bial. So
also _mushroom_, Fr. _mousseron_, from _mousse_, moss.

Vulgar Lat. _circare_ (from _circa_, around) gave Old Fr. _cerchier_,
Eng. _search_. In modern Fr. _chercher_ the initial consonant has been
influenced by the medial _ch_. The _m_ of the curious word _ampersand_,
variously spelt, is due to the neighbouring _p_. It is applied to the
sign &. I thought it obsolete till I came across it on successive days
in two contemporary writers--

"One of my mother's chief cares was to teach me my letters, which I
learnt from big A to _Ampersand_ in the old hornbook at Lantrig."
(QUILLER-COUCH, _Dead Man's Rock_, Ch. 2.)

"Tommy knew all about the work. Knew every letter in it from A to
_Emperzan_."
(PETT RIDGE, _In the Wars_.)

Children used to repeat the alphabet thus--"A per se A, B per se B," and
so on to "_and per se and_." The symbol & is an abbreviation of Lat.
_et_, written _&_.

[Page Heading: DISSIMILATION]

Dissimilation is the opposite process. The archaic word _pomander_--

"I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a riband,
glass, _pomander_, brooch, ... to keep my pack from fasting."
(_Winter's Tale_, iv. 3.)

was formerly spelt _pomeamber_. It comes from Old Fr. _pome ambre_,
apple of amber, a ball of perfume once carried by the delicate. In this
case one of the two lip consonants has been dissimilated. A like change
has occurred in Fr. _nappe_, cloth, from Lat. _mappa_, whence our
_napkin_, _apron_ (p. 113), and the family name _Napier_.

The sounds most frequently affected by dissimilation are those
represented by the letters _l_, _n_, and _r_. Fr. _gonfalon_ is for
older _gonfanon_. Chaucer uses the older form, Milton the newer--

"Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanc'd,
Standards and _gonfalons_, 'twixt van and rear,
Stream in the air."
(_Paradise Lost_, v. 589.)

_Gonfanon_ is of Germanic origin. It means literally "battle-flag," and
the second element is cognate with English _fane_ or _vane_ (Ger.
_Fahne_). Eng. _pilgrim_ and Fr. _pelerin_, from Lat. _peregrinus_,
illustrate the change from _r_ to _l_, while the word _frail_, an osier
basket for figs, is due to a change from _l_ to _r_, which goes back to
Roman times. A grammarian of imperial Rome named Probus compiled, abou