Star.
London, England, 1830-07-26 00:00:00

b

N°. 13,535.

TO WALLOP.-POT WALLOPS&

Letter in a Morning Paper.

_ _ 1
Sera,—Permit me to offer some quotations and remarks in illus.
tration of the etymology of the words wallop and pot-walioyere
which have been recently discussed in your journal I sad I think
that no doubts will henceforth bubble in the minds of your corne-
r
pondents, or well up into etymological extras. in other cri-
tics, inducing them to wallop, Imams, wkap, w whack, thrash,
and wheal each other for their own teell.?oing an 'the common weal
of literature.
2. You have perhaps had no opportunity of inspecting Dr.
Webster's English Dictionary, which abounds with etymologial
lore, noticingeven verbal affinities, and extending researches over
twenty different languages, Oriental and European. One great and
striking advantage -derivable from the juxta-position of so many
affinities is this—that the etymologist will thus generally be cotn-
peUed to limit his excursive genius within the circle of those affini.
ties, instead of roiling in free space, and exhibiting to gazing crowds
eccentric gyrations, shedding, however, no sweet and select in-
fluence of light before him, and leaving but a nebulous track
behind him. The dim:ovary of the fact, that um wady, in the sense
of “ boiling," is merely to wall or well up, will convince him that
he has already descended into the well of truth, and that he need
not plunge headlong into the fathomless ocean, the sourceless Nile
of conjecture:—
--

" Ire pnecipitem in lutum, per caputque pedesque."
I will arrange the quotations in the order of publication.
3. " Wain, bollinge.—Thortsby's Later to Roy.
4 " Wall, s. A spring of water (old word). Waite, Teut.
ebullitio. Kilian, Btrn. Lingua Tooting ; bullire, An.
glo.Saxon.
" Wall up. v. To s up as water does-..01d word used by
Oervase Markham.— Wilbraham's "Attempt at a Glossary
of some words used in C ire," id ed. Load. 1896, p. 68.
5. " Wallop, v. 1. (formed on Germ. wanes ; Sax. wean, to
boil or 'bubble ;D. opwallen Eng. to wet.) To boil with a eon.
tinued bubbling, or heaving, and rolling of the liquor, with noise.
" Weel, n. (see Well; Sax. wad, from 'realm, to boil)—A
whirlpool; not in use.
"Weld, v. t. (Sw. walla, to weld; Germ. sealers, to join;
D. tulles, to well, to spring, to solder.) To unite or hammer into
firm union, as two pieces of iron, when heated almost to fusion.
" Well, n. (Sax. well, a spring or fountain ; wellan, to well, to
boil or bubble, to spring, to rise; D. tee, tootle*, idem ; German,
quelk, a spring; quellen, to spring, to issue forth, to gush, to well,
to swell; swollen, to swell. In Germ. wells is a wave. On this
word I suppose swell to be formed.) A spring, a fountain, the is.
suing of water from the earth.
" Begin, then, sisters of the sacred well"—Milton.
" Well, v. i. (Sax. radian.) To sprift, to issue forth, as water
from the earth. Little used. Spenser ; Dryden.
" Well, v. t. To pour forth. Obs.—Spenser."
(Dr. N. Webster's English Dictionary, New York, 1898.)

6. " Wall, wale. To boil ; Tent. team ; smells.
" Wallop, to move quickly, and with much agitation of the body
or clothes; Teut. wal-oppe, cursus gradarius. The word is also
applied to any thing moving quickly in boiling water, to bubble up;
inwhich sense it may be referred tolliiax .tesolsos, to boil; Cierm.tral.
len, to move up and down u in ebullition; Isl. wells, to bubble
up. Whence the pt*woilpers of the Cornish boroughs—those se-
ductions of power too tempting for patriotism to resist—take
their title.

" Walloping, a slatternly, slovenly manner.
" Well, to weld, Swed. wells, Sax. welters, to be very hot."—
(J. T. Brockett's Glosary of North-country Fords, 1829, p. 320.)
"7. Wallop, v. I, to move as fast as possible, but not without
much effort and agitation. Jam. proposes to derive it from Sitio-
G. wapen. But the Fr. g.lopper is certainly more likely : w for g
'is a very common change. The of a cow, or a eart.horse,
is a good specimen of walloping.....arotheWs blow. 2, to wrap
up any thing in a hasty and clumsy manner. This must needs be
a deplorable corruption of envelop." (The Rev. R. Forby's Vooa-
bsdary of East Anglia, London, 1830, v. 2, p. 3174
" 8. Wall, then, is the same as well, a salient or fountain
of water issuing from the earth, as if bubbling and ing.
"To wall up, is to well up, in the same sense. The genuine
word is preserved by Gervase Markham.
" To Wallop, is the corrupt form for wall up.
" Walloper, is an ancient term applied to designate a certain class-
of voters in a borough, viz. those who boil a pot in a tenement.—
It is not the pot which wallops, or the voter himself; but the water
put into the pot, which is pbeed ova a fire, in due time boils,
walls or wells up, corruptWly wallops ; and by an easy transition
the voter himself is made to wallop, or boil with a pot.
" Pot-walloper" is one who " wallops with a pot," 1. e. boils wa.
ter in a pot for culinary purposes, i. e. is a householder.
9. Your correspondent. who considers a " pot-walloper" to be one
who " swill! a pot" over the fire, by a long bar with a swivel and
hook, as if to wallop" meant primarily and solely a " quick
swinging movement,' is, by the formidable array of affinities,
proved to be in error; and that affinities are so many irrefragable
authorities, while his own explanation is pure unsupported " foot-
less" conjecture. Now among the first principles in sound etymo.
logy, is this—that no conjecture is admissible where there is compe.
tent authority without conjecture ; and where there is no competent
authority, let conjecture, though a fantastic and volatile damsel, be
beard with patience, and let good sense and right judgment arbitrate
the point. There is authority for referring " wall," to " the boil.
log of water ;" than is none for referring it to " the swinging
of a pot."
10. Your °espondent connects the etymologies of " wallop"
and " gallop," in reference to " the quick swinging movement,"
described by him. " Wallop," in this sense, may have such a con.
nexion ; but it must not be confounded by your correspondent, as it
also confounded by the learned and pleasant Mr. Brockett. with
" wall" or" well up," corrupted into wallop."
11. There wog be a connection between " wap, a blow given
with the open hand," (the Rev. Jos. Hunter's Hallawshire Glos.
,a y, Lend 1829, p. 95 ;) " whop, whop, a he. blow," (Jen.
ning's Gloss.) “ wAsp, a knock down blow," (Mr. Brockett's
Gloss. p. 338; " waup, a blow, rather perhaps whaling, horn
whoa!, the mark of a blew," (ibid.) and waling, in the sense of
" a pick swinging movement," or in the sense explained by Mr.
Forby. At present lam not disposed to assert, or to deny the
truth of such a proposition, in a spirit of philological despotism.
Neither shall I decide whether "walloping, a slatternly, slovenly
manner," and " welhsping, strong, atbletick, a great walloping
chap,' " as explained by Mr. Brackett, is to be referred to the same
word.
There are nobler dainties to be peeked by men of bolder wing,
goodlier appetite, and stronger digestion. I am no royaleagle, formed
alike forfeast and fight,
(Nun in reluetantes dracones
let amor &pia atque pupa)
foe breasting the mountain storm, and fronting the meridian beam—
for circumnavigating the darkest clouds, penetrating the loftiest re.
glom of ether, and skirting, with supreme " dominion," the purest
and holiest empyrean of light and glory.
Your reepietful servant,
Thetford, July 19. B. H. BARKER.