Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/121

 12 s. m. FEB. io, i9i7.i NOTES AND QUERIES.

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<dTink. Vast respect for the Virgin Mary. Fre- quent preaching. A general Chapter yearly (says Hospinian, ' De Orig. et Progr. Monach.' 392-3). Long fasts, for seven months together, from Holy- Tood-day till Easter, and at other times on Fridays, with some other days. No flesh except to the sick. Only woollen in dress and beds, nor even with counterpanes (culcitris). No intercourse with women. Silence at certain places and hours ; 4hat at table first founded by Jordan of Paris, general of the order about 1226. Buildings low, suitable to their poverty. Cloister and in it cells accommodated for study, and in the cells an amage of the Virgin Mary and Crucifix. More particulars of this order may be found in the citations I have given from MS. Cott. Nero A XII. <?onstit. Fratrum ; which from the single term fratres, should belong to the Dominicans."

J. S. UDAL. F.S.A.
 * [Should not culcitris be rendered " mattresses "?]

MBS. ESTEK (12 S. iii. 61). After Douglas, Duke of Hamilton, was divorced, he gave to Mrs. Esten a portrait of himself and his wife, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Duchess is on horseback in a red riding-habit, .-and he is standing by her side.

Mrs. Esten afterwards gave it to Sir Thomas Lawrence, in exchange for a portrait -by him of herself. At Sir Thomas's death it was sold, and came into the possession of Mr. Strutt, and it now belongs to Lord Iveagh. CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield, Reading.

AMERICANISMS (12 S. ii. 287, 334, 414 496 ; iii. 35). The tendency of " the American language " seems to be to omit the ^auxiliary verbs, or other words in a sentence that can be supplied in the minds of the reader or hearer. Here are some more examples :

" The Russian Government ordered his name stricken from the list of Polish nobility " (' My Official Wife,' p. 170).

" He then directed my luggage brought from "the hotel " (Ibid., p. 224=).

" I ordered a dainty repast sent to mv wife " (ibid., p. 56).

" To write Arthur Lenox and his wife upon the 3iotel book " (Ibid.).

With the Editor's permission there are some other Americanisms I should like to "" study into " here. Some expressions are, I suppose, archaic English and survivals, smelt it," "gotten" : for "got," though here the effect is to lengthen instead of to shorten, as it is also in ' ' don't you want I should wipe ?" (the dishes) for "don't you want me to wipe ? " But " I don't feel to " for " I don't feel inclined to " conforms to the general rule I have stated. So also, perhaps, does " You don't hurt you " instead of " You
 * as, for instance, " he smelled of it " for " he

don't hurt yourself." " Admire," of course, in old English meant " wonder," but an American uses it with still another meaning, as in " I should admire to carry ye," ad- dressed by a lover to his lass. There seems to be a tendency, too, to alter English idiomatic expressions wherever possible sometimes hardly to their improvement. For " apart from this " is substituted " aside from this " ; our " into the bargain " becomes " in the bargain " ; " pouring out the tea " is reduced to " pouring tea." " He groaned like he was dying " grates somewhat on an English ear, but the Ameri- can organ is different.

When we should describe an untidy person as " down at heel," to an American he would be " run over at the heels." " He had not been away from the house in two days " means, I suppose, " for the last two days." " It was an accident, at least for the most part," would be in American " It was an accident, at least most all of it." It was otherwise, apparently, during an episode when " the neighbours threw most all of their things at him " (" most " = " almost "). At Brighton people go for a bathe in the sea, but at Coney Island they " go in bathing " henee a remark in a story in Harper : "If there was not any sea, then you wouldn't have to go in bathing." " I asked her what she wanted of salt " is perhaps archaic for " I asked her what she wanted with the salt." Love of brevity again accounts for such expressions as " he couldn't stay home," " he used to come in, evenings," " night before last."

As regards expletives, when an Englishman would exclaim " What on earth ! " an American would ejaculate " What in land ! " Other expletives that have for us no meaning not that such flowers of speech need have any meaning are : " What in Sam Hill ! " " Land sake ! " " Sam Hill," no doubt, was of the company of " Great Scott."

Words in common use with accepted meanings in this country are used with other meanings in the States, or have other familiar words substituted for them. A policeman's beat is his " post " ; a fishing- rod is a " fishing-pole " ; a hoop at croquet is a " wicket " ; a pigsty is a " pig-pen " ; a tram-car is a " trolley-car." But why is a cannon at billiards a " carom" ?* Where this word has come from I do not know, the French being carambolage. " Drive- way " for drive is perhaps formed by analogy

Harper's Magazine, October,' 1912.