La Valetta, Malta.
P.S.--Perhaps the following chronological table, referring to the Maltese
Grand Masters who are mentioned in the above Note, may not be uninteresting
to the readers of "N. & Q.":
+-------------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Name. |When elected. |When deceased at Malta.|
+-------------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Villiers de L'Isle Adam |At Rhodes, 1521 |1534, 21st of August. |
|Nicholas Cotoner |At Malta, 1663 |1680. |
|Gregory Carafa | Ditto 1680 |1690. |
|Raymond Perellos | Ditto 1697 |1720. |
|Anthony Manoel de Villena| Ditto 1722 |1736. |
|Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca | Ditto 1741 |1773. |
+-------------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
* * * * *
{100}
Minor Notes.
_Meaning of "Clipper."_--I have more than once been asked the meaning and
derivation of the term _clipper_, which has been so much in vogue for some
years past. It is now quite a nautical term, at least among the fresh-water
sailors: and we find it most frequently applied to yachts, steamers,
fast-sailing merchant vessels, &c. And in addition to the colloquial use of
the word, so common in praising the appearance or qualities of a vessel, it
has become one quite recognised in the official description given of their
ships by merchants, &c. Thus we often see an advertisement headed "the
well-known clipper ship," "the noted clipper bark," and so forth. This use
of the word, however, and its application to _vessels_, is somewhat wide of
the original.
The word in former times meant merely a hackney, or horse adapted for the
road. The owners of such animals naturally valued them in proportion to
their capabilities for such service, among which great speed in trotting
was considered one of the chief: fast trotting horses were eagerly sought
after, and trials of speed became the fashion. A horse then, which was
pre-eminent in this particular, was termed a _clipper_, _i.e._ a _hackney,
par excellence_.
The original of the term is perhaps the following: _Klepper-lehn_ was a
feudal tenure, so termed among the old Germans, where the yearly due from
the vassal to the lord was a _klepper_, or, in its stead, so many bushels
of oats: and the word _klepper_, or _kleopper_, is explained by Haltaus.
_Glos. Germ. Med. Aevi_, 1758:
"Equus qui corripit gradum, et gressus duplicat. Nomen habet a celeri
correptorum passuum sonitu."