_--Will some of your correspondents give the derivations of
Calamity and Zero; also the meaning of the word Prutenicae, used by
Erasmus Rheinholt, in his astronomical work on the _Motions of the
Heavenly Bodies_?
F.S. MARTIN.
_Jew's-Harp._--What is the origin of the term Jew's-Harp, applied to a
well-known musical toy?
MELANION.
_Sir G. Wyattville._--J.P. would be glad to be informed in what year Sir
G. Wyattville was knighted?
_Sparse._--As I am "less an antique Roman than a Dane," I wish to know
what authority there is for the use of this word, which is to be found
in a leading article of _The Times_, January 8th, 1850?--"A _sparse_ and
hardy race of horsemen." I should like to see this among the Queries,
but I send it as a protest.
"Hostis et Peregrinus unus et idem."
C. FORBES.
_The word "Peruse."_--I find the word _Peruse_ employed as a
substantive, and apparently as equivalent to _Examination_, in the
following part of a sentence in the martyr Fryth's works, Russell's ed.,
p. 407.:--"He would have been full sore ashamed so to have overseen
himself at Oxford, at a peruse."
Can any of your correspondents cite a corresponding instance of its use,
or say whether it is still retained at Oxford as the name of any
academic exercise?
H.
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