Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/321

 s. v. APRIL 7, 1906 ] N0TES AND QUERIES.

261

LONDON, SATURDAY, APEIL 7, 1906.

CONTENTS.-No. 119.

NOTES: "Pour," 231 Westminster Changes in 1905,262

Shakespeariana, 233 Charles Lamb at Weddings Ancient Welsh Cope-Halley-P.ke Families, 265-Candle- mas Day in Canada Hopes used at Executions Bolton Priory: its Title Canada's Last Imperial Troops, 236 Mile. G. M. Merlette, 2*7.

QUERIES :-" Place,"" Place," "Place-making," in Bell- ringing Macaulay on "Arabella" Sedley, 267 Decuy- per's ' College Alphabet' Theodor Reysman : Andreas Keller Caparn Family ' Now this is every cook's opinion " Lewes Grammar School, 268 Burney Family Lady Margaret de Thony- The Henry Brougham, Steamer Westhope Court Rolls, Saloo Be'ldornie Press -W. H. Bayntun E. C. Colmau St. Thomas Aquinas : his Ancestry Thompson, of the 6th Dragoons Klliott : Ponsonby, 1661, 269-Prattenton or Prattington Family

Goethe: "Bells, bugs, and Christianity " Betts : Fletcher : Deverent : Wall, 270.

REPLIES :" Ham berbonne" of Wheat, 270 Allan Cun- ningham's ' King of the Peak' Capt. Curry 4 Memoires de Sr. Pe'tersbourg' Denton Family Party Colours "Vendium"- Sundial inside a Church, 271 Portman Family Vanishing London: Paradise Row, Chelsea " Rose of Jericho "St. Paul's Cathedral: its Foundation Stone, 272 -Kt. Wilgefortis-George Fall, Artist Lindo, Portrait Painter "The hand that rocks the cradle," 273

Sir R Peel's Franked and Stamped Letters " Anon " G. J. Holyoake: Chartists and Special Constables, 274- Quartering of Arms, 275 Grantham of Goltho Family Sir William H. De Lancey, 276.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Mansel Sympson's 'Lincoln' 'Heroic Romances of Ireland' 'Bacon's Nova Hesusci- tatio ' Rembrandt : a Memorial ' ' English Historical Review 'Reviews and Magazines.

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

"POUR."

THE etymology of this curious verb was long unknown. Skinner made two shots at it : one wholly absurd, and the other that it is derived from the Latin jmrare, to purify or clarify, which happens to be right.

It was first explained by me in 1900 ; and die explanation (a long one) appears in my 'Notes on English Etymology,' p. 227. There are two difficulties : one as to the sound, and the other as to the sense.

As to the sound, the development is abnormal; for it rimes with no word ending in -our except four, which is not a true instance, being contracted from fower, as it is still pronounced in Cambridgeshire, where it rimes with mower.

The A.-F. long u was generally developed so as to give the modern E. u in pure, or else the on in spouse (A.-F. espuse) ; so we should expect theA.-F. purer to givea modern verb to pure,or else aform^wr, which would be pronounced as power precisely parallel to Latin excurare, A.-F. escurer, moaern E. -scaur, to furbish up.

This gives a very great interest to the

statement, ante, p. 172, that the late John Bright did actually pronounce pour as power, i.e., in a normal way !

Moreover, when we look up the reference to Pope's 'Messiah,' 1. 40,

And on the sightless eyeball pour the day, we find that we have reason to believe that Pope likewise approved of the same pro- nunciation. For, only a few lines above, he has :

Ye heavens ! from high the dewy nectar pour, And in soft silence shed the kindly shower.

And Gay seems to have been of the same opinion. In his poem on ' The Fan,' Book I., we find :

Here Nature all her sweets profusely pours, And paints th' enamelled ground with various flowers.

And again, in his ' Trivia,' 1. 173 :

Ere the tiles rattle with the smoking shower, And spouts on heedless men their torrents pour.

And Burns, ' On the Birth of a Posthumous

Child ' :

May He who gives the rain to pour...

Protect thee frae the driving shower.

Perhaps some one can help us to another example.

Already in 1508, in the 'Ballad of Kind Kittok,' Dunbar rimes pour with hour, sour, and clour. I need not speak about clour, as it is fully explained in the * N.E D.'

Lastly, as to the sense. The O.F. purer, now obsolete, meant to clarify. This was done by pouring the liquid through some- thing sievelike ; but the simple sense of "to pour" is hard to find. However, we may see five good examples in Moisy's dic- tionary of the Norman patois. As these are material, I quote them :

" Puis soit celle eaue puree en un autre yaissel," i.e., then let this water be poured into another vessel ('Modus,' fol. 129, as quoted by Lacurne).

"Lajoie revint tant moulle, qu'il puroyt de toutes parts," i.e, Lajoie returned so wefc that he poured [dripped], all around (* Journal du S. de Gouberville,' p. 817).

Tant que ceste arbre porte fruicb Duquel puisse huille depurer,

i.e., so that this tree bears fruit from which oil may pour down (' Mist, du Viel Testa- ment,' v. 3988).

"J'o 1'cidre qui pure dans 1'auge," i.e., I hear the cider pour into the trough ('Kimes Quern ,' p. 25).

"L'vieil depurait comme un tchien," i.e., the old man dripped like a dog (Me'tivier, ' Diet. Franco-norm.,' p. 356).

WALTER W, SKEAT.