Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/139

 10 s. vm. AUG. 10, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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BEDDOES SURNAME (10 S. viii. 64). MR. JAMES PLAIT'S suggestion is extremely probable. A friend who has chosen Bedo Brwynllys for an M.A. thesis tells me that the name was formerly common in Wales. I understand that three well-known poets are said to have borne it. The most notable of these, Bedo Brwynllys (already referred to), who nourished about the middle of the fifteenth century, was an admirer and imitator of the great Dafydd ap Gwilym. The other two, Bedo Aurddrem and Bedo Phylip Bach, are of less account. It is not always possible to determine to which of these a particular poem belongs, and indeed the works of all the three are more or less confused. C. C. B.

PANEL INSCRIPTION (10 S. viii. 29). Inscriptions are sometimes badly cut, and still oftener incorrectly copied. This one commemorates a man named Johan Diderich (=Theodoric), and Anna Maria (probably his wife). If Lohman, probably the man's surname, means anything, it is " tanner." Im is "in the " ; Lehrhov perhaps for " apprenticeship," or " apprentices' court," or the name of a town. Ein is " a," or the end of a place-name, perhaps. Herr F. Putschi, of the University of Vienna, thinks that the remaining words may stand for hdusler cottager ; und=&nd ; and hduslerin cottageress, or hduslerei= farmery. To what date, and what part of German- speaking Europe, does the panelling appear to belong ? EDWARD S. DODGSON.

" BREESE " IN 'HUDIBRAS' (10 S. vii. 446, 515 ; viii. 77). I think that any one who will take the trouble to look into the matter will agree with me that it is perfectly im- possible to equate the O.E. form breosa (whence " breeze ") with the O.H.G. form brimisa (whence the sixteenth-century Eng- lish brimse). DR. SMYTHE PALMER quotes the ' Century Dictionary ' for the remark that " breosa is supposed to be an irregular reduction of brimsa [sic]." The " reduc- tion " is certainly " irregular," that is to say, it cannot be explained by the lexi- cographer ; the question is whether such a " reduction " is phonetically possible, and can be supported by any analogical instances. Whatever other people may say, I affirm that this explanation of O.E. breosa referred to by the ' Century Dictionary,' and favoured by DR. SMYTHE PALMER, is from a scientific point of view absurd. I will try and make it clear why I speak so " magisterially." I do not speak without book. The question as to the relation between O.E. breosa and

D.H.G. brimisa can only *be settled by knowing the conditions under which a primitive nasal before a spirant (/, th, s, or h) is retained in German and lost in English,, or retained in both English and German. For instance, how is it that we find in English geese, five, goose, tooth, other, soft* mouth, us, south, dust ; in German gans+ funf, zahn, ander, mund, uns, O.H.G. sund y whereas we have English month compared with German monat ? The answer is very simple : the nasal is retained in English when in the primitive Germanic form a, vowel intervened between the nasal and the spirant ; the nasal disappears when in the primitive Germanic form the nasal is fol- lowed immediately by the spirant. So in English we have mouth, O.E. muft, O.H.G. mund, Goth, munths ; but month, O.E. monafi, O.H.G. mdnod, Goth, menoths.

Accordingly, a primitive Germanic form which appears in O.H.G. as brimisa could not appear with loss of nasal in English, certainly could not appear as O.E. breosa. And a, hypothetical primitive base brims- would not do, for this could only appear in O.E. as brls- (cp. O.E. flf, five). Therefore " breeze " cannot be equated with "brimse.'" A. L. MAYHEW.

"TOTTER-OUT" (10 S. viii. 5). "Tot," " jag," " spark," are terms variously used at the present time to denote a small quantity of that liquid refreshment which is largely believed to contribute towards- the promotion of good cheer and social amenity. ' The Encyclopaedic Dictionary,' after explaining that " tot " indicates some- thing small and insignificant, especially as " applied to liquor," and that it also signifies " a small drinking-cup, holding about half a pint," quotes as follows from The St. James's Gazette of 10 Sept., 1886, for the origin of what is now a current usage :

" Haydn liked company; but if a guest stayed'

beyond a certain period, the great composer would suddenly start up, tap his forehead, and say, ' Excuse me, I have a tot,' by which he meant that he had a thought, and must go to his study to jot it down. A minute after he would return, looking all the brighter ; and as forgetful as the Irish judge of La Rochefoucauld's maxim that you may hood- wink one person, but not all the world. The expression, 'a tot of spirits,' is said to have had this respectable origin.

THOMAS BAYNE.

In the days when home-brewed was the drink of the harvest-fields a drink brewed and provided by the farmer himself, and given without stint there was each day in the field " a totter-out," or, as some called