Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/25

 12 S. V. JAN., 1919.]

KOTES AND QUERIES.

19

Eyewash. I have not seen this word noted in your columns. It is apparently used to denote anything that is exaggerated or calculated to deceive or mislead. Any portion of an official document, or a list of regulations, which is not of vital importance, is designated " eyewash." So also are complimentary remarks, either true or otherwise. H. TAPLEY-SOPEB.

Exeter City Library.

In sending another list of war words may I be permitted to point out that the spelling of the words in this and the first list is that given by the Tommies in France, and not mine ? I hope that SIB RICHABD TEMPLE will continue to give derivations of any Indian words in this list, and that other correspondents will add to it and explain any obscure words therein. Though some of the words may not be new, as " clink " and "chink," they have lain in obscurity, and have only come into common usage during the War and where soldiers do con- gregate.

Toothpick, persuader, toasting-fork. Bayonet. Ticklers. Improvised bombs made in " Tick- ler's " jam tins.

Aeroplanes. Buses. Archies. Anti-aircraft guna. Funk-hole. Dug-out or shelter. Emma Gee. Machine gun, from the initia letters M.Q-. as pronounced by the signallers

Jam on it. Similar to " cushy job " ; something nice and e#sy.

On the wire. When a man is wanted am cannot be found.

For the jumps. To go for trial for offence.

No bonne. No good ; useless. Windy. Frightened ; nervous. Drum -up. " I've some sugar. If you get tea and hot water we'll have a ' drum -up. "

Put your skates on. Get clear, to evade duty.

Crawling, creeping, squaring. Buying favours M oosh. Guard-room. Chewing the fat. Fault-finding. Bumble, v. To disturb or annoy. Taped oil. Take the measure of a man. Knock the end in. Spoil the whole thing. Spruce, v. To deceive.

Sweating. Getting warm, probably from the game of hide-and-seek. Getting excited.

Shot up the back. Put hors de combat by some saliy. Found out.

Put dots on one. To core or tire. Put a jerk in it. Smarten your actions. Minnie. A shell from a Mineniverfer. Diggers. Au stralian s.

A man working a searchlight is said to be on the " pictures " or " movies " ; one risking a great deal, or playing a losing hazard, is " chancing his mit."

ARCHIBALD SPABKE.

any

A few evenings ago I was walking to the railway station with an Australian soldier on leave from France. In the semi- darkness we met two Tommies, one of whom saluted my companion with " Good-night, Digger." My friend said that Digger was the name he had always heard in France applied to Australians, and that " Bill Jim," used in some Australian papers, was quite un- familiar to him. J. R. TKOBNE.

As some old regimental nicknames are printed by MB. SPABKE at the second reference, it is worth while to draw attention to 9 S. v. 104, 161, 224, 263, 377, 438. For mottoes see ibid., p. 389.

Nicknames and mottoes are given in John S. Farmer's ' Regimental Records of .the British Army,' 1901 ; and in 'Regi- mental Nicknames and Traditions of the British Army,' published by Gale & P olden, 3rd ed., 1891 ; 4th ed., 1915.

Care should, I think, be taken to dis- tinguish the battalions in linked-battalion- regiments. Notably nicknames derived from regimental numbers are not applicable to both battalions ; e.g., " The Three Tens " (30th Regiment) is not applicable to " The Lily- Whites " (59th Regiment), though these two regiments are the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the East Lancashire Regiment. Although the Territorial titles were given as long ago- as 1881, I believe that many of the regi- ments or battalions cling to-day, un- officially, to. their old numbers.

ROBEBT PlEBPOINT.

LINES UNDEB A CBUCIFIX (12 S. iv. 297). There seems to be little doubt, from the respective passages transcribed from Weever

and Fynes Moryson by PBOF. that the two seventeenth-century writers had, consciously or unconsciously, a common original. The date of that (obviously pre- Reformation) is not determined. There is a. rare old book in Scots orthography pub- lished in English seventeen years earlier "han Moryson' s and thirty -one years earlier
 * han Weever' s which it will not be un-

interesting to cite here for the sake of some verses which it contains, in the nature of a doctrinal descant.

The. stout little volume in question 444 pp. plus 20) is entitled

A | Facile Traictise | Contenand first ane nfallible reul | to discern e trewfrom fals religion Vertew & effects of the Sacraments | togider with. ertaine Prayers of deuotion. | Dedicat to hi* overain | Prince the Kings Maiestie | of Scotland*
 * Nixt, a declaration of the Nature, Num. | beiy