As Dr. Todd's query (no. 10. p. 155.) respecting the meaning of the
words "Reheting" and "Rehetour," used by our early English writers, has
not hitherto been answered, I beg to send him a conjectural explanation,
which, if not conclusive, is certainly probable.
In the royal household of France, there was formerly an officer whose
duty it was to superintend the roasting of the King's meat; he was
called the _Hâteur_, apparently in the sense of his "hastening" or
"expediting" that all-important operation. The Fr. _Hâter_, "to hasten
or urge forward," would produce the noun-substantive _Hâteur_; and also
the similar word _Hâtier_, the French name for the roast-jack. If we
consider _Rehâteur_ to be the reduplicate of _Hâteur_, we have only to
make an allowable permutation of vowels, and the result will be the
expressive old English word "Rehetour," an appropriate name for the
royal turnspit. Wycliffe uses it, I think, in the sense of a superfluous
servant, one whose duties, like the Hâteur's, were very light indeed. He
compares the founding of new Orders in an overburthened
Church-establishment to the making of new offices in a household already
crowded with useless (and consequently idle and vicious) servants. The
multitude of fat friars and burly monks charged upon the community were
"the newe rehetours that ete mennes mete," &c.
The term, thus implying an useless "do-nothing," would soon become one
of the myriad of choice epithets in the vulgar vocabulary, as in the
instances from Dunbar and Kennedy.
In a better sense, a verb would be derived, easily; "to rehâte," or
"rehete," i.e. "to provide, {279} entertain, or refresh with meat," and
thence, "to feast with words," as used by Chaucer and the old
Romancists.
Mr. Halliwell's authorities for rendering the participle "Rehating" by
"Burning, or smarting," are not given; but if such a meaning existed, it
may have a ready explanation by reference to the Hâuteur's fireside
labour, though suggestive of unskilfulness or carelessness on his part.
John Westby Gibson.