We must turn to page 316, if we would know the source of ‘to make a fool of myself;’ we there find, ‘ich habbe ibeon fol of me sulven’ (concerning myself). In page 46 we find mention of ‘a large creoiz;’ this shows that the adjective was getting the meaning of magnus as well as of prodigus. The French creoiz was not to drive out the Danish kross; though the English rood was unhappily to vanish almost entirely. Many technical words of religion come in, such as silence and wardein; at page 42 we see the stages in the derivation of a well-known word, antiphona, antempne, antefne; anthem was to come later. At page 192 may be found the phrase gentile wummen.[1] We light upon spitel (hospital) and mester, afterwards corrupted into mystery, a confusion with the Greek word. At page 202 we see the source of ‘he is but a poor creature;’ for the term cowardice is there said to embrace the poure iheorted. The old French garser (page 258) supplied us with the word garses, that is, gashes. The old English caser (Cæsar) was altered into kaiser, a word lately brought to life again in our land by Mr. Carlyle. The letters ea had taken such fast root in the West, that even French words had to suit themselves to this peculiarly English combination; in page 58 we find our well-known beast. We light upon the source of our Jewry, as Judæa is sometimes translated in our Bible, when we read at page 394 that God ‘leide himsulf vor us ine Giwerie.’ The first letter, a sound borrowed from France, shows us how we came to soften the old brig into bridge. At page 44 we
- ↑ This phrase, Thackeray tells us, was admired by Miss Honeyman more than any word in the English vocabulary.
