Hostname: page-component-754f97d4cd-pnwtx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-19T01:37:17.880Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How the ass became a donkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2008

Tony Fairman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An account of how and why a mysterious new word more or less replaced a once-universal predecessor

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , October 1994 , pp. 29 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Andrews, C. Bruyn, ed. 1934. The Torrington Diaries, 1781–1794. 4 vols. Eyre & Spottiswoode.Google Scholar
Anon. 1771. A New and Improved Spelling Dictionary. LOndonGoogle Scholar
Anon. 1797. A Vocabulary of such Words in the English Language as are of Dubious or Unsettled Accentuat. LOndonGoogle Scholar
Arnold, George. 1883. Robert Pocock. The Gravesend Historian. Naturalist, Antiquarian, Botanist, and Printer. London: Sampsom Low.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbault, Anna Laetitia. 1825. The Works of Anna Laetitia Barbault: with a memoir by Lucy Aikin. 2 vols. London.Google Scholar
Batchelor, THomas. 1809. An Orthoepical Analysis of the English Language. London.Google Scholar
Bereford, John. 1968. The Diary of a Country Parson. 5 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Bewick, Thomas. 1790. A General History of Quadrupeds. Newcastle upon Tyne.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, Robert. 1802. Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs. London: Vernor & Hood.Google Scholar
Bryant, Charles. 1769. A Key to Letters or a Complete Introduction to Spelling and Reading English. Norwich.Google Scholar
Chapman, R. W., ed. 1952 (2nd edn). Jane Austen’s Letters to her Sister Cassandra & Others. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, Christopher. 1687. The English Teacher. London. Richardson.Google Scholar
Corrie, J. M. c. 1916. “The Droving Days” in the South–Western District of Scotland. Dumfries: Maxwell.Google Scholar
De Selincourt, E., ed. 1941. The Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth. 2 vols. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Dobson, Eric J. 1968 (2nd edn). English Pronunciation. 1500–1700. 2 vols. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Elphinston, James. 1765. The Principles of the English Language. London.Google Scholar
Feldman, Paula & Diana-Scott, Kilvert eds. 1987 Journals of Mary Shelley 1814–1844. 2 vols. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grose, Francis. 1785. A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. London.Google Scholar
Heal, Ambrose. 1947. The Signboards of Old London Shops. Batsford.Google Scholar
Hogg, James. 1865. The Works of James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. Blackie.Google Scholar
Johnson, Samuel. 1755. Dictionary of the English Language. London: Strahan.Google Scholar
Judge, Roy. 1979. The Jack-in-the-Green: A May Day Custom. Cambridge: Brewer.Google Scholar
Kökeritz, Helge. 1944. Mather Flint on Early Eighteenth Century English Pronunciation. Uppsala: Almqvist & Winksells.Google Scholar
Liardet, Frederick 1839. State of the Peasantry in the County of Kent. London: Central Society of Education.Google Scholar
Linder, Leslie, ed. 1989: The Journal of Beatrix Potter, 1881–1897. Frederick Warne.Google Scholar
Long, Una. 1946–1949. The Chronicle of Jeremiah Goldswain: Albany Settler of 1820. 2 vols. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society.Google Scholar
Masters, John White. c. 1819–1821. Dick and Sal, or Jack and Joanses Fair. Faversham, England: Warren.Google Scholar
Moore, Thomas. 1819. The Works of Thomas Moore, Esq. 7 vols. Paris.Google Scholar
Murray, Lindley. 1795. English Grammar, adapted to the Different Classes of Learners. York: Wilson, Spence & Mawman.Google Scholar
Murray, Lindley. 1804. An English Spelling Book. York: Wilson, Spence & Mawman.Google Scholar
Nares, Robert. 1784. Elements of Ortheopy. London.Google Scholar
Pindar, Peter (John Wolcott). 1812. The Works of Peter Pindar Esq. 5 Vols. London.Google Scholar
Rhys, Ernest, ed. 1906: The Journal of the Reverend John Wesley. 4 vols. London: Dent.Google Scholar
Scott, Walter, 1815. Guy Mannering.Google Scholar
Smart, Benjamin. 1836. Walker Remodelled: A New Critical Pronouncing Dictionary. London.Google Scholar
Walker, John. 1791. A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language. London: Robinson.Google Scholar
Watts, Isaac. 1721. The Art of Reading and Writing English.Google Scholar