HE WENT THE WHOLE HOG.

He went the whole length, took a deep interest in, made it his own business. Hij wendt de hold hogh; q. e. he turned the feelings of a friend towards the subject in question; he applied the zeal of good will to the point referred to; he acted as one who made it his own business. Hoghe, hogh, heughe, besides the meaning of mind, intellect, sense, has that of delight, pleasure, joy; and also of consolation, hope. Wenden, to turn to. Hold, bearing good will to, kind, favourable, friendly. The amount of the expression is, he took the business to heart, he gave it all the attention of his mind.

Mr. Secretary Cecil told the other members: If you stand upon law, and dispute of the prerogative, hark ye what Bracton says, prærogativam nostram nemo audeat disputare. Mr. Francis Bacon, A WHOLE HOG MAN, SIR, said; as to the prerogatives royal he never questioned them, and he hoped they would never be discussed.-Mr. Clayton, in U. S. Senate.

A GENTLEMAN.

Er gent

In the common acceptation of the term. t'el man; q. e. there is the one who behaves with the propriety due to every other; there is he who is considerate in every regard; he whose presence is pleasing to his fellow men; he who conducts himself steadily evenly and without wantonly offending another. Gentle, genteel and the French gentil are as the above gent t'el. Gent, jent, ghent, well conditioned, elegant, courteous, affable, cultivated, well ordered, gentle, easy, prepossessing, graceful, and the same word with the old French gente and our ghent, gent, in an analogous import; and also with our janty, jaunty, still partially in use. The term is grounded in geint, geent, the past participle of inten, enten, to ingraft, to insert, and, thus as grafted and so improved and of a better nature or sort than the rough and general stock; but in reference to that which is done by nature herself; and

gent [jent] is as the improved sample of our species, one not of the rougher or more general stock. The French gente pucelle answers to our gentle maid. But gentle does not imply mere facility of temper, but never failing propriety, to which both justness and firmness are requisites; a temper that shows itself alike to all on all occasions, one constituted to do well that which is right to be done; to forgive or to resent duly; the reverse of a repulsive [offensive] temper. And in the true sense, a term equally applicable to the peasant and to the man of the highest station known to society, as either may come within its category. The heraldic import of the term is in the secondary and borrowed relation of artificial superiority of rank. Man is explained in the article Man-of-war. In the proverb, Jack will never make a gentleman; the sense is imparted by the term Jack, as j' hach (je hach); q. e. mere chance, nothing but chance; and with context, implying chance alone will not make a man of a gentle disposition, of a prepossessing easy manner; and inferring nature (providence and consequently design) must be the giver of such disposition, no one's disposition [mental constitution being left to blind chance, but ever provided by the hand of eternal design. The root of enten, inten, is innen, to receive in, to take in, to put in, from the thema in. A gentleman is described by the French phrase une ame bien neé, born with a happy disposition, naturally well endowed. At bottom the Latin generosus seems the same word as gentle. Vir generosus, virgo generosa, vinum generosum, pomum generosissimum, are all sound phrases. Gentle, in the sense of the maggot hatched in the fat of meat and in liver, is the same word as above, but in the single direction of its sense of putting in; and thus as of that put in; the egg deposited in the meat by the parent-fly. A gentle is as the ellipsis of gentle-worm (maggot),

as the worm or maggot put in (deposited in) by the fly under the form of its egg.

"Thei (the birds) saidin sothely al by one assent,

How that the gose, with the faconde GENT

That so desirith to pronounce our nede,

Shall tel our tale."

"For lo the GENTIL kinde + of the Lion!
For when a flie offendith him or biteth;
He with his taile awaie the flie ysmiteth
Al esily, for of his GENTERIE

Him demith not to wreke him of a flie."

"Amidde of which ther stode a herbir grene,
That benched was with colours new and clene.
This herbir was all full of flowers GENDE §."

"Ye, GENTLES of honour
Saine that men sholde an old wight honour
And clepe them father for your GENTILNESSE¶."

"Yet were it bettir that I were your wife,
Sith ye ben as GENTIL born as I,**
And have a relme not ferre but faste by,
Than I suffrid your GENTILLNESSE to sterve;
Or that I let you as a page to serve,

It is no profite unto your kinrede."

"Farewel my sweetest both soule and minde,
So loving a spouse shall I never finde,
Adieu my soveraine, very GENTLEMAN ††.

* Faconde gent, natural eloquence.

+ Gentil kinde, inborn superiority of instinct over that of all other beasts of prey,

Genterie, superiority engrafted by the hand of nature upon the stock or standard of which the beast-kind is the general sample.

Gende flowers, cultivated [garden] flowers as opposed to wild or uncultivated ones.

Gentles of honour those who are honoured (respected, beloved) for their natural qualities and superior disposition by the others of the community they belong to.

¶ Gentilnesse, natural excellence of mind.

**As gentil born as I, i. e. of a stock as well engrafted (as much improved or cultivated) as my own.

tt Very Gentleman, as the most perfect sample that the hand of nature has ever framed. The phrase is here applied by THE MAGDALEN TO OUR SAVIOUR.

Farewel dere herte, as hertely as I can.
The wordes eloquente flowinge in swetenese,
Shall no more alas! my minde recomforte."

CHAUCER.

In the article blackguard, Chaucer's description of the character has been introduced. That of a gentleman by the same hand follows here.

"The firste stocke fathir of GENTILNES,

What man desirith GENTIL for to be,
Must folowe his trace, and all his wittis dres
Vertue to love, and vicis for to fle,

For unto vertue longith dignite,

And not the revers safely dare I deme,
Al were he mitir, crowne or diademe.

"This firste stocke was full of rightwisnes,
Trewe of his worde, sobir, pitous, and fre,
Clene of his goste, and lovid besinesse,
Againste the vice of slouth, in honeste,
And but his eyre love vertue as did he,
He is not GENTIL though he rich seme,
Al were he mitir, crowne or diademe.

"Vice may wel be eyre to old richesse,
But ther may no man, as men may wel se,
Bequethe his eire his vertuous noblesse,
That is appropried unto no degre,
But to the first father in majeste,

That makith his eyre him that can him queme
Al were he mitir, crowne or diademe."

*To please, to appease, to satisfy, to gratify by unceasing production; and the same verb with quellen, quelmen, to whelm, as to appease [to satisfy] by abundant production; by overwhelming; and in the sense of to subdue [assuage] all that may obstruct [oppose] the purpose in view. Hence both our to quell and to calm, as well as the French calmer and the Italian calmare; and the Latin TRANQUILLUS at bottom.

'He will in presence of the yonge man

Her kisse and clippe, ye and her adoune ylaie,
And to blere his eye, thus he sayith than,
O! suffre yet old Morell for to plaie ;

Now have I doin what I can or maie;

Thus he sayith her husband for to QUEME
That he nor no man shouldin not misdeme."

VOL. I.

CHAUCER.

L

"The watre is evir fresh and newe
That WELMITH UP* with wavis bright
The mountenaunce of two fingir hight.

HUGGER-MUGGER.

CHAUCER.

According to JoHNSON, implying secrecy; a byplace. Heugh' er maegher; q. e. a place where there is little hope; a cheerless position; a situation of poor comfort; there where little expectation can be indulged in; a dismal cheerless abode. Er, there, the place or situation alluded to. Heughe, hoghe, hope, expectation, future prospect: joy, delight, pleasure mind, intellect, sense. Maegher, magher, meagre, slender, shallow, poor. So that the phrase refers to the consequent state of mind of him who is confined against his will, not to secrecy. And JOHNSON's notion that the expression is huggermorcher as a hug in the dark, is something below even a whim. Heugh er maegher sounds huggermugger.

"And if you 'ill give my flame but vent
Now in close HUGGER MUGGER† pent
And shine upon me but benignly,
With that one and that other pigsney,
The sun and day shall sooner part.
Than love or you shake off my heart.

"Quoth he, th' infernal conjurer
Pursued and took me prisoner;
And knowing you were hereabout
Brought me along to find you out.
Where in HUGGER-MUGGER+ hid,

Have noted all they said or did."-HUDIBRAS.

HELL, HELLISH.

As in the seemingly absurd expressions of hellfine, hell-good, hellish good, hellish bad, hellish pretty, hellish ugly, &c. Heel, heelick; q. e. en

*Springs up, pours out.

ti. e. In cheerless, hopeless confinement; shut up without prospect of relief.