15-t 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. No 60., Feb. 21. '57. 



F.ime root (the Gael, man is a hand), or it may 

 have been formed from hreith and Mandu-bii, an 

 ancient people of Gaul mentioned by CfEsar, or 

 from Veromandui o\' Fzro77<«nt?Mi, a peopleofBelgic 

 Gaul mentioned by Pliny and Livy. Thierry 

 thinks that Cassivelaunus (which is found written 

 Casivellaiinus and Cassibellinus) is more correctly 

 Caswallawn. P. 1\I. will find in ancient maps a 

 town called Velauno-dunum, near Melo-dimum 

 (Melun), also a people called the Velauni, near 

 Avern (Auvergne). Caesar mentions one of the 

 Iloman generals as Quintus Velanius. The Penny 

 Cyclopcedia, under " Britannia," says the town of 

 Cassivelaunus is supposed to have been Verulam. 

 The tribes with whom the Romans in this expedi- 

 tion became acquainted were, among others, the 

 Cassi, who were inhabitants of Cassio hundred, 

 Ilcrls. That Cassivelanus was Prince of the Peo- 

 ple called by Ptolemy Catyeuchlani (KaTuevx^"'''")i 

 and by Dion Catuellani (KaroveWavoi), and by 

 others CatncUani, who occupied the whole or part 

 of Herts, Bucks, Beds, and Northamptonshire. 

 We also find in Suetonius mention made of 

 Cynoiellinus (in Dion KwofiiWivos)^ Cunobelin. 

 But see Ceesar, Bell. Gall., 5. c. 8., 7. c. 68. ; 

 Strabo, lib. 4.; Tac. An. lib. 14. c. 33.; Dion. 

 Cass. lib. GO. 779. ; Ptolemy, lib. 2. c. 3. ; Plin., 

 lib. 4. c. 17. ; Camden {Hist. Brit.), 298. 977.; 

 Lnmartiniere (Diet. Geog.) ; Roberts (Early 

 Hist, of Britain), 103.; Thierry (Hist, des Oau- 

 lois), vol. i. (Introduction), also vol. iii. p. 2. ch. 7. ; 

 Penny Cyc, " Britannia ; " Beda, and Polydorus, 

 and Armstrong (Gael. Diet.). R. S. Chabnock. 

 Gray's Inn. 



" size" and " SIZINGS." 



(2°" S. iii. 8.) 



Johnson, in the original edition of his Dic- 

 tionary, gives '■^ size, perhaps rather cize, from 

 incisa, Latin ; or from assise, French." The first 

 meaning given, for there are many, is that in 

 which we commonly use it, viz. " bulk," &c. The 

 second, which he presumes is derived from assise, 

 he gives as meaning 



" a settled quantity. In the following passage it seems 

 to signifj' the allowance of the table; whence they say a 

 sizer at Cambridge : — 



"'. . . . 'Tis not in thee 

 To cut off my train, to scant mj' sizes, 

 And in conclusion to oppose the bolt 

 Against my coming in.' — King Lear." 



The third meaning is "figurative, bulk, condi- 

 tion," &c. The fourth, which Johnson says comes 

 from siza, Italian, is " a viscous or glutinous sub- 

 stance." 



I see also the word sise, as contracted from 

 assize, and used in reference to its legal meaning. 



In turning to cize, the meaning I see is vir- 



tually the same as size in the first instance, though 

 not expressed in the same terms ; in fact, Johnson 

 appears to consider cize not only the same as size, 

 but rather the original word. He derives it from 

 incisa. 



Now turn to assize, and, amongst many mean- 

 ings, find the sixth — 



" Assize of bread, ale, &c., measure or quantity, thus 

 it is said, when wheat is of such a price, the bread shall 

 be of such assize." 



This he derives from assise. 



From their probable derivations, I take assize 

 and cize to be the oldest words : and size in all 

 likelihood the same as cize, with merely the dif- 

 ference of using an « instead of a c. Everybody 

 well knows, that, until the publication of John- 

 son's Dictionary, there were no fixed rules of 

 orthography ; 1 think, therefore, this substitution 

 may be easily accounted for. Or, allowing another 

 possibility for the origin of ,<size, take the above 

 quotation from Johnson — "when wheat is of such 

 a price, the bread shall be of such assize" — and 

 alter the last word assize into asize, a very pro- 

 bable mode of spelling it, and again into a size, 

 changing the a compound into a article, and 

 making two words of it without losing the original 

 meaning. 



I now come to my endeavour to reply to the 

 inquiry of B. A. H, " whether size and sizings 

 may not come from ciza ? " Johnson gives no 

 word ciza ; but, from the meaning of one assize — 

 " a measure of bread, ale, &c." — I consider they 

 are derived from it ; and ciza, like size and sizings, 

 in this sense, merely a derivative, or perhaps I 

 should more properly say, a contraction : or, ciza 

 I think not unlikely a corrupt Anglo-Latinised 

 word, derived from incisa (borrowing the meaning 

 ascribed to it by B. A. H., in his quotation from 

 Strype's letter to his mother, from assize,) and 

 retaining the terminal a of the original Latin 

 word instead of e, according perhaps to a fancied 

 scholar-like sound it might have. It is evidently, 

 from its meaning, the same as size, used in the 

 above quotation from King Lear. I do not mean 

 though to accuse Strype of using ciza, which I 

 consider may be a corrupt word, from its having 

 a scholar-like sound : he was too great a scholar 

 for that, — I suppose he used the word as he found 

 it. Not being an Italian scholar, I know not if 

 such a word is to be found in that language. If 

 so, and if it has an approximate meaning, B. A. 

 H.'s Query may be replied to by some, in using 

 it: though I adhere to my own notions as stated 

 above. 



The following quotations may interest some of 

 the readers of "N. & Q.," as showing the use of 

 the three words, as differently spelt, but with the 

 same meaning : — 



" If no motion can alter bodies, that is, reduce them to 

 some other cize or figure, then there is none of itself to 



