Word: mizzenmast
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Dates: during 1894-1894
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...Chouse, in the sense of to cheat, carries us back to the days of James First, when an impostor palmed himself off upon the people of London as a Turkish ambassador, or Chiaus. That the English learned some of their seamanship from the Italians is plain from the word mizzenmast (la mezzana), and the order avast! from basta! That the English taught the Italians to build railroads the traveller is informed when he hears il treno in Tuscany, and reads the word waggons in Naples,- i waggons-della prima classe. In the same way the word