16
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xn. JULY 3, 1915.
fruit from an applewoman in the " City of
the Tribes," she remarked on the conclusion
of the bargain, " Ye had better take the
complement," meaning the balance of the
contents of her basket, which, it may be re-
marked, was perfectly good English. One
cannot imagine a coster man or woman in
England or a farmer's wife addressing one
in these terms. PENRY LEWIS.
In answer to W. B. H. I have been quite familiar since boyhood (c. 1870) with " to have a right to " in the sense of "to be bound to," used by educated people of good social position. I had been led to suppose it originally an East Anglian (Suffolk), or perhaps a Yorkshire use. But the ' N.E.D.' quotes it from ' Humphry Clinker,' and there is a fine example from Miss Baker's
- Northamptonshire Glossary.'
But what is more interesting is that there is an exact parallel in classical Greek. AIKCUOS tivai infinitive means equally " to have a right to (do) " or " to be bound to (do)," according to context. H. K. ST. J. S.
Phrase 1 is often heard from witnesses in London Law Courts. Like many other solecisms, it results from a negative falsely
- reversed. If " You have no right to steal "
can be replaced by " You must not steal," an ignorant man sees no reason why he should not say : " You have a right to be fined," in lieu of the more commonplace " You must be fined."
2. One often hears such remarks as " A. belongs to those houses " without feeling sure that anything more is meant than that "A. lives in one of those houses." In Cornwall, however, " belong " is almost as elastic as it is in the ports of China. OLD SARUM.
FAMILIES OF KAY AND KEY (11 S. xi. 90, 127, 136, 176, 235). Your correspondent MR. ARCHIBALD SPARKE, in his interesting note on this name in connexion with the Lancashire Parish Registers, in mentioning fifty volumes that he has gone through, omits any reference to Bury Parish Church.
The neighbourhood of Bury, in Lancashire, seems to have been the earliest home of the Kay family in that county, and at the period when these parish registers commence, in the year 1590-91, there were about a dozen distinct branches of the family established within the boundaries of the parish of Bury.
The frequency with which the name occurs in the parish registers is remarkable. It has been computed that between the years 1590-1616 there were recorded 94 marriages of Kays 46 of whom were males
and 48 females ; 223 children of the name
were christened during the same period, of
whom 122 were boys and 101 girls ; and
191 Kays were buried at the parish church,,
inclusive of 50 wives.
The name occurs in these entries in the following six variants used indiscriminately : " Kay," " Kaye," " Kaie," " Keie," " Keye," and "Key." J. L.
Madras.
" POILU " (11 S. xi. 470). The slang use of the word " Poilu " (meaning in ordinary French " hairy ") is perhaps derived from the slang phrase " Avoir du poil," "to be brave, courageous." The ancients believed that there were men who were born with hair on their hearts, and that this was a sign of courage (Cf. Plin. Secund.,' Hist. Nat./ lib. xi. cap. Ixx.). See ' Etudes de Philo- logie comparee sur 1' Argot,' by Francisque- Michel, Paris, 1856, 8 .v. 'Poil.'
The ' Dictionnaire de la Langue Verte/ by Alfred Delvau, nouvelle edition, aug- mented by Gustave Fustier, Paris (1883 or about), has :
" Poil, courage in the cant (argot) of the people,, who, without believing, according to the Ancients,, in men who are born with hair on their hearts, are^ right in supposing that men with hairy bodies are- more vigorous than those whose bodies are hair- less."
This belief is not confined to France.
ROBERT PIERPOINT.
With due respect to PEREGRINUS, the- me kname " Poilu " has besn bestowed in a more particular sense since the outbreak of war to distinguish the French Territorials., who differ so essentially from our own in- asmuch as they are composed chiefly of " peres de families," and men of more mature age than the first-line troops of the French army. The latter are known by the slang term of " blonds bees " in order to signify the difference between the younger generation and the " old brigade."
Previous to the war the word " poilu ' r was commonly used to denote a man in the prime of life, " un gargon solide," or a male of robust constitution.
REGINALD JACOBS.
THE IDENTITY OF ISABELLA BIGOD (11 S.. xi. 445). MR. RELTON tells us (p. 446) that the passage he quotes from Laud MS. 526 shows that Isabella Bigod was the daughter of Hugh. The words, however, " qui Hugo generavit Radulphum patrem loannis. . . .et Isabelle," seem to me to state that Isabella was daughter of Ralph Bigod and grand- daughter of Hugh. G. C. MOORE SMITH.
