that which cuts into, makes a hole in], and means, simply an opening, a cut; the mouth of a river, is the opening of a river; the mouth of a cannon, is its opening; and our own term mouth, formerly mowe and mowith, is from the same thema. And yet Minshew and Junius tell you, it is as μvbos (speech); but the mouth of a cow, and of a river, is as good English as the mouth of a man; and that through which speech is produced can never be the sense of the term in those cases. Horne Tooke derives the word from the Gothic matyan, matjan, the A. S. metian, in the sense of to eat; but we do not eat with the mouth, but with the teeth given us to eat and bite; without these the mouth cuts but a poor figure with a piece of beef. To put bread in the mouth, is not to eat it, but to put it in the way of being eaten by the allotted tools. The mouth of a harbour is not the place where ships are eaten, but the opening by which they enter the harbour. But the term a mouth-piece, in the sense of one who speaks for another, or of that by which a flute, &c. is played, is the travesty of the phrase er moedt [moeyt] bij 's; q. e. there is that by which the work is done; there is that which takes the labouring oar. Moeden, moeyen, mueden, to work, to labour, to fatigue, to operate; whence the old term moedte, moeye, work, labour, pains. Bij's, bij is, is by, by which is; and p and b being interchanging sounds, sounds piece. But monde, as in the original form of the term at the head of this article, is as monde, monding, the participle present of monden, to speak, to talk, to mouth, to grimace; and thus a speaking, or talking. To mouth, is to speak with ostentatious absurdity, to grimace, to posturize with the mouth, either for the sake of deception or to divert; the judge mouths a sentence to scare the merryandrew, to divert. Mouthless, as in a state to have nothing to say for one's self, in a dispirited [inani mate] mood, is, I suspect, as moedloows, inanimate, dejected, without heart or courage; and we say, "he had not the courage to utter a word for himself," in the sense of, he wanted spirit to speak. Loos and less are the same word, and mean wanting. Moed represents mouth or utterance. "But all to litill, welaway the while! CHAUCER. "Yit trowid he no gile, but went near to And scrapid the dorr welplich and wymid wyth hist MOWITH, After doggis lyden, as nere as he couith."-IDEM. And yit had I nevir suspecioun, from that day till noweth, Who ded that carsid dede, till Machyn with his MOWITH, Afore yew hath knowlechid that the knyfe is his. So mut he nedis answer for his deth, ywis."-IDEM. A WILD GOOSE CHASE. As when we say, "he's gone on a wild goose chase," and mean in search [or to attempt] something to find which he has no clue [no direction] or to perform which he has no previous means, and implying a point in question, the attainment of which must depend upon chance from want of due means in the one who undertakes it; and thus something of uncertain issue, the issue or place of which is unknown beforehand, either to the person in question, or his friends. Er wo yld guise, schie es; q.e. in whichever direction the caprice of the backbiter may rave to gratify itself, food will always be found for it; nobody can tell who may be the next object of the back biter's venom; some one is sure to be a sufferer, though no one can tell beforehand who it may be; when or where the * Makes mouth at him; makes faces at him; taunts him. + Mouth. Sounds, noises, as the Dutch luyden, geluyden (noises). malignity of the foul-mouthed and rancorous sneerer may burst forth; no one can tell more, than that, from the nature of the person, he is sure to find a subject somehow or somewhere; whether friend or foe, guilt or innocence, is to be his aim, remains uncertain till the blow is felt. So that both by travesty and original forms, distressing uncertainty and doubt are implied. Woe, however, wherever. Ylen, ijlen, to rave, to be in the fever of anxiety, to hasten, to be agitated in the mind [restless], to be mad; and woe yld sounds wild, as any one will find upon trial. Guijse, backbiting, calumnious jesting, sanna, sneer, malignant ridicule. Guijse van achter, back-biting, pointing in derision at one behind his back, treacherous misrepresentation. Schie, schielick, quickly. Es, aes, food; and schie es, sounds chace. sounds goose. TO SET THE THAMES ON FIRE. Guyse, As when we say, "he is not likely to set the Thames on fire, or he will never set the Thames on fire;" and imply there is not much in him, that he is a poor creature, a trumpery person. T'u sette, die t' heim's aen vaer; q. e. compose yourself, you who, in secret, are in a fright; I see you are in a sad fidget, show a little more resolution [presence of mind]; and is as much as to say, I see you are one who has no presence of mind, the quality suitable for positions of difficulty or danger; and, consequently, you are good for nothing; a poor devil. The travesty sounds startling, but proves nonsense when considered, in form of words, though bearing, by use, a sound sense when heard. T'u, te u, in yourself, within yourself, chez vous, auprès de vous. T'heim, te heim, in secret. 'S, is, is. Setten, to compose, to settle, to put in order. Aen, on. Vaer, fear, fright, and sounds as we pronounce fire. TURMOIL. Mental disturbance, harassing agitation, feverish anxiety, trouble; distressed state of thought. Ter moé yl; q. e. ailing in mind; ill at ease within ; in a state of mental tribulation; possessed by restlessness of thought; wandering in mind; in a feverish mood. Moê, moede, mood, state of mind. Yl, ijl, ill, delirious, feverish, ailing. Ter moé yl sounds precisely as we pronounce turmoil. SKYNNER derives the term from tremouille, a millhopper! He might as well have said from the title of la Tremouille; it would have been just as appropriate. JOHNSON thinks the word is grounded in to moil, in the sense of to labour; but where is the prefix tur to be fetched from? Besides, it is labour of mind, not of body, that is implied by the term. "He seeks with torment and TURMOIL To force me live, and will not let me die." SPENSER. "There I'll rest, as after much TURMOIL, TO LIE IN. To be in labour pains; to be in childbed; to be giving birth to the offspring. Te lyen; q. e. to be in a state of suffering; to bear with resignation; to suffer with the calm and gentle fortitude which characterizes the female, as distinguished, in that respect, from the male. To lie in, in this import, can never be grounded in the verb to lie, for in that case the expression would have no relation to childbirth, or indeed any meaning at all. As the phrase is evidently an ellipsis adopted from custom, of a child is probably the subauditum. But as lyen, lyden, has, in itself, the full sense of to suffer contentedly [resignedly], to do which is the characteristic of the female in all such predicaments as fall specially to the lot of her sex, and parturition being the common ban pronounced by nature upon the sex, the term has possibly been adopted per euphrasin in the sense now used. I need scarcely add, it applies solely to the human female; and that the various tenses have been formed from the travesty of the infinitive, or else present tense.-Lyden, lyen, besides to bear, to suffer, is used in the sense of contentum esse; œquo animo pati. Hij lydt hem met luttel; contentus est parvo. SHE IS IN THE STRAW. A familiar mode of saying, the female in question is upon the point of being delivered [brought to bed]. Sij is hin te ster rouw; q. e. she is upon the point of being in a state of complete ease [freed from all pain]; she is in the way of being perfectly at rest [peace, in a state of undisturbed quiet]; and what ease so perfect, or what repose so grateful, as that which succeeds sudden relief from acute and long-continued pain? The form of the original phrase implies, let the issue of the pain endured be either the being delivered in the usual course or death, ease [quiet] is the certain consequence, and the implicit promise of nature fulfilled. By the falling in of the term straw to the travesty, from a tender expression of humane sympathy with the female in question, it is degraded into one of heartless buffoonery. Ster, sterre, stark, undisturbed, fixed; ster-blind is, starkblind, irrecoverably blind, afflicted with a blindness never to be removed. Roeuwe, rouwe, rouw, ruw, rest, quiet, repose. HE TALKED BIG. He spoke assumingly [consequentially,] as if he conceived himself of some importance and his audience of none; he spoke as if of the same con VOL. II. с |