Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/85

 12 S. II. JULY 22, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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to the word are numerous and picturesque. A recent one, from the United States, transfers " (> draw one's steel " from the sword to the pistol. " True as steel " would appear to go back to the thirteenth century : none of the two or three instances of it in Shakespeare is quoted. There is a nineteenth-century use of " steel " as short for " Bastile," of which four examples are given.

The etymology of " steelyard " was the subject of animated discussion in our own columns ten years ago, and the first instance of its occurrence is taken from our correspondent MB. MAYHEW'S letter at 10 S. vi. 413. The Dictionary definitely pronounces in favour of the etymology sial = sample, pattern +" yard," translation of hof; and, while allowing that its formation was suggested by the existence of the Steelyard^ decides in favour of the words " steel " + " yard" as the true derivation of the balance so called. These two articles, and that on " steelbow " cheptel defer count among those of highest historical interest in the section. The careful note explaining and illustrating " steelbow " is a definite and new contribution to the question.

A good early explanation (1785) has been found for "to hunt the steeple." For " steeple-chase " the earliest example is from 1805. We confess we were surprised to see that the word " steeple- jack " can be traced back no further than the eighties of last century. The Dictionary defines this hero as one " who climbs steeples or tall chimneys to repair them," making no mention of his more thrilling business of " throwing " them when required. A " steer " of wood found in two acts of Victoria is an odd expression which remains unaccounted for.

Under " stem " we have two substantives and no fewer than six verbs. The illustrations of the word in its philological sense are astonishingly poor ; and why should the examples have been taken from, nay, restricted to, the Greek language? The first must simply be incomprehensible to a person who does not know Greek : for he will not see how the relation of fiaivuto ftav bears out the definition. A "stem-winder," we leam, is U.S. slang for a person or thing that is first-rate. Under " stem," v. 2, is a reference to " stem, v. 4 , " which should read " stem, v. 3 ."

We noticed " stencil " as an interesting word, well illustrated, as is also " stenography " (first found in 1602) with its derivatives. " Step, substantive and verb, furnishes one of the best pieces of work in the whole section, especially in regard to etymological explanation and to the earlier quotations. One division is " b.

contcxlually. A footstep considered in regard

to its audibility," and there we wondered not to find Matthew Arnold's " What lights in the court what steps on the stair ? " so good and exact an instance of what was sought. A carriage " step " is first quoted from ' Pickwick : more recent than w<- should have guessed the word to be. On the other hand, " step ' as the block for a mast or capstan goes back 900 years or so. The military " step " is recorded in more than one illustration its length being reckoned at 30 m. "Step-" combined with terms of relationship records Gabriel Harvey's amusing Stepp-Tully and some other nonce-words. Oddly enough, while defining - stepmother " in its strict sense, and furnishing numerous illustrations of iiruv.-rbii.l use, the Dictionary gives no definite indication of what that proverbial use connotes.

Why Is the violet in general and the pansy in particular called " nlrpnmthiT " ? Only one instance is given.

The compounds with " stereo-," while nofc philologically interesting, illustrate well the scientific activities of recent years, and flll about eight columns. Under " stereotyped " (the only one of respectable age) is a quotation from a book on nervous diseases describing reiterated motions of arm or body known as " stereotyped move- ments " which seems a sort of oxvmoron, if not a bull.

On the vexed question of the derivation of " sterling " the Dictionary again speaks decisively at any rate against " Easterling." On the whole, it inclines to explain " ster " as from steorra, a star ; and to take " sterling " as a Norman penny with a small star upon it. This, article, again, is one of the best in the section, and we would place beside it that on the other im- portant historical word " steward," which, with its lucidity, its excellent marshalling of abundant information, and its copious but not exaggerated illustration, we would recommend to the student of history as well as to the student of philology.

" Stew," " stern," " stick " (especially " stick"),. " stiff," and " still " are the most considerable articles that remain, and we have left ourselves no space to say more than a few brief words in their praise. " Stew " falls etymologically into two groups : that derived from the French estui (cf. etui, which is used for a tub for fish), with the sense of pond or tank ; and that derived from or corresponding to estuve, estufa, stufa, Romanic forms of a widespread root from which come the forms leading up to our " stove " and the German Stube meaning a heated chamber. " Stick " represents an implement and an action of quasi- universal application, and it is no wonder that it is the source of an endless fund of racy and vigorous idiom. Under " stiff " we get some grim slang ; the word, to judge from a quotation from a last year's Morning Post, is still current in the trenches in the sense of corpse-^-a^ense which the last century expressed by " stiff *un."

An interesting account of the ' Oxford Diction- ary,' its past history and its present state, is delivered with this section. We learn that on. April 1 of this year the work extended to 13,224 pages, dealing with 357,279 words, illustrated by 1,540,040 quotations.

FIFTEENTH- AND SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BOOKS.

WE have had a more than usually interesting set of catalogues sent to us this month, and several lines of study are well illustrated in th>-ir i The following notes include not only works in their original editions belonging to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but also a few subsequent editions or facsimiles of such works, and here and there a history or literary essay on a subject belonging to that period.

We may begin with two items from Mr. C. J, Sawyer's Catalogue No. 41. One is a specim. n of English sixteenth-century printing done in 1590 by William I'l.n.-oiil.v- -in tl..- " Historie of George Castriot, surnamed Scanderberg [me]

King of Albanie by Jacques de Lavardui.

Lord of Plessis'Bourrot, newly translated by Z. I.,