help a blind man over the ditch;" and implying you are not adequate to the undertaking, you are not equal to the task, unfit for the office; you have not the means. Te heyl 'p er beleend m'aen hoev' er de duijts; q. e. to the salvation of one who is mortgaged (in debt), among other things, to have the pence, is a main point; to be of service to one whose person and property are responsible for the debts he has contracted, it is not sufficient to have the inclination, but you must also have the money required, in order to be of real service. Heyl, salvation, sound state. 'P, op, for. Beleend, beloand, mortgaged over head and ears. M'aen, meé aen, together with, along with. Hoeven, to be necessary, to need. De duijts, the doits, the money. Heyl'p, sounds help. Beleend, as we pronounce blind. M'aen, sounds man. Hoev'er, as over with an aspirate, which is no letter. Duijts, is as near to ditch, as any ancient form of our language will admit. Er, there, in this case.

HE MEASURED HIS LENGTH ON THE GROUND.

As in the expression "he measured his length on the ground," and implying the person in question had a fall. Hie mis-ure, 't is lengt aen de grond; e. e. here mischance, it is at full length on the ground; here you may see an unlucky moment exemplified by the person who is lying at his length before you; and one fallen accidentally is as a practical instance of ill-luck. Hie, hier, here, that which is before you. Mis-ure, an evil hour, unlucky moment, a mishap, misfortune, mischance. (Ure, uur, hour, moment, instant time, and in the neuter gender); the French say malheur, the Italian, mal 'ora, the Spanish mala ora, and we in an evil hour, in the same sense. Lengen, is to stretch, to lengthen, and also to reach; but in either sense its participle past will do for the above expression. Aen, on. De grond, the ground, bottom.

A PEATHER IN HIS CAP.

As when we say, "that was a feather in his cap," and in the sense of that was something which told [counted] in his favour; some additional honour to him; something accrued to what was his before. Er feit er in hys keep (kappe): q. e. that was something to his account; a doing (action) which told to his account; something that came into his score (reckoning); a notch for his tally. Feit, a fact, something done, an act, a feat. Keep, kepe, is groundedly a notch [eut], and the root of the antiquated kepen, surviving with us in the verb to keep. But keep, kepe, is formed of the obsolete præterite of kappen, to cut, to notch, to hack; and thus that which is cut, or a cut. And the kepe (kappe) of the above original phrase, is as the participle present of either kepen, to keep, or else of koppen, to cut. And, in former days, accounts [reckonings] were kept by notches, cuts, scores, No that the word is as a notching or cutting, in the sense of an account kept. And the expression to keep an account, arises from this meaning of the verb to keep. To keep a servant, is to add him to your account or reckoning on the debt and on the credit side, and is as an equiponderating of what he costs with what de does. To keep a mistress, is to put or add her to your account, in the same sense, keep the right rood, is to turn or put the right road to your account, and thus to your use and service. By custom and time the word has extended its meanings, but always relatively, and in the sense of its original import. But in the expression, he kept out of sight, I suspect kept is as the præterite of kippen, to withdraw, to remove, to take away, to steal away from, to disappear. He kept from me is as, he took himself away from me.

To

But I take

kippen, in this meaning, to be a modification of kappen, to cut off; and quite another word from kippen, to hatch, to come out of the egg. The Latin

caperi, cepi, captus evidently belong here. It is in this direction of sense, we use the term a score, in the expression milk-score, which was originally a stick on which the account was cut or scored. And a tally is a stick on which accounts are kept by cutting.

NERVOUS,

as in the expression "he is in a nervous state,' and in the sense of, he is in a gloomy, dejected, distressed state of feeling. A phrase in constant use, as well among the sufferers, who know its meaning by sad experience, as among the physicians, who see what is the matter and use the term, though they would be at a loss to tell why the word should express that state rather than any other term which might have been pitched upon for the purpose. JOHNSON, who always seems in a huff, when he is defeated by some common word in his attempt to resolve it to his mind, says, the term is medical cant (humbug), and defines it, a state of weak nerves. Implying, of course, a connection in the word with nerve, as the Latin nervus; a term which would be more likely to bring out the idea of a strong, than of a weak state. And this from the most illustrious and enduring martyr of the affliction, that perhaps ever suffered under its agency! NERVES, as when we say, "his, is a disease of the nerves:" Naerwees; q. e. the woes of debility, the woes of dejection [prostration of strength], distressing sufferings, oppressive inflictions, always in an indefinite sense, so that no fixed cause of this suffering is pointed at by the term itself, and thus, in fact, implying an undefined vague unaccountable state of feeling; and such is the real meaning of the nosological nerves. NERVOUS is the same word when wees is lettered as our plural woes, wos, the Anglo-Saxon was, in the same sense. So that nervous is as naerwoes, and a same term with

naerwees, as nerves. Wee. wa, woe, wo, is the same word with the Latin Vo! [the interjection of sorrow or lamentation], and the Greek ova! where the aspirate is dropped. Væ misero mihi is as, woe is to hapless me! and vo alone would account for the vin our term nervous, instead of the w of the original form; even if v, w, f, were not well known interchanging aspirates. Naer is grounded in na, nigh, near, whence na-er-en, now benarren, to distress, in the sense of to narrow, as to make too near, and so to confine, of which naar is as the participle present, and thus as distressing, pinching. Narrow is from the same source, indeed the same word; and narrow circumstances are pinching, distressing, circumstances.

"The swalow Progne with a so' row full lay;
Whan morow came, gan make her warmenting,
Why she forshapin was; and ever lay
Pandare abed, halfe in a slomberinge

Til she so nigh him made her war menting,
How Tereus gan forth her sustir take,
That with the noise of her he gan awake."

CHAUCER.

In wArmenting we have woe, as originally pronounced, viz. as the Dutch wee.

"The wine to bringin him commaunded he,

And dranke anon, none other wo he made;

When might is joignid unto cruelte

Alas! to depe wollin the venim wade."-CHAUCer.

"His helme to hewin was in twentie places,
That by a tissue hang, his backe behinde,

His shielde to dashed with swerdis and with maces,
In which men might many an arowe finde,

That thirlid had both horne and NERFE† and rinde."

CHAUCER.

The phrases, disordered nerves, deranged nerves, nerves in a sad state, &c. are all expressions which

The same word with the more modern drilled, as pierced. The sinew, and here used in the sense of the Latin nervus, as force, strength.

VOL. I.

R

242

ARCHEOLOGY OF POPULAR PHRASES.

have crept into use in reference to the supposition that the term was an offset of the Latin nervus, and are in truth solecisms [improprieties of language].

OBS:-Nervous, by the less polished part of society, is still pronounced narwoes; and thus in a sounder sense than the nervous of refinement.