Remarks |
'Mud', i.e.soft wet earth, borrowed from Middle Low German 'mudde' and replaced Old English 'fen', i.e., swamp, from prehistoric base 'meu-, mu-' (p. 357 in Ref. 11979); 'shark', of obscure origins but appears to have been introduced by members of the Sir John Hawkins' expedition ( a ballad of 1569 recorded 'There is no proper name for [the fish] that I know, but that certain men of Captain Hawkins's doth call it a shark'), ressembles Austrian dialect 'schirk', i.e., sturgeon (p. 471 in Ref. 11979). Also Ref. 10161. |