Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/365

 ii s. VHI, NOV. 1,1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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section. " Ton " and " tonnage," especially the latter, are excellently worked up and illustrated. A good note gives particulars of the different denominations of " tonnage," as used for the carrying capacity of sea-going vessels, and the quotations which follow serve in several instances not only to prove the currency of the use of the word, but also to add information. " Ton," from the French ton, and one or two derivatives, are centres of amusing collections of examples, beginning with a sentence from Lloyd's Evening Post of 1769 : " The present fashionable Ton (a word used at present to express everything that 's fashionable) is a set of French puppets." " Tone," again both in sb. and v. is a good bit of work, which furnishes an instance of the minute carefulness of the compilers in ' Tone,' v., I. b, "To give a good or proper tone to. 1891. Advt., ' Pianos toned and repaired.' " A good many U.S. inventions fall within this section, among which we may notice to " tong," i.e., gather (clams or oysters) with oyster-tongs.

The word " tongs " is one of the most ancient English words hi these pages 4 the first instance of the singular goes back to c. 725, of the plural to the Anglo-Saxon version of Bede," ond fyrene tangan him on handa haefdon." hi the vision of Drythelm, as lovers of Bede will remember. The first example of the proverbial expression " not to touch with a pair of tongs " is from Caryl on the Book of Job, 1643. " Tongue," which runs to twelve columns, is one of the articles of out- standing excellence. The word is notable for its irregular formation duly dealt with in a brief, clear note and for the wealth of phrases made with it, and uses, figurative and other, to which it has been put. Speaking quite roughly, the quotations illustrate chiefly new and pictur- esque employments of the word and the images it evokes in comparatively modern times. In the little collection of colloquial and proverbial expressions about half are earlier than the nine- teenth century. " Tong breketh bon, thegh hym-self ne hawe none," comes from the ' English Conquest of Ireland,' c. 1425 ; and Caxton has " The felauship of the man whiche hath two tongues is nought." Heywood's " Her tong ronth on patens " (1546) is rather pleasant. The technical applications of " tongue " include fourteen separate uses, of which its use for the clapper of a bell is the most abundantly illus- trated. Among the great number of combina- tions we noticed a curious one, the authority for which is given as Funk's ' Stand. Diet.,' 1895,

' Tongue - scapular,' a scapular on which tongues of red cloth were fastened, worn by the Cistercians as a punishment for evil-speaking." Under " tongueless " we found neither of the instances which are likely to occur to most readers upon the sight of the word Swinburne's " the tongueless vigil " and Thompson's " the tongue- less vows." Long and remarkably good articles are those on " Top," " tooth," and " town." There is a curious collection of instances to illustrate " to top one's part," theatrical slang which here begins hi the seventeenth century and could still be used in 1831. " Tope," " toph," " Tophet," "topi," are interesting foreign words occurring hi this part, and we noticed also " toran," a sacred Buddhist gateway, for which there is only one quotation. " Torii," however, the well- known feature of Shinto temples, mentioned so frequently in books describing Japan, has escaped

the compilers. Under " torch " we get a pretty use of the word from Lyte's ' Dodoens ' for the spike of a red flower : "it bringeth forth a number of other smal torches, whereof eche one is lyke to the spike or torch of great Plantayne." It appears that " Torches " in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a regular name for the great mullein. It is quaint to see The Athcnceitm quoted for "torchon" lace: "From Russian lace to torchon is not a wide step," it pronounced in 1908. The words connected with torment " are not all of painful association. There are, for example, a number of odd implements or objects called "tormentors" which are fairly harmless,, and, in particular, there are three quotations illustrating the word as used for the door, " annoy- ing at times," which in the wings of a theatre prevents an actor being seen from the side entrances. The derivation of " tormentil " is not yet settled.

" Tornado " is one of the best instances of a " malapropism " establishing itself as correct ; two quotations from Hakluyt are given of the form " ternado," which is explained as an awk- ward adaptation of " tronada," a thunderstorm^ which has nothing to do with " tornar," now felt to be an element in " tornado." Under " torpedo " we notice that in 1880 The Aihencewti committed itself to the word " torpedism " apparently in the sense of the art of managing a " torpedo." Under "tortuous" is quoted Lord

Calthorpe's remark (1801) that " Sir W. Scott

was very tortuous and amusing." " Tory," again, is a finely arranged treatise, worth de- tailed study ; and another historical word well dealt with is " Tractarian." The first form of the much-discussed term " totem " was " aoutem" so given in 1609 by Lescarbot. A. Henry about 1776 seems to have introduced its present form, which was usually, to begin with, ex- plained as a " badge " or " mark." " Touch," with its derivatives, runs to over twenty columns, an article of which it must have been an immense labour to marshal the parts satisfactorily. One of the most interesting quotations belonging to it is that from the Gloucester Rolls, 1297, " slou atte verste touche," which is thought to be the first occurrence of the word in English, and to exemplify its original sense a " hit " or " blow " stronger than the present sense. The technical and idiomatic uses to which this word has been put are numerous and extraordinary. " Touter," in the sense of one who, to adopt the amusing description of the Dictionary, " looks out busily for customers," is an uncommon word, in that it was discovered by Richardson as current in Tunbridge Wells ; while the second quotation, from Derrick, credits that respectable borough yet more definitely with the invention and em- ployment of the term. We marked again, as a specially well-arranged and instructive article, that on the curious word " toy," which, of un- known etymology, occurs constantly from the beginning of the sixteenth century onwards, but appears once, sporadically, in Robert of Brunne at the beginning of the fourteenth. It is tempting to linger over the varied store of suggestive material collected under " town," " trace," and " trade " and especially the last ; and to dwell on words, such as " tragedy " and " tradition," which are in themselves epitomes of a range of human history, or endeavour, or ex- perience. But we have, perhaps, said enough