76 
and tongues, strictly adhering to historical facts, and evidence 
of etymology, properly so called 
Whether by thus disposing of genuine titles and pedigrees, 
which, though varying in dignity of extraction, shall be equal 
in that of truth, the Author’s heraldic services shall deser- 
vedly engage the attention of readers, the following few exam- 
ples will probably decide. 
1. Aghast occurs in the eighth century as achust. Schilteri 
Glossarium, p. 18, shows that it meant abhorrence, disgust, not 
merely moral but also physical, as in Levit. xv. 25. Otfried 
(ninth century) spells it akust, our agast, without the h. He 
has also wnkust, the first trace of uncouth. A glossary of 1482 
renders unkust with untugend (un-virtue) and ungeslacht 
(degenerate). The last Lexicon that treats of those words 
defines achust, quod est rejiciendum, impuritas; but chust, 
without the prefix, quod est eligendum, purum, probatum ; 
chust, kust, being the first source of our word choice, of cur 
in curmudgeon (which see), and of the German Chur, Kuhr, 
hithren (Churfiirst, Willkiihr), hiesen, erkoren, &e. ‘The flat 
German (Plattdeutsch) has afkeesen (choose off, declare off), 
reject, resign, for which the high dialect would say abkiesen (it 
occurs in Frisch, Berlin, 1741, p. 170); and whilst the ad of 
the latter was at one time simply a (see Schilteri Glossarium, 
asneita-abschneiden), the af of the former is our off; but since 
this latter is never used as a verbal prefix, we abide by the 
mere a instead of off, in words like ago (agone), alight, aloof, 
atistaff (see Distaff), awkward, &c. Should this remark obtain 
the reader’s assent in considering these words with me in their 
turn hereafter, we may then venture to suppose that the said 
vowel produced a verb, to awn (to keep off), of which the 
word awning is still in use. See Disgust and Cochrane. 
2. Apricot. The word biccoora, “hasty fruit,” of Es. - 
xxvii. 4, when, with slight changes and the article, made 
\-CmS 
Arabic, becomes §,s6!\- a/bakeerat ; this, perverted by the 
