| 释义 |
† ˈway-bit north. Obs.
Forms: 6 waybitte, wye byt, 6–7 wey-, 7 wea-, 7–8 wee-, (9 wai-), 7– way-bit.
[First element uncertain, but prob. representing northern dialectal variants of wee n.1 and a. + bit n.2]
A short distance.
As shown by the quotations, the source of the word was the alleged habit of Northern rustics, on being asked the distance to a place, of giving it as ‘a mile (etc.) and a way-bit’, which the inquiring traveller found practically to mean two or three miles.
1589Almond for Parrat 2 If..my full points seeme as tedious to thy puritane perusers, as the Northren mans mile, and a waybitte to the weary passenger. 1600Wisd. Dr. Dodypoll iv. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 139 How far am I from Court? Some two myles and a wye byt, sir. 1603T. M. True Narr. Entert. H.M. C 3 b, The miles according to the Northren phrase, are a wey-bit longer then they be here in the South. c1645Howell Lett. (1655) IV. xxviii. 67 In the North parts where there is a wea bit to evry mile. 1651J. C[leveland] Poems, Dial. Two Zealots 52 A York-shire Wea-bit, longer then a mile. a1661Fuller Worthies, Yorks. (1662) 190 Ask a Country-man here on the high-way, how far it is to such a Town, and they commonly return, So many miles and a way-bit... It is not Way-bit, though generally so pronounced, but Wee-bit is a pure Yorkshirisme, which is a small bit in the Northern Language. Ibid. 225 Generall Leslie with his Scottish ran away more then an York-shire mile, and a Wee-bit. 1775J. Watson Hist. Halifax 548 Way-bit. As a mile and a way-bit. Meaning a wee, or little bit. 1834Medwin Angler in Wales I. 255 You shall have his description of it, preface and all—which is like the mile and the wai bit, in Sussex, the one twice the length of the other.
fig.a1670Hacket Abp. Williams i. (1692) 59, I have heard him prefer divers, and very seriously, before himself, who came short a Mile and a way-bit. 1692Poems in Burlesque 15 From Sleep to Death, there's but a way-bit.
b. transf. of time.
1687Settle Refl. Dryden's Plays 51 In his anno ætatis, thirty and a Way-bit. 1732Lady B. Germain Let. to Swift 13 May, You will find forty years and a wee bit have done no more good to my head than it has to my face. |