11 MAY 1907, Page 25

Some Curios from a Word Collector's Cabinet. By A. Smythe

Palmer, D.D. (G. Routledge and Sons. 2s. 6d.)—This is a treasury from which even a random snatch is sure to take some- thing of interest. " Donkey," for instance, is a word of which scarcely one in ten thousand of those who use it knows anything. It is, says Dr. Palmer, "dun-ock-ie,"—i.e., a "wee little dun thing," the second and third syllables being both diminutives. (A sparrow is called a dunnoch.) Dr. Palmer also quotes from Leland a riddle of which the answer is Abindon, the last syllable being "the colour of an ass." He thinks that asinus may have something to do with ashes (Sanscrit ass), another colour derivation.