240 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»«S. IX. Mar. 31. 'CO. 



One more communication will, I hope, suffice 

 to exhaust my collections relating to Thomson. 

 Those of your readers who have accompanied him 

 thus far will probably already allow his claim to 

 the character given him by Paul Colomies: "mag- 

 na eruditionis nee minoris ingenii virum." (Co- 

 lomesii Opera, ed. Fabricius, p. 712.) 



J. E B. ITatoe. 



St. John's College, Cair bridge. 



ETTMOLOGICA. 



Hackney and Hack. — Diez, in his Roman- 

 isches JVbrterhuch (p. 192.), treats of the French 

 haquenee, an ambling or pacing horse, and the 

 Italian acchinea or chinea ; and he derives them 

 from an earlier form, haque, or haca. He thinks 

 that the final part of the Romance word -nea, or 

 -nee, is derived from the English word nag, or 

 one of its equivalents. Ducange explains haque 

 as " equus semi-exsectus." According to Roque- 

 fort, in v., it is " cheval hongre." 



Whatever may be tl^p origin of the French 

 haquenee, the English word hackney is derived 

 from it ; which, according to Johnson, signified 

 " a pacing horse, a pad, a nag;" in which sense it 

 is used by Chaucer ; and afterwards, " a hired 

 horse, hired horses being usually taught to pace 

 or recommended as good pacers." Hence it came 

 to mean, generally, that which is let out for hire ; 

 and was used in such phrases as hackney authors, 

 hackney coaches. In Love's Labour's Lost (Act 

 III. Sc. 1.) it seems to mean a prostitute : " The 

 hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love perhaps 

 a hackney," and it bears this sense in a proverb in 

 Ray — " Hackney mistress, hackney maid." When 

 journeys were commonly made on horseback, the 

 practice of hiring riding horses must have been 

 much commoner than it is now. When roads had 

 been improved, post-horses and stage-coaches 

 took the place of hired hackneys. Hackney- 

 coaches originated in 1634, according to Brady, 

 (Clavis Calendaria, vol. i. p. 345., ed. 3.). His 

 account of the origin of the name Hackney for 

 the parish near London is not clear. The word 

 hackney has been abbreviated into hack : a horse 

 used for riding along the road has been for some 

 time familiarly called a hack ; but the abbrevia- 

 tion is comparatively modern, and probably does 

 not occur in any writing anterior to the middle of 

 the last century. The old word hackster, mean- 

 ing an assassin, a ruffian, is derived from to hack, 

 to cut in pieces. In Scotch, according to Jamie- 

 son, a hackster is " a butcher, a cutthroat." 



Fontana, Ital., fontaine, French, is called by 

 Diez {Rom. W., p. 150.) an ancient derivative 

 offons. It seems rather to be a Romance sub- 

 stantive, formed from the Latin adjective fon- 

 tanus, with its accompanying substantive omitted : 

 the full expression being "aqua fontana" (see 



Ducange, Gloss, in fontana). Other instances 

 of this mode of formation occur. Thus montagna, 

 Ital., montaigne, Fr., is terra or loca montana, or 

 montanea. Compare Livy (xxi. 34.), inter mon- 

 tana, " in a mountainous region." Campagna, 

 Ital., campagne, Fr., is probably loca campana, or 

 -nea, though Diez (ib. p. 83.) considers it an ex- 

 tension of the proper name Campania (see Du-' 

 cange, in campania). Fiumana, Ital., is aqua 

 fluminea (Diez, Rom. Gr., vol. ii. p. 273. ; Du- 

 cange, in fluminea). Mattina, Ital., manana, Span., 

 is hora matutina ; sera, Ital., is hora sera (Diez, 

 Rom. W., p. 315.) ; here the French has mattin 

 and soir, from tempus matutinum and serum. 



Diez (Rom. W., p. 122.) is much perplexed 

 with the word desinare, Ital., disuer or diner, 

 French. He mentions the following conjectures 

 as to its origin : — 1. The Greek Senrvelv. 2. "Dig- 

 nare Domine," the beginning of a grace said be- 

 fore meals. 3. Decima hora: 4. De-caenare 

 (compare Ducange, in disnare). The true origin 

 of the word appears to be the Latin desinere, in 

 the sense of ceasing to fast. The conversion of 

 the third into the first conjugation occurs fre- 

 quently in French, as in ceder, consumer, affliger, 

 corriger ; it also occurs in Italian, as fidare, con- 

 sumare, scerpare, tremare (see Diez, Rom. Gr., 

 vol. ii. p. 116.). Compare dejeuner, breakfast 

 (Diez, Rom. W., p. 175.). It might likewise sig- 

 nify remission or cessation of labour, — the meal 

 being a time of rest. 



Diez (Rom. W., p. 390.) derives the Ital. brin- 

 disi, a health, from the German "bring dirs"; 

 and he compares it with the obsolete Spanish ex- 

 pression, caravz, which signified the complete 

 emptying of a cup. According to Covarruvias, 

 the latter word was derived from the German, 

 and Diez supposes it to be from " gar-aus." This 

 word also occurs in French : " Carrousse — terme 

 emprunte de l'Allemand, qui n'est d'usage qu'en 

 cette phrase, Faire carrousse, pour dire, ' faire de- 

 bauche.' II est du style familier, et il vieillit." 

 (Diet, de VAcad.) " Faire carrousse. Ribotter, 

 faire ripaille." (Diet, du has Langage.) Roque- 

 fort has " carousser, boire abondamment." The 

 English has to carouse as a verb both active and 

 neuter, and the substantives carouse and ca- 

 rouser. Shakspeare says that Roderigo 



" To Desdemona hath to-night caroused 

 Potations pottle deep." 



Johnson, after Menage, Skinner, and others, 

 derives the word from gar aus ; but Todd, follow- 

 ing Junius, thinks j-ausch a preferable origin. 

 Other erroneous guesses as to the etymon of the 

 word are given by Richardson, in v. 



Trincare, Ital., trinquer, Fr., to drink freely, 

 are from trinken. In the Neapolitan dialect, 

 todisco is a toper (Diez, Rom. W., p. 355.). The 

 cup which was offered to a guest was called vilcom 

 in old French ; in modern French, vidrecome ; in 



