BEGGAR  , one who begs, particularly one who gains his living by asking the charitable contributions of others . The word, with the verbal forrn " to beg," in

Middle English beggen, is of obscure history . The words appear first in English in the 13th century, and were early connected with " bag," with reference to the receptacle for alms carried by the beggars . The most probable derivation of the word, and that now generally accepted, is that it is a corruption of the name of the lay communities known as Beguines and Beghards, which, shortly after their establishment, followed the friars in the practice of mendicancy (see BEGUINES) . It has been suggested, however, that the origin of " beg " and " beggars " is to be found in a rare Old English word, bedecian, of the same meaning, which is apparently connected with the Gothic bidjan, cf . German betteln; but between the occurrence of bedecian at the end of the 9th century and the appearance of " beggar " and " beg " in the 13th, there is a blank, and no explanation can be given of the great change in form . For the English law relating to begging and its history, see CHARITY, POOR LAw and VAGRANCY . BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR, a simple card-game . An ordinary pack is divided equally between two .players, and the cards are held with the backs upwards . The first player lays down his top card face up, and the opponent plays his top card on it, and this goes on alternately as long as no court-card appears; but if either player turns up a court-card, his opponent has to play four ordinary cards to an ace, three to a king, two to a queen, one to a knave, and when he has done so the other player takes all the cards on the table and places them under his pack; if, however, in the course of this playing to a court-card, another court-card turns up, the adversary has in turn to play to this, and as long as neither has played a full number of ordinary cards to any court-card the trick continues . The player who gets all the cards into his hand is the winner .