ETYMOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 3523, 19 November 1877, Page 2

ETYMOLOGIC A L PECULIARITIES.

We can sympathise sincerely with our Timarn morning contemporary. Writing upon the subject of the Eastern War and ihe telegrams which record its progress, the editor says: " !?'ov some time, we tried to fix up a reliable map for ourselves by altering the names and positions of places, hilt at the end of a week we were a little more confused in Kastern geography than when we began. Since then, when we have received a name about which we are doubtful, we take all the names on the different maps which afford the nearesifrcbembiauce to it, and .strike a general avrragf. No one is any the wiser for it. Let us recall an instance or two of th.^rouble we are put to in this respect. On on;; occasion we received * telegram Ruling that the llussians were marching on 'Abraham.' At first we felt sorry lor Abraham, and set to work to hunt him up; but eventually we came to the conclusion that the lins-sians would hav|jsarm work to reach the old fellow, and decided to let them march. We have not heard yet how many of them have joined his com. pany, or what reception they received. Another message informed us that the Muscovites were at ' Gmuboiles.' This, however, was rather -too much for us to believe. We could swallow the 'Abraham ' story with a few grains of salt, but found it an utter impossibility, even with the help of a whole sack of salt, to bolt ' Gumboiles.' It turned out, however, that through a slight error the word had been telegraphed ' Gumboils ' instead of ' Jamboli.' Jam is certainly preferable to gum in more ways than one. We might fill columns with descriptions of other equally ridiculous mistakes made in the messages. We have «c.nn ( Kats , written for Kats , Hnckhum' for ' Soukgonm ; ' Bottom ' for Batoum ; • Wedding ' lor Widdin j ' Musfcar' for Mostar; ' Stumble ' for Stamboul ' &Q., &c ; not apparently through any fault of the Telegraph Department in the Colony, but through careless transmission between Bombay and Adelaide.'