ON ERRATA RECEPTA. 325 



written without the initial aspirate which it ought to have. — This is 

 better than writing it and not in practice using it, as is so extensively 

 done in French, — Query, Are we in any way to attribute to this 

 French usage, the ignoring of A's, which is so much laughed at in 

 England? — Less just to this sound than the persons ridiculed, the 

 French do not, I believe, in any case insert it where it is not. This 

 is what — influenced perhaps by a notion of connexion with hostis-^ 

 we have done in the case of hostage — ^which properly is ostage, Old 

 French for the same thing, derived through obsidiatus (the act of 

 giving a hostage) from obses.* 



Has the expression "to blaze," as applied by surveyors to the 

 marking of trees when running " lines " through a forest, arisen from 

 a corruption of briser, technically used in this sense, as in th€ expres,- 

 sion marcher sur les brisees de quelqu'un ? 



Is not " to stump," as a synonym of " to pose, confound, and non- 

 plus," simply estommir, which denotes very much the same process? 

 And has "mooning," in such a phrase as "mooning along," descrip- 

 tive of a habit especially of short sighted persons who wear spectacles 

 — anything to do with lunettes ? 



{To be continued.') 



ADDENDA TO SECTION II., p. 147. 



1. Further examples of literal abbreviations. — N. or M. is N. or 

 NN. (nomen or nomina). M has arisen from the two N's as W from 

 two U's. — O. P. (Old Price, i.e., the former price of the tickets). — 

 U. E. (United Empire).— F. E. R. T. (on the shield of Sardinia) is, 

 not Fortitudo ejus Rkodum tenuit, but Foedere et Religione tenemur. 



2. Do. of abridged words. — Par. affin. (i.e., parum affinis.') — aro' 

 ph — {aro\md\ ph\ilosophorum\.) — Aur. pigment, {auri pigmentum, or- 

 piment) . 



* The vagaries of the old so-called etymologists in their efforts to derive everything from 

 the two or three ancient languages of which they had a very imperfect knowledge, are 

 suflBciently amusing. One of them derives rat from imis thus : mus {muris), muratu$i 

 ratus, rat. Another, for barde (horse-armour), suggests cooperta, cooparta, parta, barta, 

 harde. Another deduces haricot from f aba : faba, faharius, fabaricus, fabaricotiis, fari- 

 cotus, haricotus, haricot. By |i like Darwinian process larigot. a musical instrument, hails 

 fr ova. fistula: fistula, fistular is, fistularicus, laricus, laricotus, larigot-— Bnt the following 

 are legitimate : operire, to shut ; de-operire, to open ; hence dub-rir, adubrir, aubrir, ouv- 

 rir. — jEqualificare, egalifier, egalger, egaiiger, ganger, to gauge.— Ociro^, the tax levied by 

 the " Authorities" on the necessaries of life as they pass within the city-gates, has its rise 

 in auctoricare, auctorare. Ennui = in odio, — ^the complete phrase being est mihi in odio. 



