his thirst by scooping some dirty water from a pond.
Deliquium. Deliquescence; as when salt of tartar was resolved into "oil of tartar" by mere exposure to the air. This was called "deliquium per se."
Despumation. The removal of the froth from boiling honey or syrup.
Dia in the "Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman" written by Langland in 1377 occur the lines:
Lyf leuede that lechecraft lette shulde elde
And dryuen away deth with dyas and dragges.
Translated into modern English these lines would read "Life believed that leechcraft should let (hinder) age, and drive away death with dyas and dragges." The dyas and dragges were evidently the means which leechcraft employed. At that time and for long afterwards a large number of compounded medicines bore titles with the prefix dia-. Diachylon, diagrydium, diabolanum diakodion, diasulphuris are examples of scores. Dia was the Greek preposition, meaning through or from, which appears in a multitude of English words. In medicine it always implies a compound, and in old English it is occasionally found alone as in the instance quoted from "Piers Plowman." Another given in the Historical English Dictionary is from Lydgate (1430) "Drug nor dya was none in Bury towne."[1] In combination a few survivals remain in the language
- ↑ John Lydgate, a monk of Bury, born 1370, left some amusing poems, very valuable on account of the insight they give into the customs of his period. One of them is an application to the Duke of Gloucester for money. Lydgate says he is dressed in black "'cause my purs was falle in grete rerage"; while his "guttes were out shake, Only for lak of plate and coyngnage." So he "sought lechis for a restauratif, In whom I fonde no consolacione, To a poticary for confortatyf, Drugge nor dya was none in Bury towne."
