Oct. 30. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



409 



THE TERMINATION -STEE. 



Will you consider the following Anglo-Saxon lucubrations worthy of insertion ? 



Masculine. 

 B(Bc-ere (Bak-er) . 



Dom-ere . 



Lcsr-ere 

 JicEd-ere 

 iiecc-ere 



Sang-ere (sing-er) 



Semn-ere 



Tccpp-ere 



Wehb-ere (weav-er) 



Witeg-a 



Pen 



Feminine. 



Bcec-estre ( Baxter, Bagster). 

 Crenc-estre . . 



Lasr-estre , 

 Rced-estre . 

 Recc-estre . 



Sang-e.stre (songster) , 

 Seam-estre (seamster) 

 Tapp-estre (tapster) . 



Tymp-estre (tymb-estere) 



Wchb-estre (Webster) 

 Witeg-estre 

 Pen-estre . 



This list, I believe, might easily be extended. 



It is clear that, in Anglo-Saxon, -ere is mascU' 

 line termination ; estre (spelt also istre or ystre^ is 

 J'eminine termination, 



Tlie same feminine termination appears in 

 Dutch, .ffer, together with -in {=inn Germ.) and 

 -es (=:our ess, borrowed from classical sources). 



The only difficulty that I have met with in 

 Anglo-Saxon is Bcec-istre=:-B(BC-ere. It occurs 

 in -Siilfric's Bible, Genes, xl. 1. I take this 

 second-hand from Bosworth, who says, " Because 

 men performed that work which was originally 

 done by females, this occupation is sometimes de- 

 noted by a feminine termination." This remark 

 onay appear hardly satisfactory ; but Jamieson (on 

 Brewster) is worth consulting on this point. 



In course of time the termination -estre was spelt 

 estere. This I conjecture came to be regarded as 

 the masculine termination -ere, and of course led 

 to an erroneous division of words in this ending : 

 e.g. Tapestere was divided Tapest-ere, and not Tap- 

 este7'e ; and the error became incurable when such 

 hybrid forms as songstr-ess and seamstr-ess (perhaps 

 we shall soon \\&2iV punstr-ess and huckstr-ess) gained 

 & footing in our language. 



I have not mentioned brew-er, brew-ster, be- 

 cause they do not appear in Anglo-Saxon, though 

 hriw-an is found, but I believe = coquere (briw=: 

 brewis). 



There are some words ending in -ster not trace- 

 able to Anglo-Saxon times. 



Bohster, Chiichster. These two words I cannot find in 

 dictionaries or glossaries. They occur, I think, in 

 modern novels, perhaps only as proper names. 



Gamester first appears in Shakspeare and his cotem- 

 poraries. 



= Female weaver or spinner. Answering to our 



" spinster." 

 Dempster, doomster, not English. Scotch. Isle of Man. 

 = Teacher. 

 = Reader. 

 = Governor, rector, pi-eacher. Hence our name 



" Racster." 

 Now singer, songster, m. ; songstress, /. 

 Now seamstress, sempstress. See Todd's Johnson. 

 Tapestere, in early English, /. See Chaucer's Mery 



Adventure of the Purdonere and Tapestere. 

 This of course might be a corruption of rvixiravicrTpia. 



Still the Anglo-Saxon had tumb-ere (tumbler), and 



it is not improbable that they had also tumh-estre 



(tumbling-girls). 

 Webbestere occurs in Piers Plouhman. 

 = Prophet, prophetess. 

 = Serv-us, serv-a. 



Huckster can be traced to the earlier part of sixteenth 



century. Comp. H'6k-er, Germ. 

 Maltster is found in Holinshed. 

 Punster, in the Spectator. 

 Rhymester, in Bp. Hall's Satires. 

 Roadster I meet with in Halliwell's Diet., and in 



Fliigel's Eng.- Germ. Diet. 

 Trickster. One example (of George III.'s era) is given 



in Todd's Johnson. 

 Whipster, Youngster. Both in Shakspeare. 



_ N.B. In most of these words (maltster is ob- 

 viously_ an exception, huchster hardly so) there is 

 something of a contemptuous (an effeminating, if I 

 may so say) meaning. So songster differs from 

 singer. ^ Does the queer word poetaster bear upon 

 this point ? 



To conclude, was not Mrs. Dexter, in her as- 

 sumption of the toga virilis, the victim to a false 

 etymology ? Was she not all the while (as it is 

 hoped she is now) nothing more than decc-estre, 

 a. female dresser ? Charles Thieiold. 



Cambridge. 



FOLK LORE. 



Charm for Warts. — The charm, as I have 

 heard it, consists in rubbing the warts with some 

 small stones, which are to be wrapped up in a 

 piece of paper and thrown down at some cross 

 roads. The person who picks up the parcel will 

 have the warts, which will from that time leave 

 the first person. R. J. Allen. 



Superstition in Scotland. — In the Highlands, if 

 a stranger looks at a cow, the common people 

 think that the animal will waste away from the 



