ON ERRATA RECEPTA. 151 



photographic studios ; pos. for positive, and mem. for memorandum, 

 in the office of the Military Secretary, would be all taken as pretty 

 intelligible English. The Germans seem to have adopted the preno- 

 men Max for Maximilian. Cur has been seriously derived from cur- 

 tail — a hound supposed to be disqualified for the noble chase by 

 caudal abbreviation. Cheap is Cheapside. Is not chap the chapman 

 vpith whom we are transacting business ? 



At the University, the hoi polloi are the poll ; optimes are ops ; so- 

 phisters are sophs ; the domini — the heads of houses and other mag- 

 nates — are the dons, i.e., the doms ; a vice-chancellor or vice-presi- 

 dent is occasionally the vice, a term which would have been grievously 

 misunderstood by frequenters of Mysteries and Moralities — and which 

 ought, if anything, to be vi-ce ; but that, although the correct thing, 

 would sound nearly as bad. At Oxford, Demies are demi, i.e., semi- 

 communarii, a sort of inferior fellow-commoners. The writers in 

 "Blackwood," by an affectionate and not inelegant prosopopeia some- 

 times speak of their organ or magazine as Maga. 



My specimens of words formed in a reverse way, by taking termina- 

 tions instead of initial syllables, are not so numerous. Drawing-, for 

 withdrawing-r oom, stoiy for history, are not very striking ; and it 

 may be doubted that brick is im-hrec. For the rest, take cates from 

 deli-cates ; wig from periwig, an anglicism for perruque ; bus from 

 omnibus ; bill from li-bell ; and finally, copus, from episcoput, a 

 beverage in certain colleges at Cambridge.* 



The few words said to be due to the initials of other words are all 

 doubtful. 



Maccabceus, the surname of the Jewish hero, B.C. 168, is attributed 

 to the initials of the Hebrew words which signify " Who among the 

 gods is like unto thee, Jehovah ! " AERA has .been said to denote 

 "Annus erat, regnante Augusto," although, more probably, it was 

 originally "The Bronzes;" as we sometimes say "The Marbles," 

 meaning the Arundel or other marbles in citing authorities for dates. 



* Better known'perhaps as Bishop ; not peculiar, however, to Cambridge or England. 

 When Hierouymus Jobs, a German Student, was asked by his examiner in Theolo?:y, 

 Quid est episcopus ? he replied, " an agreeable mixture of sugar, pomegranate juice, and 

 red wine." See Mr. Brooks* late Translation of the Jobsiad, a Germ, poera, temp. Vl8i. The 

 same young gentleman defined "Apostles" to be. "Tall jugs in which wine and beer are 

 kept in villages." 



