ARCHAIC LITERARY WORDS IN THE DIALECTS
The linguistic importance of the dialect-vocabulary for the study of
our English language and literature in its earlier periods cannot be
over-estimated, for herein is preserved a wealth of historical words
familiar to us in our older literature, but lost to our standard
speech. Numbers of words used by Chaucer and the early Middle English
poets, by Shakespeare, and by the translators of the Bible, which are
now treated as archaisms to be explained in footnotes and appendices
to the text, still live and move and have their being among our rural
population to-day. Take for illustration this line from the Middle
English alliterative poem, _Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight_ (l. 2003):
Þe snawe snitered ful snart, þat snayped þe wylde.
[Sidenote: _‘Attercop’ and ‘Bairn’_]
The three principal words have disappeared from the literary language,
and to give an exact rendering of these two brief sentences we should
have to paraphrase them something like this: The snow, full keenly
cold, blew on the biting blast, which pinched the deer with frost. But
if we turn to the dialects, there we find all three: _snitter_ (Sh.I.
Yks.), to snow, sb. a biting blast; _snar_, _snarry_ (Cum. Yks.), cold,
piercing; _snape_ (n.Cy. Dur. Lakel. Cum. Yks. Lan. Chs. Stf. Der. Lin.
War. Shr.), to check, restrain, &c. The difference between _snart_
and _snar_ is accounted for by the fact that it is a Norse word. An
adjective in Norse takes a _t_ in the neuter, and this _t_ not being
recognized on these shores as an inflexional ending was sometimes
adopted into English as if it belonged to the stem of the word, as for
example in the literary words scant, want, athwart, cp. Icel. _snarr_,
swift, keen, neut. _snart_. Many a delightful old word which ran away
from a public career a century or two ago, and left no address, may
thus be discovered in its country retreat, hale and hearty yet, though
hoary with age. It is hard to make a choice among so many, especially
where the chosen must be few, but the following may perhaps serve as
representatives of the remainder: _attercop_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Cum. Wm.
Yks. Lan. Chs. Wil.), a spider. This was in Old English _attorcoppe_,
a spider, from _ātor_, _attor_, poison, and _coppe_, which probably
means head, the old idea being that spiders were poisonous insects.
In the M.E. poem _The Owl and the Nightingale_ (_c._ 1225), the owl
taunts the nightingale with eating ‘nothing but attercops, and foul
flies, and worms’. Wyclif (1382) has: ‘The eiren [eggs] of edderes thei
tobreeken, and the webbis of an attercop thei wouen,’ _Isaiah_ lix.
5. _Bairn_ or _barn_ (Sc. Irel. and all the n. counties to Chs. Der.
Lin.), a child, O.E. _bearn_, a child, a son or daughter, M.E. _barn_
or _bern_. Owing to its use among educated Scotch people, this word
has gained some footing in our colloquial speech, and it has always
had a place in poetical diction, but its real stronghold is Scotland
and the North. Perhaps no other word breathes such a spirit of human
love and tenderness as this does. How infinitely superior is _the
barns_ to our commonplace the kids; or _a bit bairn_, or _bairnie_ to
that objectionable term a kiddie! _Pillow-bere_ (Irel. n.Cy. Yks. Chs.
Der. Lin. Shr. e.An. Ken. Sus. Som. Cor.), a pillow-case. We read of
Chaucer’s ‘gentil Pardoner’ that:
... in his male he hadde a pilwebeer,
Which that, he seide, was oure lady veyl.
_Prologue_, ll. 694, 695.
The word also occurs in several of the wills published in _Wells Wills_,
by F. W. Weaver, 1890, as, for instance, in that of Juliane Webbe, of
Swainswick, dated Jan. 11, 1533: ‘Julian Woodman vj shepe, a cowe &c. a
salteseller, a knede cover, a stand, my ijⁿᵈ apparell of my body, a
flockebed &c. ij pelowberys.’ _Char_, or _chare_ (many dials.), an
errand, a turn of work, an odd job, O.E. _cerr_, a turn, _temporis
spatium_. We retain the word in the compound _charwoman_, and in a
disguised form in _ajar_, which literally means on the turn. An old
proverbial saying (1678) runs: ‘That char is char’d, as the goodwife
said when she had hanged her husband.’ Shakespeare has the word in:
the maid that milks
And does the meanest chares.
_Ant. & Cleop._ IV. xv. 75.
[Sidenote: _Charming the Bees_]
_Charm_ (gen. use in midl. and s. counties), a confused intermingled
song or hum of birds or bees, e.g. Ow the birds bin singin’ this
mornin’, the coppy’s all on a charm. It is also used of the sound of
many voices. A Herefordshire farmer’s wife writing to me about her five
children under seven years of age, added: ‘You can guess what a charm
they make.’ The O.E. form was _cierm_, a noise, with a verb _cierman_,
to make a noise. Palsgrave (1530) has: ‘I chitter, I make a charme as a
flock of small byrdes do when they be together.’ But we know the word
best in Milton’s lines:
Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,
With charm of earliest birds.--_Par. Lost_, iv. 641.
The phrase to _charm_ or _cherm bees_ belongs here, and has no connexion
with the ordinary word _charm_, of French origin. To _charm bees_ is to
follow a swarm of bees, beating a tea-tray, or ringing a stone against a
spade or watering-can. This music is supposed to cause the bees to
settle; but another object in doing thus is to let the neighbours know
who owns the bees, if they should chance to settle on adjacent property.
_Har_, or _harr_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. also Mid. e.An. Hmp.
Wil. Som.), the upright part of a gate or door to which the hinges are
fastened, O.E. _heorr_, a hinge. Chaucer, in describing the ‘Mellere’,
tells us:
Ther nas no dore that he nolde heve of harre,
Or breke it at a rennyng with his heed.
_Prol._ ll. 550, 551.
_Hulk_ (n.Cy. Nhb. Nhp.), a cottage, a temporary shelter in a field for
the shepherd during the lambing season, O.E. _hulc_, tugurium. The
‘lodge in a garden of cucumbers’, _Isaiah_ i. 8, is in Wyclif’s Bible:
‘an hulke in a place where gourdis wexen.’ _Marrow_ (gen. dial. use in
Sc. Irel. and n. counties to Chs. Der.), a match, equal, a mate, spouse,
&c. The word is found in the _Promptorium Parvulorum_ (_c._ 1440):
‘Marwe, or felawe yn trauayle, _socius, sodalis, compar_.’ We are
chiefly familiar with it in the ballad of _The Braes of Yarrow_, which
begins:
Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny bonny bride,
Busk ye, busk ye, my winsome marrow.
_Mommet_ (n.Cy. Wm. Yks. Lan. War. Wor. Shr. Hrf. Wil. Dor. Som. Dev.
Cor.), an image, effigy, a scarecrow, &c., M.E. _mawmet_, an idol, O.Fr.
_mahummet_, _mahommet_, ‘idole en général,’ La Curne; _Mahumet_, one of
the idols of the Saracens. It is the same word as _Mahomet_, Arab.
_Muhammed_. The form in Shakespeare is _mammet_:
a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet.--_Rom. & Jul._ III. v. 185.
[Sidenote: _Words used for marshy places_]
In Wyclif’s Bible it is _mawmet_: ‘And thei maden a calf in tho daies,
and offriden a sacrifice to the mawmet,’ _Acts_ vii. 41; ‘My little
sones, kepe ȝe ȝou fro maumetis,’ 1 _John_ v. 21. _Quag_ (gen. dial.
use in Sc. and Eng.), a quagmire. This word occurs in _The Pilgrim’s
Progress_, in the description of the Valley of the Shadow of Death:
‘behold, on the left hand there was a very dangerous Quag, into which,
if even a good man falls, he finds no bottom for his foot to stand on:
Into that Quag King David once did fall, and had, no doubt, therein
been smothered, had not he that is able plucked him out.’ Immediately
afterwards the same ‘Quag’ is called a ‘Mire’: ‘when he sought, in the
Dark, to shun the Ditch on the one hand, he was ready to tip over into
the Mire on the other.’ _Mire_, a bog, a swamp, is common in the Lake
District and Devonshire. Yet another word with the same meaning is
_mizzy_ (n.Cy. Lan.), used by the Lancashire author of _Sir Gawayne and
the Green Knight_ (_c._ 1360) in one of the most picturesque passages
in the whole poem, the account of Sir Gawayne’s ride through the
forest on Christmas Eve:
Þe hasel & þe haȝ-þorne were harled al samen,
With roȝe raged mosse rayled ay-where,
With mony bryddeȝ vnblyþe vpon bare twyges,
Þat pitosly þer piped for pyne of þe colde.
Þe gome [man] vpon Gryngolet glydeȝ hem vnder,
Þurȝ mony misy & myre, mon al hym one.
ll. 744-9.
[Sidenote: _Words used by Middle English Poets_]
_Rise_ (gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. Eng.), a branch, twig, O.E. _hrīs_,
a twig. ‘Cherries in the ryse’ is an old London Street Cry, as we know
from Lydgate’s poem entitled _London Lyckpeny_:
Then vnto London I dyd me hye,
Of all the land it beareth the pryse:
Hot pescodes, one began to crye,
Strabery rype, and cherryes in the ryse.
Stanza ix.
Another instance of the use of the word may be taken from the old carol
_The Flower of Jesse_ (_c._ 1426):
Of lily, of rose of ryse,
Of primrose, and of fleur-de-lys,
Of all the flowers at my device,
That Flower of Jesse yet bears the price
As most of heal,
To slake our sorrows every deal.--Stanza vii.
_Steven_ (Cum. w.Yks.), a gathering; an appointment. Hence, to set
the steven, a phrase meaning to agree upon the time and place of
meeting, O.E. _stefn_, a voice. The phrase ‘at unset stevene’ occurs
in Chaucer’s _Knightes Tale_, l. 666, and in other early poems. In the
_Cokes Tale_ we read concerning ‘Perkin Revelour’ and his friends:
And ther they setten steven for to mete
To pleyen at the dys in swich a strete.--ll. 19, 20.
_Shep_ (Cum. Lin. Som. Dev.), a shepherd. This form is familiar to us as
occurring in the opening lines of _Piers Plowman_:
In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne,
I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were.
_Toll-booth_ (Sc. Yks.), a place where tolls are paid, a town or
market hall. Matthew, according to Wyclif (1388), was ‘sittynge in a
tolbothe’, _Matt._ ix. 9. _Thwittle_ (n.Cy. Cum. Yks. Lan.), a large
knife. Simkin, the miller of Trumpington, had one:
A Sheffield thwitel baar he in his hose.
_Reves Tale_, l. 13.
The word is a derivative of _thwite_ (Sc. n.Cy. Lan. Der. Shr. Dev.), to
pare wood, to cut with a knife, O.E. _þwītan_, to cut, shave off.
[Sidenote: _Survivals of old Substantives_]
‘Hit were to tore [hard] for to telle of þe tenþe dole’ of these old
substantives still surviving in the dialects, but I will add just a few
more in a list: _ask_ (Sc. Irel. n.Cy. to Chs. and n.Lin.), a newt,
lizard, O.E. _āðexe_, cp. Germ. _Eidechse_; _bree_ (Sc. n.Cy. Yks. Lan.
Chs.), the eyelid, the eyebrow, O.E. _brǣw_, the eyelid; _cloam_ (Pem.
Nrf. Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.), crockery, earthenware, O.E. _clām_, clay;
_dig_ (Irel. Yks. Lan. Chs.), a duck, cp. ‘Here are doves, diggs,
drakes’ _Chester Plays_, c. 1400, _Deluge_, 189, ‘_anette_, a duck, or
dig,’ Cotgrave; _gavelock_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Der. Not.
Lin. Nrf. Suf.), an iron crowbar, O.E. _gafeluc_, a spear; _holster_
(Som. Dev. Cor.), a hiding-place, O.E. _heolster_, a place of
concealment; _ham_ (Not. Nhp. Glo. Sus. Wil. Dor. Som. Dev.), flat,
low-lying pasture, land near a stream or river, O.E. _hamm_, a pasture
or meadow inclosed with a ditch; _haffet_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Cum. Wm.), the
temple, the side of the face, O.E. _healf-hēafod_, the front part of the
head; _heugh_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Cum. Wm. Yks.), a crag, cliff, precipice,
O.E. _hōh_, a promontory, lit. a hanging (precipice); _hull_ (in gen.
dial. use in Sc. and Eng.), a husk, a pod, also used as a verb, to
remove the outer husk of any vegetable or fruit, O.E. _hulu_, husk, cp.
‘Take Whyte Pesyn, and hoole hem in þe maner as men don Caboges,’
_Cookery Book_, c. 1430; _hoar-stone_ (Sc. Lan. Oxf.), a boundary stone,
O.E. _hār stān_ (lit. a hoar stone, i.e. a grey or ancient stone), often
occurs in Charters in the part describing the boundary line; _haysuck_
(Wor. Glo.), hedge-sparrow, O.E. _hegesugge_; _hobbleshow_ (Sc. Nhb.
Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan.), a tumult, disturbance, &c. ‘An hubbleshowe,
_tumultus_’, Levins, _Manipulus Vocabulorum_, 1570; _litten_ (Brks. Sus.
Hmp. Wil. Som.), a churchyard, a cemetery, O.E. _līctūn_, an enclosure
in which to bury people; _lide_ (w.Cy. Wil. Cor.), the month of March,
O.E. _hlȳda_; _lave_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks.), the remainder,
O.E. _lāf_; _leap_ (many dials.), a large basket, _seed-lip_ (gen. dial.
use in Yks. Midl. e. s. and w. counties from Lei.), a basket used to
hold the seed when sowing, O.E. _sǣdlēap_; _oly-praunce_ (Nhp.), a
merry-making, M.E. _olipraunce_, vanity, fondness for gay apparel;
_pollywig_, _pollywiggle_ (Sc. Lan. Lei. Nhp. e.An. Hmp. Dev.), a
tadpole, cp. ‘Polewigges, tadpoles, young frogs,’ Florio, 1611,
‘Polwygle, wyrme,’ _Promptorium Parvulorum_; _porriwiggle_, _porwiggle_
(n.Cy. Yks. Lei. e.An. Sur.), a tadpole, cp. ‘that which the ancients
called _gyrinus_, we a porwigle or tadpole,’ Sir Thomas Browne, _Vulgar
Errors_, 1646; _preen_ (Sc. Nhb. Lakel. Yks.), a pin, O.E. _prēon_;
_rake_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Lakel. Yks. Lan. Lin.), a track, path, &c., cp.
O.E. _racu_, a hollow path; _ridder_ (Oxf. Hrt. Mid. e.Cy. Sus. Hmp.
I.W. Wil. Dor. Som. Cor.), a sieve for sifting grain, O.E. _hrīdder_;
_rivlin_ (Sh. & Or.I.), a kind of sandal made of undressed skin with the
hair outside, O.E. _rifeling_; _ream_ (Sc. Irel. n.Cy. Cum. Yks. Lan.
Dev. Cor.), cream, O.E. _rēam_; _rother_ (n.Cy. Lan. War. Wor. Hrf.
Sus.), horned cattle, M.E. _rother_, an ox; _sax_ (Sh.I. Lin. Brks.
w.Cy. Som. Dev. Cor.), a knife, O.E. _seax_; _seal_ (Sc. Chs. e.An.),
time, season--the seal of the day to you is a friendly salutation; to
give a person the seal of the day is to give him a passing
salutation--O.E. _sǣl_, time, season, &c.; _shippen_ (Sc. Nhb. Cum. Wm.
Yks. Lan. Chs.), a cow-house, a cattle-shed, O.E. _scypen_, _scipen_, a
stall, a fold for cattle or sheep; _slade_ (many dials.), a valley, a
grassy plain between hills, O.E. _slæd_; _souter_ (Sc. n.Cy. Yks. Nhp.),
a shoemaker, O.E. _sūtere_, from Lat. _sutor_; _soller_ (n.Cy. Yks. Lan.
Shr. Hrf. e.An. s.Cy. Cor.), an upper chamber or loft, O.E. _solor_, a
loft, upper room, from Lat. _solarium_; _singreen_ (Wor. Shr. Bck. Ken.
Sus. Hmp. I.W. Wil.), the house-leek, O.E. _singrēne_, the houseleek,
lit. evergreen; _snead_ (in gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. Eng.), the
handle of a scythe, O.E. _snǣd_; _whittle_ (Irel. Dur. Lei. War. Pem.
Glo. Oxf. Suf. Sus. Hmp. Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.), a cape, a shawl, &c.,
O.E. _hwītel_, a cloak, a blanket; _wogh_ (Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan.
Chs. Der.), a wall, O.E. _wāg_, _wāh_; _yelm_ (War. Glo. Bdf. Mid.),
straw laid ready for thatching, O.E. _gelm_, a handful, a sheaf.
It would be possible to produce samples of these retired English words
categorized under each of the various parts of speech, but it will be
sufficient here to keep to the most important categories, namely, nouns,
adjectives, and verbs. Not but what many interesting words will thus
perforce stand neglected, for even the humble adverb is often worth a
glance. Take for example the modest form _tho_ (Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.),
then, at that time. This is the regularly developed lineal descendant of
O.E. _þā_, and Chaucer’s _tho_ in the line:
To don obsequies, as was tho the gyse.
_Knightes Tale_, l. 135.
The common dialect adverb _nobbut_, only, nothing but, lit. not but,
occurs in _Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight_. When Sir Gawayne is
looking for ‘þe grene chapelle’, to his disgust he finds that it
consists of a hollow mound, ‘nobot an old caue,’ where, he says:
... myȝt about mid-nyȝt,
Þe dele his matynnes telle!--ll. 2187, 2188.
[Sidenote: _Adjectives now disused in Standard English_]
But to come to our second category, namely, old adjectives now disused
in standard English, examples are: _argh_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Yks. Lin.),
timorous, apprehensive, O.E. _earh_ (_earg_), cowardly (cp. Germ.
_arg_), ‘His hert arwe as an hare,’ Rob. of Gloucester, _Chron._,
c. 1300; _brant_ (Nhb. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Lin.), steep, high, also
erect, and hence proud, pompous, e.g. as brant as a besom, O.E.
_brant_, _bront_. Brantwood on the eastern margin of Coniston Lake,
the residence of Ruskin, was so called from the _brant_, or steep
wood which rises behind it. _Dern_ (Sc. Nhb. Chs.), secret, obscure,
also dreary, dark, O.E. _dyrne_, _derne_, cp. ‘For derne love of
thee lemman, I spille,’ _Milleres Tale_, l. 92; _elenge_ (Ken. Sur.
Sus.), solitary, lonely, tedious, O.E. _ǣlenge_, tedious, tiresome,
lit. very long; _fremd_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Chs. Lin.
Nhp.), strange, foreign, not of kin, O.E. _fremde_, foreign, cp. Germ.
_fremd_. In M.E. this word is often coupled with _sibb_, which latter
word has the opposite meaning of related, akin, as for example in the
lines from the _Moral Ode_, c. 1200:
Wis is þat him seolue biþenkþ þe hwile he mot libbe,
Vor sone willeþ him for-yete þe fremede and þe sibbe.
ll. 34, 35.
[Sidenote: _‘Sib’ and ‘Lief’_]
This too remains in the dialects as _sib_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Cum. Yks. Lan.
Chs. Der. Lin. Nhp. War. Wor.), closely related, akin, e.g. Oor
Marmaduke’s sib to all the gentles in th’ cuntry, though he hes cum doon
to leäd coäls. _Fenny_ (Ken. Hmp. Wil.), mouldy, mildewed, also in the
form _vinny_ (Glo. Brks. Hmp. I.W. Wil. Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.), O.E.
_fynig_, used by Ælfric in translating _Joshua_ ix. 5, of the
Gibeonites’ bread; _hettle_(Sc. Nhb. Dur. Yks.)-tongued, foul-mouthed,
irascible in speech, O.E. _hetol_, full of hate, malignant. _Lief_,
dear, beloved, is obsolete as an adjective even in the dialects, but as
an adverb it is common throughout the country, so too is the comparative
form _liefer_, more willingly, rather, M.E. _me were lever_, I had
rather, a phrase familiar to us in the description of the Clerk of
Oxenford:
For him was levere have at his beddes heede
Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reede,
Of Aristotle and his philosophie,
Then robes riche, or fithele, or gay sawtrie.
_Prologue_, ll. 293-6.
_Piping hot_ (gen. dial. and colloquial use) is a phrase also found in
Chaucer:
And wafres, pyping hote out of the glede.
_Milleres Tale_, l. 193.
_Punch_ (Sc. n.Cy. Yks.), short, fat, occurs in Pepys’s _Diary_, April
30, 1669, ‘I ... did hear them call their fat child punch, which
pleased me mightily, that word being become a word of common use for
all that is thick and short.’ _Rathe_ (Sc. Irel. Yks. Hrf. Gmg. Pem.
Glo. Brks. Hrt. e.An. Ken. Sus. Hmp. I.W. Wil. Dor. Som. Dev.), adj.
and adv. early, soon, quick, O.E. _hræð_, adj. quick, swift, _hræðe_,
adv. quickly, soon, recalls Milton’s line:
Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies.
_Lycidas_, l. 142.
[Sidenote: _Familiar Miltonic Words_]
In many of the dialects the word is found in the compound _rathe-ripe_,
coming early to maturity, for the use of which we have evidence as far
back as the seventeenth century, in an epitaph on two little children
who died in 1668 and 1670:
Such early fruites are quickly in their prime,
Rathe ripes we know are gathered in betime;
Such Primroses by Death’s impartiall hand
Are cropped, and landy’d up at Heaven’s command.
Another familiar Miltonic word is _scrannel_ (Yks. Lan. Not. Nhp. War.),
lean, thin; of the voice: weak, piping.
And when they list, their lean and flashy songs
Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.
_Lycidas_, ll. 123, 124.
_Sackless_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan.) is a word which has fallen
from its high estate, just like the standard English word _silly_, which
originally meant blessed, happy (cp. Germ. _selig_). O.E. _saclēas_
signified free from accusation, innocent, but in the modern English
dialects the usual meaning is lacking common sense, foolish, stupid, or
weak in body or mind, feeble, helpless, e.g. She leuk’d sackless and
deead-heeaded, an we put her intiv a gain-hand garth te tent her, i.e.
she [the cow] looked helpless and hung her head, and we put her into an
adjoining enclosure to look after her. _Span-new_ (gen. dial. and
colloquial use in Sc. and Eng.), quite new, M.E. _spannewe_, occurs in
_The Lay of Havelok the Dane_, c. 1280:
Þe cok bigan of him to rewe,
And bouthe him cloþes, al spannewe.
ll. 967, 968.
It is originally a Norse form, O.N. _spān-nȳr_, literally, new as a
chip of wood, the vowel of _spān_ having become short in M.E., and the
O.N. _nȳr_ replaced by the native equivalent _newe_. _Spān_ is the O.N.
cognate of our word _spoon_, O.E. _spōn_, an article made out of wood
when it first took shape. _Tickle_ (gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. and
Eng.), insecure, unstable, &c., is used by Chaucer in the _Milleres
Tale_:
This world is now ful tikel, sikerly.--l. 240.
[Sidenote: _‘Tickle’, ‘Nesh’, and ‘Lear’_]
A word of almost the same meaning is _wankle_ (Sc. n. and midl. counties
to Wor. Shr. Hrf.), insecure, tottering, also weak, delicate, O.E.
_wancol_, used in the same senses. _Swipper_ (Sc. n.Cy. Lan.), quick,
nimble, is recorded in the _Promptorium Parvulorum_, ‘Swypyr, or
delyvyr, _agilis_.’ _Nesh_, meaning soft, brittle, delicate, &c., O.E.
_hnesce_; and _rear_, used of meat, eggs, &c., half-cooked, underdone,
O.E. _hrēr_, are still in common use all over England. _Lear_, empty,
hungry, O.E. _lǣre_ (cp. Germ. _leer_), is found in almost all the
Midland, Southern, and South-western counties. A curious relic of an
obsolete verb is the participle _forwoden_ (n.Cy. Yks.), in a state of
dirt, desolation, and waste, generally caused by vermin, overrun, e.g.
Oor apple cham’er is fair forwoden wi’ rattens and meyce. It is the same
word as O.E. _forworden_, undone, perished, the past participle of
_forweorþan_, to perish, a compound of the prefix _for-_ expressing
destruction, and _weorþan_, to become, which remains to us in the
Biblical phrase, ‘Woe worth the day!’ _Ezek._ xxx. 2, and the dialect
_wae worth_, or _wa worth_ (Sc. n.Cy. Dur. Lakel. Wm. Yks. Lan. Der.),
used as an imprecation, or as an exclamation of dismay on hearing
fearful tidings.
[Sidenote: _Time-honoured Verbs_]
This brings us to the third category, the time-honoured verbs, and
truly their name is legion. _Dow_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan.
Chs. Der. Shr. e.An.), to thrive, prosper, to be good for something,
&c., O.E. _dugan_, to be strong, to avail (cp. Germ. _taugen_), M.E.
_dowen_:
Ȝif me be dyȝt a destyné due to haue,
What dowes me þe dedayn, oþer dispit make?
_Patience_, ll. 49, 50, _c._ 1360.
This verb contains the stem from which comes the adjective _doughty_:
If doughty deeds my lady please,
Right soon I’ll mount my steed.
But even this is now archaic, and the verb has wholly disappeared from
the standard speech, whilst it remains in various forms and meanings in
the dialects. It is a saying in Yorkshire that: They never dow that
strange dogs follow. Another current expression, ‘He’ll never dow, egg
nor bird,’ occurs amongst Ray’s _Proverbs_, 1678. _Dow_ occurs as a
substantive meaning worth, value, in several phrases, as: _to do no
dow_, to be of no use or value, e.g.
A whussling lass an’ a bellering cow
An a crowing hen’ll du nea dow.
_Dree_ (Sc. Nhb. Lakel. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der.), to endure, suffer, O.E.
_drēogan_, M.E. _dreyen_, _drien_. In a description of the building of
the Tower of Babel, given in the _Cursor Mundi_ (_c._ 1300), are the
lines:
Wid corde and plumbe þai wroght so hy,
Þat hete of sune might þai nohut dry.
ll. 2247, 2248.
To dree one’s weird, to endure one’s fate, is a phrase now practically
confined to Scotland, though this was not the case in the earlier
periods of the language. It occurs, for instance, in _Cleanness_, a poem
probably written by the author of _Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight_,
who was a Lancashire man:
& bede þe burne [King Zedekiah] to be broȝt to babyloyn þe riche,
& þere in dongoun be don to dreȝe þer his wyrdes.
ll. 1223, 1224.
_Flite_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Der. Lin.), to scold, find
fault, O.E. _flītan_, to strive, chide, M.E. _flīten_, to quarrel,
contend:
hou we shule flyten
ant to gedere smiten.
_King Horn_, ll. 855, 856, _c._ 1300.
[Sidenote: _‘Heal’ and ‘Healer’_]
_Heal_ (gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. and Eng.), to hide, conceal, keep
secret, O.E. _helan_, str. vb. and _helian_, wk. vb., to conceal, M.E.
_helen_:
Seynt Gregorie was a gode pope, and had a gode forwit,
Þat no priouresse were prest, for þat he ordeigned.
Þei had þanne ben _infamis_ [betrayer of confession] þe firste day,
þei can so yuel hele conseille.
_Piers Plowman_, B. v. ll. 166-8, _c._ 1377.
A _healer_ is a receiver of stolen goods, a common word in the proverb:
the healer’s as bad as the stealer. The verb is also used in the sense
of to cover, to wrap up, to tuck up with bed-clothes. The allied verb
_hill_ (n.Cy. Yks. Lan. Chs. Stf. Der. Not. Lin. Lei. Nhp. War. Wor.
Shr. Oxf. Wil.), to wrap, cover with clothes, is a Scandinavian
loan-word, O.N. _hylja_, to cover (cp. Goth. _huljan_):
Hile me vnder schadou ofe þi wenges twa.
Rich. Rolle of Hampole, _Ps._ xvi. 10, _c._ 1330.
Another verb of the same meaning is _hap_ (gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel.
and n. counties to Der. Not. Lin.), which also occurs in our early
literature:
I pray þe Marie happe hym warme.
_York Plays_, c. 1400. Edited by Lucy Toulmin Smith, p. 144.
_Hish_ (Sc. War. Nrf.), to make a hissing noise to hound on a dog,
occurs in Wyclif’s Bible, ‘The Lord ... ȝaf hem in to stiryng, and in to
perischyng, and in to hisshing,’ _2 Chron._ xxviii. 8. _Lout_ (Sc. Irel.
Nhb. Yks. Hmp.), to stoop, bend, bow, O.E. _lūtan_, M.E. _louten_:
Knelynge, conscience to þe kynge louted,
To wite what his wille were, and what he do shulde.
_Piers Plowman_, B. iii. ll. 115, 116.
_Latch_ (n.Cy. Dur. Yks. Lan. Der. e.An.), to catch, lay hold of, O.E.
_læccan_, M.E. _lacchen_, to catch, seize. In a poem called _Patience_,
written by the same author as _Cleanness_ and _Sir Gawayne and the Green
Knight_, the word occurs in a striking and curiously realistic
description of Jonah inside the whale: ‘Lorde! colde watȝ his cumfort
& his care huge.... How fro þe bot in-to þe blober [bubbling waves]
watȝ with [by] a best lacched.’ _Lathe_ (n.Cy. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Chs.),
to bid, ask, invite, especially to invite to a funeral or wedding,
O.E. _laðian_, M.E. _laðien_:
þe king ...
... sende his sonde,
oueral his kine-lond,
and lette laþien him to,
alle his enihtes.
Laȝamon’s _Brut_, ll. 6667-73, _c._ 1275.
[Sidenote: _‘Nim’ and ‘Nimble’_]
_Nim_ (Sc. Nhb. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Stf. Der. Not. Lin. Nhp. Lei. War.
Ken. Som. Dev.), to catch up quickly, to take or catch up on the sly, to
steal, O.E. _niman_, to take, M.E. _nimen_:
Noe on anoþer day nymmeȝ efte þe dovene.
_Cleanness_, l. 481, _c._ 1360.
In this sense the verb is obsolescent in the dialects, but it is still
used in the sense of to walk with quick, short steps, to walk briskly
and lightly, or mincingly. Probably this meaning is a development of the
earlier uses of the verb in the phrase ‘to take one’s way’, and hence
simply, to go, cp.:
Rys radly, he says, & rayke forth euen,
Nym þe way to nynyue, wyth-outen oþer speche.
_Patience_, ll. 65, 66, _c._ 1360.
ðanne he nimeð to kirke.--_Bestiary_, l. 93, _c._ 1250.
The standard adjective _nimble_ is related to this old verb, so too is
that apparently meaningless word _nim_ in the old nursery rhyme said or
sung to a baby on one’s knee:
The ladies they ride nim, nim, nim;
The gentlemen they ride trim, trim, trim;
The farmers they ride trot for trot;
An’ the hinds they ride clot for clot;
But the cadgers ride creels an’ aa, creels an’ aa.
Nhb. Version.
One is glad to give a local habitation and a name to a friend of
such tender associations! _Quop_ (Lei. Wor. Hrf. Glo. Oxf. Brks.),
to palpitate, throb with pain, M.E. _quappen_, occurs in Chaucer’s
_Troilus and Creseyde_ (_c._ 1374): ‘So that his herte gan to quappe,’
Bk. III, l. 57, and also in Wyclif’s Bible: ‘And he [Tobie] wente out
for to wasshen his feet; and lo! a gret fish wente out for to deuouren
hym. Whom dredende Tobie criede out with a gret vois, seiende, Lord, he
asaileth me. And the aungil seide to hym, Cach his fin, and draȝ it to
thee. The whiche thing whan he hadde do, he droȝ it in to the drie, and
it began to quappe befor his feet,’ _Tobit_ vi. 2-5. _Ream_ (Sc. Dur.
Cum. Yks. Lan. Lin. Nhp. Shr.), to shout, cry aloud, to weep, bewail,
O.E. _hrēman_, M.E. _rēmen_:
A longeyng heuy me strok in swone,
& rewfully þenne I con to reme.
_Pearl_, ll. 1180, 1181, _c._ 1360.
_Speer_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Dur. Lakel. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Nhp. Som.), to
search out, to ask, inquire, O.E. _spyrian_, M.E. _spürien_, _speren_,
_spiren_:
My will, myn herte and al my witt
Ben fully set to herkne and spire
What eny man wol speke of hire.
Gower, _Confessio Amantis_, Bk. VIII,
ll. 1998-2000, _c._ 1400.
_Shale_ (Dur. w.Yks. Nhp. e.An. Wil. Dor.), to walk crookedly or
awkwardly, to shamble:
Schouelle-fotede was that schalke, and schaylande hyme semyde,
With schankez vn-schaply, schowande to-gedyrs.
_Morte Arthure_, ll. 1098, 1099, _c._ 1420.
[Sidenote: _Chaucerian Survivals_]
_Snib_ (Sc. Irel. Rut. Lei. Nhp. Bdf.), to check, restrain, rebuke, M.E.
_snibben_:
Him wolde he snybbe scharply for the nones.
Chaucer, _Prologue_, l. 523.
_Swink_ (Sc. n.Cy. Yks. War. Hrf. Ken.), to work hard, labour, toil,
O.E. _swincan_, M.E. _swinken_:
Or swynke with his handes, and laboure.--_Prologue_, l. 186.
The form _swinked_, oppressed, tired, also occurs, reminding us of
Milton’s:
... what time the labour’d ox
In his loose traces from the furrow came,
And the swink’t hedger at his supper sate.
_Comus_, ll. 291-3.
_Thole_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Dur. Lakel. Yks. Lan. Stf. Der.), to bear,
suffer, endure, O.E. _þolian_, M.E. _tholien_, _tholen_:
Ne sal nafre eft crist þolien deað for [to] lesen hem of deaðe.
Ænes drihten helle brac his frend he ut brohte
Him self he þolede deað for hem wel diere he hes bohte.
_Moral Ode_, ll. 184-6, _c._ 1170.
[Sidenote: _Development of standard English ‘Wont’_]
_Won_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Lan. Chs. Der.), to dwell, live, O.E.
_wunian_, M.E. _wunien_, _wunen_, and _wonen_, with _o_ written for _u_
as in N.E. _come_, _love_, &c.
A Schipman was ther, wonying fer by weste.
_Prologue_, l. 388.
But in many districts this is said to be obsolescent in the dialects of
to-day. The past participle of this verb, O.E. _wunod_, M.E. _wuned_,
early came to be used in the sense of accustomed, for instance:
She never was to swiche gestes woned.
_Clerkes Tale_, l. 339.
Cp. ‘Wunt, or vsyed: _assuetus_,’ _Promptorium Parvulorum_. From this
was developed the standard English form _wont_, which ought to be
pronounced _wunt_, but the graphic _o_ has been taken for an original
_o_, and the spelling has influenced the pronunciation. _Wont_ occurs
in a few of the Midland dialects as a verb meaning to familiarize, to
domesticate, accustom, e.g. If you tek the cat, you’ll hev to butter
her feet to wont her, an’ then it’s chanch if shay doon’t coom back
’ere agen (Lei.). _Welk_ (Sc. n.Cy. Yks. Hrf. Bdf. Hrt. e.An. Ken.), to
wither, to fade, M.E. _welken_:
An oðer drem cam him bi-foren,
vii eares wexen fette of coren,
On an busk, ranc and wel tidi,
And vii lene rigt ðor-bi,
Welkede, and smale.
_Genesis and Exodus_, ll. 2103-7, _c._ 1250.
Another verb with the same meaning is _wellow_ (Yks.), which occurs in
Wyclif’s Bible: ‘The reed and the resshe shal welewen,’ _Isaiah_ xix. 6.
_Yawl_ (Sc. Cum. Yks. Lan. Lin. Lei. Nhp. War. e.An. Som.), to howl, to
bawl, is found in _Sir Gawayne_:
He [the boar] hurteȝ of þe houndeȝ, & þay
Ful ȝomerly ȝaule & ȝelle.--ll. 1452, 1453.
The more common verb in this sense is _yowl_ (gen. dial. use in Sc.
Irel. Eng.), cp. ‘Y shal weile and ȝoule,’ Wyclif, _Micah_ i. 8.
[Sidenote: _Wealth of old Verbs still surviving_]
The majority of the verbs given above are of such frequent occurrence
in Old and Middle English, that to give just one quotation, chosen more
or less at random, is apt to be misleading, yet space forbids any more
exhaustive treatment. There are hundreds of these verbs still existing
in the dialects, which could be illustrated from our older literature
down the course of several centuries before they disappeared from the
standard language. A few further examples are: _greet_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb.
Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Der.), to cry, weep, O.E. _grǣtan_; _heald_
(Sh.I. n.Cy. Yks.), to lean, incline, O.E. _hieldan_; _kythe_ (Sc.
n.Cy. Nhb. Dur. Yks.), to make known, show, display, O.E. _cȳðan_;
_lofe_ (Sc. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Chs. Stf. War. Shr.), to offer, offer
at a price, O.E. _lofian_, to praise, to appraise, set a price on;
_pote_ (Sc. n.Cy. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Shr. Hrf. Glo. Som. Dev.
Cor.), to kick, push with the hands or feet, O.E. _potian_; _reese_
(I.W. Cor.), of grain: to drop out of the ear from over-ripeness, O.E.
_hrēosan_, to fall down; _lease_ (many dials.), to pick out, to glean,
&c., O.E. _lesan_, to gather, collect; _mint_ (Sc. Irel. n.Cy. Nhb.
Yks. Lan. Lin. Nhp. e.An.), to purpose, intend, &c., O.E. _myntan_;
_retch_ (gen. dial. use in Sc. and Eng.), to stretch, extend, fig.
to exaggerate, lie, O.E. _reccan_, to stretch, extend; _sam_ (Wm.
Yks. Lan. Der. Wor.), to gather or scrape together, to collect, O.E.
_samnian_; _smoor_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Dur. Lakel. Yks. Lan. Der. Lin. Lei.
Nhp. e.An.), to smother, suffocate, O.E. _smorian_; _tend_ (n.Cy. Wm.
Lan. Chs. Stf. Nhp. Wor. Shr. Oxf. Som. Dev. Cor.), to kindle, light,
set fire to, O.E. _on-tendan_; _umbethink_, or _unbethink_ (Nhb.
Lakel. Wm. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Lin. Shr. Dev.), to bethink oneself, to
recollect, O.E. _ymbeðencen_, to think about, consider; _walt_ (Sc.
n.Cy. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Shr. Suf.), to totter, to lean to one side,
O.E. _wealtan_, to roll, stagger.
[Sidenote: _Dialect Survivals in the Authorized Version_]
It is interesting to note how many of the archaic words of our
Authorized Version of the Bible (1611) can be found remaining in the
dialects. For example: _blain_ (Sc. Dur. Yks. Lan. e.An.), a sore, an
ulcer, O.E. _blegen_; _bolled_ (Lin. Lei.), of corn or flax: ripe, in
pod, in seed; _botch_ (Yks.), a breaking-out on the skin; _brickle_
(Yks. Lan. Chs. Nhp. Wor. Shr. Suf. Sur. Hmp. Dor. Som.), brittle,
easily broken: ‘This man that of earthly matter maketh brickle vessels,’
_Wisdom_ xv. 13; _chanel-bone_ (Lin. Som.), the collar-bone, _Job_ xxxi.
22, marginal note; _charger_ (Yks. Chs. Sus.), a large platter, or
meat-dish, A.Fr. _chargeour_; _chest_ (Sc. Nhb. Suf.), to put into the
coffin: ‘he [Jacob] dieth and is chested,’ _Gen._ 1, chapter heading;
_clout_ (var. dial. uses in Sc. Irel. and Eng.), a patch, a rag;
_cocker_ (Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Lin.), to indulge, pamper: ‘Cocker thy
child, and he shall make thee afraid,’ _Ecclus._ xxx. 9; _coney_ (Yks.
Lin. e.An. Ken. Sus. Wil. Cor.), a rabbit; _daysman_ (Sc. n.Cy. Nhb.),
an arbitrator, an umpire; _ear_ (n.Cy. Yks. Lei. Hrf. Ken. Wil. Som.),
to till or plough land; _fitches_ (gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. Eng.),
vetches; _leasing_ (Sc. Nhb. Yks.), lying, falsehood; _let_ (Irel. Wm.
Yks. Chs. Der. Lin. War. sw.Cy.), to hinder, impede; _magnifical_
(Som.), grand, fine; _marish_ (Sc. Irel. Yks. Chs.), a marsh, O.Fr.
_mareis_; _mote_ (Sc. Irel. Yks. I.W. sw.Cy.), an atom, a minute
splinter of wood, or particle of straw; _pill_ (Yks. Lan. Chs. Stf. Der.
Not. Lin. Midl. Shr. e.An. Som.), to peel, strip off the outer bark;
_tabor_ (Chs. Stf. Lei. Nhp. War. Wor. Shr. Glo.), to rap, tap lightly;
_wist_ (Nhb. Yks.), knew, and known, in the phrase _had I wist_ (Nhb.
Yks. Lan.), had I known, cp.:
For feare of foole had I wist cause thee to waile,
let fisgig be taught to shut doore after taile.
Tusser, _Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie_, 1580.
_Wrought_ (Sc. Irel. n.Cy. Der. Suf.), preterite of to work: worked,
laboured. Some of these old words and expressions have become so common
that they must now be counted as colloquialisms, as, for instance, the
phrase _away with_, meaning to endure, put up with: ‘The calling of
assemblies I cannot away with,’ _Isaiah_ i. 13, cp. ‘I can nat away with
my wyfe, she is so heedy, _je ne puis poynt durer auecques ma femme,
elle est si testue_,’ Palsgrave, _c._ 1530. Another now commonplace word
is _ado_, which has been immortalized by Shakespeare’s use of it in the
title of one of his plays. It occurs in _Mark_ v. 39: ‘Why make ye this
ado, and weep?’ cp. ‘Ado or gret bysynesse, _sollicitudo_,’ _Prompt.
Parv._
[Sidenote: _Shakesperian Words in the Dialects_]
In the same way most of the obsolete Shakespearian words can still be
traced in the dialects. The Shakespeare-Bacon theory, if not too dead
and gone to be worth further combat, could easily be completely
overthrown by any one who chose to array against it the convincing mass
of evidence which proves Shakespeare’s intimate acquaintance with the
Warwickshire dialect. Numbers of the words and phrases which Shakespeare
used, and which we have since lost, still exist in his native county,
and in the other counties bordering on Warwickshire. Some of them were
at that date part and parcel of the standard vocabulary, and might be
put by Shakespeare into the mouths of his highest personages; others
again must even then have been regarded by him as dialect, and natural
only to the speech of lower folk. It is Corporal Nym who says _shog_ for
move, jog: ‘Will you shog off?’ _Hen. V_, II. i. 47; ‘Shall we shog? the
king will be gone from Southampton,’ _Hen. V_, II. iii. 47. It is a
serving-man who uses the phrase _to sowl by the ears_: ‘He’ll go, he
says, and sowl the porter of Rome gates by the ears,’ _Cor._ IV. v. 213;
and it is Mistress Quickly, the hostess of a tavern, who calls herself a
‘lone woman’ when she means she is a widow: ‘A hundred mark is a long
one for a poor lone woman to bear,’ _2 Hen. IV_, II. i. 35. But to
classify after this sort all the old words in Shakespeare would entail
a classification of all the characters in the plays, and would thus be
outside the scope of this book. I cannot therefore do more than give
examples massed together irrespective of the question whether they were
literary words or not in Shakespeare’s time:
_Bavin_, a bundle of brushwood, a faggot, cp.:
In stacking of bauen, and piling of logs,
Make under thy bauen a houell for hogs.
Tusser.
_Bawcock_, a semi-mocking term of endearment, a foolish person;
_biggin_, a nightcap without a border:
Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
Snores out the watch of night.
_2 Hen. IV_, IV. v. 26-8.
[Sidenote: _Biggin, Bolter, Blouze_]
The word also denoted a child’s cap, hence: From the biggin to the
nightcap, signifies from childhood to old age. It is worth noting that
this is the meaning which Dr. Johnson assigns to the word--cp. ‘Biggin
... A child’s cap’--and he gives as the sole illustration the above
quotation from Shakespeare. _Bolter_, used of snow, dirt, &c., means to
cohere, form into lumps: ‘blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me,’ _Macb._
IV. i. 123; _blouze_, a fat, red-faced wench, a coarse, untidy woman,
also termed a blossom: ‘Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom,
sure,’ _Tit. And._ IV. ii. 72; _codger_, a shoemaker: ‘Ye squeak out
your cozier’s catches,’ _Twelfth N._ II. iii. 97; _day-woman_, a
dairymaid; _dowl_, down, soft feathers; _drumble_, to be sluggish and
slow in movement; _cowl_, a large tub: ‘Go take up these clothes here
quickly. Where’s the cowl-staff? look, how you drumble! Carry them to
the laundress in Datchet-mead; quickly, come,’ _Merry Wives_, III. iii.
156; _fettle_, to prepare, make ready; _fill-horse_, the shaft-horse;
_firk_, to beat; _flap-jack_, a pancake; _gaberdine_, a loose garment or
smock-frock: ‘Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to creep
under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabout: misery
acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows,’ _Temp._ II. ii. 40; _flaw_, a
sudden gust or blast of wind:
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter’s flaw!
_Ham._ V. i. 238, 239.
_Gallow_, to frighten; _geck_, a fool; _grize_, a step; _haggle_, to
hack, mangle; _inch-meal_, little by little; _inkle_, an inferior,
coarse kind of tape: ‘He hath ribbons of all the colours i’ the rainbow,
... inkles, caddisses, cambrics, lawns,’ _Wint. Tale_, IV. iv. 208. As a
simple word, _inkle_ is dying out now, but the compound _inkle-weaver_
is very common in the phrase: As thick as inkle-weavers, very friendly
or intimate together. _Insense_, to cause to understand, to explain,
inform, literally to put sense into. The word is usually spelt _incense_
in Shakespeare editions, so that it becomes mixed up with _incense_, to
enrage, incite, but _insense_ is clearly the right spelling in such a
passage as:
Sir, I may tell it you, I think I have
Incensed the lords o’ the council that he is--
For so I know he is, they know he is--
A most arch-heretic.--_Hen. VIII_, V. i. 42-5.
_Jance_, to knock about, expose to circumstances of fatigue; _kam_,
crooked, awry, e.g. It’s clean kam, an’ nowt else (Lan.), cp. ‘This is
clean kam,’ _Cor._ III. i. 304; _kecksies_, hemlock, and similar
hollow-stalked plants; _keech_, a lump of congealed fat:
I wonder
That such a keech can with his very bulk,
Take up the rays o’ the beneficial sun.
_Hen. VIII_, I. i. 54-6.
Cp. ‘Did not goodwife Keech, the butcher’s wife, come in then and call
me gossip Quickly?’ _2 Hen. IV_, II. i. 101; _kibe_, a chilblain, a
crack in the skin: ‘The age is grown so picked that the toe of the
peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe,’
_Ham._ V. i. 153. An Irish recipe for the cure of kibes is as follows:
The person suffering from kibes must go at night to some one’s door and
knock. When any one asks ‘Who’s there?’ the person who knocked must
run away calling, ‘Kibey heels, take that.’ Then the kibes will leave
the person who has them, and pass to the one who called ‘Who’s there?’
_Knoll_, to toll; _malkin_, a slattern; _mammock_, to break or cut to
pieces, tear, mangle; _mated_, confused, bewildered, e.g. I be reg’lar
mated (Oxf.), cp. ‘My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight,’ _Macb._
V. i. 86; _mazzard_, the head or face; _milch_ or _melch_, warm, soft,
and moist, in the modern dialects applied chiefly to the weather,
e.g. Ther’s a deäl of foäks is badly, an’ its all thruf this melch
weather (Lin.), cp. ‘Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,’
_Ham._ II. ii. 540. The word is connected with Du. _malsch_, tender,
soft, E.Fris. _malsk_, and has probably nothing to do with _milch_,
milk-giving. _Minikin_, small, delicate, effeminate; _moble_, to muffle
the head and shoulders in warm wraps:
_First Play._ But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen--
_Ham._ The mobled queen?
_Pol._ That’s good; mobled queen is good.
_Ham._ II. ii. 524-7.
[Sidenote: _Moble, Muss, Nook-shotten_]
_Muss_, a disturbance, uproar, squabble; _neeze_, to sneeze:
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear.
_Mid. N. D._ II. i. 55, 56.
Cp. ‘By his neesings a light doth shine,’ _Job_ xli. 18; _nook-shotten_,
shot into a corner, used in Cheshire of cheese put aside from the rest
as inferior:
... but I will sell my dukedom
To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm
In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.
_Hen. V_, III. v. 12-14.
_Nay-word_, a by-word; _orts_, remnants, scraps, especially of food;
_peat_, a term of endearment, a pet; _pick-thank_, a flatterer, a
tale-bearer, a mischief-maker; _plash_, a puddle, a small pool; _pink_,
adj. and vb. small, to make small, to contract, especially to contract
the eyes: ‘Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne,’ _A. and C._ II. vii. 121;
_poach_, _potch_, to poke, especially with the fingers, to thrust;
_pomewater_, a large kind of apple; _quat_, a pimple; _rack_, flying
clouds, thin broken clouds driven by the wind:
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face.
_Sonn._ xxxiii. 5, 6.
_Reechy_, smoky, begrimed with smoke, dirty; _reneague_, _renege_, to
refuse, deny; _rivelled_, wrinkled, puckered; _shive_, a slice of
anything edible, especially of bread; _skillet_, a small metal vessel
used for boiling liquids: ‘Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,’
_Oth._ I. ii. 273; _sleeveless_, useless, bootless, especially in the
phrase _a sleeveless errand_, cp. _Troil. and Cr._ V. iv. 9; _squinny_,
to squint, look askance; _stover_, winter fodder for cattle:
Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,
And flat meads thatch’d with stover, them to keep.
_Temp._ IV. i. 62, 63.
_Tetchy_, peevish, irritable; _trash_, a cord used in checking dogs, a
long slender rope fastened to the collar of a young pointer or setter if
headstrong and inclined to run in:
If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
I’ll have our Michael Cassio on the hip.
_Oth._ II. i. 312-14.
_Trencher-man_, a term applied to a person with a good, hearty appetite;
_urchin_, a hedgehog; _utis_, noise, confusion: ‘By the mass, here will
be old utis,’ _2 Hen. IV_, II. iv. 22; _yare_, ready, prepared; _yerk_,
to strike hard, to beat.
[Sidenote: _Shakespearian Phrases in the Dialects_
_Make a coil, Be in a taking_]
Among interesting expressions of Shakespeare’s date still existing in
the dialects are: _to burn daylight_, to light candles before they are
wanted; figuratively, to waste time:
_Mercutio._ ... Come, we burn daylight, ho!
_Rom._ Nay, that’s not so.
_Mer._ I mean, Sir, in delay
We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
_Rom. and Jul._ I. iv. 43-5.
[Sidenote:_Make a coil, Be in a taking_]
_To make a coil_, to make a stir, confusion, or fuss: ‘I am not worth
this coil that’s made for me,’ _King John_, II. i. 165; _come your
ways_, come here, _Ham._ I. iii. 135, _Troil. and Cres._ III. ii. 44;
_pass_, condition, state, in phrases: ‘What, have his daughters brought
him to this pass?’ _Lear_, III. iv. 65, ‘Till I be brought to such a
silly pass,’ _T. Shrew_, V. ii. 124; _to one’s head_, to one’s face,
e.g. I told him to his head that I wouldn’t have such goings on in my
house any more (Sus.):
... he shall bring you
Before the duke, and to the head of Angelo
Accuse him home and home.
_Meas. for Meas._ IV. iii. 146-8.
_To be helped up_, used ironically: to be in a difficulty, e.g. What
with the missis bad, and him out of work, they’re well helped up (War.).
You’re prettily holp up, is a common expression of derision, cp.:
A man is well holp up that trusts to you;
I promised your presence and the chain;
But neither chain nor goldsmith came to me.
_Com. of Errors_, IV. i. 22-4.
_To be in a taking_ (gen. colloq. use), a state of excitement, grief, or
perplexity; a fit of petulance or temper, cp. ‘What a taking was he in
when your husband asked who was in the basket,’ _Mer. Wives_, III. iii.
191; _a hole in the coat_, a flaw or blemish in character or conduct,
cp. ‘If I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him my mind,’ _Hen. V_,
III. vi. 87; _to make the door_, to shut or fasten the door: ‘Make the
doors upon a woman’s wit, and it will out at the casement,’ _A. Y. L.
I._ IV. i. 162; _to stand one on_, to be incumbent on, to be to one’s
interest, cp.:
... For my state
Stands on me to defend, not to debate.
_Lear_, V. i. 68, 69.
_A thing of nothing_, a trifle, next to nothing, e.g. He bought a lot
o’ taters for his cows, and got ’em for a thing o’ nothing (Chs.),
cp.: _Ham._ The king is a thing-- _Guil._ A thing, my lord? _Ham._ Of
nothing, _Ham._ IV. ii. 30-32. Beside this exists also the parallel
expression ‘a thing of naught’, in the dialects now, _a thing of
nowt_: ‘You must say “paragon”: a paramour is, God bless us, a thing
of naught,’ _Mids. N. D._ IV. ii. 14, cp. ‘They that war against thee
shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought,’ _Isaiah_ xli. 12.
_Worth a Jew’s eye_, of great value, e.g. Hoo mays a rare weife, hoo’s
wo’th a Jew’s eye (Chs.), cp.:
There will come a Christian by,
Will be worth a Jewess’ eye.
_M. of Ven._ II. v. 42, 43.
[Sidenote: _Shakespeare’s Knowledge of Dialect_]
The Quartos and Folios read ‘a Jewes eye’, which is now considered the
better reading. The expression _the varsal world_ only differs by a
normal change in pronunciation from Shakespeare’s ‘versal world’: ‘I’ll
warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout in the versal
world,’ _Rom. and Jul._ II. iv. 220. Opinions differ as to the precise
meaning of the second element in _cock-shut_, twilight, the close of the
day, used also in the phrase _cock-shut time_:
Thomas the Earl of Surrey, and himself,
Much about cock-shut time, from troop to troop
Went through the army.--_Rich. III_, V. iii. 69-71.
The corresponding term for daybreak is _cock-light_. _More sacks to the
mill_ is a game played in Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It is a
rough-and-tumble boys’ game, in which as many boys as possible are
heaped together, one above another. As each successive boy is added to
the heap the boys shout: More sacks to the mill! cp.:
More sacks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish!
Dumain transform’d! four woodcocks in a dish.
_L. L. L._ IV. iii. 81, 82.
The ancient game of _loggats_ has died out, but the term is still used
to denote the small sticks or pieces of wood used in playing _trunket_
and other games. Cp. ‘Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to
play at loggats with ’em? mine ache to think on’t,’ _Ham._ V. i. 100.
Another Shakespearian game is the _Nine Men’s Morris_, also known as
_Merills_: ‘The boyish game called Merils or five-penny Morris; played
here most commonly with stones, but in France with pawns or men made of
purpose and tearmed Merelles,’ Cotgrave, cp. ‘The nine men’s morris is
fill’d up with mud,’ _Mids. N. D._ II. i. 98. _Hunt’s up_ is an old pipe
tune especially used by the waits on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning:
Hunsep through the wood, Hunsep through the wood,
Merrily goes the day, sir;
Get up old wives and bake your pies,
To-morrow is Christmas Day, sir.
Cp. ‘Hunting thee hence with hunt’s up to the day,’ _Rom. and Jul._ III.
v. 34. From the derived sense of tumult, outcry, has been developed a
verb used in the Lake District in the meaning of to scold, rate, abuse,
e.g. He’ll hunsip thi fer thi pains. But, lest this list become
wearisomely long, it shall close with the time-worn interjectional
phrase: _Adone_, cease, leave off, cp. ‘Therefore ha’ done with words,’
_T. Shrew_, III. ii. 118.
[Sidenote: _Dr. Johnson’s Testimony_]
Dr. Johnson bears his testimony to Shakespeare’s knowledge of dialect
and colloquial speech in the Preface to the Dictionary: ‘If the language
of theology were extracted from Hooker and the translation of the Bible;
the terms of natural knowledge from Bacon; the phrases of policy, war,
and navigation from Raleigh; the dialect of poetry and fiction from
Spenser and Sidney; and the diction of common life from Shakespeare, few
ideas would be lost to mankind, for want of English words, in which they
might be expressed.’ But the Dictionary ‘was intended primarily to
furnish a standard of polite usage, suitable for the classic ideals of
the new age’ (v. _Six Essays on Johnson_, by Walter Raleigh, p. 82).
Johnson, therefore, though he incorporated this ‘diction of common
life’, did not hesitate to sit in judgment upon it when he thought fit.
Take for example the phrase _to make bold_, which appears in the
Dictionary thus: ‘_to make bold_. To take freedoms: a phrase not
grammatical, though common. _To be bold_ is better; as, _I was bold to
speak_.
I have _made bold_ to send to your wife;
My suit is, that she will to Desdemona
Procure me some access. _Shakesp. Othello._’
[Sidenote: _Johnson’s Dictionary_]
(This--it may be mentioned in passing--is one of the cases where Johnson
is quoting from memory, rather than from a printed text, as is shown by
slight verbal inaccuracies, v. _Oth._ III. i. 35.) Or again: ‘_To have
rather_. [This is, I think, a barbarous expression of late intrusion
into our language, for which it is better to say _will rather_.]’ It is
a very common phrase in Shakespeare, though Johnson does not here cite
his authority.
[Sidenote: _Johnson’s Dialect_
_Johnson’s Treatment of Dialect_]
In the early days of Dictionaries a lexicographer impressed his work
with the stamp of his own personality in a way which is impossible in
modern times when Dictionary-making ranks among the abstract sciences.
Johnson’s Dictionary is pre-eminently personal, betraying the author’s
character and opinions at every turn; indeed, certain definitions, such
as those of ‘lexicographer’, ‘grubstreet’, ‘pension’, ‘excise’, &c.,
have become the hackneyed illustrations wherever Johnson’s life and
writings are discussed. It is not surprising, therefore, if we find in
his treatment of dialect words some points of biographical interest.
Certain of his views with regard to literature and language are plainly
given in his Preface to the Dictionary: ‘I soon discovered that the
bulk of my volumes would fright away the student, and was forced to
depart from my scheme of including all that was pleasing or useful in
English literature, and reduce my transcripts very often to clusters of
words, in which scarcely any meaning is retained; thus to the weariness
of copying, I was condemned to add the vexation of expunging. Some
passages I have yet spared, which may relieve the labour of verbal
searches, and intersperse with verdure and flowers the dusty desarts
of barren philology.’ Speaking of the difficulty of collecting words,
he says: ‘the deficiency of dictionaries was immediately apparent;
and when they were exhausted, what was yet wanting must be sought by
fortuitous and unguided excursions into books, and gleaned as industry
should find, or chance should offer it, in the boundless chaos of
living speech.... That many terms of art and manufacture are omitted,
must be frankly acknowledged; but for this defect I may boldly allege
that it was unavoidable: I could not visit caverns to learn the
miner’s language, nor take a voyage to perfect my skill in the dialect
of navigation, nor visit the warehouses of merchants, and shops of
artificers, to gain the names of wares, tools, and operations, of which
no mention is found in books; what favourable accident, or easy inquiry
brought within my reach, has not been neglected; but it had been a
hopeless labour to glean up words, by courting living information, and
contesting with the sullenness of one, and the roughness of another.’
But even a cursory glance through the pages of the Dictionary show
that where the ‘living information’ was his own knowledge of the
dialect words of his native county it was a ‘labour’ of love to glean
them up and place them among his ‘verdure and flowers’, above the
region of ‘boundless chaos’. Just as it can be shown from the internal
evidence of their respective Dictionaries that Skinner belonged to
Lincolnshire, Levins to Yorkshire, and Cotgrave to Cheshire, so it
could be proved that Johnson belonged to Staffordshire, even if we had
no other testimony outside his Dictionary. Some of the most striking
of these evidences are as follows: ‘Lich.... A dead carcase; whence
_lichwake_, the time or act of watching by the dead; _lichgate_, the
gate through which the dead are carried to the grave; _Lichfield_, the
field of the dead, a city in Staffordshire, so named from martyred
Christians. _Salve magna parens._’ ‘_Kecksy_. n.s. [commonly _kex_,
_cigue_, French; _cicuta_, Latin. Skinner.] Skinner seems to think
_kecksy_ or _kex_ the same as hemlock. It is used in Staffordshire both
for hemlock, and any other hollow jointed plant.’ ‘Shaw.... A thicket;
A small wood. A tuft of trees near Lichfield is called Gentle _shaw_.’
‘Tup. n.s. [I know not of what original.] A ram. This word is yet
used in Staffordshire, and in other provinces.’ In other cases, though
he does not mention his own native county, he seems to be so familiar
with the word in question, as belonging to rustic speech, that, with
the evidence of its existence in the Midland dialects of to-day, we may
safely assume that it was current in the Staffordshire dialect of his
time. For example: ‘Huff. n.s. [from _hove_, or _hoven_, swelled: he is
_huffed up by distempers_. So in some provinces we still say the bread
_huffs up_, when it begins to _heave_ or ferment: _huff_, therefore,
may be ferment. To be in a _huff_ is then to be in a _ferment_, as we
now speak],’ cp. _huff_ (Sh.I. Yks. Lei. Nhp. War.), to swell, puff
up; to rise in baking, generally used with _up_. ‘Clees, n.s. The two
parts of the foot of beasts which are cloven-footed. _Skinner_. It
is a country word, and probably corrupted from _claws_,’ cp. _clee_
(gen. dial. use in Eng.), claw. It represents O.E. _clēa_, the nom.
form of the substantive which in the oblique cases has given Eng.
_claw_. ‘_Fleet_. v.a.... 3. [In the country.] To skim milk; to take
off the cream: whence the word _fleeting_ dish,’ cp. _fleet_ (Cum.
w.Yks. Lan. Hrt. e.An. Suf. Ken.), to skim, take off the surface,
especially to take off the cream from milk; _fleeting-dish_, a flat
dish used in skimming cream from milk. ‘Gleed. n.s.... A hot glowing
coal. A provincial and obsolete word,’ cp. _gleed_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb.
Cum. Chs. Stf. Der. Not. Lei. Nhp. War. Wor. Shr. Glo.), a spark,
ember, red hot-coal, &c. ‘To Pound, v.a. [punian, Sax. whence in many
places they use the word _pun_].’ The form _pun_ still exists in the
following counties: n.Cy. w.Yks. s.Chs. Der. Not. Lei. War. Wor. Shr.
Hrf. Glo. ‘Rear. adj.... 1. Raw; half roasted; half sodden. 2. Early. A
provincial word.
O’er yonder hill does scant the dawn appear,
Then why does Cuddy leave his cot so _rear_? _Gay._’
Cp. _rear_ (gen. dial. use in Eng.), of meat, eggs, &c.: half-cooked,
underdone, O.E. _hrēr_, not thoroughly cooked, lightly boiled. ‘Soe.
n.s. [_sae_, Scottish]. A large wooden vessel with hoops, for holding
water; a cowl. A pump grown dry will yield no water; but pouring a
little into it first, for one bason full you may fetch up as many
_soe_-fills. _More._’ Cp. _soa_ (n.Cy. Nhb. Stf. Lin. Bdf. e.An.), a
large round tub, gen. with two ears; used for brewing or carrying water,
O.N. _sār_, gen. _sās_, a large cask. ‘Suds. n.s.... 1. A lixivium of
soap and water. 2. _To be in the_ Suds. A familiar phrase for being in
any difficulty.’ The same phrase is still extant in n.Lin. and s.Wor.
‘To Toot. v.n.... To pry; to peep; to search narrowly and slily. It is
still used in the provinces, otherwise obsolete.
I cast to go a shooting,
Long wand’ring up and down the land,
With bow and bolts on either hand,
For birds and bushes _tooting_. _Spenser’s Past._’
[Sidenote: _Johnson’s Scottish Assistants_
_Johnson’s Treatment of Scots Words_
_‘Low Words_]
Cp. _toot_ (Sc. Nhb. Cum. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Lin. Rut. Lei. Nhp.
War.), to peep, and pry about; to spy, O.E. _tōtian_, to peep out.
‘To Trape. v.a. [commonly written _to traipse_: probably of the same
original with _drab_]. To run idly and sluttishly about. It is used
only of women,’ cp. _trape_ (Cum. Wm. Lin. Nrf. Suf.), to walk in a
slovenly manner, especially with the dress trailing; and _trapes_ (gen.
dial. and colloq. use in Sc. Irel. and Eng.), used in the same sense.
One striking example of accurate knowledge of a word belonging only to
a very limited locality is the entry: ‘Sarn. n.s. A British word for
pavement, or stepping stones, still used in the same sense in Berkshire
and Hampshire,’ cp. _sarn_ (Shr. Brks. Hmp.), a culvert; a pavement;
stepping stones, cp. Wel. _sarn_, pauimentum. The word _atter_ Johnson
introduces on the authority of Skinner: ‘Atter. n.s.... Corrupt matter,
A word much used in Lincolnshire. _Skinner._’ It is used to-day only
in certain northern counties, and in East Anglia. The information
concerning words then current ‘in the northern counties, and in
Scotland’, was probably supplied by Johnson’s assistants. Out of his
six amanuenses, five were Scots.[1] A few examples of these words are:
‘Fain. adj.... 1. Glad; merry; chearful; fond. It is still retained
in Scotland in this sense.’ ‘Flit. v.n.... 2. To remove; to migrate.
In Scotland it is still used for removing from one place to another
at quarter-day, or the usual term.’ ‘Grout. n.s. [... In Scotland
they call it _groats_.] 1. Coarse meal.’ ‘Haver is a common word in
the northern counties for oats: as, _haver_ bread for oaten bread.’
‘Kirk. n.s.... An old word for a church, yet retained in Scotland.’
‘To Lout. v.n.... In Scotland they say, a fellow with _lowtan_ or
_luttan_ shoulders; that is, one who bends forwards; his shoulders or
back,’ cp. _looting_, ppl. adj. stooping, bending, now occurring in Sc.
dialects only. ‘Leverook. n.s.... This word is retained in Scotland,
and denotes the lark. The smaller birds have their seasons; as, the
_leverook_. _Walton’s Angler._ If the lufft faa ’twill smoore aw the
_leverooks_. _Scotch Prov._’ This proverbial saying is still found in
Sc. dialects, used in speaking to those who expect unlikely evils to
befall them. Other examples of extant Scottish words noted by Johnson
are Ambry, Bannock, Jannock, Lyart, Lope, Piggin, Sark, Skep, Thrapple,
Throdden. Numbers of modern dialect words are to be found in Johnson’s
Dictionary stigmatized by him as ‘low’. Without making a complete
collection of them, and submitting them to careful linguistic study,
it is impossible to say definitely in each case why he thus marked
them off from polite speech. One is, however, tempted to think that he
sometimes thus disposed of a word simply because he did not happen to
know it in his own dialect; for some of his ‘low’ words have no worse
history than others which he admits as ‘provincial’. For example: ‘To
dag. v.a.... To daggle; to bemire; to let fall in the water,’ is given
as ‘a low word’, while the synonymous ‘To daggle’ is admitted without
comment; cp. _dag_, to trail in the dew, wet, or mire, to bedraggle,
now essentially a Midland word, and _daggle_ (n.Cy. Yks. Chs. Lei.
Nhp. War. Oxf. e.An. Suf.), with the same meaning. Others of his ‘low’
words yet current are: ‘To Collogue, v.n.... To wheedle; to flatter; to
please with kind words’; ‘A Clutter, n.s.... A noise; a bustle; a busy
tumult; a hurry; a clamour’; ‘To dizen. v.a.... To dress; to deck; to
rig out.’ On the other hand, modern usage confirms Johnson’s opinion in
the case of: ‘Souse. adv. With sudden violence. A low word’; ‘To Swop.
v.a. [Of uncertain derivation.] To change; to exchange one thing for
another. A low word’; and so with many other words, which are to the
present day, not dialect, but colloquial and slang expressions that
have never worked their way up into ‘polite usage’, as has been the
better fortune of: ‘To budge’; ‘To coax’; ‘Quandary’; ‘Touchy’; and a
few more, which were once also under the ban of Johnson’s opprobrium,
and were each branded with his stern, judicial dictum, ‘a low word’.
[1] ‘For the mechanical part he employed, as he told me, six amanuenses;
and let it be remembered by the natives of North Britain, to whom he is
supposed to have been so hostile, that five of them were of that
country. There were two Messieurs Macbean; Mr. Shiels, who we shall
hereafter see partly wrote the _Lives of the Poets_ to which the name of
Cibber is affixed; Mr. Stewart, son of Mr. George Stewart, bookseller at
Edinburgh; and a Mr. Maitland. The sixth of these humble assistants was
Mr. Peyton, who, I believe, taught French, and published some elementary
tracts.’--Boswell, _Life of Johnson_, sub anno 1748. Ed. G. Birkbeck
Hill (1887), vol. i, p. 187.
[Sidenote: _The Survival of Rare Words_]
We have already seen that numbers of familiar words which we were wont
to look upon as dead bodies embalmed in the prose or verse of bygone
centuries, are yet alive and active in the dialects of to-day. But not
only have the familiar words been thus preserved, but also, sometimes,
the rare and unfamiliar. Where scholars have been unable to discern the
true meaning, or where the sense has been merely deduced from the
context, the discovery of the living word in some rustic dialect has
supplied the missing clue, or turned vague conjecture into well-grounded
certainty. There exists in Sussex and Hampshire the word _crundel_, used
to denote a ravine, or a strip of covert dividing open country, always
in a dip, usually with running water in the middle. In the _Codex
Diplomaticus_ edited by Kemble, more than sixty _crundels_ are
mentioned, but the meaning of the word had always remained a puzzle.
Sweet, in his _Anglo-Saxon Dictionary_, defines it as a cavity, a
chalk-pit(?), a pond(?); Bosworth-Toller as a barrow, a mound raised
over graves to protect them; Leo as a spring or well; Kemble as a sort
of watercourse, or a meadow through which a stream flows. It was the
discovery of the existence of the word in the dialects which placed the
correct meaning beyond doubt. In the Old English epic poem _Beowulf_,
occurs the following passage: _Ofer þǣm hongiað hrinde bearwas_, Over
which [lake] hang ... woods. The question as to the meaning of _hrinde_
has formed the subject of frequent discussion, and various translations
have been suggested, e.g. barky, rustling, placed in a ring or circle,
standing in a ring, or gnarled(?), v. _Beowulf_, by W. J. Sedgefield,
Litt.D., 1910. Dr. Richard Morris, however, proved fairly conclusively
that the right meaning should be rimy, frosty. The word _hrinde_ was
taken to be a corrupt form of O.E. _hrīmge_, rimy, covered with
hoar-frost, and this amended reading was adopted in subsequent editions
of the text. Now the word for hoar-frost in several northern dialects is
_rind_, and from a philological point of view, it is quite possible to
connect the two words, and justify the retention of the MS. reading,
whilst corroborating the accepted translation.
[Sidenote: _Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight_]
About the middle of the fourteenth century were produced four
remarkable poems, _Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight_, a romantic
story of the adventures of an Arthurian knight; _Pearl_, a Vision;
_Cleanness_; and _Patience_, stories taken from the Bible. We know
nothing of the life of the author, we do not even know his name.
Perhaps the little ‘Marjory’ who ‘lyfed not two yer in our thede
[country]’ was the poet’s own daughter, and the _Pearl_ the _In
Memoriam_ outpouring of his life’s sorrow. If so, it is the only shred
of his biography which we possess, and some scholars would rob us
even of that, by affirming that the lost ‘Pearl’ was purely a poetic
creation. We can only guess at the man through his works. Judged by
them, he appears to have been a literary country gentleman, born and
bred in Lancashire, a man equally at home in his study, pen in hand,
describing armed knights, and embattled castles, the tumultuous
surgings of the Deluge, and the woes of Jonah in the ‘maw’ of the
‘wylde walterande whal’; or, in the saddle, following the ‘wylde
swyn’, or ‘reynarde’ ‘þe schrewe’ to the sound of horn and bugle and
the ‘glauerande glam of gedered rachchez’ [yelping cry of a pack
of hounds]. He possessed, on the one hand, a real vein of poetic
imagination, coupled with learning and knowledge, and on the other,
all the instincts of a keen sportsman. He was a lover of nature and
outdoor life, with extraordinary powers of accurate observation, and an
artist’s eye for picturesque detail. Thus his memory was stored with
a rich and varied vocabulary which the exigencies of his alliterative
verse brought into full play. Many of the words he used are not found
recorded anywhere else in literature, but they have remained in the
dialect of the district to which the poet belonged. _Sir Gawayne_
especially, by reason of its more secular subject-matter, abounds in
words which are common in the North-country dialects of to-day, and
it is these modern instances which have brought to light previously
hidden meanings, and have confirmed contextual deductions, and thus
enabled us to appreciate more fully the skilful handling of a wide
range of vocabulary which characterizes this unknown poet, sportsman,
and man of letters. In the description of the wondrous caparison of
the Green Knight’s horse are mentioned ‘his molaynes’. The Glossary
to the text gives this word as signifying: round embossed ornaments,
but with a query. Stratmann’s _Dictionary_ gives ‘_Molaine_, sb.?
some ornament of a shield’. No other instance of the use of the word
occurs in literature, but it is found in the Midland and South Midland
spoken dialects: _Mullen_, the head-gear of a horse; the bridle of a
cart-horse. Similarly, ‘toppyng’, another word peculiar to this poem.
The Glossary and Dictionary suggest the meanings ‘mane(?), or top,
head(?)’; the correct meaning as shown by the dialects is: a horse’s
forelock. When the Man in Green ‘gedereȝ vp hys grymme tole, Gawayn
to smyte’, he ‘mynteȝ at hym maȝtyly’, l. 2290. Obviously the verb
‘mynt’ means, as the Glossary says, to aim, or strike, but the more
exact sense, and the one required by the story, is shown by the modern
dialect _mint_ (Sc. Irel. and n.Cy. dialects), to make a feigned
attempt at, to make a movement as if to strike a blow but without doing
it. The Green Knight had appointed his ‘grene chapelle’ as the place
where Sir Gawayne was to receive this blow, and it proves to be ‘nobot
an olde caue, Or a creuisse of an olde cragge’:
Now i-wysse [of a truth], quod Wowayn, wysty is here.
l. 2189.
This word ‘wysty’ is translated in the Glossary by: desert, waste, but
with a query; the marginal paraphrase gives: ‘a desert is here.’ The
word does not, as far as I know, occur in any other literary monument,
but it has been preserved in the poet’s native dialect, cp. _wisty_
(Lan. Chs.), spacious, empty, bare, large, often used in the sense of
needlessly spacious. This meaning is exactly in accordance with the rest
of the speech, and it adds a realistic touch, which was wanting in
‘desert’. Sir Gawayne was looking into the chapel, and he sees it all
big, and bare, and empty--it was an uncanny place:
Now I fele hit is þe fende, in my fyue wytteȝ,
Þat hatȝ stoken [set] me þis steuen [tryst], to strye [destroy]
me here.
...
Hit is þe corsedest kyrk, þat euer I com inne.
ll. 2193-6.
[Sidenote: _Cleanness_]
In the poem called _Cleanness_, beginning with the parable of the
Marriage Feast, occurs the word ‘trasches’:
For what vrþly haþel [man] þat hyȝ honour haldeȝ
Wolde lyke, if a ladde com lyþerly [badly] attyred.
...
With rent cokreȝ [gaiters] at þe kne & his clutte [clouted]
trasches.--ll. 35-40.
The Glossary gives: ‘Trasches = trauses or trossers, ... trousers?’ and
Stratmann’s _Dictionary_ favours the same suggestion, but there is no
longer any doubt that the word is correct as it stands, and that it is
the same as the modern _trash_ (w.Yks. Lan. Chs. Stf. Der.), an old
worn-out boot, shoe, or slipper. The combination ‘cockers and trashes’
appears in Grose’s _Provincial Glossary_, 1790: ‘Cockers and Trashes.
Old stockings without feet, and worn-out shoes. North.’ The next line of
the poem runs:
& his tabarde to-torne & his toteȝ oute.--l. 41.
Here both the Glossary and Dictionary suggest that ‘toteȝ’ is a corrupt
form meaning ‘toes’, the suggestion being made to fit the word ‘oute’,
regardless of the fact that the lad’s feet had already been described
in the previous line. In all probability ‘his toteȝ oute’ means: his
locks disordered, hanging loosely about, cp. _tot_ (Lan. Sus. Hmp.
Som.), in forms _tooat_, _tote_ (Lan.), a tuft, as of grass, hair, &c.
The poem _Patience_ is the story of Jonah, enlarged, and pointed with
a moral. When Jonah is told to rise up quickly and take his way to
Nineveh, he fears the consequences:
I com [if I came] wyth þose tyþynges, þay ta [take] me bylyue,
Pyneȝ me in a prysoun, put me in stokkes,
Wryþe [bind] me in a warlok, wrast out myn yȝen.--ll. 78-80.
[Sidenote: _Patience_]
Both Glossary and Dictionary translate ‘warlok’ by prison, which,
besides being a superfluous repetition of ‘prisoun’ in the preceding
line, does not harmonize with the verb ‘wryþe’. A far better sense is
gained by taking ‘warlok’ to mean chain, fetter, cp. _warlock_ (Lan.
Chs. Som.), to tighten the rope or chain which binds the load upon a
wagon; sb. a method of tightening the rope or chain of a wagon-load, the
fastening thus made, cp. ‘Warloke, or fetyr lock: Sera pedicalis uel
compedalis,’ _Prompt. Parv._ circa 1440.
These are only a few examples out of very many which could have been
cited from these fourteenth-century poems alone, to illustrate the way
in which the study of modern dialects helps us to a better
understanding and appreciation of our older literature.
[Sidenote: _Surnames and Place-names_]
Before leaving the subject of the preservation of old words in the
dialects, one other store-chamber of words no longer current in the
standard speech is worth a passing notice. Many old words which have
ceased to be used as common nouns, have become crystallized in surnames,
and it is interesting to compare them with the existing cognates in the
dialects. I am aware that any attempt to go etymologizing among surnames
or place-names is treading on dangerous ground. It is so easy to rush in
with a fair sounding derivation, which is in reality nothing more than a
worthless guess. I shall not, therefore, venture far afield.
Amongst the names here brought together, I have not included those
which have now no living representative, as for example: Hordern, which
is the O.E. _hord-ærn_, a treasury, a storeroom, lit. a hoard-house.
The word _ærn_ is, as far as I know, wholly obsolete, all except its
final _n_ remaining in _barn_, literally, a barley-house. Or again,
Newbottle, Newbold, which contain the forms O.E. _botl_, _bold_, a
house, a dwelling, now no longer used as a simple word, remaining only
in surnames and place-names.
[Sidenote: _Words denoting Occupations_]
The O.E. suffix _-estre_ was originally used in forming feminine
_nomina agentis_, but already in later O.E. we find _bæcestre_ used
to denote a male as well as a female baker, the name changing hands
with the trade. During the M.E. period _-estre_ became _-ster_ and was
felt to be only an emphatic form of the masculine _-er_, and could be
used indifferently for men or women, so that when baking, brewing,
dyeing, weaving, &c., ceased to be feminine pursuits, the terms
bakester, brewester, litester, webster ceased to convey any tinge of
feminine gender, and in course of time they became the surnames Baxter,
Brewster, Litster, Webster. To sit and spin was, however, an occupation
to which the ladies held undisputed claim, and spinster continued to
designate a woman as distinct and apart from a man, even when the
trade was forgotten, so the term has never become a surname. As a
common noun _backster_ for baker is known in a few northern dialects,
but its use is dying out. In the form _bakester_ it is, however,
used in Cornwall. In the same districts _brewster_ for brewer holds
a similar position. _Litster_ for dyer is practically obsolete now,
though the verb _lit_, to dye, remains in Scotland and the North. It
is a Scandinavian word, from O.N. _lita_, to dye, already occurring in
M.E., cp. ‘That thi fote be littid in blode,’ Hampole, _c._ 1330, _Ps._
lxvii. 25. _Webster_ belongs also to Scotland and the North, but it is
rapidly disappearing in favour of the ordinary word weaver. Where the
A.V. has: ‘My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,’ _Job_ vii. 6,
Wyclif wrote: ‘My daies passiden swiftliere thanne a web is kit down of
a webstere.’
[Sidenote: _Words denoting Physical Features_
_Streams, Meadows, Woods, &c._
_Todhunter_]
The name Brewis means broth, pottage, cp. _brewis_, _browis_ (Sc.
Nhb. Yks. Lan. Chs. Wal. Der. Shr.), broth, or bread soaked in hot
water, gravy, &c., originally a French word, O.Fr. _broez_, broth, in
M.E. _brouis_, _brois_, cp.:
And y shal yeue þe ful fair bred,
And make þe broys in þe led.--_Havelok_, ll. 923, 924.
Bentley is the grassy meadow, Broadbent, the broad field, or hill-side,
cp. _bent_ (Sc. Irel. and in gen. use in n. and midl. counties and
e.An.), any coarse grass, especially that found on moorlands or near
the sea, also a sandy hillock or knoll covered with coarse grass,
a hill-side. The word is used by Chaucer, and by many other early
writers. Brock means a badger, cp. _brock_ (Sc. Irel. n. counties to
Chs., also Lin. Lei., &c.), a badger; but the word is obsolescent.
Chapman is a word that occurs frequently in M.E. literature, meaning
merchant, trader. It is closely connected with _cheap_, and _chaffer_,
cp. _chapman_ (Sc. Irel. Yks. Lan. Lei. Nhp. Shr. e.An.), a pedlar,
a small dealer. Clough, Fairclough, signifies a ravine, cp. _clough_
(n.Cy. dialects), a ravine, chasm, narrow glen. It occurs in Barbour’s
_Bruce_ (1375) in the form _clewch_: ‘In a clewch ... All his archeres
enbuschit he,’ xvi. 386. Garth is the Norse form of our word _yard_,
cp. _garth_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Not. Lin. Nhp.), a small
piece of enclosed ground, usually beside a house, O.N. _garðr_, a small
enclosure of land. Ginnell is probably the same word as O.Fr. _chenel_,
or _chanel_, a channel, cp. _ginnell_ (Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Chs.), a
narrow passage or entry between buildings. In Scotland it denotes a
small channel for water, a street gutter. Greaves is an old form of
_groves_, cp. _greave_ (Irel. Lan.), a grove, a division of a forest,
O.E. _grǣfa_, a bush. Chaucer has the word in a well-known passage:
The busy larke, messager of daye,
Salueth in hire song the morwe graye;
And fyry Phebus ryseth up so brighte,
That al the orient laugheth of the lighte,
And with his stremes dryeth in the greves
The silver dropes, hongyng on the leeves.
_Knightes Tale_, ll. 633-8.
[Sidenote: _Streams, Meadows, Woods, &c._]
Hayward means literally hedge-warden, cp. _hayward_ (Chs. Lin. Wor. Glo.
Oxf. Bdf. Sus. Hmp. Dor. Som.), a manorial officer whose duty it is to
see that fences are kept in repair, to look after the stock, and to
impound stray cattle. One of the earliest instances of the use of the
word in M.E. occurs in the _Ancren Riwle_ (_c._ 1210), or Rule of Nuns,
where reasons are given in support of the Rule that a nun should keep no
beast but a cat only. Among the worldly cares and employments which
would come upon her if she were to keep a cow, is that she would have to
flatter the ‘heiward’. Holt, Hurst, Shaw are common words in the
dialects for wood, copse, O.E. _holt_, _hyrst_, _scaga_, cp. ‘Gaillard
he was as goldfinch in the shaws,’ _Cokes Tale_, l. 3. Inge means a
meadow, cp. _ing_ (Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Not. Lin. e.An. Ken.
Sur. Sus.), a meadow, pasture, especially low-lying land by the side of
a stream or river, M.E. _eng_, O.N. _eng_. Kemp originally meant a
fighter, cp. _kemp_ (Sc. Nhb. Cum. Wm.), a champion, a bold impetuous
person, O.E. _cempa_, a soldier, warrior, O.N. _kempa_, M.E. _kempe_, a
soldier, a champion. In the _Lay of Havelok_ (_c._ 1280) we read
concerning ‘þe starke laddes’ who ‘putten with a mikel ston’:
Hwo so mithe putten þore
Biforn a-noþer, an inch or more,
Wore he yung, or wore he hold,
He was for a kempe told.--ll. 1033-6.
[Sidenote: _Todhunter_]
Murgatroyd, the moor-gate-royd, means the moor-way clearing. This
_gate_ has nothing to do with _gate_, an opening, but we have it in
_gait_, with specialized meaning. It is from O.N. _gata_, a way, cp.
_gate_ (var. dial. uses in Sc. Irel. and Eng.), a way, path, road. It
is very common in M.E. writings. _-royd_ is related to Icel. _ruð_,
a clearing in a wood, cp. _royd_ (Yks. Lan.), a clearing in a wood,
now generally found in place-names and field-names. Pargeter means a
plasterer, and is borrowed from French, cp. _parget_ (n.Cy. Yks. Lan.
Chs. Lin. Nhp. War. Hrf. Glo. Ken. Sur. Sus. Som.), to plaster with
cement or mortar, also to whitewash; _pargeter_, a plasterer. Fr.
(Norm. dial.) _porjeter_, crépir, couvrir une muraille d’un enduit,
O.Fr. (Norm.) _pargeter_, projeter, jeter et répandre en avant. Wyclif
has: ‘Seie thou to hem that pargiten without temperure, that it schal
falle doun,’ _Ezek._ xiii. 11. Ruddock denotes a robin, cp. _ruddock_
(n.Cy. Nhb. Yks. War. Wor. Suf. Ken. Wil. Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.), the
robin, O.E. _rudduc_. Chaucer mentions ‘the tame ruddok’ in his
_Parliament of Foules_. Rutherford means cattle-ford; the more common
form of the word is found in Rotherhithe, literally cattle-harbour,
cp. _rother_ (n.Cy. Lan. War. Wor. Hrf. Sus.), a horned beast, horned
cattle. John of Trevisa, writing of this country in 1387, says:
‘Þis ylond ys best to brynge forþ tren, & fruyt, & roþeron, & oþere
bestes.’ Slade means a valley, a hollow, a grassy plain between hills,
the side or slope of a hill, and is found in many dialects. Snell
is originally an adjective, meaning quick, prompt, cp. _snell_ (Sc.
Irel. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lin.), quick, sharp, acute, keen; and
of the weather: cold, piercing, O.E. _snell_, quick, active. Souter
means a shoemaker, cp. _souter_ (Sc. n.Cy. Yks. Nhp.), a shoemaker,
a cobbler, O.E. _sūtere_ (from Lat. _sutor_), M.E. _soutere_, cp.
‘A somer-game of souteres,’ _P. Plow._ Bk. V, 413. Todhunter is the
fox-hunter, cp. _tod_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Lin.), a fox.
An early occurrence of the word is found in one of Ben Jonson’s poems.
Wong means a field, cp. _wong_ (Yks. Not. Lin. Lei. Nhp.), a field, a
meadow, low-lying land, O.E. _wang_, _wong_, a plain, mead, field, M.E.
_wonge_:
And þe lond þat þor-til longes,
Borwes, tunes, wodes and wonges.
_Havelok_, ll. 1443, 1444.