comes from
_hlaefdige_--_dig_ being the Old English word for _knead_.

The common word _maul_ may mean to beat and bruise a person, but it
means more often merely to handle something carelessly and roughly.
Literally it means "to hit with a hammer," and comes from _maul_ or
_mall_, the name of a certain very heavy kind of hammer; so that when
a child is told not to "maul" a book, it is literally being told not
to hit it with a heavy hammer.

We have made many metaphorical words from joining together two Latin
words and making a new meaning. We speak of a person having an
"obsession" about something when he is always thinking of one thing.
But the word _obsession_ comes from the Latin word _obsidere_, "to
besiege;" and so in the word _obsession_ the constant thought is
pictured as continually trying to gain entrance into the mind. We use
the word _besiege_ in the same metaphorical sense. We speak of being
"besieged" with questions, and so on.

Another word used now most often metaphorically comes also from this
idea of siege warfare. In all fortified places there are holes at
intervals along the walls of defence, through which the defenders may
shoot at the attackers. These are called "loop-holes." This word is
now used much oftener in a figurative sense than to describe the
actual thing. When two persons are arguing and one has plainly shown
the other to be wrong, we say he has "not a loophole" of escape from
the other's reasoning. Or if a person objects very much to doing
something, and makes many excuses, every one of which is shown to be
worthless, we again say he has "no loophole for escape."

Every child has heard of the Crusades, in which the nobles and knights
and soldiers of the Middle Ages went to fight against the Turks to win
back the Holy Sepulchre. These wars were called "crusades," from the
cross which the Crusaders wore as badges. The word was made from the
Latin word _crux_, which means "cross." But _crusade_ has now become a
general word. We speak of a "temperance crusade," of a "peace
crusade," and so on. The word has come to have the general meaning of
efforts made by people for something which they believe to be good;
but literally every person who works for such a "crusade" is a knight
buckling on his armour, signed with the cross, and sallying forth to
the East.

This word _sally_ also comes from siege warfare. A "sally" means a
rush of defenders from a besieged place, attempting to get past