Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/339

 ii s. xxi. OCT. 23, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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A Neic English Dictionary on Historical Principles. (Vol. IX.) Standard Stead. By Henry Bradley. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2s. 6d.)

THE first section of the great Dictionary issued since the death of Sir James Murray naturally has prefixed to it a few words of regret for his loss, and we are glad to have this opportunity of once again expressing admiration for his work and a wish that he might have been spared to see its full accomplishment.

We have before us a section of 64 pp., containing in all 842 entries, which are illustrated by means of 7,641 quotations. Including about a dozen words of the first importance, as well as a number of curious terms and words of historical interest, it is also particularly valuable from the point of view of etymology, for it contains sundry fresh pieces of information in that kind. Thus the Dictionary definitely pronounces against the opinion of Skeat that the verb " stay " =to remain, is a development from " stay " in the sense of support, advancing for the former an origin in the O.F. (e)stai-, (e)stei- (L. stare) ; for the latter the O.F. estayer, which in modern French is etayer, to be thought of as primarily a nautical term. The grounds for this are historical, " stay " in the sense of " remain " being found in the mid -fifteenth century, whilst 1526 would seem to be the earliest dave for its use in the sense of " support." The word both as substantive and verb, as also in its derivatives, has furnished excellent articles, witnessing to the range and minute care of the reading. Thus among the obsolete uses of the noun are : " the arm or back of a chair " and a " cap-string," and along with the latter meaning comes in Swift's " I know no reason . . . .that ... .a brushed Beaver strike to a Carolina-Hat with Stays," i.e., strings to hold up the shovel brim. Dryden's use of " stays " for " thrum " to trans- late licia in Georg. i. 381 is not marked as obsolete, though no other example of it is given. We may perhaps be allowed to repeat concerning this article and it applies to some others in the section a criticism we have several times made before : that the daily press, and in particular The Daily News, puts in an appearance over frequently.

An entry to which students of history will turn with good expectation is " staple," and etymo- logically, too, the four substantives which appear in this spelling are of interest. " Staple " in the sense of contrivance for fastening a door or lid is made second to an obsolete use in the sense of post or column, and while the derivation of the latter from a Teutonic word which appears in O.E., O. Fris, German, and other dialects, and which means " block " or " heap," is pretty clear, the connexion between the two meanings is not clearly made out. As the name for a town in which by royal authority was seated the organiza- tion for the export of certain merchandise, it is derived from estaple (mod. F. etape), an emporium ; and it is a question whether the Teutonic word stapel, used in the same sense, is derived from this or from the substantive already discussed. Used to denote a special variety of wool or other textile material in respect to its degree of fineness of fibre, it seems reasonable to consider it as sug- gested here to be a back formation from the verb " to staple," used of dealing with goods at a

staple in accordance with regulations. Of obscure origin is the use of the word in the nineteenth century as the name of a communica- ting shaft between the seams in a coal-mine.

The articles on words to be referred back to the Latin stare are admirable. We would mention in particular " state " and " station." The former is conspicuous for the number of interesting and well-documented obsolete uses set out, and both afford excellent examples of lucid definitions and clearness of arrangement. We might quote a score or two of good things from either, but will restrict ourselves to a sentence under " 20. (More explicitly railway station) " from The Times of June, 1838 : " Here there is a ' station ' for supply- ing coals, water, &c., to the engine, and for the embarking and disembarking of passengers." What virtue in those inverted commas enclosing " station " to set us back in the days when our most commonplace terms of travel were still on their promotion ! The column and a, half devoted to " stationer " gives succinctly a whole minor branch of social history, reach ing from the mediaeval bookseller at the universities, who, instead of being itinerant, had a " station " or shop, to the Company of Stationers and the Copyright Acts connected with this. The dis- tinction between " stationary " and " stationery " does not seem to have established itself till the second decade of the nineteenth century, and the latter form is not in Johnson.

The articles on " star " and its derivatives, again, are admirable though we looked in vain for " The desire of the moth for the star " which would have seemed to us inevitable. The section was, no doubt, ready for publication before the "starred" pink papers came upon the scene. Under " start," v., and " stark," we have, again, etymological problems ably handled. The latter word, in its sense of " rigid, stiff," seems to be one of the rare instances of an English use keeping more closely to the original meaning than the use of the word in other Teutonic languages. We confess we were surprised to find that no earlier date than 1566 could be found for " start," sb., in the sense of setting out. " The Start " applied as a sort of nickname to the flight of Charles II.. from Perth in 1650 is duly recorded. It is ex- plained here as derived from an expression quoted from Baillie, " confounded and dejected for that ill-advysed start." We should rather doubt Clarendon's having adopted it from so unemphatic a passage. May he not rather have taken it from some colloquialism current hi Charles's circle ?

" Stang," " stannary " (a mention of Fr. etain might have been useful here), " stanza," " starch," " stavesacre," and " Star-chamber " may be men- tioned as entries which are full of good matter. In general we may congratulate Dr. Bradley on an excellence even above the average in the illustra- tion of the words belonging to this section, and that especially in the quotations from early sources.

Archceologia JEliana. Third Series. Vol. XII*

(Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Reid.)

THE seven papers composing this volume are worthy of the tradition of the well-known Society of Antiquaries of which this publication is the organ. Our valued correspondent Mr. Richard Welford occupies the first place with an instal- ment (Fourth Series) of his work in ' Local Muniments.' This includes matter from a