TO GO UNDER. "To perish. An expression adopted from the figurative language of the Indians by the Western trappers and residents of the prairies." Not the first time that the Indians have had undue credit for poetry. The phrase is undoubtedly a translation of the German _untergehen_ (fig.), to perish.
HAT. "Our Northern women have almost discarded the word _bonnet_, except in _sun-bonnet_, and use the term _hat_ instead. A like fate has befallen the word _gown_, for which both they and their Southern sisters commonly use _frock_ or _dress_." We do not know where Mr. Bartlett draws his Northern line; but in Massachusetts we never heard the word _hat_ or _frock_ used in this sense. They are so used in England, and _hat_ is certainly, _frock_ probably, nearer Anglo-Saxon than _bonnet_ and _gown_.
IMPROVE. Mr. Bartlett quotes Dr. Franklin as saying in 1789, "When I left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among us, as far as I know, but in the sense of _ameliorated_ or _made better_, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled _Remarkable Providences_." Dr. Increase Mather's _Providences_ was published in 1684. In 1679 a synod assembled at Boston, and the result of its labors was published in the same year by John Foster, under the title, _Necessity of a Reformation_. On the sixth page we find, "Taverns being for the entertainment of strangers, which, if they were _improved_ to that end only," etc. Oddly enough, our copy of this tract has Dr. Mather's autograph on the title-page. But Mr. Bartlett should have referred to Richardson, who shows that the word had been in use long before with the same meaning.
To INHEAVEN. "A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists." And Mr. Bartlett quotes from Judd's _Margaret_. Mr. Judd was a good scholar, and the word is legitimately compounded, like _ensphere_ and _imparadise_; but he did not invent it. Dante uses the word:--
"Perfetta vita ed alto merto _inciela_ Donna piú su."
LADIES' TRESSES. "The popular name, in the Southern States, for an herb," etc. In the Northern States also. Sometimes _Ladies' Traces_.
LIEFER. "A colloquialism, also used in England." Excellent Anglo-Saxon, and used wherever English is spoken.