Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/47

 ns.v.jAx.i3,.i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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"POLILLA" (11 S. iv. 490). Gustav Korting in his ' Lateinisch - romanisches Worterbuch,' 2nd ed., Paderborn, 1901, prefers the derivation from *pulvicula (diminutive of pulvis, dust), as given by F. Diez (' Etymologisches Worterbuch der romanisohen Sprachen," 5th ed., Bonn, 1887), but mentions Baist's view (Ze.it- schrift fiir romanische philologie, v. 562) that it comes from pullus, *pulla, a young creature, chick. EDWARD BENSLY.

" Polilla " means the moth or worm that eats into wood, silk and woollen clothes, and fur. French teigne, mite, ver (qui ronge les etoffes), not the larger moth called in French phalene, papitton de nuit. Latin tinea, teredo.

Covarrubias, ' Tesoro de la Lengua Cas- teilana,' ed. 1611, says :

" Polilla, un gusanito que se cria en la ropa, y la come. Engendrase de no sacudir y orear ias ropas : y asi se dixo fde poluo, que es la materia deste animalico, quasi poluilla."

The augmented edition (1674), by the Padre B. R. Noydens, adds :

" Polilla es nombre sincopado de populilla, que se deriua de populor, popularis, por destruir ; como dize Virgilio, lib. i. Georg. populatque indigentem farcis (sic) [farris] aceruum Curculio ; que el gorgogo destruye gran monton de trigo."

" Gorgogo, gorqojo, Lat. curculio, animal paruum, frumentum corrodens : quasi gurgulio." Idem.

" Polilla, metafora. Lo que menoscaba 6 destruye insensiblemente alguna cosa. Comerse de polilla." ' Dice. Barcia.'

The word occurs in the same sense in Matt. vi. 19, "donde orin y polilla los [thesoros] consume" ("where moth and rust doth corrupt"). A. D. JONES.

Oxford.

LTJDGATE (11 S. iv. 485). Ludgate is mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his ' Historia Regum Britanniaa,' III. xx. Geoffrey was writing in about 1130. He gives a quasi- Welsh word, Parthlud, in ex- planation of the Old-English word " Ludes- gat," which he latinized with a final a. The equation " O.E. lud=O.W. lud " is merely visual. To advance it without knowing the meaning of either word is like equating Old High German ebur ("boar") with Old Celtic ebur (" yew-tree "). " Lud " is now short as to its vowel. If the u of Lludd ( = lud of, the twelfth century) were short, the word would rime with " with " ; if we take that u as long, we must rime with " seethe." A Welshman would represent the sound of modern English " Lud " by Lyd. For mediaeval English " Lucl " he

would write Lwd both riming with " good." If he thought u was long, he would write Lwd rime " mood." There is no parallel between Welsh u and English u. The Welsh u and u = English i and ee respectively.

The Celtic pantheon is a very much crowded one, and no investigator who has realized that would take up Prof. Anwyl's or Prof. Dottin's lists of Celtic gods without trepidation, even if it were necessary. In the case of " Ludes gat " such temerity is quite uncalled for. "Ludes gat," like " Ludes dun " and " Ludes cumb," is a regular and unimpeachable English forma- tion. It indicates possession by a male person whose name was made up of the Germanic prototheme Ludi and some deu- terotheme which we have no means of detect- ing. It may have been Ludibert or Ludica, Ludigar or Ludigast. We cannot tell : but we can be quite sure that the O.E. " Ludes," in A.D. 1130, was the genitive case of Ludi, or Lnide. ALFRED ANSCOMBE.

DR. RICHARD RUSSELL (US. iv. 509). In ' Some Lewes Men of Note,' by George Holman, late Mayor of Lewes, published in 1905, is a short, reliable biography of Dr. Russell, from which I select the following particulars, which will give G. F. R. B. the information he seeks :

" Richard Russell was born in the parish of St. Michael, Lewes, in the year 1687. The baptismal entry, dated 26 Nov., 1687, states : ' Then was borne, Richard the sonne of Nathaniell Russell and Mary his wife, and baptised the twenty-seventh day of the same month.' His father was a surgeon and apothecary, practis- ing in that parish, and a deacon of the Presby- terian body ; he died 8 March, 1712. Dr. Richard Russell died in London, 19 Dec., 1759, in the 72nd year of his age. He was buried in the family vault at South Mailing. In the register the date of his burial is given as 24 Dec., 1759. His eldest 'son, William, succeeded to the estate at Mailing, and, having adopted the profes- sion of a barrister, assumed his mother's family name of Kempe. He was known as Serjeant Kempe of Mailing. The will of Dr. Russell, dated 8 May, 1759, states that he gives to his wife, Marj* Russell, three houses, with their outhouses, gardens, and appurtenances, bounded by Market Lane to the east, and to Mr. Wm. Michell's garden to the west, in the parish of St. Michael in Lewes, and also his house at Brighthelmstone, with the furniture, stable, coachhouse, chariot, and pair of coach horses. He also bequeaths his wife 1,0007., and to his son Richard the next presentation to the living of Broadwater. A proviso relates to sundry bequests being left, upon the understanding that his wife and children give up and quit claim to the possession of Pedinghoe Farm, and also the farms at Pyecombe, and leaving his son William in quiet possession of the real and personal estate of his wife's late father."