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A DICTIONARY 



OF 



ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY. 



§ir ilje saim i^iifljor. 



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A DICTIONARY 



OF 



ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY 



BY 



HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD, 

LATE FELLOW OF CHR. COLL. CAM. 



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JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. 




INTRODUCTION, 



ON THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 



It requires only a superficial acquaintance with the principal languages of 
Europe to recognise their division into four or five main classes, each comprising 
a number of subordinate dialects, which have so much in common in their stock 
of words and in their grammatical structure, as irresistibly to impress us with the 
conviction that the peoples by whom they are spoken, are the progeny, with 
more or less mixture of foreign elements, of a common ancestry. If we compare 
German and Dutch, for instance, or Danish and Swedish, it is impossible in either 
case to doubt that the people speaking the pair of languages are a cognate race 3 
that there was a time more or less remote when the ancestors of the Swabians 
and the Hollanders, or of the Danes and Swedes, were comprised among a people 
speaking a common language. The relation between Danish and Swedish is of 
the closest kind, that between Dutch and German a more distant one, and we 
cannot fail to recognise a similar relationship, though of more remote an origin, 
between the Scandinavian dialects, on the one hand, and the Teutonic, on the 
other, — the two together forming what is called the Germanic class of Languages. 
A like gradation of resemblance is found in the other classes. The Welsh, 
Cornish, and Breton, like the Danish and Swedish, have the appearance of descent 
from a common parentage at no very distant period, and the same is true of 
Gaelic and Manx. On the other hand, there is a greater difference between 
Gaelic and Welsh than there is between any of the branches of the Germanic 
class J while, at the same time, there are peculiarities of grammatical structure 
common to both, and so much identity traceable in the roots of the language, as 
to leave no hesitation in classing them as branches of a common Celtic stock. And 
so in the Slavonic class, Polish and Czech or Bohemian, as Russian and Servian, 
are sister languages, while the difference between Russian and Polish is so great 
as to argue a much longer separation of the national life. 



vi THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY. 

In the case of the Romance languages we know historically that the countries 
where Italian, Proven9al, French, Spanish, &c., are spoken, were thoroughly col- 
onised by the Romans, and were for centuries under subjection to the empire. 
We accordingly regard the foregoing class of languages as descended from Latin, 
the language of the Imperial Government, and we account for their divergences, 
not so much from the comparative length of their separate duration, as from 
mixture with the speech of the subject nations who formed the body of the 
people in the different provinces. 

With Latin and the other ItaHc languages, Umbrian and Oscan, of which 
slight remains have come down to us, must be reckoned Greek and Albanian, 
as members of a family ranking with the Germanic, the Celtic, and Slavonic 
stocks, although there has not been occasion to designate the group by a collect- 
ive name. When we extend our survey to Sanscrit and Zend, the ancient 
languages of India and Persia, we find the same evidences of relationship in the 
fundamental part of the words, as well as the grammatical structure of the 
language, which led us to regard the great families of European speech as de- 
scendants of a common stock. 

Throughout the whole of this vast circle the names of the numerals unmis* 
takeably graduate into each other, however startling the dissimilarity may be in 
particular cases, where the name of a number in one language is compared with 
the corresponding form in another, as when we compare Jive and quinque, four 
and tessera, seven and hepta. The names of the simplest blood relations, ^s father, 
mother, brother, sister, are equally universal. Many of the pronouns, the prepo- 
sitions and particles of abstract signification, as well as words designating the 
most famihar objects and actions of ordinary life, are part of the common 
property. 

/ Thus step by step has been attained the conviction that the principal races of 
/Europe and of India are all descended from a single people, who had already 
attained a considerable degree of civilisation, and spoke a language of grammatical 
structure similar to that of their descendants. From this primeval tribe it is 
supposed that colonies branched off in different directions, and becoming isolated 
in their new settlements, grew up into separate peoples, speaking dialects assum- 
ing more and more distinctly their own peculiar features, until they gradually 
developed in the form of Zend and Sanscrit and the ditferent classes of European 
speech. 

The light which is thus thrown on the pedigree and relationship of races be- 
yond the reach of history is however only an incidental result of linguistic study. 
For language, the machinery and vehicle of thought, and indispensable con- 
dition of all mental progress, holds out to the rational inquirer a subject of as 
high an intrinsic interest as that which Geology finds in the structure of the 
Globe, or Astronomy in the movements of the heavenly bodies. 

Etymology embraces every question concerning the structure of words. It 
resolves them into their constituent elements, traces their growth and relation- 
ships, examines the changes they undergo in their use by successive generations of 



LIMIT OF ANALYSIS. vii 

men, or in the mixture of speech brought about by the vicissitudes of war or of 
peaceful intercourse, and seeks in every way to elucidate the course by which the 
words of a language have come to signify the meaning which they suggest to a 
native ear. 

The first step that must be taken in the analysis of a word, is to distinguish the 
part which contains the fundamental significance, from the grammatical ele- 
ments used to modify that significance in a regular way, such as the inflections of 
verbs and of nouns, the terminations which give an abstract or an adjectival or 
diminutival sense to the word, or any similar contrivances in habitual use in the 
language. It will be convenient to lay aside for separate consideration these 
grammatical adjuncts, and to confine our attention, in the first place, to the radical 
portion of the word. If we take the word Enmity, for example, we recognise 
the termination ty as the sign of an abstract noun, and we understand the word 
as signifying the state or condition of an enemy, which is felt as the immediate 
parent of the English word. Now we know that enemy comes to us through the 
French ennemi from Latin inimicus, which may itself be regularly resolved into 
the prefix in (equivalent to our un), implying negation or opposition, and amicus, 
a friend. In amicus, again, we distinguish the syllable -us as the sign of a noun in 
the nominative case ; -ic- as an element equivalent to the German -ig or English -y 
in windy, hairy, &c., as an adjective termination indicating possession or connec- 
tion with ; and finally the radical element am, signifying love, which is presented 
in the simplest form in the verb amo, I love. 

Here our power of analysis is brought to a close, nor would it advance our 
knowledge of the structure of language by a single step, if it could be shown that 
the syllable am was a Sanscrit root as well as a Latin one. It would merely be 
one more proof of a primitive connection between the Latin and the Indian 
races, but the same problem would remain in either case, how the syllable am 
could be connected with the thought of love. Thus sooner or later the Etymol- 
ogist is brought to the question of the origin of Language. The scientific ac- 
count of any particular word will only be complete when it is understood how 
the root to which the word has been traced could have acquired its proper signi- 
ficance among the founders of Language. The speech of man in his mother ~( 
tongue is not, among children of the present day, a spontaneous growth of nature. _N 
The expression itself of mother- tojigue shows the immediate source from whence 
the language of each of us is derived. The child learns to si>eak from the inter-"\ 
course of those in whose care he is placed. If an English infant were removed 
Irom its parents and committed to the charge of a Greek or a Turkish home, he 
would be troubled by no instinctive smatterings of English, but would grow up in 
the same command of Greek or of Turkish as his foster brothers. 

Thus language, like writing, is an art handed down from one generation to 
another, and when we wQuld trace upwards to its origin the pedigree of this grand 
distinction between man and the brute creation, we must either suppose that the 
line of tradition has been absolutely endless, that there never was a period at 
which the family of man was not to be found on earth, speaking a language be- 



viii FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM OF LANGUAGE. 

queathed to him by his ancestors, or we must at last arrive at a generation which 
was not taught their language by their parents. The question then arises, how 
did the generation, in which Language was originally developed, attain so valuable 
an art ? Must we suppose that our first parents were supernaturally endowed 
with the power of speaking and understanding a definite language, which was 
transmitted in natural course to their descendants, and was variously modified in 
different lines of descent through countless ages, during which the race of man 
spread over the earth in separate families of people, until languages were pro- 
duced between which, as at present, no cognisable relation can be traced ? 

Or is it possible, among the principles recognised as having contributed ele- 
ments more or less abundant in every known language, to indicate a sufficient 
cause for the entire origination of language in a generation of men who had not 
yet acquired the command of that great instrument of thought, though in 
every natural capacity the same as ourselves ? 

When the question is brought to this definite stage, the same step will be 
gained in the science of language which was made in geology, when it was re- 
cognised that the phenomena of the science must be explained by the action of 
powers, such as are known to be active at the present day in working changes on 
the structure of the earth. The investigator of speech must accept as his start- 
ing-ground the existence of man as yet without knowledge of language, but en- 
dowed with intellectual powers and command of his bodily frame, such as we 
ourselves are conscious of possessing, in the same way that the geologist takes his 
stand on the fact of a globe composed of lands and seas subjected, as at the pre- 
sent day, to the influence of rains and tides, tempests, frosts, earthquakes, and sub- 
terranean fires. 

A preliminary objection to the supposition of any natural origin of language 
has been raised by the modern German school of philosophers, whose theory 
leads them to deny the possibility of man having ever existed in a state of mutism. 
' Man is only man by speech,' says W. v. Humboldt, ' but in order to discover 
speech he must already be man.' And Professor Max Muller, who cites the 
epigram, adopts the opinion it expresses. ' Philosophers,' he says (Lectures on 
the Science of Language, p. 347), 'who imagine that the first man, though left 
to himself, would gradually have emerged from a state of mutism, and have in- 
vented words for every new conception that arose in his mind, forget that man 
could not by his own power have acquired the faculty of speech, which is the 
distinctive character of mankind, unattained and unattainable by the mute crea- 
tion.' The supposed difficulty is altogether a fallacy arising from a confusion 
between the faculty of speech and the actual knowledge of language. 

The possession of the faculty of speech means only that man is rendered ca- 
pable of speech by the original constitution of his mind and physical frame, as a 
bird of flying by the possession of wings ^ but inasmuch as man does not learn to 
speak, as a bird to fly, by the instinctive exercise of the proper organ, it becomes 
a legitimate object of inquiry how the skilled use of the tongue was originally 
acquired. 



DOCTRINE OF MAX MULLER. ix 

It is surprising that any one should have stuck at the German paradox, in the 
face of the patent fact that we all are born in a state of mutism, and gradually 
acquire the use of language from intercourse with those around us, while those 
who are cut off by congenital deafness from all opportunity of hearing the speech 
of others, remain permanently dumb, unless they have the good fortune to rneet 
with instructors, by whom they may be taught not only to express their thoughts 
by manual signs, but also to speak intelligibly notwithstanding the disadvantage 
of not hearing their own voice. 

Since then it is matter of fact that individuals are found by no means wantmg 
in intelligence who only attain the use of speech in mature life, and others who 
never attain it at all, it is plain that there can be no metaphysical objection to the 
supposition that the family of man was in existence at a period when the use of 
language was wholly unknown. How man in so imperfect a state could manage 
to support himself, and maintain his ground against the wild beasts, is a question 
which need not concern us. 

The high reputation of Professor Max Miiller as a linguist, and the great 
popularity of his Lectures on Language, have given to the doctrine which 
he there expounds, an importance not deserved either by the clearness of 
the doctrine itself, or by any light which it throws on the fundamental problems 
of Language. He asserts (p. 369) that the 400 or 500 roots to which the! 
languages of diiferent families may be reduced, are neither interjections nor • 
imitations, but ' phonetic types produced by a power inherent in human ^ 
nature. Man in his primitive and perfect state had instincts of which no traces 
remain at the present day, the instinct being lost when the purpose for w hich it 
was required was fulfilled, as the senses become weaker when, as in the case of 
scent, they become useless.' By such an instinct the primitive Man was en- 
dowed with the faculty of giving articulate expression to the rational conceptions 
of his mind. He was * irresistibly impelled to accompany every conception of 
his mind by an exertion of the voice, articulately modulated in correspondence 
with the thought which called it forth, in a manner analogous to that in which a 
body, struck by a hammer, answers with a different ring according as it is com- 
posed of metal, stone, or wood.f 

At the same time it must be supposed that the instinct w hich gave rise to the 
expression of thought by articulate sound, w^ould enable those who heard such 
sounds to understand what was passing in the mind of the person who uttered 
them. At the beginning the number of these phonetic types must have been 
almost infinite, and it would only be by a process of natural elimination that 
clusters of roots, more or less synonymous, would gradually be reduced to one 
definite type (p. 371). Thus a stock of significant sounds would be produced f 
from whence all the languages on earth were developed, and when ' the creative 
faculty, which gave to each conception as it thrilled the first time through the 

* It was an instinct, an instinct of the mind as irresistible as any other instinct. — p. 370. 
+ The faculty peculiar to man in his primitive state by which every impression from without 
received its vocal expression from within must be accepted as a fact. — p. 370, n. 



X NO FOUNDATION IN EXPERIENCE. 

brain a phonetic expression/ had its object fulfilled in the establishment of lan- 
guage, the instinct faded away, leaving the infants of subsequent generations to learn 
their language of their parents, and those who should be born deaf to do as well 
as they could without any oral means of communicating their thoughts or 
desires. 

By other writers of the same philosophical school the instinct is retained in 
permanence, in order to account for the vitality of words during the vast period 
of time, from the first branching off of the pristine Arian stock into ditferent 
families, down to the present day. It is practically such an instinct which 
Curtius demands as the basis of any theory of language, in the very valuable in- 
troduction to his Grunziige der Griech. Etym., p. 91. 

In all the languages of the Indo-European family, he says ' from the Ganges to 
the Atlantic the same combination sta designates the phenomenon of standing, 
while the conception of flowing is as widely associated with the utterance plu 
or slightly modified forms. This cannot be accidental. The same conception 
can only have been united with the same vocal utterance for so many thousand 
years, because in the consciousness (gefuhl) of the people there was an inward 
bond between the two, that is, because there was for them a persistent tendency 
to express that conception by precisely those sounds. The Philosophy of Speech 
must lay down the postulate of a physiologic potency of sounds (einer physiolo- 
gischen geltung der laute), and it can no otherwise elucidate the origin of words, 
than by the assumption of a relation of their sounds to the" impression which the 
things signified by them produce on the soul of the speaker. The signification 
thus dwells like a soul in the vocal utterance : the conception, says W. v. Hum- 
boldt, is as little able to cast itself loose from the word as man can divest himself 
of his personal aspect.' 

It is a fatal objection to speculations like the foregoing that they appeal to 
principles of which we have no distinct experience. If it were true that there is 
in the constitution of man a physiologic connection between the sounds sta and 
plu and the notion of standing and flowing respectively, it must be felt by all 
mankind alike, and it should have led to the universal use of those roots for the 
expression of the same ideas in other languages as well as those of the Indo- 
European stock. But in my own case I have no consciousness of any such con- 
nection. I do not find that the sound sta of itself calls up any idea in my mind, 
and to an unlearned English ear it is as closely connected with the ideas of 
stabbing, of stamping, and of starting, as it is with that of standing. We know 
that our children do not speak instinctively at the present day, and to say that 
speech came in that way to primitive Man is simply to avow our inability to 
give a rational account of its acquisition. A rational theory of language should 
indicate a process supported at every step by the evidence of actual experience, 
by which a being, in every other respect like ourselves, might have been led from 
a state of mutism to the use of Speech. Nor are the elements of a rational answer 
to the problem far to seek, if we are content to look for small beginnings, and do 
not regard the invention of language as the work of some mute genius of tlie 



GESTURE NATURAL TO MAN. xi 

ancient world, forecasting the benefits of oral communication and elaborating of 
himself a system of vocal signs. 

* \i in the present state of the world,' says Cliarma, ' some philosopher were to 
wonder how man ever began these houses, palaces, and vessels which we see 
around us, we should answer that these were not the things that man began with. 
The savage who first tied the branches of shrubs to make himself a shelter was 
not an architect, and he who first floated on the trunk of a tree was not the 
creator of navigation.' A like allowance must be made for the rudeness of the 
first steps in the process when we are required to explain the origin of the com- 
plicated languages of civilised life. 

If language was the work of human intelligence we may be sure that it was 
accomplished by exceedingly slow degrees, and when the true mode of procedure 
Is finally pointed out, we must not be surprised if we meet with the same appa- 
rent disproportion between the grandeur of the structure and the homeliness of 
the mechanism by which it was reared, which was found so great a stumbling- 
block in geology when the modern doctrines of that science began to prevail. 
" The first step is the great difficulty in the problem. If once we can imagine 
a man like ourselves, only altogether ignorant of language, placed in circum- 
stances under which he will be instinctively led to make use of his voice, for the 
purpose of leading others to think of something beyond the reach of actual 
apprehension, we shall have an adequate explanation of the first act of speech. 

Now if man in his pristine condition had the same instincts with ourselves he 
would doubtless, before he attained the command of language, have expressed 
his needs by means of gestures or signs addressed to the eye, as a traveller at the 
present day, thrown among people whose language was altogether strange to him, 
would signify his hunger by pointing to his mouth and making semblance of eat- 
ing. Nor is there, in all probability, a tribe of savages so stupid as not to under- 
stand gestures of such a nature. 'Tell me,' says Socrates in the Cratylus, 'if 
we had neither tongue nor voice and wished to call attention to something, 
should we not imitate it as well as we could with gestures ? Thus if we wanted 
to describe anything either lofty or light, we should indicate it by raising the 
hands to heaven ^ if we wished to describe a horse or other animal, we should 
represent it by as near an approach as we could make to an imitation in our own 
person.' 

The instinctive tendency to make use of significant gestures was clearly shown 
in the case of Laura Bridgman, who being born blind and deaf affbrded a singu- 
lar opportunity for studying the spontaneous promptings of Nature. Now after 
Laura had learned to speak on her fingers she would accompany this artificial 
mode of communicating her thoughts with the imitative or symbolical gestures 
which were taught her by Nature. * When Laura once spoke to me of her own 
crying when a little child,' says Lieber (Smithsonian contributions to Knowledge, 
vol. 2), 'she accompanied her words with a long face, drawing her fingers down 
the face, indicating the copious flow of tears.* She would also accompany her 
yes and no with the ordinary nod and shake of the head which are the natural 



xii MAN NATURALLY VOCAL. 

expression of acceptance and aversion/* and which in her case were certainly not 
learned from observation of others. 

To suppose then that primitive Man would spontaneously make use of gestures 
to signify whatever it was urgently needful for him to make known to others, is 
merely to give him credit for the same instinctive tendencies of which we are 
conscious in ourselves. But strong emotion naturally exhales itself in vocal 
utterance as well as in muscular action. Man shouts as he jumps for joy. And 
this tendency is felt equally by the deaf and dumb, whose utterances are com- 
monly harsh and disagreeable in consequence of not hearing their own voice. It 
was accordingly necessary to check poor Laura when inclined to indulge in this 
mode of giving vent to her feelings. She pleaded that ' God had given her much 
voice,' and would occasionally retire to enjoy the gift in her own way in private. 
Man then is a vocal animal, and when an occasion arose on which the sign- 
making instinct was called forth by the necessities of the case, he would as readily 
be led to imitate sound by the voice as shape and action by bodily gestures. 
When it happened in the infancy of communication, that some sound formed 
a prominent feature of the matter which it was important to make known, the 
same instinct which prompted the use of significant gestures, where the matter 
admitted of beifig so represented, would give rise to the use of the voice in imi- 
tation of the sound by which the subject of communication was now characterised. 

A person terrified by a bull would find it convenient to make known the 
object of his alarm by imitating at once the movements of the animal with his head, 
and the bellowing with his voice. A cock would be represented by an attempt 
at the sound of crowing, while the arms were beat against the sides in imitation 
of the flapping of the bird's wings. It is by signs like these that Hood describes 
his raw Englishman as making known his wants in France. 

Moo ! I cried for milk — 

If I wanted bread 

My jaws I set agoing, 

And asked for new-laid eggs 

By clapping hands and crowing. 

Hood's Own. 

There would be neither sense nor fun in the caricature if it had not a basis of 
truth in human nature, cognisable by the large and unspeculative class for whom 
the author wrote. 

A jest must be addressed to the most superficial capacities of apprehension, and 
therefore may often afford better evidence of a fact of consciousness than a train 
of abstruse reasoning. It is on that account that so apt an illustration of the 
only comprehensible origin of language has been found in the old story of the 
Englishman at a Chinese banquet, who being curious as to the composition of a 
dish he was eating, turned round to his native servant with an interrogative 
Quack, quack ? The servant answ^ered. Bowwow ! intimating as clearly as if he 

* Me turneth thet neb blithelich touward to thinge Ihet me loveth, and frommard to thinge 
thet me liateth. — Ancren Riwle, 254. 



NURSERY IMITATIONS. xiii 

spoke in English that it was dog and not duck that his master was eating. The 
communication that passed between them was essentially language, comprehen- 
sible to every one who was acquainted with the animals in question, language 
therefore which might have been used by the first family of man as well as by 
persons of different tongues at the present day. 

The imitations of sound made by primitive Man, in aid of his endeavours to 
signify his needs by bodily gestures, would be very similar to those which are 
heard in our nurseries at the present day, when we represent to our children 
the lowing of the cow, the baaing of the sheep, or the crowing of the 
cock. The pecuHar character of the imitation is given at first by the tone of 
voice and more or less abrupt mode of utterance, without the aid of distinct con- 
sonantal articulation, and in such a manner we have no difficulty in making imita- 
tions that are_easil3u:ecognised by any child acquainted with the cry of the animal. 
The lowing of the cow is imitated by the prolonged utterance of the vowel sound 
oo-ooh ! or, with an initial m or b, which are naturally produced by the opening 
lips, mooh! or look! In the same way the cry of the sheep is sounded in our nur- 
series by a broken laa-aa-ah ! in Scotland lae ! or mae ! By degrees the imitative 
colouring is dropped, and the syllables moo or baa pronounced in an ordinary 
tone" of voice are understood by the child as signifying the cry of the cow or the 
sheep, and, thus being associated with the animals in question in the mind of the 
child, might be employed to lead his thoughts to the animal itself instead of the 
cry which it utters, or, in other words, might be used as the name of the animal. 
It so happens that the English nurse adds the names cow and lamb, by which 
she herself knows the animals, to the syllables which are significant to the child, 
who thus learns to designate the animals as moo-cow and baa-lamb, but nothing 
of this kind could take place at the commencement of language, when neither 
party was as yet in possession of a name for the object to be designated, and in 
some cases the same syllables by which the nurse imitates the cry are used with- 
out addition as the name of the animal itself. The bark of a dog is represented 
in our nurseries by the syllables bow-wow, and the child is first taught to know 
the dog as a bowwow. The syllables moo (mu, muh) and mae {me, mah) in the 
South of Germany represent the voice of the cow and the sheep or goat, and with 
Swabian children muh and mdh are the names of the cow and sheep or goat 
(Schmid). In parts of England the imitative moo is lengthened out into mully, 
in the sense of lowing or suppressed bellowing ; and mully or mully cow is the 
children's name of the cow. The Northamptonshire dairymaid calls her cows to 
milking, come Moolls, come MooUs ! (Mrs Baker). On the same principle among 
Swabian children the name of Molle, Molli, or Mollein, is given to a cow or calf. 

It is true that the names we have cited are appropriated to the use of children, 
but it makes no difference in the essential nature of the contrivance, by whom the 
sign is to be understood ; and where we are seeking, in language of the present 
day, for analogies with the first instinctive endeavours to induce thought in others 
by the exercise of the voice, the more undeveloped the understanding of the per- 
son to whom the communication is addressed, the closer we shall approach to the 



xiv ACTUAL FORMATION OF A WORD. 

conditions under which language must have sprung up in the infancy of Man. 
Where then can the principle which first gave it significance be sought for with 
so much reason, as in the forms of speech adapted to the dawning intellect of our 
own children, and in the process by which it is made comprehensible to them ? 
Dr Lieber, in his paper on the vocal sounds of Laura Bridgman above cited, gives 
an instructive account of the birth of a word under his own eyes. 

* A member of my own family,' he says, ' showed in early infancy a pecu- 
liar tendency to form new words, partly from sounds which the child caught, 
as to woh for to stop, from the interjection woh / used by wagoners when 
they wish to stop their horses j partly from symphenomenal emission of sounds. 
Thus when the boy was a little above a year old he had made and established in 
the nursery the word nim for everything fit to eat. I had watched the growth 
of this word. First, he expressed his satisfaction at seeing his meal, when hungry, 
by tlie natural humming sound, which all of us are apt to produce when approving 
or pleased with things of a common character, and which we might express thus, 
hm. Gradually, as his organs of speech became more skilful and repetition made 
the sound more familiar and clearer, it changed to the more articulate um and 
im. Finally an n was placed before it, nim being much easier to pronounce than 
im when the mouth has been closed. But soon the growing mind began to 
generalise, and nim came to signify everything edible^ so that the boy would 
add the words good or bad which he learned in the mean time. He would now 
say good nim, had nim, his nurse adopting the word with him. On one occasion 
he said^e nim, for bad, repulsive to eat. There is no doubt that a verb to nim 
for to eat would have developed itself, had not the ripening mind adopted the 
vernacular language which was offered to it ready made. We have, then, here 
the origin and history of a word which commenced in a symphenomenal sound, 
and gradually became articulate in sound and general in its meaning, as the organs 
of speech, as well as the mind of the utterer, became more perfect. And is not 
the history of this word a representation of many thousands in every language 
now settled and acknowledged as a legitimate tongue ? ' 

Dr Lieber does not seem to have been aware how frequent a phenomenon it 
is which he describes, nor how numerous the forms in actual speech connected 
with the notion of eating which may be traced to this particular imitation. A 
near relation of my own in early childhood habitually used mum or mummum for 
food or eating, analogous to Magyar mammogni, Gr. fxajjjjidv (Hesych.), in chil- 
dren's language, to eat. Heinicke, an eminent teacher of the deaf-and-dumb 
cited by Tylor (Early Hist., p. 72), says : ' All mutes discover words for them- 
selves for difi^erent things. Among over fifty whom I have partially instructed 
or been acquainted with, there was not one who had not uttered at least a few 
spoken names which he had discovered for himself, and some were very clear and 
distinct. I had under my instruction a born deaf-mute, nineteen years old, who 
had previously invented many writeable words for things. For instance, he called 
to eat, mumm, to drink, schipp, &c.' In ordinary speech we have the verb to 
mump, to move the lips with the mouth closed, to work over with the mouth, 



ONOMATOPCEIA. xv 

as to mump food (Webster) ; to mumhle, to chew with toothless gums ; Swedish 
mummsa, to mump, mumble, chew with difficulty (Oehrlander) -, Bavarian mem- 
mel/i, memmezen, jnumpfen, mumpfeln, to move the lips in continued chewing j 
mampfen, to eat with a full mouthy on. mwmpa, to fill the mouth, to eat 
greedily (Haldorsen). With a different development of the initial sound we have 
Galla djam djeda, djamdjamgoda (to say djam, make djamdjam), to smack in eat- 
ing J South Jutland hiamsk, voracious, greedy ; at hiamske i sig, to eat in a greedy 
swinish manner (Molbech) ; Swedish dialect gamsa, jamsa (yamsa), jammla, 
jumla, to chew laboriously, to mumble, leading to the Yorkshire yam, to eatj 
yamming, eating, or more particularly the audibility of the masticating process 
(Whitby GL). To yam is a slang term for eating among sailors. In the Negro 
Dutch of Surinam nyam is to eat j nyamnyam, food (Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 
1 86). The Chinese child uses nam for eat, agreeing with Fin. nama (in chil- 
dren's language), Sw. namnam, Wolof nalenale, delicacies, tidbits ; Zooloo nam- 
lita, to smack the lips after eating or tasting, and thence to be tasteful, to be plea- 
sant to the mind 3 Soosoo (W. Africa) nimnim, to taste ; Vei (W. Africa) nimi, 
palatable, savory, sweet (Koelle). And as picking forbidden food would afford 
the earhest and most natural type of appropriating or stealing, it is probable that 
we have here the origin of the slang word nim, to take or steal (indicated in the 
name of Corporal Nym), as well as the Sw. dial, nimma, Gothic niman, to take. 
Nlmm'd up, taken up hastily on the sly, stolen, snatched (Whitby Gl.). * Mother- 
well, the Scotch poet,' says the author of Modern Slang, ' thought the old word 
nim (to snatch or pick up) was derived from nam, nam, the tiny words or cries 
of an infant when eating anything which pleases its little palate. A negro pro- 
verb has the word : Buckra man nam crab, crab nam buckra man^ Or, in the 
buckra man's language : White man eat [or steal] the crab, and the crab eats 
the white man.' — p. 180. 

The traces of imitation as a living principle giving significance to words have 
been recognised from the earliest period, and as it was the only principle on 
which the possibility of coining words came home to the comprehension of every 
one, it was called Onomatopoeia, or word-making, while the remaining stock of 
language was vaguely regarded as having come by inheritance from the first 
establishers of speech. ' 'Ovo/iaro7rotia quidem,' says Quintilian, ' id est, fictio no- 
minis, Graecis inter maximas habita virtutes, nobis vix permittitur. Et sunt plurima 
ita posita ab iis qui sermonem primi fecerunt, aptantes adfectibus vocem. Nam 
mugitus et sihiius et murmur inde venerunt.' And Diomedes, * 'OvofiaToiroda est 
dictio configurata ad imitandam vocis confusae significationem, ut tinnitus seris, 
clangorque tubarum. Item quum dicimus valvos stridere, oves halare, aves tin- 
nire.' — Lersch, Sprach-philosophie der Alten, iii. 130-1. Quintilian instances the 
words used by Homer for the twanging of the bow {Xiy^e (3i6q), and the fizzing 
of the fiery stake (tfj/^f) in the eye of Polyphemus. 

The principle is admitted in a grudging way by Max Miiller (2nd Series, p. 
298) : ' There are in many languages words, if we can call them so, consisting of 
mere imitations of the cries of animals or the sounds of nature, and some of them 



xvi OBJECTION OF MAX MULLER. 

have been tjarried along by the stream of language into the current of nouns and 
verbs.* And elsewhere (p. 89) with less hesitation, ' That sounds can be rendered 
in language by sounds, and that each huiguage possesses a large stock of words 
imitating the sounds given out by certain things, who would deny ? ' 

We could not have a clearer admission of the imitative principle as a vera 
causa in the origination of language. Yet in general he revolts against so simple 
a solution of the problem. 

* I doubt,' he says, speaking of words formed on the bowwow principle, 
* whether it deserves the name of language.' . ' If the principle of onomatopoeia 
is applicable anywhere it would be in the formation of the names of animals. 
Yet we listen in vain for any similarity between goose and cackling, ken and cluck- 
ing, duck and quacking, sparrow and chirping, dove and cooing, hog and grunting, 
cat and mewing, between dog and harking, yelping, snarling, and growling. We 
do not speak of a howwow, but of a dog. We speak of a cow, not of a moo ; of 
a lamh, not of a laa.' — Lect. p. ;^6;^. 

We shall answer the objection by showing that the name of the animal in 
the greater part of the instances specified by Miiiler is a plain onomatopoeia in 
one language or another ; that we do speak of a Moo and of a Baa in some other 
language if not in English, and that this plan of designation is widely spread over 
every region of the world, and applied to every kind of animal which utters a 
notable sound. As far as the cry itself is concerned it would hardly occur to 
any one to doubt that the word used to designate the utterance of a particular 
animal would be taken from imitation of the sound. When once it is admitted 
that there is an instinctive tendency to imitation in Man, it seems self-evident 
that he woijd make use of that means of representing any particular sound that 
he was desirous of bringing to the notice of his fellow. And it is only on this 
principle that we can account for the great variety of the terms by which the 
cries of different animals are expressed. Indeed, we still for the most part recog- 
nise the imitative intent of such words as the clucking of hens, cackling or 
gaggling of geese, gobbling of a turkey-cock, quacking of ducks or frogs, cawing 
or quawking of rooks, croaking of frogs or ravens, cooing or crooing of doves, 
hooting of owls, bumping of bitterns, chirping of sparrows or crickets, twittering 
of swallows, chattering of pies or monkeys, neighing or whinnying of horses, 
purring or mewing of cats, yelping, howling, barking, snarling of dogs, grunting 
or squealing of hogs, bellowing of bulls, lowing of oxen, bleating of sheep, baaing 
or maeing of lambs. 

While ewes shall bleat and little lambkins mae. — Ramsay. 

But the cry of an animal can hardly be brought to mind without drawing with it 
the thoughts of the animal itself. Thus the imitative utterance, intended in the 
first instance to represent the cry, might be used, when circumstances required, 
for the purpose of bringing the animal, or anything connected with it, before the 
thoughts of our hearer, or, in other words, might be used as the designation of 
the animal or of anything associated with it. If I take refuge in an African 



IMITATIVE NAMES. xvii 

village and imitate the roaring of a lion while I anxiously point to a neighbour- 
ing thicket, I shall intimate pretty clearly to the natives that a lion is lurking in 
that direction. Here the imitation of the roar will be practically used as the 
name of a lion. The gestures with which I point will signify that an object of 
terror is in the thicket, and the sound of my voice will specify that object as a 
lion. 

The signification is carried on from the cow to the milk which it produces, when 
Hood makes his Englishman ask for milk by an imitative moo. In the same way 
the representation of the clucking of a hen by the syllables cock ! cock ! gack ! 
gack ! (preserved in It. coccolare, Bav. gackern, to cluck) gives rise to the forms 
coco, kuko, and gaggele or gagkelein, which are used as the designation of an egg 
in the nursery language of France, Hungary, and Bavaria respectively. In 
Basque, kokoratz represents the clucking of a hen, and koko (in children's speech) 
the egg which it announces (Salaberry). It is among birds that the imitative 
nature of the name is seen with the clearest evidence, and is most universally ad- 
mitted. We all are familiar with the voice of the cuckoo, which we hail as the 
harbinger of spring. We imitate the sound with a modulated hoo-hoo, harden- 
ing into a more conventional cook-coo, and we call the bird cuckoo with a continued 
consciousness of the intrinsic significance of the name. The voice of the bird is 
so singularly distinct that there is hardly any variation in the syllables used to re- 
present the sound in different languages. In Lat. it is cuculus (coo-coo- l-u s) , in 
Gr. Konicv^, in g. kuckuck {cook-cook) or guckguck. In Sanscrit the cry is written 
kuhu, and the bird is called kuh£ka, kuhti-rava (raua, sound), whose sound is 
kuhii — (Pictet, Origines Indo-Europeennes). We represent the cry of birds of 
the crow kind by the syllable caiv or quawk, which is unmistakeably the source 
of the name in the most distant dialects, as Du. kaiiwe, kae, Picard cau, a. daw, 
Sanscr. kdka, Arabic Mk, ghdk, Georgian quaki, Malay gagak, Barabra koka', 
Manchu kaha, a crow (Pictet). British Columbia kiltkah, a crow. Long- 
fellow in his Hiawatha gives kahkahgee as the Algonquin name of the raven. 
The imitative nature of such names as these have been recognised from the 
earliest times, and a Sanscrit writer of at least the 4th century before Christ is 
quoted by Miiller (Lect. i. 380, 4th ed.). ' Kdka, crow, is an imitation of the 
sound {kdku kdka, according to Durga), and this is very common among birds.' 
But already Philosophy was beginning to get the better of common sense, and 
tlie author continues : ' Aupamanyava however maintains that imitation of the 
sound does never take place. He therefore derives kdki, crow, from apakd- 
layitavya; i. e. a bird that is" to be driven away.' Another Sanscrit name for 
the crow is kdrava (whose voice is kd), obviously formed on the same plan with 
kuhurava (whose voice is kuhii) for the cuckoo. Yet the word is cited by Miil- 
ler as an example of the fallacious derivations of the onomatopceists. Kdrava, he 
says, is supposed to show some similarity to the cry of the raven. But as soon as 
we analyse the word we find that it is of a different structure from cuckoo or 
cock. It is derived from a root ru or kru, having a general predicative power, 
and means a shouter, a caller, a crier (p. 349, ist ed.). Sometimes the hoarse 

d 



xviii IMITATIVE NAMES. 

sound of the cry of this kind of bird introduces an r into the imitative syllable, 
and we use the verb to croak to designate their cry, while crouk, in the North of 
England, is the name for a crow. So we have Polish krukac, to croak, kruk, a 
crow J Lith. kraukti, to croak, krauklys, a crow ; Du. kracyen, to caw or croak, 
kraeye, g. krdhe, a crow. The corresponding verbal forms in German and Eng- 
lish krdhen, to crow, have been appropriated by arbitrary custom to the cry of the 
cock, but the word is not less truly imitative because it is adapted to. represent 
ditlerent cries of somewhat similar sound. In South America a crowlike bird is 
called caracara. 

The crowing of a cock is represented by the syllables kikeriki in g., coqiieri- 
cot in Fr., cacaracd in Languedoc, leaving no doubt of the imitative origin of 
lUyrian kuhirekati, Malay hukuk, to crow, as well as of Sanscr. hukkuta, Fin. 
kukko, Esthonian kikkas, Yoruba koklo, Ibo akoka, Zulu kuku, and e. cock. 

The cooing or crooing (as it was formerly called) of a dove is signified in g. 
by the verbs gurren or girren, Da. kurre, girre, Du. korren, kirren, koeren. To a 
Latin ear it must have sounded tur, tur, giving turtur (and thence It. tor tor a, 
tortola, Sp. tor tola, and e. turtle) as the Lat. name of the bird, the imitative 
nature of which has been universally recognised from its reduplicate form. Alba- 
nian tourre, Heb. tor, a dove. In Peru turtuli is one kind of dove ; cuculi 
another. Hindi, ghughu, Pers. kuku, gugu, wood-pigeon. 

The plaintive cry of the peewit is with no less certainty represented in the 
names by which the bird is known in different European dialects, in which we 
recognise a fundamental resemblance in sound, with a great variety in the par- 
ticular consonants used in the construction of the word : English peewit, Scotch 
peeweip, teewhoop, tuquheit, Dutch kievit, German kiehitz, Lettish kiekuts, Magy. 
lihits, lihuts, Swedish kowipa, French dishuit, Arabic tdtwit. The consonants t, 
p, ky produce a nearly similar effect in the imitation of inarticulate sounds, and 
when an interchange of these consonants is found in parallel forms (that is, 
synonymous forms of similar structure), either in the same or in related dialects, 
it may commonly be taken as evidence that the imitative force of the word has 
been felt at no distant period. 

The hooting of the owl is a note that peculiarly invites imitation, and accord- 
ingly it has given rise to a great variety of names the imitative character of which 
cannot be mistaken. Thus Latin ulula may be compared with ululare, or Gr. 
6\o\v^eiv, to cry loudly. In French we have hulotte from huller, to howl or 
yell, as Welsh hwan from hwa, to hoot. Lat. lulo, Fr. hilou, It. gufo, German 
luhu, uhu, Mod.Gr. coucouva, coccovaec, Walachian coucouveike, Algonquin kos 
kos-koo-o, are all direct imitations of the repeated cry. 

*The cry of the owl,' says Stier in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, xi. p. 219, ' ku-ku- 
ku-va-i is in the south (of Albania) the frequent origin of the name, in which 
sometimes the first, sometimes the second part, and sometimes both together, 
are represented.' 

Mr Farrar in his Chapters on Language (p. 24) observes that if the vocabu- 
lary of almost any savage nation is examined, the name of an animal will gen- 



IMITATIVE NAMES. xlx 

erally be found to be an onomatopcKia, and he cites from Threlkeld's Australian 
Grammar kong-ko-rong, the emu ; pip-pi-ta, a small hawk ; kong-kojig, frogs j 
all expressly mentioned by the author as taking their names from their cry. No 
one will doubt that the name of the pelican karong-karong is formed in the same 
manner. Mr Bates gives us several examples from the Amazons. ' Sometimes 
one of these little bands [of Toucans] is seen perched for hours together among 
the topmost branches of high trees giving vent to their remarkably loud, shrill, 
and yelping cry. These cries have a vague resemblance to the syllables tocano, 
tocano, and hence the Indian name of this genus of birds.' — Naturalist on the 
Amazons, i. 337. Speaking of a cricket he says, 'The natives call it tanand, in 
allusion to its music, which is a sharp resonant stridulation resembling the sylla- 
bles ta-na-nd, ta-na-nd, succeeding each other with little intermission.' — i. 250. 
We may compare the Parmesan tananai, loud noise, rumour 3 Arabic taritanat, 
sound, resounding of musical instruments. — Catafogo. 

The name of the cricket indeed, of which there are infinite varieties, may 
commonly be traced to representations of the sharp chirp of the insect. Thus 
E. cricket is from crick, representing a short sharp sound, as g. schrecke, 
{heuschrecke) , schrickel, from schrick, a sharp sound as of a glass cracking 
(Schmeller). g. schirke. Fin. sirkka, may be compared with g. zirken, oE. chirk, 
to chirp J hith. swirplys with G. schwirren, to chlr]) ; hat. gri/Ilus, g. grille, with 
Fr. grillen, to creak 5 Bret, skril with n. skryle, Sc. skirl, to shrill or sound 
sharp. The Arabic sarsor, Corean sirsor, Albanian tsentsir, Basque (juirquirra 
carry their imitative character on their face. 

The designation of insects from the humming, booming, buzzing, droning 
noises which they make in their flight is very common. We may cite Gr. 
/3o/u/3yXioc, the humhle- or humhle-lee, or a gnatj Sanscr. lamhhara, bee, hamha, 
fly, 'words imitative of humming ' — Pictet j AustraHan lumberoo, a fly (Tylor)^ 
Galla bomhi, a beetle ; German hummel, the drone or non-working bee ; Sanscr. 
druna, a bee, Lithuanian tranas, German drohne, a drone, to be compared with 
Sanscr. dhran, to sound, German dronen, to hum, resound, Danish dron, din, 
peal, hollow noise, Gaelic dranndan, humming, buzzing, growling. The drone 
of a bagpipe is the open pipe which keeps up a monotonous humming while the 
tune is playing. The cockchafer is known by the name of the buzzard in the 
North of England. 

'And I eer'd un a bumming ^cw^y 

Like a buzzard-clock o'er my eead.' — Tennyson, Northern Farmer. 

Basque lurrumla, a muttering noise as of distant thunder j- a cockchafer 
(Salaberri). The Welsh chwyrnu, to buzz (corresponding to Swedish hurra and 
E. whirr), gives rise to chwyrnores, a hornet, and probably indicates that g. 
horniss and e. hornet are from the buzzing flight of the animal, and not from its 
sting considered as a horn. The name of the gnat may be explained from 
Norse gnetta, knetta, to rustle, give a faint sound, Danish gnaddre, to grumble. 

Coming to the names of domestic animals we have seen that the lowing of 
the ox is represented by the syllables loo and moo. In the N. of England it is 



lot NAMES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

called looing, and a Spanish proverb cited by Tylor (Prim. Cult. i88) shows 
that the same mode of representing the sound is familiar in Spain. 'Habld el 
buey e dijd buf The ox spoke and said loo I From this mode of representing the 
sound are formed Ljth. luhauti (to loo-loo), to bellow like a bull, Zulu luluta, 
to low, and (as we apply the term lellowing to the loud shouting of men) Gr. 
fioata, to shout, Lat. loo, to shout, to make a loud deep sound. From the same 
imitative syllable are Lith. lulenti, to grumble as distant thunder j lulnas, a 
drum -J lulleti, to bump as a bittern j Illyr. lulati, to beat hard, to make a noise j 
Galla loa, to boohoo, to weep. 

In barbarous languages the notion of action is frequently expressed, and a 
verbal form given to the word by the addition of elements signifying make or 
say. Thus from mamook, make, the traders' jargon of Columbia has 
mamook-poo, to make poo, to shoot ; mamook-heehee, to make laugh, to 
amuse. — Tylor. The Galla uses goda, to make, and djeda, to say, in the 
same way, and from lillil, imitation of a ringing sound, it has lillilgoda, 
to ring, to sound. The same office is performed in an advanced stage of language 
in a more compendious way by the addition of an Z, a >^ or ^, or ax to the im- 
itative syllable. Thus from miau, representing the mew of a cat, the Fr. forms 
7niau-l-er, as the Illyr. (with a subsidiary k), maukati, to mew. From laa, or 
lae, are formed Lat. la-l-are, Fr. le-l-er, to baa or bleat ; from lau, represent- 
ing the bark of a dog, Piedmontese fi lau, or lau-l-^, to make low, to bow- 
wow or bark. The Piedm. verb is evidently identical with our own laivl, to 
shout, or with on. laiila, to low or bellow, whence laula, a cow, lauli, loli, 
w. Iwla, a bull. In Swiss the verb takes the form of lullen, agreeing exactly 
with Lith. lullus and e. lull. On the same principle, from the imitative moo 
instead of loo, the Northampton dairymaid calls her cows moolls. 

The formation of the verb by a subsidiary k or g gives Gr. fivKaofjiai, Illyr. 
viukati, lukati, Lat. mugire, OFr. niugler, bugler. Da. loge, to low ; and thence 
Lat. luculus, a bullock, lucula, a heifer, Fr. lugle, a buffalo, bullock, a name 
preserved in our lugle-horn. With these analogies, and those which will presently 
be found in the designations of the sheep or goat and their cries, it is truly sur- 
prising to meet with linguistic scholars who deny that the imitative loo can be 
the origin of forms like Gr. (^ovq, Lat. los, lovis, It. lue, ox, Norse lu, cattle, w, 
bu, Gael, bo, Manx booa, Hottentot lou (Dapper), Cochin Chinese lo (Tylor), a 
cow. Yet Geiger, in his Ursprung der menschhchen Sprache [1868], p. 167, 
plainly asserts that the supposition of such an origin, is inadmissible. His analysis 
leads him to the conclusion that the words (iovQ and cow may be traced to a 
common origin in the root gvav, and therefore cannot be taken from the cry of 
the animal. But when I find that the ox is widely called Boo among different 
famiHes of men from Connemara to Cochin China, it seems to me far more cer- 
tain that the name is taken from the looing of the animal than any dogmas can 
be that are laid down concerning such abstractions as the Sanscrit roots. 

The cry of the sheep or goat is universally imitated by the syllables laa, lae, 
mah, mae, as that of the cow by loo, or moo, and in Hottentot laa was the 



NAMES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. xxi 

name of a sheep, as hou of an ox. In the Vei of W. Africa haa, in Wolof 
lae, a goat. 

With a subsidiary k or g the imitative syllable produces Swiss bdggen, Iddg- 
gen, Magy. lek-eg-ni, heg-et-ni, Illyr. beknuti, to bleat, and thus explains the origin 
of forms like Sw. Idgge (Rietz), a sheep or ewe, Gr. (inKt), fiiJKov (Hesych.), a 
sheep or goat, Illyr. bekavica, a sheep. It. lecco, a goat. From the imitative 7nae, 
we have Sanscr. mendda {ndda, sound, cry), a goat j and with the subsidiary k or 
g, Gr. nrjKaojjiai, /xr^fcct^w, Illyr. mekeiati, mecad, g. meckern, Magy. mekegni, Gael. 
meigeaU Vorarlberg mdggila (corresponding to Fr. meugler, for the voice of the 
ox), to bleat j Gr. ixrjKahg, goats, lambs. 

The same radical with a subsidiary I gives Gael, meil, Manx meilee, to bleat, 
showing the origin of Scotch Mailie, as the proper name of a tame sheep, and of 
Gr. fifjXov (maelon), a sheep or a goat, and Circassian maylley, a sheep (Lowe). 

The name of the hog is another instance where Miiller implicitly denies all 
resemblance with the characteristic noises of the animal. And it is true there is 
no similarity between hog and grunt, but the snorting sounds emitted by a pig 
may be imitated at least as well by the syllables hoch, hoch (giving to ch the 
guttural sound of Welsh and Breton), as by grunt. In evidence of the aptness of 
this imitation, we may cite the cry used in Suffolk in driving pigs, remembering 
that the cries addressed to animals are commonly taken from noises made by 
themselves. * In driving, or in any way persuading, this obstinate race, we have 
no other imperative than hooe ! hooe ! in a deep nasal, guttural tone, appropri- 
ately compounded of a groan and a grunt.' — Moor's Suffolk words, in v. sus-sus. 
Hence Breton hoc ha, to grunt, and hoch, houch, w. hwch, a hog, leaving little 
doubt as to the imitative origin of the e. name. In Hke manner we find Lap- 
pish snorkeset, to grunt, undoubtedly imitative, and snorke, a pig; Fin. naskia, to 
smack like a pig in eating, and naski, a pig. If Curtius had been aware of the 
Sc. grumpf, a grunt, and grumphie, a sow, he would hardly have connected 
Hesychius' ypo/z^ac, a sow, with the root ypa0w, applied to the rooting of the ani- 
mal with its snout. Moreover, although the imitation embodied in Lat. grun- 
nire, Fr. grogner, and e. grunt, does not produce a name of the animal itself, 
it gives rise to It. grugno, Fr. groin, e. grunny, the snout of a pig, and thence 
groin, the snout-shaped projections running out into the sea, by which the shingle 
of our southern coast is protected. And obviously it is equally damaging to 
Miiller's line of argument whether the onomatopoeia supplies a name of the ani- 
mal or only of his snout. 

Among the designations of a dog the term cur, signifying a snarling, ill-bred 
dog, may with tolerable certainty be traced to an imitative source in on. kurra, 
to snarl, growl, grumble, g. kurren, to rumble, grumble. Kurren und murren, 
ill-natured jangling ; Sc. curmurring, grumbling, rumbling. The g. kurre, oe. 
curre-Jish (as Da. knurfisk, from knurre, to growl, mutter, purr), is applied to 
the gurnard on account of the grumbling sounds which that fish is said to utter. 
It is probable also that e. hound, g. hund, a dog, may be identical with Esthon. 
hunt (gen. hundi), a wolf, from hundama, to howl, corresponding to ohg. hunon. 



xxii MULLER ANSWERED. 

to yelp, Sc. hune, to whine. So Sanscr. hi^rava (whose cry is ki), a jackal 
(Benfey). 

The nursery names of a horse are commonly taken from the cries used in the 
management of the animal, which serve the purpose as well as the cries of the 
animal itself, since all that is wanted is the representation of a sound associated in 
a hvely manner with the thought of the creature to be named. 

In England the cry to make a horse go on is gee, and the nursery name for a 
horse is geegee. In Germany hott is the cry to make a horse turn to the right 3 
ho, to the left, and the horse is with children called hotte-pdrd (Danneil), hutt- 
jenho-peerd (Holstein Idiot.). In Switzerland the nursery name is hottihuh, as 
in Yorkshire highty (Craven Gloss.), from the cry halt, to turn a horse to the 
right. In Finland, humma, the cry to stop or back a horse, is used in nursery 
language as the name of the animal. The cry to back a horse in Westerwald is 
huff whence houfe, to go backwards. The same cry in Devonshire takes the 
form of haap 1 haap lack / Provincial Da. hoppe dig ! back ! From the cry thus 
used in stopping a horse the animal in nursery language is called hoppe in Frisian 
(Outzen), houpy in Craven, while hupp-peerdken in Holstein is a holly horse or 
child's wooden horse. Thus we are led to the Fr. hohin, e. holly, a little am- 
bling horse, g. hoppe, a mare, Esthonian hollo, hollen, a horse. 

In the face of so many examples it is in vain for Mliller to speak of onomato- 
poeia as an exceptional principle giving rise to a few insignificant names, but ex- 
ercising no appreciable influence in the formation of real language. ' The ono- 
matopoeic theory goes very smoothly as long as it deals with cackling hens and 
quacking ducks, but round that poultry-yard there is a dead wall, and we soon 
find that it is behind that wall that language really begins.' — 2nd Series, p. 91. 
' There are of course some names, such as cuckoo, which are clearly formed by an 
imitation of sound. But words of this kind are, like artificial flowers, without a 
root. They are sterile and unfit to express anything beyond the one object which 
they imitate.' ' As the word cuckoo predicates nothing but the sound of a par- 
ticular bird, it could never be applied for expressing any general quality in which 
other animals might share, and the only derivations to which it might give rise 
are words expressive of a metaphorical likeness with the bird.' — ist Series, p. ^6<^. 
The author has been run away with by his own metaphorical language. An 
onomatopoeia can only be said to have no root because it is itself a living root, as 
well adapted to send forth a train of derivations as if it was an offshoot from 
some anterior stock. If a certain character is strongly marked in an animal, the 
name of the animal is equally likely to be used in the metaphorical designation 
of the character in question, whether it was taken from the cry of the animal or 
from some other peculiarity. The ground of the metaphor lies in the nature of 
the animal, and can in no degree be affected by the principle on which the name of 
the species is formed. Thus the comparison with artificial flowers becomes a 
transparent fallacy which the author ought at once to have erased, when he found 
himself in the same page indicating derivatives like cuckold, coquette, cockade, 
coguelicot, as springing from his types of a lifeless stock. If onomatopoeias can 



IMITATIONS OFTEN UNLIKE EACH OTHER. xxiii 

be used in giving names to things that bear a metaphorical likeness to the ori- 
ginal object, what is there to limit their efficiency in the formation of language? 
And how can the indication of such derivatives as the foregoing, be reconciled 
with the assertion that there is a sharp line of demarcation between the region of 
onomatopoeia and the 'real ' commencement of language ? The important ques- 
tion is not what number of words can be traced to an imitative source, but 
whether there is any difference in kind between them and other words. 

The imitative principle will in no degree be impugned by bringing forwards 
any number of names which cannot be shown to have sprung from direct imita- 
tion, for no rational onomatopoeist ever supposed that all names were formed on 
that principle. It is only at the very beginning of language that the name would 
necessarily be taken from representations of sounds connected with the animal. 
As soon as a little command of language was attained, a more obvious means of 
designation would frequently be found in something connected with the appear- 
ance or habits of the animal, and it is a self-evident fact that many of the animals 
with which we are familiar are named on this principle. The redbreast, white- 
throat, redpole, lapwing, wagtail, goatsucker, woodpecker, swift, diver, creeper, 
speak for themselves, and a little research enables us to explain the name in in- 
numerable other cases on a similar plan. Nor will there be any presumption 
against an imitative origin even in cases where the meaning of the name remains 
wholly unknown. When once the name is fully conventionalised all conscious- 
ness of resemblance with sound is easily lost, and it will depend upon accident 
whether extrinsic evidence of such a connection is preserved. There is nothing 
in the e. name of the turtle or turtle-dove to put us in mind of the cooing of the 
animal, and if all knowledge of the Lat. turtur and its derivatives had been lost, 
there would have been no grounds for suspicion of the imitative origin of the 
word. It is not unlikely that the on. hross, e. horse, may have sprung from a 
form corresponding to Sanscr. hresh, to neigh, but as we are ignorant of any 
Indian name corresponding to horse, or any Western equivalent of the Sanscr. 
hresh, it would be rash to regard the connection of the two as more than a pos- 
sibility. Even in case of designations appropriated to the cries of particular 
animals or certain kinds of sound, it is commonly more from the consciousness of 
a natural tendency to represent sound in this manner, and indeed from the con- 
viction that it is the only possible way of doing so, that we regard the words as 
intentionally imitative, than from discerning in them any intrinsic resemblance 
to the sounds represented. The neighing of a horse is signified by words strik- 
ingly unlike even in closely related tongues j Fr. hennir. It. nitrire, Sp. rinchar, 
relinchar, Sw. wrena, wrenska, g. frenschen, wiehern, Du. runniken, ginniken, 
Irieschen, Sanscr. hresh, Bohem. f-ehtati, Lettish sweegt. Yet we cannot doubt 
that they all take their rise in vocal imitations of the sound of neighing or whin- 
nying. 

With the designations of animal cries may be classed those of various inar- 
ticulate noises of our own, as sigh, sol, moan, groan, cough, laugh (originally pro- 
nounced with a guttural), titter, giggle, hickup (Sanscr. hikkd, Pl.D. hukkup, 



xxiv IMITATIONS OF SOUND. 

snukkup), snore, snort, wheeze, shriek, scream, the imitative nature of which wil 
be generally admitted. 

The sound of a sneeze is peculiarly open to imitation. It is represented in e. 
by the forms a-kishoo ! or a-atcha I of which the first is nearly identical with the 
Sanscr. root kshu, or the w. t'ls'io (tisho), to sneeze. From the other mode of 
representing the sound a child of my acquaintance gave to his sister the name of 
Atchoo, on account of her sneezing ; and among American tribes it gives rise to 
several striking onomatopoeias cited by Tylor 3 haitshu, atchini, atchian 
aritischane, Sec. 

It is certain that where in the infancy of Speech the need was felt of bringing 
a sound of any kind to the thoughts of another, an attempt would be made to 
imitate it by the voice. And even at the present day it is extremely common to 
give hfe to a narration by the introduction of intentionally imitative words, whose 
only office it is to bring before the mind of the hearer certain sounds which 
accompany the action described, and bring it home to the imagination with the 
nearest approach to actual experience. 

* Bang, bang, bang ! went the cannon, and the smoke rolled over the 
trenches.' * Hoo, hoo, hoo ! ping ping, ping ! came the bullets about their ears.' 
* Haw, haw, haw ! roared a soldier from the other side of the valley.' ' And at 
it both sides went, ding, dong ! till the guns were too hot to be worked.' — Read, 
White Lies, 1865. 

To fall plump into the water is to fall so suddenly as to make the sound 
'plump.' * Plump ! da fiel he in das wasser.' So smack represents the sound of a 
sharp blow, and to cut a thing smack off is to cut it off at a blow. Ding- 
dong, for the sound of a large bell, ting-ting, for a small one ; tick-tack, 
for the beat of a clock j pit-a-pat, for the beating of the heart or the 
light step of a child j thwick-thwack, for the sound of blows, are familiar 
to every one. The words used in such a manner in German are especially 
numerous. Klapp, klatsch, for the sound of a blow. ' He kreeg enen an de 
oren : klapp I segde dat ' : he caught it on the ear, clap ! it cried — Brem-. Wtb. 
A smack on the chops is represented also by prat%, pUtsch-platsch. — Sanders. 
Puffy pump, bumm, for the sound of a fall -, knack, for that of breaking ; 
knarr, for the creaking of a wheel, Jitsche-fatsche, for blows with a rod, stripp- 
strapp-stroll, for the sound of milking. 

When once a syllable is recognised as representing sound of a certain kind it 
may be used to signify anything that produces such a sound, or that is accom 
panied by it. Few words are more expressive than the e. hang, familiarly use 
to represent the sound of a gun and other loud toneless noises. Of a like forma 
tion are Lettish hunga, a drum ; dehles-hungotais {debbes, heaven), the God of 
thunder j Zulu bongo, for the report of a musket (Colenso) , Australian /• 
lung ween, thunder (Tylor) 3 Yeighenghen, a kind of drum. To bang is t 
do anything that makes a noise of the above description, to beat, to ^ 
violently down, &c. Let. bangas, the dashing of the sea -, Vei gbangba, to ., 
mer, to drive in a nail 3 on. banga, to hammer; Da. banke, to knock, beat, i. 



FANCIFUL PRINCIPLES OF SIGNIFICANCE. xxv 

The sharp cry of a chicken or a young child is represented by the syllables 
pi, pu. 

We sail gar chekinnis cheip and gaislingis pew. — Lyndsay. 

In Austria pi/ pi! is used as a call to chickens (Tylor). Fr. pioUy pioUf 
peep, peep, the voice of chickens (Cot.) ; piailler, piauler, e. pule, to cry like 
a chick, a whelp, or a young child ; Gr. xtTr/^w, Lat. pipilo, pipio, Mantuan 
ir pipi, to cry pi, pi, to cheep like a bird or a young child. It. pipiare, 
"pare, to pip like a chicken or pule like a hawk ; pigolare, pigiolare, to squeak, 
yip as a chicken. — Florio. Magyar pip, cry of young birds ; pipegni, pipelni, 
to peep or cheeps pipe, a chicken or gosling j Lat. pipio, a young bird 3 
It. pippione, pigione, piccione, a (young) pigeon. The syllable representing a 
sharp sound is then used to designate a pipe, as the simplest implement for pro- 
ducing the sound. Fr. pipe, a fowler's bird call j G. pfeife, a fife or musical pipe. 
At last all reference to sound is lost, and the term is generalised in the sense of any 
hollow trunk or cylinder. 

In cases such as these, where we have clear imitations of sound to rest on, it is 
easy to follow out the secondary applications, but where without such a clue we 
ike the problem up at the other end and seek to divine the imitative origin of a 
/ord, we must beware of fanciful speculations like those of De Brosses, who finds 
i power of expressing fixity and firmness in an initial st; excavation and hollow 
1 sc ; mobility and fluid in fl, and so forth. It seems to him that the teeth 
Smg the most fixed element of the organ of voice, the dental letter, t, has been un- 
consciously (machinalement) employed to designate fixity, as k, the letter proceed- 
ing from the hollow of the throat, to designate cavity and hollow. S, which he 
calls the nasal articulation, is added to intensify the expression. Here he abandons 
the vera causa of the imitation of sound, and assumes a wholly imaginary principle 
of expression. What consciousness has the child, or the uneducated man, of the 
part of the mouth by which the different consonants are formed ? 

But even the question as to the adaptation of certain articulations to represent 

particular sounds will be judged very differently by different ears. To one the 

imitative intention of a word will appear self-evident, while another will be 

wholly unable to discern in the word any resemblance to the sound which it is 

supposed to represent. The writer of a critique on Wilson's Prehistoric Man 

can find no adaptation to sound in the words laugh, scream, bleat, cry, and 

rjiimper. He asks, 'What is there in whimper which is mimetic ? and li simper 

d been used instead, would there have been less onomatopoeia ? Is rire like 

(gh ? Yet to a Frenchman, doubtless, rire seems the more expressive of the 

^vo.' 

^n language, as in other subjects of study, the judgment must be educated by a 

•irvey of the phenomena, and their relations, and few who are so prepared 

"' .ubt the imitative nature of the word in any of the instances above cited 

Vilson. 

Jdence of an imitative origin may be found in various circumstances, not- 



xxvi EVIDENCES OF IMITATION. 

ably in what is called a reduplicate form of the word, where the significant 
syllable is repeated with or without some small variation, either in the vowel or 
consonantal sound, as in Lat. murmur (by the side of g. murren, to grumble), 
turtur, susurrus (for sur-sur-us) ; tint'mno, tbitino, along with tinnio, to ring ; 
pipio, to cry pi, pi ; It. tontonare, tonare, to thunder, rattle, rumble (Fl.) j 
gorgogliare (to make gorgor), to gurgle j Mod.Gr. yapyap/^w (to m?ike gargar), 
to gargle 3 /3op/Jo/3v<^w, It. borbogUare (to make borbor), to rattle, rumble, bubble, 
along with Du. borrelen, to bubble j Zulu raraxa, to fizz like fat in frying^ 
Hindoo tomtom, a drum ; W. Indian chack-chack, a rattle made of hard seeds in 
a tight-blown bladder (Kingsley), to be compared with Sc. chack, to clack, to 
make a clinking noise, or with Manchu kiakseme {seme, sound), sound of dry 
wood breaking. 

If laugh were written as it is pronounced, laqfjF, there would be nothing in 
the word itself to put us in mind of the thing signified. The imitation begins 
to be felt in the guttural ach of g. lachen, and is clearly indicated in the redupli- 
cate form of the Du. lachachen, to hawhaw or laugh loud, preserved by Kilian. 
The same principle of expression is carried still further in the Dayak kakakkaka, 
to go on laughing loud ; Manchu kaka-kiki, or kaka-faka, Pacific aka-aka, loud 
laughter. Mr Tylor illustrates the AustraHan wiiti, to laugh, by quoting from 
the 'Tournament of Tottenham,' 

We te he I quoth Tyb, and lugh. 

In other cases the imitative intention is witnessed by a variation of the vowel 
corresponding to changes in the character of the sound represented. Thus crack 
signifies a loud hard noise ; crich, a sharp short one, like the noise of a glass 
breaking J creak, a prolonged sharp sound. Clack expresses such a sound as that 
of two hard pieces of wood striking against each other; click, a short sharp 
sound, as the click of a latch or a trigger 3 cluck, a closed or obscure sound. 
Hindustani karak is rendered, crash, crack, thunder ; kuruk, the clucking of a 
hen 3 karkarana, to crackle like oil in boiling 3 kirkirdna, to gnash the teeth 3 
kurkuranct, to cluck, to grumble. To craunch implies the exertion of greater 
force than when we speak of crunching such a substance as frozen snow or a 
biscuit. The change through the three vowels, i, a, u, in German, is very com- 
mon. The Bremisch Dictionary describes knaks, kniks, knuks, as representing 
the sound made when something breaks; knaks, of a loud strong sound 3 kniks, 
of something fine and thin, like a glass or the chain in a watch 3 knuks, when it 
gives a dull sound like a joint dislocated or springing back. In the same way 
we have knarren, to creak 3 knirren, to grate the teeth 3 knurren, to growl, 
grumble; garren,girren, gurren, to jar, coo, rumble, &c. Sometimes the ex- 
pression is modified by a change of the consonant instead of the vowel. Thus 
in Zulu the sonants b and g are exchanged for the lighter sound of the spirants 
p and k in order to strengthen the force of a word. Pefuxela, to pant 3 befu- 
%ela, to pant violently (Colenso). But perhaps the expressive power of a word 
is brought home to us in the most striking manner when the same significa- 



SIMILAR FORMS IN REMOTE TONGUES. xxvii 

tion is rendered by identical or closely similar forms in widely distant languages. 

The noise of pieces of metal striking together, or of bells ringing, is represented 
in Manchu by the syllables kiling-kiling, kiling-kalang, to be compared with g. 
kling-kL'mg, the tingling sound of a Httle bell (Ludwig) ; Uing-klang, the sound of 
a stringed instrument, the chnk of glasses j Lat. clango, e. clank, dink. Manchu 
kalar-kilir, for the clinking of keys or tinkling of bells, is identical with g. klirren, 
the gingling of glasses, chinking- of coin, clash of arms. Manchu tang-tang, 
Chinese tsiang-tsiang, for the ringing of bells, correspond to e. ding-dong, and 
illustrate the imitative nature oi tingle, jingle, jangle. Manchu quar-quar, for the 
croaking of frogs, agrees with g. quarren, to croak 5 Manchu kak for the sound of 
coughing or clearing the throat, with our expression of hawking or of a hacking 
cough. Manchu pour-pour represents the sound of boiling water, or the bubbhng 
up of a spring, corresponding in e. to the purling of a brook, or to Du. borrelen, 
to bubble up. Manchu kaka, as Fr. caca and Finnish ddkkd, are applied to the 
excrements of children, while cacd ! is used in e. nurseries as an exclamation of 
disgust or reprobation, indicating the origin of Gr. kcikoq, bad. Manchu tchout- 
chou-tchatcha, for the sound of privy whispering, brings us to Fr. chuchoter, for 
chut-chut-er, to say chut, chut, to whisper. The whispering of the wind is repre- 
sented in Chinese by the syllables siao-siao (Miiller, I. 368), answering to the 
Scotch sough or sooch. The imitative syllable which represents the purling of a 
spring of water in the name of the Arabian well Zemzem, expresses the sound of 
water beginnmg to boil in e. simmer. The syllables lil-lil, which represent a 
ringing sound in Galla Ulhil-goda (to make lillil), to ring or jingle, and hillila, 
a bell, are applied to the notes of a singing bird or a pipe in Albanian lilhil, a 
nightingale, a boy's whistle, Turk, liilbul, a nightingale. The sound of champ- 
ing with the jaws in eating is imitated by nearly the same syllables in Galla 
djamdjamgoda (to make <//aw^*aw), Magyar csamm-ogni, csam-csogni, and e. champ. 
The Turcoman kalabdlac h, uproar, disturbance (F. Newman), has its analogues in 
e. hullabaloo and Sanscr. hala-hald-^abda {(alda, sound), shout, tumult, noise. 
The e. pitapat may be compared with Australian pitapitata, to knock, to pelt as 
rain, Mantchu patapata, Hindustani bhadbhad for the sound of fruits pattering 
down from trees, Fr. patatras for the clash of falling things, Maori pata, drops of 
rain (Tylor, Prim. Calt. i. 192). The Galla gigiteka, to giggle, is based on the 
same imitation as the e. word, and the same may be said of Zulu kala, cry, wail, 
sing as a bird, sound, compared with Gr. Kokiio, and e. call; as of Tamil muro- 
muro and e. murmur. The Australian represents the thud of a spear or a bullet strik- 
ing the object by the syllable toop, corresponding to which we have Galla tuh- 
djeda (to say tub), for a box on the ear 3 Sanscr. tup, tubh, and Gr. tvit (in tvtttu}, 
tTVTTov), to strike. The imitation of the same kind of sound by a nasal intonation 
gives the name of the Indian tomtom, and Gr. rvinravov, a drum ; Galla tuma, to 
beat, tumtu, a workman, especially one who beats, a smith. The Chinook jar- 
gon uses the same imitative syllable in tumtum* the heart ; tumwata, a water- 

* * Mme P. bent her head, and her heart went thumps thump, at an accelerated rate.' 

Member for Paris, 187 1. 



xxviii ADMITTED IMITATIONS. 

fall, and it is also found in Lat. tum-ultus, w. tymmestlt disturbance, in e. thump, 
AS. tumbian (to beat the ground), to dance, and Fr. tombery to fall. 

The list of such agreements might be lengthened to any extent. But although 
the resemblance of synonymous words in unrelated languages affords a strong pre- 
sumption in favour of an imitative origin, it must not be supposed that the most 
striking dissimilarity is any argument whatever to the contrary. The beating of 
a drum is represented in e. hyrubadub, answering to g. brumberiwi, Fr. ratap/an 
or rantanplan, It. tarapatan, parapatapan. We represent the sound of knocking 
at a door by rat-tat-tat-tat, for which the Germans liave poch-poch or puk-puk 
(Sanders). We use bang, the Germans pujf, and the French pouf, for the 
report of a gun. Mr Tylor indeed denies that the syllable puff here imitates the 
actual sound or bang of the gun, but he has perhaps overlooked the constant 
tendency of language to signify the sound of a sudden puff of wind and of the 
collision of solid bodies by the same syllables. The It. buffetto signifies as well a 
buffet or cuff, as a puff with the mouth or a pair of bellows. So in Fr. we have 
souffler, to blow, and soufflet, a box on the ear or a pair of bellows, while e. 
blow is applied as well to the force of the wind as to a stroke with a solid body. 
The use of g. puff, to represent the sound of a blow or of an explosion is uni- 
versally recognised by the dictionaries. ' Der puff, the sound of a blow or shock 5 
bang, blow, thump.' — Nohden. 

No doubt the comparison of vocal utterances with natural sounds is slippery 
ground, and too many cases may be adduced where an imitative origin has been 
maintained on such fanciful grounds as to throw ridicule on the general theory, 
or has been claimed for words which can historically be traced to antecedent ele- 
ments. Nevertheless, it is easy in every language to make out numerous lists of 
words to the imitative character of which there will in nine cases out of ten be 
an all but universal agreement. Such are bump, thump, plump, thwack, whack, 
smack, crack, clack, clap, flap, flop, pop, snap, rap, tap, pat, clash, crash, smash, 
swash, splash, slash, lash, dash, craunch, crunch, douse, souse, whizz, fizz, hiss, 
whirr, hum, boom, whine, din, ring, bang, twang, clang, clank, clink, chink, 
jingle, tingle, tinkle, creak, squeak, squeal, squall, rattle, clatter, chatter, patter, 
mutter, murmur, gargle, gurgle, guggle, sputter, splutter, paddle, dabble, bubble, 
blubber, rumble. 

Notwithstanding the evidence of forms like these, the derivation of words 
from direct imitation, without the intervention of orthodox roots, is revolting to 
the feelings of Professor Miiller, who denounces the lawlessness of doctrines that 
'would undo all the work that has been done by Bopp, Humboldt, and Grimm, 
and others during the last fifty years — and throw etymology back into a state of 
chronic anarchy.' ' If it is once admitted that all words must be traced back to 
definite roots, according to the strictest phonetic rules, it matters little whether 
those roots are called phonetic types, more or less preserved in the innumerable 
impressions taken from them, or whether we call them onomatopceic and inter- 
jectional. As long as we have definite forms between ourselves and chaos, we 
may build our science Hke an arch of a bridge, that rests on the firm piles fixed 



INTERJECTIONS OF FEELING. xxix 

in the rushing waters. If, on the contrary, the roots of language are mere ab- 
stractions, and there is nothing to separate language from cries and interjections, 
then we may play with language as children play with the sands of the sea, but 
we must not complain if every fresh tide wipes out the little castles we had built 
on the beach.' — 2nd Series, p. 94. 

If Grimm and Bopp had established an immovable barrier between us and 
chaos, it might save some trouble of thought, but the name of no master of the 
Art will now guarantee the solidity of the ground on which we build 3 we must 
take it at our own risk though Aristotle himself had said it. The work of every 
man has to stand the brunt of water and of fire, and if wood, hay, or stubble is 
found in the building of Grimm or Bopp, or of any meaner name, it is well that 
it be burnt up. 

We come now to the personal interjections, exclamations intended to make 
known affections of the mind, by imitation of the sounds naturally uttered under 
the influence of the affection indicated by the interjection. Thus ah!, the interj. 
of grief, is an imitation of a sigh 3 vgh !, the interj. of horror, of an utterance at 
the moment of shuddering. 

At the first beginning of hfe, every httle pain, or any unsatisfied want, in the 
infant, are made known by an instinctive cry. But the infant speedily finds that 
his cry brings his mother to his side, that he has only to raise his voice in order 
to get taken up and soothed or fed. He now cries no longer on the simple im- 
pulsion of instinct, but with intelligence of the consolation which follows, and 
it is practically found that the child of the unoccupied mother, who has time to 
attend to every little want of her nursehng, cries more than that of the hard- 
working woman whose needs compel her to leave her children a good deal to 
themselves. In the former case the infant gives expression in the natural way to 
all his wants and feelings of discomfort, and wilfully enforces the utterance as a 
call for the consolation he desires. But when the infant petulantly cries as a 
call for his mother, he makes no nearer approach to speech than the dog or the 
cat which comes whining to its master to get the door opened for it. The pur- 
pose of the cry, in the case of the animal or of the infant, is simply to call the 
attention of the mother or the master, without a thought of symbolising to them, 
by the nature of the cry, the kind of action that is desired of them. It is not 
until the child becomes dimly conscious of the thoughts of his mother, and cries 
for the purpose of making her suppose that he is in pain, that he has taken the 
first step in rational speech. The utterance of a cry with such a purpose may 
be taken as the earliest type of interjectional expression, the principle of which is 
clearly enounced by Lieber in his account of Laura Bridgman, formerly cited. 

* Crying, wringing the hands, and uttering plaintive sounds, are the sponta- 
neous symphenomena of despair. He in whom they appear does not intention- 
ally produce them. He however who beholds them, knows them, because they 
are spontaneous, and because he is endowed with the same nature and organisa- 
tion 3 and thus they become signs of despair. Henceforth rational beings may 
intentionally produce them when they desire to convey the idea of despair.' 



XXX PRINCIPLE OF INTERJECTIONS. 

The principle which gives rise to interjections is precisely the same as that 
which has been so largely illustrated in the naming of animals. If I wish to 
make a person of an unknown language think of a cow, I imitate the lowing of 
the animal j and in the same way when I wish him to know that I am in pain, or 
to think of me as suffering pain, I imitate the cry which is the natural expression 
of suffering. And as the utterance used in the designation of animals speedily 
passes from the imitative to the conventional stage, so it is with the interjec- 
tions used to express varieties of human passion, which are frequently so toned 
down in assuming an articulate form as to make us wholly lose sight of the in- 
stinctive action which they represent, and from whence they draw their signifi- 
cance. 

The nature of interjections has been greatly misunderstood by Miiller, who 
treats them as spontaneous utterances, and accordingly misses their importance 
in illustrating the origin of language. He says, ' Two theories have been started 
to solve the problem [of the ultimate nature of roots], which for shortness' sake 
I shall call the Bowwow theory and the Poohpooh theory. According to the 
first, roots are imitations of sounds j according to the second, they are involuntary 
interjections.' — ist Series, p. 344. And again, * There are no doubt in every 
language interjections, and some of them may become traditional, and enter into 
the composition of words. But these interjections are only the outskirts of real 
language. Language begins where interjections end. There is as much differ- 
ence between a real word such as to laugh, and the interjection ha ! ha ! as there 
is between the involuntary act and noise of sneezing and the verb to sneeze.' ' As 
in the case of onomatopoeia, it cannot be denied that with interjections too some 
kind of language might have been formed j but not a language like that which 
we find in numerous varieties among all the races of men. One short interjec- 
tion may be more powerful, more to the point, more eloquent than a long speech. 
In fact, interjections, together with gestures, the movements of the muscles, of 
the mouth, and the eye, would be quite sufficient for all purposes which language 
answers with the majority of mankind. Yet we must not forget that hum ! 
ugh ! tut ! pooh ! are as little to be called words as the expressive gestures which 
usually accompany these exclamations.' — p. 369 — 371. And to the same effect 
he cites from Home Tooke. * The dominion of speech is founded on the down- 
fall of interjections. Without the artful intervention of language mankind would 
have had nothing but interjections with which to communicate orally any of their 
feelings. The neighing of a horse, the lowing of a cow, the barking of a dog, 
the purring of a cat, sneezing, coughing, groaning, shrieking, and every other in- 
voluntary convulsion with oral sound, have almost as good a title to be called 
parts of speech as interjections have. Voluntary interjections are only employed 
where the suddenness and vehemence of some atfection or passion return men to 
their natural state and make them forget the use of speech, or when from some 
circumstance the shortness of time will not permit them, to exercise it.' — Diver- 
sions of Purley, p. 32. When the words of Tooke are cited in opposition to the 
claims of interjections to be considered as parts of speech, it should be remem- 



PRINCIPLE OF INTERJECTIONS. xxxi 

bered, that to say that the cries of beasts have almost as good a title to the name 
of language as interjections, is practically to recognise that some additional func- 
tion is performed by interjections, and the diiference thus hazily recognised by 
Tooke is, in truth, the fundamental distinction between instinctive utterance and 
rational speech. 

The essence of rational speech lies in the intention of the speaker to impress 
something beyond the mere sound of the utterance on the mind of the hearer. 
And it is precisely this which distinguishes interjections from instinctive cries. It 
is not speaking when a groan of agony is wrung from me, but when I imitate a 
groan by the interjection ah / for the purpose of obtaining the sympathy of my 
hearer, then speech begins. So, when I am humming and hawing, 1 am not 
speaking, but when I cry km ! to signify that I am at a loss what to say, it is not 
the less language because my meaning is expressed by a single syllable. It is 
purely accident that the syllables liaha, by which we interjectionally represent the 
sound of laughter, have not been retained in the sense of laugh in the grammatic- 
al part of our language, as is actually the case in some of the North American 
dialects, for example, in the name of Longfellow's heroine Minnehaha, explained 
as signifying the laughing water. The same imitation may be clearly discerned 
in Magy. hahota, loud laughter, in Fin. hahottaa, hohottaay and somewhat veiled 
in Arab, kahkahah, Gr. Ka^a'Cio, nayy^ai^w, Lat. cachinno, to hawhaw or laugh 
loud and unrestrainedly. 

MUUer admits that some of our words sprang from imitation of the cries of 
animals and other natural sounds, and others from interjections, and thus, he says, 
some kind of language might have been formed, which would be quite sufficient 
for all the purposes which language serves with the majority of men, yet not a 
language like that actually spoken among men. But he does not explain in what 
fundamental character a language so formed would differ from our own, nor can 
he pretend to say that the words which originate in interjections are to be dis- 
tinguished fl-om others. 

To admit the mechanism as adequate for the production of language, and yet 
to protest that it could not have given rise to such languages as our own, because 
comparatively few of the words of our languages have been accounted for on this 
principle, is to act as many of us may remember to have done when Scrope and 
Lyell began to explain the modern doctrines of Geology. We could not deny 
the reality of the agencies, which those authors pointed out as in constant opera- 
tion at the present day on the frame-work of the earth, demolishing here, and 
there re-arranging, over areas more or less limited j but we laughed at the suppo- 
sition that these were the agencies by which the entire crust of the earth was 
actually moulded into its present form. Yet these prejudices gradually gave way 
under patient illustrations of the doctrine, and it came to be seen by every one that 
if the powers indicated by Lyell and his fellows-workers could have produced the 
effects attributed to them, by continued operation through unlimited periods of 
time, it would be unreasonable to seek for the cause of the phenomena in 
miracle or in convulsions of a kind of which we have no experience in the history 



xxxii LANGUAGE OF GESTURE. 

of the world. And so in the case of language, when once a rational origin of 
words has been established on the principle of imitation, the critical question 
should be, whether the words explained on this principle are a fair specimen of 
the entire stock, whether there is any cognisable difference between them and 
the rest of language ; and not, what is the numerical proportion of the two 
classes, whether tlie number of words traced to an imitative origin embraces a 
tiftieth or a fifth of the roots of language. 

There can be no better key to the condition of mind in which the use ot 
speech would first have begun, than the language of gesture in use among the 
deaf-and-dumb, which has been carefully" studied by Mr Ty lor, and admirably de- 
scribed in his * Early History of Mankind.' ' The Gesture-language and Picture- 
writing,' he says, ' insignificant as they are in practice in comparison with speech 
and phonetic writing, have this great claim to consideration, that we can really 
understand them as thoroughly as perhaps we can understand anything, and by 
studying them we can realise to ourselves in some measure a condition of the 
human mind which underlies anything which has as yet been traced in even the 
lowest dialect of language, if taken as a whole. Though, with the exception of 
words which are evidently imitative, like peewit and cuckoo, we cannot at present 
tell by what steps man came to express himself by words, we can at least see how 
he still does come to express himself by signs and pictures, and so get some idea 
of the nature of this great movement, which no lower animal is known to have 
made or shown the least sign of making.' 'The Gesture-language is in great 
part a system of representing objects and ideas by a rude outline-gesture, imitat- 
ing their most striking features. It is, as has been well said by a deaf-and-dumb 
man, a Picture-language. Here at once its essential difference from speech be- 
comes evident. Why the words stand and g'o mean what they do is a question to 
which we cannot as yet give the shadow of an answer, and if we had been taught 
to say stand where we now say go, and go where we now say stand, it would be 
practically all the same to us. No doubt there was a sufficient reason for these 
words receiving the meanings they now bear, but so far as we are concerned there 
might as well have been none, for we have quite lost sight of the connection be- 
tween the word and idea. But in the Gesture-language the relation between idea 
and sign not only always exists, but is scarcely lost sight of for a moment. When 
a deaf-and-dumb child holds his two first fingers forked like a pair of legs, and 
makes them stand and walk upon the table, we want no teaching to tell us what 
this means nor why it is done. The mother-tongue (so to speak) of the deaf-and- 
dumb is the language of signs. The evidence of the best observers tends to prove 
that they are capable of developing the Gesture-language out of their own minds 
without the aid of speaking men. The educated deaf-mutes can tell us from 
their own experience how Gesture-signs originate. 

The following account is given by Kruse, a deaf-mute himself, and a well- 
known teacher of deaf-mutes, and author of several works of no small ability : — 
*Thus the deaf-and-dumb must have a language without which no thought can be 
brought to pass. But here nature soon comes to his help. What strikes him 



GESTURE SIGNS. xxxiii 

most, or what makes a distinction to liim between one thing and another, such 
distinctive signs of objects are at once signs hy which he knows these objects, and 
knows them again 3 they become tokens of things. And whilst he silently 
elaborates the signs he has found for single objects, that is, whilst he describes 
their forms for liimself in the air, or imitates them in thought with hands, 
fingers, and gestures, he developes for himself suitable signs to represent ideas, 
' which serve him as a means of fixing ideas of different kinds in his mind, and 
recalling them to his memory. And thus he makes himself a language, the so- 
called Gesture-language, and with these few scanty and imperfect signs a way for 
thought is already broken, and with his thought, as it now opens out, the lan- 
guage cultivates itself, and forms further and further.' 

Mr Tylor proceeds to describe some of the signs used in the Deaf-and-Dumb 
Institution at Berlin : — 

'To express the pronouns I, thou, he, I push my fore-finger against the pit 
of my stomach for /, push it towards the person addressed for thou, point with 
my thumb over my right shoulder for he. When I hold my right hand flat 
with the palm down at the level of my waist, and raise it towards the level of 
my shoulder, that signifies great ; but if I depress it instead, it means little. The 
sign for man is taking off the hat ; for child, the right elbow is dandled upon the 
left hand. The adverb hither and the verb to come have the same sign, beckon- 
ing with the finger towards oneself To hold the first two fingers apart, like a 
letter V, and dart the finger tips out from the eyes is to see. To touch the ear 
and tongue with the forefinger is to hear, and to taste. To speak is to move 
the lips as in speaking, and to move the lips thus while pointing with the fore- 
finger out from the mouth is name, or to name, as though one should define it to 
point out ly speaking. To pull up a pinch of flesh from the back of one's hand 
is Jiesh or meat. Make the steam curling up from it with the forefinger, and it 
becomes roast meat. Make a bird's bill with two fingers in front af one's lips 
and flap with the arms, and that means goose ; put the first sign and these to- 
gether, and we have roast goose. To seize the most striking outline of an object, 
the principal movement of an action, is the whole secret, and this is what the 
rudest savage can do untaught, nay, what is more, can do better and more easily 
than the educated man.' 

In the Institutions, signs are taught for many abstract terms, such as when or 
yet, or the verb to he, but these, it seems, are essentially foreign to the nature of 
the Gesture-language, and are never used by the children among themselves. 
The Gesture-language has no grammar, properly so called. The same sign stands 
for the agent, his action, and the act itself, for walk, walkest, walked, walker, the 
particular sense in which the sign is to be understood having to be gathered 
fi-om the circumstances of the case. ' A look of inquiry converts an assertion 
into a question, and fully serves to make the difference between The master is 
come, and Is the master come ? The interrogative pronouns who ? what ? are 
made by looking or pointing about in an inquiring manner ; in fact, by a num- 
ber of unsuccessful attempts to say, he, that. The deaf-and-dumb child's way of 



xxxiv VOCAL SIGNS ANTERIOR TO GRAMMAR. 

asking. Who has beaten you ? would be. You beaten -, who was it ? ' Where 
the inquiry is of a more general nature, a number of alternatives are suggested, 
* The deaf-and-dumb child does not ask. What did you have for dinner yester- 
day ? but, Did you have soup ? did you have porridge ? and so forth. — What is 
expressed by a genitive case or a corresponding preposition may have a distinct 
sign of holding in the Gesture-language. The three signs to express the gar- 
dener s knife, might be the knife, the garden, and the action of grasping the 
knife, putting it into his pocket, or something of the kind. But the mere 
putting together of the possessor and possessed may answer the purpose.' 

The vocal signs used at the first commencement of speech would differ from 
the gestures which they supplemented or replaced only in being addressed to the 
ear instead of the eye. Each separate utterance would be designed to lead the 
hearer to the thought of some scene of existence or sensible image associated with 
the sound which the utterance is intended to represent, and it might be used to 
signify a substantive object, or a quality, or action, according to the circumstances 
of the case. The deaf-mute touches his lip to signify either the lip itself or the 
colour red, and the word lip might equally have been used in both tliese senses, 
as, in fact, the term pink is applied indifferently to a particular flower and a mix- 
ture of white and red, or orange to a certain fruit and its peculiar colour. An 
imitation of the sound of champing with the jaws might with equal propriety 
signify either something to eat or the act of eating, and on this principle we have 
above explained the origin of words like mum or nim, which may occasionally be 
heard in our nurseries expressing indifferently the senses of eat or of food. Nor is 
this comprehensiveness of signification confined to the self-developed language of 
children. In ordinary English the same word may often be used in such a con- 
struction as to make it either verb or noun, substantive or adjective, or sometimes 
interjection or adverb also. When I speak of going to hunt or to Jish, gram- 
marians would call the word a verb. When I speak of joining the hunt or catching 
ajish, it is a substantive. In the expression of a hunt-ball or Jish-dinner the prior 
element is used to qualify the meaning of the following noun, and thus performs 
the part of an adjective. The syllable hang represents a loud dull sound, and when 
it is uttered simply for the purpose of giving rise to the thought of such a sound, 
as when I say. Bang ! went the gun, it is called an interjection. But when it is 
meant to indicate the action of a certain person, as when I say. Do not lang the 
door, it is a verb. When it expresses the subject or the object of action, as in the 
sentence. He gave the door a bang, it is a noun. When I say. He ran bang up 
against the wall, bang qualifies the meaning of the verb ran, and so is an adverb. 
But these grammatical distinctions depend entirely upon the use, in other instances 
or in other languages, of appropriate modifications of the significant syllable, 
whether by additions or otherwise, in expressing such relations as those indicated 
above. The office of all words at the beginning of speech, like that of the Inter- 
jections at the present day, would be simply to bring to mind a certain object of 
thought, and it would make no difference in the nature of the word whether that 
object was an agent, or an act, or a passive scene of existence. The same word 



NATURE OF INTERJECTIONS. xxxv 

moo would serve to designate the lowing of the cow or the cow itself. It is only 
when a word, signifying an attribute of this person or of that, coalesces with the 
personal pronouns, or with elements expressing relations of time, that the verb 
will begin to emerge as a separate kind of word from the rest of speech. In the 
same way the coalescence with elements indicating that the thing signified is the 
subject or the object of action, or expressing the direction of motion to or from 
the thing, or some relation between it and another object, will give rise to the 
class of nouns. We have in Chinese an example of a language in which neither 
verb nor noun has yet been developed, but every syllable presents an independent 
image to the mind, the relations of which are only marked by the construction of 
the sentence, so that the same word may signify under different circumstances 
what would be expressed by a verb, a noun, or an adjective in an inflectional 
language. The syllable ta conveys the idea of something great, and may be used 
in the sense of great, greatness, and to be great. Thus tafii signifies a great manj 
fu ta, the man is great. — MUller I. 255. The sense of in a place is expressed in 
Chinese by adding such words as cung, middle, or nei, inside, as kuo cung, in the 
empire. The instrumental relation is indicated by the syllable y, which is an old 
word meaning use j as y ting (use stick), with a stick. It is universally supposed 
that the case-endings of nouns in Greek, Latin, and Sanscrit have arisen from the 
coalescence of some such elements as the above, as in the case of our own com- 
pounds, whereto, whereof, wherefore, whereby, wherewith, the subsidiary element 
being slurred over in pronunciation, and gradually worn down until all clue to its 
original form and signification has been wholly lost. It is otherwise with the 
personal inflections of the verbs, whose descent from the personal pronouns is in 
many cases clear enough. 

Interjections are of the same simple significance as the words in Chinese, or 
as all words must have been at the first commencement of speech. Their mean- 
ing is complete in itself, not implying a relation to any other conception. The 
purpose of the interjection is simply to present a certain object to the imagina- 
tion of the hearer, leaving him to connect it with the ideas suggested by any 
preceding or following words, as if successive scenes of visible representation were 
brought before his eyes. The term is chiefly applied to exclamations intended 
to express a variety of mental or bodily affections, pain, grief, horror, contempt, 
wonder, &c., by imitating some audible accompaniment of the aff'ection in ques- 
tion. Thus the notion of pain or grief is conveyed by an imitation of a sigh or 
a groan ; the idea of disHke and rejection by an imitation of the sound of spit- 
ting. The interjection will be completely accounted for in an etymological 
point of view, when it is traced to a recognised symphenomenon (as Lieber calls 
it) of the aff'ection, that is, to some outward display of the affection, that admits 
of audible representation. Why the aff'ection should display itself in such a 
manner is a question beyond the bounds of etymological inquiry, but is often 
self-evident, as in the case of spitting as a sign of dislike. 

The interjections which occupy the most prominent place in the class are 
perhaps those which represent a cry of pain, a groan, a sigh of oppression and 

c 2 



xxxvi DEVELOPMENT OF VERBS AND NOUNS. 

grief. Such are g. ach, Gael, ach, och, ochan, \v. och, e. ah, oh, It. ai, ahi, ohi, 
Gr. ol, to, Lat. ah, oh,oi, hei, IWyr. jao, jaoh. A widespread form, representing 
probably a deeper groan, is seen in Gr. oi/ai, Lat. vce, It. guai, w. gwae, Illyr. 
t^aj, Goth, wai, ohg. u-^, wSwa, as. wd, wdwa, e. woe, on. vei. 

The representation of a sigh or groan by the syllable ah ! ah ! assumes the 
shape of a substantive or a verb in w. och, ochan, g. ach, a groan or lamentation ; 
w. ochi, ochain, o. achen, dchxen, to groan, Gr. uxofiai, to bewail oneself, a/ca- 
X'^w (to cry ach ! ach !) dxt'w, dyvvfxi, to grieve, to mourn. It passes on to 
signify the cause of the groaning in as. ace, cece, e. ache, pain, suffering, and in 
Gr. axoc, pain, grief. The form corresponding to Lat. vcc, however, has more 
generally been used in the construction of words signifying pain, grief, misery. 
G. weh, pain, grief, affliction ; die wehen, the pangs of childbirth ; kopfweh, 
zahnweh, headache, toothache j wehen (Schmeller), to ache, to hurtj Let. wai- 
idt, to injure 3 Illyrian vaj, w. gwae. It. guajo, misfortune, woe. 

It is very common in an early stage of speech to form verbs by the addition 
of elements signifying j'ai/ or make to an imitative syllable. Thus in the lan- 
guage of the Gallas the sound of a crack is represented by the syllables cacak 
(where c stands for a click with the tongue) ; the chirping of birds by the syllable 
tirr or trrr; the champing of the jaws by djamdjam ; and cacak djeda (to say 
cacak) is to crack j tirr-djeda, to chirpy djamdjam goda (goda, to make), to 
smack or make a noise as swine in eating. A similar formation is frequent in 
Sanscrit, and is found in g. weh schreien, weh klagen, to cry woe ! to lament j 
wehthun, to do woe, to cause pain, to ache. A more artificial way of express- 
ing action is to replace the elements signifying say or make by the sound of an 
/, n, or r, in Gr. mostly a %, at the close of the radical syllable. Thus the Latin 
has ho.-l-are, to cry laa ! the Piedmontese, fai' lau-lau, and more artificially 
lau-l-e, to make bow-wow, to bark j Fr. miau-l-er, to cry miau ! Albanian 
m'lau-l-is, miau-n-is, I mewj Gr, a.\a'C^>>-, to cry c^i^ al, to lament, olfjio^u}, to cry 
oijjioi, ah me ! yapyapi^w, to sound yapyap, to gargle. In this way from the 
root guai, wai, representing a cry of pain, are formed e. wai-l. It. guaj-ire, guaj- 
ol-ire, to yell or cry out pitifully, to lament, Bret, gwe-l-a, to weep, n. vei-a, on. 
vei-n-a (to cry vei !), to yell, howl, lament, g. weinen, to weep. 

We get a glimpse of the original formation of verbs in the way in which the 
interjection sometimes coalesces with the personal pronoun. The utterance of 
the interjection alone would naturally express the pain or grief of the speaker 
liimself, but when joined with the mention of another person, the exclamation 
would refer with equal clearness to the suffering of the person designated. Fee 
tihi ! Vce victis / Woe unto thee ! Woe unto them ! Accordingly, when the 
speaker wishes emphatically to indicate himself as the sufferer, he adds the pro- 
noun of the first person. Hei mihi ! Ah me ! Aye me ! Sp. Ay di me ! Gr. 
m/xoi. It. ohime ! oime ! Illyr. vajme ! Let. waiman f woe is me. And so com- 
plete is the coalescence of the interjection and the pronoun in some of these 
cases, as to give rise to the formation of verbs like a simple root. Thus from 
ot/iot springs oIjjlwI^w, to Wijil, lament 3 frvom oim^, oimare, to wail or cry alas 



EXPRESSION OF HORROR. xxxvii 

(Florio) ; from Let. waiman / waiwanaSy lamentation, waimandt, to lament, 
showing the formation of the oe. waiment, of the same signification. Now if 
we examine the purport of the utterance ohime / ah vie ! we shall see that it is 
intended to let the hearer know that the speaker is in pain or grief, and thus has 
essentially the same meaning with the Gr. axo/^ai I bemoan myself, I cry ach ! 
I am in pain. And no one doubts that the }xai of Q.xo\iai is the pronoun of the 
first person joined on to an element signifying lamentation or pain, a notion 
which is expressed in the clearest manner by a syllable like aX or ach, represent- 
ing a cry of pain. 

The interjection in Italian coalesces also with the pronoun of the second and 
third person : ohitu ! alas for thee, ohise ! alas for him (Florio), suffering to thee, 
to him, corresponding to Gr, a^eaai, a^erai, although in these last the identity 
of the verbal terminations with the personal pronoun is not so clearly marked as 
in the case of the first person of the verb. 

UGH ! 

The effects of cold and fear on the human frame closely resemble each other. 
They check the action of the heart and depress the vital powers, producing a con- 
vulsive shudder, under which the sufferer cowers together with his arms pressed 
against his chest, and utters a deep guttural cry, the vocal representation of which 
will afford a convenient designation of the attitude, mental or bodily, with which 
it is associated. Hence, in the first place, the interjection ugh ! (in German uh ! 
hu ! in French ouf !) expressive of cold or horror, and commonly pronounced 
with a conscious imitation of the sound which accompanies a shudder. Then 
losing its imitative character the representative syllable appears under the form of 
ug or liug, as the root of verbs and adjectives indicating shuddering and horror. 
Kilian has huggheren, to shudder or shiver. The oe. ug or houge was used in the 
sense of shudder at, feel abhorrence at. 

The rattling drum and trumpet's tout 

Delight young swankies that are stout ; 

What his kind frighted mother ugs 

Is musick to the sodger's lugs. — ^Jamieson, Sc. Diet, 

In a passage of Hardyng cited by Jamieson it is related how the Abbess of Cold- 
inghame, having cut off her own nose and lips for the purpose of striking the 
Danish ravishers with horror, — 

' Counseiled al her systers to do the same 
To make their foes to houge so with the sight. 
And so they did, afore the enemies came 
Eche-on their nose and overlip full right 
Cut off anon, which was an hougly sight,' 

Here, as Jamieson observes, the passage clearly points out the origin of the word 
uglij as signifying what causes dread or abhorrence, or (carrying the derivation to 
its original source) what makes us shudder and cry ugh ! 

Ugh I the odious tcgly fellow. — Countess of St Albans. 



xxxviii ASTONISHMENT. 

It may be observed that we familiarly use frightful, or dreadfully vgly, for the 
extreme of ugliness. The radical syllable is compounded with a diiferent termin- 
ation in Scotch ugsome, what causes horror. 

The ugsoineness and silence of the nycht 

In every place my sprete made sore aghast. — Douglas, Virgil. 

From the same root are on. ugga, to fear, to have apprehension of; uggr, fright, 
apprehension j uggUgr, frightful, threatening j uggsamr, timorous. Then as 
things of extraordinary size have a tendency to strike us with awe and terror, to 
make us houge at them (in the language of Hardyng), the term huge is used to 
signify excessive size, a fearful size. The connection of the cry with a certain 
bodily attitude comes next into play, and the word hug is applied to the act of 
pressing the arms against the breast, which forms a prominent feature in the 
shudder of cold or horror, and is done in a voluntary way in a close embrace or 
the like. 

GR. /3a/3a/! LAT. BAB^ ! PAPiE '. 

The manifestation of astonishment or absorption in intent observation, by the 
instinctive opening of the mouth, is famihar to every one. 

I saw a smith stand with his hammer — thus, 
The whilst his iron did on his anvil cool, 
With ope7i mouth swallowing a tailor's news. — K. John. 

The physical cause of the phenomenon appears to be, that the least exertion 
in breathing interferes with the power of catching any very slight sounds for 
which we are listening; and as we breathe with greater ease with the mouth open, 
when we are intently engaged in the observation of an object of apprehension or 
wonder, listening for every sound that may proceed from it, the mouth instinct- 
ively opens in order to calm down the function of breathing, and to give the fairest 
play to the sense of hearing. Now the exertion of the voice at the moment of 
opening the lips produces the syllable ha, which is found as the root of words in 
the most distant languages signifying wonder, intently observe, watch, expect, 
wait, remain, endure, or (passing from the mental to the bodily phenomenon) 
gape or open the mouth, and thence open in general. The repetition of the syl- 
lable ha, ha, gives the interjection of wonder in Greek and Latin, (3a(3ai ! babae! 
papae ! The exclamation l?a / is used in the North of France in a similar manner, 
according to Hecart (Diet. Rouchi), and the same author explains hahaie as one 
who stares with open mouth, a gaping hoohy. Walloon hawi, to gaze with open 
mouth (Grandgagnage) ; eshawi. Old English ahaw, Fr. elahir, ahauhir, to cause 
to cry ha ! to set agape, to astonish. 

In himself was all his state 
More solemn than the tedious pomp which waits 
On princes, when their rich retinue long 
Of horses led and grooms besmeared with gold, 
Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape. — Milton. 

In the remote Zulu we find lalaxa, to astonish. The significant syllable is 



ATTENTION, SILENCE. xxxix 

strengthened by a final d in several of the Romance dialects {' the d being in an- 
cient Latin the regular stopgap of the hiatus.' — Quart. Rev. No. 148), as in It. 
ladare, to be intent upon, to watch, to loiter, tarry, stay ; stare a lada, to observe, 
to watch, to wait -, shadigUare, Proven9al hadalhar, to yawn 3 hadar, to open the 
mouth, gola ladada, with open mouth ; pouerto ladiero, an open door ; Fr. lader, 
to open (Vocab. de Berri), badault (badaud), a gaping hoyden, a fool (Cot.) 3 
Catalan badia, Portuguese hahia, an opening where the sea runs up into the land, 
a bay 3 Breton hadalein, to yawn ; hada, hadaoui, to be stupified, dazzled, aston- 
ished. In France the simpler form of the root, without the addition of the final 
d, gives Old Fr. baer, baier, beer, to be intent upon, to hanker after, to gape ; 
bouche beante, a gueule bee, with open mouth ; bailler, to gape or yawn. Abater 
is explained by Lacombe, * ecouter avec etonnement, bouche beante, inhiare lo- 
quenti.' The adoption of Fr. abaier gave rise to e. abeyance, expectation, sus- 
pense, and oE. able, to remain, abide, endure. 

At sight of her they sudden all arose 

In great amaze, ne wist which way to chuse, 

But Jove all fearless forced them to abU.~Y. Queen. 

The same transition from the sense of earnest observation to that of expecta- 
tion or mere endurance until a certain end, is seen in Latin attendere, to observe, 
to direct the mind to, and Fr. attendre, to expect, to wait j and again in Italian 
guatare, to look, to watch, compared with e. wait, which is radically identical 
and was itself originally used in the sense of look. 

Beryn clepyd a maryner, and bad hym sty on loft, 
And weyte aftir our four shippis aftir us doith dryve. 

As the vowel of the root is thinned down from a to i in the series baer, baier, 
abaier, aby, or in Gr. (x«w) xaivw, yaaKO), compared with Lat. hio, to gape, we 
learn to recognise a similar series in It. badare, Gothic beidan, to look out for, to 
expect, await, and e. bide, abide, to wait. 

HUSH ! HIST ! 

A representation of a whispering or rustling sound by the utterance of a pro- 
longed sh or ss, or of different combinations of s with h, p, or t, is widely used for 
the purpose of demanding silence or cessation of noise, or of warning one to listen. 
Hence the interjections of silence, hush/ hist / whist / pist / (Hal), Sc. whish! 
whisht ! G. ps ! psch / pst / husch ! tusch ! Da. tys ! Sw. tyst I Lat. st / It. %itto, 
Piedm. cito ! ciuto I Fr. chut I Turk, susa I Ossetic ss ! sos ! silence! Fernandian 
sial listen! tush! Yoruba ^io ! pshaw! (Tylor, Prim. Cult. I. 178.) 

The interjection seems in all cases to arise from a representation of a low 
whispering sound, but the principle on which it acts as a demand of silence may 
be explained in two ways. In the first place it may be understood as an exhort- 
ation to lower the voice to a whisper, or more urgently, not to let even a whisper 
or a rustle be heard ; but more generally perhaps it is to be understood as an in- 



xl LISTENING. 

timation to be on the watch for the least whisper that can be heard, for which 
purpose it is necessary that the hearer should keep perfectly still. Thus we have 
Sc. ivhish, whush, a rushing or whizzing sound, a whisper. — Jam. 

Lat her yelp on, be you as calm's a mouse, 
Nor lat your wliisht be heard into the house. 

The It. rdtto is used exactly in the same way j non fare xitto, not to make the 
least sound j non sentirse un xitto, not a breath to be heard j stare zitto, to be 
silent. Pissipissi, pst, hsht, still -, also a low whispering ; pissipissare, tp psh, to 
hsht J also to buzz or whisper very low. — Fl. To pister or whister are provincially 
used in the sense of whisper. — Hal. The w. hust (pronounced hist), a buzzing 
noise, hush (Rhys), husting, whisper, speak low, correspond to e. hist ! silence ! 
listen ! In the same way answering to g. tusch I Da. tys ! hush ! the g. has tus- 
chen, tuscheln, to whisper • zischen, zischeln, %uscheln, to hiss, whizz, fizz, whisper. 
G. huschf represents any slight rustling sound, the sound of moving quickly through 
the air. ' Huschf sausen wir husch ! durch rusch und durchbusch.' * Husch f 
was rauscht dort in den gebiischen.' In this last example it will be seen that the 
interjection may be understood either as a representation of the rustling sound that 
is heard in the bushes, or as an intimation to listen to it. The Gr. ai'Cio, to give 
the sound ai, to hiss, signifies also, to cry hush ! to command silence, showing 
that the syllable ct, like the Fernandian sia ! was used in the sense of hush. 
Hence must be explained Lat. sileo, Goth, silan (formed on the plan of Lat, ha- 
l-o, to cry laa), to be hushed or silent. In Gr. myaoj, to be silent, aiyd^w, to put 
to silence, the root has the form of e. sigh, representing the sound of a deep-drawn 
breath, or the whispering of the wind. In like manner the Sc. souch, sugh, 
swouch, souf, OE. swough, Magy. sug-, suh-, representing the sound of the wind, or 
of heavy breathing, lead to Sc. souch, silent, calm. To keep a calm souch ; to 
keep souch, to keep silent. — Jam. Hence as. suwian, swugan, swigan, g. schwei- 
gen, to be silent. The syllable representing a whispering sound is sometimes 
varied by the introduction of an / after the initial w, f, or h. Thus from forms 
like whisper (g. wispern, wispeln), whister, pister, whist f hist / we pass to as. 
wlisp (speaking with a whispering sound), lisping, g. Jiispern, flilstern, to whisper, 
ON. hlusta, to listen, as. hlyst, gehlyst, the sense of hearing. The primitive mute 
then falls away, leaving the initial / alone remaining, as in g. Uspeln, to whisper, 
also to lisp ; Du. luysteren, to whisper, as well as to listen (Kil.) ; E. list f synon- 
ymous with hist ! hark, and thence the verb to listen. 

The notion of a suppressed utterance of the voice is very generally conveyed 
by modifications of the syllable twm, representing the sound made with the closing 
lips J mu, mum, mut, muk, mus, to which are often added a rhyming accompani- 
ment on the plan of such expressions as hugger-mugger, huhhle-huhhle, helter-skelter. 
Thus we have Gr. ^v'Ceiv [xiire ypv^tiy, to say neither mu nor gru, not to utter a 
syllable; Lat. muttio or mutio, as e. mutter, to say mut, to utter low indistinct 
sounds ; non muttire, non dicere muttum, to keep silence. Equivalent phrases are 
Fr. ne sonner mot ; It. non fare ne motto ne totto (Altieri) -, Sp. 720 decir mus ne 
chus, ni mistar ni chistar ; Du. noch mikken noch kikken; g. nicht mikken, nicht 



SILENCE, CONCEALMENT. xli 

mix noch kix sagen j Swiss nicht mutz thun. The form mum may perhaps be from 
a repetition of the imitative syllable mu mu, as in Vei mumu, dumb. It is used by 
the author of Pierce Plowman in the sense of the least utterance, where, speaking 
of the avarice of the monks, he says that you may sooner 

mete the mist on Malvern hills 

Than get a mum of their mouths ere money be them shewed. 

Hence, by ellipse of the negative, mum / silence ! Fr. Mom ! ne parlez plus 
— Palsgr. In the same way the Fr. uses mot, as, ne sonnez mot / not a syllable ! 
— Trevoux. 

With every step of the track leading up to the Lat. mutus, speechless, so clearly 
marked out, it is impossible to hesitate between the formation of the word in the 
manner indicated above, and the derivation from Sanscr. mu, to bind, maintained 
by Miiller, and from so glaring an example we may take courage not always to 
regard the question as conclusively settled by the most confident production of 
a Sanscrit root. As the Fr. uses both mom ! and mot ! as an injunction of 
silence, so a person stands mum or mute when not a mum or a mut comes from 
his mouth. Moreover, the sense of speechlessness is expressed on the same 
principle in the most distant tongues. Thus from Magy. kuk^ a slight sound, 
is formed kuManni (identical with the Da. kikken in the 'expression noch mikken 
noch kikken), to mutter, and kuka, dumb. The Vei mumu, Mpongwe i^namu, 
dumb, are essentially identical with our mum, silent, whence mummers, actors in 
dumbshow. Mr Tylor quotes also Zulu momata, to move the mouth or lips ; 
Tahitian omumo, to murmur 3 mamu, to be silent; Fiji nomonomo, Chilian nomn, 
to be silent ; Quiche mem, mute ; Quichua amu, silent, dumb. — Prim. Cult. I. 

185. 

The ideas of silence and secresy or concealment are so closely connected, that 
from fxv^io we readily pass to fxvcTTrjpiov, the secret rites of Greek worship, w^hence 
E. mystery, something hidden from the comprehension. In the same way from 
the representative mus (Sp. no decir mus ni chus) we have Lat. musso, to mutter, 
to be silent, and thence Fr. musser, to hide 5 musse, a private hoard. ' Cil que 
musce les furmens, est escommenge es gens : qui abscondit frumenta maledicetur 
in populis.' Cotgrave calls hide-and-seek the game of musse. So also from the 
parallel form muk must probably be explained the familiar hugger mugger, applied 
to what is done in secret, and mucker, to lay up a (secret) store. Exmoor mug- 
gard (muttering), sullen, displeased. — Halliwell. Gr. ixvyfiog, a muttering. 



The interj. hem/ ahem/ hm / hum/ represent the sound made in clearing 
the throat in order to call the attention of the hearer to the speaker. In Latin it 
has frequently the force of the interj. en / (which may be merely another mode 
of representing the same utterance) when the speaker points to something, or 
does something to which he wishes to call attention. Hem ! Davum tibi : Here! 
(pointing) there is Davus for you. Oves scabrae sunt, tam glabrae, hem, quam 
haec est manus : — as smooth, see here ! as this hand. When addressed to a person 



xlii THE PRONOUN ME. 

going away it has the effect of stopping him or calling him back. Thus Du. hem 
is explained by Weiland an exclamation to make a person stand still: hem 1 hour 
hier, hallo ! hark there. Mr Tylor notices an analogous exclamation mma / ' hallo, 
stop,' in the language of Fernando Po. Then, as the notion of bringing to a stand 
naturally leads to that of stopping a person in something that he is doing, the 
interj. ham / is used in Hesse as a prohibition to children. Ham ! ham ! Don't 
touch that, leave that alone. Hum ! Hiimme / an interj. of prohibition. — Brem. 
Wtb. Hence hamm holln, to keep one in check, to restrain. Du sast mi 
woU hamm holln, you shall attend to my hamm f shall stay where I chuse, do 
as I direct (Danneil). The conversion of the interj. into a verb gives Du. hemmen, 
hammen, to call back by crying hem / (Weiland), and g. hemmen, to restrain, keep 
back, to stop or hinder a proceedings together with the e. hem, to confine. * They 
hem me in on every side.' A hem* is the doubling down which confines the threads 
of a garment and hinders them from ravelling out. 

The point of greatest interest about the interj. hem is that it offers a possible, 
and as it seems to me a far from improbable, origin of the pronoun me, Gr. emo-, 
as shown in the cases kjjiov, kfioi, ifxi. We have seen that the primary purpose 
of the interj. is to call the attention of the hearer to the presence of the person 
who utters the exclamation, and this, it must be observed, is precisely the office of 
the pronoun me, which signifies the person of the speaker. Hem is often used 
in Latin when the speaker turns his thoughts upon himself. Hem ! misera 
occidi ! Ah wretched me ! I am lost. Hem ! scio jam quid vis dicere. Let me 
see — I know what you would say. In the line 

Me, Me, adsum qui feci, in me convertite tela, 

we might read the passage without alteration of the meaning. 

Hem ! Hem ! adsum qui feci. 

The use of articulations consisting mainly of the sound of m or w to signify the 
speaker himself, is so widely spread in every family of man, that this mode of 
designation must be based on some very obvious principle of significance. 

In an interesting paper on the pronouns of the first and second person by Dr 
Lottner, in the Philological Trans, of 1859, ^^ shows that in upwards of seventy 
Negro languages the pronoun of the first person is ma, me, mi, man, na, ne, nge, 
ngi, ni, in, with m and n as personal prefixes. And the word is formed on the same 
plan in almost all families of language. In the Finnic family we have Ostiac ma, 
Vogul am. Lap. mo7i ; in Turkish -m as possessive affix, as in laha-m, my father. 
Then again Burmese nga, Chinese ngo, Corean nai, Australian ngai, Kassia nga, 
Kol ing, aing, Tamul nan, Basque ni, Georgian me, and among the languages of 
N. and S. America, ni, ne, no, na, miye, in, ane, ani, &c. The Bushmen of the Cape, 

* Mr Tylor cites the derivation of G. hemmen, * to stop, check, restrain,' from the interj. 
hem ! signifying stop ! as an obvious extravagance. There is however so close a connection 
in meaning between the interjection and the verb, that it is not easy to understand the grounds 
of the censure from the mouth of one who fully admits the legitimacy of derivation from inter- 
jections. 



THE PRONOUN ME. xliii 

whose pronoun of the first person is written mm by Lichtenstein, probably retain 
the purest type of the expression, the principle of which appears to be the confine- 
ment of the voice within the person of the speaker, by the closure of the lips or 
teeth in the utterance of the sounds m, n, ng. It is certain that something of this 
kind is felt when we sound the voice through the nose in an inarticulate way 
with closed lips, in order to intimate that we are keeping our thoughts to ourselves, 
and are not prepared, or do not choose, to give them forth in speech. The sound 
which we utter on such an occasion appears in writing in the shape of the interj. 
fun ! and as it marks the absorption of the speaker in his own thoughts, it might 
naturally be used to designate himself in the early lispings of language before the 
development of the personal pronouns : in other words, it might serve as the basis 
of the pronoun me. Nor is the formation of the pronoun on such a plan by any 
means a new suggestion. 

The Grammarian Nigidius (as quoted by A. Gellius, 1. x. c. 4) asserts that in 
pronouncing the pronoun of the first person {ego, mihi, nos), we hem in, as it 
were, the breath within ourselves (spiritum quasi intra nosmetipsos coercemus), 
and hence he conceives that the word is naturally adapted to the meaning it ex- 
presses. He probably felt the truth of the principle in the case of me, and blun- 
deringly extended it to ego, in the pronunciation of which there is certainly no 
hemming in of the voice. It is of the nasals m, n, ng only that this character 
can properly be affirmed, and these, as we have seen, seem to be indifferently 
employed as the basis of me and its correlatives all over the globe. Plato in the 
Cratylus speaks of the letter n as keeping the sound within the speaker, and on 
that principle implicitly explains the meaning of the preposition tV, in, which is 
the mere articulation of the consonantal sound in question. 

The application of an interj. signifying see here / to the sense of me, would 
be strictly parallel to the use of It. ci and vi, properly signifying here and there, in 
the sense of us and you. Other instances of a like nature are given by W. v. 
Humboldt in his essay on the connection between the adverbs of place and the 
personal pronouns. Thus in the language of Tonga, mei signifies hither, motion 
towards the speaker ; atu, motion from the speaker to the person spoken to, and 
these particles are used in construction (like It. ci and vi) for me or us and you. 
* Bea behe mei he tunga fafine ' =when spoke hither the several women, i. e. 
when several women spoke to me or us. So tdla, to tell ; tdla mei, to tell 
hither, to tell me or us ; tdla tu, to tell thither, to tell you. Here we seem to 
have the very forms of the Lat. pronouns me and tu, for which it is remarkable 
that the Tonga has totally different words, au and coy. In Armenian there is a 
suffix s, which originally means this or here, but takes the meaning of / and my. 
Thus hair-s, this father, I a father, my father. In American slang a man speaks 
of himself as this child. 

Another consequence of the" closing of the mouth in the utterance of the 
sound of 7w or 72 may explain the use of those articulations in expressing rejec- 
tion, refusal, negation. ; The earliest type of rejection is the closing of the 
mouth, and the aversion of the head from the proffered breast, and the inherent 



xliv NEGATION. E^UOYMENT. 

propriety of the symbolism is obvious. De Brosses observes that the articulations 
71 and s, both of which he considers as nasal sounds, are naturally adapted to sig- 
nify negation or contrariety, giving as examples the words infinity and It. sfor- 
tunato. He overlooks the fact, however, that this It. s is merely the remnant of 
a Lat. dis, and gives no other example of the supposed negative power of the 
letter. Moreover, the reason he suggests for attributing such a significance to 
the nasals is simply absurd. Of the two channels, he says (ch. xiv. § 29), by which 
the voice is emitted, the nose is the least used, and it changes the sound of the 
vowel, which adapts it for the interjection of doubt, and for the expression of 
the privative idea. The expression of negation by means of nasals is exemplified 
in Goth, ni, Lat. ne, in (in composition), Gr. ju?/, Masai (E. Africa) emme, erne, m- ; 
Vei ma ; Haussa n, n, representing a sound of which it is impossible to convey a 
correct idea by visible signs. — Schon. Mr Tylor cites Botocudo yna (making 
the loudness of the sound indicate the strength of the negation) ; Tupi aan, aani ; 
Guato mau ; Miranha nani ; Quichua ama, manan (whence manamni, to deny) ; 
Quiche ma, man', mana ; Galla hn, hin, km ; Coptic an, emmen, en, mmn ; 
Fernandian 'nt, all signifying not. 

ENJOYMENT AND DISGUST. 

The most universal and direct source of pleasure in animal life is the appe- 
tite for food, and it is accordingly from this source that are taken the types used 
in expressing the ideas of gratification or dislike. The savage expresses his ad- 
miration and pleasure by smacking his lips or rubbing his belly, as if relishing 
food or rejoicing in a hearty meal ; he indicates distaste and rejection by signs of 
spitting out a nauseous mouthful. Thus Petherick, speaking of a tribe of negroes 
on the Upper Nile, says, ' The astonishment and delight of these people at our 
display of beads was great, and was expressed by laughter and a general rubbing 
of their bellies.' — Egypt and the Nile, p. 448. And similar evidence is adduced 
by Leichardt from the remoter savages in Australia. * They very much admired 
our horses and bullocks, and particularly our kangaroo-dog. They expressed 
their admiration by a peculiar smacking or clacking with their mouth and lips.' 
— Australia, p. '^'^6. 

The syllable smack, by which we represent the sound made by the lips or 
tongue in kissing or tasting, is used in English, Swedish, German, Polish, &c., in 
the sense of taste. Du. smaeck, taste -, sniaecklic, sweet, palatable, agreeable to 
the taste. In the Finnish languages, which do not admit of a double consonant 
at the beginning of words, the loss of the initial s gives Esthonian maggo, makko, 
taste J maggus, makke. Fin. makia, sweet, well-tasting ; maiskia, to smack the 
lips J maisto, taste ; maiskis, a smack, a kiss, also relishing food, delicacies. The 
initial s is lost also in Fris. macke, to kiss. The initial consonant is somewhat 
varied without impairing the imitative effect in Bohemian miaskati, to smack in 
eating 3 mlaskanina, delicacies j and in Fin. naskia, g. knatschen, to smack with 
the mouth in eating, showing the origin of Lettish naschkeht, g. naschen, to be 
nice in eating, to love delicacies ; ndscherei, dainties. 



ENJOYMENT. DISGUST. xlv 

Acgain, we have seen that Leichardt employs the syllables smack and clack as 
equally appropriate to represent the sound made by the tongue and palate in the 
enjoyment of tasty food, and in French, claquer de la langue is employed for the 
same purpose. We spsak of a click with the tongue, though we do not happen 
to apply it to the smack in tasting. The Welsh has gwefusglec (gwefus, lip), a 
smack with the lips, a kiss. From this source then we may derive Gr. yXvicvQ, 
sweet, analogous to Du. smaecklic, Fin. makia, from the imitative smack. The 
sound of an initial cl or gl is readily confounded with that of tl or dl, as some 
people pronounce glove, dlove, and formerly tlick was used where we now say 
click. Thus Cotgrave renders Fr. niquet, a tnicke, tlick, snap with the fingers. 
The same combination is found in Boh. tlaskati, to smack in eating, tleskati, to 
clap hands -, and Lat. stloppus, parallel with sclopus, a pop or click with the 
mouth. From the sound of a smack represented by the form tlick or dlick I 
would explain Lat. delicice, anything one takes pleasure in, delight, darling j to- 
gether with the cognate delicatus, what one smacks one's chops at, dainty, nice, 
agreeable, as corruptions of an earlier form, dlicice, dlicatus. And as we have 
supposed Gr. yXvKvg (glykys) to be derived from the form click or glick, so from 
tlick or dlick would be formed dlykis or dlukis (dlucis), and ultim'ately dulcis, 
sweet, the radical identity or rather parallelism of which with yXvKvg has been 
recognised on the principle of such an inversion. When the sound of an initial 
// or dl became distasteful to Latin ears, it would be slurred over in different 
ways, and dlucis would pass into dulcis by inverting the places of the liquid and 
vowel, while the insertion of an e in dlicice, dlicatus, as in the vulgar umberella 
for umbrella, would produce delicice, delicatus. It is true that an intrusive 
vowel in such cases as the foregoing is commonly (though not universally) short, 
but the long e in these words may have arisen from their being erroneously re- 
garded as compounds with the preposition de. 

POOH ! 

The attitude of dislike and rejection is typified by signs of spitting out an 
unsavoury morsel, as clearly as the feelings of admiration and pleasure by signs 
of the relishing of food. Thus Gawaine Douglas expresses his disgust at the way 
in which the harmonious lines of Virgil were mangled by incompetent trans- 
lators. 

His ornate goldin verses mare than gilt, 

I spate for disspite to see thame spylte 

By sic ane wicht. — 5. 44. , 

'Would to God therefore that we were come to such a detestation and loathing 
of lying that we would even spattle at it, and cry fy upon it and all that use it.' — • 
Dent's Pathway in HaUiwell. The Swedish 5/)o^/ signifies spittle, and also derision, 
contempt, insult. The traveller Leichardt met with the same mode of expression 
among the savages of Australia. ' The men commenced talking to them, but 
occasionally interrupted their speeches by spitting and uttering a noise like pooh f 
pooh! apparently expressive of their disgust.' — p. 189. It is probable that this 



xlvi OFFENCE. 

Australian interjection was, in fact, identical with our own pnoli ! and like it, in- 
tended to represent the sound of spitting, for which purpose Burton in his African 
travels uses the native took I ' To-o-h ! Tuh ! exclaims the Muzunga, spitting 
with disgust upon the ground.' — Lake Regions of Africa, 2. 246. 

The sound of spitting is represented indifferently with an initial p, as in Maori 
puhwa, to spit out j Lat. spuere, to spit j respuere (to spit back), to reject with dis- 
dain ; despuere, to express disgust or disdain j or with an initial t, as in Sanscr. 
tluWhil, the sound of spitting j Pers. thu kerdan, Chinook mamook took, Chilian 
tuvcuiun (to make ihu, tooh, tiiv), to spit 5 Arabic tiiji, spittle j Galla twu / re- 
presenting the sound of spitting 3 tufa, to spit j tufada, to spit, to despise, scorn, 
disdain 5 with which may be joined English tuff, to spit like a cat. In Greek 
TTTvo) the imitation is rendered more vivid by the union of both the initial sounds. 

BLURT ! PET ! TROTZ ! 

The feelings of one dwelling on his own merits and angry at the short- 
comings of another are marked by a frowning brow, a set jaw, and inflated cheeks, 
while the breath is drawn in deep inspirations and sent out in puffs through the 
nostril and passive lips. Hence the expressions of breathing vengeance, fuming with 
anger, swelling with pride. 

Sharp breaths of anger puffed 
Her fairy nostrils out. — Tennyson. 

The sound of hard breathing or blowing is represented by the syllables puff, huff, 
whiff, whence a huff is a fit of ill-temper 3 to huff, to swell with indignation or 
pride, to bluster, to storm. — Johnson. The It. luffa is explained in Thomas' 
Italian Dictionary 'the despising blast of the mouth which we call shirping.* 
Brescian hofa, to breathe hard, to puff, especially w^ith anger. — Melchiori. Then, 
as ill-will vents itself in derision, hiffa, leffa, a jest, a trick 3 leffare, to trick or 
cheat 3 beffarsi, to laugh at 3 luffone, a jester, a buffoon. 

When the puff of anger or disdain is uttered with exaggerated feeling it pro- 
duces an explosive sound with the lips, represented by the syllable Hurt, which 
was formerly used as an interjection of defiance. ' Blurt ! master constable,' a 
fig for the constable. Florio speaks of ' a Hurt with one's mouth in scorn or de- 
rision.' To Hurt a thing out is to bring it out with a sudden explosion as if spit- 
ting something out of the mouth. A hlirt of greeting in Scotch is a burst of 
crying. 

A contemptuous whiff or blurt is otherwise represented by the sounds ft, pt, 
prh, tt, trt. Thus w. wfft / is explained by Davis, vox abhorrentis et exprobrantis. 
llfft, a scorn or slight, a fie j wfftio, to cry shame or fie, to push away with dis- 
approbation. — Lewis. Sanscr. phut, phut, imitative sound of blowing 3 expression 
of disregard, indignation, anger. — Benfey. The It. petto, a blurt, petteggiare, 
pettacchiare, to blurt with the mouth or lips (Fl.), Fr. petarade, a noise made with 
the mouth in contempt (Sadler), explain the interjections on. putt/ Da. pytt I Sw. 
pyt ! pshaw ! tut ! nonsense ! Norman pet I pour imposer un silence absolu. — 
Decorde. 



OFFENCE. CONTEMPT. xlvii 

From the latter form of the interjection we have e. pet, a fit of ill-humour or 
of anger j to take pet, to take huff, to take offence j pettish, passionate, ill-hu- 
moured. To pet a. child is to indulge it in ill-humour, and thence a pet, a darling, 
an indulged child or animal. Then as a child gives vent to his ill-humour by- 
thrusting out his lips and making a snout, or making a lip, as it is called in nursery- 
language, a hanging hp is called a pet lip in the N. of England. To pout, in De- 
vonshire to poutch or poutle, Illyrian puati se, Magyar pittyesx.tni (pitty, a blurt 
with the mouth), Genevese /aire la potte, signify to show ill-will by thrusting 
out the lips. Hence Genevese pottu, pouting, sulky j Magy. piltyasz, having 
projecting lips 3 Genevese pottes, Prov. potz, lips; Languedoc pot, pout, a hp; 
poutet, a kiss 3 poutouno, a darhng. Again, as in the case of It. Imj^a, heffa, 
above-mentioned, we pass from the expression of ill-will to the notion of a dis • 
agreeable turn in Da. puds, Sw. ptcts (to be compared with Devon, poutch), g. 
posse, a trick. 

The E. tut / (an exclamation used for checking or rebuking — ^Webster) seems 
to represent an explosion from the tongue instead of the lips, and gives rise to the 
provincial tutty, ill-tempered, sullen (Hal.), and probably tut-mouthed, having a 
projecting underjaw j on. tota, snout 3 Sw. tut. Da. tud, a spout, compared to 
the projecting lips of a sulky child. 

A more forcible representation of the explosive sound is given by the intro- 
duction of an r, as in on. prutta d hefta, to sound with the lips to a horse in 
order to make him go on; Sw. prusta, to snort, to sneeze; Magy. priissz, 
ptriissz, as well as tiissz, triissz, sneeze. The resemblance of a .sneeze to a blurt 
of contempt is witnessed by the expression of a thing not to be sneezed at, not to 
be scorned. Thus the Magy. forms afford a good illustration of the oe. in- 
terjections of scorn. Prut I Ptrot ! Tprot / e. Tut! Fr. Trut / and g. Trotz I 

The Manuel des Pecches, treating of the sin of Pride, takes as first example 
the man 

— that is iinbuxome all 
Ayens his fader spirital, 
And seyth Frut ! for thy cursyng, prest. — i. 3016. 

Hence are formed the oe. prute, prout, now written proud, and the Northern 
E. prutten, to hold up the head with pride and disdain (Halliwell), which in the 
West of E. (with inversion of the liquid and vowel) takes the form of purt, to 
pout, to be sulky or sullen, g. protzen, Du. pratten, to sulk ; protzig, prat, 
surly, proud, arrogant. Then, as before, passing from the figure of a contemptu- 
ous gesture to a piece of contemptuous treatment we have on. pretta, to play a 
trick; prettr, a trick. And as from the form pet/ putt/ was derived Swiss 
Romance potte, a lip, so from prut / may be explained ohg. prort, a lip, and 
figuratively a margin or border. 

The imitation of the explosive sound with an initial tr, as in Magy. triisszen- 
ni, to sneeze, gives It. truscare, to blurt or pop with one's lip or mouth (Fl.) ; 
truscio di lahbra, Fr. true, a blurting or popping with the lips or tongue to en- 



xlviii DEFIANCE. DISGUST. 

courage a horse j on. trntta, to make a noise of such a description in driving 
animals : vox est instigantis vel agentis cquos'aut armenta. — Gudmund. Hence 
Fr. trut ! (an interj. importing indignation), tush, tut, fy man (Cot.) ^ from 
which we pass to Sw. dialect truta, to pout with the hps, make a snout ; trutas, 
to be out of temper 3 trut, a snout, muzzle, spout. From the same source is the 
G. trutz, trotz, tratz, expressing ill-will, scorn, defiance. Trutz nit I do not sulk. 
— Kladderadatsch. Trotz hieten, to bid defiance j trotzen, to defy, to be forward 
or obstinate, to pout or sulk, to be proud of 5 trotzig, haughty, insolent, perverse, 
peevish, sulky. — Griebe. Du. trotsen, tortcn, to irritate, insult 3 Valencian trotar, 
to deride, to make a jest of. Sc. dort, pet, sullen humour 3 to take the dorts, to 
be in a pet ; dorty, pettish, saucy, dainty. 

A special application of the exclamation of impatience and displeasure is to 
send an inferior packing from one's presence. Thus from true, representing a 
blurt with the mouth, is to be explained It. truccare, to send, to trudge or pack 
away nimbly (Fl.) ; trucca via I be off with you. Venetian trozare, to send 
away. The exclamation in Gaelic takes the form of truis / be off, said to a dog, 
or a person in contempt (Macalpine). In oe. truss/ was used in the same 
way. 

Lyere — was nowher welcome, for his manye tales 

Over al yhonted, and yhote, trusse. — Piers PI. Vis. v. 13 16. 

To hete truss is an exact equivalent of g. trfitz hieten. In Modern E. the expres- 
sion survives in the shape of trudge. 

This tale once told none other speech prevailed, 

But pack and trudge I all leysare was to long. — Gascoigne. 

FAUGH ! FIE 1 

There is a strong analogy between the senses of taste and smell, as between 
sight and hearing. When we are sensible of an odour which pleases us we snuff 
up the air through the nostrils, as we eagerly swallow food that is agreeable 
to the palate 3 and as we spit out a disagreeable morsel, so we reject an offens- 
ive odour by stopping the nose and driving out the infected air through the 
protruded lips, with a noise of which various representations are exhibited in the 
interjections of disgust. *Piff! PhewIPhit!' exclaims a popular writer, — ' they 
have all the significance of those exclamatory whiffs which we propel from our 
lips when we are compelled to hold our noses.' — Punch, Sept. 2, 1863. 

The sound of blowing is imitated all over the world by syllables like whew,fUf 
pu. The inteij. wJiew f represents a forcible expiration through the protruded 
lips, ' a sound like that of a half-formed whistle, expressing astonishment, scorn, or 
dislike' (Webster). Sc. quhew, NE.whew, expresses the sound made by a body 
passing rapidly through the air. To whew, Maori whio, to whistle 3 wJdu, a stroke 
with a whip 3 kowTiiuwJim, to blow, to winnow. 

The derivatives from the form pu or fu are extremely numerous, on. pua, g. 
pusen, pfausen,pusten, Gr. <pvaau), Liith. pusu, puttu, pusti, Gael. putJi (pronounced 
puh), Illyr. puJiati, Fin. puhJiata, ptihkia, Hawaii puhi, Maori puTiipuhi, pupuhi. 



OFFENSIVE SMELL. xllx 

Quichua puhuni (Tylor), Zulu pupuza, Mahj puput,to pufFor blow. The Sanscrit 
put, pJiut, imitative sound of blowing (Benfey), with puphusa, the lungs, maybe 
compared with Maori puka, to pant, and puka-puka, the lungs. Again, we have 
Mzgy. funi* fuvni, Galla hufa, afufa, Quiche pw^a (Tylor), Sc. fiijf. It. huff are, 
E. puff, to blow. 

From forms like the foregoing we pass to the interjections expressing disgust 
at a bad smell. Sanders in his excellent g. dictionary explains pu ! as an inter), 
representing the sound made by blowing through the barely opened lips, and 
thence expressing the rejection of anything nasty. ' Ha puh ! wie stank der alle 
mist.' The sense of disgust at a bad smell is expressed in hke manner by Lat. 
pliui I phu ! fufji/ (Forcell.), Venetian puh ! ji ! (Patriarchi), Fr. pouah ! ji ! 
Bret, foei ! fech ! t^. faugh / foh / pJiew I Russ./w / tfu ! 

It is obvious that the utterance of these interjections of disgust has the effect 
of announcing, in the most direct manner, the presence of a bad smell, and if the 
utterance is accompanied by gestures pointing out a particular object it will be 
equivalent to an assertion that the thing stinks or is rotten. It will then be 
necessary only to clothe the significant syllable in grammatical forms in order to 
get verbs or nouns expressing ideas connected with the notion of offensive smell. 
Accordingly we have Sanscr. pu, putika, stinking • puti, putrid, stinking matter, 
civet ; puy, to stink, to putrefy j Gr. irvdio, to rot ; Lat. puteo, putor, putidus, 
puter, putresco, pus; Fr. puer, to stink j OFr. pulant, stinking. The Zulu says 
that the 'meat says pu,' meaning that it stinks. Timorese poop, putrid 5 Quiche 
pohir, to rot J puz, rottenness^ Tupi puxi, nasty (Tylor). At the same time 
from a form corresponding to 'S>ret.foei/ and ^, faugh/ the Lat. h^sfceteo and 
foetidus, fetid, alongside oi piiteo and putidus. From the form fu/ are Old Norse 
fuinn, rotten 5 fuki, stench or anything stinking 3 full, stinking, rotten ; fyla, 
stench. In the Gothic Testament the disciple speaking of the body of Lazarus 
says Jahfuls ist : by this time he stinketh. Modern Norse^^w/, disgusting, of bad 
taste or smell, troublesome, vexatious, angry, bitter. Han va ful aat os, he was 
enraged with us. The e. equivalent is foul, properly ill smelling, then anything 
opposed to our taste or requirements, loathsome, ugly in look, dirty, turbid (of 
water), rainy and stormy (of the weather), unfair, underhand in the transactions of 
life. ON. Fulyrdi, foul words 5 fulmenni, a scoundrel. From the adjective again 
are derived the verb to file or defle, to make foul ; and filth, that which makes 
foul. 

The disagreeable impressions of smell produce a much more vivid repugnance 
than those of taste, and being besides sensible to all around, they afford the most 
convenient type of moral reprobation and displeasure. And probably the earliest 
-expression of these feehngs would occur in teaching cleanHness to the infant. 

• This representation of the sound of blowing or breathing may not improbably be the 
origin of the root/«, Sanscrit d/m, of the verb to be. The negro who is without the verb fo be 
in his own language supplies its place by live. He says, Your hat no lib that place you put him 
in. — Farrar, Chap. Lang. p. 54, Orig. Lang. p. 105. A child of my acquaintance would say, 
Where it live ? where is it ? Now the breath is universally taken as the type of life. 

d 



1 REPROBATION. HATE. 

The interjection fy ! expresses in the first instance the speaker's sense of a bad 
smell, but it is used to the child in such a iftanner as to signify. That is dirty j do 
not touch that j do not do that j and then generally, You have done something 
displeasing to me, something of which you ought to be ashamed. Laura Bridge- 
man, who was born deaf and bhnd, used to utter the sound Jf or fi when dis- 
pleased at being touched by strangers. 

When used in a figurative sense to express moral reprobation the interj. often 
assumes a slightly ditl^erent form from that which expresses disgust at a bad smell. 
Thus in E.fai/gJi / or fohf express disgust, ^e.^ reprobation. In g. perhaps pfu ! 
or pfui ! are chiefly employed in a moral sense 5 fui ! ox ji I with respect to smell. 
Tfui dich an ! pfu die menschen an ! shame on them. But the line cannot be 
very distinctly drawn, and in Piatt Deutsch the expression \% fu dik an ! as in 
Grisons fudi ! shame on you. 'Pr.Ji/ commonly expresses reprobation, but it is 
also used with respect to smell. Fi I qu'il sent mauvais. Faire ji d'une chose, to 
turn up one's nose at it, to despise it. 

When we consider that shame is the pain felt at the reprobation of those to 
whom we look with reverence, including our own conscience, and when we 
observe the equivalence of expressions like pfu dich f fe on you, and shame on 
you, we shall easily believe that pu ! as an expression of reprehension, is the 
source of Lat. pudet, it shames me, it cries pu ! on me j pudeo, I lie under pu ! 
I am ashamed. In like manner repudio is to be explained as I pooh back, I 
throw back with disdain ; and probably refuto, to reject, disdain, disapprove, is 
derived in the same way from the other form of the interj. fu ! being thus 
analogous to G.pfuien, anpfuien, -N.fyne, to cry fie! on, to express displeasure: 
einfynte hund, a scolded dog. The iexpression then passes on to signify the feel- 
ings which prompt the utterance of the interj. ; disgust, abhorrence, hate. Thus 
from 'K\xss.fu/ is formed /w>^a/ (properly to cry fu/), to abhor, to loathe^ from 
w.jffi / fe / jffiaidd, loathsome ; jffieiddio, to loathe, to detest j and so doubtless 
from the same form of the interj. is to be explained the Goth, fjan, o^.fjd, as. 
fan, to hate, and thence Goth, fjan d, G.feind, an enemy, and oti. fjandi, pro- 
perly an enemy, then, as e. fend, the great enemy of the human race. From 
the same source are E.foe (oN.fdi?) and feud, enmity or deadly quarrel. 

The aptness of the figure by which the natural disgust at stench is made the 
type of the feelings of hatred, is witnessed by the expression of ' stinking in the 
nostrils ' said of anything that is peculiarly hateful to us. 

Professor Miiller objects to the foregoing derivations that they confound to- 
gether the Sanscrit roots pz/y, to decay, the source of puteo, and E.foul, and pty, 
to hate, corresponding to ^}'ara and fend (II. 93). But he does not explain, 
where he supposes the confusion to take place, and there is in truth no inconsist- 
ency between the doctrine in the text and the distinct recognition of the roots in 
question. We are familiar in actual speech with two forms of the interjection 
of disgust; the one comprising g. puh / Fr. pouah / e. faugh / f oh / addressed 
especially to smells 3 the other answering to g. pjui ! Yx.fil e. fie ! and express- 
ing aversion in a more general way. From the first of these we derive puteo and 



NURSERY WORDS. li 

foul ; from the second, yf/aw ^udjiend. If we suppose the analogous forms pu ! 
and pi/ to have been used in a similar way by the Sanscrit-speaking people, it 
would give a rational account of the roots ptiy and piT/, which MUller is content 
to leave untouched as ultimate elements, but we ought not to be charged with 
confounding them together because we trace them both to a common principle. 

PAPA, MAMMA. 

A small class of words is found in all languages analogous to, and many of 
them identical with, the e. forms, mamma, papa, mammy, daddy, hahy, babe, pap 
(in the sense of breast, as well as of soft food for children), expressing ideas most 
needed for communication with children at the earliest period of their life. A 
long list of the names of father and mother was published by Prof. I. C. E. Busch- 
man in the Trans, of the Berlin Acad, der Wiss. for 1852, a translation of which 
is given in the Proceedings of the Philolog. Soc. vol. vi. It appears that words of 
the foregoing class are universally formed from the easiest articulations, ba, pa, ma, 
da, ta, na, or ab, ap, am, at, an. We find ma, me, mi, mu, mam, mama, meme, 
moma, mother, and less frequently nearly all the same forms in the sense of father j 
pa, ba, pap, bap, bob, papa, baba, paba, fqfe, fabe, father j ba, baba, bama, fa, 
fafa, fawa, be, bi, bo, bibi, mother j ta,da, tat, tata, tad, dad, dada, dade, tati, titi, 
father ; de, tai, dai, deda, tite, mother j nna, nan, nanna, ninna, nang, nape, father 3 
na, mna, nan, nana, nene, neni, nine, nama, mother. In the same way the changes 
are rung on ab, aba, abba, avva, appa, epe, ipa, obo, abob, ubaba, abban, father ; 
amba, abai, aapu, ibii, ewa, mother ; at, aat, ata, atta, otta, aita, atya, father j hada, 
etta, ote, mother j anneh, ina, una, father -, ana, anna, enna, eenah, ina, onny, inan, 
iinina, ananah, mother. Isa Condamine mentions abba or baba, or papa and mama, 
as common to a great number of American languages differing widely from each 
other, and he adverts to a rational explanation of the origin of these designations. 
'If we regard these words as the first that children can articulate, and consequently 
those which must in every country have been adopted by the parents who heard 
them spoken, in order to make them serve as signs for the ideas of father and 
mother.' — De Brosses, i. 215. 

The speech of the mother may perhaps unconsciously give something of an 
articulate form to the meaningless cooings and mutterings of the infant, as the song 
of the mother-bird influences that of her young. At any rate these infantile 
utterances are represented in speech by the syllables ba, fa, ma, ta, giving rise to 
forms like e. babble, maffle,fajfle,f amble, tattle, to speak imperfectly like a child, 
to talk unmeaningly 3 oe. mamelen, babelen, to babble, mutter j mammer, to mut- 
ter 3 Gr. l3aj3a(io, to say ba, ba, to speak inarticulately (whence /3aZ^w, to speak) 3 
Mod.Gr. fxafjiovXi^w, to mumble, mutter, &c. Accordingly the joyful or eager 
utterances of the child when taken up by the mother, or when offered the breast, 
would sound to her as if the infant greeted her by the name of mama, &c., or as 
it' it called for the breast by that name, and she would adopt these names herself 
and teach her child the intelligent use of them. Thus Lat. mamma, the infantile 
term for mother, has remained, with the dim. mamilla, as the name of the breast, 

d 2 



lii NURSERY WORDS. 

and the same is the case with Fin. mamma, Du. mamme, mother, niirse^ breast j 
mammen, to give suck. When one of the imitative syHables as ma had thus been 
taken up to designate the mother, a different one, as la, pa, or ta, would be ap- 
propriated by analogy as the designation of the flither. 

Besides the forms corresponding to Lat. mamma, mamilla, papilla, e. pap, for 
the breast, a class of names strongly resembling each other are found all over the 
world, which seem to be taken from a direct imitation of the sound of sucking. 
Thus we have Sanscr. chUsh, to suck j chuchi, the breast ; chuchuka, the nipple j 
Tarahumara (Am.) tschitschi, to suck j Japan, tschitschi, tsitsi, the breast, milk ; 
Manchu tchetchen, Magy. tsets, Tung, tycen, tygen (Castren), Samoiede ssuso (to 
be compared with Fr. sucer, to suck), ssudo, Kowrarega susu, Malay soosoo, Gudang 
tyutyu^ Chippeway totosh, Mandingo siso, Bambarra sing, Kurdish ciciek. It. (in 
nursery language) cioccia, Albanian sissa, g. zitze, e. (nursery) diddy, titty, teat, 
Malay dada, Hebrew dad, g. dialects didi, titti, the breast or nipple j Goth, dadd- 
jan, to suck (Pott. Dopp. 2>?>)' 

The name of the haly himself also is formed on the same imitative principle 
which gives their designation to so many animals, viz. from the syllables la, la, 
representing the utterance of the infant. The same principle applies to others of 
these infantile words. The nurse imitates the wrangling or drowsy tones of the 
infant, as she jogs it to sleep upon her knee, by the syllables na, na, la, la. To 
the first of these forms belongs the Italian lullaby, ninna nanna ; far la ninna 
jianna, to lull a child ; ninnare, ninnellare, to rock, and in children's language 
vanna, bed, sleep. Far la nanna, andare a nanna, to sleep, to go to bed, go to 
sleep. In the Mpongwe of W. Africa nana, and in the Swahili of the Eastern 
coast lala, has the sense of sleep. In Malabar, nin, sleSp (Pott). The imitation 
gives a designation to the infant himself in It. ninna, a little girl 3 Milanese nan, 
nanin, a caressing term for an infant. Co.ro el mi nan, my darling baby. Sp. 
iiifio, a child. In Lat. nanus, a dwarf, the designation is transferred to a person 
of childish stature, as in Mod.Gr. viviov, a young child, a simpleton, and in e. 
ninny it is transferred to a person of childish understanding. From the imi- 
tative la, la, are g. lallen, to speak imperfectly like a child, from whence, as in 
other cases, the sense is extended to speaking hi general in Gr. XaXe'w, to chatter, 
babble, talk. From the same source are Lat. lallo, and e. /u//, primarily to sing 
a child to sleep, then to calm, to soothe. In Servian the nurses' song sounds /yu, 
lifu, whence lyulyuti, to rock 3 lyulyashka, a cradle. 

THE DEMONSTRATIVE PARTICLE. 

Another important element of speech, of which a rational explanation may 
perhaps be found in infantile life, is the demonstrative particle ta or da, the very 
name of which shows that it corresponds to the act of pointing out the object to 
which we wish to direct attention. In the language of the deaf-and-dumb, point- 
ing to an object signifies that, and serves the purpose of verbal mention, as is 
seen at every turn in an account of the making of the will of a dumb man 
quoted by Tylor. The testator points to himself, then to the will, th.en touches 



THE DEMONSTRATIVE PARTICLE. liii 

his trowsers' pocket, * the usual sign by which he referred to his money,' then 
points to his wife, and so on. But, indeed, we do not need the experience of 
the deaf-and-dumb to show that pointing to an object is the natural way of call- 
ing attention to it. Now in our nurseries the child uses the syllable ta for vari- 
ous purposes, as to express. Please, Thank you. Good-bye j mostly supplement- 
ing the utterance by pointing or stretching out the hand towards the object to 
which it has reference, A child of my acquaintance would ask in this way for 
what it desired. 'Ta! cheese' (pointing towards it), give me that cheese. 
Ta ! in a different tone returns thanks for something the child has accepted, and 
may be rendered, that is it, that gratifies me. When it says ta-ta I on being 
carried out of the room it accompanies the farewell by waving the hand towards 
those whom it is quitting, implying the direction of its good will towards them, 
as it might by blowing a kiss to them. Sanders (Germ. Diet.) describes dada as 
a word of many applications in g. nurseries, as, for instance, with reference to 
something pretty which the child desires to have. The Fr. child, according to 
Menage, says da-da-da, when he wants something, or wants to name something. 

* The child,' says Lottner in the paper on the personal pronouns above quoted, 

* sees an object, and says ta! ' (and at the same time points to it with his finger, 
I add) ; ' we may translate this by there (it is), or that it is, or carry me thither, 
or give me it, and by a variety of expressions besides, but the truth is, that every 
one of these interpretations is wrong, because it replaces the teeming fulness of 
the infantile word by a clearer but less rich expression of our more abstract lan- 
guage. Yet if a choice between the different translations must be made, I trust 
that few of my readers will refuse me their consent, when saying : there the ad- 
verb is by far the most adequate.' — Phil. Trans. 1859. We may carry the 
matter further and say that the infantile ta or da simply represents the act of 
pointing, all the incidental meanings being supplied by the circumstances of the 
case. It is preserved in mature language in g. da, the fundamental signification 
of which is to signify the presence of an object. * Da / nehmen Sie ! ' ' Da / 
Ihr prasent.' Dieser da (as Lat. is-te), this here. Bav. der da-ige, a specified 
person, as it were by pointing him out. A doubling of the utterance gives Gr. 
Tols. (or in Attic more emphatically ro^O^ this here • as well as Goth, thata (ta-ta), 
E. that. The primitive import of the utterance is completely lost sight of in Lat. 
da, givcj properly (give) that, to be compared with the nursery da-da, by 
which a g. child indicates or asks for an object of desire. In the expression Da, 
nehmen Sie, with which something is handed over to another, the word da repre- 
sents the holding out the object or the act of giving. In the language of Tonga, 
as Dr Lottner observes,, the verb to give is almost invariably replaced by the ad- 
verbs signifying hither or thither, ' nay, seems to have been lost altogether.* 
Mei ia giate au = hither this to me = give me this. Shall I thither this to thee = 
shall I give you this. 

When we seek for a natural connection of the utterance ta ! with the act of 

pointing,* we shall find it, I believe, in the inarticulate stammerings of the infant 

* Lottner's explanation is not satisfactory. He adopts in the main the view of Schwartze, 



liv ANALOGY. 

when he sprawls with arms and legs in the mere enjoyment of life. The utter- 
ance so associated with the muscular action of the child sounds in the ear of the 
parent like the syllables da-da-da, which thus become symbolical of muscular 
exertion, whether in the more energetic form of beating, or of simply stretching 
out the hand, as in giving or pointing. 

The syllable da is used to represent inarticulate utterance in Swiss dadern, 
dodern, to chatter, stutter, tattle, and this also seems the primitive sense of Fr. 
dadee, childish toying, speech, or dalliance. — Cot. Dada m German nurseries 
has the sense of smacks or blows. Das kind hat dada bekommen. The same 
sense is seen in Galla dadada-goda (to make dadada), to beat, to knock, and in 
Yoruba da, strike, beat, pay. 

ANALOGY. 

The greater part of our thoughts seem at the first glance so void of any re- 
ference to sound as to throw great difficulty in the way of a practical belief in 
the imitative origin of language. * That sounds can be rendered in language by 
sounds,' says Miiller, * and that each language possesses a large stock of words 
imitating the sounds given out by certain things, who would deny ? And who 
would deny that some words originally expressive of sound only might be trans- 
ferred to other things which have some analogy with sound? But how are 
things which do not appeal to the sense of hearing — how are the ideas of going, 
moving, standing, sinking, tasting, thinking, to be expressed ? ' — 2nd Series, p. 
89. The answer to the query is already given in the former part of the passage : 
by analogy, or metaphor, which is the transference of a word from one significa- 
tion to another J the conveyance of a meaning by mention of something which 
serves to put us in mind of the thing to be signified. But in several of the in- 
stances specified by Miiller it is not difficult to show a direct connection with 
sound. Thus we have seen that the conceptions of taste are expressed by re- 
ference to the smacking of the hps and tongue in the enjoyment of food. The 
idea of going is common to a hundred modes of progression that occur in actual 
existence, of which any one may, and one in particular must, in every mode of 
expressing the idea, have been the type from which the name was originally 
taken. In the case of ihe word go itself, for which Johnson gives seventy 
meanings, the original is that which he places first, to walk, to move step by step^ 
a sense which lends itself in the {nost obvious manner to imitative expression, by 
a representation of the sound of the footfall. The connection between thought 
and speech is so obvious that we need be at no loss for the means of expressing 
the idea of thinking. Thus Gr. (ppdiHio is to sayj (ppa^ofuai, to say to oneself, to 

speaking of the demonstrative in his Coptic Grammar : — 'Every object is to the child a living 
palpable thing. When it cannot reach anywhere with its hand, then instinctively it utters a 
cry, iu order to cause to approach that which has awakened its interest.'' * I add,' says Lottner : — • 
* When the soul, becoming aware of the cry issuing forth from its own interior, takes it up as 
a sign for the indefinite outward reality, which is the object of its desire, and shapes it into an 
articulate sound, then we have a pronoun demonstrative. ' 



TRANSFER FROM SOUND TO SIGHT. Iv 

think, while Xoyog signifies both speech and thought. In some of the languages 
of the Pacific thinking is said to be called speaking in the belly. Maori mea and 
ki both signify to speak as well as to think. 

The connection between the senses of taste and smell is so close that expres- 
sions originally taken from the exercise of the one faculty are constantly transferred 
to the other. The g. schmecken, to smack or taste, is used in Bavaria in the sense 
of smell, and schmecker, in popular language, signifies the nose. So from Lat. 
sapere (which may probably spring from another representation of the sound of 
smacking) comes sapor, taste, and thence e. savour, which is applied to impres- 
^. sions of smell as well as to those of the palate, while sapere itself, properly to dis- 
tinguish by taste, is extended to the exercise of the understanding, to have dis- 
cernment, to be wise. Sapiens, a man of nice taste, also wise, discreet, judicious. 
In the same way the Goth, snutrs, as. snotor, wise, prudent, may be explained 
from the Gael, snot, to snitf, snuff the air, smell, and figuratively, suspect ; Bav. 
snilten, tosniff\, smell, search 3 on. snudra, to sniffs out. Here it will be seen the 
expression of the idea of wisdom is traced by no distant course to an undoubted 
onomatopoeia. 

The same sort of analogy as that which is felt between the senses of smell and 
taste, unites in like manner the senses of sight and hearing, and thus terms ex- 
pressing conceptions belonging to the sense of hearing are figuratively applied to 
analogous phenomena of the visible world. In the case of sparkle, for example, 
which is a modification of the same imitative root with Sw, spraka, lAih.. sprageti, 
to crackle, rattle, the rapid flashing of a small bright light upon the eye is signi- 
fied by the figure of a similar repetition of short sharp impressions on the ear. 
Fr. fetiller is an imitative form signifying in the first place to crackle, then to 
sparkle, and, in the domain of movement, to quiver. Du. tintelen, to tinkle, then 
to twinkle, to glitter. 

Again, eclat (in Old Fr. esclat), properly a clap or explosion, is used in the 
sense of brightness, splendour, brilliancy. The word bright had a similar origin. 
It is the equivalent of g. pracht, splendour, magnificence, which in ohg. signified 
a clear sound, outcry, tumult. Bavarian hracht, clang, noise. In as. we have 
leorhtian, to resound, and heorht, bright. In the old poem of the Owl and the 
Nightingale Iright is applied to the clear notes of a bird. 
Heo — song so schille and so brihte 
That far and ner me hit iherde. — 1. 1654. 

Du. scJiateren, scTieteren, to make a loud noise, to shriek with laughter ; schiteren, 
to shine, to glisten j Dan. knistre, knittre, gnittre, to crackle ; gnistre, to sparkle. 
Many striking examples of the same transference of signification may be quoted 
from the Finnish, as kilind, a ringing sound, a brilliant light ; kilid, tinkling, glit- 
tering ; wilistd, to ring as a glass j willata, wilella, wilahtaa, to flash, to glitter ; 
kimistd, to sound clear (parallel with e. chime), kimmaltaa, kiimottaa, to shine, to 
glitter, &c. In Galla, lilbila, a ringing noise as of a bell ; hilhilgoda (to make 
bilhil), to ring, to glitter, beam, glisten. Sanscr. marmara, a rustling sound ; Gr. 
fxapixalpu), to glitter. 



Ivi VIEWS OF THE ANCIENTS. 

The language of painters is full of musical metaphor. It speaks of harmoni- 
ous or discordant colouring, discusses the tone of a picture. So in modern slang, 
which mainly consists in the use of new and violent metaphors (though perhaps, 
in truth, not more violent than those in which the terms of ordinary language 
had their origin), we hear of screaming colours, of dressing loud. The specula- 
tions of the Ancients respecting the analogies of sound and signification were 
extremely loose, as may be seen in the Cratylus, where Socrates is made to explain 
the expressive power of the letter-sounds. The letter r, he says, from the mo- 
bility of the tongue in pronouncing it, seemed to him who settled names an ap- 
propriate instrument for the imitation of movement. He accordingly used it for , 
that purpose in ptlv and poi], flow and flux, then in Tpofxog, Tpa^vQ, icpoveiy, 
Opavety, kpdniiv, Kep/jari^eLv, pviJ.j3tly, tremour, rough, strike, break, rend, shatter, 
whirl. Observing that the tongue chiefly slides in pronouncing /, he used it in 
forming the imitative words Xelog, smooth, Xnrapoc, oily, KoWojhrjg, gluey, 
oXiadaytiy, to slide. And observing that n kept the voice within, he framed the 
words ey^oy, eyrog, within, inside, fitting the letters to the sense. 

Much of the same kind is found in an interesting passage of Augustine, which 
has been often quoted. 

' The Stoics,' he says, ' hold that there is no word of which a clear account 
cannot be given. *And because in this way you might say that it would be an 
infinite task if you had always to seek for the origin of the words in which you 
explained the origin of the former one, it was easy to suggest the limitation : 
Until you come to the point where there is direct resemblance between the 
sound of the word and the thing signified, as when we speak of the tinkling (tin- 
nitum) of brass, the neighing of horses, the bleating of sheep, the clang (clango- 
rem) of trumpets, the clank (stridorem) of chains, for you perceive that these 
words sound like the things which are signified by them. But because there are 
things which do not sound, with these the similitude of touch comes into play, so 
that if the things are soft or rough to the touch, they are fitted with names that 
by the nature of the letters are felt as soft or rough to the ear. Thus the word 
lene, soft, itself sounds soft to the ear ; and who does not feel also that the word 
asperitas, roughness, is rough like the thing which it signifies ? Voluptas, pleasure, 
is soft to the ear j crux, the cross, rough. The things themselves affect our feel- 
ings in accordance with the sound of the words. As honey is sweet to the taste, 
so the name, mel, is felt as soft by the ear. Acre, sharp, is rough in both ways. 
Lana, wool, and vepres, briars, afi'ect the ear in accordance with the way in which 
the things signified are felt by touch. 

It was believed that the first germs of language were to be found in the 
words where there was actual resemblance between the sound of the word and 

* Et quia hoc modo suggerere facile fuit, si diceres hoc infinitum esse quibus verbis alterius 
verbi originem interpretaris, eorum rursus a te originem quserendam esse, donee perveniatur 
eo ut res cum sono verbi aliqua similitudine concinnat, &c.— Principia Dialecticse, c. v. iu 
vol. i. of his works. 



ANALOGY OF SOUND AND MOVEMENT. Ivii 

the thing which it signified : that from thence the invention of names proceeded 
to take hold of the resemblance of things between themselves -, as when, for ex- 
ample, the cross is called cruj: because the rough sound of the word agrees with 
the roughness of the pain which is suffered on the cross 5 while the legs are called 
crura, not on account of the roughness of pain, but because in length and 
hardness they are like wood in comparison with the other members of the 
body.' 

It is obvious that analogies like the foregoing are far too general to afford any 
satisfactory explanation of the words for which they are supposed to account. If 
any word that sounded rough might signify anything that was either rough or 
rigid or painful it would apply to such an infinite variety of objects, and the limits 
of the signification would be so vague, that the utterance would not afford the 
smallest guidance towards the meaning of the speaker. Still it is plain that there 
must be some analogy between sound and movement, and consequently form, in 
virtue of w^hich we apply the terms rough and smooth to the three conceptions. 
The connection seems to lie in the degree of effort or resistance of which we 
are conscious in the utterance of a rough sound, or in the apprehension 
of a rough surface. We regard the sound of r as rough compared with 
that of /, because the tongue is driven into vibration in the utterance 
of r, making us sensible of an effort which answers to the resistance felt 
in the apprehension of a rough surface, while in / the sound issues without re- 
action on the vocal organs, like the hand passing over a smooth surface. A greater 
degree of roughness is when the inequalities of the surface are separately felt, or in 
sound, when the vibratory whir passes into a rattle. In a still higher degree of 
roughness the movement becomes a succession of jogs, corresponding to the ine- 
qualities of a rugged surface or a jggged outline, or, in the case of the voice, to the 
abrupt impulses of a harshly broken utterance. Again, we are conscious of mus- 
cular effort when we raise the tone of the voice by an actual rise of the vocal ap- 
paratus in the throat, and it is precisely this rise and fall of the bodily apparatus 
m the utterance of a high or low note, that makes us consider the nstes as high 
or low. There are thus analogies between sound and bodily movement which 
enable us, by utterances of the voice without direct imitation of sound, to signify 
varieties of movement, together with corresponding modifications of figured sur- 
face and outline. The word twitter represents in the first instance a repetition of 
a short sharp sound, but it is applied by analogy to a vibratory movement that is 
wholly unaccompanied by sound. The feeling of abruptness in sound is given by 
a syllable ending with one of the mutes, or checks as they are called by Muller, 
consisting of the letters b, d, g, p, t, k, the peculiarity of which in pronunciation 
is that ' for a time they stop the emission of breath altogether ' (Lect. ii. p. 138). 
Hence in pronouncing a syllable ending in a mute or check we are conscious 
of an abrupt termination of the vocal effort, and we employ a wide range of syl- 
lables constructed on that principle to signify a movement abruptly checked, as 
shag, shogy jag, jog, jig, dag, dig, stag (in stagger, to reel abruptly from side to 
side), jol, jib, stab, rug, tug; Fr. sag-oter, to jog 3 sac-cade, a rough and sudden 



Iviii FROM MOVEMENT TO SUBSTANCE. 

jerk, motion, or check. The syllable suk is used in Bremen to represent a jog in 
riding or gomg." Dat geit jummer suk/ suk ! of a rough horse. Ene olde suksuk, 
an old worthless horse or carriage, a rattletrap. Sukkeln, g. schuckeln, schockeln, to 
jog. On the same principle we have g. zack, used interjectionally to represent a 
sharp sudden movement -, zacke^ a jag or sharp projection ; zickzack, e. zigzag, 
applied to movement by impulses abruptly changing in direction, or the figure 
traced out by such a movement j the opposition in the direction of successive im- 
pulses being marked by the change of vowel from i to a. The production of 
sound, however, is so frequent a consequence of movement, that we never can be 
sure, in cases like the foregoing, that the word does not originally spring from 
direct imitation. Such seems certainly the case with the syllables tick, tack, tock, 
representing sharp short sounds of different kinds, and analogous movements. 
Thus we have E. tick-tack for the beat of a clock , Parmesan tic-toe for the beat 
of the heart or the pulse, or the ticking of a watch ; Bolognese tec-tac, a cracker j 
It. tech-tech, toch-toch, tecche-tocche, for the sound of knocking at a door. 
Hence tick or tock for any light sharp movement. To tick a thing off, to mark 
it with a touch of the pen ; to take a thing on tick, to have it ticked or marked 
on the score j to tickle, to incite by light touches. Bolognese tocc, Brescian toch^ 
the blow of the clapper on a bell or knocker on a door, lead to Spanish tocar, to 
knock, to ring a bell, to beat or play on a musical instrument, and also (with the 
meaning softened down) to Italian toccare, French toucher, to touch. The Mi- 
lanese toch, like English tick, is a stroke with a pen or pencil, then, figuratively, a 
certain space, so much as is traversed at a stroke ; on hell tocch di strada, a good 
piece of road j then, as Italian tocco, a piece or bit of anything. 

The same transference of the expression from phenomena of sound to those of 
bodily substance takes place with the syllables 7nuk, mik, mot, tot, kuk, kik, kc, 
which were formerly mentioned as being used (generally with a negative) to ex- 
press the least appreciable sound. The closeness of the connection between such 
a meaning and the least appreciable movement is witnessed by the use of the same 
word still to express alike the absence of sound or motion. Accordingly the g. 
muck, representing in the first instance a sound barely audible, is made to signify 
a slight movement. Macken, to mutter, to say a word ^ also to stir, to make the 
least movement. 

The representative syllable takes the form of mick or kick in the Dutch phrase 
noch micken noch kicken, not to utter a syllable. Then, passing to the significa- 
tion of motion, it produces Dutch micken, Illyrian migati, to wink; micati 
{mitsati), to stir _; Lat. micare, to glitter, to move rapidly to and fi-o. The analogy 
is then carried a step further, and the sense of a slight movement is made a step- 
ping-stone to the signification of a material atom, a small bodily object. Hence 
Lat. and It. mica, Spanish ^w/^^, Fr. wiie, acrum, a little bit. The train of thought 
runs through the same course in Dutch kicken, to utter a slight sound ; Fr. chicoter, 
to sprawl like an infant ; Welsh cicio, and e. kick, to strike with the foot. Then 
in the sense of any least portion of bodily substance. It. cica, Fr. chic, chiquet, a 
little bit ; chique, a quid of tobacco, a playing-marble, properly a small lump of 



MODIFICATION BY CHANGE OF VOWEL. lix 

clay J Sp. chico, little. In the same way from the representation of a slight sound 
by the syllable mot, mut, as in e. mutter, or in the Italian piirase nonfare ne motto 
ne totto, not to utter a syllable, we pass to the Yorkshire phrase, neither moit nor 
doit, not an atom ; e, inote, an atom, and inite, the least visible insect j Du. mot, 
dust, fragments ; It. motta, Fr. motte, a lump of earth. 

The use of a syllable like tot to represent a short indistinct sound is shown in 
the Italian phrase above quoted j in o.n. taut, n. tot, a whisper, murmur, mutter ; 
E. totle, to whisper (Pr. Pm.) ; titter, to laugh in a subdued manner. The ex- 
pression passes on to the idea of movement in e. tot, to jot down or note with a 
slight movement of the pen j totter, tottle, to move slightly to and fro, to toddle 
like a child ; titter, to tremble, to seesaw (Halliwell) ; Lat. titillo, to tickle (pro- 
vincially tittle), to excite by slight touches or movements. Then, passing from the 
sense of a slight movement to that of a small bodily object, we have e. tot, 
anything small ; totty, little (Halliwell) -, Da. tot, Sc. tait, a bunch or flock of 
flax, wool, or the like ; It. tozzo, a bit, a morsel j e. tit, a bit, a morsel, anything 
small of its kind, a small horse, a little girl 3 titty, tiny, small -, titlark, a small 
kind of lark J titmouse (Du. mossche, a sparrow), a small bird ; tittle, a jot or little 
'bit. It. citto, zitto, a lad; citta, zitella, a girl. The passage from the sense of a 
light movement to that of a small portion is seen also in pat, a Hght quick blow, 
and a small lump of something; to dot, to touch hghtly with a pen, to make a 
slight mark J and dot, a small lump or pat. — Halliwell. To jot, to touch, to jog, 
to note a thing hastily on paper ; jot, a small quantity. 

The change of the vowel from a or toi, or the converse, in such expressions 
as zigzag, ticktack, seesaw, belongs to a principle which is extensively applied in 
the development of language, when an expression having already been found for 
a certain conception, it is wished to signify something of the same fundamental 
kind, but differing in degree or in some subordinate character. This end is com- 
monly attained by a change, often entirely arbitrary, either in the vowel or the 
initial consonant of the significant syllable. The vowel changes from i to a in 
tick-tack, for the beating of a clock, not because the pendulum makes a different 
sound in swinging to the right or to the left, but simply in order to symbolise the 
change of direction. A similar instance of distinction by arbitrary difference is 
noticed by Mr Tylor in the language of gesture, where a wise man being symbol- 
ised by touching the tip of the nose with the forefinger, the same organ is touched 
with the little finger to signify a foolish man. In a similar way the relations of 
place, here, there, and out there, corresponding to the personal pronouns, I, you, 
and he, are frequently distinguished by what appears to be an arbitrary change of 
the vowel sound. Pott (Doppelung p. 48) cites from the African Tumale, gni, 
gno, gnu, for the three personal pronouns, where the vowels follow in regular scale 
{i, e, a, 0, u) according to the proximity of the object indicated. But the same 
language has re this, ri that, where the order is inverted. The following table is 
from Tylor (Prim. Cult. i. 199). 

Javan. i>^i, this; ika, that; z'y^.v, that, further off; Malagasy io, here (close 
at hand); eo, there (further offj ; ao, there (at a short distance). 



Ix INTERROGATIVE PARTICLE. 

Japan ko, here j ka, there. 

Canarese ivanuy this ; ivanu, that (Intermediate) ; uvanu, that. 

Tamul t, this j <^, that. 

Dhimas isho, ita, here j usho, uta, there. 

Abchasian a^ri, this j wZri, that. 

Ossetic am, here j w/«, there. 

Magyar e%, this 3. ax, that. 

Zulu apa, here j apo, there 3 les'i, this 3 leso, that 3 lesiya, that Ih the distance. 

Yoruba wa, this 3 wi, that. 

Fernandian olo, this 3 o/e, that. 

Sahaptin (America) Una, here 3 ^M«a, there. 

Mutsun ne, here 3 nu, there. 

Tarahumara the, here 3 aZ-e, there. 

Guarani wc?e, ne, thou 3 nc?i, wi, he. 

Botocudo ati, 1 3 oti, thou, you, to. 

Carib ne, thou ; Tzi, he. 

Chilian tva, this 3 ^fe?/, that. 
Here, as Mr Tylor remarks, no constant rule is observed, but sometimes i and 
sometimes a is used to denote the nearer object. 

Of a similar nature is the distinction of sex by a change of vowel, as in Italian 
for the male, and a for the female. Fin. uhko, an old man 3 ahka, an old woman 3 
Mangu chacha, mas 3 cheche, femina 3 ama, father 3 erne, mother. Carib hala, 
father 3 MM, mother. Ibu (Afr.) nna, father 3 nne, mother. It is probably 
to a like principle of distinction that the k, k (tt), qu, w, which form the initial 
element of the interrogative in Sanscr., Gr., Lat., and g. respectively, owe their 
origin. The interrogative pronouns who ? or what ? are expressed in gesture 
by looking or pointing about in an inquiring manner, in fact (says Tylor), by a 
number of unsuccessful attempts to say he, that. Then, as the act of pointing was 
represented in speech by the particle ta, it seems that the interrogative signification 
was given by the arbitrary change from ta to ha, from whence may be explained the 
various initials of the interrogative in the different members of the Indo-Germanic 
family. 

On the other hand, there is often an innate fitness in the change of vowel to 
tlie modification of meaning which it is made to denote. The vowels a and 
are pronounced with open throat and fall sound of the voice, while we compress 
the voice through a narrower opening and utter a less volume of sound in the 
pronunciation of i or e. Hence we unconsciously pass to the use of the vowel i 
in expressing diminution of action or of size. A young relation of mine adopted 
the use of lahy as a diminutival prefix.* Baby-Thomas was his designation for 
the smaller of two servants of that name. But when he wishes to carry the di- 
minution further, he narrows the sound of the word to lee-lee, and at last it be- 
comes a leelee-leelee thing. In the same way seems to be formed Acra (Afr.) 
li, child, young one 3 lilio, littlef small (Pott. 100). It seems to me probable that 

• Vei dm, child, also little. 



EXPRESSION OF VOWEL SOUNDS. ki 

this sense of the thinness of the sound of i or ee is simply embodied in the 
diminutival wee. 'A little wee face with a little yellow beard.' — Merry Wives. 
A further development of the significant sound gives the nursery weeny,* surviv- 
ing in regular speech in g. wenig, little, few j Sc. wean, a child. And perhaps 
the E. tiny may be attained through the rhyming tiny-winy or teeny-weeny , 
analogous to winy-piny, fretful, speaking in a pipy tone of voice. It will be ob- 
served that we express extreme diminution by dwelling on the narrow vowel : 
' a little tee - - Jiy thing,' making the voice as small as possible. 

The consciousness of forcing the voice through a narrow opening in the pro- 
nunciation of the sound ee leads to the use of syllables like peep, keek, teet, to sig- 
nify a thing making its way through a narrow opening, just beginning to appear, 
looking through between obstacles. Da. at pippe frem is to spring forth, to make 
its way through the bursting envelope, whence 'Fr. pepin, the pip or pippin, the 
germ from whence the plant is to spring. The Sw. has tittafrem, to peep through, 
to begin to appear -, titta, to peep, in old e. to teet. 

The rois knoppis tetand furth thare hed 

Gan chyp and kythe thare vemale lippis red. — Douglas Virgil, 401. 8. 

The peep of dawn is when the curtain of darkness begins to lift and the first streaks 
of light to push through the opening. 

The sound of the footfall is represented in German by the syllables trapp-trapp- 
trapp ; from whence Du. trap, a step, trappen, to tread, Sw. trappa, stairs. The 
change to the short compressed i in trip adapts the syllable to signify a light quick 
step : Du. trippen, trippelen, to leap, to dance (Kil.) ; Fr. trepigner, to beat the 
ground with the feet. Clank represents the sound of something large, as chains • 
dink, or chink, of smaller things, as money. To sup up, is to take up liquids by 
large spoonfuls ; to sip, to sup up by little and little, with lips barely open. Top, 
nab, knob, signify an extremity of a broad round shape ; tip, nib, nipple, a similar 
object of a smaller size and pointed shape. 

Where a sound is kept up by the continued repetition of distinct impulses on 
the ear, the simplest mode of representing the continued sound is by the repetition 
of a syllable resembling the elementary impulse, as ding-dong, g. bim-bam. It. 
din-din, don-don, for the sound of bells 5 murmur, for a continuance of low and 
indistinct sounds ; pit-a-pat, for a succession of light blows ; bow-wow, for the 
barking of a dog, &c. In barbarous languages the formation of words on this 
principle is very common, and in the Pacific dialects, for instance, they form a con- 
siderable proportion of the vocabulary. From cases like the foregoing, where an 
imitative syllable is repeated for the purpose of signifying the continued repetition 
of a certain phenomenon, the principle of reduplication, as it is called, is extended 
to express simple continuance of action, or even, by a further advance in abstrac- 
tion, the idea of action in general, while the special nature of the action intended 
is indicated by the repeated syllable. In some African languages repetition is 
habitually used to qualify the meaning of the verb. Thus we have Wolof sopa, 

* * A little weeny thing.' I have known Weeny kept as a pet-name by one who had been 
puny in childhood. 



Ixii REPETITION. FREQUENTATIVE ELEMENTS. 

to love, sopasopa, to love constantly j Mpongwe kamla, to speak, kamha-gamlat 
to talk at random j kenda, to walk, kendagenda, to walk about for amusement. 
Again, from Maori miika, flax, muka-muka (to use a bunch of flax), to wipe 
or rub} mawhiti, to skip, viawhitiwhiti, a grasshopper^ puka, to pant, puka- 
puka, the lungs, the agent in panting j Malay ai/un, to rock, ayunayunan, a 
cradle. That the principle is not wholly lifeless fn English is witnessed by the 
verb pooh-pooh, to say pooh ! to, to treat with contempt. 

It is obvious that the same device which expresses continuance in time may 
be applied to continuance or extension in space. Thus in the Pacific loa, loloa, 
signify longj lololoa, very long (Pott. 97). And generally, repetition or contin- 
uance of the significant sound expresses excess in degree of the quality signified. 
Mandingo ding, child ; if very young, ding-ding ; Susa di, child 5 didi, little child 
(p. 99). Madagascar ratsi or ratchi, bad ; ratsi-ratsi, or rdtchi, very bad. ' In the 
Gaboon the strength with which such a word as mpolu is uttered, serves to show 
whether it is great, very great, or very very great, and in this way, as Mr Wilson re- 
marks in his Mpongwe grammar, the comparative degrees of greatness, smallness, 
hardness, rapidity and strength, &c., may be conveyed with more accuracy than 
could readily be conceived.' — Tylor, Prim. Cult. i. 196. The same principle of 
expression is in familiar use with ourselves, although not recognised in written 
language J as when we speak of an e-n6--rmous appetite, or aHttle tee--ny thing. 

The use of reduplicate forms is condemned by the taste of more cultivated 
languages, and the sense of continuance is expressed in a more artificial way by 
the frequentative form of the verb, as it is called, where the eifect of repetition is 
given by the addition of an intrinsically unmeaning element, such as the syllable 
et, er, or el, acting as a sort of echo to the fundamental syllable of the word. 
Thus in E. racket, a clattering noise, or in Fr. cliqu-et-is, clash of weapons, the 
imitative syllables, rack and clique, are echoed by the rudimentary et, instead of 
being actually repeated, and the words express a continued sound of rack, rack, or 
click, click. 

It is true that such a syllable as et or it could only, properly speaking, be used 
as an echo to hard sounds, but many devices of expression are extended by analogy 
far beyond their original aim, and thus et or it are employed in Lat. and Fr. to ; 
express repetition or continuance in a general way, without reference to the par- j 
ticular nature of the repeated phenomenon. So from clamo, to call, clamito, to I 
keep calling, to call frequently ; from Fr. tache, a spot, tach-et-er, to cover with 
spots. The elements usually employed in e. for the same purpose are composed of 
an obscure vowel with the consonants / or r, on which the voicd can dwell for a 
length of time with a more or less sensible vibration, representing the efl'ect on 
the ear when a confused succession of beats has merged in a continuous murmur. 
Thus in the pattering of rain or hail, expressing the fall of a rapid succession of 
drops on a hard surface, the syllable pat imitates the sound of a single drop, while 
the vibration of the r in the second syllable represents the murmuring sound of 
the shower when the attention is not directed to the individual taps of which it is 
composed. In like manner to clatter is to do anything accompanied by a sue- 



FREQUENTATIVE ELEMENTS. Ixiii 

cession of noises that might be represented by the syllable clat ; to crackle, to 
make a succession of cracks ; to rattle, dabble, bubble, guggle, to make a succes- 
sion of noises that might be represented individually by the syllables rat, dab, bub, 
gug. The contrivance is then extended to signify continued action unconnected 
with any particular noise, as grapple, to make a succession of grabs ; shuffle, to 
make a succession of shoves^ draggle, waggle, joggle, to continue dragging, wag- 
ging, jogging. The final el or er is frequently replaced by a simple I, which, as 
Ihre remarks under gncella, has something ringing (aliquid tinnuli) in it. Thus 
to mewl and pule, in Fr. miauler and piauler, are to cry mew and _pew ; to wail 
is to cry wae ; Piedmontese bau-l-e, or fe bau, to make bau-bau, to bark like 
a dog. 

By a further extension the frequentative element is made to signify tlie simple 
employment of an object in a way which has to be understood from the circum- 
stances of the case. Thus to knee-l is to rest on the bent knee 5 to hand-le, to em- 
ploy the hand in dealing with an object. In cases like these, where the frequent- 
ative element is added to a word already existing in the language, the effect of 
the addition is simply to give a verbal signification to the compound, an end which 
might equally be attained by the addition of verbal inflections of person and tense, 
without the intervention of the frequentative element. 

It seems accordingly to be a matter of chance whether the terminal / is added 
or omitted. The Fr. miauler and beler correspond to E. mew and baa ; the g. 
knie-en to E. kneel. In e. itself, to hand, in some applications, as to handle, in 
others, is used for dealing with an object by the hand. 

The application of the frequentative el or er to signify the agent or the in- 
strument of action (as in as. rynel, a runner, or in e. rubber, he who rubs, or what 
is used in rubbing) is analogous to the attainment of the same end by repetition 
of the significant syllable, as shown above in the case of Malay ayunayunan, a 
cradle or rocker from ayun, to rock, or Maori puka-puka, the lungs (the puffers of 
the body), fi-om puka, to puff. 

The same element is found in the construction of adjectives, as in as.^co/, fickle, 
to be compared with g. jickfacken, to move to and fro, and in as. wancol, g. 
wankel, wavering, by the side of wanken, wankeln, to rock or wag. 

When we come to sum up the evidence of the imitative origin of language, 
we find that words are to be found in every dialect that are used with a con- 
scious intention of directly imitating sound, such asjlap, crack, smack, or the in- 
terjections ah/ ugh ! But sometimes the signification is carried on, either by a 
figurative mode of expression, or by association, to something quite distinct from 
the sound originally represented, although the connection between the two may 
be so close as to be rarely absent from the mind in the use of the word. Thus 
the word Jiap originally imitates the sound made by the blow of a flat surface, 
as the wing of a bird or the corner of a sail. It then passes on to signify the 
movement to and fro of a flat surface, and is thence applied to the moveable 
leaf of a table, the part that moves on a hinge up and down, where all direct 
connection with sound is lost. In like manner crack imitates the sound made 



Ixiv ORIGIN OF METAPHOR EASILY OBSCURED. 

by a hard body breaking, and is applied in a secondary way to the effects of the 
breach, to the separation between the broken parts, or to a narrow separation 
between adjoining edges, such as might have arisen from a breach between them. 
But when we speak of looking through the crack of a door we have no thought 
of the sound made by a body breaking, although it is not difficult, on a moment's 
reflection, to trace the connection between such a sound and the narrow open- 
ing which is our real meaning. It is probable that smack is often used in the 
sense of taste without a thought of the smacking sound of the tongue in the 
enjoyment of food, which is the origin of the word. 

When an imitative word is used in a secondary sense, it is obviously a mere 
chance how long, or how generally, the connection with the sound it was 
originally intended to represent, will continue to be felt in daily speech. Some- 
times the connecting links are to be found only in a foreign language, or in 
forms that have become obsolete in our own, when the unlettered man can only 
regard the word he is using as an arbitrary symbol. A gull or a dupe is a person 
easily deceived. The words are used in precisely the same sense, but what is 
the proportion of educated Englishmen who use them with any consciousness of 
the metaphors which give them their meaning ? Most of us probably would be 
inclined to connect the first of the two with guile, deceit, and comparatively few 
are aware that it is still provincially used in the sense of an unfledged bird. 
When several other instances are pointed out in which a young bird is taken as 
the type of helpless simplicity, it leaves no doubt that this is the way in which 
the word gull has acquired its ordinary meaning. Dupe comes to us from the 
French, in which language it signifies also a hoopoe, a bird with which we have 
so little acquaintance at the present day, that we are apt at first to regard the 
double signification as an accidental coincidence. But when we find that the 
names by which the hoopoe is known in Italian, Polish, Breton, as well as in 
French (all radically distinct), are also used in the sense of a simpleton or dupe, 
we are sure that there must be something in the habits of the bird, which, at 
a time when it was more familiarly known, made it an appropriate type of the 
character its name in so many instances is used to designate. We should 
hardly have connected ugly with the interjection ugh/ if we had not been 
aware of the obsolete verb ug, to cry ugh ! or feel horror at, and it is only the 
accidental preservation of occasional passages where the verb is written houge, 
that gives us the clue by which huge and hug are traced to the same source. 

Thus the imitative power of words is gradually obscured by figurative use 
and the loss of intermediate forms, until all suspicion of the original principle of 
their signification has faded away in the minds of all but the few who have made 
the subject their special study. There is, moreover, no sort of difference either 
in outward appearance, or in mode of use, or in aptness to combine with other 
elements, between words which we are anyhow able to trace to an imitative 
source, and others of whose significance the grounds are wholly unknown. It 
would be impossible for a person who knew nothing of the origin of the words 
huge and vast, to guess from the nature of the words which of the two was de- 



INSUFFICIENT OBJECTIONS. bcv 

rived from the imitation of sound ; and when he was informed that hu^e had 
been explained on this principle, it would be difficult to avoid the inference that 
a similar origin might possibly be found for vasi also. Nor can we doubt that a 
wider acquaintance with the forms through which our language has past would 
make manifest the imitative origin of numerous words whose signification now 
appears to be wholly arbitrary. And why should it be assumed that any words 
whatever are beyond the reach of such an explanation ? 

If onomatopoeia is a vera causa as far as it goes ; if it affords an adequate 
account of the origin of words signifying things not themselves apprehensible by 
the ear, it behoves the objectors to the theory to explain what are the limits of 
its reach, to specify the kind of thought for which it is inadequate to find ex- 
pression, and the grounds of its shortcomings. And as the difficulty certainly 
does not lie in the capacity of the voice to represent any kind of sound, it can 
only be found in the Hmited powers of metaphor, that is, in the capacity of one 
thing to put us in mind of another. It will be necessary then to show that 
there are thoughts so essentiall}' differing in kind from any of those that have 
been shown to be capable of expression on the principle of imitation, as to escape 
the inference in favour of the general possibility of that mode of expression. 
Hitherta, however, no one has ventured to bring the contest to such an issue. 
The arguments of objectors have been taken almost exclusively from cases where 
the explanations offered by the supporters of the theory are either ridiculous on 
the face of them, or are founded in manifest blunder, or are too far-fetched to 
afford satisfaction ; while the positive evidence of the validity of the principle, 
arising from cases where it is impossible to resist the evidence of an imitative 
origin, is slurred over, as if the number of such cases was too inconsiderable to 
merit attention in a comprehensive survey of language. 

That the words of imitative origin are neither inconsiderable in number, nor 
restricted in signification to any limited class of ideas, is sufficiently shown by 
the examples given in the foregoing pages. We cannot open a dictionary with- 
out meeting with them, and in any piece of descriptive writing they are found 
in abundance. 

No doubt the number of words which remain unexplained on this principle 
would constitute much the larger portion of the dictionary, but this is no more 
than should be expected by any reasonable believer in the theory. As long as 
the imitative power of a word is felt in speech it will be kept pretty close to the 
original form. But when the signification is diverted from the object of imita- 
tion, and the word is used in a secondary sense, it immediately becomes liable to 
corruption from various causes, and the imitative character is rapidly obscured. 
The imitative force of the interjections ah ! or ach I and ugh / mainly depends 
upon the aspiration, but when the vocable is no longer used directly to represent 
the cry of pain or of shuddering, the sound of the aspirate is changed to that of 
a hard guttural, as in ache (ake) and ugly, and the consciousness of imitation is 
wholly lost. 

In savage life, when the communities are small and ideas few, language is 



Ixvi CORRUPTION OF LANGUAGE. 

liable to rapid change. To this effect we may cite the testimony of a thoughtful 
traveller who had unusual opportunities of observation. 'There are certain 
peculiarities in Indian habits which lead to a quick corruption of language and 
segregation of dialects. When Indians are conversing among themselves they 
seem to have pleasure in inventing new modes of pronunciation and in distort- 
ing words. It is amusing to notice how the whole party will laugh when the 
wit of the circle perpetrates a new slang term, and these words are very often 
retained. I have noticed this during long voyages made with Indian crews. 
When such alterations occur amongst a family or horde which often live many 
years without communication with the rest of their tribe, the local corruption of 
language becomes perpetuated. Single hordes belonging to the same tribe and 
inhabiting the banks of the same river thus become, in the course of many years' 
isolation, unintelligible to other hordes, as happens with the Collinas on the 
Jurua. I think it very probable, therefore, that the d.isposition to invent new 
words and new modes of pronunciation, added to the small population and habits 
of isolation of hordes and tribes, are the causes of the wonderful diversity of lan- 
guages in South America.' — Bates, Naturalist on the Amazons, i. 330. 
— - But even in civilised life, where the habitual use of writing has so strong a 
tendency to fix the forms of language, words are continually changing in pro- 
nunciation and in application from one generation to another ; and in no very 
long period, compared with the duration of man, the speech of the ancestors be- 
comes unintelligible to their descendants. In such cases it is only the art of 
writing that preserves the pedigree of tlie altered forms. If English, French, and 
Italian were barbarous unwritten languages no one would dream of any re- 
lation between bishop, eveque, and vescovo, all immediate descendants of the Latin 
episcopus. Who, without knowledge of the intermediate diurnus and giorno, 
would suspect that such a word as jour could be derived from dies 9 or without 
written evidence would have thought of resolving Goodbye into God be with you 
(God b' w' ye), or topsyturvy into topside the other way (top si' t' o'er way) ? 
Suppose that in any of these cases the word had been mimetic in its earlier form, 
how vain it would have been to look for any traces of imitation in the later ! If 
we allow the influences which have produced such changes as the above to 
operate through that vast lapse of time required to mould out of a common stock 
such languages as English, Welsh, and 'Russian, we shall wonder rather at the 
large than the small number of cases, in which traces of the original imitation. 
are still to be made out. 

The letters of the alphabet have a strong analogy with the case of language. 
The letters are signs which represent articulate sounds through the sense of sight, 
as words are signs which represent every subject of thought through the sense of 
hearing. Now the significance of the names by which the letters are known in 
Hebrew and Greek affords a strong presumption that they were originally pic- 
torial imitations of material things, and the presumption is converted into moral 
certainty by the accidental preservation in one or two cases of the original por- 
traiture. The zigzag line which represents the wavy surface of water when used 



COMPARISON WITH LETTERS. Ixvii 

as the symbol of Aquarius among the signs of the zodiac is found in Egyptian 
hieroglyphics with the force of the letter w.* If we cut the symbol down to the 
three last strokes of the zigzag we shall have the n of the early Greek in- 
scriptions, which does not materially differ from the capital N of the present 
day. 

But no one from the mere form of the letter could have suspected an inten- 
tion of representing water. '^J' Nor is there one of the letters, the actual form of 
which would afford us the least assistance in guessing at the object it was meant 
to represent. Why then should it be made a difficulty in admitting the imitat- 
ive origin of the oral signs, that the aim at imitation can be detected in only a 
third or a fifth, or whatever the proportion may be, of the radical elements of 
our speech ? Nevertheless, a low estimate of the number of forms so traceable 
to an intelhgible source often weighs unduly against the acceptance of a rational 
theory of language. 

Mr Tylor fully admits the principle of onomatopoeia, but thinks that the 
evidence adduced does not justify * the setting up of what is called the Inter- 
jectional and Imitative theory as a complete solution of the problem of original 
language. VaHd as this theory proves itself within limits, it would be incautious 
to accept a hypothesis which can perhaps account for a twentieth of the crude 
forms in any language, as a certain and absolute explanation of the nineteen 
twentieths which remain. A key must unlock more doors than this, to be taken 
as tlie master key ' (Prim. Cult. i. 208). The objection does not exactly meet 
the position held by prudent supporters of the theory in question. We do not 
assert that every device by which language has been modified and enlarged 

* The evidence for the derivation of the letter N from the symbol representing water (in 
Coptic noun) cannot be duly appreciated unless taken in conjunction with the case of the 
letter M. The combination of the symbols I and 2, as shown in the subjoined illustration, 
occurs very frequently in hieroglyphics with the force of MN. The lower symbol is used for 
n, and thus in this combination the upper symbol undoubtedly has the force of w, although it 
is said to be never used independently for that letter. 

2AAAA/\ j \A^^ 
5LL/ gUJ 7\U^^ p. 

9 N 10 V\ n\/\ U12 

Now if the two symbols be epitomised by cutting them down to their extremity, as a lion 
is represented (fig. 13) by his head and fore-legs, it will leave figures 3 and 4, which are iden- 
tical with the M and N of the early Phoenician and Greek. Figures $, 6, 7, are forms of 
Phoenician M from Gesenius ; 8, ancient Greek M ; 9, Greek N from Gesenius ; 10 and 1 1 
from inscriptions in the British Museum. 

e 2 



Ixviii INDUCTION OF RATIONAL ORIGIN SUFFICIENT. 

as, for instance, the use of a change of vowel in many languages to express com- 
parative nearness or distance of position) has had its origin in imitation of sound. 

Our doctrine is not exclusive. If new 'modes of phonetic expression, un- 
known to us as yet,' should be discovered, we shall be only in the position of the 
fathers of modern Geology when the prodigious extent of glacial action in former 
ages began to be discovered, and we shall be the first to recognise the etficiency of 
the new machinery. )0\ir fundamental tenet is that the same principle which 
enables Man to make known his wants or to convey intelligence by means of 
bodily gesture, would prompt him to the use of vocal signs for the same purpose, 
leading him to utterances, which either by direct resemblance of sound, or by 
analogies felt in the effort of utterance, might be associated with the notion to 
be conveyed. jiThe formation of words in this way in all languages has been 
universally recognised, and it has been established in a wide range of examples, 
differing so greatly in the nature of the signification and in the degree of 
abstraction of the idea, or its remoteness from the direct perceptions of sense, as 
to satisfy us that the principles employed are adequate to the expression of every 
kind" of thought. And this is sufficient for the rational theorist of language. If 
man can anyhow have stumbled into speech under the guidance of his ordinary 
intelligence, it will be absurd to suppose that he was helped over the first steps 
of his progress by some supernatural go-cart, in the shape either of direct in- 
spiration, or, what comes to the same thing, of an instinct unknown to us at the 
present day, but lent for a while to Primitive Man in order to enable him to 
communicate with his fellows, and then withdrawn w^hen its purpose was accom- 
plished. 

Perhaps after all it will be found that the principal obstacle to belief in the 
rational origin of Language, is an excusable repugnance to think of Man as 
having ever been in so brutish a condition of life as is implied in the want of speech. 
Imagination has always delighted to place the cradle of our race in a golden age 
of innocent enjoyment, and the more rational views of what the course of life 
must have been before the race had acquired the use of significant speech, or 
had elaborated for themselves the most necessary arts of subsistence, are felt by 
unreflecting piety as derogatory to the dignity of Man and the character of a 
beneficent Creator. But this is a dangerous line of thought, and the only safe 
rule in speculating on the possible dispensations of Providence (as has been well 
pointed out by Mr Farrar) is the observation of the various conditions in which 
it is actually allotted to Man (without any choice of his own) to carry on his 
life. What is actually allowed to happen to any family of Man cannot be in- 
compatible either with the goodness of God or with His views of the dignity of 
the human race. For God is no respecter of persons or of races. However 
hard or degrading the life of the Fuegian or the Bushman may appear to us, it can 
be no impeachment of the Divine love to suppose that our own progenitors were 
exposed to a similar struggle. 

We have only the choice of two alternatives. We must either suppose that 
Man was created in a civilised state, ready instructed in the arts necessary for 



COMPLETION OF MAN. Ixix 

the conduct of life, and was permitted to fall back into the degraded condition 
which we witness among savage tribes j or else, that he started from the lowest 
grade, and rose towards a higher state of being, by the accumulated acquisitions 
in arts and knowledge of generation after generation, and by the advantage 
constantly given to superior capacity in the struggle for life. Of these alterna- 
tives, that which embodies the notion of continued progress is most in accord- 
ance with all our experience of the general course of events, notwithstanding 
the apparent stagnation of particular races, and the barbarism and misery occa- 
sionally caused by violence and warfare. We have witnessed a notable advance 
in the conveniences of life in our own time, and when we look back as far as 
history will reach, we find our ancestors in the condition of rude barbarians. 
Beyond the reach of any written records we have evidence that the country was 
inhabited by a race of hunters (whether our progenitors or not) who sheltered 
in caves, and carried on their warfare with the wild beasts with the rudest wea- 
pons of chipped flint. Whether the owners of these earliest relics of the human 
race were speaking men or not, who shall say ? It is certain only that Language 
is not the innate inheritance of our race ; that it must have begun to be acquired 
by some definite generation in the pedigree of Man ; and as many intelligent and 
highly social kinds of animals, as elephants, for instance, or beavers, live in har- 
mony v/ithout the aid of this great convenience of social life, there is no ap- 
parent reason why our own race should not have led their life on earth for an in- 
definite period before they acquired the use of speech 3 whether before that epoch 
the progenitors of the race ought to be called by the name of Man, or not. 

Geologists however universally look back to a period when the earth was peo- 
pled only by animal races, without a trace of human existence 3 and the mere 
absence of Man among an animal population of the world is felt by no one as 
repugnant to a thorough belief in the providential rule of the Creator. Why 
then should such a feeling be roused by the complementary theory which bridges 
over the interval to the appearance of Man, and supposes that one of the races of 
the purely animal period was gradually raised in the scale of intelligence, by the 
laws of variation affecting all procreative kinds of being, until the progeny, in 
the course of generations, attained to so enlarged an understanding as to become 
capable of appreciating each other's motives ; of being moved to admiration and 
love by the exhibition of loving courage, or to indignation and hate by malignant 
conduct ; of finding enjoyment or pain in the applause or reprobation of their 
fellows, or of their own reflected thoughts j and sooner or later, of using imitative 
signs for the purpose of bringing absent things to the thoughts of another mind ? 




Lihrary^ 



' Tnl»- 



TABLE OF CONTRACTIONS. 



AS. 


Anglo-Saxon. 


Fl. 


Florio, Italian-Eng. diet. 


JEKr. Gr. 


Elfric's Grammar at the 




1680. 




end of Somner's Diet. 


F.Q. 


Faery Queen. 


B. 


Bailey's Engl. Diet., 1737. 


Fr. 


French. 


Bav. 


Bavarian. 


Fris. 


Frisian. 


BigL 


Biglotton seu Diet. 


G. 


German. 




Teutonico-Lat. 1654. 


Gael. 


Gaelic. 


Boh. 


Bohemian or Czech. 


Grandg 


Grandgagnage, Diet, de 


Brem. Wtb. 


Bremisch - Nieder - Siich- 




la langue Wallonne, 




siches Worterbuch, 




1845. 




1768. 


Gris. 


Romansch, Rhasto-Ro- 


Bret. 


Bas-Breton or Celtic of 




mance, or language of 




Brittany. 




the Grisons. 


Carp. 


Carpentier, Supplement to 


Hal. 


H alii well's Diet, of Ar- 




Ducange, 1766. 




chaic and Provincial 


Castr. 


Couzinid, Diet, de la 




words, 1852. 




langue Roftiano - Cas- 


Idiot. 


Idioticon or Vocabulary 




traise, 1850. 




of a dialect. 


Cat. 


Catalan. 


Illyr. 


Illyrian. 


Cimbr. 


Cimbrisch, dialect of the 


Jam. 


Jamieson, Diet, of Scot- 




Sette Commune. 




tish Language. 


Cot. 


Cotgrave, Fr.-Eng. Diet. 


K. or Kil. 


Kilian, Diet. Teutonico- 


Da. or Dan. 


Danish. 




Lat. 


dial. 


Provincial dialect. 


Kiittn. 


Kiittner's Germ. - Eng. 


Dief. 


Diefenbach, Vergleichen- 




Diet., 1805. 




des Worterbuch der 


Lang. 


Diet. Languedocien- 




Gothischen Sprache, 




Frang. par Mr L. S. D,, 




1851. 




1-785. 


Dief. Sup. 


Diefenbach, Supplement 


Lap. 


Lapponic or language of 




to Ducange, 1857. 




Lapland. 


Da. 


Dutch. 


Lat. 


Latin. 


Due. 


Ducange, Glossarium Me- 


Let. 


Lettish. 




diae et Infimae Latini- 


Lim. 


Beronie, Diet, du patois 




tatis. 




du Bas-Limousin (Cor- 


D.V. 


Douglas' Virgil. 




reze). 


E. 


English. 


Lith. 


Lithuanian. 


Esth. 


Esthonian. 


Magy. 


Hungarian or Magyar. 


Fin. 


Finnish. 


MHG. 


Middle High German. 



TABLE OF CONTRACTIONS. 



MId.Lat. 


Latin of the Middle Ages. 


Roquef. 


Roquefort, Gloss, de la 


N. 


Norwegian or Norse. 




Langue Romaine. 


0. 


Old. 


Rouchi 


Patois of the Hainault. 


OHG. 


Old High German. 




Hecart, Diet. Rouchi- 


ON. 


Old Norse, Icelandic. 




Frang. 


Palsgr. 


Palsgrave, I'Esclaircisse- 


R.R. 


Chaucer's translation of 




ment de la langue Fran- 




the Roman de la Rose 




goise. 


Russ. 


Russian. 


Pat. de Brai. 


Diet, du patois du Pays 


Sc. 


Lowland Scotch. 




de Brai, 1852. 


Schm. 


Schmeller, Bayerisches 


Piedm. 


Piedmontese. 




Worterbuch. 


P1.D. 


Piatt Deutsch, Low Ger- 


Serv. 


Servian. 




man dialects. 


Sp. 


Spanish. 


Pol. 


PoHsh. 


Sw. 


Swedish. 


P.P. 


Piers Plowman. 


Swab. 


Swabian. 


Prov. 


Proven9al. 


Swiss Rom. 


Swiss Romance, the Fr. 


Pr.Pm. 


Promptorium Parvulo- 




patois of Switzerland. 




rum. 


Venet. 


Venetian. 


Ptg. 


Portuguese. 


W. 


Welsh. 


R. 


Richardson's Eng. Diet. 


Walach. 


Walachian or Daco-Ro- 


Rayn. 


Raynouard, Diet. Proven- 




mance. 




cal, 1836. 


Wall. 


Walloon. 



DICTIONARY 



OF 



ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY. 



An asterisk (*) is prefixed to words where the etymology of the first edition has been 
materially altered. 



A, as a prefix to nouns, is commonly 
the remnant of the AS. on, in, on, among, 
as aback, AS. on-baec ; away, AS. On- 
w£eg ; alike, AS. on-Hc. 

In the obsolete adown it represents the 
AS. of, of or from ; AS. of-dune, literally, 
from a height, downwards. 

As a prefix to verbs it corresponds to 
the Goth, us, out of ; ORG. ur, ar, er, irj 
G. er, implying a completion of the 
action. 

Thus G. erwacken, to awake, is to wake 
up from a state of sleep ; to abide, is to 
wait until the event looked for takes 
place ; to arise, to get up from a recum- 
bent posture. 

Ab-, Abs-, A- In Lat. compounds, 
away, away from, off. To abuse is to use 
in a manner other than it should be ; ab- 
lution, a washing off ; to abstain, to hold 
away from. Lat. a, ab, abs, from. 

Abaft. AS. cEftan, be-qftan, bceftan, 
after, behind. Hence on-bceftan, abaft. 
The word seems very early to have ac- 
quired the nautical use in which alone 
it survives at the present day. 

Every man shewid his connyng tofore the ship 
and baft. — Chaucer, Beryn. 843. 

Abandon. Immediately from Fr. 
abandonner, and that from the noun 
bandon (also adopted in English, but now 
obsolete), command, orders, dominion. 
The word Ban is common to all the lan- 
guages of the Teutonic stock in the 
sense of proclamation, announcement, 



ABANDON 

remaining with us in the restricted ap- 
plication to Banns of Marrig,ge. Passing 
into the Romance tongues, this word be- 
came bando in Italian and Spanish, an 
edict or proclamation, bandon in French, 
in the same sense, and secondarily in 
that of command, orders, dominion, 
power : 

Than Wallace said, Thou spekis of mychty 

thing, 
Fra worthi Bruce had resavit his crown, 
I thoucht have maid Ingland at his bandown^ 
So wttrely it suld beyn at his will. 
What plesyt him, to saufif the king or spill. 

Wallace. 

Hence to embandon or abandon is to 
bring under the absolute command or 
entire control of any one, to subdue, rule, 
have entire dominion over. 
And he that thryll (thrall) is is nocht his, 
All that he has embandownyt is 
Unto his Lord, whatever he be. — Bruce, i. 244. 

He that dredeth God wol do diligence to plese 
God by his werkes and abandon, himself with'all 
his might well for to do. — Parson's Tale. 

Thus we see that the elliptical expres- 
sion of 'an abandoned character,' to 
which the accident of language has at- 
tached the notion of one enslaved to vice, 
might in itself with equal propriety have 
been used to signify devotion to good. 

Again, as that which is placed at the 
absolute command of one party must by 
the same act be entirely given up by the 
original possessor, it was an easy step 
from the sense of conferring the com- 
mand of a thing upon some particular 



2 ABASH 

person, to that of renouncing all claim to 
authority over the subject matter, without 
particular reference to the party into 
whose hands it might come ; and thus in 
modern times the word has come to be 
used almost exclusively in the sense of 
renunciation or desertion. * Dedicio — 
abaundunement^ the surrender of a 
castle. — Neccham. 

The adverbial expressions at abandon^ 
bandonly, abandonly, so common in the 
'Bruce' and 'Wallace' like the OFr. d 
son bandon, d bandon, may be explained, 
at his own will and pleasure, at his own 
impulse, uncontroUedly, impetuously, de- 
terminedly. 'Ainsi s'avanc^rent de 
grand volontd tous chevaliers et ecuyers 
at prirent terre.' — Froiss. vol. iv. c. 1 1 8. 

To Abash. Originally, to put to con- 
fusion from any strong emotion, whether 
of fear, of wonder, shame, or admiration, 
but restricted in modern times to the 
effect of shame. Abash is an adoption 
of the Fr. esbahir, as sounded in the 
greater number of the inflections, esba- 
/itssons, esba/ii'ssais, esbahissatit. In or- 
der to convert the word thus inflected 
into English it was natural to curtail 
merely the terminations ons^ ais, ant, by 
which the inflections differed from each 
other, and the verb was written in Eng- 
lish to abaisse or abaish, as ravish, polish, 
furnish, from ravir, polir,fournir. 

Many English verbs of a similar deriv- 
ation were formerly written indifferently 
with or without a final sh, where custom 
has rendered one or other of the two 
modes of spelling obsolete. Thus obey 
was written obeisse or obey she j betray, 
betrash. 

Speaking of Narcissus stooping to 
drink, Chaucer writes ; 

In the water anon was sene 
His nose, his mouth, his eyen shene, 
And he thereof was all abashed. 
His owne shadow had him betrashed : 
For well he wened the forme to see 
Of a childe of full grete beauti. — R. R. 1520. 

In the original — 

Et il maintenant s'ibahit 
Car son umbre si le irahit 
Car il cuida voir la figure 
D'ung enfant bel a demesure. 

On the other hand, burny was formerly 
in use as well as burnish ; abay or abaw 
as well as abaisse or abaish : 

I saw the rose when I was nigh, 

It was thereon a goodly sight— 

For such another as I gesse 

Afome ne was, ne more vermeille, 

I was abaw id iox merveille. — R. R. 3645. 



ABBOT 

In the original — 

Moult m'esbahis de la merveille. 
Yield you madame en hicht can Schir Lust say, 
A word scho could not speik scho was so abaid. 
K. Hart in Jamieson. 

Custom, which has rendered obsolete 
betrash and obeish, has exercised her 
authority in like manner over abay or 
abaw, burfiy, astony. 

The origin of esbahir itself is to be 
found in the OFr. baer, bder, to gape, 
an onomatopoeia from the sound Ba, 
most naturally uttered in the opening of 
the lips. Hence Lat. BabcB ! Mod. 
Vrow.Bahf the interjection of wonder ; 
and the verb esbahir, in the active form, 
to set agape, confound, astonish, to strike 
with feelings the natural tendency of 
which is to manifest itself by an involun- 
tary opening of the mouth. Castrais,yh: 
baba, to excite admiration. — Cousini^. 
Zulu babaza, to astonish, to strike with 
wonder or surprise. 

In himself was all his state 
More solemn than the tedious pomp which waits 
On princes, when their rich retinue long 
Of horses led, and grooms besmeared with gold. 
Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape. 

Milton. 

Wall, bawi, to look at with open mouth ; 
esbawi, to abaw or astonish. — Grandg. 
See Abide. 

To Abate. Fr. abbattre, to beat 
down, to ruin, overthrow, cast to thq 
ground, Cotgr. Wall, abate, faire tomber, 
(Grandg.) ; It. abbatere, to overthrow, to 
pull down, to make lower, depress, 
weaken, to diminish the force of any- 
thing ; abbatere le vela, to strike sail ; 
abbatere dal prezzo, to bate something 
of the price ; abbatersi, to light upon, to 
hit, to happen, to meet with ; abbatersi 
in una terra, to take possession of an 
estate. Hence the OE. law term abate-< 
ment, which is the act of one who in- 
trudes into the possession of lands void 
by the death of the former possessor, 
and not yet taken up by the lawful heir ; 
and the party who thus pounces upon 
the inheritance is called an abator. See 
Beat, Bate. 

Abbot, Abbey, Abbess. More cor- 
rectly written abbat, from Lat. abbas, 
abbatis, and that from Syrian abba, 
father. The word was occasionally writ- 
ten abba in Latin. It was a title of re- 
spect formerly given to monks in general, 
and it must have been during the time 
that it had this extended signification 
that it gave rise to the Lat. abbatia, an 
abbey, or society of abbots or monks. 



ABELE 

Epiphanius, speaking of the Holy places, 
says, extt ^€ i) avTr) d(3dS(g ;^tXtovc Kai x'^'^ 
KsWia, it contains a thousand monks and 
a thousand cells. — Ducange. In process 
of time we meet with protestations from 
St Jerome and others against the arro- 
gance of assuming the title of Father, 
and either from feelings of such a nature, 
or possibly from the analogy between a 
community of monks and a private 
family, the name of Abbot or Father was 
ultimately confined to the head of the 
house, while the monks under his control 
were called Brothers. 

Abele. The white poplar. Pol. l>ia/o- 
drzew, literally white tree, from dia^o, 
white. 

* To Abet. OFr. abetter^ to de- 
ceive, also to incite ; inciter, animer, 
exciter. — Roquef Prov. abet^ deceit, trick ; 
abetar, to deceive, beguile. 

Lui ne peut-il mie guiler, 

Ni engigner ni abdter. — Fabl. II. 366. 

Both senses of the word may be ex- 
plained from Norm, abet^ Guernsey be^te, 
a bait for fish ; be7er, Norm, abeter^ to 
bait the hook. — Hericher, Gloss. Norm. 
From the sense of baiting springs that 
of alluring, tempting, inciting, on the one 
hand, and alluring to his own destruc- 
tion, deceiving, beguiling on the other. 
See Bait. 

Abeyance. OFr. abiiatice; droit en 
abeiance, a right in suspense ; abeyance, 
expectation, desire. — Gloss, de Champ. 
From abahier, abater, abayer, to be in- 
tent upon, to desire earnestly, to expect, 
wait, watch, listen. See Abide. 

To Abide, Abie. Goth, beidan, us- 
beidan, to expect ; gabeidan, to endure ; 
usbeisns, expectation ; usbeisnei, endur- 
ance, forbearance. AS. bidan, abidati, to 
expect, wait, bide ; ON. bida, to wait, 
endure, suffer ; b. bana, to suffer death ; 
Dan. bie, Du. beijden, beijen, verbeijen 
(Bos worth), to wait. We have seen 
under Abash that the involuntary open- 
ing of the mouth under the influence of 
astonishment was represented by the 
syllable ba, from whence in the Romance 
dialects are formed two series of verbs, 
one with and one without the addition of 
a terminal d to the radical syllable. 
Thus we have It. badare, badigliare, to 
gape, to yawn. Cat. and Prov. badar, to 
open the mouth, to open ; bader, ouvrir 
(Vocab. de Berri) ; Prov. go la badada, 
It. bocca badata, with open mouth ; Cat. 
badia, a bay or opening in the coast. 
Without the terminal d we have baer, 



ABIDE 3 

baier, beer, with the frequentative bailler^ 
to open the mouth, to gape ; gueule b^e, 
bouche bdante, as gola badada^ bocca ba~ 
data above mentioned. 

Quant voit le serpent, qui baaille, 
Corant sens lui, geule ba^e. — Raynouard. 
Both forms of the verb are then figur- 
atively applied to signify affections cha- 
racterized by involuntary opening of the 
mouth, intent observation, or absorption 
in an object, watching, listening, expect- 
ation, waiting, endurance, delay, suffer- 
ing. It. badare, to attend to, to mind, to 
take notice, take care, to desire, covet, 
aspire to, to stay, to tarry, to abide ; 
abbadare, to stay, to attend on ; bada, 
delay, lingering, tarrying ; tenere a bada, 
to keep in suspense. Corresponding 
forms with the d effaced are OFr. baer, 
baier, bSer, to be intent upon, attendre 
avec empressement, aspirer, regarder, 
songer, desirer (Roquef) ; abayer, ^couter 
avec dtonnement, bouche b^ante, inhiare 
loquenti (Lacombe). 

I saw a smith stand with his hammer — thus — 
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, 
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news. 

K. John. 

Here we have a good illustration of the 
connection between the figure of opening 
the mouth and the ideas of rapt attention, 
waiting, suspense, delay. The verb at- 
tend, which in E. signifies the direction of 
the mind to an object, in Fr. attendre 
signifies to suspend action, to wait. In 
other cases the notion of passive waiting 
is expressed by the figure of looking or 
watching. Thus G. 'warten,\.o wait, is iden- 
tical with It. guardare, to look, and E. wait 
was formerly used in the sense of look. 
The passage which in our translation is 
' Art thou he that should come, or do we 
look for another,' is in AS. 'we sceolon 
othres abidattJ The effacement of the d 
in Du. beijen, in Dan. bie compared with 
Sw. bida, and in E. abie, compared with 
abide, is precisely analogous to that in 
Fr. beer, baier compared with It. badare, 
abadare, or in Fr. crier compared with 
It. gridare. 

Certes (quoth she) that is that these wicked 
shrewes be more blissful that abien the torments 
that they have deserved than if no pain of Justice 
ne chastised them. — Chaucer, Boethius. 
At sight of her they suddaine all arose 
In great amaze, ne wist what way to chuse. 
But Jove all feareless forced them to aby. — F. Q. 

It is hardly possible to doubt the iden- 
tity of E. abie, to remain or endure, with 
the verb of abeyance, expectation or sus- 
pense, which is certainly related to It. 
1 * 



4 ABIE 

badare^ as E. abie to Goth, beidan, AS. 
bidan. Thus the derivation of badare 
above explained is brought home to E. 
biiie, abide, abie. 

Abie, 2. Fundamentally distinct from 
abie in the sense above explained, al- 
though sometimes confounded with it, is 
the verb abie, properly abiiy, and spelt 
indifferently in the older authors abegge, 
abeye, abigg, abidge, from AS. abicgan, 
abycgan, to redeem, to pay the purchase- 
money, to pay the penalty, suffer the 
consequences of anything ; and the sim- 
ple biiy, or bie, was often used in the 
same sense. 

Sithe Richesse hath me failed here, 
She shall abie that trespass dere. — R. R. 
Algate this selie maide is slaine alas ! 
Alas ! to dere abought she her beaute. 

Doctor's Tale. 
Thou slough my brother Morgan 

At the mete full right 
As I am a doughti man 

His death thou bist (buyest) tonight. 

Sir Tristrem. 
For whoso hardy hand on her doth lay 
It derely shall abie, and death for handsel pay. 
Spenser, F. Q. 

And when he fond he was yhurt, the Pardoner 

he gan to threte, 
And swore by St Amyas that he should abigg 
With strokes hard and sore even upon the rigg. 

Prol. Merch. 2nd Tale. 
Ac for the lesynge that thou Lucifer lowe til Eve 
Thou shalt abygge bitter quoth God, and bond 

him with cheynes. — P. P. 

To buy it dear, seems to have been 
used as a sort of proverbial expression 
for suffering loss, without special refer- 
ence to the notion of retribution. 
I'he thingis felHn as they done of werre 
Betwixtin hem of Troie and Grekis ofte, 
For some day boughtifi they of Troie it dere 
And efte the Grekis foundin nothing softe 
The folke of Troie. Tr. and Cr. 

It will be seen from the foregoing ex- 
amples how naturally the sense of buying 
or paying the purchase-money of a thing 
passes into that of simply suffering, in 
which the word is used in the following 
passages. 

O God, forbid for mother's fault 
The children should abye. — Boucher. 
If he come into the hands of the Holy Inquisi- 
tion, he must abye for it. — Boucher. 
i. e. must suffer for it. 

The connection between the ideas of 
remaining or continuance in time and 
continuance under suffering or pain is 
apparent from the use of the word en- 
durance in both applications. In this 
way both abide and its degraded form 
abie come to signify suffer. 



ABOLISH 

Thus abie for abuy and abie from 
abide are in certain cases confounded 
together, and the confusion sometimes 
extends to the use of abide in the sense 
of abuying or paying the penalty. 

If it be found so some will dear abide it. 

Jul. Cassar. 

How dearly I abide that boast so vain. 

Milton, P. L. 

Disparage not the faith thou dost not know. 

Lest to thy peril thou abide it dear. 

Mids. N. Dr. 

Able. Lat. habilis (from habeo, to 
have ; have-like, at hand), convenient, 
fit, adapted ; Fr. habile, able, strong, 
powerful, expert, sufficient, fit for any- 
thing he undertakes or is put unto. — 
Cotgr. It. abile ; Prov. abilh. 

It will be remarked on looking at a 
series of quotations that in the earlier 
instances the sense of the Lat. habilis is 
closely preserved, while in later examples 
the meaning is confined to the case of 
fitness by possession of sufficient active 
power. 

God tokeneth and assigneth the times, abling 
hem to her proper offices. — Chaucer, Boeth. 

In the original, 

Signat tempora propriis 
Aptans ofificiis Deus. 
That if God willing to schewe his wrathe, and 
to make his power knowne, hath sufferid in 
grete pacience vessels of wrathe able unto death, 
&c. — Wickliff in Richardson. 

To enable a person to do a thing or to 
disable him, is to render him fit or unfit 
for doing it. 

Divers persons in the House of Commons 
were attainted, and therefore not legal nor 
habilitate to serve in Parliament, being disabled 
in the highest degree. — Bacon in R. 

The Fr. habiller is to qualify for any 
purpose, as habiller du chanvre, de la 
volaille, to dress hemp, to draw fowls, to 
render them fit for use ; whence habili- 
ments are whatever is required to qualify 
for any special purpose, as habiliments 
of war ; and the most general of all 
qualifications for occupation of any kind 
being simply clothing, the Fr. habille- 
nient has become appropriated to that 
special signification. 

Aboard. For on board, within the 
walls of a ship. ON. bord:, a board, the 
side of a ship. Innan bords, within the 
ship, on board ; at kasta fyri bord, to 
throw overboard. 

Abolish. Fr. abolir, from Lat. aboleo, 
to erase or annul. The neuter form 
abolesco, to wear away, to grow out of 
use, to perish, when compared with 



ABOMINABLE 

adolesco, to grow up, coalesco, to grow 
together, shows that the force of the 
radical syllable ol, al is growth, vital 
progress. PL D. af-olen, af-oolden, to 
become worthless through age. De mann 
olet ganz af, the man dwindles away. 
The primitive idea seems that of beget- 
ting or giving birth to, kindling. OSw. 
ala, to beget or give birth to children, 
and also, as AS. (zlan, to light a fire ; the 
analogy between life and the progress of 
ignition being one of constant occur- 
rence. So in Lat. alere capillos, to let 
the hair grow, and alere Jlmmnam, to 
feed the flame. In English we speak of 
the vital spark, and the verb to kindle is 
used both in the sense of lighting a fire, 
and of giving birth to a litter of young. 
The application of the root to the notion 
of fire is exemplified in Lat. adolere, 
adolescere, to burn up {adolescunt ignibus 
aras. Virg.) ; while the sense of beget- 
ting, giving birth to, explains soboles 
(for sub-ol-es), progeny, and in-d-oles, 
that which is born in a man, natural 
disposition. Then, as the duty of nour- 
ishing and supporting is inseparably con- 
nected with the procreation of offspring, 
the OSw. ala is made to signify to rear, 
to bring up, to feed, to fatten, showing 
that the Latin alere, to nourish, is a 
shoot from the same root. In the same 
way Sw./oda signifies to beget, and also 
to rear, to bring up, to feed, to main- 
tain. Gael, dlai'ck, to produce, bring 
forth, nourish, nurse ; al, brood, or young 
of any kind ; oil, Goth, alau, ol, to rear, 
educate, nurse. The root el, signifying 
life, is extant in all the languages of the 
Finnish stock. 

Abominable. — Abominate. Lat. 
abominor (from ab and omen, a portent), 
to deprecate the omen, to recognize a 
disastrous portent in some passing oc- 
currence, and to do something to avert 
the threatened evil. Quod abominor, 
which may God avert. Thence to regard 
with feelings of detestation and abhor- 
rence. 

To Abound. Abundant. See -und-. 

About. AS. titatt, outward, without, 
be-utan, butati,ymbutan, onbutan,abutan, 
about ; literally, around on the out- 
side. 

Sometimes the two parts of the word 
are divided by the subject to which it 
relates, or the particle be is separated 
from the preposition and joined to the 
preceding verb. 

Ymb hancred utan, about cockcrow. 
Thonne seo aeftre 



ABROACH ^ 

Ethiopia Land 

Beligeth utan. — Casdmon. 

for ligeth butan, it compasseth the whole 
land of Ethiopia. 

Above. AS. ufan, be-ufan, bufan, 
abufan, Du. boven, OE. abowen, Sc. 
aboon, above, on high. In Barbour's 
Bruce we find both abowyne and abow, 
as withontyn and without. 

Abraid. — Abray. To abray or abraid, 
now obsolete, is common in our older 
writers in the sense of starting out of 
sleep, awaking, breaking out in language. 
AS. abrcegdan, abredan, to awake, snatch 
away, draw out. The radical idea is to 
do anything with a quick and sudden 
motion, to start, to snatch, to turn, to 
break out. See To Bray. 

To Abridge, — Abbreviate, to short- 
en, or cut short. Of these synonymous 
terms the former, from Fr. abreger, seems 
the older form, the identity of which with 
Lat. abbrevia?'e not being at once ap- 
parent, abbreviate was subsequently form- 
ed direct from the latter language. 

Abrdger itself, notwithstanding the 
plausible quotation from Chaucer given 
below, is not from G. abbrechen, AS. 
abrcEcan, but from Lat. abbreviare, by the 
change of the v and i into u and j respect- 
ively. The Provencal has breu for 
brevis ; breugetat for bre vitas ; abbreujar, 
to abridge, leading immediately to Fr. 
abrigerj and other cases may be pointed 
out of similar change in passing from Lat. 
to the Romance languages. Lat. levis 
becomes leu in Pro v., while the verb alle- 
viare is preserved in the double form of 
alleviar and alleujar, whence the Fr. 
alliger, which passed into English under 
the form allegge, common in Chaucer and 
his contemporaries, so that here also we 
had the double form allegge and alleviate, 
precisely corresponding to abridge and 
abbreviate. In like manner from Lat. 
gravis, Prov. greu, heavy, hard, severe ; 
greugetat, gravity, agreujar, Fr. aggrd- 
ger, OE. agredge, to aggravate. ' Things 
that greatly agredge their sin.' — Parson's 
Tale. 

No doubt if we had not so complete a 
pedigree from brevis, the idea of breaking 
off would suggest a very plausible deriva- 
tion from G. abbrechen, to break off; 
kurz abbrechen, to cut short. — Kiittner. 
' And when this olde man wende to en- 
force his tale by resons, all at once be- 
gonne thei to rise for to breken his tale 
and bidden him full ofte his words for to 
abregge.' — Chaucer, Melibaeus. 

Abroach. For on broach , from Fr. 



6 ABROAD 

brocher, to pierce. To set a tun abroach 
is to pierce it, and so to place it in con- 
dition to draw off the contents. 

Right as who set a tonne abroche 

He perced the hard roche. 

Gower in Richardson. 

Wall, abrokiy mettre in perce. — Grandg. 
See Broach. 

Abroad. On broad, spread over the 
surface, far and wide, and hence arbitra- 
rily applied in the expression of going 
abroad to going beyond the limits of one's 
own country. 

But it (the rose) ne was so sprede on brede, 
That men within might know the sede. — R. R. 

Abscess. Lat. abscessus, Fr. abscez, 
a course of ill humours running out of 
their veins and natural places into the 
empty spaces between the muscles. — 
Cotgr. From abscedere, to retire, with- 
draw, draw to a head. See -cess. 

To Abscond. To withdraw for the 
purpose of concealment ; Lat. abscondo, to 
hide away ; cojido, to put by. 

To Absorb. 
suck up. See Sherbet. 

To Abstain. — Abstemious. Lat. ab- 
stineo, to hold back from an object of de- 
sire, whence abstemious, having a habit 
of abstaining from. Viniabstemius, PHny, 
abstaining from wine. So Fr. etamer, to 
tin, from ^taift. 

Absurd. Not agreeable to reason 
or common sense. Lat. absurdus. The 
figure of deafness is frequently used to 
express the failure of something to serve 
the purpose expected from things of its 
kind. Thus ON. daufr, deaf ; daufr litr, 
a dull colour ; a deaf nut, one without a 
kernel ; Fr. lanterne sourde, a dark lan- 
tern. So Lat. surdus, deaf ; surdus locus, 
a place ill adapted for hearing; stirda 
vota, unheard prayers. Absurdum, what 
is not agreeable to the ears, and fig. to 
the understanding. 

Est hoc auribus, animisque hominum absurdum. 

Cic. 

To Abut. Fr. bout, end : aboutir, to 
meet end to end, to abut. But bout itself 
is from OFr. boter, botter, boutir, to 
strike, corresponding to E. butt, to strike 
with the head, as a goat or ram. It is 
clear that the full force of the metaphor 
is felt by Shakespeare when he speaks of 
France and England as 

two mighty monarchies, 
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts 
The narrow perilous ocean parts asunder. 

Abuttals or boundaries are translated 
capita in mid. Lat., and abut, capitare. 



ACCOUTRE 

In the same way the G. stossen, to 
thrust, butt, push with the horns, &c., is 
also applied to the abutting of lands. 
Ihre lander stossen a?t einander, their 
lands abut on each other. So in Swedish 
stota, to strike, to thrust, to butt as a 
goat ; stota tilsammans, to meet together, 
to abut. 

Abyss. Gr. a^vocoq, unfathomable, 
from a and ^vaooq or ^vQoq, depth. 

Academy. Gr. aKadi]niia, a garden 
in the suburbs of Athens where Plato 
taught. 

Accede. — Access. — ^Accessory. Lat. 
accedere, accessum, to go or come to, to 
arrive at, approach. To support, to be of 
the party or side of any one, to assent to, 
to approve of. Hence accessory, an aider 
or abetter in a crime. See Cede. 

Fr. acch from accessus, a fit or sudden 
attack of a disorder, became in OE, axesse, 
pi. axes, still preserved in the provincial 
axes, the ague. — H alii well. 

A charm — 

The which can helin thee of thine axesse. 

Tro. and Cress. 2, 1315. 

Accent. Lat. accentus, modulation of 
the voice, difference in tone, from accino, 
accentum, to sing to an instrument, to ac- 
cord. See Chant. 

Accomplice. Fr, complice, Lat. com- 
plex, bound up with, united with one in 
a project, but always in a bad sense. 

Accomplish. Fr. acconiplir, \.2X. co7n- 
plere, to fill up, fulfil, complete. 

Accord. Fr. accorder, to agree. Form- 
ed in analogy to the Lat. concordare, dis~ 
cordare, from concors, discors, and con- 
sequently from cor, the heart, and not 
cJiorda, the string of a musical instrument. 
— Diez. The Swiss Romance has cor- 
dere, cordre, synonymous with G. gbnnen, 
to consent heartily with what falls to 
another; Wall, keure, voir de bon grd 
qu'un dvenement arrive a quelqu'un, 
qu'une chose ait lieu ; meskeure, missgon- 
nen, — Grandg. 

To Accost. Lat. casta, a rib, a side ; 
Fr. coste, a rib, coste, now cote, a. side; 
coste-d-coste, side by side. Hence accoster, 
to join side to side, approach, and thence 
to greet. 

Accoutre. From the Fr. accoutrer, 
forrnerly accoustrer, to equip with the 
habiliments of some special office or oc- 
cupation, — an act of which in Catholic 
countries the frequent change of vest- 
ments at appointed periods of the church 
service would afford a striking and fami- 
liar example. 

Now the person who had charge of the 



ACCRUE 

vestments in a Catholic church, was the 
sacristan; in Lat. custos sacrarii or ec- 
clesicB (barbarously rendered custrix, 
when the office was filled by woman), in 
OFr. coiisteur or coustre, cotitrej Ger. 
kiister, the sacristan, or vestry-keeper. — 
Ludwig. 

Ad custodem sacrarii pertinet cura vel custo- 
dium templi — vela vestesque sacm, ac vasa sacro- 
rum . — St Isidore in Ducange. 

The original meaning of accoutrer 
would thus be to perform the office of 
sacristan to a priest, to invest him with 
the habiliments of his office ; afterwards 
to invest with the proper habiliments of 
any other occupation. 

Accrue. Fr. accroitre, accrtc, from 
Lat. crescere, to grow. Thence accrue, a 
growth, increase, Cotgr., and E. accrue, 
to be in the condition of a growth, to be 
added to something as what naturally 
grows out of it. 

Ace. Fr. as, It. asso, the face marked 
with the number one on cards or dice, 
from Lat. as, assis, which signifies a single 
one. — Diez. 

Achromatic. Producing an image 
free from iridescent colours. Gr. a, priva- 
tive, and xP^V'^i colour. 

Ache. A bodily pain, from Ach / the 
natural expression of pain. So from G. 
ach / alas ! the term is applied to woe, 
grief. Mein ach ist deine freude, my woe 
is your joy. — Kiittn. Achen, to utter 
cries of grief. The Gr. a^oq, pain, grief, 
is formed on the same principle. 

To Achieve. Prov. cap, Fr. chef, head, 
and thence the end of everything; de 
chief en chief, from end to end ; venir d 
chef, to gain one's end, to accomplish ; 
Prov. acabar, Fr. achever, to bring to a 
head, to accomplish, achieve. 

Acid. — Acrid.— Acerbity. Lat. aceo, 
to be sharp or sour ; acor, sourness ; 
acidus, sour, tart ; acetum, vinegar, sour 
wine. From the same root acer, acris, 
sharp, biting, eager; acredo, acrimonia, 
sharpness; acerbus, sharp, bitter, sour 
I like an unripe fruit. See Acute. 
f Acme. Gr. a/c/ai^, a point : the highest 

degree of any quality. See Acute. 

1 Acolyte. Gr. clkoKovOoq, an attendant, 

\ aKoXovQsu), to follow, attend. 

â– ; Acorn, as. cecern, cBceren, accernj 

I ON. akarn; Dan. agern; Du. aker; G. 

r ecker, eichelj Goth, akran, fruit. The 

s last of the AS. spellings shows us an early 

il accommodation to the notion of oak-corn, 

a derivation hardly compatible with the 

other Teutonic and Scandinavian forms, 

or with the more general signification of 



AD 7 

Goth, akran, notwithstanding Grimm's 
quotation of Cajus, 

Glandis appellatione omnia fructus continetur. 

Grimm is himself inclined to explain 
akran, fruit, as the produce of the akr, or 
corn-field, but a more satisfactory deriva- 
tion may probably be found in ohg. 
wuocher, increase, whence G. ivucher, on. 
okr, interest, usury, from the same root 
with Lat. augere, Goth, aukan, to in- 
crease ; erde-wucher, the increase of the 
field, fruits of the earth. — Notker. The 
ON. okran,fcE7teratio, is formally identical 
with Goth, akran. 

Acoustic. Gr. iiKovcrtiKog, connected 
with hearing ; clkovoj, to hear. 

To Acquaint. OFr. accointer, Prov. 
accoindar, to make known ; OFr. coint^ 
informed of a thing, having it known, 
from Lat. cognitus, according to Diez; 
but this seems one of the cases in which 
it must be doubtful whether the Romance 
word comes from a Lat. original, or from 
a corresponding Teutonic root. The G. 
has kund (from keittien, to know), known, 
manifest ; kund machen, to make known, 
in precisely the same sense with the Prov. 
coindar, the d of which seems better to 
agree with the G. word than with the Lat. 
cognitus; G. kundig, having knowledge 
of a thing. 

To Acquit. From Lat. qtiietus, at 
rest, was formed Fr. quitte, whence ac- 
quitter, to set at rest with respect to some 
impending claim or accusation. See 
Quit, Quite. 

Acre. Gr. a'^f^oq', Lat. ager; Goth. 
akrs, cultivated land, corn-land. G. acker, 
a field of cultivated land ; thence a mea- 
sure of land, so much as may be ploughed 
in a day. 

Acrostic. — A poem in which the first 
letters of the verses compose one or more 
words, from Gr. uKpov, tip, crixos, a verse. 

Act. — Active. — Actor. See Agent. 

Acute. The syllable ac is the founda- 
tion of many words connected with the 
idea of sharpness both in Lat. and Gr., 
as uKr}, Lat. acies, a point or edge, ac/g, 
-iSog, a pointed instrument, a sting ; Lat. 
acus, a needle, properly a prick, as shown 
by the dim. aculeus, a prickle or sting; 
acuo, to give a point or edge tOj to sharp- 
en; acutus, sharpened, sharp. Words 
from the same source signifying sharp- 
ness of a figurative kind are seen under 
Acid. 

Ad-, in composition. Lat. ad, to. In 
combination with words beginning with 
c^f gj /, n, p, V, the d of ad is assimilated 



•8 



ADAGE 



;to the following consonant, as- in affero 
for ad/efo, apparo for adparo, &c. 

Adage. Lat. adagium, a proverb. 

To Adaw. Two words of distinct 
meaning and origin are here confounded : 

I St, from AS. dagian, dcugian, to become 
day, to dawn, OE. to daw, to dawn, adaw, 
or adawn, to wake out of sleep or out of 
a swoon. * I adawe or adawne as the day 
doth in the morning when the sonne 
draweth towards his rising.' * I adawe 
one out of a swounde,' ' to dawe from 
swouning, — to dawne or get life in one 
that is fallen in a swoune.' — Palsgrave in 
Hallivvell. 

A man that waketh of his slepe 

He may not sodenly wel taken kepe 

Upon a thing, ne seen it parfitly 

Til that he be adawed veraily. — Chaucer. 

So Da. dial. 7norgiie sig, to rouse one- 
self from sleep, from morgen, morning. 

2nd, to reduce to silence, to still or 
subdue, from Goth, thahati, MHG. dageii, 
gedagen, to be silent, still ; ON. thagga, to 
silence, lull, hush. 

As the bright sun what time his fiery train 
Towards the western brim begins to draw, 
Gins to abate the brightness of his beame 
And fervour of his flames somewhat adawe. 

F. Q. V. ch. 9. 
So spake the bold brere with great disdain, 
Little him answered the oak again. 
But yielded with shame and grief adawed. 
That of a weed he was overcrawed. 

Shep. Cal. 

Hessian dachen, idgen, to allay, to still 
pain, a storm, &c. ' Der schmerz dacht 
sich nach und nach.' Dachen, to quell 
the luxuriance of over-forward wheat by 
cutting the leaves. Gedaeg, cowed, sub- 
missive. ' Der ist ganz gedaeg gewor- 
den : ' he is quite cowed, adawed. Com- 
pare Sp. callar to be silent, to abate, 
become calm. 

To Add. Lat. addere, to put to or 
unite with, the signification of dare in 
composition being in general to dispose 
of an object. Thus reddere, to put back ; 
subdere, to put under ; condere, to put by. 

Adder. A poisonous snake. AS. CEttr, 
atternj PI. D. adder; Bav. atter, ader, 
adern. ON. eitr-orm, literally poison 
snake, from eitr, AS. atter, venom (see 
Atter-cop). The foregoing explanation 
would be perfectly satisfactory, were it 
not that a name differing only by an 
initial n (which is added or lost with equal 
facility), with a derivation of its own, is 
still more widely current, with which how-, 
ever Diefenbach maintains the foregoing 
to be wholly unconnected. Gael, nathairj 



ADJUST 

W. ne/dr J- Goth, nadrsy ON. nadraj oiiCi 
natra, nadraj G, 7iattcrj AS. ncedre, tied- 
der; OE. neddre. 

Robert of Gloucester, speaking of Ire- 
land, says, 

Selde me schal in the lond any foule wormys se 
For fiedres he other wormes ne mow ther be 
noght.— 'p. 43. 

Instead of neddre Wickliff uses eddre, 
as Mandeville ewte for what we now call 
newt, or the modern apron for OE. na- 
pron. In the same way Bret, aer, a ser- 
pent, corresponds to Gael, nathair, pro- 
nounced naer. It seems mere accident 
which of the two forms is preserved. 

The forms with an initial 11 are com- 
monly referred to a root signifying to 
pierce or cut, the origin of Goth, nethla, 
OHG, nddal, Bret, nadoz, E. needle, and 
are connected with w. naddu, and with 
G. schneideft, to cut. Perhaps the ON. 
nbtra, to shiver, to lacerate, whence 
notru-gras, a nettle, may be a more pro- 
bable origin. There is little doubt that 
the ON. eitr, AS. atter, venom, matter, is 
from OHG. eiten, to burn. 

To Addle. To earn, to thrive. 
With goodmen's hogs or com or hay 
I addle my ninepence every day. — Hal. 

Where ivy embraceth the tree very sore 
Kill ivy, or tree will addle no more. 

Tusser in Hal. 
ON. odlask, to get, also, naturaliter pro- 
cedere, to run its course, to grow, in- 
crease. Henni odladist sottm : the sick- 
ness increased. Sw. odla, to till, to cul- 
tivate the soil, the sciences, the memory. 
To earn is to get by cultivation or labour. 
ON. odli, edli, adal, nature, origin; AS. 
ethel, native place, country. ' 

Addle. Liquid filth, a swelling with 
matter in it. — Hal. Rotten, as an addle 
egg. An addle-pool, a pool that receives 
the draining of a dunghill. Sw. dial.. 
ko-adel, the urine of cows ; adla or ala, 
mingere, of cows, as in E. to stale, of 
horses. W. hadlu, to decay, to rot. 

Adept. Lat. adipiscor, adeptus, to ob- 
tain. Alchymists who have obtained the 
grand elixir, or philosopher's stone, which 
gave them the power of transmuting 
metals to gold, were called adepti, of 
whom there were said to be twelve always 
in being. — Bailey. Hence an adept, a 
proficient in any art. 

To Adjourn. Fr. jour, a day; ad- 
journer, to cite one to appear on a cer- 
tain day, to appoint a day for continuing 
a business, to put off to another day. 

To Adjust. Fr. adjuster, to make to 
meet, and thence to bring to agreement. 



ADJUTANT 

D^s icel jor sont dessevrdes 
Qu' unc puis ne furent adjosUes 
Les osz. — Chron. Norm. 2, 10260. 
The bones were severed, which were 
never afterwards united. See Joust. 

Adjutant. One of the officers who 
assists the commander in keeping the ac- 
counts of a regiment. Lat. adjutare, fre- 
quentative from adjuvare, to assist ; It. 
aiutanie, an assistant ; aiutante de campo^ 
an aidecamp. 

Adm.iral. Ultimately from Arab, amir^ 
a lord, but probably introduced into the 
Western languages from the early Byzan- 
tine forms ofiijpag, afxijpaioG, the last of 
which, as Mr Marsh observes, would 
readily pass into Mid. Lat. amir alius 
(with a euphonic /), admiraldus. The 
initial al oi Sp. aljnirante, OCat. al?ni- 
rall is probably the Arab, article, and the 
title was often written alainir in the early 
Spanish diplomacy. Thus, the address 
of letters of credence given by K. James 
II. of Aragon in 1301, quoted by Marsh 
from Capmany, ran, — ' Al muy honorado 
e muy noble alainir Don Mahomat Aben- 
na^ar rey de Granada e de Malaga, y 
Amiramu9lemin,' and in the same pass- 
age the King calls himself Almirante and 
Captain-general of the Holy Roman 
Church. 

In eo conflicto (i. e. the battle of Antioch in 
the first crusade) occisus est Cassiani magni regis 
Antiochise filius et duodecim Admiraldi regis 
Babiloniae, quos cum suis exercitibus miserat ad 
ferenda auxilia regi Antiochise ; et quos Admiral- 
dos vocant, reges sunt qui provinciis regionum 
prsesunt. — Ducange. 
So that aslayne and adreynt twelve princes were 

ded 
That me clupeth ainyrayls. — R. G. 402. 

, Adroit, Fr. adroit, handsome, nimble, 
ready, apt or fit for anything, favourable, 
prosperous, — Cotgr. ; saison adroite, con- 
venient season, — Diet. Rom. From droil, 
right, as opposed to left, as is shown by 
the synonymous adextre, adestre, from 
dexter, explained by Cotgr. in the same 
terms. We also use dexterous and adroit 
as equivalent terms. See Direct. 

Adulation. Lat. adulari, to fawn, to 
flatter. 

Adult. Lat. adultus, from adolesce, to 
grow, grow up. See Abolish. 

Adultery. Lat. adulter, a paramour, 

! originally probably only a young man, 

from adultus, grown up, as Swiss bub, a 

son, boy, paramour or fornicator. — 

Deutsch. Mundart. 2, 370. 

To Advance. — Advantage. Fr . avan- 
cer, to push forwards, from Fr. avant. It. 
' avantij before, forwards; Lat. ab ante. 



ADVOCATE 9 

Adva7itage, something that puts one 
forwards, gain, profit. 

Adventure.^Advent. Lat. advenire, 
to come up to, to arrive, to happen ; ad- 
ventus, arrival ; E. advent, the coming of 
our Lord upon earth. OFr. advenir, 
to happen, and thence aventure, a hap- 
pening, chance, accident, a sense pre- 
served in E. per adventure, perhaps. The 
word was specially applied to events as 
made the subject of poetical or romantic 
narration, and so passed into the Teu- 
tonic and Scandinavian languages, giving 
rise to G. abenteuer, ON. afintyr, Sw. 
ce/wentyr, OE. aunter, a daring feat, 
hazardous enterprise, or the relation of 
such, a romantic story. ' The Aunters of 
Arthur at Tarnwathelan/ is the title of 
an old E. romance. 

To Advise. — Advice. The Lat. visitm, 
from videri, gave rise to It. visa, OFr. 
vis. Visum mihi fuit, it seemed to me, 
would be rendered in Olt. fu vise a me, 
OFr. ce m^est vis. — Diez. In the Ro- 
man de la Rose, advis is used in the 
same sense, — advis m'estoit, it seemed to 
me; vous ftist advis, it seemed to you. 
Hence advis, It. avviso, OE. avise, view, 
sentiment, opinion. Advisedly, avisedly, 
with full consideration. 
The erchbishope of Walys seide ys avyse, 
' Sire,' he seide, ' gef ther is any mon so wys 
That beste red can thereof rede, Merlin that 
is.' — R. G. 144. 

To be avised or advised of a thing 
would thus be, to have notice of it, to be 
informed of it. 

Of werre and of bataile he was full avise. 

R. Brunne. 

Whence advice in the mercantile sense, 
notice, news. 

To advise, in the most usual accepta- 
tion of the term at the present day, is to 
communicate our views to another, to 
give him our opinion for the purpose of 
guiding his conduct, and advice is the 
opinion so given. 

In OFr. adviser, like It. avvisare, 
was used in the sense of viewing, per- 
ceiving, taking note. 

Si vy ung songe en mon dormant 

Qui moult fut bel h. adviser. — R. R. 25. 

Avise is frequently found in the same 
sense in our elder authors. 

He looked back and her avizing well 
Weened as he said that by her outward grace 
That fairest Florimel was present there in place. 

F.Q. 

Advocate. Lat. advocare, to call on 
or summon one to a place, especially for 
some definite object, as counsel, aid, &c., 



10 ADVOWSON 

to call to one's aid, to call for help, to 
avail oneself of the aid of some one in a 
cause. Hence advocatus, one called on 
to aid in a suit as witness, adviser, legal 
assistant, but not originally the person 
who pleaded the cause of another, who 
was cthMqA. patronus. 

Advowson. From the verb advocare 
(corrupted to advoare), in the sense ex- 
plained under Advocate^ was formed ad- 
vocatio {advoatio), OFr. advocson, the 
patronage or right of presentation to an 
ecclesiastical benefice. — Due. 

As the clergy were prohibited from ap- 
pearing before the lay tribunals, and even 
from taking oaths, which were always re- 
quired from the parties in a suit, it would 
seem that ecclesiastical persons must 
always have required the service of an 
advocate in the conduct of their legal 
business, and we find from the authorities 
cited by Ducange, that positive enact- 
ment was repeatedly made by councils 
and princes, that bishops, abbots, and 
churches should have good advocates or 
defenders for the purpose of looking after 
their temporal interests, defending their 
property from rapine and imposition, and 
representing them in courts of law. In 
the decline of the empire, when defence 
from violence was more necessary than 
legal skill, these advocates were natur- 
ally selected among the rich and power- 
ful, who alone could give efficient pro- 
tection, and Charlemagne himself is the 
advocatus of the Roman Church. ' Quem 
postea Romani elegerunt sibi advocatum 
Sancti Petri contra leges Langobardo- 
rum.' — Vita Car. Mag. 

The protection of the Church naturally 
drew with it certain rights and emolu- 
ments on the part of the protector, in- 
cluding the right of presentation to the 
benefice itself; and the advocation or 
office of advocate, instead of being an 
elective trust, became a heritable pro- 
perty. Advocatus became in OFr. ad- 
vou^n whence in the old Law language 
of England, advowee, the person entitled 
to the presentation of a benefice. As it 
was part of the duty of the guardian or 
protector to act as patronus, or to plead 
the cause of the Church in suits at law, 
\\iQ advowee v^2js> also called /«/r<5'?/ of the 
living, the name which has finally pre- 
vailed at the present day. 

Adze. AS. adesa^ ascia. AS. Vocab. 
in Nat. Ant. 

Esthetics. The science of taste. Gr. 
aifT9r](Tig, perception by sense, aiaOriTiKog, 
endued with sense or perception. 



AFFRAY 

Affable.— Affability. Lat. affabilis, 
that may be spoken to, easy of access or 
approach. Pari, to speak. 

To Affeer. From 'L2it. forjan, a mar- 
ket, Fr. feur, market-price, fixed rate, 
whence afferer, or affeurer, to value at 
a certain rate, to set a price upon. From 
the latter of these forms the OE. expres- 
sion to affere an amerciamerit, — to fix the 
amount of a fine left uncertain by the 
court by which it was imposed, the 
affeerers being the persons deputed to 
determine the amount according to the 
circumstances of the case. ' Et quod 
amerciamenta pra^dictorum tenentium 
afferentur et taxentur per sacramentum 
parium suorum.' — Chart. A.D. 13 16, in 
Due. 

Affiance. — ^Affidavit. Yrovd fides, was 
formed M. Lat. affidare, to pledge one's 
faith. Hence affidavit, a certificate of 
some one having pledged his faith ; a 
written oath subscribed by the party, 
from the form of the document, ' Affidavit 
A. B., &c.' The loss of the d, so common 
in like cases, gave Fr. affier, to affie, to 
pawn his faith and credit on. — Cotgr. In 
like manner, from Lat. confidere, Fr. con- 
fierj from It, disfidare, Fr. defier, to defy. 

To Affile, OE. Fr. affiler, It. affilare, 
to sharpen, to bring to an edge, from Fr. 
fit, an edge, \jsX. filiifn, a thread. 

Affinity. Lat. affinis, bordering on, 
related to. Finis, end, bound. 

To Afford. Formed from the adv. 
forth, as to utter from out, signifying to 
put forth, bring forwards, offer. ' Iforde 
as a man dothe his chaffer, je vends, and 
j 'offers a vendre. I cdixv forde it no better 
cheape. What do you forde it him for } 
Pour combien le lui offrez vous a ven- 
dre ? ' — Palsgr. 

And thereof was Piers proud, 

And putte hem to werke, 

And yaf hem mete as he myghte aforthCt 

And mesurable hyre. — P. P. 4193. 

For thei hadden possessions wher of 
thei myghten miche more avorthi into 
almes than thei that hadden litil. — Pe- 
cock, Rej)ressor 377, in Marsh. 

For thon moni mon hit walde him for- 
3even half other thridde lot thenne he 
ise^e that he ne mahte na mare yfor- 
thian : when he sees that he cannot afford, 
cannot produce more. — Morris, O.E. Ho- 
milies, p. 31. Do thine elmesse of thon 
thet thu maht iforthien : do thy alms of 
that thou can afford. — Ibid. p. 37. 

Affiray. — Afraid. — Fray. Yx.efifrayer, 
to scare, appal, dismay, affright; effroi, 
terror, astonishment, amazement ; fray- 



AFFRONT 

enr^ fright, terror, scaring, horror.— 
Cotgr. 

The radical meaning of effrayer is to 
startle or alarm by a sudden noise, from 
OFr. effroi, noise, outcry; faire effroi, 
to make an outcry. ' Toutefois ne fit 
oncques effroi jusqu'a ce que tous les 
siens eussent gagn^ la muraille, puis 
s'^crie horriblement.' — Rabelais. ' Sail- 
lirent de leurs chambres sans faire effroi 
ou bruit.' — Cent. Nouv. Nouv. Hence E. 
fray or affray in the sense of a noisy dis- 
turbance, a hurlyburly. 

In the Flower and the Leaf, Chaucer 
calls the sudden storm of wind, rain, and 
hail, which drenched the partisans of the 
Leaf to the skin, an affray : 
And when the storm was dene away passed, 
Tho in the white that stode under the tree 
They felt nothing of all the great affray^ 
That they in grene without had in ybe. 
The radical meaning is well preserved 
in Chaucer's use of afray to signify rous- 
ing out of sleep, out of a swoon, which 
could not be explained on Diez' theory of 
a derivation from Lat. frigidus. 
Me met thus in my bed all naked 
And looked forthe, for I was waked 
With small foules a grete hepe, 
That had afraide me out of my sleepe, 
Through noise and swetenese of her song. 
Chaucer, Dreame. 
I was out of my swowne affraide 
Whereof I sigh my wittes straide 
And gan to clepe them home again. 

Gower in Rich. 

The ultimate derivation is the imitative 
root, frag, representing a crash, whence 
Lat. fragor, and Fr, fracas, a crash of 
things breaking, disturbance, affray, 
Thence effrayer, to produce the effect of 
a sudden crash upon one, to terrify, 
alarm. Flagor {iorfragor), ekiso (dread, 
horror). — Gloss. Kero in Diez. 

To Affront. Fr. affronter (from Lat. 
frons,fr otitis, the forehead), to meet face 
to face, to encounter, insult. See Front. 

After. Goth. Afar, after, behind; 
aftar, aftaro, behind ; aftana, from be- 
hind; aftujna, aftumist, last, hindmost. 
AS. csft, (xftan, cEfter, afterwards, again. 
ON. aptan, aftan, behind; aptan dags, 
the latter part of the day, evening ; aftar, 
aftast, hinder, hindmost. According to 
Grimm, the final tar is the comparative 
termination, and the root is simply af 
the equivalent of Gr. a-Ko, of, from. Com- 
pare after with Goth, afarj AS. ofer-non, 
with after-noon. 

Again, as. ongean, ongen, agen, op- 
posite, towards, against, again ; gean, op- 
posite, against ; gean-bceran, to oppose ; 



AGHAST II 

gean-cyme, an encounter; to-geaties, to- 
wards, against. OSw. gen, igen, op- 
posite, again; gena, to meet; genoni, 
through; Bret, gin, opposite; ann tu 
gin, the other side, wrong side ; gin- 
ouch-giti, directly opposite, showing the 
origin of the G. reduplicative gegen, 
against. 

Ag-ate. Lat. achates. According to 
Pliny, from the river Achates in Sicily 
where agates where found. 

Age. From Lat. etat-em the Prov. has 
etat, edatj OFr. eded, edage, cage, aage^ 
dge. 

H^ly esteit de grant eded. — Kings 2. 22. 
Ki durerat a trestut ton edage. 

Chanson de Roland in Diez. 

Ai, life, age. 

The form edage seems constructed by 
the addition of the regular termination 
age, to ed, erroneously taken as the radi- 
cal syllable of eded, or it may be a subse- 
quent corruption of cage, eaige (from 
^-tas by the addition of the termination 
age to the true radical cb), by the inorganic 
insertion of a ^, a modification rendered 
in this case the more easy by the resem- 
blance of the parallel forms edat, eded. 

*Agee. Awry, askew. From yV^./ an 
exclamation to horses to make them move 
on one side. Jee, to turn or move to one 
side; crooked, awry. — Hal. To jee, to 
move, to stir. ' He wad \\z.jee.^ To move 
to one side. In this sense it is used with 
respect to horses or cattle in draught. — 
Jam. 

Agent. — Agile. — Agitate. — Act. — 
Actual. Lat. ago, actum (in comp. -igo), 
to drive, to move or stir, to manage, to 
do ; agito, to drive^ to stir up, to move to 
and fro. Actio, the doing of a thing; 
actns,-i^is, an act, deed, doing. 

* To Agg. To'provoke, dispute.— Hal. 
Apparently from nag in the sense of 
gnaw, by the loss of the initial n. Nag- 
ging-pain, a. gnawing pain, a slight but 
constant pain ; naggy, knaggy, touchy, 
irritable, ill-tempered. — Hal! Knagging, 
finding fault peevishly and irritably. — 
Mrs B. Sw. dial, nagga, to gnaw, bite, 
to irritate; agga, to irritate, disturb. 
ON. nagga, to gnaw, to grumble, wrangle. 

* Aghast. Formerly spelt agazed, in 
consequence of an erroneous impression 
that the fundamental meaning of the word 
was set a-gazing on an object of astonish- 
ment and horror. 

The French exclaimed the devil was in arms, 
All the whole army stood agazed on him. — H. vi. 

Probably the word may be explained 



12 AGISTMENT 

from Fris. guiuysje^ Dan. gyse^ S\v. dial. 
gysa^ gasa sig, to shudder at ; gase, gust, 
horror, fear, revulsion. From the last of 
these forms we pass to Sc. gousty, gous- 
troits, applied to what impresses the mind 
with feelings of indefinite horror ; waste, 
desolate, awful, full of the preternatural, 
frightful. 

Cald, mirk, and eousUe is the night. 
Loud roars the blast ayont the hight.— Jamieson. 
He observed one of the black man's feet to be 
cloven, and that the black man's voice was hough 
and goustie. — Glanville in Jam , 

The word now becomes confounded 
with ghostly, the association with which 
has probably led to the insertion of the h 
in ghastly itself as well as aghast. 

Agistment. From Lat. jacere the 
Fr. had gdsir, to lie ; whence giste, a 
lodging, place to lie down in ; giste d'une 
h^vre, the form of a hare. Hence agister, 
to give lodging to, to take in cattle to 
feed; and the law term agistment, the 
profit of cattle pasturing on the land. 

Aglet. The tag of a point, i. e. of the 
lace or string by which different parts 
of dress were formerly tied up or fastened 
together. Hence any small object hang- 
ing loose, as a spangle, the anthers of a 
tulip or of grass, the catkins of a hazel, 
&c. — Junius. Fr. aiguillette, diminutive 
of aiguille, a needle, properly the point 
fastened on the end of a lace for drawing 
it through the eyelet holes ; then, like E. 
point, applied to the lace itself. 

* Agnail. — ^Angnail. A sore nail, 
whitlow, corn on the toe. ' Agassin, a 
corne or agnele on the foot.' — Cot. AS. 
angncEgle, a whitlow. From the same 
root with Lat. ango, to pinch, trouble, vex. 
In the sense of a swelled gland (as where 
Fl. explains It. ghiandole as agnels, glan- 
dules or kernels in the throat, groin, or 
armpits) it is probably from It. angui- 
naglia, the groin or a tumour there j Fr. 
angonailles, botches or sores. — Cot. 

Ago. — Agone. as. agdn, agangen, 
gone away, passed. He waes than on 
agdfi, gone from thence. — Mt. 26. 39. 
Tha Sasternes daeg waes agangen, was 
past. — Mk. 16. I. 

For in swiche cas wimmen have swiche sorrwe 
Whan that hir hnsbonds ben from hem ago. 
Knight's Tale. 

Agog. Excited with expectation, jig- 
ging with excitement, ready to start in 
pursuit of an object of desire. Literally 
on the jog, or on the start, from^^^, sy- 
nonymous with jog or shogj gog-mire, a 
quagmire. — Hal. ' He is all agog to go.' 



AIM 

— Baker. In the same way in Sc. one is 
said to be fidging fain, nervously eager, 
unable to keep still. See Goggle. 

Agony. Gr. 'Aywv, as ayopa, an as- 
sembly, place of assembly, esp. an as- 
sembly met to see games; thence the 
contest for a prize on such an occasion ; 
a struggle, toil, hardship. 'Aywvt'a, a con- 
test, gymnastic exercise, agony; aywri- 
^o/ioj, to contend with, whence antagottist, 
one who contends against. 

To Agree. From Lat. gratus, pleas- 
ing, acceptable, are formed It. grado, 
Prov. grat, OFr. gret, Fr. grd, will, 
pleasure, favour ; and thence It. agradire, 
to receive kindly, to please, Prov. agreiar, 
Fr. agrder, to receive with favour, to give 
one's consent to, to agree. Prov. agrad- 
able, agreeable. See Grant. 

Ague. A fever coming in periodical 
fits or sharp attacks, from Fr. aigu, sharp, 
fi^vre aigue, acute fever. 

It is a remarkable fact that the Lepchas, when 
suffering from protracted cold, take fever and 
ague in sharp attacks. — Hooker, Himalayan 
Journal. 

Se non febre aguda 
Vos destrenha '1 costats. 
Si non qu'une fi^vre aigue vous presse les cotds. 
Ra)Tiouard. 

The confinement to periodical fever is 
a modern restriction, from the tendency 
of language constantly to become more 
specific in its application. 

For Richard lay so sore seke, 
On knees prayden the Crystene host — 
Through hys grace and hys vertue 
He turnyd out of his agu, 

R. Coer de Lion, 3045. 

Aid. Lat. adjuva^-e, adjutumj adju- 
tare, to help. Prov. adjudar, ajudar, 
aidar, Fr. aider, to help. 

Aidecamp. Fr. aide du camp. It. aju- 
tante di campo, an officer appointed to 
assist the general in military service. 

To Ail. AS. eglian, to pain, to grieve, 
to trouble, perhaps from the notion of 
pricking; egle, egla, festuca, arista, car- 
duus — Lye, whence ails, the beard of 
corn (Essex). AS. egle, troublesome, 
Goth, agio, affliction, tribulation, aglus, 
difficult, agls, shameful 

To Aim. Lat. cestimare, to consider, 
to reckon, to fix at a certain point or 
rate; Prov. estiinar, to reckon; adesti- 
maY, ades7nar, azesfnar, aesmar, to calcu- 
ate, to prepare ; ' A son colp azesmat,' he 
has calculated or aimed his blow well — 
Diez; esmar, OFr. esmer, to calculate, 
to reckon — ' Li chevaliers de s'ost a treis 
mille esma.^ He reckons the knights of 



AIR 

his host at 3000— Rom. de Rou ; esmer^ 
to purpose, determine, to offer to strike, 
to aim or level at. — Cotgr. 

Air. Lat. aer, Gr. ajjp, doubtless con- 
tracted from Lat. cether, the heavens, Gr. 
alQnp, the sky, or sometimes air. Gael. 
aethar, athar, pronounced ayar, aar, the 
air, sky, w. awyr. 

Aisle. The side divisions of a church, 
like wings on either side of the higher 
nave. Fr. aisle, aile, a wing, from Lat. 
axilla, ala. 

By a like analogy, Ics ailes du nez, the 
nostrils ; les ailes dhmeforet, the skirts of 
a forest. — Cotgr. 

Ait. A small flat island in a river, for 
eyot, from eye, an island. 

Ajar. On char, on the turn, half open, 
from AS. ceorran, to turn. 
Like as ane bull dois rummesing and rare 
When he eschapis hurt one the altare, 
And charrh by the ax with his neck wycht 
Gif one the forehede the dynt hittis not richt. 
D. V. 46, 15. 

Swiss achar, Du. aen karre, akerre, 
ajar. 

Ende vonden de dore akerre staende, 

Wallewein, 9368. 

See Char, Chare. 
Akimbo. 

The host — set his bond in kenebowe — 
Wenist thow, seid he to Beryn, for to skome me ? 
Beryn, 1105. 

It. schembare, sgheijibare, to go aside 
from ; schimbiccio, a crankling or crooked 
winding in and out ; sedere a schimbiccio, 
to sit crooked upon one's legs, as tailors 
do ; asghejnbo,aschembo,aschencio,3.s\o'gte, 
askance. — Fl. Du. schampen, to slip, to 
graze, to glance aside. 

Alacrity. Lat. alacer, -cris, eager, 
brisk ; It. allegro, sprightly, merry. 

Alarm. — Alarum. It. all' arme, to 
arms ! the call to defence on being sur- 
prised by an enemy. 

This said, he runs down with as great a noise 
and shouting as he could, crying al'arme, help, 
help, citizens, the castle is taken by the enemy, 
come away to defence. — Holland's Pliny in 
Richardson. 

Hence, E. alartim, a rousing signal of 
martial music, a surprise ; Fr. allarmer, 
to give an alarum unto; to rouse or 
affright by an alarum — Cotgr. ; and gen- 
erally, to alann, to excite apprehension. 
The alarum or lariim of a clock is a loud 
ringing suddenly let off for the purpose 
of rousing one out of sleep. G. Idrm, up- 

I roar, alarm. 

Alas. From Lat. lassus, Prov. las, 

I wearied, wretched. Hence the exclama- 



ALERT 



i"3 



tions. Las / Ai las! He las / Ah wretched 
me ! Alas ! 

M'aviatz gran gaug donat 
Ai lassa! can pauc m'a durat. — Raynouard. 
You have given me great joy, ah wretched me ! 
how little it has lasted. 

Las ! tant en ai puis soupir^, 

Et doit estre lasse clamde 

Quant ele aime sans estre amee. — R. R. 

Alchemy. The science of converting 
base metals into gold. Mid, Gr. apxr]fiia ; 
XTjfjieia. — Suidas. Arab. al-ki7nid, without 
native root in that language. — Diez. 

Alcohol. Arabic, al kohl, the impal- 
pable powder of antimony with which 
the Orientals adorn their eyelids, any- 
thing reduced to an impalpable powder, 
the pure substance of anything separated 
from the more gross, a pure well-refined 
spirit, spirits of wine. To alcoholise, to 
reduce to an impalpable powder, or to 
rectify volatile spirit. — B. 

Alcove. Sp. alcoba, a place in a room 
railed off to hold a bed of state ; hence a 
hollow recess in a wall to hold a bed, 
side-board, &c. ; Arab, cobba, a closet 
(Lane) ; alcobba, a cabinet or small cham- 
ber. — Engelberg. Cabrera thinks Sp. 
alcoba a native word Arabized by the 
Moors. AS. bed-cofa, vel btir, cubicu- 
lum. — ^If. Gl. ON. kofi, Da. kove, a hut, 
a small compartment. 

Alder, as. alrj E. dial, aller, owler; 
G. eller, erlej Du. elsj Sw. alj Pol. 
olsza, olszynaj Lat. alniis. 

Alderman, as. eald, old ; ealdor, an 
elder, a parent, hence a chief, a ruler. 
Htmdredes ealdor, a ruler of a hundred, 
a centurion ; ealdor-biscop, an archbishop ; 
ealdor-inan, a magistrate. 

Ale. AS. eale, eala, ealu, alothj on. 
bl J Lith. ahis, from an equivalent of 
Gael. 61, to drink ; as Bohem. piwo, beer, 
from piti, to drink. 

Alembic. — Lembic. A still. It. lain- 
bicco, lembicco, Sp. alambique, Arab, al- 
ajibiq J it does not appear, however, that 
the word admits of radical explanation in 
the latter language. — Diez. 

Alert. Lat. erigere, erectus. It. e?gere, 
to raise up; erta, the steep ascent of a 
hill; erto, straight, erect; star erto, to 
stand up ; star a Verta, allerta, to be 
upon one's guard, literally, to stand upon 
an eminence. Hence alert, on one's 
guard, brisk, lively, nimble. 

In this place the prince finding his rutters 
[routiers] alert (as the Italians say), with the ad- 
vice of his valiant brother, he sent his trumpets 
to the Duke of Parma. — Sir Roger Williams, a^ 
1618, in Rich. 



u 



ALGATES 



Algates. From the NE. gates, ways ; 
ON. gata, a path, Sw. gata, way, street. 
All ways, at all events, in one way or 
another. 

Algates by sleight or by violence 

Fro' year to year I win all my dispence. 

Friar's Tale, 

Always itself is used in the N. of Eng- 
land in the sense of however, neverthe- 
less.— Brocket. Swagates, in such a 
manner 

Algebra. From Arab, el jabr, putting 
together. The complete designation was 
el jabr wa el mogdbala, the putting to- 
gether of parts and equation. From a 
corruption of these words algebraic cal- 
culation is called the game of Algebra 
and Almiicgrabala in a poem of the 13th 
century cited by Demorgan in N. & Q. 
Sed quia de ludis fiebat sermo, quid illo 
Pulcrior esse potest exercitio numerorum, 
Quo divinantur numeri plerique per unum 
Ignoti notum, sicut ludunt apud Indos, 
Ludum dicentes Algebrce ahnucgrabalcsque. 

De Vetuia. 

Mogdbala, opposition, comparison, equal- 
ity. — Catafogo. 

Alien. Lat. aliemcs, belonging to 
another, due to another source ; thence, 
foreign. 

To Alight. Dan. lette, Du. ligten 
(from let, ligt, light), signify to lift, to 
make light or raise into the air. At lette 
noget fra jorden, to lift something from 
the ground. At lette een af sadelenj Du. 
jemand uit den zadel ligten, to lift one 
from the saddle. To alight indicates 
the completion of the action thus de- 
scribed ; to be brought by lifting down to 
the ground ; to lift oneself down from the 
saddle, from out of the air. 

Aliment. — Alimony. Lat. alimen- 
tum, alimonium, nourishment, victuals, 
from alo, I nourish, support. 

Alkali. Arab. al-qali,\.}\Q salt of ashes. 
— Diez. In modern chemistry general- 
ised to express all those salts that neutra- 
lise acids. 

All. Goth, alls ; ON. allrj AS. eall. 
Notwithstanding the double /, I have 
long been inclined to suspect that it is a 
derivative from the root a, ce, e, ei, aye, 
ever. Certainly the significations of ever 
and all are closely related, the one im- 
plying continuance in time, the other 
continuance throughout an extended 
series, or the parts of a multifarious 
object. The sense of the original as, how- 
ever, is not always confined to continu- 
ance in time, as is distinctly pointed out 
by Hire. * Urar-hornet war swa fagurt 



ALLAY 

som a gull saii.' The aurox horn was as 
fair as if it were all gold. So ce-lius, all- 
bright; a;-tid, modern Sw. all-tid, all 
time. AS. ceIc, each, is probably ce-Hc, 
ever-like, implying the application of a 
predicate to all the members of a series. 
In eiJery, formerly evereche, everilk, for 
a;fre-a'lc,t\\cre is a repetition of the element 
signifying continuance. But every and 
all express fundamentally the same idea. 
Every one indicates all the individuals 
of a series ; every man and all men are 
the same thing. 

To Allay, formerly written allegge, as 
to say was formerly to segge. Two dis- 
tinct words are confounded in the modern 
allay, the first of which should properly 
be written with a single /, from AS. alec- 
gan, to lay down, to put down, suppress, 
tranquillise. Speaking of Wm. Rufus, the 
Sax. Chron. says, 

Eallan folce behet eallan tha unrihte to aleg- 
genne, the on his brothor timan wasran ; 
translated in R. of Gloucester, 
He behet God and that folc an beheste that was 

this, 
To alegge all luther lawes that yholde were be- 
fore 
And better make than were suththe he was ybore. 
The joyous time now nigheth fast 
That shall alegge this bitter blast, 
And slake the winter sorrowe. 

Shepherd's Calendar. 
In the same way the Swed. has wddret 
Idgger sig; wdrken Idgger sig, the wind 
is laid ; the pain abates. So in Virgil, 
venti posuire, the winds were laid. 

If by your art, my dearest father, you have 

Put the wild waters in this roar, alay them. 

Tempest. 
So to allay thirst, grief, &c. 

The other form, confounded with alegge 
from alecgan in the modern allay, is the 
old allegge, from Fr. alUger, It. alleg- 
giare, Lat. alleviare, to lighten, mitigate, 
tranquillise, thus coming round so exactly 
to the sense of alay from alecgan, that it 
is impossible sometimes to say to which 
of the two origins the word should be re- 
ferred. 

Lat. levis, light, easy, gentle, becomes 
in Prov. leu; whence leviar, leujar, to 
assuage ; alleviar, alleujar, O Fr. alle'ger, 
to lighten, to assuage, precisely in the 
same way that from brevis, abbreviare, 
are formed Prov. breti, abreujar, Fr. ab' 
bre'ger, OE. abregge, to abridge. 
Que m'dones joi e m'leujes ma dolor. 
Qu'elle me donn&t joie et mallege&t ma dou- 

leur. — Rayn. 

Per Dieu aleujatz m'aquest fays ! 

For God's sake lighten me this burden. 



ALLEDGE 

It would have brought my life again, 
For certes evenly I dare well saine 
The sight only and the savour 
Aleggid much of my languor. — R. R. 

In the original, 

I^e voir sans plus, et I'oudeur 
Si m aUgeoient ma douleur. 

So in Italian, 

Fate limosina et dir messi accio che salleggino i 
nostri martiri, 

that our torments may be assuaged, or al- 
layed. 

To Alledge. Fr.y^//<?^^/^r,to alledge, 
to produce reasons, evidence, or author- 
ity for the proof of. — Cotg. 

Lat. legare, to intrust or assign unto ; 
allegare, to depute or com.mission one, 
to send a message, to solicit by message. 
* Petit a me Rabonius et amicos allegat.' 
Rabonius asks of me and sends friends 
(to support his petition). Hence it came 
to signify, to adduce reasons or witnesses 
in support of an argument. From the 
language of lawyers probably the word 
came into general use in England and 
France. 
Thei woll a leggen also and by the godspell pre- 

oven it, 
Nolite judicare quenquam. — P. P. 

Here we find alledge^ from Lat. allegare, 
spelt and pronounced in the same man- 
ner as allegge (the modern allay), from 
AS. alecgan, and there is so little differ- 
ence in meaning between laying down 
and bringing forward reasons, that the 
Latin and Saxon derivatives were some- 
times confounded. 
And eke this noble duke aleyde 
Full many another skill, and seide 
She had well deserved wrecke. — Gower in Rich. 
Here aleyde is plainly to be understood 
in the sense of the Lat. allegare. 

Allegory. Gr. aX\T]yopia, a figure of 
speech involving a sense different from 
the apparent one ; aWoc, other, and ay opt I'u,;, 
to speak. 

Alley. Fr. alle'e, a walk, path, passage, 
from aller, to go. 

Alligator. The American crocodile, 
from the Sp. lagai^to, a lizard ; Lat. la- 
certa. In Hawkins' voyage he speaks of 
these under the name of alagartoes. La- 
garto das Indias, the cayman or South 
American alligator. — Neumann. 

Allodial. Allodium, in Mid. Lat., 
was an estate held in absolute possession 
without a feudal superior. — Blackstone. 
The derivation has been much disputed, 
and little light has been thrown upon it 
by the various guesses of antiquarians. 
The word appears as early as the ninth 



ALLOW 



15 



century under the forms alodis, alodus, 
alodiuin, alauduvi, and in Fr. aleu, aleii 
franc, franc-aloud, franc-aloi, franc- 
aleuf. The general sense is that of an 
estate held in absolute possession. ' Meae 
prasdium possessionis hereditarias, hoc 
est, alodicm nostrum qui est in pago An- 
degavensi.' — Charta an. 839, in Due. 
' Alaudiwt meum sive haereditatem quam 
dedit mihi pater meus in die nuptiarum 
mearum.' ' Paternse hsereditati, quam 
nostrates alodium, vel patrimonium vo- 
cant, sese contulit.' It is often opposed 
to a fief. ' Haec autem fuerunt ea — quae 
de allodiis sive prasdiis in feudum com- 
mutavit Adela.' It is taken for an 
estate free of duties. 'â–  Habemus vineae 
agripenum unum allodialiter immunem, 
hoc est ab omni census et vicarise red- 
hibitione liberum.' ' Reddit ea terra 2 
den. census cum ante semper alodium 
fuisset.' A.D. 1708. 

It can hardly be wholly distinct from 
ON. odal, which is used in much the same 
sense, allodium, pr^edium hereditarium ; 
odals-jord, praedium hereditarium ; odal- 
borinn,n2iXMS, ad heredium avitum, scilicet 
recti linea a primo occupante; odals- 
madr, dominus allodialis, strict^ primus 
occupans. — Haldorsen. 

Dan. Sw. odel, a patrimonial estate. 
The landed proprietors of the Shetland 
Isles are still called udallers, according to 
Sir Walter Scott. The ON. odal is also 
used in the sense of abandoned goods, at 
leggia fyrer ddal, to abandon a thing, to 
leave it to be taken by the first occupier. 
If Mid. Lat. alodis, alodum, is identical 
with the ON. word, it exhibits a singular 
transposition of syllables. Ihre would 
account for allodium from the compound 
' alldha odhol,' mentioned in the Gothic 
laws, — an ancient inheritance, from alldr, 
astas, antiquitas, and odal, inheritance, as 
allda-vinr, an ancient friend, alder-hcefd, 
a possession of long standing. See Ihre 
in V. Od. 

To Allow. Two words seem here 
confounded ; i. from Lat. laudare, to 
praise, and 2. from locare, to place, to let. 

From the Lat. laus, laudis, was formed 
Prov. laus, lau, praise, approval, advice. 
Hence lauzar, alauzar, OFr. loer, louer, 
alouer, to praise, to approve, to recom- 
mend. In like manner the Lat. laudo 
was used for approbation and advice. 

^ Laudo igitur ut ab eo suam filiam 
primogenitam petatis duci nostro con- 
jugem,' — I recommend. ' Et vos illuc 
tendere penitus dislaudamus^ — we dis- 
suade you. — Ducange. 'Et leur de- 



l6 



ALLOY 



nianda que il looicnt h, faire, et li lo^rent 
tons que il descendist.' *Et il li dirent 
que je li avois lod bon conseil.'— Join- 
ville in Raynouard. In the same way in 
English : 

This is the sum of what I would have ye weigh, 
First whether ye allmo my whole devise, 
And think it good for me, for them, for you, 
And if ye like it and allow it well — 

Ferrex and Porrex in Richardson. 

Especially laus was applied to the ap- 
probation given by a feudal lord to the 
alienation of a fee depending upon him, 
and to the fine he received for permission 
to alienate. ' Hoc donum laudavit K^^xix 
Maringotus, de cujus feodo erat.' — Due. 

From signifying consent to a grant, 
the word came to be applied to the grant 
itself. ' Comes concessit iis et laiidavit 
terras et feuda eorum ad suam fidelitatem 
et servitium.' ' Facta est hsec laiis sive 
concessio in claustro S. Marii.' — Due. 

Here we come very near the applica- 
tion of allowance to express an assign- 
ment of a certain amount of money or 
goods to a particular person or for a 
special purpose. 

* And his allowance was a continual 
allowance given by the king, a daily rate 
for every day all his life.' — 2 Kings. 

In this sense, however, to allow is 
from the Lat. locare, to place, allocare, 
to appoint to a certain place or purpose ; 
It. allogare, to place, to fix ; Prov. alogar, 
Fr, louer, allouer, to assign, to put out to 
hire. 

' Le seigneur peut saisir pour sa rente les 
bestes pasturantes sur son fonds encore qu'elles 
n'appartiennent k son vassal, ains k ceux qui ont 
allouhs les distes bestes.'— Coutume de Norman- 
die in Raynouard. 

To allow in rekeninge — alloco. Al- 
lowance — allocacio. — Pr. Pm. Wall. 
alouwer, depenser. — Grandg. 

Again, as the senses of Lat. laudare 
and allocare coalesced in Fr. allouer and 
E. allow, the confusion seems to have 
been carried back into the contemporary 
Latin, where allocare is used in the sense 
of approve or admit ; essoniiwi allocabile, 
an admissible excuse. 

Alloy. The proportion of base metal 
mixed with gold or silver in coinage. 
From Lat. lex, the law or rule by which 
the composition of the money is go- 
verned, It. lega, Fr. lot, aloi. ' Unus- 
quisque denarius cudatur et fiat ad legem 
undecim denariorum.' — Due. In the 
mining language of Spain the term is 
applied to the proportion of silver found 
in the ore. ' The extraction for the 



ALMS 

week was 750 cargos of clean ore, aver- 
age ley from nine to ten marks per 
monton, with an increased proportion of 
gold.' — Times, Jan. 2, 1857. 

From signifying the proportion of base 
metal in the coin, the term alloy was 
applied to the base metal itself. 

Alluvial. Lat. alluo {ad and lavo, to 
wash), to wash against ; alluvies, mud 
brought down by the overflowing of a 
river ; alluvitis (of land), produced by 
the mud of such overflowing. 

To Ally. Fr. allier. Lat. ligare, to 
tie ; alligare, to tie to, to unite. 

Alm.anack. The word seems origin- 
ally to have been applied to a plan of 
the movements of the heavenly bodies. 
' Sed hae tabulae vocantur Almanack vel 
Talhgnum, in quibus sunt omnes motus 
ccelorum certificati \ principio mundi 
usque in finem — ut homo posset inspicere 
omnia quse in ccelo sunt omni die, sicut 
nos in calendario inspicimus omnia festa 
Sanctorum.' — Roger Bacon, Opus Ter- 
tium, p. 36. 

In the Arab, of Syria al mandkh is 
climate or temperature. 

Almond. Gr. afivyddXr], Lat. amyg- 
dala, Wallach. migddle, mandule j Sp. 
almendra, Prov. atnandola, Fr. arnande^ 
It. mandola, jnandorla, Langued. amen- 
lou, amello. 

Alms. — Almonry, — Aumry. Gr. 
t\sr]no(TvvT], properly compassionateness, 
then relief given to the poor. This, 
being an ecclesiastical expression, passed 
direct into the Teutonic languages under 
the form of G. almosen, AS. cBlmesse:, 
celmes, OE. ahnesse, almose, Sc. awmous, 
alms J and into the Romance under the 
form of Prov. abnosna, Fr. aumosne, 
aumone. Hence the Fr, aumonier, E. 
almoner, awfnnere, an officer whose duty 
it is to dispense alms, and almonry, 
aujnry, the place where the alms are 
given, from the last of which again it 
seems that the old form awmbrere, an 
almoner, must have been derived. — Pr. 
Pm, When aumry is used with refer- 
ence to the distribution of alms, doubt- 
less two distinct words are confounded, 
almonry and ammary or ambry, from 
Fr. arjnoire, Lat. arma7'ia, almaria, a 
cupboard. This latter word in English 
was specially applied to a cupboard for 
keeping cold and broken victuals. — 
Bailey, in v. Ambre, Ammery, Aumry. 
Ambry, a pantry. — Hal. Then as an 
aumry or receptacle for broken victuals 
would occupy an important place in the 
office where the daily dole of charity was 



ALOFT 

dispensed, the association seems to have 
led to the use of aumry or ambry, as if it 
were a contraction of almonry, from 
which, as far as sound is concerned, it 
might very well have arisen. And vice 
versa, almonry was sometimes used in 
the sense of armarium, almariiim, a 
cupboard. Almonarium, almorietiim, 
almeriola, a. cupboard or safe to set up 
broken victuals to be distributed as alms 
to the poor. — B. See Ambry. 

Aloft. On lo/l, up in the air. G. 
lii/l, ON. lopl, loft, OE. lift, the air, the 
sky. N. aa loft, aloft, on high. 

* Along'. AS. andlang, G. entlang, 
entlangs, langs, It. liingo, Fr. le long de, 
through the length of. AS. and languc 
doeg, throughout the length of the day. 

The term is also used figuratively to 
express dependance, accordance. 
1 cannot tell whereon it was alotige — 
Some said it was long on the fire making, 
Some said it was long on the blowing. 

Canon Yeoman's Tale. 

This mode of expression is very gen- 
eral. 

Trop fesoient miex cortoisie 
A toute gent lone ce que erent. 

Fab. et Contes, i, i6o. 
They did better courtesy to each according to 
what they were, according to their condition. 

Hence selonc, selon, according to, the 
initial element of which is the particle si, 
se, ce, so, here, this. 

In the same way Pol. wedliig, accord- 
ing to, from w, we, indicating relation of 
place, and dingo, long. 

The AS. form was gelajig. 'â–  NX the 
is ure lyf gelang^ our life is along of 
thee, is dependent on thee. ' Hii sohton 
on hwom that gelang waere.' They in- 
quired along of whom that happened — 
Lye. Walach. Wiga, juxta, secundum, 
penes, pone, propter. 

Aloof. To loof or luff in nautical 
language is to turn the vessel up into the 
wind. Aloof, then, is to the windward 
of one, and as a vessel" to the windward 
has it in her choice either to sail away 
or to bear down upon the leeward vessel, 
aloof hSiS come to signify out of danger, 
in safety from, out of reach of. 
Nor do we find him forward to be sounded ; 
But with a crafty madness keeps aloof, 
When we would bring him on to some confession 
Of his true state. — Hamlet. 

Alpine. Of the nature of things found 
in lofty mountains ; from the Alps, the 
highest mountains in Europe. Gael. 
Alp, a height, an eminence, a mountain. 

Altar. The fire-place on which sacri- 



AMAY 



17 



fices were made to the gods. Lat. altare, 
which Ihre would explain from ON. eldr, 
fire, and ar, or am, a hearth ; or perhaps 
AS. ern, cern, a place ; as Lat. lucerna, 
laterna, a lantern, from luc-ern, leohtern, 
the place of a light. 

To Alter. To make something other 
than what it is ; Lat. altera^-e, from alter, 
the other. So G. dndern, to change, from 
ander, the other ; and the Lat. 7nuto finds 
an origin of like nature in Esthon. mu, 
another, whence muduma, miiudma, to 
change. 

Always, as. eallne ivcEg, ealle wcEga, 
the whole way, altogether, throughout. 
The Servians use put, way, for the num- 
ber of times a thing happens ; jeden put, 
once ; dva put, twice, &c. Dan. eeu- 
gang, one going, once ; tre-gange, three 
times. So from Du. reyse, a journey, 
een, twee, dry, reysen, semel, ter, bis.^ 
Kil. 

Am-, Amb-. Gr. a/^^j, about, around, 
properly on both sides ; a/i^w, ambo, both. 

Amalgam. A pasty mixture of mer- 
cury and other metal, from Gr. fidXay/jia, 
an emollient, probably a poultice, and 
that from fjiaXdcrau), to soften. — Diez. 

Amanuensis. Lat. from the habit of 
the scribe or secretary signing the docu- 
ments he wrote (as we see in St Paul's 

Epistles) ' A manu ,' from the hand 

of so and so. Hence a manu servus was 
a slave employed as secretary. 

To Amate. To confound, stupefy, 
quell. 

Upon the walls the Pagans old and young 

Stood hushed and still, amated and amazed. 
Fairfax in Boucher. 

OFr. amater, mater, mattir, to abate, 
mortify, make fade, from mat, G. matt, 
dull, spiritless, faint. It. matto, mad, 
foolish ; Sp. matar, to quench, to slay. 
But when I came out of swooning 
And had my wit and my feeling, 
I was all mate and wende full wele 
Of blode to have lost a full grete dele. 

R. R. 1737. 
In the original — Je fus moult vain. 

Derived by Diez from the expression 
check-mate, at chess. 

Amative, Amity. From Lat. amo, to 
love, are amor, Fr. amour, love ; amatus^ 
loved ; amabilisj amicus, a loving one, a 
friend ; and from each of these numerous 
secondary derivatives ; amorous, amative, 
amateur, amiable, amicable. Lat. amici- 
tia, Fr. amitie, E. amity, &c 

To Amay. It. smagare, to discourage, 
dispirit ; Sp. desmayar, to discourage, 
despond; desmayar se, to faint; OPort. 
2 



l8 



AMBASSADOR 



amago^ fright ; Pro v. esinagar^ esmainr, 
to trouble, to frighten, to grieve ; Fr. 
s'esmaier^ to be sad, pensive, astonied, 
careful, to take thought.— Cotgr. Esniay^ 
thought, care, cark. Hence E. amay, 
dismay^ or simply may. 
Beryn was at counsell, his heart was full woo, 
And his menye (attendants) sory, distrakt, and 

all amayide. — Chaucer, Beryn, 2645. 
So for ought that Beiyn coud etliir speke or pray 
He myght in no wyse pass, full sore lie gan to 

may. — Ibid. 1685. 

The Romance forms are, according to 
Diez, derived from the Goth, magan, to 
have power, to be strong, with the ne- 
gative particle dis. Compare Dan. af- 
fnagt, a swoon. 

Ambassador. Goth. Andbahts, a serv- 
ant, anddahti, service, ministry ; OHG. 
ambahf, a minister or ministry ; atiipah- 
tan, to minister; G. afjipt^ employment, 
office. 

In Middle Lat. ambascia, ambaxia, or 
ambactia, was used for business, and 
particularly applied to the business of 
another person, or message committed 
to another, and hence the modern sense 
of embassy., It. ambasciata., as the message 
sent by a ruling power to the government 
of another state ; ambassador., the person 
who carries such a message. Castrais, 
embessa., to employ. 

' Quicunque asinum alienum extra do- 
mini voluntatem praesumpserit, aut per 
unum diem aut per duos in ambascia 
sua ' — in his own business. — Lex Bur- 
gund. in Due. 'Si in dominica ambascia 
fuerit occupatus.' — Lex Sal. In another 
edition, ' Si in jussione Regis fuerit oc- 
cupatus.' 

Ambasciari., to convey a message. 
* Et ambasciari ex illorum parte quod 
mihi jussum fuerat.' — Hincmar. in Due. 

The word ambacttis is said by Festus 
to be Gallic : ' ambactiis apud Ennium 
lingua Gallica servus appellatur ; ' and 
Caesar, speaking of the equites in Gaul, 
says, ' circum se ambactos., clientesque 
habent.' Hence Grimm explains the 
word from bak., as backers, supporters, 
persons standing at one's back, as hench- 
man., a person standing at one's haunch 
or side. 

The notion of manual labour is pre- 
served in Du. ambagt, a handicraft ; am- 
bagts-7nann, an artisan. ON. ambatt, a 
female slave. It. ainbasciare (perhaps 
originally to oppress with work), to 
trouble, to grieve ; ambascia., anguish, 
distress, shortness of breath. 

Amber, Ambergris, mhg. amber, 



AMERCEMENT 

dmer, Fr. ambre, Sp. Ptg. ambar, alam- 
bar, alambre. The Ar. anbar seems to 
have signified in the first instance amber- 
gris or grey amber, an odoriferous ex- 
cretion of certain fish, cast up by the 
waves, like the yellow amber, on the 
shore. Hence the name was transferred 
to the latter substance. 

Ambient. — Ambition. Lat. ambio, to 
go round, to environ ; also to go about 
hunting for favour or collecting votes, 
whence anibitio, a soliciting of or eager 
desire for posts of honour, &c. 

Amble. Fr. ambler, Sp. amblar, It. 
ambiare, from Lat. ambulo, to walk, go a 
foot's pace. 

Ambry, Aumbry, Aumber. A side- 
board or cupboard-top on which plate 
was displayed — Skinner ; in whose time 
the word was becoming obsolete. 

Fr. armoire, a cupboard. Sp. armaria, 
almario, G. aimer, a cupboard. Mid. 
Lat. armaria, almaria, a chest or cup- 
board, especially for keeping books, 
whence armariiis, the monk in charge of 
the books of a monastery. ' Purpuram 
optimam de almaria tollens ' ' thesaurum 
et almariuni cum ejus pertinentiis, vide- 
licet libris ecclesias.' — Due. ' Biblio- 
theca, sive armarium vel archivum, boc- 
hord.'— Gloss. ^Ifr. 

The word was very variously written 
in English. 'Almoriolum — an almery,' 
— Pictorial Vocab. in National Antiqui- 
ties. And as the term was often applied 
to a cupboard used for keeping broken 
meat, of which alms would mainly con- 
sist, it seems to have contracted a fal- 
lacious reference to the word alms, and 
thus to become confounded with almoniy, 
the office where alms were distributed. 

The original meaning, according to 
Diez, is a chest in which arms were kept, 
' armarium, repositorium armorum.'— 
Gloss. Lindenbr. 

Ambush. From It. bosco. Pro v. bosc, 
a bush, wood, thicket : It. imboscarsi, 
Prov. emboscar, Fr. embuscher, to go into 
a wood, get into a thicket for shelter, 
then to lie in wait, set an ambush. 

Amenable. Easy to be led or ruled, 
from Fr. amener, to bring or lead unto, 
meiier, to lead, to conduct. See Demean. 

Amercement. — Amerciament. A 
pecuniary penalty imposed upon offend- 
ers at the mercy of the court : it differs 
from a fine, which is a punishment cer- 
tain, and determined by some statute. — 
B. In Law Latin, ^^;/z in misericordid 
was thus to be placed at the mercy of 
the court ; etre mis a merci, or ilre amer- 



AMNESTY 

cic, to be amerced, and misericordia was 
used for any arbitrary exaction. 

Concedimus etiam eisdem abbati et monachis 
et 8orum successoribus quod sint quieti de omni- 
bus misericordiis in perpetuum. — Charter Edw. 
I. in Due. Et inde coram eo placitabuntur, et 
dc omnibus misericordiis et emendationibus de- 
bemus habere ii soHdos. — Due. 

When a party was thus placed at the 
mercy of the court, it was the business of 
affeerors appointed for that purpose to 
fix the amount of the amercement. See 
Affeer. 

Amnesty. Gr. a\iiv%\aTua (a priv. & 
fivaofiai, I remember), a banishing from 
remembrance of former misdeeds. 

Amount. From mont, hill, and val, 
valley, the French formed amont and 
aval, upwards and downwards respect- 
ively, whence ino}tter, to mount, to rise 
lip, and avaler, to send down, to swallow. 
Hence amotint is the sum total to which 
a number of charges rise up when added 
together. 

Ample. Lat. aniplus, large, spacious. 

Amputate. Lat. amputo, to cut off, 
to prune ; puto, to cleanse, and thence to 
cut off useless branches, to prune ; piitus, 
pure, clean, bright. 

Amulet. Lat. amuletuin, a ball or 
anything worn about the person as a 
preservative or charm against evil. From 
Arab, hamala, to carry. 

To Amuse. To give one something 
to muse on, to occupy the thoughts, to 
entertain, give cheerful occupation. For- 
merly also used as the simple muse, to 
contemplate, earnestly fix the thoughts on. 

Here I put my pen into the inkhorn and fell 
into a strong and deep amusement, revolving in 
my mind with great perplexity the amazing 
change of our affairs. — Fleetwood in Riehardson. 

An. The indefinite article, the purport 
of which is simply to indicate individ- 
uality. It is the same word with the 
numeral one, as. an, and the difference 
in pronunciation has arisen from a 
lighter accent being laid upon the word 
when used as an article than when as a 
definite numeral. So in Breton, the in- 
definite article has become eun, while the 
numeral is unan. Dan. een, one, e7i, a, an. 
^ An. — And. There is no radical dis- 
tinction between an and and, which are 
accidental modifications of spelling ulti- 
mately appropriated to special applica- 
tions of the particle. 

In our older writers it was not unfre- 
quent to make use of ati in the sense in 
which we now employ and, and vice 
versa and in the sense of att or if. 



AN 



i9 



First, an for and. 
He sone come bysyde hys fone echon, 
An bylevede hym there al nygt, and al hys ost 

also, 
An thogte anon amorwe strong batayle do. 

R.G.319. 
Secondly, and for if or an. 

Me reweth sore I am unto hire teyde, 
For and I should rekene every vice 
Which that she hath, ywis I were to nice. 
Squire's Prologue. 
And I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any 
man should buy the fee simple of my Hfe for an 
hour and a half. 

We find an if and and if or simply an 
for zf 

— I pray thee, Launce, and if thou seest my 
boy bid him make haste. 

But and if that wicked servant say in his 
heart, &e. 

Nay, an thou dalliest, then I am thy foe. 

Ben Jonson in R. 

In the same sense the OS wed. an, 
while om (En corresponds exactly to our 
an if, om, formerly of being the exact 
representative of E. if The Sw. cen is 
also used in the sense of and, still, yet. — 
Ihre. 

It is extremely difficult to guess at the 
sensible image which lies at the root of 
the obscure significations expressed by 
the particles and conjunctions, the most 
time-worn relics of language ; but in the 
present instance it seems that both sense 
and form might well be taken from the E. 
eve7i, in the sense of continuous, unbroken, 
level. 

The poetical contraction of even into 
e'en shows how such a root might give 
rise to such forms as ON. enn, OSwed. 
cen, Dan. end. With respect to meaning, 
we still use even as a conjunction in cases 
closely corresponding to the Swed. CBn, 
and Dan. etid. Thus we have Swed. 
CEn-nu translated by Ihre, etiamnum, 
even now, i. e. without a sensible break 
between the event in question and now ; 
midock, quamvis, even though, or al- 
though ; (zn, yet, still, continuously ; 
' he is still there,' he continues there. 
So in Danish, — om dette end skulde ske, 
even if that should happen ; end ikke, ne 
quidem, not even then ; end nu, even 
now. When one proposition is made 
conditional on another, the two are prac- 
tically put upon the same level, and thus 
the conditionality may fairly be expressed 
by eve7i contracted into cen or an. Ana- 
lysing in this point of view the sentence 
above quoted. 

Nay, an thou dalliest, then I am thy foe, 

it must be interpreted, Nay, understand 
2 * 



30 



ANA 



these propositions as equally certain, 
thou dallicst here, I am thy foe. — It de- 
pends upon you whether the first is to 
prove a fact or no, but the second pro- 
position has the same value which you 
choose to give to the former. 

It will subsequently be shown probable 
that the conjunction if is another relic of 
the same word. On the other hand, 
placing two things side by side, or on a 
level with each other, may be used to 
express that they are to be taken together, 
to be treated in the same manner, to 
form a single whole ; and thus it is that 
the same word, which implies condition- 
ality when circumstances show the un- 
certainty of the first clause, may become 
a copulative when the circumstances of 
the sentence indicate such a signification. 

Ana- Gr. ava, up, on, back. 

Anatomy. Gr. avarmvia^ to cut up. 
See Atom. 

Ancestor. Fr, ancestre, ancetre, from 
Lat. antecessor, one that goes before. 
See Cede. 

Anchor. Lat. ajichora, Gr. ayKvpa. 
There can be no doubt that it is from the 
root signifying hook, which gives rise to 
the Gr. dyxvXoQ, curved, crooked ; dyKwv, 
an elbow, recess, corner ; oy/cjj, oyKivog, a 
hook ; Lat. angnliis, an angle, tmais, a 
hook, crooked. 

Unco alliget anchora morsu. — Virg. 

Anchoret. A herm.it. Gr. avax^^- 
tjTrjg, one who has retired from the world ; 
from dvaxiopsu), to retire. 

Anchovy. Fr. anchois, It. ancioe, 
Gr. cKpvri, Lat. a;pua, aphya iapya)^ ; 
whence might arise, It. {apj-ngd) acciuga, 
Pied. Sicil. anciova, Genoes. anciua. — 
Diez. 

Ancient. Lat. ante, Pro v. antes, It. 
anzi, before, whence anziano, Yx. ancien, 
ancient, belonging to former times. 

Ancle. AS. aficleow, G. enkel. Pro- 
bably a parallel formation with Gr. 
dyKh\r\, a loop, the bend of the arm ; and 
from the same root, dyKwv, the elbow, or 
bending of the arm ; It. anca, the haunch, 
or bending of the hip ; OHG. ancha, Bav. 
anke (genick), the bending of the neck. 

And. See An. 

Andiron. Originally the iron bars 
which supported the two ends of the logs 
on a wood fire. AS. bt'a7td-isen, brand- 
iron, could never have been corrupted 
into andiron. The Mid. Lat. has andena, 
andela, andeda, anderia. Fr. latidier, 
grand chenet de cuisine. — Diet. Wallon. 
The Flemish wend-ijser probably ex- 
hibits the true origin, from wefiden, to 



ANGER 

turn ; wend-ijser, brand-ijser, crateute- 
rium, ferrum in quo veru vertitur, — Kil., 
i. e. the rack in front of the kitchen-dogs 
in which the spit turns. ' Lander, Gall, 
landier, Lat. vcrutentum; item hasc an- 
dena.' — Catholicon Arm. in Due. Atidena 
seems a mere latinisation of oe. atmdyre 
for andiron, as brondyr for brondiron, 
gredyt'e iox gridiron. ^Andena, aundyre.' 
' Trepos, brandyr.' ' Craticula, gredyre.' 
— National Antiq. 178. In modern Eng- 
lish the term has been transferred to 
the moveable fire-irons. 

To Aneal, Anele. To give the last 
unction. I aneele a sick man, J'enhjiille. 
— Palsgr. Fr. Miille, oil. 

Anecdote. Gr. dv'tKloroq, not pub- 
lished, from UdiSwui, to give out, to put 
forth. 

Anent.— Anenst. In face of, respect- 
ing. AS. ongean, opposite ; foran on- 
gean,foran gen (Thorpe's Dipl. p. 341), 
over against, opposite, in front, Sc./ore- 
anent. The word anent, however, does 
not seem to come directly from the AS. 
ongean. It shows at least a northern 
influence from the ON. giegnt, Sw. gent, 
opposite, gent ofwer, over against. H ence 
on gent, anent, and with the s, so com- 
monly added to prepositions (comp. ante, 
before. Pro v. antes, AS. togeanes. Sec), 
anentis. ' Anentis men, it is impossible, 
but not anentis God.' — Wicliff. Hence 
Anenst, as alongst from along, whilst 
from while, against from again. 

AngeL Lat. angelus, from Gr.'AyyeXof, 
a messenger, one sent ; dyykWu), to send 
tidings. 

Anger. Formerly used in the sense 
of trouble, torment, grievance. 

He that ay has levyt fre 
May not know well the propyrtd, 
The a77gyr na the wrechyt dome 
That is cowplyt to foule thyrldome. 

Bruce, i. 235. 

Shame 

From whom fele angirs I have had. — R. R. 
In the original. 

Par qui je fus puis moult gr^vd. 
From the sense of oppression, or injury, 
the expression was transferred to the 
feelings of resentment naturally aroused 
in the mind of the person aggrieved. In 
the same w^ay, the word harm signifies 
injury, damage, in English, and resent- 
ment, anger, vexation, in Swedish. 

The idea of injury is very often ex- 
pressed by the image of pressure, as in 
the word oppress, or the Fr. grever, to 
bear heavy on one. Now the root ang 
is very widely spread in the sense of 



ANGLE 

I compression, tightness. G. e7ig, com- 
pressed, strait, narrow; Lat. angere, 
to strain, strangle, vex, torment; angus- 
tus, narrow; angina, oppression of the 
breast ; angor, anguish, sorrow, vexation ; 
Gr. dyx^i to compress, strain, strangle, 
whence ayx' (as It.presso), near ; ayxe<^^«') 
to be grieved ; dyx"vri, what causes pain 
or grief. 

Both physical and metaphorical senses 
are well developed in the on. a7igr, 
narrow, a nook or corner, grief, pain, 
sorrow ; angra, to torment, to trouble ; 
krabba-angar, crabs' pincers. 

To Angle. To fish with a rod and 
line, from AS. angel, a fish-hook. Du, 
Unghel-stwer, angfiel-roede, a fishing-line, 
fishing-rod ; aiighelen, to angle. Chaucer 
has angle-hook, showing that the proper 
meaning of the word angle was then lost, 
and by a further confusion it was sub- 
sequently applied to the rod. 
A fisher next his trembling ajtgle bears. — Pope. 

Anguish. Lat. angustia, a strait, 
whence It. aitgoscia (as poscia, from 
postea), Fr. angoisse, E. anguish. See 
Anger. 

Anile. Lat. anilis^ from anus, an 
aged woman. 

Animal. — Animate. Lat. animus, 
the spirit, living principle, mind, properly 
the breath, as the ruling function of life 
in man, analogous to spirit, from spiro, 
to breathe. Gr. avinog, wind; aw, ai;/it, 
to blow. 

To Anneal. To fire glass in order to 
melt and fix the vitreous colours with 
which it is painted. 

And like a picture shone in glass annealed. 

Dryden in Worcester. 

I aneel a potte of erthe or suche like with 
a coloure, Je plomme. — Palsgr. Also to 
temper glass or metals in a gradually 
decreasing heat. \X..focare, to fire or set 
on fire, also to ;zm/ metals. — Fl. 

From AS. (Ela7i, onalan, to set on fire, 
burn, bake. The expression cocti lateris 
of the Vulgate, Is. xvi. 7, 11, is rendered 
anelid tyil in the earlier Wicklifiite 
version, and bakun tijl in the later. — 
Marsh. 

* To Annoy. It. annoiare, OFr. 
anoier, anueir, anuier, Fr. eitnuyer, to 
annoy, vex, trouble, grieve, afflict, weary, 
irke, importune overmuch, — Cot. The 
origin of the word has been well explained 
by Diez from the Lat. phrase esse in odio. 
It. esserin odio, to be hateful or repugnant 
to one. Esse ahcui in odio ; apud aliquem 
in odio esse.— Cic. Hence was formed 



ANTHEM 



21 



Sp. enojo, offence, injury, anger ; enojar, 
to molest, trouble, vex; It. noia, trouble, 
weariness, vexation, disquiet; recarsi a 
noja, to be tired of something; nojare, 
venire a noja, to weary, to be tedious to. 
Diez cites OY enet. plu te sont a inodio 
as exactly equivalent to It. piu ti sono a 
noja. ' Recarsi a noia, e aversi a noia^ 
saysVanzoni,^vagliono recarsi in fastidio, 
in recrescimento, in odio, odiare, odiunx 
in aliquem concipere.' So in Languedoc, 
odi, hate, disgust ; aver en odi, to hate ; 
la car me ven en odi, meat is distasteful 
to me ; me venes en odi, vous m'ennuyez, 
you are tedious to me. From in odio 
arose OFr. e7iuy, envi (commonly re- 
ferred to Lat. invitus), d envi or a envis, 
unwillingly, with regret, as hui from 
hodie. And from enuy was formed 
ennuyer, to weary, to annoy. 

From the same source must be ex- 
plained Du. noode, noeye, unwilling, 
with regret or displeasure ; noode iet doen^ 
gravate aliquid facere; noode hebbeii^ 
aegri ferre ; tioeyen, noyen, offlcere, nocere, 
molestum esse. — Kil. ' Noode, nooyelick, 
k ennuy, k regret, invitus, coactus, ingra- 
tus, vel aegr^, molestd ; jet noode doen, 
faire quelque chose enuy ; noode jet 
horen, ouyr etiuy quelque chose, graviter 
audire.' — Thesaurus Theut. Ling. 1573. 

Anodyne. Gr. avwdwoc (a priv. and 
odvvr], pain), without sense of pain, 
capable of dispelling pain. 

Anomalous. Gr. dvi!J(ia\og (a priv. 
and ofiaXog, level, fair), irregular, devi- 
ating from an even surface. 

Anon. AS. on an, in one, jugiter, con- 
tinuo, sine intermissione — Lye ; at one 
time, in a moment ; ever and anon, con- 
tinually. 

Answer, as. andsivarian, from and, 
in opposition, and sweriaft, Goth, svaran, 
to swear. ON. svara, to answer, to 
engage for. It is remarkable that the 
Latin expression for answer is formed in 
exactly the same way from a verb span- 
dere, signifying to engage for, to assure. 
The simpler idea of speaking in return is 
directly expressed by Goth, anda-vaurd, 
G. ant-wort, AS. andwyrd, current side 
by side with the synonymous andswar. 

Ant. The well-known insect, con- 
tracted from emmet J like atmt, a parent's 
sister, from Lat. aviita. 

Ante- Lat. ante, before. 

Ant- Anti- Gr. avri, against. What 
is in face of one or before one is in one 
point of view opposite or against one. 

Anthem. A divine song sung by two 
opposite choirs or choruses.— B. Lat. 



23 ANTICK 

antiphona J Gr. avTi^iava^ from aVn^wvlw, 
to sound in answer. Prov. antt/ena; 
AS. antcfn., whence anthem^ as from AS. 
stefn^ E. j/<?w. The Fr. form antienne 
shows a similar corruption to that of 
Estienne, from Stcphamis. 

Antick. — Antique. Lat. anticus, 
from ante, before, as posticus, iroxa post, 
behind. 

At the revival of art in the 14th and 
15th centuries the recognised models of 
imitation were chiefly the remains of 
ancient sculpture, left as the legacy of 
Roman civilisation. Hence the applica- 
tion of the term antique to work of sculp- 
tured ornamentation, while individual 
figures wrought in imitation or supposed 
imitation of the ancient models, were 
called antiques, as the originals are at the 
present day. 

- At the entering of the palays before the gate 
was builded a fountain of embowed work en- 
grayled with anticke workes, — the old God of 
wine called Bacchus birling the wine, which by 
the conduits in the earth ran to the people 
plenteously with red, white, and claret wine. — 
Hall's Chron. 

Again from the same author : 

At the nether end were two broad arches upon 
three ant ike pillers, all of gold, burnished, 
swaged, and graven full of gargills and serpen tes 
— and above the arches were made sundry 
dntikes and devices. 

But as it is easier to produce a certain 
effect by monstrous and caricature re- 
presentations than by aiming at the 
beautiful in art, the sculptures by which 
our medieval buildings were adorned, 
executed by such stone-masons as were 
to be had, were chiefly of the former 
class, and an antick came to signify a 
grotesque figure such as we see on the 
spouts or pinnacles of our cathedrals. 

Some fetch the origin of this proverb (he looks 
as the devil over Lincoln) from a stone picture 
of the Devil which doth or lately did overlook 
Lincoln College. Surely the architect intended 
it no further than for an ordinary anticke. — Ful- 
ler in R. 

Now for the inside here grows another doubt, 
whether grotesca, as the Italians, or antique 
work, as we call it, should be received. — Re- 
liquiae Wottonianse in R. 

The term was next transferred to the 
grotesque characters, such as savages, 
fauns, and devils, which were favourite 
subjects of imitation in masques and 
revels. 

That roome with pure gold it all was overlaid 
Wrought with wild antickes which their follies 

playde 
In the riche metal as they living were. — Spencer. 



ArHORISM 

To dance the anticks is explained by 
Bailey to dance after an odd and ridicu- 
lous manner, or in a ridiculous dress, like 
a jack-pudding. To go antiquely, in 
Shakespear, to go in strange disguises. 
In modern language antic is apphed to 
extravagant gestures, such as those 
adopted by persons representing the 
characters called antics in ancient 
masques. Mannequin, a puppet or an 
antic. — Cot. 

Antidote. Gr. avrworov, something 
given against, a preventative ; doriog, what 
is to be given. 

Antler. Fr. andotilllers, the branches 
of a stag's horns ; but properly aftdoulller 
is the first branch or brow-antler, sur- 
andoulller the second. As the brow- 
antler projects forward the word has been 
derived from ante, before, but the ex- 
planation has not been satisfactorily 
made out. 

Anvil. Formerly written anvllt or 
a7ivlldj AS. an/lit J Pl.D. ambolt; Du. 
aenbeld, ambeld, a block to hammer on. 
Percutere, vlllan — Gloss. Pezron ; Jilllst, 
verberas. — Otfried. So Lat. hicus, in- 
cudls, from In and ciidej-e, to strike ; G. 
ambossj OHG. anapoz, from an and 
bossen, to strike. 

Anxious. Lat. anxlus, from ango, 
anxl, to strain, press, strangle, choke, 
vex, trouble. 

Any. AS. CBnlg, from an, one, and Ig, 
a termination equivalent to Goth, elgs, 
from elgan, to have. Thus from gabe, a 
gift, wealth, gabelgs, one having wealth, 
rich. In like manner, any is that which 
partakes of the nature of one, a small 
quantity, a few, some one, one at the 
least. 

Apanage. Lat. panls, bread, whence 
Prov. panar, apanar, to nourish, to sup- 
port ; Fr. apanage, a provision for a 
younger child. 

Apart. — Apartment. Fr. d, part, 
aside, separate. Apartment, something 
set aside, a suite of rooms set aside for a 
separate purpose, finally applied to a 
single chamber. 

Ape. Originally a monkey in general ; 
latterly applied to the tailless species. 
To ape, to imitate gestures, from the imi- 
tative habits of monkeys. But is it not 
possible that the name of the ape may be 
from imitating or taking off the actions 
of another ? Goth., ON. af, G. ab, of, from. 

Aperient. — Aperture. Lat. aperlo, 
apertuvi, to open, to display ; ^<^?r/^, to 
bring forth. See Cover. 

Aphorism. Gr. dfopicrfibs, a definite- 



APO 

sentence ; d<popiZu), to mark off, to define ; 
bpoQ, a bound, landmark. 

Apo- Gr. and, corresp. to Lat. ad, of, 
off, from, away. 

Apoplexy. From Gr. a-T07rX?7ff(Tw, 
to strike down, to disable ; — ojuat, to lose 
one's senses, become dizzy ; TrX/jcr^rw, ^w, 
to strike. 

Apostle. — Epistle. Gr. aVoffroXoc, 
one sent out, from uirocTTiWo}, to send off, 
despatch on some service. In the same 
way from iTnarkWu), to send to, to an- 
nounce, e-mcrToXij, an epistle or letter. 

Apothecary. Gr. aTroQrjicj], a store or 
keeping-place ; dTroTiOtjfn, to store or put 
ivvay. 

Appal. Wholly unconnected w'lth^a/e, 
\o which it is often referred. To cause to 
pa// (see Pall), to deaden, to take away 
or lose the vital powers, whether through 
age or sudden terror, horror, or the like. 
An old appalled wight, in Chaucer, is a 
man who has lost his vigour through age. 

And among other of his famous deeds, he re- 
vived and quickened again the faith of Christ, 
that in some places of his kingdom was sore 
appalled. — Fabian in R. 

Apparel. From Lat. par, equal, like, 
the MLat. diminutive pariculus, gave 
rise to It.parecchio, ^^.parejo, Yr.pat^eil, 
like. Hence It. apparecchiare, Sp. apar- 
ejar, Prov. aparelha}', Fr. appai^eiller, 
properly to join like to like, to fit, to suit. 
Appareil, outfit, preparation, habiliments. 
— Diez. 

And whanne sum men seiden of the Temple 
that it was aparelid with good stones. — Wiclif 
in R. Eke if he apparaille his mete more deli- 
ciously than nede is. — Parson's Tale. 

Then like Fr. habiller, or E. dress, the 
word was specially applied to clothing, 
as the necessary preparation for every 
kind of action. 

To Appeal. Lat. appellare, Fr. ap- 
peler, to call, to call on one for a special 
purpose, to call for judgment, to call on 
one for his defence, i. e. to accuse him of 
a crime. 

To Appear. — Apparent. OFr. ap- 
Paroirj \j3X. pareo, to be open to view. 

Appease. Fr. appaiser, from paix, 
peace. 

Apple. AS. apl, ON. apal, w. apal, 
Jr. avail, Lith. obolys, Rnss. jabloko. 

To Appoint. The Fr. pomt was used 
in the sense of condition, manner, ar- 
rangement — the order, trim, array, plight, 
case, taking, one is in. — Cotgr. En 
piteux poinct, in piteous case ; habiller 
€71 ce poinct, to dress in this fashion. — 
Cent Nouv. Nouv. A poinct, aptly, in 



APRICOT 



23 



good time, in good season ; prendre son 
d poinct, to take his fittest opportunity 
for ; quand it fiit d, poinct, when the 
proper time came. Hence appoinct, fit- 
ness, opportunity, a thing for one's pur- 
pose, after his mind ; and appoincter (to 
find fitting, pronounce fitting), to deter- 
mine, order, decree, to finish a contro- 
versy, to accord, agree, make a composi- 
tion between parties, to assign or grant 
over unto. — Cotgr. 

To Appraise. Lat. pretiujn, Fr. prir, 
a price, value ; apprecie^, to rate, esteem, 
prize, set a price on. — Cotgr. I prise 
ware, I sette a pryce of a thynge what it 
is worthe : je aptise. — Palsgr. The PI. 
D. lavefi is used both as E. praise, to 
commend, and also as appraise, to set a 
price on. To praise, in fact, is only to 
exalt the price or value of a thing, to 
speak in commendation. 

Apprehend. — Apprentice. — Apprise. 
\jdX. prehendere, to catch hold of; appre- 
hendere, to seize, and metaphorically to 
take the meaning, to understand, to 
learn. Fr. apprendre, appris, to learn, 
whence the E. apprise, to make a thing 
known. Fr. apprentis, a learner, one 
taken for the purpose of learning a trade. 

Approach. From Lat. prope (comp. 
propius), near, were formed appropiare 
(cited by Diez from a late author). 
Walach. apropid, Prov. apropchar. It. 
approcciare, Fr. approcher, to come near, 
to approach. 

Approbation. — Approve. — Ap- 
prover. Lat. p^'obus, good, probare, ap- 
Probare, to deem good, pronounce good. 
Fr. approver, to approve, allow, find 
good, consent unto. — Cotgr. 

Hence an Approver in law is one who 
has been privy and consenting to a crime, 
but receives pardon in consideration of 
his giving evidence against his principal. 

This false thefe this sompnour, quoth the frere, 
Had alway bandis redy to his hond. 
That tellith him all the secre they knew, 
For their acquaintance was not come of new ; 
They werin his approvirs privily. — Friar's Tale. 

Appurtenance. Fr. appartenir, to 
pertain or belong to. 

* Apricot. Formerly apricock, agree- 
ing with XjaX. prcBcoqua or prcecocia. Mod. 
Gr. TrpaiKOKKwv. They were considered 
by the Romans a kind of peach, and 
were supposed to take their name from 
their ripening earlier than the ordinary 
peach. 

Maturescunt asstate prcBcocia intra triginta 
annos reperta et primo denariis singulis vpnun- 
data. — Pliny, N. H. xv. n. 



24 



APRON 



It may be doubted, however, whether 
the Lat. prcecoqua was not an adapt- 
ation. It is certain that the apricot 
was introduced from Armenia, and the 
fruit is still called barkiik in Persian. It 
is far more likely that the name should 
have been imported with the fruit into 
Italy than that the Persians should have 
adopted the Latin name of a native 
fruit. — Marsh. 

Apron. A cloth worn in front for the 
protection of the clothes, by corruption 
for napron, 

— And therewith to wepe 
She made, and with her napron feir and white 

ywash 
She wyped soft her eyen for teris that she outlash. 
Chaucer, Beryn. Prol. 31. 

Still called nappern [pronounced nap- 
pron in Cleveland. J. C. A.] in the N. of 
E. — Hall. Naprun, or barm-cloth. — Pr. 
Pm. From OFr. Jtaperjjn, properly the 
intensitive of nape, a cloth, as napkin is 
ihe diminutive. JSlaperoriy grande nappe. 
— Roquefort. Naperon is explained by 
H^cart, a small cloth put upon the table- 
cloth during dinner, to preserve it from 
stains, and taken away before dessert, a 
purpose precisely analogous to that for 
which an apron is used. ' Un beau 
service de damassd de Sil^sie ; la nappe, 
le naperon et 24 serviettes.' — About. Ma- 
(Jelon. The loss or addition of an initial 
n to words is very common, and fre- 
quently we are unable to say whether the 
consonant has been lost or added. 

Thus we have nauger and auger, newt 
and eivte, or eft, nawl and aiul, nonipire 
and umpire, and the same phenomenon 
is common in other European languages. 

Apt. Lat. aptus, fastened close, con- 
nected, and thence fit, suitable, proper. 

Aqueous. — Aquatic. Lat. aqua, San- 
scr. ap, Gr. aa, Alban. tighe, water ; 
Goth, ahva, OHG. aha, a river. 

Arable. Lat. aro, OE. ear, to plough. 

Arbiter. — Arbitrate. The primary 
sense of Lat. arbiter is commonly given 
as an eye-witness, from whence that of 
an umpire or judge is supposed to be 
derived, as a witness specially called in 
for the purpose of determining the ques- 
tion under trial. But there is no recog- 
nised derivation in Latin which would 
account for either of these significations. 
A rational explanation may, however, be 
found in Fin. 

There is a common tendency in an un- 
informed state of society to seek for the 
resolution of doubtful questions of suffi- 
cient interest by the casting of lots in 



ARBOUR 

some shape or other. Thus in Latin 
sors, a lot, is taken in the sense of an 
oracle, and sortilegus is a soothsayer, 
one who gives oracles, or answers ques- 
tions by the casting of lots ; and this 
doubtless is the origin of E. sorcerer, 
sorcery. Albanian, s/iort, a lot, short dr, 
a soothsayer. Now one of the points 
upon which the cunning man of the 
present day is most frequently consulted 
is the finding of lost property, and a 
dispute upon such a subject among a 
barbarous people would naturally be re- 
ferred to one who was supposed to have 
supernatural means of knowing the truth. 
Thus the lots-man or soothsayer would 
naturally be called in as arbiter or dooms- 
man. Now we find in Fin. arpa, a lot, 
symbol, divining rod, or any instrument 
of divination ; arpa-mies, (mies = ma.T\,) 
sortium ductor, arbiter, hariolus ; arpelen, 
arwella, to decide by lot, to divine ; ar- 
wata, conjicio, auguror, asstimo, arbitror ; 
arwaaja, arbiter in re censenda ; arwelo, 
arbitrium, opinio, conjectura ; arwaus, 
conjectura, aestimatio arbitraria. It will 
be observed in how large a proportion of 
these cases the Lat. arbiter and its de- 
rivatives are used in explanation of the 
Fin. words derived from arpa. 

Arbour. From OE. herbere, originally 
signifying a place for the cultivation of 
herbs, a pleasure-ground, garden, sub- 
sequently applied to the bower or rustic 
shelter which commonly occupied the 
most conspicuous situation in the garden ; 
and thus the etymological reference to 
herbs being no longer apparent, the spell- 
ing was probably accommodated to the 
notion of being sheltered by trees or 
shrubs {arbor). 

This path 

I foUowid till it me brought 

To a right plesaunt herbir wel ywrought, 

Which that benchid was, and with turfis new 

Freshly turnid 

The hegge also that yedin in compas 

And closid in all the grene herbere. 

With Sycamor was set and Eglatere, — 

And shapin was this herbir, rofe and all, 

As is a pretty parlour. 

Chaucer, Flowqr and Leaf. 

It growyth in a gardyn, quod he, 

That God made hymselve, 

Amyddes mannes body, 

The more (root) is of that stokke, 

Herte highte the herber 

That it inne groweth. — P. P. 2. 331. 

The word is still used in its ancient 
meaning at Shrewsbury, where the differ- 
ent guilds have separate little pleasure- 
gardens with their summer-houses each 
within its own fence, in the midst of an 



ARCH 

open field outside the town, and over the 
gate of one of these gardens is written 
' Shoemakers' Arbour/ 

This lady walked outright till he might see her 
enter into a fine close ar^or : it was of trees whose 
branches so interlaced each other that it could 
resist the strongest violence of eye-sight.— Ar- 
cadia in R. 

Arch. A curved hne, part of a circle 
anything of a bowed form, as the arch of 
a bridge. Lat. arais, a bow, which has 
been referred to W. gwyrogy curved, 
from gwyro, to bend. 

* Arch, Arrant. i.^r<:/^ and its equiv- 
alents in the other branches of Teutonic 
are used with great latitude of meaning. 
In E. it signifies roguish, mischievous, 
sly, and must be identified with Dan. 
arrig, ill-tempered, troublesome, G. arg, 
bad of its kind, morally bad, mischievous, 
wanton, Du. e7g, sly, malicious. G. ein 
arger k/iabe, Du. een erg kind, an arch 
boy, un maUn enfant, un petit rus^. The 
earliest meaning that we can trace is that 
of ON. argr, AS. earg, earh, faint-hearted, 
sluggish, timid, and in that sense among 
the Lombards it was the most offensive 
term of abuse that could be employed. 
' Memento Dux Ferdulfe quod me esse 
inertem et inutilem dixeris, et vulgari 
verbo, arga, vocaveris.' — Paul Warne- 
frid. ' Si quis alium atgani per furorem 
clamaverit.' ♦- Lex. Langobard. in Due. 
Then from the contempt felt for any- 
thing like timidity in those rough and 
warlike times the word acquired the 
sense of worthless, bad, exaggerated in 
degree when appHed to a bad quality. 
ON. argvitiigr, taxed with cowardice, 
contemptible, bad. Dan. det arrigste 
snavs, the most arrant trash, wretched 
stuff. OE. arwe, fainthearted. 

Now thou seist he is the beste knygt, 
And thou as a?'we coward. 

Alisaunder, 3340. 

. There can be no doubt that E. arrant 
is essentially the same word, the termina- 
tion of which is probably from the mas- 
culine inflection en of the PI. D. adjective. 
Een aigen drog, an arrant rogue. — Brem. 
Wtb. 

2. Arch in composition. Gr. dpxn, 
beginning, ap^ii-v, to be first. Apxf- in 
comp. signifies chief or principal, as in 
apx^pfwc, «Px«Yy*^oc, chief priest, arch- 
angel. This particle takes the form of 
arci in It., erz in G., arch in E. ; arci- 
vescovo, er2-bischof, arch-bishop. In G. 
as in E. it is also applied to pre-eminence 
in evil ; erz-betriiger, an arch-deceiver ; 
erz-wiichej^er, an arrant usurer. Perhaps 



ARMS 



25 



we fall the more readily into this appli- 
cation from the fact that our version of 
the Gr. particle is identical with arch 
applied on other grounds to pre-eminence 
in evil. 

Architect. Gr. apxirsKrcjv {apxVi and 
rUrujv, a builder, worker, from rey^w, to 
construct, fabricate), a chief builder. 

Archives. Gr. dpxtiov, the court of 
a magistrate, receptacle where the public 
acts were kept. The term would thus 
appear to be connected with dpxi^v, a 
ruler, apxr], government, rule (princi- 
patus), and not with apxa~ioQ, ancient. 
From apxtiov was formed Lat. archivuin 
(as Argive from 'ApytToi), a repository for 
records or public documents, and hence 
in modern languages the term archives 
is applied to the records themselves. 

Ardent. — Ardour. — Arson. Lat. ar- 
deo, arsnm, Fr. ardre, ars, to be on fire, 
to burn ; aj^dor, burning heat. Fr. arson, 
a burning or setting on fire. — Cot. 

Arduous. Lat. arduus, high, lofty, 
difficult to reach. 

Area. Lat. area, a threshing-floor, a 
bare plot of ground, a court yard, an ex- 
tent of flat surface. Applied in modern 
E. to the narrow yard between the under- 
ground part of a house and the ground in 
front. 

Argue. — Argument. Lat. arguo, to 
demonstrate, make clear or prove. 
Arid. Lat. aridus, from areo, to dry. 
Aristocracy. Gr. dptcFroKpartia {aptaTog, 
the best, bravest, a noble, and Kparku), to 
rule, exercise lordship), ruling by the 
nobles, whence the body of the nobles 
collectively. 

Arm. Sax. earm, Lat. armus, the 
shoulder-joint, especially of a brute, 
though sometimes applied to man. Con- 
nected with ramus, a branch, by Russ. 
ramo (pi. ramena), shoulder ; Boh. rajne, 
forearm ; rameno, arm, shoulder, branch. 
Arms. — Army. Lat. arma, W. arf, 
Gael, arm, a weapon. As the arm itself 
is the natural weapon of offence, it is pos- 
sible that the word ar7n in the sense of 
weapon may be simply an application of 
the same word as the designation of the 
bodily limb. 

From the verb armare, to arm, are 
formed the participial nouns. It. armata, 
Sp. armada, Fr. armee, of which the two 
former are confined by custom to a naval 
expedition, while the Fr. armSe, and our 
army, which is derived from it, are ap- 
plied only to an armed body of land 
forces, though formerly also used in the 
sense of a naval expedition. 



26 



AROMATIC 



At Leyes was he and at Satalie 

Whanne they were wonne, and in the grete see 

In many a noble annde had he be. 

Prol. Knight's Tale. 
Aromatic. Gr. dpufiariKog, from dpw/xa, 
sweetness of odours, a sweet smell. 

Arquebuss. It. archibuso affords an 
example of a foreign word altered in order 
to square with a supposed etymology. It 
is commonly derived from arco, a bow, as 
the only implement of analogous effect 
before the invention of fire-arms, and 
buso^ pierced, hollow. But Diez has well 
observed how incongruous an expression 
a hollow bow or pierced bow would be, 
and the true derivation is the Du. haeck- 
biiyse, haeck-busse^ properly a gun fired 
from a rest, from haeck, the hook or 
forked rest on which it is supported, and 
busse^ G. biichse, a fire-arm. From 
'haecke-busse it became harguebuss, and 
in It. archibuso or arcobugia, as if from 
arco^ a bow. In Scotch it was called a 
hagbtit of a-ochej Fr. arquebus a croc. — 
Jamieson. 

Arrack. Ptg. araca^ orraca, rak. 
From Arab, aj-ac, sweat ; ^arac at-tamr, 
sweat (juice) of the date. The name of 
^arac or 'araqui was first applied to the 
spirit distilled from the juice of the date- 
tree, and extended by the Arabs to dis- 
tilled spirit in general, being applied by 
us to the rice spirit brought from the East 
Indies. — Dozy 

To Arraign. In the Latin of the 
Middle Ages, rationes was the term for 
the pleadings in a suit ; rationes exercere, 
or ad rationes stare, to plead ; mittere or 
ponere ad rationes, or arrationare (whence 
in OFr. arraisonner, aresner, aregnier, 
arraigner), to arraign, i. e. to call one to 
account, to require him to plead, to 
place him under accusation. 
Thos sal ilk man at his endyng 
Be putted til an hard rekenyng, 
And be aresoned, als right es 
Of alle his mysdedys, mare and les. 

Pricke of Conscience, 2460. 
In like manner was formed derationare, 
to clear one of the accusation, to deraign, 
to justify, to refute. 

Arrant. Pre-eminent in something 
bad, as an arrant fool, thief, knave. ' An 
erratmt usurer.'— Fr. Pm. See Arch. 

To Array. It. arredare, to prepare 
or dispose beforehand, to get ready. 
Arredare una casa, to furnish a house ; 

uno vascello,to equip a ship. Arredo, 

household furniture, rigging of a ship, 
and in the plural arredi, apparel, raiment, 
as clothing is the equipment universally 
necessary. OFr. array er^ arreer^ to 



ARSENAL 

dispose, set in order, prepare, fit out. 
The simple verb is not extant in Italian, 
but is preserved to us in the ON. reida, 
the fundamental meaning of which seems 
to be to push forwards, to lay out. At 
reida sverdit, to wield a sword ; at r. 
/rant mat, to bring forth food ; at r, feit, 
to pay down money ; at r. til rumit, to 
prepare the bed ; at r. hey a hestinom, to 
carry hay on a horse. Sw. reda, to pre- 
pare, to set in order, to arrange ; reda ett 
skepp, to equip a vessel; reda til mid^ 
dagen, to prepare dinner. The same 
word is preserved in the Scotch, to red, 
to red 7ip, to put in order, to dress ; to 
red the road, to clear the way.— Jam. 

The meaning of the hzt. pai^o, parattis, 
seems to have been developed on an 
analogous plan. The fundamental mean- 
ing of the simple paro seems to be to 
lay out, to push forwards. Thus separo 
is to lay things by themselves ; comparo 
to place them side by side ; preparo, to 
lay them out beforehand; and the It. 
Parare, to ward off. 

To Arrest. Lat. restare, to remain 
behind, to stand still. It. arrestare, Fr. 
arrester, to bring one to stand, to seize 
his person. 

To Arrive. Mid. Lat. adripare, to 
come to shore, from ripa, bank, shore ; 
then generalised. It. arrivare, Sp. ar- 
ribar, Fr. arriver, to arrive.— Diez. 

Arrogant. Lat. ad and rogo, to ask. 
Sibi aliqnid arrogare, to ascribe some- 
thing to oneself; arrogans, claiming 
more than one's due. 

Arrow, on. or, gen. brvar, an arrow ; 
or-varnar, missiles, probably from their 
whirring^ through the air; '' brvar nar 
flugo hvinandi yfir haufut theim,' the 
arrows flew whizzing over their heads. — 
Saga Sverris. p. 26. On the same prin- 
ciple It. freccia, an arrow, may be com- 
pared with Fr. frissement d'un trait, the 
whizzing sound of an arrow. — Cot. Sw. 
hurra, to whirl, hurl. 

Arsenal. It. arzana, darsena, tarzana, 
a dock-yard, place of naval stores and 
outfit, dock. Sp. atarazana, atarazanal, 
a dock, covered shed over a rope-walk. 
From Arab, ddr cind'a, ddr-aq-cind^a, 
ddr-aq-qan''a or ddr-gana, a place of con- 
struction or work. It is applied by 
Edrisi to a manufacture of Morocco 
leather. Ibn-Khaldoun quotes an order 
of the Caliph Abdalmelic to build at 
Tunis ' a ddr-cind^a for the construction 
of everything necessary for the equip- 
ment and armament of vessels.' Pedro 
de Alcala translates atarazana by the 



ARSON 

Arab, ddr a cind'a. — Engelmann and 
Dozy. 

Oportet ad illius (navigii) conservationem in 
locum pertrahi coopertum, qui locus, ubi dictum 
conservdtur navigium, Arsena vulgariter appel- 
latur. — Sanutus in Duo. 

Arson. See Ardent. 

Art. The exercise of skill or invention 
in the production of some material object 
or intellectual effect; the rules and 
method of well doing a thing ; skill, con- 
trivance, cunning. 

Art and part, when a person is both 
the contriver of a crime and takes part 
in the execution, but commonly in the 
negative, neither art 7tor part. From 
the Lat, nee artifex 7iec particeps, neither 
contriver nor partaker. 

Artery. Gr. dprrjpia, an air-receptacle 
(supposed from dr]p, and Tijpsio, to keep, 
preserve), the windpipe, and thence any 
pulsating blood-channel. 

Artichoke. Venet. articiocoj Sp. al- 
cachofaj Arab. al-charscJmfaj It. car- 
ciofa. — Diez. 

Article. Lat. articnhis, diminutive 
of arttis, a joint, a separate element or 
member of anything, an instant of time, 
a single member of a sentence, formerly 
applied to any part of speech, as ttwt, 
est^ quisque (Forcellini), but ultimately 
confined to the particles the and an^ the 
effect of which is to designate one par- 
ticular individual of the species men- 
tioned, or to show that the assertion 
applies to some one individual, and not 
to the kind at large. 

Artillery. We find in Middle Latin 
the term ars^ and the derivative artifi- 
ciuni, applied in general to the implement 
with which anything is done, and specially 
to the implements of war, on the same 
principle that the Gr. /ij/xnv;), the equi- 
valent of the Lat. ars^ gave rise to the 
word maehina, a machine^ and on which 
the word engine is derived from the Lat. 
ingetiium^ a contrivance. Thus a statute 
of the year 1352 enacts : 

Quod nulla persona — sit ausa venari in ne- 
moribus consulum — sub poena perdendi — artes, 
seu instrumenta cum quibus fieret venatio prae- 
dicta. — Due. 

Cum magnis bombardis at plurimis diversis 
artificia lib us. — Due. 

From ars seems to have been foi-med the 
Fr. verb artiller, in the general sense of 
exercising a handicraft, or performing 
skilled work, subsequently applied to the 
manufacturing or supplying with muni- 
tions of war. In testimony of the more 
general sense we find artiliaria, and 



AS 27 

thence the modern Fr, atelier^ a work- 
shop : 

Quod eligantur duo legales homines qui 
vadant cum officiali ad visitandum onmes ar~ 
tiliarias exercentes artem pannorum, — Stat. 
A. D. 1360, in Due. 

Artille7nent, artillerie, is given by 
Roquefort in the sense of implement, 
furniture, equipment, as well as instru- 
ment of war, and the word is used by 
Rymer in the more general sense : — 

Deeem et octo discos argenti, unum calicem 
argenteum, unum parvum tintinnabulum pro 
missa, &c., et omnes alias artillarias sibi com- 
petentes. 

A statute of Edward II. shows what 
was understood by artillery in that day : 

Item ordinatum est quod sit unus artillator 
qui faciat balistas, carellos, arcos, sagittas, 
lanceas, spiculas, et alia arma necessaria pro 
garnizionibus castrorum. 

So, in the Book of Samuel, speaking 
of bow and arrows, it is said, * And 
Jonathan gave his artillery to the lad, 
and said, Go carry them to the city.' 

As. The comparison of the G. dialects 
shows that as is a contraction from ail- 
so j AS. eallswa ; G. also^ als, as (Schiilze, 
Schmeller), OFris. alsa., alse, als, asa, 
ase, as (Richthofen). ' als auch wir verge- 
ben unsern schuldigern,' as we also for- 
give our debtors. — Schmeller. Also, sic, 
omnino, taliter, ita. — Kilian. Fris. ' alsa 
grate bote alsa,' G, ' eben so grosse busse 
als' as great a fine as ; Fris. ' alsoe graet 
als,' * alsoe graet ende alsoe lytich als,' as 
great and as small as ; ' alsoe ofte als,' as 
often as. 

In OE. we often find als for also. 

Schyr Edward that had sic valour 

Was dede ; and J hone Stewart alsua. 

And Jhone the Sowllis als with tha 

And othyr als of thar company. — Bruce, xii. 795. 

Schir Edward that day wald nocht ta 

His cot armour ; but Gib Harper, 

That men held als withoutyn per 

Off his estate, had on that day 

All hale Schir Edwardis array. — Bruce, xii. 782. 

i. e. whom men held as without equal of 
his station. 

So in German, * ein solcher, als er ist,' 
— such a one as he is. — Schmeller. In 
expressions like as great as, where two 
as correspond to each other, the Germans 
render the first by so, the second by als ; 
in OE. the first was commonly written 
als, the second as, 

Thai wet 
To Weris water cummyn als ner 
As on othyr halff their fayis wer. 

Bruce, xiv. 102. 



is 



ASCETIC 



' Of all that grete tresoure that ever he biwan 
Als bare was his towere as ]ob the powere man. 
R. Brunne. 

But this is probably only because the se- 
cond as, having less emphasis upon it 
than the first, bore more contraction, 
just as we have seen in the corresponding 
Frisian expressions that the first as is 
rendered by alsoe, the second by als. In 
other cases the Frisian expression is just 
the converse of the G. Fris. alsa longe 
sa — G. so lange als, as long as ; Fris. 
asafirsa—O. so iveit als, as far as ; Fris. 
alsa fir sa, in so far as. 

Ascetic. Gr. aaKtiTiKoq (dffKeu), to prac- 
tise, exercise as an art), devoted to the 
practice of sacred duties, meditation, &c. 
Hence the idea of exercising rigorous 
self-discipline. 

Ash. I. The tree. AS. cesc, ON. as^r. 
2. Dust. Goth, azgo, AS. asca, ON. as^a, 
Esthon. as^, refuse, dung. 

Ashlar. Hewn stone. OFr. aiseler, 
Sc. aislair. ' Entur le temple — fud un 
murs de treiz estruiz de aiselers qui bien 
furent polis : '— tribus ordinibus lapidum 
politorum. — Livre des Rois. 'A mason 
cannocht hew ain evin aislair without 
directioun of his rewill.' — Jam. Fr. 
'bouttice, an ashlar or binding-stone in 
building.' — Cot. 

Fr. aiseler seems to be derived from 
aisselle (Lat. axilla), the hollow beneath 
the arm or between a branch and the 
stem of a tree, applied to the angle 
between a rafter and the wall on which 
it rests, or between two members of a 
compound beam in centering. Aisselier, 
then, or esselier, in carpentry, is the 
bracket which supports a beam, or the 
quartering-piece which clamps a rafter to 
the wall (piece de bois qu'on assemble 
dans un chevron et dans la rainure, pour 
cintrer des quartiers (Gattel) ; pour for- 
mer les quartiers dans une charpente a 
lambris ; qui sert k former les cintres, ou 
qui soutient par les bouts les entrans ou 
tirans. — Trevoux). From thus serving to 
unite the segments of a compound beam 
the name seems to have been transferred 
to a binding-stone in masonry, and thence 
to any hewn and squared stone mixed 
with rubblestone in building. 

To Ask. AS. acsian, ascian, ON. CBskia, 
G. heischen. 

' * Askance, Askaunt. OFr. a scanc/ie, 
de travers, en lorgnant. — Palsgr. 831. It. 
schiancio, athwart, across, against the 
grain ; aschianciare, to go awry ; scan- 
zare, scansare, to turn aside, slip aside, 
walk by. — FI. Both askant and the 



ASSASSIN 

synonymous aslant vc^'x^ho: traced through 
Sc. asklent, askew, to \N . ysglentio, OFr. 
esclincher, to slip or slide. E71 etclenk- 
aunt (esclenchant), obliquando. — Nec- 
cham in Nat. Antiq. Then by the loss of 
the / on the one hand, askaunt j and of 
the k on the other, Sw. slinta, to slide, 
and E. aslant. The rudiment of the lost 
/ is seen in the / of It. schiancio, and 
wholly obliterated in scanzare. The Du. 
schuin, N. skjons (pron. shbns), oblique, 
wry, i skjons, awry, seem to belong to a 
totally different root connected with E. 
shun, shunt, to push aside, move aside. 

Askew. ON. skeifr, Dan. skjcev, G. 
schicf, schaf, schieb, schiebicht, oblique, 
wry ; ON. a skd, askew. Gr. (x/caioc, 
Lat. scccvus, properly oblique, then left, 
on the left hand ; aKaibv aTOfxa, a wry 
mouth. 

From G. schieben, to shove, as shown 
by Du. schuin, obhque, compared with 
E. shun, shunt, to push aside. G. vers- 
chieben, to put out of its place, to set 
awry. 

Asperity. Lat. asper, rough. 

To Aspire. — Aspirate. Lat. aspiro, 
to pant after, to pretend to, from spiro, 
to breathe. The Lat. aspiro is also used 
for the strong breathing employed in 
pronouncing the letter //, thence called 
the aspirate, a term etymologically un- 
connected with the spiritus asper of the 
Latin grammarians. 

Ass. Lat. asimis, G. esel, Pol. osiol. 

To Assail. — Assault. Lat. salii^e, to 
leap, to spring ; Fr. saillir, to sally, to 
leap ; assaillir, to assail, to set upon, 
whence assault, assailing or setting upon. 

Assart. A cleared place in a wood. 
Fr. essart, Mid. Lat. exartujn, essartum^ 
assartum, sartum. 

Essarta vulgo dicuntur — quando forestae, ne- 
mora, veldumeta quselibet — succiduntur, quibus 
succisis et radicitus evulsis terra subvertitur et 
excolitur. — Lib. Scacch. in Due. 

Et quicquid in toto territorio Laussiniaco di- 
ruptum et exstirpatum est quod vulgo dicitur 
exsurs. — Chart. A. D. 1196, in Due. 

From ex-'saritum, grubbed up. — Diez. 
Lat. sarrio, sario, to hoe, to weed. 

Assassin. Hashish is the name of an 
intoxicating drug prepared from hemp in 
use among the natives of the East. Hence 
Arab. ' Haschischin,' a name given to the 
members of a sect in Syria who wound 
themselves up by doses of hashish to 
perform at all risk the orders of their 
Lord, known as the Sheik, or Old Man 
of the Mountain. As the murder of his 
enemies would be the most dreaded of 



ASSAY 

these behests, the name of Assassin was 
given to one commissioned to perform a 
murder ; assassination, a murder per- 
formed by one lying in wait for that 
special purpose.— Diez. De Sacy, Mem. 
de rinstitut, 1818. 

To Assay. Lat. exigere, to examine, 
to prove by examination ; ' annulis ferreis 
ad certum pondus exactis pro numrno 
utuntur,' iron rings proved of a certain 
weight.— Cassar. Hence, exagium, a 
weighing, a trial, standard weight. 
'E^aycov, pensitatio ; t^ayta^w, examino, 
perpendo. — Gl. in Due. 

De ponderibus quoque, ut fraus penitus ampu- 
tetur, a nobis agantur exagla (proof specimens) 
quae sine fraude debent custodiri. — Novell. The- 
odosii in Due. 

Habetis aginam (a balance), exagium facite, 
quemadmodun vultis ponderate. — Zeno, ibid. 

From exagium was formed the It. sag- 
gio, a proof, trial, sample, taste of any- 
thing ; assaggiare, to prove, try, taste, 
whence Fr. essayer, to try, and E. assay, 
essay. — Mur. Diss. 27, p. 585. 

To Assemble. The origin of Lat. 
siniul, together, at once, is probably the 
radical sa7n, very widely spread in the 
sense of same, self. The locative case 
of Fin. sania, the same, is samalla, ad- 
verbially used in the sense of at once, to- 
gether, which seems to explain the forma- 
tion of Lat siinul. From simul, insimnl, 
were formed It. insiefne, Fr. ensemble, 
together ; assembler, to draw together, 
^assembler, to meet or flock together ; 
whence E. assemble. In the Germanic 
branch of language we have Goth, sama, 
the same ; samana (corresponding to Fin. 
samalla), Sw. ,samman, G. zusammen, 
AS. te sonine, to the same place, together ; 
sa7nnia7i, somitian, Sw. sammla, Dan. 
sainle, G. versammehi, to collect, to assem- 
ble. The OE. assemble was often used 
in the special sense of joining in battle. 

By Carhame assemblyd thai ; 
Thare was hard fychting as I harde say. 

Wyntown in Jam. 

And in old Italian we find sembiaglia in 
the same sense. ' La varatta era fornita. 
Non poteo a sio patre dare succurso. Non 
poteo essere a la sembiaglia.^ In the 
Latin translation, * conflictui interesse 
nequibat.' — Hist. Rom. Fragm. in Mu- 
ratori. 

To Assess. Assidere, assessitin, to sit 
down, was used in Middle Lat. in an 
active sense for to set, to impose a tax ; 
assidere talliamj in Fr. asseoir la taille, 



ASSOIL 



29 



to fix a certain amount upon each indi- 
vidual. 

Provisum est generaliter quod prcedicta quad- 
ragesima hoc modo assideatur et colligatur. — 
Math. Paris, A. D. 1232. 

Et fuit quodlibet feodum militare assesstim 
tunc ad 40 sol. — Due. 

Assets, in legal language, are funds 
for the satisfaction of certain demands. 
Commonly derived from Fr. assez, but in 
OE. it was commonly written asseth. 
And if it suffice not for asseth.—'?. Plowman, 
p. 94. 

And Pilat willing to make aseeth to the people 
left to hem Barabbas, — Wiclif, Mark 15. 
And though on heapes that lie him by, 
Yet never shall make his richesse 
Asseth unto his greediness. — R. R. ; 

yizk^aceethe {makyn seel/ie — K.), satis- 
facio. — Pr. Pm. ' Now then, rise and go 
forthe and spekyng do aseethe to thy 
servauntis ' — Wicliffe ; satisfac servis tuis 
— Vulgate. ' Therefore I swore to the 
hows of Heli that the wickedness of his 
hows shall not be doon aseeth befoi'e with 
slain sacrificis and giftis.' — Wiclif. In 
the Vulgate, expietur. Assyth, sithe, to 
make compensation, to satisfy. ' I have 
gotten my heart's site on him.' — Lye in 
Junius, v. sythe. Gael, sioth, sith, peace, 
quietness, rest from war, reconciliation ; 
sithich, calm, pacify, assuage, reconcile \ 
W. hedd, tranquillity, heddu, to pacify ; 
Pol. Bohem. syt, syty, satisfied, full ; 
Bohem, sytiti, to satisfy. 

The Lat. satis, enough ; ON. scett, scetti, 
reconciliatio, scEttr, reconciliatus, con- 
tentus, consentiens ; sedia, saturare ; G. 
salt, full, satisfied, — are doubtless all 
fundamentally related. 

Assiduous. Lat. assiduus, sitting 
down, seated, constantly present, unre- 
mitting. 

Assize. — Assizes. From assidere was 
formed OFr. assire, to set, whence assis, 
set, seated, settled ; assise, a set rate, a 
tax, as assise of bread, the settled rate for 
the sale of bread ; also a set day, whence 
conr d'assize, 3. court to be held on a set 
day, E. assizes. 

Ballivos nostros posuimus qui in baliviis suis 
singulis mensibus ponent unum diem qui dicitur 
Assisia in quo omnes illi qui clamorem facient 
recipient jus suum. — Charta Philip August. A.D. 
1 190, in Due. 

Assisa in It. is used for a settled pattern 
of dress, and is the origin of E. size, a 
settled cut or make. 

To AssoiL To acquit. Lat. absol- 
vere,Xo loose from; OFr. absolver, ab- 
soiller, assoiler. — Roquefort. 'To whom 
spak Sampson, Y shal purpose to yow a 



30 ASSUAGE 

dowtous word, the which if ye soylen to 
me, &c. ; forsothe if ye mowen not assoyle^ 
&c. And they mightcn not bi thre days 
soylen the proposicioun.' — WycUf, Judges 
xiv. 12, &c. 

To Assuage. From Lat. suavis, sweet, 
agreeable, Prov. suau, sweet, agreeable, 
soft, tranquil, OFr. soef^souef^ sweet, soft, 
gentle, arise, Prov. assuaiizar, assuavar, 
assuaviar, to appease, to calm, to soften. 
Hence, OFr. assoua^er, to soften, to allay, 
answering to assuaviar^ as alUger to al- 
leviare, abreger to abbreviare^ agriger to 
aggravtare, soulager to solleviare. 

Mais moult m' assouagea \ oingture — R. R.; 
translated by Chaucer, 

Now softening with the ointment. 

Asthma. Gr. aaOfia, panting, difficult 
breathing. 

To Astonish. — Astound. — Stony. 
Fr. esfonner, to astonish, amaze, daunt ; 
also to sionnie^ benumme or dull the 
senses of. — Cotgr. The form astonish 
shows that estonnir must also have 
been in use. According to Diez, from 
Lat. attonare, attonitmn (strengthened 
to extonare), to thunder at, to stun, 
to stupefy. So in E. thunder-struck is 
used for a high degree of astonishment. 
But probably the root ton in attonitus is 
used rather as the representative of a loud 
overpowering sound in general, than 
specially of thunder. Thus we have din, 
a loud continued noise ; dint, a blow ; to 
dim, to make an importunate noise ; 
dunt, a blow or stroke ; to dunt, to con- 
fuse by noise, to stupefy. — Halliwell. AS. 
stunian, to strike, to stun, to make stupid 
with noise ; stunt, stupefied, foolish ; G. 
erstaunen, to be in the condition of one 
stunned. 

Astute. Lat. astus, subtilty, craft. 

Asylum. Lat. asylnm, from Gr. 
aav\ov (a priv., and avXau), to plunder, in- 
jure), a place inviolable, safe by the force 
of consecration. 

At. ON. at, Dan. ad, equivalent to 
E. to before a verb, at segia, to say ; Lat. 
ad, to ; Sanscr. adhi, upon. 

Athletic. Gr. oQXog, a contest for a 
prize ; dOXijrrjc, a proficient in muscular 
exercises. 

Atlas. Gr. 'ArXag, the name of one 
who was fabled to support on his shoul- 
ders the entire vault of heaven, the globe ; 
thence, applied to a book of maps of the 
countries of the globe : wliich had com- 
monly a picture of Atlas supporting the 
globe for a frontispiece. 



ATTAINDER 

Atmosphere. Gr. dr/i6f, smoke, va- 
pour. 

Atom. Gr. arofioQ (from a privative 
and Tifivb), to cut), indivisible, that does 
not admit of cutting or separation. 

Atone. To bring at one, to reconcile, 
and thence to suffer the pains of what- 
ever sacrifice is necessary to bring about 
a reconciliation. 

If gentilmen or other of that contrei 

Were wroth, she wolde bringen hem at on. 

So wise and ripe wordes hadde she. 

Chaucer in R. 

One God, one Mediator (that is to say, advo- 
cate, intercessor, or an aiojie-tnaker) between 
God and man. — Tyndall in R. 

Lod. Is there division 'twixt my Lord and 

Cassio ? 
Des. A most unhappy one ; I would do much 
T' attone them for the love I bear to Cassio. 

Othello. 

The idea of reconciliation was expressed 
in the same way in Fr. 

II ot amis et anemis ; 
Or sont-il tot a un mis. 

P'ab. et Contes. i. i8i. 

OE. to one, to unite, to join in one. 

David saith the rich folk that embraceden and 
oneden all hir herte to treasour of this world shall 
slepe in the sleping of deth. — Chaucer in R. 

Put together and onyd, continuus ; put 
together but not onyd, contiguus. — Pr. 
Pm. 

Precisely the converse of this expres- 
sion is seen in G. entzweyen, to disunite, 
sew dissension, from enzwey, in two ; 
sich entzweyen, to quarrel, fall into vari- 
ance. — KiJttn. 

Atrocious. Lat. atrox, fierce, barbar- 
ous, cruel. 

To Attach. — Attack. These words, 
though now distinct, are both derived 
from the It attaccare, to fasten, to hang. 
Venet. tacare; Piedm. tach^, to fasten. 
Hence in Fr. the double form, attacher, 
to tie, to fasten, to stick, to attach, and 
attaquer, properly to fasten on, to begin 
a quarrel. S^attacker is also used in the 
same sense ; s' attacher a, to coape, scuffle, 
grapple, fight with.— Cotgr. It. attacare 

un chiodo, to fasten a nail; la guer- 

ra, to commence war ; la battaglia, 

to engage in battle ; il fuoco, to set 

on fire ; attaccarsi il fuoco, to catch fire ; 
di parole, to quarrel. 

To attach one, in legal language, is to 
lay hold of one, to apprehend him under 
a charge of criminality. 

Attainder. — Attaint. Fr. attaindre 
(OFr. attainder — Roquef.), to reach or 
attain unto, hit or strike in reaching, to 
overtake, bring to pass, also to attaint or 



ATTIRE 

convict, also to accuse or charge with. — 
Cotgr. The institution of a judicial ac- 
cusation is compared to the pursuit of an 
enemy ; the proceedings are called a suit, 
Fr. poiirsiiite eii jugement, and the 
agency of the plaintiff is expressed by 
the verh prosequi, to pursue. In follow- 
ing out the metaphor the conduct of the 
suit to a successful issue in the convic- 
tion of the accused is expressed by the 
verb attingere, Fr. attaindre, which sig- 
nifies the apprehension of the object of a 
chase. » 

Quern fugientem dictus Raimundus atinxit. 
Hence the Fr. attainte d'une cause, the 
gain of a suit ; attaindre le meffait, to fix 
the charge of a crime upon one, to prove 
a crime. — Carp, A tains du fet, convicted 
of the fact, caught by it, having it brought 
home to one. — Roquef. 

Attire. OFr. atour, attaur, a French 
hood, also any kind of tire or attire for a 
woman's head. Damoiselle d'atour, the 
waiting-woman that uses to dress or attire 
her mistress — Cotgr., — a tirewoman. 
Attoure, tired, attired, dressed, trimmed, 
adorned. Attourfier, to attire, deck, 
dress. Attourneur, one that waits in the 
chamber to dress his master or his mis- 
tress. 

The original sense of attiring was that 
of preparing or getting ready for a certain 
purpose, from the notion of turning to- 
wards it, by a similar train of thought to 
that by which the sense of dress, clothing, 
is derived from directing to a certain end, 
preparing for it, clothing being the most 
universally necessary of all preparations. 
He attired him to battle with folc that he had. 

R. Brunne in R.. 
What does the king of France ? atires him good 
navie. — Ibid. 

^ The change from atotir to attire is 
singular, but we find them used with ap- 
parent indifference. 

By her atire so bright and shene 
Men might perceve well and sene 
She was not of Religioun, 
Nor n' il I make mencioun 
Nor of robe, nor of tresour, 
Of broche, neither of her rich attour. — R. R. 
Riche atyr, noble vesture, 
Bele robe ou riche pelure. — Polit. Songs. 

OFr. atirer, attirer, atirier, ajuster, 
convenir, accorder, orner, decorer, parer, 
preparer, disposer, regler.— Roquefort. 

I tyer an ^g<g : je accoustre : I tyer 
with garments: je habille and je ac- 
coustre. — Palsgr. 

Attitude. Posture of body. It. atto, 
from Lat. agere^ actmn, act, action, pos- 



AUGER 



31 



ture; It, attitudine, promptness, dis- 
position to act, and also simply posture, 
attitude. 

Attorney. Mid. Lat. attornatus, one 
put in the turn or place of another, one 
appointed to execute an office on behalf 
of another, 

Li atorni est oil qui pardevant justice est 
atornd pour aucun en Eschequier ou en Assise 
pour poursuivre et pour defendre sa droiture. — 
Jus Municipale Normannorum, in Due. 

Auburn. Now applied to a rich red- 
brown colour of hair, but originally it 
probably designated what we now call 
flaxen hair. The meaning of the word 
is simply whitish. It. alburno, the white 
or sapwood of timber, ' also that whitish 
colour of women's hair called an abu?-n- 
colourJ—Y\. '[Cometa] splendoris al- 
burni radium producens.' — Due. In the 
Walser dialect of the Grisons, alb is used 
in the sense of yellowish brown like the 
colour of a brown sheep. — Blihler. 

Auction, — Augment. Lat. augeo, 
auctum, Gr. av^io, Goth, aiikan, as. eacan, 
to increase, to eke. 

Audacious. Lat. audax,-acis; audeo, 
I dare. 

Audience.— Audit. In the law lan- 
guage of the middle ages audire was 
specially applied to the solemn hearing 
of a court of justice, whence audientia 
was frequently used as synonymous with 
judgment, court of justice, &c., and even 
in the sense of suit at law. The Judge 
was termed auditor, and the term was in 
particular applied to persons commis- 
sioned to inquire into any special matter. 
The term was then applied to the notaries 
or officers appointed to authenticate all 
legal acts, to hear the desires of the 
parties, and to take them down in writing ; 
also to the parties witnessing a deed. 
'Testes sunt hujus rei visores et audir 
tores, &c. Hoc viderunt et audierunt 
isti, &c.' — Due. 

At the present day the term is confined 
to the investigation of accounts, the ex- 
amination and allowance of which is 
termed the audit^ the parties examining, 
the atiditors. 

Auf, Auff, a fool or silly fellow.— B. 
See Oaf. 

Auger. An implement for drilling 
holes, by turning round a centre which is 
steadied against the pit of the stomach. 
Formerly written nauger, Du. evegher, 
nevegher. In cases like these, which are 
very numerous in language, it is impos- 
sible prima facie to say whether an 71 has 



32 



AUGHT 



been added in the one case or lost in the 
other. In the present case the form with 
an initial « is undoubtedly the original. 
AS. naf-(ra>%na/-bor. Taradros [a gimlet], 
napu g^rd. — Gloss. Cassel . The force of 
the former element of the word is ex- 
plained from the Finnish napa, a navel, 
and hence, the middle of anything, centre 
of a circle, axis of a wheeL In com- 
position it signifies revolution, as from 
7neren, the sea, vieren-napa, a whirlpool ; 
from rauta, iron, napa-rmita, the iron 
stem on which the upper millstone rests 
and turns ; 7naan-napa, the axis of the 
earth. With kaira, a borer, the equiva- 
lent of AS. gaf, it forms napa-kaira, 
exactly corresponding to the common E. 
name of the tool, a cetitre-bit^ a piercer 
acting by the revolution of the tool round 
a fixed axis or centre. Lap. nape, navel, 
centre, axle. 

The other element of the word cor- 
responding to the Fin. kaira, AS. gar, is 
identical with the E. gore, in the sense of 
being gored by a bull, i. e. pierced by his 
horns. AS. gar, a javelin, gara, an an- 
gular point of land. 

Aught or Ought. Something; as 
naught or nought, nothing. AS. d-wiht, 
OHG. eo-wiht; modern G. ichtj from a, G. 
aiv, ever, and wiht, Goth, waihts, a 
thing. See Whit. 

Augur.— Augury. See Auspice. 

Aunt. Lat. o.inita, OFr. ante. Icilz 
oncles avoit la soie ante espousee. — 
Chron. Du Guesclin. 264. A similar con- 
traction takes place in eminet, ant. 

Auspice. — Auspicious. Lat. auspex 
for avispex (as auceps, a bird-catcher, for 
aviceps), a. diviner by the observation of 
(Lat. a^ns) birds. As the azigur drew his 
divinations from the same source, the 
element gur is probably the equivalent 
of spex in auspex, and reminds us of OE. 
gaure, to observe, to stare. 

Austere. Lat. austerus, from Gr. 
avfTTtjpoQ, harsh, severe, rough. 

Authentic. Gr, avOhrnQ, one who 
acts or owns in his own right (der; from 
avrbg, and 'itaQai, mittere), avQtVTiKog, 
backed by sufficient authority. 

Author. Lat. auctor {aiigeo, auctum, 
to increase), a contriver, originator, 
maker; auctoritas, the right of the 
maker over the thing made, jurisdiction, 
power. 

Automaton. Gr. avTOfxaroQ, self- 
moving, self-acting ; avTcg, self, and fidu) 
fidonai, I Stir myself, am stirred. 

Autumn. Lat. autumnus. Some- 
times written auctumnus, as if from 



AVER 

auctum, increase; the time when the 
increase of the earth is gathered in. 

Auxiliary. Lat. auxilium, help. See 
Auction. 

To Avail. I. To be of service. Fr. 
valoir, to be worth ; Lat. valere, to be 
well in health, to be able, to be worth. 

2. To Avail or Avale, to lower. To 
vail his flag, to lower his flag. Fr. d 
val, downwards ; d 7nont et d val, towards 
the hill and towards the vale, upwards 
and downwards. Hence avaler, properly 
to let (iown, to lower, now used in the 
sense of swallowing. 

Avalanche. A fall of snow sliding 
down from higher ground in the Alps. 
Mid. Lat. avalantia, a slope, declivity, 
descent, from Fr. avaler, to let down. — 
Carp. 

Avarice. Lat. avarus, covetous ; 
aveo, to desire, to rejoice. 

Avast. A nautical expression for hold, 
stop, stay. Avast talking! cease talk- 
ing ! Old Cant, a waste, away ; bing a 
waste, go you hence. — Rogue's Diet, in 
modern slang. Probably waste has here 
the sense of empty ; go into empty space, 
avoid thee. In wast, in vain. — W. and 
the Werewolf. 

They left thair awin schip standand waist. 
Squyer Meldrum, 1. 773. 

Avaunt. Begone ! Fr. avant, before ; 
en avant ! forwards ! 

Avenue. Fr. advenue, avenue, an 
access, passage, or entry unto a place. — 
Cot. Applied in E. to the double row of 
trees by which the approach to a house 
of distinction was formerly marked. Lat. 
venire, to come. 

To Aver. Lat. verus, true ; Fr, avh'er, 
to maintain as true. 

Aver. A beast of the plough. The Fr. 
avoir (from habe7'e, to have), as well as 
Sp. haber, was used in the sense of goods, 
possessions, money. This in Mid. Lat. 
became avera, or averia. 

Taxata pactione quod salvis corporibus suis 
et averts et equis et armis cum pace recederent. 
— Chart. A. D. 1166. In istum sanctum locum, 
venimus cum Averos nostras. — Chart. Hisp. 
A. D. 819. Et in toto quantum Rex Adelfonsus 
tenet de rege Navarrte melioret cum suo proprio 
avere, quantum voluerit et poterit. — Hoveden, 
in Due. 

Averii, or Averia, was then applied 
to cattle in general, as the principal pos- 
session in early times. 

Hoc placitum dilationem non recipit propter 
averia, i. e. animalia muta, ne diu detineantur 
inclusa. — Regiam Majestatem. Si come jeo 
bayle a un home mes berbits a campester, ou 



AVERAGE 

mes boeufs k arer la terre et il occist mes avers. 
— Littleton. 

We then have averia carruccs, beasts 
of the plough ; and the word avers finally 
came to be confined to the signification 
of cart-horses. 

♦Average, i.y^-z/ijr^^^ is explained as 
duty work done for the Lord of the manor 
with the avers or draught cattle of the 
tenants. Sciendum est quod ununiquod- 
que averagium ccstivale debet fieri inter 
Hokday et gulam Augusti.— Spelman in 
Due. But probably the reference to the 
avers of the tenant may be a mistaken 
accommodation. From Dan. hof^ coiirt, 
are formed hovgaard, the manor to which 
a tenant belongs ; hovarbeide or hoveri, 
duty work to which the tenant was bound ; 
hovdag, duty days on which he was 
bound to service for the Lord, &c. Money 
paid in lieu of this duty work is called 
hoveri penge, corresponding to the aver- 
/^«/y/ofouroldrecords. ^ A ver-penny, hoc 
est quietum esse de diversis denariis pro 
averagio Domini Regis.' — Rastal in Due. 
2. In the second place average is used 
in the sense of ' a contribution made by 
all the parties in a sea-adventure accord- 
ing to the interest of each to make good 
a specific loss incurred for the benefit of 
all.' — Worcester. To average a loss 
among shippers of merchandise is to 
distribute it among them according to 
their interest, and from this mercantile 
sense of the term it has come in ordinary 
language to signify a mean value. In 
seeking the derivation of average^ with 
its continental representatives, Fr. avaris, 
avarie, It., Sp. avaria, Du. haverie, 
averie, G. haferey, haverey, averey, the 
first question will be whether we are to 
look for its origin to the shores of the 
Baltic or the Mediterranean. Now ac- 
cording to Mr Marsh the word does not 
occur in any of the old Scandinavian or 
Teutonic sea-codes, even in the chapters 
containing provisions for apportioning 
the loss by throwing goods overboard. 
On the other hand, it is of very old stand- 
ing in the Mediterranean, occurring in 
the Assises de Jerusalem, cxlv, Assises 
de la Baisse Court. 'Et sachies que 
celui aver qui est gete ne doit estre conte 
fors tant com il cousta o toutes ses 
averies:^ and know that any goods that 
are thrown overboard shall only be 
reckoned at what it cost with all charges. 
The old Venetian version gives as the 
equivalent of avaries, dazii e spese. The 
derivation from ON. haf^ the sea, or from 
haven, must then be given up. 



AVOID 



33 



The general meaning of the word is 
damage by accident or incidental ex- 
penses incurred by ship or cargo during 
the voyage. Fr. grosses avaries, loss by 
tempest, shipwreck, capture, or ransom ; 
memies avaries, expenses incurred on 
entering or leaving port, harbour duties, 
tonnage, pilotage, &c. In a secondary 
sense avarie is applied to the waste or 
leakage of goods in keeping, the wear and 
tear of a machine, &c. — Gattel. S'ava- 
rier, to suffer avarie, to become dam- 
aged. In the Consulado del Mar of the 
middle of the 13th century the notary is 
authorized to take pledges from every 
shipper for the value of ' lo nolit e les 
ava?'ies:^ the freight and charges. Marsh 
gives other instances in Spanish and 
Catalonian where the word is used in the 
sense of government duties and charges. 
' Lo receptor de les haueries de les com- 
positions que fa la Regia Cort, y lo re- 
ceptor dels salaris dels Doctors de la 
Real Audiencia,' &c.— Drets de Cata- 
lunya,A. D. 1584. In the Genoese annals 
of the year 141 3, quoted by Muratori, it 
is said that the Guelphs enjoyed the 
honours and benefices of the city, ' se- 
cundum ipsorum numerum, et illud quod 
in publicis solutionibus, quae Aveiice 
dicuntur, expendunt.' 

Marsh is inclined to agree with Santa 
Rosa in deriving the word from the 
Turkish avania, properly signifying aid, 
help, but used in the sense of a govern- 
ment exaction, a very frequent word in 
the Levant. The real origin however is 
Arab, "divar, a defect or flaw, which is 
the technical term corresponding to Fr. 
avarie. Kazomirski renders it 'vice, 
defaut,' and adds an example of its use 
as applied to ' marchandise qui a des 
defauts.' The primary meaning of the 
word would thus be that which is under- 
stood by grosses avaries, charges for ac- 
cidental damage, from whence it might 
easily pass to other charges. 

To Avoid. Properly to make void or 
empty, to make of none effect. To avoid 
a contract, to make it void, and hence to 
escape from the consequences of it. To 
confess and avoid, in legal phrase, was to 
admit some fact alleged by the adversary, 
and then to make it of none effect by 
showing that it does not bear upon the 
case. 

Tell me your fayth, doe you beleeve that there 
is a living God that is mighty to punish his 
enemies ? If you beleeve it, say unto me, can 
you devise for to avoyde hys vengeance ? — Barnes 
in R. 

3 



34 



AVOIR-DU-POISE 



Here the word may be interpreted 
either way : Can you devise to make void 
his vengeance, or to escape his vengeance, 
showing clearly the transition to the 
modern meaning. So in the following 
passage from Milton : — 

Not diffident of thee do I dissuade 
Thy absence from my sight, but to avoid 
The attempt itself intended by our foe. 
To avoid was also used as Fr. vuidej-, 
vider la maison, Piedm. void^ na cd, to 
clear out from a house, to make it empty, 
to quit, to keep away from a place. 

Anno H. VII. it was enacted that all Scots 
dwelling within England and Wales should avoid 
the realm within 40 days of proclamation made. 
— Rastal, in R. 

It is singular that we should thus wit- 
ness the development within the E. lan- 
guage of a word agreeing so closely in 
sound and meaning with Lat. evitare^ 
Fr. dviter ; but in cases of this kind it 
will, I believe, often be found that the 
Latin word only exhibits a previous ex- 
ample of the same line of development 
from one original root. I cannot but 
believe that the radical meaning of Lat. 
vitare is to give a wide berth to, to leave 
an empty space between oneself and the 
object. Fr. vuide, vide, empty, waste, 
vast, wide, free from, not cumbered or 
troubled with. — Cotgr. To shoot wide of 
the mark is to miss, to avoid the mark ; 
OHG. wtt, empty ; wtti, vacuitas. — Graff. 

Avoir-du-poise. The ordinary mea- 
sure of weight. OFr. avoirs de pois, 
goods that sell by weight and not by 
measurement. < 

To Avow. — Avouch. Under the 
feudal system, when the right of a tenant 
was impugned he had to call upon his 
lord to come forwards and defend his 
right. This in the Latin of the time was 
called advocare, Fr. voucher ct garantie, 
to vouch or call to warrant. Then as 
the calling on an individual as lord of 
the fee to defend the right of the tenant 
involved the admission of all the duties 
implied in feudal tenancy, it was an act 
jealously looked after by the lords, and 
advocare, or the equivalent Fr. avouer, 
to avow, came to signify the admission 
by a tenant of a certain person as feudal 
superior. 

Nihil ab eo se tenere in feodo aut quoquo 
modo alio advocabat. — Chron. A. D. 1296. Ita 
tamen quod dictus Episcopus et successores sui 
nos et successores nostros Comites Flandriae qui 
pro tempore fuerint, si indiguerint auxilio, advo- 
cabit, nee alium dominum secularem poterunt 
advocare.- — Charta A. D. 1250. Donee advocatus 
fuerit ut burgensis noster. — Stat. Louis le Hutin. 



AWARD 

1315. — ^until he shall be acknowledged as our 
burgess. Recognoscendo seu profitendo ab illis 
ea tanquam a superioribus se tenere seu ab ipsis 
eadetn advocando, prout in quibusdam partibus 
Gallicanis vulgariter dicitur advouer. — Concil. 
Lugdun. A. D. 1274. A personis laicis tanquam 
k superioribus ea quae ab Ecclesia tenent advou- 
antessQ tenere. — A. D. 1315, in Due. 

Finally, with some grammatical con- 
fusion, Lat. advocare, and E. avow or 
avouch, came to be used in the sense of 
performing the part of the vouchee or 
person called on to defend the right im- 
pugned. Et predicti Vice-comites advo- 
cant (maintain) praedictum attachion- 
amentum justum, eo quod, &c. — Lib. 
Alb. 406. To avow, to justify a thing 
already done, to maintain or justify, to 
affirm resolutely or boldly, to assert. — 
Bailey. 

1 could 

With barefaced power sweep him from my sight, 
And bid my will avouch it. — Macbeth. 

Avowtery, Avowterer. The very 
common change of d into v converted 
Lat. adulterium into It. avolterio, avol- 
teria, avoltero. Hence avolteratore, 
Prov. avoutrador, OE. avowterer, an 
adulterer. A d was sometimes inserted ; 
OFr. avoultre, advoultre, avotre, OE. 
advoutry, adultery. 

Award. The primitive sense of ward 
is shown in the It. guardare, Fr. re- 
gar der, to look. Hence Rouchi es- 
warder (answering in form to e. award) ^ 
to inspect goods, and, incidentally, to 
pronounce them good and marketable ; 
eswardeur, an inspector. — Hecart. 

An award is accordingly in the first 
place the taking a matter into considera- 
tion and pronouncing judgment upon it, 
but in later times the designation has 
been transferred exclusively to the con- 
sequent judgment. 

In like manner in OE. the verb to look 
is very often found in the sense of con- 
sideration, deliberation, determination, 
award, decision. When William Rufus 
was in difficulties with his brother Robert, 
about the partition of the Conqueror's 
inheritance, he determined to go to the 
King of France to submit the matter to 
his award. He says (in Peter Langtoft, 
p. 86) : 

Therfore am I comen to wite at yow our heued 
The londes that we have nomen to whom they 

shall be leued, 
And at your jugement I will stand and do 
With thi that it be ent (ended) the strif bituen us 

tuo. 
Philip said, blithely, and sent his messengers 
Tille Inglond to the clergy, erles, barons, therpers, 
And askid if thei wild stand to ther lokyng. 



AWE 

. — where looking is used exactly in the 
sense of the modern award. 

These senses of look are well exempli- 
fied in a passage from R. G- p. 567. 

To chese six wise men hii lokede there 

Three bishops and three barons the wisest that 

tbere were — 
And bot hii might accordi, that hii the legate 

took, 
And Sir Henry of Almaine right and law to look — 
Tho let tho king someni age the Tiwesday 
Next before All Hallow tide as his council bisai, 
Bishops and Abbots and Priors thereto, 
Erles and Barons and Knightes also, 
That hii were at Northampton to hear and at 

stonde 
To the loking of these twelve of the state of the 

londe. 

—to the award or determination of these 
twelve. 

There it was dispeopled the edict I wis 

That was the ban of Keningworth, that was lo ! 

this; 
That there ne should of high men desherited be 

none 
That had iholde age the King but the Erl of 

Leicetre one ; 
Ac that all the othere had agen all hor lond. 
Other hor heirs that dede were, but that the King 

in his hand 
It hulde to an term that there iloked was, 
Five year some and some four, ever up his 

trespas. 

Chatel forfait par agard des viscountes. — Lib. 
Albus. I. 119. Si fut agardd qe Willame, &c. — 
lb. no. 

Conseillez mei, si esgardez 

Qu' en serreit al regne honorable. 

Benoit. Chron. Norm. 6135. 

Awe. Fear, dread, reverence ; then 
transferred to the cause of fear, assuming 
the signification of anger, discipline, chas- 
tisement. 

But her fiers servant (Una's Lion) full of kingly aw 
And high disdaine, whenas his soveraine dame 
So rudely handled by her foe he saw, 
With gaping jaws full gredy at him came. 

AS. ege, oga, egisa, Goth, agls, fear, 
dread, ogan, to fear, ogjan, to threaten, 
terrify, ON. agi, discipline, CBgir, terrible ; 
csgta, to be an object of wonder or fear ; 
mer cEgir, I am amazed, I am terrified ; 
ogn, terror ; Sw. dial, aga, fear ; agasam, 
frightful, awsomej Dan. ave, chastise- 
ment, correction, awe, fear, discipline. 
At staae under eens ave, to stand in awe 
of one ; at holde i straeng ave, to keep a 
strict hand over. Gr. dyrj, wonder, ayao- 
(tat, ayaZofiai, to wonder at, to be angry. 
Awgrim. Decimal arithmetic. 

Then satte sum me 

As siphre doth in awgrym. 

That notith a place 

And no thing availith. 
Political Poems, Cam. See. p. 414. 



AWK 



35 



I reken, I counte by cyfers of agrym : je en- 
chiffre. I shall reken it syxe tymes by aulgorisme, 
or you can cast it ones by counters. — Palsgr. 
Sp. alguarismo, from Al Khowdrezmt, 
the surname of the Arabian algebrist, the 
translation of whose work was the means 
of introducing the decimal notation into 
Europe in the 12th century. 

Awhape. To dismay ; properly, to 
take away the breath with astonishment, 
to stand in breathless astonishment. 

Ah my dear gossip, answered then the ape, 

Deeply do your sad words my wits aiuhape. 
Mother Hubbard's tale in Boucher. 

W. chwaff, a gust ; Lith. kwapas, 
breath ; Goth, afhvapjan, ON. kefia, to 
choke, to suffocate ; Goth, afhvapnan, 
ON. kafna, to be choked ; Sw. quaf, 
choking, oppressive. 

Awk.— Awkward. Pei-verted, per- 
verse, indirect, left-handed, unskilful. To 
ring the bells awk is to ring them back- 
wards. 

They with awkward judgment put the chief 
point of godliness in outward things, as in the 
choice of meats, and neglect those things that 
be of the soul.— Udal in R. 

That which we in Greek call dpia-Tepov, that 
is to say, on the awk or left hand, they say in 
Latin sinistrum.— Holland, Pliny in R. 

The word seems formed from ON. a/, 
Lat. ad, E. q^, of, signifying deviation, 
error, the final k being an adjectival 
termination. Thus, ON. af-gata, iter de- 
vium, divortium ; af-krokr, diverticulum, 
a side way ; ofugr, inversus, sinister ; 
ofug-fleiri, a flat-fish with eyes on the 
left side ; dfug-nefni, a name given from 
antiphrasis ; ofug-ord, verbum obliquum, 
impertinens, offensum ; bfga, to change, 
degenerate. Sw, a/wig, inside out, averse, 
disinclined, awkward, unskilful ; a/wig- 
hand, the back of the hand. Dan. avet, 
crooked, preposterous, perverse. 

G. ab in composition indicates the con- 
trary or negation ; abgrund, abyss, bot- 
tomless pit ; abgott, false god ; abhold, 
unkind ; abler?ieti, to unlearn ; aber- 
glaube, false belief; aber-papst, aber- 
konig, false pope, false king. In aben, 
inside out— Schmeller. In Flemish we 
see the passage towards the ti or w of 
awk ; aue saghe, absurda narratio, sermo 
absonus ; aue gaen, aue hanghen, &c. ; 
auer gheloove, perverted belief, supersti- 
tion ; auer-hands, ouer-hands (as Sw. 
afwig-hand), manu aversa, praepostera ; 
aver-recht, over-recht, contrarius recto, 
pr^posterus, sinister ; auwus, auer-wiis, 
foolish, mad. 

The different G. forms are very numer- 
ous ; OHG. abuhj «<5d;//,aversus, perversus, 
3 * 



36 



AWL 



sinister ; G. dial, abich^ abech, dbicJit, 
abechig, cewech, awechi {alles thiit er 
aivechi, he does everything awkly), affig, 
affik, a/i, aftiky and again cEbsch, dpisch^ 
epschy verkchrt, hnkisch, link, and in 
Netherlandish, aves^ ae/s, obliquus ; 
aafsch, ae/sch, aafschelyk^ aversus, pre- 
posterus, contrarius. — Kil. 

Awl. ON. air; G. ahle^ OHG. alansa, 
alasna^ Du. else^ Fr. ales fie , It. lesina. 

Awn. A scale or husk of anything, 
the beard of corn. ON. ogn^ agnir, chaff, 
straw, mote ; Dan. avnej Gr. axva, 
Esthon. aggaft, chaff. 

* Awning-. Awnmg (sea term), a sail 
or tarpawlin hung over any part of a ship. 
Traced by the Rev. J. Davies to the 
PI. D. havenung, from haven, a place 
where one is sheltered from wind and 
rain, shelter, as in the lee of a building 
or bush. But it should be observed that 
havenung is not used in the sense of 
awning, and it is more probable that it 
is identical with Fr. ativent, Mid. Lat. 
auvanna, a penthouse of cloth before a 
shop-window, &c. — Cot. 

Axe. AS. acase, eax, Goth, aqiiizi, 
MHG. aches, G. dckes, ax, axt, ON. oxi, 
Gr. aJ£,ivr], Lat. ascia for acsia. 

Axiom. Gr. d^iwfia, a proposition, 
maxim, from d^tou, to consider worthy, 
to postulate. 

Axle. Lat. axis, Gr. a?wv, the centre 
on which a wheel turns or drives. Gr. 
dyot, Lat. ago, to urge forwards. 

Aye is used in two senses : 

1. Ever, always, as in the expression 
for ever and aye ; arid 

2. As an affirmative particle, synon- 
ymous with yea and yes. 



BABE 

The primitive image seems to consist 
in the notion of continuance, duration, 
expressed in Goth, by the root aiv. Aivs, 
time, age, the world ; us-aivjan, to out- 
last ; du aiva in aivin, for ever ; ni in 
aiva, 7iiaiv, never. Lat. cevum, ce-tas ; 
Gr. aid, del, always ; diwv, an age. OHG. 
^o, io J G.Je, ever, always ; AS. dva, a ; 
OS wed. a, all, ever. 

The passage from the notion of con- 
tinuance, endurance, to that of assevera- 
tion, may be exemplified by the use of 
the G. je, ja; je und je, for ever and 
ever ; von je her, from all time ; wer hat 
es je gesehen, who has ever seen it. Das 
istje wahr, that is certainly true ; es ist 
je nicht recht, it is certainly not right ; 
es kann ja einen irren, every one may 
be mistaken ; thut es doch ja nicht, by 
no means do it. In the same way the 
Italian ^'^y «<?;/ ^/«, certainly not. From 
this use of the word to imply the un- 
broken and universal application of a 
proposition, it became adopted to stand 
by itself as an affirmative answer, equiv- 
alent to, certainly, even so, just so. In 
like manner the Lat. etiarn had the force 
of certainly, yes indeed, yes. 

Ill Frisian, as in English, are two 
forms, ae, like aye, coming nearer to the 
original root aiv, and ea, corresponding 
to G. je^ ja, AS. gea, E. yea. In yes we 
have the remains of an affix, se or si, 
which in AS. was also added to the 
negative, giving nese, no, as well as jese, 
yes. 

Azure. It. azzurro, azzuolo ;_ Sp. 
Port. azul. From Pers. lazur, whence 
lapis lazuli, the sapphire of the ancients. 
— Diez. 



B 



To Babble. Fr. babiller, Du. babelen, 
bebelen, confundere verba, blaterare, gar- 
rire ; Gr. ^a^dlitv. — Kil. From the syl- 
lables ba, ba, representing the movement 
of the lips, with the element el or / repre- 
senting continuation or action. Fris. 
bdbeln or bobble is when children make a 
noise with their lips by sounding the 
voice and jerking down the underlip with 
the finger. — Outzen. The Tower of Babel 
was the tower of babblement, of confused 
speech. 

On the same principle a verb of the 
same meaning with babble was formed on 
the syllable 7na. 



And sat softly adown 

And seid my byleve 

And so I bablede on my bedes, 

They broughte me aslepe — 

On this matere I might 

Mamelen full long. — P. P. 

See Baboon. 

Babe. The simplest articulations, and 
those which are readiest caught by the 
infant mouth, are the syllables formed by 
the vowel a with the primary consonants 
of the labial and dental classes, especially 
the former ; ma, ba, pa, na, da, ta. Out 
of these, therefore, is very generally 
formed the limited vocabulary required 
at the earliest period of infant life, com- 



BABOON 

prising the names for father, mother, in- 
fant, breast, food. Thus in the nursery- 
language of the Norman EngHsh papa, 
Tnamma, baba, are the father, mother, 
and infant respectively, the two latter of 
which pass into mammy and babby, baby, 
babe, while the last, with a nasal, forms 
the It. bambino. 

In Saxon English father is dada, daddy, 
dad, answering to the Goth, atta, as papa 
to Hebrew abba. 

Lat. mam?na is applied to the breast, 
the name of which, in E. pap, Lat. pa- 
pilla, agrees with the name for father. 
Papa was in Latin the word with which 
infants demanded food, whence E. pap. 

Baboon. The syllables ba, pa, natur- 
ally uttered in the opening of the lips, are 
used to signify as well the motion of the 
lips in talking or otherwise, as the lips 
themselves, especially large or movable 
lips, the lips of a beast. Thus we have 
G. dial, babbeln, babbern, bappern (San- 
ders), bdberlen (Schmidt), to babble, talk 
much or imperfectly ; E. baberlipped, 
having large lips ; G. dial, bappe, Fris. 
bdbbe, Mantuan babbi, babbio, the chops, 
mouth, snout, lips ; Fr. baboyer, babiner, 
to move or play with the lips, babine, the 
lip of a beast ; babion, baboin. It. bab- 
buino, a baboon, an animal with large 
ugly lips when compared with those of a 
man. 

Bachelor. Apparently from a Celtic 
root. w. bachgen, a boy, bachgenes, a 
young girl, baches, a little darling, bach- 
igyn, a very little thing, from bach, little. 
From the foregoing we pass to the Fr. 
bacelle, bacelote, bachele, bachelette, a young 
girl, servant, apprentice ; baceller, to 
make love, to serve as apprentice, to 
commence a study ; bacelerie, youth ; 
bachelage, apprenticeship, art and study 
of chivalry. Hence by a secondary form- 
ation bacheler, bachelard, bachelier, young 
man, aspirant to knighthood, apprentice 
to arms or sciences. A bachelor of arts 
is a young man admitted to the degree of 
apprentice or student of arts, but not yet 
a master. In ordinary E. it has come to 
signify an unmarried man. Prov. bacalar, 
bachallier, was used of the young student, 
young soldier, young unmarried man. 
Then, as in the case of many other words 
signifying boy or youth, it is applied to a 
servant or one in a subordinate condition. 
Vos e mi'n fesetz per totz lauzar, 
Vos com senher e mi com bacalar : 
— you and I made ourselves praised among all, 
you as Lord, and I as servant or squire. 

The functions of a knight were com- 



BACKET 



37 



plete when he rode at the head of his re- 
tainers assembled under his banner, 
which was expressed by the term ' lever 
banni^re.' So long as he was unable to 
take this step, either from insufficient age 
or poverty, he would be considered only 
as an apprentice in chivalry, and was 
called a knight bachelor, just as the outer 
barrister was only an apprentice at the 
law, whatever his age might be. The 
baccalarii of the south of France and north 
of Spain seem quite unconnected. They 
were the tenants of a larger kind of farm, 
called baccalaria, were reckoned as rus- 
tici, and were bound to certain duty work 
for their lord. There is no appearance 
in the passages cited of their having had 
any military character whatever. One 
would suspect that the word might be of 
Basque origin. 

Back, 1. ON. bakj Lith. pakaU. The 
part of the body opposite to the face, 
turned away from the face. The root 
seems preserved in Bohem. paciti, to 
twist ; Yo\. paczyd se, to warp (of wood), 
to bend out of shape ; wspak, wrong, 
backwards, inside outwards ; pakosd, 
malice, spite, perversity ; opak,\kiQ wrong 
way, awry, cross ; opaczny, w:t"ong, per- 
verted ; Russ. opako, naopalii^, wrong ; 
Paki in composition, equivalent to Lat. 
re, again ; paki-buitie, regeneration. So 
in E. to give a thing back is to give it 
again, to give it in the opposite direction 
to that in which it was formerly given, 
and with us too the word is frequently 
used in the moral sense of perverted, 
bad. A back-friend is a perverted friend, 
one who does injury under the cover of 
friendship ; to back-slide, to slide out of 
the right path, to fall into error; ON. 
bak-radudur, ill-counselled ; Esthon. 
pahha-pool, the back side, wrong side ; 
pahha, bad, ill-disposed ; Fin. Lap. paha, 
bad ; OHG. abah, abuh, apah, apuh, aver- 
sus, perversus, sinister; abahon,2L\&rs2ir\, 
abominari ; Goth, ibuks, backwards. 

Back, 2. A second meaning of Back 
is a brewer's vat, or large open tub for 
containing beer. The word is widely 
spread in the sense of a wide open vessel. 
Bret, bac, a boat ; Pr. bac, a flat wide 
ferry boat ; Du. back, a trough, bowl, 
manger, cistern, basin of a fountain, flat- 
bottomed boat, body of a wagon, pit at 
the theatre ; Dan. bakke, a tray. Of this 
the It. bacino is the diminutive, whence 
E. basin, bason; It. bacinetto, a bacinet^ 
or bason-shaped helmet. 

Backet. In the N. of E. a coal-hod, 
from back, in the sense of a wide open 



38 



BACKGAMMON 



Vessel ; Rouchi, bac d cardon.—H6ca.rt, 
The Fr. baquet is a tub or pail. 

Backgammon. From Dan. bakke 
(also bakke-bord), a tray, and gammen^ a 
game, may doubtless be explained the 
game of Back-gammon^ which is con- 
spicuously a tray-game, a game played 
on a tray-shaped board, although the 
word does not actually appear in the Dan. 
dictionaries. It is exceedingly likely to 
have come down to us from our Northern 
ancestors, who devoted much of their 
long winter evenings to games of tables. 

To make or leave a blot at Backgam- 
mon is to uncover one of your men, to 
leave it liable to be taken, an expression 
not explicable by the E. sense of the word 
blot. But the Sw. blott, Dan. blot, is 
naked, exposed ; blotte sig, to expose 
oneself ; Sw. gora blott, at Backgammon, 
to make an exposed point, to make a blot. 
Bacon. OFr. bacon; bacquier,2i sty- 
fed hog ; ODu. baecke, backe, a pig ; 
baecken-vleesch, baeck-vleesch, pork, ba- 
con. The term seems properly to have 
been applied to a fatted hog and his flesh 
cured for keeping, ' porcus saginatus, 
ustulatus et salitus, et petaso aut perna.' 
— Due. in V. Baco. The word may ac- 
cordingly be derived from Bret, paska, 
to feed, w. pasg, feeding or fattening, 
pasg-dwrch, pasg-hwch, a fatted hog. 
The s is lost in Fr. pacage, pasture or 
feeding-ground, Mid.Lat. pacata, paga- 
gium, pagnagmm (Carp.), pannage or 
pawnage, duty paid for feeding animals, 
especially hogs, in the Lord's forests. 

On the other hand, there is a suspici- 
ous resemblance to Du. baggele, bigge, 
Ptg. bacoro, a young pig, Piedm. biga, a 
sow. 

Bad. G. b'dse, Du. boos, malus, pravus, 
perversus, malignus. Pers. bud, bad. 
Unconnected, I believe, with Goth. 
baiiths, tasteless, insipid. 

Badge. A distinctive mark of office 
or service worn conspicuously on the 
dress, often the coat of arms of the prin- 
cipal under whom the person wearing the 
badge is placed. Du. busse, stadt-wapen, 
spinther, monile quod in humeris tabel- 
larii et caduceatores ferunt. — Kil. Bage 
or bagge of armys — banidium. — Pr. Pm. 
Perhaps the earliest introduction of a 
badge would be the red cross sewed on 
their shoulders by the crusaders as a 
token of their calling. 

But on his breast a bloody cross he wore, 
The dear resemblance of his absent Lord, 
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he 
wore. — F. Q. 



BADGER 

Crucem assumere dicebantur (says Ducange) 
qui ad sacra bella profecturi Crucis symbolum 
palliis suis assuebant et affigebant in signum 
votlvae illius expeditionis. — Franciaudientes talia 
eloquia protinus in dextra fecere Cruces suere 
scapula. 

The sign of the cross, then, was in 
the first instance, ' assumentum/ a patch, 
botch, or bodge ; boetsen, interpolare, 
ornare, ang. botche, bodge. — Kil. G. batz^ 
batze, botzen, a dab or lump of something 
soft, a coarse patch — Sanders ; Bav. 
patschen, to strike with something flat, as 
the hand, to dabble or paddle in the wet. 
G. batzen, to dabble, to patch. — Sanders. 
The radical notion of patch, badge, will 
thus be something fastened on, as a dab 
of mud thrown against a wall and stick- 
ing there. Hence we find badged used 
by Shakespeare in the sense of dabbled. 

Their hands and faces were all badged with 
blood. — Macbeth. 

The Sc. form baugie, however, does not 
well agree with the foregoing deriva- 
tion. 

His schinyng scheild with his baugie (insigne) 
tuke he. — D. V. 50. 13. 

Badger. This word is used in two 
senses, apparently distinct, viz. in that of 
a corn-dealer, or carrier, one who bought 
up com in the market for the purpose of 
selling it in other places ; and secondly, 
as the name of the quadruped so called. 
Now we have Fr. bladier, a corn-dealer 
(marchand de grain qui approvisionne 
les marches k dos de mulcts — Hdcart), 
the diminutive of which (according to the 
analogy of bledier, blaier, belonging to 
corn, blairie, terre de blairie, corn coun- 
try) would be blaireau, the actual desig- 
nation of the quadruped badger in the 
same language, which would thus signify 
a little corn-dealer, in allusion doubtless 
to some of the habits of that animal, with 
which the spread of cultivation has made 
us little familiar. 

But further, there can be little doubt 
that E. badger, whether in the sense of a 
corn-dealer or of the quadruped, is di- 
rectly descended from the Fr. bladier, 
the corrupt pronunciation of which, in 
analogy with soldier, solger, sodger, 
would be bladger J and though the 
omission of the / in such a case is a 
somewhat unfamiliar change, yet many 
instances may be given of synonyms 
differing only in the preservation (or in- 
sertion as the case may be) or omission 
of an / after an initial b or p. Thus Du. 
baffen and blaffen, to bark ; paveien and 
piaveien, to pave ; pattijn and piattijn, a 



BAFFLE 

skait or patten ; butse and blufse, a bruise, 
boil ; E. botch, or blotch; baber-lipped, 
and blabber-lipped, having large ungainly 
lips ; fagged, tired, iromjlagged, Fr. bette 
and blette, beets ; Berri, batte de pluie, a 
pelting shower of rain, Sc. a bladd' weet ; 
Rouchi, basser, Fr. blasser, to foment. 

To Baffle, 1. To baffle, to foil or 
render ineffectual the efforts of another, 
must be distinguished from Fr. bafouer, 
OE. bafful, to treat ignominiously. Baffle, 
in the former sense, is one of a series of 
similar forms, baffle, faffle, haffle, tnaffle, 
f amble, signifying in the first instance 
imperfect speaking, stammering, then 
imperfect action of other kinds, trifling, 
doing something without settled purpose 
or decisive effect. We may ciie, faffle, 
to stutter, stammer, to fumble, saunter, 
trifle ; haffle, to stammer, falter ; maffle, 
to stammer, to mumble ; the term seems 
to be applied to any action suffering from 
impediments. — Hal. To baffle, to speak 
thick and inarticulately, to handle clum- 
sily. — Forby. Swiss baffeln, maffeln, to 
chatter, talk idly ; Rouchi baflier, to 
slobber, stammer, talk idly. 

We pass from the notion of imperfect 
speech to that of imperfect, ineffectual 
action, when we speak of light baffling 
winds, changeable winds not serving the 
purpose of navigation. ' For hours pre- 
viously the ill-fated ship was seen baffling 
with a gale from the N.W. : ' i. e. strug- 
gling ineffectually with it. — Times, Feb. 
27, i860. ' To what purpose can it be to 
juggle and baffle for a time : ' to trifle. — 
Barrow. 

Finally, in a factitive sense, it signifies 
to cause another to act in an ineffectual 
manner, to foil his efforts. To boffle, to 
stammer, to change, to vary, to prevent 
any one from doing a thing. — Hal. So 
to habble, to stammer, to speak con- 
fusedly, and, in a factitive sense, to reduce 
to a state of perplexity. To be hobbled, to 
be perplexed or nonplussed, foiled in any 
undertaking. — Jam. Sup. 

2. OE. bafful, Fr. bafouer, to hood- 
wink, deceive, baffle, disgrace, handle 
basely in terms, give reproachful words 
unto. — Cot. The Fr. verb may be actu- 
ally borrowed from the E. bafful, which 
seems to have been applied to a definite 
mode of disgracing a man, indicated by 
Hall as in use among the Scots. 

And furthermore the erle bad the herauld to 
say to his master, that if he for his part kept not 
his appointment, then he was content that the 
Scots should bafful him, which is a great re- 
proach among the Scots, and is used when a 



BAGGAGE 



39 



man is openly perjured, and then they make of 
him an image painted reversed with the heels 
upward, with his name, wondering, crying and 
blowing out of [on ?] him with horns in the most 
despiteful manner they can. In token that he is 
to be exiled the company of all good creatures. 
Again, in the F. Q. 
First he his beard did shave and foully shent, 
Then from him reft his shield, and it r'enverst 
And blotted out his arms with falshood blent, 
And himself baffuld, and his armes unherst, 
And broke his sword in twayn and all his armour 

sperst. 
Now the Sc. has bauch, baugh, baach 
{ch guttural), repulsive to the taste, bad, 
sorry, ineffective. A bauch tradesman, a 
sorry tradesman ; 

Without estate 
A youth, though sprung from kings, looks baugh 

and blate. — Ramsay in Jam. 

Beauty but bounty's but bauch. Beauty 
without goodness is good for nothing. 

To bauchle, bachle, bashle, is then, to 
distort, to misuse ; to bauchle shoon, to 
tread them awry ; a bauchle, an old shoe, 
whatever is treated with contempt or 
derision. 

One who is set up as the butt of a 
company or a laughing-stock is said to 
be made a bauchle of; to bauchle, to treat 
contemptuously, to vilify. 
Wallace lay still quhill forty dayis was gayn 
And fyve atour, bot perance saw he nayn 
Battaill till haiff, as thair promyss was maid 
He girt display again his baner braid ; 
Rapreiffyt Edward rycht gretlye of this thing, 
Bawchyllyt his seyll, blew out on that fals king 
As a tyrand ; turnd bak and tuk his gait. 

If this passage be compared with the 
extract from Hall, it will be seen that the 
affront put by Wallace on the king's seal 
in token of his having broken his word, 
was an example of the practice which 
Hall tells us was used in Scotland under 
the name of baffulling, the guttural ch 
being represented in English by an f as 
in many other cases. The G. has bafel, 
bofel,pofel, synonymous with Sc. bauchle, 
spoiled goods, refuse, trash — Kiittn. ; 
verbafeln, to make a bafel of, to bauchle. 
— Sanders. 

Bag. Gael, bolg, balg, bag, a leather 
bag, wallet, scrip, the belly, a blister, 
bellows ; Goth, balgs, a skin, a leather 
case ; G. balg, the skin of an animal 
stripped off whole ; Brescian baga, entire 
skin of an animal for holding oil or wine ; 
the belly. See Belly, Bulge. 

Baggage. Derived by Diez from 
Sp., Cat. baga, a noose, tie, khot, rope by 
which the load is fastened on a beast of 
burden. From baga was formed OFr. 
baguer, to truss or tuck up (Cot.), to tie 



40 



BAIL 



on, to bind. * lis firent trousser et baguer 
leur tr^sor et richesses sur chevaulx et 
mules, chameoulx et dromadaires.' * Apr^s 
ce qu'ils eurent bagud leurs bagues,' — 
Gilion de Trasignie in Marsh. * Pour 
veoir amener le B^arnois prisonnier en 
triomphe, li^ et bagud.^ — Satire Menippde 
in Jaubert. 

P>om baguer was ' formed bagage, the 
carriage of an army, as it was called, the 
collective goods carried with an army, or 
the beasts which carry them. The re- 
semblance to bagues, goods, valuables, is 
merely accidental, and as baggage is 
manifestly taken from the French it can- 
not be explained as signifying the collec- 
tion of bags belonging to an army. 

Bail.— Bailiff. The Lat. bajulus, a 
bearer, was applied in later times to a 
nurse, viz. as carrying the child about. 
Mid. Lat. baj'ula, It. bdlia. Next it was 
applied to the tutor or governor of the 
children, probably in the first instance to 
the foster-father. 

Alii bajuli, i. e. servuli, vel nutritores — quia 
consueverint nutrire filios et familias dominorum. 
— ^Vitalis de Reb. Aragon. in Ducange. 

When the child under the care of the 
Bajulus was of royal rank, the tutor 
became a man of great consequence, and 
the /ilyag ^aiovXog was one of the chief 
officers of state at Constantinople. 

The name was also applied to the 
tutor of a woman or a minor. Thus the 
husband became the Bajulus uxoris, 
and the name was 'gradually extended to 
any one who took care of the rights or 
person of another. In this sense is to be 
understood the ordinary E. expression of 
giving bail, the person who gives bail 
being supposed to have the custody of 
him whom he bails. From bajulus was 
formed It. bailo, balivo {bajulivus); Fr. 
bail, bailli, E. bail, bailiff. The bail are 
persons who constitute themselves tutors 
of the person charged, and engage to 
produce him when required. 

Tutores vel bajuli respondeant pro pupillis. — 
Usatici Barcinonenses. Et le roi I'a re9ue en 
son hommage et le due son baron comme bail 
delle. — Chron. Flandr. Et mitto ilium (filium) 
et omnem meam terram et meum honorem et 
meos viros quae Deus mihi dedit in bajulia de 
Deo et de suis Sanctis, &c. Ut sint in bayoliam 
Dei et de Sanct4 Maria, &c. — Testament. Regis 
Arragon. A. D. 1099, in Due. 

Fr. bailler, to hand over, is from baju- 
lare, in the sense of making one a bail 
or keeper of the thing handed over, 
giving it into his bail or control. 

Finally, every one to whom power was 
intrusted to execute not on his own be- 



BAIT 

half was called a bailiff, bajulius or bal- 
livus, from the regent of the empire (as 
we find in the case of Henry of Flanders : 
' Principes, barones et milites exercitus 
me imperii Ballivum elegerunt ') to the 
humble bailiff in husbandry who has the 
care of a farm, or the officer who executes 
the writs of a sheriff. 

Bail, 2. Bail is also used in the sense 
of post or bar. The bails were the ad- 
vanced posts set up outside the solid de- 
fences of a town. Fr. bailie, barrier, 
advanced gate of a city, palisade, barri- 
cade. — Roquefort. It is probably the 
same word as paling or pale. Fr. balises, 
finger-posts, posts stuck up in a river to 
mark the passage. Balle, barri^re — 
Hdcart. Bale, poste, retrachement ; 
revenir d ses bales, to return to one's 
post, at the game of puss in the corner, 
or cricket. Hence the bails at cricket, 
properly the wickets themselves, but now 
the cross sticks at the top. 

Bailiwick. Properly the office of a 
bailiff or executive officer, then the dis- 
trict over which he has jurisdiction. The 
element -wick ia probably from Lat. 
vicis, the turn which something serves, 
function, office. 

— jef me svva beluuede hit were sone ikudd to 
the kinge, ant he me walde warpen ut of mine 
wike [would cast me out of my office] , ant demen 
me to deathe. — St Juliana, p. 24. 

Goth, wiko; in wikon kunjis sinis, in 
ordine vicis suae. — Luc i. 8. Levins has 
baylywick, villicatura ; baylyj'ick, villica- 
tus ; bishopwick, episcopatus, diocesis ; 
bishoprick, episcopatus. 

Bait. The senses may all be ex- 
plained from the notion of biting. ON. 
beita, Sw. bet, bete, AS. bat (Ettmiiller), a 
bait for fish, is what the fish bites at, or 
what causes him to bite. ON. beita, AS. 
batan, to bait a hook. Du. bete, a bit, a 
mouthful. 

ON. bita, to bite, is specially applied to 
the grazing of cattle, whence belt, Sw. 
bet, bete, pasture, herbage ; ON. beita, Sw. 
beta, to drive to pasture. In English the 
word is not confined to the food of cattle. 
Bait-poke, a bag to carry provisions in ; 
bait, food, pasture.— Hal. 

Sw. beta, to bait on a journey, is to feed 
the horses, in accordance with Fr. re- 
paitre, to feed, to bait. 

ON. beita, Sw. beta, G. beitzen, to hunt 
with hawk or hare, must be understood 
as signifying to set on the hawk or hound 
to bite the prey. ON. beita einn hundum, 



BAIZE 

to cause one to be worried by dogs, to 
set his dogs on one. To bait a. bear or a 
bull is to set the dogs on to bite it. 

The ON. delta, Sw. deta, to harness 
oxen to a sledge, or horses to a carriage, 
must probably be explained from AS. 
dcsU, N. bit, the bit of a bridle taken as 
the type of harness in general. Ongan 
tha his esolas bcEtan : he then began to 
saddle his asses. — Caedm. p. 173. 25. 

Baize. Coarse woollen cloth. For- 
merly bayes. Du. baey, baai, Fr. baye. 
' Les bayes seront composdes de bonne 
laine, non de flocon, laneton . . . ou autres 
mauvaises ordures.' — Reglement de la 
draperie in H^cart. According to this 
author it took its name from its yellow 
colour, given by ' graines d'Avignon ; ' 
from bate, berry. 

To Bake, To dress or cook by dry 
heat ; to cook in an oven. Bohem. pek, 
heat ; peht, p^cy, to bake, roast, &c. ; 
pekar, a baker ; Pol. piec, a stove ; pied, 
to bake, to roast, to parch, to burn ; 
pieczywo, a batch, an oven-full ; piekarz, 
a baker. 

ON. baka, to warm. Kongur bakade 
sier vid elld, the King warmed himself at 
the fire. — Heimskr. E. dial, to beak, beke, 
to bask, to warm oneself; Du. zig baker- 
en, Pl.D. bdckern, to warm oneself. G. 
bdhen, to heat ; sermneln bdhen, to toast 
bread ; kranke glieder bdhen, to foment a 
limb. Holz bdhen, to beath wood, to 
heat wood for the purpose of making it 
set in a certain form. Gr. j8w, calefacere. 
Lat. baj(X, warm baths. See Bath. The 
root is common to the Finnish class of 
languages. Lap. pak, paka, heat ; paket, 
to melt with heat ; pakestet, to be hot, to 
bask J paketet, to heat, make hot. 

Balance. Lat. Ia7ix, a dish, the scale 
of a balance ; bilanx, the implement for 
weighing, composed of two dishes or 
scales hanging from a beam supported in 
the middle. It. bilancia, Sp. balanza, 
Prov. balans, balanza, Fr. balance. 

The change from i to a may be through 
the influence of the second a, or it may 
be from a false reference to the OFr. 
baler, baloier, Venet. balare, to move up 
and down, to see-saw. 

Balcony. It. balco, balcone, an out- 
jutting corner of a house, by-window, 
bulk or stall of a shop ; palco, palcone, 
palcora, any stage or scaffold, roof, floor, 
or ceiling ; palcare, to plank, stage, 
scaffold. — Fl. The radical idea seems to 
be what is supported on balks or beams. 

Bald. Formerly written balled, ballid, 
whence Richardson explains it as if it 



BALDERDASH 



41 



signified made round and smooth like a 
ball. The root, however, is too widely 
spread for such an explanation. Finn. 
Esthon. paljas, naked, bare, bald ; Lap. 
pnoljas, bare of trees ; Dan. bceldet, un- 
fledged. 

Besides signifying void of hair, bald is 
used in the sense of having a white mark 
on the face, as in the case of the common 
sign of the bald-faced stag, to be com- 
pared with Fr. cheval belle/ace, a horse 
marked with white on its face. Bald- 
faced, white-faced. — Hal. The bald-coot 
is conspicuous by an excrescence of white 
skin above its beak. 

The real identity of the word bald in 
the two senses is witnessed by a wide 
range of analogy. Pol. Bohem. lysy, bald, 
marked with a white streak ; Pol. lysina, 
Bohem. lysyna, a bald pate, and also a 
white mark on the face. Du. blesse, a 
blaze on the forehead, a bare forehead, 
bles, bald. — Kil. Fin. paljas, bald, Gr. 
I3a\i6g, (paXiog, bald-faced, having a white 
streak on the face. Gael, ball, a spot or 
mark ; Bret, bal, a white mark on an 
animal's face, or the animal itself, whence 
the common name Ball for a cart-horse 
in England. The connection seems to 
lie in the shining look of the bald skin. 

His head was ballid and shone as any glass. 
Chaucer. 

Lith. ballas, white ; balti, to become 
white ; balsis, a white animal. Fin. 
pallaa, to burn ; palo, burning. ON. 
bal, a blaze, beacon-fire, funereal pile. 

Balderdash. Idle, senseless talk ; to 
balder, to use coarse language. — Halli- 
well. W. baldorddi, to babble, prate, 
or talk idly. Du. balder en, to bawl, 
make an outcry, to roar, said of the roar 
of cannon, cry of an elephant, &c. ; bold- 
eren, bulderen, blaterare, debacchari, 
minari. — Kil. ON. buldra, blaterare ; 
Dan. buldre, to make a loud noise, as 
thunder, the rolling of a waggon, &c. ; 
also to scold, to make a disturbance. N. 
baldra is used of noises of the same kind 
in a somewhat higher key. E. dial, to 
galder, to talk coarsely and noisily ; to 
gulder, to speak with loud and dissonant 
voice. — Hal. Da. dial, bialder, foolish 
talk, nonsense ; bialdre, to tattle. The 
final syllable seems to express a continu- 
ation of the phenomenon; Da. dial, ^^j-y^, 
chatter, talk ; dov-dask, chatter fit to 
deave one. Bav. ddtsch, noise of a blow 
with the open hand ; ddtschen, to clap, 
smack, tattle ; Gael, ballart, noisy boast- 
ing, clamour ; ballartaich, balardaich, a 



42 



BALE 



loud noise, shouting, hooting. The same 
termination in hke manner expresses 
continuance of noise in piabartaich, a 
continued noise of waves gently beating 
on the shore, uninteUigible talk ; clapar- 
taichy a clapping or flapping of wings. 
From the same analogy, which causes so 
many words expressive of the plashing 
or motion of water to be applied to rapid 
or confused talking, balderdash is used 
to signify washy drink, weak liquor. A 
similar connection is seen in Sp. cha- 
puzar^ to paddle in water ; chapurrar, to 
speak gibberish ; champurrar, to mix 
one liquid with another, to speak an un- 
connected medley of languages. 

Bale. I. Grief, trouble, sorrow. AS. 
bealo, gen. bealwes, torment, destruction, 
wickedness ; Goth, balva-vesei, wicked- 
ness ; balveins, torment ; ON. bol, ca- 
lamity, misery ; Du. bal-daed, malefac- 
tum, maleficium. Pol. bol, ache, pain ; 
boletf^ Bohem. boleti, to ail, to ache, to 
grieve ; bolawy, sick, ill. w. ball, a 
plague, a pestilence. Perhaps ON. bola, 
a bubble, blister, a boil, may exhibit the 
original development of the signification, 
a boil or blain being taken as the type of 
sickness, pain, and evil in general. Russ. 
bolyat\ to be ill, to grieve ; bolyatchka, a 
pustule. See Gall, 3. 

2. A package of goods. Sw. balj It. 
balla; Fr. balk, bal, a ball or pack, i. e. 
goods packed up into a round or compact 
mass. ON. bollr, a ball ; balla, to pack 
together in the form of a ball. 

To Bale out water. Sw. balja, Dan. 
balle, Du. baalie, Bret, bal, Gael, ballan, 
a pail or tub ; G. balge, a. .washing-tub, 
perhaps from balg; a skin, a water-skin 
being the earliest vessel for holding 
water. Hence Dan. balle, Du. baalien, 
to empty out water with a bowl or pail, 
to bale out. In like manner Fr. bacqtieter, 
in the same sense, from bacquet, a pail. 

* Balk. The primary sense seems to be 
as in G. balken, ON. bjdlki, OSw. balker, 
bolker, Sw. bielke, Sw. dial, balk, a beam. 
Fr. bail, the beam of a ship, the breadth 
from side to side ; Rouchi bati, a beam. 
We have then \\..palcare, to plank, floor, 
roof, stage or scaffold ; Sw. afbalka, to 
separate by beams, to partition off ; Sw. 
dial, balk, a cross beam dividing the 
stalls in a cow-house, a wooden par- 
tition ; ON. balkr, bolkr, a. partition, 
whether of wood or stone, as in a barn 
or cow-house, a separate portion, a di- 
vision of the old laws, a clump of men ; 
vedra balkr, N. uveirs bolk, as we say, a 
balk of foul weather. Sw, dial, balka, 



BALL 

to heap ; balka hopar, balka bunge, to 
heap up. 

Twenty thousand men 
Balked in thefr blood on Holmedon's plain. 

In the sense of a separation G. balken, 
Da. dial, balk, E. balk, are applied to a 
narrow slip of land left unturned in 
ploughing. Baulke of land, separaison. — 
Palsgr. A balk, says Ray, ' is a piece 
of land which is either casually over- 
slipped and not turned up in plowing, 
or industriously left untouched by the 
plough for a boundary between lands.' 

Hence to balk is to pass over in plough- 
ing, or figuratively in any other proceed- 
ing. 

For so well no man halt the plough 
That it ne balketh other while, 
Ne so well can no man afile 
His tonge, that som time in jape 
Him may some light word overscape. 

Gower in R. 

The mad steel about doth fiercely fly 
Not sparing wight, ne leaving any balke, 
But making way for death at large to walke. 

F. Q. 

Da. dial, at giore en balk, to omit a 
patch of land in sowing. To baulke the 
beaten road, to avoid it. — Sir H. Wotton. 
In modern speech to balk is used in a 
factitive sense, to cause another to miss 
the object of his expectation. 

Ball. — Balloon. — Ballot, on. bollr 
(gen. ballar), a globe, ball, Sw. boll, ball. 
Da. bold, OHG. pallo, G. ball. It. balla 
(with the augm. ballone, a great ball, a 
balloon, and the dim. ballotta, a ballot), 
palla, Sp. bala, Fr. balle, Gr. -KaWa 
(Hesych,), a ball. Fin. pallo, with the 
dim. pallukka, pallikka, a ball, globule, 
testicle ; maan pallikka, a clod of earth ; 
palloilla, to roll. From the same root 
probably Lat. pila, pilula, a ball, a pill, 
which seem equally related to the fore- 
going and to the series indicated under 
Bowl, Boll. 

Ball.— Ballad.— Ballet. It. ballare, 
to dance, from the more general notion 
of moving up and down. Mid. Lat. bal- 
lare, hue et illuc inclinare, vacillare. — • 
Ugutio in Due. Venet. balare, to rock, 
to see-saw. OFr. baler, baloier, to wave, 
to move, to stir. 

Job ne fut cokes (a kex or reed) ne rosiau 
Qui au vent se tourne et baloie. 

It. ballare, to shake or jog, to dance. 
Hence, ballo, a dance, a ball. Ballata, 
a dance, also a song sung in dancing 
(perhaps in the interval of dancing), a 
ballad. Fr. ballet, a scene acted in 
dancing, the ballet of the theatres. 



BALLAST 

It is probably an old Celtic word. 
Bret, balea, to walk, bald, the act of 
walking, or movement of one who walks. 

Ballast. Dan. bag-lest, Du. ballast, 
Fr. lest, lestage, It. lastra, Sp. lastre. 
The first syllable of this word has given 
a great deal of trouble. It is explained 
back by Adelung, because, as he says, the 
ballast is put in the hinder part of the 
ship. But the hold is never called the 
back of the ship. A more likely origin is 
to be found in Dan. dial. bag-Ices, the back- 
load, or comparatively worthless load 
one brings back from a place with an 
empty waggon. When a ship discharges, 
if it fails to obtain a return cargo, it is 
forced to take in stones or sand, to pre- 
serve equilibrium. This is the back- 
load, or ballast of a ship, and hence the 
name has been extended to the addition 
of heavy materials placed at the bottom 
of an ordinary cargo to keep the balance. 
The whole amount carried by the canal lines 
in 1854 was less than 25,000 tons, and this was 
chiefly carried as back-loading, for want of other 
freight. — Report Pennsylv. R. 1854. 

Mr Marsh objects to the foregoing 
derivation, in the first place, that home- 
ward-bound ships do not in general sail 
without cargo or in ballast, more fre- 
quently than outward-bound, and there- 
fore that backloading is not an appro- 
priate designation for the heavy ma- 
terial which is employed to steady sea- 
going vessels. But how appropriate 
the designation would really be, may 
be judged by the following illustration 
from practical life. ' The object of the 
company is to provide the excellent ore 
of the southern counties as a return 
cargo for the colliers of the North. By 
this means the colliers will ensure an 
additional profit by carrymg a ballast 
for which they will receive some freight- 
age.' — Mining Journal, Sept. i, i860. 
And Kil. explains ballast, inutilis sarcina, 
inutile onus, a useless load. 

A more serious objection is that the 
word in earlier Danish is always barlast, 
as it still is in Sweden and Norway. 
But because baglast is not found in the 
written documents, it by no means fol- 
lows that it was not always locally cur- 
rent. And it is certain that barlast 
could never have passed into baglast by 
mere corruption, while it would be an 
easy transition from baglast through bal- 
last to barlast. 

Mr Marsh even calls in question 
whether the last syllable is the Du. last, 
a load. But Fr. tester is to load a ship 



BAN 



43 



as well as to ballast it. — Cot. Lest, like 
Teutonic last, was used for a load or 
definite weight of goods (Roquef.), and 
Mid.Lat. lastagium signified not only 
ballast, but loadage, a duty on goods 
sold in the markets, paid for the right of 
carriage. 

Balluster. Fr. ballustres, ballisters 
(corruptly bannisters when placed as guard 
to a staircase;, little round and short/ 
pillars, ranked on the outside of cloisters, 
terraces, galleries, &c. — Cotgr. Said to 
be from balaustia, the flower of the 
pomegranate, the calyx of which has a 
double curvature similar to that in which 
balusters are commonly made. But such 
rows of small pillars were doubtless in 
use before that particular form was given 
to them. The Sp. barauste, from bara or 
vara, a rod, seems the original form of 
the word, of which balaustre (and thence 
the Fr. ballustre) is a corruption, anal- 
ogous to what is seen in It. bertesca, bal- 
tresca, a battlement ; Lat. urtica, Venet. 
oltriga, a nettle. 

Sp. baranda, railing around altars, 
fonts, balconies, &c. ; barandado, series 
of balusters, balustrade ; barandilla, a 
small balustrade, small railing. 

Balm, Balsam. Fr. baume, from Lat. 
balsajnujn, Gr. l^aXaaiiov, a fragrant gum. 

Baltic. The Baltic sea, mare Balticum. 
In OSw. called Bcelt, as two of the en- 
trances are still called the Great and 
Little Belt. The authorities are not 
agreed as to the grounds on which the 
name is given. 

To Bam. To make fun of a person. 
A bajn, a false tale or jeer. Bret, bamein, 
to enchant, deceive, endormir par des 
contes. Bamottr, enchanter, sorcerer, 
deceiver. 

To Bamboozle. — To deceive, make 
fun of a person. 

There are a set of fellows they call banterers 
and bamboozlers that play such tricks. — Arbuth- 
not in R. 

It. bambolo, bamboccio, bambocciolo, a 
young babe, by met. an old dotard or 
babish gull ; imbambolare, to blear or 
dim one's sight, also with flatteries and 
blandishments to enveagle and make a 
child of one. — Fl. If bambocciolare were 
ever used in the same sense it might have 
given rise to bamboozle. 

Sc. bnmbazed, puzzled, astonished. 

To Ban. To proclaim, command, 
forbid, denounce, curse. 

The primitive meaning of the word 
seems to have been to summons to the 
army. In the commencement of the 



44 



BAND 



feudal times all male inhabitants were in 
general required to give personal attend- 
ance when the king planted his banner 
in the field, and sent round a notice that 
his subjects were summoned to join him 
against the enemy. 

He askyt of the Kyng 
Til have the vaward of his batayl, 
Quhatever thai ware wald it assayle, 
That he and his suld have always 
Qahen that the king suld Banare rays. 
Wyntoun, v. 19. 15. 

Now this calling out of the public force 
was called bannire in hostem, bannire in 
exercitum^ populu7n in hostem convocare, 
bannire exercitum, in Fr. banir roust; 
AS. theodscipe ut abanfian. In Layamon 
we constantly find the expression, he 
bannede hisferde, he assembled his host. 
The expression seems to arise from bann 
in the sense of standard, flag, ensign 
(see Banner). The raising of the King's 
banner marked the place of assembly, 
and the primitive meaning of bannire 
was to call the people to the bann or 
standard. The term was then applied 
to summoning on any other public oc- 
casion, and thence to any proclamation, 
whether by way of injunction or for- 
biddal. 

Si quis legibus in utilitatem Regis sive in hoste 
(to the host or army) sive in reliquam utilitatem 
bannitus fuerit, etc. — Leg. Ripuar. Exercitum 
in auxilium Sisenardi de toto regno Burgundiae 
ba?inire prsecepit Fredegarius.^Si quis cum 
armis bannitus fuerit et non venerit. — Capitul. 
Car. Mag. A. D. 813. Se il avenist que le Roy 
chevauchat a osi bani contre les ennemis de la 
Croix. — Assises de Jerusalem. Fece bandire 
hoste generale per tutto '1 regno.— John Villani 
in Due. 

In like manner we find bannire adplacita, 
ad molendinum, &c., summoning to serve 
at the Lord's courts, to bring corn to be 
ground at his mill, &c. Thus the word 
acquired the sense of proclamation, ex- 
tant in Sp. and It. bando, and in E. banns 
of marriage. In a special sense the term 
was apphed to the public denunciation 
by ecclesiastical authority ; Sw. bann, 
excommunication ; bann-lysa, to excom- 
municate {lysa, to publish) ; bajina, to 
reprove, to take one to task, to chide, to 
curse, E. to ban. 

In Fr, bandon the signification was 
somewhat further developed, passing on 
from proclamation to command, permis- 
sion, power, authority. ^A son bandon, 
at his own discretion. OE. bandoit was 
used in the same sense. See Abandon. 
Oncques Pucelle de paraige 
N'eut d'aimer tel bandon que j'ai, 



Car j'ai de mon p^re congi^ 
De faire ami et d"6tre aimee. 



-R. R. 



Never maiden of high birth had such 
power or freedom of loving as I have. 

Les saiges avait et les fols 
Commun^ment d, son bandon. — R. R. 

Translated by Chaucer, 

Great loos hath Largesse and great prise, 
For both the wise folk and unwise 
Were wholly to her bandon brought, 

i.e. were brought under her power or 
command. 

Band, 1. That with which anything 
is bound. AS. ba7td, Goth, bandi, Fr. 
bande, It. banda. From the verb to 
bind, Goth, bindan, band, bundun. Spe- 
cially applied to a narrow strip of cloth 
or similar material for binding or swath- 
ing ; hence a stripe or streak of different 
colour or material. In It. banda the 
term is applied to the strip of anything 
lying on the edge or shore, a coast, side, 
region. G. bande, border, margin. 

Band, 2. — To Bandy. In the next 
place Band is applied to a troop of 
soldiers, a number of persons associated 
for some common purpose. It. Sp. banda, 
Fr. batide. There is some doubt how 
this signification has arisen. It seems 
however to have been developed in the 
Romance languages, and cannot be ex- 
plained simply as a body of persons 
bound together for a certain end. It has 
plausibly been deduced from Mid.Lat. 
bannutn or baiiduni, the standard or 
banner which forms the rallying point of 
a company of soldiers. 

Bandus, says Muratori, Diss. 26, tunc (in the 
9th century) nuncupabatur legio a bando, hoc est 
vexillo. 

So in Swiss, fahne, d. company, from 
fahne, the ensign or banner. Sp. bandera 
is also used in both senses. Fr. enseigne, 
the colours under which a band or com- 
pany of footmen serve, also the band or 
company itself.— Cot. But if this were 
the true derivation it would be a singular 
change to the feminine gender in banda. 
The real course of development I believe 
to be as seen in Sp. banda, side, then 
party, faction, those who side together 
(bande, parti, ligue — Taboada). Band- 
ear, to form parties, to unite with a band. 
It. bandare, to side or to bandy (Florio), 
to bandy being explained in the other 
part of the dictionary, to follow a faction. 
To bandy, tener da alcuno, sostener il 
partito d'alcuno. — Torriano. 

Unnumbered as the sands 

Of Baica or Cyrene's torrid soil, 



BANDITTI 

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 
Their lighter wings. — Milton in R. 
Kings had need beware how they side them- 
selves, and make themselves as of a faction or 
party, for leagues within the state are ever perni- 
cious to monarchy. — Bacon in R. 

Fr. bander, to join in league with others 
against — Cotgr., se reunir, s'associer, se 
joindre. — Roquefort. It is in this sense 
that the word is used by Romeo. 

Draw, Benvoglio, beat down their weapons : 
Gentlemen, for shame, forbear this outrage, 
Tibalt, Mercutio, the Prince expressly hath 
Forbidden bandying in Verona streets. 

The prince had forbidden faction fight- 
ing. Sp. bandear, to cabal, to foment 
factions, follow a party. 

The name of bandy is given in English 
to a game in which the players are di- 
vided into two sides, each of which tries 
to drive a wooden ball with bent sticks 
in opposite directions. 

The zodiac is the line : the shooting stars. 

Which in an eyebright evening seem to fall, 

Are nothing but the balls they lose at bandy. 
Brewer, Lingua, in R. 

Fr. bander, to drive the ball from side 
to side at tennis. Hence the expression 
of bandying words, retorting in language 
like players sending the ball from side to 
side at bandy or tennis. 

Banditti. See Banish. 

Bandog. A large dog kept for a 
guard, and therefore tied up, a band-dog. 
Du. band-hond, canis vinculis assuetus, 
et canis pecuarius, pastoralis. — Kil. 

To Bandy. See Band, 2. 

Bandy. Bandy legs are crooked legs. 
Fr. bander un arc, to bend a bow, &c. 
band^, bent as a bow. 

Bane. Goth, banja, a blow, a wound 
OHG. bana, death-blow ; Mid.HG. bane, 
destruction ; AS. bana, murderer. ON 
bana, to slay, bana-sott, death-sickness 
bana-sdr, death-wound, &c. 

Bang. A syllable used to represent a 
loud dull sound, as of an explosion or a 
blow. The child cries bang I fire, when 
he wishes to represent letting off a gun. 
To bang the door is to shut it with a loud 
noise. 

With many a stiff thwack, many a bang, 

Hard crabtree and old iron rang. — Hudibras. 
ON. bang, hammering, beating, disturb- 
ance ; banga, to beat, knock, to work in 
wood. Sw. bang, stir, tumult ; bangas, 
to make a stir ; banka, to knock, Dan. 
banke, to knock, beat, rap ; banke et s'dm 
i, to hammer in a nail. The Susu, a 
language of W. Africa, has bang-bang, to 
drive in a nail. 



BANNER 



4S 



To Banish. — Bandit. From Mid. 
Lat. bannire, bandire, to proclaim, de- 
nounce, was formed the OFr. compound 
for-bannir {bannire foras), to publicly 
order one out of the realm, and the simple 
bannir was used in the same sense, 
whence E. banish. 

From the same verb the It. participle 
bandito signifies one denounced or pro- 
claimed, put under the ban of the law, 
and hence, in the same way that E. out- 
law came to signify a robber. It. banditti 
acquired the like signification. Forban- 
nitus is used in the Leg. Ripuar. in the 
sense of a pirate. — Diez. The word is in 
E. so much associated with the notion of 
a band of robbers, that we are inclined 
to understand it as signifying persons 
banded together. 

Banister. See Balluster. 

Bank.— Bench. The latter form has 
come to us from AS. bcence, the former 
from Fr. banc, a bench, bank, seat ; battc 
de sable, a sand-bank. G. bank, a bench, 
stool, shoal, bank of river. Bantze, a desk. 
— Vocab. de Vaud. It. banco, panca, a 
bench, a table, a counter. 

But natheless I took unto our dame 
Your wife at home the same gold again 
Upon your bench — she wot it well certain 
By certain tokens that I can here tell. 

Shipman's Tale. 

From a desk or counter the significa- 
tion was extended to a merchant's count- 
ing-house or place of business, whence 
the mod. E. Bank applied to the place of 
business of a dealer in money. The 
ON. distinguishes bekkr, N. benk, a bench, 
a long raised seat, and bakki, a bank, 
eminence, bank of a river, bank of 
clouds, back of a knife. Dan. bakke, 
banke, bank, eminence. The back is a 
natural type of an elevation or raised ob- 
ject. Thus Lat. dorsum was applied to 
a sand-bank ; dorsum jugi, the slope of 
a hill, a rising bank. The ridge of a hill 
is AS. hricg, the back. 

Bankrupt. Fr. banqueroute, bank- 
ruptcy, from banc, bench, counter, in the 
sense of place of business, and OFr. roupt, 
Lat. mpius, broken. When a man fails 
to meet his engagements his business is 
broken up and his goods distributed 
among his creditors. It. banca rotta, 
bancafallita, a bankrupt merchant. — Fl. 

Banner. The word Ban or Band was 
used by the Lombards in the sense of 
banner, standard. 

Vexillum quod Bandum appellant. — Paulus 
Diaconus in Due. 



46 



BANNERET 



In the same place is quoted from the 
Scohast on Gregory Nazianzen : 

Ta KaXovfiEva Trapa 'Poy/uiaiovv alyva kul 
ficivSa TavTa 6 Attikj^wi/ GuvdiifxaTa kuI <rj]- 
fxtla KaXiX. 

Hence It. bandieray Fr, banni^re, E. ban- 
ner. 

The origin is in all probability Goth. 
bandvo, bandva, a sign, token, an intima- 
tion made by bending the head or hand. 
ON. benda, to bend, to beckon ; banda, 
to make signs ; ban da hendi, manu an- 
nuere. The original object of a standard 
is to serve as a mark or sign for the 
troop to rally round, and it was accord- 
ingly very generally known by a name 
having that signification. ON. merki, 
Lat. signinn^ Gr. (rtjfitiov, OHG. heri-pau- 
chan, a war-beacon or war-signal ; Fr. 
enseigne, a sign or token as well as an 
ensign or banner ; Prov. senh, senhal, a 
sign ; senhal, senheira, banner. 

According to Diez the It. bandiera is 
derived from banda, a band or strip of 
cloth, and he would seem to derive Goth. 
bandva, a sign, from the same source, 
the ensign of a troop being taken as type 
of a sign in general, which is surely in 
direct opposition to the natural order of 
the signification. Besides it must be by 
no means assumed that the earliest kind 
of ensign would be a flag or streamer. 
It is quite as likely that a sculptured 
symbol, such as the Roman Eagle, would 
first be taken for that purpose. 

Banneret. Fr. banneret. A knight 
banneret was a higher class of knights, 
inferior to a baron, privileged to raise 
their own banner in the field, either in 
virtue of the number of their retinue, or 
from having distinguished themselves in 
battle. 

Qui tantse erant nobilitatis ut eorum quilibet 
vexilli gauderet insignibus. — Life of Philip Au- 
gust, in Due. 

They were called in the Latin of the 
period vexillarii, milites bannarii, banne- 
rarii, bannereti. 

Banquet. It. banchetto, dim. oi banco, 
a bench or table ; hence a repast, a ban- 
quet. 

To Banter. To mock or jeer one. 

When wit hath any mixture of raillery, it is but 
calling it banter, and the work is done. This 
polite word of theirs was first borrowed from the 
buUies in White Friars, then fell among the foot- 
men, and at last retired to the pedants — but if 
this bantering, as they call it, be so despicable a 
thing, &c.— Swift in R. 

Bantling. A child in swaddling 
clothes, from the bands in which it is 



BARBAROUS 

wrapped. So ON. reiflingr, a bantling, 
from reifa, to wrap. In a similar manner 
are formed yearling, an animal a year 
old, nestling, a young bird still in the 
nest, &c. 

Baptise. Gr. (3dirT(o, paTrril^u), to dip, 
to wash. 

Bar. A rod of any rigid substance. 
It. barra, Fr. bar re, and with an initial s, 
It. sbarra, OHG. sparro, Sw. sparre, E. 
spar, a beam or long pole of wood. The 
meaning seems in the first instance a 
branch ; Celtic bar, summit, top, then 
branches. Bret, barrou-gwez, branches 
of a tree {gwezen, a tree). Gael, barrack, 
branches, brushwood. Hence Fr. barrer, 
to bar or stop the way as with a bar, to 
hinder ; barriere, a barrier or stoppage ; 
barreaii, the bar at which a criminal 
appears in a court of justice, and from 
which the barrister addresses the court. 

Barb. i. The barb of an arrow is the 
beard-like jag on the head of an arrow 
directed backwards for the purpose of 
hindering the weapon from being drawn 
out of a wound. Lat. barba, Fr. barbe, a 
beard. Flesche barbelee, a bearded or 
barbed arrow. — Cot. 

2. Fr. Barbe, E. Barb, also signified a 
Barbary horse. G. Bar bar, OFr. Bar- 
bare. — Leduchat. 

3. The term barb was also applied to 
the trappings of a horse, probably cor- 
rupted from Fr. barde, as no correspond- 
ing term appears in other languages. 
Bardd, barbed ox trapped as a great horse. 
—Cot. 

Barbarous. The original import of 
the Gr. l3dpl3apog, Lat. barbarus, is to 
designate one whose language we do not 
understand. Thus Ovid, speaking of 
himself in Pontus, says, 

Barbarus hie ego sum quia non intelligor uUi. 

Gr. BapjSapo^wvoe, speaking a foreign 
language. Then as the Greeks and 
Romans attained a higher pitch of civil- 
isation than the rest of the ancient world, 
the word came to signify rude, uncivilised, 
cruel. The origin of the word is an 
imitation of the confused sound of voices 
by a repetition of the syllable bar, bar, 
in the same way in which the broken 
sound of waves, of wind, and even of 
voices is represented by a repetition of 
the analogous syllable inur, mnr. We 
speak of the murmur of the waves, or of 
a crowd of people talking. It may be 
remarked, indeed, that the noise of voices 
is constantly represented by the same 
word as the sound made by the move- 



BARBEL 

ment of water. Thus the ON. skola^ as 
well as thwcBtta^ are each used in the 
sense both of washing or splashing and 
of talking. The E. tivattle, which was 
I formerly used in the sense of tattle^ as 
! well as the modern twaddle, to talk much 
I and foolishly, seem frequentative forms 
I of Sw. twcetta, to wash. G. waschen, to 
I tattle. It. guazzare, to plash or dabble, 
guazzolare, to prattle. — Fl. In like 
manner the syllable bar or bor is used in 
I the formation of words intended to repre- 
sent the sound made by the movement 
of water or the indistinct noise of talk- 
ing. Hindost. barbar, muttering, barbar- 
karna, to gurgle. The verb borrelen 
signifies in Du. to bubble or spring up, 
and in Flanders to vociferate, to make 
an outcry ; Sp. borbotar, borbollar, to boil 
or bubble up ; barbulla, a tumultuous as- 
sembly; Port, borbulhar, to bubble or 
boil; It. borboglio, a rumbling, uproar, 
quarrel ; barbugliare, to stammer, stutter, 
speak confusedly. Fr. barbeter, to grunt, 
mutter, murmur ; barboter, to mumble or 
mutter words, also to wallow like a seeth- 
ing pot. — Cot. The syllable bur seems 
in the same way to be taken as the 
representative of sound conveying no 
meaning, in Fr. baragouin, gibberish, 
jargon, ' any rude gibble-gabble or bar- 
barous speech.' — Cot. Mod. Gr. j3fp- 
^tQiliji, to stammer; l3opl36pvKu), to rum- 
ble, boil, grumble (Lowndes, Mod. Gr. 
Lex.) ; Port, borborinha^ a shouting of 
men. 

Barbel. A river fish having a beard 
at the corners of the mouth. Fr. barbel, 
barbeau. — Cot. 

Barber. Fr. barbierjonQ who dresses 
the beard. 

Barberry. A shrub bearing acid 
berries. Fr. dial, barbelin. — Diet. Etym. 
Barbaryn-frute, barbeum, — tree, barbaris. 
— Pr. Pm. 

Barbican. An outwork for the de- 
fence of a gate. It. barbacane, a jetty 
or outnook in a building, loophole in a 
wall to shoot out at, scouthouse. — Fl. 
The Pers. bdla-khaneh, upper chamber, 
is the name given to an open chamber 
over the entrance to a caravanserai. — 
Rich. Hence it is not unlikely that the 
name may have been transferred by re- 
turned crusaders to the barbacan or scout- 
house over a castle gate from whence 
arrivals might be inspected and the 
entrance defended. 

Bard. i. w. bardd, Bret, barz, the 
name of the poets of the ancient Celts, 
whose office it was to sing the praises of 



BARGAIN 



47 



the great and warlike, and hymns to the 
gods. 

Bardus Gallicd cantator appellatur qui virorum 
fortium laudes canit.— Festus in Diet. Etym. 
Ba'/oSoi ixkv \jfxvy\Ta\ Ka\ irotriTal. — Strabo, lb. 

Et Bardi quidem fortia virorum illustrium 
facta heroicis composita versibus cum dulcibus 
lyras modulis cantitarunt. — Lucan, lb. 

Hence in poetic language Bard is used 
for poet. 

2. Sp. barda, horse armour covering 
the front, back, and flanks. Applied in 
E. also to the ornamental trappings of 
horses on occasions of state. 

When immediately on the other part came in 
the fore eight knights ready armed, their basses 
and dards of their horses green satin embroidered 
with fresh devices of bramble bushes of fine gold 
curiously wrought, powdered all over. — Hall 
in R. 

Fr. bardes, barbes or trappings for 
horses of service or of show. Barder, to 
barbe or trap horses, also to bind or tie 
across. Barde, a long saddle for an ass 
or mule, made only of coarse canvas 
stuffed with flocks. Bardeau, a shingle 
or small board, such as houses are covered 
with. Bardelle, a bardelle, the quilted 
or canvas saddle wherewith colts are 
backed. — Cotgr. Sp. barda, coping of 
straw or brushwood for the protection of 
a mud wall; albarda, a pack-saddle, 
broad slice of bacon with which fowls 
are covered when they are roasted ; al- 
bardilla, small pack-saddle, coping, 
border of a garden bed. The general 
notion seems that of a covering or pro- 
tection, and if the word be from a Gothic 
source we should refer it to ON. bard:, 
brim, skirt, border, ala, axilla. Hatt-bard, 
the flap of a hat; skialldar-bard, the 
edge of a shield ; hval-bard, the layers of 
whalebone that hang from the roof of a 
whale's mouth. But Sp. albarda looks 
like an Arabic derivation ; Arab, al- 
barda^ ah, saddle-cloth. — Diez. 

Bare. Exposed to view, open, un- 
covered, unqualified. G. baar, bar, ON. 
berj G. baares geld, ready money. Russ. 
bos, Lith. bdsas, bdsus, bare ; baskojis, 
barefooted ; Sanscr. bhasad, the naked- 
ness of a woman. 

Bargain. OFr. barguigner, to chaf- 
fer, bargain,, or more properly (says 
Cotgr.) to wrangle, haggle, brabble in the 
making of a bargain. The radical idea 
is the confused sound of wrangling, and 
the word was used in OE. and Sc. in the 
sense of fight, skirmish. 

And mony tymys ische thai wald 
And bargane at the barraiss hald, 



48 



BARGE 



And wound thair fayis oft and sla. 

Barbour in Jam. 

We have seen under Barbarous that 
the syllable bar was used in the con- 
struction of words expressing the con- 
fused noise of voices sounding indistinct 
either from the language not being un- 
derstood, or from distance or simultane- 
ous utterance. Hence it has acquired 
the character of a root signifying con- 
fusion, contest, dispute, giving rise to It. 
baruffa^ fray, altercation, dispute ; Prov. 
baralha, trouble, dispute ; Port, baralhar, 
Sp. barajar, to shuffle, entangle, put to 
confusion, dispute, quarrel ; Port, bara- 
funda, Sp. barahunda, tumult, confusion, 
disorder; Port, barafustar, to strive, 
struggle ; It. baratta, strife, squabble, 
dispute ; barattare, to rout, to cheat, also 
to exchange, to chop ; E. barretor, one 
who stirs up strife. Nor is the root con- 
fined to the Romance tongues ; Lith. 
barii, to scold; barnis, strife, quarrel; 
ON. baratta, strife, contest; bardagi, 
battle. 

From Fr. baragouin, representing the 
confused sound of people speaking a 
language not understood by the hearer, 
we pass to the verb barguigner, to 
wrangle, chaffer, bargain. 

Barge. — Bark, 1. These words seem 
mere varieties of pronunciation of a term 
common to all the Romance as well as 
Teutonic and Scandinavian tongues. 
Prov. barca, barja, OFr. barge, Du. 
barsie, OSw. bars, a boat belonging to a 
larger ship. 

Barca est quag cuncta navis commercia ad 
littus portat. — Isidore in Rayn. Naus en mar 
quant a perdu sa barja. — Ibid. Sigurdr let taka 
tua skip-bata er barker ero kalladir. — Ihre. 

The origin may be ON. barki, the 
throat, then the bows or prow of a ship, 
pectus navis, and hence probably (by a 
metaphor, as in the case of Lat. puppis) 
barkr came to be applied to the entire 
ship. So also ON. kani, a beak, promi- 
nent part of a thing, also a boat ; skutr, 
the fore or after end of a boat ; skuta, a. 
boat 

Bark, 2. The outer rind of a tree ; 
any hard crust growing over anything. 
ON. borkr, bark ; at barka, to skin over ; 
barkajtdi, astringent. 

To Bark. as. beorcan, from an imita- 
tion of the sound. 

Barley. The Goth. adj. barizeins in- 
dicates a noun baris, barley; AS. bere. 
w. barlys {bara, bread, and llysiau, Bret. 
louzou, Uzen, herbs, plants), bread-corn, 
barley. The older form in E. was barlic, 



BARON 

barlig, barlicJi, the second syllable of 
which is analogous to that of garlick, 
hemlock, charlock, and is probably a true 
equivalent of the lys in w. barlys. See 
Garlick. 

Barm. i. Yeast, the slimy substance 
formed in the brewing of beer. AS. beorm, 
G. berm, Sw. berma. Dan. bcerme, the 
dregs of oil, wine, beer. 

2. As Goth, barms, a lap, bosom ; ON. 
barmr, border, edge, lap, bosom. See 
Brim. 

Barn. as. berern, bcern, commonly 
explained from bere, barley, and em, a 
place, a receptacle for barley or corn, 
as b(Eces-ern, a baking place or oven, 
lihtes-ern, a lantern. (Ihre, v. arn.) 
But probably berern is merely a misspell- 
ing, and the word is simply the Bret. 
<5<?r;/, aheap. Acervus, ^^rw. — Gl. Cornub. 
Zeuss. So ON. hladi, a heap, a stack, 
hlada, a barn. Du. baerm, ber7n, a 
heap ; berm hoys, meta foeni. — Kil. Swab. 
baarn, barn, hay-loft, corn-shed, barn. 
Dan. dial, baaring, baaren, baarm, a 
load, so much as a man can bear or carry 
at once. On the other hand, MHG. barn, 
the rack or manger, prassepe ; houbarn, 
faenile. 

Barnacle. A conical shell fixed to 
the rocks within the wash of the tide. 
Named from the cap-like shape of the 
shell. Manx bayrn, a cap ; barnagh, a 
limpet, a shell of the same conical shape 
with barnacles. Gael, bairneach, bar- 
nacles, limpets ; W. bf'enig, limpets. 

* Barnacles. Spectacles, also irons 
put on the noses of horses to make them 
stand quiet. — Bailey. Of these meanings 
the second is probably the original, the 
name being given to spectacles, which 
were made to hold on the nose by a 
spring, from comparison to a farrier's 
barnacles. The name of barnacles is 
given by Joinville to a species of torture 
by compression practised by the Sara- 
cens, and may therefore be an Eastern 
word. Camus, bernac. — Vocab. in Nat. 
Antiq. Berniques, spectacles. — Vocab. 
de Berri. 

Baron. It. barone, Sp. varon, Prov. 
bar (ace. baro), OFr. ber (ace. baron), 
Fr. baron. Originally man, husband, 
then honoured man. 

Lo bar non es creat per la femna mas la femna 
per lo baro. The man was not created for the 
woman, but the woman for the man. — Rayn. 
Tam baronem quam feminam. — Leg. Ripuar. 
Barum vel feminam. — Leg. Alam. 

In the Salic Law it signifies free born ; 
in the capitularies of Charles the Bald 



BARONET 

harones are the nobles or vassals of the 
crown. 

Baro", gxzy\s> et authenticus vir.— John de Gar- 
landia. 

In our own law it was used for married 
man, Baron and fe mine, man and wife. 

We have not much light on the pre- 
cise formation of the word, which would 
seem to be radically the same with Lat. 
vir, Goth, vair, AS. wer^ w. gwr, Gael. 
fear, a man. 

Baronet. The feudal tenants next 
below the degree of a baron were called 
baronetti, baronuli, baroncidi, baroncelli, 
but as the same class of tenants were 
also termed bannerets, the two names, 
from their resemblance, were sometimes 
confounded, and in several instances, 
where baronetti is written in the printed 
copies, Spelman found banitereti in the 
MS. rolls of Parliament. Still he shows 
conclusively, by early examples, that 
baronettiis is not a mere corruption of 
baniieretns, but was used in the sense of 
a lesser Baron. 

Barunculus— a baronet. — Nominale of the 
15th Cent, in Nat. Antiq. 

It was not until the time of James I. that 
the baronets were established as a formal 
order in the state. 

Barrack. Fr. baraque. It. baracca, 
Sp. barraca, a hut, booth, shed. The 
Sp. word is explained by Minshew 'a 
souldiers tent or booth or suchlike thing 
made of the sail of a ship or suchlike 
stuff. Dicitur proprie casa ilia piscatorum 
juxta mare.' 

The original signification was probably 
a hut made of the branches of trees. 
Gael, barrack, brushwood, branches; 
barrachad, a hut or booth. Bargus or 
barcus in the Salic laws is the branch of 
a tree to which a man is hanged. 

Before the gates of Bari he lodged in a miser- 
able hut or barrack, composed of dry branches 
and thatched with straw. — Gibbon. 

It should be observed that, whenever 
soldiers' barracks are mentioned, the 
word is always used in the plural number, 
pointing to a time when the soldiers' 
lodgings were a collection of huts. 

* Barragan. Sp. baragan, Fr. bara- 
gant, bouracan, a kind of coarse camlet. 
A passage cited by Marsh from the 
Amante Liberal of Cervantes implies 
that barragans were of Moorish manu- 
facture, and Arabic barkan or baratikan 
is the name of a coarse, black woollen 
garment still used in Morocco. 

La mercancia del baxel era de harraganes y 



BARTER 



49 



alquiceles y de otros cosas que de Berberia se 
elevaban a Levante. 

On the other hand, G. barckent, bar- 
chet (Schmeller), calico. Bombicinus, 
Parchanus, parchanttuech. — Vocab. A. D. 
1445 in Schmeller. ' Ut nullus scarlatas 
aut barracanos vel pretiosos burellos, qui 
Ratisboni fiunt, habeant.' — Op. S. Bern, 
ibid. MHG. barkan, barragdn. 

Barratry. — Barrator, See Barter. 

BarreL It. barile, Sp. barril, barrila, 
Fr. barrique, a wooden vessel made of 
bars or staves, but whether this be the 
true derivation may be doubtful. 

Barren. Bret, bredhanj OFr. bre- 
haigne, baraigne ; Picard, breine j Du. 
braeck, sterilis, semen non accipiens ; 
braeckland, uncultivated, fallow. — Kil. 

Barricade. Formed from Fr. barre, 
a bar ; as cavalcade, from cavallo^ a 
horse; and not from Fr. barriqne, a 
barrel, as if it signified an impromptu 
barrier composed of barrels filled with 
earth. It is hard to separate barricade 
from Fr. barri, an obstruction, fortifi- 
cation, barrier. 

Barrier. See Bar. 

Barrister. The advocate who pleads 
at the Bar of a court of Justice. 

Barrow, 1. An implement for carry- 
ing. AS. berewe, from beran, to carry. 
It. bara, a litter, a bier or implement for 
carrying a dead body. G. bahre, a bar- 
row, todtenbahre, or simply bahre, a bier. 
This word introduced into Fr. became 
biere, perhaps through Pro v. bera, whence 
E. bier, alongside of barrow. 

Barrow, 2. A mound either of stones 
or earth over the graves of warriors and 
nobles, especially those killed in battle, 
as the barrow at Dunmail-raise in West- 
moreland. AS. beorg, beorh, a hill, mound, 
rampart, heap, tomb, sepulchre, from 
beorgan, OE. berwen, to shelter, cover. 

Worhton mid stanum anne steapne beorh him 
ofer. They made with stones a steep mound 
over him. — Joshua vii. 26. 

Barrow-hog. as. bearg j Bohem. 
braw, a castrated hog ; Russ. borov\ a 
boar. 

Barter. Barter or trafficking by ex- 
change of goods seems, like bargain, to 
have been named from the haggling and 
wrangling with which the bargain is con- 
ducted. It is shown under Bargain how 
the syllable bar acquires the force of a 
root signifying confused noise, squabble, 
tumult. From this root were formed 
words in all the Romance languages, 
signifying, in the first instance, noisy 
contention, strife, dispute, then traffick- 
4 



50 



BARTIZAN 



ing for profit, then cheating, over-reach- 
ing, unrighteous gain. 

Al is dai, n' is ther no night 
Ther n' is baret nother strif. 

Hickes in Rich, 
They run like Bedlem barreters into the street. 
• — HoUinshed, ibid. 

OFr. bareter, to deceive, He, cog, foist 
in bargaining, to cheat, beguile, also to 
barter, truck, exchange. — Cotgr. MHG. 
pdrdt, Pl.D. baract (from Fr.), barter, 
deceit, mhg. partiere7i, to cheat, /c/rrt- 
tierer, a deceiver. Sp. baratar, to truck, 
exchange ; baratear, to bargain ; bara- 
teria, fraud, cheating, and especially 
fraud committed by the master of a ship 
with respect to the goods committed to 
him. 

Baratry is when the master of a ship cheats 
the owners or insurers, byimbezzling their goods 
or running away with the ship. — Bailey. 

But according to Blackstone barratry 
consists in the offence of stirring up 
quarrels and suits between parties. 

Bartizan. See Brattice. 

Barton. A court-yard, also the de- 
mesne lands of a manor, the manor- 
house itself, the outhouses and yards. — 
Halliwell. AS. beretiin, beortun, berewic, 
a court-yard, corn-farm, from bere, barley, 
and tu?i, inclosure, or wic, dwelling. — 
Bosworth. 

Base. It. basso, Fr. bas, low, mean ; 
Sp. baxoj \v. and Bret, bds, shallow, low, 
flat. The original meaning, according 
to Diez, would be, pressed down, thick. 
' Bassiis, crassus, pinguis.' — Gl. Isidore. 
' Bassus, curtus, humilis.' — Papias. ' Ele 
a basses hanches et basses jambes.' 

Basilisk. Gr. l3amXi<yKog, from (3a- 
m\ivs, a king. A fabulous serpent, said 
to kill those that look upon it. 

There is not one that looketh upon his eyes, 
but he dieth presently. The like property hath 
the basilisk. A white spot or star it carieth on 
the head and settith it out like a coronet or 
diadem. If he but hiss no other serpent dare 
come near. — Holland's Pliny in Rich. 

Late sibi submovet omne 

Vulgus et in vacu^ regnat Basihscus arena. 

Lucan. 

Probably from reports of the cobra capel, 
which sets up its hood when angry, as 
the diadem of the basilisk. 

To Bask. To heat oneself in the sun 
or before a fire. See Bath. 

Basket, w. basg, netting, plaiting of 
splinters ; basg'ed, basgod, a basket ; niasg, 
a mesh, lattice-work. It is mentioned as 
a British word by Martial. 

Barbara de pictis veni bascauda Britannis, 
Sed me jam mavult dicere Roma suam. 



BASTE - 

Bason. It. bacino, Fr. bassin, the 
diminutive of the word corresponding to 
E. back, signifying a wide open vessel. 

Bass. It. basso, the low part of the 
scale in music. 
Lend me your hands, lift me above Parnassus, 
With your loud trebles help my lowly bassus. 
Sylvester's Dubartas. 

Bassoon. It. bassone, an augment- 
ation of basso ; an instrument of a very 
low note. 

Bast.— Bass. Du. bast, bark, peel, 
husk ; bast van koren, bran, the thin skin 
which covers the grain ; Dan. Swed. 
Ger. bast, the inner bark of the lime-tree 
beaten out and made into a material for 
mats and other coarse fabrics. Dan. 
bast-viaatte, bass-matting; bast-reb, a 
bass rope. Du. bast, a halter, rope for 
hanging, OE. baste. 

Bot ye salle take a stalworthe baste 
And binde my handes behind me faste. 

MS. Halliwell. 

Dan. baste, Sw. basta, to bind, commonly 
joined with the word binda, of the same 
sense. Sw. at basta og binda, to bind 
hand and foot. Dan. IcEgge een i baand 
og bast, to put one in fetters ; and it is 
remarkable that the same expression is 
found in Turkish ; besst, a tying, binding, 
besst-Ji-bendet, to bind. Lap. baste, the 
hoops of a cask. 

Bastard. Apparently of Celtic origin, 
from Gael, baos, lust, fornication. OFr. 
Jils de bast, fits de bas. 

He was begetin o bast, God it wot. 

Arthur and Merlin. 
Sir Richard fiz le rei of wan we spake bevore 
Gentilman was inow thei he were a bast ibore. 
R. G. 516. 
This man was son to John of Gaunt, descended 
of an honorable lineage, but born in baste, 
more noble in blood than notable in learning. — 
Hall in Halliwell. 

So Turk, chasa, fornication, chasa ogli 
ipgli = son), a bastard. — F. Newman. 
Malay anak-ba7idrek (child of adultery), 
a bastard. 

To Baste, i. To stitch, to sew with 
long stitches for the purpose of keeping 
the pieces of a garment in shape while it 
is permanently sewn. It. Sp. basta, a 
long stitch, preparatory stitching, the 
stitches of a quilt or mattrass. Sp. 
bastear, embastir. It. iinbastii-e, Fr. bdtir, 
to baste, to stitch ; Fris. Sicamb. besten, 
leviter consuere. — Kil. OHG. bestan, to 
patch, as It. imbastire, to baste on a 
piece of cloth. 

Nay, mock not, mock not : the body of your 
discourse is sometimes guarded with fragments, 



BASTINADO 

and the guards are but slightly basted on neither. 
— Much Ado about Nothing. 

Derived by Diez from bast^ as if that 
were the substance originally used in 
stitching, but this is hardly satisfactory. 

It seems to me that the sense of stitch- 
ing, as a preparation for the final sewing 
of a garment, may naturally have arisen 
from the notion of preparing, contriving, 
setting up, which seems to be the general 
sense of the verb bastire, bastir, in the 
Romance languages. 

Thus we have Sp. bastir, disposer, pre- 
parer (Taboada) ; It. imbastire, to lay the 
cloth for dinner, to devise or begin a 
business (Altieri). Fr. bastir, to build, 
make, frame, erect, raise, set up, also to 
compose, contrive, devise. Bastir a 
quelqii'un son roiilet, to teach one before- 
hand what he shall say or do. — Cot. 
Prov. guerra bastir, to set on foot a war ; 
agait bastir, to lay an ambush. — Rayn. 
Sp. bastimento, victuals, provisions, 
things prepared for future use, also the 
basting or preparatory stitching of a gar- 
ment, stitching of a quilt or mattrass. To 
baste a garment would be to set it up, to 
put it together, and from this particular 
kind of stitching the signification would 
seem to have passed on to embrace 
.stitching in general. 

A silver nedil forth I drowe— 
And gan this nedill threde anone, 
For out of toune me list to gone^ 
With a threde basting my slevis. 

Chaucer, R. R. 
— Sitze und beste mir den ermel wider in. 
Minnesinger in Schmid. 

It is probably from the sense of stitch- 
ing that must be explained the It. basto, 
imbasto, a packsaddle, pad for the head 
to carry a weight on ; Fr. bast, <^a/ (whence 
the E. military term of a bat-horse), bastine, 
a pad or packsaddle, which was origin- 
ally nothing but a quilted cushion on 
which to rest the load. Thus Baretti 
explains Sp. bastear, to pack a saddle 
with wool, i. e.. to quilt or stitch wool 
into it; and Cot. has bastine, a pad, 
packsaddle, the quilted saddle with which 
colts are backed. 

2. To beat or bang soundly. — Bailey. 
This word probably preserves the form 
from whence is derived the Fr. baston, 
baton, a stick, an instrument for beating, 
as well as besteau, the clapper of a bell. 
ON. beysta, to beat, to thrash ; Dan. bbste, 
to drub, to belabour; Sw. dial, basa, 
baska, basta, to beat, to whip. Perhaps 
in the use of the E. term there is usually 
an erroneous feeling of its being a meta- 



BAT 



51 



phor from the notion of basting meat. — 
To baste one's hide ; to give him a sound 
basting. 

3. The sense of pouring dripping over 
meat at roast or rubbing the meat with 
fat to prevent its burning is derived from 
the notion of beating in the same way 
that the verb to stroke springs from the 
act of striking. Sw. stryk, beating, 
blows ; stfjka, to rub gently, to stroke, 
to spread bread and butter. Fr. frotter, 
to rub, is explained by Cot. also to cudgel, 
baste or knock soundly. 

Bastinado. Sp. bastonada, a blow 
with a stick, Sp. Fr. baston. Yx. basfoft- 
nade, a cudgelling, bastonner, to cudgel. 
In English the term is confined to the 
beating on the soles of the feet with a 
stick, a favourite punishment of the Turks 
and Arabs. For the origin of baston see 
Baste, 2. 

Bastion. It. bastia, bastida, bastione, 
a bastion, a sconce, a blockhouse, a bar- 
ricado. — Florio. Fr. bastille, bastilde, a 
fortress or castle furnished with towers, 
donjon, and ditches ; bastioii, the fortifi- 
cation termed a bastion or cullion-head. 
— Cot. All from bastir, to build, set up, 
contrive. 

* Bat. I. Sc. back, bak, bakie-bird j Sw. 
nattbaka, Dan. aftonbakke, the winged 
mammal. It. vipistrello, the night-bat. 
— PI. Bakke, flyinge best, vespertilio. 
— Pr. Pm. Mid.Lat. blatta, blacta, 
batta lucifuga, vespertilio, vledermus. — 
Dieft". Supp. to Due. Chaufe-soriz is 
glossed a balke (for blake ?) in Bibeles- 
worth (Nat. Antiq. p. 164), and blak 
probably signifies a bat in the following 
passage : 

But at that yche breyde 

That she furthe her synne seyde, 

Come fleyng oute at her mouthe a blak; 

That yche blak y dar wel telle, 

That hyt was a fende of helle. 

Manuel des Pecchds. 11864. 

It is true the original has corneille, which 
was probably changed in the E. trans- 
lation to a bat, as a creature peculiarly 
connected Avith devilry and witchcraft. 

The name seems to be taken from ON. 
blaka, blakf-a, blakta, to flap, move to 
and fro in the air with a light rapid 
motion ; whence ledrblaka, the bat ; wSw. 
dial, blakka, natt-blakka, the night-jar or 
goat-sucker, a bird which, like the owl 
and the bat, seeks its insect prey on the 
wing in the evening. For the loss of the 
/ in back, bat, compared with blakka, 
blatta, comp. E. badger, from Fr. bladier. 

2. A staff, club, or implement for 
4 * 



52 



BATCH 



striking. In some parts of England it is 
the ordinary word for a stick at the 
present day. A Sussex woman speaks 
of putting a clung bat, or a dry stick, on 
the fire. In Suffolk batlins are loppings 
of trees made up into faggots. Bret, baz, 
a stick ; Gael, bat, a staff, cudgel, blud- 
geon, and as a verb, to beat, to cudgel. 
Mgy. bot, a stick. The origin of the 
word is an imitation of the sound of a 
blow by the syllable bat, the root of E, 
beat. It. battere, Fr. battre, w. baeddu. 
Bat, a blow. — Hal. The lighter sound 
of the p in pat adapts the latter syllable 
to represent a gentle blow, a blow with a 
light instrument. The imitative nature 
of the root bat is apparent in Sp. bata- 
cazo, baqiietazo, representing the noise 
made by one in falling. 

Batch. A batch of bread is so much 
as is baked zX one time, G. gebdck,gebdcke. 

Bate. Strife; makebate, a stirrer-up 
of strife. Batyn, or make debate. Jurgor, 
vel seminare discordias vel discordare. — 
Pr. Pm. Fr. debat, strife, altercation, 
dispute. — Cot. 

To Bate. i. Fr. abatti-e, to fell, beat, 
or break down, quell, allay ; Sp. batir, to 
beat, beat down, lessen, remit, abate. 

2. A term in falconry; to flutter with 
the wings. Fr. battre les ailes. 

Bath.— To Bathe.— To Bask. on. 
bada, G. baden, to bathe. The primary 
meaning of the word seems to be to 
warm, then to warm by the application of 
hot water, to foment, to refresh oneself in 
water whether warm or cold. Sw. dial. 
basa, bdda, badda, to heat ; soleji baddar, 
the sun burns ; solbase, the heat of the 
sun ; badjish, fishes basking in the sun ; 
basa, badda, bdda vidjor, as E. dial, to 
death wood, to heat it before the fire or 
in steam in order to make it take a 
certain bend. 

Faine in the sonde to bathe her merrily 
Lieth Pertelotte, and all her sustirs by 
Ayenst the sunne. — Chaucer. 

Flem. betten, to foment with hot applica- 
tions. G. bdhen, to foment, to warm, 
seems related to baden as Fr. trahirto It. 
tradire. Blolz bdhen, to beath wood ; 
brot bdhen, to toast bread. Hence pro- 
bably may be explained the name of 
Baiae, as signifying warm baths, to which 
that place owed its celebrity. 

It can hardly be doubted that bask is 
the reflective form of the foregoing verbs, 
from ON. badask, to bathe oneself, as E. 
busk, to betake oneself, from ON. bjiask 
for bua sik. ' I baske, I bathe in water 
or in any licoure.' — Palsgr. Sw. dial, at 



BATTLEMENT 

basa sig \ solen, to bask in the sun. Da. 
dial, batte sig, to warm oneself at the 
fire or in the sun. 

Perhaps the above may be radically 
identical with ON. baka, E. bake, to heat, 
Slav, pak, heat. Baka sik vik elld, to 
warm oneself at the fire. Pl.D. sick ba- 
kern, E. dial, to beak, to warm oneself. 

To Batten. To thrive, to feed, to 
become fat. Goth, gabatnan, to thrive, 
to be profited, ON. batna, to get better, to 
become convalescent. Du. bat, bet, bet- 
ter, more. See Better. 

Batten. In carpenter's language a 
scantling of wooden stuff from two to 
four inches broad, and about an inch 
thick. — Bailey. A batten fence is a fence 
made by nailing rods of such a nature 
across uprights. From bat in the sense 
of rod ; perhaps first used adjectivally, 
bat-en, made of bats, as wood-en, made of 
wood. 

Batter. Eggs, flour, and milk beateji 
up together. 

To Batter. — Battery, Battery, a 
beating, an arrangement for giving blows, 
is a simple adoption of Fr. batterie, from 
battre, to beat. From battery was pro- 
bably formed to batter under the con- 
sciousness of the root bat in the sense of 
blow, whence to batter would be a regular 
frequentative, signifying to give repeated 
blows, and would thus seem to be the 
verb from which battejy had been formed 
in the internal development of the English 
language. 

Battle. — Battalion. It. battere, Fr. 
battre, to beat ; se battre, to fight, whence 
It. battaglia, Fr. bataille, a battle, also a 
squadron, a band of armed men arranged 
for fighting. In OE. also, battle was used 
in the latter sense. 

Scaffaldis, leddris and covering, 
Pikkis, howis, and with staffslyng, 
To ilk lord and his bataill, 
Wes ordanyt, quhar he suld assaill. 

Barbour in Jam. 

Hence in the augmentative form It. bat- 
taglione, a battalion, a main battle, a great 
squadron. — Florio. 

Battledoor. The bat with which a 
shuttlecock is struck backwards and for- 
wards. Sp. batador, a washing beetle, a 
flat board with a handle for beating the 
wet linen in washing. Batyldoure or 
washynge betylle. — Pr. Pm. 

Battlement. From OFr. bastille, a 
fortress or castle, was formed bastille, 
made like a fortress, adapted for defence, 
viz. in the case of a wall, by projections 
which sheltered the defenders while they 



BAUBLE 

; shot through the indentures. Mur bas- 
tille, an embattled wall, a wall with such 
notches and indentures or battlements. 
Batybnent of a wall, propugnaculum. — 
Pr. Pm. 

Si vey ung vergier grant et le 

Enclos d'un hault mur bastillL — R. R. 

Bauble, i. Originally an implement 
consisting of lumps of lead hanging from 
the end of a short stick, for the purpose 
of inflicting a blow upon dogs or the like, 
then ornamented burlesquely and used by 
a Fool as his emblem of office. ' Ba- 
bulle or bable — librilla, pegma/ ' Librilla 
dicitur instrumentum librandi — a bable 
or a dogge malyote.' ' Pegma, baculus 
cum massa plumbi in summitate pen- 
dente.' — Pr. Pm., and authorities in note. 

The origin of the word is bab or bob, a 
lump, and as a verb to move quickly up 
and down or backwards and forwards. 
Gael, bab, a tassel or hanging bunch ; E. 
bablyn or waveryn, librillo, vacillo. — Pr. 
Pm. 

2. Bauble in the sense of a plaything 
or trifle seems a different word, from Fr, 
babiole, a trifle, whimwham, guigaw, or 
small toy to play withal. — Cot. It. bab- 
bolare, to play the babby, to trifle away 
the time as children do ; babbole, child- 
ish baubles, trifles, fooleries or fond 
toys. — Fl. Swiss baben, to play with dolls 
or toys. 

Baudrick. — Baldrick. Prov. baudrat, 
OFr. baiidrd; OHG. baldefich, a belt. — 
Diez. Baudrick in OE. is used for a 
sword-belt, scarf, collar. 

Bavin. A brush faggot. OFr. baffe, 
faisceau, fagot. — Lacombe. An analogous 
form with an initial g instead of a <5 is 
seen in Fr. javelle, a gavel, or sheaf of 
corn, also a bavin or bundle of dry 
sticks, — Cot. The word may perhaps be 
derived from the above-mentioned bab or 
bob, a lump or cluster ; Gael, baban, 
babhaid, a tassel, cluster; Fr. bobine, a 
bobbin or cluster of thread. 

Bawdekin. Cloth of gold. It. bal- 
dacchino, s. s., also the canopy carried 
over the head of distinguished persons in 
a procession, because made of cloth of 
gold. The original meaning of the word 
is Bagdad stuff, from Baldacca, Bagdad, 
because cloth of gold was imported from 
Bagdad. 

Bawdy. Filthy, lewd ; in OE. dirty. 

His overest slop it is not worth a mite — 
It is all bawdy, and to-tore also. — Chaucer. 

What doth clear perle in a bawdy boote. 

Lydgate. 



BAWSON 



53 



Swiss, bau, dung; baue, to manure the 
fields, w. baw, dirt, filth, excrement. 
To baw, to void the bowels, — Hal. Sc. 
bauch, disgusting, sorry, bad. — Jam. 
From Baw .' an interjection of disgust, 
equivalent to Faugh ! being a represent- 
ation of the exspiration naturally resorted 
to as a defence against a bad smell. 

Ye baw ! quoth a brewere 
I woll noght be ruled 
By Jhesu for all your janglynge 
With Spiritus Justiciar. — P. P. 

for they beth as bokes tell us 

Above Goddes workes. 

' Ye baw for bokes ' quod oon 

Was broken out of Helle,— P. P, 

The It. oibo / fie ! fie upon (Altieri), Fr. 
bah I pooh ! nonsense ! and Sp, baf ! 
expressive of disgust, must all be referred 
to the same origin. ' There is a choler- 
icke or disdainful interjection used in 
the Irish language called Boagh / which 
is as much in Enghsh as Twish !' — Hol- 
linshed, Descript. Irel. c. 8. To this 
exactly corresponds Fr. pouac ! faugh ! 
an interjection used when anything filthy 
is shown or said, -whencQ potiacre, rotten, 
filthy. — Cot. In like manner Grisons 
buah / bull / exclamation of astonish- 
ment, leads to biia (in children's lan- 
guage), nastiness, filth. 

To Bawl. Formed from baw, the 
representation of a loud shout, as Fr. 
miauler, E. to mewl, to make the noise 
represented by the syllable iniaii, mew. 
The sound of a dog barking is repre- 
sented by bau, bow (as in our nursery 
bow-wow, a dog). Lat, baubare, Piedm. 
fe bau, to bark ; baiile, to bark, to talk 
noisily, obstrepere. — Zalli. Swiss Rom. 
bouala, boiiaila, to vociferate, to cry. — 
Bridel. ON. baula, to low or bellow as 
an ox. 

Bawson. A name of the badger, from 
the streaks of white on his face. It. bal~ 
zano, a horse with white legs. Fr. bal- 
zan, a horse that hath a white leg or foot, 
the white of his leg or foot, also more 
generally a white spot or mark in any 
part of his body. — Cotgr. Prov. bausan, 
OFr. bauqaiit, a horse marked with 
white. Beauseent, the famous standard 
of the Templars, was simply a field 
divided between black and white. E. dial. 
bawsoned, having a white streak down 
the face. From Bret, bal, a white mark 
on the face of animals, or the animal so 
marked, whence the E. name of a cart- 
horse. Ball. Gael, ball, a spot, a plot of 
ground, an object. Ball-seirc, a beauty- 
spot, ballach, spotted, speckled. E. pie- 



54 



BAY 



bald, marked like a pie. Probably con- 
nected with Pol. bialo, Russ. biclo, 
Bohem. bjly, white. Serv. bijel, white, 
bilye(^a, a mark, bilyejiti, to mark. See 
Bald. 

Bay, 1. A hollow in the line of coast. 
Fr. baie^ It. baja, Sp. bahia. Catalan 
badia, from badar, to open, to gape, 
dividere, dehiscere ; badarse, to open as 
a blossom, to split. From Cat. badia to 
Sp. bahia, the step is the same as from 
It. tradire to Fr. trahir, to betray. See 
At Bay. 

Bay, 2. — Bay-window. The same 
fundamental idea of an opening also 
gives rise to the application of the term 
Bay (in Architecture) to ' a space left in 
a wall for a door, gate, or window ' — (in 
Fortification), to ' holes in a parapet to 
receive the mouth of a cannon.' — Bailey. 
A barn of two bays, is one of two di- 
visions or unbroken spaces for stowing 
corn, &c., one on each side of the thresh- 
ing-floor. 

Earth 
By Nature made to till, that by the yearly birth 
The large-bayed bam doth fill.— Drayton in R. 

In great public libraries cases may be erected 
abutting into the apartment from the piers of the 
windows, as they do not obstruct the light or air, 
and afford pleasant bays in which to study in 
quiet.— Journal Soc, Arts, Feb. 25, 1859. 

A bay-window then is a window con- 
taining in itself a bay, or recess in an 
apartment ; in modern times, when the 
architectural meaning of the word was 
not generally understood, corrupted into 
Bow-window, as if to signify a window of 
curved outline. Fr. bee, a hole, overture, 
or opening in the wall or other part of a 
house, &c. — Cot. Swiss beie, baye, win- 
dow ; bayen-stein, window-sill.— Stalder. 
Swab, bay, large window in a handsome 
house. — ^Schmid. 

Bay. Lat. badius, Sp. bayo. It. bajo, 
Fr. bai. Gael, biiidhe, yellow; buidhe- 
7'7iadJi, biiidhe-dJiojtn, bay. 

To Bay. To bark as a dog. It. ab- 
baiare, Fr. babayer, Lat. baubari, Gr. 
^avltiv, Piedm.y^' bau, from an imitation 
of the sound. See Bawl. 

At Bay. It has been shown under 
Abie, Abide, that from ba, representing 
the sound made in opening the mouth, 
arose two forms of the verb, one with and 
one without the addition of a final d to 
the root. ist, It. badare, having the 
primary signification of opening the 
mouth, then of doing whatever is marked 
by involuntarily opening the mouth, as 
gazing, watching intently, desiring, wait- 
ing ; and 2ndly, Fr. bahcr^ baer, beer, 



BE 

baier, to open the mouth, to stare, to be 
intent on anything. 

From the former verb is the It. expres- 
sion tenere a bada, to keep one waiting, 
to keep at a bay, to amuse ; stare a bada 
a'lnio, to stand watching one. 

Tal parve Anteo a me, che stava a bada di 
vederlo chinare. Such Antoeus seemed to me, 
who stood watching him stoop. Non ti terro 
con verso lungo et dubbii discorsi a bada. I will 
not keep you waiting with a long story, &c. I 
Pisani si mostrarono di volergli assalire di quella 
parte e comminciarono vi I'assalto per tenere i 
nemici a bada. 

i. e. in order to keep the enemy in check, 
or at bav. 

Ne was there man so strong but he down bore 
Ne woman yet so faire but he her brought 
Unto his bay and captived her thought. — F. Q. 

he brought her to stand listening to him. 

So well he wooed her and so well he wrought her 
With faire entreaty and swete blandishment 
That at the length imto a bay he brought her 
So as she to his speeches was content 
To lend on ear and softly to relent. — F. Q. 

The stag is said to stajtd at bay, when, 
weary of running, he turns and faces his 
pursuers, and keeps them in check for a 
while. As this crisis in the chase is ex- 
pressed in Fr. by the term rendj-e les 
abois, the term at bay has been supposed 
to be derived from the Fr. aux dernier s 
abois, at his last gasp, put to his last 
shifts, which however, as may be seen 
from the foregoing examples, would give 
but a partial explanation of the expres- 
sion. 

Bayonet. Fr. baionette, a dagger. — • 
Cot. Said to have been invented at Bay- 
onne, or to have been first used at the 
siege of Bayonne in 1665. — Diez. 

Bay-tree. The laurus nobilis or true 
laurel of the ancients, the laurel-bay , so 
called from its bearing bays, or berries. 

The royal laurel is a very tall and big tree — 
and the baies or berries (baccae) which it bears 
are nothing bitmg or unpleasant in taste. — Hol- 
land's Pliny in R. 

A garland of bays is commonly repre- 
sented with berries between the leaves. 

The word bay, Fr. bale, a berry, is per- 
haps not directly from Lat. bacca, which 
itself seems to be from a Celtic root. w. 
bacon, berries. Gael, bagaid, a cluster of 
grapes or nuts. Pro v. baca, baga, OSp. 
baca. Mod. Sp. bay a, the cod of peas, 
husk, berry. It. baccello, the cod or husk 
of beans or the like, especially beans. 

* To Be, AS. beonj Gael, beo, alive, 
living ; beothach, a beast, living thing ; 
Ir. bioth.^ life, the world ; Gr. /3(ot:, life. 



BEACH 

It is not until a somewhat advanced 
stage in the process of abstraction that 
the idea of simple being is attained, and 
a verb with that meaning is wholly want- 
ing in the rudest languages. The negro 
who speaks imperfect English uses in- 
stead the more concrete notion of living. 
He says, Your hat no lib that place you 
put him in. — Farrar, Chapters on Lang. 
p. 54. A two-year old nephew of mine 
would say, Where it live ? where is it ? 
Now the breath is universally taken as 
the type of life, and the syllable pti or fu 
is widely used in the most distant lan- 
guages to express the notion of blowing 
or breathing, and thus may explain the 
origin of the root fu in l^zX.fui^fuisse, or 
of Sanscr. bhu, be. 

Beach. The immediate shore of the 
sea, the part overflowed by the tide. 
Thence applied to the pebbles of which 
the shore often consists. 

We haled our bark over a bar of beach, or 
pebble stones, into a small river. — Hackluyt in R. 

Perhaps a modification of Dan. bakke, 
N. bakkje, Sw. backe, a hill, bank, rising 
ground. In Norfolk bajtk is commonly 
used instead of beach. — Miss Gurney in 
Philolog. Trans, vol. vii. 

Beacon. — Beck. — Beckon, ohg. bau- 
han, OSax. bokan, AS. beacefi, a sign, a 
nod ; OHG. fora-bauhan, a presage, pro- 
digy ; baiihnjaji^ ON. bdkna, AS. beacnian, 
nutu significare, to beckon. The term 
beacon is confined in E. to a fire or some 
conspicuous object used as a signal of 
danger. 

The origin seems preserved in E. beck., 
to bow or nod ; Catalan becar, to nod ; 
Gael, beic, a curtsey, perhaps from the 
image of a bird pecking ; Gael, beic, a 
beak. 

Than peine I me to stretchen forth my neck, 
And East and West upon the peple I becke. 
As doth a dove sitting upon a bern. 

Pardoner's Tale. 

He (Hardicanute) made a law that every Inglis 
man sal bek and discover his hed quhen he met 
ane Dane. — Bellenden in Jam. 

Esthon. nokkima, to peck as a bird ; 
nokkutama pead, to nod the head. 

Bead. A ball of some ornamental 
material, pierced for hanging on a string, 
and originally used for the purpose of 
helping the memory in reciting a certain 
tale of prayers or doxologies. AS. bead, 
gebed, a prayer. See To Bid. To bid 
one's bedes or beads was to say one's 
prayers. 

Beadle, as. bydel, the messenger of a 



BEAR 



55 



court, officer in attendance on the digni- 
taries of a university or church. Fr. 
bedeaie, It. bidello. Probably an equiv- 
alent of the modern waiter, an attendant, 
from AS. bidan, to wait. It will be ob- 
served that the word attendant has also a 
like origin in Fr. attendre, to wait. 
Home is he brought and laid in sumptuous bed 
Where many skilful leeches him abide 
To salve his hurts. — F. Q 
i. e. wait upon him. 

* Beagle. A small kind of hound 
tracking by scent. ' The Frenchmen 
stil like good begeles following their 
prey.' — Hall's Chron. Commonly re- 
ferred to Fr. beugler, to bellow, which is, 
however, not applied to the yelping of 
dogs. Moreover the name, according to 
Menage, was introduced from England 
into France, and therefore was not likely 
to have a French origin. 

Beak. A form that has probably de- 
scended to us from a Celtic origin. Gael. 
beic. ' Cui Tolosae nato cognomen in 
pueritia Becco fuerat : id valet gallinacei 
rostrum.' — Suetonius in Diez. It. becco, 
Fr. bee, Bret, bek, w. pig. It forms a 
branch of a very numerous class of words 
clustered round a root pik, signifying a 
point, or any action done with a pointed 
thing. 

Beam. — Boom. Goth, bagnis, ON. 
badnir, G. bauni, Du. boom, a tree. AS. 
beam, a tree, stock, post, beam. The 
boom of a vessel is the beam or pole by 
which the sail is stretched, coming to 
us, like most nautical terms, fromthe 
Netherlands or North Germany. 

Bean. g. bohne j on. baun. Gr. 
irvavoQ, Kvafiog, Lat. /aba, Slavon. bob. 
w. Jlci, beans, ffaen, a single bean, the 
addition of a final en being the usual 
mark of individuality. Bret, fa or fav^ 
beans, or the plant which bears them ; 
faen or faven, a single bean, ^hxr.faven- 
nou or faennou, as well as fa or fav. 
Thus the final en, signifying individuality, 
adheres to the root, and Lat. faba is 
connected through Oberdeutsch bobn 
(Schwenck) with G. bohne, E. bean. 

Bear. The wild beast. G. Mr, ON, 
biorn. 

To Bear. 'L2X.fei'o,fer-re; Gr. <^'(.^hv ; 
Goth, bairaft, to carry, support, and also 
to bear children, to produce young. The 
latter sense may have been developed 
through the notion of a tree bearing fruit, 
or from the pregnant mother carrying 
her young. It is singular, however, that 
the forms corresponding to the two sig- 
nifications should be so distinct in Latin, 



S6 BEARD 

fero, to carry, a.nd pario, to bear children, 
produce, bring forth. 

From dear in the sense of carrying we 
have Goth, baurthei^ ON. byrcti, E. bur- 
den; from the same in the sense of bear- 
ing children, Goth, gabaurths, birth. The 
ON. biirdr is used in the sense of a car- 
rying, bearing, and also in that of birth. 

Beard, g. bart^ Russ. boroda, Bo- 
hem, brada, the beard, chin. Lat. barba, 
\v. barf. Perhaps radically identical 
with ON. bard, a. lip, border, edge. See 
Halbard. 

Beast. Lat. bestiaj Gael, biast, an 
animal, perhaps a living thing, beo, 
living ; W. byw, living, to live. 

Beat. AS. beatan; It. bat fere, Fr. 
battre ; from a root bat, imitative of the 
sound of a sharp blow, as pat imitates 
that of a more gentle one. See Bat. 

Beauty. Fr. beaute\ from beau, bet, 
It. bello, Lat. bellus, pretty, handsome, 
agreeable. 

Beaver, i. The quadruped. G. biber, 
Lat. Jiber, Lith. bebrus, Slav, bobr, Fr. 
biivre. Secondarily applied to a hat, 
because made of the fur of the beaver. 
Perhaps from Pol. babra^, to dabble ; 
bobrowad, to wade through the water 
like a beaver. 

2. The moveable part of a helmet, 
which, when up, covered the face, and 
when down occupied the place of a child's 
bib or slobbering cloth. Fr. baviere, 
from baver, to slobber. It. bava, Sp. 
baba, Fr. bave, slobber. The OFr. bave 
expressed as well the flow of the saUva 
as the babble of the child, whence baveux, 
bavard, Pro v. bavec, talkative. — Diez. 

Beck, 1. — Beckon. A nod or sign. 
See Beacon. 

Beck, 2. ON. bekkr, Dan. bcsk, G. 
bach, a brook. As rivus, a brook, is 
connected with ripa, a bank, while from 
the latter are derived It. riviera, a bank, 
shore, or river, and Fr. rivihre, formerly a 
bank, but now a river only; and ON. 
bekkr, signifies both bench (= bank) and 
brook ; it is probable that here also the 
name applied originally to the bank then 
to the brook itself. See Bank. 

To Become, i. To attain to a certain 
condition, to assume a certain form or 
mode of being. AS. becumait, to attain 
to, to arrive at. 

Thaet thu maege becuman to tham gesaelthan 
the ece thurhwimiath. That thou mayest attain 
to those goods which endure for ever. — Boeth. 

G. bekommen, to get, receive, obtain, 
acquire. — Kiittner. It will be observed 
that we often use indifferently become or 



BEDIZEN 

get ; ' He got very angry,' ' He became 
very angry,' are equivalent expressions, 
implying that he attained the condition 
of being very angry. 

2. In a second sense to become is to be 
fitting or suitable. G. bequem, convenient, 
fit, proper ; E. comely, pleasing, agreeable. 
This meaning is to be explained from 
AS. becuman, to come to or upon, to 
befall, to happen. He becom on sceathan, 
he fell among thieves. Thcc7n godum 
becymth aitfeald yvel, to the good hap- 
pens unmixed evil. — Bosworth. Now the 
notion of being convenient, suitable, fit- 
ting, rests on the supposition of a purpose 
to be fulfilled, or a feeling to be gratified. 
If the accidents or circumstances of the 
case happen as we would have them, if 
they fall in with what is required to satisfy 
our taste, judgment, or special purpose, 
we call the arrangement becoming, con- 
venient, proper, and we shall find that 
these and similar notions are commonly 
expressed by derivatives from verbs sig- 
nifying to happen. Thus OE. fall was 
constantly used in the sense of falling or 
happening rightly, happening as it ought. 

Do no favour, I do thee pray, 
lifallith nothing to thy name 
To make fair semblant where thou mayest blame. 
Chaucer, R. R. 
In darkness of unknowynge they gonge 
Without light of understandynge 
Of that thaifalleth to ryghte knowynge. 

Prick of Conscience. 

i. e. of that that belongeth to right know- 
ing. So in ON. ' all-vel til Hofdingia 
fallinn,' every way suited to a prince. G. 
gefallen, to please, to fall in with our 
taste, as fall itself was sometimes used 
in E. 

With shepherd sits not following flying fame, 
But feed his flock in fields \ihexe falls him best. 
Shep. Cal. 

On the same principle, AS. limpian, to 
happen, to appertain, limplice, fitly ; ge- 
limpan, to happen, gelimplic, opportune. 
AS. tlman,getiman, to happen, G. zieinen, 
to become, befit, E. seemly, suitable, 
proper ; OSw. tida, to happen, tidig, fit, 
decent, decorous, E. tidy, now confined 
to the sense of orderly. In like manner 
Turk, dushmak, to fall, to happen, to fall 
to the lot of any one, to be a part of his 
duty, to be incumbent upon him. 

Bed. A place to lie down, to sleep on. 
Goth, badi, ON. bedr, G. belt. 

Bedizen. To load with ornament, to 
dress with unbecoming richness ; and to 
dizen out was used in the same sense. 
Probably from OE. dize or dizen, to clothe 



BEDLAM 

a distaff with flax, though the metaphor 
does not appear a striking one to our ears. 
I dysyn a dystaffe, I put the flax upon it 
to spin. — Palsgr. But possibly bedizen 
may be from Fr. badigeomier, to rough- 
cast, to colour with lime-wash, erroneously 
modified in form, by the analogy of be- 
dawb, as if it were derived from a simple 
verb to dizen, which latter would thus 
be brought into use by false etymology. 
The passage from a soft ^ to 2" is of fre- 
quent occurrence, as in It. prigiotie, Fr. 
prison; Venet. cogionare, E. cozen j It. 
cugino, E. cousiji. 

To plaister or bedawb with ornament 
is exactly the image represented by be- 
dizen. The same metaphor is seen in 
Fr. crespir, to parget or rough-cast ; 
feinme crespie de coideurs, whose face is 
all to bedawbed or plaistered over with 
painting. — Cot. 

Bedlam. A madhouse, from the hos- 
pital of St Mary, Bethlehem, used for 
that purpose in London. 

Bedouin. Arab, bedatut, a wandering 
Arab ; an inhabitant of the desert, from 
bedou (in vulgar Arab.), desert. 

Bed-ridden. Confined to bed. AS. 
bedrida, Pi.D. bedde-redir ; OHG. bet- 
tiriso, from risan, to fall. — Grimm. Pett- 
ris, qui de lecto surgere non potest ; 
pettiriso, paralyticus. — Gl. in Schmeller. 
So Gr. KXlvoTTiTTjg, from ttst-, fall. 

Bee. The honey-producing insect. AS. 
beoy ON. by-fluga; G. biene^ Bernese, 
beji. Gael, beach, a bee, a wasp, a stinging 
fly ; beach-each, a horse-fly ; speach, a 
blow or thrust, also the bite or sting of a 
venomous creature, a wasp. 

Beech. A tree. G. buche, ON. beyki, 
Slav, buk, buka, bukva, Lat. fagus, Gr. 

Beef. Fr. bcetif, an ox, the meat of 
the ox. It. bove, from Lat. bos, bovis, an 
ox. 

Beer. i. Originally, doubtless, drink, 
from the root pi, drink, extant in Bohem. 
piti, to drink, imperative pi, whence 
piwo, beer. The Lat. bibere is a re- 
duplicated form of the root, which also 
appears in Gr. Trtw, 7r<vw, to drink, and in 
Lat. poculum, a cup or implement for 
drink ; potus, drink. Gael, bior, water. 

In OE. beer seems to have had the 
sense of drink, comprehending both wine 
and ale. 

Rymenild ros of benche 
The beer al for te shenche 
After mete in sale, 
Bothe wyn and ale. 
An horn hue ber an hond, 
F or that was law of loud. 



BEETLE 



57 



Hue drone of the beere 
To knyght and skyere. — 1. T114. 
Hue fulde the horn of wyjie 
And dronk to that pelryne. 

K. Horn, 1156. 

2. A pillow-beer, a pillow-case. Dan. 
vaar, a cover, case, pude-vaar, a pil- 
low case. G. kiissen-biere. PI.D. biiren, 
kiissen-biiren, a cushion-cover ; beds- 
biiren, a bed-tick. Properly a cover that 
may be slipped on and off. Fin. waarin, 
I turn (a garment), Esthon. poordnia, to 
turn, to twist ; poorma, to turn, to change ; 
padja-poor, a pillow-case or pillow-beer 
{paddi, a. pad or cushion). 

* Beestings. The first milk after a 
cow has calved, which is thick and 
clotty, and in Northampton called cherry - 
curds. G. biest-milch, also bienst, briest, 
briesch-?nilch; AS. beost, byst. The mean- 
ing of the word is curdled. Fr. calle- 
botite, curded or beesty, as the milk of a 
woman that is newly delivered. — Cot. 
Prov. sang vermeilh betatz, red curdled 
blood. — Rom. de Fierabras in Diez. The 
earth was in the Middle Ages supposed 
to be surrounded by a sea of so thick a 
substance as to render navigation im- 
possible. This was called mer bet^e in 
Fr. and lebermer in G., the loppered sea, 
from leberen, to curdle or lopper. * La 
mars betada, sela que environna la terra.' 
In a passage of an Old Fr. translation 
cited by Diez, 'ausi com ele (la mer) fust 
bietee^ the last word corresponds to co- 
agulattim in the original Latin. Let. 
bees, thick, close together as teeth in a 
comb, trees in a forest ; beest, to become 
thick, to coagulate. 

Beet. A garden-herb. Fr. bette or 
blette J Lat. beta, bletumj Gr. (SXirov, 
spinach. 

Beetle, i. The general name of in- 
sects having a horny wing-cover. Pro- 
bably named from the destructive quali- 
ties of those with which w^e are most 
familiar. AS. bilel, the biter. ' Mordi- 
culus,\A\.t\2i:—G\. M\ix. in Nat. Ant. 

2. Beetle, boy tie, a wooden hammer for 
driving piles, stakes, wedges, &c. — B. 
AS. bytl, a mallet. PI. D. betel, botel, a 

clog for a dog ; boteln, to knock, to flatten 
sods with a beater. G. beutel, a mal- 
let for beating flax. Bav. bossen, to 
knock, to beat ; bossel, a washing beetle 
or bat for striking the wet linen. Fr. 
bate, a paviour's beetle ; batail. It. bat- 
taglio, a clapper, the knocker of a door. 

But besides signifying the instrument 
of beating, beetle also signified the im- 



S8 



BEG 



plcment driven by blows, a stone-cutter's 
chisel, a wedge for cleaving wood. OHG. 
steinbosil^ lapidicinus. — Schm, G. beis- 
sely beutel^ Du. beitd^ a chisel, a wedge. 

— a grete oke, which he had begonne to cleve, 
and as men be woned he had smeten two betels 
therein, one after that other, in suclie wyse that 
the oke was wide open. — Caxton's Reynard the 
Fox, chap. viii. 

In the original 

So had he daer twee heitels ingheslagen. 

N. & Q. Nov. 2, 1867. 
When by the help of wedges and beetles an 
image is cleft out of the trunk. — Stillingfleet. 

The G. beissel^ Du. beitel,2i chisel, is com- 
monly, but probably erroneously, referred 
to the notion of biting. 

To Beg. Skinner's derivation from bag, 
although it appears improbable at first, 
carries conviction on further examination. 
The Flem. beggaert (Delfortrie) probably 
exhibits the original form of the word, 
whence the E. begger, and subsequently 
the verb to beg. Beghardus, vir mendi- 
cans. — Vocab. 'ex quo.' A.D. 1430, in 
Deutsch. Mundart. iv. Hence the name 
of Begard given to the devotees of the 
13th & 14th centuries, also called Bigots, 
Lollards, &c. It must be borne in mind 
that the bag was a universal character- 
istic of the beggar, at a time when all his 
alms were given in kind, and a beggar is 
hardly ever introduced in our older writers 
without mention being made of his bag. 

Hit is beggares rihte vorte beren bagge on bac 
and burgeises for to beren purses. — ^Ancren Riwle, 
168. 

Ac beggers with bagges — 
Reccheth never the ryche 
Thauh such lorelles sterven. — P. P. 
Bidderes and beggeres 
Faeste about yede 
With hire belies & here bagges 
Of brede full ycrammed. — P. P. 
Bagges and beggitig he bad his folk leven. 

P. P. Creed. 
And yet these bilderes wol beggen a bag full of 

whete 
Of a pure poor man. — P. P. 

And thus gate I begge 
Without bagge other bote! 
But my wombe one. — P. P. 
That maketh beggers go with bordons and 
bags. — PoUtical Songs. 

So from Gael, bag {baigea7t, a little 
bag), baigeir, a beggar, which may per- 
haps be an adoption of the E. word, but 
in the same language from poc, a bag or 
poke, is formed pocair, a beggar ; air a 
phoc, on the tramp, begging, literally, on 
the bag. Lith. krapszas, a scrip ; sti. 
krapszais aplink eiti, to go a begging. 
From w. ysgrepau, a scrip, ysgrepanu^ to 



BEGONE 

go a begging. It. bertola, a wallet, such 
as poor begging friars use to beg withal ; 
bcrtolate, to shift up and down for scraps 
and victuals. — Florio. Y)zxi. pose, a bag ; 
pose-pUte, a beggar-boy. Mod. Gr. 
Oi'Xaicoc, a bag, a scrip ; evXaKi^ut, to beg. 
Fr. Mettre quelq'un a la besace, to re- 
duce him to beggary. 

To Begin. AS. aginnan, onginnan, 
beginnan Goth, duginnan. In Luc vi. 
25, the latter is used as an auxiliary of 
the future. ' Unte gaunon jah gretan 
duginnid,^ for ye shall lament and weep. 
In a similar manner ^;^^;/ or can was fre- 
quently used in OE. 'Aboutin undern 
gan this Erie alight.' — Clerk of Oxford's 
tale. He did alight, not began to alight, 
as alighting is a momentary operation. 

The tother seand the dint cum, gan provyde 
To eschew swiftlie, and sone lap on syde 
That all his force Entellus can apply 
Into the are — D. V. 142. 40. 

Down duschit the beist, deid on the land can ly 
Spreuland and fiycterand in the dede thrawes. 

D.V. 
To Scotland went he then in hy 
And all the land gan occupy. 

Barbour, Bruce. 

The verb to gin or begin appears to be 
one of that innumerable series derived 
from a root ga7i, gen, ken, in all the lan- 
guages of the I ndo- Germanic stock, sig- 
nifying to conceive, to bear young, to 
know, to be able, giving in Gr. ytyvojuai, 
yivofiat, ysvog, yiyrwffKrw, yivuxJKw, in Lat. 
gigno, genus, in E. can, ken, kind, &c. 

The fundamental meaning seems to be 
to attain to, to acquire. To produce 
children is to acquire, to get children ; 
bigitan in Ulphilas is always to find ; in 
AS. it is both to acquire and to beget, to 
get children. 

To begi?i may be explained either from 
the fundamental notion of attaining to, 
seizing, taking up, after the analogy of 
the G. anfangeji, and Lat. incipere, from 
G. fangen and Lat. capere, to take ; or 
the meaning may have passed through a 
similar stage to that of Gr. yiyvcfioi, 
yivtrai, to be born, to arise, to begin; 
ykviaiQ, ytvsrr], origin, beginning. 

It will be observed ihsitget is used as 
an auxiliary in a manner very similar to 
the OE. gan, can, above quoted ; ' to get 
beaten ; ' ON. ' at geta talad,' to be able 
to talk; ' abouten undern gan this earl 
alight,' about undern he got down. 

Begone. Gold-begone, ornamented 
with gold, covered with gold — D. V. ; 
woc-begofie, oppressed with woe. Du. 
begaan, affected, touched with emotion ; 



BEHAVE 

begaen zijn met eenighe saecke, premi 
cura alicujus rei, laborare, solicitum esse. 
— Kil. 

To Behave. The notion of behaviour 
is generally expressed by means of verbs 
signifying to bear, to carry, to lead. 
Ye shall dwell here at your will 
But your bearing be full ill. 

K. Robert in Warton. 

It. por tarsi, to behave ; poj-tarsi da 
Paladino, for a man to behave or carry 
himself stoutly. — Fl. G. betragen, be- 
haviour, from tragen, to carry. In ac- 
cordance with these analogies we should 
be inclined to give to the verb have in 
behave the sense of the Sw. ha^fwa, to 
lift, to carry, the equivalent of E. heave, 
rather than the vaguer sense of the aux- 
iliary to have, Sw. hafwa, habere. But, 
in fact, the two verbs seem radically the 
same, and their senses intermingle. Sw. 
hcsfwa in sad, to carry corn into the 
barn ; ha;f tig bort, take yourself off; 
hafwa bort, to take away, to turn one 
out ; hafwa f ram, to bring forwards. AS. 
habban, to have, hafjan, to heave; rif- 
habaii, iis-hafjan, to raise. G. gehaben, 
to behave, and (as Fr. se porter) to fare 
well or ill. 

Mid hym he had a stronge axe — So strong- and 
so gret that an other hit scholde hebbe unethe. — 
R. G. 17. 

Behest. — Hest. Command, injunc- 
tion. AS. hces, command; behces, vow; 
behat, gehat, vow, promise ; behatan, ge- 
hataii, OE. behete, to vow, to promise ; 
AS. hatan, to vow, promise, command ; 
Du. heeten, to command, to name, to 
call, to be named; heeten willekom, to 
bid one welcome. ON. heita, to call, to 
be named, to vow, exhort, invoke. Goth. 
haita7i, to call, to command. The 
general meaning seems to be to speak 
out, an act which may amount either to a 
promise or a command, according as the 
subject of the announcement is what the 
speaker undertakes to do himself, or 
what he wishes another to do ; or the 
object of the speaker may be simply to 
indicate a particular individual as the 
person addressed, when the verb will 
have the sense of calling or naming. 

Behind. At the back of. The re- 
lations of place are most naturally ex- 
pressed by means of the different mem- 
bers of the body. Thus in Finnish the 
name of the head is used to express what 
is on the top of or opposite to, the name 
of the ear to express what is on the side 
of anything. And so from hantci, the 



BEHOVE 59 

tail, are formed hannassa, behind, han- 
nittaa, to follow, hantyri, a follower, and 
as the roots of many of our words are 
preserved in the Finnish languages, it 
is probable that we have in the Finnish 
hcmta the origin of our behind^ at the 
tail of. 

To Behold. To look steadily upon. 
The compound seems here to preserve 
what was the original sense of the simple 
verb to hold. AS. healdan, to regard, 
observe, take heed of, to tend, to feed, to 
keep, to hold. To hold a doctrine for 
true is to regard it as true, to look upon 
it as true ; to hold it a cruel act is to 
regard it as such. The Lat, servare, to 
keep, to hold, is also found in the sense 
of looking, commonly expressed, as in 
the case of E. behold, by the compound 
observare. ' Tuus servus servet Venerine 
faciat an Cupidini.' Let your slave look 
whether she sacrifices to Venus or to 
Cupid. — Plautus. The verb to look itself 
is frequently found in the sense of looking 
after, seeing to, taking notice or care of 
(Gloss, to R. G.). The It. guardare, to 
look, exhibits the original meaning of 
the Fr. garder, to keeo or hold, and the 
E. ward, keeping. 

The supposition then that the notion 
of preserving, keeping, holding is origin- 
ally derived from that of looking, is sup- 
ported by many analogies, while it seems 
an arbitrary ellipse to explain the sense 
of behold as ' to keep or hold (sc. the eyes 
fixed upon any object).' — Richardson. 

Beholde7i in the sense of indebted is 
the equivalent of Du. gehouden, G. ge- 
halten, bound, obliged. Aan iemand 
gehoiiden zijn, to be obliged to one, to be 
beholden to him. G. zu etwas gehalten 
seyn, to be obliged to do a thing. Wohl 
^x\i €vi\^x\. gehalten seyn, to be well pleased 
with one's conduct. — Kiittn. 

* To Behove. To be expedient, to be 
required for the accomplishment of any 
purpose; behoof, what is so required, 
hence advantage, furtherance, use. AS. 
behofiati, to be fit, right, or necessary, to 
stand in need of; behefe, advantage, be- 
hoof. 

The expression seems to be taken from 
the figure of throwing at a mark. To 
heave a stone is used in vulgar language 
for throwing it. N. hevja, to lift, to 
heave; hevja, hove, to cast or throw; 
hbva, to hit the mark, to meet, adjust, 
adapt, to be suitable or becoming ; hovast, 
to meet, to fit. Sw. hofwa, the distance 
within which one can strike an object or at- 



6o 



BELAY 



tain a certain end, and, met. measure, 
bounds, moderation. Det er ofwer er hof- 
wa, cela est audessus de votre portde, 
that is above your capacity ; where it will 
be observed that the Fr. employs the same 
metaphor in the term portc^e, range, dis- 
tance to which a piece will carry. 

In the middle voice ho/was, to be re- 
quired for a certain purpose, to befit, 
behove. Det hofdes e7i annati til at 
ntratta slikt, it behoved another kind of 
man to do such things. ON. hczfa, to hit 
the mark ; h(^Ji, aim, reach, fitness, pro- 
portion. See Gain. 3. 

To Belay. Du. beleggen, to lay 
around, overspread, beset, garnish ; be- 
legsel, fringe, border, ornament. 

All in a woodman's jacket he was clad 

Of Lincoln green belayed with golden lace. — F. Q. 

Du. De kabel aan de beeting beleggen, 
to lay the cable round the bits, to make 
it fast, in nautical language, to belay. 

To Belch. AS. bealcan, bealcettatij 
OE. to bolk, to boke, to throw up wind 
from the stomach with a sudden noise. 
Doubtless an imitation of the sound. 
Another application of the same word is 
in Pl.D. and Du. bolken, bidkeTi, to bel- 
low, to roar. 

Beldam. Fair sir and Fair lady, Fr. 
beau sire and bel daine, were civil terms 
of address. Then, probably because a 
respectful form of address would be more 
frequent towards an elderly than a young 
person, beldam became appropriated to 
signify an old woman, and finally an ugly 
and decrepit old woman. 

Belfry. Fr. beffi-oi^ OFr. berfroi, bef- 
froit, a watch tower, from MHG. bercvrit, 
bervrit, a tower for defence ; OHG. frid, 
a tower, turris, locus securitatis — Schilter, 
and befgan, to protect. The word be- 
came singularly corrupted in foreign lan- 
guages, appearing in Mid.Lat. under the 
forms belfredum, bertefreduui, battefre- 
dum. It. bettifredo, a little shed, stand, 
or house, built upon a tower for soldiers 
to stand centinel in ; also a blockhouse 
or a sconce. — Fl. In England a false 
etymology has confined the name of 
belfry, properly belonging to the church 
tower, to the chamber in the upper part 
of the tower in which the bells are hung. 

To Believe. It is not obvious how to 
harmonise the senses of believing, prais- 
ing, permitting or giving leave, promis- 
ing, which are expressed in the different 
Teutonic dialects by essentially the same 
word or slight modifications of it; Pl.D. 



BELL 

loven, laven, to believe; Du. love?i, to 
praise, to promise, orloven, to give leave ; 
Dan. lov, praise, reputation, leave ; ON. 
lo/a, ley/a, to praise, to give leave; AS. 
lea/a, geleafa, belief ; gely/an, to believe, 
lyfafi, aly/an, to give leave ; G. glaubetty 
to believe, loben, to praise, erlattben, to 
permit, verloben, to promise or engage. 

The fundamental notion seems to be 
to approve, to sanction an arrangement, 
to deem an object in accordance with a 
certain standard of fitness. In this sense 
we have Goth, galaubs, filu-galaubsy 
precious, honoured, esteemed ; ungalaiib 
kas, tig cLTtfiiav (TKfvog, a vessel made for 
dishonour, for purposes of low estimation ; 
Pl.D. laveu, Du. loveu, to fix a price 
upon one's wares, to estimate them at a 
certain rate. To believe, then, Goth. 
laiibjan, galatibjan, is to esteem an as- 
sertion as good for as much as it lays 
claim to ; if a narration, to esteem it true 
or in accordance with the fact it professes 
to describe ; if a promise, to esteem it as 
in accordance with the intention of the 
promiser. 

The sense of praising may be easily 
deduced from the same radical notion. 
To praise is essentially \.o prize, to put a 
high price or value on, to extol the worth 
of anything, to express approval, or high 
estimation. Hence to simple approbation, 
satisfaction, consent, permission, is an 
easy progress. Pl.D. to der swaren lave, 
to the approbation or satisfaction of the 
sworn inspectors ; init eleven lave, wdth 
the consent of the heirs. In Mid.Lat. 
the consent given by a lord to the ahen- 
ation of a tenant's fief was expressed by 
the term latis, and E, allow, which has 
been shown to be derived from laudaj'e, 
is used in the sense of approving, esteem- 
ing good and valid, giving leave or per- 
mission, and sometimes in a sense closely 
analogous to that of believe. 

The principles which all mankind allcrw for 
true, are innate ; those that men of right reason 
admit are the principles allowedhy all mankind. 
— Locke. 

Bell. From AS. bellan, ON. belja, 
boare, to resound, to sound loudly; Sw. 
b'ola, to bellow; Northamptonshire, to 
bell, to make a loud noise, to cry out 
(Sternberg). A bell, then, ON. bialla, is 
an implement for making a loud noise. 
Templorum campana boant. — Ducange. 

ON. bylja^ resonare, and E. peal, are other 
modifications of the same imitative root, 
of which the latter is specially applied to 
the sound of bells. The same imita- 



BELLOWS 

tion is found in Galla, bilbiia, bell ; bil- 
bil-goda, to make bilbil, to ring. — Tut- 
schek. 

Bellows.— Belly. The word iaig, 
bolgy is used in several Celtic and Teu- 
tonic languages to signify any inflated 
skin or case. Gael, balg, bolg, a leather 
bag, wallet, belly, blister ; balgan-sjiamha^ 
the swimming bladder ; balgan-tdsge, a 
water-bubble ; builge, loags or bellows, 
seeds of plants. Bret, belch, bolch^polch, 
the bolls or husks of flax ; AS. bcElg, a 
bag, pouch, cod or husk of pulse, wallet ; 
bliBst-bcplg, a bellows ; G. balg, skin, 
husk, pod, the skin of those animals that 
are stripped off whole ; blase-balg, a blow- 
ing-skin, bellows. ON. belgr, an inflated 
skin, leather sack, bellows, belly. Sw. 
bcelg, a bellows, vulgarly the belly. 

The original signification is probably 
a water-bubble (still preserved by the 
Gaelic diminutive balgan), which affords 
the most obvious type of inflation. The 
application of the term to the belly, the 
sack-like case of the intestines, as well as 
to a bellows or blowing -bag, needs no ex- 
planation. It seems that bulga was used 
for womb or belly by the Romans, as a 
fragment of Lucilius has : 

Ita ut quisque nostrum e bulgd est matris in 
lucem editus. 

It is probable that Gr. ^oX(3rf, Lat 
ruolva, vulva, the womb, is a kindred 
form, from another modification of the 
word for bubble, from which is also bul- 
bils, a round or bubble-shaped root, or a 
root consisting of concentric skins. 

In E. bellows, the word, like trowsers 
and other names of things consisting of a 
pair of principal members, has assumed 
a plural form. 

To Belong, Du. langen, to reach, to 
attain ; belangen, to attain to, to concern, 
to belong, attingere, attinere, pertinere, 
pervenire. — Kil. G. gelaiigen, to arrive 
at, to become one's property ; ziun Kd- 
nigreiche gelangen, to come to the crown ; 
belangen, to concern, to touch. Was das 
belanget, as concerning that. 

To belo?ig is thus to reach up to, to 
touch one, expressing the notion of pro- 
perty by a similar metaphor to the Lat. 
attinere, pe7'tine7'e, to hold to one. 

Belt. ON. beltij Lat. battens; Gael. 
bait, border, belt, welt of a shoe ; w. 
gwald, gwaldas, a border, hem, welt of a 
shoe. 

Bench. See Bank. 

To Bend. on. bendaj as. bendan. 
Fr. bander un arc, to bend a bow ; hence 



BE RAY 



6i 



to exert force, se bander, to rise against 
external force ; bandoir, a spring. 

To bend sails is to stretch them on the 
yards of the vessel ; to beiid cloth, to 
stretch it on a frame, G. Tuch an eine7t 
Rahnien spannen. See Bind. 

Beneath. See Nether. 

Benediction. Lat. benedictio {bene, 
well, and dico, I say), a speaking well of 
one. Benedico, taken absolutely, means 
to use words of good omen, and with an 
accusative, to hallow, bless. 

Benefice. — Benefactor. — Benefit. 
Lat. benefacere, to do good to one ; bene- 
factor, one who does good ; benefacticni, 
Fr. bienfait, a good deed, a benefit. The 
Lat. benejicium, a kindness, was in Mid. 
Lat. applied to an estate granted by the 
king or other lord to one for life, because 
it was held by the kindness of the lord. 
' Villa quam Lupus quondam per bene- 
ficitmi nostrum tenere visus fuit.' ' Simil- 
iter villa quam ex munificentia nostr^ 
ipsi Caddono concessimus.' * Quam fide- 
lis noster per nostrum benejicium habere 
videtur.' The term had been previously 
applied in the Roman law to estates con- 
ferred by the prince upon soldiers and 
others. — Ducange. The same name was 
given to estates conferred upon clerical 
persons for life, for the performance of 
ecclesiastical services, and in modern 
times the name of benefice is appropriated 
to signify a piece of church preferment. 

Benign. — Benignant. Lat. benig- 
mcs (opposed to malignus), kind, gener- 
ous, disposed to oblige. 

Eenison. OFr. beneison, benaigojt, 
a blessing, from benedictio. Lat. be^ie- 
dicere, Fr. benir, to bless. 

Bent. The flower-stalks of grass re- 
maining uneaten in a pasture. Bav 
bimaissen, bimpsen, binssen, G. binsen, 
rushes. OHG. pinoz, pinuz. 

To Benum. See Numb. 

Benzoin. Gum benjamin, Ptg. ben- 
joiin, Fr. benjoin, from Arab, loubdn 
djawi, incense of Java. By the Arabs it 
is called bakhour djdwi, Javanese per- 
fume, or sometimes loiiban, by itself, or 
simply djawi. — Dozy. 

To Bequeath. To direct the dispo- 
sition of property after one's death. AS. 
becwcethan, from cwcBtha?i, to say. See 
Quoth. 

^To Beray. To dirty. ' I beraye, I 
fyle with ashes. I araye, or fyle with 
myre, J'emboue. I marre a thyng, I 
soyle it or araye it.' — Palsgr. From OFr. 
ray, dirt, ' Hic fimus, fens ; et hie limus, 
ray.' — Commentary on Neccham in Nat. 



(S2 



BEREAVE 



Antiq. p. 113. Wall, ariier, to dirty. 
Esthon. roe, Fin. roju, dirt, dung ; roju, 
roisto, rubbish, sweepings, dust ; rojahtaa, 
to rattle down, fall with sound. So ro- 
Pakka, mud, dirt ; ropahtaa^ to fall with 
noise. 

To Bereave, as. reafian, bereafian, 
to deprive of, to strip. See Reave, Rob. 

Berry. A small eatable fruit. AS. 
beria; Goth, basja; Du. besje. Sanscr. 
bhakshya, food, from bhaksh, to eat. Hence 
on the one side Lat. bacca, a berry, and 
on the other Goth, busy a, G. Beere, E. 
berry. — Kiihn, Zeitschr. vol. vi. p. 3. 

♦ Berth. The proper meaning of the 
word is shelter, but it is specially applied 
to the place boarded off in a ship for a 
person to lie in, or the space kept clear 
for a ship to ride or moor in. It is the 
same word with the provincial barth, a 
shelter for cattle. — Hal. 

Devon, barthless, houseless. Warm 
barth under hedge is a succour to beast. 
— Tusser. The origin is AS. beorgan, 
E. dial, berwe, burwe, to defend, pro- 
tect ; burrow, sheltered from the wind. 
The final th in barth may be either the 
termination significative of an abstract 
noun, as in growth, from grow, lewth, 
shelter, from lew, stealth from steal; or, as 
I think more probable, barth may be for 
barf, a form which the verb takes in 
Yorkshire, barfha7n, compared with 
bargham, berwhajn, a horse collar, what 
protects the neck of the horse from the 
hames. So too Yorkshire arf, fearful, 
from AS. earg, earh, OE. arwe. 

To Beseech. Formerly beseek. 
His heart is hard that will not meke 
"When men of mekeness him beseke. 

Chaucer, R. R. 

To seek something from a person, to 
entreat, solicit. So Lat. peto, to seek, 
and also to entreat, beseech. 

Besom, as. besein, besnij Pl.D. bes- 
se7i, G. besen. as. besmas, rods. In 
Devonshire the name bissam or bassam 
is given to the heath plant, because used 
for making besoms, as conversely a besom 
is called broom, from being made of broom- 
twigs. The proper meaning of the word 
seems twigs or rods. Du. brem-bessen, 
broom twigs, scopae spartise. — Biglotton. 

Best. See Better. 

Bestead, as. stede, place, position. 
Hence stead is applied to signify the 
influences arising from relative position. 
To stand in stead of another is to perform 
the offices due from him ; to stand one 
in good stead, or to bestead one, is to 
perform a serviceable office to him. 



BETE 

The dry fish was so new and good as it did 
very greatly bestead us in the whole course of our 
voyage. — Drake . 

On the other hand, to be hard bestead 
is to be placed in a position which it is 
hard to endure. 

To Bestow. AS. stow, a place ; to 
bestow, to be-place, to give a place to, to 
lay out, to exercise on a definite object. 

To Bet. From abet, in the sense of 
backing, encouraging, supporting the side 
on which the wager is laid. 

* To Bete, Beit, Beet. To help, to 
supply, to mend. — Jam. To bete his 
bale, to remedy his misfortune ; to beit a 
mister, to supply a want. To beet, to 
make or feed a fire. — Gl. Grose. AS. 
betan, to make better, improve, amend, 
restore ; fyr betan, properly to mend the 
fire, but in practice, to make it. Tha het 
he micel fyr betan, then ordered h3 a 
great fire to be lighted. OSw. eld up- 
bota, to light the fire ; bat oppbjta, to fire 
a funeral pile ; botesward, the guardian 
of a beacon-fire ; fyrbotare, one who 
sets fire to, an incendiary. Du. boeten, 
to amend, repair, make better ; hei viiur 
boeten, to kindle the fire. The sense of 
mending the fire or supplying it with fuel 
might so easily pass into that of making 
or lighting it, that we can hardly doubt 
that the use of AS. betan, Sw. bota, Du. 
boeten, in the latter sense is only a special 
application of the same verbs in the 
general sense of repairing or making 
better, the origin of which is to be found 
in ON. bot, reparation, making better, 
Du. baete, advantage, profit, amendment, 
baet, bat, bet, more, better, preferably.— 
Kil. 

On the other hand, it seems hard to 
separate AS. betan, Du. boeten, to set 
fire ; ^v^. fyrbotare, from It. buttafuoco, 
Fr. bojitefeu, an incendiary, in the two 
last of which the verbal element must 
certainly be It. buttai'e, to cast, to thrust, 
Fr. bouter, to thrust, put, put forth. Bon- 
ier fen would thus be to set fire to, as 
bouter selle, to put on the saddle. Sw. 
bota was also used in the sense of parry- 
ing or pushing aside a thrust aimed at 
one. — Ihre. The question then arises 
whether both derivations may not be 
reconciled by supposing that ON. bot, 
reparation, and Du. baete, advantage, 
amendment, may be derived from the 
notion of pushing forwards. Goth. h%'a 
boteith niannaii, what does it boot, what 
does it better a man, might have been 



I?ETEEM 

translated, what does it advance a man, 

what does it forward him. 

It is naught honest, it may not advance 
For to have dealing with such base poraille. 
Chaucer, Friar's Prol. 

The word advantage Hterally signifies 
furtherance, the being pushed to the 
front, and the same idea is involved in 
the word Profit, from Lat. proficere, to 
make forwards, advance, progress. To 
boot in coursing (i. e. to give something 
over and above in an exchange) is trans- 
lated by Palsgrave, bolder davantaige. 
Thus the radical meaning of better would 
be more in advance, and to bete or repair 
would be to push up to its former place 
something that had fallen back. 

To Beteem, to Teem. To vouchsafe, 
deign, afford, deem suitable, find in one's 
heart. ' 

Yet could he not beteem (dignetur) 
The shape of other bird than eagle for to seem. 
Golding's Ovid in R. 

' Ah, said he, thou hast confessed and be- 
wrayed all, I could teein it to rend thee in pieces.' 
— Dialogue on Witches, Percy Soc. x. 88. 

In a like sense ON. ti7na, Pl.D. taemen, 
tameji, Ober D. zeme7i, ON. Tinia eigi 
at lata eit, not to have the heart to give 
up a thing. Pl.D. Ik tame mi dat nig; 
I do not allow myself that. He tdmet 
sik een good glas wien : he allows him- 
self a good glass of wine. Bav. Mich 
zimet, gezimet eines dinges, I approve of 
a thing, find it good. Goth, gatiman, G. 
ziemen, geziemen, Du. taemen, betaemen, 
to beseem, become, be fitting or suitable. 

The sense of being fitting or suitable 
springs from ON. tima, to happen, to fall 
to one's lot, in the same way that schick- 
lich, suitable, springs from schicken, to 
appoint, order, dispose (whence schicksal, 
fate, lot). On the same principle ON. 
fallinn, fitting, suitable, as one would 
have it fall, ir ova f alia, to fall, to happen. 

To Betray. Lat. tradere, to deliver 
up, then to deliver up what ought to be 
kept, to deliver up in breach of trust, to 
betray. Hence It. tradire, Fr. trahir, 
as etivahir, from invadere. The inflec- 
tions of Fr. verbs in ir with a double ss, 
as trahissons, traJiissais, are commonly 
rendered in E. by a final sh. Thus from 
Sahir, ebahissais, E. abash j from polir, 
polissais, E. polish, &c. In like manner 
from trahir we formerly had trash and 
betrash, as from obeir, obeissais, obeish. 

In the water anon was seen 
His nose, his mouth, his eyen sheen, 
And he thereof was all abashed 
His owne shadow had him betrashcd, — R. R. 



BEWRAY 



63 



In the original — 

Et il maintenant s'ebahit 
Car son umbre si le trahit. 
Her acquaintance is perillous 
First soft and after noious. 
She hath The trashid [trahie] without wene, 

R. R. 
Probably the unusual addition of the 
particle be to a verb imported from the 
Fr. was caused by the accidental resem- 
blance of the word to Du. bedriegen, G. 
betriigen, to deceive, to cheat, which are 
from a totally different root. From It. 
tradire is traditor, Fr. traitre, a traitor; 
and from Fr. trahir, trahison, treachery, 
treason. 

Better. — Best. Goth, batizo, batista; 
AS. betera, betest, betst, better, best. Du. 
bat, bet, baet, better, more, OE. bet, better. 
See To Bete. 

Between. — Betwixt. The AS. has 
tweoh, a different form of t%va, two, and 
thence twegen, twain. From the former 
of these are AS. betwuh, be tweoh, betweohs, 
betweox, betwuxt, by two, in the middle 
of two, which may be compared as to 
form with a7Jiid, AS. amiddes, amidst, or 
with again, against. In like manner 
from twain is formed between, in the 
middle of twain. 

The He of Man that me clepeth 
By twene us and Irlonde. — R. G. 

Bevel. Slant, sloped off, awry. Fr. 
beveau, an instrument opening like a 
pair of compasses, for measuring angles. 
Buveau, a square-like instrument having 
moveable and compass branches, or one 
branch compass and the other straight. 
Some call it a bevel. — Cot. 

Beverage. A drink. Lat. bibere. It. 
bever'e, to drink ; whence beveraggio ; 
Fr. beuvrage; E. bevej^age. 

Bevy. It. leva, a drinking ; a bevy, as 
of pheasants. — Fl. Fr. bevee, a brood, 
flock, of quails, larks, roebucks, thence 
applied to a company of ladies especially. 

To Bewray. Goth, vrohjan, Fris. 
wrogia, 7'uogia, wi^eia, G. riigen, to ac- 
cuse, i. e. to bring an offence to the notice 
of the authorities. Sw. roja, to discover, 
make manifest. Dit tujigomal rojer dig, 
thy speech bewrayeth thee, i. e. makes it 
manifest that thou art a Galilean. Det 
rojer sig sjelft, it bewrays itself, gives 
sonie sign of existence which attracts 
notice. Now the stirring of an object is 
the way in which it generally catches our 
attention. Hence G. regen, to stir, is 
used for the last evidence of life. Regt 
kein leben mehrin dir, are there no signs 



64 



BEZEL 



of life in you ? Die Hebe reget sich bei 
ihm, love begins to stir in him, shows the 
first signs of life in him. Pl.D. wrogen, 
r'dgen (in Altmark rdjen)^ to stir. ' Hi- 
ranne tho handelende nah wroghige ohrer 
conscientien : ' herein to deal according 
to the stirring of their conscience. — Brem. 
Wtb. He rogi un bogt sik nig, he is 
stock still. Uprogen, to stir up ; beregen, 
sik beregen, to move, to stir. — Schiitze. 

The train of thought is then, to stir, to 
give signs of life, make manifest his 
presence, to make evident, bring under 
notice, reveal, discover, accuse. ' Thy 
tongue bewrayeth thee :' thy tongue 
makes thy Galilean birth to stir as it were 
before the eyes, le fait sauter aux yeux 
(according to the Fr. metaphor), makes 
it evident to sense, convicts thee of being 
a Galilean. 

E. dial, rogge, roggle, Pl.D. wraggeln, 
to shake. See Wriggle. 

Bezel. — Basil. Sp. bisel, the basil 
edge of a plate of looking-glass, which 
were formerly ornamented with a border 
ground slanting from the general surface 
of the glass. When the edge of a joiner's 
tool is ground away to an angle it is called 
a basil (Halliwell), in Fr. tailld en biseau. 
Biseati, a bezle, bezling or skueing. — Cot. 

The proper meaning of the word seems 
to be a paring, then an edge pared or 
sliced off", a sloping edge. 

Tayllet le payn ke est par^e, 
Les biseaux (the paringes) k I'amoyne soyt dond. 
Bibelsworth in Nat. Ant. 172. 

Bezoar. A stony concretion in the 
stomach of ruminants to which great 
medical virtues were formerly attached. 
Pers. pddzahr, from pdd-, expelling or 
preserving against, and zahr, poison. In 
Arab, the word became bddizahr, bdzahr. 
— Dozy. 

To Bezzle. To drink hard, to" tipple. 
Probably, like guzzle, formed from an 
imitation of the sound made in greedy 
eating and drinking. 

Yes, s'foot I wonder how the inside'of a taveme 
looks now. Oh ! when shall I bizzle, bizzle f— 
Dekkar in R. 

Bi-. Lat. bis, twice, in two ways ; for 
duis, from duo,two,iiS bellum for duellu7n. 
In comp. it becomes ^/-,as in Biped, two- 
footed, Bisect, to cut in two. 

Bias. Fr. biais, bihais, Cat. biax, 
Sardin. biascia, It. sbiescio, Piedm. sbias, 
sloped, slanting ; Fr. biaiser, Sard, sbia- 
sciai, to do something aslant. The It. 
bieco, sbieco, from obliquus, has a singular 
resemblance to sbiescio^ used in precisely 



BICKER 

the same sense, though such a change of 
form would be very unusual. 

The true 6rigin is probably from the 
notion of sliding or slipping. It. sbiagio, 
sbiesso, bending, aslope ; sbisciare, bis- 
ciare, sbrisciare, sbrissare, to creep or 
crawl sideling, aslope, or in and out, as 
an eel or a snake, to glide or slip as upon 
ice ; sbriscio, sbrisso, sbiscio, oblique, 
crooked, winding or crawling in and out, 
slippery, sliding; biascio, bias-wise. 

Bib. Fr. bavon, baviere, baverole, a 
cloth to prevent a child drivelling over 
its clothes. Baver, to slaver or drivel. 
Du. kwijle7i, to slaver ; kwijl-bab, kwijl- 
lap, or kwijl-slab, a slabbering-bib. Fris. 
babbi, the mouth; Mantuan, babbi, bab- 
ble, snout, lips. 

To Bib.— To Bibble. Lat. bibo, to 
drink, whence Du. bibere7i,\.o drink hiuch; 
biberer, Fr. biberon, bibaculus, a bibber, 
one who drinks in excess. OE. bibble, 
Sc. bebble, to sip, to tipple. ' An excellent 
good bibbeler, specially in a bottle.' - 
Gascoigne. 'He's aye bebbling and 
drinking.' — Jam. Dan. dial, bible, to 
trickle. ' Han er saa beskjenket at 
brandevinet bibler oven ud av ham : ' he 
is so drunk that the brandy runs out of 
him. Dan. pible, to purl, to well up with 
small bubbles and a soft sound. 

Bible. Gr. j3l(3Xog, a book ; originally, 
an Egyptian plant, the papyrus, of the 
bark of which paper was first made. 

Bice. An inferior blue, OE. asure-bice 
(Early E. Misc. Hal. 78); Fr. bes-azuf^, 
the particle bes being often used in com- 
position to signify perversion, inferiority. 
Prov. beslei, perverted belief; barlmne 
(for bis-lutne) weak light; Piedm. bes- 
anca, crooked; ber-laita (for bes-laita), 
Yr. petit-lait, whey ; Cat. bescoinpte, mis- 
count ; Fr. bestenips, foul weather. Diet. 
Wallon. 

To Bicker.— Bickering. To skirmish, 
dispute, wrangle. It is especially applied 
in Sc. to a fight with stones, and also sig- 
nifies the constant motion of weapons 
and the rapid succession of strokes in a 
battle or broil, or the noise occasioned by 
successive strokes, by throwing of stones, 
or by any rapid motion. — Jamieson. The 
origin is probably the representation of 
the sound of a blow with a pointed in- 
strument by the syllable /zVy^, whence the 
frequentative picker or bicker would re- 
present a succession of such blows. To 
bicker in NE. is explained to clatter, Hal- 
liwell. Du. bickeler, a stone-hewer or 
stone-picker; bickelen, bicken, to hew 
stone ; bickel^ bickel-steenkeny a fragment 



BID 

of stone, a chip, explaining the Sc. bicker 
in the sense of throwing stones. Bickelen, 
to start out, as tears from the eyes, from 
the way in which a chip flies from the 
pick. Hence Sc. to bicker, to move 
quickly. — Jam. 

Ynglis archaris that hardy war and wycht 
Amang the Scottis bykarit with all their mycht. 
Wallace in Jam. 

The arrows struck upon them like blows 
from a stone-cutter's pick. 

It must be observed that the word 
pick (equivalent to the modern pitch) 
was used for the cast of an arrow. 

I hold you a grote I pycke as farre with an 
arowe as you. — Palsgrave in Halliwell. 

To Bid. Two verbs are here con- 
founded, of distinct form in the other 
Teutonic languages. 

1. To Bid in the obsolete sense of to 
pray. 

For far lever he hadde wende 
And bidde ys mete yf he shulde in a strange lond. 

R. G. 

Bidders and beggars are used as sy- 
nonymous in P. P. 
For he that beggeth other biddeth but if he have 

need 
He is false and faitour and defraudeth the neede. 

In this sense the word is the correla- 
tive of Goth, bidjan, bidan, bath, or bad, 
beduft; AS. biddan, bcsd, gebeden ; G. bit- 
ten, bat J ON. bidja, or, in a reflective 
form, beidast. 

2, To Bid in the sense of offering, 
bringing forwards, pressing on one's 
notice, and consequently ordering or re- 
quiring something to be done. Goth. 
bjudan in anabjudan, faurbjtidan, to 
command, forbid ; AS. beodan, bead, ge- 
bodenj G. bieten, to offer, verbieten, to 
forbid ; Du. bieden, porrigere, offerre, 
prasbere, praestare. — Kil. 

To bid the banns, G. ein paar verlobte 
aufbieten, is to bring forwards the an- 
nouncement of a marriage, to offer it to 
public notice. Einem einen guten tag 
bieten, to bid one good day, to offer one 
the wish of a good day. To bid one to a 
dinner is properly the same verb, to pro- 
pose to one to come to dinner, although 
it might well be understood in the sense 
of the other form of the verb, to ask, to 
pray one to dinner. Analogous expres- 
sions are G. einen vor Gericht bietett, to 
summon one before a court of justice; 
einen vor sich bieten lassen, to have one 
called before him. 

With respect to logical pedigree, the 
meaning of bid, in the sense of ask for, 
pray, may plausibly be derived from Goth. 



BIGOT ^l 

beidan, AS. bidatt, abidan, to look for. To 
pray is merely to make known the fact 
that we look for or desire the object of our 
prayers. The Lat.peto, qiicEro, signifying 
in the first instance to seek or look for, are 
also used in the sense of asking for. The 
ON. /<?//« is used in each sense (Ih re v.Leta), 
and the Sw. has leta, to look for, anleta, 
to solicit, just as the two ideas are ex- 
pressed in E. by seek and beseech, for be- 
seek. The ON. bidill, a suitor, from 
bidja, to ask, seems essentially the same 
word with AS. bidel, an attendant or 
beadle, from bidan, to abide or wait on. 

Big. Swollen, bulky. The original 
spelling seems to be bug, which is still 
used in the N. of England for swollen, 
proud, swaggering. 

But when her circling nearer down doth pull 
Then gins she swell and waxen bugW\\h horn. 
More in Richardson. 

' Bug as a Lord.' — Halliwell. ' Big-swol- 
len heart.' — Addison. ' Big - uddered 
ewes.' — Pope in R. 

The original form of the root is pro- 
bably seen in the ON. bolga, a swelling, 
bolginn, swoln, from belgia, to inflate ; E. 
bulge, to belly, to swell, bilge or bulge, the 
belly of a ship, related to big or bug, as 
G. and Gael, balg, an entire skin, to E. 
bag. The loss of the / gives Dan. bug, 
belly, bulge, bow ; bugne (answering to 
ON. bolgna), to bulge, belly, bend. Com- 
pare also Sp. btigue with E. bulk. w. bog, 
swelling, rising up. 

To Big. AS. byggan, ON. byggia, to 
build, to inhabit; OSw. bygga, to pre- 
pare, repair, build, inhabit. A simpler 
and probably a contracted form is seen 
in ON. bua, OSw. boa, bo, to arrange, 
prepare, cultivate, inhabit ; Du. bowmen, 
to cultivate, to build ; G. baueti to culti- 
vate, to dwell, to build. 

Bigamy. From Gr.^jc, twice, becoming 
in Lat. bis and in comp. bi-, and ya/xew, to 
marry. 

Bight or Bought. A bend of a shore 
or of a rope. ON. bugt, a flexure, btiga, 
to bend, to curve. AS. bugan, biganj G. 
biegen, to bend. 

Bigot. The beginning of the 13th 
century saw the sudden rise and maturity 
of the mendicant orders of St Francis and 
St Dominic. These admitted into the 
ranks of their followers, besides the pro- 
fessed monks and nuns, a third class, called 
the tertiary order, or third order of peni- 
tence, consisting both of men and women, 
who, without necessarily quitting their 
secular avocations, bound themselves to 
a strict life and works of charity. The 



66 



BIGOT 



same outburst of religious feeling seems 
to have led other persons, both men and 
women, to adopt a similar course of life. 
They wore a similar dress, and went 
about reading the Scriptures and practis- 
ing Christian life, but as they subjected 
themselves to no regular orders or vows of 
obedience, they became highly obnoxious 
to the hierarchy, and underwent much 
obloquy and persecution. They adopted 
the grey habit of the Franciscans, and 
were popularly confounded with the third 
order of those friars under the names of 
Begjiini, BegtittcE^ Bizocchi, Bizzocari 
(in Italian Beghini, Bighini, Bighiotti), 
all apparently derived from Ital. bigio, 
Venet, biso, grey. ' Bizocco,' says an 
author quoted in N. and Q. vol. ix. 560, 
* sia quasi bigioco e bigiotto^ perch^ i 
Terziari di S. Francesco si veston di 
bigio.' So in France they were called 
les petits freres bis or bisets.— Ducange. 
From bigio, grey, was formed bigello, the 
dusky hue of a dark-coloured sheep, and 
the coarse cloth made from its undyed 
wool, and this was probably also the 
meaning of bighino or beguino, as well as 
bizocco. ' E che I'abito bigio ovver beghino 
era comune degli nomini di penitenza,' 
where beghino evidently implies a de- 
scription of dress of a similar nature to 
that designated by the term bigio. Bi- 
zocco also is mentioned in the fragment 
of the history of Rome of the 14th century 
in a way which shows that it must have 
signified coarse, dark-coloured cloth, such 
as is used for the dress of the inferior 
orders, probably from biso, the other form 
of bigio. ' Per te Tribuno,' says one of 
the nobles to Rienzi, ' fora piu convene- 
vole che portassi vestimenta honeste da 
biziioco che queste pompose,' translated 
by Muratori, ' honesti plebeii amictus.' 
It must be remarked that bizocco also 
signifies rude, clownish, rustical, ap- 
parently from the dress of rustics being 
composed oi bizocco. In the same way Fr. 
bureau is the colour of a brown sheep, 
and the coarse cloth made from the un- 
dyed wool. Hence the OE. borel, coarse 
woollen cloth, and also unlearned com- 
mon men. In a similar manner from 
bigello, natural grey or sheep's russet, 
homespun cloth, bighellone, a dunce, a 
blockhead. — Flor. From bigio would 
naturally be formed bigiotto, bighiotto;2,ndi 
as soon as the radical meaning of the 
word was obscured, corruption would 
easily creep in, and hence the variations 
bigutia, begutta, bigotta, beghino, which 
must not be confounded with begardo, 



bigardo, G. beghart, signifying bagmen or 
beggars, a term of reproach applied to 
the same class of people. We find Boni- 
face VIII., in the quotations of Ducange 
and his continuators, speaking of them 
as ' Nonnulli viri pestiferi qui vulgariter 
P>aticelli seu fratres de paupere vita, aut 
Bizochi sive Bichini vel aliis fucatis no- 
minibus nuncupantur.' Matthew Paris, 
with reference to a.d. 1243, says, 'Eisdem 
temporibus quidam in Alemannia prae- 
cipue se asserentes religiosos in utroque 
sexu, sed maximd in muliebri, habitum 
religionis sed levem susceperunt, conti- 
nentiam vita^ privato voto profijtentes, 
sub nullius tamen regula coarctati, nee 
adhuc ullo claustro contenti.' They were 
however by no means confined to Italy. 
' Istis ultimis temporibus hypocritalibus 
plurimi maxim^ in Italii et Alemannia et 
Provinciae provincia, ubi tales Begardi 
et Beguitii vocantur, nolentes jugum 
subire verae obedientise — nee servare re- 
gulam aliquam ab Ecclesia approbatam 
sub manu praeceptoris et ducis legitimi, 
vocati Fraticelli, alii de paupere vita, aUi 
Apostolici, aliqui Begardi, qui ortum in 
Alemannia habuerunt.' — Alvarus Pela- 
gius in Due. ' Secta qucedam pestifera 
illorum qui Beguini vulgariter appellan- 
tur qui se fratres pauperes de tertio ordine 
S. Francisci communiter appellabant.' — 
Bernardus Guidonis in vita J oh. xx. 
' Capellamque seu clusam hujusmodi 
censibus et redditibus pro septem per- 
son is religiosis, Beguttis videlicet ordinis 
S. Augustini dotarint.' — Chart. A. D. 1518. 
' Beghardus et Beguina et Begutta sunt 
viri et mulieres tertii ordinis.' — Brevilo- 
quium in Due. 

They are described more at large in 
the Acts of the Council of Treves, A.D. 
1 3 10. 'Item cum quidam sint laici in 
civitate et provincia Trevirensi qui sub 
pretextu cujusdam religionis fictas Beg- 
hardos se appellant, cum tabardis et 
tunicis longis et longis capuciis cum ocio 
incedentes, ac labores manuum detest- 
antes, conventicula inter se aliquibus 
temporibus faciunt, seque fingunt coram 
simplicibus personis expositores sa- 
crarum scripturarum, nos vitam eorum 
qui extra religion em approbatam validarn 
mendicantes discurrunt, &c.' ' Nonnul- 
lae mulieres sive sorores, Biguttce apud 
vulgares nuncupatas, absque votorum re- 
ligionis emissione.' — Chart. A.D. 1499. 

From the foregoing extracts it will 
readily be understood how easily the 
name, by which these secular aspirants 
to superior holiness of life were desig- 



BILBERRY 

nated, might be taken to express a hypo- 
crite, false pretender to religious feeling, 
Tartuffe. Thus we find in It. bigotto, 
bizocco, a devotee, a hypocrite; Pied- 
montese bigot, bisoch, Fr. bigot, in the 
same sense. Sp. bigardo, a name given 
to a person of religion leading a loose 
life, bigardia, deceit, dissimulation ; G. 
beghart, gleischner (Frisch), a bigot or 
hypocrite, a false pretender to honesty or 
holiness. — Ludwig. ' Bigin, bigot, su- 
perstitious hypocrite.' — Speight in Rich- 
ardson. 

In English the meaning has received 
a further development, and as persons 
professing extraordinary zeal for religious 
views are apt to attribute an overweening 
importance to their particular tenets, a 
bigot has come to signify a person un- 
reasonably attached to particular opin- 
ions, and not having his mind open to 
any argument in opposition. 

Bilberry. The fruit of the vaccinium 
myrtillus, while that of vaccinium uligi- 
nosum is called in the N. of E. bla-berry, 
from the dark colour. Dan. blaa, blue ; 

Sw. blamand, a negro. In Danish the 
names are reversed, as the fruit of the 
myrtillus is called blaa-bcer, that of the 
uhginosum bblle-bcer. Perhaps the name 
may be a corruption of bull- berry, in ac- 
cordance with the general custom of 
naming eatable berries after some animal, 
as craneberry, a^owberry, and the bil- 
berry itself was called by the Saxons 
hart-berry. Aurelles, whortle- berries, 
bill-berries, bull-berries. — Cot. 

Bilbo. A slang term for a sword, now 
obsolete. A Bilboa blade. 

Bilboes. Among mariners, a punish- 
ment at sea when the offender is laid in 
irons or set in a kind of stocks. Du. 
boeye, a shackle. Lat. boja, Prov. boia, 
OFr. buie, fetters. Bojce, genus vincu- 
lorum tam ferreas quam ligne^. — Festus 
in Diez. This leaves the first syllable 
unaccounted for. The proper meaning 
of boja, however, seems to be rather the 
clog to which the fetters are fastened than 
the fetter itself. N Fris. bid, buoy [i. e. 
a floating log to mark the place of some- 
thing sunk], clog to a fetter. — Deutsch. 
Mundart. Johansen, p. loi. 

Bilge. The belly or swelling side of a 
ship. See Bulk. 

; To Bilk. To defraud one of expected 
remuneration ; a slang term most likely 
from an affected pronunciation of balk. 

Bill. I. An instrument for hewing. 
G. beil, an axe ; AS. bil, a sword, axe, 
weapon ; Sw. bila, an axe, plog-bill, a 



BILLOW 



(^1 



plough-share ; Du. bille, a stonemason's 
pick ; billen den molen-steen, to pick a 
millstone. — Kil. w. bwyell, an axe, a 
hatchet. Gael, buail, to strike. 

2. The bill of a bird may very likely 
be radically identical with the foregoing. 
The Du. bicken is used both of a bird 
pecking and of hewing stone with a pick ; 
bicken or billen den inolensteen. AS. bile, 
the bill of a bird, horn of an animal. In 
the same way are related Pol. dziob, the 
beak of a bird, dziobad, to peck, to job, 
and dziobas, an adze ; Bohem. top, a 
beak, te^ati, to strike, topor, an axe. 

Bill. 3. — Billet. A bill, in the sense 
of a writing, used in legal proceedings, as 
a bill of indictment, bill of exchange, bill 
in parliament, is properly a sealed instru- 
ment, from Mid. Lat. bulla, a. seal. See 
Bull. A billet is the diminutive of this, a 
short note, the note which appoints a 
soldier his quarters. Du. bullet, billet, 
inscriptum, symbolum, syngraphum. — 
Kil. 

Billet. 2.— Billiard. Fr. billot, a stick 
or log of wood cut for fuel, an ingot of 
gold or silver. Bille, an ingot, a young 
stock of a tree to graft on — Cotgrave ; a 
stick to rest on — Roquefort. Langued. 
bilio, a stick to tighten the cord of a 
package. Fr. billard or billart, a short 
and thick truncheon or cudgel, hence the 
cudgel in the play at trap ; and a billard, 
or the stick wherewith we touch the ball 
at billyards. OFr. billard also signified 
a man who rests on a stick in walking. — 
Roquef Billette, a billet of wood ; bil- 
lettes d'lm espieu, the cross bars near the 
head of a boarspear to hinder it from 
running too far into the animal. 

The origin of the term is probably from 
bole, the trunk of a tree, the changing 
to an i to express diminution. A like 
change takes place in the other sense of 
billet from bulla, a seal. 

Billow. Sw. bolja, Dan. b'olge, ON. 
bylgia, Du. bolghe^ bulghe, fluctus maris, 
unda, procella — Kil., from OSw. bulgja^ 
to swell. Du. belghen, AS. belgan, abel- 
gan, to be angry (i. e. to swell with rage). 

The mariner ami'', ^he swelling seas 
Who seeth his back with many a billow beaten. 
Gascoigne in R. 

* Had much "ado to prevent one from 
sinking, the billowe was so great ' (Hack- 
luyt), where we see billow not used in 
the sense of an individual wave, but in 
that of swell. 

So in Gr. di^\ia edXacrcrric, the swelling 
of the sea, and in Lat. ' tumidi fluctus/ 
6 * 



68 



BIN 



'tumens sequor,' and the like, are com- 
monplaces. See Belly. 

Bin. — Bing-. The proper meaning is 
a heap. 

Like ants when they do spoile the bing of corn. 
Surrey in R. 

Then as side boards or walls were 
added to confine the heap to a smaller 
space, the word was transferred to a 
receptacle so constructed for storing 
corn, wine, &c. Sw. binge, a heap, a 
division in a granary, or bin. ON. bunga, 
to swell, to bulge, bunki, a heap. Fr. 
bigne, a bump or knob. 

The grate bhig was upbeilded wele 

Of aik trees and fyrren schydis dry. — D. V. 

To Bind. — Bine. — Bindweed. AS . 

bindan, Goth, bindan, band, bimdun. 
This word is I believe derived from the 
notion of a bunch or lump, expressed by 
Sw. bunt, Dan. bundt, G. bund, a bunch, 
truss, bundle, the primary notion of 
binding being thus to make a bunch of 
a thing, to fasten it together. In like 
manner from knot, Lat. nodus, a knob, I 
would derive the verb to knit, to bind 
together, as when we speak of one's limbs 
being firmly knit together. The idea 
which is expressed in E. by the verb knit 
or net, i. e. to form a knotted structure, is 
rendered in ON. by binda, to bind ; at 
binda nat, to knot nets for fish, to net. 
Lith. pinnu, pinti, to wreathe, to plait. 
It seems more in accordance with the 
development of the understanding that 
the form with the thinner vowel and ab- 
stract signification should be derived 
from that with the broader vowel and 
concrete signification, than vice versa. 
Thus I suppose the Gr. ^s/iw, to build, to 
be derived from ld\iot;, a house, Lat. pen- 
dere, to hang, from pondus, a weight, 
the last of these forms being identical 
with the word which we are treating as 
the root of bind, viz. bund, bundt, bunch. 
Lith. pundas, a truss, bundle, also a stone 
weight, a weight of 48 pounds. The 
original meaning of pondus would thus 
be simply a lump of some heavy ma- 
terial, doubtless a stone. 

The term bine or bind is applied 'to 
the twining stem of climbing plants. 
Thus we speak of the hop-bine for the 
shoots of hops. The ivood-bine desig- 
nates the honeysuckle in England, while 
bind-wood, bin-wood, or ben-wood, is in 
wScotland applied to ivy. Here we see 
the root in the precise form of the Lith. 
pinmt,pin-ti, to twine. 

Binnacle. See Bittacle. 



BITTACLE 

Bio-. Gr. /3joc, life. 

Birch. AS. birce; Sw. bj'drk; Lith. 
berzas (z = Fr. j), Sanscr. bhurja. 

Bird. AS. brid, the young of birds ; 
earnes brid, an eagle's young ; G. brut, a 
brood or hatch of young. See Breed. 
We find the use of the word in this 
original sense as late as Shakespeare. 
Being fed by us you used us so 
As that ungentle gull the cuckoo's bird 
Useth the sparrow. — H. IV., v. sc. i. 

The proper designation of the feathered 
creation is in E. fowl, which in course of 
time was specially applied to the galli- 
naceous tribe as the most important kind 
of bird for domestic use, and it was 
perhaps this appropriation of the word 
which led to the adoption of the name of 
the young animal as the general designa- 
tion of the race. A similar transfer of 
meaning has taken place in the case of 
pigeon, from \\.2\. ptppione, piccione, pro- 
perly a young pigeon, and of Fr. poule, 
a gallinaceous bird, E. poultry, from Lat. 
pullus, the young of an animal. 

Birth. AS. beorth, Sw. bord, G. ge- 
burt, from AS. beran, to bear, to bring 
forth. See To Bear. 

Biscuit. Fr. biscuit. It. biscotto, Lat. 
bis-coctus {bis and coquo, to cook), twice 
cooked, or baked. 

Bishop. Lat. episcopus, from Gr. 
£7rtiT/co7rog, an overseer, overlooker. When 
compared with Fr. eveque, it affords a 
remarkable proof how utterly unlike the 
immediate descendants of the same word 
in different languages may become. Epis- 
copus; It. vescovo, Fr. evesque, eveque. 

Bisson. — Bisom. — Bisen. — Bizened. 
Blind, properly near-sighted. Du. bij 
sien, propius videre ; bij siende, bij sien- 
igh, lusciosus et myops, qui nisi propius 
admota non videt. — Kil. 

Bit. The part of the bridle which the 
horse bites or holds in his mouth. AS. 
bitol. ON. bitill, beitsl. Sw. betsel. 

Bitch. AS. biccej ON. bikkia, a little 
dog, a bitch ; applied also to other 
animals, and especially to a small poor 
horse. G. beize, or petze, a bitch, in 
Swabia, a pig ; petz, a bear. Fr. biche, a 
hind or female stag. Something of the 
same confusion is seen in G. hiindinn, a 
female dog ; hindimi, a female stag. 
Lap. pittjo, a bitch. 

To Bite. Goth, beitan, ON. bita, G. 
beissen. 

Bittacle or Binnacle. A frame of 
timber in the steerage of a ship, where 
the compass stands. — Bailey. Fr. habit- 
acle, Sp. bitacora. Habitacle^ a habit- 



BITTER 

acle, dwelling or abiding place.— Cctgr. 
In Legrand's Fr. and Flemish dictionary 
habitacle is explained a little lodge 
(logement) near the mizenmast for the 
pilot and steersman. ' Nagt huis, 't 
huisje, 't kompas huis.' It would thus 
seem to have signified, first, a shelter 
for the steersman, then the mere case in 
which the compass is placed. 

Bitter. Goth, baitrs, ON. beitr^ bitr, 
apparently from its biting the tongue. 

Peper asr bitter och bitar fast. 
Pepper is bitter and bites hard. — Hist. 
Alex. Mag., quoted by Ihre. Applied in 
ON. to the sharpness of a weapon. ' Hin 
bitrasta sverd' — the sharpest sword. 
When an edge is blunt we say it will not 
bite. 

In a similar manner Gael, bemn^ bite, 
cut, and beicm, bitter. 

Bittern. A bird of the heron tribe. 
It. bittore; Fr. but or j OE. bit tour. Sp. 
bitor^ a rail. 

Bitts. The bitts of the anchor, Fr. 
bites ^ Sp. bit as ^ are two strong posts 
standing up on the deck, round which 
the cable is made fast. ON. biti, a beam 
in a house or ship, a mast ; Sp. bitones, 
pins of the capstern. 

Bivouac. The lying out of an army 
in the open field without shelter. G. bei- 
wache, an additional watch, from -wachen, 
to watch, corrupted in Fr. to bivouac, 
from whence we have adopted the term. 
But we formerly had the word direct 
from German in a sense nearer the 
original. Biovac, bihovac, a night guard 
performed by the whole army when there 
is apprehension of danger. — Bailey. Sp. 
vivac, town guard to keep order at night ; 
bivouac, night guard, small guard-house. 
— Neumann. 

ToBlab— Blabber.— Blabber-lip. To 
blab, to talk much, indistinctly, to chatter ; 
then to talk indiscreetly, to let out what 
should have been concealed. I blaber, as 
a childe dothe or he can speake, Je 
gasouille. — Palsgr. 
Why presumest thou so proudly to profecie these 

things 
And wost no more what thou blaberest than Ba- 
laam's asse. — Halliwell. 
Dan. blabbre, to babble, gabble. Pl.D. 
blabbern, G. plapperft, to speak quick, 
confusedly, thoughtlessly ; Bohem. blep- 
tati, to babble, chatter ; Lith. blebberis, a 
babbler ; Gael, blabaran, a stammerer, 
stutterer, blabhdach, babbling, garrulous. 
All founded on a representation of the 
sound made by collision of the lips in 
rapid talking. The Q-3i€i.plab is used to 



BLACK 69 

signify ' a soft noise, as of a body falhng 
into water, or water beating gently on 
the beach ; ' piabraich, a fluttering noise, 
a flapping, as of wings ; plabartaich, a 
continued soft sound, as of water gently 
beating the shore, unintelligible talk ; 
plabair, a babbler. — Armstrong. 

The introduction or omission of an / 
after the labial in these imitative forms 
makes little difference, as is seen in 
splitter and splutter. So Fr. baboyer, to 
blabber with the lips. — Cot. To blabber 
out the tongue, to loll it out. — Hal. Blab- 
ber-lip, synonymous with baber-lip, a 
large coarse lip ; blob, parallel with Fris. 
babbe, Mantuan babbi, a large lip, mouth, 
chops. 

Wit hung her blob, even humour seemed to 
mourn. — Collins in Hal. 

Gael, blob, blobach, blubber-lipped. Bav. 
bleff, chops, mouth, in contempt. — • 
Deutsch. Mund. v. 332. 

Black, Bleak. The original meaning 
of black seems to have been exactly the 
reverse of the present sense, viz. shining, 
white. It is in fact radically identical 
with Fr. blatic, white, blank, from which 
it differs only in the absence of the nasal. 
ON. blakki, shine, whiteness (candor sine 
maculi. — Hald.). It. biacca, white lead. 

Then as white is contrasted with any 
special colour the word came to signify 
pale, faded. AS. blac-hleor ides, the pale- 
cheeked maid. Se mona mid his blacait 
leohte ; the moon with her pale light. 
G. bleich, Du. bleek, Dan. bleg, pale. N. 
blakk, pale, faded, discoloured ; gulblakk, 
brunblakk, pale yellow, buff, pale brown ; 
Sw. black, whitish, yellowish, fallow ; ON. 
bleikr, light-coloured, whitish, pale, pale 
yellow ; NE. blake, yellow ; ' as blake as a 
paigle (cowslip).' 

A fildefare ful eerly tok hir flihte, 
To fore my study sang with his fetheris blake. 
Lydgate, Percy Soc. x. 156. 

Fieldfare, hS>. fealo-for, from /ealo, fallow 
fawn-coloured. 

Again, as colours fade away the aspect 
of the object becomes indistinct and ob- 
scure, and thus the idea of discolouration 
merges in that of dim, dusky, dark, on 
the one side, as in that of pale and white 
on the other. ON. blackr is translated 
'glacus seu subalbus,' by Gudmund; 
'fuscus, obscurus,' by Haldorsen. In like 
manner E. bleak is used to signify pale 
or light-coloured as well as livid or dark- 
coloured. Fr. blesmer, to wax pale or 
bleaked. — Hollyband. Fr. //^j/^r, to make 
bleak or swart a thing by displaying it in 



70 



BLACKGUARD 



the h ot sun. — Cot. Bleak of colour, pallido, 
livido ; to bleak in the sun, imbrunire. — 
Torriano. Sw. blacky whitish, also tanned 
by the sun; inus-blackt^vs\o\xsQ.-di\xxi. When 
the idea of dimness or obscurity is pushed 
to its limit it becomes absolute darkness 
or blackness. There is nothing more 
variable than the signification of words 
designating colour. 

Blackguard. A name originally given 
in derision to the lowest class of menials 
or hangers-on about a court or great 
household, as scullions, linkboys, and 
others engaged in dirty work. 

A slave that within this twenty years rode 
with the Black Guard in the Duke's carriage 
(i. e, with the Duke's baggage) mongst spits and 
dripping-jmns. — Webster. 

I am degraded from a cook, and I fear that 
the Devil himself will entertain me but for one 
of his blackguard, and he shall be sure to have 
his meat burnt. — O. Play in Nares. 

The word is well explained in a pro- 
clamation of the Board of Green Cloth 
in 1683, cited in N. and Q., Jan. 7, 1854. 

Whereas of late a sort of vicious idle and 
masterless boys and rogues, commonly called 
the Black-guard, with divers other lewd and 
loose fellows, vagabonds, vagrants, and wan- 
dering men and women, do follow the Court to 
the great dishonour of the same — We do strictly 
charge all those so called the Blackguard as 
aforesaid, with all other loose idle masterless men, 
boys, rogues and wanderers, who have intruded 
themselves into his Majesty's court and stables, 
that within the space of 24 hours they depart. 



bubble, blister, bladder ; Sw. bladdra, a 
bubble, G. blatter, a pustule ; Bav. blatter, 
bubble, blister, bladder. The radical 
image is the formation of foam or bubbles 
by the dashing of water, and the sense is 
carried on from a bubble to any bubble- 
shaped thing, a bladder or pustule. PI. 
D. pladdern, to dabble in water, and 
thence to babble, tattle. Dan. pbiddre, 
to puddle or mix up turf and water ; to 
jabber ; pludder, mud, slush, mire, also 
jabber, gabble. The primitive sense of 
splashing in water is lost in ON. bladra, 
to jabber, Sc. bladder, blather, blether, 
chatter, foolish talk, but it may be supplied 
from the constant connection between 
words expressing excessive talk, and the 
agitation of liquids. Besides the examples 
of this connection given above, the ON. 
skola and thwatta, and G. waschen, all 
signify to wash as well as to tattle, chat- 
ter. Pu. borrelen, to bubble, to purl, is 
identical with Flanders borlen, to vocifer- 
ate. — Kil. See Blubber. 

Blade, on. blaS, the leaf of a tree, 



BLARE 

blade of a sword, or of an oar ; G. blatty 
leaf of a tree, sheet of paper, flap of a 
coat, &c. ; Du. blad, a leaf, plate, board. 
The term is generally applied to anything 
thin and flat. It is commonly connected 
\^\\\iflat, \t.piatto, Yx.plat, Du. Q. plat, 
Gr. irXarvg, broad. But perhaps a more 
definite origin may be found in the notion 
of foam, or a mass of bubbles, which we 
have above endeavoured to indicate as 
the original signification of Bladder. The 
old Dutch form of the word is blader, a 
leaf, bladeren, leaves, branches ; G. blat- 
terig, leafy. And we have in foam a 
most complete example of leafy structure. 

Blain. as. blegen, Dan. blegne, Du. 
blein, Sw. dial, blena, a boil, pimple, 
blister. Perhaps from blegen, which 
Schwenk and Adelung give as an old 
Swabian form of the G. bldhen, to blow. 

Blame. — Blaspheme. Gr. (3\a(T<i>rintiv, 
to speak impiously. Lat. blasphemare, to 
revile, reproach, defame. Hence Ital. 
biasintare, Fr. bias7ner, and E. blame. 

Et per consilium eorum ita convenienter tibi 
respondebo quod cum tecum loquar non credo te 
n\&mdi& blasphematurum. — Eadmer, Hist. Novo- 
rum, p. 86. 

Que quand je parle avec vous je ne crois pas 
que vous m'en blaraiez. 

Blank. — Blanch. Fr. blanc, white; 
blanchir, to blanch, to make or become 
white ; blanc, blatiqiie, a blank ticket, a 
white or unwritten ticket, a ticket that 
does not obtain the prize. Hence applied 
to an occasion on which the result hoped 
for has not happened. Blank verse, verse 
void of the rhyme to which the ear is ac- 
customed. To blank, or blatich, to dis- 
appoint, to omit, pass over. 

Now, Sir, concerning your travels — I suppose 
you will not blanch Paris in your way.- — Reliqu. 
Wott. in R. The judges of that time thought 
it a dangerous thing to admit if's and an's to 
qualify the words of treason, whereby every man 
might express his malice and blanch his danger. 
— Bacon in R. 

The original root of the word is seen in 
the G. blinken, to shine, to glitter, as Lat. 
candidus, white, from candere, to shine, 
to glow. Dan. blank, shining, polished. 

Blanket. From being made of white 
woollen cloth. Fr. blanchet, a blanket 
for a bed, also white woollen cloth; blan- 
chet, whitish. — Cot. 

To Blare. — Blatter.— Blatant. To 
roar, to bellow. Du. blaeren, probably 
contracted from bladeren, as blader, 
blaere, a bii.bble, blister, or as E. smother, 
smore, Du. madder, moere, mud. The 
present forms then should be classed with 
blether, blather, bladder, the origm of 



BLAST 

which has been explained under Blad- 
der. 

Gael, blaodhrach^ blorach, bawling, 
clamorous, noisy ; blor, a loud noise, a 
voice ; Ir. blaodh^ a shout. 

A parallel form sounds the radical syl- 
lable with a t instead of d. Du. blaeteren, 
blaeten, blaterare, stultd loqui, proflare 
fastum ; blaet, blatero, ventosus, magnilo- 
quus. — Kil. Hence Spenser's blatant 
beast, the noisy, boasting, ill-speaking 
beast. ' She roade at peace through his 
only pains and excellent endurance, how- 
ever envy list to blatter against him.' — 
Spenser. With inversion of the liquid, 
Sp. baladrar, to bellow, to talk much and 
loud ; baladron^ OE. blateroon, an empty 
boaster. 

Blast. A gust of wind. AS. blcEsan, 
to blow ; blcEst, a blast. To blast, to de- 
stroy, to cut off prematurely, as fruit or 
vegetables struck by a cold or pestilential 
blast of air. 

Blatant. See Blare. 

Blaze. I. A strong flame. AS. blase, 
blcEse, blysa, a torch, a lamp ; blasere, an 
incendiary ; ON. blossi, a flame ; blys, 
Dan. bins, a torch ; Du. blose, redness ; 
Sw. brasa, fire, and, as a verb, to blaze ; 
Sp. brasa, Fr. braise, live coal ; embraser, 
to set on fire. A blaze is so intimately 
connected with a blast of wind, as to 
render it extremely probable that the 
word blaze, a flame, is radically identical 
with AS. blcEsan, G. blcesen, to blow. If 
the fire were named from the roaring 
sound which it produces, it is obvious 
that the designation would be equally ap- 
propriate for the blast of wind by which 
the conflagration is accompanied and 
kept up, and which, indeed, is the imme- 
diate cause of the roaring sound. 

2. Sw. blcesa, Dan. blis, G. bldsse, Du. 
blesse, a blaze or white mark on the face 
of an animal, a white mark on a tree made 
by stripping off a portion of the bark. 
As Kilian, besides blesse, has also blencke, 
macula emicans, a shining spot, probably 
the signification of a white spot on a dark 
ground may arise from the notion of 
shining like a blaze or flame, Sc. bleis, 
bless, bles. — Jam. G. blass, pale, light-col- 
oured. 

To Blaze. — Blazen. i. To blow 
abroad, to spread news, to publish. AS. 
bices an, Du. blaesen, to blow. 

And sain, that through thy medling is iblowe 
Your bothe love, ther it was erst not knowe. 
Troilus and Cressida. 

But now, friend Cornelius, sith I have blase?zed 



BLAZE 



71 



his vaunt hearken his vertue and worthiness.— 
Golden Book in R. 

Sw. oron-blasare, a whisperer, back- 
biter. Perhaps the expression of blazin^^ 
or blazening, abroad, was partly derived 
from the image of blowing a trumpet^ as 
when we speak of trumpeting one's vir- 
tues. Du. 'op een trompet blaazen^ to 
sound a trumpet. 

2. To portray armorial bearings in 
their proper colours ; whence Blazonry, 
heraldry. Fr. blason, a coat of arms, also 
the scutcheon or shield wherein arms are 
painted or figured ; also blazon or the blaz- 
ing of arms. — Cot. The origin of this ex- 
pressionhas given rise to much discussion, 
and two theories are proposed, each of 
much plausibility. First from the E. blaze^ 
blazen, to proclaim, to trumpet forth, 
whence the Fr. blason, used, among other 
senses, in that of praise, commendation ; 
blason funebre, a funeral oration ; blason- 
ner, to extol, to publish the praises, pro- 
claim the virtues of. — Cot. Du. blasoen, 
thraso, gloriosus, magniloquus, also prte- 
conium, laudes (Kil.), i. e. the matter 
trumpeted forth or proclaimed by a herald, 
which would ordinarily consist in the first 
place of the titles and honours of the party 
on whose behalf the herald appeared. 
Then, as the purport of armorial bearings 
was to typify and represent the honours 
and titles of the bearer, and to make him 
known when otherwise concealed by his 
armour, the term was transferred to the 
armorial bearings themselves, or to the 
shield on which they were painted. 

The other derivation, which Diez treats 
as hardly doubtful, is from AS. blase, a 
torch, a flame, splendour. The term 
would then be applied to the armorial 
bearings painted in bright colours on the 
shield or surcoat, in the same way as we 
speak of an illuminated MS. — a MS. 
ornamented with coloured paintings ; Fr. 
pla7iches illuminees, coloured prints. 
Prov. blezo, a shield, properly a shield 
with armorial device : ' blezos cubertz de 
teins e blancs e blaus,' shields covered 
with tints of white and blue. Or the word 
might spring from the same origin by a 
somewhat different train of thought. The 
AS. blcese, blase, is used in the sense of 
manifestatio, declaratio. — Lye. ON. blaser 
vid, visui patet, it is manifest, — Gudmund. 
Hence the derivative blason, like the 
synonymous cognisance in English, might 
be used to signify the armorial bearings 
of an individual, as the device by which 
he was known or made manifest when 
completely cased in armour. 



72 



BLEACH 



To Bleach, on. bleikr^ light-coloured, 

whitish, pale ; bleikja, Du. dlaken, N. 
d/akna, to whiten by exposure to sun and 
air ; AS. bicec, pale ; blcccan^ to bleach. 
See Black. 

Bleak. In a secondary sense bleak is 
used for cold, exposed, from the effect of 
cold in making the complexion pale and 
livid. See Black. 

Blear, i. Blear-eyed ; having sore 
inflamed eyes, like one that has long 
been weeping. Pl.D. blarren, to blare 
or roar, to cry or weep. * He blarrede 
sinen langen tranen,' he cried till the tears 
ran down. Hence blarr-oge or bleer-oge, 
a crying eye, a red watery eye. 

2. The term blear, in the expression 
' to blear one's eye,' to deceive one, is 
totally different from the foregoing, and 
seems identical with blur, a blot or smear 
concealing something that had originally 
been distinct. 

He that doeth wickedly, although he professe 
God in his wordes, yet he doeth not for all that 
see God truely : for he is seen with most purely 
scowred eyes of faith, which are blun-ed with the 
darkness of vices. — Udal in Richardson. 

In this sense it agrees with 'E2LV.plerren, 
a blotch ; plerr, geplerr, a mist before the 
eyes. ' Prsestigiae, pier vor den augen ; ' 
' Der Teufel macht ihnen ein eitles plerr 
vor den augen,' the devil makes a vain 
bljir before their eyes. — Schmel. So in 
P.P. 

He blessede them with his buUes and blered hure 
eye. 

By a similar metaphor Pol. ttwian is a 
cloud, as of dust or mist ; tunianic, to 
cast a mist before the eyes, to humbug. 

To Bleat, An imitative word intended 
to represent the sound made by sheep or 
goats. Gr. /3Xj;xao/iai, G. bloken, to bleat 
as sheep, or to low as oxen. 

Bleb. A drop of water, blister. See 
Blob. 

Bleed. See Blood. 

Blemish. A stain in a man's reputa- 
tion, a spot, a fault, a disgrace. — Bailey. 
From the OFr. blesmir, tacher, souiller, 
salir, to spot, to soil. — Roquef. The 
modern sense of the word bleme or blesme 
is pale, wan, bleak, dead-coloured — 
Cotgr. ; blesmissure^ blemissejnent, pale- 
ness, wanness, bleakness. As AS. blac 
includes the notion of pale and dark, and 
wan itself signifies not only pale but 
livid or dark of hue, it is probable 
that bleme was applied to the dark colour 
of lifeless flesh, and thence to a bruise, a 
spot, or blemish. The Promptorium has 



CLENCH 

bleinysshen or blenscJiyn — obfusco. 1 
blemysshe, I chaunge colour. 

Saw you nat how he blemysshed at it whan 
you asked him whose dagger that was. — Palsgr. 

According to Diez the proper meaning 
of blemir is to bruise or make livid with 
blows, from ON. bldmi, the livid colour of 
a bruise, livor, sugillatio, color plumbeus ; 
bldina, to become livid. Sw. blema, a 
boil, wheal, pimple ; Pol. plama, a stain, 
spot, blot, a blot on one's name or re- 
putation ; plajni/f, splamic, to spot ; spia- 
mid sie, to stain one's honour or reputa- 
tion, to disgrace one's name. So in Sw. 

• * o 

/lack, a spot, blot, stain ; Jlack pa ens 
goda nafnn, a spot, a blemish in one's 
reputation. 

Blench. — Blencher. — Blancher. To 
blench is sometimes used in the sense of 
blanking one, to make him feel blank, to 
discomfit, confound him. * Bejaune, a 
novice, one that's easily blankt and hath 
nought to say when he should speak.' — 
Cot. 

For now if ye so shuld have answered him as I 
have shewed you, though ye shuld have some- 
what blenched him therwith.— Sir J. More in 
Richardson. «» 

At other times it is synonymous with 
blink, to wink the eye, shrink from a 
dazzling light, boggle at something, start 
back. 

I^oketh that ye ne beon nout iliche the horse 
that is scheoh (shy) and blencheth uor one 
scheaduwe. — Ancren Riwle, 242. 

And thus thinkande I stonde still 

Without blenchinge of mine eie, 

Right as me thought that I seie 

Of Paradeis the moste joie. — Gower in R. 
And now are these but mansbond (i. e. slaves) 

raslcaile of refous— 
For these ne shalle ye blenk.—R. B. 115. 

To bhnk the question is to shrink 
from it, to wink at it, avoid looking it in 
the face. Fr. gnenchir, the formal equi- 
valent of English wink^ is used in a sense 
exactly synonymous with blench, to start 
away from. 
And gif thou blencke from ony of tho, (faith or 

creaunce) 
Be wax, from the than schal I go. 

In the French version — 
Et bien saches tu guenckir k creanche 
]& guenchirai a toi en tel maniere. 

Manuel de Pecches, p. 419. 

From the sense of rapid vibration 
connected with the notion of blinking, 
blench came to be used for a trick, a 
movement executed for the purpose of 
engaging attention, while the agent ac- 



BLEND 

complishes a purpose he is desirous of 
concealing. 

Gif hundes urneth to him-ward (the fox) 
He gength wel swithe awaiward 
And hoketh pathes swithe narewe 
And haveth mid him his blenches yarewe. 
Owl and Nightingale, 375. 

To Blend. A numerous class of words 
may be cited, with or without the nasal, 
representing the sound made by the 
agitation of liquids. Swab, blotzen, to 
churn, to dash cream up and down with 
a plunger ; Du. ploizen, plo?tsen, to fall 
into water with a sudden noise, to plunge. 
To blunge clay, in potters' language, is to 
mix it up with water to a fluid consist- 
ency. Du. blanssen, to dabble in water. 
— Biglottoa. Sc. to blulter, to make a 
rumbling noise, to bluiter up with water, 
to dilute too much ; bluiter, liquid filth ; 
to bluther, bludder, to make a noise with 
the mouth in taking any liquid. — Jam. 
To blunder water, to stir or puddle, to 
make it thick and muddy. — H alii well. 
Of this latter the E. blend, AS. blendian, 
ON. blajtda, to mix, seems the simple 
form, but by no means therefore a pre- 
vious one in the order of formation, as 
will be remarked in the observations on 
the origin of the word Blink. Sw. blanda 
vatn i vin, to dash wine with water. 
Afterwards applied to the notion of 
mixing in general, whether the subject 
matter is wet or dry, although in the 
latter case the consciousness of the imi- 
tative source of the word is wholly lost. 

To Bless.— Bliss, as. blithe, joyful, 
merry, blithe ; blis, joy, gladness, bliss ; 
blithsian, blissian, to rejoice, be glad ; 
bletsian, to bless, to consecrate ; blet- 
sung, a blessing. OHG. blide, glad, joy- 
ful ; blidu, joy ; Paradises blidnissu, the 
joys of Paradise ; bliden, to rejoice. A 
similar development has taken place in 
the Slavonic languages. Russ. blago, 
well ; blagaya, goods, riches ; blajennii 
(Fr. j), blessed, happy ; Serv. blag, good, 
sweet ; blago, money, riches ; Pol. blogi, 
blissful, sweet, graceful, lovely ; Bohem. 
blaze, happily, fortunately, well ; blahy 
(obsolete), happy ; blaziti, blahoslaviti 
(=bene dicere), to make happy, to pro- 
nounce happy, to bless ; blazeny, blahos- 
layeny, blessed, happy; Blazena Bea- 
trix. 

From the action of the hand making 
the sign of the cross while blessing one- 
self or others, the verb to bless is some- 
times found in the singular sense of to 
brandish. 



BLINK 



73 



Their burning blades about their heads do hless. 

F.Q. 

Tarry,, thou knave, I hold thee a grote I shall 
make these hands bless thee. — Gamm. Gurt. 
Needle. III. 3. 

For the same reason a man is said to 
bless the world with his heels when he is 
hanged. — Nares. 

Blight. A hurt done to corn or trees 
that makes them look as if they were 
blasted. — Bailey. Pl.D. verblekken, to 
burn up. ' De Sonne het dat Koorn 
verblekket^ or ' Dat Koorn is verblekket,' 
from blekken, to shine, to lighten. Per- 
haps the notion originally was that it 
was blasted with lightning. OHG. bleg, 
blich-fiur, lightning. — Brem. Wtb. Or it 
may be from the discoloured faded ap- 
pearance of the blighted corn. AS. blcec^ 
pale, livid. 

Blind. Deprived of sight. Goth. 
blinds, ON. blindr, G. blind. Thence ap- 
plied to anything which does not fulfil its 
apparent purpose, as a blind entry, an 
entry which leads to nothing ; AS. blind- 
netel, a dead nettle, or nettle which does 
not sting ; G. blinde fenster, — thiiren, 
— taschen, false windows, doors, pockets. 

A blind is something employed to blind 
one or prevent one from seeing, as a 
window-blind, to prevent one looking 
through the window. 

The origin of the word must be treated 
in the next article. 

Blink. A wink, a look, a gleam, 
glance, moment. AS. blican, to glitter, 
dazzle ; G. blicken, to shine, to glance, to 
look ; Du. blicken, to glitter ; blick, a 
flash, a glance, a wink ; blick-ooghen, to 
wink ; blicksem, lightning. With the 
nasal, Du. blincken, to shine, to glitter ; 
G. blinken, to twinkle, shine, glitter, and 
also to ' 
glitter. 

The sound of k before an s, as in Du. 
blicksem, readily passes into a /, giving 
G. blitz, a flash, glitter, glimpse, lightning ; 
blitzen, to flash, glitter, lighten. The in- 
sertion of the nasal, as in the case of 
blick and blink, gives blinzen, blinzeln, 
to twinkle, wink, blink. — Kiittner. Swiss 
blinze, to shut the eyes ; G. blinzler, a 
blinkard ; blinzdugig, blink-eyed, weak- 
eyed. Sc. blent, a glance ; Swiss blendeUy 
a flash of light ; Dan. blende, to dazzle ; 
Sw. blund, a wink, a wink of sleep ; 
blunda, to shut the eyes. The term then 
passes on to designate the complete 
privation of sight. Du. blindselen, cascu- 



74 



BLISSOM 



blind person. — Kil. g. blinzel-maus^ or 
blinde-kuh, blindman's-bufif. 

The origin of blind would thus be the 
figure of blinking under a strong light, 
and blink itself is sometimes used to 
express absence of vision. To blink the 
question is to shut one's eyes to it, to 
make oneself wilfully blind to it. A 
horse's blinkers are the leather plates 
put before his eyes to prevent his seeing. 
Nor ought it to startle us to find the 
simple form of the word derived from a 
frequentative, as blinseln, blindselen. For 
this, I believe, is a much more frequent 
phenomenon than is commonly thought, 
and an instance has lately been given in 
the case of blend. Words aiming at the 
direct representation of natural sounds 
are apt to appear in the first instance in 
the frequentative form. 

To Blissom. Of sheep, to desire the 
male. N. blesjne, ON. blcesma, io blissom, 
from blczr, a ram. — Egillson. 

Blister. Du. blnyster; Lat. pustula, 
pusula, a bubble, blister, pimple. Both 
the English and the Latin word are from 
the notion of blowing, expressed by cog- 
nate roots, which differ only in the in- 
sertion or omission of an / after the 
initial b. 

The E. blister must be referred to AS. 
blcesan, to blow, whence blast, bhister, to 
blow in gusts, to puff and be noisy, Bav. 
blaustern, to breathe hard, while Lat. 
pustiila, pusula, must be classed with 
forms like Gr. ^vacua, to blow, G. bausen, 
busten, pausten, Sw. pusta, to blow, puff, 
swell. 

The /, it must be observed, in imitative 
roots is an exceedingly movable element, 
and easily changes its place, or is in- 
serted or omitted. Thus we have blab 
and babble, bubble and blubber, Langued. 
blouca and Fr. boucler, to bubble, buckle, 
blouquette and bouclette, a little buckle, w. 
blisg,plisg, shells, husks, and/zj^, pods, 
blisters. 

Blithe. Goth, bleiths, mild, merciful ; 
ON. blidr, mild, gentle ; OHG. blide, Du. 
blijde, as in E. blithe, joyful. See Bless. 

To Bloat.— Bloated.— Bloater. To 
blote, to swell, also to set a smoking or 
drying by the fire.— Bailey. ON. blautr, 
soft, soaked. Sw. blot, Dan. bl'dd, soft. 
Sw. biota, lagga i blot, to soak, to steep. 
Hence E. bloated, having an unsound 
swollen look, as if soaked in water. In 
like manner the Fin. kostua, signifying 
in the first instance to soak, is also used 
in the sense of swelling ; kostia, subhu- 



BLOND 

midus, inde humiditate tumidus. Sw. 
blotjisk, fish which is set to soak in water 
preparatory to cooking, cured fish. — 
Ihre. When fish under this name was 
imported into England, it was naturally 
supposed that the signification of the 
first element of the word had reference 
to the process by which it was cured, 
and hence to blote has been supposed to 
mean to smoke, to cure by smoke. 

I have more smoke in my mouth than would 
blote a hundred herrings. — B. and F. in Nares. 

You stink like so many bloat-herrings newly 
taken out of the chimney. — B. Jonson, Ibid. 

Blob.— Bleb. Blob, a bubble, a blister ; 
a small lump of anything thick, viscid, or 
dirty ; bleb, a drop of water, a bubble, a 
blister, a blain. — Hal. Blob, blab, a small 
globe or bubble of any liquid, a blister, a 
blot or spot, as a blab of ink. — ^Jam. 

Though both his eyes should— drop out like 
blobbes or droppes of water. — Z. Boyd in Jam. 

From blabber, blobber, blubber, repre- 
senting the dashing of water, the radical 
syllable is taken to signify a separate 
element of the complex image, a bubble 
formed or a drop dashed off in the col- 
lective agitation. So from sputter is 
formed spot, a detached portion of the 
agitated liquid, or the mark which it 
makes. And so from squatter, to dash 
liquid, is formed squad, sloppy dirt, a 
separate portion. See Blot. Gael, plub, 
noise of liquor in a half-filled cask, sound 
as of a stone falling suddenly in water, 
any soft unwieldy lump ; piub-cheann, a 
lumpish head ; plubach, giving a sound of 
the foregoing nature, speaking rapidly 
and inarticulately. 

Block. The stem or trunk of a tree. 
— Bailey. A solid mass of wood, stone, 
or the like. Hence, to block up the way, 
to close it with a solid mass. Gael, bloc^ 
round, orbicular. Fr. bloc, blot, a block 
or log ; en bloc, in bulk, in the lump or 
mass, taken altogether. It may be formed 
like clot, clod, blot, Sc. blad, from the 
sound of a small mass of something soft 
thrown against the ground. See Blot. 
The primary meaning would thus be a 
small mass of anything, an unformed 
mass, as distinguished from things fa- 
bricated out of it, the unhewn bole of a 
tree, any lump or mass of things. 

Blond. Fr. blond, light yellow, straw- 
coloured, flaxen ; also (in hawks or stags) 
bright tawny or deer-coloured. — Cotgr. 
Diez suggests that the word may be a 
nasalised form of ON. blaud, Dan. bl'dd, 
soft, weak, in the sense of a soft tint, a 



BLOOD 

supposition which is apparently supported 
by the use of the word blMe in Austria 
for a weak, pale tint. — Schmid. It is 
probably connected with Pol. blady, pale, 
wan. It. biado (of which the evidence 
exists in biadetto, bluish, sbiadare, to 
grow pale), blue, pale ; biavOy blue, straw- 
coloured (Diez, Florio). OFr. blots, blot, 
blue ; blot, blond, yellow, blue, white 
(Roquefort). Prov. blot, bleu, fair in 
colour, as the skin or hair. It should be 
remarked that the Du. blond is used in 
the sense of the livid colour of a bruise 
as well as in that of flaxen, yellowish ; 
blond en blaauw slaan, to beat one black 
and blue ; blondheid, couleur livide. — 
Halma. 

Blood. — Bleed. Du. bloed, G. blut. 
Doubtless named for the same reason as 
Du. bloedsel, E. dial, blooth, G. bliithe, a 
flower, from the bright colour which 
these objects exhibit, from G. bliihen, to 
glow. Both blut and bliithe are written 
bluat by Otfried, and bliihen is used in 
the Swabian dialect in the sense of bleed. 
— Schmid. Erploten, to be red with 
rage. — Schilter. See Blow, 2. 

Bloom. The bright-coloured part to 
plants which prepares the seed, a deli- 
cately-coloured down on fruits, the bright 
colour of the cheeks. 

The sun was brycht and schynand clere, 
And armouris that burnyst were 
Swa blomyt with the sunnys beme 
That all the land was in a leme. — Barbour. 

Du. bloemen, to bloom or flower, pro- 
jjerly to shine with bright colours ; 
bio erne, bio ems el, ON. blomi, b loins tr, a 
flower. A parallel form with ON. liomr, 
E. leme, gleam. 

Blossom. AS. blosa, blosma, blostma, 
Du. blosein, Lat. flos, a flower. Du. 
blosen, to be red, to blush ; blose, redness, 
the bright colour of the cheeks ; AS. 
blase, blysa, ON. blys, Dan. blus, a torch ; 
blusse, to glow, to blaze, to flame ; PI. D . 
bliise, bleuster, a blaze, bleustern, bleistern, 
to glisten ; Russ. blistaf, to shine ; Sw. 
blust, a flower. 

Parallel forms with an initial gl and / 
are ON. glossi, a flame, glyssa, to sparkle ; 
s;lys, shine ; glcesi, splendour ; E. gloss, 
glister ; Sc. glose, to blaze ; Ir. gltis, ON. 
lios, light, E. lustre, brilliancy. See 
Blow. 

Blot, Blotch. TYi&G.platschf patschf 
platz ! klatsch ! represent the sound of 
dashing liquid, of a blow with something 
soft or flat. From similar representa- 
tions of sound are formed G. pladdern, to 



BLOW 



75 



gush, to fall (of liquids) in abundance, to 
dabble in water ; platschern, to patter, to 
fall with a plashing noise ; Sv^'iss pladern, 
plattern, to dabble in water, to splash, to 
dirty, (of cattle) to dung, whence plader, 
platter, kuh-plader, cow-dung. Dan. dial. 
blatte, to dash down, fall down ; blat, 
blatte, a small portion of anything wet ; 
en blat vand, skam, a drop of water or 
of filth ; blak-blatte, a drop of ink ; ko- 
blatt, Sw. kobladde, a cow-dung. Sc. blad^ 
a heavy fall of rain (to be compared with 
G. plaiz-regen, a pelting shower). * It's 
bladding on o' weet,' the rain is driving 
on. Blad, a dirty spot on the cheek, a 
lump of anything soft ; to blad, to slap, 
to strike with something soft or flat 
Carinthian ploutschen, to dash down 
water ; pioutsche, great leaf of cabbage. 
Fin. plattata, to slap, to strike with such 
a sound as the Germans represent by the 
syllable klatsch ! Platti, a sound of such 
a nature, a blot or spot. Dan. plet, a 
blot, spot ; pletter i solen, spots in the 
sun. E. P)lot of land is a spot or small 
portion of land. S w. plottra, to squander, 
properly to scatter liquid ; to scribble, 
to blot paper ; plotterwis, in scattered 
morsels, bit by bit. Wendish blodo^ 
bio to, mud.— Stalder in v. pladern. Fr. 
blotter, to blot ; blotte, bloutre, a lump, a 
clod. — Cot. Then as a drop of liquid or 
lump of something soft spreads itself out 
on falling to the ground, j-^ blottir, to squat 
or lie close. 

The form blotch answers to Swiss 
platschen, which represents the sound of 
something broad falling into the water or 
on the ground, of water dashing in a 
vessel or splashing over. Ein platsch 
milch, a gush of milk ; platsch-voll, 
platt-voll, piatz-voll, splashing full, full 
to overflowing. — Stalder. Plotz, a blow, 
or the sound of it ; bldtz, a spot or blot. 
— Schwenck. E. blatch, to spot or blot. 

If no man can like to be smutted and blatched 
in his face, let us learn more to detest the spots 
and blots of the soul. — Harmar in R. 

Blotch-paper, blotting-paper. — Hal. 

Blot at Backgammon. See Back- 
gammon. 

Blow. Apparently from the livid mark 
produced by a blow on the body. Du. 
blaeuw, blue, livid ; blaeuwe ooghe, Fris. 
en blau ach, a black eye ; Du. blaeuweit, 
blowen, to strike ; blauwel, a beater. — 
Kil. PI. D. ^/a>^^;/,blauschlagen; blawels, 
livid marks. Fris. blodelsa and blawelsa^ 



76 



BLOW 



wound and bruise. * Si quis alium ad 
sanguinis effusionem vcl livorem vulgo 
blawe dictum laeserit.' 'Ad livorem et 
sanguinem, quod bloot et blawe dicimus.' 
— Hamburgh Archives, A.D. 1292, in 
Brem. Wtb. *Nis hir nauder blaiv ni 
blodelsa/ there is here neither bruise nor 
wound. — Wiarda. OFr. blau^ coup, tache, 
meurtrissure — Roquefort, a blow, a bruise. 

On the other hand, OHG. bliuwan, mhg. 
bliuwen, G. blduen, to beat with a mallet, 
can hardly be separated from Goth. 
blig^ivan, to beat. 

To Blow, 1. AS. blawan^ to blow, to 
breathe ; G. bldhen, to puff up, to inflate, 
a parallel form with blasen, to blow. In 
like manner Lat. Jla-re, to blow, corre- 
sponds with Sw.^asa, to puff, to breathe 
hard. 

To Blow, 2. To come into flower, to 
show flower. The primary sense is to 
shine, to exhibit bright colours, to glow. 
Du. bloedeti, bloeyen, bloemeii, florere. — 
Kil. G. bliihen, to shine with bright 
colours, to blossom, to flourish. From 
the same root which gives the designa- 
tion of the bloody the red fluid of the 
body ; and closely allied with Du. blosen, 
to be red, and the forms mentioned under 
Blossom. Swab, bluh, blut, blust, a 
flower ; OHG. bluod, blot; G. bliithe, 
bloom, flower ; w. blodyn, a flower. 

Parallel forms with an initial gl are 
ON. glod, E. glede, glowing coal ; Du. 
gloeden^ gloeyen, G. gliihen, to glow. 

Blowzy. Tumbled, disordered in 
head-dress. Blowse, a fat, red-faced 
bloted wench, or one whose head is 
dressed like a slattern. — B. PI. D. pliisen, 
to disorder, especially with respect to the 
hair. Sik plusen is said of fowls when 
they plume themselves with their beak. 
Sik uppluster7t, when the feathers of a 
bird are staring from anger or bad health ; 
'dlustig, pliisig, toused, disordered; plus- 
trig, (of birds) having the feathers star- 
ing or disordered; (of men) having a 
swollen bloated face or disordered hair. 
— Danneil. 

To Blubber. — Bludder. — Bluther. 
These are closely allied forms, marking 
some difference in application from that 
of blabber, blebber, bladder, by the modi- 
fied vowel. The radical image is the 
sound made by the dashing of water, 
whence the expression is extended to 
noises made by the mouth in crying, in 
rapid or indistinct utterance. The radi- 
cal sense is shown in Gael, plubraich, 
plubartaich, a paddling in water, a con- 
tinued noise of agitated water, a gurgling 



BLUE 

or guggling, piitbair, one who speaks 
indistinctly and rapidly; V\.T>. blubbern, 
to make bubbles m drinking, to sputter 
or speak in an explosive manner ; blub- 
ber n, flubbern, to blurt out. — Dcutsch. 
Mundart. v. 51. 

To blubber, in E., is confined to the 
broken sound made by the internal flow 
of tears in crying. Blubbered cheeks are 
cheeks bedabbled with tears. It is how- 
ever provincially used in the original 
sense. ' The water blubbers up' (Mrs Ba- 
ker), where the word may be compared 
with Bohem. bluboncifi, to bubble up, to 
boil. And, as bubbles are formed by the 
agitation of water, blubber comes to sig- 
nify bubble, foam, * Blober upon water, 
bouteillis.' — Palsgr. 

And at his mouth a blubber stode of fome. 
Chaucer. 

In modern speech the noun is chiefly 
used for the coating of fat by which the 
whale is enveloped, consisting of a net- 
work or frothy structure of vessels filled 
with oil. 

It does not impair the representative 
power of the word when the final b in the 
radical syllable of blubber is exchanged 
for 2L d in Sc. bludder, bluther, to make a 
noise with the mouth in taking liquid ; to 
disfigure the face with weeping. — Jam. 

. Her sweet bloderit face. — Chaucer. 
Bav. blodern, piodern, Pl.D. pludern, to 
gabble, jabber, chatter. Piodern, to 
sound like water, to gush. — Deutsch. 
Mund. ii. 92. Pludern, to guggle, sound 
like water gushing out of a narrow open- 
ing; to flap like loose clothes. — Schmel- 
ler. 

Blue. OHG. blao, blawj It. biavo, 
Prov. blau, fem. blava. 

Notwithstanding the little apparent 
resemblance, I have little doubt in identi- 
fying the foregoing with w, glas, blue, 
green, grey, pale ; Gael, glas, pale, wan. 
The interchange of an initial gl, bl, or gr, 
br, is very frequent. We may cite for 
example G. gliihen, bliihen, E. glow, blow; 
Gr. yX^i^wv, /3X//XWI', a herb ; Gr. ^akavoq, 
Lat. glans ; Ir. glaodh and blaodh, a 
shout ; glagaireachd and blagaireachd, a 
blast, boasting; Bret, bruk, w. grug, 
heath. We thus identify the Celtic glas 
with G. blass, pale ; O Fr. bloes, blois, bloi, 
blue ; blazir, to make blue, and thence, 
to fade, to spot, to bruise — Roquef. ; 
Langued. blazi, faded, withered, bruised ; 
Prov. blezir, to fade, grow pale, dirty. — 
Raynouard. The usual interchange of a 
final z and d connects these with Pol. 
blady, pale, wan, bledniad, to fade; It. 



BLUFF 

biado, blue, pale, the evidence of which 
is seen in biadetto, bluish, and sbtadare, 
to become pale or wan. — Flor. Hence 
we pass to Prov. blahir, to become pale 
or livid, in the same way as from It. 
tradire to Fr. trahir. The change from 
a medial ^ to 7/ is still more familiar. 
We find accordingly It. sbiavare, as well 
as sbiadare, to become pale, and biavo 
(Diez), as well as biado, blue. The 
Romance blave is moreover, like the 
Celtic glas, applied to green as well as 
blue. ^/<27/<7y^r, verdoyer, devenir vert; 
blavoie, verdure, herbe. — Roquefort. 

Hence we may explain the origin of the 
It. biada, biava, corn, originally growing 
corn, from the brilliant green of the young 
corn in the spring, contrasted with the 
brown tint of the uncultivated country. 
' Biada, tutte le semente ancora in erba.' 
— Altieri. Bladmn, blandimi, in plur. 
se^etes virentes. — Dief. Supp. The 
gradual change of colour in the growing 
plant from a bright green to the yellow 
tint of the reaped corn (still designated 
by the term biada) may perhaps explain 
the singular vacillation in the meaning of 
the It. biavo, which is rendered by Florio, 
pale straw-coloured. It is remarkable 
however that the E. blake (identical with 
AS. blac, G. bleich, pale) is provincially 
used in the sense of yellow. 

The Du. blond IS also applied to the 
livid colour of a bruise, as well as the 
yellowish colour of the hair. OFr. bloi, 
blond, jaune, bleu et blanc. — Roquefort. 
Thus it becomes difficult to separate Mid. 
Lat. blavus, blue, from the Lat. Jiavus, 
yellow, Bohem.//«wy, yellowish red, Pol. 
plowy, pale yellow, discoloured {plowiec, 
to grow yellow, to lose colour, to fade), 
G. falb, and E. fallow, fawn-coloured, 
reddish yellow. - 

Bluff. Du. blaf, planus, aequus et 
amplus, superficie plana, non rotunda; 
blaf aensight facies plana et ampla, a 
bluff countenance ; blaf van voorhooft, 
fronto, having a bluff forehead, a fore- 
head not sloping but rising straight up. — 
Kil. So a bluff shore is opposed to a 
sloping shore. Blaffart, a plain coin 
without image or superscription. — Kil. 
A bluff manner, a plain unornamented 
manner. 

The word is probably derived in the 
first instance from the sound of some- 
thing falling flat upon the ground. Du. 
ploffen, to fall suddenly on the ground, 
to plump into the water. — Halma. It 
then signifies something done at once, 
and not introduced by degrees or cere- 



BLUNDERBUSS 



77 



monious preparations ; a shore abruptly 
rising, or an abrupt manner. 

In like manner from an imitation of 
the same sound by the syllable plomp, 
Du. plomp, abrupt, rustic, blunt. See 
Blunt. 

Blunder. The original meaning of 
blunder seems to be to dabble in water, 
from an imitation of the sound. It is a 
nasal form of such words as blather, 
blutter, bluiter, all representing the 
agitation of liquids, and then generally 
idle talk. Dan. pludder, earth and water 
mixed together, puddle, idle talk ; plud" 
dre, to dabble in the mud, to puddle, mix 
up turf and water. Then with the nasal, 
E. dial, to blmider water, to stir or pud- 
dle, to make water thick and muddy ; 
and metaphorically, blunder, confusion, 
trouble. — Hal. I blonder, je perturbe. — 
Palsgr. 

To shuffle and digress so as by any means 
whatever to blunder an adversary. — Ditton in R. 

ON. glundr, sloppy drink; glundra, to 
disturb, to confound. 

Analogous forms are Du. blanssen, in 
't water dobbelen, to dabble — Biglotton ; 
E. to blunge clay, to mix it up with water. 
—Hal. 

To blunder is then, for the same rea- 
son as the synonymous dabble, used for 
the work of an unskilful performer. 
Blunderer or blunt worker^ hebefactor. 
— Pr. Pm. 

What blunderer is yonder that playeth diddil, 
He findeth false measures out of his fond fiddil. 
Skelton in R. 

Hence a blunder, an ill-done job, a 
mistake. 
Like drunken sots about the street we roam : 
Well knows the sot he has a certain home, 
Yet knows not how to find the uncertain place, 
And blunders on and staggers every pace. 

Dry den in R. 

The word is here synonymous with 
flotinder, the original meaning of which 
is, like Du. flodderen (Weiland), to work 
in mud or water. To blunder out a 
speech, to bring it out hastily with a 
spluttering noise. G. heratispoltern or 
herausplatzen, to blurt or blunder out 
something. — Kiittner. 

See Blurt, Blunt, Bodge. 

Blunderbuss. Pl.D. buller-bak, bul- 
ler-jaan, Sw. buller-bas, a blustering fel- 
low ; G. polter-hajis, one who performs 
his business with much noise, bawling, 
and bustle ; palter er, a blunderbuss, 
blunderhead, a boisterous violent man. — 
Kiittner. From G. bullern, poltern, to 
make a noise. The Du. has donder-bus^ 



78 



BLUNKET 



a blunderbuss, from the loud report ; bus^ 
a fire-arm. — Halma. 

Blunket. A light blue colour. Pol. 
blekity azure, blue. Probably radically 
identical with E. bleak^ pale, wan, as the 
senses of paleness and blue colour very 
generally run into each other. 

Blunt. Before attempting to explain 
the formation of the word, it will be well 
to point out a sense, so different from 
that in which it is ordinarily used, that it 
is not easy to discover the connection. 
Bare and blunt, naked, void. 
It chaunst a sort of merchants which were wont 
To skim those coasts for bondmen there to buy- 
Arrived in this isle though bare and blunt 
To inquire for slaves. — F. Q. 
The large plains — 
Stude blunt of beistis and of treis bare. — D. V. 

A modification of the same root, without 
the nasal, appears with the same mean- 
ing in Swiss blutt, naked, bare, unfledged ; 
Sw. blott, G. bloss, It. biotto, biosso, naked, 
poor ; Sc. blout, blait. 
Woddis, forestis, with naked bewis blout 
Stude strippit of thare wede in every hout. — D.V. 

The blait body, the naked body.— 
Jamieson. The two senses are also 
united in Gael, inaol, bald, without horns, 
blunt, edgeless, pointless, bare, without 
foliage, foolish, silly. Maolaich, to make 
bare or blunt. 

Now the Swiss bluntsch, blunsch, is 
used to represent the sound which is 
imitated in English and other languages 
by the syllable plump, viz. the sound of a 
round heavy body falling into the water ; 
bluntschen, to make a noise of such a 
nature, to plump into the water. — Stalder. 
A similar sound is represented by the 
syllables plots, plutz — Kiittner ; whence 
"Dm. plotsen, pionsen,ploinpen,\.o fall into 
the water; G. platz-regen, a pelting 
shower of rain. We have then the ex- 
pressions, mit etwas heraus-platzeft, or 
heraus phmipen, to blujtt a thing out, to 
blurt, blunder, or blab out a thing — 
Kiittner] to bring it suddenly out, like a 
thing thrown down with a noise, such as 
that represented by the syllables bluntsch, 
plotz, plump; to plump out with it. 
Svfab.platzen, to throw a thing violently 
down. 

Peradventure it were good rather to keep in 
good silence thyself than blunt forth rudely. — 
Sir T. More in Richardson. 

The term blunt is then applied to things 
done suddenly, without preparation. 
Fathers are 

Won by degrees, not bluntly as our maslei*s 

Or wronged friends are. — Ford in R. 



BLUNT 

A blunt manner is an unpolished, un- 
ceremonious manner, exactly correspond- 
ing to the G. plump. Plump mtt etwas 
umgehen, to handle a thing bluntly^ 
awkwardly, rudely. — Kiittner. 

It is from this notion of suddenness, 
absence of preparation, that the sense of 
bare, naked, seems to be derived. To 
speak bluntly is to tell the naked truth, 
Sw. blotta sanningen. The syllables blot, 
blunt, plump, and the like, represent the 
sound not only of a thing falling into the 
water, but of something soft thrown on 
the ground, as Sw. plump, a blot, Dan. 
pludse, to plump down, Dan. dial, blatte, 
to fall down, fling down ; blat, a portion 
of something wet, as cow-dung. — Mol- 
bech. Then as a wet lump lies where it 
is thrown, it is taken as the type of every- 
thing inactive, dull, heavy, insensible, and 
these qualities are expressed by both 
modifications of the root, with or with- 
out the nasal, as in E. blunt, Sc. blait, 
dull, sheepish. 

Then cometh indevotion, through which a man 
is so blont, and hath swiche languor in his soul, 
that he may neither rede ne sing in holy chirche. 

Chaucer, in Richardson. 
We Phenicianis nane sa blait breistis has. — D. V. 
Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Pceni. 

Sc. Blaitie-bum, a simpleton, stupid 
fellow, and in the same sense, a bluntie. 
Du. blutten, homo stolidus, obtusus, ina- 
nis. — Kil. 



Thus we are brought to what is now 
the most ordinary meaning of the word 
bhint, viz. the absence of sharpness, the 
natural connection of which with the 
qualities above mentioned is shown by 
the use of the Latin obtusus in the fore- 
going passages- An active intelligent 
lad is said to be sharp, and it is the con- 
verse of this metaphor when we speak of 
a knife which will not cut as a blunt 
knife. The word dull, it will be observed, 
is used in both senses, of a knife which 
will not cut, and an unintelligent, inactive 
person. Swiss bluntschi, a thick and 
plump person. — Stalder. 

It will be seen that the G. plump, re- 
specting the origin of which we cannot 
doubt, is used in most of the senses for 
which we have above been attempting 
to account. Plump, rough, unwrought, 
heavy, clumsy, massive, thick, and, 
figuratively, clownish, raw, unpolished, 
rude, heavy, dull, blockish, awkward. 
— Kiittner. Plomp, hebes, obtusus, stu- 
pidus, plumbeus, atig. blunt.— Kil. 



BLUR 

In like manner from the sound of a 
lump thrown on the ground, imitated by 
,the syllable bot^ is formed Du. bot, bo tie, 
a blow ; bot-voet, a club foot ; bot, plump, 
sudden, blunt, dull, stupid, rude, flat. 
Bot zeggen, to say bluntly. — Halma. 

To Blur. To blur, to render indis- 
tinct, to smear; blur, a smear, a blot. 
BdiV.plerr, geplerr, a mist before the eyes ; 
plerren, a. blotch, discoloured spot on the 
skin. 

The word is probably a parallel form 
with Sp. borrar,-to blur, blot, and E. bur, 
a mistiness, representing in the first in- 
stance an indistinct sound, then applied 
to indistinct vision; but it may arise 
from the notion of dabbling in the wet. 
Sc. bludder, bluther, blubber, to make a 
noise with the mouth, to disfigure with 
crying. E. dial, bluter, to blubber, to 
blot, to dirty; to blore, to roar. — Hal. 
Swiss blodern, to sound like water boil- 
ing, to rumble; 'Ba.y.pjludern, to make a 
noise in boiling; pludern, to guggle; 
blodern,plodern, to chatter, gabble. Dan. 
pluddre, to dabble, to jabber, gabble ; 
Sw. dial, bliirra, burra, to talk quick and 
indistinctly ; bladdra, blarra, to blurt out, 
to chatter. The elision of the d is very 
common, as in Du. bidder, blaere, a blad- 
der ; ader, aere, an ear of corn, &c. For 
the parallelism of blur and <5«rr comp. E. 
blotch and botch, splurt and spirt, Du. 
blaffen and baffen, to bark, G. blasen and 
bajisen, to blow. See Burr, Slur. 

To Blurt. To bring out suddenly with 
an explosive sound of the mouth. Sc. a 
blirt of greeting, a burst of tears. — Jam. 
Related to blutter, bludder, as splm^t to 
splutter. To splirt, to spurt out. — Hal. 
It. boccheggiare, to make mouths, or 
blurt with one's mouth ; chicchere, a 
flurt with one's fingers, or blurt with one's 
mouth. — Fl. 

Blush. Du. blose, blosken, the red 
colour of the cheeks ; Dan. blus, a torch ; 
blusse, to blaze, to glow ; blusse i ansigtet, 
to blush. Pl.D. bliise, bleuster, a blaze, 
beacon fire. De bakke bleustern, the 
cheeks glow. — Brem. Wtb. See Blossom. 

Bluster. To blow in puffs, blow vio- 
lently, swagger. An augmentative from 
blast. Bav. blasten, blaustern, to snuff, 
to be out of temper. — Schmeller. 

Boa. A large snake. It. boa, bora, 
any filthy mud, mire, puddle, or bog ; also 
a certain venomous serpent that lives in 
the mud, and swimmeth very well, and 
grows to a great bigness. — Fl. Boa, 
stellio, lacerta, cocodrillus ; lindwurm. — 
Dief. Supp. 



BOB 



79 



Boar. AS. bar, Du. beer. As the as. 
has also eafor, and Du. ever-swin, it is 
probable that boarh.2i's, no radical identity 
with G. eber, Lat. aper. 

Board. Du. berd, G. bi^ett, a board or 
plank. AS. bord, an edge, table, margin. 
Du. boord, a margin, edge, border. Fr. 
bord, edge, margin. ON. bord, a border, 
outward edge, board, table, whence bord- 
vidr, literally edge-wood, i. e. planks or 
boards. 

Med endilongum baenum var umbuiz k husum 
uppi, reistr upp bord-vidr a utanverdom thaukom 
sva sera viggyrdlat vasri. — Sverris Saga, c. 156. 
— along the town preparations were made up on 
the houses, planks raised up outside the roofs, 
like the parapets {viggyrdil, war-girdle) raised 
on board a ship in a naval engagement. 

* Boast. Explained by Jam. to 
threaten, to endeavour to terrify. 
Scho wald nocht tell for host nor yeit reward, 
Wallace. 
Turnus thare duke reulis the middil oist, 
With glaive in hand maid awful fere and boist. 
D. V. 274. 29. 

The radical meaning of the word seems 
to be a crack or loud sound, and when 
applied to vaunting language, it implies 
that it is empty sound. To brag and 
to crack, both used in the sense of boast- 
ing, primarily signify loud noise. ' Heard 
you the crack that that gave ? ' Sc. pro- 
verb spoken when we hear an empty 
boast. — Kelly. Boost is used for the 
crack made by bursting open. 

And whether be lighter to breke, 

And lasse boost makith, 

A beggeris bagge 

Than an yren bounde cofre ? 

P. P. 1. 9396, Wright's ed. 

From this root are formed Sc. bustuous, 
OE. boistous, violent, strong, large, coarse, 
rude, and boisterous, properly noisy, vio- 
lent ; Q. pausten,pusten, pustern, to puff. 
Comp. G. puffe7i, to give a, crack, to puff. 
Du. pof, the sound of a blow ; poffen, to 
puff, to bounce, to brag ; grande loqui, 
voce intonare.-^Kil. See Boisterous. 

Boat. AS. bat, Du. boot. It. batello, 
Fr. bateau, ON. bdtr, w. bad, Gael. bdta. 

To Bob.— Bobbin. To move quickly 
up and down, or backwards and forwards, 
to dangle; whence bob, a dangling object, 
a small lump, a short thick body, an end 
or stump. Gael, babag, a tassel, fringe, 
cluster; baban, a tassel, short pieces of 
thread. From the last must be explained 
Fr. bobine, E. bobbin, a ball of thread 
wrapped round a little piece of wood, a 
little knob hanging by a piece of thread. 
* Pull the bobbin, my dear, and the latch 
will fly up.' — Red Riding-hood. 



8o 



BOB 



To Bob, 2. To mock. 

So bourdfully takyng Goddis byddynge or 
wordis or werkis is scorning of hym as dyden the 
Tewis that bobbiden Crist. — Sermon against 
Miracle-plays, Reliq. Antiq. 2. 45. 

In this sense from the syllables ba ba re- 
presenting the movement of the lips, 
whence Fr. baboyer, to blabber with the 
lips ; /aire la babou, to bob, to make a 
mow at. — Cot. See Baber-lipped. 

To Bode. To portend good or bad. 
AS. bod^ gebod, a command, precept, mes- 
sage ; boda, a messenger ; bodian, to de- 
liver a message, to make. an announce- 
ment. See Bid. 

To Bodge. To make bad work, to fail. 

With this we charged again ; but out alas 1 
We bodged again, as I have seen a swan 
With bootless labour swim against the tide, 
And spend her strength with over-matching 
waves. — H. VI. 

The sound of a blow with a wet or flat 
body is represented in G. by the syllable 
Patschj whence patschen, to smack, to 
dabble or paddle; j)atschey a puddle, 
mire, mud. Now unskilful action is con- 
stantly represented by the idea of dab- 
bling; einen patsch thtm, to commit a 
blunder, to fail, to bodge. Hast scJid' 
wid^ patscht ? Have you failed again ? 
Etivas auspatschen, to blurt a thing out. 
— Schmel. See To Botch. Shakespear 
has badged with blood, daubed or dab- 
bled with blood. 

Bodice. A woman's stays; formerly 
bodies, from fitting close to the body, as 
Fr. corset from corps. * A woman's bo- 
dies, or a pair of bodies, corset, corpset' 
— Sherwood's Diet. 

Thy bodies bolstred out with bumbast and with 
bagges. — Gascoigne in R. 

i. e. thy bodice stuffed out with cotton. 

Bodkin. Gael, biodag, a dagger; 
biodeachan, an awl. Lith. badyli, to 
stick, thrust with something pointed, as 
a horn, needle, bayonet ; ,Bohem. bod, a 
prick, stitch; bodak, a prickle, point, 
bayonet; bodnu, busti, to prick. Russ. 
bodetz, a spur, bodilo, a sting ; bodat, to 
butt, strike with the horns. French 
bojiter, to thrust, and E. butt, to push 
with the horns, exhibit another modifi- 
cation of the root. 

Body. AS. bodig, Gael, bodhag. It 
seems the same word with the G. bottich, 
a cask, the two being spelt without ma- 
terial difference in the authorities quoted 
by Schmeller ; bottig, potig, potacha, a 
cask ; bottich, bodi, the body of a shift ; 
potahha, potacha, bodies, corpses ; pot- 
tichy bo tick, a body. In like manner E, 



BOGGLE 

fnmk and G. nanpf sigmiy a. hollow case 
as well as the body of an animal. We 
speak of the barrel of a horse, meaning 
the round part of his body. The Sp. 
barriga, the belly, is identical with Fr. 
barrique, a cask. 

The signification of the root bot, of 
which the E. body and G. bottich are de- 
rivatives, is a lump, the thick part of any- 
thing, anything protuberant, swelling, hol- 
low, w. hot, a round body ; both, the boss 
of a buckler, nave of a wheel, bothogy 
round, rounded ; Wall. bodd,rabodd, thick- 
set, stumpy ; bodene, belly, calf of the leg. 
— Grandg. 

The primary sense of body is then the 
thick round part of the living frame, as 
distinguished from the limbs or lesser di- 
visions ; then the whole material frame, 
as distinguished from the sentient prin- 
ciple by which it is animated. In like 
manner from bol, signifying anything 
spherical or round, arise E. bole, the stem 
of a tree ; ON. bolr^ the trunk of the animal 
body, or stem of a tree, body of a shirt ; 
Lap. boll, pall, palleg, the body. 

Bog. The word has probably been 
introduced from Ireland,where bogs form 
so large a feature in the country. Gael. 
bog (equivalent to E. gog in gog-mire, 
quagmire), bob, move, agitate ; bogadaichy 
waving, shaking ; then from the yielding, 
unsteady nature of a soft substance, bog, 
soft, moist ; bogan, anything soft, a quag- 
mire. Ir. bogadh, to stir, shake, toss; 
bogach, a bog or morass. 

* To Boggle. Commonly explained 
as if from Sc. bogle, a ghost ; to start 
back as from a bugbear. ' We start and 
boggle at every unusual appearance, and 
cannot endure the sight of the bugbear.' 
— Glanville in Todd. But the radical 
idea in boggling is hesitation or waver- 
ing, and the word is well explained by 
Bailey, to be uncertain what to do, to 
waver, to scruple. It is applied to bodily 
vacillation in the Sc. expression hogglin 
an bogglin, unsteady, moving backwards 
and forwards. — ^Jam. Supp. * The grun 
a' bogglt fin we geed on it.' Bogglie, 
quaking, unsteady. — Banff. Gl. 

The radical image is probably a series 
of broken efforts or broken movements, 
as in stammering or staggering, repre- 
sented by the abruptly sounding syl- 
lables gag, gog, or bag, bog. Thus from 
gog or gagvi^ have Bret, gag, Ptg. gago, 
stuttering ; Bret, gagei, gagoula, Ptg. 
goguejar, to stammer, stutter; Y.. gogmirCy 
a quagmire, ^/^^^/^, to roll, to be unsteady ; 
Gael, gogachy nodding, wavering, fickle ; 



BOIL 

and in like manner from the parallel forms 
bag or bog are derived Piedm. bagaje, 
Fr. bdgayer, Wall, (of Mens) begiicr, OG. 
bochken (titubare, stameln vel bochken. 
— Vocab. A.D. 1430 in Deutsch. Mund. 
iv. 304). Magy. bakogni^ to stammer, 
bakazikni^ to stumble; Gael, bog, wag, 
bob, shake, E. bog, a quaking mire, and 
boggle, to waver or hesitate. ' He could 
not gefon with his speech, he made poor 
boggling work.' — Mrs Baker. 

In the same way Sc. tartle, to boggle 
as a horse, to hesitate from doubt, scruple, 
or dislike, may be identified with It. tar- 
tagliare, Sp. tartajear, to stammer, stut- 
ter, tartalear, to stagger, to be at a loss 
in speaking. 

To Boil. — Boil. Lat. bullire, Fr. boiiil- 
lir, ON. bulla, to boil, properly represent 
the sound of water boiling, whence bulla, 
Du. bolleji (Kil.), to tattle, chatter. Sc. 
buller, the gurgling sound of water rush- 
ing into a cavity. Westerwald bollern, 
to give a hollow sound. 

Then as boiling consists in the sending 
up of bubbles, Lat. bitlla, a bubble, boss, 
stud, lump of lead on which a seal was 
impressed ; It. bolla, a bubble, round 
glass phial, also a blister, pustule, pimple ; 
ON. bola, a bubble, blister, boil ; Sw. 
bula, a bump, swelling, dint in a metal 
vessel; Du. bnile, piiile, G. beicle, a boil or 
swelling ; Du. builen, puilen, to be pro- 
minent, to swell. 

* Boisterous. — Boistous. — Bustuous. 
Properly noisy, then violent, strong, huge, 
coarse, rough. 

In winter whan the weather was out of 
measure boistous and the wyld wind Boreas 
maketh the wawes of the ocean so to arise. — 
Chaucer, Test. Love. 

Drances tells Latinus that Turnus' boist 
cows the people from speaking, but that 
he will speak out. 

All thocht with braik and boist or wappinnis he 
Me doth awate, and manace for to de. 

He then exhorts the king — 

lat neuir demyt be 
The bustuousncss (violentia) of ony man dant 
the.— D. V. 374. 45. 

Boystous, styffe or rude ; boysto24snesse, 
roydeur, impetuosity. — Pr. Pm. notes. 

For bost or boist in the sense of crack, 
noise, see Boast. G. pausten, pusten, 
'pusteren, to puff, blow. 

Bold. Daring, courageous. Goth. 
baltka, OHG. bald, free, confident, bold. 
G. bald, quick. ON. balldr, strong, brave, 
handsome ; ballr, strong, courageous. 
Dan. bold^ intrepid, excellent, beautiful ; 



BOLT 



81 



Sw. bald, proud, haughty, warlike, as. 
balder, bealder, hero, prince. Fr. baud, 
bold, insolent ; baude, merry, cheerful.— 
Cot. 

Bole. The round stem of a tree. This 
is probably a modification of boll, a 
globular body, treated under Bowl. The 
throat-boll is the convexity of the throat. 
From the notion of a thick round mass 
the term is applied to the body of an 
animal as distmguished from the limbs, 
to the trunk of a tree as distinguished 
from the branches, to the belly as the 
rounded part of the body. ON. bulr, bolr, 

Sw. bal, Da. bill, the body of a man or of 
a shirt, trunk of a tree ; Lap. boll, pall, 
palleg, the body ; w. bol^ bola, boly, the 
belly. See Bulk. 

Boll. The round heads or seed-ves- 
sels of flax, poppy (Bailey), or the like. 
Du. bol, bo He, a head ; bolleken, capi- 
tulum, capitellum. — Kil. Bret, bolc'h, 
polc'h, belc'hj w. bid, flax-boll. See 
Bowl. 

* Bolster. OHG. bolstar, AS. bolster, 
a cushion, pillow. The term applies in 
the first instance to the materials with 
which the cushion is stuffed. Du. bolster, 
the husk of nuts, chaff of corn ; siliqua, 
gluma, folliculus grani, tomentum, fur- 
fures, stramenta. — Kil. If the primary 
meaning of the word is stuffing, from Du. 
bol, swelling, hollow, we must suppose 
that it was first used with respect to the 
chaff of corn, the most obvious materials 
for stuffing a cushion, and then applied 
to other husks, as those of nuts, which 
are not used for a similar purpose. ON. 
bolstr, a cushion, a swelling in ice. Swab. 
bolster (aufgeblasen — Schmidt), puffed 
up. 

Bolt. — To Bolter, i. g. bolz, bolzen, 
E. bolt, is a blunt-headed arrow for a cross- 
bow, a broad-headed peg to fasten one 
object to another, a fastening for a door. 
Du. botit is explained by Kil., obex, pessu- 
lus, repagulum; bout, boutpijl, sagitta 
capitata, pilum catapultarium ; bout van 
het schouderblad, caput scapulae. The 
essential meaning of the word would thus 
appear to be a knob or projection, the 
bolt of a door being provided with a knob 
by which it is moved to and fro. A 
thunderbolt is considered as a fiery mis- 
sile hurled in a clap of thunder. G. bolz- 
gerade signifies straight to the mark, as 
the bolt shot by a crossbow ; but it is also 
used, as E. bolt upright, in the sense of 
perpendicular. — Stalder. Chaucer seems 
to use bolt upright in the Reve's tale in 



82 



BOLT 



the sense of right on end, one after the 
other. 

The radical sense of a knob or thick 
ending is exemplified in E. polt-foot or 
bolt-foot^ as Fr. pied bot^ a club-foot. Sir 
Walter Scott in his autobiography speaks 
of his ancestor Willy with the bolt-foot. 
A bolt head is a retort, a round glass 
vessel with narrow opening. The ulti- 
mate origin of the word may be best 
ilhjstrated by forms like G. holier palter^ 
Pl.D. hulter de bulter, representing a rat- 
tling or crashing noise. * Holler poller / 
ein furchterlicher getose ! ' ' Ging es 
holler nnd poller dass die wagenrader 
achzten : ' it went helter-skelter so that 
the wheels groaned. — Sanders. Hence 
G.pollern, Pl.D. bullern, to do anything 
accompanied by a rattling noise ; buller- 
ivagen, a rattling carriage; die treppe 
hinunter/^//^r«, to come rattling down- 
stairs ; pollern, to make a knocking, 
hammering, or the like, to throw things 
about. Then from the analogy between 
a rattling noise and a jolting motion, Pl.D. 
bullrig, bulslrig^ bullig, jolting, uneven, 
rugged, lumpy. ' De weg is hullrig un 
bultrig^ the way is rugged and jolting. 
Dan. biillred, uneven, rugged. — Schiitze. 
From the same source must be explained 
Northampton boiler, properly to jog into 
projections, to coagulate, to form lumps, 
as snow balling on a horse's foot, or ill- 
mixed flour and water. Blood-bollered 
Banquo signifies clotted with blood. The 
/ is transposed in Fr. bloutre, a clod, and 
in Svj . plotter, a small portion. 

For the connection between jolting and 
collecting in lumps compare Du. kloteren, 
properly to rattle or clatter {kloterspaejt 
crepitaculum — Kil.), then to knock, to 
hammer, also to curdle, to become lumpy. 
• — Kil. So also we pass from Lat. cro- 
talum, a rattle, Prov. crotlar, OFr. crod- 
ler, croler, to shake, to E. criiddle, curdle, 
to collect in lumps. 

When we analyse the notion of a rattling 
or jolting movement or a rugged uneven 
surface, we see that the one consists of a 
series of jolts or abrupt impulses, and the 
other of a series of projections or emi- 
nences. Hence, on the one hand, we 
have Lat. pidlare, Sw. bulla, to knock, 
E. poll, a thump or blow, mhg. bolze^i, 
pulzen, to start out; Bav. bolzaugen, 
Poltzet augen, projecting eyes ; pul- 
zen, to spring forth ; E. bolt, to start with 
a sudden movement, as a rabbit from its 
hole, or a racer from the course. 

Passing from the sense of movement 
to that of form, we have 'Dn.pult, a clod 



or clump ; Pl.D. <5////,(5////t7/, protuberance, 
small heap, mole-hill, tuft, clump; gras- 
bulten, a clump of turf, a sod (Schiitze). 
* Daar ligt idt up enen bultcn : ' it lies all 
of a heap. — Brem. Wtb. Du. bull, a 
bunch,hump,boss,knob,bulkorquantity ; 
bultig, hump-backed (to be compared 
with E. bolt-foot, G. bolzauget) ; Sp. bulla, 
protuberance, swelling, hulch, bulk. 

2. In the next place, to bolt or bolter is 
to sift meal by shaking it to and fro 
through a cloth of loose texture. Fr. 
bulter, bluter, beluter. Mid. Lat. buletare, 
to bolt ; buletellum, Fr. buletel, beluteau, 
bh^teau, a bolter or implement for bolting. 
I boulte meale in a boulter, je bulte. — 
Palsgr. Du. buideln, to bolter. — Bomhoff. 

Here the radical image is the violent 
agitation of the meal in the bolter, ex- 
pressed, as above explained, by the repre- 
sentation of a racketing sound, by which 
indeed the operation of bolting was com- 
monly accompanied in a very marked 
manner. On this account Mid. Lat. tara- 
tantara, representing a loud broken noise 
as of a trumpet, was applied to a bolter 
or mill-clack. Bulte-pook or bulstar, 
taratantaru7n. — Pr. Pm. Taratantari- 
zare, budeln daz mele ; taratarrum, 
stablein an der ka auff dem mulstein das 
der lautet tarr ! tare ! : the mill-clack or 
staff which sounds tar, tar. — Dief Supp. 
On the same principle, the name of bolter 
seems to have been given to the imple- 
ment and the operation, from G. poltern, 
to crash, hammer, racket ; gepblter, ge- 
bblder, a crashing or racketing noise. 
The name would probably first be given 
to the implement which kept up such an 
importunate racket, and when the radical 
significance of the term was overlooked, 
the syllable bolt ox poll would be regarded 
as the essential element signifying the 
nature of the operation. 

From a different representation of a 
rattling noise may be derived a series of 
forms in which an r seems to take the 
place of the / in bolt and the related 
words. 

Thus from Sc. brattle, crash, clattering 
noise {brattle of thunner, a clap of thun- 
der — Brocket), we pass to Du. bortelen, 
bullire, aestuare, tumultuari, agitari (Kil.) ; 
Lang, barutela, baruta, to clack, to talk 
loud and fast, to bolt meal ; barutel, a mill- 
clack, a bolter ; Prov. barutela, to agitate, 
palpitate, to bolt meal ; barutel, Dauphiny 
baritel, OFr. buretel, Champagne burteau, 
a bolter. OFr. bjcretter {Cot.) , It. barutare, 
burattare, to bolt flour ; burato, bolting 
cloth. And as the agitation of cream in 



BOMB 

a churn is closely analogous to that of 
the meal in a bolter, It. barutola (Fl.), 
Castrais barato, Fr. barate^ are applied to 
a churn for butter. 

It must be observed that Diez' deriva- 
tion of Fr. bidter from It. biirato, bolt- 
ing-cloth, and that from Fr, bitre, bureau, 
coarse, undyed cloth of the wool of brown 
sheep, accounts only for the sense of bolt- 
ing meal ; and we must suppose that the 
name was extended by analogy to the act 
of churning and the idea of agitation in 
general. But it is extremely unlikely that a 
designation having no reference to the re- 
semblance between the operations of bolt- 
ing and churning should have been trans- 
ferred from the former operation to the 
latter, while nothing would be more na- 
tural than the application of a term sig- 
nifying violent agitation to each of those 
operations, of which it expresses so 
marked a characteristic. Moreover, the 
Fr. bureau, OE. borel, signifies the coarse 
cloth in which peasants were dressed, a 
material quite unfit for bolting meal, 
which requires stuff of a thin open tex- 
ture. 

Our derivation, again, is supported by 
the analogy of G. beuteln, Du. buidelen, 
builen, to bolt meal, the radical sense of 
which is shown in Bav. beuteln, beiVn, to 
shake (as to shake the head, to shake 
down fruit from a tree, &c.) ; butteln, 
buttern, to shake, to cast to and fro. 
Butterglas, a bottle for shaking up salad 
sauce ; buttel trueb (of liquids), thick from 
shaking, Pollitriduare, biitteln. — Schm. 

From builen, the contracted form of 
Du. buidelen, to boult meal, must be ex- 
plained Fr. botileftger, a baker, properly 
a boulter of meal. 

E de fine farine (mele) vent la flour, 
Par la boleiige (bulting-clot) le pestour. 
Per bolenger (bultingge) est cev^re 
La flur, e le furfre (of bren) demord, 

Bibelesworth in Nat. Antiq. 155. 

Bomb, — Bombard. Fr. bombe. It. 
boinba, an iron shell to be exploded with 
gunpowder. From an imitation of the 
noise of the explosion. It. rimbombare, 
to resound. In E, we speak of a gun 
booming over the water. Du. bommen, 
to resound, to beat a drum, whence 
bomme, a drum ; bombanmien, to ring 
bells. Dan. bomrner, a thundering noise ; 
bomre, to thunder, to thump ; w. bwm- 
bwr, a hollow sound, bwmbwr y mor, the 
murmuring of the sea. It. boj)tbdra, any 
riot or hurly-burly with a clamorous 
noise ; bombarda, any kind of gun or 
piece of ordnance, — Fl, 



BONFIRE 



83 



Bom.bast. — Bombasine, Gr. /3o/i^y^, 
the silk- worm, raw silk. It, bombice, a 
silk-worm, bombicina, stuff, tiffany, bom- 
basine, — Altieri. The material called by 
this name, however, has repeatedly varied, 
and it is now applied to a worsted stuff. 

When cotton was introduced it was 
confounded with silk, and called in Mid. 
and Mod. Greek (3afxl3dKiov, Mid.Lat. 
bambacium. It, bambagio j whence It. 
bambagino, Fr, bonibasin, basin, cotton 
stuff. E. boinbase, bombast, cotton. 
Need you any ink and bombase. — HoUyband in R. 

As cotton was used for padding clothes, 
bombast came to signify inflated lan- 
guage. 

Lette none outlandish tailor take disport 

To stufife thy doublet full of such bumbast. 
Gascoigne in R. 

When the name passed into the lan- 
guages of Northern Europe, the tendency 
to give meaning to the elements of a 
word introduced from abroad, which has 
given rise to so many false etymologies, 
produced the Pl.D. baum-bast, G. baum- 
wolle, as if made from the bast or inner 
bark of a tree ; and Kilian explains it 
boom-basyn, gossipium, lana lignea, sive 
de arbore ; vulgo bombasium, q. d. booin- 
sye, i. e. sericum arboreum, from boom, 
tree, and sijde, sije, silk. 

Bond, AS. bindan, band, bunden, to 
bind ; G. band, an implement of binding, 
a string, tie, band ; pi. bande, bonds, ties. 
ODu. botid, a ligature, tie, agreement, — 
Kil. In legal language, a bo7td is an in- 
strument by which a person binds himself 
under a penalty to perform some act. 

Bone. G, beijt, the leg, bone of the 
leg, the shank ; achsel bein, bi'ust-bein, 
the shoulder-bone, breast-bone. Du. been, 
a bone in general, and also the leg. Now 
the office of a bone is to act as a support 
to the human frame, and this is especially 
the function of the leg bone, to which the 
term is appropriated in G, and Du. 

We may therefore fairly identify bone 
with the w, bon, a stem or base, a stock, 
stump, or trunk ; and in fact we find the 
word in w. as in G. and Du. assuming the 
special signification of leg : w. bonog, 
having a stem or stalk, also thick-shank- 
ed; bongajn, crook-shanked ; bondew, 
bonfras, thick-legged, iYOV!\tew,bras, thick. 

Bonfire, A large fire lit in the open 
air on occasion of puWic rejoicing. 
Named from the beacon-fires formerly in 
use to raise an alarm over a wide extent 
of country. Dan. baun, a beacon, a word 
of which we have traces in several Eng- 
lish names, as Banbury, Banstead. Near 
6 * 



84 



BONNET 



the last of these a field is still called the 
Beacon field, and near Banbury is a lofty 
hill called Crouch Hill, where a cross (or 
crouch) probably served to mark the 
place of the former beacon. The origin 
of the word is probably the W. bctn, high, 
lofty, tall, whence ban-ffagl^ a lofty blaze, 
a bonfire. Many lofty hills are called 
Beacons in E. and Ban in w. ; as the 
Brecknockshire Banns, or Vanns, in w. 
Bclnau Brychyniog, also called Breck- 
nock Beacons. Perhaps, however, the 
word may signify merely a fire of buns, 
or dry stalks for making a roaring blaze. 
Bonnefyre, feu de behourdis. — Palsgr. 
Mrs Baker explains bun, the stubble of 
beans, often cut for burning and lighting 
fires. Btin, a dry stalk. — Hal. 

Bonnet. Fr. bonnet, Gael, bonaid, a 
head-dress. The word seems of Scan- 
dinavian origin. From bo, boa, bua, to 
dress, to set in order, bonad, reparation, 

dress. Hi/fu;iid-bonad,h.Q2i6.-diress; wa^g- 
bonad, wall hangings, tapestry. But 
bonad does not appear to have been used 
by itself for head-dress. 

Booby, The character of folly is 
generally represented by the image of 
one gaping and staring about, wondering 
at everything. Thus from the syllable ba, 
representing the opening of the mouth, 
are formed Fr. baier, bder, to gape, and 
thence Rouchi baia, the mouth, and fig. 
one who stands staring with open mouth ; 
babaie, babin, Wall, bdber, babaii, boubair, 
boubii, It. babbeo, a. simpleton, booby, 
blockhead. Jr. bobo ! interj. of wonder ; 
Sp. bobo, foolish. On the same principle 
from badare, to gape, Fr. badaud, a fool, 
dolt, ass, gaping hoyden — Cot. ; from 
gape, E. dial, gaby, a silly fellow, gaping 
about with vacant stare — Mrs Baker, and 
from AS. ganian, to yawn, E. gawney, a 
simpleton. — Mrs Baker. 

Book. AS. boc. Goth, boka, letter, 
writing ; bokos, the scriptures ; bokareis, 
a scribe ; G. buch-stab, a letter ; OSlav. 
biikui, a letter ; Russ. bukva, bukvdry, 
the alphabet. Diefenbach suggests that 
the origin is biiki, signifying beech, the 
name of the letter b, the first consonant 
of the alphabet, although in the OG. and 
Gael, alphabet that letter is named from 
the birch instead of the beech. 
. Boom. In nautical language, which 
is mostly derived from the Low German 
and Scandinavian dialects, a booin is a 
beam or pole used in keeping the sails in 
position, or a large beam stretched across 
the mouth of a harbour for defence. 

Du. boom^ a tree, pole, beam, bolt. — Kil. 



BOOT 

To Boom. To sound loud and dull 
like a gun. Du. bommeti. See Bomb. 

Boon. A favour, a good turn or re- 
quest. — Bailey. The latter is the original 
meaning. AS. be?t, bene, petition, prayer. 
Thin ben is gehyred, Luke i. 13. ON. 
beidne, been, bon, desire, prayer, petition, 
from beida (e. bid), to ask. 

Boor. A peasant, countryman, clown. 
Du. bocr, G. bauer, from Du. bouwen, to 
till, cultivate, build, G. baiien, to cultivate, 
inhabit, build, ON. bua, to prepare, set 
in order, dress, till, inhabit. 

From the sense of inhabiting we have 
neighbour, G. nachbar, one who dwells 
nigh. 

From the participle present, ON. buandi, 
boandi, comes bondi, the cultivator, the 
possessor of the farm, master of the 
house, \\\xs-band. 

See Bown, Busk, Build. 

* Boose. A stall for cattle. — Hal. 
Boos, bose, netis stall. — Pr. Pm. AS. bosig, 
bosg, bosih, ON. bds, a stall. Perhaps 
from ow. boutig, literally cow-house, ow. 
boutig, stabulum. — Ox. Gl. in Phil. Trans. 

i860, p. 232. w. ty, Gael, tigh, house. 
But more likely from Sw. dial, bas, which 
signifies not only straw, litter, but stall, 

as a lying-place for cattle. Basa, to strew 
with straw, to litter ; bosu, busu, hund- 
busa, swinbusa, a lying-place for dogs or 
swine, dog-kennel, pig-sty. N. bos, rem- 
nants of hay or straw, chaff. 

Boot. Fr. botte. Du. bote, boten-shoen, 
pero, calceus rusticus e crudo corio. — 
Kil. Swab, bossen, short boots. — Schm. 
It would appear that in Kilian's time the 
Du. bote was similar to the Irish brogue 
and Indian mocassin, a bag of skin or 
leather, enveloping the foot and laced on 
the instep. It is commonly explained as 
identical with It. botta, Sp. Pro v. bota, 
Fr. botte, a hollow skin, a vessel for hold- 
ing liquids. See Butt. 

To Boot. — Bootless. To boot, to aid, 
help, succour. — Bailey. Boot of bale, 
remedy of evil, relief from sorrow. To 
give a thing to boot is to give it into the 
bargain, to give it to improve the condi- 
tions already proposed or agreed on. 
Clement the cobeler cast off hus cloke 
And to the nywe fayre nempned it to selle ; 
Hick the hakeneyeman hitte hus hod after- — 
There were chapmen ychose the chaffare to preise 
That he that hadde the hod sholde nat habbe the 

cloke, 
The betere thing by arbitours sholde bote the 
werse. — P. P. 

i. e. should contribute something to make 
the bargain equal. Bootless, without ad- 



BOOTH 

vantage, not contributing to further the 
end we have in view. Du. boete^ baete, 
aid, remedy, amendment ; boeten, to 
mend, and hence to fine, to expiate ; 
boeten den dorst, to quench one's thirst ; 
boeten het vier, AS. betan fyr, to bete the 
fire, properly to mend the fire, but used 
in the sense of laying or lighting it, 
struere ignem, admovere titiones. — Kil. 
ON. bot, pi. bcetr, amendment, reparation, 
recovery ; yfirbot, making good again ; 
bceta^ to make better, to repair, to patch, 
to cure ; Sw. bata^ to boot, to profit ; 
Goth, botjati, to profit, to be of advan- 
tage ; aftragabotja7i^ to restore, repair. 
See To Bete. 

Booth. This word is widely spread 
in the sense of a slight erection, a shelter 
of branches, boards, &c. Gael, both, 
bothag, bothan, a bothy, cottage, hut, 
tent, bower. Bohem. bauda, budka, a 
hut, a shop ; budowati, to build ; Pol. 
buda, a booth or shed, budowac, to build. 
ON. bud, a hut or tent, a shed, a shop. 
OSw. scedes-bod, a granary ; mat-bod, a 
cupboard. Du. boede, boeye, a hut, cup- 
board, barn, cellar. 

Neither G. bmien, to build, nor E. abode, 
afford a satisfactory explanation. , In the 
Slavonic languages the word signifying 
to build seems a derivative rather than a 
root. See Bower. 

Booty. It is admitted that Fr. butin. 
It. bottino, are derived from G. beute. 
The Sw. byte points to the verb byta, to 
exchange or divide, as the origin of the 
word, the primary signification of which, 
would thus be the division of the spoil. 
Halfva bytning af alt that rof. 
A half share of all that spoil. 

Hist. Alexand. Mag. in Ihre. 

Fr. butin is explained by Palsgr. p. 266, 
schare of a man of a prise in warre time. 
And so in on. the booty taken in war is 
called grip-deildi and hlut-skipti, from 
deila and skipta, to divide. 

Borachio. A wine-skin, and meta- 
phorically a drunkard. Sp. borracha, a 
leather bag or bottle for wine. Gael. 
borracha, a bladder, from borra, to swell. 
See Burgeon. 

Border. Fr. b or dure, a border, welt, 
hem or gard of a garment, from bord, 
edge, margin. ON. bord, limbus, ora, 
extremitas ; bordi, fimbria, limbus. 

Bore. The flow of the tide in a single 
large wave up certain estuaries. 

Tumbling from the Gallic coast the victorious 
tenth wave shall ride like the bore over all the 
rest.— Burke in R. 



BORE 



85 



ON. bdra, a wave, N. baara, wave, swell ; 
bcera, kvit-bcera, to surge, to foam. 

To Bore, 1, — Burin, g. boh?'en, ON. 
bora, Lat. for are, Magy. furni, to bore, 
furo, a borer ; Fin. puras, a chisel, tere- 
bra sculptoria ; purastoa, scalpo, terebro, 
sculpo ; 0'sX\2^. por, par, a borer, piercer. 

The Fin. purra, to bite, leaves little 
doubt as to the primitive image from 
whence the expression is taken, the 
action of gnawing affording the most 
obvious analogy from whence to name 
the operation of a cutting instrument, or 
the gradual working a hole in anything. 
The ON. bit is used to signify the point 
or edge of a knife ; bitr, sharp, pointed. 
We speak in E. of an edge that will not 
bite, and it is doubtless in the sense of 
ON. bit that the term centre-bit is applied 
to an instrument for boring. The cor- 
responding forms in Lap. are parret, to 

bite, and thence to eat ; and parrets, an 
awl, a borer. 

The analogy between the operation of 
a cutting instrument and the act of gnaw- 
ing or biting leads to the application of 
Fin. puru, Esthon. purro, to anything 
comminuted by either kind of action, as 
Fin. puru, chewed food for infants, sahan 
puru, Esthon. pu purro (saha =: saw ; 
pu = wood), OHG. uzboro, urboro, saw- 
dust, the gnawings as it were of the saw 
or borer. 

Another derivation from Fin. purra, to 
bite, \s ptirin, dens mordens vel caninus, 
the equivalent of the It. borino, bo lino, a 
graver's small pounce, a sharp chisel for 
cutting stone with — Flor. ; Fr. and E. 
burin, an engraver's chisel, the tool with 
which he bites into his copper plate. 
Compare Manx birrag, a sharp-pointed 
tooth, or anything pointed, Gael, biorag, 
a tusk, which are probably from the same 
root. Fin. puras, a chisel, differs only 
in termination, 

* To Bore, 2. To bore in the meta- 
phorical sense may have acquired its 
meaning in the same way as G. drillen, 
to pierce, also 'to harass with work or 
perpetual requests, to importune. But 
probably the E. use of the word would be 
better explained on the supposition that 
it was originally bur. It. lappolone, a 
great bur, an importunate fellow that 
will stick as close as a bur to one ; lappo- 
lare, to stick unto as a bur. — Fl. 

I could not tell how to rid myself better of the 
troublesome bur, than by getting him into the 
discourse of Hunting. — Return from Parnassus 
inR. 



86 



BOREAL 



Waldemar knew the old diplomatist's impor- 
tunity and weariness by report, but he had not 
yet learned the art of being blandly insolent, and 
thus could not shake off the old burr. — Walde- 
mar Krone (1867), i. 106. 

Lang, pegou, one who sticks to you like 
pitch, a bore, ixovapego, pitch. 

Boreal. Lat. Boreas^ the North Wind, 
borealis^ northern. Rus$. boreiy the N. 
wind ; burya, tempest, storm. 

Borough. A word spread over all the 
Teutonic and Romance languages. AS. 
btirg, burh, byrig, a city ; whence the 
frequent occurrence of the termination 
bury in the names of English towns, 
Canterbury, Newbury, &c. Goth, baiirgs, 
ON. borg, It. borgo, Fr. bourg. Gr. 
-TTvpyoQ, a tower, is probably radically 
connected. ' Cas*cllum parvum quem bur- 
gum vocant.' — Vegetius in Diez. Hence 
must have arisen burgensis, a citizen, 
giving rise to It. borgese, Fr. bourgeois, 
E. burgess, a citizen. 

The origin seems to be the Goth. 
bairgan, AS. beorgan, to protect, to keep, 
preserve ; G. bergen, to save, to conceal, 
withhold ; Dan. bierge, to save ; Sw. 
berga, to save, to take in, to contain. 
Solen bergas, the sun sets. The primi- 
tive idea seems to bring under cover. 
See Bury, Borrow. 

BorreL A plain rude fellow, a boor, 
— Bailey. Frequently applied to laymen 
in contradistinction to the more polished 
clergy. 

But wele I wot as nice fresche and gay 
Som of hem ben as borel folkis ben, 
And that unsittynge is to here degre. 

Occleve in Halliwell. 

The origin of the term is the OFr. 
borel, burel, coarse cloth made of the 
undyed wool of brown sheep, the ordinary 
dress of the lower orders, as it still is in 
parts of Savoy and Switzerland. See 
Bureau. In like manner It. bizocco (from 
bizo, grey), primarily signifying coarse 
brown cloth, is used in the sense of 
coarse, clownish, unpolished, rustic, rude. 
— Altieri. So Du. f graauw, the popu- 
lace, from their grey clothing. 

To Borrow. Properly to obtain money 
on security, from AS. borg, borh, a surety, 
pledge, loan. ' Gif thu feoh to borh 
gesylle,' if thou give money on loan. G. 
burge, a surety, bail ; biirgen, to become 
a surety, to give bail or answer for an- 
other. AS. beorgan, to protect, secure. 

Borsholder. — Borowholder. A head- 
borough or chief constable. By the 
Saxon laws there was a general system 
of bail throughout the country, by which 



BOTANY 

each man was answerable for his neigh- 
bour. 

' Ic wille that selc man sy under borge ge bin- 
nan burgum ge butan burgum.' I will that 
every man be under bail, both within towns and 
without. — Laws of Edgar in Bosworth. 

Hence ' borhes ealdor,' the chief of the 
' borh,' or system of bail, corrupted, when 
that system was forgotten, into bors- 
holder, borough-holder, or head-borough, 
as if from the verb to hold, and borough 
in the sense of a town. 

Bosh. A word lately introduced from 
our intercourse with the East, signifying 
nonsense. Turk, bosh, empty, vain, use- 
less, agreeing in a singular manner with 
Sc. boss, hollow, empty, poor. 

Boss. I. Fr. bosse, a bunch or hump, 
any round swelling, a wen, botch, knob, 
knot, knur. — Cot. Du. bosse, busse, the 
boss or knob of a buckler ; bos, bussel, a 
bunch, tuft, bundle. 

Words signifying a lump or 'protuber- 
ance have commonly also the sense of 
striking, knocking, whether from the fact 
that a blow is apt to produce a swelling 
in the body struck, or because a blow 
can only be given by a body of a certain 
mass, as we speak of a thumping potato, 
a bouncing baby ; or perhaps it may be 
that the protuberance is considered as a! 
projection, a pushing or striking out. The 
Gael, cnoc, an eminence, agrees with E. 
knock; while Gael, cnag signifies both a 
knock and a knob ; cnap, a knob, a boss, 
a little blow. E. cob^ a blow, and also a 
lump or piece. — Hal. A bump is used in 
both senses of a blow and a protuberance. 
Bunch, which now signifies a knob, was 
formerly used in the sense of knocking. 
Du. butsen, botsen, to strike ; butse, botse, 
a swelling, bump, botch. 

The origin of boss may accordingly be 
found in Bav. buschen, to strike so as to 
make a hollow sound, to give a hollow 
sound ; boschen, bossen, Du. bossen, It. 
bussare, Swiss Rom. boussi, bussi, bussa 
(Bridel), to knock or strike. 

Then from the peculiar resonance of a 
blow on a hollow object, or perhaps also 
from looking at the projection from with- 
in instead of without, the Sc. boss, bos, 
bois is used in the sense of hollow, empty, 
poor, destitute. A boss sound, that which 
is emitted by a hollow body. — Jam. Bos 
bucklers, hollow bucklers. — D. V. The 
boss of the side, the hollow between the 
ribs and the side. — Jam. 

Botany. Gr. j8orctv>j, a herb, plant, 
(3oTaviZcJ, to pick or cull plants, (ioTaviKog, 

of or belonging to plants, ^ ftoraviKtj 



BOTCH 

(Tsxvrj understood), the science or know- 
ledge of plants. 

Botch. It seems that dofc/i is a mere 
dialectic variation of doss, as Fr. (^^j-i-^ be- 
comes in the Northern dialects boche. — 
Decorde, Hecart. Bochu, bossu, a hump- 
back. — Dec. Du. botsen, butsen, to knock, 
to strike ; botse, bittse, a knock, contusion ; 
biitse, a bump or swelling, a plague-boil — 
Kil. ; bots, biits, a boil or swelling — Hal- 
ma. A boil, pimple, blister, was called a 
push; what pushes outwards. — Hal. And 
so we speak of an eruption, of boils break- 
ing out. 

On the other hand. It. boccia, a bubble, 
by met. any round ball or bowl to play 
withal, the bud of a flower ; any kind of 
plain round vial or cupping glass — Fl. ; 
bozza, a pock, blain, botch, bile, or plague 
sore ; any plain round viol glass ; bozzo, 
empty or hollow, as a push or windgall. 
— Fl. 

Here the radical image seems a bubble, 
from the dashing of water. Parmesan 
poccia, a slop, mess, puddle. It. pozzo, 
pozzaftghera, a plash or slough or pitful 
of standing waters. — Fl. E. dial, to podge, 
to stir and mix together ; podge, a pit, a 
cesspool ; poss, to dash about ; a water- 
fall.— Hal. 

To Botcli. The origin of the word is 
somewhat puzzling. On the one hand 
we have Swiss batschen, batschen, to 
smack, to give a sounding blow, to fall 
with a sound : batsch, a lump of some- 
thing soft ; batsch, a patch ; batschen, 
patscheti, to botch or patch, to put on a 
patch. — Stalder. 

On the other hand, corresponding to 
ON. bceta, to make better, to mend, to 
patch, we have OHG. buazen, gipuozan, 
to mend, scuohbuzere, a botcher of shoes, 
a cobbler ; G. biissen, to mend (kettles, 
shoes, nets, &c.) ; kessel-biisser, a tinker; 
schuhbiisser, schuhbosser, bosser, bdsser, a 
cobbler. 

Again, the notion of unskilful work is 
commonly expressed by the figure of 
dabbling in the wet, and thus to botch in 
the sense of clumsy working seems con- 
nected with Mantuan poccia, a slop, mess, 
puddle ; pocciar, to dip in liquid (to 
dabble), to work without order or know- 
ledge ; It. bozza, an imperfect and bun- 
gling piece of work, the first rough draught 
of any work. — Fl. Podge, a pit, a cess- 
pool ; to podge, to stir and mix together. 
— Hal. See To Bodge. 

Bote. Hduse-bote, Jire-bote, signify a 
supply of wood to repair the house, to 
mend the fire. Si quis bnrgbotam sive 



BOTTOM 



87 



brigbotam, i. e. burgi vel pontis refectio- 
nem, &c. — Leg. Canut. AS. bot, repara- 
tion. See To Bete. 

Both. Boa two. — Ancren Riwle, 212. 
AS. Butu, butwo, battuaj OSax. bethia, 
bede; ON. bddtr, gen. beggia; Goth, ba, 
baioths; Sanscr. ubhau; Lith. abbu, abbu- 
du J Lett, abbi, abbi-diwi; Slavon. oba, 
oba-dwaj Lat. ainbo. — Dief. \A\)i\.Mudu, 
Wedu, we two, Judu, Judwi, you two, 
Jidwi, they two. 

* To Bother. To confuse with noise, 
ixovci pudder, pother, noise, disturbance. 

With the din of which tube my head you so 

bother 
That I scarce can distinguish my right ear from 

t' other.— Swift in R. 

Du. bulderen, to rage, bluster, make a 
disturbance ; G. poltern, to make a noise, 
to do anything with noise and bustle; 
Dan. bulder, noise, turmoil, hurly-burly. 
N. potra, putra, to simmer, whisper, mut- 
ter. 

Bott. A belly-worm, especially in 
horses. Gael, botus, a bott; boiteag, a. 
maggot. Bonds, maggots in barley. — 
Bailey. 

Bottle. I. It. bottiglia, Fr. bouteille, 
dim. of botta, botte, boute, a vessel for 
holding liquids. — Diez. Gael, buideal, a 
cask, a bottle. See Butt. Bouteille, 
however, is also a bubble, and E. bottle is 
provinciallyused in the same sense. Pl.D. 
buddeln, to froth as beer ; buddl, a bottle. 
— Danneil. Prov. bo tola, a tumour. A 
bubble is often taken as the type of any- 
thing round and hollow. 

2. From Fr. botte, a bunch, bundle, is 
the dim. botel, boteau, a wisp, buncli. 
Bret, botel foenn, a bottle of hay. Gael. 
boiteal, boitean, a bundle of straw or hay. 
Du. bot, botte, knock, stroke, blow. — Kil. 
See Boss. 

Bottom, AS. botm, the lowest part, 
depth. ' Fyre to botme,' to the fiery 
abyss. — C^dm. Du. bode^nj G. boden ; 
ON. botn, Dan. bund, \j2i\.. fundus. The 
Gr. ^vQoQ, (3'sv9og, a depth, and ajSvaaog, 
an abyss or bottomless pit, seem develop- 
ments of the same root, another modifi- 
cation of which may be preserved in 
Gael, bun, a root, stock, stump, bottom, 
foundation ; w. bon, stem or base, stock, 
butt end. See Bound. 

2. A bottom is also used in the sense 
of a ball of thread, whence the name of 
the weaver in Midsummer Night's Dream. 
The word bottom or bothum was also used 
in OE. for a bud. Both applications are 
from the root bot, both, in the sense of 
projection, round lump, boss. A bottom 



88 BOUGH 

of thread, like bobbin^ signifies a short 
thick mass. The w. has bot^ a round 
body ; both^ boss of a buckler, nave of a 
wheel ; bothel^ pofhcl, a blister, pimple — 
Richards ; bothog, round, botzvm, a boss, 
a button ; Fr. bo n ton, a bud. For the 
connection between the sense of a lump 
or projection and that of striking or 
thrusting, see Boss. 

Bough. The branch of a tree. AS. 
bogy boh, from bugajt, to bow, bend. 

Bough-pot, or Bow-pot, a jar to set 
boughs in for ornament, as a nosegay. 

' Take care my house be handsome, 
And the new stools set out, and boughs and 

rushes 
And flowers for the windows, and the Turkey 

carpet." — 
•Why would you venture so fondly on the 

strowings, 
There's mighty matter in them, I assure you, 
And in the spreading of a bougk-pot.' 

B. and F. Coxcomb, iv. 3. 

Bought. — Bout. — Bight. The 
boughts of a rope are the separate folds 
when coiled in a circle, from AS. bugan, 
to bow or bend ; and as the coils come 
round and round in similar circles, a bout, 
with a slight difference of spelling, is ap- 
plied to the turns of things that succeed 
one another at certain intervals, as a bout 
of fair or foul weather. So It. volta, a 
turn or time, an occasion, from volgere, 
to turn. 

A bight is merely another pronunciation 
of the same word, signifying in nautical 
language a coil of rope, the hollow of a 
bay. The Bight of Benin, the bay of 
Benin. Dan. bugt, bend, turn, winding, 
gulf, bay. 

* Boulder. — Boulderstone." Bowlder, 
a. large stone rounded by the action of 
water, a large pebble. — Webster. Sw. 
dial, bullersten, the larger kind of pebbles, 
in contrast to klappersten, the smaller 
ones. From Sw. bullra, e. dial, bolder, 
to make a loud noise, to thunder. A 
thundering big one is a common exag- 
geration. But as klappersten for the 
smaller pebbles is undoubtedly from the 
rattle they make when thrown together, 
probably buller or bolder may represent 
the deeper sound made by the larger 
stones when rolling in a stream. 

It was an awful sight to see the Visp roaring 
under one of the bridges that remained, and to 
hear the groans and heavy thuds of the boulders 
that were being hurried on and dashed against 
each other by the torrent. — Bonny, Alpine Re- 
gions, p. 136. 

Even in the absence of actual experience 
of such sounds as the foregoing, the 
rounded shape of the stones would sug- 



BOUND 

gest the notion of the continual knock- 
ing to which they must have been sub- 
jected. 

To Boult. See To Bolt, 2. 

To Bounce. Primarily to strike, then 
to do anything in a violent startling way, 
to jump, to spring. Bunche, tundo, trudo: 
— he bmicheth me and beateth me — he 
came home with his face all to-bounced^ 
contusa. — Pr. Pm. 

The sound of a blow is imitated in 
Pl.D. by Bums or Buns; whence bumsen, 
bainsen, bunsen, to strike against a thing 
so as to give a dull sound ; an de dhr 
bunsen, to knock at the door. 
Yet still he bet and bounst upon the dore 
And thundered strokes thereon so hideously 
That all the pece he shaked from the flore 
And filled all the house with fear and great up- 
roar.— F. Q. 

A7t de dor ankloppen dat idt bunset, 
to knock till it sounds again. He full 
dat et bunsede, he fell so that it sounded. 
Hence bunsk in the sense of the E. bounc- 
ing, thumping, strapping, as the vulgar 
whapper, bumper, for anything large of 
its kind. ' Een bunsken appel, jungen,' 
a bouncing apple, baby. — Brem. Wtb. 
Du. bons, a blow, bonzen, to knock. — 
Halma. See Bunch. 

To Bound. Fr. bondir, to spring, to 
leap. The original meaning is probably 
simply to strike, as that of E. bounce, 
which is frequently used in the same 
sense with bound. The origin seems an 
imitation of the sounding blow of an 
elastic body, the verb bondir \n OFr. and 
Prov., and the equivalent bonir in Cata- 
lan, being used in the sense of resound- 
ing. 

No i ausiratz parlar, ni motz brugir, 

Ni gacha frestelar, ni cor bondir. 

You will not hear talking nor a word murmur, 

Nor a centinel whistle, nor horn sound. 

Raynouard. 

Langued. bounbounejha, to hum; boun- 
dina, to hum, to resound. 

Bound.— Boundary. Fr. borne, bone, 
a bound, limit, mere, march. — Cot. Mid. 
Lat. bodina, butina, bunda, bonna. 
' Multi ibi limites quos illi bonnas vocant, 
suorum recognoverunt agrorum.' 'Alo- 
dus sic est circumcinctus et divisus per 
bodinas fixas et loca designata.' — Charter 
of K. Robert to a monastery in Poitou. — 
Ducange. Bodinare, debodinare, to set 
out by metes and bounds. Probably from 
the Celtic root bon, bun, a stock, bottom, 
root (see Bottom). Bret, men-bonn, a 
boundary stone (men = stone) ; bomiein, 
to set bounds, to fix limits. The entire 
value of such bounds depends upon their 



BOUND 

fixedness. Gael, bujiaiieach, steady, firm, 
fixed. It is remarkable that we find very 
nearly the same variation in the mode of 
spelling the word for bound, as was for- 
merly shown in the case of bottom, which 
was also referred to the same Celtic root. 
Bound. — Bown. The meaning of 
bound, when we speak of a ship bound 
for New York, is, prepared for, ready to 
go to, addressed to. 

He of adventure happed hire to mete 
Amid the toun right in the quikkest strete 
As she was boun to go the way forth right 
Toward the garden. — Chaucer in R. 
It is the participle past buinn, pre- 
pared, ready, of the ON. verb bua, to pre- 
pare, set out, address. 

Bounty. Fr. bonte, Lat. bonitas, from 
bonus, good. 

Bourd, A jest, sport, game. Imme- 
diately from Fr. bourde in the same sense, 
and that probably from a Celtic root. 
Bret, bourd, deceit, trick, joke; Gael. 
burd, burt, mockery, ridicule ; buirte, a 
jibe, taunt, repartee. As the Gael, has 
also buirleadh, language of folly or ridi- 
cule, it is probable that the It. burlare, 
to banter or laugh at, must be referred to 
the same root, according to the well- 
known interchange of d and /. 

The notion of deceiving or making a 
fool of one is often expressed by reference 
to some artifice employed for diverting 
his attention, whether by sound or gesti- 
culation. Thus we speak of humming 
one for deceiving him, and in the same 
way to bam is to make fun of one; a 
bam, a false tale or jeer — Hal. ; from Du. 
bomnien, to hum. Now we shall see in 
the next article that the meaning of the 
root bourd is to hum. Gael, burdan, a 
humming noise — Macleod; a sing-song, 
a jibe — Shaw; bururus, warbling, purl- 
ing, gurgling. Bav. burren, brummen, 
sausen, brausen, to hum, buzz, grumble ; 
Sw. purra, to take one in, to trick, to 
cheat. 

Bourdon. — Burden. Bourdon, the 
drone of a bagpipe, hence musical ac- 
companiment, repetition of sounds with or 
without sense at the end of stated divi- 
sions of a song, analogous to Fr. tinton, 
the ting of a bell, the burden of a song. 
—Cot. 

And there in mourning spend their time 

With -wailful tunes, while wolves do howl and 

barke 
And seem to bear a bourdon to their plaint. 

Spenser in R. 

Fr. bourdon, a drone of a bagpipe, a 
drone or dor-bee, also the humming or 



BOW 



89 



buzzing of bees. — Cot. Sp. bordon, the 
bass of a stringed instrument, or of an 
organ. Gael, burdan, a humming noise, 
the imitative character of which is sup- 
ported by the use of durdan in the same 
sense ; durd, to hum as a bee, to mutter. 

Bourdon, — Borden. Fr. bourdon, a 
pilgrim's staff, the big end of a club, a 
pike or spear ; bourdon d'un moulin k 
vent, a mill-post. — Cot. Prov. bordo, a 
staff, crutch, cudgel, lance; It. bordone, 
a staff, a prop. 

Bourn, i . A limit. Fr. borne, a cor- 
ruption of bonne, identical with E. bounds 
which see. 

2. Sc. burn, a brook ; Goth, brunna, a 
spring, Du. borne, a well, spring, spring- 
water; Gael, burn, fresh water. See 
Burgeon. 

* To Bouse. Du. buizen, Swiss 
bausen, to take deep draughts, drink deep, 
to tope. G. bausen, pausen, pausteti, to 
swell, puff out. S w. pusta, to take breath. 
Perhaps the radical meaning of the word 
may be, like quaff, to draw a deep breath. 
So Sc. souch, sou/, to draw a deep breath, 
G. saufen, to drink deep. 

The foregoing derivation seems, on the 
whole, more probable than the one for- 
merly given from Du. buyse, a flagon, 
whence buysen, to drink deep, to indulge 
in his cups; buys, drunken. 

We shule preye the hayward honi to our hous — 
Drink to him dearly of full good bous. 

Man in the Moon. 

Comp. Du. kroes, a cup ; kroesen, to tope ; 
w. pot, a pot, potto, to tipple. 

Bow. G. bug, curvature, bending, 
bending of a joint ; knie-bug, schenkel- 
bug, schulter-bug. When used alone it 
commonly signifies the shoulder-joint, 
explaining Sw. bog, Dan. bov, shoulder 
of a quadruped ; bovblad, shoulder-blade. 
It is probably through this latter signifi- 
cation, and not in the sense of curvature 
in general, that ON. bogr, Sw. bog, Dan. 
bov, are applied to the bow of a ship, in 
Fr. epaule du vaisseau, the shoulder of 
the vessel. 

A different modification gives ON. bogi, 
Sw. bage, Dan. bue, G. bogen, an arch, 
bending, bow to shoot with. W. bwa^ 
Gael, bogha, a bow. 

Corresponding verbal forms are Goth. 
biugan, ON. buga, beygja, AS. bugan, 
beogan, Du. buigen, G. biegen, to bow, 
bend ; Sw. buga, to bow or incline the 
head ; ON. bogna, bugna, Sw. bagna, 
btigna, Dan. bovne, bugne, to bulge, bend, 
belly out. 



go 



BOWELS 



It would seem that the notion of a 
bent or rounded object must be attained 
antecedent to the more abstract concep- 
tion of the act of bending. The foregoing 
forms may accordingly be derived with 
much plausibility from the figure of a 
bubble, signified by forms like Gael. 
60/^, Pol. du/i^a, or, with inversion of the 
liquid, Fr. doude, Sw. dial. do^(;^/a, w. do^- 
(yw, largely illustrated under Bulk, Buckle. 
From the former modification we have 
ON. bolgna, to puff up, swell, passing on 
the one hand by the loss of the g into 
Dan. bulne, OE. boltie, to swell, and on 
the other by the loss of the / into ON. 
bogna, bugna, to bulge, bow, give in to, 
yield. From the other form are G. bucket, 
a protuberance, a hump on the back ; 
sich aufbuckeln (Schm.), to raise the back 
like a cat ; then by the loss of the /, Bav. 
bttcken, to bend down, to bow ; buck, a 
bending, prominence, hill. G. biicken, 
Sw. bucka, bocka, Dan. bukke, to stoop, 
bow, make obeisance. Du. zich onder 
jemand buigen, to yield to one, to buckte 
under to him. G. bucketig gehen, to stoop 
in walking ; biicklmg, a bow. The / 
appears in a different position in ODu. 
butcken, inclinare se (Kil.), as in E. butk 
compared with Sw. biik, Dan. btig, con- 
vexity, belly, or in E. bulge, compared 
with Fr. bouge, belly of a cask. w. bog, 
a swelling or rising up. Sanscr. bhuj, 
to bend, to make crooked ; (in pass .) to 
incline oneself ; bhugna, bent, crooked. 

The same line of derivation seems re- 
peated in Magy. bugy, representing the 
sound of bubbling or guggling ; bugyui, 
bugyani, to bubble up, stream forth ; 
bugyogni, to guggle, bubble, spring as 
water ; bugy a, a boil, tumour, lump ; 
buga, bugyota, a knot, a bundle. 

* Bowels. It. budetlo, buello, OFr. 
boel, gut, bowel ; Bret, bouzettou, boueltou, 
bowels. Lat. botutus, a. sausage. 

Fr. boudin, a black pudding, the bowel 
"of an animal stuffed with blood and 
grits. 

The word may probably be identical 
with Fris. budet, Du. buidet, G. beutet, a 
sack, purse, pocket. See Boil. 

Bower, ne. boor, a parlour. — Hal, 
ON. bur, a separate apartment ; utibur, an 
outhouse ; AS. bur, a chamber ; swefnbur, 
a sleeping-room ; cuinena-bur, guest- 
chamber ; fata-bur, a wardrobe ; Sw. 
honse-bur, a hen-coop ; w. bwr, an in- 
closure, intrenchment, bwra, a croft by a 
house. 

Bowl. — Boll. Fr. bonte, a bowl, in both 
senses, of a wooden ball to play with and 



BOX 

a round vessel for drink. Sp. bola, a ball, 
bowl. 

The sense of a globular form is pro- 
bably taken from the type of a bubble as 
in other cases. Thus we have Esthon. 
put, a bubble ; Fin. putto, a drop of 
water ; puttistaa, to puff up ; puttakka, 
round, swollen ; putti, a round glass or 
flask ; Lat. butta, a Ijubble, a thing of 
similar shape, a stud, boss, knob ; It. 
botta, a bubble, blister, round glass phial, 
stud, boss ; ON. bota,2ihwhh\e ; ^(?//z,acup ; 
Pl.D. bot, globular, spherical ; Du. bot, 
swollen, puffy, hollow, convex, a ball, a 
globe or spherical body, the head, the 
crown of a hat, bulb of an onion ; botle- 
ken, the botl or round seed-vessel of flax ; 
Bav. botte7t, globular body, round bead, 
boll of flax ; rossbotten, horsedung ; 
mausbbttetein, mousedung ; OHG. bolla, 
potla, bulla in aqua, folliculus ; hirni- 
potta, MHG. Jii7'nbolla, the skull or brain- 
pan ; botle, a bud, a wine-can ; AS. botta, 
a pot, bowl ; heafod botta, the head. 

A similar series of designations from 
the image of a bubble may be seen in 
Fin. hippo, a bubble, boil, tumour ; kup- 
uta, kuppelo, a ball ; kupti, the crop of a 
bird, belly, head of a cabbage, wisp of 
straw ; kupukka, anything globular. See 
Bulk. 

Box. A hollow wooden case, as well 
as the name of a shrub whose wood is 
peculiarly adapted for turning boxes and 
similar objects. AS. box in both senses. 
Gr. Ttvioq, the box-tree, â– nhl.iQ, a box ; Lat. 
buxus, the box-tree and articles made of 
it ; G. biichse, a box, the barrel of a gun, 
buchsbaum, the box-tree ; It. bosso, box- 
tree, bossola, a box, hollow place ; Fr. 
buis, Bret, beuz, Bohem. pusspan, box- 
tree ; pusska, a box. 

Du. busse, a box, bussken, a little box ; 
PLD. biisse, biiske. Hence, with an in- 
version of the s and k, as in AS. acsian, E. 
ask, we arrive at the E. box, without the 
need of resorting to an immediate deriva- 
tion from the Latin. 

The box of a coach is commonly ex- 
plained as if it had formerly been an ac- 
tual box, containing the implements for 
keeping the coach in order. It is more 
probably from the G. bock, signifying in 
the first instance a buck or he-goat, then 
applied in general to a trestle or support 
upon which anything rests, and to a coach- 
box in particular. See Crab, Cable. In 
like manner the Pol. koziel, a buck, is 
applied to a coach-box, while the plural 
kozty is used in the sense of a sawing- 
block, trestle, painter's easel, &c. 



BOX 

To Box, To fight with the fists. From 
the Dan. bask^ a sounding blow, baske, 
to slap, thwack, flap, by the same in- 
version of J and /§, as noticed under Box. 
It is plainly an imitative word, parallel 
with OE. pash, to strike. Swiss batschen, 
to smack the hand ; bdischen, to give a 
loud smack, to fall with a noise. Heligo- 
land batsken, to box the ears. Lett. 
bauksch represents the sound of a blow ; 
baukscheht^ to give a sounding blow ; 
buksteht, to %\VQ a blow with the fists. 

Boy. G. biibe, Swiss biib^ bue, Swab. 
buah, a grown youth ; Cimbr. pube, boy, 
youth, unmarried man ; Swiss Rom. 
boubo, boudbo^ boy ; bouba, boti3a, little 
girl. Lat. pupiis, a boy ; pupa^ a girl, a 
doll. 

To Brabble. A variation of babble^ 
representing the confused sound of simul- 
taneous talking. In like manner the It. 
has bidicame and brulicame, a bulDbling 
motion ; Fr. botissole, Sp. bruxula, a com- 
pass ; Fr. boiste, Prov. brostia, a box. 

Du. brabbelen, to stammer, jabber, con- 
fuse, disturb, quarrel ; Bohem. breptati, 
to stutter, murmur, babble. 

Brace. The different meanings of the 
word brace may all be reduced to the idea 
of straining, compressing, confining, bind- 
ing together, from a root brak, which has 
many representatives in the other Europe- 
an languages. See Brake. 

To brace is to draw together, whence a 
bracing air, one which draws up the 
springs of life ; a pair of braces^ the bands 
which hold up the trowsers. A brace on 
board a ship. It. braca, is a rope holding 
up a weight or resisting a strain. A brace 
is also a pair of things united together in 
the first instance by a physical tie, and then 
merely in our mode of considering them. 

Bracelet. Bracelet, an ornamental 
band round the wrist ; bracer, a guard to 
protect the arm of an archer from the 
string of his bow. Fr. brasselet, a brace- 
let, wristband, or bracer — Cot. ; OFr. 
brassard, Sp. bracil, armour for the arm, 
from bras, the arm. 

Brach. Prov. brae, bracon, braquet, Fr. 
braque, bracket, Sp. Ptg. braco. It. bracco, 
a setter, spaniel, beagle, dog that hunts by 
scent. MHG. bracke, s. s., dog in general; 
ON. rakki, dog ; Sw. rakka, bitch ; Du. 
rakke, whelp ; AS. rcece, OE. ratch, rack, 
scenting dog, odorinsecus. — Pr. Pm. 

Brack. A breach, flaw, or defect, 
from break. Fr. brlche, a brack or breach 
in a wall, &c. — Cot. 

Floods drown no fields before they find a brack. 
Mirror for Masf. in R . 



BRACKET 



91 



You may find time in eternity, 

Deceit and violence in heavenly justice — 

Ere stain or brack in her sweet reputation. 

B. and F. 

G. brechen, to break (sometimes also 
used in the sense of failing, as die Augen 
brechen ihm, his eyes are failing him), 
gebrechen, to want, to be wanting; want, 
need, fault, defect ; Du. braecke, ghebreck, 
breach, want, defect. — Kil. AS. brec, 
Pl.D. brek, want, need, fault ; ON. brek, 
defect. On the same principle from the 
ON. bresta, to crack, to break, to burst, 
is derived brestr, a crack, flaw, defect, 
moral or physical. 

Brack. — Brackish. Water rendered 
unpalatable by a mixture of salt. One 
of the numerous cases in which we have 
to halt between two derivations. 

Gael. (5r«r/m, suppuration, putrefaction ; 
brach shiiileach, blear-eyed ; Prov. brae, 
pus, matter, mud, filth ; el brae e la or- 
diira del mun, the filth and ordure of the 
world — Rayn. ; It. braco, brago, a bog or 
puddle ; O Fr. brae, braic, bray, mud ; 
Rouchi breuque, mud, clay. — Hdcart. 
Then as an adj., Prov. brae, bragos, OFr. 
brageiix, foul, dirty. ' La ville ou y avait 
eaues et sourses moult ^^r^^^^^rj-^j-.' — Mon- 
strelet in Rayn. Thus brack, which sig- 
nifies in the first instance water contami- 
nated by dirt, might easily be applied to 
water spoilt for drinking by other means, 
as by a mixture of sea water. 

But upon the whole I am inclined to 
think that the application to water con- 
taminated with salt is derived from the 
G. and Du. brack, wr^^-^, refuse, damaged ; 
dicitur de mercibus quibusdam minus 
probis. — Kil. Brak-goed, merces sub- 
mersce, salo sive aqua marina corruptae. 
— Kil. Pl.D. brakke grtind, land spoilt 
by an overflow of sea water; Du. brakke 
tor/, turf made offensive by a mixture of 
sulphur (where the meaning would well 
agree with the sense of the Gael, and 
Prov. root); wrack, brack, acidus, salsus. 
— Kil. See Broker. 

From the sense of water unfit for drink- 
ing from a mixture of salt, the word 
passed on to signify salt water in general, 
and the diminutive brackish was appro- 
priated to the original sense. 

The entrelHs eik far in the fludis brake 
I sal slyng.— D. V. in R. 

Bracket. A bracket is properly a 
cramp-iron holding things together ; then 
a stand cramped to a wall. Brackets in 
printing are claws holding together an 
isolated part of the text. Fr. brague, a 
mortise for holding things together — 



92 BRAG 

Cot. ; Piedm. braga, an iron for holding 
or binding anything together. — Zalh. 
From brake in the sense of constraining. 
See Brace, Brake. 

To Brag. — Brave. Primarily to crack, 
to make a noise, to thrust oneself on 
people's notice by noise, swagger, boast- 
ing, or by gaudy dress and show. Fr. 
bragiier, to flaunt, brave, brag or jet it ; 
bra^imrd, gay, gallant, flaunting, also 
braggard, bragging. — Cot. ON. braka, 
Dan. brag, crack, crash ; ON. braka, to 
crash, to crack, also insolenter se gerere — 
Haldorsen ; Gael. /^r^^/;, a burst, explosion; 
bragaireachd, empty pride, vain glory, 
boasting ; Bret, braga, se pavaner, 
marcher d'une mani6re fiere, se donner 
trop de licence, se parer de beaux habits. 
Langued. bragd, to strut, to make osten- 
tation of his equipage, riches, &c. Swiss 
Rom. braga, vanter une chose. — Vocab. 
de Vaud. Lith. braszketi, to rattle, be 
noisy ; Fris. braske, to shout, cry, make a 
noise ; Dan. braske, to boast or brag. 

In like manner to crack is used for 
boasting, noisy ostentation. 

But thereof set the miller not a tare 
He cracked bost and swore it nas nat so. 
Chaucer. 

Brag was then used in the sense of 
brisk, proud, smart. 
Seest thou thilk same hawthorn stud 
How bragly it begins to bud. — Shepherd's Cal. 

Equivalent forms are Gael, breagh, fine, 
well-dressed, splendid, beautiful, Sc. bra\ 
braw, Bret, brao, brav, gayly dressed, 
handsome, fine. 

Thus we are brought to the OE. brave, 
finely dressed, showy ; bravery, finery. 

From royal court I lately came (said he) 
Where all the braverie that eye may see — 
Is to be found. — Spenser in R. 

The sense of courageous comes imme- 
diately from the notion of bragging and 
boasting. Gael, brabhdair, a noisy talk- 
ative fellow, blusterer, bully ; brabhdadh, 
idle talk, bravado j Fr. bravache, a roist- 
erer, swaggerer, bravacherie, boasting, 
vaunting, bragging of his own valour. — 
Cot. It. bravare and Fr. braver, to swag- 
ger, affront, flaunt in fine clothes ; Sp. 
bravo, bullying, hectoring, brave, valiant ; 
sumptuous, expensive, excellent, fine. Fr. 
brave, brave, gay, fine, gorgeous, gallant 
(in apparel) ; also proud, stately, brag- 
gard ; also valiant, stout, courageous, 
that will carry no coals. Faire le brave, 
to stand upon terms, to boast of his own 
worth. — Cot. 

Bragget. Sweet wort, 



BRAKE 



' 



Hire mouth was sweet as brakct or the meth. s 
Chaucer. 

From w. brag, malt, and that from 
bragio, to sprout ; i. e. sprouted corn. 

To Braid. See Bray. 

Brail. — To Brail. From Fr. braies, 
breeches, drawers, was formed brayele 
brayete, the bridge or part of the breeches 
joining the two legs. A slight modifica- 
tion of this was brayeul, the feathers 
about the hawk's fundament, called by our 
falconers the brayle in a short-winged, 
and the pannel in a long-winged hawk. — 
Cot. From brayel, or from braie itself, is 
also derived Fr. desbrailler, to unbrace or 
let down the breeches, the opposite of 
which, brailler (though it does not appear 
in the dictionaries), would be to brace, to 
tie up. Rouchi breler, to cord a bale of 
goods, to fasten the load of a waggon 
with ropes. — Hecart. 

Hence E. brails, the thongs of leather 
by which the pen-feathers of a hawk's 
wing were tied up ; to brail up a sail, to 
tie it up like the wing of a hawk, in order 
to prevent its catching the wind. 

Brain. as. braegenj Du. breghe, 
breghen, breyne. 

Brake. — Bray. The meanings of 
brake are very numerous, and the deriva- 
tion entangled with influences from differ- 
ent sources. A brake is, 

1. A bit for horses ; a wooden frame in 
which the feet of vicious horses are con- 
fined in shoeing ; an old instrument of 
torture ; an inclosure for cattle ; a car- 
riage for breaking in horses ; an instru- 
ment for checking the motion of a wheel ; 
a mortar ; a baker's kneading trpugh ; an 
instrument for dressing flax or hemp ; a 
harrow. — Hal. 

2. A bushy spot, a bottom overgrown 
with thick tangled brushwood. 

3. The plant y^r«. 

The meanings included under the first 
head are all reducible to the notion of 
constraining, confining, compressing, sub- 
duing, and it is very likely that the root 
brak, by which this idea is conveyed, is 
identical with Gael, brae, w. braich, Lat. 
brachium, the arm, as the type of exertion 
and strength. It is certain that the word 
for arm is, in numerous dialects, used in 
the sense of force, power, strength. Thus 
Bret, breach, Sp. brazo, Walloon bress, 
Wallachian bratsoii, Turk bazu are used 
in both senses. 

It will be found in the foregoing ex- 
amples that brake is used almost exactly 
in the sense of the Lat. subigere, express- 
ing any kind of action by which some- 



BRAKE 



93 



thing is subjected to external force, 
brought under control, reduced to a con- 
dition in which it is serviceable to our 
wants, or the instrument by which the 
action is exerted. 

ON. braka^ subigere, to subdue. In 
this sense must be explained the expres- 
sion of breaking in horses, properly brak- 
ing or subduing them. To the same 
head must be referred brake, a horse's 
bit, It. braca, a horse's twitch. AS. bracan, 
to pound, to knead or mix up in a mortar, 
to rub, farinam in mortario subigere j Sp. 
bregar, to exert force in different ways, 
to bend a bow, to row, to stiffen against 
difficulties (se raidir contre — Taboada), 
to knead ; Prov. brega, Corr^ze bredgea, 
bredza, to rub (as in washing linen — 
Beronie), Fr. broyer, to bray in a mortar. 
The Fr. broyer is also used for the dress- 
ing of flg,x or hemp, passing it through a 
brake or frame consisting of boards loosely 
locking into each other, by means of 
which the fibre is stripped from the stalk 
or core, and brought into a serviceable 
condition. As there is so much of actual 
breaking in the operation, it is not sur- 
prising that the word has here, as in the 
case of horse-breaking, been confounded 
with the verb break, to fracture. We 
have thus Du. braecken het vlasch, fran- 
gere linum. — Biglotton. Fr. briser, con- 
casser \e lin. So in G. flachs brechen, 
while in other dialects the words are kept 
distinct. Pl.D. braken, Dan. brage, to 
break flax ; Pl.D. braeken, Dan. brcekke, to 
break or fracture. It is remarkable that 
the term for braking flax in Lith. is 
braukti, signifying to sweep, to brush, to 
strip. The ON. brak is a frame in which 
I skins are worked backwards and forwards 
I through a small opening, for the purpose 
i of incorporating them with the grease 
i employed as a dressing. Swiss Rom. 
brego, a spinning-wheel. — Voc. de Vaud. 
In like manner Lat. subigere is used for 
any kind of dressing. 

Sive rudem priraos lanam glomerabat in usus 
I Seu digitis subigebat opus. — Ovid. 

In the case of the ne. brake, Gael. 
braca, a harrow, Dan. brage, to harrow 
(Lat. glebas subigere, segetes subigere ara- 
tris), the notion of breaking down the 
clods again comes to perplex our deriva- 
tion. 

In other cases the idea of straining or 
exerting force is more distinctly preserved. 
Thus the term brake was applied to the 
handle of a cross-bow, the lever by which 
the string was drawn up, as in Sp. bregar 



el arco, to bend a bow, Fr. braguer u;i 
canon, to bend or direct a cannon. The 
same name is given to the handle of a 
ship's pump, the member by which the 
force of the machine is exerted. It. braca, 
a brace on board a ship. 

Brake. 2. In the sense of a thicket, 
cluster of bushes, bush, there is consider- 
able difficulty in the derivation. The 
equivalent word in the other Teutonic 
dialects is frequently made to signify a 
marsh or swamp. Du. broeck, Pl.D. 
brook, a fen, marsh, low wet land ; G. 
bruch, a marsh, or a wood in a marshy 
place ; brook, grassy place in a heath — 
Overyssel Almanach ; NE. brog, a swampy 
or bushy place — Hal. ; Mid. Lat. bro- 
gilum, broilium, broliurn, nemus, sylva 
aut saltus in quo ferarum venatio exer- 
cetur. — Due. OFr. brogille, bregille, 
broil, broillet, breuil, copse-wood, cover 
for game, brambles, brushwood. G. dial. 
gebroge, gebriiche, a brake, thicket. 
Inquirers have thus been led in two di- 
rections, the notion of wetness leading 
some to connect the w'ftrd with E. brook, 
a stream, Gr. /3(j£X'^> to moisten, and Lat. 
riguus, watered, while others have con- 
sidered the fundamental signification to 
be broken ground, with the bushes and 
tangled growth of such places. 

The latter supposition has a remark- 
able confirmation in the Finnish lan- 
guages, where from Esthon. nmrdma, to 
break, is formed murd, gebiJsch, gebroge, 
a thicket, brake, bush, pasture, quarry ; 
from Fin. mu?-ran, inurtaa, to break, 
murrokko, sylva ubi arbores sunt vento 
dififractae et transversim coUapsae, multi- 
tudo arborum vel nemorum diffractorum 
et collapsorum. And this probably was 
the original meaning of G. bruch, ge- 
briiche, gebroge, E. brog or brake. A 
break of such a kind, or overthrow of 
trees by the wind, is most likely to take 
place in low wet ground where their 
roots have less hold, and when once 
thrown down, in northern climates, they 
stop the flow of water and cause the 
growth of peat and moss. Thus the 
word, which originally designated a 
broken mass of wood, might come to 
signify a swamp, as in Du. and G., as 
well as in the case of the E. brog above 
mentioned. A brake is explained in 
Palmer's Devonshire Glossary as ' a bot- 
tom overgrown with thick tangled brush- 
wood.' It. f rat to, broken ; fratta, any 
thicket of brakes, brambles, bushes, or 
briers. — Fl. 

Brake.— Bracken. 3. It may be sus- 



94 



BRAMBLE 



pected that bra/cCy in the sense o^ fern, is 
a secondary appHcation of tlie word in 
the sense last described, that is to say, 
that it may be so named as the natural 
growth of brakes and bushy places. It 
is certain that we find closely-resembling 
forms applied to several kinds of plants 
the natural growth of waste places and 
such as are designated by the term 
brake, briich, &c. Thus we have w. 
brtik, heath ; ON. brok, sedge ; burkni, 
Dan. bregne, bracken or fern ; Port. 
brejo, sweet broom, heath, or ling, also a 
marshy low ground or fen ; Grisons 
bruch, heath. 

It may be however that the relationship 
runs in the opposite direction, and E. 
brake, brog, G. bruch, gebrbge, gebriiche, 
&c., may be so called in analogy with 
Bret, brugek, a heath, from brug, bruk, 
heath, or with It. brughera, thick brakes 
of high-grown ferns (Flor.), as places 
overgrown with brakes or fern, heath 
(Bret, bruk, brug), broom, or other plants 
of a like nature. The relation of brake 
to bracken may originally have been that 
of the Bret, brug, heath, to brugen, a 
single plant of heath. See Brush. 

Bramble. — Broom, as. bremel, Pl.D. 
brummelj Du. braeme, breine ; Sw.G. 
broin, bramble ; Du. brem, brom, broem, 
Pl.D. braam, G. bram, also pfriemkraut, 
pfriemen, broom, the leafless plant of 
which besoms are made. 

It will be found that shrubs, bushes, 
brambles, and waste growths, are looked 
on in the first instance as a collection of 
twigs or shoots, and are commonly de- 
signated from the word signifying a twig. 
Thus in Lat. from virga, a rod or twig, 
ruirgultum, a shrub ; from Servian prut, 
a rod., prufye, a shrub ; from Bret, brom, 
a bud, and thence a shoot, brouskoad, 
bruskoad, brushwood, wood composed of 
twigs. Bav. bross, brosst, a shoot, Serv. 
hrst, young sprouts, Bret, broust, hallier, 
buisson fort epais, a thick bush, ground 
full of briers, thicket of brambles— Cot. ; 
Fr. broussaille, a briery plot. In like 
manner the word bramble is from Swiss 
brom, a bud, young twig (projn-beisser, 
the bull-finch, E. bud-biter or bud-bird— 
Halliwell) ; Grisons brumbel, a bud ; It. 
bromboli, broccoli, cabbage sprouts— Fl. ; 
Piedm. bronbo, a vine twig ; Bav. pfropf, 
a shoot or twig. 

The pointed shape of a young shoot 
led to the use of the G. pfriem in the 
sense of an awl, and the word braittble 
itself was applied in a much wider sense i 
than it is at present to any thorny | 



BRAND 

growth, as AS. brainbel-ceppcl, the thorn 
apple or stramonium, a plant bearing a 
fruit covered with spiky thorns, and in 
Chaucer it is used of the rose. 

And swete as is the bramble flower 
That beareth the red hepe. — Sir Topaz. 
AS. Thomas and .bremelas, thorns and 
briars. Gen. iii. i8. 

Bran. Bret. bren7i, w. braji. It. bremtay 
brenda, Fr. bra7i. The fundamental sig- 
nification seems preserved in Fr. bren, 
excrement, ordure ; Rouchi bren d'orele, 
ear-wax ; bertieux, snotty ; Russ. bren, 
mud, dirt ; Bret. bren7t hesken, the refuse 
or droppings of the saw, sawdust. Bran 
is the draff or excrement of the corn, 
what is cast out as worthless. 

lis ressemblent le buretel 

Selonc I'Ecriture Divine 

Qui giete la blanche farina 

Fors de lui et retient le bren. — Ducange. 

So Swiss gaggi, chaff, from gaggi, 
cack. Gael, brein, breun, stink ; breanan, 
a dunghill, w. brwnt, nasty. 

Branch. — Brank. We have seen 
under Brace and Brake many instances 
of the use of the root brak in the sense 
of strain, constrain, compress. The na- 
salisation of this root gives a form brank 
in the same sense. Hence the Sc. brank, 
a bridle or bit ; to brank, to bridle, to 
restrain. The witches' branks was an 
iron bit for torture ; Gael, brang, brancas, 
a halter. The same form becomes in It. 
branca, branchia, the fang or claw of a 
beast ; brancaglie, all manner of gripings 
and clinchings ; among masons and car- 
penters, all sorts of fastening together of 
stonework or timber with braces of lead 
or iron. — Florio. Brancare, to gripe, to 
clutch. Then by comparison with claws 
or arms, Bret, brank, It. branco, Fr. 
branche, the branch of a tree. 

Brand, i. A mark made by burning. 
G. brajidmurk, brandmahl, from brand, 
burning ; bj^emten, to burn. 2. As ON. 
brandr, G. bi^and, a burning fragment of 
wood. A sword is called a brand because 
it glitters when waved about like a flam- 
ing torch. The Cid's sword on the same 
principle was named tizo, from Lat. 
titio, a firebrand. — Diez. 

The derivation from brennen, to burn, 
would leave nothing to be desired if the 
foregoing meanings stood alone. But we 
find It. brano, brandello, & -piece orbit; 
brandone, a large piece of anything, a 
torch or firebrand ; Fr. brin, a small 
piece of anything ; brin d brin (as It. 
brano a brano), bit by bit, piecemeal ; 
brindelles, the twigs of a besom ; ON. 



BRANDISH 

braiidr, n. brandy s. stick, stake, billet, as 
well as the blade of a sword. Thus the 
brand in ON. eldibrandr, E. firebrand, 
might signify merely a piece of wood or 
bihet, and in the sense of a sword-blade 
might be explained from its likeness to a 
stick. The corresponding form in Gael, is 
bruan, a fragment, morsel, splinter, which 
with an initial s becomes sprnan, brush- 
wood, fire- wood. Sc. brane-wood, fire- 
wood, not, as Jamieson explains it, from 
AS. bryne, incendium, but from the fore- 
going brano, brifi, bnian. 

Quhyn thay had beirit lyk baitit buUis, 

And brane-wod brynt in bailis. 

To Brandish. — Brandle. To brand- 
ish, to make shine with shaking, to shake 
to and fro in the hand. — Bailey. Fr. 
brandir, to hurl with great force, to make 
a thing shake by the force it is cast with, 
to shine or glister with a gentle shaking ; 
brandiller, to brandle, shake, totter, also 
to glisten or flash. — Cot. 

Commonly explained from the notion 
of waving a brand or sword. But this is 
too confined an origin for so widely-spread 
a word. Manx bransey, to dash, Rouchi 
braner, Bret, bransella, Fr. bransler, 
branler, to shake. 

Brandy. Formerly brandy-wine, Du. 
brand-wijn, brandende wijn, aqua ardens, 
vinum ardens. — Kil. The inflammable 
spirit distilled from wine. Du. brandigh, 
flagrans, urens. — Kil. G. branntweinj 
i. e. gebrannter wein, distilled wine, from 
bremien, to burn, to distil ; weinbretmer, 
distiller. — M arsh . 

Brangle. This word has two senses, 
apparently very distinct from each other, 
though it is not always easy to draw an 
undoubted line between them, ist, to 
scold, to quarrel, to bicker — Bailey, and 
2nd, as Fr. brandiller, to brandle or 
brandish. The It. brandolare is ex- 
plained by Florio, to brangle, to shake, 
to shog, to totter. 

The tre brangillis, boisting to the fall, 
With top trimbling, and branchis shakand all. 
D. V. 59. so. 

In this application the word seems 
direct from the Fr. branler, the spelling 
with tig (instead of the ltd in brandle) 
being an attempt to represent the nasal 
sound of the Fr. 71. In the same way the 
Fr. bransle, a round dance, became 
brangle or brawl in E. ; It. brattla, a 
French brawl or brangle. — Fl. 

From the sense of shaking probably 
arose that of throwing into disorder, put- 
ting to confusion. 



ERASE 



95 



Thus was this usurper's faction brangled, then 
bound up again, and afterward divided again by 
want of worth in Baliol their head. — Hume in 
Jam. 

To ejnbrangle, to confuse, perplex, con- 
found. The sense of a quarrel may be 
derived from the idea of confusion, or in 
that sense brangle may be a direct imita- 
tion of the noise of persons quarrelling, 
as a nasalised form of the Piedm. bragale, 
to vociferate, make an outcry. 

Brase, — Braser. — Brasil. To brase 
meat is to pass it over hot coals ; a 
braser, a pan of hot coals. It. bracea, 
bracia, bragia, Fr. braise, Port, braza, 
live coals, glowing embers ; brazeiro, a 
pan of coals. 

The word bresil, brasil, was in use 
before the discovery of America in the 
sense of a bright red dye, the colour of 
braise or hot coals, and the name of 
Brazil was given because a dyewood, 
supplying a more convenient source of 
the colour than hitherto known, was 
found there. ' A qual — agora se chama 
do Brasil por caso do pao vermilho que 
della vem : ' which at present is called 
Brasil on account of the red wood which 
comes from thence. — De Goes, Chron. 
de Don Emanuel in Marsh. The name 
of Santa Cruz having been originally 
given to the country, De Barros considers 
it an eminent triumph of the devil that 
the name of that holy wood should have 
been superseded by the name of a wood 
used in dyeing cloths. 

In the Catalonian tarifs of the 13th 
century the word is very common in the 
forms brasil, brazil, bresil. 

La ai-jou molt garance et waide 
Et bresil et alun et graine 
Dont jou gaaing mes dras et laine. 
Michel. Chron. du Roi Guill. d'Angl. in Marsh. 

Diez seems to put the cart before the 
horse in deriving the word from ON. 
brasa, to braze or lute, to solder iron. It 
is more likely derived from the roaring 
sound of flame. G. brausen, prassebi, to 
roar, to crackle ; AS. brastlian, to brustle, 
crackle, burn. — Lye. Sw. brasca, faire 
fracas, to make display ; Milan, brasca, 
to kindle, set on fire. — Diez. Gris. brasca, 
sparks. Sw. brasa, to blaze, also as a 
noun, a roaring fire. Fr. embraser, to 
set on fire ; Wallon. brtizi, braise, hot 
ashes ; Pied, briisd, It. bruciare, Fr. 
b7'iisler, brtiler, to burn. E. brustle, to 
crackle, to make a noise like straw or 
small wood in burning, to rustle. — Halli- 
well. Fr. bruire, to murmur, make a 
noise, and bt'iiir, brouir, to burn. — 



96 



BRASS 



Roquefort. * E tut son corps arder et 
bntir' — Rayn. 

Brass. — Bronze, as. brces^ from being 
used in the brazing or soldering of iron. 
ON. bras^ solder, especially that used in 
the working of iron ; at brasa, ferrumi- 
nare, to solder. The verb is probably 
derived from the brase, or glowing coals 
over which the soldering is done ; Fr. 
braser F argent, le repasser un pcu sur la 
braise. — Cot. The same correspondence 
is seen between It. bro?tze, burning coals, 
bronzacchiare, to carbonado, as rashers 
upon quick burning coals, bronzare, to 
braze, to copper, and bronzo, brass, pan- 
metal. — Florio. 

Brat. A rag, a contemptuous name 
for a young child. — Bailey. AS. brat, a 
cloak, a clout, w. brat, a rag. Gael. 
brat, a mantle, apron, cloth; bratach, a 
banner. A brat is commonly used for a 
child's pinafore in many parts of Eng- 
land. P1.D. slakker-bortchen, a slabber- 
ing-bib. For the application to a_^child 
compare Bret, trul, pil, a rag ; trulen or 
pilen (in the feminine form), a contempt- 
uous name for a woman, a slut. So also 
Lap. slibro, a rag ; neita slibro {neita, 
girl), a little girl. 

Brattice.— Bartizan. A brattice is a 
fence of boards in a mine or round dan- 
gerous machinery, from Sc. bred, G. brett, 
Du. berd, a plank or board, as lattice, a 
frame of laths, from Fr. latte, a lath. 

A bretise or bretage is then a parapet, 
in the first instance of boards, and in a 
latinised shape it is applied to any boarded 
structure of defence, a wooden tower, a 
parapet, a testudo or temporary roof to 
cover an attack, &c. Sc. brettys, a forti- 
fication. — Jam. Betrax of a walle {pj^e- 
tasce, bretays), propugnaculum. — Pr. Pm. 
It. bertesca, baltresca, a kind of rampart 
or fence of war made upon towers ; a 
block-house. — Altieri. Fr. breteqtie, bre- 
tesque, bretesche, a portal of defence in the 
rampire of a town. — Cot. 

Duae testudines quas Gallic^ brutesches appel- 
lant. — Math. Paris. A.D. 1224. Circumeunt ci- 
vitatem castellis et turribus ligneis et berteschiis. 
Hist. Pisana in Mur. A.D. 1156. 

A wooden defence of the foregoing de- 
scription round the deck of a ship, or on 
the top of a wall, was called by the 
Norsemen vig-gyrdill, a battle-girdle. 
* Med endilongum bsenom var umbuiz a 
husum uppi, reistr upp bord-vidr a utan- 
verdom thaukom sva sem viggyrdlat 
v^ri.' Along the town things were pre- 
pared up on the houses, boarding being 
raised up out on the roofs like the battle 



BRAY 

rampire on board a ship. — Sverris Saga, 
275. 

Then as parapets and battlements 
naturally took the shape of projections on 
the top of a building, the term bretesche 
was applied to projecting turrets or the 
like beyond the face of the wall. 

Un possesseur d'un heritage — ne pent faire 
brctesques, boutures, sailHes, ni autres choses sur 
la rue au prejudice de ses voisins. — Due. 

Now this is precisely the ordinary 
sense of the E. bartisanj ' the small over- 
hanging turrets which project from the 
angles or the parapet on the top of a 
tower.' — Hal. 

That the town colours be put upon the ber- 
tisene of the steeple. — Jam. 

The word is also used in the sense of 
a fence of stone or wood. Jam. Sup. It 
may accordingly be explained as a cor- 
ruption of bratticing, brettysing, bartising, 
equivalent to the Uu. borderinge, coas- 
satio, contignatio. — Kil. 

Brave. See Brag. 

Brawl. I. A kind of dance. Fr. 
bransle, branle, from branle?', to shake. 
See Brandish, Brangle. 

2. A dispute or squabble. Certainly 
from the confused noise, whether con- 
tracted from brabble, as scrawl from 
scrabble, or whether it be from Fr. brailler, 
frequentative of braire, to cry, as criailler 
of crier. Swiss bradle, deblaterare, brad- 
lete, strepitus linguarum. — Deutsch. 
Mundart. 2. 368. Dan. bralle, to talk 
much and high ; at bralle op, to scold 
and make a disturbance ; vraale, to 
bawl, squall, roar. Gael, braodhlach, 
brawling, noise, discord; braoilich, a 
loud noise. The term brawl is also ap- 
plied to the noise of broken water, as a 
b7'awling brook. See Bray. 

Brawn. The muscular part of the 
body. It. brano, brafidillo, brandone, 
any piece, cob, luncheon, or coUop of 
flesh violently pulled away from the 
whole. — Fl. OHG. brdto (ace. braton), Fris. 
braede, braeye, a lump of flesh, flesh of a 
leg of pork, calf of the leg. — Diez. Kil. 
Prov. bradon, brazon, braon, OFr. braioii, 
Lorraine bravo7i, a lump of flesh, the 
buttocks, muscular parts of the body; 
Wall, breyon, a lump, breyon d^chaur, 
bribe de viande, bas morceau de viande 
fraiche, breyon de gambes, the calf of the 
leg. — Remade. Westphal. bran, Cologne 
broden, calf of the leg, buttock; Sc. brand, 
calf of the leg ; Sp. brahon for bradon, a 
patch of cloth. OFr. esbraoner. It. 
sbranare, to tear piecemeal. See Brand. 

To Bray. — Braid. Many kinds of 



BRAY 

loud harsh noise are represented by the 
syllable bra, bru, with or without a final 
d,g,k,ch,y. 

Fr. braire, to bray like an ass, ba\yl, 
yell, or cry out loudly ; bruire, to rumble, 
rustle, crash, to sound very loud and 
very harshly; bmgier, to bellow, yell, 
roar, and make a hideous noise. — Cot. 
Prov. bruzir, to roar or bellow. 

Gr. ^Qax(>i, to crash, roar, rattle, re- 
sound ; (3pvx<t), to roar. ON. brak, crash, 
noise ; vapna-brak, the clash of arms ; 
Dan. brage, to crash, crackle; E. bray, 
applied to loud harsh noises of many 
kinds, as the voice of the ass, the sound 
of arms, &c. 

Heard ye the din of battle hray f 

With a terminal d we have Prov. 
braidir, braidar, to cry ; Port, bradar, to 
cry out, to bawl, to roar as the sea. OE. 
to braid, abraid, upbraid, to cry out, 
make a disturbance, to scold. 

Quoth Beryn to the serjauntes, That ye me 

hondith so 
Or what have I offendit, or what have I seide ? 
Trewlich quoth the serjauntis it vaylith not to 

breide (there is no use crying out) 
With us ye must awhile whether ye woll or no. 

Chaucer. 

Then as things done on a sudden or 
with violence are accompanied by noise, 
we find the verb to bray or braid used to 
express any kind of sudden or violent 
action, to rush, to start, to snatch. 

Ane blusterand bub out fra the North braying 
Gan oer the foreschip in the baksail ding. — D. V. 

Syne stikkis dry to kyndill there about laid is, 
Quhill all in flame the bleis of fyre upbradis. 

D. V. 
i. e. starts crackling up. 

The cup was uncoverid, the sword was out 
ybrayid. — Beryn. 

A forgyt knyff but baid he bradis out.— Wal- 
lace IX. 145. 

But when as I did out of slepe abray. — F. Q. 
The miller is a per'lous man he seide 
And if that he out of his slepe abreide 
He might don us both a villany. — Chaucer. 

The ON. bragd is explained 7notus 
quilibet celerior j at bragdi, instantane- 
ously, at once, as OE. at a braid. 

His bow he hadden taken right 

And at a braid he gun it bende. — R. R. 

ON. augnabragd, a wink, twinkling of 
the eye. Then, as the notion of turning 
is often connected with swiftness of mo- 
tion, to braid acquires the sense of bend, 
turn, twist, plait. 

And with a braid I tumyt me about.— Dunbar 
in Jam. 



BREAM 



97 



On syde he bradis for to eschew the dint. — • 
D. V. in Jam. 

ON. bregda, to braid the hair, weave 
nets, &c. The ON. bragd is also applied 
to the gestures by which an individual 
is characterised, and hence also to the 
lineaments of his countenance, explain- 
ing a very obscure application of the E. 
braid. Bread, appearance — Bailey; to 
braid, to pretend, to resemble. — Hal. 
To pretend is to assume the appearance 
and manners of another. ' Ye braid of 
the miller's dog,' you have the manners 
of the miller's dog. To braid of one's 
father, to have the lineaments of one's 
father, to resemble him. ON. bragr, 
gestus, mos; at braga eftir einum, to 
imitate or resemble one. N. braa, kind, 
soft ; braa, to resemble. 

On the same principle may be explain- 
ed a passage of Shakespeare, which has 
given much trouble to commentators. 
Since Frenchmen are so braid. 
Marry who will, I'll live and die a maid. 

The meaning is simply, ' since such are 
the manners of Frenchmen, &c.' 

To Bray. 2. To rub or grind down 
in a mortar. Sp. bregar, to work up 
paste or dough, to knead; Prov. Cat. 
bregar, to rub ; Fr. broyer, Bret, braea, to 
bray in a mortar, w. breuan, a mill, a 
brake for hemp or flax. See Brake. 

Breach, as. br-ice, Fr. breche, a breach 
or brack in a wall, &c. — Cot. From the 
verb to break. 

Bread, on. brand. G. brot. 

To Break. Goth, brikan, brak, G. 
brechen, Lat. frangere, f r actus j Gr. 
ptjyvvni, to break, puKog, a rag; Fin. rik- 
koa, to break, to tear ; Bret, regi, rogi, to 
break, to tear ; rog, a rent. 

The origin is doubtless a representation 
of the noise made by a hard thing break- 
ing. In like manner the word crack is 
used both to represent the noise of a 
fracture, and to signify the fracture itself, 
or the permanent effects of it. The same 
relation is seen between Lat. fragor, a 
loud noise, and frangere, to break ; Fr. 
fracas, a crash, disturbance, and fracas- 
ser, to break. The Lat. crepo and E. 
crash are used to signify both the noise 
made in breaking and the fracture itself. 
The Swiss has bratschen, to smack or 
crack, bratsche, a brack, breach, or 
wound. 

Bream. A broad-shaped fresh-water 
fish, cyprinus latus. Fr. brame, Du. 
braessem. Swiss bratschig, ill-favouredly 
broad. 

7 



98 



BREAST 



Breast. AS. breost^ Goth, brusts^ Du. I 
borst. Perhaps the original meaning ' 
may be a chest. Prov. brut^ bruc, brnsCy 
the bust, body ; brostia, bmstia^ a box. 

Breath, as. brath, an odour, scent, 
breath. Originally probably the word 
signified steam, vapour, as the G. brodem, 
brodel, broden. 

The caller wine in cave is sought 

Mens brothinghx€)sX% to cule, — Hume in Jam. 

See Broth. 

Breeches. Lat. braces, bracece ; Bret. 
bragez; ON. brok, brcekur ; It. brache; 
Prov. braga, braia ; OFr. bragues^braies. 
The origin is the root brak in the sense 
of straining, binding, fastening; the ori- 
ginal breeches being (as it must be sup- 
posed) a bandage wrapped round the hips, 
and brought beneath between the legs. 
Hence the Lat. subligar, subligaculum, 
from ligare, to bind. Piedm. braga, 
braca, a cramp-iron for holding things 
together, a horse's twitch; Fr. braie, 
braies, a twitch for a horse, bandage or 
truss for a rupture, clout for a child, 
drawers. Bracha, a girdle. — Gl. Isidore 
and Tatian. 

The Breech (Proy." braguier,' braid) 
may be explained as the part covered by 
the breeches, but more probably the E. 
term designates the part on which a boy 
is breeched or flogged, a word formed 
from the sound of a loud smack. Swiss 
brdtsch, a smack, the sound of a blow 
with the flat hand, or the blow itself; 
brdtschen, to smack; brdtscher, an in- 
strument for smacking, a fly-flap, &c. 
G. dial. (y^&siexwz{d^pritschen,briischen, 
to lay one on a bench and strike him 
with a flat board ; Du. bridsett, de bridse 
geven, met de bridse slaan, xyligogio 
castigare. — Biglotton. Pl.D. br'itze, an 
instrument of laths for smacking on the 
breech ; einem de britze geven, to strike 
one on the breech so that it smacks 
(klatschet). 

In like manner it is not improbable 
that Fr. /esses, the breech or buttocks, 
instead of being derived from Lat. yfj-jw j, 
cloven, as commonly explained, may be 
from the verb fesser, to breech, to scourge 
on the buttocks (Cot.), corresponding to 
G. fitzen, peitscken, and E. to feize or 
feaze, to whip, forms analogous to E. 
switch, representing the sound of a blow. 

Breeze. Fr. brise, a cool wind. It. 
brezza, chillness or shivering, a cold and 
windy mist or frost ; brezzare, to be 
rnisty and cold, windy withal, also to 
chill and shiver with cold. 



BREW 

The origin is the imitation of a rust- 
ling noise, as by the Sc. brissle, properly 
to crackle, then to broil, to fry; Swiss 
Rom. brire, to rattle (as hail), simmer, 
murmur — Vocab. de Vaud. ; brisoler, bre- 
soler, to roast, to fry ; Vos qui bresole, the 
singing bone. — Gl. G^ndv. Then from a 
simmering, twittering sound the term is 
applied to shivering, trembling, as in the 
case of twitter, which signifies in the 
first instance a continuous broken sound, 
and is then used in the sense of tremb- 
ling. We have thus It. bj'isciare, brez- 
zare, to shiver for cold. Compare OE. 
grill, chilly, with It. grillare, to simmer, 
Fr. griller, to crackle, broil, Du. grillen, 
to shiver. — Halma. 

Breeze. — Briss. — Brist. The ashes 
and cinders sold by the London dustmen 
for brickmaking are known by the name 
of breeze. In other parts of England the 
term briss or brist is in use for dust, rub- 
bish. Briss and buttons, sheep's drop- 
pings ; bruss, the dry spines of furze 
broken off. — Dev. Gl. Piedm. brossd, orts, 
the offal of hay and straw in feeding 
cattle ; Sp. broza, remains of leaves, bark 
of trees, and other rubbish ; Fr. bris, 
debris, rubbish ; bris de charbon, coal- 
dust ; bresilles, bretilles, little bits of wood 
— Berri ; briser, to break, burst, crush, 
bruise ; Bret, bruzun, a crum, morsel ; G. 
brosame, a crum ; Du. bi'ijsen, brijselen, 
to bray, to crush ; Gael, bris, brisd, brist, 
to break; Dan. briste, to burst, break, 
fail. See Brick, Bruise. 

Breeze. — Brize. G. breme, breinse, 
AS. brimsa, brio s a, a gadfly, from the 
buzzing or bizzing (as it is pronounced in 
the N. of E.) sound witli which the gadfly 
heralds his attack. 
A fierce loud buzzing breeze, their stings draw. 

blood, 
And drive the cattle gadding through the wood. 

Dryden. 

As AS. brimsa, G. bremse, point to G. 
brummen, Fris. brimme, to hum, so AS. 
briosa, E. breeze, are related to Prov. 
bruzir, to murmur, to resound, Swiss 
Rom. brison, breson, noise, murmur, 
Russ. briosaf, to buzz. 

To Brew. The origin of the word is 
shown by the Mid. Lat. forms, brasiare^ 
braciare, braxare, Fr. brasser, to brew, 
from brace, brasium, OFr. bras, brauxr^ 
breiz, Gael, braich, w. brag, sprouted corn, 
malt. So ON. brugga, Sw. brygga, to 
brew, from AS. brug, malt; 'â–  brug, po- 
lenta.' — Gl. AS. in Schilter. 

The Teutonic verbs, G. brauen, Du. 
bi'ouzven, E. b7'ew, are in like manner 



BREWIS 

from a form similar to Wall, bra, bran, 
Walach. brah^, malt. 

If the foregoing were not so clear, a 
satisfactory origin might have been found 
in w. berwi, to boil, the equivalent of 
Lat. fervere, whence berw, berwedd, a 
boiling, and berweddic, to brew. Gael. 
bruith, to boil,, and ODu. brieden, to 
brew. — Kil. 

It is remarkable that the Gr. /3pa'?w, 
(Spdaau), to boil, would correspond in like 
manner to the Fr. brasser, which however 
is undoubtedly from brace, malt. 

Brewis. See Broth. 

Bribe. Fr. bribe de pain, a lump of 
bread ; briber, to beg one's bread, collect 
bits of food. Hence OE. bribour, a beg- 
gar, a rogue; It. birbante, birbone, a 
cheat, a rogue, with transposition of 
the r. 

A bribe is now only used in the meta- 
phorical sense of a sop to stop the mouth 
of some one, a gift for the purpose of ob- 
taining an undue comphance. 

The origin of the word is the w. briwo, 
to break; briw, broken, a fragment; 
bara briw, broken bread. Rouchi brife, 
a lump of bread. — Hecart. 

Brick. A piece of burnt clay. — Thom- 
son. The radical meaning is simply a 
bit, a fragment, being one of the numer- 
ous words derived from break. Lang. 
brico, or brizo, a crum; bricoii, a little 
bit ; bricouiiejha, to break to pieces ; 
bricalio, a crum, little bit, corresponding 
to OE. brocaly, broken victuals. AS. brice, 
fracture, fragment, hlafes brice, a bit of 
bread. In some parts of France briqiie 
is still used in this sense, brique detain, 
a lump of bread. — Diez. Brique, frag- 
ment of anything broken. — Gl. G^ndv. 
Bricoteau, a quoit of stone. — Cot. It. 
briccia, any jot or crum, a coUop or slice 
of something. — Fl. 

Bride. — ^Bridal. Goth, bruths, daugh- 
ter-in-law; OHG. brut, sponsa, conjux, 
nurus; G. braut, bride, w. priod, ap- 
propriate, fit, appropriated, owned ; also 
married, a married man or woman; 
priodas, a wedding ; priod-fab, a bride- 
groom (mab = son) ; priod-ferch, a bride 
(inerch = maid) . Priodi, to appropriate ; 
Priodor, a proprietor. Diefenbach com- 
pares Lat. privus, one's o\in, privatus, 
appropriate, peculiar. 

Bridegroom, AS. bryd-giuna, the newly- 
married man; guma, a man. Bridal, 
for bride-ale, AS. bryd-eale, the marriage 
feast, then the marriage itself. So in 
OSw. fastningar-ol, graf-ol, arf-ol, the 
feast of espousals, of burial, of succession 



BRIGADE 



99 



to the dead; from the last of which, E. 
dial, arval, funeral. 

Bridge. — as. bricge j G. briicke; OSw. 
bra, brygga, as so, sugga, a sow, bo, bygga, 
to prepare, gHo,gmigga, to ruh. The Sw. 
bro is applied not only to a bridge, but to a 
paved road, beaten way ; Dan. bro, bridge, 
pier, jetty, pavement ; brolegge, to pave. 
' Han laet broa twa rastin af Tiwede,' he 
made two leagues of road through the 
forest of Tiwede. — Ihre. At Hamburg a 
paviour is called sleeu-brygger. Pol. bru/e, 
pavement ; Lith. brukkas, pavement, 
stone-bridge ; brickkoti, to pave ; brukkti, 
to press ; ibrukkti, to press in, imprint. 
The original sense thus seems to be to 
ram, to stamp. 

Bridle, as. bridelj OHG. brittil,pritil ; 
Fr. bride. Perhaps this may be one of 
the cases in which the derivation of the 
word has been obscured by the insertion 
of an r. ON. bitill, Dan. bidsel, a bridle, 
from bit, the part which the horse bites or 
holds in his mouth. 

So It. bretonica, betonica, betony ; bru~ 
licame, bulicame, boiling up ; brocoliere, 
E. buckler; ON. bruskr and buskr, a 
bush; Du. broosekens, E. buskins; E. 
groom, AS. guma. 

Brief. From Lat. breve or brevis, a 
summary or any short writing. Applied 
especially to a letter or command, to the 
king's writs. In the G. brief \t has been 
appropriated to the sense of an epistle 
or letter. In E. it is applied to the letter 
of the Archbishop or similar official 
authorising a collection for any purpose ; 
to the summary of instructions given to a 
barrister for the defence of his client. 

Dictante legationis suae brevem. — Ducange. 

Brier, as. brcer, brere, but probably 
from the Normans. In the patois of 
Normandy the word briere is still pre- 
served (Patois de Bray). Fr. bruyere, a. 
heath, from Bret, brug, bruk, w. grug, 
GaeX.fraoch, Grisons bruch, brutg, heath. 
It. brughiera, a heath ; brughera, thick 
brakes of high-grown ferns. — Flor. Mid. 
Lat. bruarium, a heath, barren land 
rough with brambles and bushes. — Due. 

Brig-. A two-masted vessel. Pro- 
bably contracted from brigantine. Sp. 
bergantino, a brig or brigantine, two- 
masted vessel. — Neumann. 

Brigade. A division of an army, from 
Fr. brigade, and that from It. brigata, a 
company, troop, crew, brood. Trovar- 
si in brigata, to meet together. 

The Prov. has briguer, in the sense of 
Fr. frayer, to circulate, consort with. 
' Mes se a- servir als valens homes e a 
7 * 



loo BRIGAND 

briguar ab lor.' He set himself to serve 
men of merit, and to associate with them. 
The primary meaning of Sp. bregar, It. 
brigare, seems to be to exert force ; bre- 
gar el arco, to bend a bow ; It. brigare, 
to strive for, to shift for with care, labour, 
and diligence, briga, necessary business. 
— Florio. Brigata^ then, would be a set 
of people engaged in a common occupa- 
tion. 

Brigand. — Brigantine. — Brigan- 
dine. It. briga, strife, Mid.Lat. briga, 
jurgia, rixa, pugna, — Due. It. brigare, 
to strive, brawl, combat. Probably then 
it was in the sense of skirmishers that 
the name of brigattd was given to certain 
light-armed foot-soldiers, frequently men- 
tioned by Froissart and his contempora- 
ries. A Latin glossary quoted by Du- 
cange has 'Veles, brigant, c'est une 
mani^re de gens d'armes courant et apert 
k pi^.' ' Cum 4 millibus peditum arma- 
torum, duobus millibus brigantuiti et 
ducentis equitibus.' — Chron. A.D. 135 1, 
in Due. They were also called brigancii 
or brigantini. ' Briganciis et balestra- 
riis Anglicis custodiam castri muniendi 
reservavit.' 

The passage from the sense of a light- 
armed soldier to that of a man pillaging 
on his own account, is easily understood. 

In the time of the bataile (of Agincourt) the 
hrigauntis of the Frensch took the kyngis car- 
riage and led it away.— Capgrave, 312. 

It. brigante, a pirate, rover either by sea 
or land. — Flor. A similar change has 
taken place in the meaning of the It. 
malandrini, in later times a robber or 
highway-man, but classed by Thomas of 
Walsingham with the Brigands as a 
species of horse-soldier. 

Reductus est ergo et coram consilio demon- 
stratus Brigantinoriim more semivestitus gestans 
sagittas breves qualiter utuntur equites illarum 
partium qui Malandrini dicuntur. — Due. 

From briga7ite, in the sense of a rob- 
ber, It. brigandare, to rob, to rove, to 
play the pirate or thief at sea, and hence 
a brigaftline, a small light pinnace pro- 
per for giving chase or fighting — Bailey ; 
a vessel employed for the purpose of 
piracy. 

A brigandine was a kind of scale 
armour, also called briganders, from 
being worn by the light troops called 
Brigands. A Breton glossary quoted by 
Ducange has ' Brigandinou, Gall, brigan- 
dine, Lat. squamma ; inde squammatus, 
orn^ de brigandine.' 

The sense of strife or combat express- 
ed by briga is a particular case of the 



BRIGHT 

general notion of exertion of force. See 
Brake. In the same way to strive is, in 
the first instance, to exert one's force in 
the attempt to do something, and, second- 
arily, to contend with another. 

Bright.— Brilliant. Goth, bairhis, 
clear, manifest ; ON. biartr, AS. beorht, 
bright ; beai'htm, brcshtm, bryhtin, a glit- 
tering, twinkling, moment. Bav. bracht, 
clang, sound, noise. — Schmeller. ORG. 
praht, pracht, clear sound, outcry, tumult, 
and, at a later period, splendour. The E. 
bright itself was formerly applied to 
sounds. 

Heo— song so schille and so brihte 
That far and ner me hit iherde. — 

Owl and Nightingale, 1654. 

AS. beorhtian, strepere. — Beowulf, 
2315- 

Leod wses asungen 
Gleomannes gyd, 
Gamen aeft asstah 
Beorhtode bene sweg. 

The lay was sung, the gleeman's song, the 
sport grew high, the bench-notes resounded. 

In like manner the G.prahlen signifies 
in the first instance to speak with a loud 
voice, to cry, and secondly, to glitter, to 
shine. — Adelung. The origin of both 
these words is the imitative root brag, 
brak, representing a sudden noise. Swab. 
bragen, brdgen, briegen, to cry — Schmid ; 
OE. bray, braid. 

The phenomena from whence all repre- 
sentative words are immediately taken 
must of course belong to the class which 
addresses itself to the ear, and we find 
accordingly that the words expressing 
attributes of light are commonly derived 
from those of sound. So G. hell, clear, 
transparent, from hall, a sound, clangour. 
The Ir. glor, a noise, voice, speech, 
glbram, to sound, show the origin of Lat. 
clarus, clear, with respect either to sound 
or colour, and the E. tinkle, that of Fr. 
etincelle, a spark. From ON. glaimn, 
glaitir, tinnitus, glamra, to resound, may 
be explained glampi, glitter, splendour, 
glampa, to shine, corresponding to the 
Gr. XdjiiTTw, XafiTrpog. Du. schateren, 
scheteren, to make a loud noise, to 
shriek with laughter, schiteren, to shine, 
to glisten. In Fin. there are many 
examples of the same transfer of sig- 
nification from the phenomena of the 
one sense to those of the other; kilia, 
clare tinniens, clare lucens, splendens ; 
kilistaa, tinnitum clarum moveo, splen- 
dorem clarum reflecto. Wilista, to ring, 
as glass ; willata, wilella^ wilahtaa, to 



BRIM 

flash, to glitter ; kajata, to resound, re- 
echo, also to reflect, shine, appear at a 
distance ; kimista, to sound clear (equiva- 
lent to the E. chime), kimina,sonns acutus, 
clangor tinniens, kijnmaltaa, kiimottaa, 
to shine, to glitter ; kommata, komista, 
to sound deep or hollow j ko7iiottaa, to 
shine, to shimmer. 

In like manner in Galla the sound of a 
bell is imitated by the word bilbil, whence 
bilbil-goda (literally, to make bilbil), to 
ring, to glitter, beam, glisten. — Tutschek. 

The meaning of the Fr. briller, to 
shine, seems to have been attained on a 
principle exactly similar. We must pre- 
mise that an initial br and gr, as well as 
bl and gl, frequently interchange, as in 
Langued. brezil, Fr. gre'zil, small gravel. 
It. bru/lo, grullo, parched, broiled. — 
Flor. We have then in Fr. the verbs 
grisser, to creak, crackle ; gresiller, gris- 
ler, to make a crackling noise, as of meat 
in broiling ; griller, to creak, crackle, 
broil ; and corresponding to these, with 
an initial br instead of gr, Sc. brissle, 
Swiss Rom. brisoler, bresoler (Gloss. 
Gdndv.), to broil, to parch, identical with 
the Fr. breziller, briller, to twinkle, glit- 
ter, sparkle. Here it cannot be doubted 
that the original meaning of the Sc. 
brissle was derived from the crackling 
noise made by meat in broiling, as in 
AS. brastlian, to crackle, to burn. In Fr. 
breziller, briller (related to each other as 
gresiller, griller), the meaning is trans- 
ferred from the domain of the ear to that 
of the eye, from the analogous effect pro- 
duced on the sensitive frame by a crack- 
ling noise and a sparkling light. So Fr. 
peiiller, to crackle, to sparkle, to shake, 
to long for a thing. 

The verb briller itself seems to have 
the sense of shaking or trembling in the 
expression briller apres, greedily to covet 
• — Cot. ; properly to tremble with impa- 
tience. 

Instead of briller in this application 
the Swiss Rom. uses bresoler (il bresole 
d'etre marie ; os qui bresole, the singing 
bone), strongly confirming the contraction 
of briller from breziller, and the cor- 
respondence of the pair with griller, gre- 
sillerj griller d'impatience. — Diet. Tre- 
voux. 

It. brillare, to quaver with the voice. 
— Fl. 

Brim. — Rim. g. brame, brame, Lith. 
bremas, border, margin, edge ; Pol. bratn, 
border, brim ; Magy. perem,prem, a bor- 
der, fringe (Lat. jimbrid) ; Du. breine, 



BRINDLED loi 

bremel, a border, lap, fringe ; ON. barmr, 
the edge, border, lip of a vessel, lap of a 
garment ; hence the bosom, originally 
the lap folding over the breast. E. barm, 
the lap or bosom; barm-cloth or barm- 
skin, an apron. 

The E. ryme, which seems identical 
with rim, is used for the surface of the 
sea (Hawkins' Voyage). In the same 
way Sw. bryn is used in the sense both 
of border or edge and surface, vattu- 
bryn, the ryme of the water ; ogne-bryn, 
the eye-brow. Dan. bryn, brow of a hill, 
surface of the ocean. 

To Brim. Said of swine when in 
heat. * Subo, to brymme as a boore doth 
whan he geteth pigges.' — Elyot in Way. 
The expression is now confined to the 
sow, as is the case also with Pl.D. brum- 
i7ieii : de soge brum.7net, the sow is brim- 
ming. — Brem. Wtb. G. brumft, brunft^ 
the heat of animals. Closely connected 
is OE. breme, britn, fierce, furious, vigor- 
ous. — Hal. 

Tancred went his way and Richard wex full brim. 
Langtoft, 154. 

The highest condition of ungratified 
passion, whether of desire or anger, finds 
its vent in cries and roaring. Thus Lat. 
fremo, to roar, is used of raging, excited, 
or violent action. It. bramire, to roar as 
a lion, bray as an ass ; bratnire, a long- 
ing or earnest desire ; bramare, earnestly 
to wish or covet. — Fl. Prov. bramar^ 
OFr. bramer, to utter cries. 

L' amour, que epoinponne 
Toute creatuie a s'aimer, 
Les fait de rut si fort bramer 
Que le bois d'autour en resonne. — Rajoi. 
Sp. bramar, to roar, to storm, to fret ; 
brama, rut, the heat of animals. Du. 
brejnmen, rugire, sonitum edere ; bremen, 
ardere desiderio. — Kil. Rugere, rugire 
(cervorum, leonum), brommen, brem7}ten^ 
bri7)tmen, bru7nmen. — Dief. Supp. 

Brimstone. on. bre7mistein, Sw. 
dial. brdn7isten, burning stone. In Ge- 
nesis and Exodus, I. 754, we have brim- 
fir, and 1. 1 164, brifijire, for the burning 
of Sodom : ' the brinfire's stinken smoke.* 
AS. bry7te, burning. ON. (poet.) bri7ni, 
fire. 

Brindled. — Brinded. Streaked, co- 
loured in stripes. ON. brbndottr, s. s. ; 
brand-krossottr, cross-barred in colour, 
from brandr, a stick, post, bar. A 
brindled cow is in Normandy called 
vache brangee, from bri7ige, a rod. Hence 
with an initial s, Sc. spraing, a streak, 
sprainged, striped or streaked. 

The identity of ON. bra7idr and Fr. 



I02 BRINE 

bringe is traced through the It. brano, 
brandellOy a bit ; Fr. brin, a morsel, a 
slip or sprig of an herb ; Berri, bringue^ 
a crum, a morsel ; bringe, a rod or twig, 
brindelles de balai, the twigs of a besom. 
See Brand. 

Brine, as. bry7ie, Du. brijn (Kil.), Sc. 
brim, brime. Liquamen vel garum, /isc- 
bryne. — Gl. Alfr. Brym, brim (poet.), the 
sea ; brymflod, a deluge. In Dorset sea 
sand is called brimsand. — Hal. Salte 
water, saulmeure, or bryme. — Palsgr. 
The name seems to be taken from the 
roaring of the waves ; ON. brim, the surf, 
breaking of the waves ; briiit sior, a stormy 
sea ; briinhliod, roar of the sea ; brim- 
saltr, very salt ; britni, flame. Gr. (3pimo, 
PVis. brimme, to roar. See To Brim. Da. 
brcending, the surf, from brcende, to burn, 
can only come from comparison of the 
noise of the breakers to the roar of 
flames. 

Brisk. Fr. brusque, lively, quick, rash, 
fierce, rude, harsh ; vin brusque, wine of 
a sharp, smart taste. It. brusco, eager, 
sharp, brisk in taste, as unripe fruits, sour, 
grim, crabbed. 

Brisket. Fr. brichet, the brisket or 
breast-piece of meat ; Norm, bruchet, 
Adam's apple in a man's throat, breast- 
bone of birds ; Bret, bruched (Fr. di) the 
breast, chest, craw of a bird. ' Pectus- 
culum, bruskett.^ — Nat. Antiq. p. 222. 
Russ. briocho, Bohem. brich, bricho (with 
the diminutives, Russ. brioshko, Boh. 
brissko), a belly. 

Bristle, as. byrst; Sw. borst, Du. 
borstel, Sc. birs, birse, NE. briist. A thick 
elastic hair, strong enough to stand up of 
itself. Corn, bros, aculeus. — Zeuss. 
Walach. borzos (struppig), bristly ; Swiss 
borzen, to stand out ; Fr. a rebours, 
against the grain ; rebrousser, to turn up 
the point of anything. — Cot. Mid.Lat. 
reburrus, rebursus, sticking up ; ' In sua 
primasva astate habebat capillos crispos 
et rigidos et ut ita dicam rebursos ad 
modum pini ramorum qui semper ten- 
dunt sursum.' — Vita abbatum S. Crispini 
in Due. 

The It. brisciare, brezzare, to shiver 
for cold as in a fit of an ague, has under 
Breeze been connected with the Sc. 
brissle, birsle, birstle, to broil, to scorch, 
originally merely to crackle or simmer. 
Hence ribrezzare, to shiver for cold or 
for fear, to astonish or affright with sud- 
den fear ; ribrezzoso, startling, trembling, 
full of astonishment, humorous, fantas- 
tical, suddenly angry. 

Then as the effect of shivering, or the 



BROCADE 

emotions which produce it, is to erect the 
hair, to birstle, brissle might properly be 
used in the sense of startling, ruffling, 
setting the hair on end, whence may be 
explained the Sc. expression, to set tip 
one^s birse, to put one in a rage ; birssy, 
hot-tempered, to be compared with the 
It. ribrezzoso, angry. A cold bleak day 
is called a birssy day, because it makes 
us shivery and goose-skinned, setting the 
hair on end ; compare It. brezza, a cold 
and windy mist or frost. 

Brittle. — Brickie. Formerly written 
brotil, apt to break, from AS. brytan, ON. 
brio t a, Ptg. britar, to break. Dan. bryde, 
to break, brodden, brittle. In the N. of 
E. and Sc. brickie, brockle, bruckle, are 
used in the sense of brittle, from break. 
The Pl.D. bros, brittle, is the equivalent 
derivative from the Gael, form bris, Fr. 
briser. Bret, bresk, brush, fragile. 

Broach. — Abroach. — Brooch. To 
broach a cask is to pierce it for the pur- 
pose of drawing off the liquor, and hence, 
metaphorically, to broach a iDusiness, to 
begin upon it, to set it a going, w.procio, 
to thrust, to stab; Gael, brog, to goad, to 
spur, and, as a noun, an awl. Prov. 
broca, Fr. broche, a spit, a stitch ; brocher, 
to spit, stitch, spur; Prov. brocar. It. 
broccare, brocciare, to stick, to spur. Sp. 
broca, a brad or tack, a button ; broche, 
a clasp, a brooch, i. e. an ornamented pin 
to hold the parts of dress together. 

Lat. brocchus, bronchus, a projecting 
tooth ; It. brocco, a stump or dry branch 
of a tree so that it prick a bud, a peg ; 
sbrocco, sprocco, a skewer, sprout, shoot. 

It is probable that there is a funda- 
mental connection with the verb to break, 
the notion of a sharp point being obtain- 
ed either from the image of a broken 
stick {brocco, stecco rotto in modo che 
punga — Altieri), or from that of a splinter 
or small fragment, which in the case of 
wood 01 similar material naturally takes 
the form of a prick, or finally from the 
pointed form of a bud or shoot, breaking 
out into growth. It. brocco, a bud, broc- 
coli, sprouts. Compare also E. prick 
with Sw. spricka, to crack, to shoot, to 
bud. 

A similar relation may be observed 
between Sp. brote, a bud, a fragment, 
Prov. brot, a shoot or sprig, and forms 
like the ON. briota, Port, britar, to break. 

Broad. AS. brddj Goth, braidsj ON. 
breidrj G. breit. See Spread. 

Brocade. It. broccata, a sort of cloth 
wrought with gold and silver. Commonly 
explained as from Fr. brocher, to stitch, 



BROCK 

ill the sense of embroidered. But Mura- 
tori shows that, though from the same 
fundamental origin, the line of develop- 
ment has been something different. It. 
brocco, a peg, stump, or snag, is also 
applied to a knot or bunch in silk or 
thread, whence broccare, to boss, to stud 
— Fl. ; broccoso, broccuto, knotty, knobby ; 
and broccato was used to signify stuff 
ornamented with a raised pile, forming 
knots or loops, or stuff embossed with 
gold and silver. Ptg. froco, a flock or 
little tuft of silk or wool, a flake of snow ; 
frocadui'a^ tufted ornaments, embroidery. 

Brock. A badger, from the white- 
streaked face of the animal. Gael, broice, 
a mole, a freckle, bntcach, spotted, frec- 
kled ; breac, speckled, piebald ; broc, a 
badger ; brocach, Sc. broukit^ brooked, 
streaked or speckled in the face. Dan. 
broged, parti-coloured, broc, a badger. 
W. brech, brych, brindled, freckled, bry- 
chau, motes, spots, atoms ; Bret, bridh, 
bri"^, speckled, parti-coloured, streaked, 
b)'izen, a freckle. For the same reason 
the badger is also called Bawso^i, q. v. 

Brocket. A hart of two years old. 
Fr. brocart, because the animal at that 
age has a single sharp broche or snag to 
his antler. The fallow-deer of the same 
age was termed 2i pricket. — Cot. 

To Broider. Fr. broder, Sp. bordar, 
to ornament with needle-work. Here 
two distinct images seem to have coal- 
esced in a common signification. The 
Bret, brouda, to embroider, to prick, to 
spur, and W. brodio, to embroider, to 
darn, point to an origin in Bret, broud, a 
prick, sting, Gael, brod, E. brod, prod, to 
prick. On the other hand the Sp. bor- 
dar seems derived from borde, bordo, a 
border, because a border of needle-work 
was the earliest mode of ornamenting a 
garment. Ihre has gull-bord, a border 
ornamented with gold, silkes-borda, a 
border ornamented with silk. So from 
Pol. braniy a border, bramowanie, em- 
broidering. 

It may happen here, as will often be 
found to be the case in other instances 
where the derivation seems to halt be- 
tween two roots, that these are them- 
selves modifications of a common original. 
Thus brod, a point, and bord or bred, an 
edge, agree in being the extremity of a 
thing. The ON. brydda is both to sharpen 
or furnish with a point, and also to sew 
on a border or fringe to a garment. Com- 
pare also AS. brerd, breard, a brim, rim, 
margin, with Sc. braird, the shoot of 
corn, AS. onbryrdan, to instigate. 



BROKER 



to3 



Broil. Disturbance, trouble, a falling- 
out, a quarrel.— B. The sense has been 
somewhat modified in later times by a 
confusion with brawl. 

But that thou wilt in winter ships prepare 
And trie the seas in broile of whirling windes. 
Surrey in R. 

The proper sense is that of Fr. brouil^ 
ler (from whence it immediately comes), 
to jumble, trouble, shuffle, confound, to 
make a hurly-burly. — Cot. It. broglio, 
Gael, broighlich, noise, bawling, confu- 
sion, tumult; broighleach, bustling, noisy, 
tumultuous. From a direct imitation of 
a confused sound. Fr. brouhaha, brou- 
houx, storms, blusters, hurly-burlies. 
See Brawl. 

To Broil. To roast upon hot coals. — 
B. Contracted from Fr. brasiller, to 
roast on the braise, or glowing coals ; or 
perhaps we should rather say formed like 
Fr. brasiller, brusler, bniler, or It. bras- 
ciare, brasciuolare, brasolare, brtisciare^ 
brucilare, brustiolare (the last to be ar- 
gued from brasciiiole, brasuole, brusuole^ 
fried or boiled steaks), brullare, to burn, 
parch, scorch, broil. — Florio. Sc. birsle, 
brissle, to parch or broil. In all these 
words the imitative character of the de- 
signation from the crackling sound of 
flame and burning grease is felt in a 
lively manner. Compare G. prasseln, to 
crackle, rustle, and AS. brastlian, to 
crackle, to burn, Grisons brascla, sparks ; 
E. brustle, to crackle, make a noise like 
straw or small wood in burning. — Hal. 

When he is falle in such a dreme — 

He routeth with a slepie noyse 

And broustleth as a monkes froyse (pancake) 

When it is throwe into the panne. — Gower in R. 

It. brustolare, to scorch, broil, carbonado. 

With an initial gr instead of br the Fr. 
has grisser, to crackle, creak, gresiller, 
to crackle as a shell in the fire, or salted 
fish on coals, grislemetit, a crackling 
noise as of meat in broiling ; griller, to 
broil, precisely analogous to the Sc. 
brissle and E. broil. The Italian has 
the double form brullo, grullo, parched, 
broiled. — Fl. 

Broker. The custom of employing a 
broker in the purchase of goods arises 
from the advantage of having a skilled 
intermediary, capable from long practice 
of forming a critical judgment of the 
goods in question, of pointing out their 
latent defects, and rejecting whatever 
falls below the degree of excellence called 
for by the circumstances of the case. To 
find fault is accordingly recognised in 



I04 



BRONZE 



Piers Plowman as the specific duty of a 
broker : — 

Among burgeises have I be 
Dwellyng at London, 
And gart Backbiting be a brocour, 
To blame mens ware. 

On this principle the G. designation is 
ntdkler, from makel, a blur, stain, fault ; 
mdkeln, to criticise, censure, find fault 
with, [and thence] to follow the business 
of a broker, buy and sell by commission. 
— Kiittner. For the same reason the 
OFr. term was correctoiir^ couratier, Lat. 
corrector, correctarius, whence the mo- 
dern courtier, a broker. Per manus et 
mediationem quorundam J. S. et A. G. 
brocariorum et correctariomin ejusdem 
barganei. — Lib. Alb. 396. Vous jurrez 
que vous ne marchandirez dez nullez 
marchaundisez queux vous ferez correc- 
tage. — Sacramentum Abrocariorum in 
Lib. Alb. To correct an exercise is to 
point out the faults. 

Now in most of the Teutonic (espe- 
cially the Pl.D.) and Slavonic dialects is 
found the root brak or wrak in the sense 
of rejection, refuse, vile, damaged, faulty, 
giving rise to a verb signifying to inspect, 
make selection, sort, try out, reject, cast 
out. Lith. brokas, a fault, weak place, 
matter of blame ; brokoti, to blame, to 
criticise (makeln). Russ. brak, refuse ; 
brakovat, to pick and choose, to sort ; 
brakovanie, inspection, rejection ; Pol. 
brak, want, lack, refuse ; brakowad, to 
garble, to pick, to be wanting. In the 
Teutonic class : Du. brack, rejected, 
damaged; braeck goed, goods damaged 
by sea-water. — Kil. Pl.D. brake7t, to 
garble, inspect, try ; wraketi, to pro- 
nounce unsound, to reject ; Dan. vrage, 
to reject, find fault with, to sort goods ; 
slaae vrag paa, to throw blame upon, 
find fault with. G. brack-gut (Sanders), 
P1.D. wrack-good, refuse goods. Prov. 
brae, refuse, filth, mud, ordure, and as an 
adj. vile, dirty, abject. Fr. bric-a-brac, 
trumpery, brokers' goods. See Brackish. 

The name broker seems to have come 
to us from the shores of the Baltic, with 
which much of our early commerce was 
carried on. In those countries the term 
broker, br acker, or wracker is used to 
signify public ' inspectors, appointed to 
classify goods according to their quality, 
and to reject the damaged and unsound. 
• — Adelung. In Petersburgh the price of 
tallow is quoted with or without brack, 
the term brack signifying the official in- 
spection of sworn br ackers or sorters. — 
Tooke's Catherine, i. 38. 



BROOD 

If we advance another step in the in- 
quiry and seek the origin of the term 
brack, wrak, in the sense of rejection, we 
shall probably find the original image in 
the act of spitting, as the liveliest expres- 
sion of disgust and contempt for the re- 
jected object. G. brechen, Du. bracken, 
to vomit ; E. dial, whreake, tussis, 
screatio — Junius ; wreak, a cough — 
Hal. ; ON. hraki, spittle ; hrak, any re- 
fuse matter. Fr. raquer, racher, cracker, 
to spit ; racaille, refuse ; Prov. raca, an 
old worthless horse, analogous to Bohem. 
brakyne, an outcast or rejected sheep. 
The Langued. brtimo, phlegm, spittle, 
has exactly the force of G. brack in the 
expression bruj?tos de boutigo, merchan- 
dises de rebut ; G. brack-gut, refuse 
wares. See Wreak. 

In the sense of blot or stain there is a 
singular confusion with brack, a breach 
or flaw, from break. 

Bronze. It. bronzo, Sp. bronce, pan 
metal. — Fl. This word shows the same 
relation to It. bronze, glowing coals, 
which E. brass does to Sp. brasa, embers. 
Bronzare, to braze, to copper. ON. brasa, 
to braze or solder iron with a lute of 
brass. It would appear then that the use 
of the metal in soldering, an operation 
performed over hot coals, is the origin of 
the designation both of bronze and brass. 
It may be compared with It. bronze, Sc. 
brtmds, brands, embers ; to brund, to 
emit sparks. — Jam. Grisons brinzla, 
brascla, a spark, sbrinzlar, to sparkle. 

The use of the word bronzed in the 
sense of tanned, sunburnt, is probably 
not originally derived from comparison 
with the colour of the metal bronze, but 
from the primary sense of the It. bronze, 
embers. Abbronzare, abbronzanchiare, to 
roast on the embers, to scorch, tan, or 
sunburn. — Fl. 

Brood.— Breed, as. brod, a brood ; 
brid, the young of any animal ; bredan, 
to nourish, cherish, keep warm. Du. 
broeden, to sit on eggs, to hatch ; G. bnit, 
the spawn of fishes, progeny of birds, in- 
sects, and fishes ; briiten, to hatch, bring 
eggs and spawn into active life. Pl.D. 
brod, brot, fish-spawn ; broden, brben, to 
hatch, bridde, a chicken. Commonly re- 
ferred to the notion of warming, in which 
sense the OHG. bruoton is used by Not- 
ker : ' also unsih diu uuolla bruotet unde 
uuider froste skirmet,' as wool warms us 
and protects us against frost. Bret. 
broud, hot, burning, fermenting. W. brwd, 
hot, warm ; brydio, to be hot. ODu. 
brie den, to brew. See Broth. 



BROOK 

Brook. AS. broca, a brook ; w. hychen, 
the bubbling or springing up of water, a 
spring, a source ; Gael, bruich, to boil, 
seethe, simmer ; from the murmuring 
noise. Gr. /Hpi-xw, to roar, /3puw, to spring ; 
Bohem. bruceti, to murmur. The mean- 
ing of the word brook in the low G. dia- 
lects is very different, signifying low wet 
land (Brem. Wtb.) ; a grassy place in a 
heath. — Overyssel Almanack. 

It is possible that brook in the E. sense 
may be connected with Russ. breg, Gael. 
bmach, Manx broogh, brink, verge, bank, 
as Fr. riviere, a river, It. riviera^Si shore, 
from ripa, bank. 

To Brook. To digest, to bear patiently. 
AS. bnican, to use, eat, enjoy ; Goth. 
briikjan, to use ; bruks, useful ; G. bran- 
chen, to use. \jaX. frid, friictiLS. 

Broom. A shrub with leafless pointed 
branches. G. pfriemkraut, awl-plant. 
See Bramble. 

Broth. It. brodo, Fr. brouet, broth ; 
Du. broeye, briie ; OHG. brod, G. briihe, 
Pl.D. broi, properly boiling water ; briihen, 
broien, to scald, pour boiling water over. 
Ir. bruithini, to boil ; bi'uithe, sodden, 
boiled ; bi'inthean, heat, warmth ; bruth- 
cJCan, broth ; brothaire, a caldron. Gael. 
briiich, bruith, to boil, brothas, broth ; 
Manx broie, to boil, broit, broth. Bret. 
broud, W. brwd, hot. G. brodem, broden, 
steam from heated bodies, in which 
sense the Sc. broth is sometimes used ; a 
person is said to be in a broth of sweat 
who is steaming with sweat. Du. broem 
(for brodeni), spuma, sordes seu strigmata 
rerum decoctarum. The origin is a re- 
presentation of the simmering of boiling 
water. Limousin broiidi, briidi, to make 
a confused noise of winds, waves, &c. 
Pl.D. briiddeln, to bubble up with noise. 

The softening down of the consonant 
(which is barely pronounced in Gael. 
brothas) gives the OE. browys, brewis, 
brewet, pottage, broth, and Sc. brose. 
The AS. has briw, infusion, ceales briw, 
kail brose, cabbage soup ; Sc. bj^oo, bree, 
pottage made by pouring boiling water on 
meal, infusion ; the barley bree, juice of 
malt, ale ; Gael, brlgh, juice of meat, sap, 
pith, vigour, strength ; Ir. bruth, strength, 
vigour, rage, heat ; explaining the Prov. 
brill, and It. brio, mettle, spirit. 

Brothel. Sp. borda, a hut or cottage ; 
Fr. borde, a little house or cottage of 
timber, hut, hovel. — Cot. Commonly 
derived from the boards, of which the 
fabric consists. But the Walach. bor- 
deiou is an underground hut as well as a 
house of ill fame. 



BROWSE 



105 



The diminutive bordeau, bordel, was 
originally used in the innocent sense of 
a little cottage. 

Ne laissent en Chartrain ne en Dive bordel, 
Ne maison en estant qui soit fors du chastel. 

Due. 
Domunculum circumdedit cum familia. So- 
rengus vero expergefactus de bordello exiit et 
fugiens in vivariam exire voluit. — Due. 

Brother. A term widely spread through 
the branches of the In do- Germanic stock. 
Sanscr. bhratrj Zend, brdtaj Gael, bra- 
thairj w. brawdj Slavon. bratrj Lat. 
/rater. 

Brow. The ridge surrounding and 
protecting the eye. AS. braew, bregh; 
Pol. brew J Russ. brov, brow. Bohem. 
braubiti, to border. Du. brainve, eye-lid, 
eye-brow, and also border, margin, fur 
edging. — Kil. ON. bra, eye-lid, eye-lash ; 
brim, eye-brow, edge, eminence ; Dan. 
bty7t, eye-brow, brow of a hill, surface of 
the ocean ; Sw. bryn, edge, border, sur- 
face, w. ]^ryn, a hill. G. augen-braune, 
eye-brow. 

The AS. forms appear related to the 
Russ. breg, Bohem. breh, Gael, bruach, a 
brink, bank, shore ; Serv. breg, a hill, 
bank, shore. 

Brown. Ger. braun, on. brun. It. 
bruno, Fr. brun, perhaps burnt colour, 
the colour of things burnt, from Goth. 
briiinan, G. brennen, to burn. 

Browse. Fr. brouter, brouser, brouster, 
to knap or nibble off the sprigs, buds^ 
bark, &c. of plants ; broust, a sprig, 
young branch, or shoot. — Cot. Bret. 
brons, brous, a bud ; brous-koad, brush- 
wood ; brouskaol, broccoli, cabbage 
sprouts ; brous-gwezen, a shrub ; broust, 
briar, thick bush ; brousta, to browse, to 
grow into a bush. Prov. brotar, to shoot, 
bud, grow ; brossa, OFr. broces, brosses, 
Catalan brossa, Sp. broza, thicket, brush- 
wood ; brotar, to sprout, bud, break out 
as small-pox, &c. ; Gris. braussa, low 
shrubs, as rhododendrons, juniper, &c. 
Prov. brus, heath. Fr. brogues, b?-osseSj 
brousses, brouches, brouic, bruc, bushes, 
briars, heath. — Roquef. Mid. Lat. brus- 
cia, brozia, dumetum. ' Tam de terri 
bruscosd quam de arabili.' — Due. Serv. 
brst, sprouts ; brstiti, to browse. OHG. bros, 
sprout. Bav. bross, brosst, a bud, a sprout. 
It. brocco, sprocco, broccolo, shoot, sprout. 

Here we find throughout the Romance, 
Teutonic, Celtic, and Slavonic famihes, a 
variety of forms, broc, bros, brost^ sproc, 
spross, sprot, signifying twigs, shoots, 
sprouts, or bushes and scrubby growths, 
plants composed of twigs, or broken up 



io6 



BRUISE • 



into a multitude of points. There can be 
little doubt that they are all derived from 
the notion of breaking out, which we find 
expressed by similar modifications in the 
termination of the root, brik^ bris, brist, 
brit^ to break or burst. See next article, 
and also Brush, Broach. 

Bruise. AS. brysan, OE. brise,\.o crush. 

And he that schal falle on this stone schall be 
broken, but on whom it schall falle, it schall al 
to brisen him. — Wicliff. 

Fr. briser, to break, crush, bruise ex- 
tremely. — Cot. OFr. bruiser. — Diez. 
Prov. brisar, desbrisar, to break to bits ; 
Gael, bris, brisd, bristj Port, briiar, to 
break. 

A modification of the same root which 
gives the E. breaks the interchange of the 
final consonants being clearly shown in 
the derivatives, Prov. brico or brizo, a 
crum ; briketo, brizeto, bricalio, a little 
bit ; brizal, dust, fragments ; brizal de 
carbon, du bris de charbon de terre, coal 
dust. See Breeze. 

Bruit. Fr. bruii, It. bmiio, Pr. bruit, 
a noise, a rumbling, Fr. and It. bruire. 
Pr. brugir, briizir, to make a rumbling. 

* Brunt. Brunt, insultus, impetus ; 
styrtyn' or brunton\ or sodenly comyn' 
a:^en an enmy, insilio, irruo. — Pr. Pm. 
Brunt of a daunger, escousse, effort. — 
Palsgr. The brunt of an engagement is 
the shock of battle when the two armies 
actually come in collision. 

That in all haste he would join battayle even 
with the bront or brest of the vangarde. — Hall in 
R. The fore rydars put themselves in prese with 
their longe lances to win the first brunte of the 
field. — Fabyan. 

OE. brunt, a blow. 
Bot baysment gef myn herte a brunt. 

Allit. Poems, E. E. Text Soc. A. 174. 
All that was bitten of the beste was at a brunt 

dede. — K. Alexander, p. 134. 

OE. burt, to butt. — Pr. Pm. Prov. burs, 
shock, blow ; burcar, abronca?, Fr. bro7i- 
cher, to strike the foot against an obstacle, 
to stumble. 

Brush.. An implement made of bristles 
or elastic twigs for whisking away small 
extraneous matters from a surface. It is 
singular that the word may be derived 
with equal propriety from the dust or 
rubbish it is used to remove, or from the 
materials of which it is itself composed. 
Cat. brossa, quisquiliae, sordes, fgex ; bros- 
sar, detergere ; Gael, brusg, a crum, It. 
brusco, bruscolo, a mote, fescue ; brusca, 
a brush ; Swiss bruske, Piedm. brosse, 
remnants of hay or fodder, orts, brossa, a 
brush ; Sp. broza^ chips, dust,' rubbish, 



BRUSH 

brozar, to cleanse, broza, a brush ; Gael. 
bruis (in the pi.), shivers, splinters, frag- 
ments, ^r/if/j (sing.), a brush ; E. bris, brist, 
dust, rubbish. Piedm. bruscia, brustia, a 
horse-brush, wool-card, brustid, to brush, 
Lang, broustia, a flax comb, G. borste, 
biirste, Sw. borste, a brush. 

In E. also the word brush had formerly 
the sense of dust or flue. 

(Agea) said, Sir by your speche now right well I 

here 
That if ye list ye may do the thing that I most 

desire, 
And that is, this your heritage there you liked 

best 
That ye might give : and ever among, the brush 

away she pikid 
From her clothes here and there, and sighid 
..< therewithal. — Chaucer, Beryn. 

While cajoling her husband, she kept 
picking the dust or bits of flue from her 
clothes to hide her embarrassment. To 
brush then would be to dust, to clear 
away the brush or dust and rubbish. 

On the other hand, the derivation is 
equally satisfactory from the twigs or 
bristles of which the brush is composed. 
The Lat. scopce signifies in the first in- 
stance twigs, and in the second place a 
besom, while the word besom itself pro- 
perly signifies twigs, rods. The same re- 
lation holds good between G. borste, Sw. 
borst, a bristle, and G. borste, biirste, Sw. 
borste, a brush ; NE. brust, a bristle, and 
Piedm. brustia, a brush, wool-card. Bav. 
bross, brosst, a bud or sprout ; Bret, brous, 
a bud, shoot ; brouskoad, brushwood, 
wood composed of twigs. ^ Prov. bru'c, 
brus, brusc (Diet. Castr.), heath, quasi 
twigs, a shrub composed of small twigs ; 
Lang, brousso, a tuft of heath ; Fr. brosse, 
a bush, bushy ground, also a head-brush, 
wool-card, flax-comb ; brossettes, small 
heath whereof head-brushes are made. — • 
Cot. Brusshe, to make brusshes on, 
bruyere. — Palsgr. 201. It. brusca, ling or 
heath for brushes. — Fl. ON. bruskr, a 
bush of hair, tuft of grass or hay, a brush. 

Perhaps the explanation of the double 
origin is to be found in the fact that the 
words signifying mote, dust, rubbish, and 
those signifying a sprig, twig, bush, are 
both derived from modifications of the 
multiform root signifying break, appear- 
ing in Goth, brikan, Gael, bris, brist, Fr. 
briser. Port, britar. The Bav. bross, 
brosst, Bret, brous, OFr. broust, a bud, 
twig, or shoot, seems named from burst- 
ing (ON. brist a) or breaking out j or the 
separate twigs or bristles may be con- 
sidered as splinters, as It. brusco , bruscolo, 



BUBBLE 

j bruschefia, a little piece of wood or straw, 
I fescue, mote. But see Bristle. 

Bubble. Yt.bubbola. From an imita- 
tion of the sound made by the bubbling 
liquid. Bohem. biiblati, to murmur, bub- 
Una, a bubble ; Pol. bc^bel, a bubble, a 
tumour ; Lith. bubseti, to bubble, boil ;• 
bubauH, to bellow as a bull ; bubenti, to 
thunder gently ; bubiti, to beat ; bubleti, 
to bump as a bittern. Sc. bub, a blast 
of wind. 

A bubble and a lump or swelling are 
very generally designated by the same 
word, either because a bubble is taken as 
the type of anything round and swelling, 
or because the same articulation is used 
to represent the pop of a bubble bursting, 
and the sound of a blow, from which the 
designation of a knob, hump, or projec- 
tion is commonly taken. Fr. bube, a push, 
wheal, blister, watery bud, hunch or 
bump. — Cot. ' Burble in the water — 
bubette.' — Palsgr. Magy, bob, bub, pup, a 
bunch, hump, tuft, top, buborek, a. bubble. 

To Bubble. See Dupe. 

Buccanier. A set of pirates in the 
17th century, who resorted to the islands 
and uninhabited places in the West 
Indies, and exercised their cruelties prin- 
cipally on the Spaniards. The name, ac- 
cording to Olivier Oexmelin, who wrote a 
history of adventurers in the Indies, is 
derived from the language of the Caribs. 
It was the custom of those savages when 
they took prisoners to cook their flesh on 
a kind of grate, called barbacoa (whence 
the term barbecue; a barbecued hog, a 
hog dressed whole). The place of such a 
feast was called boucan (or according to 
Cotgrave the wooden gridiron itself), and 
this mode of dressing, in which the flesh 
was cooked and smoked at the same time, 
was called in Fr, boticaner. 

The natives of Florida, says Laudon- 
ni^re (Hist, de la Floride, Pref. A.D. 1586, 
in Marsh), 'mangent toutes leurs viandes 
rosties sur les charbons et boucaiices, c'est 
a dire quasi cuictes a la fumee.' In Hack- 
luyt's translation ' dressed in the smooke 
which in their language they call bou- 
caned: Hence those who established them- 
selves in the islands for the purpose of 
smoking meat were called buccaniers.— 
Diet. Etym. The term bocati is still ap- 
plied in the W. I. to a place used for the 
drying of produce. 

Our next illustration represents the Bocan, or 
building used for drying and preparing cocoa 
and coffee. The building is regularly constructed 
with two floors, the upper for coffee, the lower 
for cocoa. They are divided by partitions of 



BUCK 



107 



open lath-work, which is also used in a great 
portion of the ends and sides of the main building, 
to allow a free current of air. — lUust. News, 
March 28, 1857. 

Buck, The male goat, also applied 
to the male deer, and then to other wild 
animals, as a buck rabbit, w. bwch, 
Gael, boc, Fr. bouc. Probably named 
from the tendency of the animal to butt 
or strike with the forehead. Fin. pukkata, 
to butt ; Esthon. pokkama, to butt, to 
kick ; Magy. bdkni, to stick, to butt. Pol. 
puk, knock, rap, tap ; Gael, boc, a knock 
or blow ; Fr. buquer, bucquer, to knock 
at a door, to butt or jurr ; Dan. bukke, to 
ram down a gun. It. becco is a radically 
different form, from bek ! bek / represent- 
ing the bleating of a goat. 

To Buck. Formerly, when soap was 
not so plentiful a commodity, the first 
operation in washing was to set the linen 
to soak in a solution of wood ashes. This 
was called bucking the linen, and the 
ashes used for that purpose were called 
buck-ashes. The word was very generally 
spread. In G. it is beuchen, bduchen, 
beichen, buchen, biichen, biiken ; S w. byka, 
Dan. bygej Fr. buquer, buer; It. buca- 
tare ; Bret. bugd. Sp. bugada, lye. The 
derivation has been much discussed. The 
more plausible are : — 

1. Dan. bog-aske, the ashes of beech- 
wood, chiefly employed in making potash ; 
but the practice of bucking would have 
arisen long before people resorted to any 
particular kind of wood for the supply of 
ashes. 

2. It. bucata, buck-ashes, supposed to 
be so called from buca, a hole, because 
the ashes are strained through a pierced 
dish, in the same way that the term is in 
Sp. colada, lye, bucking, the linen at buck, 
from colar, to strain, to filter, to buck, 
lessiver, faire la lessive. But the analogy 
does not hold, because bucare does not 
appear ever to have been used in the 
sense of straining or filtering. 

The true derivation is seen in Gael. 
bog, moist, soft, tender, and as a verb, to 
steep or soak. Bret, bouk, soft, tender, 
boukaat, to soften. The ideas of wet and 
soft commonly coalesce, as G. erweichen, 
to soak, from weich, soft ; It. mo lie, soft, 
wet ; Lat. mollire, to soften, and Fr. 
motdllir, to wet ; Pol. inokry,'^t\. ; 7niekki, 
soft ; mieknad, to soak, to soften ; moczyc, 
to soak foul linen before washing. Bohem. 
niok, a steep for flax. To buck then 
would originally be to set the linen to 
soak in lye, and as m and b so often in- 
terchange (comp. w. fnaban and baban^ 



io8 



BUCK-BEAN 



a baby), the word is probably identical 
with mok, the root of the Slavonic words 
above mentioned, and of the Lat. jnacero, 
to soak. In Lat. tjnbuere, the guttural 
termination is lost, as in Fr. biu^e for 
buqii^e. In the dialect of the Setti Cem- 
mani, where the G. w in the begin.ning of 
words is converted into b, G. weich, soft, 
becomes boch, boachj and weichen, ein- 
weicheUy to soak, become bochen, boa- 
chetiy inboachen, arguing (as Marsh sug- 
gests) an original connection between 
Gael, bog- and G. weich. 

Buck-bean. A water-plant with leaves 
like a bean. Dan. biikke-blad, goat-leaf ; 
N. gjeii-klauv, goat's hoof. 

* Bucket. Hardly identical with Fr. 
baquet (dim. of bac, a trough), a pail or 
bucket, a small shallow and open tub. — 
Cot. NE. bouk is a pail ; and with the dim. 
bucket is probably an equivalent of It. 
bolgia, bolgetta, a budget, also a leather 
bucket — Fl. ; Fr. bouge, a wallet, male or 
case of leather ; botigeite, a little coffer or 
trunk of wood covered with leather. Mid. 
Lat. bulga, pulga, OHG. pulga^ Bav. bul- 
ging a leathern sack. See Bulk. 

♦ Buckle. A buckle or fastening for 
a leather strap probably takes its name 
from the convex shape or from the boss 
with which it was ornamented. Prov. 
bocla^ bloca, OFr. bode, boss of a shield, 
ornamental stud. Fr. bonder, to swell, 
rise or bear out in the middle. — Cot. To 
buckle up, of a surface, is to shrivel up, to 
throw itself into prominences and hollows. 
Fr. boucle, a curl, a ring. The word is a 
mere transposition of the elements found 
in bulk, and as in the case of the latter 
word, the radical image seems to be a 
bubble taken as the type of a rounded 
prominence. It. boccula, Fr. boucle, Sw. 
dial, bogla, Pol. btdka, a bubble ; It. 
boglire, bollire, to boil. w. boglyn, bub- 
ble, boss, knob ; dwfryn boglynu, water 
a bubbling ; bogel, a navel, nave of a 
wheel ; bogeilio, to boss or swell out ; G. 
buckel, protuberance, excrescence, hump, 
boss, bullion, stud, clasp of a book. Dan. 
bugle, a boss, bump, swelling, dint ; bug- 
let, having a boss, dinted. 

Buckler. The Fr. boucle, Prov. bocla, 
bloca, a buckle or protuberance, were 
specially applied to the boss of a shield. 
II I'a feru desor I'escu, 
Dusqu'en la bode la fendu. 

Partonopeus de Blois in Rayn. 
Hence boudier, Prov. bloqider, Sp. bro- 
queh It. brocchiere, a buckler or shield 
with a central boss. So ON. bugnir, a 
shield, from bugr, convexity. 



BUDGET 

Buckrain. It. budierame, Fr. bou- 
gran, bou'caran. Mid. Lat. boqueranuus. 
It is explained by Miillcr (mhg. Wtb.) as 
if the stuff was made of goat's hair. It 
is commonly mentioned as a precious 
stuff, and the reference to It. buchcrare^ 
to pierce holes, is doubtless fallacious. 
' Una coltre di budierame Cipriana bian- 
chissima.' — Boccaccio. 

Bucolic. Lat. bucolicus, from Gr. 
(SovKoXiKog, belonging to the calling of the 
herdsman ; liovKoXog, agreeing with Gael. 
buachaille, a cowherd, from bo, cattle, 
and gille, a boy, a servant. W. call, a 
fold ; ceilio, to pen cattle. 

* Bud. The knob or projection form- 
ed by the swelling germ of leaves or 
flowers. The entire train of thought is 
seen in Hesse botz, potz, crack, loud 
noise ; butsen (Du. botzen, butzen — K.), to 
knock, to butt; butzen, clump, bunch, 
tuft ; Bav. botzen, butzen, lump, knob ; 
botzen, bud ; ' butzen, turgere ; buczendig, 
turgidus.' — Schm. Swab, butz, stroke, 
blow, prick in a target, rump of fowls ; 
anything short of its kind, a dumpy 
child. Du. bictze, a bump, swelling, 
botch. — K. Bret, bod, boden, a tuft, 
clump, bunch ; explaining Fr. rabodd, 
short and thick of stature. Fr. bouter, 
to thrust, put, push forwards, to bud or 
put forth as a tree in the spring (Cot.) ; 
bouton, a bud, a pustule ; bout, the end or 
thrusting part of a long body", a stump ; 
7in bold dhomme, a stumpy man. So 
w. pwtio, to poke, thrust, butt ; pwt o 
ddyn, a short thick man. Y)\x. pote,poot, 
D?iV\. pode, 2l shoot, scion, set of a plant ; 
Hesse potteti, to graft or bud trees, to 
set plants. 

* Bud, Bus. Pronounced bood in Sc. 
The two forms arise from further con- 
traction of OSc. behud, behuis, for be- 
hidved, behuives. ' It behud out : ' it be- 
hoved to come out — Dunbar, Twa maryit 
wemen, 1. 333, — 'quhilk ye behuis to do.' 
— Jam. Supp. ' I bus goe tyll tjedde.' — 

Budge. The dressed fur of lambs, a 
material no doubt early supplied by the 
pastoral nations of Slavonic race, with 
whom it is still much in use. Ti^wss. pus h\ 
fur, skins ; pushif, to line with fur. 

To Budge. Bret, boulj, movement ; 
boidjein, Fr. bouger, to move, stir, budge, 
probably from the notion of bubbling, 
boiling. Port, bidir, to budge. Nao vos 
bulais daqtn, don't stir from hence, don't 
budge. Pied, sboge, to stir. ON. bulla^ 
to boil ; built, motus creber. 

Budget. Fr. bougette, dim. of bouge^ 
a budget, wallet, great pouch, or male of 



BUFF 

leather serving to carry things behind a 
man on horseback. — Cot. It. bolgia, 
bolgetta, a budget, leathern bucket. From 
bulga, a skin. 

Buff. A buff sound is a toneless sound 
as of a blow. Magy. biifogm, to give a 
dull sound; PhD. du^^ dull, of colours, 
sounds, tastes, smells ; een duffen toon, a 
deadened tone ; eene dicffe couleiir, a dull 
colour. 

Buff.— Buflae. — Buffalo. Lat. buba- 
lus, Russ. buivol, Fr. buffle, the buffe, 
buffle, bugle, or wild ox, also the skin or 
neck of a buffe. — Cot. The term was 
then applied to the skin of the buffalo 
dressed soft, buff leather, and then to the 
yellowish colour of leather so dressed. 
It. buffalo, a buffle or a bugle, by meta- 
phor, a block-headed noddy. — Fl. Hence 
the E. biiffe-headed, confused, stupid. 
The name of the beast seems taken from 
a representation of his voice. Lith. bu- 
benti, to bellow ; Magy. bufogni^ to give 
a hollow sound. 

Buff.— Buffet. A blow. Yrombuff/ 
an imitation of the sound of a blow. 
Pl.D. buffen, to strike ; E. rebuff, to re- 
pulse; It. buffare, Fr. botiffer, to puff, to 
blow ; It. biiffetto, a cuff or buffet, also a 
blurt or puff with one's mouth. G. puff, 
a clap, buffet, cuff ; Lith. bubiti, to beat. 
In other cases, as Diez remarks, the 
word for a stroke is connected with a 
verb signifying to blow ; Fr. soiifflet, a 
buffet, from souffler, to blow ; soiifflete, 
often blown upon, boxed on the ear ; and 
the word blow itself is used in both 
senses. 

Buffet. Fr. buffet, a side-board. Fr. 
buffer, bouffer, to puff, to blow. The 
primary sense of buffeter seems to have 
been to take out the vent peg of a cask, 
and let in the air necessary for drawing 
out liquor, as from Lith. dausa, air, 
breath, dausinti, to give air to a cask in 
order to let the beer run. 

Si vos chartiers — amenant pour la provision 
de vos maisons certain nombre de tonneaux de 
vin les avaient bvffeth et beus k demi, le reste 
emplissant d'eau, &c. — Rabelais. 

Buffeter, to marre a vessel of wine by 
often tasting it ; btffetd, deadened, as 
wine that hath taken wind, or hath been 
mingled with water. — Cot. Mid. Lat. 
bufetarius, Fr. buffeteur, tabernarius, 
caupo. Bufetarium, the duty paid for 
retailing wine in taverns. The verb 
buffeter may thus be translated to tap, 
buffetier, a tapster. Thus buffet would 
signify the tap of a public-house or tavern, 
the place whence the wine was drawn. 



BUG 



to9 



From thence it has been transferred in 
E. to the sideboard on which the drink- 
ables are placed at meals, and in Fr. to 
the office in a department where other 
kind of business is carried on, while in 
Sp. it has passed on to signify simply a 
desk or writing-table. 

Buffoon. Fr. bouffon, a jester, from 
It. buffa, a puff, a blast or a blurt with 
the mouth made at one in scorn ; buffare, 
to jest or sport. — Fl. 

A puff with the mouth is probably in- 
dicative of contempt, as emblematically 
making light of an object. 'And who 
minds Dick? Dick 's nobody ! Whoo ! 
He blew a slight contemptuous breath 
as if he blew himself away.' — David Cop- 
perfield. A Staffordshire artisan giving 
an account of one who had been slighted 
said, ' They rether puffed at him.' 

Bug-. — Bugbear. — Boggart. — Bogle. 

God's boast seemed to him but bugges, things 
made to feare children. — Z. Boyd in Jam. 

The meaning of Bug is simply an object 
of terror, from the cry Bo / Boo I Boh / 
made by a person, often covering his 
face to represent the unknown, to frighten 
children. The use of the exclamation 
for this purpose is very widely spread. 
Gael, bo / an interj. to excite terror in 
children. — Macleod. w. bw/ It. bati / 
' Far bati / bau ! — far paura a' bambini 
coprendosi la volta.' — La Crusca. Alter- 
nately covering the face in this manner 
to form an object of sportive terror, and 
then peeping over the covering to relieve 
the infant from his terror, constitutes the 
game of Bo-peep, Sc. Teet-bo. 

The two children — were playing in an oppo- 
site corner, Lillo covering his head with his skirt, 
and roaring at Ninna to frighten her, then peep- 
ing out again to see how she bore it. — Romola, 
iii. 265. 

The cry made to excite terror is then 
used, either alone or with various termin- 
ations, to signify an indefinite object of 
terror, such as that conjured up by child- 
ren in the dark. 

L'apparer del giomo 

Che scaccia 1' Ombre, '-C^. Bau & le Befane ! 
— the peep of day which scatters spectres, bugs, 
and hobgoblins. — La Crusca. 

Swiss baui, bauwi, jnumming, bugbear, 
scarecrow ; G. baubau, wauwau, Esthon. 
popo, Magy. bubus, Sc. boo, bukow {kow, 
a goblin), buman, E. dial, bonian, Pl.D. 
buniann, Limousin bobal, bobaow, w. bw, 
bwg, bubach, a bugbear, a hobgoblin. 
Far barabao is explained in Patriarchi's 
Venetian dicty^r bau! bau ! to cry boh ! 
and il brutto barabao is interpreted it 



MO BUG 

Tentenmno, il brtitto Demonio^ the black 
bug, the buggaboo ; w. bwgan, a bugbear 
(Spurrell), E. dial, bngar^ the Devil. — Hal. 
w. bw / is used as an interjection of 
threatening, and signifies also terror as 
well as the terrific object. Manx boa, boo, 
fear, affright. 

The repetition of the radical syllable 
with more or less modification represents 
the continuance of the terrific sound. 
The final guttural of w. bwg and E. bug 
is found in Ulyrian bukati, Magy. bogni, 
to bellow, biigni, to roar ; Swiss booggen, 
to bellow like an angry bull when he 
paws the ground ; boogg, bogk, bok, a 
mask or disguise (from being originally 
adopted with the intention of striking 
terror), a misshapen person. The name 
of biigabo was given, according to Coles, 
to an 'ugly wide-mouthed picture' carried 
about at May games. Lith. baiiginti, to 
terrify ; bugti, to take fright, to take bug, 
as it is provincially expressed in England. 
— Hal. To take buggart or boggart is 
used in the same sense, and a boggarty 
horse is one apt to start, to take fright. 

With a different termination we have 
W. bwgwl, threatening, terrifying ; Sc. 
bogil, bogle, bogil bo (E. buggaboo), a 
spectre, bugbear, scarecrow ; Lesachthal, 
poggile, P'oggl, a bugbear for children, 
and thence an owl from its nightly hoot- 
ing. — Deutsch. Mundart. iv. 493. Lett. 
baiglis, an object of terror. Russ. pugaf, 
pujat\ to frighten ; pugalo, pujalo, a 
scarecrow. 

In bug-bear or bear-bug, the word is 
joined with the name of the beast taken 
as an object of dread. 

The humour of melancholye 
Causith many a man in slepe to cry, 
For fere of beris or of bolis blake, 
Or ellis that blake buggys wol him take. 

Chaucer. 

where we find imaginary bulls and bears 
classed with bugs as objects of nightly 
terror. 

Bug. 2. The name of bug is given in 
a secondary sense to insects considered 
as an object of disgust and horror, and in 
modern English is appropriated to the 
noisome inhabitants of our beds, but in 
America is used as the general appella- 
tion of the beetle tribe. They speak of a 
tumble-bug, rose-bug. A similar applica- 
tion of the word signifying an object of 
dread, to creeping things, is very common. 
Russ. bukashka, a beetle, is the dim. of 
buka, a bug-bear. The w. bwcai signifies 
what produces dread or disgust, and also 



BUGLE 

a maggot. It. baco, a silk-worm, also a 
boa-peep or vain bug-bear ; baco-baco, 
boa-peep. — Fl. Limousin bobaou, bobal, 
a bug-bear, is also used as the generic 
name of an insect. — Bdronie. So in Al- 
banian boiibe, a bug-bear, and in child's 
language any kind of insect. Magy. 
bubus, bug-bear, Serv. buba, vermin. It. 
bau, bug-bear, Grisons bau, insect, beetle ; 
bau (Vureiglia, earwig ; bau da grascha, 
dung-beetle. Sw. troll, a goblin, monster, 
provincially an insect. In Norse applied 
especially to beetles or winged insects. 
— Aasen. Illyr. gad, disgust, insect. Lap. 
rabme, an insect, worm, any disgusting 
animal, also a bug-bear, ghost. Sp. coco, 
a worm, also a bug-bear. 

Bug. 3. I. Swelling, protuberant. See 
Big. 

* 2. The word has a totally different 
origin in the expression bugs words, fierce, 
high-sounding words. ' Cheval de trom- 
pette, one whom no big nor bugs words can 
terrify.' — Cot. Parolone, high, big, roar- 
ing, swollen, long, great or bug words. — 
Fl. ''Bug as a lord.' In my time at 
Rugby school bug was the regular term 
for conceited, proud. Bogge, bold, for- 
ward, saucy. — Grose. 

In this sense of the word it seems to 
rest on the notion of frightening with a 
loud noise, blustering, threatening, and is 
thus connected with bug, bug-bear. Swiss 
booggen, to bellow like an angry bull ; 
boogg, bogk, a proud overbearing man — 
Stalder ; bog, larva (a bug-bear, hobgob- 
lin) ; bogge, superbire. — Schmidt. Idioti- 
con Bernense. 

Bugle. I. Same as bujffle, 3. buffalo. 

These are the beasts which ye shall eat of : 
oxen, shepe and gootes, hert, roo, and bug^le. — 
Bible, 1551. Deut. xiv. 

Hence bugle-horn, properly a buffalo 
horn, then a horn for drinking, or on 
which notes are played in hunting. 

Janus sits by the fire with double berd 
And drinketh of his bug/e horn the wine. 
Chaucer. 

Lat. bucula,2.\v€\iQx. Mid.Lat, buculus, 
OFr. bugle, buffle, boeuf sauvage. — Ro- 
quef. 

Probably, as Buffalo, from the cry of 
the animal ; Serv. bukati, Magy. bogni, 
Fr. bugler, beugler, to bellow. 

2. An ornament of female dress con- 
sisting of fragments of very fine glass 
pipes sewn on. ' Et dictag dominae nunc 
portant bugolos qui sic nominantur, quos 
cooperiunt capillis capitis earum ligatis 



BUILD 

supra dictos bugolos.' — De moribus civi- 
um Placentiae.— A.D. 1388. Muratori. 

To Build. From ON. bna^ OSw. boa, 
bo, G. bauen, to till, cultivate, inhabit, were 
formed bol, a farm, byli, a habitation, 
OSw. bol, bole, byli, domicilium, sedes, 
villa, habitaculum, whence bylja, to raise 
a habitation, to build, or, as it was for- 
merly written in English to bylle. 

That city took Josue and destroyed it and 
cursed it and alle hem that bylled it again.— Sir 
Jno. Mandeville. 

Bulb. Lat. bulbus, Gr. jSoXjSoc, a tuber- 
ous or bulbous root ; Lith. bulbe, biilwis, 
the potato ; G. bolle, bulk, bidbe, a bulb ; 
Du. bol, bolle, a globe, ball, head ; bol, 
bolleken van loock, the head of an onion. 
Gr. jSoXjSa, Lat. inilva, the womb. 

From the image of a bubble taken as 
the type of anything round, swollen, hol- 
low. In the representation of natural 
sounds, the position of liquids in the word 
is very variable. In English, as well as 
bubble, we have blob or bleb and blubber 
in the same sense. The Walach. has 
bulbuk, a bubble, and bulbukd, to bubble 
up, to spring, swell, be protuberant. See 
next article. 

Bulch. A bunch or projection. NE. 
bulse, a bunch. — Hal. ' Bourser, to gather, 
make bulch, or bear out as a full purse, 
to bunt or leave a bunt in a sail.' — Cot. 
Ptg. bolso, pocket, also the bunt or hollow 
of a sail. 

Bulge. See Bulk. 

Bulk. I. Bulk, in Sc. and N. of E. 
bouk, the carcase, chest, trunk, body of 
an animal, mass, principal portion. ' My 
liver leapt within my bulk^ — Turberville. 
Bav. biilken, the body ; Du. bulcke, 
thorax ; buick, beuck, trunk of the body, 
belly ; — van de kerche, nave or body of 
the church ; — van 't schip, hold or bilge 
of a ship. — Kil. ON. bukr, trunk, body, 
belly ; Sw. buk, Dan. biig, G, bauch, belly ; 
Cat. buc, the belly, bed of a river, bulk 
or capacity of anything, body of a ship ; 
Sp. buque, the capacity or burden of a 
ship, hull of a ship. 

The comparison of the Celtic dialects 
leads strongly to the conviction that the 
radical image is the boiling or bubbling 
up of water, whence we pass to the notion 
of anything swelling or strouting out, of 
an inflated skin, stuffed bag, or of what 
is shaped like a bubble, a prominence, 
knob, boss, lump. For the latter sense 
compare Da. bulk, a projection, lump, 
unevenness ; Sw. dial, bullka, a. protu- 
berance, knot in thread, a dint in a metal 



BULK in 

vessel. ' Basse, knobby, bulked or bump- 
ed out.' — Cot. 

The radical sense is shown in Russ. 
bulkaf, to bubble up ; Pol. bulka, a bub- 
ble ; Gael, balg, bolg, bubble {balgan 
uisge, a water-bubble), blister, bag, wal- 
let, boss of shield, belly, womb, bellows ; 
builgean, bubble, bladder, pimple, pouch ; 
builgeadh, bubbling up, as water begin- 
ning to boil ; bolg, bulg, belly, anything 
prominent, a lump or mass, the hold of a 
ship ; bolg (as verb), blow, swell, puff, 
blister ; Manx bolg, bolgan, bubble, blis- 
ter, belly, boss, knob, globule ; bolg-lhu~ 
ingey, the bilge or hold of a ship ; bolgey, 
to blow, swell, blister, w. bwlg, a round 
bulky body ; bwlgan, a straw corn-vessel. 
'â–  Bulgas Gain sacculos scorteos vocant.' 
— Festus. 

Passing to the Scandinavian and Teu- 
tonic dialects we have Goth, balgs, skin 
bag; G. balg, skin of an animal, husk, 
pod ; ON. belgr, skin flayed whole, leather 
sack, belly ; belgja, bolgna, Dan. bulne, 
to swell, to puff up ; bolginn, swollen ; 
OE. bolnyn, tumeo, turgeo ; bolnyd, tumi- 
dus. — Pr. Pm. ' See how this tode bol- 
neth.^ — Palsgr. MHG. bilge, bale, bulgen, 
gebolgeii, to swell. The addition of a dim. 
or feminine termination gives Bav. bulgen, 
It. bolgia, bolgetta,2i leather sack or bud- 
get ; Fr. boulge, bouge, a leathern sack or 
portmanteau, a strouting or standing out 
in a flat piece of work, boss of a buckler, 
belly, outleaning in the middle of a wall 
(Cot), bulge or convex part of a cask. 
Hence E. bulge or bilge, the belly or con- 
vex part of a ship ; to bulge, to belly out, 
to throw out a convexity. With these 
must probably be classed ON. bulki, the 
contents of the hold, or cargo of a ship, 
consisting of a heap of sacks bound down 
and covered with skins. Bolke or hepe, 
cumulus, acervus. — Pr. Pm. ON. at riufa 
bulkann, to undo the cargo, to break 
bulk. Lett, pulks, Lith. pulkas, a heap, 
crowd, herd^ swarm ; p2ilkd, in bulk, in 
mass. 

2. A bulk is a partition of boards, the 
stall or projecting framework for the dis- 
play of goods before a shop. 
Here stand behind this bulk, straight will he 

come : 
Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home. 

Othello. 

* He found a country fellow dead drunk, 
snorting on a bulk.^ — Anat. Melancholy. 
In this latter sense the word is identical 
with It. balco,balcone, a projection before 
a window ; ' also the bulk or stall of a 
shop.' — Fl. Palco, a stage or scaffold; 



112 BULL 

fialchetto^ a box or boarded inclosure at a 
theatre. The original sense seems to be 
a framework of balks^ beams or boards, 
as It. assito, a beam or rafter, also a par- 
tition of deals instead of a wall. — Fl. 
Dan. dial, bulk, bulke, boarded partition 
in a barn. A bulk-head is a boarded par- 
tition in a ship. 

Bull. I, The male of the ox kind. 
W. bwla, Lith. bullus, ON. bo I It, bauli, a 
bull, baula, a cow, from baula, N.Fris. 
bolli, to bellow. G. bulle, bullocks, a bull ; 
Swiss bulleti, to bellow. 

2. A papal rescript, from Lat. bulla, 
the seal affixed to the document. The 
primary signification of bidla is a bubble, 
from the noise, whence bullire, to bubble, 
to boil. Thence the term was applied to 
many protuberant objects, as the orna- 
mental heads of nails, the hollow orna- 
ment of gold hung round the neck of the 
young nobility of Rome ; in subsequent 
times applied to the seal hanging by a 
band to a legal instrument. It. bolla, a 
seal, stamp, round glass phial, boss, stud, 
bubble, blister, pimple. See Billet. 

Bullace. The wild plum. Bret, bolos 
ox polos, w. bwlas. Fr. bellocier, a bul- 
lace tree. It. bulloi, bullos, sloes. — Fl. 

BuUbeggar. Terriculamentum, a 
scare-bug, a bul-begger, a sight that fray- 
eth and frighteth. — Higins in Pr. Pm. 

And they have so fraid us with bull-beggers, 
spirits, witches, urchens, elves, &c., and such 
other bugs that we are afraid of our own shadows. 
— Scot's Desc. of Witchcr. in N. 

The word is of a class with Pl.D. 
bullerbak, bullerbrook, a noisy violent 
fellow, w. bwbach, Du. bullebak, a hob- 
goblin, bugbear, scarecrow, where the 
former element signifies the roaring 
noise made to terrify the child by the 
person who represents the hobgoblin. 
P1.D. bullern, Du. bulderen, G. poltern, 
to make a loud noise ; Du. bulderghees- 
ten, lemures nocturni nigri. — Kil. G. pol- 
tergeist, a hobgoblin. The final element 
in the forms above cited seems a corrupt 
repetition of the syllable bug, signifying 
roaring, and thence terror, as in E. bug- 
gaboo, G. butzibau, Du. bietebau. The 
connection between the ideas of loud 
noise and terror is well illustrated by the 
use of Pl.D. buller in addressing children 
to signify something terrible : ' Gae du 
nig bi dat buller-water^ do not go by the 
dangerous water, as a mill-dam or the 
like. See Bug, Bully. 

Bullet. Fr. boulet, dim. of boule, a 
bowl. See Bowl. 



BULLION 

As an instance of the arbitrary way in 
which words acquire their precise mean- 
ing, it may be observed that a bullet in 
E. is applied to the ball of a gun or 
musket, while the projectile of a cannon 
is called a ball. In Fr., on the contrary, 
it is boulet de canon, balle de fusil. 

Bullhead. — BuUrush. — Bullfrog. 
Bullhead is the name of the miller's 
thumb, a little fish nearly all head, also 
of the tadpole or young frog. BuUrush 
is a large kind of rush. The element bull 
is probably not taken from the quadruped 
of that name, but is more probably iden- 
tical with Sw. ^<^/, bole or trunk of a tree, 
bulk of a thing, large, coarse, thick, blunt, ' 

large of its kind, as geting, a wasp, bal- 
geting, a hornet, w. pwl, iAnnt, penbwl, 
a blockhead, a tadpole ; Gael, pollack, 
lumpish, stupid ; poll-ckeannack, lump- 
headed ; poll-ckeaiman, a tadpole. The 
bullfrog, however, is said to make a loud 
bellowing noise, which may probably be 
the origin of the name. 

Bullion. This word is iised in several 
senses, i. A boss or stud, any embossed 
work. Sp. bollar, to em.boss ; bollon, 
stud, brass-headed nail ; bollos de relieve, 
embossed work. Fr. bouillon, a stud, 
any great-headed or studded nail. — Cot. 
Elyot translates bulla ' a bullion set on 
the cover of a book or other thynge.' 
*• Bully on in a woman's girdle — clow.' — ■ 
Palsgr. ' Bullions and ornaments of 
plate engraven, a bullion of copper set on 
bridles or poitrels for an ornament' — 
Baret's Alveary in Hal, Here the notion 
of swelling or embossment is derived 
from the bubbling of boiling water. 

2. Bullion is applied to a particular 
kind of gold and silver lace, from Fr. 
bouillon, explained by Chambaud as 
being made of a very fine sheet of gold 
or silver twisted. Doubtless from bouil- 
lon in the sense of a puff or bunch, from 
the puffy texture of this kind of lace. 

3. Gold or silver uncoined. Consider- 
able difficulty has been felt in accounting 
for the word in this sense, from the use of 
the equivalent terms, billon in Fr. and 
vellon in Sp., in the sense of base metal, 
silver mixed with a large alloy of cop- 
per. 

The original meaning of the word bul- 
lion, boilloji, billon, was the mint or office 
where the precious metals were reduced 
to the proper alloy and converted into 
stamped money, from the Lat. bulla, a 
seal, whence Mod.Gr. /SouWovw, to seal, 
to stamp ; ^ovWwrfjpiov, the matrix or die 



BULLY 

with which coins were stamped. — Diet. 
Etym. 

In this sense the word appears in our 
early statutes. The Stat. 9 E. IIL st. 2, 
c. 2, provides, that all persons ' puissent 
sauvement porter k les eschanges ou 
bullion et ne mie ailleurs argent en plate, 
vessel d'argent et toutz maners d'argent 
sauve faux monoie et I'esterling counter- 
fait,' for the purpose of exchange. 

In the English version these words are 
erroneously translated 'that all people 
may safely bring to the exchanges bullion 
or silver in plate, &c.,' which has led to 
the assertion that 'bullion' in the old 
statutes is used in the modern application 
of uncoined gold or silver. The 27 Ed. 
III. St. 2, c. 14, provides, 'que toutz mar- 
chauntz — puissent savement porter — 
plate d'argent, billettes d'or et tut autre 
maner d'or et toutz moneys d'or et d'ar- 
gent a nostre biillione ou a nous es- 
changes que nous ferons ordeiner a nous 
dites estaples et ailleurs pernant illoeqs 
money de notre coigne convenablement 
k la value.' Again, 4 Hen. IV. c. 10, 
' que la tierce partie de tout la monoie 
d'argent que sera porte k la boillion sera 
faite es mayles et ferlynges' — shall be 
coined into halfpence and farthings. 

In these and other statutes all traffick- 
ing in coin was forbidden, except at the 
bullion or exchanges of the king ; and 
similar restrictions were enforced in 
France, where the tampering with the 
coin was carried to a much greater ex- 
tent than in England, insomuch as to 
earn for Philippe le Bel the title of le faux 
monnoyeur. Hence among the French 
the carrying to the billon their decried 
money iDecame a familiar operation of 
daily life, and ' porter au billon,' ' mettre 
au billon,' are metaphorically applied to 
things that require remaking. 

The decried coin brought to be melted 
up was termed ' monnaie de billon,' and 
hence billon and the equivalent Spanish 
vellon were very early used to signify the 
base mixture of which such coin was 
made, or generally a mixture of copper 
and silver. ' Ne quis aurum, argentum 
vel billionem extra regnum nostrum de- 
ferre prassumat.' — Stat. Philip le Bel in 
Due. A.D. 1305. 

In England the fortunes of the word 
have been different, and the Mint being 
regarded chiefly as the authority which 
determined the standard of the coin, the 
name of bullion has been given to the 
alloy or composition of the current coin 
permitted by the Bullion or mint. Thus 



BUM-BAILIFF 



113 



bullion is translated in Torriano's diction- 
ary (A.D. 1687), 'lega, legaggio di me- 
tallo,' and traces of the same application 
are preserved in the Spanish reckoning 
in ' reals vellon,' reals of standard cur- 
rency. From metal of standard fineness 
the signification has naturally passed in 
modern times to all gold and silver de- 
signed for the purpose of coinage. 

Bully. — Bully-rook. A violent over- 
bearing person. Du. bulderen, bolderefi, 
blaterare, debacchari, intonare, minari ; 
verbulderen, perturbare saevis dictis. — • 
Kil. G. poltern, to make a noise ; Sw. 
buller, noise, clamour, bustle, buller-bas, 
a blusterer ; Pl.D. buller-jaan (bully- 
John), buller-bak^ buller-brook, a noisy 
blustering fellow, from the last of which 
is doubtless our bully-rock or bully-rook^ 
a hectoring, boisterous fellow. — Bailey. 
Bully-rock^ un faux brave. — Miege in 
Hal. The Sw. buller-bas, on the other 
hand, agrees with E. blunder-buss, a 
clumsy fellow who does things with noise 
and violence. G. polterer, a blunder- 
head, blunder-buss, a boisterous, violent, 
furious man. — Kiittner. To bully is to 
bluster, to terrify by noise and clamour, 
to behave tyrannically or imperiously. 

Bulwark. A defence originally made 
of the boles or trunks of trees, then in 
general a rampart, bastion, or work of 
defence. Du. bol-werck, block-werck, 
propugnaculum, agger, vallum. — Kil. Fr. 
by corruption boulevart, boulevard, pri- 
marily the ramparts of a town, then ap- 
plied to the walks and roads on the inside 
of the ramparts, and now at Paris to a 
broad street surrounding what was form- 
erly the body, but now is the central part 
of the town. It. baluarte. 

Bum. For bottom. Fris. <5<?;;z, ground, 
bottom, from boden, bodem, ON. bottn, AS. 
botm. Fris. ierd-boeyme, ierd-beame, the 
soil. Hence bom and b'dn, a floor. D. 
buene, boene, G. biihne, a stage, scaffold. 

To Bum. — Boom. — Bump. — Bum- 
ble. To bum, to hum, to make a droning 
sound. — Hal. Du. bommen, resonare, to 
beat a drum ; bomba^nmen, to ring the 
bells. Lat. bombilare, to bumble or make 
a humming noise ; bombilus, Du. bo7n- 
mele, hommele, a bumble-, or a htimble- 
bee. The cry of the bittern, which he is 
supposed to make by fixing his bill in a 
reed or in the mud, is called bumping or 
bumbling, 

Bum.-bailiff. From the notion of a 
humming, droning, or dunning noise the 
term bum is applied to dunning a person 
for a debt. To <^^^/;«, to dun. — Hal. Hence 



114 



BUMBOAT 



bum-bailiff, a person employed to dun 
one for a debt, the bailiff employed to 
arrest for debt. The ordinary explana- 
tion of bound-bailiff \s a mere guess. No 
one ever saw the word in that shape. 
Moreover the bum-bailiff is not the per- 
son who gives security to the sheriff, nor 
would it concern the public if he did. 
But his special office is to dun or bum for 
debts, and this is the point of view from 
which he would be regarded by the class 
who have most occasion to speak of him. 

Bumboat. A boat in which provisions 
are brought for sale alongside a ship. 
Du. bum-boot, a very wide boat used by 
fishers in S. Holland and Flanders, also 
for taking a pilot to a ship. — Roding, 
Marine Diet. Probably for bun-boot, a 
boat fitted with a bun or receptacle for 
keeping fish alive. 

Bump. Pl.D. bufns / an interjection 
imitating the sound of a blow. Bums/ 
getroffen, Bang ! it's hit. Btunsen, bam- 
sen, to strike so as to give a dull sound. 
To bam, to pummel, to beat. — Hal. w. 
pwmpio, to thump, to bang. Lang. 
poumpi, to knock ; poutnpido, noise, 
knocking. Then, as in other cases, the 
word representing the sound of the blow 
is applied to the lump raised by the blow, 
or to the mass by which it is given, and 
signifies consequently a mass, protuber- 
ance, lump. See Boss. Thus E. bump, 
a swelling, w. pwmp, a round mass ; 
pwmpl, a knob, a boss ; Lith. pumpa, a 
hniton, pumpurras, a bud. Fr. pompette, 
a pumple or piinple on the skin — Cot. ; 
pompon, a pumpion or gourd, a large 
round fruit. 

Bumpkin. A clumsy, awkward clown. 
Probably from bump, signifying one who 
does things in a thumping, abrupt man- 
ner. Pl.D. buns-wise, inconsiderately, 
from bunsen, to strike ; E. dial, bunger- 
sofne, clumsy, lungeous, awkward. — Hal. 
Suffolk bonnka, large, strapping, applied 
to young persons, especially girls. — Moor. 
Manx bo7ikan, a clown. 

Bun, 1. — Bunnion. Fr. bigne, a bump, 
knob rising after a knock ; bignet, bugjiet, 
little round loaves or lumps made of fine 
meal, &c., buns, lenten loaves.— Cot. It. 
bugno, bugnone, any round knob or bunch, 
a boil or blain. — Fl. Hence E. bunnion, 
a lump on the foot ; bunny, a swelling 
from a blow. — Forby. Bony, or grete 
knobbe, gibbus, gibber, callus. — Pr. Pm, 
Sc. bannock, bonnock, Gael, bonnach, Jr. 
boineog, a cake, are dim. forms. Radi- 
cally identical with Dan. bunke, a heap. 
See Bunch. 



BUNCH 

Bun, 2. — Bunny, Dun, a dry stalk ; 
bunncl, a dried hemp-stalk. — Hal. 'Kyx 
or bunne, or dry weed [bunne of dry weed, 
H.S.P.), calamus.' — Pr. Pm. Bun, the 
stubble of beans. — Mrs Baker. Sc. bime 
or boon, the useless core of flax or hemp 
from which the fibre is separated. Bune- 
wand, a hemp-stalk. 

The word is probably to be explained 
from Gael, bun, root, stock, stump, bot- 
tom ; bun fcoir, hay stubble ; bunan, 
stubble ; Manx bun, stump, stalk, root, 
foundation ; w. bon, stem or base, stock, 
trunk, butt end. The buns are the dried 
stalks of various kinds of plants left after 
the foliage has withered away. Gael. 
bmi eich, an old stump of a horse. Bun- 
feaman (stump-tail), a tail (Macleod), 
should probably be a short tail, explain- 
ing E. bunny, a rabbit, whose short tail 
in running is very conspicuous. Bun, a 
rabbit, the tail of a hare. — Hal. Dan. 
bund, bottom, seems to unite Gael, bun 
with ON. botn, E. bottom. 

Bunch. — Bunk. — Bung. Bunch, a 
hump, cluster, round mass of anything. 
To bunch was formerly and still is pro- 
vincially used in the sense of striking. 
Dunchyn or bunchyn, tundo. — Pr. Pm. 
' He buncheth me and beateth me, il me 
pousse. Thou bunchest me so that I 
cannot sit by thee.' — Palsgr. Related on 
the one side to Pl.D. bunsen, bumseii, to 
knock. ' An de dor bunsen, oder anklop- 
pen dat idt bunset^ — to knock at the 
door till it sounds again. Daal bunsen, 
to bang down, throw down with a bang. 
' He fult dat et bunsede,' he fell with a 
bang. Du. bons, a knock. See Bounce. 
On the other hand bunch is connected 
with a series of words founded on forms 
similar to the ON. banga, Dan. banke, 
OSw. bunga, to beat, to bang ; ON. bunki, 
a heap ; OSw. bunke, a heap, a knob ; 
and related with ON. bunga, to swell out ; 
E. dial, bung, a heap or cluster, a pocket ; 
Sw. binge, a heap ; Wall, bonge, bongie, 
a bunch ; Magy. bunka, a knob, a boil 
{bimkos hot, a knotty stick) ; Sw. bunke, 
a bowl ; Pl.D. bunken, the large promi- 
nent bones of an animal (as G. knochen, 
E. knuckles, from knock) ; It. bugno, bug- 
none, any round knob or bunch, a boil or 
blain.— Fl. 

Again, as we have seen E. bulk passing 
into Sp. bulto, and E. bull, a bag or sack, 
while bulch was traced through Gris. 
bulscha, a wallet, E. bidse, a bunch — Hal. ; 
Sp. bolsa, 2l purse ; so the form bunk, a 
knob or heap, passes into Dan. bundt, 
I Sw. bunt, a bunch, bundle, truss ; E. 



BUNDLE 

bunt of a sail, the middle part of it, 
which is purposely formed into a kind of 
bag to catch the wind. — B. 

Bundle, as. byndel, Du. bo?id, bon- 
del, bundel, something bound together ; 
ghebondte, ghebimdte, colligatio, fascis, 
et contignatio, coassatio ; bondel-loos, 
loosed from bonds. — Kil. ON. bindini, a 
bundle. 

Bung". The stopper for the hole in a 
barrel. From the hollow sound made in 
driving in the bimg. OG. bunge, a drum ; 
OSw. bungande, the noise of drums. — 
Ihre. Magy. bongani, to hum. So Du. 
bomjnen, to hum, and bomme, or bonde 
van t' vat, the bung of a barrel ; Lim. 
boundica, to hum, Pro v. bondir, Cat. 
bonir, to resound, and Du. bonde, Fr. 
bonde, bondoft, a bung. It is possible, 
however, that the primitive meaning of 
bung may be a bunch of something thrust 
in to stop the hole. Bung of a tonne or 
pype, bondelj bundell, bondeau. — Palsgr, 
202. The Fr. bouchon, a cork, boucher, 
to stop, are from bousche, bouche, a bunch 
or tuft, and the Sw. tapp (whence tceppa, 
to stop, and E, tap, the stopper of a cask), 

is originally a wisp or bunch ; ho-tapp, 
halni-tapp, a wisp of hay or straw. 

To Bungle. To do anything awk- 
wardly, to cobble, to botch.— B. From 
the superfluous banging and hammering 
made by an unskilful worker. ON. bang, 
knocking, racket, working in wood (especi- 
ally Avith an axe), banga, to knock, to work 
at carpentry ; bangan, bongun, knocking, 
unskilful working, especially in wood- 
work ; banghagr, a bungler. Sw. bang, 

noise, racket ; bangla, to gingle. Sw. 
dial, bangla, to work ineffectually. — Rietz. 
Compare G, klempern, kliinpern, to 
gingle, tinkle, tinker ; to strum or play 
unskilfully on an instrument ; stiimpeln, 
stmnpern, to strum on an instrument, 
to bungle, do a thing bunglingly. Banff. 
bummle, to strum on an instrument, to 
sing or play in a blundering manner ; 
biwimle, a botch, clumsy performance. 

Bunny. See Bun. 

Bxint. The belly or hollow of a sail, 
the middle part of a sail formed into a 
kind of bag to receive the wind.— Hal. 
Dan. bundt, a bunch, bundle. 

To Bunt.— Bunting:. To bunt in 
Somerset is to sift, to bolt meal, whence 
bunting, bolting-cloth, the loose open 
cloth used for sifting flour, and now more 
generally known as the material of which 
flags are made. 

The radical import is probably the 



BURGEON 



IIS 



impulse by which the meal is driven 
backwards and forwards. Bret, bojinta, 
bunta, to push, knock, shove ; E. dial. 
punt, to shove, to push with the head 
(Mrs Baker), to kick. To bunt, to push 
with the head. P1.D. bunsen, to knock. 

* Buoy. Du. boei, Sw. boj, G. boie, 
boye, Fr. bouee, Sp. boya, the float of an 
anchor or of a net ; boyar, to float. Lat. 
boia, Fr. buie, a clog or heavy fetters for 
the neck or feet. It. bove, buove, fetters, 
shackles, gyves, clogs, stocks or such 
punishments for prisoners. — Fl. The 
most usual form would be a heavy clog 
fastened by a chain to the limb, and 
hence the name would seem to have been 
transferred to the wooden log which 
would be the earliest float for an anchor. 
N.Fris. bui, the heavy clog of a foot- 
shackle ; an anchor buoy. — Johansen, p. 
100. 

Burble. A bubble. Sp. borbollar, to 
boil or bubble up. Lith. burboloti, to 
guggle as water, rumble as the bowels. 
Burbulas, a water bubble made by rain. 
See Barbarous. 

Burden. A load. AS. byrthen, G. 
biirde, from beran, to bear. 

Burden, of a song. See Bourdon. 

Bureau. The Italian buio, dark, was 
formerly pronounced buro, as it still is in 
Modena and Bologna. — Muratori. Russ. 
buruii, brown ; burjat, to become brown 
or russet. ' Burrhum antiqui quod nunc 
dicimus rufum.' — Festus in Diez. OFr. 
bure, buret, Sp. buriel, Pro v. btirel, 
reddish brown, russet, specially applied 
to the colour of a brown sheep, then to 
the coarse woollen cloth made of the 
fleeces of such sheep without dyeing. 
So in Pol. bury, dark grey ; bura, a rain- 
cloak of felt. Then as the table in a 
court of audience was covered with such 
a cloth, the term bureau was applied to 
the table or the court itself, whence in 
modern Fr. it is used to signify an office 
where any business is transacted. In 
English the designation has passed from 
a writing-table to a cabinet containing a 
writing-table, or used as a receptacle for 
papers. See Borel. 

Burg-anet. OFr. bourguignote, Sp. 
borgonota, a sort of helmet, properly a 
Burgundian helmet. A la Borgonota, in 
Burgundian fashion. 

Burgeon. — Burly. To burgeon, to 
grow big about or gross, to bud forth. — 
Bailey. Fr. bourgeon, bourjon, the young 
bud, sprig, or putting forth of a vine, also 
a pimple in the face. — Cot. The word is 
variously written in OE. burion, bourion^ 



116 



BURGESS 



burjown. Sp. bonijo/i, protuberance, 
knob. Lang. boure,bouron, a bud, boura, 
boitronna, to bud ; Fr. aboiirioner^ to 
bud or sprout forth. — Cot. Burryn, to 
bud.— Pr. Pm. 

The primary origin of the word, as of 
so many others signifying swelhng, is an 
imitation of the sound of bubbUng water, 
preserved in Gael, bururus^ a purhng 
sound, a gurghng ; Fin. purrata, cum 
sonitu bulHo ut aqua ad proram navis, 
strideo ut spuma vel aqua ex terra ex- 
pressa ; puret, a bubble ; Du. borrelen, 
to spring as water; borrel, a bubble. 
From the notion of a bubble we pass to 
the Gael, borr, to swell, become big and 
proud, explaining the E. btirgen. ' Bouffer, 
to puff, blow, swell up or strout out, to 
biirgen or wax big.' — Cot. The Gael, has 
also borr^ borra, a knob, bunch, swelling ; 
borr-shuil, a prominent eye ; borracha, a 
bladder, explaining Sp. borracha, a wine 
skin. Sw. dial, piirra, to puff up ; bo?'?^ 
utsa, to swell oneself out as birds ; borras, 
to swell with pride. From the same root 
E. burly, big, occupying much space. 

Elpes am in Inderiche 
On bodi borlic berges Hike. 

Bestiary. Nat. Antiq. i. 122. 

Burgess. — Burgher. OE. biirgeise, 
OFr. burgcois, from Lat. burgensis. 

Burgh. See Borough. 

Burglar. A legal term from the Lat. 
burgi latro, through the Burgundian 
form Idre (Vocab. de Vaud.), OFr. lerre, 
a robber. It. grancelli, roguing beggars, 
bourglairs. — Fl. Bret, laer, robber. 

Omnes burgatores domorum vel fractores 
Ecclesiarum vel murorum vel portarum civitatis 
regis vel burgorum intrantes malitios^ et felonic^ 
condemnentur morti.— Officium Coronatoris in 
Due. 

Burin. See under Bore. 

To BurL — Burler. In the manu- 
facturing of cloths the process of clearing 
it of the knots, ends of thread, and the 
like, with little iron nippers called burling 
irons, is termed burling. — Todd. A burl- 
er is a dresser of cloth. Lang, bouril, 
Castrais bourril, the flocks, ends of thread, 
&c., which disfigure cloth and have to be 
pliicked off. Bourril de neou, flock of 
snow. OE. burle of cloth, tumentum. — Pr. 
Pm. From Fr. bourre, flocks. See Burr. 

Burlesque. It. burlare, to make a 
jest of, to ridicule. Probably a modifica- 
tion of the root which gave the OE. bourd^ 
a jest. Limousin bourdo, a lie, a jest, 
bourda, to ridicule, to tell lies. The in- 
terchange of d and / is clearly seen in the 



BURNISH 

Gael, burdy burl, mockery, ridicule, joking; 
buirte, a jibe, taunt, repartee ; buirleadh^ 
language of folly or ridicule. 

Burly. See Burgeon. 

To Bum. Probably, as Diefenbach 
suggests, from the roaring sound of flame. 
Thus G. brinnen or brennen was formerly 
used in the sense of to roar. Also ein 
luwe brennen. — Dief. Supp. Herumge- 
hen wie ein brinnenden lew, sicut leo 
rugiens. Prennen,ixQmQxe. — Notk. Ps. 56. 
5. in Schm. Swiss Rom. brinna, to roar 
like the wind in trees. — Bridel. Hence 
G. brandling, the roaring surge of the 
sea. In the same way ON. brimi, fire, is 
connected with brim, surge or dashing of 
the sea ; brima, to surge, and OG. bri^n- 
men, brem7)ien, to roar (as lions, bears, 
&c.). So also Sw. brasa, a blaze, Fr. em- 
braser, to set on fire, compared with G. 
brausen, to roar, and Dan. brase, to fry. 

It is probable indeed that Fr. bruler, 
which has given much trouble to etymol- 
ogists, must be explained on the same 
principle from G. briillen or briilen (Dief. 
Supp.), to roar, the s in OFr. brusler 
being a faulty spelling, as in cousteau. 
Compare also Piedm. brus^, to burn, 
Prov. bruzir, to roar, with Dan. brtise, to 
roar, to effervesce. Han bruser op, he 
fires up. E. brustle, to rustle, crackle 
like straw or small wood in burning — 
Hal. ; It. brustolare, to burn, toast, broil, 
singe or scorch with fire. — Fl. 

Burn. A brook. Goth, brunna, ON. 
bnmn?', G. bom, brunnen, a well, a spring ; 
Gael, burn, water, spring-water ; bitrnach, 
watery. Swiss Rom, boriii, a fountain. — • 
Vocab. de Vaud. As we have seen the 
noise of water bubbling up represented 
by the syllable bor, pur (see Burgeon), 
the final n in burn may be merely a sub- 
sidiary element, as the / in purl, and the 
word would thus signify water springing 
or bubbling up. Bav. barren, to hum, to 
buzz ; Gael, bururus, warbling, purling, 
gurgling. Walach. sbornoi, to murmur. 

Burnish. Fr. bnmir, to polish. Sw. 
bryna, to sharpen, to give an edge to, 
brynsten, a. whetstone, from bryn, the 
brim or edge of anything, N. bn^n, an 
edge or point. Then as sharpening a 
weapon would be the most familiar ex- 
ample of polishing metal, the word seems 
to have acquired the sense of polishing. 
So from Fin. tahko, an edge, a margin, 
latus rei angulatse ; tahkoinen, angular ; 
tahkoa, to sharpen on a whetstone, thence, 
to rub, to polish. Bav. schleiffen, to 
sharpen, to grind on a whetstone, hauben 
schleiffen, to polish helmets. — Schm. 



BURR 

The AS. brun seems to have been used 
in the sense of an edge. 

Geata dryhten 

Gryre-fahne sloh 

Incge lafe, 

Thaet sio ecg gewdc, 

Brun on bane.— Beowulf, 5150, 

Translated by Kemble, — 

'The Lord of the Geats struck the terribly 
coloured with the legacy of Incg so_ that the 
edge grew weak, brow?t upon the bone ; ' 

but it would both make better sense and 
be more in accordance with AS. idiom if 
drufi were understood as a synonym of 

Burr. I. The whirring sound made by 
some people in pronouncing the letter r, 
as in Northumberland. This word seems 
formed from the sound. — Jam. ' Hearing 
the old hall clock — strike 12 with a dis- 
mal, shuffling, brokenharpstringed-like 
whirr and durr.' — Matrimonial Vanity 
Pair, iii. 225. Bi/rr is related to h^zz as 
whirr to whizz. With a slightly different 
spelling, birr signifies the whizzing sound 
of a body hurled through the air, whence 
birr, force, impetus, any rapid whirling 
motion. — Hal. The noise of partridges 
when they spring is called birring. G. 
btirren, purren, to buzz, whirr, coo, purr, 
Swiss burren, to mutter ; Sw. dial, borra, 
to buzz like a beetle ; burr a., blurra^ to 
chatter, talk fast and indistinctly. 

2. Bicrr or Bur is used in several 
senses, ultimately resting on the Gael, 
root borr, signifying protrude, swell, men- 
tioned under Burgeon, Hence Fr. bourre, 
stuffing, whatever is used to make a tex- 
ture swell or strout out, and thence flocks 
'of wool, hair, &c., also ' any such trash 
as chaff, shales, husks, &c.'— Cot. It. 
borra, any kind of quilting or stuffing, 
shearing of cloth, also all such stuff as 
hay, moss, straw, chips or anything else 
that birds make their nests with. — Fl. 
Fr. bourrer, to stuff; bourrelet, bourlet, a 
pad, a stuffed wreath used for different 
purposes, as for the protection of a child's 
head, or for supporting a pail of water 
carried upon the head, a horse-collar 
(whence bourrelier, a harness or collar 
maker) ; and met. an annular swelling, 
as the swelling above the grafted part of 
the stem of a tree, the thickened rim at 
the mouth of a cannon. Hence must be 
explained E. bur, the rough annular ex- 
crescence at the root of a deer's horn, the 
ridge or excrescence made by a tool in 
turning or cutting metal, the superfluous 
metal left in the neck of the mould in 



BURY 



117 



casting bullets. A b'iin--pump is one 
used in a ship ' into which a staff seven 
or eight feet long is put having a burr or 
knob of wood at the end.' — Harris in 
Todd. In a met. sense a burr round 
the moon is the padding of hazy light by 
which it seems to be encircled when it 
shines through a light mist. 

And burred moons foretell great storms at 
night. — Clare. 

3. When the hop begins to blossom it is 
said to be in burr. See Burgeon. 

4. Fris. borre, burre, Dan. borre, Sw. 
kardborre, karborre, a bur, the hooked 
capitulum of the arctium lappa. Sw. dial. 
borre is also a fircone. 

Burrow. Shelter, a place of defence, 
safety, shelter Provincially applied to 
shelter from the wind : ' the burrow side 
of the hedge ; ' ' a very burrow place for 
cattle.' The same word with burgh, 
borough, borrow, from AS. beorgan, to 
protect, shelter, fortify, save. Du. ber- 
ghen, to hide, cover, keep, preserve, and 
thence bergh, a port, a barn or cupboard. 
— Kil. G. bergen, verbergen, to hide ; ON. 
biarga, to save, preserve. A rabbit bur- 
row is the hole which the animal digs for 
its own protection. So in w. caer is a 
castle or fortress, cwning-gaer, the fortress 
of a coney or rabbit, a rabbit burrow. 

Burse. — Burser. -burse. Burse, 
Fr. bourse, Uu. beurs, an exchange, from 
Yr. bourse, It. borsa, a purse. Bursar, the 
officer who bears the purse, makes the 
disbursements of the college. 

Borsa is derived by Diez from Gr. 
jSi'pCT-a, Mid.Lat. byrsa, skin, leather, but 
it is more probably a development of It. 
bolgia, bolza, Grisons bulscha, buscha, a 
wallet or scrip, from whence we pass 
through Sp. bolsa to It. borsia, borza, 
borsa, a purse, as from Sp. peluca to Fr. 
perruque. See Bulge. 

To Burst. In OE. h'est, brast. G. 
bersten, AS. berstan, bytstan, OHG. bres- 
tan, bristen, Sw. brista, ON. brjota, Fr. 
briser. Port, britar, to break. Gael. 
bris, brisd, break ; brisdeach, bristeach, 
brittle. The root appears under the 
forms brik, bris, brist, brit. Lang, brico, 
briso, briketo, brizeto, a morsel, fragment ; 
E. brist, small fragments. Compare also 
OE. brokil and brotilj brittle, and, as it 
is still pronounced in N. of England, 
brickie. Sery.prsnuti, to burst. 

To Bury, — Burial, as. byigan, bir- 
gan, birigean, to bury ; byrgen, byrgels, 
byrigels, a sepulchre, tomb, burial place. 
OHG. burgisli, a sepulchre ; chrepburgium 



ii8 



BUSH 



{chreo, AS. hreaw^ a corpse), a monument 
or erection over the dead. — Gloss. 
Malberg. The radical idea is seen in 
Goth, batrgan, AS. beorgan, to keep, 
preserve, protect ; whence beorg, beorh^ a 
rampart, defence, mount, a heap of stones, 
burial mound. ' Worhton mid stanum 
anne steapne beorh him ofer : ' they 
raised a steep mound of stones over him. 
Thence byrigean, to bury, apparently a 
secondary verb, signifying to entomb, to 
sepulchre, and not directly (as Du. ber- 
ghc'ji, borghen, condere, abdere, occultare 
— K.) to hide in the ground. 

Bush. — Bushel. The bush of a wheel 
is the metal lining of the nave or hollow 
box in which the axle works. Du. busse, 
2l box, buskcn, a. little box ; Dan. basse, 
a box, a gun ; G. buc/tse, a box, rad- 
buc/ise, Sw. hjiil-bosse, the bush of a 
wheel ; Sc. bush., box wood ; to bush, to 
sheath, to enclose in a case or box. The 
Gr. tt/'Iic, -t^og, a box, gave Lat. pyxis as 
well as buxis, -idis, and thence Mid. Lat. 
buxida, bossida, biixta, boxta, bosta, Prov. 
boistia, boissa, OFr. boiste, with the 
diminutives, Mid. Lat. biixtda, bustula, 
bustellus, bussellus, O Fr. boistel, boisteau, 
Fr. boisseati, a box for measuring corn, a 
bushel. See Box. 

Bush. — Busk. 

Sibriht that I of told, that the lond had lorn 
That a swineherd slouh under a btisk of thorn. 
R. Brunne. 

The foregoing modes of spelling the 
word indicate a double origin, from the 
ON. buskr, a tuft of hair, bush, thicket 
{buski, a bunch of twigs, besom), and 
from the Fr. bousche, boiiche, a wisp, 
tuft, whence bouchon, a tavern bush, 
boucher, to stop, to thrust in a botiche or 
tuft of hemp, tow, or the like. Bouchet, 
a bush, bramble. It has been shown 
under Boss that words signifying clump, 
tuft, cluster, are commonly derived from 
the idea of knocking. So from Fr. bous- 
ser, It. bussare, Du. bossen, buysschen, to 
knock, we have Fr. bosse, bousse, a hump, 
hunch ; Du. bos, a bunch, knot, bundle ; 
bosch (a diminutive ?), a tuft, then a tuft 
of trees, a grove ; bosch van haer, a tuft 
of hair ; ■ — van wijnbesien, a bunch of 
grapes. Fris. bosc, a troop, lump, clus- 
ter; qualster-boscken, a clot of phlegm 
(Epkema). Du. bussel, a bundle ; It. 
bussone, a bush, brake, thicket of thorns ; 
Bret, bouch (Fr. cJi), a tuft, wisp. G. 
baiisch, projection, bulk, bunch, bundle, 
wisp ; bauschen, bausen, to swell, bulge, 
bunch out. 



BUSKIN 

Busk. The bone in a woman's stays. 
See Bust. 

To Busk. To prepare, make ready, 
to dress, to direct one's course towards. 
They busked and maked them boun. 

Sir Tristram. 
Jamieson thinks it probable that it may 
be traced to the ON. biia, to prepare, to 
dress, at biia sig, induere vestes ; and it 
is singular that having come so near the 
mark he fails to observe that busk is a 
simple adoption of the deponent form of 
the ON. verb, at buast, for at biiasc, con- 
tracted from the very expression quoted 
by him, ^ at biia sik.^ The primitive 
meaning of biia is simply to bend, whence 
at biia sik, to bend one's steps, to betake 
oneself, to bow, in OE. ' Haralldur kon- 
gur biost austur um Eydascog.' Harold 
the king busks eastwards through the 
forest of Eyda. ' Epter thetta byr sik 
jarl sem skyndilegast ur landi.' After 
that the earl busks with all haste out of 
the land. Compare the meaning of busk 
in the following passage : — 

Many of the Danes privily were left 
And busked westwards for to robbe eft. 

R. Brunne. 
It is certain that buast must once have 
been written buasc, and we actually find 
triiasc,fiasc, in the For Skirnis ; bai'sc in 
Heimskringla, which would later have 
been written truast, /last, barst. The 
frequency with which to busk is used, as 
synonymous with to make one boun, is 
thus accounted for, as boun is simply 
buinn, the past participle of the same verb 
bua, the deponent form of which is re- 
presented by the E. busk. 

To bow was used in a similar manner 
for to bend one's steps, to turn. ' Boweth 
forth by a brook : ' proceed by a brook. 
—P.P. 

Forth heo gfunnen biigen 

In to Bruttaine 

And her ful sone 

To-^rthure comen. — Layamon, 2. 410. 

In the other copy — ' 

Forth hii goime bouwe 
In to Brutaine. 

* Buskin. Sp. borcegui, Ptg. boi'ze- 
guivi, Fr. brodequin. The primary sense 
seems to have been a kind of leather, 
probably Morocco leather. Thus Frois- 
sart, ' Le roy Richard mort, il fut couch^ 
sur une litiere, dedans un char couvert de 
brodequin tout noir.' The buskin is said 
by Cobarruvias to have been a fashion of 
the Moors and of Morocco, and he cites 
from an old romance ' Borzeguics Mar- 
roquies.' The word is explained by 



BUSS 

Dozy from Arab. Xerqui, or Cherqui, a 
precious kind of leather made from 
sheepskins in the North of Africa. 
Edrisi, speaking of the costume of the 
King of Gana, says, ' he wears sandals of 
cherqtii.' It is true that from hence to 
borzegui is a long step, but Dozy cites 
the OldPtg. forms morseguill, moseqidn, 
and supposes that the common Arab, 
prefix mil or mo has been erroneously 
added, as in moharra from harbe, the 
point of a lance, mogangas from gonj, 
love gestures, moheda from gcidha^ forest. 
Thus we should have mochergui, and by 
transposition morchequi^ motsequi^ bor- 
cegiti. 

Buss. I. A vessel employed in the 
herring fishery. Du. buyse, a vessel with 
a wide hull and blunt prow, also a flagon. 
ON. bussa, a ship of some size. Prov. 
bits, a boat or small vessel ; Cat. bi^c, 
bulk, ship ; Sp. bucha, a large chest or 
box, a fishing vessel. A particular appli- 
cation of the many-formed word signifying 
bulk, trunk, body, chest. See Boss, Box, 
Bulch, Bust. 

2. A kiss. Sp. buz, a kiss of reverence. 
Sw. piissa, piitta, Bav. bussen, Swiss 
butscheji, to kiss (from the sound — 
Stalder) ; butschen, putschen, to knock ; 
windbutsch, a stroke of wind. Comp. 
smack, a kiss, and also a sounding blow. 
On the other hand, Gael, bus, a mouth, 
hp, snout; Wdldic\i. buza, lip; Pol. bu- 
zia, mouth, lips, also a kiss. So Wes- 
terwald niujids, mons, a kiss, from imind, 
mouth. Lat. basium, It. bacio, Sp. beso^ 
Fr. baiser, a kiss. The two derivations 
would be reconciled if Gael, bus and Pol. 
buzia were themselves taken from the 
smacking sound of the lips. 

Bust. — Busk. These seem to be mo- 
difications of the same word, originally 
signifying trunk of a tree, then trunk of 
the body, body without arms and legs, 
body of garment, especially of a woman's 
dress, and finally (in the case of busJi) 
the whalebone or steel support with 
which the front of a woman's bodice is 
made stiff. 

I. With respect to busk we have ON. 
bukr, trunk, body ; Fr. busche^ a log, a 
backstock, a great billet — Cot. ; Rouchi, 
busch, a bust, statue of the upper part of 
the body without arms ; Fr. buc, busq, 
busque, a busk, plated body or other 
quilted thing, worn to make the body 
straight ; buc, busc, bust, the long, small, 
or sharp-pointed and hard-quilted body 
of a doublet.— Cot. Wall, buc, trunk of 
a tree, of the human body (Grandg.). 



BUSY 



119 



2. W^ith respect to bustj ON. butr, a 
log; Mid. Lat. bust a, arbor ramis trun- 
cata — Gloss. Lindenbr. in Diez ; Gris. 
biist, bist, trunk of a tree, body of a man, 
body of a woman's dress ; It. busto, a 
bulk or trunk without a head, a sleeveless 
truss or doublet, also a busk. — Fl. 

The Prov. inserts an r after the initial 
b ; bruc, brut, brusc, bust, body, as in 
ON, b}'uskr3.s well as buskr, a bush, tuft, 
wisp, Prov. brostia as well as bostia, a 
box. The form brust, corresponding to 
brut as brusc to briic, would explain the 
G. brtist, the breast, the trunk, box, or 
chest in which the vitals are contained. 
The ultimate origin may be found in the 
parallel forms buk, but, representing a 
blow. VoX.puk, knock, crack ; Fr. buquer, 
Namur busqicer (Sigart), Lang, buta, to 
knock. Swab, busch, a blow, a bunch of 
flowers ; butz, a blow, a projection, stump, 
lump. From the figure of striking against 
we pass to the notion of a projection, 
stump, thick end, stem. 

Bustard. A large bird of the gallin- 
aceous order. Fr. outard. A great slug- 
gish fowl. — B. Sp. abutarda, or avutarda; 
Champagne blstarde j Prov. austarda^ 
Fr. outarde. It. ottarda. 

Named from its slowness of flight. 
' Proximse iis sunt quas Hispania aves 
tardas appellat.' — Plin. lo. 22. Hence 
probably au-tarda, otarda, utarda, and 
then with avis again prefixed, as in av- 
estruz ( = avis struthio), an ostrich, avu^ 
tarda. — Diez. Port, abotarda, betarda. 

To Bustle. To hurry or make a great 
stir. — B. Also written buskle. 

It is like the smouldering fire of Mount Chim- 
ccra, which boiling long time with great buskiing 
in the bowels of the earth doth at length burst 
forth with violent rage. — A.D. 1555. — Hal. 

Here we see the word applied to the 
bubbling up of a boiling liquid, from 
which it is metaphorically applied in or- 
dinary usage to action accompanied \\ith 
'a great stir.' ON. bustla, to make a 
splash in the water, to bustle. So in 
Fin. kupata, kupista, to rustle (parum 
strepo) ; kdyn kupaja7i crepans ito, I go 
clattering about, inde discurro et operosus 
sum, I bustle. 

Busy. — Business, as. biseg, bisg, 
biseguug, bisgung, occupation, employ- 
ment ; bisgan, bysgian, Fris. bysgje, to 
occupy; Y)\x.bezig, beezig, busy, occupied ; 
bezigen, to make use of. Bitsiness can 
hardly be distinct from Fr. besoigne, be- 
songne, work, business, an affair. — Cot. 
The proceedings of Parliament, A.D. 1372, 
speak of lawyers ' pursuant busoignes en 



20 



BUT 



la Court du Roi.' Perhaps besogne may 
be from a G. equivalent of AS. bisgimg. 

But. As a conjunction but is in every 
case the compound be-out, Tooke's dis- 
tinction between but, be out, and bot, 
moreover, to-boot, being wholly unten- 
able. 

AS. butan, buta, bute, without, except, 
besides ; butan cr, without law, an outlaw ; 
butan wite, without punishment ; butan 
luifum and cildum, besides women and 
children. Pl.D. biiten; biiten door, out 
of doors ; biiten dat, besides that ; Du. 
buiten, without ; buiten-ma7i, a stranger ; 
btiiten-zorgh, without care. 

The cases in which Tooke would ex- 
plain the conjunction as signifying boot, 
add, in addition, moreover, are those in 
which the word corresponds to the Fr. 
mais, and may all be reduced to the 
original sense of without, beyond the 
bounds of. Whatever is in addition to 
something else is beyond the bounds of 
the original object. 

In Sc. we find beti, from AS. binnan, 
within, the precise correlative of but, 
without ; but and bcft, without the house 
and within ; then applied to the outer and 
inner rooms of a house consisting of two 
apartments. 

The rent of a room and a kitchen, or what in 
the language of the place is styled a but and a 
ben, gives at least two pounds sterling. — Account 
of Stirlingshire in Jamieson. 

Ben-house, the principal apartment. 

The elliptical expression of i^^/^" for only 
is well explained by Tooke. Where at 
the present day we should say, ' There is 
but one thing to be done,' there is really 
a negation to be supplied, the full expres- 
sion being, ' there is nothing to be done 
but one thing,' or * there is not but one 
thing to be done.' Thus Chaucer says, 

I nam but a leude compilatour. — 

If that ye vouchsafe that in this place — 
That I may have 7iot but my meat and drinke, 

where now we should write, ' I am but a 
compiler,' ' that I may have but my 
meat and drink.' 

As an instance of what is called the 
adversative use of but, viz. that which 
would be translated by Fr. mais, — sup- 
pose a person in whom we have little 
trust has been promising to pay a debt, 
we say, ' But when will you pay it ? ' 
Here the but implies the existence of an- 
other point not included among those to 
which the debtor has adverted, viz. the 
time of payment. ' Besides all that, when 
will you pay ? ' 



BUTT 

*A11 the brethren are entertained 
bountifully, but Benjamin has a five-fold 
portion.' Here the but indicates that Ben- 
jamin, by the mode in which he is treated, 
is put in a class by himself, outside that 
in which his brethren are included. 

Butcher. Fr. toucher, Pro v. bochier, 
Lang, boquier, from boc, a goat (and not 
from bouche, the mouth), properly a 
slaughterer of goats ; ' que en carieras 
publicas li boguiers el sane dels bocs no 
jhidton, ni av^isson los bocs en las 
plassas ' — that the butchers shall not cast 
the blood of the goats into the public 
ways, nor slaughter the goats in the 
streets. — Coutume d'Alost in Diet. Lang. 
So in Italian from becco, a goat, beccaro, 
beccaio, a butcher ; beccaria, a butchery, 
slaughter-house. But It. boccino, young 
beef or veal flesh ; bocciero, a butcher. 
Piedm. (children) boc, bocin, ox, calf. 

Butler. Fr. bouteillier, as if from bou~ 
teille, a bottle, the servant in charge of 
the bottles, of the wine and drink. But 
the name must have arisen before the 
principal part of the drinkables would be 
kept in bottles, and the real origin of the 
word is probably from bjittery. Butler, 
the officer in charge of the buttery or 
collection of casks, as Pantler, the officer 
in charge of the pantry. Buttery, from 
butt, a barrel ; Sp. boteria, the store of 
barrels or wine skins in a ship. 

Butt. A large barrel. It. Fr. botte, 
a cask. OFr. bous, bouz, bout, Sp. bota, 
a wine skin, a wooden cask. Sp. botija, 
an earthen jar ; botilla, a small wine bag, 
leathern bottle. 

The immediate origin of the term is 
probably butt in the sense of trunk or 
round stem of a tree, then hollow trunk, 
body of a man, belly, bag made of the 
entire skin of an animal, wooden recept- 
acle for liquors. A similar development 
of meaning is seen in the case of E. trunk, 
the body of a tree or of a man, also a 
hollow vessel ; G. rumpf, the body of an 
animal, hollow case, hull of a ship. The 
E. bulk was formerly applied to the trunk 
or body, and it is essentially the same 
word with Lat. bulga, belly, skin-bag, and 
with It. bolgia, a leathern bag, a budget. 
A similar train of thought is seen in ON. 
bolr, the trunk or body of an animal, bole 
of a tree, body of a shirt ; w. bol, bo la, 
the belly, rotundity of the body, bag. 
The Sp. barriga, the belly, is doubtless 
connected with bartil, a barrel, earthen 
jug; and in E. we speak of the barrel of 
a horse to signify the round part of the 
body. Wall, bodine, belly, calf of the 



BUTT 

leg ; bode^ rabodS^ courtaud, trapu. — 
Grandg. Bav. boding, a barrel. — 
Schmell. From Grisons butt, a cask, 
is formed the augmentative buttatsch, the 
stomach of cattle, a large belly. The 
word body itself seems identical with G. 
bottich, a tub. The Bavarian potig, 
potacha, bottig, signify a cask or tub, 
while bottich, bodi\ are used in the sense 
of body. 

To Butt. To strike with the head 
like a goat or a ram. From the noise of 
a blow. To come full butt against a 
thing is to come upon it suddenly, so as 
to make a sounding blow. Du. bot, tout 
k coup ; bot blijven staan, s'arreter tout 
k coup. — Halma. Du. botten, to thrust, 
to push ; It. botto, a blow, a stroke ; di 
botto, suddenly ; botta, a thrust ; It. but- 
tare, to cast, to throw ; Lang, buta, to 
strike, to thrust ; Fr. bouter, to thrust, to 
push ; w. pwtiaw, to butt, poke, thrust. 

The butt or butt end of a thing is the 
striking end, the thick end. A butt, ON. 
butr, the trunk, stump of a tree ; Fr. bout, 
end ; w. pwt, any short thick thing, 
stump. G. butt, blitz, a short thick thing 
or person — Schmeller ; Fr. botte, a bun- 
dle ; Du. Fr. bot, thick, clumsy ; pied- 
bot, a stump or club foot.— Cot. Gris. 
bott, a hill, hillock ; botta, a blow, a boil, 
a clod, Fr. butte, a mound, a heap of 
earth ; butter un arbre, to heap up earth 
round the roots of a tree ; butterle celeris, 
to earth up celery ; butter un mur, to 
support a wall beginning to bulge ; butte, 
E. butt, a mound of turf in a field to sup- 
port a target for the purpose of shooting 
at. 

Fr. but, the prick in the middle of a 
target, a scope, aim ; whence to make a 
butt of a person, to make him a mark for 
the jests of the company. 

Fr. buter, to touch at the end, to abut 
or butt on, as in G. from stossen, to strike, 
to thrust ; an etwas anstossen, to be con- 
tiguous to, to abut on. 

Hence the butts in a ploughed field 
are the strips at the edges of the field, or 
headlands upon which the furrows abut ; 
but-la7ids, waste ground, buttals, a corner 
of ground. — Hal. 

Butter. Lat. butyruin, Gr. jSovrvpov, 
as if from (Soi-g, an ox, but this is probably 
a mere adaptation, and the true derivation 
seems preserved in the provincial German 
of the present day. Bav. buttern, butteln, 
to shake backwards and forwards, to boult 
flour. Butter-glass, a ribbed glass for 
shaking up salad sauce. Biittel-triib, 
thick from shaking. Butter-schmals, 



BUXOM 121 

grease produced by churning, i. e. butter, 
as distinguished from gelassene schnialz^ 
dripping, grease that sets by merely 
standing. — Schmell. 

Butter-fly. So called from the excre- 
ment being supposed to resemble butter. 
Du. boter-schijte, boter-vliege, boter-vogel. 
— Kil. 

Buttery. Sp. boteria, the store of 
wine in ships kept in bota's or leather 
bags. So the buttery is the collection of 
drinkables in a house, what is kept in 
butts. See Butler. 

Buttock. The large muscles of the 
seat or breech. 

From Du. bout, a bolt, or spike with a 
large head, then the thigh or leg of an 
animal, from the large knobbed head of 
the thigh-bone. Bout van het schouder- 
blad, caput scapulas : bout van f been, 
femur, coxa, clunis. — Kil. Boutje, a little 
gigot, the thigh of a goose, fowl, &c. 
Hainele-bout, lams-bout, a leg of mutton, 
leg of lamb. A buttock of beef is called 
a b7(t in the w. of E. — Hal. 

Button. Fr. bouton, a button, bud, 
pimple, any small projection, from bouter, 
to push, thrust forwards, as rejeton, a 
rejected thing, from rejeter, nourrisson, a 
nursling, from noiirrir, nourrissons, -ez, 
&c. So in English pimples were for- 
merly called pushes. Gael, put, to push 
or ihxnst, puta7i, a button. It is remark- 
able that Chaucer, who in general comes 
so close to the Fr., always translates 
bouton, the rosebud, in the R. R. by bo- 
thuni and not button, w. both, a boss, a 
nave ; bothog, having a rotundity ; botw7n, 
a boss, a button. 

Buttress. An erection built up as a 
support to a wall. Fr. bouter, to thrust ; 
arc-boutant, a flying buttress, an arch 
built outside to support the side thrust of 
a stone roof. Mur-buttant, a wall but- 
tress, a short thick wall built to rest 
against another which needs support ; 
butter, to raise a mound of earth around 
the roots of a tree. Boutant, a buttress 
or shore post. — Cot. 

Buttrice. A farrier's tool for paring 
horses' hoofs, used by resting the head 
against the farrier's chest and pushing 
the edge forwards. Perhaps corrupted 
from Fr. boutis, the rooting of a wild 
boar, the tool working forwards like the 
snout of a swine. Fr. bouter, to thrust, 
boutoir, a buttrice. 

* Buxom. AS. bocsam, buhsom, obe- 
dient, from bugan, to bow, give way, 
submit ; Fris. bocgsuin, Du. geboogsaeju, 
flexible, obedient, humble. — Kil. 



122 BUY 

For holy church hoteth all nianere puple 
Under obedience to be and buxum to the lawe. 

P.P. 

Buhsomenesse or boughsomeness. Pli- 
ableness or bowsomeness, to wit, humbly 
stooping or bowing down in sign of obe- 
dience. — Yerstegan in R. 

The sense of buxom, used in com- 
mendation of women, depends upon a 
train of thought which has become obso- 
lete. To bow down the ear is to listen 
favourably to a petition. Hence bowing 
or bending was understood as symbolical 
of good will, and a bowed or crooked 
coin or other object was presented in 
order to typify the good will of the sender, 
or to conciliate that of the person to 
whom it was addressed. 

He sent to him his servant secretly the night 
before his departure for Newbury with a bowed 

f'oat in token of his good heart towards him. — 
oxes Martyrs, iii. 519. Also when she had 
bowed a piece of silver to a saint for the health of 
her child. — lb. ii. 21. in N. & Q. Many good 
old people — of meere kindness gave me borvd 
sixpences and groats, blessing me with their 
harty prayers and God speedes. — Kempe's nine 
days' wonder, p. 3. 

Bowable or bowsome (buxom) thus 
came to signify well inclined to, favour- 
able, gracious. 

Thow which barist the Lord make the pa- 
troun — for to be to us inclineable or bowable or 
redi to heere us. — Pecock Repressor, 200. 
Mercy hight that mayde, a meke thynge with 

alle, 
A ful benygne buirde, and boxome ofspeche. 
—gracious of speech. — P. P. xviii. 116. 

A buxom dame or lass is then a 
gracious, good-humoured one, and when 
the derivation of the word was forgotten 
it drew with it the sense of good health 
and spirits so naturally connected with 
good humour. 

To Buy. AS. bycgan, bohte, OE. bygge, 
to purchase for money. ' Sellers and 
biggers' — Wicliff. The two pronuncia- 
tions were both current in the time of 
Chaucer, who makes abigg, to able, 
rhyme with rigg. See Abie. 



CABAL 

Goth, biegjafi, banhta, to buy ; frabug- 
jan, to sell. 

To Buzz. To make a humming noise 
like bees. A direct imitation. Then 
applied to speaking low, indistinctly, con- 
fusedly. It. buzzicare, to whisper, to 
buzz. 

Buzzard. A kind of hawk of little 
esteem in falconry. Lat. buteo ; Fr. biiso, 
busardj Prov. buzac, bnzarg. It. bozzago, 
bozzagrOj abozzago, a buzzard or puttock. 
The name is also given to a beetle, from 
the buzzing sound of its flight, and it is 
to be thus understood in the expression 
blind buzzard. We also say, as blind as 
a beetle, as Fr. dtourdi conmie un han- 
neton, as heedless as a cock-chafer, from 
the blind way in which they fly against 
one. 

By. Goth, bi, AS. bi, big, G. bei, Du. 
bij, Sanscrit abhi (Dief.). Too used a 
word to leave any expectation of an ety- 
mological explanation, but the senses 
may generally be reduced to the notion 
of side. 

To stand by is to stand aside ; to stand 
by one, to stand at his side ; a by-path is 
a side path ; to pass by, to pass at the 
side of. To swear by God is to swear 
in the sight of God, to swear with him 
by ; to adjure one by any inducement is 
to adjure him with that in view. When 
it indicates the agent it is because the 
agent is considered as standing by his 
work. 

By-law. Originally the law of a par- 
ticular town. Sw. bylag, from by, a 
borough, town having separate jurisdic- 
tion. ON. byar-log, Dan. bylove, leges 
urbanas ; ON. byar-rettr, jus municipii. 

Subsequently applied to the separate 
laws of any association. 

Byre. A cow-house, stall. The ON. 
byr, beer, a town, village, farm, does not 
appear ever to have been used in the 
sense of a stall. The final r moreover is 
only the sign of the nominative, and 
would have been lost in E. as in Da., Sw. 
by. 



Cabal. The Jews believed that Moses 
received in Sinai not only the law, but 
also certain unwritten principles of inter- 
pretation, called Cabala or Tradition, 
which were handed down from father to 



son, and in which mysterious and magi- 
cal powers were supposed to reside. — 
Diet. Etym. 

Hence the name of caballing was 
applied to any secret machinations for 



CABBAGE 

effecting a purpose ; and a cabal is a con- 
clave of persons, secretly plotting together 
for their own ends. 

Cabbage, From It. capo, OS p. cabo, 
head, come the Fr. caboche, a head 
(whence cabochard, heady, wilful), cabus, 
headed, round or great headed. Choiix 
cabus, a headed cole or cabbage ; laitue 
cabusse, lactuca capitata, headed or cab- 
bage lettuce. — Cot. It. cabuccio, capiiccio, 
a cabbage ; Du. cabiiyskoole, brassica 
capitata. — Kil. 

To Cabbage. To steal or pocket. 
Fr. cabas, Du. kabas, Sp. cabacho, a frail, 
or rush basket, whence Fr. cabasser, to 
put or pack up in a frail, to keep or 
hoard together. — Cot. Du. kabassen, 
convasare, surripere, suffurari, manticu- 
lari — Kil. ; precisely in the sense of the 
E. cabbage. 

Larron cabasseur de pecune. — Diet. Etym. 

Cabin. — Cabinet. \v. cab, caban, a 
booth or hut. It. capaima, Fr. cabaiie, a 
shed, hovel, hut. Tugurium, parva casa 
est quam faciunt sibi custodes vinearum 
ad tegimen sui. Hoc rustici capajinam 
vocant. — Isidore in Diez. Item habeat 
archimacherus capa7iain (parvam came- 
ram) in coquina ubi species aromaticas, 
&c., deponat : a store closet. — Neckam 
in Nat. Antiq. Cappa in OSp. signifies 
a mantle as well as a hut, and as we find 
the same radical syllable in Bohem. kabat, 
a tunic, kabane, a jacket ; Fr. gaban. It. 
cabarino, E. gabardine, a cloak of felt or 
shepherd's frock, it would seem funda- 
mentally to signify shelter, covering. 
Mod.Gr. KaTTTroLKc, a covering. 

Cable. Ptg. calabre, cabrej Sp. cabre, 
cable; Fr. cable, OFr. caable, chaable. 

The double a in the OFr. forms indi- 
cates the loss of the d extant in the Mid. 
Lat. cadabulum, cadabola, originally an 
engine of war for hurling large stones ; 
and the Fr. chaable, Mid. Lat. cabidus, 
had the same signification ; ' une grande 
periere que I'on claime chaable:— Due. 
Sed mox ingentia saxa 
Emittit cabulus.—\\)\A. 

From the sense of a projectile engine 
the designation was early transferred to 
the strong rope by which the strain of 
such an engine was exerted. 

Concesserint— descarkagium sexaginta dolio- 
rum suis iiistrumentis, scilicet caablis et windasio 
tantum.— Due. Didot. 

^ Examples of the fuller form of cadable 
m the sense of cable are not given in the 
dictionaries, but it would seem to explain 



CACKLE 



23 



the ON. form kadal, a rope or cable. It 
is remarkable that the Esthon. has kabbel, 
a rope, string, band, and the Arab, 'habl, 
a rope, would correspond to cable, as 
Turk, 'havyar to caviare. 

The Sp. and Ptg. cabo, a rope, is pro- 
bably unconnected, signifying properly a 
rope's end, as the part by which the rope 
is commonly handled. 

The name of the engine, cadabiila, or 
cadable, as it must have stood in French, 
seems a further corruption of calabre (and 
not vice versa, as Diez supposes), the 
Prov. name of the projectile engine, for 
the origin of which see Carabine, Capstan. 
We see an example of the opposite change 
in Champagne calabre for cadavre, a car- 
case. — Tarbe. 

Cablish. Brushwood — B., properly 
windfalls, wood broken and thrown down 
by the wind, in which sense are explained 
the OFr. caables, cables, cab lis. The 
origin is the OFr. chaable, caable, an 
engine for casting stones, Mid. Lat. cha- 
dabula, cadabulum, whence Lang, chabla^ 
to crush, overwhelm (Diet. Castr.), Fr. 
accabler, to hurl down, overwhelm, OFr. 
caable (in legal language), serious injury 
from violence without blood, Mid. Lat. 
cadabalum, prostratio ad terram. — Due. 
In like manner It. traboccare, to hurl 
down, from trabocco, an engine for casting 
stones ; Mid. Lat. manganare, It. maga- 
gnare, OFr. mdhaigtier, E. maim, inain^ 
from inauganum. 

Cack. Very generally used, especially 
in children's language, for discharging 
the bowels, or as an interjection of dis- 
gust to hinder a child from touching any- 
thing dirty. Lang, cacai I fi ! c'est du 
caca. Du. hack! phi! respuendi par- 
ticula. — Kil. Common to Lat. and Gr., 
the Slavonian, Celtic, and Finnish lan- 
guages. Gael, ceach ! exclamation of 
disgust ; cac, dung, dirt ; caca, nasty, 
dirty, vile. The origin is the exclamation 
ach / ach / made while straining at stool. 
Finn, akista, to strain in such a manner ; 
aah! like Fr. caca! vox puerilis detes- 
tandi immundum ; aakka, stercus, sordes ; • 

aakkata, cacare. Swiss aa, agga, agge^ 
dirty, disgusting ; agge viachen (in nurses' 
language), cacare ; gaggi^ g^ggele, aeggi, 

stercus ; gatsch, filth. Gadge / is pro- 
vincially used in E. as an expression of 
disgust. Gr. kukoq, bad. 

To Cackle. — Gaggle. Imitative of 
the cry of hens, geese, &c. Sw. kakla, 
Fr. caqueter, Lith. kakaloti, to chatter, 



^4 



CADAVEROUS 



prattle ; Turk, kaknlla, to cackle ; Du. 
kiieckelcn j Gr. icatcicci^ttv. 

Cadaverous. Lat. cadaver, a corpse, 
dead body. 

Caddy. Tea-caddy, a tea-chest, from 
the Chinese catty, the weight of the small 
packets in which tea is made up. 

• Cade. A pet lamb, one that is brought 
up by hand ; a petted child, one unduly 
indulged by, and troublesomely attached 
to, its mother. — Mrs B. The designation 
seems taken from the troublesome bold- 
ness and want of respect for man of the 
petted animal. ON. kdtr, joyous ; Sw. 
dial, kat, frisky, unruly ; Dan. kaad, 
wanton, frolicsome ; kaad mu7id, a flip- 
pant tongue ; kaad dreng, a mischievous 
boy. — Atkinson. 

Cadence. It. cadenza, a falling, a ca- 
dence, a low note. — Flo. Fr. cadence, a 
just falling, a proportionable time or even 
measure in any action or sound. — Cot. 
A chacune cadence, ever and anon. It 
seems to be used in the sense of a certain 
mode of falling from one note to another, 
hence musical rhythm. Lat. cadere, to 
fall. 

Cadet. Fr. cadet, Gascon capdet, the 
younger son of a family ; said to be from 
capitetum, little chief. Sp. cabdillo, lord, 
master. — Due. 

Cadger. See Kiddier. 

Cage. Lat. cavea, a hollow place, 
hence a den, coop, cage. Sp. gavia. It. 
gabbia, gaggia, Fr. cage. Du. kauwe, 
kevie,^ G. kdjich. 

Caitiff. It. cattivo (from Lat. cap- 
tiviis), captive, a wretch, bad ; Fr. chetif, 
poor, wretched. 

To Cajole. Fr. cageoler, caioler, to 
prattle or jangle like a jay (in a cage), 
to prate much to little purpose. Cajol- 
lerie, jangling, babbling, chattering. — 
Cot. The reference to the word cage 
hinted at by Cot. is probably delusive. 
It is more likely a word formed like 
cackle, gaggle, gabble, directly represent- 
ing the chattering cries of birds. As Du. 
gabberen is identical with E. jabber, so 
gabble corresponds with Fr. javioler, to 
gabble, prate, or prattle. — Cot. From 
hence to cageoler is nearly the same step 
as from It. gabbia, to cage. 

Cake. Sw. kaka, a cake or loaf. E71 
kaka brod, a loaf of bread. Dan. kage, 
Du. koeck, G. kuchen, N. kukje, cake. 

Calamary. A cuttle-fish, from the 
ink-bag which it contains. Lat. calamus, 
Turk. Arab, kalem, a reed, reed-pen, pen ; 
Mod.Gr. KaXafidpt, an inkstand ; OaKaa- 



CALIBRE 

(Tti'tir Kn.\atiapt, a sea inkstand, cuttle-fish. 

Calamity. Lat, calamitas, loss, mis- 
fortune. Perhaps from w. coll, loss, 
whence Lat. incolianis, without loss, safe. 

Calash. — Caloch. An open travelling 
chariot. — B. A hooded carriage, whence 
calash, a hood stiffened with whalebone 
for protecting a head-dress. 

Fr. caleche, It. calessa, Sp. calesa. 
Originally from a Slavonic source. Serv. 
kolo, a wheel, the pi. of which, kola, sig- 
nifies a waggon. Pol. kolo, a circle, a 
wheel ; kolasa, a common cart, an ugly 
waggon ; kolaska, a calash ; Russ. kolo, 
kolesb, a wheel ; kolesnitza, a waggon ; 
kolyaska, kolyasochka, a calesh. In the 
same way Fin. ratas, a wheel ; pi. rat- 
taat (wheels), a car. 

Calc-. Lat. calx, calcis, limestone, 
lime ; whence calcareous, of the nature of 
lime ; to calcine, to treat like lime, to 
burn in a kiln. 

Calculate. Lat. calculo, to compute, 
from calculus, a small stone, a counter 
used in casting accounts. 

Caldron. — Cauldron. Lat. calidus, 
hot ; caldarius, caldaria, Fr. chaudih'e, 
It. (in the augm. form) calderone, Fr. 
chaudron, cauldron, a vessel for heating 
water. 

Calendar. Lat. cale?idarium, from 
calendcB, the first day of the month in 
Roman reckoning. 

To Calender. — Fr. calendrer, to sleek 
or smooth linen cloth, &c. — Cot. Calan- 
dre, a roller, from Gr. «ci'Xiv2pog, Lat. cy- 
lindrus, a cylinder, roller. 

Calenture. A disease of sailors from 
desire of land, when they are said to 
throw themselves into the sea, taking it 
for green fields. Sp. calentura, a fever, 
warmth ; calentar, to heat. Lat. calidus, 
hot. 

Calf. The young of oxen and similar 
animals. G. kalb. 

Calf of the Leg. on. kalji, Sw. ben- 
kalf, Gael, calpa, calba, or colpa na coisCy 
the calf of the leg. The primary mean- 
ing of the word seems simply a lump. 
Calp is riadh, principal and interest, the 
lump and the increase. It is another 
form of the E. collop, a lump or large 
piece, especially of something soft. The 
calf of the leg is the collop of flesh be- 
longing to that member. The Lat. ana- 
logue is pulpaj pulpa cruris, the fleshy 
part of the leg ; pulpa ligni, Du. kalf van 
hout, the pith or soft part of wood. Dan. 
dial, kail, calf of leg, marrow, pith. 

♦ Calibre, — Calliper. Fr. calibre. It. 
calibro, colibro, the bore of a cannon. 



CALICO 

Calliper-compasses^ compasses contrived 
to measure the diameter of the bore. Sp. 
calibre, diameter of a ball, of a column, 
of the bore of a firearm ; met. quality. 
Ser de buen o mal calibre, to be of a good 
or bad quality. 

Derived by some from Arab, qdlab, 
kdlib, a last, form, or mould, which does 
not give a very satisfactory explanation 
either of the form or meaning of the word. 
Mahn derives it from Lat. qua librd, of 
what weight ? a guess which should be 
supported by some evidence of the use of 
libra in the sense of weight. According 
to Jal (Gl. nautique), the Fr. form in the 
1 6th century was eqicalibre. 

Calico. Fr. calicot, cotton cloth, from 
Calicut in the E. Indies, whence it was 
first brought. 

Caliph. The successors of Mahomet 
in the command of the empire, Turk. 
khalif, a. successor. 

* Caliver. A harquebus or handgun. 
The old etymologers supported their 
theories by very bold assertions, in which 
it is dangerous to place implicit faith. 
Sir John Smith in Grose, Mil. Antiq. i. 
156 (quoted by Marsh), thus accounts for 
the origin of the word : ' It is supposed 
by many that the weapon called a caliver 
is another thing than a harquebuse, 
whereas in troth it is not, but is only a 
harquebuse, saving that it is of greater 
circuite or bullet than the other is ; where- 
fore the Frenchman doth call it 2, piece de 
calibre, which is as much as to say, a 
piece of bigger circuite.' But it is hard 
to suppose that E. caliver, or caliever, can 
be distinct from ODu. koluvre, klover, 
colubrina bombarda, sclopus. — Kil. Ca- 
tapulta, donderbuchs — donrebusse vel 
clover. — Dief. Sup. Now these Du. 
forms are undoubtedly from Lat. coluber, 
Fr. couleuvre, an adder, whence couleuv- 
rine, coulevrine, and E. culverin, a kind 
of cannon, and sometimes a handgun. 
Slange, serpens, coluber ; also, bombarda 
longior, vulgo serpentina, colubrina, 
colubrum. — Kil. Coluvrine, licht stuk 
geschut, colubraria canna, fistula. — Bi- 
glotton. The adder or poisonous serpent 
was considered as a fire-spitting animal, 
and therefore it lent its name to several 
kinds of firearms. Among these were the 
drake (Bailey), and dragon, the latter of 
which has its memory preserved in Du. 
dragonder, E. dragoon, a soldier who 
originally carried that kind of arm. 

To Calk. To drive tow or oakham, 
&c., into the seams of vessels to make 
them water-tight. Lat. calcare, to tread, 



CALM 



125 



to press or stuff. Pro v. calca, calgua, Fr. 
cauque, a tent or piece of lint placed in 
the orifice of a wound, as the caulking in 
the cracks of a ship. Gael, calc, to calk, 
ram, drive, push violently ; calcaich, to 
cram, calk, harden by pressure. 

To Call. Gr. icaXsw. ON. kalla, to call, 
to say, to affirm. Du. kal, prattle, chat- 
ter ; kallen, to prattle, chatter. Lat. ca- 
lare, to proclaim, to call. Probably from 
the sound of one hallooing, hollaing. 
Fin. kallottaa, alta voce ploro, ululo ; 
Turk, kal, word of mouth ; kil-u-kal, 
people's remarks, tittle-tattle. Heb. kol, 
voice, sound. 

* Callet. A depreciatory term for a 
woman, a drab, trull, scold. ' A calat of 
leude demeaning.' — Chaucer. 'A callet 
of boundless tongue.' — Winter's Tale. Fr. 
caillette, femme frivole et babillarde. — 
Diet. Lang. Probably an unmeasured 
use of the tongue is the leading idea. 
NE. to callet, to rail or scold ; calleting, 
pert, saucy, gossiping. ' They snap and 
callit like a couple of cur dogs.' — Whitby 
Gl. To call, to abuse ; a good calling, a 
round of abuse. — Ibid. 

Callous. Hard, brawny, having a thick 
skin. — B. Lat. callus, callum, skin hard- 
ened by labour, the hard surface of the 
ground. Fin. kallo, the scalp or skull, 
jaa-kallo, a crust of ice over the roads 

(jaa = ice). 

Callow. Unfledged, not covered with 
feathers. Lat. calvus, AS. calo, caluiv, 
Du. kael, kaluwe, bald. 

Calm. It. Sp. calma, Fr. calme, ab- 
sence of wind, quiet. The primitive 
meaning of the word, however, seems to 
be heat. Sp. dial, calma, the heat of 
the day. — Diez. Ptg. calma, heat, cal- 
moso, hot. The origin is Gr. Kavfia, heat, 
from Kaioj, to burn. Mid. Lat. cauma, the 
heat of the sun. ' Dum ex nimio cauma te 
lassus ad quandam declinaret umbram.' 
Cauma — incendium, calor, sestus. — Due. 
The word was also written cawme in OE. 
The change from a u to an / in such a 
position is much less common than the 
converse, but many examples may be 
given. So It. oldire from aiidire, to hear, 
palmento for paumento from pavimen- 
tum, Sc. chalmer for chawmer from 
chamber. 

The reference to heat is preserved in 
the It. scalmato, faint, overheated, over- 
done with heat — Alt. ; scalmaccio, a sul- 
try, faint, moist, or languishing drought 
and heat. — Fl. Thus the word came to 
be used mainly with a reference to the 



126 



CALOYER 



oppressive effects of heat, and gave rise 
to the Lang, cdouma, chaonma, to avoid 
the heat, to take rest in the heat of the 
day, whence the Fr. chojnmer, to abstain 
from work. The Grisons can ma, a shady 
spot for cattle, a spot in which they take 
refuge from the heat of the day, would 
lead us to suppose that in expressing ab- 
sence of wind the notion of shelter may 
have been transferred from the sun's rays 
to the force of the wind. Or the word 
may have acquired that signification from 
the oppressiveness of the sun being 
mainly felt in the absence of wind. 

Caloyer. A Greek monk. Mod.Gr. 
raXoy«poc, KaKoyripoQ, monk, properly good 
old man, from KuXbg, good, and yspwv, 
aged. 

Calumny. Lat. cahminia, a slander, 
false imputation. 

Calvered Salmon. Properly calver 
sahnon, the fish dressed as soon as it is 
caught, when its substance appears inter- 
spersed with white flakes like curd. From 
Sc. callour, callar, fresh. Calver of 
samon, escume de saumon. — Palsgr. 
' Take calwar samon and seeth it in 
lewe water.' — Forme of Cury in Way. 
* Quhen the salmondis faillis thair loup, 
thay fall calloiir in the said caldrounis 
and are than maist delitious to the mouth.' 
• — Bellenden in Jam. 

Calyx. Lat. calix, a cup, a goblet ; 
calyx, the bud, cup, or hollow of a 
flower. 

Cambering.— Cambrel. A ship's deck 
is said to lie cambering when it does not 
lie level, but is higher in the middle than 
at the ends. — B. Fr. cambrer, to bow, 
crook, arch ; catnbre, cambrd, crooked, 
arched. Sp. coinbar, to bend, to warp, 
to jut. Bret, kamin, arched, crooked, 
lame. Gr. KdfnrTCJ, to bend, KanirvXog, 
crooked, hooked. E. camber-nosed, having 
an aquiline nose. — Jam. Ca7nbrel, cam- 
bren, w. cambren, crooked-stick, a crook- 
ed stick with notches in it on which 
butchers hang their meat. — B. 

Cambric. A sort of fine linen cloth 
brought from Cambrai in Flanders.— B. 
Fr. Cambray, or toile de Cambray — Cam- 
bric. — Cot. 

Camel. Gr. KafxTjXog, Lat. cameliis. 
Cameo. It. cajnmeo, Fr. camee, ca- 
mateu, Sp. Ptg. ca7nafeo, Mid. Lat. cama- 
helus, camahutus. 

Camisade. Sp. camisa. It. camiscia, 
a shirt, whence Fr. camisade. It. cajnis- 
ciata, a night attack upon the enemies' 
camp, the shirt being worn over the 
clothes to distinguish the attacking party, 



CANN 

or rather perhaps a surprise of the 
enemy in their shirts. 

Camlet. Fr. camelot A stuff made 
of camel's or goat's hair. It was distin- 
guished by a wavy or watered surface. 
Camelot a ondes, water chamlet ; camelot 
pletiier, unwater chamelot ; se cameloter, 
to grow rugged or full of wrinkles, to be- 
come waved like chamlet. — Cot. 

Camp. — Campaign. — Champaign. 
Lat. camp7is. It. campo, Fr. champ, a 
plain, field ; It. campo, Fr. camp, a camp 
or temporary residence in the open field. 

From ca7}ipus was formed Lat. ca77ipa- 
nia. It. ca77ipag7ia, Fr. cha772pagne, a field 
country, open and level ground, E. cha77i- 
pat'gTt. 

In a different application It. ca77ipag7ta, 
Fr. ca77ipag7ie, E. ca77ipaig7t, the space of 
time every year that an army continues 
in the field during a war. — B. 

Canal.— Channel. Lat. ca7ialis, a 
conduit-pipe, the bed of a stream, the 
fluting or furrow in a column ; ca7i7ia, a 
cane, the type of a hollow pipe. 

Cancel. Lat. ca7icello, to make like a 
lattice, cross out by scoring across and 
across ; ca7icelli, a lattice. 

Cancer. See Canker. 

Candid.— Candidate. Lat. ca7ididus, 
white, fair, plain-dealing, frank and sin- 
cere : catididatiis, clothed in white, 
whence the noun signifying an applicant, 
aspirant, because those aspiring to any 
principal office of State presented them- 
selves in a white toga while soliciting the 
votes of the citizens. 

Candle.— Chandelier. Lat. ca7idela, 
Fr. cha7idelle, from caTidere, to glow. 

Candy. Sugar in a state of crystallis- 
ation. Pers. Arab. Turk. ka7id, sugar. 
San&cr. kha7tda, a piece, sugar in pieces or 
lumps \ khand, to break. 

Canibal. An eater of human flesh. 
From the Cannibals, or Caribs, or Gali- 
bis, the original inhabitants of the W. 
India Islands, the name being differently 
pronounced by different sections of the 
nation, some of whom, like the Chinese, 
had no r in their language. Peter Martyr, 
who died in 1526, calls them Cannibals 
or Caribees. 

The Caribes I learned to be men-eaters or 
cannibals, and great enemies to the inhabitants 
of Trinidad. — Ilackluyt in R. 

Canine. Lat. ca7iis, a dog. 

Canister. Lat. ca77istrti77i, a basket. 

Canker. Fr. cha7icre, an eating, spread- 
ing sore. Lat. ca7icer, a crab, also an 
eating sore. 

Cann. on. kamta, a large drinking 



4 



CANNEL 

vessel. Perhaps from w. cannu, to con- 
tain, as rummer, a drinking glass, from 
Dan. rumme, to contain. But it may be 
from a different source. Prov. cajte, a 
reed, cane, al&o a measure. Fr. cane, a 
measure for cloth, being a yard or there- 
abouts ; also a can or such-like measure 
for wine.— Cot. A joint of a hollow stalk 
would be one of the earliest vessels for 
holding liquids, as a reed would afford 
the readiest measure of length. 

Cannel Coal. Coal burning with 
much bright flame, like a torch or candle. 
N. kyiidel, kynnel, a torch. 

Cannon. It. cannone, properly a large 
pipe, from canna, a reed, a tube. Prov. 
canon, a pipe. 

Canoe. An Indian boat made of the 
hollowed trunk of a tree. Sp. canoa, from 
the native term. Yet it is remarkable 
that the G. has kahn, a boat. OFr. cane, 
a ship ; canot, a small boat. — Diez. 

Canon. — To Canonise. From Gr. 
Kavr\, KCLvva, a cane, was formed kovwv, a 
straight rod, a ruler, and met. a rule or 
standard of excellence. Hence Lat. canon 
was used by the ecclesiastical writers for 
a tried or authorised list or roll. The 
canon of scriptures is the tried roll of 
sacred writers. To canonise^ to put upon 
the tried list of saints. 

Again we have Lat. canotiicus, regular, 
canonici, the cations or regular clergy of 
a cathedral. 

Canopy. Mod.Gr. KwrwTrtTov, a mos- 
quito curtain, bed curtain, from kw»/w-.//, a 
gnat. 

Cant. Cant is properly the language 
spoken by thieves and beggars among 
themselves, when they do not wish to be 
understood by bystanders. It therefore 
cannot be derived from the sing-song or 
whining tone in which they demand alms. 
The word seems to be taken from Gael. 
caimit, speech, language, applied in the 
first instance to the special language of 
rogues and beggars, and subsequently to 
the peculiar terms used by any other pro- 
fession or community. 

The Doctor here, 
Wlien he discourseth of dissection, 
Of vena cava and of vena porta, 
The meserasum and the mesentericum, 
What does he else but cant ? or if he run 
To his judicial astrology. 

And trowl the trine, the quartile, and the sex- 
tile, &c. 
Does he not cant f who here can understand him? 
B. Jonson. 

Gael, can, to sing, say, name, call. 

Canteen. It. cantina, a wine-cellar or 
vault. 



CAPARISON 



127 



Canter. A slow gallop, formerly called 
a Canterbury gallop. If the word had 
been from cantherius, a gelding, it would 
have been found in the continental lan- 
guages, which is not the case. 

Cantle. A piece of anything, as a 
cantle of bread, cheese, &c. — B. Fr. 
chantel, chanteaii, Picard. canteaii, a 
corner-piece or piece broken off the cor- 
ner, and hence a gobbet, lump, or cantell 
of bread, &c.~Cot. ViM. kandt-broodts, 
a hunch of bread. — Kil. ON. kantr, a 
side, border ; Dan. kant, edge, border, 
region, quarter ; It. canto, side, part, 
quarter, corner. A cantle then is a corner 
of a thing, the part easiest broken off. 
Fin. kanta, the heel, thence anything pro- 
jecting or cornered ; kmrn-kajita, a horn 
of the moon ; leiwan kanta, margo panis 
diffracta, a cantle of bread. Esthon. kan, 
kand, the heel. 

Canton. Fr. canton. It. cantone, a di- 
vision of a country. Probably only the 
augmentative of canto, a corner, although 
it has been supposed to be the equivalent 
of the E. territorial hundred, w. cantt'ef, 
cantred, from cant, a hundred, and tref, 
hamlet. 

Canvas. From Lat. cannabis, hemp. 
It. cannevo, canapa, hemp, cannevaccia, 
canapaccia, coarse hemp, coarse hempen 
cloth ; Fr. cajievas, canvas. To canvas 
a matter is a metaphor taken from sifting 
a substance through canvas, and the verb 
sift itself is used in like manner for ex- 
amining a matter thoroughly to the very 
grounds. 

* Cap. — Cape. — Cope. as. cceppe, a 
cap, cape, cope, hood. Sp. capa, a cloak, 
coat, cover ; It. cappa, Fr. chape. Words 
beginning with// or <;/are frequently ac- 
companied by synonymous forms in which 
the / is omitted, and probably the origin 
of the present words may be found in the 
notion of a piece of something flat clapped 
on another surface like the flap of a gar- 
ment turned back upon itself. Flappe of 
a gowne, cappe. — Palsgr. See Chape. 
Swab, schlapp, hirnschlapple, a scull- 
cap. Gugel, capello Italis, Germanis 
kappen, Alamannis, schlapp en. — Goldast 
in Schmid. Schwab. Wtb, 

The root cap, signifying cover, is found 
in languages of very different stocks. 
Mod.Gr. KaTTTTCLKi, a cover; Turk, kapa- 
mak, to shut, close, cover ; kapi, a door ; 
kaput, a cloak ; kapali, shut, covered. 

Capable. — Capacious. It. capevole, 
capace, Lat. capax, able to receive, con- 
tain, or hold. See Capt-. 

Caparison. Sp. capai^azon, carcase 



12S 



CAPE 



of a fowl, cover of a saddle, of a coach, 
or other things. 

Cape. A headland. It. capo^ a head. 
See Chief. 

Caper. To caper or cut capers is to 
make leaps like a kid or goat. It. capro^ 
a buck, from Lat. caper j caprio^capriola, 
a capriol, a chevret, a young kid ; met. a 
capriol or caper in dancing, a leap that 
cunning riders teach their horses. — Fl, 
Fr. capriole^ a caper in dancing, also the 
capriole, sault, or goat's leap (done by a 
horse). — Cot. 

Capers. A shrub. Lat. capparis^ Fr. 
cdpre, Sp. alcaparra^ Arab, algabr. 

Capillary. Hair-like. Lat. capilhis, 
3. hair. 

Capital. Lat. capitalist belonging to 
the head, principal, chief. From caput, 
the head. Hence capital'is the sum lent, 
the principal part of the debt, as distin- 
guished from the interest accruing upon 
it. Then funds or store of wealth viewed 
as the means of earning profit. 

To Capitulate. Lat. capitulare, to 
treat upon terms ; from capitjiltun, a little 
head, a separate division of a matter. 

Capon. A castrated cock. Sp. capar, 
to castrate. Mod.Gr. aTroKOTrrw, to cut 
off, abridge ; airoKOTroQ, cut, castrated. 

Caprice. It. cappriccio, explained by 
Diez from capra, a goat, for which he 
cites the Comask niicia, a kid, and mice, 
caprice ; It. ticchio, caprice, and OHG. 
ziki, kid. The true derivation lies in a 
different direction. The connection be- 
tween sound and the movement of the 
sonorous medium is so apparent, that the 
terms expressing modifications of the one 
are frequently transferred to the other 
subject. Thus we speak of sound vibrat- 
ing in the ears ; of a tremulous sound, 
for one in which there is a quick succes- 
sion of varying impressions on the ear. 
The words by which we represent a sound 
of such a nature are then applied to signify 
trembling or shivering action. To twitter 
is used in the first instance of the chirping 
of birds, and thene^f nervous tremulous- 
ness of the bodily frame. To chitter is 
both to chirp and to shiver. — Hal. It is 
probable that Gr. (ppiaauj originally signi- 
fied to rus.tle, as Fr. frisser {frisseinent 
d'un trait, the whizzing of an arrow — 
Cot.), then to be in a state of vibration, 
to rtiffi.e the surface of water, or, as Fr. 
Jrissoner^ to shudder, the hair to stand on 
' '^ ^pi'^oc, bristling, curling, because 
le condition of the nerves which 
;s shivering also causes the hair 
id'on endj^' The same imitation of 




CAPRICE 

a rustling, twittering, crackling sound 
gives rise to Sc. brissle, birsle, to broil, to 
parch, Lang, brezilia, to twitter as birds, 
Genevese bresoler, brisoler, to broil, to 
tingle {I'os qui bresolc, the singing bone), 
It. brisciare, to shiver for cold, and with 
an initial gr instead of br, Fr. greziller, 
to crackle, wriggle, frizzle, grisse?% to 
crackle. It. gricciare, to chill and chatter 
with one's teeth, aggricciare, to astonish 
and affright and make one's hair stand on 
end. In Lat. ericius, a hedge-hog, It. 
riccio, hedge-hog, prickly husk of chest- 
nut, curl, Fr. rissoler, to fry, herisser, It. 
arricciarsi, the hair to stand on end, the 
initial mute of forms like Gr. <ppiloQ, It. 
brisciare, gricciare, is either wholly lost, 
or represented by the syllable e, ///, as in 
Lat. e?'ica, compared with Bret, brug, w. 
grug, heath, or Lat. eruca compared with 
It. briico, a caterpillar. 

We then find the symptoms of shiver- 
ing, chattering of the teeth, roughening 
of the skin, hair standing on end, em- 
ployed to express a passionate longing for 
a thing, as in Sophocles' t^pi^ tpwrt, I have 
shivered with love. ' A tumult of delight 
invaded his soul, and his body bristled 
with joy' — Vikram, p. 75, where Burton 
adds in a note. Unexpected pleasure, ac- 
cording to the Hindoos, gives a bristly 
elevation to the down of the body. 

The effect of eager expectation in pro- 
ducing such a bodily affection fiiay fre- 
quently be observed in a dog waiting for 
a morsel of what his master is eating. 
So we speak of thrilling with emotion or 
desire, and this symptomatic shuddering 
seems the primary meaning of earn or 
yearn, to desire earnestly. To earne 
within is translated by Sherwood by 
frissonner ; to yearne, s'hdrisser, frisson- 
ner ; a yearning through sudden fear, 
herissonnement, horripilation. And simi- 
larly to yearn, arricciarsi. — Torriano. 

Many words signifying originally to 
crackle or rustle, then to shiver or shud- 
der, are in like manner used metaphori- 
cally in the sense of eager desire, as Fr. 
grisser, greziller, griller, brisolerj ' Elles 
grissoient d'ardeur de le voir, they longed 
extremely to see it.'— Cot. ' Griller d'im- 
patience.' — Trev. ' II bresole (Gl, G^- 
n^v.) — grezille (Supp. Acad.) d'etre 
marid.' 

The It. brisciare, to shiver, gives rise 
to brezza, shivering, ribrezzo, a chillness, 
shivering, horror, and also a skittish or 
humorous toy, ribrezzoso, humorous, fan- 
tastical, suddenly angry. — Fl. So from 
Sw. k?'us, bristling, curly, knis-lntfwud 



CAPRIOLE 

(bristly-head), one odd, fantastic, hard 
to please. — Nordfoss. Du. kriil, a ca- 
price, fancy. The exact counterpart 
to this is It. arriccia-capo (FL), or the 
synonymous capriccio (capo-riccio), a 
shivering fit (Altieri), and tropically, a 
sudden fear apprehended, a fantastical 
humour, a humorous conceit making one's 
hair to stand on end. — Fl. Fr. caprice, a 
sudden will, desire, or purpose to do a 
thing for which one has no apparent 
.reason. — Cot. 

Capriole. See Caper. 

Capstan. — Capstem. — Crab. Sp. ca- 
brestaute, cabesirante j Fr. cabestan. The 
name of the goat was given in many lan- 
guages (probably for the reason explained 
under Carabine) to an engine for throw- 
ing stones, and was subsequently applied 
to a machine for raising heavy weights or 
exerting a heavy pull. OSp. cabra, ca- 
breia, an engine for throwing stones. It. 
capra, a skid or such engine to raise or 
mount great ordnance withal ; also tres- 
sels, also a kind of rack. — Fl. G. bock, a 
trestle, a windlass, a crab or instrument 
to wind up weights, a kind of torture. — 
Kiittner. Fr. chevre, a machine for rais- 
ing heavy weights. In the S. of France 
the transposition of the r converts capra 
into crabo, a she-goat, also a windlass for 
raising heavy weights (explaining the 
origin of E. crab s.s.), a sawing-block or 
trestles." — Diet. Castr. 

The meaning of the Sp. cabrestante 
(whence E. capstem or capstan) now be- 
comes apparent. It is a standing crab, a 
windlass set upright for the purpose of 
. enabling a large number of men to work 
at it, in opposition to the ordinary modi- 
fication of the machine, where it is more 
convenient to make the axis horizontal. 

Capsule. Lat. capstila, dim. of capsa, 
a coffer, box, case. 

Capt-. -cept. -ceive. Lat. capio, 
captus, to take, seize, hold, contain, 
whence capture, captive, captivate, &c. 

The a of capio changes to an i m com- 
position, and of capt2is to an e, as in 
accipio, acceptiis, to take to, to accept ; 
recipio, receptus, to take back, to receive ; 
receptio, a taking back, a reception. But 
in passing into Spanish the radical sylla- 
ble -cip- of these compound verbs, 7-e- 
cipere, concipere, &c., was converted into 
-ceb- or -cib-, and in French into -cev- j as 
in Sp. recibir, concebir, Fr. recevoir, conce- 
voir. Passing on into E., which has re- 
j ceived by far the greater part of its Latin 
j derivatives through the French, the -cev- 
of the Fr. verbs gives rise to the element 



CARABINE 



129 



-ceive in receive, conceive, perceive, de- 
ceive. 

The participial form of the root in com- 
pound verbs, -cept, did not suffer the same 
corruption in French, and has thus de- 
scended unaltered to English, where it 
forms a very large class of compounds, 
accept, except, precept, intercept, deception, 
conception, &c. In cases, however, where 
the -cept was final or was only followed 
by an e mute, the p was commonly not 
pronounced in French, as in OFr. concept, 
recepte, decepte, and has accordingly been 
lost in E. conceit, deceit, while it still keeps 
its ground in the writing of receipt although 
wholly unpronounced. 

Captain. It. capitano, a head man, 
commander, from Lat. caput, capitis, 
head. 

Capuchin. It. capuccio, cappuccio, a 
hood (dim. oi cappa, a cloke) ; capuccino, 
a hooded friar, a capuchin. 

Car. — Cart. — Carry. Lat. cai'rus. It. 
carro, Fr. char. In all probability from 
the creaking of the wheels. ON. karra, 
Du. karreti, kerren, to creak, also to carry 
on a car ; karrende waegen, a creaking 
waggon. Fin. karista, strideo, crepo. Sp. 
chirriar, to creak, chirrion, a tumbrel or 
strong dung-cart which creaks very loudly. 
— Neumann. Derivatives are Fr. char- 
rier, to carry ; It. caricare, Fr. ekarger, to 
load; It. carretfa, Fr. charret, a cart. 

Carabine. — Carbine. The It. cala- 
brino, Fr. calabrin, carabin, was a kind 
of horse soldier, latterly, at least, a horse- 
man armed with a carbine or arquebus. 
Carabin, a carbitte or curbeene; an arque- 
buzier armed with a murrian and breast- 
plate and serving on horseback. — Cot. 

Les carahins sont des arquebusiers a cheval 
qui vont devant les compagnies des gens de guerre 
com me pour reconnaitre les ennemis et lesescar- 
moucher. — Caseneuve in Diet. Etym. 

As the soldiers would naturally be 
named from their peculiar armament, it 
is inferred by Diez with great probability 
that the term calabre, originally signifying 
a catapult or machine for casting stones, 
was transferred on the invention of gun- 
powder to a firelock, and that the cala- 
brins or carabins were named from 
carrying a weapon of that designation, as 
the dragoons (Du. dragonder) from carry- 
ing the gun called a dragon. It was 
natural that the names of the old siege 
machines for casting stones should be 
transferred to the more efficient kinds of 
ordnance brought into use on the dis- 
covery of gunpowder. Thus the mttsket, 
It. moschetta, was originally a missile 
9 



I30 



CARACOL 



discharged from some kind of spring ma- 
chine. Ptg. espin^arda^ a firelock, is the 
ancient springald^ a machine for casting 
large darts, and catapulta^ properly a 
siege machine, is the word used in mo- 
dern Lat. for a gun. 

The term calabre as the name of a pro- 
jectile engine is probably a corruption of 
cabre from cabm, a goat, in the same way 
that the Sp. calambre has been formed 
from the same source with the synon- 
ymous E. cramp. Ptg. cabre and calabre 
are both used in the sense of a cable, an 
instrument for exerting a heavy strain. 

The reason why the name of the goat 
is used to designate a machine for cast- 
ing stones is probably that the term Avas 
first applied to a battering-ram (G. bock, a 
he-goat, a battering-ram), a machine 
named by the most obvious analogy after 
the goat and ram, whose mode of attack 
is to rush violently with their heads 
against their opponent. From the bat- 
tering-ram, the earliest instrument of 
mural attack, the name might naturally 
be transferred to the more complicated 
military engines made for hurling stones, 
from whence it seems to have descended 
to the harmless crabs and cranes of our 
mercantile times, designated in the case 
of G. bock and Fr. chevre by the name of 
the goat. . Sp. cabra, cabreia, cabrita, an 
engine for hurling stones, a crane. — Neu- 
mann. 

Caracol, The half turn which a horse- 
man makes to the right or left ; also a 
winding staircase. Sp. caracol, a snail, 
a winding staircase, turn of a horse. 
Gael, car, a twist, bend, winding ; carac/i, 
winding, turning. AS. cerran, to turn. 

Carat. Gr. Kipdrwv, Venet. carafe, 
seed of carob. Arab, kirat, Sp. quilato, 
a small weight. Fr. siliqtie, the husk or 
cod of beans, &c., and particularly the 
carob or carob bean-cod ; also a poise 
among physicians, &c,, coming to four 
grains. Carrob, the carob bean, also a 
small weight, among mint-men and gold- 
smiths making the 24th of an ounce. — 
Cot. 

Caravan. Pers. kerwan. 

Caravel. It. caravela, a kind of ship. 
Mod.Gr. KapdiSt, Gael, carbh, a ship. Fr. 
carabe, a corracle or skiff of osier covered 
with skin.— Cot. See Carpenter. 

Carbonaceous. — Carbuncle. Lat. 
carbo, a burning coal, charcoal ; carbiin- 
cultis (dim. oi carbo), a gem resembling a 
live coal, also (as Gr. av9pa^, of the same 
primary meaning) a malignant ulcer, the 
suppuration of which seems to be re- 



CARD 

garded as internal burning. Comp. 
OHG. ell, fire ; ellar, matter, poison ; 
el2, an ulcer. 

Carboy. A large glass bottle cased in 
wicker for holding vitriol. Derived in 
the first edition from Mod.Gr. Kapafindym 
(caraboyia), vitriol, copperas. But Mr 
Marsh points out that the Gr. word is 
only an adoption of the Turk, kard boyd, 
black dye, and is applied exclusively to 
copperas or green vitriol, a solid body 
which could never have been packed in 
bottles, and so could not have given its 
name to the carboy. There is no doubt 
that the name comes from the East. 
Thus Kaempfer (Amsen. Exot. p. 379) de- 
scribes vessels for containing wine made 
at Shiraz, ' Vasa vitrea, alia sunt majora, 
ampullacea et circumdato scirpo tunicata, 
quae vocant karabd.' From the same 
source are Sicil. carabba, a bottle with 
big belly and narrow neck ; It. caraffa, 
Sp. garafa, Fr. caraffe, decanter, wine- 
bottle. 

Carcase. Mod.Gr. KapKam, a quiver, 
carcase ; — tov av6po)7rivov oMfiaroQ, the 
skeleton ; — ttiq xAwva^, the shell of a tor- 
toise. It. carcasso, a quiver, the core of 
fruit ; carcame, a dead carcase, skeleton, 
carcanet. Fr. carqiiasse, the dead body 
of any creature, a pelt or dead bird to 
take down a hawk withal ; carquois, a 
quiver ; carquan, a collar or chain for the 
neck. — Cot. Sp. carcax, a quiver ; car- 
casa, a skeleton. Cat, carcanada, the 
carcase of a fowl. The radical meaning 
seems to be something holding together, 
confining, constraining ; shell, case, or 
framework. \v. carch, restraint ; Gael. 
carcalr, a coffer, a prison. Bohem. krciti, 
to draw in, contract. 

The word is explained oy Diez from 
carnls capsa, the case of the flesh. It. 
cassa, a case or chest ; casso, the trunk or 
chest of the body ; Parmesan casslron, 
skeleton. 

Card. I. An implement for dressing 
wool. Lat. carere, carmmare, to comb 
wool ; caf^duus, a thistle. It. cardo, a this- 
tle, teasel for dressing woollen cloth. 
Lith. karszti, to ripple flax, to strip oft" the 
heads by drawing the flax through a 
comb, to card wool, to curry horses ; 
karsztuivas, a ripple for flax, wool card, 
curry-comb. Gael, card, to card wool, 
&c., cdrlag, a lock of wool ; cai'la, a wool 
card. The fundamental idea is the no- 
tion of scraping or scratching, and the 
expression arises from an imitation of the 
noise. ON. karra, to creak, to hiss (as 
geese), to comb ; karri, a card or comb ; 



CARD 

karr-kamba}-, wool cards. G. scharren, 
to scrape ; kratzen, to scratch. 

Card, 2.— Cartel.— Chart.— Charter. 
Lat. charta (Gr. xapr^i), paper, paper 
written on or the writing itself, whence 
the several meanings of the words above : 
Fr, carte^ a card, charte, chartre, a deed, 
record. 

Cardinal. From. Lat. cardo^ cardinis, 
a hinge, that on which the matter hinges, 
principal, fundamental. Gael, car, a turn, 
winding. 

Care. as. cearian, ca^'ian, to take 
heed, care, be anxious. Goth, kara, 
care ; uiikarja, careless ; gakaran, to 
take care of. 

Probably the origin of the word is the 
act of moaning, murmuring, or grumbling 
at what is felt as grievous. Fin. karista, 
rauca voce loquor vel ravum sonum edo, 
strideo, morosus sum, murren, zanken ; 
karry, asper, morosus, rixosus. A like 
connection may be seen between Fin. sur- 
rata, stridere, to whirr (schnurren), and 
suru, sorrow, care ; ON. kumra, to growl, 
mutter, and G. ktcmmer, grief, sorrow, 
distress ; Fin. inurista, imirahtaa, to 
growl, and nmrhet, aegritudo animi, moe- 
ror, cura intenta. The Lat. aira may be 
compared with Fin. kicrista, voce strepo 
stridente, inde murmuro vel asgre fero, 
quirito ut infans. 

To Careen. To refit a ship by bring- 
ing her down on one side and supporting 
her while she is repaired on the other. 
Properly, to clean the bottom of the ship. 
It. careiia, the keel, bottom, or whole 
bulk of a ship ; dare la carena alle navi, 
to tallow or calk the bottom of a ship. 
Care n are, Fr. carener, from Lat. carina, 
the keel of a vessel. Venet. carena, the 
hull of a ship, from the keel to the water 
line ; essere in carena, to lie on its side. 
■ — Boerio. 

Career. It. carriera, Fr, ca7-riere, a 
highway, road, or street, also a career on 
horseback, place for exercise on horse- 
back. — Cot. Properly a car-road, from 
carrus. — Diez. 

Caress. Fr. caresse. It. carezsa, an 
endearment, w, cam, Bret, karoiit, to 
love. Bret, karantez, love, affection, ca- 
ress. Mid. Lat. caritia, from cams, dear, 

Et quum Punzilupus intrasset domum ubi es- 
sent hoeretici, videntibus omnibus fecit magnas 
caritias et ostendit magnam amicitiam et famili- 
aritatem dictis h^reticis. — Mur. in Carp. 

Carfax. A place where four roads 
meet. Mid. Lat. giiadrifnrcinn from qna- 
tuorfiirccB (Burguy), as quadriviuni from 



CARNAVAL 



13J 



quatuor vise. OFr. carrtfoiirg, quarre- 
four, the part of a town where four streets 
meet at a head. — Cot. 

A I'entree de Luxembourg 
Lieu n'y avoit ni carrefourg 
Dent Ten n'eust veu venir les gens. 

Rom. de Parthenay. 

Translated in MS. Trin. Coll., 

No place there had, neither carfoukes none 
But peple shold se ther come many one. 

W. W. Skeat, in N. & Q., Sept. 8, 1866. 
' Thei enbusshed hem agein a carfowgh of six 

weyes.' — Merlin, p. 273. 

Cargo. Sp. cargo, the load of a ship. 
It. caricare, cai'care, Sp. cargar, Ptg. car- 
regar, Fr. charger, to load. From carrus, 
whence caj'ricare, to load, in St Jerome. 
—Due. 

Caricature. It. caricatura, an over- 
loaded representation of anything, from 
caricare, to load. 

Cark. AS. cearig, soUicitus ; OSax. 
mod-carag, ma^stus. OHG. charag, charg, 
carch, astutus. G. karg, Dan. karrig, 
stingy, niggardly ; ON. kargr, tenax, piger, 
ignarus. w. carcus, solicitous. 

Carl. A clown or churl. AS. ceorl, 
ON. karl, a man, male person. 

Carlings. — Carled peas. Peas steep- 
ed and fried, G. kroll-erbser. Fr. graller, 
to parch, grolld, parched or carled, as 
peas, beans, &c.— Cot. Groler, to fry or 
broil. — Roquef. Champ, guerlir, to fry, 
from the crackling sound ; Fr. croller, 
to murmur — Roquef. ; crosier, to shake, 
tremble, quaver ; Bois crolant d'un ladre, 
a lazar's clack, E. crawl, crowl, to rumble. 
Carminative. A medical term from 
the old theory of humours. The object 
of carminatives is to expel wind, but the 
theory is that they dilute and relax the 
gross humours from whence the wind 
arises, combing them out like the knots 
in wool. It. carniinare, to card wool, 
also by medicines to make gross humours 
fine and thin. — Fl. 

For the root of carminare, see Garble, 
and compare Bret, kribina, to comb flax 
or hemp, as carminare, to comb wool. 

Carnage. — Carnal. — Charnel. Lat. 
caro, camis, the flesh of animals ; carna- 
lis, appertaining to the flesh. Fr. charnel, 
carnal, sensual, charneux, fleshy ; charn- 
age, the time during which it is lawful 
to Rom. Cath. to eat flesh. 

Carnaval. The period of festivities 
indulged in in Catholic countries, imme- 
diately before the long fast of Lent. It. 
carnavale, carnovale, carnasciale. Fare- 
well flesh, that is to say, Shrove tide.— 
Fl. This however is one of those ac- 
9 * 



132 CAROL 

commodations so frequently modifying the 
form of words. The true derivation is 
seen in Mid.Lat. carnelcvamen or carnis 
levamen^ i. e. the solace of the flesh or of 
the bodily appetite, permitted in anticipa- 
tion of the long fast. In a MS. descrip- 
tion of the Carnival of the beginning of 
the 13th century, quoted by Carpentier, 
it is spoken of as ' delectatio nostri cor- 
poris.' The name then appears under 
the corrupted forms of Carnelevariu7n, 
Caruelevale^ Carnevale. * In Dominica 
in caput Quadragesimas quae dicitur 
Canielevale.^ — Ordo Eccles. Mediol. A.D. 
1 1 30, in Carp. Other names of the sea- 
son were Carnicapium^ Shrove Tuesday, 
and Carne7ti laxare (It. carnelascia), 
whence the form carnasciale, differing 
about as much from its parent cartielascia 
as carnaval from carnelevamen. 

Carol. Properly a round dance, Fr. 
Carole^ querole. Bret, koroll, a dance, w. 
coroli, to reel, to dance. 

Tho mio[htist thou karolUs sene 

And folke daunce and merie ben, 

And made many a faire tourning 

Upon the grene grasse springing. — R. R. 760. 

Chanson de carole, a song accompany- 
ing a dance ; then, as Fr. balade from It. 
ballare, to dance, applied to the song it- 
self Diez suggests chorulus from chorus 
as the origin. But we have no occasion 
to invent a diminutive, as the Lat. corolla 
from corona gives the exact sense re- 
quired. Robert of Brunne calls the cir- 
cuit of Druidical stones a carol. 

This Bretons renged about the felde 

The karole of the stones behelde, 

Many tyme yede tham about, 

Biheld within, biheld without. — Pref. cxciv. 

Carouse. The derivation from k7'oes, 
a drinking cup, is erroneous, and there is 
no doubt that the old explanation from 
G. gar aus ! all out ! is correct. * The 
custom,' says Motley (United Neth. 2. 
94), ' was then prevalent at banquets for 
the revellers to pledge each other in rota- 
tion, each draitiing a great cup and ex- 
acting the same feat from his neighbour, 
who then emptied his goblet as a chal- 
lenge to his next comrade.' When the 
goblet was emptied it probably would be 
turned upside down with the exclamation 
gar aus ! This was what was called 
drinking carouse. 

The tippling sots, at midnight which 
To quaff carouse do use, 

Will hate thee if at any time 

To pledge them thou refuse. — Drant in R. 

Sp. carduz, cardos, act of drinking a full 
bumper to one's health. — Neum. * Ein 



CARPET 

narr schiittet sein hcrz gar aus :^ a fool 
empties his heart completely out. ' Sonic 
of our captaines^^r^z/i-frt'of his wine till 
they were reasonably pliant— And are 
themselves at their meetings and feasts 
the greatest garotisers and drunkards in 
existence.'— Raleigh, Discov. of Guiana, 
cited by Marsh. 

The derivation is made completely 
certain by the use of all out in the same 
sense. I quaught, I drink all out,]e bois 
d'autant.— Palsgr. Alluz (G. all aus), all 
out, or a carouse fully drunk up. — Cot. 
Rabelais uses boire carrous et alluz. 
Why give's some wine then, this will fit us all : 
Here's to you still my captains friend. All out ! 
B. and F. Beggars Bush. 

To Carp, i. Carpyn or talkyn, fabulor, 
confabulor, garrulo. — Pr. Pm. 

So gone they forthe, carpende fast 
On this, on that. — Gower in Way. 

Bohem. krapati^ garrire, to chatter ; 
krapa7ij, tattle, chatter. ON. skraf, dis- 
course, chatter ; skrafa, to rustle, to talk. 
Analogous to E. chirp. 

2. Lat. ca7po, to gather, pluck, pluck 
at, to find fault with. 

Carpenter, Lat. carpenttt7n, a car ; 
ca7peHtarius, a wheelwright, maker of 
waggons ; It. catpentiere, a wheelwright, 
worker in timber ; Fr. charpe7ttier, as e; 
carpe7iter only in the latter sense. Mid. 
Lat. carpe7tta, zimmer, tymmer, zimmer- 
span. — Dief. Sup. The word seems of 
Celtic origin. Gael. ca7'bh, a plank, ship, 
chariot ; carbad, Olr. carpal (Stokes), 
a chariot, litter, bier. 

Carpet. From Lat. carpere, to pluck, 
to pull asunder, was formed Mid.Lat. 
carpia, carpita., linteum carptum quod 
vulneribus inditur. Fr. charpie, lint. 
Mid.Lat. carpetrix, a carder. — Nomin. in 
Nat. Ant. 216. The term was with equal 
propriety applied to flocks of wool, used 
for stuffing mattresses, or loose as a couch 
without further preparation. ' Ca7pita77t 
habeat in lecto, qui sacco, culcitra, vel 
coopertorio carebit.' — Reg. Templariorum 
in Due. 

It seems then to have signified any 
quilted fabric, a patchwork table-cover 
with a lining of coarse cloth — La Crusca, 
or the cloak of the Carmelites made of 
like materials ; a woman's petticoat, pro- 
perly doubtless a quilted petticoat. Ca7'- 
peta, gonna, gonnella. — Patriarchi. ' Qui- 
libet frater habeat saccum in quo dormit, 
ca>peta7n (a quilt ?), linteamen.' — Stat. 
Eq. Teut. in Due. On the other hand 
we find the signification transferred from 



CARRIAGE 

the flocks with which the bed was stuffed 
to the sacking which contained them. 
Rouchi carpeie, coarse loose fabric of 
wool and hemp, packing cloth. ' Eune 
tapisserie d^carpete^ des rideaux 6^carpete.^ 
■ — Hecart. 

Carriage. The carrying of anything, 
also a conveyance with springs for con- 
veying passengers. In the latter sense 
the word is a corruption of the OE. ca- 
roc/ie, caroach, from It. carroccio^ carroc- 
cia, carrozza ; Rouchi caroche^ Fr. car- 
rosse, augmentatives of carro, a car. 

It. carreaggio, carriaggio, all manner 
of carts or carriage by carts, also the car- 
riage, luggage, bag and baggage of a 
camp. — Fl. 

Carrion. It. carogna, Fr. charogne, 
Rouchi caro?te, an augmentative from Lat. 
caro. 

Carrot. Lat. carota. 

To Carry. Fr. charrier, Rouchi carter, 
properly to convey in a car. Walach. 
card, to convey in a cart, to bear or carry. 

Cart. AS. krat. It. carretto, carretta. 
Fr. charrette, dim. of carro, a car. 

Cartel. It. cartella, pasteboard, a 
piece of pasteboard with some inscription 
on it, hung up in some place and to be 
removed, — Flor. Hence a challenge 
openly hung up, afterwards any written 
challenge. See Card. 

Cartilage. Lat. cartilago, gristle, 
tendon. Probably, like all the names of 
gristle, from the sound it makes when 
bitten. Alban. kertselig I cranch with 
the teeth. See Gristle. 

Cartoon. Preparatory drawing of a 
subject for a picture. It. cartone, augm. 
of carta, paper. 

Cartouch. — Cartoose. — Cartridge. 
Fr. cartouche. It. cartoccio, a paper case, 
coffin of paper for groceries, paper cap for 
criminals ignominiously exposed. — Fl. 
The paper case containing the charge of 
a gun. 

To Carve. AS. ceorfan, Du. kerven, 
to cut or carve ; G. kerben, to notch. 
Lith. kerpit, khpti, to shear, cut with 
scissors. 

Cascade. It. cascata, Fr. cascade, a 
fall of water, from It. cascare, to fall. The 
radical sense of the word seems to be to 
come down with a squash. Sp. cascar, 
to crack, crush, break to pieces. OE. 
quash, to dash. 

Case. — Casual. — Casuist. Lat. casus, 
a fall, an act of falling, a chance or acci- 
dent, something that actually occurs, a 
form into which a noun falls in the pro- 
cess of declension ; casualis, fortuitous, 



CASSOCK 



133 



Fr. casuelj Fr. casuiste, one who reasons 
on cases put. 

Case. It. cassa, Sp. caxa, Fr. caisse, 
a chest, coffer, case, from Lat. capsa 
(Diez), and that apparently from capio, 
to hold. 

Case-mate. Fr. case-mate; Sp. casa- 
inata; It. casa-matta. Originally a loop- 
holed gallery excavated in a bastion, 
from whence the garrison could do exe- 
cution upon an enemy who had obtained 
possession of the ditch, without risk of 
loss to themselves. Hence the designa- 
tion from Sp. casa, house, and malar, to 
slay, corresponding to the G. mord-keller, 
7nord-grube, and the OE. slaughter-house. 
' Casa-matta, a canonry or slaughter- 
house, which is a place built low under 
the walls of a bulwark, not reaching to the 
height of the ditch, and serveth to annoy 
the enemy when he entereth the ditch to • 
scale the wall' — Fl. ' Casemate, a loop- 
hole in a fortified wall.' — Cot. ' A vault 
of mason's work in the flank of a bastion 
next the curtain, to fire on the enemy.' 
— Bailey. As defence from shells became 
more important, the term was subse- 
quently applied to a bomb-proof vault in 
a fortress, for the security of the defend- 
ers, without reference to the annoyance 
of the enemy. 

Cash. Ready money. A word intro- 
duced from the language of book-keeping, 
where Fr. caisse, the money chest, is the 
head under which money actually paid in 
is entered. It was formerly used in the 
sense of a counter in a shop or place of 
business. It. cassa, Fr. caisse, a mer- 
chant's cash or counter. — Fl. Cot. 

To Cashier. — To Q,uash. Du. kasse- 
ren. — Kil. Fr. casser, quasser, to break, 
also to casse, cassere, discharge, turn 
out of service, annul, cancel, abrogate. 
— Cot. To quash an indictment, to an- 
nul the proceeding. Lat. cassus, empty, 
hollow, void ; cassare,\.o annul, discharge ; 
It. casso, made void, cancelled, cashiered, 
blotted out.— Fl. 

Cask. — Casket.— Casque. The Sp. 
casco signifies a skull, crown of a hat, 
helmet, cask or wooden vessel for holding 
liquids, hull of a ship, shell or carcase of 
a house. It seems generally to signify 
case or hollow receptacle. See Case. 
Hence casket, Fr. cassette, a coffer or 
small case for jewels. 

Cassock. Gael, casag, a long coat. 
It. casacca, Fr. casaque, long man's gown 
with a close body, from casa, a hut, the 
notion of covering or sheltering being 
common to a house and a garment, as we 



J 34 



CAST 



have before seen under Cape and Cabin. 
So also from It. casipola, casiipola^ a little 
house or hut, Fr. chasuble^ a garment for 
performing the mass in, Sp. casulla, OFr. 
casule^ Mid.Lat. casula,(\\i2is\ minor casa 
eo quod totum hominem tegat. — Isidore 
in Diez. 

To Cast. ON. kasta. Essentially the 
same word with Sp. cascar, to crack, 
break, burst ; Fr. casser, to break, crush ; 
It. cascare^ to fall. The fundamental 
image is the sound of a violent collision, 
represented by the syllable quash, squash, 
cash, cast. It. accasciare, accastiare, to 
squash, dash, or bruise together. — Fl. 
The E. dash with a like imitative origin 
is used with a like variety of signification. 
We speak of dashing a thing down, dash- 
ing it to pieces, dashing it out of the 
window. To cast accounts was properly 
to reckon by counters which were bodily 
transferred from one place to another. 
See Awgrim. 

Castanets. Snappers which dancers 
of sarabands tie about their fingers. — B. 
Sp. castana, a chesnut ; castanetazo, a 
sound or crack of a chesnut which bursts 
in the fire, crack given by the joints. 
Hence castaheta, the snapping of the 
fingers in a Spanish dance ; castaneta, 
castanuela, the castanets or implement 
for making a louder snapping ; castahet- 
ear, to crackle, to clack. 

Caste. The artificial divisions of so- 
ciety in India, first made known to us by 
the Portuguese, and described by them 
by the term casta, signifying breed, race, 
kind, which has been retained in E. under 
the supposition that it was the native 
name. 

Castle. It. castello, Lat. castellum, 
dim. of castruvi (castra), a fortified place. 

Castrate. Lat. castro, perhaps from 
castus, to make clean or chaste. 

Cat. G. katze, Gael, cat, ON. kbttr. 
Fin. kasi, kissa, probably from an imita- 
tion of the sound made by a cat spitting. 
Cass / a word to drive away a cat. — Hal. 
Lang, cassa / cry for the same purpose. 
The Fin. kutis / is used to drive them 
away, while kiss ! Pol. kic ! kici! are used 
as E. puss ! for calHng them. 

Cat o' nine tails. Pol. kat, execu- 
tioner ; katowac, to lash, rack, torture. 
Lith. kotas, the stalk of plants, shaft of a 
lance, handle of an axe, &c. ; bot-kotis, 
the handle of a scourge ; kotas, the exe- 
cutioner ; kotawoti, to scourge, to torture. 

Russ. koshka, a cat ; koshki, a whip 
with several pitched cords, cat-o'-nine- 
tails. 



CATCH 

Catacomb. Grottoes or subterraneous 
places for the burial of the dead. The 
Diet. Etym. says that the name is given 
in Italy to the tombs of the martyrs 
which people go to visit by way of devo- 
tion. This would tend to support Diez's 
explanation from Sp. catar, to look at, 
and tomba, a tomb (as the word is also 
spelt catatomba and catatumba), or comba, 
a vault, which, however, is not satisfac- 
tory, as a shew is not the primary point 
of view in which the tombs of the martyrs 
were likely to have been considered in 
early times. Moreover the name was 
apparently confined to certain old quar- 
ries used as burial-places near Rome. 
Others explain it from Kara, down, and 
KVfiiSog, a cavity. 

Catalogue. Gr. KaraXoyog, an enumer- 
ating, a list. 

Cataract. Gr. KaTapaKrrjg, KarappaKTrjg, 
from Karappdaaio, to hurl down, to fall as 
water does over a precipice. 'Pacro-w, 
apd(T(Tio, to dash. 

Catastrophe. Gr. errpt^w, to turn ; 
KaTciarpk^io, to overturn, to bring to an 
end, to close. 

To Catch.— Chase. The words catch 
and chase are different versions of the 
same word, coming to us through differ- 
ent dialects of French. In the dialect of 
Picardy, from which much of the French 
in our language was introduced, a hard c 
commonly corresponds to the soft ch of 
ordinary Fr., and a final ch in Picard to 
the hard s of ordinary Fr. Thus we have 
Pic. or Rouchi cat, Fr. chat, a cat ; Rou- 
chi caleur, Fr. chaleur, heat ; Rouchi 
forche, Yx. force j Rouchi equerviche, Fr. 
ec7'evisse ; Rouchi e caches, Fr. Mtasses, 
stilts. In like manner Rouchi cache?', 
Fr. chasser, to hunt, from the first of 
which we have E. catch, and from the 
second chase, the earlier sense of catch, 
like that of It. cacciare, Fr. chasser, being 
to drive out, drive away. 
Maid thorgh theLundreisfro London \skatched. 
R. Brunne, 120. 

' Catchyn away — abigo.' ' Catchyn or 
drive forth bestis, mino.' — Pr. Pm. Fr. 
chasser, to drive away, follow after, pur- 
sue. — Cot. It. cacciare fuora, to drive 
out ; cacciare per terra, to cast or beat to 
the ground ; cacciuolo, a thump, punch, 
push. — Fl. 

The origin is the imitation of the sound 
of a smart blow by the syllable clutch ! 
passing on the one hand into catch and 
on the other into latch, by the loss of 
the / or ^ respectively. N. klakka, kakka, 
to strike a resounding object as a board 



CATCH 

— Aasen. Fr, claqiier^ Wal. caker^ to 
clap hands, to chatter with the teeth ; 
cake, clap with the hand. — Grandg. G. 
klatsch I thwick-thwack ! a word .to imi- 
tate the sound made by striking with the 
hand against a partition wall ; klatsch^ 
such a sound or the stroke which pro- 
duces it, a clap, flap ; klatsche, a whip or 
lash. — Klittner. Du. kletsen, resono ictu 
verberare ; klets, kletse, ictus resonans, 
fragor ; kletsoore, ketsoore, a whip ; Rou- 
chi cachoire, ecachoire, a whip, properly 
the lash or knotted piece of whipcord 
added for the purpose of giving sharpness 
to the crack. — Hecart. l>[ovva. cache, s.s. 
— Pat. de Bray. Fr. chassoire, a carter's 
whip. — Cot. Galla catchiza, to crack 
with a whip, catchi, a whip. — Tutschek. 
Du. kaetse, a smack, clap, blow, and spe- 
cially the stroke of a ball at tennis. — Kil. 
Fr. chasse, E. chase, the distance to which 
the ball is struck. Arbalete de courte 
chasse, a. cross-bow that carries but a 
little way. 

In the sense of seizing an object the 
term catch is to be explained as clapping 
one's hand upon it, snatching it with a 
smack, in the same way that we speak of 
catching one a box on the ear. In the 
sense of a sudden snatch the Sc. has both 
forms, with and without an / after the c. 
Claiicht, snatched, laid hold of eagerly 
and suddenly ; a catch or seizure of any- 
thing in a sudden and forcible way. 
V/hen one lays hold of what is falling it 
is said that he ' got a claucht of it.' — Jam. 

And claucht anone the courser by the rene. 

D. V. 

Gael, glac, to take, seize, catch. 

In the s. s. caucht. 
Turnus at this time waxis bauld and blythe 
Wenyng to caucht ane stound his strenth to kythe. 

D.V. 

i. e. to catch an opportunity to show his 
strength. 

Galla catchamza, to snap, to snatch 
(said of dogs). For the equivalence of 
similar forms with and without an / after 
2i c ox g, compare G. klatschen, to chat, 
chatter, clatter. — Klittner. G. klatscherei, 
Sp. chachara, chatter ; Du. klinke, E. 
chink. — Kil. Gael, gliong, E. gingle. 
Rouchi ctincaitleux, Fr. quincailler, a 
tinman. 

On the other hand the loss of the initial 
c gives rise to a form lash, latch, with 
similar meanings to those belonging to 
words of the form clatch, catch, above 
explained. 

Thus we have the lash of a whip cor- 
responding to the G. klatsche and Norm. 



GATES 



135 



cache. As Sc. chak expresses ' the sharp 
sound made by any iron substance when 
entering its socket, as of the latch of a 
door when it is shut, to click ; ' and to 
chak is * to shut with a sharp sound ' 
(Jam.) ; the representation of alike sound 
by the syllable latch gives its designation 
to the latch of a door, formerly called 
cliket, from shutting with a click. And 
on the same principle on which we have 
above explained the actual use of the 
word catch, the OE. latch was commonly 
used in the sense of seizing, snatching, 
obtaining possession of. 

And if ye latche Lucre let hym not ascapie. 

P. P. 

Catcli-poll. A bailiff, one employed 
to apprehend a person. From poll, the 
head. On the same principle he was 
called in Fr. happe-chair, catch-flesh. 
Fr. chacepol, an officer of taxes. 

Catechism. Elementary instruction 
in the principles of religion by question 
and answer. Properly a system of oral 
instruction, from Gr. KarrjxiK^, Karz/^sw, to 
sound, resound, to sound in the ears of 
any one, to teach by oral instruction, 
teach the elements of any science. Kary- 
xr)<nQ, the act of stunning by loud sound 
or of charming by sound, instruction in 
the elements of a science. 'Hx>7, sound. 

Category. Gr. Karijyopia (KaTtiyopkio, 
from KOTO, and ayop'iu,), to harangue, speak 
in order), an accusing, but specially an 
order of ideas, predicament. 

* Caterpillar. In Guernsey the name 
of catte pelaenre seems to be given to 
caterpillars, weevils, woodlice, mille- 
pedes. — Metivier. Chate pelense, a corn- 
devouring mite or weevil. — Cot. As the 
weevil is not hairy probably the element 
peleuse is a corruption. Metivier explains 
the word from the habit of all these in- 
sects of rolling themselves up like a pill ; 
Guernsey pilleure, OFr. pillouere (Ro- 
quefort), a pill. Why a grub should be 
called dog or cat is not apparent, 
Guernsey catte, the larva of the cock- 
chafer. Swiss tenfelskatz, Lombard 
gatta, gattola, Fr. chenille {canicula, a 
little dog), a caterpillar ; Milanese can, 
cagnon (a dog), silkworm. — Diez. Ptg. 
bicho, bichano (pussy), children's name 
for cat ; bicho, worm, insect, wild-beast. 

* Cates. — Caterer. Gates, dainty vic- 
tuals, — B. The word is rendered by 
Sherwood by frigaleries, companaige, i. e. 
dainties, or any kind of rehshing food 
(including meat) eaten with bread. In 
all probability the suggestion of Skinner 
that it is curtailed from ddicates^ which 



136 



CATHARTIC 



was used substantively in the same sense, 

is correct. Dclycates^ deyntie meates. — 

Palsgr. 

Riclily she feeds, and at the rich man's cost — 

By sea, by land, of dclicates the most 

Her cater, seeks, and spareth for no perell. 

Wyatt in R. 
All kind of daintyes and delicates sweete 
Was brought forthebanquett. — Bessie of Bednall. 

The eatery was the storeroom where 
provisions were kept, and the caterer or 
cater the person who provided them. On 
the other hand, the officer whose business 
it was to make purchases for a household 
was called acatour or achatour, from 
Prov. acaptar, Fr. achepter^ acheter (Lat. 
adcaptare, Mid. Lat. accapitare — Diez), 
Rouchi acater, to buy, It. accattare, to ac- 
quire. 

A gentil manciple was ther of a temple, 
â–  Of which achatoiirs mighten take ensemple 

For to ben wise in bying of vitaille. 

For whether that he paide or toke by taille 

Algate he waited so in his achate, 

That he was ay before in his estate. 

Prologue, Manciple's Tale. 

Coempcyon is to sale comen achate or buying 
together [joint buying]. — Chaucer, Boethius, B, 
2. Pr. 4. 

Hence achates or acates signified pur- 
chases, and the nicer kind of food being 
commonly purchased abroad the word 
became confounded with cates. ' One that 
never made a good meal in his sleep, but 
sells the acates that are sent him.' — B. 
Jonson in R. 

Provider, acater, despencier. — Palsgr. 

Cathartic. Gr. KaBapriKog, having the 
property of cleansing, from Ka^aipo), to 
purge, make clean. 

Cathedral. Gr. Ka^sdpa, a seat, chair, 
specially the seat of office of a master or 
professor in science, &x., a pulpit, whence 
cat/iedratis, applied to a church contain- 
ing a bishop's seat. 

Catkin. It is probably not so much 
from the resemblance to a cat's tail as 
from a cat being taken as the type of 
what is furry or downy that the name of 
catkin, Fr. catons, Du. katte, katteken, G. 
kdtzchen, little cat, is given to the downy 
or feathery flowers of the willow, hazel, 
&c. Thus iSav. 7midel, puss, is used in 
the sense of cat-skin, fur in general, flock, 
flue, catkin ; mitz, inutz, puss, fur, cat- 
kin ; Magy. macska, cat; 7naczoka,]<i\i\.Qn, 
lamb, catkin ; Pol. kocie, kitten ; kotki, 
kocia7tki, catkins ; Fr. ininon, puss, cat- 
kin. 

Cattle. See Chattel. 

Caudle. A warm comforting drink. 
Fr. chaudeau^ from chatid, hot. 



CAVE 

Caul. The omentum or fatty network 
in which the bowels are wrapped. It. 
rete, reticella; rete del fdgato, the caul of 
the liver. A caul is also a small net to 
confine the hair, and hence a skull-cap, 
also the membrane covering the face of 
some infants at their birth. The proper 
meaning of the word seems to be a net, 
whence it is provincially used in the 
sense of a spider's web.— Hal. Rete, any 
net or caul- work. — Fl. 

Her head with ringlets of her hair is crowned, 

And in a golden caul the curls are bound. 
Dryden in R 

Yr. cale, a kind of little cap ; calotte, a 
skull-cap. 

The primitive meaning is a shale or 
peel, what is shaled or picked off. Fr. 
cale, challe de noix, the green husk of a 
walnut ; calo7i, walnut with the husk on ; 
challer, to shale or peel. — Jaubert. 

The word is otherwise written kell. 

Cauldron. Fr. cJiauderon, chaud7'07t, 
chaudihr, a kettle for heating water. 
Chaiid, It. caldo, Lat. calidus, hot. 

Cauliflower. Fr. choufleur {ckou, 
cabbage), the cabbage whose eatable part 
consists of the abnormally developed 
flower-buds. Lat. caulis, a stalk, cab- 
bage-stalk, cabbage. • 

Cause. Lat. causa. 

Causeway. Fr. chaussee, a paved 
road. Mid. Lat. calceata, calceta, a road ; 
calceata, shod or protected from the tread- 
ing of the horses by a coating of wood or 
stone. Fr. chausser, to shoe ; Port, cal- 
(^ar, to shoe, also to pave ; calgada, a 
pavement, the stones of a street. Du. 
kautsije, kaussijde, kassije, via strata. — 
Kil. 

Caustic. — Cauterise. .Gr. KavariKoc, 
apt to burn ; tcavrr/p, Kavrripiov, a branding 
iron, from Kaiw, to burn. 

Caution. Lat. cautis, from cavco (p.p.. 
cautus), to beware. 

Cavalier. — Cavalry. — Cavalcade. It. 
cavalie7'e, Fr. chevalier, a horseman. It. 
cavallo, Fr. chei/al, a horse, Lat. cnballus, 
Gr. Ka^aWrn;, OE. caple. ' Caballus, a 
horse ; yet in some parts of England 
they do call an horse a cable. ^ — Elyot in 
Way. w. ceffyl, a horse ; Gael, capull, 
Pol. kobyla, Russ. kobidV, a mare. 

Cave. — Cavern. — Cavity. Lat. cavus, 
hollow. The origin of the word seems a 
representation of the sound made by 
knocking against a hollow body. Fin. 
kopista, dumpf tonen, klopfend knallen, 
to sound like a blow ; kopa7io, caudex 
arboris cavus pulsu resonans ; kopa7'o, 
kopa7'ct, a receptacle for small things, 



CAVESON 

coffer, pit ; kopera or kowei'a^ hollow, 
curved, crooked ; kopio^ empty, sounding 
as an empty vessel ; koppa, anything hol- 
lowed or vaulted ; kanteleen koppa, the 
box or sounding-board of the harp ; pii- 
pun koppa, the bowl of a pipe ; koppa- 
viato, a. beetle or crustaceous insect ; 
koppa nokka, an aquiline nose, &c. ; kop- 
peli, a hut, little house. 

So from Fin. kommata, komista, to 
sound deep or hollow as an empty vessel, 
kojiio, hollow, giving a hollow sound ; 
komo jaa, hollow ice ; wuoren komo, a 
cavern in a mountain {wuora, a moun- 
tain). 

Caveson. A kind of bridle put upon 
the nose of a horse in order to break and 
manage him. — B. Yr. cavegon, Sp. cabe- 
qon, It. cavezzone, augm. of cavezza, a 
halter, and that from Sp. cabe(^a, a head. 
A false accommodation produced G. 
kapp-zaum, as if from kappen, to cut, 
and zaiim, bridle, a severe bridle. 

Cavil. Lat. cavillor, to argue cap- 
tiously, quibble. 

Cease. — Cessation. Lat. cesso, to 
cease. 

-cease. — Decease. Lat. decessus, de- 
parture, Fr. deces, departure from this 
life, death. See -cede. 

Cede, -cede, -ceed, -cess. Lat. cedo, 
cessicm, to go forth, step away, give place, 
yield. Hence concede, exceed, pfoceed, 
recede, succeed, &c., with their substan- 
tives concession, excess, &c. 

Ceiling. The It. cielo, Fr. del, heaven, 
sky, were met. applied to a canopy, the 
testern of a bed, the inner roof of a room 
of state. — Cot. In the same way G. hijn- 
mel, heaven, is applied to a canopy, the 
roof of a coach, or of a bed. The import- 
ation of Fr. del into English without 
translation gave cele, seele, a canopy. ' In 
this wise the King shall ride opyn heded 
undre a seele of cloth of gold baudekyn 
with four staves gilt.' — Rutland papers. 
Cam. Soc. pp. 5, 7, &c. ' The chammer 
was hanged of red and of blew, and in it 
was a cyll of state of cloth of gold, but 
the Kyng was not under for that sam 
day.' — Marriage of James IV. in Jam. 
The name was extended to the seat of 
dignity with its canopy over. ' And seik 
to your soverane, semely on syll.^ — Gawan 
and Gol. in Jam. From the noun was 
formed the verb to cele or sile, to canopy ; 
siled, canopied, hung, 'All the tente within 
was syled wyth clothe of gold and blew 
velvet '— Hall, H. VIII. p. 32 ; sylure, 
selure, selar, cellar, cyling (W. Wore, in 
Hal.), a canopy, tester of a bed, ceiling. 



CEILING 



T37 



The kynge to souper is set, served in halle 
Under a siller of silk, dayntily dight. 

Sir Gawaine & Sir Gol. 

Cellar for a bedde, ciel de lit. — Palsgr. 
'A celler to hange in the chamber.' — 
Ordinances and Reg. in Hal. 

As the canopy or covering of a bed or 
tent would not only be stretched overhead, 
but hang around at the sides, it was natu- 
ral that the same name should be given 
both to the roof and the side hangings. 
Thus silyng is found in the sense of ta- 
pestry. 

' The French kyng caused the lorde of 
Countay to stande secretly behynde a 
silyng or a hangyng in his chamber.' — • 
Hall, E. IV. p. 43. And as tapestry and 
wainscoting served the same purpose of 
hiding the bareness of the walls and shut- 
ting out the draught, it was an easy step 
to the sense of wainscoting, which is still 
known by the name of ceiling in Craven. 
To seele a room, lambrisser une chambre ; 
seeling, lambris, menuiserie. — Sherwood. 
The sense of roofing, and all conscious 
reference to the notion of the heaven or 
sky being now completely lost, and the 
main object of the wainscoting being to 
shut out draughts, it is probable that the 
word was confounded with sealing in the 
sense of closing, and it was even applied 
to the planking of the floor. ' Plancher, 
to plank or floor with planks, to seele or 
close with boards ; plancher, a boarded 
floor, also a seeling of boards.' — Cot. 
The ceiling was called the npper ceiling, 
Fr. sus-lanibris, to distinguish it from the 
wainscot or seeling of the walls. 

The line of descent from Fr. ciel is so 
unbroken, that, unless we separate the 
sense of canopy or hangings from that of 
wainscoting, the ground is cut away from 
Aufrecht's derivation from AS. thil, thel, 
thelu, a log, beam, rafter, plank, board ; 
thiling, a planking or boarding ; thilian, 
to plank ; ON. /////, thili, tJiilja, a board, 
plank, wainscot ; thiljar (in pi.), the deck 
of a ship ; at thilja, to panel or wainscot ; 
MHG. dil, dille, a plank, wall, ceiling, 
flooring ; E. deal, a fir-plank. In the 
Walser dialect of the Grisons, obardili is 
the boarded ceiling of a room. Aufrecht 
identifies with the foregoing, as. syl, a 
log, post, column ; E. sill in window-sill, 
doo7'-sillj Sc. sill, a log, syle, a beam. 
And it is certainly possible that syling in 
the sense of planking or ceiling xmy have 
come from this source. ' The olde .57//;/^ 
that was once faste joyned together with 
nailes will begin to cling, and then to 
gape.'— Z. Boyd in Jam. In the N. of E 



138 -CEIVE 

//////, a shaft, is in some places called sill ; 
a ////// Jiorse and a sill horse, a shaft horse. 
To seel or close the eyes, Sc. sile, syll, 
to blindfold, and thence to conceal, is 
totally distinct from the foregoing, being 
taken from Fr. ciller, cillier, siller les 
yeuxy to seele or sew up the eyelids ; (and 
thence also) to hoodwink, blind, keep in 
darkness.— Cot. It. cigliare, to twinkle 
with the eyes, to seal a pigeon's eye, or 
any bird's.— Fl. Fr. cil, It. ciglio, Lat. 
ciliiim, an eyelash, eyelid. The terni 
properly signifies the sewing up the eyelid 
of a hawk for the purpose of taming it. 
* And he must take wyth hym nedyll and 
threde, to ensilei^i^ haukes that ben taken. 
— Take the nedyll and threde, and put 
it through the over eyelydde, and so of 
that other, and make them faste und the 
becke that she se not, and then she is 
ensiled as she ought to be.' — Book of 
St Albans, in Marsh. 

-ceive, -cept, -ceit. Lat. capio, cap- 
ium, in comp. -cipio, -ceptujn, to take. 
Prov. caber, to take, in comp. -cebre {con- 
cebre, de cebre) ; It. {co7i)cipere, -cepire, 
'Cepere, OFr. -ciper, -civer {conciver — 
Roquef.), -goivre, Fr. -cevoir. 

The p of the participle -ceptus is seen 
in OE. conceipt, deceipt, receipt, but was 
gradually lost in conceit, deceit, &.C., as in 
It. concetto. 

Celebrate. — Celebrity. Lat. celeber 
(of a place), much frequented, thronged ; 
hence (of a day), festive, solemn ; (of per- 
sons) renowned, as entering largely into 
the talk of men, in accordance with the 
expression of Ennius, ' volito vivus per 
ora virum.' Celebritas, a numerous con- 
course of people, abundance, renown ; 
celebi'o, to visit in numbers, to attend on 
a solemnity, to celebrate. 

Celerity. — Accelerate. Lat. celer, 
swift. 

Celestial. Coeliim, heaven, the hollow 
vault of heaven ; Gr. KoiKoq, hollow. 

Celibacy. Lat. ccBlebs, unmarried. Fr. 
c^libat, single or unwedded life. 

Cell. — Cellar. Lat. cella, a storehouse 
for wine, oil, provisions generally ; also 
a hut, cot, quarters for slaves. 

Cement. Lat. ccBinetitum, stones 
rough from the quarry, rubble, materials 
for building, mortar. 

Cemetery. Gr. KoinijTripiov (from koi- 
l.idofim, to sleep), the place where the de- 
parted sleep. 

-cend, -cense, Censer. — To Incense. 
Lat. candeo, to glow, to burn ; incendo, 
-snm, to set on fire, and met. to incense, 
make angry. Incensian, Fr. encens, what 



CHAFE 

is burnt in sacrifices, incense, and thence 
censer, a vessel in which incense was 
burnt. 

Cenotaph.. Gr, KivoTut^iov {kwoq, empty, 
and ra^of, a tomb, from S'aTrrw, to bury), 
a monument erected for one buried else- 
where. 

Census — Censor. — Censure. Lat. 
census, a valuation of every man's estate, 
a registration of one's self, age, family, 
possessions, &c., from censeo, to think, 
judge, estimate. Censor, the officer ap- 
pointed to take such returns ; censura, his 
office, also grave opinion, criticism. 

Centre. Gr. kivHuj, to prick, goad, 
sting; Kcvrpov, a prick, point, the point 
round which a circle is drawn. 

Centurion. — Century. Lat. centum, 
a hundred ; centuria, a hundred of what- 
soever persons or objects ; centurio, the 
captain over a hundred foot-soldiers. 

Cereal. Lat. cerealis, of or pertaining 
to Ceres the goddess of corn and the 
harvest, thence belonging to or connected 
with corn. 

Ceremony. Lat. ccBremonia, ceremo- 
nia, a religious observance, a solemnity, 
sacred show. 

-cern. — Certain. Gr. K-ptj/w, to sepa- 
rate, pick out, decide, judge ; Lat. cerno, 
crevi, cretuvi, to separate, sift, distin- 
guish, observe, see, judge, contend. In 
certus, sure, we have a modified form of 
the participle cretus, with transposition 
of the r, a form which also gives rise to 
the derivative certo, to contend. 

Fr. concenter, to concern, appertain, or 
belong unto (Cot.), is the opposite of dis- 
cern, to distinguish. Lat. concernor, to 
be embodied with, to be regarded as one 
object with. 

-cess. See Cede. 

Cess. A tax. For sess from assess, 
but spelt with a c from the influence of 
the Lat. census, the rating of Roman citi- 
zens according to their property. See 
Assize, Assess. Yr. cencer, to rate, assess, 
tax, value. — Cot. 

Chafe, 1.— Chafing-dish. To chafe is 
to heat by rubbing, to rub for the purpose 
of heating, then to rub without reference 
to the production of heat. Lat. calefacere, 
It. calefare, Fr. chauffer, echauffier, to heat, 
to warm, to chafe. Fr. chaufferette, a 
chafing-dish or pan of hot coals for warm- 
ing a room where there is not fire. 

Chafe, 2. In the sense of ^/z(7/f//^ with 
anger two distinct words are probably 
confounded; ist from It. riscaldarsi, to 
become heated with anger, Fr. eschauffry 
to set in a chafe. — Sherwcod. 



CHAFER 

For certes the herte of manne by eschavfing 
and moving of his blode waxeth so troubled that 
it is out of all manere judgement of reson. — 
Parson's tale. De Ira. 

But to chafe has often a much more 
precise sense than this, and signifies to 
snort, fume, breathe hard. It. sborfare, 
to huff, snuff, or puff with snorting, to 
chafe and fret with rage and anger; 
trofifo, tronfo, puffed or ruffled with 
chafing.— Y\. Bouffard, often puffing, 
much blowing, sweUing with anger, /;/ a 
great chafe, in a monstrous fume. — Cot. 
In this application it is the correlative 
of the G. keuchen, to puff and blow, breathe 
thick and short, to pant, Bav. kauchen, to 
breathe, puff. 

* Chafer. — Cheffern. Cock-chafer ; 
fern-chafer. G. kdfer, AS. ceafer, Du. 
kever, any insect of the beetle kind, hav- 
ing a hard case to their wings. Perhaps 
from Swiss kafeln, kdfelen, to gnaw. 

Chaff. AS. ceaf G. kaff. Pers. khah. 
— Adelung. Fin. kahista, leviter crepo 
vel susurro, movendo parum strideo ut 
gramen sub pedibus euntis vel arundo 
vento agitata (to rustle) ; whence kahina, 
a rustling ; kalni, kahtija, hordeum vel 
avena vilior, taubes korn oder hafer, light 
rustling corn, consisting chiefly of husks ; 
kuhata, kuhzsta, to buzz, hiss,- rustle ; 
kuhina, a rustling noise, rustling motion 
as of ants, &c. ; kuhii-ohi^at {oh? at, bar- 
ley), refuse barley ; kuhnja, quisquiliae 
vel paleae qu£e motae leviter susurrant, 
chaff. 

To Chaff. In vulgar language, to 
rally one, to chatter or talk lightly. From 
a representation of the inarticulate sounds 
made by different kinds of animals utter- 
ing rapidly repeated cries. Du. kcffen, to 
yap, to bark, also to prattle, chatter, tattle. 
— Halma. Wall, chawe, a chough, jack- 
daw ; chaweter, to caw ; chawer, to 
cheep, to cry ; chafeter, to babble, tattle ; 
Fr. cauvette, a jackdaw, a prattling wo- 
man.— Pat. de Brai. G. kajf, idle words, 
impertinence. — Kiittn. 

* To Chaffer. To buy and sell, to 
bargain, haggle. OE. chapfare, chaffare^ 
properly the subject of a chap or bargain, 

Lenere corteys (courteous lender), that leneth 
witliout chapfare makiinde. — Ayenbite, p. 35. 
There were chapmen ychose the chaffai-e to 
preise. — P. P. vis. 11. 

Chaffc. The jaw ; chafty, talkative. — 
Hal. ON. kiaftr, jaw, muzzle, chaps ; 
kiafta, kiamta, to move the jaws, to 
tattle. See Cheek. 

Chagrin. Fr. chag7'i7i, care, grief. 
According to Diez, from the shark-skin. 



CHAMBER 



139 



or rough substance called shagreen, Fr. 
peaii de chagrin, which from being used 
as a rasp for polishing wood was taken 
as a type of the gnawing of care or grief. 
Genoese sagrind, to gnaw, sagrindse, to 
consume with anger. Piedm. sagri, sha- 
green ; sagrin, care, grief. In like man- 
ner It. limare, to file, metaphorically to 
fret — Fl. ; far lima-lima, to fret inward- 
ly.— Altieri. 

Chain. Lat. catena, Prov. cadena, 
cana, OFr. chaene, Fr. chaine, ON. kedja, 
a chain. 

Chair. — Chaise. Gr. KaOkSpa, from 
KaOiZofxai, to sit. Lat. cathedra, Fr. chaire, 
a seat, a pulpit. As the loss of a <^ in 
cadena gives chain, a double operation 
of the same nature reduces cathedra 
(ca'e'ra) to chair. Prov. cadieira, cadera, 
OFr. chayere, C hay ere, cathedra. — Pr, 
Pm. 

The conversion of the r into s gives 
Fr. chaise, a pulpit — Cot., now a chair. 
Then, as a carriage is a moveable seat, 
the word has acquired in E. the sense of 
a carriage, pleasure carriage. 

Chalice. Fr. calice, Lat. calix, a gob- 
let, cup. 

Chalk. Fr. chaulx, lime ; Lat. calx, 
limestone, lime. 

Challenge. Fr. chalanger, to claim, 
challenge, make title unto ; also to accuse 
of, charge with, call in question for an 
offence. — Cot. Hence to challenge one 
to fight is to call on him to decide the 
matter by combat. From the forensic 
Latin cahanniare, to institute an action, 
to go to law. — Due. So from dominio^ 
domnio, dongio, E. dungeon j from som- 
7iiuni, Fr. songe. Prov. calonja, dispute; 
calumpnjamen, contestation, difficulty ; 
calonjar, to dispute, refuse. 

The sacramentuni de calumnid was an 
oath on the part of the person bringing 
an action of the justice of his ground of 
action, and as this was the beginning of 
the suit it is probably from thence that 
calumniari in the sense of bringing an 
action arose. ' Can hom ven al plaiz et 
fa sagramen de calompnia.' ' Sagrament 
de calompnia o de vertat per la una part 
e per Fautra.'— Rayn. Lat. calinnnia, 
false accusation, chicane. 

Chamade. A signal by drum or 
trumpet given by an enemy when they 
have a mind to parley. — B. From Port. 
chantar, Lat. clama7'e, to call. 

Chamber. Fr. chambre. Lat. ca77iera, 
Gr. Kanaka, a vault or arched roof, placo 
with an arched roof. Probably from 
ca7n, crooked. Ca77ie7'a, gewolb. Ca7ne- 



I40 



CHAMBERLAIN 



rare, kriimmen ; cameratus, gekriimmt, 
gebogen, gcvvolbt. — Dicf. Sup. 

Chamberlain. Fr. cha?nbellan ; It. 
camerlengo, ciamberlano, ciavibellano. 

To Chamfer. To hollow out in chan- 
nels, to flute as a column, to bevel. Ptg. 
chanfrar, to hollow out, to slope. Sp. 
chajidfi, Fr. chain/rain, chanfrein, the 
slope of a bevelled angle, a hollow 
groove ; chanfreiner, chanfreitidre, to 
bevel off a right angle, to slope out the 
top of a borehole. 

Chamfr on. — Chamfrain. — Charfron . 
Fr. chanfrein, the front piece of a horse's 
head armour. 

To Chamm. — Champ. E. dial, to 
cliam, champ, chafnble, to chew. — Hal. 
Properly to chew so as to make the 
snapping of the jaws be heard. Magy. 
tsamviogni, tsamtsogni, to make a noise 
with the teeth in chewing. Gall, djavi- 
djatn-goda (to make djam-djaiii), to 
smack the lips in eating, as swine, to 
champ, move the jaws. — Tutschek. The 
G. schmatzeti s. s. differs only in the 
transposition of the letter 7n, ON. ka7npa, 
to chew ; kiammi, a jaw ; kiamsa, to 
champ, to move the jaws ; kiamt, champ- 
ing. 

The sound of striking the ground with 
the foot is sometimes represented in the 
same manner, as in It. zampettare, to 
paw the ground ; E. dial, champ, to tread 
heavily. — Hal. 

Champaign. See Camp. 

Champarty. Partnership. Fr. champ 
parti, Lat. campus par titus j 2iS jeopardy, 
from Fr. jen parti, Lat. jocus par titus, 
divided game. 

Champion. Commonly derived from 
campus, a field of battle, fighting place. 
And no doubt the word might have early 
been introduced from Latin into the Teu- 
tonic and Scandinavian languages, giving 
rise to the AS. camp, fight, ce?npa, ON. 
kempa, a warrior, champion; Du. kamp, 
combat, contest ; ka^npen, kempen, to 
fight in single combat; hamper, kempe, 
an athlete, prize-fighter. • 

It must be observed however that the 
Scandinavian kapp appears a more an- 
cient form than the nasalised camp. ON. 
kapp, contention ; kappi, athlete, hero ; 
Sw. dricka i kapp, to drink for a wager ; 
kapp-ridande, a horse-race. So in E. 
boys speak of capping verses, i. e. con- 
tending in the citation of verses ; to cap 
one at leaping is to beat one at a contest 
in leaping. Hence (with the nasal) w. 
camp, a feat, game ; campio, to strive at 
games ; cainpus^ excellent, surpassing. 



CHANCEL 

masterly ; Sp. campear, campar, to be 
eminent, to excel. The word is preserved 
in E. dial, camp, a game at football. 
* Ca7npar, or player at football, pedilusor.' 
— Pr. Pm. 

Get campers a ball 

To camp therewithal. — ^Tusser. 

E. dial, to cample, to talk, contend or 
argue ; G. kampeln, to debate, dispute ; 
E. dial, champ, a scuffle. — Hal. The 
origin may perhaps be found in the notion 
of fastening on one in the act of wrest- 
ling. 

Lith. kabinti, to hang; kabi^itis, to 
fasten oneself on to another ; kabe, ka~ 
be'le, kablys, a hook ; kimbu, kibti, to 
fasten on, to stick to, to hold ; sukibti, to 
fasten oneself to another ; Fin. kimppii 
(Lap. kippo, kappd), a bundle, and thence 
the laying hold of each other by wrestlers ; 
kitnpustella, to wrestle. Esthon. kimp, 
bundle, pinch, difficulty ; kimplima, to 
quarrel (comp. G. kampeln, E. cample). 
Du. kijnpe?t, to wrestle, luctare, certare. 
— Kil. 

To cope or contend with, which seems 
another form of the root, is explained by 
Torriano ' serrarsi, attaccarsi Tun con 
Faltro ; ' ' se harper I'un a Fautre.' — Sher- 
wood. 

Chalice. The happening of things 
governed by laws of which we are more 
or less ignorant. Fr. chance; OFr. 
chSa7ice, act of falling, from cheoir, Lat. 
cadere, Prov. cazer, Sp. caer, Ptg. cahir, 
to fall. Prov. escazenza, accident, chance. 
It will be observed that accide7it is the 
same word direct from the Lat. accidere, 
to happen {ad and cade7^e, to fall). 

Chance-medley. Yx. chaude 77ieslee, 
from chaud, hot, and 77ieslee, fray, bicker- 
ing, fight; an accidental conflict in hot 
blood. ' Mellde qui etait meue chaleu- 
reusement et sans aguet.' M.Lat. calida 
melleia, calida77ieya. Meleare, 77tesleiare, 
to quarrel, broil. — Carpentier. When the 
element chaud lost its meaning to ordi- 
nary English ears, it was replaced by 
chance in accordance with the meaning 
of the compound. 

Chancel, — Chancellor. — Chancery. 
The part of the church in which the altar 
is placed is called chancel, from being 
railed off or separated from the rest of 
the church by lattice-work, Lat. ca7tcelli. 
The ca7icellarii seem to have been the 
officers of a court of justice, who stood ad 
ca7icellos, at the railings, received the 
petitions of the suitors, and acted as in- 
termediaries between them and the judge. 
To them naturally fell the office of keep- 



CHANDLER 

ing the seal of the court, the distinctive 
feature of the chancellors of modern 
time. 

From chancellor y2x^ Fr. chancellerie,^. 
chancery. 

Chandler. Fr. chandelier, a dealer in 
candles ; then, as if the essential mean- 
ing of the word had been simply dealer, 
extended to other trades, as corn-chand- 
ler. Chandry, the place where candles 
are kept, from chandler, as chaticery 
from chancellor. 

To Change. Prov. cambiar, camja?', 
It. cambiare, cangiare, Fr. changer. Bret. 
kemma, to truck, exchange. Cambiare 
seems the nasahsedform of E. chop, chap, 
to swap, exchange, ON. katipa, to deal, as 
Chaucer's champmen for chapmen. 
In Surrey whilome dwelt a company 
Of chavtpmeti rich and therto sad and true, 
That wide were sentin their spicery, 
Their chaffare was so thrifty and so new. 
Man of Law's Tale, 140. 

In like manner Walach. schimbd, to 
change, to put on fresh clothes, may be 
compared with ON. skipta, E. shift. 
Walach. schimbu, cambium, exchange ; 
schimbatoriu, a money-changer. See 
Chop. 

Channel. Lat. canatis, a pipe, water- 
conduit, from canna, a reed. The word 
appears in English under a triple form : 
channel, any hollow for conveying water, 
kennel, the gutter that runs along a street, 
and the modern canal. 

Chant. — Chantry. Lat. cantare, Fr. 
chanter, to sing. Hence chantry, a chapel 
endowed for a priest to sing mass for the 
soul of the founders. 

Chap. I. Chaps or chops, the loose 
flesh of the cheeks, lips of an animal. 
AS. ceaplas, ceaflas, the chaps ; Da. 
gab, the mouth, throat of an animal. See 
Cheek. 

Chap. 2. A fellow. Probably from 
chap, cheek, jaw. Da. kicEft, jaw, muz- 
zle, chaps, is vulgarly used in the sense of 
individual. — Molbech. And N. kiceft as 
well as kjakje, a jaw, is used in the same 
sense ; kvar kjceften, every man Jack ; 
inkje ein kjceft, — kjaakaa, not a soul. — 
Aasen. In Lincoln cheek is used in the 
I same way for person or fellow. 

Chap. — Chip. — Chop. Thpse are forms 
having a common origin in the attempt to 
represent the sound made by the knock- 
ing of two hard bodies, or the cracking 
of one, the thinner vowel / being used to 
represent the high note of a crack, while 
the broader vowels a and are used for 
the flatter sound made by the collision of 



CHAPEL 



141 



hard bodies. Sc. chap, to strike, as to 
chap hands, to chap at a door. — Jam. 
It is also used in the sense of the E. chop, 
to strike with a sharp edge, to cut up into 
small pieces, to cut off ; Du. happen, to 
cut, prune, hack ; Lith. kapoti, to peck, 
to hack, to cut, to paw like a horse ; W. 
cobio, to strike, to peck. 

Again as a hard body in breaking gives 
a sharp sound like the knocking of hard 
things together, a chap is a crack or fis- 
sure, properly in a hard body, but ex- 
tended to bodies which give no sound in 
breaking, as skin ; chapped hands. Com- 
pare chark, to creak, and also to chap or 
crack. — Hal. The use of crack in the 
sense of fissure is to be explained in the 
same manner. Lang, esclapa, to split 
wood, to break ; esclapo, a chip. 

The thinner vowel in cJiip expresses 
the sharper sound made by the separation 
of a very small fragment of a hard body, 
and the term is also applied to the small 
piece separated from the block. 

Chape. A plate of metal at the point 
of a scabbard. Hence the white tip of a 
fox's tail. — Hal. The fundamental mean- 
ing is something clapt on, from clap, the 
representation of the sound made by two 
flat surfaces striking together. Hence It. 
chiappa, a patch of lead clapt unto a 
ship that is shot ; a piece of lead to cover 
the touch-hole of a gun, also a clap, and 
anything that may be taken hold of. — Fl. 
Sp. chapa, a. small plate of flat metal, 
leather, or the like ; chapar, to plate, to 
coat; chapeta, chapilla, a small metal 
plate ; Port, chapear, to plate, to apply 
one flat thing to another. Sp. chapelete 
de una bomba, Fr. clapet, the clapper or 
sucker of a ship's pump ; Sp. chapeletas 
de inibornales, the clappers of the scupper 
holes. Russ. klepan, a strip of metal 
plate, as those on a trunk. 

Chapel. Commonly derived from ca- 
pella, the cape or little cloke of St Mar- 
tin, which was preserved in the Palace of 
the kings of the Franks, and used as the 
most binding relic on which an oath 
could be taken. 

Tunc in Palatio nostro super Capellam domini 
Martini, \\h\ reliqua sacramenta percurrunt, de- 
beant conjurare. — Marculfus in Due. 

Hence it is supposed the name of ca- 
pella was given to the apartment of the 
Palace in which the relics of the saints 
were kept, and thence extended to similar 
repositories where priests were commonly 
appointed to celebrate divine services. 

Rex sanctas sibi de capella sua reliquias deferri 
praecepit. — Ordericus Vitalis. 



U2 



CHAPLET 



But we have no occasion to resort to 
so hypothetical a derivation. The canopy 
or covering of an altar where mass was 
celebrated was called capella, a hood. 
Mid.Lat. capellare, tegere, deckcn, be- 
decken ; capella^ ein himeltz, gehymels 
(eucharistie, &c.), the canopy over the 
sacred elements ; eine kleine Kirche. — 
Dief. Sup. And it can hardly be doubted 
that the name of the canopy was extended 
to the recess in a church in which an 
altar was placed, forming the capella or 
chapel of the saint to whom the altar was 
dedicated. 

Chaplet. A wreath for the head. Fr. 
chapelei, dim. of chapel^ from capa, a 
cape or cope. The OFr. chapel, from 
signifying a hat or covering for the head, 
came to be used in the sense of a wreath 
or garland. ' Cappello, ghirlanda se- 
■ condo il volgar francesc.' — Boccaccio in 
Diez. Hence applied to a circular string 
of praying beads, called in Sp. for the 
same reason rosario, a garland of roses, 
and in It. corona. 

Chapman. AS. ceap-mati, a merchant. 
See Cheap. 

Chapter. Fr. chapitre, from capitu- 
Imn, a head or division of a book. The 
Chapter of a cathedral is die assembly 
of the governing body. It. capitolo, Sp. 
capitulo, cabildo, Prov. capitol, Fr. cha- 
Pitre. 

Character. Gr. x;op«'f'"»7P {xa^aaaw, to 
grave or make incised marks on an ob- 
ject), a mark made on a thing, a mark of 
distinction. 

Charade. See Charlatan. 

* Charcoal. — To Char. Charcoal y^^^iS 
rightly explained by Tooke from AS. 
cerran, OE. char, to turn, as being wood 
turned to coal. 

Then Nestor broiled them on the cole-turn'd 
wood . — Chapman . 

To char is now only used in the special 
application of turning to coal, burning 
without consuming the substance. 

His profession— did put him upon finding a 
•way of charri7ig sea coal, wherein it is in about 
three hours or less without pots or vessels brought 
to charcoal. — Boyle in R. 

It is extraordinary that so plausible an 
explanation should have failed to produce 
conviction, but the following quotation 
from William and the Werewolf will pro- 
bably be found conclusive. In that work 
the verb is written caire, and occurs fre- 
quently in the sense of turn one's steps, 
return, go, and at line 2520 it runs — 



CHARM 

Cholicrs that cayrcden col come there biside, 
And other wises that were wont wode for to 
fecche : 

i. e. colliers that charred coal, that turned 
wood to coal, charcoal burners. 

The G. equivalent keJiren is used in a 
similar manner in the sense of changing 
the nature of a thing. ' Als sich Lucifer 
in eine schlange kehrt .•' as Lucifer turns 
himself into a snake. 

Chare. A chare is a turn of work ; 
chaj-e-woman, one who is engaged for an 
occasional turn. Swiss, es ist mi cheer, 
it is my turn; cher tim chcr, in turns, 
turn about— Deutsch. Mundart. 2. 370. 
AS. eyre, a turn ; cerran, Du. keeren, to 
turn ; Gael, car, turn, twist. 

Charge. It. caricare, Ptg. carregar, 
Fr. charger, to load ; properly to place 
in a car. Lat. carrieare, from carriis. 
To charge an enemy is to lay on. 

Lay on, Macduff, 
And damned be he who first cries Hold, enough. 

Charity, Lat. caritas, charitas, dear- 
ness (in both senses), affection. Lat, 
cams, dear, beloved. W. earn, Bret. 
karout, to love, 

Chark.— Chirk, as, cearcian, to creak, 
crash, gnash, Lith. kirkti, to cry as a 
child, creak, cluck ; kirklys, a cricket ; 
karkti (schnarrcn, schreien, krachzen),to 
whirr as a beetle, cluck, gaggle ; kurkti, 
to croak as a frog ; ku7 kelis, the turtle 
dove ; czurksti, to chirp as sparrows, 
czirksti, to chirp, twitter. 

Charlatan. — Charade. Fr. charlatan, 
a mountebank, prattling quacksalver, bab- 
bler, tattler. — Cot. It. ciarlotore, from 
ciarlare, to tattle, chatter. Sp, charlar, 
chirlar, to prattle, jabber, clack, chat. 
An imitative word representing the in- 
articulate chattering or chirping of birds. 
Sp. chirriar, to chirp, chirk, creak, hiss • 
Lith. czurliavoti, to sing or chirp as birds, 
czirbti, to prattle, chatter. 

From Norm, charer, Lang, chara, to 
converse, seems to be derived charade, a 
kind of riddle by way of social amuse- 
ment, as Pol. gadka, a riddle, from gadad, 
to talk ; Boh. hadka, a dispute ; pohadka, 
a riddle, charade, w. siarad (pronounced 
sharad), babbling, talking. 

Charlock. A weed among corn ; also 
called kedlo(k. AS. cedeleac. 

Charm, An enchantment, Fr. charme; 
It. car me, carmo, a charm, a spell, a 
verse, a rhyme. — Fl. From Lat. carmen, 
which was used in the sense of magic 
incantation. ' Venefici qui magicis su- 
surris seu carminibus homines occidunt. 
— Justin. Inst. Hence carminare, to 



CHARNEL-HOUSE 

enchant ; mcarminatrix^ an enchantress. 
From carmen was formed It. carme and 
Fr. charmer^ as from tiomen It. nome and 
Fr. fiojnfner, to name. — Diez. 

The root of the Lat. carmen is pre- 
served in AS. cyrm, noise, shout ; OE. 
charm, a hum or low murmuring noise, 
the noise of birds, whence a charm of 
goldfi7iches, a flock of those birds. 

I cherme as byrdes do when they make a noise 
z, great number together. — Palsgrave. 

Charnel-house. Fr. charmer, a 
churchyard or charnel-house, a place 
where dead bodies are laid or their 
bones kept. — Cot. Lat. caro, carnis j 
Fr. chair, flesh. 

Chart.— Charter. See Card. 

Chary, as. cearig (from cearian, to 
care), careful, chary. Du. karigh, sor- 
didus, parcus, tenax. — KiL g. karg, 
niggardly. 

To Chase. i. To work or emboss 
plate as silversmiths do. — B. Fr. chasse 
(another form of caisse ; see Case), a 
shrine for a relic, also that thing or part 
of a thing wherein another is enchased ; 
la chasse d'nn I'asoir, the handle of a 
razor ; la chasse d^une rose, the calix of a 
rose.— Cot. It. cassa s. s. Fr. enchasser. 
It. incassare, to set a jewel, to enchase 
it ; and as the setting was commonly of 
ornamental work the E. chasing has come 
to signify embossed jeweller's work. 

To Chase. 2. See Catch. 

Chasm. Gr. x^^V^"-^ ^ yawning, a gap, 
from x«"'j X"'*'<^> to gape, be wide open. 

Chaste. Lat. castus, pure. Pol. czysty, 
clean, pure, chaste. Russ. chist\ clean, 
pure, clear, limpid. The origin seems 
preserved in the Fin. kastaa, to wet, to 
baptize, whence the notion of cleanliness 
as the consequence of washing. See 
Cistern. 

To Chasten.— Chastise. Fr. chdtier, 
Lat castigare, from castus, clean, chaste, 
pure, as pnrgare from purus. 

Chat.— Chatter. To talk, converse, 
make a noise as birds do, prattle. An 
irnitative word. It. gazzolare, gazzo- 
gliare, gazzerare, gazzettare, to chat or 
chatter as a piot or a jay, to chirp, warble, 
prate. — Fl. Fr. gazouiller, to chirp, 
warble, whistle. Magy. csatora (Magy. 
cs = E. ch), noise, racket ; csatordzni, to 
make a noise, chatter, talk much ; csa- 
csogni, to chatter or prattle ; csacsogany, 
a chatter-box, magpie, jackdaw ; Pol. 
gaddc, to talk, gadii-gadu, chit-chat, tit- 
tle-tattle. Malay, kata, a word, speak ; 
kata-kata, discourse, talk. 

Chats.— Chit. Chat-wood, little sticks 



CHATS 



H3 



fit for fuel. — Bailey. Yorkshire chat, a 
twig ; Suffolk chaits, fragments or leav- 
ings of food, as turnip-chaits, scraps of 
oftal ; blackthorn-chats, the young shoots 
or suckers on rough borders, occasionally 
cut and faggoted. — Forby. To chit, to 
germinate ; chits, the first sprouts of any- 
thing.— Hal. 

The primary import of the syllable 
cJiat, chit, chick, chip, is to represent the 
sharp sound of a crack, then the crack- 
ing of the hard case or shell in which 
something is contained, and the peeping 
or shooting forth of the imprisoned life 
within ; or on the other hand it may be 
applied simply to designate the frag- 
ments of the broken object. In the 
latter sense chat may be compared with 
the Fr. eclats, shivers, splinters, frag- 
ments, from the sound of a body bursting 
or cracking, to which it bears the same 
relation as chape, a plate of metal, to 
clap. 

It must be observed that the letters p, 
k, t, are used with great indifference at 
the end of syllables imitative of natural 
sounds, as in the E. clap, clack, clatter ; 
G. knappen, knacken, knattern, to crack, 
crackle. We accordingly find the sylla- 
bles chat or chit, chick, chip, or equivalent 
forms, used to represent a sharp note, as 
that made by the crack of a hard sub- 
stance, or the cry of a bird or the like. 
To clutter or chipper, to chirp as a bird ; 
to cheep, to cry as a chicken ; chip, the 
cry of the bat. — Hal. 

To chip is then to crack, to separate in 
morsels, to break open and burst forth as 
a blossom out of the bud, or a bird out of 
the egg. 

The rois knoppis tetand furth thare hede 

Gan chyp and kytlie their vernal lippis red. 
D. V. in Jam. 

The Qgg is chipped, the bird is flown.— Jam. 

Du. kippen, cudere, ferire, also to 
hatch.— Kil. It. schioppare, to crack, 
snap, or pop, to burst open. — Fl. In like 
manner Russ. chikaf, OE. chykkyn (Pr. 
Pm.), to cheep or peep as a young bird ; 
then chick (Hal.), a crack or a flaw ; also 
to germinate or spring forth. And thus 
probably has arisen the sense of germin- 
ation-belonging to chat or chit. Chit in 
the sense of a child is metaphorically 
taken from the figure of a shoot, as we 
speak of olive branches, or a sprig of 
nobility for a young aristocrat. So in 
Gael, gallan or ogati, a branch, also a 
youth, a young man ; g^ug, a branch 
and a young female. 

Parallel with E. chit in the latter sense 



144 



CHATTELS 



the It. has cito, cita^ citclio, zitdla, a 
young boy or ghl. 

Chattels.— Cattle. Fr. chatcl, OFr. 
cJiaptei, a piece of moveable property, 
from Lat. capitale^ whence captale, catal- 
lujn, the principal sum in a loan, as dis- 
tinguished from the interest due upon it. 
* Semper renovabantur cartas et usura 
quai excrevit vertebatur in catallum.^ — 
Cronica Jocelini. Cam. Soc. Then, in 
the same way as we speak at the present 
day of a man of large capital for a man 
of large possessions, catalluui came to 
be used in the sense of goods in general, 
with the exception of land, and was 
specially applied to cattle as the principal 
wealth of the country in an early stage of 
society. 

Juxta facultates suas et juxta catalla sua. — 
Laws of Edward the Confessor. Cum decimis 
omnium terrarum ac bonorum aliorum sive ca- 
tallortan. — Ingulphus. Rustici curtillum debet 
esse clausum aestate simul et hieme. Si disclau- 
sum sit et introeat alicujus vicini sui captale per 
suum apertum, — Brompton in Due. 

It should be observed that there is the 
same double meaning in AS. ceap, goods, 
cattle, which is the word in the laws of 
Ina translated captale in the foregoing 
passage ; and this may perhaps be the 
reason why the Lat. equivalent captale 
was applied to beasts of the farm with 
us, while it never acquired that meaning 
in Fr. Bret, chatal, cattle. 

Chawl. — Chowl.— Chole. as. ceafl, 
snout, ceafias^ jaws, cheeks, lead to OE. 
chavylbone or chawlbone, mandibula. — 
Pr. Pm. NE. choule, jaw. The strap of 
the bridle under the jaw is called the 
chonlband. — Hal. See Cheek, Chew. 

Cheap. The modern sense of low in 
price is an ellipse ior good cheap, equiva- 
lent to Fr. boil marche, from AS. ceap, 
price, sale, goods, cattle. Goth, kaupon, 
to deal ; ON. kaupa, to negotiate, buy ; 
Du, koopen, G. kaufen, to buy; katif- 
maiin, E. chapman, a dealer. Slav, kii- 
piti, Bohem. kaapiti, to buy. Gr. KairnXog, 
Lat. catipo, a tavern-keeper, tradesman. 
— Dief. 

Ihre shows satisfactorily that the mo- 
dern sense of buying is not the original 
force of the word, which is used in the 
sense of bargaining, agreeing upon, ex- 
changing, giving or taking in exchange, 
and hence either buying or selling. ' Ek 
villdi kaupd skipinu vid yckur br^edur.' 
I will exchange ships with you two bro- 
thers. '' Kopa jord i jord,' to exchange 
farm for farm. Thus we are brought to 
the notion of changing expressed by the 



CHEEK 

colloquial E. chop ; to chop and change, 
to swap goods ; to cqff—Wivl., Sc. to coup 
s. s. ; horse-coiiper, a dealer in horses. 
See Chop. 

Chear. Pro v. Sp. cara, OFr. chiere, 
It. cera, the countenance ; Fr. chere, the 
face, visage, countenance, favour, look, 
aspect of a man. Faii'c bonne chcre, to 
entertain kindly, welcome heartily, make 
good chear unto ; faire mauvaise chore, 
to frown, lower, hold down the head ; 
belle chere et caeur arriere, a willing look 
and unwilling heart. — Cot. Then as a 
kind reception is naturally joined with 
liberal entertainment, y^/r^ bonne or mau- 
vaise chere acquired the signification of 
good living or the reverse, and hence the 
E. chear in the sense of victuals, enter- 
tainment. 

Cheat. Cheat in the old canting lan- 
guage of beggars and rogues was a thing 
of any kind. Thus grunting-chete was a 
pig ; crashing-chetes, teeth ; prattling- 
chete, the tongue, &c., and, from the fre- 
quency probably with which the word 
occurred, a cheater \v2is equivalent to cant- 
er, a rogue or person who used the cant- 
ing language. Hence to cheat, to act as 
a rogue. — Modern Slang. It. truffa,z.WY 
cheating, canting or crossbiting trick ; 
triiffatore, a cheater, cozener, a canting 
knave. — Fl. 

Check. Fr. echec, a repulse, a meta- 
phor taken from the game of chess, 
where the action of a player is brought 
to a sudden stop by receiving check ta 
his king. 

To check an account, in the sense of 
ascertainmg its correctness, is an ex- 
pression derived from the practice of the 
King's Court of Exchequer, where ac- 
counts were taken by means of counters 
upon a checked cloth. See Chess. 

Cheek.— Choke.— Chaps. The gut- 
tural sounds made by impeded exertions 
of the throat in coughing, retching, hawk- 
ing, stuttering, laughing, are represented 
in widely separated languages by the 
syllables ^^^, gig, kak, kek, kik, kok, with 
a frequent change of the initial k into ch. 
We may cite Fin. kakaista, to vomit, 

Yjsc^.kakot, to nauseate (to retch), kakkaset, 
to stutter. Fin. kikottaa, Lat. cachinnari, 
AS. ceahhetan,' to laugh, Bav. gagkern, 
gagkezen, to cluck like a hen, to cough 
dry and hard, to sUitter ; gigken, gig- 
kezen, to make inarticulate sounds in 
retching, stuttering, giggling, Du. kichen, 
to gasp, cough, sob ; E. keck, to fetch the 
breath with difficulty, to clear the throat ; 
cliKckle, to make inarticulate sounds in 



CHEEP 

the throat from suppressed laughter or 
the hke; Sw. kikna, to gasp, kikna af 
skratt, to choke with laughter. The Svv. 
kikna is identical with OE. cheken, to 
choke. ' Chekenyd or querkenyd, suffo- 
catus.' — Pr. Pm. Thus we are brought 
to w. cegio, AS. ceocian, E. to choke; ON. 
koka, guoka, to swallow. 

Again the root representing the sounds 
made by impeded guttural action passes 
on to signify the parts of the bodily 
frame by which the exertion is made, the 
throat, gullet, chops, jaws, cheeks. Sc. 
chouks, the throat, jaws ; ON. kok^ giwk, 
the throat ; w. ceg, throat, mouth ; Sw. 
kek, kdke, N. kjakj'e, jaw ; Du. kaecke, 
cheek, jaw, gill of fish ; AS. ceac, E. cheek. 
The frequentative keckle, to make a noise 
in the throat by reason of difficulty of 
breathing (Bailey) leads on to Pl.D. 
kdkel, the mouth, Fris. gaghel, the palate 
(Kil.), Lith. kaklas, the neck, AS. geagl, 
geahl, gea/i, Fr. gtffle, jouffle, jaw, jowl, 
chops. 

In these latter forms we see the trans- 
ition from a guttural to a labial termin- 
ation, which in the case of cough has 
taken place in pronunciation although 
the final guttural is retained in writing. 
The imitative origin is witnessed by Galla 
cufd, to belch, cough, clear the throat, 
rattle in the throat. — Tutschek. Analo- 
gous forms are G. kopen,koppen, to belch, 
to gasp — Schmeller ; E. to kep, to boken, 
i. e. when the breath is stopped being 
ready to vomit — B. ; Pl.D. gapen, kapen, 
Da. gabe, to gape ; gab, the mouth or 
throat of an animal ; Sw. gap, the throat ; 
AS. ceaplas, ceaflas, E. chaps, the loose 
flesh about the jaws ; Da. kjcebe, kjcEve, 
the jaw ; Wall, chiffe, cheek. 

To Cheep. To make a shrill noise 
like a young chicken, squeak as a mouse, 
creak as shoes. — Jam. An imitative word, 
Vik^peep in the same sense. Lith. czypti, 
to cheep like a chicken or squeak like a 
mouse, whence czypiilas, a chicken. Sc. 
cheiper, a cricket. 

Cheese, as. cese, cyse, OHG. chasi, G. 
kdse, w. caws, Lat. caseus. The word 
may perhaps be explained from a Fin- 
nish source. Fin. kasa, a heap, whence 
kasa-leipa, old bread, bread kept for a 
year. The Lapps prepare much of their 
food, as meat and butter, by laying it in 
a heap till it becomes rancid or half de- 
cayed, acquiring a flavour of old cheese. 
This they call hdrsk. From them the 
practice seems to have been communi- 
cated to their Scandinavian neighbours, 
who treat their fish and coarser flesh in 



CHEVRON 



H5 



this manner. on. kcBs, kos subliqui- 
dorum coacervatio, mollium congeries, 
veluti piscium, carnium, &c. Hence 
kasa, to heap up such things for the pur- 
pose of acidifying them ; kasadr, kasull- 
din, subacidus, veteris casei sapore — An- 
dersen ; kcEstr, incaseatus, made rancid 
by laying up in a covered heap, used 
especially of seals' flesh, which is not 
otherwise considered eatable. — Haldor- 
sen. 

The use of the word ko;sir, rennet, 
shows that the Icelanders recognise the 
identity of the process going on in viands 
subjected to this process with that which 
takes place in the formation of cheese, 
though it is remarkable that they use a 
different word, ost, for cheese itself, which 
seems also derived from a Finnish source. 

Chemistry. See Alchemy. 

Chequer. See Chess. 

Cherish. Fr. cherir, to hold dear, to 
treat with affection. Cher^ Lat. carus, 
dear. w. earn, to love. 

Cherry. Lat. cerasus. It. cireggia, 
cirieggia, Fr. cerise; G. kirsche. 

Chesnut. Lat. castancjcs; Fr. chas- 
tagne, chdtaigne. Du. kastanie, G. kesten, 
E. chesteji. — Kil. Hence chesten-nut, 
chestmit. 

Chess. It. scacco, Sp. xaque, Fr. ^chec, 
G, schach, from the cry of check / (Pers. 
schach, king), when the king is put in the 
condition of being taken. As the board 
in this game is divided into a number of 
equal squares of opposite colours, things 
so marked are called chequered. Pro- 
bably at one time the game was called 
the game of checks, subsequently cor- 
rupted into chess. It is sometimes written 
chests in OE. 

Chest. AS. cist ; G. kasteti, kiste; Lat. 
cista. See Case. 

Chevaux de frise. The name of 
Vriesse ruyters (Frisian horsemen) was 
given in Dutch to long beams stuck 
round with spikes and placed in the road 
to prevent the attack of cavalry. It would 
seem to have been a device of the Frisian 
peasants to supply the want of cavalry in 
their struggle for independence. 

Chevisance. Achievement, acquisition, 
gain or profit in trade. Fr. chevir, to 
compass, prevail with, make an end, 
come to an agreement with. Chef, pro- 
perly head, then end, accomplishment ; 
achever, to bring to an end, to accom- 
plish. 

Chevron. The representation of two 
rafters in heraldry. Fr. chevron, Prov. 
cabrion, cabiron, Sp. cabrio, a rafter ; ca- 
10 



146 



CHEW 



brial., a beam, cabriones, wedges of wood 
to support the breech of a cannon. Wal- 
ach. cafeni^ capriorUy beam, rafter, w. 
cebr, Bret, kdbr, rafter ; Gael, cabar, deer's 
horn, antler, stake, pole, rafter ; cabar 
beinne, mountain top ; cabarach^ branchy. 
It is remarkable that the rafters are also 
called corni la casa, horns of the house, 
in Walach., while the Magy. term is szaru 
fu, horn wood. 

To Chew. — Chaw. It is shown under 
Cheek that the names of the gullet, mouth, 
jaw, chaps, are taken from the representa- 
tion of the sounds made by guttural exer- 
tions. Among these the G. kaachen, 
keichen, lead through the synonymous E. 
kaw, to gasp for breath (Hal.), to Du. 
kauwe, kouwe, kjiwe, the throat, cheek, 
jaw, chin, gills of a fish. — Kil. E. chaw- 
bone^ machouere. — Palsgr. And hence, 
and not vice versa, are formed Du. kaau- 
wen, G. kanen, E. chew or chaw, to use 
the jaws. E. chavel, choule, a jaw, chol, 
the jole, head, jaws ; chavel, to chew.— 
Hal. 

* Chicane. Fr. chicaner, to pettifog, 
to contest, captiously taking every possi- 
ble advantage without regard to substan- 
tial justice ; chicoter, to contest about 
trifles. — Gattel. Probably from Fr. chic, 
chiquei, a little bit. De chic en chic, 
from little to little. — Cot. Payer chiquet 
a chiquet, by driblets. — Gattel. Chiqne, 
a lump, a quid of tobacco. It. cica cica, 
the least imaginable jot. — Fl. For the 
ultimate origin of tbe word see Doit, 
Mite. 

Chick. Du. kieken, a chicken. The 
shrill cry of the young bird is represented 
by the syllable cheip, peep, or chick, from 
the first of which is Lith. czypidas, a 
chicken, from the second Lat. pipio, a 
young bird, and from the third E. chicken. 
Chikkyn as hennys byrdys, pipio, pululo. 
• — Pr. Pm. Russ. chikaf, to cheep or 
peep as a young bird ; chij (Fr. j), a 
finch. Magy. pip, the cry of young 
birds; pipe, a chicken, gosling. Fin. 
tiukkata, tiukkua, to chirp or peep like a 
chicken, ti?ikka, the chirping of a spar- 
row ; Magy. tyuk, a hen, doubtless ori- 
ginally a chicken ; Lap. tiuk, the young 
of animals in general. 

To Chide, as. cidan, to scold, from 
the notion of speaking loud and shrill. 
Swiss kiden, to resound as a bell. Fin. 
kidata, kitista, strideo, crepo, queror, 
knarren, knirschen, klagend tonen. 

Chief. Fr. chef. Pro v. cap. It. capo, 
Walach. capu, pi. capete, Lat. caput, the 
head. The loss of the syllable it in 



CHIME 

the radical form is unusual. It reappears 
however in the derivatives capitano, chief- 
tain, captain. The curtailed form agrees 
in a singular way with G. kopf, Du. kop, 
a cup, a head. 

Child. AS. cild, G. kijid. A similar 
interchange of n and / is seen in E. 
kilderkin, Du. kindekcn, a small cask ; 
OFr. aner, Fr. alter, to go. It is remark- 
able that the anomalous plural children 
agrees with the Du. kindei'en. 

Chill. The meaning is properly to 
shiver or cause to shiver. 
The ape that earst did nought but chill and 

quake 
Now gan some courage unto him to take. 

Mother Hubbard. 

Brezza, chillness or shivering. — Fl. 
Chilly weather is what causes one to 
shiver : to feel chilly is to feel shivery. 
Now the notion of shivering or trembling 
is most naturally expressed by a vibrating, 
quivering sound which passes, when the 
vibrations become very rapid, into a con- 
tinuous shrill sound. The usual sense of 
twitter is to warble like a bird, but it is 
explained by Bailey to quake or shiver 
with cold. To chatter represents the 
rapid shaking of the teeth with cold, or 
the broken noise of birds, or of people 
talking rapidly. To chitter, to chirp or 
twitter as birds — Hal., then as G. zittern, 
Du. cittereit, to tremble with cold. To 
titter is a modification of the same word 
applied to the broken sounds of repressed 
laughter, while didder is to shiver or 
tremble. 

From the tingling sound of a little 
bell {Â¥y. grelot), greloter is to shiver for 
cold. On the same principle I regard 
the Ptg. chillrar, to twitter, Sp. chillar, 
Wall, chiler, to crackle, creak, twitter, 
hiss as meat on the gridiron, as pointing 
out the origin of the E. chill, signifying 
properly shivering, then cold. See Chim- 
mer, Chitter. The Pl.D. kil ten, to smart, 
has probably the same origin. * De finger 
killet mi for kalte,' my finger tingles with 
cold. Du. killen, tintelen van koude. — 
Halm. 

Chimb. Du. kijnme, the rim or edge 
of a vase, or as E. chimb, the projecting 
ends of the staves above the head of a 
cask. Pl.D. kimi7i s. s., also the horizon, 
w. cib, a cup ; cibaw, to raise the rim, 
knit the brow ; cib-led, of expanded rim ; 
hyd-y-gib, to the brim. Fin. kippa, a cup. 

Chime. Imitative of a loud clear 
sound. Chymyn or chenkyn with bellys. 
Tintillo. — Pr. Pm. Da. kime, to chime. 
Fin. kimia^ acute, sonorous, kiinistd, 



CHIMERA 

acut^ tinnio ; kimina, sonus acutus, 
clangor tinniens ; kummata, kumista, to 
sound, as a large bell ; ku?nina, reson- 
ance ; ko7ma, sounding deep, as a bell ; 
kommataj komista^ to sound deep or 
hollow. 

Chimera. Gr. x'^^iaipa^ a goat, then 
the name of a fabulous monster part 
goat, part lion, killed by Bellerophon. 

To Chimmer. Chymerynge, or chy- 
verynge or dyderinge. Frigutus. — Pr, 
Pm. This word affords a good illustra- 
tion of the mode in which the ideas of 
tremulous motion, sound, and light, are 
connected together. We have the radical 
application to a tremulous sound in Pol. 
szemrad, to murmur, rustle; E. simmer, 
to boil gently, to make a tremulous 
sound on beginning to boil. The desig- 
nation passes on to phenomena of sight 
and bodily movement in shimmer, a 
twinkling light, and chimmer, to tremble, 
which differ from each other only as 
shiver and the chyver of Pr. Pm. Com- 
pare also Walach. caperd, to simmer, 
vibrate, sparkle. See Bright, Chitter. 

Chimney. Fr. chetninee. It. cam- 
minata, a hall ; Mid.Lat. caminata, an 
apartment with a fire-place, from Lat. 
caminus, a fire-place. Caminatum, fyr- 
hus.— ^If. Gloss. 

Chin. AS. cinne, Du. kinne. Kinne- 
backe, the jaw, cheek. Gr. ykvvg, the jaw, 
chin ; y'zviiov, the chin ; Lat. gena, the 
cheek. Bret, gen, the cheek (jaw) ; genou 
(pi.), the mouth (jaws) ; genawi, to open 
the mouth. 

Chin-cough. — Chink-cough. Sw. 
kik hosta, G. keich husten, Du. kieck hoest, 
kink hoest, the whooping cough, from the 
sharp chinking sound by which it is ac- 
companied. To chink with laughter, to 
lose one's breath with laughter and make 
a crowing sound in recovering breath. 

Chine. Fr. eschitte, the chifie, back- 
bone ; eschinde (de pore), a chine (of 
pork) ; eschiner, to chine, to divide or 
break the back of. — Cot. It. schiena, 
schena, schina, Sp. esquena, Prov. esquina, 
the backbone ; Lat. spina, a thorn, also 
the spine or backbone from its pointed 
processes. The change from the sound 
of sp to sk is singular, as the/ is preserved 
in It. spina, Fr. epine, a thorn. Diez de- 
rives from OHG. skina, a. needle ; but 
skina applied to a bone signified the shin, 
and it is most unlikely that it would also 
have been used to designate the spine. 

Chink. Primarily a shrill sound, as 
the chink of money, to chink with laugh- 



CHITTERLING 



147 



ter. Magy. tsengeni, tsongeni, tinnire. 
Then, in the same way that the word 
crack, originally representing the sound 
made by the fracture of a hard body, is 
applied to the separation of the broken 
parts, so also we find chitik applied to 
the fissure arising from the fracture of a 
hard body, then to any narrow crack or 
fissure. AS. cittan, to gape, to chink. 
The same sound is represented in E. in- 
differently by the syllable cli7tk or chink, 
and the Du. klincken, to clink or sound 
sharp, gives rise in like manner to the 
substantive klincke, a chink or fissure. 

In like manner E. chick, representing 
in the first instance a sharp sound, is pro- 
vincially used in the sense of a crack, a 
flaw — Hal. ; and from a similar sound 
represented by the syllable schrick, Bav. 
schricken, to crack as glass or earthen- 
ware ; schrick, a chap, cleft, chink.— 
Kuttn. 

Chintz. Hindost. chits, chhint. 

Chip. See Chap, Chat. 

Chirk. See Chark. 

To Chirp. A parallel form with chirk^ 
representing the shrill noise of birds or 
insects, all these imitative terms being 
liable to great variation in the final con- 
sonants. Lith. czirszkti,io chirp, twitter ; 
czirbti, to prattle ; czirpti, to creak, hiss ; 
G. zirpen, zirken, tschi?pen, to chirp ; Sp. 
chirriar, to creak, chirp, hiss ; chirlar, It. 
ciarlare, to prattle ; Valentian charrarj 
Norman charer, to tattle, chatter ; E. dial. 
to chirre, to chirp. In the same sense, 
to chirm; ' chinning tongues of birds.' — ■ 
Phaer's Virg. Chyrme or chur, as birds 
do. — Huloet. in Hal. 

Chisel. Fr. ciseau (for ciset), a sur- 
geon's lancet, also a chisel or graving 
iron. — Cot. It. cisello, Sp. cincel, Ptg. 
sizel. Fr. cisaille, clipping of coin. Sp. 
chischas, clashing of weapons. 

Chit. See Chats. 

To Chitter. To chirp or twitter. 

But she withal no worde may soune, 

But chiti'e as a bird jargowne. — Gower in Hal. 

Du. schetteren, stridere, crepare, dis- 
plodere, et garrire ; schetteringe, sonus 
vibrans, quavering of the voice. — Kil. 
From signifying a twittering sound chit- 
ter is applied to tremulous motion. Chyt- 
tering, quivering or shakyng for colde. — 
Huloet in Hal. It. sqiiittire, to squeak 
or cry as a parrot, to hop or skip nimbly 
up and down. 

Chitterling, i, A frill to a shirt. 
We make of a French ruff an English chitterling. 
Gascoigne in Todd. 

2. The small entrails of a hog, from- 
10 * 



148 



CHIVALRY 



their wrinkled appearance. G. kros, 
gekrose^ a ruff or frill, also the mesentery 
or membrane which covers the bowels, 
from krausy curly; kalds gekrose, a calf's 
pluck or chaldron ; gdnse gekrose^ a 
goose's giblets, called chitters in the N. 
of E. Tr./reze, a ruff, a calf's chaldern ; 
fresure, the inwards of an animal, pluck, 
haslets, &c. 

The origin of the word in the sense of 
a frill or wrinkled structure is chitter, to 
chirp or twitter, then to shiver, the ridges 
of a wrinkled surface being represented 
by the vibrations of sound or motion. 
In the same way the synonym frill is re- 
lated to Fr. friller, to shiver, chatter, or 
didder for cold, and W.J^rill, a twittering, 
chattering. Compare also Pol. kruszyd, 
to shiver ; kruszki, ruffs, also calf s, 
lamb's pluck or gather, chawdron, &c. 
Walach. caperd, to palpitate ; Lat. cape- 
rare, to wrinkle. 

Chivalry. The manners and senti- 
ments of the knightly class. Fr. che- 
valerie^ from chevalier, a knight. See 
Cavalry. 

Chives. The fine threads of flowers, 
or the little knobs which grow on the tops 
of those threads ; chivets, the small parts 
of the roots of plants, by which they are 
propagated. — B . Fr. chippe, chiffe, a rag, 
jag ; E. chife, a fragment, chimp, a young 
shoot ; chibble, to break off in small 
pieces ; shive, a small slice or slip of 
anything ; shiver, a scale or fragment ; 
Pl.D. scheve, the shives or broken frag- 
ments of stalk that fall off in dressing 
flax or hemp ; schevel-steen, G. schiefer, 
stone which splits off in shives or shivers, 
slate ; ON. ski/a, to cleave ; — all seem 
developments of the same radical image. 
See Chats. 

* Chives are also a kind of small onion, 
the eatable part of which consists of the 
young fine leaves, and in this sense the 
word is more likely to be from Lat. cepa, 
an onion. Fr. cive, civette, a chive, seal- 
lion or unset leek. — Cot. Verte comme 
chives, as green as leeks. — Body and Soul. 

Chock-fuU. — Chuck-full. Swab. 
schoch, a heap, g'schochet voll, full to 
overflowing, heaped measure, chock full. 
— Schmid. In the same dialect schop- 
pen is to stuff, to stop ; geschoppt voll, 
crammed full. 

Choir. — Chorus. Gr. xopoq, a com- 
pany of singers or dancers, specially with 
an application to theatrical performances, 
whence Lat. chorus, and It. coro, Fr. 
chceur, the quire or part of the church 
appropriated to the singers. 



CHOP 

To Choke.— See Cheek. 

Choleric. — Cholera. Gr. xo^*P"j ^ 
malady the symptoms of which are con- 
nected with the bile, from x"^*)? i- bile, 2. 
anger, wrath, whence choleric, of an angry 
disposition. 

* To Choose. — Choice. AS.ceosan,T>\x, 
kiezen, keuren, koreti, Goth, kiusan, kaus- 
jan, G. kiesen, kohren, Prov. causir, Fr. 
choisir, to choose. The primary mean- 
ing is doubtless to taste, then to try, 
prove, approve, select. ' Thaiize ni kaus- 
jand dauthaus,' who shall not taste death. 
— Mark ix. i. ' Gagga kausjan thans ' 
—I go to prove them. — Luc. xiv. 19. The 
original meaning is preserved in G. wein 
kieser, a wine taster, and in kosten, to 
taste, to experience, to try. OHG. kiusan, 
to prove, to try ; arkiusan, to choose ; 
koron, to taste, try, prove. Swiss kust, 
gust, taste, gusfen, kustigen, to taste, to 
try, lead us on to Lat. gtistare, Gr. yeuw, 
7«u(Tw, to taste. Equivalents in the Sla- 
vonic languages are Pol. kusic, to tempt, 
try. Boh. okusyti, to taste, try, experience ; 
Russ. wkusit' , prikushaf , to taste ; Serv. 
kushati, to taste, to try. As ktishimti, 
kushevati, in the same language, signify 
to kiss, in analogy with the use of smack 
in the sense of kiss as well as taste, it is 
probable that the root kus of the fore- 
going terms represents the smack of the 
lips in kissing or tasting. 

Choice is probably direct from Fr. choix. 

To Chop. The syllable chap or chop 
represents the sound of a sudden blow ; 
Sc. chap hands, to strike hands ; to chap 
at a door ; to chap, to hack, cut up into 
small pieces. Chap, chaup, choppe, a 
blow. — Jam. Hence to chop is to do any- 
thing suddenly, as with a blow, to turn. 
A greyhound chops up a hare when it 
catches it unawares ; to chop up in prison, 
to clap up — Hal. ; the wind chops rounc^ 
when it makes a sudden turn to a differ- 
ent quarter. 

From the notion of turning round the 
word chop passes to the sense of exchang- 
ing, an exchange being the transfer of 
something with the return of an equiva- 
lent on the other side. Thus we speak 
of chopping and changing ; to chop horses 
with one, to exchange horses. The Sc. 
and N. of E. coup, Warwickshire coff, ON. 
kaup, keypa, are used in the same sense. 

* Sidast bid hann at Holmi thviat hann 
keipti vid Holmstarra baedi londom oc 
konom oc lausa fe olio.' At last he dwelt 
at Holm because he and Holmstarra had 
chopped both lands and wives and all 
their moveables. *Enn Sigridur sem 



CHOP 

hann ^tti ddur heng^di sig i hofino thviat 
hun villdi eigi ma^ma-kaiipin.' But Sig- 
rid whom he before had to wife hanged 
herself in the temple, because she would 
not endure this husband chopping. — 
Landnamabok, p. 49. 

Thus chop is connected with G. kaufett, 
E. cheap, chapman, &c. In Sc. caiip the 
original sense of turning is combined with 
that of trafficking, dealing. To coi/p, to 
overturn, overset. — Jam. 

' The whirling stream will make our boat to 
coup, i. e. to turn over.' ' They are forebuyers 
of quheit, bearand aits, copers and burners there- 
cf in merchandise.' — Jam. 

Horse-couper, cow-couper, one who 
buys and sells horses or cows ; soul-coup- 
er, a trafficker in souls. To turn a penny 
is a common expression for making a 
penny by traffic. 

The nasalisation of chap or chop in the 
sense of exchanging would give rise to 
the It. cambiare, cangiare, and we act- 
ually find champ7nan for chapman, a 
merchant, in Chaucer. See Change. 

To Chop log-ick. Du. happen (to 
chop) in thieves' language signified to 
speak. Borgoens happen, to cant, to 
speak thieves' slang. — P. Marin, 

Chopino. Sp. chapin, high clog, slip- 
per ; chapineria, shop where clogs and 
pattens are sold. From the sound of a 
blow represented by the syllable chap, 
chop, as Du. klo7npe, klopper, clogs, from 
kloppen, to knock, because in clogs or 
wooden shoes one goes champing along, 
where it will be observed that the initial 
kl of kloppen corresponds to ch of chopino, 
as in the examples mentioned under 
Chape. 

Chord. Or. xo^lri, the string of a music- 
al instrument ; originally, the intestine of 
an animal, of which such strings are made. 

Chough. A jackdaw ; AS. ceo j OE. 
kowe, monedula. — Nominale in Nat. Ant. 
Du. kauwe, kae j Lith. kowe; Sax. 
kaycke j Picard. cauc, cauvette ; Fr . 
choucas, chouquette, chouette, whence E. 
chuet. 

Peace, chuet, peace. — Shakespeare. 

This latter is the same word with the 
It. civetta, applied to an owl in that 
language. The origin of all these words 
is an imitation of the cry of the bird, equi- 
valent to the E. kaw. See Chaff. 

To Chouse. From the Turkish Chiaus, 
a messenger or envoy. In 1609 Sir 
Robert Shirley, who was about to come 
to England with a mission from the Grand 
Seignor and the King of Persia, sent be- 
fore him a Chiaus, who took in the Turk- 



CHUCK 



149 



ey and Persia merchants in a way that 
obtained much notoriety at the time. 
Hence to chiaus became a slang word 
for to defraud. — Gifford's Ben Jonson, 4. 
27. In the Alchemist, which was written 
in 1 610, we find the following passage : 
Dap. And will I tell then? by this hand of flesh 
Would it might never write good court-hand more 
If I discover. What do you think of me, 
That I am a chiaus f 
Face. What 's that ? 
Dap. The Turk was here 

As one should say, Doe you think I am a Turk?— 
Face. Come, noble Doctor, pray thee let's pre- 
vail — 
You deal now with a noble gentleman, 
One that will thank you richly, and he is no 
chiaus — 

Slight, I bring you 
No cheating Clim o' the Cloughs. — Alchemist. 

We are in a fair way to be ridiculous. What 
think you. Madam, chiaus dhy a. scholaxl — Shir- 
ley in Gifford. 

Chrism. — Chrisom. Fr. chrisjne, Gr. 
XplfTfjia, consecrated oil to be used in bap- 
tism ; Fr. cresmeau, the crisome where- 
with a child is anointed, or more properly 
the cloth or christening cap that was put 
on the head of the child as soon as it had 
been anointed. — Cot. 

-chron-. — Chronicle. ., Gr. xP^'^^^y 
time ; to. xpoJ^ff^j Fr. chroniques, E. 
chronicles, journals of events in refer- 
ence to the times in which they hap- 
pened. 

Anachronism, an offence against the 
fitness of times. 

Chrysalis. Lat. chrysalis (Plin.), Gr. 
XovaaWq, doubtless from some connection 
with x9^^^^i gold. 

Chub.— Chevin. A fish with a thick 
snout and head. Fr. chevane, cheviniau. 
Confounded with the bullhead, a small fish 
with a large head. Mid. Lat. capito, ca- 
pitanus, caphatenus, cavena, whence the 
Fr. chevane, E. chevin. G. forms are 
kaulhaupt (club-head, whence E. gull ; 
capitone, a bullhead, gull, or miller's 
thumb — Fl.), kolbe (club), kobe, koppe, 
whence apparently the E. chub. — Dief. 
Sup. Quabbe, quappe, gobio capitatus, 
capito. — Kil. 

* Chubby, e. dial, cob, a lump or 
piece ; chump, a thick piece. ON. kubbr^ 
Sw. dial, kubb, a stump, short piece ; 
kubbug, fat, plump, thick-set. 

Chuck. — ^Chuckstone. A sharp sound 
like the knocking of two hard substances 
together is imitated by the syllables 
clack, chack, cak, clat, chat, as in Fr. 
claquer, to clack, chatter ; Wall, caker, 
to strike in the hand, the teeth to chat- 
ter ; Fr. caqueter, to chatter, prattle ; E. 



i;o 



CHUCKLE 



clatter^ &c. N. kakka^ klakka, to strike 
a resounding object, as a board. — Aasen. 
In Sc. we have to chack, to make a noise 
like two stones knocking together. 

Some 's teeth for cold did chack and chatter. 
Cleland in Jam. 

Hence the name of the wheatear or 
stone-chat (a bird making a noise of that 
description), in Sc. chack ox stane-chacker. 

This imitation of the noise of pebbles 
knocking together has very generally 
given rise to the designation of a pebble 
or small stone, as in E. chack-stone^ Sc. 
chuckie-stafie. The Turkish has chagh- 
laviak, to make a rippling noise, as water 
running over rocks or stones, chaktl, a 
pebble ; Gr. Kax^aivio, to move with a 
rattling noise like pebbles rolled on the 
beach ; Kdj(\i]^, x«^*?> Lat. ca/x, calculus, 
a pebble. 

To chuck one under the chin is to give 
him a sudden blow, so as to make the 
jaw chack or snap. To chuck in the 
sense of throwing may be from the notion 
of a sudden jerk. 

To Chuckle. See Cheek. 

Chuff.— Chuffy. Chtiff, churlish, surly, 
an old chuff, a miser. Probably from It. 
ciuffo, ceffo, the snout of an animal, and 
thence an ugly face ; far ceffo, to make a 
wry face ; ceffata, ceffbre, a douse on the 
chops. Wall, chife, chofe (Grandgagnage), 
OFr. giffe, giffle, cheek, blow on the 
cheeks ; Wall, chofu, Fr. Joffu, joufflu, 
chuffy, fat-cheeked, swollen or puffed up 
in the face. — Cot. AS. ceaplas, ceaflas, 
geaflas, chaps, jaws. See Cheek. 

Chump. — Chunk. A log of wood, 
the thick end of anything, a lump. See 
Cob. 

Church. The derivation from KvpiaKov, 
the Lord's house, has been impugned 
because it is not understood how a Greek 
term should have made its way among 
Gothic nations. It is certain, however, that 
KvpiaKov was used in the sense of church. 
The canon of the sixth Council prescribes, 
■ — ''oTi oh dtl ev ToXg KvpiaKolg, ?) tv toiq IkkXtj- 
(Tialg Tag Xeyofisvag dyaTrdg ttoisiv.' And 
Zonaras in commenting on the passage 
says that the name of KvpiaKov is fre- 
quently found in the sense of a church, 
although only this canon directly dis- 
tinguishes 'tKK\r}(jia and KvpiaKov, ' but I 
think,' he adds, ' that the ^ is not there 
used disjunctively, but by way of explan- 
ation.' — Quoted by Max Miiller in Times 
Newsp. As AS. cjyrlce is confessedly the 
very form to which the Greek would 
have given rise, it is carrying scruples to 
an extravagant length to doubt the iden- 



CINDER 

tity of the two words, because we do not 
know how the Greek name came to be 
employed instead of the Latin equivalent 
dominictmi, whence Ir. dottihnach, a. 
church. 

Churl. AS. ccorl, a man, countryman, 
husbandman. ON. karl, a man, male 
person, an old man, Du. kaerle, a man, 
a husband, a rustic ; G. kerl, a fellow. 

Churn, on. kjarni, G. kern, the kernel, 
pith, marrow, flower, or choice part of a 
thing ; whence ON. kirna, Fris. kernjen, 
to churn, i. e. to separate the kernel of 
the milk, or, as Epkema explains it, to 
cause the milk to grain, to form grains of 
butter. Da. dial, kiorne, to separate the 
grains of barley from the chaff. Somer- 
set kern, to turn from blossom to fruit.— 
Jennings. 

-cid-, -cis-. Lat. cado, casuin (in comp. 
-cid-), to fall ; accido, to fall at or on, to 
happen ; incido, to fall upon ; decido, to 
fall from, whence decidjious (of trees), 
whose leaves fall from them. 

-cide-. -else. Lat. ccsdo, ccBsum (in 
comp. -cido, -cisujn), to cut ; decido, to 
cut off, to determine ; incision, a cutting 
in ; circumcision, a cutting round, &:c. 

Cider. Fr. cidre, from Lat. sicera, Gr. 
aiKspa, as Fr. ladre from Lazare. Sicera- 
tores, i. e. qui cervisiam vel pomarium 
sive piratiam facere sciant. — Charta A.D. 
1106 in Mur. Diss. 24. 

Cieling. See Ceiling. 

Cincture. Lat. cinctura icingo, pp. 
cijictus, to gird, tie about), a girding on, 
thence a belt. 

* Cinder. The spelling of cinder has 
arisen from the erroneous supposition 
that the word is an adoption of Fr. cendre, 
from Lat. cinis, -eris, dust, ashes, with 
which it has really no connection. It 
should be written sinder, corresponding 
to G. sinter, Du. sindel, sintel, ON. sindr, 
signifying in the first place the brilliant 
sparks which are driven off when white- 
hot iron is beaten on the anvil, then the 
black scales to which they turn when 
cold, and the slag or dross of iron of 
which they are composed, and from 
analogy is applied to the unconsumed 
residue of burnt coals. Du. sindel is 
rendered by Kil. scoria, spuma metalli, 
but according to Weiland sintel (as it is 
now pronounced) is used as E. cinders 
for the residue of stone coal. The origin 
of the word is seen in ON. sindra, to 
sparkle, to throw out sparks, a parallel 
form with tyndra, Sw. tindra, to sparkle. 
In Germany ziinder is used as a synonym 
with sinter for smiths' scales or cinder. 



CION 

See Tinder, 
striking fire. 

Cion.— Scion. Fr. scion^ cion, a young 
and tender plant, a shoot, sprig, twig. — 
Cot. The proper sense is a sucker, as 
in Sp. chtipon, a sucker or young twig 
shooting from the stock, from chitpar, to 
suck. The radical identity of the Fr. 
and Sp. forms is traced by Gr. (rt'^wr, a 
tube or hollow reed (from the root sup^ 
sip, suck), also a waterspout (sucking up 
the water of the sea), compared with It. 
sio7ie, a kind of pipe, gutter, or quill to 
draw water through — Fl. ; a whirlwind. 
• — Alt. In Fr. cion, Sp. chupon, and E. 
scion or sucker, the young shoot is con- 
ceived as sucking up the juices of the 
parent plant. 

* Cipher. Fr. chiffre, It. cifra, Arab. 
sifr. Originally the name of the figure 
marking a blank in decimal arithmetic. 
Then transferred to the other numeral 
figures. From Arab, sifr, empty (Dozy) ; 
sajira, to be empty. — Golius. 

Circle. — Circuit. Gr. k^Ikoq, Kipicog, a 
ring, circle, clasp. Lat. circa, around, 
circulus, a circle. The Gr. KpiKOQ differs 
only in the absence of the nasal from ON. 
kringr, hringr, a circle, a ring. In the 
latter language kring is used in composi- 
tion as Lat. circtun. ON. kringla, a circle. 
See Crankle. 

Circum-. Lat. ci^'ca, circum, about, 
around. See Circle. 

-cis-. See -cid-. 

* Cistern. Lat. cisterna, a reservoir 
for water. Probably from Lat. cista, a 
chest, as caverna from cavus. Comp. 
G. wasserkasten (water chest), a cistern. 
On the other hand a more charactieristic 
explanation might be found in Bohem. 
^ciste, clean (the equivalent of the Lat. 
castiis), whence cistiti, to cleanse, and 

cisterna, a cleansing place, a cistern. So 
Lat. lucerna, the place of a light. AS. 
cern, em, a place ; domern, a judgment 
place ; hiddern, a hiding-place, &c. See 
Chaste. 

Citadel. It. cittadella, dim. of citta, 
cittade, a city. A fort built close to a 
city, either for the purpose of defence or 
of control. 

Cite. -cite. Lat. cieo, citum, and, in 
the frequentative form, cito, to make to 
go, stimulate, excite, to set in motion by 
means of the voice, to call by name, to 
summon or call on, to appeal, to mention, 
to cry out. Gr. k/w, to go. 

Hence Incite, Excite, Recite. 

Citron. Lat. citrus, a lemon tree. 



CLAM 



51 



City. — Civil. Lat. civis, a citizen ; 
civilis, belonging to cities or social life ; 
civitas, It. cittci, Fr. cite, a city. 

To Clack. The syllables clap, clack^ 
clat, are imitative of the noise made 
by two hard things knocking together. 
Hence they give rise to verbs expressing 
action accompanied by such kinds of 
noise. Fr. claquer, to clack, clap, clat- 
ter, crash, crack, creak — Cot. ; claquer 
les dents, to gnash the teeth, to chatter ; 
claguet de moulin, the clapper or clack of 
a mill hopper. E. clack-dish, or clap-dish, 
a kind of rattle, formerly used by beggars 
to extort attention from the by-passers ; 
clack, clack-box, clap, clapper, the tongue. 
— Hal. ON. klak, clangor avium ; Du. 
klacken, to strike, or split with noise, 
smack, lash ; klack, a split, crack, sound- 
ing blow, sound of blow, clapping of 
hands ; klacke, a whip, a rattle ; Fr. cla- 
quer, to clap at a theatre. Du. klap, 
crack, sound, chatter ; klappe, a rattle ; 
klappen, to chatter, prattle. Bohem. 
klekotati, to cluck, rattle, babble ; klepati^ 
klopati, to knock, to chatter,. prattle. Du. 
klateren, to clatter, rattle j klater-busse, 
klacke-busse, a pop-gun. 

To Claim. Fr. clanier, to call, cry, 
claim. Lat. clamare, to call. From the 
imitation of a loud outcry by the syllable 
clain. To clam a peal of bells is to strike 
them all at once. ON. glamni, tinnitus ; 
Dan. kleinte, to toll ; Gael, gldin, to bawl, 
cry out ; gla^nbar, clambar, Dan. klam- 
7ner, Gael, claniras, uproar, outcry, 
vociferation. A parallel root is slain, 
with an initial s instead of c, as in slash 
compared with clash. Lap. slain, a loud 
noise ; uksa slamketi, the door was 
slammed J slamem, ruin, fall. 

Clam. — Clamp, — Clump, The idea 
of a lump or thick mass of anything is 
often expressed by a syllable representing 
the noise made by the fall of a heavy 
body. We may cite \v. dob, a knob, a 
boss ; clobyn, a lump ; Lat. globus, a ball, 
sphere ; gleba, a clod ; Russ. klub\ a 
ball ; Pol. klqb, a ball, lump, mass ; G. 
kloben, a lump, bunch ; Sw. klabb, klubb, 
a block, log, trunk, lump of wood ; or 
with the nasal, Sw. klamp, klump, klimp, 
a block, lump, clot ; ON. klambr, klumbr, 
a lump ; Du. klompe, a clod, clog, lump ; 
E. clump, w. clamp, a mass, bunch, lump. 

The notion of a lump, mass, cluster, 
naturally leads to that of a number of 
things sticking together, and hence to the 
principle of connection between the ele- 
ments of which the mass is composed. 
We accordingly find the roots dab, clamps 



152 



CLAMBER 



clam and their immediate modifications 
applied to express the ideas of cohesion, 
compression, contraction. Thus we have 
G. kiobcn, a vice or instrument for holding 
fast, the staple of a door ; kleben, to 
cleave, stick, cling, take hold of; Du. 
klobber-saen^ coagulated cream, cream 
run to lumps ; klebber, klt'bber, klubber^ 
birdlime, gum, substances of a sticky 
nature ; E. dial, c//^/^/, sticky — Hal. ; Sw. 
klibb, viscosity ; klibba^ to glue, to stick 
to. 

The E. clamp designates anything used 
for the purpose of holding things together ; 
Du. klampen^ to hook things together, 
hold with a hook or buckle, hold, seize, 
apprehend ; klampe, klamjne, hook, claw, 
cramp, buckle ; klamp, klam, tenacious, 
sticky, and hence moist, clammy. To 
dame, to stick or glue. — B. E. dial, to 
clam, cle7?i, to pinch, and hence to pinch 
with hunger, to starve, also to clog up, to 
glue, to daub — Hal. ; Du. klemmen, to 
pinch, compress, strain ; klem-vogel, or 
klamp-vogel, a bird of prey, a hawk. AS. 
clam, bandage, bond, clasp, prison. G. 
klamm, pinching, strait, narrow, pressed 
close or hard together, solid, massy, 
viscous, clammy ; klatumer, a cramp, 
brace, cramp-iron, holdfast. 

To Clamber. — Climb. These words 
are closely connected with clamp. To 
clamber is properly to clutch oneself up, 
to mount up by catching hold with the 
hands or claws, G. klammern, to fasten 
with cramp-irons, to hold fast with the 
hands or claws ; Dan. klamre, to clamp, 
to grasp. 

In like manner Du. kleinmen, to hold 
tight, to pinch, kle7nme?i, klifnmen, to 
climb. OE. diver, E. dial, claver, a claw ; 
Dan. klavre, to claw oneself up, to climb. 
G. kleben, to cleave or stick, Swiss kldbern, 
klebern, to climb ; Bav. klaiten, a claw, 
G. klette, a burr, Swiss kletten, G. klettertt, 
to climb, clamber. Dan. klynge, to cling, 
cluster, crowd ; klynge sig op, to clutch 
or cling oneself up, to climb. The Fr, 
grimper, to climb, is a nasalised form of 
gripper, to seize, gripe, grasp. 

Clamour. The equivalent of Lat. 
cla7nor, but perhaps not directly from it, 
as the word is common to the Celtic and 
Gothic races. Sw. klammer, Gael, clam- 
ras, clambar, glambar, uproar, brawl. 
See Claim, 

Clamp, See Clam. 

Clan, A small tribe subject to a single 
chief. From Gael, clann, children, de- 
scendants, i. e. descendants of a common 
ancestor. \N. plant {^\iQ^.p correspond- 



CLAPPER 

ing regularly to Gael, c), offspring, chil- 
dren. The same word is probably 
exhibited in the Lat. dientes, who occu- 
pied a position with respect to their 
patronus, closely analogous to that of the 
Scottish clansmen towards their chief. 
Manx clean, children, descendants ; clicn- 
tiey, of the children. 

Clandestine. Lat. dandcstinus, from, 
clam, privately, and that from celo, to 
conceal. The root which gives rise to 
Lat. celo produces Fin. salata, to hide, 
conceal, whence sala, anything hidden, 
of which the locative case, salaan, is used 
in the sense of secretly, in a hidden place, 
as the Lat, clam. Salainen, clandestine. 

Clang. — Clank.— Clink. These are 
imitations of a loud, clear sound, adopted 
in many languages. Lat. clangor, the 
sound of the trumpet ; G. klang, a sound, 
tone, resonance ; klingen, to gingle, clink, 
tingle, tinkle, sound. E. clang, a loud 
sound ; clank, a sound made by a lighter 
object ; clink, a sound made by a still 
smaller thing ; the clank of irons, clink 
of money ; Du. klank, sound, accent, 
rumour. — Halma. Gael. gUong, tingle, 
ring as metal, clang. 

Clap. An imitation of the sound 
made by the collision of hard or flat 
things, as the clapping of hands. Dan. 
klappre, to chatter (as the teeth with 
cold) ; G. klappen, to do anything with a 
claps klopfen, to knock, to beat. Du. 
klappen, kleppeti, to clap, rattle, chatter, 
beat, sound ; kleppe, klippe, a rattle ; 
kleppe, a whip, a trap, a noose ; klepel, 
kluppel, a stick, club ; Bohem. klepati, 
to knock, tattle, chatter, tremble ; Russ. 
klepanie, beating, knocking. 

To clap in E. is used in the sense of 
doing anything suddenly, to clap on, 
clap up. 

Clapper. A clapper of conies, a place 
underground where rabbits breed. — B. 
Fr. clapier, a heap of stones, &c., where- 
unto they retire themselves, or (as our 
clapper) a court walled about and full of 
nests of boards and stones, for tame 
conies. — Cot. 

Lang, dap, a stone ; clapas, clapii, a 
heap of stones or other things piled up 
without order. ' Pourta las peiros as 
clapas,' to take coals to Newcastle. 
Hence the Fr. clapier, originally a heap 
of large stones, the cavities of which 
afforded rabbits a secure breeding place, 
then applied to any ai'tificial breeding 
place for rabbits. 

The proper meaning of the foregoing 
clap is simply a lump, from the w. clap, 



CLARET 

clamps a lump, mass, the primary origin 
of which is preserved in Lang, clapa, 
clopa, to knock. Prov. clap, a heap, 
mass. — Rayn. 

Claret. Fr. vin clairet, vin claret, 
claret wine. — Cot. Commonly made, he 
tells us, of white and red grapes mingled 
together. From clairet, somewhat clear, 
i. e. with a reddish tint, but not the full 
red of ordinary red wine. Eau clairette, 
a water made of aquavitae, cinnamon, 
and old red rose-water. Du. klaeret, 
vinum helvolum, subrubidum, rubellum. 
It. chiarello. — Kil. 

Clarion. — Clarinet. Sp. r/^rzV/, trum- 
pet, stop of an organ. It. chiarino, a 
clairon of a trumpet — Fr. clairon, a cla- 
rion, a kind of small, straight-mouthed, 
and shrill-sounding trumpet. Fr. clair, 
It. chiaro clear. Sp. clarinado, applied 
to animals having bells in their harness. 

Clash. Imitative of the sound of wea- 
pons striking together. Du. kletse, ictus 
resonans, fragor ; Lang, clas, the sound 
of bells rung in a volley to give notice of 
the passage of a corpse ; sou?ta de classes, 
to ring in such a manner for the dead. 
In E. it is called clamining. Fr. glas, 
noise, crying, bawling, also a knell for the 
dead. G. klatschen, an imitation of the 
sound made by striking with the hand 
against a partition, wall, &c. If such a 
blow sound finer or clearer it is called 
klitschj klitsch-klatsch / pitsch-patsch ! 
■ — thwick-thwack. — Kiittner. Klatsch- 
biichse, s. pop-gun ; klatsche, a lash, flap, 
clap ; klcLtschen, to do anything with a 
sound of the foregoing description, to 
patter, chatter, clatter, blab. Pol. Mask ! 
plask ! thwick, thwack ; klaskad, to clap ; 
klask bicza, the cracking of a whip. It. cJii- 
asso, fracas, uproar; Sp. chasquear, to crack 
a whip, &c. Gr. icXd^w, to clash as arms. 

Clasp. Related to clip as grasp to 
grip or gripe. But clasp or elapse, as it 
is written by Chaucer, is probably by 
direct imitation from the sound of a 
metal fastening, as we speak of the snap 
of a bracelet for a fastening that shuts 
with a snapping sound, or as G. schnalle, 
a clasp, buckle, locket of a door, from 
schnallen, to snap. Du. gaspe, ghespe, 
fibula, ansa. 

Class. Lat. classis, a distribution of 
things into groups. Originally clasis. 
Identical with ON. klasi, Sw. Dan. klase, 
a bunch, assembly, cluster. Eya-klasi, 
insularum nexus ; skeria-klasi, syrtiura 
junctura. Du. klos, klot, globus, sphasra. 
—Kil. 

Clatter. From the imitation of the 



CLAW 



153 



sound of a knock by the syllable claf^ 
equivalent to clack or clap. Du. kla- 
teren, to rattle ; klaterbusse, as G. klatsch- 
biichse, a pop-gun. 

Clause. Lat clausula,* an ending, 
thence a definite head of an edict or law, 
a complete sentence. From claudo, clau- 
sum, to shut, to end. 

Clavicle. The collar-bone, from the 
resemblance to a key, Lat. clavis, as 
Mod.Gr. KXeiSi, a key ; icXeidia tov awfiarog, 
the collar-bone. 

Claw. — Clew. The origin of both 
these words seems to be a form of the 
same class with w. dob, a lump ; Russ. 
ch^b', a ball, pellet ; Lat. globus, a sphere ; 
gleba, a clod. The b readily passes into 
an m on the one hand, and through v 
into a. w or tt on the other. Thus from 
Lat. globus we have glomus in the re- 
stricted sense of a ball of thread, and the 
same modification of meaning is expressed 
by the Du. klattw, klouwe (Kil.), E. clew. 

We have explained under Clamp the 
way in which the notion of a mass or 
solid lump is connected with those of co- 
hesion, compression, contraction. Thus 
from clamp, climp, clump, in the sense of 
a mass or lump, we pass to the E. clamp, 
to fasten together ; Du, klampe, klamme, 
a buckle, hook, nail, claw (what fastens 
together, pulls, seizes) ; klampvoghel, a 
hawk, a bird with powerful talons. 

In the same way must be explained the 
use of the Du. klauwe, klouwe, in the 
sense both of a ball and also of a claw. 
The form clew, which signifies a ball in 
E,, is used in Sc. in the sense of a claw. 
To clew up a sail is to fasten it up, to 
draw it up into a bunch. To clew, to 
cleave, to fasten. — Jam. Analogous 
forms are the Du. kleeven, klijven, kleuen, 
whence kleuer, ivy, from clinging to the 
tree which supports it. In the same way 
is formed the OE. diver, a claw. 

Teh habbe bile stif and stronge 
And gode clivers sharp and longe. 

Owl and Nightingale, 269. 

A diver or claw is that by which we 
cleave to, clew or fasten upon a thing. 
With mys he wes swa wmbesete — 
He niycht na way get sawftd, 
Na with stavis, na with stanis, 
Than thai wald clew upon his banis. 

Wyntoun in Jam. 

The root appears in Lat. under three 
modifications ; clava, a club or massy 
stick, clavus, a nail, from its use in fast- 
ening things together, and clavis, a key, 
originally a crooked nail. So Pol. khtcz, 
a key, kluczka, a little hook ; Serv 



154 



CLAY 



klutsch, a key, hook, bend in a stream, 
identical in sound and nearly so in mean- 
ing with the E. clutch, a claw or talon. 

Clay. — Clag. — Claggy. as. clcpg, 
sticky earth, clay ; E. dial, to dag ox clog, 
to stick or adhere ; claggy, cloggy, c I edgy, 
sticky ; dags, bogs ; Da. klcrg, kleg, vis- 
cous, sticky ; klag, klcFg, kleg, mud, loam. 
See Clog. 

Clean. The proper meaning of the 
word is shining, polished, as Lat. nitidus, 
clean, from 7iitere, to shine. ON. glaii, 
shine, polish ; Gael, glan, radiant, bright, 
clear, clean, pure ; w. gldn, clean, pure. 
The word is fundamentally connected 
with forms like the ON. glitta, Sc. gleit, 
to shine ; ON. glWiir, splendid ; G. glatt, 
polished, sleek, smooth, pretty, neat. 
The introduction of the nasal gives rise 
to forms like Sc. glint, glent, a flash, 
glance ; Da. glindse, glandse, to glitter, 
shine ; whence it is an easy step to forms 
ending in a simple nasal, as ON. and 
Celtic glan. 

Clear. Lat. clarus, ON. klar, clear, 
clean, pure. This is probably one of th5 
words applicable to the phenomena of 
sight, that are primarily derived from 
those of hearing, as explained under 
Brilliant. G. klirren, Dan. klirre, to 
clink, gingle, clash, give a shrill sound ; 
Ir. glbr, a noise, voice, speech ; glbram, 
to sound or make a noise ; glor-mhor, 
glorious, famous, celebrated ; klor, clear, 
neat, clean. 

Cleat. A piece of wood fastened on 
the yard-arm of a ship, to keep the ropes 
from slipping off the yard ; also pieces of 
wood to fasten anything to. — B. A piece 
of iron worn on shoes by country people. 
Probably a modification of the word 
clout. Du. kluit, kluyte, a lump, pellet. 
AS. cleot, clut, a plate, clout. A elate is 
the thin plate of iron worn as a shoe by 
racers. The cleats of the yard-arms are 
probably so named from a similar piece 
of iron at the extremity of an axletree, 
provincially termed clout. The clout of 
iron nailed on the end of an axletree. — 
Torriano. Axletree clouts. — Wilbraham. 

To Cleave. This word is used in two 
opposite senses, viz. i. to adhere or cling 
to, and, 2. to separate into parts. In the 
former sense we have G. kleben, Du. 
kleeven, klijven, to stick to, to fasten ; E. 
dial, clibby, Du, kleevig, kleverig, sticky. 
From dob, a lump, a mass. See Clam. 

2. The double signification of the word 
seems to arise from the two opposite 
ways in which we may conceive a cluster 
to be composed, either by the coherence 



CLEPE 

of a number of separate objects in one, 
or by the division of a single lump or 
block into a number of separate parts. 
Thus from G. kloben, a mass, lump, or 
bundle {cin klobe?t Jlachs, a bunch of 
flax), kloben, kliebcti, to cleave. When 
an object is simply cleft, the two parts of 
it cleave together. Du. kloue, a cleft, 
klouen, chaps in the skin, klouen, klieuen^ 
to chink, cleave, split. — Kil. The Dan. 
uses klcebe in the sense of adhering, klove 
in that of splitting. The Dan. klov, a. 
to'ngs, bears nearly the same relation to 
both senses. Sw. klafwa, G. kloben, a 
vice, a billet of wood cleft at one end. 
The designation may either be derived 
from the instrument being used in pinch- 
ing, holding together, or from being di- 
vided into two parts. Sc. doff, a fissure, 
the fork of the body, or of a tree. 

The same opposition of meanings is 
found in other cases, as the Du. klincke^ 
a cleft or fissure, and Dan. klinke, to 
rivet or fasten together the parts of a 
cracked dish ; Du. klinken, to fasten 
together ; E. clench. Compare also Fr. 
river, to fasten, to clench, E. rivet, and 
E, rive, to tear or cleave asunder, rift, a, 
cleft. 

Cleft. Du. kluft, Sw. klyft, a fissure 
or division ; G. kluftholz, cloven wood. 
See Cleave. 

Clement. — Clemency. Lat. demenSy 
calm, gentle, merciful. 

To Clench.— Clinch. Sw. klinka, G. 
klinken, to clinch ; O^G.gaklankJan, con- 
serere ; antklankjan, to unloose (the strap 
of one's shoe) ; Bav. klank, kldnkdein, 
a noose, loop ; Du. klitiken, to fasten. 
'Andromeda was aan rots geklonken^ 
was nailed to a rock. Omklinken, to 
clinch a nail. — Halma. Da. klinke, a 
rivet. 

The word may be explained from the 
original klinken, to clink or sound, in 
two ways, viz. : as signifying something 
done by the stroke of a hammer. Du. 
klink, a blow ; dat was en bewys van 
klink, that was a striking proof, that was 
a clincher. Die zaak is aX geklonken, the 
business is finished off, is fast and sure. 
Or the notion of fastening may be at- 
tained indirectly through the figure of a 
door-latch. G. klinke, Fr. clanche, dinquet 
(Cot.), the latch of a door, seem formed 
from the clinking of the latch, as Fr. 
cliquet, a latch, from cliquer, diqueter, to 
clack or rattle. And the latch of a door 
affords a very natural type of the act of 
fastening. 

To Ciepe. To call. From clap, the 



CLERK 

sound of a blow. Du. kleppen, crepare, 
crepitare, pulsare, sonare. De klok klep- 
peji, to sound an alarm ; Happen, to 
clap, crack, crackle, to talk as a parrot, 
to tattle, chat, chatter, to confess ; G. 
klaffe7i^ to prate, chatter, babble, to tell 
tales. AS. cleopiafi, clypia7i, to cry, call, 
speak, say. Sc. clep, to tattle, chatter, 
prattle, call, name. 

Ne every appel that is faire at iye 
Ne is not gode, what so men clappe or crie. 
Chaucer. 

Clerk. — Clerical, — Clergy. Lat. 
clerus, the clergy ; clericus, Sp. clerigo, 
one of the clergy, a clerk ; derecia, the 
clergy, which in Mid. Lat. would have 
been clericia, whence Fr. clerge\ as from 
clericio, one admitted to the tonsure, Fr. 
clertgon, clerjon. The origin is the Gr. 
K\r\^oQ, a lot, from the way in which Mat- 
thias was elected by lot to the apostle- 
ship. In I Peter v. 3, the elders are ex- 
horted to feed the flock of God, ' not as 
being lords over God's heritage,' /u?j5' a>c 
KaraKVQiivvTtQ twv KXrjpwv, * neither as 
having lordship in the clergie' — Wiclif 
in R. 

Clever. Commonly derived from de- 
liver, which is used in Scotch and N. E. 
in the sense of active, nimble. The 
sound of an initial dl and gl or cl are 
easily confounded. But the Dan. dial, 
has klover, klever, in precisely the same 
sense as the E. clever. Del er en klover 
kerl, that is a clever fellow. Klover i 
munden, ready of speech. The word is 
probably derived from the notion of 
seizing, as Lat. 7'apidus from rapio, or Sc. 
gleg, quick of perception, clever, quick 
in motion, expeditious, from Gael glac, 
to seize, to catch. The Sc. has also 
cleik, clek, cletuk, cluke, clook (identical 
with E. clutch), a hook, a hold, claw or 
talon ; to clek or cleik, to catch, snatch, 
and hence cleik, clench, lively, agile, 
clever, dexterous, light-fingered. One is 
said to be clench of his fingers who lifts 
a thing so cleverly that bystanders do 
not observe it.— Jam. Now the OE. had 
a form, diver, a claw or clutch, exactly 
corresponding to the Sc. cleik, cluik, 
whence perhaps the adjective clever in 
the sense of snatching, catching, in the 
same way as the Sc. cleik, clench, above 
mentioned. 

The bissart (buzzard) bissy but rebuik 
Scho was so clever us of her cluik, 
His legs he might not longer bruik, 
Scho held them at ane hint. 

Dunbar in Jam. 
Clew.— Clue. A ball of thread; ori- 



CLINCH 



155 



ginally from dob (extant in w. clod, a 
hump, Lat. globus, a sphere, &c.), a lump. 
Hence Lat. glomus, a ball of twine, Du. 
klonwe, a ball of yarn, a clew. See 
Claw, Clam. 

Click.— Clicket. Click represents a 
thinner sound than clack, as a click with 
the tongue, the click of a latch or a 
trigger. It is then applied to such a 
short quick movement as produces a 
click or a snap, or an object character- 
ized by a movement of such a nature. 
Du. klikklakken, to clack, click; klikker, 
a mill-clack ; kliket, kli7iket, a M'icket or 
little door easily moving to and fro ; Fr. 
cliqner, to clack, clap, clatter, click it, 
diqnette, a clicket or clapper, a child's 
rattle, or clack ; cliquet, the knocker of a 
door, a lazar's clicket or clapper. — Cot. 
Rouchi cliche, a latch ; clichet, a tumbril, 
cart that tilts over, and (with the nasal) 
clincher, to move, to stir, corresponding 
to Fr. cligner, to wink. Boh. klika, a 
latch, a trigger, G. klinke, klinge, a latch. 

We have the notion of a short quick 
movement in e. dial, click, dink, a smart 
blow (Mrs Baker) ; deke, click, to snatch, 
catch, seize (Hal.) ; Norm, dicker, frap- 
per rudement une personne. — Vocab. de 
Brai. 

Client. See Clan, 

Cliff. AS. clif, clyf, littus, ripa, rupes ; 
scoren clif, abrupta rupes ; cliof, clif- 
startas, cautes, precipices, from clifian, 
diofian, to cleave. ON. klif, a cleft in a 
rock ; haniraklif, syn. with hamarskarSj 
a cleft or rift in a {hamarr) high rock, 
precipice, on. skard, it must be ob- 
served, is NE. scar, a cli_f. Bav. stein- 
klicppen, cleft in a rock. Du. kleppe, 
klippe, rock, cliff, cave ; Da. klippe, rock. 
Sw. dial, klaiv, klev, kliv, as Sc. clengh, 
a precipice, rugged ascent, narrow hollow 
between precipitous banks ; OE. cloiigh, a 
kind of breach down the side of a hill 
(Verstegan), rima quasdam vel fissura ad 
montis clivum vel declivum. — Somner. 
Du. kloof, cleft, ravine, cleft of a hill. 

Climate. Lat. clima, climate, region ; 
Gr. /cX(/xa, -Tog (from icXiVw, to bend, sink, 
verge), an inclination, declivity, slope ; a 
region or tract of country considered 
with respect to its inchnation towards 
the pole, and hence climate, temperature. 

Climax. Gr. ic\»>a?, a ladder, a figure 
m rhetoric, implying an advance or in- 
crease in force or interest in each suc- 
cessive member of a discourse until the 
highest is attained. 

Climb. See Clamber. • 

To Clinch. See Clench. 



156 



•CLINE 



-cline. Gr. k\ivu>, to slope or make 
slant, incline, bend ; Lat. c///w, -atuin, to 
incline, bow. AS. hlinian^ OHG. hlinen^ 
to lean. Decline^ to bend downwards ; 
recline^ to lean backwards, &c. 

To Cling. To stick to, to form one 
mass with, also to form a compact mass, 
and so to contract, to shrink up, to wither. 
AS. clingan^ to wither. A Sussex peasant 
speaks of a ' clung bat,' for a dry stick. 
*Till famine cling thee.'— Shaks. Pl.D. 
klingen, klutigeln, verklutigeln, to shrink 
up. 

We have often observed that in verbs 
like clings clung, where the present has 
a thin vowel, the participial form is the 
nearer to the original root. In the pre- 
sent case the origin must be sought in a 
form like MHG. klunge, klungeltn, Swiss 
klungele, a ball of thread ; '' glungelin, 
globulus' (Gl. in Schmeller) ; Sw. dial. 
klunk, a lump ; G. kltinker, a. lump, tuft, 
clot, whence E. clinker, a lump of half- 
fused matter which clogs up the bars of 
a furnace. Da. klynge, a cluster, knot ; 
klynge, to cluster, to crowd together ; 
klynge sig ved, to cling to a thing. E. 
dial, to climge, to crowd or squeeze ; 
dungy, sticky. — Hal. 

Clink. The noise of a blow that gives 
a sound of a high note. G., Du. klinken, 
Sw. klinka, to sound sharp, to ring. See 
Clang. In imitative words the same idea 
is frequently expressed by a syllable with 
an initial cl, and a similar syllable with- 
out the /. Thus chink is also used for a 
shrill sound. So we have clatter and 
chatter in the same sense ; Gael. gUong, 
and ^.ginglej Fr. quincailler^Y^oxxmxiclin- 
cailler, a tinman. The E. cliiik was for- 
merly used like chitik in the sense of a 
crack, because things in cracking utter a 
sharp sound. Du. klincke, rima, parva 
ruptura, fissura, Ang. clinke. — Kil. 

To Clip. I. To cut with shears, from 
the clapping or snapping sound made by 
the collision of the blades, as to sfiip in 
the same sense from snap. G. klippeti, 
to clink ; atif- und zuk-lippen, to open and 
shut with a snap ; klippchen, knippcheti, 
a fillip or rap with the fingers ; knippen, 
schnippen, to snap or fillip ; schnippen, to 
snip. ON., Sw. klippa, to clip, Sw. klippa, 
also to wink ; ON. klippur, E. dial, clips, 
shears. * 

2. The collision of two sharp edges 
leads to the notion not always of complete 
separation, but sometimes merely of pinch- 
^ ing or compression. Thus to nip is either 
to separate a small portion or merely to 
pinch. G. knippen, to snap ; kneipen, to 



CLOD 

pinch. In a similar way Swiss kluben, 
to snap ; kliiboi, klupen, to pinch ; klupCy 
tongs, claw, clutch, pinch, difficulty ; G. 
kluppe, a clip or split piece of wood for 
pinching the testicles of a sheep or a 
dog's tail, met. pinch, straits, difficulty. 
Sw. dial, klipa, to pinch, nip, compress ; 
kldpp, a clog or fetter for a beast ; Du. 
kleppe, klippe, knippe, a snare, fetter. 

Clique. Fr. clique, G. klicke, a faction, 
party, gang. ' Das volk hat sich in split- 
ten, klubben und k lick en aufgeloset.' 
From Pl.D. klak, klik, kliks, a separate 
portion, especially of something soft or 
clammy. Een kliks bolter, a lump of 
butter. Bi klik un klak, by bits. 

-cliv-. Lat. clivus, a rising ground, 
hill ; declivis, sloping downwards ; ac- 
clivis, sloping upwards ; proclivis, sloping 
forwards, disposed to a thing. 

Cloak. Flem. klocke, toga, pallium, 
toga muliebris. — Kil. Bohem. klok, a wo- 
man's mantle ; kukla, a hood. Walach. 
gluga,2i hood, hooded cloak, w. cochlj 
a mantle. See Cowl. 

Clock. Fr. cloche, G. glocke, Du. 
klocke, a bell. Before the use of clocks 
it was the custom to make known the 
hour by striking on a bell, whence the 
hour of the day was designated as three, 
four of the bell, as we now say three or 
four o'clock. It is probable then that 
clocks were introduced into England from 
the Low Countries, where this species of 
mechanism seems to have inherited the 
name of the bell which previously per- 
formed the same office. Sw. klocka, a 
bell, a clock. 

The word clock is a variation of clack, 
being derived from a representation of 
the sound made by a blow, at first proba- 
bly on a wooden board, which is still used 
for the purpose of calling to service in the 
Greek church. Serv. klepalo, the board 
used for the foregoing purpose in the 
Servian churches, G. brett-glocke, from 
klepati, to clap or clack, to beat on the 
board. Esthon. kolknia (with transposi- 
tion of the vowel, related to clock, as G. 
kolbe to E. club), to strike, to beat, kol- 
kima, to make a loud noise, kolki-laud, a 
board on which one beats for the purpose 
of calling the family to meals. Bohem. 

hluk, noise, outcry, hluceti, to resound. 
ON. klaka, clangere. Gael, clag, Ir. cla- 
gaiin, to make a noise, ring ; clag, clog, 
a bell. Swiss klokken, kloggen, to knock. 
♦ Clod. — Clot. The notion of a loose 
moveable substance, as thick or curdled 
liquids, or bagging clothes, is often ex- 
pressed by forms representing the sounds 



CLOG 

made in the agitation or dashing of such 
bodies. Thus from Swab. Idppern^ to 
paddle or dabble in the wet, or loppern, to 
rattle or shake to and fro, we pass to lap- 
Perig, watery, Copperig, loose, shaky, and 
E. loppered (of milk), curdled, wabbling ; 
from Du. lobberen, to flounder in the wet, 
to lobberig, gelatinous, lobbig, hanging 
loose and full, E. loblolly^ thick spoon 
meat ; from Du. slabberen^ slobberen, to 
sup up liquid food, to flap as loose clothes, 
or E. slobber, slop, to spill liquids, we pass 
to-E. dial, slab, slob, loose mud, and Du. 
slobbe, loose trowsers, slops ; from Du. 
slodderen, G. schlotterti, to wabble, dangle, 
hang loose, Bav. schlattern, to rattle, 
schlettern, to slop or spill liquids, we pass 
to schlotter, schlott, mud, dirt, schlotter, 
thick sour milk, Swiss schlott, geschlotter 
(as E. slops), wide bagging clothes. 

Then as the parts of a loose substance 
in a state of agitation are thrown in dif- 
ferent directions, and thus seem endowed 
with separate existence, the radical sylla- 
ble of the word signifying agitation of 
such a body is applied to a portion or 
separate part, in the first instance of a 
liquid or loose substance, but subsequently 
of a body of any kind. 

Thus from Bav. loppern above men- 
tioned may be explained Fr. loppe, lopifi, 
a lump ; from Du. lobberen, E. /<?<^, alarge 
lump. The origin of clod and clot is to 
be found in forms like Du. klateren, to 
rattle, to dash like heavy rain, kloterspae7i, 
a rattle, kloteren, tuditare, pulsare crebro 
ictu (Kil.), and thence to clot or curdle as 
milk. Ktottermelck, clotted milk ; klotte, 
a clod. ' I clodde, figer, congeler. I dod- 
der like whey or blode whan it is colde. 
I clodde, I go into heapes or peces as 
the yerthe doth, je amoncele.' — Palsgr. 
Again we have Swiss klotten, klotteni, to 
rattle, kloten, kloden, to dabble, tramp in 
wet or vi\\XQ.,klot, klod, Du. kladde, a blot, 
splash, spot of dirt, lump of mud on the 
clothes ; Dan. klat, a spot, blot, clot, 
lump, dab. 

In the same way Dan. pludre, to paddle 
in the wet, is connected with pliidder, 
mire, Fr. bloutre, and Gael, plod, a clod ; 
Swab. inotze7i, to dabble, paddle, with 
Fr. motte, a clod. 

To Clog. To hinder by the adhesion 
of something clammy or heavy. Sc. 
claggy, unctuous, bespotted with mire ; 
claggock, a dirty wench ; E. dial, clag, to 
stick or adhere ; claggy, sticky ; clag 
locks, clotted locks ; clegger, to cling ; 
Dan. klag, mud ; klcEg, clammy loam. 

The word is probably formed on an 



CLOTH 



157 



analogous plan to clod or club, from the 
dashing off of a separate portion of a 
liquid or sloppy material. G. klack / 
kleck / represents the sound made by the 
fall of something soft or liquid (Sanders), 
whence klack, kleck, Pl.D. klakk, a blot, 
a portion of something soft and adhesive^ 
a trowelful of mortar, lump of butter, 
&c. ; klakken, beklakken, to bedaub, be- 
spatter. Klak also, like G. kleck or lack, 
or Sc. lag, is a blot on one's character, an 
imputation, aspersion. 

He was a man without a clag. 
His heart was frank without a flaw. 
MHG. mdse noch klac, neither spot nor 
stain. Manx claggerey, a babbler, indi- 
cates the use of clag to represent the 
dashing of water, the figure from which 
the idea of tatthng is commonly expressed. 
Russ. klokotat, to bubble, boil. Then 
with the loss of the initial c (as in lump, 
lunch, compared with clump, cluncJi',, Sc. 
laggery, miry ; laggerit, bemired, en- 
cumbered ; OE. Iciggyn, or drablyn ; 
laggyd or bedrabelyd, paludosus. — Pr. 
Pm. A clog would thus in the first in- 
stance be a lump of something soft, then 
a lump or unformed mass in general. 
Clog, truncus. — Pr. Pm. A Yule-clog, 
a Christmas log. 

A clog in the sense of a wooden sole 
may be considered as a block of wood, in 
accordance with It. zocco, a log, zoccoli, 
clogs, pattens ; G. klotz, a block, log, 
klotzschuh, a clog or wooden shoe ; Mod. 
Gr. tX^qkov, a log, rZ,dKafiov, a clog. Or 
the name may be taken from the resem- 
blance of a wooden clog to the lumps ot 
earth which clog the feet of one walking 
in soft ground, in accordance with Pl.D. 
klunkern, lumps of butter, fat, dirt, klon- 
ken, clogs for the feet ; klakk, lump of 
something soft ; Fr. claque, clog or over- 
shoe. 

Cloister, g. kloster, Fr. cloitre, a 
monastery. Lat. clatistrum, from claudo, 
clausum, to shut. 

Close, -close, -clus-. Lat. claudo, 
clausum, in comp. -chido, -clusum, to shut, 
shut up, terminate, end. It. chiudere, 
chiuso, Fr. clorre, clos, to shut up, close, 
inclose, finish ; clos, a field inclosed ; 
clos, closed, shut up. 

Hence inclose, to shut in ; foreclose, 
from Fr. fors, without, to close against 
one. 

Closlie. The game called ninepins, 
forbidden by 17 Ed. IV. Du. klos, a ball, 
bowl ; klos-bane, a skittle-ground ; klos- 
sen, to play at bowls. 

Cloth.— Clothe. AS. clath, cloth, da- 



158 CLOUD 

ihas, clothes ; G. kleid, ON. klccdi, a gar- 
ment. Properly that which covers and 
keeps one warm. w. clyd^ warm, shel- 
tered ; lie clyd, a warm place ; dillad 
(lydion^ warm clothes {dillad, clothes). 
Bret, klet, sheltered ; Jr. cludawt, to cover 
up warm, to cherish, nourish ; cliidadh, a 
cover or coverture ; Gael, cluvihar, cluth 
mhor, warm, sheltered ; clulhaich, cluth- 
eudaich, clothe, make warm. 

Cloud. Correctly explained by Som- 
ner as clodded vapours, vapours drawn 
into clods or separate masses. 

Vapours which now themselves consort 
In several parts, and closely do conspire, 
Clumpered in balls of clouds. — More in R. 

ODu. clot, a clod, dote, a cloud ; ' eene 
vurige dote,' a fiery cloud. — Delfortrie. 
.^t. zolla, clod, lump of earth ; zolla deW 
aria, the thick and scattered clouds in 
the air. — Fl. 

So also from Fr. matte, inotte, a clod 
or clot, del inattoni, a curdled sky, a sky 
full of small curdled clouds. — Cot. Clow- 
dys, clods. — Coventry Mysteries in Hal. 

Clout. AS. clut, a patch. The pri- 
mary sense is a blow, as when we speak 
of a dout on the head. Du. klotsen, to 
strike. Then applied to a lump of mate- 
rial clapped on or hastily applied to mend 
a breach. In the same way E. botch, to 
mend clumsily, from Du. botsen, to strike ; 
E. cobble, in the same sense, from w. cobio, 
E. cob, to strike. 

Clove, I. A kind of spice resembling 
little nails. Du. naegel, kruyd-naegel 
(kruyd = spice) ; G. ndgelein, nelke (dim. 
of nagel, a nail) ; It. chiodo di girofano, 
Fr. clou de girqfle, Sp. clavo di especias, 
from Lat. clavus, a nail. 

2. A division of a root of garlick. Du. 
kluyve, kluyfken loocksj Pl.D. klove, 
klavenj een klaven kriiflook, G. eine 
spalte knoblauch, a clove of garlick, from 
Du. klieven, P1.D. kloven, to cleave or 
split, Du. klove, a fissure. It. chiodo d' 
aglio. 

Clover. A plant with trifid leaves. 
AS. clcEfer J Du. klaverj Pl.D. klever, 
from kloven, to cleave. 

Clown. The significations of a clod 
or lump, of thumping clumsy action, and 
of a rustic unpolished person, are often 
connected. Du. kloete, a ball, a lump, 
block, stock, also homo obtusus, hebes 
(Kil.), whence the name of Spenser's 
shepherd Colin Clout. G. klotz, a log, 
klotzig, blockish, loggish, coarse, unpol- 
ished, rustic. — Kiittner. E. clod is used 
in both senses ; of a lump of earth and 



CLUCK 

an awkward rustic. Du. klonte, a clot or 
clod ; kloen, a ball of twine ; Dan. klundsy 
E. dial, clunch, N.Fris. klonne, a clown, 
bumkin. 

As the initial c is easily lost from many 
of these words beginning with d (com- 
pare clog, log, dump, lufHp, clunchy 
lunch), it can hardly be doubted that 
clown is identical with town, and clout 
with lout. 

This loutish clown is such that you never saw 
so ill-favored a vizor. — Sidney in R. 

To Cloy. From clog, a thick mass. 
Fr. endoyer (to stop with a clog or plug), 
to cloy, choke or stop up. — Cot. A piece 
of ordnance is said to be cloyed, when 
something has got into the touch-hole. 
The same consonantal change is seen in 
dag, daggy, sticky, and clay, a sticky, 
clammy earth. 

The sense of stopping up is frequently 
expressed by the word for a lump or 
bunch, as Fr. boucher, to stop, from OFr. 
bousche, a bunch, tuft. Sw. klump, a 
lump, and tapp, a bunch, wisp, are also 
used in the sense of a stopper. 

Club. — Clump. ON. klubba, khimba, 
a club or knobbed stick. Sw. dial, klubb, 
a lump, knob, clump ; klump, a lump, 
clod, clot ; klumpfot, a clubfoot ; klabb, 
a log. w. dob, clobyti, a boss, knob, 
lump ; Pol. klq.b, a ball, lump, mass, 
klebek, a bobbin, ball of thread ; Russ. 
klub', a ball, clue. 

The radical sense seems to be an un- 
formed lump or thick mass, and the word 
to be of analogous formation with clod, 
clot, clog, signifying in the first instance a 
separate portion thrown off in the dashing 
of sloppy materials. Fr. dabosser, to be- 
dash {Qo\..),esclaboter (RoqueL) , /clabous- 
ser, to splash, diboter, to tramp in the 
mud (Pat. de Champ.), Rouchi dapoter, 
to slop. Gael, dabaire, a blabber, indi- 
cates the application of the root dab to 
the splashing of water, the terms express- 
ive of tattling being mostly taken from 
that figure. Clabar, mire, puddle, dirt. 
Du. klobbersaen, clotted milk or cream, 
milk run to lumps. So Fr. caillebottes, 
lumps of curd, probably from daboter, 
but confounded with cailler, to curdle. 

G. klubbe, kluppe, a bunch, clump, clus- 
ter, group of people ; Sw. dial, klubb, a 
knot of people. ' Das volk hat sich in 
splitten, klubben und klicken aufgeloset.' 
— Sanders. A social club was originally 
a group of people meeting at set times for 
society. To club one's contributions is to 
throw them into a common mass. 

To Cluck. Imitative of the note of a 



'CLUDE 

hen calling her chickens. Du. klocken^ 
Fr. glousser, Lat. glocire, Sp. cloquear^ 
It. coccolafe. 

-elude, -clus-. Lat. claiido, clausum, 
in comp. -cludo, -cliisum, to shut, close, 
finish. 

Hence conclude, conclusion, exchide, 
include, inclicsive, reclusion, &c. See 
-close. 

* Clump. — To Clumper. Chunp, a 
lump or compact mass, a nasalised form 
of club, as clumper, to collect in lumps, to 
curdle, of Du. klobber in klobbersaen, 
clotted cream. 

Vapours— cluptpered in balls of clouds. — More. 

In the same way Du. klonte, a clod 
or lump, and klonleren, to curdle, are 
the nasalised forms of klotte, a clod or 
clot, and klotteren, to curdle. The no- 
tion of a detached mass may arise either 
from the dashing off of a portion of the 
wet material, or from the shaking into 
protuberances of the liquid surface ; and 
the idea of multifarious agitation may be 
expressed, not so much by direct imita- 
tion of the actual noise, as metaphorically 
by the figure of a broken sound. MHG. 
kluinpern, G. klimpern, to gingle, strum 
on an instrument. When a frequentative 
form is thus used to signify multifarious 
agitation or broken movement the radical 
syllable naturally expresses a single ele- 
ment of the complex action. Hence a 
frequent connection between words sig- 
nifying a blow and the dashing of liquids. 
Com.pare Pl.D. pladdern, to paddle or 
dabble, with E. plad or plod, to tread 
heavily. Fr. clabosser, esclaboter, to 
splash ; Champ, cliboter, to tramp. Fr. 
clopin-clopan represents the heavy tread of 
one hobbhng along ; eloper, clopiner, to 
limp, differing only in the absence of the 
nasal form E. clump, to tramp. Hence 
clumpe7's, Du. klotnpen, wooden shoes, 
clogs, Sw. dial, klamp, a clog for an 
animal, wooden sole, lump of soft mate- 
rial, ball of snow on horse's foot ; klampa, 
to clump or tramp with heavy shoes, to 
ball as snow. Analogous forms with a 
final nt instead of 7np are Pl.D. klunt, 
Du. klonte, a clod or lump, E. dial, clunt- 
er, a clod ; clunter, clointer, Pl.D. klunt- 
sen, klunsen, to tramp or tread heavily. 

* Clumsy. The sense of awkward, 
unhandy, might be reached from clump, 
a lump, through the senses of lumpish, 
blockish, unfashioned, ill-made ; as from 
Da. klo7it, klods, a block, log, klontet, 
klodset, unhandy, awkward, or from Sw. 
klump^ a lump, klwnpig, clumsy. N.E. 



COAL 



159 



dumpish, awkward, unwieldy ; e.e. 
clunchy, thick and clumsy. — Hal. But 
the word is more probably connected 
with OE. clumpse, benumbed with cold. 
— Cot. in v. havi. Clumsyd, eviratus. — 
Cath. Ang. ' Thou clotnsest for cold.' — 
P.P. * Comfort ye clufnsid, ether come lid 
hondis, and make ye strong feeble knees.' 
— Wycliff, Isaiah. Lincolns. clumps, idle, 
lazy, unhandy. — Ray. Sw. dial, khwim- 
sen, klumitishandt, klumtnerhdtidt, Che- 
shire, clussomed (y^\!\}ox2h2im), having the 
hands stiff with cold. Pl.D. klamen^ 
klomen, Du. verklomen, verkomtnelen, 
Fris. klojnje, forkloimne (Outzen), to be- 
numb with cold. OE. acomelyd for could 
or aclommyde, eviratus, enervatus. — Pr. 
Pm. ' Men bethe combered and clommed 
with cold.' — Vegecius in Way. Beklum- 
men van kelde^ algidus, gelidus. — Teu- 
tonista. 

The signification would seem to be 
cramped or contracted with cold, from 
ON. klemma, G. klemmen, to pinch, to 
squeeze. OHG. kichlemmit, obstructum. 
— Graff in Klamjan. MHG. 'wen uns diu 
wangen sin gerumpfen, riicke und arm 
und bein gekhmipfeti.^ — Benecke. Pl.D, 
beklummen, G. beklom77ien, pinched, tight ; 
eene beklu7n7ne7ie tied, a pinching time. 

-clus-. See -elude. 

Cluster. A group, bunch. From the 
notion of sticking together. Du. klos, a 
ball ; klisse, klette, a ball, a clot ; klissen, 
to stick together ; klister, kluster, paste, 
viscous material, also a cluster, a clove 
of garlick. Sw. klase, a bunch, cluster. 

Clutch. Sc. cleik, clek, E. dial, cleche, 
to snatch, seize, properly to do anything 
with a quick, smart motion, producing a 
noise such as that represented by the 
syllable click. Hence cleik, clek, cleuk, 
cluik, duke, clook, an instrument for 
snatching, a claw, clutch, hand ; to cleuk, 
to grip, lay hold of, clutch. ' Uorte (for 
to) huden hire vrom his kene clokes.^— 
Ancr. Riwle, 130. Boh. klikaty, crooked 
inwards ; kliko7iosy, hooknosed. Hesse, 
klotz, claw. Comjiare Swiss klupe, claws, 
tongs, fingers (familiar), from kbipe7i, to 
clip or pinch. 

Clutter. Variation of clatter, a noise. 

Clyster. Fr. dystere, Gr. kKvottiq, 
from Kkii'C'o, to wash, to rinse, as Fr. lave- 
77ie7it, from laver, to wash. 

Coacli. The Fr. coucher became in 
Du. koetse7i, to lie, whence koetse, koet- 
seke7i, a couch, and koetse, koetsie, koets- 
wageri, a litter, carriage in which you 
may recline, a coach. 

Coal. ON. kol^ G. kohle, Hindust. 



i6o 



COALESCE 



koeld. The primary sense is doubtless 
glowing embers, from a root signifying 
to glow or burn. Traces of such a de- 
rivation are found in Sw. dial, kylla^ 
kdlla, kolna, to kindle or cause to burn ; 
ON. koljarn, a firesteel ; Lat. caleo, to be 
hot, to glow ; culina or colifia, a kitchen, 
the place where a fire is made. ' Colina,' 
says Varro, * dicta ab eo quod ibi colebatit 
ignem.' And colo, to worship, may per- 
haps have originally signified to kindle a 
fire for a burnt-offering, while the sense 
of dwelling may be a figure from lighting 
up the domestic hearth, universally taken 
as the symbol of a dwelling-place. Sanscr. 
jval, to burn, blaze, glow ; Jvalaya, to 
kindle ; jvdla, flame. Lett, quelet, to 
glow, to be inflamed ; qjiele, burning, in- 
flammation. 

Coalesce. — Coalition. Lat. coalesce, 
to grow together, to form an union with 
another; coalitiis, gro\fr\ together, united. 

Coarse. Formerly written course, or- 
dinary ; as in the expression of course, 
according to the ordinary run of events. 
A woman is said to be "very ordinary, 
meaning that she is plain and coarse. 

Coast. Lat. costa, a rib, side ; Fr. 
caste, s. s., also a coast. 

Coat. Fr. cotte^ a coat or frock, It. 
cotta, any kind of coat, frock, or upper 
garment. See Cot. 3. 

Coax. The OE. cokes was a simpleton, 
gull, probably from the Fr. cocasse, one 
who says or does laughable or ridiculous 
things. — Trevoux. Cocasse, plaisant, ridi- 
cule ; cocosse, niais, imbecille. — Hdcart. 
To cokes or coax one then is to make a 
cokes or fool of him, to wheedle or gull 
him into doing something. 

The original meaning of the word is 
preserved in the provincial kakasch 
(dialect of Aix — Grandg. v. cacd), a nest- 
cock or nescock, unfledged bird, a crea- 
ture commonly taken as the type of im- 
becility and liability to imposition, as in 
E. gull, Fr. niais, bejatme. 

'Nescock itself is used in a similar 
sense ; ' a wanton fondling that has never 
left his home.' — Nares. It. cucco (in 
nursery lang.), an ^gg, a darling, and fig. 
an imbecile ; vecchio cucco, an old idiot. 

* Cob.— Cobble, w. cob, a knock, 
thump, a tuft, top ; cobio, to knock, 
thump, to peck as a hen ; cobyu, a bunch, 
tuft, cluster. E. dial, to cob, to strike, to 
throw ; cob, a blow, and thence a lump ; 
cobnut, a large round nut ; cobstones, 
large stones ; cobcoals, large coals. A 
cob is a dumpy horse. Cob for walls is 
clay mixed with straw, from being laid 



COCHINEAL 

on in lumps. Cobber, a thumper, a great 
falsehood. 

Cobbles in the N. of E. are round stones 
or round coals of small size. In the E. of 
E. the stone or kernel of fruit is called coo 
or cobble. Cobyllstone or chery-stone, 
petrilla. — Pr. Pm. To cobble, to pelt with 
stones or dirt. — Cleveland Gl. 

* To Cobble.— Cobbler. The senses 
of stammering or imperfect speech, stag- 
gering or halting, and imperfect or un- 
skilful action, are often connected. We 
may cite Fr. bredouiller, to stutter, and 
Du. broddelen, to bungle ; Du. hakkelen^ 
to stammer, and E. dial, haggle, to bungle ; 
Sc. habble, to stutter, to speak or act 
confusedly, and hobble, to cobble shoes. 

— ' all graith that gains to hohbill schone." 

Thus from E. dial, cobble, to hobble 
(Hal.), or walk clumsily, the designation 
may have been transferred to the unskilful 
mending of shoes. 

A plausible origin, however, may be 
found in Sw. dial, klabba, properly to 
daub, then to work unskilfully ; klabbare, 
klabbsmed, a bungler. The / in these 
imitative forms is very moveable, as 
shown in dob and cob, tempered clay for 
building, and a change very similar to 
that from clobber to cobler may be seen 
in Du. verklonien, verkomvielen, to be- 
numb, OE. acomelyd or aclommyd. — 
Pr. Pm. 

Cobweb. A spider's web. E. atter-kop, 
a spider. Flem. kop, koppe, a sp'ider, 
koppe?i-gespiti, spinne-ivebbe, a cobweb, 
w. pryf-copyti, a spider (pryf=^%xv\i, 
vermin). The form attercop seems to 
give the full meaning of the word, poison- 
bag or poison-pock. The Fris. kop is 
bubble, pustule, pock, that is, a pellicle 
inflated with air or liquid. T^ waerkopet, 
the water boils. — Outzen. Dan. kopper 
(pi.), small pox (pocks) ; kop-ar, E. pock- 
arr, a pock mark. Fin. hippa, a bubble, 
boil, pustule. 

According to Ihre, the bee was known 
by the name of kopp in OSw., probably 
for the same reason as the spider, viz. 
from bearing a bag, only of honey instead 
of poison. The contrast between the bee 
and the spider as collectors, the one of 
sweets and the other of poisons, is one of 
long standing. 

Cochineal. Sp. cochiiiilla, a wood- 
louse, dim. of cochina, a sow, from some 
fancied resemblance. The wood-louse is 
still called sow in parts of England ; in 
Essex sowbug. — Atkinson. When the 
Spaniards came to America they trans- 



COCK 

ferred the name to the animal producing 
the scarlet dye, which somewhat resem- 
bles a wood-louse in shape. 

Cock. I. The male of the domestic 
fowl. From the cry represented by the 
Fr. coqiielicoq, cogtiericot, Lang, cou- 
couricou. Bohem. kokrati, to crow, kokot, 
a cock. Serv. kokot, the clucking of a 
hen, kokosch, a hen. Lith. kukti, to cry, 
to howl ; kukauti, to cry as the cuckoo 
or the owl. Magy. kakas, Esth. kuk, a 
cock. Gr. KOKKofSoag opvtg (Soph, in Eus- 
tath.), the bird which cries cock !, the 
cock. 

To Cock, applied to the eye, hat, tail, 
&c., signifies to stick abruptly up. Gael. 
coc-shron, a cocked nose. The origin is 
the sound of a quick sudden motion 
imitated by the syllable cock. It. coccare, 
to clack, snap, click, crack ; coccarla a 
gualcuno, to play a trick, put a jest upon 
one. — Fl. Hence cock of a gun (misun- 
derstood when translated by G. hahn), the 
part which snaps or clicks. 

To cock is then to start up with a sud- 
den action, to cause suddenly to project, 
to stick up. And as rapid snapping 
action is almost necessarily of a recipro- 
cating nature, the word is used to express 
zigzag movement or shape, and hence 
either prominent teeth or indentations. 
The cock of a balance is the needle whicli 
vibrates to and fro between the cheeks. 
The cogoi a wheel is a projecting tooth, 
while the It. cocca, Yr. coche, is the notch 
or indentation of an arrow. 

2. A cock of hay. Probably from the 
notion of cocking or sticking up. Fin. 
kokko, a coniform heap, a hut, beacon. 
A small heap of reaped corn. Dan. kok, 
a heap, a pile. 

3. A boat ; cock-swain, the foreman of 
a boat's crew. It. cocca, cucca, a cock- 
boat. — Fl. Dan. kog, kogge, ON. kuggi, 
s. s. The Fin. has kokka, the prow of a 
vessel, perhaps the part which cocks or 
sticks up, and hence the name may have 
passed to the entire vessel, as in the case 
of \^2X.puppis, properly the poop or after- 
part of the ship, or of bark, a ship, from 
ON. barki, throat, then the prow or front 
of a ship. 

Cockade. Fr. coquarde, a Spanish 
cap, also any cap worn proudly or peartly 
on the one side (Cot.), i. e. a cocked-hat, 
consisting originally of a hat with the 
broad flap looped up on one side. Then 
applied to the knot of ribbon with which 
the loop was ornamented. In Walloon 
the r is lost as in English ; cockdd, a 
cockade. — Rcmacie. 



COCKLE 



i6r 



Cockahoop. Elated in spirits. A 
metaphor taken from the sport of cock- 
throwing used on festive occasions, when 
a cock was set on an eminence to be 
thrown at by the guests. 

Now I am a frisker, all men on me look, 

What should I do but set cock on the hoop ? 
Camden in Todd. 
' I have good cause to set the cocke on the 
hope and make gaudye chere.' ' We may 
make our tryumphe, i. e. kepe our gaudyes, 
or let us sette the cocke on the hope and 
make good chere within doores.' — Palsgr. 
Acolastus in Hal. Du. hoop, heap. 

Cockatoo. According to Crawfurd call- 
ed in Malay kakatuwah, which in that 
language signifies a vice, a gripe. But is 
it not more likely that the implement was 
so named from its resemblance to the 
powerful beak of the bird 1 

Cockatrice. A fabulous animal, sup- 
posed to be hatched by a cock from the 
eggs of a viper, represented heraldically 
by a cock with a dragon's tail. Sp. coca- 
triz, cocadriz, cocodrillo, a crocodile. 
Cocatryse, basiliscus, cocodrillus. — Pr. 
Pm. A manifest corruption of the name 
of the crocodile. 

To Cocker. See Cockney. 

Cocket.— Cocksy. Fr. coqiiart, fool- 
ishly proud, cocket, malapert. From the 
strutting pride of a cock. Coqueter, to 
chuck as a cock among hens ; to swagger 
or strowt it as a cock on his own dung- 
hill. -Cot. 

Cockle. I. A weed among corn. Fr. 
coqidole, Lith. kukalas, Pol. k(^kol, kq-kol- 
nica, Gael, cogal. 

2. A shell, shell-fish ; cocklesna^l, a 
snail with a shell as distinguished from 
a slug or snail without shell. Snail- 
shells are called in Northamptons. cocks, 
in Lincolns. gogs, Oxfords, guggles or 
guggleshells, Herts conks, and E. of E. 
co7ikers. Tirol. gagkele, an egg. — Deutsch. 
Mund. 5. 341. Lat. cochlea, concha, 
Gr. Kox^oc, snail, snailshell, shellfish. 

The original sense is probably an egg- 
shell, which to a people in possession of 
poultry would offer a type of a shell pecu- 
liarly easy of designation. Thus the 
Swab, gacken, to cluck as a hen, gives 
rise in nursery language to gackele, an 
egg — Schmidt, in Swiss gaggi, gaggi, to 
which our own country affords a parallel 
in the Craven goggy, an egg. In like 
manner Basque kokoratz, clucking of a 
hen ; koko (in nursery language), an egg ; 
Magy. kukoritni, to crow, kuko (nursery), 
an egg ; It. coccolare, to cluck ; cocco, 
cucco (nursery), an egg ; Fr. coqueter, to 
H 



l62 



COCKLE 



cackle, to chuck ; coque, an eggshell, 
shell, cockle, with the dim. coguille, the 
shell of an egg, nut, snail, fish. — Cot. 

To Cockle. Properly, like coggle^ 
goggle^ joggle^ shoggle, to shake or jerk 
up and down, then applied to a surface 
thrown into hollows and projections by 
partial shaking, by unequal contraction, 
&c. Du. kokeleitj to juggle, to deceive 
the eye by rapid movements of the hands. 
E. dial, coggle, to be shaky ; cocklety, un- 
steady. — Hal. A cockling sea is one 
jerked up into short waves by contrary 
currents. 

It made such a short cockling sea as if it had 
been in a race where two tides meet, for it ran 
every way — and the ship was tossed about hke an 
eggshell, so that I never felt such uncertain jerks 
in my life. — Dampier in R. 

The ultimate origin, as in all these 
cases, is the representation of a broken 
sound, by forms like cackle, gaggle, &c., 
then applied to signify a broken move- 
ment, and finally a configuration of anal- 
ogous character. 

As in E. we represent a broken sound 
by the forms cackle and crackle, so in Fr. 
we find recoquiller and recroquiller, to 
wriggle, writhe, turn inward on itself like 
a worm or a gold or silver thread when it 
is broken ; recoquiller un livre, to rumple 
or turn up the leaves of a book. — Cot. If 
recoqmller stood by itself the common ex- 
planation from coquille, a shell, as if it 
signified to throw into spirals, would be 
quite satisfactory, but it cannot be adopt- 
ed without throwing over the analogy 
with the English forms above mentioned, 
while it leaves the parallel form recro- 
qniller unaccounted for. 

Cockney. — Cocker. The original 
meaning of cockney is a child too ten- 
derly or delicately nurtured, one kept in 
the house and not hardened by out-of- 
doors life ; hence applied to citizens, as 
opposed to the hardier inhabitants of the 
country, and in modem times confined to 
the citizens of London. 

' Coknay, carifotus, delicius, mammo- 
trophus.' ' To bring up like a cocknaye 
— mignoter.^ ' Delicias facere — to play 
the cockney.^ ' Dodeliner — to bring up 
wantonly as a cockney.' — Pr. Pm., and 
authorities cited in notes. * Puer in de- 
liciis matris nutritus, Anglice a cokenayJ 
^Hal. Cockney, niais, mignot. — Sher- 
wood. 

The Du. kokelen, keukelen, to pamper 
(the equivalent of E. cocker), is explained 
by Kilian, * nutrire sive fovere culina,' as 
if from koken, to cook, but this is doubt- 



CODDLE 

less an accidental resemblance. The Fr- 
coqucliner, to dandle, cocker, fedle, pam- 
per, make a wanton of a child, leads us 
in the right direction. This word is pre- 
cisely of the same form and significance 
with dodeliner, to dandle, loll, lull, fedle, 
cocker, hug fondly, make a wanton of, 
[but primarily] to rock or jog up and 
down ; dodelineur, the rocker of a cradle ; 
dondelifier de la tete, to wag the head ; 
dodelineux (the same as coqnelineiex), 
fantastical, giddy-headed. The primitive 
meaning of cocker then is simply to rock 
the cradle, and hence to cherish an infant. 
See Cockle, Cock. 

Cocoa-nut. Called coco by the Portu- 
guese in India on account of the monkey- 
like face at the base of the nut, from coco, 
a bugbear, an ugly mask to frighten chil- 
dren. — De Barros, Asia, Dec. III. Bk. 
III. c. vii. 

-coct. Lat. coquo, coctum, to prepare 
by fire, to cook, bake, boil. 

Hence concoquo, to boil together, to 
digest, and fig. to contrive, to plan, E. to 
concoct. Decoctio, a decoci 
boiled away from anything. 

Cod. A husk or shell, cushion. ON. 
koddi, a cushion, Sw. kudde, a sack, bag, 
pod. Bret, kod, god, gSdel, a pocket, w. 
cod, cwd, a bag or pouch. G. schote, pod, 
husk. It seems the same word with Fr. 
cosse, gotisse, a husk, cod, or pod, whence 
coiissin. It. coscino, a cushion, a case 
stuffed with somethmg to make it bulge 
out. 

Perhaps the original sense is simply 
something bulging, a knob or bump, an 
idea commonly derived from a word sig- 
nifying to knock. Now v/e have Fr. 
cosser, It. cozzare, to butt as a ram. Du. 
kodde, kodse, a club. 

As in words with an initial cl the / is 
very movable, we may perhaps identify 
the Fr. cosse, a husk, with Bret, klos, 
klosen, a box or any envelope in general ; 
klosen-gisten, the husk of a chesnut. 
Thus we are brought round to the Du. 
kloss, a ball or sphere, and the E. clot, 
clod, and as the latter appears in Gaelic 
in the double form of clod ox plod, we find 
the same change of initial in the E. cod^ 
pod; Dan, ptide, a pillow. 

To Coddle. 1. — Codling. To coddle, 
(in Suffolk quoddle,) to boil gently, whence 
codlin, a young apple fit for boiling, green 
peas. — Hal. Codlyng, frute, pomme 
cuite. — Palsgr. A quodling, pomum 
coctile.— Coles. The word in the first 
instance represents the agitation of the 
boiling water. ON. quotla, abluo vel 



CODDLE 

lavito, aquas tractito (Gudm.), to dabble 
or paddle ; Swab, gicatleln, to wabble ; 
Bav. kudern, to guggle. 

To Coddle, 2. To pamper or treat 
delicately. Fr. cadel, a castling, starve- 
ling, whence cadeler (to treat as a weakly 
cliild), to cocker, pamper, fedle, make 
much of. — Cot. Lat. catidiis, It. catello, 
rrov. cadel, Bohem. kote, a whelp ; kotiti, 
to whelp, bring forth young (of sheep, 
dogs, cats, &c.). 

Code. — Codicil. Lat. codex, log, trunk 
of a tree, a book, book of accounts, 
the Romans writing on wooden tablets 
covered with wax. Codicillns, a small 
trunk of a tree ; codicilli, writing tablets, 
a letter, memorial, written composition. 

Cod-fish. From its large club-shaped 
head. Flem. kodde, a club. — Kil. In the 
same way It. mazzo, a bunch, a codfish, 
7nazza, a club. One of the names of the 
fish is It. testiito, Fr. testii, from teste, 
head. — Cot. 

Codger. A term of abuse for an in- 
firm old man. G. kotzen, to spit, kotzer, 
a spitting or spawling man or woman, 
also an old caugher. — Klittner. So from 
Lith, kratikti, to croak, to breathe with 
pain, siikratikelis, a croaker, an old man. 
Hind, kahba, a cough, an old woman. 

Coemetery. Gr. Kotixrjrrjpiov, a place 
for sleeping in, then applied to the place 
of final rest, a burial-place, from Koifxduj, 
to set to sleep. 

Coerce. Lat. coerceo, to encompass, 
keep in, restrain ; arceo, to inclose, con- 
fine ; arctiis, close, narrow, confined. 

Coeval, Lat. cocbvus {con and cEvmn, 
duration of time, an age, era), of the same 
age or era. 

Coffee. Arab, cahwa or cahwe, coffee, 
formerly one of the names for wine. 
Texeira, who wrote in 1610, writes it 
kaodh. — Dozy. 

Coffer.— Coffin. Gr. Kocpivog, Lat. coJ)h- 
irms, a basket. It. cofano, cofaro, any 
coffin, coffer, chest, hutch, or trunk. Fr. 
coffre, a chest or coffer, the bulk or chest 
of the body. Bret, kof, kov, the belly ; 
AS. cof, a cave, cove, receptacle. Swab. 
kober, a basket. It. coffa, a gabion or 
wicker basket. Fr. cojin, a coffin, a great 
candle case or any such close and great 
basket of wicker. — Cot. Fin. kopp, a 
hollow case. See Cave. 

Cog. — Coggle. To coggle is to be 
shaky, to rock ; cogly, unsteady, rock- 
ing ; cockersome, unsteady in position, 
threatening to tumble over. — Jam. E. 
dial, coggle, keggle, kickle, tickle, easily 



COGNISANCE 



163 



moved. — Wilbraham. Joggly, unsteady, 
shaky ; ^o jogger, joggle, to shake, to jog. 
A continued broken sound is represented 
by forms like cackle, gaggle, and thence 
cockle, goggle are made to signify inter- 
rupted or alternating movement. Esthon. 
kokkoltama, koggalema, to stammer. The 
radical syllable cock, cog, gog, &c., is 
itself used to signify the same kind of 
action, or a single element of the kind 
of which the action in question is com- 
posed, that is to say, a short, abrupt move- 
ment (often accompanied by a click or 
snap), and hence a projection or indenta- 
tion. We may cite Gael, gogach, nod- 
ding, wavering, reeling ; E. gogmire, a 
quagmire ; to jock, to jolt ; jocky, uneven, 
rough ; Fr. choc, a shock, or movement 
brought to a sudden stop ; It. coccare, to 
snap, to move with a snap, and thence 
cocca, an indentation or notch, as E. cog 
(Sw. kiigge), a projection or individual 
prominence on the circumference of a 
toothed wheel. 

With the addition of an initial s, E. 
shog, to jolt, and shoggle, an icicle or pro- 
jection of ice ; ON. skaga, to project ; 
skagi, a promontory. 

To cog in the sense of cheating is from 
the image of deceiving by rapid sleight 
of hand. Du. kokelen, to juggle ; It. coc- 
carla ad uno, to put a trick upon one ; 
coccare, to laugh at, mock, scoff. Sp. 
cocar, to mock, make mocking or ridicul- 
ous gestures, to cajole, wheedle, E. cog, 
gabber, flatter — Sherwood ; lusingare, lis- 
ciar il pelo. — Torriano. 

Cogent. Lat. cogo (pcpl. cogens), to 
impel, constrain, force. 

Cogitation. Lat. cogito, to ponder, 
turn over in the mind. 

Cognisance. — Recognisance. — Re- 
connoitre. From Lat. cognosco, cog- 
nitum, to know, arose Fr. cognoitre, 
connaitre, to know, OFr. cognoisance, 
cognisance, connusance, knowledge, no- 
tice, a badge or heraldic device by which 
one might be known. 

Connaissance in a legal sense is the 
right of a tribunal to take notice or cog- 
nisance of certain causes. 

Again OFr, recognoitre, to take know- 
ledge of, to acknowledge, gives our legal 
recognisance, or acknowledgment that 
one is bound in a certain penalty to the 
crown if he fails to perform a certain act. 
Keconnaitre, in the military sense, to re- 
connoitre, is to take knowledge of the 
conditions of an object, to observe it with 
reference to the way in which it affects 
the observer. 

11 * 



f64 



COIF 



Coif. A cap for the head. Fr. coiffe., 
It. cuffia, Mod.Gr. (TKoinpia. Apparently 
from the East. Arab, kujiyah, a head 
kerchief. 

Coil. To coil a cable, to wind it round 
in the form of a ring, each fold of rope 
being called a coil. Fr. cueillir un cord- 
age, Ptg. colher hum cabo, to coil a cable ; 
colher, Fr. cueillir, Sp. coger, Lat. colli- 
gere, to gather. Sp. coger la ropa, to fold 
linen. 

Coil. Noise, disturbance. Gael, coil- 
eid, a stir, movement, or noise ; perhaps 
from goil, boiling, vapour, fume, battle, 
rage, fury ; goileain, prating, vain tattle. 
The words signifying noise and disturb- 
ance are commonly taken from the agita- 
tion of water. 

Coin. To coin money is to stamp 
money, from Lat. ctmeus, Fr. coin, quin, 
the steel die with which money is stamped, 
originally doubtless from the stamping 
having been effected by means of a 
wedge (Lat. cuneus, Fr. coin). Coin in 
OFr. was frequently used for the right of 
coining money. Sp. cnha, a wedge ; 
cuno, a die for coining, impression on 
the coin. Muratori endeavours to show 
that the word is really derived from the 
Gr. HKMv, an image, whence the Lat. 
iconiare, in the sense of coining money. 
So from w. bath, a likeness, arian bath, 
coined money, bathii, to make a likeness, 
to coin. 

Coit. — Q,uoit. To coit, to toss, to 
throw. Of a conceited girl it is said. She 
coits up her head above her betters. — 
Forby. To coit a stone. — Hal. The 
game of coits or quoits consists in tossing 
a metal disc (originally doubtless a stone) 
at a mark. The quoit according to Hal. 
is sometimes called a coiling stone. Coyte, 
petreluda ; coytyn, petriludo.— Pr. Pm. 
Du. de kaeye schieten, certare disco, saxeo, 
ferreo, aut plumbeo. — Kil. 

Coke. The carbonaceous cinder of 
coals left when the bituminous or gaseous 
blazing portion has been driven off by 
heat. Coaks, cinders ; a grindle-coke, a 
remnant of an old worn-down grindstone. 
Colke, the core of an apple. 

All erthe may well likened be 

To a rounde appul on a tre, 

That even amydde hath a colke : 

And so it may to an egges yolke, 

For as a dalk (hollow) is amydward 

The yolke of the ^^g^ when hit is hard, 

So is helle put (pit) as clerkus telles 

Aniidde the erthe and nowher elles. — Hal. v, 
dalk. 

Wall, chauke, germe de I'oeuf. — Grandg. 
Clevel. golk, yolk of fgg, core of an 



COLLATION 

apple or an ulcer. The coke is the hole 
guarded by metal in the middle of a 
sheave through which the pin goes. — 
Webster. Du. kolk, a pit, hollow whirl- 
pool. The term colk or coke then appears 
to signify a hollow, then the empty rem- 
nant of a thing when the virtue is taken 
out of it. It may possibly be explained 
from the Gael, caoch, empty, blind, hol- 
low ; caochag, a deaf nut, nut without a 
kernel, the coke of a nut. 

Col-. See Con-. 

Colander. — Cullender. Sp. colada, 
lie of ashes for bucking clothes ; coladero, 
a colander or sieve through which the lie 
was strained, a strainer ; colar, Lat. colo, 
to strain liquids. 

Cold. — Cool. Goth, kalds, cold. ON. 
kala, to blow cold, to suffer from cold ; 
kallda, fever. Dan. kule (of the wind), 
to freshen, to begin to blow. G. kalt, cold, 
kiihl, cool. Lap. kalot, to freeze, kalom, 
cold, frost. 

In Lith. szaltas, cold, sziltas, warm, 
the opposite sensations are distinguished 
by a modification of the vowel, while in 
Lat. gelidus, cold, calidus, hot, a similar 
relation in meaning is marked by a modi- 
fication of the initial consonant. 

The original image seems the disagree- 
able effect produced on the nerves by a 
harsh sound, whence the expression is 
extended to a similar effect on the other 
organs. Fin. kolia, sounding harshly as 
a rattle, rough, uneven, cold ; kolia ilma, 
a cold air ; kolian-lainen, roughish, cool ; 
kolistua, to become cold as the air, or 
rough as a road ; kolistus, making a 
crash, shattering. Esthon. kollisema, to 
rattle, make a harsh noise ; kollin, a rack- 
et ; kolle, noisy, frightful^ghastly ; kollo- 
inats, a bugbear. The effects of fear and 
cold closely resemble each other in de- 
pressing the spirits and producing trem- 
bling. The Manuel des Pecch^s says of 
Belshazzar when he saw the handwriting 
on the wall : 

As he thys hande began to holde (behold) 
Hys herte bygan to tremle and colde. 

Fin. kolkka, sounding loud as a bell, 
then causing trembling or terror, ghastly ; 
— ilma, a cold, raw day ; — tnies, a harsh, 
severe man ; — korpi, a desolate wood. 
Compare ON. kald-lytidr, harsh, severe 
in disposition ; kallda-gaman, bitter 
sport ; kald-ambr, distressing labour. 

Collar. Lat. collare (from collum, the 
neck), a band for the neck. 

Collation. An entertainment. Fr. 
collation, a repast after supper. It. cola- 



COLLEAGUE 

Hone, colettione, coletto, an intermeal, a 
refection between regular meals ; break- 
fast. 

Colleague. — College. Lat. collega, 
supposed to be from lego, to choose, one 
chosen at the same time with one, a com- 
rade. The radical part of the word however 
would be more satisfactorily explained if 
it could be regarded as the equivalent 
of the ON. lag, society, companionship, 
whence sam-lag, companionship, part- 
nership ; felagi, a money companion or 
partner, a fellow ; brod-lagi, fisk-lagi, a 
partner at meals, in fishing, &c. Colle- 
gium, a college, society, corporation, 
guild, the relationship of one colleague to 
another. 

To Collect.— Collect. Lat. lego, lec- 
tum, to pick, to gather ; colligo, -ectiujt, 
to bring together, to collect, assemble. 
Collect, a prayer gathered out of Scripture. 

Collision. Lat. collisio {collido, -is7im, 
to dash or strike together), the act of 
striking together. 

Collop. A lump or slice of meat. 
From clop or colp, representing the sound 
of a lump of something soft thrown on a 
flat surface. Du. klop, It. colpo, a blow. 
Colp, a blow, also a bit of anything. — 
Bailey. The two significations are very 
commonly expressed by the same term. 
Sp. golpe, a blow, also a flap, as the loose 
piece of cloth covering a pocket. In like 
manner we have dab, a blow, and a lump 
of something soft ; a /^Z with the hand, 
and a pat of butter ; G. klitsch, a clap, 
rap, tap, and a lump of something soft ; 
Sc. to blad, to slap, to strike, and blad, 
blaud, a lump or slice ; to dad, to dash, 
to throw down, and dad, dawd, a lunch 
or large piece, especially of something 
eatable. See Calf. 

CoUow. — Colly. Smut, soot. To 
colowe, make black with a cole, char- 
bonner, — Palsgr. in Way. Colled, be- 
colled, smutted, blackened. — K. Horn. 
N. kola, to black or smut with coal ; 
kolut, smutted. — Aasen. Sw. dial, kolna^ 
to become black. 

Colly. A shepherd's dog, from having 
its tail cropped. Sw. kulhig, kollig, with- 
out horns, wanting some member that 
ought to be there. — Rietz. Sc. to coll, to 
poll the hair, to snuff the candle. In 
Hesse a shepherd's dog is often called 
Mutz, from mutz, a stump ; kullmutz, 
kiillarsch, a tailless hen. See Poll. 

Colon. — Comma. Colon (Gr. kSjXov, 

a limb or member) and comma (Gr. 

Kofifxa, a piece or chop, from kotttw, I 

; cut) were applied respectively to the 



COMBER 



165 



principal members of a sentence, and 
the briefest divisions of which it was 
composed. Jerome, in his preface to the 
Prophets, says, * Nemo cum prophetas 
versibus viderit esse descriptos metro eos 
existimet apud Hebrseos ligari — ; sed 
quod in Demosthene et in Tullio solet 
fieri, ut per cola scribantur et commata.' 
— N. & Q. Deer. 19, 1868. The name 
is now given not to the divisions of the 
sentence, but to the marks by which 
divisions of the kind in question are 
separated in writing. 

* Colonel, Fr. colonel, Sp. coronel. 
Properly the captain of the leading com- 
pany of a regiment, the company at the 
head of the column. ' La compagnie 
colonelle, ou la colonelle est la premiere 
compagnie d'un regiment d'infanterie.' 
— Trevoux. 

Colossal. Lat. colossus, a statue of 
enormous magnitude. Such was the 
statue in honour of the sun erected at 
Rhodes. 

Colour. Lat. color, a hue, tint, ap- 
pearance. 

Colt. A young horse. Dan. dial, klod, 
kloit, a. colt. Sw. kult, a young boar, a 
stout boy. 

Column. — Colonnade. Lat. columna, 
Fr. colonne, a pillar. 

Comatose. Gr. icw/ia, heavy slumber, 
oppressive drowsiness. 

Com-, See Con-. 

Comb. ON, kambr, G, kamm. 

Combe. A narrow valley, w. cwm. 

* Comber. — Cumber. g. kummer, 
arrest, seizure, attachment of one's goods 
or person, rubbish, ruins, dirt of streets, 
trouble, distress ; Du. kommer, kontber^ 
trouble, distress. Mid. Lat. combri, ob- 
struction of the ways made by felling 
trees in a forest; combri, cojnbra, a weir 
or dam for obstructing the current of a 
river. — Due. Fr. encombrer, It. ingom- 
brare, to hinder, trouble, encumber ; des- 
combres, what has to be cleared away, 
rubbish, ruins. The radical sense is im- ' 
pediment, hindrance. / comber, I let or 
hynder. — Palsgr. Gael. cu7nraig, cum- 
raich, impede, incommode. Manx ctimr, 
cumree, to hinder, deter, delay ; cumrail, 
hindrance, stoppage. The question is 
whether the sense of rubbish is derived 
from rubbish being considered as a hin- 
drance or whether the development of 
thought does not lie in the opposite direc- 
tion. It is derived by Diez from Lat. 
cumulus, Prov. ^^;;/(?/,a heap, Ptg. comero, 
combro, a mound, heap of earth, corre- 
sponding to which we have ON. kt^mbl^ 



[66 



COMBINE 



ktimb, a cairn, tumulus, barrow, S\v. 
kumniel^ a heap of stones set up for a 
mark, ruins, rubbish. Again, a parallel 
form with cumber may be found in ON. 
I'lnula, to disable. ' Var Aron sdrr ok 
kumladr mjok,' Aaron was wounded and 
much disabled. Hialmr kumladr, a bat- 
tered helmet. E. cumbled with cold, 
cramped, stiffened ; comclyd, acomelyd, 
acomyrd, acotnbrd, for colde, eviratus, 
enervatus. — Pr. Pm. Coinbered and 
clommed with colde.— MS. cited by Way. 
Du. verkofjimelen, to be stiff with cold. 
See Clumsy. 

Combine. Lat. bint, two together ; 
combino, to join together or unite. 

Combustion. — Combustible. Lat. 
ttro, ustu?n, to burn ; comburo {con-tiro), 
to burn up. 

To Come. — Comely. Goth, cwiman, 
AS. cwimari, cuman, G. komvien, Du. 
ko7nen, to come. The Biglotton also 
explains the Du. komen, cadere, conve- 
nire, decere, quadrare. Dat comt wel, 
bene cadit, convenit, decet, quadrat. In 
the same way to fall was used in OE. 

It noihmg falls to thee 
To make fair semblant where thou mayest blame. 
Chaucer, R. R. 

G. gefallen, to fall to a person's mind, 
to please. In this sense the verb come 
must be understood in the E. comely and 
the Du. komelick, conveniens, congruens, 
commodus, aptus. — Kil. See Become. 

This application is marked by a slight 
modification of form in the AS. cwejnan, 
bccweijian, to please, delight, satisfy, G. 
bequem, convenient, commodious, easy. 

Comedy. — Comic. Gr. Kw^c^dia, a 
dramatic poem intended to take off or 
caricature personal or popular peculiar- 
ities ; KiofiiKOQ, relating to comedy. 

Comfit. Fr. conjire, confit (Lat. con- 
Jicere, confectuvi, to prepare), to preserve, 
confect, soak or steep in ; confitures, 
comfits, iunkets, all kind of sweetmeats. 
—Cot. 

Comfort. Fr. coinforter (Lat. fortis, 
strong), to solace, encourage, strengthen. 
—Cot. 

Comfrey. A plant formerly in repute 
as a strengthener, whence it was called 
knitback (Cot. in v. oreille d'ane), and in 
Lat. consolida, confirma, or conserva. — 
Dief. Sup. E. comfrey seems a corruption 
of the second of these. 

Comma. See Colon. 

Commence. It. ^ominciare, Fr. corn- 
mencer. From con and itiitiare, Milanese 
inzd^ to begin. OSp. compenzar, com- 



COMPATIBLE 

pezar. Sardin. incumbenzai, frcm in- 
com-ijiitiare ; Sp. empezar^ from in-itii- 
tiare. — Diez. Menage. 

Comment. Lat. commtniscor, -mentus 
sum, cojHfnentor, to imagine, devise, to 
meditate, consider, remark upon. 

Commerce. See Merchant. 

Commodious. — Commodity. Lat. 
commodus, convenient, suitable, advan- 
tageous. 

Commodore. Fr. conimattdejir, a go- 
vernor or commander ; Port, commenda-' 
dor, from whence the term seems to have 
come to us. 

Common, — Commonalty. — Com- 
mune. — Communicate. Lat. commtmis, 
common, general, Fr. communitas, the 
having of things in common, fellowship, 
Fr. commtmautd, the common people ; 
Lat. cojnmunico, to impart, give a share 
of, hold intercourse with. 

Compa'ct. Lat. compactus, thickset, 
firm, from compingo, -actum, to put or 
join together ; pango,pactu7n, to drive in, 
fasten. 

Compact. An agreement ; cojnpacis- 
cor, compactus, to agree with ; paciscor, to 
stipulate, engage, make a bargain. 

Company, — Companion. It. compa- 
g?w, compagnia. Mid. Lat. companium, 
association, formed from co7i and panis, 
bread, in analogy with the OHG. gi-mazo 
ox gi-leip, board- fellow, from 7;/^^'^, meat, 
or leip, bread. Goth, gahlaiba, fellow- 
disciple, J oh. xi. 1 6, from Jilaibs, bread. 
Compain, one who eats the same bread 
with one. — Jaubert. Gloss, du Milieu de 
laFr. 

Compare. Lat. cojnparare, to couple 
things together for judgment, from corn- 
par, equal, and that from con and par, 
like, equal, a pair. But the meaning 
might equally be derived from the original 
sense of the verb parare, which seems to 
be to push forwards. Thus the simple 
Parare is to push forwards, to get ready ; 
se-parare, to push apart, to separate ; 
comparare, to push together, to bring 
into comparison, or to prepare, to accu- 
mulate. 

Compass. Fr. co7npas, a compass, a 
circle, a round ; co77ipasser, to compass, 
encircle, begird, to turn round. — Cot. To 
go about, from co7i and passus, a step. 
A pair of co77ipasses is an instrument for 
describing circles. The mariner's co77i- 
pass is so called because it goes through 
the whole circle of possible variations of 
direction. To co77ipass an object is to go 
about it or to contrive it. 

Compatible. It. co77ipati7r, Fr. co77i- 



COMPENDIOUS 

patir, to sympathise, suffer with. See 
Passion. 

Compendious. Lat. compe7idium, a 
saving, sparing, shortening, short cut. 
The word seems to be formed in opposi- 
tion to dispendiu7n^ a. spending, by the 
contrast between the particles con, to- 
gether, and dis, apart : an abstinence 
from spending. Pendo, pensum, to weigh, 
to pay. 

Compensate. Lat. coinpensare, to 
weigh together or one against the other. 
Pendo, pensujn, to weigh. 

Compete. — Competent. Lat. peto, 
to seek, to aim at, to go to a place ; cojn- 
peto, to seek together for a thing, to com- 
pete ; also to come or meet together, to 
be suitable, to have requisite strength. 

Compile. Lat. compilo {con and pilo, 
to pillage : See Pill, Pillage), to spoil, 
plunder, to bring together from different 
sources. 

Complacent. — Complaisant. Lat. 
complaceo^ Fr. complaire^ -plaisant, to 
please, delight, be obsequious to. 

Complexion. Lat. complexio, a com- 
bination, connection, physical constitu- 
tion, applied in modern E. to the colour 
of the skin, as marking a healthy or un- 
healthy constitution. Fr. complexion, the 
making, temper, constitution of the body, 
also the disposition, affection, humours 
of the mind. — Cot. 

Complicity. — Accomplice. Lat. 
complico, to fold or plait together ; com- 
plex, Fr. complice, one bound up with, a 
partner in crime. See -plic. 

T o Comply. — Compliment. To com- 
ply is properly to fulfil, to act in accord- 
ance with the wishes of another, from 
Lat. C07npiere, as supply, Fr. siipplcer, 
from siipplere. The It. has compiere, 
complire, co7npire, to accomplish, com- 
plete, also to use compliments, ceremo- 
nies, or kind offices and offers. — Fl. The 
E. comply also was formerly used in the 
latter sense, as by Hamlet speaking of 
the ceremonious Osric. ' He did comply 
with his dug before he sucked it.' The 
addition of the preposition with is also 
an It. idiom : compire con uno, to per- 
form one's duty by one ; — col suo dovere, 
to do one's duty ; alia projnessa, to per- 
form one's promise. No?t posso conipire 
con tutti alia volta, I cannot serve all at 
a time. — Altieri. Hence compimenti, 
cojnplimenti, obliging speeches, compli- 
ments. 

Comprehend. See -prehend. 

Comrade. Fr. camerade, a chamber- 
ful, a company that belongs to one cham- 



CONCERT 



167 



ber, tent, cabin. — Cot. Then applied to 
one of the company, a chamber-fellow. 
From It. camera, a chamber. Sp. came- 
rada in both senses. 

Con-, C0I-, com-, cor-. The Lat. 
prep. cii7n, with, corresponding to Gr. 
aw, ^vv, takes in composition the fore- 
going forms in accordance with the or- 
ganic nature of the following consonant. 
It signifies in general union or united 
action, and may be illustrated by Fin. 
ko^o, gen. ko'on, a heap, the locative 
cases of which are used in the sense of 
the Lat. con, or E. together. Pane 
kokoon or ko'olla, literally, put in a heap, 
collect ; tnlewat kokoon or ko^olle, they 
come together. 

To Con. To learn, to study, to take 
notice of Ale-conner, an inspector of 
ales. To con one thanks, Fr. savoir gre, 
to feel thankful and to make the feeling 
known to the object of it. 

AS. cunnati, to know, cunnian, to in- 
quire, search into, try. Gecunnian hwylc 
heora sn/iftost Jiors hcrfde, to tr}"- which of 
them had the swiftest horse. He cunnode 
tha mid his handa, he felt them with his 
hand. Goth. kun7ian, to know ; a7ta- 
ku7i7ia7i, to read ; gaku7i7ia7i, to observe, 
to read ; kan7ija7i, to make known. Sw. 
kuntia, to be able ; ku77nig, known, 
knowing, skilful, cunning ; kd7i7ia, to 
know, to feel, to be sensible. 

Conceal. Lat. celo, Goth, huljan, OE. 
to hele, hill, to cover, hide. 

Concert. Agreement. According to 
Diez from concsrta7'e, to contend with, 
but the explanation of Calvera, which he 
mentions, is more satisfactory. The Lat. 
has se7'ere, to join together, interweave 
(whence sertu77t, a wreath of flowers), and 
tropically to combine, compose, contrive. 
The compound cofiserere is used much in 
the same sense, to unite together in ac- 
tion ; co7iserere ser77io7ie77i, to join in 
speech ; consertio, a joining together. 
Hence It. co7iserto, duly wrought and 
joined together, a harmonious consort, an 
agreement ; co7isertare, to concert or in- 
terlace with proportion, to agree and 
accord together, to sing, to tune or play 
in consort. — Fl. When the word co7iserto 
was thus applied to the accord of musical 
instruments, it agreed so closely both in 
sense and sound with co7icento, Lat. co7t- 
ce7itus {cantus, melody, song), harmony, 
harmonious music, that the two seem to 
have been confounded together, and co7i- 
serto, borrowing the c of co7icento, became 
co7icerto, whence the Fr. and E. co7ice7-t. 
In English again the word . was con- 



1 68 



CONCILIATE 



founded with consort^ from Lat. consors, 
-sort is, partaking, sharing, a colleague, 
partner, comrade. 

Right hard it was for wight which did it hear 
To read what manner musick that mote be ; 
For all that pleasing was to living ear 
Was there consorted in one harmonee, 
Birds, voices, instmments, winds, waters, all 
agree. — F. Q. in R. 

Muta di violoni, a set or consort of viols. 
— Fl. 

Conciliate. — Reconcile. Lat. con- 
ciliOy to full or thicken woollen cloth, 
thence to bring together, to conjoin, to 
procure. It seems to be the equivalent 
of Gr. (Tv/i7rt\6w, to felt, from ttIXoc, wool, 
felt, as in so many other instances where 
p and c or k replace each other. 

Conclave, Lat. clavis, key ; conclave, 
an apartment under lock and key ; hence 
a party or council meeting and deliberat- 
ing m such an apartment, or in guarded 
privacy. 

Concord. Lat. cor, cordis, heart ; Con- 
cordia, union of hearts, agreement, and 
fig. agreement of notes, harmony. 

Concubine. Lat. concnbina, from 
concinnbo, to lie down together. Cf Gr. 
TTaQctKoiTiQ, Clevel. laybeside. 

Condign-. Lat. dignus, condignus, 
fitting, worthy. 

Condiment. Lat. cotidio, -ire, to season 
meat. 

Condition. Lat. condo, conditmn, to 
set together, to lay up in store, to arrange, 
dispose, establish ; conditio, the putting 
together, the nature, condition or cir- 
cumstances of a thing. 

Conduit. Fr. conduire, -duit, to con- 
duct, lead ; condnit, a watercourse, a 
gutter or trench whereby water is led to 
a place. See -duce. 

Cone. Lat. conus. Gr. kS^voq, a cone, 
a spinning top, fir-cone, pine-tree, pitch. 

Coney. Lat. ciinicidns, It. co7iiglio, 
Fr. conil, conniti, Du. koniJ7i, G, kungele, 
kiinele (Kil.), kunigel, ktmiglin (Dief), 
ON. kuniftgr, \v. cwning. The name is 
said by Pliny and other writers to be 
originally Spanish, and through the Latin 
it seems to have spread to the Germanic 
and Celtic stocks. In several of the 
forms above cited the name seems to 
signify king or little king, and thus was 
translated into Boh. kraljk, a prince or 
little king, also a rabbit or coney. See 
Dief Orig. Eur. 308. 

Confection. Lat. conficio, -fectum, to 
get together, compose, prepare, work ; 
co7ifectio, a preparation. 

Confess. \jdiX. fateor, fassum, confiteor, 



CONSTABLE 

-fessnm, to acknowledge, avow, confess, 
to manifest. 

Congeal. Lat. gelu, frost, severe cold ; 
cong^lo, to become sohdified by the action 
of cold. 

Conglomerate. Lat. globus (corre- 
sponding to E. club), a ball, thick round 
body ; glomus, a ball of thread ; glomero, 
conglo?nero, to roll or heap up into a 
mass. 

Congruity. — Incongruous. Lat. con- 
gruo, to come together, to happen at the 
same time, to accord ; congruus, suitable, 
agreeing, fit. 

Conjugal. Lat. conjux, -jngis, a con- 
sort, husband or wife, properly perhaps 
a yoke-fellow, from juguni, a yoke ; but 
ultimately irovajimgo, to join. 

Conjure. Lat. jiirai-e, to swear; con- 
jnrarc, to combine together by an oath, 
but in the E. application to bind by 
an oath, to call upon some one by the 
most binding sanctions, hence (with the 
accent on the first syllable) to conjure, to 
use enchantments, to exorcise the super- 
natural powers, and ultimately to use 
juggling tricks or sleight of hand. 

Connive. Lat. co7tniveo, -nixi, to 
wink with the eyes, to take no notice of ; 
nicto, to wink ; nicere manu, to beckon 
with the hand. G. nicken, Du. knicken, 
to nod, to wink. For the relation between 
nico or nicto and niveo comp. nix, nivis, 
snow. The ultimate root is the repre- 
sentation of the sound of a snap or crack 
by the syllable knick, knip. G. knicken, 
Du. knippen, to snap, crack. The term 
is then applied to any short sharp move- 
ment. Met de oogen knippen, knipoogen; 
to wink or twinkle with the eyes. 

Conqueror. Lat. qucerere, to seek, 
conquirere, to seek for, to seek out, obtain 
by seeking. Fr. conquerir, to get, pur- 
chase, acquire, and hence to get the vic- 
tory, to subdue, overcome. 

Consider. Lat. considere, to observe, 
consider, reflect ; a figure, according to 
Festus, from the observation of (Lat. 
siderd) the stars. 

Constable. The Master of the Horse, 
or great officer of the empire who had 
charge of the horses, was called comes 
stabuli, the count of the stable, comesta- 
bilis, conestabilis, &:c. To this officer, in 
the kingdoms which sprang up out of the 
ruins of the empire, fell the command of 
the army and the cognisance of military 
matters. ' Regalium praepositus equo- 
rum, quem vulgo Comistabilem vocant.' 
— Armoin in l3uc. ' Comitem stabuli 
sui quem corrupte constabuliim appella- 



CONSTANT 

mus.'— Greg. Turon. in Due. 'Coram 
comite Herefordiensi,qui secundum anti- 
quum jus constabularius esse dignoscitur 
regii exercitus.' — Math. Westm. in Due. 
The term was then applied to the com- 
mander of a fortress or any detached 
body of troops, and in this sense the title 
still remains in the Constable of the 
Tower, the Constable of Chester Castle. 
The Constable then became the officer 
who commanded in any district on behalf 
of the king. ' In villis vero vel urbibus 
vel castellis quae regis subsunt dominio, 
in quibus constabularii ad tempus sta- 
tuuntur.' — Concil. Turon. A. D. 1163 in 
Due. 

Thus in England the term finally set- 
tled down as the designation of the petty 
officer who had the charge of the king's 
peace in a separate parish or hamlet. 

Constant. Lat. consto, to stand to- 
gether, stand firmly, to remain, endure. 

Consternation. Lat. sterno, stratum, 
to scatter, strew, throw to the ground ; 
consterno, to throw down, and fig. to 
terrify. 

Constipation. Lat. constipatio {con 
and stipo, to cram, pack closely. Or. 
(rTii(3u}), a crowding or pressing together. 

Construe. — Construct. See Structure. 

Consult, Lat. consu/o, -sultiim, to de- 
liberate, take advice. 

Contact, — Contagion. — Contiguous. 
• — Contingent. See Tact, -tag. 

Contaminate. Lat. contamino, to 
make foul, pollute, stain. 

Contemn, — Contempt. Lat. temtio, 
contemno, to despise. 

••Contemplate. Lat. contemplor (perf. 
p. coiitemplatus), to survey, behold or 
gaze at steadily. 

Contest. Lat. testis, a witness ; coii- 
testor, to call to witness ; contestari litem, 
It. contestare una lite, to bring a cause 
before the judge for his decision on the 
evidence, to commence the pleading ; 
thence It. contestare, to wrangle. Thus 
the verb to contest is older than the noun. 

Contra-. — Contrary. — Counter, Lat. 
contra, Fr. conti^e, against, in opposition 
to. Passing through Fr. into E. the word 
became counter, frequently used in com- 
position. Hence Fr. encontrer, renco7i- 
trer, to meet, to encounter. Rencontre, a 
meeting, a rencotmter. 

Contrast. Fr. contraste, withstand- 
ing, strife, contention. — Cot. It. con- 
trastare, to stand opposite, to withstand, 
contest, wrangle ; contrasto,contrastanza, 
an opposing, contention. From cont?'a, 
against, and stare, to stand. 



CONVEY 



169 



Contrive. Fr. trouver, to find, invent, 
light on, meet with, get, devise ; co7i- 
trouver, to forge, devise, invent out of 
his own brain. — Cot. 

Thre fals men togidere 
Thise thre ageyn Edward made a compasse- 

ment — 
Of that fals cotitroueyng gaf thei jugement. 

R. Bruiine 255. 

It. trovare,- to find, invent, or seek 
out. According to Diez from turbare, 
to disturb, to turn over in searching 
through, supporting his theory by the 
OPtg. trovare = X.\xx\yA.rQ.', Neap, stru- 
vare ^= disturbare ; controvare = contur- 
bare. But the G. treffeti, to hit, to reach, 
to come to, comes very near the notion 
of lighting on. Jemandeii treffen, to 
meet with or find one. Compare Sw. 
hitta, to hit on, find, discover, contrive. 

Ne 's eschacent ne 's emoevent 
Mais od las branz nuz s'entretrovent. 

Benoit. Chron. Norm, 2. 5335. 
— they strike each other with naked blades. 

Control, Fr, contrerolle, the copy of 
a roll of accounts, &c. Contreroller, to 
keep a copy of a roll of accounts. — Cot. 
Hence to check the accounts of an 
officer, to overlook, superintend, regulate. 

Controversy. — Controvert. Lat. 
verto, versum, to turn ; verso, to turn, 
about ; versor, to be occupied about a 
thing ; controversor, to litigate, contend, 
dispute. 

Contumacy. Lat, contiimax, obstinate, 
unyielding. 

Contumely. Lat, contumelia, mis- 
usage, insult, affront. Supposed to be 
connected with temno, to despise. 

Convent.. — Conventicle. Lat. con- 
ventus, a coming together, meeting, as- 
sembly. See -vene. In M.Lat. the term 
was applied to the church or meeting- 
place of the faithful, while the contempt- 
uous name of conventiculum was given 
to the assemblies of heretics. Conventus 
was also applied to the council-chamber 
or meeting-place in a monastery, or to 
the college or body of monks. 

Ut greges dudm Coenobiorum permitterent 
adunari Deique ad laudem sub uno Abbate 
unum conventum effici. — Ord. Vital, in Due. 

The term has finally come to signify a 
house of nuns. 

Convex, Lat, convexus, vaulted, 
arched over, also hollow. From veJio, 
vextim, to carry ; but how the sense is 
attained is not well made out. 

Convey. — Convoy, The tendency \.o 
a thin or a broad pronunciation of the 
vowels prevailing in different dialects of 



170 



CONVIVIAL 



Fr. converted Lat. via into veie (Chron. 
Norm. ; L. des Rois), or voic^ way ; and 
the same variation is found in enveier^ 
envoy er. It. inviare, to set in the right 
way, to send unto — Fl., and in conveier, 
convoy er^ It. conviare, to make way with, 
to conduct. * Del ciel enveiad' * Tut li 
poples de Juda out li rei conveiedJ — L. 
des Rois. From the thin Norman pro- 
nunciation was formed E. convey^ while 
convoy has been borrowed from a more 
recent state of the Fr. language. 

No doubt a reference to Lat. convehere 
has affected some applications of convey^ 
as when a carriage is called a convey- 
ance. 

Convivial. Lat. vivo^ to live ; con- 
vivo, to eat or live with ; conviva, 3. 
guest, convivium, a feast. 

Coo. Imitative of the noise of doves, 
formerly written crooy Du. korren^ kir- 
ren, ON. kurra, Fr. roucotiler, to croo 
like a dove. — Cot. To croo, crook, or 
viojirti as a dove. — Fl. Mod.Gr. kovkov- 

Cook. Lat. coqtnis, a cook ; coquere, 
to cook, to prepare by fire. The primi- 
tive sense seems, however, to be to boil, 
from an imitation of the noise of boil- 
ing water. G. kochen, to boil ; das bhit 
kocht in seinen adern, the blood boils in 
his veins. Fin. kuohica, kuohata, to foam, 
bubble, boil, swell ; kuohina, the boiling 
as of a cataract or of the waves. Mod. 
Gr. (coxXa^w, to boil, boil with a noise, 
bubble. Esthon. kohhiseina, rauschen, 
brausen, to murmur, roar. Galla koka, 
to boil, to cook. — Tutschek. The sound 
of tattling is constantly represented by 
the same syllables as the noise of agitated 
water. Hence we may compare Pl.D. 
kdkeln,\.o chatter or cackle, ox kikel kakel I 
for the sound of chatter, with kake^i, to 
boil. 

Cool. ON. kill, kula, a cold blast ; 
kida, to blow, to be cold ; knlbord, the 
windward side of the ship ; kulldi, cold ; 
at kala, to blow cold, to suffer from cold ; 
kaldi, cold. OHG. chtwli, G. kiihl. See 
Cold. 

Coomb. A half quarter, or measure 
of four bushels. Fr. coinble, heaped 
measure. Or is it from the Du. kom, a 
trough, a chest, deep dish .^ 

Coop.— Cooper.— Cub. Lat. ciipa, Sp. 
Cuba, Fr. cuve, Du. kuype, a tub, cask. 
Sp. ciibcro, a. cooper. The Sp. cuba is 
also a hen-coop. It. cuba, a couch, bed, 
coop or pen for poultry. Du. kuype der 
stad, the circuit of the town, the space 
confined within the walls ; kuype^i, to 



COP 

bind casks. To coop is to pen or confine 
in a narrow space. The OE. cub, to con- 
fine, seems a difterent form of the same 
root. 

Art thou of Bethlehem's noble college free 
Stark staring mad tiiat thou wouldst tempt the 

sea 
Cubbed in a cabin, on a mattress laid. 

Dryden in R. 

Pl.D. bckubbelt is used in the same 
sense, confined, pressed for room. Sp. 
encubar, to put a criminal into a tub by 
way of punishment, w. cwb, a hut, pen 
or cote ; cwb-iar, a hen-coop ; cwb-ci, a 
dog-kennel ; cwb-colovien, a dove-cote. 
Dan. kube, a hive ; kove, a hut, hovel ; 
torve-kube^ torve-kove, a turf-shed. AS. 
cofa, Sw. kofwa, a chamber. Holstein 
kuuve, a bed of poor people, a cot ; Pl.D. 
kave, kaven, a small enclosed place, a 
pen, kalver-kaven, swiene-kaven, a calf 
or swine-pen. G. koben, a hollow re- 
pository, a chamber ; schweins-koben, a, 
hog-stye ; kobel, a cote, cot ; tauben- 
kobel, a dove-cote ; siech-kobel, a hovel 
for lepers. Probably cabin must be 
reckoned in the same class of words. 

The radical idea seems that of bending 
round. Gael, cub, crouch, stoop, shrink, 
ciibach, bent, hollowed ; cuba, a bed ; ciib, 
a bending of the body, a pannier. As the 
liquid is exceedingly movable in words 
beginning with cr, cl, cr. Sec, it is pro- 
bable that the Gael. cUb must be con- 
nected with criib, to squat, crouch, criib, 
a claw, crubach, a hook, a crooked 
woman, crup, to contract, shrink, crouch, 
&c. Thus ' ciibbcd in a cabin ' would 
be radically identical with Shakespeai%'s 
' cribbed, cabined, and confined.' 

Coot. A water-fowl, called also a 
moor-hen. — B. The two are often con- 
founded, and in the moor-hen the short 
white tail bobbing up and down, with a 
motion like that of the tail of a rabbit, is 
a very conspicuous object. Now as the 
latter animal is from this cause called 
bunny, from Gael, bun, a stump, it is 
probable that the name of the coot is 
also taken from the tail. 

W. cwt, a little piece, a short tail ; 
cwta, cwtog, bobtailed, cwt-iar (iar = 
hen), bobtailed heii, a coot or water-hen. 

Cop. w. cop, coppa, the top of any- 
thing, crown of the head ; coppog, crested ; 
coppyn, a small tuft or crest. Du. kop^ 
the head. Wall, copett, top. 

The expression for a knob, bunch, or 
projection, is very often taken from the 
designation of a blow (see Boss), and the 
two senses are often united in the root 



COPE 

kop. Magy. kop^ sonus piilsu editus ; 
kopogni, to stamp or clatter with the 
feet ; kophal (hal = fish), gobio, the bull- 
head, a fish with a large head ; Fin. kop- 
pata, to tap ; kopsia, to knock, beat, 
smack ; kopina, the noise of a blow ; w. 
cobio, to thump ; cod, a thump, also a top 
or tuft ; cobyn, a tuft, bunch, cluster ; 
Cat. cop, a blow ; Sp. copa, the boss of a 
bridle ; copo, bunch of flax on a distaff; 
copete, tuft, top, summit. 

Cope, It. cappa, Sp. capa, Fr. chape, 

Sw. kapa, G. kappe, a cape, cloak, cope 
or priest's vestment. In a met. sense, the 
cope of heaven. It. la cappa del cielo, Fr. 
la chappe du del, Du. hiille or kappe des 
he7}iels {hulle, capitium, velamen mulie- 
bre), is the arch or vault of heaven. Du. 
kap, kappe, a cap, hood, summit of a 
building. G. kappe also is specially ap- 
plied to the vault of an oven, the roof of 
a gallery in mining. Sp. copa, crown of 
a hat, roof or vault of an oven. The 
coping of a wall is a layer of tiles project- 
ing over the top and sheltering the wall. 
To cope, jut or lean out, forjecter. — Sher- 
wood. 

To Cope. To encounter, meet in bat- 
tle, strive for the mastery. 

So kene thei acuntred at the coupyng togadre. 
William & Werwolf, 3602. 

Ageyn hym came Johan, sone of the Duke of 
Brennes, and coped togyder so fyersly that they 
brake theyr spares. — Paris and Vienna (Rox- 
burgh Lib.), p. 18. 

OFr. colp, cop, a blow ; chopper, to strike 
or knock against. 

Copesman. — Copesmate. To cope, 
to barter or truck. — B. Copeman, a 
customer ; copesmate, a partner in mer- 
chandise, companion. Du. koop, chaffer, 
exchange ; koop-juan, a merchant. See 
Chop. 

Copious. Lat. copia, plenty. 

Copper. Lat. cuprum. G. kupfer. 

Copperas. Fr. couperose. It. copparosa, 
from Lat. ciipri rosa, Gr. xakKavQov, the 
flower of copper ; rose for flower. 

Coppice. — Copse. OFr. copeiz,copeaii, 
wood newly cut ; coppuis, right of cutting 
the waste branches of trees. — Roquef. 
From couper, to cut. What we call cop- 
pice or copse is in Fr. bois taillis. Gr. 
ko-kclUq, arbores casduse — Hesychius in 
Junius, from KOTrrw, to cut.