"Ye, have the glutton filde inowe his paunche Thou murdrir of the heisegge*, on the braunche, Fort no force is of lacke of thy nature; Go, leude‡ be thou, while that the worlde may dure." "Thou liest, quoth she, by my salvacion, The Friars Tale.-CHAUCER. HUMDRUM. Tedious, tiresome, drawling. Hem! daerom ; q. e. hum! as to that; to the concern in question; and as much as to say, I must take time to consider of it; don't expect me to act off-hand. Hem is the interjection hem! hum! as the sign of a stopping, a doubting whether or not. We say he humm'd and haa'ed about it, in the sense of, he took time to consider; he doubted; he hesitated. Daerom, d'rom, drum, about it, thereat. CAT IN PATTENS. As when we say there's cat (puss) in pattens; and imply the person in question is not at his ease (not at home) where he then is [in what he is about] makes [cuts] an awkward figure, seems unhappy in his position. Guit in pat eng's; q. e. the bad man has an anxious career to pass; the villain's path is filled with danger (anxiety); the rogue's bed is not of roses. The expression has sometimes puss in the place of The fabled foster-mother of the cuckow; seid to be the hedge-sparrow. + For no account is made of such a blackguard as you Lacke of nature is want of nature in the sense given above. Unreclaimed, in a rude state. § Summoned. cat, but is then to the same amount, for puss is as boos, the wicked one; and the phrase then expresses the wicked man's career is not a contented one. Pat, pad, path, career. Guit, rogue, but as a consummate one, one in all directions of sense. Eng, straitened [distressing, difficult to overcome], narrow, uneasy. TO SMELL A RAT. To take alarm, to be on the guard, to be on the watch, to be on the alert. Te smoel er rat; q. e. when you feel it warm take the hint at once; when you perceive a smother take precautions directly; implying, before it becomes too hot to be grappled with [before the fire gets ahead and becomes impossible to subdue]. Te, to, come to, at once to. Smoel, smul, a faint degree of heat, a smouldering degree of fire; such as precedes the blaze or unmanageable burst of it. Rat, rad, rade, rapidly, in haste, at once. A MAN OF WAR. In the common acceptation of the phrase. The import of which proceeds from the term man being used in its derivative sense; man is either as the participle present of ma-en, or else as the contraction of the infinitive or verb itself. Ma-en, to be able, to have the ability, power, might, capacity, and refers here to intellectual [moral] power as predominating over the physical [brute] power; of skill and contrivance over sheer animal effort. And in that sense, man, in relation to the rest of the animal creation, is an emblem of power [might] itself; being that alone endowed with the means of making it predominant. But in man of war both the power of mind and of brute force (might) are comprehended; and the term is as might or power in all its capacities; intellectual design combined with the brute materialso force. So that = puss 1 exp ented as a se. I mej. man of war is thus, collective power, combined force [might] for the purpose of war. Of the thema ma, in another page. GEWGAW. Some trifling toy, a valueless trinket. Geheuggaave; q.e. a keepsake, something given for a token of remembrance, otherwise valueless. Geheugen, to remember, to call to mind. orgift. t; a SLANG. Gaave, a The ellipsis of slang-language; conventional rephraseology, used among the adepts of some undue app mystery. Slang; q. e. snake, serpent, viper; a estrope for mischievous concealment, covert mischief. We say, a snake in the grass, in the import of a hidden evil. A snake is the type of perfidiousness and mischief. He cherished a snake in his bosom, is, he took a traitor into his confidence. Of the source and consequent sense of the term snake elsewhere. TO ROAST A MAN. To turn him into ridicule, to render him the object of ridicule to those present, Te roe's't er m'aen; q. e. is meant for a rod in this case; what is now doing [saying] is by way of punishment; we mean by this to make you repent of what you have said of others. Te, for the purpose of. Roé, roede, roeye, rod, scourge. M'aen, meé aen, mede aen, herewith, at the same time. THE MERRY ANDREW. As the jester to the mountebank. De meerre end truwe; q. e. the aid and confidant to the principal; the assistant [attaché] to the showman. Meerre, as the participle present of meerren, an ancient form of meerderen, vermeerderen, to make more of, to extend the amount of, to amplify, and thus as the making more or the most of an object, and the root VOL. I. K of our word merry, which has no other import than that of making more of, turning to account, creating [making] additional views and prospects. Trouwe, truwe, in the sense of a confidant [trusty subordinate] is as the participle present of the thema troen, to confide to, to trust to, to place reliance upon; whence our to trow, in the sense of, to confide in, and our trewe (true) as faithful. "Two men would have passid over the se, * upon a havin side. OLD ENGLAND. CHAUCER. Now As in the well known shout, Old England for ever! Hold in gij land! Voer ijver! q. e. Hail in your country! Evince your zeal for her! raise your voices to the glory of the land of your birth! put forth all your ardour, let your acclamations testify the warmth you feel for her in your breasts. In the travestied phrase we feel this sense, but in form of letters it merely calls England old; and by way of butter upon bacon, adds for ever. England is, as far as we know, no older than any any other piece of land, and shout as long as we may, it will not, most probably, last longer than the rest of the world. So that, as in many of these travesties, we say one thing and mean another, or in other words, misspell sound sense. Inholden, holden [halden] in, to express homage to, to declare yourself faithful to. Gij land, thy country. Voer, the imperative of voeren, to bring out, to advance, to put forth. Ijver, zeal, ardour. In the phrase my old friend, old is as hold, kind, affectionate. *Pleasant, cheerful; in the sense-it made cheerful by the site, it added pleasure to him from so beautiful a prospect when at that spot. A GREENHORN. An awkward uncouth person, an unlicked cub. Erg rije 'n hoor'n; q. e. bad-conditioned manner [habit of behaviour]; ungain sort of deportment; an uncouth form of comportment, and sounds a greenhorn. Erg rij'n hoor'n, answers nearly to the French mauvais ton. Erg, improper, bad. Rije, manner, order, arrangement, form, mode. Hoore, becoming, that which is proper, and is as the participle present of hooren, to comport with, to belong to. Green, is the same word with the Dutch groen and the German grun, and grounded in gre-en, gro-en, whence groien and our to grow [to advance, to prosper, to thrive, to flourish, to be in vigour], and the feminized groes, groese, is our growth; and groen our green is no other than as its participle present. Mr. Tooke tells you green is as the participle of the Ang. Sax. grenian [virescere]; but whence that? For Anglo Saxon, tho' a sister-dialect of the English, is no more the source of our language, than English is of that. Mr. Windham appears to me never to have said any thing more true than that the Diversions of Purley was a Mare's Nest. Even the little truth there is in it, was well known to all who interested themselves duly in this subject, long enough before the appearance of that book or its author either. "First woll I you the name of Sainct Cecily And GRENE' of conscience and of good fame The sote+ favour, Lilly was her name. The 2nd Nonnes tale.-CHAUCER. Is here as the flourishing, untarnished, uninjured, unfaded state; vigorous, and so duly in force: not as Mr. Urry imagines as tender, but the reverse. A green old age is a vigorous old age, in the same direction of sense. + Sweet, the Dutch soete in the same sense. |