2n<> S. No 76., JONE 13. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



463 



in the then obscure village of Boom on the Rupel, 

 but now fast rising to importance from the vast 

 jambs of brick-earth, and the facilities for convey- 

 ing the manufactured material by the six different 

 rivers and canals which concentrate within a 

 single league of the site. The vast nodules and 

 fossils attract the geologist, and while the many 

 hundreds of workmen in their scarlet jackets are 

 employed in casting the blue earth, the pleasure- 

 seeker will find a combination of animating scenes 

 rarely surpassed amongst this industrious people. 

 « D. 0. M. 

 et memorial 

 Rdi. adm. Domini 

 Petri Dens 

 S. T. L. qui ex lectore 

 S. TIieoIogijE duodenni, plebanus 

 St. Rumoldi octennis, dein 



hujus seminarii prseses 



Per aniios xl. eccl. metrop. 



Can. grad. et poeniteat. 



examinator Synod, et Scholast. 



archipresb. sub cujus directione 



hoc sacellum exstructum est. 



Obdormivit anno 85 ajtatis suae, 15 Febr. 



et Christi nati 1775. 



R> I. P." 



Henet D'Avenet. 



ETTMOIiOGIJEiS. 



Pin. — The origin of this familiar term is evi- 

 dently the French epingle, which, like the Italian 

 splUa, is supposed to come from spinula. I, how- 

 ever, regard rather spiculum-a as the root, the n 

 being inserted in the French word, as ex. gr. in 

 concombre, from cucumis. This insertion of n is 

 to be found in many languages, as Xei'xw, lingo, 

 &c. ; it is particularly frequent in Spanish, as 

 trenza, tress ; ponzoHa, poison. It would not be 

 easy, I apprehend, to give a clear example of the 

 insertion of g, except in our own impregnable, 

 from the French imprenable ; and it has always 

 been a puzzle to me to devise how it could have 

 come there. Some other cases which occur in the 

 English language are owing to the nasals in the 

 French words whence they are derived. The c in 

 Sclavonian may also be noticed. 



Luscicms. — The root of this word is the French 

 luxe, which became lush, a term still used by the 

 vulgar in the sense of strong liquors ; whence were 

 formed the slang adjective lushy, and the more 

 refined luscious, which last came to signify exces- 

 sive, cloying sweetness, used at first of objects of 

 taste, and then, like sweet, of those of smell. 

 Shakspeare employs it once (^Othello, I. 3.) in the 

 former, and once (^Midsummer Night's Dream, II. 

 1 .) in the latter sense. Golding used lush as an 

 adjective in the sense of juicy, succulent, render- 

 ing tu7get, in the herba target of Ovid {Met. xv. 

 203.) by is lush, which adjective, probably taken 

 from him, Shakspeare uses once and in the same 



sense, " How lush and lusty the grass looks ! " 

 (Tempest, II. 1.) 



The line in the Midsummer Nighfs Dream 

 should, I think, be printed thus : 



"Quite o'er-canopied with luscious woodbine," 

 making the first, or rather the second, foot an 

 anapaest : ," Quite o'er-canopied," or " Quite o'er- 

 canopied." But as it is printed, 



" Quite ouer-canopied witli luscious woodbine," 

 which makes the line of six feet, and spoils the 

 melody, lush has been generally substituted for 

 luscious, and Mr. Collier's corrector also gives this 

 reading. But sui-ely of all the plants that grow 

 the ragged, thinly-leaved woodbine is the one to 

 which the epithet lush is the most inappropriate, 

 while its peculiarly sweet smell accords perfectly 

 with luscious. The line is also more melodious ; 

 for luscious, being pronounced as a trisyllable, 

 the unpleasant sh sound may be escaped. It may 

 be objected that my reading puts a syllable too 

 many in the line; to which I will reply when any- 

 one shows a single scene, or even page, of Shak- 

 speare purely decasyllabic. 



I may observe that Drayton also uses luscious 

 of scents: 

 " That when the warm and balmy south wind blew, 



The luscious smells o'er all the region flew." — Mooncalf. 



Jump. — This word I take to be purely ono- 

 matopoeic, for no etymon has, I may say, been 

 given of it. Webster notices the Italian verb 

 zampillare, to spout out, which seems to be ono- 

 matopoeic also; and Liebrecht, in his German 

 translation of the Pentamerone, observes that the 

 Neapolitan verb zumpar is, " to jump." But as 

 no connexion can be traced between the Neapo- 

 litan and the English, perhaps my theory applies 

 in this case also. 



Our forefathers used jump also in the sense of 

 risk, venture ; possibly originating in the phrase 

 jump in the dark. I will take this occasion of ex- 

 plaining a passage in Macbeth, where jump occurs 

 in this sense, and which, to judge by the pointing, 

 the commentators do not seem to have fully un- 

 derstood. I point it thus : 



" If it were done when 'tis done then 'twere well 

 It were done quickly. — If the assassination 

 Could trammel up the consequence, and catch 

 With liis success surcease ; that but this blow 

 Might be the be-a!l and the end-all here; 

 But here — upon this b'ank and shoal of time — 

 We'd jump the life to come .... But in these cases 

 We still have judgment here," &c. 



Johnson is tolerably correct in his explanation, 

 down to "end-all here ;" after that, if I am right, 

 he fails. I thus understand the passage. The 

 first done signifies ended, finished. Macbeth hav- 

 ing made the reflection pauses, and then returns 

 to the subject, stating it in three difierent man- 

 ners. The transposition of surcease and success, 

 which Johnson also made, is absolutely necessary 

 for the sense, success being accomplishment. But 



