_Le Greene at Wrexham_ (Vol. iv., p. 371.).--A survey of the lordships
of Bromfield and Yale (within the former of which this town is
situated), made by Norden about the year 1620 for Charles I., then
Prince of Wales, has been preserved in the Harleian Collection in the
British Museum. The descriptive part is in Latin; but before the names
of the places and streets in this town the French article _le_ is used,
as Le highe street, Le hope street, Le church street, Le beast market,
Le greene. The larger part of this Le greene (now called "The Green")
has still grass growing upon it; and there is no tradition that either a
granary or corn-mill was ever situated there.
[Pointing hand symbol]
Wrexham.
_Cross-legged Effigies_ (Vol. iv., p. 382.).--In the parish church of
Limington, Somerset, is a figure of a cross-legged knight, with his hand
on the hilt of his sword, as if about to draw it. The date of the
foundation of the chantry in which he lies is said to be 1329, and the
mouldings and windows appear to testify its correctness.
[Hebrew: Beth.]
_The Word Ἀδελφὸς_ (Vol. iv., p. 339.).--Your correspondent,
the Rev. T. R. BROWN, is right in acquiescing in the ordinary derivation
of ἀδελφὸς from ἀ and δέλφυς, but wrong, as I think, in
endeavouring to find cognate forms in the Indo-Germanic
languages. The fact is, that the word is solely and peculiarly Greek.
The Sanscrit word for brother is, as every body knows, _bhratri_ (Latin,
_frater_, &c.); and that this form was not entirely unknown to the
Hellenic races, is evidenced by their use of φράτρα, or
φράτρη, in various senses, all of which may easily be reduced
to the one common idea of brotherhood. How it happened that the word
φρατὴρ was lost in Greek, and ἀδελφὸς substituted,
we think we can satisfactorily explain, and, if so, the elucidation will
make clearer an interesting point in Greek manners. It appears that
they, in common with some Eastern nations, looked upon the relationship
between brothers of the same mother as much closer in blood than that in
which the brothers were related through the father alone; and hence the
well-known law forbidding ἀδελφοὶ ὁμομητρίοι _alone_ to
marry. In the same manner we find Abraham (Gen. xx. 12.) using a similar
excuse for marrying Sarah:
"And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my
father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my
wife."
It is not difficult, therefore, to understand how this notion prevailing
among the Greeks, might lead them to frame a new word from ἀ
and δέλφυς, to express the uterine relation of brothers, which
would soon in common use supplant the older Indo-German term φρατὴρ.
For further reasons which may have influenced the dropping of
the word φρατὴρ, I would refer to a learned article on
"Comparative Philology" in the last number of the _Edinburgh Review_, by
Dr. Max Müller.
With regard to the derivations suggested by MR. BROWN from the Hebrew,
Arabic, &c., I think I am justified in laying down as a rule that no
apparent similarity between words in the Semitic and Asian families can
be used to establish a real identity, the two classes of language being
radically and fundamentally distinct.