_sloppes_, garments; here, evidently, jackets of a short length. '_Sloppe_,
garment, _Mutatorium_'; Prompt. Parv.; Icel. _sloppr_, a robe, gown. There
is a parallel passage in the Knight of La Tour-Landry, cap. xlvii (p. 63).
Cf. _oversloppe_, G. 633.
_hainselins_ (also spelt _hanselins_, _anslets_), the same as _sloppes_,
i. e. jackets. Tyrwhitt unluckily says that 'it appears from the context to
mean _a sort of breeches_,' whereas it was the shortness of the _hainselin_
that enabled the breeches to be seen; and his error has been copied by
others. This most unusual word answers to the rare O. F. _hamselin_,
_hamcellim_, or _hainselin_, a sort of robe. Godefroy says--'sorte de robe
_longue_'; whereas it was certainly 'courte.' His examples include the
mention of 'un hainselin de vert brun' in 1416, 'hamselin' in 1403, and an
extract from Christine de Pisan:--
'N'orent pas gonele a pointes,
Mais hamcellins a grans manches
Estroit serrez sus les hanches.'
[460] I suppose the last line means 'tightly gathered in above the hips.'
Cotgrave has: '_sus_, above.' The word is probably of Frankish origin; from
O. H. G. *_hemithil[=i]n_, M. H. G. _hemdel[=i]n_, dimin. of O. H. G.
_hemithi_, a shirt (G. _Hema_). See Fig. 93 and Fig. 136 in Fairholt's
Costume, i. 126, 180.
425. _degysinge_, mode of dress. This alludes to the singular habit of
wearing parti-coloured dresses; see the remarks in Fairholt's Costume, i.
114, 115.
427. _fyr of seint Anthony_, St. Anthony's fire; a popular name for
erysipelas, which this saint was supposed to cure.
429. _honestetee_, decency; as in B. 3908. In 431, it seems to mean
'neatness'; and so in 436.
432. _aornement_, the O. F. form of 'adornment'; see _Adornment_ in the New
E. Dict., in which the oldest quotation for this form is from Caxton. The
expression 'in thinges that apertenen to rydinge' answers to 'his uaire
ridinges' in Ayenb. p. 24, l. 3 from bottom; Fr. 'beles chevauchures.'