Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/500

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NOTES AND QUEKIES. [11 s. vi. NOV. 23, 1912.

varying terminations of employe, employes' employe?, and employees, all know who are acquainted with the language of our neigh- bours. Our journalists observe the numbers, but they are often hopelessly at sea with regard to the genders and accents, misusing the former and ignoring the latter. In many cases there is no need to borrow the word, as our tongue is rich enough without it. This matter is clearly explained on p. 36 of ' The King's English,' published by the Clarendon Press in 1906 :

" The word employe is often a long, ugly, and unnatural substitute for men, workmen, or hands, one of which should have been used in the first two passages below. But it has a value where clei'ks or higher degrees are to be included, as in the third passage. It should be used as seldom as possible, that is all : The warehouses of the Russian Steamship Company here have been set on fire by some dismissed employes. Times. The employes of the Trans-Caucasian line to-day struck work. Times. The new project, article 17, ordains that all employes of the railway, whatever their rank or the nature of their employment, are to be considered as public officials. Times."

The compilers of this volume rightly regard the word as pure French, but a little before or after the year 1906 some attempt was made to anglicize it. In the late F. Howard Collins' s excellent ' Authors' and Printers' Dictionary ' (tenth thousand, 1909) we are told that " employee," without an accent, is frequently used for employe, but he does not recommend its adoption. Had he lived until the present time, I think he would have done so, for the word is being more and more used. Though not found in the National Health Insurance Act, it will nevertheless, in consequence of that Act, with its constant repetition of " employers " and " employed contributors," be soon generally accepted. The introduction of the Linotype machine has had more to do with the anglicization of the term than anything else. I have noticed that " employees " has been adopted by The Athenaeum and The Observer, and has received the imprimatur of ' N. & Q.' On the other hand, I saw it printed as . " employes " in a leading article in a well- known provincial newspaper on 15 Oct. last. It may be added that the formation of such words is not to be encouraged. If English grammarians hold what the Aus- tralian natives call a " corroboree," or the Congo Africans a " jamboree," they will not, I am sure, sanction such monstrosities as " kickee," " bittee," or " struckee " as derivatives of "kick," "bite," and "strike." JOHN T. CURRY.

MAIDENS' GARLANDS (US. vi. 251, 335). In an unsigned article on ' Virgins' Garlands ' in Country Life, 8 Nov., 1902, reference is made to garlands in the churches at Minsterley, Astley Abbots, and Shrawar- dine, in Shropshire. The garlands at Minsterley, seven in number, are described from notes then recently made. The earliest is "believed to bear date 1554." Two of the others are dated 1736, one 1734, and one 1751. At Astley Abbots there is only one garland, inside of which

" hang a pair of large kid gloves, and with them a strip of parchment stating ' This garland was placed in this church in memory of Hannah Phillips, who died on the eve of her marriage at Astley Abbots, I860.' "

The reference to the garlands at Shrawardine is from " an old county history," c. 183040, when there were " several " in the church. It is also stated that there is one at Acton Burnell, kept at the vicarage.

F. H. C.

LORD TRURO'S UNIVERSAL INFORMATION BUREAU : THE DUTCH ELL (11 S. vi. 251, 335). I can quite understand that the Bureau failed to discover the length of the Dutch ell. The usual handbooks of foreign weights and measures assume that in Hol- land, as in other countries of which the Government has adopted the metric system, the old measures were extinguished. The fact is that in all these countries the old measures are still used whenever police interference can be evaded ; when it cannot, the metric quantities nearest to the familiar measures become the usual trade -units.

The Dutch ell is one of the span -ells, multiples of the span, which is, always and everywhere, approximately equal to 9 in. It is practically the same as the Flemish ell which figured in the arithmetic books of my schooldays three spans, or 27 in. This ell may possibly survive in the English lace- trade ; it is still extant in Holland, Belgium, and, perhaps, in French Flanders ; and it is almost identical with the ell of Portugal and its colonies ; also with the Turkish pik, a widespread measure in Northern Africa.

The length of the Dutch and Flemish ell was originally about 27*3 in., but it dimin- ished, probably under the influence of trade with England. In Holland and the Dutch colonies, as at the Cape, it is 27 '08 in. The Portuguese ell, of three spans (equal to 26 Jin.), rose, for piece-goods, to three long spans (palmos avantajados), or 27'08 in., exactly the Dutch ell. In Venice the ell was 26*9 in. In the Roman States it was