Warmington.
_The Word "shunt"_ (Vol. iii., p. 204.).--I can confirm what MR. WAY
says on this word. I have looked for the word in all the dictionaries
and glossaries I could lay my hands upon, both in this country and
abroad, but in vain. Singular enough, however, I have found it in the
small edition of Bailey, and in Dr. Ash's _Dictionary_.
In reading the other day Victor Hugo's _Notre Dame_, I met with the word
_Pignon_, which has exactly the same signification as the Welsh word
_Piniwn, the gable or pine end of a house_. Is the French word derived
from the Welsh, or the Welsh from the French? or is the coincidence in
sound and sense purely accidental? Perhaps some of your Welsh
correspondents can explain this.