Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/209

 2< S. NO 10., MAR. 8. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

201

cal terms which he selected from the Onomasticon of Julius Pollux, which he gave at the end of his Dictionarium Medicum (Paris), 1564, p. 583. in- cluded fpv0poire\as, but subsequently the learned Jungerman^on the authority of the Palatine MS., rejected that word, and in its place gave tyvtrt- TreAoj, " quod MS. clare hie habet," says he ; and this emendation was approved and adopted by Lederlin and Hemsterhuis, the successive editors of the valuable edition of Pollux published at Amsterdam in 1706.

The true etymology of erysipelas is "probably that given in the Etymologicum Magnum (quoted by Scapula, in WAas), -n-apa rb 'EPTE20AI rb at]ua eVl rb DEAA2. K. T. A. With this agrees what the learned author of the Lexicon Medicum Etymolo- gicum, Paris, 1693, gives under Erysipelas, which he deduces rightly from tpvu, traho, and ire'Aas, prope : " quod sit tumor a bile et sanguine fer- vidiori se in yicinas partes difFundens." The er- ratic character of this form of inflammation is continually obvious. ARTERUS.

Dublin.

Etymology of " Theodolite" frc. (2 nd S. i. 73.)

1. Erysipelas. Greek, epvaiirthas ; from epv0p6$, red, and Tre'AAa, skin. The change from tpvOp into fpv<r is also observable in the word fyutn'grj, the red blight, robigo, or mildew ; and in the Italian rosso, from the same root.

2. Theodolite. Greek, &ea, a prospect, and 5?jA<fa, to make visible. I remember the etymo- logy of this word was set me as a poser on the Great Western, at the time of the railway mania in 1846, when the instrument was brought more prominently before the public than at present. It is an ill-compounded word, and its proper form would appear to be theadelote ; all of whom I after- wards made the inquiry, if they did not stick in the former half of the word, were sure to be laid fast in the SO'AOS of the latter. At length I hit ac- cidentally on the above, which I think must be the true derivation.

3. Caucus. This Yankeeism has already been discussed in " N. & Q." (1 st S. xi. 28.) See also Trench On the Study of Words, p. 138.

E. S. TAYLOR.

Heaven in the sense of Canopy (2 nd S. 5. 133.) The question of B. S. KENNEDY is a curious one, and I myself have sought in vain for such another instance as that which he gives. Some time since I " made a note " upon the subject, in which I collected a number of analogical expressions.

Heaven. There can be no doubt that our word ceiling is from the Latin ccelum, through the French del. The French has "ciel de lit," and " ciel d'autel," in both of which cases it may be well rendered canopy. The Italian has sopraccielo for the "ciel de lit" of the French, and with these agrees the/' cielo de la cama" of the Spanish.

The last-named language has also " cielo del coche " for the top of a coach, and, what is still more singular, " cielo de la bocca " for the roof of the mouth. Your correspondent refers to the like use of the German himmel, and he might have added the Dutch and the Danish. In the same way, in Greek we have ovpavbs and ovpavtffKos, both of which are used of the roof of the mouth, for the covering of a tent, ceiling, &c. Still, again, we have an analogous idiom in Latin, cce- lum for ceiling, and cesium capitis for the top of the skull. If we go further abroad we shall find, Rabb., mp-'DKJ, " the roof of a cottage," literally the heaven of a cottage. And, lastly, in the Syriac we have " heaven of the palate," for " roof of the mouth," and " heaven of a house," for its " roof." So far I can go, others may go further ; but this will suffice to show the extent to which a remark- able idiom may travel. If Cowley's use of the word "heaven" was an innovation, it was much like that of children, who are prone to call the expanse above us " the ceiling." The poet has not violated the etymology of the word=that which is above us. B. H. C.

Ancient Origin of Phrases now in vulgar Use (2 nd S. i. 44.) To this list may be added, "to keep a corner of the stomach." In the Curculio of Plautus, Act III. Sc. 1., the Parasite says,

" Edepol, nse ego lieic me intus explevi probe, Et quidem reliqui in ventre cellse uni locum, Ubi reliquiarum reliquias reconderem."

I find the phrase in Swift's Polite Conversation, coupled with another, of which I ask an explan- ation :

"Lady Smart. Poh! Sir John; you have seen nine houses since you eat last : come, you have kept S, comer of your stomach for a bit of venison-pasty."

As if the saying were peculiarly appropriate to a venison-pasty, we find it again so applied in Gold- smith's Haunch of Venison :

" He'll come round in a trice ;

He's keeping a corner for something that's nice. There's a pasty."

F.

Banns called on Holidays (2 nd S. i. 78.) - As- suming your remarks at p. 34., and those cited at p. 142. from the Bishop of Exeter's speech, to have established the period after the Nicene Creed as that at which banns of marriage may lawfully be published, and at which the church intended them so to be, the Query of K. M. at p. 78. remains to be answered, " Is the novelist accurate in representing them to be published on a holiday f " The words of the authentic Rubric are " published in the church three several Sundays or holy-days, immediately before the sen- tences for the offertory." It would thence ap- pear, apart from any usage or custom, to be quite