axtree, axle-tree. Drayton, Pol. i. 498. Still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ax, sb.1 3). OE. œx-trēo.
aygulets, an aglet, metal tag. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 25. A doublet of aglet. Spenser seems to speak here of the bright metal tops or tags of lace, which he likens to stars; as in Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 4. 2. F. aiguillette, a point (Cotgr.), dimin. of aiguille, a needle.
ayle, a grandfather. ‘Ayle, Pere, and Fitz, grandfather, father, and son’, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, i (Jerry). ME. ayel, grandfather (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2477). Norm. F. aiel (Moisy).
azoch, ‘azoth’, the alchemist’s name for quicksilver. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Surly). Also spelt assogue. F. assogue; Span. azogue, quicksilver; Arab. az-zāūq; zāūq is adapted from Pers. zhīwah (jīvah), quicksilver. See NED., Ducange, and Dozy, Glossaire (s.v. Azogue).
B
babion, baboon. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Amorphus); Drayton, Man in the Moon, 331; spelt babyone Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 124, l. 163. F. ‘babion, a babion or baboone’ (Cotgr.).
bable, a ‘bauble’, a toy, trick, fancy. ‘Has fill’d my head So full of bables’ (some edd. baubles), Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4. 7; ‘That bable called love’, Lyly, Endimion, iii. 3 (Epi.). OF. babel, baubel, a child’s plaything (Godefroy); beau + bel, cp. F. bonbon.
bace, (Spenser); see [base].
bacharach, backrack, the name of a wine. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 2 (Vandunke); Bacrack, Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 300. From Bacharach, on the Rhine. See [backrag].
back, a bat. Backes or reermice; Golding, Metam., iv. 415; fol. 49 (1603). The pl. backes is the form used by Wyclif, Coverdale and the Geneva Bible, in Isaiah ii. 20, where AV. has battes, see NED. (s.v. Bat). In Scotland the usual word for the bat is Backie (or Backie-bird), see EDD. (s.v. Backie, sb.1 1 and 2).