The most interesting words are those that have survived from Middle English or from Tudor English times. Examples are _aigre_, sour, tart, which is Shakespeare's _eagre_, _Hamlet_, I, v 69; _ambry_, _aumbry_, cupboard, spelt _almarie_ in _Piers the Plowman_, B XIV 246; _arain_, a spider, spelt _yreyn_ in Wyclif's translation of Psalm XC 10, which, after all, is less correct; _arles_, money paid on striking a bargain, a highly interesting word, spelt _erles_ in the former half of the thirteenth century; _arris_, the angular edge of a cut block of stone, etc., from the O.F. _areste_, L. _arista_, which has been revived by our Swiss mountain-climbers in the form _arete_; _a-sew_, dry, said of cows that give no milk (cf. F. _essuyer_, to dry); _assoilyie_, to absolve, acquit, and _assith_, to compensate, both used by Sir W. Scott; _astre_, _aistre_, a hearth, a Norman word found in 1292; _aunsel_, a steelyard, of which the etymology is given in the _E.D.D._; _aunter_, an adventure, from the A.F. _aventure_; _aver_, a beast of burden, horse, used by Burns, from the A.F. _aveir_, property, cattle; _averous_, A.F. _averous_, avaricious, in Wyclif's translation of 1 Cor. vi 10. Here is ample proof of the survival of Anglo-French in our dialects. Indeed, their chief philological use consists in the great antiquity of many of the terms, which often preserve Old English and Anglo-French forms with much fidelity. The charge often brought against dialect speakers of using "corrupt" forms is only occasionally and exceptionally true. Much worse "corruptions" have been made by antiquaries, in order to suit their false etymologies. CHAPTER X LATER HISTORY OF THE DIALECTS