Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/403

 9* s. V.MAY 19, woo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

395

the English words which have been at any time said to be of Hottentot origin : karoo (9 th S. iv. 105, 236), quagga (v. 3), gnu (v. 45), kerrie (v. 66), kaross (v.' 125, 236). There re- mains to complete the list only chacma, the name of a South African baboon, well known to frequenters of the "Zoo." The 'Penny Cyclopaedia' (1835) derives it from Hottentot tichackamma, a statement which our diction- aries, from the 'Encyclopaedic' to the 'H.E.D.,' merely copy, making no attempt to trace the word back through the numerous vocabularies of the Cape Hottentot dialect printed in old works of travel. Yet it occurs in several. The best of them is perhaps that which forms the appendix to Ch. Juncker's life of the German Orientalist Ludolf (1710), in which we duly find the entry " een Bavian Ghoa- chamma Genus simiarum." A few years later, Peter Kolbe, in the original German edition (Nuremberg, 1719) of his 'Account of the Hottentots ; (p. 363), writes, " Simise genus Choakamma ein Bavian." The English translation (Astley's 'Voyages,' 1745) has "Khoakamma, a baboon." The change of the Dutch or German ch to English kh is inten- tional. The translator carries it consistently through all Hottentot words, evidently to guard against possible mispronunciation. This proves that the sound given in modern English to the initial of chacma, making it soft, as in "church," is incorrect.

JAMES PLATT, Jun.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers maybe addressed to them direct.

" INUNDATE." This is one of a large class of words which have changed their pronuncia- tion within my lifetime. Pronouncing dic- tionaries, even after the middle of the nineteenth century, know only inun'date ; most recent dictionaries say inun'date or iriundate ; but I have not for twenty years heard anything but iriundate. I want to know when the latter was first recognized in any dictionary or spelling-book, or can be illustrated (or illustrated) by the usage of any versifier. Will persons interested kindly send me a postcard, saying where and when they first find iriundate ? I should also be glad of a card from persons who still say or hear inun'date. Address Dr. Murray, Oxford.

J. A. H. M.

P.S. As cognate to this inquiry, I may record that, though I knew com'pensate,

con'centrate, and, I think, corijiscate and ill'us- trate by 1870, 1 first heard demonstrate in 1885 (from &dem'onstrator at the Oxford Museum), and that I still often hear contem'plate from contemplative men, in spite of the rising contemplate. In spite of demonstrate, I say remoristrate, though I sometimes hear rem'on- strate from young persons on whom remon'- strances have little weight.

" NESQUAW." I have lately heard that this is the ordinary word in Monmouthshire for the smallest or most weakly of a litter, especially of pigs, more generally spoken of as a "dilling." The "dilling" is called in Somerset a " nestle-tripe " (so El worthy). In Germany the same object is called Nestheck- chen, in the Gottingen dialect Nestpuddek (so Schambach). Is the word " nesquaw " known outside Monmouthshire ? A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

THE WORD "PLATFORM" IN A POLITICAL SENSE. Is there any earlier instance of this use than that which follows ?

" The fate of achurch and of a commonwealth

whether you have in so great an exigent used that sincere and Christian forecast for the right and just platforming of your designs and undertakings as was requisite."

This extract is from the 'Address to the Two Houses at Westminster ' in Dr. Thomas Warmstry's ' Sighs of the Church and Com- monwealth of England,' published in 1648 Dr. Warmstry was Dean of Worceste* Cathedral and a friend of Izaak Walton.

K. B. MARSTON.

St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, E.C. [See 8 th S. v., vi., vii.]

SALE OF CHURCH PROPERTY. The follow- ing appeared recently in the Barnet Press :

point was raised with regard to the sale of an amber tankard, which was left to North Mymms Church by Lady Meux about 150 years ago. It has been proposed by the churchwardens to sell the tankard in order to raise money with which to repair the tower and vestry of North Mymms Church."
 * < At Little Heath Easter Vestry an important

Is it lawful for the churchwardens to sell church property ? F. T. CANSICK.

ERLIK KHAN. The Tibetian Pluto, or ruler over the realm of the dead, corresponding to the Sanskrit Yama, is so called. The name seems to mean " servant of the lord." Where an some account of this mythological being be found? There is some reference to him in Miss Busk's 'Sagas from the Far East,' pp. 14, 354. A. SMYTHE PALMER.

PLATES OF ANTIQUE GEMS. I have before me a volume of plates of antique gems :