hep, hip, in the phrase hips or heps and hawes, as explained in the preceding article. Aen and on are the same word. The burgeysse toke avysement long on every draught; So with an hour or too, Beryn he had ycaught Somewhat oppon the hipp*, that Beryn had the wers." "If I can catch him once upon the HIPt, CHAUCER. I will feed fat the antient grudge I bear him."-SHAKSP. "Now, infidel, I have thee on the HIP‡."-Idem. "If the poor brach of Venice, whom I cherish It must have been these last lines of Shakspeare which led Johnson to derive this word from hip, as haunch, as the part of the animal seized on by dogs in hunting! But the hip in the above lines belongs to the speaker of them, and neither to Cassio nor to the hunting brach, as he thought. HE LAUGHS IN HIS SLEEVE. His heart does not keep the promise of his face; he is not the friend he appears to be. Hij laf's: hin is lieve; q. e. he is faint-hearted: so that love [affection] with him is out of question; he is lukewarm by nature, so that a fiery [strong] love [affection, attachment] is an impossibility on his part; and implying his care for any one, but himself, mounts only to a very low degree of temperature. In this direction of meaning we say, faint heart never won fair lady. But the travesty has extended to the import of, that a person of such disposition cares so little for any one, that when his friend's back is turned he will not only hear him abused with i. e. Upon the bait, and so on the hook. i. e. Make him bite, take the bait, swallow the hook. i.e. On the hook; as taken by the bait that concealed the hook. § i. e. On the bait, on the hook it conceals, and so caught. indifference, but will even join in scoffing him. Laf, lef, vapid, insipid, imbecile, weak, impotent. Lieve, leve, love, as the contracted participle present of lieven, to love. Hin, hen, heen, off, away, out of the question. Laf's, laf is, sounds laughs. HE BROUGHT HIS NOSE TO THE GRINDSTONE. He caused distress to him, he made him pay for it. Hij broght ijse noose toe de greiens stond; q. e. he introduced alarm and disturbance into the hour of happiness (the happy moment); he caused shuddering and distress by coming at the wrong time and thus converting pleasure into disgust; the feel of happiness into that of disappointment. Broght, brought. Jjse, horror. Noose, nuisance. Greiens stond, the lover's moment, upon the point of being made happy; l'heure du berger. Greien in the sense of lover (favourite) has become obsolete in the present style of the Dutch. The word is derived from greien, to please, to be agreeable to, and is grounded on the French gré, from the Latin gratus. Gre was once used with us in the sense of pleasure, satisfaction. To greet is evidently of the same stock. Now sith he is to fore you now, let him not astert *; And he myght be take he should do me GRE‡. "For sith a woman was so patient Unto mortalle man, well more we ought Receve al in GRE that God has sente."-IDEM. Oh God, that at thy disposition, Ledist forth the fine, by just purveiaunce,` *Get off. + Promised. Give me satisfaction, contentment. I suspect as it have, and thus as however you may intend. Mr. Urry's explanation of to rage is not the true one, though he brings it as far off as Lancashire. Eyes. Accept in GRE, and sende me soche penaunce That maie my ghost depart alwaie fro' The, TO WHIP THE CAT. An expression implying he spent more than he ought, and thus did what was unjust, roguish; to swindle. Te wip tije guit; q. e. the rogue is on his way to the whipping post; on the road to disgrace. Wip is here as the infliction of a torture known by the term stroppe-koorde [in Italian, strappado], and a usual mode of punishment both in Italy and Spain. The sufferer is drawn up to a pulley (placed at the end of the arm of a gibbet) by his hands, which are tied behind him; he is then let to drop to a certain distance, when his fall is arrested by a sudden jerk, thro' which his arms are dislocated; a severe punishment, but mild when compared with others still tolerated in England. Tijen, to proceed, to progress. Guit, guijte, an omnigenous rogue, one that can turn his hand to any villainy. The phrase is old and well known; but I believe deemed a coarse thing to say. WITH A FLEA IN HIS EAR. He went off with a flea in his ear; he departed with evident signs of regret [suffering] for what he had done on this occasion. Wijse er vele lij in ijse hier; q. e. he evinced much suffering by fright in regard to this affair; any one could perceive his concern and alarm for the part he had acted in the business in question. Wijse, the subjunctive form of wijsen to make manifest. Vele, veel, a great deal, much, very considerably. Lij, lijde, suffering. Vele lij, sounds flea. Ijse hier, sounds his ear. Vele, veel, in the shape of felle, fel, was formerly in use with us. Ijse, horror, fear, alarm. Favour, grace, kindness "I understond the FELLE* or manyfolde colours and discetes of thilke mervaillous monstre fortune.-CHAUCER. Boeth. Bk. 2. HE SET 'EM ALL TOGETHER BY THE EARS. Was the cause of introducing confusion into the society in question; made mischief among neighbours and friends. Hij set om al; tuijghe's er by die hier's; q. e. he upsets every thing; one can see that by the state of things here; he turns all topsy-turvy; what is to be seen here is proof enough of that being the case. Omsetten, settenom, to upset, overturn, bouleverser, which last term, is, I suspect, the Frenchman's travesty of bolaersen, in caput devolvi clunibus in altum sublatis; and thus a complete arsy versy. If it is not this, let any one tell what it is, if he can Tuyghe is the shortened participle present of tuyghen, to bear witness. Die hier's, that which is before us, and sounds the ears. CONUNDRUM. A jocular term for a puzzling question; some insignificant proposition absurdly involved in terms, Gauw nu inn d' rum; q. e. now, my sharp fellow, make that out if you can; you clever one, conceive that now; now, you wiseacre, get all about it into your head if you can. Gauw, able, dexteroussounds, ko, co, and here used sneeringly. Inn, the imperative of innen, to take in, to get in, to receive in, to inn. Nu, now. Daerom, d' rom, drum, all about it. Sound gauw as ko or co,and nu inn d' rom as nu'nndrum, and the expression becomes conundrum. TOADSTOOL. Doodt's toe al; q. e. is dissolved quite to nothing; melted away entirely; comes completely to nothing. * Many. Doodt, gedoodt, the participle past of dooden, to thaw, to dissolve, to melt. Toe, completely, to extinction. Al entirely, altogether, quite, prorsùs, omninò. Dood and the German tod, are the same word; and evidently connected with dooden, dauwen, our to thaw. Dauwe, the German thau, and our dew are also one word; and doubtlessly of the same source with dood, tod [death] which is dissolution of body. Johnson gives toad and stool for the etymology of the word! I have met with no probable etymology for toad, as the well known relative of the frog, but believe it to be as toe wad; q. e. wades towards; advances as one does who wades, that is, slowly, heavily, and with apparent difficulty. Is not such the march of the toad? and well in contrast with the light spring and rapid hop of the frog? Our to wadle, waddle, in the sense of to get on slowly, awkwardly, painfully, heavily, is a mere frequentative form of waden, to wade, vadare. And if the toad's halfcrawl, half-step, is not a waddling pace, I do not know what is. The gait of the fat man is as that of a race horse in comparison with the toad's. And the term from such source would be as the distinctive characteristic in this animal from its correlative the frog. Toe wad sounds toad, and accounts for the o and a in it. JOHNSON derives to waddle from waggelen, but that is to waggle, to vacillate, to move to and fro, and may imply rapid oscillation, but not to waddle; it might do for the wag-tail, but not for the gait of the waddler. A false source of the word, has led him to a false definition, and to consider waddle and waggle as the same word, though essentially distinct. regard to frog he informs us, it is in Anglo-Saxon frogga. That's true, but what is frogga? else we are as wise as before only. Is it not the metathesis of work, and thus wrok as the onomatopy of the rough throttling sound of the animal's usual In |