The Brogue (Irish and Gaelic brog) is a light shoe formed of one piece of hide or half-tanned leather, gathered round the ankle, which was formerly much in use among the native Irish and the Scottish Highlanders, and of which there were different varieties. Whence comes the term brogue signifying the peculiar pronounciation of English that distinguishes natives of Ireland.

An allegory is a "prolonged metaphor" or figurative representation conveying some moral or teaching. Of very early origin it is especially common among the Oriental people. It is of frequent occurrence in the Bible. In English literature there are many fine examples, among the most familiar of which are Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and Spenser's "Faerie Queen." The latter is a double allegory.

Among the puzzle-pastimes based on the alphabet a logogram is simply a complicated or multiplied form of the anagram, where the puzzle-monger, instead of contenting himself with the formation of a single new word or sentence out of the old by the transposition of the letters, racks his brain to discover all the words that may be extracted from the whole or from any portion of the letters, and throws the whole into a series of verses in which synonymic expressions for these words must be used.

Sanscrit is one of the Indo-European group of languages, intimately connected with the Persian, Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Slavonian and Celtic languages. It is the classical language of the Hindus, and the parent of all the modern Aryan languages of India. It ceased to be a spoken language about the second century B. C. Sanscrit literature, which extends back to at least 1,500 B. C. and is very voluminous, was introduced to the western world by Sir Wm. Jones, who founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784.

Our familiar and valuable friends, the letters of the common alphabet, are said to have originated in the hieroglyphic symbols of Egypt, legendarily ascribed to Memnon, 1822 B. C. From the Egyptians and Assyrians the Phoenicians introduced the chief letters of the present alphabet. Cadmus is traditionally stated (149 B. C.) to have brought into Greece the Phoenician letters which ultimately became the basis of the present alphabet. The number of letters composing the alphabet varies among different nations. The true theory of an alphabet requires a single sign to represent each single sound.

When the Ephraimites, after their defeat by Jephthah, tried to pass the Jordan, a guard stationed on the banks of the river tested everyone who came to the ford by asking him to pronounce the word "Shibboleth" which the men of Ephraim called sibboleth. Everyone who said "sibbo-leth" was immediately cut down by the guard, and there fell in one day, 42,000 Ephraimites (Judges xii: 1-6). Hence arises the present meaning of the word as the test, criterion or watchword of a party.

To "speak for bunkum" is a common expression indicating bombast or mere show. The phrase no doubt owes it origin to the perseverance of an old mountainer, Felix Walter by name, representative in Congress from North Carolina, in whose district was the county of Buncombe. It was at the close of the famous debate on the Missouri Compromise. Mr. Walker rose to speak. The House was impatient and frequent calls for the "Question" were heard. Mr. Walker insisted, saying that he was bound to "speak for Bumcombe."

The sixteen Greek letters, said to have been introduced into Thebes (in Boeotia) by Cadmus, son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, are called the Cadmean letters. The letters are a, b, g, d, e, i, k, 1, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u. These letters were subsequently increased by eight Ionic letters, z, e, th, x, ph, eh, ch, ps, and 6. Simonieds of Cos is credited with the four letters th, z, ph, ch, and Epicharmos the Sicilian, with the four letters x, e, ps, o. The Ionians were the first to employ all the twenty-four letters, whence the eight added were called Ionic letters.

We use the term "bull" to describe a ridiculous blunder in speech implying a contradiction. Bulls in their best form are usually alleged to be an especial prerogative of Irishmen - at least it is certain that the best examples have come from Ireland. For instance, on a rustic Irishman being asked what a bull was he naively replied: "Whin ye see five cows lyin' down in a field the wan standin' up is a bull." The following sentence is also a good illustration: "All along the untrodden paths of the past we perceive the footprints of an unseen hand."

Critics employ the term Bathos to designate a ludicrous descent from the elevated to the commonplace in writing or speech, or a sinking below the ordinary level of thought in a ridiculous effort to aspire. It is of the essence of bathos that he who is guilty of it should be unconscious of his fall, and while groveling on the earth, should imagine that he is still cleaving the heavens. A good example of bathos is the well-known couplet: "And thou, Dalhousie, thou great god of war,

Lieutenant-general to the Earl of Mar!" or the well-known encomium of the celebrated Boyle: "Robert Boyle was a great man, a very great man; he was father of chemistry and brother to the Earl of Cork."

A dictionary is a book containing the words of a language alphabetically arranged, with their definitions and significations set forth more or less fully. It differs from a mere list or index, in that it contains explanations about each word included within its scope, except where it is more convenient, by a cross-reference, to refer the reader for a part or the whole of the account of one word to what is said under some other word. There are several other terms that are used synonymously, or nearly so, with dictionary. The Greek word "lexicon" is in common use for a dictionary of languages.