of Purley, vol. ii. p. 307.), it had once a more general signification, and "was an excellent good word before it was ill-assorted,"* its frequentative might import to provide much or frequent gratification of any kind. Johnson, following Bailey, derives PAMPER from pamberare, Italian. But it may be remarked that except a few terms of art, our speech has little or nothing from the Italian ; or only through the medium of the French, in which this verb does not exist. No Latin etymology of pamberare occurs to me; and, indeed, the word itself is not to be found in any Italian dictionary that I have seen. If every just man that now pines with want, And she no whit encumbered with her store. Milton. 2. TO CLATTER (German klapper-n) perhaps from to clap, A. Saxon clapp-an, palpitare; past participle clap'd, clapt, clapter, clatter. And still the clap plays clatter. Thus, at the shut of even, the weary bird Burns. Leaves the wide air, and in some lonely brake The Grave. *DOLL TEARSHEET. He a captain! Hang him, rogue! He lives upon mouldy stewed prunes, and dried cakes. A captain! These villains will make the word captain as odious as the word occupy, which was an excellent good word before it was ill-assorted: therefore, captains had need look to it. Second Part of King Henry IV. Act II. Sc. 4. As when the dove her rocky hold forsakes, Dryden. Dr. Johnson quotes Anglosaxon clatrunge, crepitacula, crepacula, a clattering, Lye, which is evidently the gerund of clatter-an. 3. TO SQUANDER," Moso-Gothic diswinth-an, "destruere, Alemannic schwend-en, dilapidare." Serenius. Schwend-en seems no very improbable etymon, preterite and past participle schwand, see Wander. It is the Anglosaxon swind-an consumere, swand consumptus.-Lye. 4. To WILDER, Serenius mentions Suio-Gothic will-a, in errorem ducere:-will'd, wilder. 5. To WONDER, the Anglosaxon wundr-ian, perhaps from the Anglosaxon wand-ian, vereri ; preterite wond, Lye. Several languages bear testimony to the affinity of the emotions of fear and wonder, as is remarked by Mr. Burke in his Inquiry into the origin of our ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Part II. Sec. 2. 6. TO SMOTHER, from smoke, smok'd, smother? Anglosaxon smoc-ian, smoc-an, fumare, fumo, suffocare, Lye. To smethe is used in Chatterton's Rowley. This frequentative is in the Scotch pronunciation contracted to smore, the form in which it also appears in the Anglosaxon vocabularies, smor-an. It is not a little strange to find a word in the English, in a form which would seem to have preceded that which it bears in the Anglosaxon; but, considering the time when our Anglosaxon vocabularies were compiled, and from what materials, it cannot be supposed they comprehend all the language. Smother-an was probably never lost, though only the contracted form smor-an chanced to occur in the Anglosaxon books which are extant. See Bother, p. 60. 7. TO WHIMPER (German wimmer-n), from to whine, German wein-en? QUHIMPERAND with mony quhine. Sir David Lindsay. Yet with main strength his strokes he drew, Sir W. Scott. 8. To SAUNTER, "to wander about idly, to "loiter, to linger," Johnson. He derives it from aller à la sainte terre," from idle people who roved "about the country, and asked charity, under 66 66 pretence of going à la sainte terre, or the holy land;" but saunter is not a French word, nor sainte terre English. Perhaps it is allied to the German säum-en, to delay, procrastinate, &c. 9. TO POTHER, from to poke, to stir, pokder, pother, to stir much or make a great stir? 10. "To CLUTTER," says Dr. Jamieson, Το "although Johnson gives no etymology, is pro"bably from Teutonic kloter-en, kleuter-en, tudi It "tare, pultare, pulsare crebro ictu; Kilian." might be derived from the Scottish word to clout, i. e. to strike or thump. Some of these may be otherwise formed; it is no more to be supposed, that all our verbs ending in ER are frequentatives, than that all Latin verbs ending with TO, SO, or ITO, are so. XXXVIII. Obsolete frequentative verbs. 1. SLITTERED, of slit. His body was clad full richely, Wrought was his robe in straung egise, And all TO-SLITTERED for queintise In many a place, lowe and hie. Chaucer, The Romaunt of the Rose, fol. 120. p. 1. col. 2. 2. SMOTTRIT, BESMOTTRIT. His SMOTTRIT habit. G. Douglas's Virgil, p. 173. 1. 47. Sordidus in the original. Of fustyan he wered a gippon All BESMOTTRED with his haubergion, For he was late come from his viage. Chaucer, The Prologues of the Canterbury Tales. With that wourd His face he schew BESMOTTRIT for ane bourde, G. Douglas's Virgil, p. 139. 1. 30. It is formed from the Anglosaxon smyt-an and besmyt-an, maculare, inquinare, preterite and past participle smote or smut, whence smut, any thing or something foul or polluted in corn, language, &c. 3. SPYNNERAND, from spynnand. Under thy gard to schip we us addres Over spynnand many swelland seyis salt. G. Douglas's Virgil, p. 72. 1. 46. "SPYNNAND, running, gliding: by a metaphor taken from spinning, as swepit, and raik, by the same author."- Ruddiman. Ane vther part syne zounder mycht thou se, Fleand the houndis, Ibid. p. 105. 1. 14. Explained, "running or flying swiftly: vox ut "videtur à sono conficta, aut uti preced."Ruddiman. 4. LOPPERAND. Mydway betwix the vther stories sere, Went flowand, but the LOPPERAND wallis quhite War pouderit ful of fomy froith mylk quhite. G. Douglas's Virgil, p. 267. 1. 45. Nor zit na land birst LIPPERING on the wallis, This appears to be a frequentative of to leap, in Scotch to loup or lop,-wallis (waves) often leaping up white. Is not this better than deriving the word from leper, and supposing the sense to be, white water of broken waves, or on the tops of waves, in allusion to the white scabs of a leper! Or the other conjecture in the glossary, that the word comes from lapper (said to be sometimes |