HURLY-BURLY. Hurly-burly is said to owe its origin to Hurleigh and Burleigh, two neighbouring families, that filled the country around them with contest and violence. JUSTICE. This word is derived from Justitia, an heathen godess. She is represented by the figure of a young virgin, holding in one hand a balance, in the other a naked sword, and blindfold, to show that Justice must be without distinction of persons. She was also, says Heathen Mythology, called Themis. JANIZARY. As the Mamelukes are the militia of the Egyptian Pachas, so the Janizaries are the militia of the more immediate empire of Turkey; and although the Sultans of the Turks are more powerful than the Pachas, yet the Janizaries have ever exercised over them a great control. Another writer says, the recent insurrection and subsequent suppression of the corps of Janizaries, whose name hereafter is by proclamation devoted to execration in the Turkish dominion, had their rise in the time of Amurath I., who made a successful irruption into the provinces on the Danube, and he was there advised to incorporate the body of his youthful captives into his army, instead of looking for new recruits to the original seat of his tribe. The advice was followed, says Gibbon, the edict was proclaimed, many thousands of the European captives were educated in religion and arms, and the militia was consecrated, and named by a celebrated dervish. Standing in front of their ranks, he stretched the sleeve of his gown over the head of the foremost soldier, and his blessing was delivered in these words: "Let them be called Janizaries (Yeniaskeri, or new soldiers); may their countenance be ever light; their hand victorious; their sword keen. May their spears always hang over the heads of their enemies, and wheresoever they go may they return with a white face." Such, adds the historian, was the origin of those haughty troops; the terror of the nation, and sometimes of the Sultans themselves. For 200 years, namely, from the end of the 14th to that of the 16th century, the force thus obtained by incorporating in the Mussulman army the fifth of Christian captive youths, and the tenth of the youths of the conquered villages, with the slaves of the Sultan, composed the flower of the Turkish armies; and so long as the first Sultans ruled their nation from the heart of their camps, and declared their decrees from the Imperial Stirrup, their obedience was secur d, and there never was a fitter instrument of war and conquests. In the year 1826, the late Sultan on the occasion of a mutiny dissolved the whole corps, after a bloody struggle in his capital, in which 20,000 were said to have perished, but that number is now thought to be exaggerated. KLOCKE, i. e., CLOCK, OR BELL. Baron Holberg says, he was in company of men of letters, when several conjectures were offered concerning the origin of the word campana, a klocke (i. e., bell) in the northern tongues. On his return home, he consulted several writers. Some, he says, think the word klocke to be of the northern etymology; these words, ut cloca habeatur in ecclesia, occurring in the most ancient histories of the north. It appears from hence, that in the infancy of Christianity the word cloca was used in the north instead of campana. Certain French writers derive the word cloca from cloche, and this again from clocher, i. e., to limp; for, say they, as a person who limps falls from one side to the other, so do klockes (bells) when rung. Some have recourse to the Latin word clangor, others to the Greek xaλe, I call; some even deduce it from the word cochlea, a snail, from the resemblance of its shell to a bell. As to the Latin word campana, it was first used in Italy, at Nola, in Campania; and it appears that the greater bells only were called campana, and the lesser nola. The invention of them is generally attributed to bishop Paulinus, but this certainly must be understood only of the religious use of them; it being plain, from Roman writers, that they had the like machines, called tintinnabula. KEEL. This term, as applied to vessels, is derived from ceol, a term for ships among the Anglo-Saxons. Another writer says, we fetch the origin of the word keel from the keles of the Greeks, and the celox of the Romans; a small swift-sailing vessel. LACK-A-DAISY. In Todd's Johnson it is explained as "a frequent colloquial term implying alas; most probably from the forgotten verb lack, to blame. The expression, therefore, may be considered as blaming, finding fault with, the day on which the event mentioned happened." LADY. It was formerly the custom in those families whom God had blessed with affluence, to live constantly at their mansion-house in the country, and that once a week, or oftener, the Lady of the manor distributed to her poor neighbours, with her own hands, a certain quantity of bread, and she was called by them the leff-day, i. e., in Saxon, the bread-giver. These two words were in time corrupted, and the meaning is now as little known as the practice which gave rise to it; yet it is from that hospitable custom, that to this day the ladies, in this kingdom alone, serve the meat at their own tables. LAMB'S WOOL. This constant ingredient of a merry-making on Holy Eve, especially in Ireland, and which is a preparation of roasted apples and ale, is thus etymologized by Vallancy: "The first day of November was dedicated to the angel presiding over fruits and seeds, &c., and was therefore named La Mas Ubhal, i. e., the day of apple fruit, and being pronounced lamasool, the English have corrupted the name to lamb's wool. LIBRARY. Library is derived from liber, which signifies the inner bark of trees, of which the Egyptians made their records. The oldest public library of antiquity of which we have any credible account, is that founded by Pisistratus at Athens; which was carried by Xerxes into Persia, and recovered by Seleucus Nicanor. LITERATI. The word which now confers honour had at one time a very different signification. Among the Romans it is usual to affix some branding or ignominious letter on the criminal, when the crime was infamous in its nature; and persons so branded were called inscripti, or stigmatici, or by a more equivocal term, literati. The same expression is likewise adopted in stat. 4 Henry VIII., which recites "that diverse persons lettered had been more bold to commit mischievous deeds," &c. LIVERYMEN. Upon the demise of Canute, a witena gemote, or convention of wise men, was held at Oxford; where earl Leofric, and most of the Thanes on the north side of the river Thames, with the Lidymen of London, chose Harold king. Lidymen is, by the translator of the Saxon annals, rendered nautæ, i. e., mariners. This translation seems very inconsistent with the honour of the city, to choose one of its fraternities to represent it on so solemn an occasion; but as I take Lidymen (says Maitland) to mean Pilots, which the directors or governors of cities may not improperly be called, I am of opinion, that the city representatives at Oxford were the magistrates, and not the mariners of London. Be that as it will, 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, 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 |