Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/586

 486 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9"- s. vi. D*C. 22. woo. " GRUDGE ": " To GRUDGE."—This word has now a somewhat different meaning as a verb and as a substantive. " To grudge or be grudge a person anything " is either to give it unwillingly or be displeased at seeing i bestowed by some one else. But the origma signification was to murmur or complain, anc in this sense it is used in Ps. lix. 15, although the Hebrew word seems rather to mean " stay or pass the night," as a marginal rendering in the A.V. gives it. But in James v. 9 the Greek word evidently means "murmur,"anc no doubt " grudge " was intended to be taken in that sense in the A.V., which also gives a marginal note "groan or grieve not." In view, however, of the alteration in the mean ing of the word " grudge," the Revisers have here substituted "murmur," as they have also done ("murmuring " instead of "grudging") in 1 Pet. iv. 9, where the alteration is specially desirable because the word "grudging" in the A.V. seems to make good sense (but nol the proper sense) in its present meaning. The case is different with " grudge " as a sub- stantive, which has not altered its meaning To have or bear a grudge against any one is to have a_ quarrel or retain an ill-feelin towards him, and in this sense it is asserto of Herodias in the marginal rendering (" an inward grudge ") A.V. of Mark vi. 19; the text has "quarrel," but the Pievisers substitute "set herself against him." It is worth notice that Cruden enters this place under both "grudge" and "quarrel." In Lev. xix. 18 the A.V. has "bear any grudge," which gives the sense well, though the Hebrew has simply the verb " retain " with " ill-feeling " understood. "To grudge" seems to have altered its meaning before the time of Dryden, who uses it in the modern sense. W. T. LYNN. Blackheath. ' ORIGIN OP CURRENT PHRASES.' — Under this heading the Westminster Gazette of 24 November published the following :— " The origin of certain phrases which have passed into the language is never without interest. Here are two, for instance, of which the authorship has never been known. The Queen was first called 1 Empress of India' in an official document put forth to the natives of the Malay States by Sir Andrew Clarke. Governor of the Straits Settlements, in 1872. The same gallant officer coined and used for the first time the phrase 'the living wage" in a speech which he made when contesting Chatham in 1892." One would like a little more chapter and verse in support of these contentions. Lord Beaconsfield, in 1876, referred in Parliament to ' Whitaker's Almanack' as an authority for styling the Queen " Empress of India." When was this first done? And in the early eighties an Irish judge, dealing with a land case, spoke of the necessity for a tenant's rent being only such as would enable him to "live and thrive," which was an anticipation in idea of the " living wage." POLITICIAN. " ENGLISH-SPEAKING."—Along in the seven- ties, or a little earlier, when occasions called for frequent expression of an idea which, owing to circumstances of recent emergence, had attracted special notice, this combina- tion, now so widely current, began to suggest itself, as being often preferable to a circum- locution. Who it was that then led the way in bringing it forward we" should inquire in vain ; and to many a writer, very probably, it appeared, when he first used it, as a ven- ture of his own. Like the substantives abandonment and pervert, for instance, it was, however, perhaps unconsciously, a revival of a vocable which, originally proposed when no special need for it was recognized, came in time, under altered conditions, to be found acceptable. That it occurred, even at a date when living septuagenarians had not yet seen the light, to an author with whom the devising of compounds was a hobby, will surprise no one that is acquainted with his pages :— " Thence was created the necessity of employing these so little trustworthy trustees, not only as assistants and advocates, but even as interpreters between the English-speaking parties and the French-speaking judges. —Jeremy Bent-ham, 'Jus- tice and Codification Petitions' (1829), 'Abridged Petition for Justice," p. 6. F. H. Marlesford. "SONTIES." — This form, occurring in ' Merch. Ven.,' II. ii. 47, has never been fully explained. Old Gobbo here takes occasion to swear " by God's sonties." Mr. Wright suggests either saints or sanctity ; Dr. Schmidt suggests F. sanU or sanctity. A little re- flexion will soon settle the matter. It can hardly be from saints, because that word was too common to be corrupted ; nor From sante", because that affords no true sense. All that remains is simply to inquire for the O.F. form of sanctity. The forms were numerous, and are given sy Godefroy, s.v. saintee, which is the form we want. And Littre, s.v. saintetf, says: ' II se dit par excellence en parlant de Dieu." In fact, the oath "by the sanctity of God" is exactly parallel to that of " by •he dignity of God ; and both were cor- •upted (as oaths are often purposely cor- •upted or disguised) in a similar way, viz., >y adding a plural ending, like that seen in