Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore

by Elizabeth Mary Wright

For certes, it noon honour is to thee

To wepe, and in thy bed to iouken thus.

Chaucer, Troil. V. ll. 407-9.

Latten, Maugre, Merry, Mort

Jowl (Stf. Der. War. Shr.), an earthenware pan or vessel, Fr. jalle, ‘a soe or tub,’ Cotgr.; keeve (Sc. Irel. Glo. Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.), a large tub, a vat used for fermenting beer, Fr. cuve, ‘an open tub, a fat or vat,’ Cotgr.; lash (Sc. n.Cy. Cum. Lin. Nhp. e.An. Som.), relaxed in consequence of weakness or fatigue; as applied to fruit and grass feed: soft and watery, Fr. lasche, ‘slack, loose, weak, faint,’ Cotgr., cp. ‘That the Israelites were forbidden to eat the fruit of their new-planted trees, before the fifth year, was very agreeable unto the natural rules of husbandry; fruits being unwholesome and lash, before the fourth or fifth year,’ Sir T. Browne, Garden of Cyrus, 1658; latten (Sc. n.Cy. Nhb. Yks. Nhp. Oxf. e.An. Sus. Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.), any kind of very thin sheet-metal, tin plate, Fr. laiton, ‘lattin (metal),’ Cotgr., cp. ‘He hadde a croys of latoun ful of stones,’ Prol. l. 699; lingle (Sc. Irel. n.Cy. Nhb.), shoemakers’ thread, Fr. ligneul; lyart (Sc. n.Cy. Nhb.), of hair: streaked with grey, O.Fr. liart, ‘gris,’ La Curne; maugre (Sc. Lin. Suf.), in spite of, notwithstanding, e.g. Theäre’s a right of waay by the Milner’s Trod, and I’ll goä by it when I want, mauger the teäth of all th’lords and squires i’Linkisheer, O.Fr. maugré, ‘malgré,’ La Curne; maund (in gen. dial. use in Sc. and Eng.), a basket, a hamper, O.Fr. mande, ‘panier d’osier à deux anses,’ La Curne; mell (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Chs. Lei. Dor. Som. Dev.), to mix, mingle, to meddle, interfere, O.Fr. mesler, mêler, ‘unir ensemble,’ Hatzfeld; merry (Wm. Lan. Chs. Der. Shr. Oxf. Brks. Bck. Hnt. Sus. Hmp. I.W. Wil. Dor.), the wild cherry, Fr. merise, ‘a small bitter cherry,’ Cotgr. The English form without the s is parallel to cherry, from Fr. cerise, where the s has been supposed to be a plural suffix. Mort (in gen. dial. use in Irel. and Eng.), a quantity, a great deal, abundance, e.g. It did me a mort o’ good, There’s a mort o’fruit in the garden, Fr. (Norm. dial.) mort, in the phrase à mort, ‘en grande quantité: Le prunier a des prunes à mort,’ Moisy; mure (Sc. Yks. Cor.), to confine, as within prison-walls, Fr. murer, ‘to inclose, or shut up between two walls,’ Cotgr.; parl(e (Sc. Yks. Lan. Chs. Lin. Glo. Brks.), to talk, converse, O.Fr. parler, cp. ‘Patriarkes and prophetes han parled her-of long,’ Piers Plow. B, XVIII. l. 268; peel (in gen. dial. use in Sc. and Eng.), a flat, long-headed shovel, generally of wood, used for taking bread and pies in and out of a brick oven, O.Fr. pele, ‘pelle,’ La Curne; pelt (in gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. and Eng.), a skin, hide, Fr. (Norm. dial.) pelette, ‘morceau de peau de mouton, avec sa laine,’ Moisy; percage (Nhb.), a little sheltering cot for a man at a check gate, a shelter used by shepherds when sheep are lambing, O.Fr. parcage, ‘enceinte pour parquer les bestiaux,’ La Curne; quail, quell (Nhp. Bdf. e.An.), of milk: to curdle, to turn sour, O.Fr. coailler, to curdle; quiddy (Sus.), what do you say? Fr. que dis-tu?; race (Nhb. Dur. Chs. War. Suf.), a root, especially of ginger, O.Fr. raïs, raïz, a root, cp. ‘a race or two of ginger,’ Wint. T., IV. iii. 50; regrater (Dev. Cor.), one who buys butter, fruit, &c., from the farmers to sell in the market, O.Fr. regratier, a huckster, cp. ‘Rose þe regratere was hir riȝte name,’ Piers Plow. B, V. l. 226; rigol (Shr.), a small gutter or channel, a surface-drain, Fr. rigole, ‘a trench, drain, gutter,’ Cotgr.; scute (Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.), a sum of money, a present, reward, payment, O.Fr. escut (Mod. écu), a buckler, shield, a coin; spairge (Sc. Nhb. Yks. Der.), to dash, to scatter broadcast, to sprinkle, Fr. asperger, ‘to besprinkle; to sprinkle, or strew water or dust upon,’ Cotgr.; stravaig (Sc. Irel. n.Cy. Nhb.), to wander about aimlessly, to stroll, saunter, O.Fr. estravaguer, from Low Latin extravagari, to wander out or beyond; suant (Gmg. Glo. Sus. Hmp. I.W. Wil. Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.), smooth, even, regular, &c., O.Fr. suant, pres. part. of sivre, to follow; tass(e (Sc. Yks. e.An.), a cup, glass, a bowl, Fr. tasse; urchin (in gen. dial. use in Sc. and Eng.), a hedgehog, e.g. Hoo’s getten a tung sharp enough for t’shave a urchant (Lan.), O.Fr. eriçon, heriçon, cp. ‘I shal putte it in to the possession of an irchoun,’ Wyclif, Isaiah xiv. 23; venell (Sc. Irel. n.Cy. Nhb. Yks.), an alley, a narrow lane or passage, Fr. venelle, a little street, Hatzfeld.

French Words peculiar to Scotland

There are certain French words peculiar to Scotland, but their number is not very large, for most of the French words found in Scotland belong also to parts of England. Examples of the exclusively Scottish loan-words are: ashet, a dish, Fr. assiette; cashie, delicate, not able to endure fatigue, also soft, flabby, not of good quality, Fr. cassé, ‘broken, quasht in pieces; also cassed; also decaied, worn, or broken with age,’ Cotgr.; evite, to avoid, escape, Fr. éviter, to avoid; fier, plur., the prices of grain legally fixed in each county for the current year, O.Fr. feur (foer, fuer), ‘prix, valeur,’ La Curne; graduwa, gradawa, a physician, a doctor with a medical degree, Fr. gradué, ‘a graduate, one that hath taken a degree in an University,’ Cotgr.; gillem, a carpenter’s or joiner’s tool, a rabbet-plane, Fr. guillaume, ‘rabot à fer étroit, échancré, pour faire les rainures,’ Hatzfeld; jupe, a woman’s skirt, or short petticoat, O.Fr. jupe; pirlicue, a brief résumé or recital given at the close of a series of addresses or sermons of the principal subjects and points treated, Fr. ‘par la queue, par le bout, par la fin,’ Littré; pownie, a peacock, Fr. paon; retour, a return, Fr. retour; skellat, a small bell, a hand-bell, O.Fr. eschalette, esqualette, escalette, a little bell; souflet, a stroke, blow, Fr. soufflet, ‘a box or cuff on the ear,’ Cotgr.; stance, a standing-place, position, a site, O.Fr. estance, a condition, situation; trance, a passage within a house, an entrance-hall, &c., O.Fr. transe, ‘passage,’ Godefroy; vivers, food, provision, Fr. vivres, food; vizzy, a look, view, a scrutinizing gaze, Fr. visée, ‘a levelling, or ayming at with the eye, a level or aym taken,’ Cotgrave.

The Development of ‘Mooch’

A loan-word which has undergone a curious development of meanings is the common dialect word mooch (in gen. dial. use in Sc. and Eng.), meech, or mitch. In O.E. there must have been an unrecorded form mȳcan, which gave the dialect form mitch. This O.E. mȳcan corresponds to the O.H.G. mūhhan, to lie lurking secretly, to waylay a person with intent to do him bodily harm, a word which remains in the Modern German Meuchelmord. The German word passed into Northern French, and underwent the Norman-French change of hh [ch as in Sc. loch] to tch [as in such], becoming moucher. In this stage the Normans brought the word to this country, where it developed a curious category of meanings: 1. To idle and loaf about, generally with the idea of seeing what one can pick up on the sly; to pilfer, e.g. That owd black cat goes mouchin’ about, in an’ out uv folkses ’ousen, ’er’ll sure to get shot one uv these daays. Hence moocher, a pilferer, a loafer, one who dogs another by stealth; a beggar; a hawker. 2. To play truant, especially to play truant in order to gather blackberries; to absent oneself from business, e.g. My lad’s been mouching again. Hence moocher, a truant from school, especially one who plays truant in order to gather blackberries; hence a gatherer of blackberries, a blackberry-moocher. 3. In the Imperative, mooch means Be off! 4. The phrase on the mooch means gone off loafing. 5. Mooch sb. means a blackberry. Meanwhile a further development in form took place on the Continent; the Norman-French moucher passed into Central French, and underwent the ordinary change of tch to ss, thereby becoming musser, and later muser, to lurk in a corner, preserved in the Modern French reflexive verb se muser, to play truant. From musser was derived the substantive musse, defined in Littré as a narrow passage through a wall or a hedge for hares, rabbits, and other game. This Central French word musse was brought over to England in the reign of Henry VII, as a hunting term, together with many other words of the same kind. It is common in English works of the seventeenth century in the form muse, familiar to us in the old English proverbial saying:

Take a hare without a muse,