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. Ævi, 1758:

"Equus qui corripit gradum, et gressus duplicat. Nomen habet a celeri correptorum passuum sonitu."

H. C. K.

—— Rectory, Hereford.

Anathema, Maran-atha.—Perhaps the following observation on these words may be as instructive to some of the readers of "N. & Q." as it was to me. Maran-atha means "The Lord cometh," and is used apparently by St. Paul as a kind of motto: compare ? ?????? e????, Phil. iv. 5. The Greek word has become blended with the Hebrew phrase, and the compound used as a formula of execration. (See Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St. Paul, p. 64., note 4.)

F. W. J.

Convocation and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.—

"When the committee I have mentioned was appointed, March 13, 1700, to consider what might be done towards propagating the Christian Religion as professed in the Church of England in our Foreign Plantations; and the committee, composed of very venerable and experienced men, well suited for such an inquiry, had sat several times at St. Paul's, and made some progress in the business referred to them, a charter was presently procured to place the consideration of that matter in other hands, where it now remains, and will, we hope, produce excellent fruits. But whatever they are, they must be acknowledged to have sprung from the overtures to that purpose first made by the lower house of Convocation."—Some Proceedings in the Convocation of 1705 faithfully represented, p. 10. of Preface.

W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

Pigs said to see the Wind.—In Hudibras, Independant says to Presbyter:

"You stole from the beggars all your tones,

And gifted mortifying groans;

Had lights when better eyes were blind,

As pigs are said to see the wind."—Pt. 3. c. ii. l. 1105.