it suffices to show that this city then was of such distinction, grandeur, and power, that no national affair of importance was transacted without its consent; for in this case the Saxon annals are very plain, that none else were admitted into this electoral convention but the nobility, and the Lidymen or Liverymen of London.

LULLABY.

Lullaby, or L'Elaby, from a supposed fairy called Ellaby Gathon, whom nurses invited to watch the sleeping babes, that they might not be changed for others. Hence changeling, or infant changed.

LUNCHEON.

Our familiar name of Luncheon is derived from the daily meal of the Spaniards at eleven o'clock, termed once or l'once (pronounced l'onchey).

MAMELUKE.

The militia of the sultans of Egypt are called Mamelukes. The term signifies a servant, slave, or soldier; they were commonly captives taken from among the Christians, and instructed in military discipline, and were not allowed to marry. Their power was great; for, besides that the sultans were chosen out of their body, they disposed of the most important offices of the kingdom. They were formidable about 200 years, till at last Selim, sultan of the Turks, routed them, and killed their sultan near Aleppo, 1516, and so put an end to the empire of the Mamelukes, which lasted 267 years.

Nevertheless the Mamelukes, under their twenty-four beys, continued for 200 years more to exercise a power scarcely inferior to that of the Turkish Pachas, whom in the 18th century they reduced to mere ciphers in the government. Their power was again considerably broken by the French invasion under Bonaparte, to which they offered a decided opposition. Finally, in 1811, the late Pacha, having invited the principal leaders of the Mamelukes to a banquet, slew 470 of them by treason, and compelled the remainder to submission.

MATRIMONY.

It was formerly wedlock, when man took his wife for a helpmate; but when settlements became the leading feature, the state then degenerated into a matter of money, and which term has entailed upon us the less expressive one of Matrimony.

MAUSOLEUM.

A sepulchral building, so called from Mausolus, a king of Caria, to whose memory it was raised by his wife Artemisia about

553 B.C.

From its extraordinary magnificence, it was esteemed one of the seven wonders of the world. According to Pliny, it was one hundred and eleven feet in circumference, and one hundred and forty feet high. It is said to have been encompassed by thirty-six columns, and exceedingly enriched with sculpture. Hence all sepulchral structures of importance have obtained the name of mausolea.

MAN.

This appellation given to the male sex, to distinguish them from the female, is derived from the Saxon word mang-signifying among. It is somewhat difficult, in giving the etymon of some words, terms, or appellations, to manifest the reason for the expression used; among others is that of the Saxon term mang. Most writers agree, however, that it was used by our ancestors as the distinguishing appellative from the other sex. The rest is left to conjecture. It has been suggested, that the human being was thus denominated by them, because among the rest of the creation he was the only one created in the likeness of his Creator; this, however, is after all a little far-fetched, and it is imagined we must be satisfied with a denomination which use and harmony have rendered alike familiar, without prying too minutely into its uncertain origin.

MINSTER.

This term, as applied to our cathedrals, such as West Minster, York Minster, Lincoln Minster, is a corruption from Monastery, these buildings in earlier times having monasteries attached to them.

MUSHROOM,

In the sixteenth century this word appears generally to have been spelt Mushrump. Nares, in his valuable Glossary, gives an instance from Marlow's play of Edward the Second, 1598; but there is an earlier example in Robert Southwell's Spirituall Poems, 1595:

"He that high growth on cedars did bestow,
Gave also lowly mushrumps leave to growe."

It is also spelt Mushrump in Cockeram's Dictionary, 1632. These instances may possibly lead to a correct etymology of the word.

NICKNAME.

The term Nickname appears to mean a name by which that person might be distinguished from others by some marks on his face, or other part exposed to view. In ancient times the swans

of the king were marked with nicks on the bill, or wings, or neck. The keeper of the Royal swans used to go round once a year to examine the swans, and renew the nicks when required. This practice is still kept by the Lord Mayor once a year, and is now called Swan-Hopping. This is probably a corruption for SwanHooping, meaning to mark the swans with a ring cut for a mark. Some swans are said to have had a silver ring round their necks, marked with the Royal coronet. The swan with two necks is a corruption for the swan with two nicks.

PANIC.

It sometimes happened with the ancient Greeks, well disciplined and brave as their armies were, that a body of troops, without any attack being made or threatened, would take upon themselves to disperse and fly for their lives, leaving their camps and baggage, throwing away their arms, running over hill and dale for days and nights together, till their legs and their fright wore out together. As they were philosophers enough to know, that there would be no act without a motive, they excused themselves on these occasions by saying, that the god Pan, a shaggy and venerable person with goats' feet, had appeared to them, and that it consequently became them as pious persons to do their utmost to break their necks in a fright. Hence the phrase," Panic Terror." Whether the god Pan appeared in the city of London at the great commercial panic of 1825 is not known; but it would be extremely difficult for many who were affected by terror, to find a better cause.

PARSON.

Selden says, though we write Parson differently, it is but Person, i. e., the individual person set apart for the service of such a church; and it is in Latin persona,—and personatus is, personage.

PERJURY.

It

The word Perjury is derived from perjurii,-false sworn. is defined by Sir Edward Coke to be " a crime committed when a lawful oath is administered, in some judicial proceedings, to a person who swears wilfully, absolutely, and falsely, in a matter material to the issue or point in question; and subornation of perjury is the offence of procuring another to take such a false oath as constitutes perjury in the principal."

PIC-NICK.

This season (1802) says the Annual Register, has been marked by a new species of entertainment, common to the fashionable

world, called a Pic-nick supper. It consists of a variety of dishes. The subscribers to the entertainment have a bill of fare presented to them, with a number against each dish. The lot which he draws obliges him to furnish the dish marked against it; which he either takes with him in a carriage, or sends by a servant. The proper variety is preserved by the taste of the maître-d'hotel, who forms the bill of fare.

PORCELAIN.

Whitaker, in his account of the course of Hannibal over the Alps, says, that the term Porcelain comes from Puslain, which has a purple-coloured flower, like to the ancient China, which was always of that colour.—Vol. i. 8vo, 1794, p. 55.

POT-WALLER.

Pot-walloner, Pot-waller, or Pot-walloper, signifies one that boils his own pot; but not in the street, as has been wantonly reported. Each of these terms is derived from wealan, Saxon, to boil: but Pot-waller, seems to be most proper. It is observable that wall and wallop are provincial expressions of the like import at this day.

PURITAN.

The nickname of Puritans was at first devised by Sanders the Jesuit, to cast a reproach upon the persons and way of Reformers; to render them suspicious and odious to the State. The righteous hand of the Lord struck him with madness who invented the name: nor doth He delight in them that delight to take up a reproach against the innocent. (Kennett's Collections, Lansdown, No. 1024, p. 321, b.)

RACE.

The Arabs call their thorough-bred horses, Race-horses, or horses of a family, or Race, because they can trace their families or breeds as high as a Welsh pedigree. The Iman is at once both priest and civil magistrate, and it is equally his duty to register the birth of children and the foaling of brood mares.

On the sale of one of these horses, the Iman delivers a certificate of the pedigree, carefully copied from his register, to the buyer, of which an Arab is as proud as if it were his own pedigree. As these horses of race, or family, were in Europe bred only for the course, we evidently, in preserving the French expression, cheval de race, or race-horse, gave the name of Race to the course itself, being a contest between race-horses, from whence the expression became popular to denote any contest in running.

RADICAL.

The application of the term Radical arose about the year 1818, when the popular leaders, Henry Hunt, Major Cartwright, and others, sought, both in and out of Parliament, to obtain a Radical Reform in the Representative system: it never was applied to the Whigs as a party. Its origin may probably be traced to the writings of Lord Bolingbroke, who, in his Discourses on Parties, Let. 18, employs the term in its present accepted sense: he says, "Such a remedy might have wrought a radical cure of the evil that threatens our constitution," &c.-Richardson's Dictionary.

RINGLEADER.

66

The word ringleader is more generally used in a bad sense, namely, of a person that is at the head of a mob, a mustering, a riot, or any tumultuous assembly. How comes it to carry always this unfortunate sense? The lexicographers tell us, a ringleader is a person that leads the ring;" but this does not satisfy, for a ring does not always imply an illegal assembly. It is no doubt an expression derived from the Ring used in mutinies at sea, which the sailors call a Round Robin; for it seems the mutineers, on account of the certain punishment that would be sure to overtake the first movers in case the project should not take effect, generally sign their names in a ring; by which means it cannot possibly be known, upon a discovery of the plot, who it was that signed first, and consequently all must be deemed equally guilty; and yet the person that signs first, is literally the Ringleader. If this word be applied in a good sense, it may be taken from the Ring, a diversion formerly in use here in England.

ROSARY.

Richardson derives it from Fr. Rosaire; Ital. and Sp. Rosario; Low Lat. Rosarium, corona rosacea, a garland or chaplet of roses. The definition of it by the Abbé Prevost is this:-"It consists," he says, "of fifteen tens, said to be in honour of the fifteen mysteries in which the blessed Virgin bore a part. Five Joyous, viz., the annunciation, the visit to St. Elizabeth, the birth of our Saviour, the purification, and the disputation of Christ in the temple. Five Sorrowful: our Saviour's agony in the garden, his flagellation, crowning with thorns, bearing his cross, and crucifixion. Five Glorious: his resurrection, ascension, the descent of the Holy Ghost, his glorification in heaven, and the assumption of the Virgin herself."-Manuel Lexique. Nares, quoting this passage, adds, "This is good authority; but why each of the fives is multiplied by ten the Abbé does not explain; probably to make the chaplet of a sufficient length."