Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/254

 208 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. vi. SEP*, is, inoo. The word named above, of the same class as the latter of these, not only matches it in number of letters, but contains nine syllables It occurs in Jeremy Bentham's 'Abridgec Petition for Justice' (1829), p. 18. F. H. " DEVASSALAGE " [? I)£VASSELAGEJ.—Of this word, though its conjugate cUfvassaliser is recognized, there is no record in any French or English dictionary to which I have access. It occurs repeatedly in the periodical quoted below, of which the unfortunate Eustace Bugdell was editor. For instance :— " The Affair of the Devassalage of the Marquis; of Ter Veer and Flushing takes up much of the Attention of the Foreign Ministers, and of the Pro- vinces of which the Prince of Orange is Stadtholder. The States of Gelderland have renewed their Re- solution of 1723 against that Devassalage."—Bee (1733), vol. i. ]>. 116. F. H. Marlesford. "DATA"AS A SINGULAR NOUN.—I do not know whether you will consider the use of the word "data" as a singular noun worth placing on record in' N. & Q.' It occurs in the London Stock Market Report for 11 August : " The New Electric.—Although there is but little data as yet to go upon, it seems not improbable that the Central London Railway, in addition to proving a boon to the London traveller, will after all be, from the commencement of its career, a profitable undertaking." JOHN T. KEMP. [It is probably due to ignorance. See, however, 9«h S. v. 288, 380, 421.] " CRITICIZE." — The earliest quotation for thisword given in the 'H.E.D.'isfrom Milton, 1649. It may be well to notice its occurrence in a sermon preached by Robert Bedingfield, M.A., student of Christ Church, Oxford, at Paul's Cross, 24 Oct., 1624, and published the following year at Oxford. The passage occurs on p. 39 :— " Yet doe we affirme that this faith which alone justifieth is never alone. Solajide* sed non/uit« m/a, as the Schoole critikiseth ; faith justifieth without workes, and yet is not the faith which justifieth without workes." It may be scholastic pedantry on the part of the author, who was certainly a learned man, to spell this word as he does. One can only suppose that he pronounced the word as he spelt it, as though it were Greek, not Eng- lish. Perhaps the word was hardly naturalized so early as this, for the rule of c receiving the soft sound in English before e, i, and y is traced back to the thirteenth century. 'As, however, criticitm is found in Dekker in the year 1607, criticize should have come into use not much later. There are, it is true, other Anglicized Greek words in which the sub- stantive has got the start of the verb and kept it. To judge by the instances in Liddell and Scott, o-oAoua'fu was a commoner word than o-oAoiKKT-fids. but the ' Stanford Diction- ary ' gives abundant quotations for solecism from 1582 onwards, while to solecize seems to come in about the middle of the next century in the writings of Dr. H. More, and is not given by Bailey in 1728. 2x'V/j.a had a very narrow range of use as compared with o-xifw. Schism is c. very common English word ; but who has heard to schize ? C. DEEDES. Brighton. A LEMPRIERE STATEMENT.—The Sowerby Lempriere, under Erinna, referring to her poetry, says that " the fragments are among the ' Carmina Novem Poctarum Freminarum,' Antwerp. 1568." There is a 'Carmina Novem Illustriarum Foeminarura,' printed by Chris- topher Plaritin at the family workshop and bearing the above date, but the difference of title is conspicuous. Lempriere would seem to be wrong in using poetarum. ARTHUR MAYALL. Qutmi. 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 may be addressed to them direct. INSCRIPTION AT LINCOLN.—I recently came upon an inscription on a Roman milestone built into the wall of what is known as John of Qaunt's stables. It was discovered by a builder embedded in another building four or five years ago, and by him built into this wall that belongs to him. My explana- tion suggested is that it is a milestone of Hadrian's time, which I have ventured to transcribe as follows to make sense, but the} three places indicated are quite doubtful to me. The inscription has already received attention, but I don't know if any one has published a tracing of it. It runs as follows : IMP. cxs. V. JKLU) .' HAD RIANO . PIO KKL.f AUG. P. M. TR. P. P. [M]. p. x[v].J Lines 1, 3, and 5 are fairly clear in raeau- 'ng. LIBERALISE t May be r n. or K. JKL. J This is very indistinct and a mere guess. The otters shown above as P X might be K S (?RK>i.) or KO.
 * May be PPC HADRIANO or P *ic.