History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 126

In the modern period appear the following terms of general military operations.
Waylay (1513), to lie in wait for, with evil or hostile intent, to seize or attack on the
way; from way, sb., and lay, vb., but after MLG., M.Du., wegelâgen, from wegelage,
besetting of ways.
Forlorn hope (1579), in early use, a picked body of men detached to the front to
begin the attack; (1539), the men composing such a body, hence reckless bravoes;
ad. Du. verloren hoop (in Kilian, 1598), literally, lost troop.
Onslaught (1625), onset, attack, esp. a vigorous or destructive one; the word appears
first early in the 17th century, when it also has the forms anslaight, anslacht, and is
termed by Phillips ‘Dutch’; the nearest Du. word aanslag, striking at, attempt, does not
yield quite the requisite form, while the ME. words slaht, slaught, sleight, slaughter
appear to have become obsolete about 1400; it probably represents the Du. aanslag
or G. anschlag, modified after Eng. words of action such as draught. Scamper (1687),
to run away, decamp, bolt; very common in this sense from 1687 to 1700; at first
probably military slang, from obs. Du. schampen, which Hexham (1660) glosses ‘to
escape or flie, to be gone’, and which is OF. escamper, to decamp.
There are a few specific terms for the conduct of a siege.
Leaguer (1577), a military camp, esp. one engaged on a siege; (1598), a siege; ad.
Du. leger, camp.
Leaguerer (1635) was the term applied to a (Dutch) trooper; this gives us an
indication of the principal occupation of a trooper in the Low Country wars. The vb.
Beleaguer (1589), to besiege; ad. Du. belegeren; the first instance of the word, in
Nashe, is in a transferred sense, so the word was borrowed probably some time
before 1589.
Outlope (1603), a run-out, sally, excursion; apparently ad. Du. uitloop (in Kilian
uutloop), a run-out, excursion.
Slight (1640-4), in the sense, to level with the ground, to raze a fortification; ad. Du.
slechten, LG. slichten or G. schlichten, to level.
It is perhaps best to include words dealing with plunder and plundering among the
terms of the operations of war; at any rate that side of warfare was more developed
and legitimate in the periods under question than it is with the armies of to-day.
Booty (1474), plunder; it is hard to say whether directly from MLG. bute, buite, where
it was already used in the required sense (e.mod.Du. buyt, buet), or indirectly through
the F. butin; butin from F. is used side by side with boty, booty, during the 16th
century, but on the whole the contact between the two forms appears to be slight;
Caxton used both forms before any one else, in his Chesse, a translation from the
French, but this does not signify much, as Caxton was bilingual, English and Flemish.
Boot, sb. (1593), booty; O.E.D. says that it is apparently an application of boot, ‘good,
advantage, profit, use’, influenced by the already existing booty. It was especially used
in the phrase, ‘to make boot’, and Du. had the identical phrase, buit maken, and, as

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