Iviii PROCEEDINGS. 



held in the two hands, and a large yaffle, expressing what a man would 

 encircle with his arms. The word is also used as a verb, meaning to 

 gather them up in this manner. The Standard Dictionary gives it as 

 used locally In the United States in this last sense. But the New- 

 foundlanders do not limit it to this. They will speak of a yaffle, e. #., 

 of crannocks. Wright and H alii well give it as used in Cornwall as a 

 noun denoting an armful. 



Fam/, early, wide awake, as a yarry man or a yarry woman. Wright 

 and Halliwell give this word spelled yary as Kentish, meaning sharp, 

 quick, ready. They, however, give yare as another word, though almost 

 if not quite identical in meaning. They are closely related, appearing 

 in Anglo-Saxon as yearn or yearo, and in kindred languages in various 

 iorms. In old English yare is used as an adjective meaning ready. 

 This Tereus let make his ships yare. Chaucer. Legend of Philomene. 



It is applied to persons meaning ready, quick. 



Be yare in thy preparation. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 

 And as an adverb, meaning quickly. 



Yare, yare, good Iris, quick. Ibid., Anthony and Cleopatra., v. 9. 



It is well known that the word girl is not found in the Anglo-Saxon 

 or other languages of the North of Europe, and that it only occurs in 

 two places in the authorized English version of the bible, showing that 

 at the time that version was made, it was only beginning to be intro- 

 duced into England. In Newfoundland it is only where the people 

 have been intermixed with persons from ether quarters that it has come 

 into use, and in more remote places it is perhaps not used yet, the word 

 " maid " pronounced'm'?/^ being generally employed instead. 



The use of to as meaning this, as in to-day, to-night and to-morrow 

 is continued in to year, this year and to once at once. 



I may also notice that they use the old form un or on in the composi- 

 tion of words denoting the negative, where present usage has in or im. 

 Thus they say improper or onproper, undecent, unlegal, &c. 



There are also the remains of old English usage in their use of the 

 pronouns. Thus every object is regarded as either masculine or femi- 

 nine, and is spoken of as either "he " or " she." " It" seems only to 

 be used where it has been acquired by intercourse with others. A man 

 speaking of his head will say " he aches." Entering the court house I 

 heard a witness asked to describe a codtrap. He immediately replied, 



