Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/398

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XIL OCT. 23, im

a point that seems to have been entirely ignored is that in Turkish the word is bosh {pronounced " boash "), and not bosh, as most people might imagine from the omission of the vowel-quantity in -trans- literation.

I myself have no doubt that the word is Persian. "A person" in The, Saturday Review was, according to the ' Slang Dictionary,' 1864, the first to suggest that it was popularized, along with many other Persian words and phrases, by Col. Morier's romances of Persian life, and that the word bosh is coeval with the novel ' Hajji Baba,' published in 1828 (I may say in passing that one of the copies at the British Museum is dated 1824). This seems to be the earliest use of the word in English, and on historical grounds, therefore, it may be taken for granted that the word came directly from the Persian.

Now it is a well-known fact that the vowel alif (a) is pronounced aw (as in awe) by the Persians, but a (as in father) by the natives of India. If, therefore, a word that is literally transliterated bash is borrowed from the Persian of Persia, it will be phonetically written bosh ; while if borrowed from the Persian of India, it will be written bash. That this is actually the case is proved by the fact that the former occurs in Morier's novels, and the latter in the quotation from Lady Sale's 'Journal' (1843) given by J. H. R. C. at 8 S. x. 55 : " The people natter the envoy into the belief that the tumult is bash [nothing]."

As a matter of fact, the word bash (bosh) is the imperative singular of buddn=to be. Bash=bQ thou. It is frequently used in Persian conversation. Apart from its primary use, e.g., inja bdsh= remain here, it is used as an exclamation : Bash /= Stop a moment ! wait a minute ! and finally = "shut up," nonsense. Bash/ bash != " No more of your yarns. You have talked enough nonsense." As a child I learnt the word from my Irani tutor long before I learnt it in English. V. CHATTOPADHYAYA.

51, Ladbroke Road, W.

" A BISCUIT'S THROW." During the last week or two I have twice met with this expression in newspapers. I fancy I have heard it before ; but it has now struck me as being a novelty. When were biscuits so hurled about that they came to serve as a measure of distance ? Within a stone's throw a gun-shot an arrow's flight, are familiar locutions to me ; but evidently it is becoming customary to take the biscuit.

I should imagine that a biscuit's throw would be estimated at less than a stone's throw ; but I speak with deference, as I do not usually pelt with Huntley & Palmer missiles. ST. SWITHIN.

" MART " FOR " MARKET." In Stephen Whatley's ' England's Gazetteer,' 1751, s.v. Boston, it is stated that, besides other appointed markets, Boston

has one on Nov. 30, that holds nine days for cattle and all merchandize ; and is called a mart, which is an ancient name, and only used for this town and Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, for Lyn-Regis in Norfolk, and for Beverley and Heydon in Yorkshire."

Of the latter towns Lynn-Regis is the only one which has in the ' Gazetteer ' any reference to the word " mart " : " The former [i.e., the fair 2 Feb., for a fortnight] is called Lynn-Mart."

The ' New English Dictionary,' s.v. mart, 1, has an 1839 quotation : " After Gainsbrough mart in October, until the next mart at Easter," &c. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

NICKNAMES OF PERSONS OF FASHION TEMP. GEORGE IV. A number of these are collected in the 'Life of Thomas Slingsby Duncombe ' (1868), vol. i. pp. 97-103.

" King Allen " was Joshua William Allen, a viscount in the Irish peerage. He was called " King of the Dandies," his hat and boots being specially famous. He died in 1843.

" The Golden Ball " was an officer of the 7th Hussars, nephew of Admiral Hughes : a great gambler.

" The Silent Hare " was a distinguished scholar with a defect in his speech.

" The Silver Ball " was a Mr. Haynes, also called from his dress " Pea-green Haynes." Miss Foote sued him for breach of promise.

Kangaroo Cooke " was a colonel, brother of Sir George Cooke, and aide-de-camp to the Duke of York.

" Red Herrings " was Lord Yarmouth.

" Old Sarum," the dowager Marchioness of Salisbury.

" The Sultana," the Marchioness of Hert- ford.

" The Lady," the Marchioness of Conyng- ham.

" Handsome Jack," Mr. Spalding.

" The Governor of Finland," General Edmund Phipps, whose right arm, from a stroke of paralysis, hung down like the fin of a turtle (d. 1837).

Mention is also mad 3 of Poodle Byng, Hat Vaughan, Fish Crawford, and Elephant