332
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. v. APRIL 28, im.
But I have noted the following (ami
dozens of other) instances which upset anj
theory :
Poioer, adore, and flower, swore, Gray Power, more, Pope and Prior. Power, shore Cowper ; restore, devour, adjourn, morn ' Hudibras '; mourn, born, Prior ; bourn, for sworn, mourn, suborn, Dryden.
Surely the reasonable conclusion of thi whole matter is that in such cases rime- test are inconclusive. That the our combination in English is as fully entitled to the ore sounc as to the other is obvious, not only from the examples above, but from the following :
Court is regularly rimed with sport, &c (Ever with " thoitrt " ?)
Mourn is commonly rimed with born, &c (Ever with our'n 1)
Source, course, &c., regularly with horse force, &c.
Gourd with afford (' Polyolbion,' 20, 59) scored (Browning). (Ever with scoured T)
Scourge regularly, of course, with urge, bu I think any poet would admit forge. Or is one to be restricted to this sort of thing ? We will ne'er entrust with our gees Him who spurs or goads or scourges.
H. K. ST. J. S.
I think that it is impossible to equate the verb pour With a French purer, " to clarify.' The fact that the word pour was rimed by Dunbar, Pope, Gay, and Burns with shoivei flower, hour, proves that this etymology is untenable. Such an explanation is forbidden by the laws which govern the relation between French words and their English equivalents. Fr. purer represents Lat. purdre, with long u. This u remains in -English words ; compare mule, bugle, fescue, muse (vb.), puce, pure, cure, endure, immure, sure. According to this rule it is impossible to accept the equation of E. scour, " to cleanse by rubbing," with O.Fr. escurer ; such a form would have given in English *scure, compare cure. The regular source of ou pronounced as in spouse, in English words derived from the French, is Romanic o close or open, from Latin o long or short, or short u. The following examples will suffice : hour, flour, flower, devour, tower, vow. gout.
Nor is the proposed etymology warranted by a comparison of the senses of the two words, for there is no necessary association between the notions of pouring and clari- fying ; surely it is possible to clarify without the act of pouring. Hence it seems to me that we have still to seek the etymology of pour. It is a pity, but it is better to be still seeking than to be contented with an
explanation which contravenes the laws of
English and French phonetics. As for the
word scour, which PROF. SKEAT derives directly
from O.Fr. escurer, I would suggest that it is
due to a Scandinavian source; compare Dan.
skure. For the vocalization we may compare
our Eng. cower, M.E. couren, with Swed.
kura. A. L. MAYHEW.
Pope seems to have been consistent in his pronunciation of this word :
Glad earth perceives, and from her bosom pours Unbidden herbs and voluntary flowers.
'Iliad,' Book XIV. Spenser supports him :
Had gathered rew and savine, and the flowre
Of camphora and calamint and dill ;
All which she in an earthern pot did poure.
' Faerie Queene,' Book III. canto 2, stanza 49.
One of Pope's contemporaries, Young, does not agree with him in the pronunciation of this word :
How gay they smile ! such blessings Nature pours O'erstocked, mankind enjoy but half her stores.
' Love of Fame,' Satire 5. Gray too, differs from Pope : He nor heaps his brooded stores, Nor on all profusely pours.
- The Triumph of Owen.'
Another example is in the ' Ode for Music.'
E. YARDLEY.
I hardly think that the examples cited from Dunbar and Burns by PROF. SKEAT (if one may venture to differ from so high an authority) regarding the pronunciation of pour are quite conclusive. In 'The Ballad of Kind Kittok,' Dunbar, PROF. SKEAT states, "rimes pour with hour, sour, clour S* But in old Scots, and in common speech in many districts of Scotland to-day (as the PROFESSOR perfectly aware), the latter words are pronounced 'oor, soor, door, and therefore rime with the usual North-Country pro- nunciation of pour = poor. Burns's poem ' On
- he Birth of a Posthumous Child ' is written
n the vernacular. The following is the itanza from which the PROFESSOR quoted two ines :
May He who gives the rain to pour, And wings the blast to blaw,
Protect thee frae the driving show'r, The bitter frost and snaw.
leavy rainfall in Scotch colloquial speech 3 called a poor ; shower is pronounced shoor ; nd from the character of the poem the ernacular reading seems to me better to eflect the poet's sentiment than does PROF. KEAT'S contention that Burns here rimes our '= power with shower. J. GRIGOR.
My father, who was a Worcestershire man y birth (he lived from 1807 to 1880), in-
