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start of addendum - Provincial Words |
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3rd edn addenda, page 302:-
stockings have been called hose on account of their
throat-like appearance.
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cap
cob
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Cap, or Cob, means head, master, top, &c. Hence the common
word cobby means heady, tyrannical, and hence cobnut (or
job-nut) means a strift for mastery between the contending
nuts.
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atter
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Atter, it is well known signifies blood or gore, and hence
we have a very characteristic meaning in the name of
attercob given in these parts to the spider; i.e. a bloody
tyrant. Mr. Whitaker derives this word from the Welch term
Adyrcop, signifying the top-insect, in allusion to its
common residence in the tops of houses, but I imagine the
above is the more likely etymology, as it is more
significant of its sanguinary manner of living.
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scale
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Scale, means to spread or disperse abroad. It is used in the
following passage of Shakespear's Coriolanus, and, after
puzzling the former editors, was only discovered by Mr.
Stevens in the last edition.
--- I shall tell you
A pretty tale, it may be you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To scale't a little more.
Thus much respecting the meaning of words; what follows is a
concluding remark with regard to sound.
One would think there is so great a likeness in the form of
these originally Saxon or British words, wound, sound,
hound, ground, pound, &c. that there could be no variation
in the form of pronouncing them, wherever they were all
used. Yet, the word wound is of late become an exception
among the politer part of the world, who pronounce it woond,
or in such a manner as it will not rhyme with any of the
other
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