8 Mary Crawford 
tory expletive, frequent in OE. narratives. Beowulf and An- 
dreas open with this form. Hzwet stands at the beginning of a 
new topic. It serves as introduction to an address in the midst 
of a longer speech. Less forcefully, it is used as a weak inter- 
jection, in which office it persists as late as the sixteenth cen- 
tury. As in modern English, it frequently introduces declara- 
tive, as well as interrogative, sentences. (Cf. Wulfing, Syntax 
in den Werken Alfreds des Grossen, 688 ff.) According to 
Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, iv, 448 ff., this use of the neuter 
of the interrogative pronoun as an exclamation is peculiar to 
Old English and Old Saxon. 
Magnyfycence, 288, Magn: What! I have aspyed ye are a 
carles page. Magn., 384, Fansy: What! sholde you pynche at 
a pecke of grotes. York Plays, xv, 44, Pastor: Say, felowes, 
what! York, xxvi, 184, Janitor: What! demes pou till oure 
dukes... . York, xxviii, 287, Malcus: What! ille hayle! I hope 
I be hole. Everyman: What! weenest thou that I am thine? 
why. OE. hwi hwy, instrumental of hwet or hwa, used adverb- 
ially. Cf. also why expressing anger (IV). 
Everyman: Why, ye said if'I had need. York Plays, x, 189, 
Isaac: Why! fadir, will God pat I be slayne? York, xi, 314, 
Rex: Why! is ther greuaunce growen agayne? Magnyfycence, 
1307, Fansy: Why, shall I not haue Foly with me also? Magn., 
509, Counterfeit Countenance: Why, shall we dwell togyder all 
thre? Magn., 510, Crafty Conveyance: Why, man, it were to 
great a wonder. 
II. Consternation, Terror 
In the list of interjections expressing terror are found a few 
peculiar forms which are of rare occurrence, but which are, there- 
fore, of greater force. Others, more common, are listed under 
several headings. The word harrow might well have been in- 
cluded in this division since there is a close connection between 
the feeling of fear and a cry for rescue. Examples of this in- 
terjection, however, are cited under calls for help, XVI (1). 
dewes. Perhaps equivalent to modern deuce! But cf. the Ox- 
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