Chapter C: I. R

_Palindromical Lines_ (Vol. vii., p. 178.).--The sotadic inscription,

"~NIPSON ANOMÊMA MÊ MONAN OPSIN~,"

is stated (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. xl. p. 617.) to be on a font at Sandbach in Cheshire, and (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxiii. p. 441.) to be on the font at Dulwich in Surrey, and also on the font at Harlow in Essex.

ZEUS.

_Nugget_ (Vol. vi., pp. 171. 281.; Vol. vii., pp. 143. 272.).--FURVUS is persuaded that the word _nugget_ is of home growth, and has sprung from a root existing under various forms throughout the dialects at present in use. The radical appears to be _snag_, _knag_, or _nag_ (_Knoge_, Cordylus, cf. _Knuckle_), a protuberance, knot, lump; being a term chiefly applied to knots in trees, rough pieces of wood, &c., and in its derivatives strongly expressive of (so to speak) misshapen _lumpiness_.

Every one resident in the midland counties must be acquainted with the word _nog_, applied to the wooden ball used in the game of "shinney," the corresponding term of which, _nacket_, holds in parts of Scotland, where also a short, corpulent person is called a _nuget_.

So, in Essex, _nig_ signifies a piece; a _snag_ is a well-known word across the Atlantic; _nogs_ are ninepins in the north of England; a _noggin_ of bread is equivalent to a _hunch_ in the midland counties; and in the neighbourhood of the Parret and Exe the word becomes _nug_, bearing (besides its usual acceptation) the meaning of _knot_, _lump_.

This supposed derivation is by no means weakened by the fact, that miners and others have gone to the "diggins" from parts at no great distance from the last-mentioned district; and we may therefore, although the radical is pretty generally diffused over the kingdom, attribute its better known application to _them_.

It is no objection that the word, in many of its forms, is used of rough pieces of _wood_, as instances show that it merely refers to a _rudis indigestaque moles_ characteristic of any article in question.

FURVUS.

St. James's.

_Hibernis ipsis Hiberniores_ (Vol. vii., p. 260.).--This, which is no doubt the proper form, will be found in Southey's _Naval History of England_, vol. iv. p. 104., applied to "those of old English race who, having adopted the manners of the land, had become more Irish than the Irishry." The expression originally was applied to these persons in some proclamation or act of parliament, which I think is quoted in the _History of England_ in Lardner's _Cabinet Cyclopædia_: but that work has so bad an index as to make it very difficult to find any passage one may want. Probably Southey would mention the source whence he had it, in his collections for his _Naval History_ in his Commonplace Book.

E. G. R.

_The Passame Sares (mel. Passamezzo) Galliard_ (Vol. vi., pp. 311. 446.; Vol. vii., p. 216.).--Will you allow me to correct a mistake into which both the correspondents who have kindly answered my questions respecting this galliard seem to have fallen, perhaps misled by an ambiguity in my expression?

My inquiry was not intended to refer to _galliards in general_, the tunes of which, I am well aware, must have been very various, but to this _one_ galliard in particular; and was made with the view of ascertaining whether the air is ever played _at the present day_ during the representation of the Second Part of _King Henry IV._

C. FORBES.

Temple.

_Swedish Words current in England_ (Vol. ii., p. 231.).--I beg to inform your correspondent that the following words, which occur in his list, are pure Anglo-Saxon, bearing almost the same meaning {367} which he has attributed to them:--_wÿrm_; _by_, _bya_, to inhabit, _becc_; _dioful_; _dobl_, equivalent to _doalig_: _goepung_, a heap; _lacan_; _loppe_; _nebb_; _smiting_, contagion; _stæth_, a fixed basis.

_Eldon_ is Icelandic, from _elldr_, fire: hence we have "At slá elld úr tinnu," to strike fire from flint; which approaches very near to a tinder-box. _Ling_, Icel., the heath or heather plant: _ljung_ I take to be the same word. _Gat_, Icel. for way or opening; hence _strand-gata_, the opening of the strand or creek. _Tjarn_, _tiorn_, Icel., well exemplified in Malham Tarn in Craven.