Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/13

. xir. JULY 4, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

" To MUG." (See 9 th S. xi. 278.) Is not MR. DIBDIN in error when he says " the verb ' to mug ' is employed in reference to drinking, as * I mugged him ' " 1 In Yorkshire it has quite a different meaning, and "I mugged him " signifies I punched his mug or slapped his mug "mug" being face. A "mug" is often the equivalent of a " muff," or one who will tamely submit to be punched or slapped. H. SNOWDEN WARD.

"OUT OF RODEX." Mr. F. W. Raymond, of Yeovil, told me that " out of rodex " was commonly used at the end of the nineteenth century in Somerset to describe a cartwheel that is out of repair. Dr. J. Wright does not in his 'E.D.D.' mention the phrase as used in Somerset. He says that rodex means '* a state of good repair " in Cornwall, and that roddick or roddeck or roddock means "the groove of the axle of a wheel " in Somerset. The two expressions seem to be related. From a cartwheel that is out of gear the term has been transferred to anything else that has broken down. Would Latin rotce cm's=axle of a wheel, or rupta c&m=broken axle, have passed through Anglo-Norman, by popular caprice, into roddocks, or roddicks, or rodex ? jRadachse, the German feminine noun for axle-tree, wheelshaft, is, of course, a cognate word, formed from fiad= wheel and Achse axle, axle-tree. Does any German dialect possess any expression formed from this word meaning the same thing as *' out of ! rodex"? E. S. DODGSON.

. Oxford.

HAMMERSMITH. The serious London anti- quary will not turn for information to the little volumes which are now being issued under the general title of " The Fascination of London." Not only dp they abound with errors which may be charitably classed under the heading of misprints, but statements are deliberately made in them which a little inquiry would show to be unfounded. The latest issued volume, 'Hammersmith, Ful- ham, and Putney,' opens with an assertion of this kind. "The parish of Hammersmith," we are told, "is mentioned in Doomsday Book under the name of Hermoderwode, and in ancient deeds of the Exchequer as Her- moder worth." There is no such place as " Hermoderwode " in the Middlesex Dooms- day. The place in the mind of the writer is ' Hermodesworde " ; but this, so far from being Hammersmith, is Harmonds worth, a village in the western part of Middlesex. The writer then goes on to say that the name is " undoubtedly derived from Ham, meaning in Saxon a town or dwelling, and

Hythe or Hyde, a haven or harbour, ' there- fore,' says Faulkner, 'Hamhythe, a town with a harbour or creek.' "

The defect of this derivation is that it leaves unexplained the middle portion of the word. It is not likely that in the course of time Hamhythe would become length- ened into Hammersmith. The process, to use a colloquialism, is usually the other way. Brighthelmstone is shortened into Brighton, to give an every-day example. A more plausible etymology, for which, however, I do not vouch, may be found. The earliest re- corded form seems to be "Hamersmyth," which, split up into its constituents, would be " Hamer's myth." The A.-S. myfta is a derivative of m?7S, a mouth, and signifies the place where a small stream joins a larger one i.e., a creek, such as that inlet of the Thames that divides the parish of Chelsea from that of Hammersmith. The shortening of mithe to mith is permissible and regular. The proper name Hamer does not so far appear to be found in Anglo-Saxon, but Hsemar for Heahmser is recorded (Searle's 'Onomasticon Anglo -Saxonicum, 3 p. 283). This appellation probably accounts for other place-names in which Hamer or Hammer forms a constituent, such as Hamar-loda in Kemble, Hammer - den, Hammer - wick, in Staffordshire, and the family name of Hamer- ton or Hammerton. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

ORANGE BLOSSOMS AS EMBLEMS OF PURITY. In an allusion, under 'Notes on Books' (9 th S. xi. 440), to L' Intermediaire a corre- spondent of the French ' N. & Q.' is quoted as mentioning an ancient mourning custom apparently not generally known. He says :

" In Perche, formerly, if the daughter of a farmer had yielded to seduction, her family wore mourning for her honour during two years. Has this noble and touching custom disappeared, or does it still exist ; and, if so, in what cantons ? "

It may be of interest to state here that fifty years ago, and possibly even to-day, in what was formerly the province of Franche Corate, an act of imprudence, implying even a suspicion of taint upon the chastity of a maiden, was punished by the use of the orange blossom at her wedding being sternly forbidden. Should any one attempt to wear it upon the occasion of marriage, she would be encountered at the church door by the village lads, violently seized, and the emblem of purity, no less than of generosity and fecundity, degradingly torn from her hair, nor would the ceremony be suffered to pro- ceed until all trace of the flower thus profaned had disappeared from her person.