Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/359

 118. XL MAY 1, 1915.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

349

fish, such as a shark, which can eat a man, is a " poisson de Jonas." Compare " Poi.sson de Saint-Pierre ou de Saint-Cbristophe, Nom vulgaire de la dcree : Poisson de Tobie, Nom vulgaire de 1'uranoscope " (Larousse). T take it that " poisson de Jonas " is a familiar, not quite " slang," name for a. shark ; French, requin.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

WILLIAM HARDING OF BARASET (11 S. xi. 281). Baraset is a town in the twenty-four Parganas the district in Bengal surround- ing Calcutta. William Harding may have been a planter there, but I can find no trace of him. F. DE H. L.

THEATRICAL LIFE, 1875-85 (11 S. xi. 210, 270). The Theatrical Programme should not be forgotten. Although unillustrated, it was a solid, and not unworthy weekly record, which was started in January, 1884, and was published from 12, York Street, Covent Garden. It was described as "A Weekly Newspaper and Guide." But after 27 June, 1885, the text columns were suppressed ; only announcements remained, and the Programme became merely " A Weekly Guide." M. H. S.

BRIAN DUPPA (11 S. xi. 299). It may be of interest to note that there is an account of Bishop Duppa and his family in Misc. Gen. et Her., Fourth Series, vol. ii.

A. W. H. CLARKE. 45, Cambridge Road, Wimbledon, S.W.

GFRMANIA : TEDF.SOO (11 S. xi. 281). Not being able to speak Italian, and reading it with difficulty, I write the following note with diffidence, and should be glad to be corrected if wrong.

" German ia " means the German Empire, and " German ico " is the corresponding adjective. " Tedesco," as a noun and adjective, in applicable to all persons of German stock, whether belonging to the Austrian or to the German Empire, and in point of fact usually is applied to the Austrian Germans, with whom Italians ore, arid have been, most in contact.

The noun and adjective " Tedesco " is the Toot of a good many Italian words, e.g. " Tedescamente " = " in the German manner"; '" Tedescante " = " Gerrnanophil " or " Pro- German" ; " Tedescurne," a term of abuse which, as applied to the Austrians, corre- sponds very nearly to " les Boches " or " the Huns " as applied to subjects of the German Emperor. The verb " Tedescheg- giare " is an intransitive, and seems generally

to mean "to be Austrianized " ; but " Tedescheggiante," as a,n adjective, as- sumes a qua si -transitive sense, and seems to mean more " Austriojnizing " or "Germanizing" than "Austrianized" or " Germanized." Perhaps, however, this is hypercritical, as one meaning easily slips into the other.

The main object of this note is to point out that " Tedesco " and " German " are not of quite the same significance.

W r hen we talk of Germans, we mean primarilj- subjects of the German Emperor, and secondarily, if the context so admits, we include Austrians.

When the Italians talk of " Tedeschi,"

they mean primarily the Austrians, and

secondarily, if the context so admits, they

include the Prussians, Bavarians, Saxons, &c.

JOHN B. WAINEWRTCHT.

WOOLMER OR WOLMER FAMILY (11 S.

xi. 208, 269). The Woolmer family is found principally in Somersetshire and in Devon- shire. I am not aware that there is any systematic or tabulated pedigree. The few notes that I append may, I think, throw light upon MR. LANE'S query.

Mark Antony Lower, in his ' Patronymica Britannica,' says that the surname is pro- bably from the Anglo -Saxon personal name Wulmer. Now this name is found once in Birch's ' Cartularium Saxonicum ' as follows : " Grant by King Edgar to the thegn Wulmer of land in Bergh." Bergh is what ie now known as Beirow, a small place in North Somerset, not far from Axbridge. John Wolmer was incumbent of M.arke in Somer- set in 1463.

During the eighteenth century the family is found at Bath and at Exeter (Keynsham is about five miles from Bath), and there is plenty of evidence to link up the Exeter Woolmers with those at Bath. .Although settled at Bath and at Exeter in the eigh- teenth century, one branch, at any rate, had nourished at Stratford - on - Avon. In an obscure volume called ' Letters to Lazarus Backer, Esq., Banker, Yeovil : comprising a Brief Narrative of the Life of Joseph W'oolmer,' Sherborne, 1826, there is much information respecting the family and the monuments which exist at Stratford (no church is named, however). This can be supplemented by referring to the Report of the Charity Commission, 1819-1837, where, in vol. xv. p. 564, the cnarities of Joseph Woolmer are detailed. I refer MR. LANE also to The Gentleman's Magazine, 1790,