The Romance of Words Part 11

21) and to _canva.s.s_, _i.e._ sift through _canvas_, meant the same thing. Yet how different is their later sense development.

[Page Heading: BAN--BUREAU]

There is a word _ban_, found in Old High German and Anglo-Saxon, and meaning, as far back as it can be traced, a proclamation containing a threat, hence a command or prohibition. We have it in _banish_, to put under the _ban_. The proclamation idea survives in the _banns_ of marriage and in Fr. _arriere-ban_, "a proclamation, whereby those that hold authority of the king in mesne tenure, are summoned to a.s.semble, 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 public inst.i.tutions within such a radius were a.s.sociated with _ban_, e.g., _un four_, _un moulin a ban_, "a comon oven or mill whereat all men may, and every tenant and va.s.sall must, bake, and grind" (Cotgrave).

The French adjective _ba.n.a.l_, used in this connection, gradually developed from the meaning of "common" that of "common-place," in which sense it is now familiar in English.[52]

_Bureau_, a desk, was borrowed from French in the 17th century. In modern French it means not only the desk, but also the office itself and the authority exercised by 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 course cloath, of a brown russet, or darke mingled, colour" (Cotgrave), whence Mid. Eng.

_borel_, rustic, clownish, lit. roughly clad, which occurs as late as Spenser--

"How be I am but rude and _borrel_, Yet nearer ways I know."

(_Shepherd's Calendar_, July, l. 95.)

With this we may compare the metaphorical use of _home-spun_--

"What hempen _home-spuns_ have we swaggering here, So near the cradle of the fairy queen?"

(_Midsummer Night's Dream_, iii. 1.)

The source of Old Fr. _burel_ is perhaps Lat. _burrus_, fiery, from Gk.

p??, fire.

_Romance_ was originally an adverb. To write in the vulgar tongue, instead of in cla.s.sical Latin, was called _romanice scribere_, Old Fr.

_romanz escrire_. When _romanz_ became felt as a noun, it developed a "singular" _roman_ 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. Eng. _gest_ or _jest_ is common in the 16th and 17th centuries in the sense of act, deed, and _jest_-book meant a story-book. As the favourite story-books were merry tales, the word gradually acquired its present meaning.

A part of our Anglo-Saxon church vocabulary was supplanted by Latin or French words. Thus Anglo-Sax. _ge-bed_, prayer, was gradually expelled by Old Fr. _preiere_ (_priere_), Lat. _precaria_. It has survived in _beadsman_--

"The _beadsman_, after thousand aves told, For aye unsought-for slept among his ashes cold."

(KEATS, _Eve of St Agnes_.)

_beadroll_, and _bead_, now applied only to the humble device employed in counting prayers.

Not only the Romance languages, but also German and Dutch, adopted, with the Roman character, Lat. _scribere_, to write. English, on the contrary, preserved the native to _write_, _i.e._ to scratch (runes), giving to _scribere_ only a limited sense, to _shrive_. The curious change of meaning was perhaps due to the fact that the priestly absolution was felt as having the validity of a "written" law or enactment.

[Page Heading: PUDDING--STICKLER]

The meaning which we generally give to _pudding_ is comparatively modern. The older sense appears in _black pudding_, a sausage made of pig's blood. This is also the meaning of Fr. _boudin_, whence _pudding_ comes. A still older meaning of both words is intestine, a sense still common in dialect. The derivation of the word is obscure, but it is probably related to Fr. _bouder_, to pout, whence _boudoir_, lit. a sulking-room.

A _hea.r.s.e_, now the vehicle in which a coffin is carried, is used by Shakespeare for a coffin or tomb. Its earlier meaning is a framework to support candles, usually put round the coffin at a funeral. This framework was so named from some resemblance to a harrow,[53] Fr.

_herse_, Lat. _hirpex_, _hirpic-_, a rake.

_Treacle_ is a stock example of great change of meaning. It is used in Coverdale's Bible (1535) for the "_balm_ in Gilead" of the _Authorised Version_--

"There is no more _triacle_ at Galaad."[54]

(Jeremiah, vii. 22.)

Old Fr. _triacle_ is from Greco-Lat. _theriaca_, a remedy against poison or snake-bite (???, a wild beast). In Mid. English and later it was used of a sovereign remedy. It has, like _sirup_ (p. 146), acquired its present meaning _via_ the apothecary's shop.

A _stickler_ is now a man who is fussy about small points of etiquette or procedure. In Shakespeare he is one who parts combatants--

"The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth, And, _stickler_-like, the armies separates."

(_Troilus and Cressida_, v. 8.)

An earlier sense is that of seeing fair-play. The word has been popularly a.s.sociated with the _stick_, or staff, used by the umpires in duels, and Torriano gives _stickler_ as one of the meanings of _bastoniere_, a verger or mace-bearer. But it probably comes from Mid.

Eng. _stightlen_, to arrange, keep order (see p. 172, _n._ 2).

_Infantry_ comes, through French, from Italian. It means a collection of "infants" or juniors, so called by contrast with the proved veterans who composed the cavalry.

The _pastern_ of a horse, defined by Dr Johnson as the knee, from "ignorance, madam, pure ignorance," still means in Cotgrave and Florio "shackle." Florio even recognises 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_, such shackles being used to prevent grazing horses from straying. _Pester_ (p. 167) is connected with it. The modern Fr.

_paturon_ has changed its meaning in the same way.

To _rummage_ means in the Elizabethan navigators to stow goods in a hold. A rummager was what we call a _stevedore_.[55] _Rummage_ is Old Fr. _arrumage_ (_arrimage_), from _arrumer_, to stow, the middle syllable of which is probably cognate with English _room_; cf.

_arranger_, to put in "rank."

The Christmas _waits_ were originally watchmen, Anglo-Fr. _waite_, Old Fr. _gaite_, from the Old High German form of modern Ger. _Wacht_, watch. Modern French still has the verb _guetter_, to lie in wait for, and _guet_, the watch. _Minstrel_ comes from an Old French derivative of Lat. _minister_, servant. Modern Fr. _menetrier_ is only used of a country fiddler who attends village weddings.

The _lumber_-room is supposed to be for _Lombard_ room, _i.e._, the room in which p.a.w.nbrokers used to store pledged property. The Lombards introduced into this country the three b.a.l.l.s, said to be taken from the arms of the Medici family.

[Page Heading: LIVERY--FAIRY]

_Livery_ is correctly explained by the poet Spenser--

"What _livery_ is, we by common use in England know well enough, namely, that it is allowance of horse-meat, as they commonly use the word in stabling; as, to keep horses at _livery_; the 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 allowance for drink; and _livery_ is also called the upper weed (see p. 2) which a serving-man wears; so called, as I suppose, for that it was _delivered_ and taken from him at pleasure."

(_View of the State of Ireland._)

This pa.s.sage explains also _livery_ stable.[56] Our word comes from Fr.

_livree_, the feminine past participle of _livrer_, from Lat.

_liberare_, to deliver.

_Pedigree_ was in Mid. English _pedegrew_, _petigrew_, etc. It represents Old Fr. _pie (pied) de grue_, crane's foot, from the shape of a sign used in showing lines of descent in genealogical charts. The older form survives in the family name _Pettigrew_. Here it is a nickname, like _Pettifer_ (pied de fer), iron-foot; cf. _Sheepshanks_.

_Fairy_ is a collective, Fr. _feerie_, its modern use being perhaps due to its occurrence in such phrases as _Faerie Queen_, _i.e._, Queen of Fairyland. Cf. _paynim_, used by some poets for _pagan_, but really a doublet of _paganism_, occurring in _paynim host_, _paynim knight_, etc.

The correct name for the individual _fairy_ is _fay_, Fr. _fee_, Vulgar Lat. _*fata_, connected with _fatum_, fate. This appears in Ital.

_fata_, "a fairie, a witch, an enchantres, an elfe" (Florio). The _fata morgana_, the mirage sometimes seen in the Strait of Messina, is attributed to the fairy Morgana of Ta.s.so, the Morgan le Fay of our own Arthurian legends.

Many people must have wondered at some time why the _clubs_ and _spades_ on cards are so called. The latter figure, it is true, bears some resemblance to a spade, but no giant of fiction is depicted with a club with a triple head. The explanation is that we have adopted the French pattern, _carreau_ (see p. 161), diamond, _cur_, heart, _pique_, pike, spear-head, _trefle_, trefoil, clover-leaf, but have given to the two latter the names used in the Italian and Spanish pattern, which, instead of the pike and trefoil, has the sword (Ital. _spada_) and mace (Ital.

_bastone_). Etymologically both _spades_ are identical, the origin being Greco-Lat. _spatha_, the name of a number of blade-shaped objects; _cf._ the diminutive _spatula_.

_Wafer_, in both its senses, is related to Ger. _Wabe_, honeycomb. We find Anglo-Fr. _wafre_ in the sense of a thin cake, perhaps stamped with a honeycomb pattern. The cognate Fr. _gaufre_ is the name of a similar cake, which not only has the honeycomb pattern, but is also largely composed of honey. Hence our verb to _goffer_, to give a cellular appearance to a frill.

[Page Heading: MEANINGS OF ADJECTIVES]

The meanings of adjectives are especially subject to change. _Quaint_ now conveys the idea of what is unusual, and, as early as the 17th century, we find it explained 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 possible to trace roughly the process by which this remarkable _volte-face_ has been brought about. The intermediate sense of trim or pretty is common in Shakespeare--

"For a fine, _quaint_, graceful, and excellent fashion, yours is worth ten on't."

(_Much Ado_, iii. 4.)

We apply _restive_ to a horse that will not stand still. It means properly a horse that will not do anything else. Fr. _retif_, Old Fr.

_restif_, from _rester_, to remain, Lat. _re-stare_, has kept more of the original sense of stubbornness. Scot. _reest_, _reist_, means to stand stock-still--