THE BADGER. 3 



places which have been named after it. Its ancient name appears 

 in Brockhurst, Shropshire ; Brockenhurst, Kent ; Brocken- 

 borough, Wiltshire ; Brockford, Suffolk ; Brockhall, Northamp- 

 tonshire; Brockhampton, Oxford, Dorset, Gloucester, and 

 Herefordshire ; Brockham Green, Surrey ; Brockholes, Lanca- 

 shire and Yorkshire; Brock-le-Bank, in Cumberland ; Brocklesby, 

 Lincolnshire ; Brockley, Suffolk, Somersetshire, Herefordshire, 

 and Kent; Brockmoor, in Staffordshire; and Brockworth, in 

 Gloucestershire. 



This name for the animal, evidently of Celtic origin, is found 

 in Welsh and Cornish broch, in Irish and Gaelic broc, and in 

 Danish broc, and was bestowed doubtless on account of its striped 

 face. In Gaelic we have brocach, meaning "speckled" or 

 " grayish," and the Danish word broget has a similar meaning. 

 The less familiar name " Bawson " has much the same significa- 

 tion, baicsened meaning " striped with white." 



Another old-fashioned name for the Badger, viz. the Gray, 

 in French le Gris, had likewise reference to its colour. The 

 animal is thus designated in the ' Book of St. Albans,' 1486 (fol. 

 iiij. rev.), and in many early treatises on hunting. In some of the 

 old " Household Books," too, may be found entries of payments 

 made for robes and cloaks furred loith gris, others being bordered 

 with fox or coney, thus indicating the use to which the Badger's 

 skin was formerly applied. The derivation of the word " Badger " 

 has been variously explained, or, as Bell puts it, is " of very 

 uncertain origin." He quotes Skinner, who derives it from the 

 Teutonic back, the jaw, as if backer, on account of the animal's 

 great strength of jaw; but this seems very far-fetched. Professor 

 Skeat regards it as "a nickname, the true sense of M. E , badger 

 or bager being ' a dealer in corn,' and it was, presumably jocularly, 

 transferred to the animal because it either fed or was supposed 

 to feed upon corn." " This fanciful origin," he adds, " is verified 

 by the fact that the animal was similarly named blaireau in 

 French, from ble, corn." But this is surely quite wrong. The 

 diminutive termination of the word blaireau, seen in perdreau, 

 faisandeatu, lapereau, &c, suggests some other etymology. Perhaps 

 it would be again too "fanciful" to suggest a derivation from the 

 verb bleuir, to turn bluish, or greyish, although it may be remarked 

 that bleu is sometimes used in the sense of " blue-gray," or " gray," 

 e.g., in the case of the so-called "blue hound of La Vendee." 



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