On Wed, 17 Feb 1999 09:12:35 +0000 (GMT), Bill wrote:
>re chapbook, the first element is presumably identical with
>'cheap-' meaning to sell; a chapbook being hawked round?
- The OED confirms this; chapbooks being the modern name applied by
book collectors to specimens of popular literature (tales, ballads,
tracts in pamphlets) circulated by itinerant dealers or chapmen. First
citing 1824.
>The North English equivalent was 'cowp'. While if you exhanged
>goods, the difference in value was a money sum called a 'boot'. Or
>you could simply 'sell' (from OE root = give).
- and, of course, the cowp-boot sale is still popular in the region...
RC
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|