112 Comments on Mafan’s Supplement to Fobnfon's Didtionary. [Sept. ty 
fortnight; but, owing to a difagreement 
with the owner of the rooms, they have 
been difcontinued. “Two balls in the year 
are given at Caftletown, one on the King’s 
birth-day, the other on the Queen’s ; 
and there are frequent private dances.— 
Cards likewife are a favourite amufement 
of their leifure hours. At Ramfay, dur. 
_ ing the laft winter, a mode of entertain- 
ment was fabitituted, which did the refi- 
dents in that little town infinite credit, as 
it evinced a refinement of tafte that would 
do honour to the moft polifned metropolis. 
AA fociety of ladies and gentlemen was 
formed, which met three evenings in the 
week for the purpofe of reading Shake- 
fpeare. The library of the ‘gentleman 
who fuggefted the idea, afforded fix copies, 
and others were colleéted in the neighbour: 
hood, fo that each charaGter of the drama 
was fupported by a feparate individual.— 
Trifling diftinétions of drefs and decora- 
tions were introduced to prevent confu- 
fon, and this rational plan was unremit- 
tingly purfued, until thofe of our immer- 
tal author’s works which were thought 
proper to be read, were gonethrough, fe- 
veral of them repeatedly. 
Thus have I attempted to give you a 
faint idea of this little ifland, from which 
T am on the point of failing, not without 
eeling confiderable regret at quitting a 
place, where, during my fhort ftay, I 
have experienced attention and kindnefs 
that-will never be effaced from my me- 
mory. Ww. 
Douglas, Ife of Man, 
May 16th, 1802. 
—— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
DESULTORY COMMENTS 02 MASON’S 
SUPPLEMENT fo JOHNSON’S DICTIO- 
NARY. 
(Continued from page 208 of Vol. xiit.) 
| NAKE. 
O nake, for to unfheathe, to bare a 
weapon, derives, fays Mr. Mafon, 
from naked. Reverfely zaked 1s the par- 
ticiple of the infinitive to zake. In the 
Finlandith tongue aabea fignifies the fkin; 
but, as the Gothic diale&ts have feldom 
their etymons from the Sclavonian, it is 
more probable to fuppofe the old fubftan- 
tive, whence the verb to zake was formed, 
collateral -with the German zacken, which 
fignifies the mane, the hair growing at 
_ the back of the neck, the chiguon (as the 
French call it) of the human fpecies. 
Eine Frauenzimmer den Nacken machen, 
{s to lift the hair which covers the nape, 
to lay bare the neck, to expofe what is 
z 
ufually covered. The Mzfozothic Anaz- 
wgan, to humiliate, te expofe, is pro- ~~ 
bably the collateral verb of the Englifli . 
to nake. feet Ae 
_Neife.—Neife, or rather xeiwe, as Mre 
Maton rightly obferves, fignifies a woman 
born in villanage: it is probably derived 
from xe?f, the fit: we ttill fay of a man’s 
dependants—he has them under bis thumb. 
From neive defcends the French fub‘tan- 
tive maiveté, which means pronenefs to 
uncon{cious indecorum, as happens in 
women of low education. This word 
has been wifhed for by fome Englifh 
writers; we might come at the ana- 
logous or collateral word, by formin 
firtt the adjective zezvi/h, then the fubftan- 
ftantive neivi/baefs. 
Nefh.—Mr. Mafon is at a lofs for 
printed authority to fupport the word 
nefo; it is ufed in Fofbrooke’s Economy 
ot Monattic Life (p. 21.) ‘* nefh acactas.”” 
By-the-bye, this epithet is unfortunate ; 
for ze/h originally meant dazk, moi/?, juicy 
(fo in Belgic zefch weder is wet weather) 
and theretore foft, tender, young, when 
applied to the fhoots of trees: now the 
acacia is a very dry and brittle plant. 
Non-attendance, Non-claim, &c.—Of 
all the words collected by Johnfon and 
Mafon, which are compounded with xox, 
only one is of Saxon delcent—non-fparing : 
it is employed by Shakfpeare as an epithet 
for war. Such hybrid words accord ill 
with the fpirit of the language 5 it would | 
be better to read zoze-/paring, or un 
Sparing. 
Outrecuidance.—\t may be neceffary to _ 
record this fubftantive in a,gloffary, in ~ 
order to render intelligible fome old 
writer; but what claim has it to a place- 
in the dictionary of our current and legi- 
timate fiock of words? It anfwers pre- - 
cifely, in ftru€ture and fignification, to 
the: Englifh word over weening. From 
the Anglofaxon cwothan (whence our 
indeclinable verb guoth), or rather from its 
Frankith collateral, defcends the French 
erb cuider, to mean, to imagine. ‘Thus 
Voiture :— 
Le Comte-Duc evida mourir. ey 
And again in the Triomphe des Mufes :—~«* 
Amour oztrecuideé, 
Qui eut jamais cuide 
- Qu’enffes contre les Mufes 
Ongues voulu penfer ? 
From this verb cuider derives the fub< 
ftantive.cuidance, and the compound ouiré= 
cuidance, which occurs in Benferade :— 
a ee 
« 
Celine fut punie de fon outre-cuidance. 
Phie 
