Ax, to ask. This, now vulgar, word is the original Saxon form, and is used by Chaucer, Bale, Heywood, and Ben. Jonson. AYE, always, continually. An old word said in Todd's John. to be now rarely used, and only in poetry. For colloquial purposes, however, it is frequently made use of in many parts of the North. AYONT, beyond. Ayont the hill." Sax. a-geont. A YOU A HINNY, a northern nurse's lullaby. V. Brand's Pop. Ant. 8vo. 1810, p. 204, and Bell's Northern Rhymes, p. 296. There's Sandgate for aud rags, A you, hinny burd; And Gallowgate for trolly bags, A you a. Song, A you a, hinny burd. B. BABBLEMENT, silly discourse. From Heb. Babel, confusion of tongues. BACHELOR'S BUTTON, a well known flower, resembling a button, and possessing a magical effect on the fortunes of rustic lovers. See Grey's Shak. v. I., p. 107. BACK-BY, behind, a little way distant. BACK-END, the autumnal part, or latter end, of the year. Origin obvious. BACKSTONE, a heated stone or iron for baking cakes. BACKY, tobacco. BACKY-FOB, a tobacco pouch. Come, dinna, dinna whinge and whipe, Like yammering Isbel Mackey; Cheer up, maw hinny! leet thee pipe, And tyek a blast o' backy! Song, Bob Cranky's Adieu. BADGER, a cadger or pedlar; but originally a person who purchased grain at one market and took it on horseback to sell at another. Before the roads in the North were pass able for waggons very extensive. BAD, BADLY, sick, ill. and carts, this trade of badgering was SADLY BADLY, very much indisposed.— BADLING, a worthless person; a bad one. BAG, udder. Isl. baggi, onus, sarcina. BAIL, BALE, a beacon or signal, a bon-fire.-BAIL or BALEHILLS, hillocks on the moors where fires have been. Isl. bal, pyra. See Crav. Gloss. Baal-hills. BAIN, near, ready, easy. A BAINER WAY, a nearer way. Isl. beinn, rectus. BAIRNS, children. Sax. bearn. Mo.-Got. barn, a child. Written by old English writers bearn, bearne. They say bearns are blessings.”—Shak. All's Well; and in the Winter's Tale, when the shepherd finds Perdita, he exclaims, mercy on's a bearne! a very pretty bearne.”—BAIRNISH, childish.-BAIRN-TEAM, lots of bairns. Sax. bearn-team, liberorum sobolis procreatio.-BAIRNS'-PLAY, the sport of children, any sort of trifling. BAIST, or BASTE, to beat severely. Isl. beysti, a hard stroke. BALLERAG, BULLERAG, to banter, to rally in a contemptuous way. The Crav. Gloss. has bullokin, imperious. BA! LOU! a nurse's lullaby. Fr. bas, là le loup, be still, the wolf is coming. BAN-FIRE, BON-FIRE, a fire kindled on the heights at appointed places in times of rejoicing. Notwithstanding what Mr. Todd has alleged as to the primitive meaning of the word, I am of opinion that bone-fire is a corruption. See BAIL. BANG, v. to thump, to handle roughly. "He bangs his wife.” Isl. banga. It also means to excel. Wallington bangs them a'." Our parson says, 66 we bang'd them still, "And bang them still, we mun man, "For he desarves a coward's deeth, "That frae them e'er wad run man.' Wor pockets lin'd wiv notes an' cash, For XYZ, that bonny steed, He bangs them a' for pith and speed, 99 Cumb. Ballad. He's sure to win the cup, man.-Song, X. Y. Z BANG, s. a leap, a severe blow. In a bang, suddenly. BANGING, large and jolly, as a banging wench; or simply of great size when compared with things of the same kind, as a banging trout. Any thing large in proportion to the rest of its species is also called a BANGER. BANNOCK, a thick cake of oaten or barley meal kneaded with water; originally baked in the embers and toasted over again on a girdle when used. Gael. bonnack, a cake; or it may be from Isl. baun, a bean, such cakes having formerly been made of bean meal. V. Ray. Bargh, berg, a hill, or steep way. Ihre. Su.-Got. berg, mons. V. BAR-GUEST, a local spirit or demon, haunting populous places, and accustomed to howl dreadfully at midnight, before any dire calamity. Perhaps from Dut. berg, a hill, and geest, a ghost. Grose, however, describes it as "a ghost all in white, with large saucer eyes, commonly appearing near gates or stiles, there called bars. Yorksh. Derived from bar and gheist." BARK, a box for holding candle ends. BARKED, BARKENED, covered with dirt like bark. Dirt, &c. hardened on the skin or hair. BARKHAAM, a horse's collar, formerly made of bark. See Braffam. BARLEY, to bespeak or claim. that-let me have that. "Barley me that"-I bespeak Similar to Cheshire ballow. V. BARREL-FEVER, an illness occasioned by intemperate drinking. BASS, BAST, matting. Isl. bast, philyra. Bass, is also the name of a hassock to kneel upon at church. Fr. battre, BAT, a blow or stroke; in some places a stick. 66 66 Shak. Lear. BAT, also means state or condition; at the same bat," signifying in the same manner; at the old bat," as formerly. BATTEN, to feed, to bring up, to thrive. Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, and batten on this moor.-Shak. Hamlet. "The wife a good church going and a battening to the bairn," is a toast at christenings. BATTIN, the straw of two sheaves folded together. BATTOм, a board generally of narrow dimensions, but the full breadth of the tree it is sawn from. BATTS, flat grounds adjoining islands in rivers, sometimes used for the islands themselves. BAUK, balk, a beam or dormant. Dut. balk. Welsh, balc. Balked, disappointed or prevented, as if a beam were in the way. "To be thrown ourt balk," is, in the west riding of Yorkshire, to be published in the church. "To hing ourt' balk," is marriage deferred after publication. Before the reformation the laity sat exclusively in the nave of the church. The balk here appears to be the rood beam, which separated the nave from the chancel. The expression would therefore seem to mean, to be helped into the choir, where the marriage ceremony was performed. V. Crav. Gloss. BAUKS, the grass ridges dividing ploughed lands, properly those in common fields. Also a place above a cow-house, where the beams are covered with wattles and turf, and not boarded.-A hen-roost or hay-loft; supposed by Mr. Wilbraham from its being divided into different compartments by balks or beams; balk in the northern languages signifying a separation or division. BAY, to bend. Sax. bygan. BEAKER, a tumbler. thing large. Germ. becher, a cup. It also means any BEAKMENT OF BEATMENT, a measure of about a quarter of a peck. Newc. BEAL, to roar or cry. Teut. bellen, to bellow. BEASTLINGS, the milk of the cow shortly after calving, and of a peculiar nature fitted for the first food of the calf. Probably, therefore, the calf's, that is, the little beast's or beastling's.-Dut. biest. BEASTLING-PUDDING, a pudding made of this milk, and a favourite dish with many people. BECK, v. to nod the head; properly to curtzy by a female, as contradistinguished from bowing in the other sex. Isl. beiga. Germ. beigen, to bow. A horse it said to beck, when its legs are weak. BECK, s. a mountain stream or small rivulet. Common to all northern dialects. See BURN. BEEAS, BEESS, cows, cattle. Beasts. |