April 17. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



373 



Mr. Talbot says, the name Christopher, Christ- 

 offer, may have been given to children born on 

 6-ood Friday, the day of the Great Sacrifice, as 

 those born on Christmas, Easter, and All Saints 

 were named Pascal, Noel, Toussaint. Jarltzberg. 



"behetour" and "moke," two obscure words 

 used by wycklyffe, a.d. 1384. 



(Vol. L, pp. 155. 278.) 



I. Rehetour. 



(Sae the Three Treatises, published by Dr. Todd, 

 Dublin, 1851. Text, pages yy^, jrjrbi and \yii ; Note 

 oa Rehetours, p. clxxi — ii.) 



It is certain that Monastery and Minster were 

 originally one word in Latin ; it is generally be- 

 lieved that Rhythm and Rhyme were one in 

 Greek ; and it is possible that Rehetour and Caterer 

 had one prototype in Spanish : of this last pair 

 only one survived ; it is naturally that which, by 

 being equal to the other in sense, excels it in 

 harmony with the English tongue. 



Convinced that the office assigned to the Rehe- 

 tours in the lordly household could not have been 

 filled^ by any such character as ascribed to the 

 Rehdteur, Reheater, or Rehaiteur; convinced, more- 

 over, that the Scottish Rehator, Rehatoure, and the 

 English Rehetour must be either both restored to 

 their common kindred, or else consigned to com- 

 mon oblivion, I chose the former alternative ; and 

 after a careful inquest held on these twin found- 

 lings, together with Rehete, Reheting, two other 

 departed strangers of the same age, I venture to 

 pronounce the following verdict: — 



1. A native of Spain, Regatero (see Stephen's 

 Spanish Dictionary, 1726, and all that is said about 

 Regaton in the Diccionario of the Academy, Ma- 

 drid, 1737, folio), travelling in Great Britain, 

 changed to Rehetour, Rehator, &c. 



2. By trade a retailer of provisions, huckster, 

 or purveyor, his character strongly partook of 

 the nature of his commodities, so as to become 

 tainted ; this appears from the quotations in Ja- 

 mieson's Etym. Dictionary, and is attested by the 

 Spanish proverb, Ni compres de Regaton, ni te des- 

 cuides en meson : Wycklyffe in all three passages 

 expresses his apprehension of " harm." The French 

 regrattier from gratter (to scratch, scrape), and 

 Begatero, Regaton, from gato (a cat), whether 

 they be, or be not, truly thus derived, bear equally 

 marks of a contemptible impression. 



3. In Wycklyffe's simile the Rehetours take care 

 of the bodily, the ecclesiastics of the spiritual 

 food, the Pope being the steward of the house- 

 hold. The Scottish Rehatour we find no longer as 

 an ordinary plain dealer, but in a state of de- 

 pravity, so as to be a mere byeword, even in the 

 ^ense of blackguard, which word itself, if we believe 



Nares (see his Glossary) that it owes its existence 

 to those menials of the court, cannot have been 

 barely " a jocular name," but their disposition 

 must have corresponded to their black exterior, 

 otherwise the joke could not have remained a 

 lasting stigma. I believe, however, the word 

 blackguard, by inserting the I, merely simulates a 

 vernacular origin, it being properly Beguards (see 

 Boiste, Dictionnaire Universel), from Beghardus 

 (see MedicBval Glossaries), once a German par- 

 ticiple bekdrt (now hekehrt), converted, applied 

 to the Frater conversus, secular begging monks 

 who, increasing in number and misdeeds, soon 

 became universally notorious, and ultimately 

 (mixed up with impostors who assumed their 

 dress) Avould serve in any capacity rather than 

 the honest and irreproachable. 



4. If Caterer proceeded from the Spanish, it 

 arrived thus — Recatero — Recaterer — Caterer; the 

 c for g being either the natural result from the 

 accent which the majority of speakers withdrew 

 from the latter syllable of the word, or is ac- 

 counted for by " Recatear lo mismo que regatear : '* 

 the derivation from re and cautv^, as given by Co- 

 varrubias, likewise protects the c. 



5. It is possible that the primitive root Kat or 

 Gat, in the sense of hollow, hole, cavity, cave, &c., 

 whence Gate, Cot, Cottage, Cattegat (Sinus Co- 

 dan us), probably also Regatta, was the first element 

 of both the Spanish and the English term ; the 

 spot or situation where the eatables were originally 

 exposed for sale thus causing them first to be 

 called cates (a plural noun like wages), then the 

 singular cate, &c., the noun of agent having most 

 probably preceded the verb cater, which has come 

 last. A similar derivation is certain with regard 

 to huckster, which, besides huckeback, joins the 

 Swedish hokare, German Hoker, &c., from the 

 bending, crooked, or squatting position in some 

 brook or crook or corner. 



6. The verb Rehete is aptly derived by Jamieson 

 from Rehaiter ; both are extinct, yet their kindred 

 heiter (formerly haiter), with its two verbs erheitern. 

 and aufheitern, are still in full vigour among the 

 Germans, to whom they afford serenity of mind,, 

 mood, and weather. The French compound word 

 for wishing, souhaiter, refers its verb haiter to the 

 Swedish heta, German heissen, Anglo-Saxon hetan, 

 as in Ulf het arceran cyrice, " Ulf bid rear the 

 church" (see Latham, JSngl. Lang. 1850, p. 99.) : 

 now if also from the haiter of that compound we 

 may suppose a derivative Rehaiter, or at least 

 one of the kind to have served Chaucer in his 

 participle Reheting, which has been the puzzle of 

 his commentators in the following passage from 

 Troilus (III. line 350.) : 



" And all the reheting of his sikes (sighs) sore. 

 At ones fled, he felt 'hem no more ; " 

 we may easily understand thereby that, as it were, 

 a rebidding, an importunate insisting upon, the 



