Notes and Queries, Number 39, July 27, 1850

Notes and Queries, Number 39, July 27, 1850

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes & Queries, No. 39. Saturday, July 27,
1850, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Notes & Queries, No. 39. Saturday, July 27, 1850 A Medium Of Inter-Communication For Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, Etc.
Author: Various
Release Date: October 13, 2004 [EBook #13736]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
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"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
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No. 39.] SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1850 [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.
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CONTENTS.
NOTES:-- Etymology of "Whitsuntide" and "Mass." 129 Folk Lore:--Sympathetic Cures--Cure for Ague--Eating Snakes a Charm for growing young. 130 Long Meg of Westminster, by E.F. Rimbault. 131 A Note on Spelling,--"Sanatory," "Connection." 131 Minor Notes:--Pasquinade on Leo XII.--Shakspeare a Brass-rubber--California--Mayor of Misrule and Masters of the Pastimes--Roland and Oliver. 131
QUERIES:-- The Story of the Three Men and their Bag of Money. 132 The Geometrical Foot, by A. De Morgan. 133 Minor Queries:--Plurima Gemma--Emmote de Hastings--Boozy Grass--Gradely--Hats worn by Females--Queries respecting Feltham's Works--Eikon Basilice--"Welcome the coming, speed the parting Guest"--Carpets and Room-paper--Cotton of Finchley--Wood Carving in Snow Hill--Walrond Family--Translations--Bonny Dundee--Graham of Claverhouse--Franz von Sickingen--Blackguard--Meaning of "Pension"--Stars and Stripes of the American Arms--Passages from Shakspeare--Nursery Rhyme--"George" worn by Charles I.--Family of Manning of Norfolk--Salingen a Sword Cutler--Billingsgate--"Speak the Tongue that Shakspeare spoke"--Genealogical Queries--Parson, the Staffordshire Giant--Unicorn in the Royal Arms--The Frog and the Crow of Ennow--"She ne'er with treacherous Kiss," &c. 133
REPLIES:-- A treatise on Equivocation. 136 Further Notes on the Derivation of the Word "News." 137 "News," "Noise," and "Parliament." 138 Shakpeare's Use of the Word "Delighted" by Rev. Dr. Kennedy and J.O. Halliwell. 139 Replies to Minor Queries:--Execution of Charles I.--Sir T. Herbert's Memoir of Charles I.--Simon of Ghent--Chevalier de Cailly--Collar of Esses--Hell paved with good Intentions--The Plant "H?mony"--Practice of Scalping among the Scythians--Scandinavian Mythology--Cromwell's Estates--Magor--"Incidis in Scyllam"--Dies Ir?--Fabulous Account of the Lion--Caxton's Printing-Office. 140
MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, Sales, &c. 142 Books and Odd Volumes Wanted. 143 Answers to Correspondents. 143
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NOTES.
ETYMOLOGY OF "WHITSUNTIDE" AND "MASS".
Perhaps the following Note and Query on the much-disputed origin of the word _Whitsunday_, as used in our Liturgy, may find a place in your Journal. None of the etymologies of this word at present in vogue is at all satisfactory. They are--
I. _White Sunday_: and this, either--
1. From the garments of _white linen_, in which those who were at that season admitted to the rite of holy baptism were clothed; (as typical of the spiritual purity therein obtained:) or,--
2. From the glorious light of heaven, sent down from the father of Lights on the day of Pentecost: and "those vast diffusions of light and knowledge, which were then shed upon the Apostles, in order to the enlightening of the world." (Wheatley.) Or,--
3. From the custom of the rich bestowing on this day all the milk of their kine, then called _white meat_, on the poor. (Wheatley, from Gerard Langbain.)
II. _Huict Sunday_: from the French, _huit_, eight; i.e. the eighth Sunday from Easter. (L'Estrange, _Alliance Div. Off._)
III. There are others who see that neither of these explanations can stand; because the ancient mode of spelling the word was not _Whit_-sunday, but _Wit_-sonday (as in Wickliff), or _Wite_-sonday (which is as old as _Robert of Gloucester_, c. A.D. 1270). Hence,--
1. Versteran's explanation:--That it is Wied Sunday, _i.e. Sacred_ Sunday (from Saxon, _wied_, or _wihed_, a word I do not find in Bosworth's _A.-S. Dict._; but so written in Brady's _Clovis Calendaria_, as below). But why should this day be distinguished as sacred beyond all other Sundays in the year?
2. In _Clavis Calendaria_, by John Brady (2 vols. 8vo. 1815), I find, vol. i. p. 378., "Other authorities contend," he does not say who those authorities are, "that the original name of this season of the year was _Wittentide_; or the time of choosing the _wits_, or wise men, to the Wittenagemote."
Now this last, though evidently an etymology inadequate to the importance of the festival, appears to me to furnish the right clue. The day of Pentecost was the day of the outpouring of the Divine Wisdom and Knowledge on the Apostles; the day on which was given to them that HOLY SPIRIT, by which was "revealed" to them "The wisdom of God ... even the _hidden wisdom_, which GOD ordained before the world." 1