Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/224

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. XL MAR. is, 1915.


If there is nothing to be found in Du Cange to show that dealbare connotes anything about lime, let me quote the expression used by Curtius to Cicero : " Duos parietes de eadem fidelia dealbare " ? (to whitewash two walls from the same pot). With regard to the objection that no one would prepare wood for painting by limewashing it, let me state that it has been, and probably still is, the practice to " kill " knots in timber by cover- ing them for about twenty-four hours with fresh-slaked hot lime, which is then scraped off, the object of the lime being to prevent the turpentine in the knots from exuding through the paint. Cf., e.g., Rivington's

  • Notes on Building Construction,' part ii.

p. 412. I note that there is no doubt about the reading. L. L. K.

PRONUNCIATION: ITS CHANGES (US. xi. 121). A comparison of the directions given for pronouncing the words in this list with those given by Nares (' Elements of Orthoepy,' 1784) and in Walker's Dictionary '(1827) has proved full of interest, and I note the chief differences below, adding a few remarks of my own. Walker is almost always in agreement with the list ; Xares, as might have been expected, is less fre- quently so, but he mentions only a few of the words :

Notable : Walker says the distinction (made in 1 he list) ought not to be neglected, though it is " a blemish in the language."

Miscellany : Walker says all our orthoepists accent this on the first syllable, except Dr. Ken- rick.

Yolk : Walker prefers both the spelling yelk and the pronunciation, but notes the fact that 'the word is usually pronounced yoke. He refers to Johnson, whom see.

Acceptable : Walker regrets that the accent here has within these twenty years " been thrown back to the first syllable. 'The change however, was earlier than that : Charles Wesley wrote,

In all my works Thy presence find, And prove Thy acceptable will.

Arithmetic: Walker Avarns us against the vul- garism arcthmetic.

People : Of course the compiler of the list is wrong in saying that this cannot properlv be used for persons Perhaps he had been irritated by M-IUR one of a congregation addressed as " dear ills time y ^"vation is later than

4'ww : The construction with from appears to an?tio C n Wlfh /0 ' and [i has Biblical

Catch : Walker, too, warns us not to sav ketch S in SVe


. Xares says the g is hard, but adds that though he is sure of the proprietv he doubts the practice. Walker makes the g soft'


Peninsula: Walker pronounces this pen-in' - shu-la.

Here : Walker prefers the spelling rear, but condemns, as does the list, the pronunciation rare, which, however, is the only one I remember to have heard.

Decorous : Walker allows either indec6rous or indecorous. With regard to the other forms, he agrees with the list, but says Dr. Ash makes the o long in dedecorous.

Yelloiv : Nares says the e in this word has the sound of a short. He says this, too, of celery.

Suggest : Nares says, " the g is soft, though doubled." W r alker makes the first g hard, the second soft, which is the pronunciation I was most familiar with as a youth.

Jalap : Walker, too, exclaims against jbttop, but says Sheridan so pronounced it.

Tour : Walker gives toor as the usual pronuncia- tioii, but adds that totcer is coming into use, and is inclined to defend it by analogy.

Itinse : Walker says rence is vulgar, and is losing ground.

Marchioness : Walker pronounces this M(tv- tshun-es.

Mistaken : The compiler of the list is himself mist akcii in what he says of this. Walker, however, agrees with him, and cites the same phrase, mis- taken it-retch, to show how absurdly the word is misused.

Nephew : Both Nares and Walker give ph here the sound of v.

Hover : Walker pronounces this hnv-i<r, which he thinks preferable to making its first syllable rime with that of novel, as do Sheridan, Scott, and Perry.

Reliable : The form relionable, proposed in the list, suggests laughatable.

Humour : The compiler of the list simply says that the h is not sounded here : Walker gives yt<nir as the pronunciation.

C. C. B.

DE GLAMORGAN (US. viii. 468 ; ix. 153, 476 ; x. 35, 211, 331). It may be of interest to DR. \A r HiTEHEAD or others, if not already informed of it. to hear that a cadet branch of the De Glamorgans settled in Normandy, where, according to the ' Dictionnaire de la Noblesse ' of Chenaye Des Bois, Paris, 1863, they became a " famille regardee comme 1'une des plus considerables de Normaiidie."

The information given in the 'Diction- naire " is small but interesting, starting with a certain Thomas de Clamorgaii (as in England sometimes, so in Normandy always, the family spelt its name with a C), who, " selon le Catalogue de Gabriel le Moulin, etoit Chevalier-Banneret et por- toit pour armes : d'argent, a tine aigle de sable, a la bordure de gueules." This Thomas de Glamorgan, who " avoit proces vers 1400," married Catherine d'Argouges, Dame de Neuville. Richard de Clamorgaii and Alise d'Esquay his wife were at law towards the end of the fifteenth century