kelpie, Sc., a water-spirit; kibe, gen., a chilblain; linn, N., a pool; loch, N., lough, Irish, a lake; metheglin, M., S., beer made from honey; omadhaun, Irish, a simpleton; pose, gen. (but perhaps obsolete), a catarrh; rapparee, Sc., Irish, a vagabond; shillelagh, Irish, a cudgel; skain, skean, Sc., Irish, a knife, dagger; sowens, sowans, Sc., a dish made from oatmeal-husks steeped in water (from Gael, s{`u}ghan, the juice of sowens); spalpeen, Irish, a rascal; spleuchan, Sc., Irish, a pouch, a purse; strath, N., a valley; strathspey, Sc., a dance, named from the valley of the river Spey; tocher, N., a dowry; usquebaugh, Sc., Irish, whiskey; wheal, Cornish, a mine.

Latin is a language from which English has borrowed words in every century since the year 600.  In my Principles of English Etymology, First Series, Chap.  XXI, I give a list of Latin words imported into English before the Norman Conquest.  Several of these must be familiar in our dialects; we can hardly suppose that country people do not know the meaning of ark, beet, box, candle, chalk, cheese, cook, coulter, cup, fennel, fever, font, fork, inch, kettle, kiln, kitchen, and the like.  Indeed, ark is quite a favourite word in the North for a large wooden chest, used for many purposes; and Kersey explains it as “a country word for a large chest to put fruit or corn in.” Candle is so common that it is frequently reduced to cannel; and it has given its name to “cannel coal.”  Every countryman is expected to be able to distinguish “between chalk and cheese.” Coulter appears in ten dialect forms, and one of the most familiar agricultural implements is a pitch-fork.  The influence of Latin requires no further illustration.

I also give a list of early words of Greek origin; some of which are likewise in familiar use.  I may instance alms, angel, bishop, butter, capon, chest, church, clerk, copper, devil, dish, hemp, imp, martyr, paper (ultimately of Egyptian origin), plaster, plum, priest, rose, sack, school, silk, treacle, trout.  Of course the poor old woman who says she is “a martyr to tooth-ache” is quite unconscious that she is talking Greek.  Probably she is not without some smattering of Persian, and knows the sense of lilac, myrtle, orange, peach, and rice; of Sanskrit, whence pepper and sugar-candy; of Arabic, whence coffee, cotton, jar, mattress, senna, and sofa; and she will know enough Hebrew, partly from her Bible, to be quite familiar with a large number of biblical names, such as Adam and Abraham and Isaac, and very many more, not forgetting the very common John, Joseph, Matthew, and Thomas, and the still more familiar Jack and Jockey; and even with a few words of Hebrew origin, such as alleluia, balm, bedlam, camel, cider, and sabbath.  The discovery of the New World has further familiarised us all with chocolate and tomato, which are Mexican; and with potato, which is probably old Caribbean.  These facts have to be borne in mind when it is too rashly laid down that words in English dialects are of English origin.