_The Norfolk Dialect_ (Vol. ii., p. 217.).--
_Mauther._--A word peculiar to East Anglia, applied to a girl just grown
up, or approaching to womanhood.
"Ipse eodem agro [Norfolciensi] ortus, a Dan. _moer_," virgo, puella,
"deflectit."--_Spelman_.
Spelman assures us, in endeavouring to rescue the word from the contempt
into which it had fallen, that it was applied by our very early ancestors,
even to the noble virgins who were selected to sing the praises of heroes;
they were called _scald-moers_, q.d. singing mauthers!
"En quantum in spretâ jam voce antiquæ gloria."
"Ray spells the word _mothther_.
"_P._ I am a _mother_ that do want a service.
"_Qu._ O thou'rt a Norfolk woman (cry thee mercy),
Where maids are _mothers_, and _mothers_ are maids."--R. Brome's
_Engl. Moor_, iii. 1.
It is written also _modder_.
"What! will Phillis then consume her youth as an ankresse,
Scorning daintie Venus? Will Phillis be a _modder_,
And not care to be call'd by the deare-sweete name of a mother?"--A.
Fraunce's _Ivy Church_, A. 4. b.
"Away! you talk like a foolish _mauther_"--
says Restive to Dame Pliant in _Ben Jonson. Alchemist_, IV. 7. So Richard
says to Kate, in _Bloomfield's Suffolk ballad:--_
"When once a giggling _mawther_ you,
And I a red-faced chubby boy."--_Rural Tales_, 1802, p. 5.
Perhaps it is derived from the German [Fraktur: magd] with the termination
een or -den added, as in the Lincolnshire dialect, hee-der, and shee-der,
denote the male and female sex.
_Gotsch._--A jug or pitcher with one ear or handle. Forby thinks it may be
derived from the Italian _gozzo_, a throat.
_Holl._--From the Saxon holh. German [Fraktur: hohle], a ditch.
_Anan!_ = How! what say you? Perhaps an invitation to come near, in order
to be better heard, from the Saxon nean, near. Vid. Brockett's,--Jennings,
and Wilbraham's Chesh. Glossaries.
_To be Muddled._--That is, confused, perplexed, tired. Doubtless from the
idea of thickness, want of clearness; so, muddy is used for a state of
inebriety.
_Together._--In Low Scotch, thegether, seemingly, but not really, an
adverb, converted to a noun, and used in familiarly addressing a number of
persons collectively. Forby considers _to_ and the article _the_ identical;
as to-day, to-night, in Low Scotch, the day, the night, are in fact, this
day, this night; so {366} that the expression together may mean "the
gathering," the company assembled.
The authorities I have used are Forby's _Vocabulary of East Anglia_; Moor,
_Suffolk Words and Phrases_; and Lemon, _English Etymology_; in which, if
ICENUS will refer, he will find the subject more fully discussed.