1 PROCEEDINGS. 



Flaw, a strong and sudden gust of wind, Norwegian flage or flaag* 

 The word is used by Shakspeare and Milton : 



Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw. Hamlet. 

 And snow and hail and stormy gust and flaw. Paradise Lost. 



And also by Tennyson : 



" Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn." 

 It is still in use among English seamen. 



Foreright, an old English word used both as an adjective or an 

 adverb to denote right onward. 



" Their sails spread forth and with aforeright gale." 



Massinger, Renegade, V. 

 " Though he foreright 

 Both by their houses and their persons passed." 



Chapman, Homer's Odyssey, VII. 



Hence it came to mean obstinate or headstrong. In Newfoundland it 

 means foolhardy. 



Frore, for froze or frozen. This is used by Milton : 



" The parching air 

 Burns frore and cold performs the effect of fire." 



Glutcli, to swallow. " My throat is so sore that I cannot glutcJi 

 any thing." Wright and Halliwell give it as old English, in the same 

 sense. 



Gossip, originally Godsib, from God and sib, meaning kin or rela- 

 tionship by religious obligation, is still quite commonly used in 

 Newfoundland to denote a god-parent. Sib, which in old English and 

 Scotch denotes a relative by consanguinity, is used there exclusively to 

 denote relationship formed by sponsorship. 



Groaning cake. When a birth is expected, a cake is prepared 

 called the groaning cake. Very soon after it occurs, with little regard 

 to the feelings or nerves of the mother, a feast is made, particularly for 

 the elderly women, of whom all in the neighbourhood are present. 

 This is called the " bide-in feast," and at it the " groaning cake " is dis- 

 tributed, bearing the same relation to the occasion that " bride-cake " 

 does to a marriage feast. This is in accordance with the old English 

 practice and language, in which, according to Halliwell, groaning 

 denotes lying-in. Heuce we have in Scotch groaning malt drink 

 provided for the occasion, and in old English groaning cheese, groaning 

 chair and groaning cake. Judge Bennett supposes that the name of 



