The Romance of Words Part 28

[Page Heading: EARLY ETYMOLOGISTS]

Men have always been fascinated by word-lore. The Greeks and Romans played with etymology in a somewhat metaphysical fashion, a famous example of which is the derivation of _lucus a non lucendo_. Medieval writers delight in giving amazing information as to the origin of the words they use. Their method, which may be called learned folk-etymology, consists in attempting to resolve an unfamiliar word into elements which give a possible interpretation of its meaning. Thus Philippe de Thaun, who wrote a kind of verse encyclopedia at the beginning of the 12th century, derives the French names of the days of the week as follows: _lundi_, day of light (_lumiere_), _mardi_, day of toil or martyrdom (_martyre_), _mercredi_, day of market (_marche_), _jeudi_, day of joy (_joie_), _vendredi_, day of truth (_verite_), _samedi_, day of sowing (_s.e.m.e.nce_). Here we perhaps have, not so much complete ignorance, as the desire to be edifying, which is characteristic of the medieval etymologists.

Playful or punning etymology also appears very early. Wace, whose _Roman de Rou_ dates from about the middle of the 12th century, gives the correct origin of the word _Norman_--

"Justez (_put_) ensemble _north_ et _man_ Et ensemble dites _northman_."

But he also records the libellous theory that _Normendie_ comes from _north mendie_ (begs). We cannot always say whether an early etymology is serious or not, but many theories which were undoubtedly meant for jokes have been quite innocently accepted by comparatively modern writers.[142]

The philologists of the Renaissance period were often very learned men, but they had no knowledge of the phonetic laws by which sound change is governed. Nor were they aware of the existence of Vulgar Latin, which is, to a much greater extent than cla.s.sical Latin, the parent of the Romance languages. Sometimes a philologist had a pet theory which the facts were made to fit. h.e.l.lenists like Henri Estienne believed in the Greek origin of the French language, and Perion even derived _maison_ from the Gk. ????? (?????, a house) by the simple method of prefixing an _m_. At other periods there have been Celtomaniacs, _i.e._, scholars who insisted on the Celtic origin of French.

The first English etymological dictionary which aims at something like completeness is the _Guide into the Tongues_ of John Minsheu, published in 1617. This attempts to deal not only with English, but with ten other languages. It contains a great deal of learning, much valuable information for the student of Tudor literature, and some amazing etymologies. "To _purloine_,[143] or get privily away," is, says Minsheu, "a metaphor from those that picke the fat of the _loines_."

_Parmaceti_, a corruption of _spermaceti_--

"And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth Was _parmaceti_ for an inward bruise."

(1 _Henry IV._, i. 3.)

he derives from Parma, which has given its name to _parmesan_ cheese. On the word _c.o.c.kney_[144] he waxes anecdotic, always a fatal thing in an etymologist--

"_c.o.c.kney_, or _c.o.c.kny_, applied only to one borne within the sound of Bow-bell, that is, within the City of London, which tearme came first out of this tale: That a cittizens sonne riding with his father out of London into the country, and being a novice and meerely ignorant how corne or cattell increased, asked, when he heard a horse _neigh_, what the horse did; his father answered, the horse doth _neigh_; riding farther he heard a _c.o.c.ke_ crow, and said, doth the _c.o.c.ke neigh_ too?"

[Page Heading: EARLY ETYMOLOGISTS]

Moliere often makes fun of the etymologists of his time and has rather unfairly caricatured, as Vadius in _Les Femmes savantes_, the great scholar Gilles Menage, whose _Dictionnaire etymologique_, published in 1650, was long a standard work. Moliere's mockery and the fantastic nature of some of Menage's etymologies have combined to make him a b.u.t.t for the ignorant, but it may be doubted whether any modern scholar, using the same implements, could have done better work. For Menage the one source of the Romance languages was cla.s.sical Latin, and every word had to be traced to a Latin word of suitable form or sense. Thus Fr.

_haricot_[145] is connected by him with Lat. _faba_, a bean, _via_ the conjectural "forms" _*fabarius_, _*fabaricus_, _*fabaricotus_, _*faricotus_, _*haricotus_, a method to which no problem is insoluble.[146] He suggests that Fr. _geindre_, or _gindre_,[147]

baker's man, comes from Lat. _gener_, son-in-law, because the baker's man always marries the baker's daughter; but this practice, common though it may be, is not of sufficiently unfailing regularity to const.i.tute a philological law. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the derivation of Span. _alfana_,[148] a mare, from Lat. _equus_, a horse, which inspired a well-known epigram--

"_Alfana_ vient d'_equus_, sans doute, Mais il faut avouer aussi Qu'en venant de la jusqu'ici Il a bien change sur la route."

These examples show that respect for Menage need not prevent his work from being a source of innocent merriment. But the above epigram loses some of its point for modern philologists, to whom equations that look equally fantastic, _e.g._ Eng. _wheel_ and Gk. ??????,[149] are matters of elementary knowledge. On the other hand, a close resemblance between words of languages that are not nearly related is proof presumptive, and almost positive, that the words are quite unconnected. The resemblance between Eng. _nut_ and Ger. _Nuss_ is the resemblance of first cousins, but the resemblance of both to Lat. _nux_ is accidental. Even in the case of languages that are near akin, it is not safe to jump to conclusions. The Greek cousin of Lat. _deus_ is not ?e??, G.o.d, but ?e??, Jupiter.

[Page Heading: ANECDOTIC ETYMOLOGY]

An etymology that has anything to do with a person or an anecdote is to be regarded with suspicion. For both we want contemporary evidence, and, in the case of an anecdote, we never, to the best of my knowledge, get it. In Chapter III. are a number of instances of words formed according to authentic evidence from names of persons. But the old-fashioned etymologist will not be denied his little story. Thus, in explanation of _spencer_ (p. 40), I find in a manual of popular information of the last century,[150] that--

"His Lordship, when Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, being out a-hunting, had, in the act of leaping a fence, the misfortune to have one of the skirts of his coat torn off; upon which his lordship tore off the other, observing, that to have but one left was like a pig with one ear! Some inventive genius took the hint, and having made some of these half-coats, out of compliment to his lordship, gave them the significant cognomen of _Spencer_!"

This is what Pooh-Bah calls "corroborative detail intended to give artistic verisimilitude to a bald and unconvincing narrative." From the same authority we learn that--

"_Hurly-burly_[151] is said to owe its origin to Hurleigh and Burleigh, two neighbouring families, that filled the country around them with contest and violence."

and that--

"The word _boh!_ used to frighten children, was the name of Boh, a great general, the son of Odin, whose very appellation struck immediate panic in his enemies."[152]

The history of _chouse_ exemplifies the same tendency. There is no doubt that it comes from a Turkish word meaning interpreter, spelt _chaus_ in Hakluyt and _chiaus_ by Ben Jonson. The borrowing is parallel to that of _cozen_ (p. 110), interpreters having a reputation little superior to that of horse-dealers. But a century and a half after the introduction of the word we come across a circ.u.mstantial story of a Turkish _chiaus_ who swindled some London merchants of a large sum in 1609, the year before Jonson used the word in the _Alchemist_. "Corroborative detail"

again. The story may be true, but there is not an atom of evidence for it, and Skinner, who suggests the correct derivation in his _Etymologicon_ (1671), does not mention it. Until contemporary evidence is adduced, the story must be regarded as one of those fables which have been invented in dozens by early etymologists, and which are perpetuated in popular works of reference. It is an article of faith in Yorkshire that the coa.r.s.e material called _mungo_ owes its name to the inventor of the machine used in its fabrication, who, when it stuck at a first trial, exclaimed with resolution, "It _mun go_."

Many stories have been composed _apres coup_ to explain the American _hoodlum_ and the Australian _larrikin_, which are both older than our _hooligan_ (see p. 12). The origin of _hoodlum_ is quite obscure. The story believed in Australia with regard to _larrikin_ is that an Irish policeman, giving evidence of the arrest of a rough, explained that the accused was _a-larrikin'_ (larking) in the street, and this was misunderstood by a reporter. But there appears to be not the slightest foundation for this story. The word is perhaps a diminutive of the common Irish name _Larry_, also immortalised in the stirring ballad--

"The night before _Larry_ was stretched."

As I write, there is a correspondence going on in the Nottingham papers as to the origin of the nickname _Bendigo_, borne by a local bruiser and evangelist. According to one account, he was one of triplets, whom a jocular friend of the family nicknamed Shadrach, Meschach, and _Abed-Nego_, the last of which was the future celebrity. It is at any rate certain that his first challenge (_Bell's Life_, 1835) was signed "Abed-Nego of Nottingham." The rival theory is that, when he was playing in the streets and his father appeared in the offing, his companions used to warn him by crying "_Bendy go!_" This theory disregards the a.s.sertion of the "oldest inhabitant" that the great man was never called _Bendy_, and the fact, familiar to any observer of the local dialect, that, even if he had been so called, the form of warning would have been, "Look aht, Bendy, yer daddy's a-coomen."

In the Supplement to Littre there is an article on _domino_, in which he points out that investigation must start from the phrase _faire domino_ (see p. 102). He also quotes an absurd anecdote from a local magazine, which professes to come from a "vieille chronique." Littre naturally wants to know what chronicle. In Scheler's _Dictionnaire etymologique_ (Brussels, 1888), it is "proved," by means of the same story elaborated, "que c'est la la veritable origine du mot dont nous parlons."

[Page Heading: ANECDOTIC ETYMOLOGY]

In Brewer's _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, s.v. _sirloin_, we read that "it is generally said that James I. or Charles II. knighted the loin of beef, but Henry VIII. had done so already." This sounds like a determination to get at the root of things, but does not go far enough.

The word is found in the 15th century, and Fr. _surlonge_, from which it comes, in the 14th. It is compounded of _sur_, over, and _longe_, a derivative of Lat. _lumbus_, loin. The belief in the knightly origin of the _sirloin_ was so strong that we find it playfully called the _baronet_ (_Tom Jones_, iv. 10). Hence, no doubt, the name _baron_ of beef for the double sirloin. _Tram_ is persistently connected with a Mr _Outram_, who flourished about 1800. This is another case of intelligent antic.i.p.ation, for the word is found in 1555. It means log or beam, and was probably first applied to a log-road laid across bad ground, what is called in America a "corduroy" road. On the other hand, the obvious and simple derivation of _beef-eater_, _i.e._ a man who is in the enviable position of being sure of his daily allowance,[153] has been obscured by the invention of an imaginary Fr. _*beaufetier_, waiter at the side-board. Professor Skeat attributes the success of this myth to its inclusion in Mrs Markham's _History of England_. But the most indestructible of all these superst.i.tions is connected with the word _cabal_. It comes from a Hebrew word meaning hidden mystery, and is found in the chief Romance languages. The word is of frequent occurrence in English long before the date of Charles II.'s acrostic ministry,[154]

though its modern meaning has naturally been affected by this historic connection.

Even anecdotic etymologies accepted by the most cautious modern authorities do not always inspire complete confidence. _Martinet_ is supposed to come from the name of a well-known French officer who re-organised the French infantry about 1670. But we find it used by Wycherley in 1676, about forty years before Martinet's death. Moreover this application of the name is unknown in French, which has, however, a word _martinet_ meaning a kind of cat-o'-nine-tails. In English _martinet_ means the leech-line of a sail, hence, possibly, rope's end, and Wycherley applies the term to a brutal sea-captain. The most renowned of carriers is probably Hobson, of Cambridge. He was sung by Milton, and bequeathed to the town Hobson's conduit which cleanses the Cambridge gutters. To him is also ascribed the phrase _Hobson's choice_, from his custom of refusing to let out his horses except in strict rotation. But we find a merchant venturer, living in j.a.pan, using "_Hodgson's_ choice" fourteen years before the carrier left this world and became a legendary figure--

"We are put to _Hodgson's choise_ to take such previlegese as they will geve us, or else goe without."

(_Correspondence of Richard c.o.c.ks_, Oct. 1617.)

[Page Heading: BACK-FORMATIONS]

The most obvious etymology needs to be proved up to the hilt, and the process is rich in surprises. _Cambridge_ appears to be the _bridge_ over the _Cam_. But the river's older name, which it preserves above the town, is the _Granta_, and Bede calls the town itself _Grantacester_.

Camden, in his _Britannia_ (trad. Holland, 1637), notes that the county was called "in the English Saxon" _Grentbrigseyre_, and comments on the double name of the river. Nor can he "easily beleeve that _Grant_ was turned into _Cam_; for this might seeme a deflexion some what too hardly streined, wherein all the letters but one are quite swallowed up."

_Grantabrigge_ became, by dissimilation (see p. 57), _Gantabrigge_, _Cantabrigge_ (cf. _Cantab_), _Cantbrigge_, and, by a.s.similation (see p.

56), _Cambridge_, the river being rechristened from the name of the town.

A _beggar_ is not etymologically one who _begs_, or a _cadger_ one who _cadges_. In each case the verb is evolved from the noun. About the year 1200 Lambert le _Begue_, the Stammerer, is said to have founded a religious order in Belgium. The monks were called after him in medieval Latin _beghardi_ and the nuns _beghinae_. The Old Fr. _begard_ pa.s.sed into Anglo-French with the meaning of mendicant and gave our _beggar_.

From _beguine_ we get _biggin_, a sort of cap--

"Sleep with it (the crown) now!

Yet not so sound, and half so deeply sweet, As he, whose brow with homely _biggin_ bound, Snores out the watch of night."

(2 _Henry IV._, iv. 4.)

_Cadger_, or rather its Scottish form _cadgear_, a pedlar, occurs about one hundred and fifty years earlier than the verb to _cadge_. We find, noted as foreign words, in 16th-century Dutch, the words _cagie_, a basket carried on the back, and _cagiaerd_, one who carries such a basket. These must be of French origin, and come, like the obsolete Eng.

_cadge_,[155] a panier, from _cage_, for the history of which see p.

109. _Cadger_ is used in Scottish of an itinerant fish merchant with his goods carried in paniers by a pony--

"Or die a _cadger_ pownie's death, At some d.y.k.e-back."

(BURNS, _Epistle to J. Lapraik_.)

_Tobacco_ does not take its name from the island of Tobago, but from the native name of the tube through which the Caribs smoked it.

The traditional derivation of _vaunt_ is from Fr. _vanter_, and this from a late Lat. _vanitare_, to talk emptily, used by St Augustine. This looks very simple, but the real history of these words is most complicated. In Mid. English we regularly find _avaunt_, which comes from Old Fr. _avanter_, to put forward, from _avant_, before. This gets mixed up during the Tudor period with another _vaunt_ from Fr. _vanter_, to extol, the derivation of which can only be settled when its earliest form is ascertained. At present we find _venter_ as early as _vanter_, and this would represent Lat. _venditare_ (frequentative of _vendere_, to sell), to push one's goods, "to do anything before men to set forth himselfe and have a prayse; to _vaunt_; to crake; to brag" (Cooper).

[Page Heading: ETYMOLOGICAL TESTS]

A sound etymology must fulfil three conditions. It must not violate the recognised laws of sound change. The development of meaning must be clearly traced. This must start from the earliest or fundamental sense of the word. It goes without saying that in modern corruptions we are sometimes faced by cases which it would be difficult to explain phonetically (see p. 136). There are, in fact, besides the general phonetic and semantic laws, a number of obscure and accidental influences at work which are not yet codified. As we have seen (p. 188), complete apparent dissimilarity of sound and sense need not prevent two words from being originally one[156]; but we have to trace them both back until dissimilarity becomes first similarity and then ident.i.ty.

The word _peruse_ meant originally to wear out, Old Fr. _par-user_. In the 16th century it means to sort or sift, especially herbs, and hence to scrutinise a doc.u.ment, etc. But between the earliest meaning and that of sifting there is a gap which no ingenuity can bridge, and, until this is done, we are not justified in regarding the modern _peruse_ as identical with the earlier.[157]