The Romance of Words Part 10

[Page Heading: CLIPPED FORMS]

Sometimes the two first syllables survive. We have _navvy_ for _navigator_, _brandy_ for _brandywine_, from Du. _brandewyn_, lit. burnt wine, and _whisky_ for _usquebaugh_, Gaelic _uisge-beatha_, water of life (cf. _eau-de-vie_), so that the literal meaning of _whisky_ is very innocent. It has a doublet in the river-name _Usk_. Before the 18th century _usquebaugh_ is the regular form. In the following pa.s.sage the Irish variety is referred to--

"The prime is _usquebaugh_, which cannot be made anywhere in that perfection; and whereas we drink it here in _aqua vitae_ measures, it goes down there by beer-gla.s.sfuls, being more natural to the nation."

(HOWELL, 1634.)

_Canter_ is for _Canterbury_ gallop, the pace of pilgrims riding to the shrine of St Thomas. John Dennis, known as Dennis the Critic, says of Pope--

"Boileau's Pegasus has all his paces. The Pegasus of Pope, like a Kentish post-horse, is always on the _Canterbury_."

(_On the Preliminaries to the Dunciad._)

In _bugle_, for _bugle-horn_, lit. wild-ox-horn, Old Fr. _bugle_, Lat.

_buculus_, a diminutive of _bos_, ox, we have perhaps rather an ellipsis, like _waterproof_ (coat), than a clipped form--

"Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet 'tis early morn: Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the _bugle-horn_."

(_Locksley Hall._)

_Patter_ is no doubt for _paternoster_--

"Fitz-Eustace, you, with Lady Clare, May bid your beads and _patter_ prayer."

(_Marmion_, vi. 27.)

and the use of the word _marble_ for a toy sometimes made of that stone makes it very probable that the _alley_, most precious of marbles, is short for _alabaster_.

Less frequently the final syllable is selected, e.g., _bus_ for _omnibus_, _loo_ for _lanterloo_, variously spelt in the 17th and 18th centuries--

"Ev'n mighty Pam,[51] that Kings and Queens o'erthrew, And mow'd down armies in the fights of _lu_."

(_Rape of the Lock_, iii. 62.)

Fr. _lanturelu_ was originally the meaningless refrain or "tol de rol"

of a popular song in Richelieu's time. _Van_ is for _caravan_, a Persian word, properly a company of merchants or ships travelling together, "also of late corruptly used with us for a kind of waggon to carry pa.s.sengers to and from London" (Blount, _Glossographia_, 1674). _Wig_ is for _periwig_, a corruption of Fr. _perruque_, of obscure origin. With the 17th century _'varsity_, for _university_, we may compare Sam Weller's _'Tizer_, for _Morning Advertiser_.

Christian names are treated in the same way. _Alexander_ gives _Alec_ and _Sandy_, _Herbert_, _'Erb_ or _Bert_. _Ib_ (see p. 172) was once common for _Isabella_, while the modern language prefers _Bella_; _Maud_ for _Matilda_ is a telescoped form of Old Fr. _Maheut_, while _'Tilda_ is perhaps due to unconscious aphesis, like _Denry_--

"She saved a certain amount of time every day by addressing her son as _Denry_, instead of _Edward Henry_."

(ARNOLD BENNETT, _The Card_, Ch. 1.)

Among conscious word-formations may be cla.s.sed many reduplicated forms, whether riming, as _hurly-burly_, or alliterative, as _t.i.ttle-tattle_, though reduplication belongs to the natural speech of children, and, in at least one case, Fr. _tante_, from _ante-ante_, Lat. _amita_, the baby word has prevailed. In a reduplicated form only one half as a rule needs to be explained. Thus _seesaw_ is from _saw_, the motion suggesting two sawyers at work on a log. _Zigzag_, from French, and Ger. _zickzack_ are of unknown origin. _Shilly-shally_ is for _shill I, shall I?_ _Namby-pamby_ commemorates the poet Ambrose Philips, who was thus nicknamed by Pope and his friends. The weapon called a _snickersnee_--

"'First let me say my catechism, Which my poor mammy taught to me.'

'Make haste, make haste,' says guzzling Jimmy, While Jack pulled out his _snickersnee_."

(THACKERAY, _Little Billee_, l. 21.)

is of Dutch origin and means something like "cut and thrust." It is usually mentioned in connection with the Hollanders--

"Among other customs they have in that town, one is, that none must carry a pointed knife about him; which makes the Hollander, who is us'd to _snik_ and _snee_, to leave his horn-sheath and knife a ship-board when he comes ash.o.r.e."

(HOWELL, _Letter from Florence_, 1621.)

Here the reduplication is only apparent, for the older form was to _stick_ or _snee_, representing the Dutch verbs _steken_, to thrust, _snijden_ or _snijen_, to cut. The initial of the first verb has been a.s.similated to that of the second--

"It is our countrie custome onely to _stick_ or _snee_."

(GLAPTHORNE, _The Hollander_.)

Reduplication is responsible for _pickaback_, earlier _pickpack_, from _pack_, bundle. The modern form is due to popular a.s.sociation with _back_.

[Page Heading: PREFIXED CONSONANTS]

Occasionally we have what is apparently the arbitrary prefixing of a consonant, e.g., _spruce_ for _pruce_ (p. 48). _Dapple gray_ corresponds so exactly to Fr. _gris pommele_, Mid. Eng. _pomeli gris_, Ger.

_apfelgrau_, and Ital. _pomellato_, "spotted, bespeckled, pide, _dapple-graie_, or fleabitten, the colour of a horse" (Florio), that it is hard not to believe in an unrecorded _*apple-gray_, especially as we have _daffodil_ for earlier _affodil_, i.e., _asphodel_. Cotgrave has _asphodile_ (_asphodele_), "the _daffadill_, _affodill_, or _asphodill_, flower." The playful elaboration _daffadowndilly_ is as old as Spenser.

FOOTNOTES:

[42]

"Nec sibi postilla metuebant talia verba, c.u.m subito adfertur nuntius horribilis, Ionios fluctus, postquam illuc Arrius isset, Iam non _Ionios_ esse, sed _Hionios_."

(_Catullus_, 84.)

[43] Apart from a.s.similation, there is a tendency in English to subst.i.tute _-m_ for _-n_, e.g. _grogram_ for _grogran_ (see p. 68). In the family name _Hansom_, for _Hanson_, we have dissimilation of _n_ (see p. 57).

[44] _Cf._ the similar change in the family name _Banister_ (p. 179).

[45] It may be noted here that a _buccaneer_ was not originally a pirate, but a man whose business was the smoking of beef in the West Indies. The name comes from a native word _boucan_, adopted into French, and explained by Cotgrave as a "woodden-gridiron whereon the cannibals broile pieces of men, and other flesh."

[46] _Upholsterer_ has become specialised in sense; cf. _undertaker_ (of funerals), and _stationer_, properly a tradesman with a _station_ or stall. _Costermonger_ ill.u.s.trates the converse process. It meant originally a dealer in _costards_, i.e. apples. The French costermonger has the more appropriate name of _marchand des quatre saisons_.

[47] English _i_ sometimes occurs as an attempt at the French and Celtic _u_; cf. _brisk_ from _brusque_, _periwig_ (p. 69), and _whisky_ (p.

68).

[48] Our ancestors appear to have been essentially pacific. With _fence_, for _defence_, we may compare Ger. _schirmen_, to fence, from _Schirm_, screen (cf. _Regenschirm_, umbrella), which, pa.s.sing through Italian and French, has given us _skirmish_, _scrimmage_, _scaramouch_ (see p. 142), and Shakespearean _scrimer_, fencer (_Hamlet_, iv. 7). So also Ger. _Gewehr_, weapon, is cognate with Eng. _weir_, and means defence--

"Cet animal est tres mechant; Quand on l'attaque, il se defend."

[49] "Now the time has come when the English will wish to ride."

[50] _Cf._ also Dan. _Kjobenhavn_ (Copenhagen), the merchants' haven, the numerous Swedish place-names ending in _-koping_, e.g. _Jonkoping_, and our own _Chippings_, or market-towns.

[51] The knave of clubs. The name was also given to Lord Palmerston.

CHAPTER VI

WORDS AND MEANINGS

We have all noticed the fantastic way in which ideas are linked together in our thoughts. One thing suggests another with which it is accidentally a.s.sociated in memory, the second suggests a 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 connects them. The same thing happens with words. A large number of words, despite great changes of sense, retain the fundamental meaning of the original, but in many cases this is quite lost. A truer image than that of the linked chain would be that of a sphere giving off in various directions a number of rays each of which may form the nucleus 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 Cotgrave's time to _garble_ (see p.