Sept. 2. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



179 



Ball, to beat a person with a stout stick or the 

 hand. 



Banging, great, very large. Hence the word 

 bang, a verb, " to strike a great blow," " to make 

 a great sensation." 



Beastly, simply used for dirty or soiled. 



Bettermost, much the best. 



Bevevy a sudden shivering; trembling from 

 chill. 



Blinch, used as a verb ; to catch a sight of a 

 thing or person. 



Bohhle, a pebble. 



Bord, vulgar pronunciation of bird. 



Borm and Borkam, the common word for yeast. 



Boiler, butter. 



Boustis, stout and unwieldy ; applied to a per- 

 son or thing so stoutly wrapped up, or so fat and 

 unwieldy, as not to be able easily to move. 



Braggaty, mottled, like an adder, with a tend- 

 ency to brown. It is usually applied to such a 

 mottled colour in the skin. 



Braih, the ancient Cornish name of the mastiff 

 dog. Hence, perhaps, the common expression " a 

 broth of a boy ; " meaning, " a stout dog of a boy," 

 robust. 



Breck, a small hole broken, usually confined to 

 cloth or like material ; no doubt, the origin of the 

 word break; but Fuller uses it in its old state, 

 and meaning : " Holy State," p. 41. 



Brew. Burns uses this word for broth, liquid 

 water. Perhaps broth, as being boiled is the root. 

 Snaw broo, in Scottish, is melted snow. 



Brimstone. Burns uses the word brunstone, which 

 is equivalent to branstone or "burnt stone;" for 

 brand, is to burn. Bran means, newly come from 

 the fire ; and bran-new is a common expression. 

 But brim signifies, " to flash up, to blaze :" hence, 

 " to brime a boat," a common expression, is to 

 melt the pitch on it by applying a flame of fire to 

 it. Briming also means a flash of light in the sea, 

 when the waves give light from luminous animals 

 in them. This has been supposed by some to pro- 

 ceed from phosphoric combustion ; but in that 

 case it would occur very deep below the surface, 

 as is often the case. 



Browthy, light and spongy bread ; the opposite 

 of dusty, or clayey. 



Brunt, the burnt part of a thing ; consequently, 

 in a metaphorical sense, the hottest part of a fray. 



Buck, a book. 



Buck, that peculiar infection which in summer 

 sometimes gets into a dairy, and spoils the cream 

 and butter ; a sign of gross negligence and want 

 of skill, and not easily to be eradicated. 



Bumpkin, a common term for a clumsy, uncouth 

 man. But whence the word ? for it is also applied 

 to a part of a ship, where the foretack is fastened 

 down. The word bump means a protuberance, a 

 prominence : to bump against a thing, is a local 

 term for striking one's self clumsily against it. A 



bumpkin, therefore, is a low, unshapely, clumsy, 

 blunt, not moveable or active, piece of wood. 



Cajff] refuse fish ; but for the most part applied 

 to refuse pilchards only, when they are so bruised 

 as to be only fit for manure. 



Cannis, to toss about from place to place, with- 

 out care. 



Castes, an instrument for punishing schoolboys 

 with a blow on the palm of the hand. 



Cawdle, entanglement, confusion. A line or 

 thread so entangled as not to be separated, is said 

 to be " all in a cawdle." Cawdle is also a mining 

 term for a thick and muddy fluid. 



Chembly, for chimney. 



Chield, for child. 



Chitter, thin, folded up. It is applied to a thin 

 and furrowed face, by way of ridicule. Such a 

 one is said to be chitter-faced. The long and folded 

 milts or testes of some fishes are called chitterlins ; 

 as were the frills at the bosom of shirts, when 

 they were so worn. 



Chuff, sullen. Burns uses the word cTiuffie for 

 fat-faced, as equivalent to chubby ; but with us, 

 it is expressive of the look of a sullen and discon- 

 tented face. Spenser, in his Fairy Queen, Cant. ii. 

 b. 6., says, "After long search and chauf," that 

 is, discontent ; and it seems to be the root of what 

 is now pronounced chafed, or made angry. And 

 equivalent to this, when the skin of the body is 

 rubbed, it is said to be chafed, or made to feel 

 sore. With us, a place that has some beginning 

 of local inflammation, and looks red, is said to be, 

 to look, angry. 



Churer, an occasional workwoman. 



Click-handed, left-handed. 



Cloam, common eai'thenware. 



Clush, to lie down close to the ground, to stoop 

 low down. 



Clusty, close and heavy ; particularly applied to 

 bread not well fermented, and, therefore, closely 

 set. Also applied to a potatoe that is not mealy. 



Coccabells, icicles. 



Condididdle, to filch away, to convey anything 

 away by trickery. 



Cowle, for Cole, a proper name. 



Creem, to shrink into a small compass. When 

 used in an active sense, it means, so to press a 

 person's hand or arm as to cause it to suflTer from 

 it; also, when potatoes have been pressed into 

 pulp, they are said to be creemed. But the word 

 is used passively, to be shrunk and contracted; 

 and the phrase is common, " to be creemed with 

 cold ; " that is, shrunk with it. 



Cribbage-faced, a face that is thin and ema- 

 ciated. 



Crickle, to break down. It is applied to a prop 

 or support when it breaks down through feeble- 

 ness, and simple perpendicular pressure of a 

 weight above. 



Crim, a small bit ; and thus it answers to the 



