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XI. A List of Ancient Words at present used in the mountainous District of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Communicated by Robert Willan, M.D. F.R.S. and S.A.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Robert Willan
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Extract

The following list of ancient Words, commonly used by the inhabitants of a northern district of England, is offered to the Society as an object not devoid of interest. In presenting it, I may hope other Members will be excited to form collections of terms employed among the peasantry in different counties. Such a plan, it must be evident, would greatly contribute to elucidate both History and Philology. Those who make a research in other parts of the island will probably find a rich harvest, when compared with my gleanings near the rugged hills of Westmoreland, and in the adjoining border of Yorkshire.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 17 , 1814 , pp. 138 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1814

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References

page 140 note a It is now corruptly pronounced Bile or Boil.

page 140 note b The Beal differed from culinary fires, being lighted on occasions prescribed either by the priesthood or by the state. Is it then necessary, respecting one modification of it, the Irish Beal-tane, to introduce the Assyrian god Belus for the derivation of a word found in so many different languages, and among nations so remote from each other?

page 140 note c This is corrupted into Bil-berries.

page 164 note d Dr. Jamieson has made the difference of the two languages appear, greater by embodying in his Etymological Dictionary, with the present Scottish dialect, terms which have been disused for more than two hundred years. If a collection of words were made from our most ancient English songs, &c. and added to the present dialect in any inland county, we should find the languages, in tracing them backwards, not diverge, but approximate.

page 165 note e Acta Sanctorum in Vita Sti. Oswaldi