xlvili PROCEEDINGS, 
town settled by New Englanders I am informed by one brought up in it, 
that when he was a boy some forty years ago, it was a favorite piece of 
badinage with young people to address a young husband on the birth of 
his first-born, ‘Is it a boy or a child?” They did not know the mean- 
ing of the phrase, but used it in the way of jeering at his simplicity, as 
if he had not yet been able to decide the question. This is an example 
of the manner in which words or phrases, after losing their original 
meaning, still continue to be used and receive a different sense. 
Clavy is used to denote a shelf over the mantelpice. Wright, 
(Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English,) gives it as denoting the 
mantelpiece itself, and thus it is still used in architecture. Halliwell, 
(Dictionary of Archaisms,) gives clavel, clavy, and clavel piece with the 
same meaning, and clavel tack, which he supposes means the shelf over 
the mantelpiece, the same as the clavy of the Newfoundlanders. In 
French we have claveau, the centrepiece of an arch. 
Clean is universally used in the sense of completely, as frequently in 
the Authorized Version of the Scriptures (Ps. xxvii. 8; 2 Pet. u. 18, 
etc.), and as still in Scotch. ‘‘ He is clean gone off his head.” “Iam 
clean used up.” The word clear is sometimes used in the same sense. 
Conlkerbills, icicles formed on the eaves of houses, and the noses of 
animals. Halliwell gives it in the form of conhabell, as Devonshire for 
an icicle. 
Costive, costly. ‘‘ That bridge is a costive affair.” Thad at first sup- 
posed this simply the mistake of an ignorant person, but in a tale 
written in the Norfolk dialect I have seen costyve given in this sense, and 
Iam informed that it is used in the same way in other counties of England, 
and sometimes if not generally pronounced costeev. 
Dodtrel, an old fool in his dotage, or indeed a silly person of any 
age. It is usually spelled dotterel, and primarily denoted a bird, a 
species of plover. From its assumed stupidity, it being alleged to be so 
fond of imitation that it suffers itself to be caught while intent on 
mimicking the actions of the fowler, the term came to denote a silly 
fellow or a dupe. 
Our dottere/ then is caught, 
He is, and just 
As dottere!s used to be ; the lady first 
Advanced toward him, stretched forth her wing, and he 
Met her with all expressions —Old Couplet. iii. 
