He sawe that the heavens opened, and the goost as a dove commynge downe upon Him.—Mark i. 10. Coverdale.
Girl. A child, and this of either sex. In Middle English the phrase ‘knave gerlys’ occurs in the sense of boys. It fared in early English not otherwise with ‘wench’ (which see).
Thorw wyn and thorw women there was Loth acombred,
And there gat in glotonye gerlis that were cherlis.
Piers Plowman, B-text, Passus i. 32 (Skeat).
In daunger he hadde at his owne assise
The yonge gurles of the diocise,
And knew here counseil.
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, The Prologue, 663
(Morris, ii. p. 21).
Gist. This, the Old French ‘giste,’ from the old ‘gésir’ (Latin ‘jacēre’) meant formerly, as the French word ‘gîte’ means still, the place where one lodges for the night. A scroll containing the route and resting places of a royal party during a progress was sometimes so called. For the connexion between ‘gist’ in this sense and ‘gist’ as we use it now see Skeat’s Dictionary.