1801.] Comments on Mafon’s § upplement to Fabnfin’s Ditionary. 503 
For the Monthly Magazine. | 
PESULTORY COMMENTS 0” MASON’S 
SUPPLEMENT to JOHNSON’S DICTIO- 
NARY. 
(Continued from page 291.) 
BAFFUL. 
CRS bafful is a. mere orthographic va- 
riety of the very common verb Zo 
baffle: its French etymon bafouer is pro- 
b&bly a contraction of basfouler, to tread 
under foot.. Fhe Italians, however, have 
beffare. ‘ 
Band.—To band, in the fenfe to banifh, : 
is not only a folecifm, but, which is 
worfe, an ambiguity: to ban is the cor- 
re&t {pelling. At leaft no traces of a d 
occur in the Anglo-Saxon baza, and its 
derivatives ; in the Friefifh az; or in the- 
Teutonic, baz, interdi&, jurifdicion; 
bannen, to excommunicate, to banifh; 
bannfiein, a. frontier-ftone, &¢.—which 
are all words of.the fame family. The 
primary meaning of baz is doubtful: may 
it mot have been employed in Druidical . 
religion, and applied to bardic excommu- 
nion, beforeit was transferred to Chriftian 
interdiét? It is till common in our courts > 
of juftice to bid the culprit ** ftand up,” 
which in the Cornifh diale&t would be 
exprefled by the words yz baz. Among 
the Welfh, daz means a hill: fo that a 
Cimbric pedigree is probable. Junius is 
for travelling back to the laws of Taren- 
tum; not of Howel Dha. 
Banifter.—According. to Dr. Johnfon, 
halufier; according to Mr. Mat{on, ba- 
uifier; is the proper name of thofe. rail- 
pofts, or ornamented -pillarets, which 
builders often employ to fupport the ledge 
of a ftair-cafe, the frontcon of a gallery, 
the fill of a widow, the parapet of a ter- 
vas, or the cornifa of a roof.. Dr. John- 
fon lgans on Ducange, and derives his 
word, moft improbably, from balazfirium, 
a bathing-place. Mr. Mafon offers no 
etymological theory of the origin, and no 
literary authority tor the ufe of dis word, 
The denomination has travelled hither 
through books of architecture, is of 
Italian defcent, and appears to have thus 
Originated. In the antient fortification, 
towns were commonly inclofed by a thick 
and high mound of earth piled between 
walls. The broad and f{mooth terras 
a-top was in peace the walk,-and in war 
the ftation of the burghers. This ram- 
part was commonly girt in with a parapet= 
wall, pierced with frequent bow-loops, 
whence the befieged could fhoot with ad- 
vantage at their affailants. The roofs of 
catles were furrounded with fimilar brealt. 
= t 
A 
works. From the Latin balifa, a crofs- 
bow, derives the Italian balefir>,, and 
thence balefiriera, a bow-loop. The 
balhiffers, therefore, for fo the word fhould 
be written, are the bew-loops, or perpen-> 
dicular interftices of a parapet-wall; and 
a balifirade is a feries of fuch interftices. — 
The latter word came firft into vulgar ufe, 
and the mafons, fuppofing it named from 
its folid parts, mifapplied the term bakjfer 
to the props inftead of the vacuities. 
Bafen.—In common converfation one 
talks of the broad round ftare, the faucer- 
eyes of wonder: it would not be ftretching © 
the hyberbole much wider to talk of his 
bafin-eyes. Surely Spenfer has done fo in 
the paflace— 
Then gan the courtiers gaze on ev’ry fide, 
And ftare on him with big looks, bafen wide. 
Bafhlefs.—For the ufe of this word Mr. 
Majfon produces no authority: he alludes, 
however, to fome modern fatirift, as 
having employed it, and explains its mean- . 
ing by /obamelefs: forely it ought rather 
to be interpreted haughty. : 
From the French verb baiffer, to ftosp, 
derives the Englith verb to abafb, which 
is ufed by Chaucer in its primitive fen : 
The fudden cafe this man aftonied fo, ; 
That red he wex, abaif?, and all quaking 
He ftood. The Clerke’s Tale. 
and Milton fays of beauty, 
Her plumes fall flat 
At every fudden flighting quite abajby. 
Paradife Regained. 
Humility, by its habitual effect ; fear, 
during the firft retrogreflion ; and difgrace, 
while the impreffion is recent ; fuperinduce 
on the bodily frame a floping or bowed- 
nefs of attitude. It is natural, therefore, 
to apply the word abafh as defcriptive. of 
the fhrinking of humility, the recoil of 
fear, or the collapfe of difgrace. Thus 
Chaucer fays of Grifilde— 
Right naught was the abaifi of her clothing, 
Though it were rude, 
and Dryden, of the Olympian Divinities— 
Nor could the gods aba/bt fuftain their fove= 
~ reign’s look. 
and Milton— 
Abafbt the Devil flood. 
and Shakefpeare very characteriftically— 
Hence, ba/hful cunning. 
In all thefe inflances looping is the ra- 
dical idea ; and the words gbafb and ba/b- 
ful are metaphorically applied to fuch 
paffions of mind as may be fuppofed) to 
occafion that ateitude of body, . 
Bafhfus 
~ 
cM Oe) 
