er XXII).

FRENCH ADJECTIVES

A large proportion of our adjectival nicknames are of French origin.
Le bel appears not only as Bell but also, through Picard, as Beal.
Other examples are Boon, Bone, Bunn (bon), Grant (grand), Bass (bas)
and its derivative Bassett, Dasent (decent), Follett and Folliott,
dim. of fol (fou), mad, which also appears in the compound Foljambe,
Fulljames.

Mordaunt means biting. Power is generally Anglo-Fr. le poure (le
pauvre) and Grace is for le gras, the fat. Jolige represents the Old
French form of joli--

"This Absolon, that jolif was and gay,
Gooth with a sencer (censer) on the haliday."

(A, 3339.)

Prynne, now Pring, is Anglo-Fr. le prin, the first, from the Old
French adjective which survives in printemps. Cf. our name Prime and
the French name Premier. The Old French adjective Gent, now replaced
by gentil, generally means slender in Mid. English--

"Fair was this yonge wyf, and therwithal
As any wezele hir body gent and smal."

(A, 3233)

Petty and Pettit are variant forms of Fr. petit, small. In Prowse and
Prout we have the nominative and objective (Chapter I) of an Old
French adjective now represented by preux and prude, generally thought
to be related in some way to Lat. pro in prosum, and perhaps also the
source of our Proud.

Gross is of course Fr. le gros, but Grote represents Du. groot, great,
probably unconnected with the French word. The Devonshire name
Coffin, which is found in that county in the twelfth century, is the
same as Caffyn, perhaps representing Fr. Chauvin, bald, the name of
the theologian whom we know better in the latinized form Calvin. Here
belongs probably Shovel, Fr. Chauvel. We also have the simple Chaffe,
Old Fr. chauf (chauve), bald. Gaylard, sometimes made into the
imitative Gaylord, is Fr. gaillard, brisk, lively

"Gaillard he was as goldfynch in the shawe."

(A, 4367.)

COLOUR NAMES

Especially common are colour nicknames, generally due to the
complexion, but sometimes to the garb. As we have already seen
(Chapter XV), Black and its variant Blake sometimes mean pale. Blagg
is the same word; cf. Jagg for Jack. White has no doubt been
reinforced by wight, valiant

"Oh for one hour of Wallace wight
Or well-skilled Bruce to rule the fight."

(Marmion, vi. 20.)

As an epithet applied to the hair we often find Hoar; cf. Horlock.
Redd is rare, the usual forms being the northern Reid, Reed, Read; but
we also hav