530 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. VIII. Dec. 31. '59. 



handf The word twenty appears in the A.-S. 

 twa huna, the two hands. 



Let us, however, consider the Greek and Latin 

 forms. It has been remarked that words expres- 

 sive of definite numbers were first used indefi- 

 nitely. Of this fjivpias is an instance, which is 

 often employed to designate simply a great num- 

 ber. But language must find words for fixed 

 amounts ; and to accomplish this, in remote times, 

 the word for the common symbol of number, 

 namely, the hand, became slightly varied, to de- 

 signate different numbers, as we see in our word 

 /lour from fiower. We may, therefore, expect to 

 find similarity depending on affinity between many 

 words denoting different numerical amounts. I 

 cannot indeed affirm that ei/cotrj, or as it is found 

 iiKo-ri and kKo-Tov, were ever the same word ; but 

 I do believe that ei/carj, or rather its digammated 

 form FfiKart, and the Celtic _/?c^«J, twenty, are re- 

 lated. Now the Port. Jiga, a fist, is probably 

 related to this : so is vigesimus=vicesimus, coming 

 from viginti. But the vi in this word is the hi 

 from hini, as is seen in its old form, biginti. Is it 

 not then probable that viginti and ducenti were 

 originally the same word? as also, though less 

 clearly, eiKan and Ikotov ; and, moreover, that at 

 least the Latin forms had their origin in the bi 

 gants, the two hands ? 



I submit with diffidence the following Queries 

 for the consideration of better etytnologists. Sup- 

 posing that I am correct in the above, may not 

 vavTa belong to the class of words here given ; 

 and may not its original meaning have been a 

 great number ? And if so, does not this word ap- 

 pear in the ant, ent, and unt, of the third person 

 plural in the Greek, Latin, and some other lan- 

 guages? In the Welsh it is gwnt. Does not 

 canto, to sing, come from the above cant ? I think 

 it does, from the fact that a very early applica- 

 tion of arithmetic was not to £ s. d., but to the 

 science of music, and that musical notes were 

 called numeri. Again, the Latin annus, and the 

 Celtic ainne, a ring or circle, are no doubt related. 

 Does not Diana then come from the Celtic dia 

 ainne, tlje goddess of the circle or full moon ; and 

 does not Hecate, the same goddess, presiding 

 over the crescent moon, come from a feminine 

 form of Hecaton, a hundred, whose symbol is the 

 crescent C ? J. p. 



Dominica. 



Singular Advertisement. — 



" Whereas Ensign Samuel Medland, of the Hon. Col. 

 Howard's Regiment of Foot in Ireland, stands charged 

 •with the Murder of Edward West on the 20th of May 

 last. Now I, the said Samuel Medland, do design to sur- 

 render myself and abide my tryal at the next General 

 Assizes to be held in and for the Countv of Tipperary, 

 whereof all persons are to take notice. Dated this 10th 



day of January, 1726. — Samuel Medlamd." — Dublin 

 WeeMy Journal. 



Y. S. M. 

 Memoranda concerning the Seasons. — In the an- 

 cient calendar prefixed to the " Norwich Dooms- 

 day," from which I lately sent you a weather 

 distich, are the following memoranda relating to 

 the seasons and the calendar, which are suffici- 

 ently curious to interest the readers of " N. & Q." 



" Festum dementis ; vernis capud est venientis, 

 Cedit yems retro ; cathedrato sj'mone petro, 

 Ver fugit urbanus : estatem symphorianus." 



" Quatuor in partes, dm si dividis annos 

 Nil q; supfuit, credo bissextus erit." 



" Ab incarnatione xpi scdm Anglicos ab annuciacione 

 Anni dm scdm Romanos a nativitate xpi." 



B. B. Woodward. 



Haverstock Hill. 



" Familiarity breeds contempt''' — Some one I 

 think has asked for early examples of this pro- 

 verb. David Lloyd, in his account of General 

 Monck, entitled Modern Policy Compleated (1660), 

 § 16., p 16., writes: — 



" His Excellencies solemn [familiarity, no Mother of 

 contempi, was observable," &c." 



Not having my back numbers of " N. & Q." at 

 hand 1 cannot supply a reference to the place in 

 which the Query occurs. B. S. J. 



The " Breeches Edition " of Dibdin's " Library 

 Companion." — In a note to Bibliophobia, p. 8., 

 Dr. Dibdin says : — 



" When I quote from the Library Companion, I wish it 

 to be understood that I quote from the first, or Breeches 

 Edition, of 1824. The second is, however, the more valu- 

 able. VVill posterity ever be made acquainted with the 

 mystery belonging to this small-clothes designationi' " 



I imagine that the only mystery consists in the 

 suppression in the second edition of the Library 

 Companion of the following note, appended to p. 

 393. oii\\Q first : — 



" A curious anecdote, not altogether unbibliographical, 

 belongs to Anson's voj'age round the world. Mordaunt 

 Cracherode, the father of the Rev. C. M. Cracherode, of 

 celebrated Book- Fame, went out to make his fortune as 

 a commander of the marines in Anson's ship. He re- 

 turned, in consequence of his share of prize-money, a 

 wealthy man. Hence the property of his son, and hence 

 the Bibliotheca Cracherodiana in the British Museum. A 

 droll story is told of the father, of which the repetition 

 is pardonable. It was said that her returned from this 

 Ansonian circumnavigation in the identical buckskins 

 which he wore on leaving England : they having been 

 the object of his exclusive attachment during the whole 

 voyage ! Far, however, be it from me to give credence 

 to the report that there is some one particular volume in 

 the Cracherode Collection which is bound in a piece of 

 these identical buckskins I " 



If there be any farther mystery with this 

 " Breeches Edition," there are, doubtless, many 

 who can now favour us with its solution. 



William Bates. 



