ERRATA RECEPTA. 47 



lete term for * stars ; ' exhibiting, in fact, in itself, the root-element 

 of ' star.' — As having reference to the skies, also, another item will 

 here be in place. — A singular name, given by our English ancestors, 

 to the Milky Way, seems to have been suggestedby an etymological 

 notion entirely wrong, and hinted at, perhaps, only in jest ; as where 

 Chaucer says, in the lEouse of Fame, II. : — 



" Se, yondir, lo, the galaxie, 

 The wiehe men clepe the milky-way, 

 For it is white ; and some, perfay, 

 Y callen it han Watlinge-&txeie.'" 



It is a common thing to manipulate a word until it presents to the 

 eye the idea its sound is supposed to convey. Thus, it is likely, up' 

 roar is held, by many, to be expressive of the un-human, animal-like 

 voces naturce, sometimes to be heard proceeding from a tumultuous 

 crowd. Its good Netherlandish original, oproer, however, is not in- 

 dicative of these ; but, simply, of a movement upwards — an uprising 

 among the usually quiet multitude — what the Latins would call in- 

 surrexio ; and the Greeks, stasis. (The favorite Latin term, seditio, 

 is an exact synonym of secessio : sed and se denoting apart ; and itio, 

 "agoing.") Again: it is, of course, popularly supposed that the 

 rose of the useful garden watering-pot has its name from its circular 

 rose-like form ; and, sometimes, its perforations are, accordingly, to 

 be seen arranged after a sort of "■ wind-rose " pattern. The conjec- 

 ture is wide of the mark. Here is no allusion to a flower. Like 

 the first syllable of the familiar rosemary, this rose is a descendant 

 of ros, through the French, roser, arroser, ' to moisten, as with 

 dew.' {Nota hene, in passing, that the rose-wood of the upholsterer 

 has its name from its smell, when fresh cut). To remove latent mis- 

 conceptions in regard to " straw-berry," it will be of use to say that 

 the word is pure Anglo-Saxon. Streow-lerie is the fruit whose plant. 

 strews or spreads itself. — '•' Straw," for the crushed and confused 

 stalks of wheat, barley, &c., has its name from the use to which it 

 was extensively put before the introduction of carpets for the floor- 

 To this day, on paved streets, in front of houses where it is under- 

 stood one of the inmates is sick, it is to be occasionally seen 

 " strawed," just as it used to be, on the stone floors of ancient corri- 

 dors and "halls." 



The etymology of sincere remains suhjudice. Let the unwary mo- 

 dern, then, not quote either his Calepin or his Donat. The former 



