"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