Aug. 14. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



151 



recently picked up, bearing the title of Voiage du 

 Monde de Descartes : chez la Veuve de Simon 

 Benard, m.dc.xci. Inquisitor. 



[Parle P. Daniel. B.irbier adds, «' On a insere le 

 •second volume, L' Histotre de la Conjuration faite a Stock- 

 Jtoim corUre Descartes, par Gervaise de Montpellier."] 



Etymology of Sycophant. — AVill one of your 

 learned correspondents give us the origin of the 

 word " sycophant" ? M. S. M. 



[In Brande's Dictionary of Science, &c., we read, 

 ■*' Sycophant (Gr. <TvK0(pa.vT7)s ; from avKov, a Jig, (paivui, 

 I disclose). It was forbidden by the laws of Athens, at 

 one time, to export figs. The public informers who 

 gave notice of delinquencies against this fiscal law were 

 extremely unpopular, and hence the word came into 

 use to signify an informer or false accuser generally, in 

 which sense it is constantly used by Aristophanes and 

 the orators. In modern languages it has acquired the 

 ■sense of a mean flatterer."] 



Tahoo. — What is the meaning, and what the 



■derivation of this word? It is often met with in 



newspaper writing. D. X. 



St. Lucia. 



[Dr. Ogilvle, in The Imperial Dictionary, has given 

 the following derivation : — 



" Taboo, v. t. To forbid, or to forbid the use of; to 

 interdict, approach, or use ; as to taboo the ground set 

 apart as a sanctuary for criminals. Tabooed ground is 

 held sacred and inviolable. In the isles of the Pacific 

 it is of great force among the inhabitants, as denoting 

 prohibition or religious interdict."] 



Shaston, where? — I have recently met with a 

 •tradesman's token, i.-isued by one " Edward Burd" 

 -of Shaston, during the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, but I have not been successful in finding 

 in what county this place is situated, although I 

 have searched the Gazetteer; and I shall be glad 

 if any correspondent can supply the information. 



J. N. Chadwick. 



[In Langdale's Topographical History of Yorkshire, 

 there is a place in the West Riding called Shafton 

 •(spelt Sharston in Adams' Index Villaris) in the parish 

 of Felkirk, wapentake of Staincross, five miles from 

 13ariisley, seven from Wakefield, and nine from Ponte-- 

 fract.] 



FAymology of Devon, §-c. — What is the etymo- 

 logy of the word Devon ? and of the word Wor- 

 <iestershire ? I have heard or read the derivation 

 of the latter from Wig, and ceaster, the Anglo- 

 Saxon words for war and city. But why should 

 it have been thus named ? Also the etymology of 

 Dorsetshire and Somerset ? Arthur C. Wilson. 



\_Devon. — The earliest inhabitants of this county 

 were the Damnonii or Dumnonii, derived by some 

 from two Phoenician words, dan, or dun, a hill, and 

 moina, mines. The Cornish Britons named the county 

 Dunan ; the Welsh Deuffneynt, defined by Camden to 



mean "deep valleys." By the Saxons it was called 

 Devenascyre and Devnascyre, or Devonshire. 



Worcester. — The etymology of Worcester is with 

 some plausibility adduced from " Wyre-Cestre," the • 

 Camp or Castle of Wyre, under which name a forest 

 still exists in the neighbourhood of Burdley. 



Dorset. — This county was anciently inhabited by a 

 people whom Ptolemy calls Durotriges, a name which 

 Mr. Hutchins (after Camden) derives from the British 

 words Dwr, water, and Trig, an inhabitant, or dwellers 

 by the water side. The Saxons called them Dorsettan, 

 whence the modern name. 



Somerset, says the Magna Britannia, is called by the 

 Saxons Sumertun, from the " summer-like temperature 

 of the air." The Welsh for the same reason call it 

 Glad-arhaf.] 



Charles Inglis, First Bishop of Nova Scotia^ 

 1787. — Preferments in church, university, date 

 and place of death, with age, &c., of this prelate 

 are solicited. A. S. A. 



Wuzzeerabad. 



[During the years 1755-58, Mr. Inglis conducted a 

 free school at Lancaster, U. S., where he became favour- 

 ably known to the clergy of the neighbourhood, wh» 

 recommended him to the Society for the Propagation, 

 of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to succeed Mr. Neill 

 as minister to Dover Mission. With these testimonials 

 he came to England, was admitted by the Bishop of 

 London to holy orders, and arrived at his mission sta- 

 tion, Dover, on the 1st July, 1759, where he laboured 

 for six years. In 1765, Mr. Inglis obtained permi*. 

 sion of the Society to accept the appointment of assist- 

 ant to Dr. Auchmuty, and catechist to the negroes at 

 New York. On the death of Dr. Auchmuty, he was 

 elected by the churchwardens and vestry to succeed 

 him as rector of Trinity Church. On the breaking out 

 of the war, none suffered greater pecuniary loss than 

 Mr. Inglis ; for not only was his private estate confis- 

 cated, but he was compelled also to abandon his rectory, 

 and to accompany some loyalists of his congregation to 

 Annapolis in Nova Scotia. In 1783 he was obliged to 

 fly to England for his life, where he was consecrated 

 bishop of Nova Scotia on the 12th of August, 1787. 

 He departed this life in February, 1816, having la- 

 boured in the service of religion for more than fifty 

 years in the North American colonies.] 



THE FLEMISH CLOTHIERS IN WALES. 



(Vol. vi., p. 36.) 



F. M. may be referred, for an account of the 

 Flemish colonies established In the district of Ros, 

 in Pembrokeshire, and Gower, in Glamorganshire, 

 to different extracts which I gave in Vol. iv., p. 4. 

 To this I may add, that both colonies speak the 

 English language, to the uter exclusion of Welsh, 

 retaining, however, several words quite pecu- 

 liar to themselves, and apparently of a Flemish 

 origin. A very few of these I give, as they occur 



