Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/433

 10* a. iv. OCT. 28,1906.} NOTES AND QUERIES. 359 larger than in any rival work, that of the illustra- tive quotations is approximately ten times as large. In the customary prefatory note Dr. Murray draws further attention to the exceptional rarity of Teutonic words beginning with P. But one word is there in the present fascicle, namely penny, which has any claim to be original English. Though alien in origin, pfennig — a cognate word—has "a history of some length in English," while pepper (which, of course, reaches us from the Latin) was " probably adopted before the English entered Britain." Piper is naturally its first form. From the earliest use to the latent the history of this word is singularly interesting. It is striking to mark, in 1687, the assertion concerning sugar, tobacco, and pepper, that " custom hath now made [them] necessary to all sorts of people." In California in 1893 the pepper=pepper-tree is described as " the prettiest and most graceful of all trees [tjhere." tion for the use of dove • pepper for all-spice. Many combinations of pepper are new to us. See also the history of peper-reiit. For the use of //•/'/'•''. yb. sense 5, Mercutio, in ' Romeo and Juliet,' is quoted as saying, "I am pepper'd, I warrant, for this world. For peppery, ' N. 4 Q.,' 8th S. xii. 343, is advanced. Pennant is apparently a cross between pendant and pennon, and dates back to 1611. Under penned we want Shakespeare's " ditties highly penned " or " prologue vilely penned," the former preferably for its context. Under penniless see penniless bench. Pennon has a pic- turesque history. With it consult pennoncel. fenny appears as pending in 835. The coining of silver pennies ceased with the reign of Charles II. An immense amount of information, especially on subjects such as the use of penny as synonymous with coin, is supplied. A surviving instance of use is "a pretty penny." Penny is constantly opposed to pound, as "penny wise, pound foolish. '*A penny for your thoughts" and innumerable other phrases are illustrated. Penny '">•', which we do not trace, was half a century ago in folk speech tuppenny bus. Penny-a-line is traced to 1833, penny- a-ltner to 1834. Penny post is found in 1680. Pennyroyal is supposedly derived from pjtlyole ryale. Pennyworth has a long history to itself, as has also pension. A quotation for pensioners, ' Merry Wives of Windsor,' II. ii. 79, is advanced. We prefer one from ' Midsummer Night's Dream': "The cowslips tall her pensioners be." Pensive is interesting, as are many of the words from pejj<o=five. Pentameron or pentamerone is, we suppose, regarded as Italian rather than Eng- lish. In the forms pendize and pentiz, penthouse appears in 1325. In ' ingoldsby' we have " As the hail rebounds from the penthouse slope." Penwiper is no earlier than Thackeray. People, sb. and vb., has naturally a long history. A huge number of words beginning in per follow. Profoundly interest- ing to many is the account of the peregrine falcon, falco peregrinus, used circa 1250 by Albertus Magnus. For this the reader is referred to the book. Peremptory also deserves study. The change to perfect from parftt repays close attention. fer/treului as the source of perfervid, applied to Scots, is not found in ancient Latin, though it has been mistakenly supposed to be there. Good con- jectures are given regarding perhaps. Moore is naturally quoted for Peri, which has, it is rightly aaid, no connexion with fairy. Words beginning •with Gr. peri are mostly scientific. The origin of Lat. pervinca, periwinkle, is not clear. Person and its derivatives occupy some valuable and instruc- tive pages. Personable is said to be now chiefly in literary use. The various meanings of pert are well contrasted. Pet in its various significances is of obscure origin. Petrol, petroleum, is found so early as 1596. Pettifogytr offers difficulty. Pew, Lat. podia, is the subject of much comment. The Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse. By William Ridgeway, M.A. (Cambridge, Uni- versity Press.) EQUALLY eminent as a classical scholar, an anti- quary, a philologist, a zoologist, and, it may perhaps be added, an anthropologist. Prof. Ridgeway has, during recent days, devoted much time to the- study of the horse. His present volume, which is included in the "Cambridge Biological Series," treats on a basis scientific and, to a certain- extent, practical, an important problem in the his- tory of the horse, an animal which the Professor justly describes as, without exception, "the most important of all domesticated by man." The- theory which Prof. Ridgeway now supports with much erudition, and at some length, appears to have been ventilated about three years ago before- the Cambridge Philosophical Society. It runs- counter to the views entertained by many experts, and will probably give rise to much discussion. To- the Arab horse has generally been traced the origin of our thoroughbred and half-bred horses. This idea, it is now argued, has no historical foundation. In Libya there existed, a thousand years before the Arabs bred a horse, a fine breed, from which all the best horses of the world have sprung. At a period later than the Christian era the Arabs got their fine- breed of North African horses, an equine variety wholly " distinct from the clumsy, thickset, slow- horses of Europe and Asia." At this conclusion he has arrived after close study of the Equidte in their earliest development. Not until the Tertiary period do hoofed animals begin to be traced. In- two extinct families of the Perissodactyles, the Lophiodontidse and the Palajotheriidse, are met with what are assumed to be the earliest ancestral forms of horse. This introductory portion of the work requires for its comprehension a kind of knowledge we are far from claiming for ourselves or presuming to expect in our readers, and it is not until Prof. Ridgeway arrives at the existing Equidte, of which some fifteen species or sub-species survive, that the work comes within ordinary ken. In the second chapter much interesting and valuable information is given as to the attempts to arrest the destruction of the Equidie which have led, in South Africa, to the extinction of the quagga and menace other species with extermination. The following chapter, devoted to the Equm caballus, tells what is known concerning him in prehistoric times. To the student and the general reader this constitutes the most important and interesting por- tion of the work. During the Quaternary period wild horses "formed an important portion of the food supply of Paleolithic man," and their remains, with those of human beings and wild animals, are found in many parts. Whether the horse was at this time domesticated is a subject of discussion. Chariots are a common companion of horses. To the small size of British horses is ascribed the use of horses for chariots rather than for riding. White horses, which were in special demand, seem to have been sacrificed by the lllyrian Veneti. The horses
 * N. & Q.,' 3"1 S. vi. 216, supplies the one illustra-