splendid. burn.

But a friend prefers Ital. avvampare, to blaze, to

VARDIE, opinion, judgment. A corruption of verdict.

VARMENT, vermin—a term of reproach, particularly to a child. It is also a sort of cant word for knowing; as a varment chap, a knowing one.

VARRA, VARRY, VURRY, provincial pronunciations of very.

VAST, elliptically for, vast deal-a great quantity or number. "A vast of news." 66 A vast of money." "A vast of sheep." VENNEL, a sewer, sink, or drain. Probably from kennel, an open water course; or Fr. venelle, petite rue.

VIEWLY, sightly, good-looking, striking to the view.

VIEWSOME, striking, pleasant to the sight, handsome to behold. VINE-PENCIL, a black lead pencil. Perhaps from the metal being first embedded in vine as it is now in cedar-wood.

VIRGIN'S-GARLAND. Many country churches in the North of England are adorned with these garlands; in token, says Bourne, of esteem and love, and as an emblem of reward in the heavenly Church. They are made of variegated coloured paper, representing flowers, fastened to small sticks crossing each other at the top, and fixed at the bottom by a circular hoop. From the centre is suspended the form of a woman's glove cut in white paper, on which the name and age of the party commemorated by these frail memorials are sometimes written. The custom, once probably very general, of placing flowers in the coffin with the deceased, is still preserved among our villagers. Gay, whose Pastorals represent the real rustic manners of his time, describes most exactly both the virgin's garland and the flower-strewing. There is, as remarked by Dr. Drake, something so strikingly emblematic, so delightfully soothing in these old rites, that though the prototype be probably heathen, their disuse is to be regretted. Voky, damp, moist, juicy. Wokie occurs in Peirs Ploughman. -VOKY, is also used in the sense of gay, cheerful.

W.

WABBLE, v. to vacillate, to reel, to wave. Teut. wabelen. A large unwieldy fish is said to wabble in the water; and growing corn on a windy day likewise wabbles.-WABBLE, s. an unsteady rotatory motion.

WABSTER, a Northern term for a weaver.

See WEBSTER.

WAD, black lead.-Cumb. Nigrica fabrilis. Pure Saxon. This ore has been erroneously supposed to be the pnigitis or melanteria of Dioscorides.

WAD, woad used by dyers. Isatis tinctoria. Sax. wad. The ancient Britons stained their bodies with the juice of this plant, to make them appear more terrible in war. But wad and woad, I am informed, are in Yorkshire different things; woad being the blue substitute for indigo; and wad, the reseda tinctoria, a yellow die.

WAD, the vulgar word for would. "He wad come."

WADD, a forfeit; especially in the game called wadds, or forfeits. -North. Sax. wad, pignus.

WADEN, WAUDEN, young and active-vigorous in limb. "A waden lad." "Wauden of her age." Isl. valldr, validus, po

tens. WADLER-WIFE, the keeper of a register office for servants- -a term, I believe, peculiar to Newcastle.

WAE-ME! or WAE'S-ME! a frequent interjection of lamentation, equivalent to woe is me—a pure Saxon expression-wa is me. In Scotland they have dowie an' wae, solitary and melancholy. WAFF, an apparition in the exact resemblance of a person, supposed to be seen just before or soon after death. It may be from the airy form of the object; a waft or transient view being called a waff; but see Jamieson, wraith. I have conversed with well-educated people, who have gravely and unequivocally asserted that they have seen these spectral appearances of their deceased friends and relations.

WAFFLE, to wave, to fluctuate. Identical with WABBLE. Sax. wafian, vacillare. Teut. weyfelen, fluctuare. Swed. wefta,

vibrare.

WAFFLER, the green sand-piper; so called from its undulating odd flight.

WAG, to beckon with the hand-to shake. Sax. wagian.— WAG-HANDS, to shake hands among Southrons.

WAG-AT-THE-WAW, WAGGER, a cheap wooden clock of German manufacture. Perhaps from the pendulum being seen wagging against the wall.

WAGE, pay for service. Literally gage, bargain, engagement. Both Johnson and Nares say, that it is used only in the plural. In many parts of the North, however, the singular is in

common use.

WAIFINGER, an estray, a waif. Law Lat. waivium.

WAIRSH, WEARCH, WERCH, thin, watery, weak, insipid. It is also used to express a griping in the bowels.-WAIRSH-BREAD, bread not sufficiently salted. Weerish is old in our language. V. Todd's Johnson.

WAIT, Wot. Sax. wat; from witan, to know.

WAITER, or WAETER, the Newcastle pronunciation of water. Sax. water. The a and a were interchangeably used. V. Bosworth's Saxon Grammar, p. 51.

WAITH, OR WRAITH, the spectral appearance of a person about to die, or recently dead. V. Minstrelsy of Scottish Border, p. cxxxvi.

WAITS, musicians who parade and play by night in the streets about the time of Christmas and the new year. One of the old towers, in Newcastle, was formerly called the Waits' Tower, and was the place of meeting of these itinerant musicians. They used to be the privileged minstrels at weddings and feasts. Their playing to Oliver Cromwell, while that extraordinary character was entertained at dinner, on his route to or from Scotland, is still traditionally remembered. The term would seem to be derived from Mo.-Got. wahts, vigilia, excubiæ; these waits being anciently viewed as a sort of

watchmen. Wait is explained in Prompt. Parv., speculator, vigil. So, in old French, waite is garde, sentinelle.

WAKE, v. to watch by a corpse, to sit up with a person all night. See LAKE-WAKE, or LYKE-WAKE.

WAKE, s. a country feast, a rural fair. See Hutchinson's History of North., Vol. II., p. 26; Brand's Pop. Antiq., Vol. I, p. 422; and Herrick's Hesperides, p. 300, 301. WAKE, α. weak. Sax. wäc. "As wake as water."

Wale, Wail, WEAL, v. to select, to choose, to sort. Su.-Got. wälja, eligere. Swed. välja, to choose. Germ. wahlen, to pick out.-WALE, s. choice, best part.

Dan, valg. choice.

Su.-Got. wal, electio.

WALK-MILL, a fulling-mill. Germ. walkmuhle. Before the introduction of machinery it was customary to use the feet in

fulling cloth.

The Fullers and Dyers of Newcastle were "Wend to the walk mylne."

anciently called Walkers. Ordinary, 1477.

is

WALL, WALLE, to boil. Teut. wallen. Su.-Got. waella. WALL-EYED. In those parts of the North, with which I am best acquainted, persons are said to be wall-eyed, when the white of the eye is very large, and to one side. On the borders, "sic folks" are considered unlucky. The term is also occasionally applied to horses with similar eyes, though its more general acceptation seems to be when the iris of the eye white, or of a very pale colour. A wall-eyed horse sees perfectly well. The author of the Crav. Gloss. explains wall-een, to mean white or green eyes; and does not consider the etymology very satisfactory, either in Nares or Todd. Their ideas certainly are at variance with the Northern signification of the word. Grose defines it, "an eye with little or no sight, all white like a plaistered wall."

WALLOP, to move quickly and with much agitation of the body or clothes. Teut. wal-oppe, cursus gradarius. The word is also applied to any thing moving quickly in boiling water-to bubble up; in which sense it may be referred to Sax. wealan, to boil. Germ. wallen, to move up and down as in ebullition.

Isl. wella, to bubble up. Whence the potwallopers of the Cornish boroughs-those seductions of power too tempting for patriotism to resist-take their title. WALLOPING, a slatternly, slovenly manner. WALLOW, insipid. See Welsh. Also WAIRSH.

WALLUP, v. to beat.-WALLUP, s. a blow. Rather, perhaps, WHALLUP; from wheal, the mark of a blow.

WALLUPING, Strong, athletic. A great walluping chap." WALM, v. to seethe or boil. V. Wilbraham.—WALM, s. a slight boiling. Willan.

WALT, to totter, to lean one way, to overthrow. V. Jam. welt. WAME, the stomach, the belly. Mœ.-Got. wamba, uterus. Sax. wamb, venter; whence, womb.-WAME-ILL, an ache or pain in the intestines. Sax. wamb-adl, dolor ventris.

WAN, a corruption of wand. "A yard-wan."—" A mill-wan.” WANCHANCY, unlucky-applied in Northumberland to a mischievous boy or girl. In a somewhat different sense Burns has

Wae worth the man wha first did shape

That vile wanchancie thing a rape!

WANDLE, supple, pliant-when spoken of a person, agile, nimble. -WANDY, long and flexible; like a wand.

WANG-TOOTH, dens molaris. Pure Saxon. It is the catch, or fang-tooth; wang, or vang, being to catch, or fang. Infangthef, and outfangthef-ancient privileges of trying thieves, caught in or out of the jurisdiction-may be referred to the same source. So, perhaps, may the name of Mrs. Quickly's bailiff. "Good Master Fang, hold him sure." 2d. Part King Henry IV.-Before the use of seals, according to Verstegan, persons passing deeds bit the wax with the wang-tooth. He quotes part of a supposed grant, in verse, from William I., the whole of which is given by Lewis, in his Dissertation on the Antiquity and Use of Seals in England, p. 19.

In witnes of the sothe,

Ich han biten this wax with my wang-tothe.

Tt