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Add. MS b/74/14/5
Title
Letter from W. W. Skeat to W. Aldis Wright
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- 7 July 1876 (Creation)
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1 folded sheet
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(Place of writing not indicated.)—Discusses the origin of the word ‘motley’.
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Transcript
July 7. 1876.
Dear Sir—
I understand from Prof. Cowell that you are on the look out for origin of the word motley.
I think it is worth while to notice mottelet, mattelé in Cotgrave, & also mattes, cards. Brachet gives Fr. motte, a clod: etym. unknown. But cf. A.S. mot, a mote, a particle; Eng. smut, once smot, as in Chaucer’s besmotered; Welsh ysmot, a patch {1}, a spot. I have no doubt that the word means spotted or speckly, tho’ I cannot trace its history correctly. You will remember that it occurs in Chaucer’s Prologue, l. 273. Mottled = spotted.
Yours
W W Skeat
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{1} Underlined twice.
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This description was created by A. C. Green in 2022.