Erasures: a bit late to come in to the discussion from 10 years ago, but the original and literal meaning of 'erase' is to scratch or scrape out. It doesn't have to imply complete removal.
'friends of my name' must be 'friend' in OED sense 3, "close relation, a kinsman or kinswoman. In later use regional". Didn't realise this still was alive and well in southern English in Pepys's time.
Comet: pace Andy, it's not in fact particularly difficult to predict the maximum elevation of a celestial object whose declination (elevation with respect to the celestial equator) is known. Just depends on latitude, as any navigator would have been able to tell Sam. Presumably the astronomers of the day knew the celestial co-ordinates of the comet, which would change, of course, but not so much from day to day as to make them useless. Or, of course, someone might just have measured the elevation recently and told Sam. Sandwich was making observations among others. The orbits of comets would not be solved for another generation or so.
Bill, the circumflex on the a indicates the suppression of an s with which the word would earlier have been spelt. The systematic use of the circumflex dates, according to French wikipedia, from 1740. So Pepys has it right, for his time.
Interesting to see 'friend' for 'relative' here. From the OED, it looks as though this would be gone from southern English not long after Pepys's time.
Yes, I was surprised that no-one pointed out last time that the Royal Assent continues to be in Norman-French to this day. (The statement that Sam lived in the last days of Law French is true but irrelevant; by then it was only used in court reports not as a spoken language, in any case.)
Comments
About Wednesday 3 October 1666
Martin • Link
'hit all our blots' -- reference to backgammon, or 'tables' as Sam would have called it.
About Tuesday 29 May 1666
Martin • Link
Short notice, perhaps.
About Friday 16 March 1665/66
Martin • Link
Erasures: a bit late to come in to the discussion from 10 years ago, but the original and literal meaning of 'erase' is to scratch or scrape out. It doesn't have to imply complete removal.
About Friday 7 July 1665
Martin • Link
'friends of my name' must be 'friend' in OED sense 3, "close relation, a kinsman or kinswoman. In later use regional". Didn't realise this still was alive and well in southern English in Pepys's time.
About Friday 23 December 1664
Martin • Link
Comet: pace Andy, it's not in fact particularly difficult to predict the maximum elevation of a celestial object whose declination (elevation with respect to the celestial equator) is known. Just depends on latitude, as any navigator would have been able to tell Sam. Presumably the astronomers of the day knew the celestial co-ordinates of the comet, which would change, of course, but not so much from day to day as to make them useless. Or, of course, someone might just have measured the elevation recently and told Sam. Sandwich was making observations among others. The orbits of comets would not be solved for another generation or so.
About Thursday 15 December 1664
Martin • Link
"to try the charge": to see how expensive it'll be? charge = cost, expense. OED definition 10 (a).
About Saturday 4 June 1664
Martin • Link
Bill, the circumflex on the a indicates the suppression of an s with which the word would earlier have been spelt. The systematic use of the circumflex dates, according to French wikipedia, from 1740. So Pepys has it right, for his time.
About Tuesday 24 May 1664
Martin • Link
Interesting to see 'friend' for 'relative' here. From the OED, it looks as though this would be gone from southern English not long after Pepys's time.
About Sunday 9 August 1663
Martin • Link
Wikipedia thinks John was the first baronet, for what that's worth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_baronets
About Monday 27 July 1663
Martin • Link
Yes, I was surprised that no-one pointed out last time that the Royal Assent continues to be in Norman-French to this day. (The statement that Sam lived in the last days of Law French is true but irrelevant; by then it was only used in court reports not as a spoken language, in any case.)