ON ERRATA RECEPTA. 33 



Pumice, employed in the preparation of parebment for the recep- 

 tion of writing, is the Italian pomice, and this, of course, the Latin 

 pumex. The French have transformed the word into ponce, whence 

 our pounce and pouncet. Our sketch, which the French have made 

 ^squisse, is the Italian scJiizzo, derived from the Greek schedios, which 

 denotes what is done impromptu, with such means as are at hand at 

 the moment. Caricatura is an o^fev-cTiarged or exaggerated sketch. 

 It is akin to cJiarge, and oddly to cargo, through the French charger, 

 which is in fact the Italian caricare, to load, &c. Motto, like ditto, 

 we have bodily adopted. The French have made out of it mot. The 

 original word is muttum, a late Latin derivative of mutire to rnutter. 



Some words in English connected with dress, with the material, 

 ornaments, and colour of dress, &c., are disguised Italian. To dress 

 — the act itself — is from drizzare, and this from the Latin dirigero 

 to arrange. 



Camicia has given rise to the name of a vestment which in English 

 has a more restricted application than it has in Italian and French. 

 Its root is disputed. Some are for the Celtic caimis shirt ; others 

 for cama, Latin, a bed. The ecclesiastical camise is the same word. 

 Camisade, for a night-attack, in the light of this derivation, becomes 

 picturesque. We see the men with their white camicie thrown on 

 over their corselets. — Pantalone, i.e. the Christian name Pantaleon, 

 on the Italian stage used to be the Venetian. He has given name 

 to a very familiar portion of our dress. — Gabardine, not unknown to 

 the reader of Shakspeare, is, through the Spanish, the \ia\\&n gabbano, 

 a coarae cloak, called in the south of France still a gahan, which ia 

 identical with cabane, as though a cloak were a portable hut for shel- 

 ter. — Cape is the Italian cappa, and this from the Latin cap-ere, 

 {quia hominem capit). Escape is to rush off, divested of your capo 

 i.e. your cloak. — Our very English-soucding word buckram is Italian. 

 It is properly bucherame, and suggests the interstices visible in the 

 actual material, being an immediate derivative of bucherare, to perfoo 

 rate. The buck-basket in which Falstaff was concealed had its name 

 from a cognate word bucato, properly the Ige used in washing linen, 

 then the linen itself. Fustian, another sound of rough English ring, 

 is also Italian, viz., justaqno, fabric of Fostat in Egypt. Again : 

 canvas, prior to French handling, is cannavacchio, from cannabis 

 Latin and Greek, hemp. — Serge, is Italian sargia, late Latin sarica 

 i.e. serica, silken. It is implied that the material consists of a mix- 



VOL. X. c 



