AAC, AIK, YAK, Yeck, or YAIK, the oak. Sax. ac, æc.

Su.Got. ek. Germ. eiche. Dut. and Isl. eik. Sc. aik. The words aik and acorn, observes Mr. Boucher, fall under that numerous list of northern terms which differ from the common speech of England, only by having retained that strong characteristical mark of their Saxon origin, the a in the place of the modern o, and would not have been adverted to here, had there not been something peculiar in their pronunciation, in which alone their provincialism consists. The former is pronounced yeck or yaik, just as earth is pronounced yerth; whilst acorn is every where pronounced nearly as it is spelled. By having thus retained the orthography as well as the orthoepy of aik, the people of the North have avoided that inconsistency, which certainly is imputable to their Southern neighbours, of rejecting the ancient and original spelling, in the theme, whilst yet it is retained in the derivative: for, to be consistent, acorn should be written ocorn. Both these terms are pure Saxon, ac and œcern; the latter importing as literally in the Saxon, as it does in English, the fruit or corn of the aik.

ABACK, backwards. Isl. a-bak. Not obsolete, as stated in Todd's Johnson.

ABACK A BEHINT, behind, or in the rear. "Aback a behint,

where the grey mare foaled the fiddler;" that is, I am told, threw him off in the dirt.

ABLINS, perhaps, possibly. Mr. Boucher justly considers this word a remarkable confirmation of an ingenious grammatical position, first strenuously urged by Gebelin, and, since, well supported and confirmed by Mr. Horne Tooke, viz. that particles were originally verbs. He takes ablins to be the parti ciple of the present tense of the irregular verb, "to be able;” and as such, easily resolvable into the being able.

ABOON, ABUIN, above. Sax. abufan. Mr. Todd says, aboon is common in Westmoreland and part of Yorkshire." It is also in constant use in the counties of Durham and Northumberland. V. Junius and Boucher.

ABRAID, to rise on the stomach with a degree of nausea; applied to articles of diet, which prove disagreeable to the taste, or difficult of digestion. See BRAID.

ABREDE, in breadth, spread out. Sax. abred-an, to lengthen. ABSTRACT, to take away by stealth.-Borders of North. In the dissertation on Fairies, in the Border Minstrelsy, a curious instance of superstition is related, where the corpse of a deceased person, dug up from the grave, is said to be abstracted. So in Law, abstraction of tithe is the unjustifiable removal of it.

ACCIDAVY, an inveterate corruption of affidavit. Sometimes simply davy.

We think nowse on't, aw'll myek accydavy.
Canny Newcassel.

ACCIDENT, a soft term used to denote the situation of a confiding girl, when an undue advantage has been taken of her by a faithless swain, without affording her a legitimate right to his protection,

When lovely woman stoops to folly,

And finds too late that men betray.

ACKERSPRIT, the premature sprouting of a potatoe, the germination of grain. V. Skin. Jam. and Wilb.

ACKNOW, to acknowledge, to confess. The old form of the word - still in use as a northern provincialism.

Acow, crooked, obliquely, awry. Sax. ascunian, devitare. ACRE-DALE LANDS, common fields in which different proprietors hold portions of greater or less quantities; from acre, a word common to almost every language, and Sax. dælan, to divide. In ancient times an acre did not signify any determinate quantity of land; and the Normans had an acre confessedly differing from that of the Saxons. When at length it came to mean a specific part, the measure still varied, until it was fixed by statute, in the reign of King Edward I. ADDER-STONE, a perforated stone, imagined by the vulgar to be made by the sting of an adder. Stones of this kind are suspended in stables as a charm to secure the horses from being

ADDI

hag-ridden; and are also hung up at the bed's head, to prevent the night-mare. See HoLY-STONES.

ADDIWISSEN, had I known it. An expression nearly obsolete, though still retained by some old persons. It appears, says Mr. Boucher, to have been formed on that poor excuse, to which silly people are apt to have recourse, when, for want of consideration and caution, they have fallen into some difficul ty: had I wist, or had I wissen (and in the pronunciation it is as one word, addiwissen), I would not have done so and so. The phrase is of great antiquity, occurring in Gascoigne's Hermit's Tale, in Gower, and in Holinshed. ADDLE, AIDLE, EDDLE, v. to earn by labour.-ADDLings, AidLINGS, s. labourer's wages, earnings. Sax. edlean, recompense, or requital. Different both in import and source fromADDLED, a. decayed, impaired, rotten; as, "addle headed," "addled eggs;" from Sax. adlian, ægrotare-adlig, ægrotus, morbo laborans.

AE, EA, one, one of several, each. AEWAAS, EAWAYS, always. Ae lad frae out below the ha'

Ees Meggie wi' a glance.-Rood Fair.

AFEAR'D, afraid. Pure Saxon. This word is repeatedly used

by Shakspeare, in several of his plays, but I do not remember that afraid occurs more than once.

AFORN, before, on hand. Sax. at-foran. Afore, the ancient word for before, is also in use.

AFT, behind. Pure Saxon The dictionaries call this a sea term, but it is in common use on the banks of the Tyne, and occasionally in other places, in the sense here given, without any relation to nautical subjects.

AG, to hack or cut with a stroke; hence an axe.

AGATE, on the way, agoing-on foot again; as a person recovered from a sick bed. "The fire burns agate," that is, is beginning to burn briskly.-York. where it always denotes incipient rapidity.

AGEAN, AGEN, again, against. Sax. agen; and so used in old English.

AGEE, AJEE, AGYE, awry, uneven, aside. "Let ne'er a new whim ding thy fancy ajee.”—A. Ramsay. Across; as “it went all agee."

AGLEE, or AGLEY, wrong, awry. As poor Burns truly said,

66

The best laid schemes o'mice and men

Gang aft a-gley.

AGOG, eager, desirous. "He's quite agog for it." Great research has been expended, and much has been written on the etymology of this word. It is strange that all our philologists have marked it as uncertain; as it may, I think, be satisfactorily derived from Ital. agognare, to wish, to long for. Since this was written, I have been informed by a valued correspondent in Edinburgh, who has most kindly and liberally aided me in my etymological enquiries, that there is a Roxburghshire saying on the gogs for it," synonymous with quite agog for it”—meaning "he is in the humour for it," or, "is eager for it." This expression, he is of opinion, is derived from, and, indeed, is a pure translation of the French phrase "etre dans ses gogues," which Boyer gives as synonymous with "dans sa bonne humeur," to be in a merry mood, pin, cue, or humour. V. Boyer, vo. gogues; which is derived from the reciprocal verb "se goguer (se rejouir) to be or make merry." It is scarcely necessary to remark, that both the French verb and phrase are only used in a comical or burlesque style; which is the very character of agog. AHINT, behind.

"To ride ahint." Sax. a-hindan, post. AIG, sourness. "The milk has got an aig."

AIGRE, Sour. Fr. aigre. Hence ALE-AIGRE, which see. AIN, pron. the northern pronunciation of own; being, as it were, a compound of a'une, i. e. all belonging to one, in contradistinction to that which is the property of many. V. Boucher. AIRD. This word, as applied to the name of a place, means high; as Airdley in Hexhamshire. Br. aird, height. Gael. and Ir. ard, mighty, great, and noble. It is also used to describe the quality of a place or field; in which sense it means dry, parched; from Lat. aridus-hence arid.

AIRLY, the northern form of early; conformable to Dan. aarle. AIRT, or ART, a point or part of the horizon or compass; a district, or portion of the country. Germ. ort, a place—die vier orte, the four quarters. Gael. aird, a cardinal point. In Yorkshire the pronunciation is airth.

AIRTH, afraid, fearful. "He was airth to do it"—he was afraid. "An airthful night"-a fearful night. Sax. yrhth, fear. AITH, an oath. The same in Moes-Got. and Sc.

AITHER, order, or course of husbandry in tillage land. Mr. Boucher, whose learning and memory I much respect, is unfortunate in his conjecture on this word. See ARDER. AITS, YAITS, YETTS, oats. Sax. ata, ate. The sound expressed by yaits, as has been justly observed to me by a literary friend, is in fact the proper diphthongal sound of öats—the a being long:-and a broad Yorkshireman talks of the beasts getting oorang (wrang-for w is a vowel in effect) amang the whëate. AIXES, Axes, a fit or paroxysm of an ague—an access.

Used

by several of our old writers. The word appears to be derived from Sax. ace, the origin of ache, a pain; which, in the plural, Shakspeare has evidently pronounced, like John Kemble, aitches. Our auld trots, or old wives, have innumerable prescriptions for the ague; all of them, more or less, depending on something which is to operate as a charm. The opinion of the efficacy of charms in the cure of this disease is at least as old as the time of Pliny.

ALANE, alone. Dut. alleen. Dan. allene.

ALANTEM, ALANTUM, at a distance. Ital. da lontano. Fr. lointain.

ALD, old. Sax. eald. This syllable, in the beginning of the names of places, denotes antiquity.

ALE, a merry meeting, a rural feast. Bride-ale, and church-ale, are of frequent occurrences in old legal documents. ALE-AIGRE, alegar, sour ale used as vinegar. ALLEKAR.—West. ALE-TASTER, an officer still retained in some of the northern boroughs. His duty is to look diligently after the "brewers and tiplers," and to taste the ale within his jurisdiction. A