The Romance of Words (4th ed.)

third, and, in the course even of a few seconds, we find that we have travelled from one subject to another so remote that it requires an effort to reconstruct the series of links which con

us of a fresh sphere. Or we may say that at each link of the chain there is a possibility of another chain branching off in a direction of its own. In C

-BU

, are summoned to assemble, and serve him in his warres" (Cotgrave). This is folk-etymology for Old Fr. arban, Old High Ger. hari-ban, army summons. Slanting off from the primitive idea of proclamation is that of rule or authority. The French for outskirts is banlieue, properly the "circuit of a league, or thereabouts" (Cotgrave) over which the local authority extended. All pu

y the office. Hence our familiar bureaucracy, likely to become increasingly familiar. The desk was so called because covered with bureau, Old Fr. burel, "a thicke

m but rude

er ways

Calendar,

mpare the metaphori

e-spuns have we

radle of the

Night's Dre

l is perhaps Lat. burrus,

oman or romant, the latter of which gave the archaic Eng. romaunt. The most famous of Old French romances are the epic poems called Chansons de geste, songs of exploits, geste coming from the Lat. gesta, deeds. E

French words. Thus Anglo-Sax. ge-bed, prayer, was gradually expelled

, after thous

-for slept among

Eve of S

ed only to the humble device

contrary, preserved the native to write, i.e. to scratch (runes), giving to scribere only a limited sense, to shrive. The curious cha

NG-ST

blood. This is also the meaning of Fr. boudin, whence pudding comes. A still older meaning of both words is intestine, a sense still commo

ts earlier meaning is a framework to support candles, usually put round the coffin at a funeral. This

aning. It is used in Coverdale's Bible (1535) fo

more triacle

iah, v

(θ?ρ, a wild beast). In Mid. English and later it was used of a sovereign remedy. I

small points of etiquette or procedure. In

of night o'ersp

like, the armi

and Cress

ff, used by the umpires in duels, and Torriano gives stickler as one of the meanings of bastoniere, a verge

a collection of "infants" or juniors, so called by cont

s a verb to pastern, e.g., pastoiare, "to fetter, to clog, to shackle, to pastern, to give (gyve)." It comes from Old Fr. pasturon (paturon), a derivative of pasture,

e call a stevedore.[55] Rummage is Old Fr. arrumage (arrimage), from arrumer, to stow, the mi

cht, watch. Modern French still has the verb guetter, to lie in wait for, and guet, the watch. Minstrel comes from an Old Fre

awnbrokers used to store pledged property. The Lombards introduced into this

RY-F

tly explained by

he which word, I guess, is derived of livering or delivering forth their nightly food. So in great houses, the livery is said to be served up for all night, that is, their evening a

he State o

word comes from Fr. livrée, the feminine past pa

, from the shape of a sign used in showing lines of descent in genealogical charts. The older form survives

et of paganism, occurring in paynim host, paynim knight, etc. The correct name for the individual fairy is fay, Fr. fée, Vulgar Lat. *fata, connected with fatum, fate. This appears in Ital. fata, "a fairie

tion is that we have adopted the French pattern, carreau (see p. 161), diamond, c?ur, heart, pique, pike, spear-head, trèfle, trefoil, clover-leaf, but have given to the two latter the names used in the Italian and Spanish pattern, which,

aps stamped with a honeycomb pattern. The cognate Fr. gaufre is the name of a similar cake, which not only has the honey

S OF AD

d as "strange, unknown." This is the exact opposite of its original meaning, Old Fr. cointe, Lat. cognitus; cf. acquaint, Old Fr. acointier, to make known. It is p

ful, and excellent fashion

Ado, i

t do anything else. Fr. rétif, Old Fr. restif, from rester, to remain, Lat. re-stare, has kep

am reisted, and I ken Mart

tery,

restive in the

he drowsy g

long entranc

slumbering

dia Aug

e same word (cf. testy, Old Fr. testif, heady), and r

came hal

ught a

that wa

Elynour

es; and perhaps some such association is responsible for the meaning that sterling has acquired; but chronology shows this traditional etymology to be impossible. We find unus sterlingus in a medieval Latin document of 1184,

oratio

pping and a

et, i

"ripping." In Mid. English and Old French it means foolish. Cotgrave explains it by "lither, lazie, sloathful, idle; faint, slack; dull, simple," and Shakespeare uses it in a great variety of meanings. It is supposed to come from Lat. nescius, ignorant. The transition fro

print like a puny

pagit

was similarly us

ribe a man as worthy is to apologise for his existence. We may compare Fr. bonhomme, which now means generally an old fool, and bonne femme, good-wife, goo

ries and the

s, l.

g of its opposite malapert, though the older s

pry and pea

American Pris

trim, elegant, beautiful, has i

mug and silver

annel, fair

y IV.,

te for fat is stout, properly strong,[57] dauntless, etc., cognate with Ger. stolz, proud. Precisely the same euphem

hese, maybe, but her homelin

kinner's Night in

ves a meaning which was once common in English. Kersey's Dictionary

E OF ASS

inium, red lead. Florio explains miniatura as "a limning (see p. 63), a painting with vermilion." Such paintings were usually small, hence the later meaning. The word was first applied to the ornamental red initial capita

Well, ii. 2). With wench, still used without any disparaging sense by country folk, we may compare Fr. garce, lass, and Ger. Dirne, maid-servant, both of which are now insulting epithets, but, in the older language, could be applied to Joan of Arc and the Virgin Mary respectively. Garce was replaced by fille, which has acquired in its turn a meaning so offensive that

OM-

led with certain nouns. A buxom help-mate was once obedient,

where tho

ease, and up

ntly the

e Lost,

rtiness of aspect and a comely plumpness. An arch damsel is etymologically akin to an archbishop, both de

le duke

and patron co

r, i

successive entries, Ertz-dieb, "an arch-thief, an arrant thief," and Ertz-engel, "an arch-angel." The meaning of arrant is almost entirely due to association with "thief." It means lit. wandering, vagabond, so that the arrant thief is nearly related to the knight errant, an

ally a number of factors are working together or in opposition to each other. A low word may gradually acquire right of citizenship. "That

courageous, seemed likely to become a favour

lang Dictio

including "warrior, hero." There is no more complimentary epithet than knightly, while Ger. knechtisch means servile. The degeneration of words like boor,[60] churl, farmer, is a familiar phenomenon (cf. villain, p. 150). The same thing has happened to blackguard, the modern meaning of which bears hardly on a humble but useful class. The name black guard was given collectively to the kitchen detachment of a great man's retinue. The scavenger has also come down in the world, rather an unusual phenomenon in the case of official titles. The medieval scavager[61] was an important official who seems to have bee

hem both, and they shal

Wives

T-BE

se of "grandmother," e.g., Hotspur refers to "old beldam earth" and "our grandam ea

ecret things th

Nature in he

Exercise

culine belsire survives as a family name, Belcher[62]; and to Jim Belcher, most gentlemanly of prize-fighters, we owe the belcher handkerchief, whi

TNO

nal already existed i

pointed bars of which were naturally likened to the blades of a harrow; and it seems possibl

ina non est in Ga

hat stoppeth chinkes" (Cooper). It came to

is the same word as in bear-baiting and fishermen's bait. We have it als

the favourite tap of porters, and a mixture of stout and ale, n

r frontispice, Lat. fr

, but not ident

ompound neighbour, i.e., nigh boor, the farmer n

words thus formed; cf. harbinger,

name are Bowser and Bewsher

ma la pau

oupa le pied dr

village à sa

picard à l'en

es leups, n

dant) chen fieux (s

ne, Fables