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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. m. FEB. 10, 1917.

from such words as " roadway." " Hall- way," too, is tolerated, but our " railway " is tabooed. The front garden of a small house in a row or terrace is in the States a " dooryard." A gasometer is a " gas-tank." A market garden is a " truck-farm," and its proprietor a " truck- raiser." There are persons in New York, as in London, who hire a dress suit when the occasion requires them to keep up an appearance. But they call it a " rented," not a " hired " suit. Why people possessed by a passion for clipping sentences should prefer " automobile " to " motor," I do not know. Even the spelling must be different, so pyjamas are " pajamas," vendor is " vender," and all words like " centre " are spelt " center," &c.

PENRY LEWIS.

MR. THORNTON, at the penultimate refer- ence, says : "Canadians within the last thirty years have learned to ' talk American.' " It is difficult for Englishmen, even of the authority of MR. THORNTON, to realize that what is now the Province of Ontario was settled mainly from New York and Penn- sylvania, and that the American dialect, which was honestly come by, is rather a disappearing factor than a recent acquisition. There was very little British immigration into Canada before the days of steamships. The great influx from Britain was after 1845. No doubt a great many old British locutions subsist here which have dis- appeared at home, and I fancy that quite a number are surviving here which are no longer to be found in the American States from which they were brought.

AVERN PARDOE.

Legislative Library, Toronto.

The word " cracket," for a low wooden stool, is in common use on Tyneside. See Brockett's ' Glossary,' and Heslop, ' Northumberland, &c, Words ' ; the latter gives it as a stool without legs. In this town, however, it is made of an oblong piece of wood with a piece at right angles at each end, forming two feet to raise it from the floor. R. B R.

South Shields.

ENGLISH COLLOQUIAL SIMILES (12 S. iii. 27, 50, 77). (ii.) " As sick as a cushion." Is this a true simile ? I wou Ul suggest that it is an elliptical phrase meaning ' as sick as (to need) a cushion," the cushion being wanted to lie upon. This is an idiom which is quite common in ordinary conversation, though I have never seen it in a book. For instance, to some one who complains of

feeling unwell, the question may be put :: " Are you as ill as bed ? " meaning " Are- you as ill as (to go to) bed ? "

3. " As good as pie " is a phrase I have heard quite often, always with reference to good behaviour. I think it is to be found in J. C. Snaith's English novel of ' Araminta.'

8. " As true as a needle to the pole." Is ' The Antiquary,' by Sir Walter Scott, sufficiently modern ? An amusing use of the phrase will be found in chap. xiv.

17. " As lecherous as a monkey." Dante Gabriel Rossetti's picture ' Hesterna Rosa r represents two gamblers and their mistresses^ One of the women is overcome with shame and hides her face in her hands. The other- is brazen, and a baboon is placed beside her- to typify her sensuality.

M. H. DODDS.

Home House, Low Fell, Gateshead.

I once made a long list of these, in- cluding only such as I have actually heard and do not remember to have seen in print, but it has been mislaid. Here are a tew specimens that I remember :

1. As dead as Chelsea. Is this common ?

2. As dead as a hammer.

3. As deaf as a beetle (mallet).

4. As wick (quick) as fire.

5. As stiff as Tommy Harrison when his mother - couldn't bend him.

6. As rough as Hickling gorse. In Notts.

7. As long as my arm.

8. As full as my stocking. When the leg is in it, I suppose.

9. As sad as liver.

10. As mad as a tup. A shepherd's variant of " as mad as a bull."

11. As drunk as David's sow. ? King David, or; some local David.

12. To run at large, like Chapman's dog. Note,,, not a chapman's dog.

13. In and out, like a dog at a fair.

14. In and out, like a dog's hind leg.

15. To hang the lip like a motherless foal.

16. To go at a thing like a dog at a dead sheep -

17. As high as the steeple. -

18. As wet as litter.

19. As sour as whig.

20. As fat as a parson's horse.

21. As dark as a dog's mouth.

22. As scared as a rabbit.

23. As hoarse as a crow.

24. As cross as the tongs.

25. As easy as get out.

26. As bug (conceited) as a louse. 27- As bright as a new pin.

28. Like a guinea fiddler.

29. Like a yard of pump- water.

30. Like a donkey s gallop.

31. As thin as a rail.

32. As yellow as a guinea.

33. As long as a fiddle. Said of a face.

C. C. B.