Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/386

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL APRIL 20, 1907.


on horseback, and by knights of moderate means, and was not in use before the fif- teenth century (v. Demmin's ' Arms and Armour ').

" 1 cathen ferri " = 1 iron chain.

" 1 gravell ferri " = 1 grappling-iron.

"1 dim. ligac. ferri " = 1 small shovel or implement resembling a shovel. Elisha Coles in his ' Eng.-Lat., Lat.-Eng. Diet.,' 1755, has " ligaculum, i. n. (a ligo), a shovel or maulkin." And Nath. Bailey ('Diet.,' 1740) says a malkin is a " Sort of Mop or Schovel for sweeping an Oven."

" 1 cadum de Orenzado " = 1 cadus (wine- jar) of orangeade, which in the middle of the eighteenth century was a cooling liquor made of oranges, lemons, water, sugar, &c.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

The ' New English Dictionary,' as usual, affords some help.

Cabill= cable.

1 par. Bregandiris = & pair of briganders, i.e., body armour for foot-soldiers.

1 cadum de Orenzado = a cask of orengeado, i.e., candied orange-peel.

Cathen looks something like a misreading of cathern = cauldron.

Is it possible that gravell is an error for grapell= grapnel, hook ?

Does dim. ligac. ferri mean " half an iron band " (ligatura) ? L. R. M. STRACHAN.

Heidelberg, Germany.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND EUROPEAN POLI- TICIANS (10 S. vii. 165, 275). MR. ALBERT MATTHEWS has mistaken my point : the emphasis was intended to be on the word "un-Whig," not on the idea "Whig." The American party nomenclature of the moment referred to in my previous com- munication is well known to me ; but, unless it can be shown that the use of the word " un-Whig " in the sense Lincoln employed it was frequent, I must adhere to my opinion that it was a recollection of the younger Pitt's invention of that very uncommon term.

In regard to M. N. G.'s reminiscence, the anecdote was first related more correctly long ago by another, and with a very differ- ent comment :

" The Marquis of Hartington [now the Duke of Devonshire] wore a secession badge at a public ball in New York. In a civilized cotmtry, he might have been roughly handled ; but here, where the hien seances are not so well understood, of course

nobody minded it One of Mr. Lincoln's greatest

strokes of humour was his treatment of this gentle- man when a laudable curiosity induced him to be presented to the President of the Broken Bubble. Mr. Lincoln persisted in calling him Mr. Partington.


Purely the refinement of good breeding could go no- c urther. Giving the young man his real name v already notorious in the newspapers) would have made his visit an insult. Had Henri IV". done this, t would have been famous."

The narrator and commentator was James Russell Lowell, in his essay * On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners,' now included in the collection known as ' My Study Windows ' ; and though the accuracy of the allusion to the secession-badge incident tias been impugned, the general statement may prove of interest to M. N. G.

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

"MARU" (10 S. vii. 268). This term is treated at great length by Chamberlain in his ' Things Japanese,' 1890. He says it is applied not only to merchant vessels, but also to swords, musical instruments, pieces of armour, dogs, hawks, and the concentric sections of castles. Its origin is obscure, but the probability is that two words maru and maro, have got confused and flowed into one. Maru means " round " ; maro is an archaic term of endearment. To name the concentric section of a castle maru was but natural ; on the other hand, the term of endearment, maro, seems more appropriate to boats. Chamberlain says nothing about maru meaning " going " or " moving onwards." JAS. PL ATT, Jun.

LEGENDS ON ENGLISH GOLD AND SILVER COINS (10 S. vii. 183, 237, 294). Much curious information on the use of the words from St. Luke iv. 30, " Jesus autem transiens per medium illorum ibat," \vill be found in Archceologia, xlvii. 138-53. W. C. B.


Jlttsallanmts.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Edited by Dr. James A. H. Murray. Piper Polygenistic. (Vol. VII.) (Oxford, Clarendon Press.)

IN extent and in interest the latest portion of the great English dictionary is one of the most note- worthy contributions that have been made to the noble work. Being a triple section, and embracing all words from "piper" to " polygenistic," it has a grand total of five thousand five hundred and thirty-six words ; illustrated by no fewer than twenty thousand eight hundred and forty-eight quotations. Added to what has gone before, the number of words in the Oxford Dictionary is two hundred and fifteen thousand one hundred and twenty-eight ; illustrated by the enormous number of over one million and' twenty-four thousand quotations. Special attention is drawn to the fact