204
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. SEPT. 13, 1902.
When these three considerations are duly
weighed, we cease to wonder that the
analogy fails. The cases of af-fec-t and
con-nect are not parallel. The -t in affec-t is
a mere suffix, and is to be compared with
the -t- vafac-t us, which : t- is a past participial
suffix. But the -t in con-nect is inherent, and
the past participial form is *con-necs-sus, for
- con-nect-tus, pronounced and written as con-
nex-us.
Similarly, from fleet- ere we have the deriva- tives flex-ion, flex-ure, and re-flex-ion, not reflection. Bub from flig-ere we have af-flic-t and af-flic-t-ion.
It is so much easier to follow a false analogy than to learn the facts that we may confi- dently predict that the false forms connection and reflection will long continue to be used.
CELEE.
"YEOMAN." There is a very general agree- ment among English scholars that in the word " yeoman " the element yeo- is identical with an old Germanic word for "district," appearing in Old Frisian gd, O.H.G. gewi and gawi (modern gau), Gothic gaivi, which must all be referred back to a Germanic base gaiijo-; but I do not think that any successful attempt has been made to give a satisfactory explanation of the relation between our yeo- and the continental forms.
The word "yeoman" occurs in two main forms in Middle English namely, yeman and yoman. The question one would like to have answered is, To what Old English type do these two forms point back ? Prof. Skeat, in his ' Concise Dictionary,' 1901, says that these forms point to an O.E. geaman, also pronounced geaman, comparing the pronun- ciations of yore and year, from O.E. gedra and gear. This explanation, however, is hardly satisfactory, as the hypothesis of a Germanic base gaujo-, which is assumed by etymologists, including Prof. Skeat, requires the trace of an i- umlaut in English. And besides we should expect that an O E geaman would have been spelt " yeaman " in Tudor English, cp. " year."
I would suggest that the M.E forms yeman and yoman, and the modern spelling yeoman, point to an O.E. geoman, also pronounced geoman. Compare O.E. eode and M.E. yede yode ; O.E. heo (she) and M.E. he, ho ; 'O.E. ceocan (choke) and M.E. cheken and chdken.
The diphthong eo of the English word may be explained as due to an older eu (ew) : com- pare the O.H.G. gewi. So O.E. meowle (a maid) represents an older *meivilo, Gothic mawlo ; O.E. eowde (a flock of sheep) is iden- tical with O.H.G. ewit (in Tatian). For the
Old Frisian form gd, and its derivation from
a Germanic type gaujcjm, see W. L. van
Helten's ' Old Frisian Grammar,' 23, 1890.
COMESTOR OXONIENSIS.
" MARK RUTHERFORD " AND " GEORGE ELIOT." Tho Bookman for August, a " George Eliot number," contains two articles of ex- ceptional interest: (1) 'George Eliot as I Knew Her,' by Mr. W. Hale White ; and (2) ' Sir Leslie Stephen's George Eliot,' by Mr. James Douglas, of the Star. I am specially interested in the former contribution, as certain of its statements and its general tenor seem to me to justify the belief I have entertained for a number of years that George Eliot is the original of one of the female characters in the last chapter of the first of Mr. Hale White's pseudonymous works, the 'Autobiography of Mark Rutherford,' originally published, in green paper-covered boards, in 1881. One of the ablest literary critics of our time, when he discovered the identity of the writer of the 'Autobiography,' put his work aside for a day, and journeyed to the Surrey village where Mr. Hale White then resided. This pilgrimage was not undertaken out of mere curiosity, but was an act of homage, and an evidence, which since that time the critic to whom I refer has on various occasions avowed, of the profound impression the ' Autobiography of Mark Rutherford,' ' Mark Rutherford's Deliverance,' and the 'Revolu- tion in Tanner's Lane ' had made upon him. The author of the " Mark Rutherford " books lives in comparative seclusion, and has not, it should be said, in any way manifested a desire for wide public recognition as a writer.
It has been known by some of his admirers that for a short time in the early fifties Mr. Hale White was an assistant, in his place of business in the Strand, of the late John Chapman, who for many years owned and, till nis death seven years ago, edited the Westminster Review. In the chapter of the ' Autobiography ' to which I have made allusion the writer relates his experiences in the service of a publisher, whom he terms Wollaston, who was assisted by his " niece Theresa." In the Bookman article on George Eliot Mr. Hale White tells us that between 1852 and 1854 he and Miss Evans lived at Chapman's, and that "Chapman published freethought books, mostly on commission." The publisher in the ' Autobiographv ' " sold books of a sceptical turn " we read" on one page ; on another, " Wollaston published freethinking books." It may be assumed, indeed, that Chapman is the original of Wollaston ; and as bearing out my conten-
