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A GLOSSARY OF THE COTSWOLD (GLOUCESTERSHIRE) DIALECT
ILLUSTRATED BY EXAMPLES FROM ANCIENT AUTHORS,
BY THE LATE
REV. RICHARD WEBSTER HUNTLEY, A.M.
OF BOXWELL COURT, GLOUCESTERSHIRE;
FORMERLY FELLOW OF ALL SOULS' COLLEGE, OXFORD;
RECTOR OF BOXWELL AND LEIGHTERTON,
AND VICAR OF ALBERBURY.
LONDON:
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE.
GLOUCESTER:
EDWARD NEST, WESTGATE STREET.
MDCCCLXVIII.
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This being a posthumous Work of the Author's, great difficulty has
been found in editing it correctly; and the reader will kindly make allowance
for any remaining imperfections.
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REMARKS
ON THE
COTSWOLD DIALECT.
DIALECT is one of , the best evidences of the origin and descent of the
people who use it; and, whenever we can trace it to its roots, we seem to fix
also the country which supplied the first inhabitants of the region where it
is spoken- Bringing their language with them from the cradle whence they
emigrated, every people brings also its customs, laws, and superstitions: so
that a knowledge of dialect points also towards a knowledge of feelings, seated
(in many cases) very deeply, and of prejudices which sway the mind with much
power; and thus we gain an insight into the genius and probable conduct of any
particular races among mankind.
Another reason, which at this present time renders dialects more worthy of
remembrance, is the universal presence of the village schoolmaster. This
personage usually considers that he places himself on the right point of
elevation above his pupils, in proportion as he distin-
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2 INTRODUCTION.
guishes his speech by classical or semi-classical expressions; while the
pastor of the parish, trained in the schools still more deeply, is very
commonly unable to speak in a language fully " understanded of the
people," and is a stranger to the vernacular tongue of those over whom
he is set so that he is daily giving an example which may bring in a
latinized slip-slop. In addition to this, our commercial pursuits are
continually introducing American solecisms and vulgarisms. Each of these
sources of change threaten deterioration. Many homely but powerful and manly
words in our mother tongue appear to totter on the verge of oblivion. As
long, however, as we can keep sacred our inestimable translation of the Word of
God, to which let us add also our Prayer-book, together with that most
wonderful production of the mind of man, the works of Shakespeare, we may
hope that we possess sheet-anchors, which will keep us from drifting very far
into insignificance or vulgarity, and may trust that the strength of the
British tongue may not be lost among the nations.
It has, moreover, been well observed that a knowledge of dialects is very
necessary to the formation of an exact dictionary of our language. Many words
are in common use only among our labouring classes, and accounted therefore
vulgar, which are in fact nothing less than ancient terms, usually possessing
much roundness, pathos, or power; and, what is more, found in frequent use
with our best writers of the Elizabethan period. The works of Shakespeare
abound in examples of the Cots wold dialect, which indeed is to be expected,
as his connexions and early life are to be found in the districts
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INTRODUCTION.
he spent some part of his younger days in concealment in the neighbourhood of
Dursley, he could not have been better placed to mature, in all its richness,
any early knowledge which he might have gained of our words and expressions.*
This, however, is certain, that the terms and phrases in common use in the
Cotswold dialect are very constantly found in his dialogue; they add much
strength and feeling to it; and his obscurities, in many cases, have been
only satisfactorily elucidated by the commentators who have been best
acquainted with the dialect in question.
The Cotswold dialect is remarkable for a change of letters in many words; for
the addition or omission of letters; for frequent and usually harsh
contractions and unusual idioms, with a copious use of pure Saxon words now
obsolete, or nearly so. If these words were merely vulgar introductions, like
the pert and ever-changing slang of the London population, we should look
upon them as undeserving of notice; but as they are still almost all to be
drawn from undoubted and legitimate roots, as they are found in use in the
works of ancient and eminent authors, and as they are in themselves so
numerous as to render the dialect hard to be understood by those not
acquainted with them, they become worthy of explanation: and then they bring
proof of the strength and manliness of the ancient English tongue, and they
will generally compel us to acknowledge, that while our modern speech may
possibly have gained in elegance and exactness from the Latin or Greek, it
has lost, on the other hand, impressiveness and power.
We believe that the roots chiefly discoverable in this
* See Note at end.
b2
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4 INTRODUCTION.
dialect will be the Dutch, Saxon, and Scandinavian; bearing evidence of the
Belgic, Saxon, and Danish invasions, which have visited the Cotswold region.
Occasionally, a Welsh or Gaelic root shows itself, and is probably a
lingering word of the old aboriginal British inhabitants, who were
subsequently displaced by German or Northern irruptions. One or two words
seem to be derived from the Sanscrit, which may have been obtained from our
German relations; one word from the Hebrew may have been left among us when
the Celtic tribes were driven into Wales.
To these old words, now nearly lost in modern conversation, is to be added a
corrupted use of the Saxon grammar; whence modes of expression are produced
which at first sight are obscure, as having never obtained admission in the
colloquy of the better informed, and as being in themselves ungrammatical.
We presume that the most ancient work now extant written in the Cotswold
dialect is the " Chronicle of Eobert of Gloucester," who lived,
according to his own statement, at the time of the battle of Evesham, ie. }
August 4, 1265. This historian and versifier may be said to use altogether the
Cotswold tongue, and his language is that which is still faithfully spoken by
all the unlettered ploughboys in the more retired villages of the
Gloucestershire hill-country. This dialect extends along the Cotswold, or oolitic,
range, till we have passed through Northamptonshire; and it spreads over
Wilts, Dorsetshire, northern Somersetshire, and probably the western parts of
Hampshire. In Oxfordshire the University has considerably weakened the
language by an infusion of Latinisms; and in Berkshire it has suffered still
more by London slang and Cockneyisms.
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INTRODUCTION. 5
In noticing the change of letters observable in the vernacular tongue on the
Cotswolds, we will begin at the beginning.
A. This vowel, in the first place, frequently receives reduplication; we may
instance " A-ater," for " After." The next change which
this letter admits is into the dipthong M y as in " iEle" for
" Ale f in these cases it is common to have the letter " Y"
placed before the dipthong, as " Ysele;" sometimes so rapidly
pronounced as to sound like the word " Yell," an outcry. "
Lserk" stands for " Lark," the bird; with similar instances of
alteration, which generally are preservations of the Saxon pronunciation.
Next, we find the letter changed into " ai," as in " Make
Maike," " Care Caire;" and where the " ai" is the
legitimate mode of spelling, there it obtains a great elongation of sound, as
"Fair" becomes "Fai-er," "Lair" (of a beast)
"Lai-er"; for this use we have found no authority. Next, the letter
"a" frequently becomes "o," as in " Hand Hond,"
" Land Lond," " Stand Stond," "Man Mon;" the
whole of which are pure Saxon, and are found in constant use by Eobert of
Gloucester. Finally, the dipthong "au" frequently becomes "
aa," as in " Daughter Daater," which is unadulterated Danish; "
Draught Draat," with many other instances. This is also the case where
the letter " a" has properly the sound of this dipthong, as in
"Call Caal," "Fall Vaal," " Wall Waal," and
suchlike words; to these we will add "Law," which is pronounced
" Laa," agreeing with the Saxon " Lah."
B is, as we might expect, sometimes interchanged with P, as in the name of
the plant "Privet," often called "Brivet;" it is also
sometimes, though not frequently, used for W, as " Beth-wind," for
" With-wind," " Edbin" for " Edwin;" "
Bill" for " Will," is common everywhere.
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6 INTRODUCTION.
C is changed, occasionally, into G, as for " Crab Grab," "Crisp
Grisp," "Christian Gristin /' "Guckoo" for 1 '
Cuckoo" is universal,but this, like the Scotch " Gowk,"
arises, possibly, from a misapprehension of the note of the bird. In the word
" Yonder," C usurps the place of Y, and the term becomes "
Conder;" this, however, may only be a change from G into C, as the Saxon
word is " Geonda."
E is frequently changed into the dipthong M, as " Beech Beech,"
"Sleep Shep," "Feel Vael," Saxon FaBllan," with many
other instances. It also becomes A short, as "Peg Pag," "Keg
Kag," " Their Thair." Next, by abbreviation, it becomes I, as
"Creep Crip," Saxon, " Crypan," " Steep Stipe,"
Suio-Gothic, " Steypa." When it is in composition with A, it seems
to divide the syllable in which it so stands, as " Beat" becomes
"Be-at," "Death De-ath," Earth Ye-arth," " Tart
Te-art" as applied to the smart of a sore place, or the sharp taste of
an acid, as well as when the substantive, a fruit-pie, is intended. "
Am" becomes " Ye-am;" but here we may observe, that this may
be the Saxon " Eagm," as " Ye-arth" may also come from
the Danish " Jord."
F, as is usual in all languages, often interchanges with V; thus "
Fig" becomes " Veg," " Feed Veed," Dutch "Veedan;"
"Fill Vill," Saxon "Villan;" " For Vor," Dutch
" Ver." This appears to have been our use from the earliest
periods. Eobert of Gloucester gives us " Vut" for "
Foot," " Vant" for "Font," "Ver" for
"For/' "Vail" for "Fall/' with innumerable other
instances; all faithfully followed on the Cotswold range.
G interchanges with Y. This is a custom drawn immediately from the Saxon, in
which language these two letters sometimes appear to be used almost
indifferently.
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INTRODUCTION. 7
Thus "Angel" is often pronounced " Any el," "Angelic
Anyelic," or even " Anyely," where the Saxon termination "
lie" or " like" sinks, as in other cases, into the modern
"ly."
H is chiefly remarkable for its wrong position. It is struck off, or put in,
without any authority at the discretion, or rather indiscretion, of the
speaker; only custom seems to have arranged unhappily, that it should appear
where it ought to be absent, and should be wanting where it ought to be
present. "Why 'op ye so, ye 'igh 'ills?" has been heard from
"the priest's lip keeping knowledge." "'Ope" stands for
"Hope," '"Unt" for "Hunt," "Edge" for
"Hedge," "Helm" for " Elm," " Hasp"
or " Haspen," for " Asp" or " Aspen," "
Hexcellent" for "Excellent," " Hegg" for
"Egg," with as many other instances as there may be opportunities
for error. This also seems to have been an ancient practice, as Eobert of
Gloucester is constantly found labouring under this uncertainty; indeed, it
would be difficult to un[der]stand him at all unless this regularity in
mistake on his part is always borne in mind. As an example, we will give his
word " Atom." This is more than a dissyllable, it is two words,
being " At om," contracted from " At ome," and by
supplying the H struck off, we have the sense "At home." But we
must not forget that some of these changes are merely the old Saxon preserved
in its purity: as in the example above, " 'Unt for Hunt," we read
" Ge- untod of Angel-cynne." See " Saxon Chronicle,"
Ingram, Appendix, p. 381.
I interchanges with E, as " Drink " becomes " Drenk," ".
Bring Breng," both being the Saxon pronunciation; as also "Sink
Zenk," " String Strang," " Sting Steng," " Sing
Zeng;" the instances are indeed perpetual, and may
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8 INTRODUCTION.
be generally held to be derived from the Saxon. " Drive " is always
" Dreeve." " Thrive," however, never loses the I; but, as
nature abhors a vacuum, the word is ordained to step into the space which is
vacated by the word ' 'Dreeve," and it usually becomes "
Drive."
M becomes N in the word " Empty," which is pronounced "
Enty," and is the only change of the kind which we have noticed.
commonly usurps the place of A, as we have observed under that letter. It is,
moreover, often changed into " Au," as " Snow " is
pronounced " Snau," " Blow blau," " Mow Mau;"
these sounds have their origin in the Saxon tongue. Sometimes is made into
aa, as in " Croft," which is spoken " Craat " very
frequently, " Moth Maat", Saxon Matha. Lastly, in some words this
vowel changes into A, as in " North," which is frequently
pronounced " Narth."
P, as might be expected, in some cases becomes B, which we have noticed under
that letter.
R is very often misplaced, as " Cruds " for " Curds."
S in like manner suffers from dislocations, thus " Hasp " is "
Haps," " Clasp Claps," * Wasp Waps," with other examples.
This letter is also very frequently made Z, in which we agree with the Dutch,
as in " Sea," " Zee;" and this practice may be as old as
the Belgic invasion of these parts, which is mentioned by Caesar as having
taken place before his age.
T and Th are often changed into D when before the letter R Thus "
Through" becomes "Dru," " Three Dree," '
Trill," and " Thrill Drill," " Thrush " and "
Throstle," "Drush" and "Drostle," "Track"
becomes "Drack," u Tree Dree," "Trash Drash," "
Throw Drow," which also may generally be held to be Dutch usage.
"Th" is
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INTRODUCTION.
9
always pronounced as in the word "This," not as in "Thistle,"
that is, it always has a slight sound of the D before it.
U, sounded hard, takes the place of the double O, as "Brook," which
is pronounced "Bruck," Saxon, Broc, "Book - Buck," Saxon,
Boc, "Look – Luck,” Saxon, Loc, with other instances.
W is often seated so strangely, and sometimes inserted so capriciously into
the interior of words, that, if it is held to be the di-gamma, it might tend
to justify Dr. Bentley in thrusting it, for the versé sake whenever he wants
it, into the middle of Homer's words. We will notice it first as improperly
commencing words; thus, "Oats" becomes "Woats," by
abbreviation "Wuts," "Oaks - Woaks - Wuks," "Home -
Whome - Whum; in the interior of words we have "Go - Gwoa,"
"Going - Gwain," "Stone - Stwon," "Bone - Bwone,"
"Kindle - Kwindle," "Such - Zwitch," with many other
instances. If, however, this letter usurps positions to which it is not
entitled, so it loses also in some cases its natural rights, as "Wool -
Woollen" is often made "Ool - Oollen," "Worsted -
Oosted," "Wolf - Oolf," "Wood - Ood," and thence
sometimes "Hood," with such like instances of deposition. This
elision seems to have a Danish character. Caprice alone appears to have dictated
the erroneous insertions of the letter.
Y claims, and obtains also, a very leading position in the same arbitrary
manner. Thus "Ale" is "Ye-ale," "Health -
Y-ealth," "Earth - Y-earth," "Am - Ye-am,"
"Head - Yead." It suffers, however, total defeat in
"Yes," which is always either "Iss " or "Eece,"
according to the leisure of the speaker.
Z, as we have said, is in constant use for S.
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10 INTRODUCTION.
We will now notice some of the contractions in speech which are in constant
use on the Cotswolds. " At," " Atunt," represent, "
Thou art," and "Thou art not/' Fielding, as he places Squire
Western's residence in the north of Somersetshire, very properly bestows on
him a considerable dash of the dialect in question, " I' ool ha'
zatisvaction o' thee," answered the squire, " soa doff thy cloathes,
at-unt half a man," &c. Hist, of a Foundling, book VI., ch. 9.
In the same manner "Cat?" and " Cast?" stand for
"Canst thou?" and "Cass-nt," for " Canst thou
not?"
" D'wye/' imploringly, represents, "Do ye;" as
"D'wunty," "Do ye not."
" Thee bist," is, " Thou beest," "You are."
" Gee-wult?" " Go, will you?" is a term addressed to horses,
when they are to move from the driver; as " K'-mae-thee," M Come
hither," is the term to make them draw nearer.
" Oos-nt,-ootst?" is, " You would not, would you?"
" St-dzign?" is the contraction of " Do you design?"
i.e., " intend." " St-gwain?" " Are you going?"
" St-hire?" is " Do you hear?" " St-knaw?"
" Do you know?" In these and similar instances the " St"
is the termination of "Dost" or "Beest," as the case may
be, and is barely sounded.
" Hae " is, " Have," " Shat " and "
Shat-unt," are, " You shall," and "You shall not."
Squire Western promises Blifil, " I tell thee, shat ha' her to-morrow
morning." Hist, of a Foundling, book VII., ch. 6.
"Te-unt" means, "It is not." "Why-s-'nt?" is
contracted from "Why-oos-nt?" "Why will you not?" as
"Coos-nt" is, " Could you not?"
" 'S-like I shaU " is, " It is likely I shall." "
Said'st thine?"
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INTRODUCTION. 11
" Didst thou say it was thine V " Nar-on " is, " Never a one
"none. " St-Thenk?" is, " Do you think f M E'en as 'twur
" is, " Even as it were." " Med" is, " He might
" "Med, med'nt ur?" represents, "He might, might he not?"
"Mizzomar" for "Midsummer" we should not have introduced,
had it not been that we find this contraction in Bobert of Gloucester, which
seems to give a great antiquity to these abbreviations.
Among variations from Mr. Lindley Murray's English Grammar, we will first
remark that the use of the pronoun " He " is nearly universal. The
feminine " She " is rarely admitted, and the neuter "It"
is equally excluded. " She," when brought into use, is mostly
compelled to submit to an appearance in the accusative case, " Her"
as, by way of example, " Her y-'ent sa' desperd bad a' 'ooman as I've a
knawed," would be very good English on the Cotswold range. It is,
however, very questionable, when the word " He " is used for "
She," whether we have anything more than the Saxon " Heo,"
which is our " She." The dominion, however, of " He "
over " It " is very undoubted, as anything inanimate in itself is
always " He" for instance, a Spade, a Shoe, a Pond, a Gate, a Eoad,
or whatever else presents itself. " He," coming thus into constant
use, suffers from the familiarity when standing before the word "
will" as a sign of the future tense; it then sinks into the vowel "
U " pronounced hard; " u'll die," " u'll vight,"
" u'll stond," " u'll run," are, in such a case, the usual
modes of pronouncing " He will."
" As," in this dialect, obtains very commonly the powers of
"which;" thus, "The 'ooman as I married," "The beast
as I
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1 2 IN TROD TJCTION.
zauld," "The ru-oadas I gade," would be proper phrases in village
colloquy in this district.
" Which," however, takes the place of " When," or "
While " in many cases. As " I bid the wench shou'd hauld awpen the
geat, which she slammed un to, and laughed in muv veace;" " He took
his woath as I layed the dtrap, which I did noa sich a theng."
The plural in " es," so constantly sounded in Chaucer, is still
preserved in many words in this part of the Cotswold range. Thus "
Ghosts " and " Posts " are constantly "Ghostes" and
"Poste's;" "Beasts" are "Beasts," and sometimes
" Beastesses;" " Guests " and " Feasts "
becomes " Guests," and " Feastes:" Addison's joke upon the
songs in the opera,
" When the breezes Fan the treeses," &c.,
would not be discovered to be a satire in the villages under consideration.
There can be no doubt but this is the adherence to ancient usage; and Kemble
was certainly right in considering that Shakespeare intended " Aches
" to be pronounced "Aitches," as a dissyllable, (to which
usage that great actor steadily adhered), because the word was so sounded
down to the days of King Charles II. See Hudibras, passim.
In forming past tenses of verbs we often find words in use, which, if they
ever obtained elsewhere, are now generally obsolete. It is impossible to give
all the instances, but we will enumerate a few specimens. "
Catched" is used instead of " Caught." " Eaught " is
made the perfect tense of " Eeach " this word will appear in the Glossary,
together with Shakespeare's use of it. That
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INTRODUCTION. 13
inimitable poet supports his native dialect in the use of the word "
Holp," as the past tense of " Help." In " Much Ado about
Nothing," act iii., sc. 2., Don John says, " I think he holds you
well, and, in dearness of heart, hath holp to effect your marriage."
This is an ancient form of the word " Help," and kept alive by our
Bible; we find it in Isaiah, xxxi., 3., " He that is holpen shall fall down;"
in Daniel, xi., 34., " They shall be holpen with a little help f in St.
Luke, i. 54., " He hath holpen his servant Israel," and in other
passages; and let us remember that these archaisms now, accidentally but very
happily, increase our reverence for the sacred text.
" Fot," or " Vot," are used as the past tense of "
Fetch f " Give-Gave," makes its past tense in this district "
Gived," but by abbreviation "Gied;" by a farther contraction
spoken " Gid," though, in some cases, the labours of the
schoolmaster and the village Incumbent have advanced the more promising pupil
as far as "Guv." Instances of irregularity in the formation of the
perfect tense are, as we have said, perpetual.
The double negative is very usual, and in this custom Shakespeare frequently
upholds his native district. We will adduce as instances, Henry V., act ii.,
sc. 4.
" Dauphin. Though war nor no known quarrel were in question."
Next, the Two Gentlemen of Verona, act ii., sc. 4.
" Valentine. Nor to his service no such joy on earth."
Measure for Measure, act ii., sc. 1.
" Escalus. No sir nor I mean it not."
Merchant of Venice, act iv., sc. 1.
" Shy lock So I can give no reason nor I will not."
The instances of this irregularity are so frequent with
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14 INTRODUCTION.
this poet, that the reader may readily discover more examples.
The double superlative also obtains a place in our dialect. " Most
worst," or even " Most worstest," would excite no remark as an
unnecessary pleonasm. Shakespeare slips also into this practice: in Henry
IV., Part II, act iii., sc. 1 we find
" King. And in the calmest and most stillest night."
This redundancy gains countenance from the words " Most Highest,"
as applied to the Creator in the Prayer-book version of the Psalms.
The double comparative is also very common. Not only "more better,"
but "more betterer," is usual. Shakespeare has this phrase also in
The Tempest, act i., sc. 2: Prospero says
" Nor that I am more better Than Prospero."
" More braver " also is used in The Tempest, act i., sc. 2.
We constantly use the term " Worser;" and here again we gain
countenance from the same poet. In Hamlet, act iii., sc. 4, this passage
occurs
" Queen. Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
" Hamlet. Oh, throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with
the other half."
Dryden also supports us in this usage; in the Astrsea Eedux we read at the
3rd line
" And worser far Than arms, a sullen interval of war."
In addition to the plurals in En still retained in English language, which
are Oxen, Brethren, Children, and Chicken, we have in familiar use in our
district the
in the
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INT ROD UCTION. 1 5
words u Housen " for Houses, " Peasen " for Peas, and "
Wenchen " for Wenches, " Elmen " for Elm Trees, and "
Plazen " for Places. To these instances, we presume, we ought to add
" Themmen" for Those, "Thairn " for Theirs, " Ourn
" for Ours, " Yourn " for Yours, " Thism " for
These, together with "His'n," "Shiz'n," "
Weez'n," as masculine, feminine, and plural of "His,"
"Hers," and " Ours';" with which irregularity we will
close our notice of our grammatical varieties.
Some of the phrases in frequent use in dialogue on the Cotswolds, which will
appear unusual to a stranger, are as follows:
"A copy of your countenance," means, "you are deceiving,"
" It is not yourseK." Fielding, in his Life of Jonathan Wild, at
the end of chap. 14 of Book iii, uses this expression. " But this he
afterwards confessed at Tyburn was only ' a copy of his countenance.' "
" All manner/' is a phrase used in an evil sense to describe all manner
of annoyance; and is chiefly introduced to describe the carriage of any
person who intrudes himself and acts as rudely as he pleases; thus, " He
came and did all manner," would mean, "all manner of insolence or injury."
Though this idiomatic expression is occasionally used by persons of better
condition, we still do not remember to have seen it in use in any writings of
a light or comic nature.
" All's one for that," means, " notwithstanding your
objection, the case remains the same."
" Drap it, drap it!" that is, " Drop it." This is an
angry request that any course of annoying remarks or practices may cease; and
it may be safely concluded, when a genuine
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16 INTRODUCTION.
son of the Cotswolds uses this phrase, that his patience is just worn out.
" Gallows bad," " Gallows drunk," " a Gallows cheat
" always pronounced "Gallus" means, "bad enough for the gallows."
It is possible that this may be a term of great antiquity, and may draw its
frequent use from the gallows-tree of the feudal lord.
" Hand over head " is a metaphor taken from the conduct of a mob in
a battle or in aggressive confusion, and is used to express anything done in
haste, ill-order, and self-impeding perturbation. This phrase occurs in
Farquhar's comedy, where Pindress, the maid-servant, urging the Page to marry
her on the spot, exclaims, " No consideration! This business must be
done hand over head." Whereas, to do anything " with a high hand
" always implies that it was some attempt triumphantly carried through.
" I cannot away with," is an ancient phrase, constantly found in
the Bible, and still therefore in frequent use in this simple district,
meaning, "I cannot cast away the recollection of it," 1 cannot
endure it." It is used when speaking of some misfortune or bad conduct.
See Isaiah, L, 13.
" I'll tell you what," is as much as to say, " I will give you
an unanswerable argument;" sometimes it means, * I will give you my
fixed resolution." Shakespeare perpetually uses this phrase; as an
instance we may turn to Henry IV., Part I., act iii., sc. 1.
" Hotspur. I'll tell you what,
He held me, but last night, at least nine hours."
" It'll come right aater a bit," means, " the difficulty in any
business is passing away."
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INTRODUCTION. 17
" I can't be off it," means, " an irresistible impulse compels
me to it," " I must do it."
" Let alone," is a statement that some necessary characteristic in
any circumstance need not be taken into present calculation, as " A
broken leg is zitch a hindrance, let alone the anguish of un!"
" May be" is continually used for " Perhaps " it is the French
" Peut-6tre."
" Month's mind," means, a mind unsettled on any particular plan, a
weak resolution. It is a term derived from a custom observed in the obsequies
of remarkable persons previous to the Eeformation. At the end of the month after
the funeral there was a minor ceremony performed in recollection of the
deceased, and which was intended to keep him in mind. A less procession, a
less dole, and a less religious service took place; and, as these observances
were all weaker in effect, and were necessarily of a very evanescent
character, so any poor and wavering feeling came to be compared to " the
month's mind " after a stately funeral. Thomas Wyndesor, Esq., in his
will dated August 13, 1479, gives particular directions as to his funeral,
which were designed with a view to very considerable state and dignity, and
at the end of these is the following: " Item I will that there be one hundred
children, each within the age of sixteen years, at my month's mind, to say
our Lady's Psalter for my soul in the church of Stanwell, each of them having
iiiid. for his labour, and that before my month's mind the candles burnt before
the rood in the said church be renewed and made at my cost; Item I will that
at my month's mind my executors provide twenty priests, besides the clerks
that come to sing Placebo, Dirige, &c, &c." Testamenta Vetusta,
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18 INTRODUCTION.
p. 393, in which work this practice is often alluded to. Ii Machyn's Diary
this custom is also frequently noted; w< will extract from it the notice
of the deaths and month' mind of the two Dukes of Suffolk, who died whil children,
of the sweating-sickness. " The xxii day ot September (1551) was the
Monyth's Mind of the ii Dukke of Suffoke in Chambryge-shyre, with ii
Standards, ii baners- grett of Amies and large, and baners rolls of Dyver
Armes with ii Elmets, ii (swords), ii Targetts crowned, ii Cotes o Armes, ii
Crests, and ten dozen of Scochyons crowned; ant yt was grett pete of their
dethe, and yt had plesyd God of so nobull a stok they wher, for ther ys no
more of them left."
" Next of kin " does not mean relationship in blood, but any
similarity. " Fainting " would be " next of kin to death/' "
A Glove next of kin to the Hand;" " Fluid white- wash" would
be " next of kin to Milk;" it means also any near relationship in
place or authority; thus, a " Justice of the Peace " would be
" next of kin to a Judge," an " Arch-deacon" to "the
Bishop," a "Lord-Lieutenant" to "the Monarch."
" Overseen" and "overlooked" means "bewitched" led
astray by evil influence, as having suffered under the " Evil Eye"
of a witch or wizard. Thus, " I was quite overseen in that matter,"
means, " I had lost my reason by some evil agency."
" Play the bear," or " play the very Buggan witlj you is to
spoil, to harass; " Buggan " meaning Satan or any evil spirit
" Old Bogey."
" Poke the Fire," is always used instead of " Stir the Fire/ and
rightly, as having reference to the poker.
" Quite natural," means anything done easily, as a mattei
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INTRODUCTION. 19
of course, and is spoken of proceedings which are quite artificial thus a man
would be said to fly up in a balloon " quite natural."
" She is so/' means a female expects to become a mother; probably this
delicate phrase was originally accompanied with a position of the hands and
arms in front of the person speaking, indicative of a promising amplitude.
"To and again," to move backwards and forwards, to go to a certain
point and to return again, as on a terrace-walk in a garden. " To and
fro " being, in fact, the same idea.
"You are such another," is a phrase used in derogation. " You
are as bad as the preceeding." We find this phrase in Much Ado about
Nothing, act. iii. sc. 4. "Margaret Yet Benedict was such another, and
now he is become a man."
" You'll meet with it," is a threat that punishment will unavoidably
follow the course which is being pursued by the person addressed; the pronoun
" it" being the abbreviation for chastisement.
" You might as well have killed yourself," is used to describe an
accident which might have produced death, meaning " You have done enough
to have killed yourself."
" You are another guess sort of a man," means " You differ
from the example before us." Probably the word " Guess" in
this phrase was originally " Guise."
" Whatever" frequently ends a sentence prematurely, the words
" may happen," or " by any means," being struck off. It
is mostly used negatively, as " I would not do it, whatever."
" He would not help himself, whatever." This phrase, in spite of
the ludicrous effect which attends it, is sometimes heard in the better walks
of life in the Cotswolds.
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20 INTRODUCTION.
We hardly know whether we ought to notice slip-slop, or the mistaken use of
words introduced by the schoolmaster; we will, however, remark that the
phrase " It don't argufy," " edify," or "
magnify," stands, whichever verb is selected, for " it does not
signify." And when the honest rustic intends to be very emphatical and
dignified at the same time he will frequently use all three errors; and
having thus enriched his vocabulary with so many synonyms for "
signify," he casts away the right word as being utterly useless.
The habit, however, of substituting the word "Aunt" for "
Grandmother," which is very common in this district, deserves
consideration, because we find this use of the word twice in Shakespeare. In
Othello, act i. sc. 1, Iago alarms Brabantio with the intelligence of the
elopement of his daughter with the Moor, whom he styles a " Barbary horse,"
and adds " You'll have your nephews neigh to you," meaning
grandsons; so again in Richard III., act iv. sc. 1, we have the stage
direction "Enter Queen, Duchess of York, and Marquis of Dorset, at one
door; Anne Duchess of Gloucester, leading Lady Margaret Plantagenet,
Clarence's youngest daughter, at the other" The Duchess of York addresses
Lady Margaret with the words " Who meets us here? My Niece
Plantagenet," whereas she is her granddaughter. The grandmothers
sometimes seem to take offence if they are denominated by any more ancient
appellation than " Aunt" among their grandchildren.
The tone in which the Cotswold dialect is spoken is usually harsh, and the
utterance is rapid, so that the conversations between the natives, marked by
continual contractions, hasty delivery, and unusual words, is hardly understood
by a stranger.
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INTRODUCTION. 21
In presenting the reader with the Glossary which follows, we endeavour to
give the derivation of each word from its original root, whenever we think we
can suggest it with probability. In addition to this, where we can find the
use of any word now nearly or quite lost, we have offered the quotation.
These quotations we have, in most cases, verified; where we have not done
this, we have adopted them chiefly on the authority of the Encyclopedia
Londinensis.
These extracts from ancient writers, all, more or less, of authority, will
show that the old Gloucestershire words are not mere vulgarisms, but though
now seldom or never used, are as well, if not better founded than those in common
parlance; and it will be seen, in not a few instances, that the English
language has lost rather than gained by adopting Latinisms in their stead.
We wish farther to remark that some of the words found in the following
Glossary are not, strictly speaking, dialectical, but only still in continual
use in this district, while they are dying rapidly in other places. As an
instance, the word " Wag" appears in the Glossary. Now this word,
in spite of the Scriptural use of it, as in the phrase " Wagging their
heads," and in other passages, is almost limited to the motion of a
dog's tail, while on the Cotswolds its general application is still
preserved. A person who was standing in obstruction of any necessary work,
would be addressed by the phrase " Why-'s 'nt Wag?" "why do
you not move?" Such words are inserted to prolong the memory of terms,
in themselves original and powerful, but which appear to be endangered by the
use of words, more new but weaker, and drawn from a less efficient
vocabulary.
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NOTE.
Nothing will need an apology which may tend to throw a light on any part of
the life of Shakespeare. We will therefore without further preface, offer the
following matter, kindly supplied to us by a friend residing at Dursley. We
may take it for granted that the tradition which states how the young poet
fled before the enraged face of Sir Thomas Lucy, on account of some illegal
intrusion in the knight's park in Warwickshire, is based on some fact. It is surmised
that he sought shelter in Dursley, a small town seated .on the edge of a wild
woodland tract. Some passages in his writings show an intimate acquaintance
with Dursley, aud the names of its inhabitants. In the Second Part of Henry
IV., act v. sc. 1, * Gloucestershire," Davy says to Justice Shallow
"I beseech you, Sir, to countenance William Visor of Woncot, against
Clement Perkes of the Hill.'' This Woncot, as Mr. Stevens, the commentator,
supposes, in a note to another passage in the same play (act v., sc. 3) is
Woodmancot, still pronounced by the common people "Womcot," a
township in the parish of Dursley. It is also to be observed that in
Shakespeare's time a family named Visor, the ancestors of the present family
of Vizard, of Dursley, resided and held property in Woodmancot. This township
lies at the foot of Stinchcombe Hill, still emphatically called " The
Hill " in that neighbourhood on account of the magnificent view which it
commands. On this hill is the site of a house wherein a family named "
Purchase," or " Perkis," once lived, which seems to be identical
with " Clement Perkes of the Hill." In addition to these coincidences,
we must mention the fact that a family named Shakespeare formerly resided in
Dursley, as appears by an ancient ratebook, which family still exist, as
small freeholders, in the adjoining parish of Bagpath, and claim kindred with
the poet. A physician, Dr. Barnett, lately residing in London, and who died
at an advanced age, was in youth apprenticed at Dursley, and had a vivid
remembrance of the tradition that Shakespeare once dwelt there; he affirmed, that
losing his way in a ramble in the extensive woods which adjoin the town, he
asked a person whom he met where he had been, and was told that the name of
the spot which particularly attracted his attention was called "
Shakespeare's walk." In the play " King Richard 11.^ act ii. sc.
3," a description of Berkeley Castle is given, which is so
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INTRODUCTION. 23
exact that it is hardly possible to read it without considering it as if seen
from Stinchcombe Hill. The scene is "A Wild Prospect in Gloucestershire.
" Bolingbroke and Northumberland enter; Bolingbroke opens the dialogue:
" How far is it, my lord, to Berkeley, now? North. I am a stranger here
in Gloucestershire; These high wild hills and rough uneven ways Draw out our
miles, and make them wearisome." " But, I bethink me, what a weary
way From Ravenspurg to Cots wold will be found In Ross and Willoughby wanting
your company," &c. Enter to them Harry' Percy, whom Northumberland
addresses: " How far is it to Berkeley? And what stir Keeps good old York
there, with his men of war? Hotspur. There stands the castle by yon tuft of
trees." Now this is the exact picture of the castle as seen from "
The Hill;" the castle having been, from time immemorial, shut in on one
side, as viewed therefrom, by an ancient cluster of thick lofty trees.
Lastly, we would add that down to the reign of Queen Anne the Cotswold range was
an open tract of turf and sheep-walk, which extended up into Warwickshire,
and was famous as a sporting-ground, particularly for coursing the hare with
greyhounds, throughout the whole extent. It was consequently well-known by
the gentry of both counties; and this is evidenced by their pedigrees,
wherein intermarriages between the houses of each county are frequently
found. The portion of Shakespeare's life which has always been involved in
obscurity is the interval between his removal from Warwickshire and his
arrival in London; and this period, we think, was probably spent in a retreat
among his kindred at Dursley, in Gloucestershire
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GLOSSARY.
A-ATER. After, in point of time; also, according to, in
point of manner: " Aater this fashion." ABIDE. To endure, to
suffer: Abidian, Saxon.
"The nations shall not be able to abide his indignation." Jer. x.,
10. "The day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it."
Joel ii., 11.
Used in the same sense by Robert of Gloucester and Peter Langtoft.
ADRY. Thirsty: Adrigan, Saxon. AFEARED. Frightened: Afa3ran, Saxon.
" Whether he ben a lewde" or lered, He n'ot how sone that he may
ben affered."
Chaucer, Doctor's Tale, 1. 1221. See also Spenser's Fairy Queen.
AFORE, ATVORE. Before: Atforan, Saxon.
AGEK Opposite to, over against. This word is also used to designate any given
time for the occurrence of an event, or the performance of a promise: Agen,
contra, Saxon.
" I'll be ready agen Zhip-Zhearin," or " Luk for't agen
Mi-elmas." Even agen France stonds the contre of Chichestre,
Norwiche agen Denemarke," &c, &c. Robert of Gloucester. Hearne's
Edition, 1714, Vol. I., p. 6.
ANEAL. To mollify, to shape by softening.
u Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand Of life, of crown, of queen, at
once dispatched; Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhouseled,
disappointed, unanealed."
Shakespeare's Hamlet, act i. sc. 4.
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G GLOSSARY.
See also the receipt for "Anealing your Glass" when "you would
paint there." Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, Vol. II., lib. I., p. 96.
ANEAWST, ANNEARST, ANIGSHT. Near; also, metaphorically, resembling: Near,
Saxon.
" Host. Will you go an-heirs? Shallow. Have with you, mine host."
Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor, act ii. sc. i.
ANTJNST. Over against, opposite to: Nean, Saxon.
ARTISHREW. The shrew-mouse, an animal used in magical charms: "
Shrew," and " arte " to compel, Sir Walter Scott writes,
Scottice, " Airt."
" A tiraunt would have artid him by paynes." Bootius, MS. Soc.
Antiq. 134, f. 296.
ATHEKT. Athwart, across: Thwur, Saxon.
" All athwart there came A post from Wales, laden with heavy news."
Shakespeare, King Hen. IV.
ATTERMATH. Grass after mowing: After" and " Math," from
Mathan, Saxon, to mow.
AWAY WITH. To bear with, to suffer, to endure.
" Shallow. She never could away with me Falstaff. Never never; she would
always say, she could not abide Master Shallow." Shakespeare, Henry IV.,
Part II.. act iii. sc. 2.
" The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with."
Isaiah i. 13.
" Moria. Of all the nymphs i' the court, I cannot away with her; 'tis
the coarsest thing!" Ben Jonson, Cynth. Revels, act iv. sc. 5.
AXE. To ask: Axian, Saxon.
" Axe" not why; for though thou ax 4 me, I woll not tellen Godde's
privetee." Chaucer's Miller's Tale, 1. 3557. " What is this to
mene, man, maiste thee axe." Deposition of Ric. ii.
AX EN. Ashes; also in the sense, cineres: Axan, Saxon.
" Yn'ot whareof men beth so prute, Of erthe and axen, felle and bone, Be
the soule's enis ute, A viler carsang n'is there none." Song temp. Edw.
I.
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GLOSSARY. 27
B.
BACK-SIDE. The backfront of a house.
" He led the flock to the backside of the desert." Exodus iii. 1.
BAD. To beat husks, or skins of walnuts, or other fruits:
Battre, French. BAG. The udder of a cow; also a sack.
BALD-EIB. The piece otherwise called the " spare-rib," because
moderately furnished with meat.
BANDOEE. Violoncello or bassoon: Pandura, a similar Italian instrument.
BANGE. A gamekeeper's word, to express the basking and dusting themselves by
feathered game.
Bang-a-bonk to lie lazily on a bank. Halliwell's Dictionary.
BAN-NUT. The walnut: Baund, swelling, DarasA; Thnut, Saxon.
BABKEN, BARTON. The homestead: Bairton, Goth, to guard.
" I were never af eared but once, and that ware of grandfar's ghost, for
he always hated I, and a used to walk, poor zoul, in our barken." Mrs.
Centlivre, Chapter of Accidents, act ii. sc. 1.
BAEM. Yeast: Beorm, Saxon.
"And sometimes make the drink to bear no barm." Shakespeare, Midsum.
Night's Dream, act ii. sc. 1.
BAEEOW-PIG. The hog, a gelt Pig: Barren?
BASS OR BAST. Matting used in gardens.
BASTE. To beat: Bastre, old French.
BAT-FOWLING or BAT-BIEDING. Taking birds by night in hand-nets.
" Sebastian. We would so, and then go bat-fowling." Shakespeare, Tempest,
act ii. sc. 1.
BAULK. A bank or ridge: Bale, Saxon.
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28 GLOSSARY.
" And as the plowman, when the land he tills, Throws up the fruitful
earth in rigged hills, Between whose chevron form he leaves a balke, So
'twixt these hills hath nature framed this walke,'
Browne, Brit. Pastorals, i. 4.
BEASTS. Horned cattle. BEHOLDEN. Indebted to. BELLY. A verb. To swell out. BELLUCK.
Bellow: Bellan, Saxon.
"As loud as belleth winde in hell." Chaucer, House of Fame, i 713.
BENNET, BENT. Dry, standing grass: Biendge, Teuton
" The dryvers thorowe the woode*s went For to rees the deer, Bowmen
bickered upon the bent With their browde arrowes clear. " Chevy Chase.
BESOM. A word of reproach, applied solely to the fair sex; as, " Thee
auld besom:" Perhaps derived from the besom on which a witch rides; but
very likely the same word with "bison," which, in the northern
dialects, means a shame or disgrace; a woman doing penance was called a
" holy bison." See Brockett's Glossary.
BETEEM. To indulge with: Toeman, Saxo7i.
" So would I, said the Enchanter, glad and fain
Beteem to you his sword." Spenser. " Belike for want of rain, which
I could well Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes."
Shakespeare, Midsum. Night's Dream, act i. sc. 1. " That he might not
beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly." Shakespeare,
Hamlet, act i. sc. 2.
BIDE. To stay, to dwell: Bidon, Saxon.
" Pisano. If not at court,
Then not in Britain must you bide."
Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act iii. sc. 2. " All knees to Thee shall bow of
them that bide In heaven, or earth, or under earth in hell." Milton.
BIN. Because: contracted from " It being."
" Leon. Being that I flow in grief,
The smallest twine may lead me." Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing,
act iv. sc. i.
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GLOSSARY. 29
" La-poope. And being you have declined his means, you have increased
his malice." Beaumont and Fletcher, Honest Man's Fortune, act ii.
BITTLE. Beetle, a heavy mallet used to ram down pavements, &c.: Bitl,
Saxon.
" Fatstaff.li I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle."
Shakespeare, Henry IV., Part II., act i. sc. 2.
BLATHEB. To talk indistinctly, so fast as to form bladders at the mouth.
BLIND-WOBM. A small snake, the slow-worm.
" Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting." Shakespeare, Macbeth, act iv.
sc. 1.
BLO WTHE. Blossom in orchards, bean fields; cinquefoin, &c.: Blawd,
Welsh.
" Ambition and covetousness being but green and newly grown up, the
seeds and effects were as yet but potential, and in the blowth and bud.
"--Sir Walter Raleigh.
BODY, An individual; often spoken of oneself, " A body can," or
" A body can't."
" Good may be drawn out of evil, and a body's life may be saved without
any obligation to the preserver." Sir Roger L'Estrange.;
BOOT. Help, defence: Bot, Saxon.
"Then list to me, St. Andrew be my boot. Pinner of Wakefield, iii. 19.
See also Old Ballads, and Shakespeare, passim.
BOTTOM. A valley.
" Dunster Toun stondithin a bottom " Leland's Itinerary. "
Hot. It shall not wind with such a deep indent, To rob me of so rich a bottom
here."
Shakespeare, Henry IV., Part I., act iii. sc. 1. u Pursued down into a little
meadow which lay in a bottom." Autobiography of King James II., Vol. I.,
p. 213.
" On both the shores of that beautiful bottom." Addison, Remarks on
Italy, 5th Ed., p. 152.
BBAKE. A small coppice: Brwg, Welsh.
" Escalus. Some run through brakes of vice."
Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, act ii. sc. 1. " 'Tis but the fate of
place, and the rough brake That virtue must go through."
Id., Henry VIII., act i. sc. 2.
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30 GLOSSARY.
BRASH. Light, stony soil: Trash?
BRAVE. Healthy, strong in appearance.
11 A brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her, Dashed all to pieces."
Shakespeare, Tempest, act i. sc. 2.
BEAY. Hay spread abroad to dry in long parallels: Breed, Saxon.
BEEEDS. The brim of a hat: Breed. Sax, as laid out flat.
BEIM, BEEM. Spoken of a sow, as also of a harlot: Bremen, Ardere desiderio,
Teut.
Peter Langtoft uses this word in the sense "furious."
BRIT. Spoken of the shedding of over-ripe corn from the ear. Chaucer's word
" bretful " is probably " full to bretting." It seems the
root of "brittle."
" His wallet lay before him in his lappe
Bret-ful of pardon, come from Rome al hote."
Chaucer, Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 1. 689. *' A mantelet upon his
shoulders hanging Bret-ful of rubies red, as fire sparkling."
Id., The Knighte's Tales, 1. 2166. " They blew a mort upon the bent, They
'sembled on Sydis sheer, To the quarry the Percy went,
To see tbe brittling of the deer." Chevy Chase. " With a face so
fat As a full bladere Blowen bret-ful of breth."
Creed of Piers Plowman, 1. 443.
BEIZZ, BEEEZE. The gad-fly: Briosa, Saxon.
" The herd hath more annoyance from the breeze, Than from the
tyger."
Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, act i. sc. 3.
BEOOK. To endure, to bend to opposition or evil: Brucan, Saxon.
" Heaven, the seat of bliss,
Brooks not the works of violence or war." Milton.
BEOW. The abrupt ridge of a hill: Brcew, Saxon.
" And to the brow of heaven
Pursuing, drave them out from God and bliss." Milton.
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GLOSSARY. 31
"And after he had upon the brow of the hill raised breastworks of faggots."
Lord Clarendon, describing the battle of Lansdown.
BROW. Adjective. Brittle, liable to snap off suddenly: Brau, Welsh.
BUCKING. The foul linen of a household collected for washing: Buc, Saxon;
Lagena?
"Throw foul linen upon him, as if it were going to bucking."
Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii. sc. 3.
BUDGE. To move a very short distance: Bugan, Saxon; Buj, Sanscrit.
BUFF. To stammer: derived from the sound.
BULL-STAG. A bull castrated when old.
BURNE, BURDE. Spoken of as much hay or straw as a man can carry: Bwrn, Welsh,
a truss.
BURR. Pancreas of a calf, the sweet-bread: Bourre, French.
BURROW. Any shelter, especially from weather: Burh, Saxon.
BUTT Y. A comrade in labour: Bot, Saxon.
C.
C ADDLE. To busy with trifles; to confuse; to vex: Caddler is, we believe,
Old French, with the same sense.
CADDLEMENT. A trifling occupation; confusion; vexation.
GANDER. Yonder: Geonda, Saxon.
CANDER-LUCKS. Look yonder.
CANDLE-MASS BELLS. The snowdrop.
CANDLE-TINNING. Candle-lighting; evening: Tinan, Saxon, and candle.
" Love is to myne harte gone, with one spere so kene,
Night and day my blood it drynks, mine herte doth me tene."
MS. Harl. Miscell.
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32 GLOSSARY.
" The priests with holy hands were seen to tine
The cloven wood, and pour the ruddy wine." Dryden. " Spiteful Atin,
in their stubborn mind, Coals of contention and hot vengeance tined."
Spenser's Fairy Queen. "Kindle the Christmas brand, and then To sunset
let it burne; Which quencht, then lay it up agen Till Christmas next
returne." "Part must be kept wherewith to teend The Christmas log
next yeare; And where 'tis safely kept, the fiend Can do no mischief
there." Herrick.
CANT. To toss lightly, to cast anything a small distance.
CAEK. Care: Care, Welsh.
CESS. A word used in calling dogs to their food. Probably in monastic halls
the portions assigned to the brotherhood were originally called cessions, and
the word was jocosely transferred afterwards to the knight's kennel: Cessio,
Latin.
" The poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess." Here the
word means " out of all measure." Shakespeare, Hen. IV., Part L,
act ii. sc. 1.
CHAM. To chew: Cham, Sanscrit (?) to eat.
CHAK, or CHIR. A job; hence charwoman: either Jour, French, as hired by the
day, or Cyrre, Saxon, labour.
" And when thou'st done this chare, I'll give thee leave To play till
Doomsday."
Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra, act v. sc. 2.
CHARM. A noise; a clamour: Cyrm, Saxon.
CHATS. The chips of wood when a tree is felled.
CHAUDRON. Entrails of a calf; metaphorically, any forced meats or stuffing put
in the crops of birds sent to table: Caul, Welsh (?)
"Add thereto a tyger's chawdron." Shakespeare: Macbeth, act i v. sc.
1.
" Swan with chaudron." Relation of the Island of England by an Italian,
a.d. 1500, note 79.
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GLOSSARY. 33
CHAW. To chew. It may be merely the Cotswold pronunciation of chew: Chaw was
formerly written for jaw.
"I will put hookes in thy chawes." Ezekiel xxix. 4, and again xxxviii.
4, Breeches Bible.
CHAWK To gape. Spoken of apples chipped in the rind, viz., the chawn-pippin;
also the earth opening in dry weather: x avV0) > Greek Probably of Indo-
Germanic origin, and a word in use both by the Greeks and the Teutonic tribes.
u thou all-bearing earth, Which men do gape for, till thou cramm'st their
mouths, And choak'st their throats with dust; chaune thy breast, And let me
sink into thee."
Ant. and Mell. Anc. Dr. II. 144. See Nares's Glossary.
CHILVER A ewe-lamb: Cilfer, Saxon.
CHISSOM. To bud forth. Especially applied to the first
shoots in newly cut coppice. CHOCK-FULL. Full to choking.
CHUKK. The udder of a cow: Cirt, Saxon, benignitas, largitas, metaphorically
used (?)
CLAMMY. Adhesive, sticky: This may be a metaphor drawn from the Shropshire
word " Clem," to starve; because the skin then adheres closely to
the attenuated frame.
CLAVEY. Mantle-piece; chimney-piece: Cladde, Welsh.
CLAY- E AG. A composite stone, found in clay-pits.
CLEATS. A small wedge, commonly of wood.
CLEAVE. To cling to; also to burst hard bodies asunder by wedges: Clifian,
Saxon.
"The clods cleave fast together. "Job, xxxviii. 38. " The men
of Judah clave unto their king." II. Samuel, xx. 2. " The thin
camelion, fed with air, receives The colour of the thing to which he
cleaves." Dry den. * * Like our strange garments, cleave not to their
mould, But with the aid of use." Shakespeare.
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34 GLOSSARY.
" The priests with holy hands were seen to tine The cloven wood."
Dry den.
OLITES. A plant, cleavers; Galium Aparine: Clate Saxon.
"A clote-lefe he had laid under his hode."
Chaucer. Chanon's Yeman's Prologue.
CLOUT. A heavy blow; Clud, Saxon; metaphorically derived from the clouded and
swelled appearance caused by a heavy blow.
CLYP. To embrace: Clippan, Saxon.
"That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about, Would bear thee from the
knowledge of thyself."
Shakespeare, King John, act v. sc. "2.
COLLY. Subst., Dirt, also the blackbird; Adject., black, dark; Verb, to
defile: Coal (?) In Spanish Hollin is soot.
" Brief as the lightning in the collied night." Shakespeare,
Midsum. Night's Dream, act i. sc. 1.
" Nor hast thou collied thy face enough, Stinkard!" Ben Jonson, Poetaster,
activ. sc. 5.
COLT. A landslip.
COMB. A valley with only one inlet: Comb, Saxon.
CONCEIT. To think, to believe; Subst, A strong mental impression: Concipio,
Latin.
" The strong, by conceiting themselves weak," &c. Dr. South. "
One of two bad ways you must conceit me, Either a coward or a
flatterer." Shakespeare. "A blunt country gentleman, who
understanding but little of the world, conceited the earth to be fastened to
the North and South poles by great and massy cakes of ice."
Hagiastrologia, J. Butler, b.d. 1680, p. 45.
" The same year Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Chancellor, died of conceit,
fearing to be displaced." Diary of Walter Yonge, Esq., 1619, p. 33.
COO-TEE. The wood pigeon's note.
COUNT. To consider; to suppose: Compter, French.
" Count not thy hand-maid for a daughter of Belial. " I. Samuel, i.
16.
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GLOSSARY. 35
" Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy The public marks of honours and
rewards." Milton.
COUKT-HOUSE. The manor-place, so called because the lord held his manor-court
there.
CEANK. A dead branch of a tree: Krank, Dutch, sick, weakly.
CEAZY. A plant the Ranunculus Acris.
CEINCH. A morsel: Crunch, Sanscrit, to lessen, to diminish.
CEO WISHED. A pollard is said by the woodwards to be crowned, when the rind
has healed over the wound.
CUCKOLD. The seed-pod of the Burdock; as being shaped like the human head,
and covered on all sides by little horns (?)
CULL. A small fish, the miller's thumb: Callan, Sanscrit, a small fish.
D.
DAAK. To dig up weeds: Daque, French.
D ADDLES. Said, playfully, of the hands: Tatze, German.
DADDOCKY. Said of decayed timber: Quasi, dead oak (?)
DAP. To sink and rebound: Doppetan, Saxon.
DAP-CHICK. A bird, the little grebe, one of the divers.
DAY-WOMAN. Dairy-maid: Deggia, Icelandic, to give suck.
"For this damsel, I must keep her at the park; she is allowed for the day
-woman." Shakespeare, Love's Labour Lost, acti. sc. 2.
DEADLY. A word meaning intenseness in a bad sense,
as "deadly lame," "deadly sore," "deadly
stupid," &c. DENT. An indentation: Dens, Latin, a tooth. DESIGHT. A
blemish.
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36 GLOSSARY.
DESPEKD. Beyond measure, extremely: used in an evil sense: Desperate.
DISANNUL. To annul; a reduplication of the sense: Nullus, Latin.
" The Lord of Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?" Isaiah,
xiv. 27.
" Wilt thou also disannul my judgment!" Job, xl. 8. "For there
is verily a disannulling of the commandment." Hebrews, vii. 18, and in
other places in the Bible.
" Pope Pius the Fourth reflecting on the capricious and high answer his
mad predecessor had made to her address, sent one Parpalia to her, in the
second year of her reign, to invite her to join herself to that See, and he
would disannul the sentence against her mother's marriage." Bp. Burnet,
Hist, of the Reformation, Part II. bk. hi. p. 417, fol. ed. 1681. 11 Then I
might easily disannul the marriage. Scapin. Disannul the marriage!"
Otway, Cheats of Scapin, act i. sc. 1.
DISMAL. Any evil in excess " He do cough dismal!" DOFF. To take off
clothing: Do-off (?)
" He that unbuckles this, till we do please To doff't for our repose,
shall bear a storm."
Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra, act iv. sc. 4.
DOLLOP. A lump; a mass of anything.
" Of barley, the finest and greenest ye find, Leave standing in dallops,
till time ye do bind."
Tusser's Husbandry, August 17.
DON. To clothe; to put on: Do-on?
" Menas, I did not think This am'rous surfeitor would have donn'd his
helm."
Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleop. act ii. sc. 1. " Then up he rose and
donned his clothes." Hamlet, act iv. sc. 5. "Some donned a cuirass,
some a corselet bright." Fairfax, Tasso, i. 72.
DOKMOUSE. Applied to the bat, because he sleeps in winter: dormio, Latin.
DOUT. To extinguish a light; to put out a candle: Do out (?)
" First, in the intellect it douts the light." Sylvester, Tobacco
battered,^ 106.
DOWLE. Down on a feather; the first appearance of hair: Probably, Down,
corruptly used.
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GLOSSARY. 37
" May as well Wound the loud winds, or with be-mockt-at stabs Kill the
still-closing waters, as diminish One dowle that's in my plume. "
Shakespeare, Tempest, act iii. sc. 3.
DRAVE, the same word as Thrave. A truss of straw; and by metaphor, a flock of
animals, a crowd: Thraf, Saxon.
" They come in thraves to frolic with him." Ben Jonson.
DRINK. Used as a term for beer; and limited to that beverage.
" And sometimes make the drink to bear no barm." Shakespeare, Midsummer
Night's Dream, act iii. sc. 3.
DROXY. Spoken of decayed wood: Drogenlic, Saxon. DRUJSTGE. To embarrass, or
perplex by numbers:
Throng (?) mispronounced. DTHONG. Painful pulsation: Stang (?) Icelandic,
same
sense.
DUDDLE. To stun with noise: Dyderian, Saxon.
DUDGEON. Ill-temper; also the dagger, as the result thereof.
" When civil dudgeon first grew high, And men fell out, they knew not
why." Hudibras.
DULKIN, DELKIN. A small, but dark descent; a ravine; Dell, or dale, with kin
as a diminutive.
DUMMLE. Dull, slow, stupid: Dom, Dutch.
DUNCH, DUNNY. Deaf; also imperfection in any of the faculties.
" What with the zmoke, and what with the criez, I was a'most blind, and
dunch in my eyez."
MS. Ashmole, 36, f. 112. See Halliwell's Diet.
DUP. To exalt; do up (?) Possibly a metaphor from the portcullis.
DURGAN. A name found for a stocky, undersized horse, in all large teams:
Dwerg, Saxon, a dwarf.
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38 GLOSSARY.
DWA-AL. To ramble in mind: Dwa-elen, Teuton. DWAM. To faint away.
DYNT. The impression made by a heavy blow: Dynt Saxon.
E.
EIEY. Spoken of a tall, clean-grown timber sapling Possibly, as tall enough
to be chosen by the hawk fo her eiry (?)
ELVER A small eel: El, Saxon.
ENTENNY. The main doorway of a house: Always so mispronounced.
ETTLES. Nettles: A common mispronunciation.
EYAS. A young hawk: A falconer's term, not yet lost, derived from Eye; (as
next below.) See " Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.
EYE. A brood of pheasants: Ey, an egg, German.
" Sometimes an ey or t way. "Chaucer, The Nonnes Priest's Tale, 1.
38.
"Unslacked lime, chalk, and gliere of an ey." Id. The Chanones Yeman's
Tale, 1. 252.
" The eyren that the hue laid. "Deposition of King Richard II.
FAGGOT. A word applied in derogation to an old woman, as deserving a faggot
for witchcraft or heresy.
FALL of the year. Autumn: Falewe, Saxon; to grow yellow: the colour fallow.
FEND. To forbid; to defend: Defendre, French.
FILLS see also TILLS, THILLS, TILLEK-HOKSE. The
shafts of a cart: Thill, Saxon.
"If you draw backwards we'll put you in the fills. "Shakespeare, Troil.
and Ores., act iii. sc. 2.
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GLOSSARY. 39
FILTHY, VILTRY. Filth of any kind; weeds in cultivated land.
FLAKES, FLE-AK. A wattled hurdle.
FLAT. A common term for a low, concave surface in a field.
FLICK. Verb. To tear off the skin or felt by the smack of a whip, or the
hasty snap of a greyhound when he fails to secure the hare; Subst., the fat
between the bowels of a slaughtered animaL
"I'll lend un a vlick." Fielding's History of a Foundling, Squire Western
passim.
FLOWSE, FLOWSING. Flowing, flaunting: Fliessen, German.
" They flirt, they yerk, they backward fluce, they fling, As if the
devil in their heels had been." Drayton.
-FLUMP. Applied to a heavy fall " he came down with
a flump:" Plump (?) FLUSH, or FLESHY. Spoken of young birds fledged. FORE-RIGHT.
Opposite to: Foran, Saxon. FOR- WHY. Because; on account of: For-hwe, Saxon.
"For why? The Lord our God is good." 100th Psalm, Old Version. "For
why? He remembered His holy promise." Psalm cv. 42, Prayer-book Version.
FRITH. Young white thorn, used for sets in hedges: Ffrith, wood, Welsh.
" To lead the goodly routs about the rural lawns, As over holt and
heath, as thorough frith and fell. "
Drayton. " He hath both hallys and bowrys, Frithes, fayr forests, and
flowrys."
Romance of Emare*. " When they sing loud in frith or in forest."
Chaucer.
FRORE, FROR. Frozen: Frieren, German.
" The parching air Barns frore, and cold performs the part of
fire." Milton. " And some from far-off regions frore." Bishop
Mant, British Months, January, 708.
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40 GLOSSARY.
FROM-WARD, FROM-MARD. Opposite to Toward.
ERUM, FROOM, FRIM, FREM. Full, abundant, flourishing: From, Saxon.
"Through the frira pastures at his leisures." Drayton.
G.
GAITLE. To wander idly: Ge-gada, Saxon. GAITLING, GADLING. An idler; a
loiterer.
" When God was on earth and wandered wide, What was the reason why he
would not ride? Because he would have no groom to go by his side, Nor
discontented gadling to chatter and chide. "
Old Song, Wright's House of Hanover.
GALLOW. To alarm; to frighten: Agselan, Saxon.
" The wrathful skies Gallow the weary wanderers of the night."
Shakespeare, King Lear, act iii. sc. 2.
GALLOWED, or GALLARD. Frightened.
GALORE. An exclamation signifying abundance: Gulori, Gaelic.
Frequent in ballads. See Sibbald's, Bitson's, and Percy's Collections.
GAMUT. Sport: Gamen, Saxon; Gaman, Icelandic.
"And that never on Eldridge come To sport, gamon, or playe."
Percy's Reliques, Sir Cauline. 112. "All wite ye good men, hu the gamon
goth." Political Song, Wright, p. 331, 1. 180.
"There was a gamon in Engelond that dured zer and other, Erliche upon
the Munday uch man bishrewed others; So long lasted that gamon among lered
and lewed, That n'old they never stinten, or al the world were
bishrewed."
p. 340, 1. 367.
GAULY, GAUL, GALL. Sour marsh-land, metaphor taken from " gall," a
wound; which sense is also in common use: Gealla, Saxon.
GAYN", and its contradictory, UN-GAYN. Happily advantageous; lucky.
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GLOSSARY. 41
GEAR Harness; apparel: Gearwa, Saxon.
" The frauds he learned in his frantic years, Made him uneasy in his
lawful gears." Dryden.
GICK, GE-AK, KECK, KEXIES. Dry stalks, more especially of the tall,
umbelliferous plants; Geac, Saxon.
" And nothing teems But hateful docks, rough thistles, kexies,
burs."
Shakespeare, Henry V., act v. sc. 2. " If I had never seen, or never
tasted The goodness of this kix, I had been a made man."
Beaumont and Fletcher, Coxcomb, act i. sc. 2. "With wyspes, and kexies,
and rysches ther light To fetch horn their husbandes, that wer them trouth-
plight."
Bitson, Antient Songs, Tournament of Tottenham, p. 93.
GIMMALS. Hinges: Gemelli, twins, Latin.
GLOWR. To stare moodily, or with an angry aspect; Gluren, Teuton.
GLOUT. To look surly or sulky: Gloa, Suio-Gothic.
" Glouting with sullen spight, the fury shook Her clotted locks."
Garth.
GLUM, GLUMP. Gloomy; displeased: Glum, Teuton.
" Whiche whilom will on folke* smile, And glombe on hem an othir while.
"
Chaucer, Bomaunt of the Bose, 1. 4356.
GODE. Past tense of To go, often softened into yode.
" As I yod on a Monday Bytweene Wiltinden and Walle."
Bitson, Ballad on the Scottish War, 1. 1. " In other pace than forth he
yode Beturned Lord Marmion."
Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, canto iii. xxxi.
GRIP. A drain: Grsep, Saxon.
GRIT. Sandy, stony land: Gritta, Saxon.
" Pierce the obstructive grit and restive mail." Phillips.
GROANING. Parturition: metaphorically used.
" You may as safely tell a story over a groaning- cheese, as to him."
Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, act ii.
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42 GLOSSARY.
GEOUNDS. Commonly used for fields, and those usually grass-lands.
GROUTS, GEITS. Oatmeal; also dregs: Grut, Saxon.
" King Hardicnute, 'midst Danes and Saxons stout, Caroused on nut-brown
ale, and dined on grout." King. "Sweet boney some condense, some
purge the grout." Dryden.
GULCH. A fat glutton: Gulo, Latin.
"You'll see us then, you will, gulch." Ben Jonson, Poetaster, act
iii. sc. 4.
"Thou muddy gulch, darest look me in the face?" Brewer.
GULLY. A deep, narrow ravine, usually with a rill therein: Gill, North
country dialect.
GUMPTION. Spirit; sense; quick observation: Gaum, Icelandic.
" Within two yer therafter some to Morgan come, And, for he of the elder
soster was, bed himnyme gome."
Robert of Gloucester, p. 38, Hearne's Ed. "An eh, troth, Meary, I's as
gaumless as a goose." Tim Bobbin, p. 52.
GUEGINS. The coarser meal of wheat: quasi Purgings (?)
HACKLE. A gamekeeper's word; To interlace the hind-legs of game for
convenience of carriage, by houghing the one and slitting the film of the
other limb.
HAINE. To shut up a meadow for hay: Haye, a hedge, French.
HALE, pronounced " Haul." To draw with violence, or with a team:
Haa-len, Dutch.
" Lest he hale thee to the judge." St. Luke, xii. 58.
HAMES, plural HAMES-ES. The wooden supports to a horse-collar in teams; made
of metal in coach-harness.
HANDY. Near; convenient; when applied to an individual, clever: Gehend,
Saxon.
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LOSSARY. 43
HANK. A skein of any kind of thread.
HARBOUR. To abide; to frequent: Herebeorgan, Saxon.
" This night let's harbour here in York." Shakespeare. '* Let not
your gentle breast Harbour one thought of oiitrage from the king." Rowe.
HARSLET. The main entrails of a hog: Hasla, Icelandic a bundle.
"There was not a hog killed in the three parishes, whereof he had no^ part
of the harslet, or puddings." Ozell's Rabelais, iii. 41. See Nares'fc Glossary.
HATCH. A door which only half fills the doorway. HAULM. Dead stalks: Healm,
Saxon,
" In champion countries a pleasure they take
To mow up their haum, for to brew or to bake." " The haum is the
straw of the wheat or the rie."
Tusser's Husbandry, January 14, 15.
HAUNCHED. To be gored by the horns of cattle: from Haunch, where the wound
would usually be inflicted.
HAY-SUCK. Hedge-sparrow: Hege-sugge, Saxon.
"Thou murdrir of the heisugge on the braunche That brought thee
forth."
Chaucer, Assemblie of Fowles, 1. 612.
HAYWARD. An officer appointed at the court leet, to see that cattle do not
break the hedges of enclosed lands, and to impound them when trespassing.
Hegge, Saxon.
" The Hayward heteth us harm." Political Songs, temp. Edward I., p.
149. Wright.
HAZEK To chide; to check a dog by the voice: Haesa, Saxon, mandatum.
" Haze, perterrifacio." Ainsworth's Dictionary.
HEATHER. The top-binding of a hedge: Heder, Saxon.
" In lopping and felling save edder and stake, Thine hedges, as needeth,
to mend, or to make."
Tusser's Husbandry, January 13.
HEEL of the hand. The part above the wrist, opposite
the thumb. HEFT. Subst, Weight, burden; Verb, To weigh: Hceftan,
Saxon.
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44 GLOSSARY.
HELE. To cover: Helan, Saxon.
" Parde\ we women connen nothing hele, Witness on Midas."
Chaucer, Wife of Bathes Tale, 1. 94.
HELIAR A thatcher.
HIC-WALL The green woodpecker: Name derived from his cry.
11 The crow is digging at his breast amain, The sharp-nebbed hecco stabbing
at his brain." Drayton. "And this same herb your hickways, alias
woodpeckers, use."- Ozell's Kabelais, iv. 62.
HIGHST. To uplift; to hoist.
HILLAED, HILLWAED. Towards the hill or high country.
HILT, see Yelt.
HINGE. The liver, lungs, and heart of a sheep, hanging to the head by the
windpipe: Hangan, Saxon.
HIVE. To cherish; to cover as a hen her chickens: Hife, Saxon.
" And sesith on her sete, with her softe plumes, And hoveth the
eyren." Deposition of King Rich. II.
HOG. A sheep of either sex, one year old: Owca, a sheep, Polish (?) Og,
young; Gaelic (?)
HOLT. A high wood: Holt, Saxon.
u The fawkon and the fessaunt both Among the holtes on hee."
Battle of Otterbourne, Percy's lleliques. "Makyne went hameward blyth
enough
Out owre the holtis hair." Ditto. " Whan Zephirus eke with his sote
brethe En spired hath in every holte and hethe The tendre croppes."
Chaucer, Prol. Canterbury Tales, 1. 5.
HOOP. The bullfinch: So called from the white mark on his neck.
HOPE. A hill.
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GLOSSARY. 45
HOUSEN. Plural of houses.
HOX. To cut in an unseemly manner: From the ancient
practice of houghing cattle; sometimes, mankind. HUT, or HOT. Past tense of
To hit.
1 ' A viper, smitten or hot with a reed, is astonied."
Scott's Discovery of Witchcraft, 5, 8.
INGLE* Fondling; favourite; Verb, To fondle, to cherish, to love: Ing, Saxon,
patronymic; also diminutive, used affectionately.
" Well, Tom, give me thy fist, we are friends, you shall be mine ingle, I
love you." Ford, Witch of Edmonton, act iii. sc. 2.
"And kissed, and ingled on thy father's knee." Donne, Eleg. iv.
ININ, or INKIOK The onion.
INNARDS, INWARDS. The intestines: Innode, Saxon. INTO. Used frequently for
" except," as " All gone into one ": Even to, contracted
to " E'en to."
J.
JARL, pronounced "YARL." The title Earl: Jarl, Norwegian.
JETTY. To protrude; to thrust out: Jut.
" O'erhang and jetty." Shakespeare, Hen IV., act iii. sc. 1.
JIGGER. To put out of joint; as, " I'll jigger thee neck."
* The exact meaning of this word has been misunderstood by Burns, and he has
been followed by Sir Walter Scott, in the interpretation given to the word
"Ingle-nook." Both these eminent poets consider v Ingle-nook"
to mean the fire-place, the hearth-stone; it really means that seat which in
wide ancient chimneys is frequently found built on either side the fire, and
within the arch of the fire-place itself, often called also the "
Sluggard's corner." This, as the warmest seat in the hall, was given to
the most delicate and favoured of the children, and hence was called "
the Ingle-nook." See also Nares's Glossary on this word, where the
meaning, as we have stated it, is clearly maintained, together with an
undoubted, but most unhappy, extension of it.
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46 GLOSSARY.
JOGGET. A small load of hay.
JOMETTEY. Spoken of anything self-supported in an unknown manner: Geometry.
"It hangs by Jomettry." Common phrase; geometry being considered as
magic.
JOWL. The jaw-bone: Chaule or chaw, which see.
" Of an ass he caught the chaule-bone." Baker, 33.
"Pigs' chauls are to be had at every pork-shop." See Nares's
Glossary.
JUNKETS. Sweetmeats, dainties.
"You know, there wants no junkets at the feast," Shakespeare, Taming
the Shrew, act iii. end.
K
KALLENGE. Challenge; so pronounced.
KECK. To heave at the stomach: Kecken, Dutch.
" Therefore patients must not keck at them at first." Bacon's Nat. History.
" The faction is it not notorious? Keck at the memory of the
glorious." Swift.
KEECH. A lump of fat, congealed after melting.
" Thou obscene, greasy tallow keech." Shakespeare, Hen. IV., Part
I. act ii. sc. 4.
" I wonder, That such a keech can with his very bulk Take up the rays of
the beneficial sun."
Hen. VIII., act i. sc. 1.
KEEE LUCKS. Look here; so spoken.
KERFE. A cutting from a hayrick: Ceorfau, Saxon.
KINCH. The young fry of fish: Kunch-ike, a fish, Sanscrit t
KIND. Promising well, prosperous, healthy: Cynne, Saxon.
" The asp is kind," " the tree grows kind," " the
sow looks kind." Common phrases.
KING-CROWN. The wild guelder rose, viburnium opulus: The flower formerly used
wherewith to crown the king of May.
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GLOSSARY. 47
KITTLE. Anything requiring nice management: Kitselen, Teut.
L.
LAGGER. A long strip of land: Laggs, long, Gothic. LAIKING. Idling, playing
truant: Quasi, lacking service, masterless.
" And if hym list for to laike, Thenne loke we mowen." Vis. of
Piers Plowman, 1. 341.
LAMB. To beat: Perhaps the same as " lame," but it is popularly
derived from the murder of Dr. Lamb by the London mob, temp. Charles I.
LAND AM. To abuse with rancour: Damn through the land.
** Would I knew the villain, I would land-damn him."
Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, act ii. sc. i.
LAREOP. To beat, to flog: Said to be a sea term from " lee " and
" rope," because the culprit goes to leeward to be flogged?
LATTERMATH. Grass after mowing: see Atter-math.
LAYTER. The fuU amount of eggs laid by a bird.
LEE, LEW. Shelter from wind or rain: Hie, Hlie, Icelandic. LEECH. A cow
doctor: Lece, Saxon.
Used for a physician by old writers, passim.
LEER. Empty, hungry: Ge-lear, Saxon.
" But at the first encounter down he lay, The horse ran leere away without
the man."
Harrington's Ariosto, xxiv. 64.
LEESE. To glean corn: Lesan, Saxon.
" Mai I no longere lyve with my leesinge." Song of the Husbandman, Polit.
Songs, temp. Edw. I.
" She in harvest used to leese, But, harvest done, to chare-work did aspire."
Dryden.
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48 GLOSSARY.
LENNEK, LENOW. To soften, to assuage: Lenis, Lenior Latin (?)
LIBBET. A shred, a tatter: Perhaps from the old word
" lib " to emasculate. Shakespeare writes it " glib."
" I'm libbed in the breech already." Massinger, Renegado, act
ii.sc.2. " They are co-heirs, And I had rather glib myself than they Should
not produce fair issues."
Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, act ii. sc. 1.
LIFF, LIEVEE. Eather, more inclined to: Leof, Saxon. LIGHTING-STOCK. Steps to
facilitate ascent or descent when riding.
LIKE. A frequent pleonasm, as " dead-like,"
"pretty-like,"
&c.: Lich, Saxon. LILL Spoken of the tongue of a dog dropping his saliva.
" And lilled forth his bloody tongue." Spenser's Fairy Queen, i.
32.
LIMBER. Weak, pliant, flagging: Lim, Saxon.
" Those waved their limber fans For wings." Milton. " You put
me off with limber vows," Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, act i. sc. 2.
" Limberham," one of Dryden's comic characters; a weak person.
LIMP. Flabby, flexible: Lim, Saxon.
" The chub eats waterish; and the flesh of him is not firm, but limp and
tasteless." Isaac Walton.
LINCH. A small precipice, usually covered with grass:
Hlinc, Saxon. LINNET. Flax dressed, but not twisted into thread: Linet,
Saxon. LISSOME. Active, nimble: Lightsome. LITHER Light, active, sinewy:
Lith, Saxon.
" Two Talbots, winged through the lither sky, In thy despite shall
'scape mortality."
Shakespeare, Hen. VI., Part I., act iv. sc. 7. " I'll bring thy lither
legs in better frame." Look about you, 1600, Cit. St.
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GLOSSARY. 49
LIZZEN. A chasm in a rock: Loosen? LIZZOKY, LEZZOEY. The Service tree. LOATH.
Unwilling; also verb, To abhor.
" Egypt shall lothe to drink of the river," Exodus, vii. 18. "
Ye shall lothe yourselves for your iniquities." Ezekiel, xxx. 3, ind
passim.
LOP. To cut growing wood: Lup, Sanscrit?
" Behold, the Lord shall lop the bough." Isaiah, x. 33.
LUG. A measure of land, a perch; also a long pole.
" And eke that ample pit, yet far renowned For the large leap which
Debon did compel Coulin to make being eight lugs of ground."
Spenser's Fairy Queen, ii. x. 11.
|LUSH. Abundant, flourishing.
" How lush and lusty the grass looks." Shakespeare, Tempest, act ii.
sc. 1.
LUSTY. Strong, in full health: Lust, Saxon.
" Where barley ye sow, after rye, or else wheat, If the land be un-lusty
the crop is not great."
Tusser's Husbandry, October, 24.
M.
MAIN, AMAIN, MAINLY. In an excessive degree: Magn, Icelandic.
MAKE. Mate, companion, lover: Maca, Saxon.
" There's no goose so grey in the lake, That cannot find a gander for
her make."
Lyly's Mother Bombie, iii. 4. " This is no season To seek new makes
in."
Ben Jonson, Tale of a Tub, act i. sc. 1. " The maids and their makes, At
dances and wakes." Owls.
MAMMOCK. Subst., A shred, a tatter; verb, To tear in pieces.
" He did so set his teeth, and tear it; 0, 1 warrant, how he mammockt it."
Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act i. sc. 3.
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50 GLOSSARY.
MAUNDER To ramble in mind, to speak uncertainly, to mutter, to grumble:
Maudire, French.
" My neighbour justice maunders at me." Beaumont and Fletcher, Rule
a Wife, act iii. sc. 1.
" He made me many visits, maundering, as if I had done him an injury, in
having such an opening." Wiseman's Surgery.
MAZZAKDS. Wild cherries: Perhaps from their resem-i blance in shape to the
skull; in which latter sense the word is used by Shakespeare and Butler.
" And knockt about the mazzard with a sexton's spade." Shakespeare,
Hamlet, act v. sc. 1.
" Where thou might'st stickle, without hazard Of outrage to thy hide or
mazzard." Hudibras.
MERE. A strip of grass left as a boundary in open fields Mear, Saxon.
"And Hygate made the meare thereof by west." Spenser's Fairy: Queen,
iii. ii. 46.
" What mound, or steady mere, is offered to my sight?" " The
furious Team, that, on the Cambrian side, Doth Shropshire, as a mear, from
Hereford divide."
Drayton's Polyolbion, i., pp. 656 and 807.
MICHE, MYCHE, MOOCHE. To idle, to play truant; t pilfer.
" This is miching mallecho, it means mischief." Shakespeare,
Hamlet, act. iii. sc. ii.
"Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher, and eat
blackberries?" Hen. IV., Part I., act ii. sc. 4.
" Sure she has some meaching rascal in her house." Beaumont and Fletcher.
MTLT. The spleen: From its resemblance to the spawn j
of fish (?) MIND. To remember: Munan, Saxon. 'MIKE. To wonder, to admire; the
first syllable cut off:
Admiror, Latin. MIKKSHET. Twilight: Mirce, Saxon.
" Ere twice, in merk and occidental damp, Moist Hesperus hath quencht
his sleepy lamp."
Shakespeare, All's Well, &c, act ii. sc. 1.
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GLOSSARY. 51
MOIL, MYLE. To labour, to toil, to defile by labour.
The well known anagram on the name of Sir William Noy, Att. Gen. to King
Charles I., is an example of this word, " I moyl in law."
" In th' earth we moile with hunger, care, and pain." Mirr. for Magist.,
p. 75, ed. 1610.
MO OK. A marsh: Moor, Teuton.
" No, Caesar; they be pathless, moorish minds, That being once made
rotten with the dung Of damned riches, ever after sink.'' Ben Jonson.
" Along the moorish fens Sighs the sad genius of the coming storm."
Thomson.
MOOK-HEN. The water-hen, the gallinull. MOKE. The roots of a plant: Moran,
Saxon.
" Ten thousand mores of sundry scent and hew." Spenser.
MOKING-AXE. A pick-axe.
MOKT. A vast quantity: Mors, death, Latin; as enough to kill one; or Morgt,
Icelandic.
"Here's a mort of merry making, eh?" Sheridan, The Rivals, act i.
sc. 1.
" Nobody knows what a mort of fine things he used to say to me." Mrs.
Cowley, Belle's Stratagem, act iii. sc. 1.
MORTAL Excessively, extremely.
MOTHEKING-SUKDAY. Midlent Sunday: when cakes were presented to children or
friends.
" I'll to thee a simnell bring 'Gainst thou goest a mothering."
Herrick.
MOUND. A fence, a boundary: Mund, Saxon.
" No cold shall hinder me, with horns and hounds' To thrid the thickets,
or to leap the mounds." Dryden.
MUN. An affirmative interjection, probably Man: Mon, Saxon.
" Jacob. But the best fun is to come, mun!
Vane Now to the point (aside) Is your lady married?. Jacob. Noa; but she's as
good; and what's think, mun? To a lord's zun!" Mrs. Gentlivre, Chapter
of Accidents, act ii. sc. 2.
" Is it not pure? 'Tis better than lavender, mun!" Congreve, Love for
Love, act ii. sc. 10.
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52 GLOSSARY.
MUST. The crushed apples or pears, when the juice is pressed out for cyder or
perry: Mustum, Latin.
N.
NAGGLE, NIGGLE. To tease, to fret; to nibble with fcto teeth: Naegel, a nail,
Saxon.
NALE. An ale-house: iEle, Saxon.
NAKON. None: Never, ne'er a one.
NATION. Very.
" Nation vine weyther." Common phrase.
NEIVE. The hand: Naeve, Danish.
"I wu'-not, my good twopenny rascal, reach me thy neuf." Ben Jon son,
Poetaster, act iii. sc. 4.
" Give me thy neefe, Monsieur Mustard-seed." Shakespeare, Midsum Night's
Dream, act iv. sc. 1.
NESH. Weak, tender: Nesc, Saxon.
" Oure nesch and hard heifore, and did the Welsh-men daie." Pet Langtoft,
p. 242. Hearne's ed.
" For love his harte is tendre and nesche." Chaucer, Court of Love.
" The darker fir, light ash, and the nesh tops of the young hazel join.'
Crowe, Lewesden Hill, v. 31.
NOT, NOTTED. Applied to cattle without horns: because in such cases the brow
is thickly knotted with hair.
NUNCHEON. Vulgarly/Juncheon: Noon-chine. Some derive it from "
noon-shun," as if to refresh while avoiding the heat of midday.
" With cheese and butter-cakes enow, On sheaves of corn were at their
nunshons close."
Brown, Brit. Pastorals, p. 2, v. 8.
" Laying by their swords and truncheons, They took their breakfasts and
their nuncheons." Hudibr
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GLOSSARY. 53
().
ODDS. Any difference between two specimens or statements. ON. The sign of the
genitive case.
" One on 'em," (one of them). Common phrase.
OODLE, HOODLE, WOOD-WAIL. The nightingale: Wald and Wala, Saxon.
" The wood-wail sung and would not cease, Sitting upon a spray, Soe loud
she wakened Eobin Hood In the greene wood where he lay."
Percy's Ballads, viii. 86.
OONT or WOONT. The mole: Wand-nurre, Saxon.
" She hath the ears of a want, a mole." Lyly's Midas, act v. sc. 2.
OR Before: Ere.
" At last he drew His sword ar he were y-wer." Robert of
Gloucester. " Or ever your pots be made hot with thorns." Ps.
lviii. 8. Prayer-book version.
* Or ever they came at the bottom of the den." Daniel vi., 24. "
And we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him." Acts of Apost.
xxiii. 15.
OETS. Chaff, any worthless matter: Nought; the first letter struck off (?)
PACE. To raise with a lever: Pesser, French.
PAEGITER A plasterer.
PAUNCH. Verb, a sporting word, To disembowel game.
" The vi. day of August was bered in Powle's Cherch-yerd on Archer, the
wych was slain at Sant James fayre, in the feld by on . . . shamfully, for he
was panchyd with ys own sword." Machyn's Diary, 1558, p. 170.
PEASEN. The plural of pea: Pois, French.
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54 GLOSSARY.
" With peasen, for pottage in Lent, Thou sparest both oatmeal and bread
to be spent."
Tusser's Husbandry, March, 26. "Count peason or brank as a comfort to
land." Tusser's Hus bandry, October, 20.
PECK. To fall forward with the motion of a bird pecking also, to fling away
in the latter sense, see Example.
"You i' th' camblet, get up o' the rail, I'll peck you o'er the pale else."
Shakespeare, Hen. VIII. , act v. sc. 5.
PELT. To throw stones or other missiles. FULL PELT, To
run with speed and force metaphor, from a shower o stones.
PICK. A hay fork: Pike, Puc, Saxon. Acicula (?)
PIDDLE. To triflle, to do light work.
" I am now going to a party of quadrille, only to piddle at a little o it
at two poor guineas a fish." Farquhar, Journey to London, ac i. sc. 1.
" From slashing Bentley down to piddling Tibbalds." Pope.
" Piddling at a mushroom, or the haunch of a frog." Guardian No. 34.
" He recommended that we should begin piddling with a quart o claret a
day." Sir Walter Scott, Rob Eoy.
PILL. The pool caused by the junction of two streams Pil, Welsh.
PIP. Verb. To break the egg in hatching; also the first bursting of a flower
pod: Peep.
PIEGY. Quarrelsome, cross-grained in temper: Burgh, Saxon, any place
strengthened for opposition.
PITCH. To fall down heavily; also to cast away a burden, as " pitching
" or loading hay into a waggon,
11 And tho he was y-flowe an hey, and ne cowthe not a ligte A doun mid so
gret eir to the erthe he fel and pigte."
Robert of Gloucester, p. 29. " Forward he flew, and pitching on his
head, He quivered with his feet and lay for dead." Dryden.
PITH, PETH. The crumb of bread; the formation in the cavity of the elder
tree: Pitha, Saxon.
PLASH. A small pool: Plasche, Teuton.
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GLOSSARY. 55
" For I have Pisa left, And am to Padua come; as he that leaves A
shallow plash to plunge him in the deep."
Shakespeare, Taming the Shrew, act i. sc. 1.
PLEACH. To lay a hedge; to intertwine the branches of
pollards for shading a walk. PLIM. To swell with moisture: Plyme, prnnum,
Saxon I
(Metaphorically used to express any swelling containing
moisture).
"The bacon plims in the pot." Grose.
PLY. To bend; Subst. A bending, a turn.
" I think not Prince Charles safe in Jersey. In God's name let him stay
with thee, till it is seen what ply my business will take." King Charles
I. to his Queen; letter dated Newcastle, May 28, 1646.
POLLAPiDS or POLTS. A mixed crop of peas and beans: Bol, Dutch, a bean, or
peul, a chick-pea.
" White pollard or red, that so richly is set, For land that is heavy,
is best ye can get."
Tusser's Husbandry, October, 16.
POSSY. A great number: The sheriff's posse comitatus. POTCH. To poke with the
finger, or any blunt instrument.
POVEY. An owl; Prom the appearance of the bird,
- puffy." POWEK. Any vast accumulation.
POZY. A bunch of flowers, a nosegay: such nosegays were formerly presented to
ladies with laudatory poesies.
" Be merry And drink sherry that's my posie."
Ben Jonson, New Inn.
PEIZE. Verb, To weigh: Priser, French, to appraise, to
value. PKONG-. A large hay-fork: Prion, Icelandic.
" Be mindful With iron teeth of prongs to move The crusted earth."
Dryden's Virgil. M High o'er the hearth a chine of bacon hung; Good old
Philemon seized it with a prong."
Baucis and Philemon.
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56 GLOSSARY.
PUCK. A quantity of sheaves stacked together: Poke>, pocket.
PUCK-FOUST A fungus, the puff-ball: Puck, the fairfl and fust.
PUCK-LEDDEN. Deceived, betrayed by false ideas;1 Led by Puck, the fairy.
PUE. The udder of a cow: Piw, Welsh, a dug.
PURE. In good health, or with good success.
PUEL. To throw with violence. Quasi, hurl?
Q.
QUAE. A stone quarry: Carriere, French.
" The stwons that bwilt Gearge Bidler's oven, And thay did cwome vrom
Blakeney's Quarr."
Old Song in Gloucestershire. See also Drayton. " Cut from the quar Of
Machiavel, a true cornelian."
Ben Jonson, Magnetic Lady, act i. sc. 7.
QUAEEEL. A square pane of glass: Carreau, French.
" A lozenge is a most beautiful figure being in his kind a quadrangle reverst,with
his point upwards, like a quarrel of glass." Puttenham, B. II., ch. 11.
QUICK, QUICKSET. Young white-thorn for hedges: Derived from rapidity of
growth.
QUILT. To swallow, to gulp, to catch breath by swallowing: derived from the
sound.
" How now, blown, Jack? How now, quilt?" Shakespeare, Hen. IV., Parti.,
activ. sc. 2.
" He sat with me while I had quilted two pigeons, very handsome and good
meat." Pepys's Diary, Sept. 26, 1668.
QUIST. A wood-pigeon: Cuseote, Saxon. QUITCH, SQUITCH. Couch-grass: Cwice,
Saxon.
QUOB, QUOP. To tremble, to quail, to beat strongly at the heart.
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GLOSSARY. 57
" His hearte began to quappe, Hearing her come." Chaucer. "My
heart 'gan quop full oft." Ordinary II. 2.
" But, zealous sir, what say you to a touch at praier? How quops the spirit?"
Fletcher's Poems, p. 203.
QUOMP. To subdue: Cwealm, Saxon.
R
BACK. A path, chiefly applied to paths mades by hares: Balka, cursitare,
Sivedish; or racke, a track, Dutch.
BAG-. To chide, to abuse: Wregan, Saxon.
" I ragged him for it." Pegge.
BAMES. Dead stalks; also a skeleton.
BAMSHACKLE. To move, with noise, in a loose, disjointed manner: Bam in
shackles.
" He came in ram-shackle fashion." Common phrase.
BAMSONS. Broad-leaved garlic, allium ursinum.
" The third sort of garlic, called ramsons, hath mostly two brode blades
or leaves." Lyte's Dodoeus, p. 734.
BANGLE. To entwine, to embarrass as woodbine: Wrangle, to argue,
metaphorically used.
BASSLE. To run at the roots, and thus to form new plants: Quasi, wrestle.
BATH. Early, quick, rash: Hrseth, Saxon.
BAUGHT. The past tense of Beach: Bcehte, Saxon.
" That with his grene top the heven raught." Chaucer, The Knights' Tale,
1. 2917.
" The moon was a month old when Adam was no more, And raught not to five
weeks when he came to five score."
Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, act iii. sc. 2. " This staff of
honour raught, there let it stand, Where best it fits to be. in Henry's
hand."
Id. Hen. IV., Part II., act ii. sc. 3. " The English, then supposed to
be alone, came in presence of the enemie before that intelligence rought
him." Autobiography of K. Jas. II., Vol. ii. p. 493, fol. ed.
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58 GLOSSARY.
EAVES. The rails which surround the bed of a waggon. EAVELMENT. Entanglement.
EEED. Counsel: Eced, Saxon.
" He could no better rede." Chaucer, Monk's Tale.
1 ' Himself the primrose-path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own
rede."
Shakespeare, Hamlet, act i. sc. 3.
BEEN. A small stream: Ehin, Welsh. EEEEMOUSE. The bat: Hrere-mus, Sax.on.
" Some war with rear-mice for their leathern wings." Shakespeare, Midsum.
Night's Dream, act ii. sc. 3.
" Once a bat, and ever a bat, a reremouse and bird of twilight." Ben
Jonson, New Inn, act iii. sc. 1. " Sir, I keep no shades Nor shelters,
I, for either owls or rere-mice."
Ibid., act i. sc. 2.
EENEAGE. To renounce, to deny; but chiefly, to decline to follow suit at
cards: Eenier, French.
" His captain's heart, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst The
buckles on his breast, reneges all temper."
Shakespeare, Ant. and Cleopatra, act. i. sc. I.
EETCH. To strain before sickness: Hroecan, Saxon. EIDE, A rootstock in
coppice: Wriden, Saxon, germinare. EIME. Hoar-frost: Eim-frost, Saxon.
" In rime-frosts you shall find drops of dew upon the inside of glass windows."
Bacon.
EINCE, EINCE OUT. To cleanse; applied chiefly to washing drinking glasses:
Hrains, Goth., to cleanse. .
" This last costly treaty Swallowed so much treasure, and, like a glass,
Did break in the rinsing." Shakespeare. "They cannot boil, nor
wash, nor rinse, they say." King.
EIVE. To split asunder.
" I was about to tell thee, when my heart, As wedged with a sigh, would rive
in twain."
Shakespeare, Troil. and Cress, act i. sc. 1.
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GLOSSARY. 59
EOLLEES. Hay rolled together preparatory to loading. EONGS. Steps in a
ladder: Hrugg, Goth. idem.
This word is used for staves in Eitson's Antient Ballads.
EOUND, EUNE. Verb, To whisper: Eunian, Saxon.
"What rownest thou with our maide? Benedicite!" Chaucer, Wife of
Bath's Prologue.
" They're here with me already; whispering, rounding, 1 Sicilia is a
so-forth.' " Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, act i. sc. 1.
EOUNDS. An accustomed circuit.
"Edward, with horror and alarm, beheld the animal making his rounds."
Sir Walter Scott, Waverley, ch. xi.
EOVE. The past tense of Eive; also to wander.
EUCK. A crease in a garment, any accumulation: Hric, Saxon.
EUGGLE. Verb, to struggle; subst. A child's rattle, a bell for sheep: Hrug,
Saxon, asper.
EUMPLE. To discompose linen, bedding, wearing apparel,
&c.
EUSTY, EEASTY. Spoken of rancid bacon, or salt meat.
" Through folly too beastly Much bacon is reasty."
Tusser's Husbandry, November.
SCANTLINGS. The slabs or outsides of a tree, when sawn into boards.
SCATHE, SCEATH. Damage: Sceathe, Saxon.
" But she was some-dele defe, and that was scathe." Chaucer, Cant. Tales,
Prol., 1. 448.
"Of scathe I will me skere. Political Songs, temp. Ed. I.
" To do offence, or scathe, in Christendom." Shakespeare, K. John, act
ii. sc. 1.
SCOET. The foot-marks of horses, cattle, or deer; also the drag on a wheel;
because it scores the road: Quasi, scored, or scaera, Suio-Gothic, incidere.
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60 GLOSSARY.
SCEEECH. A bird, the swift: from its cry when on the wing.
SCREECH-DROSSLE. The missel-thrush: Drossel, German, and screech, its cry
when alarmed.
SCRUB. Shrub: Scrob, Saxon.
SCRUSE, SCRUZ. The past tense of Squeeze.
" And having scruz out of his carrion corse The hateful life."
Spenser, Fairy Queen.
SCUBBLN". The fore quarter of a lamb without the shoulder.
SEEDS. A clover lay.
SEG. A clothier's word Urine used in their fabrics: Sege, Saxon, Casus?
SEGS, ZEGS. Sedges, the water plant: Secge, Saxon.
11 Segs, and bulrush, and the shepherd's reed." Drayton, Moses, p. 1582.
" I've wove a coffin, for his corse of segs, That with the wind did wave
like bannerets."
Cornelia, Old Plays ii. 266. See Nares's Glossary.
SEWENT. Successive, applied to a continuous rain: Sew, to follow, Cornish (?)
The law word, To sue.
" And heo of Troy siwede without eny feyntyse." Robert of
Gloucester, p. 20.
SHARD. A breach in a fence.
" And often to our comfort we shall find The shard ed beetle in a safer
hold Than is the full-winged eagle."
Shakespeare, Cymb. act iii. sc. 3.
SHATTERS. Fragments of broken pottery, glass, or other hard but fragile
substances.
SHIDE. A small plank, a piece of wood split off from timber: Scide, Saxon.
Frequent in Sibbald's Collection of Old Ballads.
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GLOSSARY. 61
SHOEE UP. To prop with timber.
\ " They undermined the wall, and, as they wrought, shored it up with itimber.
" Knowles.
SHOT, SHOT OF. To be rid of; Shittan, Saxon, to cast down or away.
"lam well shot of it." Common phrase.
SHKIM. To shiver, to shrink np with cold or terror.
Scrimman, Saxon. SHEOUD. To lop a pollard tree. Screadan, Saxon. SIGHT. A
vast number.
11 A sight of blind volk." Cotswold phrase. " A sight of flambeaux,
and a noise of fiddles." Shad well, The Scowrers, act, v. sc. 1.
SKAG. A rent; also a branch not primed close to the tree. SKALE. A skimming
dish: Schale, idem, Longobardic. SKELM. A long pole.
SKID. A drag to a carriage, the shoe under the wheel: Skid, idem. Icelandic.
SKIUL, SKEEL. A shallow tub wherein to cool beer: Quasi, Schale as above?
SKILLING. A cow-shed: Skiul, idem, Swedish.
SKEIKE. To shriek: Skrika, idem, Swedish.
SKUEEY. A flock in confused flight: Skare, Icelandic, whence Scare, to alarm.
SKEAWL, SCEAWLING FEOST. The slight frost which scrawls the earth in
rectangular lines.
SLABS. The outsides of a tree when sawn into boards.
SLAM. To beat; especially to shut the door with violence: Slaemra, Icelandic.
SLAMMEEKIK A slut: Schlamm, dirt, German.
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62 GLOSSARY.
SLAT. Used for " slit " to split, to separate, to crack.
SLEIGHTS. Down-land, grass kept solely for pasture: Slighted.
SLEEZE. A clothier's word, to express the separation of texture in a badly
woven cloth.
SLICK. Slippery: Schlicht, Teuton.
SLICKUTS. Curds and whey: " Slick" and " eat?"
SLINGE. A clothier's word, To steal wool from the pack in small quantities at
a time: Slincan, Saxon, to slink, to sneak.
SLIVER A slice of anything; used by Shakespeare as a verb: Slifan, Saxon.
" "When frost will not suffer to dike and to hedge, Then get thee a
heat with thy beetle and wedge: Once Hallowmas come, and a fire in the hall, Such
slivers do well for to lie by the wall."
Tusser's Husbandry, December, 1. " Slips of yew Slivered in the moon's
eclipse."
Shakespeare, Macbeth, act iv. sc. 1.
" She that herself will sliver and disbranch From her maternal sap,
perforce must wither."
King Lear, act iv. sc. 2.
SMACK. A blow with the open hand producing a noise, an audible kiss: Smitan,
Saxon.
SNEAD, SNED. The handle of a scythe: Snaed, Saxon.
" This is fixed on a long snead or straight handle, and doth wonderfully
expedite the trimming of hedges." Evelyn's Silva, xiii. 2.
SNITE. To blow the nose. Snytan, Saxon.
" So looks he like a marble towards raine; And wrings, and suites, and
weeps, and wipes again."
Hall's Satires, vi. 1.
SNOUL. A lump, particularly of bread, cheese, or the like: Snidan, Saxon,
amputare, suars.
SNUGGLE. To lie close together, as children: Snug.
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GLOSSARY. 63
SOLID. Steady, continuous progress: Solidus, Latin.
"To go solid," " a solid rain." Cotswold phrases.
SPAR A wooden bolt: Sparrian, Saxon.
" I've heard you offered, sir, to lock up smoke, And calk your windows,
spar up all your doors."
Ben Jonson, Staple of News, act ii. " And the gates after them
speed." Bobert of Brunne. " And rent adown both wall, and sparre,
and rafter." Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 1. 132.
SPAUL. The broad wound in a timber tree by rending off a considerable branch:
Spia ell, segmentum, Icelandic.
SPAY- SPEED. Humour discharged from the eyes: " Speed," as
proceeding from, and " spay " to geld, to render unfruitful?
SPEAR Often used to denote a rapier, a sword-stick or
spit: Ysbur, a spit, Welsh f SPEW. A spungy piece of ground. SPIT. A spade:
rapid pronunciation. SPRACK. Lively, vigorous: Spraeg, famosus, Swedish.
" He is a good sprag memory." Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor,
act iv. sc. 1. Here Evans uses the g for ck, as in " hig, haeg, hog,"
which is his Welsh pronunciation for " hie, haec, hoc." The ancient
use of the word "sprack" is seen in the sobriquet given to Thorgil,
King of Sweden, circa, 960, viz., " Thorgil-sprack-a-leg " i.e., Thorgil
the "nimble," or "with the handsome leg:" probably both meanings
were applicable.
SPKEATHE. To have the face or hands roughened by frost.
SPUKTLE. To sprinkle with any lluid.
SQUAIL. To pelt with stones or sticks: 7pD> Hebrew idem.
SQUASH, SQUICH. The crushing any moist or tender body by a fall or blow.
SQUISH-QUASH. The walking through mud or shallow water.
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64 GLOSSARY.
SQUAT. Verb, To sit close, as a hare; subst., a bruise orj indentation.
" Him they found, Squat like a toad close at the ear of Eve."
Milton. " Bruises, squats, and falls, which often kill others, hurt not
the temperate. ' ' Herbert
STAG, STAEG. A young ox.
STANK. A pool caused by a dam on a stream; also the dam itself: Stanc, Welsh,
idem.
" Thei lighted and abided biside a water-stank." Peter Langtoft.
STEER A heifer: Stire, Saxon, vitulus.
STIVE, STIVE UP. To stifle with heat.
STOGGLE. A pollard tree: stock.
STOKM-COCK The missel thrush: because he sings with more power in stormy
weather.
STOWL, STOOL. The stump left in coppice-wood after the cutting.
STKAIGHTWAYS. Immediately.
SWAG, SWAGGLE. To sway to and fro: Swegia, Icelandic, idem.
" The motion of the moon swaggles the whole water of the sea, and, as it
returns back again westward, brings all the whole sea, with a swaggle, back
to landward upon us." Hagiastrologia, J. Butler, B.D. 1680, p. 45.
SWALE. To waste away, as a lighted candle in the wind; also to singe: Swelan,
Saxon.
" But dashed with rain from eyes, and swailed with sighs, burn
dim." Congreve.
" Into his face the brondhe forst, his huge beard brent, and swailing made
a stiuk." Phaer.
SWELTER To faint with heat, to sweat: Sweltan, Saxon.
" If the sun's excessive heat Makes our bodies swelter."
Chalk-hill.
SWICH. Such.
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GLOSSARY. 65
** Suich Giffarde's asoyne, icholde horn ofte come." Robert of
Gloucester, vol. II., p. 539.
" Suich was the morthre of Eivesham vor bataile it nas non." p.-
560.
" For unto swiche a worthy man as he Accordeth nought. 1 ' Chaucer,
Prol. Cant. Tales, 1. 243, 247, 487. Et passim.
SWIG. To drink fully, to drain the cup: Swiga, Icelandic, idem.
" The lambkins swig the teat, And find no moisture." Creech.
SWILL. To wash away: Swelan, Saxon.
" As fearfully as does the galled rock O'erhang and jetty his confounded
base, Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean."
Shakespeare, Henry V., act iii. sc. I.
SWOP. To barter, to exchange: Suaip, Gaelic, idem.
" I would have swopped youth for old age, and all my life behind, to have
been then a momentary man." Dryden.
T.
TABLING-. The coping on a wall or gable.
TACK. Grazing for cattle through the shimmer.
TALLOW. Concrete stalactite found in oolitic rocks: from the appearance.
TALLUT. The hayloft.
" Thayloft Thalloft Thallet Tallut." Cotswold contractions. TED. To
spread abroad new-mown grass for hay: Teadan, Saxon. " The smell of
grain, or tedded grass, orkine." Milton. " Go, sirs, and away, To
ted and make hay." Tusser, July's Abstract.
TEEM. To empty; spoken of a tub.
TEG. A lamb, one year old: Tyccen, Saxon.
TERRIFY. To annoy, to vex, to harass.
F
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M GLOSSARY.
TESTER. A sixpence; so named from the royal head on it: Teste, Old French.
"Well, said I, Wart, thou art a good scab; hold, there's a tester for
thee. Shakespeare, Henry IV., Part II., act iii. sc 2.
" Who throws away a tester and a mistress, loses a sixpence. Farquhar,
Love and a Bottle, act i. sc. 1.
THEAVE. A ewe in the second year.
THIC, THACH. This, that.
THILLER, TILLER. The shaft-horse in a waggon; Thill Saxon.
" Thou hast got more hair on thy chin, than Dobbin, my thill-horse, has
on his tail." Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, act ii. sc. 2.
TICE. To entice, a contraction.
TICKLE. Uncertain in temper, frail, shy, liable to accidents.
"Heo is tikel of hire tayl; talwys of hire tonge." Piers Ploughman's
Vision, Pass, iii, 1. 126.
TID. Playful, sometimes in a bad sense, mischievously frolicsome. TIDDLE. To
rear up delicately: Tydd, Saxon, id. TIDY. Neat; also, as a result of
neatness, frugal.
TILE OPEN. T%set open a gate; properly, to fix it open with a stone: because
the stone fittest for the purpose is thin, like a tile.
TILT, TILT OVER. To overthrow: a word probably from the tilt-yard.
" Alternately to dash him to the pavement, and tilt him aloft
again." Burton's History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 274.
TINE. To kindle. See " Candle-tinning." TITTY. An epithet applied
to a wren: Titje, any small bird, Teuton.
" And of these chanting fowls, the goldfinch not behind, That hath so
many sorts descending from her kind; The titty for her notes as delicate as
they."
Drayton, Polyolb. xiii. p. 915.
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GLOSSARY. G7
TRIG. Neat, quick, ready: Tryg, Danish idem.
" You are a pimp and a trig, An Amadis de Gaul, or a Don Quixote."
Ben Jonson, Alchemist, act iv. sc. 1.
rUD. An apple dumpling.
" As round as a tud, and as slick as a oont." Spoken of a child's sheek.
TUMP. Earth thrown up: Twmp, Welsh idem.
" Tump, a hillock, tumulus." Ainsworth's Diet.
TUN. That part of the chimney which stands above the roof: Tunnel, a
contraction.
TUSSOCK. A thick tuft of grass: Tusw, Welsh, a wisp, a bunch.
^WAITE. A fish, of the shad kind.
rWICHILD. The childish imbecility of age: Twice and child.
bwiNK. The chaffinch: Wine, Welsh; Wirike, Austrian, all derived from the
note of the bird.
IWISSLE. To turn about rapidly. TWITCH. To touch; the W intrusive.
[YNING. An enclosure from a common field: Tynan, Saxon, to lose, because the
common field loses it.
U.
UNKAED, UNKET. Unknown, uncouth, lonely: Unceid,
Saxon. UPSHOT. The amount of a reckoning; the result of any
train of circumstances.
V.
VALUE, (pronounced VALLEY). Used with much the same meaning as Upshot.
"1 went the vallie of foive maile." Cotswold phrase.
F 2
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68 GLOSSARY.
VELLET or FELLET. The annual fall in coppice: T(
feu.
VENTEKSOME. Heedless; daring.
VINNEY. Mildewed, mouldy; especially spoken of bread; Finig, Saxon.
u Many of Chaucer's words are become, as it were, vinewed, and hoare. with
over-long lying." T. Beaumont. See Nare's Glossary.
VLAKE, Flake. A wattled hurdle: Vlaeck, Teuton, id.
VOSSLE, FOSSLE. To entangle; to confuse business i Fuss; fussy (?)
W. WAG, WAGGLE. To move; to vacillate: Wagion, Saxon.
"You may as well forbid the mountain pines Wag their high tops."
Shakespeare.
WAIN-COCK. A waggon-load of hay, cocked in one mass for security against
rain: Wain, an old word for waggon.
WALLOP. To beat.
WAMBLE, WABBLE. To move awkwardly, or to and_ fro: Wemmelen, Dutch.
" When your cold salads, without salt or vinegar, Be wambling in your
stomachs." Beaumont and Fletcher.
WAP. To beat: Wapper, a whip, Teuton. WAPPER A word expressing unusual size, as
being able to beat.
WAPPERED. Fatigued; beaten.
"This it is That makes the wappered widow wed again.
Shakespeare, Tim on of Athens, act iv. sc. 3. " We come towards the
gods, Young, and un- wappered, not halting under crimes."
Beaumont and Fletcher, Two Noble Kinsmen,act v. sc. 4
WARND. To assure; to make certain: Contracted from Warrant.
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GLOSSARY. 69
WARP. To cast young prematurely; to miscarry: Werpen, Dutch.
WEETHY. Soft; pliant; flexible: With, the plant Vitelba.
WELT. To strengthen a door or vessel with metallic bands, usually iron.
WET. Used, as a substantive, for rain.
" Come in, out of the wet." Cotswold phrase.
WHALE. A stripe; the mark left by the lash of a whip: Wala (?) Saxon.
"Thy sacred body was stripped of thy garments, and waled with bloody
stripes." Bishop Hall.
WHATTLE and DAB. A building of whattle-work and plaster.
WHEEDLE. To coax; to deceive by flatteries: Adwelian, Saxon.
"To learn the unlucky art of wheedling fools." Dry den. "They
mixed threats with their wheedles." " Some were wheedled, and
others terrifyed, to fly in the face of their benefactor." Autobiography
of King James II. vol. ii. pp. 143 and 145.
WHELM. To overthrow: Wilma, Icelandic, id.; Spoken frequently of a waggon.
" They saw them whelmed, and all their confidence Under the weight of
mountains buried deep." Milton.
WHIEFLE. To move lightly; to trifle: Gwibl, Welsh, id.
" Every whiffler in a laced coat, who frequents the chocolate houses, shall
prate of the constitution." Dean Swift.
WHIMPER To cry; to whine as a dog.
WICKER To neigh: Whitchelen, Dutch, id.
WINCH-WELL. A whirlpool: Wince, Saxon, id.
WIJSTDEE, WINDOKE. A window: This seems to be the old derivation of the word,
a door to keep out the wind. Formerly glass was a rarity, and foul weather was
kept out only by the shutters.
The word spelt windore is so frequent in Butler's Hudibras, that it is needless
to put in examples.
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70 GLOSSARY. '
WILL-GILL. An effeminate person; an hermaphrodit William and Gillian, the
male and female names nnite
WITE. Blame; originally, knowledge; then the guilt knowledge of a wrong:
Wite, Saxon, idem.
" And, but I do, Sirs, let me have the wite. *' Chaucer, Chanon Yeoman's
Tale, 1. 398.
" My looser lays, I wot, doth sharply wite For praising love."
Spenser, Fairy Queen, iv.
WIT- WALL. The large ' black and white woodpecker, Picus major: Perhaps from
its cry, quasi, wide- wail (?)
WITH-WIND, or BETH-WIND. A creeping plant, Cle matis vitalba: With- wind,
Saxon.
WIZEN. To wither with age or disease: Wisnian, Saxon, id.
WOLD. Open forest-land: Wold, Frisian.
"St. Withold footed thrice the wold." Shakespeare, King Lear, act
iii. sc. 3.
" With their's do but compare the country where I lie; My hills and
'oulds will say I am the kingdom's eye."
Drayton's Polyolb. xxvi.
WOMEN-VOLK. Women.
WONDEEMENT, 'OONDEEMENT. Anything not understood.
" When that my pen would write her titles true, It ravished is with
fancy's wonderment." Spenser. H Some strangers, of the wiser sort, Made
all these idle wonderments their sport." Dryden.
WONT, see 'OONT; WONT, or 'OONT-WEIGGLE; The
succession of small tumuli thrown up by the mole.
WOOD-SPITE. The green woodpecker, Picus viridis:
Spect, Danish. WOEDLED. The Cotswold pronunciation of World. WOESEN. To make
worse.
11 He might see his affairs had not suffered, or worsened there, by his acting
hitherto in them." Autobiography of King James II., vol. i. p. 680.
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GLOSSARY. 71
Y.
YAPPERN, Apron; YEAWS, Ewes; YARBS, Herbs; YENT, Is-not, aint; YOUL, Howl;
are a few of the very numerous instances of the erroneous addition of the
letter Y in the Cotswold dialect.
YELT, ILT, HILT, A young sow, quasi, to yield progeny: Eildan, Saxon.
YEMATH. Latter-grass after mowing: Ed, Saccon, rursus,
and math. YOPPING, YOPPETING. A dog in fuU cry after game,
or baying a stranger: Derived from the sound.
Z.
ZENNERS. Sinews. ZOG. To soak.
ZWATHE. Grass when first mowed, and in rows; the field being, as it were,
swathed: Zwad, Danish, id.
" With tossing and raking, and setting on cocks, Grass lately in swathes
is meat for an ox."
Tusser's Husbandry, July, 2. " And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his
edge, Fall down before him, like the mower's swath."
Shakespeare, Troil. and Cressida, act v. sc. 5.
LONDON: PRINTED BY S. AND J. BRAWN, PRINCES STREET, LITTLE QUEEN STREET,
HOLBORN.
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