, a dowry;
_usquebaugh_, Sc., Irish, whiskey; _wheal_, Cornish, a mine.
Latin is a language from which English has borrowed words in
every century since the year 600. In my _Principles of English
Etymology, First Series_, Chap. XXI, I give a list of Latin words
imported into English before the Norman Conquest. Several of these
must be familiar in our dialects; we can hardly suppose that country
people do not know the meaning of ark, beet, box, candle, chalk,
cheese, cook, coulter, cup, fennel, fever, font, fork, inch, kettle,
kiln, kitchen, and the like. Indeed, _ark_ is quite a favourite
word in the North for a large wooden chest, used for many purposes;
and Kersey explains it as "a country word for a large chest to put
fruit or corn in." _Candle_ is so common that it is frequently
reduced to _cannel_; and it has given its name to "cannel coal."
Every countryman is expected to be able to distinguish "between chalk
and cheese." _Coulter_ appears in ten dialect forms, and one of
the most familiar agricultural implements is a pitch-_fork_. The
influence of Latin requires no further illustration.
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