138 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 85., Aug. 15, '57. 



Pedigree, then, is equivalent to pied-de-gres, a 

 stern of degrees, that is, a stem of consanguinity, 

 or, a stem of lineage. Thus pedigree carries us 

 back to the days when the heraldic tree, em- 

 blazoned on parchment, hung high on the an- 

 cestral walls. 



With regard to the word gres, for which we 

 have the authority of Dr. Richardson, equivalents 

 will be found in the Scottish gre, gree, and grie, 

 the Port. gr4o, and the old Sp, grau, all from the 

 Lat. gradus. We have an old English inkling of 

 the same word in " grace to go up at, a staiyre." 



Pied-de-gres would in Portuguese be pe-de- 

 grdos, which also comes very nigh onv pedigree. 



With pedigree, too, we may compare the Ger- 

 man equivalent, stammbaum, literally stem-tree. 

 This compound word, stammbaum, graphically and 

 briefly, after the German manner, expresses the 

 very form and image of the old-fashioned pedi- 

 gree ; namely (1.) a stem, containing the direct 

 lineage, and (2.) branches, after the manner of a 

 tree, showing the family offshoots. 



The word stammbaum also refers allusively to 

 the secondary meaning of stamm or stem, race or 

 genealogy (Lat, stemma), Thomas Bors. 



Rule of the Pavement (2"'^ S, iv. 26. 75.) — The 

 only places that I recollect on the Continent 

 where there is a rule of the road for pedestrians 

 are in Denmark : as to such a rule over German 

 bridges, that is common enough, but exceptional 

 to the bridges only, on account of their narrow- 

 ness, and never applies to the towns, and is of the 

 same character and origin as the queue created by 

 the police at the entrance of French theatres. At 

 Copenhagen there is a regular rule of the road, by 

 which a pedestrian of the trottoirs passes on the 

 right those coming from the opposite direction ; 

 and our rule of the road and the Danish may be 

 co-original. J. D, Gaedneb. 



Chatteris. 



Hebrew Dates (2"'* S. iv. 71.) — I beg to thank 

 De. McCaul for kindly translating the title-page. 

 I would further ask how he comes to make the 

 date 317 = 1557, I had understood that in Hebrew 

 dates the letters of a word which are marked, and 

 those only, should be taken. Hence, since in 

 ISnpS the word given for the date, 1 only is 

 marked, which stands for 200, is not the date of 

 the book 200=1440 A.D.? To take another ex- 

 ample, which will make the case plain. In a 

 Hebrew Bible printed a few years ago I find the 

 date given p'^h Q^riSi p30 I^K^ yill nJIQ DJt^n 

 the numerical value of the letters marked is, I 

 believe, 596=1836. But if the value of all the 

 letters of the words was taken, the sum would be 

 1397=2637 of our era, a year which of course has 

 not yet come. I would ask then, why, if in the 

 latter case we are to take only the value of the 



letters marked, to ascertain the date, the same 

 rule should not be followed in the former ? Per- 

 haps some one will explain this. C. C. S, 



[C. C. S. is informed that the marking of the letters is 

 ver^' arbitrary. In some cases it is altogether omitted, 

 and the reader is left to conjecture which letters point 

 out the date. Sometimes the numeral letters are printed 

 in a larger type for the sake of distinction. The earliest 

 Hebrew printed book mentioned by De Rossi, is Rashi's 

 Commentary on the Pentateuch, printed at Reggio (Cala- 

 bria), 1475, 4to. This volume is supposed to be unique, 

 and the colophon states it to have been completed in the 

 month of Adar, I. e. about March. There is, however, iu 

 the British Museum, the fourth volume of R. Jacob, ben 

 Asher, "Arba Turim," which is dated on the month 

 Thammuz (i. e. about June or July 1475), and printed at 

 Pieve di Sacco. The printing of the preceding volumes 

 of this folio was doubtless commenced at an earlier period 

 of the year than the small quarto Commentary of Rashi, 

 although the latter vraa finished in March or thereabouts: 

 and thus, notwithstanding the fact that the entire work 

 of R. Jacob was completed later in the year 1475, a por- 

 tion of it may reasonably be supposed to have been in 

 type before the printing of the Rashi had been begun. 

 C. C. S. will see that the date 1440 is altogether inad- 

 missible. The description of the above-mentioned works 

 will be found in De Rossi's Annates, Parmae, 1799, Pars 

 prima, p. 3., etc.] 



" To staw" (2"* S. iii. 383. 470, 471.; iv. 116.) 

 — To staw, as used in Scotland, is, according to 

 the interpretation of Jamieson, to surfeit, and 

 ff staw is a surfeit. He quotes from Burns these 

 verses : — 



" Is there that o'er his French ragout, 

 Or olio that would staw a sou, — 

 Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view, 

 On sic a dinner ! " 



Now from surfeit the sense of fatigue, which 

 this word bears in Northumberland and in Lin- 

 colnshire, is easily derived. Metaphorically, we 

 may give a man or a horse a surfeit of work as 

 well as of food ; and by this excess, beyond his 

 power of endurance, he may be fatigued as well 

 as satiated. In both cases there is physical ex- 

 haustion. 



With regard to the etymology of the word, 

 Jamieson erroneously traces it to the Dutch 

 staan, to stand ; citing as a proof the Scottish 

 phrase, — "My heart stands at it," i. e. It is dis- 

 gustful to my stomach. To staw, as your corre- 

 spondent C. D. H. points out, is evidently a dia- 

 lectical variety of to stall, which bears the sense 

 of surfeiting in the north country dialect. Wright, 

 in his Provincial Dictionary, explains " to stall," 

 as signifying " to choke, to satiate," in Northum- 

 berland. C. D. H. states that "to stall" bears 

 the same meaning in Yorkshire. This accepta- 

 tion of the word has been rightly considered a 

 metaphor drawn from horses or cattle placed in a 

 stall with a sufficiency of food. Compare Prov, 

 XV. 17.: — 



" Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a 

 stalled ox and hatred therewith." 



