Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/330

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. v. APRIL 7, im.

PRATTENTON OR PRATTINGTON FAMILY. I should feel much obliged if any readei"would give me information concerning the family of Prattenton or Prattington, of Hartlebury and Bewdley, Worcestershire.

A. J. C. GUIMARAENS. 115, The Grove, Baling, W.

GOETHE : " BELLS, BUGS, AND CHRIS- TIANITY." In the Abbe Gaume's work en- titled ' Le Ver Rongeur des Societes Modernes,' it is asserted that Goethe expressed his detestation of these three things "les cloches, les punaises, et le Christianisme." It is also said in the same book, which is an attack on the use of pagan authors in Chris- tian schools or colleges, that the German poet had a bust of Jupiter so placed in his room that the rays of the morning sun shone upon it, at which times he was wont to utter the most rapturous language, inspired by the "present deity," no doubt. I should be glad if any one would quote the exact words, if any such exist, regarding these matters. Gaume's volume was published, if I remember rightly, about 1860, and was attacked by Bishop Dupanloup. C. T. J.

BETTS : FLETCHER : DEVERENT : WALL. Any information about members of these families, who lived at Shenley, Towcester, and neighbouring places, will be gladly received by (Mrs.) MARSHALL RIGBY.

White Knowle, Buxton.

"HAMBERBONNE" OF WHEAT. (10 th S. v. 190.)

I VENTURE to suggest that this word is a compound of amber, an ancient corn measure (" a dry measure of four bushels," ' O.E.D.'), and bonne, a bung or barrel. It perhaps means the same as one of the " vij hamber barelisful" (' O.E.D.,' from Caxton's 'Rey- nard ').

The amber is probably the same as the awm, the Dutch aam, the German ohm, a measure of about 34 gallons, the Englisl beer-barrel. This measure is equivalent to 4| bushels, but throughout Northern Germany the aam or ohm is a liquid measure only, the unit of corn measure being the scheffel In Holland the schepel is the bushel derived from the Amsterdam cubic foot. However, it is possible that the aam may originally have been used both for dry and fluid measure

In regard to bonne, I venture to assume the past existence of a word, an etymologica missing link. Under 'Bung' the 'O.E.D.

gives bonne as a Middle Dutch form of bom, a stopper for the mouth of a cask, and " bung bung-hole "as a transfer meaning from this original meaning of "bung." All analogy

n French and Dutch is against this order,

nd I venture the opinion that both are transfers and in the reverse order from an original meaning of bung, a cask.

The various forms of bomb are onomatopoeic, all meaning, or referring to, a more or less

lobular vessel giving out a " bom " sound when struck. The Italian bombola, a carboy, ,s bonbonne in French, and Littre considers ihis to be an augmentative of bombe; indeed,

t seems to be a duplicative, bomber-bonne, a [X>mb-bung.

I suggest that bung (boung, bongue) was originally a cask. In the 'E.D.D.' " bungy " means short, round, and stout, shaped like a cask. And it is possible that bumboat, the origin of which is obscure, was a boat in which water was carried to ships in bungs, bums, or casks. From bung a cask, come :

1. Bunghole, in Dutch bomyat, in French bonde, the hole in a cask at the bulge, the part where it is most resonant. The Dutch word also means the opening in a steeple to let out the boom of the bells. In the 'ED.D.' the Somerset contributor says: there they have bum-hole, bum-cork, bum- shave, the last word being the coopering tool used for making bung-holes.
 * ' We never use the word bung alone " ; so

2. Bung -stoker, in French bondon, after- wards, by a similar ellipsis to that now under consideration, becoming bonde. One thing is evident the name of the stopper cannot have preceded the name of the hole it is made to stop. Littre points out the extension of the term bonde from the hole to the stopper.

Bung is not the only onomatopoeic word in cask-names. In our tun measure (whence the corresponding ton weight), in the Norse tonde, the French tonne, the Italian tonna, all barrel measures, there is the same deep sound as in thunder, tonnerre, tonitru, and they are, I believe, derived from these latter words. This view is supported by an almost obsolete synonym of tun.

As thunder and thunderbolt are in French tonnerre and foudre (fouldre up to sixteenth cent.), so we find foudre in French &ndfuder in German for a* tun, a vat equal to four hogsheads, corresponding to the French tonne of four wine casks and to our freight- ton of four quarters of wheat. Then from fader came our words fudder and /other, about one ton of lead, and by extension a cartload of about that weight.