Chapter Well of Samaria to Wharton of W by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Brittany, Limousin, Aurergne, Servia, Wallachia, and White Russia. In the fifteenth century a council of theologians, convoked by the Emperor Sigismund, gravely decided that the loup-garou was a reality. It is somewhat curious that we say a “bug-bear,” and the French a “bug-wolf.” (“Wer-wolf” is Anglo-Saxon wer, a man, and wolf- a man in the semblance of a wolf. “Gar” of gar-ou is wer or war, a man; and “ou,” a corruption of orc, an ogre.)
    Ovid tells the story of Lycaon, King of Arcadia, turned into a wolf because he tested the divinity of Jupiter by serving up to him a “hash of human flesh.”
   Herodotus describes the Neuri as sorcerers, who had the power of assuming once a year the shape of wolves.
   Pliny relates that one of the family of Antaeus was chosen annually, by lot, to be transformed into a wolf, in which shape he continued for nine years.
   St. Patrick, we are told, converted Vereticus, King of Wales, into a wolf.

Wesleyan A follower of John Wesley (1703-1791), founder of the Wesleyan Methodists.

Wessex or West Saxon Kingdom, included Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Somerset, Surrey, Gloucestershire, and Bucks.

Westmoreland [Land of the West Moors ]. Geoffrey of Monmouth says (iv. 17) that Mar or Marius, son of Arviragus, one of the descendants of Brutus the Trojan wanderer, killed Rodric, a Pict, and set up a monument of his victory in a place which he called “Westmar-land,” and the chronicler adds that the “inscription of this stone remains to this day.” (Saxon, West-moring-land.)

Wet To have a wet. To have a drink.

Wet-bob and Dry-bob. At Eton a wet-bob is a boy who goes in for boating, but a dry-bob is one who goes in for cricket.

Wet Finger (With a), easily, directly. “D'un tour de main. ” The allusion is to the old custom of spinning, in which the spinner constantly wetted the fore-finger with the mouth.

“I can bring myself round with a wet finger.”- Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet, chap. xxiii. (and in many other places).

“The spirit being grieved and provoked. ... will not return again with a wet finger.”- Gouge: Whole Armour of God, p. 458 (1616).

“I can find
One with a wet finger that is stark blind.”
Trial of Love and Fortune (1598).
Flores. “Canst thou bring me thither?
Peasant. With a wet finger.”
Wisdom of Dr. Dodypoll (1600).

Wetherell (Elizabeth). A pseudonym adopted by Miss Susan Warner, an American writer, author of The Wide, Wide World, and other works.

Wexford Bridge Massacre In the great Irish Rebellion of 1798, May 25th, some 14,000 Irish insurgents attacked Wexford, defeated the garrison, put to death all those taken prisoners, and on the 30th frightened the town into a surrender. They treated the Protestants with the utmost barbarity, and, after taking Enniscorthy, encamped on Vinegar Hill (q.v.). When informed that Wexford was retaken by the English, the insurgents massacred about a thousand Protestant prisoners in cold blood.

Weyd-monat The Anglo-Saxon name for June, “because the beasts did then weyd in the meadow, that is to say, go and feed there.” (Verstegan.)

Whale Not a fish, but a cetaceous mammal.
   A group of whales is called a school.
   The fat is called blubber.
   The female is called a cow.
   The fore-limbs are called paddles.
   The male is called a bull-whale.
   The spear used in whale-flashing is called a harpoon.
   The young of whales is a cub or calf.
   TOOTHED-WHALES include sperm-whales and dolphins.
   WHALE-BONE WHALES include rorquals and humpbacks.