"But there is, sir, an aiery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyranically clapped for't."
(Hamlet, ii. 2.)
Somewhat similar is the loss in French of initial a in la boutique for l'aboutique, Greco-Lat. apotheca, and la Pouille for l'Apouille, Apulia, or of the initial l in ounce, a kind of tiger-cat, from Fr. once, earlier lonce, "the ounce, a ravenous beast" (Cotgrave), taken as l'once. It is almost a doublet of lynx.
The opposite has happened in the case of a newt for an ewt and a nick-name for an eke-name. Eke, also, occurs in the first stanza of John Gilpin. It is cognate with Ger. auch, also, and Lat. augere, to increase. Nuncle, the customary address of a court fool to his superiors—
"How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters."
(Lear, i. 4.)
is for mine uncle. We also find naunt. Nonce occurs properly only in the phrase for the nonce, which is for earlier for then ones, where then is the dative of the definite article. Family names like Nash, Nokes are aphetic for atten ash, at the ash, atten oakes, at the oaks. The creation of such forms was perhaps helped by our tendency to use initial n in Christian names, e.g., Ned for Edward, Noll for Oliver, Nell for Ellen.
AGGLUTINATION OF THE ARTICLE
Agglutination of the definite article is common in French, e.g., lingot, ingot, lierre, ivy, for l'ierre, Lat. hedera, and the dialect lévier, sink, for évier, Lat. aquarium, whence Eng. ewer. The derivation of Fr. landier, andiron, is unknown, but the iron of the English word is due to folk-etymology. Such agglutination occurs often in family names such as Langlois, lit. the Englishman, Lhuissier, the usher (see p. [90]), and some of these have passed into English, e.g., Levick for l'évêque, the bishop.
The two words alarm and alert include the Italian definite article. The first is Ital. all'arme, to arms, for a le arme, and the second is all'erta for alla (a la) erta, the last word representing Lat. erecta. With rolled r, alarm becomes alarum, whence the aphetic larum—