n the _Transactions of the Philological Society_ for
1865.]

{161} Many languages have groups of words formed upon the same scheme,
although, singularly enough, they are altogether absent from the
Anglo-Saxon. (J. Grimm, _Deutsche Gramm._, vol. ii. p. 976). The
Spaniards have a great many very expressive words of this
formation. Thus with allusion to the great struggle in which
Christian Spain was engaged for so many centuries, a vaunting
braggart is a 'matamoros', a 'slaymoor'; he is a 'matasiete', a
'slayseven'; a 'perdonavidas', a 'sparelives'. Others may be added
to these, as 'azotacalles', 'picapleytos', 'saltaparedes',
'rompeesquinas', 'ganapan', 'cascatreguas'.

{162} [This stands for 'peak-goose' (_peek goos_ in Ascham,
_Scholemaster_, 1570, p. 54, ed. Arber), a _goose_ that _peaks_ or
pines, used for a sickly, delicate person, and a simpleton. In
Chapman, Cotgrave and others it appears as 'pea-goose'.]

{163} The mistake is far earlier; long before Cowper wrote the sound
suggested first this sense, and then this spelling. Thus
Stanihurst, _Description of Ireland_, p. 28: "They are taken for
no better than _rakehels_, or _the devil's black guard_"; and
often elsewhere.

{164} [i.e. in Joshua Sylvester's translation of "Du Bartas, his Diuine
Weekes and Workes", 1621.]

{165} As not, however, turning on a _very_ coarse matter, and
illustrating the subject with infinite wit and humour, I might
refer the Spanish scholar to the discussion between Don Quixote
and his squire on the dismissal of 'regoldar', from the language
of good society, and the substitution of 'erutar' in its room
(_Don Quixote_, 4. 7. 43). In a letter of Cicero to Paetus (_Fam._
ix. 22) there is a subtle and interesting disquisition on
forbidden words, and their philosophy.

{166} _Literature of Greece_, p. 5.

{167} [Notwithstanding the analogous instance of 'abbess' for 'abbatess'
this account of 'lass' must be abandoned. It is the old English
_lasce_ (akin to Swedish _loesk_), meaning (1) one free or
disengaged, (2) an unmarried girl (N.E.D.)]

{168} In Cotgrave's _Dictionary_ I find 'praiseress', 'commendress',
'fluteress', 'possesseress', 'loveress', but have never met them
in use.

{169} On this termination see J. Grimm, _Deutsche Gramm._, vol. ii. p.