causey

causey

See also: Causey

English

Alternative forms

• cauchie

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman caucie, chaucee et al., from Late Latin calceāta. In Guernsey use after Guernsey Norman cauchie.

Noun

causey (plural causeys)

1. (obsolete) An embankment holding in water; a dam. [14th–18th c.]
2. (now dialectal) A causeway across marshy ground, an area of sea etc.
   • c. 1460, Merlin, vol. II:

     than com Soriondes with all his peple that was so grete, and sette ouer the cauchie so rudely as horse myght renne.

   • 1841, Jacob Abbott, The Rollo Books:

     He said he would pay them a cent for every two loads of stones or gravel which they should wheel in to make the causey.

   • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, p. 177:

     I could see through the open doorway some fishermen in guernseys sitting on the grass listening, and a boat was drawn up on the shingle and others moored to the cauchie.

3. (now dialectal) A paved path or highway; a street, or the part of a street paved with paving or cobbles as opposed to flagstones.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Satan went down The Causey to Hell Gate.

Anagrams

• Ayscue, Cayuse, cayuse