_Pamphlet._--This word is ancient, see Lilye’s Euphnes, p. 5; Lambarde’s
Perambulation of Kent, p. 188; Hearne’s Cur. Disc. p. 130; Hall’s
Chronicle, in Edward V. f. 2; Richard III. f. 32; Skelton, p. 47;
Caxton’s Preface to his Virgil, where it is written _paunflethis_;
Oldys’s British Librarian, p. 128; Nash, p. 3, 64; and also his preface,
wherein he has the phrase, “to _pamphlet_ on a person” and
_pampheleter_, p. 30.
The French have not the word pamphlet, and yet it seems to be of French
extraction, and no other than _palm-feuillet_, a leaf to be held in the
hand, a book being a thing of a greater weight. So the French call it
now _feuille volante_, retaining one part of the compound.
_Palm_ is the old French word for _hand_, from whence we have
_palmistry_, the _palm_ of the hand, a _palm_ or span, and to _palm_ a
card, and from thence the metaphor of _palming_ any thing upon a person.