June 8. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



23 



and when bis marriage took place with his wife 

 Lady Lettice Boyle, daughter of the Earl of Cork, 

 who died in 1643. The confusion that is made 

 between the father and son is very great. G. 



Bands. — What is the origin of the clerical and 

 academical custom of wearing bands ? Were they 

 not originally used for the purpose of preserving 

 the cassock from being soiled by the beard ? This 

 is the only solution that presents itself to my 

 mind. Oxoniensis nondum-graduatus. 



DERIVATION OF "nEWs" AND " NOISE." 



! 

 I hasten to repudiate a title to which I have no , 



claim ; a compliment towards the close of the 1 

 letter of your correspondent "CH." (Vol.i., p. 487.) j 

 being evidently intended for a gentleman whose 

 christian name, only, differs from mine. The com- 

 pliment in his case is well-deserved ; and it will 

 not lower him in your correspondent's opinion, to 

 know that he is not answerable for the sins laid 

 to my charge. And now for a word in my own 

 behalf. 



Indeed, CH. is rather hard upon me, I must 

 confess. In using the simple form of assertion as 

 more convenient, — although I intended thereby 

 merely to express that such was my opinion, and 

 not dreaming of myself as an authority, — I have 

 undoubtedly erred. In the single instance in 

 which I used it, instead of saying " it is," I should 

 have said " I think it is." Throughout the rest of 

 my argument I think the terms made use of are 

 perfectly allowable as expressions of opinion. 

 Your correspondent has been good enough to give 

 " the whole " of my " argument " in recapitulating 

 my " assertions." Singular dogmatism that in 

 laying down the law should condescend to give 

 reasons for it ! On the other hand, when I turn 

 to the letter of my friendly censor, I find assertion 

 without argument, which, to my simple apprehen- 

 sion, is of much nearer kin to dogmatism than is 

 the sin with which I am charged. 



I cannot help thinking that your correspondent, 

 from his dislike " to be puzzled on so plain a sub- 

 ject," has a misapprehension as to the uses of 

 etymology. I, too, am no etymologist ; I am a 

 simple inquirer, anxious for information ; fre- 

 quently, without doubt, "most ignorant" of what 

 1 am " most assured ; " yet I feel that to treat the 

 subject scientifically it is not enough to guess at 

 the origin of a word, not enough even to know it ; 

 that it is important to know not only whence it 

 came, but how it came, what were its j-elations, by 

 what road it travelled ; and treated thus, etymology 

 is of importance, as a branch of a larger science, 

 to the history of the progress of the human race. 



Descending now to particulars, let your corre- 

 spondent show me how " news" was made out of 



" new." I have shown him how / think it was 

 made ; but I am open to conviction. 



I repeat my opinion that " news is a noun sin- 

 gular, and as such must have been adopted bodily 

 into the language;" and if it were a "noun of 

 plural form and plural meaning," I still think 

 that the singular form must have preceded it. 

 The two instances CH. gives, " goods " and 

 " riches, " are more in point than he appears to 

 suppose, although in support of my argument, and 

 not his. The first is from the Gothic, and is sub- 

 stantially a word implying " possessions," older 

 than the oldest European living languages. 

 "Riches" is most unquestionably in its original 

 acceptation in our language a noun singular, being 

 identically the French " richesse," in which manner 

 it is spelt in our early writers. From the form 

 coinciding with that of our plural, it has acquired 

 also a plural signification. But both words "have 

 been adopted bodily into the language," and thus 

 strengthen my argument that the process of 

 manufacture is with us unknown. 



Your correspondent is not quite correct in de- 

 scribing me as putting forward as instances of the 

 early communication between the English and the 

 German languages the derivation of" news" from 

 " Neues," and the similarity between two poems. 

 The first I adduced as an instance of the impor- 

 tance of the inquiry : with regard to the second, 

 I admitted all that your correspondent now says ; 

 but with the remark, that the mode of treatment 

 and the measure approaching so near to each 

 other in England and Germany within one half 

 century (and, I may add, at no other period ia 

 either of the two nations is the same mode or 

 measure to be found), there was reasonable ground 

 for suspicion of direct or indirect communication. 

 On this subject I asked for information. 



In conclusion, I think I observe something of a 

 sarcastic tone in reference to my "novelty." I 

 shall advocate nothing that I do not believe to be 

 true, "whether it be old or new;" but I have 

 found that our authorities are sometimes careless, 

 sometimes unfaithful, and are so given to run in 

 a groove, that when 1 am in quest of truth I 

 generally discard them altogether, and explore, 

 however laboriously, by myself 



Samuel Hickson. 



St. John's Wood, May 27. 1850. 



I do not know the reason for the rule your 

 correspondent INIr, S. Hickson lays down, that 

 such a noun as " news" could not be formed 

 according to English analogy. A\ hy not as well 

 as "goods, the shallows, blacks, for mourning, 

 irreens?" There is no singular to any of these as 

 nouns. 1 



Noise is a French word, upon which Menage 

 has an article. There can be no doubt that he 

 and others whom he quotes are right, that it is 



