Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/65

 9 th S. I. JAN. 15, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

' The Judges' Reforms, Report of the Council' 'nd., Tuesday, 9 Aug., 1892, 'The Judges teforms.' by a Member of the Bench ; ibid., Wednesday, 10 Aug., 1892, part ii. The lame of the writer does not appear (there- ore Palmer's 'Index' is exonerated), but I lave a remembrance of the articles having )een said to be written by Lord Bowen. In i foot-note on 6 Aug. Lord Bowen is named is having been on a former commission.

W. J. GADSDEN. Crouch End.

" DRESSED UP TO THE NINES " (8 th S. xii. 469). I beg leave to offer a pure guess as to this axpression. Perhaps others will guess some- thing better. I think that it is merely a variety of the phrase "dressed up to the eyes." This is a well-known expression. The ' H. E. D.' gives an example of " mortgaged up to the eyes." We frequently find the plural eyne ; in fact, it occurs in Shakespeare and Spenser. "We also find neye for eye. ^ I

five a quotation for neyes (i. e., eyes) in ' A tudent's Pastime,' p. 21. The 'H. E. D.' gives the plural nyen (i. e., neyne), but without a reference. Hal'liwell gives a still more ex- traordinary plural form, viz., nynon, with a reference to the ' Chronicon Vilodunense.'

The form neyne arose from the use of my neyne or thy neyne, instead of myn eyne or thyn eyne. But it could also be used with the dative of the article, of which the Mid. Eng. form was then. This occurs in such phrases as at then ale (also atten ale, atte nale); at then ende (also at the nende); for then ones (also for the nones, Mod. E. for the nonce). Hence to then eyne is a perfectly correct phrase, and to the neyne is a perfectly admis- sible variant of it. If this be spelt to the nine the sense is lost, and the addition of s becomes necessary for suggesting the plural of the numeral nine ; for the populace always insist on an etymology, and prefer an obvious one, even if it gives no sense.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

The late Dr. Brewer, in his ' Diet, of Phrase and Fable,' s.v. "Nine," has, '"Rigged to the nines ' or ' Dressed up to the nines,' To per- fection from head to foot." One would like to suggest that the phrase, "Nine tailors make a man," explains the connexion between the number nine and the condition of being well dressed, but such a derivation, although likely enough, cannot be verified. Such his- tory as there is of the origin of this latter phrase is to be found in situ.

ARTHUR MAYALL.

In 'A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant,' by Albert Barrere and Charles G.

Leland (London, George Bell & Sons, 1897), we find :

" Dressed to kill (American), to be over-dressed; equivalent to ' to be dressed to death,' ' dressed to the nines.' 'When we see a gentleman tiptoeing along Broadway, with a lady wiggle-waggling by his side, and both dressed to kill, as the vulgar would say, you may be sure that he takes care of number one.' Dow's 'Sermons.'"

J. B. FLEMING.

Kelvinside, Glasgow.

This is a very familiar saying to any towns- man in Scotland, whether it is of Yorkshire origin or not. There are also a few variants which one hears from time to time, such as is a familiar expression), " Dressed up to the scratch," " Dressed up to the knocker," &c. ROBERT F. GARDINER.
 * ' Dressed up to Dick " (" Up to Dick " itself

Glasgow.

" KIDS " (8 th S. < xii. 369). T. Lewis O Davies, M.A., in his 'Supplemental English Glossary,' describes " kid " to mean a young child, and quotes the following examples of its use in that sense :

And at her back a kid, that cry'd Still as she pinch'd it, fast was ty'd.

D'Urfey, 'Collins' Walk,' canto iv. " A fig for me being drowned, if the Tcid is drowned with me ; and I don t even care so much for the kid being drowned, if I go down with him." Reade, ' Never Too Late to Mend,' ch. xxiii. Annandale, in his ' Imperial Dictionary,'

S'.ves the same meaning, and quotes from ickens, " So you Ve got the kid."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

The fond mother calls her children her lambs. " My lamb " and " my lammy " are terms of endearment which we hear every day. The jocose vulgar naturally substitute " kids " for " lambs." Surely this is the whole and sole explanation. The suggested deriva- tion from chit is very unlikely. C. C. B.

Todd's Johnson's 'Dictionary' gives the derivation of this word as " kid, Danish."

J. P. STILWELL. Hilfield, Yateley.

Kid, a young goat, is easily applied slangily to a young child. Grose, 1796, has "kid, a child." Virgil's " Ite capellse " has been freely translated, " Go it, my kiddies."

G. H. THOMPSON.

I put this question to a jovial neighbour, who asks his married friends how their 'kids," "kiddies," or "kiddlings" are. He replied: "Little goats are kids, and so are little children. Kid means a youngster, either four or two legged." "How's the