infortune

Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary of Provincial Words, gives the word "Infortune, misfortune," deriving it from the Anglo-Norman.

Aussi cette grandeur que la seule infortune suffit souvent pour donner, elle manque � la calamit� la plus grande que le monde ait vue, et les noms attach�s � cette immense catastrophe ne demeur�rent pas m�me fameux!

An English lace, "une Grande Dentelle d'Angleterre" answers "Cet infortune sans seconde Elle fait bien renoncer au monde     *      *      *      *      *      *   Pour ne plus tourner � tout vent Comme d'entrer dans un Convent."

—The explanation offered by a writer in the Magasin Pittoresque for 1850, seems perfectly clear without the proposed transposition of the adverb fort into fait of your correspondent D. C. If the sentence be read according to the French explanation D. C. has quoted, viz. by reading infortune as a verb, fort the adverb to it, it must be plain that the reading of the sentence must be: "Fortune fort infortune une."

This,' he adds, 'is the true meaning of this device, although another interpretation has been given to it: Fortune Infortune Fortune.