ON ERRATA RECEFTA. 321 



A difficult word is supplanting legerite de main, viz., 'prestidigita- 

 tion. If it survives, it is likely, like its synonym, to undergo muti- 

 lation. Already prestigiateur is common in the Papers. But this is 

 not had, provided it he understandingly used. It is, in its etymology, 

 an entirely different word {rom prestidigitafeur.* 



Curfew (coicvre-feu), kerchief (couvre-chef) and vinegar (vin-aigre), 

 are examples of our errata, in French, so trite that we make no re- 

 marks upon them. But one word in connection with puree, which 

 emerges now and then in the Papers. A reporter, for example, was 

 lately prosecuted, and successfully, by the restaurateur of a railway- 

 station, for stating in print that his (the said restaurateur's) soup was 

 a wretched puree of horse-beans. This word we have already in the 

 language, only we have anglicised it into porridge. In this familiar 

 form it comes nearer than even puree to the root — qu. bulb ? — of the 

 word, viz., porrum, leek. 



A consideration oi pourchasser, the French form of our " purchase," 

 throws light on the curious use of this expression, not only for the 

 act of buying, but to designate an 'acquisition of mechanical power 

 or advantage. Our pursuit of an object — our aiming even at a me- 

 chanical effect — is a " chase " in which we are engaged. The gain 

 of strength which we desire to describe by the term is a help — a lift 

 onwards — towards our quarry. 



Who would believe that hatchment was achievement ? Our achieve- 

 ments are the great and good deeds which we have accomplished — 

 brought a bout — conducted a chef, to a head — to a good issue, and 

 which are supposed to be worthy of emblazonment on our shield of 

 arms, whilst our actions of a contrary tendency are described as mes' 

 chefs (jnechefs)- — non-fulfilments of our proper destiny — mischievous 

 failures in duty. 



It does not sound very Parisian to say of any body that he is all 

 agog, or of any thing that it is all the go ; yet we have here, disguised, 

 the not dissimilar expressions — both perhaps having gaudium at bot- 

 tom — etre a gogo, tout de go. Anglo-gallicisms such as these are by 

 no means uncommon. We have turned sieur (senior) into sir ; panse 

 (pantex) into paunch ; tortue (tortuca) into turtle ; accise (late Latin 

 accisiae) mio excise; creanter {creance, fides) into grant; autruche 



* The one is from the Late Latin praesiws (Ital. presto), and digitus ; the other 

 from ^raes^igia^or (a juggler), occurring in Plautus ; and this from praestigiae 

 (sleights, signs, Ac), ■whence prestige. 

 Vol. IX. w 



