Pity, kind gentle folks, friends of humanity, (Wash.) Evening Star, Feb. 4, 1857. I. I DAD! An exclamation used in the Western States. "I dad! if I did n't snatch up Ruff and kiss him." Here the emotion of the old man made a pause. - Carlton, The New Purchase, Vol. I. p. 179. ILK. In Scotland and the North of England it signifies the same; as, "Mackintosh of that ilk" denotes a gentleman whose surname and the title of his estate are the same; as "Mackintosh of Mackintosh.". Worcester. By a curious perversion, political newspaper writers in America often use the phrase "of that ilk," in the sense of "of that sort, stamp, class." Thus the Baltimore Sun of the 15th of May, 1854, says: "The Journal of Commerce and the True Democrat both denounce in advance the meeting called in the New York Park, Saturday afternoon [to censure Senator Douglas's Nebraska Bill], as a thorough abolition demonstration in proof of which the names of John Van Buren, Benjamin F. Butler, and others of that ilk, that were promised to speak, are referred to. ILL. Vicious. This strange application of the word is common in Texas; as, "Is your dog ill?" meaning, is he vicious. Olmsted's Texas, p. 78. ILLY. A word used by writers of an inferior class, who do not seem to perceive that ill is itself an adverb, without the termination ly. The late Dr. Messer, President of Brown University, on seeing this word in a composition submitted to his critical inspection, asked of the student who presented it, "Why don't you say welly?" Distressed as my mind is, and has been by a variety of attentions; I am illy able by letter to give you the satisfaction I could wish on the subjects of your letter. – Letter of Richard H. Lee to his Sister, 1778. "My good friend," said the man of gravity, "have you not undergone what they call hard times; been set upon and persecuted, and very illy entreated, by some of your fellow-creatures ?" - Putnam's Monthly, August, 1854. IMMEDIATELY, for as soon as. shot him." Ex. "The deer fell dead immediately they IMMIGRANT. A person that removes into a country for the purpose of a permanent residence. - Webster. IMMIGRATION. (Lat. immigratio.) The passing or removing into a country for the purpose of a permanent residence. - Webster. The immigrations of the Arabians into Europe, and the Crusades, produced numberless accounts, partly true and partly fabulous, of the wonders seen in Eastern countries. Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, Vol. I. Immigration has doubtless been a prolific source of multiplying words. - Hamilton, Nuga Literariæ, p. 381. Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, observes that this word, as well as immigrant and the verb to immigrate, were first used in this country by Dr. Belknap, in his History of New Hampshire, who gives his reasons for their use. Immigrant is original with Dr. B.; but the others have long been used by good English authors, though of course less frequently than by American writers, who have more need of them. TO IMPROVE. 1. To render more valuable by additions, as houses, barns, or fences on a farm. Thus we frequently see advertisements of a piece of ground improved by a dwelling and out-houses. Where lands lye in common unfenced, if one man shall improve his land by fencing in several, and another shall not, he who shall improve shall secure his lands against other men's cattle. - Mass. Colony Laws, 1642. 2. To occupy; to make use of, employ. Thus some persons speak of an "improved" or an "unimproved" house, meaning one occupied or unoccupied. "This word," says Mr. Pickering, "in the first sense, is in constant use in all parts of New England; but in the second sense (when applied to persons, as in the following example), it is not so common." In action of trespass against several defendants, the plaintiffs may, after issue is closed, strike out any of them for the purpose of improving them as witnesses. Swift's System of the Colony Laws of Connecticut, Vol. II. p. 238. In a petition from a Baptist society in the town of Newport, R. I., in 1783, for relief, they say: Our meeting-house has been improved as a hospital by the English and afterwards by the French army, and so much injured as not to admit of being repaired. — Acts of Assembly, Rhode Island, June, 1783. Dr. Franklin, in a letter to Dr. Webster, dated Dec. 26th, 1789, has the following remarks: "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." Ann Cole, a person of serious piety, living in Hartford, in 1662, was taken with very strange fits, whereon her tongue was improved by a demon, to express things unknown to herself. - Cotton Mather, Magnalia, Book VI. IMPROVEMENT. The part of a discourse intended to enforce and apply the doctrines is called the improvement. - Webster. Mr. Pickering has shown that the word is used also by Scottish writers. The conclusion is termed, somewhat inaccurately, making an improvement of the whole. The author, we presume, means, deducing from the whole what may contribute to the general improvement. — British Critic, Vol. I. p. 379. IMPROVEMENTS. Valuable additions or ameliorations; as buildings, clearings, drains, fences on a farm. — Webster. IN, for into. Mr. Coleman, in remarking upon the prevalence of this inaccuracy in New York, says: "We get in the stage, and have the rheumatism into our knees."— N. Y. Evening Post, Jan. 6, 1814. An observing English friend at Philadelphia also speaks of its frequent use there in the following terms: "The preposition into is almost unknown here. They say,When did you come in town?' 'I met him riding in town.'"-Pickering. INAUGURAL. The address of a public officer on his inauguration into office; an inaugural address. Ex. "Have you read the President's inaugural?" INCA. (Kechua.) The title of a king or prince of Peru, before its conquest by the Spaniards. A INDEBTEDNESS. The state of being indebted. Chancellor Kent. modern word, reputed of American origin; not often used by English writers, yet it is found in the recent English dictionaries of Knowles and Smart.Worcester. INDEPENDENCE DAY. The fourth day of July, the day on which the Congress of the United States renounced their subjection to Great Britain, and declared their independence. INDEPENDENT FORTUNE. A fortune which renders one independent; as, “Mr. Girard, by his industry and ability, accumulated an independent fortune." INDIAN BED. An Indian bed of clams is made by setting a number of clams together on the ground with the hinge uppermost, and then kindling over them a fire of brushwood, which is kept burning till they are thoroughly roasted. This is the best way of roasting clams, and is often practised by picnic parties. See Clambake. INDIAN BREAD. Bread or cake made of the meal of Indian corn or maize; also called Johnny cake. If I don't make a johnny cake every day, Rier says, "Ma, why don't you make some Indian bread?"-Widow Bedott Papers, p. 70. INDIAN CORN. Maize; so called because cultivated by the aborigines. INDIAN CORN-HILLS. A term given to hillocks covering broad fields near the ancient mounds and earthworks of Ohio, Wisconsin, etc. They are without order or arrangement, being scattered over the surface with the utmost irregularity. That these mammillary elevations were formed in the manner indicated by their name, is inferred from the present custom of the Indians. The corn is planted in the same spot each successive year, and the soil is gradually brought up to the size of a little hill by the annual additions. - Lapham's Antiquities of Wisconsin, Smithsonian Contributions. These antique corn-hills were unusually large, and were, as the Iroquois informed me, three or four times the diameter of modern hills, a size which resulted from the want of a plough. — Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, Vol. I. p. 57. INDIAN CURRANT. See Coral Berry. INDIAN FIG. The fruit of a gigantic plant (Cereus giganteus) of the Cactus family, known among the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona as the Pitahaya, the fruit of which resembles the fig in taste. Bartlett's Pers. Narrative, Vol. II. p. 189. INDIAN FILE. Single file; the usual way in which the Indians traverse the woods or march to battle, one following after and treading in the footsteps of the other. Magua arose and gave the signal to proceed, marching himself in advance. They followed their leader singly, and in that well-known order which has obtained the distinguishing appellation of Indian file. — Cooper, Last of the Mohicans. INDIAN GIFT. A term proverbially applied to any thing reclaimed after being given. INDIAN GIVER. When an Indian gives any thing, he expects to receive an equivalent, or to have his gift returned. This term is applied by children to a child who, after having given away a thing, wishes to have it back again. INDIAN HEMP. (Apocynum cannabinum.) A medicinal plant. INDIAN LADDER. A ladder made of a small tree by trimming it so as to leave only a few inches of each branch as a support for the foot. South ern. Having provided ourselves with a long snagged sapling, called an Indian ladder, we descended safely to the bottom of the grotto. Bartram's Florida, p. 247. INDIAN LIQUOR. Whiskey adulterated for sale to the Indians. A citizen of St. Paul furnishes some pretty hard papers on his fellow sinners who trade with the North-Western Indians. He says a barrel of the "pure Cincinnati," even after it has run the gauntlet of railroad and lake travel, is a sufficient basis upon which to manufacture one hundred barrels of "good Indian liquor!" He says a small bucketful of the Cincinnati article is poured into a wash-tub almost full of rain water; a large quantity of "dog-leg" tobacco and red pepper is then thrown into the tub; a bitter species of root, common in "the land of the Dakota," is then cut up and added; burnt sugar or some such article is used to restore something like the original color of the whiskey. The compound has to be kept on hand a few days before it is fit for use. It is then administered to the aborigines ad libitum. Nat. Intelligencer, July 10, 1858. INDIAN MEAL. Meal made from Indian corn. A mixture of the flour of wheat and maize is called wheat and Indian. INDIAN ORCHARD. An old orchard of ungrafted apple-trees, the time of planting being unknown. New York. INDIAN PEACHES. Ungrafted peach-trees, which are considered to be more thrifty and to bear larger fruit than the others. INDIAN PHYSIC. See Bowman's Root. INDIAN PIPE. See Wax Plant. INDIAN PUDDING. A pudding, the chief ingredients of which are Indian meal and molasses. As to grandmother's Indian puddings Goodrich's Reminiscences, Vol. I. p. 371. alas! I shall never see their like again. — INDIAN RESERVATION or RESERVE. A tract of land reserved for the use of Indians. INDIAN SIGN. Signs of the recent presence of Indians in the wilderness. See Sign. INDIAN SUMMER. A writer in the National Intelligencer for November 26, 1857, has the following remarks on this topic:- "The short season of pleasant weather usually occurring about the middle of November, is called the Indian Summer, from the custom of the Indians to avail themselves of this delightful time for harvesting their corn; and the tradition is that they were accustomed to say 'they always had a second summer of nine days just before the winter set in.' It is a bland and genial time, in which the birds, insects, and plants feel a new creation, and sport a short-lived summer ere they shrink finally from the rigor of the winter's blast. The sky in the mean time is generally filled with a haze of orange and gold intercepting the direct rays of the sun, yet possessing enough of light and heat to prevent sensations of gloom or chill, while the nights grow sharp and frosty, and the necessary fires give cheerful forecast of the social winter evenings near at hand. "This season is synonymous with the Summer of St. Martin' of Europe, which derives its name from the festival of St. Martin, held on the 11th of November. Shakspeare alludes to it in the first part of Henry IV.: |