10
x. DEC, 19, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
485
man or a woman. It is by Edward Evelyn
Barren, M.A. Cambridge.
Anonym. A book without an author's name. In O.E.D., and O. Hamst quoted, vol. i. p. 347. G. Peignot's description says : " This word is applied to an author whose name is unknown, or to a book that appears without name of author " (see ' Diet.,' 1802, ii. 356 ; 1804, p. 15). Anonym has long been used in French, but as the French have no historical dictionary like O.E.D., we cannot say how long.
According to O.E.D. the word anonymous has been in English use since 1601. Strictly, a book would not be an anonym or anony- mous if the author's name or a pseudonym is to be found anywhere in it. But a book is loosely spoken of as anonymous if there is no name on the title-page, especially so in past times (as to this see the observations in ' Aggravating Ladies ' by O. Hamst, 1880,
p. 15, and ' N. & Q.,' 31 Dec., 1898, p. 521).
>.E.D. says anonym is " rarely used," but
O
it has become frequent since that page of the
Dictionary was printed in 1884. For exam-
ple, it is used as a heading in the " Subject
Index to the List of the Books of Refer-
ence in the Reading-Room of the British
Museum,' 1889, p. 335. See also ' Some
Words in "A New English Dictionary "
discussed by Ralph Thomas,' 1899.
It occasionally happens that, though anonymous, a book gives the name of the author. This is the case with ' The Growth of Love,' a poem, no imprint on the title, but at the end we read " Printed at Oxford, 1890." On the back of the original bound copies as issued we read " Growth of Love. Bridges." It is by Robert Bridges, M.A. (see ' Who 's Who '). The same is the case also with Jules De Le Court's ' Essai ' mentioned ante, p. 81.
Anonyma. A word to express both anonymous and pseudonymous. Suggested in ' N. & Q.,' 2 May, 1896, 8 S. ix. 342, and in ' Some Words,' &c., by Ralph Thomas, 1899, p. 19. Used by him frequently, as in ' N. & Q.' thus : "" In early life Neale wrote a number of novels, nearly all naval, and mostly anonyma " (2 March, 1907, 10 S. vii. 174). That is to say, they were published either without his or any name or under a pseudonym. Another example is " The Work of Halkett and Laing on anonyma," &c., which is used by J. D. Brown, 'A Manual of Practical Bibliography ' (1906), p. 58.
Anonyma is not a plural form of anony- mous. There is no plural to anonymous any more than to grievous.
Apoconym. Name deprived of one or
more letters. Pierquin says initial letters,
but it is not used by Querard with this
limitation, as the following examples show :
' Satire sur le dix-neuvieme siecle,' par
Vida*** [J. B. Vidaillet], Paris, 1821 t
' Terre-N.. . . ' [Fabre-Terreneuve] : V n
[Henri Vilmain],
Apocryph, apocryphal. Book whose author is uncertain or which is not to be depended on for truthfulness : of unestab- lished authenticity. G. Peignot says a book of uncertain authorship and on the faith of which one cannot rely. Epithet applied to all books the authenticity of which is not known (' Dictionnaire raisonne de biblio- logie,' vol. i. 1802, p. 26, and 1804, p. 15).
Example : ' The Execution of Sir C. Bawdin,' by Thomas Rowley, 1772, is entirely apocryphal, and was written by Thomas Chatterton, see H. pp. 110 and 30. Also H. under Hampden, pp. 185, 209, and other instances. RALPH THOMAS.
(To be continued.)
My friend MB. RALPH THOMAS refers (ante, p. 81) to the use of "anonym" with satisfaction, but surely it is an objectionable word. There is nothing in common between the words " pseudonym " and " anonym " as applied to the title-page of a book, except that they both imply that the name of the real author of the book is not given. " pseudonym " is a positive term, and repre- sents a false name ; but " anonym " only expresses a negation. You can have a Dictionary of Pseudonyms, but a Dictionary of Anonyms (although such a title exists) is an absurdity, and you only obtain con- fusion by contracting " anonymous work " into " anonym." HENRY B. WHEATLEY.
As a student of bibliography, I applaud MB. RALPH THOMAS for his intention to compile a list of technical terms. The terminology of the art requires to be placed on a sound and intelligible footing. I am not, however, surprised to find that Allibone failed to adopt such a word as " ananym " not, I suspect, because it was new, but because it expressed nothing. Such words as " anonym," from a privative, and OVVIJM, the ./Eolic form of 6Vo/xa, a name ; and " pseudonym," from ^evSrys, false, and ovvfia, carry their meanings on their faces ; but " ananym " has no Greek derivative that I can discover, and I am unable to see how it " at once tells those acquainted with the technical words that Werdna Retnyw is Andrew Wynter written backwards." It is
