Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/497

 136 THE DIALECT OF Tempse. In the expression * hop-^«m/Me,' a hop-sieve, but not other- wise used here. It is, however, spoken of as the tempse. Tent, to tend, or look to ; attend to : such as any machinery, power- loom, &c. This word is found in The Tawneley Mysteries, which volume, it is worthy of remark, abounds in specimens of the dialect of this part of the West Biding. Hens must us fle alle sam togeder In haste/— ProceMiM Noe, ' Wyth outen tokyn trew, Thay wyll not tent ther-tylle.' — Pharao, Of my dere son/ — Ascenato Domini, Tenter, (1) along frame on which cloth is stretched to dry. In Robert Greene's A Quip for an Upstart Courtier ^ A.D. 1592, we find this implement thus mentioned : — * Beside, he imposeth this charge to the cloth worker, that he draw his cloth, and pull it passing hard when he sets it upon the tenters, that he may have it full breadth and length, till thread and all tear and rent a-pieces.' Again, in Thomas Nash's Lenten Stufe, or Praise of the Red Herring, A.D. 1599, we find it alluded to : — * But, Lord, how misei-ably do these ethnicks, when they once match to the purpose, set words on the tenters, never reading to a period, which you will scarce find in thirty sheets of a lawyer's declaration, whereby they might comprehend the entire sense of the writer together, but disjoint and tear every syllable betwixt their teeth severally I ' The hooks by which the cloth is stretched are tenter-hooks. This last word is used metaphorically in the phrase, ' to be on tenter-hocks^ i. e. in suspense. (2) the person who attends to the engine is the ' engine tenter ' ; to power-looms, a ' power-loom tenter ,* &o. Tether-toad, the Ranunculus repens^ which runs along the ground like the strawberry plant. Tew (pronounced tdoo ; gl. taew), to be actively employed ; to In hour, strive, or contend with. *He tew^d with it long enough.' ' That lime wants better tewing,' i, e. working, or mixing. A word much in use. Th&Sm, an ancient pronunciation of the word thumb. In a manu- Bcr^t copy of the Hagmena Song, as taken down in A.I}. 1676 from the dictation of a Scotch pedler, the last line runs — ' Out round, cut sound, cut not yer muckle thaum,' About fifty years ago (say 1825) butter was usually spread on oat- cake with the thddm. One of the later Kayes of Woodsome bid an old woman of Slaithwaite, who was politely getting a knife, to ' spread with her thMm,*
 * Tent hedir tydely, wife, & consider,
 * Take tent to my taylle till that I have told