77 
Spaniards into Albarcoque, suffered further changes in Apri- 
hose, abricot, apricock, &c. That the Romans called the same 
fruit not merely after its country (see Gibbon, chap. ii.), but 
likewise its precocious nature, appears from Dioscorides, 1.166. 
3. Bacon. Anno 813 the plural daccones occurs, but the 
Latin singular has no z. It proceeds from the Dutch backe, 
the valued part of the hog, mature for bacon, being his back, 
in which state, accordingly, we find his name in Latin dacha- 
rus; flat German, back-beest; Spanish, cerdo de muerte, dif- 
ferent from cerdo de vida, as still allowed to live. 
4, Blackguard. Of the seven French words, begards, be- 
guard, bégueule, béguelerie, béguin, béguine, beguinage, only 
two appear in English, namely, biggin (béguin), and beguard ; 
this the untutored speaker, to accommodate his immediate 
intelligence, has changed into blackguard, joining other for- 
mations of his, beefeater, bridegroom, &c. Chronicles and 
glossaries abound with the various names and scandal of those 
converse and conversi sine voto monastico, &c., who lived by 
begging, preaching, &c. Among their multifarious verbal off- 
spring (see also Bribe) there are none harmless except biggin, 
as worn by the female portion called beguina, begyne, begge- 
wine, &c. ; who, being sorores converse, were consequently also 
novitiz, and this novitiate of their’s was rendered German by 
the verb beginnen, to begin, whence their name. The Latin 
name of the men occurs as Begardi, Beghardi, &c.; conver- 
sus in German being bekehrt, formerly bekahrt (comp. gelahrt 
for gelehrt, in Gothe’s Egmont, ii.1), of the verb bekehren, 
toconvert. The root of this verb, very frequent in German, 
is thus discoverable in three English words, awkward, black- 
guard, and churn. 
5. Burden answers to Biirde and Bourdon. In songs on 
Aurelian, his soldiers repeated ‘mille, mille, mille occidit,” 
such humming repetition was called fremitus, whence frédon, 
bourdon. 
