The Romance of Words Part 9

All words tend in popular usage to undergo a certain amount of shrinkage. The reduction of Lat. _digitale_, from _digitus_, finger, to Fr. _de_, thimble (little thumb) is a striking example. The strong tonic accent of English, which is usually on the first, or root, syllable, brings about a kind of telescoping which makes us very unintelligible to foreigners. This is seen in the p.r.o.nunciation of names such as _Cholmondeley_ and _Marjoribanks_. _Bethlehem_ hospital, for lunatics, becomes _bedlam_; Mary _Magdalene_, taken as a type of tearful repentance, gives us _maudlin_, now generally used of the lachrymose stage of intoxication. _Sacristan_ is contracted into _s.e.xton_. Fr.

_paralysie_ becomes _palsy_, and _hydropisie_ becomes _dropsy_. The fuller form of the word usually persists in the literary language, or is artificially introduced at a later period, so that we get such doublets as _proctor_ and _procurator_.

In the case of French words which have a prefix, this prefix is very frequently dropped in English, e.g., _raiment_ for _arrayment_; while suffixes, or final syllables, often disappear, _e.g._, treasure _trove_, for Old Fr. _trove_ (_trouve_), or become a.s.similated to some familiar English ending, e.g., _parish_, Fr. _paroisse_, _skirmish_, Fr.

_escarmouche_; _cartridge_, Fr. _cartouche_, _partridge_, Fr. _perdrix_.

A good example of such shrinkage is the word _vamp_, part of a shoe, Old Fr. _avant-pie_ (_pied_), which became Mid. Eng. _vampey_, and then lost its final syllable. We may compare _vambrace_, armour for the forearm, Fr. _avant-bras_, _vanguard_, Fr. _avant-garde_, often reduced to _van_--

"Go, charge Agrippa Plant those that have revolted in the _van_; That Antony may seem to spend his fury Upon himself."

(_Antony and Cleopatra_, iv. 6.)

and the obsolete _vaunt-courier_, forerunner--

"You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, _Vaunt-couriers_ of oak-cleaving thunderbolts."

(_Lear_, iii. 2.)

When the initial vowel is _a-_, its loss may have been helped by confusion with the indefinite article. Thus for _anatomy_ we find _atomy_, for a skeleton or scarecrow figure, applied by Mistress Quickly to the constable (2 _Henry IV._, v. 4). _Peal_ is for _appeal_, call; _mend_ for _amend_, _lone_ for _alone_, i.e., _all one_. _Peach_, used by Falstaff--

"If I be ta'en, I'll _peach_ for this."

(1 _Henry IV._, ii. 2.)

is for older _appeach_, related to _impeach_. _Size_, in all its senses, is for _a.s.size_, Fr. _a.s.sise_, with a general meaning of allowance or a.s.sessment, from Fr. _a.s.seoir_, to put, lay. _Sizars_ at Cambridge are properly students in receipt of certain allowances called _sizings_.

With painters' _size_ we may compare Ital. _a.s.sisa_, "_size_ that painters use" (Florio). We use the form _a.s.size_ in speaking of the "sitting" of the judges, but those most familiar with this tribunal speak of being tried at the _'sizes_. The obsolete word _cate_, on which Petruchio plays--

"For dainties are all _cates_--and therefore, Kate, Take this of me, Kate of my consolation."

(_Taming of the Shrew_, ii. 1.)

is for earlier _acate_, an Old French dialect form corresponding to modern Fr. _achat_, purchase. The man entrusted with purchasing was called an _acatour_ or _catour_ (whence the name _Cator_), later _cater_, now extended to _caterer_, like _fruiterer_ for _fruiter_, _poulterer_ for _poulter_ and _upholsterer_ for _upholdster_ or _upholder_.[46]

_Limbeck_ has been squeezed out by the orthodox _alembic_--

"Memory the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A _limbeck_ only."

(_Macbeth_, i. 7.)

and _prentice_ has given way to _apprentice_. _Tire_ and _attire_ both survive, and _maze_ persists by the side of _amaze_ with the special sense which I have heard a Notts collier express by _puzzle-garden_ (_cf._ Ger. _Irrgarten_). _Binnacle_ is a corruption, perhaps due to a.s.sociation with _bin_, of earlier _bittacle_, from Lat. _habitaculum_, a little dwelling. It may have come to us through Fr. _habitacle_ or Port. _bitacola_, "the _bittacle_, a frame of timber in the steerage, where the compa.s.s is placed on board a ship" (Vieyra, _Port. Dict._, 1794). As King of Scotland, King George has a household official known as the _limner_, or painter. For _limner_[47] we find in the 15th century _lumner_ and _luminour_, which is aphetic for _alluminour_, or _enlumineur_. Cotgrave, s.v. _enlumineur de livres_, says, "we call one that coloureth, or painteth upon, paper, or parchment, an _alluminer_."

[Page Heading: APHESIS]

But confusion with the article is not necessary in order to bring about aphesis. It occurs regularly in the case of words beginning with _esc_, _esp_, _est_, borrowed from Old French (see p. 56). Thus we have _squire_ from _escuyer_ (_ecuyer_), _skew_ from Old Fr. _eschuer_, to dodge, "eschew," ultimately cognate with Eng. _shy_, _spice_ from _espice_ (_epice_), _sprite_ from _esprit_, _stage_ from _estage_ (_etage_), etc. In some cases we have the fuller form also, e.g., _esquire_, _eschew_; cf. _sample_ and _example_. _Fender_, whether before a fireplace or slung outside a ship, is for _defender_; _fence_ is always for _defence_, either in the sense of a barrier or in allusion to the n.o.ble art of self-defence.[48] The _tender_ of a ship or of a locomotive is the _attender_, and _taint_ is aphetic for _attaint_, Fr.

_atteinte_, touch--

"I will not poison thee with my _attaint_."

(_Lucrece_, l. 1072.)

_Puzzle_ was in Mid. Eng. _opposaile_, _i.e._, something put before one.

We still speak of "a poser."

_Spital_, for _hospital_, survives in _Spitalfields_, and _Spittlegate_ at Grantham and elsewhere. _Crew_ is for _accrewe_ (Holinshed). It meant properly a reinforcement, lit. on-growth, from Fr. _accroitre_, to accrue. In _recruit_, we have a later instance of the same idea. Fr.

_recrue_, recruit, from _recroitre_, to grow again, is still feminine, like many other military terms which were originally abstract or collective. Cotgrave has _recreue_, "a supplie, or filling up of a defective company of souldiers, etc." We have _possum_ for _opossum_, and _c.o.o.n_ for _rac.o.o.n_, and this for _arrahacoune_, which I find in a 16th-century record of travel; _cf._ American _skeeter_ for _mosquito_.

In these two cases we perhaps have also the deliberate intention to shorten (see p. 66), as also in the obsolete Australian _tench_, for the aphetic _'tentiary_, i.e., _penitentiary_. With this we may compare _'tec_ for _detective_.

[Page Heading: APHESIS]

_Drawing-room_ is for _withdrawing room_, and only the final _t_ of _saint_ is left in _Tooley St._, famed for its three tailors, formerly _Saint Olave Street_, and _tawdry_. This latter word is well known to be derived from _Saint Audrey's_ fair. It was not originally depreciatory--

"Come, you promised me a _tawdry_ lace, and a pair of sweet gloves."

(_Winter's Tale_, iv. 3.)

and the full form is recorded by Palsgrave, who has _Seynt Andries_ (read _Audrie's_) _lace_, "cordon." The verb _vie_ comes from Old Fr.

_envier_, to challenge, Lat. _invitare_, whence the phrase _a l'envi l'un de l'autre_, "in emulation one of the other" (Cotgrave); cf. _gin_ (trap), Fr. _engin_, Lat. _ingenium_. The prefix _dis_ or _des_ is lost in _Spencer_ (see p. 165), _spite_, _splay_, _sport_, _stain_, etc.

In _drat_, formerly _'od rot_, _zounds_ for _G.o.d's wounds_, _'sdeath_, _odsbodikins_, etc., there is probably a deliberate avoidance of profanity. The same intention appears in _Gogs_--

"'Ay, by _gogs-wouns_!' quoth he; and swore so loud, That, all amaz'd, the priest let fall the book."

(_Taming of the Shrew_, iii. 2.)

_Cf._ Fr. _parbleu_ for _par Dieu_, and Ger. _Potz_ for _Gottes_.

This English tendency to aphesis is satirised in a French song of the 14th century, intentionally written in bad French. Thus, in the line--

"Or sont il vint le tans que Glais voura vauchier."[49]

_Glais_ is for _Anglais_ and _vauchier_ is for _chevauchier_ (_chevaucher_), to ride on a foray. The literary language runs counter to this instinct, though Shakespeare wrote _haviour_ for _behaviour_ and _longing_ for _belonging_, while such forms as _billiments_ for _habiliments_ and _sparagus_ for _asparagus_ are regular up to the 18th century. Children keep up the national practice when they say _member_ for _remember_ and _zamine_ for _examine_. It is quite certain that _baccy_ and _tater_ would be recognised literary forms if America had been discovered two centuries sooner or printing invented two centuries later.

Many words are shortened, not by natural and gradual shrinkage, but by deliberate laziness. The national distaste for many syllables appears in _wire_ for _telegram_, the Artful Dodger's _wipe_ for the clumsy _pocket handkerchief_, _soccer_ for _a.s.sociation_, and such portmanteau words as _squarson_, an individual who is at once _squire_ and _parson_, or _Bakerloo_ for _Baker St. and Waterloo_.

The simplest way of reducing a word is to take the first syllable and make it a symbol for the rest. Of comparatively modern formation are _pub_ and _Zoo_, with which we may compare _Bart's_, for Saint Bartholomew's, _Cri_, _Pav_, "half a _mo'_" _bike_, and even _paj_, for _pageant_.

[Page Heading: CLIPPED FORMS]

This method of shortening words was very popular in the 17th century, from which period date _cit_(izen), _mob_(ile vulgus), the fickle crowd, and, _pun_(digrion). We often find the fuller _mobile_ used for _mob_.

The origin of _pundigrion_ is uncertain. It may be an illiterate attempt at Ital. _puntiglio_, which, like Fr. _pointe_, was used of a verbal quibble or fine distinction. Most of these clipped forms are easily identified, e.g., _cab_(riolet), _gent_(leman), _hack_(ney), _vet_(erinary surgeon). _Cad_ is for Scot. _caddie_, errand boy, now familiar in connection with golf, and _caddie_ is from Fr. _cadet_, younger. The word had not always the very strong meaning we now a.s.sociate with it. Among _Sketches by Boz_ is one ent.i.tled--

"The last Cab driver and the first Omnibus _Cad_,"

where _cad_ means conductor. On _tick_, for on _ticket_, is found in the 17th century. We may compare the more modern _biz_ and _spec_. _Brig_ is for _brigantine_, Ital. _brigantino_, "a kinde of pinna.s.se or small barke called a _brigantine_" (Florio). The original meaning is pirate ship; cf. _brigand_. _Wag_ has improved in meaning. It is for older _waghalter_. Cotgrave has _baboin_ (_babouin_), "a trifling, busie, or crafty knave; a crackrope, _waghalter_, etc." The older sense survives in the phrase "to play the _wag_," _i.e._ truant. For the "rope" figure we may compare Scot. _hempie_, a minx, and obsolete Ital. _cavestrolo_, a diminutive from Lat. _capistrum_, halter, explained by Florio as "a _wag_, a haltersacke." Modern Ital. _capestro_ is used in the same sense. _Crack-rope_ is shortened to _crack_. Justice Shallow remembered Falstaff breaking Skogan's head--

"When he was a _crack_, not thus high."

(2 _Henry IV._, iii. 2.)

_Chap_ is for _chapman_, once in general use for a merchant and still a common family name. It is cognate with _cheap_, _chaffer_, and Ger.

_kaufen_, to buy, and probably comes from Lat. _caupo_, tavern keeper.

We have the Dutch form in _horse-coper_, and also in the word _coopering_, the illicit sale of spirits by Dutch boats to North Sea fishermen.[50] _Merchant_ was used by the Elizabethans in the same way as our _chap_. Thus the Countess of Auvergne calls Talbot a "riddling _merchant_" (1 _Henry VI._, ii. 3). We may also compare Scot.

_callant_, lad, from the Picard form of Fr. _chaland_, customer--

"He had seen many a braw callant, far less than Guse Gibbie, fight brawly under Montrose."

(_Old Mortality_, Ch. 1.)

and our own expression "a rum _customer_," reduced in America to "a rum _cuss_." _Hock_, for _Hochheimer_, wine from Hochheim, occurs as early as Beaumont and Fletcher; and _rum_, spirit, is for earlier _rumbullion_, of obscure origin. _Gin_ is for _geneva_, a corruption of Fr. _genievre_, Lat. _juniperus_, with the berries of which it is flavoured. The history of _grog_ is more complicated. The stuff called _grogram_, earlier _grograyne_, is from Fr. _gros grain_, coa.r.s.e grain.

Admiral Vernon (18th century) was called by the sailors "Old Grog" from his habit of wearing grogram breeches. When he issued orders that the regular allowance of rum was henceforth to be diluted with water, the sailors promptly baptized the mixture with his nickname.