Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/229

 9s.x. SEPT. 20, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

221

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER W, 1902.

CONTENTS. -No. 247.

NOTES: Notes on Skeat's 'Concise Dictionary,' 221 Westminster Changes, 222 Shakespeariana, 224 Oxford at the Accession of George I., 225 Human Saliva Authors' Slips "Wampum" Thicknesse, 226.

QUERIES : Edward and James Moore, 226 Van de Pump Vincent of Long Ditt-m Pre-Celtic Britain Stani- hurst Arms Goethe Cureton Monument Lyrics for Music Reliquary at Anstey Qrissard General Des- borough's House Chalmers, Portratt Painter" Tomato." 227 I. O.U. Hereford Manor-houses Monmouth Rebel- lionPricket Candlesticks Heriot Kat-cakes " Bap" =Breakfast-roll De Barre Family and Worksop Priory "Linney "-Masculine D es Delaval-Carey, 228 White- headed Boy Jews and Eternal Punishment Admiral Byron William Ball's Poems-Bristow Family Shelley at Bracknell, 229.

REPLIES : -Shelley's Ancestry, 229 -Charleton ' Kit-Cat " Portraits Coleridge Bibliography Title of Book Bran- still Castle, 231 'Vicar and Moses' Sale of Prince of Wales's Theatre Baker Family, 232-" Chesnut" Arms of Bton and Winchester Polygraphic Hall, 233 Optic Glass " Nonesopretties," 234 " Cond " Scott and Wilkie Periwinkle, 236 Charles II and West Dorset Bell Inscription Medallion of Scott Bvolution of a Nose, 23^ First Christmas Card Watson of Barrasbridge English Families in Kurland German Letters, 237- Tbackeray's London Houses Wine in Public Conduits- Initial for Forename, 238 Stamp Collecting Chess Playing Monastic Sheep Farming, 239.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Hogarth's ' Nearer East ' Schroer's Grieb's ' German-English Dictionary 'Tennyson's ' In Memoriam ' Glauser s ' French Commercial Correspond- ence ' Wyatt's ' Old English Reader.'

Notices to Correspondents.

NOTES ON SKEAT'S 'CONCISE DICTIONARY,' 1901.

1. Shed. In the dictionary this word is treated as a dialectal form of " shade." The form schudde (a shed) in the ' Promptorium ' stands in the way of this equation. M.E. schudde would represent an O.E. *scydd. For the vocalization compare cudgel, runnel, rush, representatives of O.E. cycgel, rynel, rysc. An O.E. scydd, of doubtful meaning, is regis- tered in the Bos worth -Toller dictionary as occurring twice in the charters. It is possible that this word is the O.E. original of the ' Promptorium ' form. The Kentish dialectal form of an O E. scydd would quite regularly be shed, just as O.E. mys (mice), old Kentish mes, survives in Kentish mees. O.E. scydd is probably the same word as Swedish skydd, protection.

2. Enceinte. This is explained as being the equivalent of a Latin incincta (ungirt). It is not clear, however, why a woman in this situation should be spoken of as "ungirt." The Italian form is incinta, and the word can be best explained from the Italian. In Fan- fani's ' Vocabolario,' 1898, we find : " Incingere^

(1) cingere, circondare, (2) concepire, ingravi- dare, p. pass, incinto gravida." From this we see plainly that the prefix in- has not here a negative meaning.

3. March. From the dictionary the student would suppose that the English name of the month was due immediately to the Anglo- French form Marz, and that the change of pronunciation from " Marts " to " March " happened on English soil. The pronuncia- tion " March " is really of Picard origin. The Latin form was Martins. In Picardy Latin ti, tj, ce, ci were pronounced tsh, not ts as in Central French. So our paunch represents Picard panche, the Central French form being pance (now panse): Lat. panticem. Compare the verb launch, Picard lancher, Fr. lancer, Lat. lanceare (Ducange).

4. Skates. The ' Concise ' tells us that "skates" and the Dutch schaatsen are due immediately to Picard French. The ts pro- nunciation really points to a Central French origin. Compare O.Fr. eschace, a stilt (twelfth century), where thjrc =ts. The form "scat- ches" (stilts) appears in Cotgrave (s.v. eschasses). " Scatches " is due immediately to the Picard form escaches. The French forms eschace, escache point to a Romanic type acacia, "stilts" (Ducange), a word probably of Teutonic origin.
 * skakja, which is to be found in Low Lat.

5. Valise. The Fr. valise is said in the ' Concise ' to be of Italian origin. But the form valise cannot be a later form of the It. valigia. The laws of Italian phonology show that this is an impossible assumption. Wherever in the Romanic languages there are cognate forms with -s/- ana -gj- the -sj- forms must be the older. Compare, for instance, Latin phasianus, pensionem, occa- sionem with Italian fagianp, pigione, cagione. So the Low Latin valisia which is found in Ducange is older than It. valigia. The relative antiquity of the forms with -sj- is also vouched for by the M.H.G. vehs, due to valisia. Under the words "courtesan," " artisan," and " partisan " the * Concise ' makes the same mistake of deriving the French forms with s from the Italian forms with q.

6. Wallah. This word is known to us through its use in compounds, as in "Competition- wallah." The 'Concise' tells us that the word originally meant "an agent, doer." This is not quite accurate. There is no proof that the Hindustani vdld was originally a substantive. It is true that Dill-vald means a man of Dilli (Delhi), and go-vdld gvdld a cow-man or cow-herd, go meaning " a cow." The Hindustani word,