THE STUDY OF “LOCAL WORDS.”

"The vulgar are, in all ages, provided with words and phrases by their betters, and are more likely to keep them safe and sound than the followers of new fashions.' -FORBY.

■R. TRENCH, in his admirable little work, "English, Past and

explaining the sense of words now become obsolete, or in supplying some step in the history of a word otherwise unintelligible.

He has aptly spoken of them as being, not bad English, but old English, and as such, worthy of the attention of every one who desires to have more than a mere acquaintance with the English language.

They are rendered doubly valuable to us by the fact, that they still live on in many of our good old English writers; so that a study of local words would tend to make us far more perfectly acquainted with the writings of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, than many of the commentaries written for that purpose.

It seems strange, that while everything that has the stamp of antiquity upon it receives the attention of the learned, provincialisms alone have been overlooked or very slightly treated.

We have our editions of Greek and Latin authors with copiously compiled notes, explanations of difficult words, and the old forms of the respective languages set forth and illustrated. Shall we then treat those who have enriched our language by their large contributions of thoughts and words,—a language that meets "all the requisitions of a solemn and nervous poetry, the earnest appeals of eloquence, and the calm flow of descriptive prose," with less respect ?

Surely a word is worthy of our notice when employed by such masters of language as Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton. For our own part, we have a sort of veneration for the old remains of our English tongue, which certainly do show at times "the decayed intelligence" of the language; and while they occur in our English authors, old though they may be, yet we regard them as still vital, as far as thought is concerned, or, otherwise, what advantage can we hope to obtain by a study of them?

We therefore attach much importance to provincialisms-these old forms and usages, 66 more faithful than others to the traditions of the language," because we believe that by them we can better explain and exemplify the meaning, history, and forms of words (their name is legion), that occur in old English authors-nay, of some that we should hardly dare to call old. This is certainly one very valuable use of local words, and one good reason why we should study them; but besides this, they have a still more practical bearing; for they serve to explain and account for some forms that occur in the language, which otherwise appear to be far from normal, and they likewise supply us with the etymon of words which a false spelling has disguised.

A few examples will better set forth our views upon the subject. We cannot, however, close these remarks without calling upon Teachers, whose facilities for studying local words are great, to lend us their aid in this study, assuring them they will not only be conferring a boon upon those who have the subject at heart, but also at the same

time furnishing themselves with no mean amount of knowledge of the history of our language in so doing.

Milton furnishes us with a few old forms which are now merely local:

(1.) "All fish from sea or shore,

Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin."

Mr. Trench has noticed the word 'freshet' as having "never been out of use in America."

Freshet, however, is the diminutive formed from the word 'fresh, still in use in the north of England for a river swollen with rain.

The word has suffered some degradation of late, being applied to a person who has partaken too freely of intoxicating drink, and is then said to be 'fresh.'

(2.)

"the parching air

Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire."
Paradise Lost, book ii.

'Frore' is an East-Anglian word for frozen, and in Suffolk 'frawn,' as well as 'frore,' is used.

(3.) "In his own temple, on the grunsel edge,
When he fell flat and shamed his worshippers."

Paradise Lost, book i. p. 460.

'Grunsell' is a north of England word for 'threshold.' The full form is ground-sill, accented on the first syllable; so that the provincial form clearly indicates the correct accentuation of such compounds as housewife, goodman, &c.

(4.) "The grassy clods now calved."-Paradise Lost, b. vii. p. 463. 'Calve,' signifies to 'fall in,' 'to separate;' applied to earth falling in, &c. "Cave' (north of England), keeve' (Suffolk).

"There where the mouldered earth had caved the bank."

(5.)

Fairie Queen, v. 33.

"while I

In yonder spring of roses, intermixed
With myrtle, find what to redress till noon."

Spring' is an East-Anglian word for a small wood or grove, a word that hardly deserves to die out of the language.

We should hardly expect to find Fuller using a provincialism: under the disguised form of edge,' he uses the Yorkshire word 'egg,' to urge on, stimulate, &c. :—

"O that this word edge the endeavours of our generation to succeed to the dead places of worthy men."

Shakespeare, the European poet, as he is justly called by the Germans, abounds in provincialisms :—

(1.) "When law can do no right,

Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong."-King John.

'Bar' (north of England), to forbid, exclude.

(2) " And sometimes make the drink to bear no barm.”

Midsummer Night's Dream.

'Barm,' a word used in almost every part of England and Wales for yeast. 'Bahm,' in Suffolk.

Lillie, in his "Mother Bombie," says

"It behoveth my wits to work like barme, alias yeast, alias sizing, alias rising, alias God's good."

"Ryal of foom or berme : spuma❞—Lexicon, English and Latin, 1440. Ray says, sizzing was used in Sussex; newing, in Essex; and gosgwood, beersgood, or burgad, in Suffolk.

(3.) "With this we charged again; but out, alas!

We bodged again, as I have seen a man

With bootless labour swim against the tide."-King Henry VI. 'Bodge' (Suffolk), 'botch' (Yorkshire), to do a thing unskilfully, bungling.

Bodge is the root of our word 'bodkin.' At one time there were the botchers, who bore the same relation to the tailors as cobblers now do to the shoemakers.

(4.) "Undinged target.”—Shakespeare.

Dinge' (north of England), to cruise, strike; hence 'dint,' the effect of being dinged. Dynt' (Anglo-Saxon), struck.

(5.) " Away! and glister like the god of war

When he intendeth to become the field."-King John.

' Glister' (Suffolk), to shine, glisten.

"It all above besprinkled was throughout

With golden aiguillets that glistered bright.”—Spenser.
(6.) "Go your gate."-Shakespeare.

Gate, a word used in the north of England for 'way;' the same as 'gait.'

Spenser says

(7.)

"Go but a lowly gate

Among the meaner sort."-Shepherd's Calendar.

"Into as many gobbets will I cut it

As wild Medea young Absyrtus did."-King John.

"like ambitious Sylla, overgorged

With gobbets of thy mother's bleeding heart."

'Gobbet' is the diminutive formed from 'gob,' a Suffolk word, signifying gross bits of fat.

Byron uses the East-Anglian word 'bale,' bondage, bound, with very good effect :

"The damned cries of souls in hopeless bale."

We shall now give a few illustrations of English philology, with aid

of some local words :

(1.) The negative prefix 'gain,' in 'gainsay,' and in the old words 'gainstrive,gainstand,' signifies again-st; the full form is again,' still in use in Yorkshire, and pronounced ageean.' Suffolk folk say 'aginn.'

Chaucer says—

"Al be it that it is again his kind." In the Rolls of 3 Henry VI. we read

(2.) We often speak of a ship being 'bound' for a certain port, but we seldom consider whether the word is what it appears to be.

The d has no place, or rather ought to have none, in the etymon of the word; the error seems to have arisen from the seeming connection of the word with bound, the derivative of to bind.

The word in its correct form occurs in the north of England, 'boun' there signifying ready. Very bain,' in some parts of the north, signifies very officious.

Chaucer says

"For sorrow his harte to brast (burst) was boun."

(3.) The word 'bonfire' hardly suggests a fire made with brands, but the Somersetshire word 'bran-vier' at once proclaims the etymology and meaning.

(4.) So bye' in 'good bye,' when pronounced by the Somersetshire folk bwye,' tells us of its rise from "be with ye.'

(5.) The old English word mainy took its leave of us in the wellknown line of Dryden :

"The many rend the skies with loud applause."

'Many,' in this line, means the king's retinue, and is connected with the provincial' menya,' a family. (See Appendix to Hunter's Hallamshire Words.)

(6.) In 1 Samuel, xxviii. 10, we read these words :

"Whither have ye made a road to-day?"

We should far better understand the sense of the passage if 'inroad' were substituted for 'road' in this verse.

In its etymological connections, it is the same as 'road' and 'rode,' but its signification is only preserved in the Border word 'raid' or 'rode,' an incursion, invasion, marauding expedition.

Spenser uses the word

"In the wild desarts, where she now abode,
There dwelt a salvage nation, which did live

Of stealth and spoil, and making nightly road

Into their neighbours' borders," &c. &c.-Fairie Queen, vi. 8, 35.

(7.) Mr. Trench has noticed the word 'silly,' and its connection with the German word selig,' happy, blessed. Its change of meaning may be thus illustrated :

(a.) Happy, blessed.

(a b.) Happy, blessed, comfortable, tender, gentle, delicate, &c.

(b.) Gentle, delicate (in contradistinction to man's robust constitution). The north of England word 'seely' has this last signification of weak in body.

(a.) "To have some seely home is my desire,

Still lothe to warm me by another's fire."-Daniel.

(a b.) "O sister, O my loving spouse, O seelie woman, left
As onlie remnant of thy sex that water hath bereft."

Golding's Ovid.

(b.) "For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women," &c.-2 Timothy, iii. 6.

Silly' is here used to translate yuvaiкpia.

(8.) We still have the word 'unravel,' but to 'ravel' is no longer to be heard except in the north of England, where a skein of thread is said to be 'ravelled' when the threads are not in order.

(9.) 'Coast' has no longer anything of rib (costa) in it now. In Suffolk, however, ribs of cooked meat are still designated coasts; in Wales, coast is a neck of mutton, and in Scotland, cost or coist is the side in the human body. Ben Jonson has, "betwixt the costs of a ship." In our English version coasts signifies borders.

(10.) 'Manner,' as employed in the words, 'what manner of man is this?' is still used in the north.

(11.) "Lest they should tell on us.”—1 Samuel, xxvii. 11. 'On,' still extensively used for 'of' or 'concerning.'

(12.)

"Heard on."-Sir Henry Saville.

"Fetch a compass behind them."-2 Samuel, v. 23.

"And from thence we fetched a compass.”—Acts, xxviii. 13. Compass,' a word used in Norfolk and Suffolk for outline, as of carpenter's work, of laying out grounds, &c. with a sweep approaching to a circular form.

(13.) Cousin' at one time signified, as it still does in Norfolk and Suffolk, either 'nephew' or 'niece.'

Pandarus calls Cressida his cousin, who was, however, his niece.

(14.) "My condition is not smooth," says Shakespeare, in Henry V., when he means that his temper 'is not smooth.' 'Condition' in this sense is East-Anglian. (See Forby's East-Anglian Words.)

(15.) Sometimes an old custom is made known to us by the preservation of a word. In Suffolk the alphabet is called 'criss-cross-row,' and in Somerset'criss-cross-lain;' for in former times Christ's rod or cross was placed before the alphabet in the old horn-books, and thus gave name to the sum of the letters. Shakespeare, in King Richard III., book i., says—

"And from the cross-row pluck the letter G."

To multiply examples any further to show the importance of studying "Local Words" is needless. What we want are good collections of "local words" now in use; and these many of the readers of the "English Journal of Education," we doubt not, are able to furnish. R. M.

THE CULTIVATION OF THE MIND." He can no more be said to have his mind cultivated who has it filled with what is untrue, ungenerous, or impure, than can a field or a garden be called cultivated that is occupied by weeds, or crowded with plants which are noxious. The individual who wishes to cultivate his mind must carefully guard it against every thought, every image, every influence, that would harm it. It is a fact, as melancholy as it is notorious, that this is the tendency of a large mass of the popular literature of the day, because of the mere excitement which it gives. Multitudes, especially among the young, spend their spare time in the perusal of books on which they should tremble to look-books which no consideration should tempt them to read."-Able Lecture on the "Pleasures of Mental Culture," by the Rev. Dr. Lillie.