The Romance of Words (4th ed.)

arative study of languages enables us to observe and codify the general laws which govern sense development, and to understand why meanings become

s were wooden tablets on which inscriptions were scratched. The word book itself comes from Anglo-Sax. bōc, beech; cf. Ger. Buchstabe, letter, lit. beech-stave. Lat. liber, book, whence a large f

, the two arms, and pouce, thumb, means inch. A further set of measures are represented by simple devices: a yard[64] is a small "stick," and the rod, pole, or perch (cf. perch for birds, Fr. perche, pole) which gives charm to our arithmetic is a larger one. A furlong is a furrow-long. For weights common objects were used, e.g.

CIAL

taxes. This Old Fr. eschequier, which has also given chequer, is a derivative of Old Fr. eschec (échec), check. Thus "check trousers" and a "chequered career" are both directly related to an eastern potentate (see chess, p. 120.). The chancellor himself was originally a kind of door-keeper in charge of a chancel, a latticed barrier which we now know in church architectu

may have l

the sow-s

count I we

e stocks

's Tale

from Lat. bulga, "a male or bouget of leather; a purse; a bagge" (Cooper). Modern French has

count. The controller had charge of the counter-rolls (cf. counterfoil), from Old Fr. contre-rolle, "the copy of a role (of accounts, etc.), a paralell of the same

eorge III. Tallies (Fr. tailler, to cut) were sticks "scored" across in such a way that the no

oks but the score and the tally;

y VI.,

gardens within fairly recent times; and some of us can remember very old ge

re prepared to

ick, C

enture, chiefly familiar to us in connection with apprenticeship, was a duplicate document of which the "indented" or toothed edges had to correspond like the notches of the score or tally. Cheque, earlier check, is identical with check, rebuff. The metaphor is from the game of chess (see p. 120), to check a ma

IAL T

ith mare, while the second corresponds to modern Ger. Schalk, rascal, expresses the same idea in German. Both constable and marshal are now used of very high positions, but Policeman X. and the farrier-marshal, or shoeing-smith, of a troop of cavalry, remind them of the base degrees by which they did ascend. The Marshalsea where Little Dorrit lived is for ma

uissier), lit. door-keeper, Lat. ostiarius, a porter. Another official was the harbinger, who survives only in poetry. He was a forerunner, or vauntcourier, who preceded the gre

d in the right of his prebend, was marked by the harbinger for the use of Mrs Eleanor Gwyn; but

Life of Bi

EL MET

ice called clove and the clove-pink both belong to Lat. clavus, a nail. The German for pink is Nelke, a Low German diminutive, nail-kin, of Nagel, nail. The spice, or Gewürznelke, is called in South Germany N?gele, little nail. A clove of garlic is quite a separate word; but, as it has so

e a tip is in French pourboire and in German Trinkgeld, even when accepted by a lifelong abstainer. In English we "ride a hobby," i.e., a hobby-horse, or wooden horse. German has the same metaphor, "ein Steckenpfe

, gossip (Fr. commère, Scot. cummer, p. 94), in Bavarian Sch?ntierlein, beautiful little animal, in Danish kj?nne, beautiful, and in older English fairy.[68] From Lat. medius we get mediastinus, "a drugge (drudge) or lubber to

alderman is obvious. Priest, Old Fr. prestre[69] (prêtre), from Gk. πρεσβ?τερο?, comparative of πρ?σβυ?, old, is not so obvious. In the Romance languages we have a whole group of words, e.g., Fr. sire, sieur, seigneur, Ital. signor, Span. se?or, with their compounds monsieur, messer, etc., all representing eithe

urly Warwick m

ry VI.

-MAT

el is the same word as Old Fr. lambel (lambeau), rag. Scroll is an alteration, perhaps due to roll, of Mid. Eng. scrow or escrow, from Old Fr. escroue,[71] rag, shred. Docket, earlier dogget, is from an old Italian diminutive of doga, cask-stave, which meant a ben

the perverted force-meat. A parallel is satire, from Lat. satura (lanx), a full dish, hence a medl

belongs to Vulgar Lat. *companio, companion-, bread-sharer. The same idea is represented by the pleonastic Eng. messmate, the second part of which, mate, i

other cou

t-handed Phil

gro,

rd is cognate with Ger. Genosse, a companion, from geniessen, to enjoy or use together. In early Dutch we find also matteg

the individual is paralleled by Ger. Bursche, fellow, from Mid. High Ger. burse, college hostel; cf. Frauenzimmer, wench, lit. women's room. It can hardly be doubted that chum is a corrupted clip from chamber-fellow.[72]

R-GRE

peare. The case of Fr. compère and commère, godfather and godmother, is similar. Cotgrave explains commérage as "gossiping; the acquaintance, affinity, or league that growes betweene wome

Kate, and a special

tery,

gs has given the Fr. faire la noce, to go on the spree. In Ger. Hochze

73] (courroyer), to make ready, put in order, which represents a theoretical *con-red-are, the root syllable of which is Germanic and cognate with our ready. Ger. g

r s

glasses since,

yare, and br

est,

their restricted meaning at a time when

just begun to sprout. In Ger. Gelbschnabel, yellow-bill, and Fr. bec-jaune, we have the metaphor of the fledgling. Ludwig explains Gelbschnabel by "chitty-face," chit, cognate with kit-ten, being a general term in Mid. English for a

gnorant, unexperienced, asse; a rude, unfashioned, home-bred hoydon; a sot, ninny, doul

in flippant form the same figure of physical satiety which is as old as language. Padding is a comparatively new word in connection with literary composition, but it reproduces, with a slight

fustian's so

etry, but pr

ue to the Sat

mage is found in the

epidum, rud

isquilias

remio cui

anio

ντα, to be awarded the cake of roasted wheat and honey which was or

an. Sometimes the symbols vary, e.g., the risk one is exposed to in acquiring goods without examination is called by us "buying a pig in a poke."[75] French and German substitute the cat. We say that "a c

CAL M

French and German the state of being "half-seas over" or "three sheets in the wind," and the practice of "splicing the main-brace" are expressed by various land metaphors. But the more obvious n

ligious reverence down to common decency. There is, however, a special type of euphemism which may be described as the delicacy of the partially educated. It is a matter of common observatio

ment de ces s

beaux mots produis

nels des sots d

communs de nos m

un amas d'équi

re insulte à la p

Femmes savan

must now be replaced by limb, even when the possessor is a boiled fowl, and this refinement is

of helping her to a piece of the breast. She looked at me indignantly, and said, 'Curse your imp

Simple,

d-cover-head, for a comparatively modern convenience, the earlier names of which have more of the directness of the Artful Dodger's "wipe." Ben Jonson calls it a muckinder. In 1829 the

e up in disorder a

, 14th O

de, "thinne under-breeches" (Florio), from a country and century not usually regarded as prudish. The fact is that, just as the low word,

IC ETY

lowest branches of the horns, what we now call brow-antlers. The word comes from Old Fr. antoilliers, which answers phonetically to a

ter, etymologically, whether the bird really has any connection with rain, for rustic observation, interesting as it is, is essentially unscientific. The honeysuckle is useless to t

nnected with Lat. crepare, to resound. The Latin name for the kestrel is tinnunculus, lit. a little ringer, derived from the verb tinnire, to clink, jingle, "tintinnabulate." Cooper tells us that "they use to set them (kestrels) in pigeon houses, to make doves to love the p

to stand with arms akimbo is "faire le pot a deux anses," and the same striking image occurs in German, Dutch, and Spanish. Hence it seems a plausible conjecture that kenebowe means "jug-handle." This is confirmed by the fact that Dryden translates ansa, "the eare or handle of a cuppe or pot" (Cooper), by "kimbo handle" (Vergil, Ecl. iii. 44). Eng. bow, meaning anything bent

RE-L

s of the atonic first syllable is normal in English (p. 61), it would be hard to find a case in which a meaningless prefix has been added. N

ve nun, devo

edfast, a

roso,

ent terms in other languages, e.g., Lat. sedatus, Fr. rassis, Ger. gesetzt, etc., it seems likely that it is formed from the Old Norman demurer (demeurer

is lugged seems to be a piece of folk-etymology. The French for lugsail is voile de fortune, and a still earlier name, which occurs also in Tudor English, is bon

anic languages they are called "eyes," and in the Romance languages "points"; and the Romance derivativ

ted with Lat. dominus. French also has, in various games, the phrase faire capot, with a meaning like that of faire domino. Capot, related to Eng. cap and Fr. chapeau, means properly a hooded

ts of the 15th century. According to French archaeologists the game was also called bonheur, chance, fortune, and hasard. Hence glic represents in all probability Ger. Glück, luck.[77] The Old F

NT

ng with sentinel. It is a common phenomenon in military language that the abstract name of an action is applied to the building or station in which the action is performed, then to the group of men thus employed, and finally to the individual soldier. Thus Lat. custodia means (1

gth, what a

what evasion

ict senteries a

s watchi

e Lost,

hauguette (échauguette) as "a sentrie, watch-tower, beacon." The pur

eath, and Death's

to view their c

?neid,

ntury it is a pretty familiar word in this sense.[79

ut of my hands, but to take sen

f Pasquil's A

ains it as "a place of refuge, and of safe retyrall," also "a sentrie, or little lodge for a sentinell, built o

meismes qui est li refuges e

ean "sentry"; cf. the history of vigie (p. 103), or of vedette, a cavalry sentry

TNO

invented as a substitute when

wand" of Tennyson's "smooth-faced snubnosed rogue" (Maud, I. i. 16) is a pleonasm of the same type as greyhound (p. 135). Yard,

f the garth, and stood

The Grandmo

and Lusher, which Bardsley (Dict. of English Surnames) gives up, are for Old Fr. l

is so named because successive skins form an

of Cymric bele, marten,

ean languages and dialects. It is probable that these complimentary names wer

, the fabulous priest

etc., and Ger. herrisch,

is used only in the se

eticians but disbelieved by others, is one of the first peculiarities noted by foreigners beginning to learn English. It is quite possible that chum is an accidental spelling for *cham, just as we write bungalow for bangla (Bengal), pundit for pandit, and Punjaub for Panjab, five rivers, whe

ld Fr. arréer

rdane, a looby, a booby, a tony, a fop, a dunce, a simpleton, a wise-acre, a sot, a logger-head, a block-head, a nickampoop, a lingerer, a drowsy or dreaming lusk, a pill-

e.g. in the Kentish hop-gardens. It is a do

of the Lindwurm, the dragon slain by Siegfried. The Nors

from Ger. gleich, li

ilitary terms are feminine, e.g.,

sentinel. The spellings centry and centinel, which were common when the words still had a c

st himself, who is the refuge