Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/493

 10 s. xii. -fcov. 20, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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1745 the likelihood of a Roman Catholic successor to the throne had become very remote, and in George III. the nation possessed a king who was proud of being British-born. W. C. B.

WALLOON ETYMOLOGIES : FEMALE PET NAMES. Though there is no question of the French verb craindre, to fear, being derived from Lat. tremere, Littre remarks : " L'articulation tr s'est change's facilement en cr >' ce qu'ii faut admettre, bien qu'il n'en ait pas d'exeraples ; retymologie etant d'ailleurs appuye'e par le sens et par la forme eindre, qui rpond a emere, comme dans empreindre d'imprimere."

Lately I chanced to find in a glossary of early Walloon words, appended to M. Wilmotte's instructive little work ' Le Wallon,' a word which apparent^ has been so far overlooked by French philologists, and which establishes the truth of Littre's assumption. This is cremor, fear, which one sees at a glance is the Walloon form of Latin tremorem. In mediaeval Walloon there was a second substantive with the same signification, viz., paur, modern Wai. pawou, Fr. peur, from Lat. pavorem. Thus while modern French crainte is formed from the verb craindre, the Walloon cremor was developed directly from the Latin, and independently of the French language.

In the same monograph occur several other early forms which are not even mentioned by Grandgagnage in his dictionary of the Walloon language, but which are in most cases obviously of Latin origin :

aliquant(es), some.

ardre, to burn.

coist, baked.

to believe.

ilec, there.

bran, sword, Ital. brando.

lorseilnol, nightingale.

sempre, always.

polle, young girl, lit. the young of an animal.

The last word is especially interesting, since it seems to me to clear up the origin of the words " poll," a parrot, and Polly, the pet name for Mary. A young parrot would naturally be called " a pretty poll," and as naturally learn to repeat the phrase ; while the same appellation might be predi- cated of an image of the Virgin, the word being used in Walloon for maidens in general. The dictionaries tell us that " Polly " is a rime- word to " Molly," which, again, is used as an endearing form of Mary ; but this really looks very like guesswork. Ferguson in his ' Surnames as a Science,'

p. 181, claims, with the support of Foerste- mann, that many of our household pet names, such as Kitty, Nell, Moll, Meg, Peggy, Kit, Bill, and Dick, are not, as is generally supposed, mere., contractions or modifications of other dissimilar Christian names; bujb are descended from original Teutonic nouns or roots. The case of " Polly " from Wai. polle, Lat. pullam, apparently lends support < to this theory of Ferguson's. N. W. HILL.

New York. "?;~

[The 'N.E.D.' (section/; Piper Polygeriistic, issued in 1907) treats Poll as as alteration of Moll and compares it with Peg for Meg, an abbreviation of Margaret. ]

SPANISH EPIGRAM. Readers may be in- terested in the following curious Spanish epigram, which contains the verb " to say " no fewer than seven times : Dices que dicen que dije Que malas lenguas decian, Tanto has dado que decir, Que no digo que no digan.

Subject to correction, I take the sense to be something like this :

Thou hast said that they say that I said That evil tongues had a lot to say ; Thou hast given them so much to say That I dare not say to them not to say.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

Miss MELLON AND THE WIGAN STAGE. An illustrated history of Wigan, compiled about 1829, has just been sold to the town by a descendant of the writer of the book. On the back of a view of the parish church and neighbouring houses there is written in a contemporary hand :

"The house marked thus x in this view was occupied by the late Thomas Entwistle, fiddler, painter, and engraver, father to Thomas Entwistle, who was also a fiddler, and married Mrs. Mellon, mother to Miss Mellon, who was a performer of boys' and girls' characters on the stage at Wigan. As she grew to woman's estate she was introduced on London boards by Mr. Sheridan. Mr. Coutts, the rich banker, married her. When he died he left her a large property, and she became Dutchess of St. Albans."

M. N.

Wigan.

CHISWICK MEMORIALS. In reference to the magnificent survey of Chelsea which is now in course of production by the Com- mittee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London, and of which a volume lately issued from the press, may I venture to suggest to the Committee, through the columns of ' N. & Q.,' that they should turn their early attention to the subject of Chiswick parish ? Hogarth House, " The