xlviii 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. 



Glavy 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 davel, davy, and davel piece with the 

 same meaning, and davel tack, which he supposes means the shelf over 

 the mantelpiece, the same as the clai'y of the Newfoundlanders. In 

 French we have daveau, the centrepiece of an arch. 



Clean is universally used in the sense of completely, as frequently in 

 the Authorized Version of the Scriptures (Ps. Ixxvii. 8 ; 2 Pet. ii. 18, 

 etc.), arid as still in Scotch. " He is dean gone off his head." " I am 

 dean used up." The word dear is sometimes used in the same sense. 



Conkerbills, icicles formed on the eaves of houses, and the noses of 

 animals. Halliwell gives it in the form of conkabell, as Devonshire for 

 an icicle. 



Costive, costly. " That bridge is a costive affair." I had 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 

 I am 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 dotterel then is caught, 



He is, and just 



As dotterels used to be ; the lady first 

 Advanced toward him, stretched forth her wing, and he 

 Met her with all expressions Old Couplet, iii. 



