[Spellyans] rickets/ague
Michael Everson
everson at evertype.com
Tue Dec 15 11:31:26 GMT 2009
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/
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