REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Origin of the Word "Snob".—I think that Snob is not an archaism, and that it cannot be found in any book printed fifty years ago. I am aware that in the north of England shoe-makers are still sometimes called Snobs; but the word is not in Brockett's Glossary of North Country Words, which is against its being a genuine bit of northern dialect.
I fancy that Snobs and Nobs, as used in vulgar parlance, are of classic derivation; and, most probably, originated at one of the Universities, where they still flourish. If a Nob be one who is nobilis, a Snob must be one who is s[ine] nob[ilitate]. Not that I mean to say that the s is literally a contraction of sine; but that, as in the word slang, the s, which is there prefixed to language, at once destroys the better word, and degrades its meaning; and as, in Italian, an s prefixed to a primitive word has a privative effect—e.g. calzare, "to put on shoes and stockings;" scalzare, "to put them off:" fornito, "furnished;" sfornito, "unfurnished," &c.; as also the dis, in Latin (from which, possibly, the aforesaid s is derived), has the like reversing power, as shown in continue and discontinue—so nob, which is an abbreviation of nobilis, at once receives the most ignoble signification on having an s put before it.
The word Scamp, meaning literally a fugitive from the field, one qui ex campo exit, affords another example of the power of the initial s to reverse the signification of a word.
All this, Mr. Editor, is only conjecture, in reply to "ALPHA's" query (No. 12 p. 185.); but perhaps you will receive it, if no better etymology of the word be offered.
A.G.
Ecclesfield, Jan. 21. 1850.
Derivation(?) of "Snob" and "Cad."—I am informed by my son, who goeth to a Latin school, that Snob (which is a word he often useth) cometh of two Latin words; to wit, "sine obolo"—as who should say, "one that hath not a cross to bless himself." He saith, that the man behind the omnibus is called "Cad," "a non cadendo." Your humble servant,
THE GOVERNOR.
Mr. Macaulay and Bishop Burnet.—The passage in which Mr. Macaulay calls Burnet "a rash and partial writer," alluded to by your correspondent in No. 3. p. 40., occurs towards the end of his Essay on "Sir William Temple," p. 456. of the new edition in one volume.
ETONIENSIS.
Circulation of the Blood.—"A.W." (No. 13. p. 202.) is referred to Smith's Dictionary of Biography, article NEMESIUS.
J.E.B. MAYOR.
Genealogy of European Sovereigns.—I send the full title of a book which I would recommend to your correspondent "Q.X.Z.," (No. 6. p. 92.):—
GÉNÉALOGIE ASCENDANTE,
JUSQU'AU QUATRIÈME DÉGRÉ INCLUSIVEMENTS,
De tous les Rois et Princes de Maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans; réduite en CXIV. Tables de XVI. Quartiers, composées selon les Principes du Blazon; avec une Table Générale.
"La noblesse, Daugaux, n'est point une chimère, Quand sous l'étroite loi d'une vertu sévère, Un homme, issu d'un sang fécond en demi-dieux, Suit, comme toi, la trace où marchaient ses ayeux." Boileau, S.v.
A BERLIN:
Au Dépens de l'Autheur: se vend chez Etienne de Bourdeaux, Libraire; imprimé chez Frédéric Guillaume Birnstiel.
MDCCLXVIII.
"La noblesse, Daugaux, n'est point une chimère, Quand sous l'étroite loi d'une vertu sévère, Un homme, issu d'un sang fécond en demi-dieux, Suit, comme toi, la trace où marchaient ses ayeux." Boileau, S.v.
I presume that it is of some rarity, never having met with any other copy than the one from which I transcribed this title.
Some of your correspondents may, perhaps, be able to give the name of the Author who, as far as I have had occasion to refer, seems to have done his work carefully.
T.W.
Sir Stephen Fox.—I have seen it stated in some biographical dictionary, that Sir Stephen Fox was a younger brother of "John Fox, Esq.," who was a devoted Royalist at the time of the great Rebellion, and fought at the battle of Worcester, and after the Restoration was Clerk of the Acatry, in the household of Charles the Second.
Mr. Suckling, in his History of Suffolk, claims for a family some time seated at Stradbrook, in that county, a consanguinity with the descendants of Sir Stephen.
On an altar-tomb in Stadbrook churchyard are inscribed notices of many members of this family, but without dates. One is rather extraordinary, making the lives of a father and son together to amount to 194 years. Amongst them is this:—
"Here is hourly expected, Simon the next descendant, with his son Simon, who died young, tho' still preserved to be interr'd with his father at the earnest request of his pious mother the Lady Hart. And also Major John Fox, with his issue, who during the late rebellion loyally behav'd himself, undergoing with great courage not only the danger of the field, but many severe imprisonments."
The arms on this tomb differ from those of Lords Ilchester and Holland, being simply three foxes' heads erased.
Should this note supply a clue for your correspondent "VULPES" to identify Major John Fox with the brother of Sir Stephen, on knowing that he has found the scent I shall be able to assist him in unearthing the whole litter.
VENATOR.
French Maxim.—The maxim inquired after by "R.V." (No. 14. p. 215.) undoubtedly belongs to Rochefoucault. I have met with a somewhat similar passage in Massillon:—
"Le vice rend hommage à la vertu en s'honorant de sus apparences."
J.B.M.
Feb. 5. 1850.
Shipster.—A scip-steora among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors was a pilot ("ship-steerer"). The word has descended to our own times in the surname of the family Shipster. As a common noun it was not obsolete in the days of Wynkyn de Worde, who printed that curious production "Cock Lorelle's Bote," one line of which runs thus:—
"With gogle-eyed Tomson, shepster of Lyn."
It is pretty certain, however, that this masculine occupation was not the one followed by "Marie Fraunceys de Suthwerk!"
Pray accept this "Reply" for what it is worth. Perhaps I might have done better by meeting Mr. John R. Fox's "Query" (No. 14. p. 216.) with another. Should not the designation of Marie F. be Spinster instead of Shipster?
MARK ANTONY LOWER.
Lewes, Feb. 2.
Sparse.—Permit me to refer your correspondent "C. FORBES" for a reply to his query, p. 215. of your last Number, to the article "Americanism" in the Penny Cyclopædia, the author of which observes:—
"Sparse is, for any thing we know, a new word, and well applied; the Americans say a sparse instead of a scattered population; and we think the term has a more precise meaning than scattered, and is the proper correlative of dense."
In the Imperial Dictionary (avowedly based upon Webster's American work, which I cannot at this moment refer to in its original form), the word in question is given both as an adjective and as a verb, and the derivatives "sparsed," "sparsedly," "sparsely," and "sparseness," are also admitted. The reference given for the origin of "sparse" is to the Latin "sparsus, scattered, from spargo;" and the definitions are, 1. "Thinly scattered, set or planted here and there; as, a sparse population:" and, 2., as a botanical term, "not opposite, not alternate, nor in any regular order; applied to branches, leaves, peduncles, &c."
J.T. STANESBY.
Cosmopolis—Complutensian Polyglot.—Though in considerable haste, I must send replies to the fourth and eighth queries of my friend Mr. Jebb, No. 14. p. 213.
Cosmopolis was certainly Amsterdam. That the Interpretationes paradoxæ quatuor Evangeliorum, by Christophorus Christophori Sandius, were there printed, appears from this writer's Bibliotheca Anti-Trinitarionum, p. 169., Freistad, 1684. I may add that "Coloniæ" signifies "Amstelædami" in the title-page of Sandius's Nucleus Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ, 1676, and in the Appendix Addendorum, 1678, 4to.
With regard to the MSS. used in the formation of the text of the Complutensian Polyglot, Mr. Jebb will find an account of their discovery in a letter addressed by Dr. James Thompson to the editor of The Biblical Review. See also The Irish Ecclesiastical Journal for April 1847.
R.G.
Complutensian Polyglot.—The following extract from "The Prospectus of a Critical Edition of the New Testament," by the learned Mr. S. Prideaux Tregelles, affords a satisfactory reply to Mr. Jebb's query, No. 14. p. 212.:—
"However there is now more certainty as to the MSS. belonging to the University of Alcala. Dr. James Thompson has published (Biblical Review, March, 1847), the result of inquiries made thirty years ago by Dr. Bowring, and more recently by himself. Hence it appears that all the MSS. which formerly were known as belonging to Cardinal Ximenes, and which were preserved in the library of Alcala, are now with the rest of that library, at Madrid....Dr. José Gutierrez, the present librarian at Madrid, communicated to Dr. J. Thomson a catalogue of the Complutensian MSS., and from this it appears that the principal MSS. used in the Polyglott are all safely preserved."
J. MILNER BARRY.
Totnes, Feb. 6. 1850.
Christmas Hymn.—Your correspondent "E.V." (No. 13. p. 201.) asks for the author of the Christmas Hymn—
"Hark! the Herald Angels sing."
I believe it to be the composition of the Rev. Charles Wesley, the younger brother of the celebrated John Wesley: he was born in 1708, and died in 1788. He was the author of many of the hymns in his brother's collection, which are distinguished for their elegance and simplicity. I am not able to find out, for certain, whether he had another name; if he had, it was probably the occasion of the initials (J.C.W.) your correspondent mentions.
J.K.R.W.
Sir Jeffery Wyattville.—Sir Jeffery Wyattville, respecting whom "J.P." inquires (No. 14. p. 215.), was knighted at Windsor Castle, Dec. 9, 1828., on the king entering into possession after the restoration.
S.G.
[To which may be added, on the information of our valued correspondent "C.," "that it was about 1824 that Mr. Wyatt, being appointed by George IV. to conduct the improvements at Windsor Castle, had the absurd ambition of distinguishing himself from the other architects of his name by changing it to Wyattville. This produced the following epigram in, I think, the Morning Chronicle:—
"'Let GEORGE whose restlessness leaves nothing quiet,
Change, if he will, the good old name of Wyatt;
But let us hope that their united skill
May not make Windsor Castle—Wyattsville!'">[
"Peruse."—In reply to the question of "H.W." (No. 14. p. 215.), although from want of minute reference I have been unable to find, in the original edition, the quotation from Frith's works, I beg leave to suggest that the word "Peruse" is a misprint, and that the true reading is "Pervise." To this day the first examination at Oxford, commonly called the "Little-Go," is "Responsiones in Parviso." It must not, however, be supposed that "Pervise," or "Parvise," is derived from the Latin "Parvus;" the origin, according to Spelman and succeeding etymologists, is the French "Le Parvis," a church porch.
In London the Parvis was frequented by serjeants at law: see Chaucer, Prol. Cant. Tales. There is a difference of opinion where it was situated: see Tyrwhitt's Gloss. The student in ecclesiastical history may compare Leo Allatius de Templis Græcorum, p. 44.
T.J.
Autograph Mottoes of Richard Duke of Gloucester and Harry Duke of Buckingham. (No. 9. p. 138.)—There can be no doubt that "Mr. NICOLS" is somewhat wrong in his interpretation of the Duke of Buckingham's Motto. It is evident that both mottoes are to be read continuously, and that "souene" is the third person singular of a verb having "loyaulte" for its nominative case. It appears to me that the true reading of the word is "soutienne," and that the meaning of the motto is "My feelings of loyalty often sustain me in my duty to the King when I am tempted to join those who bear no good feeling towards him." So that we shall have in English,
| Loyalty binds me | } |
| Richard Gloucester. | } |
| Often sustains me | } |
| Harry Buckingham. | } |
ARUN.
Boduc.—Your correspondent "P." (No. 12, p. 185.) seems to consider the "prevailing opinion," that Boduc or Boduoc on the British coin must be intended for our magnanimous Queen Boadicea, to be merely a "pleasing vision," over which he is "sorry to cast a cloud." Yet his own remark, that the name Budic (a mere difference in spelling) is often found among families of the Welsh in Brittany, and that the name was once common in England, serves only to confirm the common opinion that Boduoc on the coins was intended as the name of the British Queen.
Dio expressly writes her name in Greek Boudouica, which approaches nearly to Budic. In Cornwall we still find Budock, the name of a parish and of a saint. In Oxford there was a church formerly called from St. Budoc, long since destroyed. Leland mentions a Mr. Budok, and his manor place, and S. Budok Church. His opinion was, that "this Budocus was an Irisch man, and cam into Cornewalle, and ther dwellid." Whether there was a Regulus of Britain of this name, is not material. I am not prepared to cast a cloud over it, if it should be found. Our motto should be, "ex fumo dare lucem," &c.
ANTINEPHELEGERETA.
Oxford.
Annus Trabeationis.—I am sure that you will allow me to correct an oversight in your reply to a query of "G.P.," in No. 7. p. 105. You have attributed to Du Cange a sentence in the Benedictine addition to his explanation of the term Trabeatio. (Glossar. tom. vi. col. 1158. Venet. 1740.) This word certainly signifies the Incarnation of Christ, an not his Crucifixion. Besides the occurrence of "trabea carnis indutus," at the commencement of a sermon on S. Stephen by S. Fulgentius Ruspensis, I have just now met with the expressions, "trabea carnis velatus," and "carnis trabea amicti," in a copy of the editio princeps of the Latin version of Damascen's books in defence of Image-worship, by Godefridus Tilmannus, fol. 30 b. 39 a, 4to. Paris, 1555.
R.G.