{146} [We now have the good fortune to possess a complete collection of this valuable class of words in the splendid “English Dialect Dictionary”, edited by Professor Joseph Wright of Oxford, which is an essential supplement to all existing dictionaries of our language.] {147} This last very curious usage, which served as a kind of stepping-stone to ‘its’, and of which another example occurs in the Geneva Version (Acts xii. 10), and three or four in Shakespeare, has been abundantly illustrated by those who have lately written on the early history of the word ‘its’; thus see Craik, _On the English of Shakespeare_, p. 91; Marsh, _Manual of the English Language_ (Eng. Edit.), p. 278; _Transactions of the Philological Society_, vol. 1. p. 280; and my book _On the Authorized Version of the New Testament_, p. 59. {148} Thus Fuller (_Pisgah Sight of Palestine_, vol. ii. p. 190): “Sure I am this city [the New Jerusalem] as presented by the prophet, was fairer, finer, _slicker_, smoother, more exact, than any fabric the earth afforded”. {149} [In the United States ‘plunder’ is used for personal effects, baggage and luggage (Webster). This is not noticed in the E.D.D.] {150} [But we have acquired, in some quarters, the abomination ‘an invite’.] {151} How many words modern French has lost which are most vigorous and admirable, the absence of which can only now be supplied by a circumlocution or by some less excellent word--‘Oseur’, ‘affranchisseur’ (Amyot), ‘mépriseur’, ‘murmurateur’, ‘blandisseur’ (Bossuet), ‘abuseur’ (Rabelais), ‘désabusement’, ‘rancœur’, are all obsolete at the present. So ‘désaimer’, to cease to love (‘disamare’ in Italian), ‘guirlander’, ‘stériliser’, ‘blandissant’, ‘ordonnément’ (Montaigne), with innumerable others. {152} [It has now attained a fair currency.] {153} [‘Gainly’ is still used by nineteenth century writers, 1855-86; see N.E.D.] {154} [‘Dehort’ has been used in modern times by Southey (_Letters_, 1825, iii, 462), and Cheyne (_Isaiah, introd._ 1882, xx.)--N.E.D.] {155} [Tennyson has endeavoured to resuscitate the word--“_Rathe_ she rose”--_Lancelot and Elaine_--but with no great success.] {156} For other passages in which ‘rathest’ occurs, see the _State Papers_, vol. ii. pp. 92, 170. {157} [‘Buxom’ for old English _buc-sum_ or _buch-sum_, i.e. ‘bow-some’, yielding, compliant, obedient. “Sara was _buxom_ to Abraham”, 1 Pet. iii, 6 (xiv. Cent. Version, ed. Pawes, p. 216).] {158} [‘Lissome’ for _lithe-some_, like Wessex _blissom_ for _blithe-some_. Tennyson has “as _lissome_ as a hazel wand”--_The Brook_, l. 70.]