_Havior_.--The word "havior" is probably of a hybrid character; partly
of Anglo-Saxo, and partly of British origin. If so, the first syllable
is obvious enough, "half" being generally pronounced as if the liquid
were considered an evanescent quantity, "ha'f, heif, hav'," &c., and
"iwrch" is the British word for a roe-buck. Dropping the guttural
termination, therefore, and writing "ior" instead of "iwrch," we
have the significant designation of the animal described by Lord
Braybrooke, whose flesh, like that of the capon, may afford a
convenient variety among the delicacies of the season, if well cooked
according to the recondite mysteries of the gastronomic art.
Hypomagirus.
Trinity College, Oxford, Feb 14.
N.B. "Heifer" has already been explained as "heif-ker, half-cre,"
A.-S., "anner," Br.
_Haviour, Haver, Hyfr_ (No. 15. p. 230, and No. 17. p. 269.).--If I
may throw out a question where I cannot give an explanation, I would
ask, are we not approaching very near to the word "heifer" (from the
Saxon) in these, but especially in the last of the above terms? They
seem to me to be identical. The introduction of the sound of _y_
between the sounds of _v_ and _ur_, is not uncommon in the vernacular
or corrupted pronunciation of many words; nay, it is sanctioned by
general usage, in "behaviour" from "behave," "Saviour" from "save,"
&c. If the words are identical, still the history of the appropriation
of the one to male animals of the class described, and of the other to
females, must be curious and worth investigating. May not the _aver_
and _averium_, like _irreplegibilia_ and other barbarous law terms, be
framed (rather than derived) from one of our English terms, as well as
from the French _avoir_?