330
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. APRIL 23, 1904.
"SMALL AGE."
(10 th S. i. 288.)
IN my ' Concise Etymological Dictionary ' I give :
" Smallage, celery. For small ache ; from F. ache, parsley, which is from L. apium, parsley."
The explanation is simply that the sound of ch in ache has been " voiced " to the sound of j in age, owing to the lack of stress on the syllable, just as from the M.E. know- lechen we have obtained the modern Icnoivledcfe.
I simply gave "celery " as the explanation, because it seemed sufficient to identify the word. The Oxford Dictionary explains celery as
"an umbelliferous plant (Apium graveolens) cultivated for the use of its blanched stalks as a salad and vegetable; in its wild form (smallage) indigenous in some parts of England."
There is a good account of it in Lyte's translation of Dodoens, book v. ch xlii headed : ' Of Marish Parsely, March, or Smallach.' As to the name, he says :
"Smallach is called in Greeke i\ioffe\ioi> [sic] ; in Latine, Apium palustre and Paludapium that is to say, Marish Parsely: of some, vSpoffiXtvov aypiov, Hydroselinon agrion that is, wild water Parsely, and Apium rmticum ; in shops, Apium ; in French, De L'ache: in high Douch, Epffich; in base Almaigne louffrouw merck ; and of some, alter the Apothecaries, Eppe : in English, March bmallach, and marish Parsely."
- J h i e ^' E ' ache ' wild <lery, is as old as
A - D - 130 - WALTER W. SKEAT.
- , i8 Q is *. P hon f fci . c Codification of small
ache. See 'Ache' in 'New English Die-
is midhp T? i f0rma , tion scant attention
is paid to the philological proprieties other-
Saxon stock welded on to another of
ceased to have an
i^fPe^entexia^nceiaEnglur-Zaluge
situations. Like most popular terms of the
kind, however, "ache" was applied to various
plants resembling one another. (See the
'N.E.D.,' a.v. 'Ache,' sb. 2.) It is itself a
corruption of the apium which garlanded
the brows of bibulous Romans (cf. Horace,
' Odes,' iv. 11), and which was used as a mark
of distinction in the Isthmian games. If,
too, one trespasses beyond the etymology of
" smallage," the literary pedigree of the plant
can be traced back to the selinon of the
' Odyssey ' without much misgiving as to the
correctitude of the generic identification.
We can hardly credit the Greeks with such
pedantic accuracy in " dressing " tombs that
they always chose the true parsley for the
purpose. J. DORMER.
" Smallage, as Pliny writeth, hath a peculiar vertue against the biting of venomous spiders. "- Gerarde Q545-1607).
" The leaves of this plant, which they termed by the name of Maspetum, came very near in all respects to those of smallach or persely." Holland (1551-1636), ' Plinie's Nat. Hist./v. ii. p. 8.
The Rev. T. Lewis O. Davies, in his ' Sup- plementary English Glossary,' gives the same meaning, but adds that Tusser, in his ' Husbandrie,' 1573, recommends "smalach for swellings."
Hey wood, in his ' Marriage Triumphe,' 1613, says :
Smallage, balme, germander, basell, and lilly, The pinke, the flower-de-luce, and daffadilly.
Herrick (1591-1674), in addition to the quotation already given from the ' Hesperides,'
in No. 82 has :
But, now 'tis known, behold ! behold, I bring Unto thy ghost th' effused offering ; And look what smallage, night-shade, cypress, yew, Unto the shades have been, or now are due.
This word has already been discussed in 4 N. & Q.,' see 2 nd S. xii. 252 ; 3 rd S. iii. 158.
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.
Gerarde, in his ' Herbal,' devotes a page to the description of smallage, or water parsley, and gives a woodcut of it. He says it is " seldom eaten, neither is it counted good for sauce, but it is very profitable for medicine." Enlarging on this latter quality, he says :
"The juice thereof is good for many things: it clenseth, openeth, attenuateth, or maketh thin ;
it removeth obstructions doth perfectly cure
the malicious and venomous ulcers of the mouth, and of the almonds of the throat with the decoction of Barly and Mel rosarum, or hony of roses, added."
I quote from the edition of 1633.
HOWARD S. PEARSON.
(DR. FORSHAW, A. H., and MR. HOLDEN MAcMiCHAEL are also thanked for replies.]
