"UNDER WAY."
(To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—My sympathies are with those who find this a very puzzling phrase. Of course we cannot say "under weigh," because " weigh " is a verb, and cannot well follow a pre- position. But "under way " is almost equally unintelligible, because it ought to mean " beneath a way," and it is quite un- English. I never could understand it, because it seemed so unmeaning, until I discovered that it is not English at-all, but merely borrowed from Dutch, the range of meanings of the Dutch onder being much wider than that of the cor- responding English under. The Dutch onder eede means "upon oath "; onder vrienden means" amongst friends " ; and onder het eten means "while eating, or dining." But in English we should never say "under friends" or "under dinner," and even " to affirm under oath " is hardly the best idiom. The Dutch onder weg means "on the way," or "upon the way," not beneath it; and it is only thus that the phrase can yield sense. When a party of tourists has been ready to start on an expedition I have heard a Swiss guide say " en route !" This is what is really meant by the above phrase, and those who can remember this simple explanation will never have any difficulty as to the " way " referred to.—I am,
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