Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/92

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. A. 2, 1902.


recognized by Latin scholars being solatium. For the suffix compare mendacium. See Roby, Breal, Georges.

2. Race. The dictionary says, " answering to L. type *radia." The connexion is pho- netically impossible, as is shown by the Italian and Spanish forms. The Italian razza, with the z pronounced as ts, points to a Romanic type with tj, not dj. The Spanish rdza also points to intervocalic tj or cf, e.g., raz6n (rationem), ceddzo (setacium). A Romanic form with intervocalic dj would have given in Spanish y, eg., rayo (radium), moyo (medium).

3. Fray (an affray). This word is treated as cognate with affray (to frighten), but the words are radically distinct in meaning and origin. The radical meaning of an affray (or a fray) is a disturbance, especially one caused by fighting. It is the Anglo-Norman a/ray used by Bozon in the sense of " agita- tion." This Norman afray is cognate with Spanish refriega (a fray, a skirmish) j see Stevens's dictionary ; cp. refregdr (to rub), Lat. re+fricare. Fray (a disturbance) is, therefore, cognate with fray (to wear away by rubbing), O.Fr.freyer (to rub), and must be kept apart from M.E. affray (fright), Fr. effroi and effrayer, Lat. ex+*fridare.

4. Lozenge. It is well known that this word is a derivative of Provencal lausa, lauza, Portuguese lousa, identical in form and mean- ing with Spanish laude (a sepulchral stone). But what is the etymology of laude (lausa)t Laude is the regular representative of Latin lapidem, Spanish aud representing Latin ap'd or ap't, as we may see from raudo (rapi- dum), caudillo (*capitellum). In Provencal, as is well known, intervocal d becomes z, e.g., cazer (cadere).

5. Maund. This is marked as an English word, due to O.E. mand. This is phonetically impossible. O.E. mand would have re- mained mand to the present day, cp. and, hand, land, sand. The combination aun points to an immediate French source, cp. daunt (danter), haunt (hanter), laund, mod. lawn (lande), spaund, mod. spawn (espandre), pawn (pander). Maund is the representative of O.Fr. mande, "panier d'osier" (La Curne). The French word is of Teutonic origin, being common to many German dialects.

6. Squeamish. The dictionary suggests relation to shame. This is phonetically im- possible. Neither the initial consonant nor the stem vowel will permit of such an hypo- thesis. And the radical meanings of the two words have nothing to do with one another. The Anglo-French escoymous points to a Romanic type *scematdsum t over nice, over


particular as to appearance, a derivative of Late Lat. scema for schema, " forma, species, habitus, ornatus, vestitus," Gr. crx^a. See Ducange f s.v.), where it will be seen that the word and its derivatives were well known in the Romanic languages.

7. Full (to full cloth). This is marked as a French word, due to O.Fr. filler, Fr. fouler. But should we not expect a Fr. fouler to be represented by an English form fowl ? I think we may safely assume that the verb full represents an unrecorded O.E. *fullian,

whence was formed the derivative fullere; see Sweet's 'Anglo-Saxon Diet.' It is pro- bable that Fr. fouler (to trample) may be unconnected with Lat. fullo (a fuller). The Spanish form hollar, pres. stem huelle (to tread), points to an open o in the stem syllable.

8. Giraffe. The Spanish form girdfa is not due to the Arabic form with z, zardfah, but to a form with dj. Humbert says, "Les Arabes disent aujourd'hui non seulement zordfa, mais aussi djordfa" ; see Ford's 'Old Spanish Sibilants,' ' Harvard Notes ' (1900), p. 27.

9. Dance. What is the etymology of this wide-spread Romanic word ? The word is generally equated with the O.H.G. danson, and the ' Concise ' follows the traditional account. But the learned Schade, who in his dictionary always gives the Romanic forms corresponding to the German word, is silent on such a connexion. And not without reason. The Romanic forms as, for example, O.Fr. dancer, It. danzare, Sp. danzar point to z ( = ts), and not s after the nasal as the older sound. Now in French the symbol c (=ts) after a nasal generally corresponds to an O.H.G. z (=ts), as, for example, O.Fr. grincer (O.H.G. grimmizzon), O.Fr. grander (O.H.G. grunnizjan), O.Fr. ronce (O.H.G. runza).

10. Tennis. Why is the Anglo - French tenetz (hold !) equated formally with Latin tenete ? Surely the tz of tenetz is the formal equivalent of the Latin t's in tenetis.

COMESTOR OXONIENSIS.


ITALIAN JINGOISM IN 1591. The bard of the music-halls who wrote We don't want to fight, but by jingo if we do, We've got the ships, we 've got the men, we've got the money too

doggerel to which we are indebted for the term "jingoism" knew not that he was echoing, after the lapse of nearly three centuries, the words of a Veronese named Christoforo Sylvestrani Brenzone, who pub- lished in 1591 a curious book entitled 'Vita