_Falstaff._ _Dowlas_, filthy _dowlas_; I have given them away to
bakers' wives, and they have made bolters of them.
(1 _Henry IV._, iii. 3.)

_Duffel_ is a place near Antwerp--

"And let it be of _duffil_ gray,
As warm a cloak as man can sell."
(WORDSWORTH, _Alice Fell_.)

and _Worstead_ is in Norfolk. Of other commodities _majolica_ comes from
_Majorca_, called in Spanish _Mallorca_, and in medieval Latin
_Majolica_; _bronze_ from _Brundusium_ (Brindisi), _delf_ from _Delft_,
the _magnet_ from _Magnesia_, the _shallot_, Fr. _echalote_, in Old
French also _escalogne_, whence archaic Eng. _scallion_, from _Ascalon_;
the _sardine_ from _Sardinia_. A _milliner_, formerly _milaner_, dealt
in goods from _Milan_. _Cravat_ dates from the Thirty Years' War, in
which the _Croats_, earlier _Cravats_, played a part. _Ermine_ is in
medieval Latin _mus Armenius_, Armenian mouse, but the name perhaps
comes, through Fr. _hermine_, from Old High Ger. _harmo_, weasel.
_Buncombe_, more usually _bunkum_, is the name of a county in North
Carolina. To make a speech "for Buncombe" means, in American politics,
to show your constituents that you are doing your best for your L400 a
year or its American equivalent. Cf. _Billingsgate_ and _Limehouse_.

The adjective _spruce_ was formerly _pruce_ and meant Prussia. Todd
quotes from Holinshed--

"Sir Edward Howard then admirall, and with him Sir Thomas Parre in
doubletts of crimsin velvett, etc., were apparelled after the
fashion of Prussia or _Spruce_."

Of similar origin are _spruce-leather_, _spruce-beer_, and the
_spruce-fir_, of which Evelyn says--

"Those from Prussia (which we call _spruce_) and Norway are the
best."

[Page Heading: BEZANT--MAZURKA]

Among coins the _bezant_ comes from _Byzantium_, the _florin_ from
_Florence_, and Shylock's _ducat_, chiefly a Venetian coin, from the
_ducato_ d'Apuglia, the Duchy of Apulia, where it was first coined in
the 12th century. The _dollar_ is the Low Ger. _daler_, for Ger.
_Taler_, originally called a _Joachimstaler_, from the silver-mine of
Joachimstal, "Joachim's dale," in Bohemia. Cotgrave registers a curious
Old French perversion _jocondale_, "a _daller_, a piece of money worth
about 3s. sterl." Some fruits may also be mentioned, _e.g._, the
_damson_ from _Damascus_, through Old Fr. _damaisine_, "a damascene