£x Libris
K OGDEN
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
^
74^^
'^
THE
RACES OF LANCASHIRE.
AS INDICATED BY
THE LOCAL NAMES
AND
THE DIALECT OF THE COUNTY-
BY
THE REV. JOHN DAVIES.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
1856.
210
TRANSACTIONS
OV TlIK
PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
1855.— No. 13.
December 7. — Professor Malden in the Cliair.
Edward Stcane Jackson, Esq. INT. A., of Totteridj;c House,
Enfield, Middlesex, was elected a Member of the Society.
Dec. 21. — Professor Goldstucker in the Chair.
The following Paper was read, part on each evening : —
" On the Races of Lancashire, as indicatctl l)y the Local
Names and the Dialect of the County;" by the Rev. John
Davies, M.A.
It will not 1)0 necessary to offer an apology for introducing
to the Philological Society the examination of a dialect, for all
philologists are now well aware of the importance of such
forms of a language, both in determining historical questions,
and in the examination of the structure and progress of the
language to Avhich they l)elong^. The dialect of Lancashire
is one of considerable importance for both these purposes,
* And also for the right interpretation of its early literature. Thus, in
the * Anturs of i\jthcr at the Tarnewathelan ' (Three Metrical Romances
published by the Cauulcn Society), Danie Gaynor is said to "gloi)pun'^
and "greet:"
" AUe glopuus and gretys Dame Gaynor the gay."
The poet imant to say, that Dame Gaynor was amazed and wept ; but the
editor interprets the first word to mean " to wail," " to lament," making
the author utter a simple tautology. These romances belong to the
Border Line, along the counties of Lancaster and Westmoreland, and in
the Lancaster dialect to be " glopi)ened," is to be greatly amazed or
astonished.
211
and has not hitherto, I believe, been made the subject of a
scientific analysis. I propose in this paper to determine, by
an examination of it, some historical questions concerning
the various races that have peopled this part of the north of
England. In the discussion of this subject, some light will
also be thrown on an obscure period of our national history.
The first point to which I would dii'cct the attention of the
Society is connected with the Celtic races that peopled the
whole, or nearly the whole, of Great Britain at the time of
the Eoman invasion. The question has been much discussed
among antiquarians, who these races were ; and of their sub-
sequent fate it has been assumed by almost all our historians,
that they were either exterminated by the ruthless swords of
the Anglo-Saxon conquerors, or driven into Wales and the
county of Cornwall. The well-known historical fact, that a
nation has never been wholly destroyed by its conquerors,
would offer, however, an immediate contradiction of this state-
ment, which has been e\4dently made from pm-e ignorance of
the large Celtic element still existing in the English language.
An examination of this subject (wliicli may fitly be commended
to the notice of an English Philological Society) would show
that many of our most common and necessary words may be
traced to a Celtic origin. The stoutest assertor of a pure
Anglo-Saxon or Norman descent is con\'icted, by the language
of his daily life, of belonging to a race that partakes
largely of Celtic blood. If he calls for his coat (W. cota,
Germ, rock), or tells of the basket of fish he has caught
(W. basged, Germ, korb), or the cart he employs on his land
(W. cart, from car, a dray or sledge. Germ, ivagen), or of the
pranks of his youth, or the jjrancing of his horse (W. prank, a
trick, prancio, to frolic) , or declares that he was hapjjy when
a, gownsman at Oxford (W. hap, fortune, chance. Germ, gliick ;
W. gwn, Ir. gunna), or that his servant is pei't (W. pert, spruce,
dapper, insolent), or, descending to the language of the vulgar,
he affirms that such assertions are balderdash, and the claim
a shaui* (W. baldorddus, idle prating ; siom, pr. shorn, a deceit,
* " In that year ( 1 680), our tongue was enriched with two words, mob
1^
,-4-^
212
a sham), he is unconsciously maintaining the truth he would
deny. Like the M. Jourdaiu of INIoliere, who had been
talking prose all Iiis litr without knowing it, lie has been
speaking very good Celtic without any suspicion of the fact.
These instances, which niiglit ])c midtiplied, may justly
cause us to doubt whether the Celtic stock was either
wholly dcstro^■ed ])v the Anglo-Saxons, or banished from
the country. Mr. Keniblc Avas led to qiicstion this assumed
fact, from finding in our earliest historical records many
names which he coidd not interpret from Teutonic sources.
"In the earliest period," he writes, "when our docu-
mentary history first throws light upon the subject, there
are still found names unintelligible to the Teutonic scholar,
not to be translated or explained by anythhig in the Teutonic
languages ; nay, only to be understood by reference to Cymric
or Pictish roots, and thus tending to suggest a far more general
mixture of blood among the early conq\icrors than has generally
been admitted to have existed." And again, " I will not close
this paper Avithout obserAang, that a strict application of Celtic
philology to the names Avhich occur in our earliest history,
AA'ould probably supply unlooked-for eAddenee of a much closer
and more friendly intercourse than we at present anticipate,
betAveen some classes of the Britons and their Saxon iuA-aders.
I earnestly recommend this inquiry to such members of the
Archaeological Institute as are capable of undertaking it;
for the real position of the aborigines dm-ing the Saxon rule is
a most important element in the induction as to the growth
and tendencies of our national institutions'^." The names
and sham, remarkable memorials of a season of tumult and imposture"
(Macaulay's History of England, vol. i. p. 256, from North's Examen).
This is a mistake as to the word sliam. It is an old Celtic word, and was
only brought at that time into common use from the language of the
vulgar. Mr. Carlyle, in our day, has made it famous. The word means
properly, a void or empthiesn, a seeming to be something when there is
nothing, and hence baulking, disappointment.
* " On the Names, Surnames, and Nicknames of the Anglo-Saxons,"
a Paper read before the Archaeological Institute, Sept. 1845, pp. 5, 22.
213
which Mr. Kemble was unable to explain, confirm the surmise
Avhicli his sagacity had prompted. They may easily be inter-
preted from Celtic som-ces, and can only have been brought
into common use from a mingling of the Celtic and Teutonic
races.
Let us now inquire whether an examination of ancient
Celtic literature vriW throw any light on this obscure subject.
The Welsh historical Triads have come down to us; and, though
cast in a fanciful form, and containing much respecting the
pre-historical period that is evidently fabulous, their e\ddence
on this subject has the advantage of being contemporaneous,
or nearly so, with the estaljlishment of the Anglo-Saxon rule.
We have also the poem, called Y Gododin, written by Aneurin
about A.D. 570, after the disastrous battle of Cattraeth, in
which he himself had taken a part. From the Triads we learn
that Lloegria (England) was peopled by various tribes at the
time of the Saxon invasion, and that these tribes had arrived
in the country at diflerent periods. The sovereignty of the
whole was claimed by the race of the Cymry, or Cambrians,
either tlu'ough conquest or a prior occupation of the land.
" There were three primary divisions of the Isle of Britain :
Cambria, Lloegria, and Alban (Scotland), and the rank of
sovereignty belongs to each of the thi'ee. And under a mon-
archy and voice of the countiy they are governed, according
to the regulation of the Prydain, the son of Aedd the Great ;
and to the nation of the Cambrians belongs the right of esta-
blishing the monarchy, by the voice of the coimtry and the
people, according to rank and primseval right "^.^' This appears
to mean, that the right of appointing the Pendragon, or Com-
mander-in-chief, rested with the Cambrians, who exercised
also other rights of sovereignty. " There were three refuge-
seeking tribes that came to the Isle of Britain, and they came
under the peace and permission of the tribe of the Cambrians,
without arms and without opposition. The first was the tribe
of Caledonians in the north ; the second was the Irish tribe,
* ' Welsh Historical Triads,' No. 2, edition of Probert. Though Lloegyr
is still the "Welsh name for England, there can be no dovibt that the ancient
Lloegria was much less extensive than the present kingdom.
whu dwell in the llij^hliuids of Albuu ; the third were the
[)e()[)lc of Galediii^ >vlio came in naked vessels to the Isle of
\Viji;ht, when their coiuitry Avas drownecL and where they had
laud grantttTto tlieiin)'y tlic trlhe oFtlie Cambrians'^." Otlier
tribes or races are mentioned, who came to the land in a less
peaceful manner, and subsequently left it, or were expelled.
Amonj? these are enumerated Scandinavians, "who were driven
back, at the end of the third age, over the sea into Germany;
the troops of Ganval, the Irishman, who came into N. Wales,
and was driven into the sea by Caswallon (Cassivcllaunus),
the son of Beli ; and the Cscsarians (Romans)." Other in-
vadiujjj tribes came into the coinitry and csta])lishcd them-
selves there, before the invasion of the Saxons. These
were, however, e^ddently subject to the authority of the
ridiug tribe of the Cambrians, and appear to have borne
their inferior state with reluctance. They threw the weight
of their arms into the scale against the Cymraic race, and
contril)uted, in a considerable degree, to the final success of
the Teutonic invaders. There was treachery, too, and a spirit
of revolt among the chiefs of the ruling tribe, and some of
them went over, with their followers, to the Saxon cause.
The nation Avas divided against itself. The Welsh literature
of that age shows that nearly the whole brunt of the long and
desperate struggle against the Teutonic races was borne by the
single tribe or race of the Cambrians. They were fearfidly
slaughtered ; their heroic gallantry availing them little against
the fierce courage of the invading tribes, and the treachery of
their kindi'ed races. But the contest was boldly maintained
vmtil the whole of the race was either reduced to the condi-
tion of slavery, or driven to the mountain fastnesses of Wales.
Of this single race, therefore, the popular idea is partly true
(allowing that many of the Cambrians remained in the country
as slavesf), though wholly false with respect to the other tribes,
* Welsh Triads, No. G.
t Bede mentions slaves as living among the Saxons. (Eccles. Hist,
lib. iv. c. 13.) These were most probably Britons. Camden makes a
quotation from an old record, which establishes this fact, with regard to
the county of Lancaster : " Egfrid gave to St. Cuthbert the laud called
215
which were, for the most part, certainly Celtic. " There were
three invading tribes/' say the Triads, " that cainc to the Isle
of Britain, and who never departed from it. The first were
the Coranians, that came from the country of Pwyl. The
second were the Irish Picts, who came to Alban Ijy the North
Sea. And the third were the Saxons. The Coranians are
settled about the river Humber and the shore of the Ger-
man Ocean, and the Irish Picts are in Alban, about the
shore of the Sea of Denmark. The Coranians and Saxons
united, and, by violence and conquest, brought the Lloegrians
into confederacy with them, and subsequently took the crown
of the monarchy from the tribe of the Cambrians. And there
remained none of the Lloegrians that did not become Saxons,
except those that are found in Cornwall, and in the commot of
Carnoban in Deira (Yorkshire) and Bernicia (Northumberland
and Durham) . In this manner the primitive tribe of the Cara-
Ijrians, who preserved both their country and their language,
lost the sovereignty of the Isle of Britain, on account of the
treachery of the refage-seeking tribes, and the pillage of the
three invading tribes.^' Among the traitorous Cambrians are
mentioned G^iTgi Garwlwyd, who joined himself, with his men,
to Edelfled, King of the Saxons ; Medrod, who united with
the Saxons that he might secure the kingdom to himself,
against Arthur ; and, " in consequence of that treachery, many
of the Lloegrians became as Saxons;" and Aeddan, "the
traitor of the north, who, with his men, made submission to
the power of the Saxons that they might be able to support
themselves by confusion and pillage under the Saxon pro-
tection^."
The poem of Gododin confirms these statements. The
Carthmell (Cartmel, near Ulverston), and all the Britons in it (Britannia,
vol. iii. p. 380)."
* Triads 7, 22, 45 and 81. In the 15th Triad, the Csesarians, or de-
scendants of the Roman colonists, are said to have joined the Coranians and
the Saxons in opposing the tribe of the Cymry. This does not seem to ac-
cord with the statement of some historians, that Ambrosius, the celebrated
Pendragon, was of Roman descent ; but probably he was so only on tlie mo-
ther's side, as chieftainship was rigidly confined among the ancient Britons
to certain ruling families. Giidas says only " forte Romans' gentis."
216
brave hut ill-fated warriors^ whose loss the poet laments with
deep pathos, arc of the Cambrian raee. Their spears had
bcforetime broken tlic ranks of "the horde of Lloegrians/'
and of the Gael. On the Saxon side are the men of Deivyr
and Bryneich (Deira ami Bernieia). The son of Ysgyran
makes a fearful slaughter of these traitorous bands.
" Five battalions fell before his blades.
Even of the men of Deivyr and Bernieia, uttering groans."
The wrath of the poet flames forth against the tribe of Bry-
neich ; not "the phantom of a man" would he have left alive
of the hated race; and Bryneich (Northumbrian) remained
from that liour, in the language of the Cymry, a term of
bitter and indignant scorn as the name of a traitor"^.
From these testimonies it is evident (1), That the tribe of
the Cambrians, or Cymry, was only one of many tribes or
races in England at the time of the Saxon invasion. (2), That
it was the ruling tribe^ exercising an undefined sovereignty
over the rest. (3), That the other tribes offered little^ if any,
resistance to the incursions of the Teutonic races, and in part
coalesced with them against the tribe of the Cambrians. (4),
That, besides the Cambrians who remained in the country as
slaves, a large Celtic population was blended with the Teutonic
stock, and became " as Saxons," It is a necessary inference,
that a Celtic element woidd gradually penetrate into the lan-
guage of the conquering race, and affect it in proportion to
the numbers and influence of those who adopted the Saxon
cause, and became mingled with the Saxon population.
It is scarcely possible to determine with certainty what the
races were that are said by the Triads to have leagued Avith
the Saxons against the tribe of the Cymry. The.Coranians
are called in one of the Triads Scandinavians, and are said to
have come from Pwyl (Poland). They miited themselves to the
Saxons at once, probaT)ly through the sympathy arising from
an identity of race. They were, in all probability, of the tribe
of the Carini, classed bv Prichard Avith the Burscundiones,
Varini, Guttones, and other tribes inhabiting the north-east of
* See the notes to the edition of ' Y Gododin,' edited by the Rev. J.
\Villiaras, pp. 89 and JM.
J'
217 ^ C/' 7.J-^i
r •-
Germany, ou the shores of the Baltic, and along the banks of
the Vistula. The origin assigned to them in the Triads is
. tlierefore apparently correct, for the Carini are connected by
Pliny^vTtli the Guttones, whose territory extended along the
Vistula to the modern kingdom of Poland. '' Vindili, quorum
pars Burgnndiones, Varini, Carini, Guttones." Prichard
gives no other information of the Carini than that " they are
entirely losf^." We may infer, that they were compelled to
migrate by their more powerful neighbours, and that they
settled on the banks of the Hunibcr. — The Lloegrians were
probably a kindred race with the Cambrians; a different
branch of the Celtic stock. It is evident that they were Celtic,
from their connexion with Medrod, the nephew of Arthur,
and from the circumstance that the Cambrians, in opposition
to them, are said to have preserved their language, implying
that the Lloegrians had gradually adopted the language of the
S axons f. It is reasonable to infer, however, that the lan-
guage was not precisely the same, as the races were distinct ;
and since Edward LhuydJ has shown that some names of
places in England may be best interpreted from the Irish
branch of the Celtic stock, it is probable that they were
related to the Irish tribes. The difference between the
Irish and Welsh languages was doubtless less than it is
now. These views receive some confirmation from the
folloA^ing facts: — (1.) Asser, in his "^Life of Alfred,' has
recorded the British name of the town of Nottingham.
" Eodem anno (a. d. 868) paganorum exercitus Northanhym-
bras relinquens in Mercian! venit, et Scnottengahara adiil,
quod Britannice Tigguocobauc interpretatur, Latine autem
speluncarum domus : et in eodem loco eodem anno hyema-
verunt," Now in Gael, and Ir. tigh means a "house,^' and
uaigh (uagaidh in Gael.) a "cave" or "den," uagidheach,
" cavernous ;" in W. the corresponding forms are ty and ogof.
(2.) In the ballads of Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest (iu
the same locality), and in the Vision of Piers Ploughman,
* Priehard's ' Researches into the Physical History of Mankind,' vol. iii.
p. .^(il. t Triad 7-
X Archaeologia Britannica.
R
218
written pr()l)iil)ly near Malvern, the Avord used for "horse" is
capitll. This is the Gael, and Ir. cupnU. The W. form ccffijl
is foinul in the Craven country. (Carr's Glossaiy, v. kepJujU.)
(3.) I'ouiponius Mela (do Britaunis, lib. iii.) has given us the
liritish name for a chariot. " Diniicant bigis et curribus,
GalUce armati, . . . covinos vocant." This is the Gael, cobhan
(a coU'cr, a car or chariot), Gr. K6(f)ivo<;. This word is not
found in the modern Welsh language, (see Armstrong's Gael.
Diet. s. V. co/j/iaii.) — The tribes that inhabited Dcira and Ber-
nicia were probably of the Cambrian race. This would account
for the extreme bitterness Avith Avhich their treachery was
denomiced, as bemg treason to their own kindred. The word
" brjnicich'^ became a term of reproach in this very sense.
It is the appellation of a traitor to his kindred or race.
If we proceed to incjuire into the evidence which the local
names and the dialect of Lancashire offer with regard to these
historical statements, it "snll be found that it confirms them
in tAvo particulars : — (1.) That a large Celtic popidation must
have been left in the county after the establishment of the
Anglo-Saxon rule, and — (2.) That this population Avas of the
Welsh or Cymraic race. Very few words are found that
belong exclusively to the elder or Gaelic branch of the Celtic
stock, and probably even tliese were common to both divisions
of this class of languages at the time of the Saxon invasion.
Celtic Names of Natural Objects and of Places in the County
of Lancaster.
Mountains and Hills.
Pendle Hill"^. W. pen, head or summit, a common name
in Wales for a lofty summit, as PenmaenmaAvr, Penbryn, &c.,
Gael, ben, binnear, hill. This w^ord is Ava'itten in our old
records " Penhidl," and is an instance of three parts of a
single name, all haAing the same meaning, and marking three
successive changes of language: V(. pen; A.-S. hull; E. hill.
* It will assist the reading: of Welsh words, to say that "«;" is pro- .
nounced as the Enghsh " oo " {bwg^=boog) ; si as sh ; dd as soft th ; y as
the Eng. ii, except in monosyllables, when it is pronounced as 3^ in " pretty" ;
u as i in " sin," and sometimes with a longer sound, as Eng. ee.
219
CoNisTON Old Man. A corruption, as Dr. Whittaker has
pointed out, of alt maen, lofty liill'^. The word " alt" is not
retained in the Celtic languages as an adjective, but that it
was originally so used may be inferred fi'oni the W. allt, a cliff,
and Gael, alt, a hill. The word is retained in Allt Hill, a
rising ground not far from Oldham.
Rixingtou Pike. W./(ic or pig, a pointed end, a beak ; Arm.
picq, ¥r. pic, as in the Pic du Midif. There are other hills
so called in the county, as Warlow Pike, on the borders of
Derbyshire, and Thieveley Pike, near Todmorden.
Hentoe. The name of a high hill near Conistou: W. hen,
old, and tivr', a pile. The old name of this hill was Hentor.
The word " tor," a lofty pile, either hill or tower, is found in
almost aU the Semitic and Indo-European languages.
Thorn Crag and Long Crag. Two high hills near the great
chase of Bowland. W. craig, a rock; Gael, and Ir. craig.
Sholver. a hill not far from Oldham. W. siol (pr. shot),
head, and vawr, great.
Tandle Hills, near Middleton. W. tan, flat, low, con-
tinuous, or tan, fire, and lie, a place.
Bry.v. The name of a place in South Lancashire. W. bryn,
hill. There was an old family (now extinct) of this name,
the Bnois of Bryn Hall, now the seat of the Gerard family.
BuERsiLL Hill, near Rochdale. W. bwr, an entrenchment,
and sul (pr. sil), what extends round, circular.
Crimbles, in the north of Lancashire. W. crimell, a sharp
ridge. The word is written in the Domesday Book, crimeles.
TooTER Hni. This is the local name used by the covmtry
people, though the name given in the county maps is Horn-
blower's Hill. W. twdd (pr. tooth), that which juts out, or
from the name of the Celtic god, TaithJ.
* Journal of the Arehseol. Association, vol. vi. p. 269.
t Gael, peac, peic, any sharp-pointed thing.
X " Tumuli of a lofty character, sacred to Mercury, were the Teuts or
Toot-hills of our country," according to Mr. Bowles, from the identity of
Mercury or Teutates. Cleeve Toot, co. Somerset, is capped bj' a mass of
rocks, which from below has all the appearance of an altar. Tothill Street,
Westminster, says Morden, a topographer of Ehzabeth's reign, " taketh
r2
220
Duiix, or, as the lower classes call it, Tli' Durii. W. duryn^
a beak or snout. It is a j)rojeetiug point or ledge of land
near Blaekstone Edge.
Other Celtic names of hills woidd doubtless be found if the
names used by the country people were carefully collected,
but these wiU sutHce to show that many have been derived
from a Celtic source, and that they belong to the Cambrian
division of the Celtic class of languages*.
Rivers and Valleys.
The names of the rivers and brooks of Lancashire are
chiefly Celtic.
The IiiwELL, on -which the city of Manchester stands. W.
Ir, fresh, vigorous, and yivili, a name for river, as the Gwili
in Caermarthcnshire ; properly, that which turns or winds, a
winding stream. In composition, gA\ali loses the initial "g"t-
The Irk, a trilnitary of the Irwell. W. Iwrch, the roe-
buck. Lhuyd in his ' Adversaria/ says there are many
streams so called in Wales. Probably from bounding along
a hill-course.
The Medlock, another tributary of the Irwell. W. med,
complete, full, and Uwch, Gael. locJi, lake or pool.
The DorGLAs, flowing into the estuary of the Ribble. W. du,
black and glas, a greenish blue, or sea-green, so called from
the colour of the stream.
The RiBBLE. The name of this well-known river has much
name of a hill near it, which is called Toote-hill, in the great feyld near the
street." (Fosbroke, Encyc. of Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 582.) This, however,
is not the Tuisco or Teut of the Germans, but the Celtic Taith, the god of
travelling. Livy refers to Mercurius Teutates (in Welsh Duw Taith) in
his twenty-sixth book. (Prichard, vol. iii. p. 186.)
* Dr. Wiiitfikcr found that a hill between Lancaster and the great chase
of Bowland was called by the peasantry Gloufugh or Cloufagh, and he sug-
gests the W. glawog, rainy, as the origin of the name. I prefer the Gael.
globach, {rom glo, a veil or hood, as Beinn-glo (the cloud-capped mountain),
near Atliol.
t The root gvcili was transferred to Anglo-Saxon. " yErest of Turcan-
wyllas hcafde" (first from the source of the Turcan stream), is found in
Kemble's A.S. Charters (i. 109).
221
perplexed antiquarian philologists. I can only venture to
suggest that it may be compounded of rhe (active, fleet), and
bala (a shooting out, a discharge, the outlet of a lake), and
may refer to its rapid coiu'se as an estuary.
The Calder, a tributary of the Ribble. Mr. Baxter de-
rives the first part of this word from calai, muddy. In W.
llai (pr. somewhat like the Eng. clay), signifies "mud" and
also " gloom," but this is not, I think, the origin of " cal" in
Calder. More probably from W. call, what goes or tm-ns
about. The latter part is doubtless from the W. dwr, a
stream.
The Darwen, another tributary of the Ribble. W. ihvr,
and gwen, white, beautiful.
The Luxe, on which the town of Lancaster stands. This
word is probably the same as the Alun in Wales, fi'om W. at,
chief, and aun, un, a contraction of afon, a river ■^. This con-
traction of " afon " is not uncommon. It is found in Corn-
brook, near Manchester, [Cor -aun, narrow stream).
The Wyre, a river that flows into Morecambe Bay. W.
givyr, pm'c, fresh, lively.
The rivers Irwell, Ribble, Lune and Wyre are the chief
rivers in Lancashire, the Mersey being a boundary stream
between the comities of Lancaster and Chester. Other
smaller streams in the comity are the Nadin, W. nacl, a
shrill noise ; nadu, to utter a shrill cry. (The termination
" in," is either the Celtic name for river, In or Inn, as the
Inn in the Tyrol and in Fifeshire : or formative, as geli, a
shooting out, gelhi, what shoots out t ;) Beal, W. bel, tumult,
belli, to brawl ; Derwent, W. dwr, river, and gwent, a level
* On referring to the Itinerarj' of Antoninus, I find that the name of the
station where Lancaster now stands was Ad Alaunam. The name of the
river was therefore Alauua.
t Mr. Bamford, in his Glossary of South Lancashire Words, a work
equally unworthy of the subject and the author, derives the name of this
stream from na,"no," and din, "noise," "the silent stream ." Unfortunately,
however, for this attempt at etymology, the Nadin is not a silent stream ;
and if I\Ir. Bamford had ever heard it rushing in winter along its narrow,
rocky channel, he would scarcely have been lui'ed by the " fatal facility "
of such a derivation.
223
coimtry; Leven, W. llefn, sinootli; Tame, W. Tato, anciently
Tarn, quiet, still, Gael, tamh, stillness; Goyt, W.gw?/th, a chan-
nel, a drain; Crake, W. arc, a sharp noise; Loud, W. I/wth,
glib, sli])pcry ; and Kennet, prononnccd hy the country
people Kimnet, a river on the north shore of Morccambc Bay.
This last word is a coraponnd of the W. cyn, head, chief, and
nedd (pr. neth), a river, properly that which turns or Avhirls, a
whirllnfi; stream.
To these may he added the Bay of JNIouecambe, W. mawr,
Gael. ?//o?*, gi'cat, and cam, crooked, windinj^-; and Winander,
or AYixDER Mere, W. (jwyn (fair, beautiful), and dwr (water,
stream).
Valleys.
DoLDERUM or DoLDRUM, a vallcy near Rochdale. W; dol,
a dale, and trum, in comp. (hnim, a ridge, primarily, a back.
Crag Valley, a long irregular valley near Blackstone
Edge. W. crai(/, a rock. This vaUey is also called the Vale
of TuRViN, W. terft/n (pr. turvin), a boundary, terr(je finis.
This valley Avas probably in old time the boundary in this
part between the Sistuntii of Lancashire and the Brigantes of
Yorkshire.
Names of Places.
Manchester, ancient British name Mancenion, or Man-
ceinion. This metropolis of the north can boast of the most
remote antiquity. Its i ame would indicate a Celtic origin,
for " man " is undoubtedly the W. man, a place ; but the
meaniiig of the latter part of ths name has given rise to some
controversy. Dr. Whitaker says, t fter Baxter, that the word
means " the place of teuts^," but " cenion " in Welsh means
" skins,^' and the secondary meaning of " tents " is purely a
conjecture. In SpmTcU's W. Dictionary the Celtic name is
written jNIanccinion, and "ceinion" is the W. word for
" ornaments " or " delicacies." It is scarcely possible to
determine more than that the name is Celtic. In this
instance, as in many others, the Saxon conquerors retained
* Ilist. of Maiiolicster, vol. i. p. 5.
v--*'
v^
223
only the first part of the ancient name^ adding Chester to
mark that it had been a Roman station.
Mellor, near Blackburn. W. maelawr, a mart or market.
Catterall, near Garstang. W. cad or cat, war, and rhail,
a fence. There was doubtless a British encampment here.
ToRVER, near Coniston Water. W. twr, a pile or tower,
^ and vawr, great.
Trows, a \allage in the township of Castleton ; and TrawdeUj
^ , ^ near Colne. W. traws, a mountain pass. There is a place * '""^
fv^-^ called Trawsfynydd (mountain-pass), in Merionethshire.
Clegg, Clegg Plall, in the parish of E-ochdale. W. cleg, a
, rock, a chff. This word, as a personal name, was as common
in very ancient times as it is in Lancashire at the present
. * .;! day. Syr Clegius was a famous knight, according to old
legends, at King Arthm-'s com't, and, as such, he figures in
the jNIorte d' Arthur and the Tlu'ee Metrical Romances, pub-
^/*M- '" lished by the Camden Society.
Peel, on the Roman road from Manchester to Blackrod.
W. pill, a small fortress, a stronghold. This word is common
in the county as a local name. There is an ancient British
encampment near Stockport (the moat of which is still vi-
sible), which the comitry people call the Peel. The rude
towers to which the northern borderers brought their prey
after a foray are still called by this name ^.
Lever. This is a name occurring tlu'ee or four times in
* Mr. Williams, in his edition of Prof. Leo's work on Anglo-Saxon
names, has the following note (Preface, p. x.). "A recent anonymous
writer in the Times remarks, that with the exception of Chai'les Fox, Gil-
bert a Becket — and his mother was an Arab — and the late Sir Robert Peel
(qu. whether even this be not the French ^jeZZe, a baker's shovel. — Ed.),,
our history does not record one great or illustrious name of Saxon origin.
Bruce, Wallace, Chandos, Audley, Talbot, Fitzwalter, Langton, Blake,
IIoj)ton, Falkland, Chatham, Pitt, were as purely and unmixed Normans
as Wellington himself. Cecil, Gleudower, Vane, the good Lord Cobhani,
Cromwell, and in general the leaders of the Calvinistic party, sprang from
the Ancient Britons. Milton was half Norman, half French." This
however is overstrained, and the writer has fallen into an evident
confusion between names and family descent, as some of the names he
mentions are pure Saxon. Peel is not from the Fr. pelle, but is the
Celtic/,)/'/ (peel).
/¥
224
the south of Lancashire. There are Darey Lever, Great and
Little Lever, and Lever Edge. It is probably eompomided
of W. lie, a plaee, and ramr, great.
Werneth. W. gwern, a watery or swampy meadow. The
word also means the alder tree, from its preference of a
swam])y spot, llenee the name of the hill in Yorkshire,
Whcrnside, near the boundaiy line of the two counties, on
whose north side the alder still gTows in profusion.
RossALL, on the moorland near Fleetwood. W. rhos, a
moor.
Caun'fohth and Scotforth, in the north of the county.
W. cam, a heap of stones, and fordd, a road. The Celtic
word " fordd," now appropriated to a road over a stream,
means simply "road" or "passage"^." The Avord "Scot"
may be a sign of the ancient Irish Scoti, of whose permission
to dwell in the country the Welsh Triads have given us an
account.
Brinsup, not from Blackrode. W. hryn, hill, and swp, a
heap or cluster.
CiNDERLAND. Tlicrc arc at least three places in the county
with this name. There is also Cinder Hill in the north. As
the English word " cinder " offers no reasonable explanation
of this name, we may assume, Avithout rashness, that it is the
W. cyndir, principal or head land.
Penketh, Pendleton, Penwortiiam. Here the first
syllable is the W. pen, head or summit.
There are some other names of places which may probably
be referred to a Celtic origin, as Heskin, Hesketh (W. hesg,
sedge, rushes) ; Gigg, W. gvng, a retreat or opening in a
wood, and afterwards, hamlet, fortress f ; Sakneyford or
Sharneyford, W. sarn, stepping-stones, a causcAvay ; but
* The word " forth," as the A.S.fyrhthe, may be, as Prof. Leo of Halle
admits, after Kenible, from the W.fridd {]n-. frith), a plantation, a tract
of ground enclosed from the mountains, a sheep-walk.
t " Cognoscit nou longe ex eo loco oiipidum Cassivellauni abesse sylvis
paludibnsque munitum ; quo satis magnus hominum pecorisque numerus
convenerit. Opjndum autem Britanni voeant, quum sylvas impeditas vallo
atque fossa munierunt." — Caesar, De Bell. Gall. lib. v. c. 20.
225
the number of Celtic names of places is much less than of the
names of natui'al objects or of the Celtic words foimd in the
dialect"^. The Saxons or Danes gave their own names to the
town or village of which they took possession, while the river
that flowed bv, or the hill that rose above it, retained its
original Celtic appellation. Thus the river Ccmi (crooked,
winding) retains the name which the Celtic tribes had given
it, but ^'Caer Bladdon" has given way to "Cambridge;"
and the Thames is in name Celtic still, while " Caer Ludd "
has been changed into "London;" the Avon, too, is yet as
pm-ely Celtic in name as when the Celtic tribes roved along
its banks, but " Caerodor " has left no trace in " Bristol,"
nor " Amwythig" in " Shrewsbmy," though the Severn is as
Celtic as the hill Plinlimmon, from whose side it springs. The
number of Celtic names of towns and Aollagcs in Lancashire
that have survived the great torrent of Saxon invasion,
is a proof of the strength and extent of the barrier that
ojiposed it.
The Celtic local names of the county are conclusive evi-
dence of the fact that a Celtic race once inhabited it, but the
Celtic words still existing in the dialect show more decisively
/'' that a portion of the aboriginal race remained on the soil
after the Anglo-Saxon and Danish conquerors had taken pos-
! session of it. They furnish also data for an approximate cal-
culation of the ratio which this element bears to that of the
races with which it was mingled in process of time.
* There are, however, many names which are utterly inexplicable by any
of the Teutonic languages, and invite conjecture, on this account, in an-
other field. Thus Breighmet Fold, near Bolton, would suggest, in name
at least, the Bremetonacum of the Itineraries. We know fiora Fortunatus
(Prichard, vol. iii. p 127), that ''nemet" was a Celtic word for temple,
and " breigh" may be the W. brir/, top or summit, implying that a high or
chief temple was there in the pagan times. So Camel Hill may be referred
to the Celtic god of war, Camulus ; and Eccles, near Manchester, may be
from the W. eylwys, Lat. eeclesia, and may indicate that a Christian temple
wa.s built there before the time of the Saxon invasion. These, however,
are little more than conjectures. It can only be certainly affirmed that
such names are not Teutonic, and are therefore most probably Celtic.
226
Celtic Words in the Dialect of Lancashire*.
Addle, rotten, decayed, as an addle egg. W. hadlu, to
decay, to grow rotten ; " addle " is also used as a verb, and
means to earn, to get by laborn*. In this sense it is derived
from the A.-S. edlecin, a reward, a recompense.
Agog, eager, desirous. W. 7jsrjo(ji, to stir, to wag. There
is a burlesque French word gogues, " etrc dans ses gogues,"
to be in a merry mood, which is probably from the same
root.
AwsE or Oss, to offer, to attempt. W. osi, to offer to do, to
attempt. Fr. essayer.
Badger, a provision-dealer. This word may be fr^om the
Fr. hiadier, as sodger, fi'om soldier ; but as the Fr. term is
from the Celtic blmvd, meal, it is possible that the Lan-
cashire word may be derived as directly fi-oni a Celtic
source as the French. Mr. Carr (Craven Glos^aij) derives it
fi-om Teut. katzen (diseurrere) . A//*'*-*^*^ i jlf' ^
Balderdash, nonsense, idle talk. W. baJdorddus (prating,
talkuig), from bul, what jets out, and tordd (a din, a tunndt),
according to Dr. Owen Pughe. The word is midoubtedly
Celtic, though found in the Isl. baldur and the Fris. bidder.
Ba:^i, a false mocking tale, a gibe. This Avord has not been
retained in Welsh, but it is found in the Armor, bamein, to
deceive, and the Gael, beum, a cut, a taunt or sarcasm.
Bawtert, dfrty, soiled with mud or filth. W. baw, dfrt,
mire ; budro, to make dirty.
Berr, rapidity, force. To run a berr, is to run headlong ;
a run-a-berr leap, is a leap taken after a quick run. W. bur,
Adolencc, rage.
Bitter-bun or Bitter-bump, the bittern. The Welsh name
for the bittern is adar-y-bwn, or bwmp-y-gors. Bivnip means
a hollow sound, and is expressive of the peculiar sound or cry,
the boom of the bittern.
BoDiKiN, a bodkin, anciently a spear or dirk. " Od's
bodikhis," by God's spears, an allusion to the death of
* I mean by this title ' dialectic words spoken in Lancashire,' whether
-forming i)art of other dialects or not.
227
Christ, was formerly a common oath. W. bidoy, a small
hanger or dirk; Gael, biodag (Ir. boidigm, dim. oibidoy, dirk. —
Dr.Whittaker).
Boggart, an apparition, a hobgoblin. W. bwg id. bvjgwth,
to thi-eaten, to scare ; Gael, bochdan, a bugbear.
Boggle, to hesitate, to be afraid, to do anything awkwardly.
W. bogelu, to affright, intrans. to hide one's self through fear.
Bother, to stun, to perplex. Corn, bothar, deaf; Gael.
bothar ; W. bijddaru, to deafen.
Braggot, ale spiced and sweetened. W. bragawd (in
the poem of Gododin, a.d. 570-580, bragmvt), "a liquor
made anciently from the wort of ale and mead fermented
together." — Dr. O. Pughe.
Brat, an apron, a cloth. W. brat, a piece, a clout. Gael.
brat, a mantle, a coveruig.
Brawse. (W. Lane), brambles, fiirze; Gael, preas, a
brier, a bush; W. brwyn, rushes, sedge; brasses*, dialect of
Berri.
Brawsen, stuffed with food, gorged. W. braisg, gross,
thick.
Bree, to fear. W. braw, terror ; A.-S. bregean, to fr-ighten.
Brewis, a dish made of oat-cakes soaked in broth. W
brywes. Bos worth, in his A.-S. Dictionary, has brkv, brewis,
on the authority of Somner, but the word is certainly Celtic,
from briw, that which is broken in pieces.
Brodule, to assume, to boast, to swagger. W. brolio, to
boast, to swagger. Du. brallen. Germ, prahlen.
Brog, a bushy or swampy spot. W. brwg, a forest, a brake.
Broggin, fishing for eels with a pole, or by thrusting a
twig, furnished with hook and worm, into the holes where the
eels lie. Gael, brog, to spur, to goad. W. procio, to thrust,
to push in.
Bruit, to talk of, to publish; Bruited, talked about. W. brut,
brud, a chronicle; brudio, to record, to publish; Yr. h'uit-f.
* ' English Etymologies,' by H. Wedgwood, Esq., Philol. Soc. Trans,
vol. iv. p. 250.
t My antiquarian readers will be reminded of the Brut of Layaraon, the
Brut of Tysilio, and other ancient chronicles.
90«
BuRLEYMON, a pevsoii appointed at courts-lcet, to examine
and to determine about dis})nted fences*; W. bwr, a fence,
an cnclosm'c.
BuKK, the floAver of the large Avatcr-dock^ the head of a
thistle. "W. hdr, a bnneli or tuft. Gael, boi'r, a knoh (as a
verb, to .swell, to grow big). A.S. burre, the burdock.
Buss, a kiss. W. bus, the human ]i]i; Gael, bus, a lip, a
kiss ; Lat. basmm ; Fr. baiser.
Byes, beasts. W. buiv, kine; Gael, bo, a cow; Arm. bw,
Gr. y8ou9 ; Lat. bos.
Cam, to make crooked or awry ; Camm'd, crooked, ill-tem-
pered. W. cam, crooked; camu, to bend, to curve; Gael,
and Ir. cam.
Cannell Coal, a kind of coal that burns with a bright flame.
W. camvyU, a candle, a lamp; canwy, a bright glare, from
can, bright, white ; Lat. canus ; Ir. and Armor, can.
Ceckle, to retort impertinently, to sj)eak insolently. W.
cecru, to wrangle, to brawl; Germ. keck.
Cleaw% a flood-gate in a w^ ater-course. W. clwdd, a dyke, an
embankment.
Cleawse, an enclosm'c, a field, a close. W. claws, a small
field, a yard or court; Gael, clomsadh (pr. and sometimes
written clos). The Germ, klause, a cell, a narrow pass, and
the Lat. claudo, clausus, are probably from the same root,
expressing that which is fenced off*, or enclosed.
Cob, to beat, to strike, to fling, also to surj)ass. A word
in very common use in Lancashire. That cobs aw, means,
it s\irpasses all, and give o'er cobbin, give up striking or
flinging at me ; W. cob'io, to beat, to thump, to form a top or
tuft ; Gael, cobh, victory, conquest.
CocK-uoAT, a small boat. W. cwch, a round vessel, a boat ;
\x. coca.
Cocker, to indulge, to fondle, W. cocru. (id.)
* Among the entries in the records of the courts-leet held at Hale,
near Warrington, is the follow nig : —
IV Hen. V. Burelamen | ^'1^/'' Coldecotes j jurati in terminuni
L W illicnnus de 1 horneton J pra;dictum.
In another entry the word is spelled " Burelagnien."
229
Cogs, the projecting parts of a toothed- wheel. W. cog, a
lump, a short piece of wood ; cocos, cogs.
CoLLEY-WEST. Whcii a Lancashire man is altogether un-
successful in his schemes, he says that everything goes coUey-
west with him. This appears to be a compound of the W.
coll, loss, damage ; Gael, coll, destruction, and the root in
the W. givestwng, to decline, to go down ; implying a con-
tinuous loss by Avhich he is going down to ruin.
CoNGEL, a stick or staff. W. cogel, a truncheon, a cudgel.
CosTRiL,^ Kestril, a small barrel. W. costrel, a jar or
flagon.
Cosy, comfortable, snug. W. cws, a state of quietude or
rest. ]\Ir. Wedgwood refers to the Gael, coiseag, a small
nook, a snug corner; coigeasach, snug, cosy^.
Craddy, Croddy. 'To set craddics' is a phrase among
Lancashire school-boys for proposing some dangerous leap, or
other feat, as a trial of daring or dexterity. W. crad, heat, vi-
gour; certh, awful, dangerous; certhain, to contend. Gael.
crodha, brave, active; crodhachd, bravery, prowess.
Crap, money, means. W. crap, a grapple or catching ;
ci'ob, a heap. Gael, cearbh, money.
Cratchinly, feebly, weakly. W. crach, scabby, also puny,
petty.
Creeas, measles.
Creawse, amorous, lascivious. These words are both, I
think, from the W. cres, heating, inflaming; cresu, to parch,
to inflame ; crest, scurf.
Crib, to steal, to filch a small part of anything. W. cribo,
to comb off", to card.
Crimmet, an obscene Avord, and other words of a coarse or
vile meaning, are of the Celtic stock. This circumstance
shows very probably that the words belonged to an inferior or
conquered race.
Croghton-belly, one who has eaten too much fi-uit. I
give this word on the authority of Halliwell. It is probably
from the W. croth, what swells or bulges out, a rotundity ;
croten, a plump little girl.
* Philol. Proo. vol. iv. p. 252.
230
Croo, a crib for cattle. W. criv, what tends to close or
curve together. Gael, era, a fold for sheep, a stall.
Cuddle, to fondle, to enilirace, to press to the bosom, to
lie closely. AV. cudiUo, to hide, to cover.
Cuts. Among Lancashire school-boys, to draw ' cuts,' is to
draw lots. This was usually done, in my boyhood, by draw-
ing one of several pieces of paper, cut into different lengths.
The Avord may be derived from the verb to ' cut,' but more
probal)ly from the W. civtws, a lot *.
Dad (W. Lane), to move a hea\y substance by turning
it on its end. W. daddro, a tm^n or twist (Lewis).
Dade, to hold a child suspended by the arms, while learn-
ing to walk. W. dodi, to put, to place, to set. The Sanscrit
dadh (poncre, tencre, sustentare), is much nearer the Lanca-
shire word both in form and meaning. Another close con-
nexion wath the Sanscrit is found in the word " char," which,
as a vcrlj, means " to go out to work for the day," " to take
occasional jobs." Sans. c/i«r, to go, to do, to arrange. (Bopp.
Comp. Gr. p. 1105, Eng. Ed.)
DossucK, a dirty, slovenly woman. W. dosaivg, speckled.
Gael, dos, a tuft, froth, scum.
Dubbin, a kind of paste used by shoemakers. W. dwb,
mortar, cement.
DuNDER-iiEAD, a blocklicad, a silly fellow. W. dwndro,
to prate, to babble ; dwndrwr, a prater, a tattler.
Eag-end, a remnant, a refuse piece. W. ffaig, the extre-
mity or end of a thing. This word which, though not pecu-
euliar to Lancashire, is used by all classes in the county, is
an instance of that curious connexion of words with the
same meaning, which is always found when different races
have been blended together. Cock-boat has been already
mentioned. The contemptuous use of such words as " cock,"
" fag," and others of the same class, shows also very clearly
on which side lay the superiority of racef- The common word
* Philol. Proc. vol. i. p. 174.
t The same inference may be drawn from the words, dapper, knave,
boor, churl, &c., compared with then- Teutonic relatives. They bear the
mark of the Norman scorn for the Saxon serf.
231
" salt-cellar " is an instance of this kind of juxtaposition. ^
Fr. sellier, salt-dish.
FarranTj decent, respectable, worthy. This word is derived
by Mr. Brockett from the A.S. fat-an, to go, and the meaning
attached to the word in his Glossary of North Countiy
Words, is, " equipped for a journey, fashioned, shaped." In
Lancashii'e the word is not used in this sense, though the
meaning is e\idently retained in oivd-f arrant, precocious, old-
fashioned. It is not improbable that the idea of behaviour
or course of life may have been derived in this instance from
the primaiy idea of motion or progress, as in the common
Enghsh "way," and the Germ. " auffuhrung;" but I am
iuclined to prefer the Gael, farranta, stout, brave, generous,
from/ea/', a man. If the A.S. verb ''fara7i'' be preferred as
the root of this word, it may l^e compared ^ith Old Goth.
fuari, aptus, prosper; fuara, behaviour; Fris. fere, usefid,
healthy ; and the Bavarian unfuer, misconduct.
Fash, the tops of turnips, waste, trouble. Gael, fasach,
stubble ; fasan, refuse of grain.
Fattle, to trifle about business, to dangle after a female.
Perhaps fr'om W. ffattio, to strike lightly, to pat*.
File, a cimnmg person, generally used of old persons.
This word has no reference, I think, to the common English
tool, a file ; but is connected "«ith the W. ffiU, a writhe, a
twist ; ffillio, to writhe about. Gael, fill, a fold, a plait ;
fillte, folded, plaited, deceitfid.
Flasget, a shallow basket. W. fflasged, a vessel of straw
or wicker-work, a basket, Gael, flasg, id. In this instance,
as in " bragot," we have the stronger sound " t " for the
W. "d;" but as the modern W. "bragawd" was anciently -
"bragawt," we may infer that Lancashire has retained the
primitive somid of the word, and that my fellow-countymen
are in some respects like the Irish-English of a former time,
" ipsis Hibernis Hiberniores."
Fog, grass left on the ground unmovrai; long, "svithered
grass. W. ffivy, dry grass; ffwgws, diy leaves. Ducange
* Old ^orse, fitla, befingera; DieiF. s. x.fetjan.
232
has " fogagium," Avintcr fodder, Avhich, Mr, Carr thinks, does
not express tlie meaning of the provincial word "fog." He
is however mistaken, if he sujjposes tliat they arc not from the
same root. The AV. jfwy means ])rimarily "what is dry or
Hght," and " fogagium " means drv food, as hay, in opposition
to the fresh grass. The Craven farmer has retained tlie pro-
per meaning of the word, when he says, " he is boun to Joy
his cattle," that is, to take them out of the pastm-e at the
beginning of winter, and to feed them on dry food.
FooMAKT, the pole-eat. AV. ffwlbart.
Frump, to sulk, to take offence. AA". ffromi, to chafe, to be
in a pet. The Belg. frumpden, to reproach, to revile, offers a
probable parentage for this Avoi-d; but the root is, I think,
Celtic. AA'. ffrom, fuming, violent; ffro, a violent motion or
impulse.
Gam, Game, crooked; as a gam or game leg. AV. cam,
crooked.
Garth, a hoop, the belly-band of a horse. AV. (/ardd (pr.
garth), an enclosm^e. The primary idea is that of encircling,
enclosing, and hence the Yv.jardin, Eng. garden, Old Germ,
gard, a town ; Russ. gorod, town ; and the many forms of the
same root, signifying " town " or " enclosed place " in the
Semitic languages. From the softening of the guttural comes
the Eng. " yard," an enclosed space near a house.
Gin, a machine for separating and cleansing the fibres of
cotton. A^^. ginio, to pluck wool ; gwlan gin, plucked wool.
GiNNEL, a narrow passage, a small channel formerly made
in the centre of narrow streets for the passage of water.
Arm. ganol, a channel ; Corn, gannel; Gael, grinneal, the bed
of a river, a pool, a channel.
Glur, the softest kind of fat, AV, gwer, tallow, suet,
Gael, geir, id.
GoLTCH, to eat or drink ravenously, to be gluttonous.
Gael, gollach, gluttonous. AV. golch, immersion, washing.
GoRBELLY, one who has a large belly or paunch, a glutton.
A\^. gor, a particle signifying large, excessive, as goradain,
great velocity; goraddo, to promise too much; goraddfed,
^ VTT
over-mellow, too ripe; and hoi, holy, belly, primarily, that /I
which IS round. "^
Greece, Gbeese, a slight ascent; also stairs, steps. ^ i
W. gris, a step or stair.
Grig. As merry as a grig. This word means the grey- (
hound ; A.S. grig-kund. It belongs to the Celtic languages ;
Gael, gregh, hound, probably this particular kind of hound ;
the Vertagus of Martial, which was of a Gallic, i. e. Celtic ,^
'^.'#i^
Gael, greim, a bite, a morsel.
Gry, to be in an ague-fit. W, crynu, to shake, to quiver ;
cryn, shaking, shivering. Gael, crith. - ' . y
GuLLioN, a soft, worthless fellow. W. gwill^ a vagabond, '^-^^^
(as an adj. fickle, apt to stray). "■ " ^i^-p-^^-
Gyre, to purge. A gyred calf is one purged by ha^ing too
rich milk. W. gyru, to thrust forward, intrans. to run ;
Gael, sgur, to scour, to piu'ge. r^'
Hap, chance, fortune; mayhap, perhaps. W. hap, id., / " '^
hapus, fortimate, happy.
Hared, an obit or mortuary. Dr. Whittaker (Hist, of
Mane. vol. i. p. 359) is my authority for the word. He states
that in Angiesea, the word hared was used in this sense; y^"g«=..-.^.
derived ^\dthout doubt from the Lat. hares, as our O.-Eng. y^^
word, heriot. t^;^
Hawk, to cough, to bring up phlegm. W. hochi, to throw '•*• ^
up phlegm.
Healo, Yealo, modest, shy. W. gwyl, modest, diffident.
Gael, eagal, ail, fear, timidity.
HiG, a fit of pettish anger. W. ig, a sob; igio, to sigh, to sob. / /
Hog, v., to carry on the back; also, to put potatoes into a ' i i^jb
hole or pit. These not veiy similar meanings find their point
of union in the W. hwg, a bend, a hook, and also a nook or r- #'?^
corner. The "hog" was the nook where the potatoes were
put and covered over, and the word was afterwards transferred
to the more convenient pit.
s
234.
HooANT, flcsli swelled and hard from inflammation. W.huan,
the sun.
HoppEiij a receptacle for corn in a mill, a basket.
W. hopran, id.
HowsE, to stir np, generally used of the fire. W. hoeivi, to
render alert or sprightly.
Huff, IIuft, to treat scornfully, to attack with scornful
reproofs. W. vifft, a scorn, a slight; ivjftio, to push away
with disapprobation, to cry shame. Mr. Brockctt gives the
Isl. yfa, in'itare, as the origin of the word.
Hutch, to lift up the shoulders uneasily, to move the
body with an uneasy motion. W. hicio, to snap, to catch
suddenly.
Imp, to deprive of, to rob. W. imp, a scion, a graft;
impio, to engraft. The Lancashire meaning is an amusing
secondary sense of the Celtic word; taking a slip from one
stock to graft on another being a delicate expression for rob-
bery. The Welsh have never used the word in this sense.
Jimp, neat, spruce. W. r/ioymp, smart, trim, fair.
Keen, to burn. W. cynnen, to kindle, to set on fire;
cynne, a fire-blaze. — Pughe.
Kibble hounds. Beagles were formerly so called in Lan-
cashire. Dr. Whittakcr, who is my authority for the word,
suggests the Ir. cuib, greyhound, as its som'ce.
Kipple, to lift a weight off the ground to the shoulders
without help or stoppage. W. cip, a sudden pull or effort;
cipio, to snatch, to take off suddenly. The author of the
Cheshire Glossary, has the plirase Kibbo Kift, and explains
that it means standing in a half-bushel, and lifting from the
ground to the shoulders a load of w heat. " Why," he adds,
" I do not know ; but I have some idea of having seen some-
where the word kibbo or kibbor used in the sense oi strong*.
Shoidd it not rather be kibbow gift? and the feat above
mentioned will be a gift of strength." This explanation,
which is almost as happy as the derivation of the English
surname Peel (a rude town or fortress), from the Fr. pelle, a
* Perhaps the Hebrew gibbor.
235
baker^s shovel, is not an unfair specimen of the guesses in
etymology, made by writers wholly ignorant of the Celtic class
of languages. The Welsh name for a half-bushel measure, the
traditional foot-place for this effort of strength, is cibyn, and
cip means a sudden effort. The cibyn cip, or, as our Cheshire
neighbours have corrupted it, the kibbo kift (" c " is always
hard in Welsh), is simply the half-lDushel feat.
Lake, to idle, to jilay truant. Perhaps from W. Uechu, to
skulk, to lie hid; but more probably fi'om A.-S. lac, play,
sport; Goth, laiks.
LiTfiE, V. to thicken broth or soup with meal. W. llith,
meal soaked in water. Gael, leite, water-gruel.
LoBB, a hea\y, clumsy fellow. W. Hob, a heavy lump, a
blockhead. Gael, liohar, a lubberly or awkward fellow*.
The word, when used as a verb, means, to run with a long
step ; perhaps from the W. llofan, what branches or shoots
out.
Lurch, to lurk, to lie hid. W. llerchio, to loiter about, to
lurk, derived by Dr. O. Pughe from llerch, a fit of loitering or
lurking, and this from ller, what is stretched or drawn out.
LuTCH, to pulsate strongly and painfully, as an angry
tumour. W. lluchio, to fling, to throw \iolently, to cast snow
into drifts. Gael, luath, luathaich, to hasten, to mill cloth by
rapid and violent beating.
LuvER, an open chimney, originally a hole in the centre of
the roof for the escape of smoke. W. Iwfer, pr. loover, a
chimney, Lewis. This word is not in Dr. O. Pughe's Dic-
tionary f.
* The Dutch have lobhes in the same sense, and the root may belong to
both classes of languages ; but the root-idea — heaviness — is found only, I
think, in the Celtic.
t In an article in the Quarterly Review, vol. Iv. written, I believe, by
the late Mr. Garnett, this word is said to be " plainly the Icelandic liori
(pronounced liowri or lioorij; Norwegian, liore ; West Gothland, liura;
described in the statistical accounts of those countries as a sort of cupola
with a trap-door, serving the twofold purpose of a chimney and a sky-
light." Perhaps, however, the Gael, luidheir (dh in Gael, is either silent,
or, before a vowel, is \n\ nearly as the Eng. y), a chimney, a vent, a flue,
may be the true etymon. W. llwyf, a frame, a loft.
s2
236
As my design is not to give a complete list of all the Celtic
words in the Lancashire dialect, bnt only to show how large
and important this element is ; and since, moreover, to discuss
the yy\\o\e, per seriem literarum, would extend this paper to an
immoderate length, I will only add a few more instances to
complete the proof.
^IiNT, a large sum, especially of money. This word may
he fi'om the common Eng. word " mint," implying a large
exchequer, hut more probably from the W. maint, a large
quantity; Fr. maint.
MoG, to move off, to depart quickly. Scot, mudge.
W. mwch, swift, quick ; mwcMo, to hasten, to be quick.
Muggy, damp, dirty, used of the weather. W. niwci, bog,
from mwg, smoke ; or it may be from the Old Norse mykia,
mollire, stereorare, myki, fimus, Du. muyk, soft, [Dieffenbach,
Worterbuch dcr Gothischcn Sprache, s. v. muks,'] and related
to "muck," "mucky*."
MuLLocH, dirt, rubbish. W. mwlwcJi, refuse, sweepings.
Gael, niulach, dirt, a puddle.
Mychin, Michin, out of humour, pining, dissatisfied.
W. mic, spite, pique ; micio, to be piqued.
Natter, to gnaw, to nibble. W. naddu, to hew, to chip.
Oandurth, afternoon. W. anterth, the forenoon, morning,
according to Dr. O. Pughe, from an and tarth, literally, with-
out vapour, the time of the day when the vapours are dis-
sipated. Armor, enderv, afternoonf. (Philol. Proc. i. 173.)
* The W. migen, a boggy or swampy place, seems to be related to these
words.
t In the Anturs of Arther, the expression, " between imdur and none"
occurs, and the editor, in explanation, quotes from the Quarterly Review,
vol. Ivi. : " The true form is undorn or under, i. e. unter, inter, between,
and means the intervening period ; it therefore sometimes denotes a part
of the forenoon, or meal taken at that time, and sometimes a period be-
tween noon and sunset. Ulphilas translates npiurov, Luc. xiv. 12, by
undornimat ; Lane, oandurth." I think, however, that " oandurth " is
Celtic, from the Old Gael, indir, now eadar, between, connected with the
Goth, undorn and the Sans, antur. In Gaelic, eadarthrath, lit. between-
time, is the equivalent of the Lane. " oandurth " and " yeandurth," fore-
noon ; this w ould be formerly, indir-thrath, and by contraction, indirth, of
which the W. anfet-th is perhaps only another form.
■/:
^
V Orril, mad, frenzied. W. rhull, apt to hreak out, rash,
hasty.
Pantle, (W. Lane), a snare for snipes. W. pant, what
involves or hems m. Gael, and Ir. peinteal, a snare.
Pash, a sudden gush of water or tears. W. pasio, to cause
an exit, to expel, fi'om pas, what expels, an exit.
Peddle, Piddle, to do anything slightly, to trifle, to work
ineffectually. W. pid, what tapers to a point; pitio, very
small, petty.
Pee, to look with one eye, to squint. W. py, what is in-
volved or inversed or turned imvards. Mr. Brockett refers to
a ludicrous anecdote of a person called Peed Dalton of Shap,
that is, the one-eyed Dalton.
Peigh, to cough. W.pych, a cough. — Lewis.
J" Pelt, to fling, to throw at. Also to move or rmi quickly.
\Pelter, to batter, to beat.
These words are from the W. pel, a ball ; peled, a ball, bul-
let ; Eng. pellet ; peJre, beating of a ball to and fro ; peledu,
to throw a ball. •
Pick, to push sharply, to fling.
Picking-stick, the stick by which weavers throw their
shuttles. W. picio, to dart, to fling.
As high as I could pick my lance.
Coriolanus, act i. sc. 1.
Pilder, Pilther, to wither, to shrivel, to fade away. W.
pydru, to rot, to putrefy; pallder, failure, abortiveness, a ^
perished state.
Ping, a finch. W. pine, id. The W. word " pine" means C^^
also " brisk," " fine ;" and, as a subst., is probably applied
to the bird from this sense ; all appellatives being originally
expressive of form or quality.
PowsE, Powsement, dirt, reftise, oflFal. They are also very
expressive terms of reproach, implying a high degree of con-
tempt. W. 2^ws, what is expelled. This is very probably the
true etymon of the Lancashire " powse" and " powsement,"
though the W. word does not express foulness : it means
simply " that which is violently expelled or sent forth," and,
in a secondary sense, " a violent utterance, a loud outciy."
(k^
.-•!t •»
238
PuNSE, to kick. W. paiven, a paNV or hoof; pawns, a
I , bounce, a l)low, a thump.
Purr, id. Gael, purr, to push, to thrust, to butt with the
head. ^"
Reawt, a way, a route. W. rhaivd, a way or course, a
' / race, a rout; rhawden, a footstep, from rlia, Avliat forces or
* ^jfrkfi*-'' drives onwards. 1 think it more probable that the Lanca-
shire peasantry have derived this word from their Celtic fore-
i^t-t t' fathers than from the Fr. route. The W. rhaivd enables us
to connect together the words " rout" and " route," the radi-
cal signification being an onward and rapid movement.
' Reeak, to scream, to shriek. W. rhech, a report, a loud
noise.
Rick, to make a noise, to jingle, to scold. W. rhoch, a
gi'unt, a groan ; rhochi, to grunt, to growl.
RiGGOT, a channel or gutter. W. I'hig, a groove ; rldgol, a
furrow, a drain.
Rock, Rocket, a frock. I give these words on the au-
thority of Dr. Whittaker, He says they were used, in his
day, in the neighboiu'hood of Manchester. W. rlmch, a coat ;
Corn, rochet, a shirt; Fr. rochet; A.-S. roc; Germ. rock.
The Lancashire words may very probaljly be assigned to a
Teutonic origin ; but the fact that the Fr. rochet (Corn, rochet)
must be assigned to a Celtic som'ce, and the existence of the
form " rocket," not fovmd, I think, in the Teutonic languages,
may favour the assumption that they were in use before the
time of the Saxon invasion.
Safe, sm-e, certain (often pron. sef). " He's sef to be
hanged," applied to a good-for-nothing fellow, means that
such a fate will certainly be his. W. sef, certain, truly .'^
Scut, the tail of a hare. W. cwt, ysyivt, a tail or rump.
Slat, to spill, to dash water about. W. yslotiun, to paddle,
to dabble.
Sow, the head. W. siol, the top of the head, the skull.
* The glossaries of Messrs. Brockett and Carr have shown that much
light may be thrown on obscure passages of Shakspere from provincial
words and phrases. The Lane, use of the word " safe" will explain a pas-
sage in Macbeth that has hitherto perplexed all the editors of our great
239
Formed as the name of a high hill between Cheshire and
Staffordshire, Mow Cop, formerly written Moel Cop. W.
moel, a bare conical hill.
Spree, a wild, mischievous frolic. Mr. Brockett suggests
the Fr. esprit, but I agree with the late Mr. Garnett^, that it
is from the W. asbri, trick, mischief; also fancy, invention.
Tackle, v. to equip, to set in order, to take a person in
hand wdth the intent to subdue him, or set him in order. W.
tad, an instrument, a tool ; taclu, to accoutre, to dress, to
repair or set to rights.
Tantrum, a fit of passionate excitement. To be in his
tantrums, means, in Lancashire, to be in a flighty passionate
mood. W. tant, a stretch, a sudden start, jr gust ofpassion,or ^
whim. C^^^^^^^JC^^O^ Lyz^-^-^^ ^^J*--""^ ^"^^^^
Ted, to spread abroad new-mown hay. W. teddu, to ^-^-^^^
spread out ; tedd, a spreading out, a range, a row.
Treddles, Traddles, the part of the loom which is moved
by the feet. W. troedlen, id. from troed, foot.
Trest, a strong bench, a butcher's block. W. trawst, a
rafter. The similar Avord " tressel" or " trestle^' is from the
W, trestl, a stretcher, a frame ; root, tres, what is on the
stretch.
Turnil, a long oval tub used for scalding pigs. W. twrnel,
a tub or vat ; fi'om twrn, what is round, a turn.
Whop, s. a smart, sharp blow; v. to beat. W. wab, a
slap, a blow ; wabio, to cuff, to beat.
WiTHERiN, large, powerful. W. uther, awful, terrible.
Wyzles, the stalks of the potatoe-plant. W. gwydd, small
trees, shrubs.
There are some words in the Lancashire dialect which may
dramatist. (See Mr. Knight's Ed. of Shakspere.) Macbeth says, with hypo-
critical homage, to Duncan :
" Our duties
Are to your throne and state, children and servants.
Which do but what they should, by doing everything
8afe (that is, certainly, truly,) toward your love and honour."
Macbeth, act i. sc. 4.
* Philol. Proc. vol. i. p. \1\S.
240
be equally referred to tlie Welsh or the Anglo-Saxon. A few
examples have already been given of this kind. In some in-
stances the root is common to almost all the languages of the
Indo-European class; and m others, it would seem to have
been derived to the Anglo-Saxon fi-om one of the branches of
the Celtic stock. There is, undoul)tedly, a Celtic as well as a
Danish element in the Anglo-Saxon language, as it has come
down to us; and the proof of this would confirm Mr.
Kemblc's remark, that there was probably more intercourse
between the Anglo-Saxons and some of the conquered tribes
than is usually supposed.^
I subjoin a few additional examples of the kind referred
to:—
Berm, Barm, yeast. W. burym ; Gael, beirm ; A.-S.
beorma ; Germ, berme; Dan. bcerme. In W. we have J»eri; to these
separate divisions. Otherwise we shall have only a vague
idea of an inidcfnied (Jcrnian orifijin, or must accept such
f!;encral assertions as that of Bede, that the North of Enjijland,
including Lancashire, was peopled by the Angles, — and sup-
pose the Saxon element to have penetrated exclusively the
western, and part of the midland counties. But is this sup-
position true with regard to Lancashu'c ? We have no means
of answering this question from any historical records of the
eoimty; the notices of it contained in Bedels Ecclesiastical
Historv or the Saxon Chronicle arc of the most meagre kind.
A casual notice of a battle at Whallcy or Winwick, or an
accidental allusion to the fact that Edward, the Saxon king,
while occupying the town of Thelwall in Cheshire, "com-
manded another force also of Mercians, to take possession of
Manchester in Nortlmmbria, and repair and man if^," is
almost the whole of the information wliicli history has given
of the comity from the fifth to the thirteenth century. The
riches that lay beneath its wUd moorlands were yet unknoAvn ;
its ports were not convenient either for the Saxon or the Danish
maraiuler, or for the Norman baron ; it was not an object of
ambition as the more-frequented south ; the people were rude ;
a great part of the soil was either barren heath or swampy
lowlands ; and accident had not made it the theatre of any of
the great battles by which the fate of the country was deter-
mined. Eor ten centuries it seems to have been the most
obscure and unimportant of all the counties of England.
From their secluded position the people became almost as wHd
and barbarous as the Irish kernes of a later date. Camden,
so late as the reign of Elizabeth, honestly confesses his reluc-
tance to visit them, and devoutly commends himself to the
care of Divine Providence, when he had determined to under-
take a task so perilous f-
* Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 023.
t " Whom I feel some secret reluctance to visit, if they will forgive me the
expression. But that I may not seem to neglect Lancashire, I must
attempt the task, not doubting but Providence, which has hitherto favoured
me, will assist me here." — Camden's Britannia.
247
From these causes we eau derive no help from history iii
attempting to determine the races that have peopled the
county. Our only source of information is the dialectic
speech of the people^ and the names of its to^ms and natural
objects. This last class has been already referred to a Celtic
origin^ but the names of the towns and the dialectic words
are chiefly German or Scandina^-ian, showing that these races
succeeded the Celtic in the possession or government of the
coimty. A large majority of these words may be found in
om* Anglo-Saxon dictionaries; but do they belong to the
Saxon or the Anglian dinsion of this compound speech? and
were the Germanic conquerors of the Saxon or the Anglian
race ? To determine these questions we must inquire whether
there are any means of ascertaining with more precision than
has usually been attempted, their respective geographical
boundaries, the languages they spoke, and their relationships
with other tribes or nations.
Of the Saxons, Dr. Pritchard tells us that they were a
single tribe, whose abode was opposite that of the Cauchi, on
the neck of the Cimbric peninsula, and that they reached
from the mouth of the Elbe to the river Chalusus, supposed
to be the Trawe. This would limit their territor}^ to the south
of Holstein, between Hamburg and Lubeck. He adds, that
Ptolemy mentions three islands belonging to the Saxon race
in the mouth of the Elbe, probably Nordstrand, Fohr, and
Silt ; and that this was the tribe whence came the followers
of Hengist"^. But this statement, if intended to imply that
the Saxons, wlio invaded England, were exclusively of this
single tribe, or that the Elbe was the southern boundary of
the tribes that followed the banner of Hengist, is contradicted
by many unquestionaljle facts. There can be no doubt that
the Fricsic and Bata\dan races contributed very largely to
swell the warlike hordes that invaded England from the fifth
to the seventh centmy. They are not mentioned by Bede
in his account of the invading tribes, and apparently from
this omission they have been generally left out of consi-
deration by om- historians. But it may be safely assumed that
* Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, vol. iii. p. 360,
218
they were among the races that took possession of England
at this time, and that tlicy Avere numbered among the Saxons :
it is also highly prohal)le tliat these tribes spake very nearly
the same language, and that the Old Friesic is the best repre-
sentative of the speech of the Saxon tribe that dwelt on the
right bank of the Elbe. These views are confirmed by the
following circumstances : — 1. The Friesic language is still
spoken in the islands at the mouth of the Elbe, which,
according to Ptolemy, belonged to the Saxons. We have no
evidence that there has ever been a change of race or language
in these islands. 2. We have the testimony of Procopius
that the Fricsians were among the races that invaded England.
He does not mention the Saxons : '^ BptTTiav Se t/)v vrjaov tdva
rpca TToXvavd poiTroTara e-^ovai, ^acrCKev^ re et? avrwv eKaarw
ic^earrjKev, ovofiara Se Kelrac roif edveat tovtol^ ^AyyiXoi re
Koi ^ptaaove'; Kal ttj vrjam ofxcovv/xot, BpiTTfove?"^." We can
only reconcile this statement with that of Bede by supposing
that the Saxons and Fricsians were at this time so nearly re-
lated that they were often classed under the same name. As
Procopius lived about two centuries nearer the time of these
transactions than Bede, his testimony is at least of equal au-
thority with that of the latter writer. 3. The traditions of the
Fricsians and Dutch bear testimony to the fact, that their
ancestors bore a considerable part in the Saxon invasion.
They even claim Hengist as their countryman, and assert,
from tradition, that he was banished from the coimtry.
Maerlant, a Dutch or Flemish poet of the thirteenth century,
speaks of him as being a Friesian or a Saxon : —
" Een hiet Engistus, een Vriese, een Sas,
Die uten lande verdreven was."
Or, as translated by Dr. Bosworth, —
* Quoted by Dr. Latham in his work on the English Language from
Zeuss : — " I believe for my own part," he adds, " there were portions
in the early Gennanic population of Britain, which were not strictly either
Angle or Saxon (Anglo-Saxon), but I do this without thinking that it bore
any great ratio to the remainder, and without even guessing at what that
ratio was, or whereabouts its different component elements were located —
the Frisians and Batavians being the most j)robable." — Third edit. p. 73.
249
" One a Saxon or Friesian, Hengist by name.
From his country was banish' d in sorrow and shame*."
The words of Maerlant would rather imply that, in his day,
the terms Saxon and Friesian were synonymousf. 4. Ver-
stegan quotes some old German verses that embody a tradition
of the fact that Saxon and Friesian were formerly synonymous
terms : —
" Oude boeken hoorde ic gewagen
Dat al liet lant beneden Nuemagen,
Wylen neder Sasson hiet ;"
and —
"Die neder Sassen hieten nu VriesenJ."
Without questioning the fact, as stated by Pritchard, that in
the time of Valentinian, and proljably earlier, many tribes
were included in the Saxon league, and bore the Saxon name,
who were different in race and language from the tribe which,
in the days of Ptolemy, Avas seated on the north bank of the
Elbe, it is evident that a tradition lingered in Germany till
the middle ages, that a close connexion existed originally
between this tribe and the Batavian or Friesic races. The
tradition is in an imperfect form, but it implies that the term
Saxon was used at a very early period as a generic word
including the Friesian, and that the relationship between
these tribes was so close, that the names of Saxon and
* Kiug Alfred's version of Orosius, Bosvvorth's ed. note,
t Ocea Scarlensis, who lived in the ninth or tenth centiu-y, and was
himself a Frieslander, states that Hengist and Ilorsa were the sons of
Udulf Haron, duke of Friesland. The historical statements of this writer
are not to be thoi'oughly relied on, but his assertion makes it evident that
according to the tradition of his day, these warriors came from the country
to the south of the Elbe. Another assertion of this writer, that the Frie-
sians and Saxons were descended from two brothers, Friso and Saxo, is
evidently a mere myth, which indicates however that there was a close
family relationship between these tribes. See Verstegan, Restitution of
Decayed Intelligence, pp. 18, 130.
J " Old books I have heard affirm.
That all the land below Nymegen
Was once called Lower Saxon."
and — " The Lower Saxons are now called Friesian."
Vei'stegan, p. 90.
T
250
Fricsian were given at different times to the same people.
5. The words of the Englisli hmguage are more closely related
to those of the Old Friesic, especially North Friesic, than to
any other branch of the German stock. The following list
of words, taken at random from Richtofen's Altfricsisches
Worterbnch, will show how much nearer it is to modern
English than the present German language.
OLD FRIESIC. GERMAN. ENGLISH.
hervst, N. Fries, harvst herbst harvest.
harkia horen, horchen . . hark.
halt lahm halt.
half balb half.
hors ross, pfcrd horse.
renda reissen rend.
rida reiten ride.
song, sang gesang song.
strete strasse street.
thenne dann then.
there da there.
thiaf, tief dieb thief.
this, dis dieser this.
wid weit wide.
wif weib wife.
wane sich verringern . . wane.
warand gewiihre warrant.
werka arbeiten work.
wet nass wet.
weter, water wasser water.
fridom freiheit freedom.
field feld field.
Saterdi Saterdag (prov.) , . Saturday.
sella, N. Fries, selle . . verkaufen sell.
sitta sitzen sit.
To which may be added that the word from which the Saxons
derived their name"^ — Sax or Seax, a short curved sword —
is found in the Old Friesic Sax (messer, kurzes sehwert).
Our modern English sign of the infinitive mood, "to/' in
* Quippe brevis gladius apud illos Saxa vocatur,
Unde sibi Saxo nomen traxisse putatur. — Verstegan, p. 24.
251
connexion with the Anglo-Saxon and German termination in
" an " or " en/' is found in this language alone of all the
Teutonic stock. The most ancient remains of the Old Friesic
are the 'Leges Frisionim/ Avritten in the time of Charlemagne ;
and in the law relating to the clergy, it is pro\dded that each,
in a watery country, shall have a ship, and in the elevated
land, a horse, that he may ride to ^dsit the sick : in the Old
Friesic, " is hit aen wetterlande, een schip toe habben, is hit
an gastland een hinxt to habben, deer hi mede ride
toe fandiane dae siecka^." The word 'hinxt' (horse), is also
fomid in the form ' hengst,' and is the name of the celebrated
wan-ior that brought his warlike followers to the help of the
unfortunate Yortigernt-
The conclusions we may draw from this varied evidence are :
1. That the Saxons who invaded England came not only
from the limited territory between the Elbe and the Trawe,
but were rather a mixed race livdng chiefly to the south of the
Elbe. 2. That the Friesic race was closely related to the
proper Saxon tribe, and was often called by their name; or
rather, that the terms Saxon and Friesian were used indiscri-
minately, one always involving the other; so that Procopius,
for this reason, speaks only of Friesians, and Bede only of
Saxons, just as in our day we use indifl'erently the Avords
Britons and Englishmen, though originally distinct. 3. The
Old Friesic language will assist us in determining the pure
Saxon element in the Anglo-Saxon tongue, and therefore we
may infer a Saxon or Friesian immigration where words of
this class are found.
The dialect and the local names of Lancashire offer some
remarkable illustrations of these facts. There are two Fi-iese-
lands, or Friesian-lands in the county ; one near Blackrod,
* The author of Piers Plowman's Vision uses both the Friesic and the
])resent English form. This marks a period of transition : —
" And thus bigynnen thise gnomes to greden fill heighe,
Sciant presentes," &c.
" And Favel with his fikel speche feffeth by this chartre,
To be princes in pride and poverty to despise.
To backbite and to bosten."
t See note (3) at the end.
T 2
252
and the otlicr in the south-east. It is possible that they may
have drawn their name from settlements of Friesians, out
of the Fricsic eohort that garrisoned for many years the city
of Manchester, Avhen a lloman station^. I will not attempt
to determine Avhether these Friesians first occupied the lands
which bear their name, under the Roman or the Saxon rule.
The latter is the more probable, as we have no instances of
legionary cohorts giving names to places near any other
lloman station. If this instance should lie supposed doubtfid,
we have other proofs of the connexion of the Friesians with
the Saxons in our local names ; as for instance in Wigan, the
town of battles; Old Friesic wich (strife, combat), Old Saxon
wig, North Friesic iviyh, Anglo-Saxon wiy (war, battle).
Local tradition asserts that in the neighbourhood of this town
the renowned Arthur fought tlu'ce battles against the Saxons
on three successive days, and that the river Douglas ran red
with blood to the sea. From some event of this kind, with
which the name of the half-fabidous Arthiu* has been con-
nected, the town may have derived its name. We have
another instance in the town of Over, near Leigh. Old
Friesic ovei'e (sea-shore or bank of a stream) ; German ufer ;
Anglo-Saxon ofer; North Friesic over-, and in the towns,
Bold, near Warrington, and Parbold ; Old Friesic bold (house) ;
Anglo-Saxon bold. The local termination wick, is also a
mark of our Friesic colonists. " It is pronounced veihs in
Gothic," says Prof. Leo, "wich in Old High German, wik in
Friesian.'^ It is common in Holland. The Friesic form is
the only one found in Lancashire ; as m Winwick, FishAvick,
Elswick, Salwick ; except in Horwick, sometimes -wTittcn Hor-
wich. To these may be added the Saxon Reeedham, now
called Rochdale; A.-S. reced, O. Saxon r«A;Mc/, a baronial seat
or mansion. Tradition still speaks of it as the residence of
a Saxon thane. Ham., as distinguished from ham, heim, though
sometimes found in Upper Germany, is also a Friesic word.
According to Prof. Leo, " names of places with ham are not,
like those with tun, peculiar to the Anglo-Saxons ; however,
they are only elsewhere found among the Friesian stock, from
* Dr. Whittakei's History of Manchester, vol. i. p. 62, 63.
253
North Friesland along the whole coast of the North Sea."
In Lancashire we have Cheetham, DoAvnham, Cockcrham,
Bispham, Lytham^ and a few other places with this ending.
(See also p. 45.)
The Friesic language will also explain a peculiarity in the
Lancashire pronunciation of a large class of words, and will
show that in this, as in other instances, the peculiar form is
not a corruption of the language, but simply an archaism.
For stand, land, sand, man, pan, can (aux. v.), the Lancashire
form is stond, lond, sond, mon, pon, con; and this is pure
Friesian^. Thus in the ' Leges Frisiorum/ — the Fresa and
sine ain frilike lond (the Friesians, and their own free land) , —
hwersa ma nimth tha mentre falsk gold inna sinre hond (who-
ever takes to the minter false gold in his hand), — otheres
monnes wif (another man's wife), — sa skilun hiara lif opa tlies
ena hals stonda (so shall their life stand upon this one's
neck), — thes etheles wives werthmond stont bi viii pundon
(the marriage price of a noble wife stood by [consisted of]
eight pounds) f. Grimm, in his Deutsche Grammatik, has
noticed this peculiarity of the Friesic. " is of a double
kind : — 1, representing the pure a-sound, e. g. hond, brond,
lond, stonda, gonga, long, thonk, sponne, monna, ponne,
bonnar (interdicta), &c., sometimes in the fourth case of
the a; e.g. lorn (claudus) [Lane, lom], noma (nomen), homer
(malleus) [Lane, hommer], homelja (debilitare), fona (vex-
illum, bona (occisor) [retained in the almost obsolete "boned,"
destroyed, ruined], hon (gallus), fovne (femina, A.-S. famne),
nose (nasus), onkel (talus) [Lane, onkel] . 2. The common o
in God (Deus), boda (nuntius)f," &c.
* I need scarcely remind my readers that this form is common in Okl
English Uterature. Thus Chaucer —
" I saw his sieves purfiled at the hond
With gris, and that the finest of the lond."
Canterbury Tales, Prologue.
t In Lancashire it is still a current phrase, that such a thing has stood
a person in so many pounds, i. e. it has cost him so much.
X Altfriesische Vocale, vol. i. p. 271. The form land, &c. was also used
by the Friesians, though the Lancashire form was apparently more common :
" da spreeck di koningh Kaerl, haha, dat land is myn, ende hlakade "
254
Otlier instances will be given snbseqiiently of the agree-
ment of Friesian and Lancashire words, when we come to the
discussion of separate dialectic words.
Our next inquiry must be into the nature of the Anglian
division of the Anglo-Saxon speech. Who, then, were the
Angles? Historical or ethnogra})hieal records give an in-
distinct rcjjly to this question. There is scarcely a trace of
this tribe, which yet has given its name to England, and has
exercised a jjowcrful influence on her destinies, in any records
we possess of the ancient Germanic races, Tacitus numbers
them among the Suevi, a race that included many distinct
tribes. He classes them with other obscure tribes, of whom
he had no distinct information, or of whom nothing could be
said, "Reudigiii deinde et Aviones et Angli et Varini, et
Eudoses et Suarones et Nuithones, fluminibns aut silvis
muniimtur. Nee quidquam notabile in singulis, nisi quod
in commune Herthum, id est, terram matrem colunt"^,''
Ptolemy tells us that the Angli inhabited the left bank of the
Elbe, They appear however to have migrated northwards at
an early period, and to have established themselves to the
north of the Saxons and below the Jutes, probably as far as
Engelsholra, in the south of Jutland. Professor Leo, of
Halle, believes that they formed a part of the mixed race
called the Allemanni, and asserts that in the mediseval times
the country south-west of Heidelberg, east of the Rhine, in
the neighbourhood of Karlsruhe and Miihlburg, was called
the Angladeyau. He affirms also, that " names answering to
the Anglo-Saxon stud so thickly at least one part of the land
of this latter people (the Allemanni), that a connexion
throughout must be entertained. It would be no remote
explanation of the phaenomenon to infer that the Romans
located detached colonies of AUemannic captives in England,
similarly to Vandal and other German prisoners; but it
seems much more imperative to assume that the AUemannic
colonization in South Germany and the Anglo-Saxon n\
then spake Karl the king (Charlemagne), Haha, that land is mine, and he
laughed). — Richtofen, s. v. haha.
* Germania, c. 40.
255
Britain partially issued from a common source, but in the
one case at an earlier period than the other"^." The name,
Angladegau, would certainly lead us to infer that the Angles
migrated to the south as well as to the north of their former
territoiy on the Elbe, but the comparison of words wdiich Prof.
Leo adduces in support of his assertion, heim — ham, lach —
leah, stein — stane, brunn — burne, &c., would rather show a
relationship of language than a positive identity. One suffix
in this list, ham, is found only in this form in the proper Friesic
and Anglian territory; Fries, ham; Old Sax. hem; Germ.
heim; Old Fries, hama (heimen, wohnen), probably connected
with the O. Fries, hemma, to enclose, to hinder. Prof. Leo has
himself quoted from Dahlmann's edition of John Adolfis,
known as Neokorus' ' Chronicle of the Province of Ditmar-
schen :' — " Whatever obstructs or is obstructed, hems in or is
hemmed in, is called hamm or hemme, whether it be a forest, a
fenced field, a meadow, a swamp, a reed-bank, or isolated low-
lands, won by circumscribing with palisades an area in the bed
of a river ; indeed, even a house or a castle was so called by the
Friesiansf." Outzen also tells us that " in the country of the
Angles, as well as here (in North Friesland), every enclosed
place is called a hamm.'^ It is more probable therefore that
the words mentioned by Prof. Leo are due to an admixture
of the Angli with the races that spoke a High-German dialect,
and that they gradually assumed the language of these races.
Their ready admixture, however, with the AUemanni on the
one hand, and with the Saxon or Low German tribes on the
other, is an argmnent in favour of the theory, that their
language was intermediate between the two. It is moreover
very probable that the speech of all the Germanic races at
the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, was nearer the Low
than the High German type; or, in other Avords, that the
languages of Southern Germany were a development fi'om
those of the races inhabiting the countries on the northern
part of the banks of the Elbe. It is also probable that a
part of the Anglian race may have migrated to the south-
* Treatise on the Local Nomenclature of the Anglo-Saxons, j). 129,
Eng. ed. t P. 39.
256
west of Germany, for in the days of Ptolemy they extended
alons: the Elbe almost as far southwards as to the Lower Saalc
or the Ohre*.
It is certain, however, that the Angles who miited with the
Saxon tribes in the invasion of England, were from that part
of the Anglian race that had migrated to the north of the
Elbe. We have the express testimony of Bede and of king
Alfred to this effect. Bede tells iis that their territory lay
between that of the Jutes and Saxonsf, and Alfred, in his
version of Orosius, confirms the statement : — " On the west
of the Old Saxons is the mouth of the river Elbe and Fries-
land, and then north-west is the land which is called Aiigh
aiid Sealand, and some part of the Danes.'^ And again, in
speaking of this country and the Danish isles : " On that land
lived Angles, before they hither to the land came." The
modern district of Anglen is bounded by the Schlie, the
Flensborger Fiord, and a line drawn fi-om Flensborg to Sles-
wick ; but we may assign, from the statement of Alfred, and
from the testimony of Etherwerd in the thirteenth century —
that Sleswick was the capital city of the ancient AngliaJ — a
much wider district to the Angli in the fifth century. This
latter writer informs us that Sleswic was the Saxon name of
this city, and that it was afterwards changed by the Danes to
Hathabij. We may infer from this that the Anglian speech
resembled that of the Saxons, or that it was substantially
a Low-German dialect ; while from their geographical con-
nexion with a Scandinavian race, we may draw the additional
inference that it would contain some words that properly
belonged to the Danish or rather to the Old Norse dialect.
The conclusions we may draw from the whole of this evi-
dence are these two : — 1 . That the Anglian speech was pro-
perly a Low-German dialect, but approximating more than
the Saxon or Friesic to the language afterwards developed in
the Old High German. 2. That it was affected, in some
* Pritchard, vol. iii. p. 360. f Ecclesiastical History, c. 15.
;j: " Anglia vetus sita est inter Saxones et Giotos, habens oppiduni
capitale, quod sermone Saxonico Sleswic niincupatur, secundum veio
Danes, Hathahy." Quoted by Dr. Latham from Zeuss, p. 65.
257
degree, by their connexion with Scandinavian or Old Norse
races, but more in the matter or words of the language than
its grammatical structure.
We shall find some confirmation of these ^dews in the Lan-
cashire dialect and local names. In the middle of the coimty
we have Anglezark. Tlie first part of the word is, without
doubt, from the name of this tribe ; the second is found also
in Grimsargh, Kellamargh, Mansargh, and Goosnargh, all
names of places not far from Anglezark, and is probably the
Old High German haruc*, Old Norse horgr, A.-S. hearh,
gen. hearges, a heathen temple or altar. The Old Norse
horga (aspretum editiusf) shoAVs that it meant primarily a
lofty grove, and thence a temple encircled with groves
(according to Bede's description of a heathen temple, " fanum
cum omnibus septis suis'^), and lastly, a temple. It answers
therefore to the Danish lurid (a sacred grove). We know from
Tacitus J, that all the Germanic races were wont to celebrate
the rites of their dark and cruel worship in the gloomy
shade of forests or groves, and the word teaches us, as Wed-
neshough (Wodensfield), Satterthwaite (Ssetere), and Limd,
that the Angles were worshippers of the old Teutonic deities,
when they took possession of Lancashire. The name Avas
probably given by the Angles themselves, and if so, it indicates
that the Anglian speech approached, in some words, to the
High German form. The word does not belong, I think, to
the Old Friesic, or to the modern Dutch ; but to the Scandi-
navian and the High-German dialects.
We have also an Old High-German form in the word Parr,
found simply in the village of Parr, near St. Helen's, and in
Parbold. The Anglo-Saxon bearo is translated by Bosworth,
" a high or hilly place, a grove, a wood, a hill covered with
wood ;" but it would seem to be connected with the verb beran
(to bear, to bear fruit), and to mean especially a wood that sup-
plied mast for fattening swine : " Hsec sunt pascua porcorum,
* Grimm, D. G. vol. iii. p. 428.
t I think Biorn means by this i)hi-ase, " a woody hill," from his trans-
latin;; holt, Germ, holz, " aspi'ctum."
X Gurmania, c. 40.
258
qii?e nostra lingua Saxouica denbera nominamiis*." Grimm, in
his ' Deutsche Mythologie/ tells us that the Old High-German
form of the ■svord was paro, and that it often signified a con-
secrated grove, like the Danish lund. If bearo or bei'U was
the Saxon form, then pa7'o must have been Anglian, and in
this instance the latter is more Upper German than Saxon.
The following are other instances of the same kmd : —
Hurst, O. H. Germ. hurst\.
Booth', house or mansion ; Modern Germ, bi'ittel, in llitze-
biittel, Brunsbiittel, &c. The Friesic and Old Saxon form is
bold or bodel, found in Bolton, written in Domesday Book
Bodelton.
Worth, a very common local name in the comity. There
are nearly as many places with this word as the final
syllable, in Lancashire, as in the whole of the list of Anglo-
Saxon names in Kemble's Charters; South German worth,
North German wuurt. According to Prof. Leo, " it has pro-
bably the same meaning as the Low Germ, wort he, a protected
enclosed homestead." Sonne, in his description of Hanover,
says that worth means in Low Saxon " a place without trees."
From an expression in the Laws of Ina, it would seem to have
been connected with the " chm'ls" or serving-men in his time,
" Ceorles weorthig sceal beon wintres and sumeres betyned J."
This word is common to all the German dialects, but is found
more frequently in the Lancashire form in Upper Germany ;
as Donauworth and Grafenworth, in Bavaria ; Konigsworth in
East Saxony, and Schlarkenwerth in Bohemia.
Sal in Salford, Salwick, Crumpsall, Becensall, Halsall, &c.
O. H. Germ, sal, A.-S. sele; the Old Saxon form halla,
A.-S. heal (hale), is not often found as forming part of a
local name in Lancashire. These instances are not given to
* Quoted by Professor Leo from Kemble's Charters, No. 288.
t Holt is common to the Old Friesic and the High-German dialects.
Hyrst, or hurst, is properly a wood that produces fodder for cattle, and
answers to the Old High German spreidach (fruticetum, s])inetum).
X The worth was, I think, an out-lying homestead, usually on the banks
of a stream, for the " churls " or serving-men, such as would be necessary
in the large farms that must have been common in Lancashire from the
nature of the soil.
259
show that the Anglian division of the A.-S. speech was closely
related to the Upper German, for it is certain that it rather
belonged to the Low German type ; but simply that some
words have been retained that can be best referred to the
former class, and as indicating that there is an element in the
A.-S. local names that is more German than Saxon or Friesic.
My own comdction is, that there was much less divergence
between the different forms of the Teutonic languages in the
fifth and sixth centuries, than at a later period, but that
where there is any divergence in the Anglo-Saxon from the
Low German type, it may very probably be referred to the
Anglian race. These views are confirmed by such words as —
Gawm, to give heed to, to consider, to understand; gawmless,
being in a state of vacant heedlessness, foolish, silly. This is
the Gothic gaumjan (to perceive, to give heed to) ; Old High
German ^owmew ; Old Saxon ^romiaw ; Anglo-Saxon ^eomia^z
(to take care of); Old Norse geijma (servare, custodire). The
Lancashire word has retained the Gothic, and evidently the
primary, meaning of the word, — to look at, to give heed to,
to imderstand. The ordinary Anglo-Saxon sense, to take
care of, coincides with the Old Norse geyma; though this
language has retained the primitive meaning in gaumr (at-
tentio), gexsi gaum at (curare, attendere).
Glum, sour, sidlen, moody ; German glumm, gloomy ; A.-S.
glom, gloom.
Grub up, to dig up; Goth, grahan; Old High German
graban; Old Saxon bigrabhan; Anglo- Saxon grafan; Old
Friesic greva ; Du. graven ; and other words of a similar kind.
The plural ending of the Lancashire verb, " en," Ave loven,
ye loven, they loven, is also an intimation of the same
divergence to an Upper German type. The Anglo-Saxon
ending, i. e. the Anglo-Saxon as written in the works that
have come down to us, is " ath," lufiath, we, you or they, love;
and this is the Old Friesic form ; " tha afretha ther alio Hrio-
stringa huldath" (all the Hriostringa hold their courts of law
there) ; " thesse kiningar hebbath ewesen" (these kings have
been). The Lancashire form is more nearly allied to the
modern German, differing only in this, that the Lancashire
260
vcrbal-ciidiug- is the same in all the three persons. I need
not remind you that this form is used by Chaucer and otlicr
early English ■WTitei's : —
" Sche was so diligent withouten sloutlie
To serve and plese ever in that place
That alle hir loven that loken on hir face."
Man of Lawes Tale.
Both forms are found in Piers Plo\^Tnan's Vision ; —
" Thannc telleth they of the Trinitc a tale outher tweye,
And brynyen forth a balled reson, and taken Bernard to witness."
There can be no doubt that both forms were used in England
from the time that the Anglo-Saxon tribes took possession of
the country, and while it is certain that the written A.-S.
form is pure Friesic, it is highly probable that the form still
used in Lancashire was brought there ])y the Anglian race.
It is a disputed point whether the Scandinavian or Danish
clement, which undoubtedly exists in our standard English,
and more evidently in our dialects, is due to the Angles, that
Averc joined with the Saxons in the earlier invasion of the
country, or to the fierce Northmen who afterwards ravaged
the country from the Thames to the Sol way Frith. The late
Islr. Garnett and Dr. Latham have maintained that the Scan-
dina\ian element is pi'opcrly Danish, and has been brought in
by the Danes m the later invasions from the north of Europe.
Mr. Guest, however, is of opinion that there are no traces
of the Danish, either in our MSS. or our dialects^; and
that the peculiarities of the northern dialects may be explained
by the fact that the Angles had been the neighbours of the
Danes before they invaded this country. It would be erro-
neous to argue the question on the supposition that the
Scandinavian languages were as distinctly separate from the
Teutonic in the fifth century as they are now. Many words
are found in the Old Fricsic which have been retained only
by the Icelandic or Old Norse, but these must have been
common even in the ninth century to all the races that
occupied the countries that lay between South Friesland and
* English Rhythms, vol. ii. p. 186-207.
261
Norway. There was however certainly a difference between
the languages spoken in Friesland and Denmark, though we
cannot lay down precisely the boundary lines that divided
them. How then are we to decide the question ? We may
establish a high probability, at least, on one side or the other,
if we examine the words of a dialect to discover a Scandi-
naAdan element, and then inqmre whether there are any traces
of Danish settlements in that neighbourhood. Lancashire,
and the dialect of the county, oflPer some advantages in the
prosecution of such an inquiry. There are no signs of a
Danish occupation of the comity from JNIanchester to the
north-east, as far as Todmorden, and along the middle of the
county as far as a line dra\^Ti from Kirkby to Balderstone.
AVe know too that the Danes were woreted by the Anglians in
the battles which were fought on the south, and in the eastern
parts of the comity. The Saxon Chronicle has recorded one
that was fought at TattenhaU in Cheshfre, between the Danes
and the Angles, in which the Danes were defeated"^, and
tradition still speaks of another near Rochdale, where on
Camp-liill the Danes had taken up their position, and of the
fearful slaughter that followed in the valley below, still called
KiU-Danes. The Northmen were evidently imable to take
possession of this part of the county, and yet there are many
Avords spoken in the dialect of this part that belong now to
the Danish language. If the number of these words were
small, it might remain doubtful whether they had not been
part of the common inheritance of all the races from the Ems
or Weser to the Soimd, but their number is such as to make
it much more probable that this is properly a Danish element,
and the facts already related make it almost certain that it
had been imported by the Angles. There is also a Danish
element in the Anglo-Saxon, as it has come down to us in
Avritings of an early date, and this may confidently be ascribed
to the same race. But in the north and west of the county,
there are many local names that were certainly Danish even
in the twelfth century, and the Scandinavian or Danish
words therefore peculiar to these parts may be attributed to
* Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.u. 910.
262
the Danes themselves. The proper Scan(lilla^•ian or Old
Norse clement, existing in the dialect, contains some words
that are not now fonnd in the Danish language, and from this
^Ye may infer that the Northmen, who so often ravaged the
eastern shores of England, and penetrated even to the v.cst
coast, were drawn from every part of the Scandinavian ter-
ritory. This is one of the many instances in which philology
confirms the records of history.
Additional Remarks on Anglo-Saxon Names of Places.
It is perhaps worthy of notice that few local names in Lan-
cashire end with terms expressive of the union of unrelated
families in the formation of what we now call a " town," or
" mmiicipality," such as borough (A.-S. byrig, burg, a fortified
toAvn) ; thorpe Old Norse, thyrping, (congregatio) ; thorp
(oppidum), Fries, thorj) (id.) ; or byr, by, properly the town or
village, as distinct from the castle ; Dan. by ; Old Norse byr.
They are usually formed from words expressing objects in
natural scenery, as wood, shaw, lea, mere, hill, law (Goth.
hldw, tumulus; O. H. G. and O. Sax. hleo, id.); holt (wood,
Friesic holt. Germ, holz) and moor ; or of words indicating a
single homestead, with its enclosure, such as ham, worth,
bodel, sail, cote {cot, a poor man's house) and ton, originally
an enclosed place or homestead. (Old Norse tun, pratum do-
mesticum, viridarium ; Dutch tuin, sepes, hortus, vertuinen, to
hedge about; O. H. G. zun, sepes, the root being in all the
Teutonic languages, as in the Lane, tan, a twig, a word
expressing simply a branch or bough, and thence a hedge.)
Bilborough is the only instance I know in the north of the
coimty; a few are found in the south, Bmy, Duxbmy, &e.
Thorp and Byr do not occur, I thinlc ; By marks the Danish
towns, and is found about six or seven times. Tliis fact
indicates that Lancashire was but thinly inhabited in the
Anglo-Saxon age. There were few towns, in the modern
sense of the word. Separate farm-houses, with their out-
offices, and a few huts for the " churls" or servants, were the
chief features in the scene, and in the wild moorlands, of
wliich a large part of the county consisted of old, these would
263
appear only at distant intervals. We are not surprised therefore
to read in Domesday Book that hi the hundred of Amoun-
derness, there were only sixteen villages, " quae a paucis inco-
luntm-/' adds the record : " reliqua sunt wasta."
There is a considerable number of places ending in " ing,"
as Chipping, Melling, Pilling, &c. implying the residence of a
clan or family. This form does not teach us anything of the
German or Scandinavian locality from which these colonists
came, as it is common throughout Germany and Denmark,
but especially on the west coast, from Jutland to the south of
Holland.
One local name (Broughton, in Domesday Book Brocton),
which occurs tlu'ee or four times, is apparently Germanic, but
may have existed in the Old Saxon. The only etymon I can
find is the O. H. G. bruoc (terra aquosa^).
Danish or Scandinavian Local Names.
The track of the Northmen, as permanent landholders in
the county, is in the north-east, near the point where the great
high road from Yorkshu'c leads to Colne, and thence across
the county and along the whole of the west. In the north-
east we find Balderstone, Osbaldistone, Elstone; and Ulver-
stone, in the west. Stone is used, I think, as the German
stein in the middle ages, and denotes a house of stone or
a castle f. It is connected chiefly with Danish names,
and implies that the Danes, like the later Normans, were
obliged to protect themselves by building strongholds. Laund,
which is the same as Lund, near Sephton, and is often
found in the wild hilly country in the north-east part of the
county, suggests dark pictures of the barbarous and cruel
rites by which the Teutonic deities were propitiated. It is
the Dan. lund, Old Norse lundr, a grove, properly a con-
secrated grove, such as the Teutonic races, like the idolaters
* The position of some of these places, as Broughton, a suburb of Man-
chester, is against the supposition that the word is connected with the
A.-S. broc (badger).
t As the Old Fries, stins, translated by Wiarda (Glossary to the Asega
Buch), ein steinernhaus.
/ /
264
of the East, iiscd to set apart as the scene of their "dark
idolatiy." The Avell-kiiown Danish termination " by," is found
along the whole of the west part of the county, from Kirkby
to Nutcbij (not far from this place is Lund Hill), and thence
to Hornby. Other instances are Roby, Westby, West Dei'by
(which has given its name to one of the hundreds), Sower by,
Forinby, Crosby, and Ribby. Sjjeke also, near Liverpool, is
Scandina^ ian. It signifies a place where mast was obtained for
fattening swine, and answers to the Saxon Bearo, and the Old
German Purr ; Old Norse spika (to feed, to fatten), spik (lard,
bacon) ; German speck. Another Norse word brecka (a gentle
accli\'ity), is found in Norbreck, Warbreck, S war brick, Tow-
' brick and Kellbricks, all in or near the Fylde country. The
appearance of so many names with the same ending, in one
particular part, would suggest the idea of related colonists
from sonic place or territory in Scandinavia, but I have not
been able to find any place with a similar ending in any
country of the north. The word does not now exist, I believe,
in Danish. Other Scandina\dan names are Ormesyill, near
Fm'ness, Ormskirk, Tarnsyke (Icelandic tiUrn, a pool or lake),
and Bearnshaw, near Cliviger*.
The records of Domesday Book confirm the e\ddence of the
local names. We learn from them that in the north-east of
the county t, Ketel had four manors and eighteen carucates of
land. In Hoogon (Lower Furness) Earl Tosti had four caru-
cates. In Aldringham Eryiulf, and in Vlarestun Turulf had
each six carucates. These are all Scandinavian names.
There are one or two peculiarities in the grammatical stmc-
tnre of the Lancashfre dialect which resemble some Scandi-
navian forms. Thus the sign of the infinitive, which is
usually 't, simply, as " hoo went 'i bring it," is as near the
Old Norse and modern Danish " at," as to the Friesic " to."
* Fell (O. N. fiall, mons) ; gill (0. N. gil, hiatus, fissiira montium).
Haitgh, Hag in Ilaggate (O. N. hagi, pascua) are also Scandinavian.
t In this part the sword dance, the old military dance of the fierce
Vikings, has not yet been forgotten. I remember meeting with it, a few
years ago, in an obscure village in the eastern jiart of the valley of the
Luue.
263
The word for " must/' also, wliich is mun in all the persons
of both numbers, is probably the Old Norse 7nan, mmit, man
(Eng. will), in the Eddas mun ; and the pronoun and conjimc-
tion " that," is generally "at,'' as in the Norse. In the mo-
dern Icelandic mun answers to our Eng. " will," but formerly
it seems to have been more allied in sense to the Eng. " may,"
and probal)ly also to " musf^." It is not pecidiar to the Lan-
cashire dialect, for it is found in Lawrence Minot (a.d. 1353) :
" Listens now and leves me
Who so lives thai sail se
That it mun be full dere boght
That their galay men have wroght."
Poem iii. Ritsou's Edit.
Dialectic Words.
Examples of these will be given under five heads: — 1.
Anglo-Saxon and Friesian (Saxon). 2. Anglo-Saxon and
Danish (Anglian). 3. Scandinavian. 4. Words common to
these classes. 5. Anglo-Norman. The words Saxon and An-
glian must be understood as indicating not so much absokite
certainty as a high degree of probability, and as including
only the extreme points of the Anglo-Saxon : there was a
large middle element common to both Saxons and Angles, and
also, in a great degree, to all the Scandinavian races.
L Anglo-Saxon and Friesian.
(a.) Differences of pronunciation.
breeost, hreast, A. S. breost ; O. F. briastf.
deeop, deep, A. S. diop O. F. diajj.
dijel, deal, many, A. S. dal; O. F. deil; Goth, dailjan.
fet, fat, A. ^.fiet ; O. F. fet ; O. Sax. fet.
fest, fast, A. S. ftest ; O. F. fest ; O. Sax. fast,
fower, four, A.^.feower; O.F.fiower.
* See extract from the Fareyinga Saga in Latham's Eng. Lang. (|). 2.'^),
where Thurir says to Sigraundi, " thir mutit ratha hljota" (thou mayst give
counsel).
t O. N. 01(1 Norse ; O. F. Old Friesio ; N. F. North Fries. ; O. S. Old
Saxon: Du. Dutch; Sw. Swedish ; Dan. Danish ; A.S.Anglo-Saxon;
O.H.G. Old High German; Fr. French; N. Fr. Norman Frencli.
U
26G
yowd, gold,
yrund, groiiiul,
kersten, christen,
leet, to let, to allow,
leet, light,
lone, laiie,
rot, rat,
sniook, smoke,
strey, straw^,
tack, take,
Tiseday, Tuesday,
O.Y.youd; Dn.youd; Sijssant (salt);
O. F. saut, and others.
A. S. yrund; O. F. yrund ; O. Sax. id.
A. S. cristnimi; O. F. kerstena.
A. S. laetan ; O. F. fe^« [let, to hinder,
is in A. S. lettan, O. F. lettii].
A. S. /f^oA/ ; O. Sax. leoht ; O-.F. liackt.
O. F. /owa, lana, a way ; Du. lami, a
way ^vitli trees on each side.
Du.ro/ ; A. S. rait (Lye); (aGvva.ratte.
A. S. smoca; Du. smook.
A. S. streow, streaw; O. F. stre;
Mod. F. 5/ne.
A. S. tacan; Du. tacken.
A. S, Tm^^ca' c?(e/7, the day of Ti^v, the
god of war; O. F. Tisdei; North F.
Teisdi.
A. S. ivceter; 0.¥.weter, wetter, watir.
loeatur, waytur, water,
(/3.) Dialectic words : —
blain, a small boil or sore, A. S. bleyen ; Du. blein.
blare, to make a great noise,
to bellow, Du. blaaren, to bellow.
Arai(5»/e, to quarrel, to wrangle, Du. brabbelen, to jabber, to
rattle.
breeod-flake, a corded frame K.'^. breod; O. F. /^oA:, a jjcg
hung up for oaten cakes, or stake ; Du. vlaak, a hur-
dle for wool.
cloof, a ravine, a hollow place A. S. clouyh; Du. kloof, a
among hills, split, a crevice.
cocA-e/'ir, stockings without feet, A. S. cocer, quiver, case; Du.
worsted gaiters, koker, case, sheath.
crill, to shiver with cold, The nearest approach in A. S.
is cile, cold ; Du. yril, sln-
vering, yriller, to shiver.
* And in Piers Plowman's Creed —
" Ne bedden swich brothels (the friars) in so brode shetes
But sheten her heved in the stre, to shar])en her wittes."
267
crm/:/e, to bend under a weigh t_, A. S. crincan, to cringe; Du.
to rumple^ X:n«^e/eWjtoljend,toA\Tinkle.
crookle, to make crooked, to A. S. cr?/c, a crooked staff; Du.
bend, kruikelen, to make crooked,
to rumple.
doesome, dowin, healthy, pros- A. S. dugan, to profit, to be
perous, good for; O. F. duga; O. S.
dug a.
fend, to seek a livelihood, to A. ^.fandian, to try, to seek
pronde the means of living, for ; O. F. fandia.
fettle, to repair, to set right, to O. F. fitia, to adorn ; Goth,
put in order ; s. state, con- fetjan, to adorn, to trim, to
dition (in a good sense), arrange; M. H. G.feiten, to
form, to adorn.
^mc?er5, small pieces, fragments, Du. flenters, rags, tatters.
flyte, to scold, to jibe, A. S. flltan, to dispute, to
quarrel; O. S.Jlit, conten-
tion; O. F. flit, diligence (Richtofen), probably rather con-
tention, rivalry.
//•ea2^;rm, gossiping (W. Lane), O. F. frowe, a female, a wife;
Du. vrow. Germ. frau.
gather, a tub for wort. Either from A. S.gal, roomy,
spacious, or galan, to sing,
and the O. F. kore, a tub or
vessel. If the name be taken from the humming of the wort,
we have in the O.N. gal (cantus), and ker (vas). The last
syllable is found in the "bowking-kier" of the bleachers ; Du.
beuken, to beat ; Germ, beuchen.
^awX:, a narroAV passage or foot- A. S. gang, a journey, away
way, or passage; Du. gang;
Germ. gang,
gloppen, to amaze, used chiefly O. F. glupa, to look, to peep,
in the part, gloppened, ama- to look sullenly; N. ¥.glupe,
zed, astonished, awed, to give stolen looks ; Du.
gluipen, to sneak ; Germ.
glupen, to look with a sullen or malicious countenance"^.
* In the Old Norse we have glapa, to look at ; glepia, to fascinate, to
infatuate.
u2
208
To be gloppcned, is to bo confused witb a sudden surprise of
wonder or juve, as Danic Gaynor (in the Anturs of Arthur),
wlien she met the apparition of her mother in the woods of
Tarnwathehui.
(jloor, to stare, T)u. (jloor, histrc, gluuren, to
leer, to ogle.
(irudchj, properly, skilfully, A. S. yerud, ready, skilful ;
completely, Idw. (/creed; Germ, (/erade.
(/roop, the gutter or channel N. F. (/roup ; Dn. (/roep.
in a shippon.
hainridf/e, ha'uiim/, a separate Du. heining, hedge or wooden
space for cattle (W. Lane.), partition. Kilian has heijn
(sepes) and heynen (se-
pire). ]\Tr. Brock ett ex-
plains the word, to save, to
preserve.
//ef/<://6'5,thesmall cords through O. F. hede, tow; O. S. hede.
which the warp is passed in
a loom.
Idith, to invite, especially to A. S. /a//««w, to invite, tosend
a funeral, for; O. F. lathia, to invite,
to summon.
lam, to learn, also to teach, A.S. /eormara, to learn, to read,
O. F. lera, to teach ; Du.
leeren, to learn, to teach ;
Germ, lehren.
preem, a comb used by weavers A. ^.preon, a clasp, a bodkin ?
to loosen the yarn, (Bosworth) ; Du. priem, a
pin, a spike ; Germ, pfriem.
prowt, poor food, trumpery Du. prut, poor food, as curdled
stufl", milk. The word is retained
in the A. S. preowt-hwil, an
insignificant space of time,
a moment.
runye, a long tub M'ith two LowG. n//?;$/e (trabale, furcale,
handles, virga); ^e\^. ronglte ; Goth.
hrugga, a rod, a wand;
(Dieff. V. hrugga.)
269
scale, to stir, to clear, esp. the A. S. scylan, to separate, to
bars of a grate, discharge ; O. F. skala (lui-
dad ietta skalin, wounded
or struck, implyiug perhaps the loss of a limb) (Leges Fris.).
Grimm supposes a lost verb of the stroug conjugation ski/an,
skal (separare). Richtofen, Altfries. Wort. v. skala.
*Aet"e, a sHce, a round cut oft" a A. S. scyftan, to divide, to
loaf,
side, long, amj^le, applied to
garments.
skit, a sarcasm, a lampoon.
order ; O. F. skifta ; Du.
schijf, a round slice.
A. S. sid; O. F. sid, deep.
A. S. scitan, to dart; O. F.
skiata (jaculari).
Dw.krieken, to peep; 't kreiken
van den day, break of day.
This word is more nearly re-
lated to the Du. slop, a blind
alley, a cul-de-sac, than to the A. S. and N. F. slop, a frock or
upper garment.
skrike o' day, break of day,
slop, a pocket,
A. S. sHfian, to be firm or stift";
O. F. steva, stiva.
A. S. stela, a stalk (Jimii
Etym.) ; Du. steel, a stalk,
a handle.
A. S. trendel, a circle; O. F.
trind, round.
A. S. way, a wave ; O. F. weg,
ivayi, water ; O. Sax. and
O. H. G. wag.
A. S. wunian ; O. F. wona,
louna; Germ, ivohnen; O. S.
ivonon.
toycaivve, a' female calf; Mr. In A. S. we have civic-feoh,
Carr (Craven Glossary) has living property, cattle, as in
v)hy, a heifer; a ivhy calf, a the O. N. yvik-fe (pecora) ;
female calf, but the word is more nearly
connected with the N. F.
quei, qnie (juvcnca, bucula), and the Dan. qvie, heifer. It is
probably derived from some old root, signifying female (re-
stever, sound, strong,
stale, steyle, a handle for a
broom or tool,
trindle, the w^heel of a barrow,
weeky, moist, wet,
ivon, woan, to live, to dwell.
i/cn^
X-
M
270
taincd in our Eng. quean), which may have some relationship
to the O.N. qvia (scchidcrc). Biorn (Icelandic Diet.) distin-
guishes between qvik-fe, cattle, and qvi-fe (ovcs lactariee).
2. Anglo-Saxon and Danish {Anglian).
ashelt, properly, as hell, pro- This is the Icelandic or O. N.
bahle, likely ; elder, sooner, helldr (potius) ; Dan. heller,
rather, rather; ITpperAnstr.//^>7f/e/%
halter; A. S. Iiuld, bending, inclining; Suab. hulden, a deeli-
^dty, holden, to slope; O.N. adr (prius, antea). This form is
also foimd in Heligoland, edder, sooner; 0.¥. edre; A. S.
eedre, immediately.
barm, bosom, barm-skin, a lea- A. S. bearm, barm, lap or bo-
thern apron, som; Goth, barms; Dan.
barm,
beetneed^, a helper, one ap- A. S. bet an, to amend, to re-
plied to in distress, medy ; Dan. betiene, to
serve; Germ, dienen.
6if^^, to build, A. S. byggan; Dan. bygge ;
O. N. byggia.
brattle, to spend money fool- A. S.6/Yw^/iaw, tomakeanoise,
ishly or ostentatiously, to to swagger; O. N. brutla
squander, (prodigere) ; Upper Germ.
brazeln, brotzeln, to revel;
Sw.protla; Swiss brdtleken.
bruart, the rim of a hat, A.S. hreord, a brim; O. Germ.
prort, brort ; Dan. bred,
bryed, to spread abroad, A. S. bradan, to spread ; Dan.
brede; O.N. breida.
6'/ew, to starve for want of food, A. S. clam, clay, a poultice, a
bandage; root-idea, tight-
ness or adhesion ; Dan. clemme, to squeeze, to pinch ; O.N.
klemma (angustia, res arctai).
Ccocket, lively, vivacious, related to quic, quec, kec, (ani-
j mosus) in O. H.G.; Dan.
I kiek, hardy, pert; Germ.
\.keck, lively, pert, insolent. keck; A. S. cue, cucen, alive,
quick.
* "He botneed a thousand."' — Piers Plowman's Vision.
271
crib, a pen, a manger or rack,
dateUss, foolish, silly, Aveak in
body and mind,
diiig, to strike or knock about,
to reiterate an accusation,
dree, long, tedious, wearisome,
eddercop, a spider,
fleet, to take the cream off the
milk,
fleetins, curds of milk.
fleet-time, break of day,
flooze, fleeze, small particles of
wool or cotton,
frist, trust, confidence.
yawster, to boast, to swagger,
(jlead, a kite,
ylendur, to stare, to look in
amazement,
kaust, a cough,
kibboes, long sticks or wands,
A. S. crib; Dan. krtjbbe.
Dan. dyd (valor, vis) ; O. N.
dad (virtus, robur), dddlaus
(cassus virtute animi et cor-
poris) j A. S. deed, a deed.
A. S. dencyan, to strike; O. N.
denyia (tundere) ; Dan.
dcenge.
A. S. dreogan, to suffer; Dan.
droi, lasting ; Sw. droja, to
delay.
Dan. edderkop ; A. S. atter-
coppa {atter, poison).
A. '^.fliete, flet, cream ; O. N.
fleyta (supernatantem li-
quorem demere) ; fleet-time,
from the clearing off of va-
pours or gloom ?
A. S. fleos, flys, fles, a fleece,
down; O. Germ, floza;
O. N. flos, flosi.
A. S. frithian, to protect?
^vns,^ frist en, to protect, to
deliver ; Dan. friste, to per-
suade, to entice.
O. N. geistr (vehemens) ;
Germ. (Bav.) yaustern, to
act with precipitancy or
rashness.
A. S. ylkla ; O. N. gledra.
A. S. yJendrian, to swallow, to
devour ; O. N. glenna (dis-
tendere, pandere) .
A. S. kwosta ; Dan. hoste ;
O. N. hosti.
A. S. cyp, abeam; Dan. kiep,
a stick ; O. N. keppr (fustis,
rudis) .
272
lant, stale, iiriue, A.S. hIand,\vcmG; O.^Ji/and
lite, a few, little, A. S. li/i, little, few; Dan. lidt,
lit.
menseful, decent, managing-, A. S. /we/mwc, human; O.N.
thoughtful, mennskr (humanus, capax
moralitatis).
mo/^^y, a club for uniting small A.S. mot, an assembly;
deposits of money, O. N. wot (concursus, con-
ventus).
//cVv, an edge or rim, the peak of A.S. neb, beak or nib; Dan.
a bonnet, a piece broken off!, nab, neb ; O. N. ncbbi.
neeze, to sneeze, A. S. niesan; Dan. nyse.
reaz^y>, hoarseness from cold, O.N. lirop, clamour; O. S.
hrojjun; Goth, hropian.
Simlin,Simbl hi [SimneV), a rich A. S. Symel, Shnbel, a feast;
cake used on Midlent Sun- O. N. Sitmbl (compotatio,
day, hence called Simblin sorbillum) ; Dan. simle, a
Siuiday. cake.
s»ic({/e, a greedy, sordid person, A. S. snid; Dan. snedig, cun-
ning, sly ; Germ, schnitt (?).
suite, to blow the nose, A. S. smjtan; O. N. snita.
steigh, a ladder, a stile, A. S. atcegar, stair; Dan. stige,
ladder; (ierm. steigen.
swill, V. to wash or rinse a ves- A. S. sivilicm, to wash or rinse;
sel; s. scraps for pigs, O.N. sval (eluvies).
sye, to drain milk through a A. S. sihan, to strain or filter;
syle, sieve, to rain continu- O. N. sija (colare) ; Sw.
ously. sila ; Dan. sile.
tan, a twig'^, A. S. tan ; Goth, tains ; O. N.
teinn; Dan. tane ; O. H. G.
zeinna.
t eagle, a crane for winding up A. S. tigl; O. N. tigill (fmii-
goods, cidus).
/te/ic^, to light a fire, A.S. tyndan ; Dan. tmide;
O. N. tendra (excitare, ac-
cendere) .
* This word belongs rather to Class 4, as we have ni Du. tuin, a hedge,
a garden.
273
threap, to argue with pertina- A. S. thrcafian; O. N. threfa
city, to reiterate, to contend, (sublitigare) .
tore, to labour hard for a liv- A. S. teorian, to rul) away, to
ing, to get a bare livelihood, wax faint ; O. N. tora (mi-
sere vitam trahere) .
wakes, the extremities of the A. S. wic, a dwelling, a bay or
lips, the corners of the creek; S. Goth, wik (an-
mouth, gulus) ; O. N. vik (recessus).
wlierken, to breathe convul- Goth, quark, throat; O.N.
sively, as from some ob- qverk, qverka-niein (angi-
struction in the throat, na); O. H. G. irquepan
(suffocari) ; Dan. qvcelen,
stifling.
t'ijt, order or condition for the For this common and express-
performance of a task, ive Lane, vrord 1 can find
only the Goth, teva, order,
arrangement, disposition ;
gatevian, to put in order.
fey, to do anything cleverly, O. Germ., feihan, crafty; O. S.
fe(/ni.
fleak, a hurdle made of twisted Germ, flechte, basket of wic-
hazels, kerwork; Dan. flette, to
t-^-ist.
gimmer, a two-year old sheep, S. Goth, gimmer (Mr. Brock-
ett) ; Dan. gimmer-lam, an
ewe-lamb.
spur, a prop in building, • O. H. G. sparro (tignum) ;
O. N. s/?erra (repagulum).
3. Scandinavian Words {partly Anglian).
harkle, to stick to, to adhere; O.N. barka (cutem induere,
trans, to cover over, obstringere) .
beawn, bown, prepared, ready O. N. buiym (paratus, vestitus,
to set off", going to a place, maturus).
brangle, to quarrel, O.N.Z(raw^«(turba,tumultus).
bunt, to take home work, Dan. bundter, to pack up, to
make into a bundle.
274
clapcuke, a cake rolled thin Dan. /:/rty>, ablow; klappebrod,
and baked liard, thin cakes beaten out with
the hand.
clutch, a brood of chickens, Dan. klekke, to hatch; O. N.
klekkiu.
elegy a clever person, an adept, Dan. klog, prudent, skilfid ;
Germ, klug ; O. N. klokr.
cree/, a frame to wind yarn upon, O.N. krilu (nectere, texere).
cronk, the note of a raven, O. N. krunk (id.).
dab, a blow, Dan. dabe, a paving beetle, a
rammer.
As an adj. this word signifies clever, skilful; a dab hond, a
skilful ready workman. In this sense I know no nearer
etymon than the Lett, dabba (ars, indoles), or the Lithuaiuan
dabrms (pulcher, lepidus).
doaije, wet, damp, O.N. dogg (pluvia),c?ei//m(ma-
defacere) ; Dan. dugge, to
bedew.
elt, to stir oaten dough before O. N. elti, elta (insequi, agi-
baking, tare) ; Dan. telte.
fuddle, nonsense, trifling, O. N. fudla (inconsiderate
tractare) .
fleak, to bask in the sun, O. N. fluki, planities; Dan.
flak, flat.
flit, to remove from one house Dan. flyte, to change one's
to another, abode; O.'N.flytia (vehere).
forelders, seniors, ancestors, Dan. /or«/f/re; O.N.forelkh'i.
frum, tender, delicate, easily O. N. fruni (primitive, prima
broken, proles) ,
(In Chesliire " frim," applied almost solely to young tender
grass.)
gain, gainer {a. gainer way is a Dan. gienvei, a shorter way, a
shorter way), ^ cross cut ; gien, contr. from
igiennem, through.
gar, to make, to do, to compel, Dan. giore ; O. N. gora.
gaioby, a clownish simpleton, Dan. gab, a simpleton, from
gaber, to open the mouth;
gab, to yawn.
r
\
275
^ec^, a jest, a mocking sarcasm, Dan. giek, id.; O.N. yickr
(audaciilus) .
gillers, lines of twisted hair for Sw. giller, a snare ; O. N. gil-
fishing, . dra (laqueos tendere).
glide, to squint, O.N.^/eif/a(distendere),^/ei^/*
(varus) .
hanch, to bite, to snap at, O. N. hacka (iterato nixu de-
glutire) ; Dan. hakke.
hanch-appo, the game of 'snap-
apple,^
hetter, keen, eager, as a dog in O. N. hcetr (prseceps).
fighting,
hippin-stones, stones at the O. N. hipp (saltus) ; Dan.
crossing of a stream, hop.
kench, a twist, a strain, O.N. kingia (cervicem rotare
vel incurv-are), kengr (cur-
vatura) .
kick, fashion, mode: aw th' O.N. ^AricA: (mos, consuetudo);
kick,^ all the fashion, Dan. skik, custom, fashion.
kind, to light a fire, O. N. kind (ignem alere).
kipper, amorous, lasci\ious, Dan. kippe, a brothel ; kippe,
to pant.
laith, a bam, Dan. lade,
lam, to beat soundly, to chas- O. N. lemia (ferire) ; hlomm
tise, (fastis).
/a?ie, to conceal, O.N. /tywa (occultare).
late, to seek, " O.N. leyta (quserere); Dan.
lede.
lither, idle, lazy, Dan. lad, idle; liderlig, de-
bauched, careless.
lopper, to boil slowly, O.N. lo^n (tumor aquosus).
lurgy, idle. The lurgy fever, O. N. lur (iguaA-ia) ; lurgr
sometimes tkurgy -lurgy, a (defectus \'irium).
cant word for idleness,
woorf, satiated, filled to repletion, Dan. made, to feed.
neeve, neyve, a fist, O. N. hneji (pugnus) ; Dan.
weve.
27G
pluchei', to pilfer, to steiil slyly, Dan. plukke, plukker, to pluck,
to gather.
ratey, roixgli weather, N. Lane.
rostle, to ripen,
scar, a steep bare rock,
sutvl, whatever is eaten with
bread,
skellut, crooked, awry,
sky me, skyoyme, to look scorii-
fidlv, to be cold and distant
in manner, as a purse-proud
parvenu to his old friends.
O. N. rata (incuriosus ferri,
irrucre) .
O.N. rusla (i)rodigere), I'oskna
(maturescere) .
O, N. skur (projectura) ; Dan.
skier, a rock, a cliff.
Dan. suul, id.
O.N. skcela (detorquere) .
O. N. skhna (oculos circum-
ferre) ; skimp (cavillatio, ir-
risio); Dan.sA'iew/e,tomoek,
to scoff.
slcy, the reed-hook of a loom, O.N. sledda (harpe, ensis fal-
catus) .
stood, the track of Avheels,
slunt, to be idle.
O. N. stodi (callis) ; slodr (cal-
lis, depressio rci, lacuna).
Dan. slunt, negligently, drow-
sily ; sluntore, idleness ;
O.N. slundi (servus infidus) .
stiy, to turn up the nose in Dan. snoe, to tui'n, to twist;
O. N. sny, snua (vertere,
flecterc) .
contempt, to affect dislike,
whack, a heavy blow.
O.N. vaka (glaciem perforare,
pcrfringere) .
O^.kvipjp (saltus,celer cursus) .
Dan. hvcelle, to arch over.
O.N. reka (pellere, agerc^).
whip off, to go off quickly,
ivhoave, to cover over, to OAcr-
whelm,
yai'k, to strike hard,
* To these may be added a word 1 have occasionally heard in my hoy-
hood, tliough now obsolete, thumb-finger. This is perfectly correct : O. N.
tlmmal-fingr ; thurna, incisio in res molliores pro mann a])prehendentis ;
fhuma, talem incisionem faeere. The tluunb-finger is therefore the finger
of impression, or by which we take hold of a thing, and the separate parts
of this compound word, though long divorced, properly belong to eacli other.
277
4. Words belonging to all the Classes, (1), (2), (8).
A few only of these will be subjoined, as they do not serve
to determine any specialty of race. A complete list would
show that there was a closer relationship between the lan-
e:nao-es to the north and south of the Elbe at the time of the
Anglo-Saxon invasion, than noAV exists.
botch, to mend clumsily, Sw. bota, to patch; O. S. bo-
tian; O.W. G. buazcn.
cant, to raise up a barrel, to Du. kant, side, edge; Germ,
set it on edge, kante, kant en ; O.N. kant a
(marginare) ; kantr (ora,
latus) .
frame, to set about a thing, to A. S. fremman, to form, to ef-
show capacity in beginning feet ; O. F. frenia ; O. N.
anything, as ^'hoo frames fremia (patrare, facere).
weel," she liegins or offers
well.
fremd, strange, not belonging A. S. fremth ; O. F. fremcd,
to the family, franul; Germ. fremd; Dan.
frem?ned.
grit, sand, - O. F. gret, sand; A. S. grgt,
mill-dust; O. 'N.griot (saxa,
lapides) ; Dan. grytte, to
bruise, to grate.
O. N. gdli, a fool ; Dan. gall ;
O. F. gull (mitis, liberalis) ;
Du. gul, soft, good-natured.
O. Y.greta, to accost, and also
tomake a complaint; Majso-
Goi\\. gretan,ioyvee\i; O.N.
grata (plorare, lacrymare).
Du. kitlig, ticklish; O. N. k'ltla
(titillare) .
A. S. maca, mate, husl)and ;
O. N. maki (par, conjux) ;
maka (ambirc conjugem) ;
Du. viakker (socius) ; Dan.
mage, a mate.
gull, a fool, one easily cheated :
a common word throughoTit
England,
greet, to weep, to lament; pret.
grat,
kittle, ticklish, difficult, un-
certain,
mack, race, family, sort. Help-
mack, a wife.
278
nag-nail, a 8ore at tlie root of A. S. ang-neegl; O. F. ongneil;
a fiiiger-iuiil (W. Lane, an Dan. nag, gnawing, also
ill-tempered person), animosity, spleen; O.N.
naga (mordere, rodere).
note: a cow is said to be of A. S. notu, use, iitility; O. F.
good note, when she gives not (id.); O.N. not (id.).
milk a long time,
speer, a boarded partition, a O. F. sper, spier (tignura) ;
screen, O. H. G. sparro (tignum) ;
O. N. sperra.
uHid, a pledge, a forfeit, A. S. woid, wedd, a pledge ;
O. N. ved (id.) ; Dan. vade ;
O. F. wed, pledge, forfeit ;
also a promise, a compact;
Eng. to wed.
5. Norman French.
boijern, to rinse, to wash, N. Fr. buer, to wash.
cale, time, turn, N. Fr. cule, time, season.
cank, to talk, to chat, N. Fr. cancan, loud talking,
noise.
chieve, to prosper, N. Fr. chevance, goods, riches,
Fr. achever.
gallimaufry, hodge-podge ; a Fr. galimafree, hodge-podge,
person whose dress is ill-
assorted,
guess, sort, kind, Fr. guise.
hog-mutton, mutton of a year- N. Fr. hogetz, a yoimg sheep,
old sheep,
kales, keles, the game of nine- Fr. quilles, pins to play with,
pins.
The word, and probably the game, is due however to the
Northmen. Dan. kegle, a nine-pin.
larjus, bomity, Fr. largesse.
Ian got, lingot, a shoe-string, N. Fr. linge, a line.
law*; in making a running- N. Fr. laie, relief, ease; the
* This word may be from the Old Friesic lawa, what is left behind;
A. S. laf.
279
match one boy is said to give
as many yards' law as he al-
lows his competitor to be iu
advance.
manchet, a small loaf of white
bread,
maslin, flour of wheat and rye
mixed,
f/iits, gloves vrithout fingers,
used for hedging,
muse, mews, a gap in a hedge
thi'ough which hares or rab-
bits pass,
nyfle, a trifle, a delicacy,
pow, to cut the hair of the
head,
ratcher, a rock,
tick, a kind of vermin,
trewil, a trowel,
varlet, a good-for-nothing fel-
lOAV,
N. Fr. laie signifies also the
aid or tax demanded by the
king; Eng. lay.
Fr. manger.
N. Fr. mesle ; mesler, to mix.
Fr. mitaine.
Fr. moue ?
N. Yr.nijie, a thing of no value,
a trifle.
Fr. poil.
Fr. rocher.
Fr. tigue.
Fr. truelle.
N. Fr. varlet, a valet, a ser-
vant.
From this survey of the dialect of the county, we may draw
the following conclusions : —
1. That before the Anglo-Saxon invasion the county was
inhabited by a Celtic population of the younger or Cambrian
branch of the Celtic stock; and that a considerable number
of families, belonging to this race, remained on the soil after
the Teutonic invaders had taken possession of it. From a
comparison of the Lancashire dialect with the dialects of other
counties, and from historical records still extant, we learn
that this race, having probably come from the Cimbric Clier-
sonesus over the German Ocean, held the southern part of
Scotland, the counties of Northumberland, Dm-ham, Cum-
berland, Westmoreland, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Lan-
cashire, Cheshire, and the north part of Wales, with an
280
undefined boundary to tlie east, l)ut extcudinj^' ecrtainly
beyoud tlie Severn. Tlie races in the middle and south of
Enghind 1)clonf;-od ai)])arcntly to the ehler or (iaelie branch
of the same stock; it niay be confidently aflirmcd at least
that there were some tribes of this race in England at that
time, and that the Llocgrians, related to the Cymry and yet
distinct, belonged to it. It appears from historical traditions
that the tribe of the Cymry held sovereignty over the rest, most
probably by conquest. It is also certain, from the concurrent
testimony of the Welsh records, and of the words belonging to
this race, still spoken in the county, that they were not
altogether rude barbarians, but were moderately well skilled
in the arts of life. A race that can forge iron, and build a
water-mill, has taken at least the first step in civilization.
2. It is evident that among the Teutonic invaders of
the district there were some from the south of the Elbe, and
that they Ijclonged to the race now inhabiting the north of
Holland. The Friesic language is now only a dialect, and is
confined within nan'ow limits ; Init at the time when the
warlike bands of this race joined themselves to the Saxon
banner, it is certain that both the language and the race
occupied a much larger part of the country l)etween the Elbe
and the Rhine. The invaders of England, then, in the fifth
and sixth centuries, did not come only from the narrow
territory usually assigned to the Angles and Saxons, but from
the whole country between the Ems and the territory of Jut-
land. We know also that the assertion of Bede — that the
Angles peopled the north of England — is not true, in an ex-
clusive sense, of the county of Lancaster, and was probably
only designed to express a numerical superiority in the north
of England generally on the part of this race.
3. The divergence of the dialectic words from the main
Anglo-Saxon stock is greater on the Danish or Scandinavian
side than on the Friesic ; and from the evidence drawn from
local names and tradition, we infer that this was due to a
preponderance of the Anglian rather than of the later Danish
element. This class of words is too large, I think, to be
assigned to the influence of the Northmen, and it is found in
281
districts where we have not only no trace of the Dane, hut
all the evidence we have is against the supposition that the
pure Scandinavian races made an extensive settlement there.
If this be true, we have an additional testimony to the fact of
the Angles forming the main body of the inhabitants of this
part of England ; and the statement of Bede is correct, if
understood in this sense. We may infer, therefore, that the
language of the Angles aj)proximated at first more nearly to
the Danish than did that of the Saxons, or that their greater
nearness to the Danish territory had had an influence upon
the language. It is most probable that both these suppo-
sitions are correct,
4. The local names of the county show that the wave of the
later Danish invasion flowed from the north-east comer of
the county to the west coast, and then diverged both to the
north and south. It is also evident from the dialect that
these invaders were not Danes exclusively ; for even allowing
that the Danish language was then nearer to the Icelandic or
Old Norse than now, we can hardly suppose that it contained
all the words which only the Old Norse can now supply. The
most probable supposition is, that the fierce warriors who so
often ravaged the whole country from the Thames to More-
cambe Bay were gathered from aU the territory held by the
Scandinavian races. We may also infer that they were at
this time idolaters, and that the awful rites celebrated in
their dark groves in the north were repeated in Lancashire
during the ninth century. Perhaps no comity in England could
ofl'er scenes more in hamiony with the wild gloomy religion
of the old Vikings than those which its bold bare hills and
bleak moorlands would supply.
5. There is scarcely the slightest trace of the Norman
baron in the local names of the comity, and only a faint
e\-idence of his race in the dialect. I am inclined to think,
that upon the whole, no county in England felt the effects of
the Norman conquest less than Lancashire. The old records
of the county give additional evidence of this fact. The
names of the families recorded are almost universally pure
X
282
Anglo-Saxon with a slight sprinkling of Celtic, There is a
trace of the Norman in the south*, but along the whole of the
east and north of the county the Saxon or Danish landholder
seems to have held in peace the ancestral manor-house he
had dwelt in before the con(|ucst, and the haughty insolence
of the Norman was comparatively unknown. We may infer,
therefore, that the race whose genius and energy have swelled
the resoTU'ces of England to so great an extent is not much
indebted to Norman influences. It is chiefly of Anglian
Idood, with a consideral)le mixture of Saxon and Scandi-
navian, and, blended probably in an equal degree, \\ith that of
the Cambrian race.
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
(1.) The Celtic races in England have unfortunately been made the
subject of many groundless theories, by persons utterly nuaecjuaiuted with
the Celtic lane and
284
anne ; as O. H. G. " ist ze sagenne das " (that is to say), and A. S. " hit is
tiinii to rsedanne " (it is time to read, or the time for readinj;) ; and lastly,
this form is further contracted into " haldcu," as " dat riucht bibiutht us
to halden keyser Rolf" (that law the Emperor Rolf (Rudolf) connnanded
us to keep). The iuHnitive form to halden, as distinct from the proj)er
infin. halda, means therefore " to or for holding," or " to be holding," and
expresses a more concrete state, or the action in connexion with the sub-
ject, than the more abstract " halda."
The Old Friesic will also enable us to trace other Old English forms.
Thus the use of "to " in our Old English literature, in the sense of "tho-
roughly," "utterly," corresponding to the German "zer," as in " to-
breken " (to break in pieces), " to-rende" (to tear up), &c. in Piers
Plowman's Vision, is found in the O. F. tobreka, torenda, &c. The Old
English particijnal form " yclept," has also a parallel in the O. F. emakad
(made), erent (torn). It is highly important, for the j)urposes of English
philology, that this language should be more carefully studied by us, as it
is, above all others, the ' fons et origo ' of our own.
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
1855.
NUMBER 1.
January 12. — Thomas Watts, Esq., in the Chair.
The Paper read Ayas —
" On the Latin Verb mittere, its Origin and Affinities ; and
generally on Verbs signifying 'to go ^ in the Indo-
European Family •/' by T. Hewitt Key, Esq., M.A.
It would probably conduce to etymological accuracy, if, in
the investigation of words, the attention were given separately
to the questions of form and meaning. At present, inquirers
are too apt to confine their views exclusively to one or other
of these considerations, more commonly slaves to form and
careless about the connexion of ideas. In the present paper
we propose to commence with an examination of the meaning
which primarily resides in the verb mittere. Now we believe
that ' cause to go ' most closely represents the sense, whence
on the one hand is deduced the somcAvhat negative idea of
' to let go,' on the other the more active idea expressed in our
common translation ' to send ' ; and we purposely give ' to let
go ' a precedence over ' to send,^ as being on the whole of far
more frequent occurrence. As in a former paper we tested
B
tlie true j)()wer of the ver)) dare* by its compounds, rather
than l)y tlic use of the simple verb, and so claimed for it the
sense of the more general idea ' put,' rather than ' give,' rely-
ing for exami)le on the power which belongs to condere, ' put
together, build,' abdere, ' put away, hide,' dedere arma, ' put
down one's arms, surrender,' indere nomen and induere vestem,
' put on,' &c., so here we give our first attention to the com-
pounds of mittere. Thus, amittere never has the meaning of
' send away ' ; but ' to let go from you ' is no inaccurate me-
thod of expressing the idea ' to lose.' Again, demittere more
frequently signifies ' to let down ' than ' to send down.' For
example, demittere harbam means ' to let the beard grow,' and
demittere se either physically ' to let oneself down, to drop,'
or figuratively ' to loAver oneself, to become dejected,' while
demissus is an equivalent for om* adjective ' low.' Remittere
in its ordinary uses is the opposite to tendere, that is, ' to let
go again,' or ' to let go back what has been strained into some
unnatural position.' Emittere is rather ' to let go out what
has been pent up,' than ' to send out,' the exhibition of force
arising from the negative idea of no longer obstructing. Di-
mittere concilium, ' to break up an assembly,' contains in itself
])ermission to depart, rather than any act necessitating: depar-
ture. Thus the idea tallies exactly with the power of ilicet,
' you may go,' the very word by which an assembly was dis-
solved. In permittere the notion of ' to send ' never occurs,
* Sanskrit scholars tell us that dare is a different verb from that which
enters into the coni])Ouncls, the simple verb coiTesponcling, they say, to the
Greek SiSw/^i, Sanskrit dadami, and the verb which enters into the com-
pounds to the Greek ndrifii, Sanskrit dadhami; and the cause which has
led to the apparent fusion of the two verbs into one Latin verb lies, accord-
ing to them, in the deficiency of aspirates which characterises the Latin.
We make three objections to this doctrine of Sanskrit scholars. First, the
archaic forms perduim, creduim, interduim, as well as induere, beside the
simple archaic form duim, ])lead strongly in favour of a connexion between
do and perdo, &c. Secondly, the root de- or dea- of the words ridr^fii,
dea-fjios, corresponds in our view to the Latin se or ser of the verbs sero,
sevi or serui, satum, situm or scrtum, ' put.' Thirdly, do tibi in manum,
' I put into your hand,' leads most naturally to the more limited sense of
'I give.'
whereas ' to let go entirely/ ' to leave altogether with others,'
is precisely the meaning of the verb, as in the well-known
phrase Permitte divis cetera. In our English word '^ permit/
there is something too positive for it to be a fair represen-
tative of the Latin verb. He who permits, gives a sort of
sanction, whereas joenwi/^o hoc tibi rather denotes that ' I leave
the matter wholly in your hands, so that wdth you will reside
all the responsibility for what may be done.' In committer e,
' to entrust,' we find a similar union of ideas ; but there is a
peculiar use of this verb Avhich may well be applied as a test
for trying its meaning. We refer to such phrases as non est
meum committere ut neylegens videar, ' it is not my habit to
run the risk of being thought negligent.' In this and such
passages, committere seems to attain the required meaning if
we start from the idea of a person letting a matter pass en-
tirely from his control ; and it is probably in this Avay that
c. helium, c. pugnam came into use. A general who once lets
his men commence fighting, has comparatively little power of
stopping the combat. Promittere we would translate 'to let
go forth.' Hence, on the one \\qx\A, jiromittere harham, ' to let
the beard grow long/ and promissa barba, ' a long beard' ;
while that other meaning which is represented by ovoc own verb
' promise,' naturally flows from the idea of divixlging an inten-
tion. To let it go forth that one will do so and so, often
constitutes with a man of character a promise to do it. ' To
let go by,' is the received translation of praetermittere ; and for
intermittere we will first point to a quotation in a recent paper
from Cato of intermittey'e iynem, ' to let the fire go out,' while
the more common uses of this compound agree precisely with
its German equivalent unterlassen. The verb omittere was also
noticed in the same paper, where it was hinted that the initial
element was possibly a representative of the Greek ova. At
any rate this verb is well represented in meaning by the
Greek avievai. Of its form more anon. The use of admittere
in the sense of committing a disgraceful act, has been duly
explained by Forcellini on the principle that " quijieccat, scelus
in animum recipit," an interpretation confirmed by the frequent
use oi in se in this connexion. Thus admittere scelus in se is
b2
'to let the (moral) filth coine to one/ and so 'defile or dis-
grace oneself.' The connexion between cleanliness or purity
and guiltlessness is frequent in Ijatin phraseology. Thus
cadus, ' holy/ is but a participle of the verb curere, Avhich^
though used in the limited sense of carding wool, had no doubt
at first the more general meaning ' to clean/ so that carcre, ni
accordance ^ith the usual power of the second conjugation,
might well denote ' to be clean or clear ' of what is expressed
by the accompanying ablative. We may also observe that cas
or car, which forms the base of these words, is the analogue
of the Greek base Ka6-, as seen in Kadapo-, and v£
representatives of our verb whicli arc wholly devoid of a final
eonsonant. Tims we have bi in am-bi-re, am-bi-tu- ; me in
mcare, comuware, romeare ; vi in vi-a (also vea) ' a way/ as
well as in the Sanskrit vi (218^ Wilson), pe in the above-
(luoted im-/>e-^?/-, i in tlie Sanskrit i (167, 201), Wilson), i (221),
Wilson), i or e in the Latin eo ire, in tbc Greek eifMi tevai.
As our root lias already appeared in these lists Avith a final
H and a final d, we may naturally look for the eombination nd
whicli should be regarded as only a strengthened form of one
or f)tlicr of these eonsonants. Accordingly we have the
German wand-er-n and wand-el-n, Danish vandre, and Swe-
dish vandra 'to Avalk,' English ivend [diwA loent) , Ital. andare.
But as d itself is freely convertible with /, so also is the
combination nd. Hence we find the Breton bal-a ' to go,' the
German wall-en 'to go' (now nearly obsolete), our own wal of
ival-k (in which the k is evidently a mere suffix), the root //,eX (?),
whence the aorist fidkeiv^ and the compound avTOfioXo-, per-
haps also fjueWo), which used like our own phrase ' I am going,'
miglit well become an auxiliary verb for the expression of a
future. In the Latin call-i- ' a path ' and the Italian galleria
'a long passage for walking,' we come again upon the gut-
tural ; and lastly, with an initial vowel, we have the French
uller and allee, whence om' own alley.
We may observe too that a guttural suffix seems to present
itself in the German verb gch-en, and in the German sub-
stantive weg, whence, and not from via, our own way.
In the preceding series we purposely omitted the substan-
tives gait and gate from the list in which the base of the verb
takes a final dental, because t in these words is probably the
to uom and horn iu the Italian and Latin uom-o and hom-on-. And again
in mem-or the first syllable seems to have replaced an older mew-. Lastly,
it is not altogether foreign to our argument that a final m in Latin so ge-
nerally corresponds to a Greek v.
* The actual form fiefj.l3\(0Ka and the theoretic ^Xcoctkco may be admitted
without detriment to what has been said. As our own know is a secon-
dary form of ken, so yva- of yvu)(TK(o must be a compression of yfc-co-, in
w'hich yfv represents our ke7i. Similarly ^Xaj-o-Kco has in its first syllable
a compression of fjLoXco-, itself well entitled to be regarded as a secondary
form or derivative of /neX-.
18
remnant of a suffix, hy virtue of which they become substan-
tiA-es, as in our own gift, thrift, the German ankunft, schrift,
&c. Neither did we inch;de irehov and TreStov, because in
these words, as in our own field, we see rather the notion of a
flat plain, and so prefer to connect them with pando, pateo,
and TreTavvvfii. But on the other hand we are possibly en-
titled to claim kindred for ped- and ttoS- 'foot'; and more
certainly for vadum, which has often erroneously assigned
to it as its primitive meaning the idea of ' water,' when on the
contrary it means ' the bottom,' as will readily be seen in the
examples of Forcellini, notwithstanding his bias in the other
direction. Similarly the Greek irar-o-, Engl, path, and Germ.
pfad, seem to have in the dentals what belonged already to
the verbs whence they are derived, just as we see a dental in
the Sanskrit pad and Latin pet. The German bahn, on the
other hand, has probably a \irtual suffix in its nasal. As for
the Latin words via and iter, they are evidently formed by
suffixes already familiar in fug-a and tub-er.
In dealing with the plrrase admittere in se scelus, we gave
to the verb mittere the notion of ' let come ' rather than ' let
go' ; but this variety of meaning, so far as it may be fairly
called variety, is shared by the verb ire, and especially by some
of its compounds, as adire and redire. Thus the simple verb
is so used in the well-known passage of Terence : — " Aliquid
monstri alunt ; ea quoniam nemini obtrudi potest, itur ad me."
So in the Ad. II. 2. 24, we have ubi rediero (scil. hue), nihil est,
refrixerit res. On this principle it is but reasonable to ask,
whether in a series which already contains the Sanskrit gam
and Scotch gang, we ought not also to include our own come ;
and with come, if admitted, the Latin ven or veni will also
claim the right of entrance, which through the Gothic or Old
German quim-an, perf. qvam or quam, claims kindred with our
come.
From the strong tendency to interchange which subsists
between the sounds n, nd, d (/), and /, we are decidedly of the
opinion that the final letters of /3a j/ {^acvco), men (of mener,
Fr.), wend, vad {vadere),bet {o^ bitere) , pet {oi petere) , mit (of
mittere), bat fof Breton bula), /MeX (of fioXeiv, &c.), wal (of
14
Germ, loallen, Eiig. walk), li.ivo ^yllat is s\il)staiiti:illy one and
the same suffix. On tlic otlicr hand, we also regard the crude
forms which end in a vowel a, viz. ba, ga, va, /jlo, ha, as equi-
valents to each other, representing the fundamental verb, from
which those which end in the letters n, nd, d, t, I, are deri-
vatives. Thirdly, wc are somewhat inclined to believe that
those which seem to exhibit a radical verb ending in a weak
vowel i or e, are but corruptions from some of the secondary
verbs just enumerated, so that bi of anibire, for instance,
should be regarded as a degraded form of bit, and i of ire as
having also supplanted it-. Nay, in the derivation of bit or
bet from ba, the change of vowel is probal)ly due to that prin-
ciple of attraction called ' umlaut,' by which the weak vowel
of a suffix modifies a preceding strong vowel. This it is true
presumes that bit or bet is itself a degraded form from biti or
beti. For such a theory we have some confirmation in the
cases of the Latin bases pet and ven, the former of which
distinctly exhibits an i in petivi, petitus, petitor ; and the latter
in the imperfect tenses venire, venio, veniebam, &c."^
As regards the initial consonants, the liji-letters of /Sa, va
and ma present no difficulty. Again, that ga and va should
interchange is also in accordance with well-known facts; nor
is it a strange matter to find a v passing into a iv {watan,
wandeln), or a digamma into a mere aspirate, as in the San-
skrit ha, or even disappearing altogether, as in andare, alter.
Hence the Greek verbs eifii * I go ' and Itjijh ' I let go,' which
in their bases have no difference but that of the aspirate, may
fairly be regarded as substantially identical ; and this, com-
bined Avith what has been said above, leads to the result that
mitto and ly^fii are equivalent in form (setting aside the redu-
plication of the latter) as well as in meaning.
We wish no difficidty to be concealed, and therefore at
once put forward an admission, that avc claim as akin to each
other all the three varieties (usually attributed to separate
* In the same way the umlaut sound which occurs in quaer- of quaero
seems to imply an older base quaesi-, which would account for quaesivi,
quaesitus, quaesitor.
15
origins) which appear in the conjugation of the French verb,
aller,je vais, andj'irai. In like manner we hesitate not to
claim a common origin for the several parts, however dissimilar
to the eye, of the Breton verb, which has mont for its infinitive,
while the present tense of the indicative is ann, ez, a, eomp, it,
eoFiL Thus we steadily adhere to the principles according to
which we held that good, better, best, and well, as also is, was,
and be, respectively belong to a common stock.
16 •
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
1855.— No. 2.
January 26,
Professor Key in the Chair.
The following- Paper was read : —
" On Roots mutually connected by reference to the term Z?^-
zag -j'^ by Hensleigh Wedgwood, Esq.
The sound of a blow is represented in Spanish by the syl-
lable zis ! or zas ! and the sound of repeated blows by the
compound ziszas ! in Portviguese zas-tras ! corresponding to
E. tkwick-thwack ! The image fundamentally represented by
zigzag seems nearly the same as that belonging to the Sp.
ziszas, with perhaps a more general tendency to a conception
of the blows as being made by a sharp instrument. Then as
blows repeated in rapid succession are naturally given alter-
nately from right to left and left to right, the term is applied
to motion sharply alternating in directions transverse to each
other, to a line sucb as would be drawn by a succession of
strokes inclined to each other at an acute angle.
In support of such a view of the primary image represented
by the terra zigzag, the directly expressive character of which
is universally felt, we cannot indeed in English produce the
very element zig or zag, signifying the kind of action in
which we suppose the idea of the zigzag form to take its rise,
but the corresponding root zick or zack is extant in German,
and a long series of neighljouring forms may be pointed out in
17
all the European languages in which the initial z is exchanged
for letters into Avliich the former consonant readily passes.
Perhaps the most central form that can be taken is the E.
jag, which on the one hand passes (by the omission of the
sound of the Fr. j involved in om* pronunciation of the same
consonant) into dag, tag, tack, stack, and on the other into
gag, kag, skag, shag ; and it will be the object of the present
paper to investigate the development of meanings originating
in the idea of sudden thrust, suddenly checked or rapidly
alternating action, represented by the foregoing syllables and
theu' immediate modifications. From these fundamental images
the train of thought will very generally be found to pass to
the representation of a bodily projection, of a point or pointed
object, an mievenness in a superficial or linear body, a tooth,
notch, cog ; or again, the pointed object may itself be consi-
dered as the implement of stabbing or thrusting, stopping a
hole, supporting, propping. If the substance to which the
projection belongs be of a soft nature, the projection will hang
doA\Ti instead of standing up, whence the notion of dangling,
swinging; of a dangling body, bob, cluster. It is not, of course,
to be supposed that the complete train of thought by which
any particiUar signification is connected with the original idea
will be found in the case of every form of the root, but the
evidence is of a cumulative natm-e, and the principal steps of
the process will be found repeated imder so many forms, that
there can rarely be a difficulty in supplying any step that may
be wanting from a sister-form. The connexion of the forms
J^[fyJ(^[/>Jog, with zigzag, may be illustrated by the Polish pro-
nunciation of the theme, zygzag, i. e. jygzag (with a French j).
To jag is explained by Jamieson 'to job' (that is, to strike
with a pointed instriunent), 'to prick, to pierce.' Hence a
jag, a projecting point ; jugged, jaggy, ha\dng a slashed zigzag
edge, ragged, rough with sharp projections.
Or else the ground by piercing Caurus seized
Was >y.(7V/ with frost.— Thomson in Richardson.
And on his backe an uncouth vestiment
Made of strange stuffe, but all to worne and ragged,
And underneath his breech was all to torne anA jagged.— Y.Q,.
c
18
To dag is in like maiinov to stab, to pierce, to slash. A
dagger is a stabber, a weapon for stabbing ; Fr. dague, a
dagger, the sharj) horns of a young stag. Dag, a small project-
ing stump of a branch, a sharp sudden pain [a stab] (Ilalliwell) .
in the diminutive form we have the prov. E. dagkl, an icicle,
from its tapering shape, corresponding to the Iccl. is-digul,
frost-diugid, other forms of diminutive from the same root.
To jag or dag was especially applied to the fashion of slash-
ing garments, which formerly afforded so frequent a subject of
ridicule or invective to our satu'ists and moralists.
Thy body bolstred out with buiiibast and with bagges,
Thy rowles, thy ruffes, thy caules, thy coifes,
Thy jerkius aud thy jagges. — Gascoigne in Rich.
So under the name of dagging in the Parson^ s Tale : — " But
there is also the costlewe fiu-ring in their gownes, so moche
pounsing of chcsil to make holes^ so moche dagging with
sheres forth.^^
In this point of view 2ijag or dag becomes equivalent to a
rag or tatter, bringing us to the notion of hangmg loose, flut-
tering in the air, swaying to and fro. Thus from dag is de-
rived to dangle, as the Icel. dingla in the same sense from
digul, dingul, an icicle.
The same idea of dangling or hanging loose is exemplified
in the dag-locks, also called tag-locks or tag-wool, the matted
locks hanging about a sheep's tail ; as well as in W. tagel, a
dewlap, the wattles of a cock. The provincial G. zagel (iden-
tical with E. tail, as G. segel with sail) is in like manner used
to signify any wavering or dangling thing, the tail of a dog, top
of a tree, lock of hair. The corresponding PI. D. tagel is ap-
plied to the lash of a whip, rope's end j the Isl. tagl, to the
hanging extremity of anything, as reip-tagl, a rope's end, fiall-
tagl, tlie skirts of a hill, and especially to the tail of a horse,
whence Swed. tagel, with a singidar contraction of meaning,
becomes simply horsehair, as Goth, tagls, the hair of the head.
From G. haar-zagel, a tuft of hair, we readily pass to Swiss
tschogg, a tuft on the head of a bird, a man's head of hair ;
It. ciocca, a tuft of fruit or of flowers ; E, shock, in the expres-
19
sion a shock-head, a bushy liead of hair, shock-dog, a dog with
shaggy locks. In a shock of corn the same idea seems exhi-
bited in a magnified form, the signification probably being
only a bmich of sheaves.
To dig is essentially, like dag, to thrust with a pointed in-
strument ; to tiff, to give a twitch, as in the proverb " Ower
mony masters, as the toad said to the harrow when every
tooth gave her a tig." With an initial s this form of the root
gives rise to the Lat. instigo, instinguo, to prick on, to insti-
gate, whence instinct, that which urges the animal on. To
extinguish is to put the fire out, the original meaning of put
being to poke or tlu'ust. To distinguish is to point apart, to
mark by separate points or to arrange round separate points.
The syllables yi,^' or Jog are used in E. to designate various
kinds of rouglily or sharply reciprocating action, as in jig, a
quick dance, a trick (Halliwell) ; jigging, visiting about ; jig-
geting, jigling, jolting, shaking, moving unsteadily. To jog,
to give a momentary impulse to, to move imsteadily. Jogs,
hits, strikes (Hall.), illustrating the connexion of the Lat.
jacere, to cast, throw, and icere, to strike, stab, with our root.
Jogging, a protuberance on the sm^face of sawn wood (Hall.).
In Lyell's ' North America ' he mentions certain remarkably
indented cliffs with corresponding zigzags on either side of an
estuary called the North and South Joggins, the meaning of
which was explained to him, " Why you see, Sir, they jog in
and jog out.'^
It is impossible to draw a distinct line between the forms
with an initial j and g. The identity oi jag and gag is exem-
plified in Icel. gagr, projecting; E. gag-iooi\\, a projecting
tooth.
Her jaws grin dreadful with three rows of teeth,
Ju(j(jy they stand the gaping den of death.
Pope in Richardson.
An exact equivalent of the ^.jog appears in W. gogi, to shake ;
gogr, a sieve (from the jigging motion) ; ysgogi, to wag, to
stii', to shog ; and in the Gael, gog, a nod ; ^o^-cheannach
{cean, a head) , tossing the head in walking ; gog-H\\\u\, a
c 2
20
(joggle eye, a prominent restless eye, — " They yoygh with their
eyes hither and thither" (Ilolinslied in Richardson) ; goigean,
a cluster ; goigeunnach, clustering, dangling ; jn'ovincial E.
gog, a bog; gog-inire ov juggle-mire, a quag-mire; — compelling
us to regard (juag, and conscqviently quake, as modifications of
our root, and thus bringing us into connexion with an endless
series of forms derived from a root wag, which we must abstain
from touching.
With joggle, or juggle and goggle, in the sense of unsteady
motion, must be classed Se. coggle, to rock ; coggly, moving
from side to side, unsteady. Hence must be explained the
cogs of a wheel, viz. as jogs or unevennesses on the edge of
the wheel.
Three long rollers twice nine inches round,
In iron cased and jagg'd with many a cog.
Grainger hi Richardson.
The expression to cog in the sense of cheating must be un-
derstood as signifying a trick or quick turn, a sense in which
jig and many other forms of oirr root are also used.
While cog is in E. applied as above to the projecting tooth
of an indented wheel, the corresponding It. cocca designates
the notch or re-entering angle. Hence with an initial s we
have to scotch, to notch, Bret, skeja.
The notion of a projecting tooth is carried on in Du. kegge,
a wedge, from its tapering form, and its diminutive kegel,
A.-S. gicel, an icicle. The Du. and G. kegel is also a ninepin,
in E. provincially called gaggles and also kayles or skayles,
Fr. quilles. In like manner in Gr. itself kegel is contracted
into keil, any longish tapering body, a wedge, as well as kiel,
the quill or hollow tapering end of a feather.
The forms 7^^ and gig are still closer to each other than 70^
and gog. We have gig, a top (an object distinguished by a
rapid circular, instead of reciprocating motion) ; gig, gigget,
gigsy, gig let, a flighty person, a silly romping girl ; G. geige,
PI. D. gigel, a fiddle, from the rapid sawing action with which
the instrument is played. Hence too the. PI. D. gigeln, be-
21
giyeln, to deceive, to lead by the nose, to beguile, — properly,
like- diddle, to deceive by tricks played off before one's eyes.
The E. wile, formerly ivigele (Ancren Rewle), A.-S. iviyehmg,
geiviglimg, deceit, juggling, bewitching, and wigelere, a sooth-
sayer, are derived on the same principle from wag, waggle,
wiggle, expressive of unsteady motion. Possibly in Lat. pra-
stigioe, the syllable stig, which we have already found as one
of the forms of our root, may supply the notion of the quick
turn or trick required to construct the actual meaning.
In like manner we are led from jog and its frequentatives
jogger, joggle, juggle, in the sense of moAing to and fro, to
juggle, in the sense of playing tricks of sleight of hand, which
is in all probability essentially the same word with the fore-
going gigeln, begigeln, and with provincial E. guggle, to guU, to
cheat (HaU.), although the mid. hat. joculalor, a juggler, may
seem to point to a derivation fi'om jocus. 'Bui jocns itself,
like the Lith. jukas, sport (whence jukininkas, jukdarys, a
juggler), may probably be an early offshoot of our stock, having
originally signified a rapid trick. The Sc. jouk is applied to
a quick turn of the body, a shift or change of place; to joivk,
to play tricks like a juggler ; joukry--p&wkYj, trick, deception,
juggUng (Jamieson). The G. gaukeln, to juggle, has little ap-
pearance of being derived fi"om joculari, while it is related to
schaukeln, to roll as a ship, to seesaw, as gag to shog, which we
shall presently recognize as a neighbouring form of jog.
With an initial s from gag (in Icel. gagr, projecting), we
have Icel. skaga, to project, corresponding in form to E. sJiag,
shaggy, in some places pronoiuiced scaggy, hanging in uneven
locks. So from W. gogi, to shake, ysgogi, to Avag, to stir,
coiTCsponding to E. sJiog, to shake roughly, to jog. 'The
sea was schoggid with wawis' (Wiclif), was jagged or rough
with waves. An ice-shoggle or shockle is a shag or hanging-
shoot of ice, to which is related Du. schongelen, schonkelen, to
swing, in the same way as Icel. dingla is to digul, and E. dan-
gle to daglet, an icicle. As an equivalent to Du. schonkelen
may be mentioned Fr. chanceler, to totter, a frequentative, of
which the positive form is represented by O. Fr. jancer,
Vj. jaunce, jounce, to jog. The Fr.jancei- is also to jaunt, to
22
make a plcasui'c excursion, to take a jog, Sw. iara iit att skaka
pa sigj Fr. allcr se faire calioter im pcu.
From E. shog wc easily pass to Du. schocken, to jolt, Fr.
choqiier, to strike against, to shock ; and from tliem it is diffi-
cult to separate Sw. skaka, to shake, to jolt ; Icel. skakra, to
tremble, to stagger.
We have said that both the elements of the G. zick-zack
were extant as living roots in that language. We find zacken,
to jag, dent, notch, slash, explaining E. tack, to change the
direction in sailing to the opposite course, to sail in zigzag ;
zacke or zacken, a spike, prong, tooth, branch, &c. ; eis-zacken,
an icicle, and in PL D. (where an initial / regularly corresponds
to G. z) takk, a point, a branch of a tree or of a deer's horn ;
is-takel, an icicle. It. tacca, a notch, corresponds to G. zacken,
a tooth, just as It. cocca, a notch, to cog, the projecting tooth
of a wheel. Bav. zicken, PL D. ticken, to strike with a quick
short blow (Schmeller), to tick ; G. zucken, to shrug, to draw
with a sudden action, to tug ; den degen zucken, to whip out
one's sword; den kopf zucken, to duck the head, to jouk
(Scotch), to shrink from a blow.
Sp. taco, an implement for thrusting, the ramrod or wad
of a gun, a peg, wedge, bung, a billiard-cue ; tocon, a stump,
stock of a tree ; It. tocco, a bit, a morsel (properly an end,
then a small piece). Sp. tocar, in which the meaning is
softened dowTi into the idea of touching, but the original sense
of striking is preserved in the expression ' tocar el tambor,' to
beat the drum; tocante, catching (of a disorder).
The same softening down of the meaning seems to have
taken place in Lat. tangere, originally tagere, explained " to
touch, i. e. to strike, hit, beat," in the third sense given by
Andrews in his Dictionary.
Swed. tagg, a prickle, sharp point, sting ; taggar, the teeth
of a saw, of a comb, &c., like G. zacken. E. tag, the point at
the end of a lace, the jagged end of anything; hence fre-
quently joined with rag, to signify the rabble or unhonoured
appendages of a party. " Of the other two, one is reserved
for comely personages and void of loathsome discourse ; the
other is left common for tag and rag" — Holinshed in R.
23
The insertion of the nasal into tag, in the sense either of a
hanging rag or a projecting pointy gives in the one case Isl.
tangr, a rag, and in the other tangi, a tongue of land project-
ing into the sea, a promontory; Sc. tangle, an icicle; Isl.
tangi is also the tang of a knife or prolongation of the blade
running up into the handle ; and as the tang is held fast in the
sui'rounding handle, an instrument consisting of two arms
for the piu'pose of seizing an object to be held as a tang or
tongue between them is, by a converse application of the term,
called tangs or tongs, Icel. taungr. In the same way, to stick
signifies to pierce or project into a solid substance, and to be
held fast in the substance into which the implement is stuck ;
to cleave is both to cut into and to adhere to, the complete
image being that of the instrument driven in between the
portions of the cloven object.
Again, we have Gael, tac, tacaid, a peg, a nail, a prop, a
sharp pain; E. tack, a small nail; to tack, to fasten as with
pricks or stitches, " I tack a thing, I make it fast to a waU or
such like" (Palsgrave in Way). Bret, tach (with a Fr. ch),
a tack, tacha, to fasten with nails. Venet. tacare, Piedra.
tache. It. attaccare, to hang a thing up, to stick, to fasten,
to tie.
The way in which these Italian forms are used would seem
to explain the Icel. taka, Swed. taga, E. take, as originating
in the idea of fastening on, laying hold of; thus tache is ex-
plained to hang up, to stick to, to fasten on, to seize ; ' tache
la rogna ad im,' to give one the itch ; ' tache la rogna da mi
autr/ to take it from another. In the same way, to take was
formerly used as well in the sense of dehvering a thing to
another as receiving it from him. Tache, of plants, to take
root; tache V feu, to take fire; tachesse, to quarrel, dispiite,
scold ; It. attaccarsi di parole ; just as the corresponding
reciprocal tagas of Swed. taga signifies to struggle, contend,
quarrel.
The prefix of an s to forms like dag, tag, tak, with the fun-
damental signification of a suddenly checked thrust, gives
prov. Dan. stagge, stagle, to stagger, to stumble to the right
and left in the endeavour to move onwards; Gael. ,s-/rtc, • a
2i
false step, stacach, lu)ljl)liug-, limjjing; Swcd. steg, a step;
Dii. staggehn, to paw the ground as a horse ; Swiss staggelen,
staiiggein, st'igehi, to stutter, to sj)eak in sudden impidses,
with reference to Avhieli may he compared the Du. tateren, to
stutter, -with E. totter, and stutter, again, with Du. stooten, to
tlirnst. Conversely, to stammer is used in the north of
England in the sense of staggering.
Other forms are, — leel. stanga, to thrust, to prick ; stinga,
to prick, to stick, to sting, to touch ; G. stechen, to stab, to
prick, to sting ; Bret, steki, stoki, to strike, to knock ; Prov.
E. to stock, to peck, as a bird; G. stauchen, to jog, to jolt, to
ram, to */o^y goods in a cask or in a ship; E. stoke, to poke,
to stoach, to stab, to poach wet gromid.
We have then in most of the European languages a variety of
forms,stac,stick, stock, stang, signifying au instrument of thrust-
ing, a bar, a pole, a bolt, a pillar, a support, or anything rising
to a point. Gael, stac, a stake, pillar, thorn, peaked rock,
stack of hay, wood, or the like ; Pol. stog, a stack ; Du. staeck,
a stake, stick, peg ; Lith. stokas, a stake ; Sp. estoc, a pointed
sword ; Gael, stoc, a trunli, post, pillar ; Du. stok, a stick or
stock ; Fr. estoc, the stock of a tree, used metaphorically, like
E. stock, for the stem or living root of a family on ^^■hich the
successive descendants appear as branches. The same meta-
phor represents the public funds as stocks, or stems developing
their fi'uit and branches in the shape of annual dividends. A
stock of goods is a similar metaphor, in which the things
required for use are considered as the fruit or branches
detached from a permanent stem.
With a nasal, we have It. stanga, G. stange, E. stang, a
pole, bar, bolt ; and in Gael, also a pin, a peg. Without the
initial s, Langued. tanca, a bolt, tunc, the stump of a tree, or
the act of stumbling against it ; Fiim. tanko, a pole.
Then, as driving a stake into the ground affords one of the
simplest and most obvious types of fixedness, we have next a
series of verbal forms signifying to fix or become fixed, to
stop, cease from action, to fasten, to tie, to choke.
We speak in English of sticking a pin into a cushion,
stieking a thing to the Avail, sticking in the middle of a speech.
25
sticking iu the mud, sticking in one^s tliroat. Du. stuaken,
to stop, to cease ; Langued. estaca, to stick or stop ; estaca,
Bret, staga, a leasli or tie ; Sw. stocka sig, to stop, to clod,
to coagulate ; G. stocken, to stand still, to stop short, to cease
to flow; Prov. E. stogged, set fast in the mire; to stodge or
staw, to cram full, to bring to a stand in eating ; Prov. Fr.
estoquc, fixed in -wonder, also stodged or gorged with eating
(Hecart) ; G. stauchen, to cram, to stop the course of water.
The G. ersticken, to suflbcate, may be illustrated by W.
tagu, to clog, to choke, tag-SLradyr (literally clog plough), the
plant rest-harrow ; ystagii, to clioke, to suffocate ; Bret, stay,
a tie ; staga, to tie, to fasten ; staguz, sticky. Langued. tanca,
to stop ; ' le gousie se tanco,^ the throat stops up, chokes.
The Lat. stagnum, standing water, seems formed on an
analogous plan to Prov. E. stockened, stopped in growth,
brought to a stand. The derivative stagnare must be con-
sidered as collaterally related, and not as the direct ancestor
of Fr. etancher, E. to staunch, to stop the flow of liquid, which
comes directly from the notion of fixedness, firmness. Thus
we have W. ystanc, a holdfast, bracket, stanchion ; Fr. etancon,
formerly in the same sense, also as the trunk of a tree, prop,
support, trestle; Bret, stank, thick, close (as standing corn,
trees in a wood, &c.), tight, stanka, to staunch, to stop;
E. staunch, firm, fixed; Sp. estanco, tight, sound, estancar,
to stop.
Parallel with the whole of the preceding series will be
found one with the same or very similar meanings, and differ-
ing in form only in having a labial instead of a guttural ter-
mination.
Corresponding to the {orvas, jig, Jag, Jog, we have to Jib, to
start suddenly back or on one side, whence the Jib in a
ship is the triangular sail in front that traverses from side to
side. A Jibby, giblot, a frisky gadding wench (Halliwell),
equivalent to gig, giglet, &c. Tojiffle, giffle (with the g hard),
to be restless ; &■ Jiffy, an instant, the time of a single vibration.
To Job, \WcJag, to strike or thrust with a pointed instrument;
the Tuitjobber is a provincial name for the nuthatch, a bird
which opens nuts with its beak. Pol. dziobac, to peck ; dziob,
26
a bcalc, bill, pock-mark ; dzioba, an adze. The Gael, gob, the
bill or beak of a h\n\, is manifestly the same word; also
applied Indicrously to the human mouthy whence gobair, a
talker, and hence probably the O. F. gaber, to lie, to jest,
and E. gab, jibe, jape. O. E. gobbet, jobbet, a lump, small
quantity of anything. Bohem. zob, a beak, zub, a tooth, as
of the mouth, a saAV, comb, &c. Ajub is a jog trot; to jmnp,
to start suddenly forwards ; to jumble, to shake up things
together.
With an initial d we have dab, a slight blow, a small lump ;
dabbet, like jobbet, a small quantity (Halliwell) ; to dibble, to
make holes in the ground with a pointed instrument ; a dib,
dimble, a narrow valley, a dimple, a pit in the check, like Pol.
dziob, from dziobac.
We find tap very generally running parallel with tack, with
a fundamental signification, as it appears, of ramming, thi'ust-
ing, striking with a pointed instrument, as in the words of
the song, " The woodpecker tapping the hollow beech tree."
Bohemian top, the beak of a bird, topor, an axe, tepati, to
strike ; E. wui-topper, another name for the nutjobbcr or nut-
hatch. Portuguese topar, to hit, to stumble, trip, strike a thing
by chance with the feet ; It. intoppo, an obstacle ; Fr. achoper,
to stumble, to strike against, answering to choquer of the
former series. Dan. tappje, to throb, to struggle, to pant ; Sp.
Port, tapar, to stop a hole, viz. to ram a peg into it ; Port.
tapado, tight in texture, Lat. stipatus, as Bret, stank above
mentioned. G. zapfen, a tap, bung, peg for stopping the hole
in a cask, or anything of similar shape ; e\^-zapfen, Dan. iis-
tap, an icicle, answering to e\%-zacken, is-tcikel of the former
series ; W. tap, tapyn, a projection, ledge or shelf; top, topyn,
a stopple, top, bush of hair; G. zopf, schopf. It. civffo, Fr.
touffe, toiqje, E. tuft, answering to tscliogg, ciocco, shock, of the
former series. E. tap-root, a spindle-shaped root ; to taper,
to assume such a form, to diminish in size towards the end ;
a taper (originally no doubt a dip-candle), so named from the
tapering form. Dan. /q/>-sukker, a sugar-loaf.
With an initial s we start again from the notion of a thrust
with a sharp implement in E. stab, leading to G. stab, a stave
27
or staff; Gael, stob, a tlirust or stab, stump, tlioni, prickle,
poiutecl stick. E. stub, stump, a projecting point, the cut-off
end of anything ; stubble, tlie sharp ends of corn left standing ;
stubborn, rugged in disposition, standing up like a stub, not
easily bent. Icel. stabbi, like stack, a heap or pile ; Lat, sti-
pare, to ram or cram, stipes, a stake, stipula, a straw. Bohem.
staupati, to tread, to march ; staupa, a stamp, stupa, a step,
stupka, a mortar, stopa, footsteps, traces ; stopka, the stalk of
a leaf, fruit.
N. of France, est ope, a stake, also stable, firm, solid, corre-
sponding to Bret, stank, ^.stanch. In the same dialect we
find both estoper and estocquier, to stop, to close, viz. by tlirust-
ing a peg or object of appropriate shape into the hole ; to stop
or come to a stand is the equiA^alent of the G. stocken, Du.
staaken, above mentioned. E. staple, like stanchion, a hook
fixed into something to hold by ; Du. stapel, like Gael. Icel.
E. stack, a heap piled up, a depot of merchandise; Swed.
klock-stapel, a steeple, the pointed tower of a church. As the
final b of stab passes into an / in staff, to stuff or cram
must be considered only as another form of stop, and stuff,
matter, substance, is the staff, stem, or stock, out of which an
object is produced. Household stuff is the stock of furniture,
&c. by which it is made habitable. The metaphor would be
but slightly altered by calling bread the stuff, instead of the
staff, of life.
Du. stippen, to prick, and like sticken, to embroider, stipsel,
sticksel, embroidery, stip-iuyxi., a stake-fence, paling ; stappen,
stippen, E. to step, the equivalent of Gael, stac, Swed. steg ;
E. stamp, to strike with the foot, with a pestle or the like ;
Swed. stampa, also to rock, to move from side to side like a
ship ; Bret, stampa, to stride.
Prov. Fr. s'etamper, to stand up ; etampo, an upright ; Fr.
estamper, to support, to prop, like estancer, etancher ; estam-
peau, estanvfin, a prop, stay, trestle (Cotgr.).
From stamp must be explained the O. E. st amber, stammer,
Sw. stamma, titubare lingua; and stammer or stummer, to
stagger, stumble (Brocket), just as we saw the two ideas con-
veyed by the Swiss and Dutch stayijelen, staygeren ; slavering
28
or staveliny, wandering about in an vmsteady manner, as in
the dark, stumbling (llalliwell).
Tlic Litli. stainhas, stambras, a stalk, indicates the loss of a
final ^ in G. stam, E. stem, which are thus brought back to a
root stap or stip, agreemg with Lat. stipes, stipula, A similar
modification woidd produce Lat. stimulus, a prick or goad,
from the same radical form. From stam or stem we have
G. stammen, to prop, to support, to stop the course of water,
to dam ; Swed. stdmma, to staunch ; Dan. stamme, the stock,
stem, or trunk of a tree, the stock or pack of cards.
Lat. stupere may be explained like Prov. Fr. estoque, brought
to a stand, fixed in wonder, ' etre etonne jusqu'k en perdrc la
respiration^ (Hecart), to stand like a stock or stub. Gr.
(TTvirr], tow, what is stuffed or rammed in, also a stock or
trunk, as Lat. stipes; arvTTTiKO'i, styptic, having a tendency
to staunch or stop the flow of lilood.
It is obser\^able that the same series of meanings as above
developed appears in the Sanscrit stabh, stambfi, stumbh,
fulcirc, immobilem reddere, sistere, stupere; stambha, postis,
pila, columna, mons, manipulus, stupor (Dieffenbach).
29
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
1855.— No. 3.
February 9,
Thomas Watts, Esq., in the Chair.
The Paper read was —
"Norfolk Words;" collected by Anna Gurney, of North
Repps Cottage, near Cromer.
The following Norfolk words have been gathered chiefly on
the north-eastern coast, and, either because they have not been
noted by Mr. Forby in his ' Vocabidary of East Angiia,' or
because they appear to admit of some further elucidation, are
now ofl:ered to the Philological Society, in consequence of the
Circular requesting that Members should collect pecuUar words
current in their respective districts.
Bank, generally used for ' beach.'
Bee-bird or Beam-bird, or Wall-bird. — A fly-catcher.
Bishop Barnabee. — The Lady-bird : the Marien-kafir of
Germany; in heathen times sacred to Frigga. When the
Overstrand children catch one of these insects, they will let it
go, saying-
Bishop, Bishop Barnabee !
Tell me when your wedding be ;
If te* be tomorrow day,
Take your wings and fly away ;
Fly to the east, fly to the west.
Fly to those that love you best !
* Norfolk for " it."
30
But tlic more usual verse of manumission is —
Lady-bird, Lady-bird, fly away home !
Your house is on fire, your children must roam.
I should think that, like the cock, its red colour connected
it with^^Ve.
BoKE of straw. — A bulk — up to the rim of the cart, but
not higher.
A Brabble, or a Brahhly sea. — A short sw ell ; little waves
in quick succession, very unpleasant in a boat.
Bradcocks. — Young tui'l)ots.
To Braid. — Always used iivstead of 'to net.'
Brank. — Buck-wheat; probably of Celtic origin, for Pliny
says that beer was made by the Gauls from the grain Brace :
see Bullet, Mem. Celt. Brank is of an intoxicating quality, as I
have seen guinea-fowls perfectly stupefied after feeding in a
field of it in wet weather, when the grain has become a little
fermented. It is however given freely to pheasants.
Carr. — Chiefly used for a low damp grove (as Alder-Carr,
Osier-Carr) : Kiorr, a swamp, Icelandic.
CooMS. — High ridges, according to Forby. In most parts
of England, Coombe or Combe implies a valley (the cmne
downAvards), but High Combe is the name of a hill in Cum-
berland, mp, to arise, cumulus. The coomb of corn (and
formerly of coals in Norfolk, though now superseded by the
ton) seems to mean " a heap.'' The comb of a bird, its crest.
To Cop. — To throw. " You cop it, I'U catch it :" connected
with kaupa, to sell ; also with ?)3, hollow of the hand, Hebr.
Fishing by a jerk with " Chopsticks " is practised here and
in Norway.
Cosh. — A covering of leaves; another form of "husk;"
(the glumes of com, particularly Avheat, Forby ;) pods of peas
and beans (Miss Baker) ; cosse, Fr.
Daddled. — Said of ducklings allowed to go too young into
the pond, evidently " daggled."
Dag. — Dew " A little dag of rain." We have " water-dogs"
for Hght watery clouds ; the " sun-dog," a light spot near the
sun, indicative of rain ; both probably from the same, da^.
31
To Dawl a cat. — To coax it.
DiCKUP. — Formerly as usual as '' Dicky/' the name for
the ass, probably Flemish Dik-kop, thick-head,, similar to
donkey or duncy.
DiNDEL. — Sow-thistle ; perhaps a corruption of dandelion.
Doted. — Decayed, as wood.
To go Driving. — To go out fishing ; letting the herring or
mackerel nets drift.
EiRY. — Grand, and rather alarming. " TMiat an eirij horse !"
said an old lady, of a tall handsome animal at which she was
somewhat scared. It is common to Norfolk and Scotland : —
" The eiry bloodhound howl'd by night." — Border Minstrelsy.
It seems connected with Nn>, Heb. fear, vereor, and with
the Germ, ekre, honour.
To ExvY. — To wish for; (as the French) — "I envied my
church.''
Errigle or Erriwiggle — ear-wike, ear-ivrike, ear-narro-
wriggle, ear-wiggle ; as poll-wiggle, a tadpole; A.-S. wigga, a
beetle, worm ; ear-ivigga, an ear-beetle or earwig, — appears to
be the original rather than the derivative of the Latin eruca,
earwig; the double r gives a stronger sense of horror.
Hickes and Grimm have both printed a little Saxon poem on
the Runic letters, wherein it is \^T.itten —
"Ear is egle, — Ear is hateful."
The " worm is hatefid " seems to fit the sense, and the Avord is
probably the same with ver and ar^p — that which e«/'eth or
turneth, — as to ear the ground is to turn up the soil.
The Falls. — The cliif-sides; elsewhere "feUs."
To Fathom. — To spread or fill out —
" The wheat fathoms well."
Fa^mr being a man's grasp, it should seem that the measure
' fathom,' six feet, was supposed to be a man's usual height,
to which the distance from tip to tip of the fingers ought to
correspond.
FiLY. — Dirty.
32
Fis. — Decay in fruit; from effervescence or fermentation ?
to fizz ? to fiste, to poison.
To Fiste. — To find out (Dan. visie).
FoLKSAL, or Fo^-SEL. — The forward part of the vessel, where
the sailors live ; fore-castle.
Fool. — A pet. It was droll, under a burning sun, to hear a
Norfolk servant, toiling in keeping together the luggage of a
party on the road from the Piraeus to Athens, call out, " What
am I to do with your /oo/, Mr. C. ? it won't keep quiet! " the
fool being a land tortoise which had been picked up by the
way by one of the junior travellers.
Fowl. — Applied to all large birds.
Gain. — Handy, convenient; Danish gavne; and gavnliy,
advantageous.
Gant. — Gannet or Solan goose. Forby gives the meaning
also of " fair " (a going together ?, concourse) ; this may per-
haps explain the name of Ghent.
Glies. — Blinkers. Though intended to darken the sight,
they seem a form of Icel. (jhiggr or gliggr, window, as indeed
fenestra is connected vf\i\\finster.
Ground-firing. — Explained by Mr. Forby as a perquisite.
Here, labom-crs have the roots of trees for clearing the ground
of them, also stubble cut after reaping.
Halms or Awms. — Beards of barley, also stubble- straw :
connected with Danish hahn, straw, aiul with calamus.
Hammer spots. — The dappled appearance of a fine-coated
horse. The hammer-cloth means the skin-cloth, and it was
usually of bearskin. The Icel. hamr is skin, or covering, con-
nected with the term to " hap up," and also with hamus (the
encii'cling hook), and ham, home. The yellow-hammer thus
means yellow skin. But it may be from the likeness to ham-
mer-marks on a copper-kettle.
Harnsey. — A Norfolk critic would have known " a hawk
from a harnsey'' — a heron.
Hefty. — Rough ; " hefty weather,'' a " hefty sea " ; Danish
and Germ, he f tig.
To HiCKLE up. — To gather your effects as in a little
heap.
33
Hobby. — Used for a horse of any size ; hoppe is Danish for
mare generally.
Kedge. — Lively; connected with D. kijck, quick, but not
^T\.th.
KiDGER or KiDDiER, a carrier, which may come from keg,
as pedder fi'om ped.
Kink. — A twist ; certainly connected with ' quick/ ^'itality
being tested by its turnuig and twisting. " The patient will
kink up again," may thus mean ' quicken up/ ' brisk up.'
To Kip fish : see (Cop and Chopsticks). In Norwegian, kioep
is a little stick (not a mere chip), and in the west of Norway,
kippe denotes the same mode of fishing by line and chopsticks,
as "to kip" does with us (Hallager's Norsk Ordsammlung) .
In Icelandic, kippia is to seize ; kippi-hjckia, a lucky catch of
birds (Biorn Haldorson's Lex.).
KiTTYWiTCH. — A small crab that makes zigzag tracks on
the sand, a wigga (see Errigle), so called like the vetch from
its t\Adsting about. The "kitty" seems to denote a small
creature (chit). Kitty -wake, a small gull.
To Knop. — To bud, as in the English Bible ; German knospe,
a bud.
Knot. — A sandpiper ; said to have been a favourite dish of
king Canute's.
Latch. — To take; connected with Xa7;^ava), and ID*? and
LoKE. — A shaded lane, a narrow pass, 'locked in'; "a
short narrow turnagain lane " (see Forby) .
The LoNDEs. — Used for an extent or strip of land, Hke the
Landes of Poitou. We have the Londes, in a smaU way, at
Overstrand, a desert strip of land, now built into a street.
LovE-coPE. — Name of an ancient right existing at Lynn
Regis, probably meaning legal tariff. In the Gulathing LaAvs
(Icelandic), the term lov-kaup is applied to the legal rate of
wages.
Low. — A loch left by the tide on the shore ; the same word
with the lowes of the South of Scotland, and cognate with
loke (above), ' the enclosed.'
LuM. — The handle of an oar ; Icelandic hlumm. By no im-
D
34
usual interchange it is the same word with hwf, the pahn of
the hand, whence (//ore. Tn Scotcli, hnii is a chimney : — do
they regard this as tlie handle of the house? or is the word
rather the c/am, the Ivmip of clay forming the fire-place ? " To
lum the oars/' to let the handles down into the boat, without
mishipping them.
Mardle. — A gossiping talk; to mardlc, to drawl.
The Mavish. — We sound the aspirate. Burns speaks of
the "mavis mild and mellow/' proving Mr. Forby right in
applying it to the singing thrush.
The Me ALES. — The name of sand-banks at Himstanton,
from mre/, a boundary.
MosHECKLE or MoLESHECKLE. — Thc boue within the cuttle-
fish, which may be rubbed into pounce. Is it from nujlan,
to mill, to pulverize, and shackle, that Avhich is tossed up,
a waif? In icicle we have the same termination. Gawain
Douglas has — " grete yse-schokkilis lang as ony spere."
MuLLY. — Mouldy, powdery.
Myrebalks — low ridges of earth dividing the holdings of
tenants of common lands — are well known in these parts;
A.-S. niyre, a boundary, the balk meaning division; in the
Scandina^'ian laws there are balkir of separate subjects.
Night-jar. — The goat-sucker.
Old Shock or Shuck. — A spectre dog, much connected
with the Danes ; walks the coast road ; last imagined to be
seen at North Repps in 1853; A.-S. Scucca, Satan. There
is a Shock's Lane near Cromer.
Orruck-holes. — Oar-drawing holes, as distinct from thole-
pins, which are less used in our boats : rykke, to draw,
Danish. Compare English rullocks.
Par-yard. — Yard "with cattle-pens. Par seems to mean
enclosure, and to be the root of A.-S. pearroc, park, or paddock
by mispronmi elation.
Ped. — Chiefly applied to lobster baskets.
Pikelet. — {Pikelet, a sort of muffin in London.) A glazy
kind of muffin,, also called Leather-back. Bara-picklet in
Bailey, lookuig ^ if fi'om the Welsh.
PiNPATCH. — Mr. Forby is probably correct, for the mol-
35
lusk when witlidraAvu into the shell looks as if covered with a
patch.
PiTLEj PicLE, or PiGHTLE. — A sHiall ' piccc ' or field; if
not itself a form of ' piece/ must^ I think, come from pynddn,
to pomid, the gh being placed for nd.
To Planny. — To complain.
PoTTENS. — Crutches; O.-^. potent ; Fr. potence.
PuLKs. — Not dirty, as Forby says, for the pools of clear sea-
water on the sands are so called.
PuR-wiGGY or PoLwiGGY, for tadpolc ; A.-S. wicka, a worm,
pool-wovm ; or poll-worm, worm with a large head ?
Rack. — Driving mist (Shakespeare).
'•' With cloudy gum and rak ouerquelmyt the are."
Gawain Douglas.
Ranny. — The shrew-mouse, probably from its long nose.
Rani, snout, Icel. ; for the same reason the snow-shoe is a
rani in Icel., unless that means 'runner.'
Ray of a cart. — Its rim or edge.
To Redd up. — To clear up, prepare, also Scotch.
Room. — The space between thwarts; the size of Scandi-
navian vessels was reckoned by rummir.
Roving weather. — Uncertain weather.
RusNS or Rewsns. — The splints or narrow bands of wood
rimning inside a boat, by which it is raised or lifted.
RuTHER. — For rudder.
Safer or Sea-fare. — A sea voyage : " What sort of a safer
have you made ? "
Sannying. -- Lasting, said of the wind. Isl. seinka, to linger ;
seinn, slow, late ; with O.-Fr. seiyis, late. " A pining, sannying
wind," is an expression I have often heard ; sannyking, lin-
gering.
Sauce. — Fresh vegetables now, — though, it seems, formerly
a salt condiment for meat.
A School. — For a shoal of herrings, &c.; {school of whales
is the common phrase in the whale fishery).
To Score out. — To scour, as, "the tide scores out the
beach :" in Suffolk the gangways to the sea are called scores,
and in Lincolnshire side lanes are called drawers.
D 2
36
A Scrap, and Scrap-nets. — A place where small birds are
fed, and lured to scrap about, till a net falls and catches
them. I remember an eminent antiquary being much puzzled
at the woodcut of a scrap-net in a German book of ancient
customs, the motto being "net to catch fools instead of
fowls/'
Seal. — Time : " I gave him the seal of the day," meaning,
I accosted him with civility. Preserved in hay sell, hay time
(see Forby).
To Shack, or to go to Shack. — Said of pigs and geese run-
ning loose after liarACst ; not, as has been supposed, from their
gathering the shaken -out grain, but rather connected with the
Germ, zeche, a club ; the expression zur zeche gehen is used
for ' going shares.'
Shale. — The mesh of a net.
To Shoot. — To throw in, contribute : "We shot a shilling
piece towards the fi-ocks." The A.-S. scot, Germ, schiessen,
is used in the same sense.
To Shrawl. — To screen.
To Shrepe. — To clear up: "the fog shrepes," "a little
shrepe of light," — crejousculum V The Icelandic Lexicon has
" skreppa, dilabi."
Shruff. — Rubbish out of a hedge.
SiLE, or Small Sile. — The fry offish ; Icel. sil or sili, a long
narrow herring; Icel. sile, a sprat; Danish silder, herring;
also the Scotch sillock. It may be worth noticing, that the
"small sile" of herrings and sprats, cooked like white-bait, is
scarcely distinguishable from that dainty.
SiTH. — The length; A.-S. sid is 'large,' but Danish sid is
'long' ('ample' would be a more appropriate translation of
the Danish w^ord) ; A.-S. wide and side, which is the Norfolk
sense of the word ; as we say, " the width and the sith," or the
sidth.
Skep. — A basket; hence toadskep, a fungus, not pro-
nounced toadscap.
Slug — is used of a heavy surf tumbling in with an off-
shore wind, or a calm ; slag, blow, Danish.
To Slump. — To fall: "The wind slumped;" is it con-
37
nected with slumber ? Gawain Douglas says, " on slumnir
I slade full soon." —
" In Susquehanna's woods where timber brash
S/umjis in tlie flood with many a hideous crash."
American Pastoral, printed in a periodical called the Honeycomb.
Smee. — The fry of herrings, &c. used for bait; also wild
ducks in their first year's plumage, especially the immature
wigeon, are called siiiee {small things?).
Snudge. — Hurried, shuffling; A.-S. snude, quickly.
Specke. — Woodpecker (German specht), akin to spicken,
' peck.'
Spink. — Chaffinch.
Spolt. — Brittle; Germ, spalten, to split.
To Spore up. — To prop, as with a spur or buttress ; com-
pare ' shore up,' (Forby) .
Spowe — is mentioned together with the curlew in Sir Roger
L'Estrange's Household Book, and seems to mean the whim-
brel. &pove is Icel. for whimbrel.
Sprak. — Brisk; Icel. sprakkr ; Scotch, sprag ; Eng. spry,
sprightly : —
" I will catch the butterfly,
Though he thinks himself so spry." — American Poet.
Sprat-mowe. — Herring-gull.
Stand. — A flower-stalk ; stand, the same in Swedish.
Straik. — The tire of a cart-wheel.
Strings. — Shafts.
Stuggish. — Stout, strong; Icel. styggr, powerful and violent.
Sump. — Fossil wood, but not petrified, — swampy ; it will
burn if properly managed.
Swale.— -The shade; evidently the Icelandic svala, cold.
A-swASH. — Across.
Sway. — A carpenter's tool for boring.
Tangle. — The thick dark sea- weed beset with little blad-
ders. Icel. Thaungull.
Tow. — Used for fishing-tackle, as in the Germ, iverk-zeug ;
Danish toi.
Thite. — Not only tight, but thick, as applied to a wood.
Thurruck. — The lower flooring of the stern of a boat : is it
38
merely that wliicli goes through the boat ?, or rather the Icel.
thurkr, dryness ?
Till. — The dihivial soil of the cliff, meaning, it seems, earth,
and connected vnih. the vcrl) " to till," not tellus, though per-
haps akin to it : the word has been adopted by geologists.
Compare Eng. tilth.
Tricolate. — Used in gardening; probably a confusion of
trig up and decorate.
To Try or Dry (Dan. torre), fish livers for oil, that is, to
drain.
TwiFER. — Used of the fibres of a root ; another form of twig,
expressing a parting in two.
Unstowly. — Unruly, not to be stowed, applied to children.
Wheatsel Birds (se/=time) which arrive about Michael-
mas, — I think cock chaffinches.
To Whimple. — To bore (= a whimble).
WiFFS AND Strays, or wipps and strays, not exactly
waifs and strays, for it seems to be the Danish phrase wipper
og straae, ' ears and straws ' of com.
Willock or Willy. — A guillemot.
WoASH. — The call of the wagoner walking on the near side
of his team, to make his horses turn off to the right, while if
to the left he would say ' come hither,' yet the word itself
seems to be gauche. Does not this point to a custom which
may have been introduced by the Normans, and to a time
when the practice opposite to our present custom, but still in
use on the continent, may have been kept up on the road,
that of tm'ning out to the left instead of the right in passing ?
WooD-jAR. — A nut-hatch.
To WuNT. — To sit, as a hen; A.-S. wunian, to abide.
WuRROw. — For biuTow ; used for the holes of crabs, &c.
To Wynt. — To stand in line, as poles : is it the opposite of
squint ?
Yary. — Biisk. The /', as the letter expressive of rushing,
is frequent in the names of rivers : the main river of Norfolk,
formerly the Garienis, now the Yare, appears at Harford
bridges (near Norwich), with an aspirate, in every form
meaning the river of the district.
39
Amongst our surnames we have some of the proper names
of the Scandinavians, as —
Hague, Haeo,
Kettle, Ketill,
Thiu-kettle, Thor-ketill,
Olley, Oleg, or Olaf.
Ulph, Ulfr.
In the names of places many might be found connected
with those of the north of Europe. Even North Repps, the
home of the collector of this list, directly reminds us of
the Hreppir, or districts of Iceland.
Probably many more reUcs might be found of a date when
our provincial dialect was so weU esteemed, that at Bmy St.
Edmund's, the abbot Sampson was considered Avorthy of a new
pidpit, because of the elegance of his addresses in the Norfolk
language, in which he had been educated. See the Chronicle
of JoceljTi de Brakelonde.
40
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
1855.— No. 4.
February 23,
Professor Key in the Chair.
The followiug Paper was read : —
"On the Languages of Western and Southern Africa;'^ by
Dr. WiLHELM BleeKj of the University of BerHn.
Having visited the coast of Western Africa, and being
about to leave Europe with the intention of making philolo-
gical researches in Southern Africa, I desire to draw the
attention of the Philological Society for a few moments from
their classical studies, to these barbarous regions, while I try
to point out some of the facts which seem to me to render
African philology of great importance to general philology.
These facts are : — 1, the classification of the nouns ; 2, the
formation of their plurals; 3, the affinities of some of the
African languages.
The languages to which the following remarks apply are
those of M^est as well as South Africa, namely : —
South African, —
1 . Herero, the language of the Damaras northward of the
Namacquas.
2. Zulu, spoken fi'om Natal to Delagoa Bay.
3. Tsuana, the language of the Bechuana tribes, in the
centre of the country, from 25° to 28° S. lat.
4. Kafir, the language of the Kosa Kafirs, adjoining the
Cape Colony.
41
West African, —
1. Wolof, spoken between the Senegal and the Gambia,
"a. Timneh, spoken by a tribe close to Sierra Leone, on
the east.
' I b. BuIIom, spoken by a tribe close to Sierra Leone, on
(^ the north.
3. Odsi, spoken by the Ashantees, Fantees, Aquapim, &c.
4. Fulah, spread extensively, as mentioned in the text, p. 45.
I regard Southern Africa as the key to the whole central
portion of the continent, because I believe that the most
ancient types of African life have been best preserved here,
as well in respect to language as to rehgion, manners, and
customs. A scholar intimate with the Hottentot and Kafir
manners of thinking, will easily find his way through the
enormous bulk of different national and tribual distinctions
spread over the widely-extended area which the middle por-
tion of this continent contains. One of the main results of
the inquiries that I was enabled to make dui'ing a short
voyage along the coast of Western Africa"^, was that the appa-
rently great variety of languages spoken near that coast,
seems reducible to one family; and this family is no other
than that to which all the different dialects of Southern Africa
- — with the exception of those of the Hottentots and the Bush-
men — are acknowledged to belong. Those striking features,
indeed, which make it so very easy to trace the consanguinity
of the South African languages, have for the most part disap-
peared from the languages of Western Africa, in consequence
of the much closer contact of the more crowded population
there. However, where it was possible to get a full and accurate
grammatical \aew of any of the languages spoken near the
coast of Western Africa, there were e\ddent traces of them to
be seen, sho\ving that the present state of every such language
* I left England in the latter part of May 1854, to join the expedition
sent out to explore the Tchadda river, but having been taken ill on the
road from Sierra Leone to Fernando Po, I was obliged to leave the ex-
ploring party. Next month I hope to sail with the Bishop of Natal to
his diocese, for the purpose of compihng a grammar of the Zulu language.
42
is derived from an ancient structure, similar to that still pre-
vailing among tlie South African languages, and that the
Western languages agree with the Southern in such points as
it would l)c impossil)lc to consider accidental.
The chief characteristic of the great Afiican family of lan-
guages is known to he, the distribution of the norms into
classes, which, with the exception of two, are restricted
to persons, and do not agree with any natm-al distinction,
but depend entirely on the use that is made of the derivative
prefixes to the nouns, such prefixes being pronomis, and being
considered as representatives of the nouns to which they are
respectively prefixed. Therefore, nouns with the same deri-
vative prefix belong, as represented by the same pronoun, to
the same class ; and there are, of course, in every language of
this structui'C, as many classes of nouns as there are difl'erent
derivative pronoun-prefixes agreeing with them. Thus, the
Herero language (more generally known as the dialect of the
Damaras of the plains) possesses eighteen classes of nouns.
Of these, sixteen, at least, are to be found in the allied lan-
guages, while two may perhaps be regarded as later sub-
divisions of other classes, — ^just as the fourfold gender of nouns
in the Danish language has sprung from a primitive threefold
division. Conversely, the Kafir language, which in general
must be acknowledged to have best preserved the ancient
features of the structure, has lost three even of the sixteen,
and is thus, in its present state, restricted to thirteen oidy.
But of two of these lost classes there are still undeniable
traces to be found. The Tsuana dialects agree in this respect
with the Kafir languages, while the more Northern tongues
preserve the whole of the original sixteen classes of norms.
This rather perplexing structure is, however, easily explained,
if we suppose that every one of these prefixed derivative syllables
originally possessed the value of a noun. It is not at all
uncommon for us to use instead of a compound noun, as for
example ' steamboat,' the simple word ' boat' ; but it would
seem strange to us, if in the case of derivative nouns, like
' kingdom,' we heard said, ' the dom is great,' ' I saw the coun-
tries of the dora.' But in former times, when this syllable
43
still maintained its value as a simple noun, and had not merely
that of a derivative suffix, such a construction could not have
been offensive. The only peculiarity in these derivative pre-
fixes of nouns in the Kafir, Herero, and other South African
languages, therefore is, that although they have lost their
value as simple nouns, they have retained the power of re-
calling and representing such nouns as are compounded with
them. It woidd certainly be very odd to hear the Herero sen-
tence ' o-u-hona [o-lu-nene' (=Kafir ubukosi [o\bukulu=
Tsuana bogosi yo Z'o^o/m = Bunda kifutsi ^me'7ie=Kamba
utsumbe unene, etc.), translated literally, 'the kingdom, the
great-dom,' but it would not be thought strange if translated
by ' the king's empire, the great empire.' Suppose now, that
in the course of time, the word ' empire,' as a separate noun,
should cease to exist, but were to continue to be used as a
representative for the nouns compounded with or derived fi'om
it, then you will have just the case of the Herero ' ouhona
ounene, the kingdom, the great-dom,' and ' omuhuka omua, the
morning, the fine -ning,' &c.
I have already mentioned that two of these classes of nouns
are so far coincident with a natural division that they are
restricted to personal nouns, including, in some languages, the
names of certain animals. Wliether this has arisen from the
original signification of these nomis, or must be attributed to
a later combination of grammatical and logical classifications,
we are not yet able to decide. But an important use has
Ijeen made of the grammatical classification for distinguishing,
by the correspondence of difterent classes of nouns, the differ-
ence of Siugidar and Plural. To illustrate the distinction of
number, I again take the Herero as an example, and give the
following prefixes for the two numbers : —
Singular ; omu, oniu, e, otji, on, oru, ou, oka, oku.
Plural; ova, omi, oma, ovi, ozon, otu, omau, ou, apa.
The obsolete nouns from which the pronominal prefixes are
descended must have originally formed their plurals by using
collective terms, just as in English we alter man to people,
tree to forest, soldier to army, &c., instead of the grammati-
cal plurals men, trees, soldiers, &c. This will explain why,
44
in most of the South African languages, the distinction of
number is not marked in the same way in all the classes
of the nouns ; why often one and the same plural class corre-
sponds to several singular ones, and not seldom one singvdar
prefix stands in opposition to two plural prefixes. Nor can
we wonder that, in some classes, the numerical value is not
fixed by the correspondence of any other class, and that in
several of these languages, one prefix has in some noims a
singular, in others a plural value ^. We find, besides, that in
some cases a plural prefi.v, instead of being put in the place of
a singular one, is placed before the full singular form with the
prefix. The latter method has prevailed in the Wolof lan-
guage, Avhere one prefix only has a plural signification, and is
used with all the difterent singular forms, so that one plural
class corresponds to at least seven different singular classes of
nouns.
* Table of the derivative prefixes of the nouns, in their numerical corre-
s[)ondence ; and a list of Zulu words in their singular and plural forms,
adding numerals to each word referring to the class to which it belongs.
In the Zulu Dialect {with the article).
Bryant.
From Schreuder, Grout and
Sing. . .
1.
u-Mu-, u-
u-M-
3.
u-Mu-
u-M-
5.
i-Li-, i-
7.
i-Si-
i-S-
9.
i-N-
i-M-
ll.
u-Lu-, u-
Plur. . .
2.
a-Ba-, o
a-B-
4.
i-Mi-
6.
a-Ma-
a-M-
8.
i-Zi-
i-Z-
10.
i-Zin-
i-Zim-
10.
i-Zin-
i-Zim-
6.
a-Ma-
6.
a- Ma-
6.
a- Ma-
14.
u-Bu-, u-
15.
u-Ku-
Singular (1) umuntu, man.
(3) umtini, adder.
(5) Hike, stone.
(7) isika, tub.
(9) inlu, house.
(11) utango, fence.
Plural (2) abantu, men.
(4) imitini, adders.
(6) amake, stones.
(8) izika, tubs.
(10) izinlu, houses.
(12) izintango, fences.
45
Some of the West African languages got rid of this rather
troublesome variety in the formation of the plural of nouns,
by simply discarding almost every diflFerence between the sin-
gular and plm-al forms of their nouns ; but a few have gone
still further with their complications. Amongst these is
chiefly to be remarked the Fulah, a language of gi-eat im-
portance; for it is spoken through nearly the whole extent
of the interior of Western Africa, from Sierra Leone to Ada-
maua and Mandara. I thought it, therefore, a great pity
that, for the use of the Tchadda expedition, I was not able
to take out with me anything about this language, except
a copy of a manuscript grammatical sketch (with a small
vocabulary) by the Rev. R. Maxwell Macbrair, and a few
words to be met with in difl'erent authors. On my return to
England, however, I was very agreeably surprised to find that
my fiiend Mr. Edwin Norris had, in the mean time, at the
request of Captain Washington, and at the cost of the Admi-
ralty, prepared an edition of Mr. Macbrair's manuscript, cor-
rected and enlarged from other sources. To these, I was then
able myself to add a manuscript vocabulary of considerable
extent, collected by the late Mr. W. Cooper Thompson, which
I had been so fortunate as to procure at Sierra Leone.
From an examination of these materials, the conviction I
have got, is : —
1. That in the Fulah language the nouns began formerly
with prefixes, which are now almost universally dropped, but
have often influenced the first radical letter.
2. That these prefixes of the nouns were originally used also
as pronouns of the nomis formed with them, and were suffixed
to their nouns as such, and with the force of an article*.
* With regard to these two points wherein the Fulah most particularly
agrees with the Wolof, a comparison of the two languages with each other
would prohably be of great importance. It is most Ukely that the grammar
of the Wolof, which the Bishop of Dakar (Cape Verde) is about to
publish, will give a good deal of additional information and a more exact
description of the language than the old works of Mr. Dard and the Baron
Roger. His Catechism (Ndakaru, 1852) shows — at least by an application
of a more simple and consistent orthography — a great improvement.
46
3. That this use of the prefixes, which by their mutual
correspondeuce showed the distiuction of singular and phiral,
will serve to explain the double inflexion, Avhich we find fre-
quently in the plural forms of nouns, afliccting their first as
well as their last elements.
4. That as nearly all names of persons have -bi as their
plural termination, and most of them -o as their singular one,
these syllables must be considered as articles referring to
former prefixes of the nouns.
The bi may be recognized in the w-, with which many of
these nouns begin in the plural, and w^e conjecture that the
original form of o- was yo-, from a comparison of some of
these personal nomis with their roots, as yainuku ' keeper,' pi.
ainabi ; (cf. ainu ' to keep watch' ;) gudso ' a thief,' pi. wubi ;
(cf. gudsu ' to steal.')
That we are right in this supposition, is shown also by the
forms of the pronouns, kan-ko ' he, she,' pi. kam-bi ' they,' and
o or mo ' him, her,' pi. be ' them,' which refer to rational
beings only.
Whilst this go or ko agrees very well with the South African
mu-, the prefix of the first class of nouns, which, used as a
pronoun, is found also in the form gu- (as Herero irigui ' this '),
the pliu-al form bi is rather perplexing ; as generally in lan-
guages of this family, the prefix and pronoun ba {va, a) is
found to correspond to the mu (mo) as the pronominal prefix
of personal nouns, while the prefix mi- {me, &c.) is applied in
South Africa, merely as the plural prefix of such inanimate
nouns as in the singular take the prefix mu- (mo-) . The Tim-
neh and Bvdlom dialects, in and about Sierra Leone, and also
the Odzi, the language of the Asante country, agree, in this
respect, with the South African tongues. In the latter lan-
guage, the plural prefix a- (which is chiefly restricted to personal
nouns), and the pronominal-plm'al prefix vo-, are both to be
derived from an original form va-. The form of the corre-
sponding singular prefix is, in the Odzi, as well as in the
Timneh, o-, which mutilation of the ancient form mu- or mo-
is also fr-equently to be met with in Southern Africa.
But we find that the Ga or Akra quite agrees on this point
47
with tlieFulah, as is clearly shown by an extract from theManu-
script Grammar of the Basle Missionary, the Rev. J. Zimmer-
man, for which we are indebted to the Rev. F. G. Christaller of
the same society. In this langnage, with a plural vak^e, mei
corresponds to the singular mo or o. Where these particles are
found suffixed, they cannot be regarded as derivative syUables,
but without doubt they originally stood as articles only, while
the derivative prefixes they have sprung from are mostly
dropped, as in gbo-mo 'person, man,' pi. gbo-mei, blo-fonyo, pi.
blo-fomei, &c. But still, by prefixing mo, pi. mei, adjectives
and numerals can be turned into personal substantives, &c., as
mo-kpukpa ' a good man,' pi. mei-kpakpa; mo-fon ' a bad man' ;
modin ' a black man' ; motsaru ' a red man' ; mokome ' one
man'; moko "^ somebody,' ]A. meikomei, &c. The same pro-
nouns are discernible in mone or mene 'this,' pi. meine-mei,
which only refer to persons, and to which the relative pro-
nouns mom, pi. meinei, correspond.
Having thus found a coincidence between the Fulah and Ga
languages in a very essential point, I cannot but suppose that a
more extended comparison will show a closer alliance between
these two languages, than either of them will evince with
any South African dialect, or with the Odzi, Bullom, and
Timneh, although all these languages are to be regarded as
members of the same family. As a mere conjectm-e, I may
add my opinion, that the Wolof will prove more akin with the
Ga and Fulah than mth the other West African branch of
this great family of languages.
The relation which such a language as the Odzi claims
with the Kafir and Herero tongues, may best be compared
with that existing between the French or English on the
one side, and the classical languages or the Sanslvi'it (or if the
example of a living dialect seems preferable, the Lithuanic)
on the other. It woidd be impossible for us to prove the con-
sanguinity of the Kafir and Odzi tongues, if we were not
able to trace the history of this family of languages by means
of a comparison of a great many of its vaiiously developed
members. On the other hand, it is the apparent similarity
with the Odzi which makes us suppose that the Yoruba and
48
other languages, spoken about the lower course of the Kworra,
derive their still more broken and simplified structure from
the complex one of an originally great African type. Even if
every trace of the ancient classification of the nomis have dis-
ai)pcared, we must not wonder ; for just the same is the case
with the modern Persian language, which evidently is to be
derived from the old Indo-European type possessing a three-
fold gender of nouns. I consider it, therefore, not at all as
yet proved that the Efik or Old Calabar language (which is
indeed very different from the adjacent dialects of the Isubu
and Dualla people) will not prove as nearly akin to them
as many of the South African languages. The Efik Grammar
and Dictionary, which the Rev. Mr. Goldie, a Scotch mis-
sionary, is just preparing for the press, will certainly afford
materials enough for deciding whether this supposition, derived
from a very imperfect knowledge of the tongue, has a real
foundation or not.
Still more imcertain is the position to be assigned to the
Mani and Mina families of languages. The scantiness of
the materials I have as yet been able to get access to, does
not enable me to give an opinion on the affinities of the
Mina family (which includes the dialects spoken by the
Krumen, the Grebo, Basa, Dewoi, &c.). We learn, indeed,
from the "^ Brief Grammatical Analysis of the Grebo Lan-
guage' (Cape Palmas, 1838, pp. 36, 8vo), that there exists a
sort of classification of the nomis in the language, the pro-
novms no and o, pi. oh and no, being used for large and
important objects, while eh and ne, pi. eh and ne, refer to
diminutive objects. Little accurate as this statement may be,
it induces the supposition that the Grebo is a pronominal lan-
guage, and most likely one of the Great African family^.
Of the Mani family three members are already gramma-
* Upon the plural forms of nouns in Grebo we find the following
remarks : — " The plural form of nouns is generally made by a change of the
final vowel, and in some cases by the addition of a syllable, f/ final gene-
rally becomes i, i becomes e or e, e final becomes o, and o final becomes e ;
o becomes e. These changes, however, are not sufficiently uniform to con-
stitute general rules. In some cases the consonants, particularly the
49
tically described; the Susu by iirimtoiij the Maiidiiigo by
Macbraii'j the Vei by Norris and Kolle. But we must express
our disapproval of the manner in which the Rev. S. W. Kolle,
to whom Afi'ican philology is indebted for many useful and im-
portant contributions, tries to make out affinities of the Vei
with the Indo-European and Semitic languages"^. The same
remarks refer, of course, not less to the comparisons to be
found in his most A^aluable Bo'rnu Grammar, although I do
not think it impossible that the Ka'nuri lan^age may prove
to be a member of this other great family of pronominal lan-
guages, in which the pronouns do originally agree with the
derivative suffixes, — and not, as in the great African family,
with the prefixes — of the nouns, and the classification of the
nouns is brought into some reference to the distinction of
male and female, as seen in natm-e. That the present state
of the Bo'rnu language does not show any characteristics of
what is generally called the gender of nouns, is, as we men-
tioned before, no proof of their non-existence in former times.
With the Bo'rnu language we have already exceeded the
limits of our task, passing from the languages spoken near the
coast to the centre of the continent. Here the territorium of
Adamaua — from which we may expect that the Tchadda
expedition ^vill bring home a large amount of valuable infor-
mation — seems to offer a very interesting field for philological
researches. Besides the Fulah, Bo'rnu, and Haussa (a Semito-
African language), this country, according to Dr. Barth's
second one, undergo a change, but this is rather to be ascribed to the ever-
varying nature of all their sounds, tlian to any established principle of the
language (?). A perfect knowledge of all the plural forms can be obtained
only by attending to individual cases."
* As to the native invention of the Vei syllabic alphabet, I am still con-
vinced that it sprung from a sort of pictorial writing, which certainly is to
be found in Western Afiica no less than on the banks of the Congo river,
and in the caverns of the Bushmen in Kafirland. The Yoruba, at least,
possess pictorial records of the deeds of their ancestors, and I cannot con-
sider that Mr. Kolle's intercourse with the Vei people was sufficiently long
to enable liim to be fully assured of the non-existence of such things among
them, as the aborigines generally take great care to conceal them from
the eyes of a missionary,
E
50
reports, is crowded with a great variety of different languages
and dialects. Probably one part of these, at least, will bfe
found to be members of the Great African family of languages.
Farther to the north-east, the Tuniali language in Darfur has
still preserved some of the most striking characteristics of the
ancient great African type, although the vicinity of the sur-
rounding Semitic and sub-Semitic tongues has exercised an
undeniable influence upon the Tumali, as well as upon the
Engutuk Eloikob, the language of the Kuafi nation, in the
interior of equatorial Africa, close to the supposed sources of
the Nile. We may compare that foreign influence upon this
Nilotic branch of the Great African family of languages with
the manner in which the Roman element has been introduced
into the English language. It has contributed principally to
the dictionary of the language and also worked upon the con-
struction ; but as to the grammatical forms, few, if any, can
have been derived from this source.
51
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
1855.— No. 5.
March 9,
Professor Malden in the Chair.
The following Paper was read : —
"On the Coptic Language;" by Dr. Carl Abel^ of the
University of Berlin.
The nature of ancient Egyptian institutions prevented the
composition of books^ aU science being deposited within a
closed body of sacred persons. Or if we are to believe
Clemens Alexandrinus^ that there were forty-two books of
Thoth, and that they were learnt by heart, each by a distinct
class of priests, we, on the same ground, may suppose, that
only a very few copies of these books existed. At any rate
we have not received written documents of this oldest culture,
but only biographical records of kings or eminent individuals,
religious formulas, and some juristic transactions of civil life.
As many of these contain the same expressions or sentences,
the amount of language conveyed to us by them is but small
when compared with the number of documents, or estimated
with regard to its philological worth, lessened as it is by the
ambiguous way of hieroglyphical writing.
When Egypt was conquered by the Macedonians, the native
religion, which had been the basis of all study, declined, and
some few remaining industrious minds gave themselves up to
the Greek literature of Alexandria. It was not before the
introduction of Christianity that the popular mind was again
E 2
52
roused to intellectual effort, and that a literature was com-
posed, which has been handed down to us under the name of
Coptic. According to Euschius, the Evangelist Mark entered
Egypt during the reign of Nero, and converted thousands of
the mixed Greek, Jewish, and Egyptian po])\dation of the lower
coiuitry. The Jews in these regions had become mystical
Platonists, the Greeks had exhausted their learned criticisms,
the Egyptians were a ridiculed and forlorn race, feeling all their
ancient religious wants. Thus Christianity was adopted by
the people with enthusiasm, and only seventy years afterwards
was found by Justin Martyr to be almost universally spread.
Those who remained heathens tiunied their adorations prin-
cipally to the god Serapis, the judge after death, thus exhi-
biting the same revival of an earnest hope of perfection.
Considering that the Egyptians were the first who may be
said to have been converted as a nation, and that the whole
fi'amcwork of religious institutions with them had outlived its
soul and only waited for a reanimation, we may easily anti-
cipate the influence which they exercised on growing Chris-
tianity. We may expect them to be the ' Executive ' of that
kindred faith, which the scattered Jews coidd do nothing for
bvit to preach it. The Egyptians, who always had believed in
the immortality of the soid and a certain trinity of gods, whose
priests had always been a secluded, shaven and shorn, differ-
ently-clad, class of men, at once became the leaders of the
intellectual world. Their voice dominated in all the councils
of the Chiu-ch ; their separate African coimcil of Hipporegius
became the model of that of Nice ; and an JEgyptian deacon,
Athanasius, settled the consubstantiality of God and His Son
against the Arian heresy. A Jewish colony near Alexandria,
the Therapeutse, invented monastic life ; and the lost Gospel,
according to the Egyptians, contained the praise of celibacy.
Even before this, the Egyptians had been called Docetae, be-
cause they thought that the Sa\iour had been crucified in
appearance only. These and similar circumstances, together
mth the testimony of the Fathers and the Coptic literature,
may induce us to conclude that the Egyptians had the principal
share in establishing the first dogmas of Christianity.
53
It is doubtful whether the preserved versions of the Coptic
Bible are older than the third centmy ; but they certainly are
not of later date, evincing as they do in many instances so
genuine a character, that they are beginning to be made use
of as a means for correcting the Greek text. Round this new
centre of the Egyptian mind the Gnostical philosophy composed
its mystical writings as a combination of Egyj^tian dogmatical
subtlety with the simj)le pure spirit of the new religion. As
yet only known to us by the denunciations of the Fathers,
the first Coptic religious treatise was lately published from a
manuscript in the British Museum, and created a sensation
among learned theologians {Pistis Sophia, Opus Gnosticum
edidit, latine vertit, &c. G. A. Schwartze). A vast number
of similar religious works was written in the following cen-
turies down to the Arabian conquest. Many books on various
other subjects have been preserved, and the study that is now
being bestowed on them, will, we may hope, throw a new light
on the first development of Christianity, and the still older
culture of Egypt. As yet, nearly the whole of this literature
is manuscript. Very valuable collections are preserved in
London, Oxford, Paris and Berlin. By far the most remark-
able portion is in the library of the Vatican ; and the Cata-
logue raisonne of the Coptic books which are deposited
there (Catalogus Bibliothecse Borgianse, ed. Zoega) shows
that the Pope possesses the most important part of the whole
Coptic literature. Much more, doubtless, may be still hidden
in the Coptic monasteries of Nubia, Abyssinia and Jerusalem.
The Hieroglyphic and Coptic literature together allow the
Egy|itian language to be investigated through a compass of five
thousand years. This is the only instance of so lasting a \itality
all over the earth, — a aira^ Xeyofievov of philology. Chinese,
and even part of the Hindoo literature, may reach up to the
same age; but the Chinese dates are still unexplored by
Eiu'opean science, and the Hindoo chronology evinces most
strongly the characteristics of mythology. When the Arabs
conquered Egypt, those of its inhabitants who were forced
to turn Mussidmcn soon forgot tlieir native tongue. The
reading and copying of Coptic religious books being, how-
54
ever, a rule in the Christian monasteries, even Lower
Egypt, although more influenced by the Arabian dominion, is
proved by many MSS. of the tenth centuiy not to have
entirely lost its language before the beginning of the eleventh.
The Arabic translations Avhich avc find added to many Coptic
MSS. may have been introduced from and after this period.
In Higher Egypt, according to the Arabian Macrizi's 'History
of the Copts,' every man spoke Egyptian in the fifteenth
century ; in the sixteenth, Leo Africanus tells us, it had dis-
appeared ; at the present time, Arabic is the language of Egypt,
spoken by a Mahometan popidation principally of mixed Egyp-
tian, Arabian, and Berber blood. Not half a million of men
have remained of the ancient and unmixed Egyptian race. They
are called to this day Copts, adhere to the Monophysitic creed
(like the Armenians and Syrians), and are among the most
abject instruments of oriental despotism. Long ago, the
native name of Egypt {Chenii, the black) had given way to the
Arabic denomination of " Kebt." It may be considered, how-
ever, as a glorious indemnification, that this word (like the
Greek Ai'yvTTros:) is not to be explained, except as a foreign
and abbreviated pronunciation of the oldest and holy name
given by the Egyptians themselves, " Kahi ptah," country
of Ptah, or of the spirit to whom Egypt was consecrated.
The writing began to change with the introduction of Chris-
tianity. It is not certain when the hieroglyphical shorthand
was utterly discontinued and the Greek letters now forming
the Coptic alphabet adopted. As the Egyptian Saint Anto-
nius, who lived about the middle of the third century, did not
understand any language but Egyptian, and knew very well the
contents of the Holy Scriptures in that tongue, these could not
have been translated long after the end of the second centmy ;
and, whatever the influence of the former Macedonian kings
might have been, the introduction of the Greek alphabet must
have been at least completed at the date of the translation of
the Bible, as that contained and quite adopted so many
Greek words. Six hieroglyphical signs, however, were pre-
served for original Egyptian sounds, representing, under the
pictures of a (jarden, a snuhe, a triangle with stick and crescent,
DO
an eaffle, a crocodile's tail, and a basket, the letters sh,f, kh, h,
dj, tsh ; and there was a seventh sign for the syllabic " ti''
The Coptic separates into three slightly-differing dialects :
the Thebanic or Sahidic of Upper Egypt, the Memphitic of
Lower Egypt, and the Bashmuric (so called from a region in
the Delta) . The Bashmuric being the most degraded, and the
Sahidic being but little known, the Memphitic is generally
called Coptic, to the exclusion of the others.
The roots of the Coptic language have not been proved to
be related to the Indo-Germanic or Semitic languages, accord-
ing to any regular and numerous change of sounds. Different
attempts have not yielded any more important result than that
of showing scattered instances of a remarkable likeness or
similarity with very different tongues. For instance, Sanskrit
" dschayi," gignere, Coptic djo ; Sanskrit " /«'," mittere, Coptic
hi, Arabic hui, Greek %eetv ; Sanskrit " bid," separare, Coptic
ovot, Arabic bid; Coptic djadjo, durus, Turkish katy, &c.
Coptic, however, approaches the Semitic more closely than the
Indo-Germanic tongues in the nature and arrangement of its
forms and inflexions, and has a great likeness to Arabic and
Hebrew in some of those points which are considered to bear
a nearly-deciding witness to the unity of two tongues. Others
again, not less important, are utterly different ; for instance,
the suffixed pronoun of the first person, /, is alike in Egyptian
and Hebrew ; that of the second, in Egyptian, k, is formed in
Hebrew by another palatal Avith an underlaid voAvel, cho, in
Arabic by the pure k; and those of the third person are
easily proved to be related, for the Coptic j^^ei is an alter-
native of the sounds 6 or i; of the Coptic letter b, and to this the
sound ou is very nearly related by theory, and is proved to be
the same by phei standing for the hieroglyphical ov. This is
the simple Hebrew letter vav. But most of the other pro-
nouns and the numerals escape every comparison.
It has been asserted, that a similarity in the mode of in-
flexions is more illustrative of internBiiional relations than a
likeness of sounds in the roots. We may say it is so in many
cases, at least in the present state of comparative philology.
Whilst neither Coptic nor Arabic etymology has proceeded
56
sudiciently iiir to ciial)lc us to decide on the relation between
the roots of either, the inflexions exhibit unniistukeal)le signs
of the wav in which the nations viewed things and their com-
binations. The likeness between the Egyptian and Arabic
conjugations is indeed a striking one in many instances. The
original form of the verb (the asl of the Arabians) is in both
languages the perfect. The conjugation by means of suffixes
has l)een more or less preserved in the same tense both by
Coptic and Arabic. The pronominal prefixes in Arabic are
very similar to the Coptic forms of ei used for the present
tense. The auxiliary verl)s for the perfect^ the subjunctive
mood, &c. (Arabic kan, leitni, Coptic net, nti, he), are arranged
almost in the same Avay. The present tense of the verb " to
be" is seldom expressed in either language, the present tense
in general being often used by both of them to denote future
time. Even the Arabic incha allah, which is sometimes added
to the present tense, if used instead of the future tense, may
be said to have its equal in the formation of a Coptic future
bv means of the auxiliary verb tare, " to desire." Almost the
only example of an internal and significant change of sound in
the Coptic language is given ])y the passive generally i/ifixing
or adopting the vowel ee, instead of any other contained in the
root of the active form. The Arabic passive is formed in a
similar mode. Still, in Coptic a disinclination may be remarked
to use the passive at all, A circumscribed expression by means
of the active, with or without a relative pronoun, is mostly
preferred,
. A proper scientific comparison of Coptic words with those
of other languages is rendered more difficult than in ordinary
cases by the uncommonly varying formation of the Coptic
roots. There are many of them formed on the ordinary
monosyllabic type, constructed by the different positions of
one vowel and two consonants ; but others wdth two or three
consonants and two voAvels, are to be found in nearly equal
number ; and even many words of four consonants with apper-
taining vowels have not been shown to be compounds. Still,
we cannot reasonably account for polysyllabic sounds as roots,
except by their being later enlargements of an original and
57
more simple root. And, besides the present deficiency of
the Coptic Lexicon, there is a particular reason for such a
conclusion yviih regard to Coptic. This language exhibits a
strange disability, or, in other instances, disinclination, to ex-
press derivative ideas by derivative sounds, Coptic, therefore,
is under the necessity of using compounds, where more active
languages created new words. An Egyptian, for instance,
when greeting a friend, said, that he " called success," mataie
mouti, or " gave joy," toujo. He called a Avindow " a place of
light," ma en eruoini, or " a place of looking out," ma eti
djousJid ebol, — or, if he intended to express himself rather
poetically, "a breach, a canal," shatc. Nay, he was even
obliged to express "to sell," by "to give away," mai ebol,
or " to spend," ti ebol, ti echrei. And, what is perhaps the
most astonishing, he said " to draw water " for " to drink," sek
mou. We may infer from such simplicity, that the long
Coptic roots were produced in a similar way (which moreover
is corroborated by the hierogly]^)hical roots being almost all of
them monosyllabic ones ; and by two or more liieroglyphical
roots of a Idndred meaning being frequently put together in
Coptic times as compomids with scarcely any alteration of
the sense ; e. y. in Coptic muladg is ' owl,' whilst in hiero-
glyphics it is either mu or hidg) ; that, for the same reason,
the primitive soimds of the language had not to imdergo any
considerable change in order to signify new ideas (even most
of the great number of prepositions are to be clearly traced to
full preserved and used substantives) ; and that, therefore, we
may look to the Coptic language as a peculiar means for pene-
trating into the onomatopoietic childhood of mankind.
It may be easily understood that in such a language the
compass of meanings attributed to any one word is a very
wide and seemingly indefinite one. One and the same root, for
instance, is still serving for " house " and " garment," hboc,
hapi ; for " to cut," " to sacrifice," and " to assassinate," shot ;
for "tail," "excrements," and "phallus," set; for "cane,"
"sword," "flute," and "loin," scfe; for "to whiten," "to
shine," " to germinate," and " to bloom," pire. " To call
away," csliroii, denotes "to lament," or " to laugh," according
58
to tlie circumstances, &c. Again : besides the method of using
distinct particles for designating the different cases of a
nonn, there is another in much more common use, namely
that of suffixing one letter {71, enphonically in) for all cases,
signifying in the genitive " part of," in the dative " towards/'
and in the accusative "against." An investigation into
Egyptian synonyms will prove a most wonderfid psycholo-
gical research, as no other people of so deep and, at the same
time, so primitive ideas, has produced so extensive a literature.
The mere reduplication of a root in order to increase its
scope of expressing meaning, may be considered another token
of preserved native features. In this way the root ai, " to he/'
becomes aiai, "to be to be," meaning "to become;" bor, "to
dissolve," becomes border, " to dissolve to dissolve," meaning
''to throw away;" besh, " naked," becomes beshbosh, "to mi-
dress a man in order to kill him," or simply " to kill." Even
the root an, signifying very indefinitely "anything," and
forming nouns by being prefixed to verbal roots, when doubled
and made anan, may impart at the same time an increased
meaning; for instance, ro means "mouth," ananro "har-
bour," that is " mouth of a river," or (as the Nile does not
form a " harbour ") perhaps " mouth of the sea " itself, as they
chose to regard the matter.
In all compounds of different roots the French logical mode
is followed [tirebotte), not the German involving and com-
bining one {Stiefelknecht). But if a particle is added to a
root in order to render it a substantive or adjective, the par-
ticle always precedes, and the root is left without any further
termination of its class. Many substantives, adjectives, and
verbs, (as in English) do not at all differ from each other
in form, all of them being the mere root, and only to be
distinguished by conjugation, declension, and syntactical
arrangement.
This was not the case with the old Egyptian tongue as
contained in the hieroglyphics. Pronominal suffixes, standing
as the termination of every substantive, formerly marked,
as it were, both the quality of a subject and its gender.
Any prefixed article, therefore;, did not exist in hierogly-
59
phical times. The Coptic dropped the suffix, formed a
substantive out of the mere root and an article out of the
pronoun, and preserved only in a very few instances the former
termination of s, i, e, for the feminine, and / for the masculine
gender. The numerals, which have been observed in many
languages to be of a particularly conservative nature, are
among these exceptionally preserved words. The feminine
article serves also for the neuter one, — a circumstance so much
the more strange, as the Coptic maintains the rare distinction
of gender in the pronoun of the second person, saying nthok,
" thou," as addi'cssed to a man ; ntho, " thou," addressed to a
woman. Hieroglyphics do the same even for the pronomi of
the first person.
The pronominal suffixes have been preserved most signifi-
cantly in the pronouns themselves. The personal pronouns,
for instance, are easily analysed, as being formed of the root
an, " thing," (with or without the interpolation of a demon-
strative t,) and difierent terminating letters as characteristics
of their respective person and gender. Thus are produced —
anak. . . .
I, cha
racteristic f
Buffi:
tk.
enthok
entho . . .
y thou.
)}
k an
entof . .
he
})
/•'
entoc . .
she
})
c.
anon . .
we
}j
n.
entoten. .
you
})
oten
entoou . .
they
)}
ou.
The suffix of the third person /was made an article under
the strengthened form otp, and then again combined with the
different suffixes in order to create possessive pronouns. Allied
to itself it became pef, that is to say "he he," or, if we
acknowledge the promoted dignity of the jo, " the he," meaning
"his." In the same way are formed ^ec, "the she," meanmg
" her ;" pen, " the we," meaning " our," &c. It is only ana-
logous to the want of an article in the hieroglyphics, that in
them there occurs no other mode of forming the possessive
I)ronoun than the mere addition of the personal suffix to the
60
substantive. Thus the words " her king " are rendered in
Coptic by pec uro, but in hieroglyi)hics by uroc. Still the
pronominal suffixes have been preserved in Coptic for the per-
sonal pronouns after a transitive verb ; for instance, efkush +f
= cfketilif, " he breaks hira/^
The Coptic and Hieroglyphic agree in declining the personal
pronouns by putting certain particles before the suffix ; nte,
for instance, means "of," and forms the genitive. It is
sim})ly put before any suljstantive, as nte pi romi, "of the
man ;" but it coalesces Avith the suffix k, " thou," into ntak,
" of thou," instead of preceding the full pronoun nthok, " thou,"
as nte nthok, " of thou." In a similar way the ancient use of
the suffixes, instead of the lull pronomis, has been preserved
with all the different prepositions, conjunctions, and some
adjectives of a particularly conservative character; for instance,
nem " with," forms nemf " with him," nemou " with them,"
&c. ; entere " when," forms enterek " when I," enterec " when
she," &c. ; teer "whole," naiat "happy," mauat "alone,"
nane " good,'^ form teerou " all them," naiatf " happy he,"
mauatk "alone I," nanoten "good you," &c. Many other
particles are used to signify the different cases; the plural
being seldom marked except by the prefixed plural of the
article. In hieroglyphics again, a plural in ou, oui (the suffix
of the third person in plural " they"), was common.
It is known fi'om the hieroglyphics that the old tongue had
formed a present tense by means of suffixed pronouns, as the
Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, German, &c. do. The rest of the
tenses were made up by different forms of the auxiliary verbs,
ai " to be," nei " to come," and inare " to intend," generally
being put before the root. The Coptic conjugates its verbs in
the same way, only dropping the suffixes, even for the present
tense, and supplpng the want by ei, a weaker form of the
original auxiliary verb ai " to be." Thus, the present tense of
the verb kash, "to break," would nm in hieroglyphics and
Coptic as follows : —
61
HIEROGLYPHIC
COPTIC.
kashai .... I break eikasli.
kashak .... thou breakest . . . ekkash.
kashaf .... he breaks efkash, &c.
kashac .... she breaks .... eckash.
kashan .... we break enkash.
kashten .... you break tenkash.
kasheu .... they break .... eukash.
In the same way ai, " I have been/' forms the perfect ; nei,
" I come/' the imperfect ; and eie, " I am in order to " (made
out of ei, " I am/' + e, " to "), the future. The latter, eie, is
conjugated eke, efe, &c., tlie inherence of the suffixed pronouns
being stronger than the addition of the e, " in order to/' which
produces with ei the idea of " shall be." Some other auxi-
liary verbs are allowed a similar, but rarer use. It may
lilcewise be worth observing, that the original conjugation by
means of suffixes has been preserved for the three verbs joe/e
" to say," thr'e " to do," and mare " to give," all of them con-
veying such primitive notions, as have in fact produced so-
caUed anomalous'^ verbs in most languages (Latin inquit, aio,
cedo, Greek <^r)ixL, Itj/mi, &c.).
The zeal lately awakened for Egyptian studies may be
expected soon to produce an amount of interesting detail for
these principal features of the Coptic language.
* The above-mentioned anomalous forms of the Coptic verbs are ori-
ginally no presents, but perfects. The hieroglyphieal and even the Coptic
perfect tenses being frequently used to signify present time, this tense has
been called prcBsens emphaticum.
62
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
1855.— No. 6.
March 23,
The Rev. T. Oswald Cockayne in the Chair.
The Papers read were : —
I. " On False Etymologies ; " by Hensleigh Wedgwood, Esq.
II. "Ou the Kamilaroi Language of Australia;" by William
Ridley, Esq., B.A. Univ. Coll. Lond.
j>
I. " On False Etymologies.
The phenomenon knoAvn by the name of False Etymologies,
where a word or its meaning has been somehow modified from
association with an erroneous derivation, has long been an
object of considerable interest, partly in consequence of the
quaintness of some of the changes, and partly as exhibiting, on
however small a scale, an undoubted specimen of the influences
operating in gi^ing rise to the actual condition of language.
Of such etymologies a considerable list is given in the notice
of the labours of the old Cambridge Pliilological Society,
printed in the fifth volume of our ' Proceedings,^ comprising
however many questionable examples, some to be rejected on
linguistic grounds, some requiring the sujjport of philological
proof to raise them above the rank of guesswork, while others
are mere coiTuptions of a foreign word introduced into En-
glish and spelt according to our pronunciation.
The expression heart of oak is explained fi'om G. hdrte, as
63
signifying the hardest part. But it does not appear that
hcirte has ever this sense in German. It is used e;xactly as
the English ' hardness/ but no instance is given in the dic-
tionaries of such an application as the one supposed, nor is it
necessary to look for any recondite explanation of so very na-
tural a metaphor as the use of heart to designate the sound
and central part of the wood.
The derivation of Jew's harp fi'om a supposed jeu harpe or
toy harp, is strikingly opposed to the idiom of the French
language, in which, if two substantives are joined together, the
qualifying nomi is invariably the last.
If husband had ever been house-man, the very principle
which gives rise to so many false etymologies, the desire,
namely, for a meaning in every part of a word which can be
supposed or can be made significant, would have preserved
imaltered a word whose elements so directly and completely
express the meaning intended. His straightforward descrip-
tion as 'man of the house' would never have been changed for
the metaphorical title of '■ tie or band of the house.' Moreover,
the element hand is extant as a substantive word in the Scan-
dinavian languages. The Icel. bondi, husbondi, Dan. bonde,
husbonde, the master of the household, paterfamilias, colonus,
ruricola, is commonly explained as from buandi, boandi, the
active participle of bua, hoc, to dwell, to till.
The favom'ite explanation of John Dory from Janitore, the
doorkeeper, from being supposed to have the mark of St.
Peter's thumb upon it, is an example of the way in which
philologists sometimes speculate, like king Charles's philo-
sophers, without the precaution of weighing the salmon in
the first instance. The preliminary objection is, not only
that it is the haddock, and not the dory, that has the thumb-
mark on its side, but that the Lat. Janitor does not appear
ever to have passed into an It. Giannitore, and certainly the
fish was never known by that name. The real designation in
It. is dorata, and in Fr. doree, from the yellow coloiu* of the
fish, leaving no doubt of the significance of the English sur-
name at least. Why our fishermen should have thought him
worthy of a christian name also I am not aware ; it certainly
64.
is not a blundering adojjtion of a supposed Fr.jaime, which
wouhl have been a superfluous addition to the term doree,
gilded, and in faet forms no part of the French name.
The explanation of the expression soiling cattle, for feeding
them in the house, from Fr. saouler, to glut, to satiate, would
requu'c it to be sho^vn that the French verb is used in the
sense of feeding cattle, which does not appear to be the case.
But, in fact, the derivation supposed to be erroneous, from
converting the food into manure or soil, is perfectly satis-
factory: The term soiling is applied in the first instance to
the food itself. Our agriculturists speak of 'soiling turnips
on the gi'ound,' as opposed to soiling them in the house (Agri-
cultural Journal, 1854). The cattle for the moment are
considered merely as manure-making macliines, and the term
soiling is then elliptically applied to them instead of the food
which they consume.
The explanations of several signs of public-houses from
quaint alterations of phrases labour luider the common diffi-
culty of a total absence of authority, without which they are
really wortldess. They are, moreover, for the most part liable
to the fundamental objection that signs were, until of late
years, intended to speak to the unlettered eye, and none would
be adopted that could not be rendered in a pictorial form.
Now how should the chat fi dele (the supposed original of the
cat and fiddle) be represented to an English public? If the
portrait of the only faithful cat one ever heard of were exhi-
bited, the house would infallibly have been known as the Puss
in Boots rather than the Cat and Fiddle. For a like reason
we must regard with the utmost suspicion such interpretations
as the Bull and Mouth from Boulogne mouth; Bell and
Savage from belle sauvage; Goat and Compasses from God.
encompass us ; Axe and Gate fi'om ax (or ask) and get. An in-
vitation of so liberal a nature would be far from suiting the
views of an innkeeper, who is always anxious to keep the
necessity of payment in \4ew : —
This gate hangs wide and hinders none ;
Refresh and pay and travel on,
is now the restricted welcome of a tavern motto.
65
The simple truth appears to be, that a conjunction of the most
incongruous elements in the sign was often adopted as a means
of catching attention and attracting custom.
Among the mere corruptions cited as instances of false
etymology may be mentioned illiads from mllades ; sandfine
from saintfoin ; dandelion from dent de lion ; verdigrease from
verdegris ; bellibone from belle et bonne. These are merely
the nearest English spelling of the French words, with no
reference in the mind of the writer or user of the word to
the Iliad of Homer, to sand, to the modern dandy, to grease,
or to either belly or bone.
In the case of the ranunculus sceleratus, or celery- leaved
ranunculus, the English term owes its origin to no erroneous
opinion as to the meaning of the Latin one, nor has it suffered
any modification whatever since it was first devised. It is
taken fr'om a different feature of the plant, and is doubtless the
invention of a scientific botanist fitting English names to the
nomenclature of the Linnsean system. If it had been a
popular designation, it would have arisen in entire ignorance
of the Latin name, and therefore in neither case could have
served as a proper illustration of false etymology.
With these criticisms on the examples of the former list,
and observations on the proper limits of the phenomenon to
1)6 illustrated, I shall proceed to oflFer an amended list, com-
prehending the instances of false etymology already known,
together with such as can be sufficiently established from any
other quarter, including several from Mr. Trench's valuable
little work on ' English Past and Present.'
One of the most usual cases is when, in adopting a foreign
word into the language, some portion of it, usually the con-
clusion, is modified so as to designate a genus, of which the
thing signified may be considered as a particular specimen.
Of this class are
Crawfish, from Fr. eci'evisse, with which it is connected by
the old modes of spelling krevys, crevish, craifish (Trench),
Languedoc escarabisse (as in the same dialect escarabat, a
beetle), from the scrabbling action of the claws ; Sp. escarbar,
to scrabble; Catalan /er escarabats, to scribble, to scrawl.
F
GO
Causeway, from Fr. chaussee, via calccata, a shod way;
Port, ca/rar, to shoe, to pave.
Bar- BERRY, from Lat. herberis.
Sparrow-grass, fi'om asparagus, where grass is taken as a
generic name for green herb, as in Iccl. gras-gardr, a herb-
garden.
Gilly-flower, from Fr. giroflee, and that from caryo-
phyllus, a clove.
Tube-rose, from Fr. tubereuse (polyanthes tuberosa).
RosE-MARY, from Lat. ros mar'inus.
It must be observed that rose is in other cases taken as the
type of a flower in general, as the Cliristmas rose, which is a
species of hellebore ; and in Irish and Gaelic the water-lily is
called water-rose.
Pent-house, a sloping roof, from Fr. appentier.
Charter-house, from Chartreuse.
Dormouse, from a Fr. dormeuse, which may be supplied
from Langued. radourmeire, a dormouse, agreeing with Sleeper,
the name by which the animal is known in Suffolk.
JusTACOAT, a waistcoat with sleeves (Jam.), from Yr.just au
corps.
CuRTAL-AXE, from It. corteluzo, the augmentative of coltello,
Venet. certelo, a knife.
Poland, formerly Polayn, from G. Pohlen (Talbot).
Ambergrease, as if a kind of grease, from Fr. ambregris,
although here also the spelling may be a mere representation
of the French pronunciation.
IsiNGGLASs, formerly icing-glass, as if glass for icing or
making jelly, Fr. gelee, from G. hausen bias, the bladder of
the hausen or sturgeon, acipenser huso.
Sometimes the spelling only is affected, as in Lant-horn,
Fr. lanterne, where in the spelling of the E. word there is a
manifest reference to the horn panes with which lanterns
were commonly constructed.
Abominable, formerly written abhominable, as if shocking
to the nature of man.
Island, as if compounded of Fr. isle, fr'om insula ; really
from A.S. iglond, eye-land (Philolog. Soc. Proc. vol. v. p. 37).
67
Sometimes the original expression is forced into English sig-
nificance Tvdth little regard to the sense of the resulting com-
poimd. Thus we have —
Beef-eater, an officer in charge of the Cro^vn plate and
jewels, from Fr. buffet, a court cupboard, a cupboard of plate
(Cotgr.), whence buff'etier woidd be one in charge of the plate.
Humble-bee, from bomble-bee, Lat. bombilus. " I bomme
as a bee doth, or any flye, Je bruis." (Palsgr.)
Wheat-ear (a bu'd also called IVfiiterump) , from whittail,
Fr. blanche-cul (Cotgr.).
Jerusalem artichokes (a kind of sunflower), from It.
girasole.
Gum Benjamin, from benzoin.
Gum Dragon, from tragacanth.
Mandrake, Mandragon, from Lat. mandragora, which in
the Fr. version, main-de-gloire, afibrds a more complete ex-
ample of the phenomenon. The mandrake was supposed to
be employed in the magical rites used in the preparation of
the 'hand of glory,' hy which treasure was discovered. See
" Thalaba.^'
The names of places are pecidiarly liable to corruption,
either from being purely arbitrary in themselves, or from bemg
introduced by uneducated persons ignorant of the meaning,
and unsldlfrd in the pronunciation, of the native term. On the
coasts of our North American colonies, the names given by
the French settlers have now to be chiefly used by English
sailors, and thus the A^ise des Cousins or Bay of Mosquitoes
has become Nancy Cousin's Bay. So from Setubal our
sailors have made St. Ubes, a saint unknown to the Romish
Calendar.
Among domestic examples are — Bridgewater from Burgh
Walter; Gracechurch Street fr-om Gracious Street ; Leaden-
hall from Leather-hall; Leighton Buzzard fr-om Leighton
Beau-desert, where the brazen eagle, formerly used for sup-
porting the Bible in the church, is shown as the buzzard from
whence the town was named.
In general, however, the erroneously modified word is
adapted to express some character of the thing signified, or to
f2
G8
satisfy some analogy which it calls to mind. Thus, male from
mascnlus, Cat. masctts, Fr. masle, male, and female from
feinina, through Fr. femelle, have been brought by modifica-
tions in writing and pronunciation into analogy with man and
ivoman, as if female were derived from male, — an analogy of
which there was no feeling in the time of Piers Plownnan,
M'hen they were -sn'itten maule and femelle.
The Fr. laniere, a thong, has become Lanyard in nautical
language, in apparent analogy with halyard, a rope for haul-
ing up the yards.
The name of the Porcupine affords an example of multi-
farious corruption. The original is the It. porco-spino, a spiny
pig, which would probably come to us through a Fr. porc-epin,
although the actual name in that language is porc-ejnc, from
spica instead of spina. The first translation into English was
pork-2nn, whence, in Somersetshire, porpin, a hedgehog. The
third syllable in porpentine (which was Shakespear's word)
seems to have been added in blind imitation of the somid and
accent of the foreign word, at the expense of all etymological
significance. From pore-epic again was formed the popular
porcu-pig, in which the clement signifying spine is made to do
duty as a reference of the animal to the genus pig, already
expressed in Latin in the first syllable : —
Had you but seen him in this dress,
How fierce he looked and how big.
You would have thought him for to be
Some Egyptian porcu-pig.
Dragon of Wantley (Halliwell).
Runagate, as if ' run away,' but it is from renegade, It. rin-
negato, one who has renounced his faith or country.
Shamefaced, from shamefast.
Righteous, from rightwise, and in Scotch wrongous for
wrangivise, as used in Douglas's Virgil.
Livelihood, from life-lode, way of life ; O.-G. lib-leit, men-
sura victus (Schilter).
Uproar, as if from 7'oar ; really fi-om Du. oproer, G. aufruhr,
sedition, from roeren, ruhren, to stir.
Frontispiece, as if the piece or plate in front of the book ;
69
but really fi-om Mid. Lat. frontispicium, the front of a churcli,
aspect of a man (Ducange).
Gooseberry, as if fr'om being eaten with goose, or like
cranberry, crane-berry ; really a corruption of G. krause-beer,
Du. kruise-beer, haiiy berry, berry with standing-out hairs.
Field- FARE, as if from frequenting fields; really from A.-S.
feala-for, from the pale yellow colour of its plumage.
Vulgar Scotch Pock-mantle, as if from pock, a sack, m-
stead of the Fr. port manteau, from porter, to carry.
Red GUM, an eruption of infants, as if having reference to
the gums ; really from A.-S. yimd, matter, pus ; " Redgownde,
sekeness of young children" (Promptorium).
To Brickwall at tennis, Fr. bricoler, to strike a ball so as
to strike against one of the side walls (Cotgr.). To bricoU
(Bailey), as if from recoilmg.
Agister (one who takes in cattle to pasture, from giste,
gite, a lying place), a gist or guest-taker (Bailey).
Blue as a razor, for blue as azure (Bailey).
Baggage, a worthless woman, as if a mere incumbrance,
from It. bagascia, Fr. bagasse.
CowiTCH, an Indian seed producing itching, from the native
name kiivach.
Forcemeat, as if from being forced in, instead of Fr. farcir,
to stuff.
Waist-coat, as if from clothing the waist, really fi*om Fr.
veste.
Country-dance ; Fr. contre-danse.
Cutlet, as if a slice ; Fr. cotelette, from cote, a rib.
Wiseacre, as if ironically fi-om wise; G. iveissager, a
soothsayer.
Posture-maker, a merry-andrew ; Du. boetsen-maecker ;
G. possen-macher, from pjossen, tricks.
True love, from Dan. tru-Iove, to plight one's troth, to
engage ; Isl. tru-loufut mey, an engaged maid.
Chamoy leather, as if from the chamois or wild goat;
Fr. sameau, chameau ; G. samisches leder, leather from Sam-
land or Samogitia, a part of Poland, as Russia leather,
Morocco leather. The chamois could never have been so
70
l)lentiful or easily obtained as to furnish the leather in any
quantity.
Boot and saddle, a military term, the signal to cavalry
for mounting ; Fr. boute-selle, put on saddle, one-half of which
is adopted bodily, and the other half translated in the English
version.
To Breech or whip a boy, as if from striking him on the
breech : —
Kneeling and whining like a boy new breech'' d.
B. & F. in Narcs.
Really from Du. bridsen, G. britschen, pritschen, to give sound-
ing blows with a flat board or a rope's end.
Dead-nettle, the harmless nettle of our hedges, from deaf
nettle, G. taube-nessel, as, a ' deaf nut for a nut without a
kernel ; A.-S. blinde netel. In the cultivation of language the
tendency to living metaphor is constantl5^ diminishing, and deaf
was silently exchanged for dead, as expressing more directly
the want of the stinging faculty which constitutes the one
important fmiction of nettle life.
Doublet, a jacket, as if some part of the dress were
doubled; really from It. giubbetta ; Sp. jubon, the body of a
woman's gown ; Fr. jupon, a petticoat.
The old-fashioned Demi-john from Fr. dame-Jeanne, a
large kind of bottle fabricated near Arras (Household Words,
April 22, 1853), probably owes its form in the English version
to a reference to the ' black-jack,' a large leathern jug for
beer or the like.
In miniature, from miniare, to colour with minium or red
lead, and thence to illuminate books, it is the meaning of the
word that has been affected Ijy the false etymology. As the
pictures in books were necessarily of a small description, the
word seemed to signify a small picture, from minuere, to dimi-
nish, and is now applied with a constant sense of this deriva-
tion to a diminished specimen or resemblance of anything.
Coverlet or coverlid, — as if a diminutive from cover, or
a compound with the synonymous lid, — properly signifies bed-
cover; Cat. cobre-lit.
Belfry, Fr. heffroi, O.-G. bere-friet, a tower of defence ;
71
Mid. Lat. bertefredum, berfredmn, belfredum, applied to a
cliurch toAver. Hence in English, from an erroneous recog-
nition of significance in the syllable bel, the term has passed
on to a designation of the chamber where the bells are hung
or rung.
Decoy, is commonly used, and is explained in Richardson's
Dictionary as if from coy, to make coy or quiet, to tame, to
alhu'e or entice away from : —
He n' ist how best her heart for to acoie. — Chaucer.
And oft eke him that doth the heavens guide.
Hath Love transform' d to shapes for him too base,
Transmuted thvis, sometimes a swan he is,
Leda to coy. — Uncertain Authors in R.
The word however is properly a duck-coy, and is still so called
among the people in some parts, from Du. kooi, a cage ; ende-
kooi, a duck-cage, a wicker construction for catching ducks, a
decoy.
Carriage, in the sense of a coach or conveyance of superior
order, is a corruption of Fr. caroche. It. carrozza, from carro,
a car.
No, nor your jumblings
In horse-litters, in coaches or caroaches. — O. Play in Nares.
Court-Cards, as if from the kings and queens, but really
coat-cards, from representing dressed figures, is fully esta-
blished by quotations in Nares, one of which, from a book
printed in 1681, shows the date at which the modem pln-ase
was coming into use : " The dealer shall have the turn-up
card if it be an ace or a cote-card (court card), — si sit monas
aut imago humana."
To CURRY FAVOUR, propcrly ' curry Favel,' from the Fr. pro-
verbial expression ' etriUer fauveau,' to curry the chestnut horse.
A similar case is the expression in the New Testament, " to
strain at a gnat and swallow a camel," as if it signified baring
to make an exertion, or making a difficidty at swallowing a
gnat, instead of straining it out from the wine previous to
drinking; 'excolare culiccm' (Vulgate).
The reprobation expressed by Miscreant, from Fr. mecreer,
72
to believe amiss, would probably in modern times, wlien the
feelings of hatred to those who believe otherwise than our-
selves have been so much softened down, have lost much of
its virulence, had it not been supported by an a])parent deri-
vation from ndscreatc, as if it signified a person Avithout
ordinary human feelings or principles.
The insertion of an /• in the spelling of Tartar, properly
Tatar, has probably arisen from an association -with Tartarus
or Hell (called Tartary by some of our older writers), either
in consequence of the horror arising from the Tatars' cruel
devastations in the thirteenth century, or from regarding these
as a fulfilment of the prophecy in the Revelations concerning
the opening of the bottomless pit.
The general ignorance of Greek in the middle ages con-
verted Necromancer into negro- or nigro-mancer, as if from
niger, black, in accordance with the popular notion of magic
as the black art, the art performed in secresy and darkness.
We may conclude with a familiar example in the prepa-
ratory O YES ! O YES ! O YES ! in Avhich the crier of our courts
of laAv preserves the memory of the Oyez ! Hear ! of his
Norman predecessor.
The second Paper was then read —
" On the Kamilaroi Language of Australia ; " by William
Ridley, Esq.
To Professor Key, University College, London.
Balmain, Sydney, Nov. 30, 1854.
Dear Sir, — The recollection of the dissertations on ety-
mology to which I used to listen with much interest in 1839,
suggests to me that a few specimens of a language which ]
have lately been studying, and which I believe is quite unknown
to the literati of Europe, might be considered curiosities worth
adding to your museum of words. The language I refer to is
called by those who speak it " Kamilaroi : " it is one of the
most widely-spoken of the verj^ numerous languages of the
Australian aborigines, and is in common use through the
upper part of the valley of the Hunter River ; over Li\erpool
73
Plains^ along the Namoi River^ and 100 miles of the Barwan ;
also on Mooni Greek and the Bollun ; that is, over a part of
the country about 400 or 500 miles long and 50 wide. There
is hardly a word in Kamilaroi which bears any resemblance
to the language spoken at Newcastle (the mouth of the
Hunter), of which the Rev. L. E. Threlkeld published a gram-
mar in 1834. Some of the neighbouring dialects bear some
resemblance to it, especially Wolaroi, which is spoken on the
Bmidarra and on the Narran ; but most of the nearest lan-
guages are very different. Where, however, the vocabulary is
quite different, there is a close analogy in the inflexions and
idioms. The languages are named generally after the nega-
tive adverb ; thus, in Kamilaroi (or, as some colonists will
have it, Gummilaroi) kamil means ^ no ' : in AVolaroi, wol is
'no': in WailA\am, ivail is 'no': in Wiralhere and Pikabul
(also neighbouring dialects), wira and jiH^o, respectively are the
negatives'^. From a lecture delivered in Melbourne, I see that
the same plan of naming languages prevails in Victoria. I
have prepared a tract in Kamilaroi and English, to enable the
colonists settled in the district where that language is spoken
to give them some instruction in the elements of Christianity,
and this contains a list of roots. They have a tradition of
their own that all things were made at first by one being,
Baiame ; but in their " Boras " (assemblies at which, by my-
sterious rites, their young men are initiated to the privileges
* Compare the converse 'Laugue d'Oc' and ' Langue d'Oyl.' Dante has
at least three allusions to the Italian st, and one to a provincial form of it,
sipa.
E non pur io qui piango Bolognese ;
Anzi n' e questo luogo pieno
Che tante lingue non son ora apprese
A dicer sipa tra Savena e '1 Reno. — Inferno, 18, v. 58-61,
Ahi Pisa, vituperio delle genti
Del bel paese la dove '1 si suona. — Inferno, 32, v. 79, 80.
Non e molto numero d' anni passati che apparirono prima qucsti poeti
volgari. . . . E segno che sia picciol tempo e, che se volemo cercare in lingua
(V oco c in lingua di si, noi non troveremo cose dette anzi lo presentc
tempo per CL anni. — Vita Nuova.
Nam alii oc, ahi oil, ahi. si, afFumando loquuntur, ut i)uta Hispani,
Franci et Latini.— De Vulgari Eloquio, lib. 1. cap. 8.
74
of manhood), they pay much more visible homage to a being
called TuRRAMULLUN, who is said to appear at the Boras in
the form of a serpent ; who is the author or inspirer of mischief,
cunning, and sorcery ; in fact just such a being as we call
'devil'; and the blacks, after a little intercourse with wliite
men, learn to call Turramullun 'debil-debil/ Baiame\s> unseen,
but is heard in thunder ; so that the aborigines of A\istralia,
once said to be atheists, have still traditions handed doAvn by
their fathers from Noah of One Creator, and of the author of
e\dl. The regularity of the language of this wild people is
astonishing ; and must, I think, be regarded as a monument
of a former state of considerable civilization.
In expressing the relation of nouns they use suffixes, not
prepositions ; and their declension is fuller and more regular
than Latin. For instance, mM^e= opossum, but there is a sepa-
rate nominative when the subject is the ayent of some verb,
formed by subjoining -du. Mute simply names the animal, —
as in answer to the question What's that? Mutedu = 't\\e
opossum as an agent'; mutedu yindal /«/M//e = ' the opossum
grass will eat.' [N. B. Their syntax requires the following
order : nominative, accusative, verb. I use the vowels as in
French.']
1st Nom. mute, an opossum. Ace. & Voc. like 1st Nom.
2nd Nom. mutedu, an opossum (agent). Abl. mute-di, from an opossum.
Gen mute-ngu, of an opossum. mute-dd, in an opossum.
(motion io)mute-go, to an opossum. mute-kunda, with an opossum.
I have not discovered any plural form of nouns ; they put
burrula (many) before the nomi, or repeat the noim itself
several times, to express plurality ; but in the pronoims they
have both dual and plural.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
SINGULAR. DUAL. PLURAL.
1. nguia,\. wy/mWc, thouoryou, andl. "i ngcane, we.
ngai, my. ngullina, he and I. / ngeane-ngu, of us.
ngaiago, to me. ngulle-ngu, belonging to you ngeane-go, to us.
ngaiadi, from me. and me. ngeane-di, from us.
ngaiada, in me. ngullina-ngu, belonging to ngeane-da, in us.
ngaiakunda, him and me. ngeane-kunda, with
with me. ttguUe-go, to you and me. vis.
ngununda,rae. &c. &c.
75
[There are other affixes of nouns and pronouns, such as
-ngiinda and -kale, which I thhik mean 'going along with^;
-kunda (derived from kundi, ' a house ') means only ' stopping
with/]
SINGULAR.
DUAL.
PLURAL.
2. inda, thou.
indale, ye two.
ngindai, ye.
inda-ngu, "i
or nrjinnu, J ^ *
indale-ngu.
ngindai-ngu.
&c.
inda-yo, to tliee.
indale-go.
&c.
&c.
3. ng'irma, be, she, or
that.
DEMONSTRATIVES.
ngarma, thej
1 . numma or ngubbo, this. 2. nguruma, that (iste). ' ^^^™^it^ | that(ille),
INTERROGATIVES.
1. awdi? who? 2.imnntmal which? 3. mmHO or mmj/a? what?
INDEFINITE.
1 . ngaragedul or ngarage, another. 2. kdnungo, all.
ADVERBS.
2/0 or ?/«, yes. gir, verily (a common sign of indicative past).
kamil, no. murra, very.
ye«7, merely (as ' why did you speak? ' Answer, Ye'dl ngaia goe, \just spoke).
ye'dlo, further, still, any more, again. ye'dUma, as,
(hence the adj. yedlokwai, like, and) yedlokwaimd, in hke manner.
ADVERBS OF PLACE.
ngowo, here. ngari or aro, there. berii, far, deep.
urribu, very far. uriellona or nguriellona, on this side.
urrigdlina or narrikollinya, on that side. bigundi, in midst,
w^ari or ngurri, there, in front. tiilla'? where?
ngutta, there, on the right ; also meaning ' down there.' tui, hither.
ngurriba, there, on the left; also meaning 'up there.'
murra, there, behind. urribatai, from above.
ADVERBS OF TIME.
yplddu or i/fTwit, to-day, now. ngurra, after.
ilambo or ngurribu, long ago. ydlwiinga, always.
nguruko, tomorrow. ngarageduli, then (at another time) .
rtoVme, yesterday. ma^/o or ngerido, for one day.
mrii ? when ? kaiabar, hastily.
Among the adverbs shoukl l)c named the interrogative
yamma, used at the beginning of a question ; as, yamma inda
Kumiluroi goalda ? = do you speak Kaiuilaroi ?
70
The most striking feature in the languages of Australia is
the numerous and exact modifications of the verbs. Of this
a few examples : — biima is the root meaning ' to beat ' ; bumi
or gir bumi is past indie. ' did beat.'
gir bumalnge, did beat to-day.
gir bumalnmn, did beat yesterday.
gir bumallon, did l)eat some days ago.
Prea. bunudda, is beating. lm\mri\t. bwm alia, strike.
Fut. bumalle, will beat. bumallawd, strike (emphatic and
bumalngar'i, will beat tomorrow. earnest).
bumalmia, strike (ironical — " if you
dare").
(This ironical imperative is a regular part of every verb.)
Subj. bumaldai, beat (as yelle inda Particii). bmnaldendai, beating; bu-
bumaldai, if you beat). malngendai, having beaten ; 6m-
Infin. bumallago, to heat. wia/?nie«c?fli,havingbeatenyester-
day ; humallendai, going to beat.
There are many more shades of meaning which they express
by inflexions of the verb; causative, permissive, reciprocal
and reflective modifications or voices, more numerous than the
Hebrew niphal, piel, hiphil, liophal, and hithpael. The per-
missive voice of buma is bumanabille, which I learned from a
black fellow, who, at my request, was explaining his idea of
friendship : " Kamil Yarri ngununda bumanabille .^^ = Harry
will not allow-any -one-to-beat me.
At present, however, I am not prepared to give with cer-
tainty the exact meaning of many other inflexions which I
hear. In Mr. Threlkeld's grammar of the Newcastle and
Lake Macquarie dialect, the following inflexions are given,
and will be examples of the minute shades of meaning ex-
pressed by inflexion of the verb : —
bunkillin, about to beat at any future time,
bunkillikin, about to beat tomorrow.
bunJcillikolang, about to beat by and by.
In the reciprocal voice —
hunkillnn, about to beat one another.
bunkillaikin, al)0ut to beat one another tomorrow.
bunkillaikolang, about to beat one another presently.
The regularity and exactitude traceable in their numerous
77
inflexions are surely evidence tliat the people whose language
is so flexible and systematie were once in a high state of
intellectual cultui'e ; great mental acumen still characterizes
the race, limited as the sphere of their thoughts has become.
Alliteration and other rules for euphony are remarkable
featm'es in the Australian languages. In Kamilaroi, no word
(that I have heard of) ends in a mute ; though a liquid con-
sonant is as common as a vowel at the end of a word. When
they adopt English words ending in mutes^ the blacks drop
the mute or add a vowel : thus, jimbugg, a slang name for
sheep, they ^owaAjimbu ; and pigs they caU jiiggit. This nde,
with the absence of the aspirate and hissing consonants, gives
a peculiarly soft effect to their speech ; while the rattling of
the r, and vehement intonation of the final vowels, give it a
strong character. Instances of alliteration : Walgerr (name
of a place) with the suffix -go is Walger-ro (not Walgerrgo)
to Walgerr ; munmul (a stockyard) with -go is munmullo ;
pirriwul (a chief) with the suffix -kako is pwriwullako.
Another pecidiarity is the use of nouns, adjectives, and
adverbs, with the necessary suffixes, as verbs : from mil (the
eye) is milmil (to see). From binna (the ear) is binna (to hear),
having the regular inflexions binnange binnamien (past), and
binnalle binnangari (future).
The adverb yo is used as a verb, meaning ' afiu-m, believe ' :
ngaia yo = '\ yes it,' or ' I believe it.'
From andi ? ' who ? ' comes the verb anduma, ' say who.'
The words relating to hearing are also applied to thought :
binna (the ear) means also ' thought ' ; winungi (verb ' hear ')
means also ' think, believe' ; generally the form winungailun is
used for ' think.'
NOUNS.
Baiame, God.
wunda, spectre, angel, dai^imv; the
common appellation of white men,
who were supposed to be spectres
or blacks risen from the dead.
TurramuHun, the chief of the wunda ;
author of craft ; devil.
giwir, man.
murri, aboriginal of Australia.
ina, woman.
kai, child. [N.B. In the language of
the Newcastle tribe, kore, nukunr/,
wonnai, are the words for man, wo-
man, child.]
yurai, sun, day.
yille, moon.
mirri, star.
gunagulla or yuru, sky.
78
ngarran, light.
ngiirTt, daikncss.
yuradtha, daytime.
nr/uriiko, morning.
burruwuddcla, uoon.
bulluliii, evening.
taon, earth.
wl, fire.
kolle, water.
yuro, rain.
gua, fog.
durunmi, chief.
bubd, father.
ngumba, mother.
gullor, husband or wife.
wurume or wurmnunga, son
ngumrmmga, daughter.
kumberri, orphan.
daicidi, brother.
ga or kaoga, head.
teg til, hair.
ngfilu, forehead.
nguyin, eyebrow.
mil, eye.
dinmil, eyelash.
muro, nose.
muyuda, nostril.
ille or ngai, lips.
ira or yira, teeth.
^wZZe, tongue.
yare, beard.
binna, ear.
tdl, chin.
wwrw or dildll, throat.
nun, neck.
iiVn", breast (hence birrije, in front of).
ngummu, woman's breast or milk.
pilara, shoulder-blade.
wollar, shoulder.
giiria or 6oo«, back (5aoa/e=behind).
ban gun, arm.
pupa, great muscle of arm.
jam is used much nf^jam in Lat. as a reference to
B
2 HBNSLEIGH WEDGWOOD, ESQ.,
(.•crlaiii circuinstimccs airccting tlie action: i»i Ic jam tat'f —
what then is that? putijam, — come tlien.
The formation of the Finn lansrnaKCs is commonly ex-
plained as if they were composed of two distinct parts, viz.
the primitive language of the race itself, and an enormous
importation from the Scandinavian peoples with whom they
are mixed, with which must be classed numerous words bor-
rowed from the Teutonic, Slavic, and Lithuanian. It is
however hardly possible to account on such a principle for
the whole of the ph?enomena before us. No doubt a great
proportion of the analogous forms must be considered as
directly borrowed from a Scandinavian source ; but after every
allowance has been made for such an influence, a large amount
of resemblance will remain, ofi'ering the same kind of evidence
in favour of a remote community of origin, as in the case of
other related races, as the Celts and Teutons, Celts and
Slaves, &c. The words common to the Finns and Slaves or
Lithuanians, are far from being simply or even chiefly the
names of objects, the use of which may be supposed to have
!)een learnt from people in a more advanced state of civili-
zation, but frequently express actions or abstract notions
which must be conceived by nations in the rudest condition
; of life. We may cite —
Finn palaan, pallata, to burn; lioheui. paliti.
— ^Mo//, half, side, middle; Bohem. /ji/ie.
— lentaa or leta, to fly ; Bohem. letiti.
— wedan, wetaa, to draw, to lead; Lith, and Bohem.
V ^ tvedu, westi.
Lapp wuoras, old ; Lith. ivoras.
— jaure, a lake, lAih. jures (plu.), the sea.
— pak, paka, heat; Bohem. /veA:, the root of E. bake.
Nor are we without evidence of a Celtic connexion of similar
nature —
^ Finn korsi, stipula, calamus; W. korsen, a reed.
— kannan, kantaa, to bear, carry, hold; W. cannu, to
hold, as a vessel.
— jjullo, thick bark, cork, the floats of a net; Gael, bolla,
'^^ a net or anchor buov. - t^yi'-O G-^ ^ &>dC
c^' r
if ''* ' ^--«
ON THE FINN AND LAPP LAN6UAGES. . 3
Lapp bmve, slieep^ cattle ; W. b?no, an ox, kine.
— wele, more ; W. r/well, better, in a greater degree.
— liahra, a goat ; AV. (jafr.
Finn jcdke, footstep, hinder part, behind; W. ol in the
same sense. ^ "^ a--
— yfir//?w, hindmost ; W . olof. ' ' '-■%*>
— jdliUen, remaining, the rest; W, olion, things left
behind, refuse.
— jallen, back again, at last ; W. yn ol, back, back again.
— osata, to hit the mark, to aim right, to be able to do ;
osattaa, to aim at ; osaella, to try to do. W. osio, to try to
do; E. to OSS.
— sota, war, battle; sotia, to fight. W. cad; G. cath.
Lapp kakkel, a distaff; W. cogel.
Many isolated words are common to the Finn and Scan-
dinavian languages without corresponding words in the other
branches of the Gothic stock. The whole of these are broadly
ascribed by Ihre (than whom there is no more acute or ju-
dicious philologist) to a Finn origin, and in one important
instance at least, it seems certain that the course of language
has run in this direction.
The Icel. negative is ei, eigi, Dan. ikke, corresponding to
Finn ei, e'lka ; eikd-eika, neque-nec. Now the Icel. ei is an
adverl3, applying equally to all persons, while Fiim ei is
appropriated to propositions of the third person, being part of a
regular conjugation, en, et, ei, emme, ette, eiioat, non ego, non
tu, &c. As conjugations of such a nature were contrary to
the idiom of the Scandinavians, they seem to have adopted for
general use the negative of the third person, from the far
greater frequency with which propositions of that form would
occur than those of the first and second persons. It is certain
then, that because a word is common to a Finn and Scan-
dinavian language, it cannot be assumed that it is necessarily
borrowed by the former from the latter.
A considcral)le list may be made of Finn forms and
corresponding ones in Greek and Latin, either without inde-
pendent analogues in the Teutonic languages, or only such as
are more distantly related than the classical forms : —
B 2
4^-
4 HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD, ESQ.,
Finn onk\, a fislihook ; — Gr. o^kt], o'^ko^;, a hook, a barb.
— onkulo, a nook; — a'yKv\o<;, crooked; ayKaXtj, the bend-
ing of tlie arm.
— kampcin, crooked; — Ka/ji7rv\oa/e;i, in the presence of; Lat. palam.
Ynva. pyytia, to seek, to invite; IjoX. peto.
— puhdas, pure ; Lat. purus, putus.
— puhtaus, purity, cleanliness.
— suola, salt ; Lat. sal.
— kallo, the scalp, forehead, skin of the forehead ; Lat.
calva, callus.
— jM-kallo, crust of ice covering the ground ; Lat.
callwn, applied to the hard surface of the ground.
— kail okas, shoe of raw hide ; 1 t j. /
^ , . / >Lat. calceus.
Lapp kallok, shoe of skin of reindeer ; J
Finn kakistaa, kikottaa, to chatter as a pie, laugh Joud ;
Lat. cachinno.
— ddri, margin, edge; Lat. or-a.
Lapp hapos, a horse ; Gr. liriTO^.
— pir,pira, about, around ; Finn piiri, a circle ; Gr. irepi.
— walla, but; Gr. aXka.
— waoke, form, likeness; Gr. et/co9.
— wuokak, like, equal ; wuokas, fit, convenient ; Gr. eocKa,
to be like, to be fit.
— ara, early, soon; Gr. T)pL.
— aina, ainak, only, single, simple; Lat. unicus ; Lith.
ivenns, wenokas.
— all, high ; Lat. alius.
— aletet, haletet, to fly; Lat. ales (alii), bird.
— ah', air a, copper; Lat. as {fpr) ; Lith. waras.
6 /" ^^ HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD, ESQ.,
Lapp j)iiU}staa, to i)ult' up, to swell ; indli, a flask ; Lat.
ampulla.
— puUikoitsita, to speak in an inflated niaiinej' ; Lat. aia-
pullari.
— buola, puola, a bit ; Lat. bolus.
— ruopses, red ; Lat. ruber.
— taibet ; Lat. debere, oportere.
— kona, kuna, ashes; Lat. cinis; Gr. /covi?.
— wade, a ford ; Lat. vadum.
— juomits, a twin ; Lat. gemellus ; Fr. jumeau.
— jarbcs, round ; Lat. orbis.
— kaivuk (flexuosus, cm'vus) ; Lat. cavus, hollow.
— muorje, a berry ; Lat. morum, a mulberry ; Wallach.
mour, a blackljerry.
— mostos, out of humour, sorrowful ; Lat. moestus.
— harret, to growl ; Lat. hirrire.
— kattjett, to fall ; Finn kadota, to perish ; Lat. cadere.
— sanahet, to endeavour ; Lat, conari.
— sariva, sarives, an entire reindeer ; Lat. cervus.
The Finn sarwL Hung, szaru, szarv, a horn (whence szarvas,
horned, also a stag), show the radical meaning of Lat. cervus,
and at the same time bring Finn sarwi into correspondence
with Gr. /cepa? and Lat. cornu. Other Avords ^\\\c\\ prima facie
we should suppose to be borrowed from a Scandinavian source,
are found also in Hungarian, a language which has not un-
dergone the same mixtiu'e with the Gothic tongues, and may
thus put forward a fair claim to be considered as part of the
original stock of the language. No one would doubt that
Lapp garde, a hedge, inclosed place ; gardot, to hedge ; garden,
a farm ; Finn kartano, a yard, court, were borrowed from Sw.
gard, a yard ; garde, a field ; gdrda, to fence, and the like,
were it not that the Hungarian has kert, a garden ; kerit, kertel,
to inclose; keritek, kertelez, an inclosure, curtilage, hedge.
So we have Lapp ivaret, to keep, to guard ; Finn warrota, to
watch, observe, wait for; ivartia, a watchman, guard, appa-
rently borrowed from Sw. ivara, to observe, and its deri-
vatives, but the same root is preserved in Hung, vdr, to wait
for ; vdr, a fortress ; vartu, a watch or guard. The Finn
ON THE FINN AND LAPP LANGUAGES, 7
niesi, meden, honey, agrees on the one hand with Lith. medus,
Slav, med, Lat. mel ; and with W. niedd, E. mead, a drink
prepared from honey, while on the other it is shown to be a
genuine Ugrian word by the Hung, mez, honey. So Finn
loesi, water, lake ; loesinen, wetinen, watery, AV£t ; wettya, to
become full of water; Hung, viz, water, river. Lapp nikke,
nekke, the neckj Hung, nyak. Lapp lapa, the sole of the '•^/^
foot ; Finn lapa, a blade, as shoulder-blade, blade of an oar,
might be supposed to be borrowed from a Gothic root corre-
sponding to E. laj), flap : but the Hung, has lap, flat side,
plate, leaf; lapoczka, shoidder-blade, spatula, shovel.
The Finn languages are extremely rich in words ex-
pressing different kinds of sounds, and there is hardly a page
in the dictionary without some word translated by parum
crepo, strepo, strideo, susurro, murmur o. As a specimen may
be cited koliista, kolista, komista, kopista, korista, tihista,
tikista, tirista, titista, wikista, ivilista, winista, hohista, ha-
wista, jumista, morista, nirista, porista, sohista, &c., with
almost every possible combination of the two consonants, and
every variation of the vowel by which they are connected in
the radical syllable. Of such words as the foregoing, many
are represented by similar forms in Swedish, German, or
English, but very many have no corresponding terms in those
languages. Now as long as direct imitation is a living
principle in the use of a word, the primary cause of the
articulation is apparent on the face of it, and there is no
occasion to seek the origin in another language in which the
same image may be represented by a similar sound, uidess
overwhelming evidence of borrowing be forced upon us from
other quarters.
The syllable slam is used in Swedish and English as well as
in Lapp to represent a loud noise ; Sw. slamra, to jingle, jabber, /_
to talk idly (Widegren.) . In Lapp slam, a noise, nialme slam, ^ ,-
strepitus verborum {;tdalme, the mouth), uksa slamketi, 'the ^ y^
door was slammed,^ jaima cum strepitu chmdebatur; slamem, -^ "" ^^'
ruin, fall. Here the imitative force of the word is as manifest C, ' -
in Lapp as in English. And there seems as little reason for
supposing that the word must have been borrowed by the
8 HENSLEIOH WEDGWOOD, ESQ.,
Laps from the Swedes^ as vice versd. The same root seems to
be truly represented by the Latin clamo, clamor, as we have
seen many instances in which a Finnish s corresponds to a
Latin c. In the same way it is probable that there may have
been no direct borrowing in any of the following examples : —
Finn natista, leviter crcpo nt mus rodcns ; G. hiattern, to
patter ; Dan. ynaddre, to grumble, growl.
Finn naputtaa, Icvitcr ico, crepito ; napista, napsaa, leviter
crepo, murmuro, strcpo ut dcntcs in manducando ; G. knap-
IH'fH ; Sw. knapra, to gnaw.
Finn narrata, stridco, crcpo ut cardincs janua? ; G. knarren ;
Sw. knorra, to murmur, gruml)lc, growl.
Film porata, porista, vocifcror, cbullior ; Du. borre/en, to
pur/, to bubble up, or in Flemish to vociferate; Port, bor-
borinha, yoc'iferaiion; Y'mn poret, a bubble; O.^. a burble.
Finn hossottaa, le\dter ferio, e. g. vestes vergis ; Fr. housser,
to switch.
Finn kikka, singultus, hiccough; Fr. ho quel ; Sw. hicka.
Lapp suokket, sjuoketet, to sob ; Sw. sucka.
Finn huiska, scopa minor lavationi apta, a ivhisk ; huiskata,
hue illuc cursitare, huiskua, hue illuc j actor ut arbor vento,
huiskuttaa, hue et illuc nioveo, (piasso, ut canis caudam ;
huiskiitan wettaa, I splash water about ; hutskutus, quassatio.
Finn humata, humista, to hum, to sigh as the wind among
trees; leel. umra, kumra, to murmur.
Finn huuiaa, clamo, vocifero, to hoot; huuto, clamor,
voeiferatio, rumor, fania vagans.
Finn Jmrrata, hmista, susurro, ut aqua fluens vel apes
volantes, to whirr ; Sw. hurra, surra.
Finn kummata, kummista, to sound as a large bell ; kimista,
acute tinnio, to chime ; kumina, resonance.
Another argument in favour of a connexion of very old
standing between the Finn and other European languages,
may be drawn from the numerous cases in which it enables us
to explain words without apparent derivation in their own
lane-uaee. One of the cases of Finn sama, the same, is
samalla, in the same ; samalla muodolla, in the same manner ;
but samalla alone is used elliptically in the sense of ' at the
ON THE FINN AND LAPP LANGUAGES. »
same moment/ agreeing with Lat. simul. A somewhat dift'erent
modification of the same root in a widely different language,
gives Malay samo-samo, together, from samo, the same,
Lapp kastas, wet; kastatet, to wet, to baptize, seems to
indicate the idea of washing, as the origin of the Bohem.
cisty, clean, pure, chaste (whence cistiti, to cleanse, and
cistenia, a cleansing or av ashing place, a cistern), and of the
Lat. cast us, chaste.
The name of the domestic cock, Finn kukko, Hung, kakas,
is derived, like that of so many animals, from the sound by
which we imitate his cry; Finn kukkua, cuculo, cucurio;
Lith. kukti, to crow, to hoot; Bohem. kokrhati, to crow.
From the upright strut of a cock, the term is then applied
to whatever cocks or stands up, as a cock of hay, &c. In
Finn kukku is the pile in heaped measure ; kukkelo, kukkura,
the top of a mountain, aflFording a plausible explanation of
Lat. cacumen.
Lapp kukke, long ; kukketet, to prolong ; kukkehet, to think
or find it long ; kukkelastet, to remain long, to delay ; Finn
kokottaa, to expect, wait for, delay, exhibit a root which might
easily pass into Lat. cunctari. The origin of these words seems
to lie in Finn koko, a heap or pile, applied in a secondary sense
to the structure or stature of the body, whence ko'okas, tall,
great. The local cases of koko are used in the sense of the
Lat. con, together, as Jw«7^e kokoon or ko'olle, bring into a
heap, place together; tuleivat kokoon or kd'olle, they come
together ; and as the second k is actually lost in one of these
forms, it is not difficult to suppose that kokoon may be the
exact equivalent of Lat. con.
A gain^ ko ko, in composition, is used in the sense of totus,
omnino ; koko-kyld, the whole village ; koko-mies, a complete
man ; kokona, kokonansa, Avholly, entirely ; kokonainen, whole,
unbroken. Thus the Lat. cunctus might be derived from the
same root with cunctari and with the preposition con.
The expression of relations of place by reference to parts of
the body is worthy of remark. From Finn koriva, an ear, is
derived the expression for nearness, by the side of, ' locuis
juxta quid, ut aures juxta caput;' on tien korwa/la, if is by
10 HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD, ESQ.,
the side of the road, litcrully iu the car of the road ; kurwainen,
by the side of, about. In like maimer, hdnta, a tail, is used
in the locative cases in the sense of behind, and probably
explains the origin of that word. Kaypi hdundssani, he comes
at my tail, comes after me ; juokse sen hdntudn, run after him ;
hdntyre, a follower; hdnnittdd, to follow any one close, in-
seetor quern quasi ad caudam.
Finn rataan, raduta, to squeak, creak, crcpito ut mus,
currus, aflbrds a plausible derivation, as well of the rat, the
scjucakcr, as of Finn ratus, Lat. rota, a wheel, the creaking
of which, before the use of grease, wovdd be a most obtrusive
characteristic. The plural rattaat, as Lith. ratai, is used iu
the sense of a chariot, whence perhaps Lat. rlitda. The
origin of Lat. carrus and E. car, carry, may in like manner
be fomid in Finn karista, strideo, crepo; G. garrezen
(Schmeller) ; Icel. karra, to jar, to creak.
Finn kalkkata, to clank, sonum edo crcpantcm ut ferrum
in cudendo, suggests a natural origin of Gr. ')(a\Koa pine or languish is to suffer pain. Pain, in the sense of
'^ punishment, from Lat, pcena, Gr. iroivi) and punio, to punish.
ON THE FINN AND LAPP LANGUAGES. 13
are radically distinct, being derived from the cnstoni of
making reconciliation by paying tlie price of blood, from Gr.
^ovols.c., the E. representative
of which [ktu'll] is appropriated to the clang of bells'^.
Other modifications of the root kop, as representing a
sounding blow, are Gr. Kv/j,^o dyKoXr], &c. Of this Dr.
Latham observes : " The simple sound is related to n and g in
a manner that has not yet been determined." (Eng. Lang,
first edition, p. 110.) This relation then it is important for
our present purpose that we endeavour to determine. But
Dr. Latham's later researches afibrd no assistance. In 1855
he afiirms : " Ng is no true consonant, but a vowel of a
peculiar character, i. e. a nasal vowel, formed by the passage
of air through the nostrils instead of the lips." (Handbook,
2nd edition, p. 144.) Of the argument that seems to be
implied in this last clause, it is not difficult to dispose.
It seems tolerably plain, that with equally good reason m and
n may be described as '^Wowels of peculiar character, i. e.
nasal vowels, formed by the passage of air through the
nostrils instead of the lips." Word for word, and letter for
letter, the statement contained in the latter clause Avill hold
good "mutato nomine," and therefore the same inference
may be drawn, if the reasoning is conclusive. It is not
c 2
20 K. 1'. WEYMOUTH, ESQ.,
necessary for me, so far as my present pm-pose is concerned,
to give definitions of a vowel and of a consonant respectively ;
but it would be a singular definition indeed that woidd include
ny in the list of vowels, and not embrace n and 7it also.
These three consonants possess just this one striking feature
in common, that when we pronounce them, the breath jjasses
not throtigh the lips, but through the nostrils. We will how-
ever approach them from another quarter.
In many, perhaps most, langiiages of civilized nations,
there are, as in English, just six explosive consonants ; that is
to sav, consonants for the articidation of which all exit of the
breath is restrained by a complete stoppage of the orifice
of the mouth, preparatory to a sudden outburst. These are
the two classes of mutes which we usually call the tenues and
the medicE ; in Greek tt, k, t, and /3, 7, S. All the other con-
sonants are continuous — the liquids included.
Again, the terms tenues and media are commonly applied
only to the six mutes just mentioned. But the difference
that subsists between them is found also to distinguish certain
other pairs of sounds, as the English s and z, or the French
ch andy, which are equivalent to the middle consonant sounds
in lashing and measure. Now if those physiologists are right
who attribute tins difference to the relaxation of the vocal
chords of the larynx when tt, ic, t, are sounded, and the
tension, and therefore vibration, of these same chords when
the media and similar consonants are pronounced, so that
with these latter there is a more perfect sound ; perhaps the
names surd and sonant, adopted in some of oui* Sanskrit
grammars, best express this distinction. In this sense the
liquids are all sonant. In this they agree with the medial
mutes j in being continuous, not explosive, they differ from
them.
Can the comparison be carried fiu-ther ? Yes, if we exclude
the mundlaute r and /, and confine our consideration to the
three remaining liquids m, ng, and n. These, so far as the
mouth alone is concerned, might be termed explosives, and as
sonant explosives they would identify themselves with /3, 7, 8,
which they closely resemble. Thus in sounding both h and
ON THE LIQUIDS, IN RELATION TO CERTAIN MUTES. 21
m, the tongue lies passive, and the lips are tightly closed, so
that no breath escapes thence. Comparing the final con-
sonants of rug and rung, we find in each that, while the mouth
is open, the body of the tongue is pressed against the palate,
and thus the orifice of the mouth is completely stopped. So
is it with d and n, to sound both of which the tip of the
tongue is pressed against the palate, and, though the mouth
is open, no exit is afibrded for the breath. Thus these letters
pair off' most amicably, the difference in each case being the
following.
In the English language the liquids m, n, and ng, and in
other languages these same sounds or such modifications of
them as occur, alone are sounded by the aid of the nasal
cavity. All others, including the remaining liquids r and /,
are Avhat Heyse calls mouth-sounds. More accurately thus :
in pronouncing m, n, and ng, the pendulous portion of the
velum palati is lowered, so that the breath passes through the
nose instead of through the mouth. In sounding all the other
letters, vowels included, this soft palate is raised so as to touch
the back of the pharynx, and thus the nasal cavity is entirely
closed. Yet not entirely in the case of those persons, either
on this or on the other side of the Atlantic, who speak with
what is not unaptly termed a " nasal twang."
To distino-uish the nasal from the non-nasal letters, a
^to
simple but decisive experiment is to hold, while sounding any
vowel or consonant, a small looking-glass (or the blade of a
penknife, or any similar object presenting a polished surface,
and cold) horizontally against the upper lip, with the bright
surface upwards; this surface will then be dulled by the
breath only when m, n, and ng are produced, or when there
is the "nasal twang^.'^ While trying this experiment, we
cannot fail to perceive how, the moment the velum palati is
* This suggestion has already been made by the present writer in a few
observations on a part of this subject that have appeared in the Adver-
saria of the Cambridge Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, No. fi,
p. .333. But the presumed interest of the subject as a whole to the general
philologer, seemed to warrant its somewhat fuller treatment in a more
•ippropriate place.
22
K. r. WKYMOUTH, ESQ.,
lowered, h changes into m, d into n, and g (hard) into ng ; or,
when we raise it, m is turned into b, n into d, and ng into g.
But tlie fact that these consonants are related in some such
Avay is sufficiently established by the experience of any one
who is suffering from a bad cold in the head, such experience
not being pleasant, but profitable nevertheless to the phi-
lologer. At such a time made becomes bade; tongue, tug;
pain, paid; and so forth. In the Welsh and Irish languages
moreover this affinity of b, d, g (hard), to m, n, ng, is fully
recognized, the change from the former to the latter being
termed " aspiration ^^ in the grammars ; but I have nowhere
met with a satisfactory attempt to explain the exact nature of
this affinity.
We have now, I hope, succeeded in fixing the relation of
ng io g ; showing it at the same time to be fully coordinate
with n and m, — not less a liquid than either of these, nor on
the other hand, as it has been I think inaccurately described,
"a. more complete nasal."
As to r and /, which differ so materially from m, n, and ng,
it seems to be not a happy arrangement by which, in the clas-
sification of the alphabet, these are all herded together. It
would seem far preferable that these two non-nasals should
retain the name by which they were known to the Greek
gi'aramarians, of semivoivels {rj/xlcpcova) . This name we now
commonly apply only to w and ij, but in fact r and / (and
indeed the sibilants also) approach quite as nearly as do they
to the nature of vowels : they can just as readily be sounded
by theniselves, and with just as little use of the more active
organs of speech; and they as readily combine with other
consonants to form what almost seems a single articulation ;
so that if, notwithstanding the presence of the iv or the y in
the spoken words divell and thivack, or duke and 7ieivt, we
may yet consider them as all but biliterals (disregarding
voAvels of course in the use of this term), so we may regard
trap and drill, or gleam and Jlat, notwithstanding the pre-
sence of the / or the r.
At length therefore we are in a position to consider why
" euphony" changes pS/xXerat into /xep^XeTUi, contracts avepo^^>^.
cold serdo.
hot auroghermo.
sun rojshwesho.
moon hashme.
star sterrai.
mountain. . . . khoo.
sea abo.
valley derei.
eggs boiki.
a fowl kergbi.
loelcome .... tebexairome.
come beiri.
stay rosbc.
ENGLISH. ZAZA.
bread noan.
water awe.
child katcbimo.
virgin keinima.
orphan lajckima.
morning .... sbaurow.
tree. ....... dori.
iron asin.
hare aurish.
greyhound . . taji.
pig kbooz.
earth ert.
fire adir.
stone see.
silver sem.
strength .... kote.
sword sbimsbir.
a fox krevesb.
stag kive.
partridge. . . . zaraj.
milk shut.
horse istor.
mare mabine.
grapes esbkijsbi.
a house .... ke.
green kesk.
crimson .... soor.
black siab.
white supeo.
sleep rausume.
go shoori.
ON A ZAZA VOCABULARY, BY R. G. LATHAM, ESQ. 41
The meaning of the termination -min has been explained
by Pott and Rodiger in their Kurdische Studien. It is the
possessive pronoun of the first person = m2/ = ?weM5 = e//09,&c.;
so that sere-mm = caput-meMm (or mei), and pie-w^^i = pater-
meus (or mei).
So little was the Zaza who supplied Dr. Sandwith with the
list under notice able to conceive a hand or father, except so
far as they were related to himself, or something else, and so
essentially concrete rather than abstract were his notions, that
he combined the pronoun with the substantive whenever he had
a part of the human body or a degree of consanguinity to name.
It is difficult to say how far this amalgamation is natural to
the uncultivated understanding, i. e. it is difficult to say so on
a priori grounds. That the condition of a person applied to
for the piu'pose of making a glossary out of his communi-
cations is different from that under which we mamtain our
ordinary conversation, is evident. Ordinary conversation
gives us a certain number of words, and a context as well. A
glossary gives us words only, and disappoints the speaker who
is familiar with contexts.
If this be true, imperfect contexts, like the combinations
pie-min, &c. should be no uncommon occurrences. Nor are
they so. They are pre-eminently common in the American
languages. Thus in Mr. Wallace's vocabularies from River
Uapes the list runs thus : —
ENGLISH.
UAINAMBEU.
JUKI.
barrI:,
head (niy) . . . .
e>'«-bida ....
#cAo-kereu. . .
?io-dusia.
mouth {my) . .
er«-numa . .
tcho-\&.
no-nunia.
&c.
&c.
&c.
&c.
similar illustrations being found in almost every American
glossary.
In his Appendix to Macgillivray's Voyage of the Rattle-
snake, the present writer pointed out instances of this amal-
gamation in the languages of the Louisiade. He now adds,
that he has also foimd it in some of the samples of the
ordinary Gipsy language of England, as he has taken it from
the mouth of English gipsies.
42 ON THE DERIVATION AND MEANING OF 7]7no '^^^ ^^^ '^'^^ X^^P'^^ i^7n6Tt]To<;' g5 Kal yvvaiKa
Trapah'ihaxTLv YiirLovrfv, ef 779 avrS yeveadai 'Idaova, Ylavd-
K€iav AeKTLOov ev VTrofivrjfiaTi AvK6(f)povo<;. rjirco'^ arj/naivet
KvpLiO'i TOV Xoyiafjiov. Ilapa to eiroi to Xejco, eino'i koL i^Trwi,
6 ev \6y(p irdvTa ttolcov, koI fir] irddei. e'/c /jLeTaX/jyjreco'i 8e Kal
6 Bid \6yov 7rpoa7)vr]iiw5 instead of pius. Both copied this false statement out of For-
cellini, without taking the trouhle to verify what really stands in Quin-
tilian, who only mentions aiiu and Maiia.
44 ON THE DERIVATION AND MEANING OF ^TTtO?,
dW alel ^a\e7ro9 t eirj koI alcrvXa pe^oi,
ft)9 ovTt<; fie/u.vTjTac 'OSucrtr^o? Oeloto
Xawv, olaiv avaaae, irari^p S' co? i]7no<; rjev.
K. 337 : — Si K.ipKr], 7r(oo^. Again, if the
Sanskrit ukshi (eye) can be compared with these words, I
would suggest that even this word exists in a monosyllabic
form in the Vaidic an-aksh, eyeless, blind. Nor does the a
in the supposed ac, as compared with the o in oculus, con-
stitute a real difficidty, for the a appears in the Lithuanian
akis and the old Prussian ackis, and there is no want of
instances in which an original a coexisted with an e, i, or o.
Thus we find gressus gradior, fessus fatiscor, ferctum farctum,
pignus pang ere, avis avilla, foveo favilla, fovea favissa. So
far, therefore, we must allow that the proposed derivation, if
not true, claims the right of being possible.
But is there really any necessity to go beyond the actual
state of the Latin, and to give up the usual explanation of
BY THEODORE AUFRECHT, ESQ.
55
actutum ? I think not. Scholars may differ as to the mode
of derivation, but I doubt whether many will be inclined to
separate actutum from actus. Passing over those authors
who in full earnest explained our adverb as a compound of
actu and turn, I quote a more reasonable explanation proposed
by Lindemann (De Adverbio Latino Specimen iv., Zittav-iae,
1827, p. 17) : "Actutum quid sit, nondum recte expHcatum
legi, descendere ^ddetur ab antiquo verbo actuere, quod eodem
modo ab subst. actus efformatum fuit, ut statuere a statu.
Sit igitur actuere in actu ponere, quemadmodum statuere
statui reponere, statum alicui rei dare. Unde participium
actutus in actu positus, ad actum emotus, exercitus. Ergo
actutum significabit cum actu multo, non segniter, celeriter,
thatig, rasch, actutum redi, kehre rasch zuriick, kehre eilig
zuriick." But are we to suppose also verbs like astuere,
cornuere, nasuere, in order to explain astutus, cornutus,
nasutus ?
Actus signifies not only action, act, acting, but occm's also
sometimes in the sense of motion, movement, activity. Lucan
says —
Pilaque coutorsit violent! spiritus actu.
Virgil — > T
Fertur in abruptum magno mons inprobus actu.
Petronius —
Pocula quae facili vilis rota finxerat actu.
Lucretius, iii. 186 —
At quod mobile tautopere est, constare rutundis
Perquam seminibus debet perquamque minutis,
Momine uti parvo possiut impulsa moveri,
Namque movetur aqua, et tantillo momine flutat,
Quippe volubilibus parvisque creata figuris.
At contra mellis constautior est natura,
Et pigri latices magis, et cunctantior actus.
Two derivatives of actus show the same meaning, — actuarius
in actuarium navigium, a fast-sailing ship (compare celox), and
actuosus (but this only metaphorically). Seneca says, " Nostcr
animus in motu est, eo mobilior et actuosior, quo vehementior
fuerit," and Cicero de Oratore, iii. 26, which passage must be
56 ON THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE LATIN ADVERB ACTUTUM.
read with the context, " quam leniter, qiiam reraisse, quam
noil actuose." That agere itself implied sometimes a rapid
motion, is shown by aye, agite, " be on the move,'' and agi/is'^.
This is the point from which we must proceed, in order to
explain actutmn. The Romans formed from actus an adjective
actutus, meaning "endowed Avith movement, being on the
move, ftdl of activity," so that for instance "ite actutura in
fr'midiferos locos'' would be translated literally "go in-a-
state-of-lively-actiAity into leafy places." The neuter alone
is noAV preserved, the adjective being lost in the same way as
is the case wdth tcmere. The transition from the notion of
acti\dty into that of speed is simjjle and common enough.
We find an analogy in "quick quickly, alive lively," life
presupposing a superior degree of activity,
I add a few words on the formation of actutum. It agrees
entirely with cinctutus and versutus, which are derived from the
substantives cinctus and versus, the formation from the latter
having taken place at a time when it still had its original
meaning of "turning." The same affix appears in astutus,
cornutus, nasutus, verutus, from astu, cornu, nasus {us-f),veru.
In aB these forms I consider the iitus as a contraction of
u-itus, and compare them "vvith the two adjectives fortu-itus
and gratu-ltus. The two voAvels u-\-i, that is, the u of the
base and the i of the affix, coalesce into u just as in manus for
manu-is, equitatii (dat.) for equitatu-i. The same affiix appears
in auritus, crinitus, ignitus, pellitus, turritus, mellitus, for
auri-itus, crini-itus and so on, and has the meaning of " pos-
sessed of, endowed with." That this itus stands in a near
connexion with the tus {itus) of the past participle need
hardly be stated.
* The best translation of affilis in German would be " riihrig."
t This form has not yet come to light, but must be inferred from nasutus.
From nasus, nasi we should have nasitus, just as galeritus comes from
galerum, and avitus from avus. If this supposition be true, we should have
for ' nose ' five different forms in Latin, nasus, -i, and nasum, naris, nasus,
-us, and lastly a monosyllabic form 7ias, seen in nasturcium. Compare Varro
apud Nonium, p. 12, " nasturcium nonne vides ab eo dici, quod nasum
torqueat, vestispicam, quod vestem speciat?" And Virgil, Moretum, 84,
" quaeque trahunt acri vultus nastiu'cia morsu."
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