Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/421

 ii s. i. MAY 21, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

413

NEIL Gow, RACE -HORSE : HAMISH AND SHAMUS (11 S. i. 288, 376). SCOTUS is right so far that in the days when the great fiddler flourished little attention was paic to the orthography of Gaelic words, and Niel for Neil (both English forms) accordingly was common. But " Niall " is the true nominative in its ancient form. Of this "Neill " would be the proper vocative, which came to be substituted for the more rarely written and spoken " Niall. "

A more curious instance of the modern supersession of the nominative form by the vocative is the word "Hamish (Sheumais) " for " Shamus (Seumas). 22 In addressing James ''Hamish'* would be right; in speak- ing of him, or in subscribing his name, " Shamus " would be employed.

So of Neill and Niall. "Niel" is a vox nihili. t IAIN GALLDA.

HUNT & CLARKE'S " AUTOBIOGRAPHIES ' (11 S. i. 288). There does not appear to be any reference in Leigh Hunt's ' Auto- biography ' to a publishing connexion with Clarke. Besides, Cowden Clarke was, I believe, a musicseller rather than a book- publisher. At all events, the firm of Hunt & Clarke must have had but a brief exist- ence. Within about twenty years from the dates named in the query, their publica- tions had been acquired and were being issued by Whittaker under the general heading " Autobiography of Eminent Per- sons." Thirty -four volumes in all were issued, in 18mo at 3s. 6d. each, or in 12mo at 6s. each. Three different persons were sometimes included in one volume. Thus Hume, Lilly, and Voltaire came together. Presumably the link binding the lives together was the word " Autobiography."

W. SCOTT.

" CULPRIT " (10 S. xi. 486 ; xii. 174, 456 ; 11 S. i. 99, 317). Mr. Bradley in his 'Making of English, J p. 153, quotes the word culprit as the most curious instance of words which have taken their rise from abbreviations used in writing :

"Its origin is to be found in the strange corrupt Gorman French once used in our Courts of Justice. \\hen a prisoner had pleaded 'not guilty,' the reply made on behalf of the Crown was 'Culpable : prest.' This meant '(he is) guilty (and we are) ready (to prove it).' In the reports of criminal cases the phrase was commonly abbreviated ' Cul. prest,' and afterwards corruptly 'Cul. prit.' Then in some way, not very clearly understood, it seems to have come about that the clerks of the Crown, modelling their procedure on the pattern set in the written reports, fell into the practice of using the syllables 'Cul prit' as an oral formula ; and as this

formula was followed by the question ' How will' you be tried?' addressed to the prisoner, it was popularly apprehended to mean ' guilty man.' The- custom survived in the courts down to the eigh- teenth century ; but when ' culprit ' became a current word with a new sense, it was probably felt that there was an injustice in addressing a prisoner by a term which presumed his guilt, and the use of the formula was discontinued."

H. A. STRONG. Liverpool.

In the quotation, ante, p. 318, from the second edition of the ' Glossographia Anglicana Nova' (1719) the word should have been printed cul-prit, not with a full stop, as if some abbreviation were indicated.. The word is not in the first edition (London, 1707). It is to be found in the second edition of the ' Law-French Dictionary ' (London, 1718), where it appears as

" Cul prit, ready to prove the guilt or the issue upon not guilty pleaded."

The earliest date at which I can find it in any of my dictionaries is 1715, in John Kersey's ' Dictionarium Anglo -Britannicum,'' where he gives it thus :

" Culprit, (F. i.e. the Matter is taken or enter'd) a formal Word us'd by the Clerk of the Crown upon Tryals for High Treason, when he has register'd the Prisoner's Plea, and proceeds to demand of him, How wilt thou be try'd? Some derive the Term, from the Latin words Culpa a Fault or Crime ; and Prehensus taken, i.e. a Criminal or Malefactor."

N. Bailey in the first edition of his ' Dic- tionary l (8vo, London, 1721) gives :

"Culprit, a formal word, used by the Clerk of the- Arraignments, in Tryals, to a Person indicted for a Criminal Matter, when he has register'd the- Prisoner's Plea, Not Guilty, and proceeds to demand of him, (Culprit) How unit thou be Tryed? Culprit seems to be compounded of two Words, i.e., Cul and Prit, viz. Cul of Culpabilis, and is a Reply of a proper Officer, on behalf of the King, affirming the Party to be Guilty after ( he hath pleaded Not Guilty ; the other word Prit is derived of the- French Word Prest, i.e. Ready, and is as much as to say, that he is ready to prove the Party Guilty. Others again derive it from Culpa, a Fault, and Prehensus, taken, L. i.e. a Criminal or Malefactor."

Elisha Coles in his ' English Dictionary/ 1732, gives it thus :

" Culprit, q.d. Culpa est prest, the crime charged upon you is ready to be proved, a formal word at trials?'

[t is not given in the earlier editions of Coles- Giles Jacob, ' New Law Dictionary,' 3rd ed., 1736, corroborates the previous derivations from culpabilis and prest, and states " and His as much as to say, That he s ready to prove the offender guilty.'*

MR. HILL asks who Donaldson was : is t not possible that reference is being made to the Rev. John William Donaldson, D.D.-*