QUANDARY.

A dilemma, perplexity, agitation of mind, disturbance in thought; but always used in regard to fantastical distress, whimsical anxiety of mind, and is in truth a ludicrous term. Ghewaend-deere; q. e. distress in fancy, imaginary mischief, suppositious disaster, evil hatched in the imagination. Ghewaend the past participle of waenen, waanen, to fancy, to imagine. Deere, dere, deijre, hurt, injury, mischief. Johnson has adopted from Skynner the French expression qu'en dirai je? for the etymology of this phrase; but that expression has neither the sound nor the sense of quandary; What shall I say to it ? implies a real dilemma; not an imaginary nor a ludicrous one. Ghew, gew, sounds as qu, deere, as dary.

LIVELIHOOD.

Condition of life; the way of living, maintenance. Evidently the same word with the older livelod, in the same meaning. Lijve-lot; q. e. the lot of life; fortune of life; state allotted to us; our destiny; destined state of our life. To get one's livelihood, is to make one's fortune (state of life), to procure that which we live on; the means we live by. To get is, properly, to shape, form, cast, as will be explained at that word. Lijve was formerly as lijf, in the import of life, and was so with us in Chaucer's day. Loot, lote lot, lot, fortune, chance; to be explained by and by.

"As Ankers and Hermets that hold hem in her selles* And coveten nought in contrey to carien aboute

For no liquerous LIVELODE her likam to please."

Vis. Pierce Plowm

"And eke it is thy profite, and thyn ese also
To be blind as thou art: for now wherso thow go,
Thou hast thy LIVE LODE, while thou art alyve,

And yf thow myghtest se, thow shouldst nevir thryve."
CHAUCER.

"To all true tidy men, that travell desyren,
Our lord loveth hem and lente (lowde other styll)
Grace to go to hem, and agone her LIFELODE."

Vis Pierce Plowm.

"Yf men his frende to dethe would drive,
Let him be besy to save his LIVEt.',-Chaucer.

AS DRUNKEN AS A Mouse.

Now out of use, but formerly current. Tantamount to a skin full of wine; quite drunk; as full of liquor as one can hold. This import belongs to the phrase from the word drunken [now drunk] having the sense of drenched and mouse, that of muscle-fish. So that the amount of the expression is as drenched [soaked in liquid] as a muscle-fish; which fish every one knows exists in no other state than that of liquid repletion [fulness of water]. Muijs has three meanings: mouse, the little beast so called: the muscle-fish: and muscle as sinew. The mouse part of the leg of beef, was, and may still be, a culinary term for the sinewy coarse part of that joint.

Thou commist home as dronken as a mose,
And prechist on thy bench; with evil prefe
Thou seist to me," &c.-CHAucer.

"I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh."-DEUTERONOMY.

CORPORAL.

I will take my corporal oath to it; in the sense of I will take my solemn (formal) oath to the truth of it. The word seems here the travesty of the phrase, Kore puur al; q. e. all pure law; the whole, according to the law of the land; and corporal oath, is then as an oath taken in the form laid down by law and custom. What else can it mean? Keur, kore, law, regulation, ordinance. Koren ende broken, leges et consuetudines, laws and * i. e. Openly or else impliedly. + Life.

By the falling in of the familiar name of Harry, the phrase is now used as a jocular one. Lore, loer, leur, luder, inducement, lure, lore, skill, means of attaining the end. Harren, to remain, to abide, to last. Die, which. Je, ever. Harre harr', as the potential mood.

HE IS IN A CLIFT-STICK.

In a dilemma, doubtful whether to undertake it or not; half inclined to risk it, half afraid to think any more of it. Hij ijse in-erg liefde stick; q. e. he is sadly afraid of having any thing to do with love affairs; he is mortally fearful of entangling himself in a love-concern, he has an extreme dread of entering into any serious love-business, implying a propensity to engage in such concern, but of being restrained from deciding for it by some lurking doubt whether it may not be one to produce him more plague than amusement in the long run. The phrase is never used but jocularly. Ijsen, to be in a shivering [shuddering] state, to be much alarmed. In-erg, very badly, very evilly. Liefd-stick, a love affair. Stick, stuck, concern, matter. Erg-liefdestick, sounds a clift-stick. Liefde, was formerly in use with us in the shape of lefe and leve, now love.

“And wetin* ye who was his LEFET ?
Dame gladdesse there was him so LEFE‡,
That singeth so well with glad corage
That from she was twelve years of age
She of her love graunt to him made."

CHAUCER.-Romaunt of the Rose.

"And make there his othe

Upon the goddess, that he for LEFE OF IOTHES
Ne shulde her falsin nyght ne daye."

• Do ye know.

+ Love.

CHAUCER.

+ Dear.

6 Neither for love of another nor hatred for her.

Play her foul.

"The force of love maketh him doe this,
Who would him blame he did amis,

He LEVITH* More than he maie doe,

His pain is harde, ye maie se, lo!-CHAUCER.

A SEDAN CHAIR.

Er set aen schie er ; q. e. a seat soon had; a seat at any one's service, one ready when called for. A seat! here it is. A chairwoman, as one who goes to others for occasional work, is in the same sense; and so is a chairman. A chairman at a committee, is as one had for the occasion, one ready to officiate for the turn. A chairman [as a porter] is one at the call, for a turn [job]; one ready to do the errand in question. And a chair is er schie er, as that which is ready at hand for the use wanted. And what else is it? But of this by and by. Set, zeet, seat. T and d represent interchanging sounds. Johnson gives the word as sedan, the name of a town so called. A whim, originated in form of spelling; a literal deception. Schie er sounds chair.

OUT OF SORTS.

Evidently in a sour (crabbed) humour; plainly disturbed (vexed). Houd af; soert's; q. e. keep out of the way, he is in a sour mood; very cross, very crusty. Soert, gesoert, the participle past of soeren, sueren, to turn sour, to become crabbed, to wax ill-tempered. Soer segghen, is to speak crossly. Soer sien, is to look sour, to seem in an ill-humour. And I suspect in our phrase, he is very sore upon the subject, that sore is a travesty of soer, sour, cross, touchy, out of humour. A sore subject, is a vexing subject, one that puts out of temper. Houd af; hold off. But sore as in sore throat is as the Dutch seer in the same sense.

Loveth.

VOL. I.

G

THE WEAK SIDE.

He took (attacked) him on his (the) weak side; he tried to overcome him by his susceptibility, by his tender part; in other words, he tried whether he had any feeling, whether he was endowed with the internal qualities of a man as well as the external form of one. De weeck sijde; q. e the side of the milt (spleen), the reputed seat of susceptibility. A splenetic person is tantamount to a person easily affected [excited]. Weeck, weijck, and weak are the same word; which has also the sense of soft, yielding. De weeck der sijden is the technical term for the hypochondria [milt] as the soft viscus par excellence and which is also placed in that region of the body where there is no bone [hardness]. Weecksinnigh and saftsinnigh are both used as weak-minded [soft-headed].

TO HANG AN ARSE.

To be deficient or dilatory in regard to what the occasion requires, not to come up to that which was expected on your part. T'u hange een erre's; q. e. retarding is here a not doing of that which ought to be done on your part; on such an occasion the being tardy is in you a committing of yourself, an omitting of that which was your part to do. We say "he hangs behind" in the same direction of sense. T'u, you. Hange, as the participle present of hangen to suspend, to hang, retard. Erre, the contraction of the participle present of the antiquated erren, to err, to mistake, in German irren and the root word of the Latin errare. Erre's sounds arse formerly spelt by us erse.

“For Hudibras wore but one spur,
As wisely knowing could he stir
To active trot one side of 's horse
The other would not HANG AN ARSE."

HUDIBRAS.