510 Mr. Pickering on the present state of the English language 
it is not to be found in the dictionaries. ‘The English reviewers use it. 
PROXIES, This word is thus noticed by Mr. Kendal, in his Travels, vol. i. p. 
32. “The written votes or ballots, which through a mistake, or else abuse: 
of terms, the statutes occasionally call froxies.” This use of the term 
firoxies is unknown, I believe, in any other state than Rhode Island, and, 
perhaps, Connecticut. 
PUBLISHMENT ; an official notification, made by the clerks of towns in New. 
England, of an intended marriage. The term is in common use in most 
parts of New England, and is also adopted in some of their laws. “Any 
persons desiring to be joined in marriage shall have such their intentions 
published...or posted up by the clerk of such town; and a certificate of such 
fublishment....shall be produced as aforesaid previous to their marriage.” - 
Massachusetts Stat. June 22,1786. In England-they use the word fiwdli- 
cation of the banns: “ Marriage must be preceded by fudlication of the 
banns.” Rees’s Cyclo. v. MARRIAGE. 
PUNK; rotten wood, touchwood, spunk. A friend has mentioned this to 
me as one of our corruptions of the English language. The word is in 
common use in many, if not all parts of New England, but it is not to be. 
, found in this sense in any of the dictionaries. _ Ash, however, in the Sup- 
plement to his dictionary, has the following signification of it : “—a kind 
of fungus often used for tinder ;” but Bailey gives this meaning to the word 
sfunk, Mr. Webster has spunk. 
R. 
RACKETS; (used in the flural ;) a common term in some parts of New 
England, for the same things which in other parts are called snow-shoes. 
They are called rackets, no doubt, from their resemblance to the rackets 
used in playing tennis. 
RAFTY ; damp and musty, rancid. I have heard this word used by old people 
in New England. It isan English provincial word: “Rafty; damp and 
musty, as corn or hay in a wet season.” Marshall’s Rural Economy & 
Norfolk. 
To RAISE, In Wew England the farmers commonly say fo raise corn, wheat, 
&c.; butin England at the present day they say, to grow corn, &c. and this 
