226 ON ERRATA RECEPTA. 



or twisted cake to be found generally on the table of country-inns, 

 is an uncbanged Low German word. 



3. In tbe animal kingdom,— we give to a certain kind of fisb the 

 name of bass. "We have here a corruption of the German bars, 

 which is properly the perch. Again, the rein-deer is in reality the 

 running-deer, being the German renn-thier, derived from rennen, to 

 run. Reynard, the popular sobriquet for the fox, which, in French, 

 supplanting goulpil, has ceased to be a proper name, is the German 

 Reinhart or Reginhart, * powerful in counsel,' the title given to the 

 fox in the celebrated fable of Reineke de Vos, written in 1498, by 

 Nicholas Baumann, under the pseudonym of H. van Alkmaar. 



The syllable mouse in titmouse is an Anglicising of the Low Ger- 

 man musch, which is simply ' sparrow.' In like manner, * hammer ' 

 in yellow-hammer, is the High German ammer, i.e. the bird called 

 a 'bunting.' Cob-web is the web of the spinnekop. Low German 

 for * spider.' Capon is kupphahn. By fugleman, flugel-man is in- 

 tended to be said. — Isinglass in English, is hausenblase in German : 

 on which side is the corruption ? 



A common United-States and Canadian term, denoting a pair of 

 horses, is the Low German span, in the phrase een span paarden, a 

 team or set of horses. Unapprised of this verbal usage, the English 

 reader would not catch the supposed wit of the American fast youth 

 who, on hearing that " Life is but a span," is reported to have re- 

 marked, " And I am your man to drive it." 



4. In the vegetable world : our bass-wood (the lime, linden, tilia 

 or whitewood,) is more correctly bast-wood, from the Low German 

 word bast, inner bark. Krause-beere, the rough berry, has been 

 transformed by us into gooseberry. Dr. Johnson suggested gorse- 

 herry. The French have made it grosseille. Pompion (pumpkin) 

 is the Low German pompoen. Has cranberry anything to do with 

 kronsbeere ? Cabbage comes to us from the Low German kabuis- 

 kool, headed-cole ; but this is from the Italian cappuccio. 



5. In relation to money, — groat is the Low German groot, and 

 signifies the great coin, equivalent to four silver pennies. With 

 this compare groschen and the French gros sou. Shilling is schild- 

 ing, the coin bearing a shield with the royal or national arms. Some 

 say it is from the Swedish skilja, to divide. — Dollar is thaler, coin 

 struck in the first instance (A.D. 1518), from silver of the Thai of 

 Joachim in Bohemia. Here, again, others will have it that the word 



