Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/259

Rh reign remedy, from, belonging to wild or venomous beasts. The late Dr. MacCulloch, of Greenock, made this linguistic "treacle" the subject of a delightful article in an early number of "Good Words."

Truncheor, orbis, a truncheor or round body; Fr. tranchoir.

David Williamson's "Vocabula" forms an appendix to his "Rudimenta Grammatices," published by Robert Sanders in Glasgow, 1693. His grammar was one of the latest of the many recensions of the Dunbar Rudiments. Originally compiled by the first of the post-Reformation pedagogues, Andrew Simson, schoolmaster in Dunbar, it had held its place in all the grammar schools for over a century. It was soon after superseded by the still more famous work, the first of the kind to be written in English, of Thomas Ruddiman (1714).

Allya, affinitas; Fr. allay, allié, ally, relation (by marriage), in very general use during the seventeenth century. Claverhouse introduces it in his letters.

Awmrie, repositorium, an ambrie; an awmrie, a chest or cupboard; awmous dish, a beggar's platter; Fr. aumônerie, aumône, Eng. alms.

Buist, pixis, a buist. Diez says that in the tenth century buxida, from accus. of the Greek pyx, a box, was corrupted into buxida, bustia, whence O.Fr. boiste, Mod.Fr. boîte.

Choffer, foculus mensarius, a choffer or choffing dish; Fr. chauffer, to warm. This preserves a trace of the old-fashioned brazier for the table. Chauffeur is the very latest importation of the word. But the Scots workman has long called his portable fire-grate a choffer.

Disjune, jentaculum, breakfast and disjune; Fr. déjeuner. This word is quite archaic now.

Pottage, puls, pottage, as if made from pea soup (pulse); Fr. potage.

Servet, mappa, a servet or any tablecloth; Fr. serviette.

Siedge, classis, the siedge; Fr. siège, a seat. Used in this sense by Spenser.

Trencher, quadra, a four-neuked trencher; a four-cornered wooden platter, hence "corner dish;" Fr. tranchoir.

From James Carmichael, of Haddington Grammar School,