[Spellyans] rickets/ague

[Michael Everson]

On 15 Dec 2009, at 11:21, j.mills at email.com wrote:

> Morton Nance (1938) gives leghow pl. rickets; ague. George (2009)  
> writes this as "legh" "to agree with the cognates" (Breton: lec'h,  
> Welsh: llech), and gives the translation equivalent: 'rickets'. The  
> only source that I have found for this word is Lhuyd (1707: 242a),  
> who spells this word "lêaụh" and translates it as 'ague'. How  
> should this word be spelled? And what justification is there, if  
> any, for the translation equivalent 'rickets'?

Lhuyd's form would not be so unusual, perhaps. KS spells leghow as  
lehow, and Lhuyd's form looks like le'ow.

Ague is a malaria or other fever characterized by shaking. Perhaps the  
sense of shakiness was transferred to rickets because of the  
unsteadiness of that condition.

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/