422 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 209. 



than those of the ordinary size, and containing 

 about two quarts ; or a Jeroboam other than a 

 witty conceit applied to the old measure Joram or 

 Jorum, by some profane wine-bibber ? H. C. K. 



Humbug (Vol, vii., p. 631.). — The real signi- 

 fication of the word humbug appears to me to lie 

 in the following derivation of it. Among the 

 many issues of base coin which from time to time 

 were made in Ireland, there was none to be com- 

 pared in worthlessness to that made by James II. 

 from the Dublin Mint : it was composed of any- 

 thing on which he could lay his hands, such as 

 lead, pewter, copper, and brass, and so low was its 

 intrinsic value, that twenty shillings of it was only 

 worth twopence sterling. William III., a few 

 days after the Battle of the Boyne, ordered that 

 the crown piece and half-crown should be taken 

 as one penny and one halfpenny respectively. 

 The soft mixed metal of which that worthless 

 coining was composed, was known among the 

 Irish as Uim bog, pronounced Oom-bug, i. e. soft 

 copper, i. e. worthless money ; and in the course 

 of their dealings the modern use of the word 

 humbug took its rise, as in the phrases " that's a 

 piece of uimbog (humbug)," " don't think to pass 

 offjonr uimbug on me." Hence the word humbug 

 came to be applied to anything that had a specious 

 appearance, but which was in reality spurious. It 

 is curious to note that the very opposite of hum- 

 bug, i. e. false metal, is the word sterling, which is 

 also taken from a term applied to the true coinage 

 of the realm, as sterling coia, sterling truth, sterling 

 worth, &c. Fras. Crosslev. 



" Could we with ink,'" 8fc. (Vol. viii., pp. 127. 

 180.). — If Rabbi Mayir Ben Isaac is the bond 

 jide author of the lines in question, or the sub- 

 stance of them, then the author of the Koran has 

 been indebted to him for the following passage : 



" If the sea were ink, to write the words of my Lord, 

 verily the sea would fail before the words of my Lord 

 ■would fail ; although we added another sea unto it as 

 a farther supply." — Al Koran, chap, xviii., entitled 

 " The Cave," translated by Sale. 



The question is. Did Rabbi Mayir Ben Isaac, 

 author of the Chaldee ode sung in every syna- 

 gogue on the day of Pentecost, flourish before or 

 since the Mohamedan era ? J. W. Thomas. 



Dewsbury. 



"'Hurrah!"' (Vol. viii., pp. 20. 277. 323.). —It 

 would almost seem that we are never to hear the 

 last of " Hurrah ! and other war-cries." Your 

 correspondents T. F. and Sir J. Emerson Tbn- 

 NENT appear to me to have made the nearest ap- 

 proach to a satisfactory solution of the difficulty ; 

 a step farther and the goal is won — the object of 

 inquiry is found. I suppose it will be admitted 

 that the language which supplies the meaning of a 



word has the fairest claim to be considered its 

 parent language. What, then, is the meaning of 

 " Hurrah," and in what language ? As a reply to 

 this Query, allow me to quote a writer in Black- 

 wood's Magazine, April 1843, p. 477. : 



"'Hurrah !' means strike in the Tartar language." 

 — Note to art. " Amulet Bek." 



So then, according to this respectable authority, 

 the end of our shouts and war-cries is, that we 

 have " caught a Tartar ! " 



Again, in Blackwood, 1849, vol. i. p. 673., we- 

 read : 



" lie opened a window and cried ' Ilourra ! ' At^ 

 the signal, a hundred soldiers crowded into the house. 

 Mastering his fury, the Czar ordered the young officer 

 to be taken to prison." — Art. " Romance of Russian 

 History." 



Thus, in describing the " awful pause " on the 

 night preceding the Russian attack on Ismail, then 

 in possession of the Turks, Lord Byron says : 



" A moment — and all will be life again ! 



The march ! the charge ! the siiouts of either faith J 

 Hurra ! and Allah ! and — one instant more — 

 The death-cry drowning in the battle's roar." 



Works, p. 684. col. 2. 



J. W. Thomas. 

 Dewsbury. 



" Qui facit per alium facit per se " (Vol. viii., 

 p. 231.). — " Qui facit per alium, est perinde ac 

 si faciat per seipsum," is one of the maxims of 

 Boniface VIII. (Sexti Decret., lib. v. tit. 12., de 

 Reg. Jur. c. 72. ; Buhm. Corp. Jur. can., torn. ii. 

 col. 1040.), derived, according to the glossary 

 (vid. in Decret., ed. fol.. Par. 1612), from the 

 maxim of Paulus {Digest, lib. 1. tit. 17., de Div. 

 Reg. Jur. 1. 180.), " Quod jussu alterius solvitur, 

 pro eo est quasi ipsi solutum esset." E. M. 



Tsar (Vol. viii., pp. 150. 226.) — Is not tsar 

 rather cognate with the Heb. "l^ (Sar), a leader, 

 commander, or prince ? This root is to be found 

 in many other languages, as Arabic, Persian ; Latin 

 serro. Gesenius gives the meaning of the word 

 mb' (Sarah), to place in a row, to set in order ; 

 to be leader, commander, prince. If tsar have this 

 origin, it will be synonymous with imperator, em- 

 peror. B. H. C. 



Scrape (Vol. viii., p. 292.). — I do not know 

 when this word began to be used in this sense. 

 Shakspeare says "Ay, there's the rub:" an ana- 

 logous phrase, which may throw light upon the 

 one " to get into a scrape." Both are metaphors, 

 derived from the unpleasant sensations produced 

 by rubbing or grazing the skin. The word pincK 

 is, on the same principle, used for difficulty ; and 

 the Lat. tribidatio-=tvo\\\)\Q, and its synonym^ in 

 Gr., SfKi^is, have a similar origin and application. 



