Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/161

132 find mention of tol and takel and orf. The second of these substantives comes from the Welsh taclau, ac&shy;coutrements.

In page 91 we read

‘Gon woren VII. score ger.’

This is the first use of score for twenty. It comes from the old habit of shearing or scoring notches on wood up to twenty. Our word skip comes from the Welsh ysgip (a quick snatch); hence locusts are called skipperes, page 88.

In page 93, is the line —

‘Undrincled in ðat salte spot.’

The last word (locus) here makes its first appearance. Wedgwood derives it from spatter, and calls it the mark upon which something has been splashed. This spot and the French place have between them driven out the Old English stede, which only survives in a prepositional shape. In this poem the old French word fey is seen as our modern feið (faith); the oath par ma fey was well known in England. We also see the French espier become spy; in the Danelagh, French words as well as English were clipped. It is owing to the South&shy;ern shires that we say establish as well as stablish.

THE EAST MIDLAND DIALECT.

(About A.D. 1230.)