Greenock.
[See Dr. Richardson for the following derivation:--"Fr. _coigner_, It.
_cuniare_, Sp. _cunar_, _acunar_, to wedge, and also to coin. Menage
and Spelman agree from the Latin _cuneus_. '_Cuneus_; sigillum ferreum,
quo nummus _cuditur_; a forma dictum: atque inde _coin_ quasi _cune_
pro moneta.' An iron seal with which metal is stamped; so called from
the shape. And hence money is called _coin_ (q. _cune_,
wedge).--_Spelman._" The Rev. T. R. Brown, in an unpublished
_Dictionary of Difficult Etymology_[1], suggests the following:--"Fr.
_coign_, a coin, stamp, &c.; Gaelic, _cuin_, a coin. Probably from the
Sanscrit _kan_, to shine, desire, covet; _kanaka_, gold, &c. The Hebrew
_ceseph_, money, coin, is derived in like manner from the verb
_casaph_, to desire, covet. The other meaning attached to the French
word _coign_, viz. a wedge, appears to be derived from quite a
different root."]
[Footnote 1: This useful work makes two volumes 8vo.: but how is it the
learned Vicar of Southwick printed only _nine_ copies? Was he thinking of
the sacred _Nine_?]
_Inscription at Aylesbury._--In the north transept of St. Mary's Church,
Aylesbury, occurs the following curious inscription on a tomb of the date
of 1584:
"Yf, passing by this place, thou doe desire
To knowe what corpse here shry'd in marble lie,
The somme of that whiche now thou dost require
This slender verse shall sone to thee descrie.
"Entombed here doth rest a worthie Dame,
Extract and born of noble house and bloud,
Her sire, Lord Paget, hight of worthie fame
Whose virtues cannot sink in Lethe floud.
Two brethern had she, barons of this realme,
A knight her freere, Sir Henry Lee, he hight,
To whom she bare three _impes_, which had to name,
John, Henry, Mary, slayn by fortune spight,
First two being yong, which cavs'd their parents mone,
The third in flower and prime of all her yeares:
All three do rest within this marble stone,
By which the fickleness of worldly joyes appears.
Good Frend sticke not to strew with crimson flowers
This marble stone, wherein her cindres rest,
For sure her ghost lives with the heavenly powers,
And guerdon hathe of virtuous life possest."
Can any of your readers give me any other instances of children being
called _imps_? and also tell me wherefore the name was given them? and how
long it continued in use?