Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/374

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NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. x. OCT. 17, im

the life of the eminent patriot and reformer of Servian orthography Vuk Stephanovitch Karadjitch, and find that surnames, at least in his day, were determined by chance or rule of thumb. His patronymic Stephano- vitch varied occasionally by Stephanson and Stephanide is formed regularly accord- ing to the rule observed in Russia, which appears to have lapsed among the other Slavs. In adopting the surname Karadjitch Vuk wrote that he took it because that was the ancient name of the family, though his grandfather had borne the name Bandula applied sometimes to his own father.

The future man of letters was christened Vuk (wolf) so that he might escape witches, who devoured children, according to Servian folk-lore, but dared not assail wolves.

FRANCIS P. MABCHANT. Streatham Common.

[MR. MARCHANT'S former article appeared at 9 S. xii. 86.]

' k GEABD." It is a pity to discuss the word " yard " under the heading " Vergel," with which it has nothing to do ; but one cannot well admit the statement which I quote from ante, p. 234 :

" I know that attempts are made to separate Old English geard, a yard measure, from geard, an en- closed yard ; but they seem to me unfounded.'' It is a question not of opinion, but of fact ; and the above statement has only been ob- tained by quoting a bogus A.-S. form. There is no such word as the alleged " Old English geard, a yard measure."

The fact is that it is impossible not to see the marked difference between the A.-S. gerd, gird, gierd, gyrd, a rod, a yard measure, and the A.-S. geard, a court, an enclosed yard.

First, the A.-S. geard, a court, is masculine ; secondly, the radical vowel is a, broken into ea before rd ; and thirdly, it has many cognate forms, notably the Icel. gardr (with d like dh), whence the North Eng. garth ; the O.H.G. gart, whence the derived G. garten (E. garden) ; Goth, gards, a house ; Du. gaard, a yard ; O. Irish gort, a field ; L. hortus.

But the A.-S. gerd (also spelt gird, gierd, gyrd, but never geard*}, meaning a rod, is feminine ; secondly, the vowel is not radical, but mutated ; and thirdly, it has different cognate forms, viz., Dutch garde, a rod, twig, Ger. gerte ; O.H.G. gerta.

Another easy way of separating the words is by observing their declensions. Geard

A.-S. Chronicle,' and in a miscopied gloss.
 * Except by mistake in the latest MS. of the

a court, has the genitive geardes, and the nominative plural geardas ; whereas gerd, a rod, has the gen. gerde, and the nom. pi.

There is nothing to show that the words are connected. If they had formerly been so, it will be observed that geard, a court, is the more original in form, having a primary vowel. But gerd, a rod, shows a mutation from a primary a, and would be the deriva- tive. The former answers to a Teutonic type *gardoz, but the latter to a Teutonic type *gardjd.

The fact is, however, that they are well distinguished in Slavonic. The A.-S. geard answers to the Russian gorod\ a term (as in Nov-gorod), Polish grod. But the A.-S. gerd answers to the Russian zherd(e), a rod, Polish zerdzh. WAI/TEB W. SKEAT.

BBEMBBE OB BBAMBBE. (See ante, p. 236. ) No doubt Sir H. B. POLAND quotes cor- rectly the form of the name given in the authorities to which he refers. But the spelling in the records of the Corporation is Brembre. I have had occasion to search the Letter-Books carefully in preparing my volume on ' The Aldermen of London,' and to the best of my recollection the name is always spelt with e. Certainly, if there is any variant, it is of such rare occurrence as to be negligible.

The same form appears in Gregory's ' Chronicle ' and in the Cotton MS. Julius B. II., recently printed by Mr. Kingsford in his ' Chronicles of London.'

' A Short English Chronicle ' (Lambeth MS. 306), edited by Mr. Gairdner for the Camden Society, has " BrembZe."

ALFBED B. BEAVEN. M.A.

" PETEBSBUBG " OB " ST. PETEBSBUBG." "" St. Petersburg " is unquestionably the name popularly given to the capital of Russia, but its correctness is frequently called in question, objectors maintaining, with some show of probability, that the city on the Neva was named after Peter the Great, not after the saint. The term " St. Peters- burg " is at least of long standing over a large range of country, for in the great atlas published under the auspices of the Chinese Emperor Ch'ien Lung in 1750, the Chinese characters denoting the Russian capital represent, when romanized, the sounds ' San po te erh pu." This is at least con- tributory evidence in favour of the popular form. G. M. H. P.

Foochow.

[Russians officially write " St. Petersburg," but liey commonly say " Peterburg.' 1 ]