Category: Language & Communication
Not the least difficult matter in connection with the present work has been the choice of a title. The one finally determined upon is far from satisfactory, because it scarcely suggests the scope of the subject treated. True enough, the single word NOMENCLATURE offered itself...
A sailor is called a =Jack Tar= because he puts on _tarpaulin_ “overalls” in “dirty weather.” =Longshoreman= is a corruption of _alongshoreman_, _i.e._, a wharfinger, &c. =Navvy...
16. Part 16Among coins other than those now current in this country we may mention the =Ducat=, or Duke’s Money, specially struck for circulation in the Duchy of Apulia in the year 1140, a...
19. Part 1920. Part 203. Part 3The oldest of the four great divisions of the world received its modern designation =Asia= from the Sanskrit _Ushas_, signifying “land of the dawn.” =Africa= traces its origin t...
12. Part 12The earlier descriptions of photographs were respectively styled =Talbotypes=, =Daguerreotypes=, and =Ferriertypes=, after the names of their inventors. The smaller-sized photog...
18. Part 18=Old Quebec Street= commemorates the capture of Quebec by General Wolfe in 1759, about which period this street was first built upon. =Seymour Place= and =Upper Seymour Street=...
7. Part 7Strictly speaking, the members of the various Religious Orders, in this country at least, are not =Monks=, but Friars. Only those who live completely isolated from the rest of m...
8. Part 8The =Chartists= constituted an enormous body of the people of this country who, soon after the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, loudly clamoured for “The People’s Charter,” o...
14. Part 14The =Charterhouse=, originally a monastery of the Carthusians, is a corruption of _La Chartreuse_, the name of the district in France where this religious Order first came into...
17. Part 17=Holborn= is a contraction of “The Hollow Bourne,” indicative of a stream in a hollow. In Domesday Book the name appears as “Holebourne.” =Holborn Bars= marks the City boundary...
6. Part 6Perhaps the most glaring instance of this kind originated in the sign of =The Garter=, or the insignia of the Order of the Garter represented in its proper position on a leg (wh...
13. Part 13William Gerard Hamilton, the Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer (born 1729, died 1756), has been handed down to posterity under the name of =Single-speech Hamilton=, because he d...
11. Part 11The word =Lent= is a contraction of the Old English _lenten_, and the Anglo-Saxon _lencten_, the spring, both derived from _lencgan_, to lengthen, because the long fast of the C...
5. Part 5The =Gallican Church= is the so-called Church of France or Gaul, the ancient name of the country. Père Hyacinth, its founder, whose church was opened in Paris February 7, 1870,...
10. Part 10=Dalston= is properly _Daleston_, or Vale-town. This was a quiet suburban village situated in a valley during the days when the northern districts of the Metropolis were more or...
4. Part 4=Hudson’s Bay= and =Hudson’s Strait= were named after their re-discovery by Captain Henry Hudson while searching for the north-west passage in 1610. Prior to this date the Bay a...
1. Part 1Not the least difficult matter in connection with the present work has been the choice of a title. The one finally determined upon is far from satisfactory, because it scarcely...
9. Part 9=Oxford= derived its name from the _Ox-ford_ over the Isis; =Hertford=, from the ford crossed by harts; =Hereford=, from the army ford; and =Stafford=, from the ford crossed by...
2. Part 2Cuckoo, Pewit, Curlew, Chickadee, Whip-poor-will; Trumpeter, Nightingale, Night-jar, Mocking-bird, Humming-bird, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Greenlet, Jay, Blue-bird, Blackbird, Star...
21. Part 21Pablo de Ségovie. By FRANCESCO DE QUEVEDO. Illustrated with Sixty Drawings by DANIEL VIERGE. With an Introduction on VIERGE and his Art by JOSEPH PENNELL, and a Critical Essay o...