142 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 various diseases. An " addled " egg means 
 one that is diseased or bad. The word is 
 derived from aidlian, to be useless, bad, or 
 unprofitable. Hence we have idle, ail, and 
 ill. " Allege" is from leggan, to lay down, like 
 " depose" and " deponent," used in legal forms, 
 and taken from the Latin ; that which is alleged 
 or deposed is that which is laid down, and the 
 I j deponent is he who lays down the statement. An 
 MM:i X{/4iM^"ado" is an affair or business, and was applied 
 in a similar sense as when we speak of making 
 a fuss about anything, as " Much ado about 
 nothing." To " abet" is to aid, or assist, from 
 abettian, to make better. " Abroad" means 
 beyond the usual bounds, from ahroedan, to 
 broaden, to extend or lengthen out. " Anxious" 
 was formerly angsome, from ange signifying 
 trouble. The liquor " ale" is a peculiarly English 
 N beverage, and derives its name from the Anglo- 
 ( Saxon wlan, to burn or inflame, of which the 
 thirdperson singular was afo^A, that which warms.* 
 " Broth," means that which briweth, from bri- 
 wan to cook, or boil; hence, also, to brew, 
 '' Blind" means stopped-up, being the past par- 
 ticiple of blinnan, to stop. This explains the 
 meaning of " blind windows," by which are 
 meant stopped-up windows ; and " window- 
 blinds" are so called, because they stop the too 
 
 *"Ale, noble ale; no liquor more preserves the natural 
 heat." — Howell, 
 
SUPPLEMENT. ' 143 
 
 bright rays of the sun from entering at the win- 
 dow. A ** brook" is water breaking out, and was 
 formerly written hrohe. To " broach a vessel" is 
 to break into it, by boring through; and to 
 *' broach a doctrine" is to break it open, to dis- 
 close it. A "break," or brake^ioi a horse, is 
 that by which his unruliness is broken^ by which 
 he is tamed or subjected to use.* The " bit" of 
 a bridle is derived from bcetan, to restrain. 
 " Bann" signified a proclamation ; being placed 
 under a bann meant being procZam^c? an outlaw; 
 but is, perhaps, rather an Anglo-Norman than 
 an Anglo-Saxon word. The " banns" of mar- 
 riage are published, by which the intended mar- 
 riage is proclaimed ; and although this is a pre- 
 liminary step to being bound in wedlock, the 
 word has no etymological relationship to "bands," 
 which mean the same as bonds, from bindan, to 
 bind. From the latter word we have a band or 
 company of men, applied also to a company 
 of musicians. From bann we have the word 
 " banish." We have seen that " beam" meant a 
 tree, now applied only to a piece of a tree which 
 has been felled; the word was also used to de- 
 scribe anything moving in a straight line, as a 
 " sunbeam ;" and from this application of the 
 word came beamian, to shine, as a " beaming'' 
 countenance. "Block" and "lock" are from 
 the Anglo-Saxon beloc or loc, the past participle 
 
 * Kichardson' s /S^wc?^ of Language, p. 130. 
 
 // 
 
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 in 2008 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
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ENGLISH ROOTS. 
 
DUBLIN : 
 
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ENGLISH EOOTS: 
 
 AND 
 
 THE DERIVATION OF WORDS 
 
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 TWO LECTURES. 
 
 BY 
 
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 CHAPLAIN TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE LORD LIEDTENANT. 
 
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 REVISED AND ENLARGED'. WITH A SUPPLEMENT, CONTAINING MANY 
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re 
 
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 ETC., ETC., ETC., 
 
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 [by permission] 
 
 WITH every sentiment OF ADMIRATION AND RESPECT 
 
 FOR HIS PUBLIC SERVICES AND PRIVATE VIRTUES : 
 
 BY 
 
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 OBEDIENT AND OBLIGED 
 
 HUMBLE SERVANT, 
 
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 389 
 
" We often hear of public-spirited individuals, of men who 
 are friendly to the poor and the working classes, of liberal- 
 minded persons anxious for the diffusion of knowledge, and the 
 cultivation of intellectual pursuits. But no one has a right to 
 assume such titles — to take credit for both zeal and knowledge, 
 if he have done nothing in his neighbourhood to promote a 
 popular Lecture." — Lord Brougham. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The following Lectures were delivered, at the 
 close of a course on various subjects, for the 
 Summer Session, 1855, by members of the 
 Waterford Mechanics' Scientific Institute, 
 of which the author has the honour to be a 
 Vice-President ; and, at the request of his au- 
 dience, he now commits them to the press. 
 
 The derivation of words is a subject which 
 has; of late, attracted much attention, and upon 
 which several useful works have been published. 
 The writer of the following pages has confined 
 himself to words derived from the Anglo-Saxon, 
 having been led to the consideration of this 
 branch of the subject by the perusal of the cu- 
 rious and scarce work of Vers teg an, entitled — 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 A Restitution of decayed Intelligence in Antiqui- 
 ties^ concerning the most noble and renowned 
 English Nation; of which the first Edition was 
 published in 1605, and dedicated to King 
 James I. 
 
 To this interesting work the writer is in- 
 debted, in a great measure, not only for his first 
 impressions on the subject, but also for much of 
 the information contained in this volume, more 
 especially as it relates to the derivations of Proper 
 names, and the origin of Titles of honour and of 
 office.^' 
 
 While many of the derivations given in these 
 Lectures have not been met with elsewhere, the 
 greater number have been suggested by reference 
 to the researches of others. The author desires 
 particularly to acknowledge the valuable assist- 
 ance derived from the excellent and compre- 
 hensive Etymological Dictionary of the English 
 Language^ by Dr. Richardson. Nor must he 
 omit to record his obligations to the Diversions 
 of Purley^ under which quaint title Horne 
 
 * The Edition from which quotations have been made in this 
 "Volume is that of 1634. 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 TooKE gave to the world his ingenious philolo- 
 gical disquisitions.^ 
 
 It may be proper to state that much has been 
 added to the following Lectures, which the time 
 usually allotted to such addresses would not allow 
 of being included when they were delivered. 
 
 In thus addressing such bodies as Mechanics' 
 Institutes, the author follows, at humble distance, 
 the example of some of the most distinguished 
 public characters of the present day ; and he feels 
 that, so far from the adoption of such a course 
 being in any way derogatory to the office of a 
 minister of religion, it constitutes an important, 
 although it be but a secondary, part of his duty, 
 to promote, by every means within his power, 
 such objects of general utility as the members of 
 all religious persuasions can unite to carry into 
 effect, with a view to the physical, moral, and 
 
 * The following, amongst others, have likewise been con- 
 sulted : — Lje^ s Diet. Saxon ; Somnei^s Lexicon ; Bosworth's ^«^/o- 
 Saxon Grammar and Dictionary ; Benson's Vocab. Anglo-Saxoni- 
 cum ; and HalliweU's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words ; 
 as also Johnson's and Webster's Dictionaries ; Winning's Compa- 
 rative Philology; Avchbisho-pWhateiys Synonyms ; Mr. Trench's 
 Lectures ; Professor Sullivan's Dictionary ; and Richardson's 
 Study of Language. 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 social improvement of his fellow-countrymen of 
 all classes and creeds. 
 
 Foremost amongst such objects, may be 
 reckoned the establishment of popular lectures, 
 as a means of advancing the great cause of edu- 
 cational progress, to which the author is happy 
 to add the following humble contribution. 
 
 Deanery, Waterford, 
 Augitst 1, 1855. 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 A SECOND Edition of this work having been 
 called for, the author has taken occasion care- 
 fully to revise the whole, at the same time mak- 
 ing several additions to the Lectures as they 
 originally appeared.* 
 
 A Supplement has also been appended, in 
 which will be found upwards of four hundred 
 additional words, traced to their Anglo-Saxon 
 roots. These have been arranged in alpha- 
 betical order, although not given in a formal 
 catalogue, and will, the author hopes, prove 
 interesting to the general reader, as well as 
 useful to teachers, many of whom have intro- 
 duced this work as a text-book into their 
 
 * The additions to the Lectures extend to eight pages in each. 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 schools. The Commissioners of National Edu- 
 cation in Ireland have also purchased copies 
 of the work for the Teachers trained in their 
 model schools in Dublin. 
 
 The adoption of this work as a class-book in 
 schools, has given it a place in educational lite- 
 rature which the author could never have an- 
 ticipated, and which, if he had foreseen, would 
 probably have led him to adopt a different mode 
 of treating the subject. He does not regret this, 
 however, as perhaps the more simple method 
 and style of popular Lectures, in illustrating 
 what is generally considered a "dry" subject, 
 may prove more entertaining, and at the same 
 time not less instructive, than if the same amount 
 of information had been conveyed through the 
 medium of a more formal and elaborate treatise. 
 
 Deanery, Water ford, 
 January Ist^ 1856. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 Page. 
 Introduction — British not spoken by the present English ; 
 nor Irish by all the People of Ireland — Mixture of Races 
 in Ireland — Origin of Diversities of Language — Teuton, 
 Founder of Saxon Race— Manus or Noah — Origin of the 
 term Babbler — First Arrival of Saxons in Britain — Brit- 
 tany formerly called Armorica — Sasonaghs — Saxons, 
 wherefore so called — England, why so named, and by 
 whom — Origin of the Names of Goths, Yandals, Lom- 
 bards, and Welsh — Invasion of the Danes — Norman Con- 
 quest — Efforts to suppress the Anglo-Saxon — the Con- 
 quest proved a Means of spreading the Saxon Language 
 — Norman-French the Language of the Court — Saxon, 
 the People's Language to this Day — ^Normans soon adopted 
 the English Tongue — their Original Language had been 
 Teutonic — Words derived from Latin introduced chiefly 
 in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries — ^Normans 
 the Possessors of the Soil, and Saxons Tillers of the Land 
 — ^Words relating to Agriculture chiefly Saxon — Animals 
 in the Field called by Saxon Names ; but Animal Food, 
 when killed, by Norman- French — Bacon, an Exception — 
 Origin of the Phrase, To save one's Bacon — Days of the 
 Week, and Seasons of the Year, retain their Saxon 
 Names; but the Months derived from Latin — Origin of 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Names of Days of the Week — Lent and Easter, where- 
 fore so called — Derivation of Almanac — the Saxons 
 counted Time by the Nights, and the Age of Man by 
 Winters — Words relating to Handicraft Trades, Saxon — 
 Words applicable to Warfare, French — Nautical Terms 
 and Phrases, Saxon — Words relating to Science and 
 Government, of Greek Origin — simple Nouns and Yerbs, 
 Saxon ; but Adjectives and Derivatives, taken from 
 Foreign Languages —Monosyllables prevail in Anglo- 
 Saxon — Dealers in Necessaries of Life called " Monger," 
 from Saxon — those in Luxuries, " Merchant," from the 
 French — Shires in England, but Counties in Ireland — 
 Derivation of various Words of Saxon Origin [for Par- 
 ticulars of which, see Index to Words at the End of the 
 Volume] — Home Tooke's Etymology of Conjunctions, 
 Adverbs, and Prepositions — Interjections — " Pagans" and 
 *' Heathen" of similar Signification — ^Words pronounced 
 alike, but of different Meanings and Origin — the Names 
 of the Parts of the Human Body, of Plants and Trees, 
 and of Animals, of Saxon Derivation, and, for the most 
 part, Monosyllables, 1 to 70 
 
 LECTURE IL 
 
 Derivation of various Words of Saxon Origin, continued 
 [for Particulars of which, see Index of Words at the End 
 of the Volume] — Origin of " Carouse" and " Wassail," 
 and of "Drinking Healths" — Vortiger and Rowena — 
 Law Terms — the Royal Assent — Divisions in Houses 
 of Lords and Commons — Disposition to borrow Words 
 from French — Anecdote by Verstegan connected with 
 newly introduced Words — ^Necessity of Words of Saxon 
 Origin in English — less Saxon in Ireland than in Eng- 
 land — Changes in Pronunciation of Words — " Irish- 
 isms" — ^Words made to rhyme, indicating the Pronuncia- 
 tion at the Time when the Poets flourished — Instances 
 from Pope, Swift, Cowper, and Lady Mary Wortley — 
 Changes in Orthography of many such Words — Pronuncia- 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Page. 
 tion of Words, like the Fashions, arbitrarj'^ — Prefixes and 
 AflSxes of Saxon Origin — Titles of Honour, and of 
 Office — Derivation of various Saxon Christian Names — 
 Surnames — Expressive Character of the English Lan- 
 guage — Preponderance of Words of Saxon Origin — 
 exemplified by Quotations from, or Reference to, Milton, 
 Shakspeare, Swift, Scott, Gray, Cowper, Byron, Pope, and 
 Tennyson — Dr. Johnson's Style less Saxon — ^Advantage 
 of Words borrowed from Latin and Greek — Synonyms — '■ 
 Importance of Simplicity and Clearness of Style — Saxon 
 generally preferable to adopted Words — Prevalence of 
 the English Language, . . ." . 71 to 132 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Remarks on the Proportion of Words in the English Lan- 
 guage derived from the Anglo-Saxon, and the Charac- 
 ter of such Words, as compared with those of other 
 Origin — Additional Anglo-Saxon Words, with those now 
 obsolete, and still in Use, derived from them [for Parti- 
 culars of which, see Index to Words, at the End of the 
 Volume] — Remarks of Grimm on the English Language 
 — and of Harrison in Hollinshed's Chronicle — Con- 
 clusion, 133 to 210 
 
 INDICES. 
 
 Index to Words explained in the Lectures — and in the Sup- 
 plement — Index to Proper Names — Table of Reference to 
 Classes of Words, and their Derivations, . 211 to 224 
 
" I SHOULD think that person a very injudicious friend to 
 Mechanics' Institutes, who should pretend that, in your reading 
 rooms and lecture rooms, the means were afforded of turning out 
 your members as finished scholars, or ready-made philosophers, 
 or of conferring those distinctions which must always be the 
 reward of the midnight oil of the student, or the life-long re- 
 searches of the experimentalist. But, if it be the object how to 
 raise the toiling masses of our countrymen above the range of 
 sordid cares and low desires — to enliven the weary toil and 
 drudgery of life with the countless graces of literature, and the 
 sparkling play of fancy — to clothe the lessons of duty and of 
 prudence in the most instructive as well as the most inviting 
 forms — to throw open to eyes, dull and bleared with the irksome 
 monotony of their daily task- work, the rich resources andboimtiful 
 prodigalities of nature — to dignify the present with the lessons of 
 the past and the visions of the future — to make the artisans of 
 our crowded workshops and the inhabitants of our most sequest- 
 ered villages alive to all that is going on in the big universe 
 around them, and, amidst all the startling and repelling distinc- 
 tions of our countrj^ to place all upon the equal domain of intel- 
 lect and of genius ; — if these objects — and they are neither slight 
 nor trivial — are worthy of acceptance and approval, I think they 
 can be satisfactorily attained by the means which Mechanics' 
 Institutes place at your disposal ; and it is upon grounds like these 
 that I urge you to tender them your encouragement and sup- 
 port." — Lectures and Addresses ; hy the Earl of Carlisle. 
 
ENGLISH BOOTS, 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 " If we knew the original of all the words we meet with, we 
 should thereby be very much helped to know the ideas they were 
 first appUed to, and made to stand for." — Locke. 
 
 The subject of our lecture this evening is, as 
 announced in the Syllabus — English Roots, and 
 THE Derivation of Words from the ancient 
 Anglo-Saxon Language. 
 
 At first, I had written it for our Secretary, to 
 whose valuable services the *' Waterford Me- 
 chanics' Institute" is so much indebted, as simply 
 a lecture On English Roots. But if 1 had stopped 
 there, without any further explanation of my 
 subject, it might, perhaps, have been thought 
 that I was about to deliver a lecture on the 
 vegetable productions of England ; and those of 
 my audience who are engaged in farming pur- 
 suits, or who take an interest in agricultural 
 
 B 
 
 2- 
 
Z LECTURE I. 
 
 improvement, might have come here this evening 
 expecting a dissertation on the culture of turnips, 
 parsnips, and mangold- worzel ; while my fair 
 hearers might have been disappointed at not 
 being entertained with some interesting accounts 
 of bulbous roots, chrysanthemums, dahlias, and 
 other flower roots, with useful instruction in 
 horticulture. 
 
 To prevent the possibility of any such misap- 
 prehension, I added an explanation, to show that 
 the subject of my lecture is the root of words, 
 and that not of words generally in the English 
 tongue, which is a very mixed language, com- 
 prising words of Saxon and Celtic origin, with 
 some Danish, as well as many derived from the 
 French, and from the languages of ancient 
 Greece and Rome; but on the derivation of 
 words from the Anglo-Saxon, of which the 
 English language is chiefly composed, as I hope 
 to convince you in the course of this lecture. 
 
 It may, perhaps, appear strange, that address- 
 ing an Irish audience, I should choose a disser- 
 tation on the Anglo-Saxon, rather than upon the 
 Celtic tongue, which is, undoubtedly, of equal 
 antiquity, while it is no less expressive, and, I 
 believe, much more poetic. But, in the first 
 place, I must plead ignorance of that language, 
 of which the Irish is a branch ; and, in the next 
 place, if I could discourse upon it, few, if any, 
 of my audience would understand me. I have, 
 
LECTURE I. 6 
 
 therefore, chosen the language which is the root 
 of that which we all speak, instead of that which 
 was spoken by the original inhabitants of this 
 country. And although it may, at first sight, 
 appear strange that an Irishman should be unac- 
 quainted with the Irish tongue, it is in reality 
 no more strange than that the present inhabitants 
 of England are ignorant of the original British, 
 still spoken in Wales. As the English speak, 
 not the British of the original inhabitants of 
 Britain, but the Anglo-Saxon, as now formed 
 into English; so the Irish generally speak, not 
 the Celtic tongue of the original inhabitants of 
 Ireland, but the same language with their English 
 fellow-subjects. Nor should this circumstance 
 offend a reasonable feeling of nationality amongst 
 us. As our English neighbours are justly proud 
 of the name of Britons, although they neither 
 speak the original language of Britain, nor have 
 a common descent from the aboriginal inhabit- 
 ants of the island ; so may we boast of the name 
 of Irish, of which, I hope, none of us will ever 
 be ashamed, notwithstanding that we do not 
 generally^ speak the original language of Ireland, 
 and although, to a great extent, we are the de- 
 scendants of English settlers, of the twelfth, six- 
 teenth, or seventeenth centuries, rather than of 
 the aboriginal inhabitants of the island, with, 
 however, more of the intermixture of races than 
 prevails in England, producing, we flatter our- 
 
4 LECTURE I. 
 
 selves, a union of the good qualities of tlie Saxon 
 and the Celt. 
 
 Of the origin of all the diversities of language 
 amongst mankind, none of us are ignorant, as it 
 is revealed to us on the highest authorit3^ At 
 first we know that " the whole earth was of one 
 language and of one speech ;" and it was natural 
 that the descendants of a common parent should 
 have spoken the same tongue, of which Adam 
 must have been taught the use by his Creator at 
 the first. But in order to the dispersion of man- 
 kind throughout the world, to prevent which 
 they were building " a city and a tower, . . . 
 lest they should be scattered abroad upon the face 
 of the whole earth,^^ the Almighty " confounded 
 their language, that they might not understand 
 one another's speech," Upon which, they neces- 
 sarily separated into different companies, accord- 
 ing as they found they could understand each 
 other ; and thus formed various settlements, 
 speaking the several tongues which constituted 
 the original languages of the earth, and from 
 which all others have been derived. 
 
 Of these primitive languages, spoken by the 
 descendants of Japhet, the eldest of the sons of 
 Noah, who settled in the northern parts of Europe, 
 ^f)f was the Teutonic; so called^from Teuton, by 
 whom the founders of the Anglo-Saxon race 
 were conducted from the plains of Shinar, 
 through Circassia and the Crimea, into Germany 
 
 frf 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 and the northern parts of Europe. Of these 
 nations, who were by the Romans called 
 Germans, Tacitus, a Roman historian who flou- 
 rished about 1800 years ago, writes that they 
 "made mention of one Teuton, whom they alleged 
 to have sprung from the earth." They also spoke 
 of Manus, who had three sons, as one of the found- 
 ers of their race. Under the name of Manus they 
 kept up the tradition of Noah, who might be 
 considered the second founder of the human 
 family after the deluge, from the eldest of whose 
 three sons they were descended. To this name 
 Manus, which these nations had given to Noah, 
 we may, perhaps, trace the Anglo-Saxon name 
 of " man," applied to the human family (like 
 " Israelites" from Israel) ; a name altogether un- 
 like that by which he is designated In Hebrew, 
 Greek, or Latin; although from the word by 
 which man Is named In Latin, we have the 
 adjectives *' human" and "humane," as well as the 
 noun " humanity ;" while from the Greek name 
 we have " misanthrope" and " philanthropy." 
 " Man" Is, however, usually traced to mag an, to 
 be able (from whence comes " may"), as describ- 
 ing him to whom " dominion" was given over 
 the Inferior animals ; and some consider the word 
 as meaning, gifted with mind. 
 
 To the tradition which these nations had of 
 the confusion of languages at the tower of Babel, 
 may be traced the word " babbler," which is a 
 
 / 
 
O LECTURE I. 
 
 Saxon word, of which the meaning is well known. 
 When a man spoke confusedly, and without 
 sense, he was called a babbler, and was said, in 
 the primitive language, to babble* that is, to 
 speak like those at Babel, which word must 
 have been introduced while the occurrence was 
 fresh in their memory, inasmuch as they could 
 not have had it from the volume of inspiration, 
 of which, as pagans, the Anglo-Saxons were for 
 many ages altogether ignorant. A similar word 
 is found in the French language, the original of 
 which, although now so much derived from 
 Latin through the old Provenge, was also Teu- 
 tonic or Celtic, of which many words still remain 
 in that language, and amongst these the words 
 babil and babillard, used in the same sense that 
 the Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon have it. The 
 name Babel, in Hebrew, signified " confusion." 
 
 It is well known that the ancestors of the 
 present English people, as a body, came from 
 Germany, about the middle of the fifth century, 
 having been first invited over by the Britons, to 
 defend them against the Picts, after the departure 
 of the Romans from Britain. The Saxons, having 
 thus obtained a footing in the island, soon became 
 the possessors of the entire country, extirpating 
 the former inhabitants ; destroying multitudes, 
 
 *Thus the apostle Paul was contemptuously described: — 
 " What will this babbler say?" — Acts^ xviii. 18. 
 "A^bahbled of green fields." — Shakspeare. 
 
LECTURE I. 7 
 
 and driving others into tlie mountainous country 
 of Wales, where their descendants are still to be 
 found ; while a considerable number left the island 
 altogether, and, emigrating to the Continent, 
 settled in that part of France which was anciently 
 called Armorica, of which the father of the re- 
 ; nowned Prince Arthur was king in the sixth 
 century, and which has since been, from these 
 settlers, called Brittany, the inhabitants of which 
 evince many characteristics of the Celtic race, of 
 which the ancient British were a branch ; and to 
 this day a man speaking Welsh or Irish can , 
 make himself understood in Brittany. 
 
 The name " Saxons," which — or that otSasa- 
 naghs — is still applied to the English by the 
 Scotch and Irish who yet retain their native lan- 
 guage, is derived from their short swords called 
 seaxes^ which this people used on their first arrival 
 in Britain, and for many ages previously.* Nor 
 is it unusual to designate nations and classes by 
 the arms which they wear. Thus the ancient 
 
 * This gave rise to the following couplet, as quoted by Rapin : 
 " Quippe hrevis gladius apud illos Saxa vocatur^ 
 Undesibi Saxo nomen traxisse putatur" 
 That is— 
 
 " The Saxon people did, as most believe, 
 Their name from Saxa^ a short sword, receive." 
 The signal given for the massacre of the British lords, by the 
 treachery of Hengist, was, Nem eowr seaxes, " Take your seaxes;" 
 and the arms of Saxony are, to this day, three short swords 
 across. See Rapin's History of England^ and Verstegan's Resti- 
 tution of Decayed Intelligence. 
 
8 LECTURE I. 
 
 Quirites were so called from quiris, a short spear^ 
 and the Scythians from scittan, to shoot with a 
 bow ; while we have also musketeers, lancers, and 
 carbineers. The Saxons who invaded Britain 
 were called Anglo-Saxons, because they came , 
 from Angloland, sometimes called Englaland and 
 England, which these Saxons inhabited long | 
 
 () before they came to Britain, as Venerable Bede, j 
 ^ the ancient Saxon chronicler, testifies. Those j 
 who were left on the Continent were called 
 
 1 Eald-Seaxes^ or the old Saxons. 
 
 The origin of the name of England was the 
 Angle-land, whereby they described the narrow- 
 ness of the nook of land which they inhabited on 
 the shores of the Baltic Sea. The word ang or 
 eng signified a narrow strip, from which we 
 probably have the word " angle,"" the long and 
 narrow instrument, consisting of a rod, a line, 
 and a hook, with which an angler catches fish. 
 The word ^^ angle, '^ as describing the narrow 
 point where two lines meet, although derived 
 from Latin, may also have had its first origin 
 from the Teutonic word ang, signifying narrow. 
 The Saxon King Egbert caused Britain to be 
 f r called England, as well because it grows to a 
 ^ ^ narrowness both towards the north and the west, 
 as also out of affection to the original country of 
 his ancestors ; like as the first English emigrants 
 to America gave such names as New England 
 and New York to countries and cities on that 
 
LECTURE I. y 
 
 continent, and more frequently without the qua- 
 lification *' New," as in London, Boston, Halifax, 
 and other instances. King Egbert may also have 
 given this name of " Englishmen!'' to his subjects, 
 now first united, after the Heptarchy, under one 
 king, in allusion to the circumstance of Pope 
 Gregory having referred the name of Angles, 
 formerly given to a portion of the people, to the 
 Latin word for an angel, to which it sounded 
 similar. In reference to this, the first king of all jl f 
 England may have intended to describe his sub- ^ ' 
 jects as angel-like men. "~^ 
 
 Referring to the origin of names of countries, 
 this may be the fit place to notice other names 
 of people, in the English language, derived from a 
 the Saxon. The Goths were the inhabitants of 
 Gothland, originally Gotland, or Goodland, so 
 called by the Northern Saxons, as being the most 
 fertile lying to the south ; the Normans, called 
 by the Saxons Northern-men, were so named 
 from their inhabiting the north. The Vandals 
 were so called from the word Wandel, to wander, 
 being an unsettled wandering tribe. The Lom- ? 
 bards were called Long-beards by the Saxons, 
 from their long beards. Wales and Welsh were ^ 
 so called from Gaul and Gaulish, changing the ' 
 G into W ; the ancient Britons having originally 
 come from Gaul, as France was called before the 
 Franks invaded that seat of the Celtic race. 
 Cornwall was originally called Kernaw, signi- 
 
10 LECTURE I. 
 
 fying "horny," a name probably given to that part 
 of Britain by the Romans, from cornu^ a horn, 
 from the many promontories like horns running 
 into the sea. The Britons having kept that 
 remote part for nearly two centuries after the 
 Saxon invasion, it came to be called Corngaulish, 
 and Cornwales, the horny country inhabited by 
 the Gauls ^ or Welsh. 
 
 About 350 years after the coming of the Saxons 
 into Britain, the Danes invaded England, and 
 remained masters of the island for about two 
 centuries ; and thus introduced some Danish 
 words into the language, which, however, are 
 unimportant, the two languages being very simi- 
 lar, both having had a common origin. 
 
 But the most remarkable event in the history 
 of England, and that which eventually produced 
 the greatest effect upon the language, was the 
 Norman Conquest under William Duke of Nor- 
 mandy, 500 years after the first settlement of the 
 Saxons in Britain. Great efforts were made by 
 the Normans to introduce their language into 
 England, and to suppress the Enghsh tongue ; 
 and for many ages the attempt was continued to 
 enforce Norman-French, and to prohibit the use 
 of Anglo-Saxon amongst the people. Thus, 
 laws were enacted enjoining that no other lan- 
 guage should be taught in schools than French, 
 and ordaining that the laws should be practised 
 in French, and that all petitions and business~~of 
 
LECTURE I. 11 
 
 Court should be also in that language; while 
 the rule was rigidly enforced for many years, 
 that no man should obtain any favour who did 
 not speak French. All these efforts, however, 
 not only proved unavailing, but these enact- 
 ments tended rather to cause the people to cling 
 more earnestly to that which was proscribed. 
 Although, therefore, many new words were intro- 
 duced into the language by the conquerors, 
 derived from their own tongue, yet did the Anglo- 
 Saxon continue, as it does to this day, to be the 
 language of the country ; the greater number of 
 the words, and especially the most important / 
 parts of speech — the Noun and the Verb, being 
 derived from the Saxon. Moreover, the Norman 
 Conquest, by driving the Saxon Royal family, 
 and the majority of the English dispossessed ' 
 land-owners into^ Scotland, was the means of/ 
 still farther spreading their language northwards, 
 where, however, it had long been spoken in parts 
 of the Lowlands, until at length it prevailed 
 throughout that country, with the exception of 
 the more remote parts of the Highlands, where 
 the original language, the Gaelic, being nearly 
 the same with the Irish, continued to be spoken, 
 as it is, to a great extent, to the present day. 
 
 On the other hand, although the Norman- 
 French was the language of the Court, and be- 
 <5ame the forensic language in England, and was 
 spoken by the Norman aristocracy and barons, it 
 
12 LECTURE I. 
 
 never became tlie people's language, and has only 
 left in the English tongue a mixture of words 
 derived from Latin through the French, which 
 are to this day little understood or used among 
 the peasantry in England ; while in many counties 
 the language of the people remains so purely 
 Saxon that any one speaking the English of the 
 present day could scarcely understand their dis- 
 course, or make himself intelligible to them. 
 
 It will not be so surprising, as at first sight it 
 may appear, that the Norman French made so 
 little progress in England, when it is considered 
 that so far were the Normans from extirpating 
 the Saxons, as these latter had exterminated the 
 ancient Britons, or expelled them from the soil, 
 that the conquerors never were more than a 
 handful of the inhabitants of the country ; while 
 the Saxons or English, after a little time, rose in 
 credit and obtained posts of honour and emolu- 
 ment. Moreover, the descendants of those Nor- 
 mans who settled in England soon came to be 
 accounted and called Englishmen, and to speak 
 the English tongue ; which indeed was but a 
 return, to a great extent, to their original lan- 
 guage, for the Normans, when they first settled 
 in that part of France, which was called after 
 them, Normandy, spoke their ancient language, 
 which in effect was the same with the Anglo- 
 Saxon, both being of the Teutonic origin; al- 
 though, in the lapse of about 150 years, they 
 
LECTURE I. 13 
 
 had given it up for the French language. In 
 like manner, the Norman nobility in England, 
 after some time, adopted the English tongue, 
 and in doing so, introduced some Norman- 
 French into the language. But it was not until 
 three centuries after the Conquest, that the Eng- 
 lish language was enriched by the introduction 
 of the Proven gal by Chaucer; and the greater 
 number oTThe words which we now use, derived 
 from the Latin, were not introduced by the | 
 Normans through the French language, but j 
 were taken directly from Latin by the educated | 
 classes in England, on the revival of learning in 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 
 Although, in process of time, the descendants 
 of the first invaders having lost Normandy, and 
 the kings of the Norman line being English 
 born, and having intermixed with the Saxon 
 blood royal, the English rose to oflSces of dis- 
 tinction in Church and State; yet, for a con- 
 siderable period, they were despised and kept 
 under by their Norman conquerors, who became 
 the aristocracy of the country and possessors of 
 the soil, employing the Saxons to till the ground, 
 to perform manual labour, and to tend the flocks 
 of their masters. 
 
 Hence it will be found that almost all words 
 relating to agriculture and to handicraft trades, 
 as well as the names of cattle in the field, and the 
 implements of husbandry, are Saxon ; while words 
 
14 LECTURE I. 
 
 relating to skilled warfare, as well as the names 
 of animals when cooked and served at table, are 
 of Norman-French origin. A few examples will 
 suffice to illustrate this. The word '* agriculture" 
 is indeed of Latin derivation ; but we have from 
 
 / the Saxon, "husbandry," signifying the same 
 thing, for whiclTthe ancient Anglo-Saxon word 
 was eartli-tylth (earth tillage) ; while tillage^ 
 j ploughing, sowing, reaping, threshing, winnowing, 
 mowing, and harvest, are all Saxon words ; as are 
 also the plough, the spade, the rake, the scythe, 
 the reaping-Kook ; with grass, hay, straw, meadow, 
 field, barn, corn, wheat, oats, barley, and many 
 others. 
 
 The animals in the field are called by their 
 Saxon names ; but those that are used for food 
 are, when killed and cooked for table, called by 
 their Norman-French names. Thus, the qow A 
 
 V becomes *'beef," the sheep "mutton," the calf > 
 " veal," the deer " venison," the pig, hog, or swine, 
 " pork," and the fowl, ducks, and chickens, 
 "poultry." This arose from the circumstance of 
 the Saxons rearing the live stock, while the Nor- 
 mans cooked and ate the animal food.* The only 
 
 * Of this we have an amusing illustration by Sir Walter Scott : — 
 " Swine is good Saxon" (said the jester to the Swineherd), . . . • 
 " and pork, I think, is good "Norman- French ; and so when the brute 
 lives, and is in charge of a Saxon slave, she. goes by her Saxon 
 name; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork, when she is 
 carried to the castle hall to feast among the nobles. . . Nay, 
 I can tell thee more ; there is old Alderman Ox continues to 
 
LECTURE I. 15 
 
 exception to this is " bacon, "^ which is a word 
 of Saxon origin, being so called from the beech -/ J 
 tree, buche or hoc, on the fruit of which (called 
 the '' mast," from moestan^ to fatten) pigs were 
 fed, to harden the flesh, as they still are, when 
 intended for bacon, as also with acorns, or on oats 
 where the oak or beech do not abound. From 
 the beech tree we also have the proper names of 
 " Buckingham" and " Bacon," and an extensive 
 forest in Hungary is called " Bakony," or " Bu- 
 conia," as abounding in beech. " Bacon" having 
 been the fare of the common people, it retained 
 its Saxon name, derived from bucen or becen, that 
 
 hold his Saxon epithet, while he is under the charge of serfs 
 and bondsmen such as thou, but becomes beef, a fiery French 
 gallant, when he arrives before the worshipful jaws that are des- 
 tined to consume him. Mynheer Calf, too, becomes Monsieur 
 de Veau in the like manner; he is Saxon when he requires tend- 
 ance, and takes a Norman name when he becomes matter of 
 enj oyment." — Ivanhoe. 
 
 * A reviewer of these Lectures, in an Irish periodical, in order 
 to show that there is another exception to the rule that the names 
 of animals when dressed for food by the Normans assumed a French 
 name, adduces "lamb," which he proceeds to show ^^ was not eaten 
 by the Normans^^ at all! When bacon is stated as above to be the 
 only exception, it, of course, has reference to those animals which 
 were ordinarily used as food in the middle ages. If we referred 
 to those which were not so used in those early times, we might 
 have adduced many others beside lamb (as turtle and turkey) to 
 which the observation, as to the diflPerent names given to the living 
 animal and the cooked food, does not apply. Such exceptions 
 prove the rule. 
 
1^ LECTURE I. 
 
 is, "beechen," of or belonging to the beech.* 
 Hence came the phrase, to save one's bacon, 
 meaning, to save one's self from being hurt — 
 borrowed from the care that the oppressed Saxons 
 took to preserve this their most valuable food 
 from the marauding Norman soldiers, by whom 
 they were continually plundered with impunity. 
 It is a curious fact that all the Saxon names 
 of the days of the week are continued to be used 
 in the English language, while, on the other hand, 
 none of the months have retained their Saxon 
 derivation, but are all of them called by names 
 taken from Latin. I have never met any notice 
 or explanation of this fact; but I think it may be 
 accounted for on similar principles to those which 
 caused the difference between the names of the 
 
 * The derivation of "bacon" given above was suggested by 
 Verstegan's work on the ancient Anglo-Saxon language. The 
 word is usually supposed to mean baked meat ; but hog's flesh is 
 not cured by baking, and any other meat may be baked, as bread 
 is, and never was on that account called " bacon," or anything 
 like it. Moreover, the word bacon is to be found in French, ap- 
 plied to the living animal. For this fact we are indebted to a 
 critic in the Irish Church Journal, who, curiously enough, quotes 
 it to prove that the word means baked, thereby implying that the 
 animal was first baked, and afterwards hunted and killed ! "We 
 can understand a beech-mast-fed animal being hunted, but not a 
 baked boar. The word being found in French does not dis- 
 prove its being Anglo-Saxon, unless it can be shown that there 
 are no words of Teutonic origin in the French language, of which 
 every one knows there are many, as, guerre, garde, &c.,li6r de- 
 rived from Latin, but similar to the English " war " and " ward," 
 &c, derived from the Anglo-Saxon. 
 
LECTURE I. 17 
 
 living cattle and the animal food. The Saxons 
 were the day labourers, and as such they had 
 more occasion to speak of days than of months ; 
 while as tillers of the land they were more con- 
 cerned as to the diflferent seasons than as to the 
 particular months of the year. We usually hear 
 the peasantry amongst ourselves speak of what 
 they will do, in respect to farming operations, in 
 the spring, summer, harvest, and winter, rather 
 than in such and such months. Thus it would 
 occur that the Norman employer and the Saxon 
 labourer, whose interchange of words was con- 
 fined to the giving and receiving of orders, would 
 more frequently have occasion to speak to each 
 other of the days of the week, and of the different 
 seasons of the year, than of the several months ; -n 
 and so came to continue the Saxon^ names of the V 
 week days and of the seasons, while the Normans, 
 amongst themselves, kept up their own names 
 for the months. And even with respect to the 
 days of the week, they are, to this day, described 
 in Parliamentary documents by their Latin and 
 not by their Saxon names. Spring, summer, 
 and winter, are of Saxon origin ; the Saxon word 
 corresponding to autumn, which is of French 
 derivation, is " harvest," being the time of gather- 
 ing in the harvest ; and we usually hear the pea- 
 santry speak of the harvest, emd not of the autumn. 
 The days of the week, as I have just observed, 
 retain their Saxon names, given to them by the ^ * 
 
 c 
 
18 LECTURE I. 
 
 Anglo-Saxons before their conversion to Chris- 
 tianity. The first day of the week was called 
 Sunday, having been dedicated • to the Sun^ as 
 Monday was so called in honour of the Moon. 
 Next to these heavenly bodies they honoured 
 Tuesco^ one of the founders of their race, to whom 
 they dedicated the third day, calling it Tuescd's 
 day^ or Tuesday. Woden was their god of war, 
 the meaning of the word being " furious ;" and 
 an author of the seventeenth century refers to the 
 word ivood or wode^ as being then used to denote 
 a man in a rage ; so it is also constantly found in 
 Chaucer to describe one that is angry or mad ; 
 as also woodness for madness, and wodely for 
 madly. After this idol the fourth day of the 
 week was called Woden s day^ now Wednesday, 
 which accounts for the orthography of the word. 
 Next in order amongst their false gods was Thor, 
 who was worshipped by all the Teutonic race. 
 As Woden corresponded to the Mars of the 
 Romans, so did Thor to Jupiter, his dominion 
 having been supposed to extend both in heaven 
 and earth, governing the air, the winds, and 
 clouds; to whose displeasure they attributed 
 thunder and lightning, tempests and hail ; while 
 to his being propitiated by sacrifices (frequently 
 human), they believed themselves to have been 
 indebted for fair and seasonable weather, causing 
 abundance of corn, and keeping away the plague, 
 and all other infectious and epidemic diseases. 
 
LECTURE I. 19 
 
 From this idol the fifth day of the week was 
 named Thor's day^ or Thursday ; and so it is like- 
 wise called by the Danes and Swedes, while the 
 Dutch and Germans call it Dundersdagh ; and in 
 some old Saxon manuscripts it is written Thun- 
 res-deaff, so that it would seem that Thor or 
 Thur was an abbreviation of thunre, since written 
 thunder. The next in rank was the goddess 
 Friga, who was reputed to be the giver of peace 
 and plenty ; and from her we have Friday, mean- 
 ing Frig a' s day. The last of the seven chief 
 idols of the Saxons was Seater^ from whom, and 
 not from the Roman Saturn, the last day of the 
 week was called by the Saxons Seaters day, or 
 Saturday. 
 
 From the Saxon names for the twelve months 
 of the year, we retain only two words in the 
 present English language, viz. Lent and Easter. 
 The month corresponding to our March was 
 called by the Saxons Lent-monat, or length 
 month, because of the lengthening of the days 
 at that season of the year ; and as this month 
 was so designated at the time when the Saxons 
 embraced Christianity, they called the fast which 
 occurred at this period the fast of *' Lent," or of 
 Lent month ; which month is now called March, 
 a name borrowed from the Normans, and so 
 called after Mars, the god of war amongst the 
 Romans. Similar to this is the derivation of the 
 word ''Easter." The Saxon name of the month 
 
20 LECTURE I- 
 
 which we now call April, from the Latin, was 
 Oster-monat, the Teutonic for east being ost, sig- 
 nifyiag " angry," because during this month the 
 easterly (or boisterous) winds prevailed in the 
 northern countries of Europe, which were inha- 
 bited by the Teutonic race. Hence the name of 
 Ostend, which means the East-end, hemgio the east 
 of the ships passing through the narrow channel 
 from the west. The feast of Easter, called by 
 the French Basque, in allusion to the Jewish 
 Passover, usually falling in this month, was so 
 called from the Saxon name of the month, Oster; 
 and it is still in Saxony Ostern, as by us it is 
 named Easter. As we have no English words 
 derived from the Saxon names of the other 
 months of the year, it is unnecessary here to 
 enumerate them.* The word " month" is de- 
 rived from the moon. 
 
 Referring to days and months, this is the pro- 
 per place to notice other Saxon words relating 
 to time. The ancient Saxons kept a note of the 
 course of the year on square sticks, on which 
 they carved the course of the moons of the 
 whole year, by which they knew when the new 
 moons, full moons, and changes would occur, 
 as also their festival days ; and such a carved 
 stick they called an almonaght, that is, all-moon- 
 heed, by which they took heed or regard of all 
 
 * See Verstegan's Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, &c 
 
LECTURE I. 21 
 
 tlie moons of the year. Hence, although by- 
 some it is supposed to be from an Arabic word, 
 our English name " almanac," for that which, 
 from the Latin, is also called a calendar. The 
 Saxons counted time by the night, as we still 
 speak of a se'nnight or seven nights, and a fort- 
 night or fourteen nights, written in Chaucer 
 fortenygt. They had anciently twa-night for two 
 night, as we now speak of every second day. The 
 ages of their own lives they reckoned by winters, 
 and so we still speak of an old man as having 
 lived or seen so many " winters." 
 
 I observed that things connected with manu- 
 facture were generally called by Saxon names. 
 The word '' manufacture," itself, is derived from 
 the Latin, signifying made with the hand, but 
 we have the Saxon name corresponding to this, 
 when we speak of " handicraft" trades. Words 
 referring to these are almost all Saxon, as builder^ 
 stone-cutter, bricklayer, smith, shoemaker, ship- 
 wright, cart-wright ; as also the words timber, 
 stone, brick, slate, leather, gold, silver, lead, iron, 
 glass, wood, cloth, &c. The Anglo-Saxon name 
 for a " mason" was a stone-wright, which has 
 given place to the present name derived from the 
 French maison, a house, from which also comes 
 " mansion." The term " smith" was applied to 
 all trades which called for the use of the hammer. 
 It means smiteth, or beats. Thus we have the 
 *' gold-smith," the *' silver-smith," the " white- 
 
 b 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 9mith," the " lock-smith," and the "black-smith ;" 
 to which latter, as the most sturdy of all the 
 smiters, the name of " smith" is now almost 
 wholly confined, so much so, that unless we 
 prefix a word to distinguish the others, we under- 
 stand by a " smith" a black-smith, as he who 
 par excellence smiteth on the anvil. The Saxons 
 called the " black-smith" the iron smith; and the 
 *' carpenter'' was designated a wood-smithy as also 
 a tree-wright^ the present name of this smiter, 
 both with the hammer and the hatchet, being of 
 French origin.* It is observable that the " tailor" 
 is also called by a name derived from the French, 
 who have always excelled in fashionable dress- 
 making for both sexes. The Saxon name for a 
 J maker of men's clothes was synder, meaning a 
 ^ cutter, from asyndrian, to separate, the word 
 *' tailor" signifying the same in French. 
 
 I have already observed that, for the most part, 
 terms applicable to warfare are not of Saxon 
 origin, but derived from Latin, through the Nor- 
 mans, who were a warlike people, and coming 
 to England as conquerors, introduced military 
 terms and phrases, which, as they continued to 
 have the command of the army, naturally became 
 incorporated into the language. The words 
 officer^ general, colonel (supposed to be so called 
 
 * Ih Isa. xli. 7, the word translated, in the authorized version, 
 * carpenter," is, in the Bible of 1551, smythe. 
 
LECTURE I. 23 
 
 from being originally the governor of a colony), 
 major, captain, adjutant, cornet, lieutenant, and 
 ensign, are all derived from the French or Latin ; 
 as are also the soldier, the serjeant, and the cor- 
 poral. 
 
 The weapons of war, however, which were in 
 use before the Norman conquest, are all called 
 by words of Saxon origin,- as sword, shield, spear, 
 how, and holt or arrow. But every term rela- 
 ting to military science, and to the army gene- 
 rally, is of Latin or French derivation; these 
 having been originally under the controul and 
 management of the Normans, and the French 
 having been always a great military nation, 
 through whom these terms have been, from 
 time to time, introduced. Thus we have sieges, 
 manoeuvres, trenches, tactics, marches, invasions, 
 assaults, escalades, encampments, columns, hat- 
 teries, fortifications, hattalions, homhardments, 
 and so forth ; as also the words military, naval, 
 artillery, militia, cavalry, commissariat, grena- 
 diers, and infantry; the last originally applied to 
 troops commanded by a Spanish prince, entitled 
 the "Infant" of Spain, being the heir apparent 
 to the throne of that kingdom. The yeomen, 
 however, signifying the commoners, or, perhaps, 
 the yewmen, or bow-men, as were the " yeomen 
 of the guard," retain their Saxon appellation 
 
 It is remarkable, that words of Saxon deriva- 
 tion prevail most amongst seamen, the navy 
 
24 LECTURE I. 
 
 being a thoroughly English institution, and 
 established by Alfred before the Norman con- 
 quest. The term " sea-faring man " is Saxon ; 
 and although the word *' navy" is of foreign 
 derivation, the "fleet" is of Saxon origin, as is 
 also the appropriate designation of the maritime 
 power and defence of the United Kingdom, 
 " The wooden walls of old England'^ The ancient 
 Anglo-Saxon term for navigation was scip-crw/t, 
 that is, ship-craft. 
 
 I shall not attempt to give a full catalogue of 
 nautical terms and phrases, but will only enume- 
 rate some of those most familiar to " land's- men," 
 as sailors call us, using a Saxon appellation. The 
 following are Saxon words, viz. : — ship, boat, 
 punt, boom, boltsprit, or bowsprit, helm, stern, 
 bows, mast, spars, sails, hold, lading, hatch-way, 
 ropes, tar, hawser, wheel, porthole, keel, needle, 
 lead, tack, ladder, hull, shrouds, docks, and rud- 
 der, as also yard, used in its original sense, as 
 meaning any pole or rod, but now generally 
 restricted to a measure of three feet.* We have 
 also from the Saxon, the skipper, the midshipman, 
 the sailor, the mate, the boatswain, the cock- 
 swain, the steward, the steersman, and the crew. 
 Of sea terms and phrases, we have, of Saxon 
 derivation, luff, thwart, starboard, larboard, lee- 
 
 * The word yard^ as applied to an enclosed piece of ground, is 
 also Saxon, but was originally spelt differently, namely yeard^ 
 while the rod or pole was yerde. 
 
LECTURE I. 25 
 
 ward^ abaft^ and aft (of which, in ordinary use, 
 we have the comparative after). Sailors speak 
 of a taut rope, such being the word used by 
 Chaucer for tight ; they speak of the neap and 
 full tides ^ and of their ebbing and flowing ; they 
 rigg the masts ; they swab (wash) the deck ; they 
 r^a/the sails ^ they tug vessels taken in tow; they 
 call the progress of the ship its way^ and this 
 they reckon by knots; they stow away their 
 goods, they row with oars, they trim the ship, 
 they 7wa7i the yards, they speak of so many 
 hands on board, and they give " a long pull, a 
 strong pull, and a pull altogether'' — all Saxon 
 words. The well-known, spirit-stirring signal of 
 that great commander and genuine Englishman, 
 the immortal Nelson, when entering on his last 
 engagement, to be crowned with his last and 
 greatest victory, consisted of ten words, of which 
 one only {expects) is of foreign origin; and 
 for this Saxon might be substituted, with equal 
 correctness, though not, perhaps, with the same 
 euphony, by which the order of the day at 
 Trafalgar would have been — " England looks to 
 everj man this day to do his duty." The con- 
 fident expectation of the gallant admiral would 
 not have been sufficiently expressed by the 
 Saxon word hope, which has completely changed 
 its original signification, as it is now generally 
 applied to convey the idea of doubt rather than 
 that of confident expectation, which the word 
 
26 LECTURE I. 
 
 originally signified. This hope or expectation 
 was fully realized on that day of victory under 
 Nelson ; and we doubt not will never be disap- 
 pointed whenever the brave defenders who man 
 our "wooden walls" are called to do their duty 
 to their queen and country. 
 
 In the English language, which, as I have 
 already observed, is of a composite character, we 
 have several words derived from the Greek; 
 and it is remarkable, that of such are the terms 
 by which we describe the various sciences. It 
 had long been a characteristic of the Greeks that 
 they " sought after wisdom ;" and from their 
 language — the most perfect, probably, that has 
 ever been spoken by mankind — we have adopted 
 most of the words applicable to science, p/t27o50/> Ay, 
 logic ^rhetoric ^ astronomy^ geography^ mathematics^ 
 and geometry^ with all the ologies, as theology, 
 geology, zoology, entomology, ornithology, physi- 
 ology, archceology, astrology, etymology, philology, 
 pathology, analogy, phraseology, and many others, 
 as well as all the systems of government — monar- 
 chy, oligarchy, aristocracy, and anarchy, or no 
 government at all. These, however, do not belong 
 to our present subject; and I only refer to them 
 by the way. But here I would call your attention 
 to a remarkable circumstance with reference to 
 words of foreign derivation, as compared with 
 those of Saxon origin. 
 
 It will be found that, for the most part, the 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 27 
 
 nouns substantive and the verbs in the English 
 language (with some simple adjectives, such as 
 great, small, young, old, good, bad, &c.) are 
 Saxon, while the derivatives and compound 
 words, and generally the adjectives and adverbs, 
 are of foreign origin, introduced either through 
 the Norman-French, or directly from the Latin 
 or Greek. Thus, for example, we have " man" 
 for the noun, " human" and " humane" for the 
 adjective, and " humanity" for the derivative. 
 
 We have also, comparing words of Saxon and 
 foreign origin: — 
 
 Woman — ^feminine . 
 House — domestic. 
 Heart — cordial. 
 E arth — terr e strial . 
 Heaven — celestial. 
 God — divine. 
 Sea — maritime 
 King and Queen — 
 
 royal and regal. 
 Youth — j u venile. 
 Horse — equestrian. 
 Ship — naval. 
 Sailor — mariner. 
 Father — paternal. 
 Mother — maternal. 
 Brother — fraternity. 
 Boy — puerile. 
 
 Dog — canine. 
 Life — vitality. 
 Death — mortality. 
 Sleep — dormitory . 
 Book — library. 
 Happy — felicity. 
 Strong — fortified . 
 Weak — debility. 
 Anger — irascible . 
 Speech — sermon. 
 Read — lecture. 
 Speak — oratorical. 
 Fire — incendiary. 
 Light — illumination . 
 Dark — obscurity. 
 Old — senility. 
 Heavy — ponderous. 
 
28 LECTURE I. 
 
 Foot— pedestrian. Love — amiable. 
 
 Sun — solar. Hate — odious. 
 
 Moon — lunar. Health — salubrious. 
 
 Hand — manufacture. Holy — sanctified. 
 
 Good — bountiful. Star — astronomy. 
 
 Bad — malignity. Year — annual. 
 
 It would be easy to add many other examples, 
 which will at once occur to the mind, when the 
 idea has been suggested. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon, as a primitive language, 
 was remarkable for abounding in monosyllables. 
 Thus, it will be found, that of the forty-six words 
 of Saxon origin, which I have now enumerated, 
 as they occurred to me, thirty-six are monosylla- 
 bles, while in thirty-two out of these thirty-six, 
 the corresponding words, in Latin, and nearly as 
 great a number in Greek and French, consist of 
 two or more syllables. 
 
 It is interesting to trace the original meaning 
 of Saxon words now in use, and not at first 
 apparent. The best of all beings was appropri- 
 ately called by the Saxons, God, or the Good 
 Being; while the author of all evil was desig- 
 nated the Devil, or the Evil one. The " heavens" 
 are so called as being apparently heaved up above 
 us. "Fare" meant a passage; hence the word 
 " farewell," as wishing a good passage or journey ; 
 as also " thorough-fare," or the passage through. 
 The money which we pay for our conveyance 
 
LECTURE I. 29 
 
 is called the " fare," that is, what we pay for our 
 fare; while, as applied to food, it meant that 
 which was taken on the journey, ** Gossip" is a 
 contraction for god-sib, signifying the spiritual 
 relationship held to exist between the sponsors 
 of the same child;* sib meaning relationship or of 
 kin together, to which is prefixed the name of 
 God, to designate the spiritual relationship, as we 
 have the names, " godfather," *' godmother,'* 
 and " godchild." As the gossips, especially the 
 two godmothers of a girl, were accustomed to 
 meet at the house of their godchild, and have a 
 little chat together, all trivial talking came to be 
 called " gossiping." In like manner the word 
 " titter," which we now apply to suppressed 
 laughter, signified courtship ; and as, while 
 "talking age" enjoyed its gossip, the "whisper- 
 ing lovers" indulged in their merriment, all sup- 
 pressed laughter came to be called " tittering," 
 that is, laughing like lovers, as all trivial talking 
 was called " gossiping," that is, talking like 
 gossips. We have still an old word not often 
 used, except in poetry, " quoth," for said, 
 meaning to make known, from whence comes 
 " uncouth," strange or unknown. We find the 
 word " bolt" used in various senses, as the " bolt" 
 of a door; a "thunder-bolt;" "bolt-upright;" 
 
 * Thus Shakspeare makes the kmg address the god-mothers of 
 the Princess Elizabeth, as his joint sponsors of the royal infant — 
 "My noble gossips." — King Henry VIIL^ Act F., Scene IV. 
 
30 LECTURE I. 
 
 the bran is *' bolted" in a mill; we speak of a 
 horse " bolting ;" and of a greedy fellow " bolt- 
 ing" his food. Now all these, however appa- 
 rently different, are to be traced to the same 
 origin. '* Bolt," formerly spelt boult^ is the 
 Saxon word for an arrow, as we may read of a 
 man taking a bolt from his quiver.^' The word 
 was applied to forked-lightning, as appearing 
 to dart like an arrow ; and to the fastening of a 
 door, by a straight piece of wood or iron, shot 
 out, as we still say. *' Bolt-upright" meant as 
 straight as an arrow. The bran is driven, thrust, 
 or shot out from the flour in the mill ; a horse is 
 said to '' bolt," when he starts ofl* to one side 
 suddenly like an arrow; and a hungry boor 
 " bolts" his food, swallowing it straight down, 
 without chewing, so that it is shot down into his 
 stomach. 
 
 The termination or affix, which we still find 
 applied to some words to describe a dealer in any 
 commodity, monger, was a Saxon word, having 
 the same signification as " merchant" derived 
 from the French. We still have cheesemonger, 
 ironmonger, fishmonger, and coster or costard- 
 monger, a dealer in vegetables ; these being 
 amongst the commodities in which the Saxons 
 dealt; while we have wine-merchant, coal-mer- 
 
 * Chaucer has " to shoot a featherhss bou'lt^'' as a proverb 
 meaning to labour in vain. 
 
LECTURE I. 31 
 
 chanty and silk-mercer (a word of similar 
 signification to merchant), for the dealers in those 
 luxuries which the Normans enjoyed ; and which 
 words are of a hybrid character, compounded of 
 Saxon for the commodity, and French for the 
 seller of it. A penny-monger was Anglo-Saxon 
 for a money-changer, the silver penny having 
 been the standard coin in England for more than 
 a thousand years, adopted from the Roman 
 denarius. 
 
 " Shire" signified a share or division. For 
 the most part this is the term by which the 
 counties of Great Britain are described, the , 
 Saxon word being retained there ; while in 
 Ireland we have not the word in ordinary use, 
 the connexion of this country with England 
 having been subsequent to the Norman conquest, 
 when, in dividing the island into what would be 
 called in England " shires," the word " county," 
 being of French origin, was introduced, and 
 applied to Ireland ; retaining, however, the old 
 Irish names, and not adding the word county, 
 except in the cases of the King's County and 
 the Queen's County, called, with their chief 
 towns, Philipstown and Maryborough, after 
 King Philip and Queen Mary, in the sixteenth 
 century. We have, however, " sheriff," or shi^^e- 
 reeve, like *' borough-reeve," from the Saxon 
 reeve, signifying a steward. Of the counties in 
 England, three retain a direct reference to the 
 
32 LECTURE I. 
 
 Saxons, namely, Essex, Sussex, and Middlesex, 
 meaning the countries respectively of the East 
 Saxons, and the South Saxons, with the middle 
 Saxons lying between both. Norfolk and Suf- 
 folk signified the countries of the noith folk and 
 of the south folk, this being a well known Saxon 
 word for people. 
 
 The word '' cliff" is used to describe a rock by 
 the sea side, having the appearance of being 
 cleft, or broken off; and was formerly written 
 " clift," as it is found not only in Spenser and 
 Chaucer, but also in the authorized version of the 
 Bible of the seventeenth century. I have some- 
 where read that deore, now spelt " dear," mean- 
 ing beloved, also signified a '' daughter." If this be 
 correct, and certainly dear is Erse for daughter,* 
 it conveys a very pleasing idea, as suggesting 
 that any object of tender affection was called 
 " dear," as being like a daughter to one. Cor- 
 responding to this, is the passage in Nathan's 
 parable addressed to David, where he describes 
 the poor man's lamb as so dear to him that it 
 " was unto him as a daughter ^ The word 
 " ghost," formerly gast, is the Saxon for a spirit ; 
 hence the word " aghast," that is, looking like a 
 ghost, or frightened as if one had seen a spirit. 
 "Yeoman" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 
 geeman (the g being frequently changed to y), 
 
 * See Winning's Comparative Philology, p. 53. 
 
LECTURE I. 33 
 
 signifying common, as tlie yeomen were com- 
 moners of the realm ; or it may be from yew- \ 
 men^ the men who carried bows made of the yew 
 tree. The name given to the yellow part of an 
 egg^ called "yelk," and pronounced like " yoke," 
 appears unintelligible ; but it was originally 
 spelt with ^, and was written and pronounced 
 gealewe, the Saxon for "yellow." To " worry" 
 is a Saxon word, originally worrigen, signifying 
 to destroy, or make war against ; thus a dog is 
 said to " worry" sheep, while the word is now 
 used in a more extensive sense, to express any 
 species of tormenting man or beast. 
 
 " Book," still pronounced in some parts of 
 England buck,w2iS bock^fiom the beech tree, being 
 of the same derivation as bacon, formerly spelt 
 hakon^ but for a different reason. The pig killed 
 for " bacon" was so called, because fed upon the 
 beech-nut to harden its flesh ; and the "book'' 
 was so named, because, before the Saxons knew 
 the use of paper, their writings were on thin 
 beechen boards ; as the Romans called a book 
 liher^ from the Latin for the rind or inner bark 
 of a tree. Books are said to be " in boards,'' 
 when not bound in leather, the covers havinor 
 been anciently made of wood. The name of 
 " book" continues to be used, although no longer 
 made of beech, and so does the binding in " boards," 
 though no longer of timber, but o^ pasteboard. 
 Thus, also, " paper" is still so c ailed » although 
 
 D 
 
 ^/ 
 
34 LECTURE I. 
 
 no longer made of the papyrus; and " volume" 
 is applied to that which is no longer rolled up; 
 and the instrument with which we write is called 
 a " pen," from the Latin for a bird's wing, whe- 
 ther it be formed of a goose-quill, or from steel. 
 The Saxons called a pen a writing -feather. 
 
 The phrase " bog-Latin" is a corruption of 
 boc-leden, that is, book-Lt^iin, by which term 
 the Saxons designated this language, as being 
 found only in books, and known only to 
 those who had ''book-learning." With the 
 Anglo-Saxons hoc-horde signified a book- 
 case (like cup-horde corrupted into *' cup- 
 board," a press originally for cups) ; a scribe, 
 or scrivener, was a bocere, or booker, that 
 is, a book maker, before the art of printing was 
 discovered ; a " charter" was called a bod-leaf; a 
 " lecturer," also from the Latin, was, with the 
 Anglo-Saxons, a boc-reader; and literature, espe- 
 cially the practical part of it, the composing of 
 books, was designated boc-craft, which would 
 now sound too much like the reproachful term, 
 '' book-making.'' The word " blaze" meant 
 to divulge, as we say a report or event is " blazed 
 abroad;" and the ''blaze," which is the Saxon 
 word corresponding to " flame," is that which 
 divulges the existence of the fire, referring, as 
 Dr. Johnson observes, rather to the light than 
 to the heat. " Stark" meant bare or exposed, as 
 " stark mad," that is, openly and manifestly de- 
 
LECTURE I. 35 
 
 ranged. To " bay" meant to bark, as Shak- 
 speare has it, " I'd rather be a dog and hay the 
 moon, than such a Roman." A stag is said to 
 be '* at bay," when the hunted animal makes his 
 last stand at the haying or barking of the dogs. 
 *' Bourn" signified a boundary, and originally a 
 rivulet forming such. Thus, Shakspeare de- 
 scribes death, often alhided to under the figure 
 of a stream or river, as that " Bourne from which 
 no traveller returns ;" and he calls the clifiEs of 
 Dover the " chalky bourne," or boundary of 
 England. From this comes "neighbour," the 
 man who is nigh or next to our hourn or boun- ! 
 dary;* such being the original meaning of the 
 word, although we have the highest authority 
 for not thus limiting our neighbourly feelings. 
 *' Utter" was the comparative of out, of which 
 the superlative is " uttermost;" hence, to " utter" 
 a sentence meant to let it more out. This will 
 serve to explain the meaning of the phrase, to 
 " utter false or base coin," that is, to put it out 
 into circulation. The word " issue," as applied 
 to the sending out lawful money of the realm, is 
 of French derivation, introduced by the Normans, 
 who had the management of the mint. As a 
 verb, " utter" is now applied only to uttering a 
 
 * Etymologists usually, and probably correctly, derive "neigh- 
 bour" from nigh and boor ; tillers of the land having been for- 
 merly called boors, not, as it is now applied, in a bad sense. 
 Boure also signified a house. 
 
36 LECTURE I. 
 
 sentence, or base coin ; but formerly it was used 
 to describe tbe giving out of any commodity, as 
 articles sold in a sbop.* " Flete" signifies swift, 
 as we still have it, although the orthography is 
 changed ; and hence, or as some think, from the 
 word " float," to swim, comes " fleet," to describe 
 a company of fleet (swift) or floating ships. The 
 word Jleot or flete ^ also signified a creek or inlet 
 of water, from which is derived the name of a 
 w^ell known street in London, and the Fleet 
 prison, such a creek having formerly been in 
 the locality. 
 
 The word " fret" meant to eat or devour, t as 
 *' a moth fretting a garment." A man is said to 
 *' fret" when he is consumed, eaten up, with care. 
 It has thus become an intransitive verb ; but ori- 
 ginally it would have been, he was fretted' — eaten, 
 or " swallowed up of over-much sorrow" (2 Cor. 
 ii. 7). '' Gait," or " gate," signified a way,$ or 
 march, § as we speak of a man's '' gait,"|! or man- 
 
 * " Such mortal drugs I have ; but Mantua's law 
 Is death to any he that utters it." 
 
 Romeo and Juliet 
 t Chaucer describes a ^^ sow fretting the chyld in his cradel;" 
 and in reference to a representation of Actaeon devoured by his 
 own dogs, he has — 
 
 " I saw how that his houndis have him caught, 
 And frettin him, for that they knew him nought." 
 t *' Good gentlemen, go your gait.^' — Shakspeare. 
 § " Nought regarding, they kept on their gait.''^ — Spenser. 
 II " . . . . Leviathans, ' 
 
 Wallowing, unwieldy, enormous in their gait.^' — Mii.ton. 
 
 •^H" 
 
 YvJ^ ^"VV, 
 
 
LECTURE I. 37 
 
 ner of walking; and a "gate*' is that by whicli 
 we find a way into a field or castle. Hence the 
 obsolete word algates for " always," the original 
 meaning being, in all ways, under all circum- 
 stances; " always" is now applied to signify at all 
 times, that is, through all ways, or through the 
 whole course of life. 
 
 *' Boot," or bote, was to help, or compensate; 
 as a man is said to givesome thing " to boot" 
 (a common phrase in Ireland), that is, to help 
 to make up the difference in value between two 
 articles given in exchange. Hence comes " boot- 
 less," unprofitable, that which yields no return 
 for our pains. This word anciently meant 
 unpardonable, that for which no boot or com- 
 pensation would be accepted. " Bodkin" was 
 the Saxon for a dagger, and is so applied by 
 Chaucer, and at a later period by Shakspeare.'^ 
 The word is now applied only to the inoffensive 
 instrument found in a lady's work-box. To egg, 
 from eggian, is to incite, and Chaucer has the 
 noun eggement ; thus we speak of " egging" on 
 a person, sometimes improperly written and 
 pronounced edging. The " eg^^ of a bird is 
 also Saxon, but was formerly spelt (Eg. An 
 "imp" was another name for child, and was 
 usually applied to denote the scions of royal or 
 
 * " When he himself might his quietus make 
 With a bare bodkin.-'' 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 vX 
 
38 LECTURE I. 
 
 noble houses. Thus, Shakspeare calls a prince, 
 " a lad of life, an imp of fame," and makes Lord 
 Cromwell speak to King Henry of " that noble 
 imp, your son ;" thus also Spenser addresses the 
 Muses, " Ye sacred Imps, that on Parnasso 
 dwell ;" and there are still existing many epi- 
 taphs of the ancient nobility, beginning, *' Here 
 lies that noble imp." The word originally sig- 
 nified a shoot or twig of a tree, and was used to 
 designate a child or offspring, but has come to 
 be used only in a bad sense, to describe a child 
 of the devil. " Gospel," or good-spell, is Saxon 
 for good news, and lath-spell was bad news; 
 spell signifying a " story," which, like " tale," 
 was not formerly limited, as it now generally is, 
 to a " fiction," which the Saxons called leas-spell, 
 from leas signifying false, as " leasing" meant 
 falsehood (Ps. iv. 2). " Lief" signified willing, 
 hence the expression, " I'd as lief," for "I would 
 be as willing ;"* the word is also used by Chaucer 
 as an adjective, for dear or beloved; and " alder- 
 levist" is best beloved. 
 
 We call the upright part of wheat, and of plants, 
 which supports the fruit or blossom, the '' stalk ;" 
 the word was formerly applied to the upright 
 pieces of a ladder, from the Saxon verb stalken, 
 to stalk, or step slowly; and the " stalks" of corn 
 were- so called from their appearance, like the 
 
 * " I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines." — Hamlet. 
 
LECTURE I. 39 
 
 uprights of a ladder. " Reck" signified care, 
 from whence comes to *' to reckon," or count up 
 with care, and " reckless," careless, or not count- 
 ing the cost. " Read" was to interpret or dis- 
 cover, as *' read me this riddle," formerly readle. 
 To read a book was to interpret the meaning of 
 the types set up in its pages, and thereby to read 
 or discover the author's meaning.* *' Twilight," 
 or twin-light^ as it was anciently written, signi- 
 fies two lights^ describing the dubious light 
 between night and day. To " twit," or reproach 
 with a sneer, is from an old Saxon word, twitten^ v/ 
 used by Chaucer. A " haw" meant a ditch — 
 still called in some parts a haw-haw — and the 
 thorny bush which is usually planted on the side 
 or top of the fence of the haw or ditch, to form 
 a hedge, is called the '' hawthorn," the berry of 
 which is calted a '' haw," that is, the berry of the 
 thorn growing on the side of the haw or ditch. 
 Hcega is Anglo-Saxon for " hedge," and haga- 
 thorn (hedge-thorn), or hawthorn; haga being 
 changed to haw^ as maga is for ''maw." " Rather," 
 or sooner, is the comparative of an obsolete word, 
 rath^ signifying " soon," found in old English 
 
 • Read is thus used to mean " discover" by Scott, in Edmund's 
 song ; — 
 
 " I read you by your bugle horn, 
 And by your palfrey good, 
 I read you for a ranger sworn, 
 To keep the king's green- wood." 
 
 Rokeby^ Canto iii. 17. 
 
40 LECTURE I. 
 
 books, as is also rathest, for " soonest." " Far- 
 ther" is the comparative, and " farthest" the 
 superlative, of " far" or " forth." " Sear" is to 
 burn, and hence *' sere," dry or burned up, as 
 " the sere and yellow leaf" of Shakspeare. The 
 Saxon name for the month of June was Se7'e- 
 monath, the hot and dry month. An arrow was 
 also^ called a '' a shaft," as we may read of a 
 shaft shot from a bow, and poets sing of Cupid's 
 "shafts." Hence the straight, or bolt-upright, 
 portion of a pillar is called the " shaft" in archi- 
 tecture ; a word also used by miners to describe 
 the perpendicular pit which they sink to the 
 mine ; hence, also, the name of that part of a cart 
 which was formerly always straight, but now in 
 spring carriages gracefully curved at the end. 
 The word was originally sceaft, or shaved, as a 
 scraped stick. A " sparre" meant a wooden 
 " bar," as the word is so applied by seamen ; 
 sparran was the Saxon verb to bar, and a " spar," 
 or wooden bar, is commonly used to fasten a 
 gate. Spenser has: *' Sparre the gate fast, for 
 fear of fraud." Thence, probably, the use of the 
 pugilistic term, " sparring," for fencing or barring 
 off the blows. 
 
 The word " tackle" is commonly used in Ire- 
 land to describe the harness of a horse, and it is 
 also applied to fishing-gear, or tackle. This is a 
 Saxon word, of the same meaning as harness, of 
 French derivation, the original signification of 
 
LECTURE I. 41 
 
 both having been armour, but especially bows 
 and arrows, as weapons of war ; and it was applied 
 to armour generally, as we may read of a man 
 being '* smitten between the joints of the harness." 
 The word "tackle" was formerly used in a simi 
 lar sense ; and the expression of tackling to any 
 business meant preparing for it, as a man would 
 buckle on his armour preparatory to engaging in 
 a combat. We find the word '' hatch" used in 
 two very difierent senses. The verb to " hatcli" 
 is derived from the Saxon word heg&ti^ to sit on 
 eggs; the "hatches" in a ship, meaning the 
 small doors by which they descend from one 
 deck to another, being derived from the Saxon 
 word hacken^ to cut in two (from whence comes 
 to " hack," or hew), as a " hatch" signifies part 
 of a door thus divided. It wias formerly used 
 in the singular number also, as in Shakspeare, 
 who speaks of entering a house, " in a window, y 
 or else over the hatch." " Fallow" meant a 
 colour, namely, pale yellow, hence, " fallow- 
 deer ;" and unsowed land is also called " fallow" 
 land, from its somewhat yellow colour. " Pond" 
 and " pound'' are both of the same origin, from / 
 the Saxon word pyndan^ to shut up. A pond is i 
 a piece of water shut up in a small space, and a / 
 " pound" is a place in which cattle are confined \ 
 or shut up; hence also, a " pin," which shuts up; \ 
 a " binn," in which corn or wine is shut up; and 
 a " pen," for sheep. The pen with which we 
 
 \ 
 
42 LECTURE I. 
 
 write is of Latin derivation, as is also the word 
 pounds as applied to weights and money. 
 "Hind" is an adjective, meaning backward; 
 from the positive we have "behind;" from the 
 comparative is derived the adjective " hinder/' 
 as the hinder or more backward part, and the 
 verb to " hinder," that is, to put or keep back ; 
 and from the superlative is formed " hindmost," 
 or " hindermost," formerly hinder est ^ the last, or 
 most backward. The original of " to-morrow" 
 was to-morning, like " to-day" and " to-night." 
 " Neat" signified black cattle,^ as we still speak 
 of a "neat's tongue." "Neat," that is, tidy, is 
 derived from a Latin word signifying clean. 
 " Herd" signifies a number of cattle or other 
 animals, guarded or kept together, as also the 
 keeper of the herd, as " shepherd," for sheep-herd, 
 also " neat-herd," " goat-herd," and " swine- 
 herd." A " herd" is a name for a farm servant 
 still kept up in Scotland and Ireland, but, I 
 believe, rarely used in England at the present 
 day. The word " herd" is derived from liyrdan^ 
 to guard, and is applied both to the keeper and 
 to the object of his care ; from the same root is 
 "hurdle," by which fields zxe fenced^ or sheep 
 guarded from wandering. 
 
 " Horse" is a Saxon word, and the animal so 
 
 " Metliought, he bore him in the thickest troop, 
 As doth a lion in a herd of neat" 
 
 K, Henry F/., Act 11. 
 
LECTURE I. 43 
 
 called was the ensign on the banner of the first 
 Saxon invaders of Britain, the chief of whom 
 was himself called Horsa from his banner, as 
 others have had the name of Lion, Fox, and 
 Wolf, from theirs. Henglst, as his brother was ; 
 named, signified a war-horse ; and hence came 
 hengistman, changed to '' henchman," which 
 meant a horseman, but was afterwards applied 
 to all a great man's followers and retainers. 
 " Craven," a coward, is derived from crave, to 
 beg; and was applied to one who begged his 
 life. " Share" is derived from the Saxon word 
 scearan, to divide ; hence also " shire," a division 
 of the country; and " shear," to divide or cut ofiT 
 the wool of the sheep ; as also "shears," with which 
 it is cut off; and the " ploughs/ia/"^," that part 
 of the plough which cuts or divides the ground. 
 " Sharp" is derived from the same root. " Shore" 
 is Saxon for the coast of the sea ; it is also the 
 past tense of the verb to '* shear;" but shor^e, to 
 prop up, a word used by builders, is Dutch. This 
 word is also improperly used for sewer, which, 
 as well as sewerage, is of French derivation. 
 " Strand," formerly stronde, is another Saxon 
 word for the sea-shore; from whence comes 
 " stranded," or driven on the shore. The word 
 "sea" is Saxon; and therefore "sea-shore" is 
 better than sea-coast, " shore" being Saxon, but 
 coast French. So also seaman, husbandman, 
 ploughman, craftsman, workman, and workman- 
 
 1^ 
 
44 LECTURE I. 
 
 ship, and horseman and horsemanship are all pure 
 Saxon ; but nobleman, gentleman, merchantman, 
 and penmanship are all hybrid words, compounded 
 of French or Latin and Saxon. '' Reef " was a coat 
 or garment ; hence comes the word for the " roof" 
 of a house, as covering it as a garment covers a 
 man ; while, curiously enough, one of the names 
 of a house, " cote," has come to be given to a 
 garment, which serves a man for a covering, as a 
 house gives him shelter, or as a " sheep-cote" 
 affords cover and shelter to sheep, and a " dove- 
 cote" to pigeons. The name for the garment 
 called coat may, however, have been derived 
 from the French, who have, for centuries, given 
 fashions and names for dress to the civilized 
 world. HorneTooke derives " roof" from rosfnan 
 to sustain, considering it as the past participle 
 passive of that verb, and used to describe that 
 part of the building which is supported by the 
 walls. *' Foster" was originally foodster, the 
 provider of food, the feeder ; hence " foster- 
 father" is the name given to the husband of the 
 nurse, not the father of a child, as " foster-child" 
 is the child nursed by a woman not the mother, 
 or reared by a man not the father ; and " foster- 
 brother" is one who, like a brother, has heenfed 
 by the same nurse. 
 
 The word " sheaf" originally meant a bundle 
 of anything shoved together, and. was, from an 
 early period, applied to a bundle of arrows bound 
 
LECTURE I. 45 
 
 together at the middle, as also to a bundle of 
 wheat so tied, and called a " wheat-sheaf." From 
 this word, spelt in Chaucer's time sheff, the name 
 of Sheffield (from slieff and held^ or hold) was, I f 
 have no doubt, given to the town which has \ 
 been, since the time of the Romans, famous for 
 iron work, as applied to cutlery, arrows, and steel 
 weapons of war, and the arms of which are four 
 arrows held as in a sheff. Chaucer has a " sheff 
 of arrows;' and a " Sheff eld thwitteV for a Shef- 
 field knife. The word ''ship" was anciently 
 scyp^ and hence we have " skipper," the captain 
 of a sailing vessel. "Stow" signified a place, 
 and forms the termination of many towns and 
 places in England. Hence, too, we speak of 
 " stowing away" goods, that is, putting them in 
 iheiT place. " Steeple," formerly stipel, is Saxon 
 for a high tower, from being steep or high ; a 
 word still applied to the tower of a church, the 
 spire being derived from Latin. Suinc, or swine, 
 was the Anglo-Saxon for labour, whence came ^ 
 " swain," a labourer, or any servant, as " boat- 
 swain." Wana is the Saxon for a defect, which 
 has been changed to " want;" but we still speak 
 of the " wane" of the moon as it appears to be- 
 come less, and seems to want part of its rotundity ; 
 and " wan" or pale is from the same root. Waxen 
 signified to increase or grow, as we say the fire 
 " waxes" hot, or a man " waxed" wrath; and the 
 
 l^^s^^^kAj l^Avvvvci vAu^vu 
 
46 LECTURE I. 
 
 moon is said to " wax" or grow greater,* as well 
 as to *' wane" or decrease. Wold is Saxon for 
 a " forest," and was originally a distinct word 
 from wood, which, as I have observed, meant 
 mad or angry. This word, wold, sometimes 
 written wait, is still used in England to describe 
 places which either are or have formerly been 
 forests. In ordinary use it has been contracted 
 into " wood." Welk signified a " cloud," from 
 being wheeled or rolled up, but was commonly 
 used in the plural number to describe the sky 
 as distinguished from the clouds,t and the name 
 is still so applied in poetry, in the plural, the 
 *' welkin." Beame was another name for a tree ; 
 from whence we have a " beam of timber," which 
 latter word w^as a verb, signifying to build; 
 hence the original meaning of a " beam of tim- 
 ber" was a tree for building. " Beam" is now 
 used to describe a piece of dead timber ; but in 
 the case of the " horn-beam" it retains its ori- 
 ginal sense. " Balk" was the beam used for the 
 roof, a word still in use with builders. The 
 word belle, not to be confounded with the French 
 word of similar orthography, but of very dif- 
 ferent meaning, signified in Saxon to roar. 
 Thus Chaucer describes the wind as it bel- 
 
 * " Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave." — ShaTcs- 
 peare. 
 
 f " In all the welkin was no clond." — Cliaueer, 
 
LECTURE I. 47 
 
 leth, or belloweth, that is, roars. Hence the 
 ''bell" which roared out the curfew of the Nor- 
 mans was so called bj the unhappy Saxons. 
 The '' bull" is said to " bellow," that is, to roar; 
 and probably was so named as being the greatest 
 roarer and bellower amongst the beasts in the 
 lands of the Saxons. From the roaring of the 
 wind issuing from the instrument used to blow 
 up the blacksmith's fire or furnace, it was called 
 a " bellows," a name given to the smallest pair 
 used in a drawing-room, although it may only 
 " roar you as gently as any sucking dove." 
 Bait signified a bit or bite ; as the " bait" put 
 on the hook for the fish to hite; and a man on a 
 journey can only stop to give his horse a bit or 
 hite^ whence to " bait" meant to stop to feed for 
 a little time upon the road, snatching a hit by 
 the way. The morsel of which the rider him- 
 self hastily partook, while his horse was baiting, 
 was called his '' snack," from snacken, to take 
 hastily, to snatch. 
 
 The words " nigh," " near," and " next," origi- 
 nally negh, negher, and neghest, are the degrees 
 of comparison ; like "high," "higher," "highest," 
 anciently hegh, hegher, and heghest, or hea;t. 
 " Instead" is from the Anglo-Saxon in stead, 
 in place. " After" is the comparative o{ aft, the 
 positive being retained only by our seamen. 
 "Up," "upper," and "uppermost" were for- 
 merly ufa, ufera, and ufermost, and from the 
 
48 LECTURE I. 
 
 ancient comparative we have " over." Home 
 Tooke says hove is hufan^ and '* above" is on- 
 hufan^ and *' upon" ufon; all meaning the same 
 as the top of the head^ from heofan^ to lift up, or 
 heave. 
 
 Home Tooke resolves adverbs, as well as 
 conjunctions and prepositions, into verbs and 
 nouns ; and as to the interjection, he considers 
 it so far from being properly called a part of 
 speech^ that he designates it *' the brutish in- 
 articulate interjection^ which has nothing to do 
 with speech, and is only the miserable refuge of 
 the speechless." In proof of this he insists that 
 "the dominion of speech is founded on the 
 downfall of interjections. Without the artful 
 contrivances of language," he observes, *' man- 
 kind could have nothing but interjections with 
 which to communicate, orally, any of their 
 feelings." And he proceeds to show that " vo- 
 luntary interjections are only employed when 
 the suddenness or vehemence of some affection 
 or passion returns men to their natural state, and 
 makes them, for the moment, forget the use of 
 speech;" w^hile in books they are only to be 
 found '' in rhetoric and poetry, in novels, plays, 
 and romances;" and never occur "in books of 
 civil institutions, in history, or in any treatise in 
 useful arts and sciences." 
 
 To return to adverbs. This ingenious, though 
 perhaps sometimes fanciful, etymologist, makes 
 
/ 
 
 LECTURE I. 49 
 
 " adrift" to be the past participle of adrifan^ to 
 drive away ; " aghast," the same part of the 
 verb agaze, to look steadfastly upon ; " ago,'' 
 the same part of ago, to go; and *' asunder" 
 from asundrian to separate. " Naught" or " nought" 
 is no whit, as *' aught" or " ought," signifies one 
 whit; " needs," anciently written " nedis," means 
 need is; " anon" is in one minute; " alone" and 
 " only," all one and one-like; " alive," on life; 
 " asleep," in sleep; " anew," of new; " aboard," 
 on board; *' farewell" is from far an, to go, and 
 well, as we may say, how fares it? or, how 
 goes it? The old adverbs, atwo and athree are 
 used by Chaucer, signifying " in two" and " in 
 three ;" similar to the verb still in use, " atone," 
 to make at one, and the noun " atonement," 
 or that which makes at one those who had 
 been separated or at variance. '' None" means 
 no one; and " the nonce" meant the once. ' 
 " Awhile'' is a time; and *' aloft" is on loft. 
 Similar to these are several adverbs, of which 
 the meaning is obvious, as " afoot," " ashore," 
 " abreast," " afloat," " aloud," " aside," and 
 " aground." " Aloof" was probably all off. ^ 
 '' Aye," and " yea," or "yes," Tooke makes to 
 be the imperative of a verb signifying to possess, 
 meaning have, or etijoy that. " No," in like man- 
 ner, he derives from a Teutonic word, nodig or 
 Tioc?^, signifying averse or unwilling ; while " nay," 
 
 E 
 
 r 
 
v/ 
 
 50 LECTURE L 
 
 opposed to " yea," or ** aye," is have it not* 
 " Never" means not ever. 
 
 The word ''deal'' we find used in various 
 senses, but all may be traced to the same origin, 
 the Anglo-Saxon verb dcelan^ signifying to di- 
 vide. Thus a *' deal" board is a board dealt or 
 divided; to " deal" in any commodity means to 
 divide the goods by retail ; and when we say we 
 " deal" with any person, it means rather that we 
 go to him to deal out to us. To " deal" with 
 people after their desert, means to divide or 
 measure out to them recompense (reward or 
 punishment) according to their deserving. A 
 pack of cards are " dealt" out, when divided 
 amongst the players; and a "deal" means a 
 share, now only used to mean " a great deal," or 
 a large share. " Dale," a valley dividing two hills, 
 is also derived from dcelan^ to divide. *' Heal" 
 is to cover, and a sore is healed when well co- 
 vered over; while " health*' is from healeth. 
 From heal, to cover, comes " hell," or the unseen 
 place, corresponding to the Greek word used 
 with the same signification ; and the '' hull" of a 
 ship is the part covered by the water. The 
 '' earth," so called from erjan, to plough (whence^ 
 comes " arable," that may be ploughed^, was 
 worshipped as a goddess by the pagan Saxons ; 
 and in honour of her they called the fire-side, 
 
 * See Diversions of Purley, by Home Tooke. 
 
LECTURE I. 51 
 
 around which the family assembled, the " hearth," . j 
 which, by a figure, is applied to the whole house 
 and home, as the Romans called their homes 
 lares^ from their household gods. 
 
 Male and female, amongst mankind, were an- 
 ciently described, as in the Saxon Gospels / 
 (Matt. xix. 4), as we^p-man and wif-man^ mean- ^ j 
 ing weapon man and woof man, in allusion to the 
 weapons of war used by the man, and the woof 
 or web on which the women were employed. 
 From the latter, the word " wife" is derived; as 
 " spinster" is from spinning. The '' husband" is p 
 the huse-band, who keeps the house together, ' 
 as " huswife" is the housewife, from managing 
 the house with thrift. " Stepfather" is probably 
 a corruption for stedfather, "sted" meaning 
 place, as instead, in place of; and in Danish, they 
 h.2iY e stied-fceder, 2ind stied-mader, *' Barn" is sup- 
 posed to be derived from the same word as bar, 
 being a place of defence or safety for the corn. 
 " Ballast" signified originally the loading of a 
 ship ; it is now applied ta that which is put in 
 the hold to make up for want of sufficient load- 
 ing. *' Hope" is derived from the verb to open, I 
 as describing a person looking out, with open , 
 and longing eyes, for that which he is wishing 
 for: and thus it corresponds with " expect" de- 
 rived from the Latin, and meaning to look out, 
 
 " Friend" and '' fiend" appear somewhat simi- 
 lar words, with very opposite meanings. The 
 
 •/ 
 
52 LECTURE I. 
 
 first is derived from the Saxon verb frian^ to 
 love, while the latter is from^aw, to hate; from 
 which also we have " foe." " Friendship" is 
 friend- shape, after the manner or fashion of a 
 friend, as *' landscape" is a representation or shape 
 of the land ; both from scaffan, to form. *' Loaf" is 
 derived from the Saxon word for bread, leaf, so 
 called because it has been raised, from helaf to 
 raise; hence also leavened. The bread, when 
 made moist, is called " dough," being the past 
 participle of deawian, to wet; from which we 
 also have the *' dew" that waters the grass. 
 
 To '* steer" is to move or guide; and the 
 ** stern" is that part which is stirred or moved in 
 guiding the ship's course. A young heifer is 
 called a " steer,'' and a young ox is a *' stirke," 
 as being under guidance and discipline, while as 
 yet "unaccustomed to the yoke." "Spade" is 
 from spetan, to throw out; from which comes 
 " to spit ;" and the portion of clay thrown up by 
 the spade is called " a spit.'^ The " spit" on 
 which meat is roasted is that which is thrust 
 through the joint, and it is in this sense used as 
 a verb, as when a bird is said to be " spitted." 
 " Righteousness" was originally rightwiseness, or 
 the act of walking in right ways, as the corres- 
 ponding word, now obsolete, wrong wiseness,* 
 was going in wrong ways. The word " wrong" 
 
 * Trench's English^ past andpresentf p. 98. 
 
LECTURE I. 53 
 
 is the past-participle of '* wring," and describes 
 that which has been wrung from the right course 
 or position. The word *' ought" is the past par- 
 ticiple of the verb to owe, as we say Jie ought to 
 do it, that is, he owes it, or it is owed by him to 
 do it. It is more correct to write the adverb, 
 signifying one whit, " aught" than ought 
 " Guilt" is taken from the past tense of the verb 
 to guile, meaning guiled, or beguiled, as we still 
 have it, that is, by the devil, and in criminal 
 charges the accused is, by our law forms, de- 
 scribed as having acted under the instigation or 
 guile of the devil. The " left-hand" signifies 
 that which is left unused, as distinguished from 
 the ** right-hand," which is the right and proper 
 one to use. A " field" was originally so called, 
 as being a piece of land on which the trees 
 had been felled, and it is spelled feld in old 
 authors, and opposed to woods, or uncleared ^t'i^U 
 land. 
 
 To "deck" signified to cover; hence, it is 
 applied to clothing, and especially to fine and 
 ornamental covering; and the "deck" of a ship 
 is that which covers the " hold," a word derived 
 from hellan, to hide. To " chap and change" is ;; 
 an old phrase, meaning to bargain and change, 
 and is derived from the Anglo-Saxon ceapan, to 
 bargain, to cheap, that is, to buy or sell. Hence | 
 the nautical term, a " chopping" wind or sea, 
 signifying a changing wind or sea. A " knave" ^ 
 
54 LECTURE I. 
 
 originally meant a boy, and was used gene- 
 rally to describe a servant; and knah is the 
 
 ^ German for a boy. This word hnave is now ap- 
 plied only in a bad sense to describe a rogue. 
 " Dearth" is the third person singular of the 
 obsolete verb dere^ to hurt or injure ; and is ap- 
 plied to scarcity, which injures a country, and is 
 caused by injury done to the crops. Hence, also, 
 is derived " dear," in the sense of scarce, or of too 
 great a price, originally a different word from 
 deore^ signifying beloved. To duhhe was to 
 strike; hence a knight was said to be " dubbed," 
 from the stroke of the sword laid on his shoulder ; 
 and from a word of similar import a man who 
 is beaten in a fight is said to have gotten a 
 " drubbing." 
 
 Home Tooke considers "if," and the old word 
 " an,'' used in the same sense, to have been 
 originally gif and anan, meaning give and 
 grant. He also makes " unless" to be the im- 
 perative of the old Saxon verb anlesan, to dis- 
 miss : from which termination of the imperative 
 of this verb, less, added to nouns, came such 
 
 ' adjectives as " hopeless," " doubtless," " restless," 
 &c., that is, dismiss hope, doubt, rest, &c. ; so 
 that we may say, indifferently, " sleepless," or 
 without sleep, " restless," or without rest, &c. 
 *' Else" he also considers to be the imperative of 
 alesan, to dismiss ; and " eke," for also, the im- 
 perative of eacan, to add ; and in like manner 
 
LECTURE I. 55 
 
 " and/' from ananad, to add to, or increase. He 
 also makes " but" and '' without'' the imperatives 
 of heon-utan and wyrtlian-utan^ to be out ; and 
 *' though" the imperative oithajigan^ to allow; 
 " since," he makes to be the past participle of 
 seon^ to see ; and " lest" the same participle of 
 lesan^ to dismiss. The preposition " through," 
 this same ingenious writer shows to be the same 
 as " thorough ;" and as he believes that, properly- 
 speaking, there are only two parts of speech, the 
 noun and the verb, he makes this the same as the 
 substantive ihuruh^ the Teutonic for a door, gate, 
 or passage. *^ From" he makes to be the noun 
 frumman^ the beginning, as, " figs came from 
 Turkey," i. e., " figs came — the beginning 
 Turkey." And as he makes " from" the com- 
 mencement, so he considers "to" the result, 
 consummation, or end; and "till," which he 
 observes is only used with respect to time, he 
 thinks is a word compounded of to and ivhile, 
 that is, time; so that " from morn till night," is 
 the same as if we said " from morn to time 
 night ;" and he shows that the English peasantry, 
 as well as some ancient authors, use while for till, 
 that is, leaving out to, as " I will stay while 
 evening," instead of till, or, to while, that is, to 
 time evening In like manner, he traces " for" 
 to the Anglo-Saxon noun afara, the first or con- 
 sequence ; whence comes the use of. " for," to 
 express the cause or the end of any action. The 
 
56 LECTURE I. 
 
 preposition " by" Tooke considers as tlie impe- 
 rative byth of the Saxon verb beon^ to be, that is, 
 to be the cause or agent. " Between" and 
 " betwixt" are compounded of the imperative be^ 
 with twegan and twas^ meaning twain and two. 
 In Chaucer we find betwyxt. '' Beneath" means 
 the same as below, being the imperative be com- 
 pounded with 7ieath, an obsolete word, meaning 
 " low;" from which we still have " nether" and 
 " nethermost." " Under" is from the same root, 
 on neder, or on the nether side. ' *' Beyond" is 
 compounded of be and geond, the participle of 
 the Saxon verb gan or gongan, to go. " Among," 
 which was formerly written emong, is derived 
 from the verb gemangan, to mingle, or mix. 
 " Against" is from a Dutch verb jogenen, to meet 
 or encounter, or, more probably, from the An- 
 glo-Saxon, an-gangen, to meet. " Amid" or 
 " amidst" (by Chaucer written amiddes), is Saxon, 
 in the midst or middle ; and " along" is on long, 
 " Beside" is by the side of. 
 
 To " amaze" means to puzzle a person, as if 
 lost in a maze, or labyrinth, and " amazement" 
 means the state of being in a maze. The word 
 *' mazed" is found in old authors for mad. " Tidy" 
 is a good old English word, and its meaning is 
 significant; it is derived from tid, time, and 
 means " timely ;" no one can be tidy who is not 
 in good time at their work. Untid was an old 
 word meaning untimely. The original mean- 
 
LECTURE I. 57 
 
 ing of " wicked" was, like ** quick," alive; and f 
 " wick" is still used in tlie North of England for 
 alive; hence the "wick," or live part of the 
 candle, is so called. From '* alive" and " lively," 
 wicked came to signify restless and turbulent, and y> 
 at last assumed its present sense, expressive of 
 unmitigated moral evil, either of character or 
 actions/^ 
 
 A boy or youth was called a " lad," as being 
 under the leading or guidance of parents and 
 tutors ; the feminine was laddess, which has 
 been contracted to " lass." A *' ladder," which 
 leads a man up to any height, is from the same 
 root, Icedan, to lead. ''Kine" is a contraction from Y- 
 cowen, the plural of " cow." The word *' knot," 
 is employed in various senses, but in all cases is 
 to be traced to the Saxon verb cnyttan, to " knit." 
 A hard "knot" is a complicated knitting to- 
 gether of the cord ; a "knotty point" means an 
 intricate question; a " knot" of persons is a num- 
 ber of people connected or gathered together; 
 a " knot" in a piece of timber is the place where 
 the fibres are tightly kjiit or complicated to- 
 gether, and thence rendered hard ; and a " top- 
 knot" was a bundle of locks of hair knit or tied 
 together at the top of the head. 
 
 Christianity having been received first in the 
 cities and towns, those who did not embrace our 
 
 * English Synonyms, By Archbishop Whately. 
 
58 LECTURE I. 
 
 holy religion were called " Pagans," derived 
 from Latin, meaning the people inhabiting 
 the villages and country. In like manner, they 
 were called by the Christian Saxons " heathen," 
 being the inhabitants of the heaths and the wilder 
 districts of the country. 
 
 Many words are pronounced and often spelt 
 alike, which are totally different in signification. 
 This arises from the circumstance of such words 
 being derived in one instance from the Saxon, 
 and in the other from Latin or French. Thus 
 " wicked," for sinful, is Saxon ; but " wicket," 
 a small gate, is French. We have "rear," to 
 bring up, and "rear" or "rare," signifying raw, 
 both Saxon ; while we have " rare" for scarce, 
 and the " rear " of an army from the French. 
 ''Rain" from the clouds, is Saxon; but the 
 " reign" of a king and the " rein" of a bridle, 
 are French. The "sea," is Saxon ; but the 
 " see" of a bishop is of Latin and French deri- 
 vation. The Saxon word " raise" means to 
 build up ; but " raze," from the French, is to pull 
 down. Numerous similar examples will occur 
 to every one, and are to be found in all dic- 
 tionaries and spelling-books ; but the origin of 
 these apparent anomalies in the English language 
 is not usually set forth, and is, probably, not 
 generally perceived. 
 
 I have already observed that the most simple 
 and primitive words in the English language, and 
 
LECTURE I. 59 
 
 those most in daily use, are of Saxon origin, and 
 are, for the most part, monosyllables. We have 
 seen this exemplified in nautical terms, in 
 the days of the week, and in the implements of 
 husbandry. It will also be found that all the 
 parts of the human body are called by Saxon 
 names, and are usually designated by words of 
 one syllable. The word " body" is a word of 
 two syllables ; but was originally a monosyl- j 
 lable, as we find an *' abode" for a habitation, \ 
 which is its primary meaning, frequently written 
 " bode" in Chaucer and other authors. Bode, 
 or " abode," is the past participle of the Saxon 
 verb bidan, to abide, and as a noun signifies 
 a dwelling-place. Hence it was applied to the 
 human body, as being the abode of the soul, 
 which is by a beautiful figure described as a 
 " tabernacle," in which for the present the im- 
 mortal part of man abides. Thus, too, Chaucer 
 describes death — " His spirit changed house. ''^ 
 The word " body" is especially applied to a dead 
 corpse, the bode or body being that in which 
 the soul, during life, abode or did dwell. The 
 Anglo-Saxons also called the body the sawol-hus, 
 that is, the house of the soul. The " head" was 
 formerly spelt heved^ and was so called as being 
 heaved, or raised up above all the members. The 
 " eye'^ is so called from a Teutonic word, augyan, 
 to point out; the " nose" is derived from ness, 
 signifying ^romm^n^/i hence it is also applied to' 
 
60 LECTURE I. 
 
 a word frequently found in composition, signify- 
 ing a promontory, as Sheerness, &c., as also indi- 
 cating a state or condition, as, goodness, hap- 
 piness, &c. " Scull" is of the same origin as 
 scale, as is also " shoulder/' formerly written 
 sTioulde, where the arms separate from the body ; 
 it is derived from the verb scylan, to divide, 
 the skull consisting of several distinct pieces ol 
 bone. The " mouth'* is derived from mafgan to 
 eat; as the '* jaw" is that with which a man 
 chaws or chews; and the " ear" is the organ of 
 hearing, derived from the verb eren, to take or 
 to receive, as sounds. The *' tooth" is that 
 which tuggeth or toweth, as we say a steam-^i^^ 
 takes a vessel in tow. The " cheeks" are so 
 called from chew, and ehe, meaning again, as they 
 are again and again brought into motion when 
 we chew our food. The '' tongue" comes from 
 tMngan to speak ; and the " hand" from hentan, 
 to take. Connected with the head we hav'elour 
 dissyllables, viz. : — " forehead," " eye-brow," 
 "eyelid" (or cover), and "nostril" (or nose-thrill, 
 that is, bored) ; but these are each compounded 
 of two Saxon words. The "instep" is from an- 
 stoepan, to go forward. 
 
 The " neck" is so called from nicken, to bend; 
 hence also are derived the " knee" and its dimi- 
 nutive " knuckle," the little knee of the finger. 
 The "finger" is from fingan, -to take; from 
 whence comes the " fang," the talons or tusks of 
 
LECTURE I. 61 
 
 an animal, by which he takes his prey, and the 
 word is still used as a verb in some parts of Eng- 
 land. The " foot," anciently /^^, is from fettian^ 
 to carry, whence also comes io fetch. The '' leg" 
 is from leggan^ to place or support. The " thigh" 
 means the thick part of the leg, and the " calf" 
 is supposed to have meant the little thigh, as a 
 calf is a little cow. The '' shin" means the 
 skinned bone, being the bone which is covered 
 only with *' skin," which is itself derived from 
 skinnan^ to shine, as it appears conspicuously, 
 and was often made to shine with oil, as with 
 careful tending a horse's skin will shine. " Flesh" 
 may mean flayed, as meat is called flesh, that 5s, 
 fleshed or flayed, when stripped of the skin. 
 "Blood" is the past participle of the verb to 
 bleed, a word derived from the colour, hledan 
 meaning to blush or grow red. " Sinew," an- 
 ciently one syllable, sine^ means strength. The 
 " liver" is so called from being essential to life; 
 the " lungs" from lungan, to draw, namely, the 
 breath ; and the " lights," as the lungs of other 
 animals are called, mean the light part which 
 contains the air. The " toes" are so called from 
 tean, to expand ; or more probably from toen, to 
 take, having been originally applied to the talons 
 or claws of birds, with which they take their 
 prey; the "joints" are the joinings; and the 
 " wrist" is that joint with which we wrest or pull 
 off* anything. The " nails," like the fingers and 
 
62 LECTURE I. 
 
 toes to which they are attached, have reference 
 to the fangs and talons of other animals, being 
 derived from the verb noeglian^ to fasten, as with 
 the claws a bird or beast fastens on its prey. 
 Hence it will be seen that the " nail" which a 
 carpenter uses to fasten his work is a word of the 
 same origin with the finger nails^ although the 
 connexion is not at first sight apparent. The 
 *' ankle" is the bone by which the foot is nankyd^ 
 that is, hanged to the leg. The '* throat" is pro- 
 bably derived from throwan, to throw. 
 
 The "• bones" are intended for the support of 
 the body, and without them the rest could not 
 be or subsist ; the word may be derived from the 
 verb beon, to be. The word " rib" seems to have 
 been applied to anything ripped or torn asunder, 
 and hence those bones are so called which extend 
 separately or asunder from the back bone ; as are 
 also the split boards with which the sides of a 
 ship are strengthened, and parts of the leaf or 
 stalk of plants.* The " heart" is supposed by 
 some to be so called from a Teutonic word, 
 huera, to move quickly, whence comes to hurry, 
 on account of the perpetual motion and agitation 
 of the heart ; while others think that it is derived 
 from herd, that is, hard, or durable, because we 
 owe the duration of life to the motion of the 
 heart. The ** breath" is the spirit; from besmd 
 oreth, the spirit. The '' chest," which encloses 
 * See Richardson's Dictionary. 
 
LECTURE I. 63 
 
 tlie heart, lungs, &c., is the case in which these 
 parts of the body are shut up ; and so we apply 
 the word to a trunk or chest for clothes ; and we 
 use a similar word, " case," in like manner, as a 
 gun-case, a hat-case, a case of instruments, &c. 
 A coffin was anciently called a " chest," as con- 
 taining the dead body. The word " elbow" is 
 one of the few dissyllables employed to desig- 
 nate the members of the body, and it is com- 
 pounded of el, a measure, and the bow or bend 
 of the arm, from which to the tip of the middle 
 finger that measure extends. Elhoga is the 
 Saxon for a *' cubit." The " lips" are so called, 
 probably, from lapping over the mouth. The 
 " chin" is from cinan, to open, because when the 
 chin is drawn down the mouth is opened ; hence 
 also comes a chink, or opening. The *' arm" is 
 from eren, to take, and from the German arm, it 
 is supposed, was derived the Latin arma, arms. 
 The *' back," the " brain," the '* beard," and the 
 " hair," are Saxon words and monosyllables, of 
 which we have no satisfactory derivation. The 
 dissyllables " whiskers" and " moustache" are of 
 foreign origin. 
 
 It will be observed that, in tracing these deri- 
 vations, the words adduced have been, in many 
 instances, referred to obsolete Anglo- Saxon verbs ; 
 but these are to be found in old books and 
 manuscripts, although some are now altogether 
 
64 LECTURE I. 
 
 disused, or are to be found only in composition 
 with other words. 
 
 The names of the various animals known to 
 the inhabitants of the northern parts of Europe 
 may also be traced to Anglo-Saxon derivations, 
 and win be found, for the most part, to consist 
 of monosyllables. 
 
 The " horse" is supposed to have been so 
 named from his obedience and tractableness, the 
 obsolete Saxon word hyrsian signifying to obey. 
 The name of *' dog" is now applied in the Eng- 
 lish language to every species of that animal, but 
 in the other northern dialects it means the large 
 hunting dog, so called from tacTcen^ to take or 
 catch. The " cow" is the animal that chews the 
 cud, so called from the Anglo-Saxon ceowan, to 
 ruminate or chew the " cud ;" this latter word 
 meaning that which is chewed. The " sheep" 
 were the earliest objects of care to mankind, and 
 for pasture were driven from place to place in 
 large numbers by their owners. The word 
 " sheep," which has no ^singular as distinguished 
 from the plural, may have originally signified a 
 " drove," as they are still called when driven 
 along the road, and the name may be derived 
 from the verb sceofan, to shove, or drive ; from 
 whence also we have a " shovel." The " cat,'' 
 which so patiently watches for the mouse, takes 
 her name from the verb ge-wachen, to watch. 
 
LECTURE I. 65 
 
 The " stag" was so called from stigan, to stick, 
 from his long horns, or, according to Tooke, 
 from steige, to raise up, from his raised and lofty- 
 head. The word " swine" is the plural for sow, 
 contracted from sowen^ like " kine," from cowen. 
 The " sow" is from succan, to suck. 
 
 '* Birds" are so called from the breadth of their 
 wings; the word was anciently written bridd, 
 and is derived from hrcedan, that is, to broaden, or 
 spread abroad ; and " fowl" is derived from fugel, 
 to fly. The '' sparrow" takes his name from 
 spyrrian, to search, from the active disposition of 
 that bird. The *' nightingale" is the singer in 
 the m^/z^, compounded otnight, and galen, to sing. 
 The " hawk" was called havoc in Saxon, which 
 word, derived from haven, to take or snatch, was 
 used as an interjection, like halloo/ as a word of 
 encouragement to slaughter in hunting, probably 
 in allusion to the sport of hawking.'^ Havoc is 
 a Teutonic word signifying devastation, and 
 formed a suitable name for the kawk, as a bird of 
 prey making havoc among the smaller birds. 
 The " raven" is so called in allusion to his ra- 
 venous disposition, from reajian, to tear away, 
 or bereave; and the " rook" from his propensity 
 to steal, from roeccan to reach, or lay hold on. 
 The " crow" owes his name to his hoarse voice ; 
 
 ■ " Cries Havock! and lets slip the dogs of war." 
 
 Shahspeare. 
 F 
 
66 LECTURE I. 
 
 as does the " cock" to his " shrill clarion ;" the 
 moping " owl" to his melancholy howl; and the 
 " frog" to his croaking. The " duck" is so called, 
 probably, from the verb difan to dive; ducken 
 being supposed to be the frequentative of that 
 word. The " drake" derives his name from the 
 mud in which he takes delight, from the Ger- 
 man drech, whence " dregs," signifying mud. 
 The " swan" has his name from swimman, to 
 swim. The " swallow" feeds, as no other bird 
 does, flying, and he swallows flies by wholesale. 
 " Fox" is supposed by some to be derived from 
 the German fallen^ to take by craft or guile, 
 while others derive it from the Saxon j^aw, from 
 whence comes foe, being the great enemy to 
 the poultry; and others again from/a^ ov feax^ 
 an Anglo-Saxon word for hair, which is found 
 in old authors, — faxed ^ for bushy, from his brush. 
 *' Wolf" is derived either from his yell or yelp^ 
 or from the Gothic wilwan^ to ravage. The 
 " herring," a fish which visits the British seas in 
 numerous swarms, is so called from the word her^ 
 an army, from the closely compacted hosts or 
 numbers in wliich they are found. The name 
 of the '' turkey," an American, and not a Turkish 
 bird, may, perhaps, be derived from the noise 
 which this bird makes, like turk^ turk ; but it 
 more probably alludes to the swaggering strut 
 and furious manner and appearance of the tur- 
 key-cock, with his inflated breast, red face, and 
 
LECTURE I. 67 
 
 outspread tail, strutting among the hens like any 
 " blue-beard" Turk, or *' three-tailed" Bashaw. 
 This bird, however, was unknown to the Saxons, 
 and therefore, not named by them ; but by the 
 English, at a period when the Turks were looked 
 upon with as much aversion as they now are 
 with sympathy. The " mole" derives its name 
 from the little hillocks of mould cast up by this 
 animal ; and was anciently called, as it still is in 
 some parts of England, " mold- warp," from mold^ 
 earth, and warpan^ to throw or cast up. The 
 " spider" means the spinner ^"^ so called from 
 spinning his web; spinan signifying to spin, 
 from whence, also, comes a '' spindle." The 
 derivation of the spider s prey, from the verb to 
 " fly," is obvious. The name of the ** moth" is 
 to be traced to the same root as mouth, in allu- 
 sion to the eating propensities of that insect; 
 math being a contraction for matgith, the third 
 person singular o£ matgan, to eat. The " snail" 
 is a diminutive of " snake," both so called from 
 snican, to creep ; hence the term sneaking, creep- 
 ing in a servile manner. The ** worm" is de- 
 rived from an old Saxon verb, werpan, to move 
 in curved lines, from which we have " warp." To 
 
 * In his description of dreams, as the work of Queen Mab, 
 |j Skakspeare calls the spider by this name, " spinner." 
 
 " Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners^ legs." 
 
 Borneo and Juliet. 
 
68 LECTURE I. 
 
 ** worm" one's-self into another's favour, or into 
 an advantageous position, is to act like a worm, 
 creeping along insensibly, and by tortuous ways. 
 The '' worm" of a still is formed like a worm, 
 and through it the distilled liquor creeps slowly, 
 drop by drop. 
 
 The '* slug" means the slow reptile ; and 
 similar is the derivation of the " sluggard" and 
 the ''sloth." The " adder" creeps beneath the 
 grass, and was also called ncedre, that is " be- 
 neath." In allusion, probably, to this reptile, 
 poison was called atter. The venomous spider 
 was called attercop, a name still in use in some 
 parts, and from cop we have '' cobweb," formerly 
 copweb. The " gnat" is so named from /ice^cm, to 
 sting; and the "bat," because, with its wings 
 expanded, it resembles a ^oa^mpelled with oars; 
 the " boat" itself is so called from being a vessel 
 forced along the water by the heating of oars, 
 from the past participle 6^0^, beaten. The '* seal" 
 is a contraction from sea-calf, so called from the 
 noise made by this animal, like a calf bleating. 
 The " gadfly" is an insect that torments cattle 
 like a goad. The *' lobster," called by Chaucer 
 the loppe, has its name from the verb to leap; 
 the leap or spring of the lobster being noted by 
 naturalists. The *' salmon's" name is derived 
 from a French verb of a similar signification. 
 The " crab" is so called from creopan^ to creep. 
 
LECTURE I. 69 
 
 The *' flea," whose leaping powers are well 
 known, was also called loppe in Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 Many other names of animals might be enu- 
 merated, of which the exact derivation cannot 
 be given, but which will be found to be of Saxon 
 origin, and monosyllables ; as bat^ kite, rat, toad, 
 mouse, hare, elk, deer; a few are dissyllables, as 
 rabbit, hedgehog, dormouse, and badger. From 
 the cruel sport of hunting the last-named animal, 
 all species of tormenting and petty persecution 
 came to be called " badgering." 
 
 The names of trees, and of all vegetable pro- 
 ductions known to the northern nations of 
 Europe, are of Saxon origin, and for the most 
 part expressed by monosyllables ; as the oak, the 
 lime, the ash, Xh-Qpine^"^ the fir, the beech, the yew, 
 the asp, the birch, the elm, the vine, the box, the 
 holm, and the plane; with corn, oats, wheat, hay, 
 grass, and bere (for barley), the fig and the 
 grape; as also the different parts of plants and 
 trees, as the root, the branch, the stalk, the leaf, 
 the thorn, the fruit, the bud, the stem, the bark, 
 and the seed. Of dissyllables, we have the 
 willow, the maple, and the alder; likewise the 
 
 * Some critics have disputed the Saxon origin of the vine, 
 the pine, and the Jig tree, because these names are severally 
 similar to the Latin ; but this is as much evidence that they are 
 all Saxon as that they are Latin. We find in Somner, Benson, 
 and Bosworth, the win-treow, the pin-treow, and thejic-beame ; 
 the Latin and Anglo-Saxon names had probably the same origin 
 in the Teutonic. 
 
 i/r^i^^^' 
 
70 LECTURE I. 
 
 and the berry. The " elm" was some- 
 times called the coffer^ because chests {coffers) 
 and coffins were usually made of the wood of this 
 tree. 
 
 This lecture has extended far beyond the 
 length which I had anticipated; and the subject 
 has grown so much upon me while engaged in 
 its preparation, that I must reserve for a' future 
 opportunity much that -I had meant to have 
 brought under your notice on this occasion. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 In my former Lecture I noticed several words 
 which may be traced to the Anglo-Saxon, of 
 which the derivation is not generally known, as 
 also some words which have changed their 
 meaning from that which they originally con- 
 veyed. 
 
 Many others might be enumerated, to some of 
 which I shall refer, before I proceed to consider 
 titles of honour, and proper names derived from 
 the Saxon, with other topics connected with our 
 subject. 
 
 The word " bequeath" means to leave a legacy 
 in a will, and is derived from the Saxon qidth, 
 meaning a will — that which a man quoth ^ or 
 made known, as his wish, or " will." A " fee" is 
 a word with which we are all acquainted; it 
 is derived from feoh, the Saxon for money. 
 " Coward" is, by Home Tooke, derived from 
 cowered, bowed down, crouching, or stooping 
 through fear; and it was formerly used as a 
 verb, to cowre, or cower, of which coward is 
 the past participle. An " inn," anciently ingeat, 
 
72 LECTURE II. 
 
 is a house of common in-going. A surgeon 
 was formerly called a " leech," from the Saxon 
 word lich^ signifying the body, his art ap- 
 pertaining to the human body The little 
 creature that sucks the blood, and thus performs 
 one of the offices of a surgeon, is therefore called 
 a " leech." A beam, or bairn, is the Saxon for 
 a child, and is still so applied in Scotland. 
 Chepe, or cheap, is the Saxon for a market. 
 Hence, we have " chapman," a small merchant, 
 such as frequented markets. Chaucer uses chap- 
 manhade for the profession or business of a mer- 
 chant ; and ceapscip, i. e., cheap-ship, meant 
 a merchant-vessel, or, as it is now called, a 
 " trader." To " cheapen" meant to buy or bar- 
 gain at market; and formerly good cheap and 
 had cheap were modes of expression used to 
 denote a good or a bad bargain.* The term 
 " cheap," being now used only to describe a 
 '* good" purchase, this epithet is omitted as un- 
 necessary. Uncheap was a Saxon word for 
 " gratuitous," that is, without a price. Undeare 
 was used to express what we now mean by 
 " cheap," and deareworth was what we call 
 "dear." The name of the street called "Cheap- 
 side," in London, does not imply that goods are 
 
 * Thus Shakspeare has " good cheap,* of -which dog cheap is 
 probably a corruption. — King Henry IV. 
 
LECTURE II. 73 
 
 cheaper there than elsewhere, but denotes the 
 site of an ancient market-place, a '* cheap," or 
 market, having been held at the side of the 
 road or street. Similar to this is " Chepstow," 
 the place of a market. 
 
 As '' gospel" meant good news, so the ancient 
 Saxon name for a parable or proverb was bispel, 
 signifying a story by the way, or as we now say, 
 a " by- word." Bight was the Saxon for metre 
 or rhyme ; hence came " ditties," or ballads, and 
 to " indite" (endight) prose was to set it forth in 
 order. The several meals of the day were, by 
 the Saxons, called breakfast, noon-meale, and 
 even-meale ; for the two last-named, ''dinner" 
 and " supper," derived from the French, have 
 long been substituted ; and for the first, of which 
 the derivation is obvious, " dejeuner" has now 
 come into use, to describe fashionable mid-day 
 or afternoon entertainments, which, however, are 
 seldom literal break-fasts. From an union of 
 two words, French and Saxon, we have " gentle- 
 man:" the Saxons called a gentleman by birth, 
 an ethel'bor en-man, that is, a nobly-born man. 
 A peasant they described as a ceorl-boren-man, 
 ceorl, or '* churl," signified a rustic, without im- 
 plying reproach. " Whit-Sunday" was so desig- 
 nated by the Saxons, as being the Weid-Sunday, 
 that is, the " Holy Sunday," being that upon 
 which Christians commemorate the descent of 
 
74 LECTURE II. 
 
 the Holy Spirit. Some, however, consider it to 
 mean White Sunday, and to have been so called 
 from the circumstance of the candidates for bap- 
 tism, or confirmation, appearing at Whitsuntide 
 clothed in white, as the emblem of purity. 
 
 In my former lecture, I noticed the meaning 
 of the Saxon word sted or stead, as signifying 
 " a place," which is derived from stood or staid. 
 Hence we have " steady," and " steadfast," or 
 " stedfast," meaning firmly fixed to one place, 
 and applied to fixedness of purpose. The word 
 is used in composition, as " bed-stead," the place 
 of a bed, and " home-stead," the place of one's 
 home. Folk-stede was an Anglo-Saxon word for 
 a village. '' Twine" means two threads, and 
 "twist" is that which is ^mc^cZ, or doubled ; of 
 the same signification is "tweed;" while "thread" 
 means three' d or thriced. A " wrinkle" means 
 that which is wrung or distorted. " Wrench" 
 is also derived from wringan, to wring, twist, or 
 torture ; and it is found used as a noun by old 
 writers, equivalent to fraud or other wrong. The 
 noun " wretch," now applied in a bad sense, ori- 
 ginally meant one who was wrecked, or deeply 
 afflicted ; as an adjective, " wretched" is still used 
 in its original meaning, but usually implies a 
 feeling of contempt as well as pity. As a noun, 
 " wretch" was formerly used in a good sense, as 
 conveying a feeling of tenderness excited by the 
 
LECTURE IT. 75 
 
 misfortunes of the person to whom it was ap- 
 plied.* 
 
 I have already shown, by many examples, that 
 the most simple words, and those in general use, 
 are of Saxon origin, and for the most part mono- 
 syllables. To those before adduced, may be added 
 the names of three out of the four elements, 
 earthy jire^ and water; as also the four winds, — 
 the " north," derived from an old verb, signify- 
 ing to dry up and bind, as frost does ; the " south," 
 so called from a verb which signified to make 
 warm, to boil, from which we have the word 
 seethe; the '* east," signifying stormy; and the 
 " west," being the past participle oiwwtan^lo wet; 
 this being the rainy, as the others are the dry, 
 warm, and stormy points of the compass. 
 
 We have observed that several words have 
 changed their original meaning. Amongst these, 
 we may mention "dote," and ''fond;" each of 
 which words meant foolish^ as we still speak of 
 a man '* doting," and we find the word " fond" 
 still used in its original sense, especially in poetry, 
 as we may read of a " fond conceit." Shaks- 
 peare makes King Lear describe himself as *' a 
 foolish, fond old man." Neither of these words 
 appears to have had, originally, any special re- 
 ference to affection, but meant folly, madness, 
 
 * Thus in Shakspeare — Othello, Act I 11.^ Scene III. ; and 
 Hamlet^ Act IT., Scene IL In both which places "wretch" is 
 applied without implying reproach or contempt. 
 
76 LECTURE II. 
 
 or imprudence of any kind ; and in one instance, 
 quoted by Dr. Johnson, " fond" is applied in a 
 sense altogether opposite to its present usual 
 meaning, to describe an injudiciously severe 
 schoolmaster, when a youth is said to have been 
 " beaten out of all love of learning by a fond 
 schoolmaster;" meaning thereby, a foolish and 
 ill-judging teacher. Notwithstanding, it is cer- 
 tain that, from an early period, these two words, 
 " doting" and " fond," or both of them united, as 
 " dotingly fond," were employed to express very 
 strong and tender affection; and it does not 
 speak much for the warm-heartedness, or gal- 
 lantry, of the Anglo-Saxon race, that, when we 
 want to describe the strongest affection towards 
 the object of our most tender regard, we are com- 
 pelled to use language which, in plain English, 
 means that we are making great fools of our- 
 selves. 
 
 The Saxons, like most of the northern nations, 
 were hard drinkers, and it is a subject of regret 
 that their descendants, at the present day, have 
 not altogether lost this not very creditable cha- 
 racter. They were not less remarkable for their 
 hospitality than for their love of strong drink, 
 and did not like to see their guests, any more 
 than themselves, leave a drop in the bottom of 
 their very capacious tankards. Hence they called 
 it a " carouse,^^ when they drank all out ; the word 
 grar signifying "all," and ous meaning "out;'' 
 
LECTURE II. 77 
 
 hence, the g being changed to c, to " carouse" 
 (anciently garousz) was to drink all out* This 
 " carousing" tending to frequent quarrels, and 
 many other evils, the Saxon King Edgar enacted 
 a law, which he strictly enforced, ordering that 
 certain marks should be made in their drinking 
 cups, at a particular height, above which they 
 were forbidden to fill them under a heavy pe- 
 nalty. This law, however, as Rapin relates, was 
 but a short time in continuance, being too much 
 opposed to the national character to be long 
 maintained. 
 
 The word " wassail," defined by Dr. Johnson 
 as a drunken bout, comes from the old Saxon 
 words was and heal, that is, " be of good health ;" 
 was being the imperative of the Saxon verb sig- 
 nifying to be, of which we still have the imper- 
 fect tense, and heal signifying health. The cus- 
 tom of pledging healths arose, it is probable, 
 out of the savage habits of the times, when every 
 man dreaded treachery and murder; but when, 
 at the same time, the most violent amongst them 
 respected a pledge, and strictly kept their word. 
 When a man took up the large tankard, to drink, 
 he pledged his w^ord to his neighbour that he 
 would protect him, while drinking, from violence, 
 if the other would pledge his troth, that is, his 
 *' truth," in like manner, for his safety, while he 
 
 * " The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet." — Shahsjpeare. 
 
78 LECTURE II. 
 
 was in the act of drinking, and thereby obstruct- 
 ing his view, and exposing his throat to an 
 enemy. 
 
 A tradition, which there is no reason to doubt, 
 tells that the first introduction of this custom of 
 ** drinking healths" into Britain, and with it the 
 word wassail^ was on the occasion of Hengist 
 a ad Horsa, the first Saxon chiefs, having invited 
 ' Vortiger, the British king, to a supper. The lady 
 Rowena, daughter, or more likely niece, of Hen- 
 gist, came into the king's presence, with a cup 
 of gold, filled with wine, in her hand, and mak- 
 ing a low obeisance, she accosted him in these 
 words, in the Saxon tongue : Waes lieal^ laford 
 cyning — "Be of good health, lord king." The 
 king, not understanding what she said, inquired 
 the meaning of his chamberlain, who was also 
 his interpreter, and, as instructed by him, replied, 
 *' Drinc heal,'" that is, " Do you, yourself, drink 
 my health ;" upon which she touched the cup 
 with her lips, and then gave it to the British 
 king. The fair lady soon afterwards became 
 Vortiger s wife, the infatuated king putting away 
 his wedded queen; and, instead of getting a 
 dowry with Rowena, he complied with the demand 
 of Hengist — who, doubtless, rightly judged Vor- 
 tiger, to be a doting and fond fool — by giving 
 the whole county of Kent to the Saxons. Having 
 thus acquired this fair portion of the country, by 
 stratagem and compact, the invaders never rested 
 
Jh 
 
 LECTURE II. 79 
 
 satisfied until thej had obtained possession of the 
 entire island. 
 
 In this county of Kent, thus early brought 
 under Saxon sway, the Saxon custom is said by 
 Dr. Johnson to prevail, as it continues in force 
 in other parts of England, whereby the lands of 
 the father are, on his decease, divided amongst 
 all his children. This custom is called " travel- 
 kind,'' a Saxon term, compounded of the words 
 give all kind, or kin, that is, amongst all the , ^*^ 
 children. This is one of the few law terms of ' " 
 Saxon origin which remain in the English lan- 
 guage, the Normans having used French in the 
 law courts ; so that, in the legal profession, as 
 well as in those of medicine and divinity, deri- 
 vatives from the Latin are found generally to 
 abound. 
 
 Of the law terms so introduced, some are 
 well known, but, perhaps, seldom understood. 
 The Court of " Oyer and Terminer" signifies the "^ 
 court where causes are heard and determined ; 
 the word oyer being the old Norman-French for 
 hear; the imperative mood of which was used 
 three times to call all persons concerned to the 
 hearing, when the officer proclaimed the open- 
 ing of the Court by crying — Oyez, oyez, oyez, 
 from which that functionary was called " the 
 crier;" and, having but a very humble duty to 
 perform, he was soon allowed to be a Saxon, 
 who corrupted the old Norman into the English ^""^ 
 
 ■-^•C 
 
80 LECTURE II. 
 
 words, yes ! yes ! yes ! as at the present day 
 we hear it sung out, both in civil and ecclesias- 
 tical courts. 
 
 We have still some old terms used in legal 
 forms which are Saxon, it being necessary that 
 they should be understood by the lower orders. 
 Thus, notices of ejectment are signed by John 
 Thrustout ; and the fictitious names of John 
 Nokes and John Style ^ originally John of the 
 Oke (or oak), and John at the Style, are both 
 Saxon, as are also John Doe and Richard Roe, 
 These names go to prove how common the 
 name of John was with the Saxons, as an 
 Englishman is always called John Bull, and a 
 British sailor is known everywhere as honest JacA. 
 
 On this part of our subject, we may observe, 
 that, to this day, the royal assent is given to 
 Acts of Parliament in French, La Reine le veut, 
 The Queen wills it; and if it should occur that 
 our gracious Sovereign should unhappily differ 
 with her Parliament, the refusal of her assent 
 would be conveyed in the mild terms. La Beine 
 s'avisera, The Queen will consider of it. In the 
 House of Lords, on a division, the Peers say con- 
 tent or non-content, from the Latin ; while the 
 Commoners, in the people's House, say aye or 
 no, in homely Saxon.* 
 
 * The " Speaker," whose office is designated by a Saxon word, 
 says — Ayes to the rights and Noes to the left^ using Saxon terms: 
 while the enumerators are called " Tellers," also Saxon. 
 
LECTURE II. 81 
 
 It was not at the period of the first arrival of 
 the Normans in England, that all the present 
 words of French derivation were introduced 
 into the language ; the English at all times ap- 
 pearing to have a taste for borrowing words 
 from others, and especially from their French 
 neighbours, although they would not " on com- 
 pulsion" give up their original Anglo-Saxon. 
 In a curious and scarce work on the history and 
 language of the Anglo-Saxons published in the 
 year 1634, the author complains bitterly of this 
 propensity, observing that it had given rise to 
 a proverb, in the days of the Normans, when 
 it used to be said of a vain fellow among the 
 Saxons, aping the invaders, " Jack would he a 
 gentleman if he could speak French^ As an 
 illustration of the inconvenience of this adoption 
 of new words, the author relates the following 
 instance : — 
 
 " So fell it out not many years past that a 
 principal courtier writing from London, to a 
 person of authority in the North parts, touching 
 the training of men, and providing furniture for 
 war, willed him, among other things, to eguippe 
 his horses. The receiver of the letter, with some 
 trouble, came at last to the understanding of it 
 all, except equippe, whereof in no sort he could 
 conceive the meaning. In the end, he consulted 
 about it with divers gentlemen in the country 
 thereabouts, but none could resolve him. It 
 
 G 
 
82 LECTURE II. 
 
 was among them remembered tliat we used in 
 
 our language the word quipping^ and the word 
 
 whipping; the first not proper for horses, but 
 
 sometimes used to men; the latter not fit for 
 
 , gentlemen's horses, but for carters' jades. In 
 
 \ fine, none of them all being able to find in all 
 
 \ the English they had, what equippe might mean, 
 
 ' a messenger was sent of purpose to the Court at 
 
 London to learn the meaning thereof of the 
 
 writer of the letter." 
 
 Although it is now needless to tell you the 
 meaning of *' equip," it may not be unnecessary 
 to explain that by quipping, as practised on 
 men but not on horses, alluded to by our author, 
 was meant to describe rallying with sarcasms, as 
 Milton has — 
 
 " Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles, 
 Nods and becks, and wTeathed smiles." 
 
 The foregoing is stated by Verstegan, as a 
 fact of recent actual occurrence; but he pro- 
 ceeds to adduce, apparently only as a good 
 story, the case of a man who told his friends 
 " how, as he itinerated, he obviated a rural per- 
 son, and interrogating him concerning the trans- 
 itation of the time, and the demonstration of the 
 passage, found him a mere simplician ; whereas" 
 (adds our author) " if in his true speech he had 
 asked him, what was the clock, and which had 
 
LECTURE II. 83 
 
 been his way, his ignorance might of the sim- ' 
 plician have been informed in both." 
 
 As an evidence of the great preponderance 
 of Saxon in the present English language, it 
 may be observed, that while we could write 
 entire pages and chapters, without having resort 
 to the use of a single word derived from any 
 other language, it would be found impossible to 
 compose a sentence of twenty words from which 
 those of Saxon origin should be omitted. Of 
 this the sentence just quoted affords a striking 
 example. The object of the writer was to frame 
 an imaginary speech, of words derived from the 
 Latin; and although he makes his narrator 
 speak of itinerating for walking, obviating for 
 meeting, and interrogating for asking, and repre- 
 sents him as speaking of a rural person for a 
 countryman, the transitation for the passing of 
 the time, the demoiistration of the passage for the 
 showing of the way, and of a simplician for a 
 fool or a dunce, yet he can only substitute con- 
 cerning for " about," and is compelled, for all the 
 other smaller but not unimportant words, to use 
 Saxon, as in the case of the pronouns, the articles, 
 the conjunctions, and the adverbs, occurring in 
 the sentence. 
 
 I am not sure that an English-speaking Irish 
 peasant, at the present day, would clearly un- 
 derstand a man inquiring of him concerning 
 " the transitation of the time, and the demonstra- 
 
84 LECTURE II. 
 
 tion of the passage f but it is certain that in 
 Ireland words derived from Latin are better 
 understood and more generally used than by 
 corresponding classes in England ; and I may 
 add, that the less educated class in Ireland speak 
 better grammar than the corresponding class in 
 England. Both these facts are to be accounted 
 . for by the circumstance, that the English lan- 
 ; guage has been introduced into Ireland since 
 its completion by the addition of words derived 
 from the Latin and French, and that this was 
 generally done by well-educated Englishmen; 
 while the peasantry in England speak their own 
 language, as it was spoken by their Saxon an- 
 cestors, not improved in orthography or syntax 
 \ by having been handed down by their '' rude 
 ; forefathers," from sire to son, through a suc- 
 cession, in too many cases, of illiterate gene- 
 rations. 
 
 In connexion with this part of our subject, 
 it is interesting to observe the changes of the 
 English language, in the use and pronunciation 
 of certain words, as shown by a comparison 
 between the different modes in which they are 
 now used in England and in Ireland. It will 
 be found that the use, and more especially the 
 pronunciation, of many words, in respect of which 
 our English neighbours accuse our countrymen of 
 Irishisms and of a brogue^ were the same in 
 England, at the period of the general introduc- 
 
LECTURE II. 85 
 
 tlon of the language into this country, as now 
 prevail in some cases in Ireland. The changes 
 have been made in England v^hich have not 
 been as yet universally adopted in Ireland. To 
 some of these I shall now refer, in illustration of 
 this remark ; taking the words, for the most part, 
 as I have chanced to find them in the works of 
 Chaucer and Spenser; the former of whom 
 lived in the fourteenth, and the latter in the six- 
 teenth century. 
 
 The first " Irishism," as these are now called, 
 to which I shall refer, is the word kilt. How often 
 is poor Paddy laughed at for this expression ; 
 and yet it will be found that Chaucer uses it for 
 killed; and there is no reason, except fashion, 
 why it should not be used as well as spilt In 
 like manner, Chaucer and Spenser have holt for 
 " hold," and it, as well as " bolt," was spelt with w, 
 as an illiterate Irishman would say he took a lioult 
 of the hoult of the doore (door). This latter word 
 was anciently dure^ meaning a dure-fare^ or 
 " thorough-fare." Similar to these, is ould for 
 " old," and rowled for " rolled," to be found in 
 publications of the seventeenth century. ' ' Rush" 
 is, in old books, risk, from risan, to rise; to 
 *• raise" is reise; and *' risen" is risse or riz. 
 " Rudder" was written rother, like " mother," 
 which was anciently wiiiten moder ; while " mur- 
 der," in comparatively modern times, was spelt 
 murther; and " burden" was burthen. *' Toge- 
 
86 LECTURE II. 
 
 ther" is in old books togither; "key" is haie; 
 "nostril" is nosthril; "neither is natlier; the 
 preposition " by" is he; and " before" is afore. 
 " Ask" was axe, and axing was the term formerly 
 used for a request; both words being derived 
 from the Anglo-Saxon axian, to inquire, to ask. 
 " Fodder" for cattle, iiom food, was written/o^A^r, 
 and was doubtless pronounced like "bother;" 
 the Saxon word for message was arrande, now 
 called " errand" (distinct from the Latin-derived 
 errant, or wandering), but still amongst the Irish 
 peasantry pronounced arrand. " World," some- 
 times vulgarly pronounced as if a word of two 
 syllables, was originally such, the Saxon word 
 being woruld. Drede is " fear," and aff eared or 
 aferedi^ "afraid," as used by Shakspeareand other 
 writers of the sixteenth century.* " Sermon" is 
 spelt sarmonde in old writers, and " wrestle" 
 is wrastle. " Welcome" was formerly wilcome; 
 a " nettle" was a nittle; and a " pen" was a j9zW. 
 Again, and even agen and agin, are to be found 
 used by the accomplished poets referred to, for 
 "against;" as is also learn for " teach," which 
 was the original meaning of the word ; and / 
 seen for "I saw ;" while they likewise use a well- 
 known word with Irishmen, to swap for ex- 
 change. In Ireland we often hear a large num- 
 ber of persons, &c., described as a power of peo- 
 
 * " Will not the ladies be affeared of the lion ?" 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 
LECTURE II. 87 
 
 pie, &c. ; and in some parts they use insense for 
 apprise or inform, i.e.^ to make sensible of; as 
 "I've insensed the master of it." But these 
 phrases are also found in common use in some ^ 
 parts of England.^' In Ulster, and the northern 
 parts of Connaught, many words of Anglo-Saxon 
 derivation are in use, brought over, probably, 
 from Scotland in the seventeenth century ; such 
 as art for a section of the heavens ; " there will 
 be bad weather as long as the wind is blowing 
 from that art;"" bairn for child; bra^/ for hill 
 (from the Anglo-Saxon brcew, or break, a brow) ; 
 they call the first springing of the corn braird, and 
 a ditch they call a gripe; the Anglo-Saxon words 
 being briard, the top, and grep, a furrow.f 
 
 We may often hear the Irish peasantry 
 speak of a thing being divided into two halves; 
 and anciently " half" meant any part, and the 
 expression " four halves" is old English ;+ so that 
 this '' Irishism" may be traced to the original 
 English settlers. " Lieutenant," from the French, 
 is described by Verstegan, in the seventeenth 
 century, as being pronounced in England lifte- 
 nant, as we may still sometimes hear it in Ire- 
 land. A remarkable instance of the change in 
 the application of words is that of "starve." 
 An Irishman is laughed at for saying a man was 
 
 • '^(t^ Leicestershire Words^ Phrases, and Proverbs; by Dr. Evans. 
 t The above words may be found in Bums. 
 X TyrwMtt, quoted by Dr. Richardson. 
 
OO LECTURE II. 
 
 starved ivith the hunger, as if it were a tautology. 
 This arises from the word "starve" (formerly spelt 
 sterve) having now come to signify to perish 
 of hunger, only, whereas it originally meant, 
 simply, to perish or die, whatever might have 
 been the cause. Thus Chaucer tells of a man 
 who " starved with hunger," and delates how the 
 Trojans "starved" through the stratagem of the 
 wooden horse brought into the devoted city. 
 He also applies this word to describe the death 
 of our Saviour on the cross. And in some parts 
 of England, as well as in Ireland, the peasantry 
 still speak of a man being starved with the cold. 
 
 With respect to the best mode of pronouncing 
 words, we can only judge of this by poetry, and 
 observing such as are made to rhyme. Now, 
 in the poets to whom I have already referred, 
 we find such rhymes as creature with " jiature ;" 
 treat with " great ;" " save" with leave ; " break" 
 with bleak, speak, and weak. In fact ea appears 
 to have been commonly pronounced as a; and 
 so it still continues to be in several words, for 
 example, wear, bear, tear, rear, heart, hearth, 
 and hearken, and, in like manner, ei in " heir" 
 is pronounced as air. Nor can any sound reason 
 be given why " weary" should not be pronounced 
 warey, as well as " wear" ware; or why " speak" 
 should not be spake, and "bleak" blake, and 
 " weak" wake, as well as " great" grate, " heart" 
 hart^ or as " break" is generally pronounced in 
 
LECTURE II. 89 
 
 England brake ^ and as every one calls a *' beef- 
 steak," a stake. 
 
 It is observable that many of the words of this 
 class were anciently written, as well as pro- 
 nounced, with a instead of e or ea. Thus we 
 find, in old authors, kay for key, lay for lea, and 
 hate for beat. Others, again, now spelt with ay 
 or a only, had formerly m, as slea for " slay,*' 
 and^m for "flay;" and yet these words appear 
 to have been always pronounced as they now 
 are, in the same manner as words similarly spelt 
 are still often pronounced in Ireland, as play and 
 say for " plea" and " sea." When slea was 
 " slay" and flea " flay," there is no reason to 
 doubt that " plea" was play^ and " sea" was say. 
 Some such words are still given in dictionaries 
 as spelt either way, as " fleaks" or " flakes" of 
 snow, and to " flea" or " flay" the skin. 
 
 But we need not go back three centuries to 
 find words made to rhyme, which would now 
 be considered '' Irishisms." Pope, who wrote in 
 the middle of the last century, makes " tea" to 
 rhyme with obey ; and it can be shewn that, 
 within twenty years before his time, this beve- 
 rage retained its French name, and was written 
 the, and pronounced accordingly. Pope has 
 " weak" rhyming with take ; also " retreat," and 
 " complete," to rhyme with great. Some have 
 considered this latter instance as affording a 
 proof that "great" was then pronounced as if 
 
90 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 spelt greets rather than an evidence of "com- 
 plete" having been complate. But in the same 
 poem in which Pope has "retreat" and "com- 
 plete" rhyming with great^ he makes " state" and 
 " rate" to rhyme with the same word. Now there 
 can be no doubt as to the pronunciation of these 
 words, and we find them frequently made to 
 rhyme with " great." The poet describes man 
 as 
 
 " Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, 
 A being darkly wise, and rudely great." 
 
 And he points out the true nobility of race, — 
 
 *' But by your fathers' worth if your's you rate, 
 Count me those only who were good and great." 
 
 When we find in the same poem, the Essay 
 on Man, the following couplet, — 
 
 " There, in the rich, the honour'd, fam'd, and great, 
 See the false scale of happiness comphaf — 
 
 we are led to the conclusion that complete was 
 pronounced complate ; and it is to be remarked 
 that, in the earlier editions of Pope's works, this 
 word is spelt " compleaty The words " su- 
 preme" and " extreme" will, in like manner, be 
 found spelt with ea, and without the final e, in 
 books printed about a hundred years since, as 
 *' supream" and " extream," which, I doubt not, 
 were pronounced suprame and extrame. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon for " weak" was wahe^ and 
 " weakness" was wacness. We may also find 
 
LECTURE II. 91 
 
 Make toT "bleak;" blather hi "bladder;" dale 
 for "deal;" receavp. for "receive;" and many 
 similar words. The Irish peasant frequently 
 says he bes for " he is ;" in some parts of England, 
 also, the same expression is used. 
 
 As to the pronunciation of words similarly 
 spelt, other poets of the last century, as well as 
 Pope, might be quoted, to show that words like 
 those referred to, spelt with ea, and even with e 
 sole, were frequently, if not usually, pronounced 
 as if written with a only. 
 
 Thus Swift has the following: — "severe" to 
 rhyme with air ; " survey" with tea; " speak" 
 with break ; " dean" with vein ; " deserve" with 
 starve ; " peace" with pace ; " treat" with the 
 French tete-a-tete ; and many similar. Cowper, 
 in his well-known lines, supposed to be spoken 
 by Alexander Selkirk, has — 
 
 " I'm monarch of all I survey, 
 
 My right there is none to dispute ; 
 From the centre all round to the sea, 
 1 am lord of the fowl and the brute." 
 
 And Lady Mary Wortley, referring to the Gre- 
 cian Archipelago, has the following couplet: — 
 
 " Warmed with poetic transport, I survey 
 Th' immortal islands and the well-known sea."" 
 
 It appears, therefore, that when an Irishman 
 calls his native island " the first gim of the say,'' 
 he pronounces the latter word as did the best 
 
92 LECTURE ir. 
 
 writers of the last century ; while it will be found 
 that the Anglo-Saxon for a " gem" is gimm. It 
 is scarcely necessary to remark, that every Eng- 
 lish poet makes *' wind" to rhyme with " find," 
 " mind," '' bind," &c., which, I think, is suflSl- 
 cient evidence as to its pronunciation, until it 
 has come to be pronounced differently in prose 
 from what it is in verse, in England. And I 
 will venture to express a preference for the uni- 
 form mode of pronunciation more general in Ire- 
 land, as compared with that which, in prose, 
 gives it a sound different from that of any 
 other word spelt in a similar way, and resem- 
 bling simid, or the first syllable in " hinder," to 
 prevent. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be said that the foregoing 
 examples of the broad pronunciation of ^a and 
 of e, like a in far, are rather evidences of care- 
 lessness on the part of the writers quoted, than 
 proofs of the usual manner, in their time, of 
 pronouncing the words adduced. But, to say 
 nothing of the rashness of thus accusing such 
 poets as Swift and Pope, it may be answered 
 that no similar discrepancies, whether as the 
 result of carelessness or poetic license, will be 
 found in the case of other words as to the pro- 
 nunciation of which there is no doubt. The 
 word "see," for example, will not be found as 
 rhyme for obey, or survey ; nor will " meet," 
 or " feet," be made to rhyme .with state, or 
 
LECTURE II. 93 
 
 rate. It is probable, however, that in the case 
 of the latter examples adduced, the pronunci- 
 ation may have been at the time in progress of 
 change, and considered optional. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, as corroborating our 
 view of the subject, that some words with ea, 
 and even with e only, are to this day pronounced 
 as a broad. Thus, in many parts of England, 
 the peasantry say sarvant for "servant;" and 
 clargy for "clergy." And amongst all classes, 
 " clerk" and " serjeant" are pronounced as if 
 written with a and notg; as also "bear" and 
 " tear" (to rend) pronounced as hare and 
 tare ; and " bere" (for barley), and " were," as 
 if spelt hare and ware. Sheridan, in his Pro- 
 nouncing Dictionary, has mar chant for " mer- 
 chant," which would now be considered as vulgar 
 as sarvice or varmin ; which, however, as well 
 as desarve^ sarch, marcy, and vartue (formerly 
 spelt vertue)^ may still be heard in common use 
 amongst the peasantry in many parts of England. 
 The pronunciation of proper names is less liable 
 to change than that of other words ; and we find 
 Berkeley, Derby, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, and 
 others, still pronounced as if written with a 
 (broad) instead of 6, in the first syllable. 
 
 Many words now spelt with a had formerly e, 
 and I have no doubt that the orthography of 
 such words came to be changed, in the course 
 of time, to correspond with the pronunciation. 
 
94 LECTURE II. 
 
 Thus "starve" was sterve ; "star" was sterre; 
 "great" was grete ; "dart" was derte ; "dark" 
 was derhe ; "carve" was kerve; "mark" was 
 merke; and the name of the " parson" of the 
 parish was spelt like that of any other person. 
 All these, I incline to think, were pronounced 
 as they now are, even when spelt differently ; as 
 we find in the case of "heart" spelt herte, and 
 yet made to rhyme in Chaucer with such words 
 as " start," "part," and " smart." And we find 
 in Johnson's Dictionary words of this class spelt 
 indifferently with a and e, as "threshing" or 
 thrashing, " wreck" or wrack, " chew" or chaw ; 
 and " serge" was formerly sarge, as .it is in 
 French from which it is derived. 
 
 The reference to the word " speak" being pro- 
 nounced as if it were spake, reminds me of a 
 story told of an occurrence said to have taken 
 place on the occasion of a dinner having been 
 given in London, by the Speaker of the House 
 of Commons, immediately after the passing of 
 the Act of Union between England and Ireland, 
 to which several members of the late Irish par- 
 liament, together with their ex- Speaker, were 
 invited. A difficulty arose as to the way of dis- 
 tinguishing the two Speakers in addressing them ; 
 it having been determined, as a matter of cour- 
 tesy, on that occasion, to continue his title to the 
 Irish Speaker, not yet raised to the peerage. An 
 English member, struck with the accent of some 
 
LECTURE II. 95 
 
 of the Irish guests, jocularly proposed to address 
 the Irish Speaker as Mr. Spaker ; upon which, a 
 somewhat hot-tempered Irishman of the party 
 waxed so indignant, as considering it used in de- 
 rision of his countrymen, that a serious quarrel 
 appeared imminent, until a good-humoured Irish 
 member present pacified his irascible fellow- 
 countryman, by pointing out to him that the 
 Englishman could have meant no offence, as he, 
 doubtless, only intended to signify that the Irish 
 Speaker's functions had ceased, his office being 
 at an end ; and that, therefore, it was more 
 proper to describe him by the past tense, as 
 " Mr. Spaker," that is, he who formerly spahe! 
 
 There are other words, of which the pro- 
 nunciation, not peculiar to Ireland, that is now 
 thought vulgar, would not have been so con- 
 sidered formerly. Thus Shakspeare says : — 
 
 *' Our wills and fates do so contrary run." 
 
 And Spenser has : — 
 
 *' Ne l^t mischievous witches with their charms." 
 
 And Milton :— 
 
 " O argument, blasphemous, false, and proud." 
 
 The city of Rome was formerly pronounced 
 and still is by some, as if it were written Room ; 
 and the word " oblige" was pronounced in Pope's 
 time as if spelt ohleege. If this pronunciation, 
 
96 LECTURE II. 
 
 similar to that of *' prestige," be now altogether 
 discontinued, it has been so only within the 
 last few years. 
 
 Instances might also be adduced, to show that 
 phrases, which are now justly condemned as bad 
 grammar, were not so considered formerly. 
 Thus, " Bring me them books" is rather anti- 
 quated than bad English. The same remark 
 applies to another incorrect mode of speaking, 
 which we may sometimes hear ; as if one said — 
 '' My brother and me went together to London." 
 Before the conjunction " and" was substituted for 
 the imperative mood of the verb ananad^ to 
 add, as we have shown from Home Tooke, the 
 sentence would have been perfectly correct — '■ 
 *' My brother, add me^ went together to Lon- 
 don." The substitution of the conjunction has 
 become universal, but the consequent change of 
 case in the second pronoun has not been adopted 
 by those whose acquaintance with the rules of 
 grammar is deficient. 
 
 In making the suggestions which I have 
 offered for your consideration, as to the origin 
 of the words, and of the method of pronuncia- 
 tion, to which I have referred, I hope it is un- 
 necessary for me to say that I do not advocate 
 the use of such words as axe, kilt, ris, hoult, and 
 hoult ; nor justify the vulgar pronunciation of 
 such words as spalce, plaze, clane, and nate, 
 or extrame, suprame^ and complate ; nor do I 
 
LECTURE II. 97 
 
 recommend you to speak of a cup of tay as a 
 trate^ when you are on the say^ although, I 
 believe, such would have been correct a hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 My object has been only to account for such 
 words and pronunciation ; and to show that they 
 are not mere corruptions introduced by the Irish, 
 but that having been imported here by the 
 English settlers of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries,* they have not been changed for the 
 more modern use and pronunciation, as speedily 
 as we hope they will be, in these days of increased 
 facilities of intercourse between the two countries, 
 and of mutually improved feelings of amity be- 
 tween her Majesty's subjects at both sides of the 
 channel. 
 
 There is nothing more arbitrary than the pro- 
 nunciation of words, and the fashions in dress, 
 and no other rule than custom, and the usages of 
 good society, can be applied to either ; and to 
 these we must conform, if we would avoid ex- 
 posing ourselves to the charge of vulgarity on the 
 one hand, or affectation on the other. 
 
 Before leaving this part of our subject, I would 
 
 * I take no account of the settlement of the English in Ire- 
 land under Strongbow, in the twelfth century, because, so com- 
 pletely changed was the language in the interim, that those who 
 came over in Queen Elizabeth's time, and the descendants of those 
 who had come with Strongbow, could not understand each other 
 when they met in Ireland, in the sixteenth century. 
 
 H 
 
 9r 
 
98 LECTURE II. 
 
 remark, that the English are the only people in 
 Europe, who, in speaking or reading Latin, 
 pronounce the first letter of the alphabet a as in 
 face^ all others pronouncing it broad as in man. 
 And I must confess that I should be sorry to 
 see our classical schools and colleges in Ireland 
 adopting the English peculiarity in this respect. 
 
 The ancient Saxon pronunciation of the first 
 letter of the alphabet was, most probably, as 
 Johnson remarks, that which it has in many 
 of our monosyllables, as in *' all" and " wall," 
 where it is pronounced as in law and cause. 
 Many of these words were anciently written, as 
 pronounced, with w, as sault and waulk ; a form 
 still retained in *' fault" and " vault." This sound 
 of the first letter is still almost universally re- 
 tained in the rustic pronunciation, and in the 
 northern dialects of England, as maun fgr " man," 
 and haund for " hand;" and so it is pronounced 
 by the Scotch, who speak more pure Saxon than 
 the English generally, as do also their descend- 
 ants in the North of Ireland. 
 
 We shall here notice the Anglo-Saxon prefixes 
 and affixes, that is, the particles forming the 
 commencement and termination of words. Of 
 the prefixes, we have a, signifying at, to, or on ; 
 as *' afield," at, or to the field; '' afoot," on foot; 
 and " aboard," on board. A was in the Anglo- 
 Saxon an inseparable affix, often denoting pri- 
 vation, but more frequently without such mean- 
 
I 
 
 LECTURE II. 99 
 
 ing. It is now usually omitted, although re- 
 tained in some words, as "awaken." ^Z signifies 
 all, as " Almighty." Be^ as a prefix, is the verb 
 to be, as " befriend," be a friend to. En is to 
 make, as "enable," to make able; and this is 
 sometimes written em^ as " empower," " embark." 
 Fore is before, as " foretell," to tell beforehand. 
 Mis signifies not, or wrong, from mis^ a defect, 
 as " misfortune," " misconduct." Outi^ beyond, 
 or superiority, as "outlive," "outrun." Of ov 
 off is out of or from, as " offspring." Over means 
 above or beyond, as " overseer," " overflow ;" up 
 is upward motion, as " upstart," also subversion, 
 as " upset.'' With is from, or against, as " with- 
 draw," " withstand." Un is not, as " unable." 
 In numerous instances, especially in words of 
 Latin origin, un has given place to in or im. 
 " ZZnpossible" was formerly in use, and although 
 we retain " ?//?just," the noun is " injustice." On 
 and or were also negative prefixes with the 
 Saxons. Imh was an Anglo-Saxon prefix, but 
 has given place to the Latin circum^ round about, 
 we have the remains of it in " embed" and " em- 
 bosom." Under as a prefix means below, or 
 beneath, as " undervalue." An " underwriter" 
 is one who subscribes his name to an agreement. 
 " Lloyd's underwriters" are the agents of Lloyd's 
 Insurance Company who underwrite their names 
 to the policies of marine insurances. 
 
 The most important of the English afiixes, of 
 Anglo-Saxon origin, are en, signifying to make. 
 
100 LECTURE II. 
 
 or made of, as "blacken," to make black, 
 " wooden,'' made of wood ; ful meaning full of, 
 as in ''hopeful;" head or hood denoting a state 
 or degree, as '' Godhead," '' manhood." Ish 
 implies belonging to, as " boyish ;" kin is a dimi- 
 nutive affix, as ''lambkin;" fess denotes priva- 
 tion, and may be expressed by prefixing the pre- 
 position without^ as " hopeless," without hope, 
 " careless," without care. Like or ly denotes like- 
 ness, as "godlike," or "godly." "Worldly" was 
 anciently " worldlike." Ness denotes the promi- 
 nent character or quality, as " goodness," " great- 
 ness." Ess is a feminine termination, as " lion- 
 ess," " semstress. " Rick and wick denote rule 
 or authority, as " bishopric," " bailiwick ; " and 
 dom has the same meaning, as " kingdom." 
 Ship signifies office, state or condition, as " lord- 
 ship," "friendship;" and is derived from shape 
 or form, as "landscape," for landshape. The 
 term ''''ship-shape'' means shaped in proper 
 form and order. Some denotes some of, or in 
 some degree, as " quarrelsome." Tide denotes 
 time, as '* noontide." Ward means turned to, 
 or in the direction of, as " homeward," " back- 
 ward." Chaucer has '"Canterbury-ward^''' to ex- 
 press going towards Canterbury. " Homeward" 
 and " heavenward '' are good old English words. 
 The adjective " toward," or docile, is formed of 
 to and ward; and an "untoward" event is one , 
 that is not according to one's mind or wishes, j 
 " Forward" was forth-wardy going forth " Awk- i 
 
 1 
 
LECTURE II. 101 
 
 ward" me2ins wrong-ward ; Sliakspeare has' 'awk- 
 ward" for adverse winds. " Fro ward *' or ad- 
 verse, is compounded of from and ward; and 
 " wayward" signifies having regard to one's 
 own way, self-willed. The affix y implies 
 having, or abounding in, as "stony," " wealthy," 
 " healthy .'' 
 
 There are many other prefixes and affixes in 
 the formation of English words, but being de- 
 rived from Greek and Latin, it does not come 
 within our present purpose to notice them. For 
 these, I would refer you to Professor Sullivan's 
 admirable Dictionary, used in the Irish National 
 Schools. 
 
 The derivation of titles of honour, and of 
 office and dignity, of Saxon origin, forms an in- 
 teresting part of our subject, to which, however, 
 I cannot refer more than very briefly. '' King" 
 {cyning), is the first of such titles, attached to the 
 highest office in the realm. This is derived from 7 
 cun, or cyii, which meant "valiant," and ing, a 
 particle, signifying the endowment of a quality. 
 The king meant the most valiant, and such, at 
 the commencement of monarchies, became the 
 heads or chiefs of the people. (3f this, the 
 feminine was cuningina, contracted to " queen." 
 The only title of nobility now continued in 
 England, derived from the Saxon, is that of 
 " earl," compounded of ear, meaning honour, 
 and ethel, or el, noble, or worthy ; but as the 
 Saxons had no feminine for earl, the lady of 
 
102 LECTURE II. 
 
 this noble derives her title of '' countess" from 
 that of the wife of the Norman count, from 
 which latter title we have the " viscount/' or 
 vice-count. 
 
 r The more general title of " lord/' which 
 was formerly not confined to members of the 
 peerage,^ was originally laford or leaford^ the 
 aff order or provider of bread for his household, 
 leaf^ or Za/, being another word for bread, from 
 which we have '' loaf" *' Lady" is a contraction 
 for leafdian^ the dispenser of bread ; the lord, as 
 head of the family, provided the bread which 
 was dealt out by the lady of the house. Such 
 was the rule of the Anglo-Saxon households; 
 from which province of the lady came the cus- 
 tom, peculiar to England, of the wife sitting at 
 the head of the table, and carving for the family 
 and guests, while the husband sat at the foot, 
 near the servants, to give orders for providing 
 the food, as required, which was placed in re- 
 serve, on the table or board set at his side of 
 the room, and hence called the "side-board." 
 Which custom of the lady sitting at the head of 
 the table, is stated by the writer of the seventeenth 
 century, to whom I have already referred, to 
 have been a matter of no little surprise to the 
 French of his time ; but now-a-days French 
 
 * The title of lord still extends beyond the peerage, as to the 
 Lords of the Treasury, of the Council, and of the Admiralty, and 
 the Lords Justices of Ireland ; as also to the Irish Lord Chancellor, 
 the Lord Advocate of Scotland, and the Scotch judges. 
 
LECTURE II. 103 
 
 cookery lias to a great extent superseded carving, 
 and Continental fashions have put the lady of 
 the house altogether " to one side " of the 
 table. 
 
 The title " steward " anciently s ted- ward, 
 meant the keeper of the place ;* as hold-ward was 
 the keeper of the hold or castle. This latter word 
 is no longer in use in its primary meaning; 
 but as the office of Stedward, by contraction 
 *' Steward," gave a name to the royal race of Stuart, 
 so from Holdward is derived, by the omission 
 of two consonants, the name of one of the 
 most honourable houses in England, borne by the 
 noble families who inherit *' the blood of all the 
 Howards ;" and of these by that of the present 
 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who has recently 
 done us the honour of becoming the Patron of our 
 Mechanics' Institute in Waterford ; and who 
 adorns an illustrious name by his public and pri- 
 vate virtues, and in nothing more gracefully than 
 in meeting the people in the halls of the Me- 
 chanics' Institutes, contributing to their instruc- 
 tion, and to the elevation of their minds, by 
 popular lectures on the cultivation of taste in 
 poetry, and in support of the cause of intellec- 
 tual progress and improvement. 
 
 * Similar to " Steward" is the Dutch and German Sfadholder, 
 or Statholder, and the French Lieutenant. Stat being the same as 
 stead, as in German " instead " is anstatt ; and lieu being the 
 French for place. The translation of all these words is place- 
 holder, usually meaning one who holds the place for another. 
 
104 LECTURE II. 
 
 The honourable title of " mayor" is usually 
 attributed to Norman origin, as derived from 
 the Latin major, the greater ; but although the 
 words are somewhat similar, it appears more pro- 
 bable that it is derived from a Saxon word, as 
 are the names of the other city dignitaries, or, 
 to use Saxon epithets, borough worthies^ as 
 sheriff, alderman, boroughreeve, bailiff, con- 
 stable, as also the wards, the bailiwicks, the 
 guilds, the towns, and the boroughs. Meer is 
 a name in general use amongst all the nations 
 who speak the Teutonic tongue, signifying 
 power or authority with dignity, and is derived 
 from the old verb maye, to be able, which is still 
 in use as an auxiliary verb. Thus, mynheer is 
 the German title corresponding to monsieur in 
 French, and to mister, or master, in English. 
 The " mayor" — anciently written meyer, and 
 meier as it is now in German and Dutch, and 
 in French, maire — is derived from the ancient 
 Teutonic, and signifies the man of power and 
 authority in the city ; he is the mayer, or man 
 of might, who may use authority within his 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 I have already observed, that *' sheriff," an- 
 ciently spelt shereve, and in Chaucer shiregereve 
 (like landgrave), means the keeper of the shire, 
 reeve meaning a keeper or guardian ; hence also 
 boroughreeve and portreeve, the word port in the 
 Teutonic signifying a walled town. The titles, 
 
LECTURE IT. 105 
 
 *' bailiff" and "baillie," have been supposed to 
 be derived from the French ; but they would ap- 
 pear to be of the same origin as the word hail^ 
 which means protection. The "baillle" is an 
 officer well known in Scotland, who is the 
 keeper or protector of the peace within his haili- 
 wick. The '' bailiff" takes men under his safe 
 keeping ; and when a man gets " bail," or, as 
 it is sometimes said, is " bailed," he obtains pro- 
 tection from arrest. 
 
 The title of" alderman" is generally described 
 as signifying elder man; but I think Incorrectly. 
 It is true that amongst the Jews ''elder" was a 
 title of honour ; and that yldra^ the comparative 
 of eald^ the Anglo-Saxon for '' old," was also 
 written ealdor ; but Verstegan has, I think, 
 shown very clearly, in his chapter on " Titles of 
 Honour,^'' that the true meaning of " alderman" is^ 
 " of all the men chief," he being the first in the 
 council after the mayor. 
 
 That this is the meaning of the prefix alder ^ we 
 have abundant evidence in Chaucer, who has 
 " alderearst" (for alder first), " alderbest," " alder- 
 most," " alderlast," " alderllvest," '' aldersconist" ^/ 
 (for alderfairest), and '' aldereldest," to describe, 
 severally, in the strongest superlative, the first, 
 best, cbiefest, last, dearest, fairest, and eldest, of 
 alb those referred to in the context. We also 
 find in old writers, alderyoungest^ alderhighest, 
 
106 LECTURE IT. 
 
 alderwisest, alderleast, alderivorst, alder foremost^ 
 alderlowest^ aldertruest, and many others.^' 
 
 We also find alder in composition with nouns 
 as well as with adjectives, as in the case of the 
 word " alderman ' itself. Thus Chaucer repre- 
 sents the " host of the Tabert" as proposing for 
 the best narrator of the *' Canterbury Tales," 
 that he " shall have a supper at our alder cost,'' 
 which may mean at his chief cost, or the best of 
 his entertainments; or, as the glossary has it, " at 
 Gur common cost" — the cost of all the company ; 
 and we find alder-prise, signifying praise of all. 
 Again, on setting out in the morning, it is 
 arranged that the host himself shall lead the 
 way, as their " aldercock,'* that is, the leader of 
 the party, or cock of the walk, in the same sense 
 as in the " Spectator" the " cock of the club" 
 is a title implying influence and leadership. 
 
 I think it will thus be seen that alder, used as 
 a prefix, either to adjectives or nouns, did not 
 mean " elder." The word " alder-eldest," to de- 
 scribe the eldest son, is sufficient to prove that 
 such is not its signification. The same observation 
 applies to " alder-youngest." But we may adduce 
 other evidence to show that it meant pre-emi- 
 nence. This will appear by observing the more 
 ancient application of the name "alderman," 
 which was, in the days of the early Saxons, the 
 * See Halliwell's Archaic Dictionary. 
 
LECTURE II. 107 
 
 highest title of honour next to that of the king 
 himself. The '' Alderman of all England" was, 
 as we learn from Rapin, the first subject in the 
 realm, corresponding to a Grand Justiciary ; and 
 Bos worth defines an Alderman as " the highest 
 nobleman." Other aldermen, or " ealdermen," 
 were governors of counties, from which they 
 came to be called Earls. In the Saxon Psalter, 
 ** the princes of Judah and their captains" are 
 called the " Aldermannum of Judah and hereto- 
 gan heare." This latter title corresponds with 
 the '' Duke," from the Latin dux^ a leader, and 
 meant the leader of an army: here signifying 
 war, or an army, and togan to lead. Hengist 
 and Horsa, the first leaders of the Saxons into 
 Britain, are called " Heretogan,'* and the Dutch 
 for duke is hertogli. A principal town was called 
 by the Saxons, alder-burgh^ an archbishop was 
 designated alder-hiscop^ a prince or chief judge 
 was alder-dema, and alder-dom was a principality. 
 It was also written ealdor in these cases. 
 
 This explanation of the word " alder," meaning 
 the chief or first of all, serves to explain the 
 otherwise unintelligible names of two churches 
 in the city of London. " Aldermary" Church 
 meant the church dedicated to St. Mary, the first 
 or chief of all women, in allusion to that which 
 was said to the Virgin at the annunciation, 
 *' Blessed art thou among women;*' and thus 
 it corresponds with the various churches of St. 
 
108 LECTURE II 
 
 Maria Maggiore on the Continent, and Great 
 St. Mary's at Oxford. " Alderraanbury" parish 
 was probably the hurg^ a Saxon word for a 
 dwelling-place, of the first and principal citizens, 
 or the church may have been the place of their 
 burial, as Bury St. Edmund's in Suffolk was 
 called after Edmund, the Saxon king and martyr, 
 buried there.* " Aldergate" in London was 
 doubtless at one time the principal of all the 
 gates, as the " aldermen*' were the chief o{ all the 
 men, in the city. It is to be observed that for 
 alder it is sometimes written althir, which may 
 account for the very vulgar word, althirman. 
 
 A " knight," in Saxon cnyht, meant a servant 
 or follower, and was from an early period used 
 as a title of honour, and applied to the king's 
 body guard ; and from the mounted knights is 
 derived Knight-rider street in London. An- 
 ciently, in Saxon, a disciple or pupil was called 
 a horning cnght; and in the Netherlands a lear 
 knight is the same as an apprentice, that is, a 
 learner who serves his master. Members of the 
 House of Commons are styled " knights of the 
 shire," although not knights in the ordinary ac- 
 ceptation of the term ; but they are the represen- 
 tatives of their constituents, and elected to " serve" 
 
 * We find also the towns of Alderbury, Alderford, Alderley, 
 Alderton, Aldermaston, Alderminster, and Aldershott, and the 
 Isle of Aldemey ; the prefix alder m each case indicating pre- 
 
LECTUEE II. 109 
 
 in Parliament. Home Tooke, who is fond of 
 tracing nouns, as well as conjunctions, adverbs, 
 and prepositions, to the past participle of verbs, 
 supposes cnyht to be that part of the verb cnyt- 
 tan, to join or unite, signifying what would 
 now be called an attache- — one of the king's com- 
 panions. 
 
 A warder or warden is another name for guar- 
 dian. The Normans always changed w into g, 
 there being no such letter as w in French ; thus 
 the French have Gualles and Corngualles for 
 Wales and Cornwall, as also guerre for war. 
 Constable meant cynings (or king's) stable, being ^^^T^f . 
 a hybrid word compounded of Saxon and 
 French, and signifying the king's support. The 
 Lord High Constable is an ancient officer of the 
 Crown, first created by William the Conqueror. 
 The humblest *' constable" is, at this day, the 
 keeper or protector of the queen's peace. 
 
 The last branch of our subject is the derivation 
 of proper names, peculiar to the English and to 
 other nations of Teutonic origin ; but to which 
 we can only refer very briefly. 
 
 Albert signifies nobly and v:ell advised, or one 
 who gives good advice ; and fully is the signifi- 
 cation of the name realized in the Royal Con- 
 sort of our gracious Queen, whose own name, 
 Victoria, I need not tell you, is the Latin for 
 Victory. May it ever prove a name of good 
 omen! 
 
110 LECTURE II. 
 
 Edmond means the mouth of truth. Edward 
 and Edgar, a keeper of his word. Gertrude is 
 all truth. Leonard signifies a lioris heart. Ber- 
 nard, a hears heart. Richard, a rich or bountiful 
 heart. Everard, a hoars heart. Lambert, a lamUs 
 heart, Godhart, a good heart. Manhard or Hard- 
 man, a marts heart, or a man of heai't; and 
 Gerard means all heart. 
 
 William is a very ancient proper name, the 
 origin of which may be traced to a period anterior 
 to the arrival of the Saxons in Britain, havingr 
 been introduced at the time of the wars of the 
 Romans with the ancient Germans. The leaders 
 of the Romans wore gilt helmets, and v^hen a 
 German warrior overcame and killed one of those 
 well-armed captains, the gilded helmet w^as taken 
 off the slain enemy, and proudly placed on the 
 head of the victor, who was thenceforward ho- 
 noured with the title of Gild-helme, which after- 
 wards became a Christian name, at first bestowed 
 upon the son of a gilt-helmeted warrior ; and, as 
 many other names with the Saxons commenced 
 with " will,'' this was easily, by wrong pronuncia- 
 tion, brought to Willhelme, and then shortened 
 to William ; but for a female name, probably first 
 given to the wife or daughter of the warrior, it 
 is spelt Wilhelmina. Among the Franks, it 
 kept the name of Guildhelme, and with their de- 
 scendants, the French, it first became Guilhoeume, 
 and since came to be Guillaume, and in Latin, 
 Guilielmus, 
 
LECTURE II. Ill 
 
 Walter was originally the title of an officer, 
 rather than a proper name. It signified one who 
 had a charge or command in a forest, like the 
 wood-ranger ; wait or wold being the Saxon for 
 a forest, from which we have the present desig- 
 nation, wood. Winfred signifies win peace ^ an 
 obtainer of concord ; and Winnefred, originally 
 Winnefreda, is the feminine, with the same 
 meaning. Wilfred was one who willed peace. 
 Segismund meant the mouth of victory^ being the 
 relater of victories for the encouragement of 
 others. The etymology of Rosamond is rose 
 mouth, a name given to a fair maiden for the 
 colour of her lips, or, what was still better, the 
 sweetness of her words. Robert meant disposed 
 to rest; and Roger, originally Regard, the keeper 
 of rest or peace. Osmond was the spokesman of 
 the family, os being the house, and inond the 
 mouth. Oswald, or Osweald, was the ruler or 
 provider for the wealth or prosperity of his house. 
 Raymond was rein-mund, meaning pure mouth. 
 Mathilde, now Matilda, was anciently mead healt, 
 that is, a maiden champion. Harold, from 
 here-healt, signified a champion of the army; 
 hence the '* herald" who carried the challenge 
 of the champion. Hugh was originally Heughe, 
 and with some nations it is Hugo; it means 
 joy or gladness, and Hubert, a joyful heart. 
 Humphrey was anciently Humfrid, or Homefred, 
 
112 LECTURE II. 
 
 signifying home peace^ or domestic quietness. 
 Henry meant a possessor of ivealth, from han, 
 still used in some parts of England for have^ 
 and rye, signifying riches ; tliis latter word also 
 signified possession, and was added to an office, 
 to describe the extent of the office-bearer's 
 jurisdiction, as "bishopric," "bailiwick." God- 
 frey, or Geoffi-ey, signifies good peaee; Alfred 
 means all peaee; and Frederic, rich in peace or 
 friendship. Francis, originally Franc, is free, 
 and Lanfranc, free of the land. 
 
 El, and edel, or ethel, signified noble. Thus 
 Ethelbald means nobly hold, or valiant ; Ethel- 
 bert, nobly advised. Ethelbard, or Ethelward, 
 was a keeper of nobility; Ethel win, a winner of 
 nobility, one who obtained honour by his merits. 
 Baldwin was a bold winner. The word winne 
 also meant beloved, and hence Allen, or Allwine, 
 a Christian name, was beloved of all. Bede or 
 head is the Saxon for prayer, and it is supposed 
 that the parents of Venerable Bede, in giving him 
 this Christian name, presaged his singular piety 
 and devotion. The name Charles has undergone 
 several alterations. It signifies all noble. It 
 was at first Gar-edel; gar, as belbre observed, 
 being all, and edel, as we have just remarked, 
 being noble> This was abbreviated into Careal, 
 the g changed to c as in carouse, and eal put for 
 edel. In Latin, Careal v/as written Carolus, and 
 
LECTURE II. 113 
 
 in modern English, Charles. Cuthbert means 
 of good understanding ; the word cuiJi signifying 
 knowledge, as uncouth is unknown or strange, 
 and hert^ as in Albert, being well-advised. 
 
 Dunstan was a name signifying stability or 
 constancy, from dun, a hill, and stane, since 
 changed to " stone." Hence Dunstan meant a 
 mountain-stone, or rock, similar to Peter from 
 the Latin. Herbert signified well advised as to 
 the condition of an army; the word here being 
 the Saxon for an army. Leopold is keeper of 
 peace, or amity; from leof, now changed to love, 
 and hold, to keep. From Leof hold it was 
 changed to Leophold, and Leopold, for the sake 
 of euphony. Roderick was originally Raderic, 
 that is, rich in counsel, the word read signi- 
 fying counsel, and ric, rich. Rodolph, anciently 
 Radolphe, is derived from read, counsel, and 
 olph, which signified help. This name is now 
 contracted to Ralph. A similar old name, Ran- 
 dolph, was originally Reindulphe, that is, pure 
 help, or sincere assistance, rein signifying pure, 
 and ulphe or olph, help or aid. 
 
 So much for Christian names. Surnames 
 were gradually introduced for distinction of fa- 
 milies, and at first began by calling the son after 
 the father s name, with the addition of a word to 
 signify son, or of. Thus the ancient Celts, in 
 Scotland and Ireland, had Mac or Mc and O, 
 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
114 LECTURE II. 
 
 and the Welsh Ap,"^'' while through the Normans 
 or Franks came Fitz, a corruption of the French 
 Jlls, a son. These were prefixed to the christian 
 name of the father, as MacDonald, M*Mahon, 
 O'Connell, Apjohn, Fitzjames, and Fitzgerald. 
 But the Saxons affixed the word son for a 
 similar purpose : hence all names ending thus 
 are of Saxon or English origin, as Johnson and 
 Jackson, Adamson, Thompson, Edmundson, Ri- 
 chardson, Jamieson, Robertson, Williamson, &c. 
 In many cases the word is contracted by dropping 
 the two final letters : thus we have Adams, 
 Peters, Andrews, Roberts, Williams. 
 
 In process of time the place of residence came 
 to be added to the name of the proprietor, and 
 thus a new set of surnames was formed : and to 
 this circumstance we may trace such names as 
 Wood, Hill, Field, Green, Brook, Ford, Moore, 
 Meadows, Hall, Mills, Bridge, and Church. 
 These were originally : John, of the wood ; Wil- 
 liam, at the hill; Edward, by the bridge, &c. 
 Others are not so plain ; for example, names 
 ending in ton (as Newton, Stapleton, Littleton), 
 which is a word derived from tune^ a fenced or 
 enclosed place, originally in the country, from 
 which we have town-lands. Hence also boroughs, 
 when walled in, were called towns. Some fami- 
 lies settled near a cliff by the sea-side, and took 
 
 * Hence came such names as Price, originally Ap-Rys ; and 
 Powell, from Ap-Howell. 
 
LECTURE II. 115 
 
 such names as RadclifFe, or, as it Is still found in 
 the name of a church at Bristol, RedclifF; and 
 Clifford, from a ford under a cliff. Clough was a 
 slope on the side of a hill covered with trees, and 
 Colclough meant a cool^ shady slope. Combe was 
 a field of hilly ground ; Cote was, like cottage 
 from the French, a small house ; a Croft was a 
 small plot of ground ; Dale and Den the same as 
 the word valley, which we have from the French ; 
 Dun was a hill, and ei/ a river ; Ham, sl home, 
 originally a place of shelter ; Oke was an oak 
 tree ; Ley signified ground lying uncultivated, 
 hence lea land meant the land lying egle or idle. 
 Port, although similar to the word describing a 
 harbour, from the Latin "porta, a gate, was a 
 Saxon word signifying a walled town. The 
 meaning of " pool," '' well," " tree," ** roof," and 
 ** land" are obvious. A shaw meant a shade of 
 trees, and was also applied to any place of shelter ; 
 Sted and stow signified a place ; Stock meant a 
 staff; Thorp was the Saxon for a village ; Worth, 
 anciently wearth and weard, was a place between 
 two rivers, and weirs in rivers still retain the 
 name. A wi/c was a place of refuge or re- 
 treat. 
 
 Proper names of towns and places, as well as 
 of families, in England, may be found to end in 
 each of the Saxon words which I have now enu- 
 merated, having reference to their original situa- 
 tion or history. In Ireland, we have remains of 
 
116 LECTURE II. 
 
 the same words in surnames of families wlio have 
 settled in this country ; but not in the names of 
 towns, as in these the old Irish names were 
 usually retained. Even Waterford^ which sounds 
 so like Saxon, is of Danish origin ; from Vadei^ 
 Fiord, the "fiord of the father," or of Odin, a 
 Scandinavian deity. Owing to the similarity of 
 the two languages, it was easily changed into 
 Water ford ; but one never heard of a ford, mean- 
 ing a shallow part of a river, so called. We find 
 in Ireland Swineford, and in England Oxford, 
 formerly Oxenford, the arms of which city are 
 an ox passing through a ford ; Watford (or the 
 ford in the wait or wood), and Knutsford, or 
 Canute's ford ; but to describe a ford as one of 
 water would be a tautology ; moreover, there is 
 no "ford" or shallow, at Waterford, but a re- 
 markably deep channel in the Suir, which the 
 Scandinavian " fiord" indicated. 
 
 The derivation of names from various trades 
 and occupations is very obvious, as Smith, 
 Tailor, Fisher, Mason, Wright, which last sig- 
 nifies a workman, as " wheelwright," from an 
 obsolete verb, of which we now have only the 
 past tense wrought, did work. Such names as 
 Bishop, Dean (formerly Deane), Archdeacon, 
 Chancellor, &c., owe their origin to the founder 
 of the family having filled the ofiices indicated. 
 The name of Butler is derived from the office of 
 Chief Butler of Ireland, having been attached to 
 
LECTURE II. 117 
 
 the noble house of Ormond, the chief family of 
 the name. 
 
 Surnames were adopted by some, or, where 
 not complimentary, were more probably given 
 to them by their neighbours, from birds, beasts, 
 and fish, in allusion to some resemblance to 
 those animals in their manner or disposition. 
 
 Of such are Lion, Wolf, Fox, Hare, Bull, 
 Hog, Hind, Hart, and Lamb, from those several 
 quadrupeds ; while from birds we have Pea- 
 cocke, Drake, Swan, Heron, Woodcock, Pi- 
 geon, Sparrow, Crow, and Hawk ; and from 
 fishes, Roche, Spratt, Whale, Herring, and Sal- 
 mon. Others derived their names from the 
 colour of their hair, or their complexion, as 
 Black, White, Scarlet (for red)^ Brown and 
 Grey ; and some from other personal characte- 
 ristics, as Long, Short, Little, Low, Thin (an- 
 ciently thynne)^ Strong, Bold, and Armstrong, 
 which last name, in the case of a well-known 
 seal engraver in London, is '* Strongi'th'arm." 
 
 Although I fear that I may have already tres- 
 passed at too great length on your attention, I 
 am desirous to add a few observations as to the 
 expressive character of the English tongue, and 
 in reference to the extent to which words derived 
 from the Anglo-Saxon are found to prevail in 
 the composition of the language. 
 
 I have before remarked, that the Greek was, 
 perhaps, the most perfect language ever spoken 
 
118 LECTURE II. 
 
 amongst mankind. One of the characteristic 
 beauties of that language consisted in the admir- 
 able manner in which the sound was often suited 
 to the sense. Now, this feature may, I think, be 
 traced in the English language, and might be 
 illustrated by numerous references to the best 
 writers, both in prose and verse. I shall, how- 
 ever, confine myself to two examples, taken from 
 a single poem, where words of Saxon origin con- 
 vey a lively representation of the scenes which 
 they are employed to describe. 
 
 The Poem to which I refer is Gray's Elegy 
 written in a Country Church-yard. What can 
 be more expressive than the first verse : — 
 
 " The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
 The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, 
 The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, 
 And leaves the world to darkness and to me !" 
 
 Here there is only one word, " parting," for 
 dying (besides the Norman Curfew)^ which is not 
 pure Saxon.f Observe how the words suit the 
 
 * " Curfew" is derived from the French, meaning to cover the 
 fire^ when, at 8 o'clock, on the ringing of a bell, all fires were 
 extinguished, by a law of the jealous Conqueror, William I. 
 
 t It might b thought that " toll" is from Latin, but it appears 
 rather lo be derived from the Anglo-Saxon tull^ found in Chaucer, 
 signifying to entice, or draw in, as the tolling of a bell calls 
 people to church. Thus Milton speaks of a tolling sign-post 
 hung out to call or entice passengers in. Home Tooke makes 
 " toir^ the past tense of tilian^ to lift up, — " the toll of a bell, is 
 the bell lifted^ and applied to the sound thus caused." The word 
 may have been derived, however, from the sound, like murmur^ 
 &c. 
 
LECTURE II. 119 
 
 sense, especially in the third line. You may 
 see the man, wearied with the day's labour, 
 trudging home, through the ground broken by 
 his own plough — plodding his weary way. But 
 there is one word to relieve the appropriate 
 monotony of the line, — sweet both in sound 
 and sense ; and as you hear that it is homeward 
 that the weary man is now at eventide retracing 
 his steps, you may perceive the smile on that 
 toil-worn face, as he already sees by anticipation 
 the " blazing hearth," with " the busy house- 
 wife," and the '* children" who — 
 
 " run to lisp their sire's return, 
 
 And climb his knees the envied kiss to share." 
 
 Take another verse of this beautiful poem : — 
 
 " Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade, 
 Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, 
 Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, 
 The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 
 
 Here we have every word Saxon, with the 
 exception of "cell" for grave; and how is it 
 possible for words better to convey the picture 
 of the secluded country churchyard, with the 
 old gnarled elms around, and the solitary yew,* 
 
 * From the branches of the yew the Saxons made their bows ; 
 and this tree being, consequently, of great value, it was planted 
 in the churchyard, where it had liberty to extend its branches, 
 and, as public property, enjoyed the protection of the parish 
 authorities. 
 
120 LECTURE II. 
 
 beneath whose dark shadows you may see the 
 simple graves of the rustics, formed of the green 
 sod, and rising in little hillocks, gradually '' moul- 
 dering " away under the droppings from the 
 trees.* 
 
 With reference to the preponderance which 
 words of Anglo-Saxon origin bear to all others 
 in the English language, it has been stated by 
 a good authority on the subject, that if we " sup- 
 pose the English language to be divided into a 
 hundred parts ; of these, to make a rough distri- 
 bution, sixty would be Saxon, thirty would be 
 Latin (including, of course, the Latin which has 
 come to us through the French), five would be 
 Greek ; we should thus have assigned ninety-five 
 parts, leaving the other five, perhaps too large a 
 residue, to be divided among all the other lan- 
 guages from which we have adopted isolated 
 words."t For example, a few from the Hebrew, 
 belonging, mostly, to religious matters, and some 
 from Arabic, relating to arithmetic^ and astro- 
 
 * It would have been easy to multiply examples of the accor- 
 ance between the sound and the sense, in other poems of a 
 descriptive character ; but the above were selected as being most 
 generally known. 
 
 t English : Past and present. Five Lectures. By the Rev. 
 R. C. Trench, B.D. 
 
 J The numerals, one, two, three, once, twice, thrice, &c., are 
 of Saxon origin ; but the rules of arithmetic are from Latin, as, 
 addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, &c. ; while algebra, 
 cypher, &c., are of Arabic origin. 
 
LECTURE II. 121 
 
 nomy. It has been computed by Sharon Turner 
 that there are in English, about 38,000 words, 
 of which, about 23,000, or more than five-eighths, 
 are of Anglo-Saxon origin. But not only is the 
 proportion of Saxon words thus shown to be 
 above one-half of the whole in the language, 
 but these words, being of primary necessity, are 
 used much more frequently. 
 
 Following up this suggestion, I have referred 
 to some well-known authors, with a view to 
 ascertain the proportion between Saxon words 
 and those of foreign derivation, and the result of 
 such examination is very interesting and remark- 
 able. It will be found that in ^' Gray's Elegy in 
 a Country Church-yard," already referred to, not 
 more, on an average, than two words in each 
 verse of four lines (of which there are thirty -two) 
 are derived from Latin or French, while three 
 of the verses are composed altogether of Saxon 
 words. 
 
 In Cowper's " Diverting History of John 
 Gilpin," comprising sixty-three verses of four 
 lines each, the proportion of Saxon is still greater, 
 the number of words of other origin averaging 
 little more than one to each verse, or about three 
 or four in the hundred. 
 
 In Hamlet's advice to the players, Shakspeare 
 has not more than one-tenth, out of about 1,000 
 words, which are not pure Saxon. This is in 
 prose. To take an example in poetry from the 
 
122 LECTURE II. 
 
 same play; in Hamlet's soliloquy, " Tb he^ or 
 not to be, that is the question,^' the proportion is 
 about the same, namely, ten in the hundred not 
 Saxon. In one of the most touching passages 
 to be found in this wonderful poet, — Wolsey's 
 soliloquy on the favour of princes, and the vanity 
 of the world, the proportion of words of Anglo- 
 Saxon origin is still greater. It occurs in the 
 Play of King Henry VIII. Act II. Scene III. 
 
 " So farewell to the little love you bear me. 
 Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness ! 
 This is the state of man. To-day he puts forth 
 The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms. 
 And bears his blushing honours thick upon him ; 
 The third day comes a frost, a killing frost. 
 And then he thinks, good easy man, full surely, 
 His greatness is a ripening, nips the root. 
 And then he falls as I do. I have ventured, 
 Like little wanton boys, that swim on bladders, 
 These many summers in a sea of glon/ ; 
 But far beyond my depth ; my high-blown pride 
 At length broke under me, and now has left me. 
 Weary and old with service^ to the merci/ 
 Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me. 
 Vain pomp and glori/ of this world, I hate ye ! 
 I feel my heart new open'd. Oh, how wretched 
 Is that poor man that hangs on iprmces' favours ! 
 There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to. 
 That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, 
 More pangs and fears than wars or women have ; 
 And, when he falls, he falls like Lucifer^ 
 Never to hope again." 
 
 Here we find in thirteen lines, containing 196 
 words, only thirteen words (besides the proper 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 123 
 
 name, Lucifer) not of Saxon origin; being about 
 seven to the hundred * 
 
 In the " L' Allegro" of Milton, consisting of 
 151 lines, and containing nearly one thousand 
 words, there are not more than thirty derived V 
 from Latin and French, the Saxon words being 
 in the large proportion of ninety-seven to the 
 hundred. This is the more remarkable, as Mil- 
 ton was Foreign Secretary to the Council of State, 
 during the Commonwealth, at a time when cor- 
 respondence with foreign nations was carried on 
 in Latin, and he was considered the best writer 
 and speaker of that language in England at that 
 period. 
 
 The preponderance of Saxon in all Sir Walter 
 Scott's works, whether in prose or poetry, is very 
 striking. Let one example suffice, which I se- 
 lect, because it is so well known, although many 
 other stanzas might be found still more purely 
 Saxon.f 
 
 I take it from the commencement of the sixth 
 canto of the " Lay of the Last Minstrel." 
 
 " Breathes there the man with soul so dead, 
 Who never to himself hath said: 
 This is my own, my native land ! 
 
 * In the above quotation, and in those that follow, the words 
 not of Anglo-Saxon origin are distinguished by italics. 
 
 f See, especially, the various songs or ballads introduced in 
 Scott's poetic tales: for example, Wilfred's song in " Rokeby," 
 " Lady, twine no Avreath for me." See, also, the Lady Heron's 
 Lochinvar^ in " Marmion." 
 
124 LECTURE ir. 
 
 Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, 
 As home his footsteps he hath tum'd, 
 
 From wandering on a foreign strand ! 
 If such there breathe, go, mark him well ; 
 For him no minstrel raptures swell ; 
 High though his titles^ proud his name, 
 Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, 
 Despite those titles^ power, and pelf, 
 The wretch, concentred all in self, 
 Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 
 And, doubly dying, shall go down 
 To the vile dust from whence he sprung, 
 Unwept, \mhonour''d, and unsung." 
 
 Here are only twelve words (including the 
 hybrid, compounded of the prefix un and the 
 Latin-derived honoured) not of Saxon origin, in 
 sixteen lines, containing upwards of one hundred 
 words.* 
 
 It will be found, as a general rule, that, in the 
 best English poetry, the Saxon bears a very 
 large proportion, as compared with words derived 
 from other sources. Take, for example, a pas- 
 sage from Pope's " Essay on Man," which I 
 quoted in a lecture on " Popular Education," 
 delivered at this Institute two years ago : — 
 
 " All are but parts of one stupendous whole 
 Whose body Nature is, and God the soul : 
 
 * It may, perhaps, be thought that the words rapture and de- 
 spite are of foreign origin ; but Tooke derives the Latin raperei 
 from the Anglo-Saxon reajian, to tear away (to bereave) ; and 
 despite appears to be more properly derived from the Saxon, 
 spostan, to spit, than from Latin. — See '* Richardson*s Dictionary," 
 in verb. 
 
LECTURE II. 125 
 
 That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in aU the same, 
 Great in the earth, as in th' etherial frame — 
 Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze^ 
 Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees, 
 Lives through all life, extends thro' all extent, 
 Spreads undivided, operates unspent ; 
 Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 
 As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart ; 
 As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, 
 As the rapt seraph that adores and bums : — 
 To Him, no high, no low, no great, no small ; 
 He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all." 
 
 In these fourteen lines, there are little more 
 than as many words, which may not be traced 
 to Anglo-Saxon origin. The word " connect," 
 although similar to the Latin corinectere, may be 
 traced to the verb cnittan or nictan, to " knit," 
 the Anglo-Saxon thus supplying the root.^' 
 
 The exact proportion of a word to the line, or 
 about one -eighth of the whole, not Saxon, will 
 be found in the following extract from the same 
 poem : — 
 
 "0 happiness! our being's end and mwz; 
 Good, pleasure, ease, content ! whate'er thy name, 
 That something still yflaioh. prompts th^ eternal sigh. 
 For which we bear to live, or dare to die. 
 Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 
 O'er-looked, seen double, by the fools and wise." 
 
 It is, however, to be borne in mind, that the 
 age of Pope was not remarkable for the sim- 
 plicity of style which leads to the adoption 
 of Saxon, rather than of borrowed words. 
 
 * Home Tooke, vol. ii. 300. 
 
126 LECTURE ir. 
 
 One short poem of Lord Byron's will serve 
 to show that the English tongue, as derived 
 from the Anglo-Saxon, is sufficient to convey, 
 in the most beautiful and appropriate language, 
 the thoughts of the poet. 
 
 The subject of the poem to which I refer is. 
 The Destruction of Sennacherib. 
 
 " The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, 
 And his coAorfo were gleaming in purple and gold; 
 And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, 
 When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Gallilee. 
 
 *' Like the leaves of the/o7*es^ when summer is green. 
 That host with their banners at sunset was seen ; 
 Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, 
 That host on the morrow lay wither'd and strown. 
 
 " For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast, 
 And breath'd on the face of the foe as he pass'd ; 
 And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill. 
 And their hearts but once heav'd, and for ever greW still. 
 
 " And there lay the steed, with his nostril all wide. 
 But through it there roU'd not the breath of his pride ; 
 And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, 
 And cold as the spray of the rock-beaten surf. 
 
 "And there lay the rider, distorted and pale^ 
 With the dew on his brow, and the nist on his mail; 
 And the tents were all silent^ the banners alone. 
 The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. 
 
 "And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, 
 And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal ; 
 And the might of the Gentile, unsraote by the sword, 
 Hath melted, like snow, in the glance of the Lord." 
 
LECTURE II. 127 
 
 There may be some doubt as to the origin 
 of the words banner^ lance ^ trumpet^ roll, pass, 
 and glance ; but even if these six be added, 
 it will be found that in the six verses, of four 
 lines to each verse, the number of words not of 
 Anglo-Saxon derivation does not average more 
 than three to each verse, or about one word in 
 every twelve of the entire poem. 
 
 The preponderance of words of Saxon origin 
 might be exemplified, did the limits of this 
 lecture permit, by quotations from other poets 
 (as well as from some of our best prose writers), 
 especially from Southey, Moore, Wordsworth, 
 and, perhaps, most of all, from the present Poet- 
 laureat, Tennyson, who has entire pieces with 
 scarcely a word derived from any other language ; 
 as for example, '' The Lord of Burleigh," a 
 piece in which the poet records the affecting 
 tale of the humbly-born countess, in the appro- 
 priate simplicity of Anglo-Saxon words, which 
 harmonize so touchingly with the feelings of the 
 heroine; in tender sympathy with which, her 
 loving and bereaved lord 
 
 " . . . . came to look upon her, 
 And he looked at her and said, 
 * Bring the dress, and put it on her, 
 That she wore when she was wed.' 
 
 " Then her people^ softly treading, 
 Bore to earth her body, dress'd 
 In the dress that she was wed in, 
 That her spirit might have rest." 
 
128 LECTURE II. 
 
 In the 600 words of this poem, are not to 
 be found more than forty, which, like people 
 and spirit in these lines, are not of Anglo-Saxon 
 origin. 
 
 In further illustration of the remarks which 
 I made in my former lecture, as to the prepon- 
 derance of monosyllables in pure English, and 
 the practicability of writing whole chapters 
 of words of Saxon origin exclusively, I may 
 adduce the fact that the Rev. Mr. Dalton, of 
 Tramore, a member of this Institute, and a 
 liberal contributor to our library, is the author 
 of two little volumes on religious subjects, com- 
 prising about one hundred pages each, consisting 
 exclusively of words of one syllable, and I need 
 scarcely add, almost all of Saxon origin. 
 
 As a contrast to the examples before quoted, 
 permit me to read a few sentences from Dr. 
 Samuel Johnson, who delighted in ponderous 
 polysyllables, and in hard and learned words 
 derived from the Latin. Treating of Discontent^ 
 as the common lot of mankind, this great mo- 
 ralist thus expresses himself : — 
 
 "Such is the emptiness of human en/oyment, that we are 
 always impatient of t\i% present. Attainmerit is followed by we- 
 fflect^ and possession by disgust. Few moments are more pleasing 
 than those in which the mind is concerting measures for a new 
 imdertaking. From the first hint that awakens the fancy to the 
 hour of actual execution, all is improvement and progress, triumph 
 a,nd felicitT/. Every hour brings additions to the original scheme, 
 suggests some new expedient to secure success, or discovers const- 
 
LECTURE II. 129 
 
 quential advantages not hitherto foreseen. While preparations 
 are made and materials accumulated^ day glides after day through 
 Elysian prospects^ and the heart dances to the song oijoyy 
 
 Here, out of one hundred and nine words, we 
 find tliirty- three from Latin, two from French, 
 and two from Greek, making thirty-seven, out 
 of one hundred and nine words, or rather more 
 than one-third, of foreign derivation. 
 
 In fact, Dr. Johnson was desirous to form a 
 new style ; which, however, notwithstanding our 
 veneration for that great man, and the value of 
 his writings, will be found heavy, turgid, and 
 monotonous."^ 
 
 Let it not be thought, however, that, while 
 recommending the more simple Anglo-Saxon, I 
 would deprecate the use of words of Latin deri- 
 vation, altogether. On the contrary, there can 
 be no doubt that the English language has been 
 embellished and improved, by the addition of 
 words adopted from the harmonious and com- 
 prehensive languages of ancient Greece and 
 Rome. Amongst other advantages derived from 
 such borrowed words, is the convenience of sy- 
 nonyms hereby supplied, by the use of which 
 tautology is avoided. It is against the abuse, 
 and not against the moderate and judicious use, 
 
 ' 1 own I like not Johnson's turgid style, 
 That gives an inch the importance of a mile." 
 
 Wolcot. 
 
 K 
 
 /<> 
 
130 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 of such adopted words, that we protest. And 
 while entertaining all due respect for words de- 
 rived from the ancient classical languages, I 
 think it will be found, that the writers and 
 speakers who please us most are those who 
 deal the least in language so derived, and whose 
 style is the most Saxon in its character.* 
 
 In the use of language, and the method of 
 reading and speaking, as in dress and manners, 
 the more simple and natural will be found to be 
 the more pleasing and attractive. The object of 
 a writer or speaker should be to convey his ideas 
 in the clearest and most convincing manner; 
 and this end will be best attained by the use of 
 a simple style, and through the medium of clear 
 and intelligible language, with which the reader 
 or hearer is thoroughly acquainted. And this 
 is especially true with reference to a writer or 
 speaker who is desirous to instruct and influence 
 
 * From an analysis of several works, made by Turner, with 
 which the author has met since the publication of the first edition 
 of these Lectures, it appears that the Authorized Version of the 
 Scriptures presents the most remarkable example of the prepon- 
 derance of purely Saxon English, the words of foreign origin being 
 only about one- thirtieth. Of fourteen popular writers, in prose 
 and verse, from Spenser to Johnson, it appears that Dean Swift 
 has the fewest words not of Saxon origin, while the historians 
 Gibbon and Hume exceed even Dr. Johnson in the use of words 
 derived from a foreign source. — See Tnmej^ a A nglo-Saxons^ vol. ii. . 
 Edinburgh Review^ October, 1839 ; and Spalding's History of 
 English Literature^ Second Edition, p. 156. 
 
LECTURE II. 131 
 
 the humbler classes, and people of plain business 
 habits. In order to reach these, it is a great 
 mistake to suppose that it is necessary to be vul- 
 gar. I believe that the purest writers will be 
 best understood, even bj those who have not 
 enjoyed the fullest advantages of education; and 
 that the true course for a writer or speaker to 
 adopt is, always to keep in view the instruction 
 of the humbler class of his readers or hearers. 
 And if he succeed in conveying to these the 
 ideas which he desires to communicate, in a clear 
 and intelligible manner, he may be assured that 
 he will, at the same time, not only be understood, 
 as a matter of course, by those who are better 
 informed, but will both satisfy and please the 
 more educated classes who themselves possess 
 good taste, and can appreciate what is at once the 
 most agreeable and the most instructive. 
 
 With a view to these results, I think it will 
 be found that the English, as derived from the 
 Anglo-Saxon language, is the best fitted for our 
 purpose ; and that, without rejecting altogether 
 the additions made, from time to time, by the 
 introduction of words derived from other na- 
 tions, we shall find our own English to be a 
 language well suited to a great and enlightened 
 people, desirous to convey the expression of 
 their opinions with the "plainness of speech' 
 which becomes free citizens and honest men. 
 
 This noble language is now spoken by up- 
 
132 LECTURE II. 
 
 wards of sixty millions of the human race, or 
 about one-twelfth of the entire population of the 
 earth. Let us hope that it may always be the 
 language of freemen, and that it may ever con- 
 tinue to be the medium of conveying civilization, 
 science, and religion, with all their accompanying 
 blessings, to the people of every region and clime 
 where its sounds are heard, throughout the 
 habitable globe. 
 
SUPPLEMENT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The foregoing pages having constituted, for 
 tlie most part, the substance of Lectures ad- 
 dressed to the members of a Mechanics' Institu- 
 tion, it was not possible to do more than to 
 make a selection from the numerous derivations 
 of words from the Anglo-Saxon, of those which 
 appeared the most striking and suitable for a 
 popular address. At the same time, many 
 equally interesting and instructive were neces- 
 sarily omitted, as their introduction would have 
 extended the LectUf^es far beyond the usual 
 limits of such addresses. 
 
 This work having now been adopted as a 
 text-book in several schools, I have felt anxious 
 to render it more useful to teachers, and, at the 
 same time, more interesting to the general 
 reader, by the addition of some of the words 
 which were not brought forward in the fore- 
 going Lectures ; and with this view the following 
 supplementary chapter is added to this edition. 
 
 Before I proceed, however, to give those 
 additional derivations, I am desirous to quote 
 
134 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 the substance of some interesting and valuable 
 observations, on the subject treated of in this 
 volume^ from the pen of an able writer, as con- 
 firmatory of some of the remarks contained in 
 the foregoing Lectures, and as adducing addi- 
 tional evidence of the prevalence of words of 
 Anglo-Saxon origin in the English language as 
 now spoken, and of the importance of the 
 subject under consideration. 
 
 The writer to whom I refer is the author of 
 two volumes of essays, which originally appeared 
 in the Edinburgh Review^* and which I have 
 met with since the publication of the First 
 Edition of this work. In an essay On the Struc- 
 ture of the English Language, contained in the 
 first volume, the writer, after noticing the fact 
 of the preponderance in point of numbers of 
 words of Saxon origin in the construction of the 
 present English, remarks, that " if we look not 
 merely at the numbers of Jbhe words which the 
 Anglo-Saxon has contributed to the English, 
 but to the kinds of words, as well as to the 
 share it has had in its formation and develop- 
 ment, we shall at once see that there is no com- 
 parison between the importance of this, and that 
 of any other element ;" and he proceeds to show, 
 that, in the first place, English grammar is almost 
 exclusively occupied with what is of Anglo- 
 Saxon origin. The few inflections which we 
 
 * Essays selected from Contributions to the Edinburgh Review- 
 By Henry Kooeks. London : Longman. 1850. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 135 
 
 have in English are all Anglo-Saxon. Thus, 
 the genitive, the general modes of forming the 
 plural of nouns, and the terminations by which 
 we express the comparative and superlative of 
 adjectives, er and est ; the inflections of the pro- 
 nouns ; of the tenses, persons, and participles of 
 the verbs ; and the most frequent termination of 
 our adverbs {ly) are all Anglo-Saxon. The 
 nouns, too, derived from Latin and Greek, re- 
 ceive the Anglo-Saxon terminations of the geni- 
 tive and plural ; while the preterites and parti- 
 ciples of verbs, derived from the same sources, 
 take the Anglo-Saxon inflections. As to the 
 parts of speech — those which occur most fre- 
 quently, and are, individually, of most importance, 
 are almost wholly Saxon. Such are our articles 
 and definitives generally ; as a, an, the^ this^ 
 tJiat, these, those, many, few, some, one, none; 
 the adjectives, whose comparatives and superla- 
 tives are irregularly formed, and which are the 
 most comprehensive and extensively used, as 
 good, had, little, &c. ; the separate words, more 
 and most, by which we as often express the 
 forms of comparison as by distinct terminations ; 
 all our pronouns, personal, possessive, relative, 
 and interrogative ; nearly every one of our so- 
 called irregular verbs, including all the auxi- 
 liaries, have, he, shall, will, may, can, must, by 
 which we express the force of the principal 
 varieties of mood and tense ; all the adverbs 
 
136 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 most frequently employed, and the prepositions 
 and conjunctions almost without exception. 
 
 It is next to be observed that the names of the 
 greater part of the objects of sense, being the 
 terms which occur most frequently, and which 
 recall the most vivid conceptions, are Anglo- 
 Saxon. This language has given names to the 
 heavenly bodies, sun^ moon, stars; to three out 
 of the four seasons, and to as many of the four 
 elements f" to the natural divisions of time, as 
 day, night, morning , evening, twilight^ noon, mid- 
 day, midnight, sunrise, sunset ; some of which 
 are amongst the most poetical terms we have. 
 To these may be added, year, month, week, and 
 day. To the same language we are indebted 
 for the names of light and darkness, heat and 
 cold; frost, rain, snow, hail, sleet, thunder and 
 lightning; as well as of almost all those objects 
 which form the component parts of the beau- 
 tiful in external scenery, as sea and land, hill 
 and dale, wood and stream, &c. The same may 
 be observed of all those productions of the 
 animal and vegetable kingdoms which form the 
 most frequent subjects of observation, and which 
 are invested with the most pleasing and poetic 
 associations ; and of the members of the human 
 body.f The Anglo-Saxon has also supplied us 
 with all that vivid class of words which denote 
 
 * See Lecture I. in this Volume, pp. 17 and 75. 
 flbid., pp. 69-63. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 137 
 
 the cries, postures, and motions of animated 
 existence ; such as to sit, to stand, to lie, to rise, 
 to walk, to leap, to stagger, to slip, to slide, to 
 stride, to glide, to yawn, to gape, to wink, to thrust, 
 to fly, to swim, to creep, to crawl, to spring, &c. 
 Hence, in descriptions of external nature, whe- 
 ther in prose or verse, the most energetic and 
 graphic terms are almost universally Anglo- 
 Saxon. This might be illustrated by reference to 
 the narratives of the Old Testament, the Book 
 of Proverbs, and the parables in the Gospels. 
 The remark also applies, to a certain extent, 
 to Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress," " Robinson 
 Crusoe," the " Vicar of Wakefield," *' Gulliver's 
 Travels," and similar works, in which the bulk 
 of the words are pure Saxon. 
 
 It is from this language, also, that we derive 
 the words which are expressive of the earliest 
 and dearest connexions, and the most powerful 
 feelings of our nature. Thus we have from the 
 Saxon, father, mother, husband, wife, brother, 
 sister, son, daughter, child, home, kindred, friends. 
 Hence, also, we have those figurative expressions 
 by which we represent to the imagination, 
 and that in a single word, the reciprocal 
 duties and enjoyments of hospitality, friendship, 
 or love ; such are hearth, roof, fireside. The 
 chief emotions of which we are susceptible are 
 expressed in the same language, as love, hope, 
 fear, sorrow, shame ; the outward signs, too, 
 by which emotion is indicated are almost all 
 
138 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon, such as tear^ smile, blush, to laugh, 
 to weep, to sigh, to groan. In short, the words 
 generally expressive of the strongest emotions, 
 or their outward signs, as well as of almost all 
 the objects and events calculated to call them 
 forth, are of Saxon origin. 
 
 The words, too, which have been earliest 
 used, and which are consequently invested with 
 the strongest associations, are almost all of a simi- 
 lar origin. This, indeed, follows from what has 
 heen already said. The words descriptive of the 
 objects of sense, and of the varieties and signs 
 of emotion, are necessarily the terms which fall 
 first upon the ear of childhood ; and these being 
 of Saxon origin, it is evident that the words most 
 connected with our earliest associations are of that 
 language; and the very fact that they are the 
 earliest, gives them additional power over the 
 mind — a power quite independent of the mean- 
 ing which they convey. They are the words 
 which fell from the lips most dear to us, and carry 
 back the mind to the home of childhood, and to 
 the days of youth. 
 
 Again ; it is remarkable that most of the ob- 
 jects about which the practical reason of man is 
 employed in common life, receive their names 
 from the Anglo-Saxon. It is the language, for 
 the most part, of business — of the counting-house, 
 the shop, the market, the street, and the farm.* 
 
 * See Lecture L of this Volume, p. 13. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 1B9 
 
 Further, it will be found that nearly all our 
 national proverbs, in which, it is truly said, so 
 much of the practical wisdom of a nation resides, 
 are almost wholly Anglo-Saxon: while a very 
 large proportion, and that always the strongest, 
 of the language of invective, humour, satire, 
 and colloquial pleasantry, is also derived from 
 that source. 
 
 Lastly, the author to whom we refer justly 
 observes, that it may be stated as a general 
 truth, that while our most abstract and general 
 terms are derived from the Latin, those which 
 denote the special varieties of objects, qualities, 
 and modes of action, are derived from the Anglo- 
 Saxon. Thus move and motion are very general 
 terms, and of Latin origin ; but all the terms 
 for expressing nice varieties of bodily action are, 
 as has been already observed, derived from the 
 Anglo-Saxon. Sound is perhaps Latin, but it 
 may also be Anglo-Saxon ; but to buzz, to hum^ 
 to clash, to hiss, to rattle, and innumerable others, 
 are Anglo-Saxon. Colour is Latin ; but white, 
 black, green, yellow, blue, red, brown, are Anglo- 
 Saxon. Crime is Latin ; but murder, theft y 
 robbery — to lie, to steal, to kill, are Anglo-Saxon. 
 Member and organ, as applied to the body, are, 
 the first Latin, and the second Greek ; but ear^ 
 eye, hand, foot, lip, mouth, teeth, hair, finger^ 
 nostril, are Anglo-Saxon.* Animal is Latin; 
 
 * See Lecture I. pp. 59-63. 
 
140 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 but man^ eow, sheep, calf, cat, are Anglo-Saxon.* 
 Number is immediately French, remotely Latin ; 
 but all our cardinal and ordinal numbers, as 
 far as a million, are Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 The foregoing observations will serve to ex- 
 plain why it is, that, as I have shown in the 
 Second Lecture, words of Anglo-Saxon origin 
 are found to predominate in the writings of 
 our best authors, and more especially in poetry, 
 and particularly in descriptive pieces. In these, 
 the objects of sense, the features of natural 
 scenery, the emotions of the mind, and their 
 outward signs, as well as allusions to the most 
 tender affections, and the strongest feelings, will, 
 to a great extent, be constantly recurring ; but all 
 these being expressed, as we have seen, by Anglo- 
 Saxon terms, it follows that words tracing their 
 origin to this language cannot fail to abound in 
 those writings, the object of which is to describe 
 such objects and scenes, and to portray such 
 feelings and emotions. 
 
 I feel assured that no apology is necessary for 
 having brought before the reader so much of 
 the substance of the interesting essay from which 
 the foregoing remarks have been borrowed, 
 tending, as they do, not only to confirm some of 
 the statements put forward in the preceding 
 Lectures, but also to suggest many additional 
 
 * See Lecture L, p.* 14. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 141 
 
 facts connected with our subject, and to illustrate, 
 in a clear and forcible manner, the importance 
 of tbe inquiry as to the place which the Anglo- 
 Saxon occupies in the construction of the English 
 language. 
 
 We now proceed to notice various words which 
 appear of interest and importance, with their de- 
 rivation from the Anglo-Saxon, and the changes 
 which have, in the lapse of time, taken place in 
 reference to the application of many of them, 
 as the particulars have been gathered out and 
 selected from the best authorities, or suggested 
 in the course of the researches and train of 
 thought into which the study of the subject 
 naturally leads the inquirer. 
 
 In doing so, it may be more convenient to 
 take them generally, in alphabetical order, than 
 to arrange them under different heads. 
 
 The word " acre" is, we know, now applied only 
 to a certain measurement of land ; but originally 
 it meant a field, or enclosed place, without refer- 
 ence to its dimensions. In early Saxon times, 
 the churchyard was called " God's acre," as being 
 the piece of ground in which the bodies of 
 Christians — God's people — were buried.* A 
 field-labourer was called an acre-man; and a 
 land-tax was acre-shot. The Saxon word adl 
 meant pain or sickness, and was used to describe 
 
 * " I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls 
 The burial-ground God^s Acre !" — Longfellow. 
 
L>^'&/\ 
 
 142 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 various diseases. An " addled " egg means 
 one that is diseased or bad. The word is 
 derived from aidlian, to be useless, bad, or 
 unprofitable. Hence we have idle, ail, and 
 ill. " Allege" is from leggan, to lay down, like 
 " depose" and " deponent," used in legal forms, 
 and taken from the Latin ; that which is alleged 
 or deposed is that which is laid down, and the 
 deponent is he who lays down the statement. An 
 ^^^' ado" is an affair or business, and was applied 
 in a similar sense as when we speak of making 
 a fuss about anything, as " Much ado about 
 nothing." To " abet" is to aid, or assist, from 
 abettian, to make better. " Abroad" means 
 beyond the usual bounds, from ahroedan, to 
 broaden, to extend or lengthen out. " Anxious" 
 was formerly angsome, from ange signifying 
 trouble. The liquor " ale" is a peculiarly English 
 beverage, and derives its name from the Anglo- 
 Saxon celan, to burn or inflame, of which the 
 thirdperson singular was afo^A, that which warms.* 
 " Broth," means that which briweth, from bri- 
 wan to cook, or boil; hence, also, to brew. 
 '* Blind" means stopped-up, being the past par- 
 ticiple of blinnan, to stop. This explains the 
 meaning of " blind windows," by which are 
 meant stopped-up windows; and "window- 
 blinds" are so called, because they stop the too 
 
 *"Ale, noble ale; no liquor more preserves the natural 
 heat." — Howell. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 143 
 
 bright rays of the sun from entering at the win- 
 dow. A ** brook" is water breaking out, and was 
 formerly written broke. To '' broach a vessel" is 
 to break into it, by boring through; and to 
 *' broach a doctrine" is to break it open, to dis- 
 close it. A " break," or brake, for a horse, is 
 that by which his unruliness is broken, by which 
 he is tamed or subjected to use.* The " bit" of 
 a bridle is derived from bcetan, to restrain. 
 " Bann" signified a proclamation ; being placed 
 under a bann meant being pr-oc/am^cZ an outlaw; 
 but is, perhaps, rather an Anglo-Norman than 
 an Anglo-Saxon word. The " banns" of mar- 
 riage are published, by which the intended mar- 
 riage is proclaimed ; and although this is a pre- 
 liminary step to being bound in wedlock, the 
 word has no etymological relationship to "bands," 
 which mean the same as bonds, from bindan, to 
 bind. From the latter word we have a band or 
 company of men, applied also to a company 
 of musicians. From bann we have the word 
 " banish." We have seen that " beam" meant a 
 tree, now applied only to a piece of a tree which 
 has been felled; the word was also used to de- 
 scribe anything moving in a straight line, as a 
 " sunbeam ;" and from this application of the 
 word came beamian, to shine, as a " beaming'' 
 countenance. "Block" and "lock" are from 
 i;he Anglo-Saxon beloc or loc, the past participle 
 
 * Kichardson' s /S^McZy of Language, p. 130. 
 
 // 
 
144 SUPPLEIdENT. 
 
 of helycan or lycan, to shut or close up. A 
 " blockhead" is a man having a head like a block 
 of wood, or whose faculties are blocked up.^- A 
 " block" of wood was originally a piece of timber 
 used to fasten a gate, or to stop or block up a 
 passage. A " bough," or '* bow" of a tree is so 
 called as being bendable, from bygan^ to bend ; 
 whence we have "bow" also applied to the in- 
 clination of the head in reverence, to an engine 
 of war, to an instrument of music, to a particular 
 kind of knot, to the carved part of a saddle and 
 of a ship, to a rainbow, and to bended legs; 
 — always meaning bended or curved. f " Bosom" 
 may be traced to the same root. Beacon 
 in Anglo-Saxon meant a sign or token; it is 
 now restricted to a " beacon" or signal for 
 mariners. We have the verb to " beckon" from 
 this root. Bewearan was the infinitive, meaning 
 to defend, of which verb we now use only the 
 imperative, when we caution a person to " be- 
 ware," that is, to be on his guard. " War" is 
 derived from the same root, its original mean- 
 ing having reference to defence, rather than to 
 aggression. '' Blithe," that is be-lithe, gay, or 
 cheerful, is an adjective, now little used except 
 in poetry; while the expressive word blithe- 
 heaviness for "joy fulness" has long been lost. 
 Bocsum, or bucksome, also anciently written 
 bowsom and bough-some, meant obedient, com- 
 
 * Richardson On the Study of Language^ p. 139. 
 t Tooke's Diversions of Purley. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 145 
 
 pliant, bendable. It is now spelt " buxom," 
 and conveys the idea of independence rather 
 than of obedience. The *' beetle" used by- 
 women in washing was originally hytle^ a ham- 
 mer, that with which they heat ih.Q clothes. Bering 
 meant behaviour, as a man's " bearing" now 
 means his deportment. Bestede or " bestead," 
 meant oppressed,* corresponding with the modern 
 word " beset," as with care. " Betide" means 
 to happen, from hy the tide, or time. " Bewray" 
 is an obselete word, signifying to discover, and is 
 a different word from " betray," derived from the 
 French. It was in use at the time of the trans- 
 lation of the Bible in the seventeenth century .f 
 Brawn was a Saxon word for a sinew, as we 
 speak of " brawny" arms. Home Tooke derives 
 it from a boar, by transposition of the letter r, 
 hauren, that is, boaren, boars flesh, and it 
 is still so applied; as also metaphorically to 
 that which has the strength and vigour of a 
 boar. A bow-window, also spelt bay-window, 
 means a bent-out window, from bigan, to bend, 
 from which came both " bow," as we have 
 already seen, and " bay," by which we describe 
 the part of the sea which is bowed or bayed 
 into the land, bending in the shape of a bow. 
 Anything laid down, or spread out, was 
 
 * They shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry." — 
 Isaiah, viii. 21. 
 t "Thy speech hewrayeth thee." — ^Matt. xxvi. 73. 
 
 I. 
 
146 SUPPLEMENT. I 
 
 called a " bed," from heddian^ to spread. 
 Although the word is now applied chiefly to 
 that which is spread out for us to lie down upon, 
 yet we still speak of a bed of gravel ; a flower 
 bed; and a bed^ or layer, of coal ; the word was 
 also formerly used to denote a table. '' Behove" 
 is an old word, being an impersonal verb, like 
 the Latin, oportet; it means, it ought to be, from 
 Jiofan, to need. '' Bitter" is derived from bitan, 
 to bite. " Blue" describes the colour of the sky 
 when the clouds have been blown away; and 
 of the skin blown upon by the north or east wind.* 
 " Brown" means burnt, from brin to burn, mean- 
 ing the colour of that which has been " burnt;" 
 the '' brunt" of the battle means the hottest part 
 of the engagement. " Bewildered" is like amaze, 
 being, as it were, in a wilderness, A " beadle" 
 was originally a crier in the courts, as well as a 
 keeper of the door, and derived his name from 
 bead, to call, or pray. A " bed-ridden" person is 
 a bed-presser, from bed and ridan, to press ; and 
 a man who " rides" a horse is one who presses on 
 his back. The passive participle in modern 
 English ending in en, '' bedridden" appears to 
 signify one ridden by the bed ; but the Anglo- 
 Saxon word is bed-rida, and in Chaucer it is 
 
 * " Every blast," of the north wind, "produces a smarting, 
 succeeded by a numbness of the skin, during wbich the parts 
 affected became hluish.^^ — Lieutenant Bellot's Voyage in the 
 Polar Seas. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 147 
 
 hedrede. A bout meant a turn ; hence a '' bout "- 
 of illness. We have seen that the word *' half" 
 was not originally restricted to signify an even 
 portion of anything divided in two parts, but 
 meant a part or portion generally ; to the 
 same word we may trace " behalf," that is, on 
 the side or fart of another; taking one^s part 
 is a common phrase, especially amongst school- 
 boys. The word bete is to be found in old writ- 
 ings, meaning to walk to-and-fro, as the word is 
 still used by sportsmen; and the policeman's 
 " beat" is the part of a district assigned for his 
 walking up and down. Bikere meant to quarrel, 
 whence we have " bickerings" for contentions. 
 Brouke meant to use or enjoy; the word is now 
 generally used with a negative ; when one " can- 
 not brook" anything, it means that it cannot be 
 endured, much less enjoyed. Bale meant mis- 
 chief ; the noun is obsolete, but we still have the 
 adjective " baleful," from halwian, to torment. 
 When a buyer does not give the first price 
 asked, but endeavours to get the commodity at 
 a lower price, he is said to " chaffer," a word of 
 the same signification with *' cheapen," from 
 cypan or cea'pan^ to buy. 
 
 A " candle" is that which kindles or gives light, 
 but it is doubtful whether it be of Saxon or of 
 French origin. The sun was described by the 
 Saxons as \k\Q frith-candle^ that is, the free light, 
 — as " free as the light of heaven." Ccennan 
 
148 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 was to know, from which comes the old word 
 ken ; and a prudent or " knowing" man is called 
 " canny." Hence also comes '* cunning," not 
 originally used in a bad sense.* Carhe or care 
 meant anxious solicitude, and is still so applied, 
 as, *'carking care." Cast was to think; hence 
 a man is said to " cast" a matter in his mind, and 
 to " cast accounts" may probably be traced to the 
 same root. The word " clap" is derived from 
 the Anglo-Saxon, clappan, which signified to 
 leap, or move hastily, and implied also a noise 
 accompanying the quick motion. It is applied 
 to clapping the hands for applause ; to clap to a 
 door is to shut it hastily ; and Chaucer applies it 
 to noisy and quick talking. The clapper of a 
 mill is in constant motion, accompanied with 
 noise. Cappe meant the top of anything ; hence, 
 perhaps, a cap as covering the top of the head, 
 though this may be from the Latin for the head. 
 Builders retain this name in the capping or 
 *' coping" of a wall. Burns has it capstane — 
 " The last sad capstane of his woes." To " claw" 
 was to scratch, as an animal with claws. Hence 
 to claw on the bach is an expression used by 
 Chaucer, to describe coaxing and flattery, and 
 to claw on the gall, to denote making one angry by 
 saying disagreeable things to hurt the feelings. 
 
 * " I held it ever, 
 
 Virtue and cunning were endowments greater 
 Than nobleness and riches." — Skakspeare. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 149 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon word, crceft^ in modern 
 English "• craft," was in very general use in com- 
 position ; thus we may find smith-crceft for the 
 art of a blacksmith, or a carpenter ; mp.tre-crceft 
 for the art of poetry ; sang-crceft for the art of 
 singing ; scip-crceft for navigation ; stcef-crceft for 
 the science of letters, or grammar (s^o?/ signifying 
 a letter) ; stcef-croeftiga was a philologist ; Imce- 
 crceft was the science of medicine; wig-crobft^ 
 that is, war-crafty was the art of making war; 
 woili-croeft was rhetoric ; ce-crceft was law-crafty 
 and oi-croefty meant skilful in the law. We still 
 have "handicraft" and *' witchcraft;" as also 
 " craft," and the adjective *' crafty," which origi- 
 nally meant shill and skilful, now come to sig- 
 nify subtlety or deceit, and cunning or deceitful. 
 Formerly, deceit was described as over-crceft; as 
 we still apply the term '* over-reaching" to de- 
 scribe cheating and deception. In an ancient 
 translation of the New Testament, an architect, or 
 builder, is called a craftie-man, meaning a man 
 of skill in the art of building, where the hea- 
 venly city is alluded to, and is now rendered 
 " whose builder and maker is God." (Heb. xi. 
 10.) The word " craft" is likewise applied to 
 certain sailing vessels, either as being ships em- 
 ployed in trade or crafty like the designation 
 " traders," or as being carefully, craftily^ or skil- 
 fully made, like " ship" derived from shape, A 
 serpent was called in Anglo-Saxon creopere,, that 
 
150 SUPPLEMENT. \ 
 
 is, a creeper, from creopan, to crawl or creep. 
 Hence also a " cripple," formerly spelt creeple, to 
 describe a lame or maimed person, who can only 
 crawl or creep along. A paralytic person was 
 called an earth-cry pie. The Anglo-Saxon croppe^ 
 now written " crop," was a word originally ap- 
 plied to the tops of trees; and an old phrase, 
 croppe and rote, meaning the top and bottom, in 
 allusion to the top and the root of a tree, was 
 used to signify perfection. Thus Chaucer has 
 the croppe and rote of beautie, and the croppe 
 and rote of guile; also, to express a thorough ac- 
 quaintance with a subject, he has, ''I know 
 croppe and rote." Hence probably the phrase, 
 ^ learning by rote ; although now usually applied 
 to superficial knowledge, and traced by etymolo- 
 gists to the French, routine. To crop the hair 
 means to cut off the top ; and cattle are said to 
 crop the grass. The crops of hay, oats, &c., are 
 the tops of the ripe grass or corn, but the term 
 is now applied to farm produce generally, even 
 to roots, as in the case oi green crops, although for- 
 merly it would have been a contradiction in terms 
 to speak of crops of roots. The Anglo-Saxon for 
 a furnace was cylne, which accounts for the some- 
 what strange orthography of a kiln, as a brick- 
 kiln, a lime-kiln. The Anglo-Saxon word cwene 
 was used to describe the female in general ; and 
 hence the " queen-bee" was probably so called 
 not as ruling over the hive, but merely to specify 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 151 
 
 the female bee, as a " lien" was called cwen- 
 fugel, or female fowl. The queen-bee was also 
 called the mother-bee. " Callow" meant bald, 
 unfledged; as, "Eight callow infants fill'd the 
 mossy nest." A *' charwoman" is a servant 
 brought in to do temporary jobs ; from ci/rre, work 
 or labour.* A " churn" is derived from the 
 Anglo-Saxon cyrran^ to turn. A " clump," as 
 of trees, is from geliman, or gluman, to connect. 
 It is somewhat singular that the word •' cleave" 
 is applied in the opposite senses of adhering and 
 dividing. The Anglo-Saxon words are clyjian^ 
 to adhere ; and cleoffan, to cut asunder. 
 
 " Dole" was another word for '' deal," a 
 share ; and was used both as a noun and a verb. 
 From dceg^ a day, came daggian, to become 
 day, and hence we now have *' dawn." Don and 
 doff meant to put, or do on, and to put, or do off. 
 The " drift" of a man's discourse, that which he is 
 " driving at," signifies the drawing out of his 
 meaning. The name of the " dyer" is derived 
 from the Anglo-Saxon deag, meaning colour. 
 A " dastard," or coward, is derived from the 
 Anglo-Saxon dastrigan, to terrify, from the past 
 participle of which, dastriged, came dastr'd. 
 On this, Dry den formed the verb to dastard. \ 
 
 ■ as the maid that milks 
 
 And does the meanest chars." 
 
 Anthony and Cleopatra. 
 
 t And dastards manly souls with hope and fear." 
 
152 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Dun or dune meant a hill. From this has been 
 derived " the downs" of Kent, being hills dip- 
 ping down to the sea; henc.e we have also 
 "down," meaning descending, or going down; 
 which was formerly used as a verb, as — " Down 
 with him." This apparently opposite meaning, - 
 or application, of the word, may be accounted 
 for, by considering " down," or adown, as having 
 originally signified of the down or hill, '* down- 
 hill."* " Drought *' is the third person singular, 
 dragoth (or dryth and drith), of the Anglo-Saxon 
 verb, draggan^ to drive out ; whence to dry^ by 
 expelling the moisture. Hence also we have, 
 according to Home Tooke, a *' drain," that 
 is, fluid driven through, and the " drone" (in 
 Anglo-Saxon dran^ drane, and drcen) expelled 
 or driven from the hive by the other bees. | 
 
 " Dumb " is a word now applied only to an 
 obstruction in the organ of speech, but it was 
 formerly applied more generally ; it is derived 
 from dumbian, to obstruct, whence we have 
 dam to stop up, distinct from the Latin-derived 
 *' damn," to condemn. " Dim," formerly dimn, 
 is from dimnian, to obscure. Drear was sorrow, 
 
 * Dr. Richardson in his recently published and interesting 
 work, On the Study of Language^ quotes Mr. Taylor as suggesting 
 that "down" is a contraction of of-dune^ off or from the hill^ 
 down-hill; in proof of which he shows, that the \jSiim pronus, 
 from which we have " prone," is rendered by Alfred into the 
 Anglo-Saxon, af-dune; and by Chaucer, adown. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 153 
 
 hence " dreary," or melancholy. Dwcescan is a 
 Saxon verb signifying to darken, whence we have 
 the "dusk" of the evening, when the light of 
 day is nearly extinguished. Dyppa is deep; 
 hence to *' dip," was to plunge into the deep^ 
 although it is now used to describe a rather 
 shallow bathing, and figuratively is applied to 
 a mere skimming of the surface, as dipping into 
 a book denotes a superficial reading of it. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxons called the " equinox " even- 
 night. We have already seen^ that " eke," for 
 also, is derived from eacan^ to add; hence also 
 we have " each." As a verb, ehe is also used, 
 signifying to add to, or increase; to "eke out" 
 is to contribute an addition to what is provided 
 from some other source, in order to make up 
 the amount required. EldweiS the Anglo-Saxon 
 for old, from which we still have " elder" and 
 " eldest." A grandfather was formerly called an 
 eld or aid-father. We have seen that words 
 relating to the sea are usually of Anglo-Saxon 
 origin ;t amongst these is " ebbing " of the tide, 
 derived from ehba, signifying to go back, the 
 Anglo-Saxon term for " receding," which we 
 have from the Latin. 
 
 The high-road used to be called by the Saxons 
 the folks-fare ; we have before observed that 
 
 * Lecture I. p. 54. t Lecture I. p. 24. 
 
 y 
 
154 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 n 
 
 "fare" meant a way.^ A "furlong" meant 
 originally sl furrow- long, that is, the length of a 
 furrow in a ploughed field. The fourth part of 
 a penny is called a " farthing;" the Anglo-Saxon 
 was fourthling, and meant originally the fourth 
 part of any sum or measure. " Faith " is the 
 third person singular of the verb fcegan to 
 engage or promise, and was formerly written 
 fcegth and faieth, that which one covenanteth 
 or engage th. The adverb "fain'' is the past 
 participle fcegened, contracted to fcegen, and 
 fcBgn, of the Anglo-Saxon verb fcegnian, to be 
 glp,d, to fain. j- As a verb this word is not now 
 so commonly used as it was formerly. " Feign,'* 
 to dissemble, is from the French. 
 
 " Fairies " were so called, probably, from their 
 " fairness," not only in the literal sense, but me- 
 taphorically as being spotless and pure ; on the 
 same principle that they are called " the good 
 people" by the Irish peasantry, doubtless with 
 a view to conciliate by flattery those imaginary 
 spirits, who are believed to delight in mischief 
 and cunning, but who are called fair or honest, 
 and good or beneficent, with a view to avert 
 their displeasure, and to avoid the ill conse- 
 quences of their malevolence. The name fai/ or 
 fairy has, however, been by some derived from 
 their supposed power to say, or foretell, and to 
 
 * Lecture I. p. 28. f Somner, and Home Tooke. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 155 
 
 influence the fate^ to foredoom. Others derive 
 it from far an ^ to go, in reference to their 
 wandering through the earth and air. Others, 
 again, have thought them to be so called in 
 allusion to their supposed fair or bright forms, 
 as another class of genii are called Brownies, 
 from their swarthy appearance. A "flood" is 
 so called to announce the fact that the waters 
 flowed over the earth ; and " filth " is that 
 which filetJi, or, as we now write it, " defileth," 
 the third person singular of fylan, to pollute. 
 Feed was once a noun, meaning "food;" of 
 which we have the remains in the language of 
 the stable, where the ostler speaks of " a feed " 
 of oats. Feme meant before, and was used in 
 composition, in Anglo-Saxon, to signify of old, 
 or far off. Feme-land meant a far or distant land ; 
 anifeme-yere, in former years, or of yore, Forlore 
 is an obsolete word which signified to lose or 
 abandon ; we still retain "forlorn," being the 
 past participle. A party of brave men who are 
 ready to sacrifice themselves in a service of dan- 
 ger are described as a "forlorn hope," being looked 
 upon as lost, and abandoning themselves to 
 their fate. To " fulfil" is to fill up entirely, to 
 complete any object. The term fret is often 
 found in early writers applied to ornamental 
 work of various kinds, and in many different 
 senses, but generally to any work that roughens 
 the surface. The " fret of gold" in Chaucer is 
 
156 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 a kind of cap made like network ; and anything 
 of the kind was said to be fretted when gems 
 were placed crosswise in alternate directions, or 
 interlaced. A coronet is found described as a 
 fret of pearls ; and a frilled shirt was said to be 
 fretted. A pair of boots in the twelfth century 
 are described as being ornamented with circles of 
 fret-work^ meaning probably embroidered with 
 circles intersecting each other. Frett-work in 
 architecture is the more curious way of plastering 
 a roof or ceiling.* This application of the word 
 arose, probably, from the outline of the work so 
 ornamented having the appearance of being fret- 
 ted, or eaten away; to '* fret" meaning, as has 
 been observed,-|- to eat or consume ; from whence 
 csnaefretwian, to adorn. According to Skinner, 
 however, fret-work derives its name from the 
 Italian, fratto. that is, like the Latin fr actus, 
 broken, being a kind of work distinguished by 
 frequent fractures and incisions; or by being 
 broken or cut into many parts. 
 
 We have two rather vulgar or slang words, 
 " gab" and " gammon," which may be traced to 
 Anglo-Saxon origin. Gahhan meant to deride, 
 to tattle, OT prate; a man is said to have '' the gift 
 of the ^a&," when he can talk with ease, but 
 without evincing much depth or sound sense ; 
 
 * Halliwell's Archaic Dictionary^ vol. L p. 381. 
 t Lecture I. p. 36. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 157 
 
 " glibly," as it is called, that is, at a galloping 
 rate, from geleapan^ to move swiftly, to gallop. 
 The word "' gammon," meaning joking and non- 
 sense, is from gamian, to play, to make sport of. 
 Hence, also, plays are called " games ;" and birds 
 or other animals hunted for sport or amusement 
 are called " game." Hence, also, " gambling," or 
 " gaming," restricted to playing for a wager or 
 " bet," a word derived from badde, a pledge. 
 " Gaffer" and " gammer" are old words applied 
 generally to describe, respectively, old men and 
 old women. The first originally meant a god- 
 father, and the latter a godmother. The Anglo- 
 Saxons called the feast of Christmas geol, and it 
 is still called yule in the North of England. A 
 yule-log is the name given to a large log, or block 
 of wood, laid on the fire at Christmas, and which 
 continues mouldering away for many days ; yule- 
 cakes and yule-songs, are cakes made, and songs 
 sung, on Christmas-eve. The origin of this word 
 is uncertain ; some etymologists deriving it from 
 the Anglo-Saxon hweol, a wheel, from the turn- 
 inor of the sun after the winter solstice at this 
 
 o 
 
 season ; while others incline to the Latin jubilum, 
 signifying originally a shepherd's song. Others, 
 again, trace it to the cry of rejoicing, ule, ule! 
 with which it was customary to run about the 
 streets after church on Christmas day.* 
 
 * Blount, quoted by Halliwell. 
 
158 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Gear meant clothing, as well as all sorts of 
 instruments of cookery, of war, of furniture, and 
 of chemistry. The word is found applied in 
 all these senses in Chaucer. It is derived from 
 gearivian, to prepare. Dr. Johnson refers to the 
 word as being in use in Scotland, to describe 
 goods or riches, as they would say, "He has 
 gea7' enough." A " girth" is that which girdeth; 
 and " growth" is that which groweth. 
 
 The Holy Sacrament was called by the Anglo- 
 Saxons Housel^ and to have partaken of it was 
 to have been houseled. We find the word in 
 old books ; and in Shakspeare, the ghost of Ham- 
 let's father describes himself as having been sent 
 to his account — " UnhouseVd^ disappointed, una- 
 neld;'' that is, without the sacrament, unpre- 
 pared, and unanointed. As the colour '' brown" 
 is derived from the verb to hvin, or burn, and 
 **blue" from hleowan, to blow; so "green" 
 may be traced to growan, to grow — this being 
 the colour of the growing crops; and as fruit 
 is green when unripe, so a raw or imma- 
 ture youth is called "green;" and Chaucer 
 calls inexperience greenhead. The name of 
 the well-known fruit "gooseberry" is probably, 
 a corruption of gorse-berry, so called from 
 the prickliness of the tree, like the gorse 
 hedge. "Grim" meant raging like a tyrant; 
 "gruff" is rough; and "gaunt" may be traced 
 to wane and want (the g being frequently 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 159 
 
 changed to w, and vice-versa). Gild, now 
 "guild," meant a brotherhood, as the "Guild of 
 Merchants," &c., in London. Gerl, now " girl," 
 formerly meant a young person, without dis- 
 tinction of sex ; a boy was described as a "knave- 
 gerl;"* and "knave-child," to distinguish male 
 from female, is to be found in Chaucer. 
 
 " Hithe" was an ancient name for a wharf, and 
 remains in use in proper names, as in Rother- 
 hithe, compounded of rother for rudder, and 
 hithe for wharf. The old-fashioned name for a 
 primer, " horn-book," originally described a sin- 
 gle sheet of paper protected by horn edges, as a 
 slate is in a wooden frame. The heron, or hern, 
 was formerly called a hernshaw, and was the 
 usual game pursued in " hawking" — a favourite 
 sport in the " olden time." When a stupid fel- 
 low is said not to know "a hawk from a hand- 
 saw," there can be no doubt that the latter word 
 is a corruption for a hernshaw; and the saying 
 meant, as if it were now said, "he would not know 
 a greyhound from a hare." Hortigard was an 
 ancient name for an " orchard," signifying the 
 yard or guarded place for horts or oris, that is, 
 roots. An orchard now means an enclosed field 
 for fruit trees only, but originally signified any 
 garden. 
 
 Home Tooke shews that " hank," " haunch," 
 
 * Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words. 
 
160 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 and " hinge," are the same word, with the com- 
 mon Interchange of ^, cA, snadge, from the Anglo- 
 Saxon verb hang an ^ to hang. A " hank" of 
 thread is as much as is hanky d or hanged toge- 
 ther ; a " haunch" of venison is that part by which 
 the lower limbs are hanked or hanged upon the 
 body or trunk; and a *' hinge" is that upon 
 which the door is hanged, as we speak of a door 
 being hung on its hinges. We have observed 
 that the " ankle," or ankle-hone, is that by which 
 the foot is nankyd, hanky d, or hanged to the leg.* 
 To "hanker" after anything is to hang about; 
 loitering as unwilling to quit — desirous to keep 
 or get.t " Halt" is the imperative of the 
 Anglo-Saxon verb, healdan, to hold ; hence, to 
 *' halt" is to hold in, to stop; and as an adjec- 
 tive ''halt" means lame, that is, holding in or 
 stopping in the gait. In German, halten is to 
 hold, or to stop. 
 
 The first use of anything is called handselling 
 it : and a handsell means something given to the 
 buyer on first receiving his purchase. It is de- 
 rived firom hand and sell, which latter word 
 meant to give as well as what we now mean by 
 *' sell." In Dutch it is hand-gifte, which ex- 
 presses the meaning of the word. HcBst was the 
 Anglo-Saxon for hot: hence a /io^tempered per- 
 son is said to be ''hasty." The Anglo-Saxon for 
 
 * Lecture L p. 62. 
 
 t Richardson's Stwly of Language, p. 135. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 161 
 
 "holy" is lialig^ from whence comes "hallowed;" 
 and halig-writ, or " Holy Writ," was their name 
 for the " Sacred Scriptures," as the inspired volume 
 is called from the Latin, as it is called " Bible'* 
 from the Greek, meaning the book. A man ser- 
 vant was called by the Saxons hus-carl^ and a 
 female domestic was a Uus-scype; to this latter 
 may be traced the name given to a college ser- 
 vant, usually an old woman, who certainly cannot 
 derive her name from skipping up stairs. 
 
 Itche signified " the same." This word is still 
 used in Scotland, and as applied to proper names 
 denotes that the surname is the same as the pro- 
 perty or place of residence ; thus Macintosh of 
 that like means Macintosh of Macintosh. " In- 
 come" is from incuman, to come in ; and " Income 
 tax" is the tax on what comes in to the payer. 
 
 It has been already observed that " John" has 
 always been a very common name in England.* 
 " Jack" was also usually applied to lads, and 
 especially to servant boys ; and these having been 
 employed to pull off their masters' boots, and to 
 turn the spit for the cook, when machines were 
 invented for these purposes, they were called by 
 their name, as boot-jack, kitchen-jack. A boy 
 who rides the horses at a race is also called a 
 ^' jockei/,''' or Jack ey. " Kith" and "kin" are words 
 of similar meaning, signifying relations well 
 
 * Lecture IL p. 80. 
 
162 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 known to eacli other, from cythan and cennan^ to 
 know, or make known. The adjective " kind" 
 is derived from kin, meaning natural, having 
 natural feelings — feelings belonging to our com- 
 mon nature or kind — ^llke ** human" and " hu- 
 mane" from the Latin homo, that Is, of feellnofs 
 becoming man. " Mankind" and " kindred" are 
 from the same Anglo-Saxon root. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon word ledene meant lan- 
 guage, and Is to be found applied to the English 
 tongue.^' Its application to the Latin, to which 
 it Is now restricted, arose from this having been 
 the universal language with lettered men In the 
 middle ages. Formerly Latin was called bok- 
 ledene, that Is, the book language, corrupted to 
 hog Latin.] This was the language of books 
 in early times ; and hence, to distinguish It, 
 hoc was prefixed to ledene, which, although 
 somewhat like the word " Latin," meant any 
 language. It has been already observed that the 
 verb to "learn" formerly meant to teach ;J and 
 so we find it constantly used in the version of 
 the Psalms, In the Book of Common Prayer. 
 The Anglo-Saxon lere Is to teach, whence a 
 teacher was called a loresman, from the past par- 
 
 * " For the love of Inglis ?ec/e, 
 
 Inglis lede of Ingland." — Old MS. ^ quoted by Halliwell. 
 t See Lecture I. p. 34, where (line 8) read " bouk-language" for 
 hook-Latin. 
 
 X Lecture II. p. 86. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 163 
 
 ticlgle lore, wliicli we still retain as a noun. 
 Lerend, now written " learned," meant taught, 
 and is applied to one who has been well in- 
 structed. The word lewd, now used in a bad 
 sense, originally signified unlearned — that is, un- 
 taught, and was opposed to lerde, or learned.* 
 Learning having been, in the middle ages, almost 
 exclusively confined to the clergy, the rest were 
 called lewde, from whence we have " laity." 
 
 " List" was to please, and the word is found 
 frequently in writings of the seventeenth century. 
 It appears to have been used as an impersonal 
 verb, signifying, "it is lawful," like the Latin, 
 libet or licet. Lin was the Anglo-Saxon for flax, 
 and " linen" means made of flax, like " wooden" 
 from wood, &c. Lolyhede meant meekness or 
 humility; and we find *' lowliness" in this sense 
 in the Authorized Version of the New Testa- 
 ment. *' Lour," formerly loivre, means to look 
 discontented, to be lowered or cast down — as we 
 say, crest-fallen or chop-fallen. Thus the coun- 
 tenance of the first murderer lowered or loured, 
 when it was said to him, " Why is thy counte- 
 nance fallen T (Gen. iv. 5, 6.) Hence the sky 
 is said to lour when it is darkened, and the 
 clouds appear lower. A lown or lout is a person 
 of low or mean manners or understanding. To 
 lout was to bow down, to lower or bend the 
 
 * " Bot Urde and Zewrfe, old and yong, 
 Alle untherstondith Englisch tonge.'* 
 
 MS, Bodl quoted by Halliwell. 
 
164 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 body, but is to be found usually applied in a bad 
 sense, to describe an awkward clown, or a cring- 
 ing impostor. We m ay often me et, in books 
 of narrative or dialogue, written in the last cen- 
 tury, with the interjection la! or la me! put 
 into the mouths of well-bred people. It would 
 now be justly considered vulgar, and is thought 
 by some to have been a corruption of " law" 
 as if the speaker meant to swear hy the law of 
 God. The word is found, however, in Anglo- 
 Saxon dictionaries, as an interjection, equivalent 
 to lo! that is, look! It is thus found in Shak- 
 speare, *' Lo you!" that is, Look you! {Twelfth 
 Night.) Wellr-a-day^ or well-a-way, is a corrup- 
 tion of wa-la-wa! that is, '' woe, lo, woe !" 
 
 LeveeiXid lathe were old words for love and hate. 
 We may trace the first in the expression already re- 
 ferred to, Fdas leve; and the second in the phrase 
 Td he loath^ as also in the words '' loathe" and 
 *' loathsome." The word " let" is used in two 
 opposite senses, signifying both to permit and to 
 hinder. As a verb, it is now restricted to the 
 former meaning; but a« a noun, it is still some- 
 times used, especially in legalforms, in the sense of 
 
 * In the ^irst Edition of the foregoing Lectures, a quotation 
 was given, on the authority of Dr. Johnson, from Spenser (mis- 
 printed Chaucer)^ as an example of the word lout being used to 
 indicate a graceful bow ; but Dr. Richardson, in a letter to the 
 author, has pointed out that the 4outer, in the passage referred to, 
 was an artful old man who came to the courteous knight, cring- 
 ing, in order to deceive. 
 
SUPPLKMENT. 165 
 
 a hindrance. The words were not precisely 
 aUke in the Anglo-Saxon; Icetan was to permit, 
 and lettaii^ to hinder. The word "listless," that 
 is, heedless, is derived from lystan^ to hearken, 
 to attend to, whence we have " listen." Spenser 
 has the word listful as the opposite to listless, 
 
 A person is said to "long" for that which 
 he earnestly desires; which expression Home 
 Tooke thus explains: — "When we consider 
 that we express a moderate desire for any- 
 thing, by saying that we incline (i. e. hend our- , 
 selves) to it, will it surprise ns that we should 
 express an eager desire, by saying that we long 
 for it, i.e. make long^ lengthen^ or stretch our- 
 selves after it, especially when we observe, that 
 after the verb to incline^ we say to or towards; 
 but after the verb to long^ we must use either 
 for or after ^ in order to convey our meaning."* 
 " Law," anciently written lagh^ is the past parti- 
 ciple of the verb lagyan or lecgan, to lay down. 
 The Anglo-Saxon for a "lawyer" was lahman; 
 it was also formerly lawer and lawier. A law 
 is a rule laid down for us to observe ; and we 
 still speak of " laying down the law." Home 
 Tooke and Wachter insist that the Latin lex was 
 
 * Dryden singularly combines the literal and metaphorical 
 usage, as observed by Richardson on the word " long" :— 
 " He (the fire) wades the street, and straight he reaches cross, 
 And plays his longing flames on t'other side." 
 
 Annus MiraMlis. 
 
 I 
 
166 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 derived from the same source, namely, the Gothic 
 lag or Iceg^ and the Anglo-Saxon laggan. 
 
 We have already given the derivation of ''lord'' 
 and " lady," as traced by Verstegan, meaning 
 the bread provider, and the bread dispenser. 
 Home Tooke gives a different account of these 
 titles of honour, still tracing them, however, to 
 the same Anglo-Saxon hlijian, to raise or lift 
 up ; from which verb is derived " loaf," leavened^ 
 or raised, bread. But while Verstegan derives 
 '' lord " and " lady" from the loaf, Tooke traces 
 these words to the verb itself According to this 
 etymologist, " lord," anciently written hlaford, 
 is composed of hlaf, raised, and ord, meaning, 
 like the Latin ortus, birth or origin, thus signi- 
 fying high-born. " Lady " is in Anglo-Saxon 
 hlafdig, w^hich is the same word as " lofty,'' that 
 is raised, or exalted, following the condition of her 
 husband. That ''lady" and "lofty" are the 
 same word, he thus proves : — The Anglo-Saxon 
 hlaf, hlafod, hlafd, hlafdig, are in English, 
 (omitting the h) laf, lafod, lafd, lafdy (the 
 Anglo-Saxon ig softened into y). Retaining the 
 /, pronunciation requires the d to be changed 
 into t, and the word becomes lafty, (a broad, 
 that is, aw) or lofty. Suppress the /, the d may 
 remain unchanged, and the word becomes lady.*^" 
 
 * See Dr. Kichardson On (he 8tudy of Language (l^h^\ in 
 which publication this venerable etymologist has given " An ex- 
 position of The Diversions of Purley^'' and has thereby placed 
 within the reach of all the substance of Home Tooke's valuable 
 work, thus adding a useful contribution to the study of philology. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 167 
 
 The word lean is to be found in the Anglo- 
 Saxon vocabulary as signifying a loan, also 
 a tribute, stipend, or emolument. This may 
 be the origin of the word lien^ in the sense of a 
 charge on an estate, or on the emoluments of an 
 office, which, however, is usually considered as 
 being derived from the French. 
 
 The word moel meant a portion of anything; 
 it is now applied to food. Mcel-tide was meal- 
 time, and efen-meal was supper — the evening 
 meal. From this word we have piece-meal^ in 
 small fragments. Mede was a reward, and though 
 the word is now rarely used, yet it is to be found 
 in poetry, not only in Chaucer, Spenser, and 
 Milton, but also in Pope and later writers. It 
 appears to be derived from moetan^ to meet, from 
 whence, also, that which meets, or is suitable, is 
 said to be " meet" or proper; as Eve was to be a 
 *'help meet" for Adam, or as it is commonly 
 said a help-mate; this latter word, mate, being 
 from the same root, and applied formerly to man 
 and wife, but now almost entirely restricted to 
 birds who have paired together. This word is, 
 however, still used to describe boys who join in 
 the same sports, and are csilled play-mates ; it is 
 also retained on board ship, where the officer 
 who is second in command is called the mate, 
 or " captain's niate," that is, the man who meets 
 with the captain most frequently on duty, as 
 
168 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 well as at meals. 3fold is an Anglo-Saxon word 
 for the earth or clay ; and hence vessels made of 
 metal are said to be cast in a mould, because 
 they take their form from the pattern made in 
 clay, sand, or mould. Etymologists, however, 
 generally consider the noun, mould, and the verb, 
 to mould, as being of French origin. There can 
 be no doubt, however, that to moulder, that is, 
 to turn to dust, and to be mouldy, or to be covered 
 with mould, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 
 mold, signifying the soil, or ground in which the 
 roots which produce the fruits of the earth vege- 
 tate. '' Midwife " was anciently medewyf and 
 meadwife, and meant the wifman, or woman, 
 who attended the patient for mead or meed, that 
 is " hire," which word is derived either from mete, 
 to measure, or from metan, to meet ; " meed" 
 being that which a person meets with, deserv- 
 edly, in return for service done. *'Much" was 
 formerly written muchel and muchel, as it is still 
 pronounced in Scotland; and is derived from 
 mow, signifying a heap. This latter word is 
 derived from mawan, to cut, from whence we 
 have " mead" and " meadow ;" and was applied 
 to the heap of grass which had been mowed or 
 mown, and which is in some parts called a " mow." 
 Home Tooke traces the word "more" to this root ; 
 supposing that the term mow came to denote any 
 heap, and also became an adjective and was so 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 169 
 
 used bj our old English authors, and written 
 mo. Of this the comparative was mo-er or 
 " more," and the superlative mo-est or " most." 
 Mucker, meaning to heap or hoard up, from 
 mucg, a heap, is found in Chaucer to describe 
 a mean way of getting or saving up money, and 
 it is not altogether disused at the present day. 
 Mild-heartness was an expressive Anglo-Saxon 
 word for pity, like the Latin mi&ericordia. 
 
 To ** moot" a question means to discuss it, and 
 a " moot point " is a topic which is mooted or 
 disputed. The word is derived from mot, which 
 signified a meeting, or convention, for the dis- 
 cussion of public affairs; so called from metian, 
 to meet. Thus there were amongst the Saxons 
 the michel-gemot, or great meeting, and the wit- 
 tena-gemot,oT meeting of the wise men. The sub- 
 jects discussed in these meetings were hence said 
 to be gemoted, or brought into Court, and hence 
 any disputed topic came to be called a moot point. 
 " Mirth" is caused by the driving away of care 
 or melancholy, and Tooke considers it to be the 
 third person singular of mirran, to disperse, that 
 which mirreth, that is, dissipateth, care or sor- 
 row. The verb was also written merydn, from 
 whence we have the pleasant word, " merry." 
 To the same root he traces " morning," anciently 
 written merrien, mergen, marne, and morr, m,ar- 
 gen, morn, " and," he adds, " I believe them to 
 be the past tense and past participle of the Gothic 
 
170 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 and Anglo-Saxon mergan^ merran^ or myrran^ 
 to disperse, to spread abroad, to scatter, as the 
 morning disperses the mists and darkness, and 
 spreads abroad the light of day. *' Morrow" and 
 " morn" are of the same derivation. By the cus- 
 tomary change of i or y into o, morr is the 
 regular past tense of myrran^ and morr easily 
 came to be pronounced and written morive and 
 morewe, and it was so written in the middle ages, 
 as were also, arwe for arrow, narwe for narrow, 
 sorwe for sorrow, &c. The adverb " may be," 
 or '' mayhap," signifies may happen. In some 
 parts of England it is pronounced mappen. " It 
 may be" is the same as it may happen. 
 
 Nyllan^ or nillan, was an Anglo-Saxon word, 
 signifying not to wish, to be unwilling. Willan 
 and nillan corresponded to the Latin volo and 
 nolo, " Will he, nill he," meant whether he 
 likes it or not. The words *' naughty" and 
 " naughtiness," formerly nahtiness, now chiefly 
 confined to the nursery, meant naught (nothing) 
 ness; as describing the absence of anything good. 
 A " naughty" person was one who was *' good 
 for nothing." *' Nevertheless" was formerly nath- 
 less, that is, na (or not) the less ; and is to be 
 found in Chaucer, never-the-later, but has long 
 been fixed as at present written. The adverb 
 " now" means new, or fresh. Over-wcenan is an 
 Anglo-Saxon verb, signifying to presume, de- 
 rived from the prefix over or above ^ and wcenan. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 171 
 
 to think, to wean. A man overweens when he 
 thinks " more highly of himself than he ought 
 to think." We have seen that '' atonement" is 
 at-one-ment ;'^' and we find in old writings oned 
 for made one, and onement for reconciliation ; as 
 also the term one-hede for unity.f 
 
 The word " odd" is applied to signify an un- 
 even number, and when used to describe an odd 
 man or an odd action, it now conveys an unfa- 
 vourable meaning. It was not, however, for- 
 merly so restricted, but meant anything un- 
 matched. The word means owed^ contracted to 
 oio'd, odd. When we count by pairs or couples, 
 we say one pair, two pairs, &c., and one oiced, 
 or odd^ to make up another pair. When we use 
 the expression, an " odd man" or an " odd ac- 
 tion," it still relates to pairing, or matching, and 
 we mean without a fellow, unmatched., — not such 
 another, one owed to make up a couple. + This 
 explanation of the word may serve, I think, to 
 render intelligible the odd and apparently un- 
 meaning designation of a well-known society 
 in England, called '' Odd Fellows" — that is, 
 the companions, who, being fellows or equals 
 amongst themselves, are odd., or unmatched, in 
 worth it may be supposed they mean, amongst 
 all the rest of the world. 
 
 * See Lecture I. p. 49. 
 t Halliwell's Archaic Dictionary. 
 
 X Sir Thomas More writes, " God in soveraine dignity is oMe^ 
 that is, unmatched. — See Diversions ofPurley. 
 
172 SUPPLEMEKT. 
 
 The adverb " perhaps" is compounded of the 
 Latin pei^ through, with the German hajypen, 
 which is still preserved in English. The more 
 ancient and the purely Saxon form of this ad- 
 verb is "haply;" that is happen- like, it *' may 
 be,'* or it is likely to happen. The word " happy" 
 is applied to those into whose possession good 
 comes or falls, who have good hap. The word 
 may be traced (as well as the Latin habere, to 
 have, and capere, to take, and the French happer, 
 to catch), to the Anglo-Saxon verb hahhan, to 
 have or hold. Belike is an adverb found much 
 in our best old authors, and means luck, derived 
 from the Danish and other northern lanofuacres ; 
 it is thus the same as ''by chance," or by hap. 
 The adverbs, " perchance," " peradventure," and 
 the obsolete " percase," of similar signification 
 with belike, may be, perhaps ^ and mayhap, are of 
 Latin origin derived through the French. The 
 old adverb, prithee, is " I pray thee." The word 
 " painful" was formerly used to describe a work 
 upon which great pains had been bestowed, or 
 the person who had laboured in the work. A 
 " painful preacher " was formerly thus desig- 
 nated ; but such a phrase, or a " painful book," 
 would now convey the idea of pain inflicted on 
 the hearers or readers. " Pitiful" formerly meant 
 full of pity or compassion ; it is now used in a 
 bad and contemptuous sense. 
 
 " Plight" is an old English word meaning to 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 173 
 
 pledge, or lay down one's word. 1 plight thee 
 my troth is " I pledge thee my truth." To be in 
 a had plight means to be placed, or laid^ in a 
 state of risk or hazard, danger or peril, like the 
 Americanism, "in a^^," a word derived from 
 Latin. " Pang" means pain, from pyngan, to 
 pain or torment; and poison was so called in 
 Anglo-Saxon, in allusion to the pangs usually 
 suffered by those who drank it. To " pine " 
 away is of similar signification. The word "pad " 
 was formerly used to describe an under garment ; 
 padding is now applied to that which is put under 
 the garment. The name " Peggy " is now used as a 
 diminutive of " Margaret," without any apparent 
 reason. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon peg 
 or pega, signifying a little girl, and was applica- 
 ble as a word of fondling to a female child of 
 any name. 
 
 " Quick" means alive, active, quick, as we find 
 it in constant use in old books,* as also the verb 
 " quicken." The thorny trees that are planted to 
 form hedges are called "quicks," — in the Anglo- 
 Saxon, the guick beam, or tree ; and the fence 
 so made is called a " quick-set hedge," from its 
 rapid growth ; hence also the weed, than which 
 none more "grows apace," is called "quitch grass," 
 or couch grass. " QuaflP" (perhaps go off) is from 
 
 * Thus, in the Creed — "to judge the quick and the dead;" and 
 frequently in the Authorized Version, " quickened." 
 
174 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 caf, quick. " Quicksilver" is live silver, and 
 " quick-lime," live lime. The adverb " quickly" 
 means quick-like — that is, livelike, or lively. A 
 *' quagmire" is mire, marsh, or mud, which 
 quakes or shakes under one, and is so called from 
 the Anglo-Saxon, quacian, to shake, tremble, or 
 quake; hence, also, an " earth-quake," formerly 
 called an earth-quave. To " wag" may also be 
 probably traced to the same verb. Qualm was 
 an Anglo-Saxon word, meaning grief, or death ; 
 from Gwellan, to kill. Hence we have " qualms 
 of conscience ;" as also the verbs to "kill" and 
 to " quell." 
 
 The word " rash," now meaning hasty, and 
 without consideration, was formerly in use as a 
 verb, signifying to snatch, or seize — to tear, or 
 rend. Meat that was burned in cooking, as being 
 too hastily dressed, was said to be r ashed; and 
 "rasher," as applied to slices of bacon hastily 
 fried, probably partakes of this derivation.* 
 Meat " underdone," or not sufficiently cooked, 
 is said to be "raw," from the Anglo-Saxon 
 hreow, meaning crude, that is hreowd, caused to 
 rue^ as a man will have reason to repent of unfi- 
 nished work. 
 
 Birds are said to roost, when they go to rest, 
 
 from hrost, past participle o{ hrestan, to rest; to 
 
 " rule the roast" was, perhaps, originally to rule 
 
 the roost, as the cock of the roosting place for 
 
 * Halli well's Dictionary of Archaisms and Provincialisms. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 1 75 
 
 the fowl in the poultry yard. Rec was smoke ; 
 hence reeking^ steaming. Rece signified cruel, 
 whence comes to wreak vengeance. The " rind" 
 of a tree is that which protects the trunk or 
 branch; from wrean^ to cover or protect, past 
 participle wrined. 
 
 We are apt to think rather of the cutting than 
 of the gathering of the sheaves, when we speak of 
 reaping the harvest ; but originally the word was 
 applied to the binding, rather than to the cutting of 
 the crops. The Anglo-Saxon word rcepan signifies 
 to bind, from rcep^ a band, or ''rope ;" herefe was 
 to bind, and a bundle of corn was called a 
 reap. The reapers were not the men who cut 
 down the crop ; but the women and others who 
 bind it up into sheaves. The operation of cut- 
 ting the corn is usually called in Scotland 
 *' shearing" it — that is, separating it from the 
 root.* With this derivation and meaning agrees 
 the work assigned to the " reapers" in the parable 
 of the tares in the field, where they are described, 
 not as cutting the crop, but sent to gather together 
 — first the tares, and hind them in bundles to burn 
 them, and to gather the wheat into the barn; 
 and when "gleaners" are allowed to collect all 
 that the reapers leave behind them, it does not 
 mean what the sAmr^rs leave, for that would be the 
 entire crop ; but that which is left by the hinders 
 
 * See Lecture I. p. 43. 
 
176 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 ungathered. The word " reef" is used in two 
 different and opposite senses ; as sailors are said 
 to " reef the sails " — that is, to draw them in, 
 and rocks which are torn asunder are called 
 " reefs." Both words are derived from the same 
 root, the Anglo-Saxon verb, reafian, signifying 
 to seize or tear. In the first instance, the word 
 " reef," or reaf, is used to describe the seizing 
 or dragging together of the sails ; in the other, 
 the range of rocks seeming to be reft, or torn 
 asunder, is called a " reef" of rocks. 
 
 " Rue," anciently rew, signified to lament ; and 
 reawe was mourning or repentance. The sorrow- 
 ful, woe-begone Don Quixote is described as " the 
 knight of the rueful countenance." Ruth is an 
 old English word, signifying compassion or sym- 
 pathy, also sorrow and rnournfulness ; and ruthless 
 meant without pity, unmerciful.* The sea shore 
 was called rima, from ryman, to extend ; and the 
 same word is applied to the margin of anything, 
 being the extreme edge, or utmost extent in 
 breadth, as the " rim " of a cup or other vessel ; 
 similar is the word " brim " — that is, he-rim, to 
 describe the extent of the capacity of anything ; 
 and " brimfull " means filled up to the brim. Rin- 
 gan is to beat or strike, so as to produce a sound, 
 and is now chiefly used to denote the " ringing " 
 of bells. The word may be traced to a metallic 
 
 * " Ruin seize thee, ruthless king." — Gray. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 177 
 
 instrument of music of a circular form, like a 
 ring^ which, when beaten, returned a sound 
 which is hence called a ringing sound. The 
 word " rock" is usually attributed to French 
 origin, as also a " rocket," or small coat or frock; 
 but Home Tooke traces it to the Anglo-Saxon 
 verb wrigan, to hide, and hence to clothe, of 
 which the past participle was rog, hidden, and the 
 word as a noun was first applied to rocks hidden by 
 the sea, but afterwards masses of a like substance, 
 found on dry ground, received the same name,* 
 while, though no longer covered and hidden, they 
 afforded cover and hiding-places to man and 
 beast.f The Anglo-Saxon verb wrigan, to cover, 
 or clothe, still survives in the English to rig, a 
 word chiefly used by sailors, who, as I have ob- 
 served in the first lecture of this volume, delight 
 in words of Anglo-Saxon origin. Tooke traces 
 to this same root '* rogue," which means covered, 
 cloaked, and is applied to one who has cloaked 
 or covered designs. The species of crow call- 
 ed "rook" is notorious, like the magpie, for 
 roguish tricks, and for covering and hiding what 
 he steals. It may, probably, be in allusion to the 
 dishonest propensities of the people who reside in 
 the locality that a certain district in London is 
 
 * Richardson's Study of Language. 
 
 f " The rochs are a refuge for the conies." — Ps. civ. 18. "And 
 hid themselves in the dens and in the rochs of the mountains."" 
 — Rev. vi. 15. 
 
 N 
 
178 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 called " The Rookery." The word " rock '' was 
 formerly used as a verb, signifying to hide;* and 
 Shakspeare describes " th6 rooky wood," which 
 means not full of rooks, but the covering and 
 sheltering wood.f The Anglo-Saxon for a cross 
 was rode, now spelt " rood ;" thus we have the 
 "rood-screen," and the "rood-loft," being the 
 loft on the screen dividing the choir from the 
 nave, upon which the cross was erected. " Holy- 
 rood" is the same as " Holy-cross." It is here 
 observable that the Saxon name is retained in 
 Scotland in the name of Holyrood Palace, and at 
 Southampton in the name of an anbient church 
 there; but the Latin-derived "cross" is substi- 
 tuted for " rood" in Ireland, as Holycross Abbey, 
 which agrees with the fact before noticed, that 
 words derived from the Latin are more generally 
 in use in Ireland than in England. J "Rife" 
 or ryf, meant frequent, and so it is still used in 
 the sense of abundance or frequency. The term 
 riff-raff meant a tattered, torn, or worthless set 
 of persons, or things, from reajian, to take away, 
 whence also we have to " rive '^ and to " rip."§ 
 We have seen that various words are derived 
 from the Anglo-Saxon verb scearan, to cut, di- 
 
 * ** false murderer, rocking (that is, hiding) in thy den." 
 
 Chaucer. 
 t Richardson's Dictionary. 
 X Lecture 11. p. 84. § Richardson's Dictionary. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 179 
 
 vide, or scatter.-^ Of such are sliire^ share, shears, 
 sheer, shore, shred, sherd, score, short, skirt, and 
 many others. To these may be added, " scar," 
 now applied to a division caused by a cut in the 
 skin, but formerly with a more extensive signi- 
 fication, as a division cut in anything : hence it 
 was applied to a clif, as Scarborough. The word 
 sheer was formerly used in the sense of clear, 
 pure, and unmixed, all impurities being cut oiF. 
 The phrases sheer ignorance and sheer nonsense, 
 sigmlying ignorance separated from the least ad- 
 mixture of information, and folly without a 
 single grain of sense. To shear or sheer off is to 
 part or separate from. Shot sheer away means 
 so separated as to leave not the smallest particle 
 behind.f Fountaine shere, in Spenser, is sepa- 
 rate from all intermixture or pollution — un- 
 mingled : and hence used to denote purity. To 
 " scare," or frighten, is to make one sheer off. 
 
 The modern railway language deals in words 
 derived from Latin, as engine, station, terminus^ 
 and tank from the French. Stoker, however, 
 is Saxon, meaning the sticker, or poker of the 
 fire ; as is also the driver, and an old word be- 
 come familiar torailway travellers, to shunt, that 
 is, to move off from one set of rails to another on 
 the line. The word is of the same origin as to shun, 
 from the Anglo-Saxon, scunian, to move oflF, or 
 
 * Lecture I., p. 43. f Home Tooke. 
 
180 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 out of the way — to fly from, or avoid. Hence 
 also " askance" and '' eschew." A " stool," meant 
 anything set, or upon which one may sit ; from 
 stellan, to place. A ''joint-stool" meant a better 
 kind of seat, made by a "joiner," as a carpenter 
 was called, and having joinings in it, as distin- 
 guished from a rude log or single block of wood. 
 Staell, or steel, meant in Anglo-Saxon a seat or 
 place. It is now applied to the seats in which the 
 members of a cathedral, or of an order of knight- 
 hood, sit ; and to the places in which butchers 
 and others sell their meat ; as also to the standing 
 places for horses or other animals. To " instal" 
 is to place in the stall the person entitled to oc- 
 cupy a seat in the chapter of an order, or of a 
 cathedral. 
 
 The word " sad" is now used in the sense of 
 melancholy and dejected ; but in its original sense 
 it meant sober or grave, without necessarily im- 
 plying sorrow. It meant set, that is, settled or 
 steady, from settan or scetan, to set or settle. 
 When Coleridge speaks of "a sadder and a 
 wiser man," it means one who would be more sober, 
 settled, and prudent, for the future. The word 
 '' sadness" was formerly used for firmness or sta- 
 bility. From this word scetan, to settle, we have 
 the phrase to set a house or farm, much used in 
 Ireland in the sense in which to let is employed 
 in England. To " set" is to place a tenant in 
 a liouse or farm ; to '' let" is to permit him to 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 181 
 
 take possession. A saw was an old saying, as 
 Shakspeare describes the Justice " full of wise 
 saws and modern instances." Scathe meant 
 harm, and was in common use from Chaucer to 
 Shakspeare, from which we retain " scatheless," 
 unhurt. It is derived from scathian to take 
 away, to deprive. When the joists of a floor, or the 
 rafters of a roof bend or droop, they are said by 
 builders to " sagg;'' and this word is used by 
 Shakspeare, meaning to droop. Scylan was to 
 hide, and a " shield" is derived from the past 
 participle, scylVd^ hid or covered for protection. 
 It might be thought that " smallish" was a 
 modern word, if not an Americanism ; it is, 
 however, to be met with in Chaucer, to de- 
 note Tatlier small. Stent was to stop, or put 
 bounds to, and did not originally imply nig- 
 gardliness, that is " nearness," or confining 
 within too narrow limits, to which the word, 
 changed to " stint," is now restricted. To stey 
 was to ascend ; hence we have the " stairs," 
 or steyers^ by which we ascend from one floor 
 of a house to another. Stound meant, in Saxon, 
 a moment ; to which may, perhaps, be traced 
 the word, now fallen into disuse, astounded^ for 
 astonished, as by anything coming upon one 
 suddenly, and without warning, as in a mo- 
 ment. The words astound and " astonish'' 
 are, however, so like a French word of similar 
 signification, that they have been considered by 
 
182 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 such eminent philologists as Dr. Johnson and 
 Home Tooke, to be derived from the French ^s- 
 tmmer, now written etonner. I incline to agree, 
 notwithstanding, with Dr. Richardson, in tracing 
 its more immediate derivation from the old verb 
 astone or astony, of which we find the past par- 
 ticiple "astonied" in the Authorized Version of 
 the Bible ; and which was derived from the An- 
 glo-Saxon stunian^ to stupify, to stun. It must 
 be borne in mind, that an English word appear- 
 ing similar to the French does not disprove its 
 Anglo-Saxon origin. Although the great bulk 
 of the French language is derived from the 
 Latin, it retains many words from the original 
 languages of the northern tribes that from time 
 to time settled in ancient Gaul.^' This obser- 
 vation, applying, as it does, equally to Latin 
 words, disposes of such criticisms as come to 
 the conclusion that such words as pine, fig, and 
 vine cannot be Anglo-Saxon. In these and 
 other instances, it is difficult to say whether the 
 Romans borrowed from the Germans, or the 
 Germans from the Romans ; as for example, in 
 the cases of the Latin haheo, and the German 
 haben, to have. 
 
 Tlie word '' scrip" is to be found applied in 
 very different senses, as when we read of the 
 
 * See an interesting article in that useful repertory, Chancers* 
 Edinburgh Journal, February, 1854, p. 57. See also Lecture I. 
 of this volume, pp. 6 and 12. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 183 
 
 Apostles being directed to " provide no scrip for 
 their journey," and we now speak of Government, 
 or Railway " scrip." In the former instance, 
 " scrip" is a Saxon word signifying a bag, wallet, 
 or purse ; and in the latter it means a written 
 paper, from the Latin scriptum, and would more 
 properly be called script^' Sweven in Anglo- 
 Saxon meant a dream, whence a " swoon," being 
 in a dreamy state. In the Anglo-Saxon vocabula- ♦ 
 ries we find many words compounded of *' heart," 
 most of which had been lost in modern English. 
 We still retain " hearty," but we have lost 
 soreheartness for sorrow. " Scandal" is derived 
 from scande, meaning reproach. To " shrive" 
 was to confess; hence *' Shrove-Tuesday," the 
 day previous to Lent, when confessions were 
 made. The rapid flight of a bird of prey is 
 called a *' swoop," from sweeping past quickly .f 
 
 When a person " tastes" anything for trial of 
 its quality, he " smacks" his lips ; a word derived 
 from smceccan, to taste, and may have had 
 its origin in the sound one makes when tasting 
 food. Spaccan was a Saxon word signifying the 
 radii of a circle, hence the spacs or " spokes" 
 of a wheel. Steel was to take, but now means 
 to take dishonestly that which belongs to ano- 
 ther — to '' steal." A stalworth knight meant a 
 
 * See Trench's English Past and Present 
 f " All my pretty chickens and their dam, at one fell swoopy 
 
 Macbeth. 
 
184 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 warrior who was worth being taken; whose capture 
 would bring credit to the victor. The phrase 
 " Spick-and-span-new" is similar to the Dutch 
 Spickspelder nieuiv, signifying new from the ware- 
 house and loom; spyker meaning a warehouse, 
 and spil or spel^ a spindle or loom. In Saxon 
 or German, spange meant anything shining, as a 
 *' spangle," and spick was a warehouse ; so that 
 '.' spick-and-span-new" meant shining new from 
 the warehouse. " Brand-new," often incorrectly 
 pronounced bran-new^ means, as Shakspeare has 
 it, ''''fire-new''^ that is, fresh from the fire, forge, or 
 furnace."^' To brand signified to burn ; hence, a 
 " fire-brand" is a burning torch. A sword was 
 called, as we frequently find it in poetry, a 
 " brand ;" because, when moved rapidly to-and- 
 fro in the air, it glitters like a fire-brand ; and 
 hence, when a man flourishes his naked sword, 
 he is said to brandish his weapon, that is, he 
 causes it to have an appearance like a brand. 
 It is very commonly supposed that the ter- 
 mination of the possessive case in English {s with 
 an apostrophe) is a contraction for his — thus 
 the '' king's crown" is thought to mean '' the 
 
 * Butler gives to spick-and-span -new a similar meaning as to 
 bran-new^ making his hero determine to strike the iron while it 
 was hot. 
 
 " Then while the honor thou hast got, 
 Is spick-and-span-new, piping hot, 
 Strike her up bravely, thou hadst best, 
 And trust thy fortune with the rest." 
 
 Budibras, Part I. Cant. iii. 397. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 185 
 
 king Ms crown," which, no doubt, was a form of 
 expression, to be fonnd in old books; but that 
 this is not a correct explanation of this termi- 
 nation is evident from the fact that we also say 
 " the queen's crown," which cannot be so inter- 
 preted. The fact is that es was the termination 
 of the genitive case in Anglo-Saxon, and it was 
 anciently " the kinges crown," but the e being 
 dropped, the apostrophe was inserted, and hence 
 we have " king's." The " sand" separated from 
 the rock, or sundred into innumerable particles 
 on the sea-shore, is so called from syndrian^ to 
 separate, to sunder. Things which, collected 
 together, exactly correspond in figure, size, &c., 
 are said to be of the same kind, from samnian, 
 to collect or bring together, to " summon" into one 
 place at one time. This latter word has assumed 
 a French character, but it may be that in early 
 times it was changed from samnian, to call to the 
 same place. " Sake" is derived from secan, to 
 seek ; when we say that we perform an action, for 
 the sake of anything, we mean by " sake" that 
 which, or for which we seek to do it. 
 
 The sweeper of the streets, who scrapes offthe 
 dirt, is called a *' scavenger," from scaffan^ to scrape, 
 to shave off. " Scoff" is from sceoffan^ to shove, 
 push, or drive out contemptuously. " Scold,'' 
 like " scandal," is from scyldan^ to accuse. A 
 " scrap" is that which is scraped off ; and to 
 " scrawl" is to scrape ill- formed letters. Formerly 
 
186 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 a " shroud" meant any clothing or covering: now 
 applied only to the dress of a corpse, except by 
 sailors, who apply the word to the sails by which 
 the masts of the ship are covered. A " sigh" is 
 produced by first drawing or sucking up the 
 breath, and is derived from sycan^ to suck. 
 " Sight" is from the verb to see, formerly written 
 sigh; whence sighed^ or sigJid, and sight, that 
 which is seen. We now use " silly" in a bad 
 sense, to mean foolish ; but it originally meant 
 good, and unsuspicious of evil in others; from 
 guileless, it has come to signify foolish, or easily 
 imposed upon. The peasantry speak of an idiot, 
 or silly person, as an *' innocent." 
 
 *' Sin" is derived from syndrian, to separate, as 
 describing that which is an erring and straying 
 from the right path ; the '' sinner" separates from 
 the right way. The Hebrew word for sin con- 
 veys the sense of missing the right aim, or devia- 
 ting from the proper course; the Greek word 
 for sin is of the same signification, while the 
 Latin-derived '' transgression" means a passing of 
 the bounds. "Smooth" meant originally that which 
 was made so by beating oi smiting* "Smuggle" 
 is derived from snican, to creep in stealthily ; and 
 from the same verb we have "snug," as a " snug 
 berth," that into which one may quietly creep 
 and hide one's self. " Smile" meant bland and se- 
 
 * " He that smootheth with the hammer encouraged hun that 
 smote the anvil.** — Isa. xli. 7. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 187 
 
 rene ; smelt tvoeder is Anglo-Saxon for mild and 
 genial weatlier, when the sky is clear, and with- 
 out wind. " Smerk" is of similar origin, but 
 now used in a low and bad sense. " Sneezing" 
 relates to the nose (nease), and was formerly 
 called neasing. " Slop" is the past participle of 
 slip, from whence we also have a slope, or slip- 
 pery place. Clothes were formerly called slops, 
 probably from being slipped off at night. A 
 " slop-shop'^ is an emporium where all sorts of 
 clothing are to be had, as in London, where out- 
 fits are procured for a sea voyage. A " slough" 
 means sluggish or slow water, a stagnant pool. 
 It is derived from sleacian, to retard, or render 
 slow; from which may also be traced slouch, 
 slow, slug, slack, sloven, and slut. The slack of 
 coal is that part which burns slowly. 
 
 The word " since" is applied in many senses 
 in English, and has been spelled in a variety of 
 ways, as seathan, sithan, sithen, sithence, syne, 
 seand, sense, si/ the, sith, seeing that. It is used 
 in modern English in four ways — two as a pre- 
 position affecting words, and two as a conjunction 
 connecting sentences. It is also used adverbially, 
 as when we say, *' it is a year since ^ As a prepo- 
 sition, we use it when we say anything occurred 
 since such an event ; and as a conjunction when 
 we say, one may act so and so, since, or seeing 
 that, it is not unlawful. From the Anglo-Saxon 
 verb, sceotan, to throw, or cast forth, we have 
 many English words in common use, as shoot, 
 
188 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 sJiut, scout, sketch, shot, scot, sheet, sheet-anchor, 
 or shot-anchor, and shout, to throw out words ; 
 and the shoots of a tree or plant ; as also skates, 
 with which a man shoots along on the ice ; and 
 the fish which has the name of " skate," from 
 the rapid manner of its shooting or darting along 
 in the water. We may hear the Irish poor com- 
 plain that they have not a " screed" to put on 
 their children. This word is derived from the 
 Anglo-Saxon screadan, to clothe; or it may 
 mean a shred, as they also say they have not a sin- 
 gle stitch to put on them. *' Stitch" is from stican, 
 to stick, applied both to needle-work, which is 
 stuck with the needle, and to a sharp pain, " resem- 
 bling," as Tooke observes, " the sensation pro- 
 duced by being stuck or pierced by any pointed 
 instrument." To "settle" is to take up one's 
 seat or habitation in a place ; " to settle" a room 
 is to set or put things in their place; and a 
 ** settle-bed" is a bed set up for one to settle or 
 take their rest in : from the Anglo-Saxon settlian, 
 to take a seat. The " sun-flower" has a name of 
 a hybrid character, from the Saxon sun and the 
 French fleur; the Anglo-Saxon name for this 
 plant was the sun-scece, that is, the sun-seeker, 
 similar to the Greek-derived Heliotrope, the 
 turner towards the sun. '* Sooth," that is, sayeth, 
 means truth ; and as our simple forefathers im- 
 plicitly believed all that such people told them, 
 a fortune-teller was called a " soothsayer." The 
 uheel" was called spor or spurs and hence the 
 
/ 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 189 
 
 word is applied to the instrument that is fixed 
 to the heel of the boot; and this being used to 
 excite the horse, gave rise to the verb to " spur" 
 a person on to any exertion. To "spurn" meant 
 literally to kick with the heel^ in allusion to the 
 original meaning of the word; it is still used 
 metaphorically, to treat with contempt. 
 
 A " stave" in music, or in a song, is derived 
 from stefen or steven^ a voice or sound. Strcel ^ 
 
 meant a carpet ; and a lady's dress is said to streel - J-^ . 
 on the ground when it sweeps the carpet or the 
 street. " Straw" is so called because it is strewn 
 or strawed, as litter for cattle : from streowian, to 
 spread, to strew. The " strawberry" is a berry- 
 bearing plant which spreads itself in all direc- 
 tions. Stridan is an Anglo-Saxon verb, mean- 
 ing to stretch or spread; hence we have stride^ 
 astride^ straggle^ and straddle^ as also the adverb 
 " astray." The couch which we call a '' sofa" 
 has its name from swcefan to sleep. " Span" is the 
 past participle of spinan, to stretch out. " Speed" 
 meant to go forward, whence " good speed" and 
 " God speed." The word by itself conveys the 
 idea of swiftness. To *' spill" meant to waste, 
 from spillan^ to destroy, waste, or spoil. A spell 
 signified a story, as also to teach, from spellian, 
 to declare ; so metaphorically we speak of spelling 
 syllables, and a *' spell" meant an incantation by 
 words and speeches. 
 
 A " spout" is so called from spittan, to throw 
 
190 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 out, to spit; and " spouting" is used to describe 
 a throwing out of words. A *' stirrup" was ori- 
 ginally a stige-rape, from steigen, to ascend, and 
 rape, a rope ; that is, a rope or strap by which to 
 mount on horseback. " Stock" is a word used 
 in various senses, as the stock of a tree, or of a 
 gun, the stock from whence a race or family 
 comes ; and stock in trade ; in the plural we have 
 the stocks in which ships are fixed ; the stocks in 
 which culprits were stuck up; and the stocks, 
 or public funds, "where," says Home Tooke 
 (no friend to the Government of his day), "the 
 money of unhappy persons is now Jixed, thence 
 never to return." This great etymologist is of 
 opinion that stock, however differently applied, 
 is the past tense and past participle of the Anglo- 
 Saxon sticcan, to stick; and to the same source 
 he traces " stocking" for the legs, corruptly writ- 
 ten, as he supposes, for stocken (that is stock, with 
 the addition of the participial termination en), 
 because it was stuck, or made with sticking pins, 
 now called knitting-needles. 
 
 " Storm" is derived from styrmian, to rage ; 
 and as a verb it is still applied to a raging or 
 furious person, who storms at others. " Strong" 
 is the past participle of string, from stringan, to 
 enable, to give ability or power. To string is 
 to give power to, as to " string the sinews ;" and a 
 ''strong man" is one who is well strung. A 
 " stud" of horses is a number of horses standing 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 191 
 
 together, or the place where they stand or stood. 
 *' Stunt" is stopped in the growth, from stintan, to 
 stop, to stint. A *' stye" is a place raised up, now 
 only applied in this sense to a place so erected for 
 pigs ; the word is also used to designate a rising 
 or tumour on the eyelid: it is derived from 
 stigan, to go up ; from whence we also have stage, 
 stack, stalk, stairs, and a sti/le, composed of 
 steps raised to pass over ; as also the stories of 
 a house, as they are raised one upon another. 
 Spenser has the word to s^y, meaning to mount up. 
 
 A " token" is derived from tcecan, to shew, 
 whence also we have teach. Treppa?t is an An- 
 glo-Saxon word signifying to ensnare, to take in 
 a trap. This appears to be the true derivation 
 of this word ; but some have derived it from the 
 French, confounding it with the name of a 
 surgical instrument, with which an injured skull 
 is " trepanned," with which this word, although 
 similar in sound, has no connexion. Others have 
 traced it to Trepani, a town in Sicily, into which 
 some English, in a storm, were invited, and then 
 detained. The English word, however, to trepan, 
 or more properly to trapan, is to entrap. 
 
 " Tight" means tied,* from tian, or tigan, to tie. 
 Home Tooke traces the words " town," " tun," 
 and " ten," to the same root, namely, the Anglo- 
 Saxon verb, tynan, to enclose, to tyne, or teen. 
 
 * '* He halt him taied,^^ that is, he held him ti^Jit — Gower. 
 "A great lang chaine he tight^^ that is, tied. — Spenser. 
 
192 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 *' Town" he makes to be any number of houses 
 enclosed together. Formerly, he observes, the 
 nglish subaudition (or suppressed word) was 
 more extensive, and embraced any enclosure; 
 any quantity of land, &c., enclosed ; and he in- 
 stances Dr. Beddoe's having written to him, that 
 " in the west of Cornwall, every cluster of trees 
 is called a town of trees ;" that is, trees encom- 
 passed, or within a certain compass. He adds, 
 that to tyne is still a provincialism. Dr. Ri- 
 chardson shows that " closing a door" was for- 
 merly called " tyndynge to the dore." I may add, 
 that in the northern part of Connaught, the 
 peasantry always described my glebe as the town, 
 as they did also, generally, any large and enclosed 
 farm ; and the name '* townlands" is well known 
 in Ireland, as describing what are in England 
 called hundreds. A tun, or " ton," is a certain 
 measure of liquid enclosed in one vessel, or a cer- 
 tain quantity or weight in one package. " A 
 " tunnel" is a diminutive of tun^ and meant any 
 smaller enclosure for smoke, in its passage out ; 
 or for liquor in its passage into a tun, as the 
 vessel was called which contained a tun.* " Ten" 
 is also derived from tynan, and is applied to de- 
 note the number of the fingers enclosed in the 
 hands, when tyned, or shut up. 
 
 * " Some foreign birds are described by Derham as tunnelling 
 their neats, and suspending them from trees, to keep them out of 
 the reach of rapacious animals." — Richardson, 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 193 
 
 In Anglo-Saxon, "thing" was also written <Vt 
 thine, &om thencan, to think. The old word " me- " ^^"^'^ 
 thinks" was rnethinkeih; that is, it appears to me. 
 
 " Methought" was also a not uncommon expres- ,/ r ^. 
 sion, meaning, it thought me, or caused me to think. J^,^J ^'< 
 The verb to think was formerly used in the sense 
 o? seems fit.* The noun " thing" describes that 
 which, or that about which, we think; the word 
 was written think three centuries ago, and nothink 
 is a common Cockneyism. Although the noun 
 formed from the infinitive, or the present tense 
 of the verb to think, has been changed to " thing," 
 that which is formed of the past tense and the 
 past participle of the same verb remains un- 
 changed; a "thought" is that which we did 
 think, or which causes thought, sensation, or 
 feeling. As " thing" is that which causes us to 
 think, and is the cause of sensations or ideas, so 
 to think is the effect ; that is, to receive, to have, 
 sensations or ideas.f " Thank" and " think" are 
 more nearly allied to each other than is, perhaps, 
 generally supposed. To be " thankful" is to be 
 thinkful, or mindful of a benefit received ; and 
 " un thankfulness" argues " thoughtlessness," for- 
 getfulness, being unmindful of an obligation.' 
 
 * " Prince — Where shall we sojourn till our coronation ? 
 Gloucester — Where it thinks best unto your royal self." 
 
 K. Richard III. Act L Sc. 3. 
 t See Richardson's Study of Language ; and Tooke's Diversions 
 of Purley, 
 
 O 
 
194 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon word is found applied to 
 thought, — of his own thane, that Is, of his own 
 thought, or will. The verb Is thancgian, to thank, 
 from thencan, to think. To be thankful for a 
 favour Is to be " sensible," or senseful of It. 
 
 The word find was used In the last century In 
 the sense of to "kindle," and we still have 
 " tinder," derived from tendan, to set on fire. 
 '* Thwart," to pervert, to cross one's purpose. Is 
 thweort, the past participle of thweorian, to wrest 
 or twist. The Anglo-Saxon word threat signi- 
 fied a great multitude of people, and as these 
 often carried a menacing appearance, to " threat" 
 and " threatening" were derived from this word. 
 From the Anglo-Saxon tcecean, to take, we have 
 the taek of a ship — that is, the course taken by 
 the ship, or by which she is taken; and to tack 
 is to take another course. The tackle (such as 
 ropes, &c.) is that by which the ship is taken, 
 held, or guided on her way. Tackle for hunt- 
 ing is that by which birds, beasts, or fish are 
 taken or caught; and it was applied also to 
 armour taken by the warrior, as we speak of a 
 man taking up arms; and, lastly, a tack is a 
 small nail, to take hold, fix, or fasten. To " till" 
 the ground is to raise, lift, or turn it with the 
 spade or plough, and thus to cultivate it ; and 
 " tillage" was formerly called tilth — that is, the 
 operation which tilleth, turns up, or raises the 
 earth, which is also applied to the land so tilled. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 195 
 
 The " till" of a shop Is a small box which may- 
 be lifted up dally, as distinguished from a large 
 chest or coffer; and the tiller of a boat is a 
 moveable rudder. The tilt of a boat or waggon is 
 the cover raised over it. From the same root 
 tillian, to labour, we have " toil." Tooke con- 
 siders the primitive meaning of the Anglo- 
 Saxon word to be, to lift up, to raise, to turn over. 
 " Thorn" is derived from tosran, to tear, of which 
 the past participle is toreii or torn, which latter 
 word, in Anglo-Saxon, was used, metaphorically, 
 for anger. 
 
 A " thrall " was a servant whose ear had been 
 drilled or bored, according to the ancient Jewish 
 custom, as described in an old translation of the 
 Pentateuch : — " Thirlie his eare mid anum aele ;" 
 which custom was retained by our Saxon fore- 
 fathers, and executed on their slaves at the 
 church door."^" The word is derived from thir- 
 lian, to pierce; hence also thrill, used to de- 
 scribe an emotion of trembling, like that caused 
 by the action of boring or piercing. The 
 *' threshold" of a door is constantly beaten and 
 trampled upon by the feet of those going in and 
 out; hence the Anglo-Saxon name given to this 
 piece of timber, thrces-wold, from threscan to 
 beat, to thresh, and wold, wood. The operation 
 of threshing corn is so called from the beating out 
 
 * Ellis, English Poets, vol. i., quoted by Eichardson, 
 
196 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 of the grain. From the Anglo-Saxon thrawan^ 
 to throw, we have "• throe," or " throw," to de- 
 scribe any painful agony, under which the 
 suflPerer heaves, and throws^ or tosses about. 
 " Throng" is applied to a multitude pressed 
 together, from thringan, to squeeze or thrust toge- 
 ther. " Tide" meant time, the moment when any- 
 thing happened ; and is applied to the titne of the 
 ebbing and flowing of the sea, hence called *' the 
 tide," — but in composition we still have " even- 
 tide," and " betide," that is, happen. *' Early" 
 and " late" were formerly called tideful and 
 lateful. ** Tidings" may be traced to the same 
 Anglo-Saxon word tidan, to come. 
 
 The " tongs" with which coals are taken up is 
 derived from tang an, to take. " Trade " comes 
 from tredan, to tread, meaning the following a 
 beaten or trodden course. Trow was an Anglo- 
 Saxon word, meaning to think, to believe, to be 
 convinced of. From this comes ** true," anciently 
 written trew (the past participle ottrow, as grew is 
 oi grow, and knew of ^nozi;) meaning trowed, that 
 is, believed firmly. *' Truth" (formerly written 
 troweth and troth) is the third person singular 
 of the verb to trow, describing that which one 
 troweth, or firmly believe th. To " trust" is to 
 think or believe one to be true and faithful ; and 
 "trustworthy" is worthy of trust. The Anglo- 
 Saxon verb is trywsian, to think true, to confide 
 in another. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 197 
 
 We have seen that a " story" did not formerly 
 always mean a fiction or untruth.^ A ** tale" 
 would, however, appear to have conveyed the 
 idea not only of falsehood, but of libel ; the Anglo- 
 Saxon word, tcel or tale^ signifying calumny. 
 " Telling tales" would thus appear to have 
 meant not merely repeating improperly what 
 had occurred, but propagating untruths, and 
 bringing false accusations against others. The 
 word is, however, often found in old authors, 
 without carrying the meaning thus assigned to 
 it; in Anglo-Saxon dictionaries, f to " tattle" is 
 of similar signification, from tittlan, to accuse ; 
 and a " tattler" meant a calumniator. 
 
 The terms " unhandsome" and " handsome" 
 had reference to the hand, and were originally ap- 
 plied rather to the conduct than to the personal 
 appearance. We still sometimes so apply the words. 
 Several words, with the negative prefix un, have 
 been lost in the change from Anglo-Saxon into 
 modern English ; of these are unrest, unmildness, 
 unmighty, iinsorry, unglad, unright, unlionest, 
 ungood, unpossible, unpatientness, unstrong, un- 
 wisdom, unsharp, and unfast, opposed to "sted- 
 fast." We still retain " uneasy" and " uneasi- 
 ness," but have lost unease, which, as well as 
 misease, was used, as we now have "disease." 
 
 * Lecture I., page 38. 
 
 f Somner's Dictionary, and Benson's Vocab. Anglo-Saxon. 
 
/ 
 
 198 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 We have lost unteach, but we have preserved 
 " un teachable." " Unrighteous" was anciently 
 unrightwise; and unright-willing was an Anglo- 
 Saxon word for unlawful ambition — a wishing 
 for that which was not right, Unhele was an old 
 word for misfortune ; and unlaw for injustice. 
 
 Several words, compounded of the prefix up, 
 have also been lost, as upriste for resurrection, 
 and the expressive words uphaven, and uphaved- 
 ness, signifying heady, and highmindedness ; as 
 we have seen that lowlyhede meant humility. 
 Upcome was to ascend, and undercome to submit ; 
 while these have fallen into disuse, we still 
 retain " overcome," as the opposite to undercome, 
 instead of which latter word has been adopted 
 '* succumb" for sub-come, compounded of the 
 Latin preposition for " under." " Usury," which 
 has long been applied in a bad sense, originally 
 meant payment for the use of money. 
 
 A " vat," or large vessel, was formerly, and 
 more properly, called " fat," as in the Authorized 
 Version of the Bible may be found a " vine-fat" 
 and a " press-fat.*' It is derived from vatta, 
 German vassen, to hold or contain, whence fat 
 orfcBt, a vessel of such dimensions as to be ca- 
 pable of containing a large quantity. The ad- 
 jective " fat" Tooke considers to be the past 
 participle of fedan, to nourish, fat signifying 
 well-fed. All other English words commencing 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 199 
 
 with the letter v, will be found ta be of Latin 
 or French origin. 
 
 The thin or watery portion of milk is called 
 " whey," from the Anglo-Saxon hicceg; it being 
 usual to soften g, at the end of words, to y, and 
 to transpose h and w at the commencement of 
 words, in forming them into English from Anglo- 
 Saxon. This word gave a name to a colour, 
 meaning pale, and was used to denote anything 
 white or thin. In Shakspeare it is found both 
 in its literal sense,* and metaphorically, as indi- 
 cating cowardice.t It is to be found in Butler, 
 to describe the colour of Hudibras's beard. J 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon word *' ween," from weenan, 
 to think, is found in old books and in poetry. 
 " Wit" meant wisdom, from witan, to know; 
 from which came " wist" and '' wot," as also 
 " to wit." Hence, too, we have " witness," 
 one who tells what he knows. Outwita was An- 
 glo-Saxon for a philosopher, who knows beyond 
 the general mass of the people. The verb to 
 " outwit" is retained, in modern English, but it is 
 applied in a bad sense, like " cunning." " Do to 
 wit" (2 Cor. viii. 1) was an old phrase, meaning 
 to cause one to understand. A " wart" is that 
 
 * "Til make you feed on curds and whey.^^ 
 f " What soldiers, whey face." 
 J " The upper part thereof was whey^ 
 The nether orange mix'd with grey." 
 
 Hudibras^ Part /., Canto 1. 
 
200 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 which is rooted in the flesh, from wart^ signify- 
 ing a root of any kind. Whelm was a Saxon 
 word, meaning to boil over, from which we 
 have " overwhelm," that is, to sink as by over- 
 flowing sorrow, troubles boiling over one. 
 
 A " window," formerly windore, was intended 
 for the admission of air as well as of light, and 
 took its name from being the door for the wind 
 to enter — the winder^ as it is sometimes vul- 
 garly called, or admitter of the wind. " Wade," 
 and " waddle," mean to make way through 
 water, or mud. Wahhle and wappelian were 
 Anglo-Saxon words, signifying to boil; hence 
 the term " pot- walloper, " a corruption of pot- 
 wabbler, used to designate householders, or those 
 who boiled a pot within the borough. A " wharf," 
 where goods are landed from boats, is so 
 called from the Anglo-Saxon verb, hwyrfan, to 
 throw out ; either because it projects into the 
 water, or from the goods being thrown out of the 
 boat upon it. In this, and numerous other cases, 
 the h and w have been transposed, for the easier 
 pronunciation, in modern English ; as, for ex- 
 ample, in the words what, wheat, white, where, 
 whither, why, ivhole, who, lohen, why, wheel, 
 whether, while, ivhistle. The old word " wont," 
 meaning was accustomed, is the past partici- 
 ple of wone or won, to dwell or frequent, to do 
 habitually.* A wic, or wye, meant a village or 
 
 * "Where prayer was wont to be made.'* — Acts, xvi. 13. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 201 
 
 town, and is frequently found at the end of 
 names of places in England, as Norwich, Ips- 
 wich, Berwick, &c. To this word we may pro- 
 bably trace " week. " The loick-days were the 
 days on which the country people went to the 
 town or wic^ to attend market; thus week-days 
 meant market days. Although we now include 
 Sunday as one of the seven days of the week, we 
 still keep up the distinction, and when we say a 
 school or a shop is open every week-day^ we imply 
 that it is closed on Sundays. " Whole " and 
 " wholesome " were originally spelt without the 
 w; and are derived from Ac^Zan, to hide, and hence 
 to "heal,"* from which we also retain "hale," 
 " health," and " healthy." 
 
 Amongst the various names for clothing, with 
 the Saxons, was the word weod^ which was also 
 figuratively applied to the grass and herbs cloth- 
 ing the field with verdure. In reference to this 
 signification of the word, it is now applied only 
 to those which are useless or noxious, which we 
 call " weeds." Formerly these were called wfi- 
 weods; and the proverb which tells us that " ill 
 weeds grow apace" still retains the distinction. 
 In the sense of clothing, the word is now ap- 
 plied only to the dress of a widow, called weeds, 
 Warre meant caution, from wai^ran^ to defend; 
 
 * Lecture I., p. 50. 
 
202 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 we still retain the imperative of this verb, when 
 we address to a person the caution — " beware." 
 We also have derived from it, " war" and 
 " warlike ;" and *' ward," a term applied to one 
 who is taken care of, as a " ward of Chan- 
 cery." Wealdan in Anglo-Saxon meant to 
 govern. Hence a king is said to " wield" his 
 «ceptre, this being the ensign of his authority ; 
 and a man who skilfully uses the weapon is said 
 to " wield " his sword dexterously. Wedd was 
 a pledge. To " wed" is to plight one's troth — 
 that is, to pledge one's truth ; and a " wedding" 
 is the occasion of making the pledge in " wed- 
 lock." " Water" was formerly written weter, 
 and its derivation is from wceter, to make " wet." 
 Well-willingness was an Anglo-Saxon word for 
 *' benevolence," as evil-willingness was for "ma- 
 levolence;" the two more modern words being 
 nothing else than the Latin version of the Anglo- 
 Saxon word in each case. 
 
 The pleasant English word "welcome" is 
 generally supposed to mean come well, as " fare- 
 well" IS fare (or go) well on your way. But it 
 appears to have a deeper meaning; conveying 
 more of a hearty feeling than merely wishing 
 one's visitor to arrive safe and sound. It was 
 formerly spelt wilcome, and it is still so pro- 
 nounced by the hospitable Irish peasant. In 
 old Anglo-Saxon Lexicons it is found amongst 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 203 
 
 words compounded of will^ and not with those 
 with the prefix well. It is derived from will 
 and come^ meaning come with my will — " with 
 all my heart." A welcome visitor is one whose 
 coming is wished or willed for ; and he is sure to 
 find that he has come with the hearty good will 
 of his host, who receives him "not grudgingly 
 or of necessity," but with genuine good will 
 and best wishes. " Unwelcome," on the other 
 hand, means that to which one gives an unwilling 
 reception. " Unwelcome tidings," for example, 
 is that which is received against one's will — it is 
 un-will-come, and meets with no warm response 
 in the heart or will of the hearer. 
 
 Wild means wilVd^ applied primarily to un- 
 tamed animals, not subdued to the will of man — 
 self -willed, A " wilderness" is a wild-deer-ness ; 
 and so it was anciently written ; namely, the place 
 of wild deer — that is, of wild beasts, the word 
 ** deer" having been formerly applied to all 
 animals and beasts of the field, and not, as now, 
 restricted to one species.* Wan meant cala- 
 mity, from wanna, to decline or grow less, to 
 wane, from whence came " want." Looking wan 
 meant having a sorrowful visage ; wanhope was 
 an old word for despair — wanting Jiope. Witan 
 meant to know, and hence wist; thus "witty" 
 
 * " But mice, and rats, and such small deer, 
 Have been Tom's food for seven long year." 
 
 Lear, Act III. Sc. 4. 
 
 n 
 
2i04 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 meant knowing^ having one's wits about tliem. 
 He wot not meant he knew not.* Winsome 
 meant pleasant, and is still used in Scotland, 
 as well as winsomeness^ meaning cheerfulness. 
 
 Withe was an old word for a hand made of the 
 willow tree, as Sampson was bound with " green 
 withes." The word comes from withan, to con- 
 nect or join, hence also is derived the preposi- 
 tion " with." We have lost the comparative and 
 superlative of " without," which were anciently 
 withouter and withoutermost. Wordfast was a 
 good Saxon word for true, describing a man keep- 
 ing his word fast — that is, firm, like *' stedfast." 
 Wrcehan meant to take vengeance; and " wreck- 
 er" was an avenger: we now speak of wreaking 
 vengeance^ but formerly the addition of the noun 
 was unnecessary, being implied in the verb. The 
 plant which is called " woodbine" is properly 
 wood-hind^ as it was anciently written, as binding 
 the tree about which it creeps. Wyrd was the 
 Anglo-Saxon for fate, and the weird sisters meant 
 " the fates.'' " Worship," formerly worthship, 
 meant honour. When an Irishman addresses 
 his superior as ''your honour^'' he uses the mo- 
 dern word derived from Latin, for *' your worship ^^ 
 as magistrates are addressed on the bench. 
 
 In the manufacturing districts of England, 
 they always speak of wages in the singular num- 
 
 * " We wot not what is become of him." — Acts, vii. 40. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 205 
 
 ber ; and so it Is found in old authors and Anglo- 
 Saxon Vocabularies, wage^ and not " wages." 
 Weal is Anglo-Saxon for prosperity of all kinds ; 
 from which we have " wealth," now only applied 
 to abundance of riches. The opposite to this was 
 woe^ derived from the sound of sorrowful lamen- 
 tation, and " woe-begone'' means far gone in 
 melancholy. We retain " woeful" but have lost 
 the corresponding word, in the opposite sense, 
 welful, found in old authors. On the other hand 
 we retain " welfare," for going well ; while we 
 have lost the old word woefare. 
 
 '' Waggon" Is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 
 wcegan, to carry, from whence also we have 
 *' weigh," " wag," and "way." Wain is a con- 
 traction of waggon or wagon — wag'n, wain. 
 The name of the constellation called " Charles's 
 wain" is a corruption of the churVs or carVs wain, 
 that is, the rustic's or farmer's waggon; as it Is 
 also called " the plough." " Wind" is that which 
 bloweth, from the Gothic waian, to breathe ; to 
 " wind" up anything is from Anglo-Saxon wen- 
 dan or icindan, to turn. To " winnow" is to fan, 
 or beat with the wind ; and thereby to separate 
 the chaff from the grain. *' Winter" is the 
 windy season ; or, as some think, it may be so 
 called from the waning or decreasing of the 
 length of the days at this period of the year, 
 when nature appears to decay ; from wanian, to 
 decrease, to wane, to decay. 
 
206 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 ' A " weir* from which we draw water is spelt 
 like the adjective well or prosperous ; but is from 
 another root meaning z/7gattan, to spring up ; which 
 word is still sometimes used as a verb by poets — 
 " welling up." A wight meant any person of 
 either sex, and the word was formerly used as 
 an adjective, meaning lively and sprightly. 
 It is derived from witan, to know or to feel. 
 Wend was to go, and is still used in poetry. In 
 some towns in England narrow lanes are called 
 " wynds^' — through which men may wend their 
 way. " Yearn" is an old English and Anglo- 
 Saxon word, signifying to long for, derived from 
 ge-yra-nan^ to run after ; to earn is from the same 
 word, the wages to which a labourer looks for- 
 ward as the reward of his toil being that which 
 he pursues. Yare meant ready, or prepared ; 
 and yule was an old word for rejoicing.* A mete- 
 yard was a rod prepared for measuring ; by usage, 
 mete, for measure, is omitted, and the "yard," which 
 originally was of no certain length, now signifies 
 a measure of three feet. The word is, however, 
 still applied by sailors to other poles, as the " sail 
 yards" of a ship. A "yard," signifying an en- 
 closed place, as a " church-yard," a " court-yard," 
 is so called from geard, the past participle of gyr- 
 dan, to encompass or enclose ; whence we have 
 to " gird," " girth," and the diminutive " girdle." 
 We sometimes meet with the word "yore," 
 
 * See page 157. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 207 
 
 which was more frequently used of yore than it 
 is at the present day. It meant " of old," that 
 is, of ?/ears gone by. To "yawn" is to open, ^^/^ 
 from cinian, ganian, or geonan, as it was variously 
 written ; and is applied to the opening of the 
 jaws, chaws, or yaws, through drowsiness; an 
 operation to which I can only hope my readers 
 have not been driven by the length of this chap- 
 ter. The word, however, as well as the letter 
 with which it begins, there being no Z in the 
 Anglo-Saxon alphabet, reminds me that it is 
 time to draw to a close. 
 
 Before I conclude, however, I am desirous, 
 in confirmation of the remarks which I made in 
 the Second Lecture of this volume, in reference 
 to the characteristic beauties of the English lan- 
 guage, to avail myself of the observations of a 
 celebrated German, Jacob Grimm, as quoted by 
 Mr. Trench, in his latest and very interesting 
 work on the study of words,* who observes that 
 this eminent scholar, who is most profoundly 
 acquainted with the great group of the Gothic 
 languages in Europe, and a passionate lover of 
 his native German, gives the palm over all to 
 our English. After ascribing to this language 
 " a veritable power of expression, such as, per- 
 haps, never stood at the command of any other 
 language of men," he goes on to say — "Its 
 highly spiritual genius, and wonderfully happy 
 
 * English : Past and Present, p. 27. 
 
208 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 development and condition, have been the result 
 of a surprisingly intimate union of the two 
 noblest languages of modern Europe, the Teuto- 
 nic and the Romance. It is well known in what 
 relation these two stand to one another in the 
 English tongue, the former supplying, in far 
 larger proportion, the material groundwork, the 
 latter, the spiritual conceptions. In truth, the 
 English language, which, by no mere accident, 
 has produced and upborne the greatest and most 
 predominant poet of modern times, as distin- 
 tinguished from the ancient classical poetry 
 (I can, of course, only mean Shakspeare), may, 
 with all right, be called a world-language, and, 
 like the English people, appears destined here- 
 after to prevail with a sway more extensive even 
 than its present over all the portions of the 
 globe. For in wealth, good sense, and closeness 
 of structure, no other of the languages at this 
 day spoken deserve to be compared with it — not 
 even our German, which is torn, even as we are 
 torn, and must shake off many defects, before 
 it can enter boldly into competition with the 
 English."* 
 
 In addition to this testimony, I must, before I 
 conclude, give a short extract from William 
 Harrison, a clergyman who lived about the year 
 1560, and who was one of the contributors to 
 
 * Ueher den Urspmng der Sprache: Berlin, 1851. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 209 
 
 Ho Unshed' s Chronicles^ prefixed to the historical 
 portion of which work is a description of Britain 
 and its inhabitants, by this writer, which is valu- 
 able as affording an interesting picture of the 
 state of the country and manners of the people, 
 in the sixteenth century. In his account of the 
 languages of Great Britain, after referring to the 
 ancient British or Welsh, and the Latin intro- 
 duced by the Romans, as the French was after- 
 wards by the Normans, he observes: — 
 
 *' The third language is that induced by the 
 Saxons (which the Britons call Saysonaec^ as they 
 do the speakers Saysons) ; a hard and rough kind 
 of speech, when our nation was brought first into 
 acquaintance wathal, but now changed with us 
 into a far more fine and easy kind of utterance, 
 and so polished and helped with new and milder 
 words, that it is to be avouched how there is no 
 one speech under the sun spoken in our time, 
 that hath or can have more variety of words, 
 copiousness of phrases, or figures and flowers 
 of eloquence, than hath our English tongue, 
 although some have affirmed us rather to bark 
 like dogs than talk like men, because the most 
 of our words (as they do indeed) incline unto 
 one syllable."* 
 
 To illustrate the meaning, the force, and beauty 
 of the English language, has been the object 
 
 * See Chambers' Cydopcedia of English Literature. Vol. I. p. 250. 
 
 P 
 
210 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 sought to be attained in the compilation of this 
 volume. With a view to this, little more has 
 been attempted than to put forward, in a popular 
 and familiar style, the result of the researches of 
 distinguished etymologists, whose works are com- 
 paratively but little known, and to bring to light 
 some of the stores of knowledge which are to be 
 found buried in dictionaries and vocabularies (of 
 all books the least inviting), placing them before 
 the reader in a simple form. 
 
 If the study of this volume prove useful to 
 teachers, and more interesting, and not less in- 
 structive, to the young, than other lesson-books, 
 and if the perusal of these pages shall lead any 
 of his readers to a careful study of the interest- 
 ing and important subject of etymology, the 
 Author will feel amply repaid for the labour 
 which he has incurred in digging out the several 
 ROOTS here presented to his readers, for their 
 entertainment and profit. 
 
INDEX TO WORDS 
 
 m THE LECTURES. 
 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Aboard, ... 49 
 
 Arrande, . . . 86 
 
 Abode, 
 
 
 
 59 
 
 Art, 
 
 
 
 87 
 
 Adder, 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 Asleep, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Adrift, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Asunder, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Afeard, 
 
 
 
 86 
 
 Atone, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Aft, . 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 Atonement, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 After, 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 Athree, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Against, 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 Atwo, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Aghast, 
 
 
 
 . 32, 49 
 
 Aught, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Ago, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Awhile, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Alderbest, &c.. 
 
 
 105 
 
 Awkward, 
 
 
 
 101 
 
 Aldercock, 
 
 
 106 
 
 Ax, 
 
 
 
 86 
 
 Aldercost, 
 
 
 106 
 
 Aye, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 
 
 105 
 
 Babbler, 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 Algates, . 
 
 
 37 
 
 Bacon, 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 Alive, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Bailif, 
 
 
 
 105 
 
 Almanac, 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 BaiUie, . 
 
 
 
 105 
 
 Aloft, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Bairn, 
 
 
 
 72 
 
 Alone, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Bait, 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 Along, 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 Balk, 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 Aloof, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Ballast, 
 
 
 
 51 
 
 Always, 
 
 
 
 37 
 
 Bam, 
 
 
 
 51 
 
 Amaze, 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 Bat, 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 Amazement 
 
 i 
 
 
 56 
 
 Bay, 
 
 
 
 35 
 
 Amidst, 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 Beam, 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 Among, 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 Bedstead, . 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 An, 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 Beef, 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 And, 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 Behind, . 
 
 
 
 42 
 
 Anew, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 BeU, 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 Angle, 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 BeUows, . 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 Ankle, 
 
 
 
 62 
 
 Beneath, . 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 Anon, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 Bequeath, 
 
 
 
 71 
 
 Arable, 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 Bereave, . 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 Arm, 
 
 
 
 63 
 
 Beside, . 
 
 
 
 56 
 
212 
 
 INDEX TO WORDS 
 
 Between, 
 Betwixt, 
 Beyond, 
 Binn, 
 Bird, 
 Blaze, 
 Blood, 
 Boards, 
 Boat, 
 Bodkin, 
 Body, 
 Bog-Latin, 
 Bolt, 
 Bolt-upright, 
 Bone, 
 Book, 
 Boor, 
 Boot, 
 Bootless, 
 Boroughreeve, 
 Bourne, 
 Braird, 
 Bray, 
 Breakfast, 
 Breath, 
 Bull, 
 Burthen, 
 But, 
 By, 
 
 Byword, 
 Calf, 
 Carouse, 
 Carpenter, , 
 Case, 
 Cat, 
 
 Chapman, 
 Chapmanhood, 
 Cheap, 
 Cheek, 
 , Chest, 
 Chin, 
 Chink, 
 Chop, 
 Churl, 
 Cliff, 
 
 Page 
 56 
 
 Coat, 
 
 
 66 
 
 Cobweb, . 
 
 
 56 
 
 Cock, 
 
 
 41 
 
 Colonel, 
 
 
 65 
 34 
 61 
 
 Constable, . 
 
 Cote, 
 
 Cow, 
 
 
 33 
 68 
 37 
 
 Coward, 
 
 Crab, 
 
 Craven, 
 
 
 59 
 34 
 
 Crow, 
 Cud, 
 
 
 29 
 30 
 62 
 33 
 35 
 
 Cupboard, 
 
 Curfew, 
 
 Dale, 
 
 Daughter, 
 
 Deal, 
 
 
 37 
 
 Dear, 
 
 
 37 
 
 Dearth, 
 
 
 104 
 
 Dearworth, 
 
 
 35 
 
 Deck, 
 
 
 87 
 
 Devil, 
 
 
 87 
 
 Dew, 
 
 
 73 
 
 Dinner, 
 
 
 62 
 
 Ditties, 
 
 
 46 
 85 
 55 
 
 Dog, 
 
 Dog-cheap, 
 
 Dote, 
 
 
 56 
 73 
 61 
 
 Doubtless, 
 
 Dough, 
 
 Dovecote, 
 
 
 76 
 
 Drake, 
 
 
 22 
 63 
 
 Dregs, 
 Drove, 
 
 
 64 
 
 72 
 
 Drubbing, 
 Dubb, 
 
 
 72 
 
 Duck, 
 
 
 72 
 60 
 
 Dure (for I 
 Ear, 
 
 Door) 
 
 62 
 
 Earl, 
 
 
 63 
 63 
 53 
 73 
 32 
 
 Earth, 
 East, 
 
 Egge, 
 Eggement, 
 
 
IN THE LECTURES. 
 
 213 
 
 Page 
 64 
 63 
 64 
 73 
 69 
 60 
 41 
 60 
 28 
 28,49 
 40 
 71 
 61 
 63 
 61 
 60 
 69 
 36 
 61 
 36 
 67 
 36 
 62 
 32 
 74 
 76 
 61 
 65 
 21 
 
 101 
 44 
 66 
 66 
 36 
 67 
 62 
 66 
 66 
 
 100 
 68 
 36 
 36 
 79 
 73 
 32 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Gnat, 
 
 68 
 
 God, 
 
 28 
 
 Gospel, 
 
 38 
 
 Gossip, 
 
 29 
 
 Gripe, 
 
 87 
 
 Guilt, 
 
 53 
 
 Half, 
 
 87 
 
 Hand, 
 
 60 
 
 Handicraft, 
 
 21 
 
 Harness, . 
 
 40 
 
 Harvest, . 
 
 17 
 
 Hatch, 
 
 41 
 
 Hatches, . 
 
 41 
 
 Havoc, 
 
 65 
 
 Hawk, 
 
 65 
 
 Hawthorne, 
 
 39 
 
 Head, 
 
 59 
 
 Heal, 
 
 50 
 
 Health, . 
 
 50 
 
 Heart, 
 
 62 
 
 Hearth, . 
 
 50 
 
 Heathen, . 
 
 68 
 
 Heaven, 
 
 28 
 
 Heavenward, 
 
 100 
 
 Hedge, 
 
 39 
 
 Hell, 
 
 50 
 
 Henchman, 
 
 43 
 
 Herald, . 
 
 111 
 
 Herd, 
 
 42 
 
 Heretogan, 
 
 107 
 
 Herring, . 
 
 66 
 
 Hext, 
 
 47 
 
 Hinder, 
 
 42 
 
 Hindermost, 
 
 42 
 
 Horse, 
 
 64 
 
 Hold, 
 
 53 
 
 Holdward, . 
 
 103 
 
 Homestead, 
 
 74 
 
 Homeward, 
 
 100 
 
 Hope, 
 
 51 
 
 Hopeless, . 
 
 54 
 
 Housewife, 
 
 61 
 
 HuU, 
 
 50 
 
 Hurdle, . 
 
 42 
 
 Husband, . 
 
 61 
 
214 
 
 INDEX TO WORDS 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 
 
 Husbandry, 
 
 14 
 
 Mast, 
 
 If, . . . 
 
 54 
 
 Mayor, 
 
 
 
 Imp, 
 
 38 
 
 Mazed, 
 
 
 
 Indite, 
 
 73 
 
 Mole, 
 
 
 
 Infantry, . 
 
 23 
 
 Monger, 
 
 
 
 Inn, 
 
 71 
 
 Month, 
 
 
 
 Instead, . 
 
 47 
 
 Moth, 
 
 
 
 Instep, 
 
 60 
 
 Mouth, 
 
 
 
 Jaw, 
 
 60 
 
 Murther, 
 
 
 
 Joint, 
 
 61 
 
 Mutton, 
 
 
 
 Kilt, 
 
 86 
 
 N"ail, 
 
 
 
 Kine, 
 
 67 
 
 Naught, 
 
 
 
 King, 
 
 . 101 
 
 Nay, 
 
 
 
 Knave, 
 
 64 
 
 Near, 
 
 
 
 Knee, 
 
 60 
 
 Neat, 
 
 
 
 Knight, . 
 
 . 108 
 
 Neck, 
 
 
 
 Knight of the Shire, 
 
 . 108 
 
 Needs, 
 
 
 
 Knit, 
 
 57 
 
 Neighbour, 
 
 
 Knot, 
 
 67 
 
 Nethermost, 
 
 
 Knuckle, . 
 
 60 
 
 Never, 
 
 
 T.a-d, 
 
 67 
 
 Next, 
 
 
 
 Ladder, 
 
 67 
 
 Nightingale 
 
 T 
 
 
 Laddess, . 
 
 67 
 
 No, 
 
 
 
 Lady, 
 
 102 
 
 Nonce, 
 
 
 
 Landgrave, 
 
 . 104 
 
 None, 
 
 
 
 Landscape, 
 
 62 
 
 Noon-meale 
 
 •? 
 
 
 Lass, . . 
 
 67 
 
 North, 
 
 
 
 Learn, 
 
 86 
 
 Nose, 
 
 
 
 Leasing, . 
 
 38 
 
 Nosthrills, 
 
 
 
 Leaven, 
 
 62 
 
 Nostril, 
 
 
 
 Leech, 
 
 72 
 
 Nought, 
 
 
 
 Left-hand, 
 
 63 
 
 Only, 
 
 
 
 Leg, . . 
 
 61 
 
 Ought, . 
 
 
 
 Lest, 
 
 65 
 
 Over, 
 
 
 
 Lief, 
 
 38 
 
 Owl, 
 
 
 
 Lights, . 
 
 61 
 
 Oyer and Terminer, . 
 
 Lip, . . , 
 
 63 
 
 yes ! yes ! yes ! 
 
 Liver, 
 
 61 
 
 Pagan, 
 
 Loaf, 
 
 62 
 
 Pen, . . 
 
 
 Lobster, . 
 
 68 
 
 Pin, . . 
 
 
 Lod, . . . 
 
 102 
 
 Ploughshare, 
 
 
 Lungs, 
 
 61 
 
 Pond, 
 
 
 Man, 
 
 6 
 
 Pork, 
 
 
 Mansion, . 
 
 21 
 
 Portreeve, . 
 
 
 Mason, 
 
 21 
 
 Poultry, . 
 
 
 
IN THE LECTURES, 
 
 215 
 
 
 
 
 Page , 
 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Pound, . . . 41 1 
 
 Shipcraft, .... 24 
 
 Queen, 
 
 
 
 101 
 
 Ship-shape, 
 
 
 100 
 
 Quick, 
 
 
 
 57 
 
 Shire, 
 
 
 31, 43 
 
 Quipping, . 
 
 
 
 82 
 
 Shoulder, . 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 Quoth, 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 Shovel, 
 
 
 
 64 
 
 Rain, 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 Sideboard, 
 
 
 
 102 
 
 Raise, 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 Since, 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 Rare, 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 Sinew, 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 Rather, 
 
 
 
 38 
 
 Skin, 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 Raven, 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 Skipper, 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 Raze, 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 Sloth, 
 
 
 
 67 
 
 Read, 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 Slug, 
 
 
 
 67 
 
 Rear, 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 Sluggard, 
 
 
 
 67 
 
 Reck, ■ 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 Smith, 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 Reckless, 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 Snack, 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 Reef, 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 Snail, 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 Reeve, 
 
 
 
 31 
 
 Snake, 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 Rein, 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 Sneak, 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 Reign, 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 South, 
 
 
 
 75 
 
 Restless, 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 Sow, 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 Rib, 
 
 
 
 62 
 
 Spade, 
 
 
 
 62 
 
 Righteousness, 
 
 
 52 
 
 Spar, 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 Right-hand, 
 
 
 53 
 
 Sparring, 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 Roof, 
 
 
 44 
 
 Sparrow, 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 Rook, 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 Spider, 
 
 
 
 67 
 
 Salmon, 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 Spindle, 
 
 
 
 67 
 
 Save one's b 
 
 aeon. 
 
 
 15 
 
 Spinster, 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 Scale, 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 Spit, 
 
 
 
 62 
 
 Scull, 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 Stadholder, 
 
 
 
 . 103 
 
 Sea, 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 Stag, 
 
 
 
 66 
 
 Seal, 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 Stalk, 
 
 
 
 38 
 
 Sear, 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 Stark, 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 Sea-shore, 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 Starve, 
 
 
 
 87 
 
 Sea, 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 Steadfast, 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 Seethe, 
 
 
 
 75 
 
 Steady, 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 Sennight, 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 Steeple, 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 Shaft, 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 Steer, 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 Share, 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 Steward, 
 
 
 
 . 103 
 
 Sheaf, 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 Stepfather, 
 
 
 
 51 
 
 Shear, 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 Stirk, 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 Sheep, 
 
 
 
 64 
 
 Stood, 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 Sheepcote, 
 
 
 
 . 44 
 
 Stow, 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 Shepherd, 
 
 
 
 42 
 
 Strand, 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 Sheriff, 
 
 
 31, 104 
 
 Supper, 
 
 
 
 73 
 
 Shin, 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 Swain, 
 
 
 
 45 
 
216 
 
 INDEX TO WORDS. 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 
 Swallow, . 
 
 66 
 
 Upon, 
 
 Swan, 
 
 66 
 
 Upper, 
 
 
 Swap, 
 
 86 
 
 Uppermost, 
 
 
 Swine, 
 
 45 
 
 Utter, 
 
 
 Swine, 
 
 65 
 
 Uttermost, . 
 
 
 Tackle, 
 
 40 
 
 Veal, 
 
 
 Tailor, 
 
 22 
 
 Venison, 
 
 
 Talons, 
 
 Bl 
 
 Wan, 
 
 
 Taut, 
 
 25 
 
 Wane, 
 
 
 Th^ (for Tea), . 
 
 89 
 
 Want, 
 
 
 Thigh, 
 
 61 
 
 Warder, . 
 
 
 Thorough-fare, . 
 
 26 
 
 Warp, 
 
 
 Though, 
 
 65 
 
 Wassail, 
 
 
 Thread, . 
 
 74 
 
 Water, 
 
 
 Through, . 
 
 55 
 
 Wax, 
 
 
 Throat, 
 
 62 
 
 Wayward, . 
 
 
 Thunder, . 
 
 19 
 
 Welkin, . 
 
 
 Thunderbolt, 
 
 29 
 
 West, 
 
 
 Tidy, 
 
 66 
 
 While, 
 
 
 Till, 
 
 55 
 
 Wick, 
 
 
 Timber, . 
 
 46 
 
 Wicked, . 
 
 
 Titter, 
 
 29 
 
 Wicket, . 
 
 
 To, 
 
 55 
 
 Wife, 
 
 
 Toe, . . 
 
 61 
 
 Wifman, . 
 
 
 Toll, 
 
 . 105 
 
 Will, 
 
 
 To-morrow, 
 
 42 
 
 Without, . 
 
 
 Tongue, 
 
 60 
 
 Wcepman, . 
 
 
 Tooth, 
 
 60 
 
 Wolf, 
 
 
 Toward, . 
 
 . 100 
 
 Wold, 
 
 
 Town, 
 
 . 114 
 
 Wood, 
 
 
 Townlands, 
 
 . 114 
 
 Woodness, . 
 
 
 Troth, 
 
 77 
 
 World-like, 
 
 
 Turkey, . 
 
 66 
 
 Worm, 
 
 
 Tweed, 
 
 74 
 
 Worry, 
 
 
 Twilight, . 
 
 39 
 
 Wrench, . 
 
 
 Twine, 
 
 74 
 
 Wretch, . 
 
 
 Twist, 
 
 74 
 
 Wrinkle, . 
 
 
 Twit, 
 
 39 
 
 Wrist, 
 
 
 Uncheap, . 
 
 72 
 
 Wrong, 
 
 
 Uncouth, . 
 
 29 
 
 Wrongwiseness, 
 
 
 Undear, 
 
 72 
 
 Yard, 
 
 
 Under, 
 
 66 
 
 Yea, 
 
 
 Underwriter, 
 
 99 
 
 Yelk, 
 
 
 Unless, 
 
 64 
 
 Yeoman, . 
 
 
 Untoward, . 
 
 . 101 
 
 Yes, 
 
 
INDEX TO WOEDS 
 
 IN THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Abet, . . . 142 
 
 Bewildered, 
 
 . 146 
 
 Abroad, 
 
 
 
 142 
 
 Bewray, 
 
 . 145 
 
 Acre, 
 
 
 
 . 141 
 
 Bickering, 
 
 . 147 
 
 Addled, 
 
 
 
 142 
 
 Bit, 
 
 143 
 
 Ado, 
 
 
 
 142 
 
 Bitter, 
 
 . 146 
 
 Ail, 
 
 
 
 142 
 
 Blind, 
 
 . 142 
 
 Aldfather, 
 
 
 
 153 
 
 Blithe, 
 
 144 
 
 Ale, 
 
 
 
 142 
 
 Block, 
 
 143 
 
 Allege, 
 
 
 
 142 
 
 Blockhead, 
 
 144 
 
 Anxious, 
 
 
 
 142 
 
 Blue, 
 
 146 
 
 Askance, 
 
 
 
 180 
 
 Bog-Latin, 
 
 162 
 
 Astound, 
 
 
 
 181 
 
 Boot-jack, . 
 
 161 
 
 Astride, 
 
 
 
 189 
 
 Bout, 
 
 147 
 
 Baleful, 
 
 
 
 147 
 
 Bosom, 
 
 144 
 
 Band, 
 
 
 
 143 
 
 Bough, 
 
 144 
 
 Banish, 
 
 
 
 143 
 
 Bow, 
 
 144 
 
 Bann, 
 
 
 
 143 
 
 Bow-window, 
 
 145 
 
 Beacon, 
 
 
 
 144 
 
 Brake, 
 
 143 
 
 Beadle, 
 
 
 
 146 
 
 Brand-new, 
 
 184 
 
 Beam, 
 
 
 
 143 
 
 Brawny, . 
 
 145 
 
 Bearing, 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 Brew, 
 
 142 
 
 Beat, 
 
 
 
 147 
 
 Broach, 
 
 143 
 
 Beckon, 
 
 
 
 144 
 
 Brook, 
 
 147 
 
 Bed, 
 
 
 
 146 
 
 Broth, 
 
 142 
 
 Bed-ridden 
 
 
 
 146 
 
 Brown, 
 
 146 
 
 Beetle, 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 Brunt, 
 
 146 
 
 Behalf, 
 
 
 
 147 
 
 Buxom, 
 
 144 
 
 Behove, 
 
 
 
 146 
 
 Callow, . 
 
 151 
 
 Belike, 
 
 
 
 172 
 
 Candle, . 
 
 147 
 
 Bestead, 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 Canny, 
 
 148 
 
 Bet, 
 
 
 
 157 
 
 Cap, 
 
 148 
 
 Betide, 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 Cark, 
 
 148 
 
 Beware, 
 
 
 
 144 
 
 Cast, 
 
 148 
 
218 
 
 INDEX TO WORDS 
 
 
 
 
 Paffe 1 
 
 Chaffer, . . . 147 i 
 
 Charwoman, 
 
 
 . 151 
 
 Churn, 
 
 
 . 151 
 
 Clap, 
 
 
 
 . 148 
 
 Clapper, 
 
 
 
 . 148 
 
 Claw, 
 
 
 
 . 148 
 
 Cleave, 
 
 
 
 . 151 
 
 Clump, 
 
 
 
 . 151 
 
 Coping, 
 
 
 
 . 148 
 
 Craft, 
 
 
 
 . 149 
 
 Creeper, 
 
 
 
 . 150 
 
 Cripple, 
 
 
 
 . 150 
 
 Crops, 
 
 
 
 . 150 
 
 Dastard, 
 
 
 
 151 
 
 Dawn, 
 
 
 
 151 
 
 Deep, 
 
 
 
 . 153 
 
 Dim, 
 
 
 
 152 
 
 Dip, 
 
 
 
 . 153 
 
 Doff, 
 
 
 
 . 151 
 
 Dole, 
 
 
 
 151 
 
 Don, 
 
 
 
 151 
 
 Down, 
 
 
 
 152 
 
 Drain, 
 
 
 
 152 
 
 Dreary, 
 
 
 
 153 
 
 Drift, 
 
 
 
 151 
 
 Drone, 
 
 
 
 152 
 
 Drought, • 
 
 
 
 152 
 
 Dumb, 
 
 
 
 152 
 
 Dusk, 
 
 
 
 153 
 
 Dyer, 
 
 
 
 151 
 
 Each, 
 
 
 
 153 
 
 Earn, 
 
 
 
 208 
 
 Ebb, 
 
 
 
 153 
 
 Eke, 
 
 
 
 153 
 
 Eschew, 
 
 
 
 153 
 
 Fain, 
 
 
 
 . 154 
 
 Fairies, . 
 
 
 
 154 
 
 Faith, 
 
 
 
 154 
 
 Fat, 
 
 
 
 198 
 
 Feed, 
 
 
 
 155 
 
 Filth, 
 
 
 
 155 
 
 Flood, 
 
 
 
 155 
 
 Folks-fare, . 
 
 
 
 153 
 
 Forlorn, 
 
 
 
 155 
 
 Fretwork, . 
 
 
 
 156 
 
 Fulfil, 
 
 Furlong, 
 
 Gab, 
 
 Gaffer, 
 
 GaUop, 
 
 Game, 
 
 Gammer, 
 
 Gammon, 
 
 Gaunt, 
 
 Gear, 
 
 Gird, 
 
 Girdle, 
 
 Girl, 
 
 Girth, 
 
 Glibly, 
 
 God's acre. 
 
 Gooseberry, 
 
 Green, 
 
 Grim, 
 
 Growth, 
 
 Gruff, 
 
 Guild, 
 
 Hale, 
 
 Halig-writ, 
 
 Halt, 
 
 HandseU, 
 
 Handsome, 
 
 Hank, 
 
 Hanker, 
 
 Haply, 
 
 Happy, 
 
 Hasty, 
 
 Haunch, 
 
 Healthy, 
 
 Hernshaw, 
 
 Hinge, 
 
 Hithe, 
 
 Horn-book, 
 
 Housel, 
 
 like, 
 
 Instal, 
 
 Knave-child, 
 
 Knave-girl, 
 
 Jockey, 
 
 Joint-stool, 
 
IN THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 219 
 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 
 Kill, ... 174 
 
 Nevertheless, 
 
 Kiln, 
 
 
 
 150 
 
 Nothink, . 
 
 
 Kin, 
 
 
 
 161 
 
 Now, 
 
 
 Kind, 
 
 
 
 162 
 
 Odd, 
 
 
 Kindred, 
 
 
 
 162 
 
 Orchard, . 
 
 
 Kith, 
 
 
 
 161 
 
 Outwit, 
 
 
 La! 
 
 
 
 164 
 
 Overcome, . 
 
 
 Lady, 
 
 
 
 166 
 
 Overcraft, . 
 
 
 Laity, 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 Overwhelm, 
 
 
 Latefnl, 
 
 
 
 196 
 
 Padding, . 
 
 
 Law, 
 
 
 
 . 165 
 
 Painful, 
 
 
 Lawyer, 
 
 
 
 165 
 
 Pang, 
 
 
 Learn, 
 
 
 
 . 162 
 
 Perhaps, . 
 
 
 Let, 
 
 
 
 164 
 
 Pitiful, 
 
 
 Lewd, 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 Pine, 
 
 
 Lief, . 
 
 
 
 164 
 
 Plight, . 
 
 
 Lien, 
 
 
 
 167 
 
 Pot-walloper, 
 
 
 Linen, 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 Prithee, . 
 
 
 List, 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 Quaff, 
 
 
 Loathe, 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 Quagmire, . 
 
 
 Long, 
 
 
 
 . 165 
 
 Quake, 
 
 
 Lord, 
 
 
 
 . 166 
 
 Qualm, 
 
 
 Lore, 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 Queen-bee, 
 
 
 Lour, 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 QueU, 
 
 
 Lout, 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 Quick, 
 
 
 Lowliness, , 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 Quitch-grass, 
 
 
 May -be, . 
 
 
 
 170 
 
 Rash, 
 
 
 Mayhap, 
 
 
 
 170 
 
 Rasher, 
 
 
 Mate, 
 
 
 
 167 
 
 Raw, 
 
 
 Meed, 
 
 
 
 167 
 
 Reap, 
 
 
 Meal, 
 
 
 
 167 
 
 Reaper, 
 
 
 Meadow, 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 Reef, 
 
 
 Meet, 
 
 
 
 167 
 
 Reek, 
 
 
 Methinks, 
 
 
 
 194 
 
 Rife, 
 
 
 Midwife, 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 Riff-raff, . 
 
 
 Mirth, 
 
 
 
 169 
 
 Rig, 
 
 
 Mo, more, i 
 Mow, 
 
 nost, . 
 
 
 169 
 168 
 
 Rim, 
 Rind, 
 
 
 Moot, 
 
 
 
 169 
 
 Ring, 
 
 
 Morning, 
 
 
 
 169 
 
 Rip, 
 
 
 Morrow, 
 
 
 
 170 
 
 Rock 
 
 
 Mouldy, 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 Rood, 
 
 
 Much, 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 Rook, 
 
 
 Mucker, 
 
 
 
 169 
 
 Roost, 
 
 
 Naughty, 
 
 
 
 170 
 
 Rue, 
 
 
220 
 
 INDEX TO WORDS 
 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 
 
 Rueful, . . .176 
 
 Sofa, 
 
 Ruthless, 
 
 
 
 . 176 
 
 Soothsayer, 
 
 
 Sad, 
 
 
 
 . 180 
 
 Span, 
 
 
 Sagg, 
 
 
 
 . 181 
 
 Spangle, 
 
 
 
 Sake, 
 
 
 
 . 185 
 
 Speed, 
 
 
 
 Same, 
 
 
 
 . 185 
 
 Spell, 
 
 
 
 Sand, 
 
 
 
 . 185 
 
 Spic-and-S] 
 
 pan-n 
 
 BW, . 
 
 Saws, 
 
 
 
 . 181 
 
 Spill, 
 
 
 
 Scar, 
 
 
 
 . 179 
 
 Spoil, 
 
 
 
 Scare, 
 
 
 
 . 179 
 
 Spokes, 
 
 
 
 Scatheless, 
 
 
 
 . 181 
 
 Spout, 
 
 
 
 Scavenger, 
 
 
 
 . 185 
 
 Spurn, 
 
 
 
 Scoff, 
 
 
 
 . 185 
 
 Stairs, 
 
 
 
 Scold, 
 
 
 
 . 185 
 
 StaU, 
 
 
 
 Scrap, 
 
 
 
 . 185 
 
 Stalworth, 
 
 
 
 Screed, 
 
 
 
 . 188 
 
 Stave, 
 
 
 
 Scrawl, 
 
 
 
 . 185 
 
 Steal, 
 
 
 
 Scrip, 
 
 
 
 . 182 
 
 Stint, 
 
 
 
 Set, 
 
 
 
 . 180 
 
 Stitch, 
 
 
 
 Settle, 
 
 
 
 188 
 
 Stirrup, 
 
 
 
 Sheer off. 
 
 
 
 188 
 
 Stock, 
 
 
 
 Sheet-anchc 
 
 >r, 
 
 
 179 
 
 Stocking, 
 
 
 
 Shield, 
 
 
 
 181 
 
 Stoker, 
 
 
 
 Shout, 
 
 
 
 188 
 
 Stool, 
 
 
 
 Shrive, 
 
 
 
 183 
 
 Storm, 
 
 
 
 Shroud, 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Stound, 
 
 
 
 Shunt, 
 
 
 
 179 
 
 Straggle, 
 
 
 
 Sigh, 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Straw, 
 
 
 
 Sight, 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Strawberry, 
 
 
 
 Silly, 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Streel, 
 
 
 
 Sin, . 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Stride, 
 
 
 
 Since, 
 
 
 
 187 
 
 String, 
 
 
 
 Skate, 
 
 
 
 188 
 
 Stud, 
 
 
 
 Skip, 
 
 
 
 161 
 
 Stun, 
 
 
 
 Slop, 
 
 
 
 187 
 
 Stunt, 
 
 
 
 Slop-shop, . 
 
 
 
 187 
 
 Style, 
 
 
 
 Slough, 
 
 
 
 187 
 
 Summon, . 
 
 
 
 Smack, 
 
 
 
 183 
 
 Sun-flower, 
 
 
 
 Smallish, . 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 Swoon, 
 
 
 
 Smerk, 
 
 
 
 187 
 
 Swoop, 
 
 
 
 Smile, 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Tack, 
 
 
 
 Smooth, . 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Tackle, 
 
 
 
 Smuggle, . 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Tale, 
 
 
 
 Sneeze, 
 
 
 
 187 
 
 Tattle, 
 
 
 
 Snug, 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Ten, . . 
 
 
 
IN THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 221 
 
 
 
 
 Paffe 
 
 
 
 
 Thank, . . . 193 
 
 War, 
 
 Thing, 
 
 
 
 . 193 
 
 Ward, 
 
 
 
 Think, 
 
 
 
 . 193 
 
 Water, 
 
 
 
 Thought, 
 
 
 
 . 193 
 
 Way, 
 
 
 
 Thorn, 
 
 
 
 . 195 
 
 Weal, 
 
 
 
 Thrall, 
 
 
 
 . 195 
 
 Wealth, 
 
 
 
 Threat, 
 
 
 
 . 194 
 
 Wed, 
 
 
 
 Thresh, 
 
 
 
 . 195 
 
 Weeds, 
 
 
 
 Threshold, 
 
 
 
 195 
 
 Week, 
 
 
 
 Thrill, 
 
 
 
 . 195 
 
 Ween, 
 
 
 
 Throe, 
 
 
 
 . 196 
 
 Weigh, 
 
 
 
 Throng, 
 
 
 
 . 196 
 
 Welcome, 
 
 
 
 Thwart, 
 
 
 
 . 194 
 
 Welfare, 
 
 
 
 Tide, 
 
 
 
 . 196 
 
 Well, 
 
 
 
 Tideful, 
 
 
 
 . 196 
 
 Wend, 
 
 
 
 Tidings, 
 
 
 
 . 196 
 
 Wharf, 
 
 
 
 Tight, 
 
 
 
 . 191 
 
 Whey, 
 
 
 
 Till, . 
 
 
 
 194 
 
 Whole, 
 
 
 
 Tiller, 
 
 
 
 195 
 
 Wield, 
 
 
 
 Tilt, . 
 
 
 
 195 
 
 Wight, 
 
 
 
 Tinder, 
 
 
 
 194 
 
 Wild, 
 
 
 
 Toil, . 
 
 
 
 195 
 
 Wilderness, 
 
 
 Token, 
 
 
 
 191 
 
 Wil-he, nil-he, 
 
 
 Ton, . 
 
 
 
 192 
 
 Wind, 
 
 
 Town, 
 
 
 
 192 
 
 Window, 
 
 
 
 Tongs, 
 
 
 
 196 
 
 Winnow, 
 
 
 
 Trade, 
 
 
 
 196 
 
 Winter, 
 
 
 
 Trap, 
 
 
 
 191 
 
 Wit, . 
 
 
 
 Trepan, 
 
 
 
 191 
 
 With, 
 
 
 
 True, 
 
 
 
 196 
 
 Withes, 
 
 
 
 Trust, 
 
 
 
 196 
 
 Witness, 
 
 
 
 Truth, 
 
 
 
 196 
 
 Witty, 
 
 
 
 Undercome, 
 
 
 198 
 
 Woe, 
 
 
 
 Unhandsome, 
 
 
 197 
 
 Woodbine, 
 
 
 
 Unrightwise, 
 
 
 198 
 
 Wordfast, 
 
 
 
 Unwelcome, 
 
 
 203 
 
 AVorship, 
 
 
 
 Usury, 
 
 
 198 
 
 Wont, 
 
 
 
 Vat, . 
 
 
 
 198 
 
 •Wot, 
 
 
 1 
 
 Wade, 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 Wind, 
 
 
 
 Waddle, 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 Wreak, 
 
 
 
 Wag, 
 
 
 
 205 
 
 Yard, 
 
 
 
 Wage, 
 
 
 
 205 
 
 Yawn, 
 
 
 
 Waggon, 
 
 
 
 205 
 
 Yearn, 
 
 
 
 Wain, 
 
 
 
 205 
 
 Yore, 
 
 
 
 Wanhope, . 
 
 
 
 204 
 
 Yule, 
 
 
 
INDEX TO PEOPER NAMES. 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Albert, 
 
 . 109 
 
 Everard, . 
 
 . 110 
 
 Aldergate, . 
 
 . 108 
 
 Fleet-street, 
 
 36 
 
 Aldermanbmy, . 
 
 . 108 
 
 Francis, 
 
 . 112 
 
 Aldermary, 
 
 . 107 
 
 Frederic, . 
 
 . 112 
 
 Alfred, 
 
 . 112 
 
 Friday, 
 
 19 
 
 Allen, 
 
 . 112 
 
 Friga, 
 
 19 
 
 Anglo-Saxons, . 
 
 8 
 
 Geoffrey, . 
 
 . 112 
 
 Armorica, . 
 
 7 
 
 Gerard, 
 
 . 110 
 
 Bacon, 
 
 15 
 
 Gertrude, . 
 
 . 110 
 
 Bakony, . 
 
 15 
 
 Godfrey, . 
 
 312 
 
 Baldwin, . 
 
 . 112 
 
 Godhart, . 
 
 . 110 
 
 Bede, 
 
 . 112 
 
 Goths, 
 
 9 
 
 Bernard, . 
 
 110 
 
 Great St. Mary's, 
 
 . 108 
 
 Brittany, . 
 
 7 
 
 Harman, . 
 
 110 
 
 Buckingham, 
 
 15 
 
 Harold, . 
 
 111 
 
 Bury St. Edmund's, 
 
 108 
 
 Hengist, . 
 
 43 
 
 Butler, 
 
 116 
 
 Henry, 
 
 112 
 
 Charles, . 
 
 112 
 
 Herbert, . 
 
 113 
 
 Charles' Wain, . 
 
 205 
 
 Holycross, 
 
 178 
 
 Cheapside, . 
 
 . 72 
 
 Holyrood, . 
 
 . 178 
 
 Chepstow, . 
 
 72 
 
 Horsa, 
 
 43 
 
 Cornwall, . 
 
 10 
 
 Howard, . 
 
 103 
 
 Cuthbert, . 
 
 113 
 
 Hubert, . 
 
 HI 
 
 Dunstan, . 
 
 113 
 
 Hugh, 
 
 111 
 
 Eald-Seaxes, 
 
 8 
 
 Humphrey, 
 
 111 
 
 Easter, 
 
 19 
 
 Jack, 
 
 80 
 
 Edgar, 
 
 110 
 
 John Bull, . 
 
 80 
 
 Edmond, . 
 
 100 
 
 John Doe, . 
 
 80 
 
 Edward, . 
 
 100 
 
 John Nokes, 
 
 80 
 
 England, . 
 
 8 
 
 John Style, 
 
 80 
 
 Englishman, 
 
 9 
 
 John Thrustout, . 
 
 80 
 
 Essex, 
 
 32 
 
 King's County, . 
 
 31 
 
 Ethelbald, . 
 
 112 
 
 Knightrider-street, 
 
 108 
 
 Ethelbard^ . 
 
 112 
 
 Knutsford, . 
 
 116 
 
 Ethelbert, . 
 
 112 
 
 Lambert, . 
 
 110 
 
 Ethelward, 
 
 112 
 
 Lanfranc, . 
 
 112 
 
INDEX TO PROPER NAMES. 
 
 223 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Lent, 
 
 19 
 
 Leonard, . 
 
 110 
 
 Leopold, . 
 
 113 
 
 Lombards, . 
 
 9 
 
 Maryborough, 
 
 31 
 
 Matilda, . 
 
 111 
 
 Middlesex, . 
 
 32 
 
 Monday, . 
 
 18 
 
 Norfolk, . 
 
 32 
 
 Normandy, 
 
 12 
 
 Normans, . 
 
 9 
 
 Odd-Fellows, 
 
 171 
 
 Osmond, . 
 
 111 
 
 Ostend, 
 
 20 
 
 Oswald, . 
 
 . Ill 
 
 Oxford, . 
 
 116 
 
 Peggy, 
 
 173 
 
 Philipstown, 
 
 31 
 
 Queen's County, . 
 
 31 
 
 Quirites, . 
 
 8 
 
 Ralph, 
 
 113 
 
 Randolph, . 
 
 . 113 
 
 Richard, . 
 
 . 110 
 
 Robert, 
 
 . Ill 
 
 Roderic, 
 
 . 113 
 
 Rodolph, . 
 
 . 113 
 
 Roger, 
 
 . Ill 
 
 Rosamond, . 
 
 . Ill 
 
 Saturday, . 
 
 19 
 
 Saxons, 
 
 7 
 
 Scarborough, 
 
 179 
 
 Scythians, . 
 
 8 
 
 Seater, 
 
 19 
 
 Segismond, 
 
 . Ill 
 
 Sheerness, . 
 
 60 
 
 Sheffield, . 
 
 45 
 
 Shrove Tuesday, 
 
 . 183 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 St. Maria Maggiore, . 
 
 108 
 
 Stuart, 
 
 103 
 
 Suffolk, . 
 
 82 
 
 Sunday, 
 
 18 
 
 Surnames with prefixes, 
 
 
 Mac^ Ap, 0\ and Fits 
 
 114 
 
 with affix 50W, 
 
 114 
 
 derived from 
 
 
 animals, . 
 
 117 
 
 derived from 
 
 
 trades, . 
 
 116 
 
 
 
 place of residence, . 
 
 114 
 
 derived from 
 
 
 personal characteristics 
 
 117 
 
 Sussex, 
 
 32 
 
 Swineford, . 
 
 
 116 
 
 Thor, 
 
 
 18 
 
 Thursday, . 
 
 
 19 
 
 Tuesco, 
 
 
 18 
 
 Tuesday, . 
 
 
 18 
 
 Vandals, . 
 
 
 9 
 
 Victoria, . 
 
 
 109 
 
 Wales, 
 
 
 9 
 
 Walter, . 
 
 
 111 
 
 Waterford, . 
 
 
 116 
 
 Watford, . 
 
 
 116 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 
 18 
 
 Welsh, 
 
 
 9 
 
 Whitsunday, 
 
 
 73 
 
 Wilfred, . 
 
 
 111 
 
 Wilhelmina, 
 
 
 110 
 
 William, . 
 
 
 110 
 
 Winfred, . 
 
 
 111 
 
 Winnefred, 
 
 
 111 
 
 Woden, . 
 
 
 18 
 
TABLE 
 
 OF 
 
 "^imna to €h^szs oi SSorjCrs, 
 
 AND THEIR 
 
 DERIVATI ONS. 
 
 Abstract Terms, . 
 
 Adjectives, 
 
 Adverbs, . 
 
 Affixes, 
 
 Agriculture, Words re- 
 lating to. 
 
 Animals, Names of, 
 
 Animal Food, 
 
 Body and its Members, 
 
 Cattle, Names of. 
 
 Colours, 
 
 Conj unctions. 
 
 Derivatives, 
 
 Elements, The . 
 
 Emotions of the Mind,, 
 
 Government, Forms o^ 
 
 Handicraft Trades, 
 
 Husbandry, Terms of 
 
 Invective, Humour, and 
 Satire . 
 
 Page 
 
 139 
 
 27 
 
 48 
 
 99 
 
 13 
 
 14, 64 
 
 14 
 
 59 
 
 13 
 
 139 
 
 54 
 
 27 
 
 75 
 
 137 
 
 26 
 
 21 
 
 14 
 
 139 
 
 Law Terms, . . 79 
 Manufactures, Names of, 21 
 Materials, the raw, . 21 
 Medicine and Divinity, * 79 
 Military Terms, . . 23 
 Modes of Action, . 137 
 
 Months, Names of the, 16 
 
 Nautical Terms, . 24 
 
 Prefixes, . . .98 
 Prepositions, . . 55 
 Proper Names, . 109-117 
 Sciences, Names of, . 26 
 Seasons of the Year, . 17 
 Simple Nouns and Verbs, 27 
 Titles of Honour, 101-109 
 Trees and Plants, . 69 
 Week-days, Names of, 16 
 
 Winds, Names of the four, 75 
 Words relating to Arith- 
 metic, and to Religion, 120 
 
 CORRECTIONS. 
 
 Page 25, line 7, for reaf, read reef. 
 
 27, 5, omit "and adverbs." 
 
 53, 25, for chap, read chop. 
 
 59, last line, omit " hence it is also applied to." 
 
 78, for Vortiger, read Vortigem. 
 
 164, line 18, /or leve, read lief. 
 
 THE END. 
 
CDS20M321S