Notes and Queries, Number 72, March 15, 1851, page 9 by Various Authors
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INCIALISMS.
To burl, burling; to shunt, &c.--In the report of the evidence regarding the death of Mrs. Hathway, at Chipping Sodbury, supposed to have been poisoned by her husband, the following dialectical expression occurs, which may deserve notice. One of the witnesses stated that he was invited by Mr. Hathway to go with him into a beer-house in Frampton Cotterell, "and have a tip," but he declined.
"Mr. H. went in and called for a quart of beer, and then came out again, and I went in. He told me 'to burl out the beer, as he was in a hurry;' and I 'burled' out a glass and gave it to him."--Times, Feb. 28.
I am not aware that the use of this verb, as a provincialism, has been noticed; it is not so given by Boucher, Holloway, or Halliwell. In the Cumberland dialect, a birler, or burler, is the master of the revels, who presides over the feast at a Cumberland bidden-wedding, and takes especial care that the drink be plentifully provided. (Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects, London, 1839.)
Boucher and Jamieson have collected much regarding the obsolete use of the verb to birle, to carouse, to pour out liquor. See also Mr. Dyce's notes on Elynour Rummyng, v. 269. (Skelton's Works, vol. ii. p. 167.). It is a good old Anglo-Saxon word--byrlian, propinare, haurire. In the Wycliffite versions it occurs repeatedly, signifying to give to drink. See the Glossary to the valuable edition lately completed by Sir F. Madden and Mr. Forshall.
In the Promptorium Parvulorum, vol i. p. 51., we find--
"Bryllare of drynke, or schenkare: Bryllyn, or schenk drynke, propino: Bryllynge of drynke," &c.
Whilst on the subject of dialectical expressions, I would mention an obsolete term which has by some singular chance recently been revived, and is actually in daily use throughout England in the railway vocabulary--I mean the verb "to shunt." Nothing is more common than