Dec. 16. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



similar to the two sounds of th, not discriminated 

 in writing by the English. The 5 in modern 

 Greek is sounded like th in this ; whilst the 6 is 

 like th in thistle. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



" Ecrasezrinfame" (Vol. x., p. 282.). — I think 

 the Abbe Barruel, in his Memoirs illustrating the 

 History of Jacobinism, Sfc, is one of the first, if 

 not the very first, to attribute the offensive mean- 

 ing to this oft-repeated expression of Voltaire. 



It is so long since I read the work, that I can- 

 not quote. A. C. M. 



Exeter. 



" Sculcoates Gate" (Vol. x., p. 402.).— The term 

 gote is not peculiar to Yorkshire ; in South Lin- 

 colnshire and North Cambridgeshire there are, or 

 were, the following : lYd gote, the Shire gote, 

 Sutton gote, Lutton gote, Gedney gote. Fleet gote, 

 Bones gote, Murrow gote, and the Four gotes. 

 Gotes are also mentioned in the Statute of Sewers, 

 23 Hen. VIII. c. 5. They are thus explained by 

 " that famous and learned gentleman, Robert 

 Callis, Esq., Sergeant-at-Law :" 



Goats. 



" Goats be usual engines erected and built with, per- 

 cullesses and doors of timber, stone, or brick, invented 

 first in Lower Germany, and after brought into England, 

 and used liere by imitation ; and experience hath given 

 so great approbation of them, as they are now, and that 

 with good reason and cause inducing the same, accounted 

 the most useful instruments for draining the waters out 

 of the land into the sea. There is a twofold use made of 

 them : the one when fresh water flows and descends upon 

 the low grounds, where these engines are always placed, 

 and whereto all the channels where they stand have their 

 currents and drains directed, the same is let out by these 

 into some creek of the sea ; and if, at some great floods, 

 the seas break into the lands, the salt waters usually have 

 their returns through these back to the sea. Many of 

 these goats, which are placed on highways, serve also for 

 bridges. This goat is no such imaginary engine as the 

 mills be, which some rare wise men of late have invented ; 

 but this invention is warranted by experience, the other 

 is rejected as altogether chargeable and illusory. Yet 

 these engines seem to me not to be very ancient here in 

 this kingdom, for that I do not finde them mentioned in 

 any of the ancient Commissions granted before this statute 

 .did express the same." — Callis on Sewers, p. 66. 



The word clow seems synonymous with gote 

 (Badeslade, Hist, of Navigation of King's Lynn, 



p. 20.). C. H. COOPEB. 



Cambridge. 



« Talented" (Vol. x., p. 323.). —J. R. G. does 

 not appear to be aware that this word is, as Mr. 



■ Smart has observed, " a revived word." An in- 

 stance of its use is introduced by Mr. Todd in his 



-edition of Johnson, from Archbishop Abbot, who 

 lived in the time of James I. 1 have heard it 

 objected, that it is an abnoi*mal formation, as we 



>have not the verb " to talent." But the termin- 



ation -ed is an adjective as well as a participial 

 termination ; that is, it may be added to a noun 

 as well as to a verb. Two words now in com- 

 mon use are "moneyed" and "landecZ" — "the 

 moneyed and landed interest." It is true we have 

 the verb " to land," but not in the sense of the 

 adjective. Various other such adjectives are com- 

 mon, e. g. " a crabberf fellow," " the h\a.ded grass," 

 " the liWed banks," " rubietZ nectar." 



Chaucer, in his translation of Boethius, applies 

 the substantive very differently from the custom- 

 ary usage of more modern days. We apply it to 

 the talent delivered, the gift, the endowment : 

 Chaucer to the disposition of mind (manifested by 

 the difTerent servants — the good and wicked — to 

 whom the talents were delivered). In this he fol- 

 lowed the example of the older French and Italian 

 writers (see Cotgrave and Florio). The etymolo- 

 gists seek for a different origin of the French and 

 Italian word (see Menage and Ducange ; the latter 

 withholds his assent), but their identity with our 

 common word from the Latin talentum is obvious ; 

 and their application, " aliquantum deflexo sensu," 

 as Skinner remarks, is without any difficulty. 



Lord Clarendon writes : " The nation was 

 without any ill talent towards the Church," i. e. 

 disposition, was not ill disposed. 



Swift : " It is the talent of human nature to run 

 from one extreme to another," i. e. disposition, 

 human nature is disposed. 



This, we are told by Johnson, is an improper 

 and mistaken use. 



The Latin affectum, of Boethius, is by Chaucer 

 rendered talent. See the quotations from him in 

 Richardson. Q. 



Bloomsbury. 



''While" and ''wile" (Vol. x., p. 100.).— 

 Though " to wile away the time," " to beguile the 

 time," is certainly very good English, yet that is 

 not a sufficient reason for exploding the common 

 explanations of while. If we look to the old 

 usages of the word, we shall find it to be, in the 

 Wiclif Bible, the established rendering of the 

 Latin vicissitudo. In the Epistle of James i. 17-» 

 where the modern version has " no shadow of 

 turning," the old version Is, "no schadewe of while- 

 nes" ("nee vicissitudinis obumbratio"). 



" To wheel," is to roll or turn round : while 

 and wheel are evidently of the same family. 



While, s., is " a turn, or time of taking to turn." 



"To while," is, to turn, or, take a turn, e.g. 

 until dinner is ready. 



Ainsworth interprets " to while," otiari. 



Johnson, " to loiter ; to draw out or consume 

 time in a tedious way." 



Richardson, " to pass away or spend Ume in 

 doing .something merely to pass it away." 



" The whiling time, the whiling moments," of 

 Addison, do n^t necessarily imply tediousness. 



