PATTERSON ON NEWFOUNDLAND DIALECT. Ixi 



Bridge, pronounced bi'udge, is the word commonly used to denote a 

 platform, though the latter word is known or coining into use, but they 

 generally pronounce li flat form. 



Brief. A curious use of the word brief is to describe a disease 

 which quickly proves fatal. " The diphtheria was very brief there," 

 that is, it quickly ran its course ; the person died of it. 



In seveial dictionaries (Standard, Halliwell, Webster, etc.,) this word 

 is given as meaning " rife, common, prevalent," and is represented as 

 specially applied to epidemic diseases. They also refer to Shakespeare 

 as authority without giving quotations. Bartlett represents it as much 

 used in this sense by the uneducated in the interior of New England 

 and Virginia. Murray, in the New English Dictionary, gives the same 

 meaning, but doubtingly, for he adds, "The origin of this sense is not 

 clear. The Shakespearean quotation is generally cited as an example, 

 but is by no means certain." I presume to think that the assigning this 

 meaning is altogether a mistake. By no rule of language can brief be 

 made to mean rife. We see at once, however, the expressiveness of the word 

 as applied in the Newfoundland sense to an epidemic as making short 

 work of its victims. I must regard this, therefore, as the original mean- 

 ing of the word in this application. At the same time we can see how 

 the mistake may have arisen. An epidemic disease so malignant as to 

 prove fatal quickly could scarcely but become prevalent where intro- 

 duced, and its prevalence being on the minds of men, they would be apt 

 to attach such a meaning to the description of its working, as brief, and 

 then use the word in that sense. 



Similar to this is the use of the word late, applied to a woman lately 

 married. " The late Mrs. Prince visited us," meaning the lady who had 

 recently become Mrs. Prince. 



Chastise is used not as particularly meaning to punish either corpo- 

 rally or otherwise, but to train for good. A father will ask the person 

 to whom he is intrusting his son to chastise him well, meaning merely 

 bring him up in a good way. But the more limited signification is 

 c oming into use. 



The word clever it is well known is used in different senses in 

 England and New England. In the former it expresses mental power, 

 and means talented or skillful ; in the latter it describes the disposition 

 and means generous or good-natured. In Newfoundland it is used in 

 quite a distinct sense. It there means large and handsome. It is 



