Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/377

. vi. OCT. so, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 311 will become Prime Minister for the fourth time. It is hardly possible that the writers really believe that the office of Foreign Secretary became vacant on 25 September, but they habitually express themselves as i) they did. F. W. READ. ELY PLACE, HOLBORN. TECHNICALLY A PART OP CAMBRIDGESHIRE (9"1 S. vi. 284).—Is there any. " technically" about it? Is not Ely Place in every sense part of a distant county? D. "VIVA" (901 S. vi. 266).—MR. PICKFORD'S surprise at hearing young ladies talk about their viva, in Oxford, which has impelled him to write to 'N. & Q.1 and chronicle this as "a newly coined word," is a pretty illustra- tion of the truth that " no one man s English is all English," and of the fallacy that a word newly noticed by a solitary individual is " newly coined." This abbreviation of " viva vote examination" has been familiar—to those concerned—since before the young ladies in question were in their cradles. It may be found in the Oxford Magazine and similar publications any time during the last quarter of the century, and has even been recognized in critical literature. For example, aid not a reviewer in the Athencewn for 19 December, 1891 (p. 825, col. 2), write, " The description of his vivd [at Oxford] will bring vivid recollections of similar tortures to many minds " ? Viva has even long ago given birth to a verb. If MR. PICKFORD had asked the young ladies what they were doing at the Schools, he would have been told that they were " waiting to be vivaed " ; and if he had looked sufficiently academical, he might have been asked, "Please, have you come to viva us ?" Some one has pertinently said, " Language does not express all that is in the mind, but only sufficient to show clearly what is in the mind." In accordance with this we constantly find that, when an expres- sion is long and cumbersome, those to whom it is familiar stop short when they have said or written enough to show " what is in the mind." The African sportsman stops short at rhino, or hippo., the literary man at the Fortnightly or ' N. & Q.' The Oxford man avails himself of this principle fully: he speaks of Mods, and Prelim., of the High and the Broad and the Corn.; he calls New College " New" and University College "Univ."and Lincoln College "Lincoln"; and he has been known to post an urgent note to his tutor addressed "Mr. So-and-so, Wor- cester," and to be surprised when said note was faithfully returned to him after some months by our painstaking PostOffice, covered with curious postmarks, and such comments as " Unknown at Worcester," "Try Worcester, U.S.," "Unknown at Worcester, Massa- chusetts" "Try Worcester College, Oxford, England." His scout would have known " Worcester "—had known it ever since he knew any thing—but to the Post Office autho- rities, as to MR. PICKFORD, it was a " newly coined " use of the word. So the Oxford man, having said "viva voce examination" often enough, stopped at viva voce and saved half the syllables. When this had become familiar and a little stale, he halved it again and stopped at viva. Viva is now so well known to those concerned, that I expect it will soon be the vi—" Going down the High to get your vi." But are these " newly coined words ? There is precious little coining about them — more " clipping" one would say; and what is left is not new, but the remains of the old. They are merely abbre- viations, understood by those who know— the spoken analogues of the written 'N. &Q.,' £ s. d., U.S., Jan., Oct., Rev., or Esq. True, when they give birth to children after their own image, like the verb to viva, these may fitly be described as new-born words, though the date of their birth is rarely easy to determine. There is less conscious coin- ing of words than is often supposed ; they slip out—and live. OXONIAN. This is not so fresh from the mint as MR. PICKFORD seems to fancy, though I think it is more frequently vivas. It is current at Cambridge as well as in the sister university, and it probably circulates freely elsewhere. To speak of viva voce examination is as cumbersome as to carry about five-shilling pieces. ST. SWITHIN. [We have little doubt that "viva "has become popular as practically one of the abbreviations in er," which took forcible possession of Oxford some ten years ago, and have since distorted a good many words. "Divinners" and "degrugger are two further specimen!.] THACKERAY'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO 'PUNCH' (9th S. vi. 149, 238). — MR. SPIELMANN is very dogmatic, and every one will agree with him that if the contribution to Punch was not by Thackeray it was by some other writer ; but the denial would be more convincing if he would be good enough to supply, if he knows, as I presume he does, the name of the author of the contribution in question. JOHN HEBB. "SHOT-FREE" (6th S. vii. 287 ; viii. 12, 357, 504 ; 9th S. vi. 217).—In reading Sir J. B. Phear's ' Presidential Address to the Devon Association,' 1886, dealing with the Saxon