268 
If “ Burtensis” has a friend belonging to the 
Clothworkers’ Company, it is probable that he 
will acquire much information on this subject 
from their old records. H. Epwarps. 
Derivation of “ Calamity” (No. 14. p. 215).— 
“Calamity” is from the Latin calamitas, from 
calamus, a straw or stalk of corn, signifying, 1st, 
the agricultural misfortune of the corn being 
beaten down or laid by a storm; and thence, any 
other trouble or disaster : — 
“ Tpsa egreditur nostri fundi ca/amitas.” 
Ter. Eun. i. 1. 
Upon which the commentator in the Delph. ed. 
has this note : — 
“ Calamitas est grando et tempestas, que calamos 
segetum prosternit et conterit. Unde Cicero Verrem 
vocat ‘calamitosam tempestatem.’ ” 
Ainsworth, quoting the above passage from 
Terence, adds : — 
“Ubi Donatus. Proprie calamitatem rustici vocant 
quod comminuat calamum ; h. e. culmen et segetem.” 
The etymology of its synonym, “ disaster,” is 
more direct — 5s aor}o, a star of evil influence, 
or, as we say, “ born under an ill planet.” 
SidoAdyos. 
Forcellini, s. v. Calamitas, says : — 
“ Proprie significat imminutionem clademque cala- 
morum segetis, que grandine vel impetuoso aliquo 
turbine aut alia quapiam de causa {it.” 
He then quotes Servius, Ad Georg. i. 151 :— 
“ Robigo genus est vitii, quo culmi pereunt, quod a 
rusticanis calamitas dicitur,” 
Then follows the note of Donatus on Ter. Eun. i. 
1. 34. 
It appears to me, if “calamitas” were derived 
from calamus, it would mean something very dif- 
ferent from what it does. 
Another suggestion is, that the first syllable is 
the same as the root of cad-o, to fall; 7 and d, 
everybody knows, are easily interchangeable: as 
Odysseus, Ulixes: ddxpvoy, lacrima, tear, &e. &e. 
If so, calamitas is a corrupted form of cadamitas 
Mar. Victorinus, De Orthogr. p.2456., says : — 
“ Gneius Pompeius Magnus et scribebat et dicebat 
Kadamitutem pro Kalamituitem.”—( Quoted from Bothe’s 
Poete Scenici Latinorwm, vol. v. p. 21.) 
But how is the -amitas to be explained? I may 
as well add, that Déderlein, with his usual felicity, 
derives it from koAovw. Epwarp 8. Jackson. 
I beg to refer Mr. F.S. Martin (No. 14. p. 215.), 
for the derivation of “ Calamity,” to the Etymo- 
logicon Lingue Latine of Gerard Vossius, or to 
the Yotius Latinitatis Lexicon of Facciolatus and 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[No. 17. 
Forcellinus. He will there find that the word 
calamitus was first used with reference to the 
storms which destroyed the stalks (calami) of 
corn, and afterwards came to signify, meta- 
phorically, any severe misfortune. The terrific 
hail-storm of the summer of 1843, which destroyed 
the crops of corn through several of the eastern 
and midland counties of this kingdom, was a ca- 
lamity in the original sense of the word. erie 
“ W.P.P.” has also kindly replied to this query 
by furnishing a part of the Article on Calamitas in 
Vossius; and “ J. F. M.” adds, Calamitas means — 
“ The spindling of the corn, which with us is rare, 
but in hotter countries common: insomuch as the 
word calamitas was first derived from calamus, when 
the corn could not get out of the stalk.”—- Bacon, Nat. 
Hist. sect. 669. 
Derivation of “ Zero” (No. 14. p. 215).— Zero 
Ital.; Fr. wn chiffre, un rien, a cipher in arith- 
metic, a nought; whence the proverb avere nel 
zero, mépriser souverainement, to value at nothing, 
to have a sovereign contempt for. I do not know 
what the etymology of the word may be; but the 
application is obvious to that point in the scale of 
the thermometer below the numbered degrees to 
which, in ordinary temperatures, the mercury 
does not sink. bidoddyos. 
Deanery of Gloucester, Feb. 7. 1850 
“ Zero” (No. 14. p. 215.).— Zero, as is well 
known, is an Italian word signifying the arith- 
metical figure of nought (0). It has been con- 
jectured that it is derived by transposition from 
the Hebrew word ezor, a girdle, the zero assuming 
that form. (See Furetiére, vol.iii.) Prof. le Moine, 
of Leyden (quoted by Ménage), claims for it also 
an Eastern origin, and thinks we have received it 
from the Arabians, together with their method of 
reckoning by ciphers. He suggests that it may 
be a corruption from the Hebrew 5, safara, 
to number. ra 
Complutensian Polyglot.—I cannot pretend to 
reply to “ Mr. Jepn’s” inquiry under this head in 
No. 12. p. 213.; but perhaps it may assist him in 
his researches, should he not have seen the pamphlet, 
to refer to Bishop Smalridge’s “ Enquiry into the 
Authority of the Primitive Complutensian Edition 
of the New Testament, as principally founded on 
the most ancient Vatican MS., together with some 
research after that MS. In order to decide the 
dispute about 1 John vy. 7. In a letter to Dr. 
Bentley. 8vo. London, 1722.” J. M. 
Oxford, Feb. 5. 
Sir William Rider. —In reply to the queries of 
“HH. F.,” No. 12. p. 186., respecting Sir William 
Rider, I beg to say that among many MS. notes 
which I have collected relating to the Rider family, 
