C. I. R.
Palindromical Lines (Vol. vii., p. 178.).—The sotadic inscription,
" ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ,"
is stated (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xl. p. 617.) to be on a font at Sandbach in Cheshire, and (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxiii. p. 441.) to be on the font at Dulwich in Surrey, and also on the font at Harlow in Essex.
Zeus.
Nugget (Vol. vi., pp. 171. 281.; Vol. vii., pp. 143. 272.).—Furvus is persuaded that the word nugget is of home growth, and has sprung from a root existing under various forms throughout the dialects at present in use. The radical appears to be snag, knag, or nag (Knoge, Cordylus, cf. Knuckle), a protuberance, knot, lump; being a term chiefly applied to knots in trees, rough pieces of wood, &c., and in its derivatives strongly expressive of (so to speak) misshapen lumpiness.
Every one resident in the midland counties must be acquainted with the word nog, applied to the wooden ball used in the game of "shinney," the corresponding term of which, nacket, holds in parts of Scotland, where also a short, corpulent person is called a nuget.
So, in Essex, nig signifies a piece; a snag is a well-known word across the Atlantic; nogs are ninepins in the north of England; a noggin of bread is equivalent to a hunch in the midland counties; and in the neighbourhood of the Parret and Exe the word becomes nug, bearing (besides its usual acceptation) the meaning of knot, lump.
This supposed derivation is by no means weakened by the fact, that miners and others have gone to the "diggins" from parts at no great distance from the last-mentioned district; and we may therefore, although the radical is pretty generally diffused over the kingdom, attribute its better known application to them.
It is no objection that the word, in many of its forms, is used of rough pieces of wood, as instances show that it merely refers to a rudis indigestaque moles characteristic of any article in question.