HE PUTS THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE. To ill-time what is to be done, to do something out of its place [unseasonably]; to put in its wrong place [out of order]. Hij put's; die keert bij, voor de hij o' er's; q. e. he is exhausted; he turns aside [leaves off] before the job [hard work, labour] is done [finished]; and thus implies he does so at a wrong time, before the stated period, before it is proper; and which carries with it in other terms, an analogous sense with that the travesty is used in; the literal form of which imports that which nobody ever thought of doing since language was formed. No popular phrase used for the communication of a social circumstance was ever grounded in sheer buffoonery. Popular phrases are the expressions of the common sense of society, in regard to the point in question, not the extravagancies of buffoons. Put, geput, the participle past of putten, to exhaust, whence the French puit (a well) as that which is drawn out of or made by being drawn from, and puiser, épuiser, to exhaust, as well as our pit, and the Latin puteus, and the Italian pozzo, and Spanish pozo. Keeren bij, to turn aside, to turn off near to. Voor, veur, before. Hije, as the participle present of hijen, to labour hard, to pant from fatigue, and thus as hard work. O'er, over, over, ended. 'S, is, is. Hije o'er 's, sounds horse. LEGERDEMAIN. As in the expression, it was quite legerdemain [all legerdemain] and in the import of, it was quite successful, answered completely, to which, by a misconception of the true form of the word, we have imparted the notion of, as if done by magick [enchantment]. Ley er die mee inne; q. e. there's the way by which profit [success] is certain; that's the road by which you are sure to be brought home [to succeed in what you intend]; that's the true path to gain; the infallible way to obtain what you desire. Ley, way, manner, mode, mean; and the source of our terminal ly, as in mannerly, manly, mainly, purely, closely, &c. &c. where it imports like, in the way of, in the form of; y and g are intermutating sounds; to give was formerly spelt by Chaucer and others, to yeve; and our to yield, formerly spelt to gelde, in the sense of to produce, to give up, or out, or in, is the same word with Dutch gelden, gilden, to be worth, to requite [return] in value. Die, which. Meé, mede, wherewith, with, by which, at the same time. Inne, as inning, the old form of the participle present of innen, to furnish, or bring in profit, gain, revenue, and here used in a substantive sense. Sound y as g, and ley er die met inne, comes out legerdemain, JOHNSON, led by the sound, fancied the term might be as legéreté de main, of course implying as a thing done by sleight of hand [conjuration]; but legéreté de main has not even that import; it may be used in regard to a good writing master or fiddler, but never in regard to a conjuror. Il a le main leger, may be said of a surgeon. say light of hand, in allusion to conjuration, but sleight of hand, where sleight is as sleght, slecht, smooth. In fact, the English term merely means unembarassed, free, ready, something completely done, well performed, done in a sure way; and the idea of magic has been combined with the term simply from this mistaken notion of the source of the word. Leger de main will never bring into any Frenchman's head the idea of conjuration, and when the term is so used by us, it is wrongly used. A SAILOR. We don't In the known sense of the word, is evidently from the Dutch seghel, seyl, sail [formerly seyll]. And seyl, zeil, is properly gezeil or gezeul, from zeulen, a zeilen, to draw, whence the German zeil, a rope, as that which draws and is drawn by. Bilderdijk hesitates however between the above source and that of the thema zie-en, to draw, in German ziehen, in Dutch tijën, tien, whence tour, rope, as that which is drawn by or that which draws. So that sail is, either way, as that which draws on the vessel or that by which the vessel is drawn or the drawing or draft of the vessel. And a sailor I take to be as the handler or manager of the sails, or sailing of the vessel; and in the same way we make tailor from the French tailler, to cut, and thus as the cutter out or manager of the cutting; and which tailler, in Italian tagliare, is, I suspect, grounded in the Dutch deylen, deelen, to divide, to apportion by division, to deal out; the t and d being intersounding letters; and what is to cut-but to separate or divide? The term sailours is used by Chaucer evidently in the meaning of strolling actors [dancers] who displayed their feats in the management of the rope in various ways, such as dancing with it in the hands, and casting it to and fro, flying from heights by means of it, &c. as was usual with those people in former days, and still is in some parts of the continent. When we say of a ship, she is a good sailer, the term is then as the Dutch zeiler, zeilder, in the same sense and spelt with an e instead of an o. To sail, as seijlen, zeilen, is to draw on, to advance, to make way. We say, the voyage draws towards its conclusion, in the sense of advances towards its end. And this verb can be used simply in the sense of to advance gradually, evenly, continuously, without recurrence to metaphor. "Speak again, bright Angel! for thou art And SAILS upon the bosom of the air.-SHAKSPEARE. 'So when they had ydyned they rysen up echoone, And drew them to counsell, what was best to doon. Som seyd the best rede that we do may, To throw Geffrey ovir the bord, and SEYLL forth our way: "Tho mightist thou karollis sene, There was many a timbestere *, And SAILOURS †, that I dare wel swere Y cothe ther crafte full parfitly, The Timbris up full subtilly Thei castin, and hent them full oft, Upon a finger faire and soft, That thei ne failed never mo "-ID. R. R. The French matelot and the Dutch matrooss, as the terms for sailor in those languages, are both from the Italian matelaso, materaso, (whence also the French matelas, and our mattress) in the sense of a sleeping place, something to sleep on, a cot, a hammock, which last word is the corruption of the Dutch hangmak, hangmat, in the import of a hanging bed or sleeping place, a cot. THE SIIROUDS. As the standing rigging of a ship, the side cordage by which its masts are supported, and by which they are also ascended; in French haubans, [hautbans]; in Dutch staande wande [want]. De A female who played upon the timbrel, and grounded in the French timbre, as a bell that has no clapper, but is played on by striking or touching from without, as a clock bell, chiming bells, &c. + As players with and handlers of the rope used in their various feats of activity. schrydes; q. e. the stridings, the bestridings [the straddlings]; and, like all denominatives, inferring a subauditum, which is here either ropes, cordage, rigging or some equivalent term; and thus as the striding, [divaricating] cordage, and which in truth it is in a state of converging into a common point at the mast-head from the sides of the ship below, and then presenting the form of a stride or straddling. Unless the term is as schrijdes, [schredes] steps, [ladders] which by their intersecting ratelines they in fact are. Either source will answer; and in the ground is the same word. Schrede, a step, is as schre-ede, from schre-en, in the sense of to diverge. Schrydes sounds closely to shrouds. Schryden, beschryden, is to stride, to bestride, to straddle, in the usual import of those terms. But SHROUD, as the covering of the dead [the dress of the corpse] is, I suspect, as a metathesis of schoort, geschoort, and so as schroot, covered, and thus as that by which a thing is covered or cloathed. Voorschoot [schort] is an apron, as that by which the front of the body or lap is covered. The thema is scho-en, to surround, to enclose, to cover; whence the Dutch schors, schorse, [bark, rind, as that which covers the tree]; hence the French écorce in the same sense, with which the Latin cortex is closely akin. Our escort, the French escorte belongs here also, as that which covers or protects. And so does our to shroud, in the sense of to cover, to envelope, and shroud, as protection, cover. "It would warm his spirits, To hear from me you had left Antony, And put yourself under his SHROUD, the universal landlord. SHAKSPEARE. "Now the wasted brands do glow, In remembrance of a SCHROUD. 1D. |