From Co Down I was sent recently a word by an old friend, Drew Hamilton, who is, like myself, interested in Robert Burns. Drew knows what Burns meant by the word hooly in his poem to J. Smith written in 1795: "But still the mair I'm that way bent/ Something cries Hooly." The word means slowly, carefully, cautiously, gently, and it is often found in Scots literature in the phrase hooly and fair, which means slowly and gently.
Hampole, in his translation of the 39th Psalm (c.1330), has "My God cum not holy" for the Vulgate's ne tardaveris. Douglas in his 1513 Eneados has "Huly and fair on the cost I swam"; later this phrase became proverbial. Ray's 1678 Proverbs has "Hulie and fair men rides far journeys", and Kelly's Scots proverbs of 1721 has "Hooly and fair goes far in a day".
And, bedad, the phrase has reached our shores. Mr Hamilton heard a father say it to his little daughter at a pony show: "Hooly and fair now, lass. Take it nice and easy."
Where does hooly come from? is Mr Hamilton's question. From Middle English holy, a word of Norse origin. Vigfusson's great dictionary suggests the Old Norse adverb hogliga, gently, calmly; the old Vikings also had the adjective hogligr, easy, gentle.
From my own part of the country came a letter from an old school friend who doesn't want to be named. He wants to know the origin of the Wexford word merl, sometimes heard as mirl, and used in phrases such as "He doesn't have a merl", which means he hasn't a tosser, a penny, to his name. This word I have also heard across the water in Kilkenny and on the banks of the Barrow in south Carlow. Moylan has it in his The English of Kilkenny and I'm grateful to him for the etymology. Glossed by the New English Dictionary as "token coin or counter", the word comes from the Old French merel; the modern French is mereau.
Anne Boyle, who writes frequently from Inishowen in Donegal, sent me the word freath, or freith, which to her means sudsy or soapy water. The word is also used for a slight washing. H.C. Hart collected it as such in Fanad: "I'll gie it a freith mysel": I'll not let it go to the wash. The word came from Scotland but it has a Teutonic origin. Compare the Old English freothan, to froth.