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A STUDENT'S PASTIME
HLNRY FKOWDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK
A
STUDENT'S PASTIME
BEING
A SELECT SERIES OF ARTICLES REPRINTED FROM
'(ttofee an* Queriee'
BY THE
Rev. WALTER W. SKEAT, Litt.D.
D.C.L., LL.D., Ph.D.
Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon
and Fellow of Chrisfs College, Cambridge
' The greatest corasive that you can give unto the ignoraunte, is to prosper in
knowledge ; the greatest commoditie that you can yeelde unto your countrey,
is with wisedome to bestowe that talent, that by grace was given you.' — Lyly,
Euphnes and his Epliabus.
O*fovfc
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1896
[All rights reserved]
Z130</0
©xforb
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
CONTENTS
Introduction
Bibliography
Select Extracts from 'Notes and Queries'
The Third Series (1866-1867) .
The Fourth Series (1S68-1873)
The Fifth Series (1874-1879) .
The Sixth Series (1880-1885) .
The Seventh Series (1886-1891)
The Eighth Series (1 892-1 896)
Index
PAGK
vii
lxxix
I
31
81
129
212
316
403
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
University of Toronto
http://www.archive.org/details/studentspastimeOOskea
ERRATA AND ADDENDA.
P. xvi. 1. 14. For 1870 read i860.
P: lvii. 1. 6 from bottom. For are read is.
P. lxiii. 1. 21. For Wilhelm Grimm read Jacob Grimm.
P. lxvi. 1. 3 from bottom. Dr. Bosworth continued to hold the
rectory of Water Stratford for some time after 1858.
P. 26, last line but one. For Lambert read Lambeth.
P. 135, line 9 from bottom. For Rock read Lock.
Appendix, p. 393 : on "Cambridge and the Cam." Dr. Chance
has kindly drawn my attention to the important fact that he had
already arrived at similar conclusions to those here printed, at a much
earlier date. His first article on the subject appeared some twenty-
seven years ago, in the pages of the Athenaeum ; and he also con-
tributed valuable notes on the subject to N. and 0., 4 S. iv. 401, and
8 S. ii. 429. I willingly admit that his articles on the subject were
both earlier and more complete : and I regret that, to my loss.
I overlooked them.
He gave authorities for the intermediate spellings Grant-bridge,
Gran-bridge, Gan/e-bridge, and Crania-bridge, which I failed to find ;
and suggested that the change from Gr to C (initial; was due to
a confusion between the old forms of Cambridge and Catiterbnry . See
the Cambridge Review. Nov. 19, 1896 ; and -V. and O., 8 S. x. 430.
A Student's Pastime.
O/-
•
INTRODUCTION
Now that my attention has been definitely given to
the study of English for more than thirty years (to say the
least), it is high time for me to consider the question of
venturing to reprint some of my scattered utterances on
the subject.
A good friend of mine once asked me — ' How came
you to think of studying English ? ' The fact that such
a question was possible suggests that to do so is an
uncommon course ; and this is certainly the case, extra-
ordinary as the assertion may seem to the foreigner.
Under the circumstances, perhaps a few personal details
are allowable.
The book entitled Meti of the Time correctly gives the
day of my birth as November 21, 1835; five years before
that of the Princess Royal, as she was once called, on the
same day. The place of it was Mount Street, Park Lane ;
but, from the age of two to somewhere about fourteen, we
lived at Perry Hill, Sydenham, at that time quite in the
country ; and certainly a boy brought up (in holiday-time)
in the country has much to be thankful for. It was then
that I acquired, by help of various opportunities, some
acquaintance with the dialects of West Kent, London, and
Essex. But the speech which became most familiar to me
vin INTRODUCTION.
was that of South Shropshire, where I had many relatives,
and which I often visited in company with my parents.
My mother once knew the dialect well, and occasionally
exemplified it. This explains why Miss Jackson's Shropshire
Word-book, of which I read all the proof-sheets, was
dedicated to myself; and why the lamented authoress, but
lately dead, made me a present of the copyright of the work.
The result is that the E?iglish Dialect Dictio?iary will be
able to make very free use of it ; and this is a point of
some moment, as the work in question is one of the best
of its kind.
It will be understood that I shall only mention such
details as bear more or less directly upon my friend's
question. It is of small interest to give the names of the
five schools with which I was connected, but I will mention
two of them. During part of the time when I was at King's
College School, in the Strand, it was my singular fate to
have for my class-master the Rev. Oswald Cockayne, well
known to students as a careful and excellent Anglo-Saxon
scholar, perhaps one of the best of those of his own date.
He was an excellent and painstaking teacher, and it was,
I believe, from him that I imbibed the notion of what is
known as scholarship. In after life, it was my good fortune
to know him personally, and I always experienced from him
the greatest kindness and readiness to help. After his
death, I acquired some of his books, including his well-
known and useful work entitled Ang/o-Saxon Leechdoms.
and some of his carefully executed transcripts. His
transcript of yElfric's Lives of the Saints, in particular, has
often proved useful.
One of his chief objects was the preparation of a new
Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, a work which he undertook
because he was dissatisfied with the first edition of
Bosworth, which is, in fact, little more than a translation
of Lye and Manning. At the time of his death, he had
HIGHGATE SCHOOL. ix
actually completed, on clearly written slips, the letters
A to E ; and these came into my hands with the other
papers. By that time, the new edition of Bosworth had
already advanced to F, so that they were not available for
collation. Nevertheless, I sent them to Professor Toller,
in the hope that they may afford some materials for
a Supplement ; and I may add that I have since bought
a copy of Somner's Dictioiiary containing a considerable
number of MS. references. These are added in a most
delicate handwriting resembling print, a handwriting ob-
viously adopted on account of the difficulty of writing upon
the old paper, which is by no means well sized. Notwith-
standing this change in the style of the handwriting.
I cannot doubt that these references are Cockayne's own.
and should some day deserve attention.
The last school that received me was that of Sir Roger
Cholmeley at Highgate, founded in the reign of Elizabeth.
in 1565. The three years which I spent there was a time
of much profit and pleasure ; the head-master being then
the Rev. John Bradley Dyne. It was in the year of the
Great Exhibition of 185 1 that I obtained as a prize a copy
of Steevens and Malone's Shakespeare ; and this edition
was, at any rate, good enough for purposes of common use.
The glossary, of course, has no references, but it was an
amusement to supply them for myself.
It was at this school that I gained some notion of the
excellence of English literature. For it was customary to
give us occasional scraps of it, on which to exercise our
skill by translating them into Greek and Latin verse.
Probably it is by the same curious and circuitous course
that boys still have English authors brought under their
notice. However this may be, it is certain that no portion
of our literature was ever explained to me at any of my five
schools. It was then considered as a thing altogether apart
from our ordinary curriculum, and only to be seriously
x INTRODUCTION.
regarded when in the privacy of our own homes during
holidays. And what an astounding fact this now seems to
me to be ! If we really possess, as many think, one of the
finest literatures in the world, why are not boys informed of
its value, and why are they not shown how to approach it
with profit to themselves ? There is only one thing yet
more extraordinary, viz. the total disregard of the history
of the English language. All wre knew of its etymology
was that many English words are derived from Latin and
Greek ; but I doubt if even our masters could have told us
the history of such common words as home or ransom.
But there were some gleams of light accorded us, which
were by no means devoid of benefit. There was a school
library, and one of its possessions was a glorious copy
of Spenser. He must have felt rather solitary, from the
dearth of brother-poets around him ; but doubtless, his
isolation has long ago been remedied.
Our head-master had one somewhat uncommon idea,
which savoured, as it has always seemed to me, of great
wisdom. Instead of invariably requiring us to turn English
poetry into Latin verse, he sometimes gave us pieces of
Latin poetry to turn into English verse ; a change which
was delightful and refreshing. The English verse was
usually poor enough, but the attempt to produce it was
stimulating and valuable. And he did more than this ;
for our usual holiday-task, in the longest holidays, was
to produce an English poem of 200 lines on a given
theme. I can conscientiously say that such tasks did
me a great deal of good, and the advantages of it are
obvious, namely these. In the first place, a boy who has
done English verses at school soon gets to understand what
genius he has in that direction. If he finds it to be very
small, he has learnt a most valuable lesson, viz. to refrain,
when he comes of age, from publishing a volume of ' poems.'
This alone is a gain both to himself and to the public.
PHILIP S. WORSLEY. xi
Again, the frequent habit of writing ' verses ' is a most
valuable introduction to the art of writing prose. The
verse-writer soon forms a habit of considering what words
will best suit the idea which he wishes to express ; so that
when he has, for example, a letter to write, he does not feel
quite all abroad. This is a benefit to his correspondent as
well as to himself.
Moreover, the experiment produced one result which was
probably unexpected. One of my schoolfellows actually
exhibited the true poetic faculty, and his short life was
full of promise of much excellence. This was Philip
Stanhope Worsley, scholar of Corpus Christi College.
Oxford ; whose splendid translation of Homer's Odyssey
into Spenserian stanzas has met with a fair meed of admira-
tion. He afterwards attempted a translation of the Iliad,
which he did not live to complete ; it was completed, as is
well known, by Professor Conington. One of my treasures
is his small volume of Poems and Translations, published
in 1863. It is probably little known, but it contains some
beautiful lines.
4 Who once hath chosen the ranks of right,
With clenched resolve by his choice to stand.
Saves a people oft in their own despite,
And loveth wisely his native land.'
I am thankful to say that, in my time, there were few
(if any) ' open ' scholarships. Instead of being ' crammed '
at school for the special purpose of being examined, we
honestly earned our scholarships by hard work at college
during our ' first year ' ; the year which some freshmen
now think they can easily afford to despise. For myself,
I had the special advantage of residing in Cambridge before
entering college at all ; my private tutor, in mathematics,
being the Rev. Harvey Goodwin, afterwards Bishop of
Carlisle. It is not many years since I again met the bishop
xn INTRODUCTION.
at Ely, on which occasion I reminded his lordship of his
former helpfulness, when he replied with that geniality
which made him so attractive — ' Well, do you know I had
quite forgotten it ! ' immediately adding, to my intense
surprise — 'I wish you'd teach me something!' And it
turned out that he, at any rate, knew my books. He also
spoke feelingly of the great interest which his deceased
brother used to take in Anglo-Saxon ; this brother being
Charles Wycliffe Goodwin, formerly fellow of Catharine Hall,
and editor of The Life of St. Guthlac.
This year of preparation for college was not wholly
given to mathematics. English literature was, at all times,
a delightful change and recreation j and I gained at least
one special advantage at this time, fiom a careful and
systematic study of the glorious Faerie Queen. I was never,
to use Macaulay's phrase, ' in at the death of the Blatant
Beast,' for the simple reason that he never was slain, but is
still alive ; as the curious reader may discover for himself,
unless he is aware of the fact already. Moreover, the
Blatant Beast appears in the Sixth Book, not at the end of
the extant portion of the poem ; for we must not ignore the
two splendid cantos on Mutability.
I early formed the habit of endeavouring to study poets
by the perusal of the texts themselves, rather than by judging
of their merits from accidental scraps as presented in books
of extracts. I do not mean to say that in the case of
Byron, for example, one is bound to read Marino Faliero
and Sardanapalus along with the rest at the first time of
reading ; but it is surely best to examine a considerable
portion of his works at the same time, and there is no
reason for neglecting Lara after perusing The Giaour. Some
poets, like Keats and Campbell and Milton and Longfellow,
wrote nothing that one would like to miss ; and it is no
bad plan to extend one's domain of English poetry so
as to include such works as Cary's Dante and Fairfax's
MRS. MARKHAM'S 'HISTORY.' xm
translation of Tasso. It does not take much longer to
read the Paradise Regained than a second-rate three-volume
novel; and, for my part, I prefer the poem. I am aware
that others are of a different opinion.
It will thus be seen that, in my case, a love of our
splendid literature was early formed, and at no time required
any external stimulus. But this does not explain how I came
to take a special delight in the linguistic and philological
side of it, whilst revelling in its appeals to the imagination.
Some are tempted to suppose that a critical examination of
language is likely to interfere with the romantic element.
I have never found it so in any appreciable degree ; and
I sometimes suspect that those who decry philology want
to make us believe, with the fox, that the grapes are sour.
Why are we to be debarred from examining a poet's
language because his words are sweet and his descriptions
entrancing? That is only one more reason for weighing
every word that he uses. As to the charge sometimes made
against philologists, that they have no real love for literature
and are incapable of tracing the indebtedness of one writer
to another, it is all pure assumption, cunningly put forward
for the purpose of decrying philology. The philologist, on
the contrary, has the larger view, and can see the value both
of the language and of the ideas ; but there are some critics
who care nothing for the language, and prefer to regard our
great masters with but one eye.
It so happens that I can even now remember how my
attention was drawn to our earlier writers. As in the case
of many others in my time, one of my lesson-books was
Mrs. Markham's History of E?igla7id ' ; and I was of course
attracted, as many others have been, by the 'Conversations'
which she appended to her historical chapters. The Con-
versation on the reign of Richard II is one of special
interest, containing as it does, a mention of ' Chaucer, the
father of English poetry,' and a quotation comprising a
x»v INTRODUCTION.
pretty description of a morning, which you will find
intelligible.
1 The busy lark, the messenger of day,
Saluteth with her song the morning gray;
And fiery Phebus riseth up so bright
That all the orient laugheth at the sight.
And with his beames drieth in the greves
The silver droppes hanging on the leves.'
And when her son Richard wants to know what greves
means, Mrs. M. informs him that it is the same as groves.
Next, this good lady tells us something about Langland,
1 who wrote a very severe satire against persons of all pro-
fessions, called the Vision of Piers Plowman, which, for the
insight it gives into the manners of the times, is a very
valuable relic' Asked, if it is as difficult to understand as
Chaucer's poetry, she replies : ' You will find it more so.'
She then gives some idea of what is meant by ' alliterative '
poetry, and selects for our instruction the following extract ] :
' I found there
A hall for a high king, a household to holden,
With broad boards abouten, y-benched well clean ;
With windows of glass wrought as a church,
And chambers with chimneys, and chapels gay.'
Young as I then was, these quotations haunted me ; and
I well remember making an internal resolution that, if ever
I lived to grow up, I would desire better acquaintance with
the originals, little dreaming that it would be my good
fortune to edit both of the works which the extracts
represent, as well as the Vision of Piers Plowmati, which,
as we are here told, is certainly 'a very valuable relic.'
Nor was this all. The words ' holden ' and ' abouten '
and ' y-benched ' seemed so quaint, that their forms irre-
sistibly invited further consideration. Why and when did
1 It is not from Piers Plowman, but from Pierce Plowman's Crede,
by a different author.
CHRIST'S COLLEGE. xv
people say 'abouten,' and what did they mean by the prefix
y- in 'y-benched'? These were problems to be seriously
considered ; they could not be beyond human discovery,
and discovered they must some day be !
Hence it was that, throughout my college life, classics,
mathematics, and theology were my more serious studies,
whilst Chaucer, and Spenser, and Shakespeare were an
unfailing resource in many an hour of leisure. My future
was, as I then supposed, to be spent in the obscurity of
a country curacy, and our great writers could be safely
depended on for affording excellent companionship on
a rainy day.
I had come to Cambridge because I was supposed to
have ' a turn ' for mathematics ; and the next question was
the choice of a college. Taking counsel with a very old
friend and schoolfellow, at that time an undergraduate of
Peterhouse, and being desirous of entering a college which
should be large enough for forming acquaintances, and not
so large as to overwhelm me with competition, he suggested
that Christ's College would probably suit me ; and the
advice was gratefully received.
No loyal student, whose affection for his own college is
sincere and ineradicable, will blame me for entertaining the
pious belief that it is a college of the highest merit. Milton
and Darwin are great names ; and even in my own time
good men were not altogether lacking. It was a treat to
hear Charles Stuart Calverley, more familiarly known by his
own chosen title of ' C. S. C.,' accompany himself on the
pianoforte whilst singing his ' Italian ' songs. If perchance
a line of La do?i?ia e mobile slipped his memory, its place
was readily supplied by any other words that would suit the
scansion, such as ' mezzo soprano,' or ' la piano forte,' or
the English phrase ' mili potaato ' ; and even such a word
as ' celery ' sounded like Italian when the c before the e was
duly pronounced like the ch in chin. With John Robert
xvi INTRODUCTION.
Seeley, historian and true patriot, I was well acquainted ;
not only during his latter years at college, but to the end of
his useful life ; and none could wish for a more amiable or
gentle companion. I remember the time when he began to
study German seriously ; we even read Faust together.
Other friends were Sir Walter Joseph Sendall, now
Governor of Cyprus ; Sir Walter Besant, a familiar name
throughout England's wide dominions ; Dr. John Peile, our
much-revered Master of the college ; and John Wesley
Hales, Professor of English Literature in King's College,
London. But this is not the place for dwelling on such
recollections.
I was elected to a Fellowship at Christ's College, on the
same day with Hales, in July, 1870 ; shortly after which my
college career came to an end. The time came for my
ordination, and in .December of the same year I became
curate of East Dereham, in the centre of Norfolk, where
the first two years of my married life were happily spent.
In the north aisle of the parish church is the tomb of the
poet Cowper, and in the hall of one of the principal houses
in the market-place I was shown the veritable sofa which
gave occasion to his Task. It was easy to acquire a good
deal of the Norfolk dialect ; indeed, it surprised me to find
how very well known some of the dialect words were to
most of the townspeople. Nearly every one seemed to know
what was meant by ' haining' a hedge, and could distinguish
between a ' dor ' and a ' hodmandod.'
On February 27, 1861, I ventured to give a popular
lecture at East Dereham, 'On the Origin and Progress
of the English Language.' It was received with some
favour, and, with a few alterations, appeared in all the glory
of print. This little pamphlet of forty pages, now (happily)
no longer procurable, was the beginning of a long series of
works on the same subject, some of which, for the present
at least, are useful to students. I find, on reference,
MY LECTURE AT DEREHAM. xvn
that it opens with words which, in 1861, were almost
prophetic : —
1 Any one who is a little acquainted with the history of
philology in England must, I think, be aware that the state
of that science at the present time is very different from
what it was only a few years ago. We live in an age, not of
progress merely, but of rapid progress.'
I make no apology for transcribing a few more sentences
from this extinct ' work ' : —
' It is to be hoped that the foolish custom of making out
forced and far-fetched derivations has gone by ; nothing is
learnt by it, because the meaning is not thereby simplified.'
* It is clear that English grammar depends upon that of
Anglo-Saxon almost wholly.' (This, by the way, was clean
contrary to the prevalent idea in schools.)
' Our grammar has become simplified in some points, and
rendered puzzling in others. We never know, for instance,
whether we ought to say he sang or he sung1 ; but, according
to Saxon usage, we ought to conjugate the tense thus :—
I sang, thou sungest, he sang; we, ye, or they sung. Whence
we see that the two forms are not to be used indifferently,
but vary according to the pronoun that precedes them.'
' Most of our older grammars ignore Saxon so completely
that they are of little use except for the mere beginner.'
' It was owing to a want of knowledge of Anglo-Saxon
that Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, committed some of
those astounding blunders which were so ably and unmer-
cifully exposed by Home Tooke in that brilliant, curious,
but by no means reliable book2 which he capriciously
named The Diversions of Purley. He points out, for
1 This very problem was again brought under my notice last year
(1895).
a The book is, practically, obsolete ; but it did good service in its
time. Many of its principles are right ; but the examples are faulty
and cannot be trusted. Nevertheless, I revere the author's memory.
xvin INTRODUCTION.
instance, a statement of Dr. Johnson's, according to which
one meaning of the word down is " a valley " ; the truth
being that it always means precisely the opposite, viz. "a
hill," or perhaps, more strictly, an exalted table-land ; and
for a very sufficient reason — that it is merely the modern
form of the Anglo-Saxon word dun, which means a rolling
hill, down, or dune.'1
'There is, however, a better way of studying English
than by having recourse to dictionaries and grammars ; and
this is, to read some good standard author of the Eliza-
bethan period, such as Shakespeare or Spenser or Bacon,
and to observe in them all the phrases which strike a
modern reader as peculiar. Such peculiar phrases should
be carefully noticed, and, if possible, remembered ; after
a while, the reader will find himself gradually enabled to
account for and explain some of them ; and then he will
have made a considerable advance ; ... so may he
come at last to be able to read and understand Chaucer,
of whom Spenser says, that he is " a well of English
undefiled."
' The knowledge of older English that may thus be
readily acquired will be of far greater service in explaining
modern English than any laborious search in dictionaries.
Besides, one thus kills two birds with one stone ; whilst
acquiring some knowledge of old English, one is reading
books that are worthy of being read for their own sake ;
and it is by far the more interesting method.
' But what is of still more importance than an acquaint-
ance with languages, is a habit of careful observation. The
chief aim should be to try and understand every word that
occurs in common passages of standard authors. Few but
those who have looked into the matter with a little care, can
have any idea of the utter misconception that often prevails '
1 Remember, this applies to 1861 ; since which a great deal has
happened.
MY LECTURE AT DEREHAM. xix
as to the meaning of some common passages even in Shake-
speare.' [I here quoted the famous passage from the Tempest.
Act iv, ending — 'leave not a wreck behind,' as it was then
usually cited.] . . . ' Only imagine the absurdity of talking
about "a baseless fabric of a vision," or "an unsubstantial
pageant faded," leaving behind them a wreck / . . . Such
blunders often arise thus :— Shakespeare uses some word
which, though common in his day, is now nearly obsolete,
or quite so. Thereupon comes some editor who, not under-
standing such a word, makes what he calls a conjectural
emendation. . . . Shakespeare wrote " racke," or, as we
should now spell it, " rack " ; upon which Home Tooke
remarks : " Rack is a common word, and ought not to be
displaced because the commentators know not its meaning " ;
and he adds, with brilliant but bitter sarcasm — " If such
a rule for banishing words were adopted, the commentators
themselves would, most of them, become speechless ! " . . .
What makes the wrong reading the more remarkable is that
rack occurs elsewhere in Shakespeare, always in the sense
of " drifting vapour " ; see Hamlet, ii. 2. 506 ; Antony, iv.
14. 10 ; Sonn. 33.6 [passages which were quoted at length].
But the most lamentable effect of this false reading remains
to be told. The passage is inscribed upon Shakespeare's
tomb in the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, and, as
may be verified by inspection, this mistaken reading is there
adopted! The monument was erected in a. d. 1740; and
it is exactly the kind of blunder we should expect to be
made by the critics of the reign of George the Second.
Considering how Englishmen venerate Shakespeare, it is
not a pleasant fact to meditate upon, that on his public
monument his words have been quoted incorrectly.'
After two years had been spent at East Dereham, we left
that place, with much regret, to be nearer to relatives in
London. My next curacy was, consequently, at Godalming,
in the midst of much charming and picturesque scenery.
b 2
xx INTRODUCTION.
The church has lately undergone a much-needed transfor-
mation, and is no longer remarkable for an almost incredible
ugliness. The lower part of the central tower has been
much lightened in appearance ; it was formerly an almost
solid mass, with a low tunnel cut through the centre,
whereby to reach the chancel from the aisle. On the
north side of the chancel is the memorial tablet of Owen
Manning, S.T.P., editor of Lye's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary in
1772. He is described on the title-page of that work as
1 Canon. Lincoln. Vicarius de Godelming, et Rector de
Peperharow in Agro Surreiensi.'
The neighbourhood was beautiful, but the climate proved
unsuitable ; and at last an alarming attack, of a diphtheritic
character, totally unfitted me for clerical work and rendered
a long rest absolutely necessary ; and I thus found myself, in
the end of 1863, at the age of twenty-eight, in the desolate con-
dition of finding my chosen career brought to a sudden end,
without any idea as to my future course, and even without
much prospect of ever again rendering any help to my
fellow-creatures, which (I can truly say) has always been my
object as regards this present world.
Man proposes, but God disposes. I have never doubted
that the work of a country clergyman is work of the noblest
kind, with abundant opportunities for unobtrusive helpful-
ness, especially if he is not wholly dependent on having to
eke out his subsistence by some form of additional labour.
With such honest Christian work I could have been well
content, and I had no ambition beyond it.
But I can now believe that I was meant to labour in
a different field. Each man has his appointed task ; and
I have long since loyally accepted the educational duty of
endeavouring to instil into the minds of Englishmen the
respect in which they ought to hold their noble literature
and their noble language, and the desirability of fighting
against all the forms of error that beset the study of these
RETURN TO CAMBRIDGE. xxi
invaluable treasures. Every true scholar is in some degree
a missionary ; he must hold fast to that which is good
without wavering, and spare no pains to allure men to the
reception of the truth.
A period of enforced idleness soon gave rise to a wish for
some form of employment ; and I could think of nothing
better than to return to Cambridge. In October, 1864,
I was appointed a mathematical lecturer at my own college,
and I occasionally took a few pupils ; but this left me a good
deal of leisure time.
After some inquiry, I could not find that any one in
Cambridge had any very accurate or extensive knowledge of
Anglo-Saxon • and the idea occurred to me that, as it was
obviously a useful study and in a fair way of becoming one
of considerable importance, it would be a good plan to take
up the subject seriously. It is fair to say that I formed this
resolve with the sincere intention of assisting in the pro-
motion of English scholarship, without any idea that it
would afterwards fit me for doing work as a professor ; for
no one could then foresee that Dr. Bosworth would, in 1867,
provide means for founding a Professorship of Anglo-Saxon \
It is now time to consider the history of the Philological
Society's Dictionary, with which I have, indirectly, been
much concerned.
At a meeting of the Philological Society of London, held
on January 7, 1858, it was resolved — 'that, instead of the
Supplement to the standard English Dictionaries, then in
the course of preparation by the Society's Unregistered
Words Committee, a New Dictionary of the English
Language should be prepared under the authority of the
Philological Society.'
The work was placed in the hands of two Committees,
the one, Literary and Historical, consisting of the Very
1 The money was left to accumulate for over ten years ; so that
the actual establishment of the Professorship was put off till 1878.
xxn INTRODUCTION.
Rev. the Dean of Westminster (Dean R. C. Trench),
F. J. Furnivall, Esq., and H. Coleridge, Esq., Secretary ;
the other, Etymological, consisting of H. Wedgwood, Esq.,
and Professor Maiden. Soon after, Mr. Coleridge and
Mr. Furnivall were appointed editors of the Dictionary.
The practical results of the work of these Committees
were remarkable. They soon discovered that, in both
these departments, there was room for a great deal to be
done.
Let us first consider the historical evidence. None
could doubt that our linguistic treasures were abundant,
but a great number of them existed only in manuscript,
or had never been printed in any accessible form. The
sumptuous editions for the Maitland and Roxburghe clubs
were beyond the means of students ; and it has lately been
ascertained that some of the editors were not remarkable
for any close acquaintance with their subjects.
The publication, in 1859, of Herbert Coleridge's Glos-
sarial Index to the printed English Literature of the
Thirteenth Century was timely and useful ; but the practical
result of it was to render it clearer than ever that the com-
mencement of the publication of the Dictionary at too early
a date would be disastrous, and would only demonstrate
how little was known, from a philological point of view,
of many of our most valuable literary monuments.
There was only one course to be taken. The MSS.,
especially of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
had to be printed at a reasonable price, and such of them
as had only been edited in an expensive form, had to be
printed over again. With this end in view, and at the
urgent request of Dr. Morris, Mr. Furnivall started the
Early English Text Society in 1864, with a goodly list
of subscribers at a guinea apiece ; and he had to look about
for patriotic editors, who were willing to do the editing
gratis, if the Society would pay for the printing.
EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY. xxiu
The Society was extremely fortunate in its first editor.
This was Dr. Richard Morris, who had already edited, for
the Philological Society, a small book entitled Liber Cure
Cocorum, as well as a more important one, viz. Hampole's
Pricke of Co7iscience. Morris was gifted with a remarkable
activity of mind and swiftness of comprehension, an
excellent memory, and an unusual capacity for mastering
minute grammatical details. In his preface to the Pricke
of Conscience, he described, with great precision *, the
peculiarities of the Northumbrian or Northern English
Dialect ; and thus laid the foundation of a more accurate
study of Middle English. In his preface to Early English
Alliterative Poems (the Text Society's first volume), he
brought out the peculiarities of the dialect and grammar
of the West Midland district; and in 1867, viz. in the first
edition of his Specimens of Early E?iglish, he clearly made
out the chief characteristics of the three main dialects,
Northern, Midland, and Southern. The results of his work
are now common property, and almost every beginner of
the study of Middle English is perfectly familiar with facts
which, in 1866, were quite unknown. Every such student
ought to know, further, what a debt of gratitude he owes,
for this and many other lessons, to Richard Morris.
At any rate, let me acknowledge, with all thankfulness,
how much I learnt from him. His Specimens of Early
English was, in my eyes, of such great value, that I could
not rest till I had provided it with a new Glossarial Index
and furnished the author with such notes and small emen-
dations as it was in my power to offer. With these he
1 Morris's work was founded on a minute investigation of Middle-
English poems. An earlier worker in the field was the Rev. Richard
Garnett, who contributed an article on the ' Local Dialects of England'
to the Quarterly Review, in Feb. 1836, and several papers to the
Philological Society s Transactions in 1844-5. These were afterwards
reprinted in Garnett's Philological Essays, edited by his son in 1859.
xxiv INTRODUCTION.
was so well satisfied that he practically put the book into
my hands, and allowed my name to be added to the
title-page. I also prepared an additional volume, containing
extracts from our literature from 1394 to 1579; and, at
a subsequent period, Morris produced a third volume,
ranking as the first of the three in chronological order,
as it contains 'Specimens' from 1150 to 1300. And even
this was not all ; for the idea afterwards occurred to me
that the very numerous references given in these three
books of ' Specimens ' ought certainly to be registered
under one alphabet ; an idea which was taken up by my
friend Mr. A. L. Mayhew, of Oxford, and made the foun-
dation of the still more comprehensive volume entitled
A Concise Middle-English Dictionary, edited by Mr. Mayhew
and myself.
But Morris's work for the English Text Society extended
far beyond his first very useful volume. It is to him that
we are also indebted for an accessible reprint ' of Sir
Gaiuayne and the Grene Knight (1864), a poem of great
merit, written by the same unknown hand that wrote those
edited in his first volume ; a Metrical Paraphrase of the
Books of Genesis and Exodus (1865), a poem written about
1250; the very valuable prose work by Dan Michel of
Northgate, known as The Ayenbite of Inwit, or Remorse
of Conscience'1, dated 1340, and the chief source of our
knowledge of the dialect of Kent ; two series of Early
English Homilies of the thirteenth century (1867-8, and
1873); Legends of the Holy Rood (1871); An Old English
Miscellany (1872); the long religious poem known as the
1 It had previously been edited by Sir Frederic Madden, one of the
few of the earlier editors whose work was remarkable for true
scholarship and accuracy. His edition of Layamon's Brut is also
excellent; and he was joint-editor of the splendid Oxford edition of
Wycliffe's Bible.
2 Previously edited by the Rev. J. Stevenson.
HENRY BRADSHAW. xxv
Cursor Jl fundi (begun in 1874); The Blickling Homilies, from
a MS. dated 971 (1874-1880); and a new edition of
Chaucer's Boethius, from the two best MSS. (1868). No
student can afford to neglect these justly esteemed editions
by Dr. Morris, if he wishes to have a correct notion of the
state of the English language in the thirteenth century.
The Early English Text Society being thus well started
on its long and useful career, Dr. Furnivall, who has
throughout been the chief source of the energy expended
upon it and has himself edited considerably more than
a dozen of its publications, began to cast about for more
editors. My name was mentioned to him as that of one
who was fond of Early English and had some leisure ;
and the result was that I was entrusted with the duty of
re-editing a poem of no great value, entitled Lancelot of
the Laik, formerly edited by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson
for the Maitland Club in 1839. My objection, that I was
unable to read a MS., was over-ruled on the grounds,
first, that the sole MS. was always at hand in the Cam-
bridge University Library ; and secondly, that I could
learn.
My first inspection of the MS. was not reassuring ; in
fact, any one who can thoroughly master a Scottish MS.
of the end of the fifteenth century is in a fair position to
be not easily daunted by MSS. of an earlier date. But
there was a teacher at hand such as few men ever had.
To this day I can remember the smile of amused satisfaction
with which the MS. was brought to me by our justly
celebrated librarian, Henry Bradshaw by name, of King's
College. I much suspect that he thought he had extin-
guished me ; indeed, after puzzling over the first page
for a couple of hours, I was not conscious of having
advanced beyond some twenty lines ; and so retreated for
that time. But as I gradually gained the courage to
maintain that, if the MS. was right, the printed copy was
xxvi INTRODUCTION.
sometimes wrong, Bradshaw became interested, authori-
tatively confirmed all my emendations, and never failed
to give me his most valuable aid, in every case of doubt
and difficulty, from that day forward till that which brought
me the unexpected and startling news that my kind teacher
and most sincere friend had died of a disease of the heart.
The announcement, in my preface to Lancelot, published
in 1865, that the Maitland Club edition contained some
strange errors — it must have been printed from a faulty
transcript without any subsequent collation — created, at
the time, quite a nine-days' wonder. It showed, at any
rate, that the editors for the Early English Text Society
really aimed at a reasonable accuracy ; and it was urged
that it was incumbent upon me to take up some more
important work. In particular, a new edition of Piers
Plowman was suggested, for which purpose it was necessary
to examine all the available MSS. The generous help
afforded me on this occasion is a thing to be remembered.
A particular passage of the poem was selected by Dr. Fur-
nivall, and transcripts of this passage came to hand from
many helpers ; from Dr. Furnivall himself, from the Rev.
H. O. Coxe, Bodley's Librarian, and from Mr. W. Aldis
Wright ; whilst other aid was forthcoming from many
quarters. Mr. (now Dr.) E. A. Bond gave his opinion
as to the age of some of the MSS.; and, at a later date,
MSS. were either lent or shown to me by the Earl of
Ilchester, the Duke of Westminster, Mr. Henry Yates
Thompson, and Lord Ashburnham. Not the least pleasant
of my experiences were some valuable hints sent me by
Mr. Thomas Wright, who had made a very useful edition
of this great poem on his own account.
And so it came to pass that I began editing this poem
in 1866, and only finished the last page of the General
Introduction in 1885. A complete edition of the three
principal texts, together with a sufficient reproduction of
ALLITERATIVE POEMS. XXVII
the Notes and Glossary, was reprinted by the Clarendon
Press in 1886.
My work upon this edition of Piers Plowman suggested
to me the idea of endeavouring to print or reprint, in due
course, all the Early English poems that have come down
to us in the form of alliterative verse without rime. This
intention was never wholly fulfilled, but I nevertheless
made considerable progress in this direction. The poems
of this character edited by me were Pierce the Ploughman's
Crede, the fragmentary Romance of Joseph of Arimathea (from
the Vernon MS.), Richard the Rede/ess (by the author of
The Vision of Piers Plowman) ; the short piece which I
have called The Croivned King : William of Pa/erne ; The
Romance of Alexander and Dindimus\ and the Wars of
Alexander. Nearly all these poems are of considerable
service to the lexicographer owing to the abundance in
them of unusual, dialectal, and obsolescent words. By
the difficulties which they thus frequently present I was
especially attracted.
Most of these poems belong to the fourteenth century,
and I was thus led to a special study of the language of
this period, so that it has long been as familiar to me
(as far as such a result is possible) as the language of
the present day. I shall always be glad of having had a
main hand in the editing and interpretation of three great
authors of this period, viz. John Barbour, William Langland,
and Geoffrey Chaucer. Future editors may do better ; but
my work will never (I hope) become quite superfluous.
It will now readily be understood that the foundation
of the Early English Text Society was the first outcome
of the desire of the Philological Society to provide for
the publication of the New English Dictionary . But there
were other results, of much importance for the study,
which should be briefly mentioned.
The next result was this. We had (nearly?) all been
xxvm INTRODUCTION.
taught at school to pronounce Latin like modern Victorian
English, a statement which ought to seem ludicrous, but
is rather to be accounted as a lamentable disgrace. Con-
sequently, it came natural to us to pronounce Early English
after the same extraordinary and chaotic fashion. Neither
did the evil stop there ; for when I began the study of
Anglo-Saxon, I knew no better than to pronounce the I in
the A. S. r'idan like the i in the modern English ride ;
whereas, like the l in Latin, Icelandic, Swedish, Danish,
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, and Russian,
it was pronounced like the i in i7iachine.
It was obvious that this would never do. It was useless
to produce texts unless we could correctly pronounce the
words which they gave us ; and it was fortunate that the
highly complex problem of the study of our old pronun-
ciation was undertaken by the two men who were most
competent to deal with it, as being intimately acquainted
with the actual pronunciation of many languages. In
England, men often ' spring up wherever they are wanted,
capable of ruling, of conquering, of mastering difficulties 1 ' ;
and the two men who mastered this particular difficulty
were Alexander John Ellis and Henry Sweet. The great
work by the former on Early E?iglish Pronimciation, and
the History of English Sounds by the latter, have made
it abundantly clear that our pronunciation has suffered
many and startling alterations from time to time, and most
of these changes can now be approximately dated. Anglo-
Saxon was written with letters which were Celtic adaptations
from the Latin alphabet, and the pronunciation of Anglo-
Saxon did not greatly differ from that of Latin. Early
English was respelt by Anglo-French scribes, but their
pronunciation was much the same, so that it made no great
difference. The vowel-sounds used by Chaucer were much
1 J. R. Seeley; in Literary Remains of C. S. Calvcrley, p. 113
STUDY OF PHONETICS. xxix
the same as those used by his great Italian cotemporaries,
Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. It was not till after 1400
that most of the new vowel-sounds began to arise which
have been developed, in course of time, into those which
we now use. The difference, in some cases, is very great ;
so that it is indeed difficult for any one who is inexperienced
in our older literature to realize that our a in dame was once
the French a in the French dame ; that our e in deity was
once the French / in de'ite '; that our diphthongal i in
silence was once the French i in silence; and that our
diphthongal ou in doubt was once the French on in doute.
Yet such statements as these ought to be self-evident ; we
cannot even conceive that a Norman noble could have
pronounced dame, deity, doubt, and silence with the modern
English vowels.
The conclusions obtained by the labours of Ellis and
Sweet have had far-reaching consequences. Englishmen
are awaking to the value of phonetics generally. It is hardly
too much to say that the study of etymology, in England,
has been quite revolutionized by the use of newer and surer
methods, based upon the careful observations of sounds and
of the method of representing them by symbols. The
student who understands the history of English sounds can
no longer put up with the old and slovenly neglect of the
history of the sounds in Latin and Greek ; he awakes to the
facts that language is a living thing, and that the spoken
tongue is full of information as regards the written repre-
sentation of it ; he learns to listen to what he hears around
him, and to make mental notes of the many varieties of
pronunciation which are, literally, always in the air. In
this way the subject of his study is quickened into full and
active life ; forms that are written down in old manuscripts
by hands that are now mere dust may be, and continually
are, illustrated, as by a revealing flash, by the chance word
of an unknown stranger ; and if the problems presented by
xxx INTRODUCTION.
the subtle changes in sounds are almost endless, we have at
the same time a never-failing supply of undoubted facts ever
filling the air around us, asking only for recognition, for
memory, and for record. The position of learners is one of
highest hope. There was a time when Greek accents were
mere unmeaning marks, to be set over certain syllables
because it was unreasonably esteemed a sign of scholar-
ship (!) to do so ; but to-day they are being severely
scrutinized, for they tell us which syllable received the
pitch, and afford much valuable information as to the way
in which each word was sounded.
We now come to another matter altogether, though it has
a close relationship to English philology, viz. the utility of
a knowledge of our modern English dialects. In compiling
the vocabulary of words admitted into the New English
Dictionary, it was often extremely difficult to know where
to draw the line. It has sometimes happened that a word
which in olden times may fairly be said to have been in
general use, or at any rate, in use over a large area, is now
only heard in some provincial dialect, being unknown to
nearly all the inhabitants of the rest of England ; and, on
the other hand, a word which was once used, as it would
seem from the evidence, in one dialect only, has now
become familiar to everybody. It follows from this that
the collection of provincial words is absolutely necessary
for completing the material with which the lexicographer
has to deal ; and hence Mr. Ellis and others suggested
the establishment of an English Dialect Society. A letter
written by Mr. Aldis Wright to Notes and Queries in
March, 1870, was particularly explicit as to this necessity,
and contained the ominous warning that ' in a few years it
will be too late.'
Being deeply impressed with the incontrovertible truth
of this statement, and finding that still the work could not
be done till some one would definitely undertake the trouble
ENGLISH DIALECT SOCIETY. xxxi
of performing all the duties of an honorary secretary, I at
last resolved to follow Dr. Furnivall's example, and to write
the necessary prospectus for the formation of such a society.
This was the beginning of the English Dialect Society,
established in 1873, and commencing with a Bibliographical
List of works written in English dialects, or directly concerned
with the same. The Society is now (in 1896) still in
existence, and in the course of its career has issued no less
than seventy-six parts or numbers, including some highly
valuable special glossaries, such as those of Mr. Elworthy
(West Somerset), Mr. F. K. Robinson (Whitby), Messrs.
Nodal and Milner (Lancashire), Mr. C. Clough Robinson
(Mid Yorkshire), Mr. E. Peacock (Lincolnshire), and many
more, for which I must refer the reader to the Society's list.
Indeed, the work already accomplished is so considerable
that we have arrived, as it were, in sight of land, and can
contemplate the probable extinction of the Society in a not
very distant future without any great anxiety. We arc
already beginning to gather together all the material ; and,
under the able editorship of Professor Wright, a general
English Dialect Dictionary is already in the press. We
may fairly hope for the completion of this truly national
work in the course of another eight years.
As the publications of the Early English Text Society
were specially designed, from the outset, for the use of
future lexicographers, most of them were accompanied with
glossaries, more or less complete, giving very copious and
exact references to the passages which contain the harder
words. But it was soon felt that something like a general
Dictionary of Middle English was much needed, in order to
exhibit results collected from many various sources. The
two chief Dictionaries of this character were both under-
taken, in the first instance, by Germans ; we are much
indebted, in this respect, to Dr. Francis Henry Stratmann,
of Krefeld, and to Dr. Eduard Matzner, of Berlin.
xxxn INTRODUCTION.
The first edition of Dr. Stratmann's Dictionary of Middle
English was not wholly satisfactory. It was open to three
objections, from a practical point of view. In the first place,
the meanings assigned were too briefly given, and frequently
rendered unintelligible by the use of provincial English
words which represented the old word as to form, but not
always as to sense. Secondly, many words were given
under twelfth-century forms, without any recognition, in the
alphabet, of forms with more usual spellings. And thirdly,
which was worst of all, the author at first devoted himself
solely to the explanation of words of Germanic origin, thus
leaving the highly important Anglo-French element almost
unrepresented. The third and latest edition, in a much
improved form, was published in 1878, and an extensive
supplement was issued in 1881 ; but in 1884 the author died.
At the suggestion of Dr. Furnivall, the copyright of the work
was purchased by the Clarendon Press, and all the materials,
including the author's collections for a new edition, were
placed in the hands of Mr. Henry Bradley. With almost
incredible industry and perseverance, Mr. Bradley recon-
structed the whole work, removing the above-mentioned
obvious defects and largely increasing the vocabulary.
The new edition (technically, the fourth) appeared in 189T,
and is a book which every serious student of historical
English keeps within easy reach, as a matter of course.
A mere glance at this volume affords almost instantaneous
proof that the Early English Text Society was not
established in vain, and was founded none too soon.
The second Middle English Dictionary, by E. Matzner,
was originally planned as an accompanying glossarial volume
to the Altenglische Sprachprobe7i, or Specimens of Early
English, issued by Matzner and Goldbeck in 1867-9. But
the work grew under the author's hands, till at length he
formed the ambitious design of including in it references to
all the chief works existing in our Middle English Literature.
NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY. xxxiti
It was, from the first, a better planned book than that of
Stratmann. The explanations are fuller, the quotations
more extended, and the vocabulary more complete ; at the
same time, the forms chosen as normal ones are such as
very frequently occur. It had but one drawback, but that
proved to be a very great one. The scale on which it was
planned was such that the author could not complete it,
though he lived till over eighty years of age, and was at
work upon it almost to the last. The eleventh and last
part appeared in 1891 ; and the last word discussed in it is
the verb makien, to make. Whether it is in contemplation
to continue this great work any further, I am unable to say.
It thus appears that, in the quarter of a century which
elapsed between 1857 and 1882, an enormous advance had
been made towards providing the New English Dictionary
with better materials. It must further be borne in mind
that, during all this period, hundreds of readers had been
employed in making suitable extracts from thousands of
books j and the precaution had been taken of requesting
all the readers to write out their extracts on one side only
of a half-sheet of ordinary note-paper, so that they might be
duly sorted out in alphabetical order and tied up in bundles
for ready reference. In this way several tons in weight of
most valuable materials have been accumulated by the
united efforts of a small army of workers ; and though it
frequently happens that, owing to imperfections in the work
or a want of legibility, a given extract has to be re-compared
with the source whence it was originally taken (causing
much delay and trouble in the case of works that are
difficult of access), yet the references alone are of infinite
service, as without them the work would have remained
impossible of execution in any satisfactory manner. And
when all things are taken into account, viz. the establish-
ment during this period of the Early English Text Society
and of the Chaucer Society by Dr. Fumivall, and of the
XXXiv INTRODUCTION.
English Dialect Society — the numerous editions of previously
unprinted MSS. which have appeared not in England only,
but also in Germany and America — the numerous re-
editions of pieces that had previously been edited in an
unsatisfactory or insufficient manner — the splendid success
of Dr. Ellis and Dr. Sweet in recovering the almost lost
history of our pronunciation — and the hearty co-operation
of so many readers in preparing useful extracts — it may be
doubted whether any similar enterprise was ever carried out
with such sustained vigour and so much practical success.
It is also of great importance to observe that, during the
same period, very great advances have been made, especially
in Germany, in the study of comparative grammar.
So far, I have spoken mainly of the historical side of the
development of our venerable and venerated language. It
remains to add a brief account of what has been done from
a purely etymological point of view.
I have no space here to explore a subject which would,
I think, prove to be of great interest, viz. the history of the
progress of English etymology, beginning (let us say) with
Minsheu and Blount and Skinner, and so onwrards to Bailey
and Johnson, with an occasional excursus on the wonderful
vagaries of Richard Verstegan and the Rev. G. W. Lemon,
and others like unto them. Let us begin at once with
much more recent times.
It must be remembered that English, considered as to its
vocabulary, is as a great river derived from many rills.
Setting aside such words as have been adopted from sources
of less importance, we may confine our attention, at the
outset, to three streams which supplied us more copiously
than others, viz. the Old English (including Scandinavian),
the Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman, and the 'classical,'
which includes Latin and Greek. Ever since the period of
the Renaissance, to the end of the last century, and even
later, abundant attention has been bestowed upon the third
SOMNER AND TO ORE. xxxv
of these, almost as if it were all-sufficient and all-important,
whilst the other two have been treated with an indifference
that has often savoured of contempt. No man is a 'scholar '
unless he can account for the spelling and etymology of
system ; but he is not expected to know anything of the
history of such words as home or ransom, which are at once
of earlier introduction and in much more extended use. It
is difficult to conceive of anything more perverse.
The publication, in 1659, of Somner's Anglo-Saxon
Dictionary was (or rather might have been) a great step in
advance; but Skinner, in 1691, failed, for the most part, to
make any satisfactory use of it, owing to his want of
knowledge of the grammar and phonetic laws of the oldest
stage of English. Dr. Johnson trusted much to the
guidance of Skinner, so that but little progress was
possible.
Just at the beginning of the present century appeared the
remarkable work by Home Tooke entitled The Diversions
of Purley. In this the author assailed the etymologies in
Johnson with much smartness and pitiless logic ;' showing,
with great force, the value of Anglo-Saxon and Mceso-
Gothic in questions relating to words of native origin, and
opening the way to a better appreciation of our old
expressions. Unfortunately, however, he was led to the
construction of two most grotesque and crazy theories ;
the one, that conjunctions are derived from verbs in the
imperative mood ; and the other, that substantives ending
in -th are formed from the third person singular of indica-
tives ! And so it has come to pass that his book is obsolete,
though it may still be read with pleasure by a student who
is curious as to the history of the study of our language.
It was necessary to mention this work of Home Tooke,
in order to explain the singular phenomena presented by
Richardson's Dictionary, of which a new edition appeared,
in two fine quarto volumes, as late as 1863. This great
c 2
xxxvi INTRODUCTION.
work has two chief features, viz. its etymologies and its
quotations. As regards the latter, its excellence and
copiousness are surpassed by the great New English Dic-
tionary only ; indeed, we owe to Richardson the valuable
habit of making a free use of our older authors. But when
we come to investigate his etymologies, we find that he has
not only adopted Tooke's theories, but carried them out
with a boldness of invention that almost surpasses belief.
Thus he expressly selects, for our approval and admiration,
his account of the verbs till and tell (which happen to be
unrelated), by repeating it complacently in his Preface :
' Again, to tell and to //'// are the same word, and mean to
lift, to raise. To till with the plough is to raise (sc. the
ground) with it. To tell with the tongue is to raise (sc.
the voice) with it.' And all this, because Tooke had a fancy
of deriving these words from the Latin tollere ; which, by
Grimm's Law, is impossible.
It soon became clear that this kind of roundabout reason-
ing, if reasoning it can be called, enabled anybody to derive
any one word from any other, if only a case could somehow
be made out ; and the method had the inherent weakness
of satisfying no one but the particular inventor of the guess.
There was no stability or finality about such a process, and
another one had to be resorted to.
It has already been remarked that Mr. Wedgwood was
one of the committee appointed by the Philological
Society to look after etymologies. To this circumstance
we owe the highly ingenious and suggestive Dictionary
of English Etymology written by my fellow-collegian
Hensleigh Wedgwood, late Fellow of Christ's College,
Cambridge ; which was undertaken at the urgent solicita-
tion of Dr. Furnivall, the Society's honorary secretary. The
second edition, revised and enlarged, appeared in 1872,
and the third edition in 1878. The Introduction, con-
taining an essay on the Origin of Language, is of great
HEN SLEIGH WEDGWOOD. xxxvn
interest, as the author maintains, with much skill and
abundant illustrations, the theory that language took its
rise from the imitation of natural sounds and cries and
from expressive interjections, in opposition to the theory of
Max Miiller that linguistic roots are ' phonetic types pro-
duced by a power inherent in human nature,' whatever that
may mean.
The theory here advocated by Wedgwood is (as I believe)
right in the main, and I may refer the reader to the treat-
ment of it by Whitney and Sweet. Unluckily, it influenced
the author far too much in his account of various words ;
for in many cases the forms in use are too modern or too
much altered from their primitive shape for us to be still
able to trace how they first arose. In the case of the verb
to plunge, for example, Wedgwood's statement that its origin,
' like that of plump, is a representation of the noise made
by the fall,' is purely fanciful ; for it is merely borrowed
from the F. plonger, answering to the Low Latin type
*plumbicare, a derivative of plumbum, lead ; see the account
of the F. word in Littre and Diez.
It will be found, in fact, that several of Wedgwood's
articles refer us to imitative types, where it is very doubtful
if any such imitation was really intended. There is much
in the book that is very useful, but the treatment of words
of native origin leaves much to be desired. It is surprising
that the word home should be referred to ham-let, and
treated as if the a in the A. S. ham (printed ham) was
a short vowel. So under horn, we are referred to the
* Goth, haurn, Lat. cornu, Bret, corn, Gr. Kepar, Heb.
keren ' ; without any mention of the A. S. horn as being the
actual source. Very little regard is paid to the length of
vowels, and the historical method is hardly pursued at all.
There is no scientific treatment of the consonants, nor any
recognition of the phenomena which are formulated and sum-
marized in the convenient canon known as ' Grimm's Law.'
xxxvill INTRODUCTION.
Briefly, Wedgwood's Etymological Dictio?iary, though it
represents an enormous advance beyond the methods
employed by Skinner and Richardson, is sadly deficient
in scientific method, and could not be regarded as
approaching finality.
The first English etymological dictionary in which the
scientific treatment of language is sufficiently recognized was
written, as might have been expected, in Germany ; and
remains to this day, owing to the excellence of its method,
a reasonably good authority. This is the Etymologisches
Worterbuch der englischen Sprache by E. Miiller, of which the
first edition was published at Cothen in 1865, and the second
and much improved edition at the same place in 1878.
This is a thoroughly good and sound work ; and the author
took the precaution of consulting the best authorities then
available. The chief English works to which he refers are
the dictionaries by Johnson, Richardson, Webster (with the
etymologies revised by Dr. Mahn), Worcester, and Wedg-
wood : but he also availed himself of the excellent works
by German authorities, such as Grimm, Koch, Fiedler,
Matzner, and Stratmann. The results are presented in
a brief but usually accurate form, so that most of the
articles require little or no correction. But it does not
seem to be much known or much used in England, owing,
I suppose, to the fact that the text is written in German.
The mention of the second edition of E. Miiller's
Dictionary has already brought us on to the year 1878.
Meanwhile, the preparations for the New English Dictionary
had been much advanced, and there seemed good hope
that in a few years more, the time would have arrived for
commencing to print and publish it. At this stage, the
idea occurred to me that, as Wedgwood's work had been
printed in advance as a contribution to the labour of
furnishing the etymologies, and at the same time did not
present the results in a well-assorted form, it would be
MY ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY. xxxix
helpful for some one to attempt to revise the whole of it,
in a form more available for immediate use. I had the
temerity to undertake this important task myself, having
then hardly arrived at the age when one ceases to be
infallible ; and I began to bethink me of the improvements
that could be made j and I took particular note of what
seemed to be the more obvious defects in the existing
dictionaries.
As I cannot explain the state of the case more clearly
than I have already done in the Preface to the first edition
(in 1882) of my Etymological Dictionary, I make no apology
for citing a considerable portion of it here. Few people
read a preface to a dictionary printed in a quarto form ;
so that it will probably be new to most of my readers : —
' The present work was undertaken with the intention of
furnishing students with materials for a more scientific
study of English etymology than is commonly to be found
in previous works upon the subject. It is not intended to
be always authoritative, nor are the conclusions arrived at
to be accepted as final. It is rather intended as a guide to
future writers, showing them in some cases what ought
certainly to be accepted, and in other cases, it may be, what
to avoid. The idea of it arose out of my own wants.
I could find no single book containing the facts about
a given word which it most concerns a student to know,
whilst, at the same time, there exist numerous books
containing information too important to be omitted. Thus
Richardson's Dictionary is an admirable store-house of
quotations illustrating such words as are of no great antiquity
in the language, and his selected examples are the more
valuable from the fact that he in general adds the exact
reference. Todd's Johnson likewise contains numerous
well-chosen quotations, but perhaps no greater mistake
was ever made than that of citing from authors like Dryden
or Addison at large, without the slightest hint as to the
xl INTRODUCTION.
whereabouts of the context. But in both of these works
the etymology is, commonly, of the poorest description ;
and it would probably be difficult to find a worse philologist
than Richardson, who adopted many suggestions from
Home Tooke without enquiry, and was capable of saying
that hod is " perhaps hoved, hov'd, /iod, past part, of heafan^
to heave." It is easily ascertained that the A. S. for heave
is hebban, and that, being a strong verb, its past participle
did not originally end in -ed.
' It would be tedious to mention the numerous other
books which help to throw such light on the history of
words as is necessary for the right investigation of their
etymology. The great defect of most of them is that they
do not carry back that history far enough, and are very
weak in the highly important Middle English period. But
the publications of the Camden Society, of the Early
English Text Society, and of many other printing clubs,
have lately materially advanced our knowledge, and have
rendered possible such excellent books of reference as are
exemplified in Stratmann's Old English Dictionary and in
the still more admirable but (as yet) incomplete Worterbuch
by Eduard Matzner. In particular, the study of phonetics,
as applied to Early English pronunciation by Mr. Ellis and
Mr. Sweet, and carefully carried out by nearly all students
of Early English in Germany, has almost revolutionized the
study of etymology as hitherto pursued in England. We
can no longer consent to disregard vowel-sounds as if they
formed no essential part of the word, which seems to have
been the old doctrine ; indeed, the idea is by no means
yet discarded even by those who ought to know better.
' On the other hand, we have, in Eduard Miiller's
Etymologisches Worterbuch der englischen Sprache, an ex-
cellent collection of etymologies and cognate words, but
without any illustrations of the use or history of words,
or any indication of the period when they first came into
MY ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY. xli
use. We have also Webster's Dictionary, with the etymologies
as revised by Dr. Mahn, a very useful and comprehensive
volume ; but the plan of the work does not allow of much
explanation of a purely philological character.
1 It is many years since a new and comprehensive
dictionary was first planned by the Philological Society, and
we have now good hope that, under the able editorship of
Dr. Murray, some portion of this great work may ere long
see the light. For the illustration of the history of words,
this will be all-important, and the etymologies will, I believe,
be briefly but sufficiently indicated. It was chiefly with the
hope of assisting in this national work, that, many years
ago, I began collecting materials and making notes upon
points relating to etymology. The result of such work, in
a modified form, and with very large additions, is here
offered to the reader. My object has been to clear the way
for the improvement of the etymologies by a previous dis-
cussion of all the more important words, executed on
a plan so far differing from that which will be adopted by
Dr. Murray as not to interfere with his labours, but rather,
as far as possible, to assist them. It will, accordingly, be
found that I have studied brevity by refraining from any
detailed account of the changes of meaning of words, except
where absolutely necessary for purely etymological purposes.
The numerous very curious and highly interesting examples
of words which, especially in later times, took up new
meanings will not, in general, be found here ; and the
definitions of words are only given in a very brief and bald
manner, only the more usual senses being indicated. On
the other hand, I have sometimes permitted myself to
indulge in comments, discussions, and even suggestions
and speculations, which would be out of place in a dictionary
of the usual character. Some of these, where the results
are right, will, I hope, save much future discussion and
investigation ; whilst others, where the results prove to be
xlii INTRODUCTION.
wrong, can be avoided and rejected. In one respect I have
attempted considerably more than is usually done by the
writers of works upon English etymology. I have en-
deavoured, where possible, to trace back words to their
Aryan roots, by availing myself of the latest works upon
comparative philology. In doing this, I have especially
endeavoured to link one word with another, and the reader
will find a perfect network of cross-references enabling him
to collect all the forms of any given word of which various
forms exist ; so that many of the principal words in the
Aryan languages can be thus traced. Instead of considering
English as an isolated language, as is sometimes actually
done, I endeavour, in every case, to exhibit its relation to
cognate tongues ; and as, by this process, considerable light
is thrown upon English by Latin and Greek, so also, at the
same time, considerable light is thrown upon Latin and Greek
by Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic. Thus, whilst under the word
bite will be found a mention of the cognate Latin findere,
conversely, under the word fissitre, is given a cross-reference
to bite. In both cases, reference is also made to the root
khid ; and, by referring to this root (No. 240, on p. 738),
some further account of it will be found, with further
examples of allied words. It is only by thus comparing all
the Aryan languages together, and by considering them as
one harmonious whole, that we can get a clear conception
of the original forms ; a conception which must precede all
theory as to how those forms came to be invented.
Another great advantage of the comparative method is
that, though the present work is nominally one on E?iglisJi
etymology, it is equally explicit, as far as it has occasion to
deal with them, with regard to the related words in other
languages ; and may be taken as a guide to the etymology
of many of the leading words in Latin and Greek, and to
all the more important words in the various Scandinavian
and Teutonic tongues.
MY ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY. xliii
c I have chiefly been guided throughout by the results of
my own experience. Much use of many dictionaries has
shown me the exact points where an enquirer is often
baffled, and I have especially addressed myself to the task
of solving difficulties and passing beyond obstacles. Not
inconsiderable has been the trouble of verifying references.
A few examples will put this in a clear light.
1 Richardson has numerous references (to take a single
case) to the Ro7?iannt of the Rose. He probably used some
edition in which the lines are not numbered ; at any rate,
he never gives an exact reference to it. The few references
to it in Tyrwhitt's Glossary and in Stratmann do not help
us very greatly. To find a particular word in this poem of
7700 lines is often troublesome; but, in every case where
I wanted the quotation, I have found and noted it. I can
recall several half-hours spent in this particular work.
' Another not very hopeful book in which to find one's
place, is the Faerie Queene. References to this are usually
given to the book and canto, and of these one or other is
(in Richardson) occasionally incorrect; in every case, I have
added the number of the stanza.
1 One very remarkable fact about Richardson's Dictionary
is that, in many cases, references are given only to obscure
and late authors, when all the while the word occurs in
Shakespeare. By keeping Dr. Schmidt's comprehensive
Shakespeare Lexicon always open before me, this fault has
been easily remedied.
' To pass on to matters more purely etymological. I have
constantly been troubled with the vagueness and inaccuracy
of words quoted, in various books, as specimens of Old
English or foreign languages. The spelling of " Anglo-
Saxon " in some books is often simply outrageous. Accents
are put in or left out at pleasure ; impossible combinations
of letters are given ; the number of syllables is disregarded ;
and grammatical terminations have to take their chance.
xliv INTRODUCTION.
Words taken from Ettmiiller are spelt with a and ce ; words
taken from Bosworth are spelt with ce and <zl, without any
hint that the a and ce of the former answer to ce and de in
the latter. I do not wish to give examples of these things ;
they are so abundant that they may easily be found by the
curious. In many cases, writers of " etymological " dic-
tionaries do not trouble to learn even the alphabets of the
languages cited from, or the most elementary grammatical
facts. I have met with supposed Welsh words spelt with
a v, with Swedish words spelt with ce, with Danish infinitives
ending in -a2, with Icelandic infinitives in -an, and so on ;
the only languages correctly spelt being Latin and Greek,
and commonly French and German. It is clearly assumed,
and probably with safety, that most readers will not detect
mis-spellings beyond this limited range.
' But this was not a matter which troubled me long. At
a very early stage of my studies, I perceived clearly enough,
that the spelling given by some authorities is not necessarily
to be taken as the true one ; and it was then easy to make
allowances for possible errors, and to refer to some book
with reasonable spellings, such as E. Miiller, or Mahn's
Webster, or Wedgwood. A little research revealed far more
curious pieces of information than the citing of words in
impossible or mistaken spellings. Statements abound
which it is difficult to account for except on the supposition
that it must once have been usual to manufacture words for
the express purpose of deriving others from them. To take
an example, I open Todd's Johtison at random, and find
that under bolster is cited " Gothic bolster, a heap of hay."
Now the fragments of Gothic that have reached us are very
1 Usually also printed ce, without the accent. I suspect that a is
seldom provided for.
J Todd's Johnson, s.v. Boll, has 'Su. Goth, bulna, Dan. bulncr.'
Here bulna is the Swedish infinitive, whilst bulner is the first person
ol the Danish present tense. Similar jumbles abound.
MY ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY. xlv
precious but very insufficient, and they certainly contain no
such word as bolster. Neither is bolster a Gothic spelling.
Holster is represented in Gothic by hulistr, so that bolster
might, possibly, be bulisir. In any case, as the word
certainly does not occur, it can only be a pure invention,
due to some blunder; the explanation "a heap of hay" is
a happy and graphic touch, regarded in the light of a fiction,
but is out of place in a work of reference.
'A mistake of this nature would not greatly matter if
such instances were rare ; but the extraordinary part of the
matter is that they are extremely common, owing probably
to the trust reposed by former writers in such etymologists
as Skinner and Junius, men who did good work in their
day, but whose statements require careful verification in
this nineteenth century. What Skinner was capable of,
I have shown in my introduction to the reprint of Ray's
Glossary published for the English Dialect Society. It is
sufficient to say that the net result is this ; that words cited
in etymological dictionaries (with very few exceptions)
cannot be accepted without verification. Not only do we
find puzzling mis-spellings, but we find actual fictions ;
words are said to be " Anglo-Saxon " that are not to be
found in the existing texts ; " Gothic " words are con-
structed for the mere purpose of " etymology " ; Icelandic
words have meanings assigned to them which are incredible
or misleading : and so on of the rest.
' Another source of trouble is that, when real words are
cited, they are wrongly explained. Thus, in Todd's Johnson,
we find a derivation of bond from A. S. " bond, bound"
Now bond is not strictly Anglo-Saxon, but an Early English
form, signifying "a band," and is not a past participle at
all ; the A. S. for " bound " being gebunde?i. The error is
easily traced ; Dr. Bosworth cites " bond, bound, ligatus "
from Somner's Dictionary, whence it was also copied into
Lye's Dictionary in the form : " bond, ligatus, obligatus,
xlvi INTRODUCTION.
bound? Where Somner found it, is a mystery indeed, as it
is absurd on the face of it. We should take a man to be
a very poor German scholar who imagined that band, in
German, is a past participle ; but when the same mistake is
made by Somner, we find that it is copied by Lye, copied
by Bosworth (who, however, marks it as Somner's), copied
into Todd's Johnson, amplified by Richardson into the
misleading statement that "bond is the past tense ! and past
participle of the verb to bind? and has doubtless been
copied by numerous other writers who have wished to come
at their etymologies with the least trouble to themselves.
It is precisely this continual reproduction of errors which so
disgraces many English works, and renders investigation
so difficult.
1 But when I had grasped the facts that spellings are often
false, that words can be invented, and that explanations are
often wrong, I found that worse remained behind. The
science of philology is comparatively modern, so that our
earlier writers had no means of ascertaining principles that
are now well established, and, instead of proceeding by rule,
had to go blindly by guesswork, thus sowing crops of errors
which have sprung up and multiplied till it requires very
careful investigation to enable a modern writer to avoid all
the pitfalls prepared for him by the false suggestions which
he meets with at every turn. Many derivations that have
been long current and are even generally accepted will not
be found in this volume, for the plain reason that I have
found them to be false ; I think I may at any rate believe
myself to be profoundly versed in most of the old fables of
this character, and I shall only say, briefly, that the reader
need not assume me to be ignorant of them because I do
not mention them. The most extraordinary fact about
1 Bond is a form of the past tense in Middle English, and indeed the
sb. bond is itself derived from the grade of bindan found in the A. S.
pt. t. band ; but bond is certainly not ' the past participle.'
MY ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY. xlvi
comparative philology is that, whilst its principles are well
understood by numerous students in Germany and America,
they are far from being well known in England, so that it is
easy to meet even with classical scholars who have no notion
what " Grimm's Law " really means, and who are entirely at
a loss to understand why the English care has no connexion
with the Latin cura, nor the English whole with the Greek
6\os, nor the French charite with the Greek xapis. Yet
for the understanding of these things nothing more is
needed than a knowledge of the relative values of the letters
of the English, Latin, and Greek alphabets. A knowledge
of these alphabets is strangely neglected at our public
schools ; whereas a few hours carefully devoted to each
would save scholars from innumerable blunders, and a boy
of sixteen who understood them would be far more than
a match, in matters of etymology, for a man of fifty who
did not. In particular, some knowledge of the vowel-
sounds is essential. Modern philology will, in future, turn
more and more upon phonetics ; and the truth now confined
to a very few will at last become -general, that the vowel is
commonly the very life, the most essential part of the word,
and that, just as pre-scientific etymologists frequently went
wrong because they considered the consonants as being of
small consequence and the vowels of none at all, the
scientific student of the present day may hope to go right,
if he considers the consonants as being of great consequence
and the vowels as all-important.
'The foregoing remarks are, I think, sufficient to show
my reasons for undertaking the work, and the nature of
some of the difficulties which I have endeavoured to
encounter or remove.'
However far my performance has fallen short of my
intentions, it was encouraging to find that my Etymological
Dictionary supplied to some extent a real want, and was
very well received. Indeed, I have more than once been
xlviii INTRODUCTION.
informed that some of the articles are quite readable, owing,
no doubt, to the historical information which they contain,
or to the curious changes of form which they record.
As regards method, at any rate two great improvements
were made ; the former of these has relation to chronology,
the latter to the exact source of a word's origin.
The value of chronology is insisted upon throughout.
We cannot rest satisfied with any account of a word that
does not give at least some approximate notion of the date
when it first came into use. This is the first step towards
tracing its source ; and the truth of this is so obvious that
no more need be said. The New English Dictionary
assumes the necessity of this principle in every case.
The other improvement wras in the attempt to discriminate
the exact source of a word's origin. I am not aware that
this had ever been attempted before, though the utility of
doing so was explicitly asserted by Trench in his First
Lecture upon ' English Past and Present,' in his account
of ' The English Vocabulary.' We want to know, in every
case, whether the word is native or foreign. If it be adapted
from French, we again want to know the source whence the
word found its way into that unoriginal language ; and the
like, in other cases. By taking notes of this kind in every
case, it became possible to compile, for the first time, long
lists showing the comparative influence upon English of
various foreign languages. Another great practical advantage
is that these lists can be studied and corrected by specialists,
or by books which treat of special languages. The list of
Malay words, for example, can be revised by help of a Malay
dictionary, or by help of some one who can speak the
language, without the trouble of going through the whole
Dictionary in order to pick them out.
The preparation for press of this rather ambitious work
occupied four years j and it would have occupied a much
longer time if I had not made some previous preparation
ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARIES. xlix
for work of this character, and if, on the other hand, I had
exercised fuller research in some cases of unusual difficulty.
I am ready to confess, with all candour, that it seemed to
me more necessary that the work should be completed
within a somewhat short time than that it should be delayed
too long. The publication, soon afterwards, of a second
edition enabled me to correct some of the more obvious
errors ; and several more corrections and additions have
been made, from time to time, in the successive editions of
the epitome called A Concise Ety?nological Dictionary.
With all its errors, the work has been of much use. The
references are numerous and not often incorrect ; and,
though many were taken from Richardson and Stratmann
and Morris, a considerable number of them were due to my
own reading. Many of the etymologies are more correct
than in most of the preceding works of a similar character,
and point out the immediate sources of words with a greater
degree of exactness.
One test of comparative success is imitation ; and of this
form of compliment the work has had its fair share. Most
of the Dictionaries which have appeared since 1882 have
borrowed from it more or less.
The increased interest now shown in etymological study
of a stricter and more scientific kind is best shown by the
books that have appeared of late years in foreign languages.
Foremost among these is the excellent Etymologisches
Worterbuch der deutschen Sprache by Friedrich Kluge,
Professor in the University of Jena. In Dutch, we have
not only the Etymologisch Woordenboek der Nederiandsche
Taal by Dr. Johannes Franck, of Bonn, but also the
Bek?iopt Etymologisch Woordenboek, by J. Vercoullie, of
Ghent. Others are the Dansk Etymo/ogisk Ordbog, by
E. Jessen, printed at Copenhagen, in 1893 ; the Vocabo/ario
Ety?nologico fta/iano, by F. Zambaldi ; and the Greek and
Persian Etymological Dictionaries, by Dr. Prellwitz and
d
1 INTRODUCTION.
Paul Horn respectively. These and other recent works on
the subject, several of which are of much value, have greatly
contributed to help the more advanced student. The
highest place is taken by the valuable and erudite Grundriss
der vergleichenden Grammatik der Indogermanischen Sprachen,
by Karl Brugmann, completed in 1893.
I now return to the history of the New English Dictionary \
for which so much preparation had thus been made, both
directly and indirectly. The net result was that a work
which, in 1858, could not have been safely commenced, was,
in 1878, being seriously considered. Twenty years of faithful
work of various kinds had made a great difference. A fairly
complete history of the whole movement is given in the
Transactions of the Philological Society, the most interesting
portion of it being from the year 1879 onwards. In that
year, Dr. Murray had been elected President of the Society,
in recognition of the fact that he had definitely undertaken
the editorship of the Dictionary; and on May 16, he
delivered the Presidential Address, which dealt with the
subject at length. On the preceding March 1, the contracts
between the Society, the Delegates of the Clarendon
Press, and the Editor were signed. ' A fortnight before that
day,' says Dr. Murray, ' I had commenced the erection of
an iron building, detached from my dwelling-house, to serve
as a Scriptoriu7?i, and to accommodate safely and con-
veniently the materials. This has been fitted up with
blocks of pigeon-holes, 1,029 in number, for the reception
of the alphabetically arranged slips, and other conveniences
for the extensive apparatus required. On Lady Day, when
I was joined by my assistant, Mr. S. J. Herrtage, I received
from Mr. Furnivall some ton and three-quarters of materials
which had accumulated under his roof as sub-editor after
sub-editor fell off in his labours. . . . One or two of the
letters are in excellent order and really sub-edited, in a
true sense of the word. This refers to F, K, parts of C
NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY. li
and R * ; in a less degree to A, E, N, parts of 0 and U ;
of others of the letters it may be said that the slips have
received some amount of alphabetic arrangement ; of one
or two unhappily I have to report that they are in primitive
chaos/
In 1880 Dr. Murray reported that 'during the year our
readers have risen to the number of 754. . . . Altogether
1,568 books have been undertaken, of which 924 have been
finished.' A most interesting feature of this report is the
notice of the great help received from America. Among
American readers he names ' three to whom we are pre-
eminently obliged ' — the Rev. J. Pierson, of Ionia, Michigan,
' our first helper in the States/ who has also sent in 7,650
quotations from important sixteenth and seventeenth century
works ; Prof. G. M. Philips, of the University, Lewisburg,
Pennsylvania, and Dr. Henry Phillipps, of Philadelphia.
The same report gives many interesting details as to
particular words beginning with A.
In 1 88 1, the editor again reported excellent progress.
The number of readers had then risen to upwards of 800,
and the total number of authors represented in the Reference
Index was 2,700. 'In the alphabetical arrangement of
the old slips, we are in sight of the end, only W remaining
to be put in order.' Much careful sub-editing of various
letters had been accomplished. By way of example, it may
be noted that the division of the meanings of the verb Set,
and the attempt to put them in satisfactory order, had
occupied a sub-editor for over forty hours.
In 1882, the editor was able to report that ' the Dictionary
1 The material for this letter was, at one time, entrusted to myself,
and I found it in tolerably good order. Mr. Cornelius Payne had
prepared a portion, as if for press, down to the word Ravel, or there-
abouts. I finished Ra, and began Re, but the pressure of editorial
work made it impossible for me to proceed ; and I soon relinquished
the responsibility.
d 2
\ii INTRODUCTION.
is at last really launched, and some forty pages are in type.'
From that time the work proceeded without further inter-
ruption ; and the first part, from the beginning of A down
to Ant, appeared in 1884. In 1888, Mr. Henry Bradley,
whose excellent edition of Stratmann's Middle-English
Dictionary has been already mentioned, was appointed
joint-editor. He has finished E and a large portion of F,
whilst Dr. Murray, having completed A-C, is engaged upon
the latter part of D. So that now, in 1896, it is a great
satisfaction to think that more than a quarter of this
monumental work has already appeared, and to remember
the old days when it was brought home to its well-wishers
that a great number of MSS. had still to be edited, or else
edited anew, before it could reasonably be commenced.
Now that I have traced the outlines of the history of
the great Dictionary, and shown how the endeavour to
provide for it worthy materials led to the formation of
the English Text Society and the printing of many
previously inedited MSS. ; and how the impulse thus given
to the historical study of our own language originated many
other collateral movements, such as the foundation of the
English Dialect Society, and the Chaucer and Shakespeare
Societies, the phonetic researches of Dr. Ellis and Dr.
Sweet, the compilation of the Middle- English Dictio?ia?ies
by Stratmann and Matzner, and a greatly increased and
more rational interest in the study of English etymology ;
it may, perhaps, be allowed me to return to matters more
personal.
The training which I gained by the editing of Middle-
English texts proved particularly beneficial ; chiefly because
I thus came to learn the spelling of the fourteenth
century from MSS. written during that period. Knowledge
of old texts, as derived' at second-hand from printed texts,
is a very poor thing in comparison with that obtained from
the MSS. themselves. From the MSS. themselves it is
GHOST-WORDS. liii
possible to learn, precisely and accurately, the character and
origin of such mistakes as the scribes sometimes perpetrate,
as well as the sources of such peculiar fancies as some
editors, either consciously or unconsciously, adopt. It is
often easy, for one who is thus familiar with all (or most)
of the causes of error, to see through and correct the
blunders of the editor who is new to his trade, viz. by help
of the ability to recognize forms, which the editor, even
with the MS. before him, could not decipher. Of this
many instances could be given, from the marginal notes
in some of my books, or they may be found in my paper on
Ghost- Words. By way of specimen of editorial ingenuity
of this character, I may cite one from my Notes to Piers
the Plowman, C. ix. 2. In that passage we find the expres-
sion ha If acre, meaning a small plot of ground, about half
an acre in size. The same expression occurs in Gammer
Gurlo?is Needle, Act i. sc. 2, where ' Tom Tankard's cow "
is described as ' flinging [i. e. capering] about his halfe aker,
risking [flourishing] with her tail.' But unluckily, when
Mr. Hazlitt reprinted this play in Dodsley's collection, the
expression appeared as halse aker, by the usual confusion
between f and the long s (f) ; and he was consequently
much exercised to find an explanation. At last he was
driven to suggest that it must be an error for halse anker,
because ' a halse or halser was a particular kind of cable ' ;
to which a tail might, conceivably, be likened. The point
is, of course, that even this gratuitous alteration gives little
more sense than before. Moreover, ' his ' refers to ' Tom ' 1
I have frequently been asked how I managed to turn
out so much work, and to edit so many texts. The answer
is, simply, that it was done by devoting to them nearly
all my spare time, and that of spare time I had abundance,
having not much else to do. It is astonishing how much
can be done by steady work at the same subject for many
hours every day. and by continuing the same during most
liv INTRODUCTION.
months in the year. It is also necessary to be an enthu-
siast, working with an ever-present hope of doing something
to increase our knowledge in every available direction.
Then the merest drudgery becomes a sincere pleasure ;
and, if any one would learn what drudgery means, let
him make glossaries, and verify the references.
Of making many glossaries I have had much experience ;
on which account I here presume to explain how it may
best be done *.
The best way is to make a note of every word that
requires explanation on a separate slip of paper, with
a reference to the place where it occurs. I keep the
slips in the order in which the words occur in the book,
and afterwards go over each one again separately, adding
the part of speech and the sense (unless this has already
been done), at the same time verifying the references and
making sure that the sense is correct. Then, and not
till then, the slips are all sorted into alphabetical order ;
after which, I go over them once more, collecting the
references from several slips on to one, where necessary,
putting all the information together, and sometimes adding
etymologies where required. The rejected slips can be
thrown away ; the rest go to press without rewriting.
This is the best plan, but very few will believe it ; most
people try to put down the words, in approximately
alphabetical order, in a note-book kept wholly for the
purpose. But the attempt will assuredly break down or
lead to trouble, if the text is of any great length.
It is, of course, absolutely necessary that the slips should
all be exactly of the same shape and size. My favourite
size is that of a slip five inches and three-quarters long,
and two inches and a quarter wide. The number of them
is of no consequence. For example, the original number
1 This method is copied from a note at p. lxvi of 1113' General
Preface to Piers the Plowman.
BOS WORTH PROFESSORSHIP. lv
of slips for the Glossarial Index in the sixth volume of
Chaucer's Works considerably exceeded 30,000 ; and even
when a large number had been weeded out and thrown
aside, there were so many left that, when piled one upon
the other, the whole depth of them was quite two inches
over nine feet. And the result is decidedly useful.
My work of editing and explaining texts began, as has
been said, in 1864, and had been continued (of course
without payment) for fourteen years when, in 1878, I had
the honour to be unanimously elected the first Professor of
Anglo-Saxon in Cambridge on the foundation of Dr. Bos-
worth 1 ; a most gratifying result, as it was precisely the
post which I most coveted, so that I thus attained the very
summit of my ambition. The kindness of the friends
who furnished me with testimonials on that occasion is
a thing not to be forgotten ; and one of my chief treasures
is a small volume in which all the original letters then
sent me are bound together. Opening it, I find the
autograph signatures of some who, alas ! are no longer
with us — such as Professor J. S. Brewer (of King's College,
London), the Rev. H. O. Coxe (Bodley's well-known and
much-regretted Librarian), Dr. Ellis, Professor Freeman,
Professor Morley, Dr. Morris, Dr. Swainson (Norrisian
Professor of Divinity), Dr. Small of Edinburgh, the Arch-
bishop of Dublin (better known by the name of Richard
1 I am careful to say * the first ... on the foundation of Dr. Bos-
worth.' For it is a matter of history, that a Professorship of Anglo-
Saxon was established in Cambridge by Sir Henry Spelman more
than two centuries ago. The first Professor on his foundation was
Abraham Whelock, who had previously been elected the first Pro-
fessor of Arabic in 1632. on the foundation of Sir Thomas Adams.
Whelock published his edition of the Anglo-Saxon version of Bcdas
History in 1644 ; and was succeeded in the chair by William Somner.
whose Dictionary and text of sE/frics Grammar were published at
Oxford in 1659. But the professorship came to an end during the
civil wars, when the Spelman family were no longer in a position to
continue this useful benefaction.
lvi INTRODUCTION.
Chenevix Trench), Professor Stephens of Copenhagen,
Professor Ten Brink of Strassburg, Ur. Stratmann of
Krefeld, and Professor Zupitza of Berlin. Of the many
others who are still living I will say no more than that
it is delightful to experience from nearly all of them, even
up to the present time, most ready sympathy and kindly
help whenever difficulties arise.
The chief result of my promotion has been that the
work which was before a pleasure only has now become,
at the same time, a duty. And perhaps no man is more
fortunate than one whose self-chosen occupation has become
his allotted task.
Another piece of exceptional good fortune was my
election to a Professorial Fellowship at my own college,
in 1883 ; for it was the fortune of some professors to be
elected to fellowships at colleges with which they had no
previous connexion • a fate which I did not much desire.
My dear friend, Sir John Seeley, Regius Professor of
History, had obviously a prior claim ; but he had been
promptly secured by Gonville and Caius College, for which
wise choice I have always been grateful.
Considering that Anglo-Saxon is not a subject in very
great request, it might very easily have happened, especially
at the beginning of my professional work, that I might
some day be prepared to lecture, and might find no one
to listen. Curiously enough, this has never actually
happened ; in every year there have been some two or three
at least who, for some reason or other, have wanted
instruction. And in 1886, a new Tripos for Medieval
and Modern Languages was established, in which candidates
have the opportunity of choosing English as one of their
subjects, if they are so minded ; and for those who choose
it a fair knowledge of Anglo-Saxon is, of course, essential.
Hence the work in this department has become regular
and constant, and is likely, we may hope, to remain so.
SKEAT ENGLISH PRIZE. lvii
The known gentleness of the courteous reader will excuse
a few more notes ; they are not intended to claim merit,
but to inform and encourage others.
As far back as 1865, I gave £100 to found a small prize,
at Christ's College, for the encouragement of English
literature. The candidates are usually examined in a
selected piece of Middle-English, a couple of Shakespeare's
plays, and some third subject, such as Sidney's Apology for
Poetry. Small as the prize is, it has been a considerable
success, inasmuch as it has been gained, in some years,
by men of some mark. I may instance, for example,
Dr. J. S. Reid, well known as a classical scholar, Professor
Gardner of Oxford, Sir J. W. Bonser, Chief Justice of
Ceylon, and Mr. I. Gollancz, Editor of the Temple Shake-
speare.
Shortly after the death of Charles Darwin, a memorial
fund was raised among the members of Christ's College,
of which I had the honour to be treasurer. After paying
for an excellent portrait, by Ouless, which now adorns
the college-hall, a small sum was left which, it was thought,
might be gradually expended in giving occasional prizes
for natural science. As it seemed to me a pity that this
design should, in the course of a few years, come to a
sudden end, I again gave £100, in 1888, to make the
prize permanent.
My chief anxiety, in connexion with the University of
Cambridge, has been, for some years past, the establish-
ment of a University Lectureship in English. For more
than ten years, we have had University Lecturers in French
and German, each of whom are in the receipt of £200
a year; but when the endeavour was made, in 1889, to
secure a Lecturer in English at half that stipend, no funds
were any longer available for the purpose, owing to the
impossibility of meeting ever-increasing needs upon an
ever-diminishing income. In this dilemma, I could think
lviii INTRODUCTION.
of nothing better than to appeal to the generosity of the
public in general, and wrote a letter to The Times to that
effect. To this appeal I received precisely one answer,
but it made a good beginning. The late Mr. S. Sandars,
a well-known benefactor to Cambridge on many occasions,
at once offered the sum of £50; and adding this to a
promise of £100 from Mr. Mocatta, I was encouraged
to proceed. A splendid gift of 200 guineas came from
the Company of Merchant Taylors, fifty guineas from the
Company of Mercers, £100 from the Master of Trinity
Hall, and another 200 guineas from an 'anonymous donor.'
The result has been the appointment, in March, 1896,
of Mr. Gollancz as the Lecturer, at the modest stipend
of £50 per annum ; and it is at least somewhat of a triumph
to find that the importance of the subject has at last
found some sort of public recognition.
One of my most delightful experiences has been my
connexion with the University of Oxford, as it has led
to my finding there many sincere friends. When I first
had to visit the Bodleian Library for the purpose of con-
sulting MSS., I found (notwithstanding many kindnesses)
that my evenings were often spent alone ; and I found
it depressing to be, practically, a stranger. Some years
ago, it was possible for a Cambridge M.A. to take an ad
eundem degree at Oxford without joining any college ; but
there was not much to be gained by this, in the case
of one not usually resident there. Under the new statutes,
it is necessary for one who seeks this degree to join a
college, winch is a much better arrangement. The college
of my choice was Exeter, which proved a very happy one ;
and I went through what I believe to be a wholly unique
experience ; at least, I have never heard of a similar case.
The Oxford University statutes require a term's residence
in the case of one who, besides seeking the M.A. degree,
also desires to become a full member of Convocation ;
INCORPORATION AT OXFORD. lix
and though I had no object in desiring this privilege in
itself, I was glad of an opportunity of seeing something
of the Oxford life. One of the fellows of Exeter who
happened to be for a while abroad kindly lent me his
rooms, and I duly completed my term's residence in
college with much satisfaction. The kindness which I there
experienced, and the opportunities thus given me of making
friends, proved a very great advantage ; and now it is
a most pleasant change to visit Oxford rather frequently,
and to find myself among many friends in that famous
University ; in fact, I am quite at home there, finding all
the attractions of a student's life, without any responsibility
in the way of lecturing or otherwise. It is a good thing
for a student of one university to know something of the
ways of the other, without actual migration ; and I rather
wonder that the idea is not more frequently entertained.
The chief reason against it is to be found in the detestable
arrangement whereby the London and North-Western
Railway compels every traveller to spend three hours over
a journey that might be completed in little more than two.
An enforced wait of three-quarters of an hour or so at the
cheerless Bletchley station is decidedly unaccommodating
and ruthless ; and there can be little doubt that this is the
chief cause that keeps the two Universities apart.
The reader who has, by this time, had enough of my
own doings may perhaps be interested in a few remarks
about other people.
The revival of the study of Anglo-Saxon in the present
century was largely due to Benjamin Thorpe and John
Mitchell Kemble. Thorpe's editions of the Anglo-Saxon
Chro?iicle and of the A?icient Laws and Institutes of England
are well-known and useful books ; he also gave us an edition
of Ccedmon in 1832, of the Codex Exoniensis in 1842,
of the Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church in 1844-46, and
of Beowulf in 1855 ; besides issuing a translation of Rask's
lx INTRODUCTION.
Anglo-Saxon Grammar and a good selection of short pieces
entitled Analecta Anglo-Saxonica. The student who desires
a complete account of Anglo-Saxon studies will find it all in
Dr. Wulker's Grundriss zur Geschichte der angelsachsischen
Litteratur, published at Leipzig in 1885.
To Kemble we owe an edition of Beowulf "in 1833, which
reached a second edition in 1835, and was followed by
a translation, with notes and a glossary, in 1837; a collec-
tion of Anglo-Saxon charters, in six volumes, known as
the Codex Diplomaticus ALvi Saxonici ; the poetry of the
Codex Vercellensis, 1843-56 ; and the Dialogue of Salomon
and Saturn, 1848. He also wrote the esteemed historical
work known as The Saxons in England, published in two
volumes in 1849. The latest work which he undertook, on
behalf of the University of Cambridge, was an edition of
all the known MSS. of the Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian,
and Mercian versions of the four Gospels ; but at the time
of his death, in the spring of 1857, the portion actually
completed did not reach much beyond the beginning of
the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew. The small portion
of this Gospel thus left unfinished was completed by Charles
Hardwick in 1858 ; and there the matter rested for more
than ten years. After this lapse of time, the Syndics of
the Pitt Press, being unwilling that the work should be
abandoned, entrusted me with the task of continuing the
work ; and I was able gradually to complete it, issuing
the Gospel of St. Mark in 187 1, that of St. Luke in 1874,
and that of St. John in 1878. After this, I was permitted to
bring out a second and revised edition of St. Matthew's
Gospel in 1887 ; and all four Gospels can now be obtained
in a single quarto volume, which is a convenient form
for use.
I was never so fortunate as to meet with Thorpe or
Kemble, but I heard something about the latter from
Mr. Thomas Wright, whom I met frequently. Kemble
KEMBLE AND WRIGHT. lxi
had taken his B.A. degree in 1830, at Trinity College,
Cambridge, a year later than Archbishop Trench. In 1834
Kemble, being then well versed in Anglo-Saxon, was anxious
to impart some of his knowledge to his fellow-collegians,
and designed an ambitious course of twenty lectures, of
which he issued a printed prospectus, twenty pages long,
interleaved with blank paper for the convenience of such
as were disposed to take notes \ When the day appointed
for the first lecture came, he duly donned his cap and gown,
and appeared in the lecture-room which the college had
assigned for the purpose. But where was the audience ?
There was precisely one person' present, Thomas Wright by
name, at that time (I believe) an undergraduate of the
same college. As this one hearer evidently meant business,
the lecture was duly delivered. But when, on the second
occasion, the same thing happened again, notwithstanding
that the main subject of the lecture was the poem of
Beotvulf, and that one of the things noted in the Syllabus
was the 'arrogance and ignorance of Mr. Ritson,' which
ought in itself to have drawn a crowd of hearers, Kemble
could stand it no longer, but invited his young friend to
come to his own rooms, and discuss the subject freely over
a tankard of beer. And certainly that undergraduate had
a pleasant experience, and considered himself more than
usually fortunate. Wright's extraordinary industry is shown
most clearly by the fact that the mere enumeration of his
books fills a whole column of small print in the English
Encyclopaedia ; a large number of them being especially
concerned with Anglo-Saxon and Middle-English. I re-
member him as a quiet but cheery old gentleman, who
more than once stayed with me when he came to Cambridge
1 I possess a copy of this syllabus. It bears, on the title-page, the
following: — History of the English Language. First, or Anglo-Saxon
Period. By J. M. Kemble, Esq., A.M., Trinity College, Cambridge :
printed for J. and J. J. Deighton, Trinity Street, 1834.
lxii INTRODUCTION.
to consult MSS. He had sharp quick eye-sight, and wrote
a very legible hand at a quite unusual pace ; he used to say
of himself that he was ' pretty quick,' and perhaps he trusted
to his quickness a little too much in later years, as some of
his errors of reading are somewhat surprising. His ency-
clopaedic literary knowledge of many various subjects,
especially antiquarian, was very remarkable. We were
excellent friends, with a common interest in Middle-English
and in things relating to Shropshire \
I possess a copy of a small wTork entitled Bibliotheque
Ang/o-Saxonne, par F. Michel (Paris, 1837). This is a
catalogue of the chief works printed before that date that
relate to Anglo-Saxon studies. But it is especially remark-
able for the Letter by Kemble to M. Francisque Michel,
which occupies the first forty-three pages. This is an
excellent outline of the general history of the study,
containing several remarks of interest. Thus, in a note at
p. 24, he pursues his quarrel with Ritson's work with much
energy. He declares that Ritson's print of The Frere and
the Boy contains sixty-four mistakes, and that in his print of
The King and the Barker, there are 140 errors in the course
of 128 lines. 'Yet this man dared to run down and
persecute Warton ! It is now beginning to be felt, that it
was not Warton's inaccuracy which moved Ritson's bile :
oh, no ! it was the unhappy fact that Warton was a fellow of
a college, a scholar, a gentleman, and a Christian, to no one
of which titles Ritson had the slightest claim.' Of Home
Tooke, Kemble asserts that ' he was barbarously ignorant
1 He had a favourite dialect story, which I fear has often done duty
under various forms. Seeing a peasant at work in a field abounding
with mole-hills, he pointed to them, saying — ' My good man, what be
those?' The reply was, of course, ' they bin 66nty-tumps ! ' 'But,
pray, what do you mean by 65nty-tumps? ' ' Wlvy, 66nty-tumps bin
the tumps as the oonts maken.' ' But what do you mean by odnts?'
' I think yo' mun be a fool ; the 60nts bin the things as maken the
tumps ! '
JOHN MITCHELL KEMBLE. lxiii
of all the Teutonic tongues ; and owes what reputation he
has enjoyed solely to a happy knack of outbullying his
opponents upon subjects with which he and they were alike
conversant.' ' Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons,
1 80 1,' is 'a learned and laborious work; yet in all that
relates to the language and the poetry of our forefathers,
often deficient, often mistaken.' ' Sir F. Palgrave's Ang/o-
Saxon Com?nonwea?th, 1832, . . . cannot be too highly
valued, as a clear and learned exposition of the Saxon
polity. Nevertheless one must, as a philologist, quarrel
with Sir Francis for false etymology. As long as he is at
work with his Latin or Saxon charters, he reads them well
and no man can more safely be followed ; but set him once
upon a bit of etymology, up go the heels of his hobby, and
down comes Sir Francis into the mire, no better informed,
as it appears, than most of his English predecessors have
been, respecting the true form and power of many words1.'
But the most valuable contribution made by Kemble to
the study of Anglo-Saxon was that he was the first to call
attention to the value of scientific philology, as illustrated
by the great German scholar, Wilhelm Grimm. ' The
system of this scholar,' he says, ' which can henceforth
alone form the basis of any philosophical study of the
Teutonic tongues, rests upon two propositions : (1) that
the roots of these languages, their methods of declension,
conjugation, and derivation, are common to them all ; and
(2) that each language, according to fixed laws of its own,
differences - the common element.' He gives two excellent
examples of Grimm's methods. He first quotes 'maeg(5a
1 It is but too true. Sir Francis was one of those who thought
that any sound-changes could take place in any direction and to any
extent. Thus in the preface to his History of the Anglo-Saxons.
p. xiii, he argues that bet is merely another form of zvager\ Bet, he
tells us, is derived from bad; and it appears that, by bad, he means
A. S. bad, a pledge, with long a !
■ We should now say — ' differentiates. '
Ixiv INTRODUCTION.
hose ' from Beowulf, 1. 924, an expression of which the
meaning was quite unknown till Grimm pointed it out.
The word hose occurs nowhere else in A.S. ; yet, by the
method of comparison, the solution is easy. P'or, just as
the A.S.gos, ' a goose,' answers to the G. Gans, it is clear
that the A. S. lids answers to the M. H. G. hans (mod. G.
Hanse) and the Goth, hansa, ' a company.' Accordingly,
' maegtfa hose ' simply means 'with a company of maidens.'
Next, he illustrates Grimm's law (which requires that a Latin
/ should be represented in English by/) by pointing out
that the A. S. word corresponding to the Lat. pal?7ia is
precisely the A. S. fern. sb. folm, meaning the palm of the
hand, or the hand itself. We have indeed adopted the
word palm in English, but it is merely the Latin form, not
the native one.
Speaking of his edition of Beowulf, in 1833, Kemble
claims that, in that book, he was the first who ever attempted,
in England, 'to separate the long from the short sounds,
upon a philosophical principle of analogy and the authority
of MSS. '; and felt himself justified accordingly in ' claiming
favour for errors.' Finally, he concludes this interesting
' Letter' with words of hope : — ' From the activity which all
at once appears to prevail among the Saxonists of England,
there is hope that we may make some important advances,
and escape the reproach, at present too well deserved, of
suffering foreigners to outstrip us in acquaintance with our
native tongue. Surely, while we have all the MSS., it
cannot be right that they should have all the Juiowledgel
These are words of encouragement that may well be laid
to heart. Dr. Sweet's useful Anglo-Saxon Reader, and,
still better, his accurate edition of The Oldest English Texts,
well exemplify how much can be done by a scholar who
knows what he is about. Perhaps the most unexpected
result of modern times is the extension of Anglo-Saxon
studies to the continent of America. But whatever progress
1
OSWALD COCKAYNE. lxv
may be made in the future, we must not forget that the
Englishman who first vindicated the importance of the
application of philological principles to the study of English
was certainly John Mitchell Kemble.
I have good reason to remember very well the Rev.
Oswald Cockayne, because, as I have already said (at p. viii),
he was my class-master at King's College School. It will
readily be understood that he did not teach me Anglo-
Saxon, but Latin and Greek. He was an excellent teacher,
and I profited by his instruction sufficiently to obtain the
first prize in the Lower Third form. It must have been
some twenty years before we again met, and discussed the
subject in which we had a common interest. I was even
able to afford him, occasionally, some humble assistance by
consulting for him some of the precious MSS. in the library
of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His knowledge was
very extensive and extremely accurate ; and it was fortunate
that the peculiarly difficult task of editing the Leechdoms,
Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early Engla?id fell into such
able hands. His own copy of this work is now in my
possession, and I observe in vol. i. just a few minute
corrections, of no real consequence ; such as, for example,
that at p. 156, in the fourth line from the bottom, the word
' waestme' is written, in the MS., with the usual short s, and
not, as printed, with a long one. His love of exactness
led him to the use of the ' Anglo-Saxon ' type, which
is rightly now discarded as being needless and clumsy.
Another objection is that some letters are liable to be
confused ; for I observe in the same volume, at p. 74, 1. 12,
the curious word ( J>yrte,' translated by ' wort,' where it is
obvious that the first letter was intended for a w. A mis-
print of this kind is of course extremely rare in any of
his books, as he was obliged to watch such letters very
closely.
A very characteristic book of his is that entitled, The
e
lxvi INTRODUCTION.
Shrine : A Collection of Occasional Papers on Dry Subjects.
My copy of it, presented by the author, ends abruptly at
p. 208 ; but I am not aware that it ever went any further.
The corrections for Bosworth's Dictionary, at pp. 1-11 and
23-28, have proved of service. One very curious criticism
is that wherein Mr. Cockayne accuses Dr. Bosworth of
making the sb. dust, 'dust,' masculine. It is undoubtedly
marked with 'ml in the smaller Dictionary of 1848; but
this may well be due to a misprint, seeing that it is marked
' n.' in the first edition of the larger work, printed ten years
earlier.
It was once my fortune to hear Mr. Cockayne preach
a sermon without notes, and I was much struck with his
eloquence of expression. His language had the classic
elegance of the well-read scholar, and approached more
nearly to the style of Johnson than I should have
expected. He told me that he preferred to preach
extempore, as he disliked the labour of writing down
the discourse ; and there was certainly no need for him
to do so.
I can well recall the tall and upright figure of Dr. Bosworth,
founder of the Professorship which I now hold, and author
of two Anglo-Saxon Dictionaries. He was born in Derby-
shire, more than a century ago, in 1789, and educated at
Repton, Aberdeen, and Trinity College, Cambridge. In
181 7 he became vicar of Little Horwood, in Buckingham-
shire, and in 1823 he published the work entitled The
Elements of Anglo-Saxon Grammar. In 1829 he was
appointed British Chaplain in Holland, where he acquired
a knowledge of Dutch, in which he was able to converse
fluently. In 1840 he became vicar of Waith in Lincoln-
shire ; and in 1857 rector of Water Stratford, Bucks., where
he remained but a short time, being appointed Rawlinsonian
Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford in 1858. His larger
Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, published in 1838, when he was
DR. JOSEPH BOSWORTH. lxvii
chaplain at Rotterdam, was, at that date, a very useful book.
It was largely a translation of the Dictionary by Lye and
Manning, with some additions and alterations, and is a much
more convenient book to handle than the two folio volumes
that preceded it. Still more useful, for many students, was
the cheaper Compendious Anglo-Saxon Dictionary published
in 1848. But the dictionaries published in Germany by
Ettmiiller in 185 1, and by Leo in 1872-7, as well as the
extremely exhaustive Glossary of the poetical A. S. literature
by Grein in 186 1-4 rendered it necessary for him to prepare
a new edition, on a fuller plan. When my edition of
St. Mark's Gospel in the Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian
versions was published by the Pitt Press in 187 1, the
Syndics of the Press sent a copy of it to Dr. Bosworth, who,
in his reply (dated Dec. 15, 1871) acknowledging the
present of the book, made an interesting allusion to the
work upon which he was then engaged. He was glad to
find that the readings of all the MSS. were presented to the
reader at once, and observed that — 'instead of having the
trouble of referring to the MSS. or the various books in
which some of them are printed, I find, at once, all I want
to quote in my large Anglo-Saxon Dictionary preparing for
the Clarendon Press, on which I and my amanuenses are
employed at least seven hours a day.' He was working at
the Dictionary up to the very last ; and at his death, which
took place on May 27, 1876, had finally revised the first
288 pages of the work, down to the word firgen-stream. It
was some time before it was possible to make preparations
for the continuation of the work; but it was at last under-
taken by Professor Toller, of Manchester, who completed
Part II (down to hwistlian) in 1882, Part III (to sar) in
1887, and Part IV, section 1 (to swithrian) in 1892 ;
so that we may reasonably hope for the completion of this
important work at no very distant date.
Dr. Bosworth once told me how he made a considerable
e 2
lxviii INTRODUCTION.
sum of money in a very simple way. There was formerly
a stupid fashion in vogue of writing Greek Grammars in
Latin. I have now before me the one which I used
at school — Graecae Grammaticae Rudi?ne7ita i?i usutn
scholarum — printed at Oxford in 1849. As this, naturally
enough, appeared to him a useless piece of tyranny on the
part of pedagogues, he brought out a G?'eek Grammar
containing very similar information, the text of which was
entirely written in perfectly plain English, such as every
schoolboy could understand ; and he had his reward in an
enormous sale.
Dr. Bosworth will always be remembered by a grateful
University for his liberal gift, in 1867, of the sum of ^10,000,
which, after accumulating till it produced ^500 per annum,
provided the stipend of the Ellington and Bosworth
Professorship of Anglo-Saxon. The reason for the founder's
adoption of this title is easily discovered. The doctor was
thrice married, and the name of his second wife, who had
herself been previously married, was Mrs. Elrington. She
took much interest in the study of Anglo-Saxon, and we
find, from a remark in Dr. Bosworth's edition of Orosius
(p. lxii), that she assisted him in collating the manuscript
readings of that work. If I rightly interpret the following
extracts from the Gentleman's Magazine, her maiden name
was Anne Margaret Elliot.
' Married, Dec. 13, 1828. At St. Margaret's, Westminster, Lieut. -
Col. Elrington, of the 3rd Guards, to Anne Margaret, second daughter
of John Elliot, Esq., of Pimlico Lodge.'
' Died, July 6, 1842. Sarah, wife of Dr. Bosworth, at Quorn,
Derbyshire.'
' Died, Nov. 26, 1842. At Berkley Square, John Hamilton Elrington,
late Lieut. -Col. Scots Fusilier Guards.'
' Married, Dec. 8, 1853. At Leckhampton, Cheltenham, the
Rev. J. Bosworth, D.D., F.R.S., to Anne Margaret, widow of
Col. Hamilton Elrington' {Gent. Mag., March, 1854).
Another good friend of mine was Miss Georgina Jackson,
MISS JACKSON. lxix
authoress of the Shropshire Glossary, one of the very best
of its kind. After many years employed in collecting
dialect words, some of which were acquired when travelling
in a third-class railway-carriage on a market-day, she con-
sulted me — then a total stranger to her — as to the best
method of preparing her work for press. I recommended
the use of slips — each slip to be of the size of a half-sheet
of note-paper — a suggestion which she adopted. I also
took occasion to recommend the use of 'glossic,' or, at any
rate, of some fixed mode of representing sounds by symbols.
At this she at first rebelled, on the grounds that it was quite
unintelligible to her, and that she could never acquire it.
I could only reply that it was worth while to acquire either
that system or something like it ; at the same time alluding
to the difficulty of discussing sounds through the medium
of writing. At once, with characteristic decision, she
started from Chester for Cambridge, to discuss the matter
personally ; whereupon ensued a long and amusing argu-
ment, conducted on both sides with due spirit and vigour.
Being very anxious to render her work as useful as possible,
she soon found that ' glossic ' was not so very difficult, and
that it could be adapted to the Shropshire pronunciation
with sufficient accuracy for practical purposes. She then
had an interview with Dr. Ellis, with the most satisfactory
results ; and the end of it was that he described her
investigation of the dialect-sounds as ' perhaps the most
searching that has been made.' It was quite a treat to hear
her give the sounds which I had so often myself heard in
the neighbourhood of Corve-dale. Her favourite story was
that of Betty Andrews, of Church Pulverbatch. Betty was
going in a market-train from Han wood to Shrewsbury, and
while talking with her usual rapidity, was thus addressed by
a man who was her fellow-traveller : — ' Wy, Missis, I should
think as yo' mun a 'ad yore tongue lied [oiled] this mornin'
afore yo' started.' ' No, indeed, Sir,' said Betty, ' I hanna ;
lxx INTRODUCTION.
fur if it 'ad a bin lied it 66d never a stopped. No
danger ] ! '
Miss Jackson became a sad invalid in her later years,
being confined to one room and often to bed for long
periods, and suffering much pain ; but she bore her trials
with much courage and even cheerfulness, and at all times
took much interest in English dialects and etymology.
It has always been a great pleasure to me to wrelcome
English scholars to Cambridge ; and to find that they are
not unfrequently attracted here. The manuscript treasures
of the University library and of Corpus Christi College are
an inducement to them to visit us ; and it is a great privilege
for us to meet them. It is thus that I became personally
acquainted writh many scholars from Germany ; such as
Professors Ten Brink, Zupitza, Kolbing, Schroer, Koch,
and Brandl ; and with Professors Child, Bright, Cook, and
several others, from America. Zupitza was one of the most
kindly and delightful of companions, a great enthusiast in
his subject, and an excellent teacher. As a critic, he
possessed a faculty of too great rarity, in that he could
detect an error and set one right without causing even the
slightest annoyance. We all know how prone are critics,
in general, and especially, perhaps, the German critics, to
give the impression that they like seeing the victim wince
while they forcibly stick in the pin. To Professor Child
belongs, as I believe, the honour of being one of the first
to show that England could learn from America in matters
relating to the philology of our common language. His
wonderful essays on the Language of Chaucer and on the
1 In glossic — • Wi Mis-is, ei shud thing k uz yoa mun a ad* yoar'
tungg erld dhis maur'-nin ufoar' yoa staaT'tid.' * Noa indeed
Sur, ei an*u fur' if it ad* u bin ei'ld it 66d nevur' u stop-t. Noa*
•dei'njuV ! ' The use of yoa for you, of mun a for must have, of aim
for have not, and the total loss of initial h, are very characteristic of
Shropshire. And as for * no danger,' i.e. not at all likely, it is quite
the usual way of concluding a repl}'.
PROFESSOR CHILD. lxxi
Language of Gower laid the foundation of nearly all that
we have learnt as to the grammar and metre of these poets ;
and any one who examines his splendid collection of
English Ballads will marvel at the erudition he displays
with regard to all the numerous ballads that are found
among Teutonic peoples.
Perhaps the most remarkable sign of the times is the
recognition of English philological studies at the universities
by the conferring of honorary degrees. I can recall three
examples at Cambridge within recent years. I have seen
Stephens, of Copenhagen, Zupitza, of Berlin, and Alexander
John Ellis, all presented, in different years, for the honorary
degree of Doctor of Letters in the Senate House. The last
of these cases is the most striking, as the degree was
conferred upon one who was himself a Cambridge man.
Dr. Ellis, of Trinity College, took his B.A. degree as sixth
wrangler, as far back as 1837, and was at the head of the
second class in the classical tripos in the same year ; but,
owing to certain theological restrictions then in vogue he
was never elected a fellow of any college, nor even took the
M.A. degree. Fifty-three years later, in 1890, he was made
a Litt. D. ; an honour which he did not long survive.
Account of the Extracts in the Present Volume.
The present volume is entirely occupied with selected
extracts from the articles contributed by me at various
times to the well-known weekly periodical entitled Notes
and Queries.
As these amount to several hundred, and many of them
relate to questions which were chiefly of interest at the
moment, or give results which have since found their way
into books, it became necessary to make a selection. The
lxxii INTRODUCTION.
number of articles which are omitted because the suggestions
which they expressed have been disproved, is very small.
On the other hand, a considerable number of etymologies
have been here reprinted, notwithstanding their appearance in
later works, because I had much to do with their enuncia-
tion or explanation, and their appearance in N. and Q. has
become a matter of history.
I may note, for example, that the etymology of Carfax
was suggested to me by the perusal of the French MS. of
Melusine, and has since been adopted in all the newer
dictionaries. The etymology of puzzle was put together
from certain examples of the word in Lydgate and Skelton.
The etymology of spawn came out of Walter of Biblesworth.
The right explanation of talon and pounce is in the Book of
Hawking. The full explanation of the prefixes to- and
all-to- was due to collation of the usages of many English
writers. Lammas was explained by King Alfred ; and the
provincial word ollands by Ray. The first clear light as to
the origin of nuncheon came from Mr. Riley ; following in
whose trace the true explanation was given by Mr. Walford,
and at a later time, but independently, by myself. Our use
of atone is due to imitation of a French idiom. Sparable is
a modern spelling of sparrow-bill ; and wag is short for
wag-halter. Hogs-head was formerly ox-head, whatever may
have been the reason for so naming it. I found the
etymology of the provincial words aund, reckan, and wicks
(of the mouth) in the Icelandic Dictionary. Before we can
explain hugger-mugger, we must know that the older spelling
is hoder-moder. All these things, and many more like them,
prove that there is no royal road to etymology ; it is simply
a matter of pure research, conducted in accordance with
very careful study of the phonetic changes that have taken
place in our language from time to time.
Besides preserving here many illustrations of difficult
words, such as caddy, cap-a-pie, beef-eater, bernar, blake-beryed,
E TYMOL OGIES. lx xiii
hydatid, carminative, gist, and many others of a like kind,
I have brought together, from almost countless sources,
illustrations of phrases of interest, such as key-cold, as dead
as a doornail, a year and a day, by hook or by crook,
a baker's dozen, exceptio probat regulam, and others like
them ; all gathered by the simple process of diving into all
kinds of books of all periods. In fact, one never knows
whence help may come ; Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-French, Middle-
English, and Elizabethan texts all abound with possibilities for
the discovery of ' origins,' for those who have the courage to
attack them. I found, for example, the true etymology of
dismal x in the catalogue of the MSS. in the Glasgow Library ;
and I am not aware that it has, till lately, been given any-
where else; though it was duly pointed out by M. Paul Meyer,
who made the catalogue.
In reading such old texts, there is no reason for confining
one's attention to the language only ; nor have I ever
omitted to learn from them whatever else I could there
find. Hence the reader may find here discussions on
several literary points of some interest, such as the Middle-
English accounts of the Seven Ages of man. of the creation
of roses, of Cain's jaw-bone, and of the story of ' the
pound of flesh.' The Jackdaw of Rheims is illustrated by
the Knight de la Tour, and the Lay of Havelok by the
poems of Robert of Brunne. There are some remarkable
parallelisms of expression between Chaucer's Troilus and
his Knightes Tale ; and the passage in Piers the Plowman
about Lucifer's seat in the north can be illustrated from the
Vulgate version of the Bible and from Milton's Paradise
Lost. There is no end to the interest to be derived from
the study of our splendid literature ; and it is just as easy,
for a mind not already debilitated by the perusal of magazines,
1 From A. F. dis mal, evil days ; whence the common old phrase
' dismal days.' See my note to Chaucer's Works, vol. i. poem iii.
1. 1206.
lxxiv INTRODUCTION.
to cultivate a taste for the Elizabethan drama as for Tit-bits
and the Yellotv Book. All that is needed is to read the
former first. The works of our best authors form a true
' Pastime of Pleasure,' and are a source of rational recreation ;
magazines are chiefly good for killing time in hours of
intentional idleness.
One of the queerest crazes in English etymology is the
love of paradox, which is often carried to such an extent
that it is considered mean, if not despicable, to accept an
etymology that is obvious. It is of no use to prove, to
some people, by the clearest evidence, that beef-eater is
derived from beef -sccid eater ; ox fox-glove ixomfox and glove ;
or offal from off and fall; or garret from the French garite ;
or the A. S. hlafmcesse (Lammas) from hldfi a loaf; or
marigold from Mary and gold; or Whitsunday from ivhite
and Sunday : all this is to them but food for babes, and
they crave for strong meat, such as only themselves can
digest. Most of these questions are here touched upon ;
but I only attempt to convince such as are more humble-
minded.
Against this desire of seeing * corruption ' in almost every
word, I have always waged war ; and that is why many of
the articles in this volume have a controversial tone.
Moreover, it has always seemed to me legitimate to show
up the absurdity and crudity of many of these notable ideas ;
but I have always attacked the ideas, not the persons who
utter them. The trouble is, of course, that the originators
of the ideas do not like it, and are far too apt to hide the
weakness of their case by assuming that they are personally
affronted. Surely this is hardly in accordance with common
sense. If a man has a good case, he can base it upon facts
and quotations ; and it is no answer to tell me, when I ask
for proof, that it is ungentlemanly to dare to contradict.
Moreover, it is very strange, as I have often argued, that it
is only in the case of etymology that such tactics are
FIRST PRINCIPLES. lxxv
resorted to If the question were one of chemistry, botany,
or any form of science, the appeal would lie to the facts ;
and we should be amazed if any one who asserted that the
chief constituents of water are oxygen and nitrogen were to
take offence at contradiction. The whole matter lies in
a nutshell; if etymology is to be scientific, the appeal lies
to the facts ; and the facts, in this case, are accurate quota-
tions, with exact references, from all available authors. To
attempt to etymologize without the help of quotations, is
like learning geology without inspecting specimens ; and
we may well ask, what good can come of it ?
Yet this very absurdity happens. A man sees a piece of
quartz for the first time, and writes 'a note' that he has
discovered a piece of malachite. This is no unfair descrip-
tion of some of the wonderful crazes which I have often
taken upon myself to ' contradict.' Take, for example, my
article on amperzand at p. 67. It was written to put an end
to the extraordinary notion that it is a 'corruption' (oh!
this beloved word!) of and-pussy-and, 'because' (another
very precious word) the symbol (&) suggests a cat sitting
well up, and holding up one fore paw. The lowest curl,
I believe, was thought to be due to the end of the tail.
One wonders where was the inventor's sense of humour.
Here are a few more specimens of pure invention, viz.
that siuine is the plural of sow \ that glove is of Celtic
origin ; that the Whitby word gaut, a narrow lane, is of
Hindustani origin ; that the phrase ' he dare not ' is modern,
an assertion which was shifted to another one equally
baseless, that it does not occur in Elizabethan literature ;
that sweetheart is a ' corruption ' of a form siueetard, which ■
never existed ; that the Latin word laburnum is derived
from French ( !) ; that, in the phrase ' to set the Thames on
fire,' the word temse means ' a sieve ' ; that offal is derived
from or-ral, refuse, which is not, in any case, a correct
form ; that balloon is derived from the name of M. Ballon,
Ixxvi INTRODUCTION.
who was a dancing-master (this precious specimen actually
appeared in the Times newspaper) ; that ing is Swedish (!)
for a meadow ; and a great many more things of the same
kind. For the forgers of these curiosities are not in the
least bound by the authority of dictionaries and grammars,
but coin words for the nonce with the same freedom as is
indulged in by the providers of canards for our daily papers.
Even good writers make curious mistakes, as the reader will
discover. Spenser thought that yede was an infinitive mood,
with a past tense yode. Keats seems to have been under
the impression that darkfaig is a present participle ; but let
us charitably hope that he knew it to be an adverb.
Blackmore imagined that the old word ivatchet, signifying
1 blue,' is derived from Watchet in Somersetshire. Browning
thought that slughorn (variant of slogan) was a kind of horn
that could be blown. Nearly all the world has gone wrong
over the interpretation of ' one touch of nature,' owing to
a contemptuous disregard of the context.
And then there are the critics ! One of them opines
that the O. French word serfs cannot mean ' stags,' because
his limited experience only recognises the spelling cerfs.
Richardson, in his Dictionary, misunderstands Chaucer's
fapere (meaning ' to appear '), and enters it to illustrate
taper. Another critic wants to rewrite a line of Dryden's,
because he did not know that instinct was, in those days,
accented on the second syllable ; with many more vagaries
of a like kind.
And then there are the editors ! Caxton turned the old
word estres into eftures, which has no meaning at all. An
editor of Hudibras turns tricker into trigger, because he is
unaware that tricker is merely a Dutch word anglicized.
An editor of Cowper's John Gilpin turns lumbering into
rumbling. Crabbe's own son altered ri??ipling to rippling.
And so the game goes on.
My position has always been, that things of this kind are
INGLORIOUS GUESSES. lxxvii
not glorious, but sad ; not laudable, but discreditable, if not
dishonest. And few things have surprised me more, in the
course of my experience, than the eager recklessness with
which such puerilities are vented, the extraordinary readiness
with which they are accepted and applauded, and the
tenacity with which they are defended against the clearest
exhibition of evidence Paradox and grotesqueness are
powerful in their favour, whilst the simple truth is but plain
and prosaic. Are we therefore to give way, to let fancy
have its free fling, and allow ignorance to revel in its
recklessness ? I have always maintained that, if truth be
simple, it is also instructive, and that only docility promotes
progress. Of course I have found mistakes in ideas of my
own, but have always thought it wisest to drop such
notions like a red-hot coal ; which is the teaching of common
sense.
Indeed, the very point for which I here contend was well
stated by a writer with the signature ' H. de B. H. ' in
JV. and Q. 7 S. ix. 442 ; and I appended some remarks of
my own which I here beg leave to quote ' : —
' I am extremely thankful to the author of this article for
saying that " people who touch on specialist points should
have special knowledge." This is what I have been saying
for years with respect to the English language, concerning
which floods of untruths are continually being poured out
by persons absolutely ignorant of the fact that its study
does require special knowledge, and is full of " specialist
points"— a phrase, by the way, that is a little awkward.
Because I have said this I have been told that I am rude,
and it has been plainly hinted that I can be no gentleman.
Nevertheless, I shall maintain my position, and I can at
once illustrate it by a very clear example from the same
number of A", and Q. (7 S. ix. 453). We are there told,
1 From N. and Q. 7 S. ix. 495 (1890 , in an article headed 'Critical
Carelessness.'
Ixxviii INTRODUCTION.
under the heading " Heriots," that Coke derives it [heriot]
from here, " lord," and geat, " beste." We thus learn that
even so great an authority as Coke was entirely ignorant of
the subject concerning which he professed to give informa-
tion. It so happens that here does not mean " lord," neither
does geat mean " beste." And it is clear, too, that he made
yet a third blunder in writing geat, when the word to which
he meant to refer is geatu. Geat means a gate ! '
It is a pleasure to observe that, in spite of recurring out-
breaks, guess-work is no longer adored with that blind
admiration which it once evoked. Its ancient glory is
waning, and its acceptance is transitory and hesitating ;
towards which hopeful change in public opinion I claim to
have contributed somewhat, by means of the very articles
which are here collected and reprinted.
I have only to add that I have contributed a large
number of articles, on linguistic and literary subjects, to
many other publications besides Notes and Queries If the
reception of the present book is sufficiently encouraging, it
will be easy to produce another volume, or even two more,
of a like kind.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
(From N. and Q. 8 S. ii. 241 (1892); with subsequent
additions).
1 hope there is no harm in my attempting to give some
account of my booksy> I suppose it must be done some
day, and I am more likely than another to be able to do it
correctly. I begin with books and editions, excluding
letters and pamphlets. As many of the editions mentioned
below came out in parts, at different dates, it is clearest to
adopt a perfectly chronological order, mentioning each part
separately, and denoting it by the letters a, I?, c; different
editions I denote by the letters A, B, C : —
I. The Songs- and Ballads of Uhland : translated from the
German. London, Williams and Norgate, 1864. Post 8vo, pp. xxviii,
455-
2 (A). Lancelot of the Laik : a Scottish Metrical Romance.
Re-edited with an Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. (Early English
Text Society, No. 6.) London, Trubner and Co., 1865. Demy 8vo,
pp. lvi, 132. B) Revised ed., 1870. Pp. lvii, 132.
3 (A). Parallel Extracts from MSS. of Piers the Plowman.
(E.E.T.S., No. 17.) Trubner, 1866. Pp.24. (B) Second edition, with
alterations and additions, 1885. Pp. 34.
4. The Romance of Partenay, or the Tale of Melusine.
E.E.T.S. No. 22.) Trubner, 1866. Pp. xix, 299.
5. A Tale of Ludlow Castle. A Poem. Bell and Daldy, 1866.
Fcap. 8vo, pp. x, 101.
lxxx BIBLIOGRAPHY.
6 (a). The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman.
By Wm. Langland. Part I, or the A-Text. (E.E.T.S., No. 28.)
Trubner, 1867. Pp. xliii, 158.
7 (A). Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, with God Spede the
Plough. (E.E.T.S., No. 30.) Trubner, 1867. Pp. xx, 75. (B) Revised
ed., 1895.
8. The Romance of "William of Palerne, or William and the
Werwolf ; with a fragment of an Alliterative Romance of Alisaunder.
(E.E.T.S., Extra Series, No. 1.) Trubner, 1867. Pp. xliv, 328.
9 (A). The Lay of Havelok the Dane. (E.E.T.S., Extra Series,
No. 4.) Trubner, 1868. Pp. Iv, 159. (B) Re-issued, with Corrections
and Additions, 1889. Pp. lxii, 159.
10. A Mceso- Gothic Glossary. (Philological Society.) London,
Asher and Co., 1868. Small 4to, pp. xxiv, 341.
ir (A). The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman.
B-Text; Prologue and Passus i-vii. Oxford, 1869. Extra fcap. 8vo,
pp. xlii, 195. (B^i Second edition, revised, 1874. (C) Third edition,
revised, 1879. Pp. xlviii, 216. (D) Fourth edition, revised, 1886.
(E) Fifth edition, revised, 1889. (F) Sixth edition, revised, 1891.
6 (b). The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman.
Part II, or the B-Text. (E.E.T.S., No. 38.) Trubner, 1869. Pp. lvi,
427. N.B. Appended to this part is a Supplement to Part I, pp.
numbered i37*-i44*.
12(a). The Bruce. By John Barbour. Parti. (E.E.T.S., Extra
Series, No. 11.) Trubner, 1870. Pp. 1-256.
13. Joseph of Arimathie ; or the Holy Grail ; with the Life of
Joseph of Arimathea. (E.E.T.S., No. 44.) Trubner, 1871. Pp. xlvii,
100.
14 (A\ The Poems of Thomas Chatterton ; with an Essay on the
Rowley Poems and a Memoir by E. Bell. Bell and Daldy, 1871.
2 vols. fcap. 8vo. Vol. I, pp. cvii, 379 ; vol. II, pp. xlvi, 346. (B)
Re-issued, 1890.
15 (A). Specimens of English, from A.D. 1394 to 1597. Oxford,
1 87 1. Extra fcap. 8vo, pp. xxxii, 536. (B) Second edition, revised,
1879. (C) Third edition, revised, 1880. (D) Fourth edition, revised,
1887, pp. xxxi, 550. (E) Fifth edition, 1890.
16 (a). The Gospel according to St. Mark; in the Anglo-Saxon
and Northumbrian Versions. Cambridge, 1871. Demy 4to, pp.
xxxii, 144.
17 (A\ Specimens of Early English, from A.D. 1298 to
1393. By Dr. Morris, and the Rev. W. W. Skeat. Oxford, 1872.
Extra fcap. 8vo. (B) Second edition, 1873. Pp. xl, 490. (C) Third
edition, 1894.
18. Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe. ^E.E.T.S., Extra
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Ixxxi
Series, No. 16, and Chaucer Soc.) Triibner, 1872. Pp. lxix, 119
(with seven plates).
6 (c). The Vision of "William, &c. Part III. ; or the C-Text.
Together with Richard the Redeles, and the Crowned King.
(E.E.T.S., No. 54.) Triibner, 1873. Pp. cxxviii, 534 (with a facsimile).
19 (A). Questions for Examination in English Literature, with
an introduction on the Study of English. Bell and Daldy, 1873.
Pp. xxvii, 100. (B) Second and revised edition, 1887. Pp. xxx,
no.
20. Seven Reprinted Glossaries. (English Dialect Society,
No. 1.) Triibner, 1873. Demy 8vo, pp. vi, 112.
16 (b). The Gospel according to St. Luke, &c. Cambridge.
1874. Pp. xii, 252.
21 (A). Chaucer : The Prioresses Tale, Sir Thopas, The Monkes
Tale, The Clerkes Tale, The Squieres Tale, &c. Oxford, 1874.
Extra fcap. 8vo. (B) Second edition, revised, 1877. Pp. lxxx, 312.
(C) Third edition, revised, 1880. Pp. xcv, 316. (D) Fourth edition,
revised, 1888. (E) Fifth edition, revised, 1891.
22. Seven Reprinted Glossaries. (E.D.S., No. 5.) Triibner,
1874. Pp. viii, 92.
12 (6). The Bruce. Part II. (E.E.T.S., Extra Series, No. 21).
Pp- 257-336.
23. Ray's Collection of English Words not generally used.
Reprinted, with rearrangement and additions, from the edition of
1691. (E.D.S., No. 6.) Triibner, 1874. Pp« xxix> x22.
24. The Two Noble Kinsmen. By Shakespeare and Fletcher.
Cambridge, 1875. Extra fcap. 8vo, pp. xxiv, 159.
25. Shakespeare's Plutarch. London, Macmillan, 1875. Crown
8vo, pp. xxii, 352.
26. Five Original Provincial Glossaries. (E.D.S., No. 12.)
Triibner, 1876. Pp. xiv, 149.
27. A List of English Words, the Etymology of which is illus-
trated by comparison with Icelandic. (Supplement to Vigfusson's
Icelandic Dictionary.) Oxford, 1876. 4to, pp. iv, 20.
28 (A). Chaucer : The Tale of the Man of Lawe, The Pardoneres
Tale, The Second Nonnes Tale, The Chanouns Yemannes Tale.
Oxford, 1877. Extra fcap. 8vo, pp. xlviii, 275. (B) Second edition,
revised, 1879. Pp. xlviii, 282. (C) New edition, revised, 1889. (D)
New edition, revised, 1889.
29. A Bibliographical List of the Works illustrative of the
various Dialects of English. By the Rev. W. W. Skeat and
J. H. Nodal. (E.D.S.) Part I, 1873, pp. 1-48, and Part II, 1875,
pp. 49-131, by W. W. S. ; Part III, 1877, pp. i-viii, by W. W. S.,
pp. 133-201, by J. H. N., inclusive of an Index by W. E. A. Axon.
f
lxxxii BIBLIOGRAPHY.
6 (d). Notes on Piers the Plowman. Part IV, sect. i. (E.E.T.S.,
No. 67.) Triibner, 1877. Pp. 1-512.
12 (c). The Bruce. Part III. (E.E.T.S., Extra Series, No. 29.)
Triibner, 1877. Pp. 337-785-
16 (c). The Gospel according to St. John, &c. Cambridge,
1878. Pp. xx, 197.
30. Alexander and Dindimus. (E.E.T.S., Extra Series. No. 31.)
Triibner, 1878. Pp. xxxvi, 93.
31. Wycliffe's New Testament, ed. Forshall and Madden. Re-
printed, with Introduction and Glossary. Oxford, 1879. Extra fcap.
8vo, pp. xxiii, 541.
32. Five Reprinted Glossaries. (E.D.S., No. 23.) Triibner.
1879. Demy 8vo, pp. viii, 191.
33. Specimens of English Dialects : including a Bran New Wark.
E.D.S., No. 25.) Triibner, 1879. Demy 8vo, pp. viii, 222.
34. Wycliffe's Translation of Job, Psalms, &c. Ed. Forshall
and Madden. Reprinted, with Introduction and Glossary ; Oxford,
1881. Extra fcap. 8vo, pp. xi, 300.
35 (a). ^Elfric's Lives of Saints. Part I. E.E.T.S., No. 76.)
Triibner, 1881. Pp. vii and 1-256.
36. The Gospel of St. Mark in Gothic. Oxford, 1882. Extra
fcap. 8vo, pp. lxxv, 103.
[36*. I was entrusted with the reissue of the following work, to
which I supplied many references and an index.
The History of English Rhythms, by Edwin Guest. LL.D. Ed. by
W. W. S London, G. Bell and Sons, 1882. Demy 8vo, pp. xviii, 730.]
37. Pitzherbert's Book of Husbandry. 1534. (E.D.S., No. 37.'
Triibner, 1882. Demy 8vo, pp. xxx, 167.
38 A). An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language.
(Part I, A-Dor, 1879. Part II, Dor-Lit, 1880. Part III, Lit-
Red, 1881. Part IV, Red-Z, &c. 1882.) Oxford, 1882. 4to.
pp. xxviii. 799. (B) Supplement to the first edition; pp. 775-846.
Oxford, 1884, 4to. (C) Second edition, including the Supplement.
Oxford, 1884. 4to, pp. xxxii, 844.
39 (A \ A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English
Language. Oxford, 1882. Crown 8vo, pp xii, 616. (B) Second
edition, revised, 1885. Pp. xii. 625. (C) Third edition, 1887. Pp.
xn> 633. (D) Fourth edition, 1890. Pp. xii, 633.
40. The Tale of Gamelyn, with Notes and a Glossary. Oxford,
1884. Extra fcap. 8vo, pp. xxxix, 64.
6 >{e). Notes on Piers the Plowman. Part IV, section ii.
(E.E.T.S., No 81.) Triibner, 1884. Pp. lxxvii, and 513-910.
41. The Kingis Quair. By King James I of Scotland. ^Scottish
Text Society, No. 1.) Edinburgh, 1884. Demy 8vo, pp. lv, 113.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. lxxxiii
35 (ft), ^llfric's Lives of Saints. Part II. E.E.T.S.. No. 82.
Triibner, 1886. Pp. 257-554.
42. The Wars of Alexander ; an Alliterative Romance. ^E.E.T.S..
Extra Series, No. 47. ) Triibner, 1886. Pp. xxiv, 478.
43 Piers the Plowman. By W. Langland. In three parallel
Texts; with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. Oxford, 1886. In
two vols, demy 8vo ; vol. I, pp. viii, 628 : vol. II, pp. xciii, 484.
16 \d). The Gospel according to St. Matthew, &c. Cambridge.
1887. Pp. xi, 258.
The complete work, in one volume, is entitled, ' The Holy Gospels
in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian, and Old Mercian Versions, synoptically
arranged/ &c. Cambridge, 1871-1887. Demy 8vo. Paged as before.
44 (A). Principles of English Etymology. First Series. The
Native Element. Oxford, 1887. Crown 8vo, pp. xxxiv, 541. (ET
Second and revised edition, 1892. Pp. xxxix, 547.
45. A Concise Dictionary of Middle English. By A. L.
Mayhew and W. W. S. Oxford, 1888. Crown 8vo, pp. xv, 272.
46. Chaucer : the Minor Poems. Oxford, 1888. Crown 8vo, pp.
lxxxvi, 462.
12 (d). The Bruce. Part IV. E.E.T.S.. Extra Series, No. 55.
Triibner, 1889. Pp. i-cv.
47. Chaucer : the Legend of Good Women. Oxford. 1889. Crown
8vo, pp. liv, 229.
35 (c). ^llfric's Lives of Saints. Part III. (E.E.T.S., No. 94.)
Triibner. 1890. Vol. II, pp. i-224.
48. Principles of English Etymology. Second Series. The
Foreign Element. Oxford, 1891. Crown 8vo, pp. xxix, 505.
49. (A) Chaucer ; the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Oxford.
1891. Extra fcap. 8vo, pp. xvi, 83. B) Second and revised edition,
1895.
50 (A). A Primer of English Etymology. Oxford, 1892. Extra
fcap. 8vo, pp. viii, 112. (B Second and revised edition, 1895.
51. Twelve Facsimiles of Old English MSS. Oxford. 1892.
Demy 4to, pp. 1-36 ; with twelve plates.
52. Chaucer's House of Fame. Oxford, 1893. Crown 8vo.
pp. 136.
53 a). The Bruce. By John Barbour. Part I. (Scottish Text
Society.) Edinburgh, 1893-4. Demy 8vo, pp. 1-351. bj The
same; Part II, 1893-4. Pp- i— viii, 1-431. (c) The same ; Part III.
1894-5. Pp. i-xci. N.B. {c) and (a) make up vol. I ; (6X constitutes
vol. II.
54. The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Oxford, 1894.
Six vols, demy 8vo. Vol. I. — The Romaunt of the Rose, and Minor
Poems; pp. lxiv, 568. Vol. II. — Boethius ; Troilus ; pp. lxxx, 506.
lxxxiv BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Vol. III. — House of Fame; Legend of Good Women; Astrolabe;
Sources of the Tales ; pp. lxxx, 504. Vol. IV. — Canterbury Tales ;
Tale of Gamelyn ; pp. xxxii, 667. Vol. V. — Notes to the Canterbury
Tales; pp. xxviii, 515. Vol. VI. — Introduction; Glossary; Indexes;
pp. ciii, 445.
55. The Student's Chaucer. Oxford, 1895. Crown 8vo, pp.
xxiv, 732 ; with Glossarial Index, pp. 149.
56. Nine Specimens of English Dialects. (^E.D.S., No. 76.)
Oxford, 1895. Demy 8vo, pp. xxiv, 193.
57. Two Collections of Derbicisms; by S. Pegge, A.M. Edited
by W.W. S. and Thomas Hallam. (E.D.S., No. 78/. Oxford, 1896.
Demy 8vo, pp. c, 138.
58. A Student's Pastime ; being a select series of articles re-
printed from Notes and Queries. Oxford, 1896. Cr. 8vo, pp. lxxxiv,
410.
59. The Complete "Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Vol. VII
supplementary). — Works printed in old editions. Oxford. Demy
8vo. (In the press.)
35 (d). oniric's Lives of Saints. Part IV. E.E.T.S.) Vol. II ;
concluding part. (In the press.)
ERRATA.
P. 46, 1. 11. For Libra read Liber.
P. 108, 1. 3. For 187 read 1877.
P. 129, 1. 10. For parables read parable.
P. 137, 1. 12. For ofel read ofer.
A STUDENT'S PASTIME
FROM 'NOTES AND QUERIES:
One of my earliest contributions to Notes and Queries appeared in
the Third Series, vii. 407 ; May 20. 1865. Later contributions can
be found in the Indexes to the various years, under my name.
I here give a selection from the numerous articles contributed by
me to that periodical from the year 1866 onwards. In a few cases.
I have slightly altered the wording, but as a rule it is unaltered. In
other cases, I give only a portion of the article, when the rest of it is
of no general interest.
The articles are, for the most part, arranged in chronological
order. The Index at the end of the volume is a sufficient guide to
the subjects under discussion.
The reference to ' 3 S. ix. 379' means Third Series, vol. ix. p. 379;
and so in other cases.
1. Conrad: derivation of (3 S. ix. 379 ; 1866).
Of Teutonic origin. From Old High Germ. Kuon-rdt,
i.e. keen (in) counsel. [See kuoni, keen, rat, counsel, and
Kuonrdt (s.v. Chuonzo), in Schade's O. Ger. Diet.] The
Ital. Currado, in Dante, Parad. xv. 139, is borrowed from
the German. The Dutch words koen, keen or bold, and
raad, counsel, still strikingly resemble the old Kuon-rdt.
B
2 ENGLISH ACCENT.
2. English accent thrown back ; as in balcony
(3 S. ix. 380; 1866).
The history of the pronunciation of such words as balcony
is easily explained, and has been often discussed; see, e.g.,
Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, Series 1, p. 531.
In almost all such words, the foreign pronunciation comes
near the end, as in the Ital. balcbne ; but when the word
becomes thoroughly familiar to us, we throw back the accent,
and call it balcony. It is useless, therefore, to protest against
balcony, for that this pronunciation will prevail there can be
no doubt ; and we may therefore as well accept it at once.
Thus Robert Browning, writing later than Scott and Byron,
adopts the newer pronunciation as being more in accord-
ance with English, and is right in so doing.
The list of words, the accent of which has been thrown
back, is a very long one. I may instance aspect, process,
contrite, blasphemous, uproar, co7itemplate, &c. ; formerly pro-
nounced aspect, process, contrite, blasphemous, uproar, con-
template ; nor would it be at all surprising if we soon have
to say decorous and sonorous, badly as these sound to any
one acquainted with Latin ; for pronunciation is regulated
by common custom, not by any consideration of right and
wrong. And when an Englishman is in doubt, he throws
back the accent as a matter of course.
3. Rime v. Rhyme (3 S. ix. 102, 264; 1866).
[In 3 S. ix. 102, I observed, on the spelling rime, that
I had explained it in a letter to The Reader, in February,
1865. After this, I was referred to Jamieson's Dictionary,
where I should ' find that rime is a word totally inconsistent
with any idea of poetic lines' (3 S. ix. 169). Of course
I replied that the word rime does not occur in Jamieson at
all ! For such is the fact \ I also wrote as follows.]
1 Jamieson merely gives rind, rliync, rhyme as words meaning rime,
i.e. hoar-frost.
RIME V. RHYME. 3
I am not surprised that the correctness of the spelling
' rime ' for ' rhyme ' should be doubted, but I do not think
that many readers (especially if they have looked into
Shakespeare ', where the word occurs about forty times) will
attribute the ' idea ' to me ! I suppose Mr. I. means that
the old meaning of rime had sometimes reference to another
kind of verse than that which has chimed couplets, which
may be quite true ; as it is also true that the A. S. rim
generally meant a reckoning or computation. What I mean
is, that the authors who assert rime to be the true spelling
are right. Mr. Marsh has done this most explicitly, in his
Lectures on the English Language, Series i, p. 509 ; the
statement, strongly put, also appeared in the Saturday
Review, Aug. 17, 186 1, p. 105 ; it is also distinctly stated in
Ogilvie's Imperial Dictionary ; and Tyrwhitt uses this spell-
ing throughout his' ' Essay on the Versification of Chaucer.'
This was whence I first derived the idea, and it has been
abundantly confirmed by investigation. Thus the word is
spelt rytn in Haveluk the Dane, and in Chaucer; ryme in
Robert of Brunne, N. Udall, W. Webbe (1586), Skelton,
Donne, and Shakespeare ; rime in Chaucer, Shakespeare,
Spenser, and Milton (see particularly Milton's preface to
Paradise Lost) ; whilst we find ryming in Roger Ascham
and Bishop Cosin, and riming and rimer in Shakespeare.
Very many more authors might be cited, but perhaps the
following from Shakespeare may suffice : —
' Marry, I cannot shew it in rime ; I have tried, I can finde no rime
to ladie but badie, an innocent rime ; for scorne, home, a hard rime ;
tor schoole. foole, a babling rime; very ominous endings.' — Much
Ado about Nothing, Act V. Sc. 2 (ed. 1623).
It is obvious that this writer believed rime to be not
'totally inconsistent with any idea of poetic lines.' The
1 I had previously referred to Chaucer and Spenser. Of course,
the Middle-English spelling is always rime, rim (or ryme, rym).
B 2
4 ANOINTED.
intrusion of h into the word was doubtless due to confusion
with the Greek pvfyios ; but it should be noted that English
is the only language which has admitted this pedantic
innovation 1. Compare A. S. rim, Icelandic rima, Dutch
rijm, German Rei?n, Danish riim, Swedish ri?n, French rime,
Ital. rima, Span, and Port, rima, Prov. rim, [Even Polish
has ry??i?\
4. Anointed; in a depraved sense (3 S. ix. 422 ; i866\
[Murray's New English Dictionary has : ' Anoint :
ironically, to beat soundly, to baste. In the North they
say humorously " to anoint with the sap of a hazel rod." '
He then quotes the very passage to which I called attention
in 1866.]
I have just met with so singular a use of this word, that
I make a note of it at once. In the French MS. Romance
of Melusine is an account of a man who had received
a thorough and severe beating, which is thus referred to : —
' Qui auoit este si bien oingt.'' The English version, which
I am now editing for the E. E. T. Society, says : — 'Which
so well was Anoy?ited indedeV It is clear that to a?ioint
a man, was to give him a sound drubbing, and that the word
was so used in the fifteenth century. This, I think, explains
all. ' An a?iointed rogue ' means either one who has been
well thrashed, or who deserves to be. In the latter case, it
expresses the opinion and the wish of the speaker.
5. Carfax. I (3 S. x. 184; 1866).
Having duly read all I can find in N and Q. about
Carfax, well known as the name of a place in Oxford, I feel
bound to say that none of the derivations proposed for it
1 The insertion of the // into the word is not much earlier
than 1550.
2 See the Romance of Partenay, ed. Skeat, 1866, 1. 5653 ; and
the note.
CARFAX. 5
seem to me to be properly proved, and I therefore ven-
ture to propose another which is something more than
a guess, as a good deal can be shown in its favour, it being
capable of being traced through all its changes. The best
of those proposed are quatre-faces and quatre-voies, the latter
being the favourite, and adopted in the Oxford guide-books.
But I submit that it remains to be shown that the phrase
qaatre-voies was ever commonly used ; quadriviu7?i was
used in Latin, but was quartre-voies used in French? The
answer is, no ; the word commonly used in Old French was
carrefourg, and the word still commonly used in French is
its modern form, carrefour.
Now the history of this word is very much to the purpose.
First, let us see what Burguy says of it : he says, ' quarefor,
quarefort, carrefour ; compose de quadrifurcum, propr.
quadruple fourche.' This is quite sound ; there is no doubt
that the Latin root-words are quatuor and furca. Next,
hear Cotgrave \ he says, ' Quarrefour : the place in, or
part of, a towne whereat four streets meet at a head. Par
tous les quarrefours de : Throughout all the four quarters,
corners, or streets of; and this is a good sound explanation.
I must now remark that, according to N. and Q., an old
spelling for Carfax is ' Carfox,' and I can then trace the
word from beginning to end as follows. In MS. Camb. LI.
2. 5, fol. 41, "are the lines —
' A lentree de luxenbourg,
Lieu ny auoit ne carrcfourg
Dont len neust veu venir les gens,' &c.
In MS. Trin. R. 3. 1 7, which is a translation of the above
Romance of Melusine, we find on fol. 39 the corresponding
lines —
' No place ther had, neither carfoukes non,
But peple shold se ther come many one1.'
1 Printed in the Romance of Partenay, ed. Skeat (E. E. T. S.)}
1866 j lines 1819-20.
6 CARFAX.
Whence it is easy to see that Carfax is a contraction of
Carfoukes, and from Carfax comes, as has been admitted,
the modern form Carfax. I propose, therefore, to give up
the derivations quatuor fades and quatuor vias, and to adopt
quatuor furcas ; to suppose, in fact, that the -fax or -fax
answers to the English forks. Those who think votes the
true original have to show how the ^-sound got in to the
word ; I make the simpler supposition that an r has dropped
out. By way of corollary, it may be noted that the French
have retained the r, but have dropped the k or g: thus they
no longer write carrefourg, but carrefour.
A correspondent has made the curious objection that, at
Horsham, Carfax means a place where three wrays meet,
and he actually thinks this fatal to the etymology !
Of couse, the idea of four was easily lost, but the idea of
crosswaysi or roads meeting, retained. How would such
a person understand Peter's ' passing through all quarters '
(Acts ix. 32) ? Or, we might thus argue that jourtial has
no connexion with the Latin diurnus, because the Londo7i
Journal is published once a week. Or again (and this is yet
more to the purpose), it may be shown that even carrefour
may denote, not four crossways, but one street only. For
Froissart uses le souverain carrefour to denote the principal
street \ Froissart, vol. iv. c. 28.
[PS. The above etymology is adopted in the New Eng.
Diet. ; and the above passage is there cited. It had previously
appeared in my own Etym. Dictionary, in 1882.]
6. Carfax. II (4 S. iii. 273 ; 1869).
The word carfukes occurs in the Memorials of Lo?idon,
ed. Riley, p. 300. I am sorry Mr. Riley reproduces in his
note the erroneous notion of a derivation from quatre faces,
four faces. It is, on the contrary, one more instance which
illustrates the true derivation from the Latin quadrifurcum
(or quatuor furcas), as I have explained in N. and Q. in
'AS NICE AS A NUN'S HEN.' 7
the passage to which I here refer; (see p. 4 aboveV
Mr. Wedgwood has adopted my suggestion in the Appendix
to his Ety?nological Dictionary, and gives further informa-
tion concerning the etymology.
7. 'As nice as a Nun's Hen' (3 S. x. 215 ; 1866).
The word fastidious very nearly expresses the sense of
nice here. The priest alluded to was fastidious and mincing
in his talk ; and, by a sort of pun, was said to be as fastidious
and particular as a nun's hen ; according to a proverb in the
north, which makes a nun's hen to be something peculiarly
delicate and pure. The following quotation well exemplifies
this : —
'Women, women, loue of women
Make bare purs with some men.
Some be nyse as a nonne hene,
Yet al thei be nat soo ;
Some be lewde, some all be schreude,
Go schrewes wher thei goo.'
From a poem on ' Women,' appended to the Wrighfs
Chaste Wife, ed. F. J. Furnivall (Early English Text
Society).
8. Rhyme nor Reason (3 S. x. 236 ; 1866).
Two or three correspondents have already explained that
the phrase probably has reference to some poetical attempt
which was recommended neither by metre nor meaning.
I merely write to ' make a note ' that the phrase seems to
be of considerable antiquity, and is probably of French
origin. In a MS. written before 1500 (Camb. Univ. LI. 2.
5, fol. 9b.) is the line —
' En toy na Ryme ne Raison,'
i. e. there is neither rime nor reason in thee.
[PS. This MS. is the French original of the Romance of
8 RESPLEND.
Partenay. The translation does not reproduce the line
here quoted. See note to 1. 279 of the Romance of
Partenay, ed. Skeat, E. E. T. S.,1866 ; p. 235.]
9. Resplend (3 S. x. 258 ; 1866).
Resplend occurs in the following passage : — ' He sees
Berinthia's modesty resplend and shine in her affection.'
(Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder (1622), booke ii.
hy. vii. p. 57.) I take it to be closely related to the
verb resplendish, which is not uncommon in early English,
as in the following : — ' The fame of Ffabius resplendysshed
and floured after his deth more thanne at that tyme when
he lyved.' (Caxton's Boke of Tulle, Of Old Age (1481)).
Resplende?ice and resple?ident are common enough, probably
owing to their having been used by Milton, as, e. g. in
Paradise Lost, v. 720, 'in full resplendence,' and ix. 568,
' resplendent Eve.'
10. Curious Tradition : Roses (3 S. x. 276; 1866).
May I suggest that there were no roses in Paradise ? They
are, comparatively, quite a recent creation ! At any
rate, Sir John Maundeville gives the full and true account
of their first appearance on earth, and says expressly they
were the first ' that euer ony man saughe.' See Southey's
fine poem called ' The Rose,' at the head of which the
quotation from Maundeville is fully given. But Southey is
not true to his original ; for, instead of saying that the rose
was then seen for the first time, he says —
' First seen on earth since Paradise zvas lost."1
Whence it appears that he had also read Milton (see P. L.
iv. 256), and had combined his information. The 'rose of
Sharon ' was only a narcissus. See Smith's Dictionary of
the Bible, s. v. ' Rose.'
CADDY 9
11. Caddy (3 S. x. 323 ; 1866).
The following curious passage in a lately-published work
is worth notice, and may perhaps at the same time suggest
to W. S. J.1 an etymology for the word caddy : —
1 The standard currency of Borneo is brass guns. This is not
a figure of speech, nor do I mean small pistols or blunderbusses ; but
real cannon, five to ten feet long, and heavy in proportion. The
metal is estimated at so much a picul, and articles are bought and sold,
and change given, by means of this awkward coinage. The picul
contains 100 catties, each of which weighs about 1^ English pounds.
There is one advantage about this currency, it is not easily stolen.' —
F. Boyle, Adventures among the Dyaks, p. 100.
To the word catties the author subjoins a footnote as
follows : —
* Tea purchased in small quantities is frequentry enclosed in boxes
containing one catty. I offer a diffident suggestion that this may
possibly be the derivation of our familiar tea-caddy.'
I may add that the use of this weight is not confined to
Borneo; it is used also in China, and is (as I am informed)
the only weight in use in Japan.
[PS. A note by R. W. W., also printed in X. and Q., con-
tained the information that ' an original package of tea, less
than a half-chest, is called in the trade a box, caddy, or
catty. This latter is a Malay word — kati, a catty or weight,
equivalent to 1 gib. avoirdupois.'
This etymology was repeated in my Etym. Diet., 1882,
and is adopted in the New Eng. Dictionary.]
12. Expulse (3 S. x. 437; 1866).
Expulse is simply the French and old English form of
the word expel, and is now used but rarely ; so that it may
be more justly deemed a term of the past than of the future.
I find ' Expulser, to expulse, expell,' in Cotgrave's French
Dictionary, editon of 1660; and ' Expulser, to expulse,' in
1 My dear brother-in-law, since dead.
IO FRENCH PROVERB: 'GRATE.'
Nugent's French Dictionary, dated 1844. It occurs in
Shakespeare (1 Hen. VI. iii. 3. 25) as equivalent to
extirp : —
Charles. 'Nor should that nation boast it so with us,
But be extirped from our provinces.
Alen. For ever should they be expulsed from France ;
And not have title of an earldom here.'
Nares, in his Glossary, also quotes the following : —
'He was expulsed the senate.' — North's Plutarch, p. 499.
And—
' If he, expulsing King Richard, as a man not meet for the office he
bare, would take upon him the scepter.' — Holinshed, vol. ii. vv. 8.
But why the writer in The Guardian could not use the
simpler term expel, seems odd ; perhaps he may have
thought expulse more expressive and forcible, from the con-
sideration that, in Latin, expulsare is the frequentative form
of expellere ; or, more probably, he was thinking of the
French form expulser, which is in common use. I may
add, that expulse is a favourite word with dictionary-makers.
I find it in Meadows' Spanish and Italian dictionaries, in
Vieyra's Portuguese dictionary, and in the Tauchnitz Dutch
and Swedish dictionaries. Both forms, expeler and expulsar,
occur in Spanish, and expellir and expulsar in Portuguese ;
but the Italian has expellere only, which is counterbalanced
by the sole French form, expulser.
13. French Proverb : ' Grate' (3 S. x. 523 ; 1866).
Mr. B. says that he wants an explanation of grate in
the phrase ' Tant grate chievre que mal gist,' and suggests
that it will be found in Cotgrave. There it is, sure enough ;
for Cotgrave gives, ' Grater, to scratch, to scrape, to scrub,
claw, rub. Tant grate la chevre que mat gist (a proverb
applicable to such as cannot be quiet when they are well).'
[PS. The mod. F. form is gratter.]
ENGLISH WITHOUT ARTICLES. II
14. English without Articles (3 S. xi. 52 ; 1867).
It is worth noting that Sir William Davenant contrived
to write a poem, ' The London Vacation,' almost without
the use of articles. In the course of 162 lines, the only
occurs about four times, and a about thrice. The effect is
rather odd, as may be seen from this specimen : —
' Now wight that acts on stage of Bull
In scullers' bark does lie at Hull,
Which he for pennies two does rig,
All day on Thames to bob for grig.
Whilst fencer pocr does by him stand
In old dung-lighter, hook in hand ;
Between knees rod, with canvas crib
To girdle tied, close under rib ;
Where worms are put, which must small fish
Betray at night to earthen dish.'
It may be noted, too, that grig here occurs in the sense of
a little eel. (See 3 S. x. 413.)
15. Keycold (3 S. xi. 171 ; 1867).
Shakespeare speaks of ''key-cold Lucrece ' \ and again, we
find the line — ■
' Poor key-cold figure of a holy king ! '
Richard III, Act I. Sc. 2.
It may be noted that a similar idea is found in Gower.
Compare —
'And so it coldeth at min herte
That wonder is, how I asterte {escape),
In such a point that I ne deie.
For certes, there was never kcie
Ne frosen is (ice) upon the walle
More inly cold, than I am alle.'
Gower, Confessio Amantis, ed. Pauli, iii. 9.
16. 'As Dead as a Door-Nail' (3 S. xi. 173 ; 1867).
That this proverb is old enough, is easily shown. It
occurs in the following passages : —
12 BERN A R.
' For but ich haue bote of mi bale bi a schort time,
I am ded as dore-nail ; now do all thi wille ! '
William, and the Werwolf, p. 23, 1. 628.
'Thurth the bold bodi he bar him to the erthe
As ded as dornayl, to deme the sothe.'
Id. p. 122, 1. 3396.
' Feith withouten the feet is right nothyng worthi,
And as deed as a door-tree, but if the dedes folwe.'
Piers Ploughman, ed. Wright, p. 26.
For which another MS. (Trin. Coll. R. 3. 14) reads —
' Feith withoute fait is feblere than nought,
And as ded as a dorenail, but ghif the dede folewe ' ;
both of which latter are free translations of St. James's
saying, that ' faith without works is dead.'
Sir F. Madden, in his glossary to William and the Wer-
wolf , calls it ' a proverb which has become indigenous, but
the sense of which it is difficult to analyze ' ; and I am very
much of the same opinion. ' As dead as a door-tree] i. e.
as a door-post, is somewhat more intelligible, for the wood
of which the post is formed was part of a live tree once.
There is then a possibility that such was the original expres-
sion, and that the proverb was transferred from the door-
post itself to the nails that studded the door, without any
very great care as to maintaining the sense of the expression.
There are other sayings in the same plight.
[PS. See my note to P. Plowman, B. i. 185 (C. ii. 184),
where I also quote from Shak. 2 Hen. IV. v. 3. 125-6.]
17. Bernar (3 S. xi. 191; 1867).
In Jesse's Researches into the History of the British Dog,
I find the following passages : —
' We send you also William Fitz-R:chard, Guy the huntsman, and
Robert de Stanton, commanding you to provide necessaries for the
same greyhounds and " veltrars/' and our dogs '*de motis," and
brachets, with their bernars,' &c. — Vol. ii. p. 27.
' And than shuld ye bcerners on foot, and ye gromes lede home ye
houndes,' &c. — Vol. ii. p. 123.
BERNAR. 13
'And whan ye j'emen, beerners, and gromes han ladde home ye
houndes, and sette hem wel up, and ordeynne water and strawe
after yat hem nedeth/ &c. — Ibid.
Observing that the learned author is for once somewhat
at fault about the meaning and origin of the term, T send
you the following note :—
Mr. Jesse says : —
1 Bernars, qy., bowmen, or huntsmen, from bersare. to hunt or
shoot. — Coivel. Or from bernage, equipage, train, &c. — Cotgrave.''
But the true meaning is better given in Roquefort. We
there find —
' Bemiers, vassaux qui payoient le droit de brenage?
And again : —
' Brenage, redevance en son, que des vassaux payoient d'abord a
certains seigneurs pour la nourriture de leurs chiens ; en bas-Lat.
brenagiutn.'
And again : —
'Bren, bran, brenie, ordure, et du son, ou ce qui reste dans le sas
de la farine sassee ; en bas-Bret. bren, son.'
It hence appears that a bernar might, in modern English, be
well named a branner ; i. e. a man who provides bran for
dogs, where by bran may be denoted refuse of various kinds,
and not only that obtained from husks of corn. Wedgwood,
s. v. Bran, explains that it means refuse, draff, leavings,
ordure ; and instances the Breton brenn hesken as meaning
refuse of the saw, sawdust. The duty of the berner was, no
doubt, to feed the dogs ; for Mr. Jesse says again : —
• Besides the foregoing, and not included, was the wages of a
certain valet (' berner ') for the keep of fifteen running-dogs during
forty days in Lent.' — Vol. ii. p. 132.
Yet again we read : —
1 Mention is made likewise of " the Pantryes, Chippinges, and
broken breade," a kind of food which is frequently spoken of about
this period.' — Vol. ii. p. 125.
This may be the signification of bran in its wider sense.
14 PUTTING A MAN UNDER A POT.
One more quotation (referring to the 49th year of
Henry III) is too important to be omitted : —
'In acquittance of the expenses of Richard de Candevere and
William de Candevere going for bran,'' &c. — Vol. ii. p. 36.
It might easily happen that a person who engaged to pro-
vide food for hounds was a man of wealth : for numerous
examples of such ' dog tenures,' see the same volume,
pp. 41, 42, 43. This perhaps may account for the name
being applied to persons of higher station, and I suppose
such to have been the origin of the name Berners, of which
Juliana Berners and Lord Berners are such bright orna-
ments.
[PS. This etymology appears in the New Eng. Did., s. v.
Bemerl\
18. Putting a Man under a Pot (3 S. xi. 277 ; 1867).
I have seldom met with a more amazing statement than
there is in Piers Ploughman 's Crede, and I should greatly
like to know of something that would corroborate it. The
author distinctly asserts that there was a regular system of
making away with friars who were not sufficiently active in
begging for the good of tbeir house. He says : —
' But1 [except) he may beggen his bred, His bed is y-greithed
{prepared for him) ;
Under a pot he shall be put In a pryvye chambre,
That he shall lyuen ne laste But lytel whyle after.'
Ed. Wright, 1. 1247.
This clearly means that a useless friar is put under a pot,
and that he soon dies in consequence.
The only passage I know of that throws any light on this
is also in the Crede : —
' For thei ben nere dede ;
And put al in pur clath With pottes on her hedes.'
Id. 1. 1222.
1 The Trinity MS. has ' But.' The printed texts have ' That.'
LIVING. 15
Now why, I ask, should a pot be put on a man's head
when he lies on his death-bed ?
[This question remains unanswered.]
19. Living (3 S. xi. 286 ; 1877).
Wright's Provincial Dictionary gives ' Living, a farm :
Leicestershire.''
In Norfolk it is a very common word.
A London man might call a person's house and grounds
a nice place, but a Norfolk man would use the word living.
In this sense, too, it occurs in Ben Jonson : ' I have
a pretty living o' mine own too, beside, hard by here : '
Every Ma?i in his Humour, Act I. Sc. 1 (or 2).
[Nares misses the word. There is no note on it in
Wheatley's edition of Every Man, Act I. Sc. 2, 1. 8. I fre-
quently heard it when residing in Norfolk. I was once told
that I seemed to have a nice living (i. e. a pleasantly
situated house). It seemed to me a queer thing to say to
a curate.]
20. Two-faced Pictures (3 S. xi. 346 ; 1867).
Few things are easier to make. Get two pictures of the
same size ; cut them vertically into strips half an inch
broad ; paste the corresponding strips back to back (you
will see which these are by trial), and then set them up on
their edges in a row from left to right at equal distances of
about three-quarters of an inch or an inch apart. Then, if
you stand to the left, you see the whole of one picture ; if
to the right, the whole of the other. If, instead of setting
them up above plain paper, you set them up above a third
uncut picture, you will see this one only by standing directly
in front ; and the double picture thus becomes a treble
picture without any increase of difficulty in the construction.
[PS. Now {\n 1895) used to advertise 'Sunlight Soap.']
16 CHRIST-CROSS.
21. Christ-cross (3 S. xi. 352 ; 1867).
In Piers Ploughmen? s Crede, 1. 1, we find ' Cros and
curteis Christ this begynnyng spede,' where there seems to
be an allusion to the prefixing of a cross to the beginning
of a piece of writing, especially of an alphabet in a primer ;
see Nares's Glossary, s. v. Cross-row and Christ-cross-row.
Also in a poem, by the Rev. R. S. Hawker, called ' A Christ-
cross Rhyme,' we find at the very beginning —
' Christ his cross shall be my speed,
Teach me, father John, to read.'
Now it is to be observed, that in Chaucer's Treatise on the
Astrolabe occurs the following : — i This border is devided
also with xxiii letters, and a s?nall crosse aboue the south
line that sheweth the xxiiij houres equales of the clocke ' ;
and in the diagrams accompanying this in the MSS. we
accordingly see a cross at the south or starting-point,
followed by the twenty-three letters of the alphabet, /, v, and
w being omitted. The fact is, that the true use of a cross,
in drawing, is to define or mark a point, especially a point
to start or measure from (there being no more convenient
way of defining a point than by thus considering it as the
spot where two short lines intersect) ; and I believe this to
be its simple sole and original use when prefixed to the
alphabet in an astrolabe, except that it was also found
convenient to increase the number of symbols from the
awkward number of twenty-three to the very convenient
one of twenty-four. But it was impossible that it could
be used long without reference being supposed to be
made to the cross of Christ, and it must soon have been
regarded as invoking Christ's blessing upon the commence-
ment of any writing. Hence the term Christ-cross-row, or
shortly, cross-row. Archdeacon Nares has another sug-
gestion, that the cross-row was probably named from
a superstitious custom of writing the alphabet in the form
of a cross, by way of charm ; but I prefer the former
AS RIGHT AS A TRIVET. 1 7
explanation. He also says, ' the mark of noon on a dial
is in the following passage jocularly called the Christ-cross
of the dial, being the figure of a cross placed instead of
xii : —
" Fall to your business roundly ; the fescue [Lat. festuca] of the dial
is upon the Christ-cross of noon." ' — Puritan iv. 2, Suppl. to Sh. ii. 607.
But there is no need to insert the word jocularly; it was
natural enough that it should come to be so called.
[See Christ-cross and Cross-row in the New Eng.
Dictionary^
22. As right as a trivet : As clean as a whistle
(3 S. xi. 361; 1867).
These are excellent examples of the way in which proverbs
rapidly become obscure when based on something that is
a sort of pun upon words. Thus, we use such a word as
deep in two senses, and we might facetiously call a very
astute man ' as deep as the Bay of Biscay,' which would be
readily intelligible at first, but might easily, by a slight
alteration, become almost meaningless. I suppose the
same sort of process to have been at work in the case of
the two above proverbs. ( The ' rectitude of a trivet ' con-
sists in its rectangularity \ If that sort of trivet which is
placed upon the upper bar of a grate is not accurately
made, the kettle that stands upon it will not stand even,
but will inconveniently slouch forward or backward. The
trivet, to be a good one, must be right-angled, or made
1 right and true.' In the next proverb a further stage
of corruption of the sense has been reached, the word
clean being put for clear. No sound is more clear than
that of a whistle ; hence ' as clear as a whistle ' is good
sense.
1 [Or, if we take trivet in the sense of ' a three-legged support,' the
sense is quite clear, in that case also. You cannot make a three-
legged stool stand unsteadily.]
C
1 8 MILTON'S USE OF 'CHARM.'
But if a man speaks of cutting anything off with perfect
smoothness and evenness, he would say he has cut it off
clear or sheer, or clean, with equal readiness ; and he would
probably add the words ' as a whistle ' to one phrase quite
as soon as to the other, without any great amount of
reflection as to the congruity of his speech. Just in the
same way, a church is a safe place of sanctuary, or may be
regarded as safely built, secure and fast ; whence arises
such a question and answer as the following, which is not
uncommon : — ' Is he fast asleep ? ' ' Aye, as safe as
a church.' A play upon words necessarily leads to a play
upon phrases. See note on ' as dead as a door-nail,' N.
and Q., 3 S. xi. 173.
23. Milton's use of the word ' charm.' I (3 S. xi. 382 ;
1867).
The word charm is well explained by Wedgwood. The
root of it is preserved in the A. S. cyrm, loud noise.
Another quotation for it is : —
'Vor thi ich am loth smale foghle —
Hit me bichermit and bigredeth.'
Owl and Nightingale, 280.
It also occurs in one of our Early English Text Society's
Books : —
'Tentes, pauilons freshly wrought and good,
Doucet songes hurde of briddes enuiron,
Whych meryly chinned in the grene wood.'
Romance of Partenay ^ed. Skeat, 1866), p. 37, 1. 876;
which is thus explained in the Glossarial Index : —
1 Chirmed, made a loud noise, chirped loudly, 878. Cf. " synniga
cynn, the uproar of sinners" ; Caedmon, ed. Thorpe, 145, 17.
"With charm of earliest birds"; Milton, P. L., iv. 642. See
Forby.'
By ' Forby ' I mean ' Forby's East- Anglian Glossary.7
[See Charm (2) and Chirm in the New Eng. Dictionary.]
MIL TON'S USE OF 'CHARM/ 19
24. ' Charm.' II (5 S. vii. 278 ; 1877).
This word has been often discussed ; see, e. g., 2V. and
Q., 3 S. xi. 221, 382, 510. It is a perfectly common
English word, used, to my own knowledge, in Shropshire,
and is not a Celtic, but an English word, being the A. S.
arm (cyrm), the hard c turning into eh as usual. Jamieson
has it in his Dictionary, with the spelling chirm ; and though
he fails to give the A. S. form, he gives the correct equivalent
Dutch verb, viz. kermen, to lament. The A. S. substantive is
better spelt eirm; and Grein, in his A.S. Dictionary, s v. arm,
gives fifteen examples of its use as a substantive, and six
examples of the verb arman, which he rightly compares
with O. H. G. karmian, to make a noise. The word is per-
fectly well known, and the supposed ' Gaelic ' equivalent is
all moonshine ; so, too, is a supposed connexion with the
Latin carmen.
25. Luther's Distich (3 S. xi. 449 ; 1867).
This distich is attributed to Luther by the poet Uhland,
who was no bad judge in such matters. See ' Gedichte '
von L. Uhland — Die Geisterkelter.
The passage runs thus in my translation : —
' At Weinsberg, town well known to fame,
That doth from ivine derive its name,
Where songs are heard of joy and 3'outh,
Where stands the fort, hight ''Woman's Truth"' —
Where Luther e'en, 'mid women, song,
And wine, would find the time not long,
And might, perchance, find room to spare
For Satan and an inkhorn there
(For there a host of spirits dwell); —
Hear what at Weinsberg once befel ! '
Songs and Ballads 0/ Uhland, translated by Skeat, p. 318.
There is a note on the passage by Mr. Piatt, at p. 497 of
his translation of Uhland's poems. He says : —
1 The great Martin Luther was no ascetic. In one of his merry
moments he is reported to have written the following couplet, which
C 2
20 'HON// ITS MEANING AND ETYMOLOGY.
frequently adorns the margin of the wine-bills, drinking-cups, &c, in
houses of glad resort in Germany : —
''Who loves not woman, wine, and song,
Remains a fool his whole life long."
The story of Luther's conflict with the devil, when he put the fiend
to flight by throwing his inkstand at him, is well known.'
This, by the way, is precisely how Mr. Pickwick vented
his rage upon A. Jingle, Esq., of No-hall, Nowhere.
26. 'Honi,' its meaning and etymology in the phrase
* Honi soit qui mal y pense ' (3 S. xi. 481 ,"1867).
This is a common enough word in Old French. Thus
we find in Roquefort —
' Honir {homer, /loimir, hontager, hontir, hounir, hoannir) ; mepriser,
biamer, deshonorer, maltraiter, diffamer.'
And in Cotgrave —
' Honnir. To reproach, disgrace, dishonour, defame, shame,
revile, curse, or outrage, in words ; also, to spot, blemish, pollute,
foule, file, defile.'
When we consider how many Teutonic words there are
in French, and more especially in Old French, the deriva-
tion becomes not far to seek. I take it to be simply allied
to the Moeso-Gothic hauns (low), which was used as
a contrasted word to hanks (high). In Ulfilas's translation
of St. Paul's Epistles, we have this well brought out in the
following : — ' Ni waiht bi haifstai aiththau lausai hauheinai
ak in allai hauneinai gahugdais,' &c. — i. e. ' No whit by
strife or empty haughtiness^ but in all lowliness of mind,'
Phil. ii. 3 ; and again, only five verses farther on, we read
that Christ ' gahaunida sik silban,' i. e. humbled himself,
where the Greek is iruireivatrev, and the Latin humiliauit.
Hence haunjan (Greek ran € wnvv, Lat. humiliart)^ means 'to
make low,' ' to humiliate ' : whence the meanings given by
Cotgrave, ' to reproach, disgrace, dishonour,' &c, follow
easily enough. Compare also the German holm, an
affront. I do not see why we should quarrel with the com-
DRYDEN QUERIES: ' NEYES.' 21
monly-received translation. Literally, the phrase means,
'Disgraced be he who thinks evil thereat ' ; of which 'Evil
be to him who evil thinks ' is no bad version. Its chief
defect is, that it ignores the word y.
[Strictly, the O.F. honir is from the O. H. G. Konjan (see
Schade), which is cognate with the Goth, haunjan. See
Diez, s. v. onire \ cf. F. honteJ]
27. Dryden Queries : ' Neyes ' (3 S. xii. 56 ; 1867).
I have not Dryden's plays to refer to, but probably neyes
means eyes. There is an undoubted instance of this in
a quotation given in Jesse's History of the British Bog,
vol. ii., where, at a bear-baiting, the bear is described ' with
his two pink neyes.1 Is not this, by the way, the etymology
of the name Pinckeney ? It is an instance of the ' epenthetic
/<?,' so common in old English. In my new edition of
Piers Plowman, the first volume of which is just ready, the
various readings furnish several instances. Thus, in the pro-
logue, 1. 42, instead of 'at the ale/ some MSS. have ' at the
/tale,1 or 'at nale' ; and again, in Passus v. 1. 115,
instead of ' at the oke (oak) ' most MSS. have ' at the noke '
or 'atte nohe.' Hence the explanation of the phrase 'for
the nonce,' which simply means ' for the once ' (A. S. for
than anes), but which so puzzled Tyrwhitt, one of our
greatest scholars, that he was driven to conjecture a deriva-
tion from the Latin pro nunc. The history of this n seems
to be simply this, that the dative of the article takes the
form than or then in the masculine and neuter in early
English. . . But when the noun following began with a vowel,
this n was transferred to the beginning of such words ; and
this transfer took place, not only in the dative case, but
often in all cases for the mere sake of euphony, so that we
not only find ' the neyes ' in the dative case, but even in the
nominative. Nor did this addition of n stop here ; we
may go a step further, and dismiss the article altogether,
22 LUCIFER.
and speak of ' two pinke neyes.' To add to the confusion
thus introduced, we have numerous instances of the reverse
process, the taking away of an //, so that instead of a ?iadder,
we now absurdly write an adder. See Ulphilas's translation
of Luke iii. 7 — ' kuni nadre,' i. e. O kin oinadders, O genera-
tion of vipers. Other instances are, a?i auger, an umpire,
miswritten for a ?iauger (A. S. nafegar), and a numpire
(O. F. noumpere),
[See further in the Remarks on the letter N in my Etym.
Diet., at the beginning of N; and my Pri7iciples of Eng.
Etymology, First Series, § 346, 347.]
28. Lucifer (3 S. xii. no ; 1867).
I think it should be noted that Lucifer was applied to
Satan, in English literature, at least four hundred years before
Milton's time, and probably long before that1. In some
Early English Homilies, which Mr. Morris is editing for
the Early English Text Society, and the date of which is
about 1220-30 a.d., it is stated most explicitly. The book is
not yet published, but I quote from a proof-sheet, p. 219 : —
' Tha wes thes tyendes hades alder swithe feir isceapan, swa that
heo was gehoten leoht-berinde ' ; i. e. ' Then was this tenth order's
elder very fair shapen, so that he was called light-bearing.'
The context explains that there were originally ten orders
of angels ; nine of which are angels still, but the tenth
order fell from heaven through pride, and their chiefs
name was Light-bearing, or Lucifer.
So again, in a. d. 1362, Langland wrote : —
' Lucifer with legiouns lerede hit in heuene ;
He was louelokest of siht after vr lord.
Til he brak boxsumnes thorw bost of himseluen.'
Langland, Piers Plotvman, pass. i. 1. 109.
That is :—
' Lucifer with his legions learnt it (viz. obedience) in heaven. He
1 It has been so applied ' from St. Jerome downwards.' — Smith's
Dictionary of the Bible.
LUCIFER. 23
was loveliest to look upon, next to our Lord, until he brake obedi-
ence, through boast of himself.'
Still more curious is the English form of the name,
Ligber (A. S. lig-bcer, flame-bearing), as in the following : —
' Ligber he sridde a dere srud,
And he wurthe in himseluen prud,' &c.
i. e. ' Ligber, he shrouded him in a noble shroud, and he
became in himself proud.'
This I quote from Mr. Morris's Genesis and Exodus,
1. 271 : the date is about 1250 a. d.
No doubt this is all derived from a misapplication of
Isaiah xiv. 12. But I think it is worth while to add, in
confirmation of this, and by way of further illustration, that
we hardly ever find an allusion to Lucifer in early English,
without finding, at the same time, a mention of his trying to
seat himself in the north- -a curious perversion of the verse
following, viz. Isaiah xiv. 13, which is, in the Vulgate: —
* Qui dicebas in corde tuo : in caelum conscendam. super astra Dei
exaltabo solium meum, sedebo in monte testamenti, in lateribus
aq n Hon is.'
Compare the Septuagint version — em to 6prj to. v^Xh to
rrpos froppav ; and the English, ' in the sides of the north.'
Thus, even as early as Coedmon, who speaks of Satan as
' like to the light stars,' we find, ' that he west and north
would prepare structures ' ; as Thorpe translates it in his
edition, at p. 18. So, too, in the English Homilies, three
lines below the quotation already given ; ' and sitte on
north[d]ele hefene riches,' i. e. and sit on the north-part
of the kingdom of heaven. So again in Genesis and
Exodus, 1. 277 : —
' Min flight — he seide — Ic wile uptaken,
Min sete north on heuene maken.'
So again in some (not in all) of the MSS. of Piers
Plowman, as, e. g. : —
24 NOTES ON FLY-LEAVES.
* Lorde, why wolde he tho, thulke wrechede Lucifer,
Lepen on a-lofte in the northe syde ? '
Langland, Piers Plowman, C. ii. 112, ed. Whitaker, p. 18.
In fact, Satan's name of Lucifer, and his sitting in the
north, are generally found in company. Even Milton
has : —
' At length into the limits of the north
They came ; and Satan to his royal seat
The palace of great Lucifer^ &c.
Paradise Lost, v. 755-760.
29. Notes on Fly-leaves (3 S. xii. 126 ; 1867).
At the end of the MS. No. xlv., in University College,
Oxford— which contains a copy of Piers Plowman in its
earliest form — is the following note : —
• Eiier}' man whoes wife wereth a great horse must keep a frenche
hood, quod Josua SI in the parlement house.
4 Euery man whjes wife wereth a frenche hode must kepe a great
horse ; all one to hym.
• the kynge was borne thre year after I cam to ye court.
' I cam to ye court iij }^eer after the king was borne.
• Drinke er you goe 1 horse-mylle.
goe er you drinke \ mylle-horse.
• If Hunue had nat sued the premunire, he shuld nat haue ben
accused of heresie.
• If Hunne had nat ben accused of heresie, he shuld nat have sued
the premunire.
• The cat kylled the mouse. Mus necabatur a cato.
• The mouse kylled the cat. Catus necuit murem.
• catus muri mortem egit.
• mus interemit catum.'
All this obviously refers to some member of Parliament
who was unfortunate enough to put the cart before the
horse, evidently to the great amusement of some hearer
who ' made a note ' of it.
30. Cap-a-pie (3 S. xii. 135 ; 1867).
I think your correspondent D. P. S. does very wisely in
thus asking for examples of the occurrence of this phrase
before proceeding to give his theory of the etymology ; for
CAP-A-PIE. 25
it is not uncommon for etymologists to construct a theory
first, and look about for facts afterwards, and it is this
practice which has often brought etymology into contempt.
In the present instance, I think the received explanation
may stand.
First, by way of examples. The phrase occurs, accord-
ing to the dictionaries, both in Prescott and Swift. In A. d.
1755 we meet with : —
' Armed cap-a-pee, forth marched the fairy king.'
Cooper, Tomb of Shakspcar.
Tracing back, we come to : —
• Armed cap-a-pie, with reverence low they bent.'
Dr\-den, Palamon and Arcite, 1. 1765.
There is also another curious instance. In a poem
called Psyche, or Loves Mystery, by Joseph Beaumont,
published in 1651, we have: —
' For knowing well what strength they have within,
By stiff tenacious faith they hold it fast ;
How can these champions ever fail to win,
Amidst whose armour heaven itself is plac'd.'
Pysche, canto xii. st. 136.
At that time Joseph Beaumont was an ejected Fellow of
St. Peter's College, but he lived to be master of the college
nevertheless, and half-a-century later this poem attained to
a second edition, viz. in 1702. In its second form, the
poem was much expanded, so that the above stanza, 136,
became stanza 154, and at the same time a variation was
made, so that it ran thus : —
1 How can those champions ever fail to win.
Who, cap-a-pe, for arms, with heaven are drest.'
I have little doubt that many more examples might be
found ; and now for the etymology.
The received one is, that cap-a-pied means from head to
foot, and surely it is simply equivalent to the usual French
phrase, ' arme de pied en cap,' for which Raynouard gives
the quotation : —
26 THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN.
1 De pied en cap s'armera tout en fer.'
Laboderie, Hymn Eccl., p. 282.
The only objection to this seems to be that there is
a reversal of the order of the words. But if, leaving the
Langue d'O'il, we consult the Langue d'Oc, we shall then
find the words in the right order, and at the same time
establish, as I think, the right explanation beyond a doubt,
besides showing that the phrase existed in the twelfth
century.
In his Provencal Lexicon, Raynouard gives — 'Cap, Kap,
s. in. Lat. caput, tete, chef; and he goes on to explain the
phrases de cap en cap (from one end to the other) \ del cap
tro a Is pes (from the head to the foot) ; del premier cap tro
en la fi (from the first beginning even to the end). The
second of these is clearly the one we want, and he gives the
following example : —
'Que dol si del cap tro als p'S?
Guillaume Adhemar (died a. d. 1190).
This he translates by ' Qu'il se plaint de la tete jusqu'aux
pieds.'
When your correspondent says he doubts this explanation,
I suspect he is being misled by a French proverb given by
Cotgrave, viz. ' n'avoir que la cape et Pepee,' which means,
' to have nothing left but your mantle and your sword,
to be brought to dependence on your own exertions.' The
resemblance between the two phrases cap-a-pie (head to
foot), and cape et Vepee (mantle and sword), is certainly
striking, but they seem to be quite distinct nevertheless,
and I do not think they can be proved to be otherwise.
[See Cap-a-pie in the New Eng. Dictionary?^
31. The Seven Ages of Man. I (3 S. xii. 145 ; 1867).
In a poem entitled This World is but a Vanyte, from
the Lambert MS. 853, about 1430 a. d., printed in Hymns
to the Virgin and Christ (edited by F. J. Furnivall for the
THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN. 27
Early English Text Society), at p. &?, we have a very
curious comparison of the life of man to the seven times of
the day. The number seven is here determined apparently
by the hours of the Romish Church. Thus, correspond-
ing to matins, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and
compline, which were called in Old English uhtsang,
primesang, undemsang, midday sang, ?ionsang, evensang.
nightsang, we have the following periods of the day and
of man's life : —
1. Morning. The infant is like the morning, at first
born spotless and innocent.
2. Midmorrow. This is the period of childhood.
3. Undern (9 a.m.). The boy is put to school.
4. Midday. He is knighted, and fights battles.
5. High Noon (i.e. nones or 9th hour, 3 p.m.). He is
crowned a king, and fulfils all his pleasure.
6. Mid-overnoon (i. e. the middle of the period between
high noon and evensong). The man begins to droop, and
cares little for the pleasures of youth.
7. Evensong. The man walks with a staff, and death
seeks him. After this follows the last stanza : —
'"Thus is the day come to nyght.
That me lothith of my lyuynge,
And doolful deeth to me is dight,
And in coold clay now schal y clinge."
Thus an oold man y herde mornynge
Biside an holte vndir a tree.
God graunte us his blis euerlastinge !
This world is but a vanite ! '
The resemblance of this to Shakespeare's ' Seven Ages '
is curious and interesting.
32. The Seven Ages of Man. II (4 S. iv. 303 ; 1869).
I have already pointed out a description of the seven ages
of man in the old poem entitled This World is but a Vanyte.
I have just come across a paragraph in Arnold's Chronicle
28 NOTES ON FLY-LEAVES.
(ed. 1811, p. 157) which seems worth noting. Arnold is
supposed to have died about a. d. 1521 : — -
• The vij Ages of Man lining in the World. — The first age is infancie
and lastith from ye byrth vnto vij. yere of age The ij. ehildhod
and endurith vnto xv. yere age. The iij. age is adholecencye and
endurith vnto xxv. yere age. The iiij. age is youthe and endurith
vnto xxxv. yere age. The v. age is manhood and endurith vnto
1. yere age. The vi. age is [elde] 1 and lasteth vnto lxx. yere age.
The vij. age of man is crepill and endurith vnto dethe.'
33. Notes on Fly-leaves (3 S. xii. 412 ; 1867).
On the fly-leaf of a Collection of Musical Tunes, by
John Dowlande, M.B., in MS. Camb. Univ. Dd. ii. 11, is
the following specimen of alliteration : —
' Musiea mentis medicina moestae.'
There are also the lines :
• Qu an di tris dul pa
os guis rus ti cedine vit,'
H san mi Chris mul la
which have been already discussed in N. and Q., 3 S.
x. 414, 503 2; and also the following, in the same style,
which I had not before seen, but which I dare say may be
common enough : —
pit rem nam pit rem
' Qui ca uxo poe ca atque dolo
ret re na ret re.'
In one respect these latter verses are the more curious of
the two, as they are Leonine verses, wherein uxorem and
uxo re rime to do lore m and do lore.
[Read the lines by taking the first and second lines
together — Quos anguis dims, ccc. ; and the third and
second lines together — Hos sanguis mirus, &c]
1 A blank space here. Probably it should be elde, i. e. old age.
- This version is the one which I said would be found to be the
correct one of these lines.
THE WORD 'ALL-TO.' 29
34. The word ' All-to.' I (3 S. xii. 464 ; 1867).
On the subject of ' A Tobroken Word,' I beg to refer
Mr. H. to my letter in The Athenaeiun of October 5. The
fact is that, wherever alto (in Mid. English) is apparently
a separate word, it is so by a blunder of an editor. It is
common enough in MSS. to separate a prefix from its
verb. Any one who has ever seen an Anglo-Saxon MS.
knows that the prefix ge- is far more often written separately
from the word it belongs to, than it is joined to it ; and an
editor ought to represent this by a hyphen, unless, professing
to give a facsimile of the MS., he discards hyphens altogether,
as in Sir F. Madden's excellent edition of William and the
Werwolf. Hence, the mere fact of to or alto being written
apart from the word it belongs to, is not at all surprising :
it is only what we expect.
I think it is not quite safe, for the purpose of argument,
to assert that ' there is no instance, I believe, of the use of
the word to-troublid? I found two, in less than two
minutes, in the very first book I laid my hands on. I quote
from the Wicliffite Glossary, where I find ' to-truble, to
greatly trouble, Ecclus. xxxv. 22, 23 ; v. ' al-to-trublist.' This
second reference gives: 'al-to-trublist, extremely afflidest,
Ps. lxxiii. 13 ; //. al-to-trubleden, Dan. v. 6 ; v. to-truble.'
I have only to repeat that —
'"All-to, as equivalent to all to pieces, and as separable
from the verb, is comparatively modern. As the force of
to as an intensive prefix was less understood, and as verbs
beginning with it became rarer, it was regarded as leaning
upon and eking out the meaning of all, whereas in older
times it was all that added force to the meaning of to!
Halliwell, I now find (for I had not noticed it before\
says much the same thing : —
' In earlier writers, the to would of course be a prefix to the verb,
but the phrase all-to, in Elizabethan writers, can scarcely be always
so explained.'
30 THE WORD ' ALL-TO.'
It is not the only blunder perpetrated by these later
writers. Some one of them took to spelling rime with an
h, and produced the wrord rhyme — thus giving a Greek
commencement to a Saxon word ; and this was thought so
happy and classical an emendation, that nearly every one has
followed suit ever since.
A somewhat wider search through English literature
would disclose the not recondite fact, that all is used before
other prefixes besides to.
Thus (i) it is used before a (I write as it stands in the
MS., omitting hyphens) in the line —
' here of was sche al a wondred and a waked sone.'
William and the Werwolf, 1. 2912.
(2) It is used wTith the prefix for —
'as weigh al for waked for wo vpon nightes,'
Id. 1. 790.
which should be compared with 1. 785 just above, viz.—
' Febul wax he and feynt for waked a nightes.'
(3) It is used before the prefix bi\ as in
' al bi weped for wo wisly him thought."
Id. 1. 661.
Perhaps when alto has been proved, in early English,
to be a complete word in itself, distinct from the past
participle — which, oddly enough, is always found not far off
it — we may hope to have an explanation of the words alfor,
ala, and albi ! But surely, the simpler explanation is that,
when the later writers looked on the to- as separable, they
did so because they knew no better.
[Admirably explained on similar lines, in the New E?ig.
Diet. s. v. All, C. 14, 15; p. 227, col. 2.]
35. The word * All-to.' II (3 S. xii. 535 ; 1867).
May I add two quotations of great importance? The
first is —
1 Al io-tare his a-tir that he to-tere might.'
William and the Wenvolf, 1. 3884.
WOLWARDE. 31
That is, ' he completely tare-in-pieces his attire, whatever
of it he could tear-in-pieces.'
And, if this be not thought decisive enough as to the
separation of the al from the to, here is another more
decisive still —
1 For hapnyt ony to slyd and fall,
He suld sone be to-fruschyt all?
Barbour's Brus, ed. Jamieson, p. 207.
That is, ' For, if any one had happened to slide and fall,
he would soon have been broken-in-pieces utterly.'
36. Wolwarde. I (4 S. i. 65 ; 1868).
I quite agree with Mr. Addis in thinking Mr. Morris is
here, for once, wrong in his explanation of the word, because
I do not see how to join -ward on to wot, so as to make
sense. But the explanation wolwarde, ' with wool next the
body,' satisfies all three quotations, viz. in the Pricke of
Conscie?ice, in Piers Ploivman, and in the Crede. It is
always connected with the idea of penance or of poor
clothing. The quotation from the Pricke of Conscience is
very much to the point : —
1 And fast and ga wolwarde, and wake.'
Accordingly, when Mr. Addis receives my edition of the
Crede from the E. E. T. S., he will find in the glossary : —
1 " Wolwarde, without any lynnen next one's body, sans chemyse."
— Palsgrave. To go woolward was a common way of doing penance.
viz. with the wool towards l one's skin.'
37. Wolwarde. II (4 S. i. 254; 1868).
I fail to understand the point of the note by A. H. What
is the ' simpler meaning ' he suggests ? Merely, I suppose,
that he thinks woohvard, in that it means with the wool
towards one, does not necessarily imply pe?ia?ice, and might
1 [Unless it meant — ' with the skin towards the wool.']
32 WOLWARDE.
be found very comfortable. No doubt of it. But the idea
of penance, or poor clothing, was connected with it in early
English, though the quotation from Shakespeare shows that
it was ceasing to be a penance in his time, and it seems that
the common people of Russia at the present day like it.
A. H. ought, in all fairness, to read over the passages referred
to, together with the context. The references are : —
Hampole's Pricke of Conscience, ed. Morris, 1. 3514; Lang-
land's Vision of Piers Ploughman, ed. Wright, p. 369 (see
p. 497 of the same volume) ; and Pierce the Ploughman's
Credc, ed. Skeat, 1. 788. Besides these, Halliwell gives one
more example, and Nares five, with an excellent note, that
will convince A. H. more than I seem to have done. The
example of it in Shakespeare occurs in Love's Labour's Lost,
Act V. Sc. 2, 1. 717.
38. Wolwarde. Ill (4 S. i. 425 ; 1868).
If A. H. will only take time enough he will find my
explanations quite right ; and if so, he will not need to be
at the trouble of proving them wrong.
Meanwhile, I must comment upon his two new state-
ments. His first is, that there is no allusion to penance in
the quotation from the Crede. Of course this is quite right,
for it is in the quotation from Hampole that penance is
implied. Secondly, he thinks that to go wolwarde means to
go woolwards. Certainly not. In the first expression,
wolwarde is an adjective ; and he has not distinguished
between the endings ivard and wards, which were seldom
confounded till recently in English writings. To go wool-
ward means to go about ' with the woolly side in'; and the
verb to go is here used, as elsewhere in old English, for to
go about, much as in the Bible (see Gen. iii. 14). To go
woolwards, if it ever were to be used (for it never has been),
could only mean that which we more commonly express by
the phrase — ' to go a wool-gathering.'
' RABBIT. ' 33
39. 'Rabbit' (4 S. i. 279 ; 1868).
No doubt F. C. H. is right. Compare the account of the
word in Hartshorne's Salopia Antiqua, which contains a list
of Salopian expressions : —
' Rabbit it, p/ir. The evidently profane phrase " Od rabbit it " is
not local. The Od in this case is but a corruption of God, and the
other part of the oath has become changed to its present form from
the Old English rabate, rebate, which in its turn is altered from the
French rebatrc; Teut. rabatten, de summa detrahere.'
Rebate, in Old English, means to drive back, repulse : —
' This is the city of great Babylon,
Where proud Darius was rebated from.'
R. Greene, ' Orlando Furioso,' Works, vol. i. p. 34 (ed. 1831 .
40. Hogshead (4 S. i. 613 ; 1868).
The great point in etymology — but the lesson will never
be learnt — is, that we should be guided by facts, and not
by guess. The guess hog's-hide is very ingenious, but against
it we must set these facts. The first is, that, in Dutch, the
word for a hogshead is okshoofd ; the second is, that the
Swedish is oxhufvud ; and thirdly, the Danish is oxehofved.
Hence hogshead is a corruption, not of hog's-hide, but of
ox-head. The suggestion hogs-hide does not explain things
at all ; because it leaves the Dutch, Danish, and Swedish
words quite untouched ; and indeed, if we are to guess at
all, ox-hide would be, undoubtedly, half right. Permit me,
then, to put the query in a form more likely to produce
a true answer. How comes it that the Swedish word
oxhufvud means both an ox's head and the measure called
a hogshead} It is clear that an ox, not a hog, is the animal
meant.
41. Lister (4 S. i. 547 ; 1868).
A Lister is a dyer. Jamieson gives Lit, to dye ; Isl. lita,
to dye ; Suio-Goth. ///, colour. Also Lidstar, a dyer. In
the Promptorium Parvulorum, we have Lytyn, littyn, or lytyu,
D
34 THE 'JACKDAW OF RHEIMS.'
to dye ; and again, Lytynge or littinge of cloth, i. e. dyeing.
Mr. Way, the editor of this book, gives other instances.
Lit also means dye-stuffs ; and to lit is sometimes used in
Lowland Scotch for to blush deeply, to be suffused with
blushes. Dyer is used as a surname as well as Lister.
42. The 'Jackdaw of Rheims ' (4 S. i. 577 ; 1868).
Many readers must remember the story about the scalded
magpie, which the author of the Ingoldsby Legends says was
told him by Cannon. Hence he adopted the notion about
the 'Jackdaw of Rheims,' which he expressed in the line : —
' His head was as bald as the palm of your hand.'
It is amusing to compare this with a similar one in The
Knight of La Tonr~Land?y (E.E.T.S.), p. 22. This relates
how a magpie told a man that his wife had eaten an eel
which he was fattening in a pond in his garden for himself
and friends. The wife tried to excuse herself by saying the
husband had eaten it ; but the husband told her he knew
better, as he had heard about it from the magpie. In
revenge, the lady and her maid plucked the bird's feathers
off, saying : ' Thou hast discovered us of the eel.' And
ever after, the magpie repeated this to any one whom he
saw with a bald head. Surely this is curiously like the con-
clusion of Cannon's story, as told in the Memoir of the Rev.
F. H. Barham. [It is, practically, the same story as that
in Chaucer's Manciples Tale ; respecting the oriental origin
of which see my ed. of Chaucer, iii. 501. Chaucer took it
from Ovid.]
43. Walter pronounced as ' Water' (4 S. i. 595 ; 1868).
A very early instance is the following : —
' Byhold opon Wat Brut whou [how] bisiliche thei pursueden.1 —
Pierce the Ploughman s Crede, 1. 657.
Here Wat is the reading of the Trinity MS., but the
British Museum MS. and the early printed edition of 1553
gist. 35
both have Water, which represents Walter at full length.
The short form Wat is spelt without an /. Similarly the
common Old English word for fault is faute, and for assault
is assaut.
[This illustrates Shak., 2 Hen. VI. iv. 1. 31-35. My own
name as a boy, in Shropshire, was ' our Wat.']
44. Gist (4 S. ii. 42 ; 1868; curtailed).
The derivation of gist is very obvious, being the French
word gite, formerly spelt giste, a derivative of gesir ; Lat.
iacere, to lie. The gist of a thing is the point in law
whereon the action rests. According to analogy, the
pronunciation ought to be with the soft g [i. e. as j\ ; and
as there is hardly an instance where a soft g is hardened,
but many of the contrary, there is no sort of excuse for
pronouncing it hard [i. e. as g in go].
45. 'Lene' and 'leue' (4 S. ii. 126; 1868).
I wish to draw attention to the two words le?ie and kite
as occurring in Chaucer, Piers Plowman, and other poems,
which have, as I think, been utterly confused by most
editors ; probably, because they can hardly be distinguished
in the MSS. In Halliwell's Dictionary I find — ' Lene, to
give. Hence our word tend. The editor of Havelok
absurdly prints lene!
In Morris's Specimens of Early English, ed. 1867, at
P- 395? we r^ad — ' Lene, grant. Many editors of Old
English works print lene (leve, give leave to), for le?ie, as if
from A.S. lefan, to permit ; lene is from Icenan, to give, lend.'
Here, I submit, there is the most dire confusion. The
editor of Havelok did not act absurdly in printing leue,
because he had to deal with another word, quite different
from lene ; and secondly, Mr. Morris, after making the
right distinction between the words, proceeds to confound
them. But it is proper to add that he now writes to tell
d 2
36 < LENE ' AND < LEUE. '
me that he has discovered the mistake, and holds the view
which I proceed to state.
This is, that Sir F. Madden and Dr. Stratmann, who do
put a difference between the words, are right; and what
I wish to do now, is to show the exact difference between
them, and to offer some arguments in place of assertions.
In the first place, all scholars agree in accepting that the
old spelling of lend is lene or len, just as the old spelling of
sound is soun. This shows, too, why the past tense and
past participle are alike ; for lent (as the past tense) is con-
tracted from the old past tense lende, and le?it (as the past
participle) from the old past participle lened\ both of
which are formed from len or lene. Now the old meaning
of lene is to give, deliver, hand over, impart, and it
answers to the German leihen. None would deny that the
following are correct examples of it : —
' To yeue and lene him of his owne good.'
Chaucer, Prol, 611.
' That hote cultre in the chj'mney heere
As lene it me, I have therwith to doone.'
Chaucer, Miller s Talc. 589.
' Lene me a mark,' quod he. ' but dayes thre.'
Chaucer, Chan. Yeni. Talc, 15.
' I shal lene the a bowr.' — Havclok, 2072.
But what Mr. Halliwell appears to deny is, the existence
of the verb leue ; and this is the point to come to.
Dr. Stratmann's account of it is, that leue or leve is the
A.S. lefan, German erlauben, to give leave to, permit, allow.
Now this word in various forms, I) fan, lefan, aljfan, geljfau,
is common enough in Anglo-Saxon, and as / between two
vowels had the sound of v, it would necessarily produce
leve in Old English. There are three undoubted examples
of its occurrence. Thus, in the Onnulu/u, we have (vol. i.
p. 308) the line : —
' Godd allmahhtigg lefe uss swa
To forthenn Cristess wille,'
'LENE' AND ' LELE.' 37
i. e. ' God Almighty grant (or permit) us so to further
Christ's will.' Here the spelling with f makes the word
certain ; and to make doubly sure, we have a similar ex-
pression in the same volume, at p. 357. But there is
a third instance. In Douglas's Virgil is the phrase ' Gif us
war lewit] which is equivalent to leuit, as explained by
Jamieson. Here again, the use of the w makes the word
altogether certain ; for w has the force of v very commonly
in Lowland Scotch. The signification of the phrase is —
1 if it were permitted to us.'
That the two words have been so hopelessly jumbled
together is no doubt owing to the fact that each can be
represented by the verb to grant; but it really makes all
the difference whether we are speaking of to grant a thing
to a person, or to grant that a thing may happen. ' God
le?ie thee grace ' means, ' God grant thee grace,' where
to grant is to impart ; but ' God lene we may do right '
means, 'God grant we may do right,' where to grant is
to permit.
The difference between the two is distinct enough, and
the instances of lefe in the Ormulum render the blunder
here protested against quite unjustifiable. Briefly, lene
requires an accusative case after it, hue is followed by a
dependent clause.
And now for the results. The following are true examples
of leue : —
' God . . . save and gyde us alle and some,
And leue this sompnour good man to become.'
Chaucer, Freres Talc. 346.
Printed lene by Tyrwhitt, and leene by Morris.
' Ther he is now, God leue us for to meete.'
Prioresses Tale, 231.
Printed lene by Tyrwhitt and Morris.
' Depardieux ' — quod she — 'God leue all be wele.'
Troil. and Crcseide, ii. 12 12.
38 PORCELAIN.
' God kite hym werken as he can devyse.'
Trot I. and Creseide, ii. 7.
' God lene us for to take it for the best.'
Ibid. v. 1749.
Morris prints lenc. Moxon prints /eve, but Tyrwhitt has
lene in his Glossary (s. v. ' Leveth '), in all three instances.
The three instances in Havelok occur in similar ex-
clamations, in the forms ' God leue,' or ■ Crist leue,' and
Halliwell need not have called such a spelling absurd.
The quotations from the Ormulum entirely establish the
phrase.
Lastly, by way of a crucial test, take Pierce the Plough-
man's Crede. I regret that I have, in all four places,
printed lene in the text. Yet, strictly speaking, there are
two instances of le?ie, in lines 445, 741 ; and two of leue, in
lines 366, 573, where the phrase is 'God leue,' etc. And
now observe a circumstance that clinches the whole result.
In lines 445 and 741 all three copies of the Crede have
lene ; but in lines 366 and 573 the best MS. can be read
either way ; the British Museum MS. has leve, and the
old printed edition has leue, as shown by my footnotes.
Surely future editors of Chaucer ought to note these
corrections.
Of course I have not taken into consideration here the
other senses of the word leue, viz. (1) to believe, (2) to
leave, and (3) dear. Curiously enough, all these three
occur in one line : —
' What ! leuestow, leue lemman, that i the leue wold ? '
William of Palerne, 2358.
46. Porcelain (4 S. ii. 155 ; 1868).
Mr. Wedgwood derives this from ' Ptg. porcellana, china
ware, said to be so called from the surface being like that
of the porcella?ia, a large univalve, commonly known as the
tiger-shell, or Venus' shell.' But this does not tell us why
the shell itself was so named.
AGE OF THE WORLD. 39
In the Catalogue of the Chinese CoIlectio7i exhibited some
years ago near Hyde Park Corner, at p. 63, I met with the
following remark, which seems worth preserving : —
' Marsden, as quoted by Davis, shows that it [porcelain] was applied
by the Europeans to the ware of China, from the resemblance of its
finely polished surface to that of the univalve shell so named [in
Portuguese] ; while the shell itself derived its appellation from the
curved shape of its upper surface, which was thought to resemble the
raised back of a porcella, or little hog.'
Thus the word porcelain is finally traced back to the
Latin porcus ; just as porpoise is the pork-fish, and porcupine
means spiny pig.
[See further in Littre, s. v. porcelaine ; and in the larger
edition of my Etym. Diet.]
47. Age of the World. I (4 S. ii. 156 : 1868).
In two MSS. only of Piers Plowman, viz. that belonging
to Oriel College, Oxford, and one in the Cambridge Uni-
versity Library, marked LI. 4. 14, are the two following
lines, which have reference to the pletiitudo temporis, the
' fulness of time ' of Christ's birth : — ■
' Annis quingentis decies, rursumque ducentis
Unus defuerat, cum Deus ortus erat.'
My query is, whence did the monks in the fourteenth
century derive the idea that Christ was to be born exactly
5199 years after the Creation?
[Answered by myself, in a later number ; see below.]
48. Age of the World. II (4 S. iii. 203 ; 1869).
I can now answer my own question, as to why Christ's
birth is made to have taken place 5199 years after the
Creation. The reckoning is British, and is very curious.
In A Chronicle of London, p. 183, there is a copy of the
great tablet which was once hung up in Old St. Paul's, and
which contained the curious chronological facts which I
here tabulate. (Cf. MS. Harl. 565.)
40 <YEDE,' MISUSED BY SPENSER.
Destruction of Tro}', Anno Mundi 4030.
Building of New Troy, called London, a. m. 4094.
Building of Rome, a. m. 4484.
Christ born, in the 19th year of Cymbeline, a. m. 5199.
Add to these, that Brutus landed at Totness, in Cornwall
(it was in Cornwall then), a. m. 4063, where he destroyed,
amongst other giants, three who were named respectively
Geomagog, Hastripoldius, and Rascalbundy, as we learn
from a MS. in the Heralds' College ; the one, namely, which
contains the original French version of Havelok.
49. 'Yede/ misused by Spenser (4 S. ii. 199 ; 1868).
It is strange that no one seems to have remarked the
curious blunder made by Spenser respecting the verb yede.
In yielding to his propensity for archaic diction, he has, in
this instance at least, not perfectly learnt his lesson, and
fallen into a remarkable grammatical error. Yede and yode
are both, as every student of Early English should know,
various forms of the A.S. eode, a past tense without any
corresponding present tense, employed with the sense of
' went.' But Spenser, observing the differing forms of the
word, came to the extraordinary, yet somewhat logical,
conclusion that yede must be the infinitive mood, and yode
the past tense of the same. This did not mislead him as
regards yode, so that he wrote correctly enough —
' Before them yode a lustie tabrere.'
ShephearcT s Calendar, May, 22.
But, with respect to yede, he has erred in at least three
places :
' Then badd the knight his lady yede aloof.'
Faerie Queene, I. xi. 5.
1 The whiles on foot was forced for to yccd.'
Ibid. II. iv. 2.
' But if they with thy gotes should yede.'
Shepheard's Calendar, July, 109.
Nares gives no instance from any other author beyond
A YEAR AXD A DAY. 4 1
quoting yede as a preterite ; and it would be curious to
know if the mistake really occurs in any other author's
works. Spenser certainly did not find it so used by his
master Chaucer, nor by any other writer of the fourteenth
century.
50. A Year and a Day (4 S. iii. 222 ; 1868).
Perhaps several of your readers, like myself, have felt
inclined to smile at the expression, 'a year and a day,'
occurring so frequently in old ballads. The words ' and
a day ' seem so unnecessary. But I now feel inclined to
smile at my own want of perception ; there is very good
reason for the phrase.
If, in a passage of a melody, we wish to rise from one C
to the C above, we ascend by the seve?i notes of the scale,
C to B, and by one more, i. e. we arrive at the octave. In
the same way, Low Sunday is not said to be seven days
after Easter, but is called the octave. The phrase ' in
a week's time ' is felt to be vague ; and therefore people
say ' this day week.' But this is sometimes expressed in
old books by ' in eight days,' and a fortnight is sometimes
denoted by ' in fifteen days ' ; cf. Fr. quinzai?ie. Now the
period of the octave might also be fairly called ' a week and
a day,' as well as a period of eight days ; and in the same
way, a year and a day must mean on the 366th day from
the present, i. e. on the same day of the month as the
present, in next year. The intention of it is to show that
not only has a year elapsed, but that the day now spoken
of is the same day of the month as the day before mentioned.
Cf. Exod. xii. 41.
Again, the present 25th of August being a Tuesday, the
25th next year will be JVednesday ; and by that time we
shall have advanced not only by a year (reckoned by years),
but by a day (reckoned by days of the week). Here is
another reason for choosing the phrase.
42 CHRONOLOGY OF THE < KNIGHTES TALE.'
[Cf. Chaucer, 'Knightes Tale,' Group A, 1. 1850; and
my note on the passage.]
51. Chronology of Chaucer's * Knightes Tale '
(4 S. ii. 243 ; 1868).
After some little trouble, I have arrived at the conclusion
that Chaucer has given us sufficient data for ascertaining both
the days of the month and of the week of many of the
principal events of the ' Knightes Tale.' The following
scheme will explain many things hitherto unnoticed.
I refer to the lines of the Aldine edition, ed. Morris, 1866.
On Friday, May 4, before 1 a. m. Palamon breaks out of
prison. For (1. 605) it was during the ' third night of May,
but (1. 609) a little after midnight.' That it was Friday is
evident also, from observing that Palamon hides himself at
day's approach, whilst Arcite rises ' for to doon his observ-
ance to May, remembryng of the poynt of his desire? To
do this best, he would go into the fields at sunrise (1. 633V
during the hour dedicated to Venus, i. e. during the hour
after sunrise on a Friday. If however this seem for
a moment doubtful, all doubt is removed by the following
lines : —
' Right as the Friday, sothly tor to telle,
Now it schyneth, now it reyneth faste.
Right so gan gcry Venus overcaste
The hertes of hire folke, right as hir day
Is gerful, right so chaungeth hire aray.
Selde is the Fryday al the wyke alike.'
All this is very little to the point unless we suppose
Friday to be the day. Or, if the reader have still any
doubt about this, let him observe the curious accumulation
of evidence which is to follow.
Palamon and Arcite meet, and a duel is arranged for an
early hour on the day followi?ig. That is, they meet on
Saturday, May 5. But, as Saturday is presided over by the
inauspicious planet Saturn, it is no wonder that they are
CHRONOLOGY OF THE ' KNIGHTES TALE.' 43
both unfortunate enough to have their duel interrupted by
Theseus, and to find themselves threatened with death.
Still, at the intercession of the queen and Emily, a day of
assembly for a tournament is fixed for ithis day fyfty wekes1
(1. 992). Now we must understand 'fyfty wekes ' to be
a poetical expression for a year. This is not mere supposi-
tion, however, but a certainty ; because the appointed day
was in the month of May, whereas fifty weeks and no more
would land us in April1. Then 'this day fyfty wekes'
means 'this day year,' viz. on May 5. Now, in the year
following (supposed not a leap-year), the 5th of May would
be Sunday. But this we are expressly told in 1. 1330. It
must be noted, however, that this is not the day of the
tournament^ but of the muster for it, as may be gleaned
from 11. 992-995 and 1238. The tenth hour 'inequal' of
Sunday night, or the second hour before sunrise of Monday,
is dedicated to Venus, as explained by Tyrwhitt (1. 1359) ;
and therefore Palamon then goes to the temple of A'enus.
The third hour after this, the first after sunrise on Monday,
is dedicated to Luna or Diana, and during this Emily goes
to Diana's temple. The third hour after this again, the
fourth after sunrise, is dedicated to Mars, and therefore
Arcite then goes to the temple of Mars. But the rest of
the day is spent merely in jousting and preparations—
' Al the Monday jousten the}- and daunce ' (1628).
The tournament therefore takes place on Tuesday, May 7,
on the day of the week presided over by Mars, as was very
fitting ; and this perhaps helps to explain Saturn's exclama-
tion in 1. 181 1, <Mars hath his wil]e;
Thus far all the principal days, with their events, are exactly
accounted for. In what follows I merelv throw out a
suggestion for what it is worth. It is clear that Chaucer
1 It turns out that Boccaccio, whom Chaucer here follows, actually
uses the expression ' un anno intero,' a complete year.
44 A BAKER'S DOZEN.
would have been assisted in arranging all these matters thus
exactly, if he had chosen to calculate them according to the
year then current. Now the years (not bissextile) in which
May 5 is on a Sunday, during the last half of the fourteenth
century, are these : 1359, 1370, T381, 1387, 1398. Of these
five, it is at least curious that the date 1387 exactly coincides
with this sentence in Sir H. Nicolas's Life of Chaucer: —
' From internal evidence it appears that the " Canterbury
Pilgrimage" was written after the year 1386.'
52. A Baker's Dozen (4 S. ii. 464 ; 1868).
I do not know if the following passage in the Liber Aldus
has been noticed. It occurs at p. 232 of the translation by
Mr. Riley :—
1 And that no baker of the town shall give unto the regratresses
the six pence on Monday morning by way of hansel-money, or the
three pence on Friday for curtesy-money ; but, after the ancient
manner, let him give thirteen articles of bread for twelve/
That is, the retailers of bread from house to house were
allowed a thirteenth loaf by the baker, as a payment for
their trouble.
53. Pied Friars (4 S. ii. 496 ; 1868).
A further investigation has convinced me that my note
upon ' Pied Friars,' instead of being wrong, as is now sug-
gested, is perfectly correct l. They are not, or at any rate
were not originally, the same as the Carmelites. The latter
were (not the Pied, but) the White Friars. The truth is,
that we know very little about these Pied Friars. They only
had one house in all England, viz. at Norwich, and this only
for a time ; so that any allusion to them, or account of
1 My note to 1. 65 of Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, which
mentions the frcrcs of the Pye, is : ' They would appear to be not very
different from the Carmelites; they were called Pied Friars from
their dress being a mixture of black and white, like a magpie.'
PIED FRIARS. 45
them, is very difficult to obtain. In Thomas Walsingham's
history [ed. H. T. Riley, i. 102], there is an allusion which
seems to imply, and probably does imply, that they once
had a burial-ground in London; but that, in a. d. 1326.
their name, as that of a separate fraternity, was no longer
used. In describing the murder by the Londoners of
Walter de Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, he says that the
dead body was cast in an old cemetery which had once
belonged to the Friars, wrhom our ancestors used to call
' Pied Friars' : ' quod fuerat quondam Fratrum, quos Preres
Pyes veteres appellabant.' All that is said about them, in
the course of the eight large volumes of Dugdale's JWonas-
ticon, is contained in one short paragraph ; and even this is
copied from Blomefield's Norfolk. It is in the latter work
that we at last find some account of them. After describing
the church of St. Peter per Mountergate, in Norwich, he says
that there was a college at the north-east corner of the
churchyard, which was 'first given to the Pied Friars, so
named from their habit ; and after they quitted it, which
was when they were obliged to join one of the four principal
orders, it came to the Hospital of Bek, in Billingford, in
Norfolk.' Blomefield's Norfolk, ii. 537; cf. Dugdale's
Monasticon, viii. 161 1.
The only other reference to them that I can discover, is
the one already cited in my notes, viz. Political Poems, i. 262 ;
where some change is evidently expressed by the words
fuerunt and mutati sunt, though I forget the context at this
moment1. It will be observed that Blomefield himself is
quite at a loss as to which of the four orders they joined,
but the passage in the Crede furnishes evidence that ther
joined the Carmelites. I may then repeat my original note ;
1 [The lines are :
' With an O and an I, fuerunt pyed freres
Quomodo mutati sunt, rogo dicat Per[e]s.'
But they throw no special light upon the matter.]
46 GENTEEL DOGS.
' that they were not very different from the Carmelites.'
They were different once, but not at a later period. Their
Latin name was ' Fratres de Pica.'
54. Genteel Dogs (4 S. ii. 507 ; 1868).
' Also, to avoid the noise, damage, and strife that used to arise
therefrom, it is forbidden that any person shall keep a dog accus-
tomed to go at large out of his own enclosure without guard thereof,
by day or night, within the franchise of the City, genteel dogs
excepted ; under pain of paying forty pence, to the use of the
Chamber.'
Mr. Riley's note to this passage (Libra Aldus, p. 389) is
that the word gentilx may mean ' gentle ' or pet dogs of
the then known description. But ' gentyll houndes ' are
such as were kept for hawking and hunting, as ' grayhoundes,
braches, spanyellis, or suche other.' See Laurens Andrewe
on the Dog, quoted in Mr. Furnivall's Babees Book, p. 225.
55. ' Ye ' for ' The ' (4 S. ii. 545 ; 1868).
The reason why ' ye ' is sometimes used for ' the ' in old
books wherein ' the ' is the more usual form, is simply that
printers in former times had difficulties about ' spacing out.'
When pressed for room, they put ' ye ' ; when they had
plenty of room, they put ' the.' This distinction is made
over and over again in Crowley's edition of Piers Plowman,
printed in 1550. Many people use ' ye ' still, but few of
those who use it know what it means, as is shown by their
pronouncing it ye. But the proper pronunciation is the, for
the y is only a corruption of the old thor7i-letter, or symbol
for th. In the MS. of Barbour's Brus, for instance, ye, yai\
yair, yaim, yat, &c, occur frequently, and are to be pro-
nounced the, thai, thair, thaim (them), that. The methods
of printing the e above the line, and of putting cy* ' for that,
are borrowed from the abbreviations ' \fi ' and ' ]?* ' in MSS.
Another common abbreviation is ' bu' for thou, which would
be printed ' y11.'
COAT, IS IT PROPER? 47
58. Coat, a name for the dress of women : is it
proper? (4 S. ii. 586 ; 1868).
There is here no difficulty. Whatever be the ultimate
etymology of the word, which is the French cotte, Italian
cotta, German kutte, it implies a covei'ing. There is no
reason for restricting it to male dress, except that it is now
customary to do so. We still apply it widely when we
speak of a coat of plaster, or of a pony having a rough coat.
In early English it is much more frequently applied to male
than to female attire; but the following are a few examples
of the latter use : —
' This was her cote, and her mantel.'
Chaucer, Rom. of the Rose, 459.
'And she hadde on a cote of grene.' — Ibid. 573.
' How Heyne hath a new cote, and his wif another.'
Piers Plowman, A. v. 91.
' I have put off my coat ; how shall I put it on ? '
The Bible (Authorised Version), Sol. Song, v. 3.
'The cote-hardic was also worn by the ladies in this reign [Edw.
III].' — British Costume, p. 133.
The first, second, and fourth examples are given in that
excellent book entitled The Bible Word-Book. The word
gown is, on the other hand, very frequently used of male
attire, as in Chaucer. So also in Piers Plowman, ed.
Wright, p. 259. And Stow says, anno 1507 : —
' The Duke of Buckingham wore a gowne wrought of needle-work,
and set upon cloth of tissue, furred with sables, the which goune was
valued at 1500/.'
We still have gownsmen in plenty.
[See Coat in the New Eng. Dictionary.]
57. Soc-lamb (4 S. ii. 592 ; 1868).
According to Halliwell, this term is also used in Sussex.
The A.S. soc means the act of suction, and the existence
of the Germ. Saugelamm, Dutch zuig-lam, both meaning
a sucking-lamb, leaves us in no doubt as to the true
48 THE TRI SECTION OF AN ANGLE.
etymology. Compare sokerel, an unwearied child ; souking-
fere, a foster-brother ; sokeling, a suckling plant or a young
animal. Jamieson also tells us that one of the designations
among the vulgar for a simpleton is a sookin' turkey.
58. The problem of ' the trisection of an angle '
(4 S. iii. 94 ; 1869).
The locus of the points of trisection of any arc which has
a given chord is an hyperbola, of which the eccentricity is 2,
the foci are the ends of the chord, and the directrix is the
sagitta of the arc. Hence it follows that the problem
cannot be solved by the ordinary methods of geometry, i.e.
by the rule and compasses only. But it is easily solved by
constructing the hyperbola, which can be done by tolerably
simple means — viz. merely with the aid of a piece of string,
a ruler revolving round a fixed end, and a tracing-pencil.
59. Monkey (4 S. iii. 183; 1869).
I see no reason for doubting the etymology commonly
accepted (as e. g. in Ogilvie and Wedgwood), that monkey,
though formed with an English suffix, is equivalent to the
Italian monicchio. It is clearly a diminutive, and the fact
that we have the older word ape shows that monkey is an
imported word. The original word is Italian mona, an
ape ; Spanish mono (masculine), and mona (feminine). We
find also Spanish monillo, a small monkey ; Italian monna,
monnino, monnone. The Italian monna meant originally
mistress, and seems to be a mere abbreviation of ?nado?ina,
my lady ; hence it came to mean dame, old woman, &c.
The degradation of the term is certainly very great ; but
there is an exactly parallel instance in the case of the word
dam, which has been degraded from the Latin domina.
in French ' notre dame,' till it now means only the mother
of a racehorse, or of a less important animal.
[Cf. Monkey in my larger Etym. Dictionary.]
WA TERSHED. 49
60. Watershed (4 S. iii. 215 ; 1869).
Some time ago there was a discussion about this word in
The Athenaeum, some of the correspondents of that paper
not understanding its derivation. Others, better informed,
pointed out that it is simply equivalent to the German
Wasserscheide, and that to shed is still used, locally, in the
sense of parting the hair. I have little doubt that many
quotations might be adduced assigning to shed (German
scheiden) the sense of to part or divide. Still, as the word
is not very common, it may be as well to note the following,
where it is used as a neuter verb, meaning to separate : —
'The River Don or Dun (says Dodsworth in his Yorkshire collec-
tions riseth in the upper part of Pennystone parish near Lady's
Cross — which may be called our Apennines, because the rain-water
that falleth shcddcth from sea to sea/
Southey's The Doctor, 2nd edition, vol. ii. p. 4.
The exact meaning of watershed, I may add, is the ridge
or elevation which causes the streams of water on either
side of it to flow in opposite directions, and so parts them
asunder.
61. Final -e in Early English (4 S. iii. 215 ; 1869).
There is a curious instance of careful spelling in MS.
Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 1. 17, which shows that the scribes
did pay some regard to the final e even in alliterative
poems, where a syllable more or less in the line is not
of much consequence. It is in the passage of Piers Ploiv-
man (B. xi. 166) which is thus given in that MS. : —
' Or any science vndir sonne, the seuene artz and alle.
But thay be lerned for oure lordes loue, lost is al the t3'me.
Cf. Wright's ed., p. 212.
Here all occurs twice : once in the pi. alle, and once
in the sing. al. In the second place, the scribe had at
first written alle as before ; but on second thoughts, he
became aware of his mistake, and destroyed the le by placing
E
50 ROODEE.
a point beneath each letter in the usual manner. It
evidently made a difference to him.
62. Roodee (4 S. iii. 228 ; 1869).
The origin of this word [the name of a piece of ground
at Chester] has not yet, I believe, been shown, although the
Editor pointed out that the old form of the word was Rood
Eye. The answer is to be found, however, in Mr. Wright's
note to his edition of Piers Plonghinan. (See vol. ii. p. 521.)
There was a famous Rood or cross at Chester, mentioned
by Langland, which stood on an eye, or piece of ground
surrounded by water. Hence this plot of ground was
named Rood Rye or cross-island, as explained by Pennant
in his Tour in Wales, edit. 1778, p. 191. Nowadays this
level space is used as a race-course ; the cross has probably
disappeared (though its base was to be seen in 1789), and
the name made into Roodee • and this, owing to the
proximity of the river Dee, is again most absurdly corrupted
into Roo-Dee. In the English Cyclopaedia it is thus spelt.
No wonder that Roo cannot be explained !
63. Poetic diction of the Anglo-Saxons
(4 S. iii. 268 ; 1869).
The difference between Anglo-Saxon prose and Anglo-
Saxon poetry is best understood by reading a little of both.
In poetry, the requirements of alliterative verse tend to
render the sentences involved and disjointed. The principal
characteristics of our old poetry are, among others, these
following.
1. Inversion of the order of words. Example : —
(I only give the translation, not the original) —
' For us it is very right that we the Guardian of the skies, the
i\ lory-king of hosts, with our words praise, in our minds love.'—
Caedmon ; the opening lines.
2. Insertion of numerous epithets and equivalent ex-
POETIC DICTION OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 51
pressions. Thus, in the above, the Lord is called in one
line 'the Guardian of the skies,' and in the next ' the Glory-
king of hosts.' In one line we have ' with our words
praise,' in the next ' in our minds love,' which are paral-
lelisms.
3. An abundance of names for the same object. Thus,
even in the later English, a man is called a man, a freke,
a re?ik, a segge, a burne, or a gome, merely to satisfy the
requirements of alliteration. These names are picked out
just as required: that is, if the alliteration requires f it
is freke ; if s, it is segge, and so on. So also in Anglo-
Saxon, very numerous are the expressions for a sword, or
a ship, &c.
4. A curious chopping up of sentences into pieces of the
same metrical length. Every line being divided into
hemistichs by a metrical pause, it will be found that, in
many cases, there is a pause in the sense as well as in the
sound. This is seen in the specimen given above. ' For
us it is very right — that we the Guardian of the skies — the
Glory-king of hosts — with our words praise — with our
minds love.' We thus get each sentence piecemeal as it
were, and it is often necessary to get to the end of each
sentence before the drift of it can be even guessed at.
These are a few of the points which must strike every
reader who peruses but one page of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
To appreciate the matter fully, your correspondent should
consult Conybeare's Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, or
(which would be far better) steadily make his way through
a good long portion of Caedmon or Beowulf. This may be
done in part, without a knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, by help
of Mr. Thorpe's translations. On Early English Alliterative
Poetry of a somewhat later date, see my Essay ! in vol. hi.
of the Percy Folio MS., by Hales and Furnivall.
1 [It is rather obsolete now, and not very correct ; but contains
some useful information.]
E 2
52 DID ADAM AXD EVE FALL INTO THE SEA ?
64. Did Adam and Eve fall into the Sea ?
(4 S. iii. 275 ; 1869).
Certainly they did so. How they did it, is sufficiently
explained by the context of the passage cited. Philip de
Thuan carefully explains that the sea means this world, and
the miseries of it. They were driven out of Paradise,
and into the world of sorrows. This is all that is meant
by their falling into the sea. The same idea is found in
Langland's Piers Plowman, ed. Wright, p. 153; ed. Skeat,
B. viii. 40.
65. * Havelok' and Robert of Brunne (4 S. iii. 357 ;
1869).
Robert Mannyng of Brunne, himself a Lincolnshire man,
was probably alive and of sufficient age to compose poetry
when the English version of Havelok was written in the
Lincolnshire dialect. In a passage to which Sir F. Madden
has drawn attention, he uses expressions which show clearly
(1) that he was well acquainted with Havelok, and (2)
that it was no work of his own, as might perhaps for
a moment be imagined. But that he knew it tolerably
well can be verified by internal evidence, which also shows
that Robert of Brunne's Handlyng Synne was written
after Havelok ; which is precisely in accordance with other
evidence. I think the following is a clear example of
plagiarism : —
'Al })at he per-fore tok
With-held he nouth a ferj>inges nok.'
Havelok, 1. 819.
1 Plenerly, alle J)at he toke
Wy}>helde he nat a ferj>ynge noke.'
Robert of Brunne. Handlyng Synne, 581 1, in Morris' Specimens.
This case is so clear that other instances are hardly
needed, though I think it very likely that a fair number
of such imitations could be found : and it is very interesting
to know where to look for the original of some of Robert's
B YD AND. 53
expressions. The word to swill, to wash dishes, is very
rare, both in Anglo-Saxon and Early English. Here is one
example of it : —
' Ful wel kan ich dislics swilen.1
Havelok, 919.
And here is another : —
' Pottes and dysshes for to Steele.1
Handlyng Synne, 5828 'Morris.
One of the most curious stories about Havelok is, that
a flame was often seen to proceed out of his mouth as
he slept. Compare —
• Out of hys mout1 me ))oghte brak
A flamme of fyre b^ght and clere.'
Handlyng Synne. 5922 ^Morris).
Now that I have pointed this out, I dare say some of
your readers can multiply instances of similar plagiarism.
Observe, too, that the metre of the Handlyng Synne is
precisely the same as that of Havelok, although on other
occasions Robert wrote in long lines, averaging fourteen
syllables.
66. Bydand (4 S. iii. 494 ; 1869).
There is no difficulty in this word : why Halliwell did
not explain it, I cannot guess. It simply means abiding,
i. e. never budging an inch. When Eitz-James said to
Roderick Dhu —
' Come one, come all ! this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I,' —
he approved himself to be bydand. Cf. Halliwell's quota-
tion—
•And ye. Ser Gye, a thousande,
Bolde men and wele bydande,' —
where ' wele bydande ' means well abiding, unflinching.
There is a passage in Langland's Piers the Plowman which
is very much to the point. Avarice is described as fighting
on the side of Antichrist, and is represented as fighting
54 AN ERROR IN FABYAN'S CHRONICLES.
without flinching as long as his bag of money holds out.
It runs thus : —
•••Alias!" quod Conscience, and cryde tho. " wolde Crist of
his grace.
That Coveitise were Cristene ! that is so kene a fightere.
And boold and bidvuge. while his bagge lasteth."'
Langland's Piers the Plowman, (B. xx. 139 , ed. Wright, p. 433.
Some MSS. read abydynge in this passage. Our word
staunch expresses the sense of it tolerably well. The
ending -and is northern.
[Cf. Biding in the JVew. Eng. Diet.']
67. An error in Fabyan s Chronicles (4 S. iv. 152 ;
1869).
There is a singular error in the dates of the reign of
Edward III in Fabyan 's Chronicles, which seems to have
escaped the notice of the editor, Sir H. Ellis, and is
of some importance. The year of our Lord is given
wrongly during nearly the whole of this reign, and this may
easily mislead a reader who trusts to this author. I am
referring to the edition of 181 1, wherein the reader, by
turning to p. 441, will find the entry, 'Anno Domini.
mcccxxx-i ; Anno v,' meaning that the fifth year of Edward's
reign began in the last-mentioned date, viz. 1331 (Jan. 25).
But on the next page we have the following entry : ' Anno
Domini m.cccxxxi- Anno Domini m.cccxxxii ; Anno
vii,' which is as much as to say that the next year to the
fifth year was the seventh. 1'he sixth year, in fact, is
simply lost sight of, and the error is continued down to the
very end of the reign. One consequence is that the years
are wrongly calculated down to the end of the reign ;
another is, that Edward's reign is made a year longer than
it was. He died in the fifty-first year of his reign, having
reigned fifty years and about five months; but at p. 487 of
Fabyan we have the entry, ' Anno Hi.' The regnal years
and mayors' years are difficult to arrange, because they
AN ERROR IX FABYAX'S CHROXICLES. 55
began at different times. Fabyan begins the reign by
passing over the mayoralty of Chickwell, and calls Betayne
the first mayor ; whereas he was not elected till October,
1327, when Edward had reigned about nine months.
This explains the expression on p. 439 — ' In the ende
of yJ firste yere of this kynge Edwarde, & begynnynge of
this mayres yere' ; where 'this mayre ' is Fabyan's first, the
above-named Betayne. But, if he begins to reckon thus,
he should have continued it. By the same reckoning the
fourth mayor would be elected in the end of the fourth
year of the king; yet on p. 441 we read — 'In this .iiii.
mayres yere, & ende of ye thyrde yere of thys kynge.'
where for thyrde we must certainly read fourth. In the
same way, the battle of Cressy is said to have taken place
in the twenty -first year of Edward's reign, but it was fought
during the twe?itieth (1346). And so on throughout.
By way of further example, let me explain the entry
on p. 480. We there find 'Anno Domini, m.ccclxviii.
John Chychester — Anno Domini, m.ccclxix. Anno xliiii.'
This refers, not to the 44th, but to the 43rd year, from
Jan. 1369 to Jan. 1370, towards the close of which—
viz. in October 1369 — Chichester was elected as mayor.
Hence the entry, under this year, of the death of Queen
Philippa (Aug. 15, 1369). It follows that Chichester was
still mayor in April 1370, as is proved also by a notice
of him as mayor in that very month and year in Riley's
Me??iorials of London, p. 344. Hence follows the complete
solution of the date of Piers the Plowman. When Lang-
land mentions 1370 as Chichester's year, he is right enough.
I have said, at p. xxxii of the preface to text A of the poem,
that ' our author seems to be a year wrong.' But I am
glad to find that the error lies, not with Langland, but with
Fabyan ; and the date of the second version of the poem is
irrefragably proved to be later than 1370. Other indications
point to the year 1377 as the date thereof.
56 ENNUI.
68. Ennui (4 S. iv. 223; 1869).
I cannot allow that English is unequal to translate this
word. Our language, which possesses the fulness of several
languages rolled into one, is equal to every emergency ;
and the more so, if we are allowed to fall back upon words
that are obsolescent or provincial. It is from the dulness
of translators that the frequent miserable wailing over the
inadequacy of English arises. Eniiui is not so expressive
as dumps. It means, I suppose, to quote Roget's Thesaurus,
' melancholiness, the dismals, mumps, dumps, blue devils,
vapours, megrims, spleen ' ; also weariness, tedium, lassitude,
and in fact, boredom. Mr. Besant, in his pleasant and
scholarly book on Early French Poetry, in speaking of the
English poems of Charles of Orleans, says : — ' What is
newous thought ? The French explains it : it is pensee
cnnuyeuse. I believe this is the only attempt to adopt this
word in English, though we want it badly.'
I am certainly a little surprised at this remark, for we
actually possess the word annoyance from the same root ;
and so far from newous or ?wyous being an uncommon
word, and only used by Charles, it is a word that is suffi-
ciently familiar to readers of our older literature. Chaucer
has anoyful, disagreeable ; anoyous, with the same meaning j
auoyaunce, grievance ; noyaus, troublesome j whilst Lang-
land not only uses the verb noyen, to plague, but actually
has the very word anoy or noy, used as a substantive, which
is exactly equivalent to ennui in form, and very nearly so in
meaning. Even Spenser has the word, and uses it so as to
bring out with much clearness the meaning which we now
attach to it (F. Q. i. 6. 17): —
' For griefe whereof the lad n'ould after joy,
But pynd away in anguish and selfcivild annoy.'
What better epithet for it than se/fwi/kd}
CHAUCER PARALLELS. 57
And again, Spenser say (F. Q. ii. 9. 35) : —
' But other some could not abide to toy,
All plesaunce was to them griefe and annoy.''
This is just what happens to those who suffer from
ennui • they cannot 'abide to toy.' If, then, neither
mumps, nor dumps, nor boredom be considered sufficiently
near to ennui to represent the true force of it, there can be
no objection to reviving the English form of the word. viz.
annoy. As for the amazing number of English words
which can be used to translate a single French one, is
there not Cotgrave's Dictionary!
69. Chaucer Parallels : ' The Knightes Tale ' and
' Troilus and Cressida ' (4 S. iv. 292 j 1869).
Since, in both these works, Chaucer was to some measure
indebted to the same poet, Boccaccio, it is not unreasonable
to suppose that they were composed ' nearly at the same
time. The following parallels seem to point to the same
result. I believe their number might be increased. The
references are to the Aldine edition [and to my own] : —
1. ' And forth he ryt : ther [n]is no more to telle.'
K. T. 116 [A. 974).
1 And forth she rit, ful sorwfully, a pas.'
Tr. v. 60.
2. ' Thurgh girt with many a grevous blody ivonnde.''
K. T. 152 (A. 1010 .
' Thorwgh gyrt with many wyde and blody ivoundc'
Tr. iv. 599 (627 .
3. ' That never, for to deyen in the payne.'
K. T. 275 A. 1 133 .
1 Thai certein, for to deyen in the pey^icS
Tr. i. 674.
4. 'And lowde he song ayens the sonne scheene.*
K. T. 651 (A. 1509^
' Ful lowde song ay tin the moone shene.' — Tr. ii. 920.
1 [This refers, of course, to the first draught of the Knightes Tal< .
called Palamon and Arcite.J
58 SERFS.
5. ' He may go pypen in an ivy lee/.' — K. T. 980 (A. 1838).
1 Pipe in an ivy ieefe, if that the leste.' — Tr. v. 1433.
6. ' As soth is sayd, eelde hath gret avantage,
In eelde is bothe wisdom and usage ;
Men may the eelde at-renne, but nat at-rede."
K. T 1589 (A. 2447).
' Your sire is wis, and seyde is out of drede,
Men may the wise at-renne, and nought at-rede."1
Tr. iv. 1427 (1456^.
7. • To maken vcrtu of neccssite.' — K. T. 2184 (A. 3042).
'Thus maketh vertu of necessite.' — Tr. iv. 1558 (1586 .
And in Sq. Ta. ii. 247 (F. 593).
70. Serfs (4 S. iv. 302 ; 1869).
There is no reason why serfs may not mean stags without
any alteration to cerfs. I suppose it to be a parallel case to
a passage in the French prose romance of Alexander — ' Nas
tu pas veu par plusieurs fois que ung [lyon] meit a la fuite
grant quantite de serfz ? '
To this passage the French editor appends a note —
' On reconnait la les idees provenant de la superiorite si marquee
de la chevalerie, au moyen age, sur les serfs et sur les vilains.'
This is a delicious blunder, when it is remembered that the
parallel passage in the Latin version is ' an nescis quod
unus leo multos cervos in fugam vertit ? ' and the Greek
version has i\d<f>ovs. See the passages quoted at length in
my edition of William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), p. 240.
71. i Rue with a difference ' in c Hamlet *
(4 S. iv. 559; 1869).
In explaining Shakespeare's phrases, I think that many
commentators refine too much. If he indeed 'had in his
mind ' all the intricate allusions he is said to have had, his
mind must have been even greater than most of us grant
it to have been. In Ophelia's speech — 'there's rue for
you ; and here 's some for me ; we may call it herb-grace on
Sundays ; 0, you must wear your rue with a difference ' —
' JERESGIVE' A MISTAKE EOR ' YERESGIUE.' 59
there is no difficulty if we do not force the words ' with
a difference ' into some ' heraldic ' phrase. It merely means
this : ' I offer you rue, which has two meanings ; it is some-
times called herb of grace, and in that sense I take some for
myself; but, with a difference of meaning, it means ruth,
and in that respect will do for you.' This explanation is not
mine; it is Shakespeare's own.
' Here did she fall a tear ; here, in this place.
I'll set a bank of rue. sour herb of grace ;
Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen.
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.'
Richard II, Act iii. Sc. 4.
[The fact is, there is a play upon words. There are two
distinct words, both spelt rue. Rue, the herb, is from O.F.
rue, which Cotgrave explains by ^ rue, herb grace' ; and this
is from Lat. ruta. But rue, the verb, is English ; A. S.
hreowan7\
Some wrongly explain the word cra?its by garlands,
whereas it is a garland, in the singular number. Long notes
have been written about it, but no one seems to have
noticed that Shakespeare not only understood the word, but
knew it to be singular. Otherwise he would hardly have
used the name of Rosenkrantz as that of one of his
characters. What need of search for explaining a word
which is under one's nose all the while ? Surely Rosenkrantz
is a rose-garland.
72. ' Jeresgive,' a mistake for * Yeresgiue ■
(4 S. v. 74; 1870).
I am much obliged to Mr. T. for his quotation ; the
explanation is not difficult. It is the old English yresyue,
which may be represented by yeresyiue or yeresgiue, but not
by jeresgiue, as the letter 3 may be denoted by y or g, but
not by j (except in German). It is a year's-gift, i. e. an
annual donation, or new-year's gift ; or, in common parlance,
60 THE SUN : ITS GENDER.
a Christmas-box. The first part of the word is the genitive
case of year ; the latter partis the A.S. gifu, G. gabe, a gift.
It occurs in Piers the Ploivman, iii. 99 (ed. Skeat, Clarendon
Press Series, p. 27) : —
' Ignis devorabit tabernacula eorum qui libenter accipiunt mu-
nera, &c.
k Amonge this lettered ledes this latyn is to mene,
That fyre shal falle, and brenne al to bio askes
The houses and the homes of hem that desireth
Yiftes or yeresyyues bi cause of here offices.'
That is to say, Langland explains the text (Job xv. 34) by
the phrase : —
' Among these learned people this Latin signifies, that fire shall
fall, and burn all to blue ashes the houses and homes of them that
desire gifts or yeresyiues by reason of their offices.'
The word is duly explained in my Glossary.
73. The Sun : its Gender (4 S. v. 75 ; 1870).
The statement of E. H. A. that he has never seen the sun
used of the feminine gender, except in the works of Mede,
is exceedingly amusing. The difficulty would rather be to
find any instance of its being masculine in any English
writer from the time of the author of Beowulf \.o nearly the
end of the fourteenth century. I at once give a couple of
examples, viz. : ' the sonne gaf hire litht ' (the sun gave her
light), Layamon's Brut, ed. Madden, 1. 7239; and 'the
sonne gan louke her lighte in herself (the sun locked up
her light within herself, or was eclipsed), Piers the Plow-
man, ed. Skeat, B. xviii. 243. My 'B-text' of Langland's
Piers the Plowman, containing the latter quotation, is now
being published.
In our early writers the sun is feminine, and the moon
masculine. The question is rather, what are the earliest
instances of the contrary ? According to Dr. Bosworth's
edition, we find the moon masculine in the Old English
THE SANGREAL, OR HOLY GRAIL. 61
version of St. Matt. xxiv. 29, which he dates at about a. d.
995, but feminine in Wycliffe's version, a. d. 1389.
74. The Sangreal, or Holy Grail (4 S. v. 251 ; i8yo\
That Sangreal should be a corruption of sang real is such
a very obvious derivation, that it will possibly always find
acceptance ; although it is always safe to regard popular
etymologies with suspicion, and the more so if they were
constructed in medieval times. As in all other cases, we
must have some regard to chronology ; and I believe it will
be found that the word graal existed long before the idea of
prefixing the epithet san was at all common, and conse-
quently long before the corrupt etymology sang real was
thought of. The history of the word is given at pp. 102,
378 of torn. ier of Les Romans de la table ronde, by
M. Paulin Paris (see also the word gradale in Uucange).
The many difficulties about the word are there carefully
discussed. See also the edition of The History of the Holy
Graal, edited by Mr. Furnivall for the Roxburghe Club, at
the end of the first volume of which the original early French
version of the romance was reprinted. At 1. 2653 of this
romance the question is asked by some sinful men, \ and
what is the name of the vessel ? ' The answer being —
' Qui a droit le vourra nummer,
Par droit Graal Tapelera ' ;
where the prefex san or saint is not used.
The most ancient notice of the word is certainly to be
found in Helinandus, who was a Cistercian monk in the
abbey of Froidmond, in the diocese of Beauvais, and
died either in 1219 or 1223. His works are printed in
vol. ccxii. of Migne's Cursus Patrologicz. The passage is
a curious one, and worthy of a corner in N. and Q.
'Anno 717. Hoc tempore, cuidam eremitae monstrata est
mirabilis quaedam visio per angelum, de Sancto Josepho, decurione
nobili, qui corpus Domini deposuit de cruce ; et de catino illo vel
62 'CRY BO TO A GOOSE.'
paropside in quo Dominus coenavit cum discipulis suis ; de qua ab
eodem eremita descripta est historia quae dicit[ur] Gradal. Gradalis
autem vel gradate dicitur gallice scutella lata et aliquantulum pro-
funda in qua preciosce dapes cum suo jure [gravy] divitibus solent
apponi, et dicitur nomine graal," &c.
The word Gradale sometimes means a service-book con-
taining the responses, &c, sung before the steps (gradus) of
the altar ; but in the sense of an open platter, it is said to be
allied to cratella, the diminutive of crater, and four whole
pages are devoted to a consideration of it in Roquefort's
Glossaire de la Langue romane.
I have no space to plunge into a long explanation of the
shape of the vessel, or to decide whether it ought to be
called a cup or a dish — it is safest to call it a vessel. Spenser
calls it holy grayle (F. Q., b. ii. c. x. st. liii).
As for the combination sang real, it is used in Old English
as well as in French, but much more commonly in the
sense of royal than of true blood. I give two examples : —
' Alle with taghte men and towne in togers sulle [? fulle] ryche,
Of saunke realle in suyte, sexty at ones.'
Morte Arthure (ed. Perry), 1. 178.
; He came of the sank royal/,
That was cast out of a bochers stall.'
Skelton, Why Come ye not to Court, 1. 490.
Considerations as to space render this a very imperfect
notice of the word.
75. ' Cry Bo to a Goose ' (4 S. vi. 221 ; 1870).
I doubt the coincidence of this phrase with that of saying
' Bee to a battledore.5 This latter expression means rather
to be possessed of elementary knowledge, to have learnt the
rudiments. A hornbook, which was originally a flat board
with a handle, with a piece of horn in front, was shaped
something like a battledore, and was at times so named.
(See the cut of one in Chambers's Book of Days, i. 47.)
To be able to say B when B was pointed to in the hornbook,
was called 'to say B to a battledore,' or sometimes 'to
THE SIEGE OF METZ. 63
know B from a battledore,' the words to and from in these
phrases being nearly equal to at the sight of, or as exhibited
upon. The phrase means, proverbially, to be possessed of
a knowledge of the alphabet, &c., as already said.
76. The Siege of Metz (4 S. vi. 296 ; 1870).
It is perhaps not generally known that Metz was once
besieged by King Arthur. It was defended by the Duke of
Lorraine ; some of whose men complained that he had
defrauded them of their pay, and urged him to treat for
peace. The Duke refused, and charged Arthur's knights
upon a dromedary. Arthur's knights assaulted the city,
throwing down stone steeples and most of the inns. At
last the city surrendered, and Arthur (to quote Mr. Perry's
words) ' provides for the government of Lorraine, which he
had conquered.' See the long account in Morte Arthure
(ed. Perry, 1865, for the Early English Text Society), pp.
71-91. The whole passage is very curious.
77. Peas or Pease ? (4 S. vi. 139 ; 1870).
The explanation of this word ought to be well known.
It is not a plural at all, but a singular noun, the plural of
which ought to be peasen, sometimes misspelt peason, as in
Nares. It is the A.S. pisa, Lat. pisum ; cf. Ital. pisello.
In Mid. English it ispese in the singular, pesen in the plural,
as a few extracts will show.
1 Pese, frute of corne. — Pisa.' — Prompt. Parvnloriim, ed. Way.
P- 395-
' The vaunting poets found nought worth a pease!
Spenser, Shep. Cal.. Oct. 69.
' He poureth pcscn upon the hacches slidre.'
Chaucer, Leg. G. IV., Cleop. 69.
See also the numerous examples in Nares, s. v. Peason.
In Langland's Vision of Piers the Plowman, edited by
me, in the Clarendon Press Series, the word is fully
64 CHATTERTON'S KNOWLEDGE OF ANGLO-SAXON.
explained in the Glossary. Langland's scribe uses pees in
the singular, and both pesen and peses in the plural. The
French pots and Welsh pys also show clearly that the final
s is not inflexional. In composition we find the words
peascod, pease-porridge, where peas or pease is still the singular
noun ; cf. the Mid. Eng. pese-codde used by Langland. Thus
the e in pease is merely a relic of the old spelling pese ; but
when, in process of time, this final e was dropped, the word
peas came to be regarded as a plural, and the singular word
pea was invented by some one ' with a turn for grammar l ' ;
just as the words alms and riches, once singular nouns, are
beginning to be used as plurals, and only await the touch of
genius to develop the singulars aim and rich.
78. Chatterton's knowledge of Anglo-Saxon
(4 S. vii. 278 ; 1871).
In the paper written by Rowley on the ' Rise of Paint-
ing in England in 1469,' and communicated by Chatterton
to Walpole, are several Anglo-Saxon words. Most of
these are used wrongly ; but if we rightly explain them,
and tabulate them in alphabetical order, they are as
follows : —
Acid, a heap.
Adronct, drowned.
Adrifene {fatu), embossed (vessels').
JEccedfcet, an acid-vat, vessel for vinegar.
AE.sc, a ship ; lit. an ash.
At dell ice, nobly.
Afcegrod, coloured, adorned.
A/god, an idol.
Agra/en, engraven.
Ahrered, reared up.
It thus appears that Rowley was possessed of an Anglo-Saxon
dictionary (the earliest was printed in 165^, and he only
1 Beau Brummel said that he 'once ate a pea] a saying which has
often been quoted for its imagined brilliancy.
'BY HOOK OR BY CROOK.' 65
succeeded in acquiring some knowledge of the language as
far as Ah. Chatterton's letter on ' Saxon Achievements,'
printed in Southey's edition, vol. iii. p. 89, exhibits precisely
the same singular result. He there explains the words
Aadod, Afgod, Afgodod, Afraten, Amezz, with the addition
of Thimder-flozgod. The last of these he explains by ' thun-
der-blasted,' but he has mistaken /for s. The word which
suggested this notion to him is Thimder-slozge, a clap of
thunder. The exception in Rowley's letter is Heofnas,
which he uses for the colour azure. This is how he came
by it; he looked into Bailey, and found ''Azure, blue (in
heraldry),' <xx., and again 'Azure, the sky or firmament.'
This suggested the idea of heaven.
He then found that Bailey gives heafian as the derivation
of the word. This led him to look into an Anglo-Saxon
dictionary, and he accordingly found heofon, pi. heofenas,
and he adopted the plural as quainter-looking. Afraten is
either miscopied from ' Afsetan, to appoint, design,' or simply
made up from the heraldic word fret. Amezz is miscopied
from ' Amett, decked, adorned.' It thus appears that
Chatterton knew no more Anglo-Saxon than he might have
picked up in an hour from a glossary, and was unable to
distinguish between s and f, and probably misread other
letters also.
[PS. Chatterton is known to have used Benson's Anglo-
Saxon Vocabulary, printed in 170 1. It is a miserable com-
pilation, made from Somners Dictionary.]
79. 'By Hook or by Crook' (4 S. viii. 133 ; 1871).
This proverb is at least a century older than Skelton's
time. It occurs in the works of Wyclif. See Mr. Arnolds
new edition of Wyclif s English Works, iii. 331. On the
very next page is the proverb about ' turning the cat in the
pan,' which Bacon has also in his Essays : see Essay xxii.
1 On Cunning.'
66 CHAUCER'S 'MAN OF LA WES TALE.'
80. Chaucer's * Man of Lawes Tale ' (4 S. viii. 201 ;
1871).
It may be interesting to note that the events narrated in
the Man of Lawes Tale, and in Gower's Confessio Amantis,
lib. ii. (where the same story occurs), may be connected
more or less with the date a. d. 580 or thereabouts. Gower
gives the name of the Emperor of Rome as Tiberius Con-
stantinus. A Latin note in the MSS. of Gower refers to
Pelagius as pope. The son of Constance is Maurice, after-
wards emperor. Constance marries ^Ella, king of Northum-
bria. The name of the constable's wife, Hermegyld, may
have been suggested by the so-called martyrdom of the
Visi-Gothic prince St. Hermenegild l. The following are
the dates : —
Tiberius II, emperor (not of Rome, but of the East),
a.d. 578.
Succeeded by Maurice of Cappadocia, a. d. 582.
Pelagius II, pope, a.d. 578-590.
^Ella of Northumbria, a. d. 560-588.
Martyrdom of St. Hermenegild, a.d. 584, or 586.
Thus the story has a certain consistency, but is open to
the objection that Tiberius, reigning only four years, could
hardly have been succeeded in 582 by his own grandson,
born (according to Chaucer) later than 578.
81. English Prepositions (4 S. viii. 241 ; 187 1).
I observe that in some remarks upon the word partake
(the accuracy of which, by the way, I do not admit) your
correspondent C. A. W. says : —
k I wish there was a good treatise upon English prepositions, their
individual significance, their significance in composition, and their
power of modifying meaning when used in connection with verbs.'
Permit me to refer him to Matzner's Englische Grammatik,
1 [So spelt in Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, under April 13.
Better Hermengild.~\
PORTRESS. 67
wherein, to take but one example, the word of is discussed
at the length of forty pages of close type, with quotations
(to the number of several hundreds) from English writers
of every date, from Layamon to Dickens. (See part ii.
p. 222.) English prepositions are also treated of in
Koch's Gramm. der engl. Sprac/ie, in Diefenbach's Gothic
Glossary, in March's Anglo-Saxon Grammar, &c. ; but
the grammars by Matzner and Koch give the most copious
examples from English authors. There is plenty of infor-
mation to be obtained by those who will seek for it, and
who will remember that philology has made some advances
since the days of Dr. Johnson.
82. Portress (4 S. viii. 271 ; 187 1).
I do not think this is a very rare word. A much earlier
example than the one in Milton is the following : —
' And fayre Observaunce, the goodly porires,
Did us receyve with solempne- gladnes.'
Stephen Hawes, Pastime 0/ Pleasure, cap. xxxiii. st. 26.
83. Amperzand. (4 S. viii. 468 ; 187 1).
[In reply to the guess that it was originally and-pussy-and,
and that its shape (&) suggests a cat sitting up, and raising
one fore-paw !]
This word has been explained long ago. It is merely
a corruption of And-per-se-and, which means that the
character &, standing by itself (Lat. per se), spells 'and.'
The old lady who pronounced it 'and-pussy-and' came
much nearer to the old pronunciation than the modern
spelling does. It does not follow that it is therefore
derived from a pussy-cat. As for the shape of it, I have
nowhere seen an explanation. Yet it is not far to seek ; it
is merely a rough and ready way of writing the Latin word
et. How this is so I cannot here show without a diagram ;
but any one may see it repeatedly occurring in the Rush-
F 2
68 ' BLAKEBERYED ' IN CHAUCER.
worth MS. at Oxford, or in any tolerably Old Latin MS.
The shape of the character has, in fact, no more to do with
a cat than the etymology has. Why should the English
language be selected as the ' corpus vile ' on which to make
such unmeaning experiments ? Any one who should derive
the Latin vicus, a street, from via, a way, and causa, a cause,
whence a cause-way, a street, would not get a hearing. But
in English etymology (so low is the general level of English
scholarship), grotesqueness seems to be especially aimed at.
The phrase per se is not confined to this character only.
The letter A was often called the A-per-se because it can
constitute a whole word when standing alone. From its
position at the head of the alphabet, the A-per-se became
a proverbial symbol of excellence. It was said of Melu-
sine: — , c, A 1
' She was a woman A-per-se, alone.
Romans of Partenay, ed. Skeat, 1. 1148.
In Old English MSS., any letter which constituted a word
in itself, as A, I, O, and even E (Old English for eye), was
frequently written with a point before and after it ; to isolate
it, as it were. Examples may be seen in the Vernon MS. at
Oxford.
As another example of guessing etymology I may refer to
prise, a word which also received attention in the last
number of N. and Q., and was said to be short for
upraise (!). It is merely the French prise, which denoted
an advantageous way of seizing a thing, as explained by
Cotgrave two centuries and a half ago ; from which we
have developed a word prise, to seize with advantage,
to force by leverage. The root is the Latin prehendere.
84. ' Blakeberyed. ' in Chaucer (4 S. x. 222 ; 1872).
This word presents a difficulty, as is well known ; and
occurs once only, viz., in the lines where the Pardoner says,
in his prologue or preamble : —
' BLAKEBERYED ' IN CHAUCER. 69
' I rekke neuere, whan that they been beryed,
Though that hir soules goon a blakeberyed.''
Six-Text Edition, ed. Furnivall, C. 405, p. 316.
The obvious meaning is — ' I care not a whit, after people
are buried, what becomes of their souls.' The only question
is, as to the literal meaning. We know, first of all, that
when Chaucer uses identical sounds in place of a rime, he
invariably takes care that the words denoted by those
sounds shall differ in meaning. Thus seke (to seek), in the
seventeenth line of his Prologue, rimes with seke (sick) in
the line following, because the word seke is used with
different meanings. Hence we know, at the outset, that
the word blakeberyed has nothing to do with burying; and
the suggested explanation ' buried in black ' (which gives no
good sense after all) falls through. When we consider
further that blakebery means simply a blackberry, we are
driven to suppose that goon a blakeberyed means ' go
a black-berrying,' which is simply a phrase for 'go where
they list'; just like to kgo a wool-gathering,' or to 'go
pipen in an ivy leef ' (Knightes Tale, 1. 980).
The only difficulty is in the construction ; we have to
find instances in which ' go ' is used with words ending in
-ed ; and it is because I have met with this construction
that I write the present note. For, if no examples could
be furnished, the explanation would remain a mere guess,
and valueless, as such guesses generally are ; but now that
other examples have been found, the guess becomes, I
venture to think, a certainty. The instances are these : —
1. ' Hye treuthe wolde
That no faiterye were founde : in folk that gon abegged."
Piers the Ploivman (C-text, pass. ix. 136) ;
see Whitaker's edition, p. 135.
Here three MSS. read a-begged or abegged; one has
a-beggyd, another abeggeth, and a sixth and beggen. No one
can doubt that gon abegged has here the meaning of
go a-begging.
70 DR. JOHNSON'S DEFINITION OF 'OATS.'
2. 'In somere for his slewthe: he shal haue defaute,
And gon abrybcth and beggen : and no man bete his hunger.
Piers the Plowman (C-text, pass. ix. 244) ;
see Whitaker's edition, p. 141.
Here two MSS. have gon abrybeth, but two others have
gon abribed or abribid ; one has gon abribeth and abeggeth,
whilst another has gon abribid and a-begged. So that we
have here not only fresh evidence of gon abegged for to go
a-begging, but are introduced to the phrase gon abribed for
to go a-bribing — i. e. to go a-robbing, since bribe in Mid.
English means to rob. No doubt fresh instances of this
peculiar construction will be found. I think, too, it can be
explained ; but the explanation is long, and of less conse-
quence than the fact of its occurrence.
[The suffix -ed, -eth, represents A. S. -aft, -off, in hunt-ad. \
85. Dr. Johnson's Definition of ' Oats ' (4 S. x. 309 ;
1872).
Dr. Johnson's definition of Oats, as ' a grain which in
England is given to horses, but in Scotland supports the
people,' is well known. It is also reported that he declared
Burton's A?iatomy of Melancholy to have been the only
book which ever took him out of bed two hours sooner
than he wished to rise. Putting these two things together,
it is interesting to observe that something very like the
famous definition of ' oats ' occurs in Burton. Here is the
passage : —
'John Mayor, in the first book of his History 0/ Scotland, contends
much for the wholesomeness of oaten bread. It was objected to
him, then living at Paris, in France, that his countrymen fed on oats
and base grain, as a disgrace. . . . And yet Wecker i^out of Galen) calls
it horscmcat, and fitter for jinnents [beasts of burden] than men to feed
on.' — Anatomy of Melancholy, Part I., sec. 2, mem. 2, sub-sec. 1.
86. * -mas ' (4 S. x. 397 ; 1872).
The ending -///as in Christmas, Lammas, Michaelmas,
Martinmas, &c, is the A. S. mcesse, Ger. and Dan. messe,
■MAS : LAMMAS. 7 1
Swed. and Icel. messa ; and the most probable account of it
is, that it is from Lat. missa. Grein explains A. S. mcesse
as the mass, or the festival on which high mass is said.
We find also A. S. mcesse-dceg, a festival ; mazsse-afen, a vigil
before a festival ; mcESse-boc, a mass-book, &c. In the
rubrics to my A. S. edition of St. Mark's Gospel, we find
that the passage beginning at Mark vi. 17 is to be read on
' sancte iohannes maessan,' i. e. on the festival of St. John
the Baptist; and the passage beginning at Mark viii. 27 is
to be read on 'sancte petres maesse-daege/' on the festival
of St. Peter. The occurrence of the single s in -mas is
really due to the loss of the final e in Old English. Thus
richesse has been cut down to riches, not richess, probably
on account of the accent being thrown back. Lammas is
certainly the A. S. hlaf-mcesse or loaf-mass, a festival of first-
fruits on the 1 st of August.
87. -mas: Lammas (4 S. x. 521 ; 1872).
After working for many years at English etymology, I am
well aware of the doubtfulness of many derivations that
have been proposed. But of the derivation of Lammas no
one who cares to look at the authorities can have the
slightest doubt ; it is merely the modernized spelling of the
A. S. hlaf-mcesse, and its sense is Loaf-mass. The difficulty of
supposing that first-fruits should have been offered on the
1 st of August vanishes on examination. A couple of loaves
made of new corn could as easily be made before the
general harvest as after it; it would not be necessary that
they should be eatable loaves, and they may have been
made of any small quantity of new corn that could be
obtained, whether properly ripened or not. But, however
this may have been, the testimony of our old authors is most
express. Not only was the 1st of August called hlaf-mcBSsan
dceg, but the 7th was actually named ' Harvest,' irrespective
of the fact that the real harvest must frequently have been
72 -MAS : LAMMAS.
much later1. This we know on the best possible authority,
viz. the so-called Menologium, or Metrical Calendar of the
Months, wherein we read that 'bringeth Agustus yrmen-
theodum hlaf-msessan daeg ; Swa thaes haerfest cymth ymb
other swylc, butan anre wanan, wlitig waestmum hladen ;
wela byth geyped fsegere on foldan/ i.e. 'August brings to
all men the loaf-mass day ; so afterwards, harvest comes
about another such space (of seven days) later, wanting one
day ; fair (harvest), laden with fruits ; abundance is fairly
manifested upon the earth.' In the next sentence, by way
of making sure that Lammas-day is the first, and ' Harvest'
the seventh of the month, we are told that three days later
is Lawrence's day ; and this we know to be the tenth. See
Grein, Bibliothek der Angelsiichstschen Poesie, vol. ii. p. 4.
The word also occurs in Alfred's translation of Orosius,
where we are told that Octavianus defeated Antonius and
Cleopatra ' on thsere tide [Calendas] Agustus, and on tham
daege the we hatath hlafmczssan1 \ i.e. on the Calends of
August, on the day which we call loaf-mass ; where Calendas
is a reading taken from the older, or Lauderdale MS. This
battle, by the way, is not the sea-fight of Actium ; for that
is mentioned in the next sentence, and we know that it
occurred on the 2nd of September, B.C. 31. See Dr. Bos-
worth's edition of Orosius, p. 113.
But in the A. S. Chronicle, under the date a.d. 1009, we
get various spellings of the word in the MSS. Where two
of them have after lafima?ssan, a third has after hlammcessan,
which enables us to state confidently that the internal
change from fin to mm must have been made before the
1 [The precession of the equinoxes makes some difference. The
sun entered Aries on March 12 in Chaucer's time, but the vernal
equinox is now some eight days later. Four centuries earlier than
Chaucer, it was some six days earlier ; giving a difference of nearly
a fortnight between 993 and 1893. Harvest in the tenth century
may have been (nominally) two weeks earlier than now.]
TYING A KNOT IN A HANDKERCHIEF. 73
time of Stephen, as this MS. ends with the year 11 54, and
the events of Stephen's reign seem to have been written
down at the time. In later authors the word occurs more
than once ; see the quotations given for lammasse from
Robert of Gloucester and Robert of Brunne in Richardson's
Dictionary. The word occurs also in many later authors.
To show that harvest was expected to take place by
Lammas-time, I need but quote a well-known passage in
Piers the Plozvman, B-text, vi. 291 : —
' And bi this lyflode we mot lyue til lammasse tyme,
And. bi that, I hope to haue heruest in my croft.'
It is thus clearly traced from early times through the
successive spellings hlafmcesse, (h)lafmcesse, hlammcEsse,
lammasse, down to lammas. It were to be wished that all
our English words could be traced as easily. See the
article on Lammas in Chambers's Book of Days. The
suggestion that lammas is from Vinculamass is obviously
a guess, and nothing more. I have never seen the latter
expression in any Old English MS., and should be much
surprised to meet with it. I may add, that harvest was not
generally used in so restricted a sense as it is in the
Menologium.
88. Tying a knot in a handkerchief (4 S. xi. 53 ; 1873).
There is an early allusion to a similar practice in the
Ancren Riwle (ed. Morton, p. 396), written about a.d.
1230 : — ' Mon knut his kurtel uorte habben J^ouht of one
f inge ; auh ure louerd, uor he nolde neuer uorgiten us, he
dude merke of f urlunge ine bo two his honden ' : a man
ties a knot in his girdle, to remember a thing ; but our
Lord, in order never to forget us, made a mark of piercing
in both His hands. Kurtel is more correctly written gurdel
in the Cotton MS.
74 SUPPRESSION OF S IN THE GENITIVE.
89. Suppression of s in the Genitive (4 S. xi. 79 ; 1873).
The tolerably common usage here referred to is explained
and exemplified in Morris's Historical Accidence, p. 102.
sect. 100 ; and in Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, 3rd ed.
p. 356, sect. 471. A very common example of the suppres-
sion of s to avoid too much sibilation occurs in the phrase
'for conscience sake,' sometimes written with an apostrophe
at the end of conscience, though the apostrophe is hardly
needed. We find ' for al Conscience caste,' i. e. ' for all
Conscience's contrivance,' in Piers the Plounnan, B-text,
pass. iii. 1. 19. Observe also ' for goodness sake,' Psalm
xxv. 7; and 'righteousness sake,' Isaiah xlii. 21.
90. Galoches : a Term for Unattached. Students
(4 S. xi. 112 ; 1873).
It would appear from Cotgrave's Fre?ich Dictionary that
the idea of admitting unattached students to the universities
is not a new one. In former times they were termed
' galoches ' or ' galloches ' (the word being spelt with one or
two V s indifferently). The following are the quotations
explaining the words : —
' Galoclic. f. : A woodden Shoe, or Patten, made all of a piece,
without any latchet, or tie of leather, and worne by the poor Clowne
in winter.'
• Galloches, m. : Schollers in Universities, admitted of no Colledge.
but lying in the Towne, and being at liberty to resort unto what
publike) readers or lectures they please : tearmed thus, because, in
passing in the streets, they commonly weare galloches.'
91. ' To hell a building' (4 S. xi. 392 : 1873).
The verb hell is more often spelt hele in Old English,
being the A. S. helan, to cover, hide, cognate with the
Latin celare, and therefore related to the latter syllable in
conceal. It was once so common that we may expect to
find it in many parts of England still. Thus, Halliwell
gives hele as a Devonshire word, with the sense of to roof
ENGLISH DIALECTS. 75
or slate, to earth up potatoes, cover anything up ; hellier,
a thatcher or tiler, he marks as West of England ; hiling,
a covering, occurs in the Chester Plays. He also cites hull,
a covering, shell, and huttings, husks, but without assigning
their locality. The verb hylle?i, to cover, is in the Promp-
torium Parvulorum, which is Norfolk. With the spelling
hele, it is used by John of Trevisa, a Cornishman. Hull
a shell, is in Atkinson's Cleveland Glossary, which is York-
shire. The verb was used also by Barbour and Gawain
Douglas. It must have been once in common use in
almost every district from Cornwall to Scotland, and
probably survives locally in many counties. This can only
be ascertained by consulting all the various extant county
glossaries.
92. English Dialects ( S. xi. 385 ; 1873).
It certainly would be a good plan to make a new list of
books in the English dialects, as supplementary to that
published some years ago by Mr. Smith. Instead, however,
of sending occasional notes to N. and Q. about such works,
how much better it would be if some one would undertake
to receive all such notes, with a view to their publication in
JY. and Q., when a considerable number of them, enough
to fill a page at least, has been accumulated ! If the editor
approves, this may easily be done ' ; and failing any one
else, I am ready to undertake the work of receiving and
arranging the titles of the works in question. What is
wanted is that we should have the correct titles, the authors'
names (when known), the date and place of publication, &c.
A very brief description of the drift of each book would
be useful, but all wandering talk and irrelevant remarks
1 We highly approve of our valued correspondent's suggestion,
and gladly accept his kind offer. All communications, therefore, on
this subject should be addressed to the Rev. \V. W. Skeat, Cintra
Terrace, Cambridge. — Ed. N. and O.
76 ENGLISH DIALECTS.
would, of course, be rigidly suppressed. The best way of
collecting titles is to adhere strictly to the indispensable rule,
that everything must be written lengthways — on o?ie side
only of half-a-shcet of note-paper of the ordinary size.
I subjoin a title as a specimen : —
' Laj-cock, Samuel. Lancashire Songs. London : Simpkin and
Marshall, 1866; pp. i-vi, 1-77. Contains 20 Songs, in various
metres, in a Lancashire dialect.'
If we can also, in the same way, accumulate a list of all
works in MS. upon this subject, it will be a great gain : as
also a list of workers who really understand the subject.
All this must be done before a complete provincial glossary
can be made. Some years ago, when this subject was
discussed, Mr. Ellis very properly insisted that some
uniform spelling, such as Glossic or Palaeotype, should be
employed ; but the result was, that the whole scheme fell
through. Palaeotype is not likely to be understood by
those who have made no special and careful study of it ;
and, if employed incorrectly, is worse than useless. The
only practical plan seems to be for each word-collector to
use his own method of recording sounds 'for which he
should certainly employ Glossic, if he can, or most of the
Glossic symbols, or at least give an account of his own
system of spelling according to the pronunciation given by
Walker or Webster), and then the Glossic or Palaeotype
spelling can be inserted afterwards, between brackets, by
some one who understands it. The following rules ought
also to be strictly observed by word-collectors : —
1 . Avoid etymology ; leave it to those who have made it
a special study. Strive rather to record the words themselves,
with their meanings ; add also scraps of real (not invented)
talk, to illustrate the occasional uses of the words.
2. Put down everything that is not in standard English.
To miss a word current in Shropshire, because it is also used
in Herefordshire, is an utter mistake ; indeed, many good
TENNYSON: 'ALL THE SWINE JVERE SOWS.' 77
lists have been ruined this way. Words can always be
struck out, but they are hard to put in. Accordingly, the
locality of every word should be noted, without stopping to
ascertain if it is peculiar to that locality. ' Other rules can
be supplied to those who apply for them.
[A second letter on the same subject appeared in
N. and Q. 4 S. xi. 406, on May 17 of the same year.
These letters led to considerable results, tending to
establish the English Dialect Society, which was started in
1873, and (in 1895) is still vigorous.
The first publication of the Society was ' A Bibliographical
List of the Works that have been published, or are known
to exist in MS., illustrative of the various dialects of Eng-
lish ; compiled by members of the E. D. S., and edited by
the Rev. W. W. Skeat and J. H. Nodal. London: Triibner,
1873-7-']
93. Tennyson : ' All the swine were sows '
(The Princess) (4 S. xi. 346 ; 1873).
It seems hard that Tennyson should be accused of an
error on the ground that ' swine is the plural of sow"1 \ an
assertion of which no proof is offered. In English it is
certainly not the case ; the A.S. sivhi was a collective neuter
noun, commonly used as a plural ; but it could also be used
as a singular. See the example in Bosworth's Dictionary,
in which swines is used as the genitive singular, meaning of
a pig; the gen. pi. was swhia, as in sw'ina heord, a herd of
swine. Another example of the singular is in Swlnes-Juefed,
now Swineshead, in Huntingdonshire ; whilst the adjective
swinen, like the modern swinish, is derived from swine as
distinct from sow* In German, the sing, is Schwein, and the
pi. Schweine ; cf. also the Dutch zwijn, Icel. svln, &c. But
so7c is the A. S. sugu, which is not even of the same gender
with swine, being a feminine noun, like the G. Sau, and Icel.
syr. The plural of sugu would be suga ; in German the
78 'MUCH' IN THE SENSE OF 'GREAT.'
plural has two forms, Siiue and Sauen. I may here also
correct the singular error in a new grammar edited by
Dr. Smith, viz. that kine is contracted from cowen, for which
eccentric form no authority is cited. The A. S. cii, a cow,
made its plural in the form cy, by vowel-change ; the Mid.
Eng. kin was formed from cy by adding the plural ending
-en, whence ky-en or kin ; the final -e is a modern addition.
94. ' Much' in the sense of 'Great' (4 S. xi. 220 ; 1873).
Instances of much used in the sense of great are probably
common. Thus, every Shropshire man must know oiMuch
Wenlock, as distinguished from Little Wenlock. Three
examples of this use of the word in English poetry at once
occur to me : —
'vi). 4A muche mon, me thouhte, lyk to myselue.'
Piers the Plowman, A. ix. 61.
From which interesting allusion we gather that the author
of the poem was a big man, as regarded his stature.
(2). ;The uiuckle devil blaw ye south.'
Burns — Author s Earnest Cry.
(3). 4 Rise, lass, and mak a clean fireside,
Put on the mucklc pot.'
Mickle — There s Nae Luck about the House.
Besides which, the common surname, Mitchell, simply
stands for mickle, i. e. a tall or big man ; cf. Lat. magnus,
&c. Observe that one quotation is from Mickle !
95. ' Exceptio probat regulam ' (4 S. xi. 197 ; 1873).
I wish to point out that the phrase 'Exceptio probat
regulam ' involves no mistake, and is a maxim of perfectly
sound sense. It means, 'The exception tests the rule,'
a maxim of the highest value in all scientific investigations.
The older English equivalent, ' The exception proves the
rule,' had once the same signification, the use of prove for
test being familiar to all readers of the Bible ; as, e. g., in the
wise advice of St. Paul that we should 'prove (i.e test) all
' EXCEPTIO PROBAT REGULAM.' 79
things,' so that we may know how ' to hold fast that which
is good.' Unhappily, the expression, ' The exception proves
the rule,' has become meaningless to all who forget that it
is an old, not a modern expression ; and perhaps no really
wise saying has ever been so frequently taken to mean utter
nonsense. Ever}' one who reflects for an instant must see
that an exception does not prove, but rather tends to invali-
date, a rule. It tests it, and we hence obtain one of three
results : either (1) the exception can be perfectly explained,
in which case it ceases to be an exception, and the rule
becomes, in relation to it, absolute; or (2) the exception
resists all explanation, because the rule itself is wrong ; or
(3) the exception resists explanation, not because the rule
itself is wrong, but because the power to explain the excep-
tion fails, from a lack of sufficient knowledge.
In like manner, the proverb, ' The more haste, the worse
speed,' is now often taken to mean, ' The more haste, the
worse haste,' which is but harsh, and tends to nonsense.
But, when we remember that speed really meant success in
Old English, the sense becomes ' The more haste, the worse
success,' which is a perfectly wise and sensible saying. So
also ' God speed the plough ' does not mean ' God hasten
the plough,' but ' God prosper the plough.'
In the proverb 'God sends the shrewd cow short horns,'
shrewd means mischievous or ill-tempered, not clever or
intelligent.
In the proverb ' Handsome is as handsome does,' hand-
some means neat, with reference to skilfulness of execution,
not beautiful in the usual modern sense. In ' Good wine
needs no bush,' the bush is well known to be that which was
tied to the end of an ale-stake.
In ' To buy a pig in a poke,' we have the old spelling of
pouch, with the sense of bag.
And of course there are numerous other examples of the
perfectly general rule, that all our proverbs have come down
80 BRIG A.
to us from olden times, and must be interpreted according
to the sense of words in old, not in modern English.
96. Briga (4 S. xii. 457 ; 1873).
[N.B. This article is a skit upon the usual methods
employed by guessing etymologists. Many readers, I believe,
took it quite seriously !]
At the last reference W. B. traces a large number of
English words from briga, which he says is from the root
earth. Has he really secured the right root} Surely all
the words which he mentions, and many more, are rather
to be referred to the Latin terra. Thus plough and breeches,
which he instances, are obviously not from earth, but from
terra, as a little reflection will show. From terra would
come terrare, to tear the earth (our English tear), and by
the well-known interchange of p with / (cf. Gk. tessares with
JEo\ pisures) we get a dialectal form perra re, also to till the
earth, whence perratum or pratum, a meadow, Eng. prairie.
By the usual shifting of r (as in bird, from Old Eng. brid)
we get preare ; and, by the common change of r into /,
pleare, a word adopted by the Anglo-Saxons as pleogan, to
till ; and hence our plough. From the same root, pleogan,
come play and ply, and the adjective pliafit. So, too, with
breeks {braced). The compound word terri-braccce, breeches
to protect from the earth or soil, is the obvious origin of our
supposed nautical word tarry-breeks, or, by loss of the first
part of the word, breeks. The liability of these to tear (the
connexion of which word with terra has been already shown)
gives the verb to break, as also the substantive brick, literally
broken pieces of earth. Just as we find bacca written for
vacca, in Old Latin, we may suppose breeks to become vreeks,
whence the Southern-English vrock, our standard English
frock. By loss oi f, comes the German Rock, also meaning
coat, the garment which covers the ridge or back, since in
Old English rugge often occurs with the sense of back.
WHY ADAM MEANS NORTH, SOUTH, ETC. 8l
Rock is clearly the same as rug or rag, also used for covering
the body. All these, it will be observed, are obviously from
the Latin terra. Then, again, the earth was regarded as an
object of mystery or wonder, whence our terror; as, also,
terrier, lit. the scarer, the dog who terrifies or scares the
sheep. The English drag is known to be cognate with Lat.
trahere ; but this is a shortened form of ter-rahere, lit. to
drag or draw along the ground ; so that from the same root,
terra, come also such words as drag or draw, trail, and,
by loss of /, rail {rails still are laid along the earth) ; and by
loss of r, ail or ale (made from the produce of the earth) ; by
loss of a, ill (from the effects produced by ale), and so on.
It is especially curious to see how W. B., not remembering
the Latin terra, has failed to solve the word Albion. Granting
that Albion is, as he says, from arb, heights, he must allow
that arb or arp is merely a metathesis of the pra in pratum,
the connexion of which with terra has been shown above.
This is verified by observing the Latin arbor, lit. the fruit of
the earth, just as our tree (Old Eng. tre) is short for terre,
the old spelling of terrae, the genitive case of terra. I have
thus shown that tree, Albion, ill, ale, drag, &c, are all from
the Latin terra, and I am prepared to derive from this pro-
lific root, not merely all the words which W. B. mentions,
but every ivord in our la?iguage ; so that, instead of referring
all our words to a few roots, I would refer them all to one
root, and that root is the Latin terra, and not the Armenian
ard. If W. B. is serious, I am sure that my derivations are
quite as convincing. But, alas, that English etymology
should ever, in these days, be trailed through the dirt after
such a fashion.
97. Why Adam means North, South, East, and West
(5 S. i. 305; l874).
In the Dialogue of Solomon and Saturn, ed. Kemble,
p. 1 78, is the following singular passage : — ' Tell me, whence
G
82 SHAKESPEARE'S NAME.
was the name of Adam formed ? Answer. I tell thee, of
four stars. Tell me, how are they called ? Answer. I tell
thee, Arthox, Dux, Arotholem, Minsymbrie ' (I give here
Kemble's translation, instead of the Anglo-Saxon original,
because it answers my purpose quite as well).
These names have never been explained, to my knowledge,
and I confess that I never expected to know what they
mean. There are no stars with such names.
But in the Cursor Mundi, ed. Morris, p. 42, is a passage,
equally hopeless as it stands, to this effect : — ' Hear now the
reason of his name, why he was called Adam. In this name
are laid four letters, that are derived from the four ways ; so
that Adam is as much as to say, as East, West, North, and
South.' It is obvious that the initials of these words do not
make up Adam in E?iglish.
The two passages, both unintelligible in themselves, com-
pletely explain each other ; for, though these words do not
spell Adam in English, they do so in Greek. Here, then,
is the answer to the riddle ; the ' four stars ' is a mistake for
the four ' quarters,' and the words, apparently so mysterious,
are merely Arctos,.Dusis, Anatole, Mesembria; ap/cros, Svats,
avaToXrj, /xeo-^/x^pta. Moral : never guess, but wait for fresh
information to turn up.
98. Shakespeare's Name (5 S. ii. 444 ; 1874).
What is meant by saying that ' Fewtarspeare is, doubtless,
a local surname,' I cannot understand. Just as Shakespeare
means a man who shakes a spear, just as Breakspear means
one who breaks a spear, so Fewtarspeare means one who
feivtars or feutres a spear, i. e. who lays it in rest.
' His spcare he fcutrcd, and at him it bore.'
F. Q. iv. 5, 45.
I do not see why English etymology should be considered
a fit subject for such unintelligent guess-work.
' O THER WHILES. ' 83
[With Shake-spear and Fewtar-speare, cf. Wag-staff. I
once saw the name Shake-shaft over a shop door at
Lichfield.]
99. * Other-whiles ' (5 S. ii. 435 ; 1874).
Certainly this word is nothing new. See Dr. Stratmann's
Old English Dictionary (which correspondents should con-
sult for themselves), where these references are given.
Otherwhile, Layamon, 1. 7062 ; Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. i.
p. no; Robert of Gloucester, p. 100; other hwule, Ancren
Riwle, p. 82 ; other hwiles, another reading, at the last
reference. Besides which, I may add a reference to Piers
the Plowman, B. xix. 99.
100. < A Stick of Eels' (5 S. ii. 52 ; 1874).
The following quotation furnishes an answer to the query,
how much is a stick}
1 A stick of fish, a term applied to eels when strung on a row, " sic
dicta, quod trajecta vimine quod stic dicimus) connectabantur ";
Spelman. A stica consisted of 25 eels, and 10 sticce made a binde ;
Glanv. lib. ii. c. 9.'
This is a note by Sir F. Madden, reprinted in my edition of
Havelok the Dane, s. v. Stac, in the Glossarial Index, p. 144.
101. English Etymology in 1875. (From a note upon
'Fangled' in N. and Q. 5 S. iii. 310.)
. . . This brings me to the great principle to which I wish
to draw attention, viz., that the publications of the Early
English Text Society, the investigations of Mr. Ellis, the
strictly scientific methods pursued at the present day in
Greek and Latin etymology, and other similar aids, are fast
tending to revolutionize, none too soon, the whole study of
English etymology. I have great hope that we pioneers
have done real good ; and that the next generation of philo-
logists, applying to English the same strictly scientific
methods as have already been applied to Latin and Greek,
G 2
84 THE SUFFIX -STER IN ENGLISH.
will make a clean sweep of the thousand and one ludicrous
guesses with which even the best of our dictionaries are
still encumbered, and will unhesitatingly reject, as useless
lumber, all that is of the nature of guess-work, all that
cannot be supported by ample, or, at any rate, by sufficient
evidence. If in this process some of my work is swept
away with the rest, I can fully forgive, by anticipation, those
who weigh it and find it wanting. . . . Etymology is, in fact,
not a personal matter at all ; if an etymology rests merely on
the basis that so-and-so suggested it, it is rotten and useless ;
and I entirely repudiate the notion, so extremely common
even in our best periodicals, that etymology is a mere
system of bad puns, and that anything may be ' derived '
from anything else, provided there is some ' apparent ' out-
ward likeness between the forms compared.
102. The suffix -ster in English. I (5 S. hi. 371 ; 1875).
See, on this suffix, Marsh's Lectures on the English
Language, ed. Smith, 1862, pp. 207, 208, and the note at
p. 217 ; Matzner's Eng. Gram. i. 434; Loth's Eng. Gram.
p. 309 ; Koch's Eng. Gram. iii. 47 ; and Morris's Historical
Outlines of English Accidence, p. 89. The accounts given by
Marsh and Koch are much more satisfactory, in my opinion,
than that given by Dr. Brewer. The assertion that ' -ster is
not a female suffix at all, and never was ' (?), argues a very
slight acquaintance with our older literature. Granting
that it was not exclusively so, and that, in the fourteenth
century, the distinction between -er and -ster was not always
well preserved, there are quite enough examples extant to
show that the termination was very often used as a feminine
suffix, and that, too, by evident design. Several examples
will be found at the references cited above, to which I add
the following. Lye and Manning's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
gives the following examples : —
' Fithclere, fidicen,' as distinguished from iJUhelstr*i fidicina';
THE SUFFIX -STER IN ENGLISH. 85
hearpere, a harper, as distinguished from hearpcstre, a female harper ;
//oppere, a dancer ; hoppestre, a female dancer ; sangere, a singer ;
aangestre, a female singer ; scamcstre, a sempster ; txppere, a male
tapster ; fa'ppcstre, a female tapster ; zvcbba, a male weaver ; wcbbestrc,
a female weaver.
To some of these words references are given, and they may
be found in ^Elfric's Glossary, printed at the end of Somner's
A.-S. Dictionary, and in another copy of the same, to be
found in the Bodley MS. Junius 77 ; see also the MSS. of
^Elfric's Glossary described by Wanley. Bosworth's Diction-
ary also gives cennestre, genitrix ; crencestre, a female weaver ;
luristre, a female teacher ; myltestre, meretrix (which occurs
in the A.-S. version of Lev. xix. 29; Gen. xxxviii. 15; and
Matt. xxi. 31). Many more examples will be found in the
books cited above.
But in order to establish the case, one example is quite
sufficient. We find, then, in the A.-S. version of the Gospels
that the word witega occurs repeatedly in the sense of
prophet. Thus, in St. Mark i. 2, we have, ' Swa awriten is
on J?ses witegan bee isaiam,' — as it is written in the book
of the prophet Isaiah. But when it is intended to express
the idea of prophetess instead of prophet, the feminine
termination is duly added, as in St. Luke ii. 36, ' And Anna
waes 7vitegystre, fanueles dohtor,' — and Anna was a pro-
phetess, the daughter of Phanuel.
103. The suffix -ster in English. II (5 S.iii. 449; 1875).
It is quite true, at the same time, though it has long been
notorious, that the termination -ster in a great many in-
stances lost its feminine force, and, in some instances,
never had that force at all. This was simply due to course
of time, and probably in some measure to confusion with
the Old French ending -stre, as seen in Chaucer's idolastre
or ydolastre, in the sense of idolater. But we have had
something like this before ; see N. and Q. 1 S. vi. 409,
86 A FEAT IN SWIMMING.
568 ; 3 S. iv. 350 ; especially the article at the first of these
references.
Each word has its separate history, and should be kept
apart from the rest ; the chronology is, in each case, of the
highest importance. There are some words, such as
bakester, which appear in Anglo-Saxon, cf. A. S. bcecestre ;
there are others, such as pufister, which are of modern
formation ; and there are others again, such as lobster,
holster, which are not properly personal substantives at all.
To show how necessary it is to take words separately, I will
instance lobster. It is clear that A. S. loppe, a flea, North-
Eng. lop, meant a leaper ; and it is probable that the A. S.
loppestre was made to match it, with the same signification
of leaper, but with no very definite idea of gender, merely
by way of giving the word a sort of sense. The alternative
spelling lopust (for loppestre) makes it highly probable that
the word was merely a vulgar adaptation of the Lat. locus ta
or locus ta marina, as suggested in Mahn's Webster, in
Wedgwood, and in E. Miiller. Cf. crayfish, from ecrevisse.
104. A Feat in Swimming (5 S. iv. 186 ; 1875).
In connexion with Captain Webb's achievement, recent
as it is, it is well worthy of notice that the notion of swim-
ming for a very protracted time is to be found, with full
particulars, in the very oldest piece of writing which exists
in the English language ; proving, as I think, that our
English race has always been familiar with the exercise.
In the poem of Beowulf is a long and full account of the
swimming match between Beowulf and Breca. I fear the
description is exaggerated, as it tells us that these two
athletes swam side by side for five days, whilst ' the ocean
boiled with waves, with winter's fury ' ; or whilst, in the
words of the original, ' geofon ythum weol, wintres wylme.'
At the end of the five days, says Beowulf, ' unc flod todraf,'
the flood drave us two asunder ; after which he met with
COMETS. 87
some thrilling adventures, attacking and killing several
sea-monsters with his sword, and (amongst the rest) slaying
' niceras nigene,' i. e. nine nickers, or water-demons ; and
finally he landed on the shores of Finland. The whole
account in Thorpe's edition of Beowulf, pp. 35-40, is worth
referring to. And I think we may congratulate our gallant
countryman that, though he was unfortunately stung by
a jelly-fish, he was not under the necessity of slaying nine
nickers, nor of remaining, as Beowulf is said to have done,
for more than seven days in the water.
105. Comets (5 S. iv. 146 ; 1875).
Milton has — , T .. . , ,,
'Like a comet burn a
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In the Arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war.' — P. L. ii. 708.
In Batman uppon Bartholome, lib. viii. c. 32, we read
that —
' Cometa is a starre beclipped with burning gleames, as Beda doth
say, and is sodeinly bred, and betokeneth changing of kings, and is
a token of pestilence, or of ivar, or of winds, or of great heate . . . and
they spread their beames toward the North, and never towards the
West.'
With the phrase, ' changing of kings,' cf. Paradise Lost, i.
jy h oy i And with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs.'
106. * Tetter' (5 S. iv. 126 ; 1875).
The word is in Hamlet, i. 5. The German form Zitter-
mal shows that tetter is a Low German (English or Dutch)
form of the same word. Cf. A. S. teter.
1 Impetigo, Zerua and Zarua, called of the Greekes Lichen, of some
Lichena. There are two kinds, the viscous scab and watrie is called
a Ringworme, the other is a drye Tettar: this is infectious, and is
soone taken by lyeing in an vncleane bedde. The drye scabbe
88 ' SPIT WHITE. '
commeth of melancholy, the wet commeth of putrified fleame and
corrupt bloud.' — Batman nppon Bartholomc, Addition to lib. vii.
c. 49.
107. 'Spit white' (5 S. iv. 106 ; 1875.)
Falstaff says, ' If it be a hot day, and I brandish anything
but a bottle, I would I might never spit white again.' This
means, of course, ' be in perfect health again.' See the
Addition to lib. vii. c. 29 of Batman uppon Bartho/ome
(ed. 1582, fol. 97), where all kinds of spittle are described
with reference to health : — ■' If the spettle be white viscus,
the sickenesse commeth of fleame ; if black ... of melan-
choly . . . The whitte [sic] spettle not knottie, signifieth
health?
[Dr. Schmidt, in his admirable Shakespeare Lexicon,
observes — ' Nares adduces some passages from contem-
porary writers to prove that to spit white was thought to be
the consequence of intemperance in drinking ; but he has
forgotten to ascertain the colour of other people's spittle.'
The remark is just ; but our ancestors did not go by facts,
but by opinions ; and the above extract shows that there
was a notion that people could spit ' black.' I leave my
note as I wrote it, though it excited some derision ; I know
not why.]
108. Cicero speaking Greek (5 S. iv. 266 ; 1875).
' Cassius. Did Cicero say anything ?
Casca. Ay, he spoke Greek.'
_ , . .. Julius Caesar, i. 2. 281.
Compare the following : —
'Wherefore when he [Cicero] came to Rome, at the first he pro-
ceeded very warily and discreetly, and did vnwillingly seeke for any
Office, and when he did, he was not greatly esteemed : for they
commonly called him the Grecian and scholer, which are two words
which the Artificers (and such base Mechanicall people at Rome)
have euer readie at their tongues' end.' — North's Plutarch, 'Life of
Cicero,' ed. 1612, p. 861 ; see the whole passage.
[This note afterwards appeared in Mr. W. Aldis Wright's
TREENWARE. 89
edition of Julius Caesar, published in 1878. But of course
Mr. Wright observed the coincidence for himself.]
109. Treenware (5 S. iv. 331 ; 1875).
Without doubt the explanation of tree?iware by ' earthen
vessels ' is, at least etymologically, incorrect. Of course, it
ought to mean ' wooden vessels.' But the explanation
occurs in both the early editions of Ray's Collection, and it
hardly seemed to me to be worth a note. It is possible,
after all, that Ray noted correctly the use of the word as
current in his own day, for nothing is more common than
a change of meaning in English words in course of time.
Names are often retained long after the things which they
denote have suffered alteration. Thus, a turee?i (formerly
terrene) means a vessel made of earth ; but for all that,
people do not hesitate to talk of a ' silver soup-tureen,' for
the simple reason that the vessels which were once made of
earth are now often made of silver. Similarly, the name of
treeiiware may very well have been continued in use long
after the vessels themselves had ceased to be invariably of
wood.
I add a good example of tre in the old sense of wood.
In Trevisa's Description of Britain {Specimens of English,
ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 239) we have a description of
a petrifying well that turned wooden things into stone : —
' Thar ys also a pond that turneth tre into yre [iron], and
[if] hyt be ther-ynne al a yer [year] ; and so tren [pieces
of wood] buth yschape [are made] into whestones ' [ivhet-
s tones].
110. 'Nuncheon.' I (5 S. iv. 366 ; 1875).
The etymology of this word is a puzzle of long standing *.
The guess-work writers have long ago made the desperate
1 It had been solved, previously and independently, by Mr. Walford ;
see the next article.
90 ' NUNCHEON.'
attempt to connect it with noon-shun, because (note the
'because,' that marks the work of your guesser) labourers
shun the heat of noon when they eat their nuncheon. But
of course it is obvious that the labourer does not shun the
noon itself, but only the heat of it. When the etymology
of a word is unknown, there is but one thing to do, viz.
to wait in patience till the light comes. In this case the
first ray of light came when Mr. Riley printed his valuable
and well-edited Memorials of London. We there find, at
p. 265 :
' These donations for drink to workmen are called in Letter-Book
G, fol. iv. (27 Edw. III\ nonechenche, probably "noon's quench,"
whence the later nuncheon or luncheon.'
This half solves the difficulty, as it gives the old form of
the word ; but the suggestion of quench is rather too much
of a wrench. The reader of Middle English may here
recognize the word sche7iche, meaning a drink ; and the
verb schetiche?i (A. S. scencan^, to pour out drink. Cf. G.
schenk, a cup-bearer, in English a skinker ; and schenken, to
skink, or pour out liquor. Thus nonechejiche simply means
the noon-drink, with the implied sense of its being poured
out and carried round in fixed quantities, in accordance
with the skinker's known duties. Thus nuncheon is merely
noon-ski?ik, with the usual palatalisation of the k to ch which
so abounds in English. When nuncheon lost all meaning,
popular etymology, always at work to corrupt, desperately
confused it with the lump of bread instead of the cup of
drink, thus producing the absurd lu?icheon, which has so
baffled all inquirers.
[Similarly, the A. S. non-mete, M. E. nbnmete, ?ionmet, i. e.
noon-meat, is now the Southern prov. E. nammet, nummet,
a luncheon. See nuncheon and hmcheon in my Etym. Diet.,
larger edition.]
'NUNCHEOK.' 91
111. ' Nuncheon.' II (5 S. iv. 398 ; 1875).
It is evident, from Mr. Skeat's note, that he was not
aware that the same etymology of the word nuncheon had
been given by me, about twenty-five years ago, in the
Proceedings of the Bury and Suffolk Archaeological Institute.
I have not the volume by me, but I believe it was in vol. i.
p. 180. It will there be seen to be probable that the word
noonscench came to mean something to eat, as well as some-
thing to drink, between meals.
W. S. Walford, F.S.A.
112. 'Nuncheon.' III (5 S. iv. 434; 1875).
I am glad to know that Mr. Walford had already solved
this word, and cheerfully accord to him whatever merit
attaches to the first enunciation of the truth concerning it.
I had noted it some years ago, independently, but omitted
to publish the result.
Mr. K. has made a curious mistake ; for his parallel does
not hold. He thinks that chenche is put for quench, because
we find church put for kirk. With a slight amendment
I accept his reasoning, and admit that I do not see how
chenche can come out of quench, because I am quite sure
that church is not a corruption of quirk. Chenche is an
instance of that common substitution of ch for sh or sch
with which all readers of Early English manuscripts must be
familiar.
There was not only the term nonechenche for noon-drink,
but none-mete for noon-meat, or noon-eating. See Halliwell's
Dictionary. The Spanish words cited by Mr. Peacock are
hardly to the point. Mere resemblances prove little, and
it is far more likely that luncheon was an extension of the
provincial-English lunch, meaning a lump, than that our
labourers took to talking Spanish.
The Spanish word loncha, meaning a slice of meat, not
92 'AWN'D,' 'AUND.'
a lump of it, was suggested by Minshew, and rejected by
Richardson ; and rightly, in my opinion.
113. 'Awn'd,' ' Aund' (5 S. iv. 384; 1875).
In Halliwell's excellent Dictionary is the following
entry : —
' Awn'd, ordained; Yorksh. Kennett (MS. Lansd. 1033) gives the
example — I am awn'd to ill luck, i. e. it is my peculiar destiny or
fortune.'
In Ray's Glossary of North Country Words is the entry :
'An/id, ordained; forsan per contractionem. I am awid to this
luck ; *. e. ordained.'
In reprinting Ray's collection for the English Dialect
Society I added the note, by way of protest against such
a guess, that ' aund being short for ordained is out of the
question.' I now ' make a note ' that the true etymology has
appeared.
Mr. Atkinson, in his Cleveland Glossary, has the right
idea. He connects the word with the ' O. N. audidj
meaning thereby the Icelandic audit. But if any one who
consults Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary will
(after finding audit on p. 31) just turn over the leaf and
examine the word audna — to be ordained by fate — he will
find there all that he wants. He will also find that the
verb audita is a derivative of the substantive audr, fate, of
which the Old Swedish form was ode. This is the very
result which Mr. Atkinson suspected. I have merely
supplied the missing link in the chain of his evidence.
[This provincial word is not in the New Eng. Diet.]
114. <Vant'(5 S. iv. 455 ; 1S75).
With respect to the suggestion that vant may have been
'a stupid churchwarden's spelling o( font,' I would suggest
that this peculiar spelling might have been due to the fact
of the churchwarden's being familiar with the dialect of his
county. Perhaps he may even have been familiar with
GLOVE. 93
English literature. The spelling is not new. but may be
found in Robert of Gloucester, who wrote in 1298. In
Hearne's edition of that poet we find (under the word
1 vonge ' in the Glossary) this note : ' To vang, in some
parts of England, is even now used for "to answer at the
font as godfather," particularly in Somersetshire, where
Mr. Somner, in his Dictionary, observes that the country
people have this expression " he vanged to me at the vant,"
i. e. " in baptisterio pro me suscepit." ' It is instructive to
find that, in some cases, this substitution of v for /has been
accepted as standard English. The word fitches (A. V. Isa.
xxviii. 25 ; Ezek. iv. 9) has been supplanted by the South-
country form vetches. The word fat (Joel ii. 24; iii. 13),
with its derivative winefat (Isa. lxiii. 2; Mark xii. 1), has
been ousted by the Kentish [or Dutch] form vat, with the
derivative winevat, probably owing to the influence of the
hop interest. We all use vixen (for fixeti) as the feminine
of fox. The word fane (A. S. find) is now spelt vane.
Milton turned fans into vans {P. L. ii. 927). Shakespeare
wrote vade for fade (Sonnet 54). But I do not allow that
these poets were ' stupid.'
115. Glove (5 S. iv. 409 ; 1875).
The notion that glove is of Gaelic origin is easily shown
to be out of the question. Dr. Mackay knows, as well as
I do, that there is no such word in Gaelic as ceillamh with
the sense of glove ; or if there is, perhaps he will kindly
give us the reference to the passage in which he has foimd it.
The Gaelic for glove is la?nhainn, from lamh, a hand. There
is no mystery about the Gaelic words ceill or lamh. The
first is cognate with the Latin celare, A. S. helan, and, in the
form hele, is still one of the commonest of our dialectal
words. If we had wished to express the idea in English,
we could have said hele-hand, or helland, without taking the
slightest trouble to search for the Gaelic equivalent. The
94 GLOVE.
derivation of glove from the Icelandic glbfi is, again, just
one of those mistakes which are made by those to whom
chronology is of no importance ; for it just so happens that
the borrowing has been in the other direction, and that the
Icelandic glbfi was borrowed from England. I know of
nothing so useless as the attempt that is made by so many
to ' derive ' English words from some other language. Are
there, I would ask, no native words ? Must wre never rest
till we have chased every word to death, and are we to
write ourselves down as a nation whose language has not
a single native word in it ? Nothing can be clearer than
that glove is a word of our own. We can boast the oldest
monument in all Teutonic literature (the Mceso-Gothic frag-
ments being excepted), viz. the poem of Beowulf. And in
this poem we find the word 'glof'; see Thorpe's edition,
p. 140, 1. 4177. How could the word glof have been known
in Anglo-Saxon, if, as Dr. Mackay pretends, it was a corrup-
tion of a compound Gaelic word, of which I can find no
proof that it existed, till it pleased our Gaelic friend to coin
it ? I think writers would do well to let English etymology
alone unless they can take pains with their chronology, and
can condescend to give quotations in place of inventions.
It is quite a mistake to suppose that Gaelic is the only
language that lends itself to a system of verbal quibbles.
When once we begin to coin etymologies, any language will
serve the turn. For every Gaelic etymology that Dr. Mackay
can invent, I can easily invent one in some other tongue
that will look quite as well. Take, for instance, glove, and
try a Sanskrit dictionary. I do this, and find at once that
kalapa means a quiver or case ; see the Mahdbhdrata, 3,
1 1454. Suppose it pleased me to say that glove is an
obvious corruption of kalapa} The change from one form
to the other is not very violent, and the change in meaning
is conceivable. Or again, if we try Greek, we at once light
upon KaX.v7TTeiv, to hide or cover. Or again, the Icelandic
'GHAUTS.' 95
lofi, the palm, comes as near to glove as the Gaelic lamh
does. But I am very strongly of opinion that this sort of
guessing is (or ought to be) out of date, and that it is high
time for those who propose ' derivations ' to propose them
in a credible form.
116. 'Ghauts.' I (5 S. iv. 456; 1875).
Beyond all question, the Whitby gaut is a mere variation
of gote, a drain. Cf. Icel. gjbta, Dan. gyde, a narrow lane,
and see * gote or water-schetelys, goote or water-schedyllys,
aquagium, sinoglocitorium] in Prompt. Parv. Another
form of the word is gut, a channel ; every Cambridge rowing
man knows whereabouts on the Cam to find ' The Gut.'
The root is the A. S.geotan, to pour, cognate with the Greek
\Uur. Much more might be added, but perhaps it will
suffice to learn the lesson that ghaut, as a mis-spelling of
gaut, furnishes an additional instance of the absurdity
whereby gost has been turned into ghost, and gastly and
agast into ghastly and aghast. It is odd that g should be
unable to run alone in all cases.
[The Whitby Glossary (E. D. S.) gives ' Gauts or Gotes ;
see Gooatsl Also ' Gooats or Gotes, openings or slopes
from the streets to the water-side. Spelt goutes in Camden.']
117. ' Ghauts.' II (5 S. v. 114; 1876).
C. S. G. confidently affirms that ghaut cannot be another
form of gote or gut, because the latter form always means
a canal or drain for water, and has no other signification.
I commend to his consideration the following instance,
which I found in almost the first book I consulted, viz.
Richardson's Dictionary : —
' You pass a narrow gut between two stone terrasses, that rose
above your head, and which were crowned by a line of pyramidal
yews.' — Walpole, ' On Gardening.'
96 WRITER'S ERRORS.
Will C. S. G. seriously contend that gut in this passage
means a channel for water ?
When we find in Icelandic the word gjota, a narrow lane,
taking the same form as gjota, to pour ; when we find in
Danish gyde, a narrow lane, again taking the same form as
gyde, to pour, what is the use of going to India 1 for an
explanation that can be had from Denmark ?
I suppose that the spelling ghaut (of course it should be
gaut) originated with some one else who had learnt a little
geography at school, and chose to spell it so. It looks as if
it originated with some one ignorant of Anglo-Saxon, Ice-
landic, and Danish. What is the authority for it ?
118. Writer's Errors (5 S. v. 206 ; 1876).
As the phrase ' clerical errors ' has by some been deemed
ambiguous, I would point out that it can be avoided by
saying ' errors of the scribe,' or ' errors of the writer,' or
simply ' writer's errors.' To say that such or such a mistake
was due to ' a writer's error,' or to an ' error in writing,' is
intelligible enough, and is distinct from an author's error on
the one hand, and from a printer's error, or error of the
press, on the other. I have seen ' scribal error ' used, but
the adjective sounds, to me, rather clumsy.
I was reminded of this by having just discovered one of
the oddest writer's errors I ever remember to have seen.
I had occasion to quote the text, from 1 Tim. vi. 10, that
' the love of money is the root of all evil 2,' and just as
I was writing it out, some noise called off my attention.
On looking again at the MS. I found, to my great surprise,
that, instead of ' money,' I had inadvertently written
' woman.' I am glad the quotation did not go to press in
that remarkable form.
1 I. e. the Ghauts, from the Hindustani ghat.
2 In my note on the Title of the Pardoneres Tale.
ALLITERATIVE POETRY. 97
119. Alliterative Poetry (5 S. v. 224 ; 1876).
Many of your readers who are aware that much of our
early poetry is alliterative may be at a loss where to find an
easy example of the force and swing of it. I have ventured
to throw together the following lines by way of specimen, in
imitation rather of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
than of the earlier examples. All that the reader need
observe is that there are commonly three emphatic syllables
in a line which begin with the same letter. To these
syllables a special stress may be given, and the result is
a metre of a rough but forcible character, by no means
unsuited to the genius of the language. If the stress falls
upon initial vowels, the vowels need not be the same ; and,
in fact, are most often different. It will be understood that
the subject is chosen in accordance with the national
character of the metre.
An Englishman's Song.
A curse on the croakers who cowardly prattle
How England is aging to abject abasement,
No longer a leader, no law to the nations !
Though foul birds defile thus the nest that defends them,
The hearts of our heroes beat high in their yearning,
Where dangers are densest, to dash to the onset !
Sweet Peace let us prize, with her pleasures and treasures,
Nor ween to wage wars of a wanton aggression ;
Ever firm for defence, not defiant in folly,
Yet weighing with wisdom the words that we utter,
As conscious, though calm, that our counsels are heeded.
We rest, but we rust not : once roused into action,
The life of the old land will leap up in earnest,
With prayers to the Prime Source of progress in goodness.
With trust in the triumph of truth, though it tarry,
And woe to the workers of wicked devices !
The hate of all harm that is hostile to justice
Still steels us to sternness and steady endeavour.
Unfolding the flag that is feared by oppressors.
We dare to the death, never daunted by evil,
Still foremost in fighting where Freedom leads onward!
H
98 CHRONOLOGY OF ENGLISH.
120. Chronology of English (5 S. v. 302 ; 1876.)
With the editor's permission, I propose to contribute,
occasionally, some remarks on the chronology of English,
not by way of proposing anything new, but of tabulating
what is old, in a more accessible form than heretofore.
Our etymology is, perhaps, in want rather of a Kepler than
Newton.
One of the most important matters is the date of the
introduction of French words. Dr. Morris has given us
a most important list of words introduced into English from
French before a.d. 1300, at p. 337 of his Historical Outlines
of English Accidence, but I find it wants to be recast into an
alphabetical form before it can be easily used. I now
attempt a first instalment of such work, in a form that seems
to me more convenient.
List I. — Erench words in the Saxon Chronicle, with their
dates (I have verified both spellings and dates, and added
the modern forms) : Cuntesse (countess), 1 140. Curt (acourt),
1 154. Dubbade (dubbed as a knight), 1086. Emperice
(empress), 1140. Justise (justice), 1137. Miracles, 1137.
Pais (peace), 1135. Prisun (prison^ 1137. Priuiligies
(privileges), 1137. Processiun, 1154. Rentes (rents of
lands), 1 137. Standard, n 38. Tresor (treasure), 1137.
Tur (^tower), 1140.
I am surprised to find that Dr. Morris has omitted the
word charity. This occurs in the true Old French form,
viz. carited, in 1137. It ought decidedly to be included
in the list; so ought castel1 (castle\ 1053, 1069, 1075;
and serfs (service), 1070. Repeated in the shortest form,
we here have authority for these words : — castle, charity,
countess, court, dub, empress, justice, miracle, peace, prison,
privilege, procession, rent, service, standard, treasure, tower.
1 Castel is of French origin, according to Kiuge, though it occurs
in the A. S. Gospels.
CHRONOLOGY OF ENGLISH. 99
List II. — French words in Old E?iglish Homilies, ed.
Morris, first series. This volume contains several pieces,
and the lists of French words in each are given separately
by Dr. Morris. For convenience, I throw all into one list,
with symbols to give the references, which are to the pages
of the volume. The pieces are : — ' Lambeth Homilies,"
before 1200, denoted by /. h. ; 'An Orison of our Lord,'
about 12 20, o./d.; 'An Orison of our Lady,' o.ly.; 'A
Lofsong (Hymn of Praise) of our Lady,' /. ly. ; 'A Lofsong
of our Lord,' /. Id. ; ' Soul's Ward,' s.w. ; ' Wooing of our
Lord,' w. /.
The words are these, omitting some which I shall discuss
afterwards. I have verified the spellings, added the
meanings, and, in one or two places, corrected the
references : —
Abandun (in subjection), o. Id., 189.
Asottie (to besot), 1. h., 17.
Beastes (beast's^, w. 1., 277.
Blanchet (fine wheaten flour), 1. h., 53.
Buffet (both as vb. and sb. ), w. 1., 281.
Buffetunge ^buffeting), 1. ly., 207.
Cachepol (catchpoll), 1. h., 97.
Calenges (2 p. s. challengest), w. 1., 275.
Chaumbre (chamber), w. 1., 285.
1-cheret (pp. lit. cheered, i.e. having the appearance), s. w\. 257.
Cherite (charity), o. ly., 199; 1. h., 69.
Cherubine (cherubim;, o. ly., 191.
Ciclatune (a rich stuff, mentioned in Chaucer's Sir Thopas.
o. ly., 193.
Clerk, 1. h., 133.
Crune (crown, sb.), w. 1., 281.
Cruneth (crowns), Crunede (crowned, pt. t.), s. w., 247 ; 1. h..
129.
Crununge (crowning), 1. ly., 207.
Cunestable (constable), s. w., 247.
Cunfessurs (confessors), s. w., 261.
Cunfort (comfort), o. Id., 185.
Cunig (coney, rabbit; cf. O. F. court), 1. h., 181.
Debonairte, w. 1., 269, 275; Deboneirschipe, w. 1., 275.
Delit (delight, sb.), o. Id., 187.
H 2
IOO CHRONOLOGY OF ENGLISH.
Derennedes (2 p. didst fight out ; Chaucer's dereyne or darrayne^.
w. I., 285).
Dol (sorrow), w. 1., 285.
Druri xlove-token), w. 1., 271.
Druth (love), w. 1., 269.
Eise (ease\ w. 1., 287.
Erites (heretics), 1. h., 143.
Ermine, 1. h., 181.
Ewangeliste, 1. h., 81 ; 1. Id., 209.
Fals (false", o. Id., 185.
Flum (river, Lat. /lumen), 1. h., 141.
Font (in fon-stan for fontstan, i. e. font-stone"1, 1. h., 73.
Fou (yellow, Fr. fauve), 1. h., 181.
Fructe v fruit), 1. h., 7.
Gentile (gentle), Gentiller, Gentileste, w. 1., 273.
Grace, 1. ly., 207 ; s. w., 255 ; w. 1., 275.
Hardi (bold, hardy), w. 1., 271.
Jugulere (juggler), 1. h., 29.
Keiser (emperor), pi. Keiseres, w. 1., 271 ; s. w., 261.
Krune (crown, sb.), o. ly., 193 ; see Crune.
I-kruned (crowned), o. ly., 193.
Large (liberaF, w. 1., 271 ; 1. h., 143.
Largesce (liberality), w. 1., 269.
Lechurs (lechers', 1. h., 53.
Lettres (letters), w. 1., 283.
Liureisun (delivery, award), 1. h., 85.
Mealies ;malls, mallets), s. w., 253.
Manere (manner), 1. h., 51.
Medicine, o. Id., 187 [not 185].
Meister (master), 1. h. 41 ; Meistre, s. w., 247; Meoster, s. w.,
257.
Meistreth (mastereth), s. w., 247.
Meosure (measure), s. w., 247 ; Mesure, 255.
Merci, 1. h., 43; 1. Id., 209.
Merciable (merciful). 1. Id., 211.
Mesaise (misease), w. 1., 279.
Noble, w. 1., 273.
Noblesce (nobility), w. 1., 269.
Obedience, 1. Id., 213.
Offrien (to offer), 1. h., 87; I-offred (offered), 87.
Orison, see Ureisun.
Paie (v. to pay, satisfy), w. 1., 285.
Palefrai (palfrey), 1. h., 5.
Paradise, o. ly., 191, 193 ; Parais, 1. h., 61.
*®/4ft
\P
CHRONOLOGY OF ENGLISH. IOI
Passiun, 1 h., 119 ; 1. ly., 205 ; w. 1., 275.
Piler (pillar), w. 1.. 281.
Pouerte (poverty), 1. h., 143.
Poure (poor), w. 1., 277 ; Pourere (poorer), 277.
Praie (sb. prey\ w. 1., 273.
Prei (pray thou), w. 1., 287.
Preoouin to prove), s. w., 249.
Prince, w. 1., 281.
Pris price, praise), 1. ly., 205.
Prisun (prisoner, not prison), w. 1., 273.
Priuete 'privity \ o. Id., 185.
Processiun, 1. h., 5 [not 3].
Prophete, 1. h., 5.
Prud (proud), 1. h., 5; pi. prude, 1. h., 143; prude (pride), Lly.,
205.
Psalm, Psalter ; see Salm, Saltere.
Ribauz (ribalds\ w. 1., 279.
Riche, 1. h., 53 ; Richere, \v. 1.. 271.
Robbedes isdidst rob), w. 1., 273 ; I-robbet (pp. robbed), s. \\\.
247.
Rubbere (robber), 1. h., 29 jwt 19 ] ; Rupere. 1. h.. 29.
Sabeline (sable, fur\ 1. h., 181.
Sacrement, 1. ly., 207 ; pi. Sacremens, 1. h., 5.
Sacreth (consecrates), 1. ly., 207; I-sacred, 1. Id. 209.
Salm (psalm), 1. h.. 73.
Saltere (psalter), 1. h., 7 [not 5] ; Sauter, 1. h., 155; Sawter.
1. Id.. 215.
Salue (salvation), o. Id., 187.
Salui (to save\ o. Id.. 189; Unsauuet (unsaved), o. Id., 187;
Sauuin (^to save\ 187.
Schurges (scourges), w. 1., 283.
Seinte ^saint), 1. h., 131.
Semblant (semblance), s. w., 247.
Seraphine (seraphs\ o. ly., 191.
Sermonen (vb. to discourse), 1. h.. 81.
Seruise (service), o. ly., 193.
Seruunge (serving), 1. Id., 215; Of-seruunge (deserving\ 215;
Un-ofserued ^undeserved), 215.
Sottes (sots', 1. h.. 29.
Spuse (spouse), w. 1., 277 : Spus-had matrimony", 1. h., 143.
Treitur (traitor), \v. 1., 279.
Tresor (treasure), s. w., 247; Tresur, 247.
Tresun (treason"", \v. 1 , 279.
Trones (thrones , s. \v., 261.
102 CHRONOLOGY OF ENGLISH.
Turnen (to turn). 1. Id., 213 ; A-turnet, s. w., 257.
Ureisun (orison), o. Id., 183 ; Ureisuns, 1. h., 51.
Warant (sb. warrant, guard), 1. Id., 211.
This list does not include the following, which seem to
me to be mistaken or uncertain. Carpe (to speak), w. 1.,
287 ; possibly from Lat. carpere, but proof of it in French is
wanting; there is an Icelandic karpa, to boast, brag. . .
Elmesse (alms), clearly A. S. ceimesse, introduced long before
this, and found in the A. S. version of the Gospels. Messe
(mass) is A. S. mcesse ; Munt (mount) is A. S. munt, both
used long ere this. Munek, Munuch (monk), A. S. munuc,
direct from moiiachus. Ocquer?ie (a squirrel), 1. h., 181 ;
which is A. S. acivern. Strete, which goes back to the time
of the Romans in England. . . On the other hand, I would
insert chatels (chattels, wealth), w. 1., 271.
I repeat the list, partly modernized, marking by italics the
words in the Chro?iicle, and by a dagger those that are
obsolete : —
Abandon, assot, beast, blanchett, buffet, castle, catchpoll,
challenge, chamber, charity, chattel, cheer, cherubim,
ciclatount, clerk, comfort, coney, confessor, constable,
crown, crowning, debonair, delight, darraynet, doolt, drutht,
druryt, ease, ermine, evangelist, fals, flumt, font, fout, fruit,
gentle, grace, hardy, juggler, keisert, large, largesse, lecher,
letter, livreisont, mall (mallet), manner, master, measure,
medicine, mercy, merciablet, miseasef, noble, noblesset,
obedience, offer, orison, palfrey, paradise, passion, pay,
pillar, poor, poverty, pray, prey, price, prince, prison,
privity, procession, prophet, proud, prove, psalm, psalter,
ribald, rich, rob, sable (fur), sacret, sacrament, saint, save,
scourge, semblantt, seraphin, sermon, serve, service, sot,
spouse, throne, traitor, treason, treasure, turn, warrant.
Lists like these, I venture to think, give us a surer footing
in attempting to make our way amidst the difficulties that
attend English etymology.
'AS DRUNK AS MICE.' 1 03
121. ■ As drunk as mice • (5 S. v. 314 ; 1876).
The explanation is very simple. A mouse is a small
animal, and it takes very little to make him extremely
drunk. The phrase is familiar to readers of Chaucer. See
his K?iightes Tale, 1. 402 ; and my note on the same.
122. ' Buft ' and < Miff' (5 S. vi. 114 ; 1876).
Buft is a mere variation of buff, to stammer, which is
duly entered in the Herefordshire Glossary. In the east of
England we have buffle and boffle with the same meaning.
Hence the familiar buffer, a stammerer, or secondarily,
a bungler. Lydgate has buffard, with the sense of foolish
fellow. All these terms are in Halliwell. Cf. O. Fr. bufer,
to puff, and our own puff '. Chaucer uses buf X.o denote the
sound of eructation. The verb to buff also means to strike
with a rebound, whence a buffet (a blow) and the railway
buffer.
Miff, a tiff", is common in many counties. It is entered
in Halliwell as known to various dialects, but is omitted in
the Herefordshire Glossary.
123. ' Mill' in the sense of ' Conflict ' (5 S. vi. 186 ;
1876).
The word mill is generally regarded as a slang term, but
it was not always so. It is a contraction of the old Lowland
Scottish melle or mellay, a conflict, fight, battle, which was
merely borrowed from the Old French meslee, signifying (1)
a mixture, (2) a fray. In other words, mill is still in use in
the refined form melee. Jamieson gives the verb mell, to
intermeddle, to join in battle, showing the shortened form
of it. In Barbour's Bruce (vii. 622 in my edition) it is said
that Clifford and Vaux came to blows, and that they maid
a melle, or in other words, ' had a mill.* The derivation is,
accordingly, from the Lat. misculare, which is from miscere.
In a fray, the combatants are sometimes considerably
4 mixed up.'
104 ' EDYLLYS BE.'
Perhaps I ought to add that, at school, at a time when
it was generally believed that all English was derived from
Greek and Latin, we were taught to regard mill as a shortened
form of the Greek a/xiA\a ; and even to this day there are
many whose only notion of etymology is, that any connexion
suggested by a mere jingle of sound is superior to all
historical investigation.
124. ' Edyllys be ' (5 S. vi. 209 ; 1876). ■
After just ten years, I think I have hit upon a possible,
perhaps a probable, solution of this phrase, which seems
hitherto to have baffled every one. It occurs in Mr. Furni-
wall's Babees Book, p. 22, note 14, where a tract for teaching
children courtesy is thus entitled. One title of the tract is
The Lytylle Childrenes Lytil Boke, and the other is given by
the line, 'Lernythe thys boke that ys called Edyllys be.' My
view of the matter is that it means ' these be secrets,' and
thus the phrase means no more than ' learn these secrets
which will teach you true courtesy.' This idea pervades
the whole tract. I proceed to show how it is possible for
the word edyllys to mean 'secrets,' though I should be
prepared to maintain that the word is not very correctly
applied, but only used, in a freak, by a writer who scarcely
knew the true sense of a word which, even in the fifteenth
century, was obsolescent. Even if my solution be incorrect,
it will teach something by the way, and afford some cor-
rections for the dictionaries.
The A. S. hydels means a hiding-place. It is not very
common, perhaps, but regularly derived from liydan, to
hide. It occurs in the Rushworth MS. of the Northum-
brian Gospels, where the phrase ' speluncam latronum '
(Mark xi. 17) is glossed by 'cofa vel hydels Seafana,'
a cove or a hiding-place of thieves. Upon this I would
observe as follows : —
1. Mr. Wedgwood, in his long article on cove, ignores
' EDYLLYS BE.' 105
the A. S. cofa, which, however, is cited by Mahn and
E. Miiller. .
2. In Lye's Dictionary the reference for cofa is wrongly
given as ' Mat. xi. 17.' For ' Mat.' read ' Mk.'
3. In Bosworth's Dictionary the reference is still more
wrongly given as 'Mat. xi. 1.'
4. The word hyd-els belongs to the set of substantives
with the suffix -els, on which see March's A.-S. Grammar,
p. 120. Other examples are: — radels, a riddle; metels,
a dream ; byrigels, a sepulchre ; and others, for which see
Koch, Englische Grammatih, iii. 44.
5. The ending in s is deceptive ; such words are easily
mistaken for plurals, just as eaves is often mistaken for
a plural. Yet the plural eveses occurs in Piers the Plow-
man, B. 17. 227.
6. Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary, has fallen, I think,
into the trap. He gives hidel as a singular substantive,
though it is quite an improper form, and the sole example
which he offers is a sentence saying that ' they went and
helde thame in hidils,' i. e., in a hiding-place. See several
more examples in Stratmann, s. v. hudels, which is the form
which the word takes in the Ancren Rhvle.
7. Hence, naturally enough, as the word became obso-
lescent, the false form hidel or hiddel arose, with a false
plural hideles or hiddelis. Of this there is an example in
Barbour's Bruce (bk. v. 1. 306, of my edition), where Sir
James Douglas is said to have lurked ' in hyddilis and in
preuate,' that is, in hiding-places and in privacy. Here -is
is the usual Lowland Scottish plural ending, used as a false
interpretation of the s in the A. S. suffix -els.
8. The word hiddel being once thus manufactured, the
sense of it had to be modified. It was then supposed to
mean 'a secret.' The proof is in the existence of the
adverb hiddil or hidlins, used in the sense of secretly, whilst
the men of Perthshire and Fife developed the verb to hiddle,
ic6 ' WICKS ' OF THE MOUTH.
in the sense of to conceal or keep secret. For these words
see Jamieson's Dictionary.
9. I conclude that, hiddil being thus at length falsely
formed, and supposed to mean ' a secret,' the word hiddilis
would, of course, at times mean ' secrets.' The dropping of
the h would give idillis or ydyllys, from which the change
to edyllys is easy enough. We have just such changes in
the case of the A. S. yrnan, to run, which is spelt irnen,
urnen, eornen (all three), in Layamon, and ernen in the
Castle of Love, 1. 730, whilst the h appears in the Somerset-
shire form to him.
10. If it be granted that edyllys can mean secrets, there
is little difficulty in edyllys be being used to mean ' these be
secrets.'
[I find no reference to edyllys in the New Eng. Dictionary.
Cf. hidel-like, secretly, in Genesis and Exodus, 2882 ; and
see hudels in Stratmann.]
125. * Wicks' of the Mouth (5 S. vi. 271 ; 1876).
I would beg leave to recommend that all who are in
search of information concerning provincial English words
should consult Halliwell's Dictionary. I have long observed
that it is very rarely that words are inquired about which are
not to be found there. In the present case, ' Wikes, the
corners of the mouth,' is duly inserted therein.
The word was noted by Ray more than two hundred
years ago. See the reprint of Ray's Collection in the English
Dialect Society's publications, p. 74.
Thoresby, in 1703, made the note, ' Waivks, the, or corners
of the mustachios.' This is also reprinted in the same volume,
p. 108.
In Bailey's Dictionary, ed. 1735, ^s tne entry, The wikes
of the mouth, the corners of the mouth, N. C. ' ; where
' N. C means ' North Country.'
Brockett, in the first edition of his North Country Words,
FEN: FEND. 107
in 1825, has ' Wiks, wicks, corners; as, the wiks of the
mouth. Su.-Goth. wik, angulus.'
I find it also in Grose's Glossary, ed. 1790 ; in the Teesdale
Glossary, 1849; in Mr. Atkinson's Cleveland Glossary; in
the Whitby Glossary, where it is also spelt weaks ; and
I suppose it may be found in half a dozen other books,
as it is not likely that a glossary of Northern English would
omit it.
The word is Scandinavian, viz. Icel. vik ; Old Swedish
wik, a corner ; Dan. mund-vig, the corner of the mouth.
It is closely related to a verb which is represented by the
Icel. vikja, to turn, to recede ; cf. G. weichen, Gk. eiKeiv.
126. Fen: Fend (5 S. vi. 412 ; 1876).
The exclamation ' fen placings ' is short for ' I fend
placings,' i. e. I forbid them. Fend is used for defend in
Middle English (see Halliwell) ; and defend in olden times
often meant to forbid. In place of fen, some boys say
'fain;' hence the unmeaning expression, 'fain I,' used to
signify ' I decline that.' It really stands for ' I forbid you
to choose me.'
127. The phrase * He dare not.' I (5 S. vii. 173 ; 1877).
I wish that correspondents who are zealous for the purity
of English would learn a little about the matter before
proceeding to lay down the law. The phrase 'He dare not '
(though, perhaps, going out of fashion) is of course quite
right. Dare is one of the verbs which use an old past tense
for a present, and ' he dares ' is, grammatically, as bad as
' he mays,'' or ' he cans,' or ' he shalls' This fact is perfectly
familiar to any one who has ever seen an old English MS.
of any value or age. The appearance of ' he dares ' in
a thirteenth-century or even in a fourteenth-century MS.
would brand it as a forgery, just as poor Chatterton thought
that its was good fifteenth-century English. The phrase
' He dear ' occurs in Beowulf 1. 684, which I do not think
108 THE USE OF 'DARE.'
could have been written by ' one of the Kingsleys ' [who was
credited with inventing he dare\.
128. The use of * Dare.' II (5 S. vii. 371 ; 187).
I think our good friend C. S. need not have repeated
his protest, because all readers of English can judge for
themselves, and I hope the time is coming when students
really will do so, and then questions like the present will
cease to be a matter of opinion at all. He now appeals to
the facts, as is quite right ; only, unluckily for him, the facts
are the other way.
It is needless to prove this, for it has been already
admitted. His first protest against the use of dare was due
to the fact that he supposed it to be modern. He now
objects to it because it has been shown to be old. The
admitted fact is that it is both. The statement that ' dares,
dared, and durst have been used, and used exclusively, by
good English writers for the last two or three centuries ' is
a mere mistake. Dare has also been used, as we all know
(for we have all read the Bible, Job xli. 10, and Shakespeare),
as well as the other forms, but not quite so freely, because
authors have probably been a little afraid of it1. Before
making any wild statements, C. S. should have looked at
his Shakespearian grammar, and he would have found ' But
this thing dare not,' quoted from The Tempest, iii. 2. 63,
with the remark that dare is ' stronger than dares.'
Dr. Abbott quotes an excellent example of the indiscri-
minate use of dare and dares from Beaumont and Fletcher,
Faithful Shepherd, iii. 1 : —
' Here boldly spread thy hands ; no venomed weed
Dares blister them, no slimy snail dare creep.'
1 I find it in the first book J open : —
' And scarce an arm dare rise to guard its head.'
Byron, Corsair, c. ii.
' And who dare question aught that he decides.'
Id., c. i. st. 8.
THE USE OF 'DARE.' 1 09
As to the present use of the word, we might learn some-
thing from the dialect of our peasantry. Surely no country-
man uses 'he dares '; at least, I have never heard it. But
I can certify that I have heard, ' He dar'n't do it,' and, ' He
dus'n't do it ' (which, like ' I dus'n't do it,' is for ' durst
not,' i. e. would not dare, the past tense subjunctive), at
least a score of times; and I suppose the experience of others
is much the same.
If the appeal is to the facts, let us abide by the facts.
Now the facts are that the modern usage admits of ' he dare
not/ and ' he dares not,' both in the present tense ; and of
' he durst not ' and ' he dared not,' both in the past tense.
Only, as is often the case when there are double forms,
these are being gradually differentiated, and will some day
be used differently. Already ' he dared not ' is beginning
to be used more with reference to direct assertions, and ' he
durst not ' with respect to hypotheses. See Matzner, Eng.
Grammatik, vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 4. If your correspondent
really means, as I suspect he does, that dare is going out of
fashion, and will, if no longer wanted in indirect clauses,
probable become obsolete, then I quite agree with him.
But it is a very different way of putting the matter ; and it
is well to remember that all ' protests ' are perfectly useless,
and are so much effort thrown away. The language will go
its own way, and the effect of critical dicta upon it has at
all times been ridiculously small, except, perhaps, in a few
cases ; of which I can, however, recall none.
I hope it will be every day better understood that our
plain duty is, before we criticize, to study the phenomena
and to investigate the history. The notion that the study
of Old English has nothing to do with Modern English is
becoming obsolescent, and it will be a good thing when it
is obsolete. But let me not be misunderstood to mean that
the study of Old English is all-sufficient. I mean nothing
less. We must study Old English, Middle English, Modern
HO CHAUCER'S PROLOGUE, L. 152; TRETYS.
English, and Dialectal English, all with equal care, and
range over the whole literature of every date, if we would
wish our remarks to be worth reading. I am very sorry if,
by the expressions used by C. S., he thinks I have answered
him unfairly ; for the study of English can make its own
way, and needs not to be supported by any rudeness.
I think, if my remarks be read again, it will be seen that
the plainness of speech was no more than was fairly suited
to the occasion. I do not see on what principle assertions
are to be respected, when they are made in direct violation
of historical facts. And for myself, I can promise that,
when shown to have made an error, I will own it quite as
frankly as I point out errors elsewhere.
129. Chaucer's Prologue. 1. 152; Tretys (5 S. vii. 291 ;
1877).
The commentators on Chaucer have certainly taken small
pains about explaining the reading tretys, which is perfectly
right, streyt being but a gloss on it. Surely it is rather rash
to pronounce a word in Chaucer to be wrong, tvithout even
so much as glancing at Tyrtvhitfs i Glossary ' to see whether
it occurs elsewhere ! I do not say that the particular trans-
lation of the Roniaunt of the Rose which we possess is
Chaucer's version l, but I do say that the word tretys occurs
twice in it — 11. 1016, 1216; and that Tyrwhitt gives the
references. Here are the passages : —
'As whyt as lily or rose on rys,
Her face gentil and tretys.1
1 Her nose was wrought at point devys,
For it was gentil and tretys.'
Here we have tretys applied to a nose. We see that it is
accented on the second syllable ; also, it rimes with rys
' [I now say that Fragment A of the Romaunt (11. 1-1705) really is
Chaucer's own ; and both the quotations for tretys here cited occur
within it.]
SWEET-HEART. Ill
(Mid. Eng. for bough, and pronounced as Mod. Eng. rees) ;
and again with devys. We also see that nose, properly
a dissyllable, was pronounced (occasionally, at least) almost
as a monosyllable, the final e being very light; see 1. 123
of the Prologue. The word tretys is really common enough
in Old French, which students of Middle English might
study to some advantage. Roquefort gives seven spellings
of it, and a quotation from the Romati de Gerard de Xevers.
And Bartsch, in his Chrestomathie Francaise, has, ' Traitis,
doux, joli, bien fait, siiss, niedlich, hiibsch,' giving explana-
tions both in French and German, to show that he at least
knows the word well. Instances in Bartsch are given at
pp. 122, 178, 190 : —
' Plaint et sospir, qui d'araor vienent,
Sont molt traitis, pres del coer tienent.'
Roman d 'Eneas.
' Membres orent bien fais, vis formes et traitis.'
Roman d Alixandre.
1 Clere ot le face, le vis traitis ases.'
Huon de Bo deaux.
Thus it was specially used as an epithet of the features.
I think this may suffice for the present, though of course
many more examples of so common a word may easily be
found. My experience of the Chaucer MSS. is this, that
when the Ellesmere, Hengwrt, and Cambridge MSS. agree,
it is fifty to one that they are right. It is not a question of
the fiumber of the MSS. that give the reading, but of their
value. The Harleian MS., beautifully written as it'is, really
exhibits several inferior readings ; and the Lansdowne MS.
is a very poor one.
130. Sweet-heart (5 S. ix. in ; 1878).
The origin of this phrase is much earlier than O. W. T.
supposes. It is due to Chaucer, and to his great influence.
In Troilus and Creseide, bk. iii. 1. 988, we have, ' Lo ! herte
mine ! ' In the next stanza is ' my dere herte ' ; and, lastly,
112 BUCKLES ON SHOES.
in 1. 1 1 73, the phrase, l swete herte myn, Creseide.'1 The
talk about its derivation from sivetard'1 is all sheer inven-
tion, and we may draw two morals : (i) that Chaucer has
been neglected by the authorities ; and (2) that some etymo-
logies are too clever to be true. Ingenuity is the sworn foe
of true philology.
131. Buckles on Shoes (5 S. ix. 433; 1878).
There are numerous examples of buckles on belts or
girdles. Thus we have ' the bocle of the gerdle ' (Ayenbite
of Inwit, ed. Morris, p. 236). As to buckles on shoes, they
were certainly used in the fourteenth century. There is
a well-known line in Chaucer, alluding to St. Mark, i. 7,
' Ne were worthy vnbokele his galoche ' (Squieres Tale, C. T.
Group F, 555). Wyclif uses the word thwong, i.e. thong,
not buckle.
132. ' Sparling' (5 S. x. 392 ; 1878).
A sparli?ig or Sperling is a kind of small fish ; some say
a smelt. The word occurs in Specimens of English, ed.
Morris and Skeat, p. 90, 1. 48. The cognate German form
is Spierling • but the Dutch has spiering. The root is
uncertain. The G. Sperling, meaning a sparrow, is a
different word (see Kluge). A moment's reflection will
show that the Fr. eperlan stands for an Old Fr. esperlan,
which is merely the Teutonic word in a French dress. To
derive the English from the French word is impossible ; the
stream runs the other way.
133. Embezzle, its etymology (5 S. x. 461 j 1878).
[I wrote a long article on this word, which was only par-
tially right. It is a compound from the verb to bezzle, for
1 [Not the only quotation ; sivcte herte occurs in Chaucer very
many times.]
2 [No one pretends to have found a quotation for this imaginary
form.]
EMBEZZLE, ITS ETYMOLOGY. 113
which see the New Eng. Dictionary. But it was frequently
regarded (as I endeavoured to show) as being connected
with imbecil, which we now pronounce i?nbecile. I subjoin
the quotations, which give some idea of the way in which it
was formerly used.]
Some of trie chief quotations for this word are the
following : —
1. ' These wicked wretches, these houndes of hell,
As I have told playn here in this sentence,
Were not content my dere love thus to quell,
But yet they must embesile his presence,
As I perceive, by covert violence;
They have him conveyed to my displeasure,
For here is left but naked sepulture.'
Lament 0/ Mary Magdalen. St. 39.
In this fifteenth-century poem, often printed in Chaucer's
works to fill up the place of his lost poem, entitled Origenes
upon the Maudeleyne, Mary laments that the soldiers have
embezzled, i. e. taken azvay, the body of her Lord.
2. ' I concele, I embesyll a thynge, I kepe a thing secret. I embesell.
I hyde or consoyle [read conseyle], Je cele. I embesyll a thynge, or
put it out of the way, Je substrays. He that embesylleth a thyng
intendeth to steale it if he can convoye it clenly.' — Palsgrave's French
Diet., temp. Hen. VIII.
Observe that here to e?nbezzle is ?iot to steal, but to prepare
to steal. It means, then, to take away or put aside, with the
intention of filching.
3. ' Embler. to steal, filch, lurch, pilfer, nim, purloin, imbezel, convey
away.' — Cotgrave's French Diet.
4. Imbeselcd is used as equivalent to 'conveyed out of the waye.' —
Brende, Quint us Curtius, fol. 275.
5. ' Imbesselled and conueighed away underhand.' — North's Plutarch,
p. 358 (Richardson).
6. ' Without any concealment or imbezling! — Milton, Observations
on Peace with the Irish.
These examples show the modern sense, nearly • but the
following are more curious : —
1
1 14 EMBEZZLE, ITS ETYMOLOGY.
7. 'Of this full well thou art resolude [resolved]
before Kyng Tullie gan
So tyrannous a monarchic
imbecelyng freedome, than,
By vertues spray, the basest borne
might be the noblest man.'
Drant, tr. of Horace, Sat. i. 6, 11. 8-1 1.
Imbecelyng is weakening, detracting from ; there is nothing
answering to it in the Latin.
8. ' Those wryng and wrest the meaner sorte
whose myndes and tongues are free,
And so imbecill all theyr strengthe
that they are naught to me.'
Drant, tr. of Horace, Sat. i. 5.
9. ' This is imbeselynge and diminyshe [diminution] of their power
and dominion, many landes and people falling from them.' — Udall,
Revelation, c. 16.
10. ' Princes must ... be guardians of pupils and widows, not
suffering their persons to be oppressed, or their states imbecilled.' —
Bp. Taylor, Holy Living, c. iii. s. 2, subsect. 8.
11. 'It is a sad calamity that the fear of death shall so imbecill
man's courage and understanding.' — Bp. Taylor, Holy Dying, c. iii.
s. 7, subsect. 1.
Hence also to imbezzle means to diminish from one's own
substance by squandering it away, just as much as it means
to diminish from the store of others by taking things to one-
self; this is because the true sense is merely to diminish,
without reference to the manner of it.
12. 'What, when thou hast embezeVd all thy store?'
Dryden, Persius, Sat. vi.
13. Religion ' will not allow us to embezzle our money in drinking
or gaming.' — Sharp, vol. i. ser. 1.
PS. to 133 ; added in N. and Q. 5 S. xi. 30.
A friend has kindly sent me a good new quotation. He
writes : In a letter from Reginald (afterwards Cardinal)
Pole to Henry VIII, dated July 7, 1530, he speaks of the
consultation of divines at Paris in the king's ' great matter,'
and says it was ' achieved ' according to the king's purpose.
GORILLA. 115
The adverse party, he adds, use every means to embecyll
the whole determination, that it may not take effect. See
Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign
of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer, vol. iv. pt. iii.jp. 2927. Another
friend tells me that he has often heard the word imbecile
accented imbecile, which is to the purpose.
134. Gorilla (5 S. xi. 205; 1879).
It is well known that this word occurs in the Periplus or
Circumnavigation of Hanno the Carthaginian. As the book
may not be known to some readers, I make a note of the
passage. The original treatise, written probably in Punic,
is lost, but a Greek translation has come down to us, from
which a Latin translation was also made. The treatise is
a very short one, and the passage about the gorillas occurs
just at the end of it. I quote from an edition printed in
1675, which contains both the Latin and Greek trans-
lations : —
1 Erant autem multo plures viris mulieres, corporibus hirsutae, quas
interpretes nostri Gorillas vocabant. [Greek text — as 01 6pfxr)ve(s
IkciKovv yopiWas]. Nos persequendo virum capere ullum nequivimus :
omnes enim per praecipitia, quae facile scandebant, et lapides in nos
conjiciebant, evaserunt. Foeminas tamen cepimus tres, quas, cum
mordendo et lacerando abducturis reniterentur, occidimus, et pelles
eis detractas in Carthaginem retulimus.'
I. e. there were many more females than males, with their
bodies covered with hair, whom our interpreters called
gorillas. We could never take a male by pursuing him ;
for they all got away up the precipices, which they easily
climbed, whence they threw stones at us. But we caught
three females, which, because they struggled with their
captors by biting and tearing, we slew ; and having skinned
them, we took their skins home to Carthage.
In Smith's Dictionary we are told that the Periplus
was also edited by Falconer in 1797, with an English
translation.
1 2
Tl6 WAPPERED.
135. Wappered (5 S. xi. 264 ; 1879).
The form wappened in Shakespeare is an old crux.
Without wishing to discuss again what has been already
discussed too much, I will merely make a note that I have
found either the word itself, or something like it. In
Caxton's translation of Reynard the Fox{\\^\), edit. Arber,
p. 16, is a description of the sufferings of poor Bruin when
beguiled by the fox. All the village came out against
him.
1 They were alle fiers and wroth on the bere, grete and smal ; ye.
Hughelyn wyth the croked lege, and Ludolf with the brode longe
noose [nose] : they were booth wroth. That one had an leden malle.
and that other a grete leden wapper ; therwyth they wappred and al
for-sryngred hym.'
I do not remember seeing the remarkable verb to for-
slynger before. As usual, the suffix -er is frequentative,
and to wapper means to beat continually, from the verb
7vap or whop, to beat. For-slynger is a similar frequenta-
tive of sling, with the intensive prefix for.
136. The word ' Eighteen ' in Chaucer (5 S. xi. 503 ;
1879).
A good deal turns upon Chaucer's spelling of the word
eighteen, because the dates of the days on which the tales
are supposed to be told depend upon the reading in the
fifth line of the dialogue prefixed to the Man of Law's
Prologue. All this I have explained at much length in my
notes upon this line and upon 1. 3, in the Clarendon Press
edition of the Prioress's Tale, &c. I have there shown that the
abbreviation ' xviij. the ' is to be written at length eightetethe,
and the word has four syllables. Similarly, if Chaucer has
the word for eighteen, it must be eightete?ie, in four syllables.
I have just found the right line ; and here it is, as printed
in Tyrwhitt's edition : —
THE WORD 'EIGHTEEN' IN CHAUCER. 117
' Of eighteen yere she was, I gesse, of age.'
Cant. Tales, 1. 3223.
Of course, the reader will exclaim that the word is mani-
festly a mere dissyllable, or the line cannot be scanned.
But if the matter be considered carefully, it will be found
that it proves exactly the converse. Turn to any old edition,
and what do we find ?
• Of eightene yere she was of age.' — Ed. 1532.
So also in ed. 1561. Both these editions have the line in
this form, in spite of the fact that it will not scan. This is
very significant.
Let us now turn to the splendid six-text edition, and
consult the best MSS. Five of these have the line thus : —
' Of xviij. yeer she was of age.'
The sixth, the Cambridge MS., has the same reading, but
expands ' xviij. ' as eightene, incorrectly. The Harleian
MS., as printed by Wright, has eyghteteene, which is per-
fectly correct ; but whether the word is written at length in
the MS., or whether Mr. Wright expanded it from 'xviij.',
I do not know *. It does not much matter, as the form
eighte is amply justified by the A.S. eahta, and the forms
eightetene, eightetethe, by the A.S. eahta tine, eahtateoda.
We may safely conclude that the words I gesse, inserted by
Tyrwhitt, resting on no respectable authority 2, are to be
discarded ; also that eighteen must, consequently, be ex-
panded into four syllables instead of two ; and, lastly, that
the reading eightetethe in the other passage is amply
supported.
It is not a little consolation to find that the old editions
of 1532 and 1561 both have eightene in the Jlfan of Law
passage. These old editions are, in fact, of some value ;
1 [It is written at length in the MS. — ' eyjteteene.']
2 [Really, on no authority. ' The words / gesse are not in the
MSS.'— Tyrwhitt.]
1 18 HUNDRED.
they are quite unsophisticated 1, and follow the words of
the old MSS., without regard to the spelling or scansion.
They are, accordingly, unprejudiced witnesses, and deserve
attention.
137. Hundred (5 S. xii. 24 ; 1879).
Mr. Wedgwood explains the hund- in hundred as ' a
docked form of taihu?i, ten ' ; the suffix -red being equivalent
to A.S. rcied, with the sense of ' rate.' This is very nearly
right, but we may approach a little closer still. The Gothic
taihunte-hu?id, a hundred, is equivalent to ' of tens the
tenth V and hund is a docked form of taihund, tenth, the
ordinal, not the cardinal number. It is equivalent, in fact,
to the -enth in te7ith, and to the -ithe in tithe. It is worth
noting that the word is similarly docked in other languages.
Thus, Lat. centum is short for decentum, tenth, an old
ordinal form from decent, ten ; the suffix -turn answering to
E. -th by Grimm's law. Gk. eKaroV is for l-icarov. where
-k<xt6v is for SeVarov, tenth. The Skt. fata, a hundred, also
appears in the form dacati, lit. tenth, from dacan, ten. We
also find Skt. dacat, meaning an aggregate of ten, a decade.
The Lithuanian szitntas, a hundred, is short for deszimtas,
tenth. It will be easily seen that there is not merely
a docking of the form for tenth, but an absolute omission
of the form for ' of tens ' as well. Thus the Latin ce?itu?7i
really does duty for decentorum-decentum, and so on. It
was a very pardonable abbreviation, and arose from dealing
with large numbers. Thus the Gothic for 100 is taihunte-
hund, as above stated ; but the Gothic for 200 is simply
twa hunda, a neut. plural form used as an abbreviation for
twa taihunte-(tai)hunda, which was naturally found to be too
long for practical purposes. The same abbreviation was
1 [Not qaiie, but to a great extent. Thynne actually altered kyte
to cur in 1. 1179.]
2 See Brugmann, iii. § 179 (in the translation).
SIDEMEN. 119
used for any number of hundreds beyond the first. We
thus get a complete solution of the word. Similarly the
Gk. -koltov really stands for SeKarwv SeKarov, and so on.
There is practically a loss of a word and a bittock, not
of a single letter.
138. Sidemen (5 S. xii. 31 ; 1879).
I do not think Mr. Marshall has left much to be said.
Surely the etymology from side and man is quite sufficient.
The Latin assistens means little else ; it is only ' one who
stands (or is) beside.' The absurd attempt to make sides-
men stand for synodsmen is just one of those fancies which
were so abundant in the sixteenth century, when it seems to
have been held that all English was derived from Latin and
Greek, and that there was no originality in it. We find
side-bench, side-board, and side-wagh (i. e. side- wall) all in
the Middle-English period. Hence side-man is a perfectly
consistent and intelligible formation. We need seek no
further.
139. Division of Words into Syllables (5 S. xii. 42 ;
1879).
It is curious to observe the rules which have grown up
for dividing English words into syllables. In practice these
rules are ready and convenient enough, and have the great
merit of following the rules for pronunciation. In other
words, they are usually phonetically correct ; so that there
is no reason for altering them. But it may still be worth
while to show that, from a purely theoretical or etymological
point of view, they break down entirely, and constantly con-
tradict the theory of the words' origin. A few examples
will make this clear.
The rough-and-ready rule is, I suppose, in practice, this.
Begin a new syllable with a consonant rather than a vowel,
and if two consonants come together, put the former into
one syllable, and the latter into another. I take up a well-
120 ' IVARISH.'
known handy edition of Pickwick Papers, and I find the
following examples in the opening pages : — Impera-tive,
explana-tion, unques-tionably, asto-nishment, conti-nued,
impu-dence, solilo-quize, peru-sal, pros-perity, fes-tivity,
counte-nance, uncer-tain, distin-guished, plea-sure, par-ticle,
princi-pals, indivi-dual. I omit others which are less odd.
Nearly every one of these is, etymologically and theoreti-
cally, misdivided, as may easily appear to a Latin scholar.
Even those who know no Latin must perceive that we
should never think of writing peru-se (cf. peru-sal), feas-t
(cf. fes-tivity), plea-se (cf. plea-sure), par-t (cf. par-ticle), or
divi-de (cf. indivi-dual). In many cases, the root or base is
cut right in half. Thus, ' continue ' and ' countenance ' are
from the base ten, ' impudence ' from pud, ' soliloquize '
from loq, ' prosperity ' from spe, ' distinguished ' from
sting, ' principal ' from cap. These examples may serve to
remind us that our present rules (doubtless convenient,
easy, phonetic, and sufficient) nevertheless frequently pro-
duce forms which give no hint as to the true form of the
verbal root.
[This requires further explanation. I merely mean that
such word-division has nothing to do with etymology. From
a practical point of view, it is right, being based on true
phonetic principles, i. e. on the spoken language. We
really do say ' im-pu-dence.' It is only when we take the
word to pieces, for etymological purposes, that we at last
discover that it is formed from im- (for in), the base -pud-,
and the suffix -ence. Practice is here one thing, and theory
another. The spoken language has pe-ruse at one moment,
and pe-ru-sal at another ; it rightly regards ease of utterance,
and nothing else.J
140. ' Warish' (5 S. xii. 238 ; 1879).
The word warish (i. e. to cure) occurs in Chaucer, Cant.
Tales, 12840 (ed. Tyrwhitt) or C. 906 (ed. Skeat) ; in Piers
ORIGIN OF THE WORD ' GARRET.' 121
Plowman, B. xvi. 105 (E. E. T. S.) ; and in William of
Palerne, 1. 4283 (E. E. T. S.). It is not derived from the
French guerir, which is a modern word, but from the stem
warts- of warisant, the pres. part, of warir, an O. French
word of Teutonic origin, represented by guerir in the
modern language. The O. F. warir became garir, whence
also garite, a watch-tower, E. garret. Garir became
guarir, as in Cotgrave, and lastly guerir. It is connected,
etymologically, with zvare and wary.
141. Origin of the word * Garret ' (5 S. xii. 351 ; 1879).
I do not admit that F. galetas, a garret, which is rightly
derived by Littre from Galata, is the same word as our
garret! Why should I, or where is there a tittle of
evidence to that effect ? Littre does not say anything of
the kind ; he merely says that galetas means a garret, not
that the words are the same. Of course the M. E. garite
and the F. galetas both meant at one time an upper
chamber, and they now mean a garret; but this does not
identify the words — it is only one more proof that similar
words are apt to run together. Until Mr. P. can produce
historical proof that the words garite and galetas (which
Cotgrave separates, and which Littre and Diez practically
separate by assigning different origins to them) were origin-
ally identical, his whole case breaks down. If the words be
examined, they are not particularly alike. The interchange
of r and / is, of course, common ; but garite has i in the
second syllable and terminates in e, whilst galetas has e in
the second syllable and terminates in -as. Modern philo-
logy exacts that vowel-changes should be accounted for.
The old use of the words seem to me frequently different.
Galetas was, most often, a chamber in a castle or mansion.
But garite, though afterwards assimilated to galetas in use,
was a military term, and could be used to mean a watch-
tower for sentinels. It occurs in this sense in the Alexander
122 LABURNUM.
Romance, ed. Stevenson, 1. 141 7. But we do not find
galetas, so spelt, with the same sense in Early French.
And if we did, the difference of form would have to be
accounted for. I may add that I find myself not alone in
the belief that the proposed identification is a mistake.
142. Laburnum (5 S. xii. 416 j 1879).
The Notes on Natural History, cited by Mr. S., must be
an amusing book if it contains many suggestions like that
of the derivation of laburnum from Fare bois. Once more,
for about the tenth time, let me press the value of chronology
in etymology. How could Pliny, who uses the word
laburnu?n, have learnt French before French was invented ?
143. 'Leer* = Hungry (5 S. xii. 431 ; 1879).
Certainly lear or leer means ' empty ' in some dialects, as
in the excellent Wiltshire song by Akerman of the Hortiet
and the Beetle, cited in the preface to Halliwell's Dictionary,
4 His bill was shearp, his stomach lear.' The Middle-
English form is lere, as in Rob. of Gloucester, ed. Hearne,
p. 81. Cf. A. S. Hemes, emptiness (Bosworth) ; O. Du.
laer, 'voyd, or emptie' (Hexham). The original sense
seems to have been ' gleaned,' from A. S. lesan, prov. E.
lease, to glean. So also the O. H. G. Idre, empty, G. leer ;
from O. H. G. lesan, G. lesen '.
144. 'Apple-cart' (5 S. xii. 472 ; 1879).
Brogden did well in claiming this as a Lincolnshire word,
as he had no doubt heard it there. But it is more general.
I used to hear it in Kent in my earliest days. If a child
falls down, you first inquire if he is much hurt. If he is
1 [Suggested in Schade, from Grimm. It is just possible, as the pt.
pi. stem of A. S. lesan was Ices-. Kluge suggests a connexion with
Goth, las-iws, weak, which is also possible; moreover, the pt. s.
stem of Goth, lisan (— A. S. lesan) was las.]
LOCKS LEY HALL. 1 23
merely a little frightened, you say, ' Well, never mind, then :
you 've only upset your apple-cart and spilt all the goose-
berries.' The child perhaps laughs at the very venerable
joke, and all is well again.
I think the expression is purely jocular, as in the case of
'bread-basket,' similarly used to express the body. The
body, regarded as a food-carrying machine, is at one time
a bread-basket, at another an apple-cart, and so on. It is
like expressing growth by the eating of more pudding.
145. Locksley Hall (5 S. xii. 471 ; 1879).
The resemblance of Tennyson's line — ' For a sorrow's
crown of sorrow is remembering happier things ' — to
a passage in Chaucer was commented on by Mr. Sala
in the Illustrated London News, on the 20th of last
September. I at once informed him that it was pointed
out by Dr. Morris, in 1868, that both Chaucer and Dante
alike copied from Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophtae,
lib. ii. prose 4 : ' Sed hoc est, quod recolentem me vehe-
mentius coquit. Nam in omni adversitate fortunae infelicis-
simum genus est infortunii, fuisse felicem.' Chaucer's prose
translation of this may be seen in Dr. Morris's edition of
Chaucer's translation of Boethius, p. 39 : ' For in alle
aduersitees of fortune the most unsely kynde of contrarious
fortune is to han bene weleful.' The same passage is to
be found in King /Elfred's translation of Boethius also.
He says : ' Thset is seo maiste unsailth on this andweardan
life, thset mon arrest weorthe gesaMig, and aefter tham un-
gesjelig ' ; i.e. It is the greatest misfortune in this present life,
that one be at first happy, and afterwards unhappy.
146. ■ Halfen dale' (5 S. xii. 455 ; 1879).
This is not ' a tenure ' at all, strictly so speaking. It
merely means that So-and-so takes the half. If I were to
rent the half of a field, I should be said to rent the ' halfen
124 DULCARNON.
deal.' Ha/fen or halven is nothing but the word half with
an old case-ending, and deal is the old word for part or
share. It is the usual old expression for it, and deal was
a necessary addition at a time when /z#<£/" usually meant side;
thus the 'right half of a man was his right side. I have
seen the phrase ' halven deal ' repeatedly, but can only at
present refer to Mandeville's Travels, ed. Halliwell, p. 166.
Dale exactly represents an old (Mid. English) pronunciation
of the word which we now spell deal, formerly del, dee I,
or dele.
147. Dulcarnon (5 S. xii. 454; 1879).
I have explained this word, its etymology, and everything
belonging to it at great length, but I forget where ; I think
in the Academy \ Briefly to recount the chief points, it
comes to this. Dulcarnon, or the 'two-horned,' was an
epithet of Alexander. It was also applied, in jest, to the
forty-seventh proposition of the first book of Euclid, with
its two squares sticking up like horns. Hence it meant
a difficult problem, the sense in Chaucer. Besides this,
the fifth proposition, now called the asses' bridge, was once
called 'the putting to flight of the miserable,' or, as Chaucer
calls it, ' the flemyng of the wrecches,' which has the same
sense. Chaucer has mixed up the two propositions.
148. Jamieson's 'Dictionary of the Scottish Language'
(5 S. xii. 321 ; 1879).
[An Ety?nological Dictionary of the Scottish Language,
illustrating the Words in their different Significations, etc.
By John Jamieson, D.D. A new Edition, carefully revised
and collated, with the entire Supplement incorporated, by
John Longmuir, A.M., LL.D., and David Donaldson,
F.E.I. S. Vol. i. (Paisley, Alexander Gardner.)]
1 [Now reprinted in my edition of Chaucer, vol. ii. My article did
not appear in the Academy, but in the Athenaeum, Sept. 23, 1871,
p. 393 ; in an unsigned review.]
'DICTIONARY OF THE SCOTTISH LANGUAGE.' 125
As to the great value of this work, there can be no doubt.
The original edition of 1808 has become very scarce, and
it was high time that a reprint should be issued. The
incorporation of the supplement is a great boon to the
student who consults the volume ; he has now only one
alphabet to search in, instead of two. This was also
one great advantage of the abridged edition published by
Nimmo, of Edinburgh, in 1867, which is a most handy and
useful volume, giving the words and explanations as in the
larger book, but omitting the illustrative quotations and
abridging the etymological remarks. Such abridgment,
instead of being a loss, was a positive gain ; and in this
respect the smaller edition is the better book of the two.
But the omission of the splendid selection of illustrative
quotations was a heavy loss ; and on this account we
welcome the reprint of the original edition, and wish all
success to the undertaking. The reprinting of such a book
as Jamieson's Dictionary is a serious and difficult task ; and
the editors may as well at once make up their minds to find
that their work will hardly give satisfaction. They have
taken what is, perhaps, on the whole, the best course, viz.,
to alter as little as possible, and they are extremely chary of
correcting even the most obvious mistake. Thus, if the
book is no great improvement on the original edition, it is
at least as good ; and even so, it possesses a high and almost
unique value. So well known a work needs not that much
should be said about it ; most students who are moderately
acquainted with Northern English must know something as
to the quality of Jamieson's work. His copious collection
of words, his explanations, and his quotations are all
excellent. The only part of the work which is unsatis-
factory is his etymology. This was as good as it could
be expected to be at that date, but it has now, unfortu-
nately, chiefly only an antiquarian value ; and it is some
consolation to see what great strides the science of philology
126 'DICTIONARY OF THE SCOTTISH LANGUAGE.'
has made since the beginning of the present century. His
chief avoidable fault was in frequently misspelling or mis-
interpreting the foreign words which he cited from the
dictionaries then in use. In this respect the editors might
advantageously correct obvious blunders, and perhaps they
may in some cases have done so ; but this can hardly be
determined without a more searching investigation than
we have at present the leisure to make. We are glad to
see that they have occasionally consulted the corrections
made by Prof. Skeat in his edition of Barbour's Bruce, but
they do not seem to have done so either from the beginning
or sufficiently. Thus the mysterious word allryn, which
originated in a mere printer's error for alkyn, still has
a place in the vocabulary, without the slightest hint as to
its unauthenticity. The articles on apayn and be/etfare as
wrong as ever. The word belene is still to be found, without
a hint that it is an error for beleue. The word bredis, though
it occurs in Jamieson's own edition of Barbour, is absent
from the vocabulary, except in another connexion.
It deserves to be noted that a correspondent, signing
himself J. S., in a communication to the Athenaeum,
March 13, 1869, gave the following list of words not in
Jamieson : — Benner-gowan, bulldairy, boose, clabber, cow-
cracker, flapper-bags, gairy, gorachan, kent, kinvaig, peever-
alls, peever, semmit, scuddy, shine, teer, teerers ; waebrun,
yaws ; also spenser, spud, spods, yochel, otter, kyaw. All
of these were explained at the same time. If their arrange-
ments permit of it, a fresh supplement of words, due to the
industry of the editors themselves, might very well be added
at the end of Z. The editors, in fact, promise something of
the kind, as they give notice that Mists of corrigenda and
addenda will be collected as the work proceeds, which, when
properly sifted and arranged, will form an interesting and
valuable addition to the great work by Dr. Jamieson.' If
this means that the etymologies will be corrected, they will
'WYCLIFFE'S NEW TESTAMENT.' 127
certainly not lack material for an extra volume. That the
services of Mr. Donaldson have, at rather a late stage of
the first volume, been secured by the publisher, augurs well
for the success of the work. That he is ' specially qualified
for the work ' there can be little doubt. The present volume
contains ' Dr. Jamieson's original Prefaces, his Dissertation
on the Origin of the Scottish Language, a List of the Books
referred to or quoted by the Author throughout his Dictionary
and Supplement, and the list of original subscribers.' Vol. ii.
is promised for March, 1880. The work will be completed
in four volumes.
[PS. As here suggested, a fifth and supplemental volume
was added, edited by Mr. D. Donaldson, and containing
many corrections and additions.]
149. ■ Wycliffe's New Testament' (5 S. xii. 419 ; 1879).
\The New Testament in English, According to the Version
by John Wycliffe about a. d. 1380, and Revised by John
Purvey about a. d. 1388. Formerly edited by the Rev. J.
Forshall and Sir F. Madden, and now Reprinted. (Oxford,
Clarendon Press).]
It was a great reproach to England that, till about fifty
years ago, no adequate attempt was made to give us a full
account of Wycliffe's version of the Bible. But at last the
task was undertaken, and some reparation to Wycliffe's
memory was made by the thorough way in which the
editors set about their work. Certainly the Rev. Josiah
Forshall and Sir Frederic Madden deserve to be for ever
remembered by English scholars for their patience, in-
dustry, and accuracy. For twenty-two years they toiled at
the task of examining, classifying, choosing, and editing the
MSS. They examined no less than 170 manuscripts, and
divided them into two sets. One of these sets they distin-
guished by the name of the earlier version, principally due
to the work of Nicholas de Hereford and John Wycliffe ;
128 'WYCLIFFE'S NEW TESTAMENT.'
the other set gives us the later version, mainly revised by
John Purvey. As both of the versions are of much im-
portance, and the variations between them of high interest,
they decided on printing both in extenso, in parallel
columns, selecting for this purpose the best manuscript (or
manuscripts) of each class and collating it with numerous
others, so as to secure, in each instance, a perfectly accurate
text. How often they must have read over the whole
Bible in English of the fourteenth century it is not easy to
tell ; but they must have become more familiar with it than
many are with the authorized version at the present day.
The result of their labours was published in four splendid
quarto volumes in 1850, and has been of great service
to English philologists, as well as of great interest to
theologians. But the price of the publication, though
not a high one when the bulk of it is considered, has
placed it beyond the reach of many who would be glad
to have it. Accordingly, for the benefit of that increasing
class of students who are becoming aware that the Latin
grammar alone will never teach English idioms, the Dele-
gates of the Clarendon Press have now issued, in one small
inexpensive volume, the whole of the New Testament as it
stands in the later version, omitting the critical apparatus of
various readings, but with an excellent glossary, abridged
from the original one and carefully revised.
The later version was chosen because the English of it is
easier, more flowing, and in many respects better ; though
the earlier one is of more interest from a purely philological
point of view. We hope that the success of the venture
will be such as to enable the Delegates, at no very distant
date, to issue the Old Testament also \ A short introduc-
tion by Prof. Skeat explains the whole history of the book,
1 The whole of the Old Testament never appeared ; but a subsequent
volume was issued, containing Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon (1881).
A 'PUZZLE' SOLVED. 1 29
gives examples comparing the two versions, explains the
methods adopted by the editors, and concludes with
remarks upon the language. These remarks discuss the
dialect, the pronunciation, the spelling, the alphabet, and the
vocabulary ; and show how, in some passages, obscurities
have arisen which are only to be solved by a comparison
with the Latin Vulgate version, from which WyclifTe's trans-
lation was made. The reader is thus put in possession of
the most material facts necessary for a due appreciation of
the text. We here give the parables of the ten virgins, as
a specimen of the text itself : —
'Thanne the kyngdoom of heuenes schal be lijk to ten virgyns,
whiehe token her laumpis, and wenten out ayens the hosebonde and
the wijf; and fyue of hem1 weren foolis, and fyue prudent. But the
fyue foolis token her laumpis, and token not oile with hem ; but the
prudent token oile in her2 vessels with the laumpis And whilis the
hosebonde tariede, alle thei nappiden and slepten. But at mydnyght
a crygh was maad, Lo ! the spouse cometh. go ye oute to mete with
him. Thanne alle tho 3 virgyns risen4 vp, and araieden her laumpis.
And the foolis seiden to the wise, Yyue 5 ye to vs of youre oile, for
oure laumpis ben quenchid. The prudent answeriden, and seiden.
Lest peraduenture it suffice not to vs and to you, go ye rather to men
that sellen. and bie to you. And while they wenten for to bie, the
spouse cam; and tho3 that weren redi, entreden with him to the
weddyngis ; and the yate6 was schit 7. And at the last the othere
virgyns camen, and seiden, Lord, lord, opene to vs. And he
answeride, and seide, Treuli Y seie to you, Y knowe you not.
The rib r wake v ye, for ye witen9 not the dai ne the our1".'
150. A 'Puzzle » solved (6 S. i. 12 ; 1880).
It is well known that no adequate solution of the word
puzzle has ever been offered. I now proceed to solve it.
It occurs as a verb in Hamlet, iii. 1. 80, and in other passages ;
but it was originally a substantive. From its familiar use as
1 Them. 2 Their. 3 Those.
4 Rose, past tense plural ; sing. roos.
5 Yyue. yive, give. 6 Gate. ' Shut.
■ Watch. 9 Know, plural of woot. 10 Hour.
K
130 A 'PUZZLE' SOLVED.
a verb it seems to have been regarded as a frequentative
form of the verb to pose, with the addition of the usual
suffix -/<?; such, indeed, is Skinner's explanation, hitherto
accepted only because no better one has yet appeared.
The connexion with pose is right, as indeed our instincts
assure us ; but the suffix, though long regarded as verbal,
is not really so, as will appear. Before proceeding, it
is necessary to say a word as to the word pose itself. This is
usually regarded as an abbreviation of appose, and this is
true ; but we must also go back a step further, and acknow-
ledge appose to be an adaptation of oppose. To appose or
pose was to propose questions ; examples are plentiful,
especially in Richardson's Dictionary, s. v. ' Appose.' But
no such sense is commonly found in the French apposer or
the Latin apponere. The true Latin word is opponere, which
was a regular term in the schools ; see Ducange. The old
method of examination was by argument, and the examiner
was really an umpire, who decided questions put by an
opponent to the examinee, so that the old word for to
exami?ie was also opponere. Now it so happened that neat
answers were called apposite answers ; and between the
opponent on one side, and the apponent (or neat answerer)
on the other, a complete confusion easily arose, at any rate
in English, as testified by numerous instances. We thus
have, as the right order of things, first to oppose in the
schools ; secondly, to oppose or appose by asking questions ;
and finally to pose, by putting a hard question to a
candidate.
We have numerous words formed from verbs by a suffix
-a/, as in the case of deni-al, refus-al, and the like. Similarly,
a hard question was an oppos-al, and this is the word which
has now become puzzle. The whole of this would be but
guess-work if it were not that I have been so fortunate as to
find the necessary examples which support and elucidate
the solution.
A PAIR OF ORGAXS. 13 1
We are really indebted for it to Dyce's She/ton, which
(I say it advisedly) is one of the best edited books in our
literature, and a great credit to the honoured name of
Alexander Dyce. The references will be found in that
book, at vol. i. p. 367, and vol. ii. p. 304, and here they
are : —
' And to pouert she put this opposayle.'
Lydgate, Fall of Princes, ed. Wayland, sig. B iii. leaf lxvi.
1 Made vnto her this vncouth apposaile,
Why wepe ye so ? ' — Id., sig. B v. leaf cxxviii.
1 Madame, your apposelle is wele inferrid '
^i. e. your question is well put).
Skelton, Garlande 0/ Laurel, 1. 141.
In this last instance the ' various reading ' is opposelle
(Dyce). In all these cases the sense is a question hard of
solution, or, in modern language, a puzzle.
[See Appose (1) in the New E. Dictionary, and Puzzle in
my (larger) Etym. Dictionary. The Century Dictionary has
adopted this etymology of Puzzle, and Dr. Murray confirms
my view of Apposed]
151. A pair of Organs (6 S. i. 82 ; 1880).
There is a note on this in my edition of Piers Plaivman ;
see index to the notes. A pair of organs means a set of
organ-pipes, i. e. an organ. It is quite a mistake to suppose
that a pair, in old books, always means two. It usually
means a set. Hence a pair of beads, a set of them
(Chaucer) ; a pair of cards, i. e. a pack ; a pair of stairs,
i. e. a flight, whence ' two-pair back.'
152. ' Gill' (6 S. i. 102; 1880).
In giving a definition of gill, I of course followed the
usual one in Webster's Dictionary and elsewhere. I venture
to think that if St. Swithin had taken trouble to consult
any ordinary arithmetic-book, or had questioned the nearest
child, he would probably have found that ' four gills make
k 2
132 'TO HOLD UP OIL.'
one pint.' I cite this, first from Colenso's Arithmetic, and
secondly from the oral statement of the first child I asked,
who gave me that answer. And surely nothing is also
better known than that weights and measures differ widely
in different parts of England. If, at Whitby, a gill is half
a pint, I may mention that I have been informed that, in
Cambridgeshire, a gallon sometimes means two gallons. In
Philips, ed. 1706, is this remarkable definition, which defies
explanation, except on the hypothesis that a pint is a quart :
''Jill, the smallest sort of wine measure, the eighth part of
an English quart, or half a quarter of a pint.' Of course he
meant ' a quarter of a pint ' simply.
153. 'To holdup Oil' (6 S. i. 118; 1880).
I am most grateful to Mr. Mayhew for his quotation ;
it makes one more in the set which I have tried to get
together. It is certain that ' to hold up oil ' or ' to bear up
oil ' was an old proverbial phrase. It does not mean * to
assent,' but ' to aid and abet,' or ' consent in a flattering
way.' It answers very nearly to the modern phrase ' to
back a person up.' In the quotation given the sense is,
' Alexander began to boast, and most of his friends backed
him up,' or ' bore out what he said.' I have had this
phrase under consideration for seven years, and a new
instance, like that now furnished, is a great gain. It first
came under my notice in editing Richard the Redeles,
appended to the C-text of Piers the Plowman. (See Rich.
Redeles, iii. 186). We there read that, in the days of
Richard II, men did not get promotion for good deeds, but
for bragging and flattery, or, as the author puts it, ' for
braggynge and for bostynge, and berynge vppon oilles, for
cursidnesse of conscience, and comynge to the assises.' My
note on it is, that it is plainly written in the MS.
I have since found a capital instance in Gower's Con/.
A mantis, bk. vii. vol. iii. p. 159 : —
PAMPHLET. 133
' For, when he doth extorcion,
Men shall not finden one of tho
To grucche or speke there agein,
But holdcn tip his oile and sain,
That all is well that ever he doth.'
That is, when a king is extortionate, people do not
reprove him, but aid and abet him, or natter him up, or
bear him out, and say that whatever he does must be right.
And again, at p. 172 of the same, we find that the false
prophets told Ahab to go and prosper : —
' Anone they were of his aceorde,
Prophetes false many mo
To here up oile; and alle tho
Affermen that which he hath told.'
In all these instances it is remarkable that the flatterers
assure the great man he is perfectly right, though he is
really wrong. And this, at any rate, clears up the general
sense. We have now four instances of the phrase. If the
passage in Piers Plozv?nan be examined, it will be found to
refer to the practices at the king's court, and practically
to Richard himself. In all four passages the reference is
to the flatterers who uphold a king; in one place it is
a nameless king (Gower, iii. 158), and in the other places
the reference is, respectively, to Alexander, Richard II, and
Ahab. I therefore offer, with all diffidence, the suggestion
that the proverb may refer to the anointing of kings with oil
at their coronation. 'To hold up oil' or 'to bear up oil'
may mean to hold up the sacred vessel containing holy oil,
ready to anoint the chosen monarch. The sense is
remarkably preserved in the modern English phrase ' to
butter a person.'
154. Pamphlet (6 S. i. 389; 1880).
The usual etymologies of this difficult word are not very
satisfactory. I have found a much earlier example of it
than any which I have yet seen mentioned. It occurs,
134 PAMPHLET.
spelt pamflet, in the Testame?it of Love, pt. iii., near the
end; to be found in Chaucer's Works, ed. 1561, fol. 317
back, col. 1. This takes us back at once to about a. d. 1400,
and renders it tolerably certain that the word can only be
French, whilst the peculiar form pamf- can hardly be of any
origin but Greek. Taylor, in his Words and Places, says :
' Phamphylla, a Greek lady, who compiled a history of the
world in thirty-five little books, has given her name to the
pamphlet! Such statements are, in general, to be received
with great distrust, and I have met with so many unsup-
ported statements in the same book, that it can hardly be
accepted without further search. Such slight search as
I have been able to make does, however, greatly strengthen
the suggestion. In the first place, her name was not
Pa??phylla, but Pamphila, which helps us on. There is
a short account of her in Smith's Dictionary of Biography.
She lived in the reign of Nero, and 'her principal work was
a kind of historical miscellany. It was not arranged accord-
ing to subjects, or according to any settled plan, but it was
more like a commonplace-book, in which each piece of
information was set down as it fell under the notice of the
writer.' She seems to have dealt in anecdotes, epitomes,
and short notes ; and hence we really have some ground for
connecting her name with the pa?nphlet, or short tract on
a subject. Moreover, Halliwell cites the form pa?nfilet,
though without authority. The phonology of such a deriva-
tion is unimpeachable. From the Latin name Pamphila (of
course of Greek origin) we have a French Pamfile, whence
the sb. pamf let, a diminutive form to express 'a work by
Pamphila,' and, by contraction, the Middle-English pamfet.
There is a notice of her in Suidas, ed. Wolff; he says that
she wrote thirty-three books of historical commentaries, an
epitome of Ctesias in three books, and very numerous
epitomes of histories and of books of all kinds, 'epitomas
historiarum, aliorumque hbrorum plu rim as, de controversiis,
'PIMPLE/ ITS ETYMOLOGY. 1 35
de rebus Veneriis, et aliis multis.' This testimony is of
importance as showing the character of her work. In the
Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, translated by Beloe, we find
the remark : ' This story is taken from the twenty-ninth
commentary of Pamphila,' bk. xv. c. 17. The translator
has, indeed, really written Pamphilas instead of Pamphila,
but he corrects himself a few pages further on, saying :
' This remark is from the eleventh book of Pamphila,'
bk. xv. c. 23.
In the translation of Diogenes Laertius, by C. D. Yonge
(in Bonn's Library), at p. 35, we find, in the ' Life of
Pittacus,' sect. 3, the remark : ' But Pamphila says, in the
second book of his [read her] commentaries, that he had
a son named Tyrrhaeus,' &c. I conclude that there really
is some evidence for the etymology here proposed. We
see that the works of Pamphila were of a peculiar character,
and that, though now lost, they were once well known and
quoted by respectable writers. Any further information as
to Pamphila, or an early example of the use of pamphlet, or
a citation giving the spelling pamflet, would obviously be
a gain. [The Lat. ace. pi. panfletos occurs in Richard of
Bury, Philobiblon, c. 8. I can now account for the suffix
-et. It was an O. F. suffix added to names of treatises.
Thus Isop-et meant ' a book of ^Esop ' ; whence pa??ifil-et
must have meant ' a book by Pamphila.' Precisely so.
The Pa??i mentioned in Pope, Rape of the Rock, iii. 61,
represents F. Pamfile, from Lat. PamphilusA
155. 'Pimple,' its Etymology (6 S. i. 414 ; 1880).
That pi??iple is a nasalized form connected with A. S.
pipligend, pimply, is the usual explanation, and is probably
right (see A. S. Leechdonis, ed. Cockayne, i. 234, 266).
But it is usual to cite A. S. pinpel, a pimple, also. This is
an excellent instance of how mistakes are spread. In
yElfric's Glossary, ed. Somner, p. 61 (Wright's Vocal?., i. 26,
136 BIRNAM WOOD.
1. 1), is the entry, ' Anabala, winpel.' This was copied into
Lye's Dictionary, with a change of winpel into pinpel, and
the explanation that anabala (= anabole) means 'a pustule,'
the fact being that it means a mantle, or wimple. This has
been copied by Bosworth, Ettmiiller, Mahn (in Webster),
E. Miiller, Todd (Johnson's Dictionary), Wedgwood, and
Worcester. The last calmly alters it to pimpel. The verifi-
cation of references often reveals such things as these.
[The Century Dictionary adopts the gist of the above,
and explains that pinpel is an error].
156. Birnam Wood (6 S. i. 434 ; 1880).
Readers of Macbeth should note that the story of the
moving wood occurs in the Romance of Alexander : —
' Interea Alexander, amoto exercitu, appropinquavit se ciuitati
Perses, in qua Darius eonsistebat ; Ita vt sublimia loca montium que
erant supra ipsam ciuitatem conspiciebat. Alexander autem precepit
militibus suis vt inciderent ramos arborum et herbas euellerent, easque
inferrent equorum pedibus et mulorum ; quos videntes [printed
videntis] Perses ab excelsis montibus stupebant.' — Historia Alexaiidri
magni de preliis, ed. 1490, fol. C 1, back.
The Middle-English version of the Wars of Alexander
(1. 2850) has : —
'With that comaunds he his knightis to cutte doune belyue
Bovvis of buskis and braunches of bolis and of lyndis,' &c.
157. Railway English (6 S. ii. 84 ; 1880).
The following curious sentence has been for years ex-
hibited as a ' Public Notice ' at the Cannon Street Terminus
and other stations belonging to the South-Eastern Railway
Company : —
' Tickets once nipped and defaced at the barriers, and the passengers
admitted to the platform, will have to be delivered up to the Company,
in the event of the holders subsequently retiring from the platform
without travelling, and cannot be recognized for re-admission.'
I hope it is generally understood. It is enough to deter
CAIN'S JAW-BONE. 137
passengers from travelling at all to be told that they will
' have to be delivered up to the Company ' when once
' admitted to the platform.' The ' holders ' of tickets are
also, it would appear, holders of passengers. Can anything
be more slip-shod ?
158. Cain's Jaw-bone [6 S. ii. 143 ; 1880).
1 As if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder '
(Hamlet, v. 1. 85). Surely a remarkable expression, but
there is no comment on it in the Clarendon Press edition.
Compare it with the following tradition : ' Saga me, forhwam
stanas ne sint berende ? Ic the secge, fortham the Abeles
blod gefeol ofel stan, tha hine Chain his brother of-sloh mid
anes esoles cinbane ' ; i. e. ' Tell me, why stones are not
fruitful ? I tell thee, because Abel's blood fell upon a stone
when Chain, his brother, slew him with the jawbone of an
ass'; Solomon and Saturn, ed. Kemble, p. 186. Hence
the jawbone was not Cain's own. (Cf. Cursor Mundi, 1. 1073.)
159. Whittling (6 S. ii. 193 ; 1880).
At the last reference we have an extract from Brockett's
Glossary (for ' Brochett ' read Brockett). It seems worth
while to warn readers (if they will kindly accept the warning)
that the etymologies offered by Brockett and Jamieson
abound with the most curious errors, and are, in fact, in
many instances, learned nonsense. In the present case
Brockett tells us that whittle is derived from ' Sax. whytel,
and that probably [!] from Goth, huet tol, a sharp instru-
ment.' Now let us investigate this solemn absurdity, and
we may learn something by the way.
First, ' Sax. whytel ' means the alleged A. S. hwitel given
in Somners Dictionary. Brockett, in altering the spelling
from hw to wh, gives us the measure of his knowledge of
Anglo-Saxon : he had not learnt so much as the alphabet, or
he would have known there is no wh in it.
138 WHITTLING.
Next, let us take Somner.
The A. S. hivitel only means a whittle in the sense of
'a white cloth,' such as we now call a blanket (from F.
blanc, white) ; it is a mere derivative of white. Somner
knew there was such a modern English word as whittle,
meaning a knife, and rushed to the conclusion that a hivitel
must mean a knife. Down went his guess, and people have
quoted it ever since, and will do so probably for another
century. [Let us hope for better things].
It so happens that the spelling whittle, for 'a knife,' is
a mere mistake, due to the loss of th at the beginning of
M. E. thwitel, used by Chaucer. The loss of th was plainly
due to confusion with whet, to sharpen, according to which
whittle was supposed to mean something sharp ; and a knife
being sharp, that was quite enough for popular etymology.
Unfortunately, according to the laws of English Grammar,
a whettle (for whittle would not give the right vowel) could
only mean a sharpener, i. e. a whetstone or hone. As to
thwittle, M. E. thwitel, the etymology is rightly given, by
Wedgwood and E. Miiller, from A. S. thwitan, to cut off.
Hence the old verb thwite, to cut, strong verb (pp. thwitten) ;
the sb. thwit-el, a cutter, with suffix -le of the agent, as in
sickle, a cutter (from the root sek, to cut) ; and the frequen-
tative verb thwittle, to keep on cutting, to cut away all the
while by little and little, which, as is well known in America,
is the real and true sense of that verb. Thwyte occurs in
Palsgrave.
I call attention to this to show what unsafe guides the
old etymologists are, and what a mistake it is to quote
them ; they knew nothing, and cared less, about grammar or
comparative philology, and coined words at pleasure,
labelling them with the name of the first language that came
to hand. This is exemplified easily enough by Brockett's
next statement. Having first treated us to 'Saxon whytcl'
formed by two mis-spellings from a word given by Somner
BEDE'S VERSION OF ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL. 139
and wrongly explained, he next presents us with ' Goth, huet
tol, a sharp instrument.'
This is a piece of humbug, pure and simple. If he
means Mceso-Gothic, there is no hu (before e) in the
alphabet ; but he really means, I suppose, the common
English word whet, duly turned into 'Gothic' by a little
false spelling. Next, tol is not ' Gothic ' at all, but only the
English tool, A. S. tol. So that the alleged etymology merely
comes to this, that whittle is derived from whet-tool. As
this would hardly impose on the most credulous if left in
plain language, the reader is mystified by finding it turned
into huet tol (an impossible spelling), after which it is called
' Gothic,' on the chance that the reader will accept it.
This is the kind of etymology with which our old
' authorities ' abound, and it was honest in the sense that
they believed it themselves. But it is amazing that such
guesses should still impose on any one, and it can only be
accounted for by supposing that English scholars have paid
such attention to Latin and Greek that they have had no
time for Gothic or Anglo-Saxon. 1 a Latin quotation were
to appear as ' Crescet amore nummo, quanto ipse pecuniae
crescat,' people would be horrified at seeing seven glaring
mistakes ; but I dare say such a sentence as ' And foregyv
ous ura giltum, as wee foregyvum urer giltendas/ might
pass muster as an Anglo- Saxon version of a sentence
in the Lord's Prayer, although every word but the first is
entirely inadmissible in the English of the ' Anglo-Saxon '
period.
160. Bede's Version of St. John's Gospel
(6 S. ii. 214 ; 1880).
It is certain that Bede's version of St. John's Gospel is
lost. It cannot possibly have anything to do with the
Northumbrian gloss in the Lindisfarne MS., because, as
I have already explained, a gloss and a version are,.
140 ' SUMPTER.'
in strictness, different things, written on totally different
principles. A gloss may be called a version, but a version
should not be called a gloss.
161. 'Sumpter' (6 S. ii. 343 ; 1880).
The word sumpter occurs but once in Shakespeare,
K. Lear, ii. 4. I have nothing to safy against Mr. Wright's
excellent note, but I have somewhat to add. It may have
meant ' literally a pack-horse ' in Shakespeare's time, and
this makes sufficiently good sense. But it is worth notice
that a sumpter was originally not a horse at all, but a man ;
not a pack-horse, but a baggage-driver. A pack-horse was,
in Middle-English, called a somer or summer (Low Lat.
sagmarius), but the man who drove the pack-horses was
called a sumpter, answering to O. F. sommetier, ' conducteur
de betes de somme ' (Roquefort). This answers to a Low
Lat. type sagmatarius. Roquefort also gives, ' Somniier,
bete de somme.' Thus summer is pack-horse ; sumpter,
pack-horse driver, or baggage-driver ; and sumpter-horse is
not a pack-horse's horse, but a baggage-driver's horse, and
so equivalent to the original summer. And this is why we
never hear of a summer-horse, only of a sumpter-horse. In
the octosyllabic King Alisawider, edited by Weber, the
words are kept quite distinct. Thus, at 1. 850, we have : — ■
1 And trussed heore somen's,
And lopen on heore destreris,'
i. e. and packed their baggige-horses, and leapt on their
war-horses ; the two kinds of horses being contrasted. At
1. 6022 we have : —
' Withowte pages and skuyeris,
Divers gyours and sumpteris?
i. e. not counting 'in the number of the army) the pages and
squires, and certain guides and baggage-drivers.
I would venture to suggest that the true sense of baggage-
A CURIOUS ILLUSTRATION. 14 1
driver will suit the passage in K. Lear even better than that
of the supposed sense (not proven) of pack-horse : —
' Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter
To this detested groom.'
[See Sumpter in my (larger) Etym. Dictionary. The
same etymology and a similar explanation of sumpter in
K. Lear are given in the Century Dictionary?^
162. A Curious Illustration (6 S. ii. 405 ; 1880).
In using Richardson's Dictionary it is impossible not to
be struck with the singular manner in which illustrations of
words are introduced that really have nothing to do with
the matter in hand. One of the most whimsical is a quota-
tion from Chaucer's (meaning Henrysoun's) Testament of
Creseide, which concludes with : ' And in the night she
listeth best tapere,' i. e. and she is best pleased to appear in
the night. This is given as a quotation in illustration of
the sb. taper, explained to mean ' a wax-light.'
[I beg leave to notice here a similar extraordinary mis-
conception. In the Promptorium Parvulormn, we have the
entry ' A-yen wylle, Lnvite! This means that the M. E. ayen
wylle, i. e. against one's will, can be expressed in Latin by
invite. But a certain editor took invite to be an English
word ; hence this extraordinary entry in Cassell's E?icy-
clopaedic Dictiofiary : ' A-yen-wylle, v. t. to invite. (Prompt.
Parv.y See that work, vol. i. p. 381, col. 1.]
163. * Wage,' used instead of * Wages •
(6 S. iii. ii ; 1881).
Both wage and wages are respectable forms enough, just
as are house and houses, or any other pairs of singular and
plural words. I find wage in Langtoft (ed. Hearne), p. 319.
Wage occurs also in the Promptorium Parvulorum, and
(according to Stratmann) in Xing A /isa under, 904; Hoccleve,
142 JESTEL.
i. 119 ; whilst the plural wages is in Piers Plowman, B. xi.
283. I find Dr. Stratmann's references troublesome, from
his tacit alterations of the spellings ; on actual reference to
King Alisaunder, 904, the form turns out to be gage, the
same word, no doubt, but he should have given it as it
stands \ As to what is asserted in these matters, it will
generally be found that the less a man knows about them,
the more dogmatic he is ; the way to test a man's know-
ledge is to ask him to produce his authorities, and to require
of him a quotation or two.
164. JEstel (6 S. hi. 14; 1881).
The word is not cestell, but cestel, with one /. It is not
plural, but singular, used with the article an, one. There is
a note on it in Sweet's edition of Gregory's Pastoral Care,
p. 473. In an A. S. vocabulary by /Elfric we have, ' Indica-
torium, cesteV (Wrights Vocab., i. 81, col. 1) ; and again in
^Elfric's Grammar (ed. Zupitza), p. 31. Mr. Sweet says it
occurs to translate Lat. stylus in ^lfric's Glossary, but it is
not there ; except as translating indicatoriiwi. It is by no
means so easy as seems to be supposed. I cannot see
that the W. estyll, pi. sb., helps us at all, nor is estyll cer-
tainly a Celtic word ; it seems to be nothing but the Low
Lat. astulae (Ducange\ put for Lat. assulae, thin boards.
[The A. S. cestel still remains in some obscurity.]
165. Culpable Emendations (6 S. iii. 24 ; 1881).
One of the most grievous things in English literature is
that editors and printers are continually altering texts when-
ever a word occurs that is in the least unusual. It is
a little too bad that they should treat readers as children,
and always assume that they are at least as stupid as them-
1 [The new edition of Stratmann, edited by Mr. Bradley, corrects
a very large number of these eccentricities. But this one has escaped
notice.]
CULPABLE EMENDATIONS. 143
selves. I have lately noticed three gross instances of this
character, and I think some good might be done by noting
more specimens of the same sort. My examples are these,
all taken from Richardson's Dictionary. In each instance
Richardson gives the correct reading : —
1. ' The postboy's horse right glad to miss
The lumbering of the wheels.'
Cowper, John Gilpin, sixth stanza from end, ed. 1818.
Altered by some blockhead to rumbling. Who was the
blockhead ?
2. ' As gilds the moon the rimpling of the brook.'
Crabbe, Parish Register, pt. i.
Altered by Crabbe's own son to rippling. This is indeed
a sad instance.
3. ' And as a goose
In death contracts his talons close,
So did the knight, and with one claw
The tricker of his pistol draw.' — Hudibras, pt. i. c. 3.
Altered in Bell's edition, with calm effrontery and without
any notice given, to trigger. Yet tricker had not long been
introduced into the language from the Dutch trekker, and
the later form trigger is less correct. The first duty of
every editor is to let his text alone, unless there is certainly
a corruption in it. Unfortunately editors often measure
their authors by themselves, and think that everything must
be corrupt that is not at once obvious to their own under-
standings. The reason is plain enough. It is less trouble
to alter than to investigate, and the chances are considerably
in favour of their escaping detection. [Cf. p. 151, 1. 9.]
166. The Pronunciation of * er ' as * ar ' (6 S. iii. 4 ;
1881).
As the pronunciation of ^ras ar is often discussed, I have
collected more than fifty examples of it, as will be seen
below.
144 THE PRONUNCIATION OF ' ER' AS ' AR.'
It ought to be well understood that the change of er into
ar is a real law of pronunciation in our language. In
Middle-English er was pronounced as in F. serve, with
a strong trilling of the r. It is a universal and well-known
law of change in English pronunciation always to suppress
the trilling of r as much as possible. But this caused a slight
change of the vowel sound, so that er (as in F. serve) became
aa, as in baa, or as in vulgar English saav for serve.
This law of change has been to some extent interfered
with by the spelling, for, whilst uneducated people freely
retain this change, the educated classes, who read much,
have reduced the pronunciation of serve to that now in use
by a further change of aa to an indistinct vowel-sound with
which we are all familiar, and which we indicate by er,
though the r is really silent, being wholly untrilled. We
may find sarve for serve in use as early as in Tyndale ; we
now pretend to be ashamed of it. Sarmon for sermon occurs
in the fourteenth century.
Opponents of spelling reform are often unacquainted with
the history of the language, and are wholly unconscious of
the fact that in many words we have already adopted
a phonetic spelling. Such is peculiarly the case with
words of this class ; a large number of them are actually
spelt with ar, so that the law of change is thereby con-
cealed. I now give examples : —
i. The Middle-English word berne is now phonetically
spelt barn ; the same is the case with bernacle, a barnacle ;
herte, the heart (where the old e still lingers) ; tere, tar ;
teriefi, to tarry ; tern, a tarn ; perseley, parsley ; berken, to
bark as a dog ; derk, dark ; herknen, to hearken (again the
ea) ; merke, a mark ; querelle, a quarrel (pronounced quorrel,
because the sound of w precedes) ; smert, smart ; sterten,
to start ; yerde, a yard ; Dertemouthe, Dartmouth ; kerven,
to carve ; fer, far ; ferme, a farm ; wernen, to warn ; werre,
war j merren, to mar ; ?nersh, a marsh ; merveile, a marvel ;
THE PRONUNCIATION OF ' ER ' AS ' AR.' 145
gerner, a garner ; gernet, a garnet ; werbleti, to warble ;
zverpen, to warp ; serk, a sark, or shirt. And doubtless
more might be added ; [as berme, barm, yeast ; dernel,
darnel ; gerland, a garland ; herien, to harry ; hereberye,
a harbour ; hervest, harvest ; kerlok, charlock ; perchemin,
parchment ; pertriche, partridge, &c.]. In particular note
persone, a parson ; ferrier, a farrier ; and werriour, a warrior.
2. In some words we boldly retain the changed pro-
nunciation in spite of the spelling — I allude to clerk,
sergeant, Hertford, and the like.
3. As to many words we are in a state of hesitancy ; some
people shrink from saying Darby, Barkley\ and from sound-
ing Kerr as Carr, fearing hostile criticism, and unaware
that Darby is rather the regular than the exceptional
pronunciation. Here in Cambridge we have a Sherman
who always calls himself Sharman, whilst another has
Sharman over his shop-door. We say Merchant, yet
Marchant occurs as a name. As for the berberis, we call
it a barberry, insinuating a third r with a clutch at a new
sense in berry. We say fern, but also Far?ieco?nbe. Perilous
also appears as parlous.
4. Lastly, when we allow the law of change free play (as
among the lower classes, who have not yet adopted the
last modern refinements) we shall find plenty of examples,
familiar to all of us. Such are sarve for serve; saroant,
lam, sarten for certain ; varjus (verjuice), yarb (Shropshire
for herb), sarpint, starn, consam, detarmitie, 'varsity, 'tarnal,
' tarnation (short for ''tarnal'?iatio7i^, sarmou, varmin, many,
narvous, Jarmany ; besides many more which our readers
can supply for themselves.
It will now, I think, be seen that there are really three
pronunciations, in chronological order: —
1 . Er, as in F. serve, with trilled r ; probably obsolete.
2. Er, as in clerk, with untrilled r ; very common, but
concealed by a phonetic spelling when we write Clark.
L
I46 ' UNKED,' I.E. LONELY.
3. Er, with a modern refined pronunciation, as in the
highly polite — ' your servant.'
167. The Pronunciation of ' er ' as * ar ' and of * e '
as <a.' II (6 S. iii. 393 ; 1881).
Surely it will be readily understood that in calling the
pronunciation of er as ar a singular habit of English,
I meant that no other modern language uses the written
symbol er where the pronunciation ar is intended. The
French words mentioned in Dr. Chance's interesting letter
are words in which ar is written ar according to the pro-
nunciation, and the fact that the ar in them corresponds
to a Latin er is not quite the same thing ; we should not
say that in the word almond we have an instance of the
pronunciation of -ygdalum as -ond. At the same time,
I have little doubt that the frequent use of the sound ar
is partly due to French influence. Certainly hearth and
Middle English sterven belong to the set ; hearth was
formerly herth, from A. S. heorth; whilst M. E. sterve is
derived, not from Dutch or German, but from A. S. steorfan.
[P.S. I have seen, in Old French, the spelling Harri for
Henri; whence E. Harry.]
168. * linked,' i.e. Lonely (6 S. iii. 245 ; 1881).
This common provincial word is seldom cited without
the usual ' etymology ' being appended. It is always said
to be derived from the A. S. unctvyd, explained in Bosworth
by ' without speech or strife, quiet, solitary ; hence the
provincial word unhid ; sine lite, quietus, solitarius.'
It never occurs to the easily satisfied compilers of glossaries
who so glibly quote the above (with or without acknowledg-
ment) to verify the matter. The fact is that the word
uncivyd occurs twice, and that in both cases it means
1 without contradiction,' or ' unspoken against,' or ' un-
contested'; see Thorpe, Ancient Laws, i. 298, 1. 9 ; i. 414,
' WINDLES TRAE. ' 1 47
1. 20; Laws of Ethelred, sect. 14; Laws of Cnut, Secular,
sect. 73. There is not the least pretence for the meaning
' solitary,' and it has nothing in the world to do with unked.
The word unkid (as it is also spelt) is formed by prefixing
un- to the M. E. kid, known, famous, manifest, &c. Kid is
the pp. of kythe, causal of kunnen, to know ; so that it is the
pp. of the secondary verb formed from couth, known. Unkid
and uncouth mean much the same thing, viz. unknown,
strange, out of the way ; hence the sense of lonely, &c.
169. * Windlestrae ' (6 S. iii. 249 ; 1881).
This common northern word is in Jamieson's Dictionary.
Bosworth gives us A. S. windel-sireoiue, with an unintelligible
reference1. Strae is straw; and windel is a derivative of
the verb to wind, to twist about, &c. So also we have,
in Wright's Vocabularies, p. 285, 'Oleaster, windel-treowj
where treow means tree. Anglo-Saxon botanical names
were conferred in the wildest and most confused way,
and frequently transferred from one plant to another not
particularly resembling it. In the first instance windel-
straw meant ' straw for plaiting,' and windel-tree meant ' tree
for basket-work.' I look upon Mr. H.'s candid confession
of his notion of the word as a valuable aid to the under-
standing of etymology. He tells us that he had interpreted
the word, from his own consciousness, as meaning 'the
wind-strewn leaves of the forest,' and afterwards found, to
his ' intense disgust,' that it meant nothing of the kind.
This is precisely what has been going on in the minds of
thousands for many centuries, though we can seldom so
clearly trace it. Every educated man when he hears a new
word is tempted to guess at its etymology, and thence
1 [Easily found, in 1895, by help of Wiilker's Indices. The
reference is to ' Cal^a]mum, windel- streow ' in the Glossaries, 273. 23,
and 369. 4. Calmum is the accusative of Lat. calamus, Eng. haulm.]
L 2
1 48 HE A RNE 'S ' CHR ONICLES. '
deduce its sense. After guessing wrongly, and thus forcing
the word into a wrong sense, he probably misuses it accord-
ingly, and a second person uses the word as newly modified,
and hence the endless corruptions in language. The true
rule is never to guess at an etymology, but this requires
a strength of mind beyond that of most of us.
170. Hearne's 'Chronicles' (6 S. iii. 425 ; 1881).
It deserves to be mentioned, as one of the curiosities of
literature, that the following notice is almost invariably
repeated whenever a copy of Hearne's editions of Robert
of Gloucester and of Robert Manning's translation of
Langtoft is offered for sale in a second-hand booksellers
catalogue :— ' Contains the best Anglo-Saxon Glossaries chat
have ever been published.'
Of course some one was once weak enough to say this,
and it has been repeated ever since. But it is most
amusingly unveracious. In the first place, the glossaries
are not ' Anglo-Saxon ' at all, but register the language of
the thirteenth century ; and next, the glossaries are almost
valueless, even as regards Middle English. Hearne gives
no references, and his explanations are not always correct.
We may safely conclude that the difference between English
of the tenth and thirteenth centuries is still unappreciated
by the many, and that Stratmann's and Matzner's glossaries
of Middle English (the latter, alas ! still incomplete) are
unknown, even by name, to a large portion of the book-
buying public. Halliwell's Dictionary is also far more
useful than Hearne's glossaries, though the references in
it are but few. Even the glossary to the Specimens of
English edited by Dr. Morris and myself is more worthy
of mention, since it, at any rate, gives references to many
thousand passages. [And now, in 1893, even Mayhew and
Skeat's Concise Middle-English Dictionary is better than
Hearne.]
'WALKING WIDTH AND STRIDING SIDTH.' 1 49
171. * Walking width and striding sidth ■
(6 S. iv. 95 ; 1881).
Whether this phrase is still in common use I cannot say,
but it is clearly an amplification of the phrase 'wide and
side,' i. e. 'wide and long,' which is so common in Anglo-
Saxon poetry. See examples, s. v. ' Sid,' in Grein's Glossary.
ii. 442. Width refers to the breadth of the garment from
side to side ; sidth, to the length of it. A side garment in
Middle English commonly meant one that trailed on the
ground because over-long.
172. The name * Howard ' (6 S. iv. 277 ; 1881).
Verstegan's book (On the Restitutio?! of Decayed In-
telligence) is almost worthless ; he invents his facts, and
had no notion of Anglo-Saxon, which he grossly misre-
presents. Surely Hoivard is the same as haw-ward, also
spelt haward. Hayward, another common name, is the
M. E. heiward. Haw, from A. S. haga, and hay or hei,
from A. S. hege, both mean ' hedge.' The hayward was
well known in former times, and is constantly alluded to ;
see Pro?npt. Parv., p. 234, and my notes on Piers Plowman.
Sherwood gives both spellings in his index to Cotgrave.
' A haward or hayward, qui garde, en commun, tout le
bestail d'un bourg.' As to holdward, I do not believe any
such word ever existed till Verstegan coined it. What we
want for the etymology of any word is a good collection
of illustrative quotations. Any one can theorize more easily
-without the facts ; but only the facts can guide us to the
truth.
173. Bad copy and good printers (6 S. v. 72 ; 1882).
I have often heard this story (viz. that it is advisable to
write badly, in order that a good compositor may be set
on to the 'copy'); but never so circumstantially. I think
it has probably been repeated rather too often, as it is
150 CLOTURE.
a standing excuse for bad writers. The morality of it is
more than questionable ; and it ought surely to be under-
stood, amongst gentlemen, that a writer who purposely writes
illegibly commits a most cowardly and unjustifiable crime
against the unfortunate compositors.
[PS. in 1895. I have always found that the compositors
set up my ' copy ' admirably ; precisely because they appre-
ciate its legibility. The Controller of the Clarendon Press
is my witness to this.]
174. C16ture (6 S. v. 126 ; 1882).
The etymology of this word is easy enough, viz. from the
O. F. closture, Low Lat. daustura, the original sense being
merely ' an enclosure.' 1 write this to note a passage in
which the word occurs. ' II deyt enclore la place ; et si
nuly bestes y entrent par defaute de c/osture,' &c. ' He
ought to enclose the place ; and if any beasts come in for
want of fencing,' &c. — Year-Books of Edward I, ed. Hor-
wood, vol. iii. p. 65.
175. Turken. I (6 S. v. 165 ; 1882).
This curious word is noticed in Davies's Supplementary
Glossary, where the meaning of furbish is assigned to it,
copied from the Index to the Parker Society 's Publications.
But I have found other instances of it, and have no hesita-
tion in saying that this assigned sense of it is the wrong one.
The right sense is ' to turn and twist about,' and it is merely
a frequentative form of the O. F. torquer, to twist (Cotgrave),
which is obviously the Latin torque?-e. Roquefort gives
O. F. torcenouse, violent ; torcenus, a tormenting tyrant ;
tor Conner e, extortionate ; torquelon, a torch ; all from the
same source. I first quote the instance cited by Davies,
and then two more which I have found in Gascoigne : —
' His majesty calleth for subscription unto articles of religion; but
they are not either articles of his own lately devised, or the old
SUPPOSED CHANGE OF LATIN L INTO U. 151
newly turkened* \ i.e. twisted about (Rogers, On the Thirty-nine
Articles, p. 24).
1 And for the rest, you shall find it [a certain story] now in this
second imprinting so turquened and turned'; i.e. so twisted about
and altered {Gascoigne s Works, ed. Hazlitt, i. 5, last line).
1 This poeticall license is a shrewde fellow, and couereth many
faults in a verse . . . and, to conclude, it tnrkcncth [alters] all things at
pleasure' Gascoigne, Extracts from, ed. Arber, p. 37).
Mr. Hazlitt calmly alters turkeneth to turneth ( Works,
i. 505) without a word of comment.
Mr. Davies notes that turkis also occurs. And it occurs
precisely in the same sense. It is formed from the stem
of an O. F. pres. part, torquiss-ant, from the verb torquir,
by-form of torquer. Such changes of conjugation are
common in French.
' Yet he taketh the same sentence out of Esay, somewhat
turkisedf i. e. altered or turned about (Bancroft, Survey of Pretended
Holy Discipline, 1593, p. 6).
176. Turken. II (6 S. xii. 33 ; 1885).
I have explained that turken, a very rare word, means to
turn, twist, alter, and that it should rather be torken, being
ultimately from the Latin torquere. And I now find this
proved by the occurrence of the word in the fourteenth
century. In the Wars of Alexander, 1. 2967, he torkans
with means 'he turns [himself] towards.'
[Quoted in Stratmann, ed. Bradley, s. v. turken, from my
edition of the romance. Godefroy has the sb. torquen, in the
sense of ' necklace.']
177. On the supposed Change of a Latin L into U
in French (6 S. v. 311 ; 1882).
I am quite willing to accept Dr. Chance's explanation,
and I think we ought to be much obliged to him for the
care he has taken in this investigation. But I hope I may
be allowed to plead that there is still a sense in which the /
152 LINCOLNSHIRE PROVINCIALISMS : RAUKY.
can be said to pass into u, viz. that, whereas there was once
an / between a and i in regalimen, there is now a u between
the a and m in royaume, the i having dropped. This is
what I call the practical result, the ' rule of thumb,' and
this was all that I meant. Dr. Chance explains quite
clearly that this resultant spelling, as it appears to the eye,
does not explain the real nature of the phonetic change, and
that consequently to talk of a change of / to u is philologi-
cally misleading. What really happens is, that al becomes
an/, and then / drops, giving us au, with the result that, to
the eye, / seems to become u. The real secret is that this
peculiarity is due to the action of / on the vowel ; compare
the pronunciation of father with that oifall.
For similar loss of / compare ivould, should, calm, psalm,
calf, &c. . . . Note that falco?i is an artificial spelling, the
M. E. form being faucoun.
178. Lincolnshire Provincialisms : Rauky
(6S. v. 353; 1882).
Raaky cannot be derived from raw, because this does
not account for the k ; and it cannot be derived from the
Latin raucus, because provincial English words are not
Latin, save under exceptional circumstances. It is too bad
in these days to go on guessing as if the iniquity of guessing
had never been pointed out. Rauky is the Norfolk roky
and the common English reeky. The form reeky, from
A. S. rec, smoke, is English ; the forms rauky and roky are
Norse ', German substitutes ch for k ; hence German
Ranch, smoke. English often has the sound of long e
where German has au, as in beam, belief (Baum, Glaube),
&c. With E. reek, as cognate with G. Ranch, compare
E. leek, as cognate with Lauch.
1 [Perhaps. Cf. Swed. dial, rank, smoke (Rietz, p. 546; Norweg.
rok (Aasen). The I eel. form is reykr from a base rank-),']
TALON. 153
179. Talon. I (6 S. v. 394 ; 1882).
I think I have solved this problem in my Etymological
Dictionary. There is evidence that talon meant ' bird's
claw ' in English at least as early as the fourteenth century.
The English version of Mandeville's Travels tells us that
a griffin ' hath his talouns so longe and so large and grete
upon his feet, as though thei weren homes of grete oxen ' ;
and again, in the alliterative Romance of Alexander,
ed. Stevenson, 1. 5454, some griffins are described as
taking knights up ' in thaire talons.' Palsgrave has,
' Talant of a byrde, the hynder claw, [in French] talon.'
There cannot be a moment's doubt as to the etymology ;
it meant originally the hinder claw of a bird's foot, from
Low Lat. ace. talonem, a derivative of talus. I suspect that
the peculiar sense is English or Norman only, and due to
the old terms of hawking. It was quite the etiquette of
hawking to have a peculiar name for every conceivable part
of a hawk's body.
180. Talon. II (6 S. vi. 417 ; 1882).
I am now in a position to explain this word fully.
Dr. Chance has told us that it must have meant, not the
hinder claw of a bird merely, but the hinder claw
together with the toe, taking ' claw ' in the fuller sense.
No doubt this is what the word ought to have meant ;
but, as a matter of fact, it is not what it did mean.
The misuse of the word, that is, its employment in the
restricted sense of a mere claw, was due to the absurd
affectation of the terms used by hawkers. It is an old
story that a hawk had no feathers, only plumes, and so
forth, though the word feathers was frequently used by
hawkers when they were off their guard, or when explaining
things to the uninitiated. The authoritative passage on the
subject is the following : —
1 Talons. — Fyrst, the grete Clees [claws] behynde, that strenyth
154 'MAN AC US.'
the bake of the hande, ye shall call horn \them\ Talons. Pownces. —
The Clees, within the fote, ye shall call of right her Pownces' {Book
of St. Albans, fol. a 8).
Thus we find that it pleased the inventors of the terms of
hawking to confine the sense of talon to the claw, at the
back of the foot, whilst the claws of the toes in front were
called flounces — a use which occurs again in Spenser,
F. Q., i. ii. 19, as I have already elsewhere noted. From
the latter substantive the verb pounce is derived, though the
substantive itself is obsolete ; and the modern talon includes
the pounce.
181. 'Manacus' (6 S. v. 464; 1882).
I have been referred to the curious word inanacus, given
both by Scheller and Forcellini, as being just possibly allied
to almanac. On investigation there turns out to be no
such word in the Latin language ; it is a pure fiction, due
to a misreading. The only reference is to Vitruvius, 1. 9,
c. 3 (for which read c. 8). The best edition of Vitruvius,
by Rose and Miiller-Strubing, Leipzig, 1867, gives menaeus,
with the variants maneus, manaeus. Menaeus is merely the
Greek /x^vatos in a Latin dress, and is used substantively
to signify the ecliptic. This is one more instance of the
soundness of the advice to ' verify quotations.'
[I hunted up this reference (with the help of my late dear
friend, Mr. Boase, of Exeter College) for Dr. Murray. He
gives it in ' Note 3,' at the end of Almanac.^
182. The Etymology of * Spawn ■ (6 S. v. 465 ; 1882).
The etymology suggested by Mr. Wedgwood, and adopted
by me as being most likely right (viz. from O. F. espandre),
admits of exact proof, as I have just discovered.
The O. F. espaundre, a variant of espandre, occurs in
Thomas Wright's Vocabularies, i. 164, and is glossed by
scheden him froine, as Wright prints it. But Mr. Aldis
Wright tells me that the MS. has been misread, and the
'WELTED.' 155
right reading is { scheden his rounej i. e. shed his roe. With
this correction we now read : — -' Soffret le peysoun en ewe
espaundre/ with the gloss ' scheden his roune.' Thus
espaundre is precisely spawn, from Latin expa?idere.
183. ' Welted' (6 S. vi. 113; 1882).
This word is duly entered in the E. D. S. List of Surrey
Provincialisms, and is a mere variant of tvelked, used by
Sackville in his Induction, st. 12, and by Spenser in his
Shep. Kal., November, 1. 13. The latter uses it as a transi-
tive verb ; Chaucer also has it, Pard. Tale, 1. 738, and it
occurs much earlier. See Stratmann's Old English Dic-
tionary. It is found, in fact, in Old English, in Old and
Modern Dutch, and in Old and Modern High-German. It
is discussed by Fick, iii. 298, who connects it with A. S.
wltfc, O. H. G. welc, welh, soft, moist, flabby ; Russian
vlaga, moisture ; Lithuanian wilgyti, to soften, moisten.
It properly means ' rendered flabby by moisture,' hence
' spoilt ' ; but is also used, by an easy tradition, to signify
' dried up by heat.'
184. ' Wimbledon ' (6 S. vi. 94 ; 1882).
The quotation from the A. S. Chronicle (containing the
words on Wibbandune) serves to explain the name at once,
if it be rightly interpreted. The supposition that the last
syllable ' is the A. S. dime ' is incorrect. There is no such
word in A. S. in the nominative case, which takes the form
dun ; but in the dative it becomes dun-e, with final -e, being
governed by the preposition on. The other supposition,
that if the former part of the word were a proper name ' it
would have the letter s,' is also incorrect. A large number
of proper names, including all masculines in -a, make the
genitive in -an. The true interpretation is as follows :
Wibbandune is the dative of Wibbandun, meaning 'Wibba's
down.' Next, dun is not a true A. S. word, but borrowed
156 LYTTON.
from Celtic, as explained in my Dictionary ; the equivalent
English word being tun, mod. E. town.
185. Lytton (6 S. vi. 273 ; 1882).
Lytton for ' churchyard ' is the same as /itten, given by
Halliwell with the same sense. The etymological spelling
should rather be litton ; and, of course, this word explains
Lytton, when occurring as a proper name. It is formed,
by assimilation of tt from ct, from A. S. lie-tun, lit. ' a corpse-
town,' compounded of lie, body, and tun, town. Compare
lichgate. The word is not very common, but is used in the
Old English translation of Beda, lib. iii. c. 17, where it occurs
in the dative case: 'And thaer on thcera brothra lictline
bebyriged,' i. e. and there buried in the cemetery of the
brethren.
186. The Names of Chanticleer's Wives
(6 S. vi. 304 ; 1882).
In Gawain Douglas's Prologue to the twelfth book of
Virgil, 1. 159, we have an allusion to Chanticleer's wives.
In my Specimens of English Literature, p. 132, I printed
their names as ' Coppa and Partelot,' because I found them
so written in the MS. In Mr. Small's edition the former
name appears as Toppa, and he obviously follows the
edition printed at Edinburgh in 1839. My belief has
always been that this old edition misled him, and that he
would not otherwise have imagined the Trinity MS. to have
the letter T. I have also always thought his note upon the
line to be mistaken. It runs thus : — ■
'The Rev. Mi". Skeat thinks that this word should be Coppa.
although written Toppa in all the MSS. ... It does not seem difficult
to recognize in Toppa the old Scottish description of a hen with a
good head or tuft — "a weel-tappit hen" being an expression still in
use.'
To this my reply would be that the Trinity MS. contains,
in my opinion, the reading Coppa, and that I cannot under
BEEF-EATER. 157
stand how it can be read otherwise ; also, that I do not see
how 'a weel-tappit hen ' opposes my solution. However, as
I always avoid discussion till I think I see sufficient evidence
in my favour, I have never till now protested against the
above criticism. But there is a most conclusive piece of
evidence which, to my mind, settles the matter. We have
both of us missed the point which we ought not to have
missed. The name Coppa was not invented by Douglas,
but is simply copied from the old Flemish story known as
Rey?iard the Fox. In Mr. Arber's reprint of Caxton's
translation of this wonderful epic, the name of Chaunticleer's
daughter appears as Coppe and Coppen (see pp. 9 and n).
Similarly the name of Pertelot was borrowed from Chaucer's
Xun's Priesfs Tale. My present contention is that this
fact ought to settle the question. Moreover, the name is
Dutch. In Hexham's Dutch Dictio?iary I find : ' een kop,
koppe, hobbe, ofte hinne, a hen, or a pullet ' ■ also, ' kop,
a head, pate, or noddle.' This precisely agrees with the
explanation which I gave in 1871.
187. Beef-eater (6 S. vi. 432 ; 1882).
I think Dr. C. strains the supposed points in favour of
the ' opinion now so commonly entertained,' rather beyond
the fair interpretation of the known facts. At the outset he
suggests that Steevens ' lived before the time of Johnson,'
whereas they were, in fact, contemporaries, Steevens being
the younger man of the two, as may be seen by a glance at
Hole's Brief Biographical Dictionary. It is clear that
Steevens was trying to gain a reputation, and that his hint
to Johnson was one of his attempts in this direction. The
facts are these : —
(1) No English book knows of any spelling but beef -eater.
In my additional note, at p. 780 of my Dictionary, I gave
an example from the play of Hisfriomastrix, which cannot,
I suppose, be later than a. d. 16 10.
158 BEEF-EATER.
(2) I know of no proof that beef-eater ever meant ' a waiter
at a sideboard.' It is a pure assertion, made in the interests
of forcing upon us the supposed French origin. It merely
means servant or yeoman.
(3) I have shown that a servant was familiarly called 'an
eater.'
(4) I have also shown (p. 780) that a servant was called
' a loaf-eater ' long before the Norman Conquest. Surely this
is to the point, and proves that at any rate the English were
capable of making such a compound without any borrowing
from French. If we had eater, loaf-eater, ivine-bibber, and
the like, why not beef-eater ? Where is the difficulty ?
(5) There is absolutely no link fairly joining beef-eater
with bujfetier. As to form, the junction breaks down, the
English spelling having always been what it is now. As to
sense, it equally breaks down, (1) because it cannot be
proved that the English beefeater ever meant specifically
a waiter at a sideboard ; and (2) because it is admitted that,
if the French bujfetier ever meant a waiter at a sideboard
(and even this is only a guess made in the interests of this
precious etymology), at any rate it was not the usual sense
of the word. If we had borrowed the word, it would have
been more sensible to have given it the sense of ' wine-
taster.' On the whole, I see no good reason for going out
of our way to make a supposition involving all sorts of diffi-
culties, when we have a homely derivation at hand from
a pure English source. The word stands on quite a different
footing from those of known corruptions. The latter can
be accounted for ; but the alleged ' corruption ' in beefeater
rests upon mere paradoxes.
[My explanation of this word is adopted in the New
Eng. Dictionary and in the Ce?itury Dictionary. The
former cites A. S. hiaf-teta, a loaf-eater. The latter quotes
the passage from Ben Jonson, which I give in my (larger)
Etym. Dictionary.]
WRINKLE = NEW IDEA. 159
188. Wrinkle = New Idea (6 S. vi. 456 ; 1882).
Mr. Terry's quotations are very acceptable. I have
already pointed out that A. S. wrenc had a meaning not
very dissimilar. Perhaps a quotation from King Alfred
may help to show how old the word really is : ' Tha for
Theodosius thyderweard, and wiste thaet hine man wolde
mid tham ilcan wrence bethridian,' i. e. Then went Theo-
dosius thither, and knew that they wanted to surround him
by (using) the same writikle (or stratagem). See /Elfred's
translation of Orosius, bk. vi. chap, xxxvi. § 2.
189. Ollands, a Norfolk Word (6 S. vi. 475 ; 1882).
It is the old story. Men cannot be content with telling
us about a word of this sort without insinuating an
etymology, while, of course, they never dream of investi-
gating before guessing. The suggested etymology of olland
from out-land is really too much. In 1691, Ray spelt it old
land, in two words (E. D. S., B. 16, p. 88); and it is always
a comfort to crush a bad guess easily.
190. Tennis (6 S. vi. 543 ; 1882).
I am quite ready to bow to Mr. J. Marshall's decision
as to the original form of the game itself. What I say is
that, if we really wish to discover the etymology, it would be
better to consider the old forms tenise, teneys, and the Latin
names fenisi'a, teniludus, instead of persistently ignoring
these forms. We should also remember that e frequently
means ai in Latin MSS. of this period, the az being seldom
written. The word is almost certainly French, as no other
language could have given the suffix -eys or -ise. It does not
in the least follow that we got the game from France ; for
Anglo-French (less correctly called Norman-French) was
practically a distinct language from the French of France,
with its own peculiar laws, and with a power of throwing out
l6o THE DUN MOW FLITCH.
new forms. The collection of Anglo-French words lately
made by me for the Philological Society suggests how very
little has hitherto been done for the study of forms which,
for explaining English, are of the highest value.
[Gower has an older form tenetz. The etymology is un-
known. Is it from A. F. tenez, meaning ' play ' ?J
191. The Dunmow Flitch (6 S. vii. 135 ; 1883).
The earliest allusion to this is in Piers the Plowman,
A-text, pass. x. 188. It is also mentioned in Chaucer, Wyf
of Bathes Tale, and in a poem in MS. Laud 416 (about
1460). There is a note, a page and a half long, on the
subject in a book which abounds with illustrations of old
words and manners, but seems to be only known to few ;
viz. my Notes to Piers the Plowman, published by the
Early English Text Society in 1877. See p. 227 of that
work.
192. Devonshire Dialect (6 S. vii. 272 ; 1883).
The explanation of stain is as follows. The A. S. for
stone is stan ; whence, by the usual vowel-change, was
formed the adj. stcenen, pronounced nearly as stain-en (but
with a more ' open ' vowel), and meaning, literally, ' made
of stone.' But the sense seems to have been extended to
mean ' made of earthenware,' because of the stone-like
hardness of such pans, &c. In St. John, ii. 6, we are told
that there were set six stamene waler-fatn, i. e. six 'stain-en'
water- vats ; and in Exodus, vii. 19, there is mention, in the
A. S. version, of vats or vessels of tree (i. e. wood) and
' stain-en ' vats. In these passages the use of ' stain-en ' is,
of course, due to the occurrence of the words lapidea and
saxeis in the Vulgate version, from which the A. S. transla-
tion was made ; but, independently of this, there is reason
to believe that vessels for kitchen use were commonly
divided by our ancestors into vessels of metal, tree, and
THEL. l6l
stone. Thus, Lye cites from a glossary the A. S. stiena,
sb., Lat. gillo, i. e. a stone vessel holding a gill. . . . Pegge,
in his Kenticisms (E. D. S., C. 3, p. 49), tells us that in
Derbyshire a siean pot means a stone pot, whilst in Kent
to stean a wall is to build up the sides with stones. This
Kentish verb is precisely the A. S. stcenan, to stone, also
formed from stan. I think it is quite clear that the Devon-
shire stain represents, not the A. S. stan, stone, but the
modified form stan- as occurring in the adjective stan-en
and the verb stoen-an. It is highly important in scientific
etymology to pay great heed to the vowel-sounds.
[Mr. Elworthy, in his Dialect of West Somerset, gives
glossic ' stocan ' for stone, and ' wart ' for A. S. hivoete,
wheat. Cf. stcenen in Toller's A. S. Dictionary.]
193. Thel (6 S. vii. 293 ; 1883).
Mr. North has found a good example of a rare and
valuable word, illustrating a rather dark place in English
etymology. I regret that in [the first edition of] my Dic-
tionary the account of deal, in the sense of ' deal board,'
is utterly wrong ; it has no connexion with Du. deel, a deal
or part (which is neuter, and answers to A. S. deel), but
is borrowed from Du. deel, a deal board, plank, which is
feminine. Now thel is the true English word corresponding
to deal board, and has the same sense of ' board ' or ' plank ';
if there was any difference, it is probable that a thel was
thinner or smaller than a plank. The A. S. thel, a plank,
occurs in several compounds, all given in Grein's Dic-
tionary ; and the closely allied word thill, the shaft of
a cart, is still in use, and is fully treated of in my Dictionary.
Corresponding to the theoretical Teutonic form *theliz,
we have A. S. thel, Icel. thili, a wainscot, plank, O. H. G.
dil, dilo, a plank ; and corresponding to the theoretical
Teutonic form *thil/'on, a substantive of the weak declen-
sion, we have A. S. thille, E. thill, Icel. thilja, planking,
M
1 62 ANGLO-SAXON NUMERALS.
a bench for rowers, a deck ; Du. [or Low G.] deel, a plank,
deal board ; G. diele, a deal, plank. The interesting point
is this, and should be noted, that at least three Dutch [or
Low German] words have been taken into English in which
d corresponds to an original th, and we have sometimes
retained, nevertheless, the allied E. words. Examples are
seen in drill (Dutch), the native E. word being thrill '; deal
board (Dutch), the native E. word being thel, allied to
thill \ and lastly deck (Dutch), the native E. word being
thatch. One result is that drill, deal, deck cannot be found
at an early date. For the first, I know of no examples
earlier than Cotgrave and Ben Jonson ; for the last, none
earlier than Lord Surrey ; whilst for deal I can find nothing
earlier than the mention of ' a thousand deal boards ' in
Clarendon's Civil War, ii. 675, cited by Richardson. Any
earlier quotations for any of these words would be a gain.
[A correspondent in N. and Q., 6 S. viii. 389, cited ' xvj
deles' as being mentioned in 1600; but Dr. Murray finds
that deles occurs as early as in 1402, in the records of Hull.
And see the article on Deal (3) in the Errata and Addenda
to my Etym. Diet., p. 799.]
194. Anglo-Saxon Numerals (6 S. vii. 365 ; 1883).
Many persons who have some acquaintance with Anglo-
Saxon must have felt puzzled at the curious use of the prefix
hund- before certain numerals. If we write out the numbers
10, 20, 30, <xx., up to 120 in Anglo-Saxon, the series is tyn.
ttventig, thrittig, feoivertig, &c. ; or, expressing the same as
nearly as possible in modern English spelling, we get the
series ten, twe?ity, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, hund-seventy,
hund-eighty, hund-ftinety, himd (also hundred), hund-elevcntw
and finally hund-twelvety (also called hund-twenty). As to
the meaning of hund there is no dispute ; it means decade
(p. 118), and is merely short for Goth, taihund, just as Latin
centum is short for decentu?n. But the point is, why should the
EVER: 163
addition of the prefix hind- begin with the numeral seventy
rather than at any other point? The answer is, simply, that
this reckoning refers to a time when what is still called c the
great hundred,' meaning thereby 120, was in common use.
The half of 120 is 60 ; and up to 60 all is straightforward.
But after passing 60 we come to a reckoning of the latter
half of the 120, involving higher numbers, and perhaps
regarded as requiring greater effort to secure accuracy.
These higher numbers were, of course, in less frequent
use than the lower ones, and the prefix served to mark
the notion that 60, the half of 120, had been reached, and
that the reckoning of the second half had begun. Hence
the prefix was continued throughout, with the necessary
introduction of the curious words eleventy and twelvet\\
which are perfectly legitimate formations, and were once
in actual use. The most curious use of the 'great hundred'
which I remember to have met with is in Fitzherbert's
Husbandry (E. D. S., p. 41), where the symbol ' C ' is
actually used to denote, not 100, but 120.
This consideration of reckoning by the 'great hundred'
is the obvious explanation of the French numerals also.
The reckoning is regular up to soixante, i. e. 60 ; after that
the reckoning proceeds by scores, the next resting-place (so
to speak) being quatre-vingt, or four score, whilst 70 is merely
called soixante-dix, 60 and 10. So also 90 is 80 and 10, or
quatre-vingt-dix, and the next score is reached at 100. The
last score of the 'great hundred' is reached at 120, formerlv
called six vingts, or six score, as noted by Littre, s. v.
1 Vingt.'
195. Ever- (6 S. vii. 456 : 1883).
I would remark that it is perfectly well known that the
prefix Ever- [in some place-names] is derived neither from
the Latin aper nor from the German Eber\ for neither of
these forms could give us ever-. The modern ever- is merely
M 2
164 DARBIES; OR 'DARBY'S BONDS.'
the modern way of representing the A. S. eofor, a boar, which
is cognate with the Latin and German forms, and not derived
from either of them ; the same is true of the Russian word
vepre. It would conduce much to clearness of thought if
the difference between cognation and derivation were more
clearly apprehended.
196. Darbies; or * Darby's Bonds' (6 S. vii. 498; 1883).
The phrase ' Darby's bonds ' occurs in Gascoigne's Steel
Glass, 1. 787, which runs thus :
' To binde such babes in father Derbies bands.'
The passage is given in Skeat's Specimens of English
Literature, p. 316. My note on it is as follows : —
' Father Derbies bands, handcuffs. Why so called, I know not, but
darbies is still a slang term for the same.'
We shall not obtain any further light upon the term until
we can discover who was ' father Derby.' All we know of
him at present is that his name was already proverbial
in 1576.
197. Basque = Gascon = Euskarian (6 S. vii. 516 ; 1883).
I am not aware whether any reader knows what this
article means, but it is perhaps as well to point out that
the writer expects us to accept, as ' familiar examples ' of
letter-change, that wood is the same word as F. bois, that
good and better are from the same root, that boor and vir
are likewise one word, that wet is the German nass, that
nigh is merely vicinus, and so forth. I am quite sure that
such statements would not be tolerated in discussing
geology and botany ; but in matters of ' philology ' such
crudities are thought worthy of being written [and printed).
198. The Story of ' The pound of flesh ' (6 S. viii. 105 :
1883).
I do not know whether it has been pointed out that the
story of 'the pound of flesh,' in the Merchant of Venice^
CHAUCER: 'CANTERBURY TALES.' 165
occurs in the Cursor Mundi, 11. 2 141 3-2 1496. I suspect
this to be the earliest version of the tale in the English
language.
199. Chaucer: * Canterbury Tales' (6 S. viii. 125 ; 1883).
In the Parson's Prologue, 1. 43, we have the well-known
lines : —
1 I can nat geste, rom, ram, ruf, by lettre.
Ne, god wot, rym holde I but litel bettre.'
Compare the curious use of rim rcun in the Walloon dialect.
Sigart gives two examples : ' Ca n!a ni rim ni ram, it has
neither rime nor reason ; c'est toudi I'meme rim ram, it 's
always the same song.'
200. Three-way Leet (6 S. viii. 217 ; 1883).
Mr. Terry does not give all the latest information. I have
since shown, in the Academy, that the Essex three releet
[a place where three ways meet] is not particularly corrupt,
but is merely misdivided. It should be threere leet, A. S.
threora Icetu, meetings of three ways. The suffix -re,
A. S. -ra, is the mark of the genitive plural. So also tivegra
wega gelcetu, meetings of two ways, in a gloss quoted in
Kosworth's Dictionary.
201. Skellum (6 S. viii. 375 ; 1883).
In reply to Mr. J., I have to say that sk does not always
point to a Scandinavian origin for a word. It may point to
a Dutch origin, as in landscape, the Dutch sch being difficult
to an Englishman, who likens it to sk\ Skellum, as in
Nares, was borrowed immediately, in the Tudor period,
from Du. schelm, explained by Hexham as 'a rogue,
a villaine, or a wicked person.' The etymology is given
by Weigand. The m is a noun suffix, and the root-verb is
the same as that which gives the E. skill. The original
1 So also in skipper, from Du. schipper.
1 66 MODERN LETTER-WRITING.
sense was a thing separated or cast away ; hence M. H. G.
sckelme, carrion, offal, whence finally it came to mean
a worthless fellow. See Weigand, Etym. G. Diet., and
the remarks on Dutch words in the preface (p. xiv.) to my
Etymological Dictionary .
[Most words beginning with sk are of Scandinavian origin.
The A. S. sc became sh. Many words beginning with sc are
French ; as scald, verb, scandal, scarce.^
202. Modern Letter-writing (6 S. viii. 376 ; 1883).
I beg leave to endorse the statements made at the above
reference. I frequently receive letters which are perfectly
legible throughout, except that neither the name nor the
address can be deciphered. How to reply to them is a most
harrowing question. I also observe a growing tendency,
chiefly in correspondents of whom one knows nothing, to
exact immediate answers, regardless of the trouble they
may cause. In particular, I would allude to the subject
of place-names. I am often expected to solve the sense
of a place-name, though it might cost a week's labour to
collect the old spellings and all the available facts. I find
the answering of letters of this class is harder task-work
than any book-writing. A little mercy would be much
appreciated.
[As to place-names, I now always expect my correspondent
to tell me the earliest known spelling, in old charters.]
203. Foxglove (6 S. viii. 392 ; 1883).
I beg leave to protest against the etymology (!) from
folk's glove. I do so on principle ; it seems to me most
mischievous to suggest how a name might have arisen,
when all the while the facts are on record. As to the
suggestion itself, I have heard it only too often, and it is
given in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Eable. Any
attempt at ascertaining the facts would have disposed of the
theory at once ; for it is perfectly well known that the A.S.
VILD. 167
name was foxes gldfa, meaning fox's glove, which occurs in
vol. iii. p. 327 of Cockayne's A?iglo-Saxon Leechdoms. It is
obviously impossible that the A. S. foxes can be a corruption
of a form folk's, which is of later date. The Norwegian
name revhandskje, foxglove, is derived from rev, a fox, and
handskje, a glove ; and how are we to explain this away ?
The fact is that Englishmen are always making 'suggestions'
of this character, being apparently of opinion that unaided
guess-work is the only method of value ; yet we do not
thus attempt to explain the ordinary facts of botany and
chemistry. Dr. Brewer explains foxes gldfa by ' red or fox-
coloured glove.' It means nothing of the kind ; it means
just simply 'glove of the fox.' It is only another example
of ' suggestion ' ; it is far better to take the fact as it stands.
A study of such a book as Earle's Plant-Nones will show
that our ancestors delighted in names formed from the
names of animals ; and this fact cannot be upset by merely
modern notions as to their inappropriateness. If we exercise
our imagination by making bad guesses, we should not blame
our ancestors, who exercised theirs quite harmlessly. [It is
now considered ' scientific ' to turn the old name hare-bell
into ' hair-bell,' as being descriptive of its slender stalk !
That is not the question. The question is, not what ought
it to be called, but what was it called, as a matter of fact.]
204. Vild (6 S. viii. 476 ; 1883).
Vild is merely vile with an excrescent d, due to stress, like
the d in sound, from F. son. It is very common, and occurs
in Shakespeare and Spenser. Excrescent d after / does not
seem to have received much attention ; yet the old spelling
of hold of a ship was hole ; iron-mould is for iron-mole, i. e.
iron-spot ; and I believe the old word cole-prophet (false
prophet) appears as cold prophet.
[Such is the case ; see Cole-prophet in the New E.
Dictionary^
168 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE.
205. Setting the Thames on Fire. I (6 S. viii. 476 ;
1883).
I have a profound disbelief in this alleged origin of
the saying, which is an old popular etymology, given in
Dr. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. I should
like to ask whether a South Lancashire labourer would
understand the phrase ; who uses it of him ; and, in
particular, whether it is possible to set a sieve [temse] on
fire by friction ? These assertions are easily made, but
they commonly turn out upon inquiry to be no better than
mares' nests. Where can we find ' Set the temse on fire ' in
an old book ? Of course the word temse itself is common
enough, and occurs in the Pro?nptorium Parvulorum. [And
how do such gentlemen explain — to set the Seine on fire?
Probably they think that a seine is a fishing-net (and so it
is), and that the fishermen pull it on board with such hearty
diligence that it is easily set on fire by the friction against
the boat's side. See further below.]
206. Setting the Thames on Fire. II (6 S. ix. 14 ;
1884).
We have now got a little further in this question. It
appears that this fable (as I suspect it will turn out to be)
can be traced as far back as March 25, 1865, when it was
first started by a correspondent signing himself P. in N.
and Q. 3 S. viii. 239. Observe that P. puts forward his
solution quite as a mere guess, saying that ' the long misuse
of the word temse . . . may possibly have tended to the sub-
stitution of sound for sense.' Mr. Hazlitt merely copies
what is there said. The statement made is that ' an active
fellow, who worked hard, ?iot unfrequently [the italics are
mine] set the rim of the temse on fire by force of friction
against the rim of the flour-barrel.' Mr. Hazlitt improves
this into the ' iro?i rim of the temse,' it being, of course,
quite easy to set iron ' on fire.' Now I think we have
THE WORD ' GA.' 169
a right to expect some sort of proof of the statement. If
' an active fellow ' could do this once, he can do it now \
Well, I should like to see him do it. Who can quote the
phrase from a book older than 1865? See P. Plowman,
C 7- 335-
207. The Word * Ga' (6 S. ix. 14 ; 1884).
Mr. Taylor's statement that the suffix -gay is the same
as the German gau, and his identification of gau with
Kemble's explanation of ga, cannot be admitted without
proof. They are against all phonetic laws. The E. day is
A. S. dcegy so that -gay would be -gceg ; or else, since E. hay
(in names) is A. S. hege, -gay would be -gege. How E. ay=
A. S. a, is a mystery. Again, the G. au-=-A. S. ia, as in
G. baum = A.S. beam. Anything can be said if phonetic
laws are not to count.
[In Kemble's Saxons in England there is a good deal
about the get or stir. I once asked Mr. Freeman his
authority for this ga ; and he referred me to Spelman. It
turns out that Spelman evolved the word out of two names,
viz. Ohtgaga and Noxgaga, the authorities for these names
being themselves by no means clear. We have no right to
conclude from them that ga was an independent word, with
long a. If it were, it would be go in mod. E., and gehe
(probably) in German. It could not possibly be the
G. Gau.]
208. By-and-by (6 S. ix. 34 ; 1884).
The statement that by was repeated in order to signify
' as near as possible ' has no true foundation. Examples
show that it means rather ' in due order.' Such phrases
are best understood by consulting the right books, viz.
Matzner's and Stratmann's Old English dictionaries.
Matzner is quite clear about it. He says that bi and bi
1 This is the old suggestion made in the fable, to the man who had
taken an extraordinary leap ' at Ephesus.'
170 THETHORNE.
sometimes indicates ' in order, with reference to space.'
He cites, ' Two yonge knightes, liggyng by and by, i. e. side
by side (Chaucer, C. T., 1013); 'He slouh twenti, Ther
hedes quyte and clene he laid tham hi a?id bV (Rob. of
Brunne, tr. of Langtoft, ed. Hearne, p. 267) ; ' His doughter
had a bed al by hir-selve, Right in the same chambre by
and by' (Chaucer, C. T., 4140). Here it means in a
parallel direction ; not as near as possible. Further, says
Matzner, it is used with reference to the succession of
separate circumstances ; hence, in due order, successively,
gradually, separately, singly. ' These were his wordes by
and by' (Rom. of the Rose, 4581) ; ' Whan William . . . had
taken homage of barons bi and bV (Rob. of Brnnne, as
above, p. 73) ; ' This is the genelogie ... Of kynges bi and
bV (id. p. in) ; ' By and by, si[n]gillatim ' (Prompt. Parv.).
To these examples may be added those already cited. In
later times the phrase came to mean ' in course of time,'
and hence either (1) immediately, as in the A. V. of the
Bible, or (2) after a while, as usual at present. On this
later use see Wright's Bible Word-book, new edition. We
thus see that the earliest authority for the phrase is Robert
of Brujtne, who is one of the most important authors in the
whole of English literature, seeing that Mr. Oliphant has
shown that it is his form of English rather than Chaucer's
which is actually the literary language. It seems a pity,
under the circumstances, that he should be ' a source
unknown ' to any one ; but Hearne's edition is out of
print and scarce, and we still wait for a new one in an
easily accessible form. [Dr. Furnivall's edition has since
appeared, in the Record Series. See By in the New E.
Dictionary?^
209. Thethorne (6 S. ix. 245 j 1884).
In Halliwell's Dictionary we find that the thethorne-tre
is explained in the Promptorium by ramnus. To this
EFTURES. 171
Halliwell appends the note, * ramnus is the medlar-tree.'
Certainly not ; ramnus, or rather rhamnus, is the buck-
thorn.
\Thethorn is short for thef thorn or theve thorn ; the latter
occurs in Wyclif \ see Stratmann. The A. S. forms are : —
fieofeporn, a gloss to ramnus in the Corpus Glossary (eighth
century), and pyfepor?i in ^Elfric's Glossary (tenth century).
Hence, probably, the prov. E. forms thebes, thefles, thaj>es,
febes, feabes, fefies, feafies, usually applied to the fruit of the
gooseberry-tree.]
210. Eftures (6 S. ix. 245 ; 1884).
This word is entered in Halliwell, but it has no true
existence. There is no such word in English or French,
but it has arisen from one of those blunders which dic-
tionaries often perpetrate. The entry stands thus : 'JEftures,
passages; Malory, ii. 376.' It is due to the following
sentence in Caxton's edition of Malory"s Morte Arthure,
bk. xix. ch. vii : ' And sir Meligraunce said to sir Launcelot,
" Pleaseth it you to see the eftures of this castle ? " ' I
quote from Sir E. Strachey's reprint. But eftures is an
obvious error for estures, or rather estres, by that confusion
between / and long s which is so common. The word
estres occurs in a well-known passage in Chaucers Knighfs
Tale. Cotgrave has : ' Les estres d'uiie ??iaison, the inward
conveyances, private windings and turnings within, entries
into, issues out of, a house.' This fully explains the above
passage. I believe the combination ft is almost unknown
to Latin and French, so that such a form as eftures is
hardly possible. In fact, the curious use of// in Icelandic
to represent the sound of// is due to following a Latin
model; for Latin has// only, and knows nothing of//.
It follows that HalliweH's Dictionary, like every other dic-
tionary with which I am acquainted, cannot be always
implicitly relied upon. Such an error as the above should
172 ETYMOLOGY OF SULPHUR.
have been corrected, especially as estres is duly given and
rightly explained.
[A note of this mistake duly appears in the New English
Dictionary, s. v. Estres?\
211. Etymology of Sulphur (6 S. ix. 471 ; 1884).
The etymology of the Sanskrit culvari from culva, copper,
is by no means certain, and is more likely to be a popular
etymology, of no value. The suffix -art can hardly stand
for vairin (rather than vairi), hostile. It is more likely
that culvari is a word foreign to Sanskrit, having no con-
nexion with {ulva, copper, beyond an accidental partial
resemblance. Benfey gives both words, without any hint
of a connexion between them. I do not see the use of
giving mere guess-work.
212. A few words on ■ Anglo-Saxon.' I
(6 S. ix. 302 ; 1884).
"With regard to the language commonly called Anglo-
Saxon, I have already pointed out in my Dictionary that it
means one of the three main dialects of the oldest English,
viz. the Southern, or Wessex, dialect. The other two are
the Old Northumbrian and the Old Midland.
I now wish to draw particular attention to the fact that
there are also two distinct kinds of Anglo-Saxon. The
former is the real language, as exhibited in extant manu-
scripts, in trustworthy editions that are not manipulated,
and in the best dictionaries only. The other Anglo-Saxon
is a pure fiction, a conglomeration of misleading rubbish,
but is to be found only too plentifully. It is cited ad
nauseam by Bailey, Skinner, Johnson, and the rest, and is
extremely familiar to those who learn Anglo-Saxon only
from books. It is highly prized by some etymologists,
because it provides them with etymologies ready made ;
and no wonder, seeing that it was expressly invented for
the purpose !
A FEW WORDS ON 'ANGLO-SAXON/ 1 73
I give three specimens of this wonderful language, and
perhaps may some day give more ; they are plentiful
enough.
' Adastrigan, to discourage; hence dastard, a coward' (Somner).
Clearly invented to account for dastard. Bosworth records
it in his old edition ; from the new one it has, happily,
disappeared l.
' Ptga, a little maid ' (Somner).
The mistake is surprising. In the first place, it should
have had a long I ; secondly, it should have ended in e,
supposing it feminine ; and thirdly, it is clearly suggested
by the Dan. pige. But what is pige ? It is the Danish
form of Icel. pika, a girl, of which Vigfusson says that it is
' a foreign word of uncertain origin, first occurring in Norway
about the end of the fourteenth (!) century, and in Iceland
about the fifteenth.1 A pretty word this to make ' Anglo-
Saxon' out of! Of course it was 'wanted' to account
(wrongly) for piggesnie in Chaucer, and it has also been
used to derive Peggy and ' please the pigs ' from (JV. and Q.
6 S. ix. 232). Unluckily, by the ordinary phonetic laws, A. S.
1 ptga ' would become pye in Middle English, and pie in
Modern English; so the usefulness of it even for piggesnie,
Peggy, andpigs is not apparent. Only it must be remembered
that those who utilize these curious forms do so because
they are unfamiliar with A. S. manuscripts, and do not
sufficiently heed phonetic laws, which are very discouraging
to working by guess.
' Rascal, a lean worthless deer ; hence a rascal1 (Somner).
Oh ! the pity of inserting into an A. S. dictionary a word
which is so plainly Anglo-French !
1 [Somner was quite honest, but he misread the word. I find
a note by my old master, the Rev. O. Cockayne — ' It is an error
for the O. Northumb. adustriga, used to gloss Lat. detestari; Matt,
xxvi. 74.']
174 A FEIV WORDS ON 'ANGLO-SAXON.'
I hope it may some day occur to those who get so much
store by this singular language that these three specimens,
and many more of the same character, are such as should
be avoided rather than courted. [Somner always has some
authority for his statements. He did his best ; but we must
beware.]
213. Pseudo-Saxon Words. II (6 S. ix. 446 ; 1884).
I make a note of a few more so-called ' Anglo-Saxon '
words, all to be found in the old edition of Bosworth's
Dictionary : —
Aisil, vinegar. — Quoted as ' A. S.' by Bailey. It is Old
French, and may be found in Godefroy. It is derived
from a Low Latin diminutive form of acetum.
Braue, a letter, brief. — Evidently an error for M. E. breue,
E. brief; a French word.
Broel, a park, &c. — It is O. F. ; from Low Latin
brogilus.
Blendan, to blend. — The A. S. blendan means to blind.
The A. S. for blend is blandan.
Carited, charity. — This is an O. F. word occurring in the
A. S. Chronicle. There is no great harm in inserting such
a word in an A S. dictionary ; only readers must not
imagine it to be ' Saxon.'
Cite, a city. — Inserted as an A. S. word without any
reference. It is French.
Pouerte, poverty. —The same remark applies.
Bynt, a pint. — Mere French.
Moreover, the A. S. dictionaries abound in words which
are pure Latin, or Latin slightly altered, and are not to be
regarded as Teutonic. Thus ccefester, a halter, is merely
capistrum. The citation of A. S. words requires much heed
and knowledge ; and that is why people generally rush at it
blindfold, to save trouble.
NOTES ON PHRASE AND INFLECTION. 175
214. Notes on Phrase and Inflection. I (6 S. ix. 32 ;
1884).
We ought to be much obliged to Sir J. A. Picton for
protesting against the worthless rubbish which is being
printed in Good Words upon this subject, and which seems
to prove that any one who is utterly ignorant of the facts of
the formation of the English language has a much better
chance of being listened to than those who have studied the
subject. I have not been able to find, during twenty years'
search, that there is any other subject, in which ignorance is
commonly regarded as a primary qualification for being
chosen to write ' popular ' articles on it. At the same time
I am rather sorry to see that Sir J. A. Picton's communi-
cation contains several inaccuracies ; in many cases he has
not followed that historical method which he justly advo-
cates. The formation of weak verbs has been, in all details,
correctly explained in the introduction to Morris' Specimens
of Early English, pt. i. p. lxi, which the student should
consult. It will thus appear that the original suffix in the
verd send was -de, not -ed. This gave send-de, written sende,
once a common form.
This became sente, as being more easy to pronounce
rapidly, and finally sent. Sende is the only form which is
found in Anglo-Saxon, and the word se?ided never existed,
except (perhaps) by misuse. . . . Another inaccuracy is the
fancy that the Middle English suffix -te is High German.
It has, in English, nothing to do with High German, but
depends upon phonetic laws. The suffix appears as -te
after voiceless consonants, such as p, t, k (h, gh). Hence
the M. E. s/ep-te, met-te, brough-te, mod. E. slept, met, brought
(never s/epd, metd, broughd). Some verbs inserted [what has
been called] a connecting vowel l ; hence lov-e-de, hat-e-de,
whence lov-ed, hat-ed. It is quite a mistake to suppose that
Landor originated such a form as slip-t. As a fact, it is
1 A misleading term ; see p. 178.
176 NOTES ON PHRASE AND INFLECTION.
correct, and occurs, spelt slip-te (dissyllabic), in Gower's
Confessio Amantis, ed. Pauli, vol. ii. p. 72, where it rhymes
with skip-te. No one who thinks that the putting of / for
ed is ' of late years a fashion in certain quarters ' can have
examined a certain book known as the first folio of Shake-
speare. I open Booth's reprint at random, and my eye
lights on p. 91, col. 2, of part ii, and I at once find chanc't
for chanced; there are several thousand such examples in
that work. It is, in fact, a great misfortune that such pure
and correct formations as skipt and slipt have been absurdly
spelt skipped and slipped, while no one writes slepped. Such
is the muddle-headedness of modern English spelling, which
seems to be almost worshipped for its inconsistencies.
215. Notes on Phrase and Inflection. II
(6 S. ix. 130 ; 1884).
I must ask for a short space for explanation. I see
where I have made myself obscure, viz. by not precisely
defining my limits. In saying that the form sended (for
sent) never existed, I meant that it does not occur in any
extant written English, which is the natural meaning of my
words. Before this prehistoric form came in view, it was
already cut down to sende (short for send-de). Now compare
this with what Sir J. A. Picton tells us. I quote his words :
< Send had its original preterite sended ; but when an attempt
was made to reduce it to one syllable, send'd, it will be at
once seen that sent was the inevitable outcome.' I will
now prove formally that this is perfectly well known to be
incorrect. The attempt to reduce the word to one syllable
was never made till long after the Conquest ; the written
history of the word is totally different. What really hap-
pened was, that the i of the Gothic sandida dropped out,
thus giving sende \ which is the only form in A. S. poetry
1 Sende shows the /-mutation of a to e, and is thus short for
a prehistoric form *sendii de, mutated form of *scwdida.
NOTES ON PHRASE AND INFLECTION. 1 77
and is extremely common ; see Grein's Worterbuch, ii. 431.
The Mid. Eng. sende sometimes became sente, by a natural
phonetic law, as being capable of more rapid utterance ;
after this the e dropped off, and the modern sent resulted !.
This explanation, which is a mere statement of facts easily
verified, is quite different from what Sir J. A. Picton at
first told us. I may add that I am perfectly acquainted
with the Gothic forms of the weak verbs, having already
printed two accounts of them.
Next take Sir J. A. Picton's account of loved, which is not
correct. He tells us : ' Lov-ed was originally lov-dyd or -ded.
It required little effort to make the euphonic change to lov-ed.''
Here are three mistakes at once. The original form lov-ded
is not the right form to take ; the change is not ' euphonic '
when made suddenly, as here directed ; and the effort to
make such a change would have been considerable, not 'little.'
We must start, rather, from a form lov-e-de, precisely parallel
(as a Mid. English form) 2 to the Gothic pt. t. lag-i-da already
cited. This lov-e-de lasted down to Chaucer's time. Then
the final e dropped, and we obtained lov-ed, in two syllables,
now called lov'd, in one.
The fact is, that Sir J. A. Picton has fallen into the
common mistake of supposing that lov-ed stands for lov-d-ed,
by a dropping out of the former d. This error has arisen
from not understanding the origin of the e, which even
Dr. Morris somewhere calls ' a connecting vowel.' It is
nothing of the kind, but a part of the root. Weak verbs
end in Gothic in -j-an and in A. S. in -i-an or -ig-an. Thus
the A. S. for ' to hate ' was not hatan, but hat-tan (for *hat-
jan). It just makes all the difference. Hat-an would have
made a past tense hat-de, turning (of course) into hat-te.
This is not a guess, for there is a verb hdtan, and its
past tense is hat-te. But hat-i-an made its past tense as
1 This is very nearly what we are now told ; 6 S. ix. 92.
a The A. S. form is luf-o-de.
N
178 NOTES ON PHRASE AND INFLECTION.
*hat-Ja-de, usually written hat-o-de. As late as in Chaucer we
still have love-e-de, hat-e-de, in three syllables. Then the e
dropped, giving the modern lov-ed or lov'd, and hat-ed,
and there we stop, without bringing in any ' euphonic '
laws at all. I am not aware that this has been clearly
explained before, at any rate in any English grammar ; but
any German accustomed to such matters will at once see
(though he probably knows it already, if a student of Old
English) that the -e- in hat-e-d is a part of the formative
ste??i of the verb itself (the A. S. infinitive being hat-i-an),
and that all that is now left of the pt. t. suffix answering
to the third pers. plural -dedun in Gothic is the initial, not
the third letter *. Thus send-e is short for *sand-i-da ; and
the plural send(d)on = *sand-i-don, is short for sand-i-dedun.
As to the formation of such words as skipt, it is clear
that Sir J. A. Picton takes a very different view from mine.
I could explain skipt if I had the space, and I could show
why it is quite * correct,' and that the unphonetic skipped is
a modern error. I will add that those who know what
umlaut means will see that send-e really stands for sand-i-da,
as above.
I must add one more remark. Sir J. A. Picton objects
to calling slipt and skipt ' pure and correct formations.'
But he avoids telling us what name he would give to such
forms as stepped or kepped, or why skipt should be wrong
and slept and kept right.
216. Notes on Phrase and Inflection. Ill
(6 S. ix. 191 ; 1884).
I had not intended to write more on this subject, but the
note at the last reference leaves the matter in such a tangle
that it is necessary to put it somewhat straight. It gives us
the clue at last, and shows how Sir J. A. Picton has been
1 Max M tiller has seen this; see his Lectures, eighth ed., i. 270.
But we no longer believe that the Goth. pi. suffix -dedun meant 'did.'
NOTES ON PHRASE AND INFLECTION. 179
entirely misled by Bosworth's Dictionary. The fact is that
this dictionary contains some errors, there being a misprint
in the very passage cited ; whilst at the same time the very
best dictionary is likely to mislead any one who trusts to it
without entirely comprehending its full meaning. Bosworth 1
gives the present tense of wendan, to go, as ic wend, thit
wentst, he went. Now, ic wend is a pure misprint for ic
tvende, as any grammar will show ; or perhaps it is simpler
to state that ic wende occurs in Elene, 348 ; Solomon
and Saturn, 19; see Grein. Hence, in form, the present
and past tenses were exactly alike in the first person ; the
reason being that tvende is the true form for the present,
whilst the past tvende is short for wend-de, a contraction of
*wand-i-da, as explained in my last. But the third person
singular indicative is given as went. This occurs in Luke xvii.
(not xviii.) 31, where he went does not mean precisely Met
him turn back,' but literally ' he shall turn back ' ; the A. S.
always expressing the future by the present form. Now,
the tangle arose on this wise. This form went is really
a mere contraction of wendeth ; in the very passage cited,
the Rushworth MS. has awendeth, and the Lindisfarne MS.
has awoendath. In the metrical Psalms, cxiii. 8, the Latin
convertit petra?n is translated by he wendeth stdn (not he went
std?i). But this went (for wendeth) is the Mod. E. wends,
third person singular indicative, and has nothing whatever
to do with our Mod. E. went. Hence all the trouble.
The Mod. E. went is the same as the M. E. and A. S.
wende, past tense, of which the thirteenth century form was
wente (with final e), occurring in Genesis and Exodus, ed.
Morris, 321. The final e of this wente was essential, the
word being dissyllabic ; but the Northern dialect dropped
it ; see went (for wente) in the Seven Sages, ed. Wright,
1 I refer to his older Dictionary, mainly copied from Lye ; but
Lye (as to this point) is correct. In the new edition (continued by
Toller) no such error will appear.
N 2
180 OFFAL, ITS ETYMOLOGY.
1485. On the other hand, the A. S. went, third person
singular indicative, occurs as went as late as in the Ayenbite
of Inwyt, p. 180. We must no more confuse A. S. went
(Mod. E. wendeth or wends) with the A. S. past tense wende,
M. E. wende, wente (Mod. E. went), than we must confuse
other similar words which are much more distinct.
The matter is, in fact, somewhat obscure ; but no mistake
will be made by such as are wholly familiar with Early and
Middle English as well as with Anglo-Saxon literature.
Much clearer cases occur in the following. We have fit
for rideth, third person singular indicative, quite distinct
from rode ; hit for hideth, distinct from past tense hidde ; ret
for redeth (reads), distinct from past tense redde (read); bit
for biddeth ; stant for standeth ; sit for sitteth ; and many
more such, which I have often enumerated. Indeed,
I begin to wonder how often these things will have to
be explained before they are clearly understood. At any
rate, it should be known that dictionaries and grammars
alone will not explain Early English. More is wanted, viz.,
a close familiarity with the literature and the manuscripts ;
nothing less will help us to avoid the pitfalls. Perhaps it
may make the matter clearer if I take a parallel case. The
difference between A. S. went, he turns, he goes, and A. S.
wende, M. E. wende or wente, Mod. E. went, is very much
like the difference between the Lat. servit, he serves, and
the Lat. serviit, F. servit, he served. Surely no French
grammarian would for a moment imagine that the F. servit,
which is a past form, is the same word as the Lat. servit.
I hope the matter is now clear.
217. Offal, its Etymology. I (6 S. ix. 155 ; 1884).
In one of his interesting papers on * The Orkneys,' Mr. F.
challenges the usual derivation of offal from off and fall.
To which I reply, ' Ne sutor ultra crepidam ' ; for had he
looked at my Etymological Dictionary, I do not think he
OFFAL, ITS ETYMOLOGY. 181
would have hazarded his conjecture. He tells us that the
Norse equivalent is or-val, i. e. refuse. What he means
by Norse, I do not know. The Icelandic word is properly
written brvol (see Vigfusson), and is derived from or (Goth.
us), out ; and velja, to choose. But it is quite a different
word from the E. offal, notwithstanding the similarity in
sense. This is just how so many errors in etymology arise.
A man sees some sort of likeness between two words, and
immediately rushes at the conclusion that they are related.
This would not happen if people would only condescend to
remember that words have a history. For want of doing
this, your correspondent falls into the very error which he
condemns. His words are : ' The factitious meaning has
been given, as is not unfrequently the case in English
dictionaries, to suit a supposed etymology.' That is
a common error; but in this case it is the critic who
has warped the sense of the word, in order to suit his
etymology. The old sense of offal really was 'what falls
off,' and it is rightly explained by Lat. caducum in the
Pro)7ipt. Parvulorum. It meant originally ' what falls off
trees,' hence bits of stick, refuse. The equivalent words
in other languages are Dan. affald, Du. afval, G. abfall, all
of which cannot be so lightly set aside. The practice of
most etymologists appears to be the same as in matrimony,
viz., to act in haste ; and the result is, or should be, much the
same. I will add, that the alleged use of the word ivailed,
chosen, by Chaucer, is a new discovery ; the usual editions
do not give the word. I suppose it is due to some mistake.
218. Offal, its Etymology. II (6 S. ix. 231 ; 1884).
I think further controversy about this word will only be
unprofitable, as I am sure it is unnecessary. Mr. F. calmly
puts aside all analogies as if they did not exist ; but he
must remember that he has to convince not me alone, but
every one else. He tells us ' that the distance between what
182 OFFAL, ITS ETYMOLOGY.
falls off trees and refuse is much too great to be bridged
over by anything like bits of stick.' This argument I have
already answered by anticipation, by referring him to the
Danish affald, under the impression that he was acquainted
with that language. But if he is not, I must explain that
word more particularly, as I think it will suffice, without
going into Dutch and German, though those languages
have also to be reckoned with, and I have already cited
the forms, which can be looked out at leisure. I must first
say that the Danish often has Id for //; thus our fall is in
Danish /aid. The Danish of is our off; and the Danish
off aid is exactly off-fall, so far as the form is concerned.
But the senses of the Danish affald are very instructive ;
and, curiously enough, they exactly 'bridge over the
distance' in the manner which has been authoritatively
declared to be impossible. I take Ferrall and Repp's
Dictionary, which is good enough for the purpose. The
senses of affald there given are, 'Fall, inclination, declivity,
slope ; decline, abatement, refuse, offal ; lovefs Affald, the
fall of the leaf ; at samie Affald i Skoven, to pick up sticks
in the woods ; Affald i e?i Have, windfalls ; Affald i en
Huusholding, broken victuals, leavings ; Affald af Metal,
refuse, dross, residue, scum,' &c. If we look out offal in
the English-Danish part, we shall find affald given as one
of the equivalents. Observe that the range of meanings
is really far wider than what is declared to be impossible.
We pass from declivity to dross, and include sticks and
offal by the way. So, in German, abfall, lit. off-fall, is the
term for offal actually used by the butchers. We have
practically been told that they cannot use such a term,
but the answer is that they do use it, which puts the matter
past all argument.
I do not wish to go into technicalities, or it would be
easy to show that the Norse v answers to an English w, and
not to/at all ; so that there are great phonetic difficulties
BALLOON. 1 83
about this new and needless proposal. Curiously enough,
this is shown by the very word cited ; for the Icelandic
velja was formerly welja, and became wale (not vale, still
less f ale) in English.
I will just touch upon the other points raised. As for
oris, it is fully explained in my dictionary as containing the
prefix or; but or is not the root, only the prefix. The same
prefix occurs in or-deal. Certainly "Webster quotes ''wailed
wine and meats ' from Chaucer ; but that only proves what
we knew before, that his quotations from ' Chaucer ' are
worthless. The above words occur in the twenty-ninth line
of the Complaint of Creseide, printed in Speght's edition of
Chaucer; but this edition includes poems by Gower, Lydgate,
Occleve, Henrysoun and others. The author of the line
was Henrysoun, who was not born till after Chaucer's death.
219. Balloon (6 S. x. 17 ; 1884).
Of course the derivation of this word from * Ballon,
a famous dancing master in the seventeenth century,' is
an idle fabrication, which the Times should not have
repeated. It is false on the face of it, because it is no
solution of the problem ; for it does not tell us how the
dancing master came by the name himself. It is well
known that the words which are really due to names of
men are comparatively few ; whilst, on the other hand, the
guessing etymologist usually resorts to the suggestion of
such a derivation when he knows not what else to say. It
is the last poor shift of a man who pretends to explain what
he cannot otherwise solve. Of course the word balloon is far
older than the seventeenth century. In Florio's ItaL Did.,
ed. 1598, we already find the entry, ' Ballo?ie, a great ball,
a ballone (to play at with braces), a footeball.' Cotgrave
has ' Ballon, a fardel or small pack,' and in fact it was at
first used in French as a diminutive of bale, which is after
all a mere doublet of ball. Godefroy gives a quotation for
184 HAG.
ballon, dated 1485, in this sense of 'small bale.' Littre
has a quotation for it in the sense of ' balloon ' in the
sixteenth century. The sense of ' great ball ' was probably
borrowed from Italian, for it is a singular fact that the Ital.
suffix -one is augmentative, whilst the F. -on is properly
diminutive. I would suggest that an ordinary irresponsible
newspaper is a very poor guide in questions of etymology,
wherein at least some small degree of accuracy is required.
220. Hag (6 S. x. 31; 1884).
I fear we shall not get much more information as to this
word. I presume the reason why Mr. Wright took the word
htegtesse as better suited to the Latin Tisiphona than to the
\jaX. parcae was because we find elsewhere the entry ' Erenis,
hcegtes' ; and it is certainly correct to say that Tisiphone
was one of the Erinyes or Furies. Hence it is at once
proved that the supposition, even if unneeded here, is far
from baseless.
The best way is to quote all the entries in full. The
word occurs in the glossaries not nine times, but eleven
times, and it is best to arrange the statements in order of
date. They are as follows.
In the eighth century : Eumenides, haehtisse ; Furia,
haehtis ; Erenis, furia (with haegtis added in a later hand) ;
Striga, haegtis.
In the tenth : Pythonissa, hellerune uel haegtesse : Tisi-
plwna, waelcyrre ; Parcae, haegtesse.
In the eleventh : Erenis, haegtes ; Eumenides, haegtesse ;
Furia, haegtesse ; Furianim, haegtessa ; and yet again,
Furiaruni, haegtessa. It would seem from this that the
correct nom. sing, is haehtis, later haegtis, haegtis; whilst
haegtesse represents the plural and occasionally the singular,
perhaps in an oblique case. Schade gives the O.H.G. form
as hagazussa, which was afterwards contracted to hazisscu
M. H. G. hecse, Mod. G. Hexe. Mr. Mayhew has cleared
HAG. 185
the way as to some points. It may now be accepted as
certain that the Du. haagdis, a lizard, is the same as the
G. Eidechse ; it may be added that the A. S. form is athexe,
and that the provincial E. is ask or arsh, all in the sense of
lizard or newt. On the other hand, hag is short for hczgtesse
or hcegtis, and the cognate G. word is Hexe. But it does
not follow that h<zg-t-is, if derived from haga, would mean
1 a female hedge,' because the -/- might easily make all the
difference, and render the substantive personal. The real
difficulty is to explain this -/-, and at the same time, the G.
-*-. The only three opinions worth considering are those
given by Schade. These are (1) the notion of Grimm, that
there is a connexion with the Icel. hagr, wise ; (2) the notion
of Weigand (adopted by myself), that it is connected with
A. S. haga, a hedge; and (3) the ingenious suggestion, due
to Heyne, that the word means ' spoiler of the haw or
enclosure stored with corn,' Szc, the suffix being allied to
A. S. teosu, harm, damage. The suggestion of Grimm
cannot well stand, for hagr has not at all the sense of
' wise,' it is merely handy, skilful, and the suffix is left
without even an attempt at regarding it.
Both the other suggestions agree in referring the word
to A. S. haga, our haw ; hawe is used in Chaucer to mean
a farmyard, a fact worth noting. Perhaps we shall never
get any further than this. Meanwhile, the sense suggested
by Heyne is just possible. The difficulty clearly resides in
the suffix spelt -tis in early A. S., and -znssa in O. H. G.,
and the suffix is chiefly difficult because it is found nowhere
else. The suffix in G. Eidechse is quite a different thing,
though that is almost equally obscure. The Gothic spelling
of Eidechse would have been *agi-thaiso ; the suggested
sense is 'serpent-spindle,' i. e. spindle-shaped snake; see
Schade, s. v. ' Egidehsa.'
It must not be omitted that there is a passage in the
A. S. Leechdoms, iii. 54, where the word hcegtessa?i, gen.
1 86 ' HODER-MODER. '
sing., from nom. hcegtesse, clearly means ' of a witch,' or
1 of a hag.' Thus the problem of the etymology of hag
is definitely narrowed to the question, What is the sense
of the suffix -tesse or -tis ?
[Cf. G. Hexe, in Kluge's Etym. G. Diet.]
221. ' Hoder-moder ' (6 S. x. 51; 1884).
This word is printed hedermoder, which is certainly a false
form for hoder?noder, in the Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner,
ii. 28. The text in Gairdner is said to be taken from Fenn,
iv. 20, yet the spelling differs considerably from that given
in ' N. and Q.' I will just remark that confusion between
e and 0 in MSS. of the fifteenth century is common. So
also b is frequently misread by editors as v \ and the
word blavered in the same passage is a ridiculous error
for blabered, the regular frequentative form of blab. The
passage in Skelton (where the same word occurs) is in
Colyn Cloute, 11. 68-70 : —
' Alas ! they make me shoder !
For in hoder-moder
The church is put in faute.'
The derivation oi hugger-mugger, never yet correctly given
(to my knowledge), is now plain enough. It is a substitu-
tion for the older form hoder-?noder. Neither is there here
any difficulty. The latter part of the word is merely due
to reduplication ; the significant part is hoder. And, as to
hoder, I have shown, in my dictionary, that it is the M. E.
equivalent of huddle, itself a frequentative form allied to
M. E. huden, to hide. In fact, hoder-moder should have
become hudder-mudder or huddle-7?iuddle rather than hugger-
mugger, and it is, practically, a mere derivative of hide. Cf.
Greek kcvOclv.
[The Gk. ev is equivalent to Germanic eu (A. S. eo, u),
whence A. S. hydan, to hide, by ' mutation ' of the vowel.
The zero-grade of Gk. kIvO- is kvO-, answering to A. S. and
A PLEA FOR PLACE-NAMES. 1 87
M. E. hud-, whence the frequentative huderen, written hodere?i
by French scribes, who frequently use the symbol 0 for short
u. The Low G. hudren is cited by Bradley, in his edition
of Stratmann, s. v. hodren.\
222. A plea for Place-names 6 S. x. 109 ; 1884).
I quite agree with W. M. C. that the collection of place-
names will be of great value. We shall never know any-
thing certain about the etymology till we condescend to do
the drudgery of collection first. All turns upon this ; and
Englishmen may as well learn the fact by heart at once.
I have by me the second edition of Mr. R. C. Hope's
Dialectal Place-Nomenclature, which is an attempt in this
direction. In his preface he rightly says, at p. xi, that
I recommended him to use ' some exact mode of represent-
ing pronunciations, such as glossic.' But he did not take
my advice, because his work would then have been a sealed
book to all who do not understand glossic. I have to reply
that I do not care what system is adopted of representing
sounds, so long as the system is so?newhere explained. He
carefully refrains from any explanation of his symbols, so
that his work remains a sealed book to all scientific workers.
The same will happen in future in the case of all similar
collections. They will all alike be useless for scientific
purposes, unless some standard system of pronunciation be
employed. Glossic, or palaeotype, or Mr. Sweet's romic, or
the system employed in Mr. Sweet's History of E?iglish
Sounds will do, or anything else that is definite. But to take
the common Protean spelling as a guide will not do ; there
is no laying hold of what is meant by it. Thus Mr. Hope
tells us that Eye, in Suffolk, is pronounced Aye. Does it,
then, rhyme with my or with may ? We are not ' spinxes,'
as Mr. Yellowplush says, to guess such conundrums.
One thing that has to be done is to have a new name-
index to all the Anglo-Saxon charters. Mr. Birch is now
1 88 TOTEMISM ; OR, ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES.
reprinting these, and promises complete indexes. I hope
we may get them [!].
Another thing that has to be done is to collect and
tabulate every name in Domesday Book, adding the modern
name where it is certainly known. Guesses are much worse
than useless, for they mislead, hinder, discourage, embarrass
and perplex. It is desirable that any one who works at
this should learn something about Old French and Anglo-
Saxon pronunciation, or he will draw such a remarkable
conclusion as one that has been already drawn : — that
Brighthelmston cannot mean ' the town of Brighthelm '
because of the Domesday spelling \
223. Totemism ; or, English Place-names
(6 S. x. no • 1884).
Certainly it is well known (or rather, well ascertained)
that the syllable -ing has many meanings. I have heard
people deride Kemble's statements about the tribal -ing
who were in utter ignorance of what he really says. It
may as well be said once more that he actually gives a list
of the names in -ing to which his tribal explanation applies.
Neither Tyningham nor Coldingham is alluded to in that list.
Perhaps it may interest some to see the original passage
in sElfric the Grammarian, written in the eleventh century,
about patronymics. It occurs in Zupitza's edition, p. 14: —
' Sume syndon patronymica, thaet synd faederllce naman, aefter
Greciscum theawe, ac seo ledenspraec naefth tha naman. Hi synd
swa theah on Engliscre spnece : Penda, and of tham Pending and
Pendingas ; Cwichelm, and of tham Cwichelmingas, and fela othre.'
Here he expressly tells us that Pending means the son of
Penda, and Cwichelmingas and Pendingas are, respectively,
1 [This begins with Brist-. How else could a French scribe repre-
sent the sound of the A. S. Brihtl His 5 is an obvious attempt to
express all that he could make out of this (to him) detestable foreign
guttural.]
TOTEMISM ; OR, ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES. 189
the Cwichelmings and Pendings, i. e. men of the tribe of
Cwichelm and Penda ; and he observes that there are many
others. Certainly there are hundreds. It is not a sure
guide to such names that the name should end in -ton or
-ham. A simple exception is Newington, formerly Newenton,
from the A. S. cet tham nlwan tune, i. e. at the new town.
The -ing is here a corruption of the Middle English -en, put
for A. S. -an, the inflexion of the definite adjective in the
dative case. In the name Newnham we have precisely
the same A. S. dative, but differently treated.
Whoever said that eng is Swedish for ' a meadow ' must
have had a very moderate acquaintance with the Swedish
alphabet. Eng is the Danish spelling of the word; in
Swedish it is written ang. The Icelandic is eng, and it
seems probable that the original sense was a ' narrow
space,' a ' corner ' or ' bit ' of land, from the Icel. engr,
narrow, cognate with A. S. enge, narrow, and the Lat.
angusta ; the Welsh form is ing, but need not be specially
invoked. I should guess that ing, in the sense of ' meadow,'
is Scandinavian, and I find mention of the Ings, or meadow-
land, near Wakefield. We are constantly told that ing,
a meadow, is ' Anglo-Saxon.' This statement rests on Lye's
Dictionary ; he calmly assumes it, more suo, to explain the
Northern English, i. e. the Scandinavian use ; and adds that
it occurs in Basing, Kettering, Reading, Godelming (i. e.
Godhelming, now Godalming), Yelling, Exning and Steyning.
But all of these, for anything that we know to the contrary,
may be of patronymic origin. The question is, simply, is there
a single passage in any A. S. writing where ing, a meadow,
occurs ? I think not.
I have only to add that the etymology of place-names is
most slippery and difficult, and I have no faith in three-
quarters of the explanations which are so lavishly offered.
We want something thorough and systematic to guide us,
for which we look at present in vain.
190 THE NAMES OF THE SEASONS.
224. The Names of the Seasons. I (6 S. x. 215 ; 1884).
[In reply to an argument that, in Old England, there
were but tiuo seasons ; viz. summer and winter.]
The whole of this article I take to be fundamentally
wrong, and due to a total ignorance of the facts. The
common Teutonic word for autumn is harvest, originally
'ingathering,' allied to Lat. carpere. On hcerfeste is
the translation of in autumno in yElfric's Colloquy. In
the A. S. metrical version of Boethius (xiv. 1) haerfest
means 'autumn.' The spelling of autumn in Chaucer is
not autumpe (!) but autu?npne ; I give the quotation and
the right reference. The Cotnplaint of the Black Knight
was not written by Chaucer, but by Lydgate ; the word
autumne occurs in Stanza ix ; the remark that ' harvest is
found before autumne' in it I cannot understand, not
observing harvest at all. The word spring is purely
English, and derived from A. S. springan, to spring up ;
the Flemish form does not much matter, and in fact has
a different vowel.
The reason why spring was not early used in English was
simply that the old word was lent, A. S. lencten ; but when
Lent was appropriated to ecclesiastical purposes, spring
came into use. In a supplement to yElfric's Vocabulary,
ed. Wiilcker, col. 176, we already find : —
' Uer, lencten (on which see Wright's note); ^Estas, sumor;
Autumnus, hcerfest ; Hyems, winter; Uernalis dies, lengtenlic dceg;
Uer nouum, foreweard lencten, vel middewcerd lencten ; Uer adultum,
cefterwcerd lencten ; Eodem modo et aestas et autumnus uocantur, on
tha ylcan wisan sumor and hcerfest bioth gecigede ; ^Estiuus dies,
sumorlic dceg; Autumnalis dies, hcerfestlic dceg; Hiemalis dies, winterlic
dag.'
It is difficult to see how the old glossarist could have
been more explicit ; he even recognizes three English
divisions of each season, each obviously consisting of
a month.
THE NAMES OF THE SEASONS. 191
The Flemish word lente is a mere contraction, the A. S.
being the fuller form. The Flemish lente has no connexion
whatever with l Hntj which is only a misspelling of lind, and
cognate with English lithe. The Middle-English actually
had yet another term for spring, viz. ver, used by Barbour,
with the spelling were, in The Bruce, v. 1. This may have
been borrowed from Latin, but there are also cognate (not
borrowed) forms in Scandinavian, viz. Icel. vdr, Swed. var.
I have no time to write more ; I have given summer and
winter in my Dictionary. I may just add, however, that
the notion of connecting hiems with imber would astonish
Vanigek.
225. The Names of the Seasons. II (6 S. x. 338 ; 1884).
As Mr. M. is the more confirmed in his view that
there were only two seasons known to our Teutonic
ancestors in proportion to the amount of evidence which
is produced to the contrary, I notice a few more points.
In Schade's excellent Old (High) German Dictionary I find
the following : ' Herbist, herpist, M. H. G. herbest, Mod. G.
Herbst, auctumnus : der erst herbst, September ; der ander
herbst, October ; der drit herbst, November.' This shows
that the autumn season was divided into three parts in
Germany as well as in England. Another curious thing is
that yearly accounts were made up from Michaelmas to
Michaelmas in the fourteenth century, at any rate ; and it
would be interesting to know at how early a date this
custom arose. I suspect it was due to the time of harvest.
The Icelandic haust simply means autumn ; see the
numerous derived words in Cleasby and Vigfusson. The
following passage in ^Elfric's Colloquy, in the article about
the fowler, is of some interest.
In Latin it runs thus : —
' Ipsi [i.e. the hawks] pascunt se et me in hieme, et in uere dimitto
eos avolare ad siluam, et capio mihi pullos in autumno, et domito eos.'
192 CATERWAUL.
The English is : —
' Hig fedath hig sylfe and me on wintra, and on lencgten ic laete
hig aetwindan to wuda, and genyme me briddas on haerfeste and
temige hig,' i.e. they feed themselves and me in the winter, and in
spring I let them go away to the wood, and catch for myself }Toung
birds in autumn, and tame them.'
In Kluge's Ety7nological German Dictionary, s. v. Herbs t,
it is shown that Tacitus was wrong in imagining that the
Germans had no name for autumn.
226. Caterwaul. I (6 S. x. 237 ; 1884).
I merely give the old etymology found in Bailey and
Todd's Johnson. The statement that it is unconnected
with cat is pure assumption, and I do not see how it can
be maintained in the face of the extract from Chaucer,
which is so carefully ignored, though Pope rightly under-
stood it. Phillips, in 1706, explains cattenvaul of cats :
Sewel, in 1754, translates it by an equivalent Dutch word
kattengelol. In any case, I shall not admit that wail and
waul are the same word ; ai and au are different sounds.
Wail is formed, by vowel-change, from the Scandinavian for
1 woe ' ; but waul from the M. E. tvaiven, to cry waw. The
/ is frequentative ; cf. F. miauler, ' to mewl or mew like
a cat ' (Cotgrave) ; Ital. miagolare (Florio). As for (the
alleged) catter, to chatter, I do not know where to find it in
Middle English.
227. Caterwaul. II (6 S. x. 356 ; 1884).
The suggestion made in IV. and Q. 6 S. x. 317, that the
syllable waul has something to do with A. S. wealh,
foreign, is certainly wrong, and could not have been made
by any one who had read the article in my dictionary with
reasonable care. I have shown that the M. E. verb was
not waul, but wawen, which certainly meant ' to make
CATERWAUL. 1 93
a disagreeable noise.' Of this verb waul is the frequenta-
tive form ; the -/ is the same as in wai-/, me7v-l, squea-l, and
we have very many instances of final -le with the same fre-
quentative meaning. Moreover, the most elementary know-
ledge of English phonetics will show that au does not answer
to A. S. [short] ea ; as a fact, the A. S. wealh became
7oale, and is still preserved in Wales, i. e. the foreigners,
now misused as the name of a country instead of the
name of a people. The adjective is Welsh, i. e. Wale-ish,
with the usual u?nlaut, and this is still further from the
sound of English au.
The real difficulty is in the syllable -er, which I regret
that I have not hitherto explained. It is. however, an old
Scandinavian genitive suffix, not uncommon in Middle
English. Readers who know no more of Chaucer than the
first hundred lines must have seen the word night-er-tale,
which is precisely the Icelandic fidttar-tal, a number
or succession of nights ; so that nightertale really means
' for a succession of nights,' but is vaguely used by
Chaucer with the general idea of 'night season.' So in the
present case, the M. E. cater is the Icel. kattar, of a cat,
gen. case of kottr, a cat, and is the form used in composi-
tion ; hence kattar-auga, cat's eye (a plant) ; kattar-rbfa,
cat's tail; kattar-skinn, cat's skin; kattar-timga, cat's
tongue. Hence cater-waw, sb., would mean 'cat's cry';
and cater-7vawen, vb., 'to utter a cat's cry'; whence cater-
waul, sb., 'a continuous cat's cry,' and the verb cater-ivaul,
' to go on uttering a cat's cry.' Cf. W. cathderig, caterwaul-
ing, from cath, a cat, and terig, rutting. I hope I have
now made this sufficiently plain, and that we may be spared
any further discussion of the matter.
The suggestion that cater is equivalent to the G. Kater
is, of course, out of the question. It actually requires the
supposition that the final -er is [here] a High German
suffix, which is wholly out of place in a Middle English word.
o
194 SCOTTISH PROVERB IN 'DON JUAN.'
[The New E. Diet, mentions Icel. kattar- as a possible
source of eater-, without adopting it. But the analogy of
night-er-tale, here very important, has been missed. On
the other hand, the r in byrlaw is unhesitatingly explained
from by-jar, gen. case oi by-r ; which is strictly analogous.]
228. Caterwaul. Ill (6 S. xii. 232 ; 1885).
I think I am entitled to say a last word about caterwaul,
because the whole of the difficulty arose out of a remark by
CM. I., that his intimate acquaintance with the literature
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries enabled him
to assert that caterwaul was originally used of apes and
monkeys, not of cats. Now in the Retrospective Review for
May, 1854, p. 265, the reviewer cites the expression 'heare
a dogge howle or a cat waule] from Melton's Astrologaster,
printed in 1620. This is in addition to the instance given
in 6th S. x. 521.
229. Scottish Proverb in * Don Juan ' (6 S. x. 315 ;
1884).
The old form of the proverb was certainly ' Ka mee,
ka thee ' (see Hazlitt's Collection of Proverbs ; Hey wood's
Proverbs ; Skelton, ed. Dyce, vol. i. p. lxv, 1. 7). It is
explained to mean, ' Swear for me, and I'll do as much for
you,' i. e. ' Call me as a witness, and I'll call you.' Thus
ca would appear to be, as usual, the Scottish form of call.
I have little doubt that there was a parallel form, 'Claw me,
claw thee,' but I suspect it to be a later substitution. I have
also somewhere met with it in the plain English form, 'You
scratch my back, and I'll scratch your back.' See the
illustrations in Hazlitt, which I omit to save space.
[Cla7ve (scratch) me, clawe thee, is used by Tyndale, and
subsequently by others ; see Claw, verb, 5 b., in the New E.
Dictionary. I fail to find ka me, ka thee, s. v. call]
PHAETON. 195
230. Phaeton (6 S. x. 476 ; 1884).
I am obliged to Mr. Terry for pointing out an unlucky
misprint in my reference for this word ; a misprint which
really had its origin in my attempt to give fuller information.
I ascertained from Todd's Johnson that the word phaeton
occurs in ' Night 5 ' of Young's Night Thoughts, and at once
endeavoured to verify the reference. I found that in my
own copy of the work the lines were not numbered, and
that 'Night 5 ' was a canto of considerable length. I thought
it would save my readers trouble to count from the end of
that canto instead of from the beginning, and accordingly
made a note that the required line is 'line 245 from end.'
But alas ! after ascertaining this, the words ' Night 5 ' slipped
out of the reference, and left it incomplete after all. I now
think it probable that (as the new quotations seem to show)
we took the word from Latin, but should be very glad of
further information as to the date and manner of the
introduction of phaetons. I may add that I remember
such a carriage nearly forty years ago, which was always
called a faytun, or in glossic spelling fai'tn (romic fert?i).
This was in the neighbourhood of London. [At Perry
Hill, Sydenham ; the phaeton was my father's.]
231. Colour in Surnames (6 S. x. 520 ; 1884).
At the last reference J. H. Brady is quoted as asserting,
' A Mr. Red we have never yet met with ' j and the writer
adds, ' and most people will agree with him.' I am not
among the number of ' most people ' in this instance.
When we notice that Camden refers to the Latin Rufus
and the O. F. Rous we might expect the corresponding
English Red to be a very common name. And so it is
Only we have to remember that the spelling red is modern,
like the pronunciation. The e was originally long, and in
Chaucer MSS. the form is usually reed. In later English it
was reede, read, reade ; in Scottish, reid. In my experience,
o 2
19^ RECK AN.
the surnames Reed, Read, Reade, Reid, are all extremely
common ; and I think most people must have heard of
Charles Reade. I may add that I have already shown,
in my Dictionary, that the A. S. form was read, answering
to a Gothic raud-s. Cf. Lat. ruf-us, rub-er, Gk. i-pv$-p6s.
[Mr. Rouse has helped to translate Brugmann.]
232. Reckan (6 S. xi. 65 ; 1885).
This Northern word is duly explained in Atkinson's
Cleveland Glossary as ' an iron crane, on which are
suspended the pot-hooks, and which, being hinged at one
end to the masonry of the chimney, will move in any
direction over the fire.' Mr. Atkinson gives it under the
form reek-aim, but observes that it is pronounced reckon
or reckan. His reason for spelling it reek-air ti is that he
supposes this to be the etymological spelling, and that the
sense is reek-iron, i. e., ' iron in the smoke.' It is rather hard
that words should be quoted under an assumed etymological
spelling ; but it is the old, old way, and the source of endless
trouble.
I think it is quite certain that the above etymology is
wrong; for I find in a will, 1454, the following entries:
'j. craticula ferrea, j. par tanges de ferro, ij crassetes et j.
rekand de ferro,' &c, in a list of cooking utensils — Testa-
inenta Eboracensia, ii. 194. Obviously the modern reckan
is the old Yorkshire rekand, which cannot stand for reek-
iro?i, and has to be described as being 'de ferro,' because
the word rekand in itself does not already contain the idea
of 'iron.'
The etymology is easy and obvious, viz., from the Icel.
rekendr, a chain, a derivative of the verb reka. The A. S.
word is racenta, a chain, which is sufficiently common ; from
the same root as rack and reach. This explains the modern
pronunciation, which happens to be quite correct.
This is one more example of the danger of guessing
BEWRAY. 197
without sufficient evidence. We learn also that the true
sense of recka?i was ' chain ' ; it was doubtless at first
applied to a simple plan of suspending pot-hooks from
the links of a chain, so as to regulate the height; and
the name was retained when the apparatus became more
complex. This is much more satisfactory than the popular
etymology from reek.
233. Bewray (6 S. xi. 66 j 1885).
An earlier example of this word than any given by Matzner
or myself is in Robert of Brunne's Ha?idlyng Synne, 3621 :
' That y ne wylle telle ne bewreyj i. e. disclose. Matzner
well compares it with the O. Friesic biwrogja, which, indeed,
1 have already cited. This O. Friesic verb preserves the
original 0 (long), which passed into e (long) in A. S., by the
usual vowel-change.
[An earlier example, in this sense, than any that are given
in the New E. Dictionary^
234. Awork (6 S. xi. 66 ; 1885).
I have derived this from on work, though I have hitherto
failed to find such an expression. It occurs, however, in
the following : c As for the wagges that set us on work ' ;
Lyly, Mother Bombie, V. iii.
[Cf. Awork in the New E. Dictionary. ~\
235. Oil on Troubled Waters (6 S. xi. 72 ; 1885).
To the references already given add Pliny, Nat. Hist.,
lib. ii. c. 103. Holland's translation has, * All seas are made
calme and still with oile.' I gave this quotation some two
years ago to a friend, and I believe it found its way into
print.
[For some occult reason, the origin of ' pouring oil on
troubled waters ' is perpetually being inquired after. It is
simply a well-known fact, that it is no bad thing to do. Pliny
198 JANISSARY.
makes this very remark : ( Now, that all Springs are colder l
in Summer than Winter, who knoweth not? . . . And, that
all seas are made calme and still with oile.' Why we need
worry over it I do not know.]
236. Janissary. I (6 S. xi. 138 j 1885).
I am surprised to find that I am quoted as giving in
my Dictionary the derivation from yehi cheri, new soldiery.
I cannot find it there, though I heartily wish I could, as it
is certainly right. I most unfortunately quoted the wrong
Turkish form for ' soldier,' and it was just because I did so
that the subject has been discussed2. As I have already
been corrected several times, and I accept the correction,
I think the subject may be allowed to drop.
At the last reference, however, the old 'popular etymology'
from Persian jdn ?iisdri, one who throws away his life in
battle, is trotted out once more. There is not a tittle of
evidence for it ; but we are, forsooth, to accept it because
it is ' obvious ' to a layman who is no philologist. We are
not even offered any proof that the compound jd?i-nisdri
was ever used in Turkish to express a 'janissary,' nor any
proof that it was ever used at all. The Turkish word is
not jdn-nisdri, nor anything like it ; it is yeiiicheri, with the
specific meaning of 'janissary,' as may be seen in Zenker's
Turkish Lexicon. No one says that the English form
janissary is derived from yeiii and cheri \ but every one
says that the Turkish word for janissary is so derived. The
English word is merely an English spelling of the Italian
ianizzeri (Torriano), and the identity of the Italian with the
Turkish word is very much closer. The English form is
1 I suppose he means relatively colder, in comparison with other
things near them. Otherwise, it can hardly be true.
2 [My larger Etym. Diet, cites the Turk, ye/Hi, new, and 'askari,
a soldier. But the right words are yeiii, new, and cheri, soldier}-.
My concise Etym. Diet, gives the right forms.]
JANISSARY. 199
a mere travesty of the original, after passing through Italian
and French. The Italian preserves the true Turkish y at
the beginning and the e sound in the penultimate. But the
English initial letter badly expresses this Italian sound by
J, thus producing an accidental coincidence with the Persian/,
which is quite misleading. I am quite contented with the
explanations of such scholars as Devic and Zenker, and
I should think others are the same. Meanwhile we have
one more example of the uselessness of an ' obvious '
etymology to anybody but the inventor of it.
237. Janissary. II (6 S. xi. 270 ; 1885).
As I am asked to explain this word again, I do so, but
must decline further discussion. The mistake lies in calling
ja?iissary a ' Turkish ' word ; it is not so, but only a word of
Turkish origin, which is quite a different matter. It is an
E?iglish word ; and, as far as we are concerned, we merely
borrowed it from the French janissaire, the plural of which
is spelt jannissaires in Cotgrave's Dictionary (1660), where
it is explained as 'Janizaries.' The French word, in its
turn, was a French misspelling of the Italian plural janizzeri,
spelt ianizzeri in Florio's Italian Dictiojiary (1598), and
explained as ' The Turkes gard, Janizers.' So that, in fact,
even in English, the earlier form was janizers. The peculiar
sounds of the Ital. i (asj;) and of the Ital. zz (as ts) at once
show that the Ital. word, in its turn, was borrowed from
the Turk, yeni-cheri ; and there the matter ends.
The Turk, yeiii is a genuine Turkish word, having the
peculiar n which is unknown to the Persian alphabet ; but
cheri is merely borrowed from the Pers. charik, auxiliary
forces. It is interesting to notice that the Turkish ■ noun
of multitude ' was ingeniously rendered by an Italian plural,
owing to the peculiar luck that i is an Ital. plural suffix ;
and being thus established as a plural, it became janissaires
in French, and janizers (later form Janizaries) in English.
200 JANISSARY.
Out of this false plural janizaries the singular form janizary
(later janissary) was at last evolved ; and I believe it will
be extremely difficult to find any early instances of the
1 singular ' spelling. In old books the English word is
common enough, but only (I think) in the plural. The
same remark applies to the French and Italian forms.
The fact is, accordingly, that there is no evidence whatever
for the existence, at any date whatever, of the compound
word jdn-nisdri, a thrower away of life, either in Persian or
in Turkish, or indeed, anywhere at all, except by imaginary
connexion with an English word which sounds somewhat
like it, but was really evolved out of a false plural. There
is no difficulty about a Turkish word being of Persian origin,
as the very word cheri shows ; but this proves nothing as to
the necessity of a Persian origin for every word in Turkish.
We have borrowed thousands of words from French ; it
does not follow that house is a French word. The existence
of the word jan-frdz1, which I take to be purely modern, has
nothing to do with the question, as can easily be perceived.
But it may nevertheless be true that jdn-bdz was at first
suggested by previous acquaintance with the English (not
the Persian) word janizary, which was entirely misunder-
stood and misderived ; and if so, nothing is more natural
than that the supposed connexion of the words should be
repeatedly pointed out. There is great confusion constantly
at work in every language, owing to the very potent and
subtle influence of popular etymology. It is so extremely
easy to see resemblances, and so extremely arduous a task
for a man to render himself sufficiently acquainted with the
secret structure of languages to see that such resemblances
are merely superficial. If philological truth (like other forms
of truth) is ultimately to prevail, it is quite certain that she
will have a very hard time of it beforehand, particularly in
1 I. e. Pers. jdn-bdz, playing with life, venturesome ; hence, a rope-
dancer, tumbler.
BURNING OF BAIT : BAIT OF HEMP. 201
this country, where the enthusiasm for easy solutions is
carried to such a pitch, and where so little pains are taken
to learn the rudiments of phonetics.
238. Burning of Bait : Bait of Hemp (6 S. xi. 178 ;
1885).
Perhaps bait is connected with Icel. fait, pasturage.
Cf. Icel. beiti, (1) pasturage, (2) heather, ling.
[But it is shown, in the New E. Did., s. v. Beat, sb. (3),
that a better spelling seems to be beat. If so, the etymology
remains unknown.]
239. Definition of Genius (6 S. xi. 190; 1885).
I wish to draw attention to the fact that the definition of
genius as ' the capacity for taking infinite pains,' or, ' an
infinite capacity for taking pains,' is not a true one. At
best it merely expresses a portion, and that the least
important portion, of the truth. To complete the defini-
tion we require the addition of the following words,
viz. ' combined with the faculty of discerning whether the
object is worth the trouble, and in which direction success
is the most probable.' These conditions are absolutely
necessary. The true genius is he who sees his way, and
who, seeing it, pursues it with the utmost care, neglecting
no circumstance as being too trivial, and concentrating his
strength upon the most hopeful point of advance. The
mere taking of infinite pains, without any guiding power to
render such pains successful, is nothing but dunderheaded
stupidity. Whilst the dull plodder wastes his energy upon
work that leads to nothing further, the genius concentrates
it upon work which to every one else around him may seem
trivial enough ; but he sees further than others, and knows
that a splendid ultimate success is probable. Surely the
faculty to know 7vhat work is worth doing is immeasurably
greater than the mere dogged resolution which goes round
in a hopeless circle.
202 GREEN BAIZE ROAD.
240. Green Baize Road (6 S. xi. 198 ; 1885).
There is really no such phrase. Dickens puts together
two expressions. One is ' gentlemen of the road,' i. e. high-
waymen, robbers. The other is ' green baize,' i. e. whist-
table, card-table. Hence ' gentlemen of the green baize
road' means 'plunderers at the card-table/ i.e. card-
sharpers. I do not see the use of reference to pages. The
right reference is to ' Bleak House, ch. xxvi. par. 1.' In
prose books readers might count the paragraphs.
N.B. — 'Green cloth' means billiards; but 'green baize'
is a whist-table. [The passage from Dickens is quoted in
the New E. Diet., s. v. Baize, sb., § 3.]
241. Fratry (6 S. xi. 205 ; 1885).
I find that Mr. Palmer explains this word quite correctly
in his Folk- Etymology, and duly cites from my Notes to Piers
Ploiuman, p. 97. Fratry is from frater-y, misspelling (with
added -y) of M. E. freitour, short for O. F. refreitour,
from Lat. refectorium. Littre, s.v. ' RefectoireJ gives the
O. F. forms refreitoir, refretor, refrictur ; Provencal refeitor
(without the intrusive r). The puzzle in this word is really
the intrusive r ; but there are other instances. I have given
several examples of intrusive r and intrusive / in a paper
read before the Philological Society, and now in the press.
Note, e.g., F.fronde, a sling, from Lat.funda; E. treasure,
F. tresor, Ital. tesoro, from Lat. thesaurus. The latter is
a most striking example. The E. fringe is somewhat
similar, but here the r was suggested by that in the second
syllable of Lat. fimbria. The Wallachian for fringe is
frimbie. For other examples see cartridge, partridge, jasper,
roistering. [Cf. also F. chanvre, encre.~\
242. Bishopric of Sodor and Man (6 S. xi. 216 ; 1885).
I hope I may be allowed to make a slight addition to the
reply by Canon Venables at the last reference. The word
' WOLF/ IN MUSIC. 203
sudreyjar is now written with a stroke through the d. It is
from Icel. sufir, south, and eyjar, plural of ey, an island,
cognate with A. S. /^(preserved in M. E. i-land, now mis-
spelt is/and) ; so that Sodor= ' southern islands/ My index
to Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary duly contains
the entry, ' Sodor (name), Sudreyjar' Sodorensis is a mere
Latin derivative.
243. < Wolf,' in Music (6 S. xi. 264 ; 1885).
This name is applied to a false or harsh fifth. See
Webster's Dictionary, &c. The following is the story
about it as given in Feme's Blazon of Gentrie (1586), as
cited in the Retrospective Revieiv, February, 1853, p. 129 :—
' Nature hath implanted so inveterate a hatred atweene the wolfe
and the sheepe, that, being dead, yet, in the secret operation of
Nature, appeareth there a sufficient trial of their discording natures,
so that the enmity betweene them seemeth not to dye with their
bodies : for if there be put upon a harpe, or any such like instrument,
strings made of the intralles of a sheep, and amongst them but only
one made of the intralles of a wolfe, be the musitian never so cunning
in his skil, yet can he not reconcile them to an unity and concord
of sounds ; so discording alwayes is that string of the wolfe.'
The writer who quotes this adds a curious story of a
Hindoo who stole a wolfs skin in order to convert it into
the head of a tom-tom. His idea was that the sound of his
drum would burst the drums of all his neighbours, since
theirs were made of sneep-skin.
244. ' Cut away' (6 S. xi. 264 ; 1885).
In Holland's translation of Pliny, bk. viii. c. 22, we read
as follows : —
' In the case of presages . . . this is obserued : That if men see
a wolfe abroad cut his way and turne to the right hand, it is good.'
This leads me to suggest that the original sense of to
1 cut a way ' was to cut or force one's way through a wood ;
for it is clear from the above example that way was once
204 'ONE TOUCH OF NATURE.'
a substantive. The change from ' cut a way ' to ' cut away '
was easy, but rendered the phrase unintelligible, so that it
degenerated into mere slang, upon which numerous changes
were rung. This I suspect to have been the origin of
' Cut away ' ; and perhaps even of ' Cut a stick,' and ' Cut
one's sticks.'
[The laconic ' Cut' seems to be short for 'cut and run,'
i. e. cut one's cable and run away ; see the New English
Dictio?iary ■.]
245. * One Touch of Nature ' (6 S. xi. 396 ; 1885).
I am afraid it is perfectly useless to hope that this quota-
tion will ever be rightly used, for the simple reason that
those who quote it are those who do not read Shakespeare
for themselves ; and the number of those who really read
him is, I fear, not very great after all. But I should like to
say that I have already explained this error in print twice ;
once at p. xvi. of my Questions for Examination in English
Literature, published in 1873, and once in a letter to the
Academy, which I cannot now find. I have also pointed
out that the phrase ' natural touch,' quite in the modern
sense, occurs in Shakespeare after all, viz. in Macbeth, iv.
2. 9. And I have explained that touch in this famous
quotation means ' defect ' or ' bad trait,' from confusion with
the once common word tache, sometimes misspelt touch \
1 [All the trouble arises from taking the line away from its context.
Of the hundreds who misunderstand it, probably not one knows what
the context is. So I here quote the whole passage : —
' One [emphatic] touch [defect] of nature makes the whole world
kin,
That all, with one consent, praise new-born gawds,
Though they are made and moulded of things past,
And give to dust that is a little gilt
More laud than gilt o'erdusted.' — Trail, iii. 3. 174.
Observe how the author reprobates this evil tendency in human
nature.]
'MAGDALENE' AS THE NAME OF A BOAT. 205
Another point to be noticed is that Messrs. Clark and
Wright had no sooner finished their very valuable edition of
Shakespeare in a portable form, than the publisher of the
volume at once stamped this line (in itself meaningless) on
both sides of the cover, in order that ' the whole world ' might
call the book the ' Globe ' edition. It is obvious that the
author did not know how he ought to have understood his
own words either in this, or (according to some commen-
tators) in any other passage.
[I have seen it gravely argued that misconceptions of this
character become sacred when once popularized, and ought
on no account to be exposed, still less discarded.]
246. * Magdalene ' as the Name of a Boat
(6 S. xii. 47 ; 1885).
Chaucer's Shipman had a barge named ' The Maude-
layne.' There was a ship of that name in 1390, belonging
to Robert Titlok de Hornesbek, who left to his brother
William ' unam naviculam vocatam Mawdeieyn.1 The same
man had a ship called 'Farcost,' and a third called 'Garland.'
See Testamenta Eboracensia, i. 139. Robert Ryllyngton of
Scarborough had two ships called ' Saintmarybote ' and ' Le
Katerine ' {id. i. 157). [See further in my Notes to Chaucer •
Works, vol. v.]
247. Early Notices of Zebra : Kangaroo
(6 S. xii. 48; 1885).
In Dampier's Voyages, 1699, i. 533, we read as follows : —
1 There is a very beautiful sort of wild Ass in this Country [Cape of
Good Hope], whose body is curiously striped with equal Lists of
white and black,' &c.
This is a very early description of the zebra. The name
of the animal is not given. In vol. iii. p. 123, there is
a description of the kangaroo, which also is unnamed.
206 ROBINSON CRUSOE ANTICIPATED.
248. Robinson Crusoe anticipated (6 S. xii. 48; 1885).
We are all familiar with the story of Alexander Selkirk,
who was rescued from the island of Juan Fernandez in
1709. But W. Dampier, in his Voyages, ed. 1699, vol. i.
p. 84, already tells us the story of an Indian whom he had
left behind at John Fernando's Isle in 1681, when chased
by some Spanish ships. This Indian lived on the island
for three years. He had his gun, a knife, a small horn of
powder, and some shot. When the powder failed, he made
his gun-barrel into harpoons, lance-heads, hooks, and a long
knife. See the story.
249. The Lord's Prayer in Verse. I (6 S. xii. 169 ;
1885).
The notion of attributing to Nicholas Breakspeare the
version of the Lord's Prayer printed in 6 S. xii. 112, is a
mournful example of the ignorance prevalent as to the
history of the English language. He died in a. d. 1159,
quite half a century before the earliest known instance of
the metre in which this version is written \ Camden's
spelling of the old English is abominably bad, and abounds
in grammatical errors.
Of course fondi?ig or fanding does not mean 'confound-
ing ' (!), but ' temptation.' The originals may, all three of
them, have been written in the time of Henry II, but the
existing copies exhibit a mixture of Plantagenet-English and
Tudor-English spelling. The language of the time of
Henry II was far more antiquated than the oldest form of
these versions could ever have been ; and plainly Pope
Adrian IV could not have written in a form of language
which was at that time known to no one.
1 The earliest known example of rimed metre with four accents is
in SouTs Ward, which Dr. Morris dates about a.d. 1210. I should
put the prose text rather later; and probably the verses are later
still.
THE LORD'S PRAYER IN VERSE. 207
However, this version is interesting ; and I will venture
to restore it to something more like its original spelling
and grammar. It is obvious that the fourth line has been
lost, and must be supplied. Probably it contained the
once common expletive phrase mid iwisse, i.e. 'certainly.'
Heuen-riche is all one word, and means the kingdom of
heaven. Eche other mon means ' each (of us) another
man.' Fonding is temptation, A.S.fandung. The final e
is a separate syllable. Euer yliche means ' ever alike,' or
' continually ' : —
' Fader vre, in heuen-richg,
Thy name l be haliyed euer yliche.
Thou bring vs [to] Thy michel blisse.
[Thy wille, Louerd2, mid iwisse,]
Als hit is in heuen y-do,
Euer in erthe1 be hit also.
That holi breed that lasteth ay,
Thou send hit vs this ilke day.
Forgif vs al that we han don,
As we forgiue eche other mon.
Ne let vs falle in no fonding,
Ac shelde vs fro the foule thing.'
Even this remains unsatisfactory. The rhyming of don
(with long 0) with mon (with short 0) is against the rule, and
is quite unexampled.
250. The Lord's Prayer in Verse. II (6 S. xii. 258 ;
1885).
I have just come across a most remarkable confirmation
of all that I have said about the version which Camden
gave, and which I attempted to restore. I said it was of
the thirteenth century ; that the fourth line was lost, and
should be restored as ' Thy wille, Louerd, mid iwisse,' or
something of that kind ; and that Camden's version was
1 Something wrong; the final e is suppressed, which it should not
be. Read hit be in line 6, and the line will then scan.
2 Louerd, Lord, was then dissyllabic.
208 ENGLISH COMPARED WITH GERMAN.
corrupt. I now find that there is still extant a copy in
a hand of the thirteenth century ; that the fourth line is
there given as ' Thi wille to wirche thu us wisse ' ' ; and
that my restoration of the spelling brings it very close to the
spelling of the manuscript, and would have agreed with it
even more closely if the old scribe had been a little more
careful. This MS. copy is extant, is the Harleian MS. 3724,
leaf 44, and has been printed in Reliquia Antique?, vol. i.
p. 57. This leaves no more to be said as to this version.
251. English compared with German (6 S. xii. 183 ;
1885).
Much experience of the difficulties encountered by the
students of English etymologies has led me to see that,
in many cases, a knowledge of German, generally advan-
tageous, is turned into quite a curse by the failure of the
student to understand the essential difference between English
and German as to their treatment of consonants and vowels.
The current, but most ignorant and pernicious doctrine is,
that English is derived from modern German, the latter
being looked upon as the standard and correct Teutonic or
Germanic form ! The right doctrine is that, of all modern
Teutonic languages, the German is, for all practical
purposes, the most corrupt and the furthest removed
from the original Germanic form ; and the corollary is,
that it would be far better to take English as near to the
standard form, and to deduce modern German from it.
This is a point to which I have drawn attention over and
over again ; but it has to be constantly repeated, owing to
the extraordinary persistence of the old erroneous notions
on the subject.
The idea of dispraising themselves seems to be inherent
in some Englishmen ; they are never tired of comparing
1 I. e., ' Do thou instruct us how to work thy will.' IVissen is to
cause to wit, to instruct, teach.
ENGLISH COMPARED WITH GERMAN. 209
themselves with other nations, to their own disadvantage.
This class of men has seized upon the notion that all
English is derived from German, and they will hear of
nothing else. It is nothing to them that even the Germans
take Gothic as the standard spelling for etymological
purposes, and next to that regard the Old English and
Icelandic forms. It is nothing to them that many of our
Anglo-Saxon MSS. were written down before any but the
very scantiest scraps of Old High German. It is nothing
to them that one system of spelling, at any rate as
regards the consonants, is common (with trivial exceptions')
to English, Friesic, Gothic, Dutch, Icelandic, Swedish.
Danish, and the Low German specially so called ; whereas
the German is in a minority of one, and differs remarkably
from all the rest. They happen to have a fair knowledge of
German, and therefore idolize it ; and they know nothing of
Old English, Friesic, Gothic, Dutch, Icelandic, Swedish, or
Danish, and do not care to know anything. It is to their
interest to disregard all these ; for why should not their
German suffice ? So it would, if they would but study it
historically, and condescend to learn the Old High German
original forms. But they will not do that either. Hence
comes that painful, that disgraceful blundering over many
perfectly simple etymologies which renders us the laughing-
stock of Germany and America.
Surely this is a painful subject ! Unfortunately it is
made all the worse by the singular fact that false doctrine
as regards all that is Teutonic is taught most often by men
who are thorough and brilliant Greek and Latin scholars
in all respects except as regards phonetics and the physio-
logical principles of philology. Yet these are men whom
we naturally respect ; these are the men who often know
German (except from a philological point of view) well.
Their influence is great ; and they know no better than to
exercise it even where they are wrong.
p
210 CAUCUS.
Such an extraordinary perversion as the German zahn,
as compared with the Gothic tunthns, and modern English
tooth (for *tonth) ought to make any sensible person thi?ik.
How can we possibly derive the English am from German
bin, or the English are from the German sind ? It is true
that are and sind are mere variants, but the English are
actually preserves the a (for e) due to the original root,
which in German is lost ; but am and bin are not even
from the same root !
If these few lines of remonstrance will only lead some of
our great scholars to reconsider one of their favourite
doctrines, a great deal of good will result. Nothing keeps
us back so much as persistence in old exploded fancies.
252. Caucus (6 S. xii. 194; 1885).
I suspect that Mr. Trumbull is quite right. I can
point out the source of his information, viz. Captain John
Smith's Works. At p. 347 of Arher's edition we find a
notice of ' their Elders called CawcaiuitassoughesJ where
he is speaking of the Indians of Virginia. At p. 377 he
says that caitcorouse (not cockarouse) means 'captain.' The
date is 1607-9.
[Given in the New E. Did. as a possible explanation of
this difficult word.]
253. Knout <6 S. xii. 226 ; 1885V
I have not (in my Etymological Dictionary} given any
early example of the use of this word. It occurs so early
as 1 7 16, in a book on the State of Russia, by Capt. J. Perry,
quoted in the Retrospective Review for February, 1824,
P- T59-
254. Lammas Monday (6 S. xii. 275 ; 1885).
Lammas is explained in both the larger and smaller
editions of my Dictionary. It merely means loaf-mass, or
day of first-fruits (see Chambers's Book of Days, p. 1 54). The
PUNT. 211
equivalence of lammas to loaf-mass is an historical fact,
easily ascertainable by every one who will look up the
references. But in the last century, when guess-work was
idolized, a common derivation was lamb-mass, the form
la??ib-mass being forged for the purpose of deceiving the
unwary. This was outdone by Vallancey, who says it is
la-ith-mas, where ith is Irish for 'grain,' and mas for
'acorns' or 'mast.' What la is he does not say; perhaps
he meant it to be the French definite article. See Brand,
Popular Antiquities, vol. i. As to the time when the word
first appeared in our calendar, all that is known is that it
was before King Alfred's time, for in his translation of
Orosius, bk. v. c. 13, he says : — ' Thaet was on thxre tide
calendas Agustus and on thsem dsege the we hatath hlaf-
maesse,' i. e. ' It was at the time of the calends of August,
and on the day that we call Loaf-mass.' Surely this is
sufficient for us to know with certainty. Our good king's
writings deserve to be better known. [I know of a clergy-
man who, with King Alfred's words before him, persists in
saying that the derivation of Lammas from lamb-mass is the
only one possible. Such is English reasoning, though it is
sane on other points. See above, p. 71.]
255. Punt (6 S. xii. 306 ; 1885^.
I have never seen a quotation showing the use of this
word in Tudor-English. Here is one : —
' As for Pamphilus, . . . of his making is the picture of Vlysses in
a punt or small bottom ' (Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxxv. c. x ; ii.
537 •
A small ' bottom ' is a small boat. [So used by Canning.]
256. En pronounced as In (6 S. xii. 463 ; 1885).
I do not remember to have seen it noticed that the
M. E. en has frequently become in in modern English,
though I dare say this note will soon elicit contradiction.
p 2
212 CARMINATIVE.
It is sufficient for me if I contribute something towards the
recovery of a note by a former discoverer.
In the words England. English, we have a clear example
of the tendency to pronounce en as in. In many instances
an actual change of spelling has taken place. Thus our
verb to singe was in M. E. sengen ; similarly we find
M. E. henge, a hinge ; M. E. hengil, Mod. Prov. E. hinglc,
a small hinge ; M. E.frenge, Mod. E. fringe ; M. E. swengen,
to swinge ; M. E. twengen, to twinge \ M. E. grennen, to
grin ; M. E. wenge, a wing ; M. E. preinte, prente, Mod. E.
a print ; M. E. sp/ent, now often called splint ; M. E.
pennen, to pen up, is spelt pinnen in P. Plotvman ; M. E.
/enge, a ling. Here are already twelve examples. We
may notice also the Irish tint, sinse, for rent, sense :
Prov. E. rench, to rinse; agin for 'agen,' i.e. again; bin
for 'ben,' i.e. been; ingine for engine; wimniin for
1 wimmen,' i.e. women ; sevin (not uncommon) for seven,
<S:c. Dent is also spelt dint.
The use of the above note consists in its application to
other cases. For example, it shows that our /ink, a chain,
is a regular formation from the stem of the A. S. h/ence ; and
ink, from M. E, enke, may be compared with F. e7ia-e.
It also follows that a like change from em to im is to be
expected. Accordingly, we find that a/embic became
limbeck ; and our limp is certainly connected with the
A. S. lemp-halt, as seen in the following glosses : — ' Lurdus,
temp-halt] Wright's Focab., ed. Wiilcker, 31,6. ■ Lurdus,
lemp-healt] ib., 433, 17 ; 476, 24. ' Lympe hault, boiteuxj
Palsgrave.
257. Carminative (7 S. i. 276 ; 1886).
Mr. Terry points out that this word occurs in Swift,
' Strephon and Chloe,' 1731, 1. 133, as well as in Arbuthnot.
He quotes the etymologies given in Johnson, Ogilvie, and
Littre. I find that the word is already in Coles's Dictionary,
CA RMINA TIVE. 2 1 3
1684. It is obviously borrowed from the F. carmiuatif,
explained by Cotgrave as ' wind-voiding . . . also flesh-
taming, lust-abating.' Ogilvie derives it from Low Lat.
carminare, ' to use incantations, to charm . . . because it
acts suddenly », as a charm is supposed to do! This seems
to be an invention ; and indeed we may always suspect
invention when the fatal word ' because ' is introduced.
The Low Lat, carminare means properly ' to make verses '
(see Lewis and Short) ; and though it also means to
charm, and even to cure wounds by charms (Ducange,
s. v. ' Carmen '), this proves nothing as to carminative.
Littre is clearly right in deducing it from the other Lat.
carminare, to card wool or flax, from carmen, a card for
wool, from carere, to card. [See Carmiuate in the New
E. Dictionary?^
The idea is extended from the carding of wool to the
taming of the flesh (as Cotgrave puts it), or to the expelling
of wind. Indeed, we actually find in Blount's Glossographia,
1681, the verb carminate, 'to card wool, to hatchel flax, to
sever the good from the bad.' Coles (1684 gives ' Carminate,
to card wool,' and ' Carminative medicines, breaking wind.'
In Ducange, we have the following : Carminativum, dis-
sipativum, discussivum, in Amalthea, Medicina Salem, p. 59,
edit. 1622; 'Innoxia sunt (pyra) si una cum Carminativis
vulgo dictis, hoc est, calefacientibus tenuantibus et flatum
expellentibus comediantur, vel super his vinum vetus et
odoratum bibatur.' I suppose the word is not found at
all before the seventeenth century.
Let me strongly recommend the new and concise Dic-
tionnaire Synoptique d'Etymologie Francaise, by H. Stappers,
published at Brussels last year. Stappers gives the etymology
from ' carminare, carder, et par extension, dissiper.' Those
who are curious to know how extremely bad a modern book
upon etymology can be, may consult the Glossaire Etymo-
iogique Anglo-Normand, by E. le Hericher, Avranches, 1884.
214 DRYDEN'S USE OF INSTINCT.
258. Dryden's use of Instinct (7 S. i. 306 ; 1886).
In Absalom and Achitophel, pt. i, we find the line : —
' By natural instinct they change their lord.'
A note in Bell's edition says: 'A slight alteration would
redeem the metre : " How they, by natural instinct, change
their lord." . . . This is the only line in which the melody
is flattened into prose.' The silliness of this note is only
equalled by its impertinence. Of course the line is quite
right as it stands. The word natural has its three full
syllables, and the word instinct is accented on the second
syllable, which the annotator never thought of! Yet he
might have found it in Shakespeare, if he ever read that
author; see Cor. v. 3. 35; Cynib. iv. 2. 177; v. 5. 381;
Rich. III., ii. 3. 42, &c. It is rather hard that ignorance
should be made the ground for condemning a good writer.
259. Meresmen (7 S. i. 312 ; 1886).
It simply (I had almost said merely) means ' boundary-
men.' Meer-stone, i.e. boundary stone, occurs in Bacon's
Essays. From A. S. gemare, a boundary.
260. Yorkshire Words : Lathe, a barn (7 S. i. 355 ;
1886).
It does not seem to be known that the derivations of
a large number of provincial English words are given in my
Appendix to Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary,
published at Oxford in 1876. By merely referring to it,
I find at once the following entries : ' Ket {carrion), Icel.
kjot? ' lathe (barn), Icel. hlad, hlada, and hlao*il ''lea
(scythe), Icel. le, Ijdr.' The Icel. words are further explained
in the Dictionary itself. Surely the true Northern name for
barn is lathe, a word actually used by Chaucer when imitating
the Northern dialect ; Cant. Tales, 4086 (A. 4088).
KNAVE OF CLUBS = PAM. 215
261. Knave of Clubs = Pam (7 S. i. 358 ; 1886).
It is surprising that Johnson's Dictionary should still be
seriously consulted for etymologies. His derivation of
Pam from palm, because Pam triumphs over other cards,
is extremely comic. Of course, Pam is short for Pa7nphile,
the French name for the knave of clubs ; for which see
Littre's French Dictionary. Cf. p. 135.
262. Pronunciation in the Time of Chaucer
(7 S. i. 497; 1886V
Questions concerning the pronunciation of Middle English
are often asked, but it is quite impossible to deal with them
within a reasonable space. It is difficult even to give so
much as a notion of the vast and extraordinary changes
through which English pronunciation has passed. The
mere statement that the Anglo-Saxon long I was pro-
nounced as modern English ee in beet, and so continued
down to at least a. d. 1400, and probably later, when it
gradually gave place to the sound of ei in rein, and after
that again to the modern i in pride, is quite sufficient to
arouse the disbelief, perhaps the derision, of those who
have never even attempted to look at the evidence, and
would rather disbelieve than do so. Those who know less
of the subject than Mr. Ellis does will do wisely to believe
what he says. It strikes me that one easy example, familiar
to many, may perhaps arouse the attention of the in-
credulous. I take the case of the common name Price,
which undoubtedy now rhymes to rice. The etymology is
well known to be from the Welsh ap Rhys, pronounced
ap Reece. The Welsh name is represented in modern
English by two forms, viz., Reece or Rees, preserving the
old pronunciation, and Rice, in which the pronunciation has
changed according to the regular English laws. Similarly,
the derivative ap Rhys is likewise represented both by
Preece and Price. Here we have an example of the
2l6 SLARE.
change from long ee to long i, which can readily be seen
to be real.
The intermediate change is best seen in German. The
Old High German iinn, pronounced as E. ween, gave way
to the Middle High German wein, rhyming with the English
rein. This spelling is still retained in the modern form of
the language to such an extent that the spelling ei (really
due to the sound in the French reine, E. reign or rein) is
used almost universally to denote the sound of the modern
English long i in wine. The modern German word ought,
from a phonetic point of view, to be spelt vain, but we all
know that it is not.
263. Slare (7 S. ii. 12 ; 1886).
The statement that this word cannot be found in
a dictionary is a little odd. A good deal depends on
knowing where to look, and what to look for. I found
it in the first book I opened, and found some light upon
it in each of the next six books which I consulted. Pea-
cock's Dictionary of Man/ey Words E. D. S.) gives : —
' Slave, to make a noise by rubbing the boot-soles on an uncarpeted
floor. Crockery-ware, when washed in dirty water, or dried badl}'
so as to leave marks thereupon, is said to be slared?
It is even in Halliwell's Dictionary, the best-known and
most accessible of all dialect dictionaries. My larger Ety-
mological Dictionary gives such an account of slur as to
throw much light on the word. (In the smaller one, I find,
to my surprise, slur has been omitted, purely by accident.)
The Icelandic Dictionary gives slora, to trail, contraction of
slodra, from slod, a trail, slot. Rietz's Provincial Swed. Diet.
gives slora, to be negligent. Aasen's Norweg. Diet, gives
sloe, to sully ; sloe, short for slode, to trail, and so on. Still
closer in form is the Icel. shedur, a gown that trails on the
ground, which would give slceur by the loss of (crossed) d.
I have already said that 'the key to slur is that a th or d has
HENCHMAN. 21 7
been dropped ; it stands for slother or sloder ; cf. prov. E.
slither, to slide ; slodder, slush.' Similarly slare is for sladder
or slather. Halliwell gives ' Slather, to slip or slide (Cheshire) ;
sladdery, wet and dirty.' Also ' Slair, to walk slovenly; slairg,
mud ; slare, to smear ; j-/«rj', bedaubed.' Also ' Slidder, to
slide,' with its contracted form ' Slir, to slide.' [I am not
quite happy as to all these points.]
264. Henchman I. (7 S. ii. 246 ; i886\
I find that in Annandale's Dictionary the old bad guess,
that this means haunch-man, one who stands at one's
haunch, is once more offered. How often must I protest
against this utter neglect of vowels ? How can aim pass
into enl The converse is possible, since en may become
an, and an may become aun (see below). My own guess,
that it stands for hengst-man, i. e. horse-boy, is surely far
better. I now write to say that I look upon my guess as
being fairly proved. For, firstly, the A. S. hengest was cut
down to hengst ; see Wright's Vocab., ed. Wiilcker, 119, 37.
Secondly, we find Hinx?nan as a proper name in the Clergy
List, where Hinx- is certainly for Hengst. So much we know
from the Index to Kemble's Charters, which gives Hengestes-
broc, Hinxbrook; Hengestes-geat, Hinxgate; Hengestes-heafod,
Hinxhead ; Hengestes-ige, Hinxey. Cf. also Dan. and O.
Friesic hifigst, by-form of hengst. Thirdly, hengst-man is the
exact equivalent of the Icelandic hesta-madr, a horse-boy,
groom ; cf. O. Swed. hcesta-siven, a horse-swain, groom.
Rietz gives Swed. dial. hcesta-7?ian, which he translates as
hast-man, i. e. horse-boy. Aasen gives hest, a horse ; heste-
dreng, heste-svein, as Norwegian words for horse-boy. The
Middle Low German dictionary by Schiller gives hengest,
hingest, hinxt, a horse ; and hengestrider, a groom, lit. horse-
rider ; and I suspect that the word was borrowed from the
Continent shortly before 1400. Fourthly, Blount explained
henchman as I do, in 1691, and cites the spelling henxman.
2l8 LIMEHOUSE.
Spelman says the same. The Prompt. Parv. has heyncemann,
hench-mamie. The wretched guess about haunch began with
Bishop Percy, who may have been misled by the spellings
kaunsmen, hanshmen (but not haunchmen), in a household
book of 151 1, which can hardly be depended on. Fifthly,
it should be remembered that in The Flower and the Leaf,
the henchmen are described as riding behind the knights,
their masters. I confess I cannot see where this breaks
down ; but if there is any flaw in the argument, perhaps
some of your readers can find it out. I ought, however, to
explain the ch. It arose from turning a sharp s into sh,
after n ; so that hensman became henshman, also written
henchman. The spelling heyncemann in the Pro??iptoriu?n
shows this spelling with s, there written ce. The process is
precisely the same as in linchpin for linspin, and in pinch
from Y.pincer.
[For a great deal more upon this difficult word, see
p. 220 below.]
265. Limehouse (7 S. ii. 437; 1886).
Lymoste (the old spelling of Limehouse) is the correct
Tudor spelling of lime-oast, i.e. lime-kiln. The whole matter
is explained in Mr. Scott Robertson's note to Pegge's
Kenticisms, published by the English Dialect Society, s. v.
' Oast.' See also ' Oast ' in my Dictionary.
266. Shakesperian Words (7 S. ii. 491 ; 1886).
In this article [viz. in one printed at p. 424 of the same
volume] we are informed of the following 'facts': (1) the
Eng. bale is the same word as the Lat. malus ; (2) dirimeo
(which does not exist) is the same as the Lat. diribeo (dirimo
is probably meant) ; (3) the Lat. magnus is the same as the
Turkish beg; (4) lie/is the same word as love, life, &c, but
differs in meaning conventionally. Comment is needless.
BANDALORE. 219
267. Bandalore (7 S. iii. 66 ; 1887).
The earliest quotation given by Dr. Murray is dated
1824; but the date of the toy is about 1790. It is also
denned by him as ' containing a coiled spring,' which must
be a mistake for 'string,' as 'string' occurs below, in the
next line but one.
Besides, we know it had a string, not a ' spring.'
In JV. and Q., 5 S. i. 452, there is an extract from
Moore's Life, i. 11, in which Moore says that his earliest
verses were composed on the use of the toy ' called in
French a bandalore, and in English a quiz.1 Hence the
verb to quiz, in the sense to play with a bandalore, and quiz
in this sense is plainly nothing but whizz. As no one
guesses at the etymology of bandalore, I suggest that it is
a mere made-up phrase. — French bande de Paure, string of
the breeze, or whizz. See aure in Cotgrave ; who has :
1 Aure, a soft, gentle, coole wind or aire.' [A guess.]
268. ' The Sele of the Morning ' (7 S. iii. 75 ; 1887).
Sele, better seel, was once a very common word. It is
the A. S. seel, M. E. seel, time, season. ' The sele of the
morning ' is simply ' the time of day.' The mod. E. silly is
the derived adjective. Haysele, haytime, is common in
East Anglia. All this has been explained over and over
again. See ' Silly ' in my Dictionary.
269. Atone (7 S. iii. 86 ; 1887).
Dr. Murray shows that this verb arose from the use of
such phrases as ' to be at one,' or ' to bring, make or set at
one.' I wish to point out that I believe I have discovered
that such phrases arose out of a translation from similar
French phrases, so that it is really of French origin, as doubt-
less many of our English phrases are. In Le Livere de Reis
de Engleterre, ed. Glover, p. 220, we find that a reconciliation
was attempted between Henry II and the Archbishop
220 DARKLING.
Saint Thomas, but they could not be at one ; or, in the
Anglo-French original, ' il ne peusent mie estre a un,' i. e.
they could not be reconciled ; or, as Shakespeare would
have said, 'they could not " atone together."'
270. Darkling ( S. iii. 191 ; 1887).
Please note that darkli?ig is an adverb. Keats is quite
wrong in using it as an adjective ; perhaps it was a beautiful
word to him, because he did not clearly understand it.
It occurs in Shakespeare not once, but thrice.
Dr. Schmidt explains it quite correctly : ' Darkling, adv. ,
in the dark ; Mids. N. Dr., ii. 2. 86 ; King Lear, i. 4. 237 ;
Antony, iv. 15. 10.'
The adverbial suffix -ling is explained in Morris, Hist.
Outlines of Eng. Accidence, p. 220. It is of A. S. origin,
and there is no mystery about it. Examples : darkling,
hedling (Mod. E. headlong), sideling, flailing, backling.
Darkelyng occurs in The K?iight of La Tour-La?idjy {temp.
Henry VI), ed. Wright, p. 21.
271. Cards (7 S. iii. 206 ; 1887).
The following is a very early mention of card-playing in
England : —
• Item to the Queries grace upon the Feest of Saint Stephen for hur
disporte at cardes this Christmas : c. s. [i. e. 100 shillings).' — Privy
Purse Expenses of Elisabeth of York, ed. N. H. Nicolas, 1830.
The date is December, 1502 ; and the queen is Elizabeth,
wife of Henry VII. Strutt's earliest date for a mention of
cards in England is 1495. [Cards are mentioned in the
Chester Plays soon after 1400; see the New E. Diet.]
272. Henchman II. (7 S. iii. 212 ; 1887). Cf. p. 217.
I venture to say something more on this subject, because
I have a new piece of evidence to adduce. In the Privy
Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, ed. N. Harris Nicolas,
HENCHMAX. 22 1
1830, p.90, we have the entry, ' Item, to the Kinges Hexmen.
xiiji". iiij^/.' Here 'hexmen' is obviously miswritten for
'hexmen,' i. e. 'henxmen.' The date is 1503. A note at
p. 200 says : —
' Pages of honour. They were sons of gentlemen, and in public
processions walked by the side of the monarch's horse. See a note
on this word in the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII, 1532.
P- 327-'
The same volume contains the Wardrobe Accounts of
Edward IV, mostly for the year 1480. At p. 167 we find
an account 'for th' apparaile off the sayde maister1 and
vij henxmen^ which begins : ■-
; To John Cheyne, Squier for the Body of oure said Souverain
Lorde the King and Maister of his Henxmen for th' apparaile of the
saide Maister and vij of the Kinges Henxemcn a3Tenst the feste of
Midsomer in the xxti yere of the mooste noble reigne,' &c.
Accordingly these men had eight long gowns of camlet,
eight of woollen cloth, and sixteen doublets.
On the next page is an account ' for th' apparaile off the
kynges fotemen.' We thus get a distinction drawn between
henchmen and footmen. We should also notice the state-
ment that the henchmen were 'sons of gentlemen,' and
' walked by the side of the monarch's horse.'
In the Princess Marys Privy Purse Expenses, ed. Madden,
1 83 1, there are New Year's gifts mentioned. These were
given, in 1543, to the king's gentlemen ushers, the yeomen
ushers, yeomen of the chamber, pages, heralds, ' trompettes ;
(i. e. trumpeters), ' henchemen,' players, &c. So again, in
1544, to the gentlemen ushers, grooms of the chamber,
guards of the king's bed, footmen, heralds, trumpeters,
'henchemen,' king's players, minstrels, &c. See pp. 104,
140. A note at p. 238 says: — 'See Archaelogia, i. 369:
Strype's Eccl. J/em. iii. 2, p. 506/
[See further at pp. 342-344 below.]
1 The 'said master' is the 'master of the henxmen.' This 'head-
ing' of the account was probably added afterwards.
222 EGLE = ICICLE.
273. Egle = Icicle (7 S. iii. 234; 1887).
The remarkable article on this word is of great interest,
as showing the determined way in which Englishmen prefer
guess-work to investigation when they have to do with
a word belonging to their own language. They never treat
Latin and Greek after this fashion. But when it comes to
English, then speculation becomes a pleasure and delight
to the writer. I can only say that some readers at least feel
a humiliating sense of shame and indignation at seeing such
speculations in all the ' glory ' of print.
On the writer's own confession, he first guessed the word
egle to be the French aiguille^ which it is not. Then he
guessed it to be a diminutive of ice (which still ends in s to
the ear, as it did in our old spelling^, because 'pickle [pikle ?]
is a diminutive of pike* ; whereas his logic requires that
pickle should be a diminutive of pice ! Then he guessed it
to be a diminutive Latin suffix ; but rejected this third guess.
Then at last he found that aigle is a Leicestershire word ;
and that ickle is in the dictionaries (it is in Webster !).
Why are we to be treated to all these guesses, which are
admittedly wrong ? Obviously, because it amuses the
writer. But it does not amuse the philologist; it saddens
him.
By way of finish, the worthless suggestion is quoted that
the Icel. jokull, carefully misprinted jokul, is ' even the
proper name Heckla ! ' Is it, indeed ? Then Dr. Vigfusson
has made a very great mistake about Hecla in his Icelandic
Dictionary !
And all this half-page of speculation is about a perfectly
well-known word, merely the A. S. gicel, and the familiar
latter half of the well-known ic-icle, explained in full in
Ogilvie's Dictionary (new edition), and in my Etymological
Dictionary.
Of course it is in Halliwell, s. v. ' Iccles.' The spelling '
PHENOMENON VERSUS PHENOMENON 223
aigles occurs in Marshall's Rural Economy of the Midland
Counties, 1796.
274. Phenomenon versus Phenomenon. I (7 S. iii. 235,
370; 1887).
This note opens up the whole question of so-called
' etymological ' spelling. Those who know the whole
history of our spelling from the eighth century till the
present time best understand the harm done by the per-
nicious system of trying to transplant Latin and Greek
symbols into the English language. The symbols a and ce
are not English, and are best avoided. Indeed, this is
done in practice, when once a word becomes common.
Either and cetherial have been sensibly replaced by ether
and etherial No one now writes ceter7ial. Solozcism is
now solecism ; and I trust that primeval and medieval will
soon prevail over primceval and mediaeval. Pedantic
spellings are most objectionable, because they are useless
and unphonetic. It is singular that so much zeal is dis-
played with regard to words of Greek origin, whilst none at
all is displayed with regard to the far more important words
of native origin. Such spellings as sithe for scythe, siv for
sieve, coud for could, rime for rhynie, and the like (all of them
being at once phonetic, historical, and etymological) find no
supporters. This is a bitter satire on our ignorance of our
own language. The French spelling is bad enough, but is,
at any rate, sufficiently independent to prefer pheno??iene to
pho3?iome?ion. Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian all have
fenomeno. The reason why we write Egypt is because the
word is thoroughly naturalized, and was already so spelt in
the fourteenth century ; i. e. we do not spell it in the Greek,
but in the English fashion. We write JZschylus because we
wish to show that it is a Greek name, and not English at
all ; curiously enough, even this is wrong, as it ought rather
to be Aischulos, if spelt pedantically. Our interest in Egypt
224 PHENOMENON VERSUS PHENOMENON
is of a very different character ; at any rate, I am thankful
that the spellings Egypt and Egyptian cannot now be dis-
placed by any number of ' scholars.' Perhaps ' scholarship '
may one day include a knowledge of the native source of
English ; it will make a great difference. (See further below. )
275. Phenomenon versus Phenomenon. II (7 S. hi.
370; 1887).
I think I am entitled to reply that my note was meant
for the guidance of the general public. I did not suppose
it would convince Mr. T. When he asserts that the word
archcBology has never been spelt with e for ce, he is careful to
ignore Dr. Murray's Dictionary. The word was spelt
archeologie by Gale in 1669; and it was spelt archaiology
by Bishop Hall. The only good reason for retaining the cc is
phonetic, viz. because a vowel follows.
The retention of original. spellings in borrowed words is
not only absurd, but is frequently (I am thankful to say)
impossible. We cannot make people write pankhd ; they
will be sure to write punkah. Written language does not
go by logic at all ; it goes by convenience. It is a mere
servant-of-all-work, not a schoolmaster. This is the very
point which many fail to understand.
As to the derivation of ' rhyme,' Mr. T.'s statement is
delicious, viz. that it is a derivative of rhythmus, ' say what
I will.' The question is not what / say, but what every
other philologist of any note says throughout Europe.
Kluge, for example, in giving the etymology of the G. Reim,
neatly observes that the Lat. rhythmus never had the sense
of the G. Reim, and naturally enough denies the connexion.
Besides, it is useless to deny all the facts in the well-known
history of the word.
The best of it is, that it is the word for ' hoar-frost,'
which has the true right to the h. The A. S. word is hr/m,
and the Icelandic word is spelt so still.
BREWERY. 225
276. Brewery (7 S. iii. 278; 1887).
Hexham's Butch Dictionary, 1658, has ' Een Brouwerye,
a Brewerie, or a brewing-house.' This carries us back more
than a century for the name of the place. The Unton
Inventories have only brew-house.
277. Watchet Plates (7 S. iii. 296; 1887).
The word watchet, light blue, has been fully discussed by
me in a late number of the Philological Society's Trans-
actions. I need only say here that it occurs in Chaucer,
and is borrowed from Old French ; see vaciet in Roquefort's
Old French Dictionary. He says, ' Vaciet, megaleb, arbris-
seau qui porte une graine noiratre propre a teindre en violet ;
c'est le fruit et la teinture ; vaccinium hysginum.' Old French
is not derived from a town in Somersetshire ; the suggestion
is a mere flourish of assumed knowledge, appropriate for
a (very splendid) work of fiction. [This last remark refers
to a quotation from Lorna Doone, ch. xiii : ' plates from
Watchet, . . . with the Watchet blue upon them.']
278. Blazer (7 S. iii. 436 ; 1887).
Dr. Murray rightly explains the word as ' a light jacket of
bright colour,' &c. We should always go by history, not
guess. The emblazoning of arms on blazers can hardly
have been the original fact. I have seen such arms on
blazers, but I remember blazers at Cambridge without
them ; and to this day the arms are much less common
at Cambridge than at Oxford — in fact, quite exceptional.
The term has gradually come into use during my residence
here [in Cambridge], and I remember its being especially
used in the phrase ' Johnian blazer.' This blazer always
was, and is still, of the brightest possible scarlet ; and
I think it not improbable that this fact suggested the name,
which became general, and (as applied to many blazers)
utterly devoid of meaning. All this is instructive.
Q
226 DULCARNON.
279. Dulcarnon (7 S. iv. 76; 1887).
This is a long story, and a great deal has been said about
it. I merely summarize the results.
1. Dulcarnon is Chaucer's spelling of the Eastern word,
meaning ' two-horned,' which was a common medieval
epithet of Alexander the Great ; for he claimed descent
from Ammon.
2. It was applied, in joke, to Euclid I. 47 ; because the
two upper squares stick up like two horns.
3. Chaucer goes on to call it ' the fleming of wrecches,'
i. e. flight of the miserable. This is his translation of Lat.
fttga 77iiseroru7n , a jocular name for Euclid, I. 5. That is,
he mixes up the two propositions ; both being puzzling.
4. I do not think any one but Chaucer (or some one
quoting or referring to Chaucer) ever employs the word.
280. Slughorn (7 S. iv. 276 ; 1887).
Borrowed by Browning from Chatterton, who took it from
Kersey, who took it from Gawain Douglas. Not a horn at
all, but a mistake for slogan. See the whole story in the
second edition of my Etyiri. Did. (or in the Supplement to
the first edition), p. 828.
281. Wag (7 S. v. 4; 1888).
It was suggested by Wedgwood that the sb. wag is short
for wag-halter; and those who know our old plays will
accept this. In Saintsbury's Elizabetha7i Literature, p. 126,
there is a striking proof of it in a poem by Sir Walter Raleigh.
Sir Walter explains the meaning of the words wood, weed,
and wag very clearly, the weed being hemp, and the w>ag
being the wag-halter, or man to be hung. Your readers
will no doubt see the application.
' Three things there be that prosper all apace,
And flourish while they are asunder far ;
But on a day they meet all in a place,
And. when they meet, they one another mar.
SPARABLE. 227
And they be these — the Wood, the Weed, the Wag; —
The Wood is that that makes the gallows-tree ;
The Weed is that that strings the hangman's bag ;
The Wag, my pretty knave, betokens thee.
Now mark, dear boy — while these assemble not,
Green springs the tree, hemp grows, the wag is wild ;
But when they meet, it makes the timber rot,
It frets the halter, and it chokes the child.'
2S2. Sparable (7 S. v. 5 ; 1888).
A sparable, i. e. a small nail used by shoemakers, is said
to be a contraction of sparrow-bill. The following quotation
helps to prove it : —
' Hob-nailes to serve the man i' the moone,
And sparrozvbils to clout Pan's shoone.'
1629, T. Dekker, London's Tempe (The Song).
283. Alwyne (7 S. v. 32; 1888).
In N. and Q. 7 S. iv. 534, we are told that the original
form was ALthelwine ; but no reason is given for this singular
notion, nor is any reference given either. In the translation
of the A. S. Chronicle, in Bohn's Library, we find Alwyne
mentioned three times. In each case the original has
ALIfwine, i. e. ' elf-friend ' ; the transition from which to
Alwyne is easy enough, by mere loss of the/
We are also told that ealh means a hall ; but the con-
nexion of ealh with either healh or heall may be doubted,
whatever the dictionaries may say. It is much more likely
that ealh means ' a protected place ' or ' asylum,' as Ettmiiller
suggests ; cf. ealgian, to protect.
284. Additions to Halliwell's ' Dictionary.' I
(7 S. v. 82, 164; 1888).
Now that Dr. Murray is at work upon the letter C, the
following MS. notes from my interleaved copy of Halliwell's
Dictio7iary may be of interest. I have been too busy to
Q 2
228 ADDITIONS TO HALLIWELL'S 'DICTIONARY.'
copy them out earlier. I send the list unweeded. Many
of the words are common enough, but references are always
useful.
Caddie, to worry. See ' Scouring of the White Horse,' p. 71.
Cadowe. 'A Cadowe is the name of her'; Golding's 'Ovid,' fol.
85 b. It translates monedula in Ovid, ' Met.,' vii. 468.
Calk, to calculate, reckon, Bale, 443 ; calked, Tyndale, ii. 308
(Parker Soc. Index).
Caltrop. See Bradford, ii. 214 (ditto).
Cambril. i His crooked cambrils armed with hoof and hair ' ;
Drayton, ' Muses Elysium,' Nymphal 10.
Camelion. In Coverdale's Bible, Deut. xiv. 5, where the A. V. has
chamois. This does not mean Chameleon, as in Levit. xi. 30.
Coverdale renders that by stellio.
Camisado, a night-attack. Jewel, i. no (Parker Soc).
Carle, one of low birth. Pilkington, 125 (ditto).
Carling-groat. See Brand, 'Pop. Antiq.,' ed. Ellis, i. 114.
Cast. (See ' Cast ' (3) in Halliwell), a calculated contrivance ;
Becon, ii. 575; Tyndale ii. 335 (Parker Soc).
Casure, cadence, Calf hill, 298 (ditto).
Caterpillars to the Commonwealth. So in Dekker, ' Olde Fortunatus,'
in his ' Plays,' ed. 1873, i. 140 ; (with of for to) Hazlitt,
' O. Eng. Plays,' vi. 510.
Cat-in-pan. See Wyclif's ' Works,' ed. Arnold, iii. 332.
Causeys. See Somner, ' Antiq. of Canterbury,' ed. 1640, p. 3.
Cawthernes, cauldrons. Parish documents at Whitchurch, near
Reading, about a.d. 1574. The singular is cawtron in 1584
(so I am told).
Chaffs, chops (Aberdeenshire). I probably found this in John
Gibbie.
Cham, to chew. Tyndale, iii. 163 (Parker Soc).
Chap, a fellow. Cf. the use of merchant.
Chavel, Chavvle, Chevvle ; to keep on chewing (Tadcaster, Yorkshire).
So I am told.
Chaws, jaws. Bullinger, i. 4 (Parker Soc).
Cherry-fair. See Brand, ' Pop. Antiq.,' ii. 457 ; my ' Notes to Piers
Plowman,' p. 114.
Cholder in (see 'Chalder' in Hall.), to fall in, as the sides of a pit
(Brandon, Suffolk).
Chopine. See Puttenham, ed. Arber, p. 49.
Chopological. Tyndale, i. 304, 308 (Parker Soc).
Chowder, a kind of stew, a fish (Boston, U. S.). See ' N. and Q..'
4 S. iv. 244, 306.
ADDITIONS TO HALLIWELL'S 'DICTIONARY.' 229
Clamb, climbed. Tyndale, ii. 256 (Parker Soc.). Clomb, Byron,
' Siege of Corinth,' 1. 6.
Clam-bake, a picnic with clams (U. S.). ' N. and Q.,' 4 S. v. 227.
Clang-banger, a gossiping mischief-maker. 'N. and Q.,' 4 S. v.
487.
Clawbacks, flatterers. Latimer, i. 133 (Parker Soc).
Clayen cup, an earthenware cup full of liquor, used on the eve of
Twelfth Day (Devon). See Brand, ' Pop. Antiq.,' i. 29.
Clcck, to hatch (Hall.). Precisely Swed. kldcka.
Clene Lente. l The ij Munday of dene Lente ' ; ' Paston Letters,' ed.
Gairdner, ii. 149.
Click, to catch hold of (Newcastle). ' Gent. Mag.' 1794, pt. i. p. 13.
Cloud-berries. Some were seen by me growing on Pen-y-ghent,
Yorkshire, in 1873. I was informed that they were locally
called nout-berries (with ou as in cloud).
Clowres, (apparently turves. Golding's 'Ovid,' fol. 47. I suppose
it corresponds to Ovid's ' cespite,' ' Met.,' iv. 301.
Coals, fetched over the. In Fuller, k Holy War,' bk. v. c. 2. See
1 N. and Q.,' 4 S. iv. 57.
Cobloaf- stealing. See Aubrey's 'Wilts,' Introduction.
Cock, to whip the, a sport at fairs (Leic.). Quoted by Brand, ' Pop.
Antiq.,' ii. 469 (ed. Ellis), from Grose.
Cock-a-hoop. Compare ' John at Cok on the Hop,' i.e. John, living
at the sign of the Cock on the Hoop ; Riley's ' Memorials of
London,' p. 489. A hoop is the old combination of three hoops,
also called a garland, common as a sign of an inn, like the ivy-
bush or bush.
Cock-on-hoop, an exclamation of rejoicing ; hurrah ! ' Then, faith,
cock-on-hoop, all is ours,' 'Jacob and Esau,' in ' Old Plays,' ed.
Hazlitt, ii. 246.
Cock-sure. See references in Parker Soc. Index.
Cocket. Explained in Hutchinson, p. 343 (Parker Soc).
Codlings- and-Cream, great willow-herb, Epilobium hirsutum. ' N.
and Q.,' 4 S. iv. 467.
Cods, husks. Ditto.
Coil, a noise. Ditto.
Coke-stole, a cucking-stool. Skelton's ' Works,' ed. Dyce, i. 119.
Cokes, v. to coax. Puttenham, ed. Arber, p. 36.
Coket, a seal ; also a custom paid when cloths, &c. were sealed with
a seal ; ' Rot. Pari.' iii. 437 2 Henry IV).
Cole, deceit ; cole under candlestick, deceitful secrecy. Ditto.
Coll, to embrace about the neck. Parker Soc.
Collop- Monday, Shrove Monday (North). Brand's ' Pop. Antiq.,'
ed. Ellis, i. 62.
230 ADDITIONS TO HALLIWELL'S 'DICTIONARY.'
Comber, trouble. Parker Soc.
Commcrouse, troublesome. Ditto.
Connach, to spoil, destroy (Aberdeensh.).
Copy, copiousness. Parker Soc.
Coram, quorum. ' Ov crvvTeTayfxai, that is, I am none of those which
are brought under coram ' ; Udall, tr. of ' Apophthegmes ' of
Erasmus, ed. 1877, p. 380.
Cornlaiters (Halliwell ; no ref.). From Hutchinson, ' Hist. Cumb.,'
i- 553- See Brand's ' Pop. Antiq.,' ed. Ellis, ii. 145.
Cosy, a husk, shell, or pod (Beds.). So in Halliwell; but a ridicu-
lous error. Cosy is Batchelor's ' phonetic ' spelling of cosh,
which is the word meant. See Batchelor's ' Bedfordshire
Words.'
Cour, to recover health (Aberdeensh.).
Cowing, crouching down. Puttenham, ed. Arber, p. 292.
Coye, v. to stroke. Golding's tr. of* Ovid,' fol. 79, back.
Cracker, a small baking-dish (Newcastle). 'Gent. Mag./ 1794. pt. i.
P- *3-
Craft, a croft (Aberdeensh.).
Crake, to boast. ' Fellows, keep my counsel ; by the mass I do but
crake' ; Thersites, in ' Old Plays,' ed. Hazlitt, i. 410. 'All the
day long is he facing and craking' ; ' Roister Doister,' i. 1.
Cranks, two or more rows of iron crooks in a frame, used as
a toaster (Newcastle). See 'Gent. Mag.' 1794, pt. i. p. 13.
Cras, to-morrow (Latin), compared to the cry of the crow. ' He
that cras, cras syngeth with the crowe ' ; Barclay's ' Ship of
Fools,' ed. Jamieson, i. 162.
Crassctes, cressets, a. d. 1454. ' Testamenta Eboracensia,' ii. 194.
Craumpish, v. —
' By pouert spoiled, which made hem sore smert,
Which, as they thouhte, craumpysshed at here herte.'
Quoted (in a MS. note sent to me) as from Lydgate's ' St. Ed-
mund,' MS. Harl. 2278. fol. 101.
Cray, a small ship. ' For skiffs, crays, shallops, and the like ' ;
Drayton, 'Battle of Agincourt.'
Creak, Creek, (Glossic, kreek), an iron plate at the end of a plough-
beam, furnished with holes and a pin, for adjusting the horse's
draught-power. Heard at Ely by Miss Georgina Jackson.
Cresset. In Golding's tr. of ' Ovid,' fol. 50.
Cribble, coarse flour. Parker Soc.
Crink, a winding turn. Golding's 'Ovid,' fol. 95.
Cromes, hooks. Parker Soc. ; and ' Paston Letters,' i. 106.
Crones, old ewes. Ditto.
Cross-bitten, thwarted. Ditto.
ADDITIONS TO HALLIWELL'S 'DICTIONARY.' 231
Crow, to pull. ' He that hir weddyth, hath a crozve to pull'; Barclay's
1 Ship of Fools,' ed. Jamieson, ii. 8.
Crowdie, a mess of oatmeal (Scotch). See Brand's 'Pop. Ant.,'
ed. Ellis, i. 87.
Cucquean (i.e., Cuck-quean in Halliwell). In Golding's 'Ovid,'
fol. 74, back.
Cue, humour. Spelt kew in Golding's ' Ovid,' fol. 116, back.
Culme, smoke. In Golding's ' Ovid,' fol. 18, back.
Curry favel. In Puttenham, ed. Arber, p. 195.
Curtelasse, a cutlass. Figured in Guillim's 'Display of Heraldry,'
ed. 1664, p. 316. Like a stumpy scimetar.
Cut, voyage. Golding's 'Ovid,' fol. 179.
Cut over, sailed over. Ditto, fol. 179, back.
285. Additions to HalliwelPs 'Dictionary.' II (7 S. v.
301 ; 1888).
Daintrel, a delicacy (Halliwell ; no ref). It occurs in the Parker
Soc. Index.
Daker, a set of skins, usually ten. See Webster's ' Diet.' ' Lego . . .
fratri meo unum daykyr de overledder, et unum daykyr de sole-
ledder'; ' Test. Eboracensia,' ii. 218 (a. d. 1458).
Dalk. The ref. to ' Rel. Ant.,' ii. 78, merely gives — ' Dalke, un
fossolet.'
Damp, astonishment. Becon, i. 276 (Parker Soc\
Dandyprat, a small coin. Tyndale, ii. 306 Parker Soc).
Dangerous, arrogant. Puttenham, ed. Arber, p. 301.
Daubing, erection of a clay hut (Cumb.). Brand, ' Pop. Antiq.,' ed.
Ellis, ii. 150.
Debelleth, wars against. Becon, i. 201 (Parker Soc).
Debile, weak. Becon, i. 128 (Parker Soc).
Deck, a pack of cards. Still in use in America; see ; N. and Q.,'
4 S. v. 198.
Devoterer. See Becon, i. 450 (Parker Soc).
Dig/it, pt. t. prepared. ' Jacob dig/it a mease of meete ' ; Coverdale's
Bible, Gen. xxv.
Dingly, forcibly. Philpot, 370 (Parker Soc. .
Dingy, the word explained. Bradford, i. in; note vd!tto).
Dite, a saying. Parker Soc. Index.
Ditty, a song. Ditto.
Dive-doppil, dab-chick ; Becon, iii. 276 v Parker Soc).
Dizzard, a blockhead. Parker Soc. Index.
232 ADDITIONS TO HALLIWELL'S 'DICTIONARY.'
Do, if you do (Cambs., common). ' Don't go a-nigh that ditch ;
do, you'll fall in.'
Dockey, a light dough-cake, quickly baked in the mouth of the oven,
and eaten hot. Ref. lost ; prob. E. Anglian.
Dodkin. a small coin. See Parker Soc. Index.
Dodypole. Ditto.
Dog-hanging, a money-gathering for a bride (Essex). See Brand,
' Pop. Antiq.,' ed. Ellis, ii. 150.
Doll, a child's hand ; Golding's ' Ovid,' fol. 71, back.
Domifying, housing ; a term in astrology.
' Nother in the stars search out no difference,
By domifying or calculation.'
Lydgate, ' Dance of Machabre (the Astronomer),' in
a miserable modernized edition.
' By domifying of sundry mancions.'
Lydgate, ' Fall of Princes,' Prol. st. 43.
Dor, a drone ; Bullinger, i. 332 (Parker Soc).
Dories, drone-bees ; Philpot, 308 (Parker Soc).
Doted (foolish) ; Becon, ii. 646 (Parker Soc).
Dotel, a dotard ; Pilkington, 586 (Parker Soc).
Dottrel, bird ; Bale, 363 ^Parker Soc).
Dough, a little cake (North) ; Brand, ' Pop. Ant.,' ed. Ellis, i. 526.
Dough-nut-day, Shrove Tuesday (Baldock, Herts'). ' It being
usual to make a good store of small cakes fried in hog's lard.
placed over the fire in a brass skillet, called dough-nuts, where-
with the youngsters are plentifully regaled.' Brand, ' Pop.
Ant./ ed. Ellis, i. 83.
Dover s meetings, apparently the same as Dover s games. Brand,
as above, i. 277.
Dowsepers, grandees ; Bale, 155, 317 (Parker Soc).
Draffe, hog- wash. Either the coarse liquor or brewer's grains ;
Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 100, ii. 164. Food for swine ; Bale.
285 (Parker Soc).
Drafflesacked, filled with draff; Becon, ii. 591 (Parker Soc.).
Dragges, dregs, or drugs \_sic, it makes a difference!]; Pilkington,
i2r (Parker Soc).
Drift, a green lane. Also used in Cambs.
Drum, an entertainment (a. d. 1751). See ' N. and Q.' 4 S. ii. 157.
Drumslet, a drum ; Golding's ' Ovid,' fol. 149, back.
Drunkard s cloak. See Brand, ' Pop. Ant.,' ed. Ellis, iii. 109.
Dryth, dryness ; Tyndale, ii. 14 (Parker Soc).
Dudgeon-dagger. See Hazlitt's Dodsley's ' Old Plays,' v. 271.
Dummel, stupid, slow to move ; said of wild animals (prow Eng. ;
ref. lost).
ADDITIONS TO HALLIWELL'S 'DICTIONARY.' 233
During, enduring. Tyndale, iii. 264 (Parker Soc).
Dyssour, tale-teller, boaster. 'He shal become a dyssoiir" ; Rob.
of Brunne, ' Handlyng Synne,' 8302.
286. Additions to HalliwelTs * Dictionary .' Ill (7 S. v.
503; 1888).
Eargh, adj., frightened, superstitiously afraid (Aberdeenshire").
This is the word of which eerie is a later form. The A. S. form
is earh.
Earn, s., eagle ; Golding's ' Ovid,' fol. 184, back.
Earshrift, s., auricular confession. Parker Soc. Index.
Eftsoons, adv., soon afterwards. Parker Soc.
Egal, adj., equal. Same.
Egatly, adv., equally. Same.
Egalness, s., equality. Same.
Eisel, s., vinegar. Also esel, eysil. Same. Old Fr. aisil, extended
from Old Fr. aisi, answering to Low Lat. acitum, variant of
Lat. acetum.
Embossed. See Dodsley's ' Old Plays,' ed. Hazlitt, xi. 406, and
note.
Endote, v., to endow. Parker Soc.
Enforming, pr. pt., forming. Same.
Esters. See also ' King Alisaunder,' ed. Weber, 7657. The entr}-
eftures in Halliwell is a ridiculous blunder, due to misreading
a long 5 as an f. The word meant is estures, bad spelling of
estres ; and eftures is a ghost-word. [See above, p. 171.]
Evelong, adj., oblong ; Golding's ' Ovid,' fol. 101. \Avelonge in
N.E.D.]
Ewroits, Eurous, adj., successful. ' Lothbrok Was more eurons and
gracious unto game,' Lydgate, St. Edmund, MS. Harl. 2278,
fol. 44. From O. F. eur, Lat. augurium.
Eye, at, at a glance. Parker Soc. Also, to the sight ; Chaucer,
C. T., Group E, 1168.
287. Bufietier ; the supposed original of Beef-eater
(7 S. v. 216; 1888).
I wish those who write about this word would read the
article in my Dictionary j they might then come to know
zvhat they are talking about. Buffetier is not the word from
which Mr. Steevens evolved his famous, much admired
234 LEGERDEMAIN.
and wholly ridiculous etymology. The form he gave was :
Beanfetier, one who waits at a side-board, which was
anciently placed in a beaufet? See Todd's Johnson. The
real question is this, What was a beanfet, and how could
a side-board be placed in it ? But to this question no one
will address himself.
288. Legerdemain (7 S. v. 246 ; 1888).
Examples of this word have been quoted from Spenser
and Sir T. More. But it was used much earlier, by Lydgate
in his Dance of Machabre, where the Tregetour is represented
as saying : —
1 Legerdemain now helpeth me right nought '
289. ■ Familiarity breeds contempt' (7 S. v. 247 ;
1888.
This proverb was already current in the twelfth century,
as the following extract shows : ' Ut enim vulgare testatur
proverbium, Familiaris rei communicatio contemptus mater
existit ' ; Alanus de Insulis, ' Liber de Planctu Naturae,' as
printed in Minor Anglo-Latin Satirists, edited by T. Wright
(Record Series), vol. ii. p. 454. Perhaps it can be traced
still further back.
290. Robin (7 S. v. 345 ; 1888).
I quote in my Dictionary the phrase ' Robin redbreast '
from Skelton's Philip Sparoive, 1. 399. In a MS. of the
fourteenth century, Camb. Univ. Library, Gg. 4, 27, fol. 9 b,
the first line is —
' Robert redbrest and the wrenne.'
291. Ghost-word (7 S. v. 465 ; 1888).
This useful word was first employed by myself in 1886;
and its first appearance in print is at p. 352 of the Philo-
logical Society's Transactions for that year. A good example
TO MAKE ORDERS. 235
is abacot, which is in many dictionaries, but was rightly
omitted by Dr. Murray. It is a mistaken form, put for
a bycocket, the a being the indefinite article. With reference
to words of this class, I say :
' As it is convenient to have a short name for words of this
character, I shall take leave to call them ghost-words. Like ghosts,
we may seem to see them, or may fancy that they exist ; but they
have no real entity. We cannot grasp them. When we would do
so, they disappear.'
At p. 373 of the same, I give a list of one hundred and
three ghost-words, due, for the most part, to the ignorance
of editors of Middle English works. Formerly it was not
at all expected of an editor that he should have any real
knowledge of the language of his MSS. Even now editors
are more adventurous than is quite honest.
292. To make Orders (7 S. v. 484 ; 1888).
I give the explanation of this phrase for the benefit of
the sub-editor of O in the New English Dictionary. It is
past all guessing, but I happen to know the answer from
having met with similar expressions. It occurs in the
Soiudone of Baby lone, ed. Hausknecht, 1. 2036. The editor
confesses that he can make nothing of it, and his suggestion
is beside the mark. When the twelve peers attacked the
Sultan and his men, we are told that they
— ' maden orders wondir fast ;
Thai slowe doun alle, that were in the halle,
And made hem wondirly sore agast.'
It is a grim medieval joke. A clerk in holy orders was
known by wearing the tonsure, that is, he had a shaven
crown. A medieval hero sometimes made his foe resemble
a clerk by the summary process of shaving off a large
portion of his hair by a dexterous sweep of his sword.
To accomplish this feat was called ' to make orders ' ;
and the line implies that they 'sliced pieces off their
236 CATSUP: KETCHUP.
adversaries' heads at an amazing rate.' To do this was
a frequent amusement with the famous twelve peers.
293. Catsup : Ketchup (7 S. vi. 12 ; 1888).
It will be observed that the answers hitherto given to the
question as to the derivation of ketchup are all useless. To
derive it from the ' Eastern word kitjap ' is ridiculous, for
there is no such language as ' Eastern.' Dr. Charnock tells
us it is Hindustani, to which I have only to say that I wish
he would prove his point by telling us in what Hindustani
dictionary it can be found. I have been looking for this
word these six years, and am as far off as ever from finding
it ; simply because no one condescends to mention the
dictionary that contains it.
I would earnestly commend to the consideration of all
contributors to N. and Q. that they should give their
references. In philology, especially, it is worse than useless
to quote words as belonging to ' an Eastern language ' ; we
want to know the precise name of the language. Again, it
is useless to say that a word is French, or Spanish, or what
else, unless it can be found in any common dictionary.
Unfortunately, it is precisely when a word is rare, and only
to be found in works of great research, that the language to
which it belongs is most airily cited. All inexact knowledge
is distressing rather than helpful.
294. Ohthere's Voyage (7 S. vi. 44; 1888).
There is a passage about Ohthere's voyage in Alfred's
translation of Orosius which has been curiously misunder-
stood. Dr. Bosworth's translation, p. 41, gives it thus: —
1 He chiefly went thither, in addition to the seeing of the country,
on account of the horse-whales [walruses], because they have verj-
good bone in their teeth ; of these teeth they brought some to the
king; and their hides are very good for ship-ropes. This whale is
much less than other whales ; it is not longer than seven ells ; but in
his own country is the best whale-hunting ; they are eight and forty
rlls long, and the largest fifty ells long; of these, he said, that he
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE PEOPLE. 237
was one of six who killed sixty in two days [i. e. he with five otheis
killed sixty in two days '].
Dr. Bosworth's note is : —
1 Every translator has found a difficulty in this passage, as it
appeared impossible for six men to kill sixty whales in two days.'
After which follows a long discussion, showing the im-
possibility of the feat.
The passage is printed in Sweet's Anglo-Saxo?i Reader ;
but no notice is taken of the difficulty, nor is any solution
offered. The true answer is extremely simple — when you
know it. Any one acquainted with the colloquial character
of Anglo-Saxon narrative will, of course, easily see that the
words ' of these ' in the last paragraph refer to the walruses.
The preceding sentence is a mere parenthesis. Ohthere
was a practical man, and an honest, and knew what he was
talking about. He tells us that the horse-whale is but seven
ells, or fourteen feet long. Then he adds, parenthetically,
1 but in my country, the real whales are ninety-six or one
hundred feet long ; ' and then, continuing his narrative,
' he said, that he with five others killed sixty of them in two
days.' The A. S. thara is best translated by ' of them,'
as usual.
Thus the whole difficulty utterly vanishes. I have no
doubt whatever that six men could kill five walruses apiece
in the course of the day, at a time when they could be
found plentifully. Perhaps it could even be done now.
A little pamphlet on Orosian Geography has just been
published by W. & A. K. Johnston. It is written by
J. Mc.Cubbin and T. D. Holmes, and gives a translation
of the Voyages of Ohthere and]]~ulfsta?i, with three illustrative
maps.
295. Knowledge for the People (7 S. vi. 63 ; 1888).
In the number of the paper called K?iowledge for July 2,
p. 196, there is an article on 'English Pronunciation,' con-
238 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE PEOPLE.
taining some extraordinary mis-statements, which it is worth
while to set right.
The writer first gives us a specimen of the Lord's Prayer
in English, which he attributes to Bishop Edfrid, about
700. It begins: ' Uren fader thic arth in heofnas,' &c.
The mis-spellings throughout are of the most startling
description ; such a wonderful form as thic for thu (i.e. thou)
is enough to make the dullest reader suspicious. But what
does it all mean ?
The fact is, that the well-known Lindisfarne MS. in the
British Museum was written out by Bishop Eadfrith [not
Edfrith], who was Bishop of Durham from 698 to 721.
This is clearly the MS. referred to. However, the text of
the MS. as written by Eadfrith happens to be not in English
at all, but wholly and solely in Latin !
At a much later date, variously given as about 950, or
about 970, or even (as some contend) much later, a Northern-
English gloss was supplied above the Latin text by a certain
Aldred. The gloss to S. Matthew, vi. 9, begins the Lord's
Prayer with the words : ' fader urer thu arth ... in
heofnas ' ; and this is sufficiently near to show us that uren
and thic are mere blunders for urer and thu. Thus the
error in chronology amounts to nearly three centuries,
which is a good deal in the history of a language.
The writer next gives us another specimen, dated by him
about 900. It is difficult to guess what is meant, but the
reference is probably to the Mercian Gloss in the Rush-
worth MS., which can hardly be earlier than the latter half
of the tenth century, though the Latin text dates from
about 800.
Probably the information was taken from Camden's
/Remains ; if so, he is a very unsafe guide.
Next we find quoted a rimed version of the Lord's Prayer,
attributed to Pope Adrian, who died in 1159; i.e. about
half a century before rimes of this character appear in
HEREWARDS : HOWARD : LEOFWIXE. 239
English for the first time. This is an old fable, which
ought to be considered as exploded. (See above, p 206.)
Next, leaving these specimens, the writer quotes the
well-known passage from Trevisa about the English dialects.
This also contains several errors, and we are referred to
Dr. Hicks (mis-spelling of Hickes) for the information that
the author of this passage is unknown. However, Dr. Hickes
expressly assigns it to Trevisa, at p. xvii. of his well-known
Thesaurus.
Would it not be much better for a writer who is so
imperfectly acquainted with his subject to let it alone ?
It is not the first time that I have called attention to the
fact that the English language is the sole subject which is
treated of by those who have never properly studied it. If
botany or chemistry were so treated it would be considered
very strange ; but when the subject happens to be the English
language, a want of scientific knowledge seems to be con-
sidered as being absolutely meritorious.
296. Herewards : Howard: Leofwine (7 S. vi. 93 ;
1888).
I cannot agree with any of the startling propositions in
this article. Heward is treated of by Mr. Bardsley as being
a variant spelling of Hey ward ; and I believe he is quite
right. There is no phonetic law against it. But how
Hereward can be twisted into Heward is quite beyond me.
We are further told that Howard is a contraction of ' the
Anglo-Saxon Holdn'ard, the governor of a hold or keep.'
The objections to this are overwhelming.
Howard is a mere variant of Haward, another form of
Hayward ; this has been shown in N. and Q., 3 S. x. 29,
60, 74, and still more conclusively from registers, also in
N. and Q. ; but I forget the reference, and cannot just now
recover it.
The derivations from hogward and hallward are both bad
240 THE LETTER H.
guesses and unsupported. However this may be, I, at any
rate, should like to ask where we can find ' the A. S. Hold-
ward ' ; and, for the matter of that, where we can find the
A. S. hold in the sense of stronghold or ' keep.' I do not
think it at all right that we should be perpetually troubled
with 'bogus ' Anglo-Saxon words that seem to have originated
merely in imaginative brains. Every one who knows Anglo-
Saxon at all knows that hold is an adjective meaning ' faith-
ful ' or ' true.' When (very rarely) it is used as a substantive,
it means ' a carcase.' The A. S. form of hold, a fortress, is
not hold but heald !
Next, we are told that ' Leofwin ' means ' a lover of war.
It is really too much that such an astonishing mistake
should be inflicted on us. It is a quadruple blunder. For
first, it is mis-spelt ; the word meant is Leofwine, and the
final e, being agential, makes all the difference.
Secondly, leof (rather leof) does not mean 'lover,' nor is
it a substantive ; it is an adjective, meaning ' dear,' Modern
English lief. Thirdly, win does not mean ' war ' ; the
proper spelling of the word is winn with a double », and
it makes a difference in Anglo-Saxon etymology whether
an n is really double or not. And fourthly, the word meant
is wine, a friend. Leofwine is simply ' dear friend.' What
then becomes of ' lover of war ' ?
297. The letter H (7 S. vi. no ; 1888).
Some guesses of mine (they are no better) on this subject
will be found in my Principles of English Etymology , p. 359.
The mis-pronunciation of initial h is not ' a comparatively
late phenomenon,' for some remarkably early examples
maybe found. It is common in the romance of Havelok,
about a. d. 1280. I enumerate several instances in my
preface to that poem, at p. xxxvii, such as holde for old,
hevere for ever, Henglishe for English, &c. ; whilst, on the
other hand, we find Avelok for Havelok, aveden for havede?i
ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 241
(had), &c. I believe a few sporadic examples may be found
in Anglo-Saxon. Only last week I found ors for hors (horse)
in an inedited A. S. manuscript.
298. English Grammars (7 S. vi. 121, 243, 302 ; 1!
A collection of the names of some of the older English
grammars, and of books more or less interesting to the
student of English grammar, was made many years ago by
Sir F. Madden, and is now in my possession. It is doubt-
less imperfect, but it may prove of some interest \ I there-
fore give it nearly as it was made. It was collected by the
simple process of making cuttings from booksellers' cata-
logues. Few of the books mentioned are of very recent date.
I have compared the list with Lowndes's Bibliographer's
Manual, which fails to mention several of them. The
abbreviations ' E.' and ' G.' mean English and ' Grammar ' :
Adams, Rev. James. Euphonologia Linguae Anglicanae. 1794.
8vo.
The Pronunciation of the E. Language Vindicated from
imputed Anomaly and Caprice. Edinburgh. 1799. 8vo.
Adelung's Three Philological Essays. Translated from the German
by A. F. M. Willich. 1798. 8vo.
Anchoran, J. The Gate of Tongues Unlocked and Opened. 1637.
8vo. Given by Mr. Wheatley in his list of 4 Dictionaries,' but
not with this date.
Andrew, Dr. Institutes of Grammar. 1817. 8vo.
Ascham, R. The Scholemaster. 1571. 4to. A well-known book ;
the editions are numerous.
Ash, Dr. Introduction to Dr. Louth's E. G. 1807. i2mo.
A Comprehensive G. of the E. Tongue. Prefixed to his
' Dictionary.' 1775. 8vo.
B. — I. B. Heroick Education ; or, Choice Maximes for the Facile
Training up of Youth. 1657. i2mo.
Also, Of Education, &c. 1699. ismo.
1 One addition was supplied by a correspondent of N. and Q. In
N. and Q. 7 S. vii. 54, we read : — ' Prof. Skeat can find a very full
list of English grammars, giving several scores that he has not on his
roll, in the Catalogue of the New York State Library at Albany.
I should think there must be three hundred in all.'
242 ENGLISH GRAMMARS.
Baker, R. Remarks on the E. Language. 1779 and 1799. 8vo.
Bales, P. Writing Schoolemaster, teaching Brachygraphie, Ortho-
graphic, and Calligraphic 1590. 4to.
Barbour, J. An Epitome of G. Principles. Oxon. 1668. i2mo.
Barnes, Rev. W. A Philological G. grounded upon E. London.
1854. 8vo.
Early England and the Saxon English. London, fcap. 8vo.
Batchelor, T. Orthoepical Analysis of the E. Language. 1809.
8vo.
Bayly, Anselm. E. G. 1772. 8vo.
Beattie, J. Theory of Language. 1788. 8vo.
Bell, J. System of E. G. Glasgow. 1769. 2 vols. i2mo.
Bellum Grammaticale ; or the Grammatical Battel Royal, in reflec-
tion on the three E. Grammars, published in about a year last
past. 1712. 8vo.
Bertram, Charles. English-Danish Grammar. 1750.
Essay on the Style of the E. Tongue. Copenhagen. 1749.
i2mo.
Blair, D. Practical G. of the E. Language. 1809. i2mo. Also 1816.
i8mo.
Bobbit, A. Elements of E. G. 1833. i2mo.
Bosworth, Rev. J. Elements of Anglo-Saxon G. 1823. Royal 8vo.
Compendious Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Language.
Brightland, J. E. G. 1712. i2mo.
Brinsley, John. Ludus Literarius ; or, the G. Schoole. London,
1612 ; reprinted 1627. 4to.
Brittain, Lewis. Rudiments of E. G. Louvain. 1778. i2tno.
Buchanan, Dr. On the Elegant and Uniform Pronunciation of the
E. Language. 1766. 8vo. Later ed., 1827 (?).
Bucke. Classical E. G. 1829. i2mo.
Butler, Charles. E. G. Oxford, 1633. See preface to Johnson's
' Diet.' His system of orthography is exemplified in his
' Principles of Musick' (1636) and his * Feminin Monarchi,
or, the Histori of Bees' (1634).
Callander (John ?). Deformities of Dr. S. Johnson. 1782. 8vo.
Campbell, A. Lexiphanes [against Dr. Johnson's style]. London,
1767. i2mo. Later, 1783.
Care, H. Tutor to True English. 1687. 8vo.
Carew, Richard. Survey of Cornwall ; with an Epistle concerning
the excellencies of the E. Tongue. London, 1769. 4to.
Casaubon, Meric. De Lingua Hebraica et de Lingua Saxonica.
London, 1650. i2mo.
Cassander, I. Criticisms on Tooke's Diversions of Purley. 1790.
8vo.
ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 243
Chapman, Rev. J. Rhythmical G. of the E. Language. 1821.
i2mo.
Churchill, O. New G. of the E. Language. 1823. i2mo.
Cleland, John. Way to Things by Words : an Attempt at the
Retrieval of the Ancient Celtic. London, 1766. 8vo. Also
1768-9.
Cobbett, Wm. E. G. 1819 and 1826, &c. i2mo.
Conjectural Observations on the Origin and Progress of Alphabetic
Writing. 1772. 8vo.
Cook's (Coote's ?). E. Schoolmaster. 1652.
Cooperi Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae. 1685. i2mo.
Coote, Charles. Elements of E. G. 1778 [1788 ?] 8vo.
Coote, Edw. The E. School-master. 1636, 1658, 1665, 1692, 1704.
4to.
Croft, Herbert. Letter to the Princess Royal of England, on the
E. and German Languages. Hamburg, 1797. 4to.
Crombie, Alex. The Etymology and Syntax of the E. Language.
1802, 1809. 1830. 1838. 8vo.
Reply to Dr. Gilchrist on E. G. 181 7. 8vo.
Davies, Rev. Edw. Celtic Researches. London, 1804. Royal 8vo.
Delamothe. G. The French Alphabet, &c. London, 1595. 8vo.
1631. i8mo.
Devis, Ellin. Accidence ; or, First Rudiments of E. G. 1786.
i2mo.
Dictionnaire de la Prononciation Angloise. London, 1781. 8vo.
Dissertation on the Beauties and Defects of the E. Language.
Paris, 1805. i2mo.
Dutch and E. Grammar. 1775. i2mo.
Du Wes, Giles. An Introductorie for to Lerne to Rede, to Pro-
nounce, and to Speak French Trewly. London, by Nic.
Bourman, n. d. [about 1540]. Also by J. Waley ; also by
T. Godfray. Reprinted, together with Palsgrave's * Dictionary,'
at Paris, 1852.
Elphinston, James. Analysis of the French and E. Languages.
1756. 2 vols. i2mo.
Principles of the E. Language. London, 1765. 2 vols. i2mo.
Propriety ascertained in her Picture ; or, E. Speech and
Spelling, &c. 1787. 2 vols. 4to.
E. Orthography Epitomized. London. 1790. 8vo.
Fifty Years' Correspondence between Geniuses of both Sexes.
[In reformed Spelling.] London, 1 791-4. 8 vols. i2mo.
Miniature of Inglish Orthography. 1795. 8vo.
Elstob, Elizabeth. Rudiments of G. for the E. Saxon Tongue.
London, 1715. 4to.
R 2
244 ENGLISH GRAMMARS.
English, J. Observations on Mr. Sheridan's Dissertation concern-
ing the E. Tongue. 1762. 8vo.
E. G., Royal ; Reformed into a more easie Method. 1695. i2mo.
E. Language, Observations upon the. N. d. [about 1715]. 8vo.
Reflections on the ; being a Detection of many Improper
Expressions, &c. 1770. 8vo.
Vulgarisms and Improprieties of. 1833. i2mo.
E. Orthographic Oxford, 1668. 4to. Said to be by Owen Price
(Wood, 'Ath. Ox.' ii. 490).
E. Tongue, G. of the; with the approbation of Bickerstaff. 1711.
i2mo.
E. Words, Vocabulary of; of dubious Accentuation. 1797. 8vo.
Errors of Pronunciation ... by the Inhabitants of London and
Paris. 181 7. 8vo.
Essay upon Literature ; an Enquiry into the Antiquity and Original
of Letters. 1726. 8vo.
Essay upon the Harmony of Language ... to Illustrate that of the
E. Language. 1774. 8vo.
Explanatory Treatise on the Subjunctive Mode. 1834. 8vo.
Familiar E. Synonymes, Critically and Etymologically Illustrated.
1822. i2mo.
Fearn, Jo. Anti-Tooke : an Analysis of Language. London.
1824. 8vo.
Fenner, Dudley. The Artes of Logike and Rhetorike. Middleburgh.
1584. 4to.
Fisher and Tryon's New Spelling-Book. 1700. iamo.
Forneworth, R. The Pure Language of the Spirit of Truth ; or
Thee and Thou, &c. [Defence of Quaker Idiom.] 1656. 8vo.
Free, Dr. John. Essay towards a History of the E. Tongue.
London, 1749, 1773, 1788. 8vo.
French Alphabet ^a Quaint Assemblage of Grammatical Dialogues.
in French and E.). 1639. i8mo.
Gardiner's E. G. Adapted to Different Classes of Learners. 1809.
i2mo.
Grammar. Some New Essays of a Natural and Artificial Grammar
. . . for the Benefit of a Noble Youth (W. Godolphin, Esq. .
1707. folio.
Short Introduction of G., generally to be used. Cambridge.
1668.
G. of the E. Tongue, with Notes, &c. 1711. 8vo. Also n. d.
i2mo.
G. of the E. Verb. 1815. i2mo.
Two Grammatical Essays on a Barbarism in the E. Lan-
guage. 1768. 8vo.
ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 245
Greenwood, James. Essay towards a Practical E. G. 1729, 1753.
i2mo.
Grimm, Jacob. Deutsche Grammatik. Gottingen, 1822-37. 4 vols.
8vo.
Groombridge, H. The Rudiments of the E. Tongue. Bath, 1797.
8vo.
Gwilt, Joseph. Rudiments of a G. of the Anglo-Saxon Tongue.
London, 1829. 8vo.
Hall's Lessons on the Analogy and Syntax of the E. Language.
1833. i2rao.
Haltrop (Jo.). E. and Dutch Grammar. Dort, 1791. 8vo.
Hampton, Barnaby. Prosodia construed. 1657. i2mo.
Harris, J. Hermes ; or, Inquiry concerning Language. London,
1751. 8vo. Also 1765, 1771, 1777, 1781, 1786.
Verbs of the E. Language Explained. 1830. 8vo.
Hart, John, Chester Herault. An Orthographic London 1569.
i6mo.
Hazlitt, Wm. G. of the E. Tongue. 1810. i2mo
Head, Sir E. « Shall ' and ' Will.' 1858. iamo.
H[eath], W[m.]. Grammatical Drollery. [An accidence in rhyme.]
1682. 8vo.
Henley, J. The Compleat Linguist. London, 1719-21. 8vo.
Anglo-Saxon Grammar. 1726. 8vo.
Henshall, S. The Anglo-Saxon and E. Languages reciprocally
illustrative of each other. London, 1798. 4to.
— — Etymological Organic Reasoner. London, 1807. 8vo.
Hickes, Dr. Geo. Institutiones Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonicae, &c.
Oxford, 1689. 4to.
Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus. Oxford,
I7°5- 3 vols., folio.
Grammatica Anglo-Saxonica. Oxford, 17 n. 8vo.
Hill, W. Fifteen Lessons on the . . . E. Language. Huddersfield.
1833. 8vo.
Hodges, Rich. A Special Help to Orthographic London, 1683.
Small 4to.
The Plainest Directions for True Writing of English. London,
1649. i2mo.
Holder, W. Elements of Speech. London, 1669. 8vo.
Hollyband, Claudius. The French Schoolemaster. London, 1573.
i2mo. Also 1631.
The Italian Schoolemaster. London, 1575. i2mo. Also
1583, i59i' J597, 1608.
The French Littleton. London, 1625. i8mo.
Treatise for Declining of (French^ Verbs. London, 1641. 8vo.
246 ENGLISH GRAMMARS.
Hunter, W. Anglo-Saxon Grammar. 1832. 8vo.
Hutchinson, F. Many Advantages of a Good Language, with the
Present State of our Own. 1724. 8vo.
Irving, David. Elements of E. Composition. London, 1801 and
1820. i2mo.
Jamieson, John. Hermes Scythicus. Edinburgh, 1814. 8vo.
Jodrell, Rich. Paul. Philology of the E. Language. [Really
a Dictionary of quotations.] London, 1820. 4to.
Johnson, R. The Scholar's Guide from the Accidence to the
University. 1665.
Johnson, Rich. Grammatical Commentaries. London, 1706. 8vo.
Also 1 718. 8vo. 1818. 8vo.
Noctes Nottinghamicae. Nottingham, 1718. 8vo. Also 1814.
8vo.
Jones, J. Practical Phonography. London, 1701, 4to.
New Art of Spelling. [The Same ?]. London, 1704.
4to.
Jones, Rowland. The Origins of Languages and Nations. London.
1764. 8vo.
The Circles of Gomer. London, 1771. 8vo.
The Philosophy of Words. London, 1769. 8vo.
• Io-Triads, or the Tenth Muse. London, 1773. 8vo.
English, as a Universal Language. London, 1771. 8vo.
Jonson, Ben (the Dramatist). An E. G. 1640. Folio.
Junius, F. Etymologicum Anglicanum. (With A. S. Grammar.)
Oxford, 1743. Folio.
Lane, A. Key to the Art of Letters ; or E. a Learned Language.
1700, 1705, 1706. i2mo.
Language, a Dissertation on ; more particularly . . . the E. Lan-
guage. Paris, 1805. i2mo.
Latham, Dr. R. G. E. G. (several editions).
Leibnitz, G. W. Collectanea Etymologia. Hanover, 1717. 8vo.
Leigh, Edw. A Philologicall Commentary ... of Law Words.
London, 1652. 8vo. Also 1658 and 1671.
Lewis, M. Essay to facilitate . . . the Rudiments of Grammar.
1674. 8vo.
Lexiphanes. See Campbell, A.
Lhuyd, Edw. Archseologia Britannica. Oxford, 1707. Vol. I.
Folio. [No second volume].
Lilly, Wm. Short Introduction of Grammar. London, 1574. 4to.
[several editions].
- E. G. with Preface by John Ward. London, 1732. 8vo.
Loughton, W. Practical G. of the E. Tongue. 1739. i2mo.
Lowth, Bp. Rob. A Short Introduction to E. G. London, 1762,
ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 247
8vo. Later editions, 1764, 1767, 1769, 1772, 1775, x778, 1787,
1789, 1791, 1795.
Ludus Literarius ; or, the Grammar Schoole. Kingston, 1627. 4to.
Mackintosh's Essay on E. G. 1808. 8vo.
Maittaire, Michael. Essay on the Art of E. G. 1712. 8vo.
Martin's Lingua Britannica Reformata. 1748. 8vo.
Martin, B. Institutions of Language. 1748. 8vo.
Introduction to the E. Language. 1754. i2mo. Also 1766.
Martin, T. Philological E. G. 1824.
Mitford, W. Essay upon the Harmony of Language. London,
1774. 8vo.
Monboddo, Lord. Of the Origin and Progress of Language.
Edinburgh, 1774. 6 vols. 8vo.
Murray, Dr. Alex. History of the European Languages. Edin-
burgh, 1823. 2 vols. 8vo.
Murray, Lindley. E. G. First edition. York, 1795. i2mo. (See the
long list in Lowndes).
Examined by an Oxonian. 1809.
Nares, Rob. (Archdeacon). Elements of Orthoepy. London,
1784. 8vo. Reprinted 1792.
Nelme, L. D. An Essay on the Origin and Elements of Languages,
&c. London, 1772. 4to.
Odell, J. An Essay on the Element, &c. of the E. Language.
London, 1806. i2mo.
Oliver, S. General Critical G. of the E. Language. London, 1825.
8vo. Also 1826.
Palsgrave, J. Lesclaircissement de la Langue Francaise. London,
J. Haukyns, 1530. Fol. Reprinted at Paris, 1852. 4to.
Parsons, J. Remains of Japhet, being Historical Enquiries into
the Origin of the European Languages. 1767. 4to.
Parvulorum Institutio. [Latin and E.G.] London in Southwarke,
by P. Treveris. N. d. 4to.
Pegge, S. Anecdotes of the E. Language. London, 1803. 8vo.
The Same ; with Supplement to Grose's Glossary. London,
1814. 8vo.
Third edition, ed. by H. Christmas. London, 1844. 8vo.
Perry. The only sure Guide to the E. Tongue. Edinb., 1776.
i2mo.
Phillips, J. T. Compendious Way of Teaching Antient and
Modern Languages. 1727. 8vo.
Pickbourn, Jas. A Dissertation on the E. Verb. London, 1789.
8vo.
Priestley, Dr. Jos. A Course of Lectures on the Theory of
Language and Universal G. Warrington, 1762. i2mo.
248 ENGLISH GRAMMARS.
Priestley, Dr. Jos. Rudiments of E. G. London, 1768, 1769, 1771.
i2mo. Reprinted 1826, &c.
R., A. M. An E. G. 1641. 8vo.
Raine, Rev. Mat. E. Rudiments ; or, an Easy Introduction to
E. Grammar. Darlington, 1771. i2mo.
Rask's Anglo-Saxon G. Translated by Thorpe. Copenhagen,
1830. 8vo.
Richardson, C. Illustrations of E. Philology. 1815. 4-to.
Robinson, J. Art of teaching the E. Language by Imitation. 1800.
i2mo.
Rudd, S. Prodomos ; or, Observations on the E. Language. 1755.
Rudiments of E. G. for the Use of Beginners. Falmouth, 1788.
Rudiments of the E. Tongue. Newcastle, 1769. i2mo.
Rylance, R. Vocabulary of E. Words derived from the Saxon,
with their Signification in Spanish. 1813.
S., M. E., Latine, French, and Dutch Scholemaster. By M. S.
1637 i2mo.
Sharp, G. Short Treatise on the E. Tongue. 1767. 8vo.
Sharpe. Essay towards an E. G. 1784. i2mo.
Shaw, Rev. John. A Methodical E. G. 1778, and four later
editions.
Sheridan, T. Discourse delivered at the Theatre in Oxford on
Elocution and the E. Language. 1759. 8vo.
On the Causes of the Difficulties in Learning the E. Tongue.
with Scheme for a G. 1762. 4to.
Sinclair [Sir] Jo. Observations on the Scottish Dialect. London,
1772. 8vo. Also 1782.
Smart, Benj. H. Practical G. of E. Pronunciation. London, 1810.
8vo.
G. of E. Sounds. London, 1813. i2mo.
Rudiments of E. G. Elucidated. London, 1811. i2mo.
Guide to Parsing. London, 1825. i2mo.
Accidence and Principles of E. G. London, 1841 and 1847.
i2mo.
Smith, Jo. G. of the E. Language. Norwich. i2mo.
Smith, J. G. for the French, Italian, Spanish, and E. Tongues,
with Proverbs. 1674. 8vo.
Smith, Peter. Practical Guide to the Composition and Application
of the E. Language. 1824. 8vo.
Stackhouse, T. Reflections on Languages, and on the Manner of
Improving the E. Tongue. 1731. 8vo.
Stanbridge, John. His Accidence. N. d. [See Lowndes.]
Stirling, J. Short View of E. G. 1740. 8vo.
Short System of E. G. 8vo. Same as above (?).
ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 249
Stockwood, Jo. A Plaine and Easie Laying Open of the Meaning
... of the Rules ... in the E. Accidence. (Black letter. )
London, 1590. 4to.
Strong, Nathaniel. England's Perfect Schoolmaster. London,
1692. i2mo. And 1699. ismo.
Swift, J. Proposal for Improving the E. Tongue. 1712. 8vo.
Taylor, Bp. Jeremy. A New and Easie Institution of G. London.
1647. i2mo. On Latin G.
Thelwall, Jo. Essay on Rhythmus, and the utterance of the
E. Language. London, 1812. 8vo.
Thomas, E. Traite Complet de Prononciation Angloise. 1796. 8vo.
Thomas, L. Milke for Children ; or, a Plain and Easie Method
teaching to Read and Write. 1654. i2mo.
Thomas, Wm. Principal Rules of the Italian G., with a Diction-
arie (Black letter.) London, 1542. 4to. And 1550.
Thomson, J. Observations Introductory to a Work on E. Etymo-
logy. 1818. 8vo. Also 1819. 4to.
Thornton, W. Cadmus ; or, a Treatise on the Elements of the
Written Language. Philadelphia, 1796. 8vo. On Ortho-
graphy.
Tooke. John Home. Diversions of Purley. Vol. i (all published .
First edition. London, 1786. 8vo.
London, 1798-1805. 2 vols. 4to.
New edition, revised by Rich. Taylor (with the letter to
J. Dunmng\ London, 1829. 2 vols. 8vo. Reprinted, London.
1840 One vol. 8vo. Reprinted, 1857.
Letter to Jo. Dunning on the E. Language. 1788. 8vo.
Towgood, M. Remarks on the Profane and Absurd Use of the
Monosyllable ' Damn.' 1746. 8vo.
Townsend. J. Etymological Researches. 1824. 4to.
Tremblay's Treatise of Languages. 1725. 8vo.
Many Advantages of a good Language to a Nation. 1724. 8vo.
Trusler, Dr. Jo. Synonymous Words of the E. Language. London,
1766. 2 vols. i2mo. Also 178 r. One vol. i2mo.
Turner, D. Abstract of E. G. and Rhetoric. 1739.
Udall, Nich. Floures for Latine Spekynge . . . oute of Terence
. . . tr. into E. (Black letter.) London, 1533. 8vo.
Vindex Anglicus; or, the . . . E. Language Defended. 1644. 4to.
Vocabulary of such Words in the E. Language as are of Dubious
Accentuation. 1797. 8vo.
Vulgarisms and Improprieties of the E. Language. 1833. i2mo.
Vulgarities of Speech Corrected, with Elegant Expressions for
Provincial and Vulgar E., Scots, and Irish. 1826. i2mo.
Also 1830. i2mo.
250 ENGLISH GRAMMARS.
Walker, Jo. Rhetorical G. London, 1801. 8vo. Fourth edition.
1807. 8vo. Sixth edition, 1816. 8vo. And 1823. 8vo.
Outlines of E. G. London, 1805. i2mo. And 1810. i2mo.
Walker, Wm. Treatise of E. Particles. London, 1655. 8vo.
Phraseologia Anglo-Latina. London, 1672. 8vo. With
E. and Latin Proverbs.
Wallis, Jo. Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae. First ed., Oxford,
1653. i2mo. Also 1674. 8vo. Sixth ed., London, 1765. 8vo.
(Valuable.)
Ward, Dr. Jo. Four Essays on the E. Language. London, 1758.
8vo.
Ward, Wm. Essay on G., as it may be applied to theE. Language.
London, 1765. 4to.
Short Questions upon the Eight Parts of Speech. 1629. 4to.
Webster, Noah. Dissertation on the E. Language. Boston
(America), 1789. 8vo.
Weston, Stephen. Specimen of the Conformity of the European
Languages, particularly the E., with the Oriental Languages,
especially the Persian. London, 1802. 8vo. (or i2mo. ?)
White's Grammatical Essay on the E. Verb, 1761. 8vo.
White, T. Holt. Review of Johnson's ' Criticism on the Style of
Milton's Prose.' 1818. 8vo.
Wild, Jo. Twopenny Accidence. Corn without Chaff. Showing
how to form Verbs without Mood and Tense. Nottingham
[1720]. i2mo.
Whittinton, Rob. Grammatical Works. See the list in
Lowndes.
Williams, J. Thoughts on the Origin of Language. 1783. 8vo.
Willymott, W. English Particles. 1794.
Wilson, J. P. Essay on Grammar, exemplified in an E. G.
Philadelphia, 181 7. 8vo.
Wilson, Sir Thos. Arte of Rhetorike. London, 1553. 4to. For
other editions see Lowndes.
Winning, Rev. W. B. Manual of Comparative Philology. 1838.
8vo.
Withers, E. Observations upon the E. Language. N. d. 8vo.
Withers, Dr. Philip. Aristarchus ; or, the Principles of Composi-
tion. 1789. 8vo. Also 1790. 8vo. Reprinted, 1822. 8vo.
(Praised.)
Wodroephe, Jo. The Spared Hours of a Soldier ... or the True
Marrow of the French Tongue. Dort, 1623. Fol. And 1625.
Fol.
Wotton, H. Essay on the Education of Children in the First
Rudiments of Learning. 1753. 8vo.
THE MAN WITH THE MUCK-RAKE. 25 1
Wotton's Short View of Hickes's Treasure of the Northern
Languages. By M. Shelton. 1735. 4-to.
Wynne's Universal G. for the E. Language. 1775. i2mo.
Young, E. Compleat E. Scholar in Spelling, Reading, and
Writing. 1722. 8vo.
Zankner's German and E. G. Strasbourg. 1806. i2mo.
The above list is extremely imperfect, and only comes
down, in the main, to about 1840. But it will suffice for
pointing out the names of some of the older works on the
subject of English philology, many of which, I believe,
might advantageously be read for Dr. Murray's Dictionary.
Any one who wishes to do the English nation a service
may easily do so. We want to know which, among the
above, are the best dozen books for such a purpose,
especially amongst the older ones. None of them, I am
told, has been read hitherto. The works by Coote, Lowth,
Priestley, Walker, Wallis, and Whittinton should certainly
be examined.
299. The Man with the Muck-rake (7 S. vi. 366; 1888).
This well-known figure in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress
was doubtless described from a scene depicted on tapestry
and hung on walls. There is an early mention of it in
W. Bullein's Dialogue, first printed in 1578. (See E.E.T.S.
reprint, p. 82.) We there find three pictures on tapestry
described together : —
'The first of them with a Rake in his hand with teeth of golde, doe
stoup verie lowe, groping belike in the Lake after some-thyng that
he would finde ; and out of this deepe water, above the Rake, a little
steeple.'
See the context, which gives a full explanation, showing
the reference to simony.
300. Does Mr. Gladstone speak with a Provincial
Accent? (7 S. vi. 178; 1888).
The answer is that much depends on the listener. I can
tell a story to the point. I never heard Mr. Gladstone
252 WIPPLE-TREE, OR WHIPULTRE: GAYTRE.
speak but once, and that was in Cambridge, more than
a quarter of a century ago.
I had at the time no idea that he came from Lancashire.
But, after the speech, I made careful inquiries as to where
he came from, and soon obtained the information. I was
not then at all accustomed to ' take notice,' and the traces
which I observed were very slight. In a large portion of
the speech, even after I had noticed some peculiarities,
I could detect nothing unusual. At this distance of time
I only remember one test word. He undoubtedly at that
time said strenth for stre?igth ; and I said to myself,
1 North.'
301. Wipple-Tree, otherwise Whipultre : Gaytre
(7S.vi.434; 1888).
Many guesses have been made as to the sense of
' Whipultre' in Chaucer's Knighfs Tale. At last Mr.
Mayhew has got it right. It is the cornel-tree or dogwood
(Cornus Sanguinea), also called dog-tree, &c. See Britten's
Plant Names, p. 577. He points out that it is clearly
the Middle Low German wipel-bo?n, the cornel (Pritzel,
later edition). This is verified by the entry in Hexham's
Dutch Dictionary ; ' Wepe or weype, the dog-tree.' It is so
named from the waving of its branches. Cf. M. Dutch
wepelen, to totter, waver (Hexham) ; E. Fries, wepeln, also
ivippen, to waver, jump. Cf. E. whip about (properly wip
about), whence probably whipp-et, for wipp-et, a kind of dog ;
G. wippen, to see-saw.
The gay-tre in Chaucer's Nun's Pries fs Tale is said to be
the same tree, the reason being simply this, that whilst
ivippel-tre was the Southern or Midland name, gaytre was
the Northern name; and Chaucer borrowed it from the
Northern dialect.
It is also called gaiter-tree, and the etymology is easy.
A goat was called goot in Middle English in the Midland
A CURIOUS ETYMOLOGY. 253
and Southern dialects ; but gait in the North. The one is
A. S. gat, the other is Icel. geitr. As for gaiter, it is simply
the Icel. gen. geitar, also used in forming compounds.
Hence the gaytre is really the gait-tree or goal-tree. It is
also called dog-tree and cat-tree ; so there is no great
difficulty about goat-tree.
I have, however, a further suggestion to make, in opposi-
tion to the authorities. Seeing the particular purposes for
which the cock wanted the berries, it would fit admirably to
suppose that for this occasion the gait-tree was the Rhamnus
catharticus, which, according to Johns, ' bears black, power-
fully cathartic berries.' Now it is not a little remarkable
that, according to Rietz, the name in Swedish dialects for
this Rhamnus is precisely getbdrs-trd, i.e. 'goat-berry tree.'
or the tree bearing goat-berries (Chaucer's gaytre-beries).
302. A Curious Etymology (7 S. vii. 5 ; 1889).
If ever an ' etymology ' deserved to be ' gibbeted,' cer-
tainly the following deserves it richly. It is from the
Gentleman's Magazine, Dec, 1888, p. 605 : —
' One word in conclusion on the word gallows. The old word for
the gibbet is galg, and gal- low is the low, or place for the gibbet."
It follows that galloivs are ' the places for the "gibbet,"'
which is highly satisfactory. In what language the ' old
word ' galg occurs in a monosyllabic form we are not told.
Such is ' etymology ' in the nineteenth century.
303. Hampole's Version of the Psalms (7 S. vii. 5 ;
1889).
I have said in Specimens of English, part ii. p. 107, that
Hampole was ' the author of a metrical version of the
Psalms,' &c. I took this statement from Prof. Morley's
English Writers without suspicion. Since then Mr. Bramley
has edited Hampole's version, and lo ! it is in prose ! How,
then, did the error arise ? Perhaps thus. The copy of the
254 'THE MORIANS' LAND.'
work in MS. Laud. 286, begins with sixty lines of verse,
which may easily have induced the consulter of the MS. to
suppose it was wholly in verse. However, these sixty lines
are a mere prologue ; they are not by Hampole, but by
another hand ; and they do not appear in any other of the
rather numerous copies. I conclude that a verse translation
of the Psalms by Hampole does not exist.
304. ' The Morians' Land' (7 S. vii. 66 ; 1889).
For ' the Morians' land ' in the Prayer Book Version of
the Psalms, the A. V. has ' Ethiopia.' Wright's Bible Word-
book tells us that ' Morian ' is used by old writers for ' moor,
blackamoor.' Cotgrave explains More by 'a Moore, Morian,
Blackamoore.' But I do not know that any one has explained
the etymology.
At first it might be thought to be Dutch, since Sewel
gives Moriaan, and Hexham Morjaen, with the same sense.
But the Dutch suffix -aan is from Latin -anus, and is non-
Teutonic. Both the English and Dutch forms are doubt-
less of Romance origin. Godefroy quotes, from a MS. of
the fifteenth century, the O. F. form Moriaine, meaning
a Moor. This I take to represent Latin Mauritanicus (or
perhaps Mauritanius), the t being dropped as usual between
two vowels in the middle of the word. We also find O. F.
Moriant for ' the land of the Moors,' which represents the
Latin Mauritania. Thus we see that Morian is simply
another form of Mauritanian.
305. Kittering (7 S. vii. 76; 1889).
This word presents no difficulty. It is a disguised form
of the Provincial English catering, which the witness probably
pronounced better than it was taken down, and which the
judge explained with perfect correctness \ Cater, to cut
1 In the examination of a witness lately, he was asked how the
boy crossed the street ; to which he replied, ' A little bit kittering,
SLOYD. 255
diagonally, is duly given in Halliwell ; and it is used in
Kent and Surrey. In the list of Surrey provincialisms
(E. D. S., Gloss., c. 4) we find ' Caterways, Catering, adv.
used of crossing diagonally.' It would be of much assist-
ance to me if those who inquire after words, and who by so
doing confess that they do not quite understand them, would
refrain in every case from suggesting an etymology. In the
present case the suggestion that kittering represents ' quar-
tering' is just the very thing to throw an investigator off the
track, precisely because there is a real ultimate connexion
between the words. Quartering is ultimately due to the
Lat. quartus, an ordinal numeral. Cater, on the other
hand, is due to the Lat. quatuor, a cardinal number. It
makes all the difference, because the former r in quarter
would not have disappeared after that fashion. Cater is
the correct Old English word, the number ' four ' on a die
being so called. It is the correct descendant of the Old
French katre, four. The names of the marks upon dice
were formerly (and even now) the following : — ace, deuce,
tray, cater, sink, size (or six). Cater gave the notion of four
corners ; and to cater a field is to cross it corner-wise,
i. e. diagonally. It obviously gives double trouble when
one has to explain both a word and its mistaken origin.
306. Sloyd(7 S. vii. 105; 1889).
The following deliciously inaccurate statement appeared
in Chambers }s Journal, Dec. 22, 1888, p. 815 : —
' Slojd, the Scandinavian word which is termed sloyd in English
for convenience, means originally cunning, clever, handy.'
Here ' Scandinavian ' is slipshod English for Sivedish.
Scandinavian is the name of a group of languages, not of
any one language. For ' termed ' read ' spelt ' ; and why it
I should say.1 The presiding judge explained to the jury, 'He means
obliquely.'
256 ENGLISH.
cannot be spelt ' sloid ' it is hard to see. We do not write
6qylt toyl, voyd, in modern English. Thirdly, ' means ' is
false grammar for ' meant.' Lastly, the assigned sense is all
wrong, for the word is not an adjective, but a substantive.
Let us put it right. The Swedish word is slojd. English
people pronounce it sloid, as if it rimed with void, because
they cannot give the true sound. Silly people will persist
in writing sloyd with ay, merely to cause more confusion in
our confused system. Lastly, the word is merely the same
as our word sleight, the substantive formed from the
adjective sly ; it originally meant sleight or dexterity, but is
now applied to wood-carving in particular. But for this it
should have been called sleight in English.
307. English (7 S. vii. 189; 1889).
[In reply to the suggestion that the name English is not
derived from Angle, but from ing, a field !]
I am not concerned with the etymology of this word
except so far as relates to the following statement : ' The
guess that England is named after the Angles, started by
Bede, is not supported by history.' The coolness of this
assertion is amazing ; and it seems to me altogether too
bad that no attempt whatever has been made to inquire
into the matter. A man who deliberately shuts his eyes
to all evidence is not entitled to ask us to follow his
leading; at any rate, we shall be very foolish to take him
for a guide.
Perhaps no fact is better supported by history in the true
sense, i. e. by ancient records. If we are bound to ignore
Beda, we are not bound to ignore the Old English transla-
tion of him. In Hist. iii. 2, where the original has ' in
lingua Anglorum,' the translation has ' on Englisc' Here
the E in Englisc is the regular mutation of A ; and we can
no more dissociate English from Angle than we can disso-
ciate French from France. We find ' Frencisce menn ' and
ENGLISH. 257
1 Densce ' in the A. S. Chronicle, Laud MS. an. 1700 ; and,
of course, we see that the e is the mutation of the a in
Frank and Dane. French means Frankish, and has nothing
to do with frink (whatever that may mean); and similarly
English means Angle-ish, and has nothing to do with ing.
It is impossible to ignore the known connexion of English
with Angle. It is indelibly recorded in such forms as
Anglia, Anglicus, Anglicanus, as well as in the common
Old English terms Angeltheod, Angel-cynn, meaning English
or Angle-people, English or Angle-race, and so on. For
these words see the Bosworth-Toller Dictionary, the refer-
ences in which might be multiplied largely. Thus Angol-
theod(sic) is in Alfred's translation of Beda, ed. Smith, iii. 5 ;
and Angel-cynn is in the same chapter. In the next chapter
is the gen. pi. Angla, and the dat. Angel- theode. It is tedious
to hunt up all the passages, and I do not see what is to be
gained by repeating what every one ought to know, and what
no one who knows the phonetic laws of Anglo-Saxon can
possibly call in question.
That the E in Engla is really a mutation of the A in
Angle appears also from the purely philological considera-
tion that we sometimes find the alternative spelling with sE.
It is scarce, of course ; but here are references : jEngla-
land, A. S. Chronicle, Parker MS. an. 1070; other MSS.
Engla-land ; sEngla-landes, A. S. Chronicle, Laud MS.
an. 1 100. So also sEnglisc, A. S. Chron., Laud MS. an.
1 016 ; A. S. Chron., introduction in MS. Cotton, Tib. B. 4,
ed. Thorpe, p. 3. If any one wants to realize the diffi-
culty of finding such spellings, let him hunt for the form
Frcencisc.
In the introduction to Gregory's Pastoral Care, as trans-
lated by Alfred, he calls the English people Angelcynn, and
their language Englisc in the same sentence. It is absurd
to expect the whole English nation to give up such facts at
a moment's bidding, and for a whim.
s
258 LATTEN AND PINCHBECK.
It seems to me that the whole trouble has arisen from not
understanding that the change from M. E. en to modern in,
in pronunciation, is sufficiently regular. Many common
people talk of the Frinch and Frinchmen. I have explained
all this in my Principles of English Etymology, p. 402 ; but
I suppose I must repeat some of the instances. Inglish is
the pronunciation of English, and is derived from Angle ;
mint is from Lat. mentha ; grin is from A. S. grennian,
M. E. gremien ; blink, from M. E. blenken ; link (of a chain),
from A. S. hlence\ skink, from A. S. scencan; think, from A. S.
thencan ; wing is M. E. wenge, &c. We get back to original
a sometimes. Thus think is allied to thank ; ling to A. S.
lang (long) ; mingle is allied to A. S. on-mang (among) ;
hinge, M. E. henge, is derived from hang; singe, M. E.
sengen, is allied to A. S. sang, pt. t. of singan ; swinge, A. S.
swengan, to swang, pt. t. of swing ; string, A. S. streng,
is from Strang (strong).
We even find similar changes in words of French and
Latin origin. Thus pin is allied to Lat. penna ; ink, M. E.
enke, to Lat. encaustum ; print is from premere, and was
often spelt prente. Dr. Murray records bink for bench, and
of course stink is allied both to stench and to the pt. t. stank.
Strinth for strength is not uncommon. But we do not find
en coming out of / *, nor eng out of ing.
It is not at all the case that Dr. Sweet knows nothing at
all of this. He marks the old vowels of stench, wrench,
French, quench, drench, bench, &c, also of England, English,
also of singe, string, wring, mingle, all alike, to show that
they all go back to an original a. See his Hist, of English
Sounds, p. 313. If the appeal is to phonetics, the answer
is decisive.
308. Latten and Pinchbeck (7 S. vii. 206; 1889).
In N. and Q., 3 S. xiv. 396, the analysis of the metal
called latten is given as being composed of copper, 64 per
'SWEETNESS AND LIGHT.' 259
cent. ; zinc, 29 J per cent. ; lead, 3 J per cent. ; and tin, 3 per
cent. In the same, 6 S. i. 213, pinchbeck is said to be com-
posed of copper, 75 per cent, and zinc, 25 per cent. It is
worth while to notice the close resemblance of these com-
pounds. Pinchbeck is a simplified latten, with a little more
copper and a little less zinc.
309. * Sweetness and Light' (7 S. vii. 285 ; 1889).
This is a meaningless expression unless we know the
context. It may, therefore, be useful to give it. In Swift's
Battle of the Books there is a dispute between a spider and
a bee. Afterwards Aesop takes up the cause of ancient
authors, whom he likens to bees, and says that ' instead of
dirt and poison [such as are collected by modern authors or
spiders] we have rather chose [sic] to fill our hives with
honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two
noblest of things, which are sweetness and light?
310. The Anglo-Saxon Names of the Months
(7 S. vii. 301 3 1889).
In Verstegan's Restitution of Decayed Intelligence the
author gives what he is pleased to call ' the Anglo-Saxon
names of the months ' after the following fashion, beginning
with January. They were, he says, Wolfmoneth, Sprout-
kele, Lenct-monat, Oster-monat, Tri-milki, Weyd-?nonat,
Heu-monat, Arn-monat, Gerst-monat, Wyn-??wnat, Wint-
monat, Winter-monat. This is in the true old spirit of hardy
guess-work, and is wrong on the face of it, because such
forms as nionat, Oster, heu, and others, are plainly German,
and cannot possibly be Anglo-Saxon. It will suffice to
show how he came by the name of Sprout-kele for February,
as we can then tell how worthy he is of trust. His own
account is : —
1 They called February Sprout-kele, by kele meaning the kele-wurt,
which we now call the cole-wurt. ... It was the first herb that in
S 2
260 ANGLO-SAXON NAMES OF THE MONTHS.
this moneth began to yeeld out wholesome young sprouts, and con-
sequently gave thereunto the name of spront-kelel
This is a specimen of the daring imagination with which
the whole book teems. It is all rubbish, of course, and
crumbles to pieces on investigation. It will suffice to
mention two points.
The A. S. for cole is not kele at all, but caw/, being merely
the Latin caulis in a slightly disguised form. Secondly, the
native Dutch name for February is Sprokkel-maa?id, where
Sprokkel, according to Koolman, means ' thaw ' or ' thawed
earth,' whence the adj. sprokkelig, crumbling, friable. It is
clear that Verstegan's Sprout-kele is due to a desperate
attempt to find an etymology for Sprokkel, a word which
he did not understand.
Not to waste more words upon the above farrago, which
is not even correct for the Dutch language, whence several
of the examples are drawn, it may suffice to say that not
one of the names is correctly given, and most of them are
entirely wrong.
By good fortune the A. S. names of the months are all of
them found in a manuscript printed in Cockayne's Shrine,
p. 47. Some of them occur in the Menologium, printed by
Fox, and reprinted by Grein, and some in a manuscript in
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, described in Wanley's
Catalogue, p. 106, and elsewhere. Beginning with January,
the names are as follows : (1) Se seftera Geola (the latter
Yule); (2) Sol-monath ; (3) Hreth-monath ; (4) Easter-
monath ; (5) Thrimylce ; (6) Se aerra Litha (the former
Litha) ; (7) Se aeftera Litha (the latter Litha) ; (8) Weod-
monath ; (9) Halig-monath ; (10) Winter-fylleth ; (11) Blot-
monath ; (12) Se aerra Geola (the former Yule).
A few notes may be added. The old notion that in the
name of February the 0 should be long, and that the word
sol would then mean 'sun,' is absurd. February is not
usually a ' sun-month.' Sol means simply mire or mud,
VOWEL-SHORTENING IN ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES. 261
whence E. sully. I regret to say that ' mud-month ' is sadly
appropriate, and answers to the Old Dutch name Sprokkel-
maand, discussed above. The name for March is said to
be from a certain goddess Hreda (see the note in Bosworth
and Toller's Dictionary). I do not quite see why it may
not mean simply 'fierce-month.' April is 'Easter-month.'
May is 'three-milkings-month,' i.e. the cows might then be
milked thrice a day. The name Litha is merely the definite
form of lithe, mild, so that June and July are the mild, or
warm months. August is 'weed-month.' September is
' holy month,' and it is on record that it was so called as
being a great time for sacrifices to idols in the heathen days.
Compare the offering of first-fruits. The reason for the
name of October is left unexplained !. November is ' sacri-
fice-month,' and is also explained to refer to heathen
sacrifices.
It appears that out of Verstegan's twelve names only two
are even approximately correct; and these two, Oster-monat
and Tri-milki, are given in foreign spelling.
311. Vowel- shortening in English Place-names
(7 S. vii. 321 ; 1889).
In my Principles of English Etymology, chap, xxv, I
have given examples of vowel-shortening in the former
syllable of dissyllabic words, and at p. 494 I instance Whit-
by, Whit-church, from the adjective white. A few more
examples may be interesting by way of making the principle
clearer.
The A. S. dc, oak, with loss of accent, becomes ac ; hence
Acton, Ackland. I remember once being at Acle, in Nor-
folk, and remarking that it ought to be called Ack-ley, and
1 As a guess, I should refer fylleth to the verb fyllan, to fell, to
cause to fall, and so explain Winter-fylleth b}- 'storm-felling,' i.e. the
time of year when a storm or colder weather causes the leaves to fall
from the trees. Compare the old name fall, the equivalent of autumn.
262 VOWEL-SHORTENING IN ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES.
not Aikl, as is now usual. I was at once informed that
' that was just what the old people did call it.' This piece
of information may as well be put on record. It is fair to
conclude that it meant oak-lea.
Perhaps Benacre (Suffolk) means bea?i-acre. We have
Benefield (Northampton). But this is a guess, and guesses
are not at all advisable in the present disgracefully backward
state of the etymology of place-names. Most books on the
subject are ludicrously wrong.
A word like Black-more presents great difficulty. I do
not see how to decide whether it is from A. S. bide, bleak,
or from A. S. bleee, black. Let us wait for evidence.
The A. S. brad, broad, becomes brad) hence Bradford.
The A. S. brom, broom, becomes broom, and then brum ;
hence Bromyard, Bromley, Brompton.
The A. S. die, dyke, becomes die; hence dieton, and by
assimilation, Ditton.
The A. S. dun, a down, becomes dun ; hence Dunton,
Dunwich, Uunmow. We also have Downton. In such
cases we may expect Downton to be a later form — i. e. that
the place is of less antiquity than Dunton.
The A. S. ful, foul, becomes ful ; hence Fulbourne, in
which the vowel was formerly long. It is spelt Fuulburne
in a charter.
The A. S. gos, goose, becomes gos ; hence gosling, and
Gosfield (Essex).
The A. S. ham, home, becomes ham ; hence Hampstead,
parallel to E. homestead. But there is also A. S. hamm,
gen. hammes, an enclosure, quite distinct from ham. So we
cannot always be sure as to this prefix.
The A. S. hUth, a heath, becomes heeth, pronounced as
E. hath. Slightly altered, this occurs in Hadley and Hat-
field, spelt in the charters with the form for heath.
The A. S. mor becomes mor \ hence Morton and Morland
and Westmorland.
VOWEL-SHORTENING IN ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES. 263
The A. S. ready red, is now red ; and the A. S. hreod,
a reed, also becomes red. In Red Hill we probably have
the former. In Redbourne (Hants), the A. S. form Hreod-
burne shows that we have the latter.
The A. S. seep, a sheep, gives a form shep. In Shropshire,
sheep are called ships. Hence Shepton, Shipton, Shipley.
The A. S. stan, a stone, becomes sta?i \ hence Stanton,
Stanford, and perhaps Stamford. We also find Stainton
and Stonton, where stain is the Norse form, and ston is
from M. E. stoon.
The A. S. form of Sherborne is Scire-burne ; from scire,
pure, clear, Mod. E. sheer.
The A. S. street becomes street, pronounced strat\ hence
Stratford. The Mercian form was stret, which becomes
stret ; hence Stretton, Streatham.
The A. S. Stur, the river Stour, becomes stur \ hence
Sturminster.
The A. S. suth, south, becomes suth ; hence Sutton (for
suth-ton), Sudbury (for suth-bury), Sussex (for suth-sex),
and Surrey (A. S. Suthrige).
The word swain is of Norse origin. The A. S. form is
swan. This, shortened to swan, appears in Swanswick, as
Prof. Earle * can tell us.
The A. S. swin, swine, becomes swin ; hence Swinden,
Swinford, Swindon.
The A. S. for Tadley is Tadan-leah, i. e. Toadfield. We
find the same vowel-shortening in the common tadpole.
The river Teme gave its name to Teembury, now spelt
Tenbury, — at least, so I have been told, and it seems quite
reasonable.
The A. S. tun, town, becomes tun ; hence Tunbridge,
Tunstead.
The A. S. hwUte, wheat, becomes hwcet ; hence Whatfield
1 Rawlinsonian Professor of A. S., and rector of Swanswick (also
spelt Swainswick), near Bath.
264 EAST SHEEN; 'SHEEN' AND 'SHINE.'
(Suffolk), and Wheathampstead. There is an A. S. place-
name Hwsete-dun, lit. wheat-down. This became Whatdon ;
then Whotton, by influence of tvh on the vowel, and by
assimilation ; and it is now Wotton (in Surrey). This is an
excellent example of the futility of guessing and of the exact
operation of phonetic laws.
The A. S. htvit, white, became hwit \ hence Whitchurch,
Whitfield (A. S. hwltfeld , Whitcliff (near Ludlow).
We must remember, on the other hand, that modern
English sometimes lengthens the A. S. vowel. In this case
the place-name may keep the original short vowel. Such is
the case with Cranbourne, Cranfield, Cranford, from A. S.
cran. The modern word is crane. Dalby is from A. S. dcel,
Mod. E. dale.
Denton is from A. S. denu, a valley, a dene, with long e
in Rottingdean, Ovingdean, though short in Tenterden.
Compton is for Combe-town, from W. civm. The name
Quinton illustrates the common English change from en to
in. We also find Quendon, so that Quinton stands for
Quenton. Quen is the A. S. cwen, a queen, with loss of
vowel-length, and substitution of the Anglo-French qu for
A. S. cw.
Of course many of these examples are old ; but I have
grouped them together so as to illustrate a principle. We
shall have to accept principles to guide us if ever any
advance is to be made.
312. East Sheen ; * Sheen » and * Shine '(7S. vii. 337 j
1889).
At the latter reference two correspondents drop into an
etymological trap, and say, probably for the thousandth
time, that sheen is allied to the verb to shine. One of them
compares the G. schbn, which has certainly nothing to do
with G. scheinen. Sheen is properly an adjective, meaning
1 showy,' or splendid, allied to the verb to show. The
ENGLISH LONG VOWELS. 265
G. schon is exactly parallel to it, and is allied to G. schauen.
The account of the former may be found in my Etymo-
logical Dictionary, and that of the latter in Kluge. I know
of no example in which a Modern English ee is allied to
a long /, and shall be obliged to any one who will give
me one.
[When Lord Byron wrote ' the sheen of their spears,' he
doubtless thought that s/ieen was a sb., and allied to shine.]
313. English Long Vowels as compared with German
(7 S. vii. 342, 463; 1889 .
Mistakes are constantly being made in etymology, especi-
ally by those who have not made any study of phonetics, of
the most elementary character. I here throw together a few
remarks to remind your readers that laws regulate vowel-
sounds, and should be regarded. The student who wishes
to compare English with German for the purposes of ety-
mology should consult Sievers' Anglo-Saxon Granunar on
the one hand and Wright's Old High German Primer
(Clarendon Press) on the other. He will then not go far
wrong.
Even in my Principles of English Etymology, I mention
most of the facts concerning the long vowels. I selected
these for the greater clearness ; because, if any one can be
brought to see that the long vowels follow regular laws, he
may then be led to believe that short vowels do the same.
A half-knowledge is better than none at all, as it may induce
caution.
I here give a few elementary facts, selecting only the
more remarkable results. Many details are purposely
suppressed.
Teutonic long a. There is practically none ; the pre-
Teutonic long a had already become long 0 in primitive
Teutonic. Compare Lat. mater with A. S. modor, and Lat.
/rater with Goth, brothar. See, therefore, under ' long o.'
266 ENGLISH LONG VOWELS.
Teutonic long e. Original examples are scarce. But we
have a few cases in which A. S. e is written ie in Modern
German. Thus A. S. her, E. here, is G. hier. A. S. med,
E. meed, is G. Miethe. In most cases the A. S. e arose from
a mutation of long o. See, therefore, under ' long o.J
Teutonic long i. This is, usually, A. S. i, Modern
English long i. In Old German it was also i, pronounced
as Mod. E. ee, but is now written ei, and pronounced as i in
Mod. English. Thus A. S. blta?i, E. bite, is G. beissen.
This is a very interesting case. The old sound is still kept
up in Scandinavian ; the Swed. bita is pronounced as Eng.
beetah. In the Middle Ages it was pronounced, both in
English and in German, like the ei in E. vein ; at which time
the G. spelling was altered to ei, but the English was let
alone. Since then, both languages have further developed
the sound to the diphthongal ai, as it is written in romic.
The English and German spellings remain as in medieval
times. Hence the English represents its diphthong by
means of the A. S. i, which was once pronounced as ee ;
whilst the German represents it by the medieval ei, once
pronounced as in French. Both are misleading ; but the
English is the worse. Dutch follows the English system,
but represents the old long i (ee) by the symbol ij, now
pronounced as E. i in bite.
Teutonic long o. This was of two sorts, viz. from pre-
Teutonic long a (cf. Lat. ??iater, /rater), and (rarely) from pre-
Teutonic long o (cf. Doric Greek iru><;). The usual Mod. E.
symbol is double o or oo, but the sound is that of Ital. u, as
in E. cool, from A. S. col. The German developed this
zz-sound at a very early period ; hence G. Mutter, Bruder,
Fuss; also the O. H. G. kuole, adv., coolly, though the G. adj.
has the mutated form kiihl.
In the last word the u is written as uh, to make sure of
the length; so also A. S-for, he went, is G./uhr. English
has shortened the sounds of moother, broother, foot (once
ENGLISH LONG VOWELS. 267
rhyming with boot), in ways with which we are all familiar.
Cf. A. S. blod, E. blood, G. Blut. The mutated form of this
vowel gave us the A. S. e, as mfet, feet. The vowel is also
mutated in German, as in Fiisse, feet. Hence E. feel,
G.fuhlen, is derived from a stem/tf/; see Kluge.
Teutonic long u. This has developed just like long i.
Just as long i became at (romic), so long u has become au.
In English this is written ou, but German correctly writes
au. Thus A. S. hus, E. house, G. Haus. The English
spelling ou is of French origin ; the French scribes naturally
represented A. S. u by the F. ou in soup. Soup retains the
French sound only because it was borrowed in modern
times.
For another G. au, see under au below.
Teutonic long az. This most commonly becomes Mod. E.
ee ; but the G. has long a. Ex. : A. S. slcepan, E. sleep,
G. Schlafen. Another A. S. long <z, which is much com-
moner, is the mutated form of A. S. a ; for this see below,
under at.
Teutonic at. This is commonly A. S. a, E. long o, G. ei.
Ex. : Goth, haims, A. S. ham, E. home, G. Hei?n. Thus it
will be seen that German has two distinct efs ; the other is
given under long i. The mutated form of A. S. a is long
a? ; this commonly gives E. ea. Hence from A. S. hdl,
E. whole, comes A. S. hcelan, E. heal. Here the German
has no mutation, but derives heilen from heil at once.
Teutonic au. This is commonly A. S. ea, E. ea (ee, e), G. au
or long 0. Exx. : A. S. heafod, E. head (M. E. heed), Goth.
haubith, G. Haupt; A. S. strea??i, E. stream, O. H. G.
straum, G. Strom. This diphthong can suffer mutation,
giving A. S. long ie (or y), G. 0. Ex. : Goth, hausjan, A. S.
hieran, E. hear, G. horen.
Teutonic eu. This is Gothic iu, A. S. eo, E. ee, G. ie.
Ex. : Goth, diups, A. S. deop, E. deep, G. //V/". Examples of
its mutation are rare in English, and the G. ie is not mutated.
268 ENGLISH LONG VOWELS.
Teut. long e. I now give additional examples. Besides
E. here, G. hier, we find A. S. cen, a torch, G. Kienfackel,
a pine-torch, Kien, resinous wood.
Teut. long i. E. dike, G. leich ; so also drive, treiben ;
idle, eitel ; ride, reiten; tide, Zeit ; bite, beissen ; smite,
schmeissen ; white, weiss ; write, reissen ; thy, dein \ shive,
Scheibe ; pipe, Pfeifen ; gripe, greifen ; ripe, reif; glide,
gleiten ; while, weil. These are all taken in order from
Appendix A to my English Etymology, where the corre-
spondence of the consonants is explained.
Teut. long o. E. blood, G. Bint ; so also brood, Brut
good, gut ; hood, Hut ; mood, Muth ; rood, Ruthe ; to, zu
brother (A. S. brothor), Bruder fother (A. S. fothur), Fuder
mother (A. S. modor), Mutter ; flood, Fluth ; foot, Fuss.
All from the same original o (Indo-Germanic a or o).
Under ' Teut. long <?,' I have already mentioned G. kiihl
as answering to E. cool. The fact is that the English cool
answers to the old G. adverb kuole, coolly ; whilst the G. ad-
jective has the mutated it, answering 'as I have shown) to
the E. ee. We actually have this mutation in the famous
Shakespearian phrase ' to keel the pot,' i. e. to keep it cool
by stirring it.
The mutated forms of long o appear in E. feet, G. Fiisse ;
so also breed, br/iten ; brethren (Old North E. brether),
Bruder ; feel, fiihlen ; heed, hiiten ; greet, griissen ; sweet,
suss (for swiiss) ; green, griin ; keen, kiihn. In the verb
bleed, the German does not mutate, but has blute?i ; cf. also
seek, G. suchen ; beech, G. Buche. On the other hand,
where we have bloom without mutation, the related G. word
is B Hit he.
Teut. long //. E. house, G. Haus ; so also snout,
Schnauze; loud, laut ; mouse, Maus ; louse, Laus ; foul,
faul ; sour, sauer ; sow, Sau ; thousand, tausend. In the
word hide, A. S. hid, as compared with G. Haut, the
E. vowel is mutated ; so also mice, Miiuse ; lice, Liiuse.
THEORY AND PRACTICE. 269
Teut. long ce. E. sleep, G. Schlafen. Examples are rare.
E. deed, as compared with G. That, is similar.
Teut. ai. E. home, G. Heim ; so also dough (older form
dogh), Teig; dole, Theil '; broad (with the old sound of od),
breit ; token, Zeichen ; goat, Geiss ; both, beide ; cloth (long
0 in plural clothes), Kleid ; oath, Eid ; soap, Seife ; oak,
Eiche ; stroke, Stretch ; spoke, Speiche ; stone, Stein.
The mutated form usually appears in English only ; thus
E. heal, G. heilen ; so also breadth, Breite ; heath, Heide ;
heat, v., heizen ; lead, v., lei ten ; leave, bleiben (for be-leiben) ;
sweat, Schweiss. On comparing E. lore (A. S. lar) with the
A. S. Iceran, to teach, we see that the G. lehren, O. H. G.
leren, is mutated.
Teutonic au. E. stream, G. Strom (formerly Strauni) ;
so also heap, Haufe ; cheap, Kaaf, s. ; East, Ost; leaf,
Ztfz^ ; leek, Lauch ; dream, Traum ; leap, laufen ; be-reave,
rauben ; lead, s., Loth ; seam, Saum ; deaf (M. E. dee/),
taub.
Teutonic eu. E. deep, G. /&/"; so also lief, lieb ; freeze,
frieren ; deer, Thier ; sick (M. E. seek), siech ; thief, Dieb ;
seethe, sieden.
The real value of these equations is best tested and per-
ceived when the correspondences are at first sight anomalous.
Thus G. Stief-i7iutter answers to E. steep-mother, A. S. steop-
modor ; and such, in fact, is the A. S. form. The Mod. E.
e in stepmother has been shortened from an older ee by the
stress on the closed syllable.
314. Theory and Practice (7 S. viii. 26; 1889).
Not long ago I read the story of a boy who summed up
the duties of life by saying that ' you first know your work,
and then you go and do it.' There is in this a reminiscence
of Mr. Squeers, who first of all instructed a boy how to spell
' winder] and then made him go and clean one. Never-
theless, the saying, as old Skelton would say, ' hath some
270 < TO RIDE BODKIN.'
pith ' in it. A little alteration will produce quite a Miltonic
precept : —
1 First know thy work, then do it, praising God.'
Perhaps in a few years some querist, with that curious thirst
for which the genus is so remarkable, will 'want to know'
from what poem this line is taken. I can, alas ! only assure
a discriminating posterity that there is no more of it.
315. 'To Ride Bodkin' (7 S. viii. 76 ; 1889).
This phrase is fully explained and illustrated in a recent
work by Dr. Murray, entitled A Neiu E?iglish Dictio7iary on
Histo?-ical Principles, and printed at Oxford ; s. v. Bodkin.
316. Runnel (7 S. viii. 76 ; 1889).
The A. S. form is rynel; the pi. rynelas is in Spelman's
A. S. Psalter, lxiv. 11, as a gloss to rivos. The A. S. y
becomes i ; hence the M. E. form was rinel. It occurs,
spelt rynel, in the Troy-Book, ed. Panton and Donaldson,
1. 5709. Runnel is formed, analogically, from the verb to
run. I mention runnel in my Dictionary, s. v. Run ; and
refer to Collins, Ode to the Passions. I offer my thanks for
the new quotations.
[The quotations, furnished by Mr. E. Peacock, are
these : —
' Now let me trace the stream up to its source
Among the hills ; its runnel by degrees
Diminishing, the murmur turns a tinkle.'
Jas. Grahame, The Sabbath, &c, 6th ed. 1808, p. 66.
1 There is a runnel creeps across a fell,
Far, noteless, poor.'
Sonnet by T. D., in Blackwood's Maga., Mar. 1824,
vol. xv. p. 268.
• The little runnels leading to our tarn.'
J. E. Taylor, Half-hours in Green Lanes, 4th ed. 1877, p. 35.]
MOXON'S 'CHAUCER.' 271
317. Moxon's 'Chaucer' (7 S. viii. 133; 1889).
With reference to the remark by F. N. that it is strange
that any one pretending to know anything about Chaucer
should ever have been deceived by the dishonest title-page
of Moxon's Chaucer, I have to confess, with shame and
confusion, that it was really some time before the truth
about this title-page dawned upon me • and hence I have
not shrunk from saying, in a note to p. xviii of my edition
of Chaucer's Minor Poems, that ' I cannot but think that
this title-page may have misled others, as it for a long time
misled myself.' I beg leave to say that I have probably
instructed more pupils in Chaucer than any one else ; and
I never yet met with any one who had not, at the outset,
been deceived. To ever)7 young student the revelation has
been a surprise.
The reason is simple, viz. that the unsophisticated reader
is quite ready to believe that what a respectable publisher
says is really true ; though I can quite understand that book-
sellers and publishers may know better. I think this title-
page cannot but mislead ; and I would fain hope that cases
of equal enormity are uncommon.
The extremely artful way in which the Minor Poems are
introduced between portions of Tyrwhitt's genuine work is
extremely baffling to the uninitiated. There is not the
faintest hint anywhere that any one but Tyrwhitt ever
touched the preparation of the book. F. N. is mistaken
in saying that there are no notes by Tyrwhitt on the Minor
Poems. The fact is that the ' Remarks on the Minor Poems, :
printed in Moxon's edition at pp. 445-452, are palpably
Tyrwhitt's own ; and I may add that many of them are
valuable.
The advertisement at pp. 443, 444, is Tyrwhitt's, and his
name is printed on p. 444. The glossary is Tyrwhitt's,
bodily.
272 THOMAS A K EM PIS.
And it is precisely because the book is all Tyrwhitt's
down to p. 209, and again all Tyrwhitt's from p. 443 to the
end, that the deception is so clever and so complete.
318. Thomas a Kempis (7 S. viii. 171 ; 1889).
The explanation, that Thomas a Kempis is probably
nothing more than a corruption or contraction of ' Thomas
at Kempen,' is wrong. And it is unnecessary to use the
word ' probably ' when we know all about it for certain.
Mr. Bardsley made the same mistake years ago, when he
told us that George a Green meant George at Green (Eng.
Surnames, third edition, p. in), and went on to tell us that
Thomas a Becket is for Thomas atte Becket, i. e. the stream-
let. It is almost too absurd ; for no one calls a cat a ca, or
a hat a ha ; then why should at become a ? And why do
not people reason ?
Of course a is short for of, as in ' what's o'clock,' ' man o'
war,' ' John a Gaunt.' And the whole matter is worked out
in the New English Dictionary, p. 3, col. 3, admirably and
fully. It makes me ashamed of my countrymen to observe
how frequently this work is snubbed by being left uncon-
sulted ; and it seems altogether too bad that writers should
take such pains to set wrong, for the hundredth time, what
Dr. Murray (it ought to be once for all) has set right.
319. Baldacchino (7 S. viii. 172 ; 1889).
I suppose this word is related to Arab, baldat, a city, and
the Arabic name could be applied to various cities.
It sometimes means Mecca, and sometimes Constanti-
nople, according to Richardson. Florio's Ital. Dictionary
has the curious entry, ' Baldacca, Baldacco, an ale-house,
a tap-house, a tipling-house, a taverne ; it was woont to be
the name of an Inne in Florence. It is taken in an ill sense
for Babylon, or the whore of Babylon.' This mention of
Babylon is probably the origin of Dr. T.'s mistake [i. e. the
THE ETYMOLOGY OF ' TOWN.' 273
mistake of supposing that the stuff called baldacco was
named from Babylon.] The place really meant in connexion
with the stuff for canopies was, however, Bagdad.
We can hardly have a better authority for this than Devic.
See his Supple??ie7it to Littre's French Dictionary, which is
certainly one of the most valuable works on the etymologies
of Oriental words.
320. The Etymology of * Town' (7 S. viii. 183; 1889).
The other day I came across the amazing statement that
the etymology of town depends upon the Gothic tains,
a twig. And, sure enough, it is all in an old edition of
Taylor's Words and Places : —
'The primary meaning of the suffix -ton is to be sought in the
Goth, tains, the Old Norse teinn, and the Friesic tene, all of which
mean a twig — a radical signification which survives in the phrase
"the tine of a fork." ' — Ed. 1873, p. 79.
This was all very well in 1873, when the idea still sur-
vived that vowels went for nothing, and that the chief
qualification for meddling with Gothic, &c, was, not to
understand the pronunciation or the phonetic laws of the
Teutonic languages. But what complex confusion it is !
The Goth, tains is quite as remote from ' the tine of
a fork ' as it is from town. The tine of a fork is a slovenly
form of tind, just as literary English has turned the beautiful
word wood-bind into the unmeaning wood-bine. All the
words should be kept distinct, as in Anglo-Saxon. The
A. S. for tine is tind. The A. S. for twig is tan ; and the
A. S. for town is tun. They are all quite different words,
and all from different roots ; and they all survive in English.
From tind we have tine; from tan we have A. S. mistel-
tan, Mod. E. mistletoe, with the n cut off by confusion with
A. S. tan, Mid. E. toon, the old plural of toe ; and from tun
we have town. To connect E. -toe in mistletoe with E. tozvn
is like connecting the E. doe with E. down.
T
274 THE ETYMOLOGY OF ' TOWN.'
What, then, is toivn ? It is A. S. tun, cognate with
G. Zaun, a hedge, and with the O. Irish and Celtic dun,
a fort, which so often appears in the Latinized suffix -dunum.
The original Teutonic form is tu-no, where -no is the suffix,
and tu, equivalent to Aryan deu, is the form of the root,
though its meaning is unknown. The A. S. tun became
-tun, Mod. E. -ton, in unaccented positions, as in Mod. E.
Bar-ton.
Bar-ton is the A. S. bere-tun, a barley enclosure, from
A. S. bere, barley. The former e in A. S. bere is a mutated
form of a, as shown by Goth, ban's, barley. It is therefore
quite distinct from the e in A. S. ber-an, \aX.fer-re, Greek
(f>€p-eiv. Yet here again we are told —
'In many parts of England the rickyard is called the barton, i.e.
the enclosure for the bear or crop which the land bears.'
But bear simply means * barley,' and the connexion with
bear is problematical. Note, too, that the A. S. tynan, to
hedge (with long y), is merely a derivative of tun, not the
original of it, and is quite distinct from the tines of a fork.
I make these notes just to show the sad confusion of
errors which pervade the whole account, and I now
enumerate these errors for the reader's convenience: —
i. The suffix -ton is here referred to Got. tains, a twig.
2. The sense of Goth, tains survives in the tines of a fork.
3. It is insinuated that tine, to hedge, is allied to the tine
of a fork, i. e. that A. S. tind is all one with the secondary
verb tynan (with long y).
4. In Iceland the homestead is called a tun. No ; it is
a tun, with a long u.
5. A barton means an enclosure for what the land bears.
6. Besides this, the connexion between town and tains is
emphasized on the next page by comparing the totally
different words yard, a stick, and yard, a court, though these
also are from different roots.
THE NAME SHAKESPEARE. 275
321. The Name Shakespeare (7 S. viii. 246; 1889).
As to the etymology of this name no reasonable man has
any doubt. The analogies of Feuterspear and Wagstaff are
sufficient. But as many unreasonable people, delighting
more in paradox than in plain sense, have tried to derive
the name (why this name only ?) from all kinds of extra-
neous and impossible sources, I think it is worth while to
add to the analogies the following. Being lately in Lich-
field, I saw over a shop-door the name of Shakeshaft.
322. Oandurth ; the Lancashire form of Undern
(7 S. viii. 278; 1889).
My respect for A. J. M.'s. contributions is much tried by
his astonishing suggestion about this word1. I have been
accused of caricature in asserting that Englishmen still
exist who derive English words, of all languages, from
German. The critics say that no one now seriously does
so. But alas ! I am right. Is it possible that A. J. M. is
unaware that the German th is a mere /, and was formerly
so written ? The German roth was formerly rot, and is
merely the peculiar High German form of the English red;
and the German Abend is merely the peculiar High German
form of our even, in the sense of evening. The English
form of Abend-roth is evetiing-red, a compound which I do
not think was ever used by us. And even if the M.E. euen-
reed or A. S. ^fen-read had ever been in use, no force known
to me could have twisted either of these phrases into
oa?idurth. So I am obliged to add this guess to my
collection of ' awful examples ' ; and I feel sure that the
suggestion would never have been made if its author had
even the ghost of a glimpse of a notion of its unparalleled
comicality.
The fact that many of our words, such as yea (A. S. gea),
1 The proposition was this ; the Lane, oandurth represents the
G. Abendroth.
T 2
276 BOLE : PIG.
resemble German more or less, is practically accidental,
i. e. due to the accident that German is a cognate language.
The same is true of Moeso-Gothic, which has perished.
And if German had either perished or had never been
developed, it would not have made the faintest difference
to a single one of any of our dialect words. The case
of Old Norse (better called Icelandic) is different. The
hardy Norsemen did come to England, and are here still ;
so that if any one proposed to derive the Lancashire yah
from Icel./tf, perhaps there is not much to be said against
it, though it is more likely that yah is really Old Northum-
brian, from which Icelandic differed in most respects very
slightly.
I am not able to say what oandurth is precisely, the
difficulty lying in the th. But the th is suspiciously like
a suffix or an addition. The Shropshire form is oande?',
and so is the Cheshire. Cheshire also has oanders for the
afternoon-meal. Ray, in his Glossary, gives aa?idorn,
orndorn, doundrins, all with a like sense ; and the last form
shows a prefixed d, which is a mere ignorant addition, and
raises a suspicion that the Lane, suffixed th is no more.
I really cannot go into the whole history of the A. S. undern
and all its various uses and derivatives, with all the numerous
examples that show how precisely it answers to oander.
As to the pronunciation, the regular development of
A. S. undern would naturally be such as to give a Mod. E.
ounder, just as A. S. bunden gives bound, whilst the n is
lost as in the adj. silvern. That ounder should become
oander dialectically can cause no difficulty.
See further in Ray, Miss Jackson's Shropshire Glossary,
Darlington's South Cheshire Glossary, &c.
323. Bole : Pig (7 S. viii. 396 ; 1889).
Under the heading ' Bole,' I remarked that I did not see
any reason for supposing that pig is 'the old name for
RECKLING = WRECK LING. 277
a small bowl or cup.' In reply to this I am told that it is
fifty years old, and, again, that Jamieson gives examples
of it.
Well, the earliest example I can find is that in Douglas's
Virgil, bk. vii. chap. xiv. 1. 25 (Aen. vii. 792), where
' caelata urna ' is translated by ' ane payntit pyg.1 But this
does not take us back even to the Middle English period.
In questions of etymology, my idea of ' old,' as applied to
English words, extends to that period at least.
What I desire is some further light upon pig and piggin.
The latter occurs in Cotgrave, as I have shown in my
Dictionary. I quote [alas !] as the supposed original of
the word, the Gaelic pigean, and suppose the word to be
Celtic. Other etymologists have done the same.
But the chances are that the Gaelic pigean and pigeath,
both beginning with the suspicious non-Celtic p, are mere
borrowings from English, and do not help us. And my
present notion is that pig, piggin, and the rest, are all various
broken-down forms of M. E. biker, a drinking-cup, also
spelt bicker and beaker ; see these forms in the New Eng-
lish Dictionary, and compare the form pitcher.
Biker occurs in 1348, more than a century before Douglas
was born. I should be very glad of further illustrative
quotations. A new quotation that tells us something as
yet unrecorded will be more helpful than a ton of argu-
mentation. [I do not find that any new quotation was
adduced. My experience is, that to ask for a quotation
is a sure way of bringing a ridiculous criticism to a sudden
stop.]
324. Reckling =Wreckling (7 S. ix. 490; i889N.
The word reckling is a misprint for, or rather a phonetic
spelling of wreckling, the old form, as pointed out by
Wedgwood. See E. Friesic wrak, as explained by Kool-
man ; and compare Swedish vrak, refuse. It is closely
278 GRIFT.
allied to wreck and ivretch. Wreckling simply means a
wretched or poor creature ; cf. Prov. Eng. tvretchock, the
smallest of a brood of domestic fowls (Halliwell). As for
the suffix, compare weakling.
It would be easy to write a long article on this word,
with crowds of examples.
325. Grift, a slate-pencil (7 S. ix. 67 ; 1890).
I have frequently had occasion to notice that many of
our provincial words (contrary to the received opinion) are
of French origin. Grift is formed by adding / to O. F.
grefe, a style to write with, which is a variant of O. F. grafe,
whence E. graft, also formed with added /. Hence were
borrowed also Du., Dan., Swed., G. Grijfel, and all are
from Low Lat. graphium, from Gk. graphein, to write.
Thus a grift means a pencil, and was originally independent
of slate. See Franck, Etym. Du. Diet., s. v. ' GrifTel.'
It is curious to see that Kluge, who inclines to Teutonism
overmuch, can see no origin for Griffel but the G. greifen.
326. The Superlative suffix -erst (7 S. ix. 146 ; 1890).
I make a note that the form -erst is sometimes found as
a superlative suffix. It is formed by adding -st (for -est)
to the comparative suffix -er. Thus deep would have deep-er
for its comparative," whence the superlative deep-er-st might
be formed.
Examples occur in Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, vol. iii.
I note hei-er-ste, highest, p. 363 ; lezvid-er-st, most ignorant
(lit. lewdest), p. 355; blessid-er-ste, most blessed, p. 344;
and on the same page, both depp-er-ste, adj. and depp-er-st,
adv. Perhaps some one can give us a few more examples.
(Postscript; 7 S. ix. 237; 1890.)
I can now add that the superlative suffix -er-si probably
arose with such words as hind-er-est, which occurs in
HEDGES. 279
Chaucer's Prologue, 1. 622. The Modern E. ?iearest also
turns out, on analysis, to contain both a comparative and
a superlative suffix. [It is equivalent to nigh-er-est.]
327. Hedges (7 S. ix. 272 ; 1890).
It is difficult to see why the etymology of this name is
asked for, unless the question is meant as a trap. It is
obvious to a plain man that hedges is the plural of a well-
known English word which must be familiar to all in the
form hedge.
We have a collection of farm-buildings near Cambridge
at a place called the King's Hedges ; on which I may
remark that King is a very common surname in these
parts.
At the same time, it is worth noting that the A. S. dic-
tionaries do not give us the origin of hedge ; they only give
haga, the origin of the haw- in hawthorn, and heg, the
origin of the hey- in heybote and of the hay- in hayward.
But there is yet a third form, viz. A. S. hecg, a feminine sb.
representing a Teutonic form hag-ja, with the genitive and
dative hecge ; and the Modern English hedge is derived,
as hundreds of English words are, from the dative case
rather than from the nominative. Examples of hecg are
very rare, but the genitive occurs, with the late spelling
hegge, in a late copy of a charter of King Offa, originally
made in 785. See Cartularium Saxonicum, ed. Birch, i.
339. [And the dative occurs, spelt hegge, in the A. S.
Chronicle, an. 547 (Laud MS.). There is even a dative
liecgan in an early genuine charter of .Ethelstan, a. d. 931 ;
see Earle's Land Charters, p. 167, 1. 1.]
328. Ted, Ned (7 S. ix. 305 j 1890).
I have often wondered whence came the initial T in
Ted\ but I think it is clearly due to the final letter in
Saint. Similarly we have Tooley from St. Olave ; tawdry
280 TOUTER.
from St. Audrey ; Tanto?iy from St. Anthony (see Tantony-
pig in Halliwell). St. Edward is Edward the Confessor.
I am reminded of this by finding ' Sen Tan Welle ' in the
Records of the Borough of Nottingham, iv. 91. It simply
means ' Saint Ann's Well.' [And I have met with ' St.
Tosting' for 'Saint Austin.'] The N in Ned, Noll, &c, is
the final n of mine ; cf. the phrases ' my nuncle,' ' my naunt,'
and the like.
329. Touter (7 S. ix. 315 ; 1890).
It is odd that simple common sense, used in all other
transactions, cannot be applied to etymology. The deriva-
tion of touter from Tooting (!) is obviously impossible, because
such a man would then have been called a Tootinger; just
as an inhabitant of London is not called a Lo?ider, but
a Londoner. The origin of touter, formerly tooter (as the
quotation given correctly says\ is from A. S. totian, to peep
or spy about. It was correctly given by Wedgwood years
ago ; and why it is pretended that there is any difficulty
about it, I do not know.
330. To send to Jericho (7 S. ix. 343 ; 1890).
I have never seen a really satisfactory explanation of this
phrase, though Nares seems to have understood it rightly,
judging from his Glossary, s. v. 'Jericho.' The allusion is,
as might be expected, scriptural. The particular story
intended will be found twice over, viz. in 2 Sam. x. 5 and
1 Chron. x. 5.
When David's servants had half their beards cut off, and
were not presentable at court, the king advised them to
'tarry at Jericho till their beards were grown.' Hence it
will be seen that to ' tarry at Jericho ' meant, jocularly, to
live in retirement, as being not presentable. The phrase
could be used, with particular sarcasm, with reference to
such young men as had not yet been endowed naturally with
THE SENSE OF 'CHAIR' IN ' CORIOLANUS.' 281
such ornaments ; and, in their case, they would have to wait
some time before their beards could suggest their wisdom.
That this joke was really current is clear from the
example which Nares cites from Hey wood's Hierarchie,
bk. iv. p. 208 : —
1 Who would to curbe such insolence, I know,
Bid such young boys to stay in Jericho
Until their beards were growne, their wits more staid.'
But it is remarkable that Nares does not seem to have
noticed the above text as being the obvious source of the
phrase. We have thus clear evidence that the original
phrase was used of bidding young men to ' tarry in Jericho '
or to ' stay in Jericho.' The transition from this to ' sending
to Jericho' was easy enough. We also see that the original
phrase really meant, 'Wait till your beard is grown,' i.e.
'Wait till your wits are more staid or stronger'; and this
was satirically equivalent to saying that the party addressed
was too young or too inexperienced to give advice. Thus
the original saying insinuated a charge of inexperience ;
and a sending to Jericho was equivalent to making such
a charge. The person sent was deemed not good enough
for the rest of the company. And this explains the whole
matter.
There are other current suggestions, but none of them
rests on any evidence. I hope that, now that I have
pointed out the allusion quite clearly, we need not be
further troubled with their ingenuity. I quite endorse the
observation in Nares, that his quotation ' explains the
common phrase of wishing a person at Jericho.' All that
I have added is a note of the source of that quotation.
331. The Sense of ' Chair ' in * Coriolanus »
(7 S. ix. 345 ; 1890).
In the well-known passage in Coriolanus, iv. 7. 52,
over which many have stumbled, the whole sense comes
282 THE OCCURRENCE OE ' TH ' IN A. F. AND A.S.
out at once by simply calling to mind that chair, in Tudor
English, was sometimes used in the sense of 'pulpit.'
Milton has it so ; see ' Chair ' in the New English Dic-
tionary, sect. 5. Cotgrave has, * Chair -e, f. a chair; also
a pulpit for a Preacher.' And in Modern French it still
has this sense, as distinct from its doublet chaise. And
this is the solution of the whole matter.
The idea might have been picked up in any church, for,
indeed, the pulpit is commonly more ' evident,' i. e. con-
spicuous, than any of the fine tombs in the choir. The
general sense is just this : ' Power, however commendable
it may seem to itself, can find no tomb so conspicuous, no
tomb so obvious, as when it chooses for itself a pulpit
whence to declaim its own praises.' This agrees very
nearly with the explanation in the note to the Clarendon
Press edition ; but it seems to me to be more emphatic
and picturesque to explain the word as ' pulpit ' than
merely as ' orator's chair.'
332. The Occurrence of ' th ' in Anglo-French and
Anglo-Saxon (7 S. ix. 445 ; 1890).
There is an interesting note on the occurrence of th
( = Lat. d, t) in Anglo-French and Anglo-Saxon in Grober,
Grundriss der Romanischen Phiio/ogie, i. 397.
The sole English word in which the A. F. th is still
preserved is the English faith, M. E. feith, from the A. F.
feith (feid), which again is from the Latin accusative fidem.
The same change from the Lat. d (or /) to E. th is found in
A. S. and in Early English of the twelfth century ; in a few
cases the words survived till about the fourteenth century,
but are all now obsolete, or have lost the th.
Examples in A. S. are : A. S. fithele (fiddle), from Low
I .at. fdu/a, vidula ; A. S. sinoth, also synoth, seonod, a synod,
from Lat. ace. synodum ; A. S. Cathum, from Lat. Cadomum,
Caen, in the A.S. Ch?vn., under the date 1105; A.S.
A. S. TRANSLATIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 283
Rothem, from Lat. Rotomagum, Rouen, in the same, under
the date 11 24.
So also the place now called Gerberoi or Gerbroi, near
Beauvais, appears in the A. S. Chronicle as Gerborneth,
a. d. 1079; and Conde appears as A. S. Cnndoth, a. d. 883.
So also A. S. nativiteth, Lat. ace. nathiitatem ; A. S. Chron.
1 106. M. Yj.plenteth (= A. F.plentet/i^, Lat. ace. plenitatem ;
Genesis and Exodus, 3709. M. E. daynteth (= A. F.
deinteth), Lat. ace. dignitatem ; ' Anturs of Arthur,' st. xiv.,
Toivneley Myst., p. 245. M.E. kariteth, from Lat. ace.
caritatem ; Ormulum, 1. 2998. And the Lowland Scotch
poortith must be of F. origin ; from paupertatem.
The change from / to th took place in Gaulish Latin and
very early French, when the t was final. Final d was
probably sounded as the voiced th first of all, and then
unvoiced, in accordance with the known habit of French,
which delights in voiceless letters at the end of a word.
333. Anglo Saxon Translations of the New Testament
(7 S. ix. 475 ; 1890).
Of course Dr. Scrivener's reference to Anglo-Saxon
versions of the New Testament is due to some mistake.
Except the four Gospels, there is no trace of a translation
into Anglo-Saxon of any part of the New Testament. The
passage must have been written from imagination. The
only thing of the kind is a translation of the apocryphal
Gospel of Nicodemus. This was printed by Thwaites in
1698, at the end of his Heptateuchus. Many years ago,
I pointed out the existence of a lacuna in the Cambridge
MS. whence his text is taken. In the first volume of
Grein's Bibliothek der angelsachsischen Prosa we find the
A. S. version of the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Job.
There are many A. S. MSS. of the Psalms, and there is an
edition by Spelman. I suppose that the only unprinted
Biblical specimen is /Elfric's translation of the Book of Esther.
284 PERUSE.
For further information, see Wulker's Grundriss zur
Geschichte der ange/sdchsischen Litteratur.
334. Peruse (7 S. ix. 506; 1890).
The great difficulty of this word is well known. There
are good illustrations of it in Croft's edition of Elyot's
Governour; and he concludes that it cannot be derived
from per and use. I have shown, in my Dictionary, the
great probability that it really was from that source ; and in
the Addenda to the second edition I show that it was really
once used in the sense of ' using up.' I now find from
Godefroy's 0. French Dictionary, that there really was an
O. F. verb peruser, in the very same sense. He explains it
by i user entierement, achever, consommer.' This goes far
to settle the question.
335. Prepense (7 S. x. 6 ; 1890).
In the phrase ' malice prepense J the etymology of prepense
is not very easy. I give it from Lat. prae, beforehand, and
the French penser. Godefroy's O. F. Dictionary gives an
example (s. v. ' Porpenser ') of the phrase ' de malice
pourpensee! This may seem decisive, but it is not so.
Scheler (s. v. ' Pour ') points out the extraordinary confusion,
in French, between pour, O. F. por (properly Lat. pro), and
par (Lat. per); and he might have included French pre- as
well. The confusion seems to be one of long standing, for
in the second section of the Laws of Willia?n the Conqueror,
Thorpe's edition speaks of ' agweit purpensej i. e. premedi-
tated lying in wait. But another reading is prepensed (see
Littre, s. v. * Pourpenser,' and Schmid's Die Gesetze der
Angelsachsen, p. 322). This makes it tolerably clear that
the above-mentioned confusion existed. At the same time
it is certain that the usual Anglo-French verb for premeditate
was purpenser. Cf. the phrase ' felonie purpense ' in Britton,
vol. i. p. 15, and the long note in Elyot's Governour, ed.
Croft, vol. ii. p. 375.
HONE : HOE. 285
336. Hone : Hoe (7 S. x. 35 ; 1890).
It is certainly clear that hone in Tusser {Husba?idry, § 46,
st. 9) is a misprint for houe, i. e. hoe. ' How or Hoe ' is
the spelling in Phillips, ed. 1706. It is spelt hough by
Ellis (1750), and how by Worlidge (1681) ; see Old Country
Words, ed. J. Britten (E. D. S.). The spelling houe is the
correct French spelling ; even Cotgrave, s. v. Houe, has,
' opened at the root as a tree with a Houe.' No doubt the
spelling houe will turn up elsewhere, to countenance Tusser's
spelling. Ray has how (1691).
337. * Ictibus Agrestis ■ (7 S. x. 48 ; 1890).
How can I trace this quotation, which I find referred to
by Chaucer? In the Miller's Tale (Group a. 1. 3381), the
Ellesmere MS. has —
' For som folk wol ben wonnen for richesse,
And somme for strokes, and some for gentilesse ' ;
and the side-note is, ' Unde Ovidius : Ictibus Agrestis.'
I fear Chaucer's memory was at fault, as I cannot find it
in Ovid. I have also tried Virgil, Statius, and Claudian
without success. [The problem remains unsolved.]
338. The Etymology of ' Anlas ' (7 S. x. 65 ; 1890).
The interesting word anlas, a kind of dagger or knife,
occurring in Chaucer's Prologue, is fully explained by
Dr. Murray in the New English Dictionary. All that is
known about the etymology is that it first occurs in the
thirteenth century, and is said by Matthew Paris to be
a native English word.
It is, therefore, compounded of two Middle English
words ; and these I take to be simply an and laas, i.e. ' on '
and ' lace ' ; and that the knife was so called because hung
on a lace, and thus suspended from the neck.
286 MUS TREDEVILLIA RS.
There is a precedent for this in the A. S. name for a kind
of pouch. It was called a bi-gyrdel, i. e. a ' by-girdle,'
because hung at the girdle. Note that in this word the
accent was on the prefix. This is clear from the alliterated
line in Piers the Plowman, A. ix. 79 ; and Dr. Murray
clearly explains that such was the fact.
With on we have on-set, onslaught, with the accent on the
prefix. The spelling an for on occurs in M. E. a?i-licli.
alike, and in several compounds noted by Stratmann,
s. v. 'an.'
That la as or las, a lace, was the precise word to use, we
know from Chaucer, Prol. 392 : —
' A dagger hanging on a laas hadde he.'
Perhaps we may yet find the variant onlas.
339. Mustredevilliars (7 S. x. 84; 1890).
This is given by Halliwell as the name of a kind of mixed
grey woollen cloth, which continued in use up to Elizabeth's
reign ; also spelt mustard-willars. In the Records of
Nottingham, iii. 296, is mention of 'ij. yardes and halfe
a quarter ?nosterdevyllers? under the date May 17, 1496.
At p. 495 of the same, the editor explains that it was made
at the town of Montivilliers (Mouster Villers in Froissart,
ix. 164) on the Lezarde ''Seine Inferieure). See Kervyn de
Lettenhove's edition of Froissart, vol. xxv., 'Table Analytique
des Noms Geographiques.' It seems that, by a silly popular
etymology and by the shameless guesswork for which
English editors are so remarkable, it has been often said
that the cloth was of a mustard colour ! But it was grey.
Moster, mouster, mustre, &c, are the Old French spellings
of Lat. monasteriic?n ; see ' moustier ' in Godefroy. Hence
the etymology is from moster de Villars, ' monastery of
Villiers, or Villars.'
ARCHAEOLOGY OR ARCHAIOLOGY. 287
340. Archseology or Archaiology (7 S. x. 170; 1890).
I observe that Canon Taylor, on the assumption that we
use the Latin, not the Greek, alphabet, has no difficulty in
showing that we should write archeology rather than
archaiology ; and certainly it is far better.
But the assumption is not wholly correct. As a fact we
do not use the Latin alphabet precisely, but the Anglo-
French modification of it ; and if we were only to use our
common sense we should adhere to this throughout, instead
of occasionally recurring to the Latin type.
Unfortunately, at the time of the Renaissance the pedants
tried to introduce pure Latin spellings, and even wrote
(edify for edify ; but in a large number of instances the
Anglo-French habit has held its own. Still the pedants
have succeeded in introducing confusion and doubt, under
the impression that they were ' classical.' The whole
matter is explained in my Principles of Etymology.
It were much to be wished that ' scholarship ' could be
taken for granted, instead of being constantly exhibited in
Latin and Greek spellings. We do not accuse a man of
ignorance of Latin because he writes edify ; and for the
same reason it would be well if we could be content with
primeval, medieval, pedagogue, orthopedic, and archeology,
all with the French e, and not with the Latin ce at all.
I have been for many years trying to explain to scholars at
Cambridge that medieval is a better (j.e. a more practical)
spelling than 7nediceval. But no one seems to grasp the
argument. They will admit primeval, because it is in
dictionaries ; but they will have none of medieval, because
it looks ' unclassical.' This is a complete answer to the
eminently foolish suggestion, frequently made, that we
ought to have an ' academy ' for settling questions such as
these. They will never be settled on any principle except
popular caprice. In spelling English words it has long ago
288 GIRL PRONOUNCED CURL.
been agreed, that no rule or habit shall be carried out
consistently. There is, in English, nothing ' correct ' unless
it be confused, inconsistent, and capricious.
341. Girl pronounced Gurl. I (7 S. x. 176 ; 1890).
I beg leave to suggest that spellings convey no true
notion of sound to any one, unless they are given according
to some phonetic system. I have been wondering, for
example, what in the world the above title means. In
Southern English we pronounce China, America, &c, in
such a way that the final sound is 'the obscure vowel,'
represented, in romic notation, by a turned e or (3).
The same sound, prolonged and accented, is heard in
a large number of words in the neighbourhood of London,
in the mouths of people who do not trill the r. I was
born in London, and have lived in it, and also at Sydenham,
Highgate, Woolwich, &c. ; and I have always heard and
used this sound in girl (g33l), burn (baon), churl (ch39l)j
heard (h33d), bird (b33d\ &c.
Mr. Sweet's experience is the same. I should be glad
to learn how, and where, any difference is made, even by
those who trill the r, between the vowels in girl, and churl,
and pearl. But the information will be useless unless
conveyed in some phonetic spelling, such as romic, or
palgeotype, or the system in the New English Dictionary.
342. Girl pronounced Gurl. II (7 S. x. 515 ; 1890).
I recognize the pronunciation to which Dr. C. alludes, now
that it is properly explained. Pronunciations can be explained
by the ordinary English notation well enough, when test-
words are added for the purpose. The reason why the
ordinary notation is usually a very bad one is, that writers
often give a spelling of their own without any hint as to
what they mean by it. I should spell the sound of gairl,
with at as in air, as (gaeal). And now comes in the
JAMES: JACOB. 289
trouble. It so happens that whilst Dr. C. was taught to
look upon garl (g33l) as vulgar, wherefore he never uses it,
I was taught the exact contrary, so that I never use gairl
(gae?l).
This is what all disputes about pronunciation of English
words generally come to. Each man thinks that what he
was taught is right ; and there is no real authority. We
have to get along the best we can, and if we can pronounce
words as they seem to us to be usually pronounced in
London, Oxford, and Cambridge, we shall be understood.
But we shall not always satisfy all hearers.
343. James : Jacob (7 S. x. 212 ; 1890).
Dr. C.'s remarks at the last reference are very helpful.
I think we may safely say that the s in James is the Anglo-F.
and F. nom. suffix, added to the form Jame by analogy
with Charles, Jacques, &c.
Also, that fame was certainly derived from Lat. ace.
Jacobum. The only difficulty is to ascertain the precise
historical order of the facts.
Surely the Mid. Eng. Jame (also James) must be closely
connected with the Span. Jaime, in which the initial J
(though at present sounded like the G. ch) was originally
sounded like the Mod. and Mid. E.y in James.
I do not remember any early reference to James in Mid.
Eng. in which the reference is to any other than the
St. James whose shrine was at Compostella. English
people (including the Wife of Bath) became familiar with
the name by actually resorting to that place. This
historical fact seems to me to be of great importance.
I have given several references in my notes to P. Plow-
matt, B. prol. 47.
344. Wayzgoose (7 S. x. 233 ; 1890).
Nothing can be sillier than the derivation of this word
from German. Surely goose is not a German, but an
u
290 GRANGE.
English word, as a moment's reflexion will show. The
guess is plainly due to the notion, which I have so often
denounced, viz., that all native English words are falsely
imagined to be of ' German ' origin. I would rather
suppose that wayz is a phonetic spelling of wase, in the
sense of 'stubble'; so that wayzgoose is simply 'stubble-
goose.' This is the explanation which I have repeatedly
offered to correspondents ; and oh ! the number of times
I have been asked ! Wase is used provincially to mean
a ( straw-pad'; see Halliwell. Cf. Icel. vast; Swed. vase,
a sheaf; Mid. Du. wase, a torch (i. e. twist of straw), as
in the M. E. Tale of Bery?i, 2351.
345. Grange (7 S. x. 253 ; 1890).
It is clear, I think, that the assertion that granges neces-
sarily belonged to religious houses must have been derived
from two passages in Chaucer (ed. Tyrwhitt, 11. 3668,
12996), i.e. Cant. Tales, A. 3668, B. 1256, which seem to
favour that supposition. But, of course, as the word simply
meant ' a place for grain,' or ' barn,' there was no reason
for its use in a restricted sense, and it is constantly used
in the general one. It occurs again in P. Plowman,
C xx. 71, where I explain it duly in the note. Dr. N. did
not find it in the Promptorium because he did not look for
it under the usual M. E. spellings, viz. graunge, or grawnge,
or gronge. Oddly enough it occurs twice there, viz., under
' Grawnge,' and under ' Gronge ' ; and Mr. Way gives a note
on it, which has been quoted. It also occurs, under
' Grawnge,' in the Caiholicoti Anglicum, and here again
the editor has a note on it. He quotes the note on the
passage in the ' Miller's Tale ' in Bell's Chaucer; and this
is where we come to the information about grange being
' applied to outlying farms belonging to the abbeys.' No
doubt it was, but not exclusively, nor does Mr. Jephson
say so. The earliest quotation I have yet found for it is in
• WRITE YOU/ 291
the romance of Have/ok, 1. 764, about a. d. 1290. The
original Latin form is granea. The forms grangia, &c. are
mere Latin travesties of the French form.
Why the whole of the discussion might not have been
saved by simply looking out the word in my Dictionary,
where I give the etymology, the sense, and two early
references, I am at a loss to understand. But the dic-
tionary-maker must expect, on the one hand, to be snubbed
when he makes a mistake, and, on the other, to be neglected
when he is right.
346. * Write you' (7 S. x. 273; 1890).
Of course ' I will write you ' is an old formula. Even
now we should hesitate to insert to in such a phrase as
' I gave to you the book'; the you alone is sufficient.
You is dative as well as accusative. The use of to before
you to indicate the former was once needless. It is amazing
that such elementary facts remain unknown. No one
would like to confess ignorance of the forms of Latin pro-
nouns ; but when the language to be learnt is merely
English, ignorance at once becomes pardonable. But
why?
347. German and English Head-letters (i. e. the use
of Capitals in English and German (7 S. x. 311 ;
1890).
This is an extremely difficult and complex problem.
I think it clear that there is no proved connexion between
English and German habits in this matter ; or, at any rate,
they should be considered independently.
As to the use of capitals in English, I do not see that
the date 1680 has anything to do with it. Any one who
wants to see a good deal of testimony in a small space may
turn to my ' uncooked ' editions of printed passages, as
given in my Specimens of English Literature, part III ;
u 2
292 OUBIT.
from 1394 to 1579. Already, in 1552, John Skott's print
of Sir David Lyndesay's Monarche abounds with capitals,
especially for substantives ; and there are several in
Ascham's Schole master, ed. 1570.
I suppose the practice arose in the case of certain letters.
Many MSS. use capitals for initial a, c, and r, for no
apparent reason. Thus the Tale of Melusine, or Ro?nance
of Parte nay, edited by me in 1866, abounds with A for a (in
such a word as And), C for c, and other curiosities. Chaucer
MSS. abound with examples of capitals for such words
as I-wis and lay (a jay). I open the Tale of Gamelyn at
a hazard, and find in line 283 in MS. Harl. 7334 the
line —
' Thus wan Gamelyn the Ram and the Ryng.'
The whole subject is far more complex, and runs back
to a much remoter antiquity, than your correspondents
seem to suppose.
348. Oubit (7 S. x. 324; 1890).
Most people are familiar with this word in connexion
with Kingsley's poem ; but the etymology has never been
given. Other spellings (see Jamieson) are voivbet (for
woubet), woubit, wobat, and it is generally explained as
1 a hairy caterpillar.' Very likely the M. E. warbot (Prompt.
Parv.) and the pro v. E. warble, are mere variants. Jamieson
feebly suggests A. S. wibba, a worm, as the origin, which
will not satisfy any student of phonetics. The real origin
is suggested by the older spelling welbode, which occurs in
two glosses, ' hie multipes, a welbode? and ' hec concipita,
idem est' (Wright-Wiilker, Vocab., 706, 15). Compare
'hie multipes, a tuenti-fot wurme' (id., 766, 28). It is easy
to see that here, as in a thousand other cases, e is mis-
written for 0, and the right form is wolbode. This is
curiously illustrated from an unprinted MS. of the Ortus
Vocabulorum, which has (at p. 28) the entry, ' Multipes,
ETYMOLOGY OF HIBISCUS. 293
a wolbede,' in which the second 0, not the first, has gone
wrong.
The component parts of the word are clear enough.
Wol- represents A. S. wid, Mod. E. wool; and bode repre-
sents an A. S. form buda or boda, closely related to A. S.
budda, a scarabaeus or beetle (see Wright-Wulker, Vocab.,
543, 10). I take the E. words bowd, a weevil, and bot,
a worm or maggot, to be closely allied. Thus the sense
is ' woolly worm,' i. e. hairy caterpillar. Of course wool
becomes W in Scotch.
349. Etymology of Hibiscus (7 S. x. 350 ; 1890).
I do not suppose it is possible to discover the etymology
of this word, which seems to have no root in Greek.
Liddell and Scott give an unsatisfactory account. Under
ifito-Kos they say it is the same as 1(3l<tko<;, with a smooth
breathing, and that it is feminine. But no such word
appears ; only l/3l(tko<s is given, with a rough breathing,
and it is masculine. Of course there is not a tittle of
evidence or probability for connecting it with the Egyptian
this. And I should like to remark in passing that nowhere
can more ignorant etymologies be found than in works
on botany and ' scientific ' subjects. Too often, all the
science is reserved for the subject, so that there is none to
spare for explaining the names.
350. Banshee (7 S. x. 370 ; 1890).
I suppose that Melusine was a kind of banshee; at any
rate, she ' behaved as such.' See my edition of the Rotna?ice
of Partenay\ and the chapter on ' Melusine ' in Baring-
Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. The Irish
spelling bean-sighe represents a form in which the gh corre-
sponds to an Old Irish d, as the Old Irish form for sighe is
side (Windisch).
294 THE UTAS OF EASTER.
351. The Utas of Easter (7 S. x. 373 ; 1890).
The amusing derivation of utas from the Latin ut (which
forms a part of the word gamut) is a fine specimen of
1 partial ' etymology \ I define ' partial ' etymology as that
which only takes account of a part of a word, as if one were
to derive yelloiv from the verb to yell, without any attempt
to account for the -ow. But, of course, we must account
for the -as just as much as the ut-. May I repeat that utas
is merely a variant form of the very word octaves itself,
as explained in my Dictionary ?
I have given further references at p. 832 of the second
edition of my larger Dictionary. The Lat. ace. octavas
is spelt utaves in Anglo-French, in the Year-books of
Edward I, ii. 407 ; and utavs in the same, i. 75. Utas
resulted from the loss of v in the awkward form utavs.
352. Curiosities of Derivation : Inkpen (7 S. x. 374;
1890).
The notion of deriving Inkpen'1 from ing, meadow, and
the Celtic pen, inverts the order of combination. Surely
every one should know that when English and Celtic are
combined, the Celtic portion of the word comes first, not
second. It is an easy guess that Inkpen is from ing and
pen, and, fortunately, it is capable of proof; for the spelling
Inge-penne occurs in Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus, which
is the first book to be consulted, and is, therefore, seldom
consulted at all. Perhaps it may now dawn upon some
1 [It was actually put thus : — 'The octave had the same name as
the key-note ut. Hence (!) the Utas of Easter are the octaves of
Easter.']
2 [Inkpen is in Berkshire. In N. and Q. x. 106, a comic sentence
was quoted from Cobbett's Rural Rides, 1853, p. 36 : — ' At a village,
certainly named by some author (!), called Inkpen.' But let us hope
that Cobbett was in jest. This was followed up by a serious attempt
to derive Inkpen from Saxon and Celtic]
' TO ' AS A SIGN OF THE INFINITIVE. 295
minds that pen is an English word altogether, and that
ingpen is merely a pen (for sheep, &c.) in a meadow.
353. ' To ' as a sign of the Infinitive (7 S. x. 425 ; 1890).
This is well treated in Matzner's Grammar-, but I do
not find any clear example there of the earliest use of to
with the si?nple infinitive, as distinguished from the gerun-
dial. I doubt if it can be found before 1066. I here
make a note of its occurrence in the latest copy of the
A. S. Gospels, after n 50. We there find, in Matt, xi., the
gerundial infinitive to cumene in v. 3 ; the simple infinitive
geseon in vv. 7, 8 ; but in v. 9 we actually have to geseon,
though all the earlier copies omit the to.
354. « For to > (7 S. x. 472 ; 1890).
For to, usually expressive of 'purpose,' occurs centuries
before Chaucer, as, e. g., in Layamon's Brut. Matzner's
English Granwiar, as translated by Grece, vol. iii. pp.
53-57, gives four pages of explanation and examples.
It occurs even in late Anglo-Saxon, as e. g. in the A. S.
Chronicle, anno n 27, but was probably suggested by the use
of por (pour) with the infinitive in Anglo-French, so that
this usage is due to the Norman Conquest. The A. S.
infinitive was simple, without to ; the prefixing of to made
it gerundial ; as in Matthew xi. 3, xiii. 3.
355. Rimer : the name of a tool (7 S x. 456 ; 1890).
The meaning and etymology of this word are duly given
in my Principles of Eng. Etymology, first series, sect. 197,
p. 209. It merely means ' roomer,' or ' enlarger,' being
regularly derived, by vowel-change, from A. S. rum, room ;
just as mice is the plural of mouse, A. S. mus. The pronun-
ciations reamer and rini7ner are interesting and regular.
The former is the archaic pronunciation of the Middle
English period, the latter is the regular shortening of the
old long i (pronounced ee) caused by accentual stress.
296 'NINE TED' OR ' NIG HN TED' BOYS.
356. ■ Nineted » or * Nighnted ' Boys (7 S. xi. 37 ; 1891).
Merely bad spellings of 'ninted, a provincial pronunciation
of anointed. It has been discussed long ago ; see N. and Q.,
3rd S. viii. 452, 547 ; ix. 359, 422. Hallivvell gives : —
1 Anointed, chief, roguish ; "an anointed scamp ; West." '
The spelling with ghn is not justifiable in English.
Those who can believe that Stinted is short for ' nigh-unto'd '
must be strangely credulous. [See above, p. 4.]
357. Kilter. I (7 S. xi. 38; 1891).
[In answer to the question as to the meaning of kilter,
as used by Howells, in his novel The Shadow of a Dream
(p. 17, and a little further on). 'He was rather expecting
the doctor himself in the afternoon ; he had been out of
kilter for two or three years, but he was getting all right
now.' Again — ' I left him to infer that everybody was out
of kilter.^
Kilter or kelter was an ' Anglicism ' long before it was an
'Americanism.' Skinner, in 1671, has ''kelter; he is not
yet in kelter, nondum est paratus.' It is also given in my
reprint of Ray's Collection of 1691. The k before i points
to a Scandinavian origin. Cf. Dan. kilte, to truss, tuck up,
whence E. kilt. Rietz gives Swed. dial., kilter-band, a band
for holding up tucked-up clothes ; kiltra sig, to gird up,
tuck up and fasten. The metaphor is obvious enough.
358. Kilter. II (7 S. xi. 96; 1891).
At the last reference (xi. 38) we are correctly told that in
Johnson's Dictionary this word is derived from ' Dan. kelter,
to gird.' I merely wish to warn all who care for facts not
to trust Johnson's Dictionary for etymologies. The Danish
verb is not kelter, but kilte.
The final r in kelter, as here quoted, really means that
Johnson gives Danish verbs under the form of the present
LEEZING OR LEESING = GLEANING. 297
singular indicative, first person. Thus Dan. kilter (not
kelter, after all), means ' I gird.' This peculiarity pervades
Johnson's Dictio?iary ; he probably never realized the
difference between this part of the verb and the infinitive
mood.
It is a curious fact that our Latin-Dictionary writers are
just as bad. They tell us that amo means ' to love.' Does
it, indeed ? Then what is Latin for ' I love ' ?
359. Leezing or Leesing= Gleaning (7 S. xi. 156; 1891).
The usual spelling is leasifig, and it is duly explained in
Miss Jackson's Shropshire Word-Book. Why the pro-
pounder of the query, whilst deprecating the scorn of
etymologists (which means, I suppose, that he is ignorant
of the etymology), should nevertheless feel himself con-
strained to give a fatuous guess, is one of those things that
I never could understand. Guessing is not so meritorious
or glorious after all, though it has long been adored as if it
were. Lease is simply the A. S. lesan, to glean, which became
lease in Tudor English, because the A. S. short e passed
into the open e (denoted by ed), in an open syllable. Cf.
brecan^ to break.
360. Mattins (7 S. xi. 196 ; 1891).
This spelling is nothing new ; it has been discussed over
and over again (see e. g. N. and Q., 3 S. x.). To call the
spelling 'trying' is to judge by the eye, whereas spelling
should be judged by the ear. Matins is the usual spelling,
certainly ; only the word was once matines, with short a and
long accented i (ee). When the accent was thrown back, it
would have been just as well to double the /, as in matter,
from M. E. matere. But it was stupidly left unmended.
This is just why our spelling is all in confusion. There is
never anything right in spelling, except when (as is often
the case) it has the luck to be phonetic.
298 THE SURNAME EGERTON.
361. The Surname Egerton (7 S. xi. 233; 1891).
The derivation of this name from L,3.t agger (I) suggested at
the last reference, is wholly out of the question. There is
no mystery about it. Eger- is merely a worn-down form of
A. S. Ecgheard (lit., edge-hard, i. e. with keen sword),
a name which appears in the Liber Vitae and in the A. S.
charters. An intermediate form is Ecgerd, appearing in
Ecgerdeshel, which Kemble identifies with Eggershall, Hants.
Ecgeard regularly became Edgerd or Egerd, whence Eger,
by the loss of final d before the t in -ton.
362. Swastika : Fylfot (7 S. xi. 278; 1891).
Before this subject is dropped I should like to ask for
a reference for the -word fylfot in any old book. I really
cannot find it, except in books of quite modern date. No
one has thrown the faintest light as yet on the history and
chronology of the first appearance of this word in English.
Even a quotation as old as 1800 would be better than
nothing. Where in any reasonable book, not written by an
' etymologist,' can I find it spelt fugelfot, or felafote, or
fiielfot, or, in fact, in any form at all? I have no belief in
these spellings, except as representing guesses.
Svastika is duly explained in Benfey's Sanskrit Dictionary,
with a reference to the ' Malatimadhava,' ed. Calc, 73, 15.
[No one was able to give an old quotation forfy/fot.]
363. Anglo-Saxon Personal Names: the * Liber Vitae'
(7 S. xi. 376 ; 1891).
I am glad to see that Canon Taylor calls attention to the
Liber Vitae, and to the shortcomings of Stevenson's
edition. But I do not know that a photographic repro-
duction of the MS. is a necessity. There is an edition of
it by Dr. Sweet, published only six years ago, which may
fairly serve the purpose for a while. The name of the book
' OUT AND OUT.' 299
is The Oldest English Texts, and it was published for the
Early English Text Society in 1885. The Liber Vitae
occupies pp. 153-166.
The names are all indexed, I believe ; but the way of
working the index is peculiar. Thus, I want, let us say, the
name ' Eatthegn.' I look out ' Eat ' in the index, and get
a reference to p. 615; but the word is not under ' Eata.'
Then I look out 'thegn,' and get a reference to p. 524, and
there I find ' Eadthegn,' with its variants. Now that
I know that ' Eadthegn ' is a more correct spelling, I can
look out 'Ead' in the index, and get a reference to p. 615
again. There, at last, I find it, under ' Ead.' The system
is peculiar, but it will serve — when you have learnt the
trick of it. [The diphthong in ead is long.]
364. ' Out and Out ' (7 S. xii. 5, 95 ; 1891).
It might be supposed that this is a modern phrase ; but
it is at least as old as the fifteenth century. ' Telle us now
thi qwestyon alle out and oute' (i.e. entirely, fully) occurs
in the Coventry Mysteries, ed. Halliwell, p. 205.
Further, Richardson quotes it from Chaucer, but gives
an inexact reference. It occurs in Troili/s, bk. ii. 1. 739.
Before that, it occurs in the Lives of the Saints, formerly
attributed to Robert of Gloucester. This I gather from the
new edition of Kington Oliphant's Old and Middle-English,
a book never to be neglected. [This Lives of the Saints is
the same as the Southern English Legendary, edited by
Dr. Horstmann for the Early English Text Society. But
the reference for out and out was unluckily omitted by
Mr. Oliphant, and I cannot find the phrase there.]
365. Sindbad's Voyages (7 S. xii. 30; 1891).
Surely students of Old English know the mention of the
whale in St. Bra?idan. In Wright's edition of St. Brandan.
300 SINDBAD'S VOYAGES.
published for the Camden Society in 1844 (forty-seven
years ago\ the editor says, in the very first page : —
' There are several remarkable points of similarity between
St. Brandan and the Sindbad of the Arabian Nights, and at least
one incident in the two narratives is identical — that of the disaster
on the back of the great fish.'
I have my doubts about the story being brought from
the East ' by Crusaders and palmers,' as Mr. Clouston
suggests.
I suggest that it was ' brought from the East ' before either
Crusaders or palmers were invented ; for it is a certain fact
that the same story is familiar to students of our oldest
English, from its occurrence in the Anglo-Saxon poem of
' The Whale,' printed at p. 360 of Thorpe's edition of the
Codex Exoniensis, or Exeter Book. Thorpe's translation is
so extremely bald that perhaps some of your readers may
thank me for a less literal, yet sufficiently exact translation
of a few lines of it. Speaking of the whale, the poet
says : —
' Its appearance is like that of a rough rock ; [it seems] as if it
extended [lit. wandered] beside the shore of the channel, like the
greatest of reedy islands surrounded by sand-dunes. Whence it
happens that seafarers imagine that they are gazing with their eyes
on some island, and so they fasten their high-stemmed ships with
anchor-ropes to this false land ; they make fast their sea-horses as if
they were at the sea's brink, and up they climb on the island, bold of
heart; the vessels stand, fast by the shore, surrounded by the stream.
And then the voyagers, weary in mind, and without a thought of
danger, encamp on the isle. They produce a flame, they kindle
a vast fire. Full of joy are the heroes, late so sad of spirit ; they
are longing for repose. But when the creature, long skilled in guile,
feels that the sailors are securely resting upon him, and are keeping
their abode there, in enjoyment of the weather, suddenly into the
salt wave, together with his prey, down dives the ocean-dweller and
seeks the abyss ; and thus, by drowning them, imprisons the ships,
with all their men, in the hall of death.'
Nor is this the only reference earlier than St. Branda?i.
The story occurs in the Old English Bestiary, printed in
• TROW, A BARGE.' 30 1
An Old English Miscellany, ed. Morris (E. E. T. S.), p. 17,
and this poem can hardly be later than 1250. We know.
too, the source of it, since it is translated from the Latin
Physiologus, by Thetbaldus. Compare, too, the ' Livres des
Creatures,' by Philip de Thaun, as printed in Wright's
Popular Treatises on Science, pp. xiii, 108.
It is clear that the stories of the whale, the panther, the
sirens, &c, found their way into English at an early period
from Latin bestiaries, and the latter contain some embellish-
ments of Eastern origin. This is the true history of the
matter.
366. Words in Worcestershire Wills : * Trow,
a barge.' I (7 S. xii. 35 ; 1891).
The derivation of the name Troivman from trcnv, a
Severn barge, is clear enough. But at the last reference
(xi. 474) we are told that ' trow is simply the O. E. treo}
a tree. This is not at all ' simple,' but decidedly difficult.
The O. E. word was not treo, but treo, and the O. E. eo usually
(simply) becomes Mod. E. ee \ so that the result would
be tree, as it is. It is true that the O. E. dat. case treowe
produced an occasional by-form trou in the Kentish dialect ;
but it would be better to suppose that trow represents the
Mod. E. trough, which frequently appears as trow in Mid.
Eng. ; from O. E. trog.
367. Words in Worcestershire Wills : ' Trow,
a barge.' II (7 S. xii. 177 ; 1891).
I now find more evidence about the word trow. Before,
I only suggested that troiv represents the A. S. trog (some-
times spelt troh), a trough ; but now I am sure of it. My
new witness is our beloved king Alfred.
In his translation of Orosius, bk. ii. c. 5, we are told
how Xerxes was fain to flee homewards in a fisher's boat.
* He eft waes biddende anes lytles troges aet anum earmum
302 MUTE.
men ' ; he was begging from a poor man the use of a little
trow.
It turns out that the word trog, a. trough, was also com-
monly used (as I expected) in the sense of a small boat.
The glossaries published by Wiilker give several examples ;
e. g., in a list of boats, at col. 166, we find: * Littoraria,
troh-scip,' lit. trough-ship. Littoraria means a small boat
that hugs the shore. And again, in another list of boats,
at col. 289 : ' Littoraria, troch-scip?
I conclude that it is better to work by phonetic laws than
to guess.
368. Mute (7 S. xii. 46; 1891).
I find that the account of the word mute in my Dictionary
is incorrect. It is not of French origin, but borrowed
immediately from Latin. The M. E. muet is not the same
word, but is borrowed from the O. F. muet, which represents
a diminutive form mutetttts, and not the primary form
mutus. Mute is common in Shakespeare, but I presume
that it was not in use at a much earlier date.
369. Drawing, Hanging, and Quartering
(7 S. xii. 131; 1891).
Surely it is too late in the day to pretend that there is
any ambiguity about the meaning of ' drawing ' in the
above phrase. Any one who has really read our Middle
English writers with decent attention must know perfectly
well that drawing preceded hanging. It ought not to be
difficult to produce a vast number of quotations to prove
this, but I do not mean to be at the trouble of looking
for them. I will merely adduce the first instance that
turns up : —
' Edrik was hanged on the toure, for his trespas.
Than said the quene, that Edrik the giloure
Had not fully dome, that fell to traytoure.
Tray tours with runcies [horses] suld men first drawe,' &c.
Rob. of Brnnne, tr. of Langtoft, ed. Hearne, p. 50.
RAKE, A TRACK. 303
370. Rake, a track (7 S. xii. 135 ; 1891).
Rake, in Gawain and the Gre?ie Knight, 1. 2144, clearly
means horse-track, or road : —
' Ryde me doun this ilk rake, bi yon rokke-syde.'
In 1886 I published, for the Early English Text Society,
the Wars of Alexander. The large glossary to that work
is very helpful for Northern words. In 1. 3383, the path
of righteousness is called ' the rake of rightvvysnes ' ; and,
in 1. 5070, a man is advised, of two roads, to choose 'the
rake on the right hand.' Cf. Swed. rak, straight ; raka, to
run.
371. ■ The Crow, with Voice of Care ' (7 S. xii. 145 ;
1891).
In Chaucer's Pari, of Foules, 1. 363, we have the fine
expression: 'The crow with vois of care.' It is curious
that this phrase is really due to a mistranslation.
The original line is in Vergil, Georg. i. 388 :
'Turn comix plena pluuiam uocat improba uoce?
The same mistake recurs in Batman's translation of
Bartholome, lib. xii. c. 9. Batman quotes the above line,
and adds : —
' That is to understande, Now the Crowe calleth rayne
with an elei?ige [sad] voyce.'
372. Flaskisable (7 S. xii. 146; 1891).
This curious word is given neither in Stratmann nor in
Halliwell. It occurs at least twice in Lydgate's Siege of
Trove. Speaking of the inconstancy of women, he says
that they afford the true ' patron,' i. e. pattern,
' Of inconstaunce, whose flaskysable kynde
Is to and fro meuynge as a wynde.'
Book I. ch. v. ed. 1555, fol. C 6, back.
304 KILT.
Again, in speaking of the common herd of men, he
says : —
'The comon people chaungeth as a phane [vane].
To-day they wexe, to-morrow do they wane
As doth the mone, they be so flaskesablel
Book I. ch. vi. ed. 1555, fol. E 3.
It is clear that the sense is 'variable, changeable or
inconstant.'
As to the etymology, I suppose it to be a mere variant of
O. F. flechisable, the O. F. equivalent of our flexible, from
flechir, to bend. Flechisable is sometimes spelt flacisable,
and flechir is also fleschir, and even flanchir. Moreover,
flechisable occurs in the very sense of 'variable,' and is
applied, as in Lydgate, to the nature of women (see
examples in Godefroy). Perhaps Lydgate confused it with
O. F. flasquir or flachir, which means to soften or render
flaccid, from flaccidus.
373. Kilt (7 S. xii. 156; 1891).
With regard to the quotation cited at this reference,
showing that kelt, sb., was in use in 17861, and the request
for an earlier instance, I can give one that is earlier by
more than two centuries. In Douglas's translation of Vergil
we are told that the goddess Venus wore ' hir skirt kiltit
till hir bair kne.' Cf. Nuda genu, Aen. i. 320. Probably
she set the fashion. [See Kilter, p. 296.]
374. Ceriously, or Seriously (7 S. xii. 183; 1891).
Ceriously occurs in Chaucer's Man of Lawes Tale, 1. 185,
and is merely another spelling of seriously ; but is used
in the peculiar sense of Lat. seriatim, in due order,
in detail, minutely. In my note on the passage I give
a quotation for it from Fabyan's Chronicle. The New
1 'A volunteer of the 73rd Regiment lost his kelt in the attack.'
Capt. Drinkwater, History of the Siege of Gibraltar, 1786 (fourth ed.),
p. 202.
CERIOUSLY OR SERIOUSLY. 305
English Dictionary, quite rightly, s. v. 'Ceryows,' refers us
to 'Serious.' Meanwhile, some further illustrations of this
word will be acceptable to many readers of Chaucer.
In Skelton's Garland of Laurell, 1. 581, we have : —
1 And seryously she shewyd me ther denomynacyons.'
Dyce's note (vol. ii. p. 452) has : —
'I.e. seriatim. So in a letter from Tuke to Wolsey : — ';Thus
proceding to the letters, to shewe your Grace summarily; for rehers-
ing everything seriously, I shal over long moleste your Grace."' —
State Papers, 1830, i. 299.)
But the most interesting point is that Lydgate caught up
this word from • his master, and in his Siege of Troye has
used it over and over again. I give only a few examples : —
1 And whan the kyng had herd ceriously
Thentent of Jason sayd so manfully.'
Book I. ch. v, ed. 1555, fol. C 4, back.
; As in this boke ye may hereafter rede
Ceryously, if that ye list take hede.'
Book II. ch. x, fol. F 2, back.
'How seryously Guido doth expresse.'
Book II. ch. xv, fol. K 1.
(The context is too long to quote.)
' I must the trouthe leue
Of Troye booke, and my mater breue,
And ower passe, and not go by and by,
As doth Guydo in ordre, ceryously.''
Book II. ch. xv, fol. K 2.
'And fyrste in Messa he telleth of the fyght,
Whan they entred, and of their welcomyng,
And ceryously he tolde eke of the kynge.'
Book II. ch. xx, fol. M 5.
1 And she him tolde the aunswere of the kynge,
Ceryously, gynnynge, and endinge.'
Book IV. ch. xxx. fol. T 3, back.
Other references are book IV. ch. xxx, fol. T 5, col. 2 ;
id., fol. U 4, col. 1 ; book IV. ch. xxxii, fol. X 3, 1. 1 ;
id., fol. X 3, back, col. 2, &c.
x
306 OLD.
We thus have the clearest proof of the sense attached by
Lydgate to Chaucer's word j and Lydgate is the best
commentator we have upon Chaucer's language.
In Shakespeare, seriously has its usual sense ; but in
Chaucer its equivalent ceriously has a sense which has long
been obsolete.
375. Old (7 S. xii. 186 ; 1891).
Those who are interested in Shakespeare's familiar use
of this word in such phrases as ' old swearing,' ''old coil,'
and the like, may be pleased to see a fifteenth-century
example of the same : —
4 With sharpe swyrdys faght they then.
They had be two full doghty men,
Gode old fyghtyng was there.'
' Le Bone Florence,' 1. 679, in Ritson's Metrical Romances, iii. 29.
376. Styed= Advanced (7 S. xii. 231 j 1891).
Certainly 'advanced' is a very misleading explanation
of styed. Styed simply means ' climbed,' and hence
'ascended,' as in the illustration given. Sty, a ladder,
something to climb by, is one of its derivatives, as has
been explained over and over again. Stirrup, 'a rope
to climb by,' is another derivative.
It is inconceivable to me how any one can confuse this
with ' stricken in years,' as it has nothing whatever to do
with it. However, both words begin with st, and that
seems to be enough to send people all astray.
The Swedish word alderstigen (the first letter is not a, as
printed) means ' advanced in years,' and may, if you please,
be translated by ' styed in years ' ; but it is misleading,
because, though the Swedish verb stiga came to be used in
this way, there is nothing (that I can find to show that
the English sty was ever so used. Any one who thinks
otherwise can convince me by producing a quotation.
STYED = ADVANCED. 307
But what has styed to do with stricken ? By what process
can human ingenuity torture one word into the other?
It is true that the A. S. stigan (not stigan, for the i was
long) was a strong verb, and should rather have produced
the pp. styen, and might conceivably do so in dialects.
And we may admit that the A. S. pp. form was stigen.
Then, I suppose, the (imaginary) steps are these : stigen
became stiken, on the principle that water runs uphill ; and
stiken became striken, and striken came to be written
stricken.
If your correspondent can produce a quotation for ' stiken
in years' or ' sticken in years,' I do not care which, I am
convinced at once. No one ever saw it yet.
It is clear that your correspondent knows nothing about
the A. S. g. He probably thinks that stigan was pro-
nounced with a g like that in go. So it was, just at first,
but it soon passed into the sound of y, and practically
disappeared. This is why there is no g in sty, to climb ;
nor in sty, a ladder ; nor in pig-sty ; nor in stirrup.
All this is familiar to any student of English philology,
and it is all in my book on English Etymology, vol. i.
Perhaps the insinuation is that we borrowed the term
bodily from Scandinavian. But that will not do either,
because we should then have borrowed the whole word,
and if it had been borrowed at all early, the g in stigen,
being between two vowels, would have passed into y and
disappeared, like all others in the same condition throughout
the language. It certainly could never have become a k,
because the tendency is exactly the other way, viz., from
k to g; as in jlagon for the older flacon.
And all this impossible theory is put forward to account
for stricken, which (it is calmly assumed) cannot (why not ?)
be derived from A. S. strican, to advance !
And the argument is, that strican did not exist in A. S.,
because none of the other Teutonic tongues has this verb !
x 2
308 WELSH, 'NAUSEOUS.'
At this rate we are obliged to ask leave of all other nations
before we may have a verb of our own — a thing which no
other nation would dream of doing. I protest strongly
against this extraordinary method of limiting English, which
is one of the most original of all Teutonic tongues, and
abounds with archaisms unknown to them. And the last
argument is — l if the quoted strican goes so far back.'
Well, the phrase, 'strlceth ymbutan,' i.e. goes about,
occurs in Rawlinson's edition of Alfred's Boethius, p. 177.
What other ' Teutonic tongue ' can show a quotation for
it as old as Alfred's time ? So that is soon settled.
However, it is common also in Old German. Schade's
Dictionary explains how the O. H. G. strihhan not only
meant to ' stroke ' and to ' strike,' but also, intransitively,
to ' hasten,' to 'go about,' &c. ('sich rasch bewegen, ziehen,
wandern, streifen, herumstreifen, eilen ').
As for the Mid. Eng. use, see Stratmann ; I really
cannot quote about the ' streem that striketh (flows) stille '
all over again. The pp. is striken. It never has any other
form, but its senses vary wonderfully. A similar phrase
is ' he strek into a studie,' he fell into a revery ; William of
Paler ne, 4038.
I am sorry this is so long ; but it takes up much room to
unravel a tangle of this description.
377. Welsh, adj. 'nauseous ' (7 S. xii. 236 ; 1891).
Welsh means nauseous, insipid, mawkish ; it implies
something that turns the stomach. It is another form
(but with mutation of a to e, as in Welsh from Wales) of
wallowish. Halliwell has ' Wallow, flat, insipid ' ; also
1 Wallowish, nauseous. Hereford.' In the Promptorium
Parvulorum, p. 515, we have ' walhwe-sivete, or walow-
swetej i. e. so sweet as to make one bilious. It is allied
to the Eng. walk and ivallow, and to Lat. uoluere, all with
the notion of rolling about.
WHITS UN DAY. 309
Still more closely allied are the Low German walgig and
walghaftig, adjectives signifying ' productive of nausea ' ;
and the Low German walgen, to feel nausea. The root-
verb occurs in the Mid. High German welgen, to roll
about, pt. t. walg; see Schade. Schade gives a large
number of related words, such as walg, rounded ; walgern,
to roll ; walagon, to roll oneself about, also to walk ; wul-
gerung, nausea, &c. It is, therefore, quite free from all
connexion with Wales.
378. Whitsun Day. I (7 S. xii. 277 ; 1891).
At the last reference (7 S. xii. 233) Mr. W. says that
'we have the word whitsul.' Where, pray, does it occur?
Let us have the reference for it. And, after that, let us
have the reference for Whitsulday. I believe both forms
to be wholly unauthorized ; and I do not see how the
process of inventing forms can be justified.
[It turned out that the word intended was certainly
whitsul in form, but the sense of it was so entirely remote
from any connexion with Whitsunday, that it is hardly
wonderful that I did not, at the moment, recognize it.
The argument was this : ' Whitsul is given as a provincial
word in Todd's Johnson, with a passage from Carew ex-
plaining it. Sool is anything eaten with bread to flavour
it, as butter, cheese, milk. With milk it would be whitsul.
The white meat given to the poor at Whitsuntide brings
the whole into connexion ' (!) The last sentence is delicious.
See further in my reply below.]
379. Whitsun Day. II (7 S. xii. 449; 1891).
The etymology of whitsul at the last reference is quite
correct, viz., from white and sool. Sool is explained in my
notes to Piers Plowman, and again in my glossary to
Havelok. It not only occurs at line 767 of that poem,
but again at 11. 1143, 2905.
310 WHITSUN DAY.
Further information about it is given in Herrtage's notes
to the Catholicon Anglicum, p. 349, and the etymology
is from the A. S. su/o/, which occurs in my edition of the
A.S. Gospels (John xxi. 5), to translate the Latin pulmen-
tarium.
But all this has nothing whatever to do with Whitsunday,
which certainly never was called Whitsulday \ neither is
there the slightest evidence that such a compound as Whit-
sulday was ever dreamt of. On the other hand, not only
is ' Whitsun-week ' a legitimate expression, but I have
already given a reference for it in a dictionary which seems
to have been neglected. It occurs in WyclifTe's Works,
ed. Arnold, ii. 161. It is a mere contraction for Whit-
sunday week, which is called hvitasunnudagsvika in Icelandic.
In the Ancient Laivs of Norway, previous to a. d. 1263,
as published by Munch and Keyser, Christiania, 1846-47,
we already find the expression ' Paskaviku, ok Hvitasunnu-
dagsviku] vol. i. p. 150. Curiously enough, it was some-
times the syllable sun that was dropped, and then we
find mention of Hvitadagavika, lit. ' Whiteday-week,' or
4 Whitday-week.' There is nothing remarkable about such
dropping of a syllable ; every one says fo'c'sle for fo?-e-
castle. It would be comic enough if we were to pretend
on that account that fo'c'sle is ' derived ' from fox-hole ;
although phonetic laws would certainly admit of such a
derivation.
I showed once, in the Academy, that Palm Sunday is
abbreviated to Palmsun, and that even such a phrase as
Palmsun Tuesday has been in use. The note at the end
of my Supplement to the second edition of my Dictio?iary
seems as applicable now as ever. ' The Welsh name
Sulgwyn, Whitsuntide, is literally white sun, from sul, sun,
and gwyn, white. This name is old, and is a mere transla-
tion from the English name at a time when it was rightly
understood. But experience shows that no arguments
COMMENCE TO. 311
will convince those who prefer guesswork to evidence-.
The wrong ideas about this word are still persistently
cherished.'
For those who wish to come at the truth I have one
more word, which will, I believe, interest them. In West-
wood's beautiful book called Palceographia Sacra Pictoria,
the last facsimile but one gives a specimen from MS. Addit.
503 in the British Museum, an Icelandic MS. which he
attributes to the twelfth century. This quotation, acci-
dentally chosen, actually refers to the services for Whit-
sunday, and the editor has failed to read it correctly.
His version is: 'A Himta Sunnu Dag skal fyrst syngia
Veni, Creator Spiritus.' There is no such word as ' Himta,'
and when we turn to the facsimile, we see that the real
word is 'Huyta,' where u, as usual, is used for v before
a following vowel, and y is miswritten for ** as is so common,
not only in Icelandic, but in Anglo-Saxon MSS., owing
to the confusion between the sounds which they denoted,
viz., the sound of the G. ii in iibel, and the sound of the
E. ee in deep.
The real reading of this beautifully written and early
MS. is as follows : ' A Huyta Sunnu Dag skal fyrst syngia
Veni, Creator Spiritus : Kom thu gode heilage ande/ &c.
That is, ' On White Sunday shall (one) first sing Vetii,
Creator Spiritus : come, thou good holy Spirit,' &c.
What can be more satisfactory to those who care for
evidence ?
380. Commence to (said to be not an English Idiom)
(7 S. xii. 294 ; 1891).
Surely this was an English idiom from the outset ! Thus
in P. P/oivman, C. xv. 203, we are told that Imaginative
1 comsed to loure,' i. e. commenced to frown. Many more
examples might be given.
312 THE TREATMENT OF TRIPLE CONSONANTS.
381. The Treatment of Triple Consonants (7 S. xii.
322; 1891).
The occurrence of three consonants together in the
middle of a word necessarily gives rise, in many instances,
to a difficulty of pronunciation. The simplest way of
getting over this is to drop one of them, and the one
usually dropped is the middle one. If the middle one be
s, it remains ; as in bust for burst, gorse for A. S. gorst.
We have several examples in English in which, though
all three consonants are retained in spelling, the middle
one is either not pronounced at all or else is very lightly
touched.
Examples are : castle, nestle, wrestle, thistle, whistle,
epistle, bristle, gristle, apostle, jostle, bustle, rustle, and,
generally, words ending in -stle. Even for ghastly speakers
of dialect are apt to say gashly ; see Tregellas on the
Cornish dialect.
Again, it is quite common to hear people (even those
who protest that they certainly do not) drop the p in
?-edemption, exemption, assumption, consumption, presumption,
so also in Ca?npbell, Hampden, Hampton. Most people
confuse handsome and Hansom, and it is probable that,
etymologically, the words are identical. The / is dropped
in waistcoat.
In place-names the same principle is still more strongly
at work. Hence the common pronunciation of Windsor,
Guildford, Hertford, Lindsey, Landguard, and many
others.
The cases most interesting to the etymologist are those
in which the middle consonant has actually disappeared
from the spelling. I have noted the following : garment
for garn(e)ment, allied to garn-ish; worship for worth-
ship • worsted for Worthstead ; wilderness for wild-deer-?iess :
blossom from A. S. bldstma, with loss of t; Norman for
Northman.
LEIGHTON. 313
In place-names this result is common ; as in Norfolk
for Northfolk, Norton for Northton, Weston for West-ton,
Easton for East-ton, Kirby for Kirkby ; Kirton for Kirk-
ton, Sanford for Sandford, Burford for Burghford; Burley
for Burghley ; Burstead for Burghstead, Burton for
Burghton.
In some cases especial care must be taken in order
to prevent mistakes. Still, when we find that Preston is
short for Prest-ton (Priest-town), we shall hardly be wrong
in assuming that Prescott is for Prest-cott (Priest-cot). But,
in order to be sure, we must always rely, as has been
usual, upon the older spellings found in the charters.
382. Leighton (7 S. xii. 345 ; 1891).
The explanation of this name is an interesting example
of the operation of phonetic laws. The A. S. leac-tu?i,
lit. ' leek-town,' i. e. vegetable enclosure, garden, became
leactun, with shortening of u. But the combination ct
becomes ht in Anglo-Saxon (see Mayhew, O. E. Phonology,
p. 140). Hence we also find the forms leahtun, lehtun.
The Latin hortas is glossed by lehtun in the Lindisfarne
MS., John xviii. 1. The A. S. ht became M. E. ght, and
so we should get a Mod. E. Leghton or Leighton (with ei as
in vein) quite regularly.
I believe the derivation of M. E. leih-tun, a garden, from
A. S. leak, fallow land, given in Stratmann, to be a pure
oversight. It is needless, and gives no sense. A garden
and fallow-land are very different things. Of course, some
of the place-names of this form may be due to a combina-
tion of leah, lea, and tun, town ; but the derivation from
A. S. lehtun, a garden, a compound already existing in
A. S., really seems more probable. The change from the k in
leek to the guttural h (gh) presents, in this case, no difficulty
at all, being quite regular.
314 STALLED : STALLED OX.
It is possible that the spelling Leyton is from a different
source, — viz. leak ; but I think that our rather numerous
Leightons are due to the fact that gardens were not un-
common ; and I think they should be dissociated from the
form Leigh, a lea.
383. Stalled (i. e. sated, tired) of walking : Stalled Ox
(7 S. xii. 357; 1891).
These phrases are connected. The word is practically
explained in my Dictionary, though I do not give all the
senses.
The first occurrence of stall in English is in the Corpus
Glossary of the eighth century, written in the true Mercian
dialect. We there find * Stabulum, star; see Hessels's
ed., under 'S. 512.' Thus the earliest recorded sense is
' stable ' or ' stall for cattle,' still in common use.
The corresponding Icelandic sb. is stallr, stall, a crib
for cattle, whence was made the verb stalla, to put in a stall.
The Swedish use is particularly clear ; Widegren's Diction-
ary gives : —
' Stall, a stable for horses ; stalla, to stall-feed, to stall ; stallad
boskap, stall-fed cattle; stalla oxer, to stall-feed bullocks.'
In Prov. xv. 17, I have already said that stalled means
' stall-fed.' In fact the Vulgate has saginatum, and Wyclif
has ' maad fat.' Thus stalled meant stall-fed (for which
I refer to Chapman's Homer, Od., xv. 161) i.e. fatted, as
in 'fatted calf.' Hence the notion of full-fed, satiated,
sated ; and to be stalled of walking is to be sated with
walking, hence tired, &c See Peacock's Manley and
Corringham Words (E. D.S.); other publications of the
E. D. S. ; Kluge's Germ. Diet.; Skinner's Diet. 1671 ;
Richardson's Dictionary; Johnson's Dictionary; Webster's
Dictionary ; the Century Dictionary, &c.
GODIVA. 315
384. Godiva (7 S. xii. 404; 1891).
Tennyson has the line : —
• Godiva, wife to that grim earl, who ruled,' &c.
We are all agreed to accent Godiva on the i, and to call
it a long vowel (strictly a diphthongs Still, as a matter
of curiosity, there is no harm in knowing that the accent
was on the 0, and that the * was short, i. e. it was 'Godiva.'
For it is a Latinized spelling of A. S. God-gifu, lit. ' God-
gift ' ; see Freeman's Old E?ig. History. And we do not
pronounce give so as to rhyme with strive.
385. Paragon (7 S. xii. 412 ; 1891).
Two correspondents kindly suggest a reference to my
Dictionary, where I give the etymology from the Span,
prepositions para con (for Lat. pro, ad, and cum). This
is the etymology given by Diez, and long accepted without
dispute. But an article which has appeared in the Zeit-
schrift fur Roman. Philol., iv. 374, makes out a better case
for a derivation from the Greek, viz. from Greek -n-apaKovq,
a touch-stone. Despite the great authority of Diez, the
derivation from three prepositions presents much difficulty.
386. ' Bravo ' : sometimes (wrongly) applied to
a woman (7 S. xii. 432 ; 1891).
Alas ! is the glory of Charles James Yellowplush indeed
departed ? , Does no one recall his weighty words ? I, for
one, do not forget what he once wrote in his Diary : —
' Been to the Hopra. Music tol lol. That Lablash is a wopper at
singing. I coodn make out why some people called out Bravo, some
Bravar, and some Bravee.
" Bravee, Lablash," says I, at which hevery body laft.'
I withhold the reference. Let your readers discover how
great a master they have neglected.
316 WOODCUT; WITH THE LEGEND 'STRIKE HERE.'
387. A Woodcut ; with the legend * Strike here '
(7 S. xii. 478 ; 1891).
The words ' Strike here ' translate Percute hie, a saying
on which turns the story of Gerbertus, in the Gesta Romano-
rum • Tale 107, in Swan's translation. The story is re-
told in my poem entitled The Dyer's Tale, written in
imitation of Chaucer, and printed in the Universal Review
for December 16, 1889.
I have since observed that it is also given in William
Morris's Earthly Paradise.
388. Wicket (7 S. xii. 506; 1891).
In my Dictionary, I derive this form from an assumed
Anglo-French form wiket, which, as I have shown, must
have been the right form, though no quotation occurs for
it. And now I have found it !
' Li fol entre enz par le wiket ' ;
i. e. the fool enters in by the wicket. It occurs in Le
Roman de Tristan, ed. Michel, vol. ii. p. 10 1, 1. 245. It
is always a comfort to find a predicted form.
389. St. Parnell (8 S. i. 10; 1892).
I thought every one knew that Pernel was a medieval
saint. My note to Piers Plowman, C. v. in (B. iv. 116)
is clear enough : —
' Purnele, or Pcronelle, from Petronilla, was a proverbial name for
a gaily-dressed, bold-faced woman. . . . May 31 was dedicated to
St. Petronilla the virgin. She was supposed to be able to cure the
quartan ague ; Chambers, Book of Days, ii. 389. The name, once
common, now scarcely survives except as a surname, in the form
Parnell; see Bardsley's Eng. Surnames, p. 56.'
Any book of saints' lives will explain the matter, under
the date May 31. That the same person is called Petronilla
in Latin, and Peronelle, Per?iell, or Purnel in English, is
THE GENDERS OF ENGLISH SUBSTANTIVES. 317
obvious from a comparison of the various accounts. Cf.
Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. Ellis, pp. 359, 363.
The inquiry 'by what stages Petronilla became Parnell,''
is one that fills me with delight. For if once scientific
explanation comes to be demanded, the day of the etymo-
logical guess-mongers will be gone for ever.
The answer is : by regular and recognized phonetic
changes, which have all been duly tabulated by scientific
workers. Petronilla became Parnell for the simple reason
that it could not, under the circumstances, become anything
else. Cf. F. pere from patrem, F. errer from Lat. iterare,
folk- Latin eterare or etrare. Also F. fermer from Lat.
firmare, illustrating the change from i to e. The Anglo-
French was properly Pernel, which is the usual form in
Middle-English ; and this became Parnell, just as person
became parson, viz. by the usual change of the M.E. er
to the modern English ar.
390. The Genders of English Substantives
(8 S. i. 43; 1892).
Modern English gender is mainly logical, depending
upon the thing signified. But Old English gender was
purely grammatical, depending, in a great measure, upon
the form of the word.
One of the greatest gains of modern English is the
abandonment of grammatical gender, so that we no longer
have to burden our memories with the differences of usage
due to this source. Grammatical gender has thus become
a mere matter of history, and is now only a curiosity.
I think many of your readers may be pleased to learn from
how much they have thus been delivered. To this end,
I here give a brief list, by way of specimen, of a few
of our principal substantives, with their original genders.
I purposely avoid the mention of things having life. With
respect to these, it may suffice to notice that a bear, a fish,
318 THE GENDERS OF ENGLISH SUBSTANTIVES.
a ghost, a hound, and a wolf, were all masculine ; a crow
and a fly were feminine ; and a child, a tnaiden and 7£'/)£
(being things, apparently, of small significance) were all
neuter.
The following nouns in Anglo-Saxon were all masculine: —
Ache, acre, apple, arm, ash (tree) ; beam, broom ; cove
(i. e. creek) ; day, deal, death, dew, dint, doom, dough,
drop.
Ebb (of the tide), end; field, finger, flight, flood, foot,
furze ; gall, gleam, gloom ; hate, helm (i. e. helmet), hip,
holm, horn, hunger ; loaf.
Meat, moon, mouth ; neck ; oath ; path ; rain, ridge, ring.
Shank, shield, shoe, sleep, smoke, snow, spark, staff,
stake, stone, storm, stream, summer ; tear (from the eye),
thirst, thorn, thunder, tooth ; way, wedge, well, will.
The following nouns were all feminine : —
Ashes fof wood), ax ; bench, bliss, book, borough,
bridge ; cap, care, chin, chine (i. e. fissure, ravine\ claw,
crib (for cattle) ; deed.
Earth, edge ; feather, furrow ; glove ; half, hall, hand,
heart, heat, hell, hide, hose ; liver, lore.
Mead or meadow, might ; need, needle, night ; oak ;
rung (of a ladder).
Sheath, sedge, shell, sill (of a door), sin, sinew, spade,
speed, sun; thought, throat, tongue, toe, turf; week, weird
(fate), womb, wort.
The following nouns were all neuter : —
Bale (evil), bath, bed, blood, bone, brim ; cliff, coal,
cud ; dole, deer.
Ear, errand, eye ; fire, flesh, foam ; glee, gold, grass ;
head, hilt, holt ; iron ; kin ; lair, land, leather, lid, light.
Main (i. e. force), meal (of corn\ mood ; net ; seed,
ship, shroud, sore ; thigh, token, tree ; water, web, wed
(pledge), wonder, work ; year, yoke.
Almost the only discoverable principle is that substan-
SAXON: DERIVED FROM ' SIKE.' 319
tives denoting abstract qualities have a tendency to be
feminine.
Examples are : bliss, care, heat, might, speed, thought,
in the above list. Deed and lore are the same, as denoting
doing and teaching. And we may add to this list an
enormous number of substantives now ending in -ing and
-ness.
It is very striking to observe with what impartiality the
parts of the body are distributed. Thus — arm, finger,
foot, gall, hip, mouth, ?ieck, shank, tooth, are masculine ;
chin, daw, hand, heart, hide, liver, sinew, throat, tongue,
womb (belly), are feminine ; whilst blood, bone, ear, eye,
flesh, head, lid, thigh, are neuter.
391. Saxon : derived from ■ Sike,' a water-course
(8S. i. 51; 1892).
Whatever be the etymology of this word, it cannot be
derived from sike ! There is nothing in common but the
letter s, so that Saxon is quite as nearly allied to sag, or
sack, or sick, or sock, or suck, or half a score words more.
Neither is sike an ' overlooked word ' ; it is familiar in the
North. Any Northerner will tell you that it is far removed
from the sense of ' marsh ' ; it means a ' channel ' or ' water-
course,' being the Icel. sik, a. ditch. There is a line
specimen between Caldron Snout and High Cup Nick.
It is certainly the origin of the name Sykes; but Sykes
is not remarkably like Saxon. The usual old guess that
connects Saxon with seax, a knife, short sword, is far
more plausible, for it is possible ; see Sahso in Schade.
It is more sensible to wear a short sword than to squat
in a water-course.
392. Coelum: Coelestis (8 S. i. 74; 1892).
The correct spellings are caelum, ccelestis (with (z) ; or
caelum, caelestis (with ae). See Lewis and Short's Latin
320 BA YONET.
Dictionary. No authority now admits the derivation of
these words from Greek. See Vanicek's Griechish-Latein-
isches Elymologisches Worterbuch, and Breal's Dictionnaire
Etymologique Latin. Cesium (with ce) is a mere dream of
meddling editors : all MSS. spell it either caelum or celum.
The word is, of course, very common even in English
MSS. j it occurs in the Lindisfarne MS. as caelum, Matt. v.
1 8 ; and as cells (abl. pi.) in Piers Ploivman, B. vii. 175.
393. Bayonet (8 S. i. 95 ; 1892).
Why not look up bayonet in the Oxford Dictionary '?
The word is there ; and it is rather hard to ignore a book
which, with all its faults, is by far the best dictionary we
possess. I do not agree with the attacks that are made
upon it.
The word meant ' a dagger ' long before it meant a
bayonet. Even the Supplement to my own Etymological
Dictionary gives the usual quotation from Cotgrave (161 1)
and refers us to a publication named N. &= Q. (3 S. xii. 287).
The O. F. baton is said by Roquefort to have meant an
arrow or bolt of a crossbow. The earliest trace of this that
I can find is in Godefroy, who says, ' Les arquebusiers sont
appeles bayonniers dans la vielle Chronique de France, ch.
xiv. citee par Dedauriere.' We are in great want, not
of talk, but of early quotations.
394. Velvet (8 S. i. 177 ; 1892).
The list, with references, given at the last reference
(8 S. i. 128) is most valuable1. We should be glad of
1 The list contains early references for many fabrics. For velvet
we have these : — 'Velvet, 1319 (Wardr. Acct., 13 Edw. II, 22/14) ;
velvet on satin, 1497 (lb. 8-9 Hen. IV, 46/14, Q. R.) ; velvet on
velvet, 1444 (lb. 22-3 Hen. VI, 48/18, Q. R.) ; velvet plunket, 1337
(lb. 10-12 Edw. Ill, 94/1, Q. R.) ; velvet bastard, 1420 (lb. 8-9
Hen. V, 46/14, Q. R.); velvet figure, 1465 (Close Roll, 5 Edw. IV).
SUENT: SUANT ; A DEVONSHIRE WORD. 321
more contributions of this kind. I wish there were a law
that we must all give our references. I should be glad
to know how velvet is spelt in the documents referred to,
i. e. if the MS. spellings are accessible. There is a special
reason in this case, for it is tolerably certain that the form
velvet is really due to a mistake.
The second v was once the vowel u, not the consonantal
v (written as u) ; see my Principles of English Etymology ',
Second Series, p. 296, note. The old form velu-et (=velou-
et) was a trisyllable, in my belief.
Mr. Planche's earliest reference for the word is 1403,
but we are now told that it occurs in 13 19 (Wardr. Acct.,
13 Edw. II, 22/14). In my list of English Words in
Anglo-French, Second Series, I show that it occurs in 1361,
in 1376, and in 1392 (see Royal Wills, ed. J. Nichols,
1780, pp. 48, 69, 130). In 1392 it is spelt velwet, as in
the Promptoriam Parvulorum, and this is practically a more
original spelling than that with two v's. The M. E. u is
of so doubtful a value that it is difficult to tell whether
it is a vowel or a consonant.
The trisyllabic form occurs in 1. 1420 of the Romaunt of
the Rose, where we have : —
' As softe as any velu-et.'
And in Lydgate, Complaint of the Black Knight, 1. 80 —
'And softe as velu-et the yong-e gras.'
395. Suent : Suant ; a Devonshire word (8 S. i. 212 ;
1892).
The etymological spelling is suant, the pres. part, of sue,
to follow, as trenchant is of the vb. to trench. So also
pursuant, from the verb to pursue. Suant means following,
hence keeping on, continuous, regular, even, unremitting,
and the like. I have explained it twice before. See my
Notes to P. Plowman, p. 375 ; and Elworthy's Glossary of
W. Somersetshire Words, s. v. ' Suant.'
Y
322 LEARY, 'KNOWING.'
396. Leary, 'knowing' (8 S. i. 244; 1892).
I believe this slang word, often used in the sense of
' knowing,' to be a word of quite respectable origin. It
has been derived from M. E. leren, to teach ; but that is
not the way to form an adjective, and the substantival
form is lore. I have no doubt that, like several other
slang terms, it is of Dutch origin.
If we start, not from the E. sb. lore, but from the cognate
Du. sb. leer, all comes right. Kilian gives ' Leerigh,
docilis ' ; so that the original sense was ' apt to learn.'
I think it very likely that we borrowed the substantive
at the same time, as I find it in the last line but one of
' The Wife Lapped in Morrelles Skin,' printed in Hazlitt's
Early Popular Poetry, iv. 226 : —
' Because she was of a shrewde here,
Thus was she served in this manner[e].'
The date of this piece is a little before 1575. Words
came in from the Dutch in the reign of Elizabeth.
397. On the Loss of v in English (8 S. i. 245 ; 1892).
There is still a good deal to be done in the way of
tabulating phonetic changes in English, and I hope that
the faithful drudges who attempt to register examples con-
tribute somewhat to the clearer understanding of the
subject. It occurs to me that the loss of v in English
words seems to take place most commonly before r, ?i,
and /.
Before r. We are accustomed, in poetry, to e'er for ever,
ne'er for never, o'er for over. A similar effect is observable
in Middle-English, where we find discure used for discover,
and recure for recover) whilst the simple word cover some-
times became cure, as is attested at the present day by the
word curfew. Two striking instances occur in poor, for
the Middle-English and Anglo-French povre j and in lark,
CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION. 323
short for M. E laverk, from A. S. laiverce, later laferce
(=z/dverke). In this connexion, we may compare the
E. surplus with the Ital. sovrappiii. I explain the Scotch
orra, ' superfluous,' as standing for ovra, as if it meant
(so to speak) over-y ; cf. G. ilbrig.
Before n. In poetry we often use een for even, cf. also
Hallowe'en. Prov. E. has gin for given, and aboon for
aboven. M. E. has the infin. han for haven. The most
remarkable example is that of laundress for lavandress,
from F. laver, to wash.
Before /. We often see dfil for devil, and the word
shovel becomes shool or shawl in Prov. E.
• I, said the Owl,
With my spade and showl,
I'll bury Cock Robin.'
There is a slight tendency to drop final ve, as in gV for
give. In M. E. the word corsive, sb., meaning something
corrosive, also occurs as corsy ; and the O. F. pourcif, short-
winded, is now pursy. The commonest example is jolly,
which even in Chaucer was spelt iolif. The final /in these
words was voiced to v, owing to lack of stress, and then
dropped. Cf. also braw for brave, and doo for dove ; also
fi-putt-note, and tweV -putt -ten.
I have noted (-Eng. Etytn. I. 374) the loss of A. S. / in
head, lord, lady, women, lenian, Lammas, and stem (of
a tree) ; in all these cases the / was voiced to v before
disappearance.
398. Curiosities of Interpretation. I (8 S. i. 309 ; 1892).
Perhaps nothing strikes the student of English literature
more than the curious helplessness of our editors, especially
in former years, whenever they had to deal with somewhat
difficult words. No doubt their books of reference were
far inferior to what we have now \ but in some cases they
y 2
324 CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION.
really do not seem to have used their common sense.
The opinion was no doubt current, and still obtains in
some quarters, that there is no such thing as skill or scholar-
ship in relation to the English language ; for these should
be wholly reserved for the ' classical ' languages, wherein
' accurate ' knowledge is of course indispensable ; although
curiously enough, it does not usually extend to any care
about correct pronunciation.
Almost any book of some slight antiquity yields some
amusing specimens. I happen to take up Early Ballads,
edited by Robert Bell. It is not worse than other books ;
indeed, it is better than many. But it will serve. Page 30 :
'Now lith and listen, gentlemen.' The note is, * Lith or
lithe, to tell or narrate.' This is all pure invention. If we
apply it, we obtain as the sense, ' Now narrate and listen,'
i. e. the auditors are requested to tell the story themselves.
Of course, lithe means 'hearken,' and is synonymous with
' listen.'
p. 44. ' Each of them slew a hart of greece.'
The note is, ' Also spelt grize, greese, &c. Literally a
step or degree.' It therefore means 'a hart of steps.'
But surely a hart is not usually so made as to resemble
a staircase ! The greece here meant is grease, in the sense
of fatness, not the greece or grees which is the plural of gree,
a step.
p. 58. ' Forth they went, these yeomen two,
Little John and Moche infere,
And looked on moch emys house ;
The highway lay full near.'
The note says that emys means 'enemies' What moch
means we are not informed. But moch should be Moch,
with a capital, and ' Moch emys house ' means ' the house
of the uncle of Moch.' If they had resorted for repose to
a house of their enemies, they must have been very stupid
fellows.
CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION. 325
p. 61. 'They slew our men upon our walls,
And sawtene us every day.'
The note says, ' Sawtene, assaulted.' But it means
1 assault ' ; the form for ' assaulted ' would be sawteden.
However, to have set this right would have required an
elementary knowledge of English grammar.
p. 64. ' I gave him grithe, said our king.'
The note is ' Grithe, grace.' But it means ' protection.'
p. 97. ' The Earl of Huntley, cawte and keen.'
The note is ' Caivte, cautious.' This is obviously a guess,
and of course no authority is either given or supposed
to be necessary. The right solution is that caivte is written
for caute, and cante is an error for ' cante] i.e. 'brisk,'
by the usual confusion of u with n. As for ' cant and keen,'
it is the old, old phrase ; as noted by Halliwell.
399. Curiosities of Interpretation. II (8 S. i. 349 ;
1892).
A famous book is Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry.
I happen to possess a popular edition, edited by R. A. Will-
mott, a favourite book of mine, and convenient enough.
Whether the interpretations of the hard words are Willmott's
or Percy's, I do not stop to inquire. On the whole they
are fairly correct, but the curious critic will find some
strange examples in it.
One striking feature is the minute care with which, in
some passages, words are explained which could hardly
puzzle a small child, whilst in other cases words of some
difficulty are carefully let alone, lest the editor should
commit himself. At p. 76, for example, is this terribly
tough line : —
'When we se tyme and nede.'
A note informs us that 'se tyme and nede' means 'see
326 CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION.
time and need.' And now at last we make it out ; but
what a headache it must have cost the editor !
At p. 92, we are informed that pyrats means 'pirates,'
and, again, that thow means ' thou.' It is clear that the
editor found some difficulty here, and we can but wonder
at his want of familiarity with old spelling.
In the poem of Adam Be//, on the other hand, at p. 87,
we have the lines : —
' Over Gods forbode, sayde the kinge,
That thou shold shote at me ! '
The phrase ' Over Gods forbode ' is left unexplained,
probably because it is really difficult. It is, in fact, a false
expression, due to a confusion of ideas.
The Mtera/ sense is ' (may it be) against God's pro-
hibition,' involving the confusion of two distinct phrases,
such as ' God be against it,' and ' may God's prohibition
prevent it ' ; in other words, ' God's forbode (be) over (it) '
is turned precisely upside down, as if it were all one with
' ( be it) over God's forbode.' See ofer in Bosworth's A. S.
Dictionary , and forbod in Matzner. As this would have
required rather a long note, and involves some investigation,
the obvious plan was to say nothing.
In Robin Hood a7id Guy of Gisborne (p. 45), we have : —
' A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,
Of manye a man the bane.'
And bane rhymes with mayne. The note tells us that
bane means ' the curse ' ; — that is to say, the words ban,
a curse, and bane, the death, or the slayer, are actually
confused together.
In Henry, Fourth Er/e of Northumber/and (p. 54) we
have the lines : —
' Moste noble erle ! O fowle mysuryd grounde
Whereon he gat his fynal dedely wounde.'
The only interpretation of mysuryd here given is quoted
CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION. 327
as Percy's own; and here it is: 'Misused, applied to
a bad purpose.' And perhaps we may allow that a man
puts a place to a very bad purpose if he employs it for
the sake of getting a final wound on it. But the ure here
meant has no connexion with use ; it is merely the O. F.
eur (F. heur in bon-heur, mal-heur) which popular etymology
usually 'derives' from the Latin hora, though it really
represents augurium. When we know this, it is easy to
see that mysuryd means 'of ill augury,' i.e. fatal, unfor-
tunate, unlucky, which is much more to the ' purpose.'
In the Tournament of Tottenham, st. xii, one of the
combatants thus describes his crest : —
' I bere a reddyl and a rake,
Poudred wyth a brenand drake.'
Reddyl is not explained; it means 'a riddle,' i.e. a sieve.
Poudred is not explained, nor is it easy. It is equivalent,
in heraldry, to semee, i. e. strewn over, and is here incor-
rectly used, probably of set purpose. Strictly, it is only
used of small objects, such as roses or fleur-de-lis, strewn
over the field of the shield ; but the poem is a burlesque,
and the expression is put in the mouth of an ignorant
clown. But when we come to ' a brenand drake ' the
explanation is given pat : ' Perhaps a firework so called,
but here it seems to signify burning embers, or firebrands.'
However, a drake is neither a firework, nor embers, nor
firebrands, but simply a dragon, and ' a brenand drake '
is our old friend 'a fiery dragon.' The joke of 'strewing
the shield with a fiery dragon ' has, I fear, been entirely
lost upon the editors, and perhaps upon the readers, of
Percy's Reliques.
400. Curiosities of Interpretation. Ill (8 S. i. 410;
1892).
I happen to take up a nice copy of the Poetical Works
of Surrey and others, edited by Robert Bell. When it
328 CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION.
appeared I do not know, for it is undated. I find that the
explanations of words in it are just of the usual sort ; and
that, whilst it is doubtless as good as other books of its
kind, some of the statements display precisely such reckless-
ness as we should expect to find. It is clear that it never
used to be considered the duty of an editor to have any
special knowledge of the older forms of English. But
it should be known that it will not do to trust, in such
a case, to the ' light of nature.'
I begin with the poems of Surrey. He says that, on
reviewing his course : —
' I looked back to mete the place
From whence my weary course begun.' — p. 41.
As mete here means ' measure,' it would hardly seem
to need a note ; but we find this : —
' To dream ; from meteles, dreams, Anglo-Saxon ; also to measure.
Drayton has meterer, a poet, which may be taken in either sense,
a dreamer, or measurer of lines.'
Here are four mistakes at once. For (1) mete does not
here mean to dream ; (2) it is not derived from meteles, the
derivation being the other way ; (3) meteles is not the
correct form at any date, neither is it a plural, the word
meant being the M. E. metels, a dream j and (4) meterer
means one who makes metres, and has nothing to do with
it. Here is a fine bundle of blunders.
P. 85 : Reaveth means ' bereaves ' ; but the note says :
' To reave, literally meant to unroof a house.' This is
delicious. There was, indeed, a very rare word with this
sense ; but it is from another root.
P. 91, note 1 : ' Wend is the past participle of the verb
wene, or ween, to suppose.' The context proves that it is
the past tense.
P. 177, note 3: Surrey translates Virgil's manes sepultos
{Aen. iv. 34) by ' graved ghosts.' The note says that graved
CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION. 329
is 'the preterite of the verb grave, to bury.' I put this
note next the former to show that it is no part of an
editor's duty to know a past tense from a past participle
in English. But he ought to have known better as regards
sepultos ; for Latin grammar is taught in our schools.
P. 115 : Surrey uses vade for 'to fade,' which is common
enough. The note says it is 'from vado.' The spelling
with /should have warned the editor against so bad a shot.
P. 166, note 3 : Surrey has the form lopen, with the
sense ' leapt.' The note says : ' Leapt ; from the verb lope,
to leap.' Where the editor found the form lope in MS., he
does not tell us. Loopen is mere Dutch ; the M. E. verb is
lepen. The Mod. E. leap would make the pp. lopen still,
if it had not been changed from a strong verb to a weak
one. I am not surprised that our editors do not know
English grammar j but I am surprised at their supposing
that every one is bound to swallow any conjectures about
it that it amuses them to make.
P. 173: Surrey has 'I wot not how.' The note says:
' Knew, from the Saxon verb wote, to know.' Here again
the grammar is nowhere. I wot means I know, and the
Saxon verb, in the infinitive mood, is witan, pres. t. wat,
pt. t. wiste. No one should edit an old English author till
he knows the difference between wit, wot, wist, wissen, and
y-wis. This is a fair test, and does not require too much.
I-wis (the same as y-wis) is accordingly misinterpreted at
p. 106. In the very next note the editor complains
that Dr. Nott was ' misled by the orthography of betook ;
(which is perfectly correct). He explains that it is 'the
Saxon betokej which is curious, as the word is of Norse
origin. He clearly considers that you can manufacture
' Anglo-Saxon ' forms by spelling words badly. And, in
this particular, there are many who are of the same mind.
P. 179 : Surrey translates Aen. iv. 92, thus : —
1 Saturne's daughter thus burdes Venus then.'
33° CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION.
The note is : —
' Beards. The word is frequently used by the Elizabethan drama-
tists, signifying to oppose face to face, to threaten to the beard, and
hence to imply an open menace.'
Unfortunately this only explains beards, with which burdes
has nothing whatever to do. For it is another form of
hordes or boards. See the New Eng. Did. s. v. 'Board,'
verb, sense 4, where another quotation, from the same
poem by Surrey, shows that burdes means ' accosts.'
In the same volume are some poems by Grimoald.
At p. 212 Grimoald uses the common phrase ' and
pincheth all to nye,' i. e. too nigh. But, oh ! the note !
It says, ' Nye, annoyance, trouble.' I admit the annoyance
— to the reader.
At p. 215, in the fine poem of The Death of Zoroas,
Grimoald says : — ■
' Whether our tunes heav'n's harmony can yield ;
Of four begyns, among themselves how great
Proportion is.'
As the whole context is about the learning of Zoroas
in astronomy and philosophy, we might fairly guess begyn
to be a somewhat licentious form for beginning; and we
might fairly suppose that this is the very passage which
induced Spenser to use the same form in his Faery Queen,
iii. 3. 21. Moreover, the 'four beginnings' may fairly be
considered to mean the four elements ; but the note knows
better. It simply and oracularly says that the sense is
' biggins.' It must therefore mean four child's caps, or
four night-caps, or four coifs, or four coffee-pots. To such
a choice are we thus reduced. And why, in that case,
does Grimoald seem to accent the latter syllable ?
401. Curiosities of Interpretation. IV (8 S. ii. 3 ;
1892).
A famous antiquary and editor was Joseph Ritson. We
all remember the acrimony with which he attacked Warton.
CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION. 33 1
Frequently, but not always, he had good reasons to show
for his strictures. If, however, we were to draw the con-
clusion that he was himself accurate, we should be very
much mistaken. His throwing of stones was doubtless
intended to let us know that he did not himself live in
a glass house. Nevertheless that house had an over large
proportion of windows in it, as may easily be seen.
Ritson's Metrical Romance'es (to adopt his own peculiar
spelling) is a valuable book in its way, but we must not
trust it too much. I give a few samples of some of its
peculiarities, for which purpose it is simplest to examine
the glossary.
In King Horn, 11 20, we read how Horn craved some
drink, because he and his companions ' bueth afurste,' i. e.
are athirst. The glossary says that afurste here means
' at first,' which makes nonsense of the whole passage.
In the King of Tars, 605, it is said of a man that he is
' in his herte sore attrayed,' i. e. sorely vexed at heart.
See Atray in the N. E. D. The glossary has ' Attrayed,
poison'd.' This is a very bad shot, for the A. S. dttor,
poison, could not possibly produce such a verb as attrayen.
Blyve, we are told, sometimes means blithe, and is cor-
rupted from it. It never has that sense, and the assumed
' corruption,' like most others, is unwarranted. [It is for
bi live, with life ; hence, quickly.]
* Borken, barking,' is entered without a reference. It
occurs in the King of Tars, p. 400, and is the past tense
plural, meaning 'barked.' Mr. Ritson should have known
that -en is not the suffix of a present participle. If the
hapless Warton had been caught in such an error, Ritson
would have called the statement 'a lye.'
The glossary gives us cronde, unexplained. This is an
error for croude, as shown by Price.
Dang, we are told, is the 'plural' of Ding; but it is
charitable to suppose that 'plural ' is a misprint for 'preterite.
332 CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION.
1 Denketh roun, thinks to run,' is surely comic. The text
has roune, i. e. to whisper.
Druye is unexplained, yet it is merely our ' dry.'
' Ernde, yearn, desired.' But it means 'he ran,' as the
context requires. See rennen in Stratmann.
' Glyste up,' not explained. The s is printed as a 'long s';
in fact, it is an error for glyfte up. To gliff is to glance
quickly, to look, gaze. It is duly explained in Stratmann.
Hone is explained by ' shame ; Fr. honte? But ' with-
outen hone ' means ' without delay,' and is a fairly common
phrase.
' Pende, hond,' must be a misprint of hond for pond. Pende
is explained by Stratmann as a pound, or (perhaps) a pond.
' Ryne, rine [sic], the white covering of a nocturnal frost.'
This is a complex error, and refers to King Horn, p. 1 1 :
' For reyn ne myhte by ryne.' The answer is simple ; read
by-ryne, i. e. be-rain, rain upon.
In the Erie of To/ous, p. 337, we have, 'He behelde
ynly hur face,' where ynly (for in-ly) means inwardly, hence,
intently. But Ritson was entirely puzzled by it, and mis-
prints it yuly. Hence the curious entry in the glossary,
' Yuly, handsome, beautiful1.' This he supports by a
quotation about 'a captain's wife most yewlyj adding,
' though it must be confess'd that the original has not
yewly, but vetulie, unless the tail of the y have been broken
off at the press ' ; that is, his imaginary word is to be ex-
plained by manipulating another passage to suit it.
In Ywaine and Gazvaine, p. 677, is a curious passage
about Sir Ywaine riding under a portcullis.
' Under that than was a swyke.'
The knight's horse's foot touched the swyke, i. e. the
trap or contrivance for letting the portcullis go, and down
it came. But Ritson coolly identifies swyke with syke, and
explains it by 'sike, hole, or ditch.'
1 Carefully preserved in Halliwell's Dictionary.
GRUESOME. 333
Under the word thoghte, however, he succeeds in gib-
beting a mistake of ' mister Ellises ' very neatly, as follows :
' In mister Ellises edition, the text has hym poghte ; the
comment [is], "In poste, Fr. in power " ; than which nothing
can be more ridiculous.'
402. Gruesome (8 S. i. 420 ; 1892).
A reference to my Dictionary will show that Burns
speaks of death as 'a gruso??ie carl,' and that ' grousome,
horrid,' occurs in Levins, Jlfanifi. Vocabulorum, printed in
1570 ; so it is nothing new. Not only have we the G. graa-
sam and the Du. gruwzaam, but the Middle-Danish grusom,
which is probably the real source of our English word.
According to Kalkar, the derivative adj. grusomme/ig occurs
in Danish in 1580. The A. S. gryre, horror, is from the
same root. See Grand in Kluge. The E. Friesic form is
grausam, so the word must have been rather widely known.
403. Groundsel (8 S. i. 441 ; 1892).
I shall be much obliged if I may be allowed to explain
the history of this word fully. We must never try to twist
et)Tmologies to suit ideas of our own, but must go strictly
by evidence. We must be careful as to plant-names,
which are peculiarly liable to be recast by popular etymo-
logists. There is no doubt at all as to the fact that in the
tenth century the plant was named grunde-swelge, with
variations in the latter half of the word. The variations
are swelige, szvi/ige, swylige, swu/ie, all given, with refer-
ences, in Bos worth's Dictionary. Any one who understands
A. S. phonetics will easily see that all these variants have
the same sense ; and that sense is ■ swallower.' Hence,
in the tenth century, the popular etymology of the word
was that it meant ' ground-swallower ' ; and the only way
we can make sense of is by giving it the sense of
334 VERSES BY THE POPE.
'abundant occupier of the ground.' This is the only
result possible as to the meaning of the word at that date.
With this we should have to remain content but for
new evidence, which has not long been known, and has
not been explained till recently. To the best of my belief
it was explained by me in a review of Mr. Sweet's edition
of the Epinal Glossary, which appeared in 1883. My
explanation at once became common property, and is
reproduced both in the Century Dictionary, and in the new
edition of Webster.
The fault is not in the latter half of the word, but in
the former. The A. S. scholar at once observes that grunde
is a false form ; the A. S. for ' ground ' is not grund-e, in
two syllables, but grund, in one. Hence grunde is probably
a substitution for something else. That ' something else '
first sprang to light on the publication of the Epinal
Glossary, and the other early glossaries known as the
Erfurt and Corpus Glossaries. These take us back to
the eighth century, when the form in use was gunde-
swilge or gunde-swelge. This alters the sense altogether,
and shows that the original name was ' matter-swallower,'
or remedy against a certain disease called the gund, M. E.
gound. This was a disease of the eyes, in which matter
exudes consequent on inflammation or ailment. It is fully
explained in my note to Piers Plowman on the word rade
gomide. The disease is still called red-gu?n, a. corruption
of red-gund. The intense belief of our ancestors in the
virtues of plants is well known ; see all about the virtues of
groundsel in Cockayne's Leechdo?ns. In East Anglia we call
it simpson. This is from O. F. senepn, Lat. ace. senecionem.
404. Verses by the Pope (8 S. i. 452 ; 1892).
The following paragraph appeared in the Standard, May 3,
1892 : —
'Princess Isabella of Bavaria, having had the idea of preparing for
FIRST EDITIONS. 335
a sale for charitable purposes an album of royal photographs and
autographs, begged of Pope Leo XIII the favour of being allowed to
inscribe his name among the patrons of the work. His Highness
replied by sending the following verses, celebrating the art of photo-
graphy :—
Ars Photographica.
Expressa solis spiculo,
Nitens imago, quam bene
Frontis decus, vim luminum,
Refers, et oris gratiam.
O mira virtus ingeni
NTovumque monstrum ! imaginem
Naturae Apelles aemulus
Non pulchriorem pingeret.
Leo P.P. XIII. '
A mend, who sent me this information, asked me for
a translation ; and I ventured to return him the fol-
lowing : —
' Bright picture, drawn by Phoebus' beam,
How faithfully dost thou retrace
The forehead's breadth, the eye's bright gleam.
The smiling lip's enchanting grace !
' O wondrous art, invention new !
Earth's latest marvel ! Surely ne'er
Apelles, Nature's rival, drew
A portrait with minuter care ! '
405. First Editions (8 S. i. 480 ; 1892).
I think that in considering the comparative value of
various editions, we must draw a sharp line between real
second editions and mere reprints.
In the sixteenth century, the first edition of a book is,
as a rule, much the best. Later editions are mere reprints,
each less correct than its predecessor. Take the case of
Piers the Plow7?ia?i, printed thrice in one year by Crowley,
and afterwards reprinted by Rogers. Crowley's first edition,
dated (by a misprint) 1505 instead of 1550, is worth having.
336 FIRST EDITIONS.
But the later ones grow steadily worse ; and Rogers's edition
is highly incorrect. Yet I have seen the worthless fourth
edition highly priced, on the speculation that the purchaser
would give about thrice its real value. In the present
century all depends on the amount of revision. The
general rule is that the first edition is by far the worst,
especially in cases where much revision is possible. But to
take the case of Piers Ploivi7ian once more. Mr. Thos.
Wright issued a capital edition in 1842; but his second
edition, in 1856, though it seems to have been revised,
contains eighteen errors in the text, from which the first
edition is free.
I have myself issued various editions of a portion of the
text, with notes. As a rule, each of these is better than its
predecessor, yet only the other day I discovered a misprint
in the text in the later editions which does not appear
in the earlier ones. This is one of the dangers of re-
printing ; a letter is dropped, and its loss is not perceived
in the revision unless the false form happens to catch
the eye.
I conclude that the general rule is this — to seek after the
first editions of early books, and the last editions of modern
ones. But there will always remain special cases to which
this rule does not apply. In particular, unrevised reprints
are not likely to improve; they will rather be found to
deteriorate. There seems to be, moreover, a considerable
difference between one text and another. In the case
of a novel I should prefer an early copy, but in the case
of a scientific treatise a late one. Yet the reprinting of
novels is, as a rule, so easy that even the latest copies may
be quite correct, or at least free from material errors. This
is where the question of sentiment arises ; the relative
value of the various editions must be left to the fancy
of the purchasers, and the seller must select his purchaser
as well as he can.
SWEDISH AND ENGLISH. 337
406. Swedish and English (8 S. i. 488 ; 1892).
Every now and then a deliciously innocent article on
language escapes editorial supervision, and finds its way
into print. An amusing instance may be found in the
June number of the Journal of Education (1892^, entitled
* Gleanings amongst Swedes.'
The author was led to his knowledge of Swedish, he
tells us, by observing the word Tandsticker on a box "of
matches. This, he kindly informs us, is derived from
tand, a tooth, and sticker, a splinter. Here there are only
four errors. The word is Tdndstickor, with a and 0 (not
a and e). Tdnd has nothing to do with tooth, but is from
tdnda, to kindle, akin to tinder. And lastly, stickor is not
singular, but plural.
After this somewhat inaccurate introduction to the
language, many curious discoveries followed. The fol-
lowing are specimens.
Gammer (which really means grandmother, as gaffer
does grandfather) is from Swed. gamme/, old. (The right
spelling is gamma/, but we must not be particular.)
The Swed. basun, must be a relative of bassoon. Un-
luckily, there is no kinship at all ; see Posaune in Kluge.
Basun is merely a borrowed word in Swedish, having no
original value in that language ; and it means a trumpet.
The Swedish for bassoon is Bassong.
Lin (we are told) means flax, as linum does in Latin.
Considering that /in is nothing but the Lat. linum done into
Swedish, the coincidence, after all, is hardly to be considered
as wonderful.
Next comes a new notion of borrowing native English
words from Swedish. Thus, we are told that our acre is
either borrowed from the Lat. ager or from Swed. dker.
Well, it so happens that our acre is the A. S. cecer, not
borrowed from either one or the other, but cognate with
both.
z
338 JULIUS CAESAR, IV. 3. 218.
At any rate, we are told, if we do not admit that acre
is borrowed from Swed. aker, we must at least admit that
ochre is derived therefrom. This is curious, for ochre is
Greek ! Funniest of all is the notion of deriving an English
word from a combination of Swedish words. Thus, our
hide is not derived merely from Swed. hud, a hide, but
at the same time from hy, skin. The forms hud and hy,
neatly fused together, give hide. This is our old friend
the 'portmanteau' word, familiar to Alice in Wonderland.
But the truth is that hy does not primarily mean 'skin,'
but 'colour.' It is cognate with A. S. hiw, our hue, and
has nothing whatever to do with hide. As to hud, it is
merely a cognate form.
Like Oliver Twist, we can but ' ask for more.'
407. Julius Caesar, iv. 3. 218 (8 S. ii. 63 ; 1892).
The famous passage, 'There is a tide in the affairs of
men,' &c, may be compared with the following stanza in
Chaucer's Troilus, ii. 281 : —
' For to every wight som goodly aventure
Som tyme is shape, if he can it receyven ;
And if that he wol take of it no cure,
Whan that it comth, but wilfully it weyven,
Lo ! neither cas nor fortune him deceyven,
But right his verray slouthe and wrecchednesse ;
And swich a wight is for to blame, I gesse.'
Chaucer's stanza is to some extent borrowed from Boc-
caccio's Filostrato, book ii. Mr. Rossetti thus translates
the Italian passage : ' Every one has a chance in life, but
not a second chance.'
408. Racoon (8 S. ii. in ; 1892).
I regret that I gave the wrong account of this word in
the first edition of my Dictio?iary. But I corrected it in
the second. It is clearly a corruption of the Indian name.
The earliest quotation I have found is the following,
WINDMILLS. 339
dated 1607-9 : ' There is a beast they call Aroughcon, much
like a badger, but vseth to Hue on trees as Squirrels doe.'
Capt. John Smith, Works, ed. Arber, p. 59. [At p. 355 of
the same, it is spelt aroughcun ; and in a glossary of Indian
words subjoined to A Historie of Travaile into Virginia,
by W. Strachey (published by the Hackluyt Society in 1849)
we find ' Arathkone, a. beast like a fox.']
409. Windmills (8 S. ii. 138 ; 1892).
An early instance of an English windmill is that in which
Richard, earl of Cornwall and ' King of Almaigne,' took
refuge after the battle of Lewes in 1264. In the famous
song against the King of Almaigne, the 'sayles' of the
1 mulne ' are mentioned, showing that it really was a wind-
mill.
So also Rob. of Gloucester, 1. 547, has : ' The king of
Alemaine was in a windmulle nome.'
410. 'Buffetier' as an English word (8 S. ii. 194; 1892).
The reasoning in the last article seems to me quite
beside the mark1. Before the word buffeteer (which has
not been shown to exist) could have been coined in
England, we must have had buffet to coin it out of. Now
the earliest known quotation for buffet in English is dated
1 7 18. These are precisely the wild suggestions that 're-
quire to be narrowly watched.'
411. Edwards's * Words, Eacts, and Phrases '
(8 S. ii. 246 ; 1892^.
I am of opinion that this book ought not to be seriously
quoted by any scholar. It is a mere compilation, and
1 Argued — ' that buffeteer (sic) is not to be found in the English sense
in any French author proves nothing.' And, ' that historical etymology
is valuable, but requires to be narrowly watched.' [It never occurred
to the writer that buffeteer has no more existence in English than
buffetier has in French.]
Z 2
34° LUCE; A QUADRUPED.
abounds with errors. Yet it is quoted twice in JV. and Q.,
ante, pp. 211, 214. In both instances it contains a blunder.
At p. 211 we are told that ' a small figure of the devil
stands on the top of Lincoln College ' ; whereas a few lines
below we read that it was taken down in 1731. At p. 214
the origin of the well-known word maundy is said to be
from manducate ! I advise correspondents not to put any
trust in this very poor book.
412. Luce; a quadruped. I (8 S. ii. 353 ; 1892).
Luce, as a fish, is a pike. But luce, as a quadruped,
is a lynx. Cf. A. S. lox, Du. los, O. H. G. luhs, G. Luchs,
a lynx. Flower de luce is simply a comic blunder of some
one who wished to show off, and was made by prefixing
flower-de- to luce in the sense of lynx1. See ' Lucern,
a lynx,' in Halliwell. In a pageant by Dekker, called
Britannia's Honour (1628), the supporters of the Skinners'
arms are said to be ' two luzernes.''
413. Luce ; a quadruped. II (8 S. ii. 435 ; 1892).
Surely your correspondent at the last reference (ii. 391)
cannot have read the articles to which he refers with due care.
In N. a?id Q. 8 S. ii. 328, the statement really made is
this: 'In Harl. MS. 2125 is recorded the cost of making
anew the four beasts called the unicorne, the antelop, the
flower-de-luce, and the camell.' My statement was that
' the flower-de-luce is a comic blunder.' However, your cor-
respondent is entitled to the opinion that it is correct !
My suggestion, of course, was that the floiver-de-luce was
a blunder for luce, and that the luce, which is also a beast,
was probably a lynx. No one need adopt this suggestion
if he can find a better one. But he must find us a quad-
ruped of some sort.
1 F "or flower-de-luce, see the next article.
'STRACHY.' 341
Again, in the catalogue, 'one unicorn, one dromedary,
one luce, one camel/ it is also probable that the luce here
meant is a quadruped, and not a pike.
I cannot produce further authority for luce in the sense
of ' lynx,' because it is extremely difficult to find, but I believe
it can be found, and that I have met with other instances.
And, surely, if luce ever did mean a quadruped, etymology
tells us that it is the lynx, and nothing else. I do not for
a moment believe that the existing heraldic authorities are
exhaustive, or that the compilers of them necessarily under-
stood every old English term they ever met with. There
is a large number of words in Randell Holme of which
modern heralds have probably never heard. Very likely
he explains luce, but I have not the book at hand. Few
glossaries of heraldry are more complete than Elvin's, but
he does not give luzern at all.
I do not understand what is meant by saying, ' Part of
the charges on the arms of the Skinners' Company, London,
is fleurs-de-lys or.' For it so happens that a large, well-
painted copy of these arms was kindly given me but a short
time ago by the Master of the Company, and I believe
it accordingly to be authentic. These arms contain three
coronets proper on a chief gules, and the rest of the field
is ermine. I cannot find a single ' fleur-de-lys ' anywhere,
and the ermine is not ' or,' but ' sable on argent,' as
usual.
As to lucern, see seven quotations in Nares's Glossary \
he does not explain it properly, as he failed to see that
it meant a lynx.
414. 'Strachy' in Twelfth-Night, ii. 5. 45
(8 S. iii. 14; 1893).
I should think that too much has already been said about
the hopeless crux of Strachy in Twelfth- Night, ii. 5. 45;
and I suppose that all that has been said is worthless.
342 HENCHMAN.
Yet I beg leave to offer one more guess, probably also
worthless. The O. F. estrache (see Godefroy) occurs as
a variation of estrace (meaning extraction, race, rank,
family), from Lat. extrahere. So perhaps ' the lady of the
strachey ' (small s) was ' a lady of rank or good extraction.'
415. Henchman. I (8 S. iii. 194; 1893).
This word has been several times discussed. I write
further about it solely because I have found more evidence.
In A Collection of Ordina?ices and Regulations for the
Government of the Royal Household, London, 1790, I find
several facts. The oldest spelling [there] is henx?nen.
In the thirty-third year of Henry VI we find ' Henxmen 3.'
This means that their number was then limited to three ;
see p. 17* of the above-named work.
In the time of Edward IV, their number was really five
(p. 99), though the Ordinances say that their number was
to be ' six or more ' (p. 44) \ But it is more important to
observe that they were not mere servants, as is usually
believed, but something very different. It is clear that
their office was purely honorary, for nowhere are any wages
assigned them. Doubtless they were a kind of pages, all
quite young men or growing boys, who had a paid master
assigned to teach them, and who had, moreover, servants
of their own. Their place was one of some honour, and
they served the king himself, and him only. They were
specially assigned ' to the riding household ' on p. 99 ; and
everything points to the fact that they were far removed
from being mere servants. I find the latest mention
of them in the time of Henry VIII (p. 198). I think all
this affects the etymology, and renders all connexion with
the word Hans (Jack) unlikely ; [but see later articles by
Dr. Chance.]
1 Note in 1895. Six; because the Master of the Horse counted
along with them. See p. 345 below.
HENCHMAN. 343
The passages are too long for quotation, I only give
a few extracts : —
* Maistyr of Gramer ... [is to teach] the kings Henxmen, the
children of chapell . . . the clerkes of the awmery, and other men
and children of courte ; . . . which mayster . . . if he be a preeste,'
&c. (p. 51).
1 Henxmen, vj enfauntes, or more, as it shall please the kinge ; all
these etyng in the halle, and sitting at bourde togyder . . . and if
these gentlemen, or any of them, be wardes, then after theyre byrthes
and degrees . . . and everyche of theym an honest servaunt to kepe
theyre chambre and harneys [i. e. armour], and to array him in this
courte ' (p. 44).
'Maistyr of Henxmen, to shew the schooles of urbanitie and norture
of England, to lerne them to ryde clenely and surelye ; to draw hem
also to justes; to lerne them were theyre harneys; to have all curtesy?
in wordes, dedes, and degrees, diligently to kepe them in rules of
goynges and sittings [i. e. in rules of precedence] after they be of
honour [i. e. according to their rank]. Moreover, to teche them
sondry languages, and other lernynges vertuous, to harping, to pype,
sing, daunce . . . and to kepe . . . with these children dew covenitz
[sic], with corrections in theyr chambres, according to such gentlemen .
This maistyr sitteth in the halle, next unto these Henxmen, at the
same borde, to have his respect unto theyre demeanynges . . . and
for the fees that he claymyth amonges the Henxmen of all theyre
apparayle, the chamberlayn is juge ' (p. 45).
This shows that they were not menials at all, but young
men of high rank, who rode in tournaments.
'The officers of the ridinge houshold . . . Item, five Henxmen,
and one of the said xij squiers to be maister of them . . . Item,
a hackney for the henxmens man ' (p. 99).
'Item, the king [Henry VII, a. d. 1494] would . . . suffer noe
lord's servaunt to awaite there, but only the henchmen ' (p. 109).
1 Master of the Henxmen, stabling for six horses ' (p. 198).
416. Henchman. II (8 S. iv. 16 ; 1893).
The quotation of the spelling He7ixtmen in the earliest
known use of the word, viz. in 1400 *; surely settles, at
1 'The word is older than 1415. It occurs in 1400 — " Henxtmen
Dominae " (Wardrobe Account, 2 Hen. IV, 95/30, Q. R.')—N.andQ.
S. iii. 478.
344 HENCHMAN.
last, the etymology of the word. I have always contended
that it represents the Dutch hengst compounded with man ;
the compounds hengst-loon and hengst-geld are given in
Kilian, ed. 1777. The difficulty, for me, was to find
the /, ' as the more usual spelling is henxman. But here
is the / in the oldest form ; and my present contention
is, that my opponents will now have to explain away this
t instead of asking me to produce it ; and till this is done
I do not see what more can be said. The easiest course,
for those who can bring themselves to do it, will be to
admit that appearances are now very much in my favour.
417. Henchman. Ill (8 S. vi. 245 j 1894).
This word has been often discussed in N. and Q. I have
to note a very early use of it.
The Treasurer's Accounts for the Earl of Derby's Ex-
peditions in 1390-3, have just been edited by Miss L.
Toulmin Smith for the Camden Society. The index gives
several references for henksman ; so spelt.
The Earl of Derby had two henksmen, and they certainly
rode on horseback at times. The first entry is : ' Diversis
hominibus pro tribus equis ab ipsis conductis pro equita-
cione domini et ij henksmen apud Dansk decimo die
mensis Augusti, xv. s. pr.' The date is August 20,
1392. The henksmen were named Bernard and Henry
Tylman.
On another occasion a horse was hired for one of them
to take a journey, and an ass for his return, whilst travelling
in Judea.
418. Henchman. IV (8 S. viii. 335 ; 1895).
This word has been so frequently discussed that I should
not have written again about it, were it not that I have
obtained quite a flood of new light upon it.
I have always contended that henchmen were horsemen,
FOD. 345
few in number, personally attendant on the king, and some-
times men of rank. All this is entirely verified by the
account given in the Antiquarian Repository, ii. 241-277,
of the coronation of Richard III, in 1483. The word is
there spelt ' henxemen.' The king's henchmen were the
Master of the Horse (who counted as one) and seven
others, one of them being Lord Morley. Moreover, the
queen had her henchmen, viz. five ladies, riding upon
' women's sadelles.'
In the account of the expenses we first have mention
of the king, and then of his henchmen ; next of the queen,
and then of her lady-henchmen (to coin a queer word).
Next to them in importance comes the Archbishop of
Canterbury. It is, therefore, quite idle to pretend that
a henchman was a mere page of inferior rank.
Unless it be remembered that the Master of the Horse
was one of them, it will not be understood how it was that
the seven henchmen required eight doublets, eight black
bonnets, and so on (pp. 255, 256). Note, for instance,
p. 248: 'And to the Maister and to each of the same
henxemen a paire of blac spurres, and for ledyng-rayns xxij
yerds of broode riban silk.'
419. Fod (8 S. hi. 266 ; 1893).
I have no doubt that this is a ' ghost-word.' Halliwell's
edition of Nares gives it, on the strength of a quotation
from the Paradyse of Dayntie Devices, 1576: 'As we for
Saunders death have cause in fods of teares to saile.' It
is the old story ; a letter has ' dropped out.' Read flods,
i. e. floods.
420. Julius Caesar, iii. 1. 58-70 (8 S. iii. 284; 1893).
Compare the following lines from the second chapter
of the Parabolae of Alanus de Insulis : —
34-6 CHAUCER'S ' STILBON.'
'Aethereus motus mouet omnia sidera praeter
Unum, sed semper permanet illud idem;
Sic constans et fidus homo sine fine tenebit
Hunc in more modum, quem tenet ipse polus.
421. Chaucer's ' Stilbon ' (8 S. iii. 293 ; 1893).
... As to Stilbo [Pard. Ta/e, C. 603], I am behind the
age. Dr. Koppel showed, in Anglia, xiii. 183 (1890),
that he was Stilpo, of Megara, mentioned by Seneca ; also,
that Chaucer got the name from Walter Map's Valerius,
cap. 27. Stilbon, for Mercury, occurs in Alanus, Anti-
dan dian, iv. 6.
422. Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, line 16
(8 S. iii. 293 ; 1893 ; same article as above).
It is of no consequence what new opinion may be offered
as to the person meant by 'Bernard the Monk.' He is
certainly Bernard of Clairvaux, as was expressly explained,
more than 200 years ago, in J. J. Hofmann's Lexicon
Universale (Basileae, 1677), s. v. Bernardus. The passage
concludes with the words : ' Nullos habuit praeceptores
praeter quercus et fagos. Hinc proverb. Neque enim
Bernardus vidit omnia.' I admit that I failed to give this
reference in 1889; but that, to a student who is always
learning, is a long while ago.
423. Merestones (8 S. iii. 329; 1893).
Mere is a pure English word, independent of the Gk.
/xet/oo/Acu, ' I receive as a portion.' Merestone is not ' a mis-
print for milestone] but is quite right. The 'old verb to
mere] spelt mear by Spenser \Ruines of Rome, st. 22],
is not an old verb, but a ' mere ' invention of Spenser him-
self, coined out of the substantive ; and the substantive
is also used by Spenser, in a quotation duly given in John-
son's Dictionary.
THE METRE OF 'IN MEMORIAM.' 347
Mere-stone is not given in my Ety?nological Dictionary ;
nevertheless, it occurs in a dictionary in which I had
a hand \ and I here quote the article.
' Mere, sb. limit, boundary, S 2 ; meer, Prompt. Comb. : mere-stane,
boundary stone, Cath. — A. S. {ge)mcere.' — Mayhew and Skeat, Concise
M. E. Dictionary, Oxford, 1888, p. 146.
Here 'S. 2'= Specimens of English ■, ed. Morris and
Skeat ; ' Prompt.' = Promptorium Parvulornm (Camden
Society). ' Cath.' means that mere-stane is a compound
given in the Catholicon Anglicum. A reference to Strat-
mann's Mid. Eng. Diet, will furnish quotations from
Layamon, the Coventry Plays, the Alliterative Poems,
Trevisa, &c. And see the A. S. Dictionary.
The best example is in St. Mark, v. 17. Here the Vul-
gate has : ' A flnibus eorum.' The Old Northumbrian
version has : ' from gemaerum hiora.' The older A. S.
version has : ' Of hyra gemaerum ' ; and the later one : ' of
hire maeren.' The ce is long, though not so marked.
424. The Metre of In Memoriam' (8 S. iii. 337; 1893).
I have always thought that it was derived from Geo.
Sandys's 'Paraphrase upon the Psalms of David,' 1636. Thus,
in Ps. exxx, we have the remarkably fine stanza : —
' What profit can my blood afford
When I shall to the grave descend ?
Can senseless dust thy praise extend ?
Can death thy living truth record ? '
It is a question of chronology for one thing. Who can
give us dates or facts ?
[In N. and Q. 8 S. iii. p. 430, Mr. Adams quoted from
F. Davison, who died about 16 19; his translation of Ps.
exxv (in this metre) is given in Farr's Select Poetry, p. 325.
But this does not strike one as being very accessible ;
whilst the tone of Geo. Sandys is strikingly like that of
348 YETMINSTER AND OCKFORD.
Tennyson's poem. Others pointed to Lord Herbert of
Cherbury's Ode, which is of later date (1665); also a
Luttrell broadside (about 1660). And Mr. Thomas Bayne
referred to an Elegy in Ben Jonson's Underwoods, which
appeared in 164 1. I still think that Tennyson imitated
Sandys ; or, if not, then certainly Ben Jonson.]
425. Yetminster and Ockford (spellings in Domesday)
(8 S. hi. 409; 1893).
[I only quote a part of the article, which was occasioned
by Canon Taylor's references to Domesday Book.]
It cannot be too clearly understood that Domesday
abounds with the most ludicrous mistakes, and is only
of value when properly collated with and controlled by
other authorities. It could not be otherwise. The Anglo-
French scribes had to spell, how they could, words which
had no meaning for them, and which frequently they could
not pronounce. We may illustrate this by considering
what value we should attach to the spellings of an English-
man ignorant of Arabic when he tries to write down Arabic
words.
For this reason, even modern English pronunciation is
often of superior value to the Domesday spellings. It
is, at any rate, English, and not a mere travesty of it. And
it is easily seen that in the case of Ockford [Domesday,
Adford\ it is an excellent witness.
The word ' corruption ' is continually misused. When
we are told that the Domesday names Everslage, &c. have
become Yearsley, &c, we naturally ask — how? There is,
properly speaking, no such thing as 'corruption.' It is
a term due to the old and vicious habit of ignoring all
phonetic laws. These laws act with surprising regularity,
and when exceptions occur, they are not due to 'cor-
ruption,' but to downright and intentional substitution
of an apparently intelligible syllable or word for one of
YETMINSTER AND OCR FORD. 349
which the meaning has been lost. Till this is better
understood, no progress is possible.
The Domesday spelling Adford is, on the face of it,
absurd. If Ad- was written for At- [as was suggested],
it is at once conceded that the scribe was writing down
what he could not pronounce, and did not understand.
If, in another instance, he (or another scribe) wrote Acford
for Oakford [as was also alleged], he was clearly trying
to reproduce the A. S. Acford, originally dc-ford, i. e. oak-
ford. Cf. Ashford. The A. S. Acford is correct, because
written by an Englishman ; see Kemble for the reference.
The A. S. acford can appear in modern English in the
forms Acford, Ockford, or Oakford, all regular developements,
petrified at varying dates ; and when we collate Ockford
with the A. S. form, we see at once that the Anglo-French
scribe has miswritten Adford for Acford because he did
not understand it. These spellings are easily understood
when we have the clue to them ; when we have not, it
would be quite a mistake to trust them overmuch.
Next, to take the Domesday Etiminstre for Yetminster.
It is obvious that eti- can hardly mean at [as was alleged],
because eti for at is unknown. It is equally obvious that it
cannot mean atte (for at the), because the scribe had not
the gift of prophecy, and could not tell that that form
would be invented after his death. But when we collate
this Eti- with the Mod. Eng. Yet-, very common for 'gate,'
and the direct descendant of A. S. geat (with ge—y), we
can see that the scribe simply dropped the initial y for the
reason that he could not pronounce it, as it was not in
his (pronounced) alphabet . . . My point is, that we must
control the Domesday forms by our knowledge of the
actual changes that have taken place in English.
I deny the fact of ' corruption ' in language, except by
the way of forcible and intentional substitution, which only
takes place when an attempt is made to give a thing a
350 DIMANCHE DE QUASIMODO.
new sense. Thus crayfish from ecrevisse gives an apparent
sense to half the word. I think it also likely that the A. S.
Eofor-wlc, i. e. Boar-town, whence Mod. E. York (where
again y is due to eo), was a deliberate substitution for a
Celtic name which the English voted to be unintelligible.
This is not corruption, but intention. It just makes all
the difference.
426. Dimanche de Quasimodo (8 S. iii. 437 ; 1893).
The phrase quasi modo geniti occurs in Piers Plowman,
B. xi. 196, C. xiii. no. My note on the passage explains
that the reference is to the First Sunday after Easter,
'because, in the Sarum Missal, the office for that day
begins with the text, 1 Pet. ii. 2 : Quasi modo geniti
infantes, rationabile sine dolo lac concupiscite.'
427. ' Stoat,' its derivation (8 S. iii. 455 ; 1893).
[In reply to the assertion that dubstart is a name for the
stoat, which shows that stoat is from A. S. steort.~\
Clubstart, from A. S. steort, a tail, is quite another name
from stoat. A moment's reflexion will show that stoat and
start are different words, just as coat and cart, or i?wat and
mart. That any one should for a moment deem it possible
to derive stoat from A. S. steort, is a clear proof of the
inability of the English mind to conceive that etymology
obeys fixed laws.
428. Trouts (8 S. iii. 474; 1893).
[It was first said that the pi. form trouts occurred in
Sir W. Scott's Diary. Next, that it was older, occurring in
Beaumont and Fletcher's The Scornful Lady, Act iii. sc. 2.
Next, that it is in Shakespeare, Measure for Measure,
i. 2. 91.]
The plural trowtis occurs in Barbour's Bruce, ii. 577.
The date of the Bruce is 1375, i.e. 241 years earlier than
'CAVALRY CURATES' AND PREACHING PONIES. 351
Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, and nearly 400
years earlier than the birth of Sir Walter Scott. This
shows how easy it is to 'go one better' in questions as to
English usage.
[Nor is this the oldest example ; for on the same page
of JV. and Q., a mention of ' 3 Troghtes ' was cited from
the Wardrobe Accou?it, 62/7; a. d. 1344-7. The A. S.
truht only occurs in the singular.]
429. ' Cavalry Curates ' and Preaching Ponies
(8 S. iv. 25 ; 1893).
The following remarkable announcement occurred in
the Daily Telegraph, June 10, at p. 7 : —
' The latest development of the mounted brigade is an ecclesiastical
corps called "Cavalry Curates," in connexion with the Church of
England. ... In out of the way districts, where the population is
scant and sparse, small chapels of iron or other material will be con-
structed, in which the services will be conducted by "Cavalry
Curates," supplied with lithe and strong ponies for the purpose, who
will not only preach in half a dozen places on Sunday, but will
arrange to hold galloping ministrations during the week.'
The suggestion that litheness and strength are requisite
for enabling ponies to preach in half a dozen places at
once, deserves attention. What is meant by ' galloping
ministrations ' I do not quite understand : it seems to refer
to some form of spiritual polo.
430. Mrs. Cowden Clarke's ' Concordance to Shake-
speare ' (8 S. iv. 135; 1893).
It is startling to find that Astarte still clings to this once
useful, but now obsolescent work, and recommends utiliza-
tion of the numbered lines in the Globe Shakespeare.
Let her at once order a copy of Schmidt's Shakespeare
Lexicon, first printed in 1874-5, and now (for all I know)
in some later edition. It gives all the references, noting
acts and scenes and lines ; and it includes the poems.
352 < RUN AW AYES EYES.'
That any student of Shakespeare should never have heard
of Dr. Schmidt is quite sensational. Most sincerely do
I trust that the 'labour has paid its expenses.' It is the
most meritorious work of its kind in the whole range of
our literature.
The Concordance to the sonnets and poems, to which
allusion is made, is that by Mrs. H. H. Furness, printed
at Philadelphia in 1874. I am the proud possessor of
a copy sent to me by her husband, the editor of several
of Shakespeare's plays, the completeness and excellence
of whose work leave but little to be further desired. I
remember that it was simply addressed to ' Mr. Skeat,
London,' and it says something for the intelligence of
St. Martin's-le-Grand that it reached me without delay.
431. ' Runawayes Eyes' (8 S. iv. 84; 1893).
I cannot for a moment accept the ridiculous guess that
we have here a misprint for unawayrs. It is founded on
the cool statement that ' the old mode of spelling unawares
was unawayrs? Was it, indeed ? Then will any one kindly
submit some quotations to prove it ? It was certainly not
the normal spelling, and I can see no reason for the
insertion of the diphthong ay instead of the usual and
correct a. This is how Shakespearian ' emendations ' are
produced ; they are frequently founded on unsupported
assumptions.
432. English Words ending in '-ther' (8 S. iv. 162 ;
1893)-
I wish to draw attention to a remarkable phenomenon,
on which much more light is desirable.
The English words ending in -ther fall into two distinct
sets.
1. The following words are spelt with th in Anglo-Saxon
and Middle English, and give no trouble to the etymologist.
ENGLISH WORDS ENDING IN '-THER.' 353
Brother, either, feather, lather, leather, neither, nether, other,
rather, whether, wether. With them we may class heather,
as being formed from heath ; smother, of which the M. E.
form is smorther; and even fathom as compared with
A. S. faed?n, though ending in -thorn instead of -ther.
Related words in German end in -der. Compare Bruderi
Feder, Leder, nieder, ander, entweder, Widder; also Faden.
2. But the following words are spelt with d, not only
in Anglo-Saxon, but even in Middle-English : father, gather,
hither, mother, tether, thither, together, weather, whither,
wither. Related German words end in -ter; compare
Vater, Gatter, Mutter, Wetter. Of course hither, thither,
and zvhither all changed together, and the words together,
and gather (being closely related) did the same. More-
over, wither is a mere derivative of weather. Hence the
list of independent words is reduced to Father, gather,
hither, mother, tether, weather ; but we may add to the list
the provincial word ether, A. S. edor, O. H. G. etar, a
pliant rod. The remarkable point is this : that the change
in these words from d to th is quite late. Stratmann's
Dictionary of Middle English gives only forms with d ; there
is (with one exception, for which see p. 354) not a single
form with th, so far as I can discover. That is to say, the
change was later than 1400, and not long, perhaps, before
1500. What was the cause of it?
I believe it was due to the Wars of the Roses, when the
dialects seem to have been mixed up. I have little doubt
that the forms in -ther were Northern ; and perhaps ulti-
mately due to Scandinavian influence.
The most remarkable case is that of the verb to wither.
The A. S. verb is tvedrian, to weather ; but the Icel. verb
is vithra, with an i, as in modern English. I think this
goes far to prove my point.
I would appeal to correspondents to produce, if they
can, any dated example in which any of the words in my
a a
354 SPENSER; F. Q., I. I. 8.
second list is spelt with th, at an earlier date than 1500.
It is no easy task — I have, for years, been hunting for
the form father, and can find nothing earlier than a quota-
tion from Skelton ; see Dyce's edition, i. 139. A collection
of quotations, for spellings with th, older than 1500, may
help us greatly. I repeat the list of words for which they
are desired. They are ; ether (a rod), father, gather, hither,
7fiother, tether, thither, together, weather, tvhither, wither.
[In the Cambridge MS. of Thomas of Erceldoune, ed.
Murray, 1. 437, we find teyryt, probably meant for te\ryt
(tethered\ The MS. is Northern, and of the middle of the
fifteenth century. Cf. Icel. tjbdra, to tether.]
433. Spenser; F. Q., i. 1. 8 (8 S. iv. 215 ; 1893).
The fact that Spenser's ' tree-list ' is imitated from Tasso,
Gier. Lib. iii. 75, is perfectly well known. It is printed,
for example, in my edition of Chaucer's Minor Poems,
1888, p. 292. Warton says : 'Ovid, Seneca, Lucan, Statius,
and Claudian, have all left us descriptions of trees,' and
gives the references.
The fact is, that this ' tree-list ' has been trotted out by
the poets over and over again. I give a rather long list
in my note, but it is easy to make it longer. Some of the
poets who have made use of a similar list, are these in
chronological order : Ovid, Seneca, Lucan, Statius, Claudian,
Guil. de Lorris, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Tasso, Spenser. I
daresay there are more of them. The hint for it perhaps
came from Vergil, Aen. vi. 179; see Ovid, Met. x. 90;
Seneca, Oedip. 532; Lucan, Phars. iii. 440; Statius, Theb.
vi. 98; Claudian, De Raptu Pros. ii. 107 ; Guil. de Lorris,
Rom. Rose, 1338-1368; Boccaccio, Teseide, xi. 22-24;
Chaucer, Pari. Foules, 176, and Kn. Tale, 2063; Tasso,
Gier. Lib. iii. 75 ; Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 8. As to Spenser,
it is quite certain that one of his authorities here was
Chaucer's Parlement of Foules.
' TO LAUNDER.1 355
434. ' To Launder ' (8 S. iv. 216 ; 1893).
Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon duly records laundering-,
with a reference to A Lover's Complaint, 1. 17. It is
never safe to omit consulting him. The pp. landered
occurs in Hudibras, ii. 1. 171, as the Century Dictionary
correctly observes.
435. A Comic Etymology of * Beadle ' (8 S. iv. 306 ;
1893)-
The following appeared in the Saturday Review, Sep-
tember 9, p. 306, in a review of Professor Bright's edition
of the A. S. Gospel of Luke : —
' The officer ... to whom the judge delivers the criminal becomes
the beadle, or by-del, who, we need hardly say, is not the modern
Bumble, but the officer of the by, or township.'
This is delicious. If by- in by-del means a township,
what is -del} If it is our deal or part, we gain the informa-
tion that a beadle is ' a part of a town.' Perhaps he is the
parish-pump. Unluckily, the word by, for township, is not
Anglo-Saxon, but Norse. It occurs once, in the Northum-
brian version of Mark v. 3, as a gloss upon hits, a house,
but only as a borrowed word from Norse.
Again, the y in by del was short, as the cognate German
word biittel shows. It is true that the y was marked long
in Bosworth's Dictionary, and I find (somewhat to my
surprise) that I inadvertently copied this mark of length in
the first edition of my Dictionary ; but it was corrected in
the Supplement, at p. 784. However, I gave the right
etymology, from beodan, to command ; and the whole
account of the word is now given in full in the Neiv
English Dictionary. The etymological division of the word
is byd-el; where byd- is derived, by mutation, from the zero-
grade of the strong verb beodan.
a a 2
356 MAY-DAY: MARIGOLD.
436. May-Day: Marigold (8 S. iv. 311 j 1893).
At the last reference (iv. 272) we are told marigold has
been referred to an A. S. form meregold, gold of the mere.
If the A. S. mere is now mere (as is the case), then it cannot
also be mary ! Else we should have to admit that a deer is
all one with a dairy, and fear is but another form of fairy.
The A. S. mere-gold is a pure fiction, invented by some
' etymologist,' in the hope that he would not be detected.
A large number of ' Anglo-Saxon ' words were composed in
the last century, from a prevalent idea that to invent forms
as required was a pious thing to do, as being likely to
forward the cause of truth.
I suspect that this A. S. meregold is due to the amusing
suggestion in Dr. Prior's Plant Names, that marsh-marigold
is the A. S. mersc mear-gealla, a suggestion which may serve
to measure Dr. Prior's knowledge of English phonology.
As a fact, mersc means marsh (right so far) ; niear (for
mearh) is a horse ; and gealla is the Mod. E. gall, which is
quite a different thing from gold. Moreover, this ' marsh
horse-gall ' is not a marigold at all, but a gentian, — the
Gentiana pneu?nonanthe, also called bitter-wort, for gall is
bitter.
Surely marigold is just Mary-gold, precisely as beefeater is
beafeater. The Irish name lus mairi, leek of Mary,
clinches the matter.
437. Second Sight (8 S. iv. 315 ; 1893).
The incident here given from the Scotsman is one of
those stupid fabrications which carry with them their own
refutation. The story amounts to this. A certain incident
at Sierra Leone was seen in England at the same moment,
as shown by clocks or watches.
But Sierra Leone is in 130 50' of West longitude, which
makes a difference in time of about fifty-three minutes.
TARRING-IRON. 357
Hence the lady in England saw the incident nearly an
hour after it occurred. Clumsy forgers are requested, for
the future, to remember that a difference in longitude
makes a difference in time.
438. Tarring-iron (8 S. iv. 317 ; 1893).
This well-known puzzle is fully described at p. 837 of
Cassels' Book of Sports and Pastimes, n. d. It is there
called ' The Puzzling Rings,' to which is added, ' but it has
been so many times christened, that no list of names could
claim to be a complete list.' Even when you know how
to do the puzzle, it takes some time to accomplish. It is,
or was, extremely common.
Tarre is another form of tarry. Usually, tar re meant to
vex ; to tarre on is to set on a dog ; but it is, etymo-
logically, the same word as tarry. See teryen in Strat-
mann.
439. Sith: Sithence : Since (8 S. iv. 358; 1893).
Sith is not ' shortened from an older form sithen,' but is
an independent word. Sith-en is a compound word ; from
sith and then. So, also, the German seit is not shortened
from an older form seitdem, but is an independent word.
Seit-dem is compounded of seit and dem. Explained in my
Dictionary, s. v. ' Since.'
440. * Gingham » (8 S. iv. 386 ; 1893).
According to Littre, s. v. guingam, this stuff is named
from Guingamp, in Brittany.
The Century Dictionary also mentions an unlikely
etymology from a Javanese word ginggang, perishable !
No one explains the spelling. I think the right explana-
tion is, simply, that gingham is an old English spelling of
Guingamp. See the account of 'the towne of Gyngham,'
i. e. Guingamp, in the Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, iii. 357.
358 HOLT '= HILL,
441 Holt = Hill ! (8 S. iv. 392 ; 1893).
The interpretation of holt as ' hill ' is somewhat modern,
and may have arisen from popular misuse. The fact
that both words have an h and an / in them is quite enough
to ' establish a connexion ' in the minds of those who do
not care to investigate the meanings of words historically.
The original sense of holt is 'wood'; and this is verified
by observing the senses of cognate words ; such are G. Holz,
wood ; Du. hout, wood, timber, fuel (you cannot burn
hills !) ; Russ. koloda, trunk, log ; Polish kloda ; Gk. /cAaSo?,
branch ; Irish colli, a wood.
442. Sunset (8 S. iv. 521 ; 1893).
I observe in N. and Q., 8 S. iv. 455, the following
question : ' Is the phrase "the sun sets in the west" good
grammar? Ought it not to be — "sits in the west?'"
This shows a very common confusion of thought as to
what constitutes grammar. Grammar is wholly concerned
with prevalent usage, and is distinct from logic. No one
ever said, ever has said, or ever will say, that the sun sits in
the west ; which is quite enough to show that sits is here
ungrammatical.
Of course the question means, Is the phrase involving
sets good logic ? This is a totally different question, and is
worth considering. But it is really high time to begin to
understand that logic and grammar cover different ground,
and should be kept apart. Nearly all the disputed questions
about grammar involve this fundamental confusion of ideas :
and this is why such discussions are often so wearisome,
so full of useless wrangling, and so unsatisfactory.
The right way to investigate grammar is to do so
historically. Never mind whether ' sets ' is ' right ' or
' wrong,' whatever those terms may seem to imply. We
have, first of all, to inquire into the history of the phrase.
The history shows that there were really two distinct
SUNSET. 359
uses of set. The usual A. S. settan, the causal of sittan, is
regularly transitive. But there was a single instance in
which settan was intransitive, viz. when it was used of
a swelling that subsided ; in this instance it is probable
that the reference was not to the verb to sit, but to the
derived substantives set, a seat, set/, a seat ; and to the verb
settan, to take a seat, to settle down. To say that a swell-
ing sits would have been absurd ; subsidence expresses
a sort of movement, or alteration of position, which the
mere verb to sit entirely fails to suggest. Hence the A. S.
verb was, in this case, settan. The A. S. settan, however, is
never used of the sun ; this usage is somewhat later, being
found, at any rate, in the thirteenth century ; but the
history of sunset runs upon a line parallel with that already
indicated. The sun never sits in the west, as it is always
(apparently) in motion ; it subsides there. And these two
things, being logically distinct, may well be distinguished in
grammar also; although grammar (as already said) is not
pledged to be always logically correct. A ship is feminine
in English grammar, and a wife is neuter in German
grammar. It may be ' logic ' to refuse to conform to such
usage ; but it is not ' grammar.'
The oldest English expressed sunset by various phrases ;
they are all well illustrated in Bosworth and Toller's
A. S. Dictionary. Thus the A. S. set meant a seat ; hence,
1 to sete eode sunne,' the sun went to its seat, the sun set.
Another word was set-gang, i. e. a going to one's seat ;
as in ' ofer set-gang,' after the seat-going of the sun, after
sunset. Much commoner was the sb. set/gang, with
a similar sense and use; as in 'aet sunne setlgang,' at
the sun's seat-going, at sunset. Sometimes it was setlung ;
as in 'aefter sunnan setlunge,' after sunset.
Out of these usages arose the M. E. use of the verb
setten, with reference to the subsidence of the sun. This
occurs in Havelok. 1. 2671: 'til that to sette bigan the
360 'TOOTH-SAW.'
sunne,' till the sun began to set. It clearly arose from
a desire for abbreviation.
It is hardly necessary to go on. History shows that set,
to subside, is properly intransitive, and arose in a somewhat
different manner from the ordinary transitive set, the causal
of sit.
The moral is, that we should never call grammatical
usages in question till we have first looked at their history.
It is just as unfair as it would be to brand a man as wicked
of whose conduct we know nothing whatever.
443. * Tooth-saw ' (8 S. iv. 525 ; 1893).
We are all fallible ; and even JV. and Q. can err. I have
just observed a curious misprint, which has produced
a word such as Dr. Murray will carefully avoid ; at any
rate, in such a context.
In JV. and Q., 6 S. x. 422, col. 2, is a notice of a book
called Chaucer's Beads, which is said to contain 'a con-
cordance of Chaucer's proverbs and tooth-saws?
However, Chaucer was no dentist ; he only originated
1 sooth saws,' i. e. true sayings. The expression ' sooth sawe '
occurs in his House of Fa?ne, 1. 2089.
444. To ' hang out ' (8 S. v. 366 ; 1894).
The phrase ' to hang out,' in the sense ' to lodge, reside,'
is well known. See Pickwick, chap, xxx ; Daniel Deronda,
chap, xxxvii, in the Century Dictio?iary, which adds — ' in
allusion to the custom of hanging out a sign or ° shingle "
to indicate one's shop and business.'
No early instance of this is given ; but I can supply it.
In Middleton's play of The Widow, iv. 1, there is reference
to a quack doctor who has lately come to reside in a certain
town, and has taken up his quarters at the ( Cross Inn.'
1 His flag hangs out in town here i' the Cross Inn,
With admirable cures of all conditions.'
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 361
The editor's note says, ■ It was usual for quacks to hang
out a flag when they took up their quarters in a town.'
I presume the custom was not at all confined to quacks ;
they would hardly care to proclaim themselves as such. Of
course they only did what other tradesmen did ; the practice
of hanging out ' signs ' was common amongst tradesmen
of all descriptions. In The Alchemist it is Abel Drugger,
'a seller of tobacco,' who asks the expert to invent a sign
for him.
The Century Dictionary further explains that in the
United States a ' shingle ' means ' a small sign-board,
especially that of a professional man,' whence the colloquial
phrase ' to hang out one's shingle.' This shows that the
custom found its way to America, where it is still practised ;
and that the phrase ' to hang out ' is still known there in its
original sense.
445. Flotsam and Jetsam (8 S. v. 475 ; 1894).
The explanations of these words in my Dictionary are
incorrect. The correct explanations were, however, first
given by myself in Notes printed for the Philological
Society in 1888-90. My paper on the words was read on
November 4, 1887.
Flotsam is an adaptation of the Anglo-French floteson,
for which see p. 82 of the Black Book of the Admiralty,
ed. Sir Travers Twiss, 187 1, vol. i. It occurs, with various
spellings, in Cotgrave (s.v.flo), Minsheu (1627) and Blount
(1691). I further prove that floteson answers precisely to
a Low Latin form * fluctationem, a barbarous variant of the
accusative oifluctuatio.
Jetsam, better spelt jetsom or jetson (as in Minsheu), is an
adaptation of the Anglo-French getteson, occurring in the
same volume of the Black Book, pp. 96, 170. It presents
no difficulty, being precisely the Lat. iactationem ; from
iactare, to cast.
362 ST. SWITHUN, SWITHIN, OR SWITH-HUN.
My supposition that the words were partly of Scandinavian
origin is wrong. They are both of Latin origin ; from the
root-verbs fluere and iacere respectively.
446. St. Swithun, Swithin, or Swith-hun
(8 S. vi. 46 ; 1894).
The A. S. spelling was Swith-hun, as in JElfric ; for it is
compounded of swlth, strong, and hunt savage. One //
was dropped (like the one / in eight-th) because Swithhun
looked odd. The spelling Sivithin arose from loss of the
etymology and indistinctness of speech ; it has nothing
to recommend it except that it is much in vogue.
447. Edinburghean Grammar ; as. ' He told you
and I ' (8 S. vi. 53 ; 1894).
We make, in English, no distinction of form between the
nominative and accusative in the case of nouns. This has
led to occasional confusion between the cases of pronouns ;
and that is all.
The matter is discussed in Matzner's E?iglish Grammar,
tr. by Grice, vol. i. p. 294. The confusion spoken of is
there said to be common in Yorkshire, Hampshire,
Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Here-
fordshire. In fact, it is common everywhere, and is nothing
new, being found in many authors, from the fourteenth
century to the present day ; only, of course, meddling
editors usually try to suppress the evidence. Matzner
gives numerous references. It is sufficient to give one of
them : — ' Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together ' ;
Othello, iv. 2. 3.
448. 'Boneshaw' (8 S. vi. 65 ; 1892).
For this word, see the New English Dictionary. Dr. Murray
does not give the etymology of the latter syllable.
Shaw corresponds to a Norse shag-. The Icel. skaga is
THA CKERA YA NA . 363
to project, stick out ; and skagi is a projection of almost
any kind ; see Nonveg. skage, sb., anything that sticks out ;
and see Rietz' Swedish Dialect Dictionary.
Hence boneshaw, or ' sciatica,' was supposed, originally,
to be caused by some sort of lump on the bone. This is
not true, so far as I know, but was a natural idea. In
modern times, the sense of shaw being lost, it has been
altered to shave, as if the disease were due to a scraping of
the bone ; hence boneshave. But in Somersetshire, boneshave
meant (in 1790) ca bony or horny excrescence or tumor
growing out of horses' heels ' (Grose). Precisely so.
449. Thackerayana (8 S. vi. 85 ; 1894).
The following nonsense verses by Thackeray, quoted
in the Daily Telegraph of July 18, 1894, are too good to be
lost : —
'When the bee is in the bonnet, and the heather on the brae.
And the lilting bubbly-jockey calls forth on every spray ;
When the haggis in the muirland, and the estrich at the tree
Sing their matins at the sunset, dost thou think, my Jean, of
me?'
Bubbly-jockey is, of course, a turkey. ' The haggis in the
muirland' is a fine image.
450. Indian Magic : the Mango-growing trick
(8 S. vi. 94; 1894).
The explanation of this trick is well known. It is given
in detail in a book on conjuring by Hofmann. Practically,
it is done by sleight of hand.
On each occasion the plant is covered up and again
uncovered, so as to show its stages of growth ; and on each
occasion you see a different plant ; so that it is done by
repeated substitution.
Crude and unlikely as this explanation seems, it gives
the right answer ; for details, see a printed account. It can
be done in any country, and is not peculiar to India.
364 THE PRONUNCIATION OF 'IRON'
451. The Pronunciation of 'Iron' (8 S. vi. 96 ; 1894).
Some say the r is mute ; and some say it is not so,
because we say ' iern.' All turns on the difference between
sound and symbol. When a Southerner says 'iern,' he
does not really sound the r at all. Neither is the r ' mute.'
What really happens is, that the supposed non-mute r is
really pronounced, as Mr. Sweet says, as ■ a vocal murmur/
Instead of the trilled consonant, we hear the ' obscure
vowel,' hardly differing (if at all) from the sound of a in
China. This is why it rimes to ' thy urn,' as Mr. T. says ;
only let it be noted that the ur is really vocalic.
The obscure vowel is commonly denoted by a ' turned ' e.
Hence iron is pronounced as ' ai9n ' ; urn, as ' 93n ' ; and
Byron as ' bairsn ' or ' baiaran,' the r being in this case
trilled. In some districts the r is trilled, and iron then
rimes with Byron. I have heard it, but I forget where.
The phonetic symbol for our 'long /' is (ai), more strictly
(ai).
452. A Queer Etymology : ' gnofie ■ (8 S. vi. 143 ;
1894).
I have seen some strange etymologies in my time, but
I think the following is the worst case.
In A Dictionary of Slang, by Barrere and Leland, p. xxi,
we are offered the etymology of gnoffe, meaning a churl or
miser.
' Its true root is probably the A. S. cneov, cnuf, or cnnvan
(also cneav, knave), to bend, yield to, cneovjan (genu-
flectere).'
For whom is this written ? Certainly not for such as
know the A. S. alphabet. The following are the errors.
1. There is no A. S. cneov. Some Germans write v for
w ; but the sound of v is not intended by it. Probably
cneoiv is meant.
2. But endow is a sb., and means a knee. It is merely
THE ETYMOLOGY OF JINGO. 365
the old form of knee. But what has knee to do with
gnoffe ?
3. There is no A. S. cnuf, nor anything like it.
4. There is no A. S. cnuvan. If cnawan is intended, it
is the old spelling of know ; which has nothing to do with
knee, nor yet with gnoffe.
5. There is no A. S. cneav, nor yet cneaw. The A. S. for
1 knave ' is cnafa, or cnapa.
6. Knave has nothing to do with gnoffe, nor yet with knee,
nor yet with know.
7. By cneovjan is meant cneowian, to kneel. But what
has this to do with gnoffe ?
Surely it is mere charlatanry to cite non-existent words,
and to pretend to have a knowledge of Anglo-Saxon when
not even the sense of the symbols has been ascertained.
It would have been better to say, in plain English, that
gnoffe is derived from knee, or from ktiave, or from know, or
from kneel. Then any plain man could have seen at once
the absurdity of the suggestions. Of course knee, knave,
and know are unrelated words, so we have no clue as to
which of them is really meant. Knave comes, perhaps, the
nearest, but it does not much matter ; for, even in this
case, there is no connexion whatever.
The days are past when sham Anglo-Saxon can be
seriously quoted without discovery. There must be several
hundred students by this time in England, Germany, and
America, who have learnt the simplest rudiments of the
language ; and all such will regard the above performance
with more amusement than respect.
[Gnoffe occurs in Chaucer (see my notes) ; and is derived
from Heb. ganav, a thief.]
453. The Etymology of Jingo (8 S. vi. 149; 1894).
It is an old superstition that Jingo is derived from the
Basque word for God ; but I know of no reason why we
366 THE ETYMOLOGY OF JINGO.
should believe it. This strange notion is, however, put
forward for acceptance in the Century Dictionary, which
has no evidence to offer, but the following vague and
unlikely guess that it is ' probably [!] a form, introduced
perhaps [!] by gipsies or soldiers, of the Basque Jinkoa,
Jainkoa, contracted forms of Jaungoicoa, Jangoikoa, God,
lit. the lord of the high.' So that the true Basque form
has first to be contracted ; then it must be used by gipsies,
who notoriously come from Biscay, or else by soldiers,
who must have come over the Pyrenees, and then across
the whole of France to get here ; and then these gipsies
or soldiers further mauled the word till they reduced it to
a form comfortable to swear by, and so on. And all this
is so extremely probable ! It all tallies with the old-world
style of etymology — viz. that we must always have a
make-up story, which is to be accepted without proof, and
handed on as an article of faith, to disbelieve which is
to be ' ill-informed ! '
If we must have a guess, let it at least be a probable
one. And this is why the rival theory, given in Webster's
Dictionary, is worth notice : ' Said to be a corruption
of St. Gingoulf.' Who this was we are not told ; but, of
course, it means St. Gengulfus.
The statement that it is 'a corruption ' is erroneous.
Jingo comes from Gengulphns or Gengulfus not by corrup-
tion, but by the strictest phonetic laws. It was not possible
for it to become anything else, as any one who knows the
phonetic laws of Anglo-French and of English can easily
see for himself.
Gengulfus must, in French, become Gengoulf Gengoul,
Gengou, and, in English, can only be Jingoo or Jingo.
We can test the ending -ulfus by the word wenvolf\ in the
French loup-garou, the ou represents the Latinized -ulfus,
corresponding to the Teutonic wulf The change of en to
in is a fixed law in English ; the very word ' English '
GOLF. 367
itself is pronounced Ing/ish, and I have given a list of
words showing the same sound-change. See p. 258.
Who was St. Gengulphus ? Alban Butler strangely omits
him ; yet most of us must have met with him in the
Ingoldsby Legends. His day was May 11, and his life
is given at length in the Acta Sanctorum. He was a Bur-
gundian in the reign of King Pepin (752-768), and was
martyred on May 11, 760. It is especially noted in the
Acta that Belgians called him Gengoa/: — 'Gengulphum
Belgae Gengoa/ vocant ' ; though the right phonetic form
is rather Gengoul.
Sir H. Nicolas quotes him as ' Gengoul, Gengoux, and
Gengou, in the Low Countries, or Gengulph.' Note that
a place named St. Gingoulph lies on the lake of Geneva,
opposite Vevey.
That we should love to swear by French saints needs
no proof. Even Chaucer's Prioress swore by St. Loy, who
was the Eligius of Limoges and Paris, just a century
earlier than St. Jingo. Our ancestors swore by St. Martin
of Tours, by St. Loy, by St. Denis, and many more. But
we shall long wait for evidence that they swore in Basque !
It is a pity that they did not.
454. Golf '8 S. vi. 158; 1894^.
At the last reference, Webster's Dictionary is misquoted.
Webster refers us, not to ' the Danish kolf] but to the
1 D. kolf ; and D. means ' Dutch.' He is, of course, quite
right ; the Danish form is kolv, the proper sense of which
is 'shaft' or 'arrow,' originally, a cross-bow bolt. In my
Dictionary, I refer to the account in Jamieson's Dictionary,
and I quote the Dutch kolf, 'a club to strike little
bouls or balls with,' from Sewel's Dutch Dictionary, 1754.
I ought to have cited Hexham's Dutch Dictionary, 1658
(ninety-six years earlier). He gives : ■ Een kolve, a Banding-
staff to strike a ball.' Koolman and Kluge show that
368 A HANDFUL OF QUEER ETYMOLOGIES.
kolf is related to Eng. club and clump, and even to the Lat.
globus.
455. A Handful of Queer Etymologies (8 S. vi. 204 ;
1894).
To find startling etymologies we have only to consult
books upon English antiquities written in the eighteenth
century, or in the early part of the present century. The
fashion at that time was to favour such as were most
outrageous, or, at any rate, to quote them with admiration
and respect.
Hampson's Medii ALvi Kalendaria (1841) is a capital
book with an awkward title. It contains several etymologies
which are highly ingenious. I quote a few.
' Perseus, from P'Ercs Zeus, the sun ' (sic) ; p. 53.
Zeus is, I suppose, Greek ; to what language P^Eres
belongs no clue is offered, nor are we informed how it
comes to mean 'the sun.'
' Charing Cross, as it was erected by Edward pour sa chere reine,
has been plausibly derived from the French ' ; p. 190.
I believe this delicious piece of humbug is still admired.
' Gauch, whence jocus ' ; p. 212. Gauch, here quoted, is
the German for a simpleton. Germanic words are so
often derived from Latin that it is quite refreshing to find
a Latin word derived from German, for a change.
' In Yorkshire a third part of the county is of vast extent, and
shires, hundreds, and wapentakes being formerly set out per ambula-
tionern, by processions on foot, this was performed by processions
made on horseback ; and hence the name of u Ryding " ;' p. 228.
This is not Hampson's own ; it was invented by Dr.
Kuerden, ' a learned antiquary of the seventeenth century.'
Hardy guess-work was evidently regarded as 'learning,'
not by any means as presumptuous ignorance.
GEASON OR GESON. 369
' The word goblin has been derived from God Belin, who is the
same as Bel or Belus ' ; p. 249.
Certainly God Belin is excellent French.
' Pales, the tutelary deity of husbandry and grazing, whose name
bears a great affinity to Baal. Belus, the sun ' ; p. 249.
All our old antiquaries had ' Baal ' on the brain ; it was
a blessed name to them.
' Hills in England which have been the site of heliacal idolatry [how
is this ascertained?] are commonly called Toot Hills, from the Egyptian
Thoth, Taut, Tent, Tet, or Taautres, who is the same as Mercury,
or Buddha, Osiris, and Maha Deva. He was known to the Irish as
Tuth, and gave rise to the English letter Te, the Greek Tan, and the
Hebrew Thau and Teth ' ; p. 254.
This is all a revelry of delight. It follows that the
Hebrew Thau and Teth are the same letter, and that
Egyptian was freely spoken all over England.
' I suspect that we owe the word aroynt to the rowan-tree . . . quasi,
a roant thee, or a roan to thee, witch ' ; p. 272.
' La it/i-mas, the day of the obligation of grain, is pronounced La-
ee-mas, a word readily corrupted to Lammas : it/i signifies all kinds
of grain, particularly wheat: and mas signifies all kinds of fruit.
especially the acorn, whence the word mast' ; p. 334.
La-ith-mas is meant to be Irish. It follows that Candle-
mas is ' candle-mast.'
456. Geason or Geson (8 S. vi. 232 ; 1894).
The more correct spelling is with ea, as the Middle-
English was gesen, with open e. It means ' rare ' rather
than 'wonderful,' and a still better translation is 'scarce.'
It was fairly common in the sixteenth century, and pre-
viously ; but I should say that it was not much used after
1660. The A. S. form was not goesne, because there is no oe
in Anglo-Saxon, though the symbol occurs in Northumbrian.
The A. S. word was gcesne, with long a, which produced
long open e in Mid. English ; and such words were spelt with
ea in Tudor times. It is allied to A.S. gad, Goth, gaidw, lack.
Bb
37° 57*. PARNELL.
For examples, see four in Stratmann's Mid. Eng. Dic-
tionary ; five in Halliwell's Dictionary, under ' Geason ' and
1 Geson ' ; and further, in my Notes to P. Plowman, p. 318,
where I observe that Ray notes ' Geazon, scarce, hard to
come by,' as being an Essex word. As Ray wrote in
1691, he gives a later instance than that in 1660; but he
considered the word provincial, and I dare say it is still
in use. Nail includes it in his East-Anglian Glossary,
printed in 1866.
457. St. Parnell (8 S. vi. 256; 1894).
The answer to this question (as to many others, e. g. that
about geason on the same page) is given in my Notes to
Piers Plowman. These notes have been plentifully pillaged
by exactly one writer1, but are wholly unknown to the
general, who have no conception of their extent and use-
fulness. On this occasion 1 shall quote from p. 80 : —
'"May 31 was dedicated to St. Petronilla the Virgin. She was
supposed to be able to cure the quartan ague." — Chambers, Book of
Days, ii. 389. The name, once common, scarcely survives, except as
a surname in the form Parnell ; see Bardsley's English Surnames,
P- 56.'
458. Lagan (8 S. vi. 265; 1894).
I suspect that lawyers are quite as much given to bad
etymology as other people ; and certainly the word lagan
has been queerly defined.
In Covvel's Interpreter, as reprinted in 1701, we find,
s. v. ' Flotson,' that ' Lagon, alias Lagan or Ligan, is that
which lieth in the bottom of the sea.' Cowel here agrees
with Blount's Nomolexicon, which has the same, and gives
the derivation from A. S. licgan, to lie.
The very same work, s. v. ' Lagan,' declares that lagan
1 [The editor of the Catholicon Anglicum.']
' HUCKSHINS.' 371
are goods cast out of a ship, and that the sailors fastened
a buoy to them. 'If the ship be drowned, or otherwise
perish, these goods are called ligan, 2. ligando ; and so long
as they continued upon the sea, they belong to the admiral ;
but if they are cast upon the land, they are then called
a wreck, and belong to him that hath the wreck.'
We thus gather that the goods were both at the bottom
of the sea, and upon it ; that they were stationary and
marked with a buoy, and that they also floated about, and
could be cast ashore. A very remarkable story.
Of course the false spelling ligan was invented to get
hold of a Latin etymology, from ligare. It is impossible
that it can come from ligare, because the Lat. ligamen
became lien in French and English ; and the attempt to
derive it straight from Lat. ligamen is hardly satisfactory.
The whole story is knocked on the head by the fact that
the original Old French word was also lagan.
It is given in Godefroy, who has : ' Lagan, lagand, laganl,
laguen, s. m., debris d'un vaisseau que la mer jette sur
le rivage, les epaves.' Godefroy gives several quotations.
One valuable one is from a letter of Edward II of England,
dated July 22, 13 15, in which our king says: 'Tous les
lagans qui eskieent ou pueent eskier en toute le coste
de le mer.' All the quotations refer to wreckage thrown
ashore ; there is no word about buoys.
The problem is thus narrowed to this, viz. to find the
origin of the O. French lagan or lagand.
I have solved many such problems, and have incurred
some obloquy, in consequence, from such as had pet
theories of their own. Let some one else try his hand
this time. [Ducange, s. v. Lagan, is mistaken.]
459. * Huckshins' (8 S. vi. 326 ; 1894).
This is explained in Elworthy's Somersetshire Word-
book as the ' hock-shins ; under side of the thighs, just
b b 2
372 ' HORKEY.'
above the bend of the knee ' ; with a quotation from the
Ex?7ioor Scolding. Hailivvell also gives hucksheens, from
the same. Please note that this is ' folk-etymology.' The
real sense is not ' hock-shins,' but ' hock-sinews,' as any
one may see by consulting Stratmann, s.v. ' hoh.' The
verb to hox (Halliwell) is merely a truncated form of to
hock-sinew.
460. ' Horkey ' (8 S. vi. 334 ; 1894).
At the last reference we are told that hawkey is a mis-
pronunciation of horkey. It is quite clear, however, that
horkey is a misspelling of hawkey.
We must not follow the late spelling of Bloomfield, but
the spelling in older books.
The information in Brand really helps us. It is clear
that hawky, or hoky, or hocky is an adjectival form, from
the substantive hawk, hoke, hock, whatever that may mean.
The substantive appears in the compound hock-cart, in
Herrick's Hesperides, and in Otia Sacra, 1648 (Brand).
Hence hockey-cart, in Salmon's Survey ; hoky or seed-cake,
in Sir Thos. Overbury ; and in Poor Robin's Almanack for
August 1676 : —
' Hoacky is brought home with hollowing.
Boys with plumb-cake the cart following.'
The real difficulty in this word is to know whether the
vowel was originally long or short. If short, which is
quite possible, then there may be a connexion with the
E. Friesic hokke, a set-up heap of corn or turves ; Low
German (Bremen) hokke, a set of four sheaves set up
in a small shock ; Ger. hocke, a heap of corn or hay
(Kluge).
The etymological difficulty is very great, so that there
is a wide field for taik that cannot easily be shown to be
irrelevant. [No such talk ensued.]
SO-HO. 373
461. So-ho (8 S. vi. 365 ; 1894).
The origin of so-ho was discussed in JY. and Q. some
years ago, but the right result was not given.
I find that the Century Dictionary is also incorrect as
regards this matter. It gives the etymology as from the
Eng. so, adverb, and ho ! an interjection.
This, however, is only the popular etymology, due to
substitution of the Eng. so (which makes no sense) for
an Anglo-French word which was less generally understood.
By good fortune, the exact origin of the expression is
precisely recorded, on high authority. It is given in the
Venery de Twety, originally written in the time of Edward II,
printed in the Reliquiae Antiquae, by Halliwell and Wright,
vol. i. pp. 149-154. On the last of these pages we read :
' Sohow is [as] moche to say as sa-how, for because that
it is short to say, we say alway so-how.' This means that
so-how was the English adaptation of the original Anglo-
French saho, in which the sense of sa had been lost.
The sense of sa is, practically, given more than once.
One of the hunting cries is given in full as ' Ho, so [for
sa], amy, so, venez a couplere, sa, arere, sohow ' ; and the
like. Sa is merely the Norman form of the Mod. French
(a, which Cotgrave explains by 'hither, approach, come neer.'
Similarly cy is for id, here. Hence the cry means ' Come
hither, ho ! ' which makes good sense. [Compare ' Sa, sa,
sa, sa,' in King Lear, iv. 6. 207.]
462. Chaucer's 'Anelida and Arcite ' (8 S. vii. 471 ;
1895).
I have frequently been reproved (I do not know why)
for correcting others with unmistakable clearness. In the
present case I have to thank R. R. for his clear explanation
of a most absurd blunder of my own. It is only one
more proof that even the most careful students fall, at
374 chum.
times, into error1. Let me add that Chaucer himself
furnishes an excellent example of staves in the sense of
' sticks ' in the following passage : —
' By goddes bones ! whan I bete my knaves.
She bringeth me forth the grete clobbed staves,
And cryeth — slee the dogges everichoon.'
463. Chum. I (8 S. vii. 514 ; 1895).
At the last reference we are told that the Latin c in cum
was originally pronounced as in Italian — that is to say, the
Italian con is pronounced chon. Is it, indeed? This is
news for Italy. We are also informed that the change from
ch to k is due to 'phonetic decay,' which simplifies and
' hardens ' sounds. But in fact the change is usually the
other way. Decay ' softens ' sounds, if I may for once use
a sadly unscientific term. It would be interesting to learn
the extremely new lesson, in what language a ch has become
a k 2. We might as well expect water to run uphill.
Much nonsense is often talked about the Latin c. It
was originally pronounced like the Greek k before all vowels.
The easy proof is this. The perfect tense of cadere was
formed by reduplication, i.e. by doubling the ^-sound.
Thus the perfect was ce-cidi (ke-kid-i). Those who think
1 In Chaucer's Anelida, 1. 183, we have : —
' His newe lady holdeth him so narowe
Up by the brydel, at the staves ende.
That every word, he dradde hit as an arowe.'
The metaphor is that of one who rides a horse, and, whilst tightly
holding the animal in by the bridle, keeps him at the stick's end,
i. e. beats him frequently with the end of a stick. As the expression
' at the staves ende ' is awkwardly introduced, I had taken it to refer
to the shaft of a cart; which cannot be right, as riders then rode upon
horses, and not behind them.
2 It was argued that the Spanish j, once palatal, has become a
guttural. But this is not really an instance of ' phonetic decay."
I believe it was due to external (i. e. Moorish) influence, which is
a different thing.
CHUM. 375
otherwise have to prove that twice k = double s ; or that
twice a cow is equal to two sheep.
Phonetic decay altered the Latin c before e and i only.
In Italian it took the sound of ch in chin ; in Spanish, the
sound of th in thin ; and in French, the sound of s in sin.
Only the sound k, and no other, can produce ch, th, and s,
all three.
We are also informed that the original Latin c is preserved
in the English chapel ! But how about the Welsh capel, as
in Capel Curig? Is that pronounced with the c as ch?
Even Englishmen, with their supercilious and ridiculously
ostentatious ignorance of Welsh, know better than that.
464. Chum. II (8 S. viii. 330 ; 1895).
So far as I am concerned, this is my last letter upon the
present subject ; and I am sure this announcement will be
thankfully received.
Whether the change of c {k) to ch in English words went
through all its stages or not before 1066 I cannot say. It
was quite a gradual process. But the preliminary stages,
such as the breaking of a into ea in Southern words, are
found quite early. I have nothing to add to Dr. Sweet's
explanation in his History of English Sounds, p. 143 ; and
I do not know why I need explain all over again what he
has there explained so well.
The change from c to ch only occurs in words of native
origin when the c is followed by e or i, or by sounds which
naturally cause palatization, such as ce, ea for a, eo for
Teutonic i, and the like. If a dialect resists the change of
a to ea, then there is no ch. This is remarkably shown in
English, where we have the Midland forms calf, care, cold,
(A. S. ceald, Mercian cald), by the side of chalk, chary (adj.
of care), and other Southern forms.
I have no doubt that whenever ca became cha in Old
French, as in chai?ibre from camera, there was an inter-
376 DEFICIENT LINES IN ENGLISH VERSE.
mediate stage, which we may roughly represent by k{i)amerax .
This never happened in the Picard dialect ; and I may
claim to be the very person who first discovered (in 1882)
the etymology of the curious word cark. It is simply the
Picard kark or karke, a word which in Parisian and in
English is spelt charge.
But why not consult authorities ? See Sweet, History of
English Sounds ; Mayhew, Old English Phonology ; Schwan,
Grammatik des Altfranzosischen ; Horning, Introduction to
La Langue et Litterature Eranfaises, and the rest.
One parting shot at those who think that the Latin c was
never a k. In the English Authorized Version we find the
spellings Kish and Cis for the same person, the latter spelling
being taken from the Vulgate. Are we to say that Saul
was the son of Sis ? Or, perhaps, in Italian ideas, he was
the son of Chis !
465. Deficient Lines in English Verse (8 S. viii. 45 ;
i895)-
I have shown that Chaucer frequently begins a line of
five accents with a single accented syllable, and that similar
lines are very common in Lydgate. I suspect they were
also fairly common in our old dramatic poetry, only the
editors (believing in themselves more than in the author)
frequently added a sly additional syllable. Nevertheless,
I just note a few that have fallen casually under my notice.
In Routledge's reprint (1883) of Greene and Peek's Works,
I find these examples : —
' Proud, I disdainful, cruel, and unjust ' ; p. 98.
'Mine, | and none but mine, shall honour thee* ; p. 99.
'I I am she that cured thy disease'; p. 107.
Here the editor calmly purposes to read : ' And I am.'
That is just what comes of meddlesomeness.
1 How else the change could have happened we have not yet been
informed.
DEFICIENT LINES IN ENGLISH VERSE. 377
'Fire, famine, and as cruel death'; p. 108.
Here Fire is a dissyllable, as usual ; read ' Fi | er.'
' Gra I cious as the morning star of heaven '; p. 168.
' Were | I baser born, ni3T mean estate ' ; p. 206.
Here the editor proposes two different emendations, none
being needed.
'Bow I thee, Andrew, bend thy sturdy knee;' p. 211.
So, again, in Cunningham's edition of Marlowe's Works,
I have already noted these : —
; Tan I ti : I'll first fawn [up]on the wind.'
Edw. II, i. 1 ; p. 1 18.
4 Der I by, Sal-is-bury, Lincoln, Leicester.'
Edw. II } i. 1 ; p. 119.
«
Here are two consecutive lines of this character : —
1 Lay I hands on that traitor Mortimer !
Lay j hands on that traitor Gav-es-ton ! '
Edw. II, i. 4 ; p. 122.
' 'Tis i my hand ; what gather you by this ? '
Edw. II, v. 6 ; p. 153.
Here the editor has done well in resisting the temptation to
substitute // is for 'Tis.
1 Mar 1 ry, sir, in having a smack in all.'
Massacre at Parts, i. 8 ; p. 160.
'Je j rome's Bible, Faustus, view it well.'
Faustus, i. 1 ; p. 60.
'Ho I mo, fuge ! Whither shall I fly?'
Faustus, ii. 1 ; p. 65.
' Frank | fort, Lubeck, Moscow, and where not.'
Jew of Malta, iv. 1 ; p. 107.
' Ba I rabas, send me three hundred crowns.'
Jew of Malta, iv. 5; p. no.
Truly, times are altered since that (usually) excellent
critic James Russell Lowell denied that such lines as these
37^ ' PARSON. '
existed, or could exist, in English poetry, in his (otherwise)
excellent article on Chaucer. The statement that they
could not exist I easily refuted by a simple reference to
Tennyson's Vision of Sin. The moral is, that editors
should let the texts alone when they can.
466 ' Parson' (8 S. viii. 65 ; 1895).
Perhaps the clearest old example of this word, as being
a variant of person, is in the edition of 1555 of Lydgate's
Siege of Troye, fol. H i. col. 2 : —
*' For eche trespasse must consydered be,
Iustly measured by the qualyty
Of hym that is offended, and also
After the parson by whom the wrong is do.'
Probably the original MS. expressed the word in a con-
tracted form, with the usual symbol which may be read
either as par ox per.
467. * Wederoue ' in Old French (8 S. viii. 65 ; 1895).
There is a queer mistake, s. v. ' wederoue,' in Godefroy's
Old French Dictionary. He gives wederoue (a scribal error
for woderoue, by the usual confusion of e with 0 in the
fifteenth century), with the variant forms wuderoue, wodruffe,
which occur in glosses to translate Lat. hastula regia.
Hence Godefroy gives the conjectural sense : ' p. -e. une
arme de jet, lance ou autre.' But hastula regia was an old
name for asphodel (Lewis and Short), and was translated in
English by the word which we now spell woodruff. Hence
woderoue is not ' a little lance,' but the English name of
a plant.
468. Hilda (8 S. viii. 72 ; 1895).
I beg leave to dissent from the dictum at the latter
reference to the effect that ' Hilda is derived from Hildur,
the war-maiden or chooser of the dead ' ; and I entirely
HILDA. 379
decline to submit to Miss Yonge's authority as to Christian
names. No doubt Miss Yonge's book is the best on this
subject ; but only because there is no better. It was
written in the time of pre-scientific etymology ; and for
purposes of scholarship cannot be depended on for
a moment.
The whole matter is obscured by the terrible inaccuracy
of the authorities. Good English names are turned into
Latin, and so disfigured as to be almost unrecognizable.
For example, ^Ethelthryth is turned into Etheldreda, which
is merely bad English without having the merit of being
Latin at all. Even Audry is better than that. Again,
Swithhun is not only turned into Swithun, with one k,
rendering the word meaningless, but is even changed into
Swithin. Briefly, no one will ever understand English
names until he grasps the fact that they are English, and
not Latin, nor yet High-German. What is the use of citing
foreign forms when we can get at the native ones ? And
when will it ever even dawn on the English mind that the
forms given in our native manuscripts are usually older,
better, and altogether more primitive and original than any
other ' Germanic ' forms, with the sole exception of Mceso-
Gothic? Possessing manuscripts of priceless authority,
we often prefer modern High-German, of all languages !
What can we expect from such a process but darkness ?
In what language does such a form as c Hildur ' occur ?
In Icelandic we have the masculine form ' Hildir ' and the
feminine Hildr. ' Hildur ' is probably an ignorant substitu-
tion for the latter.
As to Hilda, ' there is no room for doubt ' that it is the
Latinized spelling of the English Hild. Even Beda, though
writing in Latin, uses the form Hild as the name of the
Abbess of Whitby. The form Hild-a is a Latinism of later
date. As to the sense, Hild does not mean ' darkness,' nor
does it mean ' mercy.' The word for ' mercy ' is Ger. Huld,
380 ' EFFRONTER Y. '
which differs ^rom hild just as pull differs from pill, i. e.
totally. The symbols u and i are different, and the
difference in the words is in the vowel. Different vowels
make different words : — a golden sentence, which I recom-
mend all readers of this article to learn by heart.
As to the sense, hild means simply 'battle,' neither more
nor less. It does not mean war-maiden at all, but could be
applied to an abbess, as every one knows. Neither has it
anything whatever to do with choosing the dead. To call
a girl simply ' battle ' seems a strange proceeding, but this
does not alter the fact. It so happens that the giving of
such names to girls was a favourite habit of the English, as
is well known to all students of Anglo-Saxon.
To sum up. Hilda does not mean ' Hildur,' but stands
for Hild. It is neither Icelandic nor German, but a bad
monkish-Latin form of a native English name. It is
unconnected with ' darkness ' and with ' mercy.' It neither
means 'war-maiden' nor 'chooser of the slain.' That is,
there are at least six mistakes in an article in which we
are told that there is ' no room for doubt.'
I will merely say, to all whom it may concern, that the
whole subject of English names and English place-names is
in a parlous state ; so much so, that nothing can be taken
on trust. Verify your references, and consult the list at the
end of Bardsley's book on surnames. And do not put faith
in Miss Yonge ; hers was a good book for its date, and that
is all that can be said.
469. < Effrontery' (8 S. viii. 85 ; 1895).
According to the New English Dictionary there is some
difficulty as to the original sense of the O. Fr. esfronter. It
seems worth while to suggest that it has been confused with
O. F. afronter. At any rate, I find in the supplement to
Cxodefroy the entry : ' Afroiiterie, s. f. bravade insolente,
effronterie ' j and it is remarkable that all the three quota-
'HA-HA.' 381
tions which Godefroy cites spell the word affronterie with
double/
470. 'Ha-ha* (8 S. viii. 117; 1895).
This word has frequently been discussed in N. and Q.,
but I do not remember seeing the right explanation given.
It has nothing whatever to do with A. S. haga, a hedge,
which comes out in modern English as haw. Cf. haw-thorn.
The derivation from the interjection ha I ha\ is quite
correct, as may easily be seen by consulting Littre and the
new French etymological dictionary by Hatzfeld. But the
usual explanation, viz. that the haha so suddenly surprises
you that you involuntarily cry haha ! (which no one ever did
yet), is quite absurd. It is the haha itself which, as it were,
cries ^ ! ha} that is, 'Stop! or you'll tumble in!' The
very look of it is a warning, and that is all that is meant.
The English word is merely a loan-Avord from French.
The Old French hahe was a hunting term, calling upon the
dogs to stop, a fact which gives the clue at once. The
variant haha similarly denotes a break in the ground, calling
upon one to stop. Scarron actually used haha to denote
an old woman of such surpassing ugliness that she came
upon the gazer as a surprise ! We should call her ' a
caution,' which is just the sense of haha.
471. Derivation of Theodolite or Theodolith
(8 S. viii. 130; 1895).
I think I have quite a new light upon this curious word.
I do not believe that it has any connexion whatever with
Oea, or with 680s, or with XlOos. It is perfectly certain that
it cannot be connected with \160s, as is proved by the
early usages of the word. The statement by Dr. H. is not
merely a guess, but a very bad one, unsupported by a
tittle of evidence.
My own guess at the word is quite a new one, unlike
any that has ever yet been suggested. My belief is that
382 DERIVATION OF THEODOLITE.
it is derived from the personal name Theodulus, which, as
every schoolboy knows, means ' servant of God.'
Contrary to the usual method of guessers, I have founded
my guess on evidence, of a sort. In Godefroy's Old French
Dictionary will be found an entry under 'Theodulet,'
a substantive which he does not seem to be able to explain ;
and my notion is that theodelitus is merely an (ignorant)
Latinized form of the same word.
Though Godefroy cannot explain theodulet, I think I can.
It is well known that in medieval times a grammar was
called a donet, from its author, a certain Donatus. Again,
a certain collection of fables was called an ysofiet, from the
writer whose name we spell Aesop. And it appears from
the quotation in Godefroy that theodulet was the- name
for some sort of book or treatise, — a treatise, namely, by
a man called Theodulus. Cf. ftamfihl-et, from Pamphila.
This lands us in a track that is extremely difficult to
follow up. Who was the Theodulus who, presumably,
first marked the rim of a circle (used in measuring) with
considerable exactitude? Remember that a theodolite
meant at first 'a marked circular rim,' and was originally
quite independent of a telescope, or any ' way of seeing ' —
a fact which entirely upsets the guesses hitherto current.
(See the Supplement to my Etym. Diet.)
All that I have found out as yet is, that Theodulus was
rather a common name, as there was a saint of that name.
The last fact is familiar to all who have ever been to
Zermatt. [And I am told that a treatise called Theodolet
is mentioned in Rabelais (I. xiv.) ; where Theodolet=
Ecloga Theoduli. This Ecloga Vocum Atiicaru?n is a col-
lection of Phrases in Attic Greek, by a medieval monk
named Thomas, surnamed Theodulus ; an edition by
Ritschel was published at Halle in 1832. He is the same
person as the Thomas Magister referred to in Liddell and
Scott's Greek Dictionary?\
FIRST BURNING FOR HERESY IN ENGLAND. 383
472. First Burning for Heresy in England
(8 S. viii. 156; 1895).
It is quite certain that there were several cases of burning
for heresy in England before 1401. This question is
discussed in the preface to Arnold's edition of Wyclif's
Works, and in the Preface to my edition of the third text
(C-text) of Piers the Plowman, p. xiii. William Sautre
was the first person burnt for heresy under the new act
passed in the beginning of the reign of Henry IV. All
that this act did was to facilitate the process. Before
it was passed, the ecclesiastics who condemned the heretics
were powerless to carry out the sentence themselves ; they
had to hand over the criminal to the secular arm. The
new act did away with this necessity, and so rendered
the criminal's fate the more swift and certain \ And that
was all the difference. Hence the popular notion, that
no one was burnt before 1401, is a mere delusion.
473. Roadnight (8 S. viii. 166 ■ 1895).
Under the heading 'Coincidences' (ante, p. 124), the
question is raised as to the etymology of the surname
Roadnight. The answer is simple enough ; it certainly
stands for ' Road-knight ' ; A. S. radcniht. It does not,
however, answer, in sense, to the Modern English 'knight
of the road.' The A. S. rad was used with reference to
riding, and cniht means servant. So that radcniht was
a riding retainer, a servant on horseback. The Mod. E.
road was originally 'a path for riding,' as distinguished
from a foot-path.
474. Foxglove (8 S. viii. 186; 1895).
The A. S. name of this plant is foxes glofa, 'glove of the
fox.' I make this note because the assertion is constantly
1 [The words used were to the effect that the punishment might
be administered ' uberius et celerius.']
384 CAMBRIDGE.
being repeated that it is a corruption of ' folk's glove.'
See, for example, N. and Q. 8th S. viii. 155. Whenever
a writer uses the word 'corruption,' we may commonly
suspect him to be guessing. It is the one word that is
prized above all others by those who prefer assertion to
fact. When any quotation can be found, either in Anglo-
Saxon or Early English, for the phrase fakes glofa or falkes
glove, the ' corruption ' theory may be seriously considered,
but not till then. Always bear in mind that during the
last centurj?, and the former half of the present, baseless
guesses of this character were invented by the hundred.
Only old quotations can save us from the nuisance of their
tyranny.
475. Cambridge (8 S. viii. 265 ; 1895).
Every one who attempts to make any research as to the
origin of Cambridge will soon find out for himself that the
name of the Cam is quite modern. When any one can
produce any example of the form Cam, either with the
bridge or without, before a. d. 1350, we may consider the
matter further ; but certainly not till then.
The old name was, practically1, Grantabridge, turned by
the Normans into Cauntebridge (1 142), afterwards shortened
to Caumbridge (Paston Letters), and Cambridge ; out of
which the modern river-name Cam was wrongly evolved.
I say wrongly, because it was done by help of the written
word ; the spoken word would have made it Came -. This
shows how diligent our old writers were in evolving etymo-
logical falsities.
It is simply a question of historical research, as I have
already hinted.
The A. S. name for the river was Granta, and it is
1 Really ' Grantan-brycg' ; of which I give the sense.
2 The local pronunciation is Kyme-bridge, where kyme rimes with
time. Those who know this fact seldom know how to interpret it.
CAMBRIDGE. 385
called Granta still by the people who have not been taught
better. Even educated people admit that the name is
Granta at Trumpington. The A. S. name for the place
was Grantanbrycg.
We still speak of Grantchester, for which the A. S. name
is Granta-ceaster. For references, see the Dictionary, and
the A . S. Chronicle. The fact that the forms Cam and
Cambrycg never occur in any MS., from the year 700
downwards to 1350, is significant enough to such as are
accustomed to work at etymology instead of merely guessing
at it.
In an Old English Miscellany, ed. Morris (E.E.T.S.),
p. 145, is a list of the shires and hundreds of England in
the thirteenth century. Here we find Grauntebrugge-schire
(1. 48), i. e. Grantabridge-shire, as the name for the county.
The first line of Chaucer's Revels Tale shows the next
stage ; the MSS. have Caimter-bruge, Canta-bregge, Canta-
brigge ; the very late Lansdowne MS. has Cam-brugge, the
oldest instance of the spelling Cam which I can call to
mind. Of course the form Cam-brugge destroys the metre
of the line, for a trisyllable is imperatively required. Hence
the blunder was not the author's.
This Cam really stands for Caum or Caam ; and the
m is due to the following b j nb turns into mb as a matter
of course. This is why the a in Came (so pronounced)
is long ; cf. E. chamber, M.E. chainbre, chaumbre.
Spenser (F. Q. iv. n, 34) calls the river the Grant.
Drayton's Polyolbion makes a special study of river-names ;
and we there learn that the river that flows by Cambridge
was called the Grant; Song 21, 1. 51 \ It was my fellow-
collegian who in his Lycidas (1. 103) spoke of Camus :
observe that, for him, the a was long.
1 Later on, at 1. 107, he has ' That Cam, her daintiest flood, long
since entituled Grant' ; showing that he held Grant to be the true old
name.
C C
386 THE KING'S QUAIR.
476. The King's Quair (8 S. viii. 274; 1895).
I had not intended to write a note on this subject ; but
I now find it necessary to do so. One of the replies at
the latter reference attributes the Complaint of the Black
Knight to Chaucer, whereas we know, on MS. authority,
that it was written by Lydgate. See my note in my larger
edition of Chaucer's Works, i. 56, or that in my edition
of the Minor Poems, p. xlv. I may add that this poem
will appear in its due place in my supplemental volume,
which will contain the chief poems that have been at any
time wrongly attributed to Chaucer.
The citation of the ' Icel. kver' (not ' kwer') is also mis-
leading. It is not a true Icelandic word at all, but merely
the Old French quaier done into modern Icelandic spelling.
But now that I am about it, I may mention that 'The
Kingis Quair' (formerly ill-spelt 'Quhair') is one of the
' curiosities of literature.' My edition of it, for the Scottish
Text Society, was the eleventh in point of time ; but it was,
nevertheless, the first that was really edited from the MS.
itself, and is the only one that is decently correct. I know
of no parallel to this. The first edition, in 1785, was
printed from an incorrect transcript made by 'an ingenious
young gentleman,' who could not read the MS. correctly * ;
and the succeeding editions (except my own) were reprints
from that first edition. One editor, in 181 5, discovered
that this original text was incorrect ; but he did not dis-
cover it till too late. None of the other editors ever
consulted the MS. at all ; such a proceeding was, in those
days, considered superfluous.
My first essay in editing Middle English was in 1865,
thirty years ago, when I edited Lancelot of the Laik for the
1 [This statement was somewhat too courageously denied by a
correspondent who asserted that the first editor, Mr. Tytler, copied
the MS. himself. However, Mr. Tytler is the very person who says
the contrary !]
' SL UBBER-DEG ULLION : ' ' S TRA NG ULLION. ' 387
English Text Society. My announcement that the previous
edition (printed from the same MS.) had never been
properly re-read with the MS., and swarmed with errors,
created quite a sensation at the time. I cited nineteen
bad mistakes, and mentioned that four whole lines at a
time had been omitted in two places ; but I might have
added that the variations from the MS. really amounted
to several hundred !
Even now some ignorance remains. A gentleman who
was so good as to reproduce The Kingis Quair after me,
and to speak of my labours with some patronage, took
occasion to show his knowledge of the subject by explaining
the word cony?ig as 'skilful1.' If he had but condescended
to consult my glossary, he would have found out that it
meant ■ a rabbit.' It occurs in a list of animals at stanza
157-
477. * Slubber-Degullion : ' * Strangullion ■
(8 S. viii. 353; 1895).
The etymology of this word is simple when once pointed
out. The M. E. guli'on, occurring in Gower (Con/. Amant.,
n- 359)) is a word of French origin, and meant 'a kind
of gown' (Halliwell;. Hence slubber-de-gullion, one who
slubbers or slobbers his gown or robe — a dirty fellow,
a paltry fellow. I do not quite understand the de. Perhaps
(it is a guess) it should be slubber 'd-y gullion, i. e. the pp. in
-ed, with the adjectival suffix -y.
Strangullion is a totally different word, and the resem-
blance is accidental, the suffix being -ulli'on, whilst Strang-
is the base. The following extract from Cotgrave sufficiently
explains it: ' Estranguillons, m., the strangles, a disease
(in horses, &c.)J It is allied apparently to strangle, O. F.
estrangler. Cf. ' Poir [sic] d'estranguillon, a choake-peare '
(Cotgrave).
1 [The MS. has connyng, with two m's, in the senses of ' skill ' and
1 skilful ' ; and conyng, with one n, in the sense of 'coney ' or ' rabbit.'
C C 2
388 'RUNNING THE GANTLOPE.'
478. * Running the Gantlope ' (8 S. viii. 392 ; 1895).
The amazing and amusing quotation which derives the
word ga7itlope from ' a well-known town in Flanders ' is
useful to me ; and I am very thankful to have the quotation.
If ever I write that book upon ' popular etymologies,' it
will serve, though it is not quite new. One always knows
the ways of the popular etymologist ; he never gives his
dates. So in the present case. If the word had been
invented at Ghent, he could have ascertained, approximately,
the date of such invention. However, Skinner, in 167 1,
gave it as a guess. He says — ' Gantlope, supplicium mili-
tare. Author Diet. Angl. putat a Gandavo, urbe inclyta
Flandriae,' &c.
479. Welsh Place-names (8 S. viii. 396; 1895).
It is not long since I took a railway-ticket for Llanfair-
pwllgwyngyll, the name of which has been humorously
extended to astonish the Saxon 1. There is no trouble
about it ; you simply ask for a ticket for Llanfair, wrhich
you pronounce, roughly speaking, as ' Hlanver,' with the
Anglo-Saxon hi, and you get it at once ; and you find
simply ' Llanfair ' on the ticket. The ' pwllgwyngyll ' is
superfluous in the neighbourhood, but is useful in directing
letters ; and then you merely put ' Llanfair P. G.,' as in
Baddeley's excellent guide-book.
I wish I could impress upon my countrymen the desira-
bility of condescending to learn the Welsh alphabet, which
is extremely easy and almost perfectly phonetic (if it were
not for that stupid double-sounding y). It would be an
insult to a Frenchman to ask for a ticket for Lyons, and to
pronounce it as the English lions. It is equally an insult
1 It means ' Saint-Mary's by the white-hazel pool,' to which is
added, ' very near the raging whirlpool of Llandisilio and the red
locky islet of Gogo,' all of which is, of course; superfluous.
PATRIOT. 389
to a Welshman to ignore the native pronunciation ; and
I do not see why any gentleman should stoop to such
effrontery. As things are, men stay for weeks in Wales,
and yet decline to pronounce the Welsh /as a v.
480. Patriot (8 S. viii. 517 ; 1895).
I have shown in my Dictionary that the word ' patriot '
occurs in Minsheu's Dictionary, ed. 1627; and I quote
from Cotgrave's French Dictionary (which first appeared
in 16 11) the following: * Patriote, m. a patriot, ones coun-
treyman.' Cotgrave also has: ''Patriot, m. A father, or
protector of the Countrey, or Commonwealth ; also, as
Patriote? Littre shows in his Dictionary, that Voltaire
[who ascribes the first use of the F '. patriote to Saint-Simon,
who died in 1755] made a mistake; for the F. patriote was
used, in its modern sense, as early as the sixteenth century.
481. Led will (8 S. ix. 69 ; 1896).
Whatever ' led will ' may mean now, it doubtless once
meant the same as ' will led,' a phrase which occurs in
a specimen of the Norfolk dialect which I have now in the
press1. 'Will led' is said to mean 'demented,' but the
original sense was ' bewildered.'
The solution is this : Will, in this phrase, has no im-
mediate connexion with will in the sense of ' inclination,'
but represents the Scandinavian form of the English wild,
which often had the sense of ' astray, bewildered, all abroad,
at a loss,' and the like. See the Icel. villr in Vigfusson,
wild in my Dictionary, and will in my glossary to Barbour's
Bruce. Ultimately ivill and wild are from the same root ;
but that is a further question.
1 ' I think she is will-led,' explained by ' I think she is out of her
mind ' ; Nine Specimens of Eng. Dialects, p. 119.
39° 'CHARIVARI.'
482. 'Charivari' (8 S. ix. 117; 1896).
In the new French Etymological Dictionary by Hatzfeld
it is shown that charivari is composed of chart and vari.
Chari is obscure, but seems to have been an interjectional
cry, for which no particular etymology is either forth-
coming or necessary. As to vari, it occurs in other words,
as hour-vari, boule-vari, zanzi-vari, where vari certainly
means ' noise, tumult,' and is from the O. H. G. werren
(G. wirren), to confuse. The original sense of charivari
was ' confused hubbub.' See further in the New English
Dictionary.
It has no connexion with cheryfeire, which means ' a fair
for selling cherries,' and is well explained by Halliwell.
It is to be regretted that Prof. Morley, one of our best
writers on English literature, never kept pace with the
progress of modern philology, but was ready to accept any
accidental resemblance as worthy of mention. Some of
his statements of this character are little short of amazing.
I can produce fourteen such from his Shorter English
Foems, a book which I value highly, and (on other grounds)
can strongly recommend. Thus, at p. 35, note 3, he says
that fare means ' solemn preparation,' whereas it simply
means ' goings-on,' from A. S. faran, to go ; and adds, that
it is allied to the G. Feier, solemnity, which is a mere
loan-word from Lat. feria, whence the fair in cherry-fair is
actually derived. Fare, in fact, is English, and fair (O. F.
fey re, G. Feier) is Latin ; and the words are utterly un-
connected. Grimm's law shows that they have not even
the initial /in common.
483. Anglo-Saxon Plant-names (8 S. ix. 163; 1896).
Our ancestors had a curious habit of connecting the
names of plants with those of various well-known animals.
Our present habits are so different that many modems
ANGLO-SAXON PLANT-NAMES. 39 1
are wholly unable to understand this. To them such
names as fox-glove and hare-bell1 seem entirely senseless,
and many efforts, more ingenious than well directed, have
been made to evade the evidence.
Yet it is easily understood. The names are simply
childish, and such as children would be pleased with. A
child only wants a pretty name, and is glad to connect
a plant with a more or less familiar animal. This explains
the whole matter, and it is the reverse of scientific to deny
a fact merely because we djslike or contemn it.
It will be understood that I can produce my evidence ;
but it is tedious from its quantity. I therefore refer readers
to the glossary in the third volume of Cockayne's Anglo-
Saxon Leechdoms, where the plant-names and references
are given in full. Cockayne includes some names, such as
crane's-bill, which are not found in Anglo-Saxon or Middle
English, but appear in early-printed herbals. These I pass
over, and mention only such as are actually found in Anglo-
Saxon or Early English. The following are examples.
Briddes nest, bird's nest, wild carrot ; briddes tunge,
Stellaria holostea ; kattes mi7ite, cat-mint ; cicena mete,
chicken-meat, chickweed ; cockes fot, cock's foot, columbine;
cocks hedys, cock's heads, melilot ; colts foot, colt's foot ;
cow-rattle ; cu-slyppe, cu-sloppe, cowslip ; cronesanke, crane's
shank (Polygonum persicaria); crowe-pil, crow-bill (Erodium
moschatum) ; crowsope, crow-soap, latherwort ; dog-fennel;
efor-fearn, ever-fern (ever = boar), polypody; eofor-throtu,
ever-throat, boar-throat, carline thistle j foxes date, fox's
clote, bur-dock ; foxes fot, fox's foot (Sparganium simplex);
foxes glofa, fox's glove ; fugeles leac, fowl's leek ; fugeles
bean, fowl's bean, vetch ; fugeles wise, larkspur ; gauk-pintel,
cuckoo-pintle (Arum maculatum) ; geaces sure, cuckoo-
sorrel ; gate treotv, goat-tree, cornel ; haran hyge, hare's
1 Not found in A. S., but spelt harebclle in the fifteenth century.
392 ANGLO-SAXON PLANT-NAMES.
foot trefoil l ; haran wyrt, hare's wort ; haran sprecel, (now)
viper's bugloss ; heorot-berge, hart-berries; buckthorn-berries;
heorot-bremble, hart-bramble, buckthorn ; heort-dafre, hart-
clover, medic ; hind-berien, hind-berries, raspberries ; hind-
brer, hind-briar, raspberry plant ; hind-hazlethe, water agri-
mony (named from the hind); hors-elene, horse-elecampane;
hors-thistel, horse-thistle, chicory ; hound-berry ; hundes
cwelca?i, berries of the wayfaring tree ; hundes heafod,
hound's head, snap-dragon ; hundes funge, hound's tongue ;
larkes fate, lark's foot, larkspurj lus-sed, louse-seed, trans-
lating Gk. if/vXXtov ; nius-eare, mouse-ear ; ncederzuyrt,
nadder-wort, adder-wort ; oxes eye, ox-eye ; oxan slyppe,
oxlip ; oxna lib, ox-heal, hellebore ; hrcefnes fot, raven's
foot ; hrcefnes leac, raven's leek, orchis ; wulfes camb, wolf's
comb ; wulfes fist, lycoperdon : ivulfes-ttzsl ', wolf's teasle.
Even this list is incomplete. I observe the omission
of the following words, all of which are in the index to
Wiilker's Glossaries : lambes-cerse, lamb's cress ; hors-ini?tte,
horse-mint ; hundes rose, hound's rose, dog-rose ; hundes
fynkelle, hound's fennel ; and there are probably more of
them.
Observe, further, that the above list contains only such
names as had the luck to be recorded. The real number
must have been much greater. Thus, in connexion with
the fox, we find, in Britten and Holland's excellent work
on plant-names, that the Anglo-Saxon foxes date, foxes fot,
and foxes glofa are to be supplemented by such names as
the following : fox-docken, fox-fingers (Digitalis purpurea),
fox-geranium, fox-grass, fox-rose, fox's brush, fox's daws,
foxtail, foxtailed asparagus, foxtail grass.
1 Cockayne omits liarcbelle, hare-bell, which occurs in Wiilker's
Glossaries, col. 715, 1. 7.
APPENDIX
413 (postscript). Zend ' raozha,' a lynx.
[The following ' postscript ' was appended to article
no. 413, on p. 341 above, but was accidentally omitted in
its proper place.]
I now find that I have, unwittingly, solved a doubtful
word in Zend ! so I am told by my friend, Professor Cowell.
The Zend raozha, Pers. rus, hitherto explained (by guess)
as 'wolf and 'fox,' is clearly the Russ. ruise, Polish rys,
a lynx ; and, by change of r to /, is G. Luchs, Du. /os,
E. luce, the same.
475 (postscript). Cambridge and the Cam.
[The article no. 475, printed above (pp. 384-5), was
shortly afterwards much expanded, and printed (with the
title ' Cambridge and the Cam ') in the Cambridge Review,
Jan. 30, 1896. For the further information of the reader,
I here append a reprint of the fuller article.]
Before tracing the history of the name Cambridge, it is
necessary to say a few words about Camboritum.
There is absolutely no proof as to the identity of Cambo-
ritum with Cambridge. The idea was due to Camden, who
gave it as a pure guess, from the similarity of the names.
All that I have to say here is, that the supposed similarity
of the names is a mere illusion. It is altogether misleading
to compare the form Camboritum, which occurs in an
394 CAMBRIDGE AND THE CAM.
Itinerary of Anton ine, hardly later than the fourth century,
with the form Cambridge, which is no older than the four-
teenth at earliest. It is impossible to rely upon a chance
resemblance of forms which are separated by an interval of
a thousand years, and belong, in part, to different languages.
I do not say that it may not be possible to place Cambori-
tum at or near Cambridge on other grounds ; but I decidedly
affirm that it must be done for some other reason than the
fact of their apparent resemblance. Note, too, that even
this prima facie likeness only extends to the third letter.
The b in Cambo-ritum can have no connexion with the b
in Cam-bridge. It is an obvious fact that the b, r and i in
the former, are different from the b, r and i in the latter ;
and it is an ascertained fact (as will be shown) that the Cam
in the former is different from the Cam in the latter. Whence
it follows that the C, a, m, b, r, and i in the two words are
wholly unconnected ; and the external similarity is a mere
coincidence, having no linguistic significance.
The history of the name of our town is quite clear. All
turns upon the fact that the river-name Cam is modern,
being wholly unknown before the sixteenth century, and
being itself evolved out of the name of the town, instead of
conversely. Moreover, it was a learned name, evolved out
of the written word, in order to furnish a plausible etymology.
Had it been evolved by the people from the spoken sound,
the name must inevitably have been Came.
Next, if the old name of the river had really been Cam,
the town would have been called Cambridge. It is very
common for vowels to be shortened, as in the case of gos-
ling, the diminutive of goose ; but I know of no instance in
which the reverse process of lengthening has taken place
before a combination of three consonants, for the plain
reason that it is unnatural, giving unnecessary trouble.
Every student of phonetics will see at once that, whatever
was the origin of Cambridge, it was certainly not Cam.
CAMBRIDGE AND THE CAM. 395
We can thus account for Cam easily enough, as being
evolved from the written name of the town by a popular
etymology ; the next business is to account for the long a
(as in came) in the name as it is spoken. This is really
a mere matter of history, and only to be arrived at by the
historical method.
We now come to the leading fact, viz. that the true name
of the river was Granta, or Grant, a name which still exists,
and can be traced back through all the centuries to British
times.
The first mention of it is in Nennius, in the sixth or
seventh century. In Gale's edition, p. 115, we are informed
that the name of a certain British town was Caer-grait?ith.
The curious spelling, with aim for an, and final th for t, is
Anglo-French, the existing MS. being of rather late date ;
the right spelling would be Caer-grant. We can only
identify this place by remembering that the same word,
turned into Anglo-Saxon, will come out as Granta-ceaster,
which in modern English would become Grant-chester.
The archaic form Granta-caestir occurs in the eighth
century, in Beda's History, bk. iv. c. 19. We can hence
trace the river-name downwards, through many centuries, to
the present day ; but I prefer to do this in connexion with
the suffix -bridge rather than in connexion with the suffix
-Chester.
The name of our town emerges into history in the ninth
century. It is spelt Grantan-brycge (dative) in the Anglo-
Saxo?i Chronicle, under the date 875 ; and, under the date
1 010, is the first mention of the county, viz. Grantabrycg-
scir, i. e. Grantbridge-shire.
Domesday-book makes mention of the town as ' Burgum
de Grentebrige,' the county being Grentebrige-shire.
In Henry of Huntingdon, where an earlier MS. has
Grantebrigesyre, a later one has Kantebrigesire ; see p. 9 of
Arnold's edition.
396 CAMBRIDGE AND THE CAM.
Simeo?i of Durham (pp. 82, in, Record Series) has
Grantabric and Granthebrige ; the MS. is of the twelfth
century. He also has the phrase * super Grentam fluvium.'
In the Southern English Legendary (E. E. T. S.), p. 347,
1. 66, we find Grauntebruggeschire. This is about 1290.
In Robert of Gloucester, 1. 132, the earlier MS. (ab. 1330)
has Grauntebrugge-ssire where the later (ab. 1400) has
Cambrugge-schire ; in the same line. See Mr. Aldis
Wright's index for numerous examples.
Later than 1330, I only find the form Grauntbrigge in
a proper name. It came to a sudden end about 1400 ; for
in the second year of King Henry IV, we find a reference
in the Patent Rolls, p. 242, to a certain ' Johannes de
Grauntbrigge qui obiit sine haerede.' He was a man of
some mark, and his name appears frequently in various
documents. See in particular the index to the Close Rolls.
An earlier ' Johannes de Grauntbrigge ' is mentioned
a.d. 1283; Abbreviatio Placitorum, p. 275 \
There was much trouble with the name in the twelfth
century, when the Anglo-French scribes, who were often
(I suppose) Londoners, took upon themselves to turn the
form Grant into Cant, and Graunt into Caunt. We still
find Grantebrigge in the time of William II ; in 1099, the
coins which this king struck at Cambridge were marked
with the abbreviation Grant (Ruding, Annals of the Coinage,
i. 309 ; iii. 6). This takes us down to the year 1100.
Canon Taylor says (JV. and Q. 8 S. viii. 314) that the
earliest occurrence of the form Cantebruggescir is in a docu-
ment dated 1 142. After that date it is common. Examples
are : ' Histon in Cantebrugescir,' Rotuli Chartarum i?i Turri
L.ondinensi, vol. i. pars. 1, 80; a.d. 1200. 'Cantebrug,'
Close Rolls, i. 381 ; a.d. 12 18. * Absolon de Cantebrug,'
1 The title 'earl of Cambridge' occurs in 1415 ; the bearer of it
(executed in that year) was created earl by Henry V, who began to
reign in 1413.
CAMBRIDGE AND THE CAM. 397
id. i. 82 ; a. d. 1207. ' Vic(ecomiti) de Cantebrug,' id. i. 38 ;
a. d. 1204; &c. It is important to observe that the name
' Johannes de Grauntbrigge ' is also written ' Johannes de
Cauntebrigge 'in 1331 ; see Spelman's G/ossarhtm, p. 544.
Before proceeding with the history, I must explain the
variations of spelling. First, the A. S. y appears as i in the
Midland dialect, and as u in MSS. written in the South ;
hence the variation between brigge and brugge. We also
find bregge ; which is Kentish.
Secondly, we must consider the Norman pronunciation of
an. The sound of a was nasal, whilst the n was fully
sounded ; many scribes used aim to represent this. Hence
the forms Graunt and Cannt are Anglo-French varieties
of Grant and Cant. Unless we understand this fact,
we cannot account for the long a in Cambridge ; as will
presently appear.
As far as we have gone, the chronology is as follows : The
forms Granta-brycg, Grentebruge, Granntebrugge, and the
like, extend from the ninth century down to 1400; the
spelling with an being Norman. The forms Cantebrigge,
Cauntebmgge, and the like, extended from about 1146 to
the fifteenth century. Cantebrigge was Latinized as Canta-
brigia, which is frequently found in MSS. of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, and at all subsequent dates down
to the present day.
The form Cantabrigia is useful ; for it plainly arose at
a time when the e in Cant-e-brigge still formed a syllable.
There is an excellent example of this form in Chaucer ; for
it is well known that his Reves Tale begins with the line —
'At Trumpington, not fer fro Cant-e-brigge.'
But, in the fourteenth century, this middle e was often
dropped ; so that Chaucer's form was somewhat archaic.
The dropping of this e led to a new developement. The a
was clogged by the occurrence after it of no less than four
39$ CAMBRIDGE AND THE CAM.
consonants, viz. n t b r. In nearly all such cases, the
middle consonant drops out ; and in this case, the middle
consonant is practically /, as the br belongs to the next
syllable. But this gave the dissonant form Canbrigge or
Caunbrigge, which must very soon have been shifted to Cam-
brigge or Caumbrigge. At any rate, Canbrigge is seldom
found l. We thus see that the m in Cambridge merely
resulted, by the ordinary operation of phonetic laws, from
the n in Granta ; so that Granta- or Graunte- first became
Cante- or Caunte-, and next Ca?it- or Caunt- ; the next step
being to Can- or Caun-, and soon after, to Cam- or Caum-,
because a b followed. And until this had happened, the
coining of the river-name with a final m was simply im-
possible. This is quite clear when we can once grasp it.
I note here that the form with Cam actually occurs in
the later MSS. of Chaucer in the line already quoted. The
Lansdowne MS. (after 1400) has the hideous line —
'At Trumpington, not fer fro Cambrugge.'
We now require to know the all-important fact, that,
according to the phonetic laws of Anglo-French, the com-
binations am or an, having a nasalized vowel, resulted in
sounds with long a (really the aa in baa) ; but the a was
not written double, the length being understood. Yet,
though we hardly ever find the spellings aam, aan, the
slightly varying spellings aum, aun, are common. In modern
English, the a is sounded like the ei in vein. Examples
with an occur in the modern Eng. angel, danger, range,
change, mange, &c, all of Anglo-French origin ; whilst an
excellent example with the spelling am occurs in the word
chamber, in which the amb is exactly like the amb in Cam-
bridge. It follows from this, that we must expect sometimes
to find the former syllable appearing as Caum in the fifteenth
century. At this stage of the investigation I began to cast
1 Canbrigge occurs in a. d. 1436 ; Early Eng. Wills, p. 105.
CAMBRIDGE AND THE CAM. 399
about for examples of Caum in the fifteenth century, and
I soon bethought me of the Paston Letters. These examples
are very striking.
In the Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, i. 82, the famous
Margaret Paston herself used the form Kawmbrege in a
letter dated 1449. In the same, i. 422, Agnes Paston wrote
Caumbrege in 1458; whilst, in the year 1461 (ii. 79), we
find the most interesting form Caumbrygg, being the latest
form with n which we are likely to find.
It will now be understood that, when the form appeared
as Cam — in the fifteenth century — the sound intended was
Kaam, riming to balm : and this is why we now pronounce
it as ca?7ie or Keim, riming to fa?ne. Most of the long a's
in Anglo-French have suffered the same fate, but are pre-
served in modern French, which has daam for our dame,
and blaam-e for our verb to blame. The old an (aan) is,
however, still preserved before the sounds of s and t : as in
dance, lance, chance, cha?it, grant, &c. All that remains is to
trace the rise of the Cam.
It is a most significant fact that, when the name of the
town was Cantebrigge, the river made an abortive attempt to
gain the name of the Cant ! This appears from Willis and
Clark's History of Cambridge (i. 211), where we find an
allusion to ' the common bank called Cante ' ; in the year
1372. We even find, from the same work (i. viii.), that, as
late as in 1573, Dr. Caius alludes to ' the Canta, now called
the Rhee.' But I suspect that he evolved this supposed
archaic form out of the Latin Canta-brigia.
The evolution of the form Cam for the river seems to
have been due to the revival of learning in the sixteenth
century, appearing first in the Latinized form Camus or
C/iamus. The Cambridge Revieiv for Nov. 14, 1895, quoted
at p. 74 some verses by Giles Fletcher, prefixed to an edition
of Demosthenes published in 157 1, containing the line —
1 Accipe quae nuper Chanti flauentis ad undam.'
400 CAMBRIDGE AND THE CAM.
And again, from Andrew MelvilPs Antita?nicamicategoria,
dated 1620, the line —
' Ergo vos Cami proceres Tamique.'
In both these examples the a in Camus is long. Hence
we have Camus in the well-known line in Milton's Lycidas.
It is needless to give further details. I add a few notes,
in chronological order, to show that the river-name Grant
was never lost ; whilst the Cam seems to have had much
ado to get itself recognized. A third name was the Rhee
or Ree, which I suspect merely meant ' stream,' as we find
two rivers in Shropshire, both called the Rea Brook, a Ray
River in Oxfordshire, and a Rae Burn in Dumfriesshire.
Indeed, Willis and Clark give an example of ' le Ee ' in
1447 ; but this merely means ' the river,' from the A. S. ea,
a stream.
1455. 'Le Ree'; Willis and Clark, i. 212.
1573. ' The Canta, now called the Rhee ' ; see above.
1576. Saxton's map of Cambridgeshire; the western
branch of the river is called the Grante. — Willis and Clark.
1586. Camden says the name is doubtful ; ' alii Grantam,
Camum alii nuncupant.'
1590. Spenser's Faerie Queene, bk. iv. c. 11. st. 34, has
' the Guant,' with u for r, by a misprint. Some editions
have ' Grant ' correctly.
1610. Speed's map of Cambridge shows the ' Cam.'
16 13. Drayton, Polyolbion, xxi. 51, 75, speaks of the
' Grant ' ; and in 1. 107, mentions ' Cam, her daintiest flood,
long since intituled Grant.'
1634. A map of this date in Fuller's History of Cambridge
(1655) shows 'Granta, sive Cham fluvius.' His text only
mentions ' the river Grant.'"
1688. Loggan's map — 'the Cam.'
1702. 'The river Cham, alias Grant' ; Willis and Clark.
1 83 1. Pigot's County Atlas : 'the Granta or Cam.'
CAMBRIDGE AND THE CAM. 401
The simple conclusion of the whole matter is just this :
that the A. S. name Grantabrycgevtould. certainly have become
Grantabridge, or Grantbridge^ or possibly, even Grambridge,
if it had been developed regularly, without external influence.
The changes to Cantabridge, Cauntbrige, Caunbridge, Caum-
bridge, and the modern Cambridge are due to French influ-
ence and to the Norman conquest ; and it has been well
suggested that the change from Gr to C may have arisen
from a desire to avoid the repetition of r. And this is how
the Granta was ultimately turned into the Cam ; a name
which, even now, has not quite displaced its original.
Dd
INDEX
In this index, subjects and proper names begin with a capital letter.
Words of which the uses or etymologies are discussed begin with
a small letter.
M. E. (Middle-English), A. S. (Anglo-Saxon), and foreign words are
printed in italics.
In every case, the reference is not to the page but to the number of
the article. For example, 'charm' is discussed in articles 23 and 24
(at pp. 18, 19).
a Kempis, 318.
Accent thrown back, 2.
Adam, meaning of, 97.
Adam and Eve in the sea, 64.
adder, 27.
a or e (in archceology), 340.
cestel (A. S.), 164.
afurste (M. E.), 401.
Age of the World, 47, 48.
Ages, the Seven, 31, 32.
Alliterative poetry, 119.
all-to, 34, 35.
Alwyne, 283.
amperzand, 83.
Angle, trisection of an, 58.
Angles, the, 307.
Anglo-French words, 120.
Anglo-Saxon, imaginary, 212, 213,
— months, 310.
— names, 363.
— numerals, 194.
— plant-names, 483.
— poem, ' the Whale,' 365.
— Translations of the N. T., 333.
Anglo-Saxons, poetic diction of
the, 63.
aulas (M. E.), 338.
anointed, 4.
A-per-se, 83.
apple-cart, 144.
apposite, 150.
archaeology (ae or e), 340.
ask (a lizard), 220.
atone, 269.
attrayed (M.E.), 401.
auger, 27.
aund, awnd (prov. E.), 1 13.
awork, 234.
B to a battledore, 75.
Bagdad, 319.
bait, burning of, 238.
Baker's dozen, 52.
balcony, 2.
baldacchino, 319.
balloon, 219.
bandalore, 267.
bane, 399.
banshee, 350.
barton, 320.
Basque, 197.
bayonet, 393.
beadle, 435.
beaker, 323.
bear (barley), 320.
Bede's version of St. John, 160.
D d 2
4o4
INDEX.
beefeater, 187, 287, 410.
begyns (in Grimoald), 400.
bernar, 17.
bewray, 233.
Birnam wood, 156.
blakcbcryed vChaucer), 84.
blazer. 278.
blyve (M.E.\ 401.
' bo to a goose,' 75.
bodkin, to ride, 315.
Boethius quoted, 145.
boneshaiv (prov. E.), 448.
borken (M. E.), 401.
Brandan. St., 365.
bravo, brava, 386.
brewery, 276.
' Briga,* 96.
Buckles on shoes, 131.
buffer, 122.
buffetier, 287, 410.
buft (prov. E.), 122.
Bunyan illustrated, 299.
hurdes (M. E.)r 400.
Burning for heresy, 472.
by-and-by, 208.
1 by hook or by crook,' 79.
hydatid (M. E.), 66.
c in Latin, 463, 464.
caddy, 11.
Cain's jaw-bone, 158.
Cambridge, Cam, 475. (And see
P. 3930
cant and keen (M. E.), 398.
cap-a-pie, 30.
Capitals, use of, 347.
Cards mentioned, 271.
Carfax, 5, 6.
carminative, 257.
cari-efour (E.), 5.
catsup, 293.
cater- waul, 226, 227, 228.
catty, 11.
caucus, 252.
Cavalry Curates, 429.
ceriously (M. E.), 374.
chair (pulpit), 331.
Chanticleer's wives, 186.
charivari, 482.
charm (prov. E), 23, 24.
Chatterton's Anglo-Saxon, 78.
Chaucer: Anelida (1. 183), 462.
Chaucer : Knightes Tale, 51.
— Kn. Tale and Troilus. 69.
— Legend of Good Women (1. 16 ,
422.
— Man of Law's Tale, 80.
— Manciple's Tale, 42.
— Pari, of Foules (1. 363), 371.
— Parson's prol. (1. 43), 199.
— Prologue (1. 4101, 246.
— blakcberyed, 84.
— edition by Moxon, 317.
— Stilbon, 421.
Chaucer's pronunciation, 262.
cherry- fair, 482.
Christ-cross, 21.
chum, 463, 464.
Cicero speaking Greek, 108.
claw me, claw thee, 229.
clean as a whistle, 22.
cloture (F.), 174.
clubstart (prov. E.), 427.
coat, 56.
caelum, ccelum, 392.
cole-prophet (M.E.), 204.
Colours as surnames, 231
Comets, 105.
Commence to, 380.
Conrad, 1.
Coppa, a hen, 186.
Copy for printers, 173.
corsy, corsive, 397.
cowslip, 483.
' crow with voice of care,' 371.
Crusoe, Robinson, 248.
Curiosities of Interpretation, 398,
399, 400-1.
cut away, 244.
darbies, 196.
dare, dares, 127, 128.
darkling, 270.
Davenant's English, 14.
-de (//. /. suffix), 214, 215,
216.
'Dead as a door-nail,' 16.
deal board, 193.
Devonshire dialect, 192.
Dialects, English, 92.
disciire (M.E.), 397.
Distich by Luther, 25.
Domesday Book, 425.
drake (M. E.), 399.
INDEX.
405
Drawing, hanging, and quartering,
369-
drunk as mice, 121,
Dryden's use of instinct, 258.
— use of neyes, 27.
dulcarnon (Chaucer), 147, 279.
Dunmow flitch, 191.
-e, final, 61.
East Sheen, 312.
Edinburghean grammar, 447.
Editions, Eirst, 405.
Edwards' ' Words, Facts,' &c,
411.
edyllys be (M. E.), 124.
effrontery, 469.
eftures (M.E.), 210.
Egerton, 361.
cgle (icicle', 273.
eightetene (M.E.), 136.
embezzle, 133.
Emendations, culpable, 165.
emys (M.E.), 398.
en pronounced as in, 256.
English, chronology of, 120.
— Dialects, 92.
— etymology, 101,
— Grammars, 298.
— , railway, 157.
— , sham specimens of, 295.
— without articles, 14.
English and Angle, 307.
English and German, 251, 313.
ennui, 68.
-er pronounced as -ar, 166,
167.
ernde (M. E.), 401.
-er-st (suffix), 326.
ether (prov. E.), 432.
Etymologies, ridiculous, 96, 197,
266, 302, 352>455-
— specimens of; aroint thee, 455 ;
beadle, 435 ; Charing Cross, 455 ;
Gauch (G.), 455 ; gallows, 302 ;
gnoffe,4$2 ; goblin, 455 ; Inkpen,
352 ; Lammas, 455 ; Pales, 455 ;
J'ersens, 455 ; riding, 455 ;
toot- hill, 455.
Etymology, English, 101.
Ever-, 195.
' Exceptio probat regit lam,' 95.
expulse, 12.
Fabyan's Chronicles, error in,
67.
faith, 332.
Familiarity breeds contempt, 289.
father, 432.
fathom, 432.
feabes (prov. E.\ 209.
fen, fend, 126.
Fewtarspeare, 98.
flaskisable (M.E.), 372.
flotsam, 445.
Fly-leaves, Notes on, 29, 33.
fod, 419.
for to, 354.
forbode, 399.
f or s linger (M. E.\ 135.
fox-glove. 203, 474, 483.
fratry (M. E.), 241.
French u for /, 177.
fylfot. 362.
ga (A. S.), 207.
galetas VF.), 141.
galoches (F.N, 90.
gantlope, running the, 478.
garret, 141.
gather, 432.
gauts (prov. E.\ 116, 117.
gaytreberies (M.E.), 301.
geason, geson (M.E.), 456.
Genders in English, 390.
genitive, form of, 89.
Genius defined, 239.
genteel dogs, 54.
Gerbertus, story of, 387.
ghauts (prov. E.), 116, 117.
ghost-word, 291.
— ef hires, 210.
gill, 152.
gingham, 440.
girl, how pronounced, 341, 342.
gist, 44-
Gladstone, Mr., 300.
Glossaries, 170.
glove. 115.
gnoffe (M. E.), 452.
Godiva, 384.
golf, 454.
' good wine,' &c, 95.
gorilla, 134.
gradate (Latin), 74.
406
INDEX.
grail, holy, 74.
grange, 345.
greece (M. E.), 398.
green-baize road, 240.
grift (prov. E.), 325-
grithe (M. E.), 398.
groundsel, 403.
gruesome, 402.
gut, 117.
H, the letter, 297.
hag, 220.
ha-ha, 470.
half en-dale (M. E.), 146.
Halliwell's Dictionary, additions
to, 284, 285, 286.
Hampole's psalter, 303.
handsome, 95. •
hang out, 444.
harebell, 483 (footnote on p. 392).
hauns (Gothic), 26.
Havelok and Robert of Brunne, 65.
haw, hawthorn, 327.
Hawking, 179, 180.
hay ward, 327.
Hearne's Chronicles, 170.
hedges, hedge, 327.
hell, v. (prov. E.), 91.
henchman. 264, 272,415, 416, 417,
418.
Here ward, 296.
hibiscus, 349.
hidels (M. E.), 124.
Hilda, 468.
hind-berries, 483.
hither, 432.
hoder-moder (M.E.), 221.
hoe, 336.
hogshead, 40.
hold (of a ship), 204.
hold up oil, 153.
holt, 441.
hone (houe), hoe, 336.
hone (M. E.), 401.
honi (French), 26.
horkey (prov. E.), 460.
Howard, 172, 296.
huckshins (prov. E.), 459.
hugger-mugger, 221.
hull, 91.
hundred, 137.
icicle, 273.
'Ictibus agrestis,' 337.
-ing(A.S.), 223.
Inkpen, 352.
instinct (in Dryden), 258.
iron, pronunciation of, 451.
iron-mould, 204.
Jackdaw of Rheims, 42.
James, 343.
Jamieson's Dictionary, 148.
janissary, 236, 237.
jeresgive (yeresgiue), 72.
Jericho, to send to, 330.
jetsam, 445.
Jingo, 453-
Johnson's definition of oats, 85.
jolly, 397.
ka me, ka thee, 229.
Kangaroo, 247.
ket (prov. E.), 260.
ketchup, 293.
key-cold, 15.
kilt, 373-
kilter, kelter (prov. E.), 358.
King's Quair, 476.
kittering (prov. E.), 305.
Knot in a handkerchief, 88.
knout, 253.
Knowledge for the people, 295.
/ and u in French, 177.
laburnum, 142.
lagan, 458.
Lammas, 86, 87, 254, 455.
lathe (prov. E.), 260.
latten, 308.
launder, v., 434.
laundress, 397.
lea (scythe), 260.
leary, 396.
led will, 481.
leer (hungry), 143.
leet, three-way (prov. E.), 200.
leezing, leasing (M. E.), 359.
legerdemain, 288.
Leighton, 382.
lene, leue (M. E.), 45.
Leolwine, 296.
INDEX.
407
Letter-writing, 202.
leue, lene ^M. E.), 45.
Liber Vitae, 363.
Limehouse, 265.
Lines, deficient, 465.
lister (prov. E.), 41.
lithe, v. (M.E.), 398.
litton (prov. E.), 185.
living, 19.
lobster. 103.
lopen (M. E.), 400.
Lord's prayer in English, 295.
— in English verse, 249, 250.
hue (lynx), 412, 413; and see p.
393-
Lucifer, 28.
lumbering, 165.
luncheon, 112.
Luther's distich, 25.
luzern, lucem, 412, 413.
lytton (M. E.), 185.
Magdalene (a boat}, 246.
Man with a muck-rake, 299.
manacus ^Lat.), 181.
Mango-trick, 450.
marigold, 436.
-mas, 86, 87.
mattins, matins, 360.
medieval, 340.
meresmen, 259.
merestones, 423.
mete, mete Is (M.E.), 400.
Metz, siege of, 76.
miff (prov. E.), 122.
mill (contest), 123.
Milton (on comets), 105.
missa (Lat.), 86.
mistletoe, 320.
monkey, 59.
Months in A. S., 310.
Morian's land, 304.
mother, 432.
much (i. e. great), 94.
miistredevilliars , 339.
mute, 368.
mysuryd (M. E.), 399.
n dropped, 27 ; prefixed, 27.
Ned, Ted, 328.
neyes (eyes), 27.
'Nice as a nun's hen,' 7.
'nincted, 'nointed (prov. E.), 356.
nonce, for the, 27.
North, the abode of Lucifer, 28.
Numerals in A.S., 194.
nu?nmet (prov. E.), 110.
nuncheon, ito, hi, 112.
nye (M. E.), 400.
oander, oandnrth (prov. E.), 322.
oats, defined by Dr. Johnson,
85.
Ockford, 425.
offal, 217, 218.
Ohthere's Voyage, 294.
Oil on troubled waters, 235.
oil, to hold up, 153.
old, 375.
ollands (prov. E.), 189.
1 one touch of nature,' 245.
opposal, 150.
orders, to make, 292.
orra (Scotch), 397.
otherwhiles (M. E.), 99.
onbit (Scotch), 348.
out and out, 364.
oxhead, 40.
pair of, 151.
pam, 154, 26r.
Pamphila, 154.
pamphlet, 154.
paragon, 385.
Parnell, St., 389, 457.
parson, 466.
Past tense of weak verbs, 214, 215,
2)6.
patriot, 480.
peas, pease, 77.
peruse, 334.
phaeton, 230.
phenomenon, 274, 275.
Pictures, two-faced, 20.
Pied friars, 53.
pig,piggin (Prov. E.), 323.
pimple, 155.
pinchbeck, 308.
Pinkeney, 27.
Place-names, 222, 223; vowels in,
311-
Plant-names, 483.
408
INDEX.
poke, pig in a, 95.
poortith (Scotch), 332.
Pope, verse by the, 404.
porcelain, 46.
portress, 82.
poudred (M. E.), 399.
pounce, 1 80.
' Pound of flesh, the,' 198.
prepense, 335.
Prepositions, English, Si.
prise, 83.
Pronouns, use of, 447.
Pronunciation, 256, 262, 341, 342.
Proverb, French [tant grate la
chevre), 13.
Proverbs : as clean as a whistle,
22 ; as dead as a door-nail, 16 ;
as drunk as mice, 121 ; as nice
as a nun's hen, 7 ; as right as a
trivet, 22 ; buy a pig in a poke,
95 ; by hook or by crook, 79 ;
cry bo to a goose, 75 ; exceptio
probat regulam, 95 ; familiarity
breeds contempt, 289 ; God
sends the shrewd cow short
horns, 95 ; good wine needs no
bush, 95 ; handsome is as hand-
some does, 95 ; ka me, ka thee,
229; more haste, worse speed,
95 ; setting the Thames on fire,
205, 206.
Pseudo-Saxon, 212, 213.
punt, 255.
pursy, 397.
Putting a man under a pot, 18.
puzzle, 15c.
Quasimodo, 426.
' Qui capit uxoremj 33.
' Quos anguis? &c, 33.
rabbit it, 39.
racoon, 408.
Railway English, 157.
rake (track), 370.
raozha (Zend), p. 393.
rauky (prov. E.), 178.
Reade, Reid, 231.
reave, 400.
reckon (prov. E.), 232.
reckling (prov. E.), 324.
recure (M. E.), 397.
releet (prov. E.), 200.
resplend, 9.
rhyme, 3.
rhyme nor reason, 8.
' right as a trivet,' 22.
rim, ram, ruf (Chaucer), 199.
rime v. rhyme, 3.
r|mer, 355.
rimpling, 165.
Road knight, 473.
Robert of Brunne, 65.
robin, 290.
Robinson Crusoe, 248.
Roodee, 62.
Roses, creation of, 10.
roun (M. E.), 401.
Rouse, 231.
' rue with a difference,' 71.
runawaye's eyes, 431.
runnel, 316.
-s dropped in the genitive, 89.
sangreal, 74 ; sang real, 74.
sawten (M. E.), 398.
Saxon, etymology of, 391.
Seasons, four, 224, 225; names of,
224, 225.
Second sight, 437.
sele (prov. E.), 268.
serfs (French), 70.
seriously (M. E.), 374.
Shakeshaft, 98, 321.
Shakespeare: Coriol. (iv. 7. 52),
331 ; Hamlet (v. 1. 85), 158 ;
Jul. Caesar (iii. 1. 58), 420; (iv.
3. 218), 407 ; Merchant of
Venice, 198 ; Troilus (iii. 3. 174),
245 ; Tw. Nt. (ii. 4. 45), 414;
' runawayes,' 431.
Shakespeare, Concordance to, 430.
Shakespeare's name, 98, 321.
sheen and shine, 312.
shingle, 444.
show I (prov. E.), 397.
shrewd cow, 95.
sidemen, 138.
sidth vM. E.), 171.
sike (prov. E.\ 391.
Sind bad's Voyages, 365.
sith (since), 439.
skellum, 201.
INDEX.
409
slare (prov. E.), 263.
sloyd, 306.
slubber-de-gtdlion, 477.
slughorn, 280.
soc-lamb, 57.
Sodor and Man, 242.
so-ho, 461.
sool (M. E.), 378> 379-
sooth saw, 443.
sparable, 282.
sparling (M. E.), 1 32.
spawn, 182.
Spenser, error in, 49 ; his tree-list,
433-
Sperling (M. E.), 132.
spit white, 107.
stain, sleen (stone), 192.
stalled (sated), 383 ; stalled ox,
383-
sleen (stone), 192.
-ster, suffix, 102, 103.
stick of eels, 100.
stoat, 427.
sir achy (Shakespeare), 414.
strangullion (M. E.), 477.
stricken in years, 376.
< Strike here/ 387.
striken (M. E.), 376.
styed (advanced !), 376.
suant, suent (prov. E.), 395.
sulphur, 211.
sumpter, 161.
sun (^gender of), 73-
sunset, 442.
Surnames, 231.
swastika (Skt.), 362.
Swedish and English, 406.
sweet-heart, 130.
' sweetness and light,' 309.
Swimming feat, 104.
swine, 93.
Swithin, St., 446.
siuy he (M. E.), 401.
Syllabification, 139.
talon, 179, 180.
Tantony, 328.
tapere (M. E.), 162.
tarring-iron. 438.
tawdry, 328.
Ted, Ned, 328.
tennis, 190.
Tennyson : Locksley Hall, 145 ;
metre of In Memoriam, 424 ;
his use of swine, 93.
' Terra,' a root-word, 96.
tether, 432.
tetter, 106.
th in A. F. and A. S., 332.
Thackeryana, 449.
Thames on fire, 205, 206.
thel (A.S.), 193.
theodolite, 471.
Theory and Practice, 314.
-ther (suffix^, 432.
thethorne (M. E.), 209.
thither, 432.
Thomas a Kempis, 318.
three-way leet (prov. E.), 200.
thwitel VM. E.), 159.
tine, 320.
to {with in/in.), 353, 354.
together, 432.
Tooley, 328.
tooth-saw, 443.
touch (tache), 245.
touter, 329.
town, 320.
treenware (prov. E.), 109.
tretys (M. E.), 129.
tricker, 165.
Triple consonants, 381.
Trisection of an angle, 58.
trivet, 22.
trouts, 428.
trow (trough), 366, 367.
tureen, 109.
turken (M.E.), 175, 176.
turkis (M. E.), 175.
umpire, 27.
undern (M. E.), 322.
unked (prov. K.), 168.
utas (M.E.), 351.
v lost in English, 397.
vade (M. E.), 400.
vant (font , 1 14.
velvet, 394.
Verse, deficient lines in English,
465.
vild (M. E.), 204.
Vowel-shortening, 311.
410
INDEX.
Vowels in English and German,
wag, 281.
wage, wages, 163.
walking width, 171.
wallowish (prov. E.), 377-
Walter, Water, 43.
wappered (Shakespeare), 135-
warisk (M. E.), H0-
ivatchet (prov. E.), 277.
Water -Walter, 43.
watershed, 60.
wayzgoose (prov. E.), 344.
Weak verbs, 214, 215, 216.
weather, 432.
wederone (M. E.), 467.
welsh (prov. E.), 377.
Welsh place-names, 479.
welted (prov. E.), 183.
went ( = he goes), 216.
whipultre (M. E.), 301.
whither, 432.
whitsul (M. E.), 378, 379-
Whitsun Day, 378, 379.
whittle, 159.
wicket, 388.
wicks (of the mouth), 125.
will-led, 481.
Wimbledon, 184.
windlestrae (prov. E.), 169.
Windmills, 409.
wipple-tree (M. E.), 301.
wither, 432.
wolf (in music), 243.
wolwarde (prov. E.), 36, 37, 38.
woodruff, 467.
World's age, 47, 48.
wreck ling, 324.
wrinkle (idea), 188.
write you, 346.
Writer's errors, 118.
Wycliffe's New Testament, 149.
y« (/or the), 55-
Year and a day, 50.
yede,yode (M. E.), 49.
yeresgive (M. E.), 72.
Yetminster, 425.
ynly (M. E.), 401.
Yorkshire words, 260.
you (dat.), 346.
Zebra, 247.
THE END.
OXFORD : PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
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