] x PROCEEDINGS. 



large vicious fly is called a stout, but according to Wright and Halliwell 

 this is the Westmoreland name for the gadfly. Then the snipe is called 

 a snite, which is the old English form, " The witless woodcock and his 

 neighbor snite." (Drayton's " Owl.") Earthworms are termed yesses, 

 which Wright gives as Dorset-shire and Halliwell as Somerset. 



II. I have next to notice words still in general use, but employed by 

 Newfoundlanders in a peculiar sense, this being sometimes the original 

 or primary signification. 



Perhaps in this respect the stranger is most frequently struck by the 

 use of the woids plant and planter. Neither has any reference to culti 

 vating the soil. A planter is a man who undertakes fishing on his own 

 account, a sort of middleman between the merchants and the fishermen. 

 He owns or charters a vessel, receive all the supplies irom the merchants, 

 hires the men, deals with them, superintends the fishing, and on his 

 return deals wfth the merchants for the fruits of the adventure, and 

 settles with the men for their respective shares. 



To many the most singular instance of this kind will be the use of 

 the term bachelor women. Yet, as in Newfoundland, it originally 

 denoted an unmarried person of either sex. 



He would keep you 

 A bachelor still 



And keep you not alone without a husband 

 But in a sickness. Ben Jonson. 



Scarcely less strange may appear the application of the term barren 

 both to males and females. In the distribution of poor relief a com- 

 plaint may be heard, "He is a barren man, and I have three children." 

 So the word seems to have been understood by the translators of King 

 James's version of the Bible. Deut. vii. 14 : "There shall not be male 

 or iemale barren among you." 



Bougliten, applied to an article, is used to signify that it has not been 

 manufactured at home. The same use of the word was common in New 

 England. 



Bread with a Newfoundlander means hard biscuit, and soft baked 

 bread is called loaf. The origin of this is easily understood. For a 

 length of time the coast was frequented by fishermen, who made no 

 permanent settlement on shore, and whose only bread was hard biscuit. 

 In a similar way fish came to mean codfish. 



