as the commoner forms, and in the Paston letters it is _theyve_, which
perhaps confirms _thaive_, rhymed here with 'rave'. Certainly it is most
advisable to avoid _thieves_, the plural of thief, although _O.E.D._
allows this pronunciation and indeed puts it first of the alternatives.

19. 'On the pathway side ... the glintering flint'. (32)

_O.E.D_. gives #glinter# as a 'rare' word. We have _glinting,
glistening, glittering_, and _glistering_, and Scotch _glisting_.

20. 'The wind tangs through the shattered pane'. (34)


Echo-words, like ting-tang, ding-dong, &c., must have their liberty; but
of #tang# it should be noted that, though the verb may raise no
inconvenience, yet the substantive has a very old and well-established
use in the sense of a projecting point or barb (especially of metal), or
sting, and that this demands respect and recognition. It is something
less than prong, and is the proper word for the metal point that fixes
the strap of a buckle. The homophonic ambiguity is notorious in
Shakespeare's

'She had a tongue with a tang',


where, as the _O.E.D._ suggests, the double sense of sting and ring were
perhaps intended.

21. 'The grutching pixies hedge me round'. (37)