228 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 149. 



informant of The Times affirmed that such a thing 

 had not happened for nearly a century. Neverthe- 

 less, in July 1833 there were two full moons, which 

 passed over without any comment. In answer to 

 your correspondent's question, there were two 

 biplenilunar months in 1561, January and March. 

 I always bow to the established faith in all matters 

 connected with the moon and the weather; never- 

 theless, there is a thing which, I confess, puzzles 

 me. How did the moon and July arrange it when 

 the style was changed ? Whenever there are 

 two full moons in July of either style, for that very 

 reason there is only one in July of the other. Is 

 it only a recent law of nature that a double-mooned 

 July is a month of thunder ? Or is the moon a 

 Catholic, and, as such, did she obey Pope Gregory ? 

 Or does she belong to one of the Protestant com- 

 munities ; and, if so, to which ? Or is there any 

 escape from this triple alternative? I can see 

 none, unless it be that the asserted connexion does 

 not exist. In case any of your readers should wish 

 to try conclusions with the matter, I subjoin a list 

 of all the months which have had two full moons, 

 and of all which have had two new moons, for the 

 last quarter of a century. 



Full.—M^vdi 1828, October 1830, July 1833, 

 December 1838, September 1841, May 1844, 

 January 1847, March 1847, October 1849, July 

 1852. 



iVew.— July 1829, April 1832, November 1834, 

 August 1837, May 1840, December 1842, March 

 1843, October 1845, June 1848. M. 



[We are indebted to J. M. G. G., S. W. J. M., and 

 several other correspondents for Replies of a similar 

 nature. — Ed.] 



COKECPTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS OF WORDS. 



(Vol. vi., p. 29.) 



" N. & Q." has received many interesting com- 

 munications relative to the corruption in spelling 

 and pronunciation of names of persons, places, and 

 things : the last note occurred Vol. vi., p. 29. The 

 following olla podrida is heartily at your service. 



The Irish word disert, which signifies a desert, a 

 •wilderness, and sometimes a hermit's retreat, has 

 been variously corrupted ister, ester, Easter, tristle, 

 and dysart. Thus Ath-Disirt-Nuadhan, i. e. the 

 ford of St. Nuadhan's Desert, which is the name 

 of a parish in Roscommon, is metamorphosed into 

 Eastersnow. In Phoenix Park, the first word is a 

 corruption of Fionn Uisge, i. e. the clear, or good 

 water, from a once famous chalybeate spring still 

 existing. Erse seems to be Irish pronounced as a 

 monosyllable. Beggery Island, in Wexford Haven, 

 is Beg-Eire, or Little Ireland. Smerwick (co. 

 Kerry) is said to be a corruption of St. Mary Wick. 

 Marie-la-Bonne, as the name of a lane in Dublin, 

 Las been degraded into Marrowbone, and seems 



also to have become, in a translated form, the 

 parent of the word Gossamer, Good St. Mary ; in 

 French Fille de la bonne Viei-ge, or perhaps Gange 

 O^May ; though the last syllable has been other- 

 wise derived, from the French Mere, Mere de 

 Dieu, Ecclesiastical words afibrd some curious 

 instances : — Quadragesima (or Lent), Old Fr. 

 Cai'esme, now Careme ; Irish, Carghas ; W. 

 Grawys. Eirto-KOTros, Fr. evesque and eveque ; Old 

 Ir. Epscop, now Easpog. Dies Natalis Christi 

 (Christmas) ; Irish, Nodlog (pr. Nullug') ; W. 

 Nadolig ; Fr. Noel. Quatuor tempora (Ember 

 seasons), Germ. Quxitember ; Eng. Ember, 



Zaragoza is a corruption of Csesar Augustus ; 

 Andalusia of Vandalitia. The modern name of 

 Ephesus, Ayasaluc, is a corruption of Agio Izeo- 

 logos, Romaic for St. John the Divine. The church 

 of SS. Giovanni e Paolo is abbreviated to San 

 Zanipolo ; Teutonisch, Deutsch ; St. BotolpKs 

 Town, Boston ; Brighthehnstone, Brighton ; Beth- 

 lehem, Bedlam ; Hospital, Spital and Spiddal ; 

 St. Maur, Seymour ; St. Ethelred, Saudrey and 

 Tawdrey ; Inchiostro, ink ; X€ipoup7({y, properly a 

 handicraftsman, through the French, first chirur- 

 geon, now surgeon. ''E.Xefjfioffivn has dwindled into 

 alms ; Mobile, vulgus mob ; Deshabille, or en 

 deshabille, shabby ; Caryophyllus, girofleur, gilly- 

 flower ; Asphodil, fleur d'affodille, dafibdil ; Tlcwa- 

 Kfia, panacea, pansy ; Mavaaiay athanasy, tansy ; 

 ^amafftoi, fantasy, fancy. Eirionnach. 



ETYMOLOGY OF "ALCOHOL." 



(Vol. vi., p. 54.) 



In No. 142. of " N. & Q." A. E. S. asks : " Can 

 you enlighten me as to the derivation of the word 

 alcohol ; or rather, I should say, as the first syl- 

 lable almost of itself proclaims it to be Arabic, 

 what is the meaning of the word or words whence 

 it is derived ?" I trust the following information 

 may prove in some degree satisfactory to your 

 correspondent. 



Alcohol is derived from an Arabic word Al- 

 kahal, or Al-kool, signifying an impalpable powder, 

 or other subtle substance ; its present application 

 being attributable probably to the alchemists. 

 The substance to which the word originally be- 

 longed was black powder of some kind of lead ore, 

 employed by Moorish women to tinge their eye- 

 lids. Dr. Shaw states (IVavels, p. 294., fol., as 

 quoted by Bishop Lowth on Isaiah) : 



" No Moorish ladies take themselves to be com- 

 pletely dressed till they have tinged the hair and the 

 edges of their eyelids with al-kahol, the powder of lead 

 ore." 



Sandys (Travels, p. 67.) says that Turkish 

 women — 



" have great eyes principally in repute ; and of those, 

 the blacker they be, the more amiable ; insomuch that 



