ERRATA RECEPTA. 3911 



Latin veruacularism originating in Arce, i.e. the Arx or citadel "which ' 

 once stood on the same spot. — The Capitoline Hill itself is popularly 

 known as the Campidolio, the oil -field. Pinally the famous Amphi- 

 theatre of Vespasian, commonly spoken of aa the Coliseum, was, at 

 least in the middle ages, designated the Colosseum, the place of the' 

 Colossus, the former site, that is, of the Colossal statue of Nero. 



It was not my intention when I began this paper to dwell at any' 

 length on such vernacularisms as those which I have just been 

 noticing — vernacularisms to be detected in tongues now little known 

 or passed entirely out of use. I desired to discuss principally a few 

 verbal curiosities of the kind indicated, which I have happened to 

 observe in our own common speech and in one or two cotemporary 

 foreign languages. To them I now proceed. 



1. And, first, let us take some names of plants or vegetable pro- 

 ductions. It will not be necessary to make any remarks upon ordi- 

 narily-quoted and very obvious examples. I therefore dismiss at 

 once rosemary from ros marinus, tuberose from polyanthes tuberosa, 

 foxglove from folIcs\ i. e. fairies' , glove, liquorice fvora glyhyriza, man- 

 drake from mandr agora, dandelion from dent de leon, Jiollgoah (accord- 

 ing to Lord Bacon) from the Anglo-Saxon Jiolikoc, lucJcwJieat from 

 tuche-ivlieat, i. e. beech-nut wheat, grain of a beech-nut shape, &c. 

 In respect of mandrahes — there is, in " Sir John Oldcastle," a play 

 sometimes attributed to Shakspeare, an allusion to a popular notion 

 about them. The guilt of murder, it is there said, 

 solicits Heaven 



With more than mandrakes' shrieks. 



From mandragora has sprung the elaborate French vernacularism, 

 main de gloire. I pass on to specimens of less notoriety. 



"When we enunciate the names of the well-known common flowers 

 jonquil, gilliflower, datFodil, periwinkle, or of the herbs parsley, car- 

 raway, the weed purslaine, or the familiar exudation from our pine- 

 trees, turpentine, we feel at once that, if they do not in every instance 

 convey a perfect English meaning, they are at least made up of plain 

 English-sounding syllables, each possessing a certain degree of sense. 

 These are all vernacularisms based on terms foreign to our speech. 



Jonquil is properly the Italian giuncJiilia, i. e. the narcissus junci- 

 folius. Gilliflower is, through the old French, gilofre, for girofle, the 

 botanical caryophyllus, a clove. Dafi'odil is a capricious Auglicisation 

 of asphodel. Periwinkle is Italian again, viz, pervinca. Parsley is 



