240
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. ix. MAR. 21, 191*.
The Romance of Narnfs. By Ernest Weekley.
(John Murray, 3*. 6rf. net.)
THOSE who enjoyed Prof. Weekley's former book, ' The Romance of Words,' will expect to find the work before us not only sound and scholarly, but entertaining also, and full of a lively appreciation of the concrete and so to put it the human value of names. Nor will they be disappointed. The collection studied here offers little that is recondite or curious : the writer says he took his examples from the ' London Directory ' and from newspapers and the streets. Still, our commonest and least impressive names have often the most unexpected histories, and if the Napiers must bear to be told that they owe their name to a servant whose business was with napery, the Codlins, if they chance ever to have regretted their appellation, may feel consoled by learning that it is con- tracted from Coaur de Lion.
Prof. Weekley has more reason to praise the industry than to depend on the accuracy of former workers along this line, though he has, of course, some good words to say of Bardsley despite the fact that he did not recognize that " Sword- slipper " means " sword-sharpener " and in the ^matter of " Waring " is able even to justify him against the late Prof. Skeat. It was a good idea to start out with a mediaeval roll wherein, as he shows, the names of men "dead and buried before the Battle of Crecy " are fundamentally the same with those in common use to-day the three exceptions, " le Wimpler," " le Hatter," and "Maraud'," being curious, and the disappear- ance of the second not easy to explain.
" Brown, Jones, and Robinson " ought, pro- perly speaking, to be " Smith, Jones, and Wil- liams," or, if we restrict ourselves to English, ' ' Smith , Taylor, and Brown. ' ' Taylor is a good ex- .ample of the absorption of one or two less common jiames by a more common one of somewhat the same sound, much to the enlargement of its range. Thus " Taylor " represents not only " tailleur," but also " Teler * and " Teller," the mediaeval " weaver " (cf. tela,& web) and "tiler.
The chapter on foreign names contains many amusing items. It would certainly not occur to the ordinary amateur etymologist to connect Lidley, through Little-eye, with Petitceil, which, it appears, was the name of some French Huguenot .artisan who was required to be enrolled in the official list kept of these refugees, and had his name literally translated. Not all these foreign names lent themselves to this mode of transforma- tion, and some quaint words were evolved in attempts to set them down. Prof. Weekley says that transformation of this sort, i.e., the modification of names of foreign origin so as to suit them to English pronunciation, is still going on, especially in provincial manufacturing towns ; but, besides some well-known Jewish instances we notice that he only adduces one out of a novel The discussion of mediaeval baptismal name. 5 brings out chiefly the fact that the greater number ..of them are Teutonic, brought, however, into .use through the Norman invasion rather than by descent from Anglo-Saxon. Prof. Weekley wet points out the resemblance between Germar and Greek naming in the matter of force and pictures queness. French names, as such, are largely adopted place-names ; the Celtic elemenl gives preponderantly nicknames e.g., Camerot -'* crooked nose," Campbell " wry mouth '
D rof. Weekley " rubs in " the truth, which other
writers have pointed out, that there are many
names now borne with complacency by their
wners, the original, forgotten meaning of which would hardly please them.
In not a few cases, it is true, several names of
Lifferent origin may have coalesced to form one name, or a name may be of one derivation only,
>ut that uncertain, with two or three tempting
ines of descent to choose from. As a " specimen problem " in this kind Prof. Weekley gives
he name " Rutter," which may or may not be derived from several widely different stocks, it eing really mere accident that they all contain some element of vagabondage in them.
An Index of about 3,500 names none but what are still in use and each dealt with in the
>ody of the work, is one of the most praiseworthy
eaturss of the book.
THE REV. H. M. FLETCHER, of Peveril, 2, Raw- inson Road, Oxford, writes to say that he will je very greatly obliged if any one possessing any Betters of Charlotte Katherme Clavering, after- wards Mrs. Miles Angus Fletcher, afterwards Mrs. Dhristison, will send them to him, her only sur- viving son, at the above address. They will be copied in autotype, and carefully sent back to their respective owners, if these will send him bheir addresses. Mr. Fletcher believes that the letters will form a most instructive and amusing illustration of the reigns of George III., George I V., William IV., and the earlier years of the reign of Queen Victoria.
MR. A. GWYTHER writes : " In reference to COL. LEACH'S correction about the 24th Regiment's name of 'Howard's Greens' (ante, p. 211), I quite accept his explanation of my mistake. I did not realize that there were two regiments the 19th and 24th having almost the same nickname, as * Green Howards ' and ' Howard's Greens.' "
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J. F. DE C. and S. T. Forwarded.
