Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/527

 v. JUNE 2, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

435

" SATURDAY " IN SPANISH (10 th S. v. 388). The use of the term Sabado for Saturday by the Spanish Christians does not connect them with the Jews any more than a similar use does any other Christians. Sabbath is the ordinary liturgical term for the day before the Lord's day in the Roman and Greek Churches, and always has been. Like our Amens and our Alleluias, it may serve to remind us of "the rock whence we are hewn, the hole of the pit whence we are digged," as Burgon remarks in his 'Letters from Rome. 3 It may be found throughout in any Roman Missal or Breviary, or in the Greek service-books, ey., 'Office for the Lord's Day,' translation published by Hayes in 1880. Unfortunately it was not retained in our Prayer-Book, hence the Protestant misapplication of the term to the Lord's day. J. T. F.

Would it not be more* correct to look upon the Spanish use of tialado for Saturday as early Christian rather than as Jewish 1 In most European languages some form of Germans have Samsia</, the French Samedi, the Catalans Dissapte. In Italian it is Sabbato, and in Roumanian Simbdta. The Slavonic forms are still more interesting, as the stress in some of them is upon the first, and in others upon the second syllable. Thus the Bulgarians say Sdbota. and 'the Servians ^Sdbota ; on the other hand, the Russians say Subbota, and the Slovenians Sobota, while the Lithuanians say Subatd. All these words mean Saturday, and not Sunday.
 * Sabbath " is used for Saturday. The

JAS. PL ATT, Jun.

Surely the mere fact that the Spanish for Saturday is Sabado proves nothing as to a special influence of the Jews in Spain. For the Italian for Saturday is Sabbato; the Portuguese is Sabbado ; the French is Samedi (sambati dies} ; the German is Samstag, O.H.G. Sambats-tac ; the Old Provencal is Dissapte (dies sabbati) ; the Roumansch is JSonda; and the Wallachian is Srunbiitu. We have to deal with the more general question as to the transition from the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Lord's day, which it is extremely difficult to date exactly.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

I do not think Sabado in Spanish can have much to do with the Jews in Spain, any more than Sabbato, the Italian word for Saturday, is to be connected with the Jews in Italy. Both are derived from the Latin Sabbatum, which comes through the Greek <ra@pa.Tos from a Hebrew word meaning rest. Dies Sabbati is the ecclesiastical term for

Saturday (see the Roman Breviary). The Order Paper and Journals of the House of Lords still describe Saturday as Dies Sabbati; and formerly this practice obtained in the Order Paper and Journals of the House of Commons. J. A. J. HOUSDEN.

The use of the term Sabbath for Saturday is not, as H. W B seems to think, peculiar to Spanish, but was the universal practice of the early Church, Latin, Greek, and Eastern, and survives in the majority of languages at the present day. The identification of the Sabbath with Sunday is, 1 believe, peculiar to the English-speaking peoples.

[MR. J. B. WATXEWRIGHT is thanked for a reply.]

"PLACE" (10 th S. v. 267, 316, 333, 353, 371, 412). It may interest DR. MURRAY to hear that the word " Place " is in common use at Stonyhurst to designate distinct divisions of the house. Thus we find "Study-Place," "Shoe-Place," "Washing-Place," "Strangers' Place " (or guest-rooms), " Tailors' Place," &c. (even, and this is to be whispered, the lavatory is called the "Common Place"). The origin of the phrase is found in the records of Stonyhurst's life across the seas, at St. Omer, " in which district we are told that the word is still used in the same promiscuous way " (cf. * Stonyhurst College, Centenarary Record, 1904,' by Gerard, chap. ii. p. 29). B.

"POUR" (10 th S. x. 261, 329, 392). lam surprised to find that PROF. SKEAT still thinks that it is possible to derive the verb pour from F. purer, L. pur are. He does not seem to see that such a derivation is impos- sible because it contravenes the laws of Anglo-French pronunciation. Can he pro- duce a single instance of an English word ending in -our and riming with hour which can be equated with a French word ending in -urer, from a L. -urdre, and directly derived therefrom ? I am sure he cannot. The verb scour is not to the point, as that word comes to us through a Scandinavian channel.

We shall before long see what Dr. Murray makes of the word "pour" in 'N.E.D.' I shall be very much surprised if that careful lexicographer should equate pour with F. purer. I think PROF. SKEAT and I should be willing to abide by Dr. Murray's deci- sion. I appeal unto Caesar.

A. L. MAYHEW.

COLERIDGE AND NEWMAN ON GIBBON (10 th S. v. 387). Perhaps the allusion to Gibbon, in J. H. Newman's 'Lectures and