Notes and Queries, Number 39, July 27, 1850 | Page 2

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 Cor. ii. 7.[1] It was the day on which was fulfilled the
promise {139} made to them by CHRIST that "The Comforter, which
is the HOLY GHOST, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall
_teach you all things_, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you." John, xiv. 26. When "He, the Spirit
of Truth, came, who should guide them into all truth." John xvi. 13.
And the consequence of this "unction from the Holy One" was, that
they "knew all things," and "needed not that any man should teach
them." 1 John, ii. 20. 27.
_Whit-sonday_ was, therefore, the day on which the Apostles were
endued by God with wisdom and knowledge: and my Query is, whether
the root of the word may not be found in the Anglo-Saxon verb,--
_Witan_, to know, understand (whence our _wit_, in its old meaning of
good sense, or cleverness and the expression "having one's wits about
one," &c.); or else, perhaps, from--
_Wisian_, to instruct, show, inform; (Ger. _weisen_). Not being an
Anglo-Saxon scholar, I am unable of myself to trace the formation of
the word witson from either of these roots: and I should feel greatly
obliged to any of your correspondents who might be able and willing to
inform me, whether that form is deduceable from either of the above
verbs; and if so, what sense it would bear in our present language. I am
convinced, that _wisdom day_, or _teaching day_, would afford a very
far better reason for the name now applied to Pentecost, than any of the
reasons commonly given. I should observe, that I think it incorrect to
say Whit-Sunday. It should be Whitsun (Witesone) Day. If it is Whit
Sunday, why do we say Easter Day, and not Easter Sunday? Why do
we say Whitsun-Tide? Why does our Prayer Book say Monday and
Tuesday in Whitsun-week (just as before, Monday and Tuesday in
Easter-week)? And why do the lower classes, whose "vulgarisms" are,
in nine cases out of ten, more correct than our refinements, still talk
about Whitsun Monday and Whitsun Tuesday, where the more polite

say, Whit Monday and Tuesday?
Query II. As I am upon etymologies, let me ask, may not the word
_Mass_, used for the Lord's Supper--which Baronius derives from the
Hebrew _missach_, an oblation, and which is commonly derived from
the "missa missorum"--be nothing more nor less than mess (_mes_, old
French), the meal, the repast, the supper? We have it still lingering in
the phrase, "an officers' mess;" i.e. a meal taken in common at the same
table; and so, "to mess together," "messmate," and so on. Compare the
Moeso-Gothic _mats_, food: and _maz_, which Bosworth says (_A.-S.
Dic._ sub voc. _Mete_) is used for bread, food, in Otfrid's poetical
paraphrase of the Gospels, in Alemannic or High German, published by
Graff, Konigsberg, 1831.
H.T.G.
Clapton.
[Footnote 1: The places in the New Testament, where Divine Wisdom
and Knowledge are referred to the outpouring of God's Spirit, are
numberless. Cf. Acts, vi. 3., 1 Cor. xii. 8., Eph. i. 8, 9., Col. i. 9., &c.
&c.]
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
_Sympathetic Cures._--Possibly the following excerpt may enable
some of your readers and Folklore collectors to testify to the yet
lingering existence, in localities still unvisited by the "iron horse," of a
superstition similar to the one referred to below. I transcribe it from a
curious, though not very rare volume in duodecimo, entitled _Choice
and Experimental Receipts in Physick and Chirurgery, as also Cordial
and Distilled Waters and Spirits, Perfumes, and other Curiosities_.
Collected by the Honourable and truly learned Sir Kenelm Digby, Kt.,
Chancellour to Her Majesty the Queen Mother. London: Printed for H.
Brome, at the Star in Little Britain, 1668.
"_A Sympathetic Cure for the Tooth-ach._--With an iron nail raise and
cut the gum from about the teeth till it bleed, and that some of the blood
stick upon the nail, then drive it into a wooden beam up to the head;
after this is done you never shall have the toothach in all your life." The
author naively adds "But whether the man used any spell, or said any
words while he drove the nail, I know not; only I saw done all that is
said above. This is used by severall certain persons."

Amongst other "choice and experimental receipts" and "curiosities"
which in this little tome are recommended for the cure of some of the
"ills which flesh is heir to," one directs the patient to
"Take two parts of the