The Romance of Words Part 5

The application of animals' names to diseases is a familiar phenomenon, e.g., _cancer_ (and _canker_), crab, and _lupus_, wolf. To this cla.s.s belongs _mulligrubs_, for which we find in the 17th century also _mouldy grubs_. Its oldest meaning is stomach-ache, still given in Hotten's Slang Dictionary (1864). _Mully_ is still used in dialect for mouldy, earthy, and _grub_ was once the regular word for worm. The Latin name for the same discomfort was _verminatio_, from _vermis_, a worm. For the later transition of meaning we may compare _megrims_, from Fr.

_migraine_, head-ache, Greco-Lat. _hemicrania_, lit. half-skull, because supposed to affect one side only of the head.

A good many names of plants and animals have a religious origin.

_Hollyhock_ is for _holy hock_, from Anglo-Sax. _hoc_, mallow: for the p.r.o.nunciation cf. _holiday_. _Halibut_ means _holy b.u.t.t_, the latter word being an old name for flat fish; for this form of _holy_ cf.

_halidom_. _Lady_ in names of flowers such as _lady's bedstraw_, _lady's garter_, _lady's slipper_, is for Our Lady. So also in _lady-bird_, called in French _bete a bon Dieu_ and in German _Marienkafer_, Mary's beetle. Here may be mentioned _samphire_, from Old Fr. _herbe de Saint Pierre_, "sampire, crestmarin" (Cotgrave). The _filbert_, earlier _philibert_, is named from St Philibert, the nut being ripe by St Philibert's day (22nd Aug.). We may compare Ger. _Lambertsnuss_, filbert, originally "Lombard nut," but popularly a.s.sociated with St Lambert's day (17th Sept.).

[Page Heading: BAPTISMAL NAMES OF ANIMALS]

The application of baptismal names to animals is a very general practice, though the reason for the selection of the particular name is not always clear. The most famous of such names is _Renard_ the Fox. The Old French for fox is _goupil_, a derivative of Lat. _vulpes_, fox. The hero of the great beast epic of the Middle Ages is _Renard le goupil_, and the fact that _renard_ now completely supplanted _goupil_ shows how popular the Renard legends must have been. _Renard_ is from Old High Ger. _regin-hart_, strong in counsel; _cf._ our names _Reginald_ and _Reynold_, and Scot. _Ronald_, of Norse origin. From the same source come _Chantecler_, lit. sing-clear, the c.o.c.k, and _Partlet_, the hen, while _Bruin_, the bear, lit. "brown," is from the Dutch version of the epic. In the Low German version, _Reinke de Vos_, the ape's name is _Moneke_, a diminutive corresponding to Ital. _monicchio_, "a pugge, a _munkie_, an ape" (Florio), the earlier history of which is much disputed. The cat was called _Tibert_ or _Theobald_--

MERCUTIO. "_Tybalt_, you rat-catcher, will you walk?"

TYBALT. "What wouldst thou have with me?"

MERCUTIO. "Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives."

(_Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 1.)

The fact that the donkey was at one time regularly called _Cuddy_ made _Cuthbert_ for a long period unpopular as a baptismal name. He is now often called _Neddy_. The hare was called _Wat_ (_Walter_) in Tudor times. In the _Roman de Renard_ he is _Couard_, whence _coward_, a derivative of Old Fr. _coue_ (_queue_), tail, from Lat. _cauda_. The idea is that of the tail between the legs, so that the name is etymologically not very appropriate to the hare. _Parrot_, for earlier _perrot_, means "little Peter." The extension _Poll parrot_ is thus a kind of hermaphrodite. Fr. _pierrot_ is still used for the sparrow. The family name _Perrot_ is sometimes a nickname, "the chatterer," but can also mean literally "little Peter," just as _Emmot_ means "little Emma,"

and _Marriot_ "little Mary." _Petrel_ is of cognate origin, with an allusion to St Peter's walking upon the sea; _cf._ its German name, _Sankt Peters Vogel_. Sailors call the petrel _Mother Carey's chicken_, probably a nautical corruption of some old Spanish or Italian name.

But, in spite of ingenious guesses, this lady's genealogy remains as obscure as that of Davy Jones or the Jolly Roger.

[Page Heading: NAMES OF BIRDS]

_Robin_ has practically replaced _red-breast_. The _martin_ is in French _martinet_, and the name may have been given in allusion to the southward flight of this swallow about Martinmas; but the king-fisher, not a migrant bird, is called _martin-pecheur_, formerly also _martinet pecheur_ or _oiseau de Saint-Martin_, so that _martin_ may be due to some other a.s.sociation. Sometimes the double name survives. We no longer say _Philip sparrow_, but _Jack a.s.s_, _Jack daw_, _Jenny wren_, _Tom t.i.t_ (see p. 123), and the inclusive _d.i.c.ky bird_, are still familiar.

With these we may compare _Hob_ (_i.e._ Robert) _goblin_. _Madge owl_, or simply _Madge_, was once common. For _Mag pie_ we find also various diminutives--

"Augurs, and understood relations, have By _magot-pies_, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth The secret'st man of blood."

(_Macbeth_, iii. 4.)

Cotgrave has _pie_, "a pye, pyannat, _meggatapie_." In Old French it was also called _jaquette_, "a proper name for a woman; also, a piannat, or _megatapie_" (Cotgrave).

The connection of this word, Fr. _pie_, Lat. _pica_, with the comestible _pie_ is uncertain, but it seems likely that the magpie's habit of collecting miscellaneous trifles caused its name to be given to a dish of uncertain const.i.tuents. It is a curious coincidence that the obsolete _chuet_ or _chewet_ meant both a round pie and a jackdaw.[30] It is uncertain in which of the two senses Prince Hal applies the name to Falstaff (1 _Henry IV._, v. 1). It comes from Fr. _chouette_, screech-owl, which formerly meant also "a chough, daw, jack-daw"

(Cotgrave).

A _piebald_ horse is one _balled_ like a magpie. _Ball_ is a Celtic word for a white mark, especially on the forehead; hence the tavern sign of the _Baldfaced Stag_. Our adjective _bald_ is thus a past participle.

Things are often named from animals. _Crane_, _kite_, _donkey-engine_, _monkey-wrench_, _pig-iron_, etc., are simple cases. The _crane_ picture is so striking that we are not surprised to find it literally reproduced in many other languages. The toy called a _kite_ is in French _cerf volant_, flying stag, a name also applied to the stag-beetle, and in Ger. _Drachen_, dragon. It is natural that terrifying names should have been given to early fire-arms. Many of these, e.g., _basilisk_, _serpent_, _falconet_, _saker_ (from Fr. _sacre_, a kind of hawk), are obsolete--

"The cannon, blunderbuss, and _saker_, He was th' inventor of and maker."

(_Hudibras_, i. 2.)

More familiar is _culverin_, Fr. _couleuvrine_, a derivative of _couleuvre_, adder, Lat. _coluber_--

"And thou hast talk'd Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents, Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets, Of basilisks, of cannon, _culverin_."

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

One name for a hand-gun was _dragon_, whence our _dragoon_, originally applied to a kind of mounted infantry or carbineers. _Musket_, like _saker_ (v.s.), was the name of a hawk. Mistress Ford uses it playfully to her page--

"How now, my eyas[31]-_musket_, what news with you?"

(_Merry Wives_, iii. 3.)

But the hawk was so nicknamed from its small size. Fr. _mousquet_, now replaced in the hawk sense by _emouchet_, is from Ital. _moschetto_, a diminutive from Lat. _musca_, fly. Thus _mosquito_ (Spanish) and _musket_ are doublets.

_Porcelain_ comes, through French, from Ital. _porcellana_, "a kinde of fine earth called _porcelane_, whereof they make fine china dishes, called _porcellan_ dishes" (Florio). This is, however, a transferred meaning, _porcellana_ being the name of a particularly glossy sh.e.l.l called the "Venus sh.e.l.l." It is a derivative of Lat. _porcus_, pig.

_Easel_ comes, with many other painters' terms, from Holland. It is Du.

_ezel_, a.s.s, which, like Ger. _Esel_, comes from Lat. _asinus_. For its metaphorical application we may compare Fr. _chevalet_, easel, lit.

"little horse," and Eng. "clothes-_horse_."

[Page Heading: THINGS NAMED FROM PERSONS]

Objects often bear the names of individuals. Such are _albert_ chain, _brougham_, _victoria_, _wellington_ boot. Some elderly people can remember ladies wearing a red blouse called a _garibaldi_.[32] Sometimes an inventor is immortalised, e.g., _mackintosh_ and _shrapnel_, both due to 19th-century inventors. The more recent _maxim_ is named from one who, according to the late Lord Salisbury, has saved many of his fellow-men from dying of old age. Other benefactors are commemorated in _derringer_, first recorded in Bret Harte, and _bowie_, which occurs in d.i.c.kens' _American Notes_. _Sandwich_ and _spencer_ are coupled in an old rime--

"Two n.o.ble earls, whom, if I quote, Some folks might call me sinner; The one invented half a coat, The other half a dinner."

An Earl Spencer (1782-1845) made a short overcoat fashionable for some time. An Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792) invented a form of light refreshment which enabled him to take a meal without leaving the gaming table. It does not appear that _Billy c.o.c.k_ is to be cla.s.sed with the above, or with _Chesterfield, Chippendale & Co._ The _New English Dictionary_ quotes (from 1721) a description of the Oxford "blood" in his "_bully-c.o.c.ked_ hat," worn aggressively on one side. _Pinchbeck_ was a London watchmaker (_fl. c._ 1700), and _doily_ is from _Doyley_, a linen-draper of the same period. Etienne de _Silhouette_ was French finance minister in 1759, but the application of his name to a black profile portrait is variously explained. _Negus_ was first brewed in Queen Anne's reign by Colonel Francis Negus.

The first _orrery_ was constructed by the Earl of Orrery (_c._ 1700).

_Galvani_ and _Volta_ were Italian scientists of the 18th century.

_Mesmer_ was a German physician of the same period. _Nicotine_ is named from Jean Nicot, French amba.s.sador at Lisbon, who sent some tobacco plants to Catherine de Medicis in 1560. He also compiled the first Old French dictionary. The gallows-shaped contrivance called a _derrick_ perpetuates the name of a famous hangman who officiated in London about 1600. It is a Dutch name, identical with _Dietrich_, _Theodoric_, and _Dirk_ (Hatteraick). Conversely the Fr. _potence_, gallows, meant originally a bracket or support, Lat. _potentia_, power. The origin of _darbies_, handcuffs, is unknown, but the line--

"To bind such babes in father _Derbies_ bands,"

(GASCOIGNE, _The Steel Gla.s.s_, 1576.)

suggests connection with some eminent gaoler or thief-taker.

[Page Heading: TANTALISE--PAMPHLET]

Occasionally a verb is formed from a proper name. On the model of _tantalise_, from the punishment of Tantalus, we have _bowdlerise_, from _Bowdler_, who published an expurgated "family Shakespeare" in 1818; cf.

_macadamise_. _Burke_ and _boycott_ commemorate a scoundrel and a victim. The latter word, from the treatment of Captain Boycott of Co.

Mayo in 1880, seems to have supplied a want, for Fr. _boycotter_ and Ger. _boycottieren_ have become every-day words. Burke was hanged at Edinburgh in 1829 for murdering people by suffocation in order to dispose of their bodies to medical schools. We now use the verb only of "stifling" discussion, but in the Ingoldsby Legends it still has the original sense--

"But, when beat on his knees, That confounded De Guise Came behind with the 'fogle' that caused all this breeze, Whipp'd it tight round his neck, and, when backward he'd jerk'd him, The rest of the rascals jump'd on him and _Burk'd_ him."

(_The Tragedy._)

_Jarvey_, the slang name for a hackney coachman, especially in Ireland, was in the 18th century _Jervis_ or _Jarvis_, but history is silent as to this modern _Jehu_. A _pasquinade_ was originally an anonymous lampoon affixed to a statue of a gladiator which still stands in Rome.

The statue is said to have been nicknamed from a scandal-loving cobbler named Pasquino. Florio has _pasquino_, "a statue in Rome on whom all libels, railings, detractions, and satirical invectives are fathered."

_Pamphlet_ is an extended use of Old Fr. _Pamphilet_, the name of a Latin poem by one _Pamphilus_ which was popular in the Middle Ages. The suffix _-et_ was often used in this way, _e.g._, the translation of aesop's fables by Marie de France was called _Ysopet_, and Cato's moral maxims had the t.i.tle _Catonet_, or Parvus Cato. Modern Fr. _pamphlet_, borrowed back from English, has always the sense of polemical writing.

In Eng. _libel_, lit. "little book," we see a similar restriction of meaning. A three-quarter portrait of fixed dimensions is called a _kitcat_--

"It is not easy to see why he should have chosen to produce a replica, or rather a _kitcat_."

(_Journal of Education_, Oct. 1911.)

The name comes from the portraits of members of the _Kitcat_ Club, painted by Kneller. _Kit Kat_, Christopher Kat, was a pastrycook at whose shop the club used to dine.

Implements and domestic objects sometimes bear christian names. We may mention spinning-_jenny_, and the innumerable meanings of _jack_.

_Davit_, earlier _daviot_, is a diminutive of David. Fr. _davier_, formerly _daviet_, is used of several mechanical contrivances, including a pick-lock. A kind of davit is called in German _Jutte_, a diminutive of Judith. The implement by which the burglar earns his daily bread is now called a _jemmy_, but in the 17th century we also find _bess_ and _betty_. The French name is _rossignol_, nightingale. The German burglar calls it _Dietrich_, _Peterchen_, or _Klaus_, and the contracted forms of the first name, _dyrk_ and _dirk_, have pa.s.sed into Swedish and Danish with the same meaning. In Italian a pick-lock is called _grimaldello_, a diminutive of the name Grimaldo.

[Page Heading: GRIMALKIN--JUG]

A kitchen wench was once called a _malkin_--