word without the diminutive ending.
Another Old French word, once common in English, but now found only in
dialect, is _felon_, a whitlow. It is used more than once by Mr Hardy--

"I've been visiting to Bath because I had a _felon_ on my thumb."
(_Far from the Madding Crowd_, Ch. 33.)

This is still an every-day word in Canada and the United States. It is a
metaphorical use of _felon_, a fell villain. A whitlow was called in
Latin _furunculus_, "a little theefe; a sore in the bodie called a
_fellon_" (Cooper), whence Fr. _furoncle_, or _froncle_, "the hot and
hard bumpe, or swelling, tearmed, a _fellon_" (Cotgrave). Another Latin
name for it was _tagax_, "a _felon_ on a man's finger" (Cooper), lit.
thievish. One of its Spanish names is _padrastro_, lit. step-father. I
am told that an "agnail" was formerly called a "step-mother" in
Yorkshire. This is a good example of the semantic method in etymology
(see pp. 99-104).

[Page Heading: PORTUGUESE WORDS]

Some of the above instances show how near to home we can often track a
word which at first sight appears to belong to another continent. This
is still more strikingly exemplified in the case of Portuguese words,
which have an almost uncanny way of pretending to be African or Indian.
Some readers will, I think, be surprised to hear that _assegai_ occurs
in Chaucer, though in a form not easily recognisable. It is a Berber
word which passed through Spanish and Portuguese into French and
English. We find Fr. _archegaie_ in the 14th century, _azagaie_ in
Rabelais, and the modern form _zagaie_ in Cotgrave, who describes it as
"a fashion of slender, long, and long-headed pike, used by the Moorish
horsemen." In Mid. English _l'archegaie_ was corrupted by folk-etymology
(see p. 115) into _lancegay_, _launcegay_, the form used by Chaucer--

"He worth upon his stede gray,
And in his hond a _launcegay_,
A long swerd by his syde."
(_Sir Thopas_, l. 40.)

The use of this weapon was prohibited by statute in 1406, hence the
early disappearance of the word.

Another "Zulu" word which has travelled a long way is _kraal_. This is a
contracted Dutch form from Port. _curral_, a sheepfold (_cf._ Span.
_corral_, a pen, enclosure). Both _assegai_ and _kraal_ were taken to
South East Africa by the Portuguese and then adopted by the Boers and
Kafirs.[22] _Sjambok_ occurs in 17th-century account