The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-23

manuscripts in the library of Haigr
Hall, near Wigan, the seat of the Ear
of Crawford. 1t begins 1--WE, the Cir
cumscribers, and the signatures, writ
ten round the circle which incloses the
address, include those of Gibbon, Burke
Joseph Warrior. Sheridan, Sir Joshua
| Reynolds, George Colman and half
| dozen others which are nowadays but
little known. johnson took the remon'
STRANGE in good part, but as TO moi
writing the epitaph in Latin, declared
| that he would never consent to dis
| grace the wall of Westminster Abbey
| with an English inscription! The whole
story is eminently Characteristic botf
of Johnson and his times.
No one has yet been able to give
satisfactory explanation of the strange
term round robin" Perhaps when DIR
Murray, in the course of his labors
| reaches the letter r in the great Ok.
| ford Dictionary we may get some new
| light on the phrase but meanwhile
the only explanations of its origin
which have been suggested are far
| from satisfactory. Most reference
books which profess to explain and &C.
| count of popular phrases of this kind
one another, and repeating a derivation
which cannot be taken seriously. They
| tell us that round robin" Is a cor.
| ruption'-an invaluable word 40 the
| guesser at etymologies-from the
| French "rond ruban," a circular rib
bon or band. This is found in more
| than one dictionary of repute, yet il
| win not bear a moments examination
| There is no apparent connection be-
tween a round ribbon, whatever that
can be conceived to be, and a round
| robin" and no evidence has ever beer
| brought forward to prove or fnustrats
| any relationship. Moreover, "rond ru-
| ban" Is impossible French, for "rond'
is one of the adjectives which follow
the substantives they qualify. Ths
whole story is absurd.
The term seems to have come into
use with it's present meaning in con-
nection with the navy some time In
the seventeenth century, when it was
used to describe the method adopted
by the seanen of that day in bringing
their grievances before the authorities
Dialect dictionaries tell US that in Dew
onshire a small round pancake is cali
ed round robin" and as Devonshire
has always been a great provider OF
men for our navy as well as for our
mercantile marine, it is just possible
that the name of the pancake sug-
gested, because of its form, the name
of the circumscribed letter. But this
suggestion, of course-Which has been
made more than once before-is only
guess. In any case, it simply pushes
the difficulty further back. for why
should a pancake be called a round
robin?"
Another curious use Of the term has
been unearthed by the pathological cons
tributors to Notes and Queries" and
that is as a sixteenth century name
for the sacramento wafer. Bishop
Latimer, preaching on June 8, 1886, re-
ferred to the new wafer as "a piece OF
bread or a little pretty piece round rob
in" Similarly, a century later Fuller,ir
his Church History" wrote of the
sacred symbol as "a piece of bread
or little predie round robbin." There
seems to be here plainly a connection
of some kind with the Devonshire ap-
plication of the name to a pancake
but in either case the why and the
wherefore of the use of such a phrase
are still to seek.
The question will probably have to
remain one of the many insoluble YER
bal problems. Every one who has
paid any attention at all to word
study knows we'll with what casual
irrelevance apparently Christian names
are applied to objects of every kind.
Inc JACKS alone are d very ldIBd
family; but there are not a few "Jem-
mics and "Tommies" and "Betties."
and "Billies," and Georges" and the
like to keep them company. But who
can explain the origin of all these
terms? Why, for instance, should a
brown george" be in different places
or at various times a jug "a COM
panion presumably to the BLACK
jacks'O, a coarse brown loaf or hard
biscuit, and a dark brown eighteenth
century wig? Or why should a certain
usebreaker's implement once have
been known by those who used it as
a betty" and nowadays by their sue
cessors as a Jimmy" Questions of
this kind might be asked in any num-
Der, and to very few of them indeed
could any pertinent answer be given.
The robin" whether pancake or writ
ten remonstrance, must be classed with
these other curiosities of nomenclature.
Guesses will no doubt continue to be
made, but we are hardly likely now to
obtain any fully satisfactory explana-
ton of round robin"