38
NOTES AND QUERIES. tii s. ni. JAN. u, mi.
" horner," " coroner," " tinker," seem ex-
amples of common words ending in -er,
yet not derived from verbs. A saddler does
not saddle horses, but makes saddles. Slang
words e.g., a " wonner," " a goner," " a
Peeler " seem to show that similar words
are still in process of formation.
T. WILSON. Harpenden.
The labourers hereabouts refer to the straps which they generally wear outside their trousers, below the knee, as " Yorks." No one locally can give the reason for this name. JOHN T. PAGE.
Long Itchington, Warwickshire.
VISCOUNT OSSINGTON (11 S. ii. 508). If MB. T. H. MILLER will refer to the collected volumes of Once a Week, he will find in the number for February, 1872, a cartoon of Viscount Ossington, entitled ' Mr. Speaker ' full length, in wig and robes, and wearing a cocked hat. The portrait is understood to have been an excellent likeness, and might perhaps supply the lack of a photograph.
W. SCOTT.
"TENEDISH" (11 S. ii. 286, 354, 493). In reply to SIR JAMES MURRAY'S query, Mr. HODGKIN proposes (11 S. ii. 354) to regard the first syllable as Du. " tenne, tin," and shows by a quotation (1569) that such vessels were made of tin. I think this is probably the right route. The definition of tenedish (1688) as " a piece of Lead made like a Muscle shell, in which the black is kept moist to work withal," rather suggests a standish, e.g. " atramentarium, an Ink-horn or Standish, or thing to keep black colour in " (Gouldman, 1669). Standish, traditionally derived from " stand-dish," is quoted by Prof. Skeat for 1557. It seems to have been a common word in the seventeenth century (Florio, scrittoio ; Cotgrave, cabinet ; Holy- oak, atramentarium, &c.), and 'to have been popularly associated with stand (cf. ink- stand) and dish. I do not think it has any necessary connexion with either. It appears to have been the metal table inkpot which replaced the older portable inkhorn. Miege (1679) has "standish, un grand 6critoire, comme ceux qui sont faits d' Stain." Now O.F. estain could have given M.E. *stain,
- sten, and, if introduced a second time after
the disappearance of the -s-, *tain or *ten. The aphetic form tain, used of the tinfoil applied to the back of a mirror, has passed into E. (see ' N.E.D.,' s.v. tain). It seems possible that standish may be for *staindish,
- tendish, influenced by stand, and that
tenedish is a later doublet. Or the stan and
tene may be cognate words which have
arrived by different routes (cf. stank and
tank). I do not know whether there has
ever been an E. *stan, " tin," but L. stan-
num is represented in some of the Celtic
languages (see Skeat, s.v. tin).
The second element may be dish? though the E. liking for the ending -ish (e.g., squeam- ish for older squeamous, rubbisA. for older robots) and the vagaries of popular ety- mology make it unlikely. I should guess- that both words may be due to some O.F. phrase such as " vase (or escritoire) en estain doux" Cotgrave has " estaim doux, the best kind of Tynne ; gotten in Corn- wall." The naming of an object from the metal of which it is composed is common, e.g., a brass, a copper, a pewter, a tin.
ERNEST W^EEKLEY.
The Romance of Bookselling: a History front the
Earliest Titles to the Twentieth Century. By
Frank A. Mumby. (Chapman & Hall. )
TRAVELLERS in the bypaths of literature will remember the incident recorded in ' Le Paradis des Gens de Lettres,' in which the writer is led by his celestial guide to the house from which the one-eyed publisher distributed with lavish hands twenty-pound notes as payment for a sheet of sixteen printed pages to the crowd of happy authors who thronged the garden of his mansion. By these generous gifts the publisher felt himself purged and absolved from any sin against the Light, and in this excellent volume Mr, Mumby has traced the steps which have led to this desir- able rapprochement between writer and publisher, and the means by which the dream of Asselineau has nearly approached fulfilment.
It may be safely said that in the commercial world there is no class that merits more highly the confidence of the public than that which is engaged in the production of books. The pro- duction of books is necessarily allied with the production of literature, and in considering the history of bookselling, it is pleasant to recall the satisfactory relations that have usually existed between publisher and author. Pope may have occasionally satirized a bookseller, but his associa- tion with Lintot is entirely to the credit of both parties. Johnson corrected Osborne with a knock-down blow, but towards no one had he friendlier feelings than towards poor Tom Davies or that nonpareil of publishers, Robert Dodsley, In later times the name of Murray is inseparably woven with that of Byron ; and if the confidence which Scott tplaced in Constable and Ballantyne had unfortunate results, it was based upon the friendship that existed between them. In reading such a book as Mr. Muniby's, one's pre- dominant feeling is that if the bookseller has not exactly created a Paradise, he has done much to shed sunshine on the often dreary life of the professional author.
