generally seem to have preferred this. Dr. Campbell, however, observes, that "the words averse and aversion are more properly construed with to, than with from. The examples in favor of the latter preposition are, beyond comparison, outnumbered by those in favor of the former. The argument from etymology is here of no value, being taken from the use of another language. If, by the same rule, we were to regulate all nouns and verbs of Latin original, our present syntax would be overturned." Dr. Webster remarks to the same effect. Mr. Todd says many examples may be brought to show the prevalent use of the word from in connection with averse, before Clarendon; but now the usage of to prevails.

AVOCADO PEAR. See Alligator Pear.

AWFUL. 1. Disagreeable, detestable, ugly. A word much used among the common people in New England, and not unfrequently among those who are educated. The expression, "an awful-looking woman," is as often heard as "an ugly woman."

The country people of the New England States make use of many quaint expressions in their conversation. Every thing that creates surprise is awful with them: "What an awful wind! awful hole! awful hill! awful mouth! awful nose!" etc. Lambert's Travels in Canada and the United States.

The practice of moving on the first day of May, with one half the New-Yorkers, is an awful custom. — Major Downing, May-Day in New York.

2. Very great, excessive. This sense of the word is peculiar to the West.

Pot-pie is the favorite dish, and woodsmen, sharp set, are awful eaters. — Carlton, The New Purchase, Vol. I. p. 182.

It is even used in this sense adverbially, and with still greater impropriety, like many other adjectives. Thus we not unfrequently hear such expressions as "an awful cold day."

There was Old Crane pokin' round among the gals, and mighty particular to Kezier Winkle. Ain't it ridiculous? I don't see what he could fancy about her. I never thought she was so awful handsome as some folks does.— Widow Bedott Papers.

AWFULLY. Exceedingly, excessively.

The chimneys were awfully given to smoking. — Carlton, New Purchase. To AXE. (Ang. Sax. acsian, axian.) To ask. This word is now considered a vulgarism; though, like many others under the same censure, it is as old as the English language. Among the early writers it was used with the same frequency as ask is now. In England it still exists in the colloquial dialect of Norfolk and other counties. "A trueborn

Londoner," says Pegge, "always axes questions, axes pardon, and at quadrilles, axes leave."

And Pilate aride him, Art thou Kyng of Jewis? And Jhesus answeride and seide to him, Thou seist.- Wicliff, Trans. of the Bible.

Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, in a letter to her son, Henry VII., concludes with

As herty blessings as ye can axe of God. - Lord Howard.

In the next reign, Dr. John Clarke writes to Cardinal Wolsey, and tells him that

The King axed after your Grace's welfare. - Pegge's Anecdote.

The word is much used by the uneducated in the United States.

Day before yesterday, I went down to the post-office, and ax'd the postmaster if there was any thing for me.- - Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 172.

I have often axed myself what sort of a gall that splendiferous Lady of the Lake of Scott's was. — - Sam Slick in Eng., ch. 30.

B.

BABES.

BACK, v.

The name of a set of Baltimore rowdies.

To back a letter, is Western for to "direct" it.

BACK is often used for ago; as in the phrase, "a little while back,” i. e. "a short time ago."

BACK AND FORTH. Backwards and forwards, applied to a person in walking; as, "He was walking back and forth." A common expression in the familiar language of New England.

BACKBONE. Moral stamina, strength of will, firmness of purpose. A figurative expression recently much used in political writings.

Infirmity of purpose is the cause of more serious lapses of infirmity of principle. Men do not know how to resist the small temptations of life, from some deficiency in their dorsal arrangements; and the natural result is a departure from the right. Backbone is the material which is designed to make an upright man; and he must be firm on all points, if he would pass scatheless through the struggle of life. The Republic, 1857.

TO BACK DOWN. To withdraw a charge, eat one's own words; as, “I asked Jenkins, before witnesses, if he had called me a cheat; and he backed right down."

BACK-HOUSE. A necessary house, privy; so called from its position. In some parts of England it is called the Backward. Comp. the Lat. posti

сит.

TO BACK OUT, v. To retreat from a difficulty, to refuse to fulfil a promise or engagement. A metaphor borrowed from the stables. Equivalent expressions are to back water, to take the back track.

Mr. Bedinger, in his remarks in the House of Representatives on the Mexican war, January 25, 1848, said: "He regretted the bloodshed in Mexico, and wished it would stop. But, he asked, would gentlemen be willing to back out, and forsake our rights? No, no. No turning back. This great country must go ahead."

The whigs undertook to cut down the price of printing to a fair rate, but at last backed out, and voted to pay the old prices.- New York Tribune.

To all appearance, we are on the eve of a bloody contest, if not a revolution. What will be the consequence? One or the other party must back out, or no one can tell what will be the result.— National Intelligencer.

'T would save some whole cartloads of fuss, an' three or four months o' jaw, If some illustrious patriot should back out and withdraw.

BACK OUT. A backing out, retreating.

Bigelow Papers, p. 124.

Well, boys, you know Hoss Allen- no back out in him, anyhow! - Hoss Allen, of Missouri.

BACK TRACK. To take the back track is to retrace one's steps, to retreat; and hence is equivalent to to back out. Western.

TO BACK WATER, v. To retreat, or withdraw; a Western metaphor, derived from steamboat language.

BACKING AND FILLING. Advancing and retreating, shilly-shally, indecision. A nautical metaphor, used also, it is believed, in England.

There has been so much backing and filling not only upon the Cuba question, but upon every other, that no confidence can be placed in the declaration which either Gen. Pierce or his cabinet may make.-N. Y. Herald, June 15, 1854.

A backin' and fillin' and wrigglin' policy will never fetch any thing about. — Maj. Downing.

BACKWARD. Is sometimes used in the West for bashful, unwilling to appear in company, on the same principle as "forward" in correct language means the very contrary.

BACKWOODS. The partially cleared forest region on the western frontier of the United States, called also the back settlements. This part of the country is regarded as the back part or rear of Anglo-American civilization, which fronts on the Atlantic. It is rather curious that the English word back has thus acquired the meaning of western, which it has in several Oriental languages, and also in Irish.

BACKWOODSMAN. In the United States, an inhabitant of the forest on the Western frontier. - Webster.

The project of transmuting the classes of American citizens and converting sailors into backwoodsmen is not too monstrous for speculators to conceive and desire. -Fisher Ames's Works, p. 144.

I presume, ladies and gentlemen, it is your curiosity to hear the plain, uneducated backwoodsman in his home style. — Crockett's Tour, p. 126.

BAD. Badly; greatly, very much. Examples: "That bile hurts me bad." "I want to see him bad."

BAGASSE. (Fr.) Stalks of sugar-cane, from which the juice has been expressed. It is used as fuel under the sugar-kettle. Called also Canetrash.

BAGASSE FURNACE. A furnace arranged to burn the sugar-cane stalks. BAGGAGE. Literally, what is contained in a bag or bags; the clothing or other conveniences which a traveller carries with him on a journey. The English appear to have discarded the word altogether for the less appropriate term luggage.

Having despatched my baggage by water to Altdorf. - Coxe.

This is sometimes called more fully bag and baggage.

Seventeen members of Congress arrived to-day with their bag and baggage.· Washington Paper.

BAGGAGE-CAR. The car on a railroad in which the baggage is stowed. It is placed next behind the tender.

BAGGAGE-SMASHER. A man who transfers baggage to and from railroad cars, steamboats, etc. So called from the reckless manner in which these persons handle the property of travellers.

BAGGING. See Cotton-Bagging.

BAKE-OVEN. This term is often used in the West for the simple word oven in a bakery. It is also applied to the iron bake-pan. BALANCE. A mercantile word originally introduced into the ordinary language of life by the Southern people, but now improperly used throughout the United States to signify the remainder of any thing. The balance of money, or the balance of an account, are terms well authorized and proper; but we also frequently hear such expressions as the "balance of a speech;" "the balance of the day was idly spent ;" a great many people assembled at the church: a part got in, the balance remained without."

The yawl returned to the wreck, took ten or eleven persons and landed them, and then went and got the balance from the floating cabin. - Albany Journal, January 7,

1846.

Most of the respectable inhabitants held commissions in the army or government offices; the balance of the people kept little shops, cultivated the ground, etc. Williams's Florida, p. 115.

The boats of the South Ferry forced their way through the ice, and kept up their communication for the balance of the day. — New York Tribune.

BALD FACE. Common (penny) whiskey, particularly when it is new w; also figuratively and appropriately called Red Eye.

BALLOT-BOX STUFFING. A new name for a new crime. This consists in the use of a box for receiving ballots at an election, so constructed with a false bottom and compartments as to permit the introduction of spurious ballots to any extent by the party having it in charge. In California the most outrageous frauds have been committed by this means. BALLYHACK"Go to Ballyhack!" a common expression in New England. I know not its origin. It savors in sound, however, of the Emerald Isle. "You and Obed are here too."

"Let Obed go to Ballyhack. Come along out."-Margaret, p. 55.

BALM OF GILEAD. (Populus caudicans.) A tree, which extends from New England to Wisconsin and Kentucky. It is rare in a wild state, but common in cultivation. - Gray.

BALSAM FIR. (Abies balsamea.) A slender tree growing in cold, damp woods and swamps, from New England to Pennsylvania and northwards. The blisters under the bark furnish the well-known "Canada Balsam;" hence its name. It is also called Canada Balsam and Gilead Fir.

BALSAM POPLAR. (Populus balsamifera.) A tall tree growing from New England to Wisconsin and northwards. Its large buds are varnished with a fragrant, resinous matter. Gray.

BANANA. The fruit of the Musa sapientium, a well-known tropical fruit, imported into the United States from the West Indies.

BAND. A troop or herd of bisons is called, in prairie parlance, "a band of buffalo."

BANDED DRUM. See Grunter.

BANGO! A common exclamation among the negroes both North and South.

BANJO. A rude sort of guitar, a favorite instrument with the negroes. The term itself is probably of negro origin.

BANKABLE.
Webster.

How oft when a boy, with childish joy,

I've roam'd at the close of day,

When our work was done, to have some fun,

And hear the banjo play. - Negro Melody.

Ole Nashville dey say is a very nice town,
Dar de niggers pick de cotton till de sun goes down;
Dey dance all night to de ole banjo,

Wid a corn-stalk fiddle and a shoe-string bow. - Negro Melodies.
Receivable at a bank, as bills; or discountable, as notes.