"Beril" on an 18th c. naval vessel
Joel S. Berson
Berson at ATT.NET
Wed Apr 25 13:55:15 UTC 2007
Another expert has a suggestion for this:
>"... one of the braces gave way with such a
>shock, as threw four men over-board, two of whom
>were lost, while the knee of a fifth was crushed
>in a terrible manner between the beril and the mast."
"Parrel", with the "b" by typesetting error an
inverted "p". (Or perhaps mistranscribed orally
at some point, "p" being heard as a "b"?)
From OED2: "A band of rope, chain, or iron
collar by which the middle of a yard is fastened
to a mast." (A possible accident, to have one's
leg caught between the yard and the mast?)
Spellings: "Forms: 5 perell, 6 parle, 7 parel,
parrell, (8 pareil), 7 parrel, 9 parral."
(I don't find "parrel" in any of the on-line works of Smollett.)
Joel
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list