(Vol. vii., p. 455.)
This word, when written or pronounced _enow_, is regarded as a plural, and
relates to _number_. In this sense it is employed in Northampton and other
Midland counties, and is found in old writers. If the word was always
pronounced _enow_, it must be long since. The distinction above hinted at
prevailed in Waller's time, and he conforms to it in the examples quoted.
Butler, in _Hudibras_, has both:
"This b'ing professed we hope _enough_,
And now go on where we left off.'
Part i. canto 2. 44.
Again, line 1153. of the same canto:
"For though the body may creep through,
The hands in grate are _enough_;"
an apparent exception, but not really such. (See also canto 3. 117. 285.,
where it rhymes with "off," as also line 809. At line 739. it written
_enow_, and rhymes with "blow.")
And again, 873:
"My loss of honour's great _enough_,
Thou needst not brand it with a scoff."
Other examples may be quoted from the same author.
In a song, written upon the Restoration of Charles II., we have the
following:
"Were not contented, but grew rough,
As though they had not won _enough_."
_Loyal Arms_, vol. i. p. 244.
In the _Lamentable Tragedy of Cambises_, written early in the reign of
Elizabeth, the word occurs:
"Gogs sides, knaves, seeing to fight ye be so rough,
Defend yourselves, for I will give ye bothe _inough_."
In _Lusty Juventus, a Morality_, temp. Edward VI., is the following:
"Call them Papistes, hipocrites, and joyning of the plough;
Face out the matter, and then good _ynough_."
Here certainly the distinction disappears, as in the next and last example
from _Candlemas Day_, "Ao. Do. 1512," where Joseph is speaking:
"Take hym in your armys, Mary, I you pray,
And of your swete mylke let him sowke _inowe_,
Mawger Herowd and his grett fray:
And as your spouse, Mary, I shall go with you."
It would seem therefore, that this word has had its present pronunciation
about three centuries. {604} Its derivation is directly from the Saxon
_genoh_, but the root is found in many other languages, as the German,
Dutch, Danish, &c.