60
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL JAN. 17, im.
Beaux-Arts. To the lover of eighteenth-century
art the book needs no commendation. The en tin
series constitutes an eminently desirable possessior
and a work of equal attractiveness and merit. Th<
matter is not yet exhausted, though the author is
surely entitled to a rest if she is disposed to claim
it. The subject, so far as Lady Dilke's book is
concerned, ends with the fall under the Commune
of the Academies, when limitations were imposec
on the arts so intolerable that one had to wait
for the romanticism of the next century for entire
release from the artificial pressure of movements
which are "in genuine harmony with the develop
ment of modern democracy."
A Ne.iv English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Edited by Dr. Jame's A. H. Murray. Vol. VI Lief Lock. By Henry Bradley, Hon. M.A (Oxford, Clarendon Press.)
THE first contribution of the new year to the great work now beginning to hold out hopes of approach- ing completion consists of a double section, issued under the charge of Mr. Henry Bradley, forming a considerable portion of the sixth volume, and com- prising the words of the alphabet between lief find lock substantive. To supply once more a class of statistics to which a prefatory note challenges attention, we find that the volume before us con- tains 1,600 main words, 597 combinations, and 382 subordinate entries, in all 2,579. Obvious combina- tions raise the entire number to 3,367. Against this number can be opposed 1,328 in Cassell's, 1,922 in the ' Century,' and 1,971 in Funk's ' Standard,' and in Johnson no more than 295. The number of illustrative quotations is, moreover, 16,145, against 1,527 in the best-equipped of so-called rivals. The greatest share in the section is occupied with import- ant words of Germanic etymology, such as life, lift, light, like, limb, line, &c. ; most of these, possessing many senses and forms of their own, are prolific of derivatives, many of them of great and separate interest. Comparatively few words are from Oriental, American, and African sources. Two words respectively from Chinese and Zulu appear, and there are beside the Indian lingam, the Peruvian llama, and lilac, "which is ultimately Persian, though introduced into English through a Romanic channel." Turning to some of the words indicated in the prefatory note, we find many histories of extreme interest. Lilac : Bacon first uses the word in his essay ' Of Gardens,' 1625, in the combination "lelacke Tree." In 1658 and 1664 respectively Sir Thomas Browne and Evelyn employ lilac, nor is it until a century later (1763) that we encounter the form laylocks: "And gather'd laylocks perish, as they blow." Yet this form seems to have taken root in America, as it did in dialectal usage. Oliver Wendell Holmes has " lalocks flowered late." In 1881 Besant and Rice write, " The yellow laburnum and the laylock were at their best," which is in- correct as observation, since the laylock, or lilac, fades as the laburnum begins. Liliaceous we are surprised to encounter so soon as 1731. An exqui- site, if familiar quotation from Milton's 'Arcades' illustrates lilied. Something concerning lilly-low might have been added from our own columns. Limbo, in Zulu use, signifies a kind of coarse calico, and has nothing to do with the limbo patrum. Under lime, in its various significations, and as a substantive or verb, there is abundance that repays study. Another word, occurring earlier in the section in fact, on its first page to which close
attention should be paid, is liege, in such phrases
as " liege lord,'-' &c. Limitour or limiter, as used
by Chaucer in "lymytours and othere hooly freres,"
to whom the poet dramatically attributes the dis-
appearance of the fairies, is very interesting. Lim-
7ner=minx, as used by Scott, and limp, wanting in
firmness, are both said to be obscure. Has not
lindabrides sometimes a slightly more calumnious
significance than that of a lady-love, a mistress,
assigned it ? More might be said concerning the
use of line as an order received by a traveller. The
origin of that seems to have been the simple line in
the pocket-book of the traveller. "A hundred loco-
motive steam-engines" would constitute what is
called a " line." For this we will be responsible.
Lion has, naturally, a full history. A Cotswold
lion is a sheep ; a Rumford lion, a calf. The first
use of lion to denote a celebrity is in 1715. We
would crave admission for "lion's eye" on the
strength of Bailey's 'Festus':
Locks which have
The golden embrownmeut of a lion's eye. Under litter room should be made for Macaulay's lines on " The vile Claudian litter raging with currish spite." Burns's use of "live day long" for livelong day is duly chronicled. Well worthy of close study is all that is said under livery. Loan as a verb is still, fortunately, chiefly American. The "loathly worm "=serpent seems to be first used by Besant (1886), though Thomson (1748) has "loathly toad." We should have thought that ballad literature would supply earlier instances. Of this part, as of most by which it has been pre- ceded, it may be said that it furnishes matter for unending study and delight.
Qoiitt* to
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