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Yethhounds n.: A pack of phantom hounds pursuing a lady. From old English folklore. Yeth comes from heath. Also called wishhounds. Wisely is it said that the English have a word for everything. How this particular one first came into existence is a mystery to the author, even allowing for the penchat of the English for specialist hunting dogs. There appears to be no equivalent term for a pack of phantom hounds pursuing a gentleman.
Can our fine minds find the missing term?
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¹ Note: that particular dictionary-source is great fun, but should be taken with a grain of salt, for it is not scrupulously accurate.
See e.g. the recent post on xanthodontous; so too, that source's definition for barmecide is well beyond that of the more-recognized dictionaries.
Edit: "yethhounds" ... I'd bet there are very few words with a double-h.
http://www.geocities.com/jenks436/cwnannwn.html
GT
enjoying the youthful simplicity which could speak with so much
exultation of Mrs. Martin's having "two parlours, two very good parlours,
indeed; one of them quite as large as Mrs. Goddard's drawing-room;
and of her having an upper maid who had lived five-and-twenty years
with her; and of their having eight cows, two of them Alderneys,
and one a little Welch cow, a very pretty little Welch cow indeed;
So, at least in Jane's day, Welch was a legitimate spelling for the word meaning from Wales.
Bingley
Bingley
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