Ixii PEOCEEDIXGS. 



applied not only to men, but to animals and inanimate things. A fish- 

 erman will speak of a " clever built boat," meaning that it is large arid 

 shapely. The dictionaries from Johnson onward give as one meaning of 

 the word " well shaped or handsome." But he describes it as " a low 

 word scarcely ever used but in burlesque or in conversation and applied 

 to anything a man likes, without a settled meaning." Wright gives it 

 as in the east of England meaning good looking and in Lancashire as 

 denoting lusty, which when applied to men is nearly the Newfoundland 

 idea, and probably the nearest to the old English. 



Crop, commonly pronounced crap, the personal equipment of a man 

 .going on a sealing voyage supplied by the merchants but distinct from 

 the provisions, etc. 



Draft or draught in old English and still in the provinces means a 

 team of horses or oxen, and also that drawn by them, a load. As the 

 Newfoundlanders generally had no teams, they have come to use it to 

 denote a load for two men to carry, hence two quentals of fish. 



Dredge pronounced in Newfoundland drudge, is used to denote the 

 sprinkjing of salt over herring when caught, and mixing them together, 

 to preserve them in the meantime. It is the same word that is used in 

 cooking to denote sprinkling flour on meat for which we still have the 

 dredging box. Skeat (Etym. Dictionary) gives a general meaning to 

 sprinkle as in sowing dreg, dredge, mixed corn, oats and barley. 



In connection with this they have the dredge barrow pronounced 

 drudge barroiv, a barrow with handles and a trough to hold salt, for 

 carrying the fish from the boat to tlie splitting table. 



Driver is the old English word for a four cornered fore and aft sail 

 attached to the mizenmast of a vessel, now usually known as the spanker. 

 It is now used in Newfoundland to denote a small sail at the stern of 

 their fishing punts or boats. The rig I am imformed was common among 

 the fishermen of England and Jersey. 



Drung'd or drunge'd equivalent to thronged of which it is probably a 

 corruption. 



Duckies. Twilight is expressed as " between the duckies," an 

 expression which seems to resemble the Hebrew phrase " between the 

 two evenings." So duckish meaning dark or gloomy, which Wright and 

 Halliwell give as Dorsetshire for twilight. We may add here that the 

 break of day is expressed as the crack of the daanin. 



