Notes and Queries, Number 65, January 25, 1851Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 65, January 25, 1851
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
_By and Bye_ (Vol. ii., p. 424.).--Surely this means "by the way." _Good
by_ may mean "Bon voyage."
S.S.
_Mocker_ (Vol. ii., p. 519.).--In some of the provincial dialects of
England, and in the Scotch of the lowlands of Scotland, there are a good
many Dutch words. _Moker_, in Dutch, means _a large hammer_. This is
probably the word used by the old cottager of Pembridge, and spelt _Mocker_
by W.M.
G.F.G.
Edinburgh.
_Was Colonel Hewson a Cobbler?_ (Vol. iii., p. 11.).--Hume's History
relates that "Colonel Hewson suppressed the tumult of London apprentices,
November, 1659:" and that "he was a man who rose from the _profession_ of a
cobbler to a high rank in the army."
Colonel John Hewson was member for Guildford from September 17, 1656, to
January 27, 1658-59. (Bray and Manning.)
GILBERT.
{74}
_Mole_ (Vol. ii., p. 225.).--This story is of course much older than the
form which it now appears. Sir Bevil Grenville is the great hero of the
N.W. coast of Cornwall most of the floating legend has been gathered about
him.
Legends referring to the origin of different animals are common. Mrs.
Jamieson (Canada) has a very beautiful Chippewa story of the first robin.
It is believed in Devonshire that moles begin to work with the flow, and
leave off with the ebb of the tide. The same thing is asserted of the
beaver.
_Pillgarlick_ (Vol. ii., p. 393.; Vol. iii., p. 42.).--The word is given by
Todd, in his edition of Johnson, under the forms _Pilgarlick_ and
_Pilled-garlick_. The same orthography is adopted by other lexicographers.
The spelling, concerning which your querist desires information, is,
however, the least important point. I trust that the question will elicit
information of a valuable kind as to the origin of the term, by which I
have I myself been sorely puzzled, and which, I think, has not been
satisfactorily cleared up by any of those who have attempted it. Following
the authority of Skinner, our philologists are satisfied with assuring us,
that _pilled_ means bald (French, pele) and about this there can be no
dispute. Thus Chaucer (Reve's Tale) says:--
Round was his face, and camuse was his nose,
And _pilled_ as an ape was his skull."
Shakspeare also has:--
"Pieled priest! doost thou command me to be shut out?"
for "shaven priest." But _pilled_, in other cases as might be shown by
quotations, which for the sake of brevity I omit, means _pillaged_,
_robbed_, and also _peeled_, of which last sense the quotations above given
seem only to be a figurative application. The difficulties which arise from
these explanations are, first, if _bald_ be the true meaning, why must we,
with Todd, limit it to baldness, resulting from disease, or more especially
(as Grose will have it) from a disgraceful disease?
Secondly, if _peeled_ be taken as the equivalent to _pilled_, why is peeled
garlick a more perfect type of misery than any other peeled root or fruit?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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