Minor Notes.
On the Word "raised" as used by the Americans.
—An American, in answer to an inquiry as to the place of his birth, says, "I was raised in New York," &c. Was it ever an English phrase? And if so, by what English writer of celebrity was it ever used? Dr. Franklin, in a letter to John Alleyne, Esq., Aug. 9, 1768, says:
"By these early marriages we are blest with more children; and from the mode among us, founded in nature, of every mother suckling and nursing her own child, more of them are raised."
JAMES CORNISH.
Contradiction: D'Israeli and Hume.—
"Rousseau was remarkably trite in conversation."—Essay on Literary Character, vol. i. p. 213.
"Rousseau, in conversation, kindles often to a degree of heat which looks like inspiration."
Quoted by D'Israeli in the same vol., p. 230.
JAMES CORNISH.
A Ship's Berth.
—Compilers of Dictionaries have attempted to show, but I think without success, that this word has been derived from one of the meanings of the verb to bear. I conjecture that it has been derived from the Welsh word porth, a port or harbour. This word is under certain circumstances written borth, according to the rules of Welsh grammar. A ship's place in harbour (borth) is her berth. A sailor's place in his ship is his berth.
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