TRANSACTIONS. 151 
Geck, to befool.—/. 
Geck, to deride, to toss the head in scorn. 
** And made the most notorious geck and gull 
That our invention played on.—T'wel/th Night. 
Gre, prize. To bear the gree, to carry off the prize.—/. The 
word is in the Knight’s Tale, Canterbury Tales.— CZ. 
Gate, a way. The word is used in this sense in Spenser.—/. 
Gaukie, a foolish person.—/. The word is old English, and, like 
the word Gowk, its original sense is ‘ Cuckoo.”— Vide Skeat. 
Ged, a pike.—/. A N. English word from the Icelandic Goad, 
named from its sharp, thin head, as is also the name Pike. 
Gled, a kite.—/. In Tynron we have the Gled Brae. ‘‘ We have 
the word in English, 1690.”—Szkead. 
Grab, to seize with violence. Noun. A snatch ; a grasp.—/. 
Although the standard English word is Gripe, Grab is found 
as a “low word” in some English dictionaries. 
Hyne or Hind, a farm servant.—/. The d is excrescent. The 
word is in Spenser’s “ Faerie Queen” with the same meaning. 
Hutch, a kind of basket in which coals are brought from the mine. 
—/jJ. Shakespeare has bolted hutch, a chest for bolted 
flour. Chaucer uses the word in its sense of box or basket. 
It is of French origin. 
Keek, to look. 
** Auld Nichulas sat ever gaping upright, as he had kyked at the new 
moon.—TVhe Miller’s Tale. Ch. 
Kers, a water cress—/. This old pronunciation of cress, given 
by Chaucer, explains the meaning of our common expression, 
‘J don’t care a curse,” ze, 1 don’t care a cress, equal to I 
don’t care a button. 
Kith, Kythe, to show, to make known. This old Scotch word 
occurs in our metrical version of the Psalms, “ Froward than 
Kytht.” In Chaucer's ‘“‘ Man of Lawes Tale” we have 
** For but if Christ on thee miracle Kithe, 
Withoute gilt thou shalt be slain as swithe.” 
Loon, a worthless person, male or female, although in the east 
country I understand it always means a boy.—/. The word 
is spelled loon in ‘‘ Macbeth” and lown in “ Othello.” 
Maund, a basket. In Ayrshire a potato basket. 
‘* A thousand favours from a maund she drew.” 
—-Sh. Lover’s Complaint. 
Mirk, dark, obscure.—Spenser’s “ Faerie Queen.” 
Mall, Mell, a hammer.— Spenser. Its diminutive is mallet. 
