as a verb, and used as such, but generally applied in regard to children or weak minded persons, to drivellers and old men married to young wives.

"The nurse had changed her note, she was muzzling and COAXING the child; that's a good dear, says she."

L'ESTRANGE.

"I COAX! I wheedle! I'm above it."-FARQUHAR. Probably to cocker, in the sense of to pamper, to spoil by indulgence, is simply, toe kock er; p. e. to the cook there; come then let us to the cook, implying, where I will get you something that you like; and, as in the case of the above verb to coax, adopted by travesty for a like part of speech, which in course of use has been extended into the import of to entice weak minds by paltry undue allurements for some selfish purpose. Kock, cook,

coquus.

HE BROW-BEAT HIM.

He intimidated him, overawed him, reduced him to a state of involuntary compliance by dread of what was to follow. Hie berouw biedt hem; q. e. here the prospect of the penalty [penance] commands his obedience; in this case the fear of repentance prescribes submission [rules his conduct]; the dread of regret enforces his compliance. Hie, hier, here. Berouw, regret, repentance, penitence, sorrow for what is done. Bieden, gebieden, to bid, to command, to rule. Hie berouw biedt hem, sounds he brow-beat him. JOHNSON says the phrase is as brow and beat, in the import of, to depress with severe brows. But why does beat imply depress? A man may frown at another, but not insure obedience by so doing; but the dread of consequences, as the original phrase expresses, may and does generally ensure refraining from intended perseverance in action. The term brow falling by analogy of sound into the travesty has mixed up in the expression an idea of knitting the brow and

frowning, that in truth has nothing to do with it, and caused its frequent misapplication. Instead of a reference to the check of a nian's own conscience, which is the true meaning, it has been used as a check produced by the frown of another person upon him. And the absurdity of making an eyebrow into a stick or cat-o-nine-tails has kept its ground unmolested in common conversation.

WITH A ROD OF IRON.

;

As in the expression, he governs [rules] with a rod of iron, and meaning like a savage, by fury, irrational violence, outrage, domineering. Wijse er rood af arre aen; q. e. he shows by his countenance that he is red with rage upon the occasion, the redness of his face betrays his being in a fury thereat, and thus implying a temper manifesting itself in its relations with others, by the usual symptoms of being actuated by rage and fury, instead of being under the controul of reason and moderation. The original and travesty sound alike, arre aen, sounds iron. An iron rod is for a bedcurtain or a lightning conductor, and not for a mean of rule. In the phrases sceptre of iron, iron tears, iron years of war, IRON stands in the sense of these objects being used or brought forward by rage, fury, violence, ungovernable temper, and not duly or proceeding from any due motive.

I will converse with IRON * witted fools-
And unrespective boys; none are for me
That lock unto me with considerate eyes."

SHAKSPEARE.

Arre, erre, ire, and ira are the same word. Aenwijsen, wijsen aen, to designate, to demonstrate, to point out. Rood, red, also wicked, malitious, deceitful, malignant.

* Fools under the guidance of their furious irrational tempers, furious madmen.

ᏴᎬᎪᎢ .

As in the expressions, he beat him at whist, the bay mare beat the grey horse, &c. Biedt; q. e. takes the upper hand of [the command over], subjects the other to him, has the controul over, commands, is uppermost, has the superiority over. Biedt, the third person present, of bieden, ghebieden, in the foregoing import, sounds beat.

"Yon souls of geese,

That bear the shapes of men, how have you run
From slaves that apes would BEAT."-SHAKSPeare.
"Five times, Marcius,

Have I fought with thee, so often hast thou BEAT me.'
SHAKSPEARE.

BEAT.

As when we say, he beat down the price in the market. Beet; q. e. lowers, makes to go down, causes to become lower. The third person present of beeten, beten, to lower, to cause to sink down, to put down; and thus in regard to price or bargain, to better it, to make it cheaper; and groundedly the same word with baten, baeten, baaten, boeten, to better, to amend, to improve, to mend, to do good to, to be of use to, to piece up, to botch, and formerly used by us in the shape of to bete. Hence the French abattre and our to bate, to abate. To bate [abate] a nuisance, is, to correct [mend, to put down] a nuisance, to better the state which caused the subject in question to be a nuisance. To bate a demand, is, to lower a demand, and thus to make it a better purchase [bargain]. The storm abates, the storm lessens, mends, goes down. Un abattement de cœur et d'esprit, is, a sinking [a lowering] of the heart and spirit.

"Phœbus, that first found art of medecine,

[Quoth she] and coud in every wight 'is care,

Remedy and rede *, by herbis he knew fine t,
Yet to himselfe his conning was full bare,
For love had him so boundin in a snare,

All for the doughter of the King Admete,
That all his craft ne coud his sorowe BETE ."
CHAUCER.

"But what and she my balis BETE §,

And be to me curteis and swete,

She is nothing full certain,

Lovers she put in full grete pain.

"Pipin he couth, and fishin, and nets BETE ||,
And cuppis turn, and wrastle wel and shete."

"Thy temple shall I worship evir mo,
And on thine aulter, where I ryde or go,
I wol don sacrifise, and firis BETE ¶."

IBID.

IBID.

IBID.

"So that the Night semed sprad upon the yerth, if then the wind that hight Boreas, i sent out of the Cave of the Countre of Thrace, BETETH ** this night, that is to saine, chaseth it awaie, and discovereth the closed day, thou shinith Phoebus."-IBID. BOETH.

of

Usury BEATS down the price of land, for the employment money is chiefly either merchandizing or purchasing; and usury way-lays both."-BACON.

TO BEAT THE HOOF.

Properly explained by JOHNSON to go on foot, to walk; but for which meaning he gives no reason; by its term's the expression carries no such sense; nor has it any but as the sound of one that bore the true import, which I take to have been, t'u biedt de hoef; q. e. it is necessity which obliges you; you would not walk if you could afford to ride; and is an expression analogous to that of to

* Council, advice.

Better, lessen, diminish.

+ Find.

S Better [diminish] my sufferings [woes].

**

Mend, make better.

Mend, better by stirring and adding fuel when wanted.
Abateth, lessens, betters, improves.

of this essay.

pad the hoof, already explained in the first volume Biedt as explained in the penultimate article. Hoef, behoef, necessity, want, indigence, destitution.

A HUNT.

As the implied manner of following or pursuing the object intended to be taken or found, the way of catching or obtaining the object of the pursuit in question, has groundedly no reference to any mode of attaining the object; nothing to do with hounds or dogs of any kind, but seems to me simply as the travesty of Er haend; q. e. er hou-end; i. e. a holding, a catching hold of, a taking fast, a grasping, a griping, a seizing, the means or way not being necessarily imported in the term itself. The Dutch hauden, houden, our old to halte and modern to hold, the German halten and the Anglo-Saxon halden are a same word, and instance the interchanging phases of the sounds and literal forms of a, o, u. So that a hunt is simply an indefinite catching or taking; manner [ways, means, form] being indefinitely implied by the term itself. To hunt is formed from the above in its substantive sense, and thus to put in action the implied means of taking [catching] the object in point; and is in fact the same word with our old to hent and to henten, as well as with the French hanter and our to hant, to haunt, formerly to hanten, as well as the Latin hendere in prehendere. JOHNSON and others fancy the term to be grounded in hound [a dog] and to be as the Anglo-Saxon huntan; but has huntan any thing to do with hund? does it not mean to catch or take hold of by any means? We say, to HUNT out a passage in a book; to HUNT out for an argument; to HUNT up evils by thought, &c.; and what can a hound or dog of any kind have to do there? Our term hunter was once spelt henter.