Si tibi culpa jocus, sit tibi pœna jocus."
Anglicè, T. CORBETT.
"Erasmus standeinge fore hell's tribune said,
For writeinge iest I am in earnest paid.
The iudge replied, Iests will in earnest hurt,
Sport was thy fault, then let thy paine be sport."
D. B. J.
Etymology of London.
—I believe the word London has never yet received a satisfactory explanation, and it is, perhaps, too late in the day to try to explain it entirely. It has always, however, been supposed that it was significant in the old British language. It has been explained as "the town of ships," the final syllable don, formerly dun, meaning a town. Several other explanations have been given also on the same principle, namely, that the final syllable meant a town or fortified place, and the first was the characteristic distinguishing it from other towns or duns in the neighbourhood.
This mode of explanation is repugnant to the general principles of British topographical nomenclature: for they generally put the general name first, and the characteristic last. Might the first syllable "Lon" not be a corruption of the British "Llan," so common yet in names of places, and so universally retained in Wales to this day? Llan means a level place generally, as most of your readers who are versant in those subjects know. The don is not so easily explained, but perhaps some of your readers may be able to assist in finding a meaning.