gers among the descendants of the first settlers in New England.

The sleighs warped from side to side; the riders screamed, cross-bit, frumped, and hooted at each other.-Margaret, p. 174.

FUDDLED. Tipsy; drunk. This word is common in England and the United States, but is only heard in familiar language.

I am too fuddled to take care to observe your orders.--Steele, Epist. Corresp.

The table floating round

And pavement faithless to the fuddled feet.-Thomson.

Mull'd yell and punch flew round lyke steyfe,

The fiddlers a' got fuddled.-- Westmoreland Dialect, p. 147. FUDGE. An expression of contempt, usually bestowed on absurd or talking idlers; common in colloquial language.Todd.

I should have mentioned the very impolite behavior of Mr. Burchard, who, during this discourse, sat with his face turned to the fire, and, at the conclusion of every sentence, would cry out fudge!-Vicar of Wakefield. FUFFY. Light; puffy; soft. Used in Yorkshire, England, and preserved in some parts of New England.

She mounted the high, white, fuffy plain; a dead and unbounded waste lay all about her.-Margaret, p. 168.

FULL BUTT. With sudden collision. The figure is taken from the violent encounter of animals, such as rams or goats, which butt with their heads.

He and the babler, or talker, I told ye of, met full butt; and after a little staring one another in the face, upon the encounter, the babler opened.-L'Estrange, Tr. of Quevedo.

FULL CHISEL. At full speed. A modern New England vulgarism.

Oh yes, sir, I'll get you my master's seal in a minute. And off he set full chisel.-Sam Slick in England, ch. 2.

The moose looked round at us, shook his head a few times, then turned round and fetched a spring right at us full chisel.--John Smith's Letters.

At that the boys took arter them full chisel, and the galls run as if a catamount had been arter them.-Downing, May-day in New York, p. 46. FULL DRIVE. At full speed. A very common and very old phrase.

This bargain is full-drive, for we ben knit ;

Ye shul be paied trewely by my troth.-Chaucer, Franklin's Tale. Joe Dobson ran off tappy-luppy; an' just as he turned the nook of Anderson's byre, he came full-drive against owd Babby Bell.—Westmoreland Dialect, p. 352.

FULL SPLIT. With the greatest violence and impetuosity.— Craven Glossary. In common use in the United States in familiar language.

I after him full-split,—he was clippin it across the orchard, so you might put an egg on his coat-flap, and it wouldn't fall off.-Maj. Downing, Let. FULL SWING. Full sway; complete control.

If the Loco-Focos have full swing, they will involve the country in war for the small strip in dispute in Oregon.-N. Y. Tribune. FUNKIFY. To frighten; to alarm. New England.

Scared! says he, serves him right then; he might have knowed how to feel for other folks, and not funkify them so peskily.—Sam Slick in England, ch. 8.

TO MAKE THE FUR FLY. To claw; scratch ; wound severely. Used figuratively.

Mr. Hannegan was greatly excited, which proved most conclusively that Mr. B. had made the fur fly among the 54 40 men.-N. Y. Tribune. FUSSY. Bustling about as if much was to be done and was doing; consequential; very nice or particular in household or other matters. Used in familiar conversation with us, as 'a fussy fellow.' It is provincial in England.-Hunter's Glos

sary.

You see the fussy European adopting the East, and calming his restlessness with the long Turkish pipe of tranquillity.-Eöthen.

FUZZY. Rough and shaggy.-Forby's Vocabulary.

I inquire, whether it be the thin membrane, or the inward and something soft and fuzzy pulp that it contains, that raises and represents to itself these arbitrarious figments and chimeras.-Dr. Henry More.

FYKE. (Dutch, fuyk, a weel, bow-net.) The large bow-nets in New York harbor, used for catching shad, are called shadfykes.

G.

GA. The abbreviation for Georgia.

GAB. Loquacity; prate; idle talk. This is an old word, and still has a place in the provincial glossaries of England.

GABBLEMENT. Gabble. A Southern word.

"This court's got as good ears as any man," said the magistrate," but they aint for to hear no old woman's gabblement, though it's under oath."— Chron. of Pineville.

GADABOUT. One who walks about without business.-Webster.

GAFF. An artificial spur put upon game-cocks.

GAL-BOY. In New England, a romping girl; called also a tom-boy.

GALLOWSES. Suspenders; braces.

His skilts [pantaloons] were supported by no braces or gallowses, and resting on his hips.-Margaret, p. 9.

GAMBREL. A hipped roof to a house, so called from its resemblance to the hind leg of a horse, which by farriers is termed the gambrel.

Here and there was a house in the then new style, three cornered, with gambled roof and dormer windows.-Margaret, p. 33.

GAME LEG. A lame leg. A term not peculiar to America. GAMMON. Humbug; deceit; lies. Any assertion which is not strictly true, or, professions believed to be insincere; as, 'I believe you're gammoning,' or, That's all gammon;' meaning, you are jesting with me, or, that's all a farce.

The gentry say death and distress are all

gammon,

And shut up their hearts to the lab'rer's appeal.-Punch, pl. 54. GANDER-PULLING. A brutal species of amusement practised in Nova Scotia. We quote Judge Halliburton's account of it from the Sayings and Doings of Sam Slick:

"But describe this gander-pulling.'

"Well, I'll tell you how it is,' sais I. • First and foremost, a ring-road is formed, like a small race-course; then two great long posts is fixed

into the ground, one on each side of the road, and a rope made fast by the eends to each post, leavin' the middle of the rope to hang loose in a curve. Well, then they take a gander and pick his breast as clean as a baby's, and then grease it most beautiful all the way from the breast to the head, till it becomes as slippery as a soaped eel. Then they tie both his legs together with a strong piece of cord, of the size of a halyard, and hang him by the feet to the middle of the swingin' rope, with his head downward. All the youngsters, all round the country, come to see the sport, mounted a horseback.

"Well, the owner of the goose goes round with his hat, and gets so much a-piece in it from every one that enters for the "Pullin'," and when all have entered, they bring their horses in a line, one arter another, and at the words "Go a-head!" off they set, as hard as they can split; and as they pass under the goose, make a grab at him, and whoever carries off the head wins.

"Well, the goose dodges his head and flaps his wings, and swings about so, it aint no easy matter to clutch his neck; and when you do, it's so greassy, it slips right through the fingers like nothin'. Sometimes it takes so long, that the horses are fairly beat out, and can't scarcely raise a gallop; and then a man stands by the post, with a heavy loaded whip, to lash 'em on, so that they mayn't stand under the goose, which aint fair. The whoopin,' and hollerin', and screamin', and bettin', and excitement, beats all; there aint hardly no sport equal to it. It is great fun to all except the poor goosey-gander."" GAP. This pure English word is used properly of any breach of continuity, as of the line of a saw's edge, or of the line of a mountain, as projected on the horizon. Hence it is applied to such openings in a mountain as are made by a river, or even a high road. Thus the Water-Gap; and, in Virginia, Brown's Gap, Rockfish Gap, &c.

GAT. (Dutch.) A gate or passage. A term applied to several places in the vicinity of New York, as Barnegat, Barnes's gate; Hellegat, now called Hell Gate.

GAWKY. A tall, ungainly, stupid, or awkward person.Worcester.

Wert thou a giglet gawky like the lave,

That little better than our nowt behave.-Ramsay, Gentle Shepherd. A large half-length [portrait] of Henry Darnley represents him tall, awkward, and gawky.-Pennant's Scotland.

GARNISHEE. In law, one in whose hands the property of an absconding or absent debtor is attached, who is warned or notified of the demand or suit, and who may appear and

defend in the suit, in the place of the principal. State of Connecticut.-Webster.

GEE. A term used by teamsters to their horses and oxen, when they wish them to go faster. It is also used in directing oxen to the right or off-side. In most parts of England it seems to be applied in the same manner.

TO GEE. To agree; to go on well together.-Barnes's Dorset Glossary. Also noticed in the Craven, Norfolk, and Cheshire glossaries.

GENERAL TREAT. A general treat is a treat of a glass of liquor given by a person in a tavern to the whole company present.

I nearly got myself into a difficulty with my new acquaintances by handing the landlord a share of the reckoning, for having presumed to pay a part of a general treat while laboring under the disqualification of being a stranger.-Hoffman, p. 211.

GENITON APPLE. An early apple, probably June eating. Provincial in Suffolk, England.-Moor's Glossary. In the old dictionary of Cocker, 1700, is Geunettings or Junetings, small apples ripe in June.

Dorothy gave her the better half of a geniton apple.-Margaret, p. 314. GERRYMANDERING. To arrange the political divisions of a State, so that in an election, one party may obtain an advantage over its opponent, even though the latter may possess a majority of the votes in the State. This term came into use in the year 1811 in Massachusetts, where, for several years previous, the Federal and Democratic parties stood nearly equal. In that year the Democratic party, having a majority in the Legislature, determined so to district the State anew, that those sections which gave a large number of Federal votes might be brought into one district. The result was that the Democratic party carried everything before them at the following election, and filled every office in the State, although it appeared by the votes returned that nearly two-thirds of the voters were Federalists. Elbridge Gerry, a distinguished politician of that period, 'was the instigator of this plan, which was called gerrymandering after him.