of by the disuse of the word edge in the sense here used. Edge, in this expression, is as egge, the contraction of the still older egging, the participle present of egghen, eggen, to harrow up, to stir up, to excite violently, and the same verb with our to egg, in the sense of to excite. So that to set the teeth on edge, is to set them in a state of excitement, one of pain, uneasiness; and is as the disturbance of a state of rest and ease to harrassing urgent excitement; to rouse from quiescent ease to a state of disquietude. The cause which brings this peculiar sensation has no share in the meaning of the expression, whether that cause be the seeing another eat a sour apple, the creaking of a door, the cutting a cork, &c., it is not referred to. Nor indeed is there, apparently, any universal and uniform originator of this feel; for the circumstance, which brings it into life in one constitution, has often no effect in another. The Dutch term for teeth in this state is egge tandem; egghe being in the sense above given. Ic at de suere druuen ende dyn tande worde eghick (egghe) daer af; q. e. I eat the sour grapes and thy tooth was set on edge thereby. Eghich, edgy. But this sentence is in a very old form of the Dutch language. The French equivalent phrase is agacer les dents; that is, to excite the teeth, to disturb them painfully, to provoke a feeling where there was none before, to awaken to a sense of pain. In Italian it is allegare i denti; and evidently in a same import. Edge is a word of very extensive connections; including acutus, angulus, acidus, and others still more distant in form of letters, to be accounted for in another page.

"So ben they parted, with harts ON EDG
To be avenged each on his enimy."-CHAUCer.

* i. e. Eager, in a state of excitement, provoked.

"In questo mentre a un' ultra porta arriva,
E nel sentire un certo odor di broda,

Che tutto lo conforta e lo ravviva,
Entra di punta, perchè s'indovina
Che quella sia senz'altro la cucina.
Dal che sentitosi * allegare i denti,
Si pensa, &c."-Lippi. MalMANTILE.

THE ADAM'S Apple.

The protuberance which marks externally the entrance of the wind-pipe. De adems happel; q. e. that by which the breath is taken; the part of the wind-pipe by which the breath is fetched; the entrance of the weasand. Happel, as the gripe or that by which we take the object in question, has been fully explained in the article, Apple of the eye, page 67. Adem, breath. Johnson gives no etymology, but instead of one says the term belongs to anatomy; and so does nose; but no one I suppose would ever define that word by saying it was an anatomical term. It is a popular and general term, and so is Adam's apple, neither are peculiar to the science of anatomy.

SAINT ANTHONY'S FIRE.

As the well known erysipelas [rash, eruption]. Sie in't, aen toon hie's vuyr; q. e. look at this attentively; here is eruption to demonstration; look near and your eyes will convince you there is erysipelas. Insien, sien in, to look carefully at, to pry into. Toon, that which shows itself, makes itself evident, exhibition, spectacle. Vier, vuer, vuyr, fire, are one word, evidently connected with febris, fièvre, fever, as well as with up and purus, &c. the p and the f being interchanging sounds :-and also with furia, fury, formerly fuyre. See

CHAUCER.

i. e. Roused into the feeling of, painfully excited, made eager.

VOL. I.

I

EYE-LASHES.

The lashes, of which term is the plural of lasche (lasse) the contraction of lasching, the participle present of laschen, to bind in, to hold together by interlacing, and thus as the laschings (lacings) which fasten the lids together, or at least have the appearance of so doing while the eyes are shut. In this sense it is the same word as leash, as that which holds together.

"And privylich UNLASID his both eyen-liddes,
And lokid hir in the visage paramour amyddes.'

CHAUCER.

TO SHOOT WITH THE LONG BOW.

To be in the habit of departing from truth from a base motive. Toeschut wijse de logen bouw; q. e. the habit of concealment (closeness) shews you have cultivated the art of lying; the habit of concealing your real thoughts from others only proves you have been an apt scholar in the school of falsehood. Toeschut [shut up] may be here as closeness personified which makes the import stronger and the expression neater. Schut, schot, is enclosure. Toe, the preposition, as in toevlught, place of refuge, asylum. Schutten, to shut. Wijse, shews, and sounds as with. Loghen, logen, leughen, a lie, falsehood, a fable. Bouw, cultivation, and so education. Logen, gives out the sound of long as pronounced by us. Wijse, as the potential mood of wijsen.

SHALLOW-BRAINED.

Wanting judgment; a shallow-brained_man is a man whose words and opinions are uttered without being duly weighed. Schael-hoeve beredent; q. e. endowed with talk, but deficient in the means of weighing his words; one who has words but nothing to regulate their value by; and thus, one who talks at random, by guess. Schaele, schaal, scales, ba

lance, of the same stock as scheele, discrimination, judgment, to which our word skill also belongs. Beredent, endued with talk [fluent in words], from bereden, to persuade, and grounded in reden, to speak, whence our to read, which is to speak what is written, either to oneself or others. But we once used to rede in the sense of to advise, to explain.

"Men may the old outren, but not OUTREDE."-CHAUCER. "Me mette so inly soche a swevent,

So wondirfull, that nevir yet

I trowe no man ne had the wit

To connin wel my swevin REDE‡."-CHAUCER. Hoeve, as the participle present of hoeven, to want, to be deficient in.

MUM-CHANCE.

As in the expression, to sit mum-chance; to sit in a state of apparent indifference to that which is going on in your presence: to sit and seem as one insensible to the scene before you. Momkansse; q. e. the state of one who has not the use of reason; the condition (chance, fate, lot) of one divested of sense; SO that to sit mum-chance, implies groundedly to look like one who has lost the use of his senses. Mom, momme, the contraction of momming, the old form of the participle present of mommen, to disguise, to disfigure, to render irrecognizable, and thus a disfiguring, a disguising; but the word is used as in the original form of the phrase, and so in relation to the appearance and state of a human being when disfigured by the loss of that which is the distinguishing mark of his species, the character of his kind. Momme corresponds with the Latin larvatus both in its import of masked and in that of out of the senses. Kansse is the source of the French and our word chance. The expression of to sit mum-chance, is now never

* I dreamed. † A dream.

Explain, expound.

used in a serious import, the origi having long been lost sight of; n may use the expression means to te question he is an idiot, but simp one. Still it is neither a good-hum thing to say; a tinge of its original out in it.

He paid down on the nail; he pa in question as soon as he received done as soon as it was finished. suspect, our old term nale, and tha after another; immediately after done (was gone) before; following d other. Na, next, close by. El, oth Nale was once in general use for in chorus at merry-makings and festi tune was set (begun) by one and fo by the others. As in chorus sing many follow the leader.

"At high prime Pierce let the plowe stonde To over se hem him selfe, and who so best He shoulde be hyred therafter whan hervest And than satten some and songe AT THE NA And holpen eriet his half acre with hey tro Now by the peril of my soule, quoth Pierce But ye arise ye rethers, and rape ye te werl Shall no graine that groweth glad you at ned And though ye dye for dole, the devil have

"At the wrestling, and at the wake, And the chief Chantours AT THE NALE." "And they were inly glad to fill his purse And madin him grete festis AT THE NALE."

i. e. In chorus, one following the other. ti. e. To plough, to work. ti. e. Vex Si. e.. Quicker. In the two subsequent the meaning of a meeting to sing choruses and thus of festival time.