Garret in the sense of watch-tower, is obsolete now, but remained in Newcastle-on-Tyne into last century, cp. ‘garyteȝ ful gaye gered bi-twene,’Sir Gaw., l. 791, O.Fr. garite, a tower on the walls of a town; gossip (Sc. Irel. Yks. Lan. Lin. Lei. War. Shr. Hrf. Suf. Som. Dev. Cor.), a godparent, a sponsor at baptism, O.E. godsibb, a sponsor; haunt (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Yks. Chs. Som.), a custom, practice, e.g. at your oud hants, at your old habits, cp. ‘Of cloth-makyng she hadde such an haunt,’ Chaucer, Prol. l. 447; hind (n. dials. also Sus. Dev. Cor.), a farm-labourer, servant, or bailiff. The final d is excrescent, and the word is formed from O.E. hī(g)na, gen. pl. of hīwa, hīga, member of a family, servant, M.E. hine, cp.:
Ther nas baillif, ne herde, ne other hyne,
That he ne knew his sleighte and his covyne [deceit].
Prol. ll. 603-4.
Hugger-mugger, Lead, Learn
In hugger-mugger (Sh.I. Nhb. Yks. Der. Suf. Dev.), clandestinely, privately, in a sneaking way, cp. ‘that his body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger, et non point à cachettes,’ North’s Plutarch, 1579, cp. Hamlet, IV. v. 67; imp (Sc. Dur. Cum. Yks. Hrf. Rdn. Dev.), a shoot from a tree or fence, a sucker, an ingrafted slip, O.E. impa, a sucker, scion; lead (Sh.I. Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Not. Lin. Rut. War. Shr.), to carry, cart, convey goods by cart, used especially of corn or hay, O.E. lǣdan, M.E. leden, to lead, to carry, cp.:
With him ther was a Ploughman, was his brother,
That hadde i-lad of dong ful many a fother [load].
Prol. ll. 529, 530.
Learn (gen. dials.), to teach, e.g. ’E nivver larnt me nowt, he never taught me anything. In O.E. the two verbs lǣran, to teach, and leornian, to learn, were kept quite separate in meaning, but already in M.E. lernen sometimes took over the sense of leren. Chaucer has: ‘To lerne a lewed [ignorant] man this subtilte,’ Chanounes Yemannes Tale, l. 844, cp. ‘Lead me forth in thy truth and learn me,’ Prayer Book Ps., XXV. 4. In a Northamptonshire churchyard, there is an epitaph on a village singing-master, dated 1729, which runs as follows: