Chapter XIII

). Cosway, Cossey, is from causeway, Fr. chaussée; and Twitchers, Twitchell represent dialect words used of a narrow passage and connected with the Mid. English verb twiselen, to fork, or divide; Twiss must be of similar origin, for we find Robert del twysse in 1367. Cf. Birtwistle and Entwistle. With the above may be classed the west-country Shute, a narrow street; Vennell, a north-country word for alley, Fr. venelle, dim. of Lat. versa, vein; Wynd, a court, also a north-country word, probably from the verb wind, to twist; and the cognate Went, a passage--

"Thorugh a goter, by a prive wente."

(Troilus and Criseyde, iii. 788.)

WATER

Names derived from artificial watercourses are Channell, now replaced as a common noun by the learned form canal; Condy or Cundy, for the earlier Cunditt, conduit; Gott, cognate with gut, used in Yorkshire for the channel from a mill-dam, and in Lincolnshire for a water-drain on the coast; Lade, Leete, connected with the verb to lead; and sometimes Shore (