eng. Dicht. p. 164, 1. 9. 
 
 Wood-spite, l provincialnames for 
 WooD-spACK, V the woodpecker, are 
 WooD-spEiTE, J corruptions of the old 
 
 English name spechi or speight, Ger. 
 
 specht, Dan. spcetie. 
 
 Eue, walking forth about the Forrests, gathers 
 
 Speights, Parrots, Peacocks, Estrich scattered 
 feathers. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 222, fol. 1621. 
 Picchio, a wood pecker, a tree iobber, a 
 
 hickway, a iobber, a spight. — Florio. 
 
 IVood-sprile, a woodpecker. — Suffolk (E. 
 
 Dialect Soc. Reprint B. 21). 
 
 WooDWALL, a provincial name for the 
 woodpecker, corrupted from Dut. weede- 
 wael, the first part of the word, accord- 
 ing to Wedgwood, expressing the weed 
 or tooocZ-Hke colour of the bird. 
 
 Pito, a bird called a wood-wall. — Minsheu, 
 Spanish Diet. 1623. 
 
 See WiTWALL. 
 
 The Percy Folio M8. has the pecu- 
 liar spellings woocZAaH and woodiueete ; — 
 Early in that May morning, 
 men'ily when the burds can sing, 
 the throstlecock, the Nightingale, 
 the laueracke & the wild wood-hall. 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. i. p. 383, 1. 922. 
 The woodwete sang & wold not cease 
 Amongst the leaues a lyne. 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 228, 1. 5. 
 
 Wool fiee, a provincial word for a 
 cutaneous eruption (? erysipelas), and 
 for wild fire {Antrim and Down Glos- 
 sary, Patterson), of which latter word 
 it is a corruption. 
 
 Wool, a nautical term, to wind a 
 rope round a mast or spar, sometimes, 
 written woold, is from Dutch woelen, to 
 wind about with a cord (Sewel), with 
 which Wedgwood compares Fris. wol- 
 Un, Swiss willen, to wrap round, and 
 Northampton wooddled, wrapped up, 
 mufSed. The original meaning is to 
 roU about, the word being akin to 0. H. 
 Ger. wuolan, Swed. vula, Dan. vide, 
 
WOBLD 
 
 ( 448 ) WOJTLB to god 
 
 Goth, vahijcm, to roll (Diefenbach, 
 Goth. Sprache, i. 181). 
 
 World, A. Sax. worold, weorold, has 
 often beenr regarded, in accordance 
 ■with its present corrupt orthography, 
 as meaning that which is whorl d or 
 whirl'd around in its orbit, or upon its 
 axis (so Eng. Synonyms, p. 137, ed. 
 Abp. Whately). Its more correct form 
 would be werld, A. Sax. werold, i.e. 
 wer, a man (Goth, vairs), + eld, an age, 
 and so denotes the number of men 
 aUve at one time, an age or genera- 
 tion, i;irorMmcei(xs,soBcMj'!4m. The North- 
 ampton folk stUl use the word for a long 
 space of time, e.g. " It '11 be a world 
 afore he's back " (Sternberg), and such 
 is also its meaning in the doxology, 
 "world without end," A. Sax. "on 
 worulda woruld," Lat. in secula secu- 
 lorum. 
 
 Behold the World, how it is whirled round, 
 And for it is so whirled, is named so ; 
 * * « * 
 
 For your quicke eyes in wandring too and 
 
 fro, 
 From East to West, on no one thing can 
 
 glaunce. 
 But if you mai'ke it well, it seemes to daunce. 
 
 Sir J. Davies, Orchestra, 1596, St. 34. 
 
 The cognate forms are Dut. ivereld, 
 waereld, loel. ver-bld, Swed. world, 
 O. H. Ger. wer-alt. 
 
 EornfuUness ^isse worulde . . forJ?rysmia|3 
 Saet wurd. — A. Sax. Version, S. Matt. xiii. 22. 
 [Care of this world . . . choketh the word.] 
 And groundes of ertheli werlde vnhiled are. 
 
 Northumbrian Psalter, Ps. xiy. 16. 
 Nought helde sal in werld of werld Jiis, 
 
 Id. Ps. ciii. 5. 
 And he gu wolde wissin. 
 Of wi[B]liche fringes, 
 Gu we migtin in werelde 
 wrsipe weldin. 
 Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 10,'), 1. 33. 
 [And he would teach you about wise 
 things, how ye might in the world attain 
 honour.] 
 
 1 ak we our biginning (jan, 
 Of him J}at al . bis werld bigan. 
 Cursor Mundi, 1. 270 (E.E.T.S.). 
 The following seems to connect the 
 word with old Eng. were, ware, confu- 
 sion, trouble : — 
 
 Se se is eure wagiende . . . and bitocneS 
 fje abroidene bureh j^at is in swo warli^he 
 stede ; . . . jjat is fiis wrecche woreld, Jjat 
 eure is wagiende noht fro stede to stede, ac 
 fro time to time. — Old Eng. Homilies, 2nd 
 Ser. p. 175. 
 
 [The sea is ever waving, and betokens the 
 rumous city that is in so troublous a place, 
 that is this wretched world that is ever wav- 
 ing, not from place to place, but from time to 
 time.] 
 
 An ancient folks-etymology analyzed 
 wereld into wer elde, worse age : — 
 Jjarfor Jje world, );at clerkes sees Jjus helde, 
 Es als mykel to say als J>e wer elde. 
 
 Hampok, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 1479. 
 But when the world woxe old, it woxe warre 
 
 old, 
 (Whereof it hight) andj having shortly tride 
 The traines of wit, in wickednesse woxe bold, 
 And dared of all sinnes the secrets to unfold. 
 
 Spenser, The Faerie Qtieene, IV. viii.31. 
 
 Similar is Ascham's derivation of 
 war from old Eng. wear (Scot, wawr), 
 worse : — 
 
 There is nothing worse then war, whereof 
 it taketh his name, through the which great 
 men be in daunger, meane men without suc- 
 coure, ryche men in feare. — Tojophilus, 1545,, 
 p. 62 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Would to God is perhaps a corrup- 
 tion of the old idiom " wolde God," 
 which, with the final e pronounced, as 
 was usual, sounds very similar, " wold- 
 e-God." Mr. E. A. Abbott says :— 
 
 Possibly this phrase may be nothing but a 
 corruption ofthe more correct idiom, "Would 
 God that," which is more common in our 
 version of the Bible than **1 would." The 
 " to " may be a remnant and corruption of 
 the inflection of " would," " wolde," and the 
 f may have been added for the supposed 
 necessity of a nominative. Thus, 
 " Now wolde God that I might sleepen ever." 
 Chaucer, Monk's Tale, 14746. 
 
 This theory is rendered the more probable, 
 because, as a mle, in WicklifFe's version of 
 the Old Testament, " wolde God " is found 
 in the older MSS,, and is altered' into " we 
 wolden " in the latter. Thus Genesis xvi. 3 ; 
 Numbers xx, 3 ; Joshua vii, 7 ; Judges ix. 29 ; 
 2 Kings V. 3 (Forshall and Madden, 1850). 
 However Chaucer has " I hoped to God "re- 
 peatedly. — Shakespearian Grammar, p. 126. 
 
 Ne wolde God never betwix us tweine 
 
 As in my gilt, were either werre or strif. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 11068. 
 
 Woulde god [they] were rather in suertie 
 with me, then 1 wer there in iubardy with 
 the.— Sir T. More, Works, 1557, p. 49 f. 
 
 Would God that all the Lord's people were 
 prophets. — A. V. Numb. xi. 29. 
 I would to God some scholar would conjure 
 her. 
 
 Shakespeare, MuA:h Ado, ii, 1. 
 
 Would to God we had been content. — A. V. 
 Josh. vii. 7. 
 
WOBM-WOOD 
 
 ( 449 ) 
 
 WOUND 
 
 Worm-wood, so spelt as if it denoted 
 the bitter tvood which is a specific for 
 worms when taken as a medicine. 
 
 Hoc absinthium, wnrmwod. — Wright's Vo- 
 cabularies (loth cent.), i. 226. 
 It is a corruption of old Eng. iver- 
 mode, A. Sax. wermod (Qer. wermuth), 
 supposed by Dr. Prior {Names of Brit. 
 Plants) to be compounded of A. Sax. 
 werian, to keep off (wehren), and mod 
 or made, a maggot (A. Sax. main), as 
 if "ware-maggot." In Leechdoms,Wort- 
 cunning, &c., it is said of wermod that 
 " hyt cwel)j fia wyrmas " (vol. i. p. 218), 
 where it is interpreted by Mr. Cockajoie 
 as "ware-moth." 
 
 The true meaning of the word has 
 been for the first time unravelled by 
 Prof. Skeat. He points out that the 
 proper division of the word is A. Sax. 
 wefr-m6d, Dut. wer-moet, Ger. wer-muth, 
 M. H. Ger. wer-muote, O. H. Ger. wera- 
 mdte, where the first element is A. Sax. 
 warian, to protect, defend (0. Dut. 
 weren, &c.), and the latter A. Sax. m6d, 
 mind or mood (O. Dut. moedt, Ger. 
 muth, M. H. G. muot). Thus the com- 
 pound means " locm-e-mood," or " mind- 
 preserver," and points back to some 
 primitive belief as to the curative pro- 
 perties of the plant in mental affec- 
 tions. Compare wede-lerge, " preserva- 
 tive agaiast madness," an A. Sax. name 
 for hellebore. Thus the form wormr-wood 
 is doubly corrupt. The Professor is not 
 quite correct in adding that " we find 
 no mention of the plant beiug used in 
 the way indicated ;" see the quotations 
 from Burton. 
 
 But the last thine^is ben bittir aa wormodj 
 and hir tung^e is scharj:* as a swerd keruynge 
 onechside. — IVydiffe, Prov. v. 4. 
 ' The name of the sterre ia seid wermod. — 
 Wjiclife, Rev. viii. 11. 
 
 The name of the starre is called wormwod. 
 ~Tiindale,ibid. 
 
 Warmot is wormewood. — Gerarde, Supple- 
 ment to tht General Table. 
 
 Nature and his Parents alike dandle him, 
 and tice him on with a bait of Sugar, to a 
 draught of Worme wood. — John Earle, Micro- 
 ciimographie, 1628, p. 21 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Againe, Wormwood voideth away the 
 wormes of the guts, not onely taken in- 
 wardly, but applied outwardly : ... it 
 keepeth garments also from the Mothes, it 
 driueth away gnats, the bodie being aa- 
 nointed with the oyle thereof. — Gerarde, 
 Herbal, p. 938. 
 The herbe with his stalkes laid in chestes, 
 
 presses, and wardrobs, keepeth clothes from 
 mothes, and other vermine. — Id. p. 941. 
 
 This Woi-mioood called Sementma & Semen 
 sanctum, which we haue Englished Holie ia 
 that kinde of Wormwood which beareth that 
 Beede which we haue in use, called Worm- 
 seede. — Id. p. 941. 
 
 An enemy it [Wormwood] is to the Sto- 
 macke: howbeit the belly it loosneth, and 
 chaseth worms out of the guts ; for which pur- 
 pose, it ia good to drink it with oile and salt. 
 — Holland, Pliny's Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 277. 
 
 Wormwood, centaury, pennyroyall, are like- " 
 wise magnified, and much prescribed (as I 
 shall after shew) especially in hypochon- 
 driake melancholy, daily to be used, sod in 
 whey : as Rufus Ephesiua, Aretaeus, re]ate,by 
 breaking winde, helping concoction, many 
 melancholy [= mad] men have been cured 
 with the frequent use of them alone. — Burton, 
 Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. II. sec. 4. Mem. i. 
 subs. 3. 
 
 The wines ordinarily used to this disease 
 are worme-wood-wine, tamarisk, and buglossa- 
 tum. — Id. II. 4. i. 5. 
 
 Also conserves of wormwood. — Ibid-. 
 
 Wound, in the phrase " he wound his 
 horn " or " bugle," frequently used as 
 the past tense of to wind, meaning to 
 blow, is an incorrect form for winded, 
 from the verb wind, to give wind or 
 breath to (Lat. ventilare), and so to 
 sound by blowing. This word w^s 
 evidently confounded with wind, to 
 twist or turn (A. Sax. windan, Goth. 
 vindan), with some reference to the 
 convolutions of the instrument through 
 which the air is made to pass. Some- 
 what similarly a pig's snout is said 
 sometimes to be rung instesti of ringed, 
 i.e. furnished with a ring, from a con- 
 fusion with the verb ring {rang, rung), 
 to sound a bell. 
 
 But Btay advent'rous muse, hast thou the 
 
 force. 
 To wind the twisted horn, to guide the horse ? 
 J. Gay, Rural Sports, 1. 388. 
 
 " To wind " is to sound by " windy 
 suspiration of forced breath." 
 When Robin Hood came into merry Sher- 
 wood, 
 He wivd£d his bugle so clear. 
 A New Ballad oj bold Robin Hood, 1. 98 
 (Child's Ballads, v. 347; Ritson, 
 Robin Hood, ii. 1). 
 Here the rude clamour of the sportsman's 
 
 joy, 
 The gun fast-thundering, and the winded 
 
 horn, 
 Would tempt the Muse to sing the rural 
 game. 
 
 Thomson, Seasons, Autumn, 
 
 Q a 
 
WBANG-LANDS 
 
 ( 460 ) 
 
 WBAPPEB 
 
 Tliat I will have a recheat winded in my 
 fovhead, or hang my bugle in an invisible 
 baldrick, all women shall pardon me. — Shake- 
 speare, Much Ado about Nothing, act i. sc. 1, 
 1. 244. 
 It will make the huntsman hunt the fox, 
 
 That never wound his horn ; 
 It will bring the tinker to the stocks, 
 That people may him scorn. 
 Sir John Barkijcorii, Ballads, &^c. of the 
 Peusantiy, p. 81 (ed. Bell). 
 Tennyson has the line — 
 Thither he made and wound the gateway horn. 
 Idylls of the King, Elaine, 1. 169 
 (p. 156, ed. 1859)— 
 
 but in later editions, e.g. 1878, WorTcs, 
 p. 446, 1 find this has been altered into 
 "blew." 
 
 Loudly the Beattison laugh'd in scorn ; 
 ** Little care we for thy winded horn." 
 Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, 
 canto IT. 12. 
 But scarce again his horn he wound. 
 When lo ! forth starting at the sound, 
 » # # * * 
 
 A little skiff shot to the bay. 
 
 Scott, The Lady of the Lake, 
 canto i. 17. 
 With hunters who wound their horns. — 
 Pennant [in Richardson]. 
 
 The horn was wound to celebrate certain 
 dishes. — J. C. Jeafreson, Book about the Table, 
 vol. i. p. 228. 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 If ev'rj' tale of love, 
 Or love itself, or fool-bewitching beauty, 
 Make me cross-arm myself, study ah-mes, 
 .... and dry my liver up, 
 With sighs enough to wind an argosy, 
 If ever I turn thus fantastical, 
 
 Love plague me. 
 T. Heywood, Fair Maid of the Exchange, 
 p. 18 (Shalis. Soc). 
 
 Weang-lands, a North country word 
 for low stumpy trees growing on moun- 
 tainous ground (Wright), as if wrong 
 (i.e. bad) lands growth, is without doubt 
 the same word as 0. Eng. wraglands. 
 
 Haboudris, Wraglands, crooked or mis- 
 growne trees which will never prove timber. 
 
 Riibougrir, to grow crooked, and low 
 withall ; to wax mishapen, or imperfect of 
 shape, to become a wragland, or grub. — 
 Cotgruve. 
 
 Wragland itself is a corrupted form of 
 wraglin', Prov. and old Eng. wrechUng, 
 Prov. Dan. vrmgUng, a dwarfish, iU- 
 grown, or deformed pers&n or thing, 
 probably akin to O. Eng. wrick, Fris. 
 wrechen, to twist, " wring," &o. 
 
 Wbang Nayle, "otherwyse caUyd a 
 Corne " {Political, Beligious, and Love 
 Poems, E. E. T. Soc. p. 36), so spelt as 
 if to denote a " wrong nail," is no doubt 
 one of the many corruptions of agnail, 
 agnel, a.ngnail, hangnail, angerna/il, de- 
 noting sometimes a com, sometimes a 
 paron/ychia. 
 
 Weapped, \ a mistaken orthography 
 
 Wrapt, / of rapt, carried away by 
 
 enthusiasm or strong emotion , ravished, 
 
 Lat. raptus, from rapio, to carry away, 
 
 e.g.— 
 
 ■ The Pafriai'ch, theu rapt with sudden Joy, 
 
 Made answer thus. 
 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 325 (1621). 
 Wrapt aboue apprehension. 
 
 The taithful Friends, iii. 3. 
 His noble limmes in such proportion cast 
 As would have wrapt a sillie woman's thought. 
 Ferrex and Porrex. 
 
 She ought to be Sainted whilst on Karth, 
 and when wrapped up into the brio;hter Man- 
 sions, far above this lower world, be En- 
 throned a Goddess. — The Coronation of Queen 
 Elizabeth, 1680, act i. sc. 3. 
 
 Some editions {e.g. Ayscough's) read 
 wrapped for rapt in the following pas- 
 sage : — 
 
 The government I cast upon my brother. 
 And to my state grew stranger, being trans- 
 ported 
 And rapt in secret studies. 
 
 Shakespeare, The Tempest, act i. sc. 2, 
 1.77 (Globe ed.). 
 Thus al dismayde, and wrapt in feare, 
 With doutfull mynde they stande. 
 
 B. Googe, Eglogs, 1563, p. 71 
 (ed. Arber). 
 Instead of orient pearls of jet, 
 
 I sent my love a carkanet, 
 About her spotlesse neck she knit 
 
 The lace, to honour me, or it : 
 Then think how wrapt was I to see 
 My jet t' enthrall such ivorie. 
 Herrick, Hesperides, Poems, p. 11 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Wrapt in these sanguine and joyous reve- 
 ries Glyndon . . . found himself amidst 
 cultivated fields. — Bulmer - Lytton, Zanoni, 
 bk. iv. ch. 6. 
 
 The disciples feared as they entered into 
 the cloud, because they were not in a icrapt 
 ecstatic state, but were dull and weary and 
 heavy with sleep. — H. Macmillm, Sabbath of 
 the Fields, p. 78. 
 
 Science standing wrapt in perplexity and 
 astonishmeut before the mysteries of the 
 origin of matter. — Samuel Cox, Eipository 
 Essays, p. 234. 
 
 He was . . . like a babe new born wrapt 
 
WREATH 
 
 ( 451 ) WBETOELESSNESS 
 
 in swadling clouts, rather than like one in a 
 winding sheet. But when he walk'd without 
 the use of feet or hands, he was like Paul 
 wrapt up into the third heavens. — Bp. Racket, 
 Cmturii of Sermms, 1675, p. 573. 
 The eres herde not, for the mynde inwarde 
 Venus had rapte and taken fervently. 
 
 S. HaweSf Pastime of Pleasure, p. 59 
 (Percy Soc). 
 The four last verses are the celebration of 
 his recovery, which shew him in holiness as 
 it were rapt into heaven, and singing with 
 the saints for joy. — H. Smith, Sermons, p. 180 
 (1657). 
 
 Being fild with furious insolence, 
 1 feele my selfe like one yrapt in spright ! 
 Spenser, Colin Chats Come Home Againe 
 (p. 555, Globe ed.). 
 
 Sylvester speaks of — 
 Divine accents tuning rarely right 
 
 Unto the rapting spirit the rapted spright. 
 Du Bartas, p. 302 (1621). 
 
 They bear witness to his [Walsh's] nipts 
 and ecstasies. — Southey, Life of IVesley^ vol. 
 ii. p. 123 (18.58). 
 
 It was customary formerly to prefix 
 w to many words that had no etymo- 
 logical right to that letter. See Whole. 
 
 Weeath, in the Scotch and N. Eng- 
 lish " snow-wreath," a snow-storm, or 
 drift, sometimes written wride, is a 
 corrupted form of A. Sax. hrii, Icel. 
 hrii, a tempest, especially a snow- 
 storm. Or perhaps it meant originally 
 a collection or gattiering of snow ; com- 
 pare A. Sax. wrcBd, wrcei, a flock, Goth. 
 writhas, a herd (Soot, wreath, an en- 
 closure for cattle). 
 As wreath of snow, on mountain breast, 
 Slides from the rock that gave it rest, 
 Poor Ellen glided from her stay. 
 
 Scott, The Lady of the Lake, 
 The valley to a shining mountain swells, 
 Tipp'd with a wreath high-curling in the sky. 
 
 Thomson, Seasons, Winter. 
 There, warm together press'd, the trooping 
 
 deer. 
 Sleep on the new-fallen snows ; and scarce 
 
 his head 
 Raised o'er the heapy wreath, the branching 
 
 elk. 
 Lies slumbering sullen in the white abyss. 
 Thomson, Winter. 
 I'm wearin' awa', John, 
 Like snaw-iOT'eaf/is in thaw, John, 
 I'm weai'in' awa'. 
 
 Ladi/ Nairn, Land o* the Leal. 
 Weetchlessness, a corruption of 
 rechlessTiess, the older form of reckless- 
 ness, as if connected with wreck and 
 wretch. 
 
 The Devil doth thrust them either into 
 desperation, or into wreichlessness of most 
 unclean living. — Prayer Book, Article xvii. 
 Lesing cometh of rechelesnes. 
 
 Chaucer, Parsons Tale. 
 They ai-e such retchless flies as you are, that 
 blow cutpurses abroad in every corner. — B. 
 Jonson, Barthobmew Fair, iii. 1. 
 He came not there, but God knowes where 
 This retchlesse Wit is run. 
 The Mariage of Witt and Wisdome, p. 54 
 (Shaks. Soc. ed.). 
 If thou hadst neuer felt no ioy, thy smart had 
 
 bene the lesse. 
 And retchlesse of His life, he gan both sighe 
 
 and grone, 
 A rufuU thing me thought, it was, to hear 
 him make such mone. 
 
 Tottel's Miscelluny, 1557, p. 17 
 (ed. Arber). 
 The wandring gadling, in the sommer 
 tyde, 
 That iindes tlie Adder with his rechlesae 
 foote, 
 Startes not dismaid so sodeinly aside. 
 
 Tottel's Miscellany, 1557, p. 41 
 (ed. Arber). 
 Nothing takes aman off more fromhis credit 
 and businesse, and makes him more retchlcsly 
 carelesse, what becomes of all. — John Eurle, 
 Micro-cosmographie, 1628, A Drunkard. 
 
 I hold it a great disputable question, which 
 is a more euill man, of him that is an idle 
 glutton at home, or a retchlesse vnthrift 
 abroad 1 — Nash, Pierce Penilesse, p. 57 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 The retchlesse race of youth's inconstant 
 
 course. 
 Which weeping age with sorrowing teares 
 
 behoulds ; 
 
 * « « * * 
 
 Hath reard my muse, whose springs wan 
 
 care had dried. 
 
 To warue them flie the dangers I haue tried. 
 
 Thos. Lloyd, Inconstancy of Youth (Sei. 
 
 Poetry, ii. 415, Parker Soc). 
 
 A retcheles seruant, a misti'es that scowles, 
 
 a rauening mastife, and hogs that eate fowles. 
 
 Tusser, 1580 (E. D. Soc), p. 21. 
 Call . . . him true and plaine. 
 That rayleth rechlesse vnto ech mans shame. 
 Sir T. Wiat, Satire II. 1. 71 (ab. 1540). 
 jif it so bifalle that any of the brotherhede 
 falle in pouerte, or be anyentised thurwS 
 elde; ... or any other hap, so it be nat 
 on hym-selue alonge, ne thurw5, his owne 
 wrecchednesse, he schal haue, in ]>e wyke. 
 xiiij.d.— English Gilds, p. 9 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Similarly Spenser has wreaked for 
 recked — 
 
 What wreaked I of wintrye ages waste? 
 Shepheardes Calender (1579), De- 
 cember, 1. 29. 
 
 Compare Whokb. 
 
WEIGHT 
 
 ( 452 ) 
 
 WUBSE 
 
 "Weight, a workman, is a trans- 
 posed form, for the sake of euphony, or 
 by assimilation to wight, knight, &c., of 
 tvirght or wirht, A. Sax. wyrhta, a 
 worker, which is pretty much the same 
 asifweusedio7'oA;for worlc, or as we do 
 actually use luroMp'W (A. S&^.wrohte) as 
 the past tense of work (A. Sax. wyrcan), 
 instead oiworgM (A. Sax. worhte). Com- 
 pare old Eng. wrim for loorm (A. Sax. 
 wyrm); old Eng. Irid, a bird; crmt, a 
 cart ; goers, " grass ; " tasTc, another 
 form of (taks) tax; ax of ask; wasp, 
 Prov. Eng. wops ; haSp and haps, &c. 
 As further instances of words popularly 
 metamorphosed by metathesis compare 
 Leicestershire chanmils for challenge ; 
 conolize for colonize ; arud, cruddle, for 
 curd, cK/rdle; apern for apron; sta/rndl 
 for starling; throff for froth; waps for 
 wasp ; thrupp for thorp ; Thooks'n for 
 Thurcaston (Evans, Glossary, p. 8, 
 E.D.S.). See Burnish and Duck of 
 the Evening, above. 
 
 First in his witte he all purueid. 
 His were, als dos jje sotill wright. 
 
 Cursor Mundi, 1. 325 (E.E.T.S.). 
 Jje wrightes \i&t ]>e timber wroght 
 A mekill balk jsam bud haue ann. 
 Legends of the Holy Rood, p. 79, 1. 617. 
 Of a wryght I wyll you telle, 
 That some tyme in thys land g^an dwelle. 
 The Wright's Chaste Wife, 1. 11 
 (E. E.T.S.) 
 Wrinkle, in the colloquial plirase 
 " to give one a wrinkle,'' i.e. a usefid 
 hint, to put one up to a dodge, as if 
 the result of old experience symbolized 
 by its outward manifestation {ruga), is 
 in all probabihty a corruption of the 
 old EngUsh wrence, wrink, a dodge (see 
 Oliphant, Old and Mid. English, p. 77), 
 Scot, wrink, a trick, also a winding ; 
 properly a crooked proceeding, a deceit, 
 or stratagem, with a quasi-diminutival 
 form hke syllable for syllabi. Cf. Dan. 
 rmnke, Icel. hrekkr, a trick, Ger. rank, 
 rilnke. 
 
 [ris heie sacrament . . . ouer alle o8er 
 (jinges unwrih^ his wrenches [unmasks his 
 artifices]. — The Aucren Riwle (ab. 1225), p. 
 270 ((;amden Soc). 
 
 Harald |;at euere was of lujier wrenche. 
 Robert of Gbiicester, Chronicle, ab. 1298. 
 
 His wiseles & his wrenches j^et he us mide 
 asailed, do ham alle o vluhte. — Ancren Riwle, 
 p. 300. 
 
 [His wiles and artifices that he assailed us 
 with all take them to flight.] 
 
 In the houre of ded the deuill wyll cast 
 mony wrenkis of falsait the quhilk suld nocht 
 be trowyt. — Ratis Raving, p. 3, 1. 60 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Sa quaynt and crafti mad thou itte, 
 
 That al bestes er red for man 
 
 Sa mani wyle and wrenk he can. 
 Eng. Metrical Homilies, p. 2 (ed. Small). 
 
 Many men (;e world here fraystes, 
 
 Bot he es noght wyse )):it [jar-in traistes ; 
 
 For it ledes a man with wrenhes and wyles. 
 
 And at the last it hym begyles. 
 
 Ham-pole, Fricke of Conscience, 1. 1361. 
 I schal wayte to be war her wrenched to kepe. 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 45, 1. 292. 
 
 Jjam thare drede no wrenkis ne no wylis of 
 the fende, for why God es with ^ame, and 
 standis aye by f^ame als a trewe kepere 
 and a strange ane. — Religious Pieces, p. 51 
 (E.E.T.S.;. 
 
 Als lang as I did beii' the freiris style, 
 In me, god wait, wes mony wrink and wyle. 
 W. Dunbar, Poems, 1503 (ed. Laing i. 
 
 All the above words seem to be near 
 akin to Goth.wruggo (:=wrungo), a snare 
 or net, A. Sax. wringan, to twist or 
 wring (Diefenbach, i. 237). 
 
 You note me to be .... so simple, so 
 plain, and so far without all wrinkks, — 
 Latimer, ii. 422 [Dayies]. 
 
 Miss. I never heard that. 
 
 Nev. Wliy then Miss, you have one 
 wrinkle ; more than ever you had before. 
 Swift, Polite Conversation, Conv. i. [Davies], 
 
 He has had experience of most kinds of 
 known and of several sorts of, to us, un- 
 known angling. He is thus able to describe 
 " wrinkles " of a strangely sagacious cha- 
 racter. — Sat. Review, vol. 51, p. 465. 
 
 For the assimilation compare the fql- 
 lowing, where the farmer's recent ex- 
 periences are referred to : — 
 
 Every fresh figure in the Entomologists' 
 Report is apt to print another wrinkle on his 
 now sufficiently dismal face. — The StaJidard, 
 Jan. 18, 1882. 
 
 WtJESE, an old Eng. name for the 
 devil, appears to be the same word as 
 worse, A. Sax. wyrsa, comparative of 
 weorr, bad, perverse, just as he was 
 also called " The 111." 
 
 Thu farest so doth the ille, 
 Evi'ich blisse him is un-wille. 
 
 Owl and Nightingale, 1. 422. 
 
 It is reaUy, perhaps, only an altered 
 form of A. Sax. Jpyrs, Prov. Eng. thurse, 
 a hobgoblin, spectre, or giant, the cha- 
 racter for w and the thorn letter l> being 
 easily confounded. Compare whittle 
 for thwytel, white, to cut, for thwite. 
 
TALLOW-PLASTEB ( 453 ) 
 
 YELLOWS 
 
 r%ree,wykkyd spyryte, Duoius. — Prompt. 
 Pan. 
 
 Thykke theese as a thunse, and thikkere in 
 the banche. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 1100. 
 
 Stedefast to-^enes god and men, alse lob 
 was, \>e wan wiS t>fi inirse.—Old Eng. Homi- 
 lies, 2ad Ser. p. 187 (ed. Morris). 
 
 [Stedfast towards God and men, as Job 
 was that fought against the devil.] 
 
 Neddre smuhgS diSsliche, swo doS jje 
 n-erse. — Id. p. 191. 
 
 [The adder creepeth secretly, so doth the 
 devil.] 
 
 Wycliffe lias wmst for the devil, 
 
 Quenohe alle the firi dartis of the worst. — 
 Eph. vi. 16. 
 
 Wwse survives in a slightly altered 
 form ia Dorset oose (and ooser), a mask 
 with opening jaws to frighten folk 
 (Barnes, Glossary, p. 73). The loss of 
 initial lo occurs similarly in ooze, for 
 old Eng. wosp (A. Sax. lods, N. Eng. 
 weeze); old 'Eng. oof {Prompt. Parv.), 
 for woof; ootJie, mad {Id.), for woode ; 
 orchard iar: wortyard; and oad for 
 wood, e.g. — 
 
 The stains of sin I see 
 Are oaded all, or dy'd in grain. 
 Quarks, School of the Heart, ode xvii. 
 
 Yallow-plastee, a vulgar corrup- 
 tion of alabaster, as if "yellow-plaster," 
 yallow being the Lincolnshire and 
 common Irish pronunciation of yellow 
 (cf. All-plaisteb). Alahlastffi- is the 
 Linoolnshu-e form of the word (Pea- 
 cock, Brogden), which is found also in 
 old writers, e.g. — 
 
 Poii-e de Serteau, the AUubiaster Peai-. — 
 Ciitgrave. 
 
 Yt ys nuwe frest and gyld, and ys armes 
 gyltt, with the pyctur all in ateblaster lyung 
 in ys armur gyltt. — Machyn, Diary, 1562, 
 p. 285 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Yabk-rod, a Lincolnshire name for 
 the plant seneoio, as if jerTc-rod, yarh 
 being the form of "jerk " in that dia- 
 lect, is apparently a corruption (by 
 metathesis) of its ordinary name rag- 
 wort. Tack-yar, in the same county, 
 the name of a plant, seems to be for 
 ac-yarh, " oak-herb." 
 
 Yellow-hammek has been supposed 
 
 to have its name from its hammer- 
 hke 
 
 Beating for ever on one key 
 Pleased with his own monotony. 
 F. W. Faher, for example, thus de- 
 cribes the bird : — 
 
 Away he goes, and hammers still 
 Without a rule but his free will, 
 
 A little gaudy Elf! 
 And there he is within the rain, 
 And beats and beats his tune again, 
 Quite happy in himself. 
 
 Poems, 2nd ed. p. 454. 
 
 It is said to be a corruption of yellow- 
 ammer, ammer in German signifying a 
 hunting. Compare A. Sax. amwa, a 
 bird-name (EttmiiUer, p. 10). 
 
 Yellows. This, when used as syno- 
 nymous with, jealousy (Wright), is per- 
 haps only a conscious and playful per- 
 version of that word. Yellow, as 
 vulgarly, and perhaps anciently, pro- 
 nounced yallow, differs but slightly 
 from the French jaloux, jealous, and y 
 often interchanges with j. Compare 
 jade and Soot, yade, 0. Eng. yawd; 
 jerk, Scot, and O. Eng. yerh; yeomen, 
 O. 'Eng. jemen (Bailey) ; yaivl etnijolly- 
 boat; yoke, Ger. joch ; young, Ger. 
 jung, &c. 
 
 But for his yellows 
 Let me but lye with you, and let him know it. 
 His jealousy is gone. 
 
 Brome's Antipodes [in jN'ares]. 
 
 Shakespeare similarly uses yelloivness 
 for jealousy : — 
 
 I will possess him with yellowness, for the 
 revolt of mien is dangerous. — Merry Wives of 
 Windsor, i. 3. 
 
 Civil as an orange, and something of that 
 jealous complexion. — Much Ado about Nothing, 
 i. 1. 
 
 Jealous would appear to have been 
 at one time pronounced as a French 
 word. Thus Sylvester asks — 
 What should I doo with such a wanton wife. 
 Which night and day would cruciate my life 
 With leloux pangs ? 
 
 Du Bartas, p. 498 (1621). 
 
 In W. Cornwall jallishy and jailer 
 are used for yellow (M. A. Courtney, 
 E.D. Soc). 
 
 Hating all schollers for his sake, till at 
 length he began to suspect, and turne a little 
 yellow, as well he might ; for it was his owne 
 fault ; and if men he jealous in such cases (as 
 oft it falls out) the mends is in their owne 
 hands. — Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, IIL 
 iii. 1, 2. 
 
YEOMAN 
 
 ( 454 ) 
 
 YEOMAN 
 
 Tlie undiscreet carriage of some lascivious 
 gallant .... may mate a breach, and by 
 his over familiai'ity, if he be inclined to yel- 
 towvess, colour him quite out. — Burton, Ana- 
 tomy of Melancholy, III. iii. 1, 2. 
 
 In earnest to as jealous piques ; 
 Which th' ancients wisely signify'd 
 By th' yellow mantuas of the bride. 
 
 Butter, Hudibms, pt. iii. canto 1. 
 
 'Mongst all colours, 
 No yellow m't, lest she suspect, as he does, 
 Her children not her husband's. 
 
 Shukespeare, The Winter^s Tale, act ii. 
 sc. iii. 1. 107. 
 
 Hence "to wear yellow breeches" 
 was an old phrase for " to be jealous.'' 
 
 If 1 were, 
 The duke (I freely must confess my weak- 
 ness, 
 I should wear yellow breeches. 
 
 Massinger, The Duke of Milan, iv. 1. 
 
 If thy wife will be so bad, 
 
 'i hat in such false coine she 'He pay thee, 
 
 Why therefore 
 
 Should'st thou deplore, 
 Or weare stockings that are yellow 1 
 
 Roxburgh Ballads, ii. 61 [Davies]. 
 
 Tboman, a free born Englishman 
 living on his own land, old Eng. yomam, 
 yenian, ieman, an able-bodied man 
 (compare "yeoman's service"), has 
 been variously regarded as a derivative 
 of Frisian gceman, a villager or country- 
 man (Wedgwood), r: GI-oth.g'aM)i,coun try 
 (old Fris. go, go, Dut. ga/w, goo, Ger. 
 gau) + mawaa, man ; as a contraction 
 of yongman, youngman ; or as another 
 form of old Eng. geman, gemen, a com- 
 moner (Verstegan, Restitution of De- 
 cayed Intelligence, 1634, p. 221), A. Sax. 
 gemcene ( = Lat. convmunis), Goth, ga- 
 mains, common. Mr. OUphant identi- 
 fies it with Scandinavian gcevma^r, an 
 able-bodied fellow [Early and Mid. 
 English, p. 417), ma^r = man. 
 
 May it not be the same word as 
 gonian, a married man, a householder 
 (Verstegan, p. 223), A. Bax. gum-mann 
 (Beowulf), a compound of guma, a 
 man ? See Gkoom. Grimm connects 
 it with A. Sax. gemama, company, fel- 
 lowship, Goth, ga-man, a feUow-man, 
 comrade, companion. Compare old 
 Eng. ymone, together, in concert. 
 
 If Verstegan's suggestion were cor- 
 rect, the word would be no compound 
 of mem, and should make its plural 
 yeomans. See Mussulmen, where it 
 
 might have been added that Tv/rcommi 
 is from Pers. tHrMmdn. 
 
 For quen he throded was to yoman, 
 He was archer wit best of an. 
 
 Cursor Uundi, 1. 3077 (14th cent.). 
 
 & 3°pli Somen jjan dede • (le Jates schette, 
 & wisttili )jan went • |» walles forto fende. 
 William ofPaleme, 1. 3650. 
 [And quickly yeomen then did the gates 
 shut, and nimbly then went the walls for to 
 defend.] 
 
 Goto to my vyne iemen Songe 
 & wyrkes & dots )jat at 3e moun. 
 
 Alliterative Poems, p. 16, 1. 536. 
 [Go to my vineyard, young yeomen, and 
 work and do what ye are able.] 
 
 Take xii of thi wyght Semen, 
 Well weppynd be thei side. 
 Robin Hood and the Monk, 1. 32 ( Child's 
 Ballads, v. 2). 
 
 Ther was neuer Soman in merry Inglond 
 1 longut so sore to see. 
 
 Id. 1. 221. 
 
 The yoman beheld them gladlie and salued 
 theym benmgnely, and they answered no- 
 thing but ranne awaie before him. — History 
 of Helyas, ch. xiii. {Thorns' Prose Rowances, 
 iii. 57). 
 
 ber is gentylmen, 3nmon-vssher also. 
 Two gromes at J-e lest, A page )jer-to. 
 Bolie of Curlasye,&b. 1430, 1. 431 
 {Babees Book, p. 313). 
 
 A yeman of jje crowne, Sargeaunt of armes 
 
 with mace, 
 A heiTowd of Armes as gret a dygnte has. 
 
 J. Russell, Boke of Nurture, 1. 1035. 
 
 He made me Somane at Sole, and gafe me gret 
 gyftes. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 2628. 
 
 Sir S. D. Scott quotes an instance of 
 yeoman being converted into yongeman, 
 youngeman : — 
 
 Any servantes, commonly called younge- 
 men [yeomen in original] or groomes. — 
 Statutes, 33 Hen. Vill. ex. s. 6. 
 
 (See History of British Army, vol. i. 
 pp. 504-507.) 
 
 In the Constitutions of King Canute 
 concerning Forests, he orders four " ex 
 mediocribus hominibus, quos Angli 
 Lcspegend [read les-]>egend, less thanes] 
 nuncupaut, Dani vero yoong mem, vo- 
 cant," to have the care of the vert and 
 venery (Spelman, Glossa/rium, 1626, 
 p. 289). 
 
 Robyn commaunded his wyght yong men. 
 Under the grene wood ti'e, 
 
TESTY 
 
 ( 455 ) 
 
 YOUNGSTEB 
 
 They shsdl lay in that same sorte ; 
 That tl]e Sheryf myghte them se. 
 Lytell Geste of Ritbyn Mode, Thyrde Futte, 
 l."208 (ed. Ritson). 
 
 [Copland's edition throughout this ballad 
 reads ;i/eom««,] 
 
 Juniores pro ingenuis quos yeomen dici- 
 mus. — Spelman, Archieoiogus, 1626, p. 397. 
 
 Yesty, in the following passage of 
 Shakespeare — 
 
 Though the yesty waves 
 
 Confound and swallow navigation up. 
 
 Macbeth J iv. 1, 54— 
 has been generally regarded as mean- 
 ing "foaming," frothing like yest or 
 yeast (A. Sax. gist, froth, spuma. Gar. 
 gascM) when it works in beer ; as else- 
 where he speaks of a ship " swallow'd 
 with yest and froth" (Winter's Tale, 
 iii. 3). It is reaUy, no doubt, the same 
 word as Prov. Eng. yeasty, gusty, 
 Btormy. 
 
 A little rain would do us good, but we 
 doant want it too oudacious yeasty. — W. D, 
 Parish, SiLsnex Glossary, p. lot. 
 
 This yeasty is the A. Sax. ystig, 
 stormy (Somner), from A. Sax. yst, a 
 storm (Ettmiiller, p. 72), which seems 
 to be akin to gust, geysir, gush, Icel. 
 gjdsa, to gush, gjdsta, a gust, Prov. 
 Swed. gasa, to blow. 
 
 And Sa wa3S mycel i/st windes geworden. 
 —A. Sux. Vers. Mark iv. 37. 
 
 [There was a great storm of wind arisen.] 
 
 Yew-log, a popular misunderstand- 
 ing of the word yule-log (Skeat, in Pea- 
 cook's Glossary of Manley, &c. ) . Wright 
 gives yew-game, a frolic, for "yuie- 
 game." 
 
 Yokel, a country bumpkin, a stupid 
 fellow, a simpleton, so spelt as if it had 
 something to do with a yolie of oxen, 
 and so meant a plough-boy, a rustic. 
 It seems reaUy to be a North country 
 word, and of Scandinavian origin. 
 Compare Banff, yochel (and yocho), a 
 stupid awkward person (Gregor), which 
 is probably the same word as Shetland 
 yuggle, an owl (Edmondston), Dan. 
 «jfe, Swed. ugla, Icel. ugla, an owl 
 (A. Sax. ule). 
 
 The owl, on account of its unspecu- 
 lative eyes and portentously solemn de- 
 meanour, has often been made a by- 
 word for stupidity. Compare goff, guff, 
 a simpleton, old Eng. gofish, stupid 
 ("Beware of gofisshe peoples spech." — 
 Chaucer, Tro. and Ores. ui. 585), Fr. 
 
 goffe, duU, sottish, It. gofo, gufo, guffo, 
 " an owle, also a simple foole or grosse- 
 pated guU, a ninnie patch."— Plorio 
 (? Pers. Mf, an owl). Also Sp. loco, 
 stupid. It. locco, a fool, alocco, (1) an 
 owl, (2) a simple gull (Plorio), from 
 Lat. ulucus, an owl. 
 
 " This wasn't done by a yokel, eh. Duff? " 
 .... "And translating thewordj/ote/ for the 
 benefit of the ladies, I apprehend your mean- 
 ing to be that this attempt was not made by 
 a countryman?" said Mr. Losberne, with a 
 smile. — Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xxxi. 
 
 Thou art not altogether the clumsy yokel 
 and the clod I took thee for. — Blackmore, 
 Lorna Doone, ch. xl. [Davies]. 
 
 YouNGSTEE, a familiar and somewhat 
 contemptitous designation of a young 
 person, so spelt from a mistaken analogy 
 with such words as tapster, punster, 
 spinster, is no doubt a corrupt form of 
 younher, ^ Ger.junker, {rom jung-herr, 
 yoTing-sir (originally a title of honour), 
 Belg. ^'oM^er, jonkheer, from jong and 
 heer. 
 
 I have met with oldster, a fictitious 
 correlative, in the Qua/rterly Review. 
 
 ^injuncherr unde ein ritter sol, 
 hie an sich ouch behiieten wol. 
 
 llwmasin, Der Welsche Gast(l*216}, in 
 M. M'uller, Ger. Classics', i. 204. 
 
 [A younker and a knight shall 
 Be careful in this too.] 
 
 Juniores, liberi domini, Jitnckheren. — Spel- 
 ■man, ArchtEologas, 1626, p. S'^7. 
 
 The King was in an advantageous Posture 
 to give Audience for there was a Parliament 
 then at Rheinsburgh, where all the Younkers 
 met. — Hoiiell, Fam. Letters, bk. i. vi. 4. 
 
 Syr, if there be any yonkers troubled with 
 idelnesse and loytryng, hauyng neither 
 leamyng, nor willyng handes to labour. — 
 W. Bulleyn, Booke of Simples, p. xxvii. 
 verso. 
 
 Now lusty younkers, look within the glass, 
 And tell me if you can discern your sires. 
 R. Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 
 1594(p. 17.'5> 
 
 A knot of yongkers tooke a nap in the 
 fields : one of them laie snorting with his 
 mouth gaping as though he would haue 
 cau"-ht flies. — Stanihurst, Desciiptirm of Ire- 
 land, p. 13 (Holinshed, vol. i. 1587). 
 
 Pagget, a school-boy, got a sword, and then 
 He vow'd destruction both to birch and men : 
 Who wo'd not think this yonker fierce to 
 fight? 
 
 Herrick, Hesperides, Poems, p. 67 
 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
YOUNGSTER 
 
 ( 456 ) 
 
 YOUTH-WOBT 
 
 This trull makes youngsters spend their pati-i- 
 
 monie 
 In sauced meates and sugred delicates. 
 Tom Tel-Troths Message, 1. 601 (1593). 
 
 The credit of the business, and the state, 
 Are things that in a youngster's sense sound 
 great. 
 Oldham, Satires, p. 223 (ed. Bell^ 
 
 YouTH-woET, a popular name for the 
 plant Drosera roinndiflora, is corrupted 
 from A. Sax. eowi, a flock, and rotian, 
 to rot, it being supposed to bane sbeep 
 (Prior). 
 
 It is called in English .... Youthtioort ; 
 in the North parts Red rot, bicause it rotteth 
 eheepe. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. 1366. 
 
A LIST OF FOREIGN WORDS CORRUPTED 
 
 BY FALSE DERIVATION OR 
 
 MISTAKEN ANALOGY. 
 
 Aal-beeke, " eel-berry,'' a German 
 name for the black-currant ( Johannis- 
 beere), is a popular corruption of alant- 
 heere, so called because its flavour re- 
 sembles that of alant or elecampane 
 [Qraam., Beutsches Worterhuch, s.t.). 
 
 A ATiRAUPE, the German name of the 
 barbot fish, as if from cud, eel, and 
 raupe, caterpillar, stands for aalruppe, 
 where the latter part of the word is 
 Mid. High Ger. ruppe, Lat. nibeta, and 
 the former probably M for adel (An- 
 dresen, Volksetymologie). 
 
 Abat-tou, the word for a lean-to or 
 penthouse in the French patois of 
 Liege, as if compounded with tou, a roof, 
 is the same word as Pr. ahatue, the 
 spring of an arch, in Wallon a pent- 
 house {SigaH, Did. du Wallon de Mans, 
 p. 55). 
 
 Abdeckee (a flayer), a popular cor- 
 ruption in German of apotheher, an 
 apothecary (Andresen). 
 
 Abendtheuee, a form of Ger. aben- 
 fettersometimesfound, as if compounded 
 of abend, evening, and theuer, dear, ex- 
 pensive. The word in both forms is 
 ' corrupted from Mid. High Ger. aven- 
 tiwe, Pr. aventure, our " adventure," 
 all derived from Mid. Lat. adveniwa, 
 for the classical eventura (Andresen). 
 
 Abeeglaube, Ger. word for supersti- 
 tion, seems to be a corruption of ueber- 
 glaube. 
 
 Abouesee, in the Wallon patois, to 
 
 form an abscess, as if from bourse, a 
 purse, a bag, is probably a corruption 
 of the Liege abose, from abces, of the 
 same meaning. 
 
 Abseite, "off-side," a German term 
 for the wing of a building. Low Ger. 
 dfdt, is formed from Mid. High Ger. 
 absite (used only of churches), which is 
 derived from Mid. Lat. absida, which 
 again is from Lat. apsis, Gk. hapsis, an 
 "apse" (Andresen). 
 
 Accipitee, the Latin name for the 
 hawk, as if from accipere, to take or 
 seize, is, according to Pott, a natura- 
 lized form in that language of Sansk. 
 agupaira, = Gk. oMpteros, " swift- 
 winged." 
 
 Compare Sansk. pairin, the falcon, 
 lit. "the winged," from patra, a wing 
 (Pictet, Origines Indo-Ewop. torn. i. 
 p. 465). 
 
 Acetum, vinegar, a name very in- 
 appositely given by Pliny {Natural 
 History, bk. si. ch. 15) to virgin honey, 
 which of itself flows from the combs 
 without pressing, is for acceton, a cor- 
 ruption of Gk. dkoiton, virgin, applied 
 also to honey. (See Porcellini, s.v.) 
 
 Another reading is acedon. 
 
 The best hony is that, which runneth of it 
 selfe as new Wine and Oile; and called it ia 
 Acednn, as a man would say, gotten without 
 care & trauell " [as if from Gk. akedes, un- 
 cared for], — Holland, Pliny, tom. i. p. 317. 
 
 AcheeSn, the Greek name of one of 
 the rivers of Hell, as if dchea reon, the 
 stream of woe, just as hokutos, another 
 infernal river, was from Mkuo, to la- 
 
ADEBMENNIG 
 
 ( 458 ) 
 
 AIGRETTE 
 
 ment, has been identified by Mr. Fox 
 Talbot with the Hebrew Acharcm, 
 western, especially appUed to the Medi- 
 terranean Sea, achor, the west, because 
 since the sun ends his career in the 
 west, the west was accounted the abode 
 of departed spirits {Transactions of the 
 Society of BibUcal Archaeology, vol. ii. 
 pt. i. p. 188). 
 
 Adeemennig, \ old German names 
 Angermennig, J for the plant agri- 
 mony, later odermennig, as if, regardless 
 of sense, compounded of mennig, cinna- 
 bar, vermUion, with ader (vein), anger 
 (a grassy place), and oder (else), aU cor- 
 ruptions of Lat. agrimonia. 
 
 Adhalteaidhb, Irish for an adulterer, 
 so spelt as if connected with adhall, sin, 
 corruption, is an evident corruption of 
 the English word. 
 
 Affodill, a German corruption of 
 Lat. and Gk. asphodelus, as if com- 
 pounded with cUlle, dni (Andresen). 
 
 Agacin, a popular French word for 
 a corn on the foot, apparently from 
 agacer, to irritate or provoke, is old Fr. 
 agassin (Cotgrave), and is really from 
 agasse, a piagpie, Prov. agassa, from 
 O. H. Ger. agalstra, a magpie, whence 
 also Ger. elster, and elster-auge (mag- 
 pie's eye), a corn (Scheler). 
 
 Agnus Oastus (Lat.), apparently 
 " chaste lamb," a name of the vitex or 
 fchaste-tree. Agnus here was originally 
 a mere transliteration of its Greek 
 name dgnos (dyvoe), which was confused 
 with the Greek adjective hagnos (ajvbe), 
 holy, chaste, and then beheved to mean 
 a safeguard of chastity. The old Ger. 
 name schaffmuU (given by Gerarde, p. 
 1202) seems to have originated in a 
 misunderstanding of the meaning of 
 agnus ; and so Ger. Keusch-lanim, 
 another name of the Keusch-haMm. 
 
 Agnus Castus is a singular medicine and 
 remedie for such as woulde willingly line 
 chaste, for it withstandeth all vnoleannes, or 
 desire to the flesh : ... for which cause it 
 was called castas, that is chaste, cleane and 
 imre.— Gerarde, Herbal, p. 1202. 
 
 The seed of Agnus Castus, if it be taken in 
 drinke, hath a certain rellish or tast of wine. 
 — Holland, Plinies Nat. Hist. ii. 187. 
 
 The Greeks, some cal it Lygos others 
 Agnos,i. chast; for that the dames of Athens, 
 during the feast of the ^oddesse Ceres, that 
 Were named Thesmophoria, made their pallets 
 
 and beds with the leaues thereof, to coole 
 the heat of lust, and to keep themselues chast 
 for the time. — Ibid. 
 
 Ageaventbe, Norm. Fr., to over- 
 whelm, is a corrupt form of a-craventer 
 (Prov. crebantar, Fr. crever, Lat. ere- 
 jjcwe), the g probably owing to some 
 confusion with aggraver, to weigh down, 
 agrever, Lat. gravis (E. Atkinson). 
 
 De peres Vagraventent. 
 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 1700. 
 [They overwhelm him with stones.] 
 
 Aguaediente, a Spanish word for 
 brandy, is often misunderstood to be 
 derived from diente, a tooth, as if it 
 meant " toothsome water," a da/inty 
 drink. Thus Mr. Ford, an acknow- 
 ledged authority on all "things of 
 Spain," speaksof a TOmforiHo, "at which 
 water, bad wine, and brandy, ' aguar- 
 diente,' tooth-water, are to be sold." — 
 Gatherings from Spain, p. 184. 
 
 The word is really compounded of 
 agua and wrdiente, and means "fire- 
 water," strong drink. Aigue-m-dentier 
 was used formerly at Geneva to denote 
 a brandy manufacturer (Littre, Supple- 
 ment). 
 
 He first drinks a glass of pure aguardiente 
 to keep the cold out. — H. J. Rose, Untrodden 
 Upain, vol. ii. p. 147. 
 
 AiGEEPiN. This French word, which 
 seems to claim affinity with aigre and 
 Hn, exhibits some curious instances of 
 corruption in its various acceptations. 
 Formerly it denoted a certain money 
 current in France ; here it is the Portg. 
 xarafvm, an East Indian coin. Low Lat. 
 seraphi, from Arab. Pers. ash/raff, a 
 golden coin, derived apparently from 
 ashrof, very illustrious. Aigrefm, a 
 sharper, maybe derived ironically from 
 the same word (Devic), but Littre ex- 
 plains it as having been originally aigre 
 faim ; Scheler as angle Jin, comparing 
 the form eglefm. Again, aigrefm, a 
 species of fish, also called aAglefim., is 
 O. Fr. esclefin (14th century), which is 
 explained by scelfish, and this may be 
 partially the origin (Scheler). 
 
 AiGEEMOiNE, a Fr. plant name, ap- 
 parently compounded of aigre and 
 nioine, is corrupted from Lat. agrimoma, 
 Greek agrimone. 
 
 Aigrette (Fr.), a heron, an assimi- 
 lation to aigre, adgret, &c. (from Lat. 
 
AIGTJE-MABINE ( 459 ) 
 
 ANBOUILLEB 
 
 acer), of 0. H. Ger. heigir, heigro, whence 
 also through old Fr. hairon (It. ag- 
 Mrone) our " heron." 
 
 AiGUE-MAKiNB, the French word for 
 a beryl. The first part has no con- 
 nexion with aigu, as if to intimate its 
 sharp-cut brUhance, but is the old word 
 for water, aigiie, from Lat. aqua, and so 
 the aqua mamma. Compare aiguayer, 
 to water, and adgvdere, a ewer or water- 
 
 AiMANT (Fr.), the loadstone or mag- 
 net, old Fr. aimani (Sp. iman), seems 
 to have been mentally associated with 
 avnvmt, a lover, aimer, to love, as if the 
 Latin adamas, adamantis, whence it is 
 derived, was akin to adamans, ada- 
 mantis, loving (from ad-amare), with 
 allusion to its never-faihng constancy 
 to the North, and attractive influence 
 upon iron. See Aymont, p. 16. 
 Loue plai'd a victors pai't : 
 The heau'n-loue load-stone drew thy yron 
 hai-t. 
 Sir P. Sydney, Arcadia, 1629, p. 87. 
 
 AiE (Fr.), mien, deportment, is from 
 old Fr. aire, race, originally nest (from 
 which one was sprung), Lat. area. See 
 Air, p. 5. 
 
 ArBB, in the Wallon patois " su Vaire 
 du soir," towards evening, is properly 
 the edge of the evening, Lat. ora 
 (Sigart). 
 
 AiTHEiON [to cuBpiov), in Josephus, is 
 a Grecized form of Lat. atrium, the 
 great hall of a Boman house, as if from 
 aHhrios, open to the sky, a derivative 
 ot aither, aether. 
 
 Ajo y cbbollas 1 a whimsical Spanish 
 oath, " GarUo and onions ! ' ' Ajo (garlic ) 
 was originaUy the last and accentuated 
 syllable of carajo ! (a phallic abjuration 
 of the evil eye), and to this cebollas has 
 been added for the sake of a pun. — 
 Ford, Gatherings from Spain, p. 66. 
 
 Alauda, a lark, supposed in me- 
 diaeval times to have derived its naroe 
 from its singing lauds, "A laude diei 
 nomen sortita est " (Neckam, Be Na- 
 turis Berumi, cap. liviii.), is a Latinized 
 form of a GaUic word. Compare Bret. 
 alc'houeder (? Welsh alaw + ada/r, 
 music-bird). 
 
 Albnois (Fr.), the garden cress, as 
 if from alene, an awl, a pointed leaif, is 
 a corruption of orUmis (Littre). 
 
 Alligator (Fr.), a Latinization of 
 Sp. el lagarto, the great lizard (Lat. 
 lacertus). Compare old GeT.allegoD-den 
 (1549). 
 
 Alme, Norm. Fr., the soul, Sp. and 
 Pg. alma, are corruptions of anme, 
 anma, Lat. anima, no doubt under the 
 influence of Lat. alma, almus, hfe- 
 giving [alere, to nourish). — Atkinson. 
 h'aime tuz jurs viit santz mortalite. 
 
 Fie de St. Auban, 1.360. 
 Alma in verse, in prose the mind, 
 By Aristotle's pen defined. 
 
 Prior, Alimi, canto i. 
 
 Almidon (Sp.), starch, is an assimi- 
 lation to the many other words in that 
 language beginning with al (Arab, al, 
 the article "the") of Lat. amvylum, 
 whence also It. amido, Fr. armdon. 
 
 Alouette de la gorge (Fr.), as if 
 " lark of the throat," i.e. " the flap that 
 covers the top of the windpipe " (Cot- 
 grave), is evidently a corruption of 
 l/uette, the uvula, for uvulette, a dimin. 
 oi uvula (It. uvola, ugola), itself a dimin. 
 of Lat. uva, a grape (with allusion to its 
 grape-Hke form). So Languedoc ni- 
 voideto, 
 
 Alteeer (Fr.), to make thirsty, is 
 an assimilation to altei'er, to change, 
 impair, mar, trouble, of an older form 
 arlerier. Low Lat. arteriare. (See 
 Scheler.) 
 
 Anchovis, the Dutch form of anchovy, 
 the last syllable being an evident assi- 
 milation to visah, pronounced vis, 
 " fish," as if it meant the ancho-fish. 
 
 Compare cray-fish (Dr. A. V. W. 
 Bikkers). 
 
 Ancolie (Fr.), a plant name, is an 
 assimilation to melancoUe, &c., of old 
 Fr. anquelie, a corruption of Lat. agui- 
 legia, the "water collector" (so. in its 
 urn-shaped petals) ; Swed. akleja. 
 
 Hence also Ger. aglei through 0. H. 
 Ger. agaleia. 
 
 Andouillek, and endovAller, Fr. 
 names for the lowest branch of a deer's 
 head (Cotgrave), so spelt as if con- 
 nected with andouille, endouille, a 
 sausage or pudding, is a corrupt form for 
 antouiller (Eng. a/ntleir), from a Low 
 Lat. antoculairium, ante-ocularis, i.e. the 
 brow tine which lies above the eyes. 
 Compare Portg. antol-hos, spectacles, 
 Sp. antojos, from ante oculum, "fore- 
 
ANSIMA 
 
 ( 460 ) 
 
 ABMBBU8T 
 
 the-eyes." The word has aeoordingly 
 no connexion with 0. H. Ger. andi, the 
 forehead, though that word is akin to 
 Lat. a/nte. 
 
 Ansima, an Ital. word for asthma, 
 and ansimare, ansa/re, to pant, so spelt 
 as if derived from ansio, ansioso, dis- 
 tressed, anxious, Lat. cmxius, are cor- 
 ruptions of asima, asma, from Greek 
 asthma, wheezing, shortness of breath. 
 
 Antimoine, the French word for anti- 
 mony, It. antimonio (q. d. anti-moine, 
 "anti-monk "), perhaps owes its present 
 form to a belief in the story that one 
 Valentine, a German monk, adminis- 
 tered the drug to his fellows with the 
 intent of fattening them, but with the 
 result of kiUing them all off. It is 
 more likely, however, that the story 
 was invented to explain the name. It 
 is told in the Melanges d'Histoire et de 
 Inttcratwe of Noel d'Argonne (d. 1705). 
 
 Mahn thinks that the word may 
 have been corrupted from alithmidum, 
 al being the article in Arabic, and 
 ifhmid, the black oxide of antimony 
 (borrowed from Greek stim-mi). So 
 Littre and Devic. 
 
 Apiastee, the name of a bird that 
 eats bees (Lat. apis), the bee-eater (Lat. 
 apiastra), seems to be compounded with 
 the depreciatory suffix -aster (asinjjoei- 
 astcr), in which case it ought to mean 
 something hke a miserable bee I 
 
 The latter part of the word seems to 
 stand for a lost Latin ester or estor 
 {=z esor), an eater, implied by esirix, a 
 female eater (in Plautus), from edere, 
 to eat. 
 
 Apothekbe, leech or apothecary, an 
 old popular name in Germany given to 
 the fourteen saints (Nothhelfer) who 
 protected the people from disease, as if 
 "healers," is probably a corruption of 
 ApotropcBi, " averters," who turn away 
 misfortune (Lat. averrv/nci). — Hecker, 
 Bpidemics of the Mid. Ages, p. 86 
 (Sydenham Soc). 
 
 ApStees (Fr.), " apostles," a marine 
 term for the two pieces of wood applied 
 to the sides of the stem of a ship (Ad- 
 ditions to Littr^, p. 357), is evidently a 
 corruption of apostis, of the same mean- 
 ing (in Gattel), from aposter, to appost, 
 place or station, from Low Lat. apposi- 
 iare (der. oi apponere). 
 
 Appelkosen, a popular corruption in 
 Saxony of apnkosen, apricots (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 Appieyon, a late Hebrew word for 
 homage, a testimony of favour (in ca- 
 nonical Hebrew, a bed of state. Song of 
 Songs, iii. 9), is a corrupted form of the 
 old Pers. afrina or afrivana (from fri, 
 to love), which signifies benediction, 
 blessing (DeHtzsoh, in loc. oii.). 
 
 Aechitectuea, \ Latinized forms 
 
 Aechitbctus, /from the Greek 
 
 architeMon, as if connected with tectwra, 
 
 a covering, tectum, a roof or house, 
 
 tector, a plasterer. 
 
 Aechivo, \ (Sp.), from Lat. arcfeiuMm, 
 Abohibo, J Gk. wrcheion, a public 
 building, were curiously misunderstood 
 sometimes ; e. g. Minsheu defines these 
 words to mean " The Arches," " The 
 Arches court, a treasurie of euidenoes " 
 (8p. Diet. 1623). Cotgrave explains Fr. 
 Archifs as records, &o., "kept in chests 
 and boxes," seemingly with reference 
 to arche, a coffer or chest (Lat. offca). 
 
 Aedhi-chatjki, \ Arabic names for 
 
 Aedohauka, /the artichoke, 
 meaning the " earthy-thorny " plant, 
 or " earth-thom," are merely natura- 
 lized forms in that language of It. arU- 
 ciocco (Dozy, Devic). 
 
 Aeestation, a name given to a " sta- 
 tion" on the railway in some viUages of 
 Hainaut, as if the word meant the 
 place where the train is arrested in its 
 course, s'arrete (Sigart). 
 
 Aegousin (Fr.), an overseer of galley 
 slaves, as if connected with L. Lat. 
 argis, a ship, an " argosie," is a cor- 
 ruption of the Sp. alguadl, It. aguzzino, 
 Pg. alguazil, Arab, al-vazir. 
 
 Aeguee, a Fr. technical term, to 
 draw gold or silver into wire, has no 
 connexion with the ordinary verb a/r- 
 guer, but is derived from argue, a 
 machine (esp. a wiredrawer's one), 
 another usage of orgue, from Low Lat. 
 argdnum or orgarvum, a machine or in- 
 striunent. Of the same origin seems 
 to be Fr. arganeau ororganeau, a metal 
 ring. 
 
 Aembedst (Dutch airmhrost), a Ger- 
 man word for a cross-bow, as if from 
 a/rm and hrust, the breast, is a corrup- 
 tion of Mid. Lat. arhaUsta, araubalUsta, 
 
ABMET 
 
 ( 461 ) 
 
 A WGE YU 
 
 from arcus, a bow, and halUsta, a ma- 
 cliinefor casting (Gk. hdllein, to throw). 
 Cf. Fr. arhalitc (Diefenbaoh, i. 72). 
 
 Akmet, a French word for a helmet 
 or headpiece, so spelt as if from arme, 
 "armour for the head," is a corrupt 
 form of almet, Sp. alniete, for elmete, 
 old Fr. healmet, " helmet," a diminu- 
 tive of healme, holme, a helm (Diez, 
 Scheler). Compare Fr. almoire and 
 aivwire; Languedoc arme, the soul (Cot- 
 grave), It. alma. The origin is Goth. 
 hihns, a helmet, Icel. hjdlim: 
 
 Arquemie (old Fr.), and Mod. Greek 
 wrohemw, alchemy, are corruptions of 
 alAmie, It. aloMmia, Sp. and Portg. 
 alquimia (from Arab. al-Jcimld, i.e. al 
 (article) -f xrtiida}, so spelt, perhaps, 
 from a notion that it meant the arch 
 or chief science. Compare Archimas- 
 TKYE, p. 10. 
 
 Cbascun veult souffler Varquemye. 
 Recueil de Farces, 15th cent. p. 444 
 (ed. Jacob). 
 
 Aebibre-ban, a French word for " a 
 proclamation, whereby those that hold 
 of the king by a mesne tenure, are 
 summoned to assemble, and serve him 
 in his warres." — Cotgrave. It is a cor- 
 ruption of 0. Fr. arian, mUitary ser- 
 vice, Ger. hariban. Low Lat. arihannum, 
 hairibcmnum, herebannum, an army- 
 edict (indietio eiVercHus), from here, 
 army, and bannum, an edict. See Spel- 
 man, Glossarium, s.v. Serebannum. 
 
 Aerieeo (Sp.), a muleteer, which at 
 first sight suggests a connexion with 
 Fr. arriere, Prov. a/reire, he that walks 
 in the rear (Lat. ad retro) of his beast 
 to urge it forward, is really from arrear, 
 to drive mules, from the common cry 
 to his beasts, cwre .' arre ! (Tylor, Frim. 
 Gultme, i. 173). 
 
 The muleteer of Spain is justly renowned ; 
 liis generic name is arriero, a gee-uper, for 
 his urre arre is pure Arabic, as indeed are 
 almost all the terms connected with his craft, 
 as the Moriscoes were long the great carriers 
 of>])ain. — Ford, Gatherings from Spain, p. 74. 
 
 \\ henever a particularly bad bit of road 
 occurs, notice is given to the team by calling 
 over their names, and by crying out " arre, 
 arre," gee-up. — Id. p. 64. 
 
 AsoHLAUCH, " pot-leek," as if from 
 asch, a pot, a German name for the 
 shallot, also sometimes spelt esslauch 
 (as if edible leek), is a corruption of 
 
 ascalonicum', i.e. 'the plant from Ascalon. 
 Hence also our "scalUon." 
 
 A6asis, Strabo's attempt to give a 
 Greek appearance to the foreign word 
 oasis (Arab, tvah), as if from the verb 
 aijo, to be dry and hot. 
 
 Attgenbraunb, "eye-brown," a Ger- 
 man word sometimes found for the 
 eye-brow. The proper form is augen- 
 hraue, augbraue, Mid. High Ger. oucpra 
 [brawe, bra, brow, :=:ophrus). — Andre- 
 sen. 
 
 AuQEN-LiED, German word for an 
 eye-lid, of which it seems to be a cor- 
 ruption, as if from lied, a song. 
 
 AuEiCALCo (Span.), It. oricalco, Lat. 
 aurichalcum, an assimilation to awum, 
 gold, of Greek oreichalhos, " mountaia 
 copper." 
 
 "AuEraA [It.], as Frma because it is 
 yellow." — Florio. Similarly old Fr. 
 orine is due to an imagined connexion 
 with or. 
 
 Et mon onne 
 Vous dit-elle point que je meure? 
 Maistre Pierre Patfielin, Uecueil de Farces, 
 15th cent. p. 60 (ed. Jacob). 
 
 AuEDNB, the French name of the 
 plant Artemisia abrotoniim, is formed 
 from the Lat. abrofonum, and has no 
 connexion with aurum. Compare the 
 Eng. form averoyne. 
 
 AuTHEUE, \ old Fr. spelKngs, e.g. 
 
 AuTHOKiTE, j in Babelais, of autew 
 {aucteur), due to a supposed connexion 
 with authentique, Greek authentes. 
 
 AuvENT (Fr.), a penthouse of cloth, 
 &c., before a shop window (Cotgrave), 
 Prov. anvan, so spelt as if something 
 extended to the wind {an vent), or as a 
 shelter against the wind {ante venfum). 
 Low Lat. OMVannus, auventus, may be 
 (Prof. Skeat thinks) of Oriental origin, 
 cf. Pers. dwan, dwang, anything sus- 
 pended, Eng. a/uming. Old Fr. forms, 
 and further corruptions, are ostvent, 
 ostevent (Scheler). 
 
 AvANT (French), "The time of Ad- 
 vent ; which is about a month before 
 Christmas." — Cotgrave. As if the fore- 
 season, from avani, before. 
 
 AwGEYM, a Welsh word meaning a 
 sign, when used for the old cryptic cha- 
 racter called an Ogham is no doubt a 
 
BAGALAO 
 
 ( 462 ) 
 
 BA UTA-STEINN 
 
 corruption of that word. There is a 
 "Welsh tradition that in the time of 
 Beli the Great there were only 16 
 ' awgryms.' " — I. Taylor, Qreeks and 
 Ooths, p. 121. 
 
 Welsh awgrym would seem to have 
 been borrowed from old Eng. awgrym 
 (Prompt. Parv.), cyphering, calculation 
 with the Arabic numerals, "His augrim 
 stones layen faire apart " (Chaucer, 
 The Milleres Tale) ; Fr. algorisme, L. 
 Lat. algarismus. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacalao (Span.), Portg. hacalhao, 
 dried cod-fish, "poor jack," hng, so 
 spelt as if from Sp. haculo, Lat. hacu- 
 him, a stick, because when drying it is 
 kept open and extended by a small 
 stick. So Ger. hakeljau, a cod-fish, 
 seems to be connected with hakel, a 
 stick (Pr. cabeUau, cahillaud). 
 
 All these, however, as well as Dutch 
 Tcabeljaauw, hahheljauw (Sewel), seem 
 to be corrupted from Basque lacalaiba, 
 the cod. 
 
 Baccalaureus, a corruption of the 
 Low Lat. haccata/reus, a bachelor, in 
 order to suggest a connexion with the 
 laurel berries (hacea lav/rea) with which 
 the graduating student was (?) endued. 
 The origin of iaccala/reus is doubtful. 
 
 Andresen suggests vaccalareus as the 
 possible original. See Baccalaueeatb, 
 p. 17. 
 
 La reception des medecins dans i'^cole de 
 Montpellier ^tait accompagn^e de ceremonies 
 particulieres. . . . On ne pouvait se presen- 
 ter a I'epreuve du baccaUiureat qu'apres trois 
 ann^es d'etudes. Le candidal qui la subis- 
 sait d'une maniere satisfaisante, recevait des 
 juges une des baies (haccae) du laurier re- 
 serve k la couronne doctorale (c'est de la, 
 selon quelques ecrivains, que vient bacca- 
 laureat). — Chiruel, Dictionnaire des Institu- 
 tions, p. 761. 
 
 Bachbohne, "Brook-bean," a Ger- 
 man name for the plant brook-lime, is 
 a corrupted form of iacMmnge, the ve- 
 ronica becoabunga. 
 
 Baldbian (Ger.), the plant valerian, 
 of which word it is a corruption. 
 
 Baldrsskinn, i.e. Balder's shin, an 
 Icelandic word for a baldaquin or ca- 
 nopy, is a corrupted form of baldshin 
 
 or baldahin, stuff made at Baldah, Le. 
 Bagdad. 
 
 At this day 'tis called Valdac, or Baldach. 
 — Sir Thomas Herbert, Travels, p. 242 (1665). 
 See Bodkin, p. 33. 
 
 Babbastrello, an Italian name for 
 the bat or reare-mouse (Florio), is a 
 corruption of the Latin vespertiUo. See 
 Spoetiglione. 
 
 Baroccio, 7 Ital. word for a two- 
 
 BiRocoio, j wheeled vehicle, is an 
 
 assimilation to ca/rroccio, of Lat. U- 
 
 rotwm, two-wheeled, whence old Fr. 
 
 bairot, Fr. hrouette (for Mrouette). 
 
 Batengel, ) a German word for 
 Bathbngel, y the plant germander, 
 formerly explained by the Greek batMs 
 angelos (deep angel !), is corrupted from 
 beton/ieulus, a dim. of letonica (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 Battifeedo (It.), a tower or shed 
 used in war, as if from battere, to beat, 
 a machine for assault and offence, was 
 formerly spelt bettifredo, and is the 
 Low Latin bertefredum, M. H. Ger. 
 bercvrit, O. Fr. herfroi, a tower of de- 
 fence or security, from hergan, to pro- 
 tect, and frid, a tower. See Belfry, 
 p. 27. 
 
 Bauchgeimmen, a German term for 
 the gripes or colic in the stomach, as 
 if denoting jfierce (grimrmg) pain, has 
 not, as might be supposed, any con- 
 nexion with grimmen, to rage, but, ac- 
 cording to Andresen, is properly &om 
 Terimmen (or grimmen), to clutch or 
 grip. 
 
 Baum-wolle, the German word for 
 cotton. Low Ger. bav/m-bast, as if 
 "tree-wool" procured from the bast 
 or inner bark of a tree, Dut. boom- 
 basyn, boom-wolle, loom-sye, "tree- 
 wool " or " tree-silk " (KUian), are aU 
 corruptions of Lat. bombycinum, bom- 
 byx, cotton, originally silk, the product 
 of the bombyx, or silkworm. It. bonibi- 
 dna, Fr. bombasine, old Eng. bombast, 
 cotton (Wedgwood). 
 
 Bauta-steinn, \ an Icelandic word 
 Bautaesteinn, / for stone monu- 
 ments in memory of the dead, which 
 used to be erected along the high roads, 
 as in ancient Bome, so called as if to 
 denote "stones of the slain," from 
 boMta, to slay. The word is most pro- 
 
BEAN SHITE 
 
 ( 463 ) 
 
 BEENSTEIN 
 
 bably only a corruption from hrauiar- 
 stmnar,i.e. " road-stones" (by dropping 
 ther) ; compare the analogous Swedish 
 word hrautarhuml, road monument 
 (Cleasby and Vigfusson, s.v.). 
 
 Bean shith, " woman of peace," the 
 Gaelic expression for a fairy (vid. Camp- 
 bell's Topular Tales of the Western 
 EigUands, vol. ii. pp. 42-5), as if from 
 sUth, Ir. siodh, peace. It is properly 
 the same word as Ir. hean-sidhe, woman 
 of the fairy mansions or Mils (sidh), 
 within which the fairies were believed 
 to dwell. 
 
 " Fantastical spirits are by the Irish 
 called men of the sidh, because they 
 are seen as it were to come out of 
 beautiful Mils, to infest men ; and 
 hence the vulgar belief that they reside 
 in certain subterraneous habitations 
 within these hUls; and these habita- 
 tions, and sometimes the hills them- 
 selves are caEed by the Irish sidhe or 
 dodha" (Colgan). So O'Plaherty's 
 Ogygia, p. 200. With sidh or sigh, a 
 hfll, compare Sansk. siMia, a hill. Simi- 
 larly certain supernatural beings are 
 called by the Chinese " hUl-men " 
 (Eidd, China, p. 288). Sidh, pro- 
 nounced shee, was transferred, like our 
 word faerie, from their habitation to 
 the fairies themselves (vide Joyce, Irish 
 Names of Places, 1st S. pp. 172-179; 
 OU Irish Folk Lore, pp. 32-37, 64, 75, 
 79 ; C. Croker, Killarney Legends, pp. 
 72, 126). Dr. O'Donovan thinks that 
 the more probable origin of the word 
 is sidhe, a blast of wind, which (hke 
 Lat. spiritus, Gk. pnevm^a) may figura- 
 tively signify an aerial or spiritual 
 being (O'Eeilly, Ir. Did. p. 699). Cf. 
 sigh, a fairy, and sighe, a blast (? Eng. 
 " sigh "). M. Pictet compares the words 
 siddhas, beneficent spirits of the Indian 
 mythology supposed to dwell in the 
 Milky Way, si<M^a, a magician, siddM, 
 magic (Origines Indo-Ewop. tom. ii. 
 p. 639). 
 
 Beaupee, a French corruption of 
 Dut. hoegspdet, Eng. bowsprit, Get. log- 
 spriet. 
 
 BEHfeMoTH (Heh., Job xl. 15), appa- 
 rently the plural of hehenidh, a beast, is 
 really a Hebraized 'form of the Egyp- 
 tian p-ehe-num, i.e. " The-ox-(of the)- 
 water," the river-horse or hippopota- 
 
 mus. It. hmnarino (Delitzseh, Commen- 
 tary on Job, vol. ii. p. 357) ; otherwise 
 spelt p-ehe-mout (Additions to LittrL 
 p. 358). 
 
 Beipusz," By-foot," a German name 
 for the plant mugwort (artemisia vul- 
 garis). Low Ger. bifoi, so called appa- 
 rently with reference to the idea that a 
 person carrying this about him wOI 
 not become weary, is corrupted from 
 Mid. High Ger. bibon, from bozen, to 
 pound, it being pounded for use (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Beinn, 1 Icelandic words for 
 Bein-viSi, J ebony, which, as if pro- 
 perly e-bone-y, has been brought into 
 connexion with bein, a bone (Ger. bein, 
 Swed. and Dan. ben). Ebon^i, Lat. and 
 Gk. ebenus, is really the stone wood, 
 Heb. eben, stone. 
 
 Bbispiel, in German an example, as 
 if fi:om spisl, a game, is from the Mid. 
 High Ger. and Low Ger. bispel, as if 
 a by-speech or by-word, 0. H. Ger. 
 piwort (Andresen). 
 
 The word hirchspiel, or parish, has 
 similarly nothing whatever to do with 
 spiel. The dialectic form kirspel (Low 
 Ger. haspel) shows the ground-word 
 more plainly, so. spel. Of. Eng. Gospel. 
 
 Beisze, \ German provinciaLcor- 
 
 Bbiszkohl, / ruptions (as iffrom heis- 
 
 zen, to bite) of the word Biesze, itself a 
 
 dialectic form for Beete (Low Ger. bete, 
 
 Dutch biet, Lat. beta), the beetroot. 
 
 Bellioone (It.), a loving cup (Hung. 
 billikom), is a disguised form, by assi- 
 milation to bello, bellieo, &c., of old Fr. 
 vilcom, used in the same sense, which is 
 from A. Sax. wil-cume, greeting, wel- 
 come (Diez). See Videeoome. 
 
 Benjamins, a WaUon corruption of 
 balsamine, also known as beljamine 
 (Sigart). 
 
 Beegfriede, a German corruption 
 of Mid. Lat. berfredus, a war turret 
 (Mid. High Ger. bercvrii), as if with 
 thought of berg (mountain), or from 
 bergen, to save, or guard, and friede, 
 peace (Andresen). 
 
 Berlongbe, a Wallon du Mons cor- 
 ruption of Fr. balancer (Sigart). 
 
 Bernstein (Ger.), amber, as if " the 
 stone that bums " (like Eng. hrim-stone 
 
BIBEBNELLE 
 
 ( 464 ) 
 
 BOOM-WOLLE 
 
 for hren-stone), is said to be a corrup-- 
 tion of Gk. lernice, leronice, amber 
 (G. Ebers, Egypt, Eng. trans., p. 14, 
 ed. Birch ; and so Sbarpe, The Triple 
 Mummy Oase of Aroeri-ao, p. 5) ; but 
 this is very improbable. Prom hernice 
 come Mod. Gk. herniki, varnish (orig. 
 made of amber), Sp. herniz, Welsh ler- 
 nais, and perhaps Fr. vermis, " var- 
 nish." 
 
 BiBBENELLB, the German name of 
 the plant pimpernel, as if from Kbe/r, a 
 beaver, also spelt pimpinelle, Mid. High 
 Ger. bihenelle, Dutch hevernel, aU from 
 Low Lat. pimpinella, which is perhaps 
 from iipenwixla. 
 
 BiBLETTB (Wallon), a trifle, is a cor- 
 ruption of Bldette, which see. 
 
 BiEBBRKLBB, " Beaver-clover," aGer- 
 man name for the marsh trefoil or bog- 
 bean, seems to hav% been originally 
 Fieberhlee, "Fever-clover," it being es- 
 teemed useful in eases of that malady 
 (cf. Mid High Ger. liever for vieber, 
 fever). Similarly Bieherhraut, Fever- 
 few, and Bieherwwz are for Fieher- 
 hraut, Fieherwurz (Andresen). 
 
 BiENENKOBB, German word for a bee- 
 hive, as if compounded with Ticyrb, a 
 basket, for Bienkorh, Mid. High Ger. 
 hinekorp, may be from O. H. Ger. Mne- 
 Icar, Tear being a vessel. Compare Prov. 
 Ger. leichJcorh, a coffin, Mid. High Ger. 
 lichha/r (Andresen). 
 
 BiLWG, the Welsh word for a hill- 
 Tiooh, is evidently only the EngUsh 
 word borrowed and disfigured into a 
 Cambrian shape. 
 
 BisoHOLB, a Mid. High Ger. form of 
 hischof, a bishop, which has been assi- 
 milated to the common termination 
 -o//in Rudolf, &c. (Andresen). 
 
 BiszscHAP, "Bite-sheep,"in old Ger- 
 man writings a satirical perversion of 
 hischof, bishop (Andresen). 
 
 Blan-cod, " white-tail," a Liege word 
 for a flatterer, seems to be a corruption 
 of Wallon hlan-do, of the same mean- 
 ing (Sigart), which is from Lat. hlan- 
 dus. 
 
 Blankschbit, a German term for the 
 busk or support of a bodice, as if from 
 blank, white, and scheit, a lath, is a 
 corruption of Fr. planchette, a little 
 plank (Andresen), 
 
 Bluetts (Fr.), a little spark, as if a 
 blue particle (like bluei, the blue corn- 
 flower), is a corruption of belluette or 
 bellugette, diminutive of old Fr. lei- 
 lugue (Prov. beluga), a spark, oom- 
 founded of bes, bis (a pejorative par- 
 ticle), and Lat. lucem, light, and so 
 meaning a feeble light. Hence also 
 Fr. herlue. Compare It. ba/rlv/me, bad 
 light, Sp. vislumbre (Scheler). 
 
 Bltjmeeant, Low Ger. oiomerant, a 
 corruption of Fr. bleu mourant (faint 
 blue), as if from blumie (Andresen). 
 
 BocK-BiER, a popular German name 
 for a kind of beer, as if from hock, a 
 buck, which indeed forms its trade- 
 mark. It seems that the Hanoverian 
 town Eimbeck was formerly famous 
 for the strong beer brewed there ; this 
 name was corrupted into Aimbock, and 
 eventually into ein bock. Compare Fr. 
 un boo, a glass of beer (Andresen). 
 
 BoiT DEL geaissb, in the curious 
 popular phrase used in the Wallon du 
 Mons patois, " es coeur boiidel graisse," 
 " his hearf is drinking grease I " is a 
 corruption oi{son cceur) bat d'alUgresse, 
 his heart beats with vivacity (Sigart). 
 
 BoN Chebtien, the name of a well- 
 known pear (Ger. Ghristbirne), is said 
 to be a corruption of pandi/reste (so. 
 thoroughly good), Gk. Trdyxpritrroe (An- 
 dresen, Volkseiymologie, p. 20, and so 
 Scheler). 
 
 BoNHEUK (malhbde) for ban eiir 
 {:= bonum auguriitm), the h interpo- 
 lated, as if it meant bom in a good, or 
 evil, hmw (hem-), under a favourable 
 horoscope. See Hedeeux. 
 
 Ki sert Deu e fait la siie volunte 
 E murt en sun servise, a hon nre fa n^. 
 Vie de Schit Auban, 1. 351 (ed. 
 Atkinson). 
 [Who serves God and does His will and 
 dies in His service wa.s born to good fortune.] 
 
 " Bonus, a wood which is jet black,, 
 and of which chessmen and pen-cases 
 are made" (M. Polo, ii. p. 213, ed. 
 Yule), i.e. the Persian abnus, Sp. 
 abenuz, ebony. 
 
 Boom-wolle, a German word for 
 cotton. When Mid. Latin bambaciwm, 
 It. bambagio, Fr. bombasin (Eng. bom- 
 bast), as a name for cotton " passed 
 into the languages of Northern Europe, 
 
BOSSEMAN 
 
 ( 465 ) 
 
 BBIMB0BI0N8 
 
 the tendency to give meaning to the 
 elements of a word introduced from 
 abroad, whioli has given rise to so 
 many false etymologies, produced the 
 Low. Ger. haiim-bast, Ger. bmim-wolle, 
 as if made from the bast or inner bark 
 of a tree ; and KiUan explains it hoom- 
 basyn, hoom-wolk, gossipium, lana lig- 
 nea, sive de arbore ; vulgo bomiasium, 
 q. d. loom-sye, i. e. sericum arboreum, 
 from hoom, tree, and sijde, sije, silk " 
 (Wedgwood). 
 
 BossEMAN (Fr.), a seaman, as if one 
 who had something to do with basse, a 
 sea-term for a rope's-end, and bossoir, 
 the cat-head, is a corruption of Dut. 
 lootiman, a boat's-man (Ger. boots- 
 Tiiann). Cf. Eng. bo's'n for boat's-siuain. 
 
 BoncANCOUQUB, a Wallon du Mons 
 word for a cake, apparently from bou- 
 cmer, to dry in the smoke, and covque, 
 a cake (Plem. hoek), is a corruption of 
 Flem. ioefctoei<fcoeft,"buck-wheat-cake" 
 (Sigart). See Buckwheat, p. 42. 
 
 BouLDUO, in the Wallon patois a 
 thick-set person, a very strong child, as 
 if from Fr. fcowfer, to swell out (cf. bou- 
 lenx, a thick-set horse), is a corruption 
 of Fr. boule-dogue, which is a natu- 
 ralized form in French of Eng. bull- 
 dog. 
 
 BouLEVAED (Fr.), a rampart, for- 
 merly spelt boiilevart and boulevert 
 (whence Voltaire thought it was de- 
 rived from boule and vert), is derived 
 from Ger. bollwerh (Eng. bulwarh), a 
 wiyrh constructed of boles or tree- 
 trmiks. So bivouac is from Ger. bei- 
 wacht. 
 
 BouQTTEEANT (old Fr.), buckram, 
 Prov. bogueran, boewran, are assimila- 
 tions to bougue, bouc, hoc, a buck, of It. 
 hieherame, apparently from bucherare, 
 to pierce with holes, and so an open- 
 work tissue. 
 
 BouQUETTE (Wallon du Mons), buck- 
 wheat, is a corruption of Flem. boeh- 
 weyt, "buck-wheat," Ger. buoh-weizen 
 (Sigart). 
 
 BouQUiN, a French word for an old 
 book (bouquineo; to hunt after old 
 books), is Dut. boehhin, Eng. "book," 
 Flem. boeh, Ger. buch, assimilated to 
 bouquin, a buck. 
 
 BouTTjEON, the Greek word for but- 
 
 ter, seemingly derived from the native 
 words bous, a cow, and turds, cheese, 
 was originally a Scythian word. 
 
 Cf. O. H. Ger. chuosmero (huhscJi/mer). 
 
 Beaine (Wallon du Mons), a barren 
 woman, as if akin to brain, filth, use- 
 less rubbish (Fr. bran), is a corruption 
 of Fr. brehaigne, Bret, bralien, a barren 
 woman. See Babrbn, p. 23. 
 
 Beatsche, ) German names for the 
 Peatschbl, J tenor violin, are cor- 
 ruptions of the latter part of the Italian 
 name viola di bracoio, i. e. arm-violin, 
 opposed to the viola dA gamba. 
 
 Bbbtwalda, the old Enghsh name 
 for the supreme ruler or wielder of 
 Britain, is most probably a false render- 
 ing of the form Brytenwealda, which is 
 alsofound, meaning thewide ruler, from 
 bryten, wide (cf. brytenayning, Gk. euru- 
 hreion, "wide ruling '). — Kemble ; and 
 Freeman, Norman Conquest, vol. i. p. 
 543. 
 
 Bkimboeions (Fr.), nonsense, trifles, 
 useless things, baubles, apparently akin 
 to brimbeur, a paltry pedlar, old Fr. 
 brimbe (n bribe), a morsel of bread, or 
 h-imbaler, to swing or jangle beUs, O. 
 Fr. brimhales, little bells worn by horses 
 ( of. brimiborions, bawbles of a fool's cap. 
 — Cotgrave), brimhelette, a trifle (Rabe- 
 lais), is really an altered form of old 
 Fr. briborions or breborions, supersti- 
 tious vanities, old women's charms, 
 mumbled prayers, which words are 
 corruptions of breviariwm, the Eomish 
 breviary used as a by-word for supersti- 
 tious and legendary matter. (SoLittr^ 
 and Pasquier.) Compare the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 II dit ses brimborions ; (for Breviaire), He 
 saies over his whole Psalter ; or he mumbles 
 to himself his fond and superstitious devo- 
 tions. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Briborions, prayers mumbled up. — Id. 
 
 Breborions, old dunsicall bookes ; also, the 
 foolish Chai-mes, or superstitious prayers, 
 used by old, and simple women, against the 
 tooth-ache, &c., any such thread bare, and 
 musty, rags of blinde devotion. — Id. 
 
 C'est matiere de breviaire, Tis holy stuffe I 
 tell you ; ironically. — Rabelais. — Id. 
 Cette longue lunette a faire peur aux gens, 
 Et eent brimborions dont I'aspect importune. 
 Mali ere, Les Femmes Savantes, ii. 7. 
 
 Among the books that Pantagruel 
 found in the Library of St. Victor was 
 
BBIN D'ESTOO ( 466 ) 
 
 GANGBENA 
 
 " Les Brimborions des padres celestins . ' ' 
 — Eabelais, Pcmiagruel, ch. vii. 
 
 Bein d'estoc (Pr.), a leaping pole, 
 as if " sprig of a trunk," or " bit of a 
 stock," is said to be formed from Ger. 
 spring-stock (Scbeler). 
 
 Beosamen, a German word for 
 cnimbs, wMcli appears (and has actu- 
 ally been considered by some) to be for 
 Brotsam,i.e. in old German, hrot, bread, 
 as small as seed, samen. The Mid. 
 High Ger. form, however, hroseme, 
 irosme, is probably from hrechen, to 
 break, by dropping out of the guttural, 
 i.e. broken bread (cf. hrocken). — Andre- 
 sen. 
 
 Bbot-fall, the Icelandic term for an 
 epileptic fit, as if from hrot, a breaking, 
 a convulsion, 0. H. Ger. Iroti, fragility, 
 is really a corruption of hrddh-fall or 
 brddh-fall, a sudden fall. Compare old 
 Eng. lrpj>ti-fall. — Ormulum (Cleasby, 
 p. 81). But against this ^Ifric has : — 
 
 Epilepsia vel larvatio, briec-coiSu [breaking 
 disease], fylle-seoc. — Wright's Vocabularies, 
 p. 19. 
 
 BucciNA (Lat.), a curved horn or 
 trumpet, so spelt as if coming from 
 biicca, the inflated cheek (Fr. louche), 
 whereas the more proper form seems to 
 be hucina, a contracted word from hovi- 
 oina. Compare our bugle and Lat. hu- 
 cula, a heifer. 
 
 BucHECKEEN, " Beech-acoms," Ger- 
 man for beech-nuts, as if from Low 
 Ger. ecJcer, for eichel, acorn, probably 
 represents in the latter part Goth, ak- 
 ran (fruit), from ahrs (acre, tilled field). 
 — Andresen. 
 
 BuFO, Italian name of the owl, Lat. 
 hubo. The grave and reverend Grand 
 Duke or Bubo maximus, was formerly 
 considered a fooHsh and mirthful bird, 
 apparently from a confounding of bvfo 
 with the words (buffo) buffone, Fr. bouf- 
 fon, a pleasant jester, buffa, a jest. 
 Le Due est dit comme le conducteur 
 
 D'autres oyseaux, quand d'un lieu se re- 
 muent. 
 
 Comme Bouffons changent de gestes, et 
 muent 
 Ainsi est-il folastre et plaisanteur. 
 
 Beloii, Portraits d'Oyseaux, 1557. 
 See Broderip, Zoological Recreations, 
 p. 109. 
 
 BusoHKLEPPEE (for which the form 
 
 buschkVjpfer ia also found) a German 
 term for a highwayman, as if from 
 klepper, a nag, is perhaps a corrupted 
 form of Buschklopfer, a bush-ieafer 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Cadhla, an Irish word for GathoUc, 
 as if identical with cadhla, fair, beauti- 
 ful, from cadlms, honour, respect, glory. 
 
 Calamandeea, Ital. name for the 
 plant germander, is an assimilation to 
 calamo, a reed or cane, of Lat. chamm- 
 d/rys, Greek chaanad-d/rus, "groxmd- 
 oak," whence also Sp. camedrio, Fr. 
 germand/ree, Eng. germander. 
 
 Caltbeiee (It.), to scratch or gall, 
 also to make skilful or crafty, has been 
 formed from scalterire, scaltrire, orig. to 
 sharpen (probably from Lat. sealptu- 
 ri/re), the s having been mistaken forthe 
 preposition ea; (es), which it commonly 
 represents at the beginning of Italian 
 words, and then dropped. On the 
 other hand scegliere, to choose, and 
 sdUnguare, to stammer, have been 
 formed by prefixing s (=£!») to words 
 afready compounded with that prepo- 
 sition, and thus stand for Lat. ex-e{z)- 
 Ugere, eie-e[«>)linguare (Diez). 
 
 Camog, an Irish word (pronounced 
 comoge) for the punctuating stop called 
 a cormna, Greek komma, of which word 
 it is doubtless a corruption. Gamog 
 properly means a curve or curl, from 
 the root cam, crooked, bent, and was 
 apphed to the stop (,) from its curved 
 
 Campidoglio, Ital. name of the Capi- 
 tol at Eome, an assimilation to cam,po, 
 a field, and doglio, a barrel, of capitolio, 
 Lat. capitoUum. The insertion of m 
 before p or 6 in Italian is found in other 
 instances, e.g. " Salto di Timberio " in 
 Capri, " Tiberius' Leap." 
 
 Canaillenvogeln, a colloquial cor- 
 ruption in German of Oanarienvogel, as 
 if the bird of the rabble (Andresen). 
 
 Candelaebee, as if a <ree-shaped re- 
 ceptacle for candles, an occasional 
 French corruptioil of candelabre, Lat. 
 candelabrum. 
 
 Cangeena (It. and Sp.), Fr. cangrine, 
 
GANIBAL 
 
 ( 467 ) 
 
 GE ASM ATE 
 
 a gangrene, from Lat. gangrmna, spelt 
 with a c from a false reference to can- 
 cer (Diez). 
 
 Canibal (Span.), Fr. cannihale, It. 
 cniinihale, a man-eater, as if one having 
 the voracity of a dog (Lat. cams), is a 
 corrupt form of Oaribal. Compare 
 Span, caribe, an Indian which eateth 
 mans flesh (Minsheu). 
 
 Canis, a mediaeval Lat. rendering of 
 hhan, a Tartar king (Pers. hhan, a 
 prince). 
 
 Rex Tartarorum qui et mngntis canis dicitur. 
 —Chron. Nansii, ann. 1299 [GcMin, Ricriat. 
 PUIolog. a. 255]. 
 
 So It. cane, a dog, also in the Tar- 
 tarian tongue an Emperor or absolute 
 monarke (Plorio). 
 
 The word Can signifieth Emperor. — Pur- 
 chis, Pilgrimages, p. 454. 
 
 Caknifex, "Flesh-maker," the Latin 
 word for an executioner or torturer. 
 Kctet makes the ingenious suggestion 
 that carnl- here is the Latin represen- 
 tative of the Sanskrit word harana, 
 pimishment, execution, putting to 
 death, just as career is akin to Sk. Tta- 
 ragara, house of punishment, prison. 
 So the word would bear the appro- 
 priate signification of " Execution- 
 maker." — Origines Indo-Europ. ii. 454. 
 
 Caeo, an old Italian name for the 
 cairaway, as if it meant the dea/r or 
 costly spice. 
 
 Cdro, deare, precious, beloued, leefe, costly 
 . . . Also Caroway-seed, — Florio. 
 
 Cabbeau (Fr.), an old corruption of 
 carrcmsse, a carouse (Ger. gar aus, " all 
 out," of a glass drained to the bottom), 
 perhaps mistaken for a plural. 
 
 II ne faisait nulle difficulte de faire des 
 carreaux ou brindes avec eux a cbaque repas. 
 —Franfois de Sales (Hist, de St. Chantal i. 
 255, 1870). 
 
 Casebne (Pr.), a barrack, formerly a 
 small chamber where soldiers were 
 lodged, which seems to he akin to O. 
 Pr. cose, a house, casette, casino, Lat. 
 casa (with which, indeed, Diez con- 
 nects it), is the same word as Prov. Pr. 
 cazerne, cazerna, from Lat. quaterna, a 
 chamber to hold four or a quaternion 
 (hke casern from qiMternus). — Littre, 
 Additions. 
 
 Ceata-cam, an Irish name for the 
 
 constellation Ursa Major, as if it had 
 something to do with ceat, a hundred, 
 or ceatha, a shower (hke Hyades, = The 
 Eainy), is a corrupted form of ceachta- 
 cam, otherwise Gam-ceachta, i.e. The 
 Crooked Plough. 
 
 Ceithie eanna euath an domhain, 
 a Gaelic popular phrase, " The four 
 brown quarters of the universe," i.e. 
 the whole wide world. Buadh, red- 
 dish-brown, is probably a corruption of 
 roth, a wheel or circle, " The four quar- 
 ters of the circle of the world." — J. F. 
 Campbell, Talcs of the Western High- 
 lands, vol. ii. p. 436. 
 
 CoENA (Lat.), supper, the usual spel- 
 ling of cena (ceena), as if it were the 
 Greek hodne, the conmion meal. 
 
 Champ, a Fr. word for the edge or 
 narrow side of a brick or piece of wood 
 {de champ, edgewise), is an assimilation 
 to champ, field (Lat. campus), of chant, 
 a side, a comer, old Pr. cant (whence 
 Fr. canton, chanteau,'Eug. cantle), Dut., 
 Dan., Swed. hard, an edge, whence old 
 Eng. cant, an edge, also to tilt over on 
 one side, and decant. 
 
 CHANTBPiiEtJEE, the paradoxical 
 French word for a watering-pot or fun- 
 nel (whence It. and Sp. cantimplora), 
 apparently that which sings while it 
 weeps, the chant being the noise made 
 by the water gushing from the minute 
 holes, and the pleurs the water shed. 
 It is perhaps a corruption of a form 
 champleure, corresponding to Norm. 
 champelwe, Picard. champleuse, a fun- 
 nel, from a verb champler, to pierce or 
 hollow (whence chcmiplure, a hole). 
 — Scheler. 
 
 Chaetee, an old French term for a 
 prison, as in the phrases Saint Denis 
 de la Chartre, tcnir en chartre-pHvee (to 
 keep in confinement on one's own au- 
 thority), is a corruption of the Latin 
 career. 
 
 Chaeteiees, prisoners, in " Hospice 
 et rue de Ohartriers " in the town of 
 Mons, Hainaut, is probably a corrup- 
 tion of sarrtieres or sarties, a Wallon 
 word meaning invalids (Sigart). 
 
 Chasmate (old Pr.), used by Eabe- 
 lais not only for a casemate or under- 
 ground fortification (It. casa-matta), 
 but for an abyss or opening in the 
 
GEAT-RUANT ( 4,68 ) 
 
 OIMIEB 
 
 ground, from a supposed connexion 
 ■with Greek chdsma, chasmatos, an 
 abyss. 
 
 Chat-huant, " Hooting-cat," a 
 French word for a screech-owl, an- 
 ciently chalman, is doubtless a corrup- 
 tion of the Anjou choucm, Berry oha- 
 vam,t, Prov. cJiauana, L. Lat. cavanmis, 
 akin to Wallon chaou, an owl, 0. Fr. 
 olioe, M. H. Ger. clioiich, Dut. haww, 
 Eng. "chough" (Diez, Scheler). Si- 
 gart gives also old Fr. chouomt, Lan- 
 guedoo chauana, Low Lat. cauarma, 
 Bret, haoan, an owl. 
 
 Menger les ceufs du cakuant. — Bovilli Prov. 
 16th cent, (le Roiix de Lincy, Prov. Franf. 
 i. 159). 
 
 CHATOtriLLEB (French), to tickle, 
 touch gently, apparently derived from 
 chat, a oat, from the pleasure it takes 
 in being stroked (like Fr. chatoyer, to 
 to change colour, as does a cat's eye, 
 Prov. Fr. to caress or fawn like a oat, 
 chatterie, fawning). Compare It. gat- 
 tarigolare (from gatlo, a cat), to claw 
 and tickle (Florio). The old Fr. word 
 was catiller, and this is, no doubt, an 
 adaptation of Flem. hetelen, Tcittelen, to 
 tickle, Dut. Mttelen, Swed. Mttla, Ger. 
 Mtzeln, A. Sax. oiteKan, to tickle. Soot. 
 MUle. Compare chaionner zn kittle, to 
 bring forth kittens; Scot. Mttlmg, a 
 kitten, also tickling. 
 
 New curage kitillis all eentil hertis. 
 G. DouglaSf Bukes of EneadoSf p. 403, 
 1. 14. 
 It never fails, on drinHn' deep 
 To kittle up our notion. 
 Burns, Poems, p. 17 (Globe ed.). 
 Prov. Fr. forms are catouye (Sigart), 
 gatcdlU, gattie (Scheler). 
 
 Chattemite (Fr.), a hypocrite, ap- 
 parently a "soft cat," as if from Lat. 
 eata nUtis (cf. mitou, mitouwd, a cat, a 
 hypocrite), in Cotgrave. Chatemite is 
 perhaps from Lat. catamitusnsei in an 
 altered sense. 
 
 Ermites, hypocrites, chattemites, sanctorons, 
 patepelues, torticollis. — Rabelais, Pantagrue- 
 line Prognostication, v. 
 
 Chauve-soueis (Fr.), "bald-mouse," 
 the bat, is perhaps a corruption of 
 choue-souris, " owl-mouse," the mouse 
 which flies at night hke an owl. So 
 M. Sigart, comparing the Lifege form 
 chawe-sori, where chawe (Wallon chaou) 
 means an owl. Compare Picard. cas- 
 
 sev/ris, perhaps for cave-seuris. The 
 baldness of the winged-mouse is cer- 
 tainly not BO hkely to have given it its 
 popular name as would its resemblance 
 to a bird. Compare Ger. fledermaus, 
 Prov. rata pemiada, " winged rat." 
 
 Chevhefeuillb, the French name for 
 the honeysuckle, as if from chsvre and 
 feuille, is a corrupted form of the Lat. 
 capparifolium, so called from its resem- 
 blance to the caper leaf, Lat. eappa/iis. 
 Similar is the Ger. gdss-hlatt, Eng. 
 caprifoly (Prior). 
 
 Chouanee, chxjinee, a WaUon verb 
 meaning to make haste, affords a curi- 
 ous instance of a word originating in a 
 series of popular misconceptions. Ac- 
 cording to M. Sigart it arose as follows : 
 On the entry of the aUied armies in 
 1814 the Hainaut peasants hearing the 
 word geschwind, quick ! every moment 
 in the mouths of the impatient soldiers, 
 supposed it to be an imperative geclm- 
 ine I The first syllable being to them 
 difficult of articulation, they adopted 
 the word in the form of dechwirm, then 
 dropped the de-, and from the remain- 
 der made the verb cJivmer, chwaner, 
 chouaner. 
 
 Chott BLANC faiee (en jeu de quiLles), 
 a colloquial French phrase, " To make 
 a white cabbage," meaning to hit or 
 win nothing, make a miss or failure. 
 Ohou here probably stands for clioup, 
 the Berry pronunciation oicoup (Littrd), 
 so that the sense would be to make a 
 blank stroke. 
 
 Chodceodte (se. "cabbage-crust"), 
 a French transformation of the German 
 sauerhraut (sour cabbage). In the 
 Family Papers at Oaldwell (Maitland 
 Club), pt. i. p. 207, Mrs. Scott speaks 
 of " soll/r-cr^ide, a stinking kind of 
 kail." 
 
 Cheistianb, a WaUon du Mons cor- 
 ruption of Fr. chrysantheme, a chrysan- 
 themum. (Sigart). 
 
 Cheistiane, and Glvristamie, popular 
 corruptions in German of Icastanie, the 
 chestnut (Andresen). 
 
 CiMiBE, the French word for a rump 
 or round of beef, is a transformation of 
 the German zienwr, by assimilation to 
 the native term dmi&r, the crest or 
 highest part of anything, which is from 
 
OINGLEB 
 
 ( 469 ) GONTBE-POINTE 
 
 dime, It., Sp. oma, Lat. cyma, Gk. Icuma, 
 a sprout. 
 
 CtNGLBK (Fr.), to saU, so spelt as if 
 identical with oingler, to whip or scourge 
 ("to cut the sea." — Cotgrave), lit. to en- 
 circle with a pliant lash (Lat. cingulum, 
 a girdle), is old Fr. singler (Sp. sing- 
 lar), a nasalized form of old Fr. sighr, 
 from 0. H. Ger. segelen, to sail, Icel. 
 sigla (Ger. segeln). — Diez, Scheler. 
 
 Clopobte, the French name of the 
 wood-louse, as if " close-door," is a cor- 
 ruption of dosporgue, i.e. the pig that 
 can shut itseKup (by rolling itself into a 
 baU),j3Wca clusiUs. This insect in many 
 dialects is popularly known as a sow or 
 pig, e.g. Languedoo pourcelefs, in Italy 
 pm'celUm, coUoq. Fr. pm-celets (WaUon 
 powdau-singU) ; in Anjou and Brit- 
 tany trees (zztruies), inDauphind Tcaions 
 '^cochins), in Champagne cochons de 
 ^t. Antoine, Prov. Eng. sow. 
 
 CoBAEDE ( Sp.), a coward, also covarde, 
 supposed to mean a skulking feUow 
 that hides himself in a co6a or cova, a 
 cave or recess (Stevens, 1706), is a cor- 
 ruption of old Fr. couard, the short- 
 taUed hare. See Cow-hbakt, p. 78. 
 Hoy vereis, Cobardes Griegos, 
 De la manera que Circe 
 Irata cuantos pasageros. 
 Amiestos umbrales tocan. 
 Calderon, El Mayor Encanto Amor. 
 [Coward Greeks, this day's experience 
 Teacheth you how Circe treats 
 Every ti'aveller who steppeth 
 From his ship upon these shores. 
 
 F. D. MacCarthy.] 
 
 CoLiDEi, a Low Lat. word for the 
 old Celtic monks or Guldees, as if from 
 Lat. colere Dewm, to worship God 
 (JDei-colw), is a corruption of Ir. ceile- 
 de, a "giUy," or servant, of God. 
 Compare the Gaelic surnames, Oil- 
 christ, GiU-espie, Gill-ies, Oil-more, 
 servant of Christ, of the Bishop, of 
 Jesiis, of Mary. Scottish heledei. (See 
 W. F. Skene, GelUo Scotland, vol. ii.) 
 
 CoLMENA, a Spanish word for a bee- 
 hive, Portg. colmea, as if a weU-stocked 
 place, from colma/i; to fill up, is either 
 from Arab. Tcuwdra ruin nalil, a hive of 
 bees (Diez), or Basque koloen-wenan, of 
 the same meaning (Donkin). 
 
 CoMMENCEE (Fr.), as wen as Eng. 
 eo-nvmence, is spelt with two m's from a 
 
 false analogy to words like commander, 
 commettre, commenter, commend, com- 
 mune, &c. The correct form would be 
 comencer and comenae. Compare Norm. 
 Fr. cumeneer, It. com/inciare, Sp. and 
 Prov. comenza/r, all from a Lat. cum- 
 initiare, to cominitiate or begin to- 
 gether. 
 
 Veant Amphibal, ki cumence a precher. 
 
 Vie de Seint Aiiban, I, 1642 (ed. Atkinson). 
 
 [Seeing Amphibalus, who commenced to 
 preach.] 
 
 CoMPAGNO (It.), a companion, old 
 Fr. compaing, spelt with a g from a 
 mistaken reference to a Lat. com-paga- 
 nus, a fellow-townsman, compagnia, a 
 confederation. A companion, O. Fr. 
 compain, is properly one who breaks 
 bread together, a mess-mate, from Low 
 Lat. companies, com-, with, and panis, 
 bread. Compare Goth, ga-hlaiha, a 
 loaf-sharer, a companion ; Bunic gcB- 
 hcelceihcen, loaf-brother, a husband 
 (Stephens, 0. North Rtmio Monuments, 
 p. 933) ; O. H. Ger. gi-mazo, gi-leip, a 
 meat-sharer, a loaf-sharer. 
 
 M. Agnel, however, says the g is 
 merely due to popular pronunciation, 
 as in oignon from Lat. unionem (In- 
 fluence du Langage Fopulaire, p. 112). 
 
 CoMPOSTELLA, SANTIAGO, Or Santo 
 Jaco de Gompostella, was the common 
 corruption of the famous Spanish 
 shrine of Scmcto Jacoho Apostolo, as if 
 it had something in common with such 
 words as compostura, compuesto, &o. 
 
 CoMEADA (Ir.), a companion, as if a 
 "talk-mate," from comJi-radh, dis- 
 course, conversation {com, with, and 
 radh, speech), is an adaptation of Eng. 
 comrade, which stands for oam/rade, 
 Fr. camsrade, Sp. camarada, the sharer 
 of one's chamber (Lat. camera). 
 
 CoNcio (Lat.), an assembly, so spelt 
 as if from condeo, to bring together, 
 whereas the older form is contio and 
 coventio, from convenire. 
 
 CoNTBBDANSE (Fr.), whero used for a 
 " danse rustique," is, according to M. 
 Scheler, a corruption of Eng. country- 
 dance. 
 
 CoNTEE-POiNTE, \ the French word 
 
 CouETE-PoiNTE, J for a quilt, SO Spelt 
 
 in the form.er case as if it denoted a 
 
 covering stitched through and through, 
 
GONVOiTEB 
 
 ( 470 ) 
 
 obIitin 
 
 with a pattern on either side, in the 
 latter as if it were une cowvertwe piquee 
 & points courts. Both are corruptions 
 of the Latin culcita punda. See Ogun- 
 TEEPANE above, p. 77. 
 
 CoNVOiTEE (Fr.), to covet, so spelt as 
 if compounded with the preposition 
 eon, is really, like Prov. mbeitar, It. 
 cuhitare, a derivative of Lat. cwpiAus, 
 desirous (cupidAtare). 
 
 CoQUBMAB (Fr.), a boiler or caldron, 
 so spelt as if akin to cogue, a shell, 
 O. Fr. coguasse, a kettle, or cog, a cook, 
 is the same word as It. cogoma, Lat. 
 cucm,ma. 
 
 CoEBLEU, ■> French disguised 
 
 MoEBLEU, ( oaths substituting 
 
 Paebleu, r hleu for Bieu, i.e. 
 
 Vbntee-blbu, J corps de Dieii, 'mart 
 de Dieu, &c. 
 
 Coedonnibe (Fr.), a shoemaker, is 
 an assimilation to cordonner, to line, 
 cord, or entwine, cordon, a line, of cor- 
 douanier (It. cordovamiere), one who 
 works in cordouan (It. cordovano) or 
 Oordotiam leather (Fr. cuire de Gordoue, 
 Dut. Spaansch leder), Eng. Gm-d- 
 waine/r. 
 
 Nupez sanz chauceiire de cordewon caprin. 
 Vie de Seint Auban, 1. 1828 (ed. Atkinson.) 
 [Barefooted without slioes of goat-skin 
 cordwain.] 
 
 OoEONiSTA (Sp.), another form of 
 m-onista, a chronicler ; so coronica, a 
 chronicle, as if connected with corona, 
 " orotow-documents." Shakespeare, on 
 the other hand, seems to use " chroni- 
 clers " for " coroners " in .48 You Lihe 
 It (act iv. sc. 1), where, speaking of 
 Leauder's death, Rosahnd says that 
 " the foohsh chroniclers of that age 
 found it was — Hero of Sestos." The 
 reading of the Globe edition is " coro- 
 ners." 
 
 OoEPS SAINT, Enlevi comme wn, a 
 French proverb, is a corruption of" En- 
 lev^ comme un Gaurcin," which has 
 entirely changed its meaning from 
 having ceased to be understood. At 
 the time of the Crusades different com- 
 panies of Itahan merchants settled in 
 France, and grew rich by usury. These 
 were called Oouercins, Caorcins, Gahor- 
 sins, either because the chief men 
 of them belonged to the Corsini family 
 
 at Florence, or had established them- 
 selves at Cahors. The harshness expe- 
 rienced by their debtors, and a desire 
 to get possession of their wealth, fre- 
 quently led to their banishment by 
 their victims — " on les enleva pour les 
 expatrier." Hence came the proverb. 
 See on this subject Matt. Paris, sub 
 anno 1235 (Le Eoux de Lincy, Fro- 
 verbes Frangais, i. 9). 
 
 CouETTE (Fr.), a feather-bed, as to 
 form apparently a dimin. of ecu, is a 
 corrupt expansion of old Fr. coute, coite, 
 colte, cuilte (Eng. quilt), from eulota, a 
 contraction of Lat. culoita, a cushion. 
 Compare Counteepane, p. 77. 
 
 CouPBEOSB, " out rose," the French 
 word for copperas, a corruption appa- 
 rently of Lat. cupri rosa, i.e. flower of 
 copper (cf. Gk. chalkanthon). It. coppa- 
 rosa, Sp., Portg. caparrosa (Scbeler). 
 Other corruptions are Flemish Icoper- 
 rood, "red of copper," German fep/er- 
 rauch, "smoke of copper." 
 
 CoDSTE-POiNTE (Fr.), a quilt, appa- 
 rently "short-stitch," stands for the 
 older Fr. coulte pointe or coilte poi/nte 
 (old Fr. colte, cult, cuilte {zzqvMt), coute), 
 Lat. culcita puncta, a stitched coverlet. 
 See Counteepane, p. 77. 
 De sole coiltes pointes n'amais lit au chucher. 
 Vie de Seint Auban, 1. 682 (ed. Atkinson). 
 
 OouTUEB, a Wallon word for a divi- 
 sion of a rural commune, or the situa- 
 tion of a field, is doubtless a corruption 
 of cuUwe (Sigart). Cotgrave gives in 
 the same sense coulture, a close of tilled 
 land, and clostu/re, an enclosure. 
 
 Ceapaudaille, a French word for a 
 species of crape, as if " froggery " (from 
 crapaud), is a corruption of arepodaille, 
 a derivative of orepe, old Fr. crespe, the 
 crisp material. 
 
 Cebscione, It. name for cress, so 
 spelt as if named from its quick growth 
 and derived from cresciare, Lat. cres- 
 cere, to grow, is really of Teutonic 
 origin, and akin to A. Sax. ccerse, Dut. 
 Jeers, Ger. hresse, 0. H. Ger. chresso. 
 
 Cretin (Fr.), the name given to the 
 goitre-afflicted idiots of Switzerland, 
 seems to describe the c/retaceous or 
 chalky whiteness of skin which charac- 
 terizes them, as if from Lat. creta, chalk, 
 like Ger. Icrddling from Itrdde, chalk 
 
OYBE 
 
 ( 471 ) 
 
 DEINSTAG 
 
 (so Littrd and Scheler). It is really 
 no doubt a corrupt form of Oh-etien, as 
 if an innocent, one incapable of sin and 
 a favourite of heaven, and so a " Cliris- 
 tian "par excellence (so Gattel, and Gt€- 
 nin, Recreat. PMlolog. ii. 164). In tlie 
 Additions to Littrd's Supplement, p. 
 361, a quotation is given from the 
 Statuts de Bordeaux, 1612, in which 
 lepers or pariahs of supposed leperous 
 descent, are called Ch/restiens. At Bay- 
 onne they were known as Glwisiians ; 
 and it is to suoli that Godefroy de Paris 
 (15th cent.) refers when he says : — ■ 
 
 Juifs, Templiers at Chrisiiens 
 
 Furent pris et mis en liens. 
 
 Cyee (old Fr.), used by Babelais for 
 sire (Lat. seniw), from an imagined 
 connexion with Greek {cyrius) Mrios, 
 lord (Barr^). 
 
 Ci/re, nous sommes a nostre debvoir. — Gar- 
 gantua, ch. xsiiii. 
 
 Similarly cygnew, a swan-keeper, was 
 sometimes used in derision for seignewr 
 (Cotgrave). 
 
 D. 
 
 Dalfino (It.), a bishop at chesse 
 (Plorio), also a dolphin, is a corruption 
 of aljmo, from Pers. and Arab, al-fil, 
 the elephant. So old Fr. dauphin. 
 See Alfin, p. 5. 
 
 Dame, as a French term in surveying, 
 is a naturalized form of Flemish dam, 
 Ger. iartvm, a mole, dike, or "dam." 
 
 Dame-jbannb, a French word for a 
 jar, is a corruption of damajan, Arabic 
 damagan, originally manufactured at 
 the town of Bamaghan in Persia. 
 
 Dammspiel is the usual North Ger- 
 man spelUng of the more accurate Dam- 
 spiel, Bamespiel or Damenspiel (Fr. jeu 
 de dames), the game of draughts. The 
 word of course has no connexion with 
 damm, dam or dyke ; nor is it so called 
 from the fact that dames find mild and 
 peaceful entertainment in this game ; 
 but from the designation of one of the 
 pieces, and then of a whole row, — Dams, 
 queen or lady. Of. Schachspiel, the 
 game of chess, with a similar reference 
 , to Shach [sc. Sheikh, Shah] , King. — 
 Andresen. 
 
 Dak-dae, a colloquial Fr. expression 
 
 meaning Quick I or swiftly (E. Sue, 
 Labiche), perhaps mentally associated 
 with da/rder, to dart or shoot, also writ- 
 ten dare da/)-e (Diderot, Balzac), seems 
 to be a Prov. Fr. form of derriire, used 
 in the sense of " Eeculez vite 1 " " Look 
 sharp there 1 " " Look out 1 " to warn a 
 person back from some quickly ap- 
 proaching danger. (See Additions to 
 Littre, p. 363.) 
 
 Demoiselle, a French word for a 
 paving-beetle or rammer used in the 
 construction of paths, is probably a 
 playful perversion of dame, a term used 
 in road-making, which is from Dut. 
 dam, a dam or bank, dammen, to em- 
 bank, Icel. dammr, a dam. Hence also 
 WaUon madame, a pavior's beetle (Si- 
 gart). 
 
 Devil, used by the Eng. gipsies for 
 God, is realty a foreign word quite dis- 
 tinct from " devU " (A. Sax. dedful, Lat. 
 diabolus, Gk. diabolos, "the accuser"). 
 The gipsy word, sometimes spelt devel, 
 is near akin to deva, (1) bright, (2) 
 divine, God, Lith. devas, God, Lat. 
 deus, divus, Greek Zeus. — Curtius, i. 
 202. (Greek the6s, which Greek ety- 
 mologists connected sometimes with 
 theo, to run, as if the sun-god who 
 "runs his course," pretty much as if 
 we connected God with io gad, is not 
 related.) In the Zend-Avesta, the Vedic 
 gods having been degraded to make 
 room for Aiura Mazda, the supreme 
 deity of the Zoroastrians, old Pers. 
 daeva (god) has come to be used for an 
 evil spirit (M. Miiller, Chips, i. p. 25). 
 
 The word's chance resemhlance to our 
 devil has led to one strange misunderstanding 
 in " My Friend's Gipsy Journal : " — "When 
 my friend once read the psalm in which the 
 expression ' King of Glory' occurs, and 
 asked a Gipsy if he could say to whom it 
 applied, she was horrified by his slib an- 
 swer, ' Oh yes, Miss, to the devil! ' " — F. H. 
 Groome, In Gipsy Tents, p. 278. 
 
 Diamante (It. and Sp.), Fr. diamant, 
 diamond, formed from Lat. and Gk. 
 adama{nt)s, "the untamed" or invin- 
 cibly hard stone, under the influence 
 seemingly of diafano, transparent. 
 
 DiENSTAG, the German name for 
 Tuesday, as if the day of service, dienst, 
 is a corrupted form of Mid. Ger. diestag. 
 Low Ger. desdag. Sax. tiesdag, A. Sax. 
 ' g, "Tuesday," High Ger. zies- 
 
BINQESBAG 
 
 ( 472 ) 
 
 EFFBAIE 
 
 tae, i.e. the day of (O. Norse) Tyr, High 
 Ger. Ziw, the god of war. The Dutch 
 form dingsdag has heen assimilated to 
 ding, jurisdiction ; while the form zin- 
 etag used iu Upper Germany literally 
 means " rent-day " (dies census). — An- 
 dresen. 
 
 DiNGESDAG, dinhstedag, diggesdag, 
 diwwesdag, Low Dutch words for Tues- 
 day, as if connected with Dut. dAngen, 
 to plead, to cheapen, instead of with 
 the name of the God TvAsco, O. H. Ger. 
 Ziw (Gk. Zeus), Icel. Tyr. Compare 
 Icel. Tijs-dagr, Tuesday, Dan. Tirsdag. 
 
 DioDYL or JoDYL, the Manx name of 
 the devil, as if from Di or Jee, God, and 
 o^lyl, destruction, fury (vid. The Manx 
 Soc. Diet. S.V.), is evidently an adapta- 
 tion of Lat. dAaboT/UiS, Greek dmbolos. 
 
 DixHuiT, " Eighteen, also a Lapwing 
 or Blaekplover (so tearmed because 
 her ordinary cry sounds not imlike this 
 word " (Cotgrave), Eng. peaseweep, 
 peewit, puet, Fr. piette, Dan. vibe (" the 
 weep " ), O. Eng. tirwJidt. Three lapwings 
 are the arms of the Tyrwhitt family. 
 
 Cleveland tevfit, Holdemess teeafit, 
 Scot, tequhyt. 
 
 Get the bones of ane tequhyt and cany 
 tliame in your clothes. — Triat of Ehpeth Car- 
 setter, 1629 ( Dalt/ett, Darker Superstitions of 
 Scotland, p. 150). 
 
 Pitcahe, a Scotch imitative name for 
 the plover. The Danes think that the 
 bird cries tyvlt! tyvit ! "Thieves! 
 thieves 1 " for which see the legend 
 quoted iu Atkinson's Cleveland Olos- 
 sa/ry, s.v. Tevfit. 
 
 DoGANA (It.), a custom-house, toU, 
 so spelt with inserted g, as if it denoted 
 the impost levied by a doge or duke 
 (hke regalia, a king's impost), is really 
 derived from Arab, divan, a state-coun- 
 cil, areceipt ofcustom, whence also Prov. 
 doana, Span, a-duana (for al-d/uana), 
 Fr. douane. 
 
 DoiGT d'olive, " ohve-finger," a 
 Wallou du Mons word for a severe 
 whitlow attended with great inflamma- 
 tion. Sigart offers no suggestion as to 
 its origin. It is perhaps a contraction 
 of Doigt d'olifan, " elephant-finger," 
 from Wallon olifan, an elephant. Com- 
 pare Elepliantique, leprous (Cotgrave), 
 and Elepliantiasis. 
 
 DoEN-BDTT (Ger.), " thom-but," the 
 turbot, appears to be an alteration of 
 Fr. twrhot, Welsh torhwt (perhaps from 
 Lat. turho+ot (suffix), in order to simu- 
 late a meaning (Soheler). 
 
 Deakon (Greek), a serpent (whence 
 Lat. draco, a dragon), apparently a 
 derivative of Gk. Srak&n, gazing, as if 
 the "quick-sighted," is probably an 
 adapted form corresponding to the 
 Sanskrit d/rig-vieha, " having poison in 
 its eye," a serpent. 
 
 Deiakbl, as if " threecle,'' a com- 
 pound of three (d/rei) ingredients, is a 
 Mid. High Ger. corruption of Low Lat. 
 iheriaculum, Greek theriahdn, whence 
 Eng. treacle. 
 
 Dtjckstbin, High Ger. toMchstein, as if 
 from tauchen, to duck. Low Ger. ducken 
 or duken, is a perverted, form of tuf- 
 atein (It. tvfo, Lat. and Gk. tophus), 
 probably from a confounding of It. tufo 
 with tuffo, immersion or dipping (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 E. 
 
 Ebenholz, German word for ebony, 
 probably regarded as the smooth or 
 even wood (Ehen), is a derivative of 
 Lat. ehenus. 
 
 Ebeeeaute, " Boar-rue," also Aher- 
 raute, as if from raute, rue, German 
 words for the plant southern-wood, are 
 corruptions of Lat. ah'otonum (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 EcoECE, Fr. (from corticem) and esccw- 
 houcle {carhunaalus), owe the prefixed e 
 to a false assimilation to such words as 
 etude (studium), etroit (strictus), lipi 
 (spica), which originaUy had an s 
 (Braohet, Grammaire Hist. p. 133). 
 
 Effeaie (Fr.), a screech-owl (s<m), 
 so spelt as if it denoted "ceUe qui 
 effraie," that which affrights, and so 
 generally understood (e.g. by Soheler), 
 it being regarded as a bird of evil omen, 
 and anciently behoved to suck the 
 blood of children. It is really a corrup- 
 tion of old Fr. fresaie, which, as we see 
 by Prov. Fr. forms hresague (Gascony), 
 presaie (Poitou), is derived from Lat. 
 prmsaga (sc. avis), foreboding, the bird 
 that "presages" or predicts misfor- 
 
EHBEN 
 
 ( 473 ) 
 
 ENTBAILLES 
 
 tune (see E. Eolland, Fcmne Pop. de la 
 France, s.v.). Compare its names 
 0. Eng. liche-owl {i.e. corpse owl), Ger. 
 leieh-Um, todten-vogel, Fr. oiseau de la 
 nmt. 
 
 Effraye, a soricheowle or Lychefowle, an 
 unlucky night-bird. — Cotgrme. 
 
 The strix as an object of terror to 
 the superstitious is called Puck in W. 
 Sussex {Folk-lore Becord, i. 18). For 
 the form, compare Fr. orfraie, the 
 "osprey," from Lat. ossifraga, "the 
 bone-breaker." 
 
 Ehren, a German form of address 
 to pastors, &c., is said to have nothing 
 to do with ehre, hqnour, but to be a 
 corruption of ei-, i. e. her, herre, herr 
 (Andresa'2i). 
 
 BiCHHOEN, German word for the 
 Bquirrel, as if from its frequenting the 
 oak, eiche, Icel. iJcorni, Dut. eehhoren, 
 eihhoren, Swed. ickorn, elcorre, A. Sax. 
 acwem, a popular corruption of the Eo- 
 mance word, Fr. ecureuil, It. sehiriuolo, 
 " squirrel," Gk. shl-owros, " shade-tail." 
 Pictet, however, identifies A. Sax. -toern 
 with Lettish wdweris, a squirrel, Pers. 
 warwarali, Lat. viverra {Orig. Indo- 
 Etirop. i. 449). 
 
 EiNBEERB, "one-berry," Ger. name 
 of the juniper, seems a complete trans- 
 formation of Lat. jwrdferua. 
 
 EinchoeanEe, an old H. Ger. cor- 
 ruption of Lat. a/nachoreta (Einsiedler), 
 an anchorite, as if "aUein gekorner" 
 (Andresen). 
 
 EiNODE, German for a wilderness, as 
 if from ein (one) and oede, a desert, is 
 reaUy the Mid. High Ger. einoede, 
 eimete, a simple derivative correspond- 
 ing in formation to hleinoede, keinot, 
 a jewel or treasure. 
 
 Ekelname, a German word for anick- 
 name, as if a name of aversion or dis- 
 Hke, ehel, is formed from the provincial 
 word oekelna/me, the oknamn, ogenavn, 
 auknefni of Northern Europe, i.e. eke- 
 name, from auka z=. augere (Andresen). 
 See Nickname, p. 255. 
 
 Elend, in German for Elen or Elen- 
 ilder, the elk, so written as if it meant 
 the foreign beast. Mid. High Ger. El- 
 lenae, foreign country (eU-lenti, " other 
 land," Angl. Sax. eleland, and so Ger. 
 d, is originally " exile " and then 
 
 " misery "). Elen itself appears to be a 
 Slavonic form {jelen} corresponding to 
 Mid. High Ger. elch or elk, Lat. alecs 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Elfbn-ben, the Swedish word for 
 ivory, as if " elfen-bone," from elf, 
 elfvor, fairies, is for elefant-hen. 
 
 Enconia, an old Sp. word for male- 
 volence. Mod. Sp. encono, is supposed 
 by Diez to be corrupted from malen- 
 conia {'^'melancholia), which was un- 
 derstood as if compounded with mal, 
 evil. In old English writers melancholy 
 is frequently spelt malencholy. 
 
 Endekrist, a Mid. High Ger. cor- 
 ruption (but found also as late as Lu- 
 ther) oi Antichrist (Andresen). 
 
 ENE-B^ffiiR, Danish name of the ju- 
 niper, as if from ene, single, and hcer, 
 berry, is (like Spanish enebro, Dutch 
 jenever) a corruption of the Latin j'm- 
 niperus. 
 
 Engelsche-ziekte, " The English 
 Disease," the Dutch name for the 
 rickets or weakness of the ankles that 
 children are sometimes afflicted with. 
 The original phrase it has been conjec- 
 tured was enkel-niekte, "ankle-disease," 
 which became first engel-ziekte, and 
 then Engelsche-ziekte, pronounced En- 
 gelse-ziekte. The parallelism, however, 
 of the German Englische-krankheit as 
 a name for the rickets may throw some 
 doubt on the suggestion, unless this also 
 is to be regarded as connected with 
 aenkel, the ankle. 
 
 As a matter of fact the rickets did 
 first appear in England (see Eachitis, 
 supra, p. 312). Dr. Skinner, writing be- 
 fore 1667, says it was " knovm to our 
 islands alone," and that it was Dr. 
 Ghsson who invented for it " the ele- 
 gantword Bachitis " {Etymologicon, s.v. 
 Bickets). 
 
 Enkeatbia {iyKpdnia), self-control. 
 Socrates in Xenophon evidently re- 
 gards this, his second virtue, as con- 
 nected with 7-6 Kpartarov, " the best " 
 {Mem. I. vi. 10; IV. v. 11). It is the 
 quaUty of Hngs {Ih. III. ix. 10). This 
 probably had some bearing on the Stoic 
 dogma that the wise man is a king. 
 
 Enteailles (Fr.), the inwards, spelt 
 with the collective suffix -aille, is a 
 perverted form, from false analogy to 
 
ENTBEOEAT 
 
 ( 474 ) FAFABINNA 
 
 iripaille, of old Fr. entraignes, Sp. 
 entra/ias, from Lat. interanea, plural of 
 interaneum. 
 
 Entrechat. This strange looking 
 word in French for a caper, is a per- 
 version of It. capriola intreciata, lit. 
 cabriole entrelacie (Scheler, Diction- 
 nmire, s.v.). 
 
 Epheu, the German name of ivy, as 
 if compounded of -Bp, the stem of Ep- 
 pich, ivy (Mid. High Ger. ep/e, apium), 
 and heu, hay, is a corrupted form of the 
 older words e'pfi, epfe (Andresen). 
 
 Ekablb (Fr.), the maple tree, is a 
 corruption of irahre, for esrahre, a co- 
 alescence of the two Lat. words acer, 
 arbor, maple and tree (Scheler). 
 
 Eedapfel, a popular German word 
 for the potato (but formerly for another 
 bulbous root), as if the " earth-apple " 
 (Fr. pomme-de-terre), is a corruption of 
 jcartoffel [origiaally tartoffel, from Ital. 
 (dial.) tartuffola, sc. " truifle "] through 
 the forms artoffel, ertoffel. Similarly 
 erdschocke is found for a/rtischocke, arti- 
 choke. 
 
 Eedtoffbl (Ger.), potato, asif(lLke 
 the French pomme-de-terre) it contained 
 the word erde, earth, is an adaptation 
 of It. twrtuffola, tartufo, which stands 
 for terrce tuber, " earth truffle." 
 
 So artischocice (the artichoke) is often 
 pronounced erdschohe, as if the earth- 
 choke. I have heard an ilhterate per- 
 son'point out the seeds with their woolly 
 covering (pappus) in the calyx, as the 
 " clwhe " of this vegetable. 
 
 Ekigne (Fr.), a surgical instrument, 
 apparently that which serves to raise 
 (eriger) the parts that are to be operated 
 on (so Gattel), is a corruption of old 
 Fr. a/raigne, a spider (Lat. m-aneus), 
 which it was supposed to resemble 
 (Scheler). 
 
 Eel-Konig, the grisly death-spectre 
 of European poetry, is the Tatar Irle- 
 Chan who presides over the souls of the 
 dead (Tylor, Prim. Culture, ii. 282). 
 Dr. Prior says that " the similarity of 
 the Danish elle, the alder, with the 
 name of the fairies in that language, 
 elle-tra and elle-folh, has misled Goethe 
 to give the name of erlen-Jcirmg to the 
 fairy-king " (Fop. Names of British 
 Plants, p. 4). See also Cleasby, Ice- 
 
 landic Bid. s.v. dlfr, who agi-ees with 
 Grimm that the correct form is found 
 in the Danish JEllehonge, qs. Bher- 
 Iconge. 
 
 EscAKBOucLE, French word for the 
 carbuncle (Lat. ccwZmjicMZM8),assimilated 
 to bouale, a ring or buckle. 
 
 EscAEGOT (Fr.), a snail, seems to have 
 been popularly regarded in Prance as 
 a typical watchman or sentinel, pro- 
 bably from a confusion between that 
 word and old Fr. eschargwite, escargaite 
 (Mod. Fr. ichauguette), a watch, a 
 watch-tower, which is an adaptation of 
 Ger. schaa/r-wacht, a band of watchmen, 
 a sentry. In an old chap-book entitled 
 " Le Debat des gens-d'armes et d'vne 
 fpmme centre un lymasson," the snail 
 mounted on a watch-tower holds the 
 gens-d'armes at bay, refuses them ad- 
 mittance into the city, threatens to call 
 the garrison to repel thsir attack, and 
 behaves generally like a sentinel. See 
 Nisard, Hist, des Livres Fopulaires, i. 
 117, who thinks escargot originally was 
 the same word as escarq 
 
 EscHBC, ^cliee (old Fr.), a robber, as 
 if he who gives one check (Fr. echec, 
 old Fr. eschec, from Arab. Pers. esh- 
 shah (for al-shah) "the king"!) with 
 the words "stand and dehver," is 
 really an altered form of Mid. High 
 Ger. schach, Ger. schdcher, a "sacker" 
 or plunderer (Diez, Scheler). 
 
 The coincidence of this word with 
 iehecs, chessmen, is curiously paralleled 
 by Lat. lairo, and latrunculus, (1) a 
 robber, (2) a piece in the game of 
 draughts; Egyptian tA, (1) a robber, 
 (2) a man at draughts (Wilkinson, 
 And. Egyptians, ii. 57, ed. Birch). 
 
 EsELMiLCH, " Ass's milk," a German 
 name of the plant euphorbia esMZo. (also 
 called eselkraut), is a corruption of the 
 name esula minor (Andresen). 
 
 Etisie (Fr.), consumption, is formed 
 from itigue (for hedique, hectic), from 
 a false analogy to phthisic of the same 
 meaning. 
 
 P. 
 
 Fafabinna, a Grison word for a but- 
 terfly, Sard, faghe-farina, as if from 
 Lat. ifac farinam, " make meal," with 
 
FAIM-VALLE ( 475 ) 
 
 FEUILLETTE 
 
 allusion to tha flourlike dust left by its 
 wings when touched (Diez), is doubtless 
 an ^tered form of Swiss farfall, It. far- 
 falla, orig. farfaglione, from parpag- 
 Hone, Lat. papilionem. 
 
 Faim-valle (Fr.), excessive hunger, 
 is a corruption of faim + gwall (Oelto- 
 Bret.), bad, as we may infer from the 
 valiants faini-galle, faim-calle, frcmtn- 
 galk, fringale, analogous to male-faim 
 (Scheler). Compare Welsh giuall, de- 
 fect, want. 
 
 Faineant, a French word for a lazy 
 fellow (in Ootgrave), as if a "do-no- 
 thing" [fait meant), like vawien. It. 
 fw niente, is said to be a corruption of 
 feignant (faignant), one who pretends 
 he cannot work, lazy (so It. infingardo). 
 
 Falawiska, a word formed in O. H. 
 German .out of Lat. faviila, as if to de- 
 note yellow ashes (falo, so. fahl, falb, and 
 -Andresen. 
 
 Fasihuon, an old High Ger. word 
 for the pheasant (Ger. Fasan), Mid. H. 
 Qw. phaaeJmon (also vashan), are for- 
 mations similar to what pheas-Jien 
 would be in English. 
 
 Fastnaoht, the German name of 
 Shrove Tuesday, as if denoting the eve 
 (nacht) preceding the Lenten fast 
 (fasten), (compare Scotch Fasten e'en), 
 Beems to be only another form of Fas- 
 nacht, Mid. High Ger. vasnahi, from 
 vasen, to revel or riot (Mod. Qer.faseln, 
 to be giddy and trifling), with allusion 
 to the indulgence of Carnival-time. 
 
 Fauxbotjeg (Pr.), a suburb, as if 
 that which is not the true town, is for 
 fors-lourg, outside the town, which is 
 the form of the word in Froissart. So 
 Bourg de Four, is Burgi Foris, Bowg 
 de Dehors (Tooke, Biversions, ed. 
 Taylor, p. 178). 
 
 Fors is the Lat./ojns, Mod. Fr. hors, 
 and Eoquefort gives the form, hors-boro 
 (Diez otherwise). Scheler adds that 
 for-lowg is the oldest form in the texts. 
 Faiix-hourgs, the suburbs (Cotgrave). 
 
 Feigblattee, " Fig-bladder," sc. 
 "Fig-pustule," and Feigwarze, "Fig- 
 wart," German words for a boil or large 
 pimple, and a large wart respectively, 
 are not compounded with feige, a fig, 
 but with the provincial word fieh, an 
 affection which is supposed, Hke a 
 
 species of worm, to produce sores, 
 &c. (Andresen). 
 
 Feige (Ger.), "fig," a blow or box, 
 ohr-feige, a box on the ear, is a corrupt 
 spelling of fege, from fegen, to punish 
 or correct, orig. to cleanse or xjm'ify 
 (compare " chastise" from " chaste "), 
 Feger, one who cleans, a sweeper. Near 
 akin are old Eng. feague, to beat, old 
 and prov. Eng. fie, fey, or feigh, to 
 cleanse, fyin (Prompt. Parv. p. 159). 
 
 Fein Geetohen, "Fine Maggie," a 
 popular name in German for the plant 
 fenugreek, Lat. foenum Orcecum (Fr. 
 fSnugreo, 'Dutohfynegrielc), from which 
 it has been corrupted. So in Low Ger- 
 man Fine Grit, Fin Mwrgret (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Feld-kdmmel, German word for the 
 caraway, as if from hiimmel, cummin, 
 is corrupted from Mid. High Ger. velt- 
 honele, veltguenel, derivatives of Gk. 
 Iconile, Lat. curvila, thyme (Andresen). 
 
 Feldstuhl, "a field stool," a Ger- 
 man word for a folding chair, as if 
 from feld, field, is a corruption of Mid. 
 High Ger. valtstuol, a folding stool (cf. 
 Ger. fatten, to fold, Fr. fauder) . Hence 
 also Fr. fcmteuil. It., Sp. and Portg. 
 faldistorio. 
 
 Felix, "Happy," when applied by 
 Latin writers to the south-west part of 
 Arabia, was a misunderstanding of the 
 native name Yemen, which denoted the 
 land to the right of Mecca, but also 
 might (Uke Lat. dexter) means propi- 
 tious, prosperous. 
 
 Felleisen, a German word for a 
 portmanteau, as if a wallet made of 
 leather (fell) and iron {eisen), is a cor- 
 ruption of Fr. vaUse, It. vaUgia, Sp. 
 haUja. 
 
 Feebolh (Provengal), Portg. /erroWio, 
 Sp. herrojo, a bolt, so spelt from an ac- 
 commodation to I^at. ferrum, iron, are 
 corrupt forms of Prov. verrolh, Fr. ver- 
 rovAl, verrou, from Lat. veruculum, a 
 dimin. of veru, a spit. 
 
 Feuillette (Fr.), a quarter cask of 
 wine. It. fogUetta, so spelt as if derived 
 from feuille, a leaf. It. foglia (Lat. fo- 
 lium). In South France it denotes a 
 quart ; Prov. Fr. forms are fillotte, fil- 
 lette. Perhaps bom fialette, a diminu- 
 tive of phiala (Du Cange), or perhaps. 
 
FFODDGBAFF ( 476 ) FLEUB-DE-LIS 
 
 taking account of the It. form, from 
 
 Lat. follis, folUculus, a leathern bag, 
 and then a wine-skin (?), the primitive 
 cask of most wine countries. Compare 
 It. fogUa, a pmrse ia the rogues lan- 
 guage (Florio). 
 
 Ffoddgeaff, Welsh, a ' ' photograph, ' ' 
 assimilated to the native worAffoddi, to 
 cast a BplendoTir, — itself, however, pro- 
 bably a congener of the Greek stem 
 (piiiT- (phot-), light. 
 
 FlCHE, FIQUE, FICOTTE, in old 
 
 French oaths Far mafiche (:= spade or 
 dibble), fique, or ficotte, are corruptions 
 of par ma foy, " as we say, by my 
 feokins." — Cotgrave. 
 
 PiEDEL (Grer.), fiddle, so spelt as if de- 
 rived from ficlicula, the stringed instru- 
 ment (from hsit. fides, strings), is really 
 from Mid. Lat. vitula, an instrument to 
 accompany songs and dances (Mid. 
 High Ger. videle), from Lat. vitulor, to 
 rejoice or frisk (hke vitulus, a calf). 
 Hence also our violin. 
 
 The Prov. Ger. word fideline is a 
 combination of both forms. 
 
 FiShildi, an Icelandic name of the 
 butterfly (Cleasby), as if derived from 
 fiiri, feathers, with allusion to the fine 
 feathery farine that covers its wings, is 
 another form of fifrildi. (Compare 
 Prov. Gei: feif alter, A. Sax. fifalde.) 
 
 FiLAQBAMME (Fr.), the water-mark 
 in paper, seems to be a corruption of 
 fiUgrane, used in the same sense (Sche- 
 ler). It. and Sp. filigrana, the grain (Fr. 
 grain, Sp. and It. grano, Lat. granum) 
 or texture of a material wrought in 
 wire (Fr. fil, Sp. fila, Lat. filtim, a 
 thread) ; influenced by words like epi- 
 gramme, prograrmne, monogramme, as if 
 the meaning was something written 
 (Gi'eek gramma) in wire or woven work. 
 Of the same origin is filigree, old Bng. 
 fiUgrane. 
 
 Fii^ssE (Fr.), flax, as if spinning 
 stuff {filer, to spin), is perhaps, but 
 scarcely probably, an adaptation of Ger. 
 fiachs, O. H. Ger. flahs, Dut. -vlas, flax. 
 
 FiLUNGUELLO, an Italian word for a 
 finch, is a corruption of an older form 
 fringuello, which is from Lat. fringilla. 
 
 Fimbria (Portg.) " a corrupted word 
 used instead ofepMmera," the herb her- 
 
 modactyl or May-KLy (Vieyra), assinu- 
 lated to fimbria, a fringe. 
 
 FLfflSAE-MDs (Icel.), a "flood-mouse" 
 ( jJceSr, a flood), a fabulous animal in 
 nursery tales, is probably only a cor- 
 ruption from the German fleder-moma, 
 the bat (Cleasby). See Flinty- mouse, 
 p. 122. 
 
 Flageolet, a French name for a 
 species of haricot bean, is a corrupt 
 form otfageolet, a diminutive oifageol 
 from Lat. phaseolus, a bean (Seheler), 
 by assimilation to flageolet, a pipe. 
 
 Flambeege (Fr.), a sword, appa- 
 rently from flamber, to flame, shine, or 
 glisten, flamme,flambe, a flame : like Pr. 
 Argot flamme, a sword ; Eng. h'and, a 
 sword, from A. Sax. brand, a burning, 
 because it gUtters when " brandished" 
 like a flaming torch, just as the Cid's 
 sword was named tizon, from Lat. titio, 
 a firebrand. Compare Gen. ui. 24, 
 " a flaming sword," Heb. laliai, a 
 flame ; Judges ui. 22, " blade," Heb. 
 lahabh, a flame. 
 Tbe brandish'd sword of God before them 
 
 • blazed. 
 Fierce as a comet, 
 
 Milton, Par. Lnst, xii. 631. 
 Paradise, so late tbeir bappj seat, 
 Waved over by that flaming braad. 
 
 Id. xii. 643. 
 
 Flamherge, however, has nothing to 
 do with^amme, but is of German origin, 
 from flanc, side, flank, and hergen, to 
 protect. Compare Ger. froherge, a 
 sword (from fro, lord), a " lord-pro- 
 tector " (Diez, Seheler). 
 
 Flamme, ) (Fr.), a lancet, so spelt 
 Flammette / as if akin to flamme 
 a,n3.fliamberge (which see), as if a glitter- 
 ing blade, is a corruption of old Fr. 
 flieme (Eng. flsam), Prov. flecme (for 
 fletme), Gex.fliete, M. H. Oer. fliedeme, 
 O. H. Ger. fliodima, flnedima, all con- 
 tracted from Lat. and Gk. phleho-tonms, 
 a "vein-cutter." 
 
 Fleuk, in the Fr. phrase a flsur de, 
 on a level with, seems to be adapted 
 from Ger. flur, Dut. vloer, A. Sax.fldr, 
 floor, as if on the same floor or plain. 
 
 Fleuk-de-lis, or fleur-de-Luce, is 
 said to be a corruption oiflew-de-Louis, 
 so called from Louis VII. of France 
 having assumed it for his device. 
 
FLOBESTA 
 
 ( 477 ) 
 
 GALANTINE 
 
 Floeesta (Span.), an aoeommocla- 
 tion to jlor, a flower, jhreeer, to flower, 
 of It. and Prov. foresta. Low Lat. 
 foresta, orig. unenclosed land, lying 
 outside (Lat. /oi'js) the park. 
 
 FoGOTE (Span.), a fagot, so spelt as 
 if connected with fogar, fogdn, a hearth 
 or fire-place, fuego (Lat. fonia), is the 
 same word as It. fagotto, 'Ft. fagot, from 
 hat.facem, aeo. otfaas. 
 
 FoL, \ an old French name for the 
 Fou, / bishop in the game of chess, 
 
 is a corruption of Vers.fil or pil, an 
 
 elephant, the original name of the 
 
 piece. See Alfin, p. 5. 
 
 Fol, A foole, ass, goose, etc. . . . also a 
 
 Bishop at Chess. — Cotgrave. 
 
 FoLiE (Fr.), a country-house, " mai- 
 son de plaisance," seems to be due to 
 a confusion between folie, foohshness, 
 debauchery, andi femlUe,feuiUee, a leafy 
 bower, Low Lat. folda, folia, from Lat. 
 foUum, a leaf. Compare hhhy, a smaU 
 hall, from Low Lat. Johia, laubia, 
 M. H. Ger. hixbe, Ger. laube, an ar- 
 bour, a leafy bower (Ger. la/i£b, a leaf), 
 whence also O. Fr. loge, and "lodge." 
 
 FoECBNE (Fr.),mad, furious, raging, 
 BO spelt as if connected with force, 
 violence, forcer, to use force, to over- 
 come, is a corrupt orthography of old 
 Fr. forsene, from for (fors. Mod. Fr. 
 hors), outside, and sen (Mod. Fr. sens, 
 Sp. and Prov. sen. It. senno, O. H. Ger. 
 sin, sense), "out of one's senses;" 
 Prov. forsenat. It. forsennato, old Fr. 
 forsener, to lose one's reason, go mad. 
 
 PoEOEE de la laine (old Fr.), to pick 
 or tease wool (Cotgrave), as if to do 
 violence to it, was perhaps originally 
 to divide it by forces or shears, which 
 word is a contraction (forp'ces) of Lat. 
 forpices. 
 
 Fou, a name for the beech-tree in 
 prov. and old French (as if " fool "), is 
 a corrupt form oifau, fr-om Lat. fagus. 
 
 Feeitag, the German name of Fri- 
 day, as if " Free-day," Mid. High Ger. 
 vritac, is properly the Day of the old 
 Icelandic goddess Fria or Frigg. 
 
 Frett, the German name of the 
 ferret, a contracted form (compare Fr. 
 furet. It. fmetto, Mid. Lat. fwretus, a 
 little thief,/Mr), assimilated probably to 
 
 the verb fretten, fressen, to eat or de- 
 vour. 
 
 Feiedhof, the German word for a 
 grave-yard, as if bearing the beautiful 
 meaning of court (/to/) of peace (fricde), 
 bore originally the prosaic sense of an 
 enclosed place around the church (cf. 
 einfrieden, to enclose), from friede 
 (in-ide). Mid. High Ger. mitlwf [irova 
 miten, to preserve, Goth, freidjan, to 
 spare). The form freithof was in use 
 in the 16th century, and stiU survives 
 in South Germany (Andresen). 
 
 Fkiedeichsdoe, Wilhelmsdoe, so 
 written instead of Friederichdor, &c., 
 as if dor meant a coin, from a misun- 
 derstanding oi Louisdor (■^ Louis-d'or). 
 — Andresen. 
 
 Fbingalb (Fr.), a corruption of /aim- 
 valle, which see. 
 
 FuMAET, used as a Fr. name for the 
 polecat {putois), and supposed to be 
 descriptive of the fur>ie {fumie) or of- 
 fensive odour that it exhales (so Addi- 
 tions to Littre, p. 367), is really a cor- 
 ruption of Eng. foumart or foul-mart. 
 See Fulmeede, p. 132. 
 
 FuMiEE, French for a dimg-hill. It. 
 fumiere, so spelt as if from fume. It. 
 fumo, liat.fum/iis, reek, smoke, fume, is 
 really from Lat. fimvas, filth, dung, old 
 Fr. femier. 
 
 Chien sur son fumier est hardi. 
 
 French Prmerb. 
 
 FtJEzoG, in Mid. High Ger. a corrup- 
 tion of pforzich, which is from Lat. 
 porticus (Andresen). 
 
 G. 
 
 Gaillet (Fr.), rennet, apparently a 
 diminutival form Uke cachet, sachet, 
 mollet, is a corruption of eaille-lait, 
 " curdle-mflk." 
 
 Galantine (Fr.), a cold dish made 
 of minced meat, especially fowl, and 
 jelly, so spelt apparently from an ac- 
 commodation to Lat. galUna (Fr. geUne), 
 a fowl, or to galant, galantin, is a cor- 
 ruption of " gelatine, an excellent white 
 broth made [originally] of the fish 
 Maigre " (Cotgrave), Low Lat. galatina. 
 Compare Ger. gallert, gelatine. 
 
GANSEBIGE 
 
 ( 478 ) 
 
 GLOUTEBON 
 
 Le blanc manger, la valentine. 
 
 Recueil tie Farces, 15th cent., p. 309 
 (ed. Jacob). 
 
 Ganseeich, the German name for 
 the little hardy plant potentilla or 
 wild tansy, as if from gams, a goose, 
 and identical with ganserich, a gander, 
 is in 0. H. Ger. gensinc and grensinc, 
 from grams, a beak or bill, and is found 
 in the older German as grenserich. 
 
 Gaedebcedf, the name given by the 
 French to the Egyptian bird, the 
 Bennu, from its foUowing the plough 
 and living in the cultivated iields, looks 
 like a corruption of its native name 
 dboogerdan ; the change from Vabooger- 
 dan to la hceufga/rdian or hceufgarde, 
 and then to the usual compound form 
 gardebosuf, being by no means impro- 
 bable. 
 
 Gabdine, German word for a cur- 
 tain, as if a hanging to gua/rd against 
 draughts, &c., Fr. garder, is a corrup- 
 tion of Fr. courtine, It. cortina (from 
 Lat. cJiors, an enclosure), through the 
 form gordine, Dutch gordijn (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Garotag, an old High. Ger. corrup- 
 tion of Kartag (i.e. Ka/rfritag, Good 
 Friday, lit. " Mourning Day "), as if it 
 were " preparation day," the eve of a 
 festival (Andresen). See Caee-Sunday, 
 p. 50. 
 
 Gabstige, "nasty, filthy," as applied 
 popularly in German to gastric fever, 
 is a corruption of gastrische (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 Gadle Haut, as it were " High 
 Pole," an old term in legal French for 
 the first day of August, is quoted by 
 Hampson (Medii Aevi Kalendarium, 
 vol. ii. p. 182) from a Patent EoU, 42 
 Hen. III. " Le Dimenge prochein apres 
 la gaule haut." It is a corruption of 
 La Ooule d'Aout, Low Lat. Gula 
 Augusti (Throsd of Axignst), a mediaeval 
 date-name of doubtful origin (vid. 
 Spehnan, Olossarhvm, s.v.). Compare 
 A. Sax. ge6la, "yule." 
 
 Gaunee, a rogue or swindler in 
 German, is connected neither with gau, 
 country, nor Low Ger. gau, quick (cf. 
 gaudieb, a pick-pocket), but is of gipsy 
 origin and stands for jauner ( Andre - 
 sen). 
 
 Geanmchnu, an Irish word for a 
 chestnut, evidently from geanmnmdh, 
 chaste, and cnu, nut, from a misunder- 
 standing of the Eng. word, as if it were 
 chaste nut, nux casta, instead of nux 
 castanea. 
 
 Gbieepalk, a German word for the 
 jer-falcon or gerfalcon, as if com- 
 pounded with geier, a vulture, is a cor- 
 ruption of the more correct form ger- 
 falk. 
 
 Gelag, \ a banquet or symposium 
 Gelage, J in German, a word having 
 all the appearance of being derived 
 from liegen, to lie {recumbere), was 
 originally gelach, geloch. Low Ger. 
 gelahe, from lach, laahe, a banquet, a 
 token (Andresen). 
 
 Geschiee. The French phrase faAre 
 honne chare has been transformed in 
 German into gut Geschirr machen, to 
 make good gear (or equipage). — Andre- 
 sen. 
 
 GroviAi. (It.), pleasant, jolly, appa- 
 rently born under the happy planet 
 Oiove, Jupiter, but perhaps really de- 
 rived from giova/re (Lat. juvare), to 
 please, be agreeable, or dehght(Florio). 
 — Scheler, s.v. Jovial. 
 
 Gletsohee, a Germanized form of 
 Fr. glacier, as if connected with glatt, 
 smooth, slippery ; sometimes spelt glM- 
 scher. Compare glatteis, glassy ice (~ 
 Fr. verglas). 
 
 Gliedmaszbn, a German word sup- 
 posed to have originally denoted the 
 measivre {masz) or length of the limls 
 (gUed), but generally restricted iu 
 meaning to the arms and legs, the 
 hands and fingers, in respect to their 
 " lithenesB " and efliciency. Low Ger. 
 ledematen, is said to be corrupted from 
 O. Norse Udhamot, the juncture of the 
 limbs (from mot, meeting, cf. Eng. 
 "meet," Low Ger. moten). Lidhamot 
 may itself be a corruption of 0. H. Ger. 
 Uhhamo, the body. 
 
 Glouteeon (Fr.), the bur, so spelt as 
 if the name referred to its property of 
 cleaving or sticking to a person's clothes 
 like glue (Lat. gluten), formerly spelt 
 gleteron and glatferon, the Clote bur 
 (Cotgrave), is a modification of old Fr. 
 gleion, cleton, from Ger. Mette, Flem. 
 
GODAILLE 
 
 ( 479 ) 07BO.FALOO 
 
 UU (Seheler). Compaxe Eng. Olot 
 Bwre (Gerarde, p. 664). 
 
 GoDAiLLE (Fr.),'atoping or drinking- 
 bout (godailler, to tope), is a naturalized 
 form of Eng. good ale (old Fr. goudale, 
 godalejyhy assimilation to gogaille,{east- 
 ing, good cheer, and other substantives 
 in -ailie. In the Bordelais patois go%id- 
 ah is a mixture of wine and houillon. 
 It has no connexion with godet, a 
 drinMng-glass. Rabelais has goud- 
 fallot, a boon companion, a " good 
 fellow " (Cotgrave). Compare redin- 
 goie, from Eng. " riding-coat." 
 
 GoGCELiN (Fr.), a goblin, a sailors' 
 corruption of gohelin (from Low Lat. 
 colalv^, Greek Jcuhalos), as if from 
 gogues, merriment, wantonness, a frolic- 
 some spirit (Scheler). 
 
 GOURME DE CHAMBBE (Fr.), One of the 
 inferior officers of the household of the 
 dukes of Bretagne, is a transposed form 
 of old Fr. gramme, Flem. grom, Eng. 
 groom, and has no connexion with 
 gourme, affected gravity, stiffness, 
 gounner, to curb. 
 
 Geavicbmbalo, an Ital. word for a 
 musical instrument(Florio), apparently 
 compounded with grave, solemn, grave, 
 is a corruption of clavicembalo, from 
 Lat. clavicymhalum, a cymhalum, or 
 resonant instrument, furnished with 
 keys, elaves. Hence also Sp. claveoim- 
 lano, Fr. clavedn. 
 
 Griffel, a German word for a 
 style, slate-pencil, &c., as if connected 
 with gi^ff, a grip, grasp, greifen, to 
 seize, is a corrupted form of grapMum, 
 Mid. Lat. graphius, a writing imple- 
 ment. 
 
 Grimoirb (Fr.), a conjuring-book, 
 seems to be an assimilation to Scand. 
 grima, a ghost (whence Prov. Fr. gri- 
 itiarre, a sorcerer, and grimace), of old 
 Fr. gramare, i.e. gramrrudre, literature 
 (Greek grdmmata), esp. the study of 
 Latiu, then mystic lore. Compare 
 Eng. gramcury (Genin, Littre). 
 Aussi, a-il leu le grimoire. 
 Mautre P. Pathelin, Recueil tie Farces, 
 loth cent. p. 20 (ed. Jacob). 
 
 Here one MS. has gramai/re; some 
 editions grandmcdre. 
 
 Geoszdank !" great-thanks," "gra- 
 
 mercy," a Swabian corruption oigrusz- 
 darik, from grwaz, greeting (Andresen). 
 
 GRTJNDONNEKSTAa, or Gruner Bon- 
 nerstag, " Green Thursday," a German 
 name for Maundy Thursday, or Thurs- 
 day in Passion Week, it has been 
 conjectured is a corruption of the Low 
 Lat. carena (Fr. careme, from guadra- 
 gena, guad/ragesima, theforty days' fast), 
 Lent, as if the Thursday in Lent par 
 excellence (Adelung) ; just as der Krirni- 
 me Mittwoch (Crooked Wednesday) 
 is said to be a popular corruption of 
 Careme Mittwoch. In that case the 
 Low Lat. name of the day Dies Viri- 
 ddum, Day of Greens, must be a trans- 
 lation of the German word. 
 
 GuAEDiNFANTE, \ an Itahan word for 
 Gttaedanfantb, J a woman's hoop 
 (Baretti), seems to be a corruption of 
 vertugadin (va/rdingard), understood as 
 fantingajrd(t). See Farthingale, p. 
 116. 
 
 GuiDEEDONE (It.), old Fr. guerredon. 
 Low Lat. widerdormm, are corruptions, 
 influenced by Lat. donv/iJi, of O. H. 
 Ger. tvidarlun, recompense (Diez). 
 
 GuiGNE (Fr.), the black-heart cherry, 
 is an assimilation to such words as 
 gwigner, guignon, of old Fr. guisne 
 (" termed so because at first they came 
 out of Guyenne." — Cotgrave), for gui- 
 sine (Wallach. visine. It. visciola), all 
 apparently from O. H. Ger. wihsela, 
 Mod. Ger. weichsel (Scheler). 
 
 GuiLLAUME (Fr.), the name Wil- 
 liam, used as " a nickname for a gull, 
 dolt, fop, foole " (Cotgrave), from an 
 imagined connexion with gmlle, be- 
 guiled, gvAller, to cozen or deceive. 
 So Owilnvin, a noddy. 
 
 GuiLLEDiN (Fr.), a gelding, is a 
 Frenchified form of Eng. gelding, as- 
 similated to guiller, guilleret, gay, &c. 
 
 GwEDDW, used in Welsh for a widow, 
 more properly for an unmarried or 
 single person, nubile, apparently from 
 gweddu, to yoke, to wed, gwedd, a yoke, 
 is in all probability only an adaptation 
 of the Eng. widow, Lat. vidua. 
 
 Gyro-falco, a Low Latin name for 
 the ger-falcon (q.v.), as if from the Lat. 
 gyrus, and called from its gyrating 
 movements in the air, like the Greek 
 
EAABBAUGE ( 480 ) 
 
 EAMABT0L08 
 
 Mrkos, a falcon of circling fliglit, is 
 probably corrupted from giero-falco, =: 
 hiero-falco. See Ger-falcon, p. 140. 
 
 H. 
 
 Haabeauch, also HeerroMch, Heide- 
 rauch, MSlienrauch, German words for 
 a thick fog, as if a hai/r-, host-, heath-, or 
 high; fog, are aU, according to Andre- 
 sen,oorrupted from an original heiroMch 
 (lieat-reek), where hei is equated with 
 Gk. haio. 
 
 Hache Boyallb, " Eoyal Axe " (Fr. 
 hache, axe), an old French name for 
 "The AffodU or Asphodill flower; 
 especially (the small , kind thereof 
 called) the spear for a king" (Cotgrave), 
 seems to be a corruption of its other 
 name haste royall (Fuchs, 1547), Lat. 
 Hastula Begia, king's spea/r (Gerarde, 
 1597, p. 88), so called from its long 
 pointed leaves, whence it was also 
 named Xiphium (sword-plant). 
 Bright crown imperial, kingspear, holy- 
 hocks. 
 B. Jonson, Pan's Anniversary, 1625. 
 
 Hades, the Greek word (^'Ai^ijc) for 
 the state of the dead, the underworld, 
 and sometimes the grave, as if " The 
 Unseen World " (from d, not, and iStiv, 
 to see). There is some reason, how- 
 ever, to believe that it may have been 
 borrowed from the Assyrian, in which 
 language HedA is used for the general 
 assembly of departed spirits. Thus, in 
 the Legend of the Descent of Ishtar to 
 Hades she is represented as going down 
 to 
 The House where all meet : the dwelling of 
 
 the god Irkalla : 
 The House [from] which those who enter it, 
 
 never come out : 
 The Road which those who travel it, never 
 
 return. 
 
 Column i. 11. 4-6. 
 
 Hades is here called Bit Hedi, " the 
 Houseof Assembly " (of. Heb. eddh, mj), 
 
 assembly), i.e. the appointed rendez- 
 vous of the spirits of all flesh, just as 
 in Job XXX. 23, it is called BMh Moid, 
 " the house of assembly for all living." 
 Similarly Mr. Fox Talbot thinks that 
 the Greek Erehos is derived from the 
 Assyrian Bit Ertbus, " the house of 
 darkness " (lit. of the entry (r: setting) 
 
 of the sun, from Erih, to enter), and 
 Acheronirora the Hebrew Acharim, the 
 West, the last (Society of BWical 
 Archaeology, Transactions, vol. ii. pt. i. 
 p. 188 ; vol. iii. pt. i. p. 125). 
 
 With this meaning of Hades com- 
 pare the following lines : — 
 This world's a citty full of straying- streetes, 
 And death's the market-place, where each 
 one meetes. 
 
 TJie Two Noble Kinsmen, act i. sc. 5, 
 11. 15, 16 (ed. Littledale). 
 
 See note in loco, where I have ad- 
 duced several instances of this passage 
 having been used on tombstones. 
 Another form of the same word may 
 be Aita, Hades, the Pluto or King of 
 the Shades in the Etruscan mythology, 
 whose majestic figure, with his name 
 attached, has been discovered in the 
 wall paintings of the Grotto deU' Oreo 
 at Cometo (see Dennis, Cities amd, 
 Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. i. p. 350, 
 ed. 1878). 
 
 Hagee-falk (Ger.), a species of fal- 
 con, as if from hager, thin, lean, is a 
 corruption of Prov. Ger. haga/rt-falk, 
 French haga/rd, the falcon that lives in 
 the wood or hedge (hag), and so is 
 wild, untamed. See Haggard, p. 158. 
 
 Hagestolz, a curious German term 
 for an old bachelor, in its present form 
 suggestive of stoh, pride, foppishness, 
 stiltedness, &c., has its true origin shown 
 in the Mid. High Ger. hagestalt, old 
 Sax. hagastold (Angl. Sax. hagu- or 
 haga-steald, "unmarried soldier "), i.e. 
 in den Hag gestellten, quartered 
 amongstthe youngunmarried retainers 
 of the castle, in their special "hedge" 
 or enclosure (Andresen). 
 
 Hahn, the German name for the 
 cock of a gun, is, Mr. Wedgwood sug- 
 gests (s.v. CocJe), a misunderstanding 
 of the Enghsh word. Cock, anjfthing 
 that sticks abruptly up, is probably 
 another form of cog, an indentation, 
 It. cocca, Fr. coche. 
 
 Hakenbuchse (Ger.). Andresen 
 (Volhsetymologie) denies that this is a 
 corruption of " arquebuse," It. archi- 
 huso, and maintains that it bears its 
 proper meaning on its face, a gun 
 secured with a hook. 
 
 Hamaetolos, a name sometimes 
 given to the rm-al police or local 
 
EANGE-MATTE 
 
 ( 481 ) 
 
 EEBODE 
 
 militia of Tliessaly, as if a "sinner," is a 
 transposition of the letters of the word 
 Eamafulos, a man-at-arras (Tozer, 
 Besearches in Highlands of Turhey, 
 vol. ii. p- 46). 
 
 Hange-matte (Ger.), a corruption 
 of ha/nwiwcl; as if a suspended mat, 
 Dutch hangmak, Fr. hamac, Sp. ha- 
 maca, It. amdca, all from a native 
 American word hamaca. 
 
 Hantwebc, handiwork, was fre- 
 quently confounded with, and usurped 
 the place of antweix, a machine (from 
 entwurken), in Mid. High German 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Happe-chaie, a "grip-flesh," a popu- 
 lar French word for a hailiff or pohce- 
 man (Uke Eng. " catch-poll "), is the 
 sameword staWaHonhappechw); greedy, 
 gluttonous, Flemish hapschaer, a 
 bailiff, one ready to seize, from happen, 
 to seize. Ghair, therefore, merely 
 represents the termination -schaer. 
 Compare Ger. hascher, a constable, 
 from haschen, to seize (Sigart). 
 
 Haepe (Greek), apTnj (Nicander), 
 a sickle-shaped sword, is a Greeized 
 form of the Egyptian ha/rpu := Heb. 
 oherelh (DeUtzsoh, Gonim. on Joh, vol. 
 ii. p. 361). 
 
 HABiJBEL, a vulgar corruption in 
 German of horrihel, horrible, as we 
 might say hyr-evil. 
 
 Hasehaet, a Middle High German 
 form otHaswrd (prob. Arnh.al zor, the 
 game of dice), with some thought of 
 hose, a hare, according to the old 
 couplet which thus warns the dice- 
 hunter, 
 
 Swer disem hasen jaget nach 
 Dem ist g^n himehich niht gkch. 
 
 Some, however, see in it rather the 
 word hass, hafred, envy (Andresen). 
 
 Hate-levee, a Wallon word for a 
 piece of toasted bacon, apparently 
 " dressed-in-haste " {levee k la hate). 
 It was originalLy from Flemish lever, 
 Kver, and hasten, to roast or grill, and 
 denoted a shoe of pig's Uver grilled 
 (Sigart). Compare Hastener, p. 163. 
 
 Haussiere (Fr.), a rope, so spelt as 
 if derived from hausser, to raise or Uft, 
 sometimes spelt hansiere, is borrowed 
 from Eng. hcmser or halser, from halse, 
 
 to clew up a sail, Icel. hdlsa, derived 
 from Scand. hals, (1) a neck, (2) the 
 tack of a sail, the end of a rope. (See 
 Skeat, s.v. Hawser). 
 
 Hebamme, German word for a mid- 
 wife, as if compounded with amine, a 
 nurse. Mid. High Ger. hevamme, is cor- 
 rupted from O. H. Ger. hevanna, from 
 hefjan (heben, heave), to lift or raise 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Hebeieu, curiously used in the old 
 Fr. phrase, " II entend VHebrieu, He is 
 drunk, or (as we say) learned : (from the 
 Ajialogy of the Latine word Ehrhis)." — 
 Cotgrave. 
 
 The following is quoted in N. and Q. 
 4th S. ii. 42 :— 
 
 Je suis le docteur toujours ivre, 
 
 Notus inter Sorbonicos ; 
 
 Je u'ai j:imais lu d'autre livre 
 
 Qu' Kpistolam ad Ebtios. 
 
 Ehrceus is an old form of Heh-ceva ; 
 cf. PalstafTs " Ebrew Jew." 
 
 Hedbrich, a German name for tlae 
 plant ground-ivy, as if compounded, 
 says Andresen, with the common ter- 
 mination -rich, is corrupted from Lat. 
 hederaceus, from hedera, ivy. 
 
 Heimakoma, a, colloquial Icelandic 
 word for erysipelas, as if from heim, 
 home, and dhoma, eruption, is a cor- 
 ruption of the proper word dma (see 
 Oleasby, p. 43). 
 
 Helfant, \ Mid. High Ger. words 
 Helfbntiee, J for the elephant, from 
 
 which they are corrupted, as if the 
 
 helping beast (Andresen). 
 
 Hellebaede, the German name for 
 a halberd or battle-axe, as if a " shear- 
 beard," or " cleave-aU," seems to be a 
 corrupted form of helm-harde, from 
 hehn, a helve or handle (Swiss halmi), 
 and harte, a broad axe, " an axe with 
 a handle." In older German the 
 word appears as helm-pairten, " helmet- 
 crusher." Fr. hallebreda, a tall, ill- 
 made man, seems to be a humorous 
 perversion of the Fr. form of the word, 
 halleharde. 
 
 Herode. In the French province of 
 Perigord the wild hunt is called " La 
 chasse Herode," from a confusion of 
 the name of Herodias, the murderess 
 of John the Baptist, with Hrodso, i.e. 
 the renowned, a surname of Odin the 
 
 I I 
 
HEBBSGEAFT 
 
 ( 482 ) 
 
 JOBDEMOBEB 
 
 "Wild Huntsman (Kelly, Gwriosif/iBS of 
 Indo-Europ. Trad/ition, p. 280). An 
 old ecclesiastical decree mentions the 
 diabolical illusion that witches could 
 ride a-nights with Diana the goddess 
 of the Pagans, or with Heroddas, or 
 Benzoria, and an innumerable multi- 
 tude of women (Du Cange, s.v. Diana). 
 See Douce, Illustrations of Shahspere, 
 p. 236 (ed. 1839) ; Wright, Introd. to 
 Proceedings ogaAnst Dame AUoe Kyteler 
 (Camden Soc.)- 
 
 Herkschaft, dominion, lordship, in 
 German, as if directly from herr, lord, 
 is shown by the Mid. High Ger. form ^ 
 herschaft to be a derivative of her. 
 Mod. Ger. hehr, exalted, high. 
 
 Hedredx (Fr.), happy, lonheur, good 
 fortune, so spelt as if connected with 
 heur, ionne hewr. However, the old 
 French forms eilreiix, eur, aur (ban- 
 aur), with their congeners the Proven- 
 gal aiiros, "Wallon aweure,v/ra, It.wia, 
 show that the original in Latin is not 
 hora, but augv/rivmi. 
 
 Hle-bae^e, an Icelandic corruption, 
 as if from hie, shelter, lee, and ha/r^r, is 
 a corruption of leopard, O. Eng. lihba/i-d, 
 Lat. leo-pardus, but apphed indis- 
 criminately to a bear, wolf, or giant 
 (Cleasby). 
 
 HoNGEE, the French word for a 
 gelding {cantherius). According to 
 Wachter it originated in a misunder- 
 standing of the Teutonic word wallach, 
 a gelding, as if it denoted a special 
 class of horses brought from Walachia 
 or Hungary, " The Hungarian horse." 
 Compare Swedish vallack, a gelding, 
 vallacha, to geld, connected, doubt- 
 less, with old Swed. galla, Ger. geilen, 
 O. Norse gelda, to geld, Lat. gallus, 
 Greek gdllos, a eunuch. 
 
 HoEEEOE, a Wallon corruption of 
 erreu/r, while curiously enough the 
 Liege folk use erreur for hatred, aver- 
 sion (Sigart). 
 
 HtJFLATTiCH, a German name for the 
 plant colt's-foot (tussilago), as if from 
 huf, hoof, and lattich, lettuce (lactucd), 
 Andresen thinks may be really derived 
 from Mid, Lat. lapatica {■=. lapacium, 
 or lapatMum, sorrel). 
 
 HiJFTHGEN, the German word for a 
 bugle or hunting-horn, as if the horn 
 
 which, hanging from the shoulder, 
 rests on the hip, hiifie, is otherwise 
 and better written hifthorn, which is 
 for hiefhm-n, from Old High Ger. liiu- 
 fan, to shout ; compare hief, a bugle- 
 note (Andresen). 
 
 Ignel (old Fr.), swift, impetuous, 
 seems to be an assimilation of old Fr. 
 isnel, inel (Prov. isnel, It. snello, 0. H. 
 Ger. snel, warlike, whence would come 
 esnel), to Lat. igneus [ignitellus), as if 
 the meaning were "fiery." 
 
 U fort runcin, u g^rant destrer igtixL 
 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 1421 (see 
 Atkinson, in loco). 
 [Either a strong rouncie or a great swiiit war- 
 horse.] 
 
 Incantaee (It.), to sell by auction, 
 as if from Lat. incantare, is from Lat. 
 in quantum. How much (do you bid) ? 
 Hence also old Fr. enguamter, en- 
 chanter ; ineant, encani, an outcry of 
 goods (Cotgrave), Mod. Fr. encam, Ger. 
 
 Incinta (It.), Low Lat. incincta, Fr. 
 enceinte, pregnant, as if from a Latin 
 incincta, ungirt, wearing one's clothes 
 loose (or zond solutd, devirginated) ; 
 BO Diez. Halla/rse en cinta is the 
 Spanish equivalent for "being in the 
 family way." 
 
 The true origin, probably, is Lat. 
 inciens, incientis, breeding, pregnant, 
 Greek englcuos. 
 
 Iveogne, "drunkard," the Wallon 
 name of the plant artemisia ahrotamum, 
 is the same word as Fr. aurone (awone), 
 popular Fr. vrogne, from Lat. ahroio- 
 nwm. 
 
 Janiteices, in Latin the wives of 
 two brothers, a corrupted form of the 
 Gk. tlvarkpig. 
 
 Janizaeies, from Turkish yeni cheri, 
 " new soldiers," sometimes supposed 
 to be from jairvaa, as if janitors, door- 
 keepers, like usher, Fr. hwissier, from 
 huis (door). Vid. Spelman, Glossary, 
 s.v. AdmvissionaUs. 
 
 JoEDEMODEK, the Danish word for a 
 
JTJAN-TEAYST 
 
 ( 483 ) 
 
 EAULBABSGH 
 
 midwife, as if " earth-mother," Swed. 
 jorde-gumma, is in all probability a 
 corruption of jodmoder, j6d being the 
 0. Norse word for child-birtb. 
 
 J0AN-TBAYST, the Mans name of 
 the Jack-daw, is evidently a ludicrous 
 misrendering of the English word, as 
 if it were " Jack-dough," Juan being 
 the familiar of John, and teayst, dough 
 (Welsh toes, Irish taos). 
 
 Just am end, a popular German cor- 
 nption of Pr. justement (M. G-aidoz, 
 Berne Oriiique, 19 Aout, 1876, p. 119). 
 
 K. 
 
 Kala pani, " black water," the name 
 given by Hindus to the sea or ocean, 
 on which they have a religious aversion 
 to embark, is a corruption of the proper 
 expression Tehdra pard, " salt water," 
 (Monier WUliams). 
 
 Kala Panee, or " the Black Water," is the 
 term familiarly applied to the " beyond the 
 sea," to which mdian convicts are usually 
 banished, if their sentence is one of imprison- 
 ment for life. — The Monthly Packet, New 
 Ser. ix. 585. 
 
 Kaman, in Hindustani, a " command," 
 is an assimilation of the borrowed Eng. 
 word to Teaman, a cannon or bow, ha- 
 mdnd, to perform. Similar adaptations 
 are Hind. Tcalisa, a Christian church, of 
 Sp. iglesia, Lat. ecclesia ; hdlbud, the 
 last for a boot, of Greek halopodion, a 
 "wood-foot;" kdmij (or qamiz), a shirt 
 or shift, of Lat. camisia (Fr. chemise). 
 So dafiar, a record, from Greek diph- 
 thera, a skin or parchment ; and appa- 
 rently Mia, a halo or circle round the 
 moon, from Eng. halo, Greek holds, 
 perhaps associated with hdl, the tire of 
 a whBel. 
 
 Kameel-blomstee, " Camel-flower," 
 the Danish name of camomile, or 
 chamomile, Lat. chammmelon, of which 
 word it is a corruption. 
 
 Kammebtdch, " Chamber-cloth," a 
 German word for fine lawn, as if from 
 Minmer, a chamber, is a corruption of 
 hamerieh, Dutch kamerijk, " cambric," 
 from the French town Canibray (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Kampekfoeli, a Dutch word for the 
 
 woodbine (Sewel), as if connected with 
 lcam.per, a warrior, hampen, to combat, 
 is a corruption of the Latin name 
 caprifolium, Fr. chevrcfeuille (of. Ger. 
 geiss-blatt). 
 
 EIapp-hahn, or Kapp-huhn, a capon, 
 an ingenious naturalization in German 
 of Lat. capo{n). Low Ger. hapun, as if 
 a each that has been cut, from happen, 
 to cut or castrate (Andresen). 
 
 Kapp-zaum, a German word for a 
 species of curb for a horse, as if a 
 severe bridle, from happen, to cut, and 
 zaum, a bridle, is corrupted from Fr. 
 cavegon. It. cavezzana, " a cauezan, a 
 headstraine "(Florio), Sp. ca6efo%,from 
 edbega, the head ; Eng. caveson, a kind 
 of bridle put upon the nose of a horse 
 in order to break and manage him 
 (BaUey). 
 
 Kaefunkel, the carbuncle, a Ger- 
 manized form of Lat. carbunculus, as 
 i£ irom funkeln, to sparkle. 
 
 Kaephea, a Greek word meaning dry 
 sticks, which Herodotus (iii. Ill) ap- 
 phes to cinnamon, may perhaps repre- 
 sent its Arabic name herfat, hirfah 
 (Lidell and Scott). 
 
 Katzball, a German name for the 
 game of tennis or the ball used in the 
 game, as if from hatze, cat (Holstein 
 kdeball), is no doubt from Dutch 
 haats, i.e. Fr. chasse, a hunt (Andre- 
 sen). Compare Netherland. haetsbal, 
 haeisspel, tennis, haetsen, to play at ball, 
 haetsnet, a racket (Ohnger). 
 
 ELatzenbldme, " Cat-flower," a popu- 
 lar corruption of hdseblume, " cheese- 
 flower " (cf. our " butter-cup "), a Ger- 
 man name for the anemone nemorosa or 
 wind-blv/me (Grimm, Deutsches Wor- 
 terhuch, s.v.). 
 
 Katzenjammee, " Cat's-misery," a 
 German word for crapulence, derange- 
 ment of the stomach, is said by Andre- 
 sen to have been originally formed from 
 Gk. katarrh. Compare Scot, catter for 
 catarrh, and vulgar Eng. cat =: vomere, 
 Ger. hotzen. 
 
 Kaulbaesoh, and Kaulkopf, German 
 names for the ruff fish and miller's 
 thumb, as if from their frequenting 
 holes {haul. Low Ger. hule, a hole), 
 are really derived from keule, a club. 
 
KETTE 
 
 ( 484 ) 
 
 EUSSEN 
 
 Kette, a term applied by sportsmen 
 in Germany to a covey of birds {kette 
 Huhner), as if a ckain (Itette) or con- 
 tinued flight of them, woiild more 
 correctly be hltte or Tciitte (preserved ia 
 the S. German dialects), 0. H. Ger. 
 chutti, a flock, troop, or herd (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 KHART0MMIM, the name given by 
 Moses to the Egyptian magicians {e.g. 
 Gen. xh. 8), understood to mean 
 "sacred scribes," as if from Heb. 
 hheret, a pen or stylus (Smith, Bib. 
 Diet. vol. ii. p. 198), in spite of its 
 Hebrew complexion is the same word 
 as the Egyptian Klia/r-toh, " the 
 Warrior," the name borne by the high- 
 priests of Zor-Eamses, at Zoan 
 (Brugsoh, Egypt under the Thairaohs, 
 vol. ii. p. 354). 
 
 Klaee, an antiquated German word 
 for the white of an egg, as if the clear 
 (klar) part, also eierldar, is derived, 
 according to Grimm, from Eng. glair, 
 Fr. glaire, if indeed both sets of words 
 are not of a common origiu. 
 
 KoDER, a bait, lure (formerly quer- 
 der, gua/rder, queder, O. H. Ger. quer- 
 dar, a worm, a bait), when applied to a 
 cross-seam in an article of dress, or the 
 smaU leather thong of boots and shoes, 
 as in some parts of Germany, is a con- 
 fusion of querder, quarder, with the 
 word qua/rtier (Andresen). 
 
 KoHLEBEATEE, " Oabbage-roaster," a 
 humorous perversion in poptdar Ger- 
 man speech of the word collaborator. 
 
 KoNiNG, the Dutch word for a 
 king, as if the man of knowledge, 
 Swed. koniing, Eunic himwng, 0. Sax. 
 cuning, less correct forms than 0. Eng. 
 cyning, son of the kin. See King, 
 p. 204. In Icelandic poetry, honungr 
 is regarded as standing for hotvr ungr, 
 "young noble." 
 
 KoPFNUSZ, 1 in German, a blow on 
 KopPNiissE, / the head, as if com- 
 pounded with nusz, a nut, is from O. 
 H. Ger. wiozan, to hit or push, Prov. 
 Ger. nussen and nutzen (Andresen). 
 
 Khankieu, a M'^allon word appHed to 
 crooked trees and rickety children, as 
 if from Ger. hranh, sick (Eng. cranky), 
 is probably identical with Liege cran- 
 cMe, used in the same sense, which is 
 
 derived from Fr. chan&reux, cankered 
 (Sigart). 
 
 Keiechb, 7 German words for 
 Keiechente, ) the teal orfen-duek, 
 as if from krieclien, to creep, is for 
 krickente, from Low Ger. kricke {anas 
 crecca), probably referring to the cry of 
 the bird (Andresen). 
 
 Keus-floe, a word for crape in 
 Danish and Swedish, as if a compound 
 of Dan. kruse, Swed. krusa, to curl or 
 crisp, and flor, gauze, is in aU proba- 
 bUity a naturahzed form of 0. Pr. 
 crespe (Mod. Fr. crepe), from Lat. 
 crispus, lit. the crisped or wavy mate- 
 rial, and so stands for oresp-flor, 
 another form of the word in Danish 
 being krep-jlor, i.e. crepe-flor. Compare 
 Ger. krausflar. 
 
 KuGELHOPF, a word iu some parts of 
 Germany for a hood-shaped sort of 
 pastry, as if from kugel, a ball or bullet, 
 and fiopfien), hops, is really, according 
 to Andresen, from kugel, zn Lat. oucut- 
 lus, a hood, and liefe, Bav. Aep/e», yeast, 
 barm. 
 
 KaMMBLBLATTCHBN, "Oummiu-leaf," 
 a popular name for the trick with three 
 cards with which sharpers cheat country 
 bumpkins in Germany, is said by An- 
 dresen to be a corruption of gimel- 
 blattchen, i.e. "Three leaflets" (or 
 cards), gimel, the third letter of the 
 Hebrew alphabet, being used in the 
 Gipsy language for three. 
 
 KiJNiHAS (so. Konighase), "King- 
 hare," a German dialectic word. Mid. 
 High Ger. hilnigel, a rabbit, as if con- 
 nected with kiinec, konig, a king, are 
 corruptions of Lat. cumiculus. Other 
 perversions are kiiniglein and kar- 
 nickel (Andresen). The resemblance 
 of Flemish koniru), king, to komyn, 
 rabbit, has produced a similar play of 
 words in an old Eng. poem (temp. 
 Ed. L) :— 
 
 We shule flo the Conyng ant make roste is 
 loyne. 
 Political Songs, p. 191 (Camden Soc). 
 [We sliall flay the rabbit (or king).] 
 
 KiissEN (Ger.), a cushion, is a cor- 
 rupt assimilation to kiissen, kissing, of 
 Pr. coussin, It. cuscino, derived 
 through a form culcitinum, from Lat. 
 culcita, a cushion. See Couette. 
 
EUTSGHE 
 
 ( 485 ) 
 
 LENDOBE 
 
 KniscHE (German), "coach,"' the 
 word for a bed used at Ziethen m Prus- 
 sia where a Prenoli colony has been 
 settled, is the German mispronuncia- 
 tion of the French couclie (Bevue des 
 Deux Mondes, Feb. 15, 1876). Ger. 
 hutsche, a hot-bed, is of the same origin 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Laohs, a German word for the 
 sahnon, so spelt as if connected with 
 laehe, a pool or lake, is really the same 
 word as Scand. lax, a salmon. 
 
 Lakeitze (Ger.), hquorice, is a Ger- 
 manized form (cf. ritze, a scratch or 
 chink) of Lat. liquiritia. See Regaliz. 
 
 Lamaneue (Fr.), a pilot, is an assi- 
 milation to gouverneur, a steersman, of 
 old Fr. laman, which, as well as Fr. 
 locfman, has been formed from Dut. 
 hodaman, old Eng. lodesman, lodeman, 
 A. Sax. Idd-man, " way-maB," the man 
 that shows the way, a guide. 
 
 Lambeetsnusz, "Lambert's nut," 
 a German name for the filbert, signi- 
 fied originally the nut from Lombardy, 
 the Lombards (Langobarden), having 
 formerly been called Lampmien (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Lampetea, the modern Latin name 
 of the lamprey (It. lampreda), does not 
 occiir in any classical author. Pliny 
 calls this fish mustela. Dr. Badham 
 observes that the real derivation of 
 this word is our own lamprey through 
 lamprme, lampryon, lampetron, but he 
 is certainly mistaken when he says 
 that lamprey is itself derived from lang, 
 long, a,nd prey, prick, pride, the name of 
 the smaU river fish of the same species 
 (Prose Halieutice, p. 438). Lampeira, 
 as if lamhens petram, "lick-stone," or 
 "suck-stone," is an attempt to make 
 the name of the fish significant of its 
 characteristic habit of attaching itself 
 firmly to stones by its mouth. The 
 original meaning, however, may be 
 traced probably in the Breton lamprez, 
 from lampr, slippery. 
 
 Lantdbei (0. H. German), is for 
 the Latin lahv, as if a land-plague. 
 Compare It. land/ra, slcmdra. 
 
 Lanteenee (Fr.), to talk nonsense, 
 to trifle [lanternes, nonsense, lanter- 
 
 nier, a trifler), has probably nothing to 
 do with the light-giving lanterne. In 
 old French it means to dally, loiter, or 
 play the fool with (Gotgrave), appa- 
 rently from Flem. lenteren, to delay, act 
 lazily (Kilian ; but ? a misprint for leu- 
 teren, to loiter). So It. lanterna/re, to 
 goe loytring about and spend the time 
 in foolish and idle matters (Florio). 
 Compare Flem. lanterfanten, to trifle ; 
 Dut. lanterfanten, to loiter (Sewel) ; 
 lundern, to loiter (Id.) ; Fr. lenJore, 
 O. Fr. land/reux (Bret, landar), idle, 
 lazy. 
 
 Lanzkneohtb, so spelt sometimes in 
 German, as if to denote soldiers armed 
 with a lance (lanze) , is an ignorant cor- 
 ruption of LandsknecJii, a foot-soldier 
 in the service of the lord of the manor 
 [Landesherr), because a lance, as dis- 
 tinguished from a spear (fipiesz), was 
 properly a knightly horseman's 
 weapon. 
 
 Latjte, the German word for a lute, 
 as if connected with laut, sound, is ob- 
 viously the same word as Prov. laut, 
 Sp. laud, Fr. luth, Portg. alaud, Arab. 
 aVud. 
 
 Latjtumi^, a Latin word for a stone- 
 quarry, is a form of latomim, Greek 
 latomia, literally a "stone-cutting" 
 (from lads and tome), assimilated ap- 
 parently, regardless of sense, to the ad- 
 jective lautus, rich, sumptuous. 
 
 Lebktjchen, a German word for 
 gingerbread, so spelt as if having some 
 connexion with lehen, is pleonasticaUy 
 compounded of Lat. Uhum, a cake, and 
 huchen. A Hessian corruption is lech- 
 kuchen, as if "dainty-cake" (cf. Ger. 
 leaker, hokerish, nice). — Andresen. 
 
 Lebsucht, "Life-malady," a fre- 
 quent perversion of the German word 
 lebzucht or leibzucht, maintenance for 
 hfe, jointure, annuity, from zueht, 
 rearing, discipline, breeding (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Leckbezwbig, " licker-twig " or 
 dainty-stick, a name for liquorice found 
 in some of the German dialects, is a 
 corruption of Lat. liquiritia, Greek 
 glukurrhiza, Ger. lakritze. 
 
 Lendoke (Fr.), an idle, drowsy fel- 
 low, is altered from old Pr. landreux 
 (Bret, landar, idle), under the influence 
 
LEPBAGHAUN ( 486 ) 
 
 LUKOKTONOS 
 
 of end/jrmi, sleepy, il endort (Diez). 
 Compare Pioard. lendormi, idle, indif- 
 ferent (Scheler). 
 
 Lbpeachaun, an Anglo-Irish word 
 for a pigmy sprite, Hke a little old man, 
 generally engaged, when discovered, in 
 cobbling a shoe, Irish leHhhhrdgan, as 
 if derived from leith, one, h-og, shoe, an, 
 artificer. Anotherspellingis luprachdin, 
 and the original form is said to be 
 lughchorpdin or luclwrpdn, i.e. "httle- 
 body," from high, Zw, little, and corpdn, 
 bodikin, from corp, a body. 
 
 Ledmund, the German word for re- 
 port, reputation, often understood to 
 be for leutemund, as if from the mouth, 
 mund, of the people, leute (cf. the say- 
 ing, " In der Leute Mund sein "), is 
 really from Mid. High Ger. liumunt, 
 from Goth. hUuma, ear, O. Norse Mwmr, 
 clamour, report (Andresen), O. H. 
 Ger. hlmimunt, :=. Vedic sromata (good 
 report, glory), and near akin to Ger. 
 (ver-)leumdu,ng (calumny), A. Sax. hlem 
 (noise), hlud, "loud," Icel. Human, 
 Lat. dammre, and crimen {croemen, re- 
 port, accusation), inclwtua, oluere, Gk. 
 Aeog, all from the root sru, to hear. 
 (See M. MuUer, OMps, vol. iv.p. 230.) 
 
 Leutnant, a popular German cor- 
 ruption of Ueuienani (Bavarian leu- 
 tenamt), as if from leutn. Children are 
 wont to say " Leutmann" after the 
 analogy of "Hauptmann" ( rz cap- 
 tain). — Andresen. 
 
 LiGNE (Fr.), a hne, for old Fr. Un, 
 Lat. Unu'iih, tinea (so old Fr. linage — 
 Mod. Fr. lignagc, hneage), so spelt 
 from a false analogy to signe, ligneux, 
 woody, regne, where the g is organic 
 (Lat. signum, lignum, regnwn). So 
 ieigne, 0. Fr. fe'.^me, from Lat. imect. On 
 the other hand, in lenin, nialin, for le- 
 nigne, maVgne, the g which should have 
 been preserved has disappeared. Com- 
 pare popular Fr. meugnier, prugmier, 
 ugnion, for meunier, prunier, union (so 
 oignon). — Agnel, Influence clu Lang. 
 Populaire, p. 112. 
 
 LiEBSTOCKEL, the German name of 
 the plant lovage, as if " Love-stock," 
 a corrupted form of Mid. Lat. levisH- 
 cum, lubisticum,, from Lat. ligusticum, 
 the Ligurian plant (Andresen). Com- 
 pare 0. Eng. LUFESTICB. 
 
 LiNDwuEM, a German word for a 
 dragon, as if so called from Unde, the 
 Unden-tree under which Sigfrid killed 
 it, is from Mid. High Ger. lint, a snake, 
 and wv/rm (Grimm). 
 
 LiONCOBNO (It. ) , an Unicome ( Florio ), 
 a corruption of lioeorno, and that of 
 Ucorno (also written aUcorno), all from 
 Low Lat. unicornis; cf. Fr. Ucorne. So 
 It. Kofcmte, an elephant. 
 
 LiQUiEiTiA, a Latin corruption of the 
 Greek gluhwrrhiza (" sweet-root "), 
 liquorice, the last part of the word 
 being assimilated to the common Latin 
 termination, and the first to Ugum\ 
 Hence the curiously disguised words, 
 Fr. reglisse, Wallon ercuUsse. 
 
 Lis de vent (LUy of the wind), an 
 old French term for " A gust or flaw 
 of wind, also an opposition of two con- 
 trary winds " (Cotgrave), seems to be a 
 corrupted form of " Lit du vent, terme 
 de Marine, direction exacte du vent " 
 (Gattel). 
 
 LisoNJA, Spanish and Portuguese, 
 zr flattery, so spelt as if connected with 
 liso, smooth, hke " flatter " from " flat," 
 is really akin to It. lusinga, 0. Fr. 
 losenge, Prov. lauzenga, from lauzm; 
 Lat. laudajre, to praise, laus, praise. 
 
 LdwiN, a name for the avalanche in 
 some parts of Switzerland, as if " the 
 lioness" (Ger. lowinn), is a corruption 
 of the German lawine, Grisons lavina, 
 O. H. Ger. lewina, Fr. lavange, L. Lat. 
 lavina, labina, from Lat. lobes, labor, to 
 slip. 
 Und willst du die sohlafehde Lowin niclit 
 
 wecken, 
 So wandle still durch die Strasse der 
 Sclirecken. 
 
 Schitler, Bergtied. 
 
 The glacier's sea of huddhng cones. 
 Its tossing tumult tranced in wonder ; 
 
 And 'mid mysterious tempest- tones. 
 The huiwlne's sliding thunder. 
 
 Domett, On the Stelvio. 
 
 Lavant, a Sussex word for a violent 
 flow of water, may be related. "The 
 rain ran down the street in a lavant " 
 (Parish). 
 
 Lukokt6nos, Greek (Xw/coKrovoc), "the 
 Wolf- slayer," an epithet of Apollo, ap- 
 pears to have arisen from a confusion of 
 liilios, a wolf, with luhe, Hght, another 
 epithet of the same god being LuMos. 
 
LUNZE 
 
 ( 487 ) 
 
 MAJOBANA 
 
 LtTNZE, a Mid. High Ger. word for a 
 lioness, from a confusion of the name 
 of that animal, lewinne (Ger. lowin), 
 with It. hnza, Fr. once, Ger. unze, the 
 "ounce" (Andresen). 
 
 Ltnotjkium, a Latin name for amber, 
 Greek lunghourion, from lungkds ourds, 
 lynx's urine, so called as if it were 
 lynx's water petrified, is probably a 
 corruption of lingurion, or Kgurium, so 
 named because found originally in 
 Inguria in N. Italy. "Ligure" in 
 Exodus xxviii. 19, translating Heb. 
 leshem (? from lasham, to lick up, at- 
 tract), in the Vulgate is ligurius, in 
 Lxx. Ugurion {see Bible Diet, s.y.; East- 
 wood and Wright, Bible Word-booh, 
 
 B.V.). 
 
 It is said of them [Linxes], that they 
 knowing a cevtaiae vertue in their vrine, do 
 hide it in the sand, and that thereof comraeth 
 a certaine pretious stone called Lifticurium, 
 which for brightnesse resemhleth the Amber. 
 .... But in my opinion it is hut a fable : 
 For Theophrast himselfe oonfesseth that Lyn- 
 citrium, which he caleth Lynguriumj is digged 
 
 out of the earth in L lygiii'ia It is also 
 
 very probable, that seeing this Amber was 
 first of all brought into Greece out of Lyguria, 
 according to the denomination of all strange 
 things, they called it Lyngurium after the 
 name of the country, whereupon the igno- 
 rant Latines did feigne an etimology of the 
 worde Lyncitrium, quasi Lytiris vriaanij and 
 vppon this weaie foundation haue they raised 
 that vaine buildinge. — Topsell, History of 
 Foure-footed Beasts, p. 493 (1608). 
 
 In those countiies where the Onces breed, 
 their urine (after it is made) congealeth 
 into a certain ycie substance, & waxes drie, 
 & so it comes to be a certain pretious stone 
 like a carbuncle, glittering and shining as 
 red as fire, and called it is Lyncurium. — Hoi- 
 kinii, Plinti's Nat. History, torn. i. p. 218 
 (16r34). 
 
 Demostratus cals Amber Lyncurion, for 
 that it commeth of the vrine of the wild beast 
 named Onces or Lynces. — Id. tom. ii. p. 606. 
 
 M. 
 
 Maakklaab. Sewel inhis "PFooriieji- 
 loeh (1708) notes oxi\hewoxdimaakelaar, 
 a broker, a procurer of bargains, " some 
 conceited fellows of that trade, that 
 understand nothing of the true ortho- 
 graphy, wUl write Maakldaair ; just as 
 if the signification of this word was 
 Make clear or ready : But if they had 
 learn'd the Etymology, they might 
 
 know, that this substantive is derived 
 from maahelen after the same manner 
 as halcelaar proceeds from hahelen." 
 
 Macohabees, Danse DBS, an old Fr. 
 name for the Dance of Death, the 
 favourite allegorical representation of 
 the Middle Ages, as if it consisted of 
 the seven Maccabee brothers and their 
 mother, Low Lat. chorea Macchaha- 
 orura (Da Cange), is in aU probability 
 a corruption of danse macabre, i.e. 
 dance of the cemetery or tombs, from 
 Arab. maqdUr, tombs (plu. oiniaqbara), 
 whence also Prov. Span. maca.bes, a 
 cemetery, Portg. al-mocavn.r (Devic). 
 C'est la drnisti des MachabSes, 
 Ou chacun k danger apprend. 
 La Grande Danse Macabre des hommes 
 et desjemmes, 1728. 
 See Nisard, Histovre des LivresPopu- 
 laires, tom. ii. p. 275 seq. 
 
 Maheeettig, " Mare-radish," a pe- 
 dantic attempt made to assimilate the 
 German word meerretig {i.e. the rettig 
 or radish that loves wet, marshy ground, 
 meer) to the English " horse-radish" 
 (Andresen, Volhsetymologie, p. 6). 
 
 MAiN-BOtTENiB, \ old French words 
 
 Main-bonne, j for guardianship, 
 patronage, protection (Cotgrave), so 
 spelt as if derived from maAn, hand, 
 like mmntenance, are corrupted from 
 older Pr. niainbov/r, mambourg, which 
 are adaptations of 0. H. Ger. miontboro, 
 guardian, muntburii, protection, from 
 mv/nt, hand, and beram, to bear. Com- 
 pare A. Sax. mund-bora, L. Lat. mun- 
 diburdus, a guardian (Diez). Similar 
 corruptions are It. mano-valdo for 
 monovaldo, mondualdo, from 0. H. Ger. 
 munt-walt, administrator ; and Sp. 
 mardcordio for monocordio, a mono- 
 chord. 
 
 Main-db-gloirb (French), the man- 
 drake, is a corruption of mandegloire, 
 ma/nhd/ragore (It. mandragola), from Lat. 
 mandragoras. See Hand-of- Glory, p. 
 161. 
 
 MAiN-D'(EUVEE(Fr.), " Workmanship, 
 manual labour," a word curiously in- 
 verted for oeuvre de main (pretty much 
 as if we wrote woo'Tcyhand for hamdy- 
 worh), seems to be an unhappy assimi- 
 lation of that expression to manceuvre. 
 
 Majoeana (Portg.), Sp. mayora-nn.. 
 It. maggiwana, marjoram, are derived 
 
MALADBEBIE 
 
 ( 488 ) 
 
 MASESGHAL 
 
 from Lat. amaracus (? amaracinv/m), 
 but apparently assimilated to major. It. 
 maggiore. 
 
 Maladeeeie (Fr.), an hospital for 
 lepers, is an assimilation of the older 
 foi-m maladerie, house of malades, to 
 lad/rerie, an hospital for the leprous 
 {ladre, one afilictedlike Laza/rus. — Luke 
 xvi. 19). 
 
 Malamoqub, a name that French 
 sailors give to the albatross, as if " ill to 
 mock," it being a bird superstitiously 
 venerated by seamen (see Coleridge's 
 Ancient Mariner], is regarded by 
 Devic as a probable corruption of 
 mameloulc, a mameluke, Arab, mamluk, 
 a slave, with allusion to its dark plu- 
 mage and beak. 
 
 Malheue (Fr.), misfortune, old Pr. 
 mal eiir (malum augwium), spelt with 
 h from an imagined connexion with 
 heure as used in the popular expression 
 a la malhewrel which is really quite 
 distinct (being from mala Tiora). See 
 Heukeux. 
 
 Tant sunt maliiri. 
 
 Vie lie Seint Auban, 1. 354. 
 A la malheure est-il venu d'Espagne. 
 
 Miitiere, UEtourdi, ii. 13. 
 
 Malitoenb (Fr.), gawky, awkward, 
 so spelt as if it meant mal tourne [male 
 tornaivs), ill turned out, badly made, 
 like mal-bati, ill-shaped, is a corruption 
 of mariiorne, a coarse, ugly girl, derived 
 from Maritornes (Scheler; Wheeler, 
 Noted Names of Fiction), the name of 
 a hideous Asturian wench in Bon 
 Quixote, a servant at the inn which the 
 knight mistook for a castle, thus de- 
 scribed : — 
 
 A broad-faced, flat-headed, saddle-nosed 
 dowdy; blind of one eye, and the other 
 Jilmostout. . , . She was not above three 
 i'eet hig-h from her heels to her head; and her 
 shoulders, which somewhat loaded her, as 
 having too much flesh upon them, made her 
 look downwards oftener than she could have 
 wished. — Don QuixiHe, pt. i. ch. 16. 
 
 The Maritornes of the Saracen's Head, 
 Newark, replied. Two women had passed 
 that morning. — Sir W. Scott. 
 
 Mamlat, Hindustani corruption of 
 the EngUsh word omelet, as if it had 
 some connexion with mamlat, muqma- 
 lat, affair or business. 
 
 Mammone, a baboon, according to 
 Diez from Gk. mimo (jufiio ) . If so, it has 
 
 been assimilated to mamma, a nurse or 
 mother, just as It. monna, Sp. nwna, 
 Bret, mouna, a ''monkey," meant 
 originally an old woman, and Fr. 
 guenon, a female ape, is prob. akin to 
 our "quean." 
 
 Mandel, the German word for an 
 almond, an assimilation to the native 
 mandel, a mangle, of prov. Fr. aman- 
 dele, Prov. ahnandola (for amandola), 
 corrupted, with inserted n, from Lat. 
 an 
 
 Mandhaageeskexjid, a corruption of 
 mandragora, used in the Netherlands. 
 Kruid := herb, wort (Ger. hraut). — An- 
 dresen, p. 27. 
 
 Maniooedio (Span, and Portg.), Fr. 
 mamcordion, a musical instrument, a 
 "manichord," as if from manus, is the 
 It. monocordo, Gk. monocJiordon, a one- 
 stringed instrument. 
 
 Maqtjeeeau (French), a pander or 
 go-between, is an assimilation to 
 maqiiereau, a mackerel (0. Fr. makerel, 
 the spotted iish, from Lat. macula, a 
 spot), of Dut. mahelaar, a pander or 
 broker, from makelen, to procure, which 
 is from mahen, to make (Skeat, 
 Scheler). See Maakklaae. 
 
 MAEtE EN caeEme, " Fish in Lent," 
 is a modern French corruption oima/rs 
 en careme, an old proverbial saying 
 dating as far back at least as 1553, " As 
 sure as March is found in Lent" 
 (Genin, Recreations PMlolog. i. 225). 
 
 Rien plus que Mars faut en careme. 
 Proverbes de Jeh. Mielot (15th cent.). 
 
 However, Lamesangere says that tlie 
 two expressions — " Cela arrive comme 
 une maree en careme, ou bien comme 
 Mars en earSme" — must not be con- 
 founded ; the former being used of a 
 thing that comes pat or happens 
 apropos, the latter of that which never 
 fails to happen at a certain time (De 
 Lincy, Proverhes FranqaAs, i. 95). 
 
 Maeeschal (old French), a marshal, 
 It. marescalco (meaning originally no 
 more than a groom, O. H. Ger. 
 maraschalh, a "horse-servant," from 
 marah, a horse (or " mare "), and 
 schalh, a servant), seems to have 
 become a title of honoui- and dignity 
 from an imagined connexion with Lat. 
 martiulis, martial, a follower of Mars, 
 
MABQUETENTE ( 489 ) MENDBAOULA 
 
 with which word it was frequently- 
 confounded. Thus Matt. Paris says 
 that a warlike and active man was 
 called " Marescallus, quasi Martis 
 Senescallus" (p. 601). (See Verstegan, 
 Bestitution of Decayed Intelligence, 
 1634, p. 324.) See Marshall, p. 233. 
 
 Aubau — de la cit6 un haut mareschal. 
 Vie de St. Aubun, I. 21 (ed. Atkinson). 
 
 Divers persons were .... executed by 
 Marshal Law; one .... was brought by 
 the Sheriffs of London and the Knight- 
 Marshal .... to be executed upon a 
 Git)bit. — Howtll, LimdinopoUs, p. 56. 
 
 Vou may compleately martial them in a 
 Catalogue. — Evelifii, Correspondence, p. 614 
 (vepr. 1871). 
 
 Maequetente, ) Wallon words for a 
 
 Maequetainte, j sutler or vivan- 
 diere, are corruptions of Ger. marhe- 
 tender, itself corrupted from It. merca- 
 dante, a chapman or merchant, another 
 form of mei'catavte, from meraatare, to 
 trade, mercato, a market. 
 
 Mastouche (Prov. Fr. of Belgium), 
 the nasturtium, is corrupted from It. 
 mastwrzo, Sp. mastuerzo, wliioh are 
 corruptions of Lat. nnsiw-tiwm, for 
 nasUartium, i.e. "nose-twister," the 
 plant whose hot taste causes one to 
 make wry faces. So Oatalon. morri- 
 iort, "nose-twist," the nasturtium. 
 
 Matha', " death," a Jewish corrup- 
 tion of the mass, or liturgical service 
 (VonBohlen, Genesis, i. 320). 
 
 Mathieu sal^, Vieux commb, a Wal- 
 lon corruption of the phrase " Vieux 
 comme Mathusalem" (Sigart). 
 
 Maulaffb, "Ape-mouth," a German 
 word for a simpleton, is probably a cor- 
 ruption oimaulauf, i.e. "open-mouth," 
 a gaper. Compare Fr. hegueule, iadaud, 
 Greek ehaunos, Prov. Eng. gawney, 
 yawney, gaby, all denoting a gaping 
 booby. 
 
 Madlesel, "I German words for a 
 Maulthibe, / mule, are derived 
 from Lat. mulws, which word, regard- 
 less of meaning, has been transformed 
 into Ger. maul, the mouth. 
 
 Mauleose, a provincial German cor- 
 ruption of malve, the mallow (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Maulsohelle, a box (schelle) on the 
 jaw or chops (maul), a name given to a 
 kind of wheaten cake in Holstein and 
 
 other parts of Germany, is corrupted 
 from Mid. High Ger. muischel (also 
 muntschel, audiinuntschelle), dim. forms 
 of mutsohe (Mod. meize, =: miller's 
 multure or peck). A curious parallel 
 is Fr. tahnouse, (1) a box or blow on 
 the mouth, (2) a cheese-cake. 
 
 Maulwuef, the German name of the 
 mole, as if from its habit of casting 
 {werfen) up earth with its s»iom< (maul), 
 shows its true origin in the older forms 
 moltwHrfe, molfwurfe, i.e. mould-caster, 
 from molt, earth, O. Eng. mouldiwarp. 
 In Low Ger. dialects it is called mul- 
 worm from its living in the earth like a 
 worm, Franconian ma/uraff [mauer- 
 affe ?) . — Andresen. 
 
 With her feete she diggetb, and with her 
 nose casieth awai/e the earth, and therefore 
 such earth is called in Germany irml werff, 
 and in England Molehill. — Topsetl, Historie of 
 Foure-Jooted Beasts, p. 500 (1608). 
 
 Mauvais (Fr.), old Fr. and Prov. mal- 
 vais, It. malvagio, is an assimilation to 
 mal, Lat. mains, of an older word halvais, 
 from 0. H. Ger. halvasi, Goth, halwa- 
 wesis[7), bad, from halwa-wesei, wicked- 
 ness, bahus, evil, akin to bale (Diez ; 
 Diefenbach, i. 272). 
 
 Ki obeissent a Inr maitvois voler. 
 
 Vie de Seint Auban, 1. 1680. 
 [Who obeyed their evil will.] 
 
 Meerkatze, " Sea-cat," a German 
 name for a monkey, as if the long- 
 tailed animal from over sea, is main- 
 tained by some to be a corrupt form of 
 the Sanskrit marhata, an ape (Andre- 
 sen, p. 6). 
 
 Meigeamme, the name of the plant 
 marjoram in Mid. High Ger., as if 
 from Meie, May, is a corruption of 
 Tnajoran, Low Ger. meieran. It. majo- 
 rana, from Lat. amaracum, (Andresen). 
 
 Meliaca (It.), an apricot, is derived 
 from Armeniaca (Diez), the Armenian 
 fruit, but no doubt popularly con- 
 founded with msla, an apple. Florio 
 give a/rmermaco and armelUno, an 
 apricot. 
 
 Mendbacdla, \ Portuguese words 
 MendeXgula, / denoting an aUure- 
 m.ent or enticement, are also used of the 
 mand/)-agora, of which word they are 
 probably corruptions, under the in- 
 fluence of mendoso, lying, mendiga/r, to 
 beg, &c. The mandrake was some- 
 
MEN80NGE 
 
 ( 490 ) 
 
 MIE 
 
 times used as a love-philtre (cf. Gen. 
 XXX. 15). 
 
 Mensonge (Fr.), a lie, on account of 
 its termination has sometimes been 
 regarded as a compoiind of sommum, 
 songe, and mentis, as if a dream of the 
 mind, a delusion. The word probably 
 represents Lat. mentitio (Prov. mentizo), 
 and has been assimilated to the syno- 
 mymous calonge [calogna, from Lat. 
 calumnia), which it supplanted (Diez). 
 
 Meedorn, a myrtle in Mid. High. 
 Ger., is a corruption of mrtel (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 Meee-goutte (Fr.), the first juice 
 which runs from the grape in the wine- 
 vat, as if that which stood in the rela- 
 tion of mire or mother to that which 
 followed (as in the Semitic idiom 
 " mother of wine " zzi the vine ; " son 
 of grain ' ' r: bread ; Gaelic macnahracJia, 
 " son of malt " z: whisky), and so 
 " primitive," " principal," is from Lat. 
 iiiera gutta, a pure drop, Lat. merus, 
 pure. So ma-e-laine, fine wool, and 
 ■inere-perle (Scheler). 
 
 Meropbs, an appellation given to 
 men in Homeric Greek, and generally 
 understood to mean " possessing the 
 gift of articulate speech," in accordance 
 with its obvious derivation from 
 meiromai and ops (ht. dividing the 
 voice, as Milton says the lark " divides 
 her music"). M. Lenormant main- 
 tains that this ancient expression can 
 only mean " those who issued from 
 lla-ou," i.e. Mount Merou, a primeval 
 residence of the Aryan tribes (Histoire 
 Ancienne de I'Orient, tom. i. p. 34, 
 3rd ed.). 
 
 Messnbe, or Meszner, a German 
 word for a sexton, as if connected with 
 messe, the mass, is really for mesner, 
 from 0. H. Ger. m^sinari, Mid. Lat. 
 viamsionarius, a building-keeper (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Metatheonos (Greek), as if fi-om 
 meta and thronos, is a coiTupted form 
 of the Heb. metatron ([ntaaD), the 
 Jewish name, of the mediating angel. 
 
 Mbts (Fr.), a dish, altered from old 
 Fr. mes, " a mess," It. messo, from Lat. 
 missum, that which is sent up or put 
 on the table, under the influence of 
 mettre. It. 'it,etiere. 
 
 Mettke atj violon, a French cant 
 phrase meaning " to put in prison." 
 It is only a modern substitute for a 
 much older expression " mettre au 
 salterion" {i.e. psalterion) . This latter 
 word denoted not a psaltery, nor the 
 psalter, but especially the seven peni- 
 tential psalms, and so the original 
 meaning of the phrase was to put to 
 penance, in a place where one would 
 have abundant time to repent and 
 think over his folly, to put in prison. 
 "When the instrument "psalterion" 
 was superseded in public favour by the 
 viohn, the cant expression was changed 
 to its present shape (Genin, Bioriatwns 
 Philolog. i. 227). Perhaps, just as 
 violon, viole, itself comes from Lat. 
 vitiila, the slang violon may be an 
 adaptation of vHulos in the following 
 phrase : — 
 
 Vitulos, The last word of a Latine Psalm of 
 mercy, which beginning with the word 
 Mi:ierere hath bred the phrase, Tii. auran du 
 miserere iusque a vitulos, for one thats to be 
 whipped, extremely, or a long time. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Meue-bheil, ) the Gaelic words for a 
 MiOEBHuiL, ( miracle, as if from the 
 "finger of Bel" — Robertson, Gaelic 
 Topography, p. 42.5, and Armstrong, 
 Dictionary, s.v. (cf. "If I by the finger 
 of God cast out devils." — Luke xi. 20), 
 is a manifest corruption of " marvel," 
 Fr. merveille, Lat. mirabile. 
 
 "The priests of Beil was the men 
 that was called Druids, the miracles 
 which they pretended to perform was 
 called meurhheileachd (beil-fingering)," 
 says a peasant in J. P. Campbell's 
 Tales of W. Highlamds, i. p. Ix. 
 
 MiE (Fr.), a mistress, sweet-heart, or 
 darhng, apparently a figurative usage 
 of me, a crumb (Lat. imca), as if wree 
 petite, like nvioche, a little urchin or 
 brat (a crumbling), is formed from 
 mxmde, my love, which was mistakenly 
 resolved into ma mie, instead of m'amie, 
 the original form, standing for ma. amie, 
 my beloved one. Eabelais uses "par 
 saincte m^amm " for " par saincte 
 Marie " (Cotgrave). 
 
 Wais j'aime trop pour que je die 
 
 Qui j'ose aimer, 
 Et je veux mourir pour ma mie 
 
 Sans hi nommer. 
 A. dc Mn.sset,Chan!>uii df Fortunio. 
 
MIBABELLE 
 
 ( 491 ) 
 
 MULATTO 
 
 Et cependant, avec toute sa diablerie, 
 II faut que je I'appelle etmou occur et mamie. 
 Molkre, Les Fenimes Suvantes, ii. ix. 
 
 MiKABELLE (Fx.), a kind of plum, Sp. 
 ■mirahel, It, nmahella, as if the wond/rous 
 beautiful, is a corruption of the more 
 correct forms, Fr. myrohalan, It. mira- 
 holumo, Gk. myrohdlanus, the ben-niit. 
 
 MiRECOTON (Fr.), " The delicate yel- 
 low peach, called a MeUootony " (Cot- 
 grave), so spelt as if from mirer, to 
 admhe, is a corrupt form of melicoton, 
 Lat. malum cotoneum or cydonium. 
 See Meliootton, p. 236. 
 
 MiTOUCHE, Sainte (Fr.), a prude, an 
 affected hypocritical girl, is an altera- 
 tion of the older form Saincte mUouche, 
 a hypocrite (Ootgrave), one who n'y 
 tmohe, pretends not to care for a de- 
 sired object, not even touching it, under 
 the influence of old Fr. mitis, hypo- 
 critical (Cotgrave), mitou, mitouin, a 
 hypocrite (Id.). 
 
 MOELLON, rubble, loose pieces of 
 stone used to fill up in building, so 
 spelt as if to denote the moelle or mar- 
 row of a wall, is an alteration of old 
 and prov. Fr. moilon, of the same 
 meaning (Ootgrave), also middle (cf. 
 Tiwye^. media, the middle of a stone), 
 from mediolus. But moelle (for meolle), 
 from Lat. medulla, the middle part, is 
 ultimately of the same origin. How- 
 ever, old Fr. moilon, being used also for 
 a soft or tender stone (Cotgrave), is per- 
 haps from Lat. mollis, soft. 
 
 MoFETTE, \ poisonous gas or va- 
 
 MouFETTE, / pour, is derived from 
 
 It. muffa, Dut. muf, musty, Ger. muff, 
 
 mould, perhaps assimilated to It. mefite, 
 
 "■ nwphite, Lat. mephitis. 
 
 MoiNEAU (Fr.), a sparrow, apparently 
 formed from moine (hke It. monaco, 
 monk, used as a bird-name), as if the 
 bhd that sits " alone upon the house- 
 top " (Ps. cii. 7), is reaUy from moinel, 
 •nwiisnel, a contraction of m^isonel, a 
 diminutive of old Fr. moison, a small 
 bird, Norm. W2OZSS0TO, from a hat. muscio, 
 derived from musca, a fly (Scheler, 
 Diez). See Tit-mouse, which is of the 
 same origin. 
 
 MoN, an old Fr. particle meaning 
 quite, surely, " c'eat mon" (Moliere),it 
 is quite so, is from old Fr. monde, true. 
 
 certain, from Lat. munde, clearly 
 (Diez). 
 
 MOKBLEU ! CORBLEU ! MORT BLEU 1 
 
 Sambleu ! Tete bleu ! decent and 
 evasive perversions of the profane 
 French oaths. Far la mort Dieu 1 le 
 corps Dieu 1 Saint Dieu 1 tete da Dieu ! 
 These corruptions are said to have 
 arisen in the time of St. Louis, who; 
 being strongly opposed to the evil cus- 
 tom of swearing, decreed the penalty 
 against all blasphemers of having the 
 tongue pierced with a red-hot fron. 
 (Tjintermedimre, Oct. 10, 1875, p. 593). 
 
 So Ilorguene I Morguienne ! a popu- 
 lar expletive (like Dang it !), is for old 
 Fr. mordienne, " Gogs deathlings " 
 (Babelais, Ootgrave), probably for mor- 
 die, i.e. nicrt Dieu. Compare Morgoy 
 for mo^i Dieu (Cotgrave) ; Par le 
 sang bieu (Maistre Pierre PatheUn) ; 
 palsamibleu and palsangue for "par le 
 sang Dieu." 
 
 MoRPOiL, or morpoye, "Dead hair," 
 a Wallon word for down, is a corrup- 
 tion of Namur moinr-pouyage, " fine 
 hair," where moimr, smaU, less, =: Fr. 
 moindre (Sigart). 
 
 MoETAiSE (Fr.), a mortise, or hole in 
 a piece of wood made to receive another 
 piece called the tenon, Sp. mortaja, 
 apparently akin to mm-s, old Fr. mords, 
 a bit or biting, mortier, &c., as if that 
 which grips or bites, is probably from 
 Arab. mUrtazz, mUrtazza, fixed or in- 
 serted (Devic, Supp. to Littre). 
 
 MosTEiCH, German wordfor mustard, 
 as if from most, must, with the common 
 termination -rich, is a less correct form 
 of Mid. High Ger. musthart. Low Ger. 
 mustert, mostert, Fr. mouta/rde. 
 
 MoucHARENNE, a Wallon name for 
 the earwig, is an accommodation to 
 mouche, a fly, of musaraigne, which gene- 
 rally means a shrew-mouse (Sigart). 
 
 Mulatto (It.) a mulatto, Fr. mulutre, 
 Sp. mulato, "the sonne of a black 
 Moore, and one of another nation" 
 (Minsheu), so spelt as if it denoted one 
 of a mixed breed like a mrnle, mulo, 
 nmleto, appears to be an altered form 
 of Arab, muallad, one born of an Arab 
 father and a fsjreign mother, or of a 
 slave father and a free mother (so De 
 Sacy, Engelmann, Devic). 
 
M UN BUS 
 
 ( 492 ) 
 
 NIETNAGEL 
 
 MuNDDS, "the world," the name 
 given hy the Eomans to the pit in the 
 Comitium which was regarded as the 
 mouth of Orcus, and was opened three 
 days in the year for the souls to step to 
 the upper world, is probably, according 
 to Miilier, Etrusker (iii. 4, 9), a Lati- 
 nized form of the Etruscan Ma/iitus, 
 the King of the Shades, or Hades, from 
 whom the city Mantua received its 
 name. See G. Dennis, GUies and Ceme- 
 teries ofEtrmia, vol. i. p. lix. (ed. 1878). 
 
 MuKMELXHiEB, the German name of 
 the marmot or mountain rat, as if the 
 growling beast, from rmirmeln, to mur- 
 mur (compare Pr. marmotte and mcur- 
 motter, to murmur), is corrupted from 
 mus montis, O. H. Ger. murnienti, Bav. 
 murmentel, Swiss murmentier. See Von 
 Tschudi, Nature in the Alps, trans. 
 p. 229. 
 
 The Italians cal it Marmota, and Murmont, 
 and according to Matheolus, Marmontana, 
 the Rhaetians Montanetkij .... in Fraunce 
 Marmote, although Marmot be a word also 
 among them for a iMunkey. The Germans 
 & especially the Heluetians by a corrupt 
 word drawn from a mouse of the mountain, 
 MurmeUhier and Marmentle and some Mist- 
 bellerle, by rea-son of his shai'pe whining 
 voyce, like a little Dogs. — Topsell, Hist, of 
 Foure-footed Beasts, lti08, p. 521. 
 
 MiJEEisCH, a German word equiva- 
 lent to our morose (Lat. morosits, moody), 
 seemp to have been assimilated to the 
 verb murren, to grumble or murmur. 
 
 Mdsniee. Cotgrave gives the French 
 proverb, VEvescjue devenir musnier, 
 "From a Bishop to become a miller," 
 i.e. " To become of rich poor, of noble 
 base, of venerable miserable ; to fall 
 from high estate to a low one ; (The 
 original! was Devenir d'Evesque Aumos- 
 nier [an Almoner] ; but Time (and 
 perhaps Eeason) hath changed Aumos- 
 nier into Musnier)." 
 
 MuszTHEiL, a German word for the 
 amount allowed to a widow for her 
 maintenance or alimony, as if a com- 
 pulsory part {musz), was formerly toms- 
 tcil. Low Ger. musdel, i.e. portion of food 
 or sustenance (Mid. High Ger. muos). 
 — Andresen. 
 
 MuTTEEKREBS, " Mother - Crab," a 
 German word for a crab when chang- 
 ing its sheU, is properly muterkrehs, 
 from Low German mutern (so. mausz- 
 
 em), to moult, Lat. rrmtwe, to change. 
 Compare Jkfwfer, a crawfish in the state 
 of casting its shell. 
 
 MuTTEESELiGALLEiN, a German pro- 
 vincial form of mutterseelen-allein, as if 
 from selig, blessed (Andresen). 
 
 Myeobolant, used popularly in 
 French for wonderful, marvellous, 
 seems to be a whimsical appUcation of 
 myroholan, an Indian fruit, from an 
 assumption that the first part of the 
 word was derived from nvirer, Lat. 
 nvirari. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nachtmaedee, a German connip- 
 tion of nachimahr, the night-mare, as 
 if night-marten. Low Ger. nachimarte. 
 
 Negeomante, \ It. names for a " nig- 
 NiGEOMANTE, / romant orenohanter' 
 (Florio), Sp. and Portg. nigrmnante. 
 old Fr. nigremance, so spelt as if de^ 
 rived from negro, nrgro, black, Lat, 
 niger, are corruptions of Greek nelcrd- 
 mantis, a necromancer, one who raises 
 the spirits of the dead (Greek neJcrbs). 
 See Negeomancee, p. 254. 
 
 De nigromancie mut fu endoctrine. 
 
 Vie de Seint Anban, 1. 996. 
 [In necromancy was he deeply learned.] 
 Que Circe no es una fiera, 
 Nigroinante, encantadora, 
 
 Energumena, hechicera, 
 Siicuba, iucuba. 
 
 Catderon, El Mayor Encanto Amor, 
 jorn. ii. 
 
 NiCHT, \ Germanwordsforaremedy 
 Nights, / for injurious affections of 
 the eye, as if identical with nicht, 
 nothing (whence the proverbial saying, 
 " Nichts ist gut fiir die Augen"), is, 
 according to Andresen, derived from 
 Greek onycMtis. 
 
 NiETNAGEL, a German word for an 
 agnail, as if from niet, a rivet, nieten, to 
 clinch, is from the Low QeT.niednagel{BO 
 Lessing), that is. High Ger. neidnagA, 
 from neid, envy, it being a popular 
 belief that the person affected has been 
 envied by somebody. Compare the 
 synonymous French word envie (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 The form nothnagel, "neednail," 
 sc. pain-producing nail, is a later cor- 
 ruption also met with. 
 
NODLOG 
 
 ( 493 ) 
 
 OBION 
 
 NoDLOG, an Irish word for Christmas, 
 also nollag, Gaeho noUaig, as if from 
 nod, noble, or Gaehc nodh, new, and la, 
 day, as nollaig also means New Year's 
 Day, is a corruption probably of Fr. 
 <iwil (Lat. naialis). See Campbell, 
 Tales of W. Highlands, vol. iii. p. 19. 
 
 0. 
 
 Obus (Fr.), a shell discharged from a 
 mortar, is the curiously disguised form 
 that Ger. haiMtze (also haufniiz, from 
 Bohem. haufnice, a sling), a howitz or 
 howitzer, assumes in French (Diez, 
 Soheler). Hence also It. obizzo, Sp. 
 oimz. 
 
 (EuF-MOLETTE, an old Fr. word for 
 an omelet in Cotgrave,- apparently 
 mohtte (as if a dim. of Lat. mola), a 
 httle cake made with eggs, wufs, is a 
 corruption of omelette, a pancake of 
 eggs (Cotgrave), another form of aume- 
 lette (Id.), or rather (old and prov. Fr.) 
 ainelette, which is itself a corruption of 
 akmette (changed by transposition), and 
 that an altered form of alemelle, a plate, 
 and BO a thin flat cake. Finally aleinieTle 
 is a corrupt form due to la lemelle (from 
 Lat. lamella, i.e. laminula, a dimin. of 
 lamna, a thin plate) being mistaken 
 for V alemelle, as if the a belonged to 
 the noun instead of to the article (so 
 Littre, Scheler, Skeat). A curious 
 chapter of mistaies this by which 
 lamina was converted into ceuf-molette I 
 
 Ohnmacht, German for a swoon or 
 fainting fit, as if from ohne, without, 
 niacU, power, powerlessness, is from 
 omacht. Mid. High Ger. amaht, weak- 
 ness, a being the privative particle 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Oleandro (It.), the rose bay-treo 
 or oleander, used also for a weed, and 
 for the " daffadounediUie " (Florio), 
 popularly connected no doubt with 
 ohare, to smell or scent, is derived 
 from L. Lat. loramdrum, a corruption 
 of rliododendrum, under the influence 
 of la/urus, the bay-tree. 
 
 Ollepotterib, a German corruption 
 of olla potrida (Fr. pot pourri), as if 
 from Lat. olla, a jar, and pot (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Onction, curiously used in the Wal- 
 lon dialect for a right, privilege, or 
 prerogative, is doubtless a corruption of 
 option (Sigart). 
 
 Ondaine, in the dialect of the WaUon 
 du Mons a swath or row of mown 
 grass, so spelt as if it meant figura- 
 tively a wave (^onde) of the undulating 
 sea of blades, is a corrupt form of Fr. 
 andaAn, a swath, the quantity mowed 
 or reaped by the labourer at each step 
 he advances, from It. andare, to go. 
 
 OoGST-MAAND, the Dutch name for 
 the month of August, is an assimila- 
 tion of the latter word to oogst, harvest, 
 oogsten, to reap or get in the harvest, as 
 if it meant " the harvest month." If, 
 as is probable, the root is seen in Lat. 
 augere, Greek anixdno, Goth, auhan, 
 Eng. ehe, to increase (cf. Dut. ooh, Ger. 
 ouch, Goth, auk, " eke," also), oogst 
 and August {Augustus), are of kindred 
 origin. In old Latin charters Augustus 
 is actually used for harvest^ as 
 Aoust is in French. Eobert of Glou- 
 cester uses heruest for the month of 
 August, when he says of Henry I. : — 
 
 fje Sonday he was jcrowaed, & of he]'U€frt 
 ]ie vyfte day. — ii. p. 422. 
 
 Eigenhart calls August Am Manath, 
 harvest month. In Low Lat. it is 
 called Mensis Messionum. See Hamp- 
 son, Med. Aevi Kalendarium, pp. 25, 
 197, 269, 270. 
 
 Orange (Fr.), Low. Lat. aurantia, 
 assimilations to or, gold, Lat. aurum, 
 with reference to the colour of the fruit, 
 of It. araneio, Sp. na/ranja, from Pers. 
 ndrenj. See Orange, p. 264. 
 
 Ordonner (Fr.) is an assimilation to 
 donner (as if ordre-donner) of old Fr. 
 ordoier, from Lat. ordinare. 
 
 Orengel, the German name of the 
 plant eryngo, as if from m- (an older 
 form of oh; ear), and engel, angel, with 
 thought of its marvellous healing pro- 
 perty in ear-affections, is a corrupted 
 form of eryngium (Andresen). 
 
 Orfeaie, the French name of the 
 osprey, is for osfraie, Lat. ossifragus, 
 " the bone-breaker," which has been 
 assimilated to words hke orfroi begin- 
 ning with or. 
 
 Orion in Mid. High. Ger. was 
 understood to be a morning star, from 
 
OBMIEB 
 
 { 494 ) 
 
 PALAFBENO 
 
 a presumed connexion with oriens, tlie 
 East (Anclresen). 
 
 Ormiek (Pr.), a species of shell-fish, 
 is a corruption of Lat. OMris maris, 
 being otherwise known as oreille de me'r. 
 
 OsKA-BJOEN, "wish-bear," an Ice- 
 landic name for a kind of crab, which 
 whoever possessed, it was believed, 
 might have his wish (dsTc ; of. A. Sax. 
 wiscan), is probably a corruption of 
 Lat. onisciia, a millepede, Gk. onishos, 
 a species offish (see Cleasby, s.v.). 
 
 OsTEELUZEi, a German name for 
 the plant birth-wort, as if compounded 
 with oster, east, is corrupted from Lat. 
 aristolochia. In Mid. Low Ger. there is 
 the curious misunderstanding Aris- 
 toteUs holwort (Andresen). 
 
 OsTE-VENTB (old Pr.), a penthouse, a 
 piece of cloth hung or set up before a 
 door, to keep off the wind (Ootgrave), 
 as if a "ward-wind," from O. Pr. oster, 
 to remove, drive off, expel, is a corrup- 
 tion of Advent, which see. 
 
 Otter, a German word for an adder 
 or viper, is a distinct work from 
 " otter " in fischotter, and a corrupt 
 form of Low Ger. adder, originally 
 natter, 0. H. Ger. natara (Andresen). 
 
 OuBLiE (Pr.), a wafer cake, origi- 
 nally the sacramental wafer, is a cor- 
 ruption (with assimilation to ouhli, 
 oublier, to forget) of the older form oUee, 
 dblaie, obloAje, Lat. oblata (sc. res), an 
 offering or oblation (Gattel). One 
 Prench etymologist thought that the 
 oubUe denoted a cake so hght that when 
 eaten it is soon forgotten — ouhW/ (see 
 Scheler, s.v.). 
 
 OuESE (Pr.), as if "she-bear," the left 
 side of a ship or the sheet which fas- 
 tens the mainsail to the left side of a 
 ship (Ootgrave), is a corruption of orse, 
 Prov. orsa. It. orza, derived from Prov. 
 Dut. lurts, Bav. lurz, the left, the 
 initial I bring popularly mistaken for 
 the article and then dropped (Scheler). 
 
 OuEsiN (Pr.), a sea-urchin, is an 
 assimilation to oursin, bearish, ursine 
 (with a supposed reference doubtless to 
 its roughness ; cf. ov/rson, a bear's 
 cub), of ourecin, a variety of h^-hson 
 (compare Wallon uregon, Portg. ourigo, 
 "urchin "), from Lat. ericionem. 
 
 OuTAEDE (Pr.), the bustard, old Pr. 
 oia/rde (Ootgrave), ( It. oitorda), probably 
 so spelt from an imagined connexion 
 with its Greek name otis, gen. otidos 
 (the bird having long ears, ota), -arde 
 being regarded as the common suffix, 
 as if out-arde (so LiddeU and Scott, 3d 
 ed.) Compare It. oti, a Bistard or 
 Home-owle, otida, a kind of slow- 
 flying Goose (Plorio). The more cor- 
 rect form would be auta/rde (corre- 
 sponding to autruche), a contraction of 
 Lat. ams-tairda, the "slow -bird"; 
 whence also Sp. aoutarda, Prov. 
 austarda, Portg. ahetarda, hetarda; 
 also old and prov. Pr. Ksta/rde (Cot- 
 grave, for avisiarde), whence Eng. 6ms- 
 ta/>-d, altered in spelling perhaps under 
 the influence of buzzard. 
 
 Next to these are tliose [ Bustards] which 
 in Spaine they cal the Slim-birds [" Aves- 
 tardas"], and in Greece Otides. — Hotland, 
 Ptinies Nat. Hht. i. 281. 
 
 Paille, Chapeau de, the straw hat, 
 the popular designation of the cele- 
 brated picture by Rubens, is a modem 
 corruption of chapeoM de poil, the felt 
 hat. 
 
 Painteie, ) Irish words for a snare 
 
 Paintel, / or net, would seem to 
 be allied forms to pdinte, a cord or 
 string (cognate with Saxisk. panhti, a 
 hne, from the root pac, to make fast). 
 When we observe, however, that the 
 Latin has panther, a hunting-net, and 
 the Greek pantheron, "catching all 
 beasts," whence comes Pr. pamtiere, 
 O. Eng. pamiter ("Pride hath in his 
 paunter kauht the heie and the lowe." 
 — Political Songs, Camden Soc. p. 344), 
 we perceive that painteir in Irish is 
 only a borrowed word naturalized by 
 being assimilated to painte. 
 
 Palafeeno (Ital.), a steed or palfrey, 
 Sp. palafren, so spelt as if it denoted a 
 horse led by a bridle {freno, h&t.fre- 
 num, as if par le frein), is a corruption 
 of Low Lat. palafredus, parafredus, 
 from Lat. paraveredus, a post-horse, a 
 hybrid word from Greek pard (beside, 
 over and above) -f Lat. veredus (a post- 
 horse). Hence also Pr. palcfroi, our 
 " palfrey," and by contraction of ^oiu- 
 
PALAIS 
 
 ( 495 ) PATBON-MINETTE 
 
 v»)-e(kis, Ger. pferd, Dut. petard, and the 
 old slang word p-ad, a horse. 
 
 Palais (Fr.), the palate, seems to 
 owe its form to a confusion between old 
 Fr. pcdat (which ought to yield a Mod. 
 Fr. paU or palet), Lat. palatum, and 
 palais, a hall or palace, Lat. palatium, 
 with a reference to the high vaulted 
 roof of the mouth. Diez compares Lat. 
 asU palaium, "palate (i.e. vault) of the 
 sky," Greek owraniskos (little sky- 
 vault), the palate, It. cielo della hocca. 
 
 Palier, supposed to have some con- 
 nexion with the Fr. parlev/r (so. the 
 speaker or spokesman among his fel- 
 lows), is stm a common local perver- 
 sion of PoUerer, the polisher in mason's 
 and carpenter's work ; however paUeren 
 was often found formerly for polieren. 
 
 Palisse (old Fr.), " palissade," a 
 popular corruption of Apocalypse. Cot- 
 grave gives paliser, to reveal. 
 
 Vous en parlez comnie sainct Jean de la 
 Palisse. — RabeiaU, Pantagruel, ch. xvi. 
 
 Pampinella, the Catalon. name of 
 the plant pimpernel (Piedm. pampi- 
 nela), so spelt from a supposed con- 
 nexion with Lat. pampinus, a vineleaf, 
 is a corruption of It. pimipinella, Sp. 
 pimpinela, Fr. pimprenelle, all from 
 Lat. Upennella, for hipennula, "two- 
 
 PANAEicroM, a Latin name for- a 
 disease of the finger-nails, as if from 
 pawns, a swelling, is a corrupted form 
 of Gk. pa/ronycMum, a sore beside the 
 nail, from para and onux. 
 
 Panne (Fr.), pliish, . velvety stuff, 
 seems to be an assimilation to pam, 
 pwimeau, Lat. pannus, of old Fr. pene. 
 It. penna, pena, derived from Lat. 
 pemw,, just as we find in M. H. Ger. 
 Jedere, (1) a feather, (2) plush. 
 
 Panneton (Fr.), a key-bit, so spelt as 
 if derived from pa/n (pamneoM), and de- 
 noting the flap or lappet of the key, is 
 a corruption of the older form penne- 
 &n, the bit or neb of a key (Ootgrave), 
 from fenne, a feather or wing. Com- 
 pare Ger. hwt, the " beard " or ward of 
 a key. See Panne. 
 
 Pantominen, a popular corruption in 
 German ot pamtomimen, as if connected 
 with mienen, mimicry (Andresen). 
 
 Paqueeette (Fr.), the daisy, old Fr. 
 pasqueretfe, so named, not because it 
 flowers about the time of Paques {Fas- 
 ques) or Easter (as it flowers almost all 
 the year round), but because it grows 
 in pastures, old Fr. pasqw's, or pas- 
 queages. Compare Pascua. 
 
 Par, in the French phrase de pair le 
 roi, in the king's name, is a corrupt 
 spelling of the older form part (Diez). 
 
 Parachute (Fr.). This word, as well 
 as pa/rapluie, paravent, and Eng. para- 
 sol,is not (as sometimes supposed) com- 
 pounded with Greek para, beside or 
 against, like paragraph, pa/raphrase, 
 parasite, but derived from It. pa/ra/re, 
 Portg. para/r, to ward, fend oif, or 
 "pany." Thus the meaning is a 
 "ward-fall," "ward-rain," "ward- 
 sun." 
 
 Paraolytus, meaning in Greek the 
 "illustrious," is the distorted form in 
 which Mahomet assumed to himself 
 the name of the ParacZete, the "advo- 
 cate " (Stanley, Eastern Ghm-ch, p. 
 311). 
 
 Pascua, Span, and Prov. name of 
 Easter, so spelt from an imagined con- 
 nexion with Lat. pascua, feeding, pas- 
 ture, with an allusion to the feasting 
 then indulged in after the Lenten fast, 
 is of course the same word as It. pasqua, 
 Fr. paques (for pasques), from Lat. and 
 Greek pdscJia, the Passover (a word 
 often by early Christian writers affi- 
 liated on Greek paschein, to suffer), 
 from Heb. pesach, a passing (so. of the 
 destrojdng angel). 
 
 Patarafe (Fr.), a scrawl, bad writing, 
 is a popular corruption of parafe, a 
 flourish (Scheler), another form of 
 paragraphe, Lat. and Greek para- 
 graphus (something written in addi- 
 tion), apparently assimilated to pataud, 
 clumsy, patauger, to mess or muddle, 
 &c. 
 
 Patience (Fr.), the name of the 
 sorrel-plant, as well as Low Ger. 
 patich, seems to be corrupted from Lat. 
 lapathum. Compare old Fr. lapas, 
 lapace (Ootgrave). The initial syllable 
 was probably mistaken for the article. 
 
 Patron-Minettb, se lever des le, a 
 French popular phrase for getting up 
 early, a corruption of Potron-Minette, 
 
PEDELL 
 
 i 496 ) 
 
 PHTHABMOS 
 
 &c., lit. " the young of the oat," and so 
 "to rise with the kitten" (Genin, Be- 
 creations Philologigues, i. p. 247). 
 
 Pedell, in German a headle, as if a 
 derivative of Lat.^es,^e&'s, because as 
 a messenger he has often to be a-foot, 
 is really the same word as Mid. High 
 Ger. hitel, from litten, to bid or pro- 
 claim, Fr. iedecm, Mid. Lat. hedellus 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Pendon (Sp.), a flag or banner, so 
 spelt as if from pend&re, to hang, is a 
 corrupt form of Fr. penon, It. pennone, 
 a " pennant," originally a long feathery 
 streamer, from Lat. penna, a feather. 
 
 Peetuisane (Fr.), the offensive 
 weapon called a partisan, so spelt as if 
 from pertuiser, to pierce with holes, per- 
 tuis, a hole, is said to be a corruption 
 of It. partigiana (Scheler). 
 
 Petbus, and petrusen, Welsh names 
 for the partridge, as if the startled or 
 timid bird, from peP>-us, apt to start, 
 petruso, to startle, are seemingly cor- 
 ruptions of the English word. Com- 
 pare old Fr. perdis, pietris, Sp. perdiz, 
 Lat. perdw. 
 
 Pfipfholdee, an Alsace word for a 
 butterfly (Carl Engel, Musical Myths 
 and Facts, vol. i. p. 9), as if from pfiff, 
 a fife or whistle, is a corrupted form of 
 an obsolete German word. Compare 
 provinc. Ger. feifalter, O. H. Ger. vi- 
 veltre, A. Sax. fifalde, Swed. fjaril, 
 'N OYse fivrelde, loel. fifrildd. 
 
 Petschaft, a seal or signet in Ger- 
 man, has acquired a naturalized aspect 
 in the termination -schaft, but is of 
 Slavonic origin, viz. Eussian petschat 
 (Mid. High Q^cheischat). — Andresen. 
 
 Pfahlbukgek, a citizen hving in the 
 suburbs (outside the " pale " or walls), 
 is said to be, not from pfahl, a pale, and 
 burger, a citizen, but a corruption from 
 Fr. faubourg, for falbourg (from/aMa;, 
 so. falsus) . — Andresen. See, however, 
 Fauxboubg, p. 475. 
 
 Pfaekheee, a German word for a 
 parson, as if "lord of the parish," is 
 perhaps a corruption of pfarrer, Mid. 
 High Ger. pfarraere, a clergyman (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 PFEFFEEMiJNZB, and lirauscmunze, 
 German names for the plants pepper- 
 mint and curled mint, were originally 
 
 and properly compounded with minze, 
 mint (mentha), and not with munze, 
 money {moneta). 
 
 Pfennigbeei, "Penny-pap," a popu- 
 lar word in Bavaria for a panada made 
 of millet, is from Lat. panicwm, miUet, 
 corrupted into pfenning (Andresen). 
 
 Pfingsteknakel, a popular Ger. 
 word for the parsnip, as if connected 
 with Pfkigst, Whitsuntide, is a cor- 
 ruption of pastinak, Lat. pastinaca 
 (PUlolog. 8oc. Proc. v. 140). 
 
 Philippe, a French term for a sweet- 
 heart, lover, or valentine, is shortened 
 from Philippine, which is a corruption 
 of the German vielliebehen (most dar- 
 ling), also Liebchen (darlmg), like 
 Maifrau, a lover for a year, a valentine 
 (W. E. S. Ealston, Gontempora/ry He- 
 view, Feb. 1878). 
 
 " Bonjour, Philippine," is said, play- 
 fully, when asking a httle present from 
 an acquaintance, Philippine being from 
 Fhil/ippchen, altered from Ger. viellieb- 
 ehen, weU-beloved (Littre). 
 
 Philomela, a poetical name for the 
 nightingale, probably from some con- 
 fused notion that the word was derived 
 from Greek ^/liZos and melos, as if "the 
 song-loving." It seems originally to 
 have been a name for the swallow, and 
 in Greek philomMa is "the fruit-lover," 
 from melon, fruit. See Conington, Ver- 
 gil, Ed. vi. 78. 
 
 Phoeeion ((popiiw), a late Greek 
 word for a litter or palanquin, is thought 
 by Dr. Delitzsch to be properly a Se- 
 mitic word adopted from the Hebrew 
 appiryon of the same meaning, which 
 word it is used to translate in the 
 Septuagint version of The Song of 
 Songs, ui. 9 (Vulgate ferculum). The 
 Midrash identifies appiryonwith. puryon 
 •zzphoreion. 
 
 Peeodeai (^potipai), watches, guards, 
 in Josephus and the Septuagint (Esth. 
 ix. 26), is a corruption of Fwim, the 
 Jewish Feast, from the Persian bahre, 
 " lots; " cf.pcw-s (Farrar, Life of Christ, 
 ii,469). 
 
 Phthaemos ((j)9apii6e), a Cretan word 
 for the Evil Eye, as if destruction 
 (from (pQtipdJ), is iorphthalmos (6(^SaX/t6f), 
 the eye (Lord Strangford, Letters and 
 Papers, p. 114). 
 
PIGKELEAUBE 
 
 ( 497 ) 
 
 P0I880N 
 
 PioKELHAUBE, a Gei'inaii term for a 
 sort of helmet, as if from Fickel and 
 hwAe, a cap or coif, more correctly- 
 written Bickelliauhe, is for Beckelhauhe, 
 a word most probably derived from 
 lecken, a basin. Compare Mid. Lat. 
 ladnetnm from laoinum (Andresen). 
 
 PiMP-STEEN, the Danish name of the 
 pumice-stone, as if the itppZe-stowe, from 
 fimfe, to tipple, on account of its bibu- 
 lous or absorbent nature, is a corrup- 
 tion of piimice-stone, Lat. pwmex. 
 
 PizziOAEOLO, the modern Italian 
 word for a dealer in salt provisions (as 
 if from pizzicare, to huckster), is cor- 
 rupted from pes<ngm-olo, i.e. pesd+garo 
 + lo, a dealer in fish garum (Badham, 
 Prose HaUeutics, p. 72). 
 
 Plain (Fr.), a vat wherein tanners 
 steep their skins, apparently a flat 
 ( plain) receptacle, is a corrupt form of 
 oldFr. pelain (Cotgrave), ovpelin, from 
 old Fi. pel (zipeau), Lat. pellis, skin. 
 Compare Eng. plush, from Fr. peluche. 
 Hence plamer, to steep skins, for 
 plainer. 
 
 So in popular French glee for gelee, 
 pie for pele'e, pUsson for pelisson, purte, 
 mite, for purete, vilete, &c. (Agnel, 
 p. 125). 
 
 Plantofa, a Catalonian word for a 
 slipper, so spelt as if derived from Lat. 
 planta, the foot, the sole, is reaUy a 
 corruption oi panlofla, It. pantofola, Fr. 
 pantoufie, a nasahzed form of patofle, 
 irojRpatte, the foot (Diez). 
 
 Plantukbux (Fr.), abundant, from 
 old Fr. plante, abundance, a corrupt 
 form of plente, plenty, for plemte, Lat. 
 plewitas, fulness, from planus, full. 
 
 Plata, Gaming de, " silver road," a 
 common Spanish corruption of the old 
 Eoman via lata, a high road. In aUu- 
 sion to this, when the great road to La 
 Coruiia was finished, the expense was 
 60 enormous that the king inquired if it 
 was paved with silver (Ford, Gather- 
 ings from Spain, p. 45). 
 
 Plumetis (Fr.), a rough draught, 
 also short notes, a summary delivered 
 in writing (in Cotgrave), also plumitif, 
 a minute-book, apparently derived from 
 plvme, a pen, hke plumetew, a penman, 
 quiH-driver, or scrivener. M. Scheler 
 thinks it may be from prumitif, a Prov. 
 
 Fr. form of primitif, comparing Low 
 Lat. primitivum, a protocol (so Prov. 
 Fr. prume for prime, Wallon prumie for 
 premier). How ever plumetis, tambour- 
 ing, embroidery, is no doubt from a 
 verb plumeter, to adorn with feathery 
 sprays, and heraldic plurtiete is sprin- 
 kled with- figures resembling bunches 
 of feathers. 
 
 PoiDS (Fr.), a weight, spelt with a d 
 from an imagined connexion with Lat. 
 pondus, is old 'Fx.pois, Prov. perns, from 
 Lat. pensum, somethinghung on to the 
 scale. 
 
 PoioTES {Trowrrie), quahty (from 
 TToTof :n gualis), has acquired in Plato a 
 connotation of activity from the reflex 
 influence of the verb -woiiiv, to make or 
 do, with which it was supposed to be 
 connected (T/ieceie/., 182, A.). This ac- 
 counts for the argument of Speusipipus, 
 that pleasure, only being ttowttiq, i.e. ac- 
 tivity, was not good (Aristotle, Eth. 
 Nic. X. iii. 1). 
 
 PoiEEATJ, the French word for a leek, 
 as if called so from its resemblance in 
 shape to a pear (poire), is a corruption 
 of porreau, from Lat. pmrum. 
 
 PoiEES DE Mi-SEEOENT (Fr.), the Oc- 
 casional pronunciation of poires de 
 misser-Jean, so called apparently from 
 one Jean [misser zz messire), who intro- 
 duced or propagated them (Genin, Re- 
 creations PMlolog. i. 226). 
 
 PoissAED, as applied to a fish-woman, 
 and to anything low and scurrilous, 
 like our Billingsgate, as if from poisson, 
 is a corrupt use of the old word pois- 
 sa/rd, "a filcher, nimmer, purloin er, 
 pilferer ; one whose fingers are as good 
 as so many Ume-twigs " (Cotgrave), as 
 if "pitch-fingered," a derivative oipoix 
 (Scheler). Compare Fr. axgotpoisser, 
 to steal (Larchey). 
 
 PoissoN (fish), a small measure of 
 liquids in French, e.g. poisson d'eau-de- 
 vie, a glass of brandy, is no doubt a 
 corruption of the older word pochon, 
 pogon, perhaps a diminutive of O. Fr. 
 poch = pouce, an inch measm-e 
 (Scheler, Larchey). Compare "Fos- 
 son, a little measure for milk, verjuice, 
 and vinegar, not altogether so big as 
 the quarter of our pint " (Cotgrave). 
 
 K E 
 
POirRE 
 
 ( 498 ) 
 
 PBEVEIBE 
 
 Un pnsson de lait d'asnesse. 
 
 Satire Mcnipp^e, ch. i. 
 
 See also Genin, Recreations Philolo- 
 giques, torn. i. p. 177. 
 
 PoivEE (pepper), used for drunk in 
 the Parisian argot, is a corruption of 
 the old word poipre (Mod. Yv-pourpre), 
 red-faced, purple, from drink (L. Lar- 
 cliey). 
 
 PoKAL, a, German word for a goblet 
 or large cup, as if identical with Lat. 
 pocuhim, a cup, is really from Fr. and 
 Sp. hocal, It. hoccale, derived through 
 the Mid. Lat. haucah frona Greek hau- 
 kalis, a drinking vessel (Andresen). 
 
 Police (Fr.), a contract of agree- 
 ment, a policy, is It. polizza, from a 
 Low Lat. polecticvmi, polyptyclium, as- 
 similated to police, policy, from Gk. 
 poKteia. 
 
 Polo-vebsa, a Limousin word for to 
 turn upside down, bottom upwards 
 {polo rz oVunis), is a corruption of Fr. 
 houleverser, to turn over like a baU 
 (boule). — I)iez. 
 
 PoEC-BPic (Fr.), the porcupine, as if 
 " pig-spike," is a corruption of old Fr. 
 porc-espi, := It. porco-spino (porous 
 spinaruni), "thorny pig," espi repre- 
 senting Prov. Fr. espin, Lat. spina, not 
 Lat. spica. 
 
 PoKTE-EpiNE, a French name for the 
 porcupine, Sp. puerco espino, Prov. 
 porc-espin, It, porco spinoso, the 
 " thorny pig," so spelt as if the animal 
 that carries thorns or prickles, Lat. 
 portans spinas. 
 
 Whatsoeververtue we attribute vn to hedge- 
 hogs the same is more efFectuall in the porkC' 
 spine. — Holland, Pliny, torn. ii. p. 364 
 (1634). 
 
 PosTHUMus, an old mis-speUing of 
 postumus (superlative of post), as if de- 
 noting a child born after its father was 
 under ground, " post humationem 
 patris." 
 
 PoT-LEPBL, the Mod. Dutch word for 
 a ladle, as if a pot-spoon, is said to be a 
 corrupted form of the older pol-lepel, i.e. 
 the spoon with a long handle ; cf. Eng. 
 pole-axe (Dr. A. V. W. Bikkers). Sew el 
 (1708) gives both forms. The Dutch 
 word for pole, however, seems to be 
 pols. 
 
 PouLAiN (Fr.), a botch, bubo, or 
 
 tumour, seems to be an assimilation to 
 poulaAn, a foal or colt, of {puUnleYH,. 
 pullula, a little wheal or blister. It. 
 pullvlwre, to bhster, to bud or burgeon, 
 pullulatione, a budding or bhstering 
 (Plorio), Lat. pullulare, to sprout or 
 germinate. There was perhaps some 
 confusion with empoule, a blister or 
 rising of the skin (from Lat. ampulla, a 
 globular flask), where em may have 
 been mistaken for em ( ~ in) and 
 dropped. 
 
 PoTiLET (Fr.), a love-letter, appa- 
 rently the saine word as poulet, a 
 chicken (compare Tiat. pullus, as a term 
 of endearment, my pigeon, my chicken ; 
 Fr. pouleite, poulot, a darling), is per- 
 haps from Low Lat. poletum, a shor- 
 tened form of polecticum for polypty- 
 chvmi; a document of many leaves. 
 Hence also pouAlle, an inventory or 
 register. 
 
 PoDLPB (Fr.), a moUusc, an octopus, 
 has no reference to its pulpy or fleshy 
 nature (poulpe, Lat. pulpa), but is con- 
 tracted from Lat. polypus, like It. 
 polpo. 
 
 PotTBCiATi, a "pig," a WaUon word 
 for a swelling or bruise, stands for an 
 original bourciau, Picard. loursioM, 
 Liege boursai; WaUon ahourser, to form 
 into an abscess. 
 
 PouEPiEE (Fr.), the plant purslain, 
 formerly pourpie and poulpie, stands 
 for po%ilpied, Lat. pulU-pedem, " chic- 
 ken's-foot," Prov. Fr. piepou. 
 
 Pr^seoa (Lat.), a corruption or 
 etymological postulate of brassica, 
 cabbage, in Varro (De lAng. Lat. 5, 
 21, § 104, ed. MuUer), as if derived 
 from prcBsecare, to cut off the tip, and 
 BO meaning the vegetable the top of 
 which is cut off, leaving the stalk in 
 the gro\m.d. 
 
 Peatique (Fr.), the instrument by 
 which a showman makes his puppets 
 talk, is an assimilation of Sp. platica, 
 conversation (from platicar, to con- 
 verse), to Fr. pratiquer, a word ulti- 
 mately identical (Scheler). 
 
 Pebveieb (old Fr.), also prevoire, 
 provoire, a priest, sometimes imagined 
 to be from Lat. pn-ovisorem, are the old 
 oblique cases of presbyterum, ace. of 
 presbyter (Scheler). 
 
PRIME 
 
 ( 499 ) 
 
 BAME 
 
 Primk (Fr.), a bounty or bonus, is 
 •not a primary or chief thing (prime. 
 Lat. primus), but altered from Eng 
 premimn, liat. prcBmium (Scheler). 
 
 Prims, a lapidary's term, is old Fr, 
 presnie, from Lat. Gk. prisma, a prism 
 
 Peisant, in Mid. High Ger. an bono 
 rary gift, like Fr. present, is from Lat, 
 prcesentare, but altered so as to suggest 
 a connexion with pris, a prize (Andre 
 sen). 
 
 Peomontoeium (Lat). Andresen as- 
 serts that this word is not a derivative 
 from mons, as it appears to be, but is 
 properly p-oniunlorium, from pronii- 
 nere, to jut out, be prominent (Volhs- 
 etymologie, p. 16). 
 
 Peovende (Fr.), provisions, is from 
 pi-ovenda, a corruption of prcehenda, 
 tHnga to be supplied, under the in- 
 fiueiioe of providenda, from providere, 
 things to be provided or seen to before- 
 hand. 
 
 Peovignee (Fr.), to plant a layer or 
 sKp, so spelt as if it had something to 
 do with vigne, a vine, is from provin, a 
 layer, old Fr. provaing, It. propaggine, 
 Lat. propaginem. 
 
 PraasANT (Fr.), powerful, Noi-m. 
 Fr. poissant, It. possente, an incorrect 
 form of "potent" (Lat. potentem), 
 derived from a barbarous possentem, 
 i.e. pot + esse + entem, due to an 
 amalgamation of the infin. posse with 
 the participle potens. 
 
 Cist est li tntpohsant. 
 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 807. 
 
 PuLBEET, a Mid. High Ger. word for 
 a lectern or reading-desk, so spelt as if 
 from hret, a board, is a corrupted form 
 of Lat. pulpitum, Fr. pupitre (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 PuEEB, the French word for soup, 
 esp. a soup made of vegetables, so 
 spelt as if to denote a clear soup, from 
 pwr, clear, is a corrupted form of an 
 older word poree or porree. Low Lat. 
 porrata, a soup made of leeks (Lat. 
 pomim). Compare 'Eng. porridge, old 
 Eng. porette, porray, porrey, perrey. 
 
 Porre, or purre, potage . Piseum. — Prmnpt^ 
 Parv. 
 
 Poree, Porrie, pot-herbs, and thence also 
 pottage made of Beets, or with other herbs. — 
 Cotgrave, 
 
 It would not be altogether surprising if 
 something of this sort were taking place with 
 the Government puree — which term is espe- 
 cially applicable because of its eti/imlogi) 
 [purJ'l, so admirably suited to the immacu- 
 late virtue of a Cabinet presided over by Mr. 
 Gladstone. — Saturday Review, vol. 53, p. 72. 
 
 Q. 
 
 QuATKEPiKEEB, "FouT-stone," a Wal- 
 lon name for the newt or lizard, in 
 some places haterpiege, at Liege lcwa.t 
 pesse, "four pieces ;" all evidently cor- 
 ruptions — but of what ? Grandgagnage 
 suggests of Dut. Jcwaad heest, " evil 
 beast," it being generally regarded with 
 repulsion by the ignorant. 
 
 Queue d' soeittb, a WaLLon word for 
 a bat, is a corruption of kauw sorite, 
 "owl-mouse," Lifege chawe-sori. See 
 Chauve-soueis. An old Fr. word for 
 the same is chaude-soris (Sigart). 
 
 QuiNTE (Fr.), a fit of coughing, then 
 anything that takes one suddenly, a 
 freak or whim, so spelt from analogy 
 to " fi^vre quinte," a fever recmTing 
 every fifth (guint) day, seems to stand 
 for quinque (like qiiinte-femlle for quin- 
 que-feuille), a modification of Nether- 
 land, hinch-^hoest), " chin(k)-cough," 
 from hincken, to cough (Ger. keichen). 
 Compare Prov. Fr. qw'niousse (Rouchi), 
 whooping-cough, for quincousse ; clvnke 
 (Bayeux). 
 
 R. 
 
 Rabano (Eng. rahone), a Spanish 
 word for a radish, originally ravano, is 
 a corruption of Lat. raplmnus, Greek 
 rhdpJianis, under the influence of rabon 
 or raho, a tail, which the long tap-root 
 of the plant much resembles. 
 
 Radicaille, the name sometimes 
 given to the French RepubUcaus by 
 their opponents, is a humorous forma- 
 tion on the model of racaille. 
 
 Ramb, the French word for an oar, 
 is from Lat. remus, modified by ramus, 
 a branch (Trench, English Fast and 
 Present, p. 347). 
 
 Ramb (Fr.), a printer's form, is a 
 naturalized form of Ger. rahm, a frame, 
 
BAMEQ UIN 
 
 ( 500 ) 
 
 BEINETTE 
 
 assimilated to rame, a stick (Lat. rcmius), 
 and rame, a ream. 
 
 Eameqdin (Fr.), a slice of toasted 
 bread spread over with cream or cheese, 
 originally a cream-cheese, supposed to 
 have been so called from having been 
 served on plaited twigs,ra,meaMa!(Gattel), 
 ]ike junket on rushes (junci), is a natu- 
 ralized form of Ger. rahni {rahmchen), 
 creajn. 
 
 Eamolaccio (It.), a radish, so spelt 
 as if akin to ramoloso, ramoso, branchy, 
 from ramo, a sprig or branch, is an 
 altered form of ramoraccio, from Lat. 
 armoracia, a radish. Similarly It. ra- 
 merino, rosemary, has no connexion 
 with ramo, but is a coiTuption of Lat. 
 ros marinus. 
 
 There is one sauage kind of tliem [radishes] 
 more which the Greeks name Agrion : the 
 inhabitants of Pontus Armon ; and our coun- 
 trymen g-iue it the name oi Armoracui. — Hoi- 
 land, Plinies Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 16. 
 
 Eanccede, an old French spelling of 
 "rancour," 0. Sp. rancor, It. rancore, 
 L. Lat. rancor, as if compounded with 
 cceur. 
 
 Eangee (Fr.), also rangier, the rein- 
 deer. It. rangifero, are corruptions of 
 Lapp, raingo. See Eanged-deee, p. 
 315. 
 
 Eat d'ok, " golden rat," the name 
 for a species of donnouse ( le muscardin) 
 in the Bourgogne patois, is probably a 
 corruption of rat-dort (or rat-dwmant), 
 which it is also called (E. EoUand, 
 Faune Poindaire, p. 40). 
 
 Eattbkahl, "rat-callow," a popular 
 perversion of raddlcal in Germany, as if 
 to signify bald, bare, or poor as a rat. 
 
 Eebatar (Sp.), to snatch or can-y otf, 
 is a corruption of raptar, Lat. rrqita.re 
 (Diez), under the infiueiice of retoo, a 
 tumult, rehatir, to beat back. 
 
 Eecrdter (Fr.), to reinforce or fill 
 up the vacancies in a regiment by 
 enhsting new soldiers, " to recruit," 
 is formed from recn-ute, a levy, a mis- 
 taken form of recrue (Littre) or " re- 
 creue, a. supply or filling up a defective 
 company of souldiers " (Cotgrave), 
 literally a new growth, from rccnt, 
 p. parte, of recrnifvp (from Lat. re- 
 cresoere) to grow again (Skeat). Com- 
 
 pare old Fr. reoroist, a new or second 
 growth (Cotgrave). 
 
 Prof. Atkinson thinks that Mid. Fr. 
 reco-u, a recruit, is properly one in- 
 capable of fuU toU, identical with old 
 Fr. recireu, beaten, vanquished, unable 
 to do more, and so, like recreant, a 
 derivative of M. Lat. recredere {Vie 
 de St. Auhan, note on 1. 862). This is 
 certainly wrong. 
 
 Eedeeijker, a Dutch corruption of 
 Ger. rheioriJier, a rhetorician, as if from 
 rederijk, given to speaking [rede] . — An- 
 dresen. Cf. Ger. and Dutch redekunst, 
 rhetoric. 
 
 Eegain (Fr.), after-math, a second 
 crop of hay, so spelt as if a derivative 
 of regagner (hke regain, a recovery of 
 health), and so meaning an additional 
 gain, a second benefit. It is really a 
 compound made by prefixing re- (per- 
 haps with the above idea) to old Fr. 
 ga:in, wain, derived (through a form 
 guaime, guadime) from 0. H. Ger. weida, 
 nourishment, pasture, grass. Corre- 
 sponding forms are Wallon wayen, It. 
 guaime (Diez, Scheler). 
 
 Eegaliz, \ Span, and Portg. words 
 Eegaliza, / for liquorice, apparently 
 akin to regalar, to melt, to regale, re- 
 galo, daintiness, is a corrupt form (for 
 legariza) of Lat. h'guirifia, from Greek 
 glukurrhiza. Hence also Fr. reglisse. 
 It. regolizia. 
 
 E£glisse, French name of liquorice, 
 Proven9al regulecia, regalicia, Portg. 
 and Spanish regaliz, Ital. regoUzio, le- 
 goriza,ViGBxdi.regoliche,ringoliclie,ringo- 
 Usse, Wallon rekouliss, Genevan and 
 Berry arguelisse, aU corruptions of the 
 Latin Uquiritia, which isitself corrupted 
 from the Greek gVucurrliAza, " sweet- 
 root" (Littrd). 
 
 Eegna (Prov.), a rein or bridle, so 
 spelt as if derived from regnar, to rule 
 or govern, Lat. regnare (so Eaynouard), 
 is, as well as old Fr. reigne, resgne, resne 
 (Mod. Fr. rene), an altered form oireina 
 or reina, from a Lat. retina, a substan- 
 tive derived from retinere, to hold back. 
 Hence also It. redina, a rein, Portg. 
 redea (Diez, Scheler). 
 
 EEiNETTE(Fr.), the nameof a species 
 of apple, the " Queening," as if from 
 reine, queen, is a corruption of rainette, 
 
BEITEBSALBE 
 
 ( 501 ) 
 
 BOEBDOMMEL 
 
 so called from its skin being spotted 
 like a little frog, rametie, wliich is a 
 dimin. oiraine (formerly speltreme, Cot- 
 gi-ave), Lat. rana. 
 
 Eeiteesalbe, ' ' Rider's-salve,' ' a Ger- 
 man name for a soothing ointment for 
 the skin, is derived from Dutch ruit- 
 zalve, a salve for the scab or itch, ruH, 
 Ger. rdude (Andresen). 
 
 Eemoequek (Fr.), to tow a vessel, 
 like its original Lat. remulcare, whence 
 alsolt. remorcAiowe, B^.remolcar, seems 
 to be a compound of re-. The Lat. re- 
 mulcare, which has been assimilated to 
 verbs in re-, or perhaps to renins, an oar, 
 is also spelt rymulcarc, and is only an- 
 other form of Gr. rumoulheo, to tow, 
 which is compounded of ruma, that 
 which is drawn, a towing-rope, and 
 helho, to drag. 
 
 Eennefieeen, renfjuhren (Gothe has 
 reiiie fiihren), are colloquial corruptions 
 in Germany oirenovieren, to renew (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Eennthieb, the rein-deer, is not the 
 " running-beast," from rennen, but a 
 corrupted form of Icel. hrein, hreindyr, 
 Swed.rem. See Eein-deek, p. 321. 
 
 Eephessalien, German for retalia- 
 tion, reprisals, as if from a Lat. repres- 
 saUa (repressus), is really from Fr. re- 
 presailles (from reprendre, Lat. reprehen- 
 dere, to take over again). 
 
 Ehbinfall, a German word for an 
 excellent wine, as if produced on the 
 Bhnne, Mid. High Ger. Beinfal and 
 Bainfal, aU corruptions of Bivoglio, 
 whence it was brought. A more recent 
 perversion is Beinfall, as if from rein, 
 pure (Andresen). 
 EhEmIda, \ the modem Greek 
 Ehemabizo, / words for rhyme, as 
 if from Greek rhema, a word, are really 
 derived from the Italian rima, rimare 
 (Tozer, Highlomds of Turkey, vol. ii. p. 
 252). 
 
 EiDicuLE (Fr.), a handbag, should be 
 (as in English) reticule, being from Lat. 
 reticulum, a httle net. Corrupt forms 
 of the same word in the German dia- 
 lects are ritterhiel and rittehiel (Andre- 
 sen, Volksetymologie, p. 19). 
 EiGHDEiEB, "I Gaelic words for a 
 EiGHDiR, > knight, so written, 
 EiDiE, J and explained to be 
 
 a compound, righ-dei-ri, "king-after- 
 king," i.e. a minor king, is without 
 doubt a corruption of the German ritter, 
 a knight (J. F. Campbell, PojiMZar Tales 
 of the W. Highlands, vol. ii. p. ?5). 
 
 EiGOGOLo, an Italian name for the 
 yellowhammer (a rook or daw, Florio), 
 apparently akin to Hgogoli, a springe to 
 catch birds, is a corruption of Lat. auri- 
 galgulns, galgulus being a small bird. 
 Compare It. rigoglio (Florio), another 
 form of orgoglio, pride. 
 
 Einoee (French), to whack [rincee, a 
 whacking), so spelt as if identical with 
 rlncer, to wash or cleanse (from Icel. 
 h-einsa, to cleanse), like " chastise," 
 from castigare, to make pure {castus), 
 which is also the primary meaning of 
 " punish." It is reaUy the same word 
 as WaUon rainser, to beat, old Fr. rain- 
 ser, derived from rainsel, a stick (Mod. 
 Fr. rainceau and rinceau), =: Lat. ra- 
 micellus, from ramius, whence raim, 
 rein. 
 
 Eesponses (Fr.), rampions (a sallad 
 root). — Cotgrave. A corruption of rai- 
 ponce, which is from the Latin ranun- 
 culus, a small rapa, or turnip. 
 
 Eivteea. (It.), properly the bank or 
 shore of a stream, the "riparian " parts 
 (Fr. rivi&re), from Lat. riparia {ripa, a 
 bank), has come to be used for a river, 
 from being confused with rivo, a river 
 (Lat. rivus), with which it has really no 
 connexion. 
 
 EoBBET, in sauce Bohert, a term of 
 the French cuisine, is said to have been 
 corrupted by Taillevent from an old 
 English Boebroth or Boehrewii, i.e. Eoe- 
 buck sauce [?] . — Kettner, Booh of the 
 Table, p. 210. 
 
 It is mentioned in La Condemnaeion 
 de Bancquet, 1507 : — 
 
 Tout premier, vous sera donn^e, 
 Saulce robert, et cameline. 
 
 Recueit de Farces, p. 308 (ed. Jacob). 
 
 EoHEDOMMEL, the German name of 
 the bittern or butter-bump, so called as 
 if from the d/i-umming noise it makes 
 among the reeds (rolw), whence also it 
 has been called rohrtrommel from trom- 
 meln, to drum (compare the Eng. name 
 {mire-drumble, mire-drum). It is really 
 corrupted from a O. H. Ger. foi-m hoi-o- 
 tumbil, where the first part of the word 
 is probably hor, mire, and the latter 
 
BOMEBO 
 
 ( 502 ) 8AL8APABIGLIA 
 
 corresponds either to tummler, a tum- 
 bler, or tump, stupid. Other forms are 
 mrdump and rordum (Andresen). 
 
 EoMSEo (Span.), rosemary, appa- 
 rently the same word as roniero, a pil- 
 grim, is an adaptation of Lat. ros mari- 
 nus (Fr. rdmarin). 
 
 BoMlTA, \ Italian words for "anHer- 
 KoMlTO, J mit or sohtarie man " 
 (Plorio), so spelt as if from romia/re, " to 
 roame or wander vp and downe as a 
 Palmer or solitarie mian for deuotions 
 sake " (Florio), originally to make a 
 pilgrimage to Borne, is really a cor- 
 rupted foiln of a Latin erenvita, Greek 
 eremites, one who dwells in the desert, 
 erenios. 
 
 EossiGNOL, in the French ross 
 d'Areadie, " Arcadian nightingale, 
 humorous expression for an ass, with 
 reference to its melodious voice, is a 
 corruption of roussin d'Areadie, roussin 
 being a thick-set horse, another form of 
 "rosse, a jade, tit" (Cotgrave), =/iros, 
 horse. Compare rossinante, a jade, Sp. 
 roas'm (whence thename of Don Quixote's 
 steed), O. Bng. rounde, Low Lat. run- 
 cinus. Similarly frogs have been called 
 " Dutch nightingales," " Canadian 
 nightingales," and in the Eastern 
 counties " March [? marsh] birds." 
 
 KouBN, the name popularly given in 
 France to a species of duck considered 
 especially good for the table, as if 
 it came from the town of that name, 
 was originally roan, referring to its 
 colour (Kettner, Booh of the Tahle, p. 
 161). 
 
 Koux-viEux (Fr.), the mange in 
 horses, as if compounded with roux, 
 red, is a corrupt orthography of rou- 
 vieuifj, from rouffe, Ger. rufe, Dut. rof. 
 
 EoviSTico, 1 Ital. names of privet, 
 
 EuviSTico, 5 properly (as to form) 
 
 derived from Lat. Ugusticum, lovage, 
 
 but confused with rigustro, from Lat. 
 
 ligustrum, privet. 
 
 EuBAN (Fr.), a corruption of the old 
 French riban, a ribbon, Dnt. rijghhand, 
 as if connected with Lat. ruheus. It ru- 
 hino, Sj). ruhin, Fr. ruVis, red. 
 
 EuBiGLiA, an Italian word for vetches 
 or lentils, so spelt as if it denoted red 
 lentils (like Heb. edom, "that red," 
 Geu. XXV. 30), It. ruheo, Lat. ruheus. 
 
 red, is another form of rovigUa, altered 
 by transposition from erviglia, Lat. er- 
 vilia (compare It. rigoglio for orgogKo). 
 Similarly the so-cstUeA Bevalenta(Ara- 
 hica) is merely a transposed form of 
 erva-lenta, under which name it was 
 first brought into notice, it being the 
 meal of the common lentil, Lat. ervum 
 lens. 
 
 EiJOKEUTEN, a humorous corruption 
 in German of rehruten, recruits, as if 
 from rucken, to move, advance, or come 
 forward. Low Ger. rilelc rut (rilck her- 
 aus), come, or march out (Andresen). 
 
 RuiSENOE, the Spanish name for the 
 nightingale, as if to signify the lord of 
 the groves and woods (senor, lord). 
 This, however, as well as old Fr. roi- 
 signor, roisignol, Mod. Fr. rossignol, is 
 a derivative of Lat. luscimohis, dim. of 
 lusoinia, a nightingale (Diez ; Andre- 
 sen, VolJcsetymologie, p. 27). 
 
 EuNDTHBiL, a popular German cor- 
 ruption of rondelle, as if from theil, a 
 part. Cf. Dut. rondeel (Andresen). 
 
 S. 
 
 Sacabuche (Sp.), the wind instru- 
 ment which in EngUsh is called a 
 " saokbut," so spelt as if from saear del 
 huche, to distend the stomach, " to 
 fetch the breath from the bottom of 
 the belly, because it requires a strong 
 breath " (Bailey), is a corrupt form of 
 Lat. samhuca, Gk. samhukl, Heb. sabka. 
 The Lat. word was doubtless regarded 
 as meaning a pipe of elder wood [sam- 
 hzicus), which is actually the sense that 
 samhuque bears in Prov. French. 
 
 Sageo (It.), a falcon, Fr. sacre, old 
 Eng. sdker, as if the "sacred" bird (so 
 Greek hiercne, and Ger. weilie, the sacred 
 bird, the kite), is, according to Pictet, a 
 corruption of Arab, sahr, a falcon, akin 
 to Sansk. gahra, strong. See p. 141, 
 s.v. Gerfalcon. 
 
 Sahlband, a German word for the 
 border or listing of cloth, as if contain- 
 ing band, a binding, is perverted from 
 the older form selhend, selbende, Low 
 Ger. selfhant, i.e. self-edge, Eng. " sel- 
 vage." 
 
 Salsapakiglia (It.), salsaparUla, Fr. 
 
SAL8IFIS 
 
 ( 503 ) 
 
 SCHLEUSE 
 
 S'lUeparmlle, is a modification of Sp. 
 mna-parilla (derived from Sp. zarza, 
 a bramble, whence it is obtained, and 
 Fa/rillo,\h.e name of the doctor who in- 
 troducedit), under the influence oi salsa, 
 
 Salsifis (Fr.), the plant salsify, is a 
 corrupt form of old Fr. sassify, sasse- 
 jique, sassefrique (Cotgrave), It. sassi- 
 frica or sassifraga, " the saxifrage or 
 Breake-stone"(Florio),Lat.sai!;)/9-a^ttTO 
 adiantum. 
 
 Santobeggia (It.), the plant savory, 
 is an assimilation to santo, holy, of saiu- 
 rg'a, Lat. aatiireia. 
 
 Sarxiphagos, a Greek corruption of 
 the Latin saxifraga, " the stone-break- 
 iag" plant, as if from sdr.v, flesh, and 
 phagein, to devour (Pott, Doppelung, p. 
 81). 
 
 Saumon (Fr.), salmon, when used for 
 a "pig" or "sow" of lead, seems to 
 be a corruption of Prov. Fr. sommon 
 (Seheler), derived from somme, a weight, 
 a burden, It. soma, salma, Low Lat. 
 salma, for sagma, Greek sdgnia, a bur- 
 den. 
 
 ScHACHTELHALM and schacMhalm, 
 German names for the plant horsetail 
 [equisetum), as if from schachtel, a box, 
 and schacht, a shaft or pit, are corrup- 
 tions oi schafthahn, " shaft-haulm " or 
 stalk. Another perversion is scltaftheu 
 {heu =: hay) . — Andresen. 
 
 ScHAFZAGEL,"sheep-tail,"andsc7idcA- 
 2a(7eZ,"chess-tail,"ludicrousperversions 
 in Mid. HighGer. oischdchzabel, a chess- 
 table (Andresen). 
 
 ScHALMEi (Ger.), or schalmuse, is a 
 corrupt form of Fr. chalumeau, Eng. 
 shawm, a clarionet or pipe, all from Lat. 
 calamius, as if connected with schalmen, 
 to peel or bark (Chappell, Histm-y of 
 Music, vol. i. p. 264). 
 
 ScHANDAL, a popular corruption in 
 German of skandal, as if from schamde, 
 shame. M. Gaidoz quotes schandlicht 
 (as if an infamous light) as a grotesque 
 German transforraation of Fr. chandelle 
 (Beniue Critique, Aout 19, 1876, p. 119). 
 
 ScHABLACH, a German corruption of 
 "scarlet," Fr. ecarlate, Prov. escarlaf, 
 Sp. escarlaie, It. sca/rlatto, as if connected 
 with schar, army, troop, and lack, a lac 
 or dye. 
 
 ScHARLACH, a German wordfor bright 
 red cloth, from a Mid. High Ger. form 
 sc^aw-Zac^cm, which seems to mean sho^-n 
 cloth {tunica rasilis), as if from schar, 
 shorn, and lachen, cloth (Ger. Zafore),ia 
 really corrupted from an older form 
 scharlat. Mid. Lat. scarlatum, said to be 
 of Turkish origin (Andresen). 
 
 SoHAEMUTZEL, a German word for a 
 skirmish, as if derived from schar, a 
 troop, and metzeln, to massacre, is really 
 borrowedfrom It. scaramuccia,¥r. esca/i- 
 mouche, " skirmish," which are from 
 Mid. High Ger. schirmen, to fight (An- 
 dresen), 0. H. Ger. skerman. 
 
 ScHEESCHANT, sohonschant, schersant, 
 popular corruptions of sergent in Ger- 
 many, suggestive of scherge, a beadle 
 (Andresen). 
 
 ScHEDKBUiK (Dutch), scuTvy, as if 
 derived from scheuren, to rend, and 
 huik, the stomach, is a corruption of 
 Fr. scorhut. It. scorhuto. Low Lat. scor- 
 hufiis, whence also Ger. scharhoch. Low 
 Ger. sclwrhock, Icel. skyr-bjugr. The 
 latter word has the appearance of 
 being compounded of skyr, curd, and 
 hjugr, a tumour. See Sohoebuok, 
 p. 343. 
 
 SCHIMPFENTIURE, ENSCHDMPFIEEBN, 
 
 Mid. High Ger. words, are said to have 
 no connexion with scMmpf, &c., but to 
 be from It. sconfiggere (Fr. deconfii-e, 
 Eng. discomfit). — Andresen. 
 
 SoHLAFEocK, a German word for a 
 bedgown, as if a sleeping-gown, from 
 schlafen, to sleep, is considered by An- 
 dresen to be a less correct form of 
 schlauf-roch, a gai-ment easily sHpped 
 on (compare Eng. slops). Mid. High 
 Ger. slouf, sloufen, Prov. Low Ger. 
 schlauf, schlaufen, from sliefen, to slip, 
 Ger. schlUpfen. Cf. Prov. Ger. schluffer, 
 schluppe, zz Eng. slippers. 
 
 SoHLEiFKANNB, a German word for a 
 wooden vessel with a handle, is an in- 
 stance of schlaufe (sliiifan). Mid. High 
 Ger. sloufe, a handle, being changed 
 into schleife {slifen), a sling or loop 
 (Andresen). 
 
 SCHLEUSB, German for a sluice or 
 flood-gate, sometimes written schleusze, 
 as if from schlieszen, to close, lock, is a 
 derivative of Low Lat. exclusa, sclusa 
 (from excludere, to shut out), Fr. ecluse. 
 Low Ger. slUs (Andresen). 
 
SGHLITTSGHUH ( 504 ) 
 
 SEBMONE 
 
 ScHLiTTSCHUH, a German word for 
 a skate, as if compounded of slitten, a 
 sledge, and schuh, a shoe, is really, ac- 
 cording to Karl Andresen, an incorrect 
 form of echrittscliuh, which is from 
 schritt, a stride or step, the older forms 
 being sclwHeschuoch, scTwittelsclnioch. 
 Compare the Low Ger. sfridscho, strid- 
 schau, from striden ( — Ger. schreiten), 
 " to stride." 
 
 ScHONBAETSPiEL, a popular German 
 word for the Carnival or Shrove Tues- 
 day diversions, as if from schijn, beauti- 
 ful, is a corruption of scliemhartspiel, 
 i.e. mask and beard play, from scheme, 
 schem, a mask (Andresen). 
 
 ScHWAEz-wuEZ (Ger.), "Black- 
 root," a name for the plant viper's 
 grass, looks like a corruption of the It. 
 name scorzonera, which was under- 
 stood as scorza-nera, "rind-black," but 
 probably stands for scorzomera, the 
 plant good against the bite of the scor- 
 zone, or poisonous serpent. 
 
 ScHWEiNiGBL, a hedgehog, a nick- 
 name in German for a dirty fellow, is 
 said to have been originally scJiivein- 
 nicJcel, Nickel, from NiTcolaus, being 
 often used opprobriously. Compare 
 the two-fold forms sauigel, a sloven, 
 and sau-niclcel (Andresen). 
 
 ScHWiBBOGEN, a German term for a 
 vault or arch, appears to be from 
 sehwehen (old Ger. suepin, swehen), to 
 hang or be suspended, and hogen, an 
 arch, the form swtbehoge being actually 
 found in the 15th century. But a dif- 
 ferent origin is implied by 0. H. Ger. 
 siiipogo, Mid. High Ger. swiboge (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Seceetain (old Fr.), a sexton (Cot- 
 grave), is an assimilation to secretcmre, 
 secret, of sacristain (whence Eng. sex- 
 ton and Ger. sigrist). 
 
 Seoale, the Latin name for rye 
 (whence Fr. seigle), as if from seco, 
 "that which is reaped," is most pro- 
 bably a corrupted form of sigala, 
 which is also found, with which agree 
 Ir. seagal. Armor. segal (Pictet, Origines 
 Indo-Ev/rop. torn. i. p. 274). 
 
 Seeteufbl, " Sea-devU," the name of 
 the fish so called, according to Karl 
 Andresen, was originally seedobel, dohel 
 being the pollard fish {dohulaj. 
 
 Sejotjenee (Fr.), a mis-spelHng due 
 to a false analogy with sMuire, s^parer, 
 Stfquestrer, &o. (Lat. prefix se-, apart), 
 of old Fr. sojorner, Norm. Fr.svjurner, 
 Prov. sojornar, It. soggiornare, to so- 
 journ, from Lat. sub-diwrnwre, (1) to 
 spend the day, (2) to remain long. 
 
 De Orient veng sanz siijuriier. 
 
 Vie de St. Aubutn, 1. 33. 
 
 Seidelbast, a German name for the 
 mezereon tree, as if (with thought of 
 its glossy inner bark texture) connected 
 with seide, silk, is properly zeidellast, 
 the bees' tree (or, accordLug to others, 
 from zio, the old German god of war. 
 ■ — Andresen). Of. zeidel-meister, bee- 
 master. 
 
 Semiloe, a German word for sham 
 gold, as if "half gold," is a mistaken 
 form of Fr. similar, " like -gold," from 
 Lat. sirmle awro. 
 
 Sensal, a German word for a broker 
 in financial matters, is a derivative, not 
 of Lat. senstis, but of census, through 
 Fr. censal (Andresen). 
 
 Sbeab, an Arabic word for the mirage 
 of the desert, apparently from Pers. 
 ser, head, and ab, water, as if caput 
 aqiice, " the appearance of water," and 
 so Lord Strangford derives it (Letters 
 and Papers, p. 42). It is really a later 
 form of Heb. shdrabh, the mirage (Is. 
 XXXV. 7), which Gesenius connects with 
 the root sliardbJi, to be hot or dry. 
 
 Notwithstanding the extravagant 
 claims which have been put forward 
 by his friends with regard to some- 
 thing like omniscience having been 
 attained by Lord Strangford in phUo- 
 logical matters, he seems not to have 
 been much of a Semitic scholar. Op. 
 cit., p. 44, he connects Arab. yaumM'd 
 dm, day of judgment, vsdth ZenAdaena, 
 oblivious of Heb. din, to judge, whence 
 the names Dan, Daniel, Dinah, &o. 
 
 Seeein (Fr.), Sp. sereno, evening 
 dew, as well as Fr. serenade. It. serenata, 
 an evening song, seem to owe their 
 form to a confusion between Lat. 
 serenus and seriis, late (whence It. sera 
 [so. hora\ , evening, Fr. soir). 
 
 Seemone (It.), the salmon (Florio), 
 a corruption of salmone, Lat. salmonem. 
 Compare Salmon, p. 338. 
 
SEBBAGLIO 
 
 ( 505 ) SOT-BUIQUET. 
 
 Serraglio (It.), " the great Turkes 
 chief court or houshold; also a seraile, an 
 enclosure, a close, a seoluse, a cloyster, 
 a Parke, any place shut or closed in " 
 (Plorio) ; evidently connected with ser- 
 ragliare, to shut in or close round (com- 
 pare Fr. " Pare aux cerfs," the harem 
 of Louis XV.), serra, an enclosure or 
 cloister, Lat. sera, a bolt or bar. It is 
 really the same word as Sp. serrallo, 
 Portg. serralho, Fr. Sc'rail, all adopted 
 from Pers. serin', a palace or court. M. 
 Devic notes that the French word was 
 sometimes spelt serrail in order to bring 
 it into connexion with serrer, to place 
 in safety. 
 
 Serviette (Fr.), a napkin, is not a 
 derivative of servir, but identical with 
 Sp. serviefa, which stands for servilleta, 
 a table-napkin (Minsheu), that wliich 
 discharges a servile {semi) or servant's 
 office, hke servilla, a clout. The It. 
 word is salvietta {selvietta and servietia), 
 as if that which saves, or acts as a safe- 
 guard to, one's clothes. Compare salver, 
 It. sahilla. 
 
 SiEBENBAUM, " seven-tree," segen- 
 laum, " blessing -tree," sagehauni, 
 "speech-tree," popular German cor- 
 ruptions oi sabina, the savin or juniper 
 tree (Andresen). 
 
 Simon, or Simam, a name given to a 
 weak henpecked husband in Germany, 
 to hint that he is a shs-nian {sie and 
 man). — Andresen. 
 
 SiNGoz, a Mid. High Ger. word for a 
 little beU, so spelt as if connected with 
 gingen, is really from Lat. signum, It. 
 segnuzzo (Andresen). 
 
 SiNNBiLD (Ger), a symbol, as if from 
 sirm and Uld, a " mind-figure," mental 
 picture, or ideograph, is doubtless a 
 naturalized form of symbol, Lat. sym- 
 lolum. 
 
 SisTEUM, an ancient musical instru- 
 ment of Egyptian origin, consisting of 
 metal rods, &c., suspended in a frame, 
 which made a jinghng noise when 
 shaken, Greek seisiron, so spelt as if a 
 derivative of seid, to shake, is no doubt, 
 as Dr. Birch points out, an Hellenic 
 perversion of the native Egyptian name 
 ses'( Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians,Yol. i. 
 p. 499, ed. 1878). 
 
 SiTTiG, a German word for the parrot 
 
 (Kaltsohmidt), as if it meant the edu- 
 cated and civilized bird (compare sittig, 
 well-behaved, well-mannered, sittigen, 
 to civilize), is most probably corrupted 
 from the lisd-psittacus, Gieek psittaJcos, 
 a parrot. 
 
 Skaefa-kal, an Icelandic name for 
 the plant cochlearia, which grows on 
 rocky sea-shores, as if from sharfr, a 
 cormorant (Shetland, soarf. Soot, scart), 
 is a corruption of scurvy-grass, it being 
 a cure for scorbutic diseases. 
 
 Skipt, the Icelandic name for the 
 camp of the Varangians at Constanti- 
 nople, as if connected with slcipti, a 
 division, a contest, sJcipta, to divide, is 
 corrupted from tlie Byzantine Greek 
 i(7Kvj3iTov (eshubiton), and that from the 
 Latin excuhiium (Oleasby). So Kiiss. 
 sheet, a hermit's cell, is from Greek as- 
 TcetJrion, an ascetic abode. 
 
 SoiF (Fr.), altered from old Pr. soit, 
 soi, Lat. sitis, thirst, apparently under 
 the influence of Ger. saufen, to drink 
 (Diez). 
 
 SoMMEE, to summon, as if to give a 
 final notice, an ultimatum, and derived 
 from Lat. sunimus (like sonwier, to sum 
 up), seems to be a variety of old Pr. 
 semoner [somener), =^ semondre, from 
 Lat. submonere. Compare Eng. sum- 
 ner for " summoner," Pr. semonne%i/r. 
 
 Sophie, saphie, zallfl, corrupted forms 
 in Mecklenburg of salbei, the plant sage 
 (salvia) . — Andresen. 
 
 SoEBETTO, a Turkish drink, also any 
 kind of thin supping broth (Florio), so 
 spelt as if connected -withsorbito, sipped, 
 sorbite, to sup or sip, sorbo, a sip (Lat. 
 sorbeo), is really an altered form of 
 shorbet, which is the Turkish pronun- 
 ciation of Arab, shorba, from sharih, to 
 drink. Hence also Sp. sorbete, Fr. sor- 
 bet, Eng. sherbet. From the same root 
 is Arab, sharab, a drink, which yields 
 It. siroppo, Sp. xarabe, Pr. sirop, Eng. 
 syrup (Devic). 
 
 SoT-BRiQUET, an old Pr. form of so- 
 briquet, a nickname, also a mock, flout, 
 or jest (Cotgrave), as if compounded of 
 sot, and O. Fr. briquet, a little ass (It. 
 In-idietto), is probably a corruption of 
 the older soubzbriqtiet, originally a chuck 
 under the chin, like soubarbe, an affront 
 
SOUCI 
 
 ( 506 ) 
 
 STIG- VEL 
 
 (Cotgrave). A Picard corruption is 
 
 surfiijUet. 
 
 Souoi, Frenoli name of the marigold, 
 O. Fr. soulsi, the marigold (Cotgrave), 
 from Lat. solseqwum, sun-follower, sun- 
 flower. Cf. soud, care, O. Fr. soulci, 
 from Lat. sollicihis. 
 
 Similar French names are espouse chi 
 soleil, " the marygold, bo called by- 
 some " (Cotgrave), Herhesolaire,TIerbe 
 du soliel. Others forms are soucicle, 
 solcicle, as if from solis cyclus, sun's orb 
 or cycle. 
 
 Heo is lilie of largesse 
 
 Heo is parvenke of prouesse, 
 
 Heo is soUecle of swetnesse. 
 
 And ledy of lealte. 
 Lyric Poetry, ab. 1320, p. 52 (Percy 
 Soc). 
 
 Also Boddeker, Alteng. Bichtungen, p. 
 170, who reads selsede. The flower- 
 name was probably sometimes confused 
 with souci, care, sorrow, and conse- 
 quently regarded as emblematical of 
 mourning. A writer in the Month.ly 
 Packet (vol. xxi. p. 212) remarks that 
 this was "a favourite funereal flower 
 with our ancestors. Fletcher speaks 
 of them as ' Marygolds on death-beds 
 blowing ; ' . . .it still bears the omi- 
 nous name in France oisoud " (!). 
 Marigolds 
 
 Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave 
 
 While summer days do last. 
 
 Shakespeare, Pericks, iv. 1, 16. 
 
 See The Two Nolle Kinsmen, i. 1, 11, 
 and Littledale's note in heo. 
 
 SouFFEBTBDX (Fr.), needy, poor, un- 
 well, is naturally regarded as a deriva- 
 tive of souffrir, to suffer {souffrant, ail- 
 ing, Ul). It really is an altered form 
 of old Fr. soffraitous, poor (Prov. sofrai- 
 ios), from old Fr. souffreie, soufraite, 
 want, poverty (souffrette in Cotgrave), 
 derived from Lat. suffractus, broken 
 down, in reduced circumstances. 
 
 SouEEONTE, a Wallon word for the 
 interval between the ends of two joists 
 supporting a roof, also spelt souvronfe, 
 is a corruption of old Fr. souronde, seve- 
 ronde, from Lat. euhgronda (Sigart). 
 
 SPEiCHBENAGBii, a German word for 
 a certain kind of nail, as if from spei- 
 cher, a warehouse, is a perversion of 
 Low Ger. spihernagel or spil-er, which 
 is from Lat. spica (Andresen). 
 
 Speebekbaum, the German name of 
 the service tree {sorhus), as if called 
 after sperher, the sparrow-hawk, is 
 most probably (hke sorleerhaum) com- 
 pounded of sper, spir (the sm-b, or ser- 
 vice fruit, cf. speierling), her (a berry), 
 and haum (Andresen). 
 
 Spiess, German for a spear, so spelt 
 as if the same word as spiess, a spit. 
 However, the Mid. High Ger. form spiez 
 (distinct from spiz, a spit) is for spriez, 
 a sprit, a how-sprit, from spriezen, to 
 project or jut out (Andresen). Compare 
 speak and sprechen. 
 
 Spitzname, German word for a nick- 
 name, as if from spitz, spitzig, sharp, 
 biting, and spitzen, to prick, is another 
 form of Low Ger. spitsname, connected 
 with spitsch, jeering, scornful, Eng. 
 spite [?] . — Andresen. Compare spott- 
 name, a nickname, from spoften, to de- 
 ride, spbttisch, satirical, mocking. 
 
 Spoetiglione, or sportogUone, an 
 Itahan word for a bat (Florio), as if the 
 bird which hangs under the eaves, 
 sporti, sporto, is evidently a decapitated 
 form of vespertiglione, Lat. vesperti- 
 Uonem. 
 
 Stambbcco (Ital.), a corruption of the 
 O. H. Ger. stainhoc, Ger. steinhock, the 
 wild goat, 0. Fr. boucestain; as if from 
 hecco, a goat. 
 
 SiBD-, the prefix in Danish sted-ham, 
 a step- child, sted-fader, a step-father, 
 &c., as if those words denoted a child, 
 father, &o., put in the stead (Dan. sted) 
 of the actual relation, is a modern cor- 
 ruption of the older form stiv-, as in 
 Ger. stief-, A. Sax. steop-, Swed. styf-, 
 Icel. stjup- (bereft) in stjup-barn, step- 
 child, &c. 
 
 Stbenlichteen, apopular coiTuption 
 of stearinlichter (taUow candles), as if 
 sfaj'-lights (Andresen). 
 
 Stiefel (Ger.), Icel. stigvel and sty- 
 fill, O. H. Ger. stiful, boots, are corrup- 
 tions of It. stivale, estivale, 0. Fr. esti- 
 vol, from a Latin cestivale, a sunmier 
 boot. 
 
 Stig-vEl, an Icelandic wordforboots, 
 as if a " stepping- device," from stiga, 
 to step, and vel, a device, is a corrup- 
 tion of the older word styjill, that being 
 itself a corruption of It. stivale. See 
 Stiefel. 
 
STIPIBITO 
 
 ( 507 ) 
 
 TEBBAOINA 
 
 Stipidito, " used anciently for Stu- 
 pido " (Florio, Italian Dictionary, 1611), 
 as if, liie our word " block-head," from 
 stvpite, a log or block. 
 
 StSlbeuodek, a minister of a church 
 ia Mid. High Ger., as if from stole, a 
 stole, is properly stuolbruoder (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 Stkasse, way, road, in German, from 
 Lat. strata (sc. via), "a paved road" 
 (whence our "street"), when applied 
 to a strait, i.e. a straight, strict, or nar- 
 row, piece of water, " Die Strasse bei 
 Gibraltar," is plainly a corruption of 
 the latter word (Lat. strictus). 
 
 SucuLA, Latin, a sow, the name of 
 the consteUation of the Hyades, pro- 
 bably originated in a mistaken render- 
 iDg of the Greek word huddes, the rainy 
 consteUation (from Jiuo, to rain), as if 
 it were from hues, swine. However, 
 Lat. sucv,s :^ moisture. 
 
 SuiKEEY, the Flemish name of the 
 plant succory, Fr. chicoree, Greek hich- 
 ore, as if connected with suiher, sugar. 
 
 SuND-FLUTH, the German word for 
 the Deluge, as if it meant the 8in-flood, 
 flood on account of sin, silnde, is a cor- 
 ruption oisin-fluth, O. H. Ger. sin-vluot, 
 the great flood, sin being a prefix, de- 
 noting (1) always, (2) great, as in 
 A. Sax. sinhere, a great army. A simi- 
 lar corruption is Dan. synd-flod, the 
 sin-flood. See Goldziher, Mythology 
 among the Heh-eivs, p. 442 ; M. Miiller, 
 Lectures, ii. 529, and Cleasby and Vig- 
 fusson, Icel. Diet. s.v. ai. Pictet 
 less correctly thinks that the original 
 meaning was " inundation of the sea " 
 (or sound). — Orig. Indo-Europ. i. 119. 
 
 SczEEAiN (Fr.) seems to be an amal- 
 gamation of Fr. sus (Lat. susum, under) 
 with the termination of souv-erain (i.e. 
 superatms, from super, above), anunder- 
 lord as opposed to a supreme or over- 
 lord (compare Prov. sotran, an inferior, 
 from Prov. sotz, Lat. suhtus, beneath). 
 
 Stmphonia {(n)ii(pi!ivia), a musical in- 
 strument, a Greek corruption of the 
 
 Semitic word siphonia (n''JD''D), (Dan. 
 
 iii. 5), introduced no doubt by the Phce- 
 nicians, as if from mv and (jxovrj. 
 
 So Fiirst, Meier, and Payne Smith 
 [Sermons on Isaiah, p. 291). Siphon- 
 yak is from Heb. siplidn, a pipe (com- 
 
 pare Greek siphon, Copt, sebi, a reed, 
 and perhaps Lat. tihia). In the Peshito 
 it is zefooneyo. The names of other mu- 
 sical instruments [e.g. Greek nuhla, 
 hinura, samhulie, Lat. amhuhaia) are of 
 Semitic origin (see Pusey, On Daniel, 
 Lect. i.). 
 
 Tannhirsch, an old name in German 
 for a faUow-deer, as if from tanne, a 
 fir-tree, is a corruption of dammhirsch, 
 which is itseK borrowed, in its first 
 part, from Lat. dama, a doe (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 Tabtaeo (It.), the deposit or lees of 
 wine, also used for the stone or gravel 
 in the joints causing gout, or in the 
 reines of a mans bodie (Florio), is a 
 corruption of Arab-Pers. dourd, dowrdi, 
 sediment, deposit, Arab, darad, tartar 
 or decay of the teeth (Devic). The 
 word was introduced by the alchemists 
 under the form of Low Lat. tartarum, 
 and evidently influenced by ta/rta/rus, 
 It. tartaro, the infernal regions, hell. 
 
 TAUSBNDGiJLDENKRATJT, the German 
 name of the plant centaury (really so 
 called from Cheiron, the great centaur 
 " leech "), a " thousand gulden plant," 
 originating in a misunderstanding of 
 Lat. centaurea, Gk. hentaurion, as if 
 meaning centum aurei (Andresen). 
 
 TeSom, an abyss, the deep, is the 
 modern Jewish corruption of the 
 Christian dom or cathedral (Von Boh- 
 len. Genesis, i. 320). 
 
 Teller (Ger.), aplate, is anaturalized 
 and disguised form of Fr. tailloir, a 
 platter on which to cut bread, from 
 tailler, like " trencher," from trancher. 
 
 Temujin, a name of the Mongolian 
 hero Chingis-Khan, was confounded 
 with the Turkish word Tenmrji, " an 
 fron-smith," and hence originated the 
 tradition that Chingiz was a blacksmith, 
 and one of the mountains of Arbus-ula 
 the forge of his smithy (Col. Yule, in 
 Prejevalsky's Mongolia, vol. i. p. 221). 
 
 Terkacina, the Latin name which 
 WUham de Eubruk gives to a certain 
 Mongol beverage of rice wine, evidently 
 assimilating it to terra, is a corruption 
 
TEBBE-PLEIN ( 508 ) 
 
 TRAGMUNT 
 
 of the native name dardsuu or dara- 
 soun. 
 
 Tunc ipse fecit a nobis queri quid velle- 
 mus bibere, utrum vinum vel te)Tacinam^ hoc 
 est cei'visiam de risio (p. 305). 
 
 Vide Yule, in Prejevalsky's Mongolia, 
 vol. i. p. 276. 
 
 Teeee-plein (Fr.), " earth-full," a 
 platform, according to Scheler, ought 
 to be spelt terre-plain, "level-groimd," 
 like " de plain pied," on the level. 
 However, the original meaning seems 
 to have been earth filled into the inside 
 of a bulwark or wall (Cotgrave), and so 
 It. terrapieno (zzierr a plenum), the 
 earth filled vp into the iuside of a ram- 
 pard (Florio). But the Itahan has also 
 terrapianato, levelled to the ground, 
 and the words were perhaps confused. 
 
 TiMBALiiO (It.), a drum or tambour, 
 Fr. tvmbale, Sp. timibal, are alterations 
 of the forms It. taballo, Sp. a-iabal, from 
 Arab, tabl {at tabl, "the tambour"), 
 under the influence of Lat. tympanum 
 {Xt. timpano), a tambour (Devio, Sche- 
 ler), and perhaps of cymhale. It. cim- 
 hah, Lat. cymbalum. 
 
 TiNTBNAGUE (Fr.), tutinag, is a cor- 
 rupt orthography of toutenague, Pers. 
 tutm-nak, " analogous to tutie " (oxide 
 of zinc), as if akin to tinier, to tinkle, or 
 yield a metalho sound. 
 
 TiEE-LiKE (Fr.), a money-box, some- 
 times understood as referring to the 
 slit through which one "tire les lires," 
 or draws out (Fr. tirer. It. tirare) one's 
 francs (It. lira). But lire is not used 
 for a franc in French, and the Italians 
 have no word tira-Ura. It probably 
 meant originally the wherewithal to 
 make merry, or a plaything, and so 
 was a modification of turelure, an ex- 
 clamation of joy (Scheler). Compare 
 tire-lire, the song of the lark. 
 
 TissBEAND (Fr.), a weaver, is an as- 
 similation to words hke ma/rchand (Lat. 
 mercantem) of old Fr. teisserenc, com- 
 pounded of old Fr. Ussier ■\- enc ( :: Ger. 
 suflix -inc, -ing). — Scheler. 
 
 TiTEL (Title), a false pronunciation 
 and writing in German of the word 
 tiitiel, a point, which is said to be from 
 tutte, the teat or nipple of the breast. 
 Cf. titel or titiel of the law in Bible 
 
 language, Eng. tittle, the slight projec- 
 tion which differentiates certain letters 
 of the Hebrew alphabet, as Eesh from 
 Dagesh (Andresen). 
 
 ToLPATSCH, a German word for an 
 awkward fellow, apparently of native 
 origin, from toll, crazy, odd (Eng. 
 " dull "), and jposisc/iem, to patter, rattle, 
 dabble, is really derived from the Hun- 
 garian (Andresen). 
 
 ToNLiBTJ (Fr.), toU due to the lord 
 of a manor, so spelt as if it meant the 
 place, lieu, of custom, stands for old 
 Fr. tonliu. Low Lat. tonleium, a cor- 
 ruption of telonium, Greek telonion, a 
 toll-house, or custom-house (Scheler). 
 
 ToEEENS, torrentis (Lat.), a " tor- 
 rent," apparently the pres. participle of 
 Lat. torreo, to bum, as if a fervid, and 
 BO a boiling, rapid, rushing stream, or, 
 according to others, one whose channel 
 is torrid or dried up in summer, a 
 " wady." The idea of heat readily 
 merges into that of quick motion ; 
 compare Fr. tat, old Fr. tost. It. tosto, 
 quickly, derived from Lat. tostus, burnt, 
 hot, past parte, of torreo (Atkinson). So 
 hum, a stream, 0. Eng. hom-n, A. Sax. 
 hurna, is near akin to A. Sax. lyrnan, 
 to burn, and Ger. hrunnen to Goth. 
 brinman, to bum. 
 
 There, high my boiling torrent smokes, 
 \Vild roaring o'er a linn. 
 
 Burns, Petition of Bruar Water. 
 
 The word is perhaps really allied to 
 Sansk. ta/ranta, a torrent, from the 
 present parte, ta/rant, of the root tr, 
 conveying the idea of rapid motion, to 
 fleet away, swim, &o. (see Piotet, Orig. 
 Indo-Europ. i. 144). 
 
 ToEzuBLO (Sp.), a male hawk, also 
 torquelo (Minsheu), so spelt from a false 
 analogy to tor^er, to twist, iornicuello, 
 the wry-neck, &c., is a corruption of 
 terzuelo. It. terzuolo, old Fr. terdol, Eng. 
 tiercel, tarsel, tassel, from. Lat. ter- 
 
 TouTEFOis (Fr.), i.e. " every time,'' 
 should properly be toute-voie, 0. Fr. 
 toutesvoies. It. tuttavia, " always," Sp. 
 todavia (see Scheler, and Andresen, 
 Volksetymologie, p. 19). 
 
 Teagmunt, a Mid. High Ger. word 
 for a swift-sailing ship, as if a "carry- 
 
TBAIN-TBAIN 
 
 ( 509 ) 
 
 ULF-LI^B 
 
 quick," is a corruption of old Fr. dro- 
 mon, Gk. drdmon, lit. a runner. 
 
 Tragemunt, an interpreter, is a cor- 
 ruption oi dragoman ( Andresen). 
 
 Train-teain (Fr.), regular course or 
 routine, is an assimilation to tra4n, 
 course, way, style of living, with which 
 it has really no connexion, of the 
 other form tran-iran, e.g. "It salt le 
 trantran du Palais " (Gattel). This is 
 derived from old Fr. trantraner, hor- 
 rowed from Dut. tranien, trantelen, to 
 walk leisurely to and fro {trant, a pace, 
 gemeenen tranf, the common course 
 (Sewel) ; so Littre and Scheler. 
 
 Teampelthieb, a German name for 
 the camel, as if " trample-heast " (from 
 immpeln), is a corruption, through the 
 15th century form trunimel-tMer, of the 
 word Dromedar, a dromedary (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 Teefonds (Fr.), ground, subsoil, 
 formerly spelt iresfonds, as if ground 
 (fonds) beyond {tres := trans), i.e. be- 
 neath, the surface, is really from Lat. 
 terrcB fundus. 
 
 Teembntina, an ItaUan word for 
 impentine given in Florio, so spelt as if 
 connected with tremare, &e., is corrup- 
 ted from terebentina (irehentina) , the 
 product of the terelinto or terebinth- 
 tree. Another corruption of the word 
 registered by the same authority is ter- 
 minto. 
 
 Tkemieke (Fr.), rose-iremiei-e, the 
 hollyhock, apparently, like tremie, the 
 shaking miU-hopper, from Lat. tremere, 
 to tremble (and so Ger. zHter-rose, 
 " tremble-rose," no doubt borrowed 
 from the French), is probably a corrup- 
 tion of outremer. 
 
 lUixe d'outre mer, The garden Mallow, 
 called Hocks, and Holyhocks. — Cotgrave. 
 
 So called because brought over sea from 
 the Holy Land, where it is indigenous, 
 hke outremer, an azure blue brought 
 from the Levant. Base outremer was 
 perhaps mistaken popularly for rose ou 
 tremer. 
 
 The HoUihocke is called . . . of diners Rosa 
 ultramarina or outlandish Rose, ... in French 
 Rose d'outre mer. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. TSi. 
 
 Teetoie and Trittoir are corruptions 
 of Fr. trotioir that may be heard in 
 in Berhn, as if connected with treten, 
 to walk, and tritt, tread (Andresen). 
 
 Teicoise (Fr.), pincers, Prov. Fr. tre- 
 coise, seems to be an assimilation to 
 tricot, tricoter, &c., of old Fr. twcoises, 
 Turkish pincers (Littrd). But compare 
 old Fr. estricquoyes, iron pincers (Cot- 
 grave), and estriquer, to pull on boots. 
 
 Teocart (Fr.), a surgical instrument, 
 stands for an older form trois-quarts, 
 which is a corruption of trois-cam'es, 
 three edges, it being of a triangular 
 form (Scheler). 
 
 Teou db chou, an old French word 
 for a cabbage-stalk (Cotgi-ave, Eabe- 
 lais), apparently " cabbage hole." Trou 
 here is an altered form of Lifege tour, 
 touwe, a stalk, Wallon toure, two, Fr. 
 turion, Lat. twio, a shoot, a young 
 branch. 
 
 Tdecimanno, an Italian form of Arab. 
 iargomdn, an interpreter (whence otur 
 " dragoman," &o., see Teuchman, 
 p. 406), as if connected with Turco, a 
 Tm-k ; Pers. turliuman. 
 
 Tuese, a Mid. High Ger. word for a 
 giant, as if connected with turren, to 
 dare (cf. iiirstec, daring), is really the 
 same word as O. Norse thws, A. Sax. 
 thyrs (Andresen). 
 
 TviSTHioET, a Danish name for the 
 earwig, with the very inappropriate 
 meaning of "twist-hart," is no doubt, 
 as Molbech suggests, a corruption of 
 tve-stjeH, i.e. " two-start " ( = two-tail), 
 which is its name in Jutland, descrip- 
 tive of its caudal forceps. 
 
 U. 
 
 Ufe (Icel.), the uvula, as if identical 
 with ufr, roughness (under which 
 Gleasby ranges it), is evidently a cor- 
 ruption of M. H. Ger. uwe, Lat. uva, a 
 grape, a grape-like appendage, whence 
 our "uvula" andFr. luette (for I'uette). 
 
 Ulfaldi, the Icelandic name for the 
 camel, has been adopted from Goth, ul- 
 handus, which designates that animal 
 in Ulfilas, A. Sax. olfend, O. H. Ger. 
 olpente (all from Greek elepha.(nt)s, the 
 elephant, 0. Eng. olifaunte), and assi- 
 milated regardless of meaning to the 
 native word ulf-, idfr, a wolf. 
 
 Ulf-lisr, " wolfs-joint," an Icel. 
 word for the wrist, believed to have 
 
UNTEB8GHLEIF ( 510 ) VEBT-DE-GBIS 
 
 been so called because the wolf Fenrir 
 bit off Ty's hand at that joint (Bdda 
 20), is really a corruption of oln-U^r, 
 the " ell-joint " (pron. unli^r), from din, 
 the cubit, fore-arm, or '' ell " (Lat. 
 ulna), whence oln-hogi, el-bow, A. S. 
 el-hoga (Cleasby, 668, and 764). 
 
 Unteeschleip, a German word for 
 fraud, knavery, as if " slipping under " 
 [schleifen], is for ■wmferscZifaM/, harbour- 
 ing (of thieves). Mid. High Ger. under- 
 slouf, a lurking place (Andresen). 
 
 USTENSILE (Fr.), a utensil or imple- 
 ment, is a corruption of utensile (Low 
 Lat. utensilia), under the influence of 
 the synonymous old Fr. ustil (Mod. 
 Fr. outil), from a Low Lat. usitilia for 
 usibilia (Scheler, Littre). 
 
 V. 
 
 Vaches, in the French proverbial 
 phrase, " II parle Espagnol comme les 
 vaches," is for Vashes or Basques 
 (Andresen, p. 21), "He speaks Spanish 
 butpoorly ornotatall." Comparewith 
 this the Spanish saying, " FascMem.ce : 
 Lo que esta tan confuso y oscuro que 
 no se puede entender," " Basque, any- 
 thing BO confused and obscure as to be 
 unintelligible." A proverb preserved 
 in the north of Spain pretends that the 
 devU himself spent seven long years 
 amongst the Basques without succeed- 
 ing in understanding a single word of 
 the language (Hovelacque, Soience of 
 Language, p. 113). 
 
 Vag-eek, " Wave-wreck," the Ice- 
 landic word for flotsam, as if what is 
 Cdsi up {reJci) bythetoaw {vdgr), seems 
 to be a popular attempt at etymology 
 or a misapprehension of an older form 
 vrek or wctfc, Dan. wreck (see Cleasby, 
 Icel. Bid. S.V.). Compare Fr. varecli, 
 for mac, seaweed cast ashore, Eng. 
 wrack. 
 
 Vague (Fr.), when used in the sense 
 of void, empty, waste, as in "terres 
 vaines et vagues," is Lat. vagus, assi- 
 milated in meaning to vaouus, empty. 
 
 Vaii-dibe, an old French term for 
 "A footman, or servant, only for 
 errands " (Cotgrave), as if called from 
 his delivering compliments and salu- 
 
 tations (vale), is a corruption of valet, 
 valeter. 
 
 Vague-mesteb (Fr.), waggon master, 
 is a corruption of Ger. wagen-meister. 
 
 Vedette (Fr.), an outpost or watch, 
 It. vedetta, so spelt as if from vedere, to 
 see, Lat. videre, is a corruption pro- 
 bably of It. veleita, from veglia, a watch, 
 scout, or sentinel, Lat. vigiUa (Scheler). 
 
 Ventee, and se venter, to brag, old 
 Fr. spellings (in Cotgrave) of vatiter, 
 to vaunt (Prov. vantar. It. vantare, 
 Low Lat. vanita/re, to say vain or idle 
 things (vana), to boast, or indulge in 
 vanity), on the supposition that it was 
 the same word as venter, to blow or 
 puff, of the vidnd (vent), and so meant 
 to be puffed up or inflated like a wind- 
 bag. Compare It. " sacco di vento, a 
 bag of winde, also an idle boaster, a 
 vaunting guU." — Florio ; Ger. wind- 
 heutel, a braggart ; Lat. ventosus ; Ger. 
 wind machen, to boast ; Dut. wind 
 hreeken, to vaunt (Sewel) ; " a bladder 
 full of wind " (■=. a boaster). — Bp. HaD, 
 Works, 1634, p. 176. 
 With his own praise like windy bladder 
 blown. 
 
 P. Fletcher, Purple Island, viii. 36. 
 Ne se pout nul vanter. 
 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 1783. 
 
 Veede (It.), green, "Petrarke hath 
 used the word Verde for a finaU end, 
 when he saith gionto al verde, aUuding 
 to a Candle which they were wont to 
 colour greene." — Florio. It seems to 
 be the same word as our ve^-ge, a hmit, 
 which is understood to be from Lat. 
 vergere, to incline, tend, bend towards, 
 or border. So Fr. verger, an orchard, 
 stands for verdier, a greenery, Lat. 
 viridiarium. 
 
 Veein (Fr.), a machine with a screw, 
 which some have supposed to be con- 
 nected with ver, a woi'm (cf. " worm of 
 a screw "), verineux, wormy, is the 
 same word as It. verrina, a gimlet. Low 
 Lat. verinus, a screw (as if from veru), 
 Portg. verruma, Sp. harrena, aU which 
 words seem to be borrowed from Arab. 
 harmia, a borer or gimlet ( Vulg. Arab. 
 harrina), from haram, to twist (Devic). 
 
 Veemost, a popular German corrup- 
 tion of famos (Andresen). 
 
 VEET-DE-6Eis(Fr.),verd6gris,"green- 
 of-grey," anciently vcrtegrez, which is 
 
VESP^ 
 
 ( 511 ) 
 
 VULLEMUNT 
 
 probably from v&)i aigret, green pro- 
 duced by acid (Littrd). 
 
 Vesp^, as it were " wasps," an old 
 Latin word for a certain class of under- 
 takers. " Those who discharge the 
 ofSce of burying corpses are so called, 
 not from those little insects, but be- 
 cause they cany forth at eventide {ves- 
 periino tempore, vespe^'e), those who 
 could not afford the expense of a funeral 
 procession " (Festus). The more usual 
 term for them was vespillones. 
 
 Vi^EiNi, an Icelandic word ^inipo- 
 tens, according to Vigfusson and Cleasby 
 is the same word as appears in A. Saxon 
 as wi-cene := lihidinosus, and is not com- 
 pounded, as would seem at first sight, 
 with the proposition ct S . 
 
 VrELFKASZ, the German word for the 
 glutton or wolverene, as if the great- 
 eater, from fressen, to eat, is a corrup- 
 tion of Icel. fliillfras (? a mountain bear 
 or mountain ferret). — Andresen. But 
 Cleasby gives no such compound. 
 
 ViERGE, a French name, according 
 to Dimcan Forbes, for the queen at 
 chess, is a corruption of fie7-ge or fierce, 
 0. Eng. fers, M. Lat. farzia or fcrcia, 
 Pers. fa/rz or firz, a minister or coun- 
 sellor {History of Chess, p. 209). 
 With her false draughtes full divers 
 She stale on me and toke jnyfers. 
 And whan 1 sawe my fers away, 
 Alas, I couth no lenger play. 
 
 Chaucer, Book of the Dutchesse, 
 11. 662-656. 
 
 ViDKBCOME (Fr.), a large drinking- 
 glass, so spelt as if from Ger. wieder- 
 hcmmen, to come again, as if descrip- 
 tive of a circling cup which makes the 
 tour of the table, is a corruption of old 
 Fr. wikcome, vilconi, a loving cup, a 
 word borrowed from A. Sax. wil-cume, 
 welcome, greeting (see Diez, Etym. 
 Diet. p. 461, trans. Donkin). 
 
 ViiiAiN, in French so spelt with one 
 I as if derived from vil, vile, instead of 
 from villanus, a countryman, boor or 
 churl. Thus Cotgrave defines vilain, 
 "viUanous, vile, base;" vilein, "ser- 
 vile, base, vile." 
 
 Compare the same collocation in the 
 Authorized Version, " The vile person 
 win speak villany " (Is. sxxii. 6). 
 
 ViEEBEEQUiN, the old Fr. form of 
 vilebreqiiAn, a wimble or gimlet (in Cot- 
 
 grave), still so called in Anjou (Gattel), 
 on the assumption that it must be de- 
 rived from virer, to turn round. Vile- 
 hrequin itself is a naturalized form of 
 Flem. tcielhoorl'en (= wheel-bore-kin), 
 a Little revolving borer, a drill. Further 
 coiTuptions are old Fr. vihriquet (Pals- 
 grave), Picard. hiherquin, Sp. herheqiti. 
 
 ViTECOQ (0. French), a snipe, as if 
 from vite, swift, is a corruption of Eng. 
 woodcock, A. Sax. wudcoc (Diez). A 
 further corruption is vit de cog (in Cot- 
 grave), a woodcock. 
 
 ViKDELAS (Sp.), small pox, so spelt 
 with a probable reference to virus, is 
 the same word as Fr. ve)-ole (for vairole), 
 variole. Low Lat. variola, from varius, 
 of many colours, spotted; 
 
 ViZTHUM, a deputy or vicegerent, a 
 Germanized form of vicedominus, Fr. 
 vidame, as if containing the common 
 affix -tlium, Eng. -dom. 
 
 Voile, " a veil," in WaUon used for 
 glass, is a corruption of old Fr. voirre 
 (:= verre), from Lat. vitrum (Sigart). 
 
 VoLBR, to steal or rob, has been 
 generally regarded as a shortened form 
 of envoler, to fly away, Lat. involare, to 
 fly upon, and then to fly away with 
 (Diez, Scheler). Thus the word would 
 be identical with voler, to fly. It seems 
 to me to be derived from Fr. vole, the 
 palm or hollow of the hand (Cotgrave), 
 so that voler (hie " to palm dice," 
 Nares) would mean to conceal in the 
 hollow of the hand, to steal. So It. 
 involare, to filch, pilfer, or hide out of 
 sight (Florio), from vola, the palm 
 (Id.) ; Lat. involare, to steal, from Lat. 
 vola, the hollow of the hand. " To palm 
 (of palma, the hollow of the hand), to 
 juggle in one's hand, to cog, or cheat at 
 dice " (Bailey). Compare 
 
 Grypyn, iiioolo. — Prompt. Pani. (ed. Pyn- 
 son). 
 
 Involo, in void aliquid continere. — Catho- 
 licon. 
 
 Hence old Fr. embler, to steal ( Vie de 
 8t. Auban, 1. 956). 
 
 VoBZEiCHEN, properly meaning a 
 token, is a popular German corruption 
 of pforzich {— Lat. portions). — Andre- 
 sen. 
 
 Vdllbmunt, and vollemunt. Mid. 
 High Ger. corruptions of Lat. funda- 
 
WAGHHOLDEB ( 512 ) 
 
 WEISS AGE B 
 
 mentum, influenced probably by fulci- 
 inentum (Andresen). 
 
 W. 
 
 Wachholdek, the German name of 
 the jmiiper, as if from wacli (awake) 
 and holder for holunder (the elder), is 
 a corrupted form of Mid. High Ger. 
 loecholder, wechalter, from wechal, lively 
 (cf. Lat. vigil), and -ter (z= tree, Goth. 
 triu). The allusion is, no doubt, to its 
 evergreen appearance, like Lat. juni- 
 perus, for juvemi-perus, " young-bear- 
 ing." 
 
 Wahlplatz, ) German words for a 
 Wahlstatt, J field of battle, so spelt 
 as if compouuded with ivahl, choice, 
 election, are (like Walhalla, Icel. Val- 
 holl, Wallciirien, Icel. Val-hyrja) from 
 wal, signifying defeat, battlefield, the 
 collection or number of the slain, Icel. 
 vah; the slain, A. Sax. wael, walre. 
 
 Wahewole, "ware-wolf," as if from 
 walvren, to beware, is a German per- 
 version oi werwolf , i.e. man- wolf, " Ly- 
 canthrope," from wer, a man. In Low 
 Latin werwolf became gerulphus, 
 whence gm'ou (inFr. loup-gawu), which 
 was mistaken {e.g. by Cotgrave) as a 
 sjmcope of the words garez-vous, take 
 heed, turn aside, look to yourselves, so 
 that loup-garou was understood in 
 exactly the same sense as Ger. wahr- 
 u-olf. 
 
 Wahk-zeichen (Ger.), a sign or 
 token, literally a "true- token," as if from 
 walvr, true, is a corruption of the old 
 High German wort-zeiclien (Icelandic 
 jwrtegn ov jarteikn), a "word-token," 
 denoting originally a ring or any other 
 pledge brought by a messenger to prove 
 the truth of his words. Another old 
 corruption is wm-tzeiehen, a watch- 
 word, as if from warte. 
 
 Wallfisch, the whale, and wallross, 
 the walrus, so spelt in German, as if 
 from wall, the shore, are incorrect 
 forms from wal, the whale (Andresen). 
 
 Eng. walrus is a transposed form of 
 ros-wal, old Eng. Jwrse-whale, A. Sax. 
 hors-hwcel, which seem to be corrupt 
 forms of Icel. rosm-hvalr, where rosm 
 is of doubtful origin (Cleasby, p. 501). 
 
 For the more commoditie of fishing of 
 horsewhales. — Hahluyt, Votages, 1598, p. 5. 
 
 Wehegeld, in German a less correct 
 form of wergeld, ht. a man's fine, i.e. 
 an amercement for killing or inflicting 
 serious injury on a man, wir ( = Lat. 
 vir, as in werwolf, man-wolf), so spelt 
 as if from wehr, a defence. 
 
 Weichbild, German for a town, dis- 
 trict, a mis-spelling as if connected with 
 weich,weak, isirovaimch, — Lat. otcms, 
 Eng. and Scot, wick, as in Berwick, 
 " baUliewick." 
 
 Weichselzopf, " Vistula-lock," a 
 German name for the diseased state of 
 the hair called PUca Toloniea, as if the 
 disease prevalent on the banks of the 
 Vistula, is not compouuded originally 
 with weichsel, but with wichtel, wiclii, a 
 goblin, which was imagined to entangle 
 the hair. The word thus exactly cor- 
 responds to our " eK-lock." So An- 
 dresen, Volkseiymologie, p. 84 ; but M. 
 Gaidoz throws some doubt upon the 
 statement. Revue Critique, Aout 19, 
 1876, p. 120. 
 
 Weihbischof, a German word for a 
 suffragan or vicarious bishop, a bishop's 
 substitute (as if "holy-bishop," from 
 weihe, weihen), looks very like a cor- 
 ruption of vice-hischof. 
 
 In wegedistel ( St. Mary's thistle) and 
 wegedorn (Christ-thorn), loejre probably 
 has no connexion with weg, way, but 
 is a corruption of weihe, holy (Swed, 
 viga, to consecrate, Icel. vigja, Goth 
 weihan, Dan. vie). Compare Eng. 
 " Blessed Thistle," ca/rduus henedictm. 
 
 Weiher (Ger.), a fish-pond, so spelt 
 as if akin to welvr, a dam or weir (fisch 
 well/)-), Dut. loeer, is merely a natu- 
 ralized form of Fr. vivier, Lat. vivarium, 
 a pond for keeping fishes ahve ; M. H 
 Ger. loiwer. See Wavee, p. 427. 
 
 "Wbinnachtsteaum, an Americo-Ger- 
 man word for a " Christmas Dream,' 
 as if a " Wine-night's Dream," wein- 
 nacht being a corruption of Ger. Weih 
 nacht (Holy-night), Christmas. 
 
 Next dings ve bad de H'einniwhtstraum ge- 
 sung- by de Liederkranz. 
 
 Leland, BreHmann Ballads, p. 107 
 (ed. 1871). 
 
 Weissagek, German (Eng. "wise- 
 acre"), as if directly from iveise, wise. 
 
WILDSOnUR 
 
 ( 513 ) 
 
 ZETTO VABIO 
 
 and sagen, to say, is a corruption of 
 0. H. Ger. wizngo, := A. Sax. loiHga, a 
 prophet, "wizard," "witch," leel. vitl-i, 
 a wizard. 
 
 WiLDSCHtJR, a German word for a 
 farred garment, as if compounded of 
 wild, wild, and schur, a shearing, and 
 BO the "for of a wild-beast," is a cor- 
 ruption of the Slavonic word wilcxura, 
 a wolPs-skia coat (Andresen). The 
 word undergoes a further disguise in 
 Fr. vitchowrra. 
 
 WiNDBRAUS, " "Wind-bluster,'' a Ti- 
 rolese corruption of Ger. WindshrMit 
 (q. v.). — Andresen. 
 
 WiDERTHON, the German name of the 
 plant maiden-hair or Venus' hair, as 
 if from wider, against, and tlion, clay, 
 is a corruption of the older forms 
 wedeiiam, icidertat, of uncertain origin. 
 Another popular corruption of the same 
 is widertod, as if from tod, death (An- 
 dresen) . 
 
 WiBDEHOPF, "withe-hopper," the 
 German name of the hoopoe. Mid. 
 High Ger. witehopfe, as if the " wood- 
 hopper," from 0. H. Ger. loiiii ^ Eng. 
 wood, and Mpfin. It is probably a 
 corruption of Lat. wpupa, Gk. ipops, 
 Pr. hifpe (Andresen). 
 
 WiLDBBET, a German word for game, 
 as if KiU, game, dressed for the table, 
 hret, is a modern and incorrect form of 
 mldhraten, from hraien, to roast, Mid. 
 High Ger. wiltpraete. 
 WiNDHUND, \ German words for the 
 WiNDSPiEL, / greyhound and cours- 
 ing, as if denoting swift as the ic/W. 
 The first part of the word, however. 
 Mid. High Ger. wint, itself denotes the 
 gfeyhound, and the compound luind- 
 hund is a pleonastic uniting of the 
 species with the genus, as in maulpsel, 
 mule-ass, walfisch, whalefish (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 WiNDSBBiDT, "Wind's-bride," aGer- 
 man word for a squall or gust of wind. 
 Mid. High Ger. windeabruf, is from 
 windes sprout, from sproiiicen (=: sprii- 
 Jien), spwrgere (Andresen). 
 
 WlTTHUM, a German word for a 
 dowry, so spelt as if of a common 
 origin with witwe, a widow, witifrau, a 
 widow-woman, ivittmann, a widower 
 (just as " dower," Fr. douaire, is con- 
 
 nected with " dowager "). WUnw, Itott- 
 ever, is from Lat. vidua, while tc'dilmm 
 is another form of u-idttni, from wldcvi, 
 a jointure (Andresen). 
 
 WoLFSBOHNE, i.e. Wolfs-loan, the 
 German word for the lupine plant, 
 seems to -have originated in a mis- 
 understanding of Lat. lupinus as being 
 a derivative of lupus, a wolf. How- 
 ever, as Pictet points out, the Eussiau 
 volcil bobu, niyr. vucji boh, are synony- 
 mous with the German word (Origines 
 Indo-Europ. i. 286). 
 
 WuTHENDE Heeb (Ger.), " the wild 
 host," wild huntsman, as ifhomtriifhoi, 
 to be mad (old Eng. wood), is a cor- 
 ruption of Wuotanes her, i.e. WodarCs or 
 Odin's army, as shown by the Swabian 
 expression for an approaching storm, 
 " 's Wuotes Heer kommt " (Andresen). 
 
 Wodan was originally a storm-god, 
 his name akin to Sansk. ivata, the wind. 
 (See Kelly, Indo-Europ. Trad. p. 267; 
 Pictet, ii. 685 ; Carlyle, Heroes, Lect. i.) 
 
 Zandeb, the German name of the 
 fish we call pike, as if so called from 
 its formidable teeth, Prov. and Mid. 
 High Ger. zand, a tooth, Ger. zahn, is 
 otherwise written sandcr, as if from 
 sand, sand. 
 
 Zeehond (Dut.), " sea-dog," the seal, 
 looks Kke a corruption of Dan. scel- 
 hund, "seal-hound," Swed. sji'd-liuud 
 (Icel. sch; O. H. Ger. selah, A. Sax. 
 seal, the seal). 
 
 Eng. seal was formerly regarded as a 
 contraction of "sea-veal," a sea-calf. 
 
 The sea Calfe, in like maner, which our 
 country me tor breuitie sake call a Seete, 
 other more largely name a Sea Vele, maketh 
 a spoyle of fishes betweene rockes and 
 banckes, but it is not accounted in the cata- 
 logue or niiber of our Englislie dogges, not- 
 withstanding we call it by the name of a Sea 
 dogge or a sea Calfe. — A. Fleming, Cuius uf 
 Eu;r. Dogges, 1576, p. 19 (repr. 1880). 
 
 Zettovario (It.), an Indian plant 
 with a bitter medicinal root, so spelt as 
 if compounded with vario, variegated, 
 is a corrupt form of zedooria, Sp. ze- 
 doaria, Vortg.zed^taria, Pr. zedoaire, aU 
 from Arab-Pers. zedioar, or jediwr 
 (Devic). 
 
Z IE H -BOOK 
 
 ( 514 ) 
 
 ZWIBBEL 
 
 ZiBH-BOOK, a West Prussian word 
 for the tube of a pipe (as if from ziehen, 
 to draw, and lock, a buck), is a curious 
 corruption of the Slavonic tschibuk, a 
 chibouque (Andresen), or, more cor- 
 rectly, of Turkish tcMbuq, or tchuhuq, a 
 pipe (Devic). 
 
 ZiEHjAEN, a popular German cor- 
 ruption of cigarre, as if from Ziehen, to 
 draw. 
 
 ZiTHBE, the German name of a 
 stringed instrument so called, as if 
 connected with zitter, to shake or 
 quaver, from the tremulous sound of 
 the chords, is the same word as Lat. 
 cithara. 
 
 ZwEEGKASE, " dwarf-cheese," a Ger- 
 man word for whey-cheese, as if called 
 
 so from its small size {zwa-g, a dwarf) 
 is a corruption of quaMcase (with the 
 common change between qu and zw), 
 from qua/rh, curd. Mid. High Gar. 
 twarc; the form toar^ still being found 
 in West Prussia (Andresen). 
 
 ZwiEBEL, a German word for a 
 species of onion or chives, as if to de- 
 note its twofold bulb (from zwei, zwie-, 
 two), hke the plant-name zweilhtt, 
 bifoU ; and so the Mid. High Ger. 
 word zwibolle, "double-bulb," as if 
 from holle, a bulb. All these, however, 
 are corruptions of It. oipolla, ^zh&t. 
 cepula, from cepa, our " chives." Per- 
 haps there may have been an obUque 
 reference, in the way of contrast, to 
 Lat. unio, from unus, the single bulb 
 (whence Fr. oignon, our " onion "). 
 
A LIST OF PROPER NAMES OF PERSONS AND 
 
 PLACES CORRUPTED BY FALSE 
 
 DERIVATION OR MISTAKEN 
 
 ANALOGY. 
 
 Abbe Hetjeeux, a Fr. place-name, 
 is a popular corruption of Abeouroti, 
 (L. Larchey, Bid. des Nommes). 
 
 Abbey, a surname, is probably iden- 
 tical with Aho (in Domesday^ old Ger. 
 AlU, Abho, Ibla, Frisian Ahbe, Dan. 
 Ehhe, Ebha, A. Sax. Ibbe, all perhaps 
 from aba, a man (B. Ferguson, English 
 Smnames, p. 340). 
 
 Abel, Tomb of, 15 miles N. of Da- 
 mascus, shown by the Arabs, is pro- 
 bably a mere misunderstanding of the 
 name of the ancient city of Abila, the 
 nuns of which are close at hand ( Porter, 
 Giamt Cities ofBaslian, p. 353). 
 
 Abeehill, in the county of Kinross, 
 is an English corruption of the Gaelic 
 AbMr-thidll, which means " The con- 
 fluence of the holes or pools " (Robert- 
 son, J. A., Gaelic Tocography of Scot- 
 land, p. 72). 
 
 Abeelady, in the county of Hadding- 
 
 , ton, is a corruption of the old spelling 
 
 CAlerhoedy,Gae]ioAbMr-liohh-cdte, "The 
 
 confluence of the smooth place " (Eo- 
 
 bertson, Gaelic Topography of Scotland, 
 
 p. 94). 
 
 Abebmilk, in the county of Dumfries, 
 is a corruption of the old name Aber- 
 iwlcorAber-milCfGaelicAhhir-milleach, 
 " The confluence of the flowery sweet 
 grass" (Eobertson, Gaelic Topography 
 of Scotland, p. 75). 
 
 Abeesky, in Forfarshire, a corrupt 
 form of the Gaelic Abhir-uisge, " The 
 confluence of the water or stream ' ' 
 (Robei-tson, p. 96). 
 
 Ablewhite, an Eng. surname, is 
 another form of the name' Sehblewlvite, 
 Kebhleioaite, or Hebhlethwaite, originally 
 of local signification, the thwaite, or 
 clearing, of one Hebble ot Hebel (Fer- 
 guson, 342). 
 
 Aboo-seeK, the modern Arabic name 
 of the ancient J3'M.sms (perhaps =:Egyp- 
 tian Pa-hesa/r, " the [abode ?J of 
 Osiris "), corrupted into a new mean- 
 ing (Smith, Bible Diet. vol. ii. p. 578). 
 
 AcHTEESTKASSB, the name of a street 
 in Bonn, as if "Back-street," was 
 originally Akerstrasse or Acherstrasse, 
 the street that leads to Achen (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Acre, in Si. /earadMra-e, is evidently 
 a corruption of its ancient name in 
 Hebrew 'Hakho (or Accho, Judges, i. 
 31), Egyptian 'Hakhu, meaning " Hot 
 sand," now Akka. 
 
 AouTUS. Verstegan mentions that 
 there was to be seen in Florence the 
 monument and epitaph of an English 
 knight Joannes Aoutus, and some, he 
 says, 
 
 Have wondered what lohn Sharp this might 
 bee, seeing in England they never heard of 
 any such ; his name rightly written being in- 
 deed Sir lohn Haukwood, but by omittmg the 
 h in Latin as frivolous, and the k and w as 
 
ADDER VILLE 
 
 ( 516 ) 
 
 ALMOND 
 
 unusuall, he is lieere from Haukwood turned 
 unto AcutuSj and from Acutus returned in 
 English againe unto Sharp.— Restitution of 
 Decayed Intelligence, 1634, p. 302. 
 Some aooount of this Sir John Hawk- 
 wood, who died in 1394, and also had 
 a tomb in Sible Heveningham OMurch, 
 Essex, is given by Weever, who says : — 
 
 The Florentines in testimony of his sur- 
 passing valour, and singular faithful! seruice 
 to their state, adorned him with the statue of 
 a man of armes, and a sumptuous Monument, 
 wherein his ashes remaine honoured at this 
 present day. — Funerall Monuments, 1631, 
 p. 623. 
 
 Addeevillb, a place-name in Done- 
 gal, is a corruption of Ir. Eadar haile, 
 "central town," Middleton (Joyce, 
 Irish Names of Places, 2nd Ser. p. 417). 
 
 Addlehead, a surname, seems to be 
 corrupted from O. Sax. and 0. H. Ger. 
 Adellieid (nobleness), whence the Chris- 
 tian name Adelaide (Ferguson, 263). 
 
 Addle Street, near the Guildhall, 
 London, is believed to owe its name to 
 a royal residence of Athel-stane, which 
 once stood there (Taylor, 284). 
 
 'Adblphoi, "Brothers," is the form 
 that the ancient Delphi has assumed 
 in modern Greek. 
 
 Adelschlag, the name of a Bavarian 
 village, as if " Nob'e Blow," was ori- 
 ginally Adaloltesloh (Andresen). 
 
 Adiabene, a Greek river-name, as if 
 the "impassable," from a, not, and 
 Aiabaino, to cross, is said to be a per- 
 version of its proper name Adiab or 
 Zah (Philohg. Soc. Proc. v. 142). 
 
 jEnbas, a personal name in Ireland, 
 is a corruption, under classical iniiuenoe, 
 of Ir. Aengus (from aen, single, and 
 gus, strength), Angus (O'Donovan). 
 In Scotland it stands for Aonghas (ex- 
 cellent valour), in Wales for Einiawn 
 (just). — Yonge, Christian Nanies,i. 176. 
 
 Ague, a surname, is supposed to be 
 the same as old Ger. Aigua, Ageuvs 
 (Ferguson, 376). 
 
 AiK, \ Eng. surnames, are probably 
 
 Airy, J from old Ger. names An, 
 
 Ara, leel. Ari, acoromon proper name, 
 
 from Icel. ari, an eagle, O. H. Ger. a,ro, 
 
 Goth. ara. 
 
 AiESOME, a place-name in the Cleve- 
 land district, Yorkshire, is a corrupted 
 
 fomi of the ancient Arusum, Aresum, 
 :=. Danish Aarhuus in S. Jutland. 
 
 AiRSOMB, a surname in Yorkshire, is 
 a corruption of the old name Arlmsum 
 (Aarlmus).—N. Sr Q. 4th S. ii. 231. 
 
 Akb mannbs cbastek, or Acemamnes- 
 hurh, the Anglo-Saxon name of Bath, 
 as if the aching man's, or invalid's, 
 city, seems to be due to a misunder- 
 standing of its old Roman name Aquce 
 (Taylor, Words and Places, 2nd ed. 
 p. 465). Compare Ger. jlacfeen ( = Fr. 
 Aix la Chapelle), of similar origin. 
 
 Akbnside, an Eng. surname, seems 
 to have been originally a local name, 
 the side or possession of Aihin ; com- 
 pare Icel. name Aki, and Acid in 
 Domesday (Ferguson, 192). 
 
 Alb, an Eng. surname, probably 
 corresponds to old Ger. Aile, Aih, 
 Agilo ; Mod. Ger. Tiiyl ; A. Sax.. Aegel, 
 Icel. Egil (Ferguson, 374). 
 
 Albman, a surname, is a corrupt 
 form of old Eng. Almaine or Almayne, 
 a German (Bardsley, Romance of Lon- 
 don Directory, p. 116). Hence also 
 Allman. 
 
 Alexia, a Latinized form of the 
 name of Alice, found in mediaeval docu- 
 ments, stands for Adehcia, Adehsa, 
 and are variants of Adelaide, Frankish 
 Adalheit, "noble cheer" (Yonge, Christ. 
 Names, ii. 
 
 Alkimos, "vahant," the Greek name 
 of a Jewish priest (1 Mace. vii. 14), is 
 the Grecized form of EUaWm (Heb. 
 Elyakim), " God hath set up." 
 
 Allcock, a sm-name, probably stands 
 for Eal-cock, "little Harry," hkeiTon- 
 coch, little Hans or John, Jeff-cock, 
 little Jefirey, Bat-cock, httle Bat or 
 Bartholomew, Glas-cocTc (for Clas-cock), 
 little Nicholas, Simcock. Uttle Simon, 
 Luckock, little Luke, Wilcock, little 
 William. 
 
 Allcorn, an Eng. surname, is a cor- 
 ruption of the original local name 
 Alchoi-ne (Lower). 
 
 Alleb Blanche, a Fr. perversion of 
 La Laye BlaneJie, "white milk," the 
 name of a glacier on Mont Blanc (L. 
 Larchey, Diet, des Nommes). 
 
 Almond, the name of three rivers in 
 Scotland, is a corruption of the old 
 
ALMOND 
 
 ( 517 ) 
 
 ABGEIPELAGO 
 
 name Awmon, GixoUc Ahhuinn, a river 
 (Eobertsou, Oaelic Topography of Scot- 
 land, p. lio). 
 
 Almond, an Eng. surname, is pro- 
 bably from A. Sax. name Alhmund, 
 loel. Amundi; from mund, protection 
 (Ferguson, 195). 
 
 Altavilla. This classical looking 
 name of a place in Limerick is an An- 
 glicized way of writing Ir. AU-a'-bhilc, 
 " The glen-side of the old tree " (Joyce, 
 Irish Names of Places, vol. i. p. 374). 
 
 Altmuhl, a German place-name, as 
 if " old-mill," Mid. High Ger. altmule, 
 0. High Ger. altmuna, are from the 
 Keltic Alcmona (Andresen). 
 
 Amazon (Greek), "the bi-eastless," 
 the name given to the female warriors 
 who were fabled to have destroyed the 
 right breast that it might not impede 
 their use of the bow, as if from a, not, 
 and mdzos, the breast, is said to have 
 been a corruption of an Asiatic word, 
 meaning a lunary deity (Tcherkes, 
 Mazu, the moon). — Bistelhuber, in 
 Ueme Politique, 2nd S. v. 712. 
 
 The legend of a tribe of Northern 
 Amazons or kingdom of women is sup- 
 posed to have originated in a confusion 
 between the word Qvcens, the name 
 given by the Finns to themselves, and 
 Swed. quinna, a woman or " quean " 
 (Taylor, 395). 
 
 AilAZONENBEKG, the form which map- 
 makers have given to Matzonaherg 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Anna or Hannah in Ireland is often 
 a representative of the native Aine (joy). 
 — Yonge, History of Gh-isiian Names, i. 
 103. 
 
 Annabblla, the name of a place 
 near Mallow, is a corruption of Ir. 
 Bmach-Ule, "The marsh of the old 
 tree" (Joyce, i. 446). 
 
 Anna Peeenna, as if from annus 
 and peremnis, the bestower of fruitful 
 seasons, is probably a corruption of the 
 Sanscrit ApTia-purna (the food giver), 
 Apna, containing the root ap [aqua), 
 nourishment by water, and Puma the 
 stem oipario (to produce). — Cox, Aryan 
 Myth. i. 434. 
 
 Anterivo, the Itahan name of the 
 town Altrei, m Tirol, as if " before the 
 
 river." Its original name was "All- 
 treu," conferred on it by Henry, Duke 
 of Bohemia (Busk, Valleys of Tirol, 
 p. 375). 
 
 Anthenai, "The Flowery," is the 
 modern Greek name of Athinai, Athens 
 (Sayce, Principles of Gomp. Philology, 
 p. 362). This, however, is only a re- 
 currence to the primitive meaning, if 
 they be right who regard Athine as 
 meaning Florentia, "The Blooming," 
 from a root ath, whence also a/nthos, a 
 flower (Curtius, Griechischen Etynw- 
 logie, vol. i. p. 216, vol. ii. p. 316). 
 
 Antwerp, originally, no doubt, the 
 town which sprang up " at the wharf" 
 (Taylor, p. 393 ; compare Dut. cum, at, 
 and we^f, wharf), has long been popu- 
 larly regarded as having had its name 
 " of hands being there cut olf and cast 
 into the river of Skeld " (Verstegan, 
 Restitutionof Decayed Intelligence,1634:, 
 p. 209), owing to its approximation in 
 sound to Flemish handt werpen, hand 
 throwing. A giant named Antigonus 
 cut off the right hands of strangers 
 who withheld their toll and threw them 
 into the river; hence the two "couped" 
 hands in the heraldic cognizance of the 
 city [Illust. London News, May 25, 
 1872). 
 
 Aphrodite, the Greek name for 
 Venus, so called as if for the reason 
 that she sprang from the foam, dphros, 
 of the sea. It is supposed that the 
 Phoenician name of the goddess, Asli- 
 toreth, would by Grecian lips be pro- 
 nounced Aphtorcthe, and that this was 
 altered so as to give a Greek sense. 
 
 Appleby, a place-name in West- 
 moreland, appeai-s to have been formed 
 from the Eoman Ahallaba (Ferguson, 
 194). 
 
 Appleceoss, in the county of Boss, 
 is a corruption of the older name Aher- 
 croisean, Gaelic Ahhvr-croisean, " The 
 confluence of troubles" (Eobertson, 
 J. A., Gaelic Topography of Scotland, 
 p. 98). 
 
 Skene gives the Gaelic name in the 
 form Aphvrcrosan. 
 
 Archipelago, as if the " chief sea," 
 is said to be a corruption of its Greek 
 name Aigadon pelagos, the MgeaM 
 Sea. 
 
ABEOPOLIS 
 
 ( 518 ) 
 
 BABEL 
 
 Sandys says that the ^gean Sea, 
 named after ^geus, the father of 
 Theseus, is "now vulgarly called the 
 Arches " (Travels, p. 10). 
 
 Akeopolis, the city of Ar (or Bab- 
 bath Moab, now Eabba), is so named 
 by Greek and Eoman writers, as if the ' 
 city of Ares or Mars (Tristram, Land of 
 Moab, p. 110). 
 
 'ARfBEH, in Jebel 'Aribeh, the Arabic 
 name of a Sinaitic mountain, as if 
 called from the plant ariheh, with which 
 it abounds, is a corruption of the old 
 name Horeb, which having no meaning 
 to the Arab ear has long since perished 
 (E. H. Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, 
 vol. i. p. 21). 
 
 Aembn gecken, "Poorfools," apopu- 
 lar Ger. corruption of les Armagnacs 
 (Bevue Politique, 2nd S. v. 711). 
 
 Arrow, the name of a river in Here- 
 fordshire, apparently indicative of the 
 swiftness of its stream, has no more to 
 do with arrow {:=:sagitta), O. Eng. 
 artve, than the Dart in Devonshire (for 
 Darent, Dcrwent, Celt. Dwr-gwyn," cleax 
 water ") has to do with d^rt. It has 
 been variously traced to the British 
 Aarvjy, " overflowing " (Quarterly Per. 
 No. 295, p. 158), and the Celtic arw, 
 violent (I. Taylor, Words and Places, 
 p. 216). The river Tigris, however, 
 obtained its name from the arrowy 
 swiftness of its course, being near akin 
 to O. Pers. tigris, an arrow (? Zend 
 tighra, rapid. — Benfey), Pers. tig, and 
 the swift bounding tiger, Lat. tigris 
 (cf. Greek Aetos, eagle, as a name for 
 the Nile). 
 
 Old Sir John MaundevOle (Voiage 
 and Travaile, p. 304, ed, HalliweU) 
 would seem to have had an inkling of 
 this relationship — 
 
 The thridde Ryvere that is clept Tigris is 
 as moche tor to seye as faste rennynge ; for 
 he rennethe more taste than ony of the tother. 
 And also there is a Best that is clepid 7'igris, 
 that is taste rennynge. 
 
 Sylvester speaks of 
 Tear-bridge Tigris swallow-pwifter surges. 
 Vu Bartas, p. 1^76 (Iti'Jt). 
 
 Arrow is probably identical with the 
 river-names Arro (Warwick), Arw 
 (Monmouth), Aray (Argyle), Are and 
 A-ire (Yorkshire), Arga, Arva (Spain), 
 Aar (Germany), &e. 
 
 AsHBOLT, an Eng. surname, is pro- 
 bably, like Osbald, from Icel. ass, a 
 god (especially Thor), and bdW, bold. 
 So Osburn ■=: Icel. As-bjiji-n (God-bear) 
 exactly corresponding to Thorbum — 
 Icel. Thor-ljorn (Thor-bear). Ashhettle 
 zz Icel. As-ketill, corresponding to 
 Thurhetile — Icel. Thor-hetill (Thor's 
 caldron). 
 
 Ash-bourne, like the similar rivev- 
 names, Is-bourne, Wash-bou/rne, Ouse- 
 burn, is Celtic uisge + Eng. bnrne, 
 "water-brook" (Taylor, 211). Com- 
 pare Eastbourne. 
 
 AsHKETTLE, as a surname, is derived 
 from the Danish Asketil. See Ashbolt. 
 
 AsTROABCHE, " Star-ruler," a name 
 given by the Greeks to Astarte (e.g. 
 Herodian, v. 6, 10, identifying her 
 with the Moon), is a corruption of that 
 word, which is only another form of 
 Heb. Ashtw-etli. Cf. Assyrian Ishtar 
 (Bib. Diet. i. 123). 
 
 AuDARD, St., is a corruption of /SV. 
 Theodhaird, " people's firmness " (Fris. 
 Tia/rd), Archbishop of Narbonne, from 
 a false analogy probably to names 
 like Audom, Audovard, Audwine. The 
 initial Th was merged and lost in the 
 final t of " Saint." For the contrary 
 mistake compare Tabbs for St. Ebbs, 
 Tooley (St.) for St. Olaf, Tawdrey for 
 St. Audrey, &c. 
 
 Austin, or Augustin, is sometimes 
 only an ecclesiastical modification of 
 Danish jBj/sfem, "island-stone " (Yonge, 
 GJwist. Names, ii. 431 ; i. 337). 
 
 AuTEVERNE (in Eure), which ought 
 to mean ftaute verne (grand aune), is 
 really haute avoine, its Latin name in 
 12th century having been alta avesna 
 (L. Larchey, Did. des Nomnies). 
 
 B. 
 
 Compare — 
 Thou Simois, that, as an arowe, clere 
 Through Troy rennest, aie downward to the 
 see. 
 Chaucer, Troilm and Creseide, 1. li-18. 
 
 Babel, Heb. Babel for Balbel, as if 
 from balnl, to confotmd, is a Semitic 
 interpretation of Bab-el, " The gate of 
 the God," which was originally a trans- 
 
BAGGEUS 
 
 ( 519 ) 
 
 BELIAL 
 
 lation of the synonymous Accadian 
 name Gadhmrra (A. H. Sayce, Baby- 
 lonian Literature, p. 33). 
 
 So Stanley, Jcicish Church, vol. i. 
 The Arabic name for the ruins is Bah-il, 
 understood as the " gate of God " {Bih. 
 Diet. i. 149). 
 
 Bacchus, a surname, is the same as 
 the northcoun try name jBacJ;MS,Bafc7i'Ms, 
 or Baohlwuse, i.e. Bake-house, in Cleve- 
 land pronounced hacJcus (Atkinson). 
 Compare the names Moorhouse, Stack- 
 house, Woodhouse. 
 
 Bukltause, or bakynge howse. Pistrina.— 
 Frompt. Pan. 
 
 Bagshot, near Ascot, is said to be 
 the modern form of hadger's holt, the 
 badger's wood (Ger. holz). So Alder- 
 shot for Alders' holt, and Badshot 
 (Taylor, 360). 
 
 Bake-well, in Derbyshire, spelt 
 Bixthequell in 13th century, in Domes- 
 day Book Badequella, is the A. Sax. 
 Badecanwylla, i.e. " Badeca's Wells " 
 (Sax. Chron.). 
 
 Balaam, a surname, seems to be a 
 mis-speUingof a local name (Bale-hami). 
 —Ferguson, 382. 
 
 Bally-watbe, a place-name in Wex- 
 ford, standsforlr.im'Zeiiac/itar, "upper- 
 town" (Joyce, i. 40). 
 
 Baebakt, in N. Africa, originally the 
 kingdom of the Berhers, has been assi- 
 milated to the Lat. harharus, Greek 
 Idrharos, a foreigner (Taylor, 396). 
 
 Barebone, the name of the family 
 to which the Puritan Praise-God be- 
 longed, is a corruption of Ba/rhon, the 
 name of a French Huguenot family 
 (S. Smiles, The Huguenots, p. 361, 
 1880). 
 
 Baemouth, on west coast of Wales, 
 was originally Aler-Mowdd, i.e. the 
 mouth (after) of the river Mowdd (Key, 
 Language, p. vii.) or Mawddaeh. Spur- 
 rell gives the name as Ahermaw. 
 
 Baewynion, the Welsh form of Py- 
 renees (said to be from Basque pyrge, 
 high), as if derived from ha/r, summit, 
 and wyn, lambs. 
 
 Baskeefield, \ Eng. surnames, are 
 Blomf lELD, J said to be corruptions 
 
 of the French Basherville and Blonde- 
 
 ville (Lower). 
 
 Batteesea, is never battered by the 
 sea, but is corrupted from Peter's Eye 
 (or island), taking its name from the 
 adjacent Abbey of St. Peter, at West- 
 minster. See Stanley, Memoirs of West- 
 minster Abbey, p. 18. 
 
 Badville, a place-name in Donegal, 
 is a Frenchified form of Ir. Bo-bhaile, 
 " Cow-town " (Joyce, i. 338). 
 
 Bayswatee is said to have got its 
 name from a pool or pond situated 
 there, which used to be called " Ba- 
 yard's watering " (Jesse, London, vol. i. 
 p. 22). 
 
 Beachy Head, the name of a well- 
 known promontory near Eastbourne 
 in Sussex. "It is so called from the 
 beach adjoining," says the Gompleat 
 History of Sussex, London, 4to. 1730, 
 p. 520. It is really, however, a corrup- 
 tion of the name Beauclief, " Fine 
 Head,", just as Beauchamp is pro- 
 nounced Beacham. 
 
 Beaconsfield, formerly spelt Bee- 
 Tionsjield, and Becansfield, was probably 
 originally becenfeld, indicating a clear- 
 ing in the beeches, A. Sax. bucen, which 
 once covered the whole ChUtem range 
 [Sat. Review, vol. 51, p. 649). 
 
 Beelzebub, " Lord of flies," the fly- 
 god (S. Matt. X. 25), a conscious Jewish 
 perversion of Baalzebul, " Lord of the 
 dweUing " (2 Kings i. 2), i.e. occupying 
 a mansion in the seventh heaven 
 (Smith, Bib. Lid. i. 178). J. Lightfoot 
 however explains it "Lord of dung" 
 (TTVfe, vol. xi. p. 195). 
 
 Beee el Seba (Arabic), " The well of 
 the Uon," is a corruption of Heb. Beer- 
 sheba, "The well of the oath." 
 
 Beit-lahm, " House of flesh," is the 
 modem Arabic corruption of Beth- 
 lehem, "House of bread." 
 
 Beit-ub (Arab.), "House of the 
 eye," is the modern form of Beth-horon, 
 " House of caves." 
 
 Belgeadb, the name of a town in 
 Servia, which seems to suggest a Eo- 
 mance origin, is properly in Slavonic 
 Beo-grad, " The White Town." 
 
 Belial, frequently retained untrans- 
 lated in the Authorized Version and 
 Vulgate, apparently from a notion that 
 it was a proper name for some false 
 
BELI8E 
 
 ( 520 ) BLIND CHAPEL COURT 
 
 god akin to Bel, Baal, Sec. ; especially 
 in the phrase " Sobs of Behal " (Judges 
 xix. 22 ; 1 Sam. ii. 12). It is really 
 Heb. heliyaal, meaning Wortblessness 
 (lit. leli, without, yaal, usefulness), 
 hence "sons of worthlessness " for 
 " good-for-nothing fellows " {Bib. Bid. 
 i. 183). In 2 Oor. vi. 15, Belial is used 
 in the Greek as a personification of 
 evil. 
 
 What concorile hath Christ with lieliatl ? — 
 Cranmer^s Veraioii, 1539. 
 [Sanazins] en Apolin creient Sathan e Belial. 
 Vie de St. Atiban, 1. 14. 
 
 A jest . . . verie conducibletothe reproofe 
 of these fleslily-minded Belials. [Margin] 
 (Jr rather belly-alls, because all theyr mind is 
 on theyr belly. — Nash, Pierce Penilesx, 1592, 
 p. 49 ("Sh.'iks. Soc). 
 
 Belise, in Honduras, originally Ba- 
 Une or Balis, and that for VaVs, the 
 Spaniards' pronunciation of Wallis, the 
 town having received that name from 
 the first settler, Walhs the buccaneer, 
 in 1638 [N. and Q. 1 S. iv. 436). 
 
 Belle-port, in the county of Ross, is 
 a corruption of Gaelic Baile-phuirt, 
 " The town of the port " (Eobertson, 
 p. 205). 
 
 Belle Poule, a corruption by French 
 sailors of the name of the island Belo- 
 
 Bellows, a surname, is, according to 
 Camden, a corruption of Bellhouse [Be- 
 maines, 1637, p. 122). 
 
 Bell-savage. " The sign of the 
 Saba," is mentioned in Tarleton's Jests, 
 1611, as being a tavern, and Douce 
 {Illustr. of ShaJcspere) thinks that La 
 Belle Sauvage is corrupted thence. He 
 quotes from the old romance of Alexan- 
 der the following lines describing a 
 city 
 
 Hit hotith Sabba in laiigage. 
 Thennes cam Sibelff savane, 
 of al theo world theo fairest quene, 
 To Jerusalem, Salamon to seone. 
 
 He thought Silely sa.vage was for si 
 helle savage, but it is no doubt for Si- 
 hylla. 
 
 Been, the Germanized form of Ve- 
 rona, as if connected with hdren, bears, 
 which have consequently come to be 
 regarded as a sort of totem of the city, 
 a number of these animals being always 
 kept on show in a bear-pit. 
 
 BiBEHOLD, as a German name, some- 
 times Birolf, is an intelhgible perver- 
 sion of the foreign name, Pirol (= yel- 
 low-thrush). Mid. High Ger. piro 
 (Andresen). 
 
 BiLLiAED, a surname, is perhaps a 
 corruption of Billhard, Ger. Billhardt, 
 connected by some with the Icelandic 
 goddess Bil (Ferguson, 58). 
 
 BiEOHiN Lane, London, was origi- 
 nally Burchover Lane, ' ' so called of 
 Burchover the first builder thereof, now 
 corruptly called Birchin Lane " (Ho- 
 well, Londinopolis, 81 ; Stow, Swnay, 
 75). 
 
 Bie-bs-Seba (Arab.), "Well of the 
 lion," is the modern form oiBeersheba, 
 "Well of the Seven" {Bih. Bid. i. 
 181). 
 
 Bishop, a surname, is no doubt, ia 
 some instances, the same as old Sax. 
 Biscop, a name borne by one of the 
 Aeoftcm kings of the Lindisfari(Kemble), 
 which Ferguson would connect with 
 old Ger. names Bis, Biso, and A. Sax. 
 c6f, strenuous, comparing the surname 
 Wincupi from A. Sax. Wincuf (Eng. 
 SurnaiU'es, p. 405). 
 
 Blackheath, south-east of London, 
 is said to be a corruption of Bleak Heath 
 (Taylor, 386). 
 
 Blackness, Cape, is the veiy inap- 
 propriate rendering in some Enghsh 
 charts of Blanc Nets, the name of a pro- 
 montory of white chalk on the French 
 coast opposite to Folkestone. — Tow o/ 
 M. de la Boullaye le Oouz in Irelamd, 
 1644 (ed. C. C. Croker, note, p. 49). 
 
 Blackwall Hall, London, an old 
 perversion of Balcewell hail, so called 
 from its occupier, temp. Ed. III., " cor- 
 ruptly called BlackewaU HaU" (Stow, 
 Smvay, 1603, p. 108, ed. Thorns). 
 Stow also spells it " Blakewell haU." 
 
 Bleidgen, a German family-name, 
 as if "Lead-thorn," from blei, lead, is a 
 corruption of hluhdorn, the flowering 
 thorn, from hlilhen, to flower, through 
 the Low Ger. forms bleudrnv and hloh- 
 dorn (Andresen). 
 
 Blind Chapel Coubt, London, is a 
 corruption of Blanch-Appleton, the 
 manor from which it derived its name 
 {Ed. Bevieti', No. 267, Jan. 1870). 
 
BLOOD 
 
 ( 521 ) 
 
 BEASEN-NOSE 
 
 Tlien have you Blmiche Apleton ; wliereof 
 I read in the 1.5th of Kdward I. that a lane 
 behind the said Blanch A|.deton was granted 
 by the King to be inclosed and shnt up. — 
 Slow, Survaii of London, p. 56 (ed. Tlioms). 
 
 Blood, a surname, is perhaps from 
 ■\Velsli Ap Llu-d, "son of Lloyd" (S. 
 De Vere), like Barry, Broderick, Frke, 
 Prodgers, for ap Harry, ap Eoderiok, 
 ap Rhys, ap Roger. 
 
 Bloomsbdey, London, is a corruption 
 of the older name Lomesbury (Taylor, 
 399). 
 
 In the year of Christ 1534 . . . the king 
 having fair stabling at Lonuberu (a manor 
 in the farthest west part of Oldborne) the 
 same was fired and burnt. — btow, Survay, 
 160;!, p. 16? (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Blubbee Lane, the name of a street 
 in Leicester, is a corruption of Blue 
 Boai; the sign of an inn (originally The 
 White Bom-) at which Eichard III. is 
 said to have slept just hefore the battle 
 of Bosworth Field (Timbs,i^oofcs and 
 Gorners of English Life, p. 310). 
 
 BoDEN-SEE, Mid. High Ger. Bodemse, 
 asif" The Bottom Sea," withanobhque 
 aEusion, perhaps, to the apparently 
 bottomless depth of its waters, is cor- 
 rupted from the old name lacus Pota- 
 tiiicus, or Bodamicus, so called from the 
 neighljouring Bodama, now Bodmian 
 (Andresen). 
 
 BoGHiLL, a place-name in Ireland, is 
 a corruption of Boughil, Ir. Tmachaill, 
 "a boy," often applied to an isolated 
 standing rock (Joyce, ii. 412). 
 
 Boa Walks, the Enghsh name of a 
 valley in Jamaica, is a transmutation 
 oiBocaguas, or " Mouth of the Waters," 
 as it used to be called by the Spaniards 
 (Andrew WUson, The Abode of Snoio, 
 p. 258). 
 
 BoNNYGLEN, a place-name in Done- 
 gal, is a modification of Ir. Bun-a'- 
 ghleanna, "End of the glen " (Joyce, ii. 
 65). 
 
 Bookless, a family name, formerly 
 (1749) Bugless, Buglas, or Buglass 
 (Notes and Queries, 6th Ser. iv. 166), 
 apparently of GaeHc origin, and mean- 
 ing "yellow water," like Douglas, 
 " black water." 
 
 BoBouGH, as a surname, is a corrup- 
 tion of the Huguenot name Bouherau. 
 
 Vid. Smiles, Huguenots, p. 367 (ed. 
 1876). 
 
 BoRNHOLM, as if the spring or well 
 island, is formed out of the older name 
 Borgundai-holmr, the Burgundian isle 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Bosom's Inn, an old hostelry in St. 
 Laurence Lane, Cheapside, is a cor- 
 ruption of Blossom's Inn according to 
 Stow, which " hath to sign St. Laurence 
 the Deacon, in a border of blossoms or 
 flowers " {Survay, p. 102, ed. Thoms). 
 See Hotten, ffisi. of Signboards, p. 297. 
 
 But now comes in, Tom of Bosoms-inn, 
 
 And he presenteth ftlis-rule. 
 B. Jojison, Works, p. 601 (ed. Moxon). 
 
 BosPHOEus, a corrupt spelling oiBos- 
 porus (" ox-ford "), against which Mac- 
 aulay used to protest. See jEschylus, 
 Prom. Vinctus, 1. 751. 
 
 Bottle, a surname, is corrupted from 
 Botolf, i.e. Bodvulf, "commanding 
 wolf," whence also Biddulph. 
 
 BoTTLEBKiDGE, in Huntingdonshire, 
 is a popular corruption of Botolf's- 
 bridge, called after St. Botolf or Bod- 
 vulf (d. 655), from whom also Boston 
 (for Botolf's town) takes it name 
 (Yonge, Christ. Names, ii. 402). 
 
 BowEN (properly =Welsh Ap-Owen, 
 " Owen-son"), as an Irish surname, is 
 in some cases an Anglicization of Ir. 
 O'Enavin, as hnavin signifies a small 
 bone (O'Donovan, Ir. Penny Jownal, 
 i. 397). 
 
 Boxer, a surname, is sometimes a 
 corruption of the French name Bouchier 
 (Smiles, The Huguenots, p. 323, 1880). 
 
 Boy-hill, a place-name in Ferma- 
 nagh, is an Anghcized spelling of Ir. 
 luidhe-choill, "yellow-wood" (Joyce, 
 i. 40). 
 
 Bkandenbueg, Mbesebtjeg. The 
 latter part of these words is said to be 
 corrupted from the Slavonic bor, a 
 forest (Andresen). 
 
 Beandy, a surname, is probably- 
 identical with the Norse name Brandi., 
 "having a sword" (Icel. brandr).— 
 Ferguson. 
 
 Beasen-nose, an old name for a 
 college at Oxford, less incorrectly spelt 
 Brasenose, i.e. Brasen-ose, is said to be 
 a very ancient corruption (as early as 
 
BBEED 
 
 ( 522 ) 
 
 BUBENGABEN 
 
 1278 !) oi Brasin-huse, so called because 
 the origiBal college was built on the 
 site of the Braainvum, or "Brewing- 
 house," pertaining to King Alfred's 
 palace, " The King's Hall." (Compare 
 L. Lat. hrasiare, to brew, hrasim'um, 
 Du Gangs.) See Warter, Parochial 
 Fragments, 188 ; Ingram, Memorials of 
 Oxford. Compare Weynose. 
 
 This corruption is perpetuated in 
 brass at Oxford, 
 
 Whei'e o'er the porch in brazen splendour 
 
 glows 
 The vast projection of the mystic nose. 
 
 William Smith, Bishop of Lincoln, began 
 Brasen-Nose CoUedge, but dyed before he 
 had finished one Nostrill thereof. — Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, i. 191. 
 
 Testons are gone to Oxford to study in 
 Brazen-nose. — Id. ii. 221. 
 
 Bkeed, a surname, perhaps identical 
 with A. Sax. Bridd, Ger. Brede, old 
 Ger. Briddo (Ferguson, 166). 
 
 Beeezb, a surname, is perhaps iden- 
 tical wdth the Norse name Bresi (Fer- 
 guson, 134). 
 
 Beidqet, St., or St. Brigitta of 
 Sweden, properly Bergiit, a shortened 
 form of Bergljot, owes the ordinary 
 form of her name to a confusion with 
 the Irish St. Brighid, the patroness of 
 Kildare (O'Donovan ; Yonge, ii. 51). 
 
 Bridgewater, originally the Burg 
 of Walter, one of William the Conque- 
 ror's followers. Water was the old 
 pronunciation of Walter, e.g. " Waiere 
 or Watte, propyr name. Walterus." — 
 Prompt. Pa/rvulorum. 
 
 British, a place-name in Antrun, is 
 a corruption of -Bn'Was, "speckled land," 
 from Ir. hrit, speckled (Joyce, ii. 282). 
 
 Beokbnboeough, in Wilts, is a cor- 
 ruption of the ancient name Brolcen- 
 eher-egge, "Badger-boar-corner " (Tay- 
 lor, 467). 
 
 Brooklyn (New York) is said to have 
 nothing to do with hroolc or lin, a pool, 
 but to be a corruption of its former 
 Dutch name Breuhelen. 
 
 Brother Hill, 
 Butter Hill, 
 Crbamston, 
 Honey Hill, 
 Silver Hill, 
 
 all in Pembroke- 
 shire, are said to 
 owe their names 
 respectively to 
 Brodor, Buthar, 
 
 Grim, Hogni, and Scilvar, Scandina- 
 
 vian vikings who made a settlement 
 there (Taylor, 177). 
 
 Beown Willy, the name of a moun- 
 tain in Cornwall, is the Cornish Bryn 
 uhella, " highest hiU " (M. Miiller, 
 Chips, iii. 304). According to others 
 Bryn Huel, "the tin-mine ridge" (Tay- 
 lor, 388). 
 
 BRUNNENTEfii, an old corruption, in 
 German, Fruntrut a more modem, of 
 Pons Bagintrudds (Andresen). 
 
 Brtjin, "1 as surnames in Ireland, 
 Byeon, / are often merely disguised 
 forms of O'Beirne (O'Donovan). 
 
 BucKHijEST, 1 English place-names, 
 Buckland, J are.derived, not from 
 
 the animal, but from the beech, A. Sax. 
 
 hdc. 
 
 Bull and Butcher, a pubhc-house 
 sign formerly to be seen at Hever in 
 Kent, was originally (it is said) Bullen 
 Butchered, referring to the unhappy 
 death of Queen Anne BoUeyn (Hotten, 
 Hist, of Signlom-ds, p. 47). 
 
 Bull and Gate, as the sign of an 
 inn in London, it was suggested by 
 Stevens, was origiuaUy The BuUogne 
 Oate (" as I learn from the title-page 
 of an old play "), designed perhaps as a 
 compliment to Henry VIII., who took 
 that place in 1544. 
 
 Bull and Mouth, as an um-sign, 
 was probably originally The BuUogne 
 Mouth, i.e. the mouth of the harbour of 
 BuUogne (Stevens). 
 
 Bullock, the name of a place neai' 
 Kingstown, co. Dublin, now called 
 Sandycove, is a corruption of Blowick, 
 i.e. Bld-vik, the blue cove. 
 
 The next day [we] landed at BuUock, six 
 miles from Dublin, where we hired garrons 
 to carrie vs to the citie. —Autobwgrai>h;i) nf Sir 
 J. Bramston (ab. Itiol), p. 37 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Bunyan, a surname, is a corruption 
 of the old Eng. name Bonjon (1310), 
 originally a French name, Bon Jean, 
 Good John, hke the French Ch-os-Jean, 
 Grand-Pierre, &o. (Bardsley, Romance 
 of the London Biredory, p. 159). 
 
 Bueengaeen or Bauemgarten, " pea- 
 sants' garden," is a Germanized form 
 of Beauregard, the French colony in 
 Brandenburg (Forstemann ; Taylor, 
 390). 
 
BURSA 
 
 ( 523 ) CARABINE BRIDGE 
 
 B^KSA, " hide," the name given by 
 the Greeks to the citadel of Carthage 
 (Strabo), on which was founded the 
 legend that the Tyrian settlers who 
 built it having been conceded so much 
 land as an ox-hide would cover, cut it 
 into thongs, and thus encircled the site 
 of the future city. It was merely at first 
 a Greek corruption of the Hebrew and 
 Phoenician word bozrah, an enclosure, 
 a fortified place or stronghold (Gese- 
 nius ; Bochart, Ganaan, Op. iii. 470, ed. 
 168'2). Hence the modern place-name 
 Busra (Bib. Diet. i. '225). Similarly a 
 hide of land (A. Sax. higid) has often 
 been confused with hide, a skin {Pic- 
 tet, ii. 51), and Thong Castle in Kent, 
 is supposed to have obtained its name 
 from the same device on the part of 
 Hengist (Verstegan, Restitution of De- 
 cayed Intelligence, p. 122, 1634 ; Nares, 
 
 S.V.). 
 
 BusENBADM, " Bosom-tree," a Ger- 
 man family name, is a corruption of hux- 
 haum or hichsbaum, the box-tree, Low 
 Ger. Busboom. 
 
 BuTTEEWECK, " Butter-roU," the 
 name of a district in Bonn, was origi- 
 nally Butencerl; outwork (Andresen). 
 
 C. 
 
 Cabbage Garden, The, an old burial 
 ground which stood opposite the Meath 
 Hospital, Dublin, is a corruption of 
 Tlie Capuchins' Garden {Irish Pop. 
 SwperstUions, p. 34). 
 Came, \ French forms of the name 
 Cadia, j Acadie or Acadia, a region 
 of Canada, from the Micmac word 
 aca4i, a place ; so Passamaqwoddy Bay 
 is from passam-acadi, the place of fish 
 (Bryant and Gay, Hist, of the TJnAted 
 States, vol. i. p. 318). 
 
 Caeegkaig, "Eook-city" (oraig, a 
 rock), the Welsh name of Rochester 
 (A. Sax. Bofe-ceaster, Rrofe-ceaster), 
 understood as Bockchester, as if from 
 Fr. roche, or Lat. rv-pis castra. 
 
 CaisAB, La totjr de, "Caesar's 
 Tower " at Aix, is the polite name for 
 what the people call La iourre de la 
 Queirid, i.e. the tower of the fortifica- 
 
 tion (Romance cairia). — J. D. Craig, 
 HFiejour, p. 399). On the other hand, 
 Kaisar's Lane in old Dublin underwent 
 a transformation anything but polite, 
 which may be found recorded in Stani- 
 hurst's Description of Ireland (HoUn- 
 shed, Ghron. vol. i. 1587). 
 
 Cakbbkead, a surname, is said to bo 
 a corruption of Kirhbride (Charnock). 
 
 Oallowhill, a place-name frequent 
 in Ireland, and Golehill, are corruptions 
 of Ir. Cnll-choill, " hazel wood " 
 (Joyce, i. 496). 
 
 Cambridge, apparently the " bridge 
 over the Cam," appears to be a corrup- 
 tion of the ancient name Gambo-rit-um, 
 "the ford of the crooked (cam) river," 
 compounded with Celtic rhyd, a ford, 
 seen also in Rhed-ecina, the Britishname 
 of Oxford (Taylor, 254). 
 
 Campbell, a surname, as if, like 
 Beauchamp, from campus bellus, campo 
 bello, " fair field," is a corrupt spelling 
 ofGaelicCamieZor(7a«i67ieMZ,"crooked 
 mouth " [Academy, No. 30, p. 392), Ir. 
 cambheulach. So Cameron is for Gam- 
 schronach, "wry-nose," Ir. oamshro- 
 nach. 
 
 Canning, as an Ulster surname, is 
 an Anglicized form of Ir. Mac Conin 
 (0 'Donovan). 
 
 Canon Eow, close beside Westmin- 
 ster Abbey, as if called from the canons 
 who lived there, is a corruption of its 
 ancient name Channel Roiv (Stanley, 
 Memoirs of Westminster Abbey, p. 7). 
 Stow in his Survay calls it Ghamnon 
 Row. 
 
 Cannon Street, London, is a corrup- 
 tion, due no doubt to the ecclesiastical 
 associations of the adjoining cathedral, 
 of the old name Gandlewick Street, or 
 as it seems originally to have been 
 called GandUwright Street, the street of 
 the candle-makers (Stow, Swrvay, 1603, 
 p. 82, ed. Thoms). Pepys calls it 
 Canning Street. 
 
 From Se.vpulkurs unto sant Martens Or- 
 gavnes in Kunwiikstrett to be bered ... the 
 lord Justes Btowue.—Machyn's Diary, 1562, 
 p. 297. 
 
 Carabine Bridge, near Callan, Kil- 
 kenny, is a corruption of the Irish name 
 Droiched-na-gcarbad, " bridge of the 
 chariots " (Joyce, ii. 172). 
 
C A BE WELL 
 
 ( 524 ) 
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 
 
 Caeewell, an English corruption of 
 tlie name of Henrietta de Querouaille 
 in Evelyn's Life of Mrs. GodolpMn, 
 p. 255. 
 
 Caeisbeook, a place-name in the Isle 
 of Wight, is a corruption of Wiht-gara- 
 hyrig, "The hurgh of the men of 
 Wight " (Taylor, 307). 
 
 Caeleton, a surname in Ulster, is an 
 incorrect Anglicized form of O'Cairel- 
 lan (0 'Donovan). 
 
 Caeeigogunnell, the Mod. Irish 
 name of a castle near the Shannon, in 
 Limerick, always understood as " the 
 candleYock," Ga/rraig-na-gcoinneal,with 
 reference to an enchanted candle 
 nightly lighted on it by an old witch, 
 is a perversion of the old Ir. name 
 Garrmg-0-gCoimifll, "Rock of the 
 O'Connells " (Joyce, Irish Ncmies of 
 Places, 1st S. p. 5.) 
 
 Castlekiek, a ruin on an island in 
 Lough Corrib, is an Anglicized form of 
 Ir. Gaislen-na-ci/ree, " The hen's castle" 
 (Joyce, ii. 290). 
 
 Castle oe Maidens, an old name 
 given by the chroniclers to Edinburgh, 
 Oastrum Fuella/rum., also Mons Puella- 
 rum, Welsh Gastell y Morwyn/ion, seems 
 to have originated in a misunderstand- 
 ing of its Keltic name Magh-dun or 
 Maidyn, "the fort of the plain" (Ir. 
 magh, a plain). — Notes (md Queries, 5th 
 S. xii. 214 ; just as Magdeburg, which 
 was also Latinized into Mons Puella- 
 rum, is properly the town on the plain. 
 William LytteU, however, speaking of 
 Edinburgh, says, " Maydyn Oastell, 
 that is, teamhair nam maithean, the 
 nobles' or princes' palace tower" 
 {Landma/)-hs of Scottish Life and Lan- 
 guage). Of. Ir. maith, a chief or noble. 
 Bee Maiden Castle. 
 
 There was made a great cry of a turna- 
 ment betweene King Caradoa of Scotland and 
 the King of Northgalis, and either should 
 just against other at the cas^/e of Maidens. — 
 Sir T. Malan/, Historie of King Arthur, 1634, 
 ii. 127 (ed. Wright). 
 
 Jan. 7. The Castle of Edinburgh was for- 
 merly caird castrumpuelUtrtim, i.e. the Maiden 
 castle, because, as some say, the Kings of the 
 Picts kept their daughters in it while un- 
 marry'd. But those who understand the 
 ancient Scots or Highland Language say the 
 words ma-eden signiiy only a castle built 
 U])oa a hill or rock. This account of the 
 
 name is just enough.' — Hearnes, Seiiquiie, 
 1733 (vol. iii. p. 110). 
 
 The Pictish maidens of the blood-royal 
 were kept in Edinburgh Castle, thence called 
 Castnim Puellarum. 
 
 " A childish legend," said Oldbuck. . . . 
 " It was called the Maiden Castle, quasi /ticks 
 ano7i liice7i(to, because it resisted every attack, 
 and women never do." — Sir W. Scott, The 
 Antiquary, ch. vi. 
 
 Castle teeea, the name of a town- 
 land in Cavan, is a corruption of the 
 native Ir. name (Gussatirry) Gos-a'- 
 tsiorra/igh, "the foot of the colt" of 
 legendary origin (Joyce, Irish Names 
 and Places, i. 8). 
 
 Castle-ventey, the name of a parish 
 in Cork, is a misrendering of the Irish 
 Gaislean-na-gaoithe, " castle of the 
 wind," the Ir. word ventry (= white 
 strand) being introduced from an ima- 
 gined connexion with Lat. ventus, the 
 wind (Joyce, i. 36). 
 
 Cat and Wheel, a pubHc-house sign, 
 is said by Plecknoe, 1665, to be a 
 Puritan alteration of The Catherine 
 Wheel (Larwood and Hotten, Hist, of 
 Signhoa/rds, p. 11). 
 
 Cecil, as a sm-name, is said to be in 
 some cases a corruption of Siisil {Gam- 
 den, Remaines, p. 148, 1637). 
 
 Cbdeei, a name which PUny (v. 11) 
 gives to the Arabs, is his rendering of 
 the Hebrew Kedar, black. 
 
 Centum Nuces, " Hundred Nuts," 
 is a medieeval Latin interpretation of 
 Sannois, the name of a village near 
 Paris, as if cent noix (Devic). 
 
 Chandeliee, a Fr. place-name, also 
 GhandeUour, is a popular corruption of 
 Champ de la lAoure, i.e. Champ d/a Uevre 
 (L. Larchey, Diet, des Nommes). 
 
 Chaeing Ceoss, it has often been 
 stated, was so called because a cross was 
 set up there to mark it as one of the 
 resting-places of the corpse of la chetre 
 reine, Eleanor. Unfortunately for the 
 suggestion, the little village of Charing 
 is found bearing that name in a petition 
 of William de Eadnor dated 1261, 
 naany years before Queen Eleanor's 
 death (Jesse, London, vol. i. p. 897). 
 
 Chaelemagne is probably a Galli- 
 cized form of Gharlemaine, Ger.' Ka/rl- 
 man (Grimm). 
 
CHEAPSIDE 
 
 ( 525 ) 
 
 GOOLFOBE 
 
 Cheapside. The -sidein. the name of 
 tliis thoroughfare is probably a corrup- 
 tion of seM, the old name for an alley 
 of booths in which the sellers of difi'e- 
 rent wares kept up a constant fair. 
 Another part of it was called the Groion- 
 seld (Satv/rday Review, vol. 50, p. 427). 
 A. Sax. seld, a seat, a throne ; the crown- 
 seld was the place where the monarch 
 sat to view the pageants or processions. 
 C£ A. Sax. cewp-setl, a tradesman's 
 stall. Stow mentions that Edward III. 
 " in the ward of Cheape caused this sild 
 or shed to be made, and to be strongly 
 built of stone, for himself, the queen, 
 and pther estates to stand in, there to 
 behold the joustings and other shows 
 at their pleasures." This building was 
 subsequently known as Crounsilde or 
 Tamersilde {Siwvay, 1603, p. 97, ed. 
 Thorns). 
 
 Cheek Point, the name of a place 
 on the Suir below Waterford, is an 
 adaptation of Sheega Point, the Irish 
 name being Pdinfe-na-Sige, the point 
 of the fairies (Joyce, Irish Place Nanies, 
 IstS. p. 179). 
 
 Cheese, ) Eng. surnames, are 
 Cheeseman, > regarded by Fergu- 
 Chessman, J son as derivatives of 
 
 A. Sax. Gissa, Frisian Tyisse {Eng. 
 
 Surnames, p. 86). 
 
 Cherry-tree, The, the name of a 
 place in Guernsey, is a corruption of 
 La Tcherottei-ie, an old word signifying 
 a tannery {N. and Q. 5th S. ii. p. 90). 
 
 Chorus, a family name in Ireland, 
 is a corruption of Corish, a shortened 
 form of Machorish, Irish Mao Fheorais 
 (pronounced Mac Orish), " Son of 
 Peoras" (:= Pierce). Compare the Ir. 
 names Keon for Mac Owen; Crihbin 
 and Griblon for Mac Eoibin, " Son of 
 Eobin ; " Cadamstoion (in Kildare) for 
 Mae Adam's town (Joyce, ii. 140). 
 
 Chrbstus, i.e. " The Good," in 
 Greek, is a mistaken spelling of Ghris- 
 iwsfoimd in Suetonius' LifeofOlaudius, 
 which states that that Emperor " ex- 
 pelled the Jews from Eome because of 
 the frequent riots that took place among 
 them under the leadership of Ghrestus " 
 (c. xsv.). — Plumptre, Bihh Studies, p. 
 419. Similaxlj Ghresiianitor Ghristiani 
 is used by Lactantius (iv. 7), and men - 
 tioned by TertuUian :— 
 
 Cum pei-peram Christianus [read Chrestia- 
 nus'] pi'onuntiatur a vobis . . . de suavitate 
 vel benic;nitate compositum eat. — Apotnge- 
 ticus, c. 3 (ed. Semler, v. 9, see liis note 
 vi. 386). 
 
 Cloak, a surname, is perhaps from 
 Icel. Udicr, prudent (Ferguson, 325). 
 
 Olowatee, the name of a place near 
 Borris, in Carlow, stands for Ir. cloch- 
 uachdar, " Upper stone (or stone- 
 castle)." — Joyce, ii. 415. 
 
 CoACH-AND-Six Lane, off the north 
 main street of the city of Cork, is a 
 corruption of Gouchancex, the name of 
 a Huguenot who resided there more 
 than a century ago, after whom it was 
 called (S. Smiles, The Huguenots, p. 
 300, 1880). 
 
 Coalman, a surname in Connaught, 
 is an Anghcized form of O'Cluman 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Coffee, a surname, is probably, as 
 Mr. Ferguson suggests, a corruption of 
 the A. Saxon name Goifi, which seems 
 to be akin to G6f, strenuous, active. 
 So perhaps Goffin stands for Goffing, a 
 patronymic (Eng. Swnaines, 317). 
 
 Cole Harbour, near London Bridge, 
 a corrupted form of Gold Harborough, 
 its ancient name (Jesse, London, vol. 
 ii. p. 230). 
 
 Come to Good, the name of a place 
 in Cornwall, is from the Cornish Gwm 
 ty goed, Woodhouse Valley (M. MUl- 
 ler, Ghips, iii. 304). 
 
 Coney Castle, the name of a height 
 near Lyme Begis, sometimes called 
 Conig Castle, was originally Gyning, or 
 King, Gastle (Gornhill Mag. Dec. 1880, 
 p. 713). 
 
 CoNKWELL, an Eng. place-name, is 
 a corruption of the ancient Gunacaleah 
 (Earle). 
 
 CooLFORE, a place-name of frequent 
 occurrence in Ireland, meaning, not 
 " cool before," but " cool behind," is 
 Ir. cul-fuar, "back cold," i.e. a hill 
 having on its back a northern aspect. 
 Thus comparing the original word with 
 its disguised form, the latter part of 
 the one {fuar) is synonymous with the 
 former part of the other (cool), and the 
 former part of the one (cHl) is the 
 reverse of the latter part of the other 
 (fore). 
 
GOOLHILL 
 
 ( 526 ) 
 
 DANIEL 
 
 CooLHiLL, aplace-name in Kilkenny, 
 is properly Ir. culchoill, " Back-wood " 
 (Joyce, i. 40). 
 
 Cool-mountain. 7 The latter part of 
 KiL-MOUNTAiN. | these, and other 
 Bimilar townland names in Ireland, is 
 an Anglicized form of •niointin, a httle 
 bog, or of mointedn, boggy land (Joyce, 
 i. 40). 
 
 CoppBESMiTH, a place-name in E. 
 Lothian, is said to be a corruption of 
 GooTcbii/rn's Path, pron. " Cobum's 
 Path " (PMlolog. 8oc. Proc. v. 140). 
 
 CoEDBLiA (Ger. Cordula), the name 
 of Lear's daughter, often regarded as 
 a derivative of Lat. cor(d)-s, the heart, 
 is an Anglicized form of Welsh Creir- 
 d/yddlydd, " token of the flood " (in the 
 Mabinogion), the daughter of Llyr 
 (Yonge, ii. 35). Other forms of the 
 Welsh name are Greiddylad and Graur- 
 dilat (Mabinogion). 
 
 CovEE, a river in Yorkshire, from 
 the Gaelic Cohhar, " the frothy river " 
 (Bobertson, p. 185). 
 
 CowBKAiN, a surname, is said to be a 
 corruption of GoTbrcm, Colhrand (Char- 
 nock, Ludus Patronymicus). 
 
 Ceanfield, a place-name in Antrim, 
 is a corruption of Ir. crewmh-choill 
 (pron. cr(TOM)fe'ZZ),"wild-garlickwood ;" 
 whence also Graffield in Wicklow, and 
 Grawhill in Sligo (Joyce, ii. 329). 
 
 Ceomwell, the name of a townland 
 in Limerick, is an Anghcized form of 
 Ir. crom-choill, " sloping wood " (Joyce, 
 i. 40). 
 
 Ceouy-laid-peuple, " Crouy the ugly 
 people," is the popular name of a cer- 
 tain French village properly called 
 Grovy-les-peuples, " Crouy (near) the 
 poplars" {N. and Q. 6th S. ii. 273). 
 
 Ceownfield, a surname, is known 
 to be a corruption of the Dutch name 
 Oroenvelt (Edinburgh Review, vol. 101, 
 p. 382). 
 
 Cunning Gakth, in Cumberland, 
 stands for " king's yard," Norse ho- 
 mmgr, king, and goM-ir, yard. 
 
 Cupid's Gaedens, a place of popular 
 resort south of the Thames in the 
 beginning of the 18th century, origi- 
 nally named after one Guper, gardener 
 
 to the Earl of Arimdel (N. and Q. 5th 
 S. ii. p. 394). 
 
 Cushion, 1 as family names are said 
 Cousins, / to be corruptions of the 
 Gaehc Mae Ossian, son of Ossian (E. 
 S. Charnock, Ludus Pafronymieus). 
 Compare GoUer {or Mae Oiier (Norweg. 
 Otta/r). — Worsaae. So the Manx sur- 
 name Kissaok was originally Mae 
 Isaae. 
 
 CuTBEAED, a surname, is said to be 
 a corruption of Guthlert (Charnock). 
 
 CuTLOVE, a surname, is supposed 
 by Ferguson to be compounded of 
 A. Sax. Gudh, known, famous, and le6f, 
 friend. The curious name Outmutton 
 he thinks may be compounded with 
 old Ger. muaUn, from muth, courage, 
 and so " famous for courage " (Eng. 
 Burnames, p. 394). 
 
 D. 
 
 Damne, the French sobriquet of the 
 legendary hero Ogier le Danois (It. 
 il dannato), is a corruption of the word 
 Danois (It. il Danese). A story was 
 invented that Ogier was a Saracen who 
 became a Christian, whereupon his 
 friends wrote to him pohtely"tu es 
 damne," and this name he adopted at 
 his baptism. Ogier le Danois, Sp, 
 Danes Urgal (Don Quixote), is Holger 
 Danske, the national hero of Den 
 mark (Yonge, Ghrist. Names, ii. 385 : 
 Wheeler, Noted Names of Fiction, 264), 
 
 Dance, a surname, is probably for 
 Dansh, Danish, A. Sax. Demise, and 
 Danisea, a Dane. 
 
 Danespield, the name of a demesne 
 at MoycuUen, Galway, is a translation 
 of the Mod. Ir. name Gortyloughlin, as 
 if the field (gort) of the Dane (Loeh- 
 lannach). That word, however, is a 
 corruption of the old Ir. GoHylough- 
 none [Gort-ui-Lachtnain), "the field of 
 the O'Loughnane family" (Joyce, ii. 
 134). 
 
 Dangeefield, as a family name, is a 
 corruption of the Norman-French 
 d'Angerville. 
 
 Daniel, adopted in Ireland as equi- 
 valent to the native name Domnall 
 (Yonge, Christi<m Names, i. 121). 
 
DAPHNE 
 
 ( 527 ) 
 
 VOBTMUND 
 
 Daphne (Greek Aafvai, " laurels," 
 or "bays"), the name given by Hero- 
 dotus (ii. 30) to an Egyptian ancient, 
 is only a Greoized form of fortress 
 Egyptian Tabenet, Arab. {Tell-) De- 
 fenneh (Brugsch, Egypt under the 
 Pharaohs, ii. 357). 
 
 D'Akot, as a surname in Galway, is 
 an assimilation to the Anglo-Norman 
 name of Irish O'Dorcy (O'Donovan). 
 
 Dark, a surname, is said to be a 
 corruption of D'Arques, in France 
 (Charnook). 
 
 Daktwell. I am not sure whether 
 this exists still as a surname. It is 
 the old Eng. Bartuell, which is for 
 d'Arteveldt, z=. von Arteveldt. Lord 
 Bemers, speaking of James, the father 
 of PMHp van Arteveldt, says : — 
 
 The kyng demaunded of the burgesses of 
 Bruges howe Jaques Dartueii dyd. — Trans- 
 ktion of Froissart, cap. i. (1523). 
 
 Dead Man, the name of a Cornish 
 headland, is an Anglicization of the 
 Celtic dod inaen (Taylor, 388). 
 
 Deadman, or Dedman, as surnames, 
 
 according to Mr. Bardsley, are, like 
 
 Bebnami, but corruptions of Debenham, 
 
 . a local name [Romance of the London 
 
 Directory, p. 37). 
 
 Deadman's Place, London, was 
 originally Desmond Place (Taylor, 
 399). 
 
 Death, a surname, is a corruption 
 of the French D'Aeth (Smiles, The 
 Huguenots, p. 323, 1880). 
 
 Deebywillow, the name of a town 
 in Leitrim, is an AngUcized form of 
 Ir. Doire-bhaile, " The oak-wood 
 town " (Joyce, Irish Names of Places, 
 vol. i. p. 339). 
 
 Despaie, a surname, is perhaps a 
 corruption of the French Despa/rd 
 (Lower, Patronymica Britannica). 
 
 Diamond, in Scottish ballad lore, the 
 name of a princess " Ladye Diamond," 
 is a corruption of Ghismonda of the 
 Beeamierone (iv. 1, 9), on whose story 
 these ballads are founded. Other cor- 
 ruptions are Bysmal and Lady Baisy. 
 There was a king, an' a curious king, 
 
 An' a king o' royal fame ; 
 He had ae dochter, he had never mair, 
 Ladye Diamond was her name. 
 
 Child, Ballads, ii. 382. 
 
 Diamond, as a surname, is another 
 form of Bumont, i.e. Du Mont (Bards- 
 ley, Romance of London Directory, p. 
 37). 
 
 Diana, the Latin name of a station 
 in the "Desert of the Exodus" {Pew- 
 tinger Tables), is a disguised form of 
 its Arabic name Ghadydn, which is 
 identical with the Hebrew Bzion (E. 
 H. Palmer, vol. ii. p. 514). 
 
 DioscoEiDES, a Greoized form (as if 
 from Dioskoroi, "sons of Zeus," the 
 Twins, or tutelar deities of sailors) of 
 the Sansk. Bvipa-Suhadara, " the 
 island Abode of Bliss," contracted 
 Biuscatra. Hence our Socotra (Yule, 
 Marco Polo, ii. 342). 
 
 DiRK-MiT-DEN-BEER,"Theodoricwith 
 the beard," is a Low Country corrup- 
 tion of the name of the legendary 
 Dietrich of Bern {i.e. Theodoric of 
 Verona), corrupted by the Lusatians 
 into Dietrich Bernhard (Yonge, Glvrist. 
 Names, ii. 336), Ger. Biet-rich = Icel. 
 Thj6dh-rehr, "people-ruler." 
 
 Distaff Lane, in old London, off 
 Friday Street, " corruptly for Bistar 
 Lane " {Stoiv, Survay, 1603, p. 129, 
 ed. Thoms). 
 
 Dob, The, the name of a district 
 near Sheephaven in Donegal, is an 
 adaptation of the Irish na dTuath, " the 
 districts," pronounced na Boe (Joyce, 
 i. 118). 
 
 DoGGKELL, as a surname, is a cor- 
 ruption oi Bucherell, originally anick- 
 najne, " httle duck," like Gocherel 
 (Bardsley, Romance of the London 
 Bireetory, p. 37). 
 
 Dollman, as a surname, is a cor- 
 ruption of Fr. d'Almaine (Bardsley, 
 Eng. Surnames, p. 138). 
 
 Dolobellas, the Greek transcription 
 of DolabeUa, as if connected -with, doles, 
 guile. 
 
 Dorcas Meadow, a Lancashire field- 
 name in 1801, was called Bouglas 
 Meadow in 1684 {N. and Q. 5th S. i. 
 413). 
 
 Dortmund, Holzminden. The latter 
 part of the names of these two towns, 
 according to J. Grimm, is corrupted 
 from old Sax. mewi {■=. Lat. monile), 
 with allusion to the necklace of the 
 
DOVE 
 
 ( 628 ) 
 
 EMBLEM 
 
 heathen goddess Freya. The ancient 
 names were Throtmemi and HoUesmeni. 
 
 Dove, the river m the Lake District, 
 is no doubt merely an Anglicized form 
 of its old Celtic name ; compare Welsh 
 dwf, that which glides, dwfr, water ; 
 Ir. dobhar, water, also a river name, 
 Scot. Boveran (Sansk. dabJwa, the sea). 
 —Joyce, ii. 379. 
 
 Dreckenach, at Coblentz, as if from 
 drech, mire, dirt, in its older name 
 Braohenach was suggestive of a dragon, 
 like Brachenfels (Andresen). 
 
 Deinkwatee, a surname, is stated 
 by Camden to be a corruption of the 
 local name Berwcntivater {Remaines, 
 1637, p. 122). 
 
 Dbotjght, } surnames, seem to cor- 
 Teout, J respond to Ger. traut, 
 
 dear, Low Ger. d/rud, beloved, O. H. 
 
 Ger. truten, to caress (Ferguson, 249). 
 
 Deumboy, in Dumfries and Ayr, is 
 the Gaelic Briwrn-hvAdhe, " the yeUow 
 ridge" (Eobertson, Gaelic Topography 
 of Scotland, p. 294). 
 
 Deumcliff, the name of a place 
 near Sligo, is a perversion of the Irish 
 Brwim-chliabh, "the hUl-ridge of bas- 
 kets " (Joyce, ii. 194). 
 
 Duck's-foot Lane, adjoining Suifolk 
 Lane, in London, was originally the 
 Bulce' s foot-lane, or private road from 
 his garden to the river [Ed. Review, 
 No. 267, Jan. 1870). Forman' in his 
 Biary (April 30, 1611) speaks of the 
 Buck of Lanhaster. 
 
 DuMMEEWiTZ, a place-name, as if 
 " dull-wit," is a Germanization of the 
 Slavoni-c Biibraioiee (Taylor, 389). 
 
 Dunagoat, a place-name in Devon- 
 shire, is a corruption of the Celtic 
 Bun-y-coed, "Wooded hUl" (Taylor, 
 
 DuEHAM, so spelt as if compounded 
 with Celtic dur, water, and A. Sax. 
 ham, home, is a corruption of its 
 ancient name Bunholrn, the island of 
 the hiU fort (Taylor, 381). 
 
 Dusk, a river in Ayrshu-e, is a cor- 
 ruption of the Gaelic Bu-uisge, " The 
 dark water " (Bobertson, p. 132). 
 
 E. 
 
 Early, as a surname in Ireland, is 
 an incorrect Anglicization of the old 
 Irish name O'Mulmoghery, due to Ir. 
 moch-eirghe signifying " early rising " 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Eastbouenb, a seaside town in 
 Sussex, was, no doubt, originally the 
 eas-hourne, " water-brook," e(M being 
 a modification of Celtic uisge, water, as 
 in Is-bourne, Ash-bourne, Ouse-burn 
 (Taylor, 211, 388). 
 
 Easteesnow, the name of a parish 
 in Eoscommon, is a corruption of the 
 older name Issetnowno, or Issertnowne, 
 all from Ir. Bisert-Nuadhan (pron. 
 Nooan), The Hermitage of St. Nuadha 
 (Joyce, Irish Names of Places, vol. i. 
 p. 313). 
 
 Eheenbkeitstein, on the Rhine, 
 " Honour's broad stone," is from the 
 old German Erinperahtstein, where the 
 middle word means hrightnesa, not 
 broadness (Andresen). 
 
 Elephant Lane, in Dublin, ia a cor- 
 ruption of its ancient name MelUfont 
 Lane, which was so called after Henry 
 Moore, Earl of Drogheda and MeUi- 
 font. The remainder of his name and 
 title have survived in Hemry Street, 
 Moore Street, Earl Street, Off Lane, and 
 Brogheda (now Sackville) Street. 
 
 Ellfeld, on the Ehine, is the 
 modem corruption of its Eoman name 
 Alta Villa. 
 
 Elli-sif, a popular Icelandic form 
 of Elizabeth, as if " old-sib," from 
 Elli, aged, and sif, aflanity, " sib." 
 As personifications Elli was the giantess 
 Old Age or Eld, and Sif the wife of 
 Thor. Compare -^gisif from Greek 
 Hagia Sophia (Burton, Ultima TMde, 
 vol. i. p. 143). 
 
 Emblem, a feminine Christian name 
 sometimes found in baptismal registers, 
 is a corruption of Emhlcn, which has 
 been remarked as a vulgar pronuncia- 
 tion of Emmeline (quasi EmbeKn). 
 — Notes and Queries, 5th S. vii. pp. 
 149, 215, 278. I have even heard 
 Embly for Emily. 
 
ENGLISHMAN 
 
 ( 529 ) 
 
 FABBOWBUSH 
 
 Enslishman, a vague personage that 
 has figured sometimes in the midst of 
 PeiTivian mythology, is only a mistake 
 ior Iwjasman Cocapac, which is itself 
 a coiTuption of Inca Manco Ccapac, 
 the son of the Sun (vid. Tylor, Prim. 
 Culture, i. 319). 
 
 Enoch, Saint, the name of a parish 
 church in Glasgow, commemorates 
 really 8t. TJienaio, the mother of the 
 great Scotch missionary St. Mungo 
 (or Kentigem), to whom there is a 
 church dedicated in the same city 
 {Ohambers's Cyclopcedia, s.v. il/««^o). 
 
 Ethiopu, Greek Aithiopia, the coun- 
 try of the Aithiopes, apparently the 
 men of the swarthy or sunburnt com- 
 plexion, and so understood by the 
 Greeks, as if from aithein, to bum, and 
 dps, the countenance. Aithiops, how- 
 ever, is probably only an adaptation of 
 the native Egjrptian name Ethaush 
 [Btb. Diet. i. 588). 
 
 EnGENE. a Christian name common 
 in Ireland, is an assimilation of the 
 native Eoghan (pronounced Owen), 
 " WeU-bom," to the synonymous Greek 
 eugenes. Owen is the ordinary form 
 of the same name. 
 
 Etipheates, the river-name, so called 
 in Greek as if akin to euphrasia, de- 
 light, euphraino, to gladden, is a cor- 
 ruption of its Heb. name Phrdth 
 {Ephrath), the sweet or pleasant-tasted 
 stream (from pharath, to be sweet. 
 — Gesenius), or the fertilizing (from 
 parah, to fructify. — The Gondlmtor, i. 
 27). 
 
 The fourth river is called Euphrates, that 
 is to say, well bearing, for there groweth 
 many good things upon that River. — Sir J. 
 Maundevile, Voyages, ch. ciii. 
 
 EvELEEN, as a Christian name, in 
 Ireland often stands for Evin or Aevin, 
 Ir. Aioibhinn (Yonge, ii. 40). So Eva 
 is used for the GaeUc Aoiffu. 
 
 EvBESHOT, an English place-name, 
 is etymologically the Mi, or wood, of 
 the wild boar (eofer). 
 
 F. 
 
 Faikfield, a mountain in Westmore- 
 land, is properly the fell (Norse jfii'eZcQ 
 or hiU of the sheep, Norse faar, Icel. 
 
 fcer. Hence also Icel. Fxr-eyjar (Sheep- 
 isles), the Faroe Islands. 
 
 Fairfoul, a paradoxical looking sur- 
 name, perhaps stands for "Parefowl,' 
 a bird of passage (M. A. Lower). 
 
 Fair Isle, belonging to Shetland, 
 probably stands for Faer Isle, i.e. 
 " sheep island," from Icel. fwr, a sheep, 
 Dan. faar, which is also the meaning 
 of the Faroe Islands (Edmondston, 
 Shetland Glossary, p. 153). 
 
 Fairlight, on the coast of Sussex, 
 is a corruption of Farleigh (N. and Q. 
 6ih S. iii. 15). 
 
 Falls, The, a district south of Bel- 
 fast, formerly called Tuogh of the Fall 
 and TuoghnafaU, Ir. Tuath-na-hhfdl, 
 " District of the hedges." The name, 
 therefore, is the plural of the Irish fcil 
 (pron. faul), a hedge or enclosure, a 
 word akin to Lat. vallwm, " wall," &c. 
 (Joyce, ii. 212). 
 
 FAMAGUSTA,thename of the principal 
 port of Cyprus, which seems, hke so 
 many other place-names, to commemo- 
 rate the fame of Augustus, as if Lat. 
 Fama Augusii, spelt Famagosta by 
 Sandys, and by Mandeville, who says, 
 "Famagosta is the chief haven of 
 Cyprus " (Ean-ly Travels in Palestine, 
 p. 191), is a modem corruption of the 
 Greek name Ammochdstos[Am!moch6sta) , 
 apparently meaning a "sand-bank" 
 (like ammo-chosia, a silting up of sand), 
 but really a Grecized form of the 
 original Phoenician name. This is 
 supposed to have been am nechosheth, 
 "mother of brass " (Schroder), or rather 
 perhaps chamath chddash, " the new 
 citadel," or New Hamath or Amathus 
 {N. and Q. 5th S. sii. 116). The 
 Assyrian name was Amta Khadasta 
 " the holy lady," in allusion no doubt 
 to the great goddess, the Dea Syra, 
 who was worshipped there {Id. xi. 
 430). 
 
 Farrowbush, a surname in New 
 England, is a corruption of Fa/rraias, 
 the name which the ancestors of the 
 same family bore in the seventeenth 
 century, the latter being probably itself 
 a corrupt form of the name Forbes. 
 Vide Furbush [N. and Q. 5th S. vi. p. 
 426). 
 
FAB THING 
 
 ( 530 ) 
 
 FLOOD 
 
 Faething, a surname, is probably a 
 corruption of Fardan in Domesday 
 (Yorks.), from loel. far-drengr, a sea- 
 faring man. 
 
 Fedeeico, an Italian form of the 
 name Frederick, as if derived from/ede, 
 faith. Compare Ger. Fidriah (Andre- 
 Ben). 
 
 Feiean, Wddy Feirdn, in the Penin- 
 sula of Sinai, " The valley of mice " 
 (plural of Arabic /draA, a mouse), is so 
 called, according to the Bedawm, from 
 the numerous holes or caves in the 
 rocks into which the hermits once 
 settled here " used to creep like mice." 
 Feirdn, however, is only a corruption 
 of the Hebrew Param (H. S. Palmer, 
 8inm, p. 21). 
 
 Felix, Mons, the name of a mountain 
 on the east coast of Africa, opposite 
 Aden, is an old corruption of its Arabic 
 name (Oebel) Fiel, " Elephant Moun- 
 tain," so called from its shape (Taylor, 
 392). 
 
 Fendee, a river in Perthshire, is a 
 corruption of the Gaelic Fionn-dur, 
 " Fingal's water" (Eobertson, p. 61). 
 
 Fbedinand, in Ireland, often stands 
 for the native name Ferdoragh, " dark- 
 visaged man " (O'Donovan). 
 
 Fettbe Lane, in London, is a cor- 
 ruption of Fewtors' or Faitours' {i.e. 
 professional mendicants') Lane. Com- 
 pare Cripplegate {Ed. Review, No. 
 267, Jan. 1870). 
 
 Fewter Lane is so called of Fe^olers (or 
 idle people) lying there, as in a way leading 
 to Gardens. — Stow, Siu-vay, p. 145. 
 
 Fevbe Eiver, the name of a tribu- 
 tary of the Mississippi, is a corruption 
 of {Fleuve) de la five, so called by the 
 French (Scheie De Vere, Studies in 
 English). 
 
 FiLicAssi, the name of a place near 
 VetraUa in Etruria, as if " Broken- 
 thread, " is a corruption by the peasantry 
 oiForcassi, whichrepresentathe ancient 
 Forum Oassii (G. Dennis, Gities and 
 Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. i. p. 194, ed. 
 1878). 
 
 FiLLPOT, a surname, for PMlpoi, i.e. 
 Philipot, a pet name forPhihp (Bards- 
 ley, Bomance of the London Directory, 
 p. 73), like Wilmot, Emmot, Marriot, 
 Ehot, &c. 
 
 FiND-HOEN, a river in Inverness, is 
 for Findea/rn, and that for Fionn-ear- 
 an, "The clear east flowing river" 
 (Eobertson, p. 135). 
 
 FiNHAVEN, in Forfar, is a corruption 
 of the Gi&eMc Fionn-ahhuinn, "The clear 
 river " (Eobertson, p. 325). 
 
 FiNSTERMiJNZ, iu the Tyrolese Alps, 
 as if the " Dark Mint," is said to be a 
 corruption of VenustoB Mons (?).— An- 
 dresen. 
 
 FiNSTEBN Steen, a corruption of 
 Cape Fimisterre, as if the place where 
 the evening star sets in darkness, occurs 
 in Notices sur les Voyages fa/its en Eel- 
 gique par des Eirangers, 1466 (Ghent, 
 1847). 
 
 FiQUEPLEUE, in Normandy, appa- 
 rently " Pig-flower," is considered to be 
 a Corruption of WicTifket, "the bay 
 river," as -flem- in other names, e.g. 
 Barfleur, Ha/rftew, is known to have 
 been originally Jiet or fleet, Norse fKot, 
 a small river (Taylor, p. 187). 
 
 FiscHHADSEN, " Fish-hous6," in Bast 
 Prussia, stands for Bisch-, that is 
 Bischof-hausen (Andresen, Volksety- 
 mologie) . 
 
 FiSHEE, the surname of a Somerset- 
 shire family, is a corruption, through 
 the forms Fishowr and Fitzour, of 
 Fitzurse (Bear's son), the name of 
 Becket's murderer, who had an estate 
 at Willeton in that county (CoUiason, 
 Somersetshire, iii. 487 ; Stanley, Me- 
 morials of Ganierhwy, p. 81 ; Quarterly 
 Review, vol. 93, p. 379). 
 
 Fitful Head, in Shetland, is a cor- 
 ruption, according to Eev. I. Taylor, 
 of Scand. Hvit-fell, "White Hill" 
 {Words and Places, 390). Mr. Ed- 
 mondston thinks it stands for Fitfmll, 
 from O. Norse fit, a promontory or 
 rich plain, and fiall, a mountain {8het- 
 lamd Glossa/ry, 158). 
 
 Flatman, a surname, seems to stand 
 for A. Sax. fl6t-mann, a shipman or 
 sailor. 
 
 Flood, a family name, is a corrupf 
 tion of Floyd, another form of the 
 Welsh name Lloyd. 
 
 Taylor the Water-Poet mentions 
 that Old Parr's second wife was — 
 
FLOWEBHILL 
 
 ( 531 ) 
 
 GAMBLE 
 
 The daughter of John Lloyde (corruptly 
 
 Flood) 
 Of ancient house, and !;entle Cambrian blood. 
 Vie Olde, OH, Very Okie Mati, 16,!;). 
 
 Flowekhill, a place-name in Sligo, 
 is a pretty transformation of the re- 
 pulsive Irish name Cnoc-a'-lohhair 
 (Knooka-lower), "hill of the leper," 
 by turning loicet- into flower (Joyce, ii. 
 81). 
 
 FooTDEB, a fishing village at the 
 entrance of the harbour of Aberdeen, 
 and now, by the extension of the town, 
 incorporated with it. 
 
 The original name was Futtie, the deriva- 
 tion of which I do not know, unless it has 
 something to do with St. Fittrock, whose 
 well is on the other side of the river. Futtie 
 is now almost universally called Foot-dee 
 under the impression that it gets its name 
 from being at the Foot, or Mouth, of the 
 Dee. — Ml-. A. U. Morrice (communicated). 
 
 FoOTE, a surname in Connatight, is 
 an erroneous AngUcization of the Irish 
 O'Trehy (O'Donovan), as if it were 
 derived from traigh, a foot. 
 
 FoEDE, a surname in Leitrim, is an 
 Anglicized form of Ir. Mac Oonnava, 
 from an erroneous notion that ava, 
 the last part of it, stoodfor atha, " of a 
 ford" (O'Donovan). 
 
 FoEKHiLL, an Irish place-name in 
 Armagh, more correctly Forkill, repre- 
 sents Ir. Fuar-choill, " Cold wood." 
 Hence also ForeJcill in Kilkenny (Joyce, 
 ii. 247). 
 
 PoEMOSA (i.e. Beautiful), the name of 
 the island so called, is probably a cor- 
 ruption of the Persian Harmuza, just 
 as in Spanish hermosa is another form 
 oijoniosa, and Mafomet is an old form of 
 Mahomet. The mistake was furthered 
 by Marco Polo's description of the 
 beauty of that spot, whicli is termed 
 bythe natives "the Paradise of Persia " 
 (Vid. Yule's Marco Polo, vol. i. p. 108). 
 
 FoETROSB, in Inverness-shire, is a cor- 
 ruption oiFort-ross, " the strongpoint " 
 (Robertson, p. 128). 
 
 PoDKKNOCKS, the name of a parish in 
 00. Meath, denotes, not quadruplicated 
 blows, but " cold hills," Ir. Fuar cnocs 
 (Joyce, ii. 246). 
 
 FoxHALL, the old speHing of Vaux- 
 liaU {e.g. Pepys, Diary, May 29, 1662, 
 
 Bright's ed. vol. i. p. 455), originally 
 Fulke's Hall, called after Fulke de 
 Breaute, temp. King John. 
 
 Freebody, a surname, is supposed 
 to be identical with Icel. fri^ar-ho'&i 
 (Dut.ureedeJode),"peaoe-messenger,"a 
 herald of peace (A. Sax. frv&, peace, 
 hoda, messenger). See Goodbody. 
 
 Pebemantle, a surname, is a corrup- 
 tion o{ Freid-mantel, in Latin Frigidum- 
 mantellum (Close Rolls). — Ed. lieview, 
 101, 368. 
 
 Feeshfoed, the name of a place in 
 Kilkenny, is a misrendering of the Irish 
 Achad-ur, " Fresh-field " (Joyce, i. 
 36). 
 
 Freudenbach, " Joyful brook," a 
 German river-name, is probably a cor- 
 ruption of the Celtic ffrydan, a stream 
 (Taylor, 389). 
 
 Friedlos, a Hessian village so called, 
 as if " Peaceless," was originally Frid- 
 waldes ; other village names similarly 
 corrupted are Maclitlos (or Magdlos), 
 " Mightless," from Mahtolfes; Sterb- 
 fritz from Starkfrides ; Merkenfritz from 
 Erchinfredis (Andresen). 
 
 Fhiskyball was the name by whicli 
 Frescohaldi, the Florentine banker, was 
 known among the English of his day 
 (Froude, Hist, of England, ii. 109, orig. 
 ed.). 
 
 FuEBUSH, 1 New England surnames. 
 Furbish, - are different varieties of 
 FoEBDSH, ) the original name Far- 
 rabas, borne by the founder of the 
 family, who died 1687 (vide Faeeow- 
 bush). Farrabas itseU, however, it has 
 been suggested, may be a corruption 
 of the name Fkebrace (N. and Q. 4th 
 S. iii. 240), which is also found in the 
 form of Farhras, Firebrass, and Fer- 
 h-ace (Id. 6th S. vii: 97), = " Iron- 
 arm" (■?). Cf. Ludlow, Epics of Mid. 
 Ages, ii. 420. 
 
 Gamble, a surname, probably stands 
 for A. Sax. gamol, old, Norse gamal, 
 Dan. gammel, Swed. gammal, Icel. 
 gamall. Oamli is firequently added as 
 a sobriquet in Icelandic to distinguish 
 an older man from a yotmger of the 
 
GABLIOK 
 
 ( 532 ) GOLBEN VALLEY 
 
 same name, e.g. Hdkon Gamli (Cleasty, 
 p. 188). 
 
 Gaklick, a Burname, is apparently a 
 variant of Oerlach, from A. Sax. gar, a 
 spear, Icel. gewr, and lac, play, game. 
 Compare Icel. name Oeir-la/ag. 
 
 Gaembnt, a surname, is no doubt a 
 corruption of Ga/rmund, from A. Sax. 
 gar, spear, and w/imd, protection ; O. 
 H. Ger. Ger-munt, Icel. Geir-mundr. 
 
 Garnish, a surname, is said to he a 
 corruption of Gernons (Camden, Me- 
 maines, 148, 1637), of the same origin as 
 the Christian name Algernon, i.e. aJs 
 gernons, " whiskered," from Norm. Fr. 
 gernons, moustachios. 
 
 Gateshead, on the Tyne, was origi- 
 nally the Goat's Head, from O. Eng. 
 gat, a goat (OUphant, Old and Mid. 
 English, p. 201). 
 
 Gay Island, in Fermanagh, is a half- 
 translation, half-corruption, of Inis-na- 
 ngedh, " The island of the goose" (Joyce, 
 Irish Na/mes of Places, vol. i. p. 471). 
 
 Gaylokd, the name of a Canadian 
 family of French descent, is a corrup- 
 tion of Oaillard. 
 
 Gelasius ("the laugher"), used in 
 Ireland as a substitute for the native 
 name Giolla Josa, "servant of Jesus " 
 (Yonge, Christian Names, i. 255). So 
 Gilchrist, " servant of Christ," Gillespie, 
 " servant of the Bishop." 
 
 GennbsaeJSt, S. Matt. xiv. 34, Gen- 
 nesar, 1 Mace. xi. 67, is probably a cor- 
 ruption of the Old Test, form Chinnereth 
 or Oinneroih, Numb, xxxiv. 11, 1 Kings 
 XV. 20, understood incorrectly as Heb. 
 Gannah (garden) of Sharon, or with re- 
 ference to the fertility of its plain 
 " Garden of Princes " (Heb. nazir). 
 
 Genserich, the name of the Vandal 
 king, understood as the "gander king," 
 is probably a corrupt form of Geisserich, 
 "spear ruler," from gais, a spear (Lat. 
 gcBSum). — Yonge, Christ. Names, ii. 
 328. 
 
 George and Cannon, as an inn-sign, 
 is said to have been originally The 
 George Canning [Bub. University Mag. 
 Oct. 1868). 
 
 Gerraed's Hall, in old London, 
 south of Basing Lane, believed to have 
 been called from Gerrarde a giant, was 
 
 an ancient popular corruption of 
 Gisor's Hall, origiaaUy owned by John 
 Gisors, Mayor of London 1245 (Stow, 
 8^l/rvay, p. 131, ed. Thoms). 
 
 Gibraltar, the EngUsh form of 
 Jibal Tdrih, Arabic Jalalu't ta/rih, or 
 Tarik's Mountain, so called after a 
 Moorish conqueror of that name, seems 
 to have been assimilated to Eng. 
 "altar," just as in Italian Gibilten-aii 
 has been assimilated to terra. 
 
 Gloster Court, a corruption of 
 Cloister Court, in Blackfriars (Phihlog. 
 8oc. Froc. vol. v. p. 140). 
 
 Goadby Maewood, in Leicestershire, 
 originally Gundehi Maweuiaird (Evans, 
 Glossary, p. 41, E. D. S.). 
 
 GoDLYMAN is Pepys's form of Godal- 
 ming. 
 
 We got a small bait at Leatherhead and so 
 to Godtyma?i, where we lay all night. — Diary, 
 April Sbth, 1661. 
 
 Golden, the nam'e of a village in co. 
 Tipperary, is a corruption of Ir. Oab- 
 haiUn {pron. gouleen, from gabhal, pron. 
 goul, a fork), " The bifurcation," viz. 
 of the river Suir at the point where it 
 is situated ( Joyce, InsAJV^ameso/PZaces, 
 vol. i. p. 511). 
 
 Golden Abbey, or Gold Ahbey, a 
 popular name for the chm'oh of St. 
 Nicholas Cold Abhey or Cold Bey, in 
 old London, for "so hath the most 
 ancient writings, as standing in a cold 
 place."— Stow, Survay, 1603, p. 132, 
 ed. Thoms. 
 
 Golden Square, said to have been 
 originally Gelding Sgimre, from the 
 sign of a neighbouring inn (Pennant, 
 Hotten, History of Sign Boards, p. 177). 
 But in the New View of London, 1708, 
 it is stated to have derived its name 
 from one Golding, by whom it was buUt 
 (Jesse, London, vol. i. p. 18). 
 
 Golden Valley, The, or Lore Valley, 
 on the border of Brecon and Mon- 
 mouth, so called from the river Dore, 
 which rises just above Dorston, sup- 
 posed to be connected with Fr. dor^, 
 golden. Compare Doro, a river in 
 Queen's County (Taylor, 199), Welsh 
 dwr, water, Ir. dur (Joyce, ii. 380). 
 
 The derivation of Dorston is prett;^ cer- 
 tainly Dwr, " water," and tnn, "anindo- 
 sure ; " and it is now a generally accepted 
 
GOODBODT 
 
 ( 533 ) 
 
 OBEY 
 
 belief that the Golden Valley is a misnomer, 
 due to the fanciful brain of some monk who, 
 ignoring the identity of Dwr with Dore, 
 close to ti'anslate Mant Dwr into " Vallis 
 Deaurata." — Saturday Review, vol. 43, p. 703. 
 
 GooDBODY, a surname, is probably 
 from A. Sax. gud, -war, and loda, a 
 messenger, Icel. guir and fcoSj, and so 
 means a " war-messenger," a herald ; 
 just as Goodwin is from A. Sax. gui- 
 wine, " a battle-friend," and Goodburn 
 is identical with leel. G«Sr- (or Gunn-) 
 }^wn, "war bear." 
 
 GooDGKAVE, an English place-name, 
 is from Celtic coed, a forest, and grave 
 (Taylor, 362). 
 
 GooDHEAKT, a sumame, probably 
 stands for Goddmi, Goddard, Ger. Gott- 
 hard. 
 
 GooDLAKE, ) Eng. surnames, are 
 GooDLUOK, J doubtless from Gutli- 
 lac, A. Sax. gui-lac, warfare. Compare 
 Icel. name G«8-(or Gunn-)-laugr. 
 
 Goodluck's Close, in Norwich, was 
 originally Quthlao's Close. 
 
 GooDMANHAM, a place in E. Biding 
 of Yorkshire, apparently the "home of 
 a good man," stands for the ancient 
 Godmimdingaham (Beda, Eccles. Hist. 
 ii. 13), "the home of the protection 
 (rrmnd) of the gods " (Taylor, 335). 
 
 Goodwin, as a sumame in Ulster, is 
 an AngUcization of Mao Guiggin 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Goodwood, the seat of the Duke of 
 Eichmond in Sussex, formerly Godin- 
 wood, called probably from the Saxon 
 Godwin. 
 
 Gosling, a surname, old Ger. Gosse- 
 Kn, GozUn, is probably from Gossel, old 
 Ger. Gozilo, a dimin. of old Ger. Goz, 
 another form of Gaud (Ferguson, 171). 
 It is thus really the same name as Jos- 
 cel/yn (Bardsley). 
 
 GoTOBED, an EngUsh family name, 
 anciently Goteledde and Godeberd, is a 
 corruption ofan original God6ert(Bards- 
 ley, English Surnames, p. 21). ■ 
 
 GoTTLEiB, " God's love," a Ger. 
 Christian name, is in some instances a 
 modification of GottUip, " remains of 
 divinity" (Yonge, Christ. Names, u. 
 262). 
 
 Gbaceohukoh Stbebt, formerly also 
 called Gracious Street, London, was 
 originally " Grasse church, of the herb- 
 market there."— Stow, Survay, 1603, 
 p. 80 (ed. Thoms). 
 
 The rarest dancing in Clu-istendom . . . 
 At a wedding in Gracious street. 
 
 HeyiBood, Fair Maid of the Exchange, 
 i. 1, p. 29 (Sha'ks. Soc). 
 
 Grasse-street, now Gracious-street. — Howell, 
 Londinopotis, p. 77. 
 
 In Grasse-street is the Parish Church of 
 St. Benuet called Grjss-church, of the Herbe 
 Market there kept.— id. p. 87. 
 
 Graham, as a sumame in Connaught, 
 is an Anglicized form of O'Greighan 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Gkammeroy Square, New York, is a 
 corruption of Be Kromme Zee, " the 
 crooked lake," the najne of a pond 
 which once occupied its site and is so 
 called in old Dutch maps (Taylor, 
 400). 
 
 Geampound, in Cornwall, is a corrup- 
 tion of the Norman Grand Pont, the 
 "great bridge" over the Fal (Taylor, 
 390). 
 
 Granny's Grave, the name of a se- 
 pulchral pile in Antrim, is an English 
 mis-rendering of Gam- Greine, the cam 
 of a woman named Grian (Joyce, Irish 
 Names of Places, vol. i. p. 324). 
 
 Gravesend is a corruption of the 
 older form Gravesham (Taylor, 381). 
 
 Grecian Stairs, Lincoln, is a cor- 
 ruption (it is said) of Gritstone Stai/is. 
 
 Grbenburn, a common place-name 
 in Scotland, is most probably a corrup- 
 tion of the Gaehc Grian-lurn, i.e. "the 
 stream of [or dedicated to] the sun " 
 (Eobertson, Gaelic Topography of Scot- 
 land, p. 354). 
 
 Gkebnock, a corruption of the Gaelic 
 name Grianag, which is probably con- 
 nected with Grian, the Sun (Campbell, 
 Tales of W. Highlands, vol. ui. 19). 
 
 Grbnville, apparently of Pr. origin, 
 compounded with ville, is probably a 
 perversionof (TreTO(>/eZd(Q.jB6OTe«', No. 
 153, p. 6). Compare the form Grenfell. 
 
 Grey, the name of the noble family 
 of Grey, was originally a territorial 
 appellation derived from Be Cray in 
 Normandy. 
 
GUADALUPE 
 
 ( 534 ) 
 
 EASENPFLUG 
 
 Guadalupe, an American river-name, 
 is a Spanish corruption, as if " river of 
 the bay" (GMad:= Arab, wadi), of the 
 Indian Tlaltehlco (Taylor, p. 379). 
 
 GuilpiNS, "wasps," a nickname given 
 to the people of Orleans, is said to be a 
 corruption of the ancient tribal name 
 Genahini (De Lincy, Proverhes Frang. i. 
 vi.). Ouespine in Cotgrave. 
 
 Gumboil, "the most villanous of all 
 corruptions, is the same no doubt as 
 an old Ger. name Gumpold or Gund- 
 hold " (Ferguson, 208), that is " bold in 
 "war " (0. H. Ger. gundda, war, Icel. 
 gunm; guSr). So Gunter or Gunther 
 seems to be for Gunn-thor, " war-god," 
 corresponding to the loel. name Thm-- 
 gunnr ; compare Icel. gimn-thorinn, 
 warlike. 
 
 Gutter Lane, off Oheapside, Lon- 
 don, was originally Outhumn's Lane, 
 " so called of Guthurun, sometime 
 owner thereof." — Stow, Survay, p. 117 
 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Gwasgwyn, a "gentle rise," is the 
 Welsh adaptation (Spurrell) of Gas- 
 cony, Fr. Gascogne, named from the 
 Vase ones. 
 
 GwENEB, the Welsh name for Venus 
 (Veneiis), seems to be an assimilation 
 of that word to gwen, fair, beautiful, 
 gwenu, to smile. 
 
 GwLAD YE Haf, " Begion of Sum- 
 mer," the Welsh name of the shire of 
 /Som«rsei (Spurrell), understood Uterally 
 as the "seat of summer" (A. Sax. 
 Sumorsceie). Compare SummeeIslands 
 below. 
 
 GwYDDBLiG, "sylvan," "savage," 
 when used for Irish (gwyddel, an Irish- 
 man), as if one running wild in the 
 bushes, gvnjddeli (of. gwydd, wild, also 
 trees, gwyddun, a satyr or man of the 
 woods), is reaUy identical with Ir. 
 GaedMl, the Gael or Irish ; e.g. War 
 of the GaedMl with the Gaill (ed. 
 J. H. Todd), i.e. of the Irish with the 
 Foreigner. 
 
 Hallwachs, a German propername 
 which seems to be compounded oiHall, 
 sound, and wachs, wax, is corrupted 
 from the nickname^ halbwahs, half- 
 grown (Andresen). 
 
 Hands, \ as surnames, are natu- 
 Handoook, / ralized forms of Hans, 
 
 the Flemish and German shortening of 
 
 Jo-hannes, John (Bardsley). 
 
 H. 
 
 Haddock, a surname, is supposed to 
 correspond to an A. Sax. TIadeca, Ger. 
 Hddicke, from 0. H. Ger. Hadu (war- 
 like ?). — Ferguson, 46. 
 
 Hangman's Gains, a locahty in the 
 east of London, popularly associated 
 no doubt with the adjoining place of 
 execution on Tower Hill, is a corrup- 
 tion of Hames et Guynes, so called be- 
 cause refugees from those towns bad 
 settled there after the loss of Calais 
 and its dependencies (Taylor, 398). 
 
 Hannah, in Ireland, is sometimes an 
 incorrectly Anglicized form of the na- 
 tive Aine; as similarly Ma/ry is of Mm- ; 
 Sarah of Sorcha, " bright ; " Grace of 
 Graine ; Winny of Una (O'Donovan). 
 
 Haediman, a surname in Connaught, 
 is an Anglicized form of O'Hargadon 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Hare, a Munster sm-name, is an 
 AugUcized form of Ir. O'Hehir. Simi- 
 larly Heron for O'Ahern (O'Donovan). 
 
 Harmstonb, a place-name in Lin- 
 colnshire, is an altered form of the 
 ancient Harmodestone, called after one 
 Heremod (Taylor, 313). 
 
 Haepoorates, the god of silence, a 
 mistaken interpretation by the Greeks 
 of the name and attitude of the Egyp- 
 tian Har-{v)-£,hrot, "Horus-(the)-Son," 
 the god of the dawn, who was repre- 
 sented as a child with his finger on 
 his lips, the gesture denoting one who 
 cannot speak, infuns (Tyler, Fan-ly 
 Hist, of Mankind, p. 41). 
 
 Harrington, as a surname in- Ire- 
 land, is an Anghcization of O'Heraghty 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Hart, as a sm-name, is of Irish origin, 
 and stands for O'Hart, Ir. O'h AiH, 
 "Grandson of Art" or Arthur (Joyce, 
 ii. 151). 
 
 Hasenpflug, " Hare's-plough," a 
 German surname, was originally Has- 
 senpfiug, "Hate the plough" (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
EA8LU0K 
 
 ( 535 ) 
 
 EIBUBNIA 
 
 Hasluck, an Eng. surname, other- 
 wise Hasloch or Asloch, A. Sax. Oslac, 
 the same as Icel. Aslakr (compounded 
 with ass, a god). 
 
 Hatred, a surname, has been iden- 
 tified with Hadroi, old Ger. Hadarat, 
 "war-counsel" (Ferguson, 17). 
 
 Havelock, old Eng. Havelok, seems 
 to be a corrupted foi-m of Icelandic hcif- 
 rehr, " sea-drifted." " Havelok the 
 Dane" bears many points of resem- 
 blance to Heine haweki, "Heine the 
 sea-drifted," the hero of a Faroe legend 
 (Cleasby, p. 774). 
 
 Hat Stacks, a mountain-name in 
 the Lake district of N. England, is said 
 to stand for " high rocks," from Nor- 
 weg. stackr, a columnar rock; whence 
 also ''the Sticks," " Stake," and " Pike 
 o' Stickle" (Taylor, 174). See Stags. 
 
 Headache, a surname, probably 
 stands for HeadicTc also found, A. Sax. 
 Eadeca, Ger. Hddicke, akin to A. Sax. 
 Had, Eedda, Norse Hijdr (perhaps 
 meaning war). — Ferguson, 47. 
 
 Hector is often only a modem per- 
 version, under classical influence, of 
 Danish Sagthor, " dexterous Thor " 
 (Yonge, Christ. Names, ii. 320). 
 
 Heliogabaxus represents the Syrian 
 'Elagabal, the Sun-god, as if from Greek 
 Eelios, the sun. 
 
 Hentoe, the name of a hill near 
 Coniston in the Lake district, is a cor- 
 ruption of its older name Heritor, i.e. 
 Welsh hen, old, and twr, a pile {PMlo- 
 log. 8oa. Trans. 1855, p. 219). 
 
 Herbstehudb, or Harvstehude, near 
 Hamburg, as if from Herlste, Autumn, 
 was originally Herwarteshude (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 Herbstein, a Hessian place-name, 
 as if " Herb-stone," is from the older 
 form Eeriperhteshusum, i.e. Herherts- 
 hausen (Andresen). 
 
 Hereford, " The ford of the army " 
 (A. Sax. here, an army), is a corruption 
 or adaptation of the old British name 
 Eenffordd, "The old road" (Welsh 
 lien, old, seaiffordd, a road). 
 
 Herod, an Eng. surname, seems to 
 be a ScripturaUzed form of Scand. 
 Eeraudr (Ferguson, 231). 
 
 Herodias. By a curious confusion, 
 the name of the murderess of St. John 
 the Baptist in ancient popular super- 
 stitions was substituted for Hrodso, i.e. 
 the Renowned, a surname of Odin. In 
 the French province of Perigord the 
 WUd Hunt or passing of the Wild- 
 Hunt's-man, Odin, is called La Ohasse 
 Hdrode (see Kelly, Indo - European 
 Tradition, p. 282 ; Wright, Introduction 
 to The Proceedings against Dame Alice 
 Kyteler, Camden Soc). 
 
 Douce quotes an ancient ecclesias- 
 tical denunciation against the super- 
 stitious belief that witches "ride abroad 
 of nights with Diana, goddess of the 
 pagans, or with Herodias " (Illustrations 
 of Shahspere, p. 236, ed. 1837). 
 
 Some wicked women resigning themselves 
 to Satan and to tlie illusion of demons, be- 
 lieve and declare that they ride forth on certain 
 animals in the night, along with Diana the 
 goddess of the Pagans, or with Herodias, ac- 
 companied by a numberless multitude of 
 women. — Gratian, Decvetalia, p. ii. causa 
 xsvi. q. 5 (in Dalyell, Darker Superstitions 
 of Scotland, p. 537). 
 
 In Germany Herodias, who is con- 
 founded with her daughter, is a witch 
 who is condemned to dance till the last 
 day, and prowls about all night, the 
 terror of children. In Franohe-Comt^ 
 the Wild Huntsman is believed to be 
 Herod in pursuit of the Holy Inno- 
 cents (see Henderson, Wolh-lore of the 
 N. Counties, pp. 101-106). 
 
 Hert-ford, so spelt as if it denoted 
 the ford of the hart (old Eng. heort), is 
 an Anglicized form of Celtic rhyd, a 
 ford, -I- Eng. ford, such reduphcations 
 being very frequent in. place-names 
 (Taylor, 213). 
 
 Herzbach. In this and other Ger- 
 man surnames, such as Herzherg, Herz- 
 brtich, Herzfeld; the original component 
 element was Hirsch, hart, not Herz, 
 heart (Andresen). 
 
 HiBEKNiA, the Boman name of Ire- 
 land, as if from hibernus, wintry, with 
 reference to its northern situation, just 
 as the Welsh name of the same island 
 Iwerddon stands in the same relation 
 to iwerydd (and eiryaidd, snowy?). 
 Pictet explains Hihernia (Greek louer- 
 nia, lerne) as derived from an hypo- 
 thetical Irish ihh-erna, ibh-er, country 
 or people, ihh, of the noble or warriors, 
 
EIEBOSOLUMA ( 536 ) 
 
 HONEYB VN 
 
 er ; the latter part er, seen also in 
 Erin, and Ire-land, and Erna, a native 
 tribe-name, corresponding to Sansk. 
 arya, noble (Origines Indo-Ewopeenes, 
 i. 33). Spurrell gives Iwerddon and 
 Gwerddon as Welsh names for (1) a 
 green spot, (2) Ireland, apparently from 
 gwerdd, green. 
 
 HiEROsoLTJMA, the Greek spelling of 
 Jerusalem (Heb. Yenishalaim, "'Foun- 
 dation of Peace "), as if from hieros, 
 sacred, holy, with some reference per- 
 haps to its name of " The holy City " 
 (Matt. iv. 5). The Arabic name is el- 
 Khuds, " The Holy," or Beit-el-Makdds, 
 "The Holy House." Other Greek forms 
 of the name are Hiero Solumd, "the holy 
 Solyma" (Josephus), Hierm Salo- 
 monos, " Solomon's holy-place" (Eupo- 
 lemos), while others have traced a con- 
 nexion vidth Hierosuloi, " spoilers of 
 temples." Similar Greek formations 
 are Hierecho and Hieromax (Bible 
 Diet. S.V.). The Heb. word itself was 
 perhaps an adaptation of the old 
 Ganaanitish name Yebus, Yehusi (Josh, 
 xviii. 28). 
 
 The city of Kadytis, mentioned by 
 Herodotus (iii. 5), has been identified 
 by some with Jerusalem, as if only a 
 Grecized form of Kadeah, " The Holy 
 Place " (Stanley, Jewish Church, vol. 
 iii. p. 92). 
 
 HiGGiNBOTTOM, an Eng. surname, is 
 said to be a corruption of the German 
 IckenhoMin, " oak-tree " (Lower, Eng. 
 Surnames, 142). 
 
 High Pkess Towek, a popular cor- 
 ruption of the name of the old Ypres 
 Tower in Eye, Sussex. 
 
 It used to be called the High Press tower, 
 he replied, but now we generally calls it the 
 .Tail.— jC. J. Jennings, Field Paths and Green 
 Lanes, p. 13. 
 
 Hill of Lloyd, near KeUs, co. 
 Meath, is supposed to have taken its 
 name from a family named Lloyd. It 
 is really an English misunderstanding 
 of the Ir. name Mul-Aidi, pronounced 
 Mulloyda, and divided as Mul-Loyda. 
 The oldest Ir. form is Mullach-Aiti, 
 " Aiti's HiU?" (Joyce, ii. 169). 
 
 HiNTBKBACH, a Hessian place-name, 
 as if "Hinder-brook," is said to have 
 been originally Hiniinbuch, i.e. "Hind 
 and Beech " (Andresen). 
 
 HiNDEEWELL, the name of a place in 
 Cleveland, Yorkshire, is corrupted from 
 Ildreuuelle, in the Domesday Survey. 
 
 HoGS-NoBTON, a village in Oxford- 
 shire, i.e. Eooh-norton, A. Sax.ffocwera- 
 tun, the same name as Hockerton, 
 Notts (Bosworth). 
 
 Hog's-Norton was famed for the rus- 
 ticity of its inhabitants, as in the pro- 
 verb, "You were bom at Hog's Nor- 
 ton " (Nares, s.v.). 
 
 " You were born at Hogs-Norton." — This 
 is a Village properly called Hoch-Nortoii, 
 whose inhabitants (it seems formerly) were 
 so rustical in their behavioui', that boaiish and 
 clownish people are said [to be] born at 
 Hogs-Norton. — Fuller, Worthies, ii. 220. 
 
 See also Eandolph, Muses' Loohing- 
 Glass, Wm-hs, p. 217 (ed. Hazhtt). 
 
 HoLBOEN, in London, so called as if 
 it were connected with hole, hollow, the 
 buvn in the hollow, is a corruption of 
 the older name Old Bowne, " the an- 
 cient river," which ran through that 
 thoroughfare. See Stanley, Memoirs 
 of Westminster Abbey, p. 6. 
 
 Oldharne, or Hilborne, was the like water, 
 breaking out about the place where now the 
 bars do stand, and it ran down the whole 
 street till Oldborue bridge. — Stow, Survay, 
 p. 7. 
 
 Howell spells it Koldhown (Londino- 
 poUs, 328) and Oldbourne (329). 
 
 Holland Woods, the name of cer- 
 tain woods at Messingham in Lincoln- 
 shire, so called from holland or holkmd, 
 the native name of the holly (vid. Pea- 
 cock, Glossary of Manley and Coiring- 
 ham, s.v. HoUond), old Eng. holen or 
 hoUn. 
 
 HoLSTBiN has only an apparent con- 
 nexion with stein, a stone, being from 
 the Low Ger. HoUseten (= Ger. Hob- 
 sassen), " wood-settlers." Compare 
 ■Dorset, Somerset. 
 
 HoNEYBALL, a west country surname, 
 no doubt from the common Cornish 
 Christian name Hannyball, which is for 
 Hannibal (Yonge, Christian Names, i. 
 103). But compare the name Hv/nibcd, 
 which Ferguson regards ascompounded 
 of hun, a giant, and bald, bold (Eng. 
 Surnames, 65). But Icel. hurm is a 
 young bear, or cub. 
 
 HoNEYBUN. This luscious sounding 
 surname seems to be another form of 
 
EONEYMAN 
 
 ( 537 ) IRELAND'S EYE 
 
 the name Honeyhorn, which has been 
 connected with Icel. hun-hj'&rn, from 
 hun, giant [rather ' ' cub "] , and hjwn, a 
 bear (Ferguson, 65). 
 
 HoNEYMAN, a surname, is perhaps 
 identical with old Ger. Hunimnnd, 
 " Giant-protection " (Ferguson, 391). 
 
 Howard, as a surname in Ireland, is 
 sometimes an incorrect Anglicizing of 
 O'Hiomhair (O'Donovan). 
 
 HuDDLESTONE, a Surname, is pro- 
 bably a corruption of ^ifeeteiam, "noble 
 stone," a jewel. 
 
 Hugh (= mind) is in Ireland the 
 usual Anglicized form of Ir. Aodh 
 (=:fire)- 
 
 Hughes, as an Irish family-name, 
 frequently stands for Mac Hugh, which 
 is an AngUcized form of Mac Aedha 
 (•pion. Mac-Ay), whence the surnames 
 Mackay, Magee, and McGee. 
 
 HuGHSON, a surname, is in some in- 
 stances, it is said, a corruption of the 
 Itahan Eugezun (Lower, Eng. Sur- 
 names, 143). 
 
 Hungary, or Hungaria, is said to be 
 properly the land of the Ugrians or 
 Ungrians, which was afterwards assi- 
 milated to the Huns (Gibbon). 
 
 Hunger, a surname, is perhaps the 
 same as old Ger. Hun-gar, "Giant- 
 spear" (Ferguson, 391). 
 
 HuNGERFORD, an Eng. place-name, 
 is a corruption of the ancient Inglefwd, 
 or ford of the Angles (Taylor, 389). 
 
 HuRLSTONE, a surname, Camden says 
 is a corruption of Huddlestone {Re- 
 inaines, 1637, p. 122). See Huddle- 
 stone. 
 
 Husband, as a surname, issometimes 
 a corruption of Osborne {N. and Q.4th 
 S. ii. 91). 
 
 Hyde Paek has nothing to do, I be- 
 lieve, with the Hyde fa mil y, but is a 
 corruption of Heye, the cockney pro- 
 nunciation of Eye, of which manor it 
 forms a part. 
 
 Similarly Aye Hill, by which flowed 
 the hrook Aye or Eye, is now Hay Hill, 
 and the Old Bourne is only known as 
 Holhorn. 
 
 I. 
 
 Inchghay, in Kincardineshire, is a 
 corruption of the Gaehc Innis-greighe, 
 " The island of the flock " (Robertson, 
 p. 370). 
 
 In-hedge Lane, the name of a tho- 
 roughfare in Dudley, is a corruption of 
 innage, a field or enclosure, said to be 
 from A. Sax. inge, a field (Notes and 
 Qwmes, 5th S. ix. 494). 
 
 Inkpen, a surname, is said by Cam- 
 den to be a corruption of the local 
 name Ingepen (Remaines, 1637, p. 122). 
 The place-name Inlepen, in Berkshire, 
 is apparently from Celtic pen, a head, a 
 mountain (Taylor, 220). 
 
 Inselbeeg, " Island-mountain," in 
 Germany, was formerly Emenberg, the 
 gigantic mountain. It is sometimes 
 also called Emsenherg from the Ems 
 there taking its rise (Andresen). 
 
 Inwards, a surname, is perhaps a 
 corruption of the old Saxon name Ing- 
 va/rd, Ingvw, Inhwaer, Hingioair (Fer- 
 guson, 280). 
 
 loNA, the ordinary name of the island 
 which was the great Christian semi- 
 nary of North Britain, is due to a false 
 derivation. The oldest form of the 
 name in the MSS. is loua, used as an 
 adjective agreeing vpith insula, the true 
 name substantivaUy being Ion, or per- 
 haps Hy or I. From a misreading of 
 this, and from a fanciful connexion 
 with the name of the saint with which 
 it was chiefly identified, St. Columba, 
 synonymous with Hebrew iona, a dove, 
 loua was altered into Iona. Indeed 
 Adamnan remarks that the island and 
 the prophet Jonah had synonymous 
 names, both meaning " a dove." So its 
 other name Icolmkill, i.e. I-coVwmb-cille, 
 was understood as " island of the dove's 
 cell " (Eeeves ; W. Stokes ; Lord 
 Strangford, Letters and Papers, 28; 
 Robertson, Church Hist. ii. 324, cab. 
 ed.). 
 
 Ireland's Eye, a small island off 
 the coast of Dublin, Latinized by Usher 
 as Oculus Hibernice, is a mis-spelling of 
 Ireland's Ey [ey — island), itself a cor- 
 rupt translation of the Irish name Inis- 
 
ISLAFALGON 
 
 ( 538 ) KAFFEMAGHEBEI 
 
 Ereann, " the island of Eire " (a wo- 
 man), understood as "isle of Erin" 
 (Joyce, i. 104). 
 
 IsLAFALCON, a parish in Wexford, is 
 a corruption of Ir. Oiledn-a'-plwcAin, 
 "isle of the buck goat " (Joyce, i. 41). 
 
 ISLAMBOOL, as if " The City of Islam," 
 sometimes used in Turkish official docu- 
 ments, and often fotmd on gold and 
 silver Turkish coins struck at Constan- 
 tinople, is a corruption of the usual 
 form Isianbool (Catafago) ; see Dr. 
 Chance's note in Notes and Queries, 
 5th S. ix. 423. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jack Ketch, the proverbial name of 
 the English hangman, mentioned in 
 1678, is said to have been a fictitious 
 name, if the following account be trust- 
 worthy. " The manor of Tyburn was 
 formerly held by Eichard Jaquett, where 
 felons were for a long time executed ; 
 from whence we have Jach Ketch." — 
 Lloyd's MS. Collection (Brit. Mus.), in 
 Timbs, London and Westminster, i. 
 304. 
 
 Janeway, a surname, is a corruption 
 of old Eng. Janwaye or Janewey, a 
 Genoese {e.cf. in Maundevile, Voiage 
 and Travaile, p. 23, ed. Halliwell). 
 
 Wlien a Jew meeteth with a Gennwaii . . 
 he puts his fingers in his eyes. — J . Hcweil, 
 Instriictinii^ for Forreiite Travelt, 1642, p. 41 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Jason, the name of the high-priest 
 under Antiochus Epiphanes, is a cor- 
 ruption of his true name Jesus. 
 
 Jasous, a form of the name Jesoils 
 {Jesus) found in the Sibylline Books, ii. 
 248, is a modification of the word to 
 assimQate it to the Greek 'iasis, heal- 
 ing (Ionic iesis), whence 'lijisd, the god- 
 dess of heahng, had her name. The 
 Greek fathers frequently derived the 
 word in this way (Geikie, Life and 
 Words of Glvrist, i. 555). Compare old 
 Sax.ireZ'iaTO(i,A.Sax.fl"cefemd," Healer," 
 the Saviour. 
 
 Jeebmy is in Ireland the usual An- 
 gUcization of Ir. Diarmaid, " freeman " 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Jerome (from Greek Hieronymus, 
 "holy name") sometimes stands for 
 
 old Eng. Jerram, which is the old Teu- 
 tonic name Gerramn, " Spear raven " 
 (Yonge, Ghrist. Names, ii. 328). 
 
 Jeeusaleben, a modem German cor- 
 ruption of Jerusalem (Andresen). 
 
 Johanna, the name of the African 
 island so called, is said to have been 
 corrupted through the forms Juanny, 
 Anjuan, Anzuame, from the native 
 name Hinzuan {Asiatic Soo. Trans.). 
 
 Jolly Town, in Cornwall, situated 
 on a very lonely moor, it has been- sug- 
 gested was originally Cornish diaul-to- 
 wan, " Devil's sand-hill " (A. H. Cum- 
 mings, Ghurches, ^c, in the Lizard 
 District). 
 
 Joesala-heim, a Scandinavian cor- 
 ruption of Jerusalem. 
 
 Those who, like Earl Eognvald and 
 King Sigurd, set out ou a pilgrimage 
 to the holy city, were called Jorsala- 
 farers. Some Norsemen who broke 
 into the tumulus of Maes-Howe in the 
 Orkneys about the middle of the 12th 
 century, left their names inscribed in 
 the Eunic characters, with the addition 
 Jorsala Farers (see Eerguson's Rude 
 Stone Monuments, p. 244). The inscrip- 
 tion is : "iorsala farar brutu ork^uh" 
 (The Jerusalem Journeyers broke Ork- 
 howe). — Vigfusson and Powell, Ice- 
 landic Beader, p. 449. 
 
 Jdhud Kapij, the Jews' gate, in 
 Constantinople, " incorrectly called so 
 by the vulgar." Originalljr its name 
 was Shuliud Kapu, i.e. the Mmriyrs' 
 Gate, because " in the time of Haruuu- 
 r-rashid some of the illustrious auxi- 
 liaries of the Prophet quaffed the cup 
 of martyrdom there" {Travels of EvU/ya 
 Efendi (translated for the Oriental 
 Trans. Fund), vol. i p. 36. 
 
 Jus DE GiGOT, aFr. place-name, is a 
 popular rendering of Jos de GMgo 
 (Larchey, Diet, des Novvmes). 
 
 K. 
 
 Kafeemacheeei, the name of a'street 
 in Hamburg (mentioned by Heine), as 
 if the street of the coffee-makers, was 
 originally Kaffamacherreihe, i.e. the 
 row where Itaffa, a kind of taffeta, was 
 made or manufactured (Andresen). 
 
EASEBIEB 
 
 ( 539 ) EONIGSWINTEB 
 
 Kasebiek, " Cheese and beer," a 
 German family name, was originally 
 OasseletT, Cherry (Andresen). 
 
 Katzenellenbogen, the place so 
 called, "Cat's-elbow," is a corruption 
 of the ancient GattimeliTjocus (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 Kaufmacheesteasze, " Bargain- 
 makers'-street," in Copenhagen, Dan. 
 Ejohma.gergade, was originally Ejod- 
 'imngergade,'^ Victuallers'-street " (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 Kedeon, in the Greek of St. John 
 xvih. 1, 6 xf'fcippoc tS>v KiSpuiv, the wady 
 (or winter torrent) of the Cedars (and 
 BO LXX. 2 Sam. xv. 23) is a Greeized 
 form, so as to give an intelligihle sense, 
 of the Hebrew name Kid/i'on, which 
 seems to mean the dark ravine, from 
 Eadlia/r, to be black. So xfi/iappoc ™i' 
 nmCiv, the wady of Ivy, was a corrup- 
 tion of Heb. hishon, the crooked, wind- 
 ing torrent (^id. Bible Diet. s.vv.). 
 
 Pirste we come to Torrens Cedron, which 
 in somer tyme is di'ye, but in wynter, and 
 specyally in I^ent, it is meruaylously flowen 
 with rage of water. — Piilgrifinuge of Syr R. 
 Gii!tlfoi-d, p, 31 fCamden Soc). 
 
 In the Lindisfarne version of tlie 
 Gospels, 950, Olivarum, Luke xxii. 39, 
 is Englished by Olehearu, as if the 
 ■varum answered to our word harrow 
 (OHphant, Old and Mid. Eng. p. 108). 
 The Anglo-Saxon version, 995, has 
 "miitit Ohuarum, iset is Ele-hergena." 
 
 Kentish Town, a corruption of Can- 
 telupe Town, it having been formerly 
 the possession of Walter de Cantelupe, 
 Bishop of Worcester (1236-66). —A. 
 Hare, Wallcs about London, vol. i. p. 
 221. 
 
 Kettle, The, or The Cattle, a parish 
 in Guernsey, is a corruption of Le 
 Catel (N. and Q. 5th S. ii. p. 90;. 
 
 KiLEooT, a place-name in Antrim, 
 stands for Jr. Gill-ruadh, "red church " 
 (Joyce, i. 544). 
 
 King, a surname in Galway, is an 
 iacorrect translation of Mac Conry, on 
 the assumption that the last syllable 
 -rj/ is from Ir. righ, a king (O'Donovan) . 
 
 King-Edwaed, a parish in Aberdeen. 
 The name, however, is pronounced by 
 the native inhabitants Ein-eda/rt, or 
 Kin-eddar, and is probably a Gaelic 
 
 word signifying " Head-point " (Alex. 
 Smith, History of Aberdeenshire, vol. 
 ii. p. 823). 
 
 Kingsley, a Munster surname, is an 
 Anglicized form of Ir. O'KinseUagh 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 KiEK Maiden, in Wigtownshu-e, the 
 most southern town of Scotland, is, in 
 all probability, not, as might be sup- 
 posed, the Church of the Maiden, i.e. 
 the Virgin Mary, but of 8t. Medan. 
 
 Burns uses " Frae Maidenhirh to 
 Johnny Groats" (Globe ed. p. 95) as 
 := " From Dan to Beersheba." 
 
 KiEK-WALL. in the Orkneys, a cor- 
 ruption of Idrhin-vagr, the creek of the 
 kirk. 
 
 KiESOHBEEG, " Cherry-mount,'' near 
 Nordhaus, was originally Girsberg, 
 " Vulture-mount " (Andresen). 
 
 KiESCHSTEiN, "Cherry-stone," as a 
 personal name in Germany, is cor- 
 rupted from GhrisUan, through the 
 familiar forms Eristan, Eristen, Eir- 
 sten, Eirsehten, Eirstein (Andresen). 
 
 KissEE, a surname, originally one 
 who made cuisses, old Fr. guisers 
 (Bardsley, Our Eng. Surnames, p. 
 188), Fr. cuisse, from Lat. coxa. 
 
 Klagenfurt, a German place-name, 
 as if the " mournful ford," is corrupted 
 from the ancient name Claud/ii forum 
 (Andresen). 
 
 Knife, a surname, is perhaps identi- 
 cal with Cniva, the name of a Gothic 
 king in the 3rd century (Ferguson, 8). 
 
 Knock -BEO AD, a place-name in Wex- 
 ford, is an Anglicized form of Ir. cwoo 
 hraighid, " HiU of the gorge " (Joyce, 
 i. 40). 
 
 Knock-down, a thoroughly Irish 
 name for two townlands, one in Kerry, 
 the other in Limerick, was originally 
 peaceful enough, cnoc dxm, " the brown 
 hiU" (Joj'ce, i. 41). 
 
 KOHLEAUSCH, and EoMrost, German 
 family names, apparently compounded 
 oikohl, cabbage, cole, and rausch, drun- 
 kenness, or rest, rust, are corruptions of 
 Jcohl- or ]cohlen-rusz, coal-soot (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 KoNiGSWiNTEE, the German town, 
 has no connexion with the word !t'!«^er. 
 
KOBNMILGH ( 540 ) LEOPABBSTOWN 
 
 but obtained its name from the culture 
 of tlie vine, Goth, veinatriu, the vine 
 (Andresen). 
 
 KoENMiLCH, " Corn-milk," a German 
 family name, was originally kernemelk, 
 butter-milk, churn-milk (Andresen). 
 
 KiJHNAPFEL, as if "hardy-apple,"' a 
 German family name, is a corruption 
 of kienapfel, the cone of the pine {Men). 
 — Andresen. 
 
 KuM LtjNG, in Chinese " The Golden 
 Dragon," the name of a street in Hong- 
 Kong, is said to be a transmutation of 
 the Enghsh " Gome 'long" street. 
 
 There was a street in Hong-Kong, in the 
 early days of that so-called colony, much 
 frequented hy sailors, in which Chinese 
 damsels used to sit at the windows and greet 
 the passers-by with the invitation, " Come 
 'long. Jack ; consequently the street became 
 tnownby the name of the" Come 'long Street," 
 which in the Chinese mouth was kum Lung, 
 or "The Golden Dragon." So when the 
 streets were named and placarded, " Come 
 'long Street " appeared, both in Chinese and 
 English, as the Street of the Golden Dragon. 
 — Andrew Wilson, The Abode of Snow, p. 
 258 (2nd ed.). 
 
 f KuNSTENoPEL, an old corruption in 
 German of Oonstamtinople, as if from 
 Jcunst, art. 
 
 KuefOesten, "the Electoral Prin- 
 ces," the name of a group of seven 
 mountains in Switzerland, is said to 
 have been originally Kuhfirsten, " the 
 cow summits " (Andresen). 
 
 KiisTENMACHEE, " Coast-maker," as 
 a German surname, is a corruption of 
 Kistenmacher, a trunk-maker (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 KussHAUEE, a German surname, 
 apparently " kim-hewer," is corrupted 
 from kiesshauer, "gravel-digger" (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 KwAWA, the Chinese name of Java, 
 signifies "gourd-sound," and was given 
 to that island because the voice of its 
 inhabitants was very Uke that of a dry 
 gourd rolled upon the ground (Yule, 
 Marco Folo, ii. 82). 
 
 L. 
 
 " Lamb and Pickles " was the popu- 
 lar name for Lamprocles, a horse of 
 ■ Lord Eglintoun's (Farrar, Orvjin of 
 Language, p. 57). 
 
 Lambert, a Christian name, so spelt 
 as if connected with Lamb, is a cor- 
 ruption of old Ger. Lantperaht, " Coun- 
 try's brightness ■" (Yonge, ii. 430). 
 
 Lambert's Castle, the name of a 
 hill near Lyme Eegis, is a supposed 
 more correct form of the popular Lam- 
 mas Gastle {GornMll Mag. Dec. 1880, 
 p. 713). 
 
 Lammebspibl, " Lamb's - play," a 
 German place-name, is a corruption of 
 
 Lieinars hiihel (Andresen). 
 
 Lancing, the name of a place near 
 Shoreham, is supposed to have been 
 called after Wlencing,BonoiMR6,'king 
 of the South Saxons (Taylor, 311). 
 
 Laycock, a surname, is a corruption 
 of the French Le Gog (Smiles, Hugue- 
 nots, p. 323). 
 
 Leaden-Hall, the name of a well- 
 known market in London, was origi- 
 nally Leathern-Hall, the place for the 
 sale of leather (Key, Lamguage, p. 
 253). 
 
 Leader, a river in Berwick, is a cor- 
 ruption of the Gaelic Leud-dur, " The 
 broad water" (Kobertson, p. 61). 
 
 Learned, a surname, as well as 
 Lea/rna/)-d, is said to be a corruption of 
 Leonard (Charnock). 
 
 Le Cube et l'Appareil, a Fr. place- 
 name, is a popular corruption of Prov. 
 Pr. Le Gouho et la Pa>-e (L. Larchey, 
 Diet, des Nonimes). 
 
 Leghorn, an Enghsh corruption of 
 Ligurnum, Livorno. 
 
 Leidgeber, a German surname, as 
 if " sorrow-giver," originally meant a 
 tavern-keeper, from lit, wine ; other 
 forms of the name being Leidgebel and 
 Leitgeb (Andresen). 
 
 Leighton Buzzard, from Leighfon 
 Beau-desert. The brazen eagle, for- 
 merly used for supporting the Bible in 
 the church, is shown as the huzzard 
 whence the town was named (Phihlog. 
 Transactions, 1855, p. 67). 
 
 The Buzzards are all gentlemen. We came 
 in with the Conqueror. Our name (as the 
 French has it) is Bean-desert ; which signi- 
 fies — friends, what does it signify ! — R. 
 Brome, The English Moor, iii. 2 (1659). 
 
 Leopardstown, the name of a place 
 in 00. Dublin, is a corruption of Lepei's- 
 
LEOPOLD 
 
 ( 541 ) 
 
 LONGINUS 
 
 iovjn, which is a translation of its Irish 
 name Ballynalour, i.e. Ba/ile-na-lohJiar, 
 " town of the lepers " (Joyce, ii. 81). 
 
 Leopold, Pr. Leopold, It. Leopoldo, 
 so spelt as if derived from Leo, a lion, 
 is a perversion of Ger. Leutpold, 
 "people's prince " (Yonge, ii. 429). 
 
 Letteb-beick, an Irish place-name 
 (Donegal, Mayo), suggestive of Assy- 
 rian cuneiforms, is an Anglicized form 
 of Ir. Ldtr-hruw, " hill-side of the 
 badger" or "brook " (Joyce, i. 391). 
 
 Leukios, "I Greek transcriptions 
 Lbukoullos, / of Lucius, Lucullus, 
 bringing them into connexion with 
 hnkbs, white. On the other hand, 
 Lycvs, often regarded as meaning the 
 Wolf-river (Greek luhos, a wolf), was 
 no doubt originally the White-river 
 (Taylor, p. 396). Compare note on 
 Avmog in Paley's ^schylus, p. 58. 
 
 Liberty, a surname, is perhaps a 
 corruption of Ger. Liebert, old Ger. 
 Liuhha/rt (Ferguson). 
 
 LlGHTNING-IN-THE-MORNlNG, a popu- 
 lar perversion of Leighton-le-Morthen 
 in Yorkshire (Fhilolog. 8oc. Froc. v. 
 140), or Laughton-en-le-MortJien. 
 
 LiLYWHiTE, a surname, is said to be 
 a corruption of Litel-thwaite, a local 
 name, a Httle clearing or piece of 
 stubbed ground (Charnook). 
 
 LiMEHOusE, a suburb of London, a 
 corruption of Limehwrst, or Lime-host 
 (Stowe). The original word no doubt 
 was lyme-osie, oast being a Kentish word 
 for a kiln. 
 
 LrviNGSTONE, a surname, represents 
 in its first part old Eng. name Leafing 
 or Lyjing, "darling" (Latinized Liv- 
 ingus), formed from ledf, beloved (Ger. 
 Ueb). 
 
 ■ Lizard, a name applied to the part 
 of several old towns where a rope walk 
 is situated, is said to be from lazzareiti, 
 the lepers, ropemaking being one of the 
 few occupations permitted to them. — 
 Mr. Jephson (quoted in Miss Yonge's 
 History of Christicm Names, i. 89). Com- 
 pare the Lizard point in Cornwall and 
 Lezar-drieux (Lizard on the Trieux) in 
 Brittany, both of which have rope- 
 walks near them, and Lizarea Wartha 
 and WoUas (higher and lower) in 
 
 Gwendron: vid. E. G. Harvey, Mullyon, 
 its History, &c. 
 
 Lizard (Point) is said to be derived 
 from two Celtic words meaning the 
 "high cape" (Taylor, 226). 
 
 LocHBRooM, in Perthshire and in 
 Eoss-shire, is a corrupt form of Gaelic 
 Loch-hlwaoin, " The loch of showers or 
 drizzUng rain" (Eobertsou, Gaelic To- 
 pography of Scotland, p. 442). 
 
 LocKEE-BARROw, \ place-names in 
 
 LocKER-BY, / the Lake district 
 
 of N. England, are said to have been 
 
 called after the Scandinavian Lohi 
 
 (Taylor, 174). 
 
 LoFTHOusE, the name of a place in 
 the Cleveland district, Yorkshire, is a 
 corrupted form of the older name 
 Locthusum, in the Domesday Survey 
 (Atkinson, Cleveland Glossary, p. 
 
 XV.). 
 
 LoGHiLL, an Irish place-name, is a 
 corruption of Ir. Leamh-choill, " elm 
 wood " (Joyce, i. 491). 
 
 LoGiE-coLDSTONE, the name of a 
 parish in Aberdeenshire, is from the 
 Gaelic Lag-cul-duine, " the hollow be- 
 hind the fort " (Bobertson, p. 443). 
 
 LoNGCEEASE, the name of a place in 
 Guernsey, a corruption of L'Ancresse 
 {N. and Q. 5th S. ii. p. 90). 
 
 LoNGEiELD, the name of several 
 townlands in Ireland, is corrupted 
 from Ir. Leamchoill (pronounced lav- 
 whilT), "the elm wood" (Joyce, Irish 
 Names of Places, vol. i. p. 39). 
 
 LoNGiNUS, the traditional name in 
 the Av/rea Legenda of the soldier who 
 pierced the Saviour's side with his 
 spear at the Crucifixion, is a corrupt 
 form of Longeus, a name also given to 
 him in old English writers, apparently 
 for Loncheus, a name evolved out of 
 Idnche Q^ojxv), the Greek word for the 
 spear (St. John xix. 34) which he 
 employed (whence lonchus, a lance, in 
 Tertullian). Similarly St. Architriclin, 
 frequently mentioned in mediaeval 
 writings, is merely the Greek word for 
 the "governor of the feast" (St. John 
 ii. 8), and the Gospel ofNicodemus (v.) 
 speaks of "a -man named Genturio." ^ 
 In the Poema del Cid, 1. 352, he is* 
 called Longinos ; in the Vie de St. 
 
LOOP HEAD 
 
 ( 542 ) 
 
 MAI-LAND 
 
 Auhan, 1. 158, Lungis ; in other old 
 Fr. poems Longis (e.g. Bekker's Fera- 
 hras). 
 
 Eveljm in 1644 saw in St. Peter's at 
 Borne a statue " of Longinus of a Co- 
 lossean magnitude " (Dia/ry, Nov. 17). 
 Leland reports that a tower of Chep- 
 stow Castle called Longine " was 
 erected by one Longinus, a Jew, father 
 of the soldier whose spear pierced the 
 side of Christ." 
 
 See also Apocryphal Oospds, p. 264, 
 ed. Cowper ; Chambers, Booh of Buys, 
 i. 372; Skeat, Notes to P. Plowman, p. 
 403. 
 
 His sacred sides bad been so pierced . . by 
 that rude Roman Souldier, whose name by 
 unwritten tradition was Lon/^ius, but a name 
 (as I suppose) mistaken for the \\ eaoon 
 wherewitli he pierced him, which was hiyx" 
 — Thos. Javhson, Works, i6To, vol. ii. p. USr. 
 Se hundredes ealdor fje hine hetelice stang 
 on his halgan sidan . . hatte longinus. — Le- 
 gends of the Holii Rood, p. 107 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 [The centurion that wickedly pierced Him 
 in His holy side was named Longinus.] 
 Ac \>ev cam forth a blynde knyght • with a 
 
 kene spere y-<;rounde, 
 Hihte longeus, as ))e lettere telle); • and longe 
 had lore hus sight. 
 Langiandj Vision of P. Plowman, C. 
 xxi. 82. 
 Ar he hedde hondlet be woiide so wyde, 
 j^at Longeus made in his syde. 
 
 Castel off Loue,\. 1432. 
 Your herte souerayne 
 Clouen in twayne, 
 By longes the blynde. 
 The New Notbroune Muyd, 1. 131 (Early 
 Eng. Pop. Poetry, iii. 7). 
 Longes, take the speare in hande, 
 And put from thee, thou ney wounde. 
 Chester Mysteries, ii. 66 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Loop Head, in the county Clare, 
 appears to be a Danish modification of 
 its Irish name Geann-Leime, " Leap 
 Head ; " Loop being for Dan. hlaup, a 
 leap (Joyce, i. 164). 
 
 LoTHBURY, a quarter of London sup- 
 posed by Stow to have been so called 
 from the loathsome noise made by the 
 brass-turners who there made candle- 
 sticks " and sucli Uke copper or laton 
 works " (he also speUs it Lathherie and 
 Loadherie. — Survay, 1603, p. 104, ed. 
 Thoms), is a corruption of Lattenbury 
 (Taylor, 283), it being, the resort of 
 ■ workers in the composite metal called 
 laton or latten. 
 
 LowEKTOWN, the name of several 
 townlands in Ireland, is a corruption 
 of Ir. lubh-ghwtan (pron. lom-taun), " a 
 little garden," dimin. of Uilh-gort (lit. 
 " herb-yard "), a garden (Joyce, ii. 
 318). 
 
 "Lubbee's Head," sign of an inn 
 (2nd Ft. Hen. IV. ii. 1), i.e. the Lib- 
 hard's, or Leopard's Head. 
 
 Ludeegasse, " Eiot Street," and 
 Breitengasse, " Broad Street " (which 
 is by no means broad), in Nuremberg, 
 owe their names to the cloth-dressers, 
 Lodern, and lach-lereitern, who for- 
 merly inhabited them (Andresen). 
 
 Ludgate, London, so spelt as if 
 named after the mythical King Lud, is 
 said to be a corruption of Flood-gate, 
 the old water gate of the Fleet (Satv/r- 
 day Review, vol. 46, p. 461 ; Stow, Sur- 
 vay, p. 15, ed. Thoms). 
 
 M. 
 
 MacElligot, name of an Irish family, 
 is a corruption of Mac Hi Leod, i.e. son 
 of the grandson of Leod, from whom 
 also are descended the Scotch Mac- 
 leods (Notes and Queries, 5th S. 
 vii. 33). 
 
 Madame, a place-name in Cork, 
 stands for Ir. magh-damh, " plain of 
 the oxen" (Joyce, i. 43). 
 
 Magdebdeg, " Maid's - town," in 
 Germany, Latinized as " Mons Puel- 
 larum," is a modification of the ancient 
 Magetohwgum, " the town on the 
 plain; " Celtic magli, a plain (Taylor, 
 232). 
 
 Maiden Castle, the name of a 
 striking encampment in Dorsetsliire, 
 probably constructed by the Britons, 
 and afterwards occupied by the Ro- 
 mans, is said to be compounded of mai 
 and dun, "great hill" (Quarterly He- 
 vino, No. 222, p. 305). 
 
 Maidenhead, a place-name, is a cor- 
 ruption o{ Maidenhithe (Taylor, 381). 
 
 Maidstone is etymologically the 
 town on the Medway (Taylor, 389). 
 
 Mai-land, the Germanized name of 
 Milan (Mid. H. Ger. Median), as if 
 " May land," with reference to the per- 
 
MALAGHY 
 
 ( 543 ) 
 
 MAURITIUS 
 
 petual summer of its climate, so as to 
 range with Florence, the flowery city 
 whose device is a lily. Milan is from 
 Latin Mediolanum, itself probably a 
 modification of an older word. Com- 
 pai's Poland. 
 
 Malachy, in Ireland, a Christian 
 name, is an incorrect Anglicization of 
 Ir. Maeheachlainn or MelaghUn 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Maleventum, " lU-come " (subse- 
 quently changed into Beneventmn, 
 " Well-come "), a corruption of the 
 Greek name Maldeis. 
 
 Manceoft, in St. Peter Mancroft, an 
 old church in Norwich, so called be- 
 cause it stands on what was once the 
 " Great Croft " of the castle, is from 
 Magna Grofta, the main (0. Fr. magne, 
 maigne) croft. 
 
 Man of Wak, a townland in the 
 parish of Tubber, Ireland, was origi- 
 nally Maimwa/r (J. H. Todd, Wair of 
 the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. cxhv.). 
 
 Mak-B(euf, \ place-names in Nor- 
 
 Pain-beuf, J mandy, loevf or leuf, 
 
 also found as hue, being an alteration of 
 
 the hj of Danish England (Taylor, 
 
 186). 
 
 Maegaeethe, in Denmark, some- 
 times represents the old name Grjot- 
 gaird, where the first part of the word is 
 Icel. grjot, = grit, Ger. gries (Yonge, 
 Christ. Names, i. 295). For the con- 
 trary change, see Mekegrot, p. 236. 
 
 Maegaeethbnklostee in Cologne 
 WEis originally the shrine of Maria ad 
 gradms, from which, probably through 
 the shortened form Margrad, the name 
 has been corrupted (Aadresen). 
 
 Maegueeitb, St. The star Margarita 
 Goronce, The Pearl of the Northern 
 Crown, it is said has been sometimes 
 transformed into St. Marguerite (J. F. 
 Blake, Astrononiical Myths, p. 80). 
 
 Maeket Field, a Lancashire field- 
 name, occurs in old documents as 
 Margreat's Field, evidently Margaret's 
 Field {N. and Q. 5th S. i. 413). 
 
 Maeket Jew, the name of a town in 
 Cornwall, also called Marazion, is a 
 corruption of its old name Mairaiew 
 or Maircajewe, which is said to mean in 
 Cornish "Thursday's market" (Gai-ew ; 
 
 Norden ; as if ma/rche de Jeudi, mercatus 
 Jovis diei, cf. Welsh dA/dd Jau, Thurs- 
 day). 
 
 The name was popularly construed 
 into an argument for Jews having set- 
 tled in Cornwall, liaving been banished 
 thither by the Eoman emperors to 
 work the mines. See Jews' Tin, p. 
 195. 
 
 Tlien a town among ns, too, which we call 
 Market Jew, but the old name was Marazion, 
 that means the Bitterness of Zion, they tell 
 me ; and bitter work it was for them no 
 doubt, poor souls ! — C. Kuigsteii, I'eusf, p. 
 2.)5 (1851). 
 
 Maekham, as a surname in Ireland, 
 is an Anglicizing of Ir. O'Marcachain 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Mark Lane, in London, is a cor- 
 ruption of Mart Lane. 
 
 J\Iart lane, so called of a privilege some- 
 time enjoined to keep a mart there, long 
 since discontinued, and therefore forgotten, 
 so as nothing remaiueth for memory but the 
 name of Mart Lane, and that corruptly termed 
 Murke Lane. — Stow, Survay of London, 1603, 
 p. 57, ed. Thoms. 
 
 Maelbobough is not so named from 
 its marl soil, but was originally (St.) 
 Maidulf's horough (Taylor, 392). 
 
 Maeylebone, the name of the church 
 and parish so called, which looks like a 
 corruption of Ma/ry -la-bonne, is really 
 from Mary-le-lourne, i.e. the chapel of 
 St. Mary situated on the hourne or 
 brook which flows down from Hamp- 
 stead to the Thames, giving names by 
 the way to Brooh Street, Tyhurn, &c. 
 
 The bourne or brook which has given its 
 name, first to Tyburn, and afterwards to St. 
 jMary " le Borne," and which, rising on the 
 south-western slope of Hampstead Hill, runs 
 close by Lord Hertford's villa in the Regent's 
 Park, crosses the road opposite Sussex Place, 
 and reaches High Street a little south of the 
 cemetery. — Sat. Review. Vide Jesse, London, 
 i. p. 47. 
 
 Matteefacb, a surname, is said to 
 be a corruption of BeMairtivas or Martin 
 vast, " Martin's fortress " (Chamock). 
 
 Maud (formerly Molde, Fr. Mahaudt 
 for Mahthild, Matilda) is sometimes in 
 Ireland an incorrectly AngUcized form 
 of Meadhhh (pron. Meave). 
 
 Mauritius, "1 in some Irish famihes, 
 MoETiMEE, J are mere attempts to 
 
MAUSETHUBM 
 
 ( 544 ) 
 
 MONEYGOLD 
 
 Anglicize the native name Muirchear- 
 tach {pron. Murhertagh), the appella- 
 tion of the hero of an old Irish poem 
 (Tracts relating to Ireland, Ir. Archseo- 
 log. Soo. vol. i.). Hence also MuHagh, 
 and Moriarty. 
 
 Mausbthuem, " Mouse-tower," the 
 name of an ancient tower in the Ehine 
 near Bingen, was originally Mautturm, 
 i.e. toll-house, from mauth, toll, so 
 called because the duty on goods pass- 
 ing up the river used to be collected 
 there. The popular legend accounting 
 for the modem name is told by Sir B. 
 Barckley as follows : — 
 
 Hatto Bishop of Ments in Germanie, per- 
 ceiuing the poore people in great lacke of 
 victuals by the scarcitie of come, gathered 
 a great many of them together, and shut them 
 into a barne, and burnt them, saying : That 
 they differed little from mice that consumed 
 corne, and were profitable to nothing. But 
 God left not so great a crueltie vnreuenged : 
 for he made mice assault him in great heapes, 
 which ueuer left gnawing vpon him night 
 nor day : he fled into a Tower which was in 
 the midst of the Riuer of Rhyne (which to 
 this day is called the Tower of Mice, of that 
 euent) supposing bee should be safe from 
 them in the midst of the Riuer : But an 
 innumerable Companie of Mice swam over the 
 riuer to execute the just judgement of God 
 and deuoured him. — The Felicitie of' Man, 
 1631, p. 458. 
 
 Southey has made this story the sub- 
 ject of a ballad. ■ 
 
 A frontier town of N. Tirol is called 
 Mauthaus, i.e. Custom-house. 
 
 It is asserted in Beauties of the Rhine, 
 by H. G. Feamside (p. 179), but I 
 know not on what authority, that the 
 Mausethurm was formerly Moussen- 
 thurm, so called because mounted with 
 guns which bore the name of mousserie. 
 
 Megabyzus, Me&abignes, &c., are 
 mere Greek transUterations of Persian 
 names beginning with the word 
 Baga, God, as if the prefix meant 
 "great," megas. 
 
 Melville, a Connaught surname, is 
 an Anghcized form of Ir. O'Mulvihil 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Memnonia of the Greeks, the so- 
 called buildings of Memnon, owe their 
 name to a misunderstanding of the 
 word mermen, which signifies vast 
 monuments, especially sepulchral 
 
 monuments (Bunsen, Egypt, vol. iii. 
 p. 139). 
 
 Mendjou, or Menjow, in Prov. Pr. = 
 mangeurs, a local nickname given to 
 the inhabitants of Alaise by those of 
 Myon, is said to be a perversion of the 
 old tribal name ManduhU [Man- 
 Bhvdh) in Caesar (De Lincy, Proverhes 
 Frangans, i. vi.). 
 
 Men-op-Wae, a ridge of rocks off the 
 Cornish coast, is a modem corruption 
 of Cornish Menava/wr (=: Welsh maen- 
 y-fawr), " the great rock " (N. amd Q. 
 4th S. iv. 406). 
 
 Mephistophilbs. If Andresen is to 
 be credited, the original spelling of 
 this name was MephoMstophiles, i.e. No- 
 Faust-lover, i.e. Faust-hater. He thinks 
 that the present form has an under- 
 thought as to his mephitic nature 
 {Volksetymologis, p. 17). 
 
 Meeey Modnt, the name which the 
 Puritans gave to Mount WoUaston, 
 south of Boston, New England, was a 
 corruption of Ma-re Mount, the name 
 given it by one of the early colonists 
 (Bryant and Gay, Hist, of the Umiied 
 States, vol. i. p. 424). 
 
 Milesian, a term applied to the 
 Irish of aristocratic descent, as if they 
 came from Miletus, according to Dr. 
 Meyer is from the Irish word rmleadh, 
 a soldier (Latham, Geltie Nations, 
 p. 75). 
 
 Milfoed, a Connaught surname, is 
 an Anghcized form of Ir. O'Mulfover 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Mincing Lane, off Tower Street, 
 London, is a corruption of Mincheon 
 Lane, "so called of tenements there 
 sometime pertaining to the Minchuns 
 or nuns of St. Helen's in Bishopsgate 
 Street" (Stow, Survay, 1603, p. 50, 
 Thorns), from A. Sax. minicen, nvwrn- 
 cene, a nun, a female monk (A. Sax. 
 munuc). 
 
 Moat Hill, in Hawick, Scotland, 
 is not the hUl with a moat or ditch, 
 but identical with the Mote Hill or 
 Moot Hill foimd in other places, that 
 is, the meeting hill, or place of assembly, 
 Norse mot (Taylor, 291). 
 
 MoNEYGOLD, the name of a place 
 near Grange, in SUgo, is a cmious per- 
 version of its Irish name Muine- 
 
MONEYBOD 
 
 ( 545 ) 
 
 MULLBOSE 
 
 Bhihhaltaigh, " The shrubbery of 
 Duald" (a raan's name). The min'ne 
 was changed into money ; and, in order 
 to match, Dlmhhaltaigh, contracted 
 into Bhiyild, and pronounced by pho- 
 netic change guald, was transformed 
 into gold (Joyce, ii. 142). 
 
 MoNEYKOD, a place-name in Antrim, 
 is an AngHoized form of Ir. muine 
 ruide (or rod), " Shrubbery of the iron- 
 scum " (Joyce, ii. 350). 
 
 MoNEYSTEKLiNa, a place-name in 
 Londonderry, is an English corruption 
 of the Irish name Monasferlynn, " the 
 monastery of O'Lynn," divided as 
 Mona-sterlynn (Joyce, ii. 146). The 
 conversion of a monastery, whether 
 O'Lynn's or otherwise, into money 
 sterhng is a process not unknown in 
 English chronicles. 
 
 MoNftiBBLLO, the Sicilian name of 
 Mt. Etna, is a corruption of Monte 
 Oehel, nterally " Mt. Mountain," from 
 Arab, gebel, a mountain. 
 
 Monster Tea G-akdens, a name for 
 a certain place of popular resort on the 
 banks of the Thames, was a corruption 
 of the original name The Minster Gar- 
 dens, or Monasieiy Gardens, an ancient 
 appm-tenance of the Abbey of West- 
 minster. (See Scott, Gleanings from 
 Westminster Abbey, p. 229.) 
 
 MoNTAOUE, as a surname in Ulster, is 
 an Anghoized form of Mac Teige 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Monte-Felice, " Happy Mount," is 
 a Portuguese rendering of djehel al-fil, 
 "Mountain of the Elephant," in the 
 kingdom of Adel (Devic). 
 
 MoNTE-FELTEo, a mountainous dis- 
 trict N. of Urbino, as if " the mount of 
 the felt-hat " (like Pilatus ■=: Pileatus, 
 "Hatted"), was so named originally 
 from a temple of Jupiter Feretrius 
 which was there (Quarterly Review, 
 No. 177, p. 97). 
 
 MoNTE Matto, as if " Mad mount," 
 is an ItaHan corruption of Mona Ily- 
 mettus. 
 
 MoNTMARTEE, a district of Paris, is 
 said to be a corruption of mons Martis, 
 mountaiu of Mars (vid. Thorpe, 
 Northern Mythology, i. p. 228). 
 
 MoNTEosE, in Porfai-shire, is a cor- 
 
 ruption of the ancient name mom-os, 
 Gaelic nwnadh-rois, " The hill of the 
 ravine " (Robertson, p. 454). 
 
 MoNY-MusK, a place in Aberdeen- 
 shire, is probably a con-uption of 
 monadh-mtoice, "Boar's HUl" (Robert- 
 son, Gaelic Topography, p. 455). 
 
 Moon, a surname, is a contracted 
 form of Mohune (Camden, Bemaines, 
 1637, p. 148). 
 
 Mooesholm, in the Cleveland dis- 
 trict, is a corrupted orthography of 
 Morehusum, in the Domesday Survey 
 {Fraser's Magazine, Feb. 1877, p. 171 ; 
 Atkinson, Cleveland Glossary, ■p. •^x.). 
 
 MoEDKAPELLE, " Murder - chapsl," 
 near Bonn, is corrupted from the 
 original name Martyrerhapelle (An- 
 dres en). 
 
 MoEE-CLAEK, a curious old corrup- 
 tion of Mortlake, on the Thames near 
 Richmond, which, by an incorrect 
 division of the word as Mor-tlahe, was 
 frequently pronounced More - clach. 
 Thus an old poem, 1705, speaks of 
 " Moreclack Tapstry " (see Nares), and 
 Cowley of " The richest work of Mmi- 
 clahes noble loom." 
 
 Anil now Fervet OpuB of Tapestry at Moj-e- 
 clark. — Fuller, JVorthies, ii. 354. 
 
 MoENiNG Stae, The, the name of 
 a river which flows through co. Lime- 
 rick, is due to a popular mistake. Its 
 old Ir. name Samhair was corrupted 
 into Camhair, which signifies " the 
 break of day," and this was further 
 improved into " Morning Star" (Joyce, 
 ii. 456). 
 
 MouNT-siON, the Scriptiu'al sounding 
 name of several places in Ireland, is a 
 half-translation, half-corruption, of Ir. 
 Cnoc-a'.-tsidheadn, " HiU of the fairy- 
 mount " (Joyce, i. 41). 
 
 MouSEHOLE, the name of a fishing 
 village near Penzance, is said to be a 
 corruption of the Cornish words Moz- 
 hayle, the " Maiden's brook," or Moz- 
 hal, the "Sheep's moor" (N. and Q. 
 5th S. ii. p. 90). 
 
 MuD-CEOFT, the name of a field near 
 Eastbourne, was originally the Moat 
 Croft Field (G. F. Chambers, East- 
 hourne, p. 21). 
 
 MiJLLKOSE, " Mould-rose," a place- 
 
 N N 
 
MTTSAI 
 
 ( 546 ) OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 name, is a G-ermanized form of Slavonic 
 Melraz (Taylor, 389). 
 
 MusAi, or Muson, the name of a 
 place in Middle Egypt, on the east 
 side of the river, so spelt as if it meant 
 (in Greek) the abode of the Muses, is a 
 perversion of the ancient name T-en- 
 Moshe, " the river-bank (or island) of 
 Moses," so called in a monument of 
 the reign of Eamses III. (Brugsch, 
 Egypt under the Fhm-aohs, vol. ii. 
 p. 112). 
 
 Myloed, a place near Brian^on, is a 
 popular corruption of Millaures (= 
 milles vents). — L. Larchey, Diet, des 
 Nomnies, p. xiii. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nancy Cousin's Bay, in North 
 America, is a corruption by English 
 sailors of Anse des Cousins, or Bay of 
 Mosquitoes, the name given to it by 
 the French settlers. 
 
 Negeopont, "the black bridge,'' the 
 modern name of the island of Eubcea, 
 is a corruption, probably due to Italian 
 sailors, ofNegripo, which is a modifica- 
 tion of Dgripo or Evripo, the town built 
 on the ancient Em-ipus (Taylor, 397). 
 The mediate expression was Mod. 
 Greek en Egripo. 
 
 Nettle, as a proper name, seems to 
 correspond to the old German Ohneftili, 
 from 0. H. Ger. Icncht, A Sax. cniht, a 
 " knight " (Ferguson, Eng. Su/rnames, 
 p. 24). 
 
 Nedmagen, " New Maw " (!), a Swiss 
 place-name, is a Germanization of the 
 ancient Noviomagus. 
 
 Neunkieohen, "nine churches,'' a 
 German place-name, is a corruption of 
 Neuenkirchen, " New church " (Taylor, 
 464). 
 
 Newholm, near Whitby, a corrup- 
 tion of Neuham in the Domesday 
 Survey. 
 
 Nightingale Lane (London) was 
 originally named after the " Knighten- 
 (/mM" of Portsoken (Ed. Review, No. 
 267, Jan. 1870), A. Sax. cnihtcna 
 guild. 
 
 There were fhirteen Kniglits or soldiers, 
 
 well-beloved to the Kin^[Kdgar] and realm, 
 for service by them done, which requested 
 to have a certain portioJi of land on the east 
 part of the city. . . . The King granted to 
 their request . . . and named it Kvighten 
 Guild. — Stnw, Sun^ayj 1603, p. 46 (ed. 
 Thorns). 
 
 Norton, a surname in Connaught, is 
 an AngUeized form of O'Naghton 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Nutfoed, an English place-name, is 
 properly the ford of the neat cattle 
 (Taylor, 466), sometimes called nouf, 
 A. Sax. neat. 
 
 0. 
 
 Oakhampton, a town in Devonshire, 
 as if " Oak-home-town," is a corruption 
 of its ancient name Ochenitone (it is 
 still popularly called OcMngton), the 
 town at the confluence of the two rivers 
 Ook or Ockment. 
 
 Oakington. Near Cambridge is a 
 village, called phonetically by its in- 
 habitants " Hokinton." This the rail- 
 way company imagined to be a local 
 taispronLinciation for " Oakington," 
 which name they have painted up on 
 the spot, and stereotyped by their time- 
 tables. Archaeological researches, how- 
 ever, proved that the real name is 
 Hockynton, and that it is derived from 
 an ancient family once resident there 
 — the Hockings. See 42?!,^ Annual 
 Report of the FubUa Records, 1880; 
 Standard, Aug. 29, 1880. 
 
 Odenseb, sometimes also 
 Odin's isle, was originally 
 Odin's holy place (Andresen). 
 
 OSins-boeq, an Icelandic name for 
 Athens in the Postula Sogwr (Stories 
 of the Apostles), as if "Odin's Borough" 
 (Cleasby), where Odins is a corruption 
 of Athens, horg being commonly ap- 
 pended to town-names, as in R&ma- 
 horg. 
 
 Oelbach, a German river-name, as 
 if " oil-brook," is, according to Mone, 
 from Ir. oil, a stone (Taylor, 389). 
 Another form of that word is Ir. aill 
 (pron. oil), a rock, whence " The OH," 
 a townland in Wexford, derives its 
 nanie (Joyce, i. 24). 
 
 Old Aberdeen, or Old Town. Mr. 
 
OLD MAN 
 
 ( 5-17 ) 
 
 PALLETS 
 
 A. D. Morice writes to me as follows : — 
 "This place is mucla more modern 
 than Aberdeen pi-oper, and the original 
 name, stOl colloquially in use, was 
 Alton, meaning, I believe, in Celtic, 'the 
 Village of the Bm-n.' Alton became 
 naturally enough Old Toivn, and this 
 eventually Old Aberdeen." Allt is the 
 GaeUc for " stream." 
 
 Old Man, a name frequently given 
 to a conspicuous rock, e.g. at Coniston, 
 is a corruption of Celtic alt maen, 
 "high rock" (Taylor, 388). 
 
 Old Maud, an estate in the parish 
 of New Deer, north of Aberdeen. The 
 original name was Aultmaud, mean- 
 ing the Burn of the Fox's Hole. This 
 within the last century has become 
 corrupted into Old Maud, and when 
 the railway was made from Aberdeen 
 to Inverness, and a village sprang up 
 at one of the stations near Aultmaud 
 the proprietor gave it the name of New 
 Maud (Mr. A. D. Morice). 
 
 OLrvBR, originally a name of 
 chivalry, as in the phrase " A Eowland 
 for an Oliver," Fr. Olivier, It. Oliviero, 
 so spelt as if derived from Lat. oliva, 
 the oUve, is, no doubt, a perversion 
 of the Scandinavian Olaf, Olafr, or 
 Anlaf (whence the church of 8t. Olave, 
 London, derives its name). It was 
 confused probably sometimes with the 
 Danish name (plv&r, "ale bibber." 
 
 Geange, the name of a town near 
 Avignon, is a corruption of the ancient 
 name Armsion (Taylor, 204). 
 
 OsTBND, in Belgium, which would 
 seem to mean the " east end " (like 
 Ostend in Essex), is really the "west 
 [oueif) end " of the great canal (Taylor, 
 463). 
 
 Ours, Rue avx, "Bears' Street," in 
 Paris, was originally Rue aux Oues, 
 " Geese Street " (old Fr. oue ■=.oie), so 
 called from the cookshops there which 
 made geese their speciality (P. L. 
 Jacob, Becueil de Fa/rces, 15th cent. p. 
 305). 
 
 Ovens, The, the name of a village in 
 CO. Cork, is a corruption of Ir. TJa/m- 
 hadnn, pronounced oovan, i.e. a cave, 
 there being a very remarkable series of 
 these at the place (Joyce, Irish Names 
 of Places, vol. i. p. 426). 
 
 Over, a place-name in Cambridge- 
 shire, is from A. Sax. (ifer, a shore, 
 Ger. ufer (Taylor, 482). 
 
 Oxford, old Eng. Oxen-ford, and 
 Oxna-ford, apparently, like Bosporos, 
 " the ford of oxen," was probably origi- 
 nally Otisen-ford, or Ous-ford, i.e. the 
 ford of the Isis (Isidis vadum), Ouse, 
 Ose, Use, Ise, a frequent river-name, 
 also found in the forms Ush, Esh, Exe, 
 Axe, and Ock, all from the Celtic uisge, 
 water. Hence also Z7a!-bridge and 
 Osen-ey near Oxford. Howell in his 
 Londinopolis, p. 12, has the remark that 
 the "Isis or Ouse . . . passeth at 
 length by Oxenford, who some imagine 
 should rather be caU'd Ouseford of this 
 Eiver." 
 
 OxMANTOWN, a quarter of old Dublin, 
 is a coiTuption of Ostman-ioum, the 
 Ostmen having made a settlement 
 there. 
 
 Ox Mountains, in Shgo, is a trans- 
 lation of their Mod. Ir. name Sliabh- 
 dliamh, " mountain of the oxen," but 
 this is a perversioi^ of the ancient 
 8Uabh-ghamh, probably meaning 
 "stormy mountain" (Joyce, i. 55). 
 
 OxSTEAD, \ a parish near Godstone 
 OxsTBD, / in Surrey, is a corrup- 
 tion of Oak-stead, the settlement in the 
 oak woods. 
 
 Oyster-Hill, the name of the re- 
 mains of a Boman encampment in the 
 parish of Dinder, near Hereford, is 
 supposed to be a survival of the name 
 oiOstm'iiis Scapula, the consular gover- 
 nor of Britain (Camden's Britannia, 
 p. 580, ed. Gibson; Tac. Agricola, c. 
 14, Bohn's trans, note in loco). 
 
 P. 
 
 Pain, or Fayne, a surname, i.e.Payen, 
 a pagan (Painim), from Lat. Pagamis. 
 
 Pallets, an old popular name for a 
 parish church near Eoyston in Here- 
 fordshire, so called from a " saint 
 Eppalet, whose reliques lie buried 
 about the high Altar" (Weever, 
 Funerall Monuments, p. 545, 1631). 
 This Pallet or Epfalet is a curiously 
 disguised form of Ilippolyttis (It. 
 Sant Iijpolito), who was martyred in 
 
PABISH GARDEN ( 548 ) 
 
 PETEB GUN 
 
 252 by being torn in pieces by wUd 
 horses, to fulfil the meaning of his 
 name. The hamlet is still known as 
 Ippoliis (Yonge, Ohrist. Names, i. 184). 
 The memory of this saint was long pre- 
 served by a curious custom thus re- 
 counted by Weever : — 
 
 This man [Eppalet] in his life time was a 
 good tamer of colts, and as good a Horse- 
 leach: And for these qualities so devoutly 
 honoured after his death, that all passengers 
 by that way on Horse-bacVe, thought them- 
 selues bound to bring their Steedes into the 
 Church, euen vp to the high Altar, where 
 this holy Horseman was shrined, and where 
 a Priest continually attended, to bestow such 
 fragments of Eppalets miracles, as would 
 either tame yong horses, cure lame iades, or 
 refresh old, wearied, and forworne Hackneyes. 
 — Ancient Funerall MonumentSj p. 545. 
 
 Parish Garden, — 
 
 Do you take the court for Paruh garden J 
 ye rude slaves. — Shakespeare, Hen. VIll. v. 4. 
 So in the original copies (Dyee), — a 
 popular corruption of Pa/rh Owrden, 
 " the House oi Bohert de Paris, which 
 King Bichard III. proclaimed a recep- 
 tacle of Butchers Garbage, the Bear- 
 garden in Southwark" (Bailey). 
 
 Pan, the pastoral god, the Greek 
 form of the Sanskrit Pavana, the wind 
 (M. Miiller, CMps, vol. ii.), was com- 
 monly understood to mean the " all 
 pervading god," as if connected with 
 pas, pan, all, or the " aU delighting." 
 
 Homer, Hymn, 18. 
 And Pan they call'd him, since he brought 
 
 to all 
 Of miith so rare and full a festival. 
 
 Chapman, p. 109 (ed. Hooper). 
 
 Pavana, from the root pu, to purify 
 (Piotet, Orig. Indo-Europ. ii. 116), indi- 
 cates the cleansing power of the wind, 
 the true " broom that sweeps the cob- 
 webs off the sky." Compare: — 
 
 All the creatures ar his seruitours ; 
 The windes do sweepe his chambers euery 
 
 day; 
 And cloudes doe wash his rooms. 
 
 G. Fletcher, Christs Triumph after 
 Death, St. 27 (1610). 
 Men see not the bright light which is in 
 the clouds ; but the wind passeth, and cleans- 
 eth them. — A. V. Job, xxxvii. 21. 
 
 Paul, the Christian name of the 
 celebrated painter Paul de la Boche, 
 was originally Pol, an abbreviation of 
 
 Sippolyte, the name by which he was 
 christened {N. and Q. 4th S. ii. 231). 
 
 Pawn, an old name for a corridor, 
 which formed a kind of bazaar, in the 
 Eoyal Exchange, is a corruption of 
 Ger. hahn, Dutch haan, a path or walk 
 (see Jesse, London, vol. ii. p. 356). 
 
 In truth (kind cousse) my comming's from 
 the Pawn. 
 'Tis merry when gossips meet, 1609. 
 You must to the Pawn to buy lawn. 
 Webster, Westward Ho, ii. 1 (see Dyce, 
 in be). 
 
 Peerless Pool, a place near Old 
 Street Koad, London, is a corruption of 
 Perilous, or Parlous Pool, formerly a 
 spring that, overflowing its banks, 
 caused a very dangerous pond wherein 
 many persons lost their lives {Old 
 Plays, vol. vi. p. 33, ed. 1825). 
 
 We'll show you the bravest sport at parlous 
 pond. — The Roaring Girle, 1611, act i. sc. 1. 
 
 Not far from it [Holywell] is also one 
 other clear water called Perillous pond, be- 
 came divers youths, by swimming therein, 
 have been drowned. — Stow, Survay, 1603, p. 
 7 (ed. Thoms). 
 
 Penny come quick, for Pen y mm 
 gunc, " Head of the Creek Valley," the 
 Cornish name for Falmouth (M. 
 MiiUer, OMps, iii. p. 304). 
 
 Pennyceoss, near Plymouth, is said 
 to be from the old British name Pen-y- 
 crwys, the "height of the cross." 
 
 Percy Cross, at Walham Green, 
 Middlesex, is a corruption of the older 
 form "Purser's Gross." This in its 
 turn may perhaps have been a corrup- 
 tion of the cross (roads) leading to the 
 adjacent "Parson's Green" {Notes 
 and Queries, 5th S. vi. 509). 
 
 Peter Gowee, an old corruption of 
 Pythagoras, through the French Pi/<Aa- 
 gore, occurs in the following extract 
 from a document of doubtful authen- 
 ticity : — 
 
 Peter Gower a Grecian journeyedde ifor 
 Kunynge yn Egypte and yn Syria. — Certayne 
 Questyons wyth Answeres to the same Con- 
 cernynge the Mysteiye of Maconrye (temp. 
 Hen, VI.). — Soane's Curiositi£s of Literature, 
 ii. 80 ; Fort, Antiquities of Freemasonry, Ap- 
 pendix. 
 
 Peter Gun, a personal name borne 
 by an individual in America, is stated to 
 be an Anglicized form of Pierre a 
 
PETE A 
 
 { 549 ) 
 
 PIGTI 
 
 Fusil, a name given to him by the 
 French settlers as a literal rendering of 
 his original German appellation Feuer- 
 stdn (" fire-stone "), flint (F. H. Lieber, 
 Stranger in America; Lower, Eng. 
 Surnames, 145). 
 
 Petea, and Abasia Petrsia, the 
 capital and kingdom of the Nabatheans, 
 are mistranslations by the Greeks of 
 the native Arabic name, which is 
 Eaga/i- (the mother of Ishmael), a dif- 
 ferent word, having a diffei-ent initial 
 letter, from Hagar, a rock or stone. 
 Hagarite was a recognized title for the 
 sons of Ishmael (Porster, Historical 
 Geography of Arabia, i. p. 237). 
 
 Petty-cdk, in Fifeshire, is a corrup- 
 tion of the Gaelic Fit-a-choire, " Hollow 
 of the corrie or dell " (Kobertson, p. 
 477). 
 
 Pjlaumbaum, "Plum-tree," has been 
 found as the name of a German family, 
 originally called Blei (lead), which 
 being translated into Latin became 
 Plumhum, and this in turn wafe mis- 
 taken for Low Ger. plwnibdm, a plum- 
 tree (Andresen). 
 
 Phaeaoh, a surname, is a corruption 
 of the old German name Faro, corre- 
 sponding to Icel. fari, A. Sax. fara, a 
 traveller (Ferguson, Eng. Surnames, p. 
 355). 
 
 Phaeaoh, he whose daughter Soota is 
 fabled to have first colonized Ireland 
 with Egyptians (Stanihurst), seems to 
 have originated in a misunderstanding 
 of the old Irish war-cry, Farrih, 
 Farrih ! " which is a Scottish woord, 
 to weete, the name of one of the first 
 Mnges of Scotland, called Pargus, 
 Fergus, or Perragus, which fought 
 against the Pictes, as ye may reade in 
 Bnokhanan Be rebus Scoticis; but as 
 others write, it was long before that, 
 the name of theyr cheif captayne, under 
 whom they fought agaynst the Afri- 
 cans, the which was then soe fortu- 
 nate unto them, that ever sithence they 
 have used to call upon his name in 
 theyr batteUs." — Spenser, State of Ire- 
 land, p. 632 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Phcene Park, an extensive park at 
 Dublin, owes its name to a corruption 
 of the original Irish Fionn-uisg, " a 
 clear spring" of local celebrity there 
 
 situated. The blunder contained in 
 the name is visibly stereotyped in a 
 stone efhgy of " the Arabian bird "rising 
 from its pyre on the summit of a column 
 in a conspicuous part of the park. 
 
 Phcenixtown, an Irish place-name, 
 formerly spelt Phenockstown, is a 
 corruption of Ir. Baile-na-hhfionnog, 
 " scaldcrows' (Aug. Ii. finnoges') town " 
 (Joyce, i. 37). 
 
 Physiok, a surname, is said to be de- 
 rived from an old Ger. name Fizo (Fer- 
 guson, 288). 
 
 PiAN Di Voce, "Plain of the Voice," 
 the name of a site in modern Etruria, is 
 a corruption of Piano di Void, so called 
 from the ancient city of VnJci. (See 
 Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etru- 
 ria, vol. i. p. 446, ed. 1878.) 
 
 PiOKET-wiEB EivEE, the Canadian 
 river so called, is a corruption oiBiviire 
 du Purgatoire, a name given to it by 
 the French colonists (Scheie De Vere, 
 The English of the New World). 
 
 PiCTi, " Painted," the Latin name 
 for the Caledonian tribe whom we call 
 the Picts (Claudian), supposed to be 
 allusive to their custom of staining their 
 bodies. So Lord Strangford: "The 
 Picts got their name from the Romans, 
 as being tattooed, distinct from the 
 clothed and tamed Britons" (Letters 
 and Papers, p. 162). It is probably 
 a modification of the original Celtic 
 name peicta, "the fighters" (Taylor, 
 81, 396 ; Trench, Study of Words, 121), 
 akin perhaps to Lat. pectere, to comb, 
 to beat, 'Eag. fight. Compare also the 
 Pictones (Pictet, Grig. Indo-Europ. 
 ii. 208). A popular survival of the 
 word appears, I think, in the Paichs, 
 an ancient race of pygmies endowed 
 with extraordinary strength, and ca- 
 pable of the greatest efforts in the 
 shortest time, who are believed to 
 have built Linlithgow Palace (J. G. 
 Dalyell, Da/i-Tcer Superstitions of Scot- 
 loMd, p. 532). In N. Scotland a de- 
 formed and diminutive person is called 
 a picht, while the Picts are known as 
 Pechts or Pehts (Jamieson). Compare 
 "A peghte, pigmeus " (Catholicon An- 
 glicum). It is well known that the 
 aborigines of a country commonly 
 degenerate into pygmies, elves, or tro- 
 glodytes in the siiperstitious beliefs of 
 
PIG AND G ABBOT ( 550 ) PBESTEB JOHN 
 
 their supplanters (of. Ewald, Hist, of 
 Israel, i. 228 ; Pusey, On Daniel, 506 ; 
 M'Lennan, Prim. Marriage, 80 ; M. 
 Williams, Mod. India, 131; Wright, 
 Gelt, Roman, and Saxon, 85). 
 
 The Pictes, a people not so called of paint- 
 ing their bodies, as some have supposed, but 
 upon mistakino- their true name which was 
 Phichtian tliat is to say fighters. — Ventegaii, 
 Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, p. 114 
 (16S4). 
 
 Sylvester assures his patron James I. 
 that he would surmount in excellence 
 all those 
 
 Which have (before thee) Rul'd th' hard- 
 ruled Scots 
 And ruder Picts {painted with Martiall spots). 
 Du Bartas, p. 306 (1621). 
 
 Pig and Oaeeot, the sign of an inn at 
 Newport, Isle of Wight, is said to have 
 been originally Pique et carreau, the 
 spade and diamond cards {Dublin 
 University Magazine, Oct. 1868). 
 
 Pig and Whistle, as a device on the 
 signboard of an inn, is said to have 
 been originally The Peg in the WassaAl 
 (-howl). But see Bist. of Signboards, 
 437. 
 
 Pig-fat, a surname, is a corruption 
 of Pickford (Charnook). 
 
 PiLATUs, or Mont de Pilate, the moun- 
 tain overhanging Lucerne, in a tarn 
 on the summit of which Pontius PUate 
 is popularly believed to have drowned 
 himself, is a corruption of Mons Pilea- 
 tus, "the cloud-capped hill," mountains 
 being everywhere said to have their 
 hat on when their summits are covered 
 with mist. Compare Ghapeau Dieu 
 near the bay of Fundy, now Shepody 
 Mountain. 
 
 If Skiddaw hath a cap 
 Scruffel wots full well of that. 
 
 Ray's Proverbs. 
 
 Pink, a surname, seems to be a con- 
 traction of Pinnock, and probably the 
 same as Pennich, Ger. Penniche. 
 
 PiTCHLEY, a place-name in North- 
 amptonshire, is a corruption of Picts- 
 Ici or Pihtes-lea (in Doomsday), the 
 laga or settlement of the Picts ( Taylor, 
 270). 
 
 PiTFouE, in Perthshire, is a corrup- 
 tion of the Gaelic Pit-fuar, " The cold 
 hoUow " (Eobertson, p. 477). 
 
 PiiASTEE, in Ghapel Plaster, the name 
 
 of a hamlet in the parish of Bos, is 
 more properly Plestor, a corruption of 
 pleystow (A. Sax. pleg-stow), a " play 
 place," and so denotes the chapel on 
 the village green. (See White's 8el- 
 borne.) 
 
 Plotcock, a curious Scottish name 
 for the devil (Eamsay), as if from Scot. 
 plot, to scald or bum, and cooh, is pro- 
 bably a corruption of Icel. bl6t-gui, 
 a heathen god (compare bloi-goM, a 
 heathen priest), from bldt, worship, 
 sacrifice, later especially heathen wor- 
 ship. 
 
 Poland, a modification of old Eng. 
 Polayn, equivalent to Ger. Polen or 
 Pohlen, " men of the plains, " from the 
 Slavonic poZie, a plain (Taylor, 397). 
 
 PoNT-A-CouLEDVEE (Ojse), " Serpent 
 bridge,' ' was formerly Pont-d- Quileuvre, 
 which stands for Pont d qm Veuvre, in 
 Latin Pons cui aperit, i.e. Pont a qwi 
 ouvre, the bridge which was only opened 
 to passengers on paying a toll (L. Lar- 
 ohey, Dictionnaire des Nommes, p. xiii.). 
 
 PoNTE MoLLB, an Italian corruption 
 of Pons Milvius, the Milvian Bridge. 
 
 PoETLAND, the name of a townland 
 in Tipperary, is a disguised form of 
 Portolohane, originally Ir. Port-an- 
 tolchain, " the bank (or landing-place) 
 of the Uttle hill " (Joyce, ii. 225). 
 
 Poet Royal, so called, not because 
 on one occasion it furnished a royal re- 
 fuge to Philip Augustus, but because 
 the general name of the district in 
 which the valley hes was Porrois, so 
 called from Low Lat. Porra, or Borra, 
 a hollow overgrown with brambles 
 in which there is stagnant water 
 (Leboeuf). So F. Martin, Angelique 
 Arnauld, pp. 1,2; Tulloch, Pascal, p. 
 79. 
 
 PoBTWiNE, a sm-name, anciently 
 Poteioyne, for Poitevin, a native of 
 Poitou. 
 
 Peecious, a surname, is said to be a 
 corruption of Priesthouse (Charnock). 
 
 Pee-Maeie, in Poitou, which seems 
 to be Pre de Marie, was formerly Pra- 
 ium maledAciuni (j5i-e mauAit). — L. Lar- 
 cheyj Diet, des Nommes. 
 
 Peestbe John, that is, Priest or 
 Presbyter John (Lat. Presbyter Jo- 
 
PBINZHEIM 
 
 ( 551 ) 
 
 BAIMENT 
 
 Tiarmes), a supposed Christian sovereign 
 and priest reigning somewliere in Cen- 
 tral Asia or Africa, famous in medifeval 
 story, was probably meant for Gur- 
 Klian. His name softened into Yur- 
 Khan, M. Oppert thinks, may have 
 been mistaken by the Syrian priests 
 for Juchanan or Johannes (see Edin- 
 hirgh Bevieic, Jan. 1872, p. 25). It 
 has also been regarded as a corruption 
 of Ungh Khan (Wheeler, Noted Names 
 of Fiction, p. 300). Marco Polo iden- 
 tifies this mysterious monarch with 
 Unk-Khan, spelt Unc Can and Uncan in 
 Purchas {Pilgrimages, p. 834). Pur- 
 cbas has a long discussion as to the 
 origin of the name. He observes that 
 the Ethiopian Emperor bore the title 
 Beldigidn, meaning a precious stone, 
 and that " this by corruption of the 
 name by Merchants was pronounced 
 Friest Gian or John " {Pilgrimages, 
 p. 886). He also quotes Joseph Soali- 
 ger's theory that the Ethiopian Empe- 
 ror was called Prestegiano, " which in 
 the Persian tongue signifieth ' Apos- 
 tohke," inferring thereby that he is a 
 Christian King of the right faith " {ihid. 
 p. 834). " That title of Prestegian, or 
 Apostolioall, others not understanding 
 called Priest John, or Prete Janni," and 
 sometimes even " Precious Jolin " {ihid. 
 p. 837). Maimonides mentions him as 
 Preste-Cuan. His effigy constitutes 
 the arms of the see of Chichester (see 
 Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the 
 Mid. Ages, 1st Ser. ; Journal of 
 Ethnolog. 8oc. Jan. 11, 1870; G. 
 Oppert, Per Presbyter Johannes). 
 
 From this land of Bactrie men go in many 
 days journey to the land of Pvester John, 
 that is a great Emperor of Inde. — Sir J. 
 Maimdevilte, Travels, p. 121. 
 
 PresterJohn and Pretejane, according 
 to Zaga Zabo, quoted in Selden, Titles 
 of Honour, p. 65, is corrupted from Pre- 
 cious Gian, the name of that monarch 
 in Ethiopic being Gian Belul, i.e. Pre- 
 cious John. 
 
 Peinzheim, in Alsace, was originally 
 Bruniri 
 
 Prometheus (in Greek the " Pro- 
 vider" or "Pore-thinker," from pro- 
 methes, fore-thinking, provident), the 
 fire-maker, is a corruption apparently 
 of the Sanscrit pramantha, the spindle 
 or fire-drill that provides man with 
 
 fire (Tyler, Early Hist, of Mankind, p. 
 254). See also Kelly, Indo-Europ. 
 Tradition, p. 41 seq. 
 
 Probatique (Fr.), in the expression 
 La piscine probatique for the pool of 
 Bethesda (St. John, v. 2), is an adop- 
 tion, probably from a supposed con- 
 nexion with j3ro6aWoTO,p-oliaSZe, of Vul- 
 gate probatica piscina, which is merely 
 the Greek prdhatihi, the sheep-gate, 
 from probaton, a sheep. It is called 
 " the probationary pool " (I) in Didron's 
 Christian Iconography, Eng. trans, p. 
 
 Put du fou, a French place-name, is 
 not le puitB du fou, as one might be 
 tempted to suppose, but "the hill of 
 the beech " (L. Larchey, Ilict. des 
 Nommes), irorapuy, a slope {podimn), 
 and old Fr. fou, beech, from Lat. fagus. 
 
 Purchase, a surname, is a corrup- 
 tion of Purhiss, another form of Per- 
 hins, a dimin. oi Pierre (Charnock). 
 
 Q. 
 
 QuERFUKT, the name of the German 
 town so called, as if "cross-ford," is 
 really from quern, a mill (Andresen). 
 
 QuiLLB-BEUF, \ place-names in Nor- 
 QuiTTE-BEDF, J mandy, correspond- 
 ing to 'English. Kil-by, the 6i/r( or village) 
 of the well, and Whithy, i.e. white 
 viUage (Taylor, 186). 
 
 QuiNTiN, a Christian name in Ire- 
 land, is an incorrectly Anglicized form 
 of Ir. Cu-maighe (pron. Cooey), " dog of 
 the plain" (O'Donovan). 
 
 E. 
 
 Eabbit, a surname, is perhaps iden- 
 tical with Babbod, the name of a " duke 
 of the Frisians" (Eoger of Wendover), 
 a corruption of Badbod, "counsel- 
 envoy" (Ferguson, 166). 
 
 Eaben, a Germanized form of Ba- 
 venna, as if connected with raben, 
 ravens. 
 
 Eaimbnt, a surname, is a corruption 
 of Baymond (Chamoek). 
 
BAINBIBD 
 
 ( 552 ) 
 
 BING8ENB 
 
 Bainbird, a siirnarae, is a corruption 
 of Ramhert { Cliarnock) . 
 
 Rainbow, a surname, is a corruption 
 oiBainhoux or iJamSawW (Oharnock). 
 
 Eainsfoed, a surname, is a corrup- 
 tion of Bavensford (Camden, Bemaines, 
 1637, p. 148). 
 
 Eansom, an Eng. place-name, is a 
 corruption of the ancient Bampisham 
 (Earle). 
 
 Eansom, a surname, " is evidently,'' 
 says Mr. Ferguson, " the old Norse ran- 
 sam/i; piratical" {Eng. Surnames, p. 
 355). 
 
 Eastede, the name of a palace in 
 Oldenburg, as if from rasten, to rest, 
 was originally Badestede (a cultivated 
 place ) . — Andresen. 
 
 Eathdowney, a place-name in 
 Queen's County, meaning "fort of the 
 church " {domhnach), is a popular cor- 
 ruption of the old Ir. name Bath-tamh- 
 naigh, "fort of the green field" (Joyce, 
 i. 222). 
 
 Eawbone, a surname, otherwise Ba- 
 lone, stands for Bathhone, or perhaps 
 for Ger. Hrahan, " Eaven " (Ferguson, 
 169). 
 
 Eedohaie, otherwise Bichchair, a 
 place-name in Limerick, stands for Bed- 
 sheard, an old Eng. translation of its 
 Ir. name Bearna-dhearg, " red gap ; " 
 Prov. Eng. sheard, a gap (Joyce, i. 
 420). 
 
 Ebdfoot, a siu-name, is a corruption 
 oi Badford (Charnock). 
 
 Eedpath, a surname, seems to he the 
 Enghsh form of old Ger. Batperth, 
 Batpert (i.e.Bad-hert, "counsel-bright"). 
 — Ferguson, 166. 
 
 Eedbiff, on the Thames, in London, 
 is a corruption of BotherMthe, appa- 
 rently the " cattle wharf." So Queen- 
 Mve is found in old writers for Queen- 
 hithe. Lamheih is for Loamhithe. 
 
 Eed Sea, Lat. Mare Bubrum, Greek 
 Eruthrd thdlassa, the Septuagint ren- 
 dering of Heb. Yam Suph, " sea of sea- 
 weed (or rushes)." — Brugsch, Egypt 
 binder the Pha/raohs, ii. 339, has no 
 reference to the colour of its waters, 
 but probably meant originally the sea 
 of the Edomites, Himyarites, Ery- 
 
 threans, or Phoenicians, who lived on 
 its shores, all names denoting " red 
 men," that is, the Semites as distinct 
 from the black negroes and yellow 
 Turanians (Eenan, Hist, des Iiangues 
 Sendtiques, p. 39 ; Bih. Bid. iii. 1011). 
 
 Eegisvilla, " Kingston," the Eoman 
 name of an ancient Pelasgic settlement 
 on the coast of Etruria, is very pro- 
 bably a corruption of the Etruscan 
 name Begm, the place being so called 
 seemingly from the clefts {Greek rhegai) 
 indicative of its situation (Dennis, 
 Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. i. 
 p. 489, ed. 1878). 
 
 Eenata, an Italianized form of the 
 name Benee, understood as "re-bom," 
 "regenerate." It is really the femi- 
 nine form of Bine, which is a shortened 
 form of Fr. Benier or Beignier {Baynar 
 in Domesday Book), Norse Jiagnar, 
 for Bagin-here, "Warrior of judgment" 
 (Yonge, ii. 378). So Bene in Itahan 
 became Benato. 
 
 Eeynolds {i.e. Eeginald's son), a 
 surname in Connaught, is an AngU- 
 cized form oiMac Bawnal (O'Donovan). 
 
 Eheinwald, a place-name, is a Ger- 
 manized form of the native Bin Vol, 
 "Valley of the Ehine " (Gaidoz). 
 
 Ehinokolura, ) i.e. the " promon- 
 Ehinokoeuka, J tory of Koruna," 
 Arabic anf Kurun, believed to have 
 been a colony founded by men with 
 " mutilated noses " (Von Bohlen, 
 Genesis, i. 320), as if from Greek 
 piQ, pivoQ, the nose, and KciXovpoe, docked, 
 truncated. But compare The Naze, 
 ness, &c. 
 
 Cambyses King of Persia . ... cut off the 
 noses of all the people in Syria, by raeanes 
 whereof the place was afterwai'ds called 
 Rhinocolura. — Heneca, Works, translated by 
 Lodge, 1614, p. 667. 
 
 Rhydwely, the Welsh name (Spur- 
 rell) of Bedford (anciently Sedan ford, 
 " Bedca'sford "), as ifmeaning"ford" 
 {rhyd) of the " bed " {gwely). 
 
 EiCHBOROUGH, near Sandwich, is 
 the modern form of Byptacester, from 
 Lat. Butupium castra. 
 
 Many cities .... were walled with stone, 
 and baked bricks or tiles, as Richlmrow or 
 Ryptiicester, in the Isle of Thanet. — Stow, 
 Siiroaii, 1603, p. 2 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 EiNGSEND, the paradoxical name of a 
 
BINGVILLE 
 
 ( 553 ) 
 
 B08A 
 
 seaside place near Dublin, was, no 
 doubt, originally the " end of the 
 rinn," in Irish a point of land (Joyce, 
 i. 393). 
 
 EiNGViLLE, the name of a place in 
 Waterford, and Bingvilla, in Fer- 
 managh, are con-uptions of Ir. Binn- 
 hMle, " the point of the ancient tree " 
 (Joyce, i. 893). 
 
 RiNGWOOD, a place-name in Hants, a 
 corrupt form of Begneivood, said to 
 preserve the name of the ancient tribe 
 of the Begn/i (Taylor, 73). 
 
 EiTALS, The, the name of three 
 hUls near Nevin, in Carnarvonshire, is 
 a corruption of Yr Eifl, " The Pork," 
 these hills being so called in Welsh 
 from then peouUar shape [N. and Q. 
 6th S. i. p. 247 ; Ehys, Lectures on 
 Welsh Pliilology, p. 157). 
 
 EoBiN. Miss Yonge observes that 
 this name, as well as its original 
 Bobert, is popularly given to many red 
 objects, e.g. to the redbreast (Latinized 
 ruhemla) ; to the red campion (Lychnis 
 dioica), commonly called " robins ; " to 
 the Lychnis jhs cuculis, called "Kagged 
 Eobin ; " and "Herb Eobert " {Glwist. 
 Names, ii. 868) ; perhaps from an 
 imagined connexion with Lat. ruheus, 
 red. So Bwprecht, which is the same 
 name (from 0. H. Ger. Hruad-ptraht, 
 " fame-bright "), was long supposed to 
 be derived from " red," and was 
 transformed into Bedbert and Bed- 
 beard. 
 
 Eobin's Beef, the name of some 
 projecting rocks at the niouth of the 
 Ells off Staten Island, is a corruption 
 of the old name Bobyn's Bift, i.e. Seal 
 Eeef, so called from their being the 
 favourite haunt of seals (Bi-yant and 
 Gay, Hist, of United States, vol. i. 
 p. 363). 
 
 EocKCLiFF, the name of a place in 
 the Cleveland district, Yorkshire, is 
 corrupted from BoudcKve in the Domes- 
 day Survey. 
 
 EocK-END, the name of a bay in 
 Guernsey, is a corruption of Bocguaine 
 [N. and Q. 5th S. ii. p. 90). 
 
 EoGEES, a surname in Tyrone, is the 
 EngUsh rendering of the old Irish 
 name Mac Bory, Koger being the 
 
 assumed synonym of Ir. Bualdhri or 
 Kory (O'Donovan). 
 
 Eolandsbck; on the Bhine, supposed 
 to have its name from the crusader 
 Eoland, is said to have been originally 
 rollendes-eche, with reference to the 
 rolling waves at tlie hend (eche) of the 
 river (Taylor, 894). 
 
 EoLLKiGHT Stones, or Eolhich 
 Stones, a curious and ancient monument 
 of upright stones disposed in a cu-cle, 
 south of Long Comptou in Warwick- 
 shire, according to an old tradition 
 noticed by Camden owes its name to 
 Eollo the Dane. In modern times 
 some have seen in these stones a 
 sepulchral memorial, and suggested an 
 origin for their name in the Gaelic 
 roilig, a churchyard, or roithleam an 
 rign, "the circle of the king" (Bur- 
 gess, Historic Wanoickshire) . All this 
 however seems very doubtful. 
 
 Eook's Tkundal, The, the name of 
 a singular "hoop-shaped hill " in Sus- 
 sex, is " a corruption probably of 
 Boundall and St. Boche" (Quarterly 
 Bcvietv, No. 223, p. 56). 
 
 EoPEE, as a surname, is in some 
 instances not derived from him who 
 makes ropes, but a corruption, through 
 the forms Booper, Bouspee, Bospear, of 
 L. Ijajt.Buh-a-Spatha(F\iRei-, Worthies, 
 i. 50), " red-sword," like Longespie. 
 However, Lower quotes from Wright : 
 
 There is a very antient family of the Ropei-s 
 in Cumberland, who have lived imme- 
 morially near a quarry of red Spute there, 
 from whence they first took the surname of 
 Rubi\i - Spatha. — Essays on Eiig. Surnames^ 
 p. 237. 
 
 EosA, in the name of the Swiss 
 mountain Monte Bosa, probably has no 
 reference to the rosy tint of the Alpine 
 glow as Wordsworth supposed : 
 
 The Alpine Mount, that takes its name 
 From roseate hues, far kenned at morn and 
 even. 
 
 Ecclesiast. Sonnets, pt. 3, xlvi. 
 
 It is rather, like Boseg, Bosenlaui, Eoss- 
 herg, Scotch Bosneath, Bosduy, a deri- 
 vative of Celtic ros, a prominent peak 
 or headland (I. Taylor, Words and 
 Places, p. 225, 2nd ed.). Compare 
 Boseland, a peninsula in Cornwall, 
 containing the ancient parish of Eglos- 
 Bos. 
 
ROSAMOND 
 
 ( 554 ) 
 
 SABBATIC US 
 
 How faintly-flusb'd, how phantom-fail', 
 Was Monte Kiisa, hanging tliere, 
 A tliousand shadowy-pencill'd valleys, 
 And snowy dells in a golden air. 
 
 Tennyson, The Daisy. 
 
 EosAMONB, a Christian name, It. and 
 Span. Hosamundi, has often been 
 understood as meaning " chaste rose " 
 (Lat. rosa munda). It is a modifica- 
 tion of the old Teutonicname Erosmond 
 or Hrossrmmd, " Famed protection " 
 (Jiros, fame), or, according to others, 
 "Horse protection" {Jiross, horse). — 
 Yonge, Christ. Nmies, i. 421, ii. 279. 
 
 Rosamond the faJre his [Henry II. 's] para- 
 mour . . . had this, nothing answerable to 
 her beauty : 
 
 H4c jacet in tumba rosa mundi non Rosa 
 munda, 
 Non redolet, sed olet, (]Ufe redolere solet. 
 Camden, Remahtes, 1637, p. 372. 
 
 RoSAEiB, a place in Banffshire, re- 
 presents the Gaehc Sos-airidh, " The 
 point of the shealing " (Eobertson, 
 p. 495). 
 
 EoSE, a Christian name, is generally 
 regarded as identical (hke the Greek 
 Rhoda) with the flower-name, Lat. 
 rosa. It is really a modification of old 
 Eng. Soese, Fr. Mohais, Latinized as 
 Soesia, derived from Teutonic liros, 
 " fame " (Yonge, Christian Names, 
 i. 420). 
 
 Rohesia, the daughter of Aubrey de Vere, 
 Chief Justice of England under Henry V. 
 erected a cross in the high-way to put pas- 
 sengers in mind of Christ's passion. This 
 spot '* inprocesse of time by little & little g-rew 
 to be a Towne, which instead of Rohesiaes 
 Crosse was called Rohesiaes Towne, and 
 now contracted into Roiston." — 1. Weever, 
 Fanerall Monuments, p. 548 (1631). 
 
 EosEBEEEY TOPPING, the name of a 
 mountain in Yorkshire, is probably a 
 corruption of its old name Othenes- 
 hergh, "Odin's Mount" {Cins-ierry, 
 Ose-herry). 
 
 EoSETTA, is an occidental perversion 
 of the oriental Mashid or Reschid. 
 
 EossDEUTSCHER, " Horse-German," 
 as a proper name, is a corruption of 
 Rossteuscher, a horse - dealer (An- 
 dresen). 
 
 EoTHLAUF, " Eed-course," a German 
 proper name, was originally Rudolf 
 (Andresen). 
 
 EosTHEBNE, one of the largest meres 
 
 of Mid. Cheshire, is a complete disguise 
 of its original name Rood^a-tan'n, the 
 tarn of the Holy Eood, or Cross, which 
 probably once existed in the adjoining 
 chm'chyard. 
 
 EoTHSOHiLD, " Red - shield," the 
 name of a town in Zealand, is cor- 
 rupted from Dan. roeskilde, "rest 
 well," which itself is said to be from 
 old Norse HrowrsMlde, " Hroars' 
 well" (Andresen), or "well of "King 
 Eoe " (Revue Politique, 2nd Ser. 
 V. 711). 
 
 EiJHMEKOEB, \ a German surname, 
 EuHMKORF, / as if from ruhm, fame, 
 glory, and liorh, a basket. The first 
 part of the word, however, is the same 
 as is seen in the names Rumschutiel, 
 Raumsclvussel, Ramschiissel, &c., i.e. 
 " ra/ame die schussel," " clear the plat- 
 ter " (Andresen). 
 
 Rule Water, in Teviotdale, from 
 Celtic rliull, apt to break out, hasty, 
 Cymric rhu, a roar (Veitch, Scottish 
 Border, p. 53). 
 
 Rumble, a surname, probably stands 
 for Runibold, 0. H. Ger. Rumlold, i.e. 
 " fame-(7irMom)-bold." 
 
 EuNN, in "The Runn of Kutch," 
 India, a tract of plain sometimes sub- 
 merged, is said to be an Anghcized 
 form of Sansk. aramja, a desert or 
 forest {Sat. Review, vol. 53, p. 269). 
 
 S. 
 
 Sabbaticus, the ancient name of a 
 river in Palestine, probably corrupted 
 from a pre-historic name which ap- 
 pears as Shabatoon on the Egyptian 
 monuments (Brugsch). On the name 
 came to be founded a legendary behef, 
 mentioned by Josephus ( Wars of the 
 Jews, vii. V. 1), that this river " on the 
 Sabbath runs fast, and aU the week 
 else it standeth still, and runs nought 
 or httle " (Maundeville, Early Travels 
 in Palestine, p. 191). See also Pui-chas, 
 Pilgrimages, Asia, ch. 14, pp. 660, 
 661 ; Sir T. Browne, Pseudodoxia 
 Epidemica, VII. xviii. 11. Sometimes 
 the story ran that the river ceased 
 flowing in honour of the Sabbath. 
 
 The sand of the river Sabbatajon is holy. 
 
ST. ANN'S OEUEGH ( 555 ) 
 
 SGEAFOANS 
 
 In sn hour-glass it runs six days of the week ; 
 but on the seventh it is immovable — Rabbi 
 Eldad.— De Qnincey, Works, vol. xiii. p. 287. 
 Josephus, that learned Jew, tells us of a 
 river in Judea, that runs and moves swiftly 
 all the six da yes of the week, and stands still 
 and rests upon their Sabbath day. — 1. M'al- 
 tim, Compleat Angler, 1C53 ( p. 15, Murray's 
 repr.). 
 0! should I blanch the lewes religious 
 
 River, 
 Which every Sabbath dries his Channell over ; 
 Keeping his Wanes from working on that 
 
 Day 
 Which God ordain'd a sacred Rest for ay? 
 J. Sylvester, Dii Bartas, p. 62. 
 
 Amongst other curious things that are 
 there [at Rome], a sand-glass the sand of 
 which was taken out of the river Sambatyon. 
 The sand runs all the week and stops on the 
 Sabbath-day. — M. Edrehi, Historical Account 
 of the Ten Tribes settled beyond the River 
 Sambatyon, p. 18. 
 
 Saint Ann's Chtjeoh, the name of 
 a ruin near Tallaght, co. Dublin, also 
 called Kill Si. Ann, and KiUnasantan, 
 aU which names are corruptions of the 
 old Irish Killmosanatan or Killsantan, 
 ■ the church (dll) of Bishop Sanctan. 
 The true Eng. form therefore would be 
 "Santan's church" (Joyce, ii. 22). 
 
 Salmon, a surname, seems to be the 
 same as Samand, a popular form of 
 St. Amand, St. Amandus. It has been 
 Latinized as De Sancio Alemondo. 
 
 Salt-foed, a place-name in Somer- 
 set, is a corruption of Sal-ford, i.e. the 
 ford of the willow, A. Sax. salh. Con- 
 sequent on this mistake a correlative 
 Fresh-ford has arisen hard by (Sayce, 
 Frinciphs of Gomp. Philology, p. 362). 
 
 Samoyed, the name given to the 
 tribesmen of Northern Europe, mean- 
 ing "self-eater," as if to denote canni- 
 bals, appears to be a corruption of their 
 proper Eussian name " Sanioditi," 
 which means an individual, one who 
 cannot be mistaken for any other 
 (A. E. Nordenskiold, Voyage of the 
 Vega, Bug. trans. 1881). 
 
 Most probably the old tradition of man- 
 eaters {undrophagi) living in the North, 
 which originated with Herodotus, and was 
 afterwards universally adopted in tlie geo- 
 graphical literature of the JNliddle Ages, 
 reappears in a Russianised form in the name 
 "Samoyed."— r/ie Standard, Dec. 21, 1881. 
 
 Sample, a surname, is a corrupt form 
 
 of Sampole, St. Paid. See Camden, 
 Britannia, p. 544. 
 
 Sampson's Seal, long the name of a 
 house, was discovered to be in ancient 
 documents originally the priory of 
 Saint Gecile (Yonge, Ghristian Names, 
 i. 311). 
 
 Sandeman, a surname, is a corrup- 
 tion of St. Amand. 
 
 Sandy Acre, in Derbyshire, is said 
 to be a corruption of St. Bacre (S. De 
 Vere). 
 
 San Geeste, the name of a moun- 
 tain in the Eoman Campagna, is an 
 alteration of San Grade, itself a cor- 
 ruption of the ancient name Soracte 
 misunderstood as S. Oracte. 
 
 Sapsfoed, a surname, is a corrup- 
 tion of the original local name Sabridge- 
 u-oiih (Lower). 
 
 Saeah (" princess "), sometimes the 
 modern representative of the Irish 
 name Saraid ("excellent"). — Miss 
 Yonge, Ghristian Names, i. 48. 
 
 Sattelhof (Ger.), " Saddle-court," 
 is a corruption of old Ger. Salhof, Salic 
 court (Ilerue Politique, 2nd S. v. 711). 
 
 Sadeeland, " Sour -land," the name 
 given to the southern part of the old 
 Saxon land, was originally Surfer- iamd, 
 South-land (Andresen). 
 
 Saywell, a surnauie, is a corruption 
 otSaviUe (Charnock). 
 
 Scaeedevil, \ surnames, are said to 
 
 Skaefield, / be corruptions of the 
 French Scardeville (Lower, Eng. Sur- 
 names, p. 141). 
 
 SCAELETT. The family so called were 
 originally named Garlat or De Garlat, 
 from a town and castle in Aquitaine 
 (Anselme, The Norman People; P. C. 
 Scarlett, Memoir of Lord Abinger, pp. 
 12, 403). Mr. Scarlett is mistaken 
 when he says, " The word and colour 
 ecarlate is probably derived from the 
 name of the family De Carlat, which 
 bore that colour on their coat armour," 
 viz., a lion rampant gides. 
 
 ScHAFGANS. This German surname, 
 with such an unmeaning combination, 
 " sheep-goose," was originally Schaff- 
 ganz, "Do-all." Cf. the old name 
 Schaffenlitzel, "Do-little" (Andresen). 
 
SGHAFMATTE 
 
 ( 556 ) SHIP STBEET 
 
 ScHAFMATTE, " Sheep-meadow," the 
 name of one of the Jura passes, was 
 originally Schachmatte, perhaps the 
 place where the traveller was non- 
 plused or check-mated, but Andresen 
 thinks the word is connected with 
 schdcher, robber, as if " plunder-mead." 
 
 ScHEiNPFLUG, a proper name in Ger- 
 man, as if from schein, brightness, and 
 pflug, plough, is for Scheunpflug, i.e. 
 *' Shun the plough," originally Scheu- 
 chenpflug (Andresen). 
 
 SoHELLENBERG. Tliis, like the other 
 German surnames, Schellhorn, Bchell- 
 hopf, are not derived from schelle, a 
 bell, but from schelch, the elk or giant- 
 deer (Andresen). 
 
 SCHLICHTEGEOLL, a German sur- 
 name, as if " smooth rancour," is pro- 
 perly and originally SchUcMkrull, 
 " smooth locks." Compare the syno- 
 nymous name Schlichthaar, Glattham; 
 " smooth hair " (Andresen). 
 
 ScHNEEWiND, " Snow-wind," a Ger- 
 man proper name, was originally 
 H cltneidewind, " Cut-wind," i.e. a va- 
 grant, Pr. Taillevent, the intermediate 
 form being Bchniewind (cf. Low Ger. 
 Schmerzn Ger. scliTieider). — Andresen. 
 
 ScHWEESTADT, " Heavy town," in 
 Thuringia, is from sueigari, a herds- 
 man (Andresen). 
 
 Science, \ sometimes foimd as an 
 
 SciBNTiA, ■ old Enghsli name, is 
 
 Cynthia, J probably a corruption of 
 
 the Provengal name Sancie or Sancia, 
 
 Sp. Sancha, fem. of iSanclio, Sandus 
 
 (Youge, Hist. Christ. Names, i. 369). 
 
 Scotland Bank, the name of a place 
 near Dorston in Herefordshire. 
 
 The following account of the name 
 may be taken for what it is worth : — 
 
 Near Bach Tumulus, which may be con- 
 nected with that at Aewton, is a spot called 
 *' Scotland Bank," to which the tradition 
 clings that it got its name from a Scot having 
 been hunted to death by dogs here in the 
 Civil War ; but, as the Welsh name for 
 thistles would in sound assimilate to the 
 name Scotland, there is probably no real 
 basis for the tradition, except the general 
 fact that the Scots pillaged and overran the 
 country during the troubles at tliis period. — 
 Saturday Review, vol. 43, p. 703. 
 
 Ysgall, ysgallen, is the Welsh word for 
 a thistle. 
 
 Seafoeth, an Eng. surname, is a 
 perversion of the old name Seyferth, 
 Sigefrid, Ger. Siegfried, "victorious 
 peace " (Yonge, Christ. Names, ii. 308). 
 
 Seeland has no connexion with the 
 word land, as its old Norse name 
 Soelundr shows, but with Icel. lund, 
 a wood (Andresen). 
 
 Seething Lane, anciently Sidon 
 Lane (Jesse, London, vol. ii. p. 209). 
 
 Selteneeich, " Seldom-rich," a Ger- 
 manpersonal name, was origitially only 
 a nickname, saelden rich, i.e. "rich by 
 luck " (Andresen). 
 
 Seeena, a feminine Christian name, 
 
 ■ is sometimes a Latinization of Siri, 
 
 which is a shortened form of old Eng. 
 
 Sired, Swed. Sigrid, Norse Sigridur, 
 
 " conquering impulse " (Yonge, ii. 310). 
 
 Sbemon Lane, London, popularly 
 supposed to correspond to Paternoster 
 Eow, Amen Corner, and other eccle- 
 siastically named streets hard by, is 
 " corruptly called," says Stow, " for 
 Sheremoniers' lane, for I find it by that 
 name recorded in the 14th of Edward I. 
 .... It may, therefore, be well sup- 
 posed that lane to take nanle of SJiere- 
 monyars, such as cut and rounded the 
 plates to be coined or stamped into 
 sterling pence." — Survay of London, 
 1603, p. 138 (ed. Thoms). 
 
 Sexton, a Munster surname, is an 
 Anglicized form of Ir. O'Sesnan 
 (O'Donovan). 
 
 Shanagoldbn, a place-name in 
 Limerick, is an Anglicized form of Ir. 
 Sean-gualann, " old shoulder" {i.e. 
 hill).— Joyce, i. 505. 
 
 Shankill, a common place-name in 
 Ireland, is not, as sometimes under- 
 stood, for Shank-hill, but for Ir. Sein- 
 cheall, " Old church " (Joyce, i. 303), 
 as if Lat. senex cella. 
 
 Sheepscot Eivee, north of George's 
 Island in the colony of New England, 
 America, is a corruption of its Indian 
 nsivae Sipsa-couta, "flocking of birds." 
 (See Bryant and Gay, Hi^t. of United 
 States, vol. i. p. 319.) 
 
 Ship Street, the name of a street 
 in the town of Brecon, is a corruption 
 of its old name Sliepe strcf, so given in 
 John Speed's plan of Broknoke, 1610. 
 
SHOE LAKfE 
 
 ( 557 ) SIB ROGER BOWLER 
 
 Similarly, the place-names Shipley 
 and SMpton stand for Sheep-lea and 
 Sheep-town. 
 
 Shoe Lane, off Fleet Street, Lon- 
 don, formerly Shew-ivell-lane, anciently 
 Sholand. 
 
 Shotovee, in Oxfordshire, it has 
 often been asserted, is a corruption of 
 CMitetm Vert (Taylor, p. 390). This 
 may be doubted, however, as the name 
 is spelt Shothoiiere in a Patent Eoll of 
 11 Edward I. (1282-3). 
 
 Yet old Sii' Harry Unth was not forgot. 
 In the remembrance of wliose woadi'ous shot 
 The forest by (believe it they that will) 
 Retains the surname of Shotover still. 
 
 G. Wither, Abuses IVIiipt and Stript, 1613. 
 
 Shufflebottom, a surname, is con- 
 jectured to have been originally a local 
 name, " Shaw-field-bottom ; " a bottom 
 being a low ground or valley (Lower, 
 Eng. Surnames, p. 43). 
 
 SiBELL, frequently used in old Enghsh 
 as the name of the Queen of Sheba 
 who visited Solomon, as if the same as 
 Sibella, Sibyl, from Lat. sihulla, a, 
 dimin. of sihits, sahus, wise, and so a 
 wise woman, a witch ; it is really a 
 coiTUption of Sheba. 
 
 tus lay jjis tre jiare, als I tell, 
 vntill |?e sage quene, dame sibell. 
 Come to ierusalem on a Sere, 
 Wisdom of Salomon to here. 
 Legends of the Holy Rood, p. 83, 1. 75'2. 
 Sijbiflle sayth, that the fyrst signe or token 
 of loue is the loke or beholdyno;. — -Knight of 
 La Tour-Landry, p. 185 (E.E.T.S.). 
 The original French MSS. here have 
 " la royne de Sabba," and " la royne 
 SeUlh" {Id. p. 219). 
 
 On bis-kin wise jjis tre [jar lai, 
 Til after lang and moni dai, 
 Jiat sibele com sa farr fra kyght, 
 To salamon and spak him wit. 
 
 Cursor Mandi, 1. 8956. 
 She was also frequently called Saba, 
 probably understood as meaning sage 
 (Sp. sabio). 
 
 Saba was neuer 
 More couetousof Wisedome, andfaire Vertue 
 Than this pure Soule shall be. 
 
 Shakespeare, Hen. VIII. v. 4 (1623). 
 Were she as chaste as was Penelope, 
 As wise as Saba. 
 
 Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, ii. 1. 
 Diana for her dainty life . . . 
 Sage Saba for her soberness. 
 Peele, Sir Clyomon and Sir Ctamydes. 
 
 See Dyce, Uemarhs on Collier's and 
 Knighfs Shalcespeare, p. 144. 
 
 SiDWELL, St., the name of a church 
 in Exeter, is a corruption oiSt. Sativola 
 (martyr, ab. 740), to whom it was 
 dedicated. 
 
 SiEBENBURGEN, " Seven-towus," in 
 Transylvania, is probably a corruption 
 of Gibinburg (M. Gaidoz). 
 
 SiEBENEiCH, " Seven-oak,'' a Ger- 
 man place-name, is a corruption of the 
 ancient Seheniacum (M. Gaidoz). 
 
 SiEBENLiST, a German proper-name, 
 as if " Seven-trick," was originally 
 Siebelist, from Sieielis, the gen. of 
 Siebel (Andresen). 
 
 Simper, a surname, a corruption of 
 St. Pierre. So Simherd, am old form of 
 St. Barbe (St. Barbara). 
 
 Simple, as an English surname, also 
 Semple and Sample, are corrupted forms 
 of St. Paul, just as Simper and Semper 
 are from St. Pierre (cf. the word Sam- 
 phire), and Sallow from St. Loive. See 
 Bardsley, Our English Surnames, p. 
 125. 
 
 SiNGEWALD, 7 German surnames 
 SiNGEHOLZ, f which have the ap- 
 pearance of being compounded with 
 singen, to sing, are really from sengen 
 (Eng. singe), and mean "wood-burner." 
 Compare the names Singeisen (like 
 Brenneisen), Sengehusch, Sengelaub, 
 &c. (Andresen). 
 
 Sign, the name of many townlands 
 in Ireland, has nothing to do with the 
 Scriptural mount, but is an Anghoized 
 form of B\ sidhedn (pronounced 
 sheeawn), afairy mount, and was some- 
 times spelt Shiane, Shean, and Shane 
 (Joyce,!. 180). 
 
 SiK Danapal, an old Eng. ortho- 
 graphy of Sardanapalus. 
 
 R(l of Thomas Col well for his ly cense for 
 pryntinge of a ballett intituled shewyng the 
 myserable unhappy fall of a vecyous Kynge 
 called Syr Danopall. . . . iiij"!. — Register of 
 the Stationers* Company (Shaks. Soc. vol. i. 
 p. 112). 
 
 SiE Roger Dowler, the Anglicized 
 forra in the newspapers of the day in 
 which appeared the Hindustani name 
 Siraju-d-daula, " The Lamp (or Sun) of 
 the State," belonging to the nawwab or 
 viceroy of Bengal who took Calcutta in 
 
SIX HILL 
 
 ( 558 ) 
 
 STAGS 
 
 1756 (D. Forbes, Hindustani Didion- 
 ary). Similarly, Sir Eoger Dowlas, a 
 name whicli was given by Foote to one 
 of the characters, an East Indian pro- 
 prietor, in his play of The Patron, is a 
 sailor's corruption of this Siwajah Dow- 
 lah. Compare Zaclioury Maocmlay, which 
 has been noted as a sailor's travesty of 
 Zumalacarregui. 
 
 Six Hill, in Leicestershire, other- 
 wise Seg's Hill (Evans, Leicestershire 
 Glossa/ry, p. 46, E.D.S.). 
 
 Slowman, a surname, is a corruption 
 of Solomon {Ed. Bev. 101, p. 353). 
 
 Smack Covek, an American place- 
 name, is said to have been originally 
 Chemin Convert (S. De Vere, English 
 of the New T^orW). 
 
 Smithfibld, in London, is a corrup- 
 tion of Smetltc-field, that is, " smooth- 
 field ;" smethe being the old Eng. form 
 of smooth, and akin to smth. Fitz- 
 stephen, in his account of London 
 (temp. Hen. XL), says, " There is, with- 
 out one of the gates, immediately in the 
 suburb, a certain smooth field in name 
 and in reality" (quidam planus cam- 
 pus re et nomine) . His subsequent re- 
 marks show he is speaking of Smith- 
 field. See Stow, Survay, ed. Thorns, 
 p. 211 ; Morley's Bartholomew Fair, p. 
 7, ed. Warne. 
 
 Snailbatch, a place-n ame in Shrop- 
 shire, is equated by I. Taylor with Ger. 
 schnell-hach ( Words and Places, p. 481) ; 
 compare A. Sax. snel, quick, and hecc, 
 brook (Somner), Swed. hack, Icel. 
 behhr, a rivulet. 
 
 SNOwriELD, or Snafil, the English 
 name for the highest mountain in the 
 Isle of Man, is said to be a corruption 
 of its Manx name Sniaul, which means 
 " cloud-capt," from niatd, a cloud (Ir. 
 and Gael. neuT). See Manx Soe. Diet, 
 s.vv. Bodjal, Niaul, and Sniaul. 
 
 Snow Hill, London, is a corruption 
 of its ancient name Snor Hill. 
 
 From the west side of this conduit is the 
 high way, there called Snor Ai//; itstretcheth 
 out by Oldborne bridge over tlie oft-named 
 water of Turmill brook, and so up to Old- 
 borne hill.— S(oiu, Suroaii, 1603, p. 1 14 (ed. 
 Thorns). 
 
 Snows, The, a spot on the Ottawa, 
 was originally les Chenati.r, "the chan- 
 
 nels," just as "the Swashings" has 
 been evolved out of les Joachims {Q. 
 Beview, vol. 116, p. 27). 
 
 Solomon, in Denmark, sometimes re- 
 presents the native name Solmuni, i.e. 
 " Sun's protection " (Yonge, History of 
 Christian Names, i. 118). 
 
 Somerset, in St. Mary Somerset, the 
 name of one of the old city churches in 
 London, now destroyed, was originally 
 Summer^ hiihe, a, wharf adjoining 
 being so called. 
 
 Timber hithe or Timber street . . is in the 
 parish of St. Jlary Somershiihe, as I read in 
 the 56th of Henry ill. — Stow, Siinrny, IfiOS, 
 p. 135 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Somrmi-'s Kei) . . took that name of one 
 Sommer dwelling there. — Id. p. 78. 
 
 Soon- HOPE, a glen on the Tweed, is 
 for Swine-hope, hke the Scandinavian 
 swine-tlwrpe in England, Iwpe being 
 Celtic for a valley. Janet's Brae, which 
 it adjoins, is said to be a corruption of 
 Hane'sBrae (Veitch, History and Poetry 
 of the Scottish Boi-der,-p. 30). 
 
 SowoHiCK, Hakluyt'sreadingof/Sw/rf- 
 sey or Suhchu, the capital of Sukchnr 
 (vid. Yule's Marco Polo, vol. i. p. 196). 
 
 Sowtail is the form popularly as- 
 sumed by Sauterelle, the improved 
 name given by enactment of the Kan- 
 sas Legislature to the Grasshopper 
 Falls (The Standard, Feb. 23, 1882). 
 
 Spancelhill, a village in co. Clare, 
 isatranslation of Mod. Ir. Cnoc-urchaill, 
 " Hill of the Spancel." That word, how- 
 ever, is a popular corruption of old Ir. 
 Cnocfua/rchoilli, " Hill of the cold 
 wood" (Joyce, ii. 247). 
 
 Spaek, as a surname, is a corruption 
 (through the forms Sparli'lc, SparhavA) 
 of Sparrowhaivl; (Bardsley, Eomance 
 of London Directory, p. 137). Compare 
 Snoolcs for Senoaks, Seven-oaks. 
 
 Squibrbl, the name of a stream at 
 Sandgate, Newcastle, is a corruption 
 of its ancient name the Swerle, i.e. a 
 ghding water (Brockett). On the con- 
 trary part, swirrel is the Cleveland 
 word for a squirrel (Atkinson). 
 
 St. Agnes, one of the Scilly Isles, is 
 a corruption of its Norse name Hagenes 
 (Taylor, 391). 
 
 Stags, The, the name given to tall 
 
ST. ALBAN'S HEAD ( 559 ) STB0KE8T0WN 
 
 isolated rocks along the coast of Ire- 
 land, e.g. off Ireland's Eye, is a cor- 
 ruption of stacks (Joyce, ii. 59). Com- 
 pare Shetland stacl; an insulated rock 
 of a columnar shape (Edmondston's 
 Glossary ; Jamieson), which word is to 
 be connected, not (as generally as- 
 sumed) with Dan. stak, Icel. sfalckr, 
 a stack, but probably with Icel. stakr, 
 single, odd, e.g. stak-steinar, single- 
 stones, stepping stones. 
 
 St. Alban's Head ie the name gene- 
 rally given to St. Aldhehn's llead in 
 Dorsetshire, although St. Alban had no 
 connexion with it (Farrar, Origin of 
 Language, p. 59). 
 
 Standish, a place-name in Glouces- 
 tershire, is a corruption of its old form 
 Sianliiis, " Stone-house " (Earle). 
 
 Stab of the Sea, a favourite desig- 
 nation of the Virgin Mary among the 
 Eoman Cathohcs(so Jerome,Isidore,and 
 Bernard), perhaps from a confusion of 
 Ifariawith the Latin mare, the sea. The 
 Heb.formMtri/am(" their contumacy"), 
 Greek Mariam, was frequently under- 
 stood as mar-yam, " bitterness " (or 
 "myrrh") of the "sea" (yam]. (See 
 Pearson, Expos, of the Oreed, Art. III.) 
 
 Steenbekg, and other Germanfamily- 
 names beginning with stern (a star), as 
 Stenheek, Sternkopf, were originally 
 compounded with sier, a ram (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 Stilloegan, an unmusical place- 
 name in CO. Dublin, is a corruption of 
 Ir. Tigh-Lorcain, "Lorcan's church" 
 (Joyce, i. 61). 
 
 Stimula, an old Latin corruption of 
 the Greek Semele (Mommsen, Hist, of 
 Borne, i. 235). 
 
 St. Just, Charles V.'s convent of 
 Yuste, founded on the river of that 
 name, has sometimes improperly been 
 written so {e.g. by Eobertson), as if de- 
 dicated to St. Just (Yonge, Hist, of 
 Christian Names, i. 398). 
 
 St. Leonabd Milk, the name of one 
 of the old London churches, "so termed 
 of one William Melker, an especial 
 builder thereof."— Stow, Stvrvay, 1603, 
 p. 80 (ed. Thoms). 
 
 St. Magloiee, a Celtic saint of the 
 6th century, was perhaps really a 
 
 MoClure, as his cousin, St. Maolou, 
 who gave his name to St. Malo, was a 
 McLeod (Taylor, 342). 
 
 St. Margaret's Hope, on the coast of 
 Fife, is from Celtic ^ope, a valley, Icel. 
 liop, a haven (Veitch, History and 
 Poetry of Scottish Border, p. 27). 
 
 St. Michael at the Querne, one of 
 the old London churches, originally 
 " St. Michael ad Bladum, or at the 
 Corn (corruptly at the Querne) so 
 called, because in place thereof, was 
 sometime a Corn-Market." — Howell, 
 LondinopoKs, p. 316 (from Stow, Sur- 
 vay, p. 128, ed. Thoms). 
 
 Stone, a surname in Sligo, is a meta- 
 morphosis of the old Irish name O'Mul- 
 clohy, from a confusion of the latter 
 part,-cto%, with cloch, a stone (O'Dono- 
 van). 
 
 St. Pdlchee, an old corruption of 
 Sepulchre, i.e. St. Sepulchre church in 
 the Bailey. 
 
 And namely in this month of May, 
 The time 1 doo remember very well, 
 For it was just upon the sixteenth day. 
 And eyp:ht a clock had rong S. Pulchres belt. 
 F. Tliynn, Debute between Pnde and Lo-w- 
 liness (ab. 1563), p. 7 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 To the wardens of St. Ptilcres for the loan 
 of certain frames forpag'earitsSs. [33 Henry8]. 
 — The Los?/i/ i^Iunuscripts, p. 71. 
 
 The xxij day of Januarij was raynyd [ar- 
 raigned] . . . ilogars parsun or veker of sant 
 Fiilkers and djvers odur. — Machyn*s Diary, 
 li,54-5, p. 80. 
 
 Tlie XV day of Desember was cared by the 
 Clarkes of London from Seiipuikitrs . . . the 
 lord Justes Browne. — Id. 156!iJ, p. 297. 
 Never did musick please him we]l. 
 Except it were St. ' Pulclier's bell. 
 
 Groansjroin Newgate, 1663. 
 They, as each torrent drives with rapid force, 
 From Smithfield to St. Pulcre^s shape their 
 course. 
 
 Swift, the City Shower. 
 
 Steadling, a surname, is said to be 
 a corruption of Easterling, commonly 
 pronounced Starling, originally a mer- 
 chant who came out of the east part of 
 Germany (Camden, Bemaines, 1637, p. 
 150). 
 
 Steeichhahn, " Strike-cock," a Ger- 
 man surname, isfrom Streichhan, which 
 is for Streichan, a painter (Andresen). 
 
 Steokestown, in Koscommon, is an 
 incorrect rendering of the Irish name 
 
8TUBBEN-KAMMEB ( 560 ) TALK-O'-THE-HILL 
 
 Bel-atha-na-mhuille, " Ford of the strikes 
 (or blows)," hel, a ford, being mistaken 
 for haile, a town (Joyce, i. 36). 
 
 Stubben-kammeb, the German name 
 for the two chalk cliffs on tlie EUgen, 
 which sink perpendicularly into the sea, 
 is a corruption of the Slavonic Stupny- 
 hamen, i.e. the Stair-rock. Compare the 
 rocky " stairs " (Heb. madregdh) otTlie 
 Song of Songs, ii. 14, Dehtzsch, in lac. 
 
 St. "Dbes, a sailors' corruption of 
 Setuhal. Compare St. Pulohee and 
 St. Obeste. 
 
 Sdccoth-benoth, apparently "Tents 
 of daughters," an object of Babylonish 
 worship (2 Kings xvii. 30), is supposed 
 to be aHebrew corruption of ^M-a^-iaWi 
 (or Zir-banit), " the creating lady," the 
 name of the Chaldaean goddess, wife of 
 Merodach ; zirat, "lady," beingperhaps 
 confounded with zarat, " tents " (Eaw- 
 linson, Spealcer's Gomm. in loco; Bih. 
 Diet. m. 1388 ; G. Smith, Chald. Ac- 
 count q/ Genesis, p. 58). 
 
 Stjoae, a surname in Ireland, is a 
 corruption of the old Kerry name Su- 
 grue or 0' Shuglverougli {N. and Q. 4th 
 S. ii. 231). 
 
 SuMMEEFiELD, a Surname, is a cor- 
 ruption of Somerville. 
 
 Summer Islands. The Somers' Is- 
 Icmds, or Bermudas, so named formerly 
 in consequence of Sir George Somers, 
 one of the deputy-governers of Virginia, 
 having been shipwrecked there (Taylor, 
 p. 29), are called " the Summer Islands " 
 by Bishop Berkley, apparently with a 
 latent reference to their warm cUmate, 
 which is, he says, " of one equal tenour 
 ahnost throughout the whole year, like 
 the latter end of a fine May " (A Pro- 
 posal for the better supply of Glmrclies in 
 our Foreign Plantations, 1725). Com- 
 pare Mailand, p. 542, and Gwlad ye 
 Haf, p. 534. 
 
 Sueat, the name of a well-known 
 port in India. Its original name is said 
 to have been Siiraj (Sk. Silrya), " City 
 of the Sun," which was changed by a 
 Muhammadan ruler into Siirat, the 
 name of a chapter in the Kuran, as 
 more significant of Muslim domination 
 (Monier Williams, Gontcmp.Bcv. April, 
 1878, p. 32). 
 
 Sweet Nose, a name for a certain 
 promontory in the Polar Sea on Enghsli 
 charts, is a corruption of the Eussian 
 name Sviatoi Noss, i.e. " Holy Point" 
 (Dixon, Free Bussia, vol. i. p. 2). It 
 is called Swetinoz in Hakluyt's Voiages, 
 vol. i. p. 279 (foL). 
 
 The great Arctic explorer, Norden- 
 skjold, observes that many promon- 
 tories of Northern Eussia, which ai-e 
 impassable on account of violent storms 
 and ice, have received the name of 
 Svjatoi iSfos, the Holy Cape. 
 
 SwEBTSiE, a surname, is a corruption 
 ot Sivitzer, Ger. Schweitzer {Chamock). 
 
 Sybil Head, in Kerry, N. AVest of 
 Dingle, is an Anglicized form of Ir. 
 Shihbeal (-Head), i.e. " Isabel's Head," 
 so called in legendary belief from a lady, 
 Isabel Ferriter, having lost her fife in a 
 cave under this promontory where she 
 had taken refuge (Joyce, ii. 167). 
 
 Sychae, the name given by the Jews 
 to " a city of Samaria, which is called 
 [i.e. nicknamed] Sychar " {St. John, iv. 
 5), that is, "city of fa," Heb. Sheker, 
 with allusion to the false claims and 
 idolatrous worship of the Samaritans, 
 is a corruption of its older name, Heb. 
 Shechem (Greek Sychem or Sichem), "a 
 portion," viz. that given to Joseph by 
 Jacob. See Hengstenberg, Gomm. oji 
 St. John, i. 214, Eng. trans. ; Trench, 
 Studies in the Gospels, p. 87; Smith, 
 Bii. Diet. iii. 1395. 
 
 Talk-o'-the-Hill, a village on a 
 height in the parish of Audeley, Staf- 
 fordshire, popularly supposed to have 
 got its name from a conference or 
 council of war held there either by 
 Charles I., or, according to others, by 
 Charles Edward in 1745; formerly 
 called Thalhon tlie Hill {Hist, of House 
 of Stanley, 1793, p.8). Thenameofthe 
 height was no doubt originally in Cel- 
 tic Tulach; compare Gaelic tulach, a 
 hill, Irish tulach (tulaigh, tealach), 
 whence the Ir. place-names Tullig, 
 Tallow (Joyce, i. 376) ; Welsh twlch, a 
 tump or knoll. The addition on-the-Mll 
 was made when the meaning of the old 
 British word was forgotten. Similarly 
 
TALL-BOY 
 
 ( 561 ) 
 
 TERMAGANT 
 
 Tendle-Eill (Lancashire) zz Welsh pen 
 (hill)+Norse holl {hill) + hill; Brindon 
 Bill (Somerset) = "Welsh h-yn (hill) 4- 
 dun (hill) + hiU ; Mongibello (Etna) = 
 It. mo»<e (mount) + Arab. <7ebeZ(moixat). 
 — Gamett, Essays, p. 70 ; I. Taylor, 
 p. 212. 
 
 Tdk-o'-the-Hill is also the name of a 
 village on an eminence near Newcastle- 
 under-Lyme. See Notes and Queries, 
 eth S. iv. 521 ; v. 297. 
 
 Tall-boy, a surname, is the Norman 
 Talboys (in Domesday Book),Fr. Taille- 
 ioi's, " Cut-wood." 
 
 Tankard, a surname, is a corruption 
 of old Ger. Tanchard, Banhwa/rd, i.e. 
 "thank(ful) ward(en)." 
 
 Takbox. It has been conjectured 
 with much plausibility that this curious 
 surname, as well as that of Tarhucl; 
 was origiually the same as Starhuch, 
 which has been identified with Icel. 
 stur-hdkki, a "big buck," lordling, 
 mighty overbearing man (Ferguson) ; 
 ct. stcsri loMcar, bigger men. Icel. 
 loTcki is used exactly like colloquial 
 English, " old buck," for a good fellow. 
 
 Taetaks, a mis-spelling of Tatars, in- 
 tended to denote the Tartarian or hellish 
 origin of these terrible hordes when 
 they first ravaged Europe. Spenser 
 and others use Tartary for hell (Lat. 
 tmiarus). — Trench, Eng. Past and Pre- 
 sent, Lect. V. So a modem poet makes a 
 young Pole characterize the Eussians as 
 
 the worse than demon hordes, 
 Who to the damned would bring fresh curse, 
 And enter Hell to make it worse. 
 
 A. Auntin, Leszko the Bastard. 
 
 Matt. Paris speaks of them as " the 
 detestable people of Satan, coming forth 
 like demons let loose from Tartarus 
 (hell), so that they were well called 
 Tartars, as if Tartareans " {:= Inferni). 
 —Eist. Major, a.d. 1240 (Taylor, 397). 
 
 St. Louis, on hearing of their devas- 
 tations, is said to have exclaimed : — 
 " Vei nos ipsos quos vocamus Tartaros 
 ad suas Tartareas sedes unde exierunt 
 retrudemus, vel ipsi nos omnes ad 
 coelum advehant" (Gibbon). 
 
 The Tatars perhaps derived their 
 name from the Chinese ta-ta, a bar- 
 bariaii,imitative of unintelligible speech, 
 Uke bar-lar-us, one who can only arti- 
 culate lar-hair-lar, Hot-en-fof, &e. 
 
 The stream of writers make it called Tar- 
 taria from the river Tartar : But Europe and 
 Asia will by wofuU experience justiiie the 
 etymolog-ie, if deduced from Tartarus, Hell. 
 For when tlie spring-tides of this nation over- 
 flowed the banks, hell might seem to have 
 broken loose, and to have sent so many devils 
 abroad. — Thos. Fuller, Historie of the Holy 
 U'orre, p. 268 (164.7). 
 
 To the High and Mightie Prince of Dark- 
 nesse, Douselldell Lucifer, King of Acheron, 
 Styx, and Phlegeton, Duke of Tarturti. — 
 Nash, Pierce Peiiilesse, 1592, p. 13 (Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 
 Teeth, a surname, is said to be a 
 corruption of old Eng. atte Heath 
 (Charnock). 
 
 Teleph, a Scandinavian Christian 
 name, is an assimilation to the Greek 
 Telephus of Tellev, which is a shortened 
 form of Tlmlleiv, from Thorleif, "Thor's 
 reUc" (Yonge, Christ. Names, ii. 262). 
 
 Telfair, \ surnames, are corruptions 
 Telfoed, Jof Telfer, Fr. Taille-fer, 
 
 " Cut-iron" (Charnock). See Ludlow, 
 
 Epics of M. Ages, ii. 143. 
 
 Telltown, the modern name of the 
 old Irish Talten (vid. Fergusson, Bude 
 Stone Monuments, 220). Joyce spells 
 it Teltown, and says it was named 
 Taillten by King Lewy in honour of 
 his foster-mother Taillte (p. 194). 
 
 Temps, John dtj, the name commonly 
 given to a veteran who is said to have 
 died in France in 1128 upwards of 300 
 years old, is a natural perversion of his 
 real name John d'Etampes or d'Estampes 
 ( The GonciUaior ofMamasseh Ben Israel, 
 ii. 106, ed. Lindo). 
 
 Johannes de Temporibus, John of the 
 Times (so called for the sundrie times or 
 ages he lined) was Shield-Knaue vnto the 
 Emperour Charles the Great. — J. Weever, 
 Funeratl Mormments, p. 595, 1631. 
 
 Tenpenny, a Connaught surname, is 
 an Anghcized form of Irish O'Tiom- 
 padn (O'Donovan). 
 
 Terence, Teeey (from Lat. Teren- 
 tius), is sometimes used in Ireland as a 
 supposed equivalent of Turlough (Yonge, 
 Hiit. of Christ. Names, i. 324). 
 
 Termagant, (1) a supposed Saracenic 
 deity generally paired with Mahound 
 or Mahomet, (2) a ranting character in 
 the old English drama, now used for 
 (3) a scolding virago, is a corruption of 
 old Fr. Tervagani, It. Trivigante, which 
 
TEBBYLAND 
 
 ( 562 ) TOSTINGS' WELL 
 
 is perhaps for Tri-vagante or Ter- 
 vagante, intended for Diana, Trivia, or 
 Hecate, " wandering under three 
 names " (see Nares, and Wheeler, Noted 
 Names of Fiction). It was confused 
 perhaps with It. termigisio, " a great 
 boaster, quareller, killer, . . . the child 
 of the earthquake and of the thunder " 
 (Florio), apparently another form of 
 trismegisto, "thrice greatest." The Ice- 
 landic word is Terrogant (Spenser, 
 F. Q. VI. vii. 47 ; Hamlet, iii. 2). 
 
 Kar guerpissez jVlahom, guerpissez Terva- 
 gant. Vie de St. Auban, 1. 819. 
 
 [Then renounce Mahomet, renounce Terva- 
 gant.] 
 
 Blaspheming" Trivigant and Mahomet 
 And all the Gods ador'd in Turks profession. 
 HaHngton, Orlando Furioso, xii. 44. 
 
 He sayde, Child, by Termagaunt, 
 But if" thou prike out of myn haunt, 
 Auon I slee thy stede with mace. 
 
 Chaucer, C. Tales, loTiH. 
 
 Nor flight the reader with the pagan vaunt 
 Of mighty Mahound and great Terraagaunt. 
 Hall, Satires, 1. i. 1. 4. 
 
 Tbeeyland, a place-name in Galway, 
 is a corruption of Ir. Tir-oilein, " dis- 
 trict of the island" (Joyce, i. 58). 
 
 Thaddeus, meaning "praise " in the 
 Aramean, is in some instances merely 
 a modem transformation of the Erse 
 TadJig (Teagiie, or Thady), " a poet " 
 (MissYonge, History ofG Ivristian N amies, 
 vol. i. p. 5). 
 
 Thankful, a surname, is said to be a 
 corruption of Tankerville (Charnock). 
 
 Themis (Greek), right, law, also the 
 goddess of justice, seems to be an adap- 
 tation, under the influence of tithemi, 
 to set or lay down, of Egyptian Tlmiei, 
 the goddess of truth and justice. Hence 
 also perhaps Heb. Thummm (see "Wil- 
 'kinson,AncientEgyptians,\oL i. p. 296, 
 ed. Birch). 
 
 Thong Castle, near Sittingbourne, 
 owes its name to the Norse word tunga, 
 a tongue of land (Taylor, 393). 
 
 Thoeoughgood, a surname, is an 
 expansion of Thurgood, originally a 
 Danish name, corresponding to Icel. 
 Thor-gautr. 
 
 Theeadneedle Steeet, London, is a 
 corruption of the older name Three- 
 needle Street. 
 
 At a tavern door there is a passage through 
 
 out of Cornehill into Threeneedle street. 
 
 Stow, Survaii, 1603, p. 73 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Then is the free school pertaining to the 
 late dissolved hospital of St. Anthony, . . . 
 and so up to Three needle street. — Id. p. 68. 
 
 Three-needle was easily and natu- 
 rally corrupted into Threed-needle, 
 threed being the old form of thread, 
 as if a twist of three filaments, like Sp. 
 Trenga, " a Breed of three Threads, 
 from ires, three " ; " Trenea, a cord of 
 three strands" (Stevens, 1706); and 
 tress, orig. a threefold or triple plait, 
 from Greek tricha, triple. See Theeed, 
 p. 389, and compare the following : — 
 
 They haue as strange a Fence or Hedge for 
 their Gardens and possessions, namely, a 
 threed of Cotton. ... So much safer is their 
 threed wouen with this imagination, then all 
 our stone- wals. — S. Purchas, Pilgrimages, 
 America, p. 1015. 
 
 Tidy, a surname, as well as Tide- 
 mann, is said to be from Netherlandish 
 Tlviad, Icel. Thjodh, people (Yonge, ii. 
 338). Compare Frisian Tide, for Theod- 
 ric. 
 
 Tipple, ') surnames, are oorrup- 
 TiPPET, >tions of Tihhald, the 
 TwoPOTTS, J popular form of Tlieo- 
 iald. Mr. M. A. Lower says, " I know 
 a place called Tipplers Oreen, which in 
 old writings is called "Theobald's 
 Green " (Essays on Eng. Surnames, p. 
 97). 
 
 Tombs. This funereal surname is 
 for Toines, i.e. Toms or Tom's (so. son), 
 just as Timbs is for Tims, i.e. Timothy's 
 son (Bardsley). 
 
 Tom Kbdgwick, a name popularly 
 given to a river in New Brunswick, is 
 a corruption of Petamhediac, itself a 
 contraction of the native name Quah- 
 Tah- Wah-Am- Quah-Duavic (Taylor, 
 391). 
 
 Toebe DEL PuLCi (Tower of Fleas), 
 a watch-tower in Sicily, standing on 
 the site of what was once a temple del 
 Polluee, of Pollux (Southey, Common 
 Place Booh, iv. p. 612). 
 
 TosTiNGs' Well, the popular name 
 of a spring in the western suburbs of 
 the town of Leicester, which might 
 seem to be a relic of the Saxon Tostig, 
 is a corruption of its older name St. 
 Austin's Well into 't Austin's Well, hke 
 
TOUB SANS VENIN ( 563 ) 
 
 TBISTBAM 
 
 Tddley, TamtUn's, TelKn's, for 8t. Olaf, 
 St. Antholin's, StHelen's. It wascalled 
 St Augustine's Well from its vicinity 
 to an Augustine monastery {Choioe 
 Noies,Pol]iL(yre,Tp. 205). 
 
 Tour sans Venin, the tower which 
 no poisonous animal can approach, 
 owes its name and legend to a corrup- 
 tion of San Verena or Saint Vrain into 
 san veneno, sans venin (M. Miiller, Lec- 
 tures, 2nd S. p. 368). 
 
 ToussAiNT, "All Saints' (Day)," used 
 as a Fr. Christian name, is said to be 
 in some instances a corruption of Tos- 
 tmn, the name of a knight who fought 
 at Hastings, which is another form of 
 Thnrstanj Scand. Thorstein, "Thor's 
 stone," whence also Tunstan and Tun- 
 stall (Yonge, Christian Names, ii. 206). 
 Compare Norweg. Steinthor, Steindor. 
 
 Another corruption of Thorstone is, 
 no doubt, Throwsione, who was sheriff 
 of London (d. 1519). — Stow, Siirvay, 
 p. 117. 
 
 TowEEMOEE, an Irish place-name 
 (Cork), is an Anglicized form of Ir. 
 Teamhair mor, " the greater elevation " 
 (Joyce, i. 284). 
 
 TooGOOD, a surname^ is a corruption 
 of the Walloon family-name Thungut 
 (S. Smiles, The Huguenots, p. 320, 
 1880). 
 
 Teailplat, in Dumfriesshii-e, a cor- 
 ruption of the older name Traverflat, 
 from the Celtic treahhar, a naked side 
 (Skene, Oeliic Scotland, p. 215). 
 
 Teeaclb Field, the name of a field 
 near the Old Passage on the Severn, is 
 a homely corruption of Thecla('s) Field, 
 there being a very ancient chapel dedi- 
 cated to St. Thecla, now in ruins, on an 
 islandadjoiniiig(T7ieGMardmw,May28, 
 1879, p. 752). 
 
 Teicala, " thrice beautiful," a town 
 in Thessalyj is a corruption of its an- 
 cient name Tricca. The change by 
 which it has arrived at its present form 
 IS a good example of a process which is 
 found more or less in most languages, 
 but nowhere so conspicuously as in mo- 
 dem Greek ;— this is, the modification 
 of an oldname in such a way as to give 
 it a distinct meaning in the spoken 
 tongue. Thus Scu2n is altered into 
 
 Scopia, "the look-out place;" Nwxos 
 into Axia, "the worthy;" Peparethos 
 into Pipei-i, "pepper; " Astypalcea into 
 AstropalcBa, " old as the stars ; " Grissa 
 mto Oh)-yso, "the golden." The Italians 
 when occupying parts of Greece simi- 
 larly changed Monte Hymetto into Monie 
 Matto, " the mad mountain ; " and 
 Evripo or Egripo, the later form of 
 Euripus, mto Negroponte, "the black 
 bridge," a name which was subse- 
 quently applied to the whole of Eubcea 
 (Tozer, Eighldnds of Turkey, vol. ii. p. 
 
 Teipe CodiSt, London, was originally 
 Stnjpe's Court (Taylor, 399). 
 
 Tkisteam, originally the name of a 
 celebrated hero of mediseval romance, 
 anciently spelt Tristrem, Tristan, Try- 
 stan, formed from the Cymric name 
 Trwst (Welsh trwst, trystau, noise, din, 
 thunder, try Stan, a blusterer), under- 
 stood as a herald or proclaimer (Yonge, 
 Christ. Names, ii. 145). 
 
 The name was generally associated 
 with Pr. trist, Lat. tristis, sad, and sup- 
 posed to refer to the melancholy cir- 
 cumstances of the hero's birth. It was 
 probably in allusion to this that Don 
 Quixote accepted the sobriquet of " the 
 Knight of the Eueful Countenance" 
 (Id.). Compare also Welsh trwstan, 
 unlucky. Sterne calls the name " Melan- 
 choly dissyllable of sound 1 " {Tristram 
 Shandy, vol. i. ch. xix.). 
 
 Ah, my little sOnne, thou haSt murthered 
 thy mother. . . . And becatlse I shall die of 
 the birth of thee, I charge thee, gentlewoman, 
 that thou beseech my lord king Meliodas, that 
 when my son shall be christened let him be 
 named Tristram, that is as much to say as 
 sorrowf'uU birth. — Malory, Historic qf' K. Ar- 
 thur, 1634, vol. ii. p. 3 (ed. Wright). 
 
 Tristram, or sad face, became identified with 
 the notion of sorrow ; so that the child of St. 
 Louis, born while his father was in captivity 
 on the Nile, and his mother in danger at 
 Damietta, was named Jean 2'nstan. — Yonge, 
 Christ. Names, ii. 145, 
 
 Tristrem in old romances is uni- 
 formly represented as the patron of the 
 chase, and the first who reduced hunt- 
 ing to a science. " Sir Tristrem," or 
 " an old Tristrem," passed into a com- 
 mon proverbial appellation for an ex- 
 pert huntsman (Sir W. Scott, Sir Tris- 
 trem, p. 273). This was due, perhaps, 
 to an imagined connexion with trist, an 
 
TEOJA 
 
 ( 664 ) 
 
 TBOY TOWN 
 
 old term of the chase for a station in 
 hunting. 
 
 On hunting oft he yede, 
 To swiche alawe he drewe, 
 
 Al thus; 
 More he couthe of veneri, 
 Than couthe Manerious. 
 
 air Tristrem, fytte i. St. xxvii. 
 
 The hooke of Tenery of hawking and hunt- 
 ing is called the booke of Sir Tristram. — Ma- 
 lory, Hist, of K. Arthur, ii. 6 (ed. Wright). 
 
 Teoja, the Greek name of an Egyp- 
 tian town, is a corrupted form of Turah, 
 ancient Egyptian Tu-roau, "the moun- 
 tain of the great quarry " (Brugsch, 
 Egypt under the Pharaohs, i. p. 74). 
 
 Strabo and Diodorus accotmt for the 
 name by feigning that the town was 
 built by the Trojan captives of Mene- 
 laus who came to Egypt after the siege 
 of Troy ! 
 
 Teoublefield, a surname, is a cor- 
 ruption of Tv/rherville (Oamden, B,e- 
 maines, 1637, p. 148). 
 
 Tkoynovant, Troynova, or New Troy, 
 a name frequently given to London in 
 the old chroniclers and poets, supposed 
 to have been so called because founded 
 by a mythical king Brute from old 
 Troy, is a corruption of Trinovant, or 
 Tr?TOo6(M/,namedfrom the Trinobantes, 
 one of the native British tribes. 
 
 Whenne Brute had thus desti'oyed the 
 Geaunts ... he commyng by y« Ryuer of 
 Thamys, for pleasur thathe had in that Ryuer, 
 with also the Commodities therunto adioyn- 
 ynge, beganne tiiere to buylde a Cytie in the 
 remembraunce of the Cytie of Troye lately 
 subuerted ; and named it Troynoimnt : whiche 
 is as moche to saye as newe Troye, which 
 name enduryd tylle the commynge of Lud. — 
 Fabyon, Chronicle, cap. iiii. p. 11 (ed. Ellis). 
 
 dsesar nameth the city of Trinobantes, 
 which hath a resemblance with Troynova, or 
 Trinobantum, — Stow, Siirvay, 1603, p. 2 (ed. 
 Thoms). 
 
 As Jeffreye of Monmoth, the Welche his- 
 torian, reporteth. Brute . . . builded a citie 
 neare unto a river now called Thames, and 
 named it Trnynovant, or Trenovant. — Id. ed. 
 1598, p. 1. 
 
 What famous off-spring of downe raced Troy, 
 King Brute the Conqueror of Giants fell, 
 Built London first these Mansion Towers of 
 
 As all the spacious world may witnesse well, 
 Euenhe it was, whose glory more to vaunt. 
 From burned Troy, sur-named this T'roy- 
 nouant. 
 R. Johnson, Londons Descriptiov, 1607. 
 
 Ctesar. You must forgive the towns which 
 did revolt, 
 Nor seek revenge on Trinobants. . . . 
 .... So let these decrees 
 Be straight proclaim'd through Troynomnt 
 
 whose tower 
 Shall be more fairly built at my charge. 
 
 J. Fisher, Fidmus Troes, act v. sc. 6 
 (1633). 
 Even to the beauteous verge of Trou-novant, 
 That decks this Thamesis on either side. 
 
 Peele, Descensus Astrate, p. 543 
 (ed. Dyce). 
 Gresham, the heir of golden Gresham's land. 
 That beautified New Troy with Royal Change 
 Badge of his honour and magnificence. 
 
 Peele, Polyhymnia, p. 570 (ed. Dyce). 
 With such an one was Thamis beautifide ; 
 That was to weet the famous Troynovant, 
 Iji which her kingdomes throne is chiefly re- 
 siant. 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV. 11, xxviii. 
 These bawdes which doe inhabite Troynovant, 
 And iet it vp & downe i' th' streetes, aflaunt. 
 In the best fashion, thus vpholde their state. 
 R. C. The Times' Whistle, p. 86, 1. 2727 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 Like Minos, or justjudging Rhadamant, 
 He walkes the darkesome streets of Troynmwnt, 
 Taylor the Wafer-Poet, p. 491. 
 Doubt not ye the Gods have answer'd 
 Catieuchlanian Trinobant, 
 
 Tennyson, Boudicea. 
 
 In order to fit in with this theory as 
 to their legendary progenitor the BriissA 
 were sometimes degraded into the 
 Tirutish. 
 The mightie Brute, firste prince of all this 
 
 lande 
 Possessed the same and ruled it well in one . . . 
 But how much Brutish blod hath sithence be 
 
 spilt 
 To ioyne againe the sondred vnitie ! 
 
 T. NoHone, Gorboduc, 1561, p. 109 
 (Shaks. Soc. ed.). 
 Out of this realme to rase the Brutish Line. 
 Id. p. 123. 
 Teoy Town, the name of a hamlet in 
 Dorsetshire between Dorchester and 
 Blandford, suggestive of Brute and his 
 Trojan colony, appears to be a half- 
 translation, half-perversion, of Welsh 
 caer-troi, a tortuous city (or wall), a 
 labyrinth, from troi, to turn ; cf. troad 
 and troiad, a turning, tro, a turn. 
 
 Such mazes or labyrinths were constructed 
 by the old inhabitants of Britain with banks 
 of turf, of which remains have been found in 
 different parts of the kingdom. They are 
 common in Wales, where they are called 
 Caertroi, that is, turning towns. — Murray's 
 Handbook of Dorset, &c. p. 110. 
 
TETJEFIT 
 
 ( 565 ) 
 
 WATEBFOBD 
 
 ■ Truefit, a Bumame, seems to be 
 identical with Danish Truvid, from 
 Thorvid, " Thor's wood " (Yonge, Christ. 
 Names, ii. 206). 
 
 Tkdeman, a surname, is said to be a 
 corruption of the Cornish Tremaine 
 (Charnock). 
 
 TuLLYLAND, a plaoe-name in Cork, is 
 a corruption of Ir. Tulaigh-Eileain, 
 "Helena's HiJl" (Joyce, i. 58). 
 
 TiJRKHEiM. The German town so 
 named has no connexion with the 
 Turks, but rather with Thiiringern, its 
 old name being Thuringoheim (Andre- 
 sen). 
 
 TuRNBULL St., in London, is a fre- 
 quent old corruption of Turnmill St., 
 originally named from the " Turnmill 
 or Tremill brook, for that divers mills 
 were erected upon it " (Stow, Swrvay, 
 1603, p. 6, ed. Thorns). Other oldforms 
 of the name are Trylmyl 8t., Trunhall 
 St., Twmhall St., Trillmelle 8t. It is a 
 by-word in the old drama as a resort of 
 profligates (Timbs, London and West- 
 mnster, i. 266 seq. ; Stanley, Memoirs 
 of Westminster Abbey, p. 6). 
 Our Tumbull Street poor bawds to these are 
 base. 
 
 Taylor the Water-Poet, A Bawd. 
 Tamlall, the Bankside, or the Minories. 
 
 Davenport, New Trick to Cheat the Devil. 
 
 Besides new -years capons, the lordship 
 Of Tumbull. 
 
 Randolph, Worki, p. 247 (ed. Hazlitt). 
 
 Turner, a surname, is in some in- 
 stances a corruption of the foreign name 
 Tolner {Ed. Bev. vol. 101, p. 382). 
 
 Twaddle, an Irish surname common 
 in the co. Clare, is a corruption of Dow- 
 dde {N. and Q. 4th S. ii. 231). 
 
 Twopenny. The surname so called 
 is said to be a corruption of the Flemish 
 name Tupigny. 
 
 Sechzehn Hausern, "Beneath the six- 
 teen houses." For the expression com- 
 pare Unter Seidemacher, &c., Lat. inter 
 sicarios (Andresen). 
 
 V. 
 
 Vallais, a corruption of Wallis, the 
 old name of a canton in Switzerland, 
 identical with Welsh, Wiilseh, "foreign," 
 so called from being inhabited chiefly 
 by Italian foreigners (Tozer, Bighlcmds 
 ofTwJcey, vol. ii. p. 170). 
 
 Vaelingacestir, " Camp of the War- 
 lings," was an Anglo-Saxon corruption 
 of the Eoman Verolamium through the 
 form Varlama-cestir (Beda). 
 
 ViELFEASs, a "glutton," used by the 
 German missionaries to Greenland for 
 a pigeon, as if the voracious bird, is a 
 corruption of the Norwegian fidllfrass, 
 " inhabitant of the rocks " (Kistelhuber, 
 in Bevue Polit. et Litteiravre, 2nd S. v. 
 711). 
 
 Viellmann's LtrsT, " many men's 
 delight," the name of a German tea- 
 garden, or lust-garten, was originally 
 (it is said) Fhilomeles Lust (Forste- 
 mann in Taylor, 399). 
 
 ViNiPOPEL, an old corruption in Ger- 
 man oi Phdlippopel, Philippopolis. 
 
 Vision, Monasteee de la, is the 
 name given by the traveller Poncet to 
 the monastery of Bisan in Abyssinia 
 (see Bruce, ed. Panckouke, i. 509 ; ii. 
 160). 
 
 VoLATEKB^, a Latinized form of the 
 name of the Etruscan town Velatlvri, 
 assimilating it to terra (Dennis, Cities 
 and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. ii. p. 
 139). 
 
 Vulgar, a surname, is a corruption 
 of Wulgar or Wulfgar (Charnock). 
 
 U. 
 
 Ugly Piee, The, a place in Guernsey, 
 is a corruption of La Hougue-d-la-Ferre 
 {N. and Q. 5th.S. u. -p. 90). 
 
 Unter Sachsenhausen, " Beneath 
 the Saxon sturgeon," the name of a 
 street in Cologne, was originally Untei- 
 
 W. 
 
 Waemlow, a place in "Worcestershire, 
 was anciently Wcermundes hlcew, the 
 hill of one Wsermund (Taylor, 313). 
 
 Wateefoed, in Ireland (anciently 
 Vadrejhrd), is a corruption of the 
 
WAYLANB-SMITH ( 566 ) 
 
 W00DH0U8E 
 
 Norse Ved>-a-fiordr, the firth of Earns 
 (or wethers). — Taylor, 390. 
 
 Wayland - Smith, the name of a 
 place in Berkshire, anciently Welandes 
 Sniddde, " Wayland's forge, or smithy," 
 so called after A. Sax. Weland, Ger. 
 Wieland, Icel. Volimdr, the mythical 
 hlacksmith or Vulcan of the northern 
 mythology (akin apparently to Icel. 
 pel, craft, wile, and so an artificer). 
 Cf. Icel. Vblundar-Ms (Wayland's 
 house), a labyrinth. See Scott, Kenil- 
 zoorth, ch. xiii. 
 
 Weaey-all Hill, at Glastonbury, 
 seems to be a popular racking of the 
 more ancient name Werall or Werrall, 
 which is probably the same word as the 
 "Wirhael of Chester. 
 
 Thre hawthornes also, that groweth in werall, 
 Do burgc and here grene leaaes at Christmas, 
 I.yje oflosepk of Armathia, 1. 386 (1520, 
 ed. Pynson). 
 
 CoUinson says that Weary-all Hill 
 was so called in legendary belief from 
 St. Joseph and his companions sitting 
 down there weary with their journey ; 
 he also mentions Weriel Park as be- 
 longing to Glastonbury Abbey {Hist, of 
 Somerset, ii. 265, in Brand, Pop. Antiq. 
 iii. 378). 
 
 & when she was taken with guile, 
 
 1)6 ffled from that peril! 
 
 we?t into Worrall (Cot. MS. Wyrhale). 
 Percy Folio MS. vol.' ii. p. 45i, 1. 1074. 
 
 Wbisenau, near Mayence, as if from 
 weise, a meadow, is said to be corrupted 
 from Lat. vicus novus (Andresen). 
 
 Wblfake, a surname, is apparently a 
 corruption of Wolfer, A. Sax. Vulfere, 
 Icel. Ulfar (Yonge, Ghristian Names, ii. 
 269). ■ 
 
 Whitbkead, a surname, is said to be 
 a corruption of the old Eng. name 
 Whitberht (Ferguson, 90). 
 
 WiEspNFELD. j The^e places have 
 WiBSENSTEiG. [ no Connexion with 
 WiESBNTHAU. ) loiese, a meadow, 
 but got their names from the imsep,t, or 
 buffalo, which roanjed in the old Ger- 
 man forests (Andresen). 
 
 WiLBBEFOECB, the sumame, is said to 
 be corrupted from Wilburg foss. 
 
 WiLBEAHAM, a Surname, is an assimi- 
 lation to Abraham of the original local 
 name Wilburgham (Lower). 
 
 WiLDGOosE, a surname, is said to be a 
 corruption of Wilgoss or Wilgis (C!hw- 
 nock). 
 
 WiLDSOHONAU, the name of a valley 
 m N. Tirol, apparently descriptive of 
 its "wild" and " beautiful " scenery, 
 is said to be properly and locally pro- 
 nounced Wiltsch/tiau, being derived 
 from wiltsehefi, to flow, and au, watey 
 (Monthly Packet, N. Ser. vii. 495). 
 
 WiLLAMiSE, a sumame at Oxford, is 
 a corruption of the Huguenot fanuly- 
 name Villehois (S. Smiles, Tlie Hwg'we- 
 nots, p. 323, 1880). 
 
 WiLLODGHBY. This very Enghshr 
 looking name for aj place south of Cal- 
 cutta, recorded in old maps and gazettes, 
 is a corruption of the native name Ulu- 
 haria, so given in Hunter's Imperial 
 Gazetteer of India (Sat. Review, vol. 53, 
 p. 184). 
 
 Wine St., in Bristol, was originally 
 Wynche Street, so called from the eollis- 
 trigium or instrument of torture which 
 formerly stood there (Galendcur of Al- 
 hallowen, Brystowe, p. 64). 
 
 Winifred, or Winifrid, a Christian 
 name, is an Anglicized form of Owen- 
 frewi, "white stream," the name of a 
 Welsh saint, assimilated to A. Sax. 
 Winfrith, "friend of peace" (Yonge, 
 Ghristian Names, ii. 134). 
 
 WiNKBL (corner, nook), in Lange 
 Winhel, the name of a place on the 
 Bhine, is a, corruption of Weinzell, the 
 Vini cella of the Eomans (H. G. Peam- 
 side. Beauties of the Rhifie, p. 184). 
 
 WiNTEETHDR, the name of a small 
 town in Switzerland, as if " Winter- 
 door," is a Germanized form of the 
 Celtic Viiodurum (Forstemann). 
 
 Wqhlfahet, " Welfare, "a,s a German 
 proper-name, is a corruption of |Fo?/- 
 hart (Andresen). 
 
 WoMBNSwoLD, the popular pronun- 
 ciation of the place-name Wilmings- 
 wold. So Simpson of Selmeston (Sus- 
 sex); Wedgpfietdoi Wednesfield ; Nurs- 
 ling of Nutshalling (see N. and Q. 5th 
 S. ii. 94, 330). 
 
 WooDHODSE, a family-name of East 
 Angha, is a corruption of the old Eng. 
 word iDooda.vose, or wodewose (^pilosus). 
 — Wycliffe, Isaiah xxxiv. 14 {Itoiiiines 
 
WOOLFOBD 
 
 ( 507 ) 
 
 ZEBNEBOGK 
 
 sijhestres, Vulg.) ; of. Is. xiii. 21, Jer. 1, 
 39. 
 
 " Woiewese (woodwose), silvanus, sa- 
 tirus." — Prompt. Parvulorum, o. 1440, 
 from A. Sax. ivode, wood, and loesan, 
 to be; "a man of the woods." 
 
 WooLFORD, ) surnames, are supposed 
 WooLEK, ) to be corruptions of the 
 
 A. Sax. names Wulfwea/rd and Wulf- 
 
 Ittn (Ferguson, 140). 
 
 Wool Lavington, in Sussex, is Wulf- 
 Uflng-tun, Wulflaf s property, as distia- 
 guished from Bar Lavington, i.e. Be&i'- 
 lafing-tun, Beorlaf s property (Kemble, 
 ia FMlolog. Soc. Proc. iv. p. 4). 
 
 WooLSTONE, a surname, is an in- 
 stance of ?■ wolf rnasquerading in 
 sheep's clothing, being a disguised form 
 oiA.B&x.Tulfsteiri, "Wolf-stone, "better 
 known as St. Wulstan (Yonge, Ohrist. 
 Names, Ji. 269], Compare Icel. name 
 Stein-6lfi; Norweg. Steinulf. 
 
 Woolwich, on the Thames, is a cor- 
 ruption of the ancient name Hulviz (in 
 Domesday), i.e. "hill reach," of Norse 
 origin (Taylor, 164). 
 
 WoEMWoon, a surname, is said to be 
 a corruption of Ormond (Camden, Be- 
 maims, 1637, p. 122). 
 
 Wormwood Gate, also called the 
 "Earl's Gate,'- and " Ormond's Gate," 
 Dubhn, is a corruption of Gormond 
 Gate (^Gilbert, History of BuUin, vol. i. 
 p. 344). 
 
 Wrath, Cape, on N. coast of Scot- 
 land, so called as if beaten by wrathful 
 storms, was originally Cape Hvarf, a 
 Norse name indicatiug a point where 
 the land trends in a new direction 
 (Taylor, 890), Cf. A. Sax. hwewrf, a 
 turning, a bank or shore, our " wharf." 
 
 Wbenside, in the Lake District, de- 
 rives its name, not from the bird, but 
 from Hrani,anlcelandic Viking, whence 
 also Eainsbarrow (Taylor, 174). 
 
 Weynose, a place-name on the bor- 
 ders of Westmoreland and Cumberland, 
 is a corruption of the older name Warine 
 Hause {N. and Q. 4th S. i. 555). 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zeenebock, the Teutonic corruption 
 oi Zernihog, " the Black God," the evil 
 principle of the ancient Sclavonians, 
 which was supposed to be compounded 
 of man and goat (boclc). — C. W. King, 
 Hafidhooh of Engraved Gerns, p. 140. 
 
WORDS CORRUPTED BY COALESCENCE OF THE 
 ARTICLE WITH THE SUBSTANTIVE. 
 
 A. 
 
 A — An — The. In popular speech the 
 article frequently coalesces so closely 
 with its substantive, especially when it 
 begins with a vowel, that the two vir- 
 tually become one word, and it some- 
 times happens, when the two are sun- 
 dered again in being committed to 
 writing, that a fragment of the aggluti- 
 nated article adheres to the substan- 
 tive, or a portion of the substantive is 
 carried away by the article. This 
 especially applies to unusual or learned 
 words. Speak to a rustic of an cmie- 
 ihyst, an anagram, an epic, an oxytone, 
 and it is an even chance whether he 
 does not, on being required, write those 
 words a namethyst, a ncmagram, a nepic, 
 a noxytone. It is equally doubtful 
 whether, on the other hand, a narcotic, 
 a narwhal, a nimbus, a nuncio, will not 
 be to him am arcotic, an arwhal, an 
 imbus, an undo. Similarly aluminum, 
 affray, amalgam, alarum, apotJieca/ry, 
 academy, soimd to uneducated ears un- 
 distinguishable from a luminum, a fray, 
 a malgam, a larum, a potheca/ry, a 
 oademy. 
 
 Many of these popular errors are now 
 stereotyped in the language. Every- 
 body writes a newt instead of an ewt, 
 which was originally the correct form ; 
 a nickname, instead of an ehename ; 
 and again, by the opposite mistake, an 
 adder instead of a nadder, an auger 
 instead of a nauger, an apron instead of 
 a napron, an orange instead ofanwange, 
 an umpire instead of a numpire. 
 
 Similar coalitions of the article are 
 
 observable in French and other lan- 
 guages. 
 
 In old texts and MSS. these phe- 
 nomena are of frequent occurrence. 
 For example, Palsgrave (1530) has : 
 " Hec insula, a nylle ; heo acra, u, 
 nahyre ; hie remus, a nore; hec ancora, 
 a nanlcyre.". In Wright's Vocabulaines 
 we find: "He can romy as a nasse; " 
 " he can lowe as a noxe " (p. 151) ; "hoc 
 pollioium, a nynche, hie ooulus, arm" 
 (p. 206) ; "heo auris, a nere; hoc os- 
 trium, a nostyre " (p. 179) ; "hec simea, 
 a nape ; hec aquila, a neggle ; hie lutri- 
 cius, a notyre " (p. 220) ; anguilla, a 
 
 In William of Palerne we find no 
 nei'i, no negg, for non ei^, none egg ; thi 
 narmes for thine a/rmes ; a noynement for 
 an oynement. 
 
 In the Three Metrical Somances 
 (Camden Soc.) we meet a nayre z= an 
 heir, a nanlas zz an aulas, a noke zz an 
 oak. 
 
 In the Holderness dialect f , the defi- 
 nite article, commonly becomes blended 
 with the word it accompanies. And so 
 with theindefinite article ; not onlysuoh 
 forms as " a mawd man " (an old man) 
 may be heard, but even occasionally 
 "two nawd men" {Holderness Glos- 
 sm-y, Eng. Dialect Soc. p. 5). In in- 
 fantile speech the same is observable. 
 A child informed that he might have an 
 egg for breakfast, begs that he may have 
 "two neggs," Compare the following: — 
 The tother was Salowere thene the 3olke of a 
 nayc 
 
 Jllorfe Arthure, 1. 3283 (E.E.T.S.). 
 [i.e. an aye, an egg.] 
 
A— AN— THE 
 
 ( 569 ) 
 
 A— AN— THE 
 
 A mpys mow men sayne he makes. 
 The Boke nf Curtasye (in Way, Prompt. 
 Parv. p. 346). 
 
 [i.e. an ape's mouth.] 
 
 To here of Wisdorae thi neres be halfe defe, 
 Like a Nasse that lysteth upon an Harpe. 
 Hermes Bird {Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum, 
 p. 222). 
 
 The 15th century MS. (Ashmole, 48) 
 has A narrowe, A narchar, A nowar, for 
 An archer, arrow, hour. 
 
 " He set a nwpyll upon ayron yarde" 
 (hence the name of Naples .'). — Thorns, 
 Early Prose Bomomces, ii. 49. On the 
 other hand, egromcmcy (fornegromancy ) 
 occurs Id. p. 52. 
 
 A nother way. — Maundevile, Voia^e, p. 126 
 (ed. Halliwell). 
 
 He sente to hem a nother seruaunt. — Wy- 
 cliffe, Mark xii. 4. 
 
 Bake hem in a novyn. — JVXiS. in Way, 
 Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Whenne thys weiTe ys at A nende. 
 Sege of Rone, Egerton MS. (Percy Folio MS. 
 lii. p. xliv.). 
 
 ".What 'ave you got there ?" asked Mac. 
 " A nerring ! " said Benny. — Froggy' s Little 
 Brother, p. 62. 
 
 It was the boast of an Oxford guide 
 that he "could do the alls, coUidges, and 
 principal hedifioes in a nour and a 
 naff" (Admentwes of Mr, Verdcmt Green, 
 pt. i. ch. v.). 
 
 Coahtions of this description ajre not 
 uncommon in the Manx dialect of the 
 Keltic. Beside the borrowed words 
 naim, an uncle, for yn earn, old Eng. 
 am earn ; na/wnt, an aunt ; neeinfcm, an 
 infant, we find nastee, a gift, for yn 
 astee ; neean, the young of birds, for yn 
 eean; Nerin, Ireland, for yn Erin; 
 Niair, the East, for yn cur ; noash, a cus- 
 tom, for yn cash ; noi, against, for yn 
 oai, the front ; nest, the moon, for yn 
 eayst ; and, on the other hand, yn edd, 
 a nest (as if am, est), for yn nedd (Q-aelio 
 mad) ■, yn eear, the West, for yn neea/r; 
 but niurin, heU, for yn iwrin. 
 
 Compare in Italian aspo and naspo, 
 ahisso and nabisso, astro and nasiro, in- 
 ferno and mmferno, astrico and lastrico ; 
 Gatalon. ansa and nansa; old Span. 
 leste, for I'este, the East (Minsheu) ; 
 Wall, egrimamden, from nearomanden 
 (Diez). 
 
 The name of the vUlage of Nezero in 
 Northern Greece is derived from ezero. 
 
 the Bulgarian word for a lake, near 
 which it is situated, together with the 
 prefix TO, which is the termination of 
 the accusative case of the Greek article 
 attached to the noun. Similar instances 
 are found in Nisvoro, the modem form 
 of the ancient Isboros, Negropont, from 
 Egripo, the coiruption of Euripus, the 
 full form having been Ig rbv "E^cpov, ig 
 Tdv'lapepov, &0. ; Stance, k rijv Km, 8taU- 
 mene, kg Ttjv Arji^vov, the modern names 
 of Lemnos and Cos. 
 
 Again, in plural names, the s of the 
 article becomes prefixed, as in Batinas, 
 formerly the ordinary name for Athens, 
 i.e. Ig T&g 'A9fivag, while here again the 
 full form may be seen in crroig ariXovg, 
 the peasant's name for the remains of 
 the Temple at Bassse, in Arcadia, i.e. 
 The Pillars (Tozer, JResearches in the 
 Highlands of Twrlcey, vol. ii. p. 42). 
 
 It is owing to a similar cause, pro- 
 bably, that in modem Etruria many 
 ancient place-names beginning with a 
 vowel now are written with an initial 
 n — e.g. Norchia, anciently OrehAa, Hor- 
 ohia, and Orde, so Nannius for Anmus, 
 Nanna for Anna (Dennis, Cities and 
 Cemeteries of Etrwia, vol. i. p. 204, ed. 
 1878). 
 
 § The " natural vowel " u, as in "the 
 book," pronounced very quick (Glossic 
 dhu), may be e, a, or m in print (Dr. 
 J. A. H. Murray, Grannma/r of W. Somer- 
 set, E.D.S.) ; and so any shortvowel at 
 the beginning of a word might come to 
 be mistaken for the indefinite article a 
 (e.g. old Eng. ydropsy for a dropsy, 
 isoiatica for a sciatica), or to be merged 
 in the definite article the-whiob. preceded 
 it {e.g. old Eng. the esample, thesample, 
 the sample). 
 
 Thus old Scotch hism, hysyme occur 
 in G. Douglas for abysm, Fr. abysme. 
 
 The Duchess of Norfolk, writing to 
 Pepys in 1681, speaks of "ten or a 
 leven peses" of Scotch plaid {Pepys' 
 Correspondence). 
 
 "Your papa ain't a 'Piscopal," says 
 a New England speaker in Mrs. Stowe's 
 Pogarmc People, " he don't have a 
 'lunvination in his meeting-house." 
 Compare old Pr. U vesgue for U evesgues. 
 It. vescovo, from episcopus. 
 Barouns and Burgeis • and Bonde-men also 
 1 sau3 in |:at Semble • as 3e schul heren her- 
 aftur. 
 Vision of P. Plowman, A. Prol. 1. 9T. 
 
A— AN— THE 
 
 ( 570 ) 
 
 A— AN— THE 
 
 A semblee of Peple. — Maundevile, Voiage 
 and Travaile, p. 3 (ed. Halliwell). 
 
 Ruspiceris [i.e. amspices] are )300 fiat loken 
 to horis or tymis. — Apology for Lollards, 
 p. 95. 
 
 The Sun and the Mune was in the clips be- 
 twixt nin and ten in the morning and was 
 darkish abut three quarters of a nour. — Re- 
 gister of St. Andrew's, Newcastle, Sept. 13, 
 1699 (Burns, Parish Registers, p. 192). 
 
 To the same cause perhaps is due the 
 loss of an initial vowel in many mod- 
 Greek words, e.g. to arpiSi, the oyster, 
 for oltTTplSiov ; TO (jtidt, the snake, for 
 6<piSiov ; TO \dSi, the oil, for iXdSiov ; 
 r; yiSa, the goat, for aiyiSiov ; Kidi, vine- 
 gar, for b^vSiov ; iTTrin, house, for oaTri- 
 Tiov, Lat. hospitium (compare old 
 Eng. spital for hospital). Compare 
 Italian nsinico, pitaffio, racjno, vangelo, 
 vena, oats (Florio), for wemico, epitaffio, 
 aragno, evangelo, avena. 
 
 § The agglutination of the definite 
 article, the, le, with its substantive, was 
 so complete in old English and old 
 French that the two were generally 
 written and printed as one word. For 
 example, in a letter of '' Edward par la 
 grace de dieu Eoi Dengleterre Seigneur 
 Dirlaunde et Dues Daquitaine " to "le 
 Priour de Lahhaye de Westmoster," 
 directed against vagabond monks, and 
 dated "le xxiij jour de May Ian de 
 nostre regne tierz," we find lestat 
 ( = I'etai) and leyde {^la aide) . — Quoted 
 in Stanley, Memoirs of Westminster 
 Abhey, p. 537. 
 
 The title of a book published about 
 1508 is— 
 
 Les pr^sentes Heures a lusage de Rouan 
 . . . aueo ... les figures de lapocalipse, . . . 
 et aultres hystoires faictes h lantique (in 
 Nisard, Hist, des Livres Popiiluires, ii. 290). 
 
 In the Oregon jargon spoken along 
 the Columbia Eiver, lamestin, medicine, 
 is from Fr. la medicine ; lalwn, tongue, 
 for la la/figue ; litan, teeth, for les dents ; 
 lahles, for la grasse ; lawie for la vieille 
 (Wilson, Prehistoric Mam, vol. ii. pp. 
 587, 588). 
 
 Caxton has thincarnacion {Poly- 
 chronieon, 1482, p. 1); thapostles (Id.); 
 thende, thahbay {Godfrey of Boloyne, 
 last page) ; ihangel, thadvent, " thahyte 
 of a monk," thenienf, therthe, thepy- 
 phanye, ihAsiorie, ihono^ir, tliospytal, &c. 
 Talde lushc, th' old law, occurs in 
 Orminn, about 1200, vol. ii. p. 280 ; 
 " towd hen." the old hen, was a popu- 
 
 lar name for the eagle of the lectern in 
 Chester Cathedral. 
 
 Nowe let the women also praye after thex- 
 ample of the men. — IV. Udall, Trans. Paraph, 
 of Erasmus, 1549. 
 
 " You would have vs uppon tldpp, 
 would you?" [i.e. the hip]. — Sir 
 Thomas More, MS. Ra/rl. 7368, fol. 8. 
 Tusser (1580) has thenorease for the en- 
 crease, thend for the end. 
 
 Chaucer speaks of " Daniel in thorri- 
 hle cave " [Man of Laws Tale, 1. 4893, 
 ed. Wright), which recalls the song of 
 " a norrible tale," popular some twenty 
 years ago. 
 
 The Cumberland folk say " Twether 
 an' tivasps hes spoilt o' trasps " [the 
 weather and the wasps have spoiled all 
 the rasps] . — Dickinson, Glossary, p. vi. 
 
 The natives of the Teme Valley, Here- 
 fordshire, commonly pronounce the as 
 thun. Thus " thun Orchard," "thun 
 Ash," "thun Oak," "thun Hole," 
 farms which have since become " the 
 Norchard," " the Nash," " the Noke," 
 and "the Knoll" farms {N. and Q. 
 5th S. ii. 197). 
 
 So "Atten ale." — Vision concerning 
 Piers the Plowman, Pass 1. 1. 43, Text C. 
 (in some MSS. atte nale, and at the nale 
 occurs in Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 6931), 
 is to be analyzed into at,ten{oi then),th.e 
 dative of the article, and ale ( := ale- 
 house). So at the nende is for at then 
 end ; and compare surnames like Atten- 
 horough; atte nohe, atte norchard, are 
 also found for at then ohe, at then or- 
 cha/rde. 
 
 A similar corruption is the toni', the 
 tother, from that one, that other, where t 
 is the sign of the neuter gender, as in 
 tha-t, i-t (cf. Lat. d in i-d, quo-d, illu-d). 
 — Skeat, Notes to Piers the Plowman, 
 p. 8, and p. 118. 
 
 § The initial letter changes in Celtic 
 words, it has been pointed out by Lord 
 Strangford {Letters and Papers, p. 182), 
 were merely phonetic originally, and 
 now have been raised to a grammatical 
 value by the art of writing, which fixed 
 them. That acute philologist remarks : 
 "An Irish ' eclipse ' is merely this : sup- 
 pose modern Greek unwritten, and 
 taken down for the first time as Irish 
 was once taken down, rbv tottov, Ti)V 
 TToXii', tonddpo, timbdli, or toddpo, tibdli, if 
 you choose, for no Greek conceives the 
 
A— AN— TEE 
 
 ( 571 ) A— AN—THE 
 
 alternatives to be other than the same 
 thing. Literary fashion may separate 
 them, when first written, as to ndopo, ti 
 mboli; and grammarians, improving 
 on it, and seeking to show the original 
 letter and the pronunciation at once, 
 pjay write to d-topo and ti h-poU s thus 
 people would ultimately cease to recog- 
 nize the d and 6 as part of the article. 
 This is a pure, genuine Irish eclipse. 
 So, in "Welsh, you may call pen, a head, 
 fy mhen, my head, grammatical permu- 
 tation ; but it is really merely phonetic 
 in origin, nwn or ■nvim mhen for niin pen 
 (meina penna); which m?w, I believe, is 
 actually found." 
 
 Lord Strangford remarks that in Al- 
 banian iTmri, tniirit, tcvmircma, &c., are 
 inflectionalforms of the word mir, good, 
 and that these initial changes cannot 
 possibly be other than " the stiffened 
 dead remains of a prefixed article, once 
 a separate word " (Letters and Papers, 
 p. 145). 
 
 § A curious instance of two words, 
 when pronounced, running together 
 and leading to a misunderstandiug, ocr 
 enrred a few years ago in the House of 
 Commons. A member, in supporting 
 the Eoyal Titles BiU, spoke of "this 
 legitimate and reasonable proposal." 
 The Speaker, catching the words as 
 "legitimate an' dreasonable," and think- 
 ing, with Soto in the play (Women 
 Fkased, iv. 1) — 
 
 There's a strange parlous T before the reason, 
 A very tall T, which makes the word high- 
 treason, — 
 
 promptly called the honourable mem- 
 ber to order for using the word " trea- 
 sonable." The member explained, 
 amidst Iqud cheers, that the word he 
 used was "reasonable." In fact, he 
 was unconsciously a victim to aggluti- 
 nation. The following miscellaneous 
 instances of the influence of popular 
 pronunciation uppn words in this way 
 may be noted : — 
 
 " The werlde es thy nowene " (Morte 
 Arthvre, 1. 1806), i.e. The world is thine 
 own. 
 
 "Wei bruc Jju \in euemng" (King 
 Eom, 1. 206), a miswriting for K neue- 
 tiing, " Enjoy well thy naming " (as if 
 m Mod. Eng. " thine aming "). 
 
 We even find in Wyoliffe, " Prestis 
 seien nijoe masse" (Unprinted Wm'Tcs, 
 
 E.E.T.S. p. 336), "Priests say high 
 mass," where the n of the previous 
 word has got attached to hy^e. 
 
 In an inventory of 1519 occurs 
 "fuschan in appules " for "fustian o' 
 Naples" (Peacock, Ghwrch Fwrnitwre, 
 p. 200). 
 
 The colloquial French phrase, Hre en 
 age, to be in a great perspiration, stands 
 for etre en nage, as if " to be in a swim " 
 (Larchey, Scheler). 
 
 In the Creole patois, similarly, zan- 
 neau is for des awneawns ; ~zebe for des 
 herhes ; zoreie for des oreilles ; dmin, 
 wine, for du vin (J. J. Thomas, Creole 
 Grammar). 
 
 Tawdry, originally gaudy like the 
 goods sold at St. Awdry's fair, has ap- 
 propriated the t of Saint, as in the old 
 church- and street-names, Tabh's (St. 
 Ebb's), Tann's, (St. Ann's), Tantolin's 
 (St. Antholin's), Tooley (St. Olave). 
 
 So to before the infinitive is in old 
 English often agglutinated. 
 
 He ne myghte out of his herte throwe 
 This mei-ueillous desyr, his wyf tassaye, 
 Needlees, god wot, he thoughte hir for 
 taj^raye. 
 
 Chaucer, Clerkes Tale, 1. 450. 
 
 In Vision of F. Plowman, A. ix. 20, 
 one MS. has a torn for at hom, at 
 home. 
 
 In the same poem we read of 
 
 A Castel of Kuynde I-mad ■ oifoure skynnes 
 binges. 
 
 Pass. X. 1. 2 {MS. H. 2). 
 
 i.e.foures hynnes, of four kinds of things. 
 
 T'he surname Nolt was originally 
 aiten-holt, At the wood, like Atwood, 
 Atwell, Attenborough ; Nash for atten- 
 ash, Nalder for atten-alder ; so Tash 
 from " at th'Ash," Thynne from " at 
 th'Inne" (Bardsley, Itomance of the 
 London Directory, p. 45). 
 
 The plain of Nasor (1 Maccabees xi. 
 67) is a mistake for Asor (=: Hazor), due 
 to the final n of the preceding word in 
 the Greek (LXX.) version, " to veSiov 
 THaaiip," having become attached to it 
 (Bih. Diet. n. 466). Similarly Eusebius 
 has eariv 'OopaO for iari fioopdO, "it is 
 Naarath" {Id. p. 453). 
 
 Lough Oorrib, in Ireland, would be 
 more correctly Loch Orrib, but the two 
 words got glued together, and, when 
 parted, one carried away a portion of 
 the other (Joyce, i. 158L 
 
ABAOOT 
 
 ( 572 ) 
 
 AHFBOIE 
 
 To trickle. Prof. Skeat holds, was 
 once to strickle, O. Eng. strikelen (from 
 O. E. striken, to flow), but the word 
 being almost always used in the colloca- 
 tion " tears strickle," "teres strikelen," 
 the initial s was merged in the pre- 
 ceding word and finally lost. 
 
 Abacot, a word given in almost every 
 Eng. dictionary, from Phillips down- 
 wards, with the meaning, "a cap of 
 estate in the form of two crowns worn 
 by the kings of England," and so in 
 Spelman, Olossarium, 1664, and Baker, 
 Chronicle, 1641, who apparently took it 
 from Holinshed (ed. A. Fleming), 1587. 
 Dr. J. A. H. Murray has shown that 
 this abacot is a corruption (probably 
 under the influence of Lat. abacus, Fr. 
 ahaque) of an older form ahococket (in 
 Hall, 1550), which again is merely a 
 bococket, run together into one word, or 
 rather a bycocket or bycoket (Fabyan, 
 Ohron. 1494, p. 654). Old Eng. by- 
 cocket is from old Fr. bicoquet, biqiioqixet, 
 a military cap, a diminutive of old Fr. 
 hicoquK. Compare Sp. hicoquin, a cap 
 with two points (The Athenceum, Feb. 
 4, 1882, p. 157). These latter words are 
 perhaps akin to cock, a projection; then 
 abacot would be just "a bi-cocked " 
 (hat). 
 
 Abee (Fr.), the aperture through 
 which the water flows that puts a mill 
 in motion, has originated in la bee, the 
 opening (from beer, to be open), being 
 mistaken for rahee (Scheler). Compare 
 Prov. Fr. (Berry) "mettre a la coi" (in 
 shelter) for a I'acoie, or a I'ecoi (Littre, 
 Hist, de la Langue Frangaise, i. 127). 
 
 Abeostino (It.), a sort of wild grape, 
 is for labrostino, from Lat. labruscmn 
 (Diez), the I being dropped as if be- 
 longing to the article. 
 
 Adder stands for a nadder (Scot, a 
 wetfier), misunderstood as an adder, old 
 Eng. naddere, neddere, A. Sax. ncedre, 
 loel. na^r, Goth, nadrs, probably de- 
 rived from Lat. natrix (swimmer), a 
 water-snake, whence also L:. nathair, a 
 snake, Welsh nad/r (see W. Stokes, 
 Irish Olosses, p. 46). Benfey connects 
 the word with Sansk. root snd, to bathe, 
 which is, indeed, common to Lat. nare, 
 to swim, and natrix. 
 
 Neddyr, or eddyr. Serpens. — Prompt. 
 Paw. 
 
 Eobert of Gloucester says of Ire- 
 land: 
 
 Nedres ny o\)eT wormes ne mow Jier be 
 no3t. — Chronicle, p. 4^. 
 
 Agosta, or aj>-agosta, a name in the 
 Adriatic for the langouste, or cray-fish 
 (Palinwus vulga/)is), the initial I being 
 mistaken for the article. See Long- 
 OYSTEE, p. 222. 
 
 Albateos, formerly spelt algatros, 
 Sp. alcatraz, a sea-bird, originally the 
 pelican, in the sense of a "water- 
 carrier," stands for Arab, al-qddus, 
 "the-watervessel," from (Arab.) ai!,the, 
 + (Greek) hddos, a water-vessel (De- 
 vic). 
 
 Alcove, Fr. alcove, Sp. alcoba, Portg. 
 alcova, from Arab, al-qobba, "the- 
 closet." EtymologioaUy, therefore, if 
 we say " the alcove," the expression is 
 tautological ; just as " an aVcaU " (Arab. 
 al-qali) is equivalent to " an fhe-kali," 
 and "the Alcoran" (Arab, al-qor&n, 
 " the reading ") is " the the-Coran." 
 
 Similar formations involving the 
 Arabic article are Alchemy, from Arab. 
 al-Mrma ; Alcohol, from Arab, al-kohl ; 
 Alembic, from AJrab. al-anbiks Al- 
 gebra, from Arab, al-jahr; Almanack, 
 apparently from Arab, al-mcmakh. 
 
 The Arabic article al is latent in Sp. 
 achaque, illness ; adbar, aloe-tree ; ana- 
 far, brass; azogue, quicksilver; azucena, 
 hly. It appears more plainly in Sp. 
 alacran, scorpion ; alarde, a review ; al- 
 bornoz, mantle ; alboroto, riot ; alcahala, 
 alcaide, &c. 
 
 Alligator contains a coalescent 
 article, formerly spelt alaga/rtoe, stand- 
 ing for Sp. el lagarto, " the hzard." 
 
 Alumelle (Fr.), old Fr. alemelle, owe 
 their initial a to the article, and should 
 properly be la lumelle, la lemeUe (mis- 
 understood as Valemelle), from Lat. 
 lamella, i.e. lammula, a dimin. of 
 lamina (Scheler). See Omelet below. 
 
 Ammunition, an Eng. form of old Fr. 
 amunition, which seems to be due to a 
 popular misunderstanding of la viumi- 
 tion as I' amunition (Skeat, Etym. Bid. 
 p. 777). 
 
 Ampeoie (Prov. Fr. Wallon), a lam- 
 prey, is from Fr. lamproie (understood 
 as Vamproie), Sp. and Portg. lamprea. 
 It. lampreda, Lat. lampetra (Littre). 
 
ANGESPADE 
 
 ( 573 ) 
 
 AUGEB 
 
 Ancespadb, an old name for the 
 petty officer called a lance-corporal, is 
 ■ another form of lancespade (also used), 
 misunderstood as Vancespade, Fr. lance- 
 mssade (Cotgrave), It. Icmcia spezzaia 
 (from spezzare, to break), " a Lanee- 
 spezzado, a demie-lanoe, a light-horse- 
 man." — Florio. 
 
 Angouste, an old French word for a 
 locust or grass-hopper (Cotgrave), is 
 properly Za»i^oMS<e. Compare Agosta. 
 
 Locust, Langouste, haneton, angouste.- — 
 Sherwood, Eng.-French Diet. 1660. 
 
 Antille, a Wallon word for a freckle 
 or red spot, is from Fr. lentille (Lat. 
 feM<tcMZii),evidently mistaken as Ventille. 
 
 Anveyeeg, the name of a parish in 
 Monaghan, is Ir. An-hheith-dhearg, i.e. 
 " The-red-bireh " (Joyce, i. 23). 
 
 Apeicot, Fr. dbricot, Portg. albricoque, 
 contain the Arab, article al, being from 
 Arab, al-harquq, i.e. al, the, + Lat. 
 priBcoqua, early ripe (fruit). 
 
 Apron is a corrupt form, originating 
 in a napron being mistaken for an 
 apron, exactly as if we used an aphin 
 for a napTcin. Napron or naprun is the 
 form found in prov. and old English, 
 from old Fr. naperon (or napperoti), a 
 large cloth, derived from old Fr. najpe, a 
 cloth (Mod. Fr. nappe), which word is a 
 corruption of Lat. mappa. 
 
 Barmclothe or naprun, Limas. — Prompt, 
 Parv, 
 
 [He] put before his lap a napron white. 
 Spenser, F. Queene, V. v. 20. 
 
 Nappem, an apron. — Lancashire Glossary, 
 E. D. S. p. 196. 
 
 Billmen in almaine rivets, and apernes of 
 mail in great numbers. — Stow, Survay, 1603, 
 p. 39 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 For a similar mistake compare : — 
 Charevasti'e, An Ash Cloth, Nush-clolh, or 
 Buckcloth. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Argot, the French word for slang, 
 cant, was probably at first un nargot, 
 denoting (1) a thief or robber, (2) 
 thieves' language. Compare narqucris, 
 apparently for narguois [connected with 
 narguer, to mock or sneer, na/rgues, a 
 term of contempt, "Tush! pish! " (Cot- 
 grave), from Lat. naricare, to turn up 
 the nose (na/res) at, to sneer], defined 
 by Cotgrave as "An impostor. Counter- 
 feit Eogue, . . . also the gibbridge or 
 barbarous language used among them." 
 
 Abigot, which Cotgrave gives as an 
 old Fr. word for the musical instrument 
 called a recorder, is evidently the same 
 word as kmgau (for laringau, from 
 la/rynx, the throat), " The head of the 
 windpipe or throat, . . . the instrument 
 of receiving and letting out breath ; 
 also a Flute or Pipe is called so by the 
 clowns in some parts of France " [Id.). 
 
 _ Atomy, used in old and prov. Eng- 
 lish for a skeleton, stands for anatomy, 
 which was formerly used in that sense 
 (Greek anaiome, a " cutting up " or 
 dissection), mistaken as an atomy. 
 Compare the following : — 
 
 The Egyptians had a custome ... in the 
 middest of their feasts to have brought before 
 them Anatomie of a dead body dried. — Sir R. 
 Barchley, Felicitie of Man, 1631, p. 30. 
 
 Dot. Goodman death, goodman bones ! 
 
 Host. Thou atomy, thou ! 
 
 Dot. Come you thin thing ; come, you 
 rascal. 
 
 2 Hen. IV. v. 4, 33 (Globe ed.). 
 
 [The 1st folio, 1623, has anatomy. Booth's 
 reprint.] 
 
 Our Jwhonny's just turn'd till a parfetatom^. 
 Anderson, Cumb. Ballads, p. 98 [Wright]. 
 1 hear she's grown a mere otomy. — Swift, 
 Polite Conversation, i. [Davies]. 
 
 Compare Oxfordshire natonvy, a very 
 thin person, " 'Er little un's nuth'n 
 but a natomy." — E. D. Soc. Orig. Glos- 
 saries, C. p. 91. 
 
 Also notomy, or notta/my, a skeleton 
 (in the Cleveland dialect a notormze), 
 from anatomy, understood as a natomy. 
 
 As thin as a notomize. — Whitby Glossary. 
 
 l^otomia, i.e. Anatomia. — Steevens, Span. 
 Diet. 1706. 
 
 'Nottamy, a very thin Yierson. —Williams 
 and Jones, Somerset Glossary. 
 
 Costard {Love's Labour's Lost, in. 1) 
 appears to have, in a similar way, 
 understood enigma as anegma. 
 
 Atril (Sp.), a reading-desk or lec- 
 tern, apparently el atril, being a mis- 
 take for el latril or el letril, " the lec- 
 tern," old Fr. letrin (Diez). 
 
 Adboues, the French name for the 
 laburnum tree or Cytisus, I'auhours 
 having apparently originated in Lat. 
 Idbwrnum, just as It. ahrostino in Lat. 
 lahruscum. 
 
 AuGEK, a boring tool, stands for a 
 nauger, mistaken for an auger, old Eng. 
 na/uger and navegoi; A. Sax. nafegdr. 
 
AUGHT 
 
 ( 574 ) 
 
 GATE 
 
 i.e. " nave-gorer," that which pierces 
 the nave of a wheel, O. H. Ger. napa- 
 ger. Compare Dut. avega(W for nave- 
 gaar (Skeat, Wedgwood). The Lan- 
 cashire word is nodgwr (E. D. Soc. 
 Glossary). 
 
 They bore the trunk with a nawger. — 
 Howell, Fam. Letters, ii. 54. 
 
 From this word in 0. H. German 
 comes Fr. navrer, Norm. Pr. naverer, 
 nafra, to wound or pierce, It. naverare. 
 
 Aught, old Eng. awiht, A. Sax. dwiht, 
 is an agglutination of the article a 
 (A. Sax. d, dn) and wiU (A. Sax. wiU, 
 a creature or thing), and so = " a whit." 
 
 AvBL (old Fr.), anything precious, 
 stands for lavel, mistaken for I'avel, 
 which is identical with It. lapillo, a 
 gem or precious stone, Lat. lapillus. 
 
 Similarly, It. dvello, a stone cof&n, 
 Modenese lavello, Milanese navell, are 
 from Low Lat. laveltum, Lat. lahellum, 
 a vessel (Diez). 
 
 AzuEE. In aU the European forms of 
 this word (Pr. azwr, Sp. azul, It. 
 azurro) an initial I, which we stiU pre- 
 serve in (lapis) lazuli, has heen lost 
 through having been mistaken for the 
 article, as if the word were I'azur, in- 
 stead of, as properly, lazur. Compare 
 Low Lat. lazulum, lazur. Low Greek 
 lazourion (Lewis, Astronomy of the An- 
 cients, p. 215), from Arab, lazwerd or 
 lajward, Pers. lajuwerd (Devic, Skeat), 
 so called because found in the mines of 
 Ldjwurd (Yule, Ser Marco Polo, i. 153). 
 
 Asure, A.'iura. — Prompt. Parvulorum. 
 Lazur, the Lazall, or Azure stone. — Cot- 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacio (It.), a site exposed to the 
 North (a baaio, northward), stands for 
 olaoio for opaoio, a shady spot (Lat. 
 opacus), whence also Dauphinese luiac 
 for I'uhac (Diez). 
 
 Badia, an Italian word for an abbey, 
 as in the proverb, " Casa mia, casa mia, 
 per piccina che tu sia, tu mi sembri 
 una badaa" ("My home, my home, 
 humble though thou be, to me thou 
 seemest an abbey ^'), i.e. vtmhadia for 
 un' abhadia. 
 
 Bars, the French name of the fish 
 which we call in English basse, Ger. bars, 
 barsche, is apparently formed from the 
 Greek name labrax, i.e. the "rapa- 
 cious " (cf. its names lupus, Fr. Imip)^ 
 which was supposed to be la bra/x. 
 
 BiLLAMENT, for habilhrnettt, undei^- 
 stood as a billement. 
 
 But then shee put of her head geere ffine ; 
 Shee hadd billaments worth a 100". 
 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 330, 1. 65. 
 
 Dorlot, a Jewell . . . aglet, button, bille- 
 ment, &c., wherewith si woman sets out her 
 apparell.— Cotgraue. 
 
 BiTTACLB, a sea-term for a " Frame 
 of Timber in the Steerage of a Ship, 
 where the Compass stands" (Bailey), 
 whence by corruption binnacle, stands 
 for habitacle {'abitacle, a biiacle), ahttle 
 lodge or habitation for the steersman, 
 Fr. habitacle. Compare Billament. 
 In the toure I went, into the habytacle 
 Of dame Musyke, where she was syngynge 
 The ballades swete in her fayre tabernacle. 
 S. Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, cap. xx. 
 p. 97 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Similarly, Lawaine, a Scottish word 
 for the eve of All-Hallows in The Lady 
 of the Lahe, is merely a corruption of 
 Halloween ('alloween), probably under- 
 stood as a loween. 
 
 Ble (Pr.), wheat, old Pr. Med, Prov. 
 hlat, has lost an initial a, seemingly 
 from the Low Lat. ablata, with the 
 article I'ablata, being mistaken for la 
 blata (It. hiada, old Fr. bUe). See 
 Soheler, s.v. Low Lat. ablata, dblatum, 
 properly means that "carried away" 
 from the field, produce. 
 
 Boutique (Fr.), as well as It.bottega, 
 Sp. botica, has lost an initial a (for 
 aboutique, Lat. apotheca) from its pro- 
 bably having been merged in the 
 article. Compare Eng. potecary for 
 apothecary. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cashew. A cashew-nut would pro- 
 perly be acashew-nut, Fr. acajou, noix 
 d'acajou, a foreign word ; Ger. acaju- 
 nusz. 
 
 Cate, a cake, or other food, provision, 
 stands for old Eng. acate, victual, pro- 
 
OESS 
 
 ( 575 ) 
 
 EAR 
 
 vision, originally achate, something 
 bought, a marketing, a purchase (Chau- 
 cer, Prologue Cant. Tales, 1. 571), old 
 Fr. acat, achat, purchase, from Low 
 Lat. accaptai-e (to take to one's self), 
 purchase. Hence Mod. Fr. acheter. 
 Bread, wine, acates, fowl, feather, fish or fin. 
 Ben JonsoUj ^ad Shepherd, i. 2. 
 
 Cess, a rate or tax, so spelt, perhaps, 
 under the influence of Lat. census, Fr. 
 eencer, to tax, is for sess, a shortened 
 form of assess (as if a sess), which ap- 
 pears to have originated in Ireland. 
 
 Compare Sessment below. 
 
 Eudox. But what is that which ye call 
 Cesse ? It ia a woorde sure not used amongest 
 us heere, therefore ( I pray you ) expounde 
 the same. 
 
 Jreu. Cesse is none other but that which 
 your selfe called imposition. — Spenser, View 
 ef State of Ireland, p. 643 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Cayshun, a word used in Holderness, 
 E. Yorkshire, for need, necessity, a 
 mutilated form of occasion, probably 
 mistaken for a casion. 
 
 He's neeah cayshun to waak. 
 
 Old Eng. chesun, or cawse, Causa 
 {Prompt. Pa/rv.), for achesun, old Fr. 
 acheison, Low Lat. acheso, a corrupt 
 form of occasio, occasion. 
 
 Compare It. cagione for occagione, 
 Lat. ocoasionem, un occagione being 
 mistaken for uno 'cagione ; It. limosina 
 for elimosina, Lat. eleemosuna (old Fr. 
 almosne, " alms' ' ) ; lena for alena zz Fr. 
 haleine (from Lat. anhelare); laharda 
 for alaharda zz Fr. halleharde ; ruca 
 (whence rucchetta, our " rocket ")z: 
 Lat. eruca. 
 
 Clypse, a frequent form in old 
 authors oi eclipse, apparently misunder- 
 stood as a cVpse. 
 
 There fell a great rayne and a cliips. — Lord 
 Berners, Froissart, cap. cxxx. 
 
 Hie clipsis, the ciyppes of the sunne. — 
 Wright's Vocabularies, p. 272. 
 And Jjat is cause of )jis clips • fiat closeth 
 now \ie Sonne. 
 Vision of P. Plowman, B. xviii. 135. 
 
 Clyppyce ofjpe sonne or money (al. clypse), 
 Echpsis. — Prompt. Pan. 
 
 Hyt is but the clyppus of the sune, I herd a 
 clerk say. 
 
 Antiirs of Arthur, st. viii. 1. 3. 
 
 The N. W. Lincolnshire folk still 
 speak of a clips of the sun (Peacock). 
 
 D. 
 
 Dab, a dexterous fellow, probably 
 from adept (as if a dep'), see p. 91. 
 Compare " a 'cute feUow " for acute, 
 pert for apert, lone for alone {i.e. all-one, 
 Ger. allein) ; and see Live (p. 219) for 
 alive. See also T. Eow in "Walker's 
 Selections from Gentleman's Magazine, 
 ii. 142. 
 
 Dacious, a provincial word for auda- 
 cious {e.g. Peacock, Glossary ofN.W. 
 Lincolnshire), probably originated in 
 such phrases as "audacious fellow" 
 being misunderstood as "a dacious 
 fellow." 
 
 Daffodil, the narcissus, perhaps 
 owes the excrescent d to the article 
 and stands for th'afodil, north Eng. 
 t'affodil, Kent de a§odil (or d'affodil ?), 
 from old Fr. asphodile, "th' affodill" 
 (Cotgrave); liat.asphodelus. Baffadilly 
 (Spenser) is an assimilation to lily; 
 JJaffadowndilly, when appUed to the 
 shrub Daphne Mezereon, is due to a 
 supposed connexion of the word with 
 the nymph Daphne, just as Fr. afrodille. 
 Low Lat. aphrodillus, was confused 
 with Aphrodite. (See Skeat, Etym. 
 Diet. p. 787.) 
 
 Drake stands for old Eng. end/i-ahe 
 (compare Icel. and/rihi, SweA.anddrahe, 
 Dan. and/rik), of which the first syllable 
 has been lost, perhaps from its being 
 mistaken for the article, as if an drake. 
 The n of an was retained in the oldest 
 English before a noun beginning with 
 a consonant, e.g. " an preost " (Laya- 
 mon). End-rake or ened-rake denotes 
 etymologically the " duck (ened) king," 
 := Lat. anat{um)-rex. 
 
 Somewhat similarly vie, a wager or 
 challenge in gambling, old Eng. a-vie, 
 is for Fr. envi~ ^ It. invHo, an inviting 
 (Lat. invitare), equivalent to 'vite fpr an 
 invite. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eak, a provincial word for the kidney 
 (Suffolk, Northumberland, Scotland), 
 from neer (Craven), 0. Eng. neare, Ger. 
 nieren, Dan. nyre, O. Norse mi/ra, Swed. 
 njure. 
 
EL-ISEENDEBEEYEH ( 676 ) 
 
 GOmLLE 
 
 Neare of abeest, roignon. — Palsgrave, 1530. 
 
 The new-end of a loin of veal, in 
 Lincolnshire, is the part next the nears 
 or kidneys (Peacock). 
 
 El-Iskendeeeeyeh, the modem 
 name of Alexandria, Greek 'AXe^avBpeia, 
 the initial syllable being mistaken for 
 the article, as if al Escandria. Simi- 
 larly el Azariyeh, the modem name of 
 Bethany, stands for LazariyeJi, " Laza- 
 rus' village; " a,nA HadjcurLashah (near 
 the Dead Sea) for el Asbah. Compare 
 Ldxob. 
 
 Elixir contains an implicit article, 
 being Arab, el ijcsir, " the philosopher's 
 stone " (Skeat). 
 
 Embeb-days, perhaps for Temher-days 
 (iemper-days), mistaken for Th'emher- 
 days. See p. 109. 
 
 In a similar way theorbo, the name 
 of an old musical instrument, has been 
 mistaken for the orhoe, and appears so 
 in an advertisement, 1720, quoted in 
 Southey's Common-Place Boole, ii. 333. 
 
 Emony and enemy are popular cor- 
 ruptions of the flower-name anemone, 
 the first syllable evidently being mis- 
 taken for the article an. " Our gar- 
 deners call themSmoraies." — E. Turner, 
 Bot. p. 18. See Enemy, p. 111. Com- 
 pare Atomy above. A nasturiium, is 
 sometimes converted by the ignorant 
 into an astmiion (Leary, Every Day 
 Errors, p. 44), and even a stortioner. 
 
 Sperage, sparage (Cotgrave), sparagus 
 (Evelyn^, have by a similar mistake 
 lost an initial a, being popular forms 
 of aspa/ragus. 
 
 Est, a Scottish form oinest, evidently 
 a nest, mistaken for an est ( Jamieson), 
 "a hi)-d^est" (Hogg), hke "West Coim try 
 ettle for a nettle (Wright). See Eyas 
 below, and compare Manx edd, a nest, 
 yn edd, the nest, beside Ir. nead. Com. 
 neid, Welsh nyth. 
 
 On the other hand, Scot, nesscoch, a 
 boil, seems to be for an esscoch or 
 erscoeh (Jamieson). 
 
 Ettle, a West Country word for a 
 nettle (Wright), also used in North- 
 amptonshire (Sternberg). Similarly 
 an ear, an East Country word for a 
 kidney (Wright), stands for a near, old 
 Eug. nere, or neere, a kidney (Icel. 
 nyra), whence kydneer, Mdnere, now 
 
 spelt hidney. The Cumberland folk 
 have ear, kidney, and an est for a nest 
 (Ferguson). 
 
 A Wiltshire charm against the sting 
 of a nettle is " Out 'ettle, in dock ; Dock 
 zhall ha' a new smock ; 'Ettle zhan't 
 ha'narruu." — 3iiUon,Beauties of Wilt- 
 shire, 1825. 
 
 Eyas, a young hawk (Shakespeare, 
 Spenser), is a mistake for a nyas or 
 nias, that is, a "nestling" (Nares, HaUi- 
 well), from Fr. niais, a neastling (Cot- 
 grave), and that from Lat. nidus, a 
 nest, through a form midaceus, nidax 
 (cf. It. widiace). Compare Eye, a brood 
 (of pheasants), probably from Pr. nid, 
 a nest, p. 114 above. Indeed nye is 
 given as an Essex word for a pheasant's 
 nest (Jephson, Archaeolog. 8oc. Trams. 
 1863, vol. ii.). Cf. prov. Eng. naye, an 
 egg, for old Eng. an ey. 
 
 Couata, a couie ... a nest-full, a laiiie, 
 an etjase. — Florio, 
 
 N idiace falcone, a Hawke taken j'oong out 
 of his nest, a Ej/ase-faulcon. — Id. 
 
 Niaso, an JEi/ase-hawk. — Id. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fray, a conflict, stands for old Eng. 
 affray (from old Pr. esfrei, tumult, 
 effraier, to make afraid. Low Lat. exfri- 
 da/re, to put out (esc) of peace (friiu), 
 disquiet, make a disturbance (Skeat, 
 Eiym. Bid. 776), mistaken for a fray. 
 Sendes aftjre phylosophers, and his ajf'raye 
 telles. Morte Arthure, 1. 3226. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gell {g hard), a Scotch word for a 
 leech, Welsh gel, seems to be akin to 
 Swed. igel, a leech; cf A. Sax. igil, the 
 pricking hedgehog, egl, that which 
 pricks or pierces, a thistle, &c. 
 
 Gherkin stands for an older form 
 agherkin, from Dut. agmhje, agwhhen, 
 and that from Arab, al -I- Pers. Ichiydr 
 (cucumber) + hen (dimin. suffix). — 
 Skeat. 
 
 GoBiLLE, in modern French la goUlle, 
 is from the old Fr. la agolille, a form 
 which is stUl preserved in the Wallon 
 agobille, agobye. 
 
GBIOTTE 
 
 ( 577 ) 
 
 LAMMEE 
 
 Griotte (Fr.), a sour or tart cherry, 
 has lost an initial a, the older form 
 VagrioUe (Cotgrave) heing mistaken as 
 la griotte. Agriotte or agriote (Eng. 
 egmt) is said to come from Greek 
 dyj>ioe, wild (Littre, Soheler), but per- 
 haps the original form was aigriote, 
 from a/igre, sour; O. de Serres (in 
 LittrO has "les agriotes ou cerizes 
 oil/res." 
 
 GnGLiA, the Italian word for a needle, 
 is formed from agugUa, the initial vowel 
 having been merged and lost in the 
 article, Lat. aculeus. 
 
 E.g. YUlani, in his Istoria, lib. ix. 
 speaks of Sir John Hawkwood, the 
 great general of the 14th century, who 
 had been originally a tailor, as " John 
 deUagngUe" (i.e. John of the needle), 
 properly "John dell' aguglie" ; for 
 whom see Acutus, p. 515. 
 
 Gypsy, for gypsian or gyptian, from 
 Hgypticm, probably understood as a 
 
 (Sp.) Gitano, a counterfeit rogue called a 
 gypson or Egyptian. — Minsheu. 
 
 Like a Gipsen or a Juggeler. 
 
 Spenser, Mother Hubberds Tale. 
 He saw a ffypcian ful sore 
 Smythe a luu. 
 Cursor Muiidi (Gbttingen MS.), 1. 5656. 
 
 H. 
 
 Heaps, a Cumberland word for tur- 
 nips (E. D. Soc. Orig. Glossa/ries, 0. 
 p. 109), probably originated in prov. 
 Eng. a neap, a turnip (Lat. napus) , heing 
 misunderstood as cm 'eap or an heap. 
 Hence also turnip (for ternepe, Lat. 
 terrcR napus), which is not of great anti- 
 quity in Bnghsh, as Turner, writing in 
 1548, says of the napus, " I haue hearde 
 sume cal it in Enghshe a tv/rnepe." — 
 Names of Herles, p. 65 (E. D. S. ed.). 
 Compare Nbavino, below. 
 
 I. 
 
 Iaed (or yar), a Wallon word for a 
 farthing or money, is from Fr. Ua/)-d, 
 understood as I'iard. Similarly, ieve 
 (or yaife), a hare, from Fr. Ueere, un- 
 derstood as I'ievre (Sigart). 
 
 Ingkemance, an old Fr. word for the 
 black art or necromancy, is fr'om the 
 old Fr. nigrema/nce (Gk. nekromanteia), 
 the n initial having perhaps been attri- 
 buted to the article iim. 
 
 Inkle, a kind of tape or shoemaker's 
 thread, stands for Ungle or lingel, the 
 initial Z being lost through being mis- 
 taken for the French article, as if 
 I'ingle. Compare lyngell (Palsgrave), 
 old Fr. Ugneul, lignel, a dimin. of Ugne, 
 a thread or line, Lat. linea (Wedg- 
 wood, Skeat) . Dryden has incle (Plays, 
 vol. iv, p. 314). " As thick as inkle- 
 wearers" is an old proverbial expres- 
 sion. Inngel in the first of the follow- 
 ing passages Nares notes is yugal in 
 the early editions, which he says is 
 nonsense. It is evidently a misprint 
 for yngal. 
 
 Every man shall have a special care of his 
 
 own soal. 
 And in his pocket carry his two confessors. 
 His lingel, and his nawl. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Wotmn Pleased, 
 iv. 1 (ed. Barley). 
 
 The Cobler of Canterburie, armed with his 
 AuU, his Lingell, and his Last. — Cobler of 
 Canterburie, 1608 {Tarlton's Jests, p. 107). 
 
 Inkles, caddisses, cambrics, lawns. — Shake- 
 speare, Winter's Tale, iv. 4, 203. 
 
 We're as thick as a pah' o' owd reawsty 
 inhie-weyvers. — Lancashire Glossary, E. D. S. 
 p. 166. 
 
 K. 
 
 Keton, a word meaning a soldier's 
 cassock, quoted by Jamieson (Scotch 
 Diet, s.v.) from Cox's- Irelcmd, is evi- 
 dently the same word as aketon, under- 
 stood as a heton; haketon (Chaucer), 
 hacgueton (Spenser), Fr. hogueton, a 
 wadded coat worn under armour. 
 
 Lammek, a Scottish word for amler, 
 is merely Fr. I'amlyre. 
 
 Black luggie, kmmer bead. 
 Rowan-tree and red thread, 
 Put the witches to their speed. 
 Henderson, Folk-lore of N. Counties, 
 p. 188. 
 Itin X bedes of lambrer. — Inventory, 1440 
 {Peacock, Church Furniture, p. 196). 
 
 P P 
 
LAMPONE 
 
 ( 578 ) 
 
 LENGUE 
 
 Eobert Fergusson in his Same Con- 
 tent speaks of 
 
 Bonny Tweed 
 As clear as ony Utmmer bead." 
 
 Lampone, \ the raspberry, stands for 
 
 Lampione, / il ampone. Compare 
 Piedmont, ampola, Comas(iue anipoi, 
 from Swiss omheer (Diez). 
 
 Lampouedan, a district of which 
 the chief town was called in Latin 
 Emporia (markets) and in French 
 Ampowries, was formerly named I'Am- 
 powrdan, but is now le Lampourdan 
 (Genin, Becreat. PMlolog. i. 103). 
 
 Landiee (Pr.), an andiron, stands 
 for I'andier, from old Fr. andier, old 
 Eng. aundyre, Low Lat. anderia. 
 
 Landit (Fr.), a fair, stands for VendAt, 
 from Lat. ind/ictum (forum), a market 
 opened by proclamation. 
 
 Lap6te, a Creole word for a door 
 (Trinidad), is from Fr. laporte, regarded 
 as one word (J. J. Thomas). Similarly 
 nomme, a man, is for un honvme, and 
 mounonque, an imcle, for mon oncle. 
 
 La Podille, the French form of 
 Apulia, for I'Apule. 
 
 Laech, Sp. alerce, It. larice, Lat. 
 la/ricem, Greek loffix, apparently from 
 Arab, al-a/rz or el-a/rz, "the-cedar," 
 Heb. erez, cedar. 
 
 Laeigot (Fr.), a pipe, for Va/rigoi or 
 Vhairigot (perhaps from Lat. a/rinca), 
 according to Scheler; but see Aeigot. 
 
 Lardm, a noisy summons or caU to 
 arms, is from ala/rum, another form of 
 ala/rm (Fr. ala/rme. It. all' arme! to 
 to arms !), perhaps understood as a 
 larum. 
 
 Then shall we hear their larum. 
 
 Shahe^eare, Corlol. i. 4, 9. 
 
 La solfa (It.), the gamut, where la 
 is understood as the article, is properly 
 the three last syllables of Guido's nota- 
 tion, ut, re, m, fa, sol, la, taken in re- 
 versed order (Diez). Those syllables 
 were arbitrarily selected by Guido from 
 this verse of a Latin hymn to St. 
 John : — 
 
 Ut queant laxis rcsonai'e fibris 
 Mira gestorumyiiinuli tuorum 
 Solve poUuti /abii reatum, 
 
 Sancte Joannes. 
 
 Sp. lastre, has been formed, by prefixing 
 the article, from old Fr. astre, adstre, a 
 hearthstone (Mod. Fr. dtre), Low Lat. 
 astrwn, old and prov. Eng. autre, eatre, 
 a hearth (Diez). But see Gamett, 
 FMlolog. Essays, p. 30. 
 
 Lavolta, the name of an old dance, 
 apparently something like the modern 
 waltz, is Fr. la volta, from It. volta, a 
 turning round [Lat. voluta, from vol- 
 vere] ; "a kind of turning frenoh 
 dance called a Volta." — Plorio. Com- 
 pare waltz, from Ger. walzen, to revolve. 
 However, it is often used for a dance 
 which, like the mazurka, introduces 
 vaults or bounds (see Nares). Com- 
 pare Lenvoy (Chaucer) for V envoy. 
 
 And draw the dolphins to thy lovely eyes, 
 To dance tavoltas in the purple streams. 
 Green, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 
 1594 (p. 165, ed. Dyce). 
 Force the plump lipt god 
 Skip light lavolta£s in your full sapt vainea. 
 Marston, Antonio and Mellida, 
 2nd pt. T. 4. 
 Yet is there one, the most delightful kind, 
 A loftie lumping, or a leaping round. 
 [Margin, LavoLta£s.'] 
 Sir J. Davies, Orchestra, 1622, st. 70. 
 Dance a lavolta, and he rude and saucy. 
 
 Massinger, Parliament of Love, i. 
 (p. 168, ed. Cunningham). 
 And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos, 
 Shakespeare, Hen. V. iii. 5, 33. 
 
 Leewan, the raised part of a khan 
 for persons to sit on (Parrar, Life of 
 Christ, i. 4), is for el-eewdn. 
 
 Lembic or Unibeck (see Nares), a fre- 
 quent old form of alembic (Pr. and Sp. 
 alambigue, from Arab. al-anUk, "the- 
 still "), understood as a lembic. But 
 compare Portg. lambigue. It. lamUeco. 
 
 Imperfect creatures with helms of Umbecks 
 on their heads. — B. Jonson, Mercury Vindi- 
 cated (Works, p. 596). 
 
 Memory, the warder of the brain. 
 Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason 
 A limbeck only. 
 
 Macbeth, i. T, 67. 
 
 Lemfeg, a Wiltshire word for a fig, 
 is for " EUeme fig " (E. D. Soc. Re- 
 prints, B. 19). 
 
 Lendemain (Fr.), formed by coales- 
 cence of the article from le endemain, 
 an extended form of domain. 
 
 Lastea (It.), a stone-slab or flag, Lengue (Mod. Provengal) is for 
 
LEBO 
 
 ( 579 ) 
 
 LOWANOE 
 
 I'engue (= Fr. Vame), Sp. engle, from 
 Lat. inguen (Scheler). 
 
 Lbeo (It.), vetches, stands for I'ei-vo, 
 from Lat. ervum (Diez). 
 
 Leviek (Fr.), a sink, always now 
 spoken of in Paris as le levier or un 
 Uuieir, was formerly in old French 
 Vevier or esvier, from old Fr. eve, water, 
 Lat. agua (Agnel, Injhience de Lang. 
 Fop. p. 99 ; Genin, i. 103). See under 
 Shore, p. 354. 
 
 LuED, " a brazen ooyne worth three 
 deniers " (Ootgrave), is the South Fr. 
 U hardi, Sp. a/rdite, from Basque ardita, 
 which is from ardia, a sheep, Uke pe- 
 curda iroiapecus (Diez). 
 
 LiEKBE (Fr.), ivy, for Vhiei-re (Bon- 
 sard), from Lat. hedera. 
 
 Li-ciEN, a dog in the Creole patois 
 of the Mauritius, is from Fr. le chien 
 (Ailenasvm, Dec. 31, 1870, p. 889). 
 
 LmsoT, formerly used for a bar or 
 lump of metal, is Fr. Ungot, which is 
 itself merely the Eng. ingot with the 
 prefixed aitiole, V ingot (B'kea.t). Others 
 have thought it meant a " tongue " of 
 metal, from Lat. Ungua (compare " a 
 wedge of gold." — Joshua, vii. 21 ; Heb. 
 " tongue "), but incorrectly. 
 
 Plaque, a flat Lingot a ban'e of metall. — 
 Cotgrave. 
 
 Bille ... a lingot, wedge, or gad of metall. 
 -Id. 
 
 Lingot, An ingot, lumpe, or masse of 
 mettall. — Id. 
 
 Other matter hath bin used for money, as 
 .... iron lingets quenched with vinegar. — 
 Camden, Remaines, 1637, p. 179. 
 
 Lisle, the place-name, was originally 
 L'ish, being built on an island (Taylor, 
 p. 355). So Algiers for al gezira, the 
 island (now joined to the mainland). 
 
 LiTTRESS, a technical term in the 
 manufacture of playing cards for two 
 sheets of paper pasted together, is 
 doubtless from the synonymous French 
 word Vetresse, mistaken for letresse. 
 Many of the words used in this craft 
 are of French origin (PMlolog. 8oc. 
 Trams. 1867, p. 66). 
 
 LoBA (Sp. and Portg.), a surplice, 
 stands for Fr. I'auhe, a white garment 
 (Lat. alba), pretty much as if we spoke 
 of " a nalb." 
 
 LoDOLA, LoDOLETTA (It.), the lark, 
 O. Sp. aloeta, Prov. alauza, Fr. alouette, 
 Lat. alauda. The Italian la 'lodola 
 has merged the initial vowel in the 
 article. 
 
 La festiva 
 Lodoletta, che trae verso I'aurora. 
 
 Aleardi, Amalda di Roca. 
 
 Lone, are mutilated forms of 
 
 Lonely, ■ alone, alonely, alone- 
 LoNESOME, some, i.e. all one, wholly 
 by one's self, without company. Alonely 
 person was understood as a lonely per- 
 son, and alone was retained as the 
 proper predicative form, just as in a 
 similar case we say "a live coal," but 
 tJie eel is alive, i.e. on Uf, in life. 
 
 LoNGE (Fr.), the rope of a halter, la 
 longe, is a misunderstanding of old Fr. 
 Valonge, denoting (1) a lengthening 
 out, (2) an extended cord, &c. 
 
 LoovEK, or louver, an opening in the 
 roof of old houses to let out smoke, old 
 Eng. lover, is from old Fr. louvert, a 
 loop-hole or opening, which is for 
 Vouvert or Vovert, an " overt " or open 
 spot (Haldemann, Skeat). So the luffer- 
 hoa/rds of a belfry are merely the louver, 
 Vouvert, or opening boards to transmit 
 the sound. 
 
 LoQUET (Le), according to M. Agnel, 
 is for I'oquet, i.e. le hoquet {Influence de 
 Lang. Fopulaire, p. 100). 
 
 LoEiOT, the French name of the 
 yellow-hammer, stands for I'oriot, old 
 Fr. oriot (Ootgrave), the " golden bird," 
 from Fr. or, whence also Eng. oriole. 
 Compare its Low Lat. name a/uri-gal- 
 gulus, whence It. ri-gogolo, rigoletto. 
 
 LoEioT, in the French idiom compere 
 Im-iot, a sty on the eyelid, has puzzled 
 philologists. It is doubtless, as M. 
 Sigart points out, identical with WaUon 
 loriau, of the same meaning, which was 
 originally Voriau, Liege oriou, which 
 he connects with Sip.orzuelo (Fr. orgeol, 
 orgeolet), from Lat. ^orieoJtts, (1) a grain 
 of barley, (2) the grain-like pustule on 
 the eyelid (Diet, du Wallon de Mons). 
 So "WaUon logue and licotte, the hiccup, 
 for Vhoquet and I'hicotte (Liege Mkett), 
 Wallon lamplunm, an apple charlotte, 
 for Vamphmvas, Flemish appelmoes. 
 
 LowANCB, a Cleveland word meaning 
 a portion, esp. a stipulated quantity of 
 
L UETTE 
 
 ( 580 ) 
 
 MUGK 
 
 drink, for alloivance. So also in N.W. 
 Lincolnshire (Peacock). See Potecaey. 
 
 Ltjette (Fr.), the uvula, formed by 
 agglutination of the article, from uette, 
 i.e. uvette, which (like our uvula) is a 
 dimin. of Lat. uva, a grape. 
 
 LxiGLio (It.), July, seems to have the 
 article prefixed to Lat. JuUus. But 
 LuUanus is, I beheve, the Tahnudic 
 name of the Emperor Julian. Compare 
 Lillehonne, from JuUa Bona. 
 
 Ltjrch, in the phrase " to leave one 
 in the Iwrch" contains an implicit arti- 
 cle. It is a metaphor from the gaming 
 table, when one party gains every point 
 before the other makes one (Wedg- 
 wood). Lurch is an old word for a 
 game, or a state of the game. Bavarian 
 lurz, the loss of a doiible game of cards 
 (Gamett), Fr. lourche,Vfhi6h stands for 
 I'ourche. Cotgrave gives " ourche, the 
 game at tables called lurch," and so 
 Skinner. This is, no doubt, from Lat. 
 orca, a dice-box, and not, as Prof. Skeat 
 thinks, from Lat. urceus, a pitcher. 
 Phrases of the same meaning borrowed 
 from card-playing are It. lasoiare uno 
 in asso, and Ger. einen im stiche [iz ace] 
 lassen. See Diez, s.v. Asso. 
 
 [A cheat] when the gamesters douht his play, 
 Conveys his false dice safe away, 
 And leaves the true ones in the iurchj 
 T'endure the torture of the search. 
 
 Sam. ButUr, Genuine Remains, ii. 262 
 (ed. Claj-ke). 
 
 Lute, Fr. luth, old Fr. lut. It. liuto, 
 Sp. laud, have an involved article, as we 
 see by comparing Portg. alaude, which 
 comes from Arab. al-Hd, "the 'ood." 
 
 A representation of the instrument 
 stm called the 'ood is given in Thom- 
 son's The Lamd and the Booh, p. 686. 
 
 Harpe, pype, and mery songe, 
 Bothe lewte and sawtre. 
 Romance of Octaviaa,\. 198 (Percy Soc). 
 
 LuTiN (Fr.), anight goblin, old Fr. 
 luiton, which seems to be an alteration 
 of nmton, the Wallon form, from nuii. 
 Perhaps un nuiton was popularly mis- 
 taken for un uiton, when Vuiton would 
 naturally follow. So old Fr. nabirinihe 
 (as if un ahirinthe) may be the result of 
 a misunderstanding of labyrinthe, as if 
 Vabyrinthe. Compare Fr. nomhril for 
 lomhril, i.e. I'omhril, and niveau, nivel 
 
 for Uvel (Lat. Ubella) ; It. lanfa and 
 nanfa. 
 
 LnxoE, on the site of ancient Thebes, 
 stands for el Ehsor, " the palaces." 
 
 M. 
 
 Maca, Portuguese word for a ham- 
 mock. It. amaca, Sp. hamaea, Fr. 
 hamac. 
 
 Matita (Sp.), bloodstone, for ama- 
 tUa, Fr. hematite, Lat. haematiies, Greek 
 haimatetes. Similarly, Sp. moroydes 
 (Minsheu), for amoroydes, hsBmor- 
 rhoids. 
 
 Mbgeim, Fr. wngraine, a headache, 
 originally a complaint of one side of the 
 head, is in old English more correctly 
 written emygrane, or emigrane, being 
 the Low Lat. em/igraneus, Lat. hemi- 
 crandum, Greek hem/ihranion (half- 
 head). 
 
 Emygrane was probably mistaken for 
 a mygrame, and themygrane resolved 
 into the mygrane. 
 
 Mygreyme, sekenesse, Emigranea. — Prompt. 
 Parv. 
 
 It is now a popular word for a whim, 
 caprice, crotchet, or absurd notion. 
 
 It was a pity she should take such megrims 
 into her head. — G. Eliot, Adam Bede, chap. 
 18. 
 
 Mebcement, for amercement or fine. 
 Vp man for hus mysdedes ■ )}e mercement he 
 taxej). 
 LangUind, Vision of Piers the PUnvman, 
 
 Pass II. 1. 159 (text C). 
 I soppose they wyl distreyn for the mersti- 
 mentes. — Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner, i. 109). 
 
 (Skeat, Notes to P. the Plowman, he. 
 dt.) 
 
 Mine (Fr.), a measure of capacity, 
 has lost an initial e, which was perhaps 
 merged in the article ; compare old Fr. 
 emine, from Lat. hemina, Greek iifiiva. 
 So Sp. guileiia for Lat. axiidlina. 
 
 MoPHEODiTE, in N. W. Lincolnshire 
 for hermaphrodite, which was no doubt 
 taken for a ma/phrodite. 
 
 Muck, in the phrase "to run a 
 muck," originally "to run amock," is 
 from Malay amuco. See p. 247. 
 
NABSY 
 
 N. 
 
 ( 581 ) 
 
 NAVAN 
 
 Nabsy, a Northampton word for an 
 ahecess (Wright), which by a twofold 
 blunder was turned into a ndbscess, and 
 that, being mistaken for a pliiral, into 
 a supposed singular form, a nabsy. 
 Similarly, the wife of a Middlesex la- 
 bourer once informed me that her hus- 
 band was suffering from a haps (singular 
 of abscess!) under his arm. Cf. Axey, 
 p. 15. 
 
 Nackendolb, a Lancashire word for 
 a weight of eight pounds, stands for an 
 aghendoh, old Eng. eygtyndele, mesiu:e 
 {Prompt. Faro.), the eighth part of a 
 coom or half quarter, Dutch achtendeel. 
 
 She should yearely have one aghen-dole of 
 meale. — Pott, Discoverie of Witches, p. 23 [in 
 
 E. D. See. Lancashire Glossary, p. 154, where 
 the origin is quite mistaken]. 
 
 Nads. Tusser uses a nads for an 
 adze. 
 
 An ax and u nads to make troffe for thy 
 hogs. 
 Fiu£ Hundred Pointes, E. D. Soc. ed. p. 36. 
 
 Naglet, for an aglet, the tag of a 
 lace, aygulet (Spenser), Fr. aguillette, 
 and aigmllette. 
 
 Thou mayest buy as much love for a naglet 
 in the middle of Scotland, as thou shalt 
 winne by thy complaints. — Dux Gramnuiti- 
 cu£, 1633. 
 
 Compare "my nagget cupp " {The 
 Union Inventories, p. 32) for " mine 
 agate cup." 
 
 Nale, in old authors is used for an 
 ale-house, especially in the expression 
 "at the nale" (Chaucer, 0. Tales, 
 6931), or " atte nale." The original 
 form was atten ale for at then ale, where 
 then is the dative of the. At the nende 
 is similarly found for at then end 
 (Skeat, Notes to P. Plowman, p. 8). 
 And rather then they wyll not be as fine. 
 
 As who is finest, yea, as smooth and 
 slicke. 
 And after sit uppermost at the wine. 
 
 Or nale, to make hard shift they wyll not 
 sticke. 
 
 F. Thynn, Debate between Pride and Lowliness 
 
 (ab. 1568), p. 53 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Nanbeeey, a N. W. Lincolnshire 
 word for an anherry (which see, p. 7), 
 a wen, A. Sax. ampre. 
 
 Nanq-nail, a Cleveland word for a 
 
 com on the foot, for an angnail, which 
 is the Cumberland word, i.e. an agnaile, 
 which formerly denoted a " httle come 
 upon a toe " (vid. Ootgrave, s.v. Corret). 
 In N. W. Lincolnshire nangnadl is an 
 agnail and a corn (Peacock). In Lanca- 
 shire it appears as a nagnail {Glossa/ry, 
 Nodal and Milner, E.D.S.), with an 
 imagined reference probably to nag, to 
 torment or irritate. 
 
 Nakrow-weiggle, see p. 252. 
 
 Naspo (It.), a reel, for un aspo (Sp. 
 aspa). So nastro, a star (Florio), for 
 un astro (Lat. astrum) ; ninferno for in- 
 ferno ; nabisso for un abisso. 
 
 Natekelle, the same as nape 
 {Prompt. Pairvulofum), has arisen from 
 an haterelle. 
 
 Occipicium, \ie haterelle of )je hede. — Me- 
 dalUi. 
 
 An haterelle, cervix, cervicula, vertex. — 
 Cuth. Ang. 
 
 Old Fr. haterel, hasterel, the nape of the 
 neck. 
 
 Nattek-jack, a prov. Eng. name for 
 a kind of toad, is probably for an atter- 
 jack, from A. Sax. atteir, poison. 
 
 Nadl, the name of a village near 
 Balbriggan, co. Dubhn, is the Irish an 
 aill ('re aill), " the rock" (Joyce, i. 24). 
 
 Naunt, an aunt (Beaumont and 
 Fletcher, Pilgrim, iv. 1 ; Dry den. 
 Plays, vol. iv. p. 304), originated in 
 mine aunt being mistaken for my nanmt. 
 Lancashire noan, an aunt (E. D. Soc). 
 So nuncle {Lear, hi. 2) for nvine uncle, 
 tVorcestershire my nunhle (Kennett) ; 
 neam, or neme, uncle, for old Eng. 
 nvine earn ; ningle, a favourite, for mine 
 ingle; "my sweet ndmgle" (Dekker). 
 Compare Wallon more mononh, my 
 uncle {i.e. mon mon-oncle), el nonh, the 
 uncle, and Fr. tante, aunt, either for ta 
 ante {tua amita), (Littre), or for ma-t- 
 ante, mine aunt (Scheler). Compare 
 also ma mie for m' amies and mamour, 
 mourette, in Le Koux, Diet. Oomiigue. 
 Nowne is also found arising from mine 
 own, "Be his nowne white sonne." — 
 Roister Boister, i. 1 (Shaks. Soc). The 
 Scottish say " his nain, nawn, or 
 nyawn" (Jamieson); Mid-Yorks. "thou 
 nown bairn" (Bobinson, E.D.S.). 
 
 Navan, in Ireland, stands for nEam- 
 huin, i.e. an Eamhuin, "the neck- 
 
NAVIBON 
 
 ( 582 ) 
 
 NESS 
 
 brooch,'' fabled'to have its name from 
 the golden brooch of the Princess 
 Macha (Joyce, i. 85). 
 
 Navibon, a WaJlon form of Fr. un 
 aviron, an oar (old Eng. MSS. a nore). 
 The word was perhaps assimilated to 
 another word naviron, meaning a float 
 (Scheler). 
 
 Nawl, a frequent form of awl (A. 
 Sax. del) in old EngUsh (Beaumont 
 and Fletcher), nal (WycUffe, Ex. xxi. 6), 
 nail (Tusser), from a misunderstanding 
 of an awl as a nawl. 
 
 Canst thou . . . bore his chaftes through 
 with a naulel — Bible, 1551, Job xli. 1. 
 
 Lance de S. Crespin, A shoomakers nawle. 
 — Cotgrave. 
 
 Poincte, a bodkin or nawk. — Id. 
 Beware also to spume againe a nail. 
 
 Good Cminsail of Chaucer. 
 Hole bridle and saddle, whit lether and nail. 
 TiLsser, Five Hundred PointeSj 1580 
 (E. D. Soc. ed. p.36). 
 
 Naywoed, a provincial word for a 
 by-word or proverb, seems to stand for 
 an aye-word, a word or expression 
 always or perpetually used (Gentle- 
 man's Magazine, July, 1777). The same 
 writer quotes as sometimes found a 
 narrow for an arrow ; a nogler, a com- 
 mercial traveller, probably originally a 
 nagler for an hagler ; a nailhourn, » 
 torrent sometimes dry (Kent), for an 
 ailhown or eylehourn. 
 
 Nayword, a bye-word, a laughing-stock. — 
 Forby, Vocabulary of Fast Anglia. 
 
 In any case have a nay-word, that you may 
 know one another's mind. — Merry Wives of 
 Windsor, ii. 2. 
 
 It is doubtless a corrupted form, a 
 nayword for an ayword, the latter occur- 
 ring in Tioelfth Night, ii. 3 : " gull him 
 into an ayword " (fol.). Ayword is pro- 
 bably from ay, always, A. Sax. 6, also 
 customary, common ; cf. ce, common 
 law. 
 
 Neaving, yeast or barm (WorUdge, 
 Bid. Busticum, 1681), is a corruption 
 oi an heaving (Skestt). Compare Heaps. 
 
 Neb-tide, an old form of an ehh-tide, 
 quoted in Nares (ed. HalliweU and 
 "Wright), where it is confused with 
 nearp-tide, with which it has no con- 
 nexion, although Bosworth gives ep- 
 fliid, as well as nep-flod, on the authority 
 of Lye. 
 
 Bold ocean foames with spight, his neb-tidet 
 roare. 
 
 Historie of Albino and Beltama. 
 
 Neddans, a parish in Tipperaiy, is 
 Ir. nafeaddin, " the brooks " (Joyce, i. 
 
 24). 
 
 Neddy, a fool, for om eddy. See p. 
 253, where the quotation referred to 
 is: 
 
 Non immerito secundum vestratum usurpa- 
 tionem qui stultum vacant Edwjmum,reputarer 
 Eadwinus. — J. C. Robertson, Hist, of T. 
 Becket, vol. i. 
 
 How comes it (Youth) to pass, that you 
 
 Who all the Deities subdue. 
 And at thy Pleasure canst make Neddies 
 Of every God, and every Goddess, 
 Nay even me dost so inflame. 
 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, p. 245. 
 
 Nenagh, in Tipperary, is the Irish 
 'n Aenach (om Aenach), "the fair" 
 (Joyce, i. 197). Similarly, the Irish 
 place-name Nwrney is for an Urnaidhe, 
 " the oratory" (Id. p. 309) ; Nooamiox 
 'n-ua/mhmnn, " the cave " (Id. p. 426). 
 
 Nediecop, a spider (Wright), an old 
 corruption of an addAirtxp (Palsgrave), 
 or attyrcoppe (Prompt. Pa/rv.), A. Sax. 
 atter-coppa, "poison-cup." 
 
 Nemony. Skinner gives a nermny as 
 apparently the common form of ame- 
 mone in his day, Greek anemone, the 
 wind-flower (Etymologicon, 1671). Ane- 
 mone is sometimes popularly resolved 
 into an enemy, see p. 111. 
 
 Neminies, the wind-flower. — Lancashire 
 Glossary, E. D. Soc. 
 
 Neeane, a prov. Eng. word for a 
 spider, stands for an arain (Northampt.) 
 or aran (Yorks.), old Eng. arayne, 
 aranye, from Lat. araneus (PMlolog. 
 Soo. Trans. 1859, p. 220). 
 
 Nerane, aranea. — MS. Vocab. [in Way]. 
 Erane. — Cath, Aug. 
 
 Eranye, or spyder, or spynnare, Aranea. — 
 Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Compare " a nykh " (Medulla ZIS.) for 
 an ikyl, an ic-icle (Prompt. Parv. p. 
 259). 
 
 Ness, the name of the Scottish loch, 
 is GaeUc na (the article) + ais, water- 
 fall, just as Loch Nell, near Oban, is na 
 + Eala, swan. Compare ySriSd in Crete 
 for (kc) rdv'lSa; StamhoultoT aravTroXiv, 
 i.e. its n)v TToKiv (Blackie, Horce Helle- 
 
NEWBY 
 
 ( 683 ) 
 
 N ORATION 
 
 nias, p- 135 ; Strangford, Letters and 
 Pafers, p. 149). 
 
 Nbwky, in CO. Down, stands for Irish 
 'n lubhar, i.e. an luhhasr, " the yew- 
 tree," the name commemorating a yew 
 planted there by St. Patrick (Joyce, i. 
 494). From the same word coraes 
 Newrath, in Leinster, formerly spelt 
 Newragh, and, without the article, 
 Uragh. 
 
 Newt, formed by agglutination of the 
 article from an ewt, old Eng. ewte, for 
 euete or evete, A. Sax. efeta, an eft 
 (Skeat), which has been equated with 
 Sansk. apdda (footless), a reptile, from 
 a, privative, and pad, a foot (Kiihn, 
 Wedgwood). The Sussex word is 
 
 effet- 
 
 Newte or ewte, wyrme, Lacertus. — Prompt. 
 Pon), 
 
 Nickname, that is, am, eke-name (or 
 agnomen), misunderstood as a nehe- 
 name. See above, p. 255. 
 
 NiDGET, part of a plough in Kent 
 (Wright), liie same word as idget in 
 Sussex, a horse-hoe, called also a midget 
 or edget (Parish). 
 
 NiDioT, a common word for an idiot 
 in old and provincial English. 
 
 "He's such a nidiot as I niwer 
 seed afore " (Lincolnshire, Peacock). 
 
 A verye nodypoll nydyote myght be a 
 shamed to say it. — Sir rhomas More, Works, 
 p. 709 (1557). 
 
 Compare Niddywit, p. 266. 
 Nigaud, A fop, nidget, iieot.—Cotgrave. 
 
 NiBE, the name of a river in Water- 
 ford, is properly N'ier, " the grey " 
 [river] , where n is merely the article 
 (Joyce, Irish Names of Places, ii.279). 
 
 NiESPE (old Fr.), an Aspen tree (Oot- 
 grave), a borrowed word, evidently a 
 misunderstanding for une espe, old Eng. 
 espe, asp. 
 
 NiNCH, a place in co. Meath, is Ir. 
 OB iwc^, "the island." Similarly ^actre, 
 an island in Lough Erne, is for Ir. an 
 »n, ".the ring;" Nart, in Monaghan, 
 for Ir. an fhea/rt, "the grave ; ' ' Nuerma, 
 a river in Kilkenny, for Ir. an uadthne, 
 " the green river " (Joyce, i. 24). 
 
 NoMBKiL (Pr.) is formed by aggluti- 
 nation of the article (for un ombril, due 
 perhaps to I'ombril) from old Fr. onibril 
 
 (for omhlil), from a Iia.t.umUUculus, um- 
 hiUcus ; whence also Oat. Llomirigol 
 (Scheler). Similarly nomhle (as if wra 
 onible) came to be substituted for lomhle 
 (fr-om Lat. lunifmlus), understood as 
 Vomhle ; and niveau, old Fr. nivel (un- 
 derstood as un iveau or ivel), for livel 
 (as if Vivel), fr-om Lat. Ubella. 
 
 Nonce, in the phi-ase " for the 
 nonce," old Eng. " for the raowes," for 
 the occasion, was originally "for then 
 anes," for the once, where then is the 
 dative of the, and anes, an adverbial 
 form used as a noun (Skeat). 
 
 This was a thrifty tale for the nones ! 
 
 Chaucer, Prolog, to Shipmans Tale, 1165. 
 
 "For the nones" occurs instead of 
 for ]?an cenes or fm- \>am xnes, for that 
 alone, for the purpose, in Old Eng. 
 Homilies, 2nd Ser. p. 87. 
 
 For the nonys, Idcirco, ex proposito. — • 
 Prompt. Parv. p. 173. 
 
 He delayeth the matter for the nonys, de 
 industi'i^. — Horman. 
 
 Compare the surnames Nohes for 
 atten-oaks {8imvme atte noTce. — Piers 
 Plowman, A. v. 115) ; Nash for atten- 
 ash ; Nalder for atten-alder ; Norcha/rd 
 for atten-orcha/rd, &c. (Bardsley, Our 
 Eng. Burnames, p. 86 ; Skeat, Notes to 
 P. Plowman, p. 118). 
 
 Nope, an old name for the biiUfinch 
 used by Drayton (Wright), is a corrupt 
 form for an ope, otherwise spelt awpe, 
 olp, or alpe {Prompt. Parv.). See Hoop, 
 p. 176. 
 
 Fraylezillo, a bird with blacke feathers on 
 the head, like linget, called of some an Owpe. 
 — Minsheu, Span. Diet. 1623. 
 
 Chochevierre, a kinde of Nowpe or Bull- 
 finch. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Nares quotes from Merrett, " Eubi- 
 cUla, a bull-finch, a hoop, and buU 
 spink, a nope." In Lancashire the 
 word appears as maulp or mawp { Glos- 
 sary, E.D.S. 190). 
 
 NoKATioN, a provincial word for a 
 report or rumour, norating, chattering 
 (Wright), is evidently a misapprehen- 
 sion of a/n oration as a noration. In 
 Cleveland it means a row or uproar 
 (Atkinson). 
 
 Out of noration has been evolved in 
 the broken German-English of America 
 the verb to rwrate. 
 
N0BM0U8 
 
 ( 584 ) 
 
 OMELETTE 
 
 Und eher I norate furder, I dink it only fair, 
 Ve shouldt oonderstand each oder, prezackly, 
 chunk and square. 
 Breitmann Ballads, p. 145 (ed. 1871). 
 
 In Sussex both oration and noration 
 are in use, with the meaning of an un- 
 necessary fuss ; and to norate is to talk 
 ofaciously and fussily about other peo- 
 ple's business (Parish). Compare with 
 this the Mid- Yorkshire use of pis'le {i.e. 
 epistle), for a tirade or rigmarole. " She 
 went naggering on with a long pis'le 
 that it would have tired a horse to stand 
 and hsten to" (Robinson, E.D.S.); and 
 Lancashire nominy, a long tiresome 
 speech (E. D. Soc), which seems to 
 stand for a normly or an liomily. 
 
 NoEMOus, a Lincolnshire form of 
 enoTnwus (Peacock). 
 
 NoEWOOD, a Leicestershire word for 
 a nickname or by-word (Wright), was 
 most probably originally mi-o'erword, 
 in the sense of over-, or additional-, 
 name, an ehe-name (see Nickname). 
 Compare the Scotch ourword, owerword, 
 a word or expression frequently re- 
 peated, the burden of a song. 
 
 And aye the o'erword o' the spring 
 Was Irvine's bairns are bonie a'. 
 Burns, Works, p. 153 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Similarly nayword, a bye-word 
 {Twelfth Night, ii. 3), is an ayword in 
 the old copies (Dyce, Ohservations, p. 
 75). 
 
 NosiLLE, an old word for a blackbird 
 (Wright), evidently stands for an oosel 
 or ousel. 
 
 NovEE, a Sussex word for high land 
 above a precipitous bank, is for an over. 
 Mid. Eng. ouer, a bank, A. Sax. ofer 
 (Skeat, Notes to P. Plowman, p. 
 
 Nugget, a lump of metal, is the 
 modern form of niggot (North's Plu- 
 ta/rch), which is probably a corruption 
 of a ningot, standing for an ingot 
 (A, Sax. in +goten, "poured into" a 
 mould. — Skeat). Curiously enough the 
 same word has suffered from agglutina- 
 tion in French, where lingot should 
 properly be I'ingot, borrowed from the 
 English. 
 
 NuMBLES, the inward parts of a deer, 
 formerly considered a dehcacy, Pr. 
 nomhles, generally used in the plural, 
 but originally in the singular also, viz. 
 
 nomhle, a portion cut from between the 
 thighs of the deer (Eoquefort), and 
 numbile, nvmible (Ducange). The word 
 being derived from Lat. umbilicus, the 
 navel, must originally have been umble, 
 the initial n being afterwards trans- 
 ferred to it from the article, an vmMe. 
 Umhles is the ordinary form in later 
 English. See Humble-pie supra, p. 
 183. 
 
 NuMPOST, a provincial corruption 
 (Wright) of an imposthu/me, for am- 
 
 NuEA, \ (Irish), last year, stand 
 NuEiDH, / for an ura, an vdridh, 
 which are the Erse forms, the latter 
 part equated with Lat. hora, Greek 
 cilpa, Sansk. vara (Pictet, Ong. Indo- 
 Eu/rop. ii. 606). 
 
 NuRSBOW, a Staffordshire word for 
 the shrew-mouse, is properly om ersrow, 
 erd-shrew, or earth-shrew. Compare 
 Haedsheew, p. 163. 
 
 NussE, " fisshe." — Prompt. Pa/rvu- 
 lorum. This word has apparently ori- 
 ginated from an huss, — huss being an 
 O. Eng. word for the dogfish. " Husse, 
 a fysshe, rousette." — Palsgrave. Com- 
 pare " Hushe, fyshe, Sguamus." — 
 Prompt. Parv. 
 
 0. 
 
 OiDHCHE (Ir.), night, stands for 
 noidhche, and Ir. vAmhir, number, for 
 nuimMr, the initial n having been lost 
 by confusion with to of the article an 
 (Graves). The same is the case with 
 Ir. eascu, an eel, old Ir. naiscu, and Ir. 
 eas, a weasel, old Ir. mess (Joyce, i. 26). 
 Compare old Ir. gilla naneach (for nan 
 each), "servant of th' horses" (Stokes, 
 Irish Olosses, p. 112) ; Ir. 'noir, from 
 the east, for an oi/r ; 'niar, from the 
 west, for an iar, and Manx neear, for 
 yn eear, "the west." So in Manx yn 
 oie for yn noie, " the night " ; noash for 
 yn oash, " the custom." 
 
 Omelette (Fr.), our "omelet," owes 
 its initial vowel to the a of old Fr. 
 amelette, which that word has stolen 
 from the article la. Amelette (for ah- 
 mette, alamette) was originally la lemette 
 or la lamette, a thin flat cake, the same 
 as lemelle, lamelle (Lat. laminula), a 
 
ORANGE 
 
 ( 585 ) 
 
 OUTHOENE 
 
 diminutive of lame (Lat. lamina). La 
 lamette by a mistake became Valemette 
 (Littre, Skeat), and then I'am^lette. 
 
 Okange. Etymologioally we should 
 Bay, instead of " an orange," a norange 
 or narenge. See above, p. 264. 
 
 Orbaooa (It.), a laurel berry, for lor- 
 iocca, from Lat. lawri iacca. So Cot- 
 grave has amreoh and laureole, a Bmall 
 laurel. 
 
 Obdube, from Fr. ordure, old Fr. ord, 
 filthy, foul, ugly, It. ordura and ordo, 
 filthy. Skeat, Soheler, and Diez incor- 
 rectly deduce these words from Lat. hor- 
 ridms, as if that which excites horror, 
 and so is disgusting, repulsive. There 
 is little doubt, however, that ordv/re 
 was originally lordwre, which was after- 
 wards understood as Tordmre. Compare 
 old It. lordura, lordezza, ordure, fllthi- 
 ness, lordare, to foul or sully, lordo 
 (not ordo), foul, filthy (Florio), and 
 these are from Lat. Iwridus, discoloured, 
 hvid, darkened, and so sullied, dirty 
 (so Wedgwood) ; in later Latin used in 
 the sense of foul, rotten. Hence also 
 Fr. lovjvd (Prov. lort), mihandsome, 
 sottish, clownish (Scheler), lourdaud, 
 a lout or boor, also lordault (Cotgrave) ; 
 It. loi-done, a filthy sloven. Compare 
 Swed. lort, dirt, dung ; lorta, to dirty ; 
 lortig, dirty. 
 
 Oema (It.), " a rule or direction, . . . 
 acustome, vse, fashion" (Florio), is a 
 mutilated form of Lat. norma. 
 
 Orse (Fr.), a sea-term, is a misunder- 
 standing, as I'orse, of an original lorse, =: 
 Netherland. hiris, left, according to 
 Scheler. 
 
 Otter might seem at first sight to 
 have originated from Fr. loutre (mis- 
 taken for Voutre), which is from Lat. 
 hira, Greek enudris, the water-animal, 
 the otter, Sp. nutria (Stevens, 1706). 
 It is, however, an independent word, 
 A. Sax. ot&r (Dut. otter, loel. otr, Swed. 
 utter), corresponding to Greek hudra, a 
 water-snake or hydra (Skeat), with 
 which Pictet equates Sansk. and Zend 
 udra, the water-animal. Compare also 
 its names, Welsh dufrgi, i.e. dufr-ci, 
 " water-dog "( Stokes ), and Irish dobhan-- 
 <M, "water-dog" (O'Reilly). 
 
 Ottone (It.), brass, stands for htione, 
 Mtone (Florio), the initial I being mis- 
 
 taken for the article ; Sp. laton, Fr. 
 ladton, Eng. latten. 
 
 Ouch or ouche, an old word for a 
 gem, or the socket in which it is set 
 (A.V. Ex. xxviii.), is a misunderstand- 
 ing, an ouch for a nouch, from old Fr. 
 nouahe, nosclie, a buckle, 0. H. Ger. 
 nusca, Low Lat. nusca (Eastwood and 
 Wright, BiUe Word-Boolc,B.Y.; Skeat), 
 sometimes found in the forms, L. Lat. 
 musca, Pr. mouche, as if a fly-shaped 
 ornament (Atkinson, Vie de St. Auban, 
 p. 65). 
 
 Nowche, monile. — Prompt. Parv. 
 An ouche of gold. 
 
 Chaucer, C. Tales, 6325. 
 Ful of nowches gret and smale. 
 
 Id. 8258. 
 Adornd with gemmes and owches wondrous 
 fayre. Spenser, F. Q. I. x. 31. 
 
 A robe d'or batiie e misches de aesmal. 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 20. 
 He gave her an ouche couched with pearlys 
 and precious stonys. — Horman. 
 
 Ouche for a bonnet, afficquet. — Palsgrave. 
 
 So Fr. oche, the nick, nock, or notch, 
 of an arrow (Cotgrave), also loche (Pals- 
 grave), seems to be formed from Eng. 
 notch (q. d. un noche, un 'oche). — Vid. 
 Way, Prompt. Fa/rv. s.v. Nohhe. 
 
 OuGHAVAL, the name of several 
 parishes in Ireland, has lost an initial 
 n, and should be Noughaval (Ir. 
 Nuachonghhail, " new habitation "). 
 The n was detached in consequence of 
 being mistaken for the article 'n, an, 
 "the." Compare Breton Ormomdi for 
 Normandy (Joyce, i. 25-26). 
 
 Ought, often used popularly for a 
 nought or cypher in arithmetic, e.g. 
 "carry ought." 
 
 Ounce, the beast so called, a kind .of 
 lynx, Fr. once, Sp. onza, Portg. or^ga. 
 We took the word from the French, 
 where once stands for old Fr. lonee (Cot- 
 grave), niistaken for Vonce, It. lonza 
 (also onza), which seems to be from Lat. 
 lynx, Greek \vyK (Diez) ; but Skeat com- 
 pares Pers. yuz, a panther. 
 
 OuTHOENE, in the Fercy Folio M8., 
 for a nouthorn or neat's horn {nowt 
 cattle). 
 
 There was many an outhorne in Carlile was 
 blowne, 
 
 & the bells backward did ringe. 
 
 vol. iii. p. 89, 1. 345. 
 
PAPEB 
 
 ( 586 ) 
 
 QUEBBT 
 
 P. 
 
 Papee in the last analysis is found 
 to contaia a latent article agglutinated 
 to a substantive. It is the same word 
 as Fr. papier, Lat. papyrus, Greek 
 pdpv/ros, the Egyptian rush that yields 
 paper. Compare Welsh pabw, rushes. 
 All these words are from the ancient 
 Egyptian J5aap« {or puapu), "theopw," 
 or paper-reed {Oyperus aniiquorum'), 
 mentioned in Isaiah xix. 7 (Wilkinson, 
 Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. pp. 120, 179, 
 ed. Birch). Similarly, the city Fithom 
 (Ex. i. 11) is probably for pi-Thoum, 
 " the Thoum " (Gesenius) ; pyramid, 
 Greek pyramis, for pi-ram, " the high " 
 (Birch, in Bunsen's Egypt, vol. v.) ; 
 piromis (Herodotus, ii. 142) for pi-romi, 
 " the man ; " Fi-leseth (Ezek. xxx. 17), 
 "the (city) Bast." 
 
 Paeeitoe, a Lincolnshire form of 
 apparitor, a bishop's of&cer; Lanca- 
 shire pa/ritor, a verger, and so Shakes- 
 speare, Love's L. Lost. ui. 1, 188. 
 
 Passions, and Patience, scientific Lat. 
 Patientia, names for a species of dock, 
 are perhaps from the Italian name 
 under which it was introduced from 
 the south, lapazio (in Florio laimpazzo 
 and lapato), Lat. lapathwm, mistaken 
 for la passio, the passion of Christ 
 (Prior, Pop. Names of Brit. Plants). 
 Lancashire payshun-doch (E. D. Soo. 
 Glossa/ry, 210). 
 
 Gathering . . payshun-dock and "green- 
 sauce " to put in theii' broth. — Waugh, Lane. 
 Sketches, p. 50. 
 
 Peal, the loud continuous sounding 
 of beUs, guns, &c., is a corrupt form 
 of appeal, old Eng. apele, apel, evi- 
 dently misunderstood as a pele ; old Fr. 
 appel, apel, an appeal, from appeller, Lat. 
 appella/re, to call or summon. 
 
 A-pele of belle ryngynge (al. upe/eof bellis). 
 Classicum. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 PocALYPS, a common form in old 
 docimients of apocalypse, doubtless un- 
 derstood as a pocalypse, like pistle for 
 epistle, as if a pistle. 
 
 With the Pocalyps of Jon 
 The Powlus Pystolus everychon. 
 Sir Degremnt, 1. 1438 {Thornton 
 Romances, p. 237). 
 
 PoLLETTE, an old form of 
 understood as apaulette. 
 
 " PosTYME, sekenesse. Apostema."— 
 Prompt. Parvuhrum. 
 
 PoTECAEY, a very common form of 
 apotheca/ry in oldwriters,(e.S'. Latimer), 
 and so pistle for epistle (Vision of P. 
 Plowman, A. x. 106), and postle for 
 apostle, popularly understood no doubt 
 by the ignorant as " a pothecary," " a 
 pistle," "apostle." Compare ^cmfe 
 for apprentice ; penthouse for appeniis ; 
 old Eng. collet for acolyte ; compUce for 
 accomplice; sumcyon for assnmption 
 (Brand, Pop. Antiq. ii. 4) ; a poUge 
 for apology {Register of Stationers, 
 Shaks. Soc.i. 47); brygementior abridge- 
 ment (Id. p. 112) ; surance for assu- 
 rance ( Tit. Andronicus, v. 2) ; say, trial 
 ( Jonson), for assay ; postume for apos- 
 tvmie. 
 
 Peele (Fr.), the plant horse-tail, 
 formerly spelt la presle, is an incorrect 
 form of old Fr. Vasprelle (mistaken for 
 la presle). It. asprella, dimin. of Lat. 
 asper, rough, so called from its rough 
 stalk (Scheler). 
 
 Peentice, an old corruption of ap- 
 prentice, one put to learn or " appre- 
 hend " a trade, no doubt understood 
 as a prentice. 
 
 Apparayleden him as a prentis • Jie Peple for 
 to serup. 
 
 Vision of P. Plowman, A. ii. 190. 
 
 Queeey, a, an old form of equerry, 
 the initial vowel being probably con- 
 founded with the indefinite article. 
 " Querries [of JBcwnes, Fr. Stables] the 
 Grooms of the King's Stables;" "A 
 gentleman of the Querry [^CMj/erF.] a 
 Gentleman whose office is to hold the 
 King's Stirrup when he mounts on 
 Horseback." — Bailey. Compare spinet, 
 formerly espinette (Pepys), old Fr. 
 espinette. 
 
 (It.) Maestro di stdlla, a maister of the 
 quierie, a gentleman of the horse. 
 
 Stalla, any kind of stable or quierie for 
 horses. — Florio. 
 
 As skilfuU quirry that commands the stable. 
 Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 145 (1621). 
 
BABYTE 
 
 B. 
 
 ( 587 ) 
 
 SIZE 
 
 Babyte, an old Eng. word for a war 
 horse, is said to be ioxArabite, an Arab 
 horse. See Ebbbsk below. 
 Sir Guy bestrode a Uabiite 
 That was mickle and nought light, 
 That Sir Beves in Paynim londe 
 Hadde wounnen with his honde. 
 
 Sir Bevis of Hamptown. 
 
 Eaccoon has lost an initial a, which 
 was doubtless mistaken for the article, 
 as was probable in the case of a foreign 
 word, the earher form being araha- 
 amne (Haldeman, On American Dic- 
 tionaries). In a glossary of N. Ameri- 
 can Indian words, about 1610, it is 
 given as arathkone ( Skeat, Etym. Diet. 
 p. 798). Similarly American 'possum 
 is oposswm, perhaps understood as a 
 fosswm; and caiman from. Caribbean 
 acayuman, a crocodile (Scheler). 
 
 An Eagle from Russia ; a Posown from His- 
 paniola. — Broadsheet temp. Q. Anne [^Morlei/j 
 Barthotomew Fair, ch. xx,'\. 
 
 Eack, an old popular form of arrack 
 (Nares), formerly spelt a/rach (Arab. 
 arraq). Compare Sp. rague, arrack ; 
 Mod. Greek rb pcuci (brandy)^ for to 
 
 appoKi. 
 
 The 9 Dec'. [1616] we ... . sold them 
 two quoines of Rice with some few Hennes, 
 & racke. — Journal of Master Nathaniel Court- 
 hap (Sussex Archaolog. Coll. xxvii. p. 187). 
 
 Eaiment, in Spenser rai/memf, stands 
 for arra/iment, old Eng. a/raiment, aray- 
 tiierd, which was probably mistaken for 
 a raiment. So old Eng. ray for airray ; 
 ani'pairel (Lear) for apparel; rainment 
 (Fox) for arraignment; sumcyon for 
 agsumption; hitterment for arhitrement. 
 
 Araymenty Paramentum. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 They put themselues in battel! rai/ & went 
 to meet them. — North, Plutarch, 1595, p. 
 229. 
 
 And all the damzels of that towne in ray 
 Come dauncing forth, and joyous caiTols song. 
 Spenser, Faej-ie Queene, V. xi. ol. 
 
 Rame, Itahan word for copper or 
 brass. The initial vowel, seen in Wal- 
 lach. arame, Fr. airain, Sp. ajrambre, 
 Lat. asramina (Pestus), has probably 
 been swallowed up by the article. 
 
 Rannt, a Norfolk word for the shrew- 
 mouse, stands for aranny or eranny, 
 
 old Eng. ereyne (Capgrave), Lat. ara- 
 neus, whence also It. ragno. 
 
 Ebbbsk, an old art term for ara- 
 besque, ornamentation of the Arabic 
 type (in Skinner, 1671). 
 
 Arabesque, Rebesk worke. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 My god-phere was a Ritbian or a Jew. 
 B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. '2. 
 
 Eeklas is given by Dickinson as a 
 Cumberland word for the auricula. 
 Probably reklas is a corruption of au- 
 riculas, rehla being for auricula under- 
 stood as a 'ricula. 
 
 Ebst-haebow. The name of the weed 
 so called is for aiYest-harrow, other 
 names for it being remora aratri (delay 
 plough), L. Lat. aresta hovis, Fr. areste 
 6o3m/ (Gerarde, Herball). 
 
 EiGOGOLO, It. for a rook, daw, or 
 chough (Plorio), according to Diez is 
 from a Latin aurigalgulus, galgulus, 
 whence Sp. galgulo, a goldfinch. 
 
 S. 
 
 Sample, an old corruption of old 
 Eng. asaimiple (AncrenSiwle), another 
 form oiesaumple, old Fr. essemple, from 
 Lat. essemplum (see Skeat). 
 
 Say, a trial, test, or examination, is 
 a frequent form in old authors (Nares) 
 of assay (old Fr. essai), understood 
 perhaps as a say. Shirley has a say- 
 master for assay-master. 
 
 To take 
 A say of venison, or stale fowl, by your nose. 
 Which is a solecism at another's table. 
 
 Massiiiger, The Unnatural Combat, iii. 1. 
 
 ScALLiON, for ascalonian (sc. onion), 
 old Fr. escalogne, Lat. ascalonia, named 
 from the city of Ascalon. Of the same 
 origin is Fr. echalote, old Fr. esehalote, 
 Eng. "a shallot." 
 
 Of onions the Greeks haue devised sundry 
 kinds, to wit, the Sardian, Samothracian, 
 Alsiden, Setanian, Schista, and Ascalonia. 
 [i. little onions or Scalions'] taking that name 
 of Ascalon a city in Jury. — Holland, Pliny, 
 16Si, tom. ii. p. 20. 
 
 Sbssment, a rate or assessment, N. W. 
 Lincolnshire (Peacock). 
 
 Size stands for old Eng. assize or 
 assise (probably mistaken for a size), an 
 
SOLAN-GOOSE ( 688 ) 
 
 TEGGIA 
 
 assessed portion, a regtilation or stan- 
 dard quantity, then any measure or 
 dimension, Fr. assise, a settlement. It. 
 assisa, from Lat. assessus. In the 
 Bomcmce of Sir Tryamov/r two persons 
 are said to be " at con assyse," i.e. of 
 the one size (Wright). So size, an al- 
 lowance of provisions (Lecvr), whence 
 sizar at the University ; and vulgar 
 Eng. the sizes for the assizes. Compare 
 old Eng. sa/y, a trial, for assay ; and 
 seth (Fabyan) for asseth, assets. 
 
 An old version of Vegecius speaks 
 of two kinds of darts, " one of the more 
 assise [=: greater size] , the other of the 
 lesee" (in Way, Prompt. Farv. p. 343). 
 Size, gluejis'substantiaUy the same word, 
 It. sisa, for assisa, an assizing, settling, 
 or fixing (of colours, &c.), that which 
 makes them he close (Lat. assidere). 
 See Skeat, s.v. 
 Where Life still liues, where God his Sises 
 
 holds [Marg. Assises.^ 
 
 Enuiron'd round with Seraphins. 
 
 J. Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 42. 
 
 SoLAN-GoosE contains a latent article, 
 soZflm (formerly also solan-d) respresent- 
 ing Icel. sula-n,i.e. "the-gannet," sula 
 (gannet) + n (the), the article being 
 suf&xed as is usual in the Scandinavian 
 languages ; e.g. Icel. twnga-n, "the 
 tongue." Compare Shetland sooleen, 
 "the sun," from Dan. sol-en, the-sun, 
 {■em zi the). — Skeat. So Swed. trad, 
 tree, is a corruption of trd-et, "the- 
 wood." 
 
 As numerous as SnUmd geese 
 1' th' islands of the Orcades. 
 S. Butler, Genuine Remains, ii. 107, 1. 92 
 (ed. Clarke). 
 
 Spaeagus, sperage, and spa/rrow-grass, 
 stand for Lat. asparagus, the initial a 
 being dropt, perhaps from being mis- 
 taken for the indef. article. 
 
 Spree, a prov. Eng. word for a froUo 
 or jollification, is no doubt from Welsh 
 ashri, a trick, mischief, understood as 
 a sh-i {Philolog. Soc. Trans. 1855, p. 
 239). 
 
 Starling, or Sterling, an old name for 
 a coin (see p. 371), stands tor E sterling 
 or EasterUng, originally a term apphed 
 to the Eastphalian traders, who were 
 famed for the purity of their coin. 
 
 Storshon = a {n){'a)sti(/rtium! — East 
 Anglia, B. 20, E. D. Soc. 
 
 Sylum, the Lincolnshire form of asy- 
 Imn (Peacock), regarded as a sylvm. 
 Similarly Mr. TuUiver, in The Mill on 
 the Floss, says, " I'U have nothing to do 
 wi' a 'cademy." 
 
 They'll ha' to send him to th' 'sylum.— 
 Ijuncashire Glossary, p. 205 (E, D, S.). 
 
 Tabis (Fr.), a kind of silk, our 
 " tabby," It., Sp. and Portg. talk, are 
 from Arab, attabf, the initial syllable 
 having been dropt, probably because 
 mistaken for the article al, which be- 
 comes at before t. 'Attdhi was origi- 
 nally the name of the quarter of Bag- 
 dad where the stuff was manufactured 
 (Devic). 
 
 Tain (Fr.), tinfoil, an incorrect form 
 of I'etmn, understood as U tain. 
 
 Tansy, a plant-name, old Fr. tanasie, 
 stand for dtansy, old Fr. athanasie, It. 
 atamasia (from Lat. and Greek athana- 
 sia, immortality, so oaUed perhaps from 
 its durable flowers, hke Fr. immortelles ; 
 compare amaranth, from Greek ama- 
 rtimtos, "unfading). The initial a was 
 perhaps dropt from being confused 
 with the article, as if a tamsy, la tha- 
 nasie. 
 
 Tassan, ^ Irish place-names, owe 
 TuMMBEY, I their initial t to the 
 TuEAGH, J article an, after which it 
 is inserted before a vowel, and stand 
 respectively for Irish an-t-assan, " the- 
 waterfall," an-t-iomaire, "the-ridge," 
 an-t-iubhrach, " the-yew-land " (Joyce, 
 i. 29). 
 
 Taylot, a Gloucestershire word for 
 a hay-loft, is no doubt merely th' hay- 
 loft or thayloft. So a writer in The 
 Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1777, 
 who also quotes tovel as a Derbyshire 
 word for a hovel, i.e. th' hovel, t' hovel ; 
 Heme cross (Somner) for the iron cross. 
 
 I . . . determined to sleep in the talht 
 awhile, that place being cool and airy, and 
 refreshing with the smell of sweet hay. — 
 Blackmore, Loma Doone, oh. xxxi. 
 
 Teggia, a dialectic Italian word for 
 a hut, Grisons tegia (thea), a chalet, 
 from Lat. aitegia (Diez), the initial 
 
THAXTED 
 
 ( 589 ) 
 
 TOPAZ- 
 
 vowel having been absorbed by the 
 article. 
 
 Thaxted, a place-name in England, 
 ifl probably The Axgtead, and Thistle- 
 worth, The Istle-worth, says I. Taylor, 
 Wcrrds and Places, p. 384. 
 
 Thebes, ia Egypt, Greek Thebai, 
 Copt Thaba, ilemphitic Thape, are 
 from Egyptian Tape, i.e.t (fern, article) 
 + ape, head, and so means " the capi- 
 tal" (Bawhnson's Herodotus, ii. 4). 
 
 Tee Vizes, the popular form of the 
 name of the town Devizes in Wiltshire. 
 " Ner the Wizes " is said to have been 
 the direction of a letter that passed 
 throngh the Post Office, meaning "Near 
 Devizes " (W. Tegg, Fosfs and Tele- 
 graphg). Camden has "the Vies " (see 
 Nares, s.v.), evidently a corruption of 
 Be Vies. Compare the following, where 
 the gre is a mistake for degree .- — 
 
 Loke also \iou skome no mou. 
 In what jpe gre |x)u se hjin gon. 
 
 The Bailees Book, p. 15, 1. 66. 
 While the proud Vies your trophies boast 
 And unrevenged walks Waller's ghost. 
 
 Hudibras, Pt. I. ii. 498. 
 
 Devizes is said to be a corruption of 
 Low Lat. DimsoB (I. Taylor, Woi-ds and 
 Places, p. 267). 
 
 Tebb, an ornament for the head, is 
 for atire or aMire, old Eng. " ortyre, or 
 tyre of women." — Prompt. Parv. See 
 TiEE, p. 394. Compare ray for a/rra/y, 
 and pairel for appa/rel. 
 
 I ha' hnt dight ye yet in the out-dress, 
 
 And 'parel of Earine. 
 
 B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1. 
 
 Tone, ) the tone and the tother, 
 
 ToTHEE, j frequent in old and prov. 
 English for "the one" and "the other," 
 stand for old Eng. thet one, thet other. 
 where thet is Mod. Eng. that, the final 
 t being the sign of the neuter gender 
 (Skeat). A corresponding mistake in 
 Latin would be i daUud, illu dalAud for 
 id almd, Ulud aKud. Compare Nalb. 
 
 The (an and the tother are often found 
 in Scotch law papers. 
 
 )xit on is Seint Peter and |»t oiSer Seint 
 Andreu.— OU Eng. Homilies, 2nd Ser. p. 
 175. * 
 
 He schal hate oon, and loue the tothir. — 
 Wmliffe, Luke xvi. 13. 
 
 Wan 1 by meit for money I selle \ie money 
 )at I* (ofer man biej;, as I bye (ring ]pa.t \>e 
 
 fo)3er selli|). — Apology for Lollards, p. 9 (Cam- 
 den Soc). 
 
 In entent of chaunging to gidre jsc toon for 
 )k toiler. — Id. p. 53. 
 
 Had not the Angell thither directed the 
 Shepheards ; had not the Star thither pointed 
 the Magi, neither tone nor tothir would ever 
 there have sought Him. — Aridrewes, Sermons, 
 fol. p. 110. 
 
 Topaz, Fr. topase, Lat. topazus, to- 
 pazion, Greek roTratos, Toirdtwv. The 
 origin of this word has not been traced. 
 I think it probable that the Greek word 
 originated in a coalescence of the 
 article with the substantive, and stands 
 for TO naiCiov, which was the more Ukely 
 to occur as the latter was a foreign 
 word, borrowed from the Hebrew, viz. 
 pan (iQ), pure gold, also translated 
 
 a " precious stone " in the Septuagint. 
 The topaz has frequently been called 
 the "golden stone" on account of its 
 colour, and is identical with the chry- 
 solite, Greek xP'""'^'^''f > " golden 
 stone," Kev. xxi. 20 (see Bib. Diet. 
 s. vv. Topaz, iii. 1563, and Beryl, Ap- 
 pendix, XXX. ; DeUtzsch, 8on^ of Songs, 
 p. 104). The Septuagint actually ren- 
 ders Heb. pdz in Ps. cxix. 127 {A. V. 
 "fine gold"), by roTrdliwv, topaz 
 {Prayer Booh, v. " precious stone "), 
 where Schleusner proposed to resolve 
 the word into to TraZ.wv. For the ag- 
 glutination of the article, compare ta- 
 ^(iwto,u8edby Petroniusfor "universe," 
 which is merely Greek rd Travra ; and 
 olibwnum, the frankincense of com- 
 merce, which appears to be Greek o 
 \il3avoQ (Bible Educator, i. 374; Bib. 
 Did. i. 633) ; toMtohgy from Greek 
 TavToXoyla, i.e. To-avro-Xoyia, " the-same- 
 (thing)-saying." For the meaning com- 
 pare besides chrysolite, "Welsh eurfaen 
 {i.e. eur-maen), " gold-stone," and the 
 following : — 
 
 The gold color in the Topaze gaue it the 
 name Chrysolith. — Holland, Plinies Nat. 
 Hist. ii. 630. 
 
 The golden stone is the yellow topaz. — 
 Bacon, Natural Historq. 
 To hlasoune therin vertuys stanis, gold Is 
 
 More precious than oucht that ma be set. 
 In it hot stonne goldy, as thopasis. 
 
 Scotch Poem on Heraldry ,\. 73 [Booh 
 of Precedence, E.E.T.8. p. 96.] 
 
 Pliny mentions a report of King Juba 
 that this stone was first brought from 
 an island called Topazas in the Bed 
 
TUILM 
 
 ( 590 ) 
 
 VAMBBAOE 
 
 Sea, which is probably a fiction with a 
 view to bring it into connexion with 
 Greek ro-iraZeiv, to aim at or guess. 
 
 The which is oftentimes so mistie that 
 sailers haue much ado to find it, whereupon 
 it tooke that name : for in the Troglodytes 
 language (saith he) Topazin is as much to 
 say, as to search or seek for a thing. — Hol- 
 tandj Plinies Nat. Hist. ii. 618. 
 
 So thurlepole, quoted in Nares (ed. 
 Halliwell and Wright) as one of the 
 " great fishes of the sea," from Oastell 
 of Health, 1595, evidently stands for 
 th' hwrlpole or th' whirlpool, the old 
 name of a species of whale. See further 
 under "Whirlpool, p. 434, where thwrle 
 polls is quoted from Bussell's Bohe of 
 Nv/rtu/re. 
 
 It may be further noted that ro^ra^of 
 is a rare word in Greek, and that other 
 names for precious stones in that lan- 
 guage are of Semitic origin, having no 
 doubt been introduced by Phcenician 
 merchants, e. g. luaviQ, jasper, Heb. 
 yashpheh; acnriptipog, sapphire, Heb. 
 sappir. Compare Pusey, On Daniel, 
 p. 646 (3rd. ed.). 
 
 Tdilm, a Gaehc name for the elin 
 (Shaw), is no doubt for an-t-mlm, the 
 elm, where the t belongs to the article. 
 Compare Ir. wilm, adlm, elm,^ Lat. ul- 
 mus (Pictet, i. 221). 
 
 Tybden, west of London, was origi- 
 nally Teybowrne (Stow) or Th'Eyhourne, 
 i.e. "the Eye bourn," named from the 
 little river Eye or Aye, which also has 
 given its name to Hay Hill, fomaerly 
 Aye Hill; Ehwy, the "bury" on the 
 Eye, the old name for Pimlico, surviv- 
 ing in Ehwry Street ; and perhaps Hyde 
 Pa/rh for Heye Fairk. (See Stanley, 
 Memoirs of Westminster Abbey, pp. 8, 
 195.) 
 
 U. 
 
 Umpire, old Eng. an owmper or owm- 
 pere, an incorrect form of a nowmpere, 
 or nompeyre, from old Fr. nompair, odd 
 (Cotgrave), Lat. mora pm; not equal ; as 
 if we wrote onpareil for nonpa/reil. An 
 umpire is properly an odd man, or 
 third party, chosen to arbitrate between 
 two litigants, and who standing apart 
 from either side (cf. Lat. segtiester, from 
 
 secus) wUl indifferently minister jus- 
 tice. The correct form would be nrnn- 
 pire. Compare for the loss of n, " an 
 vmbre hale." — Cursor Mundd, 1. 419 
 (Fairfax MS.), for "a numhre hale" 
 (Cotton MS.). 
 
 An ovmper, impar. — Cath. Anglicum. 
 Nowmpere or owmpere, Arbiter, sequester. 
 — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Chese a mayde to be nom.pere to put the 
 quarrell at ende. — Test, of Love, i. 319 FTyr- 
 whitt]. 
 
 Robyn he ropere • arose bi \ie southe 
 A nd nempned hym for a noumpere • {lat no 
 
 debate nere, 
 For to trye bis chafFare • bitwixen hem ]>re. 
 Vision of P. Plowman, B. v. 338 
 (ed. Skeat). 
 
 Sylvester says that spirits — 
 'Twixt God and man retain a middle kinde : 
 And ( Vmpires) mortall to th' immortall ioyne. 
 Du Bartas, p. 177 (1621). 
 
 With this meaning of the word as a 
 third party called in to arbitrate when 
 two disagree, compare the synonymous 
 usages, Scot, odman or odismwn, one 
 having a casting vote (Jamieson) ; over- 
 man or oversman (Veitch, Poetry of 
 Soot. Border, p. 307) ; thirdsman (Scott, 
 St.Bonan's Well); Cumberland third- 
 man, an umpire (Dickinson) ; Sp. ter- 
 cero (from tertius), a thirdman, a me- 
 diator, terciar, to mediate (Stevens) ; 
 Pr. entiercer, to sequester or put into a 
 third hand (Cotgrave), Low Lat. inter- 
 tiare (Spelman, Du Cange). 
 
 UsciGNUOLo (It.), the nightingale, for 
 lusdgnuolo (Lat. lusoinm), understood 
 as il usdgnuolo. 
 
 Vails, profits accruing to servants, 
 is from old Eng. avail, profit, no doubt 
 misunderstood as avail, and afterwards 
 used in the plural. 
 
 You know your places well ; 
 When better fall, for your avails they fell. 
 Shakespeare, All's Well tliat Ends Well, 
 iii. 1, 22. 
 
 Valanche (Smollett), and voUenge, 
 occasional forms of avalanche (Davies, 
 Supp. Eng. Ghssary), apparently un- 
 derstood as a valanche. 
 
 Vambeace, I English forms of Fr. 
 Vanoourier, j- avant-brae, armourfor 
 Vanguard, j the arm (Cotgrave), 
 
VENTUBE 
 
 { 591 ) 
 
 WHITTLE 
 
 '.-coureur, and avant-garde, the 
 initial a being in each case probably 
 mistaken for the indefinite article. 
 Compare Vamp, p. 420, for avampe. 
 
 Venture has originated in a mis- 
 understanding of the old word aventure 
 as a wntwe, Fr. aventure, from Low 
 Lat. adventwa, a thing about to come 
 or happen, and so an uncertainty. 
 The original and proper form of the 
 phrase at a veniwe was at aventure. 
 See Eastwood and Wright, Bible Word- 
 look, s.v. 
 
 But at aventure the instrument I toke, 
 And blewe so loude that all the toure I shoke. 
 
 S. Hawes, Fastime of Pleasure, cap. xxvi. 
 p. 115 (Percy See). 
 
 The enemies at aitenture mnne against 
 theyr engines. — Hall, Chron, 1650, Hen. V. 
 p. 16i. 
 
 He was some hielding Fellow, that had stolne 
 The Horse he rode-ou : and vpon my life 
 Speake at aduenture, 
 
 Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. i. 1 (1. 59), 1623. 
 
 [The Globe ed. here has " spoke at a ven- 
 tv,Te."'\ 
 
 A certain man drew a bow at a venture. — 
 A. V. 1 Kings xxii. 34. 
 
 Compare a vantage for a{d)vantage : — 
 Therefore to them which are young, Salo- 
 mon shews what a vantage they have above 
 the aged. — H. Smith, Sermons, 1657, p. 216. 
 
 Vangeliste, a frequent old Eng. 
 form of evangelist, understood probably 
 as a vangelist. Wycliffe has vangelie 
 (1 Tim. i. 11) for evangel or gospel. So 
 old Eng. lowance for allowance ; ritli- 
 metique (B. Jonson) for arithmetic; 
 ringo (Howell) for eringo. 
 
 Sayn Mathew the wangeliste. 
 
 Ejig. Metrical Homilies, p. 34 (ed. Small). 
 
 Vow stands for the ordinary old Eng. 
 avow or avowe {Prompt. Parv.), fre- 
 quently in texts misprinted a vow, a 
 derivative of old Eng. avowen, old Fr. 
 avouer, from Lat. advotare. "This 
 mow."— Chaucer, C. Tales, 2416 ; 
 " [He] perfourmed his auowe." — Le- 
 genda Awrea, p. 47 (Way). 
 
 A-wowyn, or to make a-wowe, Voveo. — 
 Prompt. Parv. 
 I make myne avowe verreilly to Cryste. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 308. 
 
 Compare heatilles, an old cuUuary 
 word for the giblets of fowl (Bailey, 
 Wright), representing Fr. abatis. So 
 tender, a small vessel attendant on 
 another, is properly attender, evidently 
 mistaken for a tender. 
 
 VowTEE, frequently found in old 
 writings for avowtry, adultery, old Fr. 
 avoutrie. See Advowtky, p. 3. 
 
 hat man how [ = ought] to curse for crime 
 of vowtre. — Apology for Lollards, p. 21 (Cam- 
 den Soc). 
 
 On sle); an o)]er bi . . . vowti-and or doing 
 a voivtri. — Id. p. 87. 
 
 w. 
 
 Whittle, an old word for a knife 
 (Shakespeare), whence whittle, to cut 
 away, is a corruption of old Eng. thwitel 
 (from A. Sax. ]pwitan, to cut), perhaps 
 mistaken for th' witel, "the wittle." 
 Lancashire thwittle, a knife (E. D. 
 Soc). Compare riding for thriding, i.e. 
 thirding, the third part of a county. 
 
WORDS CORRUPTED THROUGH MISTAKES 
 ABOUT NUMBER. 
 
 Substantives ending in -s, -se, or -ce, 
 ■which consequently either in sound 
 or form simulate the appearance of 
 plurals, are often popularly mistaken 
 as such, and constructed with verbs in 
 the plural. I have observed a class of 
 Sunday School children in repeating 
 their collect almost unanimous in 
 thinking it due to grammar to say 
 "forgiving us those things whereof our 
 conscience are afraid." 
 
 Eandle Holme, on the other hand, 
 has "Innocence Day" (Academy, p. 
 131, 1688). for Innocents' Day. The 
 claimant in the Tichborne trial, when 
 questioned incidentally about "the 
 Marseillaise " replied that he did not 
 know "them." 
 
 Even the most correct speakers will 
 not hesitate to say, " "Where riches a/re, 
 some alms a/re due." In sonae instances 
 popular errors of this kind have so far 
 reacted on the form of the word that 
 new singulars have been evolved to 
 correspond to the imaginary plural. 
 Hence such words as a pea, a cherry, 
 for a pease, a cherries, sherry for sherris, 
 &c. 
 
 Instances of the contrary mistake, 
 plurals being turned into singulars, 
 are not wanting. Implements con- 
 sisting of two inseparable parts, though 
 plural in form, are generally treated as 
 singulars, e.g. a bellows, a pincers, u, 
 scissors, a tongs. 
 
 In Middlesex, a hobs or haps, used 
 popularly by the common folk for a 
 painful sore or gathering, is evidently 
 an imaginary singular of the plural- 
 sounding word abscess (Cockneyce 
 At different times I have 
 
 heard the sentences, " My daughter has 
 a /lais in her jaw ; " " My husband has 
 a bad haps under his arm." 
 
 So rice (old Fr. ris) was once taken 
 for a plural : 
 
 Nym rys, and lese hem, and wasch hem 
 clene. — Warner, Antiq. Cutin. p. 39. 
 
 Li zozo, a bird, in the Creole patois 
 of Mauritius, is from Fr. les oiseaux 
 sounding to the ear as le soiseau 
 (Athenaium, Dec. 31, 1870, p. 889). 
 In the same dialect zot, another (for 
 's'awi'), is from Pr. les autres. 
 
 In the Hebrew of Job v. 5, the word 
 tzammim, an intriguer, having all the 
 appearance of a plural (hke our al/ms 
 or riches), has actually been so taken 
 by the Targumist, who renders it 
 "robbers" (Dehtzsch, in toe). 
 
 These various irregularities have in 
 fact arisen from a misguided endeavour 
 to be regular, and they furnish curious 
 examples of what may be termed the 
 " pathology " of grammar (Philog. Soc. 
 Trans. 1873-4, p. 259). 
 
 A. 
 
 Aborigine, sometimes ignorantly 
 used as a singular of aborigines, Lat. 
 aborigines, a word found only in the 
 plural. 
 
 An aborigine of some region not far removed 
 from the equator. — Church Record (Dublin), 
 Bee. 1869, p. 18. 
 
 To the European sense of right they 
 united the desperate energy of the aborigine. 
 —The Standard, July 18, 1882, p. 5. 
 
 Similarly relic is a word, Uke " re- 
 mains," originally employed only in 
 
AGATE 
 
 ( 593 ) 
 
 BALANCE 
 
 the plural, old Eng. relikes, Fr. re- 
 Uques, Lat. reliquias, aco. of reliciuke, 
 reHcs. 
 
 Agate (for achate) stands for old Eng. 
 aohates, which was no douht mistaken 
 for a plural, but is really borrowed 
 &om Lat. and Greek achates, a stone 
 named from the river Aohates in Sicily 
 near which it was discovered. 
 
 Onyx and acliatis both more & lesse. 
 
 Flay of' the Sacrament, Philog. Soc. 
 Trans. 1860-1, p. 110. 
 His stone and herbe as saith the socle 
 Ben achates and primerole. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, iii. 130. 
 Achate, the precious stone Achates. — Cot- 
 grave, 
 
 Alms, now always regarded as a 
 plural because it ends in -s, so that it 
 would be "bad grammar" to say 
 " alms was given to the poor." It is 
 really a singular, being the mod. form 
 of old Eng. almes, or ahnease, A. Sax. 
 almesse, or oelmcesse, which is merely a 
 corrupted form of L. Lat. eleemosyna, 
 from Greek eleemostine, pity (compare 
 our " charity "). " Ehemosynary aid " 
 ie merely alms "writ large." Com- 
 pare Aelmesse, p. 4. The A. V. is in- 
 consistent in its usage : — 
 
 [He] asked an alms. —Acts iii. 3. 
 
 Thine alms are come up for a memorial 
 before God. — Id. x. 4. 
 
 Alms is a good gift unto all that give it. — 
 Tobit iv. 11. 
 
 The alms of a man is as a signet with him. 
 — Ecc/iis. xvii. 22. 
 
 Fruits, as it were, fastened on externally, 
 alms giren that they may be gloried in, 
 prayers made that they may be seen. — Abp. 
 Trench, Miracles, p. 336 (9th ed.). 
 
 WycUffe's pun on almes and all-amiss 
 shows how the word was pronounced in 
 his time : — 
 
 |:eendowyngeof(je clergy wi)j worldly lorde- 
 schipe ow3t not to be callid almes, but 
 rather alle a mysse or wastynge of goddis 
 goodes. — Unprinted Eng. Works of Wuclif, 
 p.388(E.E.T. S.). J H J' 
 
 But now [ajron J>is perpetual alamysse Jjat {le 
 clerkis and religious folke callen almes, 
 cristes ordenaunce is vndo. — Id. p. 389. 
 
 Anchovy is a corruption of an 
 mchovies, or anchoves, Dut. " ansjovis, 
 anohoves."— /SeioeZ, 1708. 
 
 See above, p. 8. 
 
 Assets, a legal term and apparent 
 plural, as when we say " no assets are 
 
 forthcoming," is only an Anglicized 
 form of Pr. assez, sufficient (i. e. to dis- 
 charge a testator's debts and legacies), 
 old Eng. assetz (P. Plowman), from 
 Lat. ad satis. The word, therefore, is 
 not, as generally understood, plural, 
 but singular. 
 
 The value of the tenant's right is an avail- 
 able asset against his debt to the landlord. — 
 The Standard, July 22, 1882. 
 
 Old Eng. forms are aseth, asseth, a- 
 seeth (:= satisfaction), which appear to 
 be fictitious singulars. 
 
 («rfor make to god a-seefj for synne . . . 
 Many men maken aseeb hi sorrow of herte. 
 — Wyclif's Unprinted Eng. Works, p. 340 
 (E. £. T. S.). 
 
 AuROCH. Dr. Latham mentions that 
 he has met some instances of " an 
 auroch " being used, as if the singular 
 of aurochs {Diet. s.v. Bonasus) — a 
 mistake pretty much the same as if we 
 spoke of an oc instead of an ox, ochs 
 being the German for ox. 
 
 It is strange to find an eminent 
 philologer like Mr. T. L. K. OUphant 
 speaking of our fathers " hunting tho 
 auroch " {Old and Middle Eng. p. 13). 
 
 AxEY (Prov. Eng.), the ague, is a 
 feigned singular of access, mistaken for 
 a plural, as if axeys. See Axey, p. 15, 
 and Nabsy, p. 581. 
 
 The tercyan ye quartane or ye brynnyng axs. 
 Play of the Sacrament, 1. 611 (Philolog. 
 Soc. Trans. 1860-1). 
 
 B. 
 
 Baize, a woollen stuff, now used as 
 a singular, was originally a plural, viz. 
 hayes (Cotgrave), plu. of hay, Pr. baye 
 (Dan. lai, Dut. iaai), originally, per- 
 haps, cloth of a hay colour (Fr. had). 
 — Skeat, Wedgwood. Compare Pr. 
 hureau (0. Pr. hurel, 0. Eng. horel), 
 orig. coarse cloth of a russet colour, 
 from Lat. hurrus, reddish. 
 
 Baye . . . the cloth called 6at/es. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Balance (Pr. halanoe, Lat. hi-lan- 
 cem, " two-platter "), from its sounding 
 like a plural and signifying two scales, 
 is used by old writers as a plural. " A 
 peyre of Ballaunce." — Drant (Morris, 
 Accidence, p. 98). 
 
 Q Q 
 
BARBEBBY 
 
 ( 594 ) 
 
 BBEEOEES 
 
 Reprooue our ballance "when they are 
 faultie. — Gosson, Schoot of Abuse, p. 5-1. 
 Are these ballance here, to weig'h the flesh. 
 MercJiant of' Venice, iv. 1. 
 
 Baebeeey is a corruption of Fr. 
 herberis, Low Lat. herheris, Arab, hm-- 
 hdris (Skeat), perhaps understood as 
 harberries, a plural. Compare heresy, 
 O. Fr. heresie, from Lat. hceresis, Greek 
 hairesis, the taking up (of a wrong 
 opinion), which is much the same as 
 if analysy had been formed out of 
 analysis, Greek analusis. Shenstone 
 somewhat similarly uses crise (Fr. 
 crise) for crisis. See Dose below. 
 
 Behold him, at some cHse, prescribe 
 And raise with drug's the sick'ning; trihe. 
 Progress of Taste, pt, iv, 1. 56, 
 
 Bellows, now used as a singular, 
 was originally the plural of old Eng. 
 belowe (Prompt. Parv.), a bag, another 
 form of the old Eng. beli, bali, A. Sax. 
 hcelig, a bag (Skeat). A bellows is 
 properly a pair of leathern blow-bags 
 joined together (Ger. blase-balg =■ Lat. 
 folles). 
 
 fie deouel . . . mucheleS his beli hies. — 
 Ancren Kiwle, p. ^96. 
 
 [The devil increaseth with his bellow(s) 
 the blast.] 
 
 Bible, Fr. bible, Lat. hiblia, is the 
 Greek /3i;8Xia, books, the sacred writings, 
 plural of ^ijiXiov, a book. The Latin 
 word was sometimes taken as a fern, 
 sing, substantive. See Westcott, The 
 Bible in the Church, p. 5 ; Smith, Bible 
 Bid. i. 209. 
 
 BiGA, and quadriga, used by later 
 Latin writers for a chariot, are in earher 
 writers properly plurals, MgcB, guaAigce, 
 standing for bijugce, guadrijugm (so. 
 egux), a double yoke, or quadruple 
 yoke, of mares drawing a chariot. For 
 these and other plural forms in Latin, 
 see Philog. 8oc. Trans. 1867, p. 105. 
 
 Blouse, a smock-frock, Fr. blouse, 
 is from old Fr. bliaus, which is the 
 plural of hliaut, a rich over-garment 
 (see Skeat, Etym. Bid. s.v.). 
 
 Bodice, a stays, was originally a 
 plural, the word being a corruption of 
 bodys (Fuller), or "a pair of bodies" 
 (Sherwood), i.e. a front and back body 
 laced together. Compare dice for dies, 
 and pence for pennies. 
 
 Sometimes with sleeves and bodies wide, 
 And sometimes straiter than a hide. 
 
 5am. Butler, Works, ii. 164, 1. 30 
 (ed. Clarke). 
 
 With the plural bodices (ribodies-es) 
 compare oddses used by Butler. 
 Can tell the oddses of all games, 
 And when to answer to their names. 
 
 Sam. Butler, Works, ii. 155, 1. 66 1 
 (ed. Clarke). 
 Like rooks, who drive a subtle trade, 
 Bj taking all the oddses laid. 
 
 Id. ii. 286. 
 
 Beace, a pair, is the old Pr. brace, 
 " the two arms," from Lat. brachia, 
 the arms, plu. of brachium, an arm 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Beacken, coarse fern, is properly the 
 old plural in -en (Mid. Eng. broken, A. 
 Sax. braccan) oihrahe (1, afern,_/ifa. — 
 Prompt. Parv. ; 2, a thicket), A. Sax. 
 bracce, a fern. Thus bracTcen '=. brakes 
 (see Skeat, s.v., and Prior). 
 
 Beeb, a name for the gadfly in the 
 Cleveland dialect and in N. English, 
 from breese, A. Sax. hriosa, brimsa, 
 Swed. and Dan. brems (Ger. bremse), 
 the original word evidently having been 
 mistaken for a plural. Similar cor- 
 ruptions are the following, given in 
 Wright, Prov. and Obsolete Bictionary : 
 Essex blay, a blaze (as if blays) ; 
 chimy, a shift, from chemise (as if 
 chimies) ; fm-ny, a furnace (as if fw- 
 nies); Somerset may, a maze (as if 
 mays) ; pray, a press or crowd, for- 
 merly spelt prease (as ii prays). 
 
 The learned write an insect breeze 
 Is but a mongrel prince of-bees. 
 That falls before a storm on cows 
 And stings the founders of his house. 
 Butler, Hudihras, Pt. III. ii. 1. 4. 
 
 Beeeches is a double plural (as in- 
 correct as geeses would be) ; breech, 0. 
 Eng. breche, breke, A. Sax. brec, being 
 already the plural of hroc, just as 0. 
 Eng. teth (teeth) is of toth, fit (feet) of 
 fot, &c. So Icel. brcekr is the plural of 
 brdk. See Beeeches, p. 38. 
 
 Breche or breke, Braccse. — Prompt. Paiv, 
 He dide next his whyte lere 
 Of cloth of lake fyn and clere 
 A breech and eek a sherte. 
 Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 1. 2049. 
 The plural Iwrs-es is a refinement on 
 the old Eng. and A. Saxon, which has 
 hors for both plural and singular, pretty 
 
BBOGGOLI 
 
 ( 595 ) 
 
 GEILDBEN 
 
 mnch as if we were to speak of sheeps 
 and dee»'S. We still say a battery, &c., 
 of so many horse. 
 So scbolde hors be drawe yn (je same wjse. 
 Trevisaj Morris and Skeat Specimens, 
 ii. 2o9, 1. 108. 
 
 Broccoli is properly the plural of 
 It. hvccolo, a small sprout (Prior), a 
 dimia. of brocco, a shoot (Skeat). 
 Compare Celery. The elder Disraeli 
 has " a banditti," properly plu. of It. 
 handito, an outlaw {Galamittes of 
 Authors, p. 130). 
 
 Bkoth, in the provincial dialects, is 
 frequently treated as a plural, e.g. " a 
 few broth," " Theeas broth is varry 
 good." — Holdemess dialect (E. Tork- 
 shii-e)," Theyaxe too hot "(Cambridge- 
 shire). This is perhaps due to a con- 
 fusion with the synonymous words 
 breiois, hrose, old Eng. hrowes, browesse, 
 0. Fr. broues, which were used as 
 pliu'als (Skeat). However, brose seems 
 to be itself a singular, from Gael, bi-othas. 
 Compare Porridge below. 
 
 Burial, formerly heriel, is a fictitious 
 singular of old Eng. hmals, heryels, 
 hjrgeh, which, though it looks like a 
 plural, is itself a singular, A. Sax. 
 birgels, a tomb. Compare old Eng. 
 )-efeZ«,incense,andEiDDLEandSHtrTiLE 
 below. 
 
 And was his holie lichame leid in burieles 
 in (je holie sepulcre, )jat men seohen giet in 
 ierusalem. — Old Eng. Homilies, 'ind Ser. p. 
 21 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 Prof. Skeat quotes "Beryels, sepul- 
 ohrum." — Wright, Vocabula/ries,i. 178 ; 
 and "An bwyels." — JRoht. of Glotic. p. 
 204. 
 
 Wyoliffe is credited with having in- 
 vented the quasi-singular form biriel 
 {Matt, xxvii. 60), buriel {Mwrk vi. 29). 
 See Skeat, Notes to P. Plowman, p. 
 430. 
 
 That i>nt blessed body • of buriels sholde 
 aj-yse. 
 Vision of P. Plowman, C. xxii. 146. 
 
 Capers, used as the name of a sauce, 
 seems to have been properly a singular, 
 cappans, the caper-shrub, in Wycliffe, 
 taken directly from Lat. capparis, 
 
 Greek Mpparis, a caper-plant. The 
 French have also made the word a 
 singular, odp^-e, 0. Pr. cappre. 
 
 A locust schal be maad fat, and capparis 
 schal be distried.— Il'i/c/i/^e, Eccles. xii. 5. 
 
 Gerarde, while noting " it is gene- 
 rally called Oappers, in most languages ; 
 inEngHsh Cappers, Gaper,a,nd. Capers " 
 {Herbal, p. 749), himself uses the form 
 caper. 
 
 Celery, Fr. cileri, from prov. It. 
 seleri (Skeat), or sellari, which appears 
 to be the plural of sellaro, selero, a cor- 
 ruption of Lat. selinum, Greek selinon, 
 a kind of parsley (Prior, Pop. Names of 
 Brit. Plants). 
 
 So Fr. salmis seems to be a double 
 pluralformed by adding s to salmi, from 
 It. salami, salted meats, plu. of salame 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Cheery is a corrupt singular of 
 clieris, mistaken for a plural, but really 
 an Anglicized form of Fr. cerise, from 
 Lat. cerasus, a cherry-tree. Compare 
 merry (the fruit) from merise, sherry 
 from sherris, &c. 
 
 Cherubin, or cherubim, the Hebrew 
 phi. of cherub, is often incorrectly used 
 in old writers as a sing, making its 
 plural cheruhins or cherubims. 
 Patience, then young- and rose-lipp'd client- 
 bin. Othello, iv. 2, 1. 63. 
 Still quiring* to the 3^oung-eyed chenibins. 
 Mercliant nf Venice, v. i. 1. 62. 
 Thou shalt make two cherubims of gold. — 
 A. V. Exodus XXV, 18. 
 
 A fire-red cAen(fcirt7ies face. — Cant. Tales, 626. 
 For God in either eye has placed a cherubin. 
 Dryden, Poems, p. 511, 1. 156 
 (Globe ed.). 
 
 Children is a double plural, formed 
 by adding the old plural formative 
 ■en (as in ox-em, prov. Eng. housen, 
 houses) to childre or childer, which in 
 old Eng., as stiU in prov. Eng. (e.gr. in 
 Lancashire and Ireland), is the plural 
 of child (Carleton, Traits of Irish 
 Peasantry, p. 219 ; Phihlog. Soc. Proc. 
 i. 115) ; A. Sax. cild/ru, infants. Chil- 
 dermass was the old name of Innocents' 
 Day. 
 
 He sal say f:an, " Commes now til me. 
 My fadir blissed childer fre." 
 
 Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1. 6148. 
 
 Myry tottyr, chylderys game. Oseillum. — 
 Prompt. Paro. 
 
GHINEE 
 
 ( 596 ) 
 
 DOSE 
 
 He was near eighty, .... and had had a 
 matter o' twenty chillier. — Mrs, Gaslcell, 
 Lije of C. Bronte, ch. ii. p. 13. 
 
 In soru sal )3U Ipi childer here. 
 Cursor Mundi, 1. 904 (Gijttingen MS.). 
 
 Compare brethren, i.e. h'ether ( :=. 
 brothers, Percy Fol. MS.) + en; old 
 Eng. sisteren, lamh-en, lambs, calveren, 
 calves. 
 
 Kyng Roboas let make 2 calneren of gold. — ■ 
 Maundevile, Voiage and Travaiie, p. 105 (ed. 
 Halliwell). 
 
 Feede thou my lamhren. — Wyciiffe, S. John 
 xxi. 15. 
 
 Chinee, a popular name for a China- 
 man in some parts of America, as in 
 Bret Harte's " heathen Chinee," is an 
 assumed singular of the plural sound- 
 ing word Chinese. On theother hand, 
 Chinamen are called Chineses by Sam. 
 Butler and Milton {Par. Lost, iii. 438). 
 By a similar blunder sailors speak of a 
 Portuguee for a Portuguese, and a 
 Maltee for a Maltese (see Philolog. Soc. 
 Trans. 1873-4, p. 253), It has even 
 been supposed that Yanhee stands for 
 Yanhees, a North American Indians' 
 attempt to pronounce English, Anglais, 
 Ingles. 
 
 The vulgar adjective from Malta, used by 
 sailors and others in this island, is Maltee. 
 I suppose they argued that as the singular of 
 bees is bee, so the singular of Maltese is 
 Maltee. Carrying their principle one step 
 further, it seems to me that cheese ought to 
 be plural and cte singular. — SirG. C. Lewis, 
 Letter to Sir E. Head, 183?". 
 
 CopiE, used by Tusser (1580) as a 
 quasi-singular (prov. Eng. coppy) of 
 coppice (old Fr. copeiz, cut- wood, brush- 
 wood, from coiper, to cut. Mod. Pr. 
 couper), misunderstood as coppies. 
 Fence copie in 
 er heawers begin. 
 Fiue Hundred Pointes {E. D. Soc), 
 p. 102. 
 
 Corpse, formerly spelt corps, is 
 frequently in old writers used as a 
 plural, hke remains (Lat. reUquice), as if 
 there were a sing, form corp, which, 
 indeed, there is in Scottish. The final 
 -s is a part of the word, old Fr. corps, 
 Lat. corpus, a body. 
 
 The corps of men of quality . . . a7-e borne 
 through the porch.— Pu/ter, Plsgah Sieht. 
 1650, p. 247. * ^ ' 
 
 His corps were spared by speciall command. 
 —Id. p. 250. 
 
 His soule thereby was nothing bettered 
 Because his corps were bravely buried. 
 Fuller, Davids Heavis Punishment, 
 St. 38. 
 Some men . . . have in their breathless 
 corps . . . suffered a kind of surviving 
 shame. — Pearson, Exposition of the Creed, 
 Art. iv. 
 
 His corps were very honourably attended. 
 — Letter, 1672, in Athentc Oionienses, i. 81 
 (ed. Bliss). 
 
 The hall is heaped with coj'ps. 
 Dryden, Cymon and Iphigenia, 607. 
 [He was] brought hame a coiy. — Nodes 
 Ambrosianw, i. 179. 
 
 A corp set up on end by "some cantrip. — Id. 
 161. 
 
 Cuts, in the phrase "to draw cuts," 
 i. e. to draw lots, especially with cut 
 strips of paper, seems to be properly a 
 sing., being identical with Welsh cwtws, 
 a lot, cwtysyn, a lot, a ticket. So the 
 plural should be cutses, and cut is an 
 imaginary sing. 
 
 Now draweth cutte, for that is min accord. 
 Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1. 827. 
 
 Cyclop, a fictitious singular (Pope, 
 Macaulay) of Cyclops, hid. cyclops, 
 Greek Tcuklops, " circular eye," mis- 
 taken for a plural ; e.g. Borrow's 
 Oypsies, p. 88. So .SJthiop (Shake- 
 speare) for 2Ethiops. 
 
 Taking from the God-foe Polypheme 
 His only eye ; a Cyclop, that excelled 
 All other Cyclops. 
 
 Chapman, Odysseys, i. 120. 
 So wrought the Cyclop. 
 
 Id. A. .551. 
 The Cyclops did their sti'okes repeat. 
 Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis, 441. 
 A Cyclope, tending the fire, to the cornets 
 began to sing. — B. Jonson, Mercury Vindi- 
 cated ( Wo7-ks, p. 595). 
 
 Hear a huge Cyclop, there a pigme Elf. 
 J. Sylvester, l)u Bartas, p. 92. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dose. The original form of this 
 word was dosis (Bacon), being the 
 Greek ddsis, a giving (cf. Ger. gift), 
 which was probably mistaken for a 
 plural. 
 
 A sugerd dosis 
 Of wonnwood, and a deatn's-head orown'd 
 with roses. 
 
 H. Vaughan, Silex Scintiltans, 1650 
 (p. 146, ed. 1858). 
 
HAVE 
 
 ( 597 ) 
 
 OENTBY 
 
 SoecZipsefrom ecUpsis (Gk. ehleipsis) ; 
 effigie (effigy), originally an effigies (Lat. 
 effigies) ; ecstasy, at first spelt ecstasis. 
 
 E. 
 
 Bate, sometimes incorrectly used as 
 if the singular of eaves, which is old 
 Eng. e%i£sc, A. Sax. efese, Icel. ups, an 
 " overing " or projection. The plural 
 is eaveses. Compare prov. Eng. easing 
 for eavesing. 
 
 Avaat-toict, An house-eave, easing. — Cot- 
 grave. 
 
 Scollops are osier twigs . . . inserted in 
 the thatch to bind it at the eve and rigging. 
 — W. Cartetnn, Traits and Stories of Irish 
 Peaaantrii, vol. i. p. 87 (1843). 
 
 Metal eave g-utters at 2d. per foot. — Irish 
 Times, Dec. 12, 1868. 
 
 JMousche, ... a spie, Eai;e-dvopper, in- 
 former. — Cot^rave, 
 
 BFriGY, a modern formation from 
 effigies (La.t. effigies), popularly mistaken 
 as a plural, just as if sery were manu- 
 factured out of series, or congei-y from 
 congeries. 
 
 So does his effigies exceed the rest in live- 
 liuess, proportion, and magnificence. — Ward, 
 Loudon Spy, p. 170. 
 As mine eye doth his effigies witness 
 Most truly limn'd and living in your face. 
 As You Like It, ii. 7, 194. 
 
 Similarly specie, or specy, is some- 
 times popularly used instead of species, 
 "This dog is a different specie from the 
 French breed." 
 Loud thunder dumbj and every speece of 
 
 storm. 
 Laid in the lap of listening nature, hush'd. 
 B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, iii. 1. 
 
 flush, a flow, and Lane, floos, a sluice, 
 and prov. Eng. fluke, waste cotton. 
 Flue, a chimney passage, is a corrup- 
 tion oi flute. Compare Fluke. 
 
 _ Fluke, or flook, a Scottish word for 
 diarrhoea, is evidently an imaginary 
 singular of flux [e.g. A. V. Acts xxviii. 
 8), understood as fluh-s, 'Fr.flux, Lat. 
 fluxus, a flowing. Similarly prov. Eng. 
 flick or fl^'ck, the down of animals, has 
 been formed from fllx, the fur of a hare 
 (Kent), akin to old Eng. flex, flax 
 (Chaucer), A. Sa,x.fli'aa:. 
 His warm breath blows her_/?irup as she lies. 
 Dryden, Annus Mirabitis, 132. 
 
 Fkog ought, perhaps, etymologically, 
 to he B, frogs orfroks, as we see by com- 
 paring its old Eng. form /rosA;, A. Sax. 
 
 frox,frosc, with Icel. froskr, 0. H. Ger. 
 
 frosc, Dut. vorseh, Ger. frosch, prov. 
 Eng. frosh. It would be an analogous 
 case if we had made a tug out of A. 
 Sax. tux, tusc, a tusk or t^lsh, or an og 
 or och out of ox (Ger. ocJis). The plm-al 
 of A. Sax. frox is froxas. However, I 
 find Prof. Skeat quotes an A. Sax. 
 
 froga. Can this be a secondary form 
 evolved from frox after having been 
 resolved into frocs or frogs ? 
 
 Frosg, or frosk, a frog. — Peacock, Lonsdale 
 Glossary. 
 
 FuEZB, though now always used as 
 a singular, e.g. '"She furze is in bloom," 
 seems to have been originally a plural, 
 being spelt furres and fiirrys, and 
 Turner in 1538 says, "Alii a furre 
 nominant." Prof. Skeat, however, 
 gives A. Sa,x.fyrs. Gerarde has /urzes 
 {Herbal, 1138). 
 
 F. 
 
 Flew, or fhie, down, feathery dust, 
 seems to be an imaginary sing, of prov. 
 Bug. flooze (or fleeze), Frisian fl/uus, 
 Dut. vlies, pluis [Philolog. 8oc. Trans. 
 1856, p. 202). Compare Lancashire 
 fioose or floss, loose threads or fibres 
 (E. D. Soc. Glossary), "aflcose ohay " 
 [Tim Bobbin). These words are 
 probably identical with It. floscia, 
 sleave sflk, Venet. fiosso, from Lat. 
 fluxus, flowing, loose ; whence also 
 
 G. 
 
 Gallows, now used always as a 
 singular, a gibbet, is strictly speaking 
 a plural, old Eng. galwes, plu. of gahve, 
 A. Sax. galga, a cross (Skeat), and per- 
 haps denoting two crosses or cross- 
 pieces put together to form a gibbet. 
 Compare Stocks below. 
 
 Gentry, old Eng. gentr-ie, is a quasi- 
 singular formed from old Eng. gentrise, 
 old Fr. genierise, another form of gen- 
 tillece, gentleness. See Gentry, p. 
 140. 
 
GBEGE 
 
 ( 598 ) 
 
 IGNOBAMI 
 
 Vor cas ("at myste come, Tor hyre gentryse. 
 Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 434. 
 
 Geboe, in old Eng. a step, also spelt 
 grees (WyoKffe, Esd. viii. 4), is appa- 
 rently from the plural of gre, Pr. gre, 
 Lat. gradus (Way), like a stairs. Lan- 
 cashire greese, stairs, steps (B. D. Soc). 
 
 Grece, or tredyl, Gradus. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Degr^, a staire, step, greese. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Geeeneey, used for verdure, an 
 aggregate of green things, formed appa- 
 rently frora analogy to shrubbery, fern- 
 ery, perfumery, mercery, is as anoma- 
 lous as bluerywoulA be. It is perhaps, 
 as H. Coleridge suggests, a corruption 
 of old Eng. greneris, green branches 
 {Glossa/rial Index), from grene, green, 
 and ris, a branch, A. Sax. h/rls. Com- 
 pare Gentey above. 
 
 What is J>er in paradis 
 Bot grasse and flure and grene-rh. 
 Land of Cockaygne, 1. 8 (Philolog. 
 Soc. Trans. 1858, pt. ii. p. 156). 
 
 Geipe, an old English word for a 
 grif&n or vulture, is a quasi-singular of 
 Lat. gryps, Greek ypvii. 
 Tantalus thirste, or proude Ixions wheele, 
 Or cruell gripe to gnawe my growing harte. 
 Tragedie of Gorboduc, 1561, ii. 1 
 (p. 114, Shaks. Soc. ed.). 
 Tlie gripe also beside the here. 
 
 Halliwell, Archaic Diet. 
 Tlie grype is foure fotedde and lyke to the 
 egle in heed and in wynges. — Trevisa, 
 Barlholomaus, p. 171 (1535). 
 
 Vpon the topp a g) ipe stood. 
 Of shining gold, tine & good. 
 
 Sir Lambewetl, 1. 806 {Percii Fol. 
 MS. i. 148). 
 Alas haue I not paine enough my friend, 
 \'pon "whose breast a fiercer Gnpe doth 
 
 tire 
 Than did on him who first stale downe the 
 fire. 
 
 Sir P. Sidney, Astrophel, 14, 
 p. 571 (ed. 1629). 
 
 Geocse seems to be a fictitious form 
 first found about 1668. The older 
 word is grice (Cotgrave), derived from 
 old Fr. grieschp, poule griesche, or 
 greoche. As irtice implies a sing, mo^ise, 
 and lice, louse, it was supposed that 
 grice involved a sing, form grouse, 
 which was invented accordingly (see 
 Skeat, S.V.). Contrast tit-mice in- 
 correctly evolved out of titmouse. 
 Griesche, greoche, is said to have meant 
 originally the Grecian or Greekish 
 
 bird (Lat. Grceciscus). Covapaxe " grig 
 hens, called Hadrianse " (Holland, 
 PUny, i. 298), apparently from Pr. 
 gregue, gregois, gregeois, := griesche, 
 Greek ; hke old Eng. " fyr g^'egys," 
 from Pr. feu gregeois ( or grSgois), " Greek 
 fire"; and " merry jrn'g' " for "merry 
 Greek." Lancashire grug, a dandy 
 hen (E. D. Soc). 
 
 Hekinok, used by a Sussex peasant 
 as a singular of equinox. 
 
 History do tell us a high tide came up up- 
 on the hekinok, and what could stand against 
 that? — L. Jennings, Field Paths and Green 
 Lanes, p. 3. 
 
 Ignoeami, a learned plural of ig- 
 noramus, occurs with cm-ious infehcity 
 in a scientific review of a work of Mr. 
 Darwin's : — 
 
 Indeed, among the younger savants, who 
 have, as it were, been born into the Dar- 
 winian atmosphere, there is a tendency to 
 pooh-pooh doubts regarding their pet hypo- 
 thesis as the mad ravings of ignorami. — The 
 Standard, Nov. 25, 1880, p. 2. 
 
 Lat. Ignoramtis, " we are ignorant " 
 (1st pers. plu. pres. indie), is the legal 
 formula by which a grand jury throw 
 out an indictment for want of sufiicient 
 evidence. 
 
 Hiati is known to have been used 
 instead of hiatuses, and even omnibi 
 has been heard from the lips of an 
 old gentleman of classical prochvities. 
 These are what may be called the 
 pitfalls of pedantry. So Fr. maitre 
 alihoron, an ignorant man who pre- 
 tends to know everything, is said to 
 have originated in a lawyer using 
 aUborum as a genitive plural of alibi, 
 as if it were a noun of the second 
 declension (HuetinScheler). Thacke- 
 ray heard an old lady speak of some 
 taking their affies-davit — like letters- 
 patent ! 
 
 Let i^nrtramt(S juries find no traitors. 
 And ignoramus poets scribble satires. 
 Drtfden, Prologue to the Diike of 
 Guise, \.'i4(16S2). 
 
JANE WAY 
 
 ( 599 ) 
 
 LEA 
 
 Butler has " gross phcenomenas " 
 IEudih-as,'Pt.lI. i. 189), and"different 
 sfccicses" (Pt. I. i. 865). 
 
 Janeway, a surname, is derived from 
 Januweys or Januayes, the old form, of 
 Gemoese (Bardsley), which was probably 
 mistaken for a plural, as if we were 
 now to use Geraoee for Genoese. Com- 
 pare Chinee, Maltee, Fortuguee, for 
 Ghhiese, &c. 
 
 Jesses, an old word for the straps of 
 a hawk (Shakespeare, Otli. iii. 3, 261), 
 is a double plural, and stands for ject- 
 s-es; jess being old Fr. jects, plu. of 
 ject {boia jecter, to throw, Ziat.jacta/re), 
 the jet or casting off of a hawk, that by 
 which a hawk is cast off. Compare 
 si.ijpewces, i.e. six-pennies-es, prov. Eng. 
 messes for nests-es (Skeat). 
 
 K. 
 
 Kexes, hemlock stalks, or heclisics, is 
 a double plural, hex, hemlock, being 
 itself a plural and standing for liecJcs, 
 Welsh cecys (plu.), hollow stalks 
 (Skeat). Compare j)oa! for jjocfcs. 
 
 As dry as a hex. — Lancashire Glossary, p. 
 171(E. D.S.). 
 
 Tho' the rough kex break 
 The starr'd mosaic. 
 
 Tennyson, The Princess, It. 59. 
 Nothing teemes 
 But hateful Docks, rough Thistles, Keksi/es, 
 Burres. Henry V. v. (2), 1623. 
 
 KiNE is a double plural ( i= oowses), 
 and stands for his-en or hy-en, i.e. old 
 Eag. and Scot. Icy (cows, A. Sax. cy, 
 plu. of c«, cow) + -en, the old plural 
 ending (as in oa;-e«, ^s-em). Compare 
 old Eng. eyne for ey-en, eyes (Skeat). 
 Lancashire kye, cows (E. D. S. Glos- 
 
 The kye stood rowtin' i' the loan. 
 
 Burns, The Twa Dogs. 
 But they hem self that stelen kyen oxen and 
 horses, they shal goo quyte and be lordes. — 
 Caxton, Reynard the Fnx, 1481, p. 78 (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 Knee is in old Eng. Icnoiv (Chaucer, 
 Frim-esses Tale, st. 6), ctico {Ancren 
 
 Biwle), A. Sax. cned, cnediu (cf. dhotwjh, 
 from A. Sax. 06(5). Perhaps the modern 
 form is due to internal vowel change 
 denoting the plural, like old Eng. geet 
 (Caxton), plu. oi goat, teeth oi tooth, &c. 
 bheep and deer remain unchanged in 
 the plm-al, perhaps for this reason, that 
 those words in old Eng. abeady wear 
 a plural appearance, like geese, &o. 
 
 Similarly fleet, a number of ships, 
 might have originally been a plu. of 
 old Eng. yfofe, a ship, A. Sax._/?oto, loel. 
 floti. 
 
 The whiche erle, in kepynge his course or 
 passage, encountryd a myghty Jtote of 
 llemynges laden with Rochell wyne, and 
 sec vpon them and distressyd tliem and theyr 
 shyppys. — Fubuan, Chronicles, 151(5, p. 533 
 (ed. Ellis). 
 
 L. 
 
 Lache, a defect, failure, remissness, 
 negligence (Eichardson), is a mistaken 
 sing, of the legal term laches or lachesse, 
 slackness, negligence (Bailey), from an 
 hypothetical Fr. laschesse, slackness. 
 Similarly old Eng. nohley or nohluy, 
 grandeur, nobleness {Morte Arthure, 1. 
 76), seems to be an assumed sing, of 
 nohlesse, mistaken as a plural. Com- 
 pare Riches. 
 
 Lachesse ... is he that whan he begin- 
 neth any good werk, anon he wol forlete it 
 and stint. — Chaucer, Persones TaU (p. 162, 
 ed. Tyrwhitt). 
 
 Lakiok, a Scottish name for the larch 
 tree (Jamieson) is an assumed sing, of 
 larix, as if laricks, its Latin name, by 
 which it is also known. An exactly 
 similar blunder is the Wallon lari, a 
 larch, from old Fr. larise (Sigart). 
 
 Lea, a meadow, pasture land, seems 
 to be a fictitious singular of lease, 0. 
 Eng. lese, leseive, A. Sax. Icese, ItBsu, 
 pasture (EttmiiUer, p. 159), just as 
 " lee of threde, Hgatm-a " {Prompt. 
 Pail).), is only another forna of lees {Id.) 
 or lese {Cath. Aug.), old Fr. lesse, Lat. 
 laxa (Mod. Eng. leash). Compare pea 
 for pease. 
 
 [He] g&\im and ut, and fint tese. — A. Sax. 
 Vers. St. John x. 9. 
 
 [He goeth in and out and findeth pasture]. 
 
 He schal fynde lesewis. — ]]'yclij)e, ibid. 
 
 Tlii strong veniaunce is wrooth on the 
 scheep of tin leesene.—Id. Ps. Ixxiii. 1. 
 
MABQUEE 
 
 ( 600 ) 
 
 MUCK 
 
 [He] made yt al forest & lese, )je bestes 
 vorto rede. 
 Robt. of Gloucester J Chronlclej p. 375. 
 
 Sweeps from his land 
 His harvest hope of wheat, of rje, and pease, 
 And makes that channel which was shep- 
 herd's lease. 
 
 Browne, Brit. Past, I. ii. p. 52 
 [Nares]. 
 
 Browne also spells the word leyes (p. 
 66), whence evidently the prov. Eng. 
 ley, a lea or pasture (Wright). 
 
 M. 
 
 Marquee, a large tent, is a fictitious 
 singular of ma/rquees, an Eng. spelling 
 of Fr. ma/rquise (originally, perhaps, 
 the " tent of a marchioness " or gran- 
 dee), which was mistaken for a pltiral 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Means, intermediate or mediating 
 things wliioh come between the cause 
 and the effect (Er. moyens, Lat. 
 medicma), middle measures, is fre- 
 quently treated as a singular. 
 
 By this means thou shalt have no portion 
 on this side the river. — A. V. Ezra iv. 16. 
 
 A means whereby we receive the same. — 
 Catechism. 
 
 He possesses one mean only of mining 
 Great Britain. — Colei^ge, The Friend, i. 256 
 (ed. 1863). 
 
 Compare "A toalces" (Hacket, Cen- 
 tury of Sermons, p. 86), Wakesses { Stubs, 
 Anatomie of Abuses, p. 95), " A pains 
 not amiss " (T. Adams, Works, ii. 156), 
 " This great pains " {A. V. 2 Mace. 
 ii. 27). 
 
 Other words seldom found but in the 
 plural are ashes, ivages, and lees, though 
 Butler uses lee. 
 
 All love at first, like generous wine, 
 Fermt'nts and frets until 'tis fine ; 
 But when 'tis settled on the lee, 
 And from th' impurer matter free, 
 Becomes the richer still the older. 
 And proves the pleasanter the colder. 
 S. Butler, IVorks, ii. 253 
 (ed. Clarke). 
 
 Merry; a prov. Eng. word for a 
 wUd cherry, is an assumed sing, of Fr. 
 mJrise, mistaken for a plural. Com- 
 pare Cheery. Merise is perhaps a 
 contraction of nti-cerise, a bad {i.e. 
 wild) cheri-y (cf. Li^ge meserasus, a 
 
 wUd cherry tree). — Scheler ; or from 
 Lat. mericea, adj. of merica, a beny 
 (Prior). 
 
 Isle of Wight merry, a small black 
 sweet cherry 4E. D. S. Grig. Glossaries, 
 xxiii.}. 
 
 Mews, stabling, often used as a 
 singular, and sometimes spelt rnewse 
 (Stow), is the plural of mew, old Eng. 
 mewe, a house or cage for falcons, 
 old Fr. TOMe, properly a moulting-plaee, 
 from muer, to mou(l)t, or change the 
 coat, Lat. mutare. 
 
 Mewses is quoted from a regulation 
 of Sir E. Mayne in Good Words, 1863, 
 p. 767. 
 
 Then is the Mewse, so called of the King's 
 falcons there kept by the King's falconer. — 
 Stow, Survay, p. 167 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Minnow, a small fish, is put for a 
 minnows, much the same as if we were 
 to speak of a bellow msteadi oiahellows. 
 The older forms of the word are inen- 
 nous, menuse, menys, which Wedgwood 
 traces to Gaehc miniasg ( ^ minor pis- 
 cis), little fish. 
 
 Menace, fysche, Silurus, meniisa. — Prompt. 
 Parv. 
 
 Aforus est piscis, a menuse. — Medulla (in 
 Way). 
 
 Menusa, a menys. — Nominale [also Wright, 
 Vocab. \. 253]. 
 
 Fr. menu'ise, small fish of divers sorts 
 . . a small Gudgeon, or fish bred of the 
 spawn, but never growing to the bignesse of 
 a Gudgeon. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Compare old Fr. menuiser, to minish 
 or make small, Lat. minuiiare. 
 
 Muck, old Eng. "mulcke, fimus, 
 letamen " (Prompt. Pa/rv.), was in all 
 probabUity originally mux, which came 
 to be regarded as mucks; prov. Eng. 
 mux, dirt, A. Sax. meox ; cf. mixen, a 
 dung-heap. 
 
 Their gownds . . . vagging in the wind 
 or reeping in the mux. — Devonshire Courtship, 
 p. 17. 
 
 Thee wut come oil a dugged and thy shoes 
 oil mux. — Exnwor Scolding, 1. 203. 
 
 A quite similar formation to this is 
 the Sussex word nwke or moak for the 
 mesh of a net, a supposed sing, of the 
 older forna tnox {Brighton Costumal, 
 1580), identical with A. Sax. mair:,anet, 
 whence (by resolution into masc) came 
 old Eng. maske, mesh of a net {Prompt. 
 Parv.), Norfolk mash, amesh. See also 
 
MUSSULMEN 
 
 ( 601 ) 
 
 Parish, Siissex Glossary, pp. 76, 135, 
 who quotes : — 
 
 No fisherman of the town should fish with 
 any trawl net whereof the monk holdeth not 
 live inches size throughout. — Hastings Cor- 
 poration Records, 160^1. 
 
 Old Eng. el;cr, watercress, which 
 H. Coleridge quotes from K. Alysaun- 
 der, 6175, seems to be an assumed sing, 
 of A. Sax. eacersi, i.e. " water-cress." 
 
 MussDLMEN, a mistaken form of 
 Mvissulmans, see p. 249. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nepenthe, the drug which Helen 
 brought from Egypt, is without doubt 
 the Coptic nibendj, which is the plural 
 of hendj or henj, hemp, "bang," used 
 as an intoxicant (Lane, The Thousand 
 and One Nights, vol. ii.p. 290). If this 
 be right, the present form of the word 
 which we take from the Greek (Odys. 
 iv. 221) has been coiTupted by false 
 derivation, x'))7rej'96f," free from sorrow," 
 as if an anodyne or soothing drug (vij-, 
 not, and mvQoc, sorrow) . The true form 
 of the Eng. word, as Prof. Skeat notes, 
 is nepenthes (Holland), which was pro- 
 bably mistaken for a plural. 
 
 News, formerly newes, now always 
 regarded aa a singular, e.g. " What is 
 the nenos?" is properly a plural, "new 
 things," Lat. nova, Fr. nouvelles. Simi- 
 larly, " this tidings," " this means," 
 " ihispains," " this tact ics," "Asteives" 
 (J. Mayne, Lucian, 1663, Preface, suh. 
 fin.], "This marchis" (EUis, Letters, 
 i. 65, 3rd ser.). 
 
 And wherefore should these good 7ieu}es 
 Make me sicke 1 
 
 Skakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. iv. 2 (1623). 
 
 But are these news in jest? 
 
 Greene, Friar Bacon, &c., 
 Works, p. 162. 
 
 Seekyng to learne what news here are 
 walkyng. 
 
 Edwards, Damon and Pithias, 1371. 
 To heare novells of his devLse. 
 
 Spenser, Shep. Calender, Feb. 
 
 I can give thee the news which are dearest 
 to thy heart.— £. Irving, in Mrs. Olipliant's 
 Life of, p. 148. 
 
 The tactics of the opposition is to resist 
 wery step of the government.— Eincrson, 
 Eng. Traits, p. 83. 
 
 PEA 
 
 O. 
 
 Orfbay, a rich border of gold em- 
 broidered work (Fr. m-froi), is a quasi- 
 singular of orfraies (Bailey), old Eng. 
 orfraiz, orfrais, or o^-frayes, from old 
 French orfrais (Cotgrave), gold embroi- 
 dery, which is derived from Low Lat. 
 aurifrisifiim, or aurifrigium. Thus or- 
 frays is or-friezc, a gold frieze or border. 
 See Frieze, p. 131. 
 
 Armede hym in a actone with orfraeei fuUe 
 vyche. 
 
 Morte Arthure,l. 902 (E.E.T.S.). 
 Ffretene otorfrai/es feste appone scheldez. 
 Id. 1. 21-12. 
 With orfreis laied was every dele. 
 
 Ronuiiint of the Rose, 1. 1076. 
 Orfreiiota westyment, Aurifigium, aurifri- 
 gium. — Prompt. Purvnloruiii. 
 
 P. 
 
 Pea, a fictitious singular of pease, 
 which was assumed to be a plural form. 
 The old singular form was a pese or 
 •pees, A. Sa,x.pisa (Fr. pais), Liat.pisum, 
 and the plural pesen or peses. 
 And sette peers at o pese • pleyne hym wher 
 he wolde. 
 Langland, J^ision of Piers the Plowman, 
 Pass.ix. I. 166, Text C. 
 And bred for my barnes • of benes and of 
 peses. 
 
 Id. 1. 307. 
 Hec pisa, a pese. — Wright, Vocabularies, 
 p. 264. 
 
 LHe] countede pers at a pease • and his plouh 
 bobe. 
 Vision of P. Plowman, A. vii. 155. 
 The Pease, as Hippocrates saith, is lesse 
 windie than Beanes. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. 
 1017. 
 
 " The singular form pea really ex- 
 hibits as great a blunder," says Mr. 
 Skeat, "as if we were to develop c/iee 
 as the singular of cheese " {Notes toPiers 
 the Plowman, p. 166) ; so we have 
 " that heathen Ghinee," as a formation 
 from Cliinese, though our ancestors 
 even spoke of Ghineses, and similar 
 instances are Yanhee, Portuguee, Maltee, 
 cherry, a quasi-singular of cherris, Lat. 
 cerasus, merry, a black cherry, from 
 merise, sherry from sherris, Sp. Xeres, 
 shay from chaise. 
 
POLYPI 
 
 ( 602 ) 
 
 BAM80N8 
 
 Polypi, an incorrect plural (which 
 we inherit from the Latin) of polypus, 
 Lat. -polypus, which should properly be 
 polypus (gen. polypoAis),\>emg borrowed 
 from Greek ttoXvitovs (gen. TroXvTroSos), 
 "many-footed." The strictly correct 
 form would be polypodes, as octopodes 
 would be instead of octopi. A similar 
 error would be tripi, as a plu. of Lat. 
 tripus, Greek rpiVows, instead of tripods, 
 old Eng. tripodes, Lat. tripodes, Greek 
 TpiTToS^c (= Eng. " trivets "). The 
 exact English counterpart of the clas- 
 sical polypode is the heraldic term 
 fylfot, old Eng./eZe (= Ger. viel), many, 
 and fot, foot. Compare Many-feet 
 (Sylvester). 
 
 PoEEiDGE is, I believe, a disguised 
 plural standing for an older porrets, 
 porrettes, from Low Lat. porrata, broth 
 made with leeks (Lai. porrum), It. por- 
 rata. Compare Beoth above, regarded 
 as a plural, and Sledge. See Puree, 
 pp. 303, 499. Probably the Low Lat. 
 porrata was regarded as a neuter 
 plural, and then porrets following suit 
 was assimilated to pottage, old Eng. 
 and Fr. potage. 
 
 Potato. This root seems to have 
 been introduced under the name of 
 ^otofoes, which was afterwards regarded 
 as the plural of a singular form potato. 
 Early travellers, writing in 1526, men- 
 tion that the natives of Haiti caU the 
 root batatas. Plorio gives " Batatas, a 
 fruit so called in India;" Skinner 
 " Potatoes, Sp. potados, from the Ame- 
 rican Battatas." The Spaniards simi- 
 larly regarding the foreign name as a 
 plu. have made a sing, hatata, patata. 
 
 This plant whicli is called of some Sisarum 
 Peruvianum, or skyrrits of Peru, is g'ene- 
 rally of vs called Pptatus or Potatoes . . . 
 Clusius calleth it Buttata . . . : in Eng-lish 
 Potatoes, Polatus, and Potades. — Gerarde, 
 Herbal, p. 780. 
 
 Virginia Potatoes hath many hollowe flexible 
 branches. — Id. p. 781. 
 
 Ignarae, the roote we call Potatoes wherof 
 in some places they make bread. — Florio. 
 
 Potent, a quasi-singular word for a 
 crutch {Prompt. Parv., Chaucer, Lang- 
 land), formed from pottens, an East 
 Anglian word for a pair of crutches, 
 which is itself a singular, Fr. potence, 
 " a crutch for a lame man " (Cotgrave), 
 from Low Lat. poteniia, power, that 
 
 which strengthens or supports the im- 
 potent. See Vision of P. Plowman, C. 
 xi. 94. 
 
 Potent, or crotche. Podium. — Prompt. 
 Parv. 
 
 Potten, a Norfolk word for a stilt 
 (Wright) or crutch {PMlohg.Boc. Trans. 
 1855, p. 35). 
 
 Pot, an old word for a rope-dancer's 
 balancing pole (in Skinner, Etymolo- 
 gicon), seems to be a singular coined 
 out of poise, a balance (as if pays), old 
 Fr. pois, a weight. Similarly shay {po'- 
 s^aj/ = post-chaise) was once a common 
 corruption of chaise (Walker, Pron. *' 
 Diet.). Compare Beee above. We 
 even find ho as a Scottish singular of 
 hose, stockings. 
 
 The hride was now laid in her bed, 
 Her left leg lio was flung. 
 
 A. Ramsaii, Christ's Kirk on the 
 Green, canto ii. 
 
 Pulse, the beating of the heart (Fr. 
 pouls, Lat. pulsus, a beating), is often 
 popularly regarded as a plural. I have 
 laeard a, country apothecary, with his 
 fingers on a child's wrist, observe, 
 " Her pulse are not so good to-day ; 
 they are decidedly weaker." F. HaU, 
 Modern English, p. 250, quotes : — 
 
 Hee consumed away; and, after some few 
 puis, he died. — Mabbe, The Rogue (1623), 
 pt. i. p. S!2. 
 
 How are your pulse to-day? — Mrs. Cowley, 
 More Ways t}mn One, act i. 
 
 Puny, an old word for vermin that 
 infest beds, from Fr. punaise, mistaken 
 as a plural (see Cotgrave, s.v.). 
 
 Compare pumy stone, which Sylvester 
 uses for puim£e stone. 
 Repleat with Sulphur, Pitch, and Pumy stone. 
 Divine Weekes and Workes, p. 201. 
 Tho pitmie stones 1 hastly hent. 
 
 Spenser, Shep. Calender, March. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eampion, a plant-name, is an as- 
 sumed sing, of rampions, where the s 
 is an organic part of the word, it being 
 from Fr. raiponce, Lat. rapunculiis. 
 
 Eamsons, broad-leaved garUc, stand- 
 ing for rannsens, is areduphcated plural 
 (as oxens would be) of ramse. Craven 
 rams, ramps, old Eng. rammys, ramseys, 
 
BASPIGE 
 
 ( 603 ) 
 
 BOE 
 
 mmmjs {Prompt. Parv.), ramsey (Pals- 
 grave), A. Sax. hramsa (plu. Jwamsan), 
 Dan. ramse. 
 
 Easpice, an old word for the rasp- 
 berry (Holland), also spelt raspise 
 (Florio), is a oomaption of raspis or 
 raspes (Bacon), the old plu. of prov. 
 and old Eng. rasp, a rasp-berry. So 
 raspises (Cotgrave) is a double plu., as 
 iirasps-es. 
 
 Rescue looks like an assumed sing, 
 of old Eng. rescous (Chaucer), from old 
 Fr. resmusse, Low Lat. rescussa, for re- 
 excussa, a shaking off again (of some 
 threatened danger), Lat. re-excutere. 
 E.g. St. Paul's escape from the viper 
 (Acts xxviii. 6) was UteraUy a "res- 
 cue." 
 
 My might for thy rescousse I did. 
 
 Gowe)'j ConJ, Amantis, iii. 155 
 (ed. Pauh). 
 
 EicHES, now always treated as a 
 plural, is really a singular, which 
 would be apparent if the word were 
 spelt, as it might be, riehess (hke lar- 
 gess, 'Sr.. noblesse). It is old Eng. 
 lichesse (making a plu. richesses), from 
 Fr. richesse (:= It. riccliezza), richness, 
 wealth. There is no more reason why 
 we should say " riches are deceitful," 
 than "largess were given" (Fr. Iwr- 
 gesse), or " the distress are great " 
 (0. Fr. destresse). 
 
 It is preciousere than alle richessis. — Wy- 
 cliffe, Prffv. iii. 15. 
 
 The said Macabrune . . . had gi'eat posses- 
 sion of lands and other infinite richesses. — • 
 Knight of the Swanne, ch. i. (Thorns, Early 
 Prose Romances, iii. 2;3). 
 
 Mykel was the richesse. — Langtoft, Robert 
 ofB)'un7ie, p. 30 [Skeat]. 
 
 And for that riches where is my deserving ? 
 Shakespeare, Sonnet Ixxxvii. 
 
 In this marveylous hall, replete with richesse, 
 At the hye ende she sat full worthely. 
 
 Halves, Pastime of' Pleasure, chap. xxi. 
 (p. 99, Percy Soc. ed.). 
 
 He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not 
 who shall gather t/iem. — -A. V, Psalmxxxix.6, 
 
 Riches certainly make themselves wings ; 
 they fly away as an eagle. — Prov. xxiii. 5. 
 
 Those riches perish by evil travail. — Eccles. 
 v. 14. 
 
 Riches are not comely for a niggard. — 
 Ecclus. xiv. 3. 
 
 Some nouns . . . lack the singular; as 
 riches, goods. — B. Jonson, Eng. Grammar, 
 ch. xiii. 
 
 EiDDLE, old Eng. redel {Cursor 
 MundA, p. 412), is a fictitious singular, 
 and should properly be a riddles, with 
 a plural riddles-es, as we see by com- 
 paring old Eng. a redels, which came 
 to be mistaken for a plural, A. Sax. 
 rmdelse {rcedels), an enigma, something 
 to be read or interpreted, from A. Sax. 
 rcedan, to read or interpret. " The 
 Kynge putte forth a rydels." — Trevisa, 
 iii. 181. See Prof. Skeat, Etym. Did. 
 s.v. 
 
 Sernen [3e] to rede redeles 7 
 
 Piers Plowman, B. xiii. 184. 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 Read my riddle ye can't, 
 
 However much ye try. 
 
 Halliwell, Nursery Rhymes, p. 241. 
 Riddle me, riddle me ree [for read'] . 
 RedyS, or expownyn redellys or parabol'. 
 Redynge or expownynge of rydellys. In- 
 terpretacio. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Compare O. Eng. rychellys, incense, 
 A. Sax. ricels, recels; renlys, rendlys, 
 rennet ; metels, a dream ; hyrigels, a 
 grave. So Mdel, a hiding-place, in 
 Halliwell,is amistakefor^ideZs, 0. Eng. 
 Tiudles {Ancren Piwle), A. Sax. hydels, 
 a fetteat or hiding-place. Hence, no 
 doubt, by corruption the Lancashire 
 phrase " to be in Mdlins," i.e. in hiding 
 or concealment (Soot, "in hiddilis." — 
 Barbour), sometimes " in Mdlance " or 
 " hidlands ; " also Mddle, to hide (E. D. 
 Soc. Lane. Glossary, p. 158). 
 
 EoE, the eggs of fish, owes its form 
 to a curious mistake. The true form, 
 says Prof. Skeat, is roan, which seems 
 to have been regarded as an old plural, 
 liketooTO (toes), sAoom (shoes), eyne (eyes), 
 oxen, &o. So that the n (or -en) was 
 dropped to make an hypothetical sin- 
 gular. Compare the prov. Eng. forms 
 roan (Lincoln), Soot. 7'aun,roun, Cleve- 
 land rown-d (Atkinson), Icel. lirogn, 
 Dan. rogn. 
 
 Roione, of a fysohe, Liquaman. — Prompt. 
 Parv. 
 
 Rone, the roe of fish.—Peacock, Lonsdale 
 Glossary. 
 
 Similarly, the ordinary name for the 
 ra.t in prov. and old Eng, is ratten 
 (Cleveland), raton or rotten (Fr. raton), 
 and from this perhaps regarded as a 
 plural, rather than from the rare A. Sax. 
 rcet, comes rat. " Uatun or raton, 
 Bato, Sorex."— P?-0TO2:><. Parv. 
 
BOM AUNT 
 
 ( 604 ) 
 
 SHUBBY 
 
 EoMAiJNT, an archaic word for a ro- 
 mance, as The Bomauni of the Base, 
 from old Fr. nman, romant, which 
 seems to be an assumed sing, of the 
 older form romans taken as a plural, 
 but this is really a corruption of the 
 Latin adverb romanice, " in the Eoman 
 {i.e. popular Latin) language." 
 
 Eow, a disturbance, an uproar, is an 
 assumed singular of ro^l.se., a drunken 
 tumult, originally drunkenness, e. g. 
 " Have a rouse before the morn " (Ten- 
 nyson), i.e. a carouse or drinking bout. 
 It is the Danish ruus, drunkenness, 
 Swed. rus, a drinking bout, Dutch 
 roes, Ger. ratisch. Dekker speaks of 
 " the Danish rowsa," and Shakespeare 
 introduces the word with strict, though 
 probably unconscious, verbal accuracy, 
 when he makes the King of Denmark 
 " take his rouse " (Hamlet, i. 4). The 
 original meaning of the word seems to 
 be a moistening, soaking, or drenching 
 of one's self with liquor, akin to old Eng. 
 arowze, to moisten or bedew, old Pr. 
 arrouser, arroser. See my note in The 
 Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 4, 1. 104 (New 
 Shaks. Soc). Compare Eose, p. 330, 
 EousE, p. 332, and the following : — 
 
 Tliis is the wine, which, in former time, 
 Each wise one of the magi 
 
 Was wont to arouse in a frolick house. 
 Beaumont [in Richardson]. 
 
 EuBBiSH, old Eng. ruhyes (Arnold), 
 rohows [Prompt. Parv. p. 435), and ro- 
 heua; (1480), from a French roheux, 
 plural of rohel, rubble, broken stones, a 
 dimin. foi-m of a word robe, trash, nr 
 It. roha (whence robacoia, rubbish). 
 Thus rubbish is strictly a plural, equi- 
 valent to rubbles. See Skeat, Etymolog. 
 Bid. s.v. 
 
 S. 
 
 Scales, i.e. the two dishes or bowls 
 (A. Sax. two, scale, Lat. bilanai), is fre- 
 quently used as a singular noun by 
 Shakespeare and his contemporaries. 
 In that crystal scales, let there be weigli'd 
 Your lady's love against some other maid. 
 Romeo and Juliet, act i. sc. 2, fol. 
 
 ScATE, or shate, a corrupt form of 
 sJcates (plu. skateses), which was mis- 
 taken for a plural form merely because 
 it ends with s. We got the word from 
 
 the Dutch, who have always been great 
 skaters, Dut. schaatsen (Sewel), i.e. 
 shates-en (hke ox-en) or skates-es; 
 old Pr. eschasses, "stilts or scatclie's 
 [=z skateses] to go on " (Cotgrave), pro- 
 bably another form of Low Ger. schake, 
 a shank, as the earhest skates were 
 shank bones {tibim) tied under the feet. 
 Stow quotes from Fitzstephen (before 
 1190) a statement that in London — 
 
 Many young men play upon the ice; . . . 
 some tie bones to their feet and under their 
 heels [orig. " alligantes ossa, tihiMs scilicet 
 ^nimalium "] ; and shoving themselves by a 
 little picked staff, do slide as swiftly as a bird 
 flieth in the air, or an arrow out of a cross- 
 bow. — Survaii, 1603, p. 35 (ed. Thorns). 
 Mr. Thoms adds a note on this : — 
 The tibia of a horse, fashioned for the pur- 
 pose of being used as a skait, the under sur- 
 face being highly polished, was found in 
 Moorfields some two or three years since [i.e. 
 about 18-10], and is now in the possession of 
 Mr. C. Roach Smith, F.S. A. 
 
 Scatzes [for skateses] occurs in Carr's 
 Bemarks on Holland, 1695 (Nares). 
 The invention was probably re-intro- 
 duced from the Low Countries by 
 Charles II. (Jesse, London, i. 137). 
 
 I iirst in my life, it being a great frost, did 
 see people sliding with their skeates, which is 
 a very pretty art. — Pe/)i/s, Diani, Dec. 1, 
 1662. 
 
 Rosamond's Pond full of the rabble sliding, 
 and with skates, if you know what those are. 
 —Swift, Journal to Stella, Jan. 31, 1710-11. 
 
 Sect, an assumed singular of sen: 
 (Fr. sexe, Lat. sexus), as if seats, some- 
 times popularly used and frequent iu 
 old writers (see Nares). 
 
 A lady don't mind taking her bonnet off 
 .... before one of her own sect, which be- 
 fore a man proves objectionable. — (Street 
 Photographer) Maijliew, London Labour and 
 London Poor, vol. iii. p. 'il4. 
 
 Of thy house they mean, 
 To make a nunnery, where none but their 
 
 own sect, 
 Must enter in ; men generally barr'd. 
 
 Marlowe, Jew oj Malta, act i. (p. 151, 
 ed. Dyce;. 
 So is all her sect ; an they be once in a 
 calm, they are sick. — 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4, 41. 
 
 Sheeby was originally sherries or 
 sherris, which probably came to be re- 
 garded as a plm-al. " This valour 
 comes oi sherris," says Falstaff (2 JTen. 
 IV. iv. 1). "Your best sacke are of 
 Seres in Spaine " {i.e. Xeres). — Ger. 
 Markham, Eng. Housewife, p. 162. 
 
SEJTTTLE 
 
 ( 605 ) 
 
 STG AMINE 
 
 A book entitled Three io One (1625), 
 by E. Peeke, is an aocoimt of a combat 
 between an Englisli gentleman and 
 three Spaniards "at iS7(crn'('s in Spain." 
 Xeres was originally Gmsar'a (town), 
 from Lat. Ccesarls. 
 
 Shuttle, old Eng. shytteU, scheiyl, 
 scytyl, anything that is shot backwards 
 and forwards, either a shuttle or the 
 bolt of a door (compare shuttle-cock), 
 ought etymologioally to he a shiMea 
 or shittlcs, the A. Saxon word being 
 scyitels, plu. scyttelsas (shuttles- es). 
 Compare Burial and Eiddle above. 
 Prof. Skeat quotes : 
 
 An honest weaver . . . 
 As e^er shot shuttle. 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, The Coxcomb , 
 V. 1. 
 
 Sledge, a sliding carriage, appears 
 to be nothing but a corruption of sleds, 
 old Eng. sledis, the plural of the old 
 word sled (Skeat, N. and Q. 6th S. v. 
 113), which is the form still used in 
 Lancashire (E. D. S. Glossa/i-y, p. 244). 
 The spelling sledge, is perhaps due to a 
 confusion with the commoner word 
 sledge, a hammer (A. Sax. slecge). — 
 Skeat. Compare sketch, standing for 
 shets, a corruption of Dutch schefs, a 
 draught ; and smztdge or smutch for 
 s^nuis. See Poebidgb above. 
 
 When, yet a slender girl, she often led, 
 Skilful and bold, the horse and burthened 
 sled. 
 
 Wm-dsworth, Poems, p. 318 
 (ed. Rossetti). 
 
 Slones, a Devonshire word for sloes, 
 seems to be a double plural, from slone 
 or sloen, old Eng. slon, plu. of slo, A. 
 Sax. slun, plu. of sla, a sloe. 
 Compare the rhyme : — 
 
 Jlany slones, many gToans ; 
 Many nits, many pits. 
 
 So shoon = shoe-en, shoes, " clouted 
 shoon" (Shakespeare, MUton), still used 
 in Lancashire. 
 
 Small-pox, now become a singular, 
 was originally a plural, pox being a 
 mere orthographical vagary for pocks, 
 plu. of pock, A. Sax. poc, a pustule, as 
 unwarranted as lox would be for lochs. 
 We stiU speak of chicken-^ocft, cow- 
 pock, and pocA;marked. 
 
 Pokkes and pestilences. 
 
 Piers PLowmun, B. xx. 97. 
 
 It is good likewise for the measils and 
 small pocks. — Holland, Ptinii, ii. 4a2. 
 
 Smut is a corrupt form of to smttts 
 (of which another spelling is smutch or 
 smudge), mistaken as a plural ; Swed. 
 smuts, a soil, Dan. smuds, filth, Ger. 
 schmutz (Skeat). 
 
 Stave is incorrectly formed out of 
 the plural staves, which is really an in- 
 flexion of staff (old Eng. staf, plu. 
 staues). — Skeat. It would be a simi- 
 lar blunder if we were to make a sin- 
 gular scarve, turve, wharve out of the 
 plural scarves, turves, wharves, or 
 evolved a thieve, a wive, a wolve, out of 
 thieves, wives, ivolves. Beeve is some- 
 times used for an ox, an assumed sing, 
 of beeves, the plu. of heef. Stave, a 
 stanza of a song, formerly spelt some- 
 times staff, is perhaps an assumed sing, 
 of A. Sax. Steven, a voice, mistaken as 
 staven (see p. 371). Ettmiiller quotes 
 from Beda, " sanges stefne " (? a stave 
 of a song). 
 
 Stocks, properly a plural, old Eng. 
 stokkes (P. Plowman), containing the 
 idea of a pair, the upper stock fitting 
 down upon the lower stock, is some- 
 times treated as a singular, e.g. 
 
 The stocks was again the object of mid- 
 night desecration ; it was bedaubed and be- 
 scratched — it was hacked and hewed. — Bulwer 
 Li/itan, My Novel, vol. i. eh. xxiv. 
 
 Now the stocks is rebuilt, the stocks must 
 be supported. — Id. loc. cU. 
 
 So gallows, now always used as a 
 siug., is properly the plu. of gallow, old 
 Eng. galwe, A. Sax. galga; " Gibbet, a 
 gallow tree." — Gotgrave. 
 
 Summons, old Eng. somouns, often 
 treated as a plural, is really a sing., 
 beiag the same word as Fr. semonce, 
 formerly semonse [somonse), a citation, 
 from semons {somons), the past parte, 
 of semondre (somondre), to summon. 
 Prov. somonsa, a summons (Skeat). 
 
 Asummons is another of these plural words 
 become singular. — Dean AlJ'ord, Good ^Yords, 
 1863, p. 767. 
 
 Love's first summons 
 Seldom are obeyed. 
 
 Waller. 
 
 Sycamine, the tree, Lat. sycaminus, 
 Greek sukdnvinos, is perhaps a classical 
 corruption of Heb. sMqmim, mulberry 
 trees, plu. of shdqmdh (Skeat). Com- 
 pare Gheeubin. 
 
SYNONYM A 
 
 ( 606 ) 
 
 TIT A a 
 
 Synonyma, frequently used as a sing, 
 in old writers (e.g. Milton), from a mis- 
 understanding of Lat. synonyma as a 
 fem. sing., it being really a neuter plu- 
 ral (agreeing with verba understood), 
 " synonymous words," Greek mvwvvfia, 
 " same-naming words." Pr. synonime, 
 " a synonyma." — Cotgrave. 
 
 However, battalia (Jeremy Taylor ; 
 Shakespeare, Bicliard III. v. 3) is not a 
 plural of battalion mistaken for a Greek 
 neuter, as hasbeen conjectured (Trench, 
 Eng. Past and Present, Lect. ii.), but 
 stands for It. battaglia. 
 
 Sythe, in the phrase " mahe a syihe, 
 Satisfacio." — Prompt.Parvulorum(Pjn- 
 son's ed. 1499), " makyn sethe " (King's 
 Coll. Gam. MS.), is a corrupted form 
 of the older " mahe a-seethe." A-ceethe, 
 aseethe, or asseth, is an Anghcized form 
 of Pr. assez. See Assets above. 
 
 Do aseethe to thi seruauntis (^make satis- 
 faction). — Wycliffe, 2 Kings xix. 
 
 Talisman, Sp. talisman, from Arab. 
 tilsaman, magical figures or chai-ms 
 (Diez), or tilismdn (Scheler), which is 
 the plural of Arab, talsam or tilism 
 (Lane, Thousand and One Nights, ii. 
 203), from Greek telesma, a mystery 
 (Devic). 
 
 Tennis, old Eng. teneis, tenyee, or 
 teneys, is conjectured by Prof. Skeat 
 to be derived from old Pr. tenies, plural 
 of tenie, a fillet or band (from Lat. 
 tmnia), with reference to the string 
 over which the ball is played, or the 
 streak on the wall in rackets. So the 
 Low Lat. name teniludiwm would be 
 iar: tmmludmm, "string-play" (Etym. 
 Diet. S.V.). 
 
 Thanks, plu. of the old Eng. a thank 
 (Chaucer), A. Sax. ]>ana, is sometimes 
 treated as a singular. Compare " The 
 amends was." — Eobi. of Brunne. See 
 Means above. 
 
 I hope your service merits more respect, 
 Than tlius without a thanks to be sent hence. 
 Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 5. 
 
 [See Davies, Supp. Eng. Olossa/ry, 
 
 S.V.J 
 
 Titmice, frequently used, instead of 
 
 titmouses, as a plural of titmouse, a 
 small bird, which is a corrupt form of 
 old Eng. titmose, from tit, small, and 
 A. Sax. mcise, a species of bird. It has 
 nothing to do with mouse. See Tit- 
 mouse, p. 395, and the instances of tit- 
 WACe there given. 
 
 Trace, part of a horse's harness, old 
 Eng. trayce (Prompt. Paro.), old Fr. 
 trays (Palsgrave), seems to be a plural 
 taken as a sing., standing for Pr. traits 
 or traicts, drawing straps. Thus traces 
 is a double plu. =i trait-s-es (Skeat). 
 Compare Jesses. 
 
 Traict, a teame-trace or trait. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Teiumvie, one of three men asso- 
 ciated together, Lat. triumvir, an as- 
 sumed sing, of triumviri, itself a nom. 
 plural evolved out of the genitive plu. 
 trium virorum (magistratus), the office 
 " of three men." ■ 
 
 Teuce is a disguised plural (like 
 bodice, pence, &c.), and stands for old 
 Eng. trewes, triwes, treowes, pledges of 
 truth given and received, plu. of irewe, 
 a pledge of reooncihation, A. Sax. 
 tredwa, a compact, faith. See Skeat, 
 s.v. So truce zz trues. 
 
 Truwys, trwys, or truce of pees. — Prompt. 
 Paw. 
 
 A trewe was agreed for certayne homes ; 
 durynge j' which trew, y° archebysshop of 
 Caiiterbury . . . sent a generall pardon. — 
 Fubyan, Chronicles, p. 625 (ed. 1811). 
 I moste trette of a trew towchande thise 
 nedes. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 263. 
 Take trew for a tyme. 
 
 Id. 1. 992. 
 
 Tweezees, a corruption, under the 
 influence of nippers, pincers, &c., of the 
 older form tweeses, which is a double 
 plu. twee-s-es, since twees or tweese is 
 an old word for a case of instruments, 
 corresponding to Fr. etuis, old Pr. 
 estuys, plu. of etm, estuy, whence 
 tiveezer, the instrument contaiaed in a 
 twees or case. See Tweezees, p. 411. 
 
 U. 
 
 Utas, or utis (Shakespeare), an old 
 word for merrymaking, orig. a festival 
 and the week after till its octave, is a 
 Norman Pr. equivalent of old Fr. 
 oitauves, plu. of oitauve, the eighth day 
 
WHEAT-EAR 
 
 ( 607 ) 
 
 WHIM 
 
 (Lat. odava; compare old Fr. iiit 
 (— hwit) from odo). So utas ^ octaves 
 (Skeat). See Nares, s.v., and Hamp- 
 Bon, Med. Aevi Kalendarmm, ii. 384. 
 
 W. 
 
 Whkat-bar, the bird-name, is a cor- 
 ruption of a wheat-ears or wMie-erse, 
 
 equivalent to Greek pygargos, " white- 
 rump," the name of an eagle. See 
 Wheat-bar, p. 433. 
 
 Whim, a prov. Eng. word for a 
 machine turning on a screw (Wright), 
 is a quasi-singular of whims, a windlass 
 (Yorks.), mistaken for a plural. But 
 ivhims is a mere corruption of winch, 
 A. Sax. wince (Skeat). 
 
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 
 
 A. 
 
 Abhomination, p. 1. St. Augustme 
 had already suggested a derivation of 
 abmrdnor as though it was abhominor, 
 so to hate one as not to esteem him a 
 man (Semi. ix. c. 9). — Abp. Trench, 
 Augustine on Sermon on Mount, oh. ii. 
 How they ben to mankinde lothe 
 And to the god abhomlnable. 
 Gower, Conf. Armintis, iii. 204 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 Able, p. 2. Compare: — 
 " What beeste is fiis,'' quod i>e childe • " Jjat 
 
 I shalle on houe ? " 
 " Hit is called an hors," quod jje knyste * *'a 
 good & an abuile.^' 
 Chevelere Assigne, I. 289 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 jEglogues, p. 4. " Petrarch intro- 
 duced the form JEglogue for Eclogue, 
 imagining the word to be derived from 
 al^ {aiyos), ' a goat,' and to mean 'the 
 conversation of goatherds.' But as 
 Dr. Johnson observes in his Life of 
 A. Philips, it could only mean ' the 
 talk of g'oosfe.' Such a compound, how- 
 ever, could not even exist, as it would 
 be aiyo-\oyia, if anything." — C. S. Jer- 
 ram, Lyoidas, p. 10. 
 
 Aelmbsse, p. 4. The curious old 
 derivation of alms as "God's water" 
 (Heb. el, God, and Egyptian mos, water 
 (Philo), Coptic »!o) is evidently founded 
 on this verse : — 
 
 Water will quench a flaming fire; anda/ms 
 maketh an atonement for sins. — Ecclus, iii. 30. 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 Thet almesdede senna quenketh 
 Ase water that fer aquencheth. 
 
 Shoreham, Poems, p. 37. 
 For \a. boo seitS. Sicut aqua extinguit 
 ignem ; ita & eiemoshia extinguit peccatum. 
 Al swa (;et water acwenchetS jjet fur, swa )a 
 
 elmesse acwencheS \>A sunne. — Old Eng. 
 Homilies, 1st ser. p. 39. 
 
 [The book saith, &c. Just as water 
 quencheth the fire, so alms quencheth sin]. 
 
 Agnail, p. 5. Though this word and 
 agnel, a corn, have no doubt been con- 
 fused, the true origin is probably 
 A. Sax. ang-nxgl, that which pains the 
 nail. 
 
 AiGEEMOiNE, p. 458. Lat. agrimonia 
 is itself a corruption of its other name 
 a/rgenwnia, so called perhaps because 
 used as a remedy for m-gema (Greek 
 apytfiov), a white speck on the eye. See 
 Skeat, p. 776. 
 
 Air, p. 5. Prof. Skeat has since 
 withdrawn the suggestion that Low 
 Lat. area is of Icelandic origin. 
 Haukes of nobule eit-e. 
 
 Sir Degrevauni, 1. 46. 
 
 Ale-hoof, a popular old Eng. name 
 for the plant ground ivy, is not (as the 
 Brothers Grimm imagined) adopted 
 from Dut. ei-loof, i.e. "ivy-leaf," a 
 word of recent introduction, nor yet 
 probably derived from ale, A. Sax. ealo, 
 and (l^hoof, A. Sax. (be-)h6jian, " so 
 called, because it serves to clear ale or 
 beer" (Bailey). Compare its other 
 name Tun-hoof. 
 
 The women of our Northern parts, es- 
 pecially about Wales and Cheshii'e, do tun 
 the herbe Alehooue into then- ale, but the 
 reason thereof I knowe not, notwithstanding 
 without all controuersie it is most singular 
 against the griefes aforesaid; being tunned 
 Tp in ale and drunke, it also purgeth the 
 head fromrheumaticke humours flowing from 
 the braine.— Ge?-arde, Herbo.ll (1597), p. 707. 
 
 It is quite impossible, too, that 
 lioof should be a corruption of A. Sax. 
 heafd, heafod, head (Mahn's Welster). 
 
 The oldest forms of the word seem 
 
ALEXANDERS ( 609 ) 
 
 A PP ABE NT 
 
 to bo keyhotpc, heyoue, hadhoue^ (Way), 
 which seem to have been corrupted 
 into lialeJioue, alehoqf. The Prompt. 
 Pa/rvulorum gives " hove, or ground 
 yvy," also " hove of oyle, as barme, 
 and ale." In this latter case hove 
 seems to mean fermentation, the same 
 word as A. Sax. hmfe, leaven {Marh 
 viii. 15, prov. Eng. heaving), from 
 heiban, to heave. Hove as applied to 
 ground ivy would then mean the plant 
 used, like yeast, to cause fermentation. 
 The change to -hoof was favoured by 
 its names /o7/oj/i and horshove (Way). 
 
 Alexanders, a plant-name, is said 
 to be a corruption of the specifio Latin 
 name of the plant, olusatrum, i.e. the 
 "black vegetable," ohis atrum (Web- 
 ster; Sunter, Encyclopoed. Diet.). But 
 see Prior, Pop. Names of Brit. Plants, 
 s.v. 
 
 Allay, so spelt as if the meaning 
 were "to lay down," to cause to rest or 
 cease (so Richardson), as in the phrase 
 "to allay a tumult," old Eng. alaye, 
 alaie (Gower), is an assimilation to the 
 verb to lay of old Eng. alegge (Chaucer), 
 to alleviate, from old Pr. aleger, to 
 soften or ease, and that from Lat. 
 alhvia^'e, to lighten. 
 If by your art, my dearest father, you have 
 Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. 
 
 Shakespeare, Tempest, i. 2, 2. 
 To stop the rumour, and allay those tongues 
 That durst disperse it. 
 
 Id. Henry VIII. ii. 1, 153. 
 
 Alley, p. 6, prov. Eng. for the aisle 
 of a church, is seemingly an Angli- 
 cized form of Fr. aile, the "wing" of 
 the building, Lat. ala. Compare the 
 soldier's rivally for reveille. The s in 
 aisle is probably due to a confusion 
 with isle. See Isle, p. 191. The fol- 
 lowing epitaph, exhibiting alley in this 
 sense, I copied from a mural tablet in 
 Lacock church, Wilts : — 
 
 Heare Lyeth In This Allye 
 Neere Vnto This Place 
 The Bodie Of Robert Hellier 
 Late One Of His Majesties 
 Cryers To The Courts Of The 
 Common Pleas In Westminster 
 ^\'hoe Lived C3 Yeares And 
 Deceased y= 9 Of Aprill Ano 
 1630. 
 
 Almidon, p. 459. Add Sp. almcndra 
 (Eng. almond), for amench'a, the initial 
 
 a being assimilated to the Arab, article 
 al, with which so many Spanish words 
 are compounded. 
 
 Alewife, the name of an American 
 fish resembling the herring {Glupea 
 serrata), is a corruption of the Indian 
 name ahof. — Winthrop (see Mahn's 
 Webster, s.v.). 
 
 Amakanth, so spelt as if derived 
 from Greek dntlios, a flower (like poly- 
 anthos, chrysanthemum, anthology, &c.), 
 was formerly more correctly written 
 amarant (Milton), being derived from 
 Lat., Greek, amarantus, "unfading." 
 On the other hand, aerolite, ch/rysoUte,, 
 should be, as they once were, spelt 
 aerolith, chrysolith, aa containing Greek 
 lithos, a stone. 
 
 Ambry, p. 8. Compare : — 
 The place . . . was called the Elemoainary, 
 or Almonry, now corruptly the Ambry, for 
 that the alms of the abbey were there dis- 
 tributed to the poor. — Stow, Survay, 1603, 
 p. 176 (ed. Thoms). 
 
 Anberry, p. 8. A Lonsdale corrup- 
 tion of this word is angle-herry (R. B. 
 Peacock). 
 
 Ancient, p. 7. 
 Strike on your drummes, spread out your 
 ancyeiits. 
 
 Sir Andrew Barton, 1. 183 (Percy, 
 Fol. MS. iii! 412). 
 
 And-pussey-and, p. 8. An Oxford- 
 shire name for the sign "&" is amsiam, 
 apparently for " and [per] se, and " 
 (E. D. Soo. Orig. Glossaries, G. p. 74). 
 
 Angrec, the French name of aspecies 
 of orchidaceous plant brought from the 
 Indian Archipelago, Botan. Lat. an- 
 grcBCtim, is an assimilation to fosnu- 
 grcBCum of the Malayan name anggreq 
 (Devic). 
 
 Ankye, p. 8. Add : — 
 
 Henry III. CTanted to Katherine, late 
 
 wife to W. Harden, twenty feet of land in 
 
 .length and breadth in Smithfield, ... to 
 
 build her a recluse or anchorage. — Stow, Sur- 
 
 vay, 1603, p. 139 (ed. Thoms). 
 
 Anointed, p. 8. Compare Isle of 
 Wight nientvd, incorrigible, "a niented 
 scoundrel," as if from nient, to anoint 
 (E. D. S. Orig. Olossa/ries, xxiii.). 
 
 Apparent, p. 9. 
 
 Syr Roger Mortymer, erle of the Marche, 
 & sone and heyi-e vnto syr Edmude Mor- 
 
 E E 
 
ABBOUB 
 
 ( 610 ) 
 
 ASPEN 
 
 tymer . . . was aoone after proclaymyd heyer 
 
 paraunt vnto y^ crowne of En^londe. — 
 
 Fabyan, Chronicles, 1516, p. 533 (ed. Ellis.) 
 
 O, God thee save, thou Lady sweet, 
 
 My heir and Parand thou shalt be. 
 
 The Lovers^ Quarrel, 1. 16 (Early Pop, 
 
 Poetry, ii. 253). 
 
 Arboue, p. 10, properly a shelter, 
 then a hut, a summer-house, the same 
 word really as ha/rhowr, a shelter for 
 ships, old Eng. herherwe, herber^e, Icel. 
 herbergi (= "army-shelter"), has been 
 confused sometimes with herber (Lat. 
 herbwrium), a garden of herbs, some- 
 times with Lat. arbor, a tree. For the 
 loss of h compare ostler for hostler, old 
 Eng. ost for host, and the pronimcia- 
 tion of honour, hour, hospital, &c. So 
 it for old Eng. hit, which matches 'im 
 for Aim. 
 
 Other trees there was man^ one, 
 The pyany, the popler, and the plane, 
 With brode braunches all aboute. 
 Within the arbar and eke withoute. 
 
 Squyr of Lowe Degre, 1. 42 (Early Pop. 
 Poetry, ii. 24). 
 
 The identity of arbour and harbour 
 was soon forgotten. Compare : — 
 
 Who e'r rigg^'d fau*eship to lie in harbours. 
 And not to seeke new lands, or not to deale 
 with all 1 
 Or built faire houses, set trees, and arbors, 
 Onely to lock up, or else to let them fall ? 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 31. 
 Since Him the silent wildernesse did house : 
 The heau'n His roofe and arbour harbour 
 
 was. 
 The ground His bed, and His moist pil- 
 lowe, grasse. 
 
 G. Fletcher, Christs Victorie on 
 Earth, St. 14. 
 
 Archangel, p. 10. With reference 
 to the angehc character attributed to 
 birds, it may be noted that Giles 
 Fletcher, speaking of Christ's ascen- 
 sion, and the attendant angels, says : — 
 
 So all the chorus sang 
 Of heau'nly birds, as to the starres they 
 nimbly sprang. 
 Christs Trimnph after Death, st. 15, 1610» 
 
 Birds, Heavens choristers, organique throates. 
 Which (if they did not die) might seeme to bee 
 A tenth ranke in the heavenly hierarchie. 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 267. 
 
 Argosy. Mr. 0. W. Tancock has a 
 note in support of the Eagusan origin 
 of this word in Notes and Queries, 6th 
 S. iv. 489, where he has the following 
 citations : — 
 
 Furthermore, how acceptable a thing may 
 this be tiJ the Ragusyes, Hulks, Caravels, and 
 other foreign rich laden ships, passing within 
 or by any of the sea limits of Her Majesty's 
 royalty. — Dr. John Dee, The Petty Navy 
 Royal (in The English Gamer, vol. li. p. 67, 
 date 1577). 
 
 A Sattee, which is a ship much like unto 
 an Argosy of a very great burden and big- 
 ness. — A Fight at Sea, 1617 (Eng. Gamer, li. 
 200). 
 
 It is said that those vast Carrack's called 
 Argosies, which are so much famed for the 
 vastness of their burthen and Bulk were cor- 
 ruptly so denominated from Ragosies, and 
 from the name of this city [Ragusa]. — Sir 
 P. Rycaut, Present State of the Ottoman Em- 
 pire, 1675, p. 119. 
 
 In the following, argosie is a tumbler, 
 Fr. argousin, Sp. alguazil. 
 
 And on the South side of Poule's churche- 
 yarde an argosie came from the batilments of 
 the same churche upon a cable, beying made 
 faste to an anker at the deanes doore, lying 
 uppon his breaste aidying hymaelf neither 
 with hande nor foote. — Fabyan, Chron., Feb. 
 19, 1546, p. 709 (ed. Ellis). 
 
 Arsmeteick, p. 12. 
 
 The ferst of whiche is arsmetique. 
 And the second is said musique. 
 Goiaer, Conf. Amantis, iii. 89 (ed. Pauli). 
 For God made all the begynnynge 
 In nombre perfyte well in certaynte 
 Who knewe arsmetryke in every degre. 
 Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, cap. xv. 
 p. 57 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Aspen is a curious corruption, the 
 same as if we spoke of an oaZcen instead 
 of an oak. The proper name of the 
 tree, as in prov. English, is the asp, 
 old Eng. aspe, espe, A. Sax. cBsp, the 
 adjectival form of which was aspen 
 ("an aspen leaf." — Chaucer). Simi- 
 larly beechen, A. Sax. becen, was the 
 adjective of b6c (Icel. b6h) ; and from 
 this was evolved the substantive beech 
 (A. Sax. bece). The true etymological 
 name of the tree (fagus) would be 
 hook; the word for a volume being 
 identically the same (see Skeat, s.w.). 
 The Isle of Wight folk have commted 
 the word into snapsen (E. D. S. Orig, 
 Olossanes, xxiii.). 
 
 An exactly similar error is Unden, 
 which is properly the adjectival form 
 of Und (A. Sax. Knd), whence corruptly 
 Une and Ume, the tree-name. 
 
 So Unen meant originally made of 
 lin or flax (A. Sax. lin) ; we stiU say 
 Un-seed, and the Lancashire folk speak 
 
ASTONISH 
 
 ( 611 ) 
 
 BATTLE-DOBE 
 
 of " a Un shirt," or " a lin sheet." Com- 
 pare swine, which was prob. originally 
 an adj. form (as if sowine, sow-ish), =: 
 Lat. suirms, like equine (see Skeat, 
 
 B.V.). 
 
 Astonish, p. 13. The form stunny, 
 to stun, is still used in Oxfordshire, e.g. 
 " This noise is enough t' stunrvy any- 
 body." — B. D. Soo. Orig. Ohssaries, 
 C. p. 99. 
 
 Aymont, p. 15. 
 Like as the am'rous needle joys to bend 
 To her magnetic friend : 
 Or as the greedy lover's eye-balls fly 
 At his fair mistress' eye : 
 So, so we cling to earth ; we fly and puflF, 
 Yet fly not fast enough. 
 
 QuarteSj Emblems, bk. i. 13. 
 
 If we understood all the degi*ees of 
 amability in the sei-vice of God, or if we had 
 such love to God as he deserves ... we 
 could no more deliberate : for liberty of will 
 is like the motion of a magnetic needle to- 
 ward the north, full of trembling and uncer- 
 tainty till it were fixed in the beloved point ; 
 it wavers as long as it is free, and is at 
 rest, when it can choose no more. — Jer. 
 Taylor, Sei"mon on 1 Cor. xv. 23. 
 
 See also a passage in Bp. Andrewes, 
 Sernwns, fol. p. 383. 
 
 B. 
 
 Batfle, p. 18. 
 
 Should we (as you) borrow all out of others, 
 and gather nothing of our selues, our names 
 would be bajf'uldon euerie booke-sellers stall. 
 — r. Nash, Pierce Penitesse, p. 40 (Shaks. 
 Soc). 
 
 Baggage, p. 19. Compare : — 
 Kindly, sweet soule, she did unkindnesse take, 
 That bagged baggage of a misers mudd, 
 Should price of her, as in a market, make, 
 But gold can gnild a rotten piece of wood. 
 Sir F. Sidney, Arcadia, 1629, p. 85. 
 
 Baggage was formerly used in the 
 sense of worthless, good-for-nothing. 
 Nunc tantum sinus et statio malefida carinis. 
 Now nothing but a baggage bay, & harbor 
 nothing good. 
 Camden, Remaines, p. 284 (1637). 
 I'le neuer be so kinde, 
 As venture life, for such an vgly hag 
 That lookes both like a baggage and a bag. 
 Sir J. Harington, digrams, iv. 42. 
 
 Balled, p. 19. Compare Lonsdale 
 i, white-faced (K. B. Peacock). 
 
 Bandicoot, a species of Indian rat, 
 IS a corruption of the Tehnga name 
 pandiJcoku, i.e. "pig-rat" (Sir J. E. 
 Tennent, Nat. History of Geylon, p. 44). 
 
 Bandog, p. 20. 
 
 Hush now, yee band-doggs, barke no more at 
 
 me, 
 But let me slide away in secrecie. 
 
 Marston, Satyres, v. sub fin. 
 
 Baege, p. 21. Compare : — 
 "There be divers old Gaulic Words yet re- 
 maining in the French which are pure 
 British, both for Sense and Pronunciation 
 . . . but especially, when one speaks any 
 old Word in French that cannot be under- 
 stood they say, II parte Baragouin, which is 
 to this Day in Welsh, White-bread.— Howell, 
 Fam. Letters, bk. iv. 19. 
 
 Baenaby, p. 22. In Tuscany the 
 lady-bird is called lucia, the insect of 
 light (De Gubernatis, Mythologie des 
 Plantes, i. 211). 
 
 Basb-bokn, p. 23. With old Fr. fils 
 de bast, son of a pack-saddle, compare 
 Ger. lanhart, a bastard, from hanh, a 
 bench, and old Eag. bulker, a prosti- 
 tute. It. and Span, basto, Prov. bast, 
 Fr. bat, a saddle, is of disputed origin. 
 Mr. F. H. Groome says it is clearly of 
 gipsy descent, comparirig the Eomani 
 b&hto, " saddle," pass. part, of beshdva, 
 " I sit "^ (In Gipsy Tents, p. 289). Fr. 
 fil de bat, " child over the hatch," from 
 It. basto. Pop. Latin bastum, a pack- 
 saddle, connected with Gk. ;3doTa?(?), 
 from jiaardiitiv, to carry, support. 
 Compare Lat. basterna, a sedan-chair ; 
 Fr. baton, hastun, a stick, as a support 
 (Atkinson), 
 
 And ouer this he hadde of bast, whiche 
 after were made legyttymat, by dame Kathe- 
 ryne Swynforde. iii Sonnys John, whiche 
 was after duke of Somerset, Thomas erle of 
 Huntyngedoue, or duke of Exetyi', & Henry, 
 which was callyd y'= ryche cardynall. — 
 Fabyan, Chrmiicles, 1516, p. 533 (ed. Ellis). 
 
 They which are born out of Marriage are 
 called Bastards, that is base-born, like the 
 Mule which is ingendred of an Asse and a 
 Mare. — H. Sm,ith, Sermons, p. 14 (1657). 
 
 Battl:E-dobe, p. 24. 
 Now you talke of a bee, He tell you a tale 
 of a battledore. — T. Nash, Pierce Penilesse, 
 p. 69 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Many a iole about the nole 
 with a great battill dore. 
 A Mery Jest how a Sergeaunt wolde 
 lerne to be a Frere, 1. 260. 
 
BEAT 
 
 ( 612 ) 
 
 BLINDFOLD 
 
 Beat, as a nautical word, e.g. in the 
 phrase, "to 6eaf upto windward," gene- 
 rally understood, no doubt, of a ship 
 buffeting its way against wind and 
 weather, and forcibly overcoming as 
 with blows aU opposing forces, has no- 
 thing to do with beat, to strike (A. Sax. 
 bedtan), as the spelling would imply. It 
 is really the same word as Icel. heiia, 
 to cruise, tack, weather, or sail round, 
 properly " to let the ship bite [i.e. grip 
 or catch] the wind (Cleasby, p. 56), and 
 BO identical with Bug. to bant. Icel. 
 beita is a derivative of bita, to bite (sc. 
 the wind), to sail or cruise (Id. 64). 
 See Skeat, Etym. Diet., s.v. Weather- 
 beaten. Compare prov. Eng. bite, the 
 hold which the short end of a lever has 
 upon the thing to be lifted (Wright). 
 
 Bedeidden, p. 25. 
 
 Of pore men bat ben beddrede & couchen in 
 muk or dust is iitel jjouSt on or no3t. — 14^^- 
 cliffe, Unprinted If oris, p. 211 (E.fi.T.S.). 
 
 Dauid — let him alone, for he was in hys 
 childhood a bedred man.- — Latimer, Sermons, 
 p. 34. 
 
 Beau-pot. Mr. Wedgwood tells me 
 that he has observed this word for a 
 pot of flowers so spelt in a modern 
 novel, as if from Fr. beau pot, pot of 
 beauty. It is a corruption of bow-pot 
 (Sala, in Latham), or more correctly 
 bough-pot (Nomenclator, in Halliwell), 
 a pot for boughs. 
 There's mighty matters in them, I'll assure 
 
 . y™; 
 
 And in the spreading of a hough-pot. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, The Coxcomb, 
 iv. 3. 
 
 Bbgomb, p. 25. strike out " See 
 Comely." 
 
 Beef-eater, p. 25. Lady Cowper in 
 her Diary, under date March 3, 1716, 
 speaks of the Earl of Derby as " Cap- 
 tain of the Beef-eaters " (p. 90, ed. 
 1865). See N. ^ Q. 5th S. vii. 335. 
 
 Belial, p. 519. In the following sen- 
 tence Carlyle evidently regards Belial 
 and Beelzebub as kindred words : — 
 
 [He was watching to see] the sons of 
 Mammon, and high sons of Belial and Beel- 
 zebub, become sons of God.— Mrs. Oliphant, 
 Life of Ed. Irving, p. 211. 
 
 Beseen, p. 28. Prof. Skeat tells me 
 that this identification of beseen with 
 biscn is quite incorrect. Compare : — 
 
 Though thyn array be badde and yuel biseye. 
 Chaucer, Clerhes Tale, 965 (Claren. 
 
 Press). 
 Hir array, so richely biseye. 
 
 Id. 984. 
 Bewaring, curiously used by De 
 Quincey for " being ware," apparently 
 from a notion that the be is a prefix, as 
 in bewilder, bewitch, &c. To beware is 
 merely to be wa/re (esse eautus), ware, 
 old Eng. wa/r, meaning wary, cautious ; 
 A. Sax. wcer. We might as correctly 
 form besuring from to be sure. 
 
 " Oh, my lord, beware of jealousy ! " Yes, 
 and my lord couldn't possibly have more 
 reason for bewaring of it than myself. — De 
 Quincey, Autobiographic Sketclies, Works, xiv. 
 65. 
 
 For the right usage compare : — 
 
 Of whom be thou ware also. — A. V, 2 Tim. 
 iv. 15. 
 
 They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra, 
 — Acts xiv. 6. 
 
 1 was ware of the fairest medler tree. 
 Chaucer, Flower and Leaf, I, 85. 
 
 Compare the pecuhar use of fare- 
 welling in the following : — 
 
 Till she brake from their armes (although 
 
 indeed 
 Going from them, from them she could not 
 
 goe) 
 And fare-welling the flocke, did homeward ' 
 
 wend. 
 
 Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, 1629, p. 91. 
 
 Bile, p. 28, seems to be the right 
 form, which has been corrupted to hoil, 
 from a confusion with boil, to bubble 
 from heat. Compare the A. Sax. form 
 byle, and Icel. beyla, a swelliug (Skeat, 
 p. 781). 
 
 Bless, p. 31. Prof. Atkinson thinks 
 Fr. blesser. Norm. Pr. blescer (" Ele se 
 sent blescee." — Vie de St.Auban, 522), is 
 connected with M. H. Ger. bletzen, to 
 chop to pieces, O. H. Qercplen. 
 
 Curiously enough, this word seems to 
 survive in prov. EngUsh. An East 
 Lancashire cattle-dealer has been heard 
 to ask a companion, one of whose fingers 
 was bandaged, if he had a hlesser (:= 
 blessv/re) upon his finger, meaning evi- 
 dently a wound or hurt (N. Sf Q. 6th 
 Ser. vi. 28). 
 
 Blindfold, p. 31. As an instance of 
 the general assumption that this word 
 has reference to th% folds of the material 
 used to cover the eyes, compare the 
 
BLISSE 
 
 ( 613 ) 
 
 BBANNY 
 
 fbllowing verse of a poem on the words 
 "They Uindfolded Him" {St. Luke 
 xxii. 64) : — 
 Now, hid beneath the twisted/oW, 
 From sinful men their light withhold 
 Eyes, whose least flash of sovran ire 
 Might wrap the world in folds of fire. 
 The Monthly Packet, N. Ser. vol. xiii. 
 p. 415. 
 
 Blisse, sometimes used in old Eng. 
 for to hless (A. Sax. Metaian, bleddan, 
 0. Northmnb. bloedman, to sacrifice, to 
 consecrate with hlood, A. Sax. bidd), as 
 if it meant to make happy, A. Sax. 
 lUssian, bKisian,to bestow bUss{A. Sax. 
 Uis, bhtheness, from hlUe, joyful), Hke 
 Lat. beme, to bless, whence beatus, 
 happy. So blisshig is an old corruption 
 of blessing (A. Sax. bloetsung, bloed- 
 sung). 
 
 [She] gan the child to kisse 
 And lulled it, and after gan it blisse. 
 Chaucer, Clerkes Tale, 1. 553. 
 fiis ab'el was a Missed blod. 
 Cursor Mundi, 1. 1035 (Cotton MS. ; 
 hlesset, Fairfax MS.). 
 Commes now til me, 
 My fadir Hissed childer fre. 
 Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 6148. 
 Who lyste to offer shall have my blyssi/nge. 
 —Heywood, The Four P's (Dodsley, i.79, ed. 
 1825). 
 
 All that . . . were devoute sholde haue 
 goddes bli/ssyng. — Life of the Holy and Blessed 
 Virgin, St. iVinifrede, Caxton, 1485. 
 
 Blissid is tliat seruaunt. — iVycliffe, Mutt. 
 xxiv. 46. 
 
 See Diefenbach, Goth. Bprache, i. 313 ; 
 EttmiiUer, p. 313 ; and Skeat, p. 781. 
 The account of Bless, p. 31, should be 
 modified in accordance with the above. 
 Blush, p. 33. 
 
 Thou durst not blnshe once backe for better or 
 worsse. 
 
 Death and Life, 1. 388 (^Percy Fol. 
 MS. iii. 7!!). 
 
 BoNEFiBE, p. 34. An old use of the 
 word is "Banef/re; ignis ossium." 
 —Gaiholicon AngUcum, 1483 (Skeat, 
 781). The original meaning was, ho 
 doubt, a funeral pyre for consuming 
 the bones of a corpse. 
 
 Boozing- KEN, p. 35. Compare boozah 
 or boozeh, the barley-beer of modem 
 Egypt (Lane, Thousand and OneNiqhts, 
 i. 118). 
 
 Boss, p. 36. I now think this is 
 another use of old Eng. loss, old Dut. 
 
 bwys, a tube or conduit-pipe. See 
 Trunk, p. 408. Compare :— 
 
 Bosse Alley, so called of a boss of spring 
 water continually running.— Stow, Survau, 
 p. 79 (ed. Thorns). ' "' 
 
 BofiiTjRON, p. 465. Similarly Greek 
 l3ovl3dKo£ (whence our buffalo), originally 
 meaning an antelope, is beUeved to be 
 a foreign word assimilated to Greek 
 ^o5c, an ox (Skeat, 783). 
 
 BowEB, p. 36. As arbour has often 
 been associated with Lat. arbor, a tree, 
 so ioiuerhas come to be regarded as " a 
 shaded place of retirement formed of 
 trees or the boivs [boughs] or branches 
 of trees " (Richardson). Compare old 
 Eng. " bowe of atre,ramus." — Prompt. 
 Farv. Thus Shakespeare speaks of 
 "the pleached bower" {Much Ado, 
 iii. 1), i.e. plaited, interlacing bower, 
 and Milton speaks repeatedly of Eve's 
 " shady botoer." 
 
 Alone they pass'd 
 On to their blissful bower : . . . . the roof 
 Of thickest covert was inwoven shade, 
 Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew 
 Of firm and fragrant leaf. 
 
 Par. Lost, iv. 695. 
 You have heard of the building of Jonah, 
 how God buildeth the one by art, the other by 
 nature ; the one a tabernacle of boughs, the 
 other an arbor or bower of a living or growing 
 tree, which the fatness of the earth nourished. 
 — Bp. J. King, On Jonah, 1594, p. 289 (ed. 
 Grosart). 
 
 Ere these have clothed their branchy bowers. 
 Tennyson, In Memoriam, Ixxvi. 
 A bower of vine and honey-suckle. 
 
 Id. Aylmer's Field, 1. 156. 
 It originally denoted a small inner 
 room distinct from the common hall, 
 esp. a lady's chamber, A. Sax. bur 
 (Icel. bur), from buam, to dwell. 
 
 Bowre, chambyr, thalamus. — ■ Prompt. 
 Parv. 
 
 1 shal I'ene J>e a howr, 
 l>at is up in )>e heye tour. 
 
 Hamlok the Dane, 1. 2072. 
 Castles adoun fallet> 
 bo];e halles ant bures. 
 Body and Soul, 1. 132 (^Boddeker, Alt. 
 Eng. Dicht. p. 240). 
 Orpheus did recoure 
 His Leman from the Stygian Princes boure. 
 Spenser, F. Qaeene, IV. x. 58. 
 
 Branny, an Oxfordshire word for 
 freckled(and Jraws,freckles). — E.D.Soc. 
 Orig. Olossa/ries, C. p. 76. The word ia 
 not directly connected with bran, the 
 
BBAZEN-N08E ( 614 ) 
 
 BTTDGE 
 
 grains of which freckles might be sup- 
 posed to resemble, nor with N. Eng. 
 hran, to bum, hrcmt, hrent, burnt, as if 
 sun-bumings ; it is rather from old Pr. 
 hran or bren, (1) filth, ordure, (2) a 
 spot or defilement (also (3) refuse of 
 wheat, " bran ") ; compare Pr. hreneux, 
 filthy, Bret, hrenn. 
 
 Frecken, or freccles in ones face, lentile, 
 brand de Judas. — Palsgrave. 
 
 Bran de ludas, freckles in the face. — Cot- 
 grave, 
 
 Beazen-nose, p. 521. 
 
 Knew that Prince Edward is at Brazen-nnse. 
 Green, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 
 1594 (p. 16i, ed. Dyce). 
 
 Breeches, p. 38. For the old 
 word breech with which this was con- 
 fused, compare the following : — 
 Tristrem schare the brest, 
 
 The tong sat next the pride ; 
 The heminges swithe on est, 
 He schar and layd beside ; 
 The breche [= buttocks] adown he threst. 
 He ritt, and gan to right. 
 
 Sir Tristrem, st. xliv. (ed. Scott), 
 ab. 1220-50. 
 A. Sax. hrec, breech (Lat. nates). — 
 Leechdoms, Wurtcunning, a/nd Sta/rcraft, 
 vol. iii. Glossary (ed. Cockayne). 
 It is no Dog or Bitch 
 That stands behind him at his Breech. 
 
 Butler, Hudibroi, II. iii. 270. 
 
 Heame says : — 
 
 The Scots highlanders call their pladds 
 brtechams ; and brech, in that language, signi- 
 fies spotted, as their plaids are of many 
 coUours. That the bracks of the old Gauls 
 were not britches, I presume from Suetonius, 
 who says in Vit^ Cees. " lidem in curia Galli 
 bracas deposuerunt." — Retiq. HeamianiE, ii. 
 188 (ed. Bliss). 
 
 Brick, p. 88. 
 
 " Ethel is a brick, and Alfred is a ti'ump, I 
 think you say," remarks Lady Kew. — 
 Thackeray, The Newcomes, ch. x. p. 106. 
 
 Bbown, in the old English ballad 
 phrase, "the bright hrowne sword," 
 according to Cleasby and Vigfusson 
 (p. 77) is corrupted from Icel. hrugiinn, 
 drawn, unsheathed. Compare Icel. 
 " sverS hrugiit," a drawn sword, from 
 hregia, to draw or brandish, old Eng. 
 hradde. Compare old Eng. hrowdene. 
 Soot, hrowdyne, extended, displayed. 
 In my hand a bright browne brand 
 that will well bite of thee. 
 Percy Folio MS. vol. i. p. 56, 1. 72. 
 
 If this be correct, the word is further 
 corrupted in the following : — 
 
 Young Johnstone had a mit-broum sword, 
 Hung low down by his gair. 
 
 Legendary Ballads of Scotland, p. 227 
 (ed. Mackay). 
 
 But we meet " brandes of hroune 
 stele " in Morte Arthme, 1. 1487. 
 
 Beown Beead, p. 40. Compare :— 
 All feats of arms are now abridged . . . 
 To digging-up of skeletons. 
 To make Brown Georges of the bones. 
 S. Butler, Works, li. 290 (ed. Clarke). 
 
 Bkown Study, p. 40. 
 
 John Roynoldes founde his companion 
 syttynge in a browne study at the Inne gate, 
 to whom he sayd : for shame man how syttest 
 thou? — Mery Tales and. Quicke Answeres,\xxii, 
 (ab. 1535). " See N. S^ Q. 6th S. t. 54. 
 
 Brown-deep, Lost in reflection, Kent. — 
 Wright, Prov. Diet. 
 
 Bubble, p. 41. The following is by 
 Ned Ward about 1717 :— 
 
 Should honest brethren once discern 
 
 Our knaveries, they'd disown us 
 And bubbl'd fools more wit should learn. 
 The Lord have mercy on us. 
 
 Cavalier Songs and Ballads, p. 198 
 (ed. Mackay). 
 And silly as that bubhU every whit, 
 Who at the self-same blot is always hit. 
 Oldham, Poems (ab. 1680), p. 160 
 (ed. Bell). 
 No, no, friend, I shall never be bubbled out 
 of my rehgion. — Fielding, Works, p. 175 (ed. 
 1841). 
 
 Budge, p. 42. Compare : — 
 
 Would not some head, 
 That is with seeming shadowes only fed, 
 Sweare yon same damaske-coat, yon guarded 
 
 man, 
 Were some grave sober Cato Utican ? 
 When, let him but in judgements sight 
 
 uncase, 
 He's naught but budge, old gards, browne 
 fox-fur face. 
 Marston, Scourge of Villanie, Sat. vii. 
 (vol. iii. p. 280). 
 
 Compare Lincolnshire htig, tvissy, 
 pleased, conceited, lively, e.g. " As hug 
 as a lop [= flea] . — E. D. Soc. Orig. 
 Glossaries, C. p. 116. 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 Boggyschyn [miswritten baggysch/n}, bog- 
 gysche, boggishe, Tumidus. — Prompt. Pan. 
 
 Boggy, bumptious, an old Norwich school- 
 word. — Wright. 
 
 Old Eng. (wg, self-sufficient. — 7d. 
 
BULL 
 
 ( 615 ) 
 
 CALF 
 
 Bull, p. 43. 
 
 In a letter of the Earl of Lauderdale, 
 written in 1648, he mentions a report which 
 he knows is false, and adds the cautionary 
 parenthesis — '\ABuU)." — See The Humiltm. 
 Papers, 1638-50, p. 238 (Camden Soc). 
 
 BcLLT-ROOK, p. 44. An old oolloqtiial 
 corruption of hully seems to be hulhck. 
 
 Then yon have charged me with buUocking 
 you into owning the truth. It is very likely, 
 an't it, please your worship, that I should 
 buihck him t — Fielding, Hist, of a Foundling, 
 Vs.. ii. eh. 6. 
 
 BuMPEit, p. 45. Compare : — 
 
 We have unloaded the bread-basket, the 
 beef-kettle, and the beer-bumbards there, 
 amongst your guests the beggars. — iJ. Brome, 
 The Jovial Crew, acti. sc. 1 (1652). 
 
 Other bottles wee have of leather, but 
 they most used amongst the shepheards and 
 harvest people of the countrey ; . . . besides 
 the great black-j ack and bombards at the court, 
 which when the Frenchmen first saw, they 
 reported at their returne into their countrey, 
 that the Englishmen used to drinke out of 
 their bootes. — Philocothonista, or. The Drunk- 
 ard opened, &o. p. 45 ( 1635). 
 
 Why do'st thou conuerse with that Trunke 
 of Humors, that Boulting-Hutch of Beastli- 
 nesse, that swolne Parceil of Dropsies, that 
 huge Bombard of Sacke. — Shakespeare, 1 Hen. 
 IV. act ii. so. 4. 
 
 BuEDEN, p. 45. Bv/rden of a song, 
 from iov/rdon, a trumpet, an organ- 
 pipe. Prof. Atkinson thinks that the 
 latter word may be only another usage 
 of hurdo, a long staff, to which it bore 
 a resemblance. It. hordone, a pilgrim's 
 staff, a name facetiously derived from 
 Lat. hwrdo, a mule ; compare Sp. muleta, 
 (1) a mule, (2) a crutch. 
 
 The confusion of hurden with hurtJien 
 (A. Sax. hyrien, what is borne, a load) 
 was perhaps promoted by the scriptural 
 usage of hwrden for a heavy strain, an 
 oppressive or afiiiotive prophecy, e.g. 
 " the hv/rden of Nineveh " {Nahmn i. 
 1); " the hvrden of the word of the Lord ' ' 
 (Zech. ix. 1). Compare the phrase, 
 " This was the burden [i.e. gist or im- 
 port] of aU his remarks." 
 
 No Porter's Burthen pass'd along, 
 But serv'd for Burthen to his song. 
 
 Butler, Hudibras, II. iii. 390. 
 
 The troubles of a worthy priest. 
 The burthen of my song. 
 Cttwper, The Yearly Distress, 1. 4. 
 
 BuENisH, p. 45. Compare : — 
 
 Chascun an ftur/uncntarbrese lur fruit dunent. 
 
 P. De Thaun, Livre des Creatures, 1. 742 
 (12th cent.). 
 
 [Each year the trees shoot out and give 
 their fruit.] 
 
 We must not all run up in height like a 
 hop-pole, but also burnish and spread in 
 breadth.— Pu/fer (Bailey, Life of T. Fuller, 
 p. 199). ^ ^> J J 
 
 Who came to stock 
 The etherial pastures with so fair a flock, 
 Burnislied and battening on their food. 
 
 Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 390. 
 
 Burnish, to polish, is itself altered by 
 metathesis (old Fr. fcttrmr) from old Fr. 
 brunir, It. hrunire (O. H. Ger. hrun, 
 brown, iath),a,siitohrownish. Changes 
 as violent, as that from hu/rgen to hur- 
 nige or burnish, might be adduced. 
 Compare ancestor for antecessor, omelet 
 for ahmet; Fr. orseille for roohelle ; 
 Wallon erculisse for liquorice ; Sp. lo- 
 brego, from lugubris ; Sp. mastrcmto '=. 
 It. mentastro ; old Fr. ortrait (Cotgrave) 
 for relrait. See further, under Weight, 
 p. 452, and Wallet below. 
 
 Bush, an old and prov. Eng. word 
 for the inner part of the nave of a 
 wheel (Bailey ; Lonsdale Olossa/ry), is 
 a corruption of old Fr. boiste, the same, 
 orig. a box ; Prov. bostia, boissa, from 
 L. Lat. bumda, aoc. of buxis, a box. 
 
 BtJTCH, p. 46. Similarly to swindle 
 has been evolved out of swindler (Ger. 
 Schwindler), and to stohe, to tend afire, 
 from the older form stoTcer. 
 
 BUTTEE-BUMP, p. 47. 
 
 Thoose ot connaw tell a bitterbump fro a 
 gillhooter [^owi]. — Collier, Ii^orfc5(Lancash. 
 dialect), p. 34. 
 
 BtTTTEEY, p. 47, Dut. bottelery (Se- 
 wel). When used, as in the Lonsdale 
 dialect, for a dairy, the form has evi- 
 dently reacted on the meaning. 
 
 By-law, p. 48. In Cumberland a 
 custom or law established in a town- 
 ship or vUlage is stiU called a bya/r law, 
 or byr law (E. D. Soc. Orig. Olossa/i-ies, 
 C. p. 107). 
 
 Calf, p. 48. The chief muscles of 
 the body were named from lively ani- 
 mals ; e.g. Icel. hinn-fiskr = cheek- 
 muscle ; halfi (calf) of the leg (Vigfus- 
 son) ; mus, mouse, the biceps muscle of 
 
GAT 
 
 ( 616 ) 
 
 GAVE IN 
 
 tlie arm, and so in A. Sax. and O. H. G. 
 Cf. musculus, (1) a little mouse, (2) a 
 muscle. 
 
 Cane- APPLE, p. 49. The berry of the 
 arbutus is so called from the Irish 
 caithne, pronounced caMna, the ar- 
 butus (Joyce, Irish Names of Places, 
 2nd ser. p. 388). 
 
 Oabnival, p. 51. The popular ety- 
 mology of this word still turns up in 
 the newspapers : — 
 
 In its flourishing days, the Carnival was 
 really and truly what its name implies, a tem- 
 porary and by no means short fareiceli to all 
 carnul enjoyments. — The Standard^ Feb. 22, 
 1882. 
 
 Cabeiage, p. 51. 
 
 To mount two-wheel'd earaches, worse 
 Than managing a wooden horse. 
 
 Butler, Hudibras, Pt. III. iii. 1. 212. 
 
 Cast, p. 52. Prof. Skeat writes to 
 me that it is quite beside the mark to 
 adduce A. Sax. costian, &o., as those 
 words do not mean to attempt or try, 
 but to tempt. We may perhaps com- 
 pare the use oi conjectureirom conjicere, 
 to cast or throw together. 
 
 Cat, a boy's game played with a 
 bit of stick called a cat, otherwise 
 known as catty, ha/ndy-cat (Lonsdale), 
 hit-cat, or tip-cat. It seems to be a 
 corruption oihit or kid, a stick or faggot, 
 Manx hit, prov. Eng. chat (Cumber- 
 land) or cliit, a small branch, a shoot 
 (also used for an infant), A. Sax. cH, a 
 sprout. Wychffe translates catulos, 
 Vulg. Is. xxxiv. 15, by chittes (Skeat). 
 Compare Cumberland cat-talk, small- 
 talk (Ferguson), for chat (chatter). 
 
 My storehouse of tops, gigs, balls, cat and 
 catsticks. — Brome, New Academy, iv. 1 (Nares). 
 
 Can the cat, or cat-d' -nine-tails, be 
 abbreviated from Low Lat. catomus, a 
 leathern whip, a scourge loaded with 
 lead, caiomare, to scourge ? L. Lat. 
 catomus originated in a misapprehen- 
 sion of the Greek adverbial phrase, 
 Kar ui/jiovs, "upon the shoulders" (Mait- 
 land. Church in the Catacombs, p. 168). 
 
 Cater-cousin, p. 54. In the Lons- 
 dale dialect caper-cousins, intimate 
 friends (B. B. Peacock). 
 
 Catekpiller, p. 54. 
 
 Of the Hebrewes it is termed Ghizain, be- 
 cause it sheareth, pilleth, & deuoureth the 
 fruites of the earth as Kimhi vpon the first of 
 
 Joell writeth. ... In the Germaine tongue 
 Bin Raup, in the Belgian Ruipe. — Tmsetl, 
 Hist, of Serpents, 1608, p. 103. 
 
 Cat in pan. To turn, p. 55. It has 
 occurred to me, as a mere conjecture, 
 that this phrase might have some con- 
 nexion with the Wallon du Mons 
 katinpaum, meaning the down that 
 covers young birds before they are 
 fully fledged. To turn katinpaum 
 might conceivably mean to exchange 
 one's immature condition for another 
 more advanced, to make a change for 
 one's advantage, in fact, literally in 
 this sense, to become a " turn-coat," to 
 change down for feathers. 
 
 Katinpaum- is a corrupt form of 
 Netherland. hatoenhoom (cotton-tree), 
 confused with /safoeMjjZw'm, cotton-down, 
 katepluim, cat's fur, Ger. haizenfiaum. 
 
 Cave in, to sink or tumble down as 
 the side of a pit does when undermined 
 or hoUowed out, is popularly supposed 
 to have some reference to the cave or 
 cavity antecedently produced when the 
 ground has been excavated. For in- 
 stance, when, as in Spenser's words — ■ 
 
 The mouldred eaith had cav'd the banke. 
 
 Faerie Queene, IV. v. S3 — 
 it might be expected that the bank 
 would cave in. However, this con- 
 nexion is probably imaginary. The 
 original form of the word, and that 
 still always used in Lincolnshire, is 
 " to calve in," the falling portion of the 
 bank being whimsically regarded as a 
 " calf." 
 
 Some "bankers'" were engaged in widen- 
 ing a drain, when suddenly three of them 
 jumped out of the cutting, shouting out, 
 ' ' Tak heed, lads, there's a cawf a comin'. " — 
 E. Peacock, N. Sf Q. 4th S. xii. p. 275. 
 
 So a Suffolk labom-er talks of a ditch 
 " caving in," and a hungry farmer will 
 say the same of his stomach. The word 
 is now generally used in a figurative 
 sense for to give up, to cry craven, or 
 acknowledge one's self beaten. 
 
 A puppy, three weeks old, joins the chase 
 heart and soul, but caves in at about fifty 
 yards. — H. Kingsley, Geojfry Hamlyn, oh. 
 xxviii. [Davies]. 
 
 John Wesley writes : — 
 
 He was sitting cleaving stones when the 
 rock calved in upon him. 
 See Notes and Queries, 4th S. xii. 166, 
 275. Mr. Wedgwood directs my atten- 
 
GA UOHT 
 
 ( 617 ) 
 
 GHEEB 
 
 tion to tlie fact that precisely the same 
 idiom is found in W. Flanders, inlcal- 
 ven, to cave in ; de gracht kalft in, the 
 ditch caves in (De Bo, West Flemish 
 Did.). 
 
 We also find Lancashire kayve, to 
 overturn or upset (E. D. Soo.), and 
 Scot, cave over, to fall over suddenly 
 (Jamieson). 
 
 CAnGHT, the past tense of catch (O. F. 
 earner, chacier, Mod. Fr. chasser, to 
 chase, from Low Lat. oaptiare rz Lat. 
 captare,io capture), formed, as if it were 
 a true Enghsh verb, by analrgy to old 
 Eng. laughte, past tense of latch, lacche, 
 to seize, A. Sax. Iceccam (Skeat), raughi 
 from reach, taught from teach, &c. 
 
 Oause-wat, p. 56. Compare Wallon 
 du Mens cauchie (=: Fr. chaussee) and 
 cauche, causse, chalk (Lat. calx). — Si- 
 gart. So old Fr. ca.uchie, Flem. kaut- 
 sye, Teaussije, a path or pavement. 
 
 Chaff, p. 57. 
 
 Vnder this pitch 
 He would not flie; I cluijf'd hiiu. But as 
 
 Itch 
 Scratch'd into sinart,and as blunt Iron grownd 
 Into an edge, hui-ts worse : So, I (foole) 
 found. 
 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 137. 
 
 Chainy oystees, an Oxfordshire form 
 -of Ghi7ia asters (E. D. Soc. Orig. Glos- 
 saries, 0. p. 77). 
 
 Chance medley, p. 58. However, 
 the following would seem to show that 
 it is the learned forms of the word 
 which are the corruptions : — 
 
 I doe not knowe what ye call chaunce medly 
 in the law, it is not for my study. . . . If 1 
 shall fall out with a man, he is angry with 
 me, and I with him, and lacking oportunitie 
 and place, wee shall put it of for that tyme ; 
 in the meane season I prepare my w^eapon and 
 shaipe it agaynst an other time, I swell and 
 boyle in thys passion towardes him, I seeke 
 him, we meddle together, it is my chance by 
 reason is better then hys, and so forth, to kyll 
 him, I geue him his deathes stroke, in my 
 vengeaunce and anger. This call I voluntary 
 muither in Scripture : what it is in the law X 
 cannot tell. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 68. 
 
 Changeling, p. 58. 
 
 Alluding to the opinion of Nurses, who are 
 wont to say, that theFayriesuse to steale the 
 fairest children out of their cradles, and put 
 other ill fauoured in their places, which they 
 tailed changelings or Elfs. — G. Puttenham, 
 Arte of Eng. Toesie (1589), p. 18i (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 Chap, p. 68, a fellow. But Mr. 
 Atkinson points out that this usage 
 exactly corresponds to Dan. and prov. 
 Swed. hj(Bft, hiift, (1) a jaw or chap, 
 (2) an individual or person ; Dut. 
 hiift, Icel. hjaptr, a jaw {Lonsdale 
 OlossoA'y, S.V.). 
 
 Chae-ooal, p. 58. And yet we read 
 in William of Palerne (ab. 1350) of 
 " choliers {lat cayreden col " (1. 2520), 
 i.e. colliers that charred coal, from old 
 Eng. caire, to turn, A. Sax. cerran 
 (FUlolog. Soc. Trans. 1868-9, p. 290). 
 
 Chatouillee, p. 468. Compare Lan- 
 cashire Icittle, to tickle, and hlttle, to 
 bring forth kittens (E. D. Soc. p. 175). 
 
 Chaw, p. 60. 
 
 1 saw my wythered skyn. 
 How it doth show my dented chews 
 
 the flesh was worne so tliyn : 
 And eke my tothelesse chaps. 
 
 Tottel, Miscellany, 1557, p. 31 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 Check-laton, p. 60. The origin of 
 old Eng. ciclaioun (Chaucer) is rather 
 Pers. saqldtun, scarlet cloth, another 
 form of saqxialat, meaning the same, 
 whence It. scairlatto, old Fr. escarlate. 
 See Skeat, s.v. Scaelet. 
 
 Cheee, to console, gladden, or ex- 
 hilarate. There can be little doubt 
 that this word has been popularly con- 
 fused with cherish, to foster, to hold 
 dear {cher), and that this mistake has 
 influenced its usage. Thus Eichardson, 
 under Cheer, says, " see Cherish," and 
 Cotgrave gives " Cherer, cherir, to cheer, 
 to cherish." Coinpare also the follow- 
 ing :— 
 
 Then salle I cherische the with chere ■ as thou 
 my child were. 
 
 Alexander, 1. 367 (ed. Stevenson). 
 
 The proper meaning of to cheer is to 
 countenance, to give one the " help of 
 his countenance " {Fs. xhi. 7, P. B. 
 vers. ; compare A, V. Ps. iv. 6 ; Ex. 
 xxiii. 3), and so to favour, or make 
 glad (opp. to "hide one's face from," 
 Fs. XXX. 7) ; cheer beiug an old Eng. 
 word for the face or countenance, de- 
 rived from old Fr. chere, the face (also 
 ca/i-e and caire, Cotgrave), Low Lat. 
 cara, the face, Greek hdra, the head, 
 whence also Sp. cara, "the face, looke 
 or cheere of a man " (Miusheu), It. cerci. 
 The converse change of meaning is seen 
 
CHEEBUPPINa GUP ( 618 ) 
 
 CHILD 
 
 in the old use oifomowr for countenance 
 or mien. So " to be of good cheer " is 
 to be of good countenance. Compare: — 
 
 Faire bonne chere a, to entertain kindly, 
 use friendly, welcome heartily, make good 
 cheer unto. — Cotgrave. 
 
 Faire grander ou ioyeuse chere^ to be passing 
 men-y, to live most pleasantly and plentifully, 
 to make great cheer. — Id. 
 She peineth hire to make good countenance. 
 ■Chaucer, Man ofLawes Tale. 
 But with faire countenaunce, as beseemed 
 
 best 
 Her entertayn'd. 
 
 Spenser, F, Queene, III. i. 55. 
 
 In old English chere is the common 
 word for the visage, whether sad or 
 joyous. 
 
 His chere es drery and his sembland. 
 Hampol£, Pricke of Conscience, 1. 791. 
 In swot of )ji chere fiu schalt eyt )pi brede. 
 Apology for the Lollards, p. 105 
 (Camden Soc). 
 [Where the editor thinks chere a mistake 
 for cheke ! Vulg. in sudore vultus tui.] 
 Thay make als mirry chere, 
 Als hit were Sole day. 
 Three Met. 'Romances, p. 91 (Camden Soc). 
 Her solemne cheare, and gazing in the fount, 
 Denote her anguish and her griefe of soule. 
 H, Peacham, Minerva Britanna, 
 Penitentia, 1612. 
 Griefe all in sable sorrowfully clad 
 Downe banging his dull head with heavy 
 chere. 
 
 Faerie Queene, III. xii. 16. 
 Or make a Spanish face with fawning cheer, 
 With th' Baud congee like a cavalier. 
 
 Hall, Satires, iv. 2. 
 All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer. 
 
 Midsummer IV. Dream, iii. 2. 
 The orig. force of cheer (to gladden 
 with one's face) and cheerful (of a plea- 
 sant countenance, Lat. vultuosus) may 
 be traced in a passage from Ward's 
 ~ I on Key. vi. 7 : — 
 
 Behold also the colour of this horse, p^Xaifof, 
 the colour of the withering leaf, pale & 
 wan, symbolizing & noting the efteot he 
 hath first upon the living, whom he appals, 
 as he did Belshazzar, whom all his concu- 
 bines & courtiers could not cheer, nor all his 
 wine in the bowls of the temple fetch colour 
 into his countenance .... Whereas Chris- 
 tians .... change not their countenance, 
 nor have their colour any whit abated, but as 
 is recorded of Mrs. Joyce Lewis at the stake, 
 & sundry other Christians, even of the 
 fearfulest by nature & sex, looked as fresh 
 and cheerfully at the hour of death as at their 
 marriage. — Adams, iii. 56. 
 
 Though fortune be straunge, 
 To you a whyle turnynge of her face, 
 Her louring chere she may lyght sone 
 chaunge. 
 
 Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, p. 68 
 (Percy Soc). 
 Whan you come to her she wyl make you 
 
 chere 
 With countenaunce, accordyng unto love. 
 
 Id. p. 72. 
 Bid your frieqds welcome, show a merry 
 cheer. 
 
 Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 
 He that showeth mercy with cheeifutness.— 
 A. V, Rom, xii. 8. 
 
 Dat bene, dat multum, qui dat cum munere 
 vultum. — Trench, Proverbs, p. 185. 
 
 To cheer, now often used in the speci- 
 fic sense of encouraging with loud accla- 
 mations, formerly meant to feast or 
 entertain at a banquet. 
 
 They had not only feasted the king, queen, 
 
 &c but also they cheered all the 
 
 knights and burgesses of the common house 
 in the parliament, and entertained the mayor 
 of London . ... at a dinner. — Stow, Survay, 
 1603, p. 167 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Cheeeupping Cup, p. 60. 
 
 When the Lowlanders want to drink a 
 chearupping cap, they go to the public-house 
 called the change-house, and call for a chopin 
 of twopenny. — Smollett, Humphrey Clinker, 
 
 a. 69. 
 
 You little know how a jolly Scotch gentle- 
 man .... chirrups over his honest cups.—' 
 Thackeray, The Nemcomes, ch. xiii. p. 135. 
 
 Cheesebowl, p. 61. 
 
 Papauer is called in greeke Mecon, in 
 englishe Poppy or Chesboitl. — W. Turner, 
 Names of Herbes, 1548, p. 59 (E. D. S.). 
 
 Chickin, p. 61. Add : — 
 
 At Feluchia the marchants plucke their 
 boats in pieces, or else sell them for a small 
 price, for that at Bir they cost the marchants 
 forty or fifty chickens a piece, and they sell 
 them at Feluchia for seuen or eight chickens 
 a piece. — Hakluyt, Voiages, ii. 213. 
 
 Chick-Pea, p. 61. Compare : — 
 Cicer may be named in english Cich, or 
 
 ciche pease after the Frenche tonge. — W. 
 
 Turner, Names of Herbes, 1548, p. 27 
 
 (E. D. Soc). 
 
 Child, p. 62. Prof. Atkinson thinks 
 that baron, Norm.Fr.ftarMJi, man, hus- 
 band, Low Lat. baro ( = the burden 
 bearer for the troops), is derived from 
 Goth, balran, to bear, from which would 
 come an O. H. Ger. bero (ace. beron), 
 bearer, then an active man {Vie de St. 
 Auhcm, note on 1. 301). Compare Norm. 
 
GHINCOUOH 
 
 ( 619 ) 
 
 OITIZEN 
 
 Ft. homage, the nobility. Thus larron 
 
 would be akin to A. Sax. hec/rn, a hero. 
 
 With his baronage bolde & biiernes full noble. 
 
 Destruction of Troy, 1. 324 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Chincouoh, p. 62, Lancashire hin- 
 cough, whooping cough, Mnh-haust, a 
 violent cough, kink, to lose the breath 
 with coughing or laughing (E. D. S. 
 Glossary, p. 174). 
 
 Chissel-bob, a word used in the Isle 
 of Wight for the wood-louse (B. D. Soo. 
 Orig. Glossaries, xxiii. p. 6), is a corrup- 
 tion of the old name for this insect, 
 ehesUp (Mouffet), or cheeselip (TopseU), 
 sometimes called cMssel-hot or cheese- 
 holl. Adams compares Swed. sugga- 
 hppe, "sow-lop," the wood-louse (Phi- 
 lohg. 8oc. Trans. 1860-1, p. 12). 
 
 Chittyfaced, p. 62. Compare 
 also : — 
 
 Vous etea una vi'ay chicheface. — Com^die 
 des Prov., acte i. sc. iv. (xvii. sieole). 
 
 Chiche-face 6tait un monsti-e symbolique qui 
 se noun'issait des femmes obeissantes a leur 
 maris ; de la sa grande maigreur et I'emploi 
 de son nom pour designer une personne 
 Clique. On opposoit a Chiche-face un autre 
 monstre prodigieusement gros et gras, Bi- 
 gorne, qui mange tons les npmmes qui font 
 fe commandement de leur femmes. (Voyez 
 sur ce sujet un excellent travail de M. A. de 
 Montaiglon, Recueil de poesies frangoises, &cc. 
 t. ii. p. 191, Bibliotheque elzeviiienne.) — Le 
 Roux de Lincy, Praverbes Francis. 1. 165. 
 
 On Chaucer's mention of the Ghiche 
 Vache, i.e. " lean cow " (Clerk's Tale, 1. 
 1182, Clarendon Press), 
 Lest Chicheuache yow swelwe in hir entraiUe, 
 Prof. Skeat quotes — ■ 
 
 Gardez vous de la chicheface. 
 M. Jabinal, MysUres Inidits au XV. Siicle, 
 i. 281. 
 
 Every lover admires his mistress though 
 she .... have a swolnjuglers platter face, 
 or a thin, lean, chitty face. — Burton, Armtomy 
 (f Melancholy, 111. ii. 4, 1. 
 
 I will catch thee up by one. 
 Of those fat Stumps thou walk at upon, 
 And give your Kogueship such a Swing, 
 As (Monsieur Chitty-faee) shall fling 
 You and your Implements to Hell. 
 Cotton^ Burlesque upon Burlesque, p. 247. 
 
 Chokeful, p. 63. 
 Charottez chokkefulle charegyde with golde. 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 1552. 
 
 One of the kings of France died miserably 
 by the chock of a hog. — T. Brooks, Works, 
 1662, vol. iv. p. 113 f Nichol'fl ed.). 
 
 The new edition of the Imperial Die- 
 tiona/ry (1882) explains chock here as 
 meaning shock or encounter I 
 
 Chough, a species of jackdaw, pro- 
 nounced chuff from false analogy to 
 toitgh, rough, cough, trough, &c., instead 
 of, as it ought to be, clio or chow, riming 
 with though or plough, its A. Sax. name 
 being ce6, Dut. kaauw. Indeed, the 
 pronunciation of -gh in English has 
 always been very unsettled. Enough 
 was formerly spelt and pronounced 
 enow or ynow. Danighter is in prov. 
 Eng. sometimes pronounced dafter, 
 hough as lyuff, hought as hoft, though as 
 thof. It seems that cough and rough 
 were in olden times pronounced cow 
 and row, as the Prompt. Parvulorum 
 gives " Gowyn or hostyn, Tussio," and 
 " Bowghe as here or ojier lyke (al. row) 
 Hispidus." In old epitaphs hethofi is 
 found for hethought. 
 
 Who so hym bethoft, ful inwardly and oft 
 How hard tis to ilit, from bed to the pit. 
 From pit vnto peyne, which sal neuer end 
 
 certeyne, 
 He wold not do on sin, al the world to win. 
 J. Weever, Funerall Monuments, 1631, 
 p. 625. 
 1 have marks enow about my body to show 
 of his cruelty to me. — Fielding, Hist, of a 
 Foundling, bk. ii. ch. 6. 
 
 I thofthe had been an officer himself. — Id. 
 bk. vii. ch. 13. 
 
 1 think you o/t [ = ought] to favour us. — 
 
 As thof I should be the occasion of her 
 leaving the esteate out o' the vamily. — Id. 
 bk. vii. ch. 5. 
 
 Citizen, an old corrupt form of 
 citiyen (^Er. citoyen), old Scot, oiteycm, 
 i.e. a city-ian, or native of a city, like 
 Pa/ris-ian, Gorinth-ian (old Er. citeain), 
 originating in a misreading of old Eng. 
 citizen, where 3 is really y. Similar mis- 
 readings are perpetuated in capercailzie, 
 gdberlv/nme, Gockenzie, Valziel, Macken- 
 zie, &c., which should be caperccnliie, 
 i.e. caperccdlyie, &o. See J. A. H. Mur- 
 ray, Dialect of 8. Counties of Scotland, 
 p. 129. The contrasted word ispeasan-t, 
 Fr. pays-an, a country-man. 
 
 Than ilk side began to exhort thair cieie- 
 yanii and campiounis to schaw thair manhede. 
 — J. Beltenden, Traductioun ofLivy, 1533 [op. 
 cit. p. 62]. 
 
 Citizen was perhaps influenced by 
 artisan, paHisan, &c. Similarly to 
 chastise has been assimilated to cate- 
 
GLEVEB 
 
 ( 620 ) 
 
 GOLT-STAFF 
 
 cMse, civiUse, criticise, &o. and ougM to 
 be chasty (like sully, tally, &o.) or chas- 
 tish (like cherish, establish, &c.), being 
 from old Eng. chastien, O. Fr. chastier, 
 Lat. casHga/re. 
 
 Clevek, p. 65. Charlotte Bronte had 
 a true perception of the meaning of this 
 ■word : — 
 
 Some one at school, said she, " was al- 
 ways talking about clever people; Johnson, 
 Sheridan, &c." She said, "Now you don't 
 know the meaning of clever ; Sheridan might 
 be clever ; yes, Sheridan was clever, — scamps 
 often are ; but Johnson hadn't a spark of 
 cleverality in him." — Mrs. Gashell, Life of 
 C. Bronte, ch. vi. p. 76. 
 
 Clipper, p. 66. Compare with the 
 German the following description of a 
 rabbit's pace : — 
 
 Brer Rabbit come — lijrpity-clippity, clippity- 
 iippity — des a sailin' down de big road. — 
 Uncle Remus, p. 43. 
 
 Clopobte, p. 469. In Oxfordshire 
 the woodlouse is called BeviVsjiig, and 
 sometimes God Almighty's pig (E. D. S. 
 Orig. Ohssa/ries, C. p. 104). 
 
 Clove gilliixowek, the clove- 
 scented giUiflower, where clove, for old 
 Eng. cloue, clowe (Fr. clou, Sp. clavo), 
 a nail, the nail-shaped spice (Lat. 
 clavus), has been mistaken for a slip or 
 cloven piece of giUiflower. Compare 
 Fr. clou de giroflc, a clove. 
 
 The word was confomided with old 
 Eng. " cloue of garlek" {Prompt. Fa/rv.), 
 where clove is from A. Sax. chife, a 
 cloven piece, froro clufon, to cleave. 
 
 Which aldermanry, Ankei'inus de Averne 
 held during his life, . . . yielding therefore 
 yearly to the said Thomas and his heirs one 
 clove or slip of gilliflowers.^ — Stow, Survay, 
 1603, p. 116 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Clutch, a prov. Eng. word for a 
 brood of chickens hatched at the same 
 time (in general use in Ireland), is 
 obviously near akin to leel. Jclehja, to 
 hatch, Dan. hlcekhe, Swed. Macka. 
 Compare N. Lincolnshire clefch, a brood 
 of chickens (E. D. Soc. Orig. Glossa- 
 ries, C. p. 116) ; Lonsdale clatch. 
 
 CocK-A-Hoop, p. 67. Add : — 
 
 Sir Nicholas Twiford, goldsmith, mayor, 
 gave to that church a house, with the appur- 
 tenances, called the Griffon on the Hope, in 
 the same street. — Stow, Survay, 1603, p. 120 
 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Cockatrice, p. 68. Compare WaU 
 Ion du Mons coteodrille, a crocodile. 
 
 Cocklety (prov. Eng.), shaky, un- 
 steady, easily upset (as if hke a cocle, or 
 small boat), is evidently the same word 
 as Lancashire kechlety, unsteady, hkely 
 to topple over, " As Tcehlety us o owd 
 waytur tub," otherwise hecMey, "Thou 
 stonds very hecMey " (E. D. Soc. Glos- 
 sary, p. 171), which words come from 
 Lane, hech, to upset. But compare " a 
 cochUng sea," prov. Eng. coggle, to be 
 shaky (Skeat). A material which be- 
 comes wavy or uneven from being ex- 
 posed to rain is said to cockle. 
 
 CocK-EOSB, p. 69. Compare : — 
 Papauer erraticii is called in greeke Roiiis, 
 in euglishe Redcovn-ruse or wylde popy, in 
 duche wilde man, korne rosen, or klapper 
 rosen. — W. Turner, Names of' Herbes, 1548, 
 p. 59 (E.D.S.). 
 
 CcENA, p. 467. Compare the title of 
 a book published about 1658 : — 
 
 Ca;na quasi xotvw. The New Enclosure 
 bi'oken down, or the. Lord's Supper laid open 
 ill Common. By Will. Morrice. 
 
 Colonel, p. 71. 
 
 The Centurian obeid the Millenarie, that 
 had charge of a thousande. And he againe 
 was subject to the grande Coronelle that had 
 charge over ten thousande. — Fardle ofFacions 
 (155S), pt. ii. c. X. p. 211. 
 
 Have you not made among you Tenmen 
 Citizens of your owne, to be your Capetaines, 
 Coronels, and Marshalles? — Wylsan, Demos- 
 thenes, 1570, p. 40. 
 
 At the journey too BuUeyne hee was ap- 
 poynted too foUowe the duke of Northefollck 
 to the Siege of Mountrele, and was, I take it, 
 Coronelt of the footemen, thowghe that tearme 
 in those dayes unuzed. — Life of Lord Grey of 
 lI'i/!on, p. 1 (Camden Society), ab. 1570. 
 
 The siege of Montreuil was in 1544. 
 See Notes and Queries, 6th S. iv. 454. 
 
 See Skeat, p. 785, who strangely pre- 
 fers the derivation from It. colonna, a 
 column, which does not seem to have 
 been used for the division of an army 
 (see Florio). 
 
 Colt-staff, p. 72, was sometimes 
 understood as a staff which helped to 
 bear one as a colt would ; hke Span. 
 muleta, a crutch, from mulus, and Fr. 
 bourdon, sl staff. It. bordone, from Lat, 
 burdo, a mule. 
 
 There is an Adage or prouerbe called 
 " Blulus ftlarianus." ... It signifieth pro- 
 perly a bearing backe, oi' colt-slaffe, as we 
 
00MB 
 
 ( 621 ) 
 
 OBOSS 
 
 Bay in EngIi3b,wliereuppon poore men carry 
 their burdens, and from thence it was trans- 
 lated into a prouerbe to signifie all that do 
 obey commaunds. — Topselt^ Hist, of Foure- 
 footed Beasts, 1609, p. 563. 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 Take fi'om me the same horse that was 
 given him by the good Bishop Jewell, this 
 staff. — Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wahefeld, 
 oh. iii. 
 
 Comb, p. 72. 
 And also on her head, parde. 
 Her rose garland white and red. 
 And her comhe to hembe her bed. 
 
 Chaucer, Home of Fame, i. 137. 
 
 COJIEOGUE, p. 73. 
 Let it be such a Land as be 
 Had better far, upon the Sea, 
 With all bis Comrogues have been drown'd 
 Thaa such a wretched Place have found. 
 Cotton, Virgil Trai^estie, bk. iv. p. 134. 
 
 GoNTKivB, frequently used by old 
 authors with the meaning of to spend, 
 pass, or wear away time, is due to a 
 reminiscence of the Latin usage, con- 
 Mvi setatem meam (Terence), " I spent 
 my age," contrivit tempus (Cicero), 
 " he spent his time," where the verb is 
 the perfect tense of cont&v, to wear out. 
 The formation is as incorrect as " to 
 wore " would be, or as is Spenser's 
 pseudo-old Eng. to yede for to go, pro- 
 perly a preterite, and so := to went. 
 The word was confused, no doubt, with 
 the genuine verb contrive. See iV". and 
 Q. 6th S. V. 75. 
 
 Not that sage Pylian syre, which did sur- 
 vive, 
 Three ages, such as mortall men contrive. 
 
 Spenser, F. Q. II. ix. 48, 
 Please ye we may contrive this afternoon, 
 And quaff carouses to our mistress' health. 
 
 Shakespeare, Taming of Shrew, i. 2, 276. 
 In travelyng countreyes, we three have con- 
 trived 
 Full many a yeare. 
 
 Edwards, Damon and Pithias (0. Flays, 
 i. 19i, ed. 1825). 
 
 CoppEE, a slang woi'd for a police- 
 man, is one who makes a cop or cap- 
 ture, a seizer. 
 
 CouNTEEPANB, p. 77. Add at the 
 end : — 
 
 But the only counterpane indeed to match 
 this original is the resurrection of the blessed 
 Son of God«from death to life, figured in the 
 restitution of the prophet to his former estate 
 of livelihood. — Bp. John King, On Jonah, 
 1594, p. 196 (Grosai-t's ed.). 
 
 Cow-HEART, p. 78. Compare :— 
 
 Chien couart voir le loup ne veut. 
 (Mimes de Baif, fol. 50, XVI. Siicle.) 
 Le Roui de Lincy, Proverbes Francois, i. 165. 
 
 Cow -PAWED (prov. Eng.), left- 
 handed, is perhaps a popular corrup- 
 tion of Scot, ccer-hamded or Icer-handit, 
 from car, the left, Gaelic caei-r. 
 
 Cowslip, p. 80. As confirmatory of 
 Prof. Skeat's account, compare : — 
 Tell me you flowers faire, 
 
 Cowslop and Columbine, 
 So may your Make this wholesome Spring 
 
 time ayre 
 With you embraced lie. 
 
 And lately thence vntwine : 
 But with dew drops engender children hie. 
 Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, 1629, p. 395. 
 
 The Seconde is called in barbarus latin 
 Paralysis, and in englishe a Cowslip, or a 
 Cowskip, or a Pagle. — W. Turner, Names of 
 Herbes, 1548, p. 79 (E. D. S.;. 
 
 Crabbed, p. 81. 
 
 The arwes of thy crabbed eloquence 
 Shal perce his brest. 
 
 Chaucer, Clerks Tale, 1. 1204. 
 
 Ceack Eegiment, p. 82. Compare 
 Lonsdale " He's neya girt cracks," i.e. 
 He is nothing to boast of (E. B. Pea- 
 cock, Glossary). 
 
 Craven, p. 82. I find that substan- 
 tially the same view of this word is 
 taken by Mr. Nicol, who derives old 
 Eng. crauant (cravant), conquered, 
 overcome, as I have done, from old 
 Fr. cravante, from a verb crevanter, 
 corresponding to a Lat. crepantare, to 
 break (see Skeat, Appendix, p. 786). 
 
 Creepie, p. 83. 
 I sit on my creepie and spin at my wheel, 
 And think on the laddie that lo'es me sae 
 weel. 
 
 G. Halket, Logie o' Bnchan. 
 
 Of the same origin perhaps is cricket, 
 a three-legged stool, for oi-ipet. 
 
 The said rooms contain nine chairs, two 
 tables, five stools, and a cricket. — Gray, 
 Letter XXXI. (1740), p. 318 (ed. Balston). 
 
 Cross, p. 84. Compare Cumberland 
 ciirl, to take offence, be displeased 
 (E. D. Soc. Grig. Glossaries, C. p. 108). 
 Attending their revenge [they] grow won- 
 
 d'rouse crouse, 
 And threaten death and vengeance to our 
 bouse. 
 
 Drayton [fc Richardsonl. 
 
GRUELS 
 
 ( 622 ) 
 
 DUGLENSION 
 
 The word was eyidently confased 
 with cross, to thwart, and crossness, 
 contrariety, perverseness. 
 
 For the popular acceptation of cross, 
 compare : — 
 
 When her chamber-door was closed, she 
 scolded her maid, and was as cross as two 
 sticks. — Thackeraijy The Newcomes, ch. xxxiii. 
 p. 333. 
 
 CKtTELS, p. 85. A corruption of 
 scroyle mentioned under this word 
 (" These scroyles of Angiers flout you." 
 — K. John, ii. 2, 373) is Lancashire 
 scrawl, a mean, despicahle fellow, "As 
 mean a scrawl as yo'll meet in a day's 
 walk" {Lane. Glossary, E. D. S. p. 233). 
 
 Chtjsty, p. 85. With curse for cross 
 compare the expression "the curse of 
 Scotland," a popular name for the nine 
 of diamonds at cards, said to be so 
 called because the pips were sometimes 
 disposed in the figure of a saltire, the 
 X-shaped cross (Scot, cars, corse) of St. 
 Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland 
 (Monthly Facket,'B.&er.-zi.423). Com- 
 pare also old colloquial Eng. cv/rsenior 
 christen {crusen). 
 
 Nan. Do they speak as we do 1 
 
 Madge. No, they neyer speak. 
 
 Nan. Are they cursen'd? 
 
 Madge. No, they call them infidels. 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, The Coxcomb, iv. 3. 
 
 Compare Isle of Wight erousty, Ul- 
 tempered, snappish (E. D. S. Orig. 
 Qlossairks, xxiii. p. 8). 
 
 CuoKOO ! the cry made by children in 
 the game of hide-and-seek to announce 
 that they are concealed, used in Ire- 
 land, and exactly in the same way in 
 Hainaut. Compare WaUon fa/iire cou- 
 cou, to hide one's self, and as an infan- 
 tine word to hide the head (so in 
 Enghsh). These words have nothing 
 to do with the bird so named, but are 
 akin to old Fr. cucul, a cowl or hood 
 concealing the head, Bas-Bret. hougoul, 
 Welsh cwcwll. Corn, eugol (the Lat. 
 cucullws is borrowed from a Gaulish 
 word). Compare Basque cuculcea, to 
 hide or disappear (Sigart). Similarly 
 cam-caw in Kent is a childish corrup- 
 tion of cockal, a cramp-bone used as a 
 plaything (Kitchiner, Cook's Oracle, p. 
 130). See Hot Cockles, p. 180. 
 
 The persistent vitality of children's 
 games and nursery words from age to 
 age is highly remarkable. The game 
 
 of " Buck, Buck, how many fingers do 
 I hold up ? " is common in Hampshire, 
 and it is noticeable that Petronius 
 Arbiter mentions a similar game 
 wherein one slaps another on the 
 shoulders, and cries "Bucca, Bucca, 
 quot sunt hie " (E. D. Soc. Orig. Glos- 
 saries, Ser. C. p. 64). See Love (1), 
 p. 224. 
 
 CuEEANT (prov. Eng.), to leap high, 
 to caper (Isle of Wight, E. D. S. Orig. 
 Glossaries, xxiii.), is evidently a corrup- 
 tion of Elizabethan Eng. coranto (or 
 corranto), a quick pace or a Uvely dance, 
 used by Shakespeare and Middleton 
 (see Nares), It. corranta (Plorio), from 
 correre, to run, Lat. cvjrrere. Cavort, to 
 ride or prance ostentatiously, is an 
 American corruption of cv/rvet (Bart- 
 lett), old Eng. corvet, which may be 
 compared. 
 
 CUEEY FAVODB, p. 88. Add : — 
 Accordynge to the olde provearbe, " He 
 thatt wylle in courte dwelle must coryefavelie," 
 and 
 
 He thatt wylle in courte ahyde 
 Must coryfavelk bake and syde, 
 for souche gettmoste gayne. — Underhill (ab. 
 1561), Narratives of the Reformation, p. 159 
 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Cyphee, p. 90. Compare Arabic 
 shqfer, a musical horn (in ItaUan called 
 sciofa/r), concerning which there is an 
 article in Sat. Review, vol. 53, p. 695 ; 
 Greek siphon, a pipe or reed. Com- 
 pare It. zefiro. Low Lat. zephyrum, a 
 cipher, an assimilation to zephyrus, a 
 breeze, of Arab, sifr, a cipher. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dame Steeet, in Dublin, until com- 
 paratively recently called Dam St., and 
 in the 17th century spelt Damask St. or 
 Darmnes /S'/.,was originally named from 
 the adjacent gate of " Sainte Marie del 
 Dam," so called from the Dam of the 
 King's Mills, subsequently known as 
 " Dame's MUls," standing there in the 
 13th century (/. T. Gilbert, Eist. of 
 Dublin, u. 268). 
 
 It is spelt Damas Stret in Speed's 
 MapofDubKn, 1610. 
 
 Declension, a popular contraction of 
 declination (old Fr. declAnaiison, Lat. de- 
 
DEFILE 
 
 ( 623 ) 
 
 DOGGED 
 
 cKnatio), as a form inclension would be 
 of mcUnation,hy false analogy probably 
 to dimension, extension, pension, suspen- 
 sion, &o. 
 
 The true and even levell of the declention 
 ofxtts.—Tom of All Trades, 1631, p. 142 
 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Defile, to pollute, older form to de- 
 foyl or defoul, is a corruption under the 
 influence of old Eng. file, to pollute, 
 A. SibX.fylan, to make filthy, and/owZ, 
 of the old Eng. defoulen, to tread down, 
 old Fr. defouler, to trample under foot 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Power of defoulinge othir tredinge on ser- 
 pentis. — Wycliffe, S. Luhe, x. 19. 
 
 (lei ben foule ypooritis, and not woT\ii but 
 to be putt out fro cristen men and defoulid. — 
 Wyclife, Unprinted Works, p. 18 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Devil's Point, in Plymouth Soimd, 
 is said to have been named from one 
 Buval, an old Huguenot refugee who 
 took up his abode there in the early 
 part of the 18th century. 
 
 Devil, Greek didlolos, has furnished 
 fine material for popular etymologists, 
 e.g. Ir. Aiabhal, supposed to mean the 
 god (dm) Baal ; Manx jowyl or diouyl, 
 the god {jee or di) of destruction (ouyl), 
 Manx Soc. Did. ; while didbolos itself 
 was conceived to be from Greek dMO, 
 two, and lolos, a morsel, as explained 
 in the following : — 
 And yet fond man regardeth not one whit 
 Tilt be have made himselfe the devils bit. 
 Who at two bits, for so his name imports. 
 Devours both soule & body, mans two parts. 
 
 The Times' Whistle, 1616, p. 20, 1. 572 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Deuce, p. 97. The exclamation 
 Deus! Godl was no doubt confused 
 with the deuce, or number two, regarded 
 from ancient times as significant of evil 
 and the Evil One. A Jewish supersti- 
 tion accounted for the second day of the 
 Creation not being pronounced " very 
 good" by the Almighty, by observing 
 that it was on that day Satan and his 
 angels fell (Jameson and Eastlake, 
 Hist, of Ov/r Lord, i. 63). Compare : — 
 
 Le Diable aussi est double, et I'ont signifie 
 les Pythagorieus par le nombre de deux, qu'ils 
 disent estre principle de tout mal. — Boucher, 
 Sermons, 1594, p. 3 {Southey, C. P. Book, iii. 
 
 In Norman French there is the one 
 form Deus for God and for two. Com- 
 pare : — 
 
 Deus, ki hom furmer deignas k tun semblant, 
 Cel mal kar restorez ! 
 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 1157. 
 
 [God ! who deignedst to form man in thy 
 likeness, cure this evil.] 
 
 Ki estoient esluz par numbre deus faiz sis. 
 Id. 1. 169. 
 [Who (the apostles) were chosen by 
 number two times six.] 
 
 The curious transformation of Deus 
 ( z= God) into deuce ( =: Devil) is paral- 
 leled by the change of old Pers. daeva, 
 god, into Gipsy devil (though the mean- 
 ing is different). See Devil, p. 471. 
 
 In the following from Langtoft's 
 Chronicle, the two deuces are found side 
 by side : — 
 
 Deus ! cum Merlins dist sovent veritez . . . 
 Ore sunt le deus ewes en un arivez. 
 
 Political Songs, p. 307 (Camden Soc). 
 [God ! how often Merlin said truth . . . 
 Now are the two waters come into one.] 
 
 With the ducms we may compare the 
 Breton duz, a gobhn, also a changeling 
 left by the fairies (ViUemarque, Chants 
 Pop. de la Bretagne, p. liv.). 
 
 "Whitley Stokes connects the dusii of 
 the old Celtic mythology with Slav. 
 dusi, spirits, dusa, soul ; dusmus, devil ; 
 Sansk. doshu, vice, dush, to sin {Phdh- 
 log. Soc. Trans. 1867, p. 261). 
 
 Do, p. 99. Add :— 
 
 Iff vow do jjus in dede, hit doghis the bettur. 
 
 Destruction of Troy, 1. 5001 (E.E.T.S.). 
 [If you do thus it dnes(=: succeeds) the better.] 
 
 Dog cheap, p. 100. An early use of 
 the expression is : — 
 
 They afforded theii' wai-es so dog cheape. — 
 Stanihurst, Description of Ireland, p. 22 (^Holin-- 
 shed, vol. i. 1587). 
 
 Dogged, p. 100. 
 
 How found Jjou {lat filthe in [ji fals wille, 
 Of so dogget a dede in ]>i derf hert. 
 
 Destruction of Troy, 1. 10379 (E.E.T.S.). 
 And bou so doggetly has done in ]>i derfe hate. 
 Id. 1. 1398. 
 Others are dogged & sullen both in looke 
 and speech. — Dekker, Belmun of London, 
 sig. D 2 (1608). 
 Yet to the poore, that pyning mourn'd and 
 
 wep't. 
 He was more dogged then the dogs he kept. 
 For they lickt sores when he deny'd his 
 cromes. 
 S. Rowlands, Four Knaves, 1613, p. 104 
 (Percy Soc). 
 
DOGOEBEL 
 
 ( 624 ) 
 
 EAQEB 
 
 DOGSEEEL, p. 101. 
 
 This may wel be rym dngerelj quod he. 
 Chaucer^ Sir l^hopas, 1. 211.5. 
 
 DOSWOOD, p. 101. 
 
 Curaiis — The female is pletuous in Eng- 
 lande & the buchers make prickes of it, some 
 cal it Gadrise or dog tree, howe be it tliere is 
 an other tree that they cal dogrise also. — 
 W. Turner, Names of Herbes, Ij-lS, p. 30 
 (E.D.Soc). 
 
 Doily, a small napkin placed under 
 glasses on the table, seems to be an 
 assimilation of prov. Eng. Ckvile, a nap- 
 kin, Dut. dwaal, a " towel," to doily, a 
 species of stuff so called because in- 
 vented by one Boily (Skeat, 788). 
 
 Doll, p. 101. There is no doubt that 
 idol was sometimes spelt idoll, and per- 
 haps accented on the last syllable. See 
 the following very curious passage, 
 which certainly identifies doll with 
 ydoll : — 
 
 Because I spoke euen nowe of Images and 
 IdoUes, I woulde you shoulde not igno- 
 rauntlye coufounde and abuse those termes, 
 takynge an Image for an IdoUe and an IdoUe 
 for an Image, as I haue hearde manye doe in 
 thys citye, as well of the fathers and mothers 
 (that shoulde be wyse) as of thei.r babies and 
 chyldren that haue learned foolyshnesse of 
 theyr parentes. ]\owe at the dissolucion of 
 Monasteries and of Freers Jiouses many 
 Images haue bene caryed abrod, and ^uen to 
 children to playe wyth alt. And when the 
 chyldren haue theym in theyr handes, 
 dauncynge theim after their childyshe maner, 
 commeth the father or the mother and saythe : 
 What nasse, what haste thou tliere ? the 
 childe aunsweareth (as she is taught) I haue 
 here myne ydoll, the father laugheth and 
 malteth a gaye game at it. So saithe the 
 mother to an other, Jugge, or Thommye, 
 where haddest thou that pretye Idoil? John 
 our parishe clarke gaue it me, saythe the 
 childe, and for that the clarke must haue 
 thankes, and shall lacke no good chere. — 
 Ro^er Edge^vorth, Sernumn, 1557, fol. xl. 
 
 Dibdin, in his Library Gompamon, 
 i. 83 (1824), actually prints the child's 
 answer above in modern English, "I 
 have here mine doll." 
 
 Donjon, p. 102, Compare for the 
 meaning : — 
 
 Somme of hem wondrede on the mirour, 
 That born was vp in-to the maister tour. 
 Chaucer, Squieres Tale, 1. 226 (Clarendon 
 Press ed.), 
 
 DoNKEY-BEED, an Oxfordshire word 
 for low-bred (E. D. Soc. Orig. Glos- 
 sm-ies, 0. p. 80), is evidently a corrup- 
 
 tion of d/wnggul hred, low-bom, lit. 
 " dunghill bred," used in the same 
 dialect. 
 
 DoEMEDOKY, a Herefordshire word 
 for a heavy sleepy person (Wright), as 
 if from Pr. dormir, is a corrupt form of 
 droviedcary, onoe used in the same sense. 
 See the quotation from Puller above, p. 
 xxvii. 
 
 DoEMEE-wiNDOw, a window in the 
 roof, universally understood now to 
 mean the window of a dormitm-y or 
 sleeping room (Bichardson,"Wedgwood, 
 Skeat), is properly that which rests on 
 the dormers, which is another form of 
 dormants, the sleepers or main beams 
 supporting the rafters. Compare 
 Sleepee, p. 361. The reference there- 
 fore is not to the slumbers of the in- 
 mates, but to the fixed lying position 
 of the immovable beams. See lurde 
 dormande, — Catlwlicon Anglicum, p. 47 
 (ed. Herrtage). 
 
 Dey, p. 105. Lonsdale dree, long, 
 tedious, wearisome (E. B. Peacock). 
 The Geste Hystoriale of the Destruc- 
 tion of Troy speaks of "the chekker, 
 the draghtes, the dyse, and ojier dregh 
 gaumes," 1. 1622, i.e. chess, draughts, 
 dice, and other tedious games. 
 
 That night, whether we were tired, or 
 whatten, I don't know, but it were dree 
 work. — Mrs. Gaskell, Maiy Barton, ch. ix. 
 
 Duck, p. 106. So Isle of Wight 
 Buck, the dusk of the day (B. D. S. 
 Orig. Glossaries, xxiii.). 
 Tlie duck's coming on ; I'll be off in astore. 
 A Dream of the Isle of Wight {Id. p. 52). 
 
 In the same dialect tuclcs are the 
 titsTcs of a boar (p. 39) . Compare Muck, 
 p. 600. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eager, p. 107. 
 
 The Higre— Men as little know the cause 
 of the name, as the thing thereby signified. 
 Some pronounce it the Eigre, as so called 
 fi-om the keenessB and fiercenesse thereof. 
 It is the confluence or encounter (as sup- 
 posed) of the salt and fresh water in Severne, 
 equally terrible with its flashings and noise 
 to the seers and hearers ; and oh how much 
 more then to the feelers thereof! — T. Fuller, 
 Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 376. 
 
E ARABLE 
 
 ( 626 ) 
 
 FAITH 
 
 So farre, so fast the eifgre drave, 
 
 The heart had hardly time to beat, 
 Before a shallow seething wave 
 Sobbed in the gi-aases at oure feet. 
 J. Ingelow, The High Tide. 
 Akiiroi the see flowynge, Impetus maris. 
 — Prompt. Pai-v. 
 
 Well know they the reum^ yf it a-ryse, 
 An aker it is clept, I vnderstonde. 
 
 MS. Poem (in Way). 
 
 EAK.4.BLE, a common Leicestershire 
 form of arahh, as if capable of being 
 eared (Evans, Glossary, -p. 10, H.D. S.). 
 See Ear, p. 107. 
 
 Elope is a corruption of Dut. ont- 
 loopen, to run away, by substituting 
 the familiar prefix e- (Lat. e, ex, out) 
 for the unfamiliar Dut. prefix ont- 
 (Skeat), so as to range with evade, 
 elude, educe, escape, &c. Dut. ont-. 
 loopen (=Ger. ent-laiifen) is to leap, 
 loaf, or run, away. (See Haldeman, 
 Affixes, p. 64.) 
 
 Isle of Wight loop, to elope, " She 
 loop'd away wi' un " (E. D. S. Orig. 
 Glossaries, xxiii.). 
 
 Emboss, an old word for to hide 
 one's self, is a corruption of emhush, old 
 Fr. embuscher, to hide in the lush 
 (whence amhush). It. iraboscare. Com- 
 pare imboslc (Nares). 
 Look quickly, lest the si°'ht of us 
 Should cause the stai-tled beast t'emboss. 
 Sam. Butter, Works, vol. ii. p. 107, 
 1. 130 (ed. Clarke). 
 
 Endlong, an old adverb meaning 
 down along, continuously, without 
 intermission (Holland), has no con- 
 nexion with end, as if it meant "from 
 end to end," but is the same word as 
 A. Sax. andlang (Ger. entlang), where 
 the first part of the compound is iden- 
 tical with Goth, anda, Greek avn, Lat. 
 ante, Sansk. anii, against, opposite 
 (Skeat, Glossa/ry to Prioresses Tale, &c.). 
 [They] demden him to binden faste 
 Vp-on an asse swijie un-wraste, 
 Andelong, nouht ouer-)>wert. 
 
 Havelok, 1. 2822. 
 [They decided to bind him fast upon a very 
 worthless ass, lengthwise, not across.] 
 The dore was all of athamant eterne, 
 Yclenched overthwart and endelong 
 With yren tough. 
 
 Chaucer, C. Taks, I. 1992. 
 Who from East to West will endlong seeke 
 Cannot two fairer Cities find this day. 
 
 Spenser, F. Queene, III. ix. 51, 
 
 To seeke her endlong both by sea and lond. 
 Id. III. X. 19. 
 And every thing in his degre 
 Endelong upon a boarde lie laide. 
 
 Gnwer, Conf. Amuntis, ii. 233 
 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 Ensoonsb, to hide or place one's self 
 in a retired position, old Pr. e-nsconser 
 (Blonde of Oxford), so spelt as if com- 
 pounded with en (Lat. in), stands for 
 the more usual old Fr. esconser. Norm. 
 Fr. escunser, derived from Lat. abscon- 
 sus, hidden away (see Atkinson, Vie de 
 8t. Auban, 1. 137, note, p. 74). 
 
 Eeeant, p. 112. Compare " Cheva- 
 lier en-ant," " Juif errant." 
 
 II . . . dresce mun aiere e mun chemin. 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 56. 
 
 [He dii-ects my journey and my path.] 
 
 Eeroe, so spelt as if borrowed di- 
 rectly from Lat. error, instead of me- 
 diately through Fr. erreur, old Fr. 
 erru/r ; the older and more correct 
 form is errom. Similarly ardor, horror, 
 mirror, rancor, splendor, stupor, terror, 
 would be better spelt ardour, Jwrrour, 
 mirrour, rancour, splendour, stupour, 
 terrour, so as to range with the analo- 
 gous words colour, favour, humour, 
 honour, vigour, &c. (See Hare in Plii- 
 lolog. Museum, i. 648; Haldeman, 
 Affixes, p. 204.) 
 
 Your hearts be full of sorrow, because 
 your heads are full of errour. — Andrewes, 
 Sermons, fol. p. 629. 
 
 This form of errour however is not one 
 which has ever gained much currency. — 
 J. C. Hare, Mission oj Comforter, p. 172. 
 
 Eveehills, p. 113. It might be 
 added to the illustrative words that 
 Hearne has the spelling exspect : — 
 
 Dr. Gibson . . . made a great entertain- 
 ment for them, exspecting something from 
 them.— Diary, Sept. 8, 1719. 
 
 Eyelet-hole is a corruption of 
 Fr. oeillet, "an oilet-hole." — Cotgrave 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Olyet, made yn a clothe for sperynge, Fi- 
 bularium. — Prompt. Purv. 
 
 Olyet, an ey let- hole. — Lonsdale Glossary. 
 
 P. 
 
 Faith, Mid. Eng. feitJi, is an assimi- 
 lation of the old Fr. feid, from Lat. 
 fidem, fidelity, to words like truth, 
 
 s s 
 
FARMER 
 
 ( 626 ) 
 
 FOLD 
 
 mirth, sloth, health, the suffix -th being 
 the common ending for abstract nouns 
 (Skeat, p. 790). 
 
 Farmer, p. 116. Compare Oxford- 
 shire fa/rm out, to clean out, " Farm 
 outth: 'en-US [=hen-hou8e] ."— E.D. S. 
 Orig. Olossmes, xxiv. So Isle of 
 Wight va/r-Ai out (Id. xxiii.). 
 
 Fayberrt, a Lancashire word for a 
 gooseberry, understood as if the herry 
 oi the fays or fairies (Nodal and Milner, 
 Glossa/ry, p. 126, E. D. Soc). It is 
 really for fea-herry, otherwise spelt 
 feap-herry, fape-ierry, fahe-lerry, which 
 are corruptions (by the comnaon change 
 of th to /) of theahe-herry, or thape- 
 herry, a name for the gooseberry in the 
 eastern counties. Perhaps the original 
 was thefe-lerry, the berry that grows 
 on the bramble or thorny bush, A. 
 Sax. thefe. See Prior, Pop. Names of 
 Tint. Plants. Compare Dayberrt, p. 
 93. 
 
 There's a hare under th' fayberry tree. — 
 Waugh, Old Cronies, p. 89. 
 
 Afore tb' next fay-berry time.' — Id, Ben an* 
 th' Bantam, p. 98. 
 
 Latine Vna spinelta . . . Italian Vtia spina 
 . . . Gooaeberie bush, aud Feaberrie Bush in 
 Cheshire, my natiue countrie. — Gerarde, Her- 
 bal, p. 1143. 
 
 Feud, p. 119. The derivation of 
 feud, a fief, from feudaUs, has since 
 been given up by Prof. Skeat. 
 
 Fieldfare, p. 120, i.e. " field-goer," 
 may perhaps owe its popular name to 
 the habit mentioned in the following : — 
 
 This bii'd [the field-fare] though it sits on 
 trees in the day-time, and procures the 
 greatest part of its food from white-thorn 
 hedges, yea, moreover, builds on very high 
 trees, as may he seen by the fauna suecica ; 
 yet always appears with us to roost on the 
 ground. . . . Why these birds, in the matter 
 of roosting, should differ from all their con- 
 geners, and from themselves also with respect 
 to their proceedings by day, is a fact for 
 which I am by no means able to account. — 
 G. White, Nat. Hist, of Selborne, Letter 27, 
 p. 64 (ed. 1853). 
 
 Flamingo. This bird seems to owe 
 its curiously formed name to a popular 
 mistake. In Provence it was called 
 fl'irrmiant (oi jlambant), the " flaming," 
 i.e. bright red bird. This was probably 
 confused with Fr. Flamwnd, a Fleming 
 or native of Flanders, and translated 
 into Spanish as flamenco, Portg. fla- 
 
 mengo, which words signify (1) a Flem- 
 ing, (2) the flamingo supposed to come 
 from Flanders ! (Skeat, p. 790). Cot- 
 grave gives its old Fr. name asflaman 
 or flmbant, and this is the word, no 
 doubt, that got confounded with jla- 
 mand, old Fr. flameng, Dut. vlamng, a, 
 Fleming. As the word stands, flamingo 
 means " the Flemish bird." 
 
 Flash, a sudden blaze, as of lightning, 
 is probably from Fr. fliche, an arrow 
 {whence fletcher, an arrow-maker), old 
 Fr. flique, akin to flahe, fUtch (orig. a 
 thin shoe), 0. Eng. flich, A. Sax. fUeoe 
 (Prof. Atkinson), the primitive arrow 
 being probably a mere sphnterof wood. 
 If this be correct, the word has been 
 assimilated to dash, splash, thrash, &c. 
 Prof. Atkinson quotes as illustrative : — 
 And ever and anone the rosy red 
 Flasht through her face, as it had been a 
 
 fiake 
 Of lightning through bright heven fulmined. 
 Spenser, F. Q. III. ii. 5. 
 
 Flushed, p. 124, for fleshed. The 
 following confirmatory passages I take 
 from Eichardson : — 
 
 Epimanondas . . . would not have his 
 countrymen ^esfeed with spoil by sea. — North, 
 Plutarch, p. 311 [also p. 354]. 
 
 The Asturians .... made more cruell 
 and eagre with ^he taste of blood that had so 
 fleshed them, ilew upon the inhabitants. — Hol- 
 land, Ammiunus, p. 346. 
 Him_^s/!ed with slaughter aud with conquest 
 
 crown'd 
 I met, and overturn'd him to the gi'ound. 
 Dryden, Ovid, Met. b. xiii. 
 
 Waterland and Middleton have 
 "flushed with victory." 
 
 Fodder, p. 124. Compare Cumber- 
 land fudderment, warm wrappings or 
 lining (Ferguson, Glossary, p. 49) ; and 
 the metaphor underlying prov. Eng. 
 helly-timber, food (Wright); Fr. "la 
 moule du gippon cotonner [to line 
 one's paunch] , to feed excessively." — 
 Cotgrave. The same twofold meaning 
 belongs to It. fodero, old Fr. fewrre, 
 foairre, (1) a sheath or lining, (2) straw, 
 fodder. 
 
 Fold, to shut up sheep within hur- 
 dles, has generally been regarded as 
 only another use of fold, to wrap up, 
 to lay close together, to enclose, shut 
 in (A. Sax./eaWcm). See Eichardson. 
 It is really to put into a fold, A. Sax. 
 
FOBOEHEAD 
 
 ( 627 ) 
 
 FULSOME 
 
 fold, a pen or enclosure, standing for 
 falod, probably =: a place " paled " in 
 (see Skeat, p. 790). 
 
 FoEOEHEAD, an old corruption of 
 fmtcet,{roToii old Fr.faulset {bovafaulser, 
 to falsify, weaken, penetrate, pierce). 
 
 Pindlo, a spigot, or as Vintners call it a 
 force-head. Also a tap for a ban-ell. Also a 
 conduit cockeor robinet. — Florio, New World 
 of Words, 1611. 
 
 PoEEiaN, p. 126. In the following 
 verrene is iorferrene, distant, far away. 
 
 fo );rie kinges of hejienesse, );et comen fram 
 verrem londesure louerd toseche. — Old Eng. 
 Miscellany, p. 27 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 FoKETN, p. 126. Compare " una 
 maisun foreine" {Vie de St. Auban, 
 1. 75), i.e. an owi-bouse. 
 
 FOTJNDEE, p. 127. 
 
 And therfore I must needs jndge it to be 
 no other thing but a plaine^bundenn^, which 
 word foundering is borrowed, as I take it, of 
 the French word Fundu, that is to say, molten. 
 For foundering is a melting or dissolution of 
 Immors, which the Italians cal Infusione. — 
 Topsell, Hist, of Fourefooted Beasts, p. 380. 
 
 Feame, p. 128. Lonsdale /rei/am, to 
 set about, attempt. 
 
 Now ill, not aye thus : once Phebus to lowre 
 With bow vnbent shall cesse, and frame to 
 harp. 
 Surrey, Tottel's Miscellany, 1557, p. 27 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 I pray that the learned will beare witb me 
 and to thinke the straungenesse thereof pro- 
 ceedes but of noueltie and disaquaintance 
 with our eares, which in processe of tyme, 
 and by custome will frame very well. — G. 
 Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, 1589, p. 169 
 (ed. Arber). 
 
 I remember I had preached vpon this 
 Epistle once afore King Henry the 8. but 
 now I coulde not frame with it, nor it liked 
 me not in no sauce. — Latimer , Sermons, p. 101. 
 
 Freshet, a stream of running water, 
 is opposed not (as soBaetimes under- 
 stood) to brackish or salt water, but to 
 that which is stagnant (as a pond) or 
 does not flow in a current (as the sea). 
 Thus Browne says that fish 
 Now love the freshet and then love the sea. 
 Pastorals, 1613, b. ii. s. 3. 
 
 It is from A. Sax. fersc (e.g. " ne fersc 
 ne mersc") foifa/r-isc, from /ar, to fare 
 or travel (Skeat), loel. ferskr, fresh, 
 0. H. Ger. frisg, Ger. frisch, the same 
 word as Icel. frishr, frisky, Swed. frisk. 
 
 So freshet is a little stream of fccHsJi, 
 travelhng or running water, which is 
 lively (Lat. vivus) and frisky, not 
 stagnant and motionless. 
 
 All fish, fi'om sea or shore. 
 Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin. 
 Milton, Par. Hegained, bk. ii. 1. 315. 
 
 The bream keeps head against the freshets. 
 Keats, Isabella, st. xxvii. 
 
 In the same way a person so far in- 
 toxicated as to be unpleasantly frisky 
 or "jolly" is said to he fresh. 
 
 Hence also 0. Fr ./nsjue (Eoquefort), 
 M. Fr. frais, fraiche. Norm Fr. frois, 
 It. fresco {alfresco, in the fresh air). 
 
 Sis bons quors tat frois est e nuveus. 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 1470. 
 [His good heart is wholly fresh and new.] 
 
 The fresshe was so felle of the furse grekes. 
 'Destruction of Troy, 1. 4730 (E.E.T.S.). 
 [The torrent (= onset) was so fell of the 
 fierce Greeks.] 
 
 1 durst not for shame go with my beads 
 amongst so many fresh gentlewomen as here 
 were at that time. — Paston Letters, 1452, i. 
 40 (ed. Kaight). 
 
 " You will ride, of course 7 " says Sir Wil- 
 ford to Frederick. 
 
 *' Oh, by all means; I shall go on the 
 Dutchman. Here he is, poor old fellow, 
 looking as fresh as paint.' — Miss Braddon, 
 Dead Men^s Shoes, ch. xxs.. 
 
 Feontee, p. 132. Compare Lan- 
 cashire tlminter, a three-year-old sheep, 
 {Glossary, 'El. D.S.), i.e. "three- winter." 
 So Lat. vitulus, a calf, Sansk. vafsa, 
 was originally a "yearling," from vatsa, 
 a year, Greek Iroc, whence also Lat. 
 vetiis, full of years {annosus). 
 
 Fulsome, p. 133. 
 
 I^ann were spacli spices * spended al a-boute, 
 fuisumii at \ieful ' to eche freke (jer-inne. 
 William of Paleme, 1. 4325. 
 
 The Oeste Hysf oriole of the Destruction 
 of Troy (1. 3068) describes Helen's neck 
 as 
 
 Nawjjeryu/som., ne fat, but fetis & round. 
 But in the following the word is evi- 
 dently associated with foul : — 
 
 Hard is it for the patient which is ill, 
 Fulsome or bitter potions to digest. 
 
 The Times' Whistle, 1616, p. 127 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 The fulsomeste freke [== man] that fourmede 
 was euere. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 1061. 
 
GALLO-SHOES ( 628 ) GOOSB-SEABE 
 
 Or. 
 
 Gallo-shoes, p. 136. A Parisian is 
 the speaker in the following : — 
 
 1 will put to shoar again, though I should 
 be constrain'd, even without my Galoshoes, 
 to land at Puddle-Dock. — Sir W. D'avenant, 
 Works, p. 352 (1673). 
 
 Their hose and shooes were called GalliccE, 
 at this instant tearmed Gahches, — Favine, 
 Theatre of Honour, 1623, p. 224. 
 
 Game, p. 137. Lancashire gam-leg, 
 a crooked or feeble leg; gammvy, crooked 
 or feeble (E. D. See. Glossa/ry, p. 139). 
 
 Genii, p. 140. A full account of the 
 Arabic Jinn or Ginn, plural of Jinnee or 
 Qinnee, who are believed to have been 
 created of fire, is given in Lane's Tliou- 
 sand and One Nights, vol. i. p. 26 seq. 
 
 Addison with Sir Roger at the play, . . . 
 is quite another man from Addison discours- 
 ing on the immortality of the soul, or stand- 
 ing with the Genius on the hill at JBagdad. — 
 Hat. Review, vol. 54, p. 81. 
 
 GiLLY-FLOWBE, p. 143. Compare 
 Isle of Wight gillafers, gillyflowers 
 (B. T>. S. Orig. Glossa/ries, xxiii.). 
 The gentyll gyllofer, the goodly columbyne. 
 Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, p. 97. 
 
 GilUver is stUl a form used in Lan- 
 cashire (E. D. Soc. Glossary, p. 143). 
 JilUver, a termagant, in the same dia- 
 lect (p. 168), looks like a corruption of 
 old Eng. jill (or gill) flirt, a wanton 
 woman. 
 
 Gingerly, p. 143. The original 
 meaning of young and tender comes 
 out well in the following : — 
 We use to call her at home, dame Coye, 
 A pretie ^ingerlie piece, God save her and 
 Saint Loye. 
 Jack Juggler, p. 9 (Roxburgh Club). 
 
 It is to be noted that ginger, soft, 
 tender, was formerly pronounced with 
 the second g hard. 
 
 But my Wings, 
 By voluntary Flutterin^s 
 Broke the main Fury of my Fall, 
 I think, I'd broke my Neck withal. 
 And yet was not the Squelch so ginger, 
 But that I sprain'd ray little Finger. 
 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, 
 p. 246. 
 
 Compare Isle of Wight " Zet the 
 trap as ginger as you can " (E. D. S. 
 Orig, Glossa/ries, xxiii.), i.e. ticklish, 
 with great nicety. 
 
 Glacis, p. 144. Compare Lonsdale 
 glad, smooth, easy (of a bolt, &o.), 
 gladden, to make smooth. 
 
 Gloky-hole, p. 145. In a dialogue 
 between two ravens, from the Weald 
 of Kent, when one informs the other of 
 a " mare dead," the reply to " Is she 
 fat ? " is " All glwre ; aU glure" (E. D. S. 
 Orig, Glossaries, Ser. C. p. 57). 
 
 Gloze, p. 145. The confusion be- 
 tween the two words gloss is well seen 
 in the following, where the meanings 
 of flattering comment and smoothness 
 of surface run into one another : — 
 This flaring mirror represents 
 
 No right proportion, view or feature : 
 Her very looks are compliments ; 
 They make thee fairer, goodlier, greater ; 
 The skilful gloss of her reflection 
 But paints the context of thy coarse com- 
 plexion. 
 
 Quarks, Emblems, bk. ii. 6. 
 
 That other sex have fine fresh golden caules 
 
 so sheen and glosing. — T. Drant, Sermons, 
 
 1599, K viij. [Difcdin, Lib. Companion, i. 80]. 
 
 He much more goodly glosse thereon doth 
 
 shed. 
 To hide his falsehood, than if it were true. 
 Spenser, F. Q. IV. v. 
 
 Good, p. 146, to manure. A curious 
 coincidence is Gael, mathaich, to ma- 
 nure land, orig. to ameliorate it, from 
 maith, good. 
 
 GooD-BYB, p. 147. Compare also : — 
 He is called Deus, d dando, of giving. And 
 in English we call God, quasi good, because 
 he is only and perfectly good of himself alone. 
 Mat. xix. 17, and the giver of all goodness, 
 and of all good gifts and blessings unto others, 
 James i. 17 . — H. Smith, God's Arrow against 
 Atheism, Sermons (1593), vol. ii. p. 370 
 (Nichol's ed.). 
 
 The old Saxon word God is identical with 
 good. God the Good One — personified good- 
 ness. There is in that derivation not a mere 
 play of words— there is a deep truth. None 
 loves God but he who loves good. — -F. W. 
 Robertson, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 81 (ed. 1864). 
 
 GOOSEBEERY, p. 149. 
 
 Vtm crispa is also called Grossularia, in 
 english a Groser bushe, a Gooseberry bush. — 
 W. Turner, Names of Herbes, 1548, p. 88 
 (E. D.S.). 
 
 GOOSE-SHARB, p. 150. 
 Aparine siue Philanthropos, siue Ompha- 
 cocarpos is called in english goosgrasse or 
 Goosehareth, in Duche Klebkraute, in frenche 
 Grateron. — W. Turner, Names of Herbes, 
 1548, p. 13 (E. D. Soc). 
 
GBAINS 
 
 ( 629 ) HABDSEBEW 
 
 Grains, p. 150. Lancashire grain, 
 the prong of a fork, "a three-grained 
 fork" (E. D. S. Glossary, p. 147). 
 
 Grass, Heart of, p. 151. Com- 
 pare : — 
 
 I send you these following prophetic Verses 
 of ^^'hitenall, which were made above twenty 
 Years ago to my knowledge, upon a Book 
 called Balaam's Ass, that consisted of some 
 Invectives against K. James and the Court in 
 Statu quo tunc. 
 Some Seven Years since Christ rid to Court, 
 
 And there he left his Ass, 
 The Com'tiers kick'd him out of Doors, 
 
 Because they had no Grass. [Margin] 
 
 Grac€M 
 Howell, Fam. Letters, bk. iii. 22. 
 
 Grease of amber, an old corruption 
 of ambergris. See Ambergrease, p. 7. 
 And set his beard, perfumde with greece of 
 
 amber, 
 Or kembe his civet lockes. 
 
 The Times' Whistle, 1616, p. 34, 1. 978 
 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Great, used as the designation of 
 several parishes where the church is 
 dedicated to 8t. Miohael, seems to he 
 the result of a curious popular mistake. 
 Michael, formerly pronounced MicMe, 
 as still in Michaelmas, was confounded 
 with miekle, old Eng. michel, muchel, 
 A. Sax. nvycel, great, large, an extended 
 form of much (hence the surname Mii- 
 chell), and for michle was substituted 
 the now more familiar word "great." 
 Thus Great Tew, Oxfordshire, dedi- 
 cated to St. Michael, is found descrihed 
 as " Qreat, or Mitchell's, Tew " [N. and 
 Q. 6th S. vi. 7). Compare the parish 
 names Much Hadham, Much Marcle, 
 Micheldean, Michel Troy, &c. Simi- 
 larly, there has been a confusion in the 
 German mind between Michael and 
 the old michel (miekle, large), which, 
 as a name, it has quite absorbed ( Yonge, 
 Christ. Names, i. 131). 
 
 Great, p. 152. 
 
 Philip kept at Pammenes house with whom 
 Epaminondas was very great. — North, Plu- 
 tarch, Life of Philip, p. 1127 (ed. 1612). 
 
 Mr. Luke . . : was greate with same thatt 
 kepte them cumepany. — Narratives of the Re- 
 formation, p. 171 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Grey-hound, p. 153. Lancashire 
 grewnt, a greyhound (E. D. Soc), " os 
 gaunt OS o grewnt " (Collier, 1750). 
 
 In N. Lincolnshire a greyhound is 
 stUl called a grew (E. D. Soc. Orig. 
 
 Olossaries, C. p. 117). In old EngUsh 
 grew is Greek, and grew-hund (Greek- 
 hound), a greyhound. Compare Lons- 
 dale gream-dog and grig {— Greek), a 
 greyhound. 
 
 The swift greiohund, hardy of assay . 
 
 Lancelot of the Laik, 1. 537. 
 Neuer grewhuwnde late glyde, ne gossehawke 
 latt flye. Morte Arthure, 1. 4001. 
 
 Grow-grain, p. 156. Perhaps Lan- 
 cashu-e grun-gron, homespun, native 
 (E. D. Soc), understood as " ground- 
 grown," is really the same word. 
 
 Half an eye, p. 159. Compare old 
 Eng. helven-del, a half part. 
 And if thu hulde a cler candle hi an appel 
 
 riSt, 
 Evene helven-cUl than appel heo wolde 3yve 
 hire list. 
 Poem, 13th cent. ( Wright, Pop. Treatises 
 on Science, p. 133). 
 
 Halt, in A. V. " How long halt ye 
 between two opiuions ?" — 1 Kings 
 xviii. 21, is frequently understood in 
 popular sermons and tracts as meaning 
 to stand still, to be at a stay, as if to 
 make a halt or pause, as a soldier does 
 at the word of command, halt! formerly 
 alt ! It. alto ! Ger. halt ! i.e. hold. It 
 really means to be halt or lame (so 
 Gen. xxxii. 31), A. Sax. healtian, to 
 limp or go lamely ; Vulg. claudicatis, 
 LXX. x^Xavarf. 
 
 Haep back, to return to anything 
 already past and over, Mr. Wedgwood 
 writes to me, is a corruption of to haap 
 hach (whence also he thinks to ha/rk 
 hack), haap! being the waggoner's cry 
 to back his horses (? for hold up !). 
 
 What is the use of tormenting yourself by 
 constantly harping back to old days. — Ditm- 
 bleton Common, i. 165 (1867). 
 
 Hardshrew, p. 163. 
 
 It resisteth the poison inflicted by the sting 
 of the hardishrow, the sea dragon and scor- 
 pions. — Holland, Pliny's Nat. Hist. vol. ii. 
 p. 277. 
 
 In the following the name is further 
 disguised by being resolved into two 
 words : — 
 
 In Italy the hardy shrews are venomous in 
 their biting.— /d. vol. i. p. 23i. 
 
EATGE-HOBN ( 630 ) EIGKATHBIFT 
 
 Hatch-horn, a Lancashire corrup- 
 tion of achern or acorn, sometimes in 
 the same dialect called an ahran 
 (E. D. Soc. Glossary); "reet as a 
 hatch-horn ; " Lonsdale aaren. See 
 AcoEN, p. 2, 
 
 Hattee, p. 164. Compare Lanca- 
 shire haiely, bad-tempered, " Dunno be 
 so hately " (E. D. Soc. Glossary, p. 154). 
 Also hotterM-mad, in a great passion; 
 " Hoo wm- fayr hotterin' wi' vexashun " 
 [Id. p. 162). 
 
 Hauf-kock't, p. 165. Compare oaf- 
 roched, foolish, mentally weak from 
 the cradle ( WMiby Glossary) ; Lons- 
 dale aup, a childishj'silly person (B. B. 
 Peacock), also hoafen, a half-witted 
 person, a fool (Id.), as if akin to Lons- 
 dale hoaf z:. half. Half-hahed, half- 
 silly, in the latter dialect, is perhaps 
 similarly a corruption of liaicbuck, a 
 silly clown (otherwise hawhaw, 'WTcight), 
 as if the meaning were " raw," and so 
 inexperienced. Compare Howball, p. 
 181. 
 
 Hawker, p. 185. Compare : — 
 A merchant shall hardly keep himself from 
 doing wrong; and an huckster shall not be 
 freed from sin. — A. V. licclus. xxvi. 29. 
 
 Haws, the popular name for the 
 berries or fruit of the white-thom ( Gra- 
 tcegus Oxyacantha), has originated in a 
 misunderstanding of the name of the 
 tree hatv-iJwrn, i.e. A. Sax. haga-]>orn, 
 Icel. hag-iiorn, the " hedge-thorn," as 
 if it were the thorn that bears haws, 
 from analogy to cherry-tree, pear-tree, 
 currant-hush, &c. The proper mean- 
 ings therefore of haw (A. Sax. haga, 
 Icel. hagi) is hedge. 
 
 Compare Lancashire hague, or haig, 
 a haw, also the hawthorn ; " hague- 
 blossom"; hagherry, the bird cherry 
 (E. D. Soc. Glossary, p. 151). 
 
 Heart, p. 166. Compare roted, 
 learnt by heart. 
 Nor by the matter which your heart prompts 
 
 But with such words that are but roted in 
 Your tongue. Coriolanus, iii. 2. 
 
 They say • has no heart ; I deny it ; 
 
 He has a heart, and gets his speeches fit/ it. 
 Old Epigram. 
 
 Heart at grass, p. 167. Mr. Wedg- 
 wood writes to me that he thinks the 
 phrase "heart of gi-ace" stands for 
 
 " hart of grease " (graisse) ; " a good 
 hart " (i.e. a fat one, a hart of grease) 
 being by a punning parody substituted 
 for " a good heart " in the phrase " to 
 take a good heart." 
 
 Hedge-hog. It has been conjectured 
 with much probabiHty that the original 
 form of this word must have been edge- 
 hog; the animal is certainly more 
 likely to have had its name from A. Sax. 
 ecg, a sharp point, than from hege, a 
 hedge. Its names in other languages 
 have reference, almost universally, to 
 its characteristic of sharp spines, e.g. 
 Gk. ahanthochoiros, "thorn-pig," Ital. 
 porcospino, Ger. stachelschwein, Dan. 
 pindsvin, " pin-pig." 
 
 The hedge-hog is called pricky- 
 oishun in the Holdemeas dialect, 
 equivalent to the "sharpe urchons " 
 of the Eomaunt of the Eose, 1. 3135 ; 
 and for the instability of the aspirate 
 we may compare winther-edge, i.e. 
 " winter-hedge," a quaint term in the 
 same dialect for a kitchen clothes- 
 horse for drying linen before the iire. 
 The Gipsy name for the animal is 
 hofchy witchy, hotseha witscha. Lilly 
 has the curious spelling liedioche. 
 
 The form edge-hog, ecg-hog, seems to 
 be implied as the original one by the 
 cognate and synonymous words, A. Sax. 
 igil, old Ger. igil, Dut. eegel, Soand. 
 igull, Swed. igel-kott, all. probably im- 
 porting its prickly sharpness ; while 
 on the other hand there seems to be no 
 name for the animal compounded with 
 hedge, A. Sax. hege, in old English. 
 Compare also Lat. echinus, Greek echi- 
 nos, from root ac, to be sharp. 
 
 Many other words have acquired an 
 initial aspirate. See Hostage, p. 179. 
 
 Height, p. 168, for highth, from 
 false analogy to sight, might, &c. So 
 sleight is for sleithe (Langland) or 
 sleighth (= sly-th, slyness), and theft 
 for thefth, A. Sax. )iiefSe. 
 
 Henchman, p. 169. Add : — 
 
 Tak heede to this /lonsemanc,' that he no home 
 blawe. Morte Arthure, 1. ^662. 
 
 Hessians, p. 170. 
 
 How he has blistered "Thaddeus of War- 
 saw " with his tears, and drawn him in his 
 Polish cap, and tights, and Hessians I — 
 Thackeraii, The Newcomes, ch. xi. p. 118. 
 
 HiCKATHEiFT, the name of a legen- 
 
EIGHBELIA 
 
 ( 631 ) 
 
 IGE-BONE 
 
 dary hero who, with an axle-tree 
 for his sword and a cart-wheel for his 
 buckler is said to have killed a giant, 
 and to have done great service for the 
 common people in the fenny part of 
 England (see Wheeler, Noted Names of 
 Fiotion), is said to be a corruption of an 
 older form B«cop/jn'a; (Hearne, Qlossa/ry 
 to Uohert of Oloucester, p. 640). 
 
 HiGHBELiA, an American name for a 
 flower of a large size, but of the same 
 species as the Lobelia, understood as 
 LowleKa (S. De Vere, English of the 
 New World), to which word it is a 
 fanciful antithesis. 
 
 HoBTHEusH, p. 173. The Lancashire 
 form is Iwhthurst, an ungainly dunce, 
 formerly a wood goblin (Tim BoVbin, 
 1750), which has been explained as 
 flbfc o' tV hurst, or Hob of the wood 
 (E. D. Soc. Glossary, p. 160). 
 
 HOIDEN, p. 174. 
 With hotting gambols his owne bones to 
 
 breake 
 To make his Mistris merry. 
 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 324. 
 
 HoLLT-HOCK, p. 175. As illustrating 
 the form holy hoch, it may he noted 
 that by the lake of Gennesareth, 
 
 Pink oleanders, and a rose-coloured species 
 of hoUiihock, in great profusion, wait upon 
 every approach to a rill or spring. — Smith, 
 Bible Diet. vol. i. p. 1131. 
 
 Holy show, a colloquial expression 
 used in Ireland, and probably else- 
 where ; e.g. a person extravagantly or 
 absurdly dressed is said to be " a holy 
 show," that is a spectacle, exhibition, 
 or"feight." This is evidently a cor- 
 ruption of ho-show, the form used in 
 the Isle of Wight, which is explained 
 as a whole show, everything exposed to 
 sight (E. D. Soc. Orig. Glossaries, xxiii. 
 p. 16). 
 
 Honeymoon, p. 175. 
 
 Suppose you kill ze Fazer, .... your 
 Chimene will have a pretty moon of hoiieu. — ■ 
 Thackeray, The Newcomes, eh. xxix. p. 289. 
 
 HoETYAED, p. 179. With orchard 
 for wortyard, compare Oxfordshire ood 
 for wood, oond for wound, oosted for 
 worsted (Orig. Glossaries, E. D. Soc. 0. 
 p. 70), oolf for wolf, oonder for ivonder 
 (Id. p. 92), and old Eng. ood (Quarles) 
 for looad ; " wad & not Ode as some 
 corrupters of the Englishe tonge do 
 
 nikename it."— W. Turner, Nimies of 
 Rerhes, 1548, p. 40 (E. D. S.). Also 
 perhaps io-k for loirh; cf. prov. Eng. 
 werk, warh, work, to pain or ache. 
 
 HowDiE, p. 181. Other words de- 
 rived from interrogations are Ques-a-ga 
 (the Provencal form of Qu' est que cela?), 
 the name given to the monstrous coif- 
 fure worn in the Court of Marie 
 Antoinette (Lady Jackson, Gowt of 
 Louis XVI.) ; Er. lustacru, said to be 
 from I'eusses-tu-cru ? (Littrd). 
 
 Humble-bee, p. 182. Compare Lan- 
 cashire hummahee ; "As thick as wasps 
 in a hummabee-neest." — Collier, Works, 
 1750, p. 43 (E. D. Soc). 
 
 It is better to saye it sententiously one 
 time, then to runne it ouer an hundrpth 
 tymes with humbting and mumbling. — Lati- 
 mer, Sermons, p. 130 verso. 
 
 Humble-pie, p. 183. 
 
 You drank too much wine last night,and dis- 
 graced yourself, sir. . . . You must get up 
 and eat humble pie this morning, my boy. — 
 Thackeraii, The Newcomes, ch. xiv. p. 137. 
 
 HUON-CKY, p. 184. 
 
 Though my sick Joynts, cannot accompany 
 Thy Kue-on-cry. 
 
 Sir W. D'avenant, Works, 1673, p. 229. 
 
 HuEEiCANE, p. 184. A connexion 
 between hurry and hu/rricane seems to 
 be suggested by the following : — 
 Hollow heaven and the hurricane 
 And hmry of the heavy rain. 
 Hurried clouds in the hollow heaven 
 And a heavy rain hard-driven. 
 The heavy rain it hurries amain 
 The heaven and the hun'icane. 
 
 D. G. Rossetii, Ballads and Sonnets. 
 
 HussiF, p. 185. 
 
 Hur huss^ war eawt, un bur neeld thredud 
 e quick toime. — Scholes, Jaunt to See the 
 Queen, p. 47 (Lancashire dialect). 
 
 Hyblbanne, an old pedantic word in 
 French for a bee, i.e. a frequenter of 
 Hybla, a mount famous for its honey, 
 is made the subject of a curious folk- 
 etymology by Cotgrave, " so tearmed 
 because she feeds much on the dwarfe 
 Eldern," hyeble. 
 
 Ice-bone, p. 185. Lonsdale ice-bone, 
 the aitch bone of beef, Dut. is or isch- 
 he.n, the haunch bone [not in Sewel] , 
 
IGE-SHAGELE ( 632 ) 
 
 JERUSALEM 
 
 Dan. iis-heen, share bone (E. B. Pea- 
 cook), words which seem to be akin to 
 Greek ischion, the ham, properly the 
 thigh socket, from "ischo, to hold. 
 
 Ice-shackle, p. 185. As bearing on 
 the identity of ice, A. Sax. is, and worn, 
 A. Sax. isen, which seems an extended 
 form of IS, (Ij the hard cold metal 
 (ferrum), (2) the hard cold formation 
 on frozen water (glacies), I find that 
 H. Coleridge [Olossa/rial Index) quotes 
 from Kyng Alysaunder, 1. 5149, yse =: 
 iron. Monier "Williams equates the 
 word iron with Sansk. ayas, iron, 
 metal, Lat. cbs, Goth, ais, old Ger. er 
 {Sansh-it Did.). An old Eng. form of 
 iron is ire. 
 
 Thar come a slab of ire that glowing a-fure 
 were. 
 
 Wright, Pop. Treatises on Science, p. 135. 
 
 Perhaps old Eng. iren, A. Sax. iren, 
 was originally an adj. form meaning 
 "made of ire" (Lat. ferreus). Com- 
 pare Aspen above. 
 
 Compare the following : — 
 
 In Russia, Scandinavia, sub-Arctic Asia, 
 Canada, the Fur Countries of North America, 
 and the Western United States the earth is 
 for five months at a time bound in frost. 
 The rivers are as if roofed with iron ; all 
 Nature is asleep, and nearly all work comes 
 temporarily to a close. — The Standard, April 
 16, 1881. 
 
 Every icy crag 
 Tinkled like iron. 
 
 Word.sworth. 
 
 Ice-shackle for ioe-iclcle. Compare 
 Lancashire iccle, an icicle, " os cowd os 
 iccles " (Collier, 1750) ; "stiff us iccles " 
 (Scholes) ; " Be she firm, or be she 
 icicle" (Cotton). — E. D. Soe. Lane. 
 Glossary, p. 165. 
 
 Idle-headed, p. 186. Lily, in the 
 Dedication of his Euphues, says — 
 
 As good it is to be an addle egge as an idle 
 bird. 
 
 The superstitious idle-headed eld 
 Received and did deliver to our age 
 This tale of Heme the hunter for a truth. 
 Shakespeare, Merry Wives oj Windsor, 
 iv."3, 38. 
 
 Implement, p. 188. Latimer uses 
 employ where we would now say imply. 
 
 Tlipre be other thinges as euill as this, 
 which are not spoken of scripture expressely, 
 but they are employed in scripture, as well as 
 though they were there expressely spoken of. 
 — Sermons, p. 107 verso. 
 
 Invidia, " envy," a poptdar Italian 
 name for the endive (Plorio), is a cor- 
 ruption of the proper word indivia. In 
 consequence of its name the plant is 
 used as a charm against the evU eye, 
 invidia (De Gubernatis, MytMlogie Aes 
 Plantes, i. 127). 
 
 I WIS, p. 191. 
 
 Jjiself )30U wite \>i wa, i-wis. 
 Cursor Mundi, 1. 876 (Cotton MS.). 
 [Thou mayest blame thyself for thy woe, 
 assuredly.] 
 
 This line appears iu the Fairfax 
 MS.: — 
 
 Jjiself may wite {?i wa J. wys. 
 In the Trinity MS. :— 
 
 ):i seluen is to wite / wis. 
 
 J. 
 
 James and Maky, the name of a 
 shoal at the confluence of the Hooghly 
 with two other rivers, is said to be a 
 corruption of the two Bengali words 
 Jal Ma/ri, the " deadly water " (East- 
 wick, Handbooh for Bengal), but this 
 is disputed {Sat. Review, vol. 54, p. 22). 
 
 I observe Prof. 
 ',ix, p. 793, has 
 
 Jaunty, p. 193. 
 Skeat, in his 
 
 come round to the same view of this 
 word as I have taken. He quotes 
 appositely : — 
 
 Thin jantee sleightness to the French we owe. 
 T. Sliadwell, Timon, p. 71 (1688). 
 
 It is from Fr. genfil. Compare : — 
 Two aged Crocheteurs, heavie loaden with 
 billets, who were so equally concern'd in tlie 
 punctiliosof Salutation, and of giving the way, 
 that with the length of Ceremony (Monsieur 
 cest a vous, &c.) they both sunk under their 
 burdens, and so dy d, dividing the eternal 
 honour of Genty Education. — Sir W. D^ave- 
 nant, Works, 1673, p. 358. 
 
 Jerusalem artichoke, p. 194. Com- 
 pare Sp. girasol. 
 
 Tras t(, 
 Que eres el fol, de quien fui, 
 
 Girasol ; vida no espero 
 Ausente tu rosicler. 
 Calderon, El Mayor Encanto Amor. 
 [After thee, 
 Sun, whose sun-flower I must be : — 
 Till thy sweet light from above 
 Dawns on me no life 1 know. 
 
 MacCarthy.] 
 
JOYLY 
 
 ( 633 ) 
 
 LAPWING 
 
 JoYLT, p. 197, for Jolly. 
 Why loue we longer dayes on earth to craue, 
 Where cark, and care, and all calamitie. 
 Where nought we fynde, but bitter iotiUtie. 
 S. Gossott, Speculum Humanum, i576. 
 
 In this toune was first invented thejoylitee 
 of my nsti-elsie and syngynge merrie songes. 
 —UdalL 
 
 JoDGB, teing derived directly from 
 Fi.juge, has no right to the d, which 
 has been inserted in order to bring the 
 word into visible connexion with Lat. 
 judex, "judicature," &c. 
 
 JuNETiN, p. 199. Porta mentions 
 that the apple called in Itahan Melo de 
 San Oiovanni got its name from ripen- 
 ing about the feast of St. John (Skeat, 
 793). 
 
 K. 
 
 Kangaroo, sometimes used popularly 
 for a canker or gangrene. 
 
 A woman once described her hus- 
 band, who was suffering from a gan- 
 grene, as having " a Icangaroo toe " 
 (N. and Q. 6th Ser. v. 496). 
 
 Kenebowe, p. 201. The true origin 
 of this old word (Mod. Eng. a-himho) 
 seems to be Icel. heng-hoginn {zi: kink- 
 bowen), i.e. bowed or bent (hoginn) into 
 a crook or kink {hengr), as the arms are 
 when the elbows stick out, and the 
 hands are placed on the hips (see Skeat, 
 p. 776). 
 
 Kenspeckle (p. 201), in the Lanca- 
 shire dialect easy to recognize, also 
 henspak, " He's a kenspeckle mak of a 
 face," has been identified with Icel. 
 henni-speki, the factalty of recognition 
 (B.D. S. Glossa/ry,p. 173). 
 
 Keebstone, p. 201. The passage 
 from Howell is, I find, taken bodily 
 from Stow, 8urvay, 1603 (p. 72, ed. 
 Thoms). 
 
 Kettle of Pish, p. 201. 
 
 The mackerel kettle consists of a number of 
 poles thrust into the sand in a cuxle, the net 
 drawn round and fastened to them, and en- 
 closing a large space. — The Standardj Aug. 
 26,1881. 
 
 So the Isle of Wight expression kettle 
 of fish is explained as a corruption of 
 kiddel, a dam or open weir in a river to 
 catch fish (E. D. S. Orig. Glossaries, 
 xxiii. 18). 
 
 Kettle-pins, an old word for nine- 
 pins in Skelton's Don Quixote (Wright), 
 is a corrupt form of skittle-pins or skittles 
 (old Eng. scJiytle, a projectile or shutt-le 
 = shot-le), which by a false derivation 
 was supposed to be from Greek aicvTdXq, 
 a stick, " When shall our kittle-pins 
 return again into the Grecian shyttals ? " 
 —Sadler, 1649 [in Skeat] , and some- 
 times, apparently, was identified with 
 Lat. sagitella, a little arrow or missile, 
 which word glosses schytle in the 
 Prompt. Pa/rvulorum. 
 
 Kickshaw, p. 203. This word, no 
 doubt from an imagined connexion 
 with pshaw ! was sometimes used for 
 anything contemptible. Compare : — 
 
 Yew that are here may think he had power, 
 but they made a very kickshaw of him in 
 London. — Ludlow's Memoirs, 1697, p. 491. 
 
 Labobinth, p. 205. The word Laby- 
 rinth has been identified with Egyptian 
 lape-ro-hunt, "the temple at the flood- 
 gate of the canal " (Brugsch, Egypt 
 under the Pharaohs, i. 170), or "temple 
 at the mouth of the Mcsris " [Academy, 
 No. 29, p. 385). Others have deduced 
 it from Ra-mares {Quarterly Review, 
 No. 155, p. 167), and from Labaris, or 
 Lama,ris, its supposed builder (Trevor, 
 Ancient Egypt, pp. 265, 77). 
 
 This lusty Gallant beeing thus insnared in 
 the inextricable laborinth of her beauteous 
 Physnomy. — Topsell, Historic of Serpents, 
 1608, p. 99. 
 
 Lamb, p. 205. The word Memm, a 
 lam or blow, occurs in the compound 
 inwid-hlemmas, wicked blows, in Csed- 
 mon. The Holy Rood, 1. 93 (see Prof. 
 G. Stephens, The Ruthwell Cross, 
 p. 39). 
 
 Lampee eel, p. 206. 
 
 Some odd palace-fcmpreefe that engender 
 with snakes, and are full of eyes on both 
 sides. — Webster, The Malcontent, i. 1. 
 
 Lantoen, p. 208 ; Lanteener, p. 485. 
 Compare Lonsdale lointer, to lag or 
 loiter, " to make lointerpins," to idle 
 away time. 
 
 Lapwing, p. 208. 
 
 A lappewinke made he was 
 
 And thus he hoppeth on the gras. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amantis, ii. 329 (ed. Pauli). 
 
LAST 
 
 ( 634 ) 
 
 LIKE 
 
 Last, in tHe idiom at last, eventually, 
 seems naturally to mean "at the latest 
 moment," and is so universally under- 
 stood, as if last stood for old Eng. 
 la,tst, latost, superlative of We; like Lat. 
 postremo, ad postremum (so. tempus). 
 Compare : — • 
 
 God shall overcome at the last. — A. V. 
 Gen. xlix. 19. 
 
 At the last it bitetb like a serpent. — A. V . 
 Prov. xxiii. 32. 
 
 At last, if promiae last, 
 I got a promise of this fair one here. 
 
 Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, iii. 2, 208. 
 
 However, our two best A. Saxon 
 scholars, Mr. Skeat and Mr. Sweet, are 
 agreed that the phrase has nothing to 
 do with last = latest, but stands for 
 A. Sax. on last or on Zas<5 of the same 
 meaning, where last is a foot-print, a 
 track {the same word as the shoe- 
 maker's last, Gothic laisfs). See Ett- 
 muller, p. 189 ; Skeat, p. 794. 
 
 On oSre wisan sint to monianne ... 8a 
 Jie longe ser ymb-SeahtigeaS, & hit Sonne on 
 last $urhteo<5. — Gregory's Pastoral Care, 
 p. 20, 1. 10 (ed. Sweet), also p. 474. 
 
 [In other wise are to be admonished those 
 that meditate it long before and then at last 
 carry it out.] 
 
 Perhaps on last here means " on the 
 track," in continuation, or succession, 
 continually, consequently. Compare 
 Lat. ex vestigia, forthwith, instantly. 
 The later meaning would then result 
 from a confusion with last =: latest. 
 Pollux with his pupull [= people] pursu on 
 the Uiste. 
 
 Destruction of Troy, 1. 1150. 
 
 Layer, a stratum of earth, &o., laid 
 or spread out, a shoot laid down from 
 the parent plant, so spelt as if from lay 
 (A. Sax. lecgan), is a corrupt form of 
 lair, A. Sax. leger, a couch or bed, from 
 licgan, to he down. Ledger (a lier) is 
 substantially the same word ; see 
 Leaguer, p. 211 (Skeat, 794). 
 
 Laylook, p. 210, is also an Oxford- 
 shire form of lilac (B. D. S. Orig. Glos- 
 saries, Ser. C. p. 70). 
 
 Laystall, p. 209. 
 
 He founded it in a part of the ofl before- 
 named morish ground, which was therefore 
 a common laystall of all filth that was to be 
 voided out of the city. — Stow, Survay, 1603, 
 p. 140 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Leather, p. 211. Compare Isle of 
 Wight letherun, chastisement, lethur, to 
 
 beat. " If thee dosn't mind what thee 
 beest adwine [a-doing] thee'l ghit 
 lethm-'d" (E. D. S. Orig. Glossaries, 
 xxiii.). Lonsdale leather, to make 
 great speed, e.g. of horses, " They com 
 leatherin on " (R. B. Peacock). 
 
 Lebwan, p. 578. 
 
 The higher portion (of the raised floor) is 
 called leewdn (a corruption of el-eewdn). — 
 Lane, Thousand and One Nights, i. 192. 
 
 The 'Efreet .... came towards us upon 
 the leewdn. — Id, i. 157. 
 
 Leisure, p. 212, and pleasv/re, ought 
 by analogy to be leiser or leiseer (0. Eng. 
 leys&re), and pleaseer, to range with 
 domineer, engineer. La Chanson de 
 Roland says of Charlemagne — 
 Sa custurae est qu'il parolet a leisir. 
 
 Lenges alle at laysere [He remains all at lei- 
 sure]. Morte Arthnre,\. ^ijO. 
 If that 1 hadde leyser for to seye. 
 
 Chaucer, Knightes Tale, 1. 330. 
 
 Lift, p. 216. As an instance of the 
 confusion of this word with lift, to 
 raise, The Freeman's Jowrnal, Dublin, 
 July 11, 1882, gives an account of a 
 trial for " Cattle-raj'smjr," when a per- 
 son was charged with stealing three 
 cows and a heifer (N. and Q, 6th S. 
 vi. 105). 
 
 Like, p. 216. 
 
 If it bee true that likenesse is a "I'eat cause 
 of liking .... the wortblesse Reader can 
 neuer worthyly esteeme of so worthy a 
 writing. — Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, 1629, H. S. 
 To tlie Reader. 
 
 With this apparent connexion com- 
 pare seemly and beseem, A. Sax. sh>ian, 
 to make like, satisfy, concihate, Icel. 
 sama, to beseem, Q-oth. samyom, to 
 please, " to be the same " (Icel. samr), 
 to be hke, to fit or suit. So seemly =: 
 " same-hke " (Skeat). 
 
 Likenesse glues love : and if that thou so doe. 
 To make us likeani love, must I change tool 
 Donne, Poems, 1635, p. 75. 
 
 As he did thank God for sending him a fit 
 AVife; so the unmarried should pray to God 
 to send him a fit Wife: for if they be not /i)(e, 
 they will not like. — H. Smith, Sermons, 1657, 
 p. 19. 
 
 Wordsworth correctly defined this 
 word as appropriate to preferences of 
 the palate when he censured a child 
 for saying it " loved " a roasted fowl : — 
 
LILLY LOW 
 
 ( 635 ) MANE BBEID 
 
 Say not you love the delicate treat. 
 But like it, enjoy it, and tliankf'ully eat. 
 Loving and Liking. 
 
 Lilly low, a north country word 
 for the flame of a candle, as in the nur- 
 sery riddle — 
 
 LiUti loll-, mill low, set up on an end. 
 HiilUu'ell, Nurserii Rhymes, p. 240 — 
 
 is merely a naturalized form of Dan. 
 lille hte, " little flame." 
 
 Live, p. 219. 
 What man on live can use suche governaunce 
 To attayne the favoure withouten varyaunce 
 Of every persone. 
 
 Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, p. 85 
 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Lo-WHSOME, strange as it appears, has 
 probably no real connexion with loath, 
 to hate or feel disgust at (A. Sax. la^ian), 
 loath, reluctant (A. Sax. Id ), old Eng. 
 loathly (A. Sax. Idi-Uc), but is an as- 
 similation to those more familiar words 
 of old Eng. wlatsum (Chaucer), from 
 old Eng. wlate, disgust, A. Sax. ivlceta 
 (Ettmiiller, 148). Compare luhe 
 (-warm), O. Eng. wlak, A. Sax. wIcbc. 
 
 The Prompt. Parvulorum gives loth- 
 sum as identical with lothly (p. 314) ; 
 see Skeat, p. 795. 
 
 Thumist mid wlate the este bugge.. 
 Owl and Nightingale, 1. 1504. 
 [Thou mightest with disgust the food buy.] 
 Lobster (1), p. 221. For A. Sax. 
 loppestre nz locwsta, compare A. Sax. 
 lopust =: lociista (Skeat, 795). 
 
 Lollard, an old nickname for a fol- 
 lower of Wycliffe, from old Dutch lol- 
 laerd, a mumbler (of prayers), was 
 sometimes confused with old Eng. 
 toiler, one who lounges or lolls about, 
 an idle vagabond, e.g. — 
 Now kyndeliche, by crist • bejj suche callyd 
 
 lollerea. 
 As by englisch of oure eldres * of olde menne 
 
 techynge. 
 He that faZ/efi is lame • oJ>er his leg out of 
 ioynte. 
 
 Vision of P. Plowmjn, C. x. 190. 
 I smelle a loller in the wynd, quod he. 
 Chaucer, Prolog, to Shipman's Tate, 1. 1173. 
 
 Sometimes it was confused with Lat. 
 lolia (occasionally spelt lolUa), cockle, 
 tares, as if the new religionists were the 
 tares among the wheat of the Church. 
 LolUirdi sunt zizania, 
 Spinae, uepres, ac loLlia, 
 Quae uastant hortum uinese. 
 
 Political Poems, i. 232. 
 
 Similarly Gower speaks of hllarcKe — 
 Which now is come for to dwelle. 
 Two sowe cockel with the corne. 
 
 Conf. Amantis, ii. 190 (ed. Pauli). 
 
 And Chaucer of a loller — 
 
 He wolde sowen som diificultee 
 Or spriugen cokkel in our clene corn. 
 Prolog, to Shipman's Tale, 1. 1183. 
 
 See Prof. Skeat's note in loco, from 
 
 which I draw the above. 
 
 Longoyster, p.222. The plant Zocms* 
 is also called langusta in Low Latin 
 (De Gubernatis, Mxjth. des Plantes, i. 
 200). 
 
 Lord, p. 223. Compare Low Lat. 
 lurdtis, which is glossed lemp-hali 
 (limping lame) in Wright's Voodmla- 
 ries, ii. 113. 
 
 LovAGE, p. 224. 
 
 Leuisticum is called in englishe Louage in 
 duche Lubstocke or Lieb stokel, in french 
 Liueshe. — W. Turner, Names of Herbes,lbH, 
 p. 86(E. D. S.). 
 
 Lover, p. 225, a louver or Iwffer, is 
 sometimes corrupted to glover, the 
 opening at the top of a pigeon-cote 
 through which the birds enter (J. G. 
 Wood, Waterfon's Wanderings, p. 10, 
 pop. ed.). Loves, the racks on which 
 Yarmouth bloaters are suspended in the 
 smokehouse {Harper's Magazine, June, 
 1882), is the same word. 
 
 Lower, p. 225. A connexion with 
 lower, to let down or sink, might seem 
 to be implied in the following : — 
 And as the lowring Wether lookes downe. 
 So semest thou like Good Fryday to frowne. 
 Spenser, Shepheards Calender, Feb. 
 
 Lute, p. 580, the Arab el-'ood, the 
 ordinary instrument used at Egyptian 
 entertainments (Lane, Thouscmd and 
 One Nights, i. 204), 'ood signifying 
 wood, esp. aloes-wood, also a lute {Id. 
 ii. 287). 
 
 M. 
 
 Mane Brbid, or breid of mane, or 
 paynemayne, old Eng. words for the 
 finest and whitest kind of bread (per- 
 haps mistaken sometimes for pain 
 magne), is a corruption of old Eng. de- 
 meine or demesne bread, pain-demmjn, 
 derived from Lat. panis Bominicus, 
 " bread of our Lord," i.e. fine simnel 
 
MANY 
 
 ( 636 ) 
 
 MIBBLTIMUS 
 
 bread impressed with the figure of the 
 Saviour, as was once the custom (see 
 Skeat, note on Chaucer, Sir TJiopas, 
 1. 1915). Apparently pam-ciemai/ra was 
 misunderstood as pain-de-main, bread 
 of mane, or mane hread. 
 
 Many, p. 230. Compare :^ 
 Atant of sa mesnee est li princes pass^. 
 Vie de St. Aubaii, 1. 968. 
 [Thereupon the prince has passed with his 
 troop.] 
 
 La vostre maimee. 
 
 Id. 1. 434. 
 Hyme tboght that it his worschip wold de- 
 grade 
 If he hyme self in proper persone raide 
 Enarmyt ayane so Jew menye. 
 
 Lancelot of the Laik, 1. 751. 
 The Cane [ ^ Khan] rood with a fewe 
 Mei/nee. — MauudevUe, Vomge and Travaile, 
 p. m (ed. Halliwell). 
 The caitiff gnof sed to his crue, 
 My menei/ is many, my incomes but few. 
 Comment upon the Milter's Tale, &c. 1665, p. 8 
 [see Todd's Illustrations to Chaucer, p. 260]. 
 
 Mabe, Night-maee, p. 231. The 
 Greek hobgoblin Empusa was believed 
 to come in the shape of an ass, whence 
 her epithet OnoslceUs, " ass-legged " 
 (see Gv/riosities of Medical Experience, 
 p. 264) . This may have contributed to 
 the popular mistake about the incubus. 
 The Manx laayr-oie, the night-mare, is 
 literally "the mare (laayr) of the night 
 (oie)." Compare : — 
 
 Some the night-mnre hath prest 
 
 With that weight on their breat, . . . 
 We can take off her saddle, 
 And turn out the night-mare to grasse. 
 Lluellin, Poems, p. 36, 1679 [Brand, 
 Pop. Antiq. iii. 282]. 
 
 Mashed sugar, in Oxfordshire 
 (E. D. Soc. Orig. Glossaries, C. p. 90), 
 seems to be a corruption of " moist 
 sugar," which is its meaning. 
 
 Mass, the Eoman celebration of the 
 Eucharist, seems to be an arbitrary 
 assimilation of old Eng. messe (Icel., 
 Swed., 0. H. Ger. messa, Dan., Ger. 
 ■)nesse), from Lat. missa, to the famiUar 
 word mass, Lat. massa, a lump (of 
 dough, &o.), from Greek maza, a cake 
 (with perhaps some allusion to the 
 sacrificial wafer). Or perhaps a con- 
 nexion was imagined by the learned 
 with Heb. mazzdh, the unleavened 
 bread eaten at the Passover. The 
 circular cake used in the Mithraic 
 
 sacrament was called mizd (C. W. King, 
 The Gnostics, p. 53) ; the cakes offered 
 to Osiris mest or mesi-i. See Speaker's 
 Commentary, ii. 301. 
 
 Matron, used by Howell as a name 
 for the marten, is a corruption of mar- 
 trone, or marteron (Wright), old Eng. 
 m.artern (Beaumont and Fletcher), 
 which again stands for marter, martre 
 (Caxton), Er. martre, Dut. marter, Ger. 
 ma/rder. 
 
 The Buck, the Doe, the Fox, the Matron, 
 the Roe, are Beasts belonging to a Chase and 
 Park. — Howell, Fam. Letters, bk. iv. 16 (ed. 
 1754). 
 
 The richest pay ordinarily 15 cases of Mar- 
 tems, 5 Rane Deere skinnes, and one Beare. 
 — Hakluyt, Voyages, 1598, vol. i. p. 5. 
 
 Maw-sbbd, p. 235. Compare : — 
 Papauer is called ... in duch maesom or 
 mausom, in fi-ench du pauot. — W. Turner, 
 Names of Herbes, 1548, p. 59 (E. D. S.). 
 
 Meddle, p. 235. Compare the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 Being euerie day more vnable, the elderis 
 desyred the bretheren he sould be prohibited 
 to midle vith any part of the ministerial! 
 function. — Presbytery Boole ofStrathbogie, p. 65 
 (Spalding Club). 
 
 Ben Jonson calls a go-between a 
 " middling gossip " (see Glossary to 
 Dyce's ed.). 
 
 In the Destruction of Troy we find 
 medill, middle (1. 3767), and medill, to 
 mingle with. 
 
 Withouten mon, owther make, to medill 
 horn with. 1. 10811. 
 
 A God he [Christ] hath; but never till 
 then ; never till He medled with us. — An- 
 drewes, Sernwns, fol. p. b6t. 
 
 Meslins, p. 237. Compare Lanca- 
 shire mezziUface, a fiery face, full of red 
 pimples (E.D. S. Olossa/ry, p. 192). 
 
 MiDDLE-EAKTH, p. 239. 
 
 geard, i.e. mid-garth, or mid-yard, the 
 central region, man-home, as distin- 
 guished from ms-yard (God-home) and 
 out-yard (the giant-home), occurs in 
 Ctedmon (Prof. G. Stephens, TheJRuth- 
 well Cross, p. 40). 
 
 On jjysne middangeard. 
 
 Cadmon, The Holy Rood, 1. 209. 
 
 MiDDLEMUS, an Isle of "Wight corrup- 
 tion of Michaelmas (E. D. S. Orig. Glos- 
 saries, xxiii.). 
 
MISEB 
 
 ( 637 ) 
 
 MOULD 
 
 MiSBE, a wretched being (Lat. miser), 
 has come to he naturalized in English 
 with the specific sense of a niggard or 
 avaricious hoarder, perhaps from some 
 confusion with the old word micher 
 (? micer), of the same meaning, which 
 it supplanted. Compare : — 
 
 Senaiid, a craftie Jacke, or a rich micher, a 
 rich man that pretends himself to be very 
 poore. — Cotgrave, 
 
 Pleure-pain, a puling micher or miser. — Jd, 
 
 Caqueduc, a niggai'd, micher, miser, scrape- 
 good, pinch-penny, penny-father, a coyetous 
 and greedy wretch. — Id. 
 
 Dramer, to miche, pinch, dodge ; to use, 
 dispose of, or deliver out, things by a precise 
 weight or strict measure, or so scantily, so 
 scarcely, as if the measurer were afraid to 
 touch them, or loath to have them touched. — ■ 
 Id. 
 
 This last definition would suggest 
 that the micher was properly one who 
 dealt his bread crumhmeal, a derivative 
 of old Bng. rm/che, 0. Fr. miche, Lat. 
 mica, a crumb. Moreover, another form 
 of the old Eng. word for crumbs is 
 " myse, or m/ysys " in the Promptorium 
 Pa/rvulorum (cf. " io myse bread " zz 
 crumble. Forme of Cury, p. 93), which 
 shows that myser is a potential form of 
 micher. See CuRMtrDGBON (perhaps for 
 corn-mych/yn) ; cf. surgeon for chirur- 
 geon. 
 
 The most effectual Course to make a 
 covetous Man miserable (in the right sense) 
 is to impoverish him. — South, Sermons, vol. ii. 
 p. 164 (ed. 1720). 
 
 Misty, p. 242. 
 
 Thus stant this worlde fulfilled of miste. 
 Gower, C. A. b. v. (Richardson). 
 
 That whiche conserneth theyr dishonour or 
 losse is ... . soo darkely or mystly Tvryten 
 that the reder therof shall hardely come to 
 y« knowlege of the ti'outhe. — Fabyan, cap. 
 ccxlv. p. 288 (ed. Ellis). 
 
 Holy writt haj? mystily fjis witt what euer 
 bei wolen seye. — Wyciiffe, Unprinted Works, 
 p. 343 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 (lis mysty witt of )?ise dedis tellij> unto true 
 men. — Id. p. 344. 
 
 To cloke the sentence under mysty figures 
 By many colours as I make relacyon, 
 As the olde poetes covered theyr scryptures. 
 S, Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, p. 38 
 (Percy Soc). 
 
 How readily this mysty zz mystic 
 would become confused with misty, 
 cloudy, may be seen by comparing ^his 
 quotation with another from the same 
 author : — 
 
 As writeth right many a noble olerke 
 Wythmi/sfi/ colour of cloudes derke .... 
 Clokynge a trouthe wyth colour tenebrous. 
 Id. p. 29. 
 
 MooD, p. 244. Modig (moody), fear- 
 less, brave, from m6d, mind, occm-s in 
 the runes of the Euthwell Cross, about 
 680 A.D. 
 
 On Galgu gi-stiga, 
 
 MoDIO FORE 
 
 (Ale) Men 
 G. Stephens, The Ruthwell Cross, 11. 4-6, 
 p. 19. 
 
 [On the gallow(s) He stied fearless fore all 
 men.] 
 
 Than sayd that lady milde of mode. 
 
 Sqiiyr of Lome Degre, 1. 149. 
 
 Mosaic, p. 244. Compare "After 
 musyche " r= in mosaic (style). — De- 
 struction of Troy, 1. 1662 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 A flore l^at was fret all of fyne stones, 
 Pauyt prudly all with proude colours, 
 Made after miisycke, men on to loke. 
 
 Moses, Heb. Mosheh, believed to be 
 derived from the verb mdshah, to draw 
 out, because Pharaoh's daughter "drew 
 hvm out of the water " (Ex. ii. 10). This 
 is really no doubt a Hebraized form 
 of an Egyptian name given him at 
 Pharaoh's court, which probably meant 
 " saved from the water," from Egypt. 
 mo, water, and uses, saved (Josephus, 
 Antiq. II. ix. 6), Coptic mo, water, and 
 ushe, saved. Hence the Greek form of 
 the name is Mo-uses (LXX.), Lat. Mo- 
 yses (Vulgate). See Bihle Diet. vol. ii. 
 425. Compare Babel, p. 518. 
 
 Mould, the minute fungus that grows 
 on decajdng matter, has nothing to do 
 with mould, earth, soil, nor with mould, 
 a spot of rust, but is formed out of 
 mouled, grown musty, the past parti- 
 ciple of the old verb moul, moulen, to 
 decay or putrefy, otherwise mowle or 
 muwlen. Old writers frequently speak 
 of bread as being mowled, or mouled, or 
 muled. Compare Icel. m/ygla, Swed. 
 mogla, to grow "muggy" or musty. 
 Hence mouldy. See Skeat, p. 796. 
 The opposite mistake is seen in mulled 
 wine for mould wine. See Mull, p. 247, 
 and the last citation there given. 
 
 Mowlyd, as brede, Mussidus vel mucidus. 
 — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 Moiclyn, as bred. Mucidat. — Id. 
 Mucor, to mowle as bredde. — Ortus. 
 
MOULT 
 
 ( 638 ) 
 
 MYSTERY 
 
 All the brede waxed anone niowly, — Golden 
 Legend, p. 65 verso. 
 
 A loor . . . was mmvlid & fordon. — Wy- 
 cliffe, Unprinted Works, p. 153. 
 
 Moult is a corruption by assimila- 
 tion to poult, &o., of old Eng. niout, 
 from Lat. mutaire, to change (so. one's 
 coating). Hence also the corrupt Mod. 
 Gar. mausen, through O. H. Ger. mu- 
 zon, to moult (Skeat). Compare the 
 intrusive I in could and/cwtZi, old Eng. 
 faut. 
 
 Mowtyn, as fowlys, Plumeo. — Prompt, 
 Parv. 
 
 The Holy Ghost . . changes not, casts not 
 his bill, monts not his feathers. — Andrewes, 
 Sermons, ibl. p. 682. 
 
 MoTJENiNG OF THE CHINE [in Horses] , 
 a disease which causes Ulcers in the 
 Liver (Bailey). See the extract. 
 
 This word mourning of the Chine, is a 
 corrupt name borrowed of the French toong-, 
 wherein it is caldMo[r]tedescftien that is to say, 
 the death of the backe. Because many do hold 
 this opinion that this disease dotlj consume 
 themaiTowof the backe. . . The Italians do 
 call this disease Ciamorro, the olde Authors do 
 call it the moist malady. — Topseli, Hist, of 
 Foure-footed Beasts, p. 371. 
 
 Mouse. The peculiar usage of the 
 verb to mouse in the following passage 
 is not noticed in the dictionaries. It is 
 probably understood by most people as 
 meaning to play with and worry, as a 
 cat does a mouse before she eats it. 
 O, now doth Death line his dead chaps with 
 
 steel; . . . 
 And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of man. 
 Shakespeare, King John, ii. 1, 354. 
 
 Mouse here is to mouth or devour, to 
 use the mouse, which is an old word for 
 mouth (Proven9al mus. It. muso), 
 whence old Eng. mousell, mosel, the 
 muzzle of a beast. See Muse, p. 248, 
 which is only a different form of the 
 same word, being spelt mowsyn in the 
 Prompt. Parvulorum, p. 347. 
 
 Mouspece of an oxe, mousle. — Palsgrave. 
 
 Mouse-baeley, p. 246. A confirma- 
 tory passage is : — 
 
 Phenicea or Hordeum murinum of Plenie, 
 is the Wat Barley, whiche groweth on mud 
 walles. — W. Turner, Names of Herbes, 1548, 
 p. 43 (E. D. Soc). 
 
 MuDWALL, p. 247. This bird-name 
 is evidently a corruption of mod-wall 
 in Coles, 1714. That word being quite 
 unknown in old English and the prov. 
 
 dialects, I am inclined to think it is a 
 mere misreading of wod-wall, the 
 woodpecker, to which species the bee- 
 eater belongs,I believe ; otherwise spelt 
 wode-wale, wood-wall, and wit-wall. See 
 WooDWALL, p. 447. In a black-letter 
 book wodwall might readily be misread 
 as mxidmall. Holy-Oke, 1640, has api- 
 astra, a modwall, and " a woodpecker, 
 mudwall, or ethee " (N. and Q. 6th S. 
 vi. 217). 
 
 MuG-woET, p. 247. 
 
 Arthemisia otherwyse called Parthenis, is 
 commonly called in englishe mugworte. — W. 
 Turner, Names of Herbes, 1548, p. 16 (E. D. 
 Soc). 
 
 Muse, p. 248. A connexion between 
 the verb and the personification of lite- 
 rature, as if the meaning were to study, 
 to be in a study, might be popularly 
 imagined from the following : — 
 
 And thou, unlucky Muse, that wontst to ease 
 My musing mynd, yet canst not when thou 
 should. 
 Spenser, Shepheards Calender, Jan. 1. 70. 
 
 Coleridge evidently regarded amuse- 
 ment as a withdrawing from the muses, 
 a musis, a cessation of study. ' 
 ing of novel-reading, he says :- 
 
 We should transfer this species of amuse- 
 ment (if indeed those can be said to retire a 
 musis, who were never in their company . . .) 
 from the genus, reading, to . . . indulgence 
 of sloth and hatred of vacancy. — Biograplm 
 Literaria, p. 24 (ed. Bell). 
 
 Mdsk-oat seems to have nothing to 
 do with cat, but to stand for Fr. muscat, 
 musky, smelling of musk, It. muscato. 
 
 Of the Moschatte, or Mus-kat. . . . The 
 Italians cal it Capriolo del Masco, & the French 
 Chevreul du Musch, the musk itself is called 
 in Italy Muschio, of the Latine Muschum and 
 Muscatum. — Topseli, Hist, of Foure-footed 
 Beasts, p. 650. 
 
 A very little part or quantity of a Mushe- 
 cat is of great vertue and efficacy. — id. p. 
 554. 
 
 Mtsteey, p. 250. For the elevation 
 of mistery into mystery compare the 
 following extract : — 
 
 The polishing of diamonds is almost a free- 
 masonry. It is a craft known at Amsterdam, 
 and the polishers of Amsterdam may be said 
 to have a monopoly of it. There are secrets 
 in the trade so mysteriom that an apprentice is 
 not allowed to learn them. — The Standard, 
 Nov. 19, 1881. 
 
NAIL 
 
 N. 
 
 ( 639 ) 
 
 NUZZLE 
 
 Nail, p. 251. Compare Lancashire 
 neeld, a needle (E.D. Soc). 
 
 Well, want yo pins or neelds to-day ? 
 Lane, RhijmeSy p. 54. 
 
 Old Eng. nyldys, needles. — MonJce of 
 Evesham, p. HI (ed. Arber). 
 
 Neaebk, p. 252. Compare Lanca- 
 shire nee, nigh, near ; nar, nearer, " Aw 
 hardly know iv aw awt to ventur ony 
 nair; " narst, nearest (E. D. S. Glossary, 
 p. 196). 
 
 Nettled, used in the sense of irri- 
 tated, piqued, as if stmig by neitles, is, 
 no doubt, a more polite form oinaftled, 
 corresponding to Lancashire naitle, 
 irritable, touchy, cross, " Hoo [rrshe] 
 geet rayther natile, an' wouldn't eyt no 
 moor." In the following the word is 
 distinguished from nettle, to gather 
 nettles. 
 
 *'Thou's never bin nettlin' of a Sunday 
 again, hasto 'i " " Why, what for ' " he said, 
 as naKte as could be. — IVaugh, Tattlin' Matty, 
 p. 14. 
 
 This nattle is derived from Lane. 
 natter, to tease or irritate, originally to 
 nibble or bite (compare nag, akin to 
 gnww), Icel. gnadda, to vex, to murmur, 
 Icnetta, to grumble, Lonsdale gnattery, 
 ill-tempered, gnatter, to gnaw, to 
 grumble. 
 
 He's a natterin* soart of a chap — they'll 
 nobody ha' mich rest as is near him. — See 
 Nodal and MUiierj Lane. Glossary, p. 197 
 (E. D. Soc). 
 
 On the other hand, the colloquial word 
 natty, tidy, spruce, dandified. Lane. 
 natty, neat, handy, is a corruption of 
 old Eng. nettie, neat (Tusser, 1580), 
 from Er. net, nettoye, Lat. nitidus. 
 
 Nick, p. 255. For the common 
 notion that Old Nick was identical with 
 Nich Machdavelli, compare : — 
 Still, still a new Plot, or at least an old Trick : 
 We English were wont to be simple and 
 true; 
 But ev'ry Man now is a Florentine nick, 
 A little Pere-Joseph, or great Richeliew. 
 Sir W. D'avenant, Works, 1673, p. 302. 
 
 The phrase "To play old Harry 
 with" (referred to in this article) means 
 to ruin or destroy as Henry VIII did- 
 the monasteries, and has nothing to do 
 
 with Eric, as Thorpe {North. Mytho- 
 logy, vol. ii.) suggested. 
 
 Nick-name, p. 255. Add :— 
 
 We shulde geve no necname wntoo tlie 
 sacrament, as rownd Robin, or Jack in the box. 
 — Narratives of the Reformation, p. 73 (Cam- 
 den See). 
 
 NiOHT-SHADE, p. 256. Mr. Wedg- 
 wood directs my attention to the prov. 
 Swedish word nattsJcata-gras, the night- 
 shade, the herb of the night-jar or 
 night-pie, naitskata ( Ger. nacht-schade ) . 
 
 NiNEPENOE, p. 257. The rectitude 
 of ninepenee may perhaps refer to an 
 old coin so called, which was often 
 bent from its original shape into a love- 
 token. 
 
 His wit was sent him for a token. 
 
 But in the carriage crack'd and broken ; 
 
 Like commendation ninepenee crook'd. 
 Butler, Hudibras, Pt. I. i. 1. 487. 
 
 NiNNTHAMMER, p. 257. Compare : — • 
 
 \ o' ar a ninnyhommer t' heed hur. — Cottier, 
 Works, p. 72 (iVoO, Lancash. dialect). 
 
 Nod, p. 258. From the supposed 
 connexion of noddle with the verb to 
 nod, a noddle-yed [noddle-head] is a 
 Lancashire word for a person of loose, 
 unsteady head or brain (E. D. Soc. 
 Glossary, p. 201). 
 
 North Midlands, aplace-nameinthe 
 parish of Alkborough, Lincolnshire, so 
 spelt in maps and plans, is a corruption 
 of the name Norrermeddum given to it 
 by old people in the neighbourhood, 
 spelt Northermedholm in a MS. about 
 1280 {N. and Q. 6th S. v. 83). 
 
 Notable, p. 259. 
 
 The stone is kept scrupulously clean bj'the 
 notable Yorkshire housewives. — Mrs. Gaskelt, 
 Life of C. Bronte, p. 2. 
 
 If it be noteful to fie puple, Jjenne )>at trewjje 
 is Jje gospel. — Wyclijfej Unprinted Works, 
 p. 343 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Nurses, a Lonsdale word for the 
 kidneys (E.B. Peacock), is a corruption 
 of old and prov. Eng. neres, Icel. nyra. 
 See Kidney, p. 203, and Ear, p. 575. 
 
 Nuzzle, p. 261. Compare Lanca- 
 shire nozzle, the nose, and nozzle, nuzzle, 
 to nestle, to lie close to (E. D. Soc. 
 Glossary, p. 203). 
 
 He was sent by his seyd mother to Cam- 
 brege, where he was nosseled in the grossest 
 
ODDS AND ENDS ( 640 ) 
 
 PALMES 
 
 kynd of sophistry. — Narratims of the Refor- 
 mation (ab. 1560), p. 218 (Camden Soc). 
 
 The dew no more will sleep 
 
 Nuzzel'd in the lily's neck. 
 
 Crashaw, The Wee-per, at. 7. 
 
 o. 
 
 Odds and ends, p. 262. Compare 
 ord and ende, Fhriz and Blaunchefleur, 
 1. 47 (E. E. T. S.); Garnett, Philolog. 
 Essays, p. 37; Skeat, note on The 
 Monkes Tale, 1. 3911. 
 
 Op-scape, p. 262, It. scappare, to 
 give one the slip, to slip one's halter. 
 The antithetical word is It. incappare, 
 to cover or muffle with a cloak, to meet 
 or encounter. Compare old Eng. un- 
 cape, which seems to have been a term 
 in fox-hunting, meaning to unooUar, 
 uncouple, or let a hound loose from the 
 leash or collar (cape), in fact to let it 
 es-cape (ex cappA). See Edinburgh Re- 
 view, vol. 136, p. 347. 
 
 I'll warrant we'll unkennel the fox. Let 
 me stop this way first. So, now uncape. — 
 Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 3, 
 175. 
 
 Morz es e maubailli, ne purrez escliaper. 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 1656. 
 
 [Dead thou art and maltreated, you cannot 
 escape.] 
 
 Oils, p. 263. Compare : — 
 Swift as the swallow, or that Greekish nymph, 
 That seem'd to overfly the eyies of corn. 
 
 Peek, Potyhymnia, 1590 (p. 571, 
 ed. Dyce). 
 
 On-settbk, a curious Lancashire 
 word for a forefather or progenitor 
 (E. D. Soc. Glossary, p. 206), as if it 
 meant the prime mover or originator 
 of a family who first set it going, is 
 really, I have no doubt, a corruption 
 of the old Eng. auncetyr or auncestre 
 (Chaucer), old Fr. ancessour, Lat. an- 
 tecessor, " a fore-goer." Ancestor is as 
 dislocated a form of antecessor as pre- 
 cesdor would be of predecessor. 
 
 They liv't i' th' heawse . . . an' so did their 
 on-setters afore 'em. — Waugh, Lancashire 
 Sketches, p. 93. 
 
 Awncetyr, Progenitor. — Prompt. Parv. 
 
 The iii cranes which were percell of his 
 aunciters armes. — Narratives of the Reforma- 
 tion, p. 251 (Camden Soc). 
 
 OuNCEL, p. 266. With the proposed 
 derivation of auncer, as if hauncer. 
 
 compare Greek tdlanton, a balance, 
 akin to tlao, to bear, Lat. tollere, to 
 lift ; Sansk. tula, a balance, from tid, to 
 lift. 
 
 OuTEAQE, p. 267. In the following 
 owtrage means " something beyond " 
 {ultra), an excessive portion. Adam 
 has offered to give God the half or third 
 of all his produce. God answers he 
 will have nothing beyond the tenth or 
 tithe : — 
 
 Adam I wil nane owtrage hot )3e teynde. 
 Cursor Mundi, 1. 975. 
 
 Ox, in the curious Greek phrase " An 
 ox is on his tongue," Povg im yXwffiTj 
 (^sohylus), meaning " He is silent," 
 has not, I think, received a satisfactory 
 explanation. In a list of interjections, 
 with their meanings, made by a Greek 
 grammarian, I find it stated that iSii, ^ij, 
 is an exclamation used to obtain sHenoe, 
 just as 0v, (pi), is addressed to those 
 blowing a fire {Anecdota Barocciana, in 
 Philolog. Museum, vol. ii. p. 115). Com- 
 pare perhaps /Sueiv, to stop or bung up. 
 Perhaps /iovc is a playful corruption of 
 pii, hush ! whisht I and the proper 
 meaning of the phrase is " Hush I is 
 on his tongue." The English repre- 
 sentation of /3d would be " hy," and it 
 is interesting to note that in the lan- 
 guage of the nursery hy or hye is still 
 addressed to infants with the meaning 
 " Hush 1 " " Be quiet." Compare 
 " Hush-a-fcj/e, baby I " " Bye, my 
 baby I " " Hush-a-Ji/e, Ue still and 
 lye" (HaUiweU, Nursery Bhymes, p. 
 83, ed. Warne). 
 
 Oystee-loit, p. 268. 
 
 Aristolochia rotunda . . . may be named 
 in englishe Oster Liici or astroiochia or round 
 hertworte. — W. Turner, Names of Herbes, 
 1.548, p. 15(E. D. Soc). 
 
 P. 
 
 Pagod, p. 269. 
 
 They haue their idols . . . which they call 
 Pagodes. — Hakluyt, Voiages, 1599, ii. 253. 
 Their classic model proved a maggot. 
 Their Direct'ry an Indian pagod. 
 
 S. Butler, Hudibras, Pt. II. ii. 534. 
 
 Palmer, p. 271. In the Isle of 
 Wight palmer ia still used for a kind of 
 large caterpillar (E. D. S. Orig. Ghs- 
 
PAMPER 
 
 ( 641 ) 
 
 PERISH 
 
 sanes, xxiii.). Compare old 'Eng. palme, 
 or loke of wulle, palma. — Prompt. 
 Pan., and the following : — 
 
 Then saffern swavms swing off fi-om all the 
 
 willers 
 So plump they look like yaller caterpillars. 
 Lowell, Biglow Papers, Poems, p. 53;^. 
 
 Pampee, p. 270. 
 The pomped carkes wyth foode dilicious 
 They dyd not feed, but to theyr sustinaunce. 
 Halves, Pastime of Pleasure, cap. v. 
 p. 22 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Pang, p. 271. Compare : — ■ 
 
 Pronge, emmpna [i.e. terumna, pain], — 
 Prompt, Paw. 
 Throwe, wommanys pronge. — Id. 
 
 Patter, p. 275. Prof. Skeat thinks 
 that old Eng. ledene, language, a cor- 
 ruption of Latin, the language 'pm- cr- 
 mllence, was influenced both in form 
 and meaning by A. Sax. hlijd, a noise, 
 Northumb. Eng. lydeng, noise, cry. ( See 
 note on following. Clarendon Press ed.) 
 She understood wel euery thing 
 
 That any foul may in his ledene seyn. 
 
 Chaiu:er, Sqitieres Tale, 1. 405. 
 
 The housekeeper, pattering on before us 
 from chamber to chamber, was expatiating 
 upon the magnificence of this picture. — 
 Thackeray, The Newcomes, ch. xi. p. 113. 
 
 PABACLTTtrs, p. 495. Another cor- 
 ruption of Paradetus {TrapaKXtiTog, ad- 
 vocatus, " one called in "), the name of 
 the Holy Spirit (St. John, xiv. 16), is 
 Pa/radUus (as if irapaKKiTOQ, from irapa- 
 bXiVw, to bend aside or swerve), in 
 Latin writers. When the Greek ori- 
 ginal was forgotten, the Latin form 
 easily gave rise to a mistake about its 
 etymology ; hence the penultima was 
 supposed to be short, and is so treated 
 even by Prudentius (J. C. Hare, Mis- 
 sion of the Gornjon-ter, p. 310, 4th ed.). 
 
 Vie make him [the Holy Spirit] a stranger, 
 all our life long ; He is Paraclitus ( as they 
 were wont to pronounce him ;) truly Para- 
 clitus, one whom we declined, and looked over 
 our sihoulders at: And then, in our extremity, 
 sodenly He is Paradetus; weseeke, and send 
 for Him, we would come a little acquainted 
 with Him. — Bp. Andrewes, Sermons, fol. 
 p. 636. 
 
 The Muslims pretend to trace a prophecy 
 of Mohammed in the modern copies of St. 
 John's Gospel, reading instead of Paraclete, 
 " Periclyte," which is synonymous with 
 Mohammed (i.e. "greatly praised "). — -Lane, 
 Thousand and One ^'ighls, vol. ii. p. 294. 
 
 Pbculiae, an Oxfordshire corruption 
 of the flower-name ^efenici (E. D. Soc. 
 Orig. Olossm-i'es, C. p. 93). 
 
 Peep, p. 278. Compare Lancashire 
 shrike-o'-day, day-break, the first voice 
 of the day, from shril-c, an outciy or 
 "shriek." "I geet up be shrihe-o"- 
 (Za?/."— CoUier (1750). 
 
 By thepi/pe of day e.— Li/e o/" Lord Grei/, 
 p. 23, Camden Soc. [Skeat]. 
 
 It. spontare, to bud or peepe out, as the 
 light, the morning, or raies of the Sunne doe. 
 — Florio. 
 
 Pbllitoey, p. 279. 
 
 The herbe, whiche englishe me call Pitli- 
 torie of Spayne, the duch men Meistermurts, 
 the Herbaries Osturtium and inagistrancia, is 
 Laserpitium gallicum. — W. Turner, Names 
 of Herbs, 1J48, p. 46 (E. D. Soc). 
 
 Pekfect, a pedantic reduction to a 
 Latinized form of the old Eng. word 
 perfit or parfit (in use down to the 17th 
 century), which is the more corre/jt 
 orthography, the word being derived 
 immediately, not from the Lat. f&efeo- 
 tus, but from old Fr. parfit, parfeii, par- 
 faict. Other old spelUngs are parfiic, 
 parfyte, parfight. Compare Vicina&e, 
 Victuals below, and Introdudion, p. 
 xiii. See English Retraced, p. 156. 
 
 Parfyte (al. parfy^t) — perfectus. — Prompt, 
 Pan). 
 
 Y schal speke perfite resouns fro the bigy n- 
 nyng. — Wycliff'e, Ps. Ixxvii. 2. 
 
 To make redy a parfyt peple to the Lord. 
 — Id. Luke, i. 17. 
 
 Edward stablished by acte of parliament 
 so good and perjight a booke of religion .... 
 as ever was used since the Apostles' tyme. — 
 Narratives of' the Reformation, p. 225 (Cam- 
 den Soc). 
 
 O Tyrus, thou hast sayd I am of perfite 
 beauty. — Geneva Vers. Ezek. xxvii. 3. 
 
 Nothing is begun and perjited at the same 
 time. — A. F. 1611, Translators to the Header. 
 
 What once you promis'd to my perjii love. 
 The Lost Lady, 1638 [Wares], 
 
 Peefokm, p. 280. 
 
 Noght oonly thy laude precious 
 Parfourned is by men of dignitee. 
 But by the mouth of children thy bountee 
 Parfourned is. 
 
 Chaucer, Prioresses Tale, 1. 1619. 
 
 Pebish, p. 281. Compare Cumber- 
 land pea/rdiin\ penetrating (E. D. Soc. 
 Orig. Glossaries, C. p. 110). 
 
 Sum men faylen in feifi, for it is so Jjynne, 
 & eke li3t to perische wi)3 dart by sauSiof Hn 
 enemye. — WiicliJI'e, Unprinted Works, p. 318 
 (E.E.T.S.). ■ 
 
 T T 
 
PEBU8E 
 
 ( 642 ) 
 
 PIGK 
 
 1 panche a man or a beast, I perysshe his 
 guttes ^-ith a weapen. — FaUgrave, Lesclav,, 
 1;V)0. 
 
 The fylme called the " pia mater ""was 
 perished with the blow. — Narratives of the 
 tieformatioiij p. 38 (Camden Soc), 
 
 The light commeth thorow the glasse, yet 
 the g'lasse is not perished. — Andreu:eSj 'Ser- 
 mons, fol. p. 74. 
 
 Perished, starved with cold. — Lonsdale 
 Glossary. 
 
 Pearchingj cold, penetrating, pinching. ^- 
 Id. 
 
 Peruse, p. 282. 
 
 The reading over of which [Pleadings &c.] 
 judiciously and with intentne.ss is called 
 Pervisiim, or, as we say, pemsal of them. — 
 Waterbtms, Commentary on Fortescue, p. 574 
 l_Todd*s Illustrations, p. 2-16], 
 
 Prof. Skeat, however, maintains that 
 peruse is just to use up till all is ex- 
 hausted, and so to go through com- 
 pletely, examine thoroughly. Words 
 were once freely compounded with per. 
 Compare: — 
 With thouglit of yll my mynde was never 
 
 myxte . . . 
 Botiie dayeand nyght upon you holeperfyite. 
 Halves, Pastime of Pleasure, p. 87 
 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Petbe, Blue, p. 283. 
 
 Voull thint on me on Tuesday, Mary. 
 That's the day we shall hoist our blue Peter. 
 — Mrs. Gaskeli, Mury Barton, ch. xvii. 
 
 Peter Grievous, p. 283. In Ox- 
 fordshire almost the same expression is 
 used for a cross, fretful child, e.g. 
 " What a Peter Grievance you he 1 " — 
 E. D. Soc. Orig. Glossaries, G. p. 93. 
 
 Petit degree, a curious old corrup- 
 tion, used by Stanihurst, of pedigree, 
 old Eng. "jiedcgri'tt or petygru, lyne of 
 kynrede and awncetrye." — Prompt. 
 Parv. (perhaps for pe de grc, pied de 
 grcs, " tree of steps "), as if it were that 
 which gives the minute degrees of affi- 
 nity. He uses it also in his translation 
 of the jEneid. The orig. meaning of 
 pe de gre (used temp. Hen. IV. ; see 
 M. Miiller, Lectures, ii. 581) was pro- 
 bably " foot of the stair," the founder 
 of a family, with all the steps or degrees 
 of kindred descending from him. To 
 search for a pedigree is to seek the 
 origin [pie, pied), from which certain 
 family steps or branches (grcs) spring. 
 
 Tliere is a sept of the Gerrots in Ireland, 
 and they seeme forsooth by threatning kind- 
 nesse and kindred of tlie true Gii-aldins, to 
 
 fetch their;)Ch'tde»-)-(ies from their ancestors, but 
 they are so neere of bloud one to the other 
 that two bushels of beanes would scantlie 
 count the'iv degrees. — Stanihurst's Description 
 of Ireland, p. 33, in Holinshed's Chron. vol i 
 1587. 
 
 In Oxfordshire any long story ig 
 called a pedigree (E. D. Soc. Orig. 
 Glossa/ries, C. p. 93). 
 
 Pettitoes, p. 283. 
 
 He would not stir his pettitoes till he Lad 
 both tune and words. — Shakespeare, Winter's 
 Tale, iv. 4, 620. 
 
 Pfingsternakel, p. 496. 
 
 Sisaron siue siser, is called in englishe a 
 Persnepe, in duche grosse Zammoren, and 
 also Pinsternach. — W. Turner, Names of 
 Herbes, 1548, p. 74 (E. D. S.). 
 
 Philbeet, p. 284. Compare with 
 the extract from Gower, 
 
 The tree of Phi His for her Demophon. 
 Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, Introd. 1. 65. 
 
 Lidgate actually writes filbert instead 
 oi Phyllis (Skeat, note in loco). 
 
 Pick, to purloin or pilfer, as in the 
 Catechism, "to keep my hands from 
 pichlng and stealing," generally under- 
 stood as meaning to choose and take 
 up with the fingers thievishly, hke 
 Autolycus, "the picker up of uncon- 
 sidered trifles," seems to be quite a 
 distinct word from picJc, A. Sax. pycain, 
 to pick or peck. It is probably a verbal 
 form evolved from old Eng. "pylca«re, 
 lytylle theef, furoulus" (Prompt.Fan.), 
 identical with pick&ro {Spanish Gipsy, 
 ii. 1), Sp. picm-o, a thief, or as the old 
 term in English was, a " a picaroon " 
 (Howell). It is thus a shortened form 
 of pickccr, to rob or pillage, used by 
 Butler and by Cleveland (who also has 
 picheercr, a thief. — Poems, 1687), de- 
 rived from Fr. picorer, to forrage, rifle, 
 rob, or prey upon, the poor husband- 
 man (Cotgrave; also picorevr, a boot- 
 haler, in a friend's country, a ravening 
 or filching souldier), properly to go 
 cattle-lifting, from Lat. pecus, pecora, 
 cattle ; Sp. pecorea, marauding (all ulti- 
 mately identical with peculation) ; It. 
 picaro, a wandering rogue, picaria, 
 roguerie, picare and picarare, to rogue 
 up and downe(Florio). FromFr.picoree, 
 " picoory, forraging, ransacking " (Cot- 
 grave), came old Eng. and Soot, pichcry, 
 pikary, rapine, piUage (Jamieson), 
 " Thefte and pickcrie were quite sup- 
 
PILE 
 
 ( 643 ) 
 
 PBIAL 
 
 pressed" — EoUnshed, 1577 (Nares), as 
 a law term, " stealing of trifles " 
 (Erskine). Against the above it is to 
 be noted tbat an old meaning of Eng. 
 pick was to obtain by mean under- 
 hand ways, e.g. pyhepeny, Cnpidinarius 
 (Frompt. Pmv.), to pich a thank (Lyly), 
 piehpwse (Chaucer), "He piked of her 
 all the good he might ' ' (Legend of Good 
 Women, 1. 2456). 
 
 I had of late occasion to speak of picking 
 and stealing. — Latimer, Sermons, p. 462 
 (Parker Soc). 
 
 As pickinge theft is lesse than murtheryng 
 robrje : so is the couetousnes of gredy 
 lawere which begyle craftely, far lesse then 
 the covetousnes of rebelles, whych spoyle 
 cruelly. — T. Lever, Sermons, 1550, p. 3H (ed. 
 Arber). 
 
 It is ill to be called a thief and aye found 
 piking. — Scot. Proverb (Jamieson). 
 
 By these pickers and stealers. — Hamlet, 
 iii. 2. 
 
 Pile, p. 286. Compare old Eng. 
 pal, pale, a fort, Gest Historiale of De- 
 struction of Troy, 1. 322 (E.E.T.S.) ; 
 and " towers of a pyramidal form which 
 they call PuiZes." — Lesly (note Hi loc). 
 
 The minster's outlined mass 
 
 Rose dim from the morass, 
 And thitherward the stranger took his way. 
 
 Lo, on a sudden all the t^ile is brig-ht ! 
 M. Arnold, Westminster Abbeif. 
 
 Pin, p. 287. 
 Plucke vp thyne herte vpon a mery pyne. 
 
 Skelton, Boivge of Court, 1. 3Q6. 
 Hark how the irothy, empty heads within, 
 Roar and cai'ouse ith' jovial Sin, 
 Amidst the wilde Levalto's on their merry 
 Pin ! 
 
 Benloice^s Theophila, 1652, p. 3. 
 My Lady and her Maid upon a merry Pin 
 They made a match. 
 Antidote against Melancholii, 1661, p. 70 
 (See N. and Q. 6th S.' v. 137;. 
 
 Pips, p. 288. Compare Lancashire 
 picks, diamonds at cards (E. D. Soc. 
 Glossary, p. 212). 
 
 Plat, p. 289. 
 A stately Plat, both regular and vast. 
 Suiting the rest, was by the Foundress cast, 
 In those incurious Times, under the rose, 
 Design'd, as one may saucily suppose, 
 For Lillies, Piones, Daft'adils and lioses. 
 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, p. 346. 
 
 Plot, p. 290. Compare : — 
 Lading plats to effect further mischief. 
 Tell- I'rothes New-yeares Gijt, 1593, p. 
 
 (Shales. Soc). 
 
 20 
 
 Poppet, p. 295. 
 
 This were a popet in an ann tenbrace 
 For any womman, smal and fair efface. 
 
 Chaucer, Prioresses Tale, 1. 1892. 
 
 PopPY-HEAD, p. 295. Compare Icel. 
 h-uia, a puppet or doll, used also for a 
 pillar in carved work on the side of an 
 old-fashioned chair (Cleasby, p. 83). 
 
 Poke-blind, p. 295. 
 
 Vet his sight was not perfayte, for he was 
 ponre-hlinde. — Narratives of the Reformation, 
 p. 240 (Camden Soc). 
 
 But level not at me thy Tiller ; 
 
 For if thou dost (thou pore-blind killer) 
 
 I've told tl)ee what thou art to fear. 
 
 And I will do it, as I'm here. 
 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, ji. 2t7. 
 
 Pot, p. 296. Add Prov. pof«. It. 
 poszo, Sp. pozo, Portg. pogo, Wallach. 
 pidz, all from Lat. puteus. Also prov. 
 Swed. pitttt, pott, a dark hole, the pit of 
 hell ; at pyttes, to the devil, to destruc- 
 tion [PUlolog. Soc. Tram. 1868-9, 
 p. 293). And for the phrase "go to pot" 
 compare the following : — 
 
 J.-e noumbre fiat out of heyuen fel 
 
 Con na tonge in erj^ tel. 
 
 ^fe fra (le trone quare t-atte Jjat sotte. 
 
 How fer ys intil helle pntte. 
 
 Cursor Mundi, 1. 506, Fairfax MS. 
 (E. E. T. S.). 
 
 The Cotton MS. version of the last 
 line is : — 
 
 How farr es in to hell pitte. 
 The rijte put of helle is a-midde tlie urthe 
 with-inne. 
 
 Poem, 13th cent. 1. 1 (\^' right, Pop. 
 Treatises on Science, p. 13'2). 
 I shal punisshen in purcatory * or in [e put 
 
 of helle 
 Eche man for his misdede. 
 
 Vision of P. Plowman, A. xi. 219. 
 King Edward, no : we will admit no pausp. 
 For goes this wretch, this traitor, to the put.- 
 Peek, Edu-ard I. p. 389 (ed. Dyce). 
 Else Hudson had gone- to the pot. 
 Who is he can abide him ? 
 A Loijatl Song of the Royall Feast, 8\C. 1647 
 (Cavalier Songs, p. 49, ed. Mackay). 
 
 Peespire, a provincial form of pier- 
 spire (e.g. Oxfordshire, Orig. Glossaries, 
 6. p. 70, E. D. S.), with some reference 
 perhaps to the idea of pressure or op- 
 pressive heat. A Middlesex cobbler 
 once remarked to me that he suffered 
 much from prespivation. 
 
 Peial, p. 299. 
 
 But when they came to trial. 
 Each one proved a fool, 
 
PBIME-GOOE 
 
 ( 644 ) 
 
 Yet three knaves'in the -whole, 
 And that made up a piiir-niiuL 
 Sam. Butler, Works, ii. 219 (ed.'Clarke). 
 
 Prime-cock, p. 300. Compare : — 
 Princy-cock, a dandified, conceited young 
 fellow. — Longdate Glossary. 
 
 Punch, p. 303. Compare Lanoash. 
 punce, to kick, Mid. Eng. hunsen (see 
 Skeat, 8.V. Bounce), e.g. " He'll punce 
 the door in;" "Aw could ha' punceH 
 him ; " " Aw've a good mind to gie thi 
 shins a punce" (Nodal and Milner, 
 Lane. Olossmy, p. 219, E. D. Soc). 
 
 BAKEEELL 
 
 E. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quaff, p. 305, for quaft. Compare 
 Lancashire waft, a draught, " He took 
 it deawn at a ivaft" {Glossary, E. D. 
 Soc). On the other hand waft, to blow 
 along, or to wave the hand, has no 
 right to the t, being identical with Soot. 
 waff, to wave, Icel. vtifa, to swing. 
 Prof. Skeat says ivaft has been formed 
 from the past tense waved, just as graft 
 from graffed, and hoist from hoised. So 
 scain was originally to scand (mistaken 
 for a past parte), oldPr. escander, Lat. 
 scandere ; and spill stands for spild, 
 A. Sax. spildan (Skeat). Also Lanca- 
 shire qv/ift, to quaff or tipple, quiftin', 
 a quaffing (E. D. Soc). Compare weft 
 and waift (Spenser) for ivaif. 
 Some people's fortunes, like a ueft or stray, 
 Are only gain'd by losing of their way. 
 S. Butler, Works, ii. 266 (ed. Clarke). 
 
 QuAGMiEE, p. 306. Compare " Au- 
 rippus, cioece-sond." — Wright, Vocab. 
 ii. 8, i.e. " quake-sand " (Skeat). 
 
 Quarry, p. 307. Prof. Skeat says 
 that this stands for querry. Mid. Eng. 
 querre, from old Fr. cuiree, curie, a de- 
 rivative of cuir, skin, Lat. corium (as if 
 coriata), referring principally to the 
 skin of the slain animal [Etym. Bid. 
 p. 797). 
 
 Quill, p. 311, akin to coil. Compare 
 Isle of Wight quile, to coil, also a coil 
 of rope (E. D. S. Orig. Glossa/ries, 
 xxiii.) . 
 
 fiei ben cuylid \_= collected] pens of pore 
 men. — Wildlife, Unprinted Works, p. 433 
 (E.E.T.S). 
 
 Eace, p. 311. For the supposed con- 
 nexion between racy and race, a root, 
 as if tasting of the root, compare : — 
 Not but the human fabric from the birtii 
 Imbibes a iia^cur of its parent earth : 
 As various tracts enforce a various toil. 
 The manners speak the idiom of tlieir soil. 
 Gray, Education, and Government. 
 
 Eachitis, p. 312. 
 Multitudes of reverend men and critics 
 Have got a kind of intellectual rickets. 
 S. Butler, Works, ii. 239 (ed. Clarke). 
 
 Eaokan-hook, or recMn-hooh, a Lan- 
 cashire word for a hook swung over the 
 fire to hold a pot or kettle, sometimes 
 spelt rach-an' -hooh, as if " rack and 
 hook," is said to be merely another 
 form of Cleveland reelc-airn, i.e. reek- 
 iron, or iron hung in the smoke (Atkin- 
 son, Skeat), see Lane. Glossoury (E. D. 
 Soc), p. 222; 
 
 An' then we sang glees, 
 Till the rac/c-an'-feoo/crung. 
 
 Waugh, Old Cronies, p. 54. 
 
 Eag, an old word for a shower or 
 rain-cloud, North Eng. rag, drizzling 
 rain, might seem to refer to the torn 
 or lacerated appearance of the discharg- 
 ing cloud. 
 
 And all the west like silver shined ; not one 
 Black cloud appeared ; no rags, no spot did 
 
 stain 
 The welkin's beauty ; nothing frowned like 
 rain. 
 
 H. Vaughan, Pious Thoughts, Poems, 
 p. 241 (ed. 1858). 
 
 It is really the same word as old 
 Eng. ryge, rain {AIM. Foeme), A. Sax". 
 racu, rain, Icel. hregg, a storm, A. Sax. 
 regn, rain, Goth, rign, 0. H. Ger. 
 regan, Ger. rcgcn, Lat. rigcure (see Die- 
 fenbach, Goth. Sprache, ii. 172). Com- 
 pare raggy, stormy, and rag, hoar frost ; 
 " There's bin niich raggy weather upo' 
 th' moors " {Lane. Glossary, E. D. S. 
 p. 223). 
 
 Bakehell, p. 313. Compare Lanca- 
 shire raclde, reckless, rash (old Eng. 
 rakel), rachlesomc, reckless. 
 
 Owd Tip's th' better chap i' th' bottom, 
 iv lie be a bit ruckle. — Waugh, Owd Blanket, 
 p. 89. 
 
 Is there ony news o' that ruckle brother o' 
 thine 1—ld. Hermit Cobbler, p. 29. 
 
BAMMISH 
 
 ( 645 ) 
 
 REBOUND 
 
 See Lone. Olossary, E. D. Soc. p. 222. 
 Then niest outspak a ranch carlin, 
 Wba kent fu' weel to cleek the sterling. 
 
 Burns, Poems, p. 50 (Globe ed.). 
 
 In the following Venus is addressing 
 Cupid : — 
 
 I do not, Hake-hell, mean those pranks 
 (Though even they deserve small Thanks) 
 Thou phiv'st on Earth, where thou hast 
 
 done, 
 The strangest Things that e'er were known. 
 Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, Poems, 
 p. 216. 
 Caught in a delicate soft silken net 
 By some lewd Earl, or rake-hell Baronet. 
 Cowper, Progress of Error. 
 
 Eammish, p. 314. Compare It. ra- 
 mengo, "wandering, roauing, or gad- 
 ding. . . . Also a rammish hawke." — 
 Florio. 
 
 The rammish hauke is tamd by carefull heed. 
 And will be brought to stoope vnto the lewre, 
 The fercest Lyon will requite a deed 
 Of curtesie, with kindnesse to endure. 
 
 Tell-Trothes New-Yeares Gift, 1593, 
 p. 38 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 Eangbd-debe, p. 315. Compare also 
 the following, where rayne-deer seems 
 to be associated with ranez (=: rains), 
 branches, a thicket. 
 The roo and the rayne-dere reklesse thare 
 
 ronnene. 
 In ranez and inrosers to ryotte thame seluene. 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 923 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Eansack, p. 316. For the fancied 
 connexion with to sack (for which 
 word see The Siege of Rhodes, 1490, 
 p. 154, Mm-ray's repr.), compare: — 
 
 Saccomettere, to put unto the sacke, ransack- 
 ing, spoile, pillage. — Florio. 
 
 Eap and eend, an old idiom mean- 
 ing to get by hook or crook (Skinner, 
 Johnson), also found in the forms rape 
 and renne (Chaucer), repe and renne 
 (Bailey), rap and run (Coles), rap and 
 ran (Miege), rap and run for (Ains- 
 worth), are various corruptions of the 
 phrase found in the Cleveland dialect 
 as "to rap and reeve," old Eng. repen 
 andrinen (AncrenS/lwle). See Atkin- 
 son in Fhilolog. 8oe. Trans. 1867, 
 p. 329. Prof. Skeat observes that the 
 mod. form "rape and rend" is a cor- 
 ruption due to Icel. Ivrapa, to seize, 
 frequently combined with rcBna, to 
 plimder {Etym. Diet. s.v.). 
 
 1 rap or rende, je rapine. — Pats«;rave. 
 
 Arrabler, to rape, and rend ; to ravine, rob, 
 spoile ; to get by hooke, or by crooke.— Cut- 
 grave. 
 
 Eat, p. 317. 
 
 Do you not smell a rat? I tell you truth, 
 1 think all's knavery. 
 
 jB. Jonson, Tale of a Tuh,iv. 3. 
 
 Bate, p. 317. Compare Norm. Fr. 
 rettcr, L. Lat. repfare, from Lat. repu- 
 tare, to lay to one's charge. 
 
 Tut rettent Amphibal le clerc orientel. 
 
 Vie de St. Auhan, 1. HOT. 
 [They wholly blame Amphibal the oriental 
 clerk.] 
 
 It was aretted him no vylonye, 
 
 Chaucer, C. Tales, 1. 2731. 
 
 Eaton, the French name for the 
 raccoon (N. American arafhlcone), is an 
 assimilation of that word to raton, a 
 httle rat. 
 
 Eebound, when used with the mean- 
 ing of to resound, reverberate, or re- 
 echo, is strictly speaking not a figtira- 
 tive usage oi re-hound, to leap back (as 
 a sound does from an echoing surface), 
 notwithstanding the analogy of Lat. 
 resilire, to bound back (of an echo), 
 and Bacon's " resilience in ecchos." It 
 is the same word as o'd Fr. and Pro- 
 vengal rehundir, to resound, probably 
 from a Lat. re-homhitare, to buzz or 
 drone again. The word then from 
 meaning to re-echo came afterwards to 
 be identified with rehound, to leap 
 back (Prof. Atkinson). 
 
 L'eii' fait k sun talent rehundir e suner. 
 
 Vie de St. Auban, 1. 1336. 
 [Makes the air at his desire re-echo and 
 sound.] 
 [They] ran towardesthe far rebownded nojce. 
 
 Spenser, F. Q. I. vi. 8. 
 A gen'ral liiss fi-om the whole tire of snakes 
 Rebounding, through Hell's inmost caverns 
 came. 
 Crashaw, Sospetto d'Herode, st. 38. 
 The whole grove echoes, and the hills re- 
 bound. 
 Cowper, Trans, of Virgil, Poems, p. 544 
 (ed. Wilmott). 
 The ponderous mass sinks in the cleaving 
 
 ground, 
 While vales and woods and echoing hills 
 rebound. 
 Gray, Translation of Statins, Letter I. 
 Works, p. 205 (ed. Balston). 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 Rebowndyn, or sowndyn a->,ene, Reboo. — 
 Prompt. Purv. 
 
RECOUNT 
 
 646 ) 
 
 BO AM 
 
 I rehmiide, as the sownde of a home, or the 
 sownde of a bell, or ones voyce dothe, ie 
 boundys, ie resonne. — Palsgrave. 
 
 Behonnd seems to be an older word 
 in the language than hound (not in 
 Frompt. Farv.), and has preserved 
 something of the original meaning, 
 which hound has not. Compare Prov. 
 hondir, to resomid, old Fr. hondie, a 
 resounding noise. Low Lat. hutida, 
 sound of a drum, from lomhiia/re con- 
 tracted into hontare, hondare (Scheler). 
 
 Eecount, p. 319. Similarly repeal 
 should properly herapeal, being derived 
 from old Fr. rapeler {MoA. Fr. rappeler) 
 Lat. re-ad-pellare, and so standing for 
 re-appeal ; the Fr. ra- has been altered 
 into the ordinary prefix re-. Also re- 
 vile' sta,nds ioi ravile, from old Fr. re- 
 aviler (Skeat) ; and resemhle for Fr. 
 rassemhUr, i.e. re-assemhle, Lat. re-ad- 
 simvlare. 
 
 Eecovee, p. 319. Compare Norm. 
 Fr. " Peri sanz recuverer ." — Vie de St. 
 Aulan, 1. 1655. 
 
 Eedcoal, p. 319. 
 
 Thys kynde g;roweth in Morpeth in Nor- 
 thumberland and there it is called Redco. It 
 slioulde be called after the olde saxoa en- 
 frlishe Rettihcol, that is Radishe colle. — W. 
 Turner, Names of Herbes, 1518, p. 78 (E. 
 D. S.). 
 
 Keel, a Scottish dance, formerly 
 spelt reill (1591), is the Gaelic righil, 
 apparently assimilated to reel, old Eng. 
 relcn, to wind about or turn round and 
 round, as if a circular dance like waltz 
 from Ger. ivalzen, just as It. rigoletto, a 
 dance, is akin to rigolo, a little wheel, 
 and rigolare, to roll round. So Glos- 
 sary to G. Douglas, Biihes of Eneados, 
 1710, s.v. Bele, to roll. 
 
 Man and iVlaidens wheel 
 They themselves make the reel. 
 And their music's a prey which they seize. 
 Wordsworth, Poems of' the Fancy, xxiv. 
 
 Refuse, Prov., Portg. refusar, Sp. 
 rehusa/r. Norm. Fr. refusum, to repu- 
 diate {Vie de St. Auhan, 1635), It. W- 
 fusare, all modifications of Lat. recusare 
 under the influence of Lat. ref 
 
 Eelay, a fi'esh supply, has nothing 
 to do with re-lay, to lay again, but is 
 an Anglicization of Fr. relais, a rest, a 
 relief, a fresh set, a relay, apparently 
 akin to re-laisscr, Lat. rela,i'are, and so 
 
 another form of release. But we also 
 find in French relayer, to refresh, re- 
 lieve, or ease another by an undertak- 
 ing of his task (Cotgrave). Far relais, 
 by turnes, by change of hands, one rest- 
 ing while another labours (Id.).{ 
 Radly relat^es and restez theire horsez. 
 
 Morte Arihure, 1. 1529. 
 [They quickly relax and rest theii* horses.] 
 Eepabtbb, a mis-speUing of repwrty 
 (Howell), or repartie, Fr. repartie, a 
 reply, from false analogy to words like 
 refugee, lessee, patentee, &c. So gua- 
 rantee is incorrect for gxiaranty or 
 garanfy, O. Fr. garrantie, a warranty; 
 and grandee for Sp. grande. 
 
 Eeokling, p. 318, in Lancashire 
 corruptly a ritling. 
 
 He's twice as strong as Sankey'a little rit- 
 ling of a lad, as works till he cries for his 
 legs aching so. — Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, 
 ch. viii. 
 
 EiFT, an eructation (Bailey; Gleme- 
 land Glossary ; Lonsdale), supposed to 
 be the same word as rift, a rent or 
 breach (from to rive), as if a disruption 
 or breaking of flatulence, is really a 
 distinct word, akin to Dan. rcehe, to 
 eructate, Swed. rapa. 
 
 EoAM, p. 326. Prof. Skeat compares 
 prov. Eng. ramc, to ramble, gad about, 
 spread out, A. Sax d-rSman, to spread. 
 For the confusion with Eonie-runniiui, 
 or going on pilgrimages, he notes the 
 identity of idea in the lines : — 
 Religious roinares "recordare'' in here 
 cloistres. 
 
 VLiion of P. Plowman, B. iv. 120, 
 And alle Rome-renmres ' for robberes of 
 
 biSonde 
 Bere no siluer ouer see. Id. 128. 
 
 An early use of the word is — 
 And now rapis hym to ryse & rom fi'om his 
 bede. 
 
 Destruction of Troy, 1. 818. 
 [He now hastes him to rise and roam from 
 his bed.] 
 
 The suggestion that the saunterer 
 was originally a sans tcrre or "lack- 
 land " {Notes from the 3Iuniments of 
 St. Mary Magdalen Coll., Oxford, ed. 
 Macray, p. 97), and therefore a vagrant 
 or wanderer — just as the migratory 
 martin was constituted the heraldic 
 difference of a younger son from his 
 having no property of his own — rests 
 on no sufficient basis. 
 
BOOT 
 
 ( 647 ) 
 
 SGHOBB UGK 
 
 Boot, p. 329. 
 
 With wratlie he begynnus to wrote, 
 He ruskes vppe mony a rote, 
 'With tusshes of iij. fote. 
 
 Avowynge of Arthur, xii. 1;{. 
 
 EosEMAEY, p. 330. From a confusion 
 between {Eos)marinus and Marianus, 
 Bauhin in his book De Planiis a divis 
 Sandisfoe nomen habent'ibus (1591), in- 
 cludes romarin, " arbrede Marie " (De 
 Gubernatis, Mijfhologie des Flaydes, i. 
 217). 
 
 Bound ('2), p. 331. Compare Isle of 
 Wight rongs, the steps of a ladder (E. 
 
 D. S. Orig. Ghssaries, xxiii.). 
 
 Ruffian, p. 333. 
 
 There may bee (in God's account) as great 
 offence in cutting or shaving off the haire on 
 either head or beard, as in the rujfin-like 
 groath. — W. Streai, The Dividing of the Hoof, 
 1654, p. U8. 
 
 He would not spare to reprove whatsoever 
 lie found amiss in any sort, their very hair 
 and habit it self, which he alwayes required 
 to be grave and modest, becoming Divines 
 the Embassadors of Christ, and not like 
 Ruffians and the AVoers of Penelope : To that 
 purpose under his Signification Paper for 
 Orders upon the Cathedral Door was some- 
 times also written, " Xemo accedat petitum 
 sacros Ordines cumlong^ Caesarie." — Ftuioe, 
 Life ofHacket, p. xxxvii. (prefixed to Hachet, 
 Century of Sermons, 1675). 
 
 RuNNABLE, p. 335. Robert of Glou- 
 cester also uses renable (= old Fr. 
 raisnahk) of the tongue. He says of 
 Wilham Rufus : — 
 Renable nas he no3t of tonge, ao of speche 
 
 hastyf, 
 Boffyng, & mest wanne he were in wrajrjie, 
 
 ojjer in stryf. Chronicle, p. 114. 
 
 Renable, loquacious, and never at a stop or 
 inconsistent in telling a story. — K. B. Peacock, 
 Lons(hle Glossary. 
 
 Rusty, restive, stubborn, perverse 
 (p. 335). Shakespeare evidently re- 
 garded this word as akin to rust, the 
 oxide of iron. 
 
 Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle ; 
 Mild as a dove, but neither true nor ti-usty ; . . 
 Softer thau wax, and yet, as irmi, rusty. 
 
 The Passionate Pilgrim, St. 5. 
 
 In the Lancashire dialect reesty is 
 used both of bacon which has become 
 strong and rancid, and of anything 
 rusted or discoloured {Lane. Glossa/ry, 
 
 E. D. Soc). 
 
 If their Masters see them, how nimble at a 
 
 start are they, but if their backes bee turned, 
 how resin and lazy !— Kngers, Naamaii the 
 Syrian, 1611, p. 30-i. 
 
 \ words popularly re- 
 s, / garded as of the same 
 
 Sage, 
 
 Sagacious, 
 family (e.g. by Richardson), have no- 
 thing in common, the first being Fr. 
 sage, from Lat. sapius {saUus), sapient, 
 wise, the latter from Lat. sagac-s, sa- 
 gax, quick-witted, from sagire, to per- 
 ceive. Compare the unrelated words 
 proposal and proposition (p. 301), com- 
 pose and composition, trifle and trivial 
 (p. 405), litany and litii/rgy, pen and 
 pencil, scullery and scullion below. 
 
 Sailor, a mis-spelling of sailer, one 
 who sails (corresponding to rower, 
 huilder, lover, &o.), from false analogy 
 to tailor (from old Fr. tailleor), actor, 
 author, conqueror, which are of Fr.- 
 Lat. origin. Similarly heggar, cater- 
 pillar, liar, pedlav, which should be 
 hegger, &o., have been mistakenly as- 
 similated to words like hursar, regis- 
 tra/r, scholar, vicar, of Latin derivation. 
 
 Sand-blind, p. 339. Dr. R. Morris 
 compares sam-liale, half-whole {Cursor 
 Mundi); sam-rede, half-red (Langland); 
 " Sand-blind, toothless, and deformed." 
 — Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy {His- 
 torical Eng. Grammm; p. 220). We 
 may also compare Span, sancocha/i; to 
 parboil, from Lat. semA-cocttts, half- 
 cooked. 
 
 Sanders, or saunders, an old word 
 for sandal-wood, is a corruption, per- 
 haps under the iniJuenoe of the plant- 
 name ale.vanders, of Fr. sandal, Pers. 
 chanilal, chandan, Sansk. cliandana, 
 sandal- wood (Skeat). 
 
 Scavenger's Daughter, p. 343, for- 
 merly called Shevington's Daughter, 
 1604; '' ScavingeriFilia," W15; Slce- 
 vyngton's Gives, 1564. See Na/rratives 
 of the Reformation, p. 189 (Camden 
 Soc). 
 
 Scent, p. 343. So scythe is a false 
 spelling of old Eng. sythe or sithe, 
 A. Sax. sijpe (Skeat). 
 
 ScHORBUCK, p. 343. Prof. Skeat 
 maintains, and he is probably right, 
 that Low Ger. schorhock, scharhuulc. 
 
SOO UB 
 
 ( 648 ) SOnUBBY-GBASS 
 
 though meaning " rupture of the belly" 
 (as if " shear-bulk "), being also spelt 
 scorhuf, is the original of Low Lat. 
 scoriutus, scurvy. The word and thing 
 appear to have come from northern 
 Europe. 
 
 About anno 1530, the Disease called the 
 Scurvy did first infest Denmark, Norway and 
 Lithuania only, but now 'tis become deadly 
 almost iu all maritime places, especially to 
 ]\[ariners. — N. ]]'anley, Wonders of the Little 
 World, 1678, p. 37, col. 2. 
 
 ScoDR, to traverse hastily, e.g. " to 
 scour the plain," supposed to have ori- 
 ginated from scour, to rub hard, with 
 reference to the quick motion used 
 in scrubbing utensils, 0. Fr. escurer, 
 It. scurare, Lat. ex-curare, to care 
 thoroughly (so Wedgwood and Skeat). 
 But surely scour here, prov. and old 
 Eng. scur, to move quickly (sometimes 
 spelt sKrr or shir, as iu Shakespeare), 
 are from old Er. escourir. It. scorrere, 
 "to rtmne ouer, to runne here and 
 there, to gad or wander to and fro," 
 from Lat. esi-currere or dis-cwrere. 
 Hence also It. scorreria, " an outrode 
 or excursion," which yields old Eng. 
 scurrer (Berners), or scwrryer (P. Ver- 
 gil), a scout. So to scour is to make a 
 scur, 'scursion, or excursion. 
 
 I . . . well-mounted scurr'd 
 A horse troop through and through. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Lover's Cure, 
 ii. 2. 
 Light shadows 
 Tliat in a thought scur o'er the fields of corn. 
 Id. [in Wedgwood]. 
 
 Compare the related word scorse, to 
 run out (exctirse). 
 
 And from the country back to private farmes 
 he scorsed. 
 
 Spenser, F. Q. VI. ix. ,5. 
 
 And yet here sJcowre means to clear, 
 cleanse, or free : — • 
 
 He was appointed to showre the seas from 
 unlawful! adventurers. — Haywurd, Annuls of 
 Elisabeth, ah. 161'.', p. 49 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Create shippes ... to guard the coastes, 
 to scoure the seas, and to be in a redinease for 
 all adventures. — Id. p. 76. 
 
 Curiously enough, the next article in 
 Prof. Skeat's Diotionary is also, I be- 
 lieve, incorrect. Scowge, Fr. escourgee, 
 "athong, latchet, scourge" (Cotgrave), 
 old Fr. escorgie, is the same word as 
 It. scoreggia [scorreggia), a scourge, a 
 whip (Florio), which is only an inten- 
 
 sified form of correggia, a strap, a 
 scourge, the latchet of a shoe {Id.), 
 from Lat. corrigia, a shoe-latchet. 
 Compare scorgere for ex-corrigere. 
 
 SCEAPB, p. 345. 
 
 Limits should be set to the conviviality 
 which betrays respectable soldiers into irre- 
 trievable scrapes. — Saturday Revieiv, vol. 53 
 p. 58. ' 
 
 Yon Mary Barton has getten into some 
 scrape or another. — Mrs. Gashell, Mary Bar- 
 ton, ch. XXX. 
 
 She . . . was peculiarly liable to be led into < 
 scrapes in such society. — Shortlwuse, John 
 Inglesant, i. 161. 
 
 Scratch, p. 346. Compare Lanca- 
 shire Owd Scrat, the devil (E. D. Soo. 
 Glossary). 
 
 Screw, p. 346. The two words here 
 referred to, Fr. ecrouelles (from Lat. 
 scrofula, dim. oi scrofa, (1) a rooting or 
 rending, (2) a rooting pig) and eerou 
 (old Fr. escroue, from Lat. scrob-s, a 
 digging, a trench), are radically identi- 
 cal, being from the same root scrah, 
 scrawh, scraVble, to scrape. 
 
 Screw, a Scottish word for a small 
 stack of hay, is probably a corruption 
 of Gael, cruach, a rick or heap (Jamie- 
 son). 
 
 Scroll is a corruption, by assimila- 
 tion to roll, of old Eng. scrotv {Prompt. 
 Parv.), shro (Laneham, 1575), sorowe 
 (Ancrren Eiwle) , of Scandinavian origin, 
 loel. shrd, a scroU, old Dan. shraa 
 (pronounced shro), old Fr. escroiie. So 
 Marsh, Lectures on Eng. Language, 
 p. 354 (ed. Smith), who quotes, "a 
 sorowe of parch emyn." — Richard Ooer 
 deLion; "The Lolardis set up scrowj's." 
 — Capgrave, p. 260. Compare Bristol, 
 formerly spelt Bristoice, Bricgstow, 
 " Bridge-place." 
 
 The scrow of the edict sent was unfolded- 
 — Holland, Ammianus MarceUinus, 1609 
 [Nares]. 
 
 Fdateries that ben smale scrmois. — Wycliffe, 
 S. Matt, xxiii. 5. 
 
 Here bring 1 in a storie to mee lent. 
 That a good Squire in time of Parliament 
 Tooke vnto mee well written in a scrowe. 
 Libel of Eng. Policie, Hakluyt, Voiages, 
 1598, i. 190. 
 
 ScEDBBY-GRASs, p. 346, and shaifa- 
 hdl, p. 505 (cormorant's herb). It is 
 probably scurvy-grass that is a corrup- 
 tion of the latter word, and not vice 
 versa. 
 
SGULLEBY 
 
 ( G49 ) 
 
 SIGE 
 
 Scullery, p. 347. So also Prof. 
 Skeat, who cites A. Sax. siviUan, to 
 wash (compare sicill, to wash down, or 
 swallow, copiously). Thus scnllcry 
 stands for squillery or swillcry, the 
 room of the S(juiller, old Eng. squyllare, 
 or awiller, or washer, and curious to 
 say has no connexion with the name 
 of its frequenter the scullion, which 
 means a " sweeper," from Fr. escouiUon 
 forescowOT'MoWjfromLat. scopce, a broom. 
 On the other hand skillet, a small pot, 
 stands for sl-ullet, being derived from 
 old Fr. escuelleitc, a dimin. of escuelle, 
 a dish, Lat. scutella. 
 
 Childer for Offices in Houshold . . . The 
 Kechyng j The Squillery j . — Xorthumberland 
 Househoid Book, 15i2, p. 45. 
 
 Seakch, p. 847. 
 
 He will tiy, si/'t, search all thinp;s . . . ac- 
 cording to every man's works. — Bp. Nichol- 
 son, On Catechism (16fil), p. 61 (ed. 1849). 
 
 Selvage, p. 348. Prof. Skeat quotes 
 "The self-edge makes show of the 
 cloth." — Bay's Proverbs, ed. 1787. 
 
 Set, p. 348, another form of suit. 
 
 The fanpn was usually of the same suit, 
 "de e'ddem sec(d," as the stole. — iVay, 
 Prompt. Pan. p. 149, note 2. 
 Her visage spoke wisdom, and modesty too ; 
 
 Sets [== suits] with Robin Hood such a lass. 
 
 Rubin Hood's Birth, &cc. 1. 26 (Child's 
 
 Ballads, V. 348). 
 
 A siluer salt, a bowle for wine (if not an 
 whole neast) and a dozzen of spoones to fdr- 
 nish vp the sute. — Holinshed, Chron. i. 188 
 (1586). 
 
 Old Eng. to set is another form of to 
 suit : — 
 
 Hit wold sothely me set as souerayne in 
 Joye. 
 
 Destruction of Troy, 1. 223. 
 It sets him weel, wi' vile unscrapit tongue 
 To cast up whether I be auld or young. 
 
 A. Ramsay, Gentle Shepherd. 
 
 ., Shamefaced, p. 851. Compare 
 also : — 
 
 And next to her sate goodly Shamefastnesse, 
 Ne ever durst her eyes from ground up- 
 
 reare, . .'. 
 That in her cheekes made roses oft appeare. 
 Spenser, F. Queene, IV. x. 50, 
 
 Shankbr, p. 851. 
 Your several new-found remedies 
 Of curing wounds and scabs in trees, . . . 
 Recovering shankers, crystallines, 
 And nodes and blotches in their rinds. 
 Butter, Hudibrus, Pt. II. iii. 1212. 
 
 Shell, p. 858. 
 
 Eruiliu. It is lyke a pease, the shale is 
 roughe wythin, and the seede liath litle blacke 
 spottes init.— II". Turner, Names of Herbes, 
 1548, p. 36 (E. D. S.). 
 
 Shelter, so spelt as if an agential 
 form, a " shielder " (so Wedgwood), 
 hke holler, roller, scraper, fender, ladder 
 (Haldeman, p. 146), is no doubt a 
 corruption of old Eng. aheltrom, schel- 
 trom, A. Sax. scyld-truma, a strong 
 shield (lit. a troop-shield), also an armed 
 troop ; e.g. " Ar the scheltroms come to- 
 ge&dera."—Trevisa. (See Skeat, Notes 
 to P. Plowman, p. 825.) 
 For-jji mesure we vs wel • and make owre 
 faithe owre scheltroun. 
 
 Vision of P. Plowman, B. xiv. 81. 
 
 Shillingstone, a place-name in 
 Dorset, formerly also BhilUng Ochford, 
 both corruptions of the old name Sche- 
 lin's Ockford, i.e. Ookford, or Ackford, 
 belonging to its Domesday Lord, Sche- 
 liu (Antiqtiarian Mag., Aug. 1882, p. 
 
 Shoot, p. 354. Compare Isle of 
 Wight shoot or chute, a steep hill in a 
 lane or road (E. D. S. Orig. Glossaries, 
 xxiii.). 
 
 I was climbing the shoot at the side of the 
 butt. 
 A Dream of the Isle of Wight (Id. p. 51). 
 
 Shottel, a Cumberland form of 
 schedule (E. D. S. Orig. Glossaries, C. 
 p. 111). 
 
 Shut, p. 856, rid, or quit of. Com- 
 pare Lancashhe, " Tha con howd it up 
 when tha's getten shut o' thi load." — 
 Lahee, Charity Goat, p. 14 {Lane. Glos- 
 sary, E.D.S.) ; and shuttance, riddance, 
 " Good shuttance to bad rubbish " (cf. 
 "to shoot rubbish ") ; " He's gone, an' 
 a good shuttance it is " {Id. p. 239). 
 
 Better ... he were shut of this weary- 
 world, where there's neither justice normercy 
 left. — Mrs. Gaslietl, Mary Barton, oh. xxx. 
 
 SiBELL, p. 557. Conjpare : — 
 They hold hym wysery'^'^ euer was syblesage. 
 Play of the Sacrament, 1. 431 (Philolog. 
 Soc. 1860-1). 
 And Syble the Sage, that well fayer maye 
 To tell you of prophescye. 
 Chester Mysteries, i. 100 (Shaks. Soc). 
 
 SiGE (Greek), "Silence," the primi- 
 tive substance of the univei'se in the 
 Babylonian cosmogony of Berosus, re- 
 
SINGLE 
 
 ( 650 ) 
 
 SLEEVELESS 
 
 presents the Accadian Zicu or Zigara, 
 heaven, " the mother of gods and men " 
 (Sayce ; Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, 
 p. 123). In the same writer Musaros, 
 " abominable " (/ivaapbc), a title of the 
 god Cannes, is a mere transcription of 
 the Assyrian musiru, "he who ordains 
 justice, law " (Lenormant, p. 203) ; 
 'Evcvl3ov\oe for Assyrian Eni-huhu ; 
 MeyaXapoQ for Mulu-urugal ; Tirav for 
 Eta-ana (p. 204). So Asshur, the He- 
 brew name .of Assyria (as if from Heb. 
 asshur, a step), stands for Babylonian 
 Ausar, Accadian a-usar, "border of the 
 water" {Id. p. 334). 
 
 Single, an old word for an animal's 
 tail, is no doubt a corrupt form of 
 swingle, A. Sax. swingel, a lash, a beat- 
 ing (from swengan, to swinge, or lash, 
 Ettmiiller, p. 757), and so denotes that 
 which swings or flaps about like a 
 swingle or flail. 
 
 I haue both hempe and lyne, . . 
 And a swtingiiU good and grete. 
 The [Krig/ii's Chaste Wife, 1. 216. 
 
 So single-tree, the swinging bar to 
 which horses are harnessed when 
 drawing a coach, is a corruption of 
 swingle-tree, and has originated a fresh 
 mistake in douhle-tree, as a name for a 
 ling cross-piece. For the 
 
 loss of w, compare thong for thwong (A. 
 Sax. ]>ioang), and Sight, p. 357. 
 
 Davies, Supp. Eng. Glossary, quotes 
 the following : — 
 
 There's a kind of acid humour that nature 
 hath put in our singles, the smell whereof 
 causeth our enemies, viz. tlie dog'gs, to fly 
 from us. — HowcU, Parly of Beasts, p. 63. 
 That single wagging at thy butt, 
 Those gambrels, and that cloven foot. 
 Cottov, Burlesque upon Burlesque, 
 p. 277. 
 
 Sink, p. 358. Compare Lancashu-e 
 silce, and syhe, a drain or gutter. 
 
 SiBLOiN, p. 359. Wedgwood quotes 
 "A surloyn beeff" from a document 
 temp. Henry VI. 
 
 Skillet, a Suffolk word for a utensil 
 for skimming milk, properly a Uttle 
 dish, O. Fr. escuellette, seems to have 
 acquired its peculiar sense from confu- 
 sion with Icel. shilja, to separate 
 (Skeat), Dan. slciUc. Compare North 
 Eng. sMlc, an implement for skimming 
 the fat off broth (Wright), that which 
 
 scales or separates, also sMle, to sepa-- 
 rate ; Cleveland scale-dish, a milk- 
 skimmer. 
 
 Skewer, p. 360. Compare Isle of 
 Wight sTcure, to secure, and shiver, a 
 skewer (E. D. S. Orig. Glossaries, 
 xxiii.). 
 
 Slack, a prov. Eng. word (common 
 in Ireland) for fine small coal used 
 when wetted to bank up a fire so that 
 it may continue to burn slowly without 
 blazing, has no direct connexion with 
 slach, loose, as if disintegrated coal, but 
 is the same word as Lancashire slech, 
 of the same meaning, that which sleeks 
 or slakes the fire, old Eng. slehlcen, to 
 quench, A. Sax. sleccan. 
 
 Slavee, a modified and, as it were, 
 a more "genteel" form of slabber oi 
 slobher (Skeat). It was perhaps assi- 
 milated by educated people to Lat. 
 saliva, of the same meaning. 
 
 Sleeper, p. 361. Notwithstanding 
 the correspondence to dormant, which 
 no doubt has had some influence on 
 the form, this word appears to have 
 no real connexion with sleep, to remain 
 steady. Prof. Skeat says that it is due 
 to the Norwegian sleip, meaning (1) 
 smooth, sUppery, (2) a smooth piece of 
 tunberlaid as the foundation of a road, 
 akin to Mid. Eng. slepir, slippery, and 
 slab, a smooth piece of stone, &c. Thus 
 sleeper is merely an (old Eng.) slipper; 
 or slippery, or smooth, block of wood. 
 For the apparent connexion mentioned 
 above, compare, " Beames, prickeposts, 
 groundsels, summers or dormants." — 
 Harrison, Description of England, p. 
 233 (E.E.T.S.). In the extract from 
 Bailey (ed. 1753) sumner is a misprint 
 for summer. However, this sleeper and 
 sleep are ultimately related, as to sleep 
 probably meant originally to sUp or be- ' 
 come relaxed, as we still sometimes 
 say "to slip off to sleep," and Scot. 
 slippery is a form of sleepery or sleepy 
 (Jamieson). 
 
 Sleeveless, useless, unprofitable, p. 
 361. Professor Skeat offers the sug- 
 gestion, which will not, I think, recom- 
 mend itself to many, that a sleeiieless 
 errand may have meant originally a 
 herald's errand, because (1) a herald's 
 coat had no sleeves, and (2) his errand 
 
SLO W- WORM 
 
 ( 651 ) 
 
 SOBBV 
 
 frequently led to no useful result (!). 
 Compare, in tlie Lancashire dialect, 
 " Doancin' an' sich like sZeetietess wark ; " 
 " Yoar'n gooin a sleeveless arnt." — 
 Collier, 1750 (E. D. S. Glossary, p. 
 245). 
 
 They are the likelier, qiioth Bracton, 
 To bring us many a sleeveless action. 
 S. Butter, ]Vorks, ii. ^'96 (ed. Clarke). 
 
 Slow-worm, p. 361. A better ac- 
 count of this word is that given by 
 Prof. Skeat. He shows that it is old 
 Eng. slo-wv/rm (Wright, Vocah. i. 91), 
 A. Sax. sld-wyrm, meaning properly 
 the " slay-worm," so called from it being 
 popularly regarded as venomous. He 
 compares Norweg. m-m-slo, Swed. (yrr)i- 
 sla, the worm that strikes or slays, 
 which are just the Eng. word reversed. 
 Thus the word has nothing to do with 
 slow; and consequently has affinity, 
 not with slug, the slow-moving snail, 
 bnt with slug, the swift bullet (from 
 A. Sa,x._slahan, to slay or strike, past 
 tense sldg). 
 
 Slug-hoen, p. 362. The true Gaelic 
 word from which this is corrupted is 
 sluagh-ghairm, i.e. " army-call," the 
 signal for battle among the Highland 
 clans, generally contracted into slogan 
 (Skeat). The Enghsh form evidently 
 led Browning to regard it as something 
 of the nature of a bugle or horn which 
 could be "set to the lips"! See the 
 extract. 
 
 Smack, a fishing-boat, old Dut. smaJc, 
 sniache, appears to be a corruption of 
 A. Sax. snacc, a small vessel, akin to 
 snake, so called from its sneaking 
 through the water like a snahe. Com- 
 pare Dan. sneMe, (1) a snail, (2) a 
 smack (Skeat). 
 
 Smelt, the fish, generally supposed 
 to have its name from its fragrant 
 thyme-Uke smell, whence its scientific 
 name osmerus (Aperlaniis), i.e. da/irip6e, 
 sweet-smelling. Compare also thy- 
 niallus, i.e. thymy, the name of the 
 grayling or umber. It. thimalo, timalo, 
 " a fish called a flower, goodly to looke 
 upon, and sweet in taste and smell " 
 (Plorio). Prof. Skeat says this is an 
 imaginary etymology, and that the 
 name probably means " smooth," com- 
 paring A. Sax. smeolt, smylt, smooth. 
 
 Smitee, p. 362. 
 Then, Basket, put tliy syniter up, and hear ; 
 I dare not tell the truth to a drawn sword. 
 B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. 3. 
 
 Snowfield, p. 558,for sma;/iZ=" cloud- 
 capt ; " compare : — 
 Off with yon cloud, old SnafelU that thine 
 
 eye 
 Over three Realms may take its widest range. 
 
 IVordsworth, Foems of the Imagination, xxi. 
 
 Sodden, p. 363. Compare Lanca- 
 shire sodden (and thodden), applied to 
 bread which is close-grained and heavy 
 from being imperfectly leavened, and 
 sad, heavy, solid (of a pudding, &c.), 
 sadden (paste, &c.), to thicken it (E. D. 
 Soc. Glossarry,]!. 230).- Also " pietonncr, 
 to settle, sadden, lay, or beat down 
 with often treading; pietonne, settled, 
 sadned with the feet." — Cotgrave. 
 
 The earth & water, one sad, the other fluid, 
 make but one body. — Donne, Letter, in Poems, 
 1635, p. 1'97. 
 
 Solomon's-Avon, that is Solomon's 
 Even, a curious Shetland name for the 
 3rd of November, and for a superstition 
 of ill-omen connected with that day 
 (Edmondston, Fhilolog. Soc. Trans. 
 1866, p. 113). 
 
 I have no doubt that this is a corrup- 
 tion of Soivlemas Even or Soul-mass 
 Even ; Sowlemas Daye or Soivlemesday 
 being an old name for the Feast of All 
 Souls which fell on the 2nd of No- 
 vember. 
 
 I cam to Norwiche on Sowlemas daije. — 
 Paston Letters (1452), iii. 170, ed. Fenn 
 (Hampstm, Medii Aevi Kalendarium, ii. oCiS; 
 Brand, Pop. Antiq. i. 392). 
 
 SoEEY, p. 364. This word was for- 
 merly spelt more correctly sory or sorie, 
 i.e. sorish, feeling sore. A notable in- 
 stance of the complete identification of 
 " to be soi-ry " with " to sorrow," words 
 totally unrelated, is presented in the 
 following passage, where they are used 
 to translate the one Greek word, iXv- 
 7rr}6r]T^ : — 
 
 Now I reioyce, not that ye were made 
 sorie, but that yee sorrowed to repentance : for 
 ye were made sory after a godly maner, — 
 A. V. 1611, 2 Cor.'vii. 9. 
 
 I nowe reioyce, not that ye were sori/, but 
 that ye so sorowed that ye amended : for ye 
 sorouied Godly. — Geneva Vers. 1557, ibid. 
 
 But 1 now reioyce, not that ye were sort/, 
 but that ye so sorowed, that ye repented. 
 For ye sorowed godly. — Tyndale, 1531, ibid. 
 
SPELL 
 
 ( 652 ) 
 
 STEW 
 
 Now I haue ioie, not for ye weren made 
 sorowejutj but for ye weren made sorowfut to 
 penaunce, for wbi ye bea made sorie aftir 
 god.— Wiclif, 13B0,'ibid. (Bagster, Hexapla). 
 
 For a further confusion between A. Sax. 
 sur, sour, and sdr, sore, compare " Thou 
 shalt . . . abyen it ful soure " (Chaucer, 
 Sir Thopas, 1. 2012), pay for it full sourly 
 {£or sorely ; " fiou salt it sore abugge." 
 — Layamon, 8158). See Prof. Skeat's 
 note in loco, Clar. Press ed. Compare 
 Isle of Wight sorrow for sorrel (E. D. S. 
 Orig. Olossa/ries, xxiii.). 
 
 Spell, a thin slip of wood, properly, 
 as in old Eng. and A. Saxon, speld, has 
 been assimilated to the verb to spell 
 (A. Sax. spellian), from the old use in 
 schools of a slip of wood, or " festue to 
 spell with." — Palsgrave. So complete 
 was the confusion that spelder, a splinter 
 (from speld), is used as a verb meaning 
 to spell, ab. 1500. (See Skeat.) 
 
 Spout is a perversion, under the in- 
 fluence of spit, Lat. sputare (Swed. 
 spotta), of the primitive form sprout, 
 Swed. spruta, to squirt, Dan. sprude, 
 sprutte, to spout. Low Ger. sprutten, 
 akin to sprebtan, to shoot out, sprout 
 (Skeat). Compare speak for spreah. 
 
 Spurrings, p. 368. In N. Lincoln- 
 shire this word is used for traces or 
 footmarks (B. D. Soc. Orig. Glossaries, 
 C. p. 121). 
 
 Stab Chambbe, p. 370. 
 
 By the king's commandment, and assent 
 of his council in the starred chamber, the 
 chancellor and treasurer sent a writ unto the 
 sheriffs of London. — Stow, Survau, 1603, p. 
 11.3 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 This place is called the Star chamber, be- 
 cause the roof thereof is decked with the like- 
 ness of stars gilt. — Id. p. 17.3 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Staek-blind, p. 370. Prof. Skeat 
 compares old Eng. siare-hUnd with Dan. 
 stcBrUind, from star, a cataract in the 
 eye. 
 
 As those that are starh blind can trace 
 The nearest way from place to place. 
 5. Biitkr, Woiks, ii. 261 
 (ed. Clarke). 
 
 Stark-naked, p. 370. Prof. Skeat 
 (s. V.) says that steorc-nahed in the 
 Ancren Biiole must be a misreading of 
 sfrort-nahed ; steort-nahet in St. Juhana, 
 p. 16. 
 
 Anon he comes, and throws his mantle by 
 And stood stark naked on the brook's green 
 brim. 
 Shakespeare, Passionate Pilgrim, st. 2. 
 
 Starling, p. 371. 
 
 The smaller sums also were paid in star- 
 Zings which were pence so called. . 
 William the Conqueror's penny also was 
 fine silver of the weight of the easterlin£.~ 
 Stow, Sunay, 1603, p. 20 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 The easterling pence took their name of 
 the Easterlings which did first make this 
 money in England, in the reign of Henrv 
 II.— id. p. 21. •' 
 
 Staves-acre, p. 372. 
 Staphis agria is called in englishe Status 
 aker, in duch Bisz muntz or Lauskraut, iu 
 frenche de lee staues agrie. — W. Turner, 
 Names of Heibes, 15i8, p. 77 (E.D.S.). 
 As staphisagre medled in thaire mete 
 Wol hele her tonnge. 
 Paltadias on Husbondrie (ab. 1420), 1. 596. 
 
 Steelyard, p. 372. As instances of 
 the old verb stell or steel, to set or 
 place, compare : — 
 Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath 
 
 steU'd [Quarto steeld'] 
 Thy beauty's form in table of my heart. 
 
 Shakespeare, Sonnets, xxiv. 
 To find a face where all distress is steU'd. 
 Lucrece, 1. 1444. 
 
 Stern, severe, which should rather 
 be spelt sto-m,being from A. Sax. styrne, 
 severe, has been assimilated to the 
 other word stern, the hinder part of a 
 ship (Skeat). Or rather it has been 
 confused with austern, an old Eng. 
 form of austere, Scot, asterne (G. Doug- 
 las). Compare the following two ver- 
 sions of Wychffe, where the Vulgate 
 has " austeruB homo " : — 
 
 I dredde thee, for tliou art an aiisteme 
 man. — S. Luke, xix. 21 (ed. Bosworth and 
 Waring-). 
 
 I drede thee : for thou art a stern'e man. — 
 Ibid. (Bagster's Hexapla). 
 
 Antenor arghet with austerne wordes. 
 Destruction of Troii, 1. 1976 (E.E.T.S.). 
 
 Stew, p. 374. Compare Isle of 
 Wight stew, fear, anxiety (E. D. S. 
 Orig. Glossaries, C. xxiii.), N. Lincoln- 
 shire dust, figuratively noise, turmoil 
 [Id. C. xxvi.). 
 
 Stew, a place to keep fish ahve for 
 present use (Bailey), has not hitherto 
 been explained. It is a distinct word 
 from stew, a bath, which is only another 
 form of stove. 
 
STORE 
 
 ( 663 ) 
 
 BUCKET 
 
 Ful many a fat partrich hadde he in mewe, 
 And many a breme, an(\many a luce in stewe. 
 
 Chaucer^ Cant, Tales^ 1. 351. 
 Two stewes must thou make in ertheor stoone, 
 Kot fer from home, and bryng water therto. 
 Palladius on Husbondrie (^ab. 1 120), 1. 7j8. 
 
 The word properly means an enclo- 
 sure, and was sometimes used for a 
 small room or closet, e.g. : — 
 Troilus, that stode and might it see 
 Throughout a litel window in a stewe 
 Ther he beshet, sith midnight, was in mewe. 
 
 Id. Troilus and Cfeseide, iii. 602. 
 And gan the stewe dore al soft unpin. 
 
 Ibid. 699. 
 
 It is derived from old Eng. stewe, to 
 enclose, old Pr. esiiticr, to enclose, en- 
 case, or shut up (Boqvtefort), and so is 
 akin to Tweezers, p. 411. 
 
 [Thay] alle stewede wyth strenghe, that stode 
 theme agaynes. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 1489. 
 
 Stoke, p. 375. The Oest Hysforiale 
 of the Destrudion of Troy describes 
 Paris as " A store man & a stoute " 
 (1. 2886), and Helen as having a nose 
 "stondyng full streght & not of stor 
 lenght." This old word for great, large, 
 probably re-acted on the substantive 
 store, a stock, giving it the meaning of 
 a large quantity, abundance, a multi- 
 tude. Compare the twofold use in the 
 following : — 
 
 He [Ocean] also sends Armies of Fishes to 
 her Coasts, to winne her Loue, euen of his 
 best store, and that in store and abundance. — 
 Purchas, Pilgrimages, vol. i. p. 937. 
 Fram fiore into flore 
 Jje strimes urnejj store. 
 
 Floriz and Blaunchejiur, 1. 228. 
 [The sti'eams run abundantly.] 
 When there hath been store of people to 
 hear sermons and service in church, we suffer 
 the communion to be administered to a few. 
 — Hooker, Eccles. Polity, v. ch. 68 (vol. ii. 
 p. 14, Oxford ed.). 
 
 One little world or two 
 (Alas !) will never do ; 
 We must have store. 
 Croskaw, Najne q^' Jesus, 1. 26. 
 We found mariages great store both in 
 townes and villages in many places where 
 wee passed of boyes of eight or ten yeeres 
 old.— Haldui/t, Voiages, 1599, ii. 253. 
 
 Steand, the twist of a rope,.is an as- 
 similation to the more familiar word 
 strand, beach, of Dut. streen, a skein, 
 another form of Dut. streng, a hank or 
 string, Ger. strahne. On the other 
 
 hand, compare string, p. 377, for strend, 
 race. 
 
 Stubboen, old Eng. stiborn, which 
 should properly be stuhhor, old Eng. 
 stibor, i.e. sttih-like, as immovable as 
 the staib (A. Sax. sfyh) or stock of a tree, 
 seems to owe the final m to a misdivi- 
 sion of the substantive stibornes (stub- 
 hoi'ness) as stiborn-(n)ess, instead of 
 stibor-nes (Skeat). 
 
 Stuck, p. 377, as if from the verb 
 to sticTi, is rather from old Fr. estoc, a 
 rapier or tuck, also a thrust (Cot- 
 grave). 
 
 St. Vitus Dance, p. 377. St. Vitus, 
 to whom the cathedral at Prague is 
 dedicated, is said to be merely an in- 
 genious adaptation of the name of an 
 old Slavonic god Svatovit or Svantovit, 
 converted into iSvaty Vit, " Holy 
 Vitus" (A. H. Wratislaw, Monthly 
 Pachet, New Ser. vol. xiii. p. 8). On 
 the other hand, Southey asserts that 
 Sanctus Vitus was converted by the 
 people of the Isle of Rugen into Swan- 
 taimth and regarded as a deity {Letters, 
 vol. iv. p. 43). 
 
 Sty, p. 377. Prof. Skeat adds that 
 the form styany, siyonie, which was 
 misunderstood probably as sty on eye, 
 really stands for A. Sax. stigend edge, 
 i.e. " stying eye," rising eye. 
 
 Subdue, p. 378. ^ Prof. Skeat says 
 that this word is an assimilation of old 
 Eng. soduen (from old Fr. souduire, 
 Lat. subducere) to other words com- 
 pounded with sub, as subject, subjugate. 
 That is to say, by a popular perversion 
 the word was brought back nearer to 
 its true original. 
 
 SucKET, p. 378. J. Sylvester evi- 
 dently regarded sucltet as something 
 to suok at, when in his Tobacco Bat- 
 tered and the Pipes Shattered, 1621, he 
 says that none who take that herb can 
 boast 
 
 That the excessive and continuall vse 
 Of this dry Siick-at ever did produce 
 Him any Good, Civill, or Naturall. 
 
 Works, p. 1135. 
 
 There is some evidence that the Italian 
 zucca, from which this comes, was once 
 partly naturalized in English as zowche, 
 a sweet-meat ; compare : — 
 
 George Zouche, as he was named so was 
 
SUMPTEB 
 
 ( 654 ) 
 
 SWIM 
 
 lie 1 zowche, a swheete well-favored gentyl- 
 inan in dede. — Narratives of the Reformation, 
 p. 54 (Camden Soc). 
 
 There's thirtji hearts there, that wad hae 
 wanted bread ere ye had wanted mnkets, and 
 spent their life-blood ere ye had scratched 
 your finger. — Scott, Guy Mannering, oh. viii. 
 
 SuMPTEK, p. 379. Prof. Skeat says 
 this word properly denotes, not the 
 pack-horse, but his driver, and is from 
 old Fr. smimetier, a pack-horse driver, 
 corresponding to a Low Lat. sagma- 
 tarius. 
 
 SuEOEASE owes its form and meaning 
 to a remarkable folk-etymology, as has 
 been pointed out by Prof. Skeat : — " It 
 is obvious, from the usual spelling, 
 that this word is popularly supposed to 
 be alUed to cease, with which it has no 
 etymological connexion." It is a mon- 
 strous corruption of old Fr. sursis, a 
 delay, properly the past parte, {sursis, 
 fem. sursise) of surseoir, to intermit, 
 leave off, delay for a time, which is 
 from Lat. supersedere, to sit over, then 
 to pass over, omit, forbear. A surcease 
 is therefore properly a supersession or 
 intermission, and the original of the 
 verb to surcease, to come to an end, and 
 would be better spelt siirsease, " The 
 kyngdome of Mercia surscased." — 
 I'abyan. Similarly the Fr. form super- 
 ceder (as if from Lat. cedere) is a cor- 
 ruption oi superseder {Eiym. Diet.). 
 
 The Bishop shall surcease from Ordering 
 that person until . . (he) shall be found clear 
 of that crime. — P. B. Ordering of Priests. 
 
 A surcease of armes was agreed upon be- 
 twene the Englishe and the French. — i?ai/- 
 vard. Annuls oj Elizabeth (1612), p. 63 (Cam- 
 den Soc). 
 
 SUECOAT, p. 379. 
 
 A sercotte sett about her necke soe sweete 
 with dyamond &c with Margarett, 
 & many a rich Kmerall. 
 
 Libuis Discnnlus, 1. 942 {Percy Fol. 
 MS. a. 449). 
 The lords, ludges, maior and aldermen, 
 put off their robes, mantles, and cloakes, . . . 
 and the Lordes sate onelie in their circotes, 
 a nd the ludges and A Idermen in their gownes, 
 and all the Lords that serued that dale serued 
 in their circotes. — Stow, Chronicles, p. 955 
 (1600). 
 
 Sdkf is a false spelling with intru- 
 sive r (as in Iwarse for hoasc, &c.) of 
 old Eng. suffc, which seems to be a pho- 
 netic spelhng of sough [sovf], a ground- 
 swell, properly the sound of the sea, 
 
 which again stands for swough, a 
 rushing sound, " The swoghe of the see " 
 (Morte Arthure, 1. 759) ; " The suffe of 
 the sea" (Hakluyt, ii. 227, 1698). 
 See Skeat, JStym. Diet. s.v. The word 
 was perhaps influenced by Fr. swfiot 
 (Lat. super -flucius), the rising of wave 
 over wave. 
 
 StJEGEEY is a corruption of sirurgy 
 or cirurgy, from old Fr. cirwgie, sirm-gie. 
 Low Lat. chirurgia, Greek x^vovpyio, 
 "hand-working""(of operative mani- 
 pulation), by assimilation apparently 
 to midwifery, tMevery, hutchery, car- 
 pentry, sorcery, and other words imply- 
 ing the practice of an art. 
 
 SuEEENDEB, p. 380. Old Fr. mr- 
 rendre is authorized by Palsgrave and 
 Eoquefort (Skeat). 
 
 Swarm, p. 381. Compare swancd 
 in the following (printed swarned) : — 
 With that hee swarned the maine-mast tree, 
 
 Soe did he itt with might and maine. 
 
 Percy Fol. MS. iii. 413. 
 
 SwBET-BEBAD, the pancreas of a calf 
 regarded as a delicate article of food- 
 (Fr. ris-de-veau) , is perhaps a corrup- 
 tion of an original form corresponding 
 to the synonymous Netherlandish 
 zwezer, zv:ezpriJc, zweesrih, Dutch zwees- 
 rik, words which have no connexion 
 with zoet, sweet. 
 
 Swim. A person's head is said to 
 swim when it is dizzy, and this is no 
 doubt popularly connected with the 
 verb swim, to float (natare), to move 
 up a"nd down with an uneasy motion, 
 as one seems to do after being on board 
 a ship (A. Sax. swimman). This is 
 however a distinct word, being from 
 old Eng. sicime, swym, dizziness, ver- 
 tigo, swoon; A. Sax. su'i'Hia, aswoonor 
 swimming in the head, dstatiman, to 
 wander ; Icel. svimi, a swumning in 
 the head, sveima, to wander about; 
 Swed. srimma, to be dizzy ; Dan. sviine, 
 to faint. The original form was pro- 
 bably sioin, compare A. Sax. swindan, 
 to languish, Swed. swindel, dizziness, 
 Ger. schwindel (see Skeat, s.v.). From 
 this word comes squeamish, old Eng. 
 siveymous, Cleveland swaimish, that is 
 swimish, apt to turn faint, or have a 
 swimming or dizziness, at anytliing 
 distasteful or disgusting. See Swaem 
 (2), p. 381. 
 
SYLVAN 
 
 ( 655 ) 
 
 TIGHT 
 
 He swounnes one the swarthe and one swum 
 fallis. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 1. 42K5 (E.E.T.S.). 
 [He swoons on the sward and in a faint falls.] 
 Sweem, of morny nge, Tristicia, molestia. — 
 Prompt, Parv. 
 A su-emfuUe syght jt \'s to looke vpon. 
 Pky of the !>acrumein, 1. 803 {Philolog. 
 Soc. Trans. 1860-1). 
 
 Sylvan, a false spelling of silvan, 
 Lat. eilvantis, from silva, a wood, in 
 order to bring it into connexion with 
 Greek hyle (tiXi;), supposed to be the 
 same word (Skeat). Compare Syben, 
 p. 383. 
 
 T. 
 
 Taffeail, " the frame or rail of a 
 ship behind, over the poop " (PhilHps, 
 1706), is a corruption, as if compounded 
 with ra(7, of Dut. fafereeJ {for tafel-ed), 
 a little table, a dimiu. of tafel, a table 
 (Skeat). 
 
 Tailobs, p. 384. 
 
 "How many tellers make a man? " asked 
 a clergyman of a working-man, as they 
 listened to the tolling of a death-bell. " A'ine," 
 replied he, promptly. — See The Spectator, 
 Aug. 26, 1832, p. 1111. 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 An idea has gone abroad, and fixed itself 
 dowa into a wide-spreading rooted error, 
 thatTai/ors are a distinct species in Physiology, 
 
 not Men, but fractional Parts of a Man 
 
 Does it not stand on record that the English 
 Queen Elizabeth, receiving a deputation of 
 Eighteen Tailors, addressed them with a 
 " Good morning, gentlemen both ! " Did 
 not the same vu'ago boast that she had a 
 Cavalry Regiment, whereof neither horse 
 nor man could be injured ; her Regiment, 
 namely , of Tailors on Mares? — Cartyle, Sartor 
 Resartus, bk. iii. ch. 11. 
 
 Taint, a blemish or pollution, is an 
 altered form of tint, a spot or stain, old 
 Fi. teinf, feinct, a tincture or stain, 
 Lat. tindus, a dyeing, from tingere, to 
 dye or tinge. The word was assimi- 
 lated to and confused with attaint, pro- 
 perly meaning to convict, attach, lay 
 hands on, attain, old Eng. atteynt, 
 atteint, from old Fr. ateindfl-e, to reach 
 to, attain, 'lia,t.attingere[i.e. ad-tangere), 
 to touch upon (Skeat). The last word 
 was probably conceived in some oases 
 to be for ad-Pingere, to dye or stain. 
 Compare " Attaint, to taint, corrupt. 
 
 stain the blood " (Bailey) ; " attainted, 
 corrupted as flesh" (Id.); " attaint, 
 atteint, a knock or hurt in ahorse's leg" 
 {Id.). 
 
 Talk is an assimilation to old Eng. 
 talien, talen, to teU tales, of Swed. iolJca, 
 Dan. tollce, loel. tulTca, to interpret or 
 explain (Skeat). 
 
 Tape, an Isle of Wight word for a 
 mole or " want " (E. D. S. O^-ig. Glos- 
 saries, xxiii.), is evidently an adaptation 
 of Fr. taupe (Lat. talpa). 
 [It] either shall thees talpes voide or sterve. 
 Palladius on Husbondrie (ab. 1-120), 
 1.931. 
 
 Taunt, to scofl' or jeer at, formerly 
 sometimes spelt tant, is an altered form 
 of old Eng. tenten, to try, tempt, pro- 
 voke, old Fr. tenter, from Lat. tentare, 
 to attack, but influenced by old Fr. 
 tancer, tencer, to chide, rebuke, taunt 
 (see Skeat). For the change of vowel, 
 compare tamper from temper, and tawny 
 from Fr. tanne. 
 
 Tea-totalers, p. 385. It may be 
 noted that tee-total is the reduplication 
 of a reduplication, as total is from Lat. 
 totus, which is merely to-tu-s from the 
 root tu, large, and so =r "great-great." 
 
 Threshold, p. 389. 
 
 She sette doun hir water-pot anoon 
 Bisyde the threshfold, in an oxes stalle. 
 ChaiKer, The Clerkes Tale, 1. 291. 
 
 Thrush, a disease of the mouth, p. 
 390, according to Prof. Skeat is from 
 Icel. purr, dry, A. Sax. i>yrr, + -sh 
 {^ish), and so denotes a "dry-ish" 
 state of the mouth. He compares the 
 synonymous words Dan. triishe, prov. 
 Swed. trdsh, Swed. torsh; also Mid. 
 Eng. thrust, thirst. 
 
 Tight, p. 391. Old Eng. tite, quickly, 
 quoted tmder this heading, is perhaps 
 a distinct word, but it was no doubt 
 confused with teyte, lively, and was 
 sometimes spelt tight. 
 
 Wherefore prouyde and se 
 That thou wele maye doo, shortly do it, & 
 
 tyght. 
 Dyffer not tyme, for I assertayne the right. 
 Fabxian, Chronicles, 1516, f. 281 (ed. 
 
 Ellis). 
 " And how do miss and madam do. 
 
 The little boy and all?" 
 " All tight and well." 
 
 Coicper, The Yearly Distress. 
 
TIT FOB TAT ( 656 ) 
 
 TRINKETS 
 
 Tit foe tat is a corruption of the 
 older form Up for tap (BuUinger), i.e. 
 blow for blow, retaliation, perhaps 
 from some supposed connexion with 
 this for ihati Lat. quid p^v quo. So 
 tattoo, the soldier's recaUtohis quarters, 
 is for taptoo, the signal that the tap is 
 to or closed, or the pubUo-house shut 
 (Skeat). 
 
 ToAD-EATEE, p. 395. For Wliateley 
 read Whately. 
 
 Toast, p. 396. Compare : — 
 'Tis vented most in Taverns, Tippling-cots, 
 To Ruffians, Roarers, Tipsie-Tostiy-Pots. 
 Sylvester, Tobacco Battered, Works 
 (l(i'21), p. 1133. 
 
 Toil, old Eng. toil, properly meaning 
 turmoil or disturbance (Scot, tmll, and 
 tuilyie, a struggle), seems to have ac- 
 quired the meaning of labour from 
 having been confused with Mid. Eng. 
 tuUen, another form of tiJien, to till 
 (Skeat). In old writers "to toil the 
 ground" is often found for " to tUl." 
 Compare : — 
 
 To toii^n wijj jje er}:e, 
 
 Tylyen & trewliche lyven. 
 
 Pierce Pbugknuiv^s Crede, 1. 743. 
 
 Compare the confusion between 
 Spoil, p. 366, and spill. 
 
 Tongue, the projecting part of a 
 buckle that grips the strap, as if a 
 tongue-hke appendage ( — Lat. lingua), 
 is a corruption of tang, old Eng. tange 
 and tongge, Icel. tangi, a projection, 
 esp. the part of a knife which is fixed 
 into the handle, anything that nips or 
 bites (hence tongs ; see Skeat, s.w.). Old 
 Eng. tonge also ::: a sting, e.g. " The 
 scorpioun forbare his tonge." — Oursor 
 Mundi, 1. 693 (Trin. vers.). 
 
 TOPSY-TUEVY, p. 398. There was a 
 confusion probably with the old Eng. 
 phrase topsayles over (probably used at 
 first of the capsizing of a vessel), Bm-ns's 
 tapsal teerie {Green grow the Bashes). 
 
 Mony turnyt with tene topsayles oner, 
 Destructiou of Troy, 1. 1219 (E.E.T.S.) 
 
 Touchy, p. 399. An assumed con- 
 nexion with to touch seems to underlie 
 the following : — 
 
 Those little sallies of ridicule, . . owing to 
 my miserable and wretched touchiness of cha- 
 racter, used formerly to make me wince, as 
 if I had been touched with a hot iron. — Mrs, 
 Gaskell, Life of C. broyit't, eh. viii. p. 107. 
 
 ToucH-wooD, tinder, as if that which 
 will take fire at a touch, i.e. kindle at a 
 spark, is a corruption of tache-wood, 
 where taclie is old Eng. tach or tasche, 
 tinder (Skeat). Compare Touchy, p. 
 400, for techy or tachy. 
 
 Achewefuyrofaflynt • four hundred wynter ; 
 Bote )jou haue tache to take hit with * tunder 
 
 and broches, 
 Al \)j labour is lost. 
 
 Vision of P, Plowman, C. xx. 212. 
 Fungi arborei, in English tree Mushrums, 
 or Touchwood. — Gerarde, Herbal, p. 1386. 
 
 Teact, used in Shakespeare and old 
 authors for trach and trace, as if from 
 Lat. tractus, whereas trach, Pr. trac, 
 is from 0. Dut. trech, a draught. See 
 Skeat, s.v. 
 
 Teansom, p. 402. Prof. Skeat also 
 holds this to be from iat. tra/nstrum, 
 but he is certainly mistaken, I think, 
 in supposing that it is foi-med from 
 trans, by adding the sufiix -trum, which 
 seems impossible, as substantives are 
 not formed in this way from preposi- 
 tions. What would we say to de-irum, 
 ab-trum, in-trum, per-trum ? 
 
 Teapes, p. 402. Compare Lancashire 
 trawnce, to tramp, and tra/wnce, a long 
 or roundabout walk (E. D. Soc), ap- 
 parently from Lat. transire, " I've had 
 sich 6' iraionce this mornin'." — CoUier, 
 1750. " Thae'rt noan fit to trawnce up 
 an' deawn o' this shap." — Waugh, Fac- 
 tory Folk, p. 195. 
 
 Teice, p. 404. Some of the quota- 
 tions here given refer rather to trice, 
 old Eng. trise, a pulley, the haul of a 
 rope ; but there has been some con- 
 fusion. See the extracts from Edwards 
 and Shakespeare. 
 
 Teifle, p. 405. No doubt the same 
 word as old Fr. trufle, or truffle, a truffle, 
 taken as a by-word for anything worth- 
 less or of slight value. Prof. Skeat 
 observes that the change from m to i in 
 the spelling may be due to the old word 
 trifle, in prov. Eng. trifled corn, i.e. corn 
 fallen down in single ears, which is 
 from A. Sax. trifelian, to pound small, 
 a naturaUzed form of Lat. trihulare, to 
 bruise corn. 
 
 Trinkets, properly meaning small 
 knives, old Eng. irenhets or iryrikcis 
 (Sp. irinchete), seems to have acquired 
 the sense of nicknacks or small orna- 
 
TBOT-WEIGHT 
 
 ( 657 ) 
 
 UPBBAID 
 
 ments from being confused with old 
 Fr. triqvemsgues, trifles, tilings of no 
 value, sounding to Eng. ears like irick- 
 'nicJcs (Skeat). 
 
 Troy-weight, p. 406, was probably 
 at first a weight used at Tivyes in 
 France. 
 
 Grotes whiche lacked of y= weyglite of his 
 former coy ne.ii.s.vi.rf. in:i li. Triiy. — Fctbyaii, 
 ChmMes, p. 461 (ed. Ellis). 
 
 Teuchman, p. 406. Compare the 
 title of an old book, The Arabian Trvdg- 
 »jMW,by W. B(edwell), 1615. 
 
 Trump, p. 408. According to Littre 
 Fr. tromper does mean (1) to sound a 
 trumpet, (2) to amuse one's self at 
 another's expense, to befool; with 
 which we may compare Fr. flcujomrr, 
 to flatter with false reports, iromfla- 
 geoler, to play the pipe. 
 
 Now upon the coming of Christ, very 
 much, tho not all, of this idolatrous Trum- 
 pery and Superstition n-as driren out of the 
 World.— Soutft, Sermons, 1720, i. 431. 
 
 Trunk of an elephant, p. 408, is, 
 according to Prof. Skeat, identical with 
 the trunk or stem of a tree, " so named 
 from its thickness " {Etym. Bid.). 
 This is certainly wrong. It is the 
 same word as trunk, a hollow tube, a 
 trumpet. Compare : — 
 
 His truncke called Proboscis and Promuscis 
 is a large hollow thing hanging from his nose 
 like skinne to the groundward. — Top.se//, 
 Foiire-fonted Beasts, 1608, p. 195. 
 
 Their voice is . . . like the low sound of a 
 Trumpet. — Id. p. 196. 
 
 Anything long, circular, and hollow 
 like a tube might be called a trimk. 
 Thus Lovelace says : — 
 As through the crane's trunk throat doth 
 
 speed, 
 The asp doth on his feeder feed. 
 
 Posthume Poems, 1650, p. 38 (ed. Singer). 
 
 Tuberose, p. 408. This word was 
 formerly pronounced as a trisyllable 
 tu-her-ose, e.g. : — 
 So would some tuberose delight 
 That struck the pilgrim's wondering sight 
 'Mid lonely deserts drear. 
 
 Shenston^j A Pastoral Ode, St. 13. 
 
 TuRBOT, p. 409, according to Diez 
 and Skeat is just Lat. tiorh(o) + ot, i.e. 
 the top-shaped or rhomboidal fish. 
 
 TuKNCHAPEL, a popular corruption of 
 the name of St. Ann's GJiapel (as if 
 
 'Tann GliapcT), near Plymouth [Philo- 
 log. Soc. Trans. 1862-3, p. 269). So 
 Tahh's, Taivdi-y, Tanfolin's, Tellin's, 
 Toolcy, are old popular forms of St. 
 EWs, St. Awch-y, St. Antholin's, St. 
 Helen's, St. Olavc. 
 
 Turner, p. 410. Other Scottish cor- 
 ruptions of French words are given in 
 M. Francisque-Michel's Gritical En- 
 quiry into the Scottish Language, 1882, 
 such as tarlies, a lattice, from treillis ; 
 aschet, a dish, from assiette ; mayduke 
 (cherry) from Medoc; argent content, 
 ready money, from argent comptant. 
 The last occurs also in old English 
 writers, e.g. — 
 
 \\'ools ... to be soldo, the one halfe for 
 Bolyon, and the other part for Argent content. 
 — Stow, Annals, p. 692, sub anno 1163. 
 
 TuRN-MEKiCK, p. 411, or turmeric (not 
 in Gerarde), from Fr. terre-men'ite, Low 
 Lat. terra merita, " deserving earth," 
 evidently a corruption, perhaps (says 
 Prof. Skeat), of Arab, karkam. Another 
 plant has a similar name : — 
 
 Tormentilla is called in greeke Hepta- 
 phyllon, in englishe Toi-mentii, or Tormertk, 
 in duche Tormetil. — W. Turner, Nantes of 
 Herbes, 1548, p. 87 (E. D. S.). 
 
 U. 
 
 Unless is a perversion, under the 
 influence of the common prefix itn-, 
 not, as in im-even, of the older form 
 onless, onlesse, for on less that, which 
 was the old phrase, e.g. " I had fainted 
 unless I had believed." — Ps. xxvii. 13, 
 i.e. I had fainted on (a) less (supposition 
 than that) I had believed. See Skeat, 
 s.v. 
 
 Unruly, p. 414, corresponds to Icel. 
 u-roligr, restless, unruly, from u-ru, un- 
 rest, disturbance (Cleasby, 664) ; Ger. 
 unruhig, turbulent, from unruhe. 
 
 A number of imrulle youths on tlie tower 
 hill . . . threw at them stones. — Stow, Annals, 
 p. 1280 (1600). 
 
 Rnlii & rightwise, a roghe man of hors. 
 Destruction of Troy, 1. 3888. 
 
 Upbraid, p. 415. Spenser uses the 
 corrupt form to upbray, as if upbraid 
 were a past parte, like afraid from 
 affray. 
 
 u u 
 
UPHOLSTEBEB ( 668 ) 
 
 7ENT 
 
 \i}e knight, 
 That knights and knighthood doest with 
 shame itpbmij. 
 
 Faerie Quee7ie, II. iv. 45. 
 
 Upholstbkee, p. 416. For the 
 pleonastic termination, .compare cater- 
 er for old Eng, enter, a buyer, and 
 sorcer-er for sorcer, for old Fr. sorcier, 
 Lat. sortiarius. 
 
 This lane . . . had ye for the most part 
 dwelling Fripperers or Upholders, that sold 
 old- apparel and household stuff. — Stow, Sar- 
 vai^, 1603, p. 75 (ed. Thorns). 
 
 Upstart, a parvenu or nouveau ricJie, 
 generally understood as meaning one 
 who has suddenly started up into pro- 
 minence like a mushroom (so Bailey), 
 in accordance with the old lines : — 
 
 \\'lien Adam dalve and Ere span 
 
 Who was then the gentleman"! 
 
 Up start the carle and gathered good, 
 
 And thereof ca,me the gentle blood. 
 -/J/». Pitkington, Works, p. 125 (Parker Soc). 
 
 But the Icelandic word iipp-stertr, or 
 stertr, means haughty, stately, with the 
 original meaning probably of finely 
 dressed, from sterta, a fine dress, whence 
 also sterti-mair (" start -man "), a 
 stately, finely-dressed person (Cleasby, 
 p. 593). Otherwise upi-start might 
 fairly mean "with one's stairt (A. Sax. 
 steort, Icel. stertr) or tail up," hke a 
 pert robin or a conceited peacock 
 (Skeat, p. 592). 
 
 Thatj^oung start-up hath aX\ theglory of my 
 overtlnuw. — Shakesp-are, Miwh Ado, i. 3, 69. 
 
 To steirt, old Eng. sterten, Dut. steer- 
 ten, was originally no doubt to turn tail 
 (old Eng. stert, Dut. steert, tail), to run 
 away. Compare " et-sterten vlesches 
 vuel." — Ancren Buvle, p. 370 (to es- 
 cape flesh's evil). So Scot, startle, 
 strrtle, to run wildly about with up- 
 lifted tails, as cows sometimes do ; 
 Cumberland startle (of cattle), to fly with 
 tail erect (Ferguson). 
 
 Use, p. 418, Norm. Fr. uoes, service, 
 Prov. ohs, old Fr. oeps, old Sp. huevos, 
 htiehos. It. uopo, Lat. opiis. 
 
 Deus en ad des noz a sua noes tant seisi. 
 Vie de St. Aiiban, 1. 155i. 
 
 [God has taken so much from us for his 
 use, i.e. service.] 
 
 Utterance, p. 418. 
 Let us fight at ollrance. 
 lie timt fletli, God gyle \i\m mycliaunce. 
 Prof. Cliild's Bu'tliids^ vol. V. p. 129. 
 
 All the deire of the ded be done on vs two, 
 To vttranse & yssue vne at this tyme. 
 
 Destruction of Troy, 1. 7981. 
 [All the injury of the dead be done on us' 
 two to extremity and issue even at this time] 
 
 V. 
 
 Vails, p. 419. Mr. Cockayne thought 
 that as pecus answers to Eng. fee (Ger. 
 vieh), so vails might be equated with 
 Lat. pecuVmm, a slave's earnings (?for 
 fails or feels). — Spoon and Spmrow, p. 
 108. 
 
 I pitty you, serving men, vpho upon small 
 wages creepe into your Masters houses, glad 
 of meane vaytes. — Rogers, Naaman the Si/rian, 
 1641, p. 289. 
 
 Vent, an aperture or air-hole, in 
 popular etymology generally connected 
 with Fr. vent, the wind (Lat. ventus), 
 as if a hole to let in wind or air, a 
 small window (compare venting-hole, 
 an outlet for vapour (Holland), ventail, 
 the breathing orifice of a helmet), is 
 an altered form of old Eng. fent or 
 fente, a slit, old Fr. fente, a cleft, chink, 
 slit, or cranny, derived from fendi'e, to 
 cleave, Lat. flndere. From this vent 
 came a verb to vent rr to emit, which 
 was frequently confused with vent, to 
 utter or put to sale (Fr. vente, sale), 
 and vent, to snuff the air. See Skeat, 
 s.vv. Vent is a S. W. Eng. form of 
 fente, like vane for fane, and visten for 
 fi;i-rn, fem. of fox. Compare Somerset, 
 " Vent, vent-Jiole, the button-hole of a 
 wrist-baud" (WilUams and Jones). 
 
 jMy belly is as wine which hath no vent. — 
 A. V. Job, xxxii. 19. 
 Could I believe, that winds for ages pent 
 In earth's dark womb have found at last a 
 
 VL'Ut. 
 
 Cowper, The Needless .Harm. 
 
 Vent, sometimes used in the southern 
 counties for a passage, lane, or cross- 
 way, as " Flimwell-Den^," " Seven 
 vents" at Ightham (Pegge, Kentlcisms, 
 p. 65, E. D. S. ; Parish, Sussex Olos- 
 sary, p. 128), so pronounced as if 
 identical with vent, a passage or aper- 
 ture, is a less correct foi-m of prov. 
 Eng. ivenf, a way or lane, that by which 
 one wends or goes, like gate, a street, 
 from go ; compare Soot, ivynd, lane, 
 alley, N. Yorkshire ween, a passage be- 
 
VIAL 
 
 ( 659 ) 
 
 WALLET 
 
 tween two hotises (iV. and Q. Ctli S. 
 
 V. 276) and perhaps Low Lat. venelln, 
 
 a lane or passage (if not from vena). 
 
 An Essex form is 'lunnt (Id. 167). 
 Anil in a forrest as they went, 
 At a tourning- of a went, 
 How Cru-^u was ylost, alas ! 
 
 Chaucer, House of Fame, i. 182. 
 At the meetinjj; of the four wents. — Soimien 
 
 Antiq. Cant. 1640, p. 21). 
 
 A ^l!ent, lane, viculus, angiportus. — Leoins, 
 Maiiipuliis, col. 66, 1. 8. 
 What man that withinne [the Labyrinth] 
 
 went, 
 There was so many a sondry went, 
 That he ne shulde nought come out. 
 
 Gower, Conf. Amaniis, ii. 304'. 
 
 Vial or Phial, a small glass vessel, 
 is a pedantic assimilation to the Lat. 
 and Greek original, phiala, cplaXri, of 
 the old Eng. viol, which is directly 
 from old Fr. viole, fide. " Goldun vioU 
 ful of odouris." — Wycliffe, Bev. v. 8 
 (Hexapla), a passage where Bishop 
 Morgan in his Welsh New Testament, 
 1567, translates the English word by 
 cryfhan, {.p. (yrouds or fiddles, mistaking 
 vials or viols for violins (Todd's Illus- 
 trations of Ghaucer, &o. p. 242). 
 
 Similarly vicinage, formerly spelt 
 voisinage (J. Taylor), and derived from 
 Fr. voisinage, is a scholarly attempt to 
 bring back the word to a Latin spelling 
 by conforming it to Liat.vicinus, neigh- 
 bouring (Skeat). 
 
 Victuals, which otight to be spelt, 
 as pronounced, vittles or vitaillcs, old 
 Eng. vitaille (Ghaucer), derived from 
 old Fr. vitaille, is grossly misspelt, 
 says Prof. Skeat, by a blind pedantry, 
 which, ignoring the Fr. origin, has 
 brought it back to Lat. viciual/ia, things 
 pertaining to nourishment (victus). In 
 the same way virtue is a pedantic as- 
 similation to the Latin virtiis, of the 
 older form vertue (Fr. veritie), which 
 was in use to the close of the 17th cen- 
 tury. 
 
 It was a handsome Incentive to Vertue. — 
 Sir ill. Hale, Contemptations, 1685, i. .'318. 
 
 The singular vertues and operations of bruit 
 beasts. — Holland, Plini/, ii. SU). 
 
 Vintage owes its form to a confusion 
 with the associated words vintry, vint- 
 ner (Lat. vinetum, a vineyard), being 
 altered from old Eng. vindage (WyoHffe) 
 or vendage (Langland), which again is 
 
 a perversion, by assimilation to the 
 common suffix -age, of vendangc, from 
 Fr. vendange (Lat. vindcmia). — Skeat, 
 Ettjm. Bid. 
 
 W. 
 
 Waft is a corrviption of loaff'd or 
 wcwcd, formed by taking the past tense 
 of the verb to tvnve. Lowland Scot. 
 'ii'aff, as the infinitive mood of a new 
 verb (Skeat), like Spenser's to yede, to 
 go, properly "went" (A. Sax. eode, he 
 went). So wafted ^z icaved-cd. Com- 
 pare to hoist for hoiaed, formerly to hoise, 
 loeldlorivell, and vulg. Eng. drownd-cd. 
 See Gkaft, p. 150. 
 
 A brauer choyse of dauntlesse spirits 
 Then now the English bottoraes haue wafi o're. 
 Did neuer flote vpon the swelling tide. 
 
 Shakespeare, K. John, i. 2 (1623), 
 
 Similarly wonted, accustomed, " toont- 
 ed sight " (Midsum. N. Bream, iii. 2), is 
 just woned-^d, wont or uioned being the 
 past parte, of to won, to be used to, to 
 dwell. 
 
 On the other hand, many verbs ending 
 in -d or -t have been mistaken as past 
 participles, and altered accordingly ; 
 assprainiorspraind(0. Fr. espreindre); 
 strain for straind (0. Fr. estreindre) ; 
 spill for spild, compach for compact {Syl- 
 vester, p. 133), correch (Tyndale), neg- 
 lect, disrespecle (Bums). The following 
 are found used as past tenses or parti- 
 ciples, afflycte =: afflicted (Eogers), ac- 
 cept {Monk of Evesham, p. 30), acquit 
 (Shakespeare), esxalt (Keats), complicate 
 (Young), compact (Shakespeare), conse- 
 crate, dedicate (Andrews), joperde 
 (Coverdale), delate {Warhwortli Glwon. 
 p. 59), torment, salute {Monlc of Eve- 
 sham) . 
 
 Wake, p. 425. Prof. Skeat says Fr. 
 ouaiche is from the Eng. ivalce, which 
 he identifies with Icel. voh, Swed. vah, 
 an ice-hole, a wet place. 
 
 Wakeful is a substitute for the 
 A. Sax.iracolorwacul of the same mean- 
 ing (rz Lat. vig-il). — Skeat. Compare 
 Poegetful, p. 126. 
 
 Wallet, often supposed, in accor- 
 dance with its present form, to denote 
 a pUgrim's scrip or a travelling bag, as 
 if derived from A. Sax. wealliam, to 
 
WALL-WOBT ( 660 ) 
 
 WENOH 
 
 travel, Ger. wallen, is shown by Prof. 
 Skeat to be a turning topsy-turvy of 
 wattle or watel, (1) a woven thing, (2) 
 a bag. 
 
 Wall-wort, p. 425. 
 
 Ehulus is called in greeke Chameacte, in 
 english IKfi/iuurt or Danewurt. — ]V. Turner^ 
 Names of Herbes, 1548, p. o.) (E. D. Soc). 
 
 Wanton, p. 426. Compare: — 
 Women are wantons^ and yet men cannot 
 want one. — Lodge, Euphues golden Legaciej 
 1590, sig. B2 [Dyce, Remarks,S^c. p. 296]. 
 
 Waeeison by a curious blunder is 
 used by Sir W. Scott in the sense of a 
 "note of assault" (note in loo. cit.), as 
 if it were a warry soun, or warlike 
 sound {z^ Fr. guerrier son or son de 
 guerre). The word really means pro- 
 tection, help, old Eng. warisoun, from 
 old Fr. warison, gmison, safety, and is 
 ultimately the same word as garrison. 
 See Skeat, s.v. 
 Or straight they sound their warrison. 
 And storm and spoil thy garrison. 
 
 Lay of the Last Minstrel, IV. xxiv. 
 
 Waety, a Lancashire corruption of 
 wa/rk-day or working day, e.g. " warty 
 clooas," work-day clothes, " He's at it 
 Sunday and warty " (E. D. Soc). 
 
 Wasp, a perversion of the true form 
 ivaps, still commonly used in prov. 
 English, A. Sax. wmps (probably that 
 which waps, strikes, or stings), from a 
 desire to assimilate it to the Lat. vespa 
 (Skeat). Compare ivisp for old Eng. 
 wips, hasp for haps, clasp for claps, ashior 
 ax, task for tax ; and see Duck above. 
 
 Wave, that which fluctuates or un- 
 dulates up and down, from old Eng. 
 wauen, A. Sax. wafian, to waver (com- 
 pare A. Sax. locefre, wandering, rest- 
 less, loel. vafra, to wabble), has super- 
 seded the old word waioe, a word of 
 distinct origin, with which it was no 
 doubt confounded. Or perhaps ivawe 
 was altered to loave from a supposed 
 connexion with the verb. " Wawe, of 
 the see or other water, flustrum, fluc- 
 tus " (Prompt. Pcn-y.), akin to laehvagr, 
 Goth, wegs, a loave, Ger. woge, Fr. 
 vague, a billow, is properly that which 
 ivags or wanders, from A. Sax. wagian 
 (Goth, wagjan). 
 
 jpe goodes in jjis -world • ben lyk jjis grete 
 uaioes. 
 
 I'isiim nj P. Ptou-man. A. ix. 35. 
 
 Waxy, p. 428. Wax, to be angry or 
 vexed, is evidently identical with Scot. 
 wex, i.e. vex, as in the following : — 
 And mak thi self als mery as yhoue may, 
 It helpith not thus fore to ner al way. 
 Lancelot of the Laik, I. 156 (ab. 1490). 
 
 Weathee-beaten, apparently beaten 
 or buffeted by the weather, is probably 
 a corruption of the expression weaiher- 
 hitten also found, i.e. bitten or corroded 
 by the weather, which is the Scand. 
 phrase, e.g. Swed. viider-hlten, Norweg. 
 veder-biten, tanned by exposure to the 
 weather (Skeat). With this we may 
 compare the idiom hunger-bitten [A. V. 
 Job xviii. 12) used by Cheke and Mar- 
 ston (see Bible Word-booh, s.v.), and 
 eye-bite, to fascinate (Holland). 
 
 A weather-bitten conduit of many king's 
 reigns. — Shakespeare, Winter^s Tale, v. 2, 60. 
 
 I hent him 
 Bootlesse home, and Weather-beaten backe. 
 1 Hen. JF.iii. 1(1623). 
 
 This- wether-beaten fieres-bird could not be 
 satisfied with thus much. — Tetl-Trothes New- 
 yeares Gift, 1593, p. 12 (§haks. Soc). 
 
 We were so whether-beatyn that offeree we 
 were glad to returne bake agayn. — Narra- 
 tiues of' the Reformation, p. 210 (Camden 
 Soc). 
 
 Wench. I find that Prof. Skeat's 
 account of this word agrees closely with 
 mine, which was writtenindependently. 
 He points out, as I have done, that the 
 transitions of meaning through A. Sax. 
 wencel, wencJc, old Eng. wenchel, Mod. 
 Eng. loench, are (1) tottery, weak, (2) 
 an infant of either sex, (3) one of the 
 weaker sex, a girl. 
 
 Compare Lancashire wankle, weak, 
 unstable, tottery (A. Sax. wancnl), 
 " That barne's terble wanhle on its 
 legs " (E. D. Soc. Glossary, p. 277). 
 
 As God bad hi Sara, kast out J^e wench and 
 her son. — Apology for the Lollards, p. 74 
 (Camden Soc). 
 
 That he should drench 
 Lord, lady, groom and wench 
 Of all the Troyans nation. 
 
 Chancer, House of Fume, bk. i. 
 
 Wench was formerly used in a speci- 
 fic sense, as it is still sometimes pro- 
 vincially, for a female infant, a httle 
 girl, in contrast to " a knave child." 
 A Sunday School urchin once protested 
 he had no wish to be born again for 
 fear he should be born a ivcnch. Com- 
 pare the following : — 
 
WHEEL OF AUGUST ( 661 ) 
 
 WITTALL 
 
 Before I removed from the sayde liowse in 
 London 1 hadde too chyldearnc borne ther, 
 a boye and a whence (wench). — Narratives of 
 the Reformation (ab. 1561), p. 171 (Camden 
 Soc). 
 
 He sayd, Depart : for the wenche is not 
 dead, but sleepeth. — Matt. ix. 2-1, Rheitns 
 Vers., 1.382. 
 
 With the restriction of wench to 
 females, originally meaning a young or 
 feeble person of either sex, compare 
 girl, used in old English for any child, 
 a boy as well as a girl, and similarly 
 harlot. 
 
 A-5eyn Godes heste * Gttrles jjei geeten. 
 J'iiiini of F. Plowman, A. x. 1.35. 
 
 Gramer for gurles • I gon furste to write. 
 Id. xi. 1;)1. 
 
 Compare It. mcschina, a maid, a ser- 
 vant, old Fr. inescliin, meschine, young 
 person, the idea being that of a weak- 
 ling, a tender person, from It. meschino, 
 Sp. mezqtdno, Fr. luesquin, poor, wretch- 
 ed, Norm. Fr. mescli'm, young [Vie de 
 8t. Auban, 1. 1840), aU from Arab. 
 meslxin, poor. 
 
 Wheel op Augitst, a popular name 
 for the 1st of August : — 
 Till Lammas Day called Au^usfs Wheel, 
 A\ hen the long- corn stinks of Camomile. 
 Swaiii^on, Weather Folk-lore, p. 26.1>. 
 
 An old name for it was " the gule of 
 August," Norm. Fr. la goule d'Aiigust, 
 Low.Lat. gula Augusii (as if the throat, 
 i.e. entrance or beginning, of August). 
 See Hearne, Olossary to Boht. of Glou- 
 cester, pp. 679, 680 (ed. 1810) ; Hamp- 
 son, Med. Aevi Kalendmium, ii. 192. 
 All these words are merely corruptions 
 of A. Sax. gedla (sometimes spelt gehhel), 
 a festival. Yule (loel. juT) ; originally 
 probably revelry or noisy merriment, 
 akin to yell, old Eng. yowl, yollen. 
 An old popular outcry was, iile, ule I 
 (Heame), or yule ! youle ! (Thorns, 
 Anecdotes and Traditions, pp. 81, 85). 
 
 Whbeey, a light boat, is an Angli- 
 cised form (for wherif) of Icel. hverfr, 
 easily turning, crank, by assimilation 
 to Eng. words like ferry, navy. So 
 hasty for old Eng. hastif, and jolly for 
 joUf. (See Skeat.) 
 
 While, p. 433, for ivile, to beguile. 
 Compare : — 
 
 \A'hether to deceive the time, or to bestow 
 it well, Ahasuerus sliiiU spend his re.stlfss 
 hours in the Chronicles of his time. — Bp. 
 
 Hull, Contemplations, bk. xxi. (Works, ii. 
 179, ed. Pratt). 
 
 How shall we beguile 
 The lazy time, if not with some deliglit ? 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1, 10. 
 
 Perhaps you will be glad to hear some 
 tales to lu/iife away the time. — J. H. SJiort- 
 hvuse, John higlesunt, ii. 51. 
 
 1 felt inclined to stretch my limbs, and 
 take up a book at hand, and while away the 
 time. — Mrs. Oliplmnt, Life of Ed. Irving, p. 
 116. 
 
 Wild, frequently used in old authors 
 for the iveald (old Eng. wceld, wald, 
 open country, A. Sax. weahl, a wood or 
 wold) of Kent, as if it meant a tinld or 
 uncultivated region, a loilderness. Thus 
 "in the iveeld" [of Kent]. — Caxton, 
 Eecuyell, is printed " in the wilde " in 
 Copland's ed. See Skeat, s.v. Weald, 
 who also cites : — 
 
 I was borne in the wijlde of Kent. — Lilly, 
 Euphues, p. 26IJ (eil. Arber). 
 
 There's a Franklin in the wilde of Kent 
 hath brought three hundi'ed Mai'kes with 
 him in Gold. — Shakespeare, 1 Hen. IV. ii. 1 
 (162.3). 
 
 Compare : — 
 
 Where wilds, immeasurably spread, 
 Seem lengthening as I go. 
 
 Goldsmith, The Hermit. 
 
 WiLL-o'-THE-wiSP, p. 440. In the 
 citation from the Troy Booh [i.e. The 
 Destruction of Troy, E.E.T.S.),for loyle 
 read wyll (^ astray, wandering), and 
 see note in loco, p. 492. 
 
 Wiss, p. 443, 1. 4. For "wat (to 
 know)," read "wot, I know, witan, to 
 know." 
 
 Wistful, p. 443. Prof. Skeat thinks 
 that wishful was assimilated to wisUy, 
 earnestly (for wisly), used by Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 Witch-elm, p. 443. Prof. Skeat says 
 that wych,oldi Eng. wice, is from A. Sax. 
 wican, to bend, as if the drooping tree. 
 
 Wit-safe, p. 444. Compare the old 
 form loichsafe. 
 
 lieseiching hyme he wold wichsaif to wende 
 To camelot the Cetee. 
 
 Lancelot of the Laik, 1. 357. 
 
 Witt ALL, p. 445. Compare also : — 
 Two staring horns, I often said. 
 But ill become a sparrow's head ; 
 But then, to set that balance even, 
 Your cuckold sparrow goes to Heaven. 
 Prior, The Turtle and Sparrow, 1. 3'J5. 
 
WITTICISM 
 
 ( 662 ) 
 
 WOUND 
 
 The Cackoo then on every tree 
 Mocks married men. 
 
 Love's Lubour's Loht, v. 2, 909. 
 
 Witticism, a coinage of Dryden's, 
 is put for witty-ism by false analogy to 
 critimsm, Oallicism, fanaticism, sole- 
 cism, where the c is organic. 
 
 AVoMAN, p. 446, for wimman (wife- 
 man). 
 
 Ihc am ibore to lowe 
 Such wimman to knowe. 
 
 Kin^ Horn, 1. 418. 
 
 [r am too low born to know such a woman.] 
 
 With wife (femina), still used provin- 
 cially for ayiy female, married or un- 
 married (e.g. Lonsdale and Cleveland 
 dialects), originally the "weaver "or 
 spinster, compare the Madagasean 
 expression " spindle- child " for a girl 
 (J. Sibree, The Oreat African Island, 
 1880). 
 
 The origin of leman or lemman (Uef- 
 man) seems to have been forgotten at 
 an early date, as we find 
 
 What ! leuestow, teite lemmun, that i the leue 
 wold ! 
 
 William of Palerne, 1. 2338, 
 
 which is quite the same as if we used 
 the expression " dear darling." 
 
 Wonders, p. 447. The Cornish 
 cjwainder is weakness, infirmity, from 
 gwan, weak (compare Eng. wan, Lat. 
 vanus, Goth, ivans). — Wlhams, Lexi- 
 con Gornu-Britannicum. 
 
 WoNDEOus is an assimilation to words 
 likemarvello'us of the older form wonders, 
 properly an adverb (like needs) fromadj. 
 wonder, wonderful, a shortened form 
 oiwonderhj. Compare " wonders dere " 
 (wondrous dear). — Test, of Love ; "Ye 
 be wonders men." — Skelton ; " A my- 
 racle wrought so ivondersly." — Sir T. 
 More (Skeat). Compare Bighteous, 
 p. 325. 
 
 A nd eke therof she dyd make his face ; 
 Full lyke a mayd it was, a ivonders case ! 
 S. Hames, Pastime of Pleasure, p. 188 
 (Percy Soc). 
 
 Woof, so spelt because supposed to 
 be an immediate derivative of weave 
 (like weft), is a corruption, says Prof. 
 Skeat, of Mid. Eng. oof, which is a 
 shortened form of A. Sax. 6wef, for on- 
 wef, i.e. on loet, the web laid on the 
 warp. Thus the v ought to be in the 
 
 middle of the word instead of at the 
 beginning. 
 
 Oof, tlirede (or webbynge, traraa.— Prompt. 
 Purv. 
 
 Lynnen that hath a lepre in the oof, or in 
 the werpe. — ^'i^clijf'e. Lev. xiii. 47. 
 
 Wore, the preterite of the verb to 
 wear, is an assimilation, by analogy, 
 to hore from hear, tore from teoA; &c.', 
 of old Eng. ivercd. 
 On his bak this sherte he wered al naked. 
 
 Chaucer, The Monhes Tale, I. 3o2;). 
 Godes seruyse heo hurde alout, & werede harde 
 here. 
 Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle, p. 434. 
 
 Similarly stuch, used in the sense of 
 was fixed or adhered (= Lat. hcesit), as 
 " he stuck in the mud," should be pro- 
 perly sticked, A. Sax. sticode, past tense 
 oistician, to stick fast, e.^. " Seteldsticca 
 sticode Jjurh his heafod." — Judges iv. 
 22; "he stykede faste " — Seven Sages, 
 1. 1246 (Skeat). It has been assimilated 
 to stuck := old Eng. stoke, part parte, 
 of steken, to pierce or stab. 
 
 Wormwood, p. 449. 
 This tiiapsia, this wermoote, and elebre. 
 Palladius on Husbmidrie (ah. 14'J0), 
 1. 1044. 
 Absinthium ... in englishe loormwod, in 
 Duche wermout. — Tw-ner, Names of Herbes, 
 1.548, p. 7 (E. D. S.). 
 
 By the juice oiworm-woode, thou hast ahitter 
 braine ! 
 
 Marstori, What yon Will, ii. 1 , 
 
 Wound, p. 449. Scott, however, also 
 uses luinded incorrectly for wound, 
 curved, bent.. 
 
 Small streams which winded hy the ham- 
 lets of wooden huts. — Anne of Geierstein, ch. i. 
 
 Upon the church leades the trumpets 
 sounded, the cornets wijided, and the quiri- 
 sters sung an antheme. — Stow,' Annals, p. 
 1281 (1600). 
 
 Other instances of wrongly formed 
 past tenses are rove for reeved ( — reef- 
 ed), from reeve, to make a reef (Dut. 
 reef) ; and strung, often used inoor- 
 reotly for stringed, from string, to fur- 
 nish with strings, from the false analogy 
 of h-ung from bring, stung from sting, 
 &c., e. g. " He strung his bow." 
 
 As sweet and musical 
 As brig'ht^Apollo's lute, 5tru7igwith his hair. 
 
 Shakespeare, Love's Lab. Lost, iv. 3, 343. 
 Divinely-warbled voice 
 Answering the striui^ed noise. 
 Milton, Christ's NativHv, 1. 97. 
 
WOUNDED KNEE ( 663 ) 
 
 YEABN 
 
 Wounded knee, or Sore knee, the 
 generally accepted meaning of Tsui- 
 goab, the name of the Supreme Being 
 among the Hottentots, with an expla- 
 natory legend attached that he once 
 received a woimd in the knee in his 
 conflict with Gauuah, the spirit of evil, 
 is due to a mistaken folk-etymology. 
 Tsu means red-coloured, bloody, as 
 well as wounded, sore ; and godb, 
 meaning originally a " comer " or 
 " goer," is used not only for the knee 
 (the walking joint), but for the ap- 
 proaching day, the dawn ; and there is 
 little doubt that the Hottentot deity 
 was properly a XJersonification of the 
 " red dawn," the morning, and not a 
 deification, as long imagined, of a cer- 
 tain lame-kneed medicine-man (Hahn; 
 M. Miiller ; Nineteenth Cent. No. 59, 
 p. 123). 
 
 A somewhat similar kind of mis- 
 understanding of a name is seen in 
 itichaho, " The Great Hare," the Ame- 
 rican Indian sun-god, which originally 
 was intended to denote "The Great 
 White One," the god of the silvery 
 dawn {I'aube), michi meaning " great," 
 and wahos, both "hare" and "white " 
 (Fiske, Myths and Mythmahers, p. 154). 
 In classical mythology the monstrous 
 figment of Athene springing from the 
 head of Zeus is probably a misunder- 
 standing of her name Trito-geneia, i.e. 
 daughter of Tritos, the god of the 
 waters and air (of. Triton, Amphitrite), 
 as if " head-born," from jEolic trita, 
 the head (Brdal; Cox, Aryan Mytho- 
 logy, i. 228). Compare the legends 
 that have grown around Scaletta, a 
 "staircase" or passage in the Alps, as 
 if called from the skeletons of certain 
 Moors long ago destroyed there (Fiske, 
 p. 72) ; Bursa, the citadel of Carthage 
 (Heb. hozrah), as if named from the 
 hide (Greek bursa) employed by Dido 
 (Kenrick, Phoenicia, p. 148 ; see above, 
 p. 523) ; Damascus, the traditional 
 scene of Abel's murder (Chaucer, 
 Monkes Tale; Shakespeare, 1 Hen. VI. 
 i. 8), as if the field of blood, from Heb. 
 dam, blood (B, Gould, Legends of Old 
 Test. Cha/racters, vol. i.). The myths 
 that grew up at Lucerne around Mount 
 Pilatus (Scott, Anne of Geierstein, ch. i. ; 
 Euskin, Mod. Painters, v. 128) are 
 supposed to be due to a false etymo- 
 logy of Mons PilcaMts (above, p. 550). 
 
 But see Smith's Bib. Diet. ii. 875. 
 Babel, the town of" confusion " (above, 
 p. 518), is a Hebrew interpretation of 
 Semitic Bab-il, "the gate of the god," 
 which is also the meaning of its Acca- 
 dian name Ka-Dingira (Lenormant, 
 Ghaldcdii Magic, p. 358; Hist. Ancienne 
 de V Orient, i. 38). 
 
 WoDNDY, used in prov. English and 
 slang as an intensive adverb meaning 
 very, exceedingly, as " looundy cold," 
 apparently from ivound, hke its vulgar 
 synonyms plaguy from plague and 
 bloody from blood. It is really a cor- 
 ruption of wonder, formerly used adver- 
 bially, as " Mine heart is loomder woe." 
 Ford has " ■iroimdj/ bad " (Morris, Hist. 
 Eng. Grammar, p. 190, 3rd ed.). Com- 
 pare Ger.io-iimiier-^ross (" wonder-great ") 
 ^ woundy great, loimder-sehbn, &c. 
 An old form was lounder, from old Eng. 
 adverb wundrum, whence came wonders, 
 wonderfully. Mod. Eng. wond/i'ous, as 
 in " ivondrous wise," " Manners loon- 
 cZroMs winning " (Goldsmith). See also 
 F. C. B. Terry, N. and Q. 6th S. v. 156. 
 These tidings hketh me wonder well. 
 Htjckencorner, O. E. Ptaijs, i. 166 (tlazlitt). 
 I wis, I wax wonder bold. 
 The World and the Child, 1522. 
 They war not manie men of weir 
 But they war wonder true. 
 
 Batlte of Bubrinne.^ {Dalt^elt, Scot. 
 Poemn of 16th Cent.). 
 Indeed there is a woundi/ luck in names, 
 
 sirs . . . 
 Ves, you have done wou7idy cures, gossip 
 Clench. 
 B. Jonson, Tak of a Tub, iv. 2(s»6 inii.). 
 
 Wrinkle, p. 452. This word for a 
 cunning trick or artful dodge was pro- 
 bably associated popularly with wrinlde, 
 a fold or plait, as if it meant an involved 
 proceeding, a piece of " duplicity " {du- 
 plex) or double-foldedness, as opposed 
 to what is plain or "simple" (Lat. sim- 
 plex, "one-fold"; Scot, afald, honest). 
 Cf. " God's wisdom has many folds." 
 —Job xi. 6 (Heb.). 
 
 Palmer, as he was a man symple and with- 
 oute all wrunckles off cloked colusyone, opened 
 to hym his Avhole intent. — Narrativea of the 
 Reformation, p. 102 (Camden Soc). 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yeabn, an old verb meaning to gi-ieve 
 or mourn, found in the Elizabethan 
 
YELLOW-HAMMEB ( 664 ) 
 
 draruatists, is an alteration of old Eng. 
 em (Chaucer), a corruption of erm, 
 ermen, A. Sax. yrman, to grieve (from 
 earm, wretched), by assimilation to the 
 more common word yecm-n, to long for 
 (A. Sax. gyrnan). See Skeat, s.v. So 
 yernful (Nares) = prov. Eng. ernful, 
 sad. 
 
 My manly heart doth erne . . . forFalstaffe 
 hee is dead, and wee must erne therefore. — 
 Shakespeare, Hen. V. 1623 (ii. 3, 1. 6). 
 
 Yellow-hammer, p. 453. So Prof. 
 Skeat, who compares Ger. gelb-ammer, 
 Low Ger. geel-eTiierken. 
 
 Teoman, p. 454. Prof. Skeat holds 
 this word to be from a hypothetical 
 A. Sax. gd-man, i.e. " viUage-man," cor- 
 responding to Fris. gaman, a villager, 
 from gd, Fris. ga, a district or village. 
 The usual old Eng. form is yeman, and 
 the Cleveland and Lonsdale pronun- 
 ciation is still yemman. 
 
 Horselpy with an-other hroad Arrow 
 strake the yeaman throug-h the braine. 
 Sir A.'Bartton, 1. 221 (Percu Fol. 
 MS. iii. 413). 
 
 BOSINED 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 Hessians, p. 170. That this word ia 
 much older than the time of the Georges, 
 and in fact identical with the old word 
 huseans, is corroborated by the fact that 
 Peter Heylin, VTiiting in 1633, men- 
 tions that by an act of Edward IV. no 
 cobbler in the city of London was al- 
 lowed to sell on Sundays " any shoes, 
 huseans {i.e. boots), or Galoches " (ffis- 
 tory of the Sabhath, pt. 2, oh. vii.). 
 
 EosiNED, a prov. Eng. word for in- 
 toxicated, fuddled (Lonsdale, Craven), 
 as if primed and mellowed with drink 
 as a fiddler's bow is with rosm, isreaUy 
 a corruption of Dan. rusende, fuddled, 
 intoxicated, from ruus, inebriation, 
 Swed. rus, drunkenness, n«sa, to fuddle, 
 rusig, tipsy. See Rose, p. 330, Rouse, 
 p. 332, Row, p. 604. The word being 
 mistaken for a past participle, a verb to 
 rosin, to drink to intoxication, naturally 
 followed, as " He rosins hard " (E. B. 
 Peacock, Lonsdale Glossary) ; and rosin 
 is drink given to a musician playing 
 for dancers {Slcmg Did.). 
 
 THE END. 
 
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