The Romance of Words Part 30

[149] That is, they are both descended from the same Indo-Germanic original. Voltaire was thus, superficially, right when he described etymology as a science in which the vowels do not count at all and the consonants very little.

[150] _Pulleyn's Etymological Compendium_, 3rd ed., revised and improved by M. A. Thoms (Tegg & Co., 1853).

[151] _Cf._ Fr. _hurluberlu_, which occurs in Rabelais, and in Rostand's _Cyrano de Bergerac_.

[152] _t.i.t-Bits_, which honoured the _Romance of Words_ with a notice (8th June 1912), approvingly quoted these three "etymologies" as being seriously propounded by the author. This is dramatic justice.

[153] The following explanation, given in Miege's _French Dictionary_ (1688), is perhaps not far wrong: "C'est ainsi qu'on appelle par derision les _Yeomen of the Guard_ dans la cour d'Angleterre, qui sont des gardes a peu pres comme les cent Suisses en France. Et on leur donne ce nom-la, parce qu' a la cour ils ne vivent que de buf: par opposition a ces colleges d'Angleterre, ou les ecoliers ne mangent que du mouton."

[154] An acrostic of this kind would have no point if it resulted in a meaningless word. In the same way the Old Fr. _Fauvel_, whence our _curry favour_ (see p. 131), has a medieval explanation of the acrostic kind. It is supposed to be formed from the initial letters of the vices _Flatterie_, _Avarice_, _Vilenie_, _Variete_, _Envie_, _Lachete_.

[155] There is also a word _cadge_, explained in the glossary to a book on falconry (1615) as a kind of frame on which an itinerant vendor of hawks carried his birds. But it is unrecorded in literature and labours under the suspicion of being a ghost-word. Its first occurrence, outside the dictionaries, is, I believe, in Mr Maurice Hewlett's _Song of Renny_--"the nominal service of a pair of gerfalcons yearly, in golden hoods, upon a golden _cadge_" (Ch. 1).

[156] This seems to have been realised by the author of the _Etymological Compendium_ (see p. 188, _n._ 2), who tells us that the "term _swallow_ is derived from the French _hirondelle_, signifying indiscriminately voracious, literally a marshy place, that absorbs or _swallows_ what comes within its vortex."

[157] It is much more likely that it originated as a misunderstanding of _pervise_, to survey, look through, earlier printed _peruise_. We have a similar misunderstanding in the name _Alured_, for _Alvred_, i.e.

_Alfred_. The influence of spelling upon sound is, especially in the case of words which are more often read than heard, greater than is generally realized. Most English people p.r.o.nounce a _z_ in names like _Dalziel_, _Mackenzie_, _Menzies_, etc., whereas this _z_ is really a modern printer's subst.i.tution for an old symbol which had nearly the sound _y_ (_Dalyell_, etc.).

[158] And therefore identical with the _foil_ of _tinfoil_, _counterfoil_, etc.

[159] It is a diminutive of some word which appears to be unrecorded (_cf._ Fr. _pistolet_ for the obsolete _pistole_). Charles Reade, whose archaeology is very sound, makes Denys of Burgundy say, "_Petrone_ nor harquebuss shall ever put down Sir Arbalest" (_Cloister and Hearth_, Ch.

24); but I can find no other authority for the word.

[160] _Fusee_, in this sense, occurs in _Robinson Crusoe_.

[161] Over the tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral hangs his c.u.mbrous tilting helmet. But the magnificent rec.u.mbent bronze effigy below represents him in his fighting kit, basnet on head.

[162] _Burgonet_, Fr. _bourguignotte_, is supposed to mean _Burgundian_ helmet. The origin of _morion_ is unknown, but its use by Scott in _Ivanhoe_--"I have twice or thrice noticed the glance of a _morrion_ from amongst the green leaves." (Ch. 40)--is an anachronism by four centuries. Both words are used vaguely as general names for helmet.

[163] See _pay_ (p. 160). It will be found that all verbs of this nature are formed from the name of the substance applied.

[164] See letter by Dr Murray, afterwards Sir James Murray, in the _Athenaeum_, Feb. 4, 1884.

[165] The _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ does not imitate the wise reticence of Tabourot's saving clause, but p.r.o.nounces authoritatively for the _porte de Hugon_ fable.

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