MY-EYE, a vulgar interjectional expression of exultation or amazement; commonly associated with BETTY MARTIN—my eye and Betty Martin; which Bowles, in one of his late pamphlets on the Pope controversy, says is from the beginning of an old popular hymn, " Mihi Beate Martine."

MYSELL, myself. An universal corruption among the vulgar.

N.

Na, no.-NAT, not. Both pure Saxon.
Northern Clerks a northern dialect.

verse 4021.

Chaucer has given his
V. Tyrwhitt's note on

NAB, NABB, a protuberance, an elevated point, the rocky summit and outermost verge of a hill. Identical with KNAPP; which see. A steep and high precipice at the confluence of the Baulder and the Tees, in the county of Durham, is called the Nabb. There is also Nab-hill, in the same county. NAG, to gnaw at any thing hard. Dan. nage.

NAGGY, irritable, contentious, disposed to quarrel. V. Todd's John.

NAIG, a little hack-horse-a nag. Dut. negge.

NAKY-BED, NAKED-BED, in puris naturalibus--stark-naked. Nares observes, that down to a certain period, those who were in bed were literally naked, no night linen being worn; and the curious in old Fabliaux and Romances are aware that in the miniatures which adorn many of the MS. copies, the persons who are represented as in bed, are always naked. Many of the Scotch-thrifty souls-and some of the bordering English, still continue the custom.

NAN, what? what do you say?-Dur. See ANAN.

NANNY, a designation commonly given to a female of free life and conversation.-NANNY-HOUSE, a house of ill-fame. NANTERSCASE, the same as ANTERS; which see.

NAPKIN, a pocket handkerchief. Borders of North. This word

is often used by Shakspeare, and by other old writers. Barret, in his Alvearie, has napkin, or handkerchief, wherewith to wipe away the sweat, sudarium; distinguished from a table napkin, mantile. Dr. Johnson makes the derivation from nap; oddly favoured, as he says, by Virgil," Tonsisque ferunt mantilia villis;" adding Ital. naperia; but I have not met with such a word in any dictionary. Nappe, in French, is a table cloth, and naiprie is, in Scotland, linen for the table. Napkin, therefore, is the same word, with the usual Northern diminutive kin; originally, perhaps, from Germ. kind, a child. The transitions of meaning cannot be better shown than in this word pocket handkerchief, originally coarse cheif head cover. Chaucer uses it coverchief. The same kind of napkin, being borne in the hand, became handkerchief; that applied to the neck, neckhandkerchief; and when worn in the pocket, pocket handkerchief-losing all reference to the head and to the act of covering.

NAPPERN, an apron. This pronunciation is conformable to the cld orthography. Fr. naperon, a large cloth.

NARRATE, to relate, to tell. Lat. narrare. Not confined to
Scotland, as stated by Dr. Johnson.

NASH, or NAISH, tender, weak, fragile, soft. Sax. nesc.
NASTY, ill-natured, impatient, saucy; as well as filthy.

NATION, very, exceedingly. Equivalent to the Scotch prodigious, and to our own bon ton word monstrous. It is an abbreviation of

nation.

NATTER, to scold, to speak in a querulous or peevish manner. NATTLE, or KNATTLE, to hit one hard substance against another gently and quick, to make a noise like that of a mouse gnawing a board.-NATTLING-STONES, polishing stones. NATTRY, ill-natured, petulant. "A nattry face."

an adder; as we say waspish.

"A nattry face." Germ. natter,

NATTY, neat, tidy, particular, accurate. Gothic, natid.

NAUP, to beat, to strike. Isl. knefa. See NEVEL.

NAY-SAY, a refusal, a denial. Holinshed uses nay, v. to refuse.

NAY-THEN! an exclamation implying great doubt, or wonder. NE, no, not. Goth. and Sax. ne. NEBODY, nobody.

NEAGER, NEAGRE, a term of reproach, equivalent to a base wretch; though often confined to a mean, niggardly person. Probably from Fr. negre, a negro.

NEB, a point, a beak-also the nose, the mouth. Sax. nebbe, rostrum, nasus. Isl. nebbi, nef. Dan. næb.

How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!

Shak. Winter's Tale.

Give her a buss-see how she cocks her neb.-Newc.

NECK-ABOUT, a woman's neck-handkerchief-a neckatee. NECK-VERSE, a cant term formerly used by marauders on the borders-adopted from the verse read by a criminal claiming the benefit of clergy, so as to save his neck.

NED-CAKE, or Kneed-cake, a rich cake baked on a girdle. NEDDY, NETTY, a certain place that will not bear a written explanation; but which is depicted to the very life in a tail-piece in the first edition of Bewick's Land Birds, p. 285. In the second edition a bar is placed against the offending part of this broad display of native humour. Etymon needy, a place of need or necessity.

NEED-FIRE, an ignition produced by the friction of two pieces of dried wood. The vulgar opinion is that an Angel strikes a tree, and that the fire is thereby obtained. Need-fire, I am told, is still employed in the case of cattle infected with the murrain. They were formerly driven through the smoke of a fire made of straw, &c. It was then thought wicked to neglect smoking them. Sax. nyd, force, and fyr, fire; that is, forced fire.

NEEDLER, a keen, active, thrifty person-a niggard.

NEER-DEE-WEEL, NE'ER-DO-WEEL, a graceless person-one who seems never to do well.

That poor silly Jeezabel, our Queen Mary, married that

lang-legged ne'er-do-weel, Darnley, in the month of May, and ever sin syne the Scots folks have regarded it as no canny. Reginald Dalton.

The superstition against marrying in May is, however, of far greater antiquity than the time here assigned to it. V. Jam. Supp. buckle.

NEESE, NEEZE, to sneese.

NEEST, NIEST, NEST, next.

Sax. neisan. Germ. niesen.
Sax. nehst.

NEET, the Northern word for night. "Good neet, hinny.” NEIF, the fist. Isl. knefi. Su.-Got. knæfve. Dan. næve. Swed. nåfve. A good old Shakspearian word. Archdeacon Nares' display of authorities was unnecessary; the word being still in general use in all the Northern counties.-DOUBLE-NEIF, the clenched fist.

NEIF-FULL, a handful. Swed. en nåfve full.

NELSON'S-BULLETS, small confections in the shape of balls. In commemoration of our naval hero. See GIBRALTAR-ROCK. NENST, NENTS, towards, against. "The cash was paid nenst his year's rent,'

NERLED, ill-treated, pinched: often applied to a person under the unnatural conduct of a step-mother. Germ. knurren, to snarl ; or knorren, a knot in wood-cross-grained.

NESTLING, the smallest bird in the nest, the weakest of the brood. Sax. nestling. Something like the Dowry.

NETHER, lower. Sax, neother.-NETHER-LIP, the under lip.

That thou art my son, I have partly thy mother's word, partly my own opinion; but chiefly a villainous trick of thine eye, and a foolish hanging of the nether lip, that doth warrant me.-Shak. First Part of Henry IV.

NETHER-STOCKS, stockings, or under stocks. The term is used by Shakspeare in King Lear, and also in Henry IV. NETTLED, provoked, irritated—as if stung by a nettle. To water a nettle, in a peculiar way, has been said proverbially to cause peevish and fretful humour. See the proverb, in homely English, in Howell.

NEUCK, NUIK, a corner, or nook. Gael. niuc. Sc. neuk. NEVEL, to beat violently with the fists, or neives. See NEIF.

She'l nawpe and nevel them without a cause,

She'l macke them late their teeth naunt in their hawse.

Yorkshire Dialogue, p. 68.

NEWCAL-COW, NEWCALD-COW, a cow newly calved.

NEWCASTLE HOSPITALITY, roasting your friend to death.
NI! NI! a common exclamation in Newcastle.

It seems a di

minutive of nice, nice; as spoken by children. “Ni! Ni! what bonny buttons!"

NICE, good, pleasant, agreeable, handsome.

"A nice man

a

very nice woman."-NICELY, very well, in good health. NICK, v. to delude by stratagem, to deceive.-NICK, s. a wink. Germ. nicken, to wink-to tip the wink.

NICK-STICK, a tally, or notched stick, by which accounts are kept

after the ancient method. This simple mode of reckoning seems to have been the only one known to the Northern nations. Olaus Wormius gives us a representation of the tallies used by the ancient Danes, of which each party kept one. School-boys keep a nick-stick, with notches correspondent to the number of days preceding the vacation, from which with delight they cut daily one nick, up to the "very nick of time" for dulce domum. When a married female, in a certain interesting situation, exceeds her calculation, she is said, among the vulgar, to have lost her nick-stick.

NICKER, to neigh, to laugh in a loud ridiculous manner. Sax. gnægan. Sc. neicher. "What are you nickering at?" NICKER AND SNEER, a loud vulgar laugh-apparently borrowed from the neighing and snorting of a horse. NIDDERED, starved with cold, hungered. NIFF-NAFFS, trifles, things of little value. and nachst, next-next to nothing. NIFFY-NAFFY, a term for an insignificant or conceited person

V. Jamieson.

Germ. nichts, nothing, Hence nick-nacks, trifles.

one whose attention is chiefly devoted to trifles.

NIFFLE, to steal, to plunder. Perhaps by a metathesis from rifle.