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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

E. Cobham Brewer From The Edition Of 1894

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the twenty-third letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is double-u.

The earliest form of the letter W was a doubled V used in the 7th century by the earliest writers of Old English; it is from this digraph that the modern name "double U" comes. This digraph was not extensively used, the sound usually being represented instead by the runic wynn (?), but W gained popularity after the Norman Conquest, and by 1300 it had taken wynn's place in common use.

Wabun

Son of Mudjekeewis (North—American Indian), East—Wind, the Indian Apollo. Young and beautiful, he chases Darkness with his arrows over hill and valley, wakes the villager, calls the Thunder, and brings the Morning. He married Wabun—Annung (q.v.), and transplanted her to heaven, where she became the Morning Star. (Longfellow: Hiawatha.)

Wabung Annung

in North American Indian mythology, is the Morning Star. She was a country maiden wooed and won by Wabun, the Indian Apollo, who transplanted her to the skies. (Longfellow: Hiawatha.)

Wade

(1 syl.), to go through watery places, is the Anglo—Saxon wad (a ford), wadan (to ford or go [through a meadow]). (See Weyd—Monat. )

General Wade, famous for his military highways in the Highlands, which proceed in a straight line up and down hill like a Roman road, and were made with a crown, instead of being lowest in the middle.

“Had you seen but these roads before they were made.

You would hold up your hands and bless General Wade.”

Wade's Boat

named Guingelot. Wade was a hero of mediaeval romance, whose adventures were a favourite theme in the sixteenth century. Mons. F. Michel has brought together all he could find about this story, but nevertheless, the tale is very imperfectly known.

“They can so mochë craft of Wadës hoot,

So mochë broken harm whan that hem list,

That with hem schuld I never ly v in rest.”

Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, 9,298.

Wadham College

(Oxford) was founded by Nicholas Wadham in 1613.

Wadman

(Widow). A comely widow who tries to secure Uncle Toby for her second husband. Amongst other wiles she pretends that she has something in her eye, and gets Uncle Toby to look for it; as the kind—hearted hero of Namur does so, the widow gradually places her face nearer and nearer the captain's mouth, under the hope that he will kiss her and propose. (Sterne: Tristram Shandy.)

Wag Beards

(To). “'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all”— i.e. when feasting goes on.

“Then was the minstrel's harp with rapture heard;

The song of ancient days gave huge delight;

With pleasure too did wag the minstrel's beard, For Plenty courted him to drink and bite.”

Peter Pindar: Elegy to Scotland.

Wages

Giles Moore, in 1659, paid his mowers sixteenpence an acre. In 1711 Timothy Burrell, Esq., paid twentypence an acre; in 1686 he paid Mary his cook fifty shillings a year; in 1715 he had raised the sum to fifty—five shillings. (Sussex Archaeological Collections, iii. pp. 163, 170.)

For wages in the reign of Henry VIII., see preface of vol. i. Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., edited by J. S. Brewer, pp. 108—119.

Wages of Sin

(The). To earn the wages of sin. To be hanged, or condemned to death.

“I believe some of you will be hanged unless you change a good deal. It's cold blood and bad blood that runs in your veins, and you'll come to earn the wages of sin.”— Boldrewood: Robbery under Arms, ii.

“The wages of sin is death.”— Rom. vi. 23.

Wagoner

(See Bootes. )

Wahabites

(3 syl.). A Mahometan sect, whose object is to bring back the doctrines and observances of Islam to the literal precepts of the Koran; so called from the founder, Ibn—abd—ul—Wahab

Waifs and Strays

“Waifs” are stolen goods, which have been waived or abandoned by the thief. “Strays” are domestic animals which have wandered from their owners and are lost temporarily on permanently.

Waifs and strays of London streets. The homeless poor.

Waistcoat

The M. B. waistcoat. The clerical waistcoat. (See M.B.)

Waiters upon Providence

Those who cling to the prosperous, but fall away from decaying fortunes.

“The side of the Puritans was deserted at this period by a numerous class of ... $$$ persons, who never forsook them till they became unfortunate. These sagacious personages were called ... waiters upon Providence, and deemed it a high delinquency towards heaven to afford countenance to any cause longer than it was favoured by fortune.”— Sir. W. Scott: $$$ of the Peak, chap. iv.

Waits

Street musicians, who serenade the principal inhabitants at Christmas—time, especially on Christmas Eve. From Rymer's Faedra we learn it was the duty of musical watchmen “to pipe the watch" nightly in the king's court four times from Michaelmas to Shrove—Thursday, and three times in the summer; and they had also to make “the bon gate” at every door, to secure them against “pyckeres and pillers.” They form a distinct class from both the watch and the minstrels. Oboes were at one time called “waits.”

“Dr. Busby says the word is a corruption of wayghtes, hautboys, transferred from the instruments to the performers.”— Dictionary of Music

Wake

(1 syl.). To keep vigils. (Anglo—Saxon, waeccan.) A vigil celebrated with junketing and dancing.

“It may, therefore, be permitted them [the Irish] on the dedication day, or other solemn days of martyrs, to make them bowers about the churches, and refresh themselves, feasting together after a good religious sort; killing their oxen now to the praise of God and increase of charity, which they were wont before to sacrifice to the devil.”— Gregory the great to Melitus [Melitus was an $$$ who came over with St. Augustine].

“Waking a Witch”

If a “witch” was obdurate, the most effectual way of obtaining a confession was by what was termed “waking her.” For this purpose an iron bridle or hoop was bound across her face with four prongs thrust into her mouth. The “bridle” was fastened behind to the wall by a chain in such a manner that the victim was unable to lie down; and in this position she was kept sometimes for several days, while men were constantly by to keep her awake. In Scotland some of these bridles are still preserved.

Walbrook Ward

(London) is so called from a brook which once ran along the west wall of Walbrook Street.

Walcheren Expedition

A well—devised scheme, ruined by the stupidity of the agent chosen to carry it out. Lord Castlereagh's instructions were “to advance instantly in full force against Antwerp,” but Lord Chatham wasted his time and strength in reducing Flushing. Ultimately, the red—tape “Incapable” got possession of the island of Walcheren, but 7,000 men died of malaria, and as many more were permanently disabled.

Waldemar's Way So the Milky Way is called in Denmark. This was Waldemar or Valdemar the Victorious, who substituted the Danebrog for the national banner of Denmark.

Waldenses

So called from Peter Waldo, a citizen of Lyons, who founded a preaching society in 1176.

Waldo

a copse between Lavant and Goodwood (Sussex). Same as weald. wold, wald, walt, “a wood.” (Anglo—Saxon.) The final o is about equivalent to “the,” as haelo, the whole, i.e. health; maenego, the many— i.e. multitude, etc.

Wales

The older form in Wealhas (plural of Wealth), an Anglo—Saxon word denoting foreigners, and applied by them to the ancient Britons; hence, also, Corn—wall, the horn occupied by the same “refugees.” Wälschland is a German name for Italy; Valais are the non—German districts of Switzerland; the parts about Liège constitute the Walloon country. The Welsh proper are Cimbri, and those driven thither by the Teutonic invaders were refugees or strangers. (See Walnut. )

Walk

(in Hudibras) is Colonel Hewson, so called from Gayton's tract.

To walk. This is a remarkable word. It comes from the Anglo—Saxon wealcan (to roll); whence wealcere, a fuller of cloth. In Percy's Reliques we read—

“She cursed the weaver and the walker,

The cloth that they had wrought.”

To walk, therefore, is to roll along, as the machine in felting hats or fulling cloth.

Walk Chalks

An ordeal used on board ship as a test of drunkenness. Two parallel lines being chalked on the deck, the supposed delinquent must walk between them without stepping on either.

Walk Spanish

To make a man walk Spanish is to give him the sack; to give him his discharge. In 1885 one of the retired captains in the Trinity House Establishment said, “If I had to deal with the fellow, I would soon make him walk Spanish, I warrant you.”

Walk not in the Public Ways

The fifth symbol of the Protreptics of Iambichus, meaning follow not the multitude in their evil ways; or, wide is the path of sin and narrow the path of virtue, few being those who find it. The “public way” is the way of the public or multitude, but the way of virtue is personal and separate. The areana of Pythagoras were not for the common people, but only for his chosen or elect disciples.

“Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, but narrow is the path of truth and holiness.”

Walk the Plank

(To). (See Plank. )

Walk through One's Part

(To). A theatrical phrase, meaning to repeat one's part at rehearsal verbally, but without dressing for it or acting it. To do anything appointed you in a listless indifferent manner.

“A fit of dulness, such as will at times creep over all the professors of the fine arts, arising either from $$$ or contempt of the present audience, or that caprice which tempts painters, musicians, and great actors ... to walk through their parts, instead of exerting themselves with the energy which acquired their fame.”— Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet, chap. xix.

Walker

a proper name, is generally supposed to be $$$, a fuller, but the derivation of ancient names from trades is to be received with great caution. It is far more probable that Walker is derived from the old High German walah, Anglo—Saxon wealh, a foreigner or borderer; whence Wallack, Walk, Walkey, Walliker, and many others. (See Brewer. )

Helen Walker. The prototype of Jeanie Deans. Sir Walter Scott caused a tombstone to be erected over her grave in the churchyard of Irongray, stewartry of Kirkcudbright. In 1869 Messrs. A. and C. Black caused a headstone of red freestone to be erected in Carlaverock churchyard to the memory of Robert Paterson, the Old Mortality of the same novelist, buried there in 1801.

Hookey Walker. John Walker was an outdoor clerk at Longman, Clementi, and Co.'s, Cheapside, and was noted for his eagle nose, which gained him the nickname of Old Hookey. Walker's office was to keep the workmen to their work, or report them to the principals. Of course it was the interest of the employés to throw discredit on Walker's reports, and the poor old man was so badgered and ridiculed that the firm found it politic to abolish the office, but Hookey Walker still means a tale not to be trusted. (John Bee.

Walker's 'Bus

To go by Walker's 'bus, to walk. Similarly, “To go by the Marrowbone stage,” “To ride Shank's pony.”

Walking Gentleman

(A), in theatrical parlance, means one who has little or nothing to say, but is expected to deport himself as a gentleman when before the lights.

Walking Sword

(A). A short, light sword, when long swords wielded by two hands were in use. (See Sir W. Scott's Abbot, chap. xx.)

Walkyries

(The). (See Valkyries .)

Wall

(The), from the Tyne to Boulness, on the Solway Firth, a distance of eighty miles. Called—

The Roman Wall, because it was the work of the Romans. Agricola's Wall, because Agricola made the south bank and ditch. Hadrian's Wall, because Hadrian added another vallum and mound parallel to Agricola's. The Wall of Severus, because Severus followed in the same line with a stone wall, having castles and turrets. The Picts' Wall, because its object was to prevent the incursions of the Picts.

The wall of Antoninus, now called Graeme's Dyke, from Dunglass Castle on the Clyde to Blackness Castle on the Forth, was made by Lollius Urbicus, legate of Antoninus Pius, A.D. 140. It was a turf wall.

Wall

To give the wall. Nathaniel Bailey's explanation of this phrase is worth perpetuating. He says it is “a compliment paid to the female sex, or those to whom one would show respect, by letting them go nearest the wall or houses, upon a supposition of its being the cleanest. This custom,” he adds, “is chiefly peculiar to England, for in most parts abroad they will give them the right hand, though at the same time they thrust them into the kennel.”

To take the wall. To take the place of honour, the same as to choose “the uppermost rooms at feasts.” (Matt.

xxiii. 6.) At one time pedestrians gave the wall to persons of a higher grade in society than themselves.

“I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.”— Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, i.

l.

To go to the wall. To be put on one side; to be shelved. This is in allusion to another phrase, “Laid by the wall”— i.e. dead but not buried; put out of the way.

To hang by the wall. To hang up neglected; hence, not to be made use of. (Shakespeare: Cymbeline, iii. 4.)

Wall—eyed

properly means “withered—eyed.” Persons are wall—eyed when the white is unusually large, and the sight defective; hence Shakespeare has wall—eyed wrath, wall—eyed slave, etc. When King John says, “My rage was blind, ” he virtually says his “wrath was wall—eyed.” (Saxon, hwelan, to wither. The word is often written whall—eyed, or whallied, from the verb whally.)

Walls have Ears

The Louvre was so constructed in the time of Catherine de Medicis, that what was said in one room could be distinctly heard in another. It was by this contrivance that the suspicious queen became acquainted with state secrets and plots. The tubes of communication were called the auriculaires, and were constructed on the same principle as those of the confessionals. The “Ear of Dionysius" communicated to him every word uttered in the state prison. (See Speaking Heads , 9.)

Wallace's Larder

(See Larder .)

Wallflower

So called because it grows on old walls and ruined buildings. It is a native plant. Similarly, wall—cress, wall—creeper, etc., are plants which grow on dry, stony places, or on walls. Wall—fruit is fruit trained against a wall. (See Walnut .)

Herrick has a pretty fancy on the origin of this flower. A fair damsel was long kept in durance vile from her lover; but at last

“Up she got upon a wall, `Tempting down to slide withal;

But the silken twist untied,

So she fell, and, bruised, she died.

“Love, in pity of the deed,

And her loving luckless speed,

Turned her to this plant we call

Now the `Flower of the wall.' “

Young ladies who sit out against the wall, not having partners during a dance, are called “wallflowers.”

Walloons

Part of the great Romain stock. They occupied the low track along the frontiers of the German—speaking territory, as Artois, Hainault, Namur, Liége, Luxemburg, with parts of Flanders and Brabant. (See Wales .)

“The Wallons ... are the Romanised Gauls, lineal representatives of the ancient Belgae.”— Encyclopoedia Britannica, vol. xxi. p. 332.

Wallop

To thrash. Sir John Wallop, in the reign of Henry VIII., was sent to Normandy to make reprisals, because the French fleet had burnt Brighton. Sir John burnt twenty—one towns and villages, demolished several harbours, and “walloped” the foe to his heart's content.

Wallsend Coals

Originally, from Wallsend, on the Tyne, but now from any part of a large district about Newcastle.

Walnut

[foreign nut ]. It comes from Persia, and is so called to distinguish it from those native to Europe, as hazel, filbert, chestnut. (Anglo—Saxon, walh, foreign; hnutu, nut.)

“Some difficulty there is in cracking the name thereof. Why wallnuts, having no affinity to a wall, should be so called. The truth is, gual or wall in the old Dutch signifleth `strange' or texotic' (whence Welsh, foreigners); these nuts being no natives of England or Europe, but probably first fetched from Persia, and called by the French nux persique. ”— Fuller: Worthies of England.

Walnut Tree

It is said that the walnut tree thrives best if the nuts are beaten off with sticks, and not gathered. Hence Fuller says, “Who, like a nut tree, must be manured by beating, or else would not bear fruit" (bk. ii. ch.

11). The saying is well known that—

“A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut tree,

The more you beat them the better they be.”

Taylor, the Water—Poet.

Walpurgis Night

The eve of May Day, when the old pagan witch—world was supposed to hold high revelry under its chief on certain high places. The Brocken of Germany was a favourite spot for these revelries.

Walpurgis was a female saint concerned in the introduction of Christianity into Germany. She died February 25th, 779.

“He changed hands, and whisked and rioted like a dance of Walpurgis in his lonely brain.”—

J. S. Le Fanu: The House in the Churchyard, p. 109.

Walston

(St.). A Briton who gave up all his wealth, and supported himself by manual husbandry. Patron saint of husbandmen; usually depicted with a scythe in his hand, and cattle in the background. Died mowing, 1016.

Walter Multon

Abbot of Thornton—upon—Humber, in Lincolnshire, was immured in 1443. In 1722, an old wall being taken down, his remains were found with a candlestick, table, and book. Stukeley mentions the fact. In 1845 another instance of the same kind was discovered at Temple Bruer, in Lin colnshire.

Waltham Blacks

(See Black Act .)

Walton

An Izaak Wallon. One devoted to “the gentle craft” of angling. Izaak Walton wrote a book called The Complete Angler, or Contemplative Man's Recreation. (1655.)

“Gentle” is a pun. Gentles are the larvae of flesh—flies used as bait in angling.

Walton Bridle

(The). The “gossip's or scold's bridle.” One of these bridles is preserved in the vestry of the church of Walton—on—Thames. Iron bars pass round the head, and are fastened by a padlock. In front, a flat piece of iron projects, and, this piece of iron being thrust into the mouth, effectually prevents the utterance of words. The relic at Walton is dated 1633, and the donor was a person named Chester, as appears from the inscription:

“Chester presents Walton with a bridle

To curb women's tongues that talk too idle.”

It is also called a “brank.” (Teutonic, pranque, “a bridle.”)

Wamba Son of Witless, and jester of Cedric “the Saxon,” of Rotherwood. (Sir Walter Scott: Ivanhoe.)

Wan

means thin. (Anglo—Saxon, wan, “deficient”; our wane, as the “waning moon.”) As wasting of the flesh is generally accompanied with a grey pallor, the idea of leanness has yielded to that of the sickly hue which attends it. (Verb wan—ian, to wane.)

Wand

The footman's wand. (See under Running Footmen .)

Wandering Jew

(1) Of Greek tradition. Aristeas, a poet who continued to appear and disappear alternately for above 400 years, and who visited all the mythical nations of the earth.

(2) Of Jewish story. Tradition says that Kartaphilos, the door—keeper of the Judgment Hall, in the service of Pontius Pilate, struck our Lord as he led Him forth, saying, “Go on faster, Jesus”; whereupon the Man of Sorrows replied, “I am going, but thou shalt tarry till I come again.” (Chronicle of St. Alban's Abbey; 1228.)

The same Chronicle, continued by Matthew Paris, tells us that Kartaphilos was baptized by Ananias, and received the name of Joseph. At the end of every hundred years he falls into a trance, and wakes up a young man about thirty.

Another legend is that Jesus, pressed down with the weight of His cross, stopped to rest at the door of one Ahasuerus, a cobbler. The craftsman pushed him away, saying, “Get off! Away with you, away!” Our Lord replied, “Truly I go away, and that quickly, but tarry thou till I come.” Schubert has a poem entitled Ahasuer (the Wandering Jew). (Paul von Eitzen; 1547.)

A third legend says that it was Ananias, the cobbler, who haled Jesus before the judgment seat of Pilate, saying to Him, “Faster, Jesus, faster!”

(3) In Germany the Wandering Jew is associated with John Buttadaeus, seen at Antwerp in the thirteenth century, again in the fifteenth, and a third time in the sixteenth. His last appearance was in 1774 at Brussels. Signor Gualdi about the same time made his appearance at Venice, and had a portrait of himself by Titian, who had been dead at the time 130 years. One day he disappeared as mysteriously as he had come. (Turkish Spy, vol. ii.)

(4) The French call the Wandering Jew Isaac Laquedem, a corruption of Lakedion. (Mitternacht Diss. in Jno. xxi. 19; 1640.)

Wandering Jew. Salathiel ben Sadi, who appeared and disappeared towards the close of the sixteenth century, at Venice, in so sudden a manner as to attract the notice of all Europe. Croly in his novel called Salathiel, and Southey in his Curse of Kehama, trace the course of the Wandering Jew, but in utter violation of the general legends. In Eugèe Sue's Le Juif Errant, the Jew makes no figure of the slightest importance to the tale.

The Wandering Jew. Alexandre Dumas wrote a novel called Isaac Laquedem. Sieur Emmerch relates the legend.

Ed. Grenier has a poem on the subject, La Mort du Juif Errant, in five cantos. Halevy has an opera on the same subject, words by Scribe.

Doré has illustrated the legend.

Wandering Willie

or Willie Steenson. The blind fiddler who tells the tale of Redgauntlet. (Sir Walter Scott. Redgauntlet.

Wandering Wood

in book i. of Spenser's Faërie Queene, is where St. George and Una encounter Error, who is slain by the knight. Una tries to persuade the Red Cross knight to leave the wood, but he is self—willed. Error, in the form of a serpent, attacks him, but the knight severs her head from her body. The idea is that when Piety will not listen to Una or Truth, it is sure to get into “Wandering Wood,” where Error will attack it, but if it listens then to Truth it will slay Error.

Wans Dyke Sir Richard Colt Hoare tells us, was a barrier erected by the Belgae against the Celts, and served as a boundary between these tribes. Dr. Stukeley says the original mound was added to by the Anglo—Saxons when they made it the boundary—line of the two kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex. It was also used by the Britons as a defence against the Romans, who attacked them from the side of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.

In its most perfect state it began at Andover, in Hampshire, ran through the counties of Berkshire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshire, and terminated in the “Severn Sea” or Bristol Channel. It was called Wodenes Dyke by the Saxons, contracted into Wondes—dyke, and corrupted to Wans—dyke, as Wodenes—daeg is into Wednes—day.

(See Wats Dyke.)

Want

or Went. A road. Thus “the four—want way,” the spot where four roads meet. Chaucer uses the expression “a privie went" (private road), etc.

Wants

meaning “gloves.” According to the best Dutch authorities, the word is a corruption of the French gant, Italian quanto, our “gauntlets.”

“Wanten are worn by peasants and working people when the weather is cold. They are in shape somewhat like boxing—gloves, having only a thumb and no fingers. They are made of a coarse woollen stuff”— Teding von Berkhout: Letter from Breda.

Wantley

(See Dragon .)

Wapentake

A division of Yorkshire, similar to that better known as a hundred. The word means “toucharms,” it being the custom of each vassal, when he attended the assemblies of the district, “to touch the spear of his overlord in token of homage.” Victor Hugo, in his novel of L'Homme qui Rit, calls a tipstaff a “wapentake.”

(Anglo—Saxon, wapen, arms; tacan, to touch.)

Wapping Great

means astonishingly great. (Anglo—Saxon, wafian, to be astonished; wafung, amazement.) A “wapper” is a great falsehood.

War of the Meal—sacks

After the battle of Beder, Abu Sofian summoned two hundred fleet horsemen, each with a sack of meal at his saddle—bow (the scanty provision of an Arab for a foray), and sallied forth to Medina. Mahomet went forth at the head of a superior force to meet him, and Abu Sofian with his horsemen, throwing off their mealsacks, fled with precipitation.

War of the Roses

(See Roses .)

Ward

A district under the charge of a warden. The word is applied to the subdivisions of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham, which, being contiguous to Scotland, were placed under the charge of lord wardens of the marches, whose duty it was to protect these counties from inroads. (See Hundred .)

Ward

(Artemus). (See Artemus Ward .)

Ward Money, Ward—penny

or Wardage. Money paid for watch and ward. (Domesday. )

Warden—pie

Pie made of the Warden pear. Warden pears are so called from Warden Abbey, Berks, where they are grown in great profusion.

“Myself with denial I mortify

With a dainty bit of a Warden—pie.”

The Friar of Orders Grey.

Ware

(See Bed .)

Warlock

A wandering evil spirit; a wizard. (Anglo—Saxon, woer—loga, a deceiver, one who breaks his word. Satan is called in Scripture “the father of lies,” the arch—warlock.)

Warm Reception

(A). A hot opposition. Also, a hearty welcome.

“The Home Rule members are prepared to give the Coercion Bill a warm reception; Mr. Parnell's followers will oppose it tooth and nail.”— Newspaper paragraph, May 19th, 1885.

Warm as a Bat

Hot as burning coal. In South Staffordshire that slaty coal which will not burn, but which lies in the fire till it becomes red—hot, is called “bat.”

Warming—pan

(A). One who keeps a place warm for another, i.e. holds it temporarily for another. The allusion is to the custom in public schools of making a fag warm his “superior's” bed by lying in it till the proper occupant was ready to turn him out.

“If Mr. Mellor took a judgeship, Grantham might object to become a warming—pan for ambitious lawyers.”— Newspaper paragraph, March 5th, 1886.

Warming—pan

(See Jacobites .)

Warning Stone

Anything that gives notice of danger. Bakers in Wiltshire and some other counties used to put a “certain pebble” in their ovens, and when the stone turned white it gave the baker warning that the oven was hot enough for his bankings.

Warp

(To). A sea term, meaning to shift the position of a vessel. This is done by means of a rope called a warp. Kedging is when the warp is bent to a kedge, which is let go, and the vessel is hove ahead by the

capstan.

“The potent rod

Of Amram's son [Moses], in Egypt s evil day, Waved round the coast, up—called a pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping [shifting about] in the eastern wind.” Milton: Paradise Lost, i. 338.

In Lancashire, warping means laying eggs; and boys, on finding a bird's nest, will ask— “And how many eggs has she warped?”

Warp and Weft

or Woof. The “warp” of a fabric are the longitudinal threads; the “weft” or “woof” are threads which run from selvage to selvage.

“W cave the warp and weave the woof,

The winding—sheet of Edward's race;

Give ample room and verge enough

The characters of hell to traco.”

Gray: The Bgrd.

Warrior Queen

(The). Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni.

“When the British warrior queen,

Bleeding from the Roman rods,

Sought, with an indignant mien,

Counsel of her country's gods ...”

Cowper: Boadicea.

The Iceni were the faithful allies of Rome; but, on the death of Prasutagus, king of that tribe, the Roman procurator took possession of the kingdom of Prasutagus; and when the widow Boadicea complained thereof, the procurator had her beaten with rods like a slave.

Warwick

(Anglo—Saxon, war—wic, contracted from waering—wic (the fortified or garrisoned town). A translation of the ancient British name Caer Leon.

Warwick Lane

(City). The site of a magnificent house belonging to the famed Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick.

Warwolf

(See Werwolf .)

Washed Out

(I am thoroughly). I am thoroughly exhausted or done up; I have no strength or spirit left in me.

Washing

Wash your dirty linen at home (French). The French say the English do not follow the advice of washing their dirty linen en famille — meaning that they talk openly and freely of the faults committed by ministers, corporations, and individuals. All may see their dirty linen; and as for its washing, let it be washed, and the English care not who has the doing of it. Horace (2 Ep., i. 220) says, “Vineta egomet cædam mea” (I do my own washing at home). Though the French assert that we disregard this advice, we have the familiar proverb, “It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest.”

Washington of Columbia

Simon Bolivar (1785—1831).

Wassail (2 syl.). A salutation used on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day over the spiced—ale cup, hence called the “wassail bowl.” (Anglo—Saxon, Waes hael, be whole, be well.)

Wassailers

Those who join a wassail; revellers, drunkards.

“I should be loath

To meet the rudenoss and swilled insolence

Of such late wassailers.”

Milton: Comus (The Lady).

Wastlers

Wandering musicians; from wastle, to wander. The carolsingers in Sussex are called wastlers.

Wat

A familar name for a hare.

“By this, poor Wat, far off upon a hill,

Stands on his hinder legs, with listening ear.” Shakespeare: Venus and Adonis.

Wats Dyke

(Flintshire). A corruption of Wato's Dyke. Wato was the father of Weland, the Vulcan of Northern mythology, and the son of King Vilkinr by a mermaid. This dyke extends from the vicinity of Basingwerk Abbey, in a south—easterly direction, into Denbighshire. The space between it and Offa's Dyke, which in some parts is three miles, and in others not above 500 yards, is neutral ground, “where Britons, Danes, and Saxons met for commercial purposes.” (See Wans Dyke .)

“There is a famous thing

Called Offa's Dyke, that reacheth far in length. All kinds of ware the Danes might thither bring; It was free ground, and called the Briton's Strength. Wat's Dyke, likewise, about the same was set, Between which two both Danes and Britons met, And traffic still.

Churchyard: Worthiness of Wales (1587).

Watch Night

December 31st, to see the Old Year out and the New Year in by a religious service. John Wesley grafted it on the religious system, but it has been followed by most Christian communities.

“Southey in his biography of the evangelist (Wesley) denounces watch—night as another of Wesley's objectionable institutions.”— Nottingham Guardian, January 1, 1895, p. 5.

Watch on Board Ship

There are two sorts of watch— the long watch of four hours, and the dog watch of two, from 4 to 6; but strictly speaking a watch means four hours. The dog watches are introduced to prevent one party always keeping watch at the same time. (See Wolf, Between dog and wolf, Dog—Watch .)

There are two divisions which perform duty alternately— the starboard watch and the port watch. The former is called the captain's watch in the merchant service, often under the command of the second mate; the port watch is under the command of the first mate.

The Black Watch. The gallant 42nd, linked with the 73rd, now called the Royal Highlanders. The 42nd was the first corps raised for the royal service in the Highlands. Their tartan (1729) consisted of dark blue and dark green, and was called black from the contrast which their dark cartans furnished to the scarlet and white of the other regiments.

Watchet Sky—blue. (Anglo—Saxon, waadchet, probably dye of the woad plant)

Water

(See Dancing Water .)

The Father of Waters. The Mississippi (Indian, Michc Sepe), the chief river of North America. The Missouri is its child. The Irrawaddy is so called also.

Water

Blood thicker than water. (See under Blood .)

Court holy water. Fair but empty words. In French, “Eau $$$ de ceur. “ In deep water. In difficulties; in great perplexity.

It makes my mouth water. It is very alluring; it makes me long for it. Saliva is excited in the mouth by strong desire. The French have the same phrase: “Cela fait venir Veau à la bouche. “

More water glideth by the mill than wots the miller of (Titus Andronicus, ii. 1). The Scotch say, “Mickle water goes by the miller when he sleeps.” (See under Miller.)

O'er muckle water drowned the miller. (See Drown The Miller.) The weaver, in fact, is hanged in his own yarn. The French say, “Un embarras de richesse. “

Of the first water. Of the highest type; very excellent. (See under Diamond.) Smooth water runs deep. Deep thinkers are persons of few words; barking dogs do not bite. There are two or three French proverbs of somewhat similar meaning. For example: “En cau endormie point ne se fe; ” again,

“L'can qui dort est pire que celle quit court. ” A calm exterior is far more to be feared than a tongue—doughty Bobadil.

The modest water saw its God and blushed. The allusion is to Christ's turning water into wine at the marriage feast. Richard Crashaw (1670) wrote the Latin epigram in pentameter verse.

“Nympha pudica Deam vidit et erubuit.”

To back water. To row backwards in order to reverse the forward motion of a boat in rowing. To carry water to the river. To carry coals to Newcastle. In French, “Porter de l'eau à la rivière. “ To fish in troubled water. The French saying is, “Pêcher en eau troubé,” i.e. “Profiter des époques de trouble et de révolution pour faire ses affaires et as fortune. (Hilaire Le Gai.)

To hold water. That won't hold water. That is not correct; it is not tenable. It is a vessel which leaks. To keep one's head above water. To remain out of debt. When immersed in water, while the head is out of water, one is not drowned.

To throw cold water on a scheme. To discourage the proposal; to speak of it slightingly.

Water

The coldest water known. Colder than the water of Nonacris (Pliny, xiii. 2). Colder than the water of Dirce. “Dirce et Neme fontes sunt frigidissimi aestate, inter Bilbilim et Segobregam, in ripa fere Salonis amnis.” (Martial.)

Colder than the water of Dircenna. (Martial, i. 51.)

Colder than the Conthoporian Spring of Corinth, that froze up the gastric juices of those that sipped it.

Water—gall

The dark rim round the eyes after much weeping. A peculiar appearance in a rainbow which indicates more rain at hand. “Gall” is the Anglo—Saxon gealew (yellow).

“And round about her tear—distainëd eye

Blue circles streamed, like rainbows in the sky; These watergalls ... foretell new storms.”

Shakespeare: Rape of Lucrecs.

Water—hole

The big water—hole. The bed of the sea; the ocean.

“We've got to the big water—hole at last ... Tis a long way across.”— Boldrewood: Robbery under Arms, chap. xii.

Water—logged

Rendered immovable by too much water in the hold. When a ship leaks and is water—logged, it will not make any progress, but is like a log on the sea, tossed and stationary.

Water—Poet

John Taylor, the Thames waterman. (1580—1654.)

“I must confess I do want eloquence,

And never scarce did learn my accidence,

For having got from `possum' to `posset,'

I there was grayelled, nor could farther get.”

Taylor the Water—Poet.

Water—sky

(A), in Arctic navigation, is a dark or brown sky, indicating an open sea. An ice—sky is a white one, or a sky tinted with orange or rose—colour, indicative of a frozen sea. (See Ice—Blink .)

Water Stock

(To). To add extra shares. Suppose a “trust” (q.v. ) consists of 1,000 shares of 50 each, and the profit available for dividend is 40 per cent., the managers “water the stock,” that is, add another 1,000 fully

paid—up shares to the original 1,000. There are now 2,000 shares, and the dividend, instead of 40 per cent., is reduced to 20; but the shares are more easily sold, and the shareholders are increased in number.

Water of Jealousy (The). If a woman was known to commit adultery she was to be stoned to death, according to the Mosaic law. (Deut. xxii. 22.) If, however, the husband had no proof, but only suspected his wife of infidelity, he might take her before the Sanhedrim to be examined, and if she denied it, she was given the

“water of jealousy” to drink (Numb. v. 11—29). In this water some of the dust of the sanctuary was mixed, and the priest said to the woman, “If thou hast gone aside may Jehovah make this water bitter to thee, and bring on thee all the curses written in this law.” The priest then wrote on a roll the curses, blotted the writing with the water, gave it to the woman, and then handed to her the “water of jealousy” to drink.

Water Tasting like Wine

Pliny (ii. 103) tells us of a fountain in the Isle of Andros, in the temple of Bacchus, which every year, on January 5th, tasted like wine.

Baccius de Thermis (vi. 22) gives numerous examples of similar vinous springs. In Lanternland there was a fountain in the middle of the temple, the water of which had the flavour of the wine which the drinker most liked. (Rabelais: Pantagruel, v. 42.)

Waters

(Sonitary).

For anaemia, Schwalbach, St. Moritz. “ articular rheumatism, Aix les Bains. “ asthma, Mont Dore.

“ atonic gout, Royat.

“ biliary obstructions, Carlsbad.

“ calculous disorders, Vichy and Contrexéville. “ diabetes, Neuenahr and Carlsbad.

“ gout, Aix les Bains.

“ gouty and catarrhal dyspepsia, Homburg and Kissingen. “ obesity, Marienbad.

“ plethoric gout, Carlsbad.

“ scrofulous glandular affections, Kreuznacn.

“ skin diseases Aix la Chapelle and Constadt.

“ throat affections, La Bourbonne, Aix—les—Bains, Uriage, Auterets, Eaux Bonnes.

Waterloo Cup

(The). A dog prize. Waterloo is on the banks of the Mersey, about three miles north of Liverpool.

Waterworks

(The). The shedding of tears. Many other meanings also.

“ `Oh, miss, I never thought to have seen this day,' and the waterworks began to play.”— Thackeray.

Watling Street

A road extending east and west across South Britain. Beginning at Dover, it ran through Canterbury to London, and thence to Cardigan. The word is a corruption of Vitellina strata, the paved road of Vitellius, called by the Britons Guetalin. Poetically the “Milky Way" has been called the Watling Street of the sky.

“Secunda via principalis dicitur Wateling—streate, tendens ab euro—austro in zephyrum septentrionalem. Incipit ... a Dovaria ... usque Cardigan.”— Leland.

Watteau

“Peintre de fêtes galantes du roi. ” (1684—1721.)

Wave

The ninth wave. A notion prevails that the waves keep increasing in regular series till the maximum arrives, and then the series begins again. No doubt when two waves coalesce they form a large one, but this does not occur at fixed intervals. The most common theory is that the tenth wave is the largest, but Tennyson

says the ninth.

“And then the two

Dropt to the cove, and watch'd the great sea fall, Wave after wave, each mightier than the last, Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep

And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged

Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame.”

Tennyson: The Holy Grail.

Wax—bond End

(A). A thread waxed with cobbler's wax and used for binding whips, fishing—rods, ropes, etc., for sewing boots and shoes, etc. It is waxed and used for a bond.

Way—bit

A Yorkshire way—bit. A large overplus. Ask a Yorkshireman the distance of any place, and he will reply so many miles and a way—bit (wee—bit); but the way—bit will prove a frightful length to the traveller who imagines it means only a little bit over. The High—landers say, “A mile and a bittock, ” which means about two miles.

Ways and Means

A parliamentary term, meaning the method of raising the supply of money for the current requirements of the state.

Wayfaring Tree

(The). The Guelder rose (q.v.).

“Wayfaring Tree' What ancient claim

Hast thou to that right pleasant name?

Was it that some faint pilgrim came Unhopedly to thee, In the brown desert's weary way,

Midst thirst and toil's consuming sway,

And there, as `neath thy shade he lay,

Blessed the Wayfaring Tree?” W.H.

Wayland

the Scandinavian Vulcan, was son of the sea—giant Wate, and the sea—nymph Wac—hilt. He was bound apprentice to Mimi the smith. King Nidung cut the sinews of his feet, and cast him into prison, but he escaped in a feather—boat. (Anglo—Saxon weallan, to fabricate.)

Wayland Smith's Cave

A cromlech near Lambourn, Berkshire. Scott, in his Kenilworth (chap. xiii.), says,

“Here lived a supernatural smith, who would shoe a traveller's horse for a `consideration.' His fee was sixpence, and if more was offered him he was offended.”

Wayland Wood

(near Watton, Norfolk), said to be the scene of the Babes in the Wood, and a corruption of “Wailing Wood.”

Wayleaves

Right of way through private property for the laying of waterpipes and making of sewers, etc., provided that only the surface—soil is utilised by the proprietor.

“Mr. Woods made an attempt to get the House of Commons to commit itself to the proposition: That the present system of royalty rents and wayleaves is injurious to the great industries.”— Liberty Review, April 14th, 1894, p. 307.

Wayzgoose

An entertainment given to journeymen, or provided by the journeymen themselves. It is mainly a printers' affair, which literary men and commercial staffs may attend by invitation or sufferance. The word

wayz means a “bûndle of straw,” and wayzgoose a “stubble goose,” properly the crowning dish of the entertainment. The Dutch wassen means “to wax fat.” The Latin anser sigatum. (See Beanfeast, Harvest Goose .)

“In the midlands and north of England, every newspaper has its wayzgoose.”— The Pall Mall Gazette, June 26th, 1894.

We

Coke, in the Institutes, says the first king that wrote we in his grants was King John. All the kings before him wrote ego (I). This is not correct, as Richard Lion—heart adopted the royal we. (See Rymer's Foedera.)

We Three

Did you never see the picture of “We Three” ? asks Sir Andrew Aguecheek— not meaning himself, Sir Toby Belch, and the clown, but referring to a public—house sign of Two Loggerheads, with the inscription,

“We three loggerheads be,” the third being the spectator.

We Left Our Country for Our Country's Good

We are transported convicts. The line occurs in a prologue written by George Barrington (a notorious pickpocket) for the opening of the first playhouse at Sydney, in Australia, 16th January, 1796.

“True patriots we, for be it understood,

We left our country for our country's good.”

Weak as Water

(See Similes .)

Weak—kneed Christian

or Politician (A). Irresolute; not thorough; a Laodicean, neither hot nor cold.

“If any weak—kneed Churchman, now hesitating between his [political] party and his Church, is trying to persuade himself that no mischief is in the air, let him take warning.”— Newspaper paragraph, October 16th, 1885.

Weapon Salve

A salve said to cure wounds by sympathy. The salve is not applied to the wound, but to the instrument which gave the wound. The direction “Bind the wound and grease the nail” is still common when a wound has been given by a rusty nail. Sir Kenelm Digby says the salve is sympathetic, and quotes several instances to prove that “as the sword is treated the wound inflicted by it feels. Thus, if the instrument is kept wet, the wound will feel cool; if held to the fire, it will feel hot;” etc.

“But she has taen the broken lance,

And washed it from the clotted gore,

And salved the splinter o'er and o'er.”

Sir Walter Scott: Lay of the Last Minstrel, iii. 23.

If grease must be used to satisfy the ignorant, it can do no harm on the rusty nail, but would certainly be harmful on the wound itself.

Wear

Never wear the image of Deity in a ring. So Pythagoras taught his disciples, and Moses directed that the Jews should make no image of God. Both meant to teach their disciples that God is incorporeal, and not to be likened to any created form. (See Iamblichus: Protreptics, symbol xxiv.)

Never wear a brown hat in Friesland. (See Hat.) To wear the wooden sword. (See Wooden.)

To wear the willow. (See Willow.) To wear one's heart upon one's sleeve. (See under Heart.)

Weasel

Weasels suck eggs. Hence Shakespeare—

“The weazel Scot

Comes sneaking, and so sucks the princoly egg.” Henry V., i. 2.

“I can suck melancholy out of a song, as a weazel sucks eggs.”— As You Like It, ii. 5.

To catch a weasel asleep. To expect to find a very vigilant person nodding, off his guard; to suppose that one who has his weather—eye open cannot see what is passing before him. The French say, Croir avoir trouvé la pie au nid (To expect to find the pie on its nest). The vigilant habits of these animals explain the allusions.

Weather Breeder (A). A day of unusual fineness coming suddenly after a series of damp dull ones, especially at the time of the year when such a genial day is not looked for. Such a day is generally followed by foul weather.

Weather—cock

By a Papal enactment made in the middle of the ninth century, the figure of a cock was set up on every church—steeple as the emblem of St. Peter. The emblem is in allusion to his denial of our Lord thrice before the cock crew twice. On the second crowing of the cock the warning of his Master flashed across his memory, and the repentant apostle “went out and wept bitterly.”

Weather—eye

I have my weathereye open. I have my wits about me; I know what I am after. The weathereye is towards the wind to forecast the weather.

Weather—gage

To get the weathergage of a person. To get the advantage over him. A ship is said to have the weather gage of another when it has got to the windward thereof.

“Were the line

Of Rokeby once combined with mine,

I gain the weather—gage of fate.”

Sir Walter Scott: Rokeby.

Weather—glass

(The Peasant's) or “Poor man's warning.” The scarlet pimpernel, which closes its petals at the approach of rain.

“Closed is the pink—eyed pimpernel: `Twill surely rain; I see with sorrow,

Our jaunt must be put off to—morrow.”

Dr. Jenner.

Web of Life

The destiny of an individual from the cradle to the grave. The allusion is to the three Fates who, according to Roman mythology, spin the thread of life, the pattern being the events which are to occur.

Wed

is Anglo—Saxon, and means a pledge. The ring is the pledge given by the man to avouch that he will perform his part of the contract.

Wedding Anniversaries

The 5th anniversary is called the Wooden wedding,

The 10th anniversary is called the Tin wedding,

The 15th anniversary is called the Crystal wedding, The 20th anniversary is called the China wedding,

The 25th anniversary is called the Silver wedding,

The 50th anniversary is called the Golden wedding, The 60th anniversary is called the Diamond wedding. From the nature of the gifts suitable for each respective anniversary.

Wedding Finger

Macrobius says the thumb is too busy to be set apart, the forefinger and little finger are only half protected, the middle finger is called medicus, and is too opprobrioas for the purpose of honour, so the only finger left is the pronubus or wedding finger. (See Ring, Fingers .)

Wedding Knives

Undoubtedly, one knife or more than one was in Chaucer's time part of a bride's paraphernalia. Allusions to this custom are very numerous.

“Seo, at my girdle hang my wedding knives.”

Dekker: Match Me in London (1631).

Wednesday

Woden—es or Odin—es Day, called by the French “Mercredi" (Mercury's Day). The Persians regard it as a “red—letter day,” because the moon was created on the fourth day. (Genesis iv. 14—19.)

But the last Wednesday of November is called “Black Wednesday.”

Weed of Worcester

(The). The elm, which is very common indeed in the county.

Weeds

Widow's weeds. (Anglo—Saxon, waed, a garment.) There are the compounds waed—bréc (breeches or garment for the breech), waedless (naked or without clothing), and so on. Spenser speaks of

“A goodly lady clad in hunter's weed.”

Weeping Brides

A notion long prevailed in this country that it augured ill for a matrimonial alliance if the bride did not weep profusely at the wedding.

As no witch could shed more than three tears, and those from her left eye only, a copious flow of tears gave assurance to the husband that the lady had not “plighted her troth” to Satan, and was no witch.

Weeping Cross

To go by Weeping Cross. To repent, to grieve. In ancient times weeping crosses were crosses where penitents offered their devotions. In Stafford there is a weeping cross.

“Few men have wedded ... their paramours ... but have come home by Weeping Cross.”— Florio: Montatgne.

Weeping Philosopher

Heraclitos. So called because he grieved at the folly of man. (Flourished B.C. 500.)

Weeping Saint

(The). St. Swithin. So called from the tradition of forty days' rain, if it rains on July 15th.

Weigh Anchor

Be off, get you gone. To weigh anchor is to lift it from its moorings, so that the ship may start on her voyage. As soon as this is done the ship is under—weigh— i.e. in movement. (Saxon, waegan, to life up, carry.)

“Get off with you; come, come! weigh anchor.”— Sir W. Scott: The Antiquary.

Weighed in the Balance, and found Wanting

The custom of weighing the Maharajah of Travancore in a scale against gold coin is still in use, and is called Talabbaram. The gold is heaped up till the Maharajah rises well in the air. The priests chant their Vedic hymns, the Maharajah is adored, and the gold is distributed among some 15,000 Brahmins, more or less.

Weight

A dead weight. (See Dead .)

Weight—for—age Race

(A). A sort of handicap (q.v.), but the weights are apportioned according to certain conditions, and not according to the dictum of a “capper.” Horses of the same age carry similar weights caeteris paribus. (See Selling—Race, Plate, Sweepstakes .)

Weissnichtwo

(vice—ncecht—vo). I know not where; Utopia; Kennaquhair; an imaginary place in Carlyle's Sartor Resartus. (See Utopia .)

Welcher

(See Welsher .)

Weld or Wold. The dyer's—weed (reseda luteola), which yields a beautiful yellow dye. (Anglo—Saxon, geld or gold, our yellow, etc.)

Well Begun is Half Done

“The beginning is half the whole.” (Pythagoras.)

French: “Heureux commencement est la moitiéde l'oeuvre.” “Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coûe.” Latin: “Incipe dimidium facti est coepisse.” (Ausonius.

“Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet.” Horace.

“Facilius est incitare currentem, quam commovere languentem.” (Cicero.)

Well—beloved

Charles VI. of France, le Bien—aimé. (1368, 1380—1422.)

Well—founded Doctor

AEgidius de Columna. (*—1316.)

Well of English Undefiled

So Geoffrey Chaucer is spoken of by Spenser in the Faërie Queene, iv. 2. (1328—1400.)

Well of St. Keyne

[Cornwall ]. The reputed virtue of this well is that whichever of a married pair first drinks its waters will be the paramount power of the house. Southey has a ballad on the subject. The gentleman left the bride at the church door, but the lady took a bottle of the water to church.

Well of Samaria

now called Nablûs, is seventy—five feet deep.

Well of Wisdom

This was the well under the protection of the god Mimir (q.v.). Odin, by drinking thereof, became the wisest of all beings. (Scandinavian mythology.)

Wells

(Somersetshire). So called from St. Andrew's Well.

Weller

(Sam). Pickwick's factotum. His wit, fidelity, archness, and wide—awakedness are inimitable. (Dickens Pickwick Papers.)

Tony Weller. Father of Sam. Type of the old stage—coachman; portly in size, and dressed in a

broad—brimmed hat, great—coat of many capes, and topboots. His stage—coach was his castle, and elsewhere he was as green as a sailor on terra firma. (Dickens: Pickwick Papers.)

Wellington

Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, called “The Iron Duke,” from his iron constitution and iron will. (1769—1852.)

Wellington's horse, Copenhagen. (Died at the age of twenty—seven.) (See Horse.) Le Wellington des Joucurs. Lord Rivers was so called in Paris.

“Le Wellington des Joueurs lost 23,000 at a sitting, beginning at twelve at night, and ending at seven the following morning.”— Edinburgh Review, July, 1844.

Welsh Ambassador

( The). The cuckoo. Logan, in his poem To the Cuckoo calls it the “messenger of

Spring”; but the Welsh ambassador means that the bird announces the migration of Welsh labourers into England for summer employment.

“Why, thou rogue of universality, do I not know thee? This sound is like the cuckoo, the Welsh ambassador.”— Dampet: A Trick to Catch the Old One. iv. 5.

Welsh Main

Same as a “battle royal.” (See Battle .)

Welsh Mortgage

(A). A pledge of land in which no day is fixed for redemption.

Welsh Rabbit

Cheese melted and spread over buttered toast. The word rabbit is a corruption of rare—bit.

“The Welshman he loved toasted cheese,

Which made his mouth like a mouse—trap.”

When Good King Arthur Ruled the Land.

Welsher One who lays a bet, but absconds if he loses. It means a Welshman, and is based upon the nursery rhyme, “Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief.”

Wench

(A) is the Anglo—Saxon word wencle, a child. It is now chiefly used derogatorily, and the word wenching is quite offensive. In the Midland counties, when a peasant addresses his wife as “my wench,” he expresses endearment.

Wench, like girl, was at one time applied to either sex, Chaucer has “yonge—girls” for youngsters of both sexes. We find the phrase “knave—girl” used for boys; and Isaac, in the Ormulum, is called a wench or wenchel. Similarly, “maid” is applied to both sexes, hence the compound moeden—foemne, a female child or maiden.

Werner

alias Kruitzner, alias Count Siegendorf. Being driven from the dominion of his father, he wandered about as a beggar for twelve years. Count Stralenheim, being the next heir, hunted him from place to place. At length Stralenheim, travelling through Silesia, was rescued from the Oder by Ulric, and lodged in an old palace where Werner had been lodging for some few days. Werner robbed Stralenheim of a rouleau of gold, but scarcely had he done so when he recognised in Ulric his lost son, and child him for saving the count. Ulric murdered Stralenheim, and provided for his father's escape to Siegendrof castle, near Prague. Werner recovered his dominion, but found that his son was a murderer, and imagination is left to fill up the future fate of both father and son. (Byron Werner.)

Werther

The sentimental hero of Goethe's romance called The Sorrows of Werther.

Werwolf

(French, loup—garou). A bogie who roams about devouring infants, sometimes under the form of a man, sometimes as a wolf followed by dogs, sometimes as a white dog, sometimes as a black goat, and occasionally invisible. Its skin is bullet—proof, unless the bullet has been blessed in a chapel dedicated to St. Hubert. This superstition was once common to almost all Europe, and still lingers in Brittany, Limousin, Aurergne, Servia, Wallachia, and White Russia. In the fifteenth century a council of theologians, convoked by the Emperor Sigismund, gravely decided that the loup—garou was a reality. It is somewhat curious that we say a “bug—bear,” and the French a “bug—wolf.” (“Wer—wolf” is Anglo—Saxon wer, a man, and wolf— a man in the semblance of a wolf. “Gar” of gar—ou is wer or war, a man; and “ou,” a corruption of orc, an ogre.)

Ovid tells the story of Lycaon, King of Arcadia, turned into a wolf because he tested the divinity of Jupiter by serving up to him a “hash of human flesh.”

Herodotus describes the Neuri as sorcerers, who had the power of assuming once a year the shape of wolves.

Pliny relates that one of the family of Antaeus was chosen annually, by lot, to be transformed into a wolf, in which shape he continued for nine years.

St. Patrick, we are told, converted Vereticus, King of Wales, into a wolf.

Wesleyan

A follower of John Wesley (1703—1791), founder of the Wesleyan Methodists.

Wessex

or West Saxon Kingdom, included Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Somerset, Surrey, Gloucestershire, and Bucks.

Westmoreland

[Land of the West Moors ]. Geoffrey of Monmouth says (iv. 17) that Mar or Marius, son of Arviragus, one of the descendants of Brutus the Trojan wanderer, killed Rodric, a Pict, and set up a monument of his victory in a place which he called “Westmar—land,” and the chronicler adds that the “inscription of this stone remains to this day.” (Saxon, West—moring—land.)

Wet

To have a wet. To have a drink.

Wet—bob and Dry—bob. At Eton a wet—bob is a boy who goes in for boating, but a dry—bob is one who goes in for cricket.

Wet Finger

(With a), easily, directly. “D'un tour de main. “ The allusion is to the old custom of spinning, in which the spinner constantly wetted the fore—finger with the mouth.

“I can bring myself round with a wet finger.”— Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet, chap. xxiii. (and in many other places).

“The spirit being grieved and provoked. ... will not return again with a wet finger.”— Gouge: Whole Armour of God, p. 458 (1616).

“I can find

One with a wet finger that is stark blind.”

Trial of Love and Fortune (1598). Flores. “Canst thou bring me thither? Peasant. With a wet finger.”

Wisdom of Dr. Dodypoll (1600).

Wetherell

(Elizabeth). A pseudonym adopted by Miss Susan Warner, an American writer, author of The Wide, Wide World, and other works.

Wexford Bridge Massacre

In the great Irish Rebellion of 1798, May 25th, some 14,000 Irish insurgents attacked Wexford, defeated the garrison, put to death all those taken prisoners, and on the 30th frightened the town into a surrender. They treated the Protestants with the utmost barbarity, and, after taking Enniscorthy, encamped on Vinegar Hill (q.v.). When informed that Wexford was retaken by the English, the insurgents massacred about a thousand Protestant prisoners in cold blood.

Weyd—monat

The Anglo—Saxon name for June, “because the beasts did then weyd in the meadow, that is to say, go and feed there.” (Verstegan.)

Whale

Not a fish, but a cetaceous mammal.

A group of whales is called a school.

The fat is called blubber.

The female is called a cow.

The fore—limbs are called paddles.

The male is called a bull—whale.

The spear used in whale—flashing is called a harpoon.

The young of whales is a cub or calf.

TOOTHED—WHALES include sperm—whales and dolphins.

WHALE—BONE WHALES include rorquals and humpbacks.

Whale

Very like a whale. Very much like a cock—and—bull story; a fudge. Hamlet chaffs Polonius by comparing a cloud to a camel, and then to a weasel, and when the courtier assents Hamlet adds, “Or like a

whale”; to which Polonius answers, “Very like a whale.” (Act iii. 2.)

Whalebone

(2 syl.). White as whalebone. Our forefathers seemed to confuse the walrus with the whale; ivory was made from the teeth of the walrus, and “white as whalebone” is really a blunder for “white as

walrus—ivory.”

Wharncliffe (2 syl.). A Wharncliffe meeting is a meeting of the shareholders of a railway company, called for the purpose of obtaining their assent to a bill in Parliament bearing on the company's railway. So called from Lord Wharncliffe, its originator.

Wharton

Philip Wharton, Duke of Northumberland, described by Pope in the Moral Essays in the lines beginning—

“Wharton, the scron and wonder of our days.”

A most brilliant orator, but so licentious that he wasted his patrimony in drunkenness and self—indulgence. He was outlawed for treason, and died in a wretched condition at a Bernardine convent in Catalonia.

(1698—1731.)

What we Gave we Have, What we Spent we Had, What we Had we Lost

Epitaph of the Good Earl of Courtenay. (Gibbon: History of the Courtenay Family.)

The epitaph in St. George's church, Doncaster, runs thus:

“How now, who is here?

I, Robin of Doncastere

And Margaret, my feere.

That I spent, that I had;

That I gave, that I have;

That I left, that I lost.”

This is a free translation of Martial's distich—

“Extra fortunam est quidquid donatur amicis

Quas dederis, solas semper habebis opes.”

What's What

He knows what's what. He is a shrewd fellow not to be imposed on. One of the senseless questions of logic was “Quid est quid? “

“He knew what's what, and that's as high

As metaphysic wit can fly.”

Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto 1.

Whately

Archbishop of Dublin, nicknamed at Oxford “the White Bear" (White from his white overcoat, and Bear from the rude, unceremonious way in which he would trample upon an adversary in argument).

(1787—1863.)

Wheal

or Huel means a tin—mine. (Cornwall.)

Wheatear

(the bird) has no connection with either wheat or ear, but it is the Anglo—Saxon hwit (white), ears (rump). Sometimes called the White—rump, and in French blanculet (the little blanccul). So called from its white rump.

Wheel

Emblematical of St. Catharine, who was put to death on a wheel somewhat resembling a chaff—cutter. St. Donatus bears a wheel set round with lights.

St. Euphemia and St. Willigis both carry wheels.

St. Quintin is sometimes represented with a broken wheel at his feet.

To put one's spoke into another man's wheel. (See under Spoke.)

Wheel of Fortune (The). Fortuna, the goddess, is represented on ancient monuments with a wheel in her hand, emblematical of her inconstancy.

“Though Fortune's malice overthrow my state.

My mind exceeds the compass of her wheel.” Shakespeare: 3 Henry VI., iv. 3.

Whelps

Fifth—rate men of war. Thus, in Howell's letters we read, “At the return of this fleet two of the whelps were cast away”; and in the Travels of Sir W. Brereton we read, “I went aboard one of the king's ships, called the ninth whelp, which is ... 215 ton and tonnage in king's books.” In Queen Elizabeth's navy was a ship called Iron's Whelp, and her navy was distinguished as first, second ... tenth whelp.

Whetstone

(See Accius Navius .)

Whetstone of Witte

(The) (1556), by Robert Recorde, a treatise on algebra. The old name for algebra was the “Cossic Art,” and Cos Ingenii rendered into English is “the Whetstone of Wit.” It will be remembered that the maid told the belated traveller in the Fortunes of Nigel that her master had “no other books but her young mistress's Bible ... and her master's Whetstone of Witte, by Robert Recorde.”

Whig

is from Whiggam—more, a corruption of Ugham—more (pack—saddle thieves), from the Celtic ugham (a pack—saddle). The Scotch insurgent Covenanters were called pack—saddle thieves, from the pack—saddles which they used to employ for the stowage of plunder. The Marquis of Argyle collected a band of these vagabonds, and instigated them to aid him in opposing certain government measures in the reign of James I., and in the reign of Charles II. all who opposed government were called the Argyle whiggamors, contracted into whigs. (See Tory .)

“The south—west counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough to serve them all the year round, and, the northern parts producing more than they used, those in the west went in summer to buy at Leith the stores that came from the north. From the word whiggam, used in driving their horses, all that drove were called the whiggamors, contracted into whigs. Now, in the year before the news came down of Duke Hamilton's defeat, the ministers animated their people to rise and march to Edinburgh; and they came up, marching on the head of their parishes, with an unheard—of fury, praying and preaching all the way as they came. The Marquis of Argyle and his party came and headed them, they being about 6,000. This was called the “Whiggamors' Inroad”; and ever after that, all who opposed the court came in contempt to be called whigs. From Scotland the word was brought into England. where it is now one of our unhappy terms of disunion.”— Bishop Burnet: Own Times.

Whiggism

The political tenets of the Whigs, which may be broadly stated to be political and religious liberty. Certainly Bishop Burnet's assertion that they are “opposed to the court” may or may not be true. In the reigns of Charles II. and his brother James, no doubt they were opposed to the court, but it was far otherwise in the reign of William III., George I., etc., when the Tories were the anti—court party.

Whip

(A), in the Legislative Assemblies, is a person employed to whip up members on either side. The Whips give notice to members that a motion is expected when their individual vote may be desirable. The circular runs: “A motion is expected when your vote is `earnestly' required.” If the word “earnestly” has only one red—ink dash under it the receiver is expected to come, if it has two dashes it means that he ought to come, if it has three dashes it means that he must come, if four dashes it means “stay away at your peril.” These notices are technically called “RED WHIPS.” (Annual Register, 1877, p. 86.)

A whip. A notice sent to a member of Parliament by a “whip” (see above ) to be in his place at the time stated when a “division” is expected.

Whip He whipped round the corner — ran round it quickly. (Dutch, wippen; Welsh, chwipwio, to whip; chwip, a flick or flirt.)

He whipped it up in a minute. The allusion is to the hoisting machine called a whip. A single whip is a rope passing over one pulley; a double whip is a rope passed over two single pulleys attached to a yard—arm.

Whip—dog Day

October 18 (St. Luke's Day). Brand tells us that a priest about to celebrate mass on St. Luke's Day, happened to drop the pyx, which was snatched up by a dog, and this was the origin of Whip—dog Day.

(Popular Antiquities, ii. 273.)

Whip with Six Strings

(The). Called “the Bloody Statute.” The religious code of six articles enacted by Convocation and Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII. (1539).

Whipping Boy

A boy kept to be whipped when a prince deserved chastisement. Mungo Murray stood for Charles I., Barnaby Fitzpatrick for Edward VI. (Fuller: Church History, ii. 342.) D'Ossat and Du Perron, afterwards cardinals, were whipped by Clement VIII. for Henri IV. of France. Also called a whip—boy.

Whiskers

A security for money. John de Castro of Portugal, having captured the castle of Diu, in India, borrowed of the inhabitants of Goa 1,000 pistoles for the maintenance of his fleet, and gave one of his whiskers as security of payment, saying, “All the gold in the world cannot equal the value of this natural ornament, which I deposit in your hands.”

Whisky

Contracted from the Gaelic ooshk—'a—pai (water of health). Usquebaugh, Irish uisge—'a—bagh (water of life); cau de vie, French (water of life).

L.L. whisky. (See L.L. Whisky.) Whisky, drink divine (the song) was by O'Leary, not by John Sheehan. As a pretty general rule the Scotch word is whiskey, and the Irish word whisky, without the e.

Whisky—drinker

The Irish whisky—drinker. John [Jack] Sheehan, author of The Irish Whisky—drinker's Papers in Bentley's Miscellany.

Whist

Cotton says that “the game is so called from the silence that is to be observed in the play.” Dr. Johnson has adopted this derivation; but Taylor the Water—poet (1650), Swift (1728), and Barrington (1787) called the game Whisk, to the great discomfiture of this etymology. Pope (1715) called it whist.

The first known mention of whist in print was in a book called The Motto, published in 1621, where it is called whisk. The earliest known use of the present spelling is in Butler's Hudibras (1663).

“Let nice Piquette the boast of France remain,

And studious Ombre be the pride of Spain;

Invention's praise shall England yield to none, While she can call delightful Whist her own.” Alexander Thomson: A poom in eight cantos on Whist. (Second edition, 1792.)

Whistle

(noun). Champion of the whistle. The person who can hold out longest in a drinking bout. A Dane, in the train of Anne of Denmark, had an ebony whistle placed on the table, and whoever of his guests was able to blow it when the rest of the company were too far gone for the purpose was called the champion. Sir Robert Laurie of Maxwelton, after a rouse lasting three nights and three days, left the Dane under the table and blew his requiem on the whistle.

To wet one's whistle. To take a drink. Whistle means a pipe (Latin, fistula; Saxon, hwistle), hence the wind—pipe.

“So was hir joly whistal well y—wet.”

Chaucer: Cantervury Tales.

You paid too dearly for your whistle.

You paid dearly for something you fancied, but found that it did not answer your expectation. The allusion is to a story told by Dr. Franklin of his nephew, who set his mind on a common whistle, which he bought of a boy for four times its value. Franklin says the ambitious who dance attendance on court, the miser who gives this world and the next for gold, the libertine who ruins his health for pleasure, the girl who marries a brute for money, all pay “too much for their whistle.”

Worth the whistle. Worth calling; worth inviting; worth notice. The dog is worth the pains of whistling for. Thus Heywood, in one of his dialogues consisting entirely of proverbs, says, “It is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling.” Goneril says to Albany—

“I have been worth the whistle.”

Shakespeare: King Lear, iv 2.

Whistle

(verb). You may whistle for that. You must not expect it. The reference is to sailors whistling for the wind. “They call the winds, but will they come when they do call them?”

“Only a little hour ago

I was whistling to St. Antonio

For a capful of wind to fill our sail,

And instead of a breeze he has sent a gale.”

Longfellow: Golden Legend. v.

You must whistle for more. In the old whistle—tankards, the whistle comes into play when the tankard is empty, to announce to the drawer that more liquor is wanted. Hence the expression, If a man wants liquor, he must whistle for it.

Whistle Down the Wind

(To ). To defame a person. The cognate phrase “blown upon” is more familiar. The idea is to whistle down the wind that the reputation of the person may be blown upon.

Whistle for the Wind

(See Capfull .)

“What gales are sold on Lapland's shore!

How whistle rash bids tempests roar!”

Sir Walter Scott: Rokeby, ii. II.

White

denotes purity, simplicity, and candour; innocence, truth, and hope. The ancient Druids, and indeed the priests generally of antiquity, used to wear white vestments, as do the clergy of the Established Church of England when they officiate in any sacred service. The magi also wore white robes.

The head of Osiris, in Egypt, was adorned with a white tiara; all her ornaments were white; and her priests were clad in white.

The priests of Jupiter, and the Flamen Dialis of Rome, were clothed in white, and wore white hats. The victims offered to Jupiter were white. The Roman festivals were marked with white chalk, and at the death of a Caesar the national mourning was white; white horses were sacrificed to the sun, white oxen were selected for sacrifice by the Druids, and white elephants are held sacred in Siam.

The Persians affirm that the divinities are habited in white.

White Bird

(The ). Conscience, or the soul of man. The Mahometans have preserved the old Roman idea in the doctrine that the souls of the just lie under the throne of God, like white birds, till the resurrection morn.

“A white bird, she told him once ... he must carry on his bosom across a crowded public place — his own soul was like that.”— Pater: Marius the Epicurean. chap. ii.

White Brethren or White—clad Brethren. A sect in the beginning of the fifteenth century. Mosheim says (bk. ii. p. 2, chap. v.) a certain priest came from the Alps, clad in white, with an immense concourse of followers all dressed in white linen also. They marched through several provinces, following a cross borne by their leader. Boniface X. ordered their leader to be burnt, and the multitude dispersed.

White Caps

A rebellious party of zealous Mahometans, put down by Kienlong the Chinese emperor, in 1758. So called from their head—dress.

White Caps

An influential family in Kerry (Ireland), who acted a similar part as Judge Lynch in America. When neighbours became unruly, the white caps visited them during the night and beat them soundly. Their example was followed about a hundred years ago in other parts of Ireland.

White Caps

(1891). A party in North America opposed to the strict Sabbatarian observance. So called because they wear high white caps. First heard of at Okawaville, Illinois.

White—coat

(A ). An Austrian soldier. So called because he wears a white coat. Similarly, an English soldier is called a red—coat. In old Rome, ad saga ire meant to “become a soldier,” and tumere sagum to enlist, from the sagum or military cloak worn by the soldier, in contradistinction to the toga worn by the citizen in times of peace.

White Cockade

The badge worn by the followers of Charles Edward, the Pretender.

White Company

(The ). “Le Blanche Compagnie. ” A band of French cutthroats organised by Bertrand du Guesclin and led against Pedro the Cruel.

“Se faisoient appeller `La Blanche Compagnie.' parce quils portoient tous une croix blanche sur I'epaule, comme voulant temoigner qu'ils n'avoient pris les armes que pour abolir le Judaisme en Espagne, et combattre le Prince qui le protegesit.”— Memoires Historiques.

White Czar

(The ). Strictly speaking means the Czar of Muscovy; the King of Muscovy was called the White King from the white robes which he wore. The King of Poland was called the Black King.

“Sunt qui principem Moscoviae Album Regem nuncupant. Ego quidem causam diligenter quielebam, cur regis albi nomine appellaretur, cum nemo principum Moscoviae eo titulo antea [Ivan III.] esset usus ... Credo autem ut Persam nune propter rubea tegumenta capitis `Kissilpassa' (i. e. rubeum caput) vocant; ita reges Moscoviae propter alba tegumenta `Albos Reges' appellari.”— Sigismund.

“The marriage of the Czarevitch with the Princess Alex of Hesse (2 syl.), will impress the Oriental mind with the expectation that the Empress of India and the White Czar will henceforth ... labour to avoid the ... mischief of disagreement.”— The Standard, April 21st, 1894.

White Elephant

King of the White Elephant. The proudest title borne by the kings of Ava and Siam. In Ava the white elephant bears the title of `lord,” and has a minister of high rank to superintend his household.

The land of the White Elephant. Siam.

To have a white elephant to keep. To have an expensive and unprofitable dignity to support, or a pet article to take care of. For example, a person moving is determined to keep a pet carpet, and therefore hires his house to fit his carpet. The King of Siam makes a present of a white elephant to such of his courtiers as he wishes to ruin.

White Feather To show the white feather. To show cowardice. No gamecock has a white feather. A white feather indicates a cross—breed in birds.

Showing the white feather. Some years ago a bloody war was raging between the Indians and settlers of the backwoods of North America. A Quaker, who refused to fly, saw one day a horde of savages rushing down towards his house. He set food before them, and when they had eaten the chief fastened a white feather over the door as a badge of friendship and peace. Though many bands passed that house, none ever violated the covenant by injuring its inmates or property.

White Friars

The Carmelites. So called because they dressed in white.

Whitefriars, London. So called from a monastery of White Friars which formerly stood in Water Lane. Whitefriars. A novel, by Emma Robinson.

White Harvest

(A ). A late harvest, when the ground is white of a morning with hoarfrost. The harvest of 1891 was a white harvest.

White Hat

(See under Hat .)

White Horse

of Wantage (Berkshire), cut in the chalk hills. This horse commemorates a great victory gained by Alfred over the Danes, in the reign of his brother Ethelred I. The battle is called the battle of AEseesdun

(Ashtreehill). The horse is 374 feet long, and may be seen at the distance of fifteen miles. (Dr. Wise. )

An annual ceremony was once held, called “Scouring the White Horse.”

White Horses

Foam—crested waves.

“The resemblance ... has commonly been drawn between the horse [and the waves], in regard to his mane, and the foam—tipped waves, which are still called white horses.”— W. E. Gladstone: Nineteenth Century, November, 1885.

White House

The presidential mansion in the United States. It is a building of freestone, painted white, at Washington. Figuratively, it means the Presidency; as, “He has his eye on the White House.” (See Whitehall .)

White Ladies

[Les Dames Blanches ]. A species of fée in Normandy. They lurk in ravines, fords, bridges, and other narrow passes, and ask the passenger to dance. If they receive a courteous answer, well; but if a refusal, they seize the churl and fling him into a ditch, where thorns and briars may serve to teach him gentleness of manners.

The most famous of these ladies is La Dame d'Aprigny, who used to occupy the site of the present Rue St. Quentin, at Bayeux, and La Dame Abonde. “Vocant dominam Abundiam pro eo qnod domibus, quas frequentant, abundantiam bonorum temporalium praestare putantur non aliter tibi sentiendum est neque aliter quam quemadmodum de illis audivisti.” (William of Auvergne 1248.) (See Berchta.)

“One kind of these the Italians Fata name;

The French call Fée; we Sybils, and the same Others White Dames, and those that them have seen. Night Ladies some, of which Habundia's queen.” Ilierarchic viii. p. 501.

The White Lady. The legend says that Bertha promised the workmen of Neuhaus a sweet soup and carp on the completion of the castle. In remembrance thereof, these dainties were given to the poor of Bohemia on Maundy Thursday, but have been discontinued.

The most celebrated in Britain is the White Lady of Avencl', the creation of Sir Walter Scott.

White Lady of German legend. A being dressed in white, who appears at the castle of German princes to

forebode a death. She last appeared, it is said, in 1879, just prior to the death of Prince Waldemar. She carries a bunch of keys at her side, and is always dressed in white. The first instance of this apparition occurred in the sixteenth century, and the name given to the lady is Bertha von Rosenberg (in Bohemia).

Twice, we are told, she has been heard to speak, once in December, 1628, when she said, “I wait for judgment!” and once at the castle of Neuhaus, in Bohemia when she said to the princes, “ `Tis ten o'clock.”

The White Lady of Ireland. The Banshee.

White Lies

A conventional lie, such as telling a caller that Mrs. A. or Mrs. B. is not at home, meaning not “at home” to that particular caller.

It is said that Dean Swift called on a “friend,” and was told by Jeames that “master is not at home.” After a time this very “friend" called on the dean, and Swift, opening the window, shouted, “Not at home.” When the friend expostulated, Swift said, “I believed your footman when he said his master was not at home: surely you can believe the master himself when he tells you he is not at home.”

White Moments of Life

(The). The red—letter days or happy moments of life. The Romans used to mark unlucky days, in their calendars, with black chalk, and lucky ones with white chalk; hence Nortare diem lactea gemma or alba means to mark a day as a lucky one.

“These, my young friend, these are the white moments of one's life.”— Sir W. Scott: The Antiquary, chap. iii.

White Moon

(Knight of the). Sampson Carrasco assumed this character and device, in order to induce Don Quixote to abandon knight errantry, and return home. The Don, being worsted, returned home, lingered a little while, and died. (Cervantes: Don Quixote, pt. ii. bk. iv. chap. 12, etc.)

White Night

(A). A sleepless night; hence the French phrase “Passer une nuit blanche. “

White Poplar

This tree was originally the nymph Leuce, beloved by Pluto, and at death the infernal Zeus metamorphosed her into a white poplar, which was ultimately removed into Elysium.

White Rose

The House of York, whose emblem it was.

The White Rose. Cardinal de la Pole. (1500—1558.) White Rose of England. So Perkin Warbeck or Osbeck was always addressed by Margaret of Burgundy, the sister of Edward IV. (*—1449.) Lady Catherine Gordon, given by James IV as wife to Perkin Warbeck, was called “The White Rose.” She married three times more after the death of Warbeck.

The White Rose of Raby. Cecily, wife of Richard, Duke of York, and mother of Edward IV. and Richard III. She was the youngest of twenty—one children.

White Sheep

[Ak—koin—loo ]. A tribe of Turkomans, so called from their standards. The Sophivean dynasty of Persia was founded by one of this tribe.

White Squall

One which produces no diminution of light, in contradistinction to a black squall, in which the clouds are black and heavy.

White Stone

Days marked with a white stone. Days of pleasure; days to be remembered with gratification. The Romans used a white stone or piece of chalk to mark their lucky days with on the calendar. Those that

were unlucky they marked with black charcoal. (See Red—Letter Day .)

White Stone

(Rev. ii. 17). To him that overcometh will I give. a white stone; and in the stone a new name [is] written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it [i.e. the stone]. In primitive times, when travelling was difficult for want of places of public accomodation, hospitality was exercised by private individuals to a great extent. When the guest left, the host gave him a small white stone cut in two; on one half the host wrote his name, and on the other the guest; the host gave the guest the half containing his [host's] name, and vice versâ. This was done that the guest at some future time might return the favour, if needed. Our text says, “I will give him to eat of the hidden manna”— i.e. I will feed or entertain him well, and I will keep my friendship, sacred, inviolable, and known only to himself.

White Surrey

The horse of Richard III. (See Horse .)

“Saddle White Surrey for the field.”

Shakespeare: Richard III., v. 3.

White Tincture

That preparation which the alchemists believed would convert any baser metal into silver. It is also called the Stone of the Second Order, the Little Elixir, and the Little Magisterium. (See Red Tincture .)

White Water—lotus

[Pe—lien—kaou ]. A secret society which greatly disturbed the empire of China in the reign of Kea King. (1796—1820.)

White Widow

The Duchess of Tyrconnel, wife of Richard Talbot, Lord—deputy of Ireland under James II., created Duke of Tyrconnel a little before the king's abdication. After the death of Talbot, a female, supposed to be his duchess, supported herself for a few days by her needle. She wore a white mask, and dressed in white. ( Pennant: London, p. 147.)

White Witch

(A). A cunning fellow; one knowing in white art in contradistinction to black art.

“Two or three years past there came to these parts one ... what the vulgar call a white witch, a cunning man, and such like.”— Sir W. Scott: Kenilworth, chap. ix.

White as Driven Snow

(See Similes .)

White in the Eye

It is said that the devil has no white in his eyes, and hence the French locution, “Celui qui n`a point de blanc en l'oeil. “ “Do you see any white in my eye?” is asked by one who means to insinuate he is no fool or no knave— that is, he is not like the devil with no white in the eye.

Whitebait Dinner

The ministerial dinner that announces the near close of the parliamentary session. Sir Robert Preston, M.P. for Dover, first invited his friend George Rose (Secretary of the Treasury) and an elder brother of the Trinity House to dine with him at his fishing cottage on the banks of Dagenham Lake. This was at the close of the session. Rose on one occasion proposed that Mr. Pitt, their mutual friend, should be asked to join them; this was done, and Pitt promised to repeat his visit the year following, when other members swelled the party. This went on for several years, when Pitt suggested that the muster should be in future nearer town, and Greenwich was selected. Lord Camden next advised that each man should pay his quota. The dinner became an annual feast, and was until lately (1892) a matter of course. The time of meeting was Trinity Monday, or as near Trinity Monday as circumstances would allow, and therefore was near the close of the session.

Whiteboys

A secret agrarian association organised in Ireland about the year 1759. So called because they wore white shirts in their nightly expeditions. In 1787 a new association appeared, the members of which

called themselves “Right—boys.” The Whiteboys were originally called “Levellers,” from their throwing down fences and levelling enclosures. (See Levellers .)

Whitehall

(London) obtained its name from the white and fresh appearance of the front, compared with the ancient buildings in York Place. (Brayley: Londoniana.) (See White House .)

Whitewashed

Said of a person who has taken the benefit of the Insolvent Act. He went to prison covered with debts and soiled with “dirty ways:" he comes out with a clean bill to begin the contest of life afresh.

Whit—leather

The skin of a horse cured and whitened for whip—thongs, hedging—gloves, and so on.

“Thy gerdill made of whitlether whange ... is turned now to velvet.”

MS. Lansd., 241.

Whitsunday

White Sunday. The seventh Sunday after Easter, to commemorate the “Descent of the Holy

Ghost” on the day of Pentecost. In the Primitive Church the newly—baptised wore white from Easter to Pentecost, and were called albati (white—robed). The last of the Sundays, which was also the chief festival, was called emphatically Dominica in Albis (Sunday in White).

Another etymology is Wit or Wisdom Sunday, the day when the Apostlec were filled with wisdom by the Holy Ghost.

“This day Wit—sonday is cald.

For wisdom and wit serene fald,

Was zonen to the Apostles as this day.”

Cambr. Univer. MSS., Dd. i. I, p. 234.

(Compare Witten—agemote.)

“We ought to kepe this our Witsonday bicause the law of God was then of the Holy Wyght on Ghost deliured gostly vnto vs.”— Taverner (1540).

“This day is called Wytsonday because the Holy Ghost brought wytte and wysdom into Christis disciples ... and filled them full of ghostly wytte.”— In die Pentecostis (printed by Wynken de Worde).

Whittington

(See under Cat; alsoWittington .)

Riley in his Munimenta Gildhalla Londenensis (p. xviii.) says achat was used at the time for “trading” (i.e. buying and selling), and that Whittington made his money by achat, called acat. We have the word in cater, caterer.

As much error exists respecting Dick Whittington, the following account will be useful. He was born in Gloucestershire, in the middle of the fourteenth century, and was the son of a knight of good property. He went to London to learn how to become a merchant. His master was a relative, and took a great interest in the boy, who subsequently married Alice, his master's daughter. He became very rich, and was four times Mayor of London, but the first time was before the office was created Lord Mayor by Richard II. He died in 1423, during his year of office, about sixty—three years of age.

Whittle

(A). A knife. (Anglo—Saxon kwytel, a knife; hwat, sharp or keen.)

“Walter de Aldeham holds land of the king in the More, in the county of Salop, by the service of paying to the king yearly at his exchequer two knives [whittles], whereof one ought to be of that value or goodness that at the first stroke it would cut asunder in the middle a hasle—rod of a year's growth, and of the length of a cubit, which service ought to be ... on the morrow of St. Michael ... The said knives [whittles] to be delivered to the chamberlain to keep for the king's use.”— Blount: Ancient Tenures.

Whittle Down

To cut away with a knife or whittle; to reduce; to encroach. In Cumberland, underpaid schoolmasters used to be allowed Whittle—gait — i.e. the privilege of knife and fork at the table of those who employ them.

The Americans “whittled down the royal throne;” “whittled out a commonwealth;” “whittle down the forest trees;” “whittle out a railroad;” “whittle down to the thin end of nothing.” (Saxon, hwytel, a large knife.)

“We have whittled down our loss extremely, and will not allow a man more than 350 English slain out of 4,000.”— Walpole.

Whitworth Gun

(See Gun .)

Whole Duty of Man

Tenison, Bishop of Lincoln, says the author was Dr. Chaplin, of University College, Oxford. (Evelyn: Diary.)

Thomas Hearne ascribes the authorship to Archbishop Sancroft.

Some think Dr. Hawkins, who wrote the introduction, was the author. The following names have also been suggested:— Lady Packington (assisted by Dr. Fell), Archbishop Sterne, Archbishop Woodhead, William Fulham, Archbishop Frewen (President of Magdalen College, Oxford), and others.

Whole Gale

(A). A very heavy wind. The three degrees are a fresh gale, a strong gale, and a heavy or whole gale.

Whom the Gods Love Die Young

[Herodotos ]. Cited in Don Juan, canto iv. 12 (death of Haidee).

Wick, Wicked

and in French Méche, Méchant. That the two English words and the two French words should have similar resemblances and similar meanings is a remarkable coincidence, especially as the two adjectives are quite independent of the nouns in their etymology. “Wick” is the Anglo—Saxon weoce, a rush or reed, but “wicked” is the Anglo—Saxon waec or wac, vile. So “méche” is the Latin mywa —a wick, but “méchant” is the old French meschéante, unlucky.

Wicked Bible (See Bible .)

Wicked Prayer Book

(The). Printed 1686, octavo. The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity reads:—

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, idolatry ... they who do these things shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

(Of course, “shall inherit” should be shall not inherit.)

Wicked Weed

(The). Hops.

“After the introduction into England of the wicked weed called hops.”— Return to Edward

VI.'s Parliament, 1524.

Wicket—gate

The entrance to the road that leadeth to the Celestial City. Over the portal is the inscription— “KNOCK, AND IT SHALL BE OPENED UNTO YOU”.(Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress.)

Wicliffe

(John), called “The Morning Star of the Reformation.” (1324—1384.)

Wide—awake

Felt hats are so called by a pun, because they never have a nap at any time; they are always wide awake.

Widenostrils

(3 syl.). (French, Bringuenarilles.) A huge giant, who subsisted on windmills, and lived in the island of Tohu. When Pantagruel and his fleet reached this island no food could be cooked because Widenostrils had swallowed “every individual pan, skillet, kettle, frying—pan, dripping—pan, boiler, and saucepan in the land,” and died from eating a lump of butter. Tohu and Bohu, two contiguous islands (in Hebrew, toil and confusion), mean lands laid waste by war. The giant had eaten everything, so that there was “nothing to fry with,” as the French say— i.e. nothing left to live upon.

Widow

(See Grass Widow .)

Widow

(in Hudibras). The relict of Aminadab Wilmer or Willmot, an Independent, slain at Edgehill. She had £200 left her. Sir Hudibras fell in love with her.

Widow Bird

A corruption of Whydaw bird. So called from the country of Whydaw, in Western Africa. The blunder is perpetuated in the scientific name given to the genus, which is the Latin Vidua, a widow.

Widow's Cap

This was a Roman custom. Widows were obliged to wear “weeds" for ten months. (Seneca: Epistles, lxv.)

Widow's Piano

Inferior instruments sold as bargains; so called from the ordinary advertisement announcing that a widow lady is compelled to sell her piano, for which she will take half—price.

Widow's Port

A wine sold for port, but of quite a different family. As a widow retains her husband's name after her husband is taken away, so this mixture of potato spirit and some inferior wine retains the name of port, though every drop of port is taken from it.

“We have all heard of widow's port, and of the instinctive dread all persons who have any respect for their health have for it.”— The Times.

Wieland (2 syl.). The famous smith of Scandinavian fable. He and Amilias had a contest of skill in their handicraft. Wieland's sword cleft his rival down to the thighs; but so sharp was the sword, that Amilias was not aware of the cut till he attempted to stir, when he divided into two pieces. This sword was named Balmung.

Wife

is from the verb to weave. (Saxon wefan, Danish vaevc, German weben, whence weib, a woman, one who works at the distaff.) Woman is called the distaff. Hence Dryden calls Anne “a distaff on the throne.” While a girl was spinning her wedding clothes she was simply a spinster; but when this task was done, and she was married, she became a wife, or one who had already woven her allotted task.

Alfred, in his will, speaks of his male and female descendants as those of the spear—side and those of the spindle—side, a distinction still observed by the Germans; and hence the effigies on graves of spears and spindles.

Wig

A variation of the French perruque, Latin pilucca, our periwig cut short. In the middle of the eighteenth century we meet with thirty or forty different names for wigs: as the artichoke, bag, barrister's, bishop's, brush, bush [buzz], buckle, busby, chain, chancellor's, corded wolf's paw, Count Saxe's mode, the crutch, the cut bob, the detached buckle, the Dalmahoy (a bob—wig worn by tradesmen), the drop, the Dutch, the full, the

half—natural, the Jansenist bob, the judge's, the ladder, the long bob, the Louis, the periwig, the pigeon's wing, the rhinoceros, the rose, the scratch, the she—dragon, the small back, the spinach seed, the staircase, the Welsh, and the wild boar's back.

A bigwig. A magnate. Louis XIV. had long flowing hair, and the courtiers, out of compliment to the young king, wore perukes. When Louis grew older he adopted the wig, which very soon encumbered the head and shoulders of the aristocracy of England and France, Lord Chancellors, judges, and barristers still wear big wigs. Bishops used to wear them in the House of Lords till 1880.

`An ye faover the clough, there will be but ae wig left in the parish, and that's the minister's.” — Sir Walter Scott: The Antiquary.

Make wigs. A perruquier, who fancied himself “married to immortal verse,” sent his epic to Voltaire, asking him to examine it and give his “candid opinion” of its merits, The witty patriarch of Ferney simply wrote on the MS. “Make wigs, make wigs, make wigs,” and returned it to the barber—poet. (See Sutor, Stick to the cow.)

Wig

(A). A head. Similarly, the French call a head a binette. As “Quelle binette! ” or “Il a une drole de binette! ” M. Binet was the court wig—maker in the reign of Louis XIV. “M. Binet, qui foit les perruques du roy, demcure Rue des Petils—Champs. ” (Almanack des addresses sous Louis XIV.)

“Fleas are not lobsters, dash my wig.”

S. Butler: Hudibras.

Wig

War (Anglo—Saxon). The word enters into many names of places, as Wigan in Lancashire, where Arthur is said to have routed the Saxons.

Wight

(Isle of) means probably channel island. (Celtic gwy, water; gwyth, the channel.) The inhabitants used to be called Uuhtii or Gwythii, the inhabitants of the channel isle.

According to the famous Anglo—Saxon Chronicle, the island is so called from Wihtgar, great grandson of King Cerdic, who conquered it. All eponymic names— that is, names of persons, like the names of places, are more fit for fable than history: as Cissa, to account for Cissanceaster (Chichester); Horsa to account for Horsted; Hengist to account for Hengistbury; Brutus to account for Britain; and so on.

Wigwam'

An Indian hut (America). The Knisteneaux word is wigwaum, and the Algonquin wekou—om—ut, contracted into wekouom (ou = w, as in French), whence wekwom.

Wild (Jonathan), the detective, born at Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire. He brought to the gallows thirty—five highwaymen, twenty—two housebreakers, and ten returned convicts. He was himself hanged at Tyburn for housebreaking “amidst the execrations of an enraged populace, who pelted him with stones to the last moment of his existence.” (1682—1725.) Fielding has a novel entitled Jonathan Wild.

Wild Boar

An emblem of warlike fury and merciless brutality.

Wild Boy of Hamelin

or Man of Nature, found in the forest of Hertswold, Hanover. He walked on all fours, climbed trees like a monkey, fed on grass and leaves, and could never be taught to articulate a single word. Dr. Arbuthnot and Lord Monboddo sanctioned the notion that this poor boy was really an unsophisticated specimen of the genus homo; but Blumenbach showed most conclusively that he was born dumb, of weak intellect, and was driven from his home by a stepmother. He was discovered in 1725, was called Peter the Wild Boy, and died at Broadway Farm, near Berkhampstead, in 1785, at the supposed age of seventy—three.

Wild Children

(1) Peter the Wild Boy. (See above.) (2) Mlle. Lablane, found by the villagers of Soigny, near Châlons, in 1731; she died at Paris in 1785, at the supposed age of sixty—two.

(3) A child captured by three sportsmen in the woods of Cannes (France) in 1798. (See World of Wonders,

p. 61, Correspondence.)

Wild—goose Chase

A hunt after a mare's nest. This chase has two defects: First, it is very hard to catch the goose; and, secondly, it is of very little worth when it is caught.

To lead one a wild—goose chase. To beguile one with false hopes, or put one on the pursuit of something not practicable, or at any rate not worth the chase.

Wild Huntsman

The German tradition is that a spectral hunter with dogs frequents the Black Forest to chase the wild animals. (Sir Walter Scott: Wild Huntsman.)

The French story of Le Grand Veneur is laid in Fontainebleau Forest, and is considered to be “St. Hubert.” (Father Matthieu.)

The English name is “Herne the Hunter,” who was once a keeper in Windsor Forest. In winter time, at midnight, he walks about Herne's Oak, and blasts trees and cattle. He wears horns, and rattles a chain in a “most hideous manner” (Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4.)

Another legend is that a certain Jew would not suffer Jesus to drink out of a horse—trough, but pointed to some water in a hoof—print as good enough for “such an enemy of Moses,” and that this man is the “Wild Huntsman.” (Kuhn von Schwarz Nordd. Sagen, p. 499.)

Wild Oats

He is sowing his wild oats — indulging the buoyant folly of youth; living in youthful dissipation. The idea is that the mind is a field of good oats, but these pranks are wild oats or weeds sown amongst the good seed, choking it for a time, and about to die out and give place to genuine corn. The corresponding French phrase is “Jeter ses premiers faux, ” which reminds us of Cicero's expression, “Nondum illi deferbuit adolescentia. ” (See Oats .)

Wild Women [Wildë Frauën ] of Germany resemble the Ellë—maids of Scandinavia. Like them, they are very beautiful, have long flowing hair, and live in hills. (See Wunderburg .)

Wild Women

Those who go in for “women's rights” and general topsyturvyism. Some smoke cigars in the streets, some wear knickerbockers, some stump the country as “screaming orators,” all try to be as much like men as possible.

“Let anyone commend to these female runagates quietness, duty, home—staying, and the whole cohort of wild women is like an angry beehive which a rough hand has disturbed.”— Nineteenth Century, March, 1892, p. 463.

Wild as a March Hare

The hare in spring, after one or two rings, will often run straight on end for several miles. This is especially the case with the buck, which therefore affords the best sport.

Wilde

A John or Johnny Wilde is one who wears himself to skin and bone to add house to house and barn to barn. The tale is that John Wilde, of Rodenkerchen, in the isle of Rügen, found one day a glass slipper belonging to one of the hill—folks. Next day the little brownie, in the character of a merchant, came to redeem it, and John asked as the price “that he should find a gold ducat in every furrow he ploughed.” The bargain was concluded, and the avaricious hunks never ceased ploughing morning, noon, nor night, but died within twelve months from over—work. (Rügen gradition.)

Wile away Time

(not While). It is the same word as “guile,” to “beguile the time” (fallere tempus).

“To wile each moment with a fresh delight.” Lowell: Legend of Brittany. part. i. stauza 6.

Wilfrid

(St.). Patron saint of bakers, being himself of the craft. (634—709.)

St. Wilfrid's Needle is a narrow passage in the crypt of Ripon cathedral, built by Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, and used to try whether virgins deserve the name or not. It is said that none but virgins can pass this ordeal.

Wilhelm Meister

(2 syl.). The first true German novel. It was by Goethe, who died 1832, aged eighty—three.

Will not when They may

Those who will not when they may, when they will they shall have nay.

“Qui ne prend le bien quand il peut, il ne l'a pas quand il veut.”

“Quand le bien vient, on le doit prendre.”

“Saisir en tout I'occasion et l'à—propos est un grand élément de bonheur et de succès.”

William

(2 syl.; in Jerusalem Delivered), Archbishop of Orange. An ecclesiastical warrior, who besought Pope Urban on his knees that he might be sent in the crusade. He took 400 armed men in his train from his own diocese.

William, youngest son of William Rufus. He wore a casque of gold, and was the leader of a large army of British bow—men and Irish volunteers in the crusading army. (Tasso Jerusalem Delivered, bk. iii.)

English history teaches that William Rufus was never married. (See Orlando Furioso.)

Belted Will. William, Lord Howard, warden of the Western Marches. (1563—1640.)

“His Bilboa blade, by Marchmen felt,

Hung in a broad and studded belt;

Hence, in rude phrase, the borderers still

Called noble Howard `Belted Will.' “

Sir Walter Scott: Lay of the Last Minstrel, v. 16.

St. William of Aquitaine was one of the soldiers of Charlemagne, and helped to chase the Saracens from Languedoc. In 808 he renounced the world, and died 812. He is usually represented as a mailed soldier.

St. William of Mallavalle or Maleval. A French nobleman of very abandoned life; but, being converted, he went as pilgrim to Jerusalem, and on his return retired to the desert of Malavalle. He is depicted in a Benedictine's habit, with armour lying beside him. (Died 1157.)

St. William of Montpelier is represented with a lily growing from his mouth, with the words Ave Maria in gold letters on it.

St. William of Monte Virgine is drawn with a wolf by his side. (Died 1142.) St. William of Norwich was the celebrated child said to have been crucified by the Jews in 1137 He is represented as a child crowned with thorns or crucified, or holding a hammer and nails in his hands, or wounded in his side with a knife. (See Polyolbion, song xxiv.)

In Percy's Reliques (bk. i. 3) there is a tale of a lad named Hew, son of Lady Helen, of Merryland town (Milan), who was allured by a Jew's daughter with an apple. She stuck him with a penknife, rolled him in lead, and cast him into a well. Lady Helen went in search of her boy, and the child's ghost cried out from the bottom of the well—

“The lead is wondrous heavy, mither,

The well is wondrous deip;

A keen penknife sticks in my heirt, mither;

A word I dounae speik.” (See Hugh).

St. William of Roeschild is represented with a torch flaming on his grave. (Died 1203.) St. William of York is depicted in pontificals, and bearing his archiepiscopal cross. (Died 1154.) William II. The body of this king was picked up by Purkess, a charcoal—burner of Minestead, and conveyed in a cart to Winchester. The name of Purkess is still to be seen in the same village.

“A Minestead churl, whose wonted trade

Was burning charcoal in the glade,

Outstretched amid the gorse

The monarch found; and in his wain

He raised, and to St. Swithin's fane

Conveyed the bleeding corse.” W.S. Rose.

William III. It was not known till the discovery of the correspondence of Cardonnel, secretary of Marlborough, by the Historical MS. Commission in 1869, that our Dutch king was a great eater. Cardonnel, writing from The Hague, October, 1701, to Under—Secretary Ellis, says— “It is a pity his majesty will not be more temperate in his diet. Should I eat so much, and of the same kinds, I dare say I should scare have survived it so long, and yet I reckon myself none of the weakest constitutions.”

William of Cloudeslie (2 syl.). A noted outlaw and famous archer of the “north countrie.” (See Clym of the Clough.)

William of Newburgh (Gulielmus Neubrigensis), monk of Newburgh in Yorkshire, surnamed Little, and sometimes called Gulielmus Parvus, wrote a history in five books, from the Conquest to 1197, edited by Thomas Hearne, in three volumes, octavo, Oxford, 1719. The Latin is good, and the work ranks with that of Malmesbury. William of Newburgh is the first writer who rejects Geoffrey of Monmouth's Trojan descent of the old Britons, which he calls a “figment made more absurd by Geoffrey's impudent and impertinent lies.” He is, however, quite as fabulous an historian as the “impudent” Geoffrey. (1136—1208.)

William L King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany, was called by his detractors Kaiser Tartuffe.

Willie—Wastle

(the child's game). Willie Wastle was governor of Hume Castle, Haddington. When Cromwell sent a summons to him to surrender, he replied—

“Here I, Willie Wastle,

Stand firm in my castle,

And all the dogs in the town

Shan't pull Willie Wastle down.”

Willow

To handle the willow— i.e. the cricket bat.

To wear the willow. To go into mourning, especially for a sweetheart or bride. Fuller says, “The willow is a sad tree, whereof such as have lost their love make their mourning garlands.” The psalmist tells us th