192 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. N" 88., Sept. 5. '57. 



WORKMEN S TERMS. 



(2"" S. iv. 135.) 



If printers' terms bave not already been an 

 overdose, perhaps you may find room for these 

 few more, which I think are not devoid of interest. 



Scahbnrd. — Strips of hard wood not thicker 

 than a thin card, used principally for " making 

 register." The following extract from Moxon s 

 Mechanical Exercises^ 1683, gives its derivation : 



" Printers' scabbord is that sort of scale commonly sold 

 by some ironmongers in bundles, and of which the scab- 

 bords for swords are made.** 



Query, What was the Scald thus sold by iron- 

 mongers ? 



Horse. — A workman " horses it " When he 

 charges for more in his week's work than he has 

 really done. Of course he has so much unprofit- 

 able labour to get through in the ensuing week, 

 which is called " dead horse." 



The gods. — When compositors appeal to the 

 laws of chance they never think of tossing up, but 

 cry " fetch out the gods." These are em quad- 

 rats of not too large a body, and generally nine 

 in number : they are shaken up in the hollow of 

 the hands and ejected on to the imposing stone, 

 he who throws the greatest number with their 

 nicks up being the winner. 



Moke; Pig; Devil. — Compositors are jocosely 

 called mokes or donkeys, and pressmen pigs. 

 These nicknames are general in the trade, and 

 can lay claim to some antiquity, as they were well 

 understood in the early part of the last century. 

 This is shown by reference to No. 148. of the 

 Grub Street Journal for 1732, in which appears a 

 humorous woodcut of "The Art and Mystery 

 of Printing Emblematically Displayed." A com- 

 positor is drawn with an ass's head and an ex- 

 traordinarily fine pair 'of ears, a pressman is at 

 work with a huge hog's head on his shoulders, and 

 a devil is standing as fly-boy to take the printed 

 sheets off the tympan. Compositors, God knows, 

 often require a large stock of patience to make 

 out the bad copy and scored proofs of some au- 

 thors, and thus they may in that respect have 

 resembled their brute namesakes ; while doubtless 

 the nasty process that the pressman of old had to 

 go through with the pelts (the skin which covered 

 the balls), inducing a disregard for any kind of 

 filth, and the dirty holes in which they mostly 

 worked, were the origin of the still less flattering 

 epithet they have borne So long. The phrase 

 " Printer's devil," applied to the errand boy, is an 

 outside term, used by authors and others from 

 time immemorial, but never heard inside a print- 

 ing office. 



Way-^gooie, — The meaning and origin of this 

 term has in a late number of " N. & Q." been 

 editorially elucidated, and I will only add that 

 " gooae day " is now in nearly all the London houses 



held m. May or June instead of at Michaelmas, 

 and is quite unconnected with " lighting up." 

 Mr. Halliwell is wrong in describing it in his 

 Dictionary as " an entertainment given by an ap- 

 prentice to his fellow-workmen." As "N. & Q." 

 is known to have a very extensive circulation in 

 America, may I inquire of some of your many 

 readers there, acquainted with our " art and 

 mystery," if transatlantic printers have inlierited 

 any of the time-honoured terms of typography ? 



Em Quad. 



i am afraid Em Quad is easily " puzzled " when 

 he cannot account for the employment by printers 

 of the word stick in the compounds composing- 

 stick, shooting' sticky footstich, sidestick, &c. Now 

 if we remember that all these articles, except the 

 first, were, and still are in the greatest number of 

 cases, made of wood^ the derivation of the term, 

 and its propriety also, is manifest. And even now 

 wooden composing-sticks are occasionally met 

 with. Neither do I think there is much mystery 

 about the other words for which he seeks explana- 

 tions. Quoin (cuneiui^ Latin, coin, French), is 

 plain English for a icedge ; the words are synony- 

 mous. Tympan is but a clip of ti/mpanum, a drum, 

 i.e, a piece of skin stretched over a frame (e.g. the 

 tympanum of the ear). These two words are ge- 

 neral ; the next two are more technical. The 

 form is not so called until the pages in their places 

 in the chase {chdsse, Fr., a frame) are furnished 

 with whatever is necessary to complete the thing, 

 i.e. the back-sticks, side-sticks, foot-sticks, &c., in 

 short, the furniture ; and this word is by tio means 

 confined to printers. A slight amount of reading 

 would furnish many instances, especially in our 

 elder writers, of its general application. J. S. D. 



OLD PBAYEE BOOKS : QODLT PBAYfiRS* 



(2"i S. iii. 187. 232. 353. ; iv. 35.) 



I have before me — 



" The Book of Common Prayer and administration of 

 the Sacraments: And other Kites and Ceremonies of the 

 Church of England. Imprinted at London by Robert 

 Bafker, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Miljestie, 

 and by the Assignes of John Bill. 1641. Cor irtundum 

 crea in me Deus. Fsa. 51." 



The book occupies 104 pages small octavo. The 

 title is engraved. A crowned figure holding a 

 harp is kneeling at the threshold of a temple, 

 which is surmounted by Fides praying and Rb- 

 LiGio trampling on Death. The Contents at back 

 of title ends with " 22. A commination against 

 sinners, with certain praiers to be Used divefs 

 tittles in the yeer." There is no imprint at the 

 end of the book. At g 3 commence the Godly 

 Prayers, which ate as under : 

 A Prayer containing the duty of every true Christian (•• 



most mighty God") ; 



