Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/470

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. 111. OCT., 1917.

in Fraser's Magazine, 1830. " Verona 1" is a drug that belongs to the twentieth century. " Verquere," an obsolete form for backgammon, is new to us. " Vertigo " ought really to have its second syllable long, but English pronunciation is often inaccurate. " Angina," with its long penultimate, has gone wrong the other way. " Verseman " is a convenient word which Prior, Leigh Hunt, and Mr. Axistin Dobson have used. We commend it to those reviewers who write too readily of " poetry." Queen Victoria has given her name to a number of things, from a carriage to a plum. " Vignette," earlier spelt " vinet," was originally a design in imitation of the tendrils of the vine in architecture or decorative work, and later came to mean an ornamental design, drawing, or picture. The literary use of " vig- nettes " for little pictures in prose or verse, like " pastels " and " profiles," might have been included in the Dictionary. It belongs specially to Mr. Austin Dobson, who produced ' Vignettes in Rhyme ' in 1873, and began a series of ' Eighteenth-Century Vignettes ' in 1892. As the mineral " Villa rsite " is included, we might have expected to see the flower Villa rsia of the same origin.

Familiar, social life is illustrated by " vests " worn beneath the coat, which were introduced by Charles II., says Pepys ; and the " vesta ' match, first quoted from 1839. We do not know when the frequent query among smokers, " Turkish or Virginian ? " came in, and the Dictionary does not help us, appearing to ignore the use of the adjective by itself for tobacco, though it has an early reference to " Virginian vapour." " Virgin's bower " as a name for more than one sort of clematis is quoted from a dic- tionary of 1725, but it might have been traced earlier, in Parkinson's quaint ' Paradisus,' chap. 102. '

"Very" is a long article which shows the Dictionary's remarkable powers of analysis. A good deal of time must have been spent also on the discrimination of the various senses of " vice " and " virtue "and their derivatives. " Vicious," used specially of horses inclined to be dangerous, as in the correspondence of Mr. Soapy Sponge, has one quotation from Swift referring to men. We might add Mr. Bailey's reproof to Mr. Jonas Chuzzlewit, when the latter in a drunken state shook his fist at his wife : " What, you're wicious, are you ? Would you though ! You'd better not.

" Virtue " is a word very frequent in Shake- speare, and has now generally lost its Latin sense of valour. A subsection is devoted to " make a virtue of necessity," which is traced to Chaucer, but Shakespeare is not cited. He has it in ' The Two Gentlemen of Verona,' IV. i. 62.

The selection of quotations is generally ad- mirable and comprehensive, though ' The Penny Cyclopaedia ' is a poor thing to quote for " Vice- chancellor," especially in academic quarters. Gunning's famous ' Reminiscences of Cambridge ' is full of the word ; e.g., under the year 1829 : " The Vice-chancellor's wine bore so high a character that there was a strong muster on this occasion " (the feast at his election).

Shakespeare's " viewless " in a magnificent passage of ' Measure for Measure ' has, we are glad to learn, been frequently echoed by modern prose. We wish occasionally, as we have said

in former years, for a fuller representation of poetry. Thus " victor " (figurative) has no- quotation after Shelley (1811) except one from The Daily Telegraph. We think at once- of Tennyson's sonnet to Victor Hugo :

Victor in drama, victor in romance. The " vintner " is glorified in FitzGerald's ' Omar,' and " vintage " is also familiar in the same poem. " Violin " and " viol " have roused the enthusiasm of lovers of words by their sound- The former is in Tennyson's ' Maud,' xxii. 3 :

All night have the roses heard

The flute, violin, bassoon.

There is a good deal of interest to the student in obsolete or dialectic words. We fancy that the cheese " blue vinny " has had its literary life ensured by Mr. Thomas Hardy ; but we have mislaid the reference. There is a " sky-blue visite " in ' Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour,' con- cerning the nature of which the present reviewer was never certain. The Dictionary enlightens him : it was a lady's cape. From the same source a great many queries might be solved, as Skeat used to point out to our contributors- But the world goes on making its silly guesses and absurd conjectures supported, it must be admitted, by the casual journalist. Every scholar and every lover of English ought to use ' The Oxford Dictionary ' ; and every one who is interested in his mother- tongue should realize that the Dictionary offers him a unique chance of reducing his ignorance of it.

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WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, but we will forward advance proofs of answers received if a shilling is sent with the query ? nor can we advise correspondents as to the value of old books and other objects or as to the means of disposing of them.

ON all communications must be written the nam j and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub< lication, but as a truarantee of good faith.

WYCKHAK (" Prudentius "). You have not sent name and address. Please do so.

F. (" Mumpsimus "). ' The Oxford Dictionary * says : " In allusion to the story (in R. Pace r ' De Fructu,' 1517, p. 80) of an illiterate English priest, who, when corrected for reading ' quod in ore mumpsimus ' in the Mass, replied, ' I will not change my old mumpsimus for your new sump- simus.' "

Lucis (" Camouflage "). One of the words brought into general use by the War. Beau- jean's abridgment of Littre gives the first defini- tion of camouflet as " Fumee epaisse qu'on souffle- malicieusement dans le nez de quelqu'un avec un cornet de papier allumeY' The latest edition of Bellows's French and English dictionary (1916) includes the verb camoufler, " to disguise : to- 'rig out,' " marking it as familiar or slang. Camouflage is evidently the next derivative, but is not in Bellows.

CORRIGENDUM. " Elswick," occurring twice in the query ' Jane Brown, Centenarian ' (ante? p. 419, col. 1), should be Elwick.