402 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



i;2naS. V. 124., May15.''58. 



COLOUR OF UNIVERSITY HOODS. 



(2°'^ S. V. 234. 324.) 



I have been at some little pains to complete the 

 table which appeared in " N. & Q.," of the various 

 hootls worn by the graduates at our universities, 

 and I now send you the fruits of my labour. 

 From all parties except the London robe-makers 



I have met with a most ready response to my 

 Queries ; the latter say there is such jealousy in 

 the trade, and they respectfully decline giving any 

 information on the subject. Perhaps some of 

 your readers may be able to supply the blanks 

 I have been obliged to leave. 



J. W. G. GUTCH. 



KEDES COST. 



(2°'' S. V. 271. 337.) 



I can assure your correspondent /x that I have 

 no wish to derive from a foreign language any 

 English term or phrase that is of "indigenous 

 growth." By "nedes cost," or " nedis cost," I un- 

 derstand ne discoste. Was not "discost," as I 

 have represented it, an English word in the days 

 of Chaucer ? At any rate, as a verb signifying 

 " to part, to keep apart," discost is more than once 

 used by Barrow (as cited by Dr. Eichardson). 



" But then," it may be replied, " discost, whenever 

 it came into the language, is from the French or 

 the Italian." It is so ; and for that reason I went 

 at once to the source, Fr. discoste, It. discosto. 



If my Italian is faulty, let it be corrected. In 

 referring " nedes cost " to a French or an Italian 

 source, it was not by any means my intention to 

 intimate that " ne discosto " and " ne discoste " 

 are phrases occurring in any particular "Italian 

 or French writers." But as ne is often coupled 

 with adverbs (ne ancora, ne forse, ne piu, no prima, 

 ne mai, n6 oltre), I considered, and still consider, 



