77 



Spaniards into Albarcoque, suffered further changes in Apri- 

 kose, abricot, apricock, &c. That the Romans called the same 

 fruit not merely after its country (see Gibbon, chap, ii.), but 

 likewise its precocious nature, appears from Dioscorides, i.l G6. 



3. Bacon. Anno 813 the plural baccones occurs, but the 

 Latin singular has no n. It proceeds from the Dutch backe, 

 the valued part of the hog, mature for bacon, being his back, 

 in which state, accordingly, we find his name in Latin bacha- 

 rus ; flat German, back-beest ; Spanish, cerdo de muerte, dif- 

 ferent from cerdo de vida, as still allowed to live. 



4. Blackguard. Of the seven French words, begards, be- 

 guard, begueule, beguelerie, beguin, beguine, beguinage, only 

 two appear in English, namely, biggin (beguin), and beguard ; 

 this the untutored speaker, to accommodate his immediate 

 intelligence, has changed into blackguard, joining other for- 

 mations of his, beefeater, bridegroom, &c. Chronicles and 

 glossaries abound with the various names and scandal of those 

 converse and conversi sine voto monastico, &c, who lived by 

 begging, preaching, &c. Among their multifarious verbal off- 

 spring (see also Bribe) there are none harmless except biggin, 

 as worn by the female portion called beguina, begyne, begge- 

 wine, &c. ; who, being sorores converses, were consequently also 

 novitise, and this novitiate of their's was rendered German by 

 the verb beginnen, to begin, whence their name. The Latin 

 name of the men occurs as Begardi, Beghardi, &c. ; conver- 

 sus in German being bekehrt, formerly bekahrt (comp. gelahrt 

 for gelehrt, in Gothe's Egmont, ii. 1), of the verb bekehren, 

 to convert. The root of this verb, very frequent in German, 

 is thus discoverable in three English words, awkward, black- 

 guard, and churn. 



5. Burden answers to Bi/rde and Bourdon. In songs on 

 Aurelian, his soldiers repeated " mille, mille, mille occidit," 

 such humming repetition was called fremitus, whence fredon, 

 bourdon. 



