Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/264

240 Barley, a truce in a game; Fr. parlez. Barley-break was an old English game.

Beaver, Fr. bevoir, boire, the merendum or lunch, otherwise four-oors. It was a grammar school vocable.

Bawbee—"Ane balbe," St. Andrews Kirk Session Records, ii. 683; Fr. bas billon, base coin.

Butry, bajan, a freshman at Aberdeen University, has been explained as from butor, a booby, and bejaune for becjaune, a nestling (lit. yellow-beak), a ninny.

Certes, my certie! Fr. certes, indeed, certainly.

Brace, a chimney piece—"A bracebrod in excise chamber" ("Glas. Records," 1706). This may be from Fr. bras, an arm. Compare jamb, a projection or wing; Fr. jambe, a leg, familiar as the jambs or sides of the fireplace.

Cheetie-pussie! Fr. chat.

Close, Fr. clos; vaucluse=vallis clausa, a square, a court.

Condie, Fr. conduit, a passage, pipe.

Fattrels, falderals; O.Fr. fatraille, trumpery; fatras, rubbish, trumpery.

Bowet, a hand lantern; Fr. boîte, a little box. Spalding says that when Cromwell ordered the Edinburgh burgesses to show bowets at their close-heads nightly, the effect was to bring back the day. Cf. moon, as Macfarlane's bowet for reiving purposes.

Cummer, kimmer; Fr. commère. Cummers' or gossips' feast (eighteenth century), described, as practised in Edinburgh, by Eliz. Mure of Caldwell (1712).—"Caldwell Papers."

Dyvour, a bankrupt; Fr. devoir; Lat. debtor. Murray rejects devoir and suggests Eng. diver in the sense of "plunger," not a very satisfactory explanation.

Fachous, facheuse, troublesome to do. "Its fachous wark pikin' a paitrik;" Fr. fâcheux.

Fent, in a lady's skirt; Fr. fente, a slit, cleft.

Fushonless, pithless; Fr. foison, plenty, in Shakspere.

Gag, in the game of "smoogle the gag;" Fr. gage, pawn, pledge; also in the form geg.

Groser, a gooseberry; Fr. grossier, coarse; but other native forms are grosart and grozet.

Haverel, a simpleton; Fr. poisson d'avril, an April fool. Also