The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-22

dary founder; another with Brlctric, It's Saxon lord. The first mention of the place is in the Saxon Chronicle for 1OS7, and it Is there called Bricgstow. The name is spelled some forty diff ferent ways in early records. a fine example of the fluid" photography of Middle English. The predominant va- riants for the earlier times were Bricgstow. Brycgstow, Bricstow, Brige- tou. Bristou. and Bristow.
 The last--Bristow-survt well into the sixteenth century and was the form used by Hugh Latimer in his cor respondence with Lord Cromwell. Kir' by's Quest (l327) gives the surname as 'e Bristowe and de Bristoll.
 The early variants of the name leave 70 doubt as to it's origin and meaning. It is the. Anglo-Saxon Brlcg-stow. "Bridge-p place." the place of the bridge across the Avon.
 The prototheme Is the Anglo Saxon bricg. brycg. "a bridge." This is cog nate with the German, bruecke, Old High German bruclxa, "a bridge" old Morse bryggja, Swedish brigga. Danish brygge, Handing place, a pier" The deuterotheme is the Anglo Saxon stow, "a place. dwelling place." etc, frequent as the termination of place names. This Is cognate with the Old Tristan sto, "a place" and the Old Morse fsto, found in eid-sto. "a place" and Lithuanian stowa. "a place where one stands. The radical Is probably sta, "stand," of which more will be found under Custis in No. XIX of this series.
 Bristo. Bristow, Bristowe, Bristol and Bristoll are the present surnominal forms.
 sebastran, Bastiam..
 The surname Sebastian is a patrony- mic from the same as a persona, name.
 sebastianus, the dauntless Narbopese soldier and favorite of DiocIetian. who turned Christian. endured a double martyrdom and became the patron saint against plague and pestilence, was the first that gave vogue to the name. He became great favorita with the early church, and is frequent- ly depicted as 1T young and beautiful soldier in the sacred art of early and mediaevaI times.
 The name gradually spread all over Europe. but was more a favorite in Latin lands. and especially in Portugal, since the time of Don Sebastiao, last of the glorious house of Avis. His name was one of such terror to the Moors that Moorish mothers used 1t to still their children. Dryden refers to this in these lines of his "Don Sebastin." ''yor shall sebastin's formidable name Be longer used to still the crying babe.''
 The name came early to England but never became very popular in the coun- try at large. It was found especially in Cornwall and Devon. where the Spanish influence was felt the most It became the parent of the surnames Se- bastian, Bastlan, Basten, Bastin Bas- ten and Bastion.
 Tie name means the venerable rev. erend." It is an adjectival formation from the Greek sebastos, which was used as a translation of the Latin Au- gustus. the imperial title coined by Oc- tavius. to express the peculiarly sacred majesty of the Roman Emperor. In this sense 1t is found in the name or the Crimean city SevastopoI. ''the city of the Emperor"
 The Greek sebas is rreverentiaI awe, veneration," and the verb seboplai ex. presses the feeling of such an emo- tion with an original connotation of a shrinking from the object of the emo. Iion.
 The only cognatsa seem to be the Sanskrit tyajati, "renounce, abandon, '' the Sanslrit tyajas and Avestan ithye- jo, both meaning ~need, danger" etc. with an implicit and original connotas tion similar to that of the Greek verb.
 In the Tyrol the koseform Wastel Is so frequent that it has become the con- ventional designation of all Tyrolesa The same form Is familiar also in Ba- Copyright, 1908, by Samuel Grant OIL phant.)