TRAPEZE OR TRAPSE?
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPEcuroft."] Sin,—How words may lose their identity may be curiously illustrated by what would appear to be the growing misuse of the word " trapeze." " Trapse " (one syllable) is a very useful word, familiar in the West of England dialect up to the present day; is mentioned in Mr. F. T. Elworthy's West Somerset Word Book, and is found, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, in use in two or three centuries of literature : " Swift, ' I am to go trapesing with Lady Kerry '; ' I was traipsing with your Mr. Sterne.' " Here, both " trapesing " and " traipsing " are ene and the same word, pronounced as the last, in two syllables Many years ago I heard an F.R.G.S. say he had been "trapezing [three syllables] around." A similar misuse of the word has come to my notice several times since. In the Sunday Times, June 26th, Mr. Gosse writes: " It would almost bo worth while to trapeze all the way to Texas." Did not Mr. Gosse mean to write " trapse," or has " trapeze " acquired a new meaning, and I am not up to date? By the way, Austin. Texas, has !already produced some clever men, not the least among them Jolonel House and " 0. Henry." Austin is not really quite so
jobbing " and so far in the "interior " as one might think.—I em, Sir, &c., WILLIAM CORNER. 3 Ann Street, Hillhead, Glasgow,
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