_Origin of the Change of "Mary" into "Polly"_ (No. 14. p. 215.).--This
change, like many others in diminutives, is progressive. By a natural
affinity between the liquids _r_ and _l_, _Mary_ becomes _Molly_, as
_Sarah_, _Sally_, _Dorothea_, _Dora_, _Dolly_, &c. It is not so easy to
trace the affinity between the _initials_ M. and P., though the case is
not singular; thus, _Margaret_, Madge, Meggy, Meg, _Peggy_,
_Peg_--_Martha_, Matty, _Patty_--and _Mary_, Molly, _Polly_ and _Poll_;
in which last abbreviation not one single letter of the original word
remains: the natural affinity between the two letters, as _medials_, is
evident, as in the following examples, all of which, with one exception,
are Latin derivatives: _empty_, _peremptory_, _sumptuous_,
_presumptuous_, _exemption_, _redemption_, and _sempstress_ and again,
in the words _tempt_, _attempt_, _contempt_, _exempt_, _prompt_,
_accompt_, _comptroller_ (vid. Walker's _Prin. of Eng. Pron._ pp. 42,
43.); in all which instances however, the _p_ is mute, so that "Mary" is
avenged for its being the accomplice in the desecration of her gentle
name into "Polly." Many names of the other sex lose their initials in
the diminutive; as,
_R_ichard _D_ick
_R_obert _B_ob
_W_illiam _B_ill
_E_dward _N_ed
_C_hristopher _K_it
_R_oger _H_odge,
and probably many others; but I have no list before me, and these are
all that occur.
Philologos.
Deanery of Gloucester, Shrove Tuesday, 1850.
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