History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 185

Scuffle (1798), scuffler; (1841), a gardener's thrust hoe; ad. Du. schoffel, weeding
hoe.
Dannocks (a. 1825, from E. Anglia), the forms are darnocks and dannocks; hedge
gloves made of untanned leather; Forby prefers the form darnocks and says that it is a
corruption of Dorneck, Dornick, the Flem. name for Tournai.
7. 4.
The following group is of terms dealing with farm crops and weeds.
Finkle (c. 1265), fennel; ME. fenecel, ultimately from L. faeniculum, but the immediate
source is probably Low Dutch, from M.Du. venekel, also veenkel, vinkel, veneco(o)l
(Du. vinkel).
Crap (c. 1440, Pr. Parv.), the husk of grain, chaff, &c.; (c. 1425), the name of some
plant, buckwheat, and various weeds among corn, as darnel, charlock; (1490-9, Pr.
Parv.), the residue formed in rendering, boiling or melting, fat; O.E.D. states that the
word is identical with e.mod.Du. krappe, ‘carptus, carptura, res decerpta, frustum
decerptum sive abscissum, pars abrasa sive abscissa, pars carnis abscissa, crustum,
ofella, offula, placenta, pulpamentum’ (Kilian), and connected with krappen, to pluck
off, cut off, separate, and compares E. crape, OF. crappe, siftings, also the grain
trodden under foot in the barn and mingled with the straw and dust; O.E.D. observes
that it is doubtful whether all the senses belong to one word, though a common notion
of ‘rejected or left matter, residue, dregs, dust’ runs through them; M.Du. crappe, crap
meant in general ‘roast meat’, but Du. krap has also the senses a part broken or torn
off a larger whole, residue formed in rendering fat, grains which remain among the
chaff, coal cinders; it is probable that M.Du. had some of these senses, though not
recorded, and if this is so, it is likely that the ME. word was borrowed from M.Du.; the
only sense difficult to account for is that of ‘the name of some plant and of various
weeds’, and this may be a different word.
Fimble (1484, from Wigtoft, Boston), the male plant of hemp, producing a weaker,
shorter fibre; ad. Du. femel (LG. fimel), ad. F. (chanvre) femelle, lit. ‘female hemp’, this
name being popularly applied to what modern botanists call the male plant.
Succory (1533), the plant found wild in England; its leaves and roots are used
medicinally and for food; an alteration of cicoree, sycory, sichorie, old forms of chicory,
after MLG. suckerîe, or M.Du. sûkerîe (Du. suikerei, older Flem. suykerey), succory.
Rape (1548), a plant name used for rape and for cole-seed; ad. L. rāpum, rāpa, a
turnip, but in the obsolete sense of turnip perhaps partly from Du. raap, turnip, rape.
Spurrey, Spurry (1577, B. Googe, Heresbach's Husb.), one or other of a species of
herbaceous plants or weeds belonging to the genus Spergula, esp. the common
species, corn spurrey, occasionally used as fodder for sheep and cattle; ad. Du.
spurrie (M.Du. sporie, older Flem. speurie, spurie).
Amelcorn (1578, Lyte, Dodoens), an inferior variety of wheat, the larger spelt, called
also French rice; ad. Du. amelkorn, from L. amyl-um and corn.

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