Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/433

 9* S. XL MAY 30, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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to have passed over the subject in silence, that a convention of the Latin races has just been held in Rome for the purpose of discuss- ing the best means of forwarding the study of Latin in the world. Scholars will find a full account of this convention, written in Latin, in a recent number of the Vox Urbis, published in Rome. Amongst other subjects treated was the coining or adaptation of words to express modern ideas. It was strongly recommended by the convention that Latin should be taught conversationally, and it was agreed that when so modified as to embrace words expressive of modern ideas, it would be found more convenient as a universal language than Volapiik.

H. A. STRONG.

University College, Liverpool.

[See also ' Latin Conversation,' 9 th S. x. 407, 452 ; xi. 13,177.]

" ADOXOGRAPHICAL. " This ungainly word, which is not recognized by the l N.E.D.,' and will not, it is to be hoped, take root in the language, occurs in a recent number of the American Journal of Philology (xxiii. 393). The following sentence will explain its use :

" The manner is that of adoxographical, almost paradoxical, encomium, in that so far from apolo- gizing for humble birth, he finds in this the very foundation of his happiness and contentment."

A.LEX. LEEPER.

Trinity College, Melbourne University.

D. W. NASH. Ante, p. 338, you justly praise Sidney Lee's 'Diet, of Nat. Biog.' May I mention that I failed to find in it the name of a scholar who seemed to me to have a right to be recorded there ? I mean D. W. Nash, member of the Royal Society of Litera- ture, as he is styled in the title of his book 1 Taliesin ; or, the Bards and Druids of Britain,' London, 1858. I was told long ago that he was the author of a review of Skene's minster Review for July, 1869. D. W. Nash played an honourable part in Welsh studies at a time when they were rather neglected. Does he not deserve to have his name in- scribed in the "Temple of Memory " ?
 * Four Ancient Books of Wales ' in the West-

H. GAIDOZ.

22, Rue Servandoni, Paris.

"A TWOPENNY DAM." It is odd how this expression is so frequently misunderstood and misspelt. An example in point is the following, cut from a halfpenny newspaper of large circulation : "I was going to say we don't care a twopenny damn ! " The remark is attributed to the chairman of a City com- pany. No doubt he was quite innocent of any desire to swear. But how about the

reporter and the revisers of his copy? It certainly is curious how the slip escaped the notice of so many pressmen, who must often have come across the saying in the way of business. CECIL CLARKE.

Authors' Club, S.W.

[For " Twopenny damn " see 5 th S. xii. 126, 233, 257; 7 th S. iii. 232, 326, 462; iv. 32; 8 th S. xii. 92. J

"Pou STO." In the Contemporary Review, No. 449, for May, there is an article entitled ' Woman Suffrage,' and signed by Miss Frances Power Cobbe. In that article, at p. 658, that lady writes as follows : '" We have no means to force this concession on men. That is our misfortune. We have no pou sto from which to work, and sorely we have wanted one ! " I would ask if such an expression as pou sto is commendable in such a composition. I would even venture to ask what it means. It is certainly not English ; and if it is meant for Greek, why was it not printed in Greek characters, TTOU o-rw ] But I would further ask, Why was it employed at all ? I suppose the good lady meant to denote a standpoint, or something more or less equiva- lent to that. But, if so, or whatever she meant by the mystic words, why, in the name of common sense, could she not have said it in plain English 1 Such pestilent affectations mar good writing. The needless lugging of foreign expressions into English compositions is a trick far too common nowadays, and it is much to be deprecated, since, instead of being an ornament, it is a blemish. In most cases it is nothing but a feeble device intended to convey the impression that the writer is an erudite person, but it deceives none save the most simple, and it is rarely resorted to by really learned writers. The practice is specially objectionable in the case of the introduction of Greek expressions, inasmuch as, for obvious reasons, it is _ impossible accurately to represent these in English characters. All such affectations are devoutly to be eschewed. PATRICK MAXWELL.

Bath.

PLAGIARISM AND PLATITUDE. It is gen orally agreed that there is no copyright in adage, and that the repetition of platitudes does not constitute literary theft. If this were other- wise the carping critic would have his field of operations vastly extended. At the same time this species of gnomic plagiarism constitutes the frontier between what is permissible and what is anathema maranatha (save in the case of Shakespeare and other geniuses). The poetaster who expends his ink on such well- worn subjects as love and death is practically foreordained to be a conscious or unconscious