into hoos-drup, huijs-drop, the drip from the house, and also a penthouse, of the shelving of the house; a bui slanting roof. A shilly shally person, a person of decisive mind; one not to be relied steadiness is required. Schill-je, sch for ever a distinction, for ever a bala differing with himself, always up and d cups of the scales; always finding out and always balancing them in his mind. may, however, have been schill-je, scho ever a difference, and always a diff thus as nothing but difference; never th of thinking twice together. Schille, g chil, difference, distinction. Schaele, sch the vessel of a pair of scales, the ho balance. Scheele, in the same meaning so that the phrase would then be as per fering, and thus never deciding. Johns the phrase being as shill-I shall-I, is a Je, ever, always. In the sense of the result or substa affair in question. Die op's hot; q. e. it turns [runs] into; the consistence it solid result] that which is the substance essence] of the affair in question; what it Die, that which. 'S, is, is. Hot, gehot participle of hotten to turn into curds into]; the consistence taken, as curd is and thus the substance. In this di sense the Dutch say; Die zaak zal nie q. e. this affair shall come to nothing, sha consistence. Our to huddle is a mere fred form of hotten, to curdle, and so to run It is possible the phrase may be as Op schie hot; q. e. have done with all the rest; come quickly to the point [essence, result]; debout! finissez donc ! HOBSON'S CHOICE. It was an Hobson's choice; it was an unfair [undue] assumption; no choice at all; an arrogant outrage; encroaching conduct [of the person in question towards the speaker of the phrase]. Op soen's schie ho eysche; q. e. when he had a kiss, he soon made higher demands upon me; as I yielded his pretensions encroached; and implying, it was not fair in him: of course as said by a female; and infers kindness abused by a ruffian; an unfair inhuman abuse of unsuspecting kindness; a cowardly availment of unguarded confidence. Op, upon. Soen, a kiss. 'S, is, is, comes, follows. Schie, quickly. Ho, hoo, hoogh, high, extravagant, arrogant. Eysche, demand, pretension to, claim to. The true sense of the phrase is, the one took an unfair advantage, when he saw there was gentleness and kindness in the other. A Hobson's choice always implies an undue demand made upon one by another; the idea of the phrase referring to a hirer out of horses at Cambridge is a mere Cantab hoax. The phrase in the original has the sound of its travesty, when combined into a substantive form. BUGBEAR. Alarming without real danger; a bare cause of terror. B'oog baer; q. e. barely to the eye; solely to the eye and no more; and thus a danger in appearance only. B'oog, by oog, to the eye. Baer, purely, only, barely, simply. The phrase refers to objects alluded to as the cause of the fright; but which have no share in the meaning of the term. HE BEAT HIM TO A MUMMY. He beat him till he made a fright of him; till he disfigured his appearance. Hij beet hem toe er momme hij; q. e. he injured him to the degree of making his face a frightful mask; he damaged him so that he was a complete scare-crow. Beeten, to injure, to beat, to damage; also to tan. Momme, a mask, also a masked person [a mummy]; but in the sense of-that which renders the wearer an object of terror (a bugbear). Of the appearance here implied there can be no better illustration than the face of the pugilist after a severe fight, nor a more suitable term than the Latin terriculum.- Oraque corticibus sumunt horrenda cavatis.-Er hij, there he, there is he. HE BEAT HIM TO A JELLY. As he beat him till he looked like something else, till he was not to be known again for the same person, till no one could recognise him for the same. Hij beet hem toe er je hele hij; q. e. he beat [pummelled] him till he was not to be made out by those who knew him before; till he was a perfect disguise, not knowable again by any one for what he had been. And who would know the face of one who had been properly mauled in a well contended boxing match? Beeten, the source of our to beat and connected with the older verb to batten, yet traceable in our to batter, battery, the French battre, and the latin batuere. Je hele hij, now he was concealed from you. Je, yee, you. Helen, to conceal, to hide. Hij, he. HE SWORE BY BELL, BOOK, AND CANdle. He swore stoutly; he used every sort of appeal by way of confirming what he asserted. Hij swodr by beld, boeck, end gaend el; q. e. he swore upon the crucifix, the testament and by his hereafter [by where he was hereafter to go] and so by there; where he hoped to go; by heaven. Beld, bild, beeld, image, figure, when used absolutely, a crucifix; as the contraction of gebeltede, gebelt, deriving from balten, to strike, to beat; and as that formed by striking, hewing, chisselling. To build belongs to the same stock; as well as beelden, bilden, to imagine or form an image in the mind. Boeck, the book, and thus the Bible or Testament, or both. Gaend, going. El, elsewhere, and thus another place; implying one he naturally wished for, and so one of happiness. Gaend el, sounds candle. FOR AN OLD SONG. Vor een hol saeghe hin; q. e. for an empty fiction; for a groundless representation [statement] in the regard to the object in question [the thing parted with]; parted with for a story dressed up for the purpose. Vor, voor, veur, for. Hol, empty, groundless, hollow, void. Saeghe, narration, fiction, fable, apologue, story, and the same word with our saw, as proverb, saying. Hin, hen, heen, hence, gone off. Saeghe hin, sounds as we utter song. The h no letter. Our word song, in the phrase to sing a song, is as this same saegh hin, and thus to sing off [modulate] a story [narration]. For to sing a song would be to modulate a modulation, and as much a solecism as if we said to do to done, if song was here as a singing or a song, in the usual acceptation of the term. Song in this latter import is as sang, gesang, the participle past of singen, to sing, and thus as that which is sung, the thing sung, formerly spelt sang. "Alein, the clerk, that herde this melodie, A wildfire mote on ther bodies fall.-CHAUCer, * Such. + Evening song, musical prayer. A meteor. QUANDARY. A dilemma, perplexity, agitation of mind, disturbance in thought; but always used in regard to fantastical distress, whimsical anxiety of mind, and is in truth a ludicrous term. Ghewaend-deere; q. e. distress in fancy, imaginary mischief, supposititious disaster, evil hatched in the imagination. Ghewaend the past participle of waenen, waanen, to fancy, to imagine. Deere, dere, deijre, hurt, injury, mischief. Johnson has adopted from Skynner the French expression qu'en dirai je? for the etymology of this phrase; but that expression has neither the sound nor the sense of quandary; What shall I say to it? implies a real dilemma; not an imaginary nor a ludicrous one. Ghew, gew sounds as qu, deere, as dary. LIVELIHOOD. Condition of life; the way of living, maintenance. Evidently the same word with the older livelod, in the same meaning. Lijve-lot; q. e. the lot of life; fortune of life; state allotted to us; our destiny; destined state of our life. To get one's livelihood, is to make one's fortune (state of life), to procure that which we live on; the means we live by. To get is, properly, to shape, form, cast, as will be explained at that word. Lijve was formerly as lijf, in the import of life, and was so with us in Chaucer's day. Loot, lote, lot, lot, fortune, chance; to be explained by and by. "As Ankers and Hermets that hold hem in her selles * And coveten nought in contrey to carien aboute For no liquerous LIVELODE her likamt to please." Vis. Pierce Plowm. "And eke it is thy profite, and thyn ese also *Their cells. + Body. CHAUCER. |