Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/61

 ii s. v. JAX. 20, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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seems to reduce the motto to a geographica expression. The crest is the only part o the present design which is to be left as it is As an Australian, a loyal subject of the Empire, and a student of heraldry, I enter an emphatic protest against such alterations as are proposed being made to the Australian coat of arms.

Xotes on the Australian Badges.

New South Wales. The badge is made from the centre portion of the arms on a white ground, in lieu of the azure field of the shield, and leaving out the charged cantons, as in complete arms.

Victoria. The badge is made from the whole arms, with the crown portion of the crest added as ensignment.

Queensland. The badge is made from the crest, less the two sugarcanes and the wreath of the colours.

The other three States possess only assumed arms ; but for South Australia and for Western Australia the badge also appears on the State seal.

E. WILSON DOBBS. Toorak, Victoria.

" THE THAMES." The question has been raised as to how the h got into the word Thames ; and we have been told that it means " the smooth " or " tranquil stream." Perhaps a few words of explanation may be permitted.

As Cfesar gives the f^orm Tamesis, and Tacitus has Tamesa, it is clear that the h is unoriginal.

In Anglo-Saxon the a was mutated to ce, and later into e. The standard A.-S. forms are Temese and Temes ; see plentiful examples in Bosworth and Toller.

The Middle-English forms are well shown in ' Piers Plowman,' Text C. xvii. 108, where we find Temese ; but in other MSS. also Temse, Tempse, and (I regret to say) Themese.

The usual English habit of dropping the vowel of the second syllable of trisyllabic names (as in Leicester, &c.) reduced the trisyllabic Temese to Temse. The strong emphasis even led some to insert a p, as in Tempse. This is worth noting, as there was another " Thames " in Bedfordshire, com- memorated in the place-name Tempsford. At a later time the final e dropped off, giving the monosyllabic form Terns, which, as every one knows, represents the modern pronunciation, if we only bear in mind that the final z-sound in a word is always mis- written as.

Hence the true English forms are perfectly certain. It was Tem-e-se (in three syllables) in early times ; then Tem-se (in two syllables) later on ; and it is Terns now. In the modern " Thames," the spelling with a is due to our absurd worship of what is called " classical " ; we carefully misspell it with a out of regard for Czesar and Tacitus.

The inserted h is due to another cause, viz., a habit of Anglo-Norman scribes, as I have already explained in print several times ; see, in particular, pp. 471--5 of my ' Notes on English Etymology.'

Briefly, the Norman scribe often fancied that the English t was stronger than his own, and seemed to be followed by a faint aspirate which he denoted by h. Hence we find him writing Thoft for Toft, thown for town, and le-th for let. So he wrote Themese or Themse for Temese and Temse. Those who mis- wrote the name with an a wrote Thamese and Thames. And the last of these has prevailed ; for unfortunately the most grotesque form often appeals most to the English eye, which has been elected as judge in place of the ear.

I propose to discuss the " quietness " of the stream in a future note.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

" COMFREY." I have just received from the Liverpool Medical Institution a notice- paper in which is the announcement of a paper to be read by Dr. Macalister on the urgical value, as a cell proliferant, of the root of symphytum. This paper will afford an interesting instance of modern science ^plaining the value of herbs now almost ntirely neglected. The notice of it has led me to investigate the English name of this plant, the " comfrey." In French it is consoude, in Provencal counsoudo, in Italian onsolida names all indicating the con- solidating surgical properties of its root, ts use in healing ulcers, and even fractures. But whence the corresponding English name ? The ' N.E.D.,' with interesting quotations showing the use of the plant in 'eechdom, gives its name as "of obscure etymology." The first quotation (1000) ndicates a mediaeval derivation : " Accipe de confirma, hoc est consolida," rightly not accepted. The first syllable corresponds to consolida, consoudo ; but whence the econd ? Reference to the 'E.D.D.' puts Tie on the track. I find its name in Banff is ' comfort-knit-bane," in Aberdeen "comfer- tnitbeen. ' ' This name is evidently a doublet : ' knit-bane " as uniting fractures, and 'comfort" in the sense of the 'N.E.D.'