The Romance of Words (4th ed.)

rapidly obscured that words become mere labels, and cease to call up the image or the poetic idea with which t

eson men i

or ellis the

d of Good Women

shown in popular name-giving, one is struck by the keen observation and imaginative

ttersporn (knight's spur), Eisenhut (iron hat), L?wenmaul (lion's mouth). I have purposely chosen instances in which the correspondence is not absolute, because examples like L?wenzahn (lion's tooth), dandelion (Fr. dent de lion) may be suspected of being mere translations. I give the names in most general use, but the provincial variants are numerous, though usually of the same type. The French n

liam, lords and ladies, bachelors' buttons, dead men's fingers, and the exquisite poetry of forget-me-not, heart's ease, love in a mist, traveller's joy. There is also a special group named from medicinal properties, such as

s of the Bernese Oberland, the Monk, the Maiden, the Storm Pike, the Dark Eagle Pike.[24] Occasionally a race which is accidentally brought into closer contact with nature may have a happy inspiration, such as the Drakensberg (dragon's mountain) or Weenen[25] (weeping) of the old voortrekkers. But the Cliff of the Falling Flowers, t

OF F

pical fruit. Thus the orange is usually called in North Germany Apfelsine, apple of China, with which we may compare our "China orange." In South Germany it was called Pomeranze (now used especially of the Seville orange), from Ital. pomo, apple, arancia, orange. Fr. orange is folk-etymology (or, gold) for *arange, from Arab. narandj, whence Span. naranja. Melon is simply the Greek for "apple," and has also given us marmalad

folk, who popularised its cultivation early in the 18th century. It happens that the French nam

th-apple. The guinea-pig is not a pig, nor does it come from Guinea (see p. 51). Porcupine means "spiny pig." It has an extraordinary number of early variants, and Shakespeare wrote it porpentine. One Mid. English form was porkpoint. The French name has hesitated between spine and spike. The modern form is porc-épic, but Palsgrave has "porkepyn a beest,

ns "woolly cat," just as a common species is popularly called woolly bear, but it was understood as being connected with the French verb peler, "to pill, pare, barke, unrinde, unskin" (Cotgrave). Th

MES OF

ke, Du. schurk, rascal, all rendered "shark" in early dictionaries, but the relationship of these words is not clear. The palmer, i.e. pilgrim, worm is so called from his wandering habits. Ortolan, the name given by Tudor cooks to the garden bunting, means "gardener" (Lat. hortus, garden). It comes to us through French from Ital. ortolano, "a gardener, an orchard keeper. Also a kinde of daintie birde in Italie, some take it to be the linnet" (Florio). We may compare Fr. bouvreuil, bull-finch, a diminutive of bouvier, ox-he

describes mus araneus as "a kinde of mise called a shrew, which if he go over a beastes backe he shall be lame in the chyne; if he byte it swelleth to the heart and the beast dyeth." This "information" is derived from Pliny, but the super

voice I se

ays, 'Do my lor

and he's your f

VIII.

tion into the French monarchy, in 1349, of the lordship

oldest meaning is stomach-ache, still given in Hotten's Slang Dictionary (1864). Mully is still used in dialect for mouldy, earthy, and grub was once the regular word for worm. The Latin name for the same discomfort w

dy in names of flowers such as lady's bedstraw, lady's garter, lady's slipper, is for Our Lady. So also in lady-bird, called in French bête à bon Dieu and in German Marienk?fer, Mary's beetle. Here may be mentioned samphire, from Old Fr. herbe de Saint Pierre, "sampir

L NAMES

ard le goupil, and the fact that renard now completely supplanted goupil shows how popular the Renard legends must have been. Renard is from Old High Ger. regin-hart, strong in counsel; cf. our names Reginald and Reynold, and Scot. Ronald, of Norse origin. From the same source come Chantecler, lit. sing-clear, the cock, and Par

, you rat-catcher

wouldst thou

f cats, nothing but on

d Juliet,

at the name is etymologically not very appropriate to the hare. Parrot, for earlier perrot, means "little Peter." The extension Poll parrot is thus a kind of hermaphrodite. Fr. pierrot is still used for the sparrow. The family name Perrot is sometimes a nickname, "the chatterer," but can also mean literally "little Peter," just as Emmot means "little Emma," and Marriot

S OF

lled martin-pêcheur, formerly also martinet pêcheur or oiseau de Saint-Martin, so that martin may be due to some other association. Sometimes the double name survives. We no longer say Philip sparrow, but Jack ass, Jack daw,

understood re

d choughs, and ro

t'st man

th, ii

d French it was also called jaquette, "a proper name

e to be given to a dish of uncertain constituents. It is a curious coincidence that the obsolete chuet or chewet meant both a round pie and a jackdaw.[30] It is uncertain in which o

for a white mark, especially on the forehead; hence the tavern sign

it literally reproduced in many other languages. The toy called a kite is in French cerf volant, flying stag, a name also applied to the stag-beetle, and in Ger. Drachen, dragon.

blunderbuss

inventor of

bras,

couleuvrine, a derivative of

ou hast

retires, of t

es, frontie

s, of canno

y IV.,

ied to a kind of mounted infantry or carbineers. Musket, like saker (v.

s[31]-musket, wh

Wives,

laced in the hawk sense by émouchet, is from Ital. moschetto, a diminuti

nsferred meaning, porcellana being the name of a particularly glossy shell called the "Venus shell." It is a derivative of Lat. porcus, pig. Easel comes, with many other painters' terms, from

AMED FRO

nventor is immortalised, e.g., mackintosh and shrapnel, both due to 19th-century inventors. The more recent maxim is named from one who, according to the late Lord Salisbury, has saved many of his fellow-

earls, whom

might cal

nvented h

r half a

sed with the above, or with Chesterfield, Chippendale & Co. The New English Dictionary quotes (from 1721) a description of the Oxford "blood" in his "bully-cocked hat," worn aggressively on one side. Pinchbeck was a London watchmaker (fl. c. 1700), and doily is

on, who sent some tobacco plants to Catherine de Médicis in 1560. He also compiled the first Old French dictionary. The gallows-shaped contrivance called a derrick perpetuates the name of a famous hangman who officiated in London about 160

abes in father

The Steel

with some eminent ga

ISE-PA

ycott commemorate a scoundrel and a victim. The latter word, from the treatment of Captain Boycott of Co. Mayo in 1880, seems to have supplied a want, for Fr. boycotter and Ger. boycottieren have become every-day words. Burke was

n beat on

founded

e 'fogle' that caus

his neck, and, when b

scals jump'd on hi

Tra

named Pasquino. Florio has pasquino, "a statue in Rome on whom all libels, railings, detractions, and satirical invectives are fathered." Pamphlet is an extended use of Old Fr. Pamphilet, the name of a Latin poem by one Pamphilus which was popular in the Middle Ages. The suffix -et was often used in this way, e.g., the translation of ?sop

should have chosen to produce

Education,

tcat Club, painted by Kneller. Kit Kat, Christopher Ka

uding a pick-lock. A kind of davit is called in German Jütte, a diminutive of Judith. The implement by which the burglar earns his daily bread is now called a jemmy, but in the 17th century we also find bess and betty. The French name is rossignol, nightingal

ALKI

ch was once c

chen mal

kram[33] 'bout

the walls t

lanus,

bly of both. Grimalkin, applied to a fiend in

, Graym

eth,

erivative of Lat. scopa, broom. Now another French word, which means both "kitchen servant" and "dish-clout," is souillon, from souiller, to soil. What share each of these words has in Eng.

rionnette, a double diminutive of Mary, explained by Cotgrave as "little Marian or Mal; also, a puppet." Little Mary, in another sense, has been

have a wretch

et, in her for

ll not wed,'-'

d Juliet,

, meaning "idol," and it i

ogist regards it as identical with the female name Jug,[34] for Joan or

h and despair in t

eadly sins in a

the Lak

aile" (Cotgrave); hence the diminutive jacket. The German miners gave to an ore which they considered useless the name kobalt, from kobold, a goblin, gnome. This has given Eng. cobalt. Much later is the similarly formed nic

ame is my husband had him of.-What do

Wives,

ippered pantaloon" was originally one of the stock characters of the old Italian comedy. Torriano has pantalone, "a pantalone, a covetous and yet amorous old dotard, properly applyed in comedies unto a Venetian."

-JACK

ection of the name not always being known. English has, or had, in the sense of "fool," the words ninny, nickum, noddy, zany. Ninny is for Innocent, "Innocent, Ninny, a proper name for a man" (Cotgrave). With this we may compare French be

r Boffin, smiling still. 'Do you like the nam

al Friend

of Giovanni, John. With the degeneration of Innocent and Benedict we may compare Fr. crétin, idiot, an Alpine patois form of chrétien, Christian, and Eng. silly, which once

ey is a diminutive of the north country Jock, for Jack. The history of jackanapes is obscure. The earliest record of the name is in a satirical song on the unpopular William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, who was beheaded at sea in 1450. He is c

es and marmus

companion of Jack. Jill, again, is short for Gillian, i.e. Juliana, so that jilt is a doublet of Shakespeare'

that hot termagant Scot (Dougla

ry IV.

aracen god it regularly oc

ait porter u

t Mahum e T

de Roland

ced into the medieval drama, the name

fellow whipped for

et, i

t its sense development is strangely

TNO

s perhaps from the river

umber of settlers were

ry line, have called the Great and the Little Sugarloaf, are na

friend of the writer, misled by the superficial likeness of this word to ba

t completely submerged, the pointed ears, prominent eyes, and large nostrils are

illogical formation,

magatapie" (Cotgrave). Haggis, now regarded as Scottish, was once a common word in Englis

eyas se

ur magenta, from the victory of the Fren

lockram,

ersions of baptismal names see Chap. XII. It is possible that

ght forward: the law of Maho