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vulgar, and well-weighed, scarce worth the praise. Milton. It might be more useful to the English reader . . . to write in our vulgar language. Bp. Fell. The mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue within the reach of every class. Bancroft.

W, the twenty-third letter of the English alphabet, is usually a consonant, but sometimes it is a vowel, forming the second element of certain diphthongs, as in few, how. It takes its written form and its name from the repetition of a V, this being the original form of the Roman capital letter which we call U. Etymolog…

about his head, He cast it up with his auspicious hand, Which was the signal, through the English spread, This they should charge. Drayton.

tance; as, a Wardian case of plants; -- so named from the inventor, Nathaniel B. Ward, an Englishman.

equal to 107 C.G.S. units of power, or to work done at the rate of one joule a second. An English horse power is approximately equal to 746 watts.

The body politic; the state; common wealth. [Obs.] The special watchmen of our English weal. Shak.

A certain quantity estimated by weight; an English measure of weight. See Wey.

urce of supply; fountain; wellspring. "This well of mercy." Chaucer. Dan Chaucer, well of English undefiled. Spenser. A well of serious thought and pure. Keble.

r 1679, called Whigs. The terms Liberal and Radical have now generally superseded Whig in English politics. See the note under Tory.

The English bilberry; -- so called because it grows on moors among the whins, or furze. Dr. Prior.

of wash bottle with two or three necks; -- so called after the inventor, Peter Woulfe, an English chemist.

stab, rent, or the like. Chaucer. Showers of blood Rained from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen. Shak.

A follower of Wyclif, the English reformer; a Lollard.

One of the runes adopted into the Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, alphabet. It had the value of modern English w, and was replaced from about a. d. 1280 at first by uu, later by w.

X, the twenty-fourth letter of the English alphabet, has three sounds; a compound nonvocal sound (that of ks), as in wax; a compound vocal sound (that of gz), as in example; and, at the beginning of a word, a simple vocal sound (that of z), as in xanthic. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 217, 270, 271.…

Y, the twenty-fifth letter of the English alphabet, at the beginning of a word or syllable, except when a prefix (see Y-), is usually a fricative vocal consonant; as a prefix, and usually in the middle or at the end of a syllable, it is a vowel. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 145, 178-9, 272.

ning, originally used with verbs, adverbs, adjectives, nouns, and pronouns. In the Middle English period, it was little employed except with verbs, being chiefly used with past participles, though occasionally with the infinitive Ycleped, or yclept, is perhaps the only word not entirely obsolete which shows this use. T…

A measure of length, equaling three feet, or thirty-six inches, being the standard of English and American measure.

account, and distribution of the stores. Yeoman of the guard, one of the bodyguard of the English sovereign, consisting of the hundred yeomen, armed with partisans, and habited in the costume of the sixteenth century. They are members of the royal household.

in; a mate; a fellow; especially, a partner in marriage. Phil. iv. 3. The two languages [English and French] became yokefellows in a still more intimate manner. Earle. Those who have most distinguished themselves by railing at the sex, very often choose one of the most worthless for a companion and yokefellow. Addison…