assessed portion, a regulation or standard quantity, then any measure or dimension, Fr. assise, a settlement, It. assisa, from Lat. assessus. In the Romance of Sir Tryamour two persons are said to be "at oon assyse," i.e. of the one size (Wright). So size, an allowance of provisions (Lear), whence sizar at the University; and vulgar Eng. the sizes for the assizes. Compare old Eng. say, a trial, for assay; and seth (Fabyan) for asseth, assets.

An old version of Vegecius speaks of two kinds of darts," one of the more assise [greater size], the other of the lesse" (in Way, Prompt. Parv. p. 343). Size, glue,is substantially the same word, It. sisa, for assisa, an assizing, settling, or fixing (of colours, &c.), that which makes them lie close (Lat. assidere). See Skeat, s.v.

Where Life still liues, where God his Sises holds [Marg. Assises.] Enuiron'd round with Seraphins.

J. Sylvester, Du Bartas, p. 42.

SOLAN-GOOSE contains a latent article, solan (formerly also solan-d) respresenting Icel. súla-n, i.e. "the-gannet," súla (gannet) + n (the), the article being suffixed as is usual in the Scandinavian languages; e.g. Icel. tunga-n, "the tongue.' Compare Shetland sooleen, "the sun," from Dan. sol-en, the-sun, (-en the).—Skeat. So Swed. träd, tree, is a corruption of trä-et, "thewood."

As numerous as Soland geese
I' th' islands of the Orcades.
S. Butler, Genuine Remains, ii. 107, l. 92
(ed. Clarke).

SPARAGUS, sperage, and sparrow-grass, stand for Lat. asparagus, the initial a being dropt, perhaps from being mistaken for the indef. article.

SPREE, a prov. Eng. word for a frolic or jollification, is no doubt from Welsh asbri, a trick, mischief, understood as a sbri (Philolog. Soc. Trans. 1855, p. 239).

STARLING, or Sterling, an old name for a coin (see p. 371), stands for Esterling or Easterling, originally a term applied to the Eastphalian traders, who were famed for the purity of their coin.

STORSHON a(n)('a)sturtium!-East Anglia, B. 20, E. D. Soc.

SYLUM, the Lincolnshire form of 45y lum (Peacock), regarded as a sylum. Similarly Mr. Tulliver, in The Mill on the Floss, says, "I'll have nothing to do wi' a 'cademy."

They'll ha' to send him to th' 'sylum.Lancashire Glossary, p. 205 (E. D. S.).

66

T.

TABIS (Fr.), a kind of silk, our 'tabby," It., Sp. and Portg. tabé, are from Arab. attābi, the initial syllable having been dropt, probably because mistaken for the article al, which becomes at before t. 'Attābi was origi nally the name of the quarter of Bagdad where the stuff was manufactured (Devic).

TAIN (Fr.), tinfoil, an incorrect form of l'étain, understood as le tain.

TANSY, a plant-name, old Fr. tanasie, stand for atansy, old Fr. athanasie, It. atanasia (from Lat. and Greek athanasia, immortality, so called perhaps from its durable flowers, like Fr. immortelles; compare amaranth, from Greek amarántos, unfading). The initial a was perhaps dropt from being confused with the article, as if a tansy, la thanasie.

TASSAN,

Irish place-names, owe TUMMERY, their initial to the TURAGH, article an, after which it is inserted before a vowel, and stand respectively for Irish an-t-assan, “thewaterfall," an-t-iomaire, "the-ridge," an-t-iubhrach, “the-yew-land ” (Joyce, i. 29).

TAYLOT, a Gloucestershire word for a hay-loft, is no doubt merely th' hayloft or thayloft. So a writer in The Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1777, who also quotes tovel as a Derbyshire word for a hovel, i.e. th' hovel, t'hovel; tierne cross (Somner) for the iron cross.

I. . . determined to sleep in the tallat awhile, that place being cool and airy, and refreshing with the smell of sweet hay.Blackmore, Lorna Doone, ch. xxxi.

TEGGIA, a dialectic Italian word for a hut, Grisons tegia (thea), a chalet, from Lat. attegia (Diez), the initial

vowel having been absorbed by the article.

THAXTED, a place-name in England, is probably The Axstead, and Thistleworth, The Istle-worth, says I. Taylor, Words and Places, p. 384.

THEBES, in Egypt, Greek Thêbai, Copt. Thaba, Memphitic Thapé, are from Egyptian Tápé, i.e. t (fem. article) + ápé, head, and so means "the capital" (Rawlinson's Herodotus, ii. 4).

THE VIZES, the popular form of the name of the town Devizes in Wiltshire. "Ner the Wizes" is said to have been the direction of a letter that passed through the Post Office, meaning "Near Devizes" (W. Tegg, Posts and Telegraphs). Camden has "the Vies" (see Nares, s.v.), evidently a corruption of De Vies. Compare the following, where the gre is a mistake for degree :—

Loke also pou skorne no mou,
In what be gre pou se hym gon.

The Babees Book, p. 15, 1. 66.
While the proud Vies your trophies boast
And unrevenged walks Waller's ghost.

Hudibras, Pt. I. ii. 498.

Devizes is said to be a corruption of Low Lat. Divisa (I. Taylor, Words and Places, p. 267).

TIRE, an ornament for the head, is for atire or attire, old Eng. "a-tyre, or tyre of women."-Prompt. Parv. See TIRE, p. 394. Compare ray for array, and parel for apparel.

I ha' but dight ye yet in the out-dress,
And 'parel of Earine.

B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1.

TONE, the tone and the tother, TOTHER, frequent in old and prov. English for "the one" and "the other," stand for old Eng. thet one, thet other. where thet is Mod. Eng. that, the final t being the sign of the neuter gender (Skeat). A corresponding mistake in Latin would be i daliud, illu daliud for id aliud, illud aliud. Compare NALE.

The tan and the tother are often found in Scotch law papers.

pat on is Seint Peter and fat oder Seint Andreu.-Old Eng. Homilies, 2nd Ser. p.

175.

He schal hate oon, and loue the tothir.Wycliffe, Luke xvi. 13.

Wan I by meit for money I selle be money bat be toper man biep, as I bye þing þat þe

TOPAZ

toper sellip.-Apology for Lollards, p. 9(Camden Soc.).

In entent of chaunging to gidre pe toon for be toper.-Id. p. 53.

Had not the Angell thither directed the Shepheards; had not the Star thither pointed the Magi, neither tone nor tothir would ever there have sought Him.-Andrewes, Sermons, fol. p. 110.

The

TOPAZ, Fr. topase, Lat. topazus, topazion, Greek τόπαζος, τοπάζιον. origin of this word has not been traced. I think it probable that the Greek word originated in a coalescence of the article with the substantive, and stands for τὸ πάζιον, which was the more likely to occur as the latter was a foreign word, borrowed from the Hebrew, viz. páz (1), pure gold, also translated a "precious stone" in the Septuagint. The topaz has frequently been called the "golden stone" on account of its colour, and is identical with the chrysolite, Greek χρυσόλιθος, "golden stone, ," Rev. xxi. 20 (see Bib. Dict. s. vv. Topaz, iii. 1563, and Beryl, Appendix, xxx.; Delitzsch, Song of Songs, p. 104). The Septuagint actually renders Heb. páz in Ps. cxix. 127 (A. V. "fine gold "), by Tomášov, topaz (Prayer Book, v. precious stone"), where Schleusner proposed to resolve the word into rò rálov. For the agglutination of the article, compare tapanta, used by Petronius for "universe," which is merely Greek τὰ πάντα; and olibanum, the frankincense of commerce, which appears to be Greek Xißavos (Bible Educator, i. 374; Bib. Dict. i. 633); tautology from Greek ταυτολογία, κ.ε. τὸ αὐτό-λογία, “the-same(thing)-saying." For the meaning compare besides chrysolite, Welsh eurfaen (i.e. eur-maen), "gold-stone," and the following:

66

The gold color in the Topaze gaue it the name Chrysolith.-Holland, Plinies Nat. Hist. ii. 630.

The golden stone is the yellow topaz.Bacon, Natural History.

To blasoune therin vertuys stanis, gold Is More precious than oucht that ma be set. In it bot stonne goldy, as thopasis.

Scotch Poem on Heraldry, 1. 73 [Book of Precedence, E.E.T.S. p. 96.] Pliny mentions a report of King Juba that this stone was first brought from an island called Topazas in the Red

Sea, which is probably a fiction with a view to bring it into connexion with Greek τοπάζειν, to aim at or guess.

The which is oftentimes so mistie that sailers haue much ado to find it, whereupon it tooke that name: for in the Troglodytes language (saith he) Topazin is as much to say, as to search or seek for a thing.-Holland, Plinies Nat. Hist. ii. 618.

So thurlepole, quoted in Nares (ed. Halliwell and Wright) as one of the "great fishes of the sea," from Castell of Health, 1595, evidently stands for th' hurlpole or th' whirlpool, the old name of a species of whale. See further under WHIRLPOOL, p. 434, where thurle polle is quoted from Russell's Boke of Nurture.

It may be further noted that τόπαζος is a rare word in Greek, and that other names for precious stones in that language are of Semitic origin, having no doubt been introduced by Phoenician merchants, e. g. uonis, jasper, Heb. yashpheh; oάpepos, sapphire, Heb. sappir. Compare Pusey, On Daniel, p. 646 (3rd. ed.).

TUILM, a Gaelic name for the elm (Shaw), is no doubt for an-t-uilm, the elm, where the t belongs to the article. Compare Ir. uilm, ailm, elm, Lat. ulmus (Pictet, i. 221).

TYBURN, west of London, was originally Teybourne (Stow) or Th’Eybourne, i.e. "the Eye bourn," named from the little river Eye or Aye, which also has given its name to Hay Hill, formerly Aye Hill; Ebury, the "bury on the Eye, the old name for Pimlico, surviving in Ebury Street; and perhaps Hyde Park for Heye Park. (See Stanley, Memoirs of Westminster Abbey, pp. 8, 195.)

U.

UMPIRE, old Eng. an oumper or owmpere, an incorrect form of a nowmpere, or nompeyre, from old Fr. nompair, odd (Cotgrave), Lat. non par, not equal; as if we wrote onpareil for nonpareil. An umpire is properly an odd man, or third party, chosen to arbitrate between two litigants, and who standing apart from either side (cf. Lat. sequester, from

secus) will indifferently minister jus tice. The correct form would be numpire. Compare for the loss of n, “μ vmbre hale."-Cursor Mundi, 1. 419 (Fairfax MS.), for “a numbre hale ̈ (Cotton MS.).

An oumper, impar.-Cath. Anglicum. Nowmpere or owmpere, Arbiter, sequester. -Prompt. Parv.

Chese a mayde to be nompere to put the quarrell at ende.-Test. of Love, i. 319 [Tyrwhitt].

Robyn be ropere arose bi þe southe And nempned hym for a noumpere · þat no debate nere,

For to trye pis chaffare bitwixen hem þre. Vision of P. Plowman, B. v. 358 (ed. Skeat).

Sylvester says that spirits

"Twixt God and man retain a middle kinde: And (Vmpires) mortall to th' immortall joyne. Du Bartas, p. 177 (1621).

With this meaning of the word as a third party called in to arbitrate when two disagree, compare the synonymous usages, Scot. odman or odisman, one having a casting vote (Jamieson); overman or oversman (Veitch, Poetry of Scot. Border, p. 307); thirdsman (Scott, St. Ronan's Well); Cumberland thirdman, an umpire (Dickinson); Sp. tercero (from tertius), a thirdman, a mediator, terciar, to mediate (Stevens); Fr. entiercer, to sequester or put into a third hand (Cotgrave), Low Lat. intertiare (Spelman, Du Cange).

USCIGNUOLO (It.), the nightingale, for luscignuolo (Lat. luscinia), understood as il uscignuolo.

avant-coureur, and avant-garde, the initial a being in each case probably mistaken for the indefinite article. Compare VAMP, p. 420, for avampé.

VENTURE has originated in a misunderstanding of the old word aventure as a venture, Fr. aventure, from Low Lat. adventura, a thing about to come or happen, and so an uncertainty. The original and proper form of the phrase at a venture was at aventure. See Eastwood and Wright, Bible Wordbook, s.v.

But at aventure the instrument I toke,
And blewe so loude that all the toure I shoke.
S. Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, cap. xxvi.

p. 115 (Percy Soc.).

The enemies at auenture runne against theyr engines.-Hall, Chron. 1550, Hen. V. p. 16b.

He was some hielding Fellow, that had stolne The Horse he rode-on: and vpon my life Speake at aduenture.

Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. i. 1 (1. 59), 1623. [The Globe ed. here has "spoke at a venture."]

A certain man drew a bow at a venture.A. V. 1 Kings xxii. 34.

Compare a vantage for a(d)vantage:Therefore to them which are young, Salomon shews what a vantage they have above the aged.-H. Smith, Sermons, 1657, p. 216.

VANGELISTE, a frequent old Eng. form of evangelist, understood probably as a vangelist. Wycliffe has vangelie (1 Tim. i. 11) for evangel or gospel. So old Eng. lowance for allowance; rithmetique (B. Jonson) for arithmetic ; ringo (Howell) for eringo.

Sayn Mathew the wangeliste.
Eng. Metrical Homilies, p.31 (ed. Small).

WHITTLE

Compare beatilles, an old culinary word for the giblets of fowl (Bailey, Wright), representing Fr. abatis. So tender, a small vessel attendant on another, is properly attender, evidently mistaken for a tender.

VOWTRE, frequently found in old writings for avowtry, adultery, old Fr. avoutrie. See ADVOWTRY, p. 3.

bat man how [ought] to curse for crime of vowtre.-Apology for Lollards, p. 21 (Camden Soc.).

On slep an oper bi... vowtrand or doing a vowtri.-ld. p. 87.

W.

WHITTLE, an old word for a knife (Shakespeare), whence whittle, to cut away, is a corruption of old Eng. thwitel (from A. Sax. pwitan, to cut), perhaps mistaken for th' witel, "the wittle." Lancashire thwittle, a knife (E. D. Soc.). Compare riding for thriding, i.e. thirding, the third part of a county.

SUBSTANTIVES ending in -s, -se, or -ce, which consequently either in sound or form simulate the appearance of plurals, are often popularly mistaken as such, and constructed with verbs in the plural. I have observed a class of Sunday School children in repeating their collect almost unanimous in thinking it due to grammar to say "forgiving us those things whereof our conscience are afraid."

Randle Holme, on the other hand, has "Innocence Day" (Academy, p. 131, 1688) for Innocents' Day. The claimant in the Tichborne trial, when questioned incidentally about "the Marseillaise" replied that he did not know "them."

Even the most correct speakers will not hesitate to say, "Where riches are, some alms are due." In some instances popular errors of this kind have so far reacted on the form of the word that new singulars have been evolved to correspond to the imaginary plural. Hence such words as a pea, a cherry, for a pease, a cherries, sherry for sherris, &c.

Instances of the contrary mistake, plurals being turned into singulars, are not wanting. Implements consisting of two inseparable parts, though plural in form, are generally treated as singulars, e.g. a bellows, a pincers, a scissors, a tongs.

In Middlesex, a habs or haps, used popularly by the common folk for a painful sore or gathering, is evidently an imaginary singular of the pluralsounding word abscess (Cockneycè habscess). At different times I have

heard the sentences, "My daughter has a habs in her jaw; "My husband has a bad haps under his arm."

So rice (old Fr. ris) was once taken for a plural:

Nym rys, and lese hem, and wasch hem clene.-Warner, Antiq. Culin. p. 39.

Li zozo, a bird, in the Creole patois of Mauritius, is from Fr. les oiseauz sounding to the ear as le soissou (Athenæum, Dec. 31, 1870, p. 889). In the same dialect zot, another (for 's'aut'), is from Fr. les autres.

In the Hebrew of Job v. 5, the word tzammim, an intriguer, having all the appearance of a plural (like our alms or riches), has actually been so taken by the Targumist, who renders it "robbers" (Delitzsch, in loc.).

These various irregularities have in fact arisen from a misguided endeavour to be regular, and they furnish curious examples of what may be termed the "pathology" of grammar (Philog. Soc. Trans. 1873-4, p. 259).