The Norse skil (discretion) is first found at page 61; and the Norse cast (torquere) at page 47. At page 131 may be found our verb thrust, coming from the Norse þrŷsta: ‘he to-þruste þa stelene gate.’ At page 43, we see our smother (there called smorðer), which is nearer related to the Low German of the mainland than to the Old English smorian. Siker, akin to securus, now first appears.
We may often find an old pedigree for a word that is now reckoned slangy. We are told at page 15 that we ought to restrain the evil done by thieves; the verb used is wiðstewen, afterwards repeated in the Legend of St. Margaret. Hence comes the phrase, ‘stow that nonsense;’ this may be found in Scott and Dickens.[1] Our verb lick, as used in polite society, can boast of the best of Teutonic pedigrees; as commonly used by schoolboys, it is but a corruption of the Welsh llachiaw (ferire). From this last may also come our flog, even as Lloyd and Floyd are due to one and the same source.
We may compare the Moral Ode of the date of these Homilies with its transcript a few years later. In this latter, W is much oftener employed for the old g or y in the middle of a word; as drawen, owen. Thanks to the corruption found in this last verb, we have two distinct forms for debeo: I owe money, and I ought to pay. The encroachment of w upon g or y may be remarked in another Southern work of about the same date, the Poem on the Soul and Body, printed from a Worcester manuscript by Sir Thomas Phillipps. In pages 2 and 6 of this work, we
- ↑ In Hard Times comes the phrase, ‘Kidderminster, stow that;’ i.e. ‘be quiet.’
