“Ho! jolly Jenkin,
  I spy a knave in drinkin.”

Jankin = little John.  Jank—­Jak.  This etymology has, I confess, a very great resemblance to the Millerian mode of educing Cucumber from Jeremiah King; but it is the most plausible which occurs at present to

L. Kennaquhair.

John—­Pisan.—­I will thank you to inform your correspondent “C.” (No. 15 p. 234.), that we must look to the East for the “original word” of John.  In the Waldensian MSS. of the Gospels of the 12th Century, we find Ioanes, showing its derivation from the Greek Iohannaes.  The word Pisan occurs in the 33rd vol. of the Archaeologia, p. 131.

I have considered it was a contraction for pavoisine, a small shield; and I believe this was the late Dr. Meyrick’s opinion.

B.W. 
Feb. 25.

Sir,—­If the signature to the article in No. 16., “on Pet Names,” had not been Scottish, I should have been less surprised at the author’s passing over the name of Jock, universally used in Scotland for John.  The termination ick or ck is often employed, as marking a diminutive object, or object of endearment.  May not the English term Jack, if not directly borrowed from the Scottish Jock, have been formed through the primary Jock—­John—­Jock—­Jack?

EMDEE.

Origin of the Change of “Mary” into “Polly" (No. 14. p. 215.).—­This change, like many others in diminutives, is progressive.  By a natural affinity between the liquids r and l, Mary becomes Molly, as Sarah, Sally, Dorothea, Dora, Dolly, &c.  It is not so easy to trace the affinity between the initials M. and P., though the case is not singular; thus, Margaret, Madge, Meggy, Meg, Peggy, Peg—­Martha, Matty, Patty—­and Mary, Molly, Polly and Poll; in which last abbreviation not one single letter of the original word remains:  the natural affinity between the two letters, as medials, is evident, as in the following examples, all of which, with one exception, are Latin derivatives:  empty, peremptory, sumptuous, presumptuous, exemption, redemption, and sempstress and again, in the words tempt, attempt, contempt, exempt, prompt, accompt, comptroller (vid.  Walker’s Prin. of Eng.  Pron. pp. 42, 43.); in all which instances however, the p is mute, so that “Mary” is avenged for its being the accomplice in the desecration of her gentle name into “Polly.”  Many names of the other sex lose their initials in the diminutive; as,

Richard Dick Robert Bob William Bill Edward Ned Christopher Kit Roger Hodge,