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Significant Etymology

Roots, Stems, and Branches
of the English Language

THE VERY REV.

JAMES MITCHELL, M.A., D.D.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

M C M V I 1 1

PREFACE.

THIS book is simply what it professes to be, a collection
and explanation of the significant etymologies of the English
language. It is not written for philologists, but for intelli-
gent and thoughtful men and women who are interested
in the study of their own language, and of the sources
from which it is derived. I have called it " Significant "
Etymology, because only those roots are given which throw
light upon the signification of the words derived from them.
To quote a word from German, for example, of the same
sound and of the same meaning as our own, is not signifi-
cant etymology, but insignificant and useless, unless for
comparative philology ; and besides, it is just as likely that
the German word has been taken from the English as the
English from the German. In every case, however, where
the original word helps us to understand the meaning of
an English word better, or shows us how it has come to
bear its present meaning, I have endeavoured to trace the
etymology clearly step by step through the written records
of even past centuries, until its origin has been found in
the fixed form of a parent language.

I do not claim originality for the etymologies I have

VI PREFACE.

given, otherwise they would be of very little value, but I
have traced them with care through all the changes of
letters, sounds, and meanings which they have undergone
down to the present day. The Dictionaries and other books
in many languages to which I have been indebted are far
too numerous to be mentioned here or referred to in the
notes, for there are very few books bearing on the subject
which I have not consulted, and to which I am not more
or less indebted ; while in many cases I have used the very
definitions which their authors have given of the words
in question. In several cases I have seen reason to differ
from other etymologists, but I have done so without any
affectation of timidity ; and in many cases where I have had
to decide between conflicting etymologists, I have always
assigned what seem to me good reasons for my preference.

While I cannot claim credit for the originality of the
assigned etymologies, I do claim credit for the originality
of the method in which the words are arranged — viz., in
groups, according to the different subjects of which they
treat, or from which they are taken. In all the etymologi-
cal books in our language, words are classified and arranged
either according to the languages from which they are
derived, according to the laws under which the changes
have taken place, or according as they have narrowed or
broadened in meaning, or improved or deteriorated in sense ;
but this is the first time, so far as I know, and most
certainly in English, where, without overlooking altogether
these methods of classification, they have been arranged in
an orderly manner, beginning with words connected with
the universe at large ; then the heavenly bodies ; the earth,
its two great domains of land and water; the mineral,

PREFACE. Vll

vegetable, and animal kingdoms ; man, his bodily structure,
including food, clothing, and habitation, his mental powers,
his moral faculties, and his spiritual nature. From tests
applied, it has been found that in grouping words in this
way a special interest is not merely awakened but main-
tained in their study ; and that in thus dealing with a
whole group of words at one time, a naturally dry subject
is invested with a fresh charm and a deeper meaning.

As I have endeavoured to stick to my text throughout,
and have given the etymologies of the words which were
connected with the special subject of each chapter, I have
in the notes at the foot of the different pages given the
most important English words, whatever their subject,
derived from the root words quoted in the text. These
words referring to so many different subjects, being in the
notes, do not interfere with the thread of the chapter, and
wherever necessary their signification is explained, for the
purpose of showing how their meaning came to be derived
from that of the root word.

For many valuable illustrations in the notes I am in-
debted to the readable Dictionary of Mr Milne, while
throughout the whole volume in addition to a multitude
of other authorities, I have been greatly helped by such
recent works as those of Professor Skeat, Murray's great
English Dictionary, now drawing towards a close, and
' "Words and their Ways in English Speech,' by the American
Professors Greenough and Kittredge.

JAMES MITCHELL.

EDINBURGH, 14 ABERCROMBY PLACE,
February 1908.

CONTENTS.

WORDS CONNECTED WITH

CHAP.

I. THE UNIVERSE .....
II. THE HEAVENLY BODIES

III. THE EARTH .....

IV. THE WATER .....
V. THE LAND .....

VI. THE MINERAL KINGDOM

VII. THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM

VIH. THE ANIMAL KINGDOM ....

IX. MAN IN GENERAL ....

X. HIS BODILY STRUCTURE

XI. HIS HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH

XH. HIS CLOTHING .....

XIII. HIS FOOD .....

XIV. HIS DWELLING .....
XV. HIS MENTAL FACULTIES

XVI. HIS SPOKEN LANGUAGE

XVII. HIS WRITTEN LANGUAGE

XVIII. CITY LIFE . . . ...

XIX. WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

XX. NUMBERS .

XXI. DIVISIONS OF TIME ....

XXII. MONEY .

1-2

3-21

22-30

31-48

49-51

52-56

57-69

70-106

107-120

121-132

133-152

153-171

172-191

192-201

202-206

207-230

231-254

255-268

269-274

275-281

282-292

293-311

X CONTENTS.

XXIII. GOVERNMENT, ETC. ..... 312-330

XXIV. THE ARMY ...... 331-340

XXV. AMUSEMENTS ...... 341-352

XXVI. OCCULT SCIENCES ..... 353-357

XXVII. THE DRAMA . . . . . . 358-371

xxvni. MUSIC ....... 372-376

XXIX. HIS MORAL NATURE ..... 377-409

XXX. HIS SPIRITUAL NATURE .... 410-447

INDICES 449-479

CONTEACTIONS.

AS Anglo-Saxon.

Dan Danish.

Dut Dutch.

P French.

Gael Gaelic.

Ger German.

Gr Greek.

Goth Gothic.

Icel Icelandic.

It Italian.

L Latin.

ME Middle English.

OE Old English.

OF Old French.

OH. Ger.... Old High German.

Port Portuguese.

Prov Proven9al.

Sp Spanish.

Sans Sanscrit.

ERRATA.

P. 15, 1. 20, far " tempo " read " temno. "

„ 55, L 29, for "gamem" read "gamein."

,, 65, 1. 12, for " droays" read "drosos."

„ 69, 1. 3, for " is " read " are. "

,, 69, 1. 8, for " vermuth " read " wermuth."

„ 86, 1. 23, for " rhin " read " rhis. "

„ 96, 1. 14, for "Gr." read "Ger."

,, 101, 1. 31, for "pelikan" read "pelekan."

„ 101, 1. 32, for "pelicos" read "pelekus."

,, 123, note, for "invidis " read " invidia. "

„ 139, 1. 22, for "tropho" read "trophe."

,, 141, 1. 33, for " empeirekos " read " empeirikos."

„ 142, 1. 21, for " to dry "read "dry."

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

CHAPTEK I.

THE UNIVERSE.

THIS word, which includes all things both in the heavens and on
the earth, the whole system of created things (lit. turned into one
or combined into one whole), is from the L. universum (composed
of units,1 one, and verto,2 verti, versum, verier e, to turn). The word
nature is frequently used in the same sense both in Latin authors
and by ourselves. The word natura (from nascor* natus, nasci, to

1 From unus (gen. unlus) we
have one, alone (all = quite, and
one), unit, unite, unity, unison, one
single sound, unanimous (animus,
mind), of one mind, unicorn, an
imaginary animal with only one
horn (L. cornu, a horn), unique
(through the F.), unmatched, or the
only one of its kind ; Unitarian,
a believer in one God, but not in the
doctrine of the Trinity ; onion, also
through F. oignon, from L. unio, as
having but one bulb.

2 Verio and its participle supply
many words — such as version, turn-
ing from one language into another ;
to be versed in or highly skilled in
it ; versant with it ; vertebrae, the

joints in the backbone, whereby we
are able to turn.; vertigo, a dizzi-
ness or turning in the head ; and to
animadvert is to turn the mind to,
and generally in an unfavourable
sense, as to criticise ; but to advert
is to turn to ; to avert is to turn
away. We have also convert,
divert, invert, pervert, revert,
subvert.

8 From this verb nascor, through
the F., we derive naive (for na-
tive), meaning artless and natural.
For the F. word naivete there is
great need ; and it is therefore to
be wished that it were disencum-
bered of its diaeresis, its accent, and
its italics. Nascent passions are

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

be born) is used by Cicero for what we call the universe. " Nature
is but a name for an effect whose cause is God." Of this universe
it is but a very small part we know, or with which we have even
a slight acquaintance.

those just beginning to grow. Our
native land is the land of our birth.
Nation also is from the same source.
Our natal day is the day of our
birth, or its anniversary ; and the
country of Natal was so called from
having been discovered by the
Portuguese on the Feast of the

Nativity 1497. The Nativity gener-
ally signifies the birthday of our
Lord. We have also innate, in-
born, and cognate, proceeding from
the same stock ; while a naturalist
is one who studies animals, plants,
or other departments of natural
history.

CHAPTER II.

THE HEAVENLY BODIES.

THE Solar system is that alone of which we know anything.
Men have from the earliest times been familiar with the sun,
moon, and stars. The Sun, which is the source of light and heat
to our system, derives its name from the AS. sunne, an old word
of unknown etymology, but possibly from the Aryan root su, to
give life. The Latin word is Sol. Cicero derives it from L. solus,
alone, as if it dwelt in solitary majesty ; and Milton in ' Paradise
Lost,' IV. 33, seems to have adopted the same derivation, as in
Satan's address to the Sun he says —

" O thou that, with surpassing glory crown'd,
Look'st from thy sole dominion, like the god
Of this new World — at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminish'd heads — to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun ! to tell thee how I hate thy beams."

We have only two words derived from Sol — viz., the word solar,
applied to the system of which our sun is the centre, and also to
the solar plexus in anatomy, a great plexus of sympathetic nerves
supplying the intestines, and the word solstice, which indicates
that point where the sun is farthest from the Equator, and seems
to stand still (L. solstitium — from sol, the sun, and sisto, to make
to stand, from L. sto, stare, to stand).

The Moon plays a far more important part than the Sun in
questions of Etymology and Grammar. It receives the name of

4 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the Moon, lit. the " measurer " of time, from the AS. word mona,
found in all the Teutonic languages, also in L. mensis, Gr. mene,
Sans, mas, and all from the root ma, to measure. It was for our
forefathers the distinctive attribute of this one of the heavenly
bodies that it enabled them to measure time ; and the word which
they used to mark it — its name, in fact — was Moon ; and so among
all nations the revolution of the moon has been employed as a
measure of duration. From her first appearance, or from new
moon to new moon again, is a month — a lunar month, a moonth,
from AS. monath, from mona, the moon. I have just used the
word lunar here, which reminds me that things may have many
attributes, but that all people are not equally impressed by each, so
that with different people the same thing will have different names.
The forefathers of the Latin race seem to have been most impressed
with the brilliancy of this heavenly body, and this brightness
determined the name which they gave, luna or lu(c)na, from lux,
lucis, light. It is the same process in each case — the selection of an
attribute, and then some form of such attribute, to serve as a name
for the thing. Now, consider the case of a word that has so arisen.
The object to which it belongs, if it still remains for the users of the
word to exercise their minds on, may present itself to them in a
different light from that in which it presented itself to the origin-
ators of the word, just as in earlier times it may have struck
different people differently. For us the moon is not specially the
measurer of time; it is rather as the earth's attendant that we
think of it, and so to us the moon suggests a different idea, so much
so that we can use it of a body which stands to another in a relation
like that of the moon to the earth. We can speak of Jupiter's
moons, though in this case the original idea of measurement has no
place. The connection between word and thing is such that it
does not restrict to the latter the application of the former. There
has been an attempt made to derive the word luna from the L.
verb lunare, to bend, and to suggest that it has been so named
from the bent, crescent -shaped appearance of the new moon. The
fact is, however, that the word lunare is derived from the word

THE HEAVENLY BODIES.

luna itself. Virgil, ^Eneid, I. 490, speaks of "pelta lunata," a
light, half-moon-shaped shield. Milton, from its crescent shape,
speaks of the moon as " horned," but the " crescent " is the more
common name, from the Latin cresco, crevi, cretum, crescere,1 to
increase, as it goes on increasing till the full moon, and the
crescent is the symbol of Mohammedanism, as the Cross is of
Christianity. There is a remarkable difference of opinion as to the
gender of the sun and moon. Classic mythology made the moon
feminine. She is Diana, a huntress, with her horn or crescent, the
sister of Apollo, the sun. From this many poetical comparisons,
as well as puerile conceits, have been formed ; and the continual
change in her appearance has been compared to the supposed
fickleness or inconstancy of woman. Though we have retained
the Teutonic name of this luminary, we consider her poetically as a
female ; and we apply to her all the classical allusions, because we
have long laid aside the Northern Mythology and taken as our
pattern the poets of Greece and Eome. In those Gothic languages
which still retain the distinctions of gender, such as Saxon, Danish,
and German, the moon is masculine ; and in the mythology of
Scandinavia he was the husband of Tuesca or the sun, which in
those languages is feminine. In some of them, such as Danish or
Dutch, the word is still spelt " man," so that " the man in the
moon," who amused our childhood, now, long after we have left
the nursery, appears again on the page, and may to some extent
account for the sex which it continues to maintain among the
Teutonic tongues.

In the days when the stars were observed only by the naked
eye, and when no optical instruments had been invented, those
stars which seemed to wander about, while the other stars seemed
fixed, were called planets (F. plan&te, from Gr. planetes, a wanderer,
from plando, to make to wander). More accurate information was

1 From cres&re, to grow, we have
also accretion, adding to. Minerals,
for instance, augment by accretion,
not by growth ; concretion is a mass ;
concrete is opposed to abstract ; de-

crease, to grow less ; increase, to
become, or to make, greater or more ;
increment, the amount of increase,
and excrescence, any unnatural
growth.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

afforded by the invention of the telescope (from the Gr. tele,1 far
off, and skopeo or skeptomai? to look at or view).

The greater the power we give to the telescope, the more stars
we bring into view, so that their number is indeed beyond cal-
culation 3 — " without number, numberless." The stars are more
numerous in some parts of the heavens than in others — most of all,
perhaps, in that luminous band passing across the heavens called
by the ancients the Galaxy, or Milky Way — through F. and L.,
from Gr. galaksias (gala, galdktos, milk), akin to L. lac, lactis,
milk ; and the Latins called it the Via Lactea, its appearance
being somewhat like a stream of milk.

1 Tele, Gr. " at a distance," forms
several compounds : telegraph, tele-
phone, telepathy (Gr. pathos, feel-
ing), thought-reading or mind-read-
ing, and teleology, the doctrine of
the final causes of things.

1 We have from skopeo, scope,
the end which the author of a
book had in view — or room or
space for action or for our talents,
&c. We have kaleidoscope (from
Gr. kalos, beautiful, and eidos, an
appearance), the name given to an
optical toy in which we see an
endless variety of beautiful colours
and forms ; microscope (from mikros,
small), stereoscope (stereos, solid),
stethoscope (stethos, the breast), epi-
scopacy (from epi, over), the over-
seeing of the Church, for the Bishops
(episcopal) are the overseers ; and
from skeptomai, sceptic, sceptical,
scepticism, looking about without
making up one's mind. The word
horoscope signifies an observation
of the heavens, or the time of a
person's birth, by which the astrol-
oger predicted the events of his
life — viz., by the aspect of the stars
at the time of birth. It is gener-
ally taken for granted that the
word comes to us through the F.
and L., from the Gr. horoscopos
(hora, an hour, and scopeo, to ob-
serve) ; but this does not seem to
be the case, as the old F. word heur

(masc.) does not signify an hour as F.
heure (fern.) does, but fortune, chance,
fate, luck ; and the nonchalant
Frenchman persists in talking about
his bonheur and his malheur, which,
of course, most people recognise as
being nothing else than a good hour
or a bad hour. They have also
heureuse, fortunate, and malheureuse,
unfortunate ; but when we look
more closely into these words we
find that they have nothing in
common with the feminine heure,
an hour, but from F. heur from the
L. augurium, augury, which became
in the popular L. agurium, whence
ailr, eiir, and then it came to be
written as it is now, heur, by a false
etymology, as if from hora instead
of augurium. (See p. 16.)

3 How few think when they use
the word calculation that it is de-
rived from the L. word calculus, a
pebble, because pebbles or small
stones were anciently used for
this purpose, the word calculus
being the diminutive of the L.
calx, cakis, lime or chalk, from
which we have calcareous, that
which contains lime, or has the
qualities of lime ; and calcine,
which originally means to have
a substance like lime, or to
burn it as in a kiln, and
now generally to reduce anything
to ashes.

THE HEAVENLY BODIES. 7

It has been found convenient by astronomers to regard the
whole of the visible stars as forming figures, in order that the
situation of any particular star may be readily located and described
by one person to another. These figures are called constellations,
and signify a number of stars taken together — from con, together,
and L. stella, a star. The whole expanse of the sky has thus been
mapped into forms of men, women, beasts, fishes, and other objects,
such as the great bear, Orion, &c.

The twelve consolations are called the twelve signs of the
Zodiac, an imaginary belt in the heavens (about eight degrees on
each side of the ecliptic), so named from Gr. zodion, the diminutive
of Gr. zoon,1 an animal — from Gr. zoo, I live, and zoe, life. The
name of Zodiac was given to this imaginary belt because these twelve
constellations were named for the most part after animals or living
creatures, such as Aries, the ram ; Taurus, the bull ; Gemini, the
twins ; Cancer, the crab, &c., which are represented by different
signs which do not require the word to be written or printed, as
T which stands for Aries, and 5 for Taurus, and so with the
others. The word Zodiacal (lit. the circle of animals) is from the
Gr. word zodiaJcos, of animals, and kuTdos, a circle, and is generally
applied to the luminous tract which is seen above the sun at
sunrise or sunset, mostly in the tropics, and supposed to be
the glow of meteors revolving round it, and called the Zodiacal
light.

Astronomy, which is the law or science of the stars or heavenly

1 From this word zoon we have I the bodies of other animals, and
the word zoology (logos, a discourse), absorbing their food. The word

that branch of natural history which
treats of animals, describes their
structure and habits, and classifies
them. According to recent zool-

zoophyte (from Gr. pliyton, a plant)
is a term now loosely applied to
many plant-like animals, as sponges,
corals, and the like. Nitrogen is

ogists, there are in the animal king- ; called azote (a, priv., and zoe, life),

dom six types or plans of structure,
according to one or other of which
all known animals are formed. The
lowest of these types is that of the
sub-kingdom protozoa, first animals
(from Gr. protos, first, and zoa,
animals) — consisting of a transpar-
ent gelatinous mass with a nucleus
living in water, or in some cases on

without life, because it will not
serve for breathing, or as an aid to
support life without the oxygen it
dilutes ; and thus substances which
contain nitrogen are sometimes
called azotised (nitrogenous) com-
pounds. Entozoa are parasitical
animals living inside of (entos) other
animals.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

"bodies, from the Gr. astron, a star, and nomos,1 a law, was preceded
in its infant stage by Astrology, which was occupied chiefly in
foretelling events from the positions of the heavenly bodies (from
Gr. astron, a star, and logos,2 knowledge). We have already men-
tioned two words for stars, L. stella and Gr. astron, neither of
which gives rise to many English compounds, except those men-
tioned. The word "star" itself is a general Indo-European word.
The English form, ME. sterre, from AS. steorra, is cognate with
Ger. stem and L. stella (short for steruld).

Besides having the native word, we have traces of the belief in
the evil influences which the stars might exercise in the word dis-

1 From the Gr. word nomos, a
law, we have many words, such as
antinomian (anti, against), denying
that the moral law is binding on
Christians, and antinomy, the op-
position of one rule or law to an-
other rule or law, and autonomy
(Gr. autos, self), the power or right
of self-government, and Deuteron-
omy (Gr. deuteros, second), the
second giving of the law by Moses,
the fifth book of the Bible, and
economy (Gr. oikos, a house) meant
originally the management and
arrangement of a household, but
gradually came to mean the frugal
management of a family ; and now
it is used for frugality in general,
so that when we speak of economy
we generally mean thrift, and to
economise is to manage money mat-
ters so as to effect a saving. Gast-
ronomy, not so closely connected
with astronomy, perhaps, as the Ald-
erman supposed, who, having come
somewhat early one evening for one
of the great civic feasts, while wait-
ing in the street outside the Guild-
hall before going in to the great
banquet, was accosted by one of his
friends as he stood beside the lamp-
post with the question, "Are you
studying astronomy?" replied, as
he thought, cuttingly, "No, I am
studying gastronomy." But if his
answer was not closely connected
with astronomy, it was closely con-

nected with himself, for aldermen
are supposed — and with good reason
— to be grand masters of the science
of good eating, which gastronomy
literally means — the art or science
of good eating, from Gr. gaster,
the stomach, and nomos, a law.

2 The names of a great many
sciences end in olpgy. Thus chron-
ology treats of time (chronos) ; en-
tomology, of insects (entomon) ;
etymology, of words (etymos) ; geol-
ogy, of the crust of the earth (ge) ;
ichthyology, of fishes (ichthus) ; met-
eorology, of atmospheric phenom-
ena (meteoros) ; mythology, of an-
cient fabulous stories (mythos) ;
ornithology, of birds (ornis, ornithos);
pathology, of diseases (pathos) ; phil-
ology, of language generally (philos,
fond of) ; physiology, of animals
and plants (phusis) ; psychology, of
the human soul (psyche) ; theology,
of God and divine things (theos) ;
zoology, of animals (zoori). We have
besides these, from logos, logomachy,
a dispute about words (Gr. machd-
mai, I fight), apologue, dialogue,
decalogue, epilogue, prologue, mon-
ologue. We have also apology, a
defence or justification of something
that has been assailed, and cata-
logue, a list set down in order,
enumerating particulars for distinc-
tion. We have at least three end-
ing in alogy — analogy, mineralogy,
and genealogy.

THE HEAVENLY BODIES.

aster (from L. dis, " away from," contrary," and aster, a star), and
so with the phrase " ill starred " (from under the influence of an
unlucky star, and signifying unlucky). The expression "in the
ascendant," too, is self-interpreting, inasmuch as it is a reminder
of the belief that whatever star was appearing above the horizon at
the time of any one's birth, it had a commanding influence over
that person's life. It is not so obvious at first that our common
word " aspect " was used also as an astrological metaphor. Aspect
is from the L. aspectus, aspicio, to look towards ; and the aspect
means the situation of one planet with respect to another, as seen
from the earth. The expression, then, " to view " or " to present "
a thing under a favourable aspect proves this to be so, the figure
becoming a different one when we are said to regard a thing in
different aspects. The " aspect " of the heavens is the way in which
the planets look at each other and at the earth.

Not less striking is the use of words which imply a direct influ-
ence of the heavenly bodies upon the fate of each individual man.
The word influence itself, implies a belief in such superstitions, as
they refer to the influence of the planets upon our fate, the flowing
of their virtue into our lives (L. influere). The old astrologers
believed that there escaped from the stars a certain fluid which
acted on man and things. Boileau employs the word in its primitive
sense, when in his { Art Poe'tique ' he speaks of the sweet influence
secretly exercised by the heavens on the poet at his birth. The
Italian word Influenza makes allusion to a somewhat analogous
belief. Although it is now with us the name of an epidemic catarrh,
it was at first supposed to be caused by the planets. It was at one
time believed that the star under which a man was born affected
his temperament, making him for life of a disposition grave or gay,
lively or severe ; and our language perpetuates the memory of this
belief. At the same time it presents traces of an obsolete system
of physiology which divided the human body into solids, liquids,1

1 Liquid is derived from the L. comes the verb liqueaco, to become

liquidus, from liqueo, liqui or licui, fluid or liquid, to melt, also to

liqutre, to be liquid or fluid — applied grow clear. From liqueo, we have

to the sea and to water generally also liquefy and liquefaction. To

— also to be clear. From it also liquidate debts or demands is to

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

and what might be called aeriform substances. Of liquids, there
were thought to be four, blood, phlegm, bile, and black bile, or
melancholy ; three of these we recognise as matters of fact — but
the fourth, the black bile, was purely imaginary. These four
liquids were known as humours (humor being the Latin word for
liquid), and health was thought to depend on the maintenance
of a just proportion among them. This balance or commixture of
the humours was known as a man's temperament — i.e., his mixture
(from L. tempero, to mix), or as his complexion (from a L.
word meaning combination, derived from complectere — con, to-
gether, and plecto, to weave or twine). Thus, if a man had more
blood than any other humour in his system, he was said to be of
a sanguine temperament or complexion (from L. sanguis,1 blood);
if more bile, then of a bilious temperament or complexion (from L.
bilis, .bile) ; if more phlegm, of a phlegmatic temperament, and if
more melancholy,2 or black bile, of a melancholy temperament

settle or adjust them so as to ascer-
tain and wind up a business. We
speak of the liquidation of the
affairs of a company, and the person
who does this is called a liquidator.
The notion of liquidation is that of
making clear, especially the clearing
or settling of an account, or adjust-
ing the affairs of a bankrupt estate.
A liquor is any liquid drink, but
especially any drink as beer, wine,
&c., containing alcohol. Liqueurs
are preparations containing spirits
with different fruits, spices, &c.
Salts, &c., are said to deliquesce,
or to be deliquescent, when they
absorb moisture from the air and
become liquid. Thus spontaneous
liquefaction in the air is called
deliquescence. Prolix (L. prolixus,
stretching too far, extended, from
pro, forth, and lixus (from L. verb
liquor), to flow) means that which
flows forth beyond bounds. A prolix
statement is one of wearisome length
and needless minuteness. Warbur-
ton speaks of " elaborate and
studied prolixity in proving such
points as nobody calls in question."

He must have been prolix indeed,
who, pleading before a judge for six
hours, and apologising for encroach-
ing on his lordship's time, brought
down upon himself the rebuke —
You have not only encroached on
my time, but you have actually
encroached on eternity !

1 From sanguis, sanguinis, blood,
we have not only sanguine, mean-
ing ardent, warm, hopeful in tem-
perament, but sanguinary, as a
sanguinary battle, one in which
there has been much bloodshed,
and consanguinity, blood-relation-
ship, in contradistinction to affinity,
which is relation by marriage : as
Shakespeare asks, "Am I not con-
sanguineous, am I not of her blood ? "

2 A person is said to be hypo-
chondriacal — i.e., affected by de-
pression of spirits, or melancholy,
because in former days the hypo-
chondria (Gr. hypo, under, and
chondros, cartilage), the viscera that
lie under the cartilage of the
breast-bone, were supposed to be
the seat of the disease. A valetu-
dinarian is not much better. The

THE HEAVENLY BODIES.

(from Gr. melas, melaina, melan, black, and chole, bile). If the
temperament or balance of the humours was greatly disturbed, the
result was distemper, that is, a variance from the proper mixture.

The names frequently given to different temperaments or dis-
positions preserve more than a faint echo of the old belief that the
planets governed our physical and moral constitution ; for we
speak of a man as being of jovial, martial, saturnine, or mercurial
temperament : jovial, as being born under the planet Jove or
Jupiter, which was the most joyful star and happiest augury of
all ; a warlike person was said to be of a martial disposition, — born,
that is, under the planet Mars ; while a gloomy, severe person was
said to be saturnine, — born, that is, under the influence of Saturn,
or when he was in the ascendant, grave and stern as himself ; while
another was called mercurial, or light-headed, as those born under
the planet Mercury were accounted to be. A lunatic is the epithet
applied to a madman, and generally implies that he is violent and
dangerous. The word lunatic is derived from the L. word luna,
the moon, and signifies moon-struck, from the belief then prevalent
that the moon produced insanity. Both the sun and the moon
were supposed to exercise a direct influence on those subjected to
their rays, as seen in the words sun-stroke and moon-struck, and
in the metrical version of Ps. cxxi. 6 :

" The moon by night thee shall not smite,
nor yet the sun by day."

The word mania (from the L. and the Gr. mania, madness) is the
same kind of madness as was formerly denoted by the word lunatic,
when it was supposed to be connected with the moon. A mono-
maniac (Gr. monos, and mania), is one in whom madness exists,

word valetudinarian, which we
might naturally expect to mean one
in rude and robust health, really has
come to signify one in very infirm
and delicate health. It is derived
from the L. valeo, -ui, -ttum, -ere,
to be well or in good health, to be
strong in anything, and from the
present part, valens we have the

word valiant. The L. valetudo just
signified the constitution of the
body, health whether good or bad,
and latterly bad health, while the
L. valetudinarius formed from this
signified exclusively one who was
sickly or ill, and the word valetu-
dinarlum was the L. for a hospital
or an infirmary.

12 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

chiefly in one particular subject, such as kleptomania (Gr. Meptes,
a thief), a morbid impulse to steal, chiefly useless things, and
dipsomania (Gr. dipsa, thirst), a thirst madness. Delirium is
just the Latin word for madness, transferred into our own language.
Literally it means out of the straight line, or out of the furrow in
ploughing, and then out of one's senses. It is composed of the two
Latin words, de, out of, and lira, a furrow. It is now applied to
those who rave in mind and are disordered in intellect. The
special form of it called delirium tremens, or the shaking madness,
receives its name from the tremulous condition of the body or
limbs which accompany the temporary insanity which is generally
caused by habitual drunkenness. The L. tremens is from the verb
tremo, to tremble, quiver, or shake. Melancholy, the imaginary
fourth humour, has kept its name alive in medical science in
melancholia, but the others survive only in popular language, in
which we constantly use the old terms to describe different kinds
of men, or different states of the mind or body. Thus a man
may still be "good-humoured" or in a "bad humour," and we
still speak of his bodily or mental disposition as his temperament.
When we call a man sanguine, we revert, without knowing it, to
the old medical theory that a preponderance of blood in his
temperament made him hopeful. Similarly we call a man melan-
choly, or phlegmatic, though we do not remember that the ideas
we attach to these words go back to obsolete physiology. Com-
plexion has a particularly curious history. Originally, as we have
seen, it was a medical term synonymous with temperament. Since,
however, the preponderance of one or another humour was sup-
posed to manifest itself in the natural colour, texture, and appear-
ance of the skin, especially of the face, complexion soon received
the meaning which we now attach to it. Thus a learned and
strictly technical term, of Latin origin, has been rejected from the
vocabulary of science, and become purely popular. We have also
preserved distemper, specialising it for diseases of dogs and other
animals. Temper, however, which was a synonym of temperament,
has taken a different course. We use it vaguely for "disposition,"
but commonly associate it in some way with irascibility. " Keep

THE HEAVENLY BODIES. 13

your temper," " he lost his temper," " ill-temper," show traces of
the old meaning ; but in the colloquial " what a temper he has " —
i.e., "what a bad temper he has" — the modified adjective idea
remains, though no adjective is used, or " he is in such a temper "
would never be referred to physiological science by one who did not
know the history of the word. But we are not yet done with the
history of the word humour. A diseased condition of any one of
the four humours might manifest itself as an eruption of the skin, —
hence such an eruption is still called a humour in common language.
Again, an excess of one of the humours might make a man odd or
fantastic in his speech and actions. Thus " humours " took the
meaning of eccentric (meaning literally, "deviating from the
centre," or having a different centre, Gr. ek, from, and kentron,
whence L. centrum, centre), so that a humorous man was what
we call in modern slang "a crank." The "Comedy of Errors," of
which Ben Jonson is the best exponent, found material in carica-
turing such eccentric persons. From this source the word humour
has an easy development to that of a keen perception of the " odd "
or "incongruous," and we thus arrive at the regular modern mean-
ing of the word. It is certainly a long way from humour in the
literature sense of " liquid " or " moisture," to humour in the sense
in which that quality is so often associated with it, especially dry
humour, and the etymology of this dry humour is humeo, to be
moist ! Finally, the old physiology, as we have seen, ascribed to the
human system certain volatile or aeriform substances, which were
believed to flow through the arteries and to be, of a primary im-
portance in all the processes of life. These were called spirits (L.
spiritus, breath or air), and they fell into three classes, the natural,
the vital, and the animal spirits. It is in unconscious obedience
to this superannuated science that we use such words and phrases
as high, low, good, or bad spirits — "high or low spirited," a
spirited horse, a spiritless performance, and that we speak of one
who is spontaneously merry as having a "great flow of animal
spirits."

But the supposed influence of the stars on the human body,
and on different temperaments, must not lead us away from the

14 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

important influence which they were in early ages supposed to exer-
cise on human affairs, as is still manifested in many of our words.
Not merely were the stars believed to exercise a great influence
on the character of those who were born when particular stars were
in the ascendant, but they were believed to reveal much regarding
the future, to those who were skilled in interpreting the meaning
of their conjunction.

We have already referred to the words for stars, stella and
aster. But the Eomans had another word for a star — viz.,
sidus, sideris, pi. sidera, — which also appears in our language, at
least in the word "consideration," and those connected with it.
It comes from the L. verb considero, having the same mean-
ing, composed of the two words, con, with, and sidera, the
stars. Now, what is the connection between the stars and con-
sideration in its proper meaning of careful, thoughtful, and
minute observation and reflection ? This : that in the remote past,
the Eomans and others, before making up their minds on any im-
portant subject, or before undertaking any important enterprise,
used to consult the stars. And in those days the man who said
that he wanted to consider, really meant that he wanted to look at
the stars, and by examination of their position ascertain whether
they were propitious to his undertaking or not. By-and-by, with
the progress of civilisation, such superstitious belief in the in-
fluence of the stars died out, but the word remained ; and when
now we say, and we say it every moment, " Let me consider," or
" I must consider this matter," we are no more aware of our men-
tioning anything in connection with the stars than I am aware
that the ground on which I rest my feet while writing flies
through space at the rate of thousands of miles an hour. We
could scarcely find a better illustration of the meaning of the
word, both in its past and present sense, than in Psalm viii. 3,
" When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained," &c. So also
in Psalm xli. 1, " Blessed is he that considereth the poor,"
and in Heb. iii. 1, "Consider the Apostle and High Priest of
our profession," where the idea is not that of a hasty glance

THE HEAVENLY BODIES.

but of a careful study. Most people, however, instead of con-
sidering, conjecture, or form an opinion without full evidence
or proof. The L. word conjedura (from conjicio, jeci, jectum, to
throw together) is from con, together, and the root iac (as we see
in the simple iacio or jacio 1), to throw. Conjecture, then, brings
us back to the root iac, and means properly the action of " throw-
ing together." At one time superstitious people, before trying to
guess at something, used to throw together little stones, dice, or
other things of the kind, and according to the way these objects
fell they formed their opinions. A superstition this, not so very
ancient after all, for we still find people frequently tossing up a
shilling or a penny in order to have a basis for their opinion.

At the opposite extreme from conjecture is the word contem-
plate, which is in meaning very much akin to consider, and
connected with the same observation of the heavens. The L.
verb contemplor, from which it is derived, signifies to fix upon a
spot for observation, — hence to observe, gaze upon, and with the
mind, meditate (meditari, or contemplate). The L. verb contemplor
is composed of con, with, and L. templum^ (from Gr. temo, and
tempo, to cut off), properly a piece or portion cut off: hence a
space in the heavens, or on the earth, marked out by an augur
with his staff within which to observe the position of the stars,
the flight of birds, &c., his post of observation.

(anguis) was a name given to a ser-
pent which was said to throw itself
down from the trees upon its prey.
In connection with jaculum we have
the word jaculari, which means to
throw, to dart off ; jaculatorius cam-
pus was the field where the youths
practised with arrows and spears.
From this word jaculari, with the
prefix e (out), we have the word
ejaculate, which means properly to
throw anything out of our breast,
— as a short prayer which we speed
as an arrow towards heaven.

2 From this we have our word
temple — signifying a place cut off,
set apart and separated from other
places for meditation and contem-
plation, chiefly for religious purposes.

1 From jacio, to throw or cast, we
have many English words. Water
jets out, the stream is a jet, a jetty
is a kind of pier ; jut is another
form of jet, part of a building, or
a cape juts out; abject, cast off;
adjective, a word thrown to a noun
to modify its meaning ; dejection,
ejection, injection, interjection, ob-
jection, project, projection, rejec-
tion, subject, subjection. Thus,
however different in sound and
meaning, these all are to be re-
ferred to the root iac. This same
root we meet with in other words
which have an echo in English.
Thus we have jaculum or iaculum,
which means something to be
thrown, an arrow, a dart. Jaculus

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

The Augurs, of whom we have been speaking in connection with
the position of the stars, were priests of Borne who foretold future
events, and interpreted the will of the gods, from the flight and
singing and feeding of birds, and from the conjunction of the
planets, from the nature of dreams, &c. They are said to have
derived the name of Augur from L. avis, a bird, and the root gar,
in L. gamre, to chatter (whence garrulous and garrulity), Sans, gir,
speech. We still use the word in such expressions as, " it augurs
well," or it is of " favourable augury " ; and as the Augurs were
consulted before entering on any undertaking, we have still such
expressions as the " inauguration of a building " for the opening
of it, the making of a public exhibition of it for the first time,
the formal commencement. There was a word very similar in
origin and meaning — viz., auspex, ids (for avispex), one who fore-
tells future events by the flight of birds (from avis, a bird, and
o,1 to look at). The Augur and the Auspex originally differed

1 There are few Latin words
which have given us more English
words than this. We have species,
an appearance of a particular kind,
a class or order causing the same
sensations to our sight ; to specify ;
a specimen, that which is seen as a
sample ; a spectacle is a show seen
by the spectators, and a pair of
spectacles are used to enable people
to see more clearly. A spectre means
an apparition visible to sight. To
speculate is to take a view of any-
thing with the mind, whence we
have speculators, who are generally
supposed to take a view according
to fancy, instead of being guided
by actual realities. The aspect of
anything is the view given to us
of it, and the word is applied to
the countenance as exhibiting the
feelings of the mind. Conspicuous
is what is clear and easy to be seen
— the prefix con implying that all
can see it together. On the other
hand, despicable and despise, signi-
fying what is looked down upon,
imply contempt and worthlessness.

Especially denotes what is most
prominent and manifest to sight.
Inspect means to look into, and an
inspector is one who makes an in-
spection. Circumspect means look-
ing round on all sides, from L.
circum, around, on every side. Per-
spicuous — seeing through, meta-
phorically applied to what is clear
and easy to be seen through. A pro-
spect is that which is seen spread
out before us. Respectable is that
which is worth looking back upon.
A prospectus is supposed to supply
a clear view of the subject of which
it treats. A retrospect (from L.
retro, backwards) is a review of our
past life or anything that has gone
before any particular event. To
suspect is to mistrust, or to look at
secretly, from sub, beneath. Sus-
picious persons have a tendency
to believe something unfavourable
without adequate reason or proof.
Respite comes from the same root,
through the F., and signifies delay,
on the ground of the necessity of
looking again into the matter.

THE HEAVENLY BODIES. 17

in their range. The Augur had the more limited range, being con-
fined to birds and to the Colleges of the Augurs ; but the Auspex
in his range extended to the whole of nature, to lightning and
other phenomena, and on public occasions was invited by the
highest magistrates, and privately by many persons — and we thus
speak of entertainments being held, or exhibitions being given,
under the auspices of certain persons whose patronage would be
beneficial. We also speak of an auspicious occasion, the word
auspicious having gradually come to have exclusively a favourable
meaning. The word omen had on the whole much the same
signification, but is now more frequently used in an unfavour-
able sense. It is a Latin word, and is regarded by some as a
contraction for obmen (from Gr. opto, to see) ; by others as a
contraction of osmen, that which is entered by the mouth (from
os, oris, the mouth) ; while others think it was originally atismen,
11 that which is heard," from audire, to hear. The truth is, any-
thing we see, or say, or hear, may be regarded as an omen, from
which we may prophesy either good or bad. Gradually, however,
it came to signify what was bad, and the word ominous now never
signifies what is indicative of good, but only what is predictive of
evil. If the omen was seen on the left side, it was regarded as
unfavourable, hence sinister (lit. the left side) means unfavour-
able. In Elizabethan English an omen from being a sign that
foreshadows calamity is sometimes transferred to the calamity that
is foreshadowed by the sign, as in Shakespeare's " prologue to the
omen coming on." In this word omen, too, we- have the basis of
the word abominable. The customary spelling of this word in
old writers is abhominable, on the supposition that the true
etymology was ab + homine — i.e., "apart from man," "repugnant
to humanity," and meant " unbecoming a man," " inhuman." This
was favoured by Augustine in one of his sermons. Hence also
the independent formation abhominal used by Fuller and others,
and in old English books it is often used in a sense corresponding
to its supposed origin, nor has it as yet fully recovered its proper
meaning. It is one of the many instances where words have
been corrupted in orthography, and finally changed in meaning,

18 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

in consequence of the adoption of a mistaken etymology. Better
scholarship has now restored it to its true orthography, and more
nearly to its proper signification. It is evidently regularly formed
from the Latin word abominor, itself derived from ab and omen.
Abominable accordingly involves the idea of that which in a
religious sense is profane and detestable, or, in a word, of evil
omen ; and Milton never uses it, or the conjugate noun abomina-
tions, except with reference to devilish, profane, or idolatrous
ohjects.

We have said that the Auspices were taken from thunder and
lightning as well as from other portents in the heavens, and yet
how few people of the many who express their surprise by saying
they are astonished, or astounded, have any idea that the word
means thunderstruck, or struck hy lightning, which the L. word
attonitus, from which these are derived, literally signifies, — tonitru
being the L. word for thunder. From the same root also comes
the word stun, as when we say he was stunned by the fall.
To astonish was literally to " thunderstrike," and was once common
in the physical sense of stun, as when Fluellen "astonished"
Pistol by hitting him on the head with a cudgel. It was also
used metaphorically for the extreme of terror or wonder, in
paralysis of the faculties for the moment. A man who was
astounded was in a kind of trance. But the word has gradually
lost its force, and nowadays it is hardly more than an emphatic
synonym for " to surprise " or " to excite wonder." The wonders
excited by lightning then, however, were as nothing compared
with the wonders excited by lightning now, when under the
modern name of electricity it has become the great heating,
lighting, communicating, and moving power of the world, for the
electric flash which precedes the thunder is really the same
substance as that by which we flash our messages, drive our
cars, and light our hoiises and our streets. It was called elec-
tricity from the Greek word electron, amber, because it was in
amber that the property of attracting and repelling light bodies
was first observed.

Portents, lit. stretching towards, from L. portendo, to stretch

THE HEAVENLY BODIES.

forth (pro, forth, and tendo,1 to stretch), are signs indicating the
future — which betoken or presage. They differ from omens, how-
ever, in coming of their own accord, unlocked for, having never
been classified into a science. Comets, for instance, were formerly
unexpected visitors. They are heavenly bodies with eccentric
orbits and luminous tails. These tails gave them their Greek
name, Jcometes, long-haired, from Gr. home, the hair. They were
then termed prodigies, that is, things thrust forward beyond the
common order of nature — from prodigo (pro, forward, and ago,2

1 From tendo, tetendi, tensum, ten-
der e, to stretch, we have to tend,
to move or incline to move in a
certain direction. We tender, put
out, that is formally offer in pay-
ment or satisfaction the amount of
a debt or demand. A tender (for an
attender) also means a small vessel
attending a large one, carrying
stores. A tendon is the sinew or
hard end of the muscle which binds
it to the bone. We speak of the
tension or strain of a cord and of
the tension or elastic force of the
air. A tent is a portable lodge
covered with canvas, and stretched
and sustained by poles. To attend
is to wait or follow upon another,
so as to render him service. To
tend a child is to take charge of it,
to wait upon it. The sick require
attendance, and a great man's
attendants wait upon him. We
attend, or give our attention, to a
subject when we direct our minds
specially to it. We are also said
to pay our attentions to a person.
We look or listen attentively. To
contend is to strive, but in con-
tention there is some contravening
force, while in striving the upper-
most idea is effort. Some men
have contentious tempers. To
distend is to expand or stretch
out hollow bodies, and we speak
not only of distension but of ex-
tend and extension. A body is
extensible in length as well as in
bulk. The degree of its extension

is called its extent. We have also
extensive, and intend, intention,
and intent. There is also an
intendant, or one who has the
charge or oversight of some public
business. Intense means strained
to an extreme, and so with in-
tenseness, intensity, and intensify.
Ostensible, and ostentatious, and
ostentation (from ostendo). To
pretend is to put forward what
is false, and a pretence is what
is so put forward. We may make
pretensions which are not well
founded, and in this sense a man
may be said to be pretentious. To
subtend is to extend under, or be
opposite to. To superintend is to
have the care or oversight of. We
have superintendents of the police
or of public works, and we speak
of a superintending Providence.

2 From ago we have active,
agents, agile, counteract, enact,
exact, prodigal, transact, — and
from the frequentative of this
verb, agito, we have agitate,
cogitate (to think deeply), co, to-
gether, and agito, to put a thing
in motion. React is that which
acts back again. Actuary, from
the same word, but through low
L. actuarius (one who writes
deeds, from L. actus, done), now
one who specially deals with the
calculation of probabilities. The
name is often applied to the manager
of a savings bank, or to the manag-
ing director of an insurance office.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

egi, actum, agere, to do or drive). All prodigies were then evil
portents, and especially those which expressed more directly the
wrath of the gods. To presage, as the word implies, is very
different Prcesagio (L.) is to foresee by sagacity (L. prce, before,
and sagio, to perceive quickly), or from a knowledge of the laws
of nature. Presages are such circumstances as a sage, or wise
man, knows from experience to be the usual forerunners of cer-
tain events. Prognostics are presented signs, by which a coming
event may be rationally foretold or prognosticated, such as the
symptoms by which an experienced physician judges of the re-
covery or the approaching death of his patient. The judgment
formed from these symptoms is, in medical language, the prog-
nosis of the disease (Gr. prognosis — pro, before, and gnosis,1 know-
ledge, from gignosco, to know).

The only other heavenly bodies of which we require to say
anything are included among the portents, and are called meteors
or shooting stars. They are minute bodies, which fall with pro-
digious velocity from space into our atmosphere, and, after becom-
ing incandescent 2 through the friction of the air, descend either
as dust or sometimes as meteoric stones. The word meteor is
Gr., and signifies literally that which is suspended in the air,
ineteoron (from meta, beyond, and eora, anything suspended — from
aeiro, to lift). Some of these meteors are called igneous, or fiery,
such as falling stars, which ignite — that is, take fire (from L. ignis,

1 We have from this Greek
word gnosis — gnostics (the philoso-
phical dreamers of first century,
and diagnosis (from dia, thor-
ough), the thorough knowledge
of what the disease is ; physiog-
nomy, the discernment of man's
natural disposition ; as well as
gnomes, those imaginary beings
residing in the interior of the
earth, who were supposed to be
able to reveal secret treasures. A
gnome means also a misshapen
dwarf. A gnomon is the style or
pin of a dial, which by its shadow
shows the hour of the day. It also

means an astronomical pillar to
show by its shadow the height of
the sun, &c., and also a figure in
geometry, like a carpenter's square.
2 From candeo, to shine, to be
white, to inflame, we have candid,
meaning clear and open, and can-
dour, which can bear the light and
itself shines brightly, — both words
being used in a metaphorical sense.
Hence also candles, that give light,
and a chandler, who makes or sells
them. We have also the word can-
didate, as we shall see later on, be-
cause candidates among the ancient
Romans wore a white toga.

THE HEAVENLY BODIES.

a fire) — when they fall into our atmosphere. And so we keep up
the Latin word in English when we call by the name of the ignis
fatuus (ignis, fire, and fatuus, foolish) the luminous meteor that
flits about in the air a little above the surface of the earth, chiefly
in marshy places or near stagnant waters, familiarly called Will-o'-
the-Wisp and Jack-o'-Lantern, — applied also to anything fanciful,
unreal, or unattainable.

CHAPTEE III.

THE EARTH.

WE have spoken of what takes place when meteors encounter the
atmosphere of the earth, and we may at this stage make the
transit from the other stars to earth itself, passing slowly through
the intervening space, being led from meteor to meteorology, to
which it has given its name. No doubt meteorology at first in-
cluded meteors, but in more recent times it has come to signify
the science which treats of the atmosphere and its phenomena.
The atmosphere is the air that surrounds the globe (from Gr.
atmos, air, and spJiaira, a sphere, ball, or globe), and is the name
given to the gaseous envelope which surrounds the earth, and
which by the action of gravity presses heavily on its surface.
This pressure is one of its most important properties, especially in
its influence on the human frame. This atmosphere is believed
from experiments which have been made to extend to about a
hundred miles around our earth, although at that distance it may
have a density of only a millionth part of that which prevails at
the earth's surface. It is this height of atmosphere that gives the
sky the blue colour which it presents in the clear sunshine. The
empyrean is a name which is occasionally given to the sky, but
it is applied by poets chiefly to the highest heavens, where the
ancients imagined the pure element of fire subsisted. The word
is formed from the Gr. empyros, in fire (em, en, in, and pyr,1 fire),

1 From this Gr. word pyr, fire, we
have pyrometer, an instrument for
measuring the temperature of bodies
under fierce heat ; pyre, a pile of
wood to be set on fire at a funeral ;
pyrotechnics, the art of making fire-

works (from Gr. technikos, artistic,
from Gr. tecfine, art) ; also anti-
pyrine, which, as its name indi-
cates, is a medicine which was
first employed as an anti - febrile
agent.

THE EARTH.

which last word is also the origin of " fire " itself. The sky is now
generally understood by the welkin — but originally it signified the
cloudy sky. It was called in AS. the wolcen, clouds, — closely
resembling the Ger. wolke, a cloud. In ME. it is spelt icelkene in
* Piers Ploughman.' As meteorology has now so much to do with
weather, clouds play a very important part, and as in our island
the weather is very variable, our forefathers were not indebted to
any other quarter for the words weather and clouds. But the L.
has supplied nebula, from the Gr. nephele, signifying little clouds,
from which we have nebular, describing not only diffused gas-
eous matter, but the faint misty appearance in the heavens
produced by a group of stars too distant to be seen singly.
We speak of the nebular hypothesis, and we have in common
use the word nebulous for misty, hazy, vague. Meteorology
concerns itself with heat and cold, and with the dryness or
moisture of the atmosphere. Heat is received and conveyed
by one body to another, and by some more readily than others,
and so we speak of good and bad conductors of heat. A con-
ductor is the person or thing which conveys or conducts, from
L. con, together, and duco,1 to lead. Heat conveyed by one solid
body to another is said to be conducted, but if conveyed through
liquids such as water, it is said to be diffused, from the L. verb
fundo, fudi, fusum, fundere,2 to pour, to melt. Heated bodies in
the atmosphere are said to give off the heat by radiation (from L.
radio, iare, to send out rays from, L. radius, a spoke). As sub-
stances having a black rough surface radiate heat, so smooth and
polished surfaces are said to reflect it, that is, throw it back (from

1 Duco, duxi, ductum, duc8re — to
lead, is a very prominent word in
our language. We have a duct
along which anything is conveyed.
Gold is ductile, easily drawn out in
lines or threads ; a duke, a leader ;
abduct, aqueduct, conduct, deduct,
induct, educate, educe, intro-
duce, produce, production, reduce,
seduce, subdue, traduce, viaduct.

2 We have from fundo, to pour or
melt, to found, to form by pouring
liquid metal into a mould, we have
type-founders, cannon-founders. To

fuse is to melt by heat. We have
confound and confuse, diffusion,
effusion, infusion, profusion, refund,
refuse, suffuse, transfuse, to pour
a healthy man's blood into another
man's veins. We have also futile
(L. futilis) from the ancient past
participle of fundo — viz., futus.
It signifies originally what easily
runs out, as a vessel from which the
water runs out ; then applied to a
man who speaks at random, whose
talk is worthless ; and then in gen-
eral means, of no effect or use.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

L. re, back, and flecto,1 to turn), and this is called both as regards
heat and light the angle of reflection, as the angle at which it falls
on any surface is called the angle of incidence, from L. incido, to
fall upon (from in, and cado).2 When the heat of a body is much
less than our own natural heat, and therefore not perceptible to our
senses, it is called latent heat, that is concealed heat, from L.
latens, pres. part, of lateo, to be concealed, or to be hidden. In such
circumstances it can be made manifest by various means. It may
be produced by friction, i.e., by the forcible rubbing of one body
against another — from L. frictus, a rubbing, from frico, fricui,
fricatitm or frictum, fricare, to rub. It may be produced by
percussion, that is, striking one body forcibly against another —
from L. percussio, a beating, from L. percutio, cussi, cussum, cutere,
to strike (from per, through, and quatio? quassi, quassum, quatere,
to shake violently). It may also be produced by compression —
from L. compressio, from L. comprimo, compressi, compressum,
comprimere, to press closely together (con, and premd).* It may
also be produced chemically, that is, by the peculiar action of
certain bodies upon one another, as water on burnt lime, or as half-
dried hay or grass, when put together in stacks, frequently becomes
so hot as to take fire. This is called spontaneous combustion,

1 From flecto, flexi,flectiim,flecf$re,
to bend, we derive flexible, what is
capable of being bent ; inflexible,
deflect, inflection, reflect, reflex,
circumflex, the mark over a letter
or syllable is so called as " bending
round in form " ; genuflexion is a
bending of the knee (L. genu, the
knee).

2 Cado, cecidi, casum, cadSre, to
fall, gives us cascade, casual,
accident, accidence (in grammar),
coincide, decay, deciduous, incid-
ence, incident, an occasion.

3 We have from these verbs, to
quash, to crush summarily, to put
an end to, concussion, discussion,
percussion, also rescue, probably as
men are rescued from impending
danger or immediate evils, as from
robbers and drowning, that is, they
are delivered by active exertions

(OF. rescourre, from L. re-excutere ;
excutere, to take away by force —
ex, out, and quatZre, to shake or
dust, to set free from danger or
restraint).

4 From premo, we have the press,
in the sense of the printing press.
We speak of the pressure of weights.
We have the print of a foot in the
sand. We may be depressed, which
cannot be expressed, but we make
an impression. We may suffer op-
pression, but we repress our feelings,
or suppress them altogether. We
can compress, as of matter in a
book, and we say that elastic bodies
are compressible. Sometimes our
emotions are irrepressible. A re-
primand is a severe reproof. To
sprain (F. tpreindre, L. exprimere)
is to overstrain or twist the muscles
or ligaments of a joint.

THE EARTH.

spontaneous, from spons, spontis, free will, and comburo, to consume
by burning (L. con, and uro, to burn). One effect of heat is said to
be the repulsion of the particles of bodies, that is, a pushing away
from one another — from L. repello, to drive back, to repel or
repulse, from pello, pepuli, pulsum, pellere,1 to drive. Hence a
greater degree of heat than bodies receive in their ordinary state
expands them (from expando, pansi, pansum, pandere, from ex, out,
and pando,2 to spread) ; while a less degree of heat contracts them
(from L. con, together, and traho,5 traxi, tractum, trahere, to draw).
The rays of heat, like those of light, can be concentrated, as all
know who have used a lens of glass, concentration being the
bringing to a common centre, from L. con, with, and centrum, the
centre ; while a focus is the point where the rays meet and cause
great heat (from the L. focus, a hearth) ; and a lens is so called
from its likeness to a lentil seed, from the L. lens, lentis, a lentil.

With reference to cold, as indicated by frost and snow, sleet and
ice, these words are all root words themselves, and cannot be traced
farther back, with the exception perhaps of avalanche, the name
given to a mass of snow and ice sliding down from a mountain
and destroying trees and herds and cottages — from F. avaler, to
slip down, from L. ad, to, and vallis, a valley. The degree of
heat in the atmosphere is called temperature, from tempero, to
regulate; and to ascertain this correctly, a thermometer is em-
ployed (Gr. thermos, heat, and Gr. metron, a measure). When it
falls to "0" it is said to be at zero, the F. and L. word for
nothing; or a cipher, from Arab zifr. This word has risen in

1 From pello, pidsum, and its
frequentative, pulsare, to beat, we
have the word pulse, as when
we speak of the beating of one's
pulse, compel and compulsion,
dispel, expel and expulsion, impel
and impulse, propel, repel and
repulsion.

2 From pando, to spread, we have
expand, expansion, expansive, ex-
pansibility, and expanse, signifying
a wide extent of space or body.
Spawn, too, the eggs of fish or
frogs, is probably from the OF.

espandre, to shed or scatter about.
3 From this verb and its deriv-
ative tractare, to handle, we have
a trace, and we may be tractable.
We may read a treatise in a train.
We may be attracted by abstrac-
tions. We may contract, or we
may be distracted, especially by
the extraction of our teeth. We
may protract a speech, and yet
retract nothing that we have said.
In arithmetic we have the rule of
subtraction, and the number to be
subtracted is called the subtrahend.

26 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

estimation. Originally sifr, an Arabic translation of the Sanscrit
name sunya, empty or void, it came, both in Indian and Arabian
arithmetic, to be the symbol of " nought " or nothing (0) \ but
gradually it came to be the name given to all the Arabian numerals,
so that to " cipher " came to signify to use the Arabic numerals in
the processes of arithmetic, or to work the elementary rules of
arithmetic. It is now also frequently used figuratively, mean-
ing a person of no importance or value, a nonentity, a mere
nothing. This, I suppose, was what a woman who was cursed
with a drunken nonentity of a husband meant when she de-
scribed him as a perfect siphon. It was the truth she spoke
(although not the truth she meant), for siphons are chiefly used
for drawing liquids off casks, etc. To measure the weight of
the atmosphere we employ a barometer (from Gr. baros, weight) ;
an aneroid barometer is the air barometer, consisting of a small
metallic box, nearly exhausted of air and easily acted upon by the ex-
ternal pressure of the atmosphere (from Gr. a, without, neros, wet,
moist, and eidos, form) ; and to measure the degree of moisture in the
atmosphere the instrument employed is called a hygrometer (from
Gr. hygros, wet) ; while an anemometer (from Gr. anemos, the wind)
is an instrument for measuring the force and velocity of the wind.
Wind is the air in a state of motion, and beyond the land and
sea breezes (F. brise, a cool wind ; It. brezza) there are the Trade
Winds, which blow for months at a time from east to west, so
that mariners can take advantage of them in their voyages and
render them of great service to trade. The word trade probably
comes from the F. traite, signifying transport of goods, from
L. tracto, frequentative of traho, to draw (see p. 25). Monsoons
are periodical winds of the Indian Ocean, blowing in the same
direction for half the year. The word comes, through F. or It.,
from Malay, musim (from the Arab mawsim, a time, or season).
The Harmattan (an Arabic word) is a hot, dry, noxious wind
which blows periodically from the interior of Africa ; and the
Sirocco is a hot, moist, and relaxing wind from the south-east, in
S. Italy and adjacent parts (It. sirocco, Sp. siroco, Arab schoruq,
from scharq, the east). There are also hurricanes (from an

THE EARTH.

American-Indian word), probably imitative of the rushing of the
wind; and tornadoes, violent hurricanes in tropical countries,
signifying a hissing or whirling (like our whirlwind) — Sp. from
tornar, and that from the low L. tornare. In connection with
the atmosphere we have still to mention climate, which includes
heat, moisture, elevation, prevalent winds, &c., especially as these
affect health. The word comes through F. from the L. clima, -atis,
from the Gr. klima, klimatos, a slope, and all these from Gr. Tdimo,
to make to slope, or to incline. Clime is poetical for climate.

Leaving the atmosphere and coming fairly down to earth, let
us notice the circle bounding the view where earth and sky
appear to meet, which is called the horizon, both in F. and
L. — from the Gr. horizon, bounding ; from Gr. horizo,1 to bound,
to limit ; from Gr. horos, a limit or boundary.

We are now to speak of the planet with which we have most
concern — viz., the Earth, or the world which we inhabit.

The word world is sometimes applied to the universe, then we
speak of "the whole world"; but most frequently, and most
correctly, it is confined to our world. This perhaps has suggested
the etymology which has found favour with some — viz., that
which derives it from the past participle of the verb to whirl, and
holds that whirled expresses both its roundness and its movement
on its own axis. But the wh in whirl (as in the corresponding
Gothic words) is radical, and would not have been represented in
AS. by w, as in woruld, weoruld, world. Besides this, the
word world is older than the knowledge among. the Gothic tribes
of the spherical form, or of the rotation, of the earth. A still
more conclusive argument against this etymology is the fact that
the AS. woruld, the IceL verold, did not mean the earth, the
physical, but the moral, the human world, the L. sceculum. The
most probable etymology of world seems to be wer, a man (cognate

1 From this we have the word
horizontal, on a level, on a line with
the horizon, the opposite of perpen-
dicular, from the L. perpendiculum,
a plumb line, from perpendo (per,
through, and pendo, to weigh) ; so

vertical (L. vertex, verticis, the head,
that around which anything turns
or is turned — from verto) ; hence
the pole on which the heavens
are supposed to revolve, and thus
perpendicular to the horizon.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

with L. vir, a man), and uld, signifying age or time ; lit. " a
generation of men," and so its first use in English is in the sense
of "an age of men," or a generation.

The equator is a line drawn on a terrestrial globe, at equal
distances from the two poles, and dividing it into two equal parts
— from L. cequatis, from cequus,1 equal. A zone, fro. Gr. zone,
es, a belt or girdle (zonnumi, to gird). "An embroidered zone
surrounding her waist " — Dryden. The five zones are five great
divisions of the earth, one torrid, two temperate, and two frigid
(L. frigidus, fwmfrigus, oris,2 cold), are bounded by lines parallel to
the equator. The torrid zone — from L. torreo,3 to roast, parch —

1 From ceqmis, a, um, even, equal,
fair, we have many words. We
speak of an equable rate of move-
ment, of equability, or uniformity
of operation, or of temper. We
speak of social equality. We equal-
ise burdens, taxes, &c. Equal and
even are applied to what is smooth
or level. An equation is a mathe-
matical statement of an equality,
and equanimity (L. animus) means
an unruffled temper. An equi-
angular triangle means that which
has all its angles equal ; an equi-
lateral (L. latus, fateris, a side)
triangle has all its sides equal.
Equilibrium (from libra, a balance)
means equality of balancing weight;
two weights are in equilibrium when
they balance each other. Equipoise
and equiponderance mean equality
of weight, and also the equipoise
and tranquillity of the common-
wealth. The spring or vernal equi-
nox (L. nox, iioctis, night) is about
the 21st March, the autumnal about
the 23rd September. Equitable
means just, impartial, according to
equity, having the idea of supple-
menting the imperfections of the
law. Equivalent means of equal
worth ; we give a man an equivalent
for something that we owe him.
To use a word in an equivocal sense
is to use it in a way which may

admit of two meanings. Adequate
means literally made equal to; it
then comes to signify what is fully
sufficient for some practical or moral
purpose. We speak of the adequacy
of the supplies to the expenditure.
We say the means were quite in-
adequate for the end proposed. We
speak of unequal numbers, but of
their inequality. Iniquity (lit. in-
equity) denotes a gross violation of
the right of others, and we speak
of an iniquitous war.

2 From frigus we have, besides
frigid, frigidity, as when we
speak of the frigidity of a man's
manner or style. A hawk ruffling
its feathers from feeling chilly
was said to frill (OF. frilkr,
to shiver for cold), hence frill has
come to mean a ruffle or plaited
band of a garment. A refrigerant
is a medicine which cools, abates,
or allays heat. Certain salves are
lenitive and refrigerant. To re-
frigerate is to make cool. We speak
of a refrigerative treatment. A
refrigerator is an apparatus for
cooling liquids or for condensing
hot vapours into liquids.

3 From torreo, torrui, tostum, tor-
rere, to roast or parch, we have toast,
scorched bread. A torrent is a
raging (boiling) stream, as a torrent
of water or of molten lava.

THE EARTH.

means the zone parched with heat, and is between the two tropics,
the broad belt of earth over which the sun is vertical during some
part of the year. The tropics themselves are two circles, one on
each side of the equator, 23° 28', where the sun seems for a day
or two to stand still (solstice) and then to turn, as it were, after
reaching its greatest declination north or south — from Gr. trepo, I
turn, and tropes,1 a turning.

The surface of the earth is divided into Water and Land.
The word Geography (from Gr. ge, the earth, and graphe, a de-
scription) includes both of these ; but Topography is not so wide
in its range as geography (Gr. topos,z a place, and grapho, I
describe), meaning rather the description of a particular place,

1 From tropos, turning, we have a
trope, a word or expression turned
from its literal or original sense.
Metaphors are tropes. Thus Horace
is using a trope when he calls the
State a ship. The foundation of all
parables is some analogy or simili-
tude between the tropical or allusive
part of the parable and the thing
intended by it. A trophy was a
pile of the arms of the vanquished
which the victors raised on the
battlefield as a monument of the
enemy's turning. We have the
word tropic in combination, in
such words as allotropic (from
allos, another, and tropos, a conver-
sion or change). Allotropy is the
term employed to denote the fact
that the same body may exist in
more than one molecular condition
and with different physical char-
acteristics, as when we speak of the
allotropic condition of oxygen.

2 From topos, a place, we have
the topics of Aristotle and the loci
(from locus, which also signifies a
place) of Cicero, or communes loci,
commonplaces, as we say, not as
being of little value, but of frequent
occurrence, commonplace truths or
questions which the orator was
directed to consider or to ask in

order to procure materials for his
speech — such as who, what, where,
by what means, why, how, when?
And so a topic is also the subject
of some discourse or composition,
the matter treated of. Medical
men speak of a topical remedy, or
of a remedy topically applied— that
is, of a remedy applied to a partic-
ular part of the body. Then we
have the word Utopia, literally, a
place situated nowhere (Gr. ou, not,
and topos, a place), the name given
by Sir Thomas More to his oook
published in 1516. It was written
in L., and not rendered into Eng-
lish till a generation later. The
tale of Utopia is put into the mouth
of a seaman, ana is prefaced with
an account of the circumstances in
which More is supposed to have
heard it. Utopia was an imaginary
island, and the utmost perfection of
laws and of social arrangements
was enjoyed ; and he contrasted
this ideal or model of Utopian per-
fection with the defects of the
States of his own time. We now
speak of a scheme as Utopian,
which proposes to bring about a
state of ideal perfection which, in
man's imperfect state, would be
found impracticable.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

as a city, a town, a tract of country, including notices of every-
thing connected with the locality.1

The Antipodes — L. from the Gr. anti, opposite to, and pous,
podos, a foot, meaning feet opposite — those living on the other
side of the globe, and whose feet are thus opposite to ours.

1 From locus, a place, we have
local, confined to a place, locality,
the neighbourhood ; to locate, to
settle in a place. Locomotion, mov-
ing from place to place. To allo-
cate, to place to, to give each his
share or part. To collocate is to
place or set along with something
else. To dislocate is literally to
put out of its place, to put out of
joint. One's arm, wrist, or ankle
may be dislocated. We speak also
of the dislocation of the geological
strata, as, e.g., of the beds of coal,
and of things being in a state of
confusion and dislocation. From

this word also we have locus in the
sense of place, as when a preacher
proposes to treat of a subject in
the first place, in the second place,
and in the third place ; for it is
said that among the Romans, when
discourses and speeches were not
so often read from MS. as now,
speakers, to arrange their ideas,
grouped them together in different
parts of the wall before them, and
they said in the first place, when
they were to speak of what was
contained in what they called the
first place, of the wall in front of
them, and so on.

CHAPTER IV.

THE WATER.

THIS occupies about three-quarters of the earth's surface. That
part which separates the land from the water is called the coast,
the side of the land next to the sea, or the side of the sea next
the land, — derived probably through OF. costa (now F. cote), from
L. costa, the rib or the side, and in English meaning the seaside.
The word ocean comes from Oceanus, the fabled son (in the myth-
ology of the heathen poets) of Coelus and Vesta, who, marrying
Tethys, the goddess of the sea, became the father of all the rivers
and fountains. There is, strictly speaking, but one ocean, although
it is usual to reckon five, more or less connected. Only two, how-
ever, have names requiring explanation. The Atlantic seems to
have been so called (for no better reason than for its size and
strength) from Mount Atlas in the north-west of Africa, which, how-
ever, was called after the heathen god of that name, who was
represented by the ancient poets as sustaining the world on his
shoulders. On this account, too, a collection of maps of the
different parts of the world bound together is called an Atlas.
The Pacific Ocean (L. pax, pacis, peace, and facia, to make) is
the name given to the ocean between Asia and America, called
peaceful by Magellan in 1521, in consequence of the calm and
delightful weather he experienced while navigating its surface
after rounding Cape Horn.

A smaller extent of water is called a sea, and two of the names
given deserve notice. The Mediterranean (from L. medius, middle,
and terra, earth or land) is so called from its position, as it were,
in the middle of the land of the Old World. The Archipelago is

32 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the name given to the chief sea of the Greeks, or the JEge&n Sea
(from Gr. arche, chief, and peldgos, the sea), but now used for any
sea abounding in small islands.

One of the most remarkable features of the sea is the tide, being
the AS. word tid, which meant time, the moment when anything
happened ; and is now applied to the time of the ebbing and flow-
ing of the sea, hence called the tide. (In composition we have
still Whitsuntide, and eventide for eventime; and betide or be-
times, that is, happen.) Early and late were formerly called
tideful and lateful. As the word is evidently cognate with Ger.
Zeit, time, and Zeitung in Ger. signifies " news," there can be little
doubt that our word tidings comes from the same AS. root.

Closely connected with the sea is the river, for " all the rivers
run into the sea, yet the sea is not full." One of the chief
reasons why the sea is not full to overflowing, is the evaporation
which is continually taking place from the surface of the oceans,
rivers, and lakes; for when water is passing from the liquid to
the gaseous or invisible form, it is said to turn into vapour, or to
evaporate (from L. e, off, and vaporo, from vapor, vapour). When
the air has received as much vapour as it is capable of holding in
the invisible form, at any given temperature, it is said to be satu-
rated or filled to excess (from L. satur, full, akin to L. satis,
enough). The etymology of river is somewhat doubtful. It is
usual to derive it from L. ripa, the bank of a river, but there is
also a L. word rivus which signifies a river, and the two words
have got confused. I think that the word ripa originally signified,
not the river itself, but the rivet's bank. There is good reason for
believing that the word ripa comes originally from the base rip, to
rend asunder, and that the river is occasioned by the rift which
has been made between the banks through which it runs into the
ocean ; for rivers are formed and run through these fissures (L.
fissura, from findo, fidi, fissum, findere, to cleave) and clefts in the
mountains, when these have been riven asunder. In this connec-
tion it is worth noting that the low L. verb adripare (ad, to, and
ripa, the bank), which meant at first to reach the bank of the
river or to touch the shore, was originally a nautical term, and

THE WATER. 33

was used only with reference to the arrival of a boat at the bank of
the river, or at the shore ; but when the word was adopted by the
French, they altered it into amver, and after using it for more than
a century with reference to boats or sailing vessels, they widened
the meaning so as to include all arrivals of any kind or at any
place, whether by land or by sea, using it in a far wider sense than
we use the word arrive, so that in a French book which lies before
me the author speaks of the cold arriving through the window.
Yet another word finds its origin and explanation here, the L.
word rivales (from rivus, a stream), and originally it meant pertain-
ing to a stream or brook ; but after meaning those who had the
same stream in common, it gradually came to signify (both in Latin
and English) competitors. There is no necessary connection in
thought between the two meanings ; but as rivales, even in Latin,
came to mean neighbours who got water from the same stream, or
persons who lived on opposite sides of a stream, there were often
in times of scarcity contentions for the use of it. It is used in
this sense in the Eoman digest which discusses the contests that
often arose between such persons respecting their riparian (ripa)
rights. But this connection between the two meanings is a mere
matter of history. It does not affect us to-day. We do not think
of brooks when we speak of rivals in politics, love, or business.
Neither do we, even in a book on Etymology, and in discussing
such a word as that on which we are at present engaged, think,
until we are reminded, that derivation is literally drawing from a
river (from L. de, down from, and rivus, a river), as when we
speak of the derivation of English words from Latin.

It is more convenient, as well as more natural, when speaking of
water and the ocean, to refer to all those matters connected with
navigation which enable us to make the ocean the great highway
of nations, so that " seas but join the countries they divide." Navi-
gation has been described as the act, science, or art of sailing ships,
from the L. verb navigo, to go in a vessel or ship, to sail, to steer —
from navis,1 a ship, and ago, to drive. While we have many words

1 From navis, a ship, and nauta, word as nausea, which means prop-
a sailor, we have such an unlikely erly sea-sickness, and then strong

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

taken from the Latin word for ship, we have comparatively few taken
from the Latin word for sea, mare,1 The first vessel ever constructed
for floating on the waters of which we have any record was Noah's
ark (from L. area, a chest or coffer). Amazement has often been
expressed that so large a vessel as the ark should have been able to
bear the winds and storms of the deluge (this word comes from L.
diluvium, from diluo — dis, away, luo,z to wash). The German word
for deluge, Sundflut3 — i.e., sinflood — is far more expressive than
ours. But we find no mention in the Scriptural account of tem-
pestuous wind and dangerous rolling seas. The waters rose gradu-
ally and floated the ark, so that it went on the face of the waters ;

disgust and loathing. Patients may
nauseate food as well as medicine.
" The trifles wherein children take
delight grow nauseous to the young
man's appetite." Nautical names
relating to ships and seamanship.
' The Nautical Almanac ' contains
tables necessary for steering. Naval
architecture is the science of ship-
building. The nave of a church is
the body of it, called by the Ger-
mans the ship (schiff), from the
analogy which likens the Christian
Church to a ship. Cook and Anson
were distinguished navigators. A
sea or a river is navigable when
ships can sail upon it. The navy
is the whole of the ships of war
belonging to a country. An aero-
naut (aer, the air, and nauta, a
sailor) is one who navigates the air
in a balloon, to circumnavigate is
to sail round. The circumnaviga-
tion of the earth proves that it is a
globe ; what is circumnavigable is
of a round form.

1 From mare, -is, the sea, we have
marine, belonging to the sea, such
as marine plants, &c. We speak of
a marine — i.e., a soldier who serves
on shipboard though he is not a
sailor — a mariner is a seaman.
Maritime often means bordering on
the sea, or pertaining to man's sea
life, to the sea as navigated by
man. We speak of maritime law,

maritime enterprise, and mari-
time people. Submarine means
under the sea, transmarine across
the sea, and ultramarine (L. ultra,
beyond), a blue colour deriving its
name from the lapis lazuli, a stone
of great beauty, originally brought
from beyond the sea, from Asia.

2 From luo, lui, luere, to wash, we
have ablution, a formal washing, as
in religious rites, and we also speak
of our daily ablutions. Alluvium
is earth, gravel, &c., deposited
from water, as the meadow land
beside rivers ; it forms alluvial
soil. To dilute any strong liquid is
to weaken it by mixing with water ;
a diluent is a substance used for
diluting ; too much dilution of the
gastric juice weakens its power.
Diluvial is generally used of deposits
on the surface. The antediluvian
world was that which existed be-
fore Noah's flood. To pollute
means the defiling of a stream,
and we speak of the pollution even
of holy places or of the mind.

3 According to Kluge, sund has
no connection with siinde, English
sin, but is the modern form of the
old High German sin, which was
used only in composition, and signi-
fied universal, ahvays, ever ; so that
sundftut is merely the present-day
form of the old High German sin-
vluot, a great universal overflowing.

THE WATER. 35

and it had no masts or sails on which winds, if there were any,
could act. The human family, when they came out of the ark, on
the site where, as all traditions say, the ark rested, might have
spread for ages from that spot without having any occasion for
another such vessel, so that although the memory of the deluge
and of the ark remained among all nations, yet the form of it was
forgotten, as well as its real use. We find the beginning of these
naval structures among savage nations to have been a long plank,
rounded at the ends, on which they got astride, and crossed the
river or floated out to sea. The catamaran, a Tamil word, Jcatta-
maram, signifying " tied logs," is used by the natives of India and
Brazil, and on the coast of Coromandel, particularly at Madras,
where the surf (probably from L. super, above, the foam made by
the dashing of the waves being on the surface) rages with great
violence, sometimes running more than a quarter of a mile up the
beach. It would be impossible for European boats to live in it.
The natives, however, construct a catamaran, a raft of three or five
logs of wood from eight to twelve feet long, the middle log being
always longer than the rest. These are firmly lashed together, and
without top, sides, or any protection the natives go boldly off to the
ships in the roads during the severest weather through the foaming
surf. The construction of a raft (from Icel. rapp, from rafter, and
Dan. raft, a pole) is one of the first and easiest improvements on
the mere plank. This is effected by tying a number of planks or
beams together so as to make a sort of floor on which goods may
be removed or persons conveyed across a river; and in our own
day, even in cases of shipwreck, the raft is often the only mode of
escape, and the crew sometimes are obliged to lash themselves to
the raft to prevent them being washed off and drowned. The ex-
pression lash is the seaman's term for tying themselves fast to the
raft. The noun " lash " by itself signifies merely a rope or cord, and
it may be used either for whipping or tying. Perhaps the next grad-
ation in shipbuilding was the canoe, from the Sp. canoa, which, like
the F. canot, is from the Caribbean canaoa, signifying a boat made
of the trunk of a tree hollowed out by fire or by hatchet, or of bark
or skins, and shaped into something like a boat. These canoes made

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

of skins are somewhat like those which were observed in Britain
by Julius Caesar, and which are still used on the Severn, in Shrop-
shire, and in Wales. Indeed the name which has been given them,
coracles, is Welsh. They consist of a sort of large wicker basket
covered with a horse's hide or with oilcloth. They hold only one
man, and are useful for fishing in rivers. The name is derived
from the Welsh corwgl, from corwg, anything round • Gael, curach,
a wicker boat. When we speak of boats, however, we mean
something put together with much greater skill These are of
different shapes, sizes, and names, according to the work for which
they are intended. Such as ply * on the river Thames, and are used
only for the conveyance of persons, are called wherries, probably a
corruption of ferry, influenced by whir. A ferryboat is a boat for
carrying or conveying passengers over a water (from the AS. ferian,
to convey, faran, to go ; Ger. fahre, a ferry, from fahren, to go or
carry). By a boat we generally understand an open vessel without
any deck. When very large, as for the conveyance of coals from
the shipping, they are called barges or lighters. A barge, how-
ever, was originally a pleasure or state boat (from the OF. barge,
low L. bargia). " The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,"
&c. (Shakespeare). A lighter is so named because it is used
for lightening (unloading) and loading ships. Until the exten-
sive use of steam and electricity it was the characteristic of
boats to be propelled by oars, the word boat being the AS. bat,
Dut. boot, F. bat -eau, and Gael, bata, while oar is the AS. ar,
cognate with the Gr. er, essein, to row, amph-er-es, two-oared.
The verb to row is the AS. rovan, and IceL roa. The rudder
is the instrument by which the boat is rowed or steered, which
originally was by an oar working at the stern (Ger. ruder, an
oar). The row-lock is the contrivance on the wale of a boat to hold
the oar in rowing. The wale (from AS. icalu, the mark of a stripe
or blow, Sw. waT) signified originally the raised streak left by a

1 This word ply, signifying in
nautical phraseology to make regu-
lar passages between two ports,

conies through the F. plier, to
bend or fold, from L. plico, to
bend.

THE WATER. 37

stripe, then a ridge on the surface of cloth, and afterwards the plank
which goes along all the outer timbers of a ship's side. The name
of gunwale is now given to it whether there be guns or not.

It was a great step in the art of conveying themselves by water
carriage to add a sail (AS. segel, and so also in almost all Teutonic
tongues). In all probability Daedalus was the inventor of the sail.
He was confined by Minos, King of Crete, and according to the
poets he made himself wings and flew away ; but the truth is that
he invented the sail, and so escaped in his boat. His son Icarus,
not managing his sail so cleverly, was drowned. Nature, however,
may have given Daedalus the hint of the sail from the Nautilus,
Argonaut, or sailor-fish, which is a shell-fish found in the Medi-
terranean and in the Indian Ocean, and usually at the bottom of
the sea, yet is able to rise to the surface, which it is fond of doing
in calm weather. The shell is so thin that it is called the paper
Nautilus. It lies on its back floating on the water. It employs
some of its arms as oars to make progress, but if a gentle breeze
arises it raises two of them upright, and extending them, spreads
the membrane between them into a sail, which catches the wind ;
its other arms hang out as a rudder to steer it the way it wishes.
" Learn from the little Nautilus to sail, spread the thin oar and
catch the driving gale." Nature also gives other hints, for the fins
(from L. pinna) of a fish would suggest the use of a propelling
power, and its tail the advantages of a rudder ; as Pope says in the
lines just before these already quoted, " The art of building from
the bee receive, learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave."

A galley (having eight oars) received its name apparently from
the sword-fish, which the Greeks called galeotes, which indeed it
somewhat resembles with its long projecting beak, which is con-
trived on purpose to bore into the enemy's vessels. We have also
a brig, a two-masted square-rigged vessel, the word being originally
a contraction of brigantine, a small light vessel, so called from
brigand, a robber (F. from It. brigante, from briga, strife), because
such a vessel was used by pirates. The name of pirate is given
to one who attempts to capture ships at sea, a sea-robber (from

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the F. pirate), from G. peirates, from peira,1 a trial or attempt.
Buccaneer was a name originally given to the pirates in the West
Indies, during the seventeenth century, who plundered the Spaniards
chiefly. The F. boucaner, to smoke meat, came from the Caribbean
boucan, a wooden gridiron. The title was originally bestowed by
the natives upon the French settlers in Hayti who hunted animals
for their skins and sold the smoke-dried carcases to the Dutch.
These Frenchmen were therefore said to exist by boucaniering, and
when subsequently the Spaniards laid claim to the whole of the
"West Indies, a large number of English and French adventurers
proceeded to the Spanish Main to enrich themselves by plundering
the Spaniards as their lawful right. The word schooner is said to
have been coined in New England from the prov. Eng. scoon
(Scot, scon), to make a flat stone skip along the surface of the
water, for a " schooner " is a sharp-built swift-sailing vessel, generally
two-masted. The word mast, which denotes the long upright pole
which sustains the yards, rigging, &c., in a ship, is from the AS.
maest, which signifies the stem of a tree, Ger. mast, F. mat. A
lugger is a small vessel with two or three masts and a running bow-
sprit, and is so called because it has one or two long or lug sails, —
a lug sail being a square sail bent upon a yard that hangs obliquely
to the mast, or it may be from the Dut. logger, a slow ship, from
log, slow. The bowsprit is the boom or spar projecting from
the bow of a ship, — the bow being the curving forepart of a ship,
and the sprit, from the AS. sprest, a pole. A pinnace is a small
vessel with oars and sails; it is literally a pine -wood boat — F.
pinasse, from It. pinassa and L. pinus, a pine. A cutter is a small
swift vessel with one mast and sharp bows that cut the water,
hence the name. A hoy is a large one-decked boat, commonly
rigged as a sloop (from Dutch heu, Flemish hut). Sloop is a light
boat, a one - masted cutter - rigged vessel, from Dutch sloepe. A

1 From the Gr. peira, an attempt,
we have not merely pirate but piracy
and piratical, and also an em-
piric, one who confines himself to
applying the results of a limited
observation and experience, — one

who is narrowly and blindly experi-
mental without due regard to science
and theory, which is regarded as
empiricism, and quack doctors are
those who prescribe empirical rem-
edies.

THE WATER. 39

smack is a vessel used chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade
(from AS. mace, Dut. smak, Ger. schmacke), perhaps from
Icel. snakr, Eng. snake. A scull was a name given to a small
boat propelled by one man working an oar from side to side in the
stern without raising the blade from the water. It was, perhaps,
originally applied to the short light oar employed by working the
oar from side to side like a fish's tail. Judging from the analogy
of the OF. gache, an oar, gachei; to row, compared with gacher,
to rinse linen in the stream, a more probable origin may be found
in the element " scull " preserved in scullery, the place for rinsing
dishes, Scandinavian skol, to splash, and applied to the dashing of
the waves or of heavy rain, Icel. skola, to wash. The metaphorical
use of the word scull was very severely made by Douglas Jerrold,
when a young litterateur. A scribbler in ' The London Journal ' or
' Family Herald ' of the period came up to him and said : " "We
ought to be better acquainted, Jerrold." "Why?" said Jerrold.
" Because we are both literary men, — both in the same boat, you
know." " That may be," said Jerrold, " but we use very different
sculls ! " The word harbour itself is very interesting. It seems to
have signified originally a shelter, or a lodging. "We have in
Icelandic herbergi, a harbour, a lodging, in OF. herbej'ger, to
harbour, to lodge, in OH. Ger. hereberga, a lodging, a harbour.
"Where we read now in the Authorised Version, " I was a stranger
and ye took me in," Wycliff rendered " I was harbourless and ye
harboured me." Also a camp, from heri, an army, and bergon, to
shelter (and in this connection the German herberge, a harbour-
shelter, travellers' rest, or inn, the Italian albergo, and the F. auberge
ought not to be overlooked), and naturally it came in course of
time to lose the meaning of sheltering or providing a lodging for
travellers by land, and to be almost exclusively employed, as it is
now, for a port or haven for ships. We have, however, a remark-
able reminiscence of the original meaning in the word harbinger,
which is now generally used in the sense of a forerunner or a
precursor of any one or anything, as when we speak of the cuckoo
as the harbinger of spring. It came to acquire this meaning from
the fact that the word herberger, both in German and Dutch, was

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

one who was sent on beforehand by his master to look out for
lodgings for him, and so to announce his arrival — in Germany, one
sent forward to provide quarters for a regiment or an army, — and
so from the rather humble origin of being used to denote one who
goes in quest of lodgings for another, we find it as a grand poetical
term in Milton and Dryden, the former of whom in his ' Paradise
Lost ' says, " And now of love they treat, till the evening star,
love's harbinger, appeared," while the latter, in the ' Good Parson,'
speaks of " Lightning and thunder, Heaven's artillery, as harbingers
before the Almighty fly." When a vessel is in the dock for repairs
we can have a very much better view of her than when she is
sailing on the ocean. The graving dock is the dock into which
a ship is taken to have her bottom cleaned (the word dock comes
to us through the O.Dut. dokke, a harbour, and low L. doga, a
ditch, a canal, from Gr. doche, a receptacle, an enclosed basin into
which a ship may be lifted or placed for repairs, and the word
graving comes from the low Ger. greve, the refuse of lard, and to
grave a ship was originally to smear the hull with graves, for which
pitch is now employed). Here also the process of caulking goes on,
i.e., the stuffing oakum (as if pressed with the foot) into the seams
of a ship to make it watertight — through the OF. cauquer, from
L. calcare, to' tread under foot, from calx,1 the heel. The word
oakum which we have just used is the name given to old ropes
untwisted and teased into loose hemp, for caulking the seams of
ships, and is supposed to come from the AS. word acumba,
aecemba, from cemb, that which is combed, from cemban, to comb.
The word dock itself in this sense signifies a basin for ships, into
which the water can be admitted or shut off at pleasure. It is
described by Bailey as a pond where the water is kept out by
great floodgates till a ship is built or repaired, and then opened to
let in the water to float or launch her. It was probably to these
floodgates that the word was first applied. We have lock, a sluice
or floodgate, and docke, applied to the tap by which the water in

1 From calx, the heel, we derive
the word inculcate, for to inculcate
is literally to press in with the heel

We inculcate principles of conduct,
rules of right and wrong, by frequent
admonitions and exhortations.

THE WATER. 41

a fish-pond is kept in, or let off. The hull of a ship, meaning the
frame or body of it, is supposed to be derived from the AS. hulu,
a husk, as of corn, the outer covering of anything ; but certainly
there is a mighty difference between the body and the husk, and
the resemblance to a pea-shell does not seem a very likely figure to
have given a designation to the body of a ship. It is of the hull
or shell of the ship that we generally use the phrase to spring a leak,
which means to open or crack to such an extent as to allow the
passage of water. The word leak is from the Icel. leka, to drip, to
leak, so in Dut. we have lekken, and Ger. lecken, a hole, or other defect,
which permits the passage of a liquid. It signifies both to run, drop,
dribble, and also to let through, leak. Not only do they say "the vessel
leaks," " the ship leaks," but " the water leaks " ; " lekkende ogen "
are streaming eyes. In Norse leka is " drop," and logr is " moisture,"
usually "lake," hence lake = L. locus, is implied. I think the
word hull has a certain connection with the Dutch hoi, a ship's
hold, and with the word hulk, which signifies the body of a ship,
and originally a large merchant ship (from the low L. hulka), from
the Gr. holkas, a ship which is towed, from helko, to draw. It is
worth noting that the plural, when it has the article prefixed,
" the hulks," means old ships used as prisons where some of the
worst prisoners were confined, and I am reminded that there are
really no conditions or positions in which self-righteousness may
not flourish. A clergyman was preaching in the hulks one Sunday
for a friend, to a set of the greatest scoundrels he had ever seen in
his life ; and after the service was over, one of the prisoners said
to him, " I have to thank you for your excellent sermon ; to my
mind it had only one fault, but it was a very serious one, — you
didn't seem to leave any room for good works in the matter of
salvation " ! In the dock we have a good opportunity of seeing
the keel, that part of the ship which extends along the bottom
from stem to stern, and supports the whole frame ; and so im-
portant is it that the AS. word from which it comes is the word
ceol, which signifies a ship. The old torture known on shipboard
as keel-hauling consisted in hauling a man under the keel of a
ship by ropes from the one side to the other. Bilge-water is that

42 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

which collects through leakage or otherwise in what is called the
bilge of a ship — that is, the bottom of a ship's hull or that part
on either side of the keel which has more a horizontal than a per-
pendicular direction, and upon which the ship would rest if aground.
That water becomes disgustingly foul and noxious. The word
"bilge" is very probably a corruption of bulge, though like French,
and indeed bouge in French still means bilge, with reference both to
a cask and to a ship. The helm is the instrument by which a boat
is rowed or steered, which originally was an oar working at the
stern (AS. rotJier, Ger. ruder, an oar). I am very much inclined
to accept Home Tooke's derivation of the stern of a ship, from the
past participle of the old verb styran,1 to move, which we now
write in English differently, according to its different applications,
to stir, or to steer ; so that the stern of a ship is literally the
moved part of a ship, or that part by which the ship is moved or
steered. It is the same word and has the same meaning, whether
we say a stern countenance or a moved countenance — i.e., moved
by some passion. The anchor is a hooked iron instrument which
holds the ship by sticking into the earth (F. ancre, from L. anchora,
from Gr. angkyra, from angkos, a bend, from the root angk, bent).
There are various kinds of anchors : the most important are the
sheet-anchor, the largest anchor on the ship, shot, or spread out
(AS., sceat, scete, from sceotan, to shoot, to extend); the best
bower, so called because it hangs at the bow, or curving forepart
of the ship. The binnacle is the box in which the compass is
placed on shipboard; it was formerly spelt bittacle, and I find
it so spelt in a military dictionary which lies beside me, pub-
lished in 1759. Bittacle comes from the Portuguese bitacola
— from L. habitaculum, a dwelling-place, from Tiabito, to dwell.
The word compass itself probably comes through F. compos,
a word from low L. compassus (con, together, and passus, a step,
a way, a route). Now the mariner's compass goes round in a

1 The same participle gives us
also the following substantives, store
and stour : store being the col-
lective term for any quantity or

into one place together ; and stour,
formerly much used, meaning moved
or stirred, was applied equally to
dust, to water, and to men, all of

number of things stirred or moved : them easily moved.

THE WATER. 43

circle, and what we call " compasses " is an instrument consisting
of two movable legs for describing circles, &c. The two names
starboard and larboard are very significant. Starboard is the right-
hand side of the ship to one looking towards the bow, and signifies
literally "the steering side"; the AS. is steor-bord, from steoran, to
steer. Larboard is an obsolete naval term for the left side of a
ship looking from the stern, — now by command of the Admiralty
superseded by the term port, to prevent the mistakes caused by its
resemblance in sound to starboard. The etymology is uncertain,
but I think it is most likely that it comes through the Belgic lever-
bord, from L. hevus, the left. At sea it is often necessary to
ascertain the depth of water, and this is done by sounding by
means of a line and plummet, through the F. sonder, to sound —
from the low L. subundare, to put under the wave, from L. sub,
under, and undo,,1 a wave. The plummet is the weight of lead
hung at the end of a line to sound the depth of water, and this
piece of lead is called a plummet, from the F. plombet, diminutive
of plomb — from L. plumbum, lead. The word pilot, the name given
to one who conducts ships in and out of a harbour, along a
dangerous coast, is of uncertain origin, but the more likely is that
it comes through the OF. pilote, a pilot, from the Dutch peil-loot,
from peilen, to sound, and loot (Ger. loth), lead — a sounding lead,
literally, one who conducts a vessel by the sounding-line. Ballast
is that which is placed in a ship to keep it steady when there is

1 From unda, originally a wave, &c. The Goodwin sands were

and afterwards water in general, caused by an inundation of the sea.

but in motion, and its diminutive, To redound is to come back as a

tindula, a little wave, we have un- consequence, to contribute ; we

dulate, to move up and down as j speak of something redounding to

waves. The sea undulates. Sound , one's glory. Redundancy is an

is propagated by the undulations of excess of supply, a superfluity in

the air. There is also an undula- some special things. "When an

tory movement of standing corn author is redundant, mark those

when the wind blows. Abound passages to be retrenched " (Watts),

and abundance express large sup- : It is remarkable too that the Revised

plies of anything. We speak of Version of the New Testament in

abundance of food, and of a super- altering the word abundance, in

abundance of words. To inundate Mark xii. 44, into superfluity,

is to overflow with water, but we should still have taken a word

also speak of a country being inun- which refers to the flowing of

dated with vagrants, publications, I water.

44 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

no cargo. It is the etymology of the first syllable of the word
about which there is any difficulty. It is generally agreed that
the second syllable, last, is a load. The Danish bag-last has been
understood as signifying a back-load, the load which a ship takes
on board to steady her on her return voyage when she has dis-
posed of her original cargo. It has been suggested that ballast
was so called because the ballast was stored more in the after-part
of the ship than in the front, so as to tilt up the bows. But the
ballast was never stored mainly in the stern of the vessel, nor has
the after-part of a ship ever been spoken of as the " back." Both
theories, however, are founded on a mistake, for it has been found
that bag-last is a modern form, having always been written ballast
in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. The truth
seems to be that the original form of the word is to be found in
the language of the Netherlands and low German, from whom we
have taken many of our nautical terms. Now bal in Old Dutch
signifies useless, bad, as in bal ded, a misdeed, balmenden, to act
as an unfaithful guardian, bal hoorig, hard of hearing ; and in this
way we may explain ballast as an unprofitable load, the worthless
load that is taken on board merely to steady the ship. The verb
to scuttle is used in cases where a ship has been sunk intentionally
— strictly speaking, by cutting holes in it. The noun scuttle
originally meant the openings or hatchways of a ship, and after-
wards a hole through the hatches or in the side or bottom of a
ship, from OF. escoutille, a hatchway, and mod. F. ecoutille, but
I can find no trace of either word in any French dictionary except
that of Cotgrave. Bunting, the thin worsted material of which
flags are made, is the same word as the West of England bunting,
which means the sifting of flour, the open fabric used for the
purpose having been found appropriate for the making of flags.
The truth of Wedgwood's explanation seems to be established
beyond question by the fact that the F. etamine is applied as well
to the thin open tissue of which sifting or bolting cloths are made,
as to the material of a ship's flag, and Littre' explains etamine as a
nautical term, applied to the material out of which flags are made.
A flag is said to have received its name from the Dutch flaggeien,

THE WATER.

to flag or hang loose, also applied to the sound which is made by
loose broad surfaces flapping in the wind, — and a flag is such a
piece of cloth fastened by one edge to a staff, in order that it may
be conspicuous as an ensign floating in the wind. Quarantine is
the word originally employed for the forty days during which a
ship arriving at port l was kept from all intercourse with the shore
if she were suspected of being infected with any contagious disease
(through F. quarante — from L. quadraginta, forty, from quatuor,
four). The Admiralty is the board of commissioners for the ad-
ministration of naval affairs, from the admiral, a naval officer of
the highest rank (from F. amiral — from Arabic amir, a lord, a
chief).

Commodore, the commander of a squadron or detachment of
ships, and sometimes the leading ship of a fleet of merchantmen,
is usually regarded as coming from the Spanish comendadm;
which has an altogether different signification, while the Spanish
word is regarded as coming from the L. commendo, which in late
L. is said to signify command. Of this I have found no evidence ;
but it is a corruption of the Portuguese capitao mor, or chief
captain, a phrase precisely equivalent to our own term. We owe,
in fact, more to Portuguese than to Spanish etymology,2 and it is
remarkable that many words now current almost over all Europe,
and popularly supposed to be of African or East Indian derivation,
are really native Portuguese. Thus fetishism or feticism, the low
idolatry and sorcery of Western Africa, now so commonly used in

1 Port comes to us through the
F. port — from L. portus, a port or
harbour ; from it we have probably
the words opportune and importun-
ate, examples of marine terms of
which the original signification is
more or less forgotten : opportune
is that which leads into the port
(F. opportun — from L. opportunus,
fit, convenient, from ob, over,
against, and portus, the harbour),
well-timed, seasonable, convenient,
hence opportunely and opportunity;
importune, on the other hand (OF.
importun, importunate — from L. im-
portunus, inconvenient, troublesome,

from L. in, not. or without, and
portus, the harbour), means ori-
ginally hard of access, hence un-
seasonable, inopportune, and to im-
portune is to be unreasonably and
unseasonably urgent, as those in
distress are pressing their re-
quests by very pertinacious and
obstinate and vexatious means,
and so we have the importun-
ate widow, and importunity in
prayer.

2 Cargo and embargo are cer-
tainly Spanish, trade and traffic
probably so, but these stand almost
alone in our vocabulary.

46 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

all parts of Europe to signify the most debased and superstitious
material worship, and generally thought to be an African word, is
only the Portuguese feitico, sorcery or witchcraft, which is prob-
ably derived from the L. fascinum, a bewitching, or, as some
think, from veneficium, a poisoning, a preparation of magic potions,
then witchcraft, and so palaver, a council of African chiefs.

Our word voyage was formerly used (as it still is in French)
for any journey, whether by sea or land, but now only a journey
by sea. It has come to us through the French, from the L. via,
a way, which became in F. voie, a way. The etymology of via is
uncertain, some deriving it from the L. eo, ivi, Hum, ire, to go,
and others from veho, to carry (see vehement and vehicle). The
L. via gives us also the word viaticum, which in classical L. signi-
fied provisions for a journey, whether of meat or money, although
in medieval L. it came to signify a street; while in the Eoman
Catholic Church it is used to denote the sacrament administered
to dying persons. From the same root also we have devious,
what separates from the road ; obvious, originally what went
before, and now generally what is found on the road, or lying in
the way, what is self-evident, or which may be seen or known at
the first glance ; while to obviate a difficulty is to remove it out of
the way ; pervious means what there is a way through — as glass
is pervious to light, while boots and shoes should be impervious
to moisture.

Argosy is the name which is given to a merchant ship richly
laden, and for long supposed to have taken its name from Argos,
but now believed to be a corruption of Ragusan, the national
designation of the vessels employed in the commerce of the import-
ant port of Ragusa in Dalmatia.

It will be more convenient to take the names of fishes here,
when speaking of the element in which they live, instead of wait-
ing till we speak of the animal kingdom generally.

THE WATER. 47

FISHES.

The perch is so called from its dusky colour, F. perche, from L.
perca, and Gr. perko, from perkos, dark -coloured, spotted. The
gurnet or gurnard is supposed to be so called from the sound it
makes when it is taken out of the water, through OF. gournauld,
and Gr. grogner, from L. gi'unnio, to grunt. The haddock is a sea
fish of the cod family, with the name possibly connected with the
Welsh hadog, prolific, from had, seed ; but more probably from
low L. gadus, a cod, from Gr. gados, and the diminutive termination
ock. Herrings, which appear in great shoals and vast multitudes,
derive their name on this account from the Ger. Tieer (AS. and
Ger. haering), an army or multitude, instead of being as supposed
a corruption of L. halec, fish pickle, a kind of brine ; for it does
seem a little absurd to derive the name of a fish from what
happens to it after it is dead. This would make the name some-
what prophetic. The mackerel bears a considerable resemblance
to the herring, but is easily distinguished by its spotted appear-
ance. The word comes to us through the OF. mdk&rel (F. ma-
quereau], probably from L. macula, a stain or spot, and so meaning
the spotted one, whereas the herring is in this respect immacu-
late. Lamprey, ME. laumprere, OF. lamprere (F. lamproie).
The source is low L. lampetra, lamprey, in a vulgar form lam-
preda, from L. lambo,1 to lick, and petra, a rock. The limpet
clings to bare rocks, whence its name, from L. and Gr. lepas, a
bare rock, from Gr. lepo, to peel. Salmon are probably so called
from salio, to leap, from their leaping obstacles on their way from
the sea. On many rivers there are little waterfalls, which on this
account bear the name of the salmon leap. The leviathan is the
name given in Scripture to a great aquatic monster, and is the
Hebrew word livyathan, a name referring to the coiling of a
serpent. Ps. civ. 26 we have heard read thus : " there is
that 'lively thing '(!) which thou hast made to play therein."

1 The only word we derive from as descriptive of a flame which
lambo, Iambi, lambZre, to lick, is plays or glides lying on the
the word lambent, used by jpoets surface.

48 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

The Mollusca, or shell -fish, are described by their name.
They are soft pulpy animals, have no bones, but consist of a
soft substance — L. molltiscus, from mollis, soft. Of the mollusca
we mention only two, the oyster and the barnacle. The oyster
is a well-known bivalve shell-fish — OF. oestre (F. huitre), from
L. ostrea, and Gr. ostreon, an oyster, from osteon, a bone. The
barnacle also is one of the mollusca : its shell consists of five
pieces, of which two are large valves somewhat resembling
those of a mussel, two smaller pieces are jointed to these near
the point, and one unites the valves along the back edge.
These cover the whole of the mantle. They are abundant in
our seas, and fix themselves in preference on wood, so that a
piece of timber which has been for a short time floating in
the ocean is almost sure to be partly covered with them; and
ships' bottoms, if not protected by copper, are rendered so foul
as greatly to impede their sailing. To the species common on our
own coasts was once attributed the wonderful faculty of changing
into a goose. The strange tales about this creature have arisen
from a tissue of blunders. The L. bernacula is a small limpet, and
bernacula (Port, bernaca, F. barnache) is the Scotch solan goose.
Both words being corrupted into barnacle, it was natural to look
for an identity of natures in the two creatures, and so it was
given out that the goose was the offspring of the limpet. Gerard
in 1636 speaks of " broken pieces of old ships on which is found
certain spume or froth which in time breedeth into shells, and the
fish which is hatched therefrom is in shape and habit like a bird."

Eesembling these in many respects are the Radiata, so called
from their figures being generally branched or radiated. We take
only one specimen — viz., the Medusa or sea fly. This name was
in all probability given to the common kinds of jelly-fishes, from
the likeness of their tentacles to the snakes on Medusa's head.
The legend is that Medusa, the chief of the Gorgons, famous for
her hair, presumed to set her beauty above that of Minerva, so
the jealous goddess converted her rival's hair into snakes, which
changed to stone any one who looked thereon.

CHAPTEE V.

LAND.

THE Land occupies about one -fourth of the earth's surface,
and that surface is very unequal. In some cases there are plains
but little above the level of the sea, in others there are hills and
lofty ranges of mountains. Extensive plains are known as steppes
in the south - east of Europe and in Asia (in Russia stepj) ; as
prairies, extensive meadows or tracts of land without trees
(F. from low L. praturia, meadow land, from the L. pratum,
a meadow, while meadow itself, originally a place where grass
was mown, is derived from the AS. word moed, to mow, allied
to the L. meto, to mow) ; pampas, vast plains in South America
(from the Peruvian word pampa, a field or plain) ; savannahs,
vast meadows in the west of North America, from the Sp. savana,
or sdbana, a bed, sheet, or meadow — from L. sabanum, from
Gr. sabanon, linen cloth.

Very elevated land is called a mountain, from L. mons, montis.
Some mountains have openings, or craters, at the .top. Crater is
Latin as well as Greek, signifying originally a bowl — that is, a
large, deep vessel, in which the ancients used to mix wine, and
poured it thence into smaller vessels, as we do into glasses. Pliny
uses the word for the mouth of a volcanic mountain. The word
in Gr. comes from Jeerannumi, to mix, and was called a goblet x
originally, because things were mixed in it. The burning
mountain received the name of volcano from Vulcan, or Volcan,

1 Goblet, — from the P. gobelet, a
diminutive of the low L. gubellus,
which again is a diminutive of L.

cupa, a barrel, vat, or cask — from
which also we have our words
cooper and cup.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the god of fire, who was supposed by the ancients to have his
forge under Mount Etna or Mount Vesuvius, engaged in forging
thunderbolts for Jupiter, both being, as they have been, and still
are, remarkable for such eruptions. The word " eruption " comes
from the L. word eruptus, broken out, or burst (also from e, out
of, and ruptus,1 rent asunder, forcibly thrown out, as from
a volcano).

The largest portion of land is called a continent, not from
containing many countries, but from L. continens or continuus,
holding together, uninterrupted, not broken up by seas. The
L. continens is the pres. part, of contineo — from teneo, tenui,
tentum, tenei-e,2 to hold. Portions of land which are small
in comparison with the seas that surround them are called
islands, an island being a general term for a piece of land
surrounded by water. The present spelling, or misspelling rather,
leads to a wrong idea of its origin. The introduction of s into the
word is quite a modern innovation. In the earlier versions of the
Scriptures, and in the Revised Version as first printed in 1611,
it is spelt " iland," which came from the AS. igland, compounded
of ig, an island, and land, land, and so we still have in Dutch

1 This word ruptus is the past
participle of; the L. verb rumpo,
rupi, ruptum, rumpere, to break,
burst, or rend. A rupture is the
bursting of something from within,
as when a blood-vessel is ruptured.
Abrupt means steep and sudden.
A sharp rock is sometimes called
abrupt, as if it had been broken off
sharp, and an abrupt manner is
one which breaks off short. Bank-
rupt is one whose bench is broken
and all his money scattered. We
have corrupt (cor, and ruptus,
broken), to turn from a sound
to a putrid state, as when fruit
is broken, and then tainted or
vitiated, and so we have corruption
and incorruption, &c. Disruption
(dis, asunder), the act of rending
asunder, or a great split. An in-
terruption (inter, between) is really
a bursting or breaking in, and,so

stopping the progress of anything,
as interrupting a conversation. An
irruption (from ir, into, and rumpo,
to break, or burst) is a bursting or
breaking into, as a sudden or vio-
lent bursting in of the sea, or a
sudden invasion or incursion, as of
an enemy.

2 From teneo we have derived
many words, — tenacious, tenant,
tenure, tenet, tenor (of his way),
abstain (to hold from), appertain
(to belong to), contain (to hold
with or in), contentment, con-
tinual, countenance (the contents
of the face, the whole features
taken together), detain, entertain
(originally spelt with i for first
letter — inter, between, — a holding
together of two persons), pertinent,
maintain (might and main, with
manus, hand), obtain, retain, sus-
tain.

LAND. 5 1

and German, eiland. The AS. ig is from a root which appears
in AS. ea, and L. aqua, water, so that the word meant originally
"water-land." The spelling was changed, and the s introduced,
because it was supposed to be derived from the Latin word for an
island, insula, as if our English word were a hybrid formation
from the OF. " isle " and the English " land." The truth is that
the OF. isle, which is still used by us in poetry, was derived from
the L. word insula, an island, but the French have dropped the
s, spelling the word now Me, while we have retained the s; or
rather, we have substituted the OF. form " isle " in poetry for the
"He" or "iyle" which Eobert of Gloucester and other early Eng-
lish authors wrote, at a time when the only French orthography
was "isle." We have the word again in peninsula, the name
given to land so surrounded by water as to be almost an island
(from L. pene, almost, and insula) ; while isthmus is the name
given to the narrow neck of land which connects two large
portions. Isthmus is the L. form, the Gr. isthmos, signifying
a passage or a step, allied to ithma, a step, from root of Gr. eimi,
to go. From this word also comes the familiar name Isthmian,
used in connection with the famous games, which were celebrated
in the Isthmian sanctuary on the north-east shore of the Isthmus
of Corinth.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MINERAL KINGDOM

is composed of various kinds of rocks, earths, metals, and other
substances. The rocks are divided into stratified and unstratified
rocks. The stratified are arranged in beds or layers, whence their
name, from L. stratum, the thing spread or laid (from verb sterno,
stravi, stratum, sternere, to spread one thing upon another, to strew).
The unstratified are those which are not so laid, but are always in
huge irregularly shaped masses. These latter are the lowest, and
constitute the basis or floor on which all the others rest. They
have a hard crystalline and sparkling appearance. Four sub-
stances enter into their composition : mica (through Sp. and F.
mica, from L. micare, to sparkle, to glitter), quartz (from Ger.
quarz, a name applied by them to rock-crystals), felspar (Ger.
feldspafh, rock-spar, from feld, a field, and spath, a spar), and horn-
blende, which is found in Syenite granite (Syenite, so called from
Syene in Upper Egypt, where it is abundant, and granite, so called
from its granular appearance and composition — granum, a grain).
The name hornblende itself is German. Then horn means horn,
and blende, that which blends, from blenden, to dazzle, descriptive
of its hornlike cleavage and peculiar lustre, or so named from
blind, because it contains no ore. Asbestos is another variety of
hornblende, and signifies incombustible, what cannot be consumed
by fire (Gr. asbestos — a, privative, and sbestos or sbcstikos, consum-
able = without being consumed). Marble is the chief "sparkling
stone " for taking on a good polish. The word comes through the
F. marbre, from L. marmor, marble, from the Gr. marmaros, from
marmairo, to sparkle or flash. Akin to this is alabaster, whose

THE MINERAL KINGDOM. 53

Gr. name aJabastron is said to have been derived from a town of
that name in Egypt. Porphyry receives its name from its purple-
and- white colour. It comes through the F. and L., from the Gr.
porphyrites, a purple-coloured stone, from porphura, the purple fish,
or purple (L. purpura).

The Primary Eocks are so named from being the first formed
of the stratified rocks and immediately above the unstratified.
They partake generally of the same hard and crystalline character.
Indeed one of these rocks called gneiss is so like granite as hardly
to be distinguishable from it. The name is the German for a kind
of granite which differs from granite in presenting a foliated appear-
ance. Clay slate, closely allied to this, is capable of being cloven
into thin slices, and is thus fitted for being used for the roofing of
houses and other purposes. The word slate comes from OF. esdat,
a splinter, OH.Ger. schlizan, to split. But foliated rocks (i.e., con-
sisting of thin layers) like these are not termed slates but schists
(Gr. schistos), derivable from Gr. schizo, I split, F. schiste. Above
these, yet still in the Primary or Palaeozoic division (Gr. palaios,1
ancient, and zoe, life), we have the Carboniferous or Coal Measures,
and immediately above these what used to be called the New Red
Sandstone, but now the Permian system, from its extensive
developments in the district of Perm in Central Eussia. We
rather regret the change, as out of it, in the famous quarry of
Craigleith, was got the stone of which the city of Edinburgh was
built, and to which its beauty is in great measure owing. At
the top of the Secondary Group we have the Oolitic and the Cre-
taceous, the former so called from one particular kind of bed
which is termed oolite, from the Gr. don, an egg, and liihos, a
stone, resembling as it does the roe or eggs of a fish, and sorne-

1 Palaeontology, the science which
treats of the ancient life of the
earth as seen in fossil plants and
animals, from Gr. palaios, and onta,
existing things. These ancient
plants and animals are called fossil
because they are dug out of the
earth, the word coming through
the F. fossile and L. fossilis, dug up,
from L. fodio, fodi, fossum, fodSre,

to dig. The name is not given in
consequence of their being changed
into a stony consistence — where this
is the chief feature it is called a
petrifaction (through F. pttrifica-
tion, from L. or Gr. petra, a rock,
and factus, done or made, of facio,
I make), the process of changing
into stone, and also the thing petri-
fied.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

times called roe-stone in consequence. The Cretaceous, which
lies uppermost in the second group (cretaceus, chalky, from L. creta,
chalk), is composed of lime or chalk. In them we have caverns
in which the drippings from the roof form stalactites and stalag-
mites,— the stalactites (from Gr. stalaktos, trickling or dropping,
from stalasso, I fall or distil in drops) are the icicle-like incrusta-
tions of carbonate of lime which often hang from the roofs of
caverns and fissures; while the stalagmites (from Gr. stalagma,
a drop, from the same root) are the incrustations which cover the
floor of the cavern and rise up towards the roof, so that not
infrequently the stalactites and stalagmites meet together and
form pillar -like masses. The Tertiary Rocks are those that lie
immediately above the diluvial clay and alluvial sand and vege-
table soil. Both diluvial and alluvial come from the L. word luo,
to wash, the former referring to great accumulations or deposits of
earth, sand, &c., brought together by the action of great bodies
of water, and the latter to small accumulations of such deposited
anywhere by the ordinary operations of nature (see p. 34).

Among the metals x properly so called we have copper, named
from the low L. cuper, from L. cuprum, a contraction of cuprium
ces, Cyprian brass, because the Eomans obtained copper first in
Cyprus. Brass, in AS. brces, is from braze, to harden by fire.
In Swedish braza is fire, and in Icelandic signifies solder, a
fusible metal cement which unites metals through fire. Solder
literally signifies to make solid, OF. solider and solder, modern
F. souder, from L. solidare, to make solid, from solidus, solid.
Quicksilver (quick in the sense of living, and silver) is the familiar
term for fluid mercury, in allusion to its mobility and silver- white
colour. Properly speaking, the word alloy is given to the mix-
ture of any of the precious metals with an inferior, as for instance
in our British coinage, where our sovereign is 91*66 gold and

1 The word medal, which now
means a reward of merit of some
kind, received its name from the
material of which it was composed —
viz. , a piece of metal (L. metallum,

metal). At first it signified a coin
of very small value, struck or cast
with an inscription, and afterwards
something different from the current
coin (F. mtdaille, from It. medaglia).

THE MINERAL KINGDOM. 55

8'33 copper; a shilling 92'5 silver and 7'5 copper; and a penny
95 copper, 4 tin, 1 zinc. In jewellery gold is represented by
carats : 24 carat is pure, 22 carat contains 22 parts of gold and 2
of other metals. The word alloy is said to be composed of the
two OF. words a loi, from L. ad legem, according to law, mean-
ing to mix metals for coin according to rule, or according to
law : now we use it as meaning to mix evil with good, to mingle
pleasure and pain ; and when we speak of what is unalloyed we
mean what is unmixed, pure, as when you occasionally hear of
unalloyed happiness, or without alloy.

Passing from the precious metals to the precious stones, we have
the diamond, the hardest of all substances, through F. diamant,
from Gr. adamas, a hard stone (a, not, and damao, I subdue),
what cannot be broken, tamed, or subdued. Garnet, a precious
stone resembling the grains or seeds of the pomegranate (F. grenat,
from L. (pomum) granatum = grained apple, from pomum, an apple,
granum, a grain). The ruby is so called from its colour — red, from
L. words signifying redness, rubes from iiiber, red. The amethyst
is a bluish-violet variety of quartz of which drinking-cups used to
be made, which the ancients supposed prevented drunkenness.
The Gr. word is amethystos, compounded of a, privative, and methys,
to be drunken, from methu, wine, and Sans, madhu, from which
we have mead and methylated spirit. When quicksilver or
mercury is mixed with any other metal it is called an amalgam-
ation, or an amalgam. It has been supposed to come through
the F. malgamer, from the Gr. word malakos, soft, tender, deli-
cate, and Gr. malagma, softening or softness, by transposition of
mcdagma into malgama, meaning a soft mixture ; but it has been
suggested that the word comes from the two Gr. words ama gamem,
to marry together, with an expletive I'. A jewel (in ME. jowel
and jueT) is supposed to come from OF. jouel (whence Ger. juwel,
Dut. guweeT). The present F. word is joyau ; all this is from
the L. type gaudiale, from gaudium, joy. The remarkable thing
is that our word joy has the same root as jewel ; for joy in
ME. was joie from the F. joie, joy, the source of which is the

56 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

same word gaudium. I think to connect the word joy with the
L. jocale rests on a false relation to jocus, a game ; and I cannot
see anything but what is most appropriate in speaking of a jewel
as a joyful thing, or as a great joy to the possessor, a thing of
beauty being a joy for ever.

CHAPTEE VII.

THE VEGETABLE1 KINGDOM.

THE word Botany, from the Gr. botane, a plant, is the name given
to the whole vegetable kingdom, for a plant is the word applied to
a sprout of any kind, however insignificant, while at the same
time inclusive enough to take in trees, which are plants having a
single trunk. The vegetable kingdom is so extensive that only a
few specimens of the more important names can be given ; and
without distinguishing specially by classes or otherwise the differ-
ent trees, shrubs, flowers, or fruit, it will on the whole be more
convenient to take them in alphabetical order after a few prelim-
inary remarks on some points connected with trees themselves.

Trees, when grown in large numbers on uncultivated land, are
called a forest. This word has come to us through the OF. forest
(F. foret), from the low L. foresta, which in medieval writers
means the open fields, as oppposed to the parcus (park) or walled-in
" wood," from L. forestis, out of, not shut, from L. foris, out of
doors (from fores, doors), meaning that it was out, or away from,
the cultivated district. From this word also comes our word
foreign, through the F. forain, and the It. word forestieri, foreigners
or outsiders. The word wood, or " a wood," is generally applied

1 The word vegetable, which
comes from the L. vegetabilis, was
not even in Latin originally con-
fined to what belonged to plants,
or what we term vegetables. It
merely signified animating, invigor-
ating. The L. word veyeto, are, sig-
nifying to make lively, to strengthen,
from L. vegeo, to make lively (ap-

parently from the same root as vigeo,
to flourish, to thrive), has very grad-
ually come to be confined to plants
exclusively, and from it, in this
sense, we have vegetation, vegeta-
rian, and we speak of plants requiring
heat in order to vegetate, and figur-
atively we apply the word to people
when they lead an idle, stupid life.

58 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

to a collection of growing trees, but of small extent, and in a
neighbourhood more generally cultivated than that of a forest.
But wood, AS. ivudu, is applied also to the solid part of trees
— the wood, and afterwards to trees cut or sawed. The terms
wood or timber, though in reality distinct, have often been con-
founded. Timber, from the AS. tiiribran, to build, designates
properly wood for building purposes (the cognate Ger. word
zimmer signifies both a building and an apartment). Ligneous
(from the L. lignum, wood) is a more scientific word than woody,
with which in this usage it is otherwise synonymous. It is inter-
esting to call to mind the original L. word for forest, silva or sylva.
I think it was usually employed to describe the wildest forests,
and in neighbourhoods most remote from the homes of men,
although the word sylvan, which comes from it, is generally used
for the more beautiful as well as tranquil aspects of wooded
scenery, — sylvan glades and such like. Yet from this L. word
silva we have derived our word savage, through the F. sauvage,
which, however, in OF. was written salvage, from, the L. silvaticus
(in the seventh century written salvaticus). A savage man was
originally a native of a wild uncultivated country, whose inhabit-
ants were unacquainted with the arts of civilised life, and with it
we are carried back to the time when, as Dryden writes, " wild
in woods the noble savage ran," — so that savage is wild, as through
being more applicable to animals it reminds us always of ferocity.

A garden of fruit trees, especially of apple-trees, is called an
orchard, from the AS. orceard and octgeard (Goth, aurtigardo, a
garden), probably an adoption of the L. hortus, with the h mute,
as in the It. orto. The Goth, aurtja, gardener, and the OH. Ger.
orzon, to cultivate, point also to the L. hortus. The ch of our
English word is owing to a fusion of t and g (OE. ort, and geard,
garden). Yard and garden are also worth comparing. Arbor, the
Latin for tree, seems to have been originally another form of herba,
and was in its primary use applied to everything that had sprung
up, grown, or vegetated ; but in its more restricted meaning it came
to signify a tree — that is, a perennial plant with a simple shoot or
stem, which, after rising from the root to a greater or less height,

THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 59

spreads out its branches and leaves. I am not sure, however, that
it has given us an arbour, which, although covered with branches
by trees, plants, &c., is supposed to be a contraction of harbour, a
shelter. The stem, when cut off from the root and disencumbered
of its top branches, is called the trunk, and the same name is given
to the body of a man considered separately from the head and
limbs. It comes from the L. trunco, to lop off the branches of a
tree. To prune a tree, however, is very different from truncating
it. It is not to cut down the shrub or tree, but merely to lop off
such superfluous shoots or boughs as might injure its growth, or
interfere with the quality or quantity of its fruit. The origin of
the word to prune is rather uncertain. It is usual to derive it
from the F. word provigner, which means to cut slips from the
stock of a vine for the purpose of planting them and forming new
stocks ; but our word to prune has no relation to the utility of the
slips. The word graft is applied to the small branch used in
grafting, by inserting it into another tree of a different kind, — and
the word comes from the L. graphium, a style or pencil, which
the inserted slip resembled, from the Gr. grapho,1 to write. The
trunk of a tree after rising to a certain height from the root
separates or breaks itself into divisions, each of which is called a
branch. The word branch certainly was derived from the F.
branche (in Breton, branca), as in Italy and Spain, and there can
be little doubt, I think, that the F. branche was derived from the
L. brachium, the arm. But a direct derivation from brachium is
inadmissible. It is necessary for this to have h.ad a L. form
brancia. Diez believes that the word branca belonged to the low
Latin language, and alleges various reasons for thinking so ; while
Neumann, founding on the German zw&ig, a branch, which is a

1 No Greek word supplies us with
more English words than grapho, to
write. It gives us a graphic descrip-
tion even in a paragraph, while
biography (bios, life), geography
(ge, the earth), bibliography (biblos,
a book), ethnography (ethnos, a race),
hydrography (hydor, water), litho-
graphy (lithos, stone), photography
(phos, light), topography (topos, a

place), typography (tupos, a type),
are all formed in part from
grapho. Graphite is a form of
carbon, called also plumbago or
black - lead, used chiefly in the
manufacture of pencils. A para-
graph is a marginal mark set to
call attention, or generally to
indicate a new division or change
of subject.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

diminutive of zwei (two), in consequence of the idea of bifurcation,1
proposes for the Latin branca the etymology of bi-ramica (bis,
two, and ramus, a branch). Ramus is much more frequently used
than brachium in Latin, but it has few compounds in English
beyond ramify and ramification, through the F. ramifier, from the
L. ramus, and facio, I make.

Acacia is the name given to a class of thorny leguminous plants,
from the Gr. ake, a sharp point.

Acanthus is another prickly plant, from the same root, and Gr.
anthos, lit. the prickly plant.

Aconite — in English, monkshood, from the shape of its flower —
receives its name from the Gr. word akoniton, signifying without a
struggle, alluding to the deadly virulence of its juice, which is said
by an old writer to be the most hasty of all poisons.

Acorn, the fruit or seed of the oak, was in AS. cecern, in Goth.
akran, used originally for any fruit of the field (Goth, dkrs, a field),
but afterwards in its present limited sense. The present spelling
is possibly owing to the supposition that it was compounded of oak
and kern or corn, seed, which indeed may be the case.

Amaranth, from the Gr. amarantos, unfading (from a, privative,
and maraino, to waste away), is the name given to a genus of richly-
coloured flowers which last a long time without withering. The
original species was one which, from the quality of reviving its
original colour when put in water, was much used by the ancients
for winter chaplets.

Anemone, from Gr. anemos, the wind, — lit. the wind-flower,
either because some of the species live in exposed situations, or
because it was believed that it never opened but when the wind
blew.

Artichoke comes directly from the Italian articiocco, probably
from Arabic ; the last syllable was formerly pronounced chock, but
has been latterly re -spelt and re -pronounced under the influence
of the verb to choke. A still better example of popular etymology

1 Bifurcation, a dividing into two
(from L. bifurcatus, two - pronged,
from bis, twice, and furca, a fork),

forked, separated into two heads
or branches.

THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 61

is seen in Jerusalem artichoke, which has nothing to do with
Jerusalem, but is compiled from It. girasole (turning to the sun),
the sunflower which gyres or turns round with the sol, sole. This
sort of artichoke, however, has as little to do with the holy city
as Jordan almonds have to do with the sacred river. Jardyne
almaunde, as the word was at one time spelt, is merely the almond
of the jardyne or garden. I suspect that along with the disap-
pearance of Jerusalem from the artichoke will disappear the
supposed appropriate name given to the puree made from it — viz.,
Palestine soup.

Asparagus has not fared much better at the hands, or in the
mouths, of those who had to pronounce it, or to eat it. The cause is
ignorance of its origin in the Gr. word asparagos (from a, privative,
and speiriosthai, to sow), because it grows many years without
being sown, continually seeding itself. The learned knew that
it was the Greek word borrowed intact, and the fact that it had
no relatives in English made no difference to them, for they
associated it with the Greek. To the unlearned, however, who
knew nothing of its origin, it was an English word like any other ;
and their minds unconsciously attempted to associate it with some
other word or words with which they were familiar. It was long
enough to be a compound. Its last syllable sounded like a slovenly
pronunciation of grass. There were already many plant names in
which grass was the last syllable. A is easily lost, and sparrow is
vulgarly sparra. The result was mentally sparrow-grass — a form
which immediately satisfied the popular conscience. True, the
plant had nothing to do with sparrows, but one cannot have every-
thing in this world. What has dog-grass to do with dogs 1 In
general this sort of etymologising is easily satisfied. Half a loaf is
better than no bread. Walker, in his celebrated Pronouncing
Dictionary, says, " This word is vulgarly pronounced sparrowgrass.
It may be observed that such words as the vulgar do not know how
to spell, and which convey no definite idea of the thing, are
frequently changed by them into such words as they do know how
to spell, and which do convey some definite idea. The word in
question is an instance of it, and the corruption of this word into

62 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

sparrowgrass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness
and pedantry."

Belladonna, It., lit. beautiful lady, is the name given to the
deadly nightshade, so called according to Tournefort, &c., from its
berries, known in France as guines de cotes, being used by the
Italian ladies as a cosmetic. Kay also says it was called belladonna
from the increased brilliancy it gave to the eyes.

Bent-grass is the name given to any wiry or rush-like grass near
the sea-shore, such as usually grows upon a bent — i.e., common
or other broken ground, as "Poor men bickered on the bent"
("Chevy Chase"), and preserved in Scotland to this day. The
name of the grass seems to have been taken from the place of
growth, as in the case of heath, brake, or briar. Under the name
of bent are comprised Agrostis vulgaris and Triticus junceus.

Borage, a name given to a genus of plants in consequence of
the roughness of their foliage, from late Latin burra, a shaggy
garment.

Burnet, from F. brunette, brown, from the dark -brown colour
of its flowers.

Butcher's broom, the common name given to Ruscus aculeatus,
a long-growing shrub. The whole plant was gathered by butchers,
and made into besoms for sweeping their blocks and their shops,
and hence has received the name of butcher's broom.

Cabbage. There is good reason for believing that this comes,
like the German Jcappus, from the L. caput, the head.

Carline thistle (Carlina vulgaris), from F. carline, Sp., It.,
and mediaeval L. carlina, reported to be from Carolina, from the
Emperor Carolus Magnus, Charlemagne, because it was said to
have been divinely shown to him as a safeguard against the
plague.

Chestnut, a nut or fruit enclosed in a prickly case, not from
chest, as might be supposed, but through the OF. castaigne, from
L. castanea, Gr. kastanon, from Castan in Pontus where the tree
abounded. Its use as slang for a stale joke or story — an old
"Joe," something frequently said or done before — originated in
America, but by whom is not certain. Lord Halket in 'Notes

THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 63

and Queries' says, "I first heard the -word in 1882 in a theatrical
chop-house (Brown's) in New York : the explanation given to me
by Mr Brown — once a well-known member of Wallack's company
— was, ' Chestnut, because it is old enough to have grown a beard,'
alluding to the prickly, bristly husk of the nuts."

Cinnamon is the Hebrew ginnamon, which is borrowed from
some other Eastern tongue. The older English form is cinnamom,
from L. cinnamomum, itself from the Hebrew. But this English
form was made even by scholars who were familiar with Hebrew
and thought cinnamon erroneous.

Clematis, a climbing plant, from Gr. Jclematis, from Jdema, a
twig or vine branch, is popularly called travellers' joy, and Tenny-
son in " Aylmer's Field " describes a hut as being " parcel-bearded
with the traveller's joy." The French name of the plant is viorne,
which is derived from the L. arburnum. This in botanical Latin
having become viorna, was interpreted by old Gerarde, the herb-
alist, 1597, as standing for viam ornans, as if the plant which
decks the wayside with its flowers so cheers the traveller on his
journey that it has become " the traveller's joy." His own account
of his ingenious invention is as follows : " It is commonly called
viorna, quasi vias ornans, of decking and adorning ways and
hedges where people travel, and thereupon I have named it The
Traveller's Joy" (Herbal, i. 739).

Coltsfoot, the usual name given to a plant with large soft
leaves, from the resemblance they bear to the shape of a colt's
foot before it has been shod. The botanical name is tussilago,
the cough -dispeller, from the two L. words tussis, a cough, and
ago, I dispel or drive away, because it was believed to be very
efficacious in removing coughs. It is used in medicine for this
purpose under the name of coltsfoot rock, and in Scotland it is
still occasionally smoked for a cough, instead of stramonium, and
is called by the common people dishelago, which is merely a
corruption of tussilago.

Columbine is the English name for plants such as Aquilegia
vulgaris or common columbine, the inverted flower of which has
some resemblance to five pigeons clustered6together, — the L. word

64 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

for pigeon is coluniba. The L. name aquilegia comes from aquila,
an eagle, and has been given to it because its nectaries bear a
fancied resemblance to an eagle's claws.

Currant, said to be so named from Corinth, and applied first to
a small kind of raisin or dried grape imported from the Levant,
and afterwards to the fruit of several garden shrubs.

Daffodil is a variant of affodil. The initial d has not been
satisfactorily accounted for. It has been variously suggested as
due to childish or playful distortion, as in Ted for Edward; to
final d of and, "fennel an(d a)ffodil"; to union of the Dutch
or Flemish article, as de affodil ; and to French d , as in flew
d'asphodele. As in English the word has gained a letter, in six-
teenth-century French it sometimes lost one (see Littre^ asphodele).
Affodil and its popular variants, daffodil, daffadilly, were origin-
ally and properly the asphodel. Then, by popular misconcep-
tion, due apparently to the application to both plants at their first
introduction into England of the fanciful name Laus Tibi, it was
applied, especially in the popular variations, to species of narcissus,
&c. Botanists, after resisting this misapplication, compromised the
matter by retaining affodil for the asphodel, while daffodil was
restricted in popular use to the yellow narcissus or yellow daffodil
of English fields and gardens. The form daffodilly perhaps origin-
ated in the name of lily, so frequently applied, at least in Scotland,
to the white narcissus, there called the white lily.

Daisy, from OE. doges cage, or eye of day, in allusion to the
appearance of the flower, and to its closing its ray so as to conceal
the yellow disc in the evening and opening it again in the mor-
ning. As Leyden writes (1803), "Scenes of Infancy," 1. 291 —

" When evening brings the merry folding hours,
And sun-eyed daisies close their winking flowers."

Dandelion, originally written dent du lion by Douglas in his
translation of the ^Ineid, being the French words for " tooth of the
lion," as in L. dens leonis, so called from the toothed and jagged
outline of the leaves. The botanical term Leontodon is from
the Gr. leon, a lion, and odous, odontos, a tooth. It is called in

THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 65

Scotland dandelion, and so spelt without any thought of its
meaning.

Devil's bit. The name given to the plant Scdbiosa sticcisa (from
succido, to cut off), in consequence of the root having the appear-
ance of having been cut off. It is a translation of the medieval
L. morsus diaboli, the devil's bite, and in Ger. Teufel's Abbitz.
According to Gerarde in his Herbal, the devil bit it for envy,
because it was a plant whose root had so many good qualities
and was so beneficial to mankind. However this may be,
it has no good qualities now, although the flowers are very
attractive.

Drosera, or sundew, receives its name from the Gr. drosys, the
leaves being covered with red hairs which exude drops of a viscid
fluid, especially when the sun is shining, when it appears as if
tipped with dew.

Dwale is the name frequently given to the deadly nightshade,
from the stupefying and poisonous effects of a draught of that
plant, — probably from the Scandinavian. In Dan. dvale, dead
sleep.

Eglantine. The name given by Milton in " L' Allegro " to the
sweet-briar, and by botanists to other species of rose as well,
whose branches are covered with sharp prickles. The word is
from the French. The OF. is aiglent, possibly from the L. word
acidentus, prickly (from acus, a needle, and suffix lentus). In L.
we have aculeus, a sting or prickle.

Elm. At one time spelt Ulrtw (e), showing that the Ger. ulme
and the Dutch olm are all due to the influence of the L. word
ulmus.

Feverfew. In the seventeenth century the word was spelt
feuer fue, showing more clearly its origin and meaning. It was
adapted from the late L. febri-fuga, a febrifuge, an herb good
against fevers (from feber, febris, a fever, and fugare, to drive
away.)

Fritillary, the English name of the Fritillana Meleagris, a
plant which grows in moist meadows in east and south of England.
The name is derived from the L. fritillus, a dice-box, or the table

66 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

or board on which men played chess or draughts, with square
chequers — the name referring to the chequered markings on the
corolla, not to its shape, as usually supposed.

Fumitory. This name comes from the OF. fumeterre, adopted
from medieval L. fumus terrce, the smoke of the earth, because
it springeth out of the earth in great quantity as smoke doth ;
or rather, because the smoke of it was believed by the ancient
exorcists to have the power of expelling evil spirits.

(Jean, the name of the wild cherry, both tree and fruit. The
name, used now chiefly in Scotland, is of unknown origin, and
can be traced no farther back than to the F. guigne, which in the
fourteenth century was spelt guine, and is now not unfrequently
spelt with us guean.

Geranium, from Gr. geranos, a crane, because the fruit resembles
the beak of that bird. English name, Crane's-bilL

Gillyflower, a popular name for " the stock," &c., so called from
its clove-like smell, is a modern corruption of an older word,
which is variously spelt in earlier writers gyllofer, gillorer, gelever,
gelofer, gilofer, &c., — all through F. giroflee, girofle, derived through
L. caryophyllum, possible Gr. karyophyHon, the clove-tree, from
Tcaryon, a nut, and phyllon, a leaf. Many old writers further
transform gillyflower into July-flower, with reference to the fact
of its blossoming in that month !

Gooseberry is a word whose etymology is very perplexing,
although it seems so simple ; but it does not seem to have any
connection with goose. The oldest form of the word gooseberry
is in an old French grammar of 1532, where it is supposed to stand
for gors, or gros-berry, for we find groser, a gooseberry, in Turner
in 1548. I think the origin is either the word gors (gorse), from
the connection between the whin, as it is called in Scotland, the
prickly shrub generally called gorse in England, while the berry
distinguishes it from gorse, which has no berries but only pods ;
or the word grose, for great or coarse, as it is both larger and
coarser than other berries, especially from the hairs with which it
is covered.

Heliotrope means literally a turning towards the sun (from Gr.

THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 67

helios, the sun, and trope, a turning), the name given to a popular
garden and window-flowering plant, but properly given to the turn-
sole or sunflower.

Kale or kail, the northern form of cole ; and as kail was long
the chief constituent of dinner in Scotland, the word was often,
and still is occasionally, used for the meal itself.

Knapweed was originally knop-weed, from the hard, roughly -
mounted head or involucre.

Lettuce, from L. lactuca, from L. lac, milk, so called on
account of its milky juice.

Loosestrife, just the translation of the botanical name Lysi-
machia (lusis and mache, the loosing of strife). Pliny says the
name was given after a certain King Lysimachus, but nevertheless
in deference to the popular notion that if it were laid on the yoke
of oxen when they quarrelled it would quiet them.

Nasturtium, cress, received its name from the L. nasus, a nose,
and tortus, twisted or distorted, " a distorted nose," on account of
the pungent properties of the plant inducing many to twist or
writhe their nose when they smelt it.

Parsley — F. persil, from L. petroselinum, from Gr. petroselinon,
from petros, a rock, and selinon, a kind of parsley.

Primrose, literally the first rose, F. prime rose, L. prima rosa
(from primus, first), the name given to an early spring flower,
very abundant in our woods and meadows.

Ranunculus — this name has been given to the crowfoot, from
the L. word rana, a frog, as frogs frequent the places where such
plants grow.

Rosemary> literally sea-spray, the name given to a small ever-
green plant of a pungent taste, which usually grows on the sea-
coast. It has no connection with a rose, or with the Virgin, but
is composed of two L. words, ros, dew, and marinus, from mare,
the sea.

Samphire, the name given to Crithmum maritimum, the sea
samphire, a perennial plant, fleshy, small, salt, and pungently
aromatic in flavour, with stems about a foot high, grows on rocky
sea-shores and cliffs, near Dover, notably below what is called

68 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

Shakespeare's Cliff, from the description which he gives of it in
"King Lear," IV. i., where he says, —

" There is a cliff, whose high and bending head
Looks fearfully in the confined deep," &c. ;

and when standing on its summit, he says, IV. vi., —

" How fearful

And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low !
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles : half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade !
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head," &c.

The leaves of the herb were used as an old-fashioned pickle,
and they are still sold in the London shops, but there are many
plants generally preferred for the same purpose. It is also called
the herb of St Peter, and the word samphire is supposed to be a
corruption of French Saint Pierre, and the resemblance in pro-
nunciation is more clearly seen when the word is spelt, as in
Smith's 'English Flora' and elsewhere, "sampire."

Saxifrage, the name given to a genus of Alpine plants generally
found growing in rocky places, gradually wearing away the rocks
and stones from which they find nourishment, and so were named
saxifraga, or stone-breakers, from L. saxum, a stone, and frango, to
break. Some think that they have received the name because at
an earlier period they were believed to be useful for dissolving
stones in the bladder.

The Tansy — the true tanacetum, and not the senecio or ragwort,
— a little aromatic plant with small yellow flowers, has received the
name of tansy, which signifies literally "the immortal plant,"
from the length of time during which, after being pulled, its
flowers retain their shape, fresh appearance, and smell, from the
F. tanaisee, through late L., from Gr. athanasia, immortality.

Wormwood is the name given to the bitter plant absinthe. A
very common intoxicating drink, under the name of absinthe in
France and of vermuth in Germany. There is good reason for
believing that the word was originally written wer-mod, so that the

THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 69

theories about its having been originally werm-od, from the root of
warm with affix od, from having been originally taken to warm the
body, is entirely erroneous, and that Professor Skeat's idea is
correct that the word is to be analysed as wer-mod — i.e., ware-
mood, or mind -preserver, a name due to a primitive notion that
the plant, like hellebore, was a specific for mental diseases, being
derived from AS. warian, to protect, and mod, the mind.
Similarly, Ger. vermuth, from weliren, to protect, and muth, the
mind. That some such belief existed is evident from Tusser's
saying, in his 'Husbandry,' published 1580, that "It is a comfort
to the heart and brain," and Burton, in his 'Anatomy of Melan-
choly,' says that it was " much prescribed, especially for hypo-
chondriac melancholy." It has also been employed as a vermifuge,
and this seems to have suggested both the wrong spelling and the
wrong division of the word.

Before leaving the vegetable kingdom, there are two words
intimately connected with it of which something should be
said. These are flower and fruit. The word flower (from L.
flos, floris) signifies like the L. word (1) a flower or blossom, and
(2) the best of anything. Our word flour comes from the same
root, and was originally spelt in the same way, so that in Dr
Johnson's Dictionary of 1753 there is no such word as flour, but
he gives as one of the senses of flower, " the edible part of corn,
meal." The original spelling of the word was flour, which con-
tinued to be occasionally used in all senses until 1700, though
flower, introduced in the fifteenth century, was latterly the pre-
vailing form. Flower and flour are now unquestionably two
words, with slightly different pronunciations. The word fruit
comes through the F. fruit, from • the L. fructus (originally enjoy-
ment of anything — from fruor, fructus, to enjoy), which soon came
to signify profit or advantage arising from the produce of land and
trees — that is, fruit. The connection between it and frugality,
which comes from the same root, is shown on p. 305.

CHAPTEE VIII.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

Animal, from anima, breath (from Gr. ao, breath. — i.e., air exhaled
and inhaled, and then the vital principle).

This kingdom embraces the whole of that department of natural
history which treats of animals, and is called zoology, from Gr.
zoon, an animal, and logos, a discourse. It is arranged in two
divisions, each distinguished by some broadly marked peculiarity
of structure. The divisions are — first, vertebrata, literally, back-
boned animals, from L. vertebra, the backbone ; second, inverte-
brata, without a backbone.

THE FIRST DIVISION, VERTEBRATA,

is subdivided into four clases : (1) mammalia, or suck -giving
animals, from L. mamma, the breast ; (2) aves, birds, from L.
avis, a bird; (3) reptilia, reptiles, from L. reptilis, from L. repo
or serpo, to creep or crawl ; and (4) pisces, fishes, from L. piscis,
a fish. Each of these is again subdivided into orders.

Class 1. Mammalia

embraces nine orders — (1) Bimana (having two hands), from
L. bis, twice, and manus, the hand, is the term applied to the
highest order of mammalia, of which man is the type, and the only
species. Few persons of the present day will assert that "men
have four legs by nature, and 'tis custom makes them go errone-

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 71

ously upon but two." For not only are they infinitely pre-eminent
by their high and peculiar character and power of mind, but
stamped with a bearing lofty and dignified, with "far nobler
shape, erect and tall, god-like erect, with native honour clad."
"We therefore propose to keep man entirely distinct, and
to consider him after we have finished the merely animal
kingdom.

(2) Quadnunana (having four hands), from L. quatuor,1 four,
and manus, a hand. This order includes the monkey tribe. Its
members are remarkable for the resemblance they bear to the
human race, and I cannot but think that in the different names
given to these belonging to this order we have more references to
men than have been generally recognised. Most philologists
content themselves with showing that the word ape was in AS.
apa, and in Dutch and Icel. aap and api, in Ger. a/e, in Gr.
Jceposo, in Sans. Itapi, a monkey. Skeat explains that the loss
of the initial k is not remarkable in a word which has had so far
to travel, as it is commonly supposed that the same loss has taken
place in the case of Sans, kam, to love, as compared with L.
amare. Max Miiller notes that the Heb. koph, an ape (IK. 10,
22), is not a Semitic word, but borrowed from Sanscrit. The
Sans, kapi stands for kampi, from kamp, to tremble, vibrate,
move rapidly to and fro. Baboon is said to be from the F. babuin,
a little ape, but that the remoter origin is obscure ; while
monkey is supposed to come from O.It, monna, the nickname for
an old woman, an ape, a contraction of It. madonna, mistress.
These learned etymologies seem to have all missed the point, for
I think these three different names of ape, baboon, and monkey
are all names, nicknames if you choose to regard them as such,

1 From quatuor we have quad-
rangle, a square surrounded by
buildings, a quadrant, the fourth
part of a circle, or an arc of 90
degrees, quadrate, squared, quad-
ratic, belonging to a square, quad-
rille, a game of cards played by
four, also a dance made up of sets
of dancers having four couples each
(through It. quadrylia), quadroon

(F. quarteron), the offspring of a
mulatto and a white person, so called
because their blood is one-fourth
black, quadruped, a four - footed
animal, quarter, the fourth part,
quaternion, a file of four soldiers,
quaternions, a kind of mathe-
matical investigation, so called
because four independent quantities
are involved.}

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

arising from a certain likeness which these creatures bear to the
human species. The word ape, for instance, seems to be merely
a varied pronunciation of the Gothic word aba, a man; while
baboon is the sort of augmentative of babe, as if we were to say a
large child ; while monkey I regard as the diminutive of man, or
tnon as it was often spelt — so that monkey would signify the
mannikin — a sort of double diminutive, as the word donkey is dun
(as regards its colour) and ik + ie, and so here mon-ik-ie. While the
Latin simius signifies an ape, and is said to come from simiis, pug-
nosed, I think it may be yet possible, through some presently
missing link, to associate it with similis, like, so that everything
connected with the nomenclature of this order would connect it
some way or other with a similarity to man. The name orang-
outan is said to come from Malay outan, signifying wild, and
orang, man, "the wild man." The lemur is also found under
this order, it is closely allied to the monkey, but it prowls about
only at night, hence its name lemur, which is the Latin for a
ghost — lemures being the general name for the departed spirits
of men.

(3) Cheiroptera (hand- winged animals), from Gr. cheir,1 the
hand, and pteris, a wing, for they have a pair of wings, formed
by an extension of the skin over the very elongated fingers of the
fore legs, and connected also with the hind legs. The bats belong
to this order ; the name probably comes from beat, from the beat-
ing of their wings, — an etymology rather confirmed by what we
are told of the vampire bat.

This name of vampire has been given to the bat from the rather
vamped-up story of the vampire, who is said to be a dead man
who returns in body and soul from the other world and wanders
about the land doing mischief to the living. He sucks the blood
of persons asleep, and these persons become vampires in their turn.
The vampire lies as a corpse during the day, but by night, especi-

1 From cheir, the hand, we have
surgeon (from F. chirurgien), one
whose business it is to heal dis-
eases and injuries of the body
by manual operations (Gr. ergon,

work), such as cutting, bandag-
ing. Surgery is thus a medical
art ; a surgery is a place where
such surgical operations are per-
formed.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

ally at full moon, wanders about. Sir Walter Scott, 'Rokeby,'
iii. 2, 3, alludes to the superstition, and Lord Byron in his
' Giaour ' says —

" The first on earth as vampire sent,
Thy corse shall from the tomb be rent,
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race.:!

(4) InsectivSra (insect -devourers), from insedum, and voro —
insectum from inseco (of in, into, and seco,1 to cut), so that an
insect is literally cut into — as with the body cut in the middle, and
voro,2 avi, atum, are, to devour. Under this order are included
the moles and the hedgehogs. The word mole is an abbreviated
form of molde-warp, the mould-caster, from ME. molde, mould,
and ME. werpen, to cast, from the little heaps of mould which the
small animal casts up as he burrows in the ground. The mowdie-
warp is still a common name for the mole in Scotland. The
hedgehog is so called from his living in a hedge and having a
likeness to a hog or pig. It was at one time much more frequently
called the urchin, a name which is now generally confined to boys,
and to sea-urchins. But urchin was not an inappropriate name for
the hedgehog, inasmuch as the word comes through the F. herisson
— 'from the L. ericius, their name for hedgehog.

(5) Carnivora (flesh -devourers), from L. caro, flesh,3 and voro,
to devour. These are divided into two tribes — (1) the planti-
grade, and (2) the digitigrade. (1) The plantigrade walk on the
sole of the foot, from L. planta, the sole, and gradior,* to walk ;

1 From seco, seem, sectum, secare,
to cut, we have section, sectional,
sect, bisect, dissect, intersect, vivi-
section— the dissection of animals
yet alive for scientific purposes.

2 Voro, to swallow up greedily,
gives us devour, voracious, voracity,
carnivorous, flesh-eating, gramini-
vorous, grass-eating, insectivorous,
insect - eating, and omnivorous =
animals that eat all kinds (omnia],
both animal and vegetable sub-
stances.

3 From this word caro, carnis, we
have carnage, carnal, carnation,
a flesh - coloured flower, carnival,
a farewell to flesh (carni vale), or
a solace to the flesh (levdmen), being
just before Lent, carrion, dead,
putrefying flesh, a charnel house
contains carcases. Incarnate means
embodied in flesh.

4 From gradior, gressw, gradi,
to step, walk, or go, or rather from
gradus, a step or degree, from which
it is derived, we have not merely

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

and (2) the digitigrade, that walk on their toes, L. digitus,1
finger or toe, and gradior, to walk. Of the plantigrade the best
known species are the bear (AS.), the racoon, a carnivorous
animal of ]STorth America, valuable for its fur, — the word is a
corruption of F. raton, a diminutive of rat, a rat. The badger
is said to be a corruption of bladger (through OF. bladier, from
low L. bladarius, a corn-dealer, from bladium, corn), because the
badger was popularly believed to store up corn. (Whether he really
does so is on etymological grounds a matter of indifference.) It
has come as a verb to signify to pester or worry, especially by
superior numbers. This is in allusion to the ancient custom of

grade, but gradient, the rate of
ascent when a railroad is not quite
level. Gradual means proceeding
step by step, as a gradual increase
of knowledge, a gradual descent.
Men acquire a fixed character
gradually. We graduate scales,
thermometer, &c., that is, we mark
the degrees upon them. To grad-
uate also means to take or be ad-
mitted to a degree in a university,
or some professional incorporated
body. An aggressor is the person
who begins a quarrel ; an aggres-
sion leads to hostility. War is
aggressive on the part of those who
begin it. A congress is an as-
sembly for settling affairs. To
degrade is to reduce to a lower
level, moral or social. We speak
of the lowest degradation of human
nature. Art is degraded when it is
only regarded as a trade. Degree
means extent, step, or rank, as a
degree of a circle, or of the earth's
circumference, a degree of excel-
lence, an Oxford, Cambridge, Edin-
burgh, or Aberdeen degree. To
digress is to turn aside from the
main subject in writing or speak-
ing : and we often make a digres-
sion. Egress means going out,
ingress, entrance into, or going in.
An ingredient is that which enters
into the composition of some mix-
ture : we speak of the ingredients

of a cup of tea. Progress is motion
onwards ; to progress is to go on-
ward, to make progress. A pro-
gressive state is opposed to a
retrograde or stationary one. A
progression is a regular and con-
tinued increase or decrease of mem-
bers, or a movement of the parts
in harmony. To retrograde is to
move backward. The state of the
Arts in the Dark Ages was a
retrograde state, and continued to
be retrogressive for some centuries.
A child may transgress the com-
mand of a parent. "The way of
transgressors is hard." " Sin is
any want of conformity unto,
or transgression of, the law of
God."

1 From digitus, a finger or toe,
we have the English word digit,
literally a finger, a finger's breadth,
or f -inch. Then from the habit of
counting with the fingers, any one
of the nine figures ; we have also
digital, pertaining to the fingers,
from the L. digitalis — the beautiful
plant called in English foxglove,
or perhaps more correctly the
folk's-glove, the " folk " being the
fairies, and the poetical idea being
that these are their gloves that
grow on that lovely plant. We
have also digitate, consisting of
several finger - like sections, and
digitigrade, walking on the toes.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 75

badger-baiting. A badger was kennelled in a tub, where dogs
were set upon him to worry him out. When dragged from his
tub the poor creature was allowed to retire to it again, till he had
recovered from the attack. This was repeated several times.
Badger-baiting was at one time a common exhibition at the
licensed bear-gardens, for the amusement of those who could not
pay for the expenses of bear-baiting. The Puritans were accused
of objecting to bear-baiting, not so much because it gave pain to
the bear, as because it gave pleasure to the spectators. Baiting
in this sense is from the Icel. beita, from the root of to bite, and
to bait an animal originally meant to provoke it by inciting
dogs to bite it. " Drawing the badger " originally meant draw-
ing the badger out of his tub by means of dogs — figuratively it
means extracting with difficulty something which you are anxious
to know and which another is unwilling to tell. But to "over-
draw the badger" is now "to overdraw one's bank account," as in
Hood's poem of " Miss Kilmansegg," —

" His checks no longer drew the cash,
Because, as his comrades explained in flash,
He had overdrawn his badger."

In many parts of Scotland the badger is called a brock, from
its black and white streaked face. In Gaelic broc is a badger
(from breac, speckled). In Scotland, too, we use the adjective
broket, meaning spotted, variegated, striped, white -faced. The
glutton also is plantigrade, and receives his name from his
voracity, through the F. glouton, from L. gluto, from glu, to
eat to excess.

Among the Digitigrade group of the order of Carnivora, some
of the most significant names are those of the Cat tribe, such as
the lynx, the leopard, the panther, and the cat. The lynx,
proverbial for its piercing eyesight, was a fabulous animal. Its
sight was said to be so penetrating that it could see even through
opaque bodies. But the cat-like animal now called a lynx is not
remarkable for keen-sightedness. The name is the same in Gr.
and L. lynx, probably from Gr. lyke, light, and so called rather

76 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

from its Irright eyes. Leopard is made up of the two Latin words,
leo, a lion, and pardus, a pard, or panther, with which it is often
confounded, "bearded like the pard."

The word " cat " is found in a very much similar form in at least
a dozen languages, such as Teutonic, Celtic, Slavonic, Arabic, Turk-
ish, and late Latin. It has not given rise to many other words
in English. It has originated the word catkin, from the resem-
blance between the loose cluster of flowers growing on willows
and a cat's tail. The grass, Phleum pratense, is called cat's- tail
grass, from the very striking resemblance which that grass bears
to it. The phrase cat -o'- nine -tails, a whip with nine lashes,
evidently had reference to the nine lives of a cat, and implied
that whoever was subjected to it would be lashed within an inch
of his life. We have also the expression of a cat's-paw, applied
to the slight ripple on the water during a calm, and indicating
a storm, — the phrase is the relic of a superstition that cats were
witches or demons in disguise. Of course the phrase " to make
a cat's-paw of" is in allusion to the fable of the monkey, which
wanted to get from the fire some roasted chestnuts, and took the
paw of the cat to extract them from the hot ashes. The kitten
is in Middle English Tcyton, a diminutive of cat. In Scotland a
kitten is still called in many quarters a kitling, and the Scotch
pronunciation of the word for tickling has the same sound,
"kitlin'." On one occasion the precentor had a cold and hoarse-
ness, which interfered so much with his singing that when
he came into the vestry after the service the minister said to
him, " What was the matter with your voice to - day, George 1 "
George replied, " I had a kitlin' in my throat, sir ; " to which the
minister answered, " I'm glad that was all, for it sounded to me
like a big Tarn cat ! " An old cat is often called a grimalkin
— originally greymalkin. It is supposed by some that malkin
is from the Teut. mal, from the L. macula, a spot — usually a
spot which disfigures, although not necessarily, for Cicero speaks
of a horse with its white spots] as " equus maculus albis." The
general belief is that malkin is an old diminutive of Moll and
Mary, and was used to designate a mop, as well as a scullion

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

(a servant so called from working in the scullery), a kitchen wench
Now this word wench, from the AS. wende, a maid, connected
with Welsh gweine, to serve, soon came to signify a low, coarse
drab of a woman, so that grimalkin, as applied to an old cat, is not
a complimentary expression. The name of puss, although derived
originally from the sound made by what is called the spitting
of a cat, has come to be both its familiar and its affectionate name.
From the original Latin word for cat, felis, we have the word feline,
signifying what pertains to the cat — that is, to tigers, lions, &c.,
and as many as are of the cat kind. It may not be out of place
before leaving the subject of cat and kitten to mention that Kit-
Cat has no connection with either cat or kitten. The Kit-Cat
Club was the name of a London club formed in 1688, which met
in the house of Christopher Cat, that being the name of the
pastrycook who supplied the nmtton- pies, and after whom the
club was named. Sir Godfrey Kneller painted forty-three por-
traits of the club members for Jacob Jonson, the secretary, whose
villa was at Barn Elms, and where latterly the club was held.
In order to accommodate the paintings to the height of the
club room he was obliged to make them three -quarter -lengths,
hence a three-quarter portrait is still called a Kit -Cat. The
only opportunity which most of us have had of seeing the more
formidable specimens of the feline tribe is that which is fur-
nished by a menagerie. This word, which is now associated in
our minds with the place where foreign or wild beasts are kept,
comes to us through the F. from the L. mansionaticum, pro-
nounced first masinatico, and then became maisnage. Mansion-
aticum is a derivative of mansionem, F. maison, a house, and the
F. verb menager, to look after, administer, or manage everything
connected with the house. The word menagerie was applied not
so much to domestic administration as to the management of
cattle on a cattle farm, and afterwards both in French and English
exclusively to a travelling show of wild and foreign animals, also
a collection of them kept for the purpose of exhibition.1

1 Manage also comes to us from
the Latin through the French, and

although sometimes confounded in
spelling with menage, has really

78 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

Leaving the Felidce, or cat tribe, we now come to the Canidae,
or dog tribe, from L. canis, a dog, including all those whose type
is the common dog. It is remarkable, though, that the name of
dog does not occur in AS., but we find dog in Dutch and dogge in
German. I do not think that dogs had been at an early period held
in very high esteem in our country, for the words and phrases into
which it enters are not generally complimentary : dogged, as
applied to all the animals of this tribe, is in one sense compli-
mentary, and certainly appropriate enough; but when you use it
in a metaphorical sense, dogged means sullen, like an angry dog.
Dog cheap, again, does not mean cheap as dogs' meat, as is gener-
ally taken for granted, but as dogs themselves, showing the low
estimate which, even pecuniarily, was formed of them. Doggerel,
in regular measures in burlesque poetry, is named from dog, in
contempt. The word is found first in Chaucer : the host objects
to "Sir Thomas" as rym doggerel, using the term, however, as
a kind of quotation — "this may well be rym doggerel" — i.e.,
"this must be the rhyme doggerel that I have heard tell of."
Dog -Latin is bad Latin, or perhaps mongrel Latin, or, as
mongrel signifies, of a mixed breed. The dog's letter, meaning
the letter R, from the sound made by the dog in drawing up
its nose and uttering a sound between its teeth, like the rough
pronunciation of the letter r, nar, nar, this we call snarl or
growl. Probably dodging, signifying shifting, scheming, tricky,
comes from the way in which a dog wanders in his courses
and eludes your vigilance when he wishes to escape your
notice, so that he may well be regarded as the original "artful
dodger."

Dogmatism, which almost every one knows has no connection
with this animal, was cleverly and punningly associated with it in
Douglas Jerrold's answer to the question, What is Dogmatism1?
"Puppyism come to its full growth," this latter word signifying con-
ceit in young men ; while a puppy is the common name given to a

nothing in common with it, the
F. being manege, which signified
literally the handling or managing
of a horse (L. manus, the hand),

and then it came to signify the
careful and skilful treatment of
anything, such as a house, or affairs
in general.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

very young dog, sometimes called a whelp. The word hound was
originally applied to the dog generally, from the AS. hund, and
the term greyhound has no reference to the colour, but is in reality
the Icelandic word grig, a dog, the whole word meaning doghound.
It is akin to the Gr. kuon, kunos, and to the L. canis, dog. From
both of these we have derivations in English. From kunos1 we
have cynic and cynical, meaning doglike, surly, snarly, contempt-
uous ; while from L. canis, a dog, we have canine, like or pertain-
ing to a dog ; while the word kennel is through the OF. chenil,
and low L. and It. canile, a place where dogs are kept — from
canis, a dog, a house or coop for dogs. The words dog, hound,
whelp, puppy, and cur, are all terms of contempt when applied to
men. The word cur, as applied to a worthless degenerate dog, is
said to come from the Dan. kurre, from its growls, or, as we some-
times say, gurring. This is probable enough. It may have been,
however, that it came from the word curtail, originally, perhaps,
curt-tail, from the word curtus, short, and the F. tailler, to cut.
According to the old Forest Laws, dogs which did not belong to
the lord of the manor were ordered to be mutilated by having
their ears cropped or their tails shortened. These were at one
time called curtals, or curtal dogs. It may have been in course of
time that the word as well as the tail was shortened, and cur,
instead of curt, became the name for a dog. In writing thus of
cur and dog, I am reminded of the now obsolete verb condog,
which is generally believed to be a whimsical imitation of the
word concur, although no evidence has been found of its actual
origin. There is a tradition that when Dr Adam Littleton was
completing his Latin-English Dictionary, published in 1678, he

1 From kunos we have also cyno-
sure, which signifies literally the
dog's tail (from Gr. kuon, kunos,
a dog, and oura, a tail), which
is the name given to the constella-
tion called the Lesser Bear, or
rather to the three stars composing
the tail of it, the last of the three
being the pole star, or north star,
as we often term it, and which,
speaking generally, is the centre of

attraction to the magnet. It was the
star by which seamen used formerly
to steer, and consequently for which
they were on the outlook. And
so it has come to mean anything
which strongly attracts our atten-
tion, or which becomes a centre
of attraction, as when Milton
says in "L' Allegro," "where per-
haps some beauty lies, the cynosure
of neighbouring eyes."

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

employed an amanuensis, who wrote at his dictation, and when
they came to concurro, the amanuensis said " to concur, I sup-
pose, sir]" "To condog, I suppose, sir," was the Doctor's reply,
and accordingly " condog " was set down. I had always been
sceptical of the truth of that story, but now on looking whether the
word is given in Murray's English Dictionary, I find the word
"condog" with a reference to the tradition I have quoted; but
for all that, the story must have been a pure fiction, for we find
instances of the use of the verb in Lyly's Galatea, published in
1592 ; in Cockeram's Dictionary, 1623 ; in Heywood's Eoyal
King, 1637; and in the News Letter of 1649; and last of all
in Littleton's English Dictionary, 1678, "concurro, to concur, to
condog."

I have said that the association of dog with different words
generally gives them a degraded or inferior character, whether
animals or plants : the only exception is in the astronomical
world, where the dog -star, otherwise called Sirius or Canicula
(from L. cants, a dog), is the brightest and apparently the largest
of the fixed stars ; and the dog-days are the forty days, twenty
before and twenty after the day on which the dog -star rises at
the same moment as the sun, sometime between the 3rd of July
and the llth of August. These were called dog-days, and being
the hottest season of the year it was supposed that these were
so named because on these days dogs frequently went mad. This
madness of a dog is called hydrophobia (Gr. hudor,1 water, and

1 From Gr. hudor, hudatos, water,
we have the word dropsy (origin-
ally spelt hydropsy), being an un-
natural collection of serous (watery)
fluid in the body, as in dropsical
diseases of the head, the abdomen,
or the cellular tissue. Hydraulics
(from Gr. aulos, a pipe or tube) is
the science of the motion of fluids
(through pipes or tubes). Hydro-

dynamics treats of force (Gr. dyna-
mics) applied to fluids. Hydro-
statics relates to the pressure and
equilibrium of non - elastic fluids
like water. Hydrogen is a very
light gas, forming about one-ninth

part of common water. Hydro-
pathy, water - cure. The hydra
was a fabulous water serpent said
to have been killed by Hercules.
A new head had always up to his
time grown on when the old was cut
off: hence some evils are spoken
of as many - headed hydras. A
hydrant is a machine for discharg-
ing water. A hydatid is a watery
cyst or vesicle, sometimes found in
animal bodies, fromhudatos (the geni-
tive of hudor, water). Hydrangea,
literally " the water vessel," so called
from the cup - shaped seed - vessel
(anggeion, a vessel).

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 81

phobos, fear), from the unnatural dread of water which the animal
manifests, especially if the disease results from the bite of another
mad dog. A very clever answer was given by a Scotch clergyman
who, when asked by a gentleman if he knew why Sirius was called
the dog-star, replied, " I suppose it is because it is a Skye terrier "
(i.e., a sky-tamer). The names given to the different kinds of dogs
are very interesting. This name terrier comes from L. terra, the
earth, because he pursues animals to their earth or burrow. The
spaniel, which was once believed to be of Spanish origin, received its
name on that account (from old Ger. espagnol, F. epagneul, spaniel).
A poodle was long supposed to be so called because it waddled
after its master, or looked fat and clumsy on account of its thick
hair, being allied to the low Ger. word pudeln, to waddle, — used of
fat persons and short-legged animals ; but it has been pointed out
that the poodle is neither peculiarly fat nor short-legged, neither
has he a waddling gait. He is properly a water dog, and a more
satisfactory origin of the name may be found in the Dut. poedele,
to puddle in water, whence poedel-hond, a poodle or rough water
dog. Probably the word puddle (any small pool of muddy water)
has the same origin, or from putteln, puhteln, to paddle with the
hands in water, while to puddle clay is to make it up with water,
and we have the Ger. pudel, signifying nass, wet thoroughly.

Among the Canidae or dog set, and certainly among the most
ferocious of the carnivora, we must include the hyaena, as having
more points of resemblance than of difference. This bristly-maned
brute, however, is so named from its likeness to the sow, for its
L. and Gr. name hyaina, literally sow-like, comes from the Gr. hys,
a sow.

Very different in many respects from all the carnivora of which
we have spoken, yet as being carnivorous to be included among
them, are the amphibious tribe of the Phocidae. This word
phocidae comes from the L. phoca, or Gr. phoke, a seal, and in-
cludes what are called the seal family. They are called amphibi-
ous, as capable of living both on land and under water (from
Gr. amphi, both, and bios, life). The English word seal is only
slightly changed from the AS., Icel., and old Ger. forms of th-s

82 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

word. One of the family is the walrus, literally the "whale
horse," from the Ger. wall-ross (wall, a whale, and ross, a horse),
and generally called by us the sea-horse. The other name which
is applied to it — viz., that of morse — is from the Russian word for
the walrus — viz., morjs.

(6) Cetacea (animals partaking of the character of the whale),
from Gr. Jceton, a whale. The English word is AS. hwael, sup-
posed without much reason to come from AS. hwelan, to rush or
roar (Ger. is wallfisch), the largest of sea animals, or of all living
creatures. Other members of this order are the dolphin (Gr.
delphin, L. delphinus) : the word has assumed the form it has in
our language through the OF. daulphin. The dolphin is the fish
so famed in classic story as the friend, and, as far as he could be,
the companion of man. When Arion was doomed by the sailors
to be thrown into the sea, a dolphin, charmed with the music of
his funeral-song, received him on its back and bore him safely to
Sparta. It was for this proof of philanthropy (of which, however,
he furnished no subsequent example) that, as some say, the dolphin
was placed among the stars, along with his friend Arion or Orion,
who exhibits one of the noblest constellations in the heavens.
Others say the dolphin was placed in the sky because his fondness
for music made him the favourite of Apollo, who assumed the
shape of that fish when conducting Castalius and his colony from
the island of Crete. A temple was erected to Apollo Delphinus,
and the Delphinia were feasts which the inhabitants of uEgina
held in honour of the god. The dolphin was therefore a sacred
fish, and the ten stars in that constellation, first observed by the
early astronomers, were considered as a representation of Apollo
and the nine Muses. The Greek delphax signified a pig or young
swine, and delphin meant not only a dolphin, but also a large
lump of lead, or of iron, which was thrown upon an enemy's ship
for the purpose of sinking it. This was called pig-lead or pig-
iron ; and, strangely enough, we still talk of pig-iron, which has
with us received that name because it is made to flow, when
melted, in channels called pigs, branching from a main channel
the sow. The grampus, a very large voracious fish of the

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

same family, is a corruption, after passing through many languages,
of the L. grandis piscis (grandis, great, and piscis, a fish). The
porpoise, or porpess, OF. poiyeis, signifies literally the hog -fish.
The Germans call it me&r-schicein — that is, sea-swine, sea-hog.
The name comes originally from L. porcus, a hog, from. its hog-
like appearance in the water, or from the fact that when its food
is scarce it dives, and, like the hog, burrows for sea-worms in the
sand.

(7) Rodentia (gnawing animals), from rodens, rodentis, pres. part,
of L. rodo,1 to gnaw, are so called because they are furnished with
teeth which do not directly cut or tear, but file through or gnaw
what they are disposed to eat The powers of the common mouse
in eating its way through hard wood are only too well known.
They are divided into seven families, of which the best known
are the Sciuridae, or squirrel tribe, from L. sciurus, a squirrel, in
. Gr. skiouros (from skia, a shade or shadow, and oura, a tail — lit.
shadow-tail), because they shade themselves with their tails. The
dormouse is so called from L. dormire, to sleep (from which we
have also dormant and dormitory), and mus, a mouse, because
it goes to sleep in winter, or hibernates, from L. hiberna, winter
quarters (from hiems, winter). While it resembles the squirrel
in its tail, it is like a mouse in its dentition ; and the marmot
in all probability derives its name, not, as has almost been taken
for granted, from It. marmotto, from L. mus, a mouse, and mons,
montis, a mountain (signifying literally a mountain -mouse), but
from the F. marmotter, to mutter, from the peculiar muttering
sound which they make when they are feeding. This derivation
is confirmed by the German name for the marmot, murmel-thier —
" the murmuring animal."

The Muridae, or the mouse family, are so called from the L.
mus, muris, a mouse : it is literally the stealing animal, as we
find it called in Sans, musha (applied also to a rat), possible

1 Rodo, rosi, rosum, rodtre, gives
us not merely such words as
rodents and rodentia, but cor-
rode, to eat or waste away.
Acids are corroding or corrosive

substances. Rust is a sort of cor-
rosion. Erosion means the eating
or wearing away. Cancer erodes
the flesh. The action of glaciers
is erosive.

84 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

root, mus, to steal, as seen in Sans, mush, to steal. The word rat
is more suggestive of the animal's gnawing than of its thieving
peculiarities. It is called raet in AS., cognate with Ger. ratte and
Gael, radan, but probably all allied to the L. word we have con-
sidered above — viz., rodo, to gnaw. This also seems the idea in
the Scotch word "rottan." The word rat has also come to be
used figuratively for a renegade through self-interest, as rats are
said to desert a falling house or a sinking ship ; and so we find it
used in politics to express a deserter, and among trades unionists
a workman accepting lower than the union rate, or working when
his mates have struck ; and so the verb to ratten has been formed,
and is used in the sense of to destroy tools and appliances, to
intimidate fellow workmen (or masters), to lock out employees,
or engage non-union (or free) labour.

The family of the Hystricidae are recognised at the first glance
by the stiff and pointed quills with which they are armed, the Gr.
name of hystrix being derived from the two Greek words hys, a
swine, and thrix, hair or bristles. It is the Porcupine family, a
name which is corrupted from the OF. porc-epin, " the spiny hog,"
and from L. porcits, a pig, and spina, a spine, expressive of the
pig-like aspect and grunting voice of these animals, as well as of
their spiny covering.

The last family of the Rodentia is the Leporidse, from the Latin
name for the typical members of this group — viz., lepus, leporis, a
hare. Its AS. name is hara. There was an old English verb to
hare (from the OF. harier), to frighten, so as to make one run
heedlessly or wildly, like a hare. In another spelling it was to
harry, which was the precursor of the modern verb to hurry.
Hurry is haste, either in flight or in other active motions, accom-
panied with that confusion of mind which attaches to a timid
animal fleeing -from its pursuers. It is characteristic of a person
having such a habitual temperament that we call him hare-
brained, or harum-scarum, like a scared hare. The AS. form
stands for an older form, Jiasa (s and r being often interchange-
able), as shown by the Dut. haas, Ger. hose, and Sans, hasa,
a hare, lit. a jumper, — all the forms being from a root has, to

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 85

jump, to move along by leaping, and so connected with the English
•word haste. Haste and hurry are, then, words of kindred origin
which have taken different departments of the language. Among
dogs we have those called harriers, because they are employed in
chasing hares. Some children are born with the upper lip cleft
in two, which from its similarity to that of a hare is called a
hare-lip. The Ger. word is hasen-scharte — i.e., a hair-notch or
slit ; and in some parts of Scotland it is called a hairshaw or
hareshaw, being a corruption of hare-schard, as being a gap,
fissure, or shard, like the lip of a hare. The word leveret signifies
a young hare under a year old, through the OF. levrault and mod.
F. lievre, from L. lepus, leporis. The word rabbit existed in ME.
in the form of rabet, and although it is alleged that no reason can
be shown for that name being given to it, yet I think a fair
etymology would be from the Hebrew rabbe, to multiply, from
their great fecundity. The Welsh rabbit is not only not a dis-
tinct species of rabbit, but is of an entirely different genus, being,
according to Trench and others, a corruption of rare-bit ; but until
the archbishop made the suggestion no evidence was produced
of rare-bit having been ever so used. Since that time, however,
some superfine restaurateurs have displayed their learning by
admitting " Welsh rabbits " into their mentis, but in the bills of
fare of mere eating-houses it is still vulgar rabbit. It is the name
for a dish of toasted cheese, and is supposed to have originated,
like many other slang expressions, from some dainty article of
food which it was humorously supposed to equal or surpass.

(8) Edentata (animals without front teeth), from the L. e, out
of, or without, and dens, dentis, a tooth. Theirs is the negative
agreement of " no incisor teeth." Of these animals the armadillo
is the chief. It derives its name from the Sp. diminutive of
armado, armed (from L. armdtus), because its body is armed with
a tesselated shell or scales fitted together into squares, like stones
in a pavement (from L. tessella, dimin. of tessera, a square piece).
The sloth belongs to this order, and from his tardigrade or tardy
steps (L. tardus, slow, and gradus, a step) it is seen how well he
deserves his name — viz., from the slowness of his movements.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

Sloth signifies literally " slowness," and should be pronounced long,
in order to feel the full significance of the word. With the order
of the Edentata terminates the series of the unguiculated, or clawed,
true mammalia — from L. unguis, a nail or claw, and claw being
connected with cleave, to stick to, or hold on.

(9) Pachydermata (thick-skinned animals), from Gr. pachys,
thick, literally firm, from root pak, and Gr. derma, dermatos, the
skin. These are divided into three groups: (1) Proboscidea ; (2)
true PachydermSta ; (3) the Solidungula. (1) The Proboscidea,
or literally "the front feeders," of which the elephant is the repre-
sentative. The elongated nose or proboscis comes from the Gr.
proboskis, from pro, in front, and bosko (L. pasco), to feed. The
name of elephant is also from the Gr. elephas, elephantos, supposed
to be from the Heb. elepli or aleph, an ox ; for the Gr. alpha, the first
letter of the Greek alphabet, comes from Heb. aleph, an ox, which in
its original shape resembled an ox's head. (2) The true Pachy-
dermata,— the first family of these is that of Suidae, the pig kind,
from L. sus, a sow. Of swine in general we have already spoken,
and we select as a representative the hippopotamus, or river horse,
from Gr. hippos,1 a horse, and potamos, a river. Among the true
pachydermdta is certainly to be included the rhinoceros, an animal
with a very thick skin and two horns on the nose — hence the
name, Gr. rhinokeros, from rhin, rhinos, the nose, and keras, a
horn. (3) Solidungula, from L. ungulus, a hoof = having a solid
hoof, including the horse, the ass, and the zebra. The horse is
called in AS. hors, in Icel. hross, in old Ger. hros, and in Gr. ra?&
The word is supposed to be taken from the Sans, hresh, to
neigh; but more probably connected with the L. curro, cur sum,
to run, a swift horse being still with us called a courser.
Manger, an eating-trough for horses or cattle (from the F. man-
geoire, from manger, to eat, from L. manducus, a glutton, from
mando, mansi, mansum, mandere, to chew) ; from this word also

1 From hippos we have in a round-
about way the word philippic, mean-
ing a discourse full of invective,
this being the name given to one
of the orations of Demosthenes

against Philip of Macedon : now
Philip (in Greek) is Philippos, and
Philippos signifies a lover of
horses (philos, a lover, and hippos,
a horse).

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 87

we have mandible (L. mandibulum, the jaw), the upper and lower
part of the beak of a bird. The word neigh, as describing the cry
of the horse, is from the AS. verb kncegan. The Scotch word
nicher is from the same root ; and probably the word nag, the
name especially of a small horse, may have had the same origin.
From the Latin name for horse, equus, we have the words equine and
equestrian, but not equip, as is sometimes taken for granted, for
it, as well as equipage and equipment are from the F. equipei',
originally esquiper, which signifies properly to provide a ship with
all that is necessary for its outfit. It originally signified " to quit
the river and take to the sea," and came from the subst. esquif,
OF. eschtf. This primitive is the OH.Ger. skif, Goth, and AS. skip,
and modern Ger. schiff. The pastern is that part of the horse's
foot from the fetlock to the hoof, where the shackle is fastened,
and comes from the OF. pasturon (F. paturori), from OF. pasture, a
tether for a horse at pasture. The fetlock is the tuft of hair that
grows behind on horses' feet, or the part where this hair grows,
from root of foot and lock (AS. loce, a tuft of hair). Where wool
is concerned it is called a flock, not from a flock of sheep, but from
the OF. floe, from L. floccus, a flock of wool. Only one other part
of a horse I must mention — viz., the withers, the place where the
two shoulder-blades approach each other between the neck and the
breast. A piece of iron placed on the under part of the frame of
the saddle, a little above the withers, to keep the two pieces of
wood that form the bow tight, is called the wither-band. A
defect in the construction of this part of the saddle is apt to gall
the horse, and it is when hurt in this place that he is said to be
wither-wrung. He then winces — that is, twists his body from
pain — and attempts to throw his rider. Shakespeare applies this
action metaphorically, " Let the galled jade wince, our withers are
un wrung." It has been said, indeed, that the word comes from the
Saxon word withan, to join ; but there are no traces of any such
Saxon word having ever existed. There is evidence, however, of
the AS. mthre, resistance, and also AS. wither, against. Now
it is supposed that withers have been so called because they are
the part which the horse opposes to his load, or on which the stress

88 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

of the collar comes in drawing. May they not have received the
name in consequence of their being opposite or opposed to each
other at the place where they approach each other? This ety-
mology is rather confirmed by the modern Ger. word wider-rist for
" withers," where rist signifies not only the wrist, or back of the
hand, or instep, but the withers of a horse.

The colours also of horses are various ; we have, for instance,
dapple-grey and dapple-bay. It is usual to connect this word
dapple with the English word dimple, a small hollow, while the
verb signifies to mark with dimples ; but there is evidently a close
connection with the word apple — so that to dapple ought to
signify to cover with round or apple-like spots ; and this is con-
firmed when we find in French the word pommeler (from the F.
pomme, an apple, L. pomum) signifying the same thing, to mark
with spots in the form of a ball ; while we find also in German
ye-apfelt, dappled (lit., dapplet), and apfel schimmel, a dapple-grey
horse. "We have also horses described as bay. This word comes
from the L. badius, signifying chestnut-brown, and appears in It.
as baio, Sp. bayo, and F. bai, brown or chestnut-brown. A sorrel
has nothing to do with the plant of that name, either in colour or
in etymology. It indicates a colour between red and yellow, and
lighter than a light bay. It is the colour indicated by the F. sauve,
and seems to have some connection with, if it be not derived from,
the English sere and yellow. There is also the colour called
roan. A roan horse is either a bay, or sorrel, or of a dull colour,
but thickly interspersed with grey or white hairs. The word
comes from the F. rouan or roan, It. roano, of unknown origin
according to Littre, but why not from the Ger. rot, red, or from
the radical rub of the L. ruber, red 1 The Germans translate rouan
as well by the red horse as by the grey horse.

Palfrey. — The most natural derivation of this word would be to
regard it as a contraction of the French words par le frein, by the
bridle (L. frcenwri), — a horse used on state occasions, and distin-
guished from the war horse ; a horse led by the bridle, menu par le
frein. It is evident that the Sp. palafren and the It. palafreno have
been formed on the supposition that the word came from frenum, a

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 89

bridle. But another derivation which goes much farther back has
still stronger claims. The modern F. palefroi and the OF. pale-
froid connect the word very closely with the low L. parafredus or
palefridus. This last is an alteration of the L. paraveredtis, an
extra horse, which comes from Gr. para, beside, and L. veredus, a
swift-paced horse, or a horse meant for extra service. It is therefore
supposed, with good reason, that paraveredus is also the source of
the German pferd (OH.Ger. pherit), a horse. The change of r into I
is habitual.

Hobby-horse seems to come from the OF. hobin, the French name
given to a strong little active Scotch horse with an ambling gait —
i.?., moving up and down. The name was afterwards given to
the stick on which young boys place themselves astride, and ride
in play, and by-and-by to the figure of a horse on which boys
delight to ride, and which has been called a hobby-horse ; and
later on, in consequence of the pleasure which boys took in this,
for them, favourite enjoyment, it came to signify the favourite
object or sole pursuit of any one, and was called his hobby.

Stalking-horse. — To stalk (AS. stealcian, to go warily, Dan.
stalke), to stride, to go along softly ; and a stalking-horse was a horse
which was trained to walk with long slow steps and so as to pretend
to be eating, while the sportsmen behind him or on the off-side shot
at their game, and so the phrase came gradually to have its present
meaning of a mask or pretence.

The word mare is the AS. mere, the feminine of mearh, a horse,
cognate with Ger. mehre ; and foal is the AS. fola, Ger. fohlen,
Gr. polos, L. puttus (pulla, feminine), probably a contraction of
puellus, diminutive of fmer, a boy ; while colt is simply the AS.
word unchanged.

The ass is not only a well-known animal throughout all the
world, but the name itself, probably originally Semitic, has spread
into all the European languages. The AS. word was assa, L.
asinus, Ger. esel. It is a diminutive in all languages but the
English, which has, however, introduced another diminutive for
the same animal — viz., donkey, which is supposed to be a double
diminutive of the word dun (AS.), being of a dark colour, partly

90 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

brown and partly black — dun-ik-ie. If this be the origin of the
word donkey, it is strange that the pronunciation should be
dong-key, whereas monkey, supposed as we have seen to be
from mon, at least should be pronounced mungJci. In the Hew
English Dictionary it is said that donkey is a recent word, ap-
parently of dialect or slang origin, and that the original pro-
nunciation apparently rhymed with monkey (whence the spelling).
Suggestions have been made that the word is a derivative of dun
(adj.), or more probably a familiar form of Duncan. In a lecture
delivered in the Town Hall, Hawick, on " The World of Words,"
by the editor of the Dictionary, Dr J. A. H. Murray, of which a
brief report appeared in 'The Scotsman ' of 20th September 1906,
he adopts the latter suggestion as his own, and says that " donkey
was slang in the beginning of the nineteenth century and is now
colloquial. It was the colloquial form of the word Duncan, and
probably the name of some one's ass." Pannier, through F. panier
and low L. panarium, a bread-basket, from L. panis, bread, origin-
ally a basket, and one of considerable size, for carrying provisions ;
but latterly restricted to those carried by a donkey or other beasts
of burden, usually in pairs, one on each side slung across the back,
each of which is called a pannier. From the ass's hide when dry,
especially that portion above the tail, as being the firmest, is made
a rough-grained leather, used in this country as a rasp or file for
wood, &c. From its employment in the arts as a species of file,
it has come metaphorically to be applied to the mind, and we
speak of chagrin when we mean a state of vexation and f retfulness.
In French there is only one word chagrin for both. In It. we have
zigrino, in Rom. sagrino — all possibly derived from the Turkish
word sagri, the name they give to the rump of the ass, while the
Arabs call it zargab. The common idea that a shagreen case, say
for a pair of spectacles, was so called from its colour, is absurd.
Though the substance is extremely hard, it becomes soft and
pliable when steeped in water, and may be dyed of various colours,
and frequently may have been dyed green as well as red, &c.

The persons who cure the diseases and repair the accidents and
injuries of horses, cows, and other animals are called veterinary

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

surgeons, and some have supposed that this word has come from
L. vetus, veteris, old, ancient, from the " vet " having had to deal
originally with broken-down and worn-out animals, which he was
to doctor up, But the word is an English form of the L. word
veterinarim, which signified a veterinary surgeon, and comes from
veterinus, a contraction of veheterinus, from veho,1 to carry, from
which also we have vehicle and such like, implying that at first
he attended to those animals which were beasts of burden, or were
employed in carriages of different kinds.

(10) Ruminantia (ruminating animals). The animals of this
order are so called from the L. verb ruminor, to ruminate. They
have four stomachs. The first of these, called in L. rumen (mean-
ing throat or gullet), is capable of containing a large store of
grass or vegetable food, which the animal swallows, in the first
instance, without mastication or chewing. In the second stomach
this matter is formed into pellets, which, when duly macerated
(L. macero, to steep), the animal has power to bring back into its
mouth and thoroughly to chew. This process is called ruminating,
or chewing the cud, from the name L. rumen, English cud, given
to the second stomach, from which it is thrown back into the
mouth to be chewed. After this rumination the food is passed
into the third stomach, and thence into the fourth stomach, where
it is digested. When we speak, therefore, of animals chewing the
cud, we mean something like chewing a quid, — indeed, in all proba-
bility, the quid and the cud have the same origin in an old past
participle of chew, cheiced or cud. Without chewing the cud the
animal could not get the good of the food which he had swallowed ;
and so, metaphorically, without rumination, without thinking over
and over again what he has heard or read, without pondering and
musing over it, it would do a man very little good, and so the poet
speaks of "retiring, full of rumination, sad." Many may be

1 From veho, vexi, vectum, vehere,
to carry, we have, as I said, vehicle,
and such like ; but we have also
vehement, a person who is carried
away by his impetuosity, rage, or
energy. We have also to vex,

vexatious. We have convex. To
inveigh is to attack in words, to
declaim in speech or write vehe-
mently against. An invective is
usually directed against character
and conduct.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

surprised that we do not quote Shakespeare rather than Thomson,
for it would be far more appropriate to quote " chewing the cud
of sweet and bitter fancy," as most of us believe it to read;
but on turning up the passage and looking out for various readings,
we found the uniform reading to be, " chewing the food of sweet
and bitter fancy." The Ruminantia are perhaps of all animals the
most useful to man. But beyond the name of the order, which we
have just considered, there are few names of any special signifi-
cance, as most of them are AS. and monosyllabic, and scarcely
admit of tracing their etymology farther back. Among the deer,
however, there are one or two names which have a special signifi-
cance. The word deer itself, from Ger. tkier, a wild beast, was at
that time the name for wild animals in general, — Shakespeare in
" King Lear" speaks of "rats and mice and such small deer," — and
gradually came to be specialised in this country for the deer, not as
being the wildest, in the sense of ferocious, but as being the most
easily frightened, and so the wildest, as being the most readily
startled and as running the fastest.1 The reindeer is the name
given to a species in the north which are valuable for the chase
and for domestic use. It is supposed by some to be derived from
the Lap. reino, pasture, by others from Ger. rennen, to run, but I
think with a certain likelihood from rein, the strap of a bridle, an
instrument of curb or governing, from L. retento, to hold back (re,
back, and teneo), because it is a species of deer employed for
drawing burdens and harnessed accordingly. That it was at one
time spelt ranedeer and raindeer is no argument against this, for
when the word was so spelled our spelling was unsettled. The name
of hart for the stag or male deer signifies literally "a horned
animal," from AS. heort. Of the word antlers there is no
satisfactory etymology ; but hartshorn, the name still frequently
given to a solution of ammonia, was first obtained by boiling the
raspings or shavings of a hart's horn in water for a considerable

1 The flesh of the deer when
killed is called venison (F. venaison),
from L. venario (venor, atus, dri, to
hunt) ; just as we see that the
sheep when killed and cooked be-

comes mutton. As the parsimoni-
ous Jewish father said to his ex-
travagant Jewish son, " I prefer
mutton because it is sheap, you
prefer venison because it is dear."

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 93

time. Hartshorn jelly was produced, and by distillation of this
an ammoniacal liquor was procured, which, freed from its oil and
rendered liquid by successive distillations, is commonly called
"spirits of hartshorn." It is a carbonate of ammonia dissolved
in water, which when saturated deposits the carbonate in the form
of a salt, usually termed salts of hartshorn, or volatile salts. The
name of ammonia was given to this pungent gas from being first
obtained from sal ammoniac, a smelling salt near the temple of
Jupiter Ammon.

The silvery-footed antelope, a beautiful creature, partly like
a deer and partly like a goat, derives its name from the beauty
of its eyes (Gr. anthos, beauty, and ops, the eye). The name
of gazelle, given to a small species of antelope with beautiful
dark eyes, is so called from the Arabic ghazal, which signifies
a wild goat; while the word buffalo comes through Sp. bufalo,
from L. bubaliis, and Gr. boubalos; the word ox, from Gr. bous,
an ox; and bull, of somewhat uncertain etymology, is certainly
connected with AS. bellan, to bellow. The dromedary is so
named from its speed. The low L. dromedarius is from the
Gr. dramas, dromados, running, from the root drem, to run, from
which also we have hippodrome (Gr. hippos, a horse, and dromos,
a running-course), a circus, a horse and chariot racing-ground.

(11) The Marsupialia (animals carrying the young in a pouch),
from L. marsupium, and Gr. marsupion, a pouch. Kangaroo
and opossum, both Australian and American names. Nearly
one hundred years ago, when Australia -w,*&":uGi, so well Known
as it is now, and when —limitary emigrants were very few,
although re?.:Uj of the productiveness of the great island had
from time to time come back, a countryman of our own intimated
to a neighbour his intention of going to Australia to make his
fortune. When his friend remarked that there was nothing
there but kangaroos, his reply was, " An' isna a kangaroo's siller
as good as any other man's?" He had evidently heard of the
pouches of the kangaroos being well filled.

(12) Monotremata (having one excretory opening), from Gr.
monos, one, and trema, tremdtos, an opening — thus resembling

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

birds. The chief animal in this class is the ornithorynchus, an
animal in Australia with a body like an otter and a snout like the
bill of a duck, — also called duck-bill, lit. "bird-snout," from Gr.
ornis, ornithos, a bird, rhynchos, a snout.

Class 2. Aves x (Birds).

The science of Birds is generally spoken of as Ornithology,
from Gr. ornis, ornithos, a bird, and logos, a discourse on, or the
science of, birds. There are several orders in this class.

(1) Incessores, from L. incedo, to walk slowly or stately.
These include the crow, so named from the croaking sound
it makes, and the AS. and Scotch are still nearer that sound,
crawe and craw. The magpie is a chattering bird of the same
genus as the crow, with pied or coloured feathers. The word is
composed of Mag, a familiar abbreviation of Margaret, and pie,
from the L. pica, a magpie, from pingo, pictum, to paint. The
word pica is akin to L. picus, a woodpecker. The word pied
means variegated, like a magpie, and piebald means of various
colours and patches. It is for pie-balled, literally streaked like
the magpie, from pie, and Welsh and Celtic bal, a streak or white
spot on a horse's forehead. The Scotch word is pyat. The
thrush or throstle is the bird called the mavis (F. mauvis,
probably from Breton milfid, a mavis), a song-bird of remarkable
pi/>.~J> -cognate -wjth, Ger. drossel and L. turdus, a thrush. Our
hedge-sparrow is a member 01 ui«> thrush family, and the word
sparrow is in L. passer, evidently from a root, ^presented by
Gr. psaros, "brown ash-coloured." From psaros come also by
confusion of consonants p*ar = Ger. staar, starling, L. sturnus.
By a like confusion sparrow is in Gr. strouthos, which is identical
with L. turdus, thrush, throstle, Ger. drossel. The Teutonic
forms of sparrow are AS. speara, spearua, Icel. spore, Ger.
sperling, spatz, Sw. sparf. What we now call the sparrow-

1 From avis, a bird, we have
aviary, a place where birds are
kept, auspices (see p. 10), bustard
(F. outarde), for avis tarda, a slow

bird, the initial t being dropped.
Ostrich is from avis and struthio,
the Gr. for ostrich being strou-
thion. (Seep. 100.)

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 95

hawk is not specially a sparrow-hunter, but a brown ash-coloured
hawk. The AS. is spear -hafoc, sperhauk in 'Piers Plough-
man,' vi. 199, and in Spelman, as late as 1687, sparhauk, F.
epervier. A starling, also called a stare, is in AS. staer, translated
by ^Elfric, turdus, sturnus ; and in the Lindisfarne Gospels,
Matth. x. 29 and Luke xii. 6, sparrows are staras. It is thus
plain the sparrow, the starling, the thrush, and the sparhauk,
being all of one colour, derive their English, Greek, and Latin
names from one root. Bulbul is said to be the name of the
Persian nightingale, and according to Archbishop Whately, the
feminine of bulbul is the coo-koo ! (cuckoo). This is surpassed,
however, by another question and answer of the same prelate,
viz., "What is the feminine of John Doreyl" Answer — "Anne-
chovy." There is a singing -bird called specially the warbler.
To icarble is to sing in a vibratory manner, from OF. warbler,
to warble, to make turns with the voice, from Ger. wirbeln, to
make a turn. The word nightingale is the AS. nihtegale, from
niht, night, and galan to sing, Ger. ndchtigall. The kingfisher
is a bird with very brilliant or kingly plumage, which feeds on
fish — frequently called the halcyon, because it was at one time
believed that that bird made a floating nest on the sea, which
remained calm while it was hatching. The word has come as an
adjective to signify calm, peaceful, or happy; and halcyon days
are expressive of a time of peace and happiness. The Latin
words for the kingfisher are alcedo, used by Plautus and Varro ;
and alcedonia (tempora), the calm season in which the kingfisher
broods. Virgil and Ovid use alcyon, alcyonis, for the kingfisher
itself, and Pliny speaks of alcyonides dies and Columella of
dies alcyonei. The word alcyoneum is used by Pliny for foam
of the sea, thus confirming the supposition of the belief of the
Latins that the word is connected with halkyon, the Gr. word,
from hats, the sea, and kuein, to breed or brood. It must be re-
membered that the dropping of the aspirate is not so remarkable,
as it is not an h in Greek, but merely an aspirate, and my
recollection of the description which Aristotle gives of the
halkuon applies in the main very well to the Alcedo hispida or
kingfisher of Linnaeus.

96 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

(2) Raptores (birds of prey), from rapio,1 to seize or snatch.
The falcon received its name from its hooked claws. The
French word is faitcon, from L. falco, and this from falx, a hook
or sickle. A falconer is a person who breeds and trains falcons,
the origin of the Scottish name of Falconer — given at a time when
they trained or hunted with falcons. The eagle — F. aigle, from
L. aguila, from root ac, sharp or swift — is probably so called from
its having a piercing eye, so much so that we speak of eagle-eyed.
What pertains to the bird generally may be termed aquiline ;
but this adjective is scarcely ever used, except in the phrase an
aquiline nose, which denotes one that is curved like the beak
of an eagle. The nest of the eagle in which she breeds is called
the eyry, eyrie, or aerie, and sometimes applied to a brood of
eagles. The F. is aire, from Gr. oar, an eagle, — cognate with
Icel. ari, an eagle : but our word may come from the lofty or aerial
situation in which the nest is built, and the same name has in con-
sequence been given to the nests of certain other birds (especially
those of the falcon tribe) which choose the ledges of rocks or the
summits of trees. Eagle-stones, supposed to have sanative and
magical virtues, were called by the Greeks aetites, from the Gr.
aetos, an eagle (or originally a standard having the effigy of an
eagle), and were incrustated yellow clay ironstones, the nucleus
of which, being of a different texture, had by drying become
detached from the surrounding crust so as to rattle loosely in the
hollow. It is this kernel, generally roundish, and often found in
pebbles, which is properly denominated the eagle-stone, from the
ancient belief that the eagle found it necessary to have one in her
nest before she could lay her eggs. The superstition had prob-
ably originated in the practice of the henwife (the woman who

1 From rapio, rapui, raptum,
rapere, we have rapine, the snatch-
ing by robbers of whatever comes
within their reach. Rapt means
transported, or carried away by
some elevating inspiration or de-
lightful emotion. We read of
"rapt Isaiah," of the raptures of
devotion, of rapturous joys. We
speak of rapacious birds, of the

rapacity of pirates. To eat raven-
ously (from raven = rapine) means
to grasp at food and devour it
hungrily. Rapid implies energetic
swiftness or quick succession — the
rapidity of a bird's flight. To
ravage is to mar and spoil.
Ravish, to carry away . with joy
and delight. "With ravished ears
the monarch hears " (Dryden).

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

has charge of the poultry), who, whenever she robs the common
hen of her eggs, always leaves one which is called a nest-egg, lest
the fowl should either forsake her nest or cease to lay. Some
greedy housewives cheat the hen by substituting a pebble for the
nest-egg — a trick which often answers the purpose. The word
hawk I think was taken from the hook of its bill, — hauk and
hooked being only different forms of the same word, for hook-nosed
differs very little, if any, from hawk-nosed. The common expression,
" I know a hawk from a handsaw," is a little obscure, until we
remember that handsaw is a corruption of hernshaw, originally
a heronry, from heron (a waterfowl with long legs), and shaio, a
wood. The word her(o)n-shaw came to signify a young heron,
and the meaning is, "I know a hawk from a heron," "the bird of
prey from the game flown at." The proverb means, I know one
thing from another (Hamlet, II. ii.). The phrase, neither "hawk
nor buzzard," means, of doubtful social position, too good for the
kitchen but not good enough for the family. Not hawks to be
fondled and petted like the tasselled gentlemen of the days of
falconry; nor yet buzzards, a dull kind of falcon, synonymous
with dunce or plebeian. In French, " N'etre ni chair ni poisson,"
"neither flesh, fowl, nor good red herring." The word buzzard
comes through the F. busard, from L. buteo, a kind of falcon.
The osprey, a species of eagle, is so named through a corruption
of ossifrage, which signifies literally "the bone-breaker," — L. ossi-
fr&gus^ breaking bones (os, a bone, and frag, the root of franr/o,1
fregi, fractum, frangere, to break). The vulture is from the L.

1 From this verb we derive frac-
tion, fractionally, fractious (one
who breaks out into bad temper),
fractive, fragile, frail, frailty, frag-
ment, fragmentary, frangibles, in-
frangible. To defray expenses
means to pay or bear them. It
comes from the F. frais, derived
from fractus, and means expenses,
or from low L. fredum, a fine ; Ger.
friede, peace. We speak of the
infraction of public rights, and the
infringement of minor claims, as
when one infringes on our time or

convenience, or upon the laws of
good manners. Irrefragable evi-
dence or argument is that whose
force cannot be broken. Rays
of light are refracted when they
pass from one medium to another,
and the media into which rays
pass have different refractive
powers according to their den-
sity. Refractory means perverse-
ly breaking rules and rebelling
against control, as in the case of
a refractory child or a refractory
horse.

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

vultur, probably from the verb vello, velli (velsi), vulsum, vellere,1 to
pluck or tear. The griffin strictly belongs to the vulture class,
yet connects the falcons and the owls. They are the largest
raptorial birds of the eastern continent, — lambs, goats, chamois,
and even children, having been carried away and devoured by
them. Their crooked beak has secured for them their name of
griffon in French, L. and Gr. gryps, from Gr. grypos, hook-nosed.
Their strength and bloodthirsty character may have led to
the creation of an imaginary animal, — the offspring of the lion
and the eagle. Its legs and all the shoulder to the head are like
an eagle. The rest of the body is that of a lion. This creature
was sacred to the sun, and kept guard over hidden treasures and
golden mines ; and there was a one-eyed people of Scythia, called
Arimaspi (from arima, one), who adorned their hair with gold,
who were continually at war with them. To them Milton alludes
when, in 'Paradise Lost,' ii. 943-46, he says —

" As when a gryphon through the wilderness

Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloined
The guarded gold."

The owls are those carnivorous birds named from their howls.

(3) The Scansores (or climbing birds), from the verb scando,2
to climb. Of these the cuckoo utters its own name; while the

1 From this verb we have to con-
vulse, to shake with violent irreg-
ular action, and we often experi-
ence a revulsion of feeling.

2 From the verb scando, scandi,
scansum, scandere, to mount up or
climb, we derive such words as to
scan — i.e., to go through step by
step, as when we scan or show the
metrical structure of verse. To
scan means also to examine with
care. To ascend is to mount. We
speak of the ascent of Mont Blanc ;
while Ascension Day is the Thurs-
day but one before Whitsunday.
To descend is to go down. We

speak of a steep descent. A de-
scendant is one sprung from a
common ancestor. To condescend
is to stoop to the level of inferiors,
to the level of equality with them.
We have also condescension ; and
transcend means to excel in a
signal manner. AVe speak of
transcendental worth, brightness,
or valour. According to Kant,
transcendental knowledge is that
not derived from experience ;
while transcendentalism is that
for the most part wly'ch goes
beyond the sphere of man's know-
ledge.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

names of the other birds in this group, such as the toucan and
parrot, throw no light upon the significance of their names.

(4) The Kasores (the scrapers), from the L. rado, rasi, rasum,
radere,1 to scrape. Our domestic fowls mostly belong to this class.
The first group of these is the Phasianidse, named from the most
beautiful member of the pheasant tribe, from Phasis, a river, which
gives its name to the district from which it comes, on the eastern
part of the Black Sea, whence " the Phasian bird," literally, was
brought to Europe. We have adopted the name from the F. faisan,
and added a t. In English we have often added a letter to a word
from mere laziness, such as the d in sound (F. son, from L. sonus),
lend, but there is no d in loan. In provincial English we find
they make a gownd ; while ancient, pheasant, tyrant, are a few
examples of t, which has also added itself to words introduced
through France. The word partridge comes from the L. perdix,
perdlcis, through the F. pcrdrix, which was first perdiz, perdris,
by the not unusual insertion of an r, and then came to be written
perdrix, with the termination of the Latin nominative. The Scotch
word for partridge is pairtrick, which sounds so much like the French
that when Sydney Smith heard a Scotch girl reading the verse in
Acts vii. 9, " And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into
Egypt," and calling it "the pairtricks, moved with envy," ex-
claimed, " My little girl, you should not make game of the
patriarchs." The other birds in this group, known by the generic
name of poultry, are so well known to us, and their names so
familiar, that it is unnecessary to explain their origin, with the
exception of poultry, the name given to domestic fowls, from the
word poult, which signifies a little hen or fowl, a chicken. The
F. is poulet, diminutive of poule, hen, fowl ; while the word fowl
itself corresponds to AS. fugel, while the Ger. is vogel, and Icel.
fugl, a bird. There is manifestly some connection with AS.
fleogan, to fly.

1 To rase a city means to level
it with the ground. We shave by
means of a razor. A rascal is one
of the scrapings of men, a knave
or villain. Glaciers abrade or

scrape down the rocks, and leave
marks of their abrasion. Words
are erased when they are scraped
or blotted out. A letter may con-
tain several erasions or erasures.

100

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

(5) The Cursores (the running birds), from curro,1 cucum, cursum,
cwrere, to run. We select the ostrich as a typical specimen, being
the largest of birds, found in Africa, remarkable for its speed in run-
ning, and prized for its feathers. The origin of the name is to be
found in OF. ostruche, F. autriche, from the L. avis-struthio, from the
Gr. strouthos, little bird, megale strouthos, the large bird, the ostrich.
The bustard is akin to the ostrich family, of which the Great
Bustard is the largest of European land birds. The name is de-
rived through the F. bistard, a corruption from the L. avis tarda,
a slow bird, from the slowness of its flight.

(6) The Grallatores (the waders), from the L. yrallatw, one
who walks on stilts, from grallce, stilts, contraction of gradulce,
diminutive of gradus, a step, from gradior, to step. The heron
is one of the best known of this group (see p. 97). The
bittern is a bird of the heron family, said to have been named
from the resemblance of its voice to the lowing of a bull (ME.
bittour, through F. biitor, from low L. butorius — bos, an ox, and
taurus, a bull). The plover, or the rain bird, is the name given
to a family of birds associated with rainy weather, through the F.
plovier, from the L. pluvium, rain. The best known in our country
is the lapwing, from its peculiar movement, which can be described
scarcely as running or flying. The AS. name is hleapwince, from

1 From curro, to run, we have
courier, a messenger sent with
haste ; any line of movement is a
coarse, a corridor is a long', running
gallery, a current is a flow showing
some degree of force. Current his-
tory is history now in progress.
A curricle is an open carriage with
two wheels. Cursory means run-
ning over anything in a hasty sort
of way, as in one of the titles
of imaginary works suggested by
Thomas Hood, "Cursory remarks
on swearing." A concourse is a
flowing or running together. To
concur is to unite voluntarily in
other people's opinions. Discourse
is the consecutive speech of one or
more people. An essay or a con-
versation may become discursive

when it passes over a wide field.
An excursion is a trip for pleasure
or health. To incur is to run into.
An incursion is a hostile entering
of another's territory. Intercourse
is any kind of friendly dealing.
To occur is to happen to one, to
come in one's way. A shower
of rain may be an untoward occur-
rence. A precursor is that which
goes before as a prognostic or in-
dication. To recur is to come back
repeatedly or regularly. We speak
of the frequent recurrence of an
event, of recurrent pains in a dis-
ease, and we have recourse to our
friend to help us out of a diffi-
culty, while to succour is to give
timely aid to those in want or
distress.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

101

hleapan, to leap or run, and root of wink, which, like Ger. wanken,
originally meant to move from side to side. The name is descrip-
tive of the movement of the bird. It also bears the name of
peewit, from its cry. (Compare the Dutch pieitrit or keeicit.}
Akin to this is the Scotch name teuchit or targuheit, still fre-
quently used in connection with the bad weather which so fre-
quently accompanies their migration in autumn, called " the
teuchit storm." Ortolan is the name given to a kind of bunting,
very common in Europe. The name signifies literally a frequenter
of gardens. It comes through the F. and It. ortolano, from L.
hortolanus, belonging to gardens, from hortulus, diminutive of
hortus, a garden.

(7) The Natatores (the swimmers), from the L. verb no,1 to
swim. Of these a good type is the duck, so called from its ducking
or dipping its head in the water. A drake is said to signify a
duck-king, being a contraction of end-rake, ened being AS. for
duck (cognate with L. anas, anatis, a duck), of which, however, it
preserves only the single letter d. Ger. ente, a duck, and en-
terich, a drake. Bake is the same as Goth, reiks, ruk, reike, and
ric(k) in bishopric, &c. Dr Latham ('English Language,' 2nd
edition), speaking of the assertion that drake is derived from a
word with which it has but one letter in common — viz., the Latin
anas — says, "There can be no doubt that drake and anas are
related, as being both derived from a common root ; but to assert
that drake is derived from anas is not only a violation of the
legitimate rules of etymological deduction, but it involves the
historical improbability of affirming that a people as old as the
Romans themselves were without a name for one of the commonest
and most important game-birds of their climate, until they borrowed
one from their foreign invaders." The pelican is so called from
his enormous bill, in the shape of an axe (L. pelicaniis, Gr. pelikan,
from pelicos, an axe). Goose is from a very old word, found in a

1 From no, navi, na(ta)re, to swim, natatory appendages ; and natant

and frequentative, nato, natdvi, in botany is applied to leaves float-

natdtum, nature, to swim, we have ing on the surface of the water,

natation, the art of swimming, as the leaves of some aquatic

natatorial, swimming. Fins are plants.

100

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

(5) The Cursores (the running birds), from curro,1 cucuiri, cursum,
cuirere, to run. We select the ostrich as a typical specimen, being
the largest of birds, found in Africa, remarkable for its speed in run-
ning, and prized for its feathers. The origin of the name is to be
found in OF. ostruche, F. autriche, from the L. avis-struthio, from the
Gr. strouthos, little bird, megale stroufhos, the large bird, the ostrich.
The bustard is akin to the ostrich family, of which the Great
Bustard is the largest of European land birds. The name is de-
rived through the F. bistard, a corruption from the L. avis tarda,
a slow bird, from the slowness of its flight.

(6) The Grallatores (the waders), from the L. grallator, one
who walks on stilts, from grallce, stilts, contraction of gradulce,
diminutive of gradiis, a step, from gradior, to step. The heron
is one of the best known of this group (see p. 97). The
bittern is a bird of the heron family, said to have been named
from the resemblance of its voice to the lowing of a bull (ME.
bittour, through F. httor, from low L. butorius — bos, an ox, and
taurus, a bull). The plover, or the rain bird, is the name given
to a family of birds associated with rainy weather, through the F.
plovier, from the L. pluvium, rain. The best known in our country
is the lapwing, from its peculiar movement, which can be described
scarcely as running or flying. The AS. name is Tileapwince, from

1 From curro, to run, we have
courier, a messenger sent with
haste ; any line of movement is a
course, a corridor is a long, running
gallery, a current is a flow showing
some degree of force. Current his-
tory is history now in progress.
A curricle is an open carriage with
two wheels. Cursory means run-
ning over anything in a hasty sort
of way, as in one of the titles
of imaginary works suggested by
Thomas Hood, "Cursory remarks
on swearing." A concourse is a
flowing or running together. To
concur is to unite voluntarily in
other people's opinions. Discourse
is the consecutive speech of one or
more people. An essay or a con-
versation may become discursive

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

101

hleapan, to leap or run, and root of. wink, which, like Ger. icanken,
originally meant to move from side to side. The name is descrip-
tive of the movement of the bird. It also bears the name of
peewit, from its cry. (Compare the Dutch piemt or keeivit.)
Akin to this is the Scotch name teuchit or targuheit, still fre-
quently used in connection with the bad weather which so fre-
quently accompanies their migration in autumn, called " the
teuchit storm." Ortolan is the name given to a kind of bunting,
very common in Europe. The name signifies literally a frequenter
of gardens. It comes through the F. and It. ortolano, from L.
hortolanus, belonging to gardens, from hortulus, diminutive of
Jwrtus, a garden.

(7) The Natatores (the swimmers), from the L. verb no,1 to
swim. Of these a good type is the duck, so called from its ducking
or dipping its head in the water. A drake is said to signify a
duck-king, being a contraction of end-rake, ened being AS. for
duck (cognate with L. anas, anatis, a duck), of which, however, it
preserves only the single letter d. Ger. ente, a duck, and en-
terich, a drake. Rake is the same as Goth, r&iks, ruk, reike, and
ric(k) in bishopric, &c. Dr Latham ('English Language,' 2nd
edition), speaking of the assertion that drake is derived from a
word with which it has but one letter in common — viz., the Latin
anas — says, "There can be no doubt that drake and anas are
related, as being both derived from a common root ; but to assert
that drake is derived from anas is not only a violation of the
legitimate rules of etymological deduction, but it -involves the
historical improbability of affirming that a people as old as the
Romans themselves were without a name for one of the commonest
and most important game-birds of their climate, until they borrowed
one from their foreign invaders." The pelican is so called from
his enormous bill, in the shape of an axe (L. pelicanus, Gr. pelikan,
from pelicos, an axe). Goose is from a very old word, found in a

1 From TIG, navi, na(ta)re, to swim,
and frequentative, nato, natdvi,
natatum, natdre, to swim, we have
natation, the art of swimming,
natatorial, swimming. Fins are

natatory appendages ; and natant
in botany is applied to leaves float-
ing on the surface of the water,
as the leaves of some aquatic
plants.

104 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

"the sharp-sighted"), from edrdkon, aorist of derkomai, to see, to
look at.

Under the name of basilisk we have a genus of reptiles which
have as much resemblance to the basilisk of old marvel relaters
as the draco has to the fabulous dragon. The most ancient authors
have mentioned it as a serpent, which had the power of striking its
victim dead by a single glance. The approved method of catching
it was to carry a mirror, by which the animal's death -striking
glances would be reflected upon itself. Pliny assures us that it
had a voice so terrible that it struck terror into all other animals,
so that it chased them from the spot which it inhabited, retaining
the sole and undisputed dominion of it. The name, indeed, im-
ports the kingly authority. The word comes from the Gr.
tasiliskos, the diminutive of basileus, a king. It is a kind of
crested lizard, and called a king from having on its head this
mitre -shaped crest. According to the representations of the
older naturalists it had eight feet, two large scales for wings, and
its head " the likeness of a kingly crown had on." It is well to
know something of such fables, however absurd they may seem,
since, in ignorance of them, we lose the force of many fine passages
in poetry and fiction. Thus, in " Richard III.," Shakespeare makes
the Lady Anne retort to Richard, who is praising the beauty of
her eyes, " Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead." The
cockatrice seems to have been a kind of basilisk, and is still
reputed among many as having a real existence, instead of an
entirely fabulous being, with the wings of a fowl, the tail of a
dragon, and the head of a cock, and believed to have been
hatched by a serpent from a cock's egg. The name, however,
has nothing to do with cock : the OF. cocatrice meant a croco-
dile, from the low L. cocatrix, a corruption of low L. cocodrillus,
a crocodile.

The third order, Ophidia (from Gr. ophis, a serpent), embraces
many kinds of serpents and vipers. The boa constrictor, thirty or
forty feet in length, is capable of killing and eating deer and even
oxen. The word boa is properly connected with bos, an ox, and
constrictor, lit. that which draws together, — here that which crushes

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

105

its prey in its folds, — from con, and stringo,1 strixi, strictum, stringere,
to draw tight, to tighten. The word viper comes from vipera, a
contraction of vivip&ra, " those who bring forth their young alive,"
from L. vivus, alive, and pario,2 peperi, paritum or partum, par ere,
to bring forth, to produce. The viper received its name because it
was at one time believed to be the only serpent that produced its
young alive, although from eggs. The word adder has come by
mistake into use, instead of natter, which is still the Ger. word for
that reptile. In the AS. it was ncedre, and in course of time
instead of saying "a natter" they came to say "an atter" or "an
adder," the n which belonged to the noun having parted com-
pany with it and joined the preceding article, thus depriving the
noun of its first letter. This in all probability is the explanation
of the phrase uas mad as a hatter," which originally may have
been "as mad as a natter."

Eesembling these in many respects are the Arachnides (from
Gr. arachne, a spider), — almost entirely creatures of prey. The
spider is remarkable for spinning nets to catch its prey. The
word signifies literally the spinner, for spinder, from spin. Com-
pare Dan. spinder, O.Ger. spinna, and Ger. spinne. Tarantula,
another of the same class, is a kind of poisonous spider found
in the south of Italy — It. tarantula, from L. Tarentum, a town
in S. Italy where this spider abounds. The word caterpillar
has had grave doubts thrown upon its origin by Wedgwood

1 From this verb stringo we have
many words. To strain, a strait
waistcoat, straitened circumstances.
Stress is pressure specifically applied
— we lay stress on a word, and a
ship may be obliged through stress
of weather to take refuge. We give
strict injunctions, and we enforce
the laws strictly. We pass strictures
on people's conduct. We speak of
a stringent rule, and we read of
astringent medicine which contracts
the organic textures of the body.
To constrain is to confine action or
movement, or to force it to take
one direction. To distrain is to

seize goods for rent or payment. To
restrain is to hinder or keep from
actions, and laws are a restraint
on the vicious. To restrict im-
plies moral restraint within cer-
tain limits. There are restrictions
on trade, and there are restrict-
ive laws concerning the sale of
spirits, &c.

2 From this verb we derive parent,
whether father or mother, we speak
of parental affection, and of a person
of good parentage. Animals are
either viviparous, or oviparous, —
that is, producing their young by
eggs, from ovum, an egg.

106 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

and others. It comes nearer the form of cattepelasure, the
name given in Guernsey to wood-lice, weevils, and millepedes.
As these animals are not hairy, Metivier well observes that it
must be from their habit of rolling themselves up like a pill
(in Guernsey pilleure, pilure, pelure) that the Guernsey name as
well as the corresponding English name of caterpillar is derived.
The etymology is put almost beyond doubt by the fact that in
America the name of pill-bug is given to wood-lice, centipedes, and
such animals as have the habit of rolling themselves up into a
little ball. The corruption to F. chatepeleuse may be understood
from the form pilleuso, preserved by Palsgrave, " Pylle for a large
pilleuse, pilleure." Why the name of a cat should be given to a
grub or caterpillar is not so obvious, but it is a fact that these
were very generally known by the name of cat or dog — e.g.,
Guernsey catte, the grub of the cockchafer ; Lombard gatta,
gattola • Swiss teufelkatz (devil's cat), caterpillar ; Kentish hop-dog,
a pale yellow grub that infests the hops ; Milanese can-caygon, a
silkworm ; and F. chenille, from canicula, a little dog, a caterpillar.

107

CHAPTER IX.

MAN IN GENERAL OR IN RELATION TO MANKIND.

IN considering the great divisions of the animal kingdom, and
particularly the different orders of the class Mammalia, we found
that the first order, that of Bimana (having two hands), embraced
but one creature — viz., Man, the most highly endowed of all ani-
mated beings, and distinguished from all the others by a great
superiority of intelligence and by the possession of a moral and
spiritual nature. Though an animal, yet he is much more, and
entitled to distinct and separate consideration. "We shall in this
chapter consider man in general or in relation to mankind, and in
some subsequent chapters bring under your notice at greater length
the significance of many of those words which are employed in
connection with his bodily structure, his mental faculties, his
moral powers, and his spiritual nature.

Our English word man signifies literally " the thinking animal,"
coming from the AS. manu, from the root man, to think, and
therefore closely connected with the L. mens and' the Gr. menos,
the mind, and the Sans, manas, mind, as they all come from the
root man, to think. The Latin word homo was equivalent to our
word man in its general sense, including both sexes, but in its
origin was intended to remind man that as regards his body he
was only of the earth, earthy, for homo1 (or humo) is derived

1 From homo we have homage,
homicide, human, belonging to man
in general; humane is the same word,
varied in the orthography of mod-
ern times to mean being possessed of
those feelings of compassion which
are supposed to be inherent in man.

We speak of an inhuman monster,
and of our common humanity ; while
" man's inhumanity to man makes
countless thousands mourn." We
speak of prisoners being humanely
treated, and of all the humanising
influences of civilised life.

108

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

from humus, and implies earth-born, formed from the earth. The
Romans had also another word, vir,1 which was limited to the
male of the species ; and from it we have many important deriva-
tives, but all expressive of true manliness. There is another word
for man, the Gr. word anthropos, man in general, which also
furnishes us with a few compounds : combined with phago, to eat,
we have the anthropophagi, or man-eaters ; and with morphe, form
or appearance, we have anthropomorphism, that is, the representa-
tion of Deity under a human form, or with human organs and
affections, as when we speak metaphorically of God's hands or of
God's eyes. We have philanthropy (from pJiilos, love), the love
of mankind or the readiness to do all men good. Such a benevo-
lent person is called a philanthropist, and his actions are called
philanthropic or philanthropical. The opposite of philanthropy
is misanthropy (from Gr. misein? to hate). A misanthrope or
misanthropist is a hater of mankind.

The word man, as we have seen, is generic, and includes male
and female : it is still the same word that is used in contradistinc-
tion to woman. Originally in our language they were spoken of
as man and wife, but the generic terms are now man and woman,

1 We have virility, meaning true
manhood, and virago, a woman
whose actions are rudely masculine.
Whether the L. word vis (with its
plural vires), strength or power,
originated the word vir, or whether
that word expressive of power was
derived from the superior strength
of the masculine gender, we can
hardly determine. They are cer-
tainly intimately connected, and also
with the L. word virtus (our virtue),
which signifies manhood, and which
certainly comes from vir. It de-
notes what is highest and best in
everything to which it can be
applied. The highest qualities
among the Romans were courage
and strength, and to these the
word virtus more immediately re-
ferred. Modern times have brought
other virtues to the front. Virtue

is that power in every age, the
exertion of which is useful to others.
We speak of the virtue of a plant
or of a medicine, meaning its useful
power or efficacy. Virtue among
the Italians signifies knowledge as
well as virtue, and is applied by
them as a general name to the
sciences, as more noble than the
arts. Inherent power may operate
to the hurt as well as to the happi-
ness of others. This kind of virtue
the Latins expressed by the word
virus, which they applied to the
poisonous properties of any plant,
and we speak of virulent and viru-
lence.

2 From the Gr. verb misein, to
hate, we have also misogynist (Gr.
gune, a woman), a woman-hater;
misogamist (Gr. gamos, married), a
hater of marriage.

MAN IN GENERAL OR IN RELATION TO MANKIND. 109

man and wife being restricted to a married couple. The word
woman, from AS. wimman, wifmaun, is a compound of wif, wife,
and man. She was the wife-man who remained at home to weave
(wife being supposed to be derived from weaving), as distinguished
from the weapman, or him who goes out to use the weapons of war.
The sword and the distaff1 were taken as types of the two sexes.
Wifman and weapman are the words of the Saxon Bible in
Matthew xix. 4 : "In the beginning He made them male and
female."

Bachelor and spinster are two suggestive names. The etymo-
logy of bachelor is very doubtful and very uncertain. Most ex-
planations of the original meaning are conjectural, such as bas
chevalier, because the title knight bachelor was applied to a knight
of the lowest order, and so a bachelor came to be a junior, or an
inferior member of any company in which he expected promotion.
The title is also applied to any one who has taken the lowest
degree at a university, who is a B.A. but not yet an M.A. Partly
in consequence of this last, the etymology has been frequently
given seriously and not in jest, as baccalaureus, as if composed of
bacca lauri, laurel berry, as if he had already been crowned with
the laurel. More likely than either of these is its derivation by
Brachet (generally a very safe guide) from the late L. baccalarius,
a farm-servant or cowherd, from baccalia, a herd of cows, and this
from bacca, not a berry, but late L. for vacca, a cow. The word
spinster, now applied to an unmarried woman, was originally the
name given to those who span, and occasionally to those who
knitted ; and we find in Platt-Deutsch the name of spindel given
to a knitting-needle, for the spindle was a very thin rod, and was
taken as the type of anything long and slender, hence spindle-
shanks. It has become the fashion of late to say, and on the
authority of Prof. Sayce and M. Breal, that sweetheart, which

1 The distaff (AS. distcef) was I the idea of roundness, and is again
the staff on which the flax or tow used, in 2 Sam. iii. 29, for a

was rolled in spinning. The instru-
ment is obsolete, though the word
is still well understood. The
Hebrew (Prov. xxxi. 19) conveys

(round) staff, and three times by
Jeremiah, iii. 12, 14, 15, for the
circuit or region round about
Jerusalem.

110 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

is spelt as if it meant my sioeet heart, is really formed of the
same suffix as niggard, sluggard, coward, and that it ought to be
spelt sweetard, full of sweetness. Breal admits that sweetheart
has what he calls more colour, but it has more than this, it has
more truth on its side and more antiquity as well as more colour.
The word is composed of the two words sweet and heart ; and so
we have it from the earliest times. That there is no room for
doubt is evident from Chaucer, and from one poem alone, and one
book of that poem — viz., ' Troilus and Cressida,' book iii. line 78,
" 0 swete herte deere " ; 127, "deere herte"; 1134, "myn owene
sweteherte"; 1161, "my swete herte deere"; 1771, "his owen
herte swete." As if this were not enough, we find in Mincheu's
Etymology, published in 1626, a sweet heart, for which he gives the
Belgian (i.e., Platt-Deutsch), soet-hertchen, and Teut. (i.e., German),
suss-hertzichen ; while N. Bailey (philologos) knows of no other
form of the word. Bridegroom and bride are very closely related,
and on the brink of becoming more so. The OE. bryd-guma, guma
signifying a man, was the original name for bridegroom, literally
the bride-man. It was spelt for a time brideguma, but when it
became gome, and then became obsolete, its place was taken in
the sixteenth century by grome, from groom, a lad. On the occa-
sion of the marriage, and up to the time of it, the bride was the
pivot around whom everybody else revolved.

The engagement is the being bound by a gage, or pledge, as in
the phrase an " engagement ring." The word comes from gage, a
pledge, security for the fulfilment of a promise, from the F. gage,
gager, to wager. To engage is to covenant, of which the gage was
the security, and this explains a good many of the apparently differ-
ent meanings of the word. Gage was also a challenge to combat,
in which sense it was a pledge, such as a glove or gauntlet which
the accuser or challenger threw on the ground, and the other took
up as accepting the challenge. These pledges were held by the
seconds or friends of the parties, and he who was overcome was
bound to pay the mulct (L. midcto, to fine), or penalty agreed on.
The word wage had a similar meaning, in fact was the same word,
OF. wager, through F. gager. To tcage is the verb, as to wage

MAN IN GENEKAL OR IN RELATION TO MANKIND. Ill

war, which is now used without adverting to the ancient pledge,
gage, or wage, of the combatants. The wage was the reward for
which they fought. The plural wages is the payment for stipu-
lated services, according to the time during which the servant is
engaged, or during his engagement. A wager is to be paid by the
loser, when two persons bet or speculate on the chances of a
future event happening or not happening. To lay a wage is to
engage to pay or deposit such a bet. From this origin it is
obvious why not only an ordinary contract or promise, such as
that of marriage, but a battle, is termed an engagement. To
engage a servant is to hire him. To engage an enemy is^to fight
him. When land is pledged to a creditor for payment of a debt,
it is said to be mortgaged, because it becomes dead (F. mart, dead,
from L. mortuus) to the debtor if it is not paid on a certain day.

The banns of marriage are frequently supposed to be the bands
of marriage, as if the reference was to the union of the two in the
bonds of matrimony. I have often had letters asking me to
publish the bands of marriage on a particular Sunday. The
mistake is an old one. In the old poem, "Song of Anarchus"
('Shepherds Oracles,' 1646), ascribed to Quarles, we find —

" "We'll crush and fling the marriage ring into the Roman see ;
"Well ask no bands, but e'en clap hands, and hey ! then up go we ! "

This perversion of meaning is increased by certain phrases such
as the "bands of Hymen,"1 "the marriage tie," and "tying the
knot " ; so Mrs Bolton in ' Pendennis,' chap, xlviii., " They 'ad
their bands read qxiite private." The word is bans or banns, not
bands, and signifying, as ban itself did, a proclamation — the AS.
word being gebaun, a summons or proclamation.

The word wedlock, too, is regarded by many as referring to the
bands of marriage, and people, not otherwise ignorant, seem to
think that wedlock is the state of being engaged in the marriage

1 Hymen, in ancient mythology,
the son of Bacchus and Venus, was
regarded as the god of marriage,
who with his chaplet of roses and
his yellow robe, with a torch in

his right hand and a flame-
coloured veil in his left, presided
over the nuptial ceremonies, at
what was called the Hymeneal
altar.

112

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

tie or band, as specified by the word lock. But " lock " here is
merely the AS. word lac, for gift ; while " wed " is from the AS.
wedd, a pledge, and the wedding is the fulfilment of all this.

The word marriage itself is the name given to this ordinance
originally from the husband's point of view (taking a wife), from
the L. maritus, a husband, from L. mas, maris, a male ; while
nuptials is the name applicable to the marriage, or the wedding
ceremonies, from the wife's point of view, from the L. nuptialis,
from the verb nubo, nupsi, nuptum, nubere, which signifies origin-
ally to cover or veil, and afterwards to marry, and used of a woman
marrying, because at her marriage she puts on a veil ;" The Greek
word for marriage, gamos, is found only in such words as bigamy
(bis, twice), the crime of having two wives or two husbands at once,
polygamy, many wives, and monogamy, a single marriage (from
Gr. monos, one). To espouse is another name for to give in
marriage, literally to give as spouse, or betroth, to make as spouse,
for spouse comes to us through the OF. espous, F. epoux, fern.
Spouse, from the L. sponsus, past part, of spo-ndeo,1 to promise,
and to promise in marriage now signifies a husband or wife.

The word husband is often taken as meaning one inhabiting a
house, from AS. husbonda, from hus, a house, and bonde, for buandi,
to inhabit or occupy, but I prefer to regard it as carrying its mean-
ing on its very face, and that the husband is so called as being really

1 This verb, spondeo, spondi,
sponsum, spondere, to pledge one's
word, to promise, came from the
Gr. word spondai, a solemn promise,
and a spouse is a promiser of love,
honour, and obedience to the man,
who on his part espouses, that is,
makes promises to, the bride — the
term is applied both to man and
wife ; and so to correspond is to
answer or agree with one another,
correspondents are those who com-
municate by letters and messages,
and correspondence is greatly facili-
tated by the post office. To de-
spond is to take a very unhopeful
view of things. Despondere in
Latin signified originally to prom-
ise one's daughter in marriage to

any one, and as frequently the
parting was looked forward to with
foreboding, it came to signify to de-
spond, to be cast down, to be filled
with apprehension. To respond is to
answer suitably, and the responses
made in church are the answers of
the laity. A respondent is one who
answers in certain legal suits. A
responsible office has some import-
ant duties attached to it, for the
due discharge of which he is an-
swerable to society. A responsible
being is one who is possessed of
reason, and we speak of his moral
responsibility or responsibleness
for what he does. Pope speaks of
"the vocal lay responsive to the
strings."

MAN IN GENERAL OR IN RELATION TO MANKIND. 113

the band of the house, he who ought to keep the house and the
family together ; and although in too many cases the wife in this
sense is the true husband, yet the name continually should suggest
to the husband his special duty and privilege. A recent writer
has pointed out a striking instance of word-making through mis-
understanding— viz., in the case of "helpmeet," as applied to the
wife. In the Bible of 1611 (our Authorised Version) the Hebrew
words of Gen. ii 18 are literally rendered "an help meet [i.e., fit,
suitable] for him." But readers mistook the two words "help"
"meet" for a compound, and so helpmeet became current as a
synonym for one's partner in life. Bradley, who mentions this,
says that people have been known to suppose that it meant one
who helps " to make ends meet," but commonly, when the word
has been analysed at all, the second element has been supposed to
be synonymous with mate, or perhaps an incorrect form of it.
This notion suggested the formation of helpmate, which is a very
good and correctly made compound, though it did originate in a
blunder. I may mention (as even a more natural, though not a
more ingenious, mistake than helping to make ends meet) the
spelling "meat," which I have got on three different occasions in
answer to the question, "What did God give as a reason for
creating woman ? " " It is not good that the man should be alone ;
I will make an help-meat for him " !

Matrimony is also a name for the married state, literally
motherhood, from L. mater, a mother, and we speak of matri-
monial happiness and maternal affection ; while a matron is a
motherly woman, or a lady superintendent of some public insti-
tution. To matriculate is to enrol one's name on the register of
some society, as a university, which is an intellectual mother, or
alma mater, and we are said to pass a matriculation examination.
Many of the words coming from pater and mater resemble each
other very closely, as in paternal and maternal, but we must not
rashly infer from this that they differ merely in being applicable
the one to the father and the other to the mother. If we do, we
may find ourselves as far from the mark as the boy did who, being
asked " What is patrimony ? " answered correctly, " Something left

114 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

by a father " ; and being further interrogated, " And what is matri-
mony ? " promptly but erroneously answered, " Something left by
a mother."

The word widow, in exactly the same sense in which it is now
used, is of great antiquity, and the remoteness of its origin, and the
vast distance which it has travelled through ages without alteration
of any kind, except as to the pronunciation of v and w, which
are continually interchanging, not only in various languages but
in the same language, make it an unusually interesting word.
How many thousand years this name for a bereaved woman has
been used, by what variety of nations, and over what extent of
the earth's surface, it would not be easy to determine. Our Anglo-
Saxon forefathers used it a thousand years ago, and in North
Germany they spelt it ividmve or mdewe. The Moeso-Goths in the
fourth century, for the same person, used the same word widotvo.
But nearly a thousand years before that time it was used by the
Latin people, who wrote it vidua. And yet again, a thousand
years more backward, on the slopes of the Himalayas a bereaved
wife was called a widow, for in the Sanscrit of the Rig Veda we
find the word vidhavd. Pronounce the v as w, and, as Grant
White says, we see how simply each stricken woman has taken
this word from her stricken sister and passed it on from lip to
lip, as they were bearing our fathers in the weary pilgrimage of
war and suffering, through untold ages, from what are now the
remotest bounds of civilisation. The Sanscrit vidhavd is merely
the word dhavd, a man, and vi, without, so that the word at its
original formation meant simply a woman left without a man, just
as it does to-day, and it has remained all these ages materially
unchanged both in sound and meaning. Widow is one of the
very few words of which the feminine form is the original. It
was an adjective in Latin, as doubtless it was first in Sanscrit, and
it became a noun also, like many adjectives in most languages.
By metaphor it came to mean deprived, deprived of anything.
Until lately our Latin lexicons gave deprived, without anything,
as its primary meaning, and deprived of wife or husband was given
as its secondary and dependent meaning. It was, however, applied

MAN IN GENERAL OR IN RELATION TO MANKIND. 115

first to women, then to men, and last to things in general, which is
the natural manner of growth in language. Widower is a poor
word, which should mean one who widows, not who is widowed.
Its etymology seems uncertain, for it can hardly be a modern form
of iciduwa, which is given by some as the masculine of mduwe.
The phrase a widow woman, which we sometimes hear, is an
unnecessary superfluity of words, and it would be as absurd to
speak of a female lady or a she cow as to say a widow woman.

The word weeds, as applied to mourning garments, and especi-
ally to a widow's weeds, has nothing in common with "weed,"
a plant, which is from the AS. weod, an herb. But this word is
the AS. wcede, a garment, or clothing, said to be from old Ger. wdt,
cloth, corrupted into Ger. wand (as in lein-wand), from a Teutonic
root seen in Gothic — vidau, to bind. Many quotations from our
early poets show that the word originally signified clothes, or a
garment generally, and was not limited to the attire of a widow ;
and indeed it would seem as if "weed" was derived from the L.
vestis, a garment. A very clever use of the word "weeds," in the
ordinary acceptation of the term, I once heard made by an Irish
lady who had gone down to the hotel garden with a friend, and
on her return was found to have a bunch of flowers in her dress,
which she had gathered in the garden. Her husband rebuked her,
half in jest, half in earnest, saying, "You shouldn't have pulled
these flowers, Mary." " Why not 1 " she said ; " you wouldn't have
me wear weeds, would you ? "

Passing from husband and wife to father and mother, we find
that father comes from the root pa, which means to guard, to
protect, and also to support, so that the father is he who supports
and protects. We find it as fader in ME., as voter in Ger., in
L. pater, in Gr. pater, and in Sans, pitar, while in all these
words we have also more or less preserved the suffix ter, which
usually denotes the agent. The word mother, in ME. moder, in
Ger. mutter, in L. mater, in Gr. meter, Sans, metd, has the same
suffix ter, and the root ma, which means " to shape," " to form,"
she who shapes, or forms, the family. The change in spelling
from fader and moder in ME. to father and mother, although

116

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

remarkable, is probably due to the th in brother, where it has
always been found, or to the th in the Icel. father. The name
infant has been given to a babe, from the L. word infans, com-
pounded of L. in, not, and fans, speaking, pres. part, of fari, to
speak — lit. "not speaking, one who cannot speak." A babe is a
child before it can speak, and hence to babble is to speak unin-
telligibly. In many churches, when a child is baptised, it is
customary to have sponsors, who are termed godfathers and god-
mothers to the children, for whom they undertake to be responsible.
These children are then godsons and goddaughters, and in the
Romish Church a dispensation is necessary before a godfather and
godmother to the same child can be married to each other. The
Saxon word sib signified akin, related, as it still does in Scotland,
and so a sponsor was godsib, one related to the child in the service
of God ; and when godsib was afterwards changed into gossip, the
gossips, who were literally the joint sponsors for the child, had a
good deal of conversation with those they met at these christening
feasts. To gossip was to attend a christening feast, and now
means only to indulge in the gossip and idle chatter and irrelevant
talk which is so common on these occasions.

The word youth, originally, like man, included both sexes, but
taken generally denotes the son : it was formerly spelt youngth,
equivalent to younghood.

Son and daughter have next to be spoken of. Son, ME. sone,
properly two syllables, from AS. sunu, Sans, sunus, all from the
Aryan verb su, to beget or generate, so that son means the gener-
ated one. This word son helps to form many family names, such
as Johnson, the son of John, and Richardson, the son of Richard,
&c. In daughter, Ger. tochter, Gr. thugater, AS. dohter, Sans.
duhita. we have the usual suffix ter, denoting the agent, and the
Sanscrit root dud, for dhugh, which means "to milk." Very
likely, it is said, the young girl was called by this name when in
the plains of India our ancient fathers, in their pastoral life, used
to send her to milk the cows. Orphan is the name given to
either son or daughter deprived of parents. The original word
resembles widow very much in this respect, that originally it signi-

MAN IN GENERAL OR IN RELATION TO MANKIND. 117

fied bereft or deprived of parents or children, and afterwards to be
deprived or destitute of anything. This was the meaning of the
Latin word orbits, from which it comes, and which is derived from
Gr. orphos, whence orphanos. The step-, prefixed to son, daughter,
and child, in step-son, &c., is not from stoeppan, to go, to take a
step, but from steop, which signifies destitute or bereaved, so that
step-son or step-child is the same as orphan, which comes from the
Greek for bereaved. The simplest and consequently the original
forms (Icel. stiupr, old Ger. stiuf) do not denote step-father or step-
mother, but step-child, orphan. Step-father and step-mother are
therefore terms which could have arisen only after the step- had
lost its proper sense. A step-mother is not a " bereaved mother,"
but one who takes the place of a mother to the bereaved children.
Brother (Ger. bruder, OH.Ger. bruodar, Gr. phrater, Sans, bhratar)
is probably from the root bhar, which means to carry, to support,
to guide. The brother, the support, the guide of the sister.
Sister is a more difficult word etymologically. The AS. was
sonstar, the ME. form was suster, the Ger. is schwester. The Icel.
form is syster, and the Sw. the same. It is strange that the
Scand. form sister should have supplanted the OE. form. Its
etymology is uncertain : possibly it is connected with Sans, svastar,
from the root vas, to live, to inhabit, so that in this view a sister
is the woman who lives under the same roof, our companion.
It is curious to note that all the current terms of family relation-
ship outside the immediate circle of the household have been
adopted from the French. Uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, and
cousin very soon displaced even native equivalents. The word
uncle comes through the F. oncle, from the L. avuncultis, the
brother of one's father or mother, a diminutive of the L. avus,
a grandfather, — the word from which we derive L. at&vus, an
ancestor, and our English atavism, the name given to the recur-
rence of any peculiarity or disease of an ancestor in a late genera-
tion. Aunt comes to us also through the F. (OF. ante, and modern
F. tante), from the L. amita, a father's sister, or a paternal aunt,
There is a slang meaning attached to the words uncle and aunt
with reference to the origin of which there is room for greater

118 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

difference of opinion. The word "uncle" has for a long time
been slang for the pawnbroker or the pawnshop. It has been
supposed, and I think it is likely, that the slang use of the word
originated in the fact that rich uncles have often been very
generous, that many nephews have often been indebted to them
in times of need, and that it was not uncommon to speak of
some mythical rich relative, such as an uncle, from whom they
had great expectations, and so gradually the word came to be
applied to the pawnbroker, and to the help which they received
from him. In Dickens's ' Martin Chuzzlewit ' we find him making
constant reference to an uncle, in respect of whom he would seem
to have entertained great expectations, as he was in the habit of
seeking to propitiate his favour by presents of plate, jewels, books,
watches, and other valuable articles. So far back as 1607 we
find Decker in his ' Northward Ho ' saying, " Four score pounds
draws deep, . . . I'll step to my uncle not far off, ... and he
shall bail me "; and in Hood's " Miss Kilmansegg," published in
1828, we read—

" Brothers, wardens of city halls,
And uncles rich as three golden balls,
From taking pledges of nations."

It has been suggested that the word uncle in this sense is only a
poor pun on the L. word uncus, a hook, as pawnbrokers employed a
hook to lift articles pawned, before spouts were invented (' Notes
and Queries,' 7 S., vii. 56). The spout is the shoot or lift from
shop to store-room, hence "up the spout" means pawned. I
scarcely think that uncle, even in this sense, has anything* to do
with unciis, otherwise it would be very difficult to explain how the
French came to call the pawnshop ma tante, in humble imitation
of our uncle,

If we turn for a moment from those who have descended from
us, or been our contemporaries, to those who have preceded us,
we find that they are called our ancestors or our forbears. Our
ancestors are those from whom we have descended, our forefathers,
those who have gone before us, derived from the OF. ancestre

MAN IN GENERAL OR IN RELATION TO MANKIND. 119

(now ancetre), from the L. antecessor, from ante, before, and cedo,1
to go. The Scotch word for ancestors, "forbears," as Skeat has
shown, has nothing to do with the verb " to bear " in etymology.
The proper spelling is fore-beers, which gives the clue to it. It
is precisely fore -be -era, fore-existers, those who are (or exist)
before. The spelling is due to the nse of ar for er in lowland
Scotch, which has makar for maker and the like, the plural being
written makaris, later makari, instead of ME. makeres or mod. E.
makers. Hence be-ar stands for be-er, and be-aris or bears is the
equivalent of be-ers, formed with the suffix ar or er from the verb
" to be." "We actually use the suffix ar for clearness in the word
li-ar, because the spelling Her looks dubious. The Scotch for liar
was leear or lear. The simplest proof that the old pronunciation
is in accord with the etymology is to observe the following lines
in Montgomery's Poems, ed. Cranstoun (Scot Text Soc.), p. 211,
11. 213, 214—

" 0 whilk has begun they saw by thaer forbears,
Some held them true and others held them lears."

The evidence afforded by this rhyme is so satisfactory that it
frees the etymology from all doubt. Jamieson adds that the word
appears in no other language. Nevertheless it is fairly paralleled
by the Ger. vorweser, a predecessor.

Genealogy, now the history of the descent of a person or family,
in its more ancient meaning was used to denote the task of tracing
the origin not of privileged families or castes merely, but of races

1 From cedo, cessi, cessum, cedere,
to go or come, to yield, we have to
cede, and the cession of territory.
"We have an abscess in some tissue
of the body, and we accede to cer-
tain terms. Access is a means of
approach, we concede, and make
concessions. Decease is another
word for death, and the deceased
person's property passes into other
hands. To exceed is to go beyond
in measure or degree, and excess
is beyond proper limits. We in-

tercede, and make intercession.
We proceed according to a form
of procedure, and we march form-
ally in procession. We recede or
move back mechanically. We
secede or withdraw formally, join
the seceders, and form a se-
cession. We succeed in conse-
quence of the rights of succes-
sion, and we speak of military
successes, or a successful experi-
ment, or of an unsuccessful
attempt.

120

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

and groups of races, then of the species itself. It comes from
the Gr. word genos,1 a race (from Gr. gennao, to produce, and
ginomai or gignomai, I am bom or produced).

Pedigree, a word of much the same meaning, is not, however,
so easily traced to its source. From the last syllable having been
occasionally grue and grewe, Skeat gives the guess that there may
be a reference to F. grue, a crane, and he quotes Cotgrave as his
authority that danser la grue meant to hop or to stand on one leg
only, in allusion to the crane's frequently resting on a single leg ;
and there is a proverbial phrase, a pied de grue, in suspense, on
doubtful terms, or not well, or but half-settled, like a crane that
stands but on one leg. Thus a pedigree would be so named in
derision from its doubtfulness or from the crane's legs (single
upright stalks) used in drawing out a pedigree. This seems a most
unlikely origin, while the theory that the pedigree was so named
in derision from its doubtfulness overlooks the fact that this
name was given not by those who laughed at pedigrees, but who
believed in them. Not much importance can be attached to the
spelling pedigrue, for in the old Anglo-Latin Dictionary, where the
word occurs, it is spelt in at least seven different ways. A good
deal is to be said for Wedgwood's suggestion in 'Notes and
Queries,' that as pied has the sense of " tree," pied de gres would
thus signify a " tree of degrees." I can find no satisfactory proof
that pied ever signifies a tree. But why not pied, a foot, and F.
degre, a step — i.e., a foot-step, the word degre coming from the
low L. degradum for gradum, while degradum became first degret
and then degre, 1 Or, if this be not perfectly satisfactory, why not
derive it from the French adverbial phrase par degre, by degrees
or by steps 1

1 From the same root we have,
of course, the word genesis, signi-
fying the first origination or pro-
duction, and the first book of Moses
is so called because it begins with
an account of the formation of all

things. Oxygen, hydrogen, and
nitrogen are simple or elementary
gases, so named from their form-
ing part of acid (oxys), water
(hydor), and nitre (saltpetre),
respectively.

121

CHAPTEE X.

HIS BODILY STRUCTURE.

(1) His Osseous System; (2) his Muscular System; (3) his
Nervous System ; (4) his Sanguineous System ; (5) his Digestive
System ; (6) his Secretory and Excretory Systems.

A^ itomy, through F. anatomie, and L. anatomia, from Gr.
ana me, dissection (ana, up, and temno, I cut, lit. a cutting up),
is t e art of separating the different parts of an animal or a plant,
and also the science which deals with the structure and organisa-
tion of living things.

(1) His Osseous System, called the skeleton. Osseous from
L. os, ossis, a hone, and skeleton from Gr. skello, to dry up, to be
parched or lean. The word is applied to a human body preserved
by the Egyptian art of embalming, in which wax, spices, &c., were
employed (from Persian mum, wax). The word skeleton meant in
Gr. a dried-up body, a mummy ; and by a skeleton we now mean
the bony framework upon which the animal body is constructed.
The principal part of this is the spine, OF. espine (F. epine), from
L. spina, a thorn, applied to the backbone because of its sharp
pointed projections. On the top of the spine is the skull (from
Icel. and Dan. skal, a shell), the idea being that of a thin plate
or case, with which a body is covered, or in which anything is
contained. The word is connected with shell and scale, a thin
plate. The collar-bones run from the neck to the shoulder. The
word collar comes from the L. collum, the neck, and the collar-
bone is also frequently called the clavicle, from its resemblance to
a Eoinan key, the Latin for which is clavis. The elbow is so
called, being the joint where the arm " bows " or " bends." The

122 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

AS. is dboga, from eln = L. ulna, the arm, and boge, a bow or bend,
from bugan, to bend. The funny-bone, or, as the Americans more
frequently term it, the crazy-bone, is the term popularly applied to
what anatomists call the inner condyle of the L. humerus (a
shoulder), a blow on which jars the ulnar nerve and produces a
funny tingling sensation. A good dissecting-room joke for first-
year's students is, Why is the funny-bone so called 1 " Because it
borders on the humerus." This jest is seriously taken by a recent
etymologist who explains the word funny-bone as a pun on the
word "humerus." In the ' Ingoldsby Legends' we find, —

" They have pulled you down flat on your back,
And they smack and they thwack,
Till your funnybones crack,
As if you were stretched on the rack."

The ankle-bone is supposed to be so called as being at the joint
between the foot and the leg, and so forming an angle or bend.

(2) His Muscular System. The word muscle is through F.
from L. musculus, the diminutive of mus, a little mouse, so called
from its appearance under the skin. They are the moving organs
of the animal frame. The muscles are bundles of soft red fibres of
a cylindrical form, and running in a parallel direction. Parallel, F.
from L. parallelus, from Gr. para, beside, and allelon, of one
another (from olios, another), signifying literally "beside one
another."

(3) His Nervous System, including the brain itself (AS. brcegen),
the spinal marrow, and the nerves, as they are apparently united in
one order or function. A nerve originally signified a tendon or
sinew, through F. from L. nervus, and Gr. neuron, a sinew.
The word nervous signifies having nerve, and is ambiguous,
meaning sometimes strong and vigorous, and at another time,
having the nerves easily excited or weak. Where this is the
meaning, I agree with those who think that the word should be
written " nervish," as in Scotch. Perception of the external world
is communicated to the brain by the senses, which are five in
number : (1) Sight, which is effected by the eye. The pupil or the

HIS BODILY STRUCTURE.

123

apple of the eye is so called from the baby-like figure seen on it
(F. pupille, from L. pupillus, pupilla, diminutive of pupus, a boy,
and pupa, a girl). Retina is the innermost coating of the eye,
consisting of a fine network of optic nerves (optic, from the Greek
word for eye, ops). The word eye, the organ of sight, must be
traced back to the AS. eage, Gothic augo, Ger. auge, and L. oculibs^
for all come from the root ak, which means properly to pierce, to
be sharp, and (in meaning closely allied) to be quick. This AS.
dcegeseage, a day's eye, dwindles down to y in daisy (eye of day),
and to ow in window, supposing that window is the old Norse
vendauga, the Swedish vindoya, the ME. windoye. In Gothic it
is called augadauro, in AS. eagduru, i.e., eye-door. Closely con-
nected with this is brow, the forehead, and also the eyebrow, also
the edge of a hill or cliff, which comes from the AS. bru, Scot. brae.
The word vision, the act or sense of seeing, is from L. visio, visionis,
from video,2 vidi, visum, videre, to see — from the root md, as in
Gr. eido and Sans, vid, to see. It is by the eye, too, that we are
able to distinguish the different colours. Though the word colour
itself is Latin (color), yet all the common colours have Anglo-
Saxon names, such as white, black, green, yellow, blue, red, brown.
The word scarlet was, I think, originally given not to a particular
colour, but to a particular kind of cloth which happened to be of
the colour now known as scarlet, and this cloth in Persian was

1 Oculus, the eye, supplies us with
ocular, monocle, a binocular, an
opera-glass with sights for both the
eyes, as well as an eye - doctor,
called an oculist.

2 From this verb we have in-
numerable derivatives : we have viz.
for videlicet (videre licet, one may
see), namely, or in old Eng. to wit.
To view is to look at, the visage
is the face. Many things visible
through the microscope are invisible
to the naked eye. Many men are
visionaries, led away by imaginary
projects. We speak of the visit of
a friend, and we have often visitors.
A vista means a view, and we speak
of the visual organs. Vivid is what

is lively, or true to the life. We
advise others more readily than we
take advice ourselves. We speak
advisedly or unadvisedly. Envy,
through F. envie, from L. in-
vidis, is directly caused by see-
ing another's success. Invidious
tasks are such as cause envy to
others. Evident and evidence, pro-
vide, providence, and provision, all
come from this word. To improvise
a speech is to make it on the spur
of the moment ; to review is to look
over again or make a critical ex-
amination ; to revise and to supervise
are both necessary, while survey,
surveyor, and surveillance may well
conclude the list.

124 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

called* saJcirlet, which presumably came from the Arabian Sikelia, or
Sicily, for in Sicily, during the times of the Arab domination there,
the cotton and silk and coloured manufactures were in the highest
perfection. The name came into our language through the French,
who called it escarlate, from the low L. scarlatum. A closely
allied colour, vermilion, has been so called from vermiculus, a little
worm (diminutive of vermis),1 doubtless cognate with our English
worm, which it also signifies. In the same connection we find the
origin of the words carmine and crimson, common to all the Europ-
ean languages. They come from the word kermes, the Arabic and
Persian name for the scarlet grain -insect, and the word occurs in
a still older form krmi in Sanscrit. So cochineal, which is the
name both of an American insect and of a dye, gets its name,
through the Spanish, from coccus, the Latin name of the Spanish
insect. Again, to tell you that our noun and adjective purple is
the anglicised form of the L. purpureus, a word of similar significa-
tion, is to tell you nothing ; but when we go further and tell you
that purpura was the name of the shell-fish which in time gave its
name to the famous Tyrian dye which we obtain from it, we have
added something to your stock of knowledge. Azure also came to
us through the French. It is a sort of mutilation of the Oriental
original, or rather a corruption of the low L. lazurruin, lazur,
which is the Persian lazur or lajuard, the stone which we at this
day call lapis lazuli, a precious stone of a light -blue colour, of
which the best varieties are found in Persia and China. Ultra-
marine, called in medieval Latin ultra marinum azurur, is
literally "the azure colour from beyond the seas," — viz., from
Assa, whence comes the lapis lazuli from which that colour is
made.

(2) Hearing, or the pei-ception of sound, is in like manner effected
by a nerve spread out like a membrane, called the tympanum,
which stretches like the cover of a drum across the hole of the ear.
To hear is to perceive by the ear sounds of all kinds, from L.

1 From vermis, a worm, we have
the word vermicelli, which is
wheaten flour made into worm-like
threads or tubes ; while vermin,

from the same root, is applied to
any kind of small destructive or
disgusting animal ; for example, rab-
bits are often spoken of as vermin.

HIS BODILY STRUCTUKE.

125

sono,1 sonui, sonitum, sonare, to sound. The science of sound is called
acoustics, from the Greek verb akouo, to hear, and the acoustic prop-
erties of a church are good or bad, according as a speaker is well or
ill heard in it. Some voices are more distinctly heard than others.
The word voice literally signifies a sound from the mouth, from
vox, vocis, a voice, akin to L. voco,z to call. Some sounds are much
more audible than others. This word comes from the L. word
audire,3 to hear. From the Latin word auris, the ear, itself con-
nected with audire, to hear, we have the word aurist, a person who
makes the ear and its diseases his special study. The auricle of
the ear (from L. auricula, a little ear) is the external part of the
ear, the ear flap. Auricular means whispered in the ear, secret.
Auricular confession is made in secret to a priest called a confessor.
Before leaving the subject of hearing it may be well to remember
that we speak of the reverberation of sound, lit. "the beating
back of sound," — from L. verber, verberis, a scourge, lash, or stroke ;
.and sound is reverberated, e.g., in the case of the echo (L. and Gr.
echo, a sound, perhaps from Gr. ao, to blow), for an echo is just
the repetition of a sound from some object, and the phrase "to
applaud to the echo " is just to applaud so loudly as to produce an
echo. According to the Eomans, Echo was a nymph in love with

1 Sono, sonui, sonitum, sonare. This
verb gives us the L. sonus, sound,
and also sonata, properly a tune for
an instrument, sonnet, a short poem,
a sonneteer, a composer of such. A
consonant is a letter always sounded
with a vowel, and dissonant means
harsh - sounding, jarring. Milton
speaks of "barbarous dissonance."
To resound is to sound again, to
sound loudly.

2 From voco we have vocal, vocal-
ist, vocabulary, vocation (a man's
calling), the vocative, to vociferate.
To vouch meant at one time to call
to witness, to vouchsafe is to con-
descend or to deign to grant ; the
vowels, an advocate, avocations,
avouch, avow, convoke, convocation,
equivoca.te, evoke, invoke, provoke,
revoke, irrevocable.

3 The verb audio, ivi, itum, ire, to
hear, supplies many words to our
language. The proper meaning of
audience is a hearing, as in Acts xxii.
22, and Shakespeare's ." Julius.Caesar,"
III. ii. Although the word is [still
used in this sense when a king is
said to grant an audience to a subject,
yet it is now more commonly used
to designate the people who are
hearers of what is spoken. We
have also the word auditor, as the
name of a person who audits, that
is, literally, hears the final accounts
of a money transaction. Obedience
also comes from the same root. It
means a diligent and attentive hear-
ing— the prefix ob being used aug-
mentatively. Obeisance, too, is
an act of deference and rever-

126

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

Narcissus, but her love not being returned she pined away till only
her voice remained. We use the word also to imply similarity of
sentiment — " that is an echo of my views." The word deafness
originally meant " dull of hearing," but gradually it came to mean
" not able to hear at all." The Latin word for deaf, however, is
surdus, hence the word absurd, from L. ab, from, and surdus, deaf,
lit. " from a deaf man," so that absurd means such an answer as
might come from a surdus or deaf man who, knowing nothing of
the question, would of course be apt to answer absurdly, — and so
"absurd" came to be almost equivalent to "ridiculous."

(3) The Sense of Touch. — The verb to touch comes through
the F. toucher (It. toccare) and Ger. zucken, to move, from L.
ducere,1 to lead or draw, because touch implies a drawing nearer
so as to be in slight contact with, or to touch.

The word tact, which comes from the L. tango, laudum? to touch,
signifies literally, touch, feeling, so that instead of rushing full tilt

1 Duco, duxi, ductum, duo&re, is
one of the most fertile of verbs.
From it we have a duke (from dux),
which originally meant a leader, a
dukedom is the territory of the
reigning duke, and a ducat issued
by such, named after the ruler,
similarly to our sovereign. The
Doge of Venice was the Duke of
Venice. We have duct, a tube or
canal through which a fluid is con-
veyed, especially in plants and
animals. Gold is a ductile metal,
being easily drawn out in wires and
thread. There is abduct, to carry
away wrongfully. To adduce is to
bring forward — such as arguments
or illustrations. An aqueduct (from
aqua, water) is an artificial struc-
ture for leading water from one
place to another. We have con-
duce, and deduce, and educe, and
induce, and introduce, produce, re-
duce, reproduce, seduce, superin-
duce, and traduce, — besides con-
duits (surface drains for water),
deduction, induction, educate. We
have also conduct, both as a verb
and a noun. As a verb it signifies

to lead with, and the channel or
agent in so doing is called a con-
ductor, whether of a car or a choir.
As a noun a man's conduct signifies
the manner in which he conducts
himself — that is, how he leads his life
with himself. A man's conduct re-
fers more to the general tenor of his
life. We speak rather of his be-
haviour in particular cases. To
reduce, to bring back, but in this,
its primary meaning, it has become
obsolete. "Abate the edge of
traitors, gracious Lord, that would
reduce these bloody days again "
(Shakespeare). The word is now
used in the sense of diminishing,
that is, to bring back to its former
state, to its component parts :
"Under thee, as Head Supreme,
thrones, princedoms, powers, do-
minions I reduce " (Milton).

2 The full verb is tango, tetftgi,
tactum, tangSre. We attain some
proposed end, as an object worth
reaching. We have also, I think,
the word tainted, with refei. nee to
meat that has just been touched with
decay (generally derived f ror i tingo,

HIS BODILY STRUCTURE. 127

against a man's prejudices, you have a nice perception, or delicate
discernment, which enables you to say or do what is best suited
to the circumstances.

(4) The Sense of Taste. — Taste is from the same root as tact
(tango, to touch), but it is to perceive by the touch of the tongue,
or of the palate (OF. taster, F. tdter). The word palate comes
from the L. palatus or palatum, meaning the palate, but that seems
to be derived from the Palatine, one of the seven hills in Eome,
on which many fine edifices were erected, especially Augustus's
famous dwelling there, which was called on that account the
Palace ; and royal residences afterwards, wherever situated, were
called palaces, and so the word palatum came to be applied to the
arch or vault of heaven, and also to the palate, as being so im-
portant as the dome of speech and as the roof of the mouth
touched by the food. We sometimes employ it in the same sense
as taste : " Men of nice palates could not relish Aristotle as
dressed up by the Schoolmen." How utterly sensuous, you may
say. Shakespeare, however, follows in the same direction —
"Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no relish of them."
Now of the force of relish we all have a keen enough appreciation,
but our unexpressed passive understanding of it is brought out in
bold relief when we think of the etymology of it — viz., OF. relecher
(given in Cotgrave), to lick or taste again, that which is so pleasant to
the palate as to tempt one to lick his lips. So, too, we express one
of the strongest mental repugnances by disgust (from L. dis, and
gusto,1 avi, atum, are, to taste), that is, distaste or dislike; while any-
thing that is unsystematic and chaotic in intellect finds expression
in the word crude, which is simply the state of being raw or un-
cooked, from L. crudus, raw. Caustic, from Gr. kaio, kauso, to burn ;

to wet or moisten). We have tangent
in geometry, a line which just meets
or touches a curve or a circle in one
point but does not cut it. What is
tangible is capable of being touched
or grasped. Two bodies are said to
come in contact when they meet
without any intervening space.
Contagion, the communication of dis-
ease by contact. Contiguous has the for tastes." termed, is divided

whole of one side or part of it touch-
ing that to which it is in contiguity.
A thing is contingent when it may
not happen, and intac'- is untouched.

d in '^cavity
is no phrase me these all together

128

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

mordant, lit. biting into (from L. mordeo, morsi, to bite), and
piquant (from F. piquer, to prick), have also alike reference to the
sense of taste, and sufficiently explain themselves in their biting,
burning, and stinging allusion. Saucy is just L. salstis, salted.
Saucy talk is therefore too highly salted, in general too spicy;
and racy always reminds us of the root (L. radix l) from which
it springs : thus Cowley's —

" Fraught with brisk racy verses, in which we
The soil from whence they came taste, smell, and see."

The phrase is also very appropriate, " racy of the soil." Savoury
and insipid are both from one root, L. sapio, to taste, to savour.
The one signifies tasty, and the other tasteless ; while the highest
intellectual endowments can result in nothing more exalted than in
a man of sapience, which is also just a man of taste. So, too, our
Parisian friends have sublimated their conceptions of all that is
highest in modes or morals into their "bon gout." In this the
Romans set the example, for their word sapientia, which signifies
wisdom of the highest kind and good sense, comes from this word
sapio, to taste, and so the word savour from sapor.

(5) The Sense of Smell. — The organ of smell is the nose, the
most prominent feature of the face, of which the origin, whether to
be found in Ger. nase or in L. nasus, is uncertain, but it seems
that it meant simply a stretching forth, or prominence. In
Beowulf (V. 371) we read "sae nassas" for "promontories." But
the root of nostril is more intelligible, although somewhat obscured
by the way in which it is now spelt. By Spenser and his con-
temporaries it was always spelt nose-thrill. Now, to "thrill"
meant to " drill " or " pierce," so that the word plainly signifies

1 From radix, radicis, a root, we
have the plant called a radish, which
is nearly all rop^ radicle, a little
tRQje," reproduce, singtothe root,as
duce, and traduce, -*<lical change ;
duits (surface drains professes to
deduction, induction, e<PrinciPles of
have also conduct, botfas a word
and a noun. As a verb sense of to

plant deeply, which now exists only
as part of the verb eradicate (from
e, out of, and radix, the root), to
pull up by the roots. It is figuratively
applied to errors, &c., but never to
people or races, like extirpate (from
L. stirps, a stem or root, either of a
tree or of a family), which is indis-
criminately used of either.

HIS BODILY STRUCTURE.

129

the orifice or opening with which the nose is thrilled, drilled,
bored, or pierced. That the word smell is allied to the low Ger.
smellen, to smoke, as the Ger. reichen comes from ratich, smoke, is
rather confirmed by the word perfume, which comes through the
F. parfum, from the L. per, through, and furmts, smoke. The
word aroma is just the Gr. word for any spice or sweet-smelling
herb, for the aroma of plants is what constitutes their fragrance
(from L. fragro, to smell). Olfactory, the adjective, is often
applied to these nerves, and signifies pertaining to, or used in,
smelling, from L. olfacio, to smell, from L. oleo, to smell (from the
root od, to feel, which has also given us L. odor, smell), and facio,
to do or make.

(4) His Sanguineous System is so called from the fact that the
whole body is pervaded by a red fluid termed the blood, called in
L. sanguis, sanguinis, the blood. The Greek word for blood —
viz., Jiaima, haimatos — forms many medical compounds, and a
bloodless condition is said to be anaemic (from a, without, and
Tiaima, blood). This circulates by means of vessels or tubes
called veins and arteries. The word veins, F. veine, comes from
L. vena, probably from veho, to carry ; while the word arteries
is a little more complicated. There is no doubt that the word
artery is from the Gr. word arteria, an artery, but it is said
to have meant originally the windpipe, being derived from two
Greek words, aer, the air, and tereo, to keep or preserve, and so was
an appropriate word for the windpipe, but not for the vessels which
convey the blood from the heart to all parts of the body. Our
ancestors gave to these the name of arteries, because, finding them
always empty after death, they supposed them to be air-vessels.
The error died out only very slowly, even after Harvey's discovery
of the circulation of the blood, but the old names remained on.
The organs necessary for propelling this flow through the body,
and the organs required for communicating to it the food and air
necessary for sustaining its vital character, are placed in the cavity
of the ribs in the upper part of the chest, and these all together
receive the name of the Sanguineous System. The chest (L. cista,
Gr. kiste, literally a box), as this cavity is termed, is divided

130

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

from the lower region of the body by a horizontal muscle called the
diaphragm, which rises and swells according as we are drawing or
expelling our breath, in Gr. diaphragma, a partition wall, from
dia, through, and phrassein, to fence or enclose. The old name
for it, viz., the midriff, from the AS. midhrif (mid, the middle,
and hrif, the belly), is as good a name for this muscular partition.
The heart itself has two divisions called auricles and ventricles :
the auricles, the two ear-like cavities of the heart (from L. auri-
cula, diminutive of auris, the ear) ; the ventricles, from L. ventri-
cula, little belly-like cavities (from L. venter, the belly). The lungs
are the organs of respiration and breathing. They are called from
their light or spongy texture in AS. lungan, from a root seen in
Sanscrit meaning light, not heavy, while in Scotland and also in
England they are occasionally called "lights."

(5) His Digestive System. — Beneath the diaphragm are situated
the alimentary organs. Alimentary, from L. alimentum, nourish-
ment, from alo, to nourish ; and the word organs, by which any
natural operation is carried on, comes through the F. organe, and
the L. organum, from the Gr. organon, akin to ergon, work. These
organs consist chiefly of the stomach and the intestines, from the
L. stomachus and Gr. stomachos, originally the throat, gullet, then
the orifice of the stomach, and lastly the stomach itself, from Gr.
stoma, a mouth. The intestines are so called from the L. intestina,
from intus, within, in the inside. When food has descended
through the gullet (from F. goulet, the gullet, diminutive of OF.
goule, F. gueule, from L. gula, the throat) into the stomach, the
process of digestion begins. From the root gul, to swallow, we have,
by a not infrequent transposition of the letters, L. glutio, swallow-
ing, and our word deglutition, the act of swallowing. Digestion
is the L. digestio, from the L. verb digero, digestus, to carry
asunder, or dissolve, from the L. de (dis\ asunder, L. gero,1 to

1 This verb gero, gessi, gestum,
gerere, to carry, or to carry on, has
several derivatives. A gerund is a
part of a Latin verb expressing
something to be done or to be
carried on. A gesture is a signifi-

cant movement of the body. These
are sometimes so vehement as to be
called gesticulations. A jest was
originally a merry tale (from gesta,
a thing done), then a joke. Belli-
gerent (L. bellum, war) means waging

HIS BODILY STRUCTURE.

131

bear or carry. The great agent in this is the gastric juice (from
Gr. gaster, the belly, and L. jus, juris, broth or soup). Jus is a
better origin of juice than the L. sucus, with which the word is
connected.

(6) His Secreting and Excretory Systems. — The word secretory
is derived from L. se, aside, and the word excretory from the prefix
ex, out of, while common to them both is cretus, sifted or divided
(from cerno, crevi, cretum, cernere, to distinguish) ; hence secretory
is applied to organs which separate, or set aside, certain fluids of
the body for particular purposes, and excretory to those which
throw certain fluids out of the system altogether. The principal
secretory organs are the liver, the pancreas, the salivary and
lachrymal glands. The word liver (from AS. lifer] contributes no
other word to the language, but the word hepatic, signifying per-
taining to or connected with the liver, is derived through the L.
hepaticus, from the Gr. word hepar, hepatos, the liver. The pan-
creas, commonly called the sweetbread, signifies literally, " all
flesh," from the Gr. pas, pan, all, and kreas, flesh. It secretes a
saliva-like fluid called the pancreatic juice, which assists digestion.
The salivary glands in the mouth secrete the fluid (L. saliva, Gr.
sialon) which mixes with the food and aids digestion. A gland
is a flesh organ which secretes some substance from the blood (F.
glande, from L. glans, glandis, an acorn, from its likeness to the
shape of the acorn). From this we derive the word glanders, a
disease in horses of the glands of the lower jaw and of the
mucous membrane. The lachrymatory or tear glands are so called
from L. lachryma (properly lacrima), a tear, akin to Gr. dakru, a
tear, hence also lachrymatory and lachrymose.

The principal excretory organs are the kidneys (Gr. nephros, a
kidney, whence nephritis, inflammation of the kidneys), the skin,
and the bowels. The kidneys (AS. cuicl) and the skin remove
what appears to be a refuse of the blood, while the office performed
by the skin is to pour off what is termed the insensible perspira-

war or pertaining to a state of war.
We have not only digestion, but con-
gestion and indigestion. A register,
originally res gestcc, is a book where

regular records are kept, kept by
a registrar, and their insertion is
called registration. To suggest is to
put before the mind for consideration.

132 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

tion or sweat, the latter being the AS. name (svaf), and the former
from L. perspiro, to breathe (per, through, and spiro, to breathe).
The word bowels is derived from OF. boel, Port, budel, It. budello,
a gut, low L. botellus, an intestine, and so it occasionally is used in
the sense of interior, as when we speak of the bowels of the earth.
We still speak of bowels of mercy and bowels of compassion,
although the days are long gone by when the bowels were regarded
as the seat of pity. The usage was transferred to our language
from the translations of the Bible, in which it was common. Thus
in the letter of Henry V. to the French King, given by Hall (Henry
V., fol. 116), "We exhort you in the bowells of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, whose evangelical doctrine willeth that you ought to render
to all men that which you ought to do." "There is no lady of more
softer bowels" (Shakespeare, "Troilus and Cressida," II. ii. 11).
"Thou thing of no bowels, thou" (ibid., II. i. 54). In the Scotch
Paraphrases, No. xl., the most unfortunate example occurs in the
description of the return of the prodigal, verse 4 : —

" He said, and hasten'd to his home,

to seek his father's love :

The father sees him from afar,

and all his bowels move."

In the Authorised Version of the Bible we have — Phil. i. 8, " How
greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ"; ii. 1,
"bowels and mercies"; Col. iii. 12, "bowels of mercies": rend-
ered in the Revised Version "tender mercies," "tender mercies
and compassions," and "a heart of compassion."

133

CHAPTER XI.

BODILY HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH.

MAN'S bodily health can be maintained only by the body being
preserved in such a condition as to allow the whole of the organs
to exercise their functions in the way intended by nature. We
have been provided with organs calculated to perform labour ; but
if that labour were too continuous and protracted, the body would
soon get worn out. Hence the necessity of rest, especially in the
form of sleep, a word which comes in all probability from the
O.Ger. slaf, signifying relaxed ; Icel. slapa, to hang loose, through
AS. sloepan and Ger. sMafen, to take rest by relaxation, for in
sleep one's bodily organs are all relaxed. Slumber denotes a
lighter form of sleep, AS. slumerian, to slumber, cognate with
Ger. schlummern; but where tbe b comes from is unknown. Som-
nambulism is the act or practice of walking in sleep, from L.
somnus, sleep, and ambulo,1 avi, atum, are, to walk. From somnus
we have somniferous, somnolence, and insomnia, want of sleep, or
sleeplessness. Nightmare is a dreadful dream occurring in sleep
during the night, accompanied with intense pressure on the chest.
The Germans give to it the name of Alp, as it feels like the weight
of a great mountain ; while our form of the word has been sup-

1 From ambulo we derive the verb
to amble, either to move with a
peculiarly easy pace, as a horse
lifting two legs on one side, or to
move affectedly, as Cowper says —

" Frequent in park with lady at bis side,
Ambling and prattling scandal as he goes."

An ambulance is the moving hos-

pital of an army ; the ambulance
waggon removes the sick or the
injured to the hospital. The
preamble of a document is the
introductory statement. To per-
ambulate is to walk over (for in-
vestigation, inspection, &c. ), but a
perambulator means chiefly a child's
carriage pushed by a nurse.

134 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

posed to be like the weight of a mare pressing on the chest. But
the AS. form was mara, which signifies a crusher, from a root
mar, which signifies to pound, crush, or bruise, the feeling of some
monster crushing us. The now common word hygiene comes
from Gr. Hygeia, the goddess of health (from Gr. hygieia, health),
whose symbol was a serpent drinking from a cup which she held.
Hygiene is now applied to the science of health in its widest
aspect, embracing laws of personal health, rules for diet, for hours
of recreation and work, &c. The word health signifies properly
wholeness or soundness, and health, or wholth, means being whole
every whit. On the contrary, disease is the want of ease or com-
fort (from dis, privative, and ease, freedom from pain). A remedy,
L. remedium (re, back, again, and medeor, to restore, cure), is
the particular treatment that cures disease. Even although a
disease cannot be cured, it may be palliated. There are many
palliatives adapted to the different diseases; and they are so
called because they soften or lessen the pain of the disease with-
out removing it. The word comes from L. palliatus, clothed
(from pallium, a cloak or mantle), and now signifies, in the figur-
ative sense, to extenuate or lessen by favourable representations, to
cover with excuses as with a cloak or mantle. Pain itself signifies
bodily suffering, and has received the name from the L. poena,
penalty or punishment, through the F. peine, cognate with the Gr.
poine, penalty or fine ; and pain is generally the penalty of wrong-
doing. The L. poena meant first a fine of money, compensation
for an offence, but was generalised so as to comprehend all sorts of
punishments ; and our pain, its descendant, has come to compre-
hend all acute bodily or mental suffering, whether inflicted by way
of punishment or not. Frequently pain is a means by which we
are guarded against disease, by warning us in time of its approach.
Different diseases are recognised by different symptoms, and a
symptom is that which attends and indicates the existence of
something else, not as a cause but a constant effect, from the
Gr. symptoma (syn, with, and ptoma, a fall, from pipfo, to
fall), something that happens in concurrence with something
else. In medicine the word has come to signify a token,

BODILY HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH. 135

mark, or sign which indicates disease, especially the kind of
disease.

Exercise is no less necessary than sleep for the preservation of
our bodily health. The word exercise is so called from L. exerceo,
to train by use (ex, out, and arceo, to drive). It may therefore
have received its name from its enabling us to get quit of waste
products. Where a man's daily work is of such a kind as not
to provide a sufficient amount of bodily exercise, he must devise
means himself for securing it. This purpose may be served in some
measure by athletic exercises, called athletic from Gr. athletes, a
contender for victory in feats of strength, such as running, wrest-
ling, &c., from athlos, a contest ; or gymnastics, being only another
name for the same thing, and also from the Greek, viz., gymndzo, to
exercise, from gymnos, naked, because these exercises were carried
on with the body for the most part naked. On that account the
place where these took place was called a gymnasium, although
the word is often used now as the name of a school for the higher
branches of literature and science. Pedestrian exercise, or that of
walking (from L. pes,1 pedis, a foot), is perhaps the best of all for

1 From pes, pedis, the foot, we
have many words, such as pedal,
the key of a large pipe in an organ
moved by the foot ; the pedestal is
the basis of a pillar or statue. Con-
nected with this word pes we have
the somewhat unlikely relative pion-
eer, from the F. pionnier, having
the same meaning, but the OF.
peonier was an extension of peon, a
foot-soldier ; low L. pedo, a foot-
soldier, from L. pes, the foot —
originally one of a company of sol-
diers trained to work with pick, axe,
spade, &c., and employed in the
field to clear the road before an
army, throw up works, &c. , and
generally employed now as the name
of an early explorer of a district or
country who has gone before to
pioneer — i.e., to clear the way for
others. A hiped, an animal with
two feet ; a quadruped, with four
feet ; a centipede, having a hundred

feet. The word dispatch, some-
times spelt despatch owing to the
word having been thus spelt in
Johnson's Dictionary — although
Johnson himself spelt it with the i
and not the e — inasmuch as the
word is compounded of the Latin
prefix dis, apart, and L. pedtca
(from pes, pedis, a foot) a fetter =
fetterless, so that the verb dispatch
signified originally to set free, to
dispose of promptly or quickly ;
and the noun signified prompt set-
tlement, or rapid accomplishment.
We speak of quick dispatch, and
happy dispatch is the humorous
name given to the Japanese form
of suicide called hara • kiri ; and
spatchcock is an abbreviation of dis-
patchcock — an Irish dish upon any
sudden occasion, consisting of a
fowl cut down the back and ex-
panded to the purposes of a grill.
As the word pedica comes from pes,

136

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

those who are able to walk vigorously; but the mere stroll or
saunter can be of little service, except to keep people out in the
fresh and open air. What a strange tale, too, does the word saunter
tell ! There rise up before our mind's eye the Crusades, those en-
thusiastic expeditions against the infidels and the miscreants, send-
ing out to saunter to the Holy Sepulchre whole bands of pilgrims
who come home palmers. The Crusades, that is the Croisades or
Crossades, the Cross being the banner under which they marched ;
each crusader, however, bearing about with him "the dear remem-
brance of his dying Lord." The Holy Land, we know, was the
place where the pilgrims (the pelerins, the L. peregrini, i.e., the
wanderers) were wont to bend their steps. Knowing this, we can
easily imagine how the pilgrimage might soon degenerate into a
mere sauntering, and the palmers returning with their branches of
palms wore this symbol as a sanction for mendicity.

" I am a palmer, as you see,

Which, of my life much part have spent
In many a far and fair countrye."

the foot, so the word fetter, which
it signifies, comes from the AS.
fetor (from fet, feet), a fetter having
been originally a chain or shackle
for the feet. Expedite comes from
expedire, to extricate the foot, to
get ready ; expeditious, and exped-
ition. To impede comes from im-
pedire, to entangle the foot, to
hinder. Impediment, impedimenta
(pi.), literally impediments, was the
name given by the Romans to the
baggage of an army or company,
and by which it was hindered on
its march. In the same way we
speak of luggage, which we have to
lug about by one ear ; and also of a
hamper, because it hampers and
hinders us so much on our journey ;
and we speak of a hindrance, and
call it so because it hinders us and
tends to make us behind time, be-
hind the others, and perhaps the
hindmost of all. The word imped-
iment, however, is sometimes used

in cases where its original meaning
is entirely forgotten, or when re-
membered makes the use of it look
very absurd. The word comes from
the L. verb impedire (correctly rend-
ered by us to impede) ; but impedire
originally signifies to entangle by
the feet, as a bird caught in a snare,
being composed of the two words
im and pede (of pes, pedis, the foot).
An impediment, then, is really any-
thing in the way, or on the path,
which obstructs our progress, or
against which our feet come, so that
we stumble or are caught. But
when we talk of a man having
an impediment in his speech, the
metaphor is about as mixed as
the well-known description given
by an Irishman of his opponent's
oratory, " He never opened his
mouth without putting his foot in
it," for it might be said in that
case that he had an impediment in
his speech.

BODILY HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH. 137

Another version of the same story is told by Trench, that those
people that wandered idly about, justified their indolence by
saying that they were going to the Holy Land (la Sancte Terre),
but they were so long about it, and took their own time to do
it, that they were called saunterers or Saunct-terrers. Of course
no amount of exercise or activity can remedy original weakness
or deficiency, neither can we make sure of avoiding the numerous
diseases which are extended by contagion or infection. There are

any severe diseases which we generate ourselves, or inherit from
those who have preceded us, such as cancer, the L. word for
crab, and so called because the eating, spreading humour is
supposed to resemble a crab. Rheumatism, a very painful
disease, but wrongly named from Gr. rheo,1 to flow, from a
notion that the pain was occasioned by a rheum, or humour,
flowing through the part affected. Our English word rheum
(from Gr. rheuma) is very properly applied to the thin watery
or serous fluid secreted by the mucous membrane, as in catarrh
and diarrhoea, both of which words come from the same source.
Pneumonia is the inflammation of the lungs themselves, from
Gr. pneumon, the lungs (from Gr. pneuma, air, and this from pneo,
to breathe). Dyspepsia from Gr. dys, hard or difficult, and
Gr. pesso, pepso, to digest, and haemorrhage, or discharge from
the blood-vessels, from G. haima, blood, and rhegnumi, to burst
through. Contagious diseases are those which are contracted by
touching, from L. coniingo, contactum, to touch, con = completely,
and tango, to touch ; infectious diseases are those which are
communicated by the breath, from inficio, fed, fectum, from in,
and fatio, to make, literally to dip anything into. Some diseases
are said to be endemic, i.e., peculiar to a people or district,
Gr. endemos (in, and demos, a people or district) ; others are
epidemic, epi, upon, and demos, affecting a whole people, general,
falling on great numbers, such as cholera, smallpox, and influenza.
A preventive of smallpox and its deadly ravages was discovered

1 From rfi/M we have also the word
rhetoric, meaning a flow of words,
and rhetorician, a man who is said

to have a great command of lan-
guage when language has a great
command of him !

138 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

by Dr Jenner towards the end of the eighteenth century, viz.,
vaccination, i.e., inoculating with the cow-pox, or matter obtained
from cows. It was called vaccination from the L. word vacca,
a cow ; and vaccine is the matter that is got from cows. Cuvier
has said that if vaccine had been the only discovery of the
eighteenth century it would have served to render it illustrious
for ever. Yet when it was introduced at first it was denounced
from the pulpit as diabolical. It was averred that vaccinated
children became ox -faced, that abscesses broke out to indicate
sprouting horns, and that the countenance was gradually "trans-
muted into the visage of a cow, and the voice into the bellowing
of bulls." Yet in Jenner's own lifetime the practice of vaccina-
tion had been adopted all over the civilised world; and when
he died his title as a benefactor of his kind was recognised far
and wide. Inoculation is the insertion of an eye or bud to
communicate disease by inserting matter in the skin, and to
infect with the matter of smallpox is inoculation, whereas to
vaccinate is to inoculate with the matter of the cow-pox. The
word inoculation comes from the L. inocula, from in, into, and
oculus, an eye. Most diseases, too, if taken in time and rightly
treated, as well as many accidents and injuries, are curable.
Hence there are many whose Profession is the treatment both
of diseases and injuries. Those who concern themselves chiefly
with diseases are called physicians, while those who occupy
themselves chiefly with accidents and injuries are called surgeons.
Physicians received their name not because they were skilled in
the use of physic, which is the modern sense, but because they
were at an earlier period the only men who were naturalists, or
who had any true knowledge of nature, and the name comes
from Gr. physis,1 nature. Of course doctors differ now, as pro-
verbially they have ever done, and the profession is divided into
two classes, not, however, of equal size, viz., horc eopathists and
allopathists. The homeopathists are those who av.tempt to cure

1 We have also from this word
physical science, physiology, phy-
siognomy, physiography, treating
of the earth's physical features,

literally a description of nature
in its external aspects, physique,
a man's natural constitution or phy-
sical structure, also metaphysics.

BODILY HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH. 139

diseases by small quantities of those drugs which excite symptoms
similar to those of the disease (literally, similar feeling or affection,
from Gr. homoiopatheia, from homoios, like, from homos, the same,
and pathos,1 feeling.) The allopathists are those who, according to
the homeopathists, prescribe medicines producing effects different
from the symptoms of disease, or contrary to them, from Gr. olios,
different, and pathos, feeling ; but allopathy is the name given by
homeopathists to the current or orthodox medical practice.

The ills that flesh is heir to are too numerous, unfortunately, to
permit of the different diseases being mentioned here, so we shall
confine our attention to one or two of those names which throw
some light upon their nature. Obesity, for instance, though
scarcely reckoned a disease by many, is in reality such in numerous
cases, meaning, as it does, excess in fatness or corpulence. In
many cases it is brought on by excessive eating, hence the name,
from ob, and edere, to eat (participle esum), to eat away, in the
sense of the man eating himself away ; but afterwards it came
to describe the result of what he did eat, signifying no longer
lean and slender, but plump, fat, well-favoured, in good condition ;
obese, having an excess of adipose tissue (L. adiposus, fatty, from
adeps, fat), as opposed to atrophy (Gr. atrophia = a, without, and
tropho, nourishment), a wasting away without manifest cause.
Pleurisy is an inflammation of the membrane which covers the
lungs, and which shows itself generally by a stitch of pain in the
side. The word comes from the Gr. word pleura, which signifies
a rib, or the side, now the membrane covering each lung. In
the time of the Elizabethan writers there was a word plurisy, or
possibly the same word spelt without an "e," and was used
in the writings of the dramatists of the period in the sense of
plethora, or too much, as if it were derived, like plural or plurality,
from the L. plus, pluris, more. In " The Two Noble Kinsmen "
man is represented as curing the world " o' the plurisie of people "
(V. i. 66), and Shakespeare (" Hamlet," IV. vii. 118) uses it in the

1 From Gr, pathos, feeling or
Buffering, we have our English
words pathos and pathetic, apathy
and apathetic, antipathy and

antipathetic. Pathology, hydro-
pathy, hydropathic establishments,
sympathy, sympathise, sympa-
thetic.

140 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

same sense, — " for goodness growing to a plurisy, dies of his own
too much." Quinsy, the name usually given to an inflamma-
tory sore throat, is not merely a contraction of squinancy into
squinsey (Jeremy Taylor), and then by the omission of s to
quinsy, so early as Dryden, "Palamon," 1682, "the throttling
quinsey," but it is formed from the Sanscrit root anh, which means
to press together, to choke, to throttle. In Latin it appears as
ango, anxi, anctum, angere, to strangle, to distress, and angor, suf-
focation ; but angor meant not merely quinsy, or compression of
the neck, it assumed a moral import, and signified anguish or
anxiety. In "quinsy" the root anh has completely vanished, but it
was there originally, for quinsy is the Gr. Jcunanche, dog-throttling.
The name of croup has been given to a throat disease of children,
from the sound produced by the harsh screaming cough, as the
child struggles for breath through a contracted windpipe ; hence
the Scotch name for it "roup," and the adjective "roupy."
Hooping-cough also has received its name for a similar reason;
and when the word is spelt "whooping-cough," the reason of the
name is clearly seen and heard from the convulsive cough resem-
bling a whoop. Chincough is another English name for the same
ailment, but this has no connection with chin, for it was origin-
ally chink cough. The k has now been merged in the following
c — that is, a cough which makes one chink, which in the north of
England means to have a catch (or kink) in one's breath. The
Scotch name for it is still kinkhoast. The Dutch kinkhoest and
the German keuchhusten both mean the cough which produces a
hitch or temporary suspension of the breath. In the North it has
sometimes been royalised into King Cough ! Megrim, through
IT. migraine (and often now called megraine by us), a peculiar
pain affecting half the head, from the Gr. hemikranion (hemi, half,
and kranion, the head or skull). Bronchitis is a name given to
the inflammation of the bronchi, or ramifications of the windpipe.
The word is more remarkable for being so often mispronounced,
and mispronounced by so many of those who are its subjects. I
have myself heard it called " brown crisis " and " brown creatures,"
and " information of the lungs " is nearly as common a description

BODILY HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH. 141

of the disease as " inflammation " of them. Among internal
maladies have been reported a "porpoise" and a "dissenter,"
•which proved to be nothing more serious that a " polypus " and
"dysentery." A recent explanation given me by a bride as to
why the intended bridesmaid was not present at the wedding was
that she had an " ulster " on her throat ; and on another occasion,
asking a woman what the doctor said was the matter with her
husband, I got the answer that the doctor thought he had a kind
of " prelatic saviour," which, from the symptoms described, I took
to be a "paralytic seizure." Still one other throat affection,
diphtheria, in which the air -passages become covered with a
leather-like membrane, which gives its name to the disease, from
the Greek word for leather, diphtli&ra. Dropsy must not escape
our notice, but we shall search in vain for the origin of the name,
unless we first restore it to its original spelling, hydropsy, and
then we at once get the derivation of it through L. hydropesis,
from Gr. hydrops, from hydor, water. Hollingshed, vi. 8, speak-
ing of the virtues of brandy, says, " It lighteneth the mind, it
quickeneth the spirits, it cureth hydropsy," &c.

In addition to the regular practitioners there is another class,
outside the profession, who pretend to great knowledge and skill
in the art of healing almost all diseases. They are known by vari-
ous names, such as mountebanks, quacks, empirics, and charlatans.
They are called mountebanks, from mounting a bank or bench or
a cart (frequently with their medicines in it), from which they can
harangue the gaping crowd, extol their boasted skill, and sell their
marvellous medicines. A quack, or quack doctor, generally means
one who doctors by quackery, from qvaken, to cry like a duck, to
cry out loud. We have also from the German quacksalber, quack,
who deals in salves, ointments, &c., a quack salber, — of which quack
is the abbreviation, and has been for two centuries, the full form
not having been used since the seventeenth. An empiric, F.,
from L. empiricus, from Gr. empeirekos (Gr. em, in, and peira, a
trial), is one who sets up as a doctor without a medical education,
but depending on his experience alone. So also with charlatan,
from It. ciarlatano, a travelled empiric, who cackled about his

142 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

wares. All these had each for the most part a panacea, an all-
healing remedy, or universal medicine, which cured all diseases
(Gr. panakeia, from pas, pan, all, and akeomai, to heal). All
employ medicines — i.e., substances applied for the cure or relief
of disease and pain, from the L. medicina, from medeor, to heal.
Even the quacks have their medicines ; they do not profess to
cure without. They have their nostrums, in regard to which
they say, Id nostrum est — that is ours, — a secret which nobody
else possesses. It is literally "our own," from the L. nos, we.
Those who dispense the medicines to the medical men are called
chemists and druggists. Chemist was spelt chymist, and chem-
istry, chymistry, and the old spelling derives the word from the
Gr. chumos, sap, as if it had been first employed in distilling the
juice and sap of plants ; but the favourite spelling at present of
chemist and chemistry implies that the amalgamation of metals
was its first occupation, and many see in that form of the word a
reference to Chemia, which is, according to Plutarch, an old name
of Egypt, in which this amalgamation was first practised with
success. The word druggist came from the drugs he sells. The
word drug comes through the F. drogue, from the Dut. droog,
dry, and Ger. trocken, to dry, as if applied originally to dried
herbs ; yet it is the prevalent opinion that it is the Persian word
droga, which signifies aroma, odour, or flavour. Dispensary is
the name generally applied to the place where medicines are dis-
pensed, especially to the poor gratis, from L. dispenso, aw, atum,
are, literally to weigh out to several persons, frequentative of dis-
pendo (dis, apart, and pendo, pensum,1 to weigh), and so dispensary
now signifies the place where medicines are prepared or given out
or dispensed. The verb dispense, from meaning to weigh out and
to distribute by weight, came to signify to distribute, or to bestow
in portions from a general stock. About the fifteenth century it

1 From pendo or pensum we have
compendium, a concise (weighed
together or summed up) exposi-
tion of science or similar subject.
To compensate is to give an equal
value, weight, or equivalent for
what has been lost or parted

with ; a recompense is a reward
for something done. Indispens-
able is what cannot be done with-
out or omitted. Prepense means
premeditated, and we have also
expend, expense, expensive, ex-
penditure.

BODILY HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH. 143

came to signify to administer, such as a sacrament or justice, then
to make up (medicine) according to a prescribed formula, to put
up (a prescription). The phrase dispense with seems to have
originated in dealing, administrating with a law, rule, or person;
and as such dispensations were generally obtained by paying or
weighing out a certain sum of money, an obligation might be
set aside or dispensed with, or his services might be dispensed
with. Dispensation, too, in the sense of ordering or arranging
anything in a particular way, is sometimes used with reference
to some special dealing of Providence with an individual, a family,
or a community, as a mysterious or afflictive dispensation ; and
again, as a divinely instituted order or system, with reference to
the time it has prevailed, as the Patriarchal, Mosaic, Jewish, or
Christian dispensation. Closely connected with a dispensary in
the art of healing is the hospital, which very frequently has a
dispensary connected with it. This word comes from L. hospes,
Tiospitis, a guest, a host or entertainer, but this comes from
L. hostis,1 an enemy. The root host means properly a stranger,
a foreigner ; and hence the word hospes (or hostipets, according to
Professor Skeat) means a guest-master, one who receives strangers.
The word hospital now means a house for the reception of the
sick, but originally it meant a place for the reception of strangers,
or those who were in any way needy, as is still seen in the Hospice
of St Bernard ; and the remains of several places of the same sort
in this country are known by the name of spital, such as the
Spital of Glenshee, or " the spital " generally. A hospitable man
is a man who is kind to strangers ; and the hospitality which is

1 The word hotel (ME. hostel, OF.
hostel, F. htitel) is from the same
root. In France the word hotel is
often applied to a large private
house or palace. The word ostler
or hostler is from the same root
also, meaning first a man who kept
a hostelry, or house for strangers,
and then a man who takes care
of the horses at an inn, — a better
etymology than that which I have
heard alleged, viz., that he was
called an "ostler" because he took

care of the ' ' 'osses, " or, worse still,
that it was a contraction for oat-
stealer ! The word tavern, com-
monly in use with us for two cen-
turies before hotel, is from the L.
taberna, a tent or inn, for Cicero
speaks of those "qui divertuiit in
tabernam" — who turn aside to an
inn : from it we have tabemaculum
(a double diminutive of taberna), a
tabernacle, the movable building
carried about by the Jews in the
wilderness.

144 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

urged in Scripture, when we are enjoined to use hospitality one to
another without grudging, is not merely the conventional hospi-
tality, but the true hospitality of asking to our house, or otherwise
keeping, those who could not ask us, or otherwise keep us, in
return. The chemist is often called an apothecary. This word
is also of Greek origin, from the Gr. prep, apo, away, and theke,
a place, and the Greek word apotheke signified nothing more than
" a store " or " warehouse." In the Greek New Testament the word
is frequently used to signify a barn or storehouse for corn, one
instance of which, in Matthew xiii. 30, will suffice, "Gather ye
together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them :
but gather the wheat into my barn," where the Greek word for
barn is apotheke. From this Greek word the Romans framed their
word for a shop or warehouse, apotheca. Pharmacy, the use or
administration of drugs, and latterly the making or compounding
of medicines, signified first of all a medicine or medicinal potion —
even more, a poison; at least, the Greek word pharmakon, from
which it comes, signified this, and indeed at the present day the
most effectual medicines are, in larger quantities, poisons. From this
word we have pharmacopoeia (pharmaco +poios, making, maker),
a book containing a list of drugs, and pharmaceutical, relating to
the preparation, use, or sale of medicinal drugs. In early times
in England spices, sugar-plums, and medical drugs were sold at
the same shops by the grocers. Grocers with us were originally
people who sold their goods not by retail but in the gross, and we
find accordingly that the word was at first spelt grosser; but
drugs did not go off so quickly or in such large quantities as other
goods, and were not sold at that time wholesale. We are told by
Stone that the Company of the Apothecaries divided themselves
from the Ancient Society of Grocers, directing that four physicians
should be annually chosen in London to inspect these drugs. It
seems probable that when the apothecaries separated from the
grocers, they adopted the name of apotheke for the place where
their drugs were sold, and thus acquired the name of apothecaries.
The word grocer, originally spelt groser (as in Mincheu's Ductor),
is from the F. grassier, a wholesale dealer (gros, gross, great), but

BODILY HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH. 145

this etymology is lost by the present spelling, although its meaning
has changed so much that its modern use is the very opposite of
its original meaning. A grocer nowadays is one who sells tea,
coffee, sugar, &c., generally in very small quantities, even in penny-
and halfpenny-worths, instead of on the larger scale which justified
him in calling himself a grosser. We have even greengrocers,
palpable retailers of greens, &c., by the single bunch, as well as
turnips, carrots, parsnips, and vegetables of every colour and
variety. Tho word retail, signifying to sell in small quantities,
is from the OF. retail, a shred (from re, again, and tailler, to cut).

The other branch of the healing art is carried on by surgeons.
A surgeon was originally called a chirurgeon, from Gr. ergon, a
work, and cheir, the hand, through F. chirurgien, from Gr. cheir-
ourgos (now corrupted into surgeon), signifying the medical prac-
titioner working with his hands, and dealing with outward cases,
being prohibited from administering medicines internally. Surgery
was originally practised in London by the Company of the Barbers ;
and we find that Thomas Colard, citizen and barber, in 1467, be-
queathed his book of Fysyk and Surgery, called ' Eossi and Con-
stantine,' to the Hall of Barbers, to be laid in the library. Another
society, however, existed afterwards, which also practised surgery.
In 1540 these two companies were united by an Act of Parliament
which provided that no barber should practise surgery, letting of
blood, or anything relating thereto, except drawing of teeth ;
and that no surgeon should exercise the craft of barbery,
which is described as washing and shaving, and other feats thereto
belonging.

In surgery sometimes, in order to save the life of a patient, the
amputation of a limb is necessary, and this word is etymologically
a very interesting one. It comes from a root pu, which meant
clean, and thence came the L. adj. putiis, clean, and purus, pure,
while from putus we have the L. verb, puto,1 to clean. In a vine-

1 From puto, putavi, putatum, pu-
tare, to prune or think, the Romans
had in mercantile language the
phrase putare rationes, to clear up
or to settle accounts, which became

a common expression for reckoning,
and finally the word "accounts" (ra-
tiones) was dropped and puto came
to be used for ' ' reckon " in general,
as in computation. From " reckon "

146

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

bearing country cleaning is particularly pruning, and from that
idea specially applied in surgery we get amputation (from amb,
round about, and puto, to cut).

But however skilful or however successful physicians and
surgeons may be, and even although none of the human race were
to die prematurely (L. prcematurus, from prce, before, and maturus,
ripe), yet old age brings infirmities with it, many of which go by
the name of senile, as pertaining to old age, or attendant on it,
— from the L. word senilis, which comes from the L. word senex,1
senis, old, or an old man. A person of eighty years of age, for
example, is called an octogenarian, from octogenarius, from octo,
eight. Gardeners proverbially make sad havoc with the Latin
names of their flowers and suchlike ; but I think the old gardener
made a very happy hit when in answer to a gentleman who said to
him, " You must be a very old man now, Thomas : what's your
age 1" answered, "I am what you might call an octogeranium, sir."
Death, however, lies at the close of the longest life. Man on this
account is said to be mortal, from the L. word mortalis, from mors,
mortis, death. In many cases it is brought about not by disease
or old age, but by accident or intention, either on one's own part
or on that of others. Sometimes a man dies by his own hand,

or " account " the transition is easy
to "think," and this has become the
ruling sense of puto (as in the adj.
putative). From the same mer-
cantile dialect comes imputo, to
bring into the reckoning, to credit
or charge to the account of, whence
we get imputation, and by thinking
over a person's conduct again and
again, we form an opinion of him,
we help to form his reputation,
which may not be exactly what he
is, but it is what people think he
is ; while deputation is derived
from the same word — de, signifying
from or of, and puto, still in its
original sense of cutting, and here
a cutting off, so that a deputation
consists of certain persons who are
cut off from the main body and
deputed or selected to go instead

of the others. Thus from a root
signifying originally "clean," the
imagination of the race, utilising the
mechanical means which the laws of
derivation and composition afford,
has gradually formed a group of
words of the most varied meanings :
vine-dressing, singing, arithmetic,
commerce, and folding are all in-
cluded within this circle, and one
word (reputation) is general enough
to apply to all men.

1 From senex we have senate (a
council of elders), senators. Senile
and senility are used in an unfavour-
able sense. We speak of senile
garrulity, and other senile weak-
nesses. Senior means older, as op-
posed to junior, and people are
sometimes arranged according to
seniority.

BODILY HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH. 147

and is called a suicide, from the two L. words, sut, himself, and
ccedo, to kill. One of the most common forms of suicide is by
poison. The word comes from the L. potto, potionis, a drink
(poto, I drink), and now signifies any substance which, when
swallowed, destroys life; but originally, like potion (from the
same root), signified a draught or potion — a medicine to be taken
at a draught, a dose, literally that which is given, from Gr. dosis,
from didomi, I gave. Many poisons are among the most valuable
medicines, although when taken in excess they become deadly
poisons. As an instance of this let us take the word laudanum.
Webster has been held up to ridicule for suggesting in the first edition
of his Dictionary that laudanum is derived from laudandum, as
meriting praise, the gerund of laudo, laudavi, laudatum, laudare, to
praise. The word seems to have been employed first by Paracelsus,
being the name given by him to a prescription which he invented,
and which was early suspected to have opium as the principal
ingredient, and by-and-by it came to be applied to certain opiate
preparations which were sold as identical with his famous remedy.
The name is still given, and given exclusively, to the simple
\lcoholic tincture of opium — which is the Latin word for the gummy
lice of the poppy ; and when we find how frequently distinguished
lysicians have thanked God for opium, we are convinced that
tudanum originally was laudandum, "the Lord be praised." All
\ e same, it is right to say that the greater number of authorities
\ re in favour of deriving the word from the sweet-smelling trans-
^rent gum of the cistus ledon, from which they made ledanum,
which name was gradually transferred to this preparation of opium.
A much farther -fetched derivation would trace laudanum back to
anodyne, considering it a corrupt Latinised form of the Gr. nodunon,
an imagined neuter adjective from nodunia, the absence of pain.
The word anodyne itself, meaning any medicine that relieves pain,
is from Greek an, not or without, and odiine, pain. The name
morphia, or morphine, is given to a peculiar alkaloid, the narcotic
principle of opium, from Morpheus (from Gr. moi-phe, form or
shape), the god of dreams, or shaper of them, and in consequence
of the peculiar dreams which opium occasions. The word nar-

148 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

cotic comes from the Gr. narke, numbness, for narcotics are those
drugs which allay morbid sensibility, relieve pain, and produce
sleep or stupor. When a man kills another the crime is murder,
if the person is put to death intentionally and from malice, —
the word coming from the AS. mortJior, from morth, death, akin
to L. mors, mortis, death, and Sans, mri, to die. We speak of
perpetrating a murder. This verb perpetrate comes from the L.
verb perpetrare, to carry through, from per, through, and patro,
patrare, to effect, accomplish. In Latin the word perpetrare was
applied to anything gradual or indifferent, and they could perpetrate
anything and use the word with reference to peace or war, to the
fulfilment of a promise or the commission of a crime. But in our
language, where it was first used in statutes in reference to the
committing of crimes, it is constantly associated with evil deeds.
A man with us may perpetrate a crime or offence of any kind, an
atrocity however bloody, a murder however fiendish. But we
never use the word with reference to any good action. No doubt
it is sometimes used humorously of something which the speaker
professes to regard as execrable or shocking, as when a man speaks
of another as having perpetrated a pun, but this merely implies
that he has done something very bad, as, according to the judgment of
some, he that would make a pun would pick a pocket. The verb to
burk, signifying originally to smother, is taken from a proper name,
that of Burke, an Irishman, who was hanged in Edinburgh in
1829. Along with another of the name of Hare, he murdered by
suffocation a large number of people to provide bodies for dissec-
tion, for which he was well paid by the surgeons. They smothered
their victims that the bodies might show no marks of violence. It
is now used only in the figurative sense of smothering or passing
over in silence, as " his book was burked by the critics," and to
burk a question is to smother or suppress it by unfair means before
it has been fairly discussed. Another name given to death in-
flicted by another is homicide, or manslaughter, from L. homicidium.
Homicide may be of two kinds, culpable and justifiable, the latter
being when a man kills another in seH-defence. The name of
assassination has been given to secret murder, from the French

BODILY HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH. 149

word assassin, signifying one who kills by surprise or secretly, but
this word assassin comes from the Arabic haschischin, which is
the name of a religious sect, whose adherents have taken a vow to
commit any murder which has been ordered by their chief, and
who fortify themselves for this purpose by partaking of an intoxi-
cating drink prepared from haschish, which is made from hemp.

Where there is any suspicion that death has not come from
natural causes, the funeral does not take place until a post-mortem
(lit. after death) examination has been held of the body: it is
called an autopsy, which signifies literally a personal inspection,
from Gr. autos,1 self, and opsis, sight. The dead body of a human
being is called the corpse, from the L. corpus,2 corporis, the body.
In many parts of Scotland the word corpse is pronounced corp.
Only lately the explanation was given to a funeral party waiting
at the railway station, when asked why the body was not there,
that "the corp had missed the connection." A ministerial friend
was once asked to conduct a funeral service by the euphemistic re-
quest that he would come and " gie the corp a prayer " ; while at
another funeral, a person who was taking a good deal of charge,
being asked by some one to whom he was giving directions what
he had to do with it, answered, " I'm the corp's brother."

The word funeral, which I have mentioned several times, is
from the L. funus, funeris, a dead body, and then a funeral, which
has been supposed to come from the L. fumus, smoke, which would
arise from the burning of the bodies, which was then common, but
it more likely has come from the Gr. phonos, which signifies death
or slaughter. In any case, the word funeral with us includes the
whole pageant of the procession, as well as the religious rites and
the burial of the body, which closes the scene. Undertaker, the
person who undertakes the arrangements for the funeral, has for
a century almost usurped this name, which formerly was applied

1 From autos, self, we have
such words as autobiography, a
person's life written by himself;
autocrat, one who rules by his
own power (kratos, power) ; auto-
graph, one's own writing ; auto-
maton, a self -moving machine ; and

autonomy, self-government (nomos,
law).

2 From this word we have several,
both literal and figurative, such as
corps, a body of soldiers ; corporal,
corporeal, corpulent, corporate, in-
corporate, corporation.

150

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

to any one who took upon himself to carry anything out, out
why it should now be exclusively applied to him who undertakes
to bury the dead it is difficult to see, unless it be, as in all prob-
ability it is, because he is really an under taker, as he under-
takes to see that the body is talcen under the sod. It was with
reference to this exclusive meaning of the word that the late Dr
Haig Brown, of Charterhouse, when a lady wrote to him to say
that she intended to inter her son in his school, if he had no
objections, wrote back to say (with reference to her misspelling) that
he would have much pleasure in undertaking the job. "Well for him
that his correspondent was not so far left to herself as the woman
who wrote to a country schoolmaster the following letter : " Sir,
as you are a man of no legs (knowledge), I intend to inter (enter)
my son in your skull (school) " ! The word obsequies applies to all
the last services which belong to the dead, originally perhaps to
the funeral procession : the word comes from the L. obsequire, from
ob, near, and sequor, to follow, meaning literally " a close following,"
as in a procession. The word obsequious signifies almost too com-
pliant, as following a person too closely. To bury is to cover
closely and completely, to hide, and (as the most effectual means
of accomplishing the design) it is particularly applicable to putting
anything underground — AS. byrgan and Ger. bergen, to hide. In
this country generally when a man dies he is buried, that is, he is
interred (L. in, and terra, the earth), and the act of burial is the
interment. To inhume, and inhumation, have sometimes been
written for to inter, and interment, with which they are syn-
onymous, being derived from L. in, and humus,1 the earth. When

1 Humility, the Christian grace,
derives its name, L. humilis, lowly,
from humus, the ground, but the
word humble does not always de-
scribe what is lowly or meek. The
expression humble - bee is not so
called because it is humble enough
to construct its byke or hive on the
ground. The word is supposed to
come from the Dutch hommelen, to
hum, and so also Ger. hummel, a
humble-bee, but it is not necessary to

go to any other language to get the
name for the sound made by a bee,
the humming sound, which is the
same in all countries and in all
languages. Probably from the
sound made by the busy, buzzy
bee we have the American phrase,
"to make things hum," meaning to
force the pace, to keep moving ; so
with another American phrase, "to
hum around " = to call to account.
The word bee itself comes from the

BODILY HEALTH, SICKNESS, DISEASE, AND DEATH. 151

a body is taken from the grave to be interred elsewhere it is said
to be exhumed (ex, and humus), and possibly from the same root
we have the word posthumous, generally supposed to be from the
lu.postumus, superlative of posterns, and meaning latest or last; but
as a posthumous work means more than an author's last work, and
a posthumous child more than the last child in the family, it does
seem better to regard the word as composed of post, after, and
humus, the earth, so that a posthumous work signifies a work
published after the death of the author, and a posthumous child a
child born after the death of the father. The hearse, which is the
name given to the carriage in which the coffin is conveyed to the
grave, was originally the name given to the triangular framework,
with spikes, for holding candles at a church service, and especially
at a funeral service, and seems to have come through F. herse and
It. erspice, from L. hirpex, a harrow, which, from its triangular
shape then, but especially from its teeth, it somewhat resembles.
Some one has described a hearse as suggestive of mors omnibus !
literally, death to all. The word grave signifies literally that
which is dug out, the pit in which a dead body is laid, from AS.
grcef, grave (grafen, to die). The word tomb is supposed to
signify originally a pit or vault in the earth in which a dead body
is placed, from the F. tombe, through late L. tumba, from Gr.
tumbos, which signifies originally a tumulus or mound of earth
raised over a dead body. A sepulchre also is a place of burial,
through F. from L. sepulchrum, from sepelio, sepelli, sepultum,
sepelire, to bury. Mausoleum is the name given to -a magnificent

Aryan bhi, to tremble, in the sense
of to buzz, Ger. biene.

There is another use of the word
humble, or, indeed, another word
which bears this name, in the phrase,
"to eat humble-pie," which means
to eat one's own words, to knock
under, to cave in, to be obliged to
act in a very humiliating way —
i.e., to stoop and to eat a pie made
of humbles or umbles. And what
were humbles? They were entrails
of a deer or of any other horned
animal. The word was originally

French, where it signified the
muscles of the inner part of the
thigh of a stag, called nomble (or
lomble, from L. lumbulus, diminutive
of lumbus, the thigh). Of course,
a pie made of these was not very
appetising, and as Thackeray says in
his 'Philip,' chap, xxvii.: "If this
old chief had to eat humble-pie, his
brave adversaries were anxious that
he should gobble up his portion
as quickly as possible, and turned
away their honest old heads as he
swallowed it."

152 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

tomb or monument, and is said to have received its name from
Mausolus, King of Caria, to whom his widow erected a splendid
tomb. A sarcophagus is a kind of limestone used by the Greeks
for coffins, and so called because it was thought to consume the
flesh of corpses — L. and Gr. sarcophagus, from Gr. sarks, sarkos,
flesh, andphago, to eat, literally flesh-eating. Mummy is the name
given to a human body prepared by the Egyptian art of embalm-
ing, in which wax was employed. The Persian name is mumayim,
a mummy, from the Persian mum, wax. Cemetery is the name
commonly given to a burial-ground now, from the low L. coemeter-
ium, for Gr. koimeterion, from koimao, to lull to sleep, so that a
cemetery = a quiet resting-place. Catacomb is a grotto for burial,
a sepulchral vault, from Gr. kata, downwards, and kumbe, a hollow.
Closely connected with this is a cenotaph, an empty tomb, or a
monument to one who has been buried elsewhere, from the
Gr. adj. kenos, empty, and taphos, a tomb ; and so also we have
an epitaph, an inscription, — epi, upon, and taphos, a tomb. In
some cities the cemetery is sometimes dignified with the name
necropolis, literally a city of the dead, from Gr. nekros, dead,
and polis, a city.

153

CHAPTER XII.

HIS CLOTHING.

IT has been said that the highest distinction of man, taken as an
animal among animals, lies not in his two-handedness nor in his
erect figure, but in his necessity and right of dress. The inferior
animals have no option concerning their outward figure and ap-
pearing. Their dress or covering is a part of their organisation
growing on them, or out of them, as their bones are grown in them.
Be it feathers or fur, hair or wool ; be it in this colour or that,
brilliant as the rainbow, or shaggy, or grizzled, or rusty and dull,
— they have no liberty to change it (even if they could desire the
change) for one that is glossier and more to their taste. But man,
as a creature gifted with a larger option, begins at the very outset
to show his superior dignity in the necessary option of dress. It
is given him, for his really high prerogative, to dress himself and
come into just what form of appearing will best satisfy the tastes
into which he has grown, or, what is very nearly the same thing,
will best represent the quality of his feeling and character. "With
this kind of liberty, as Bushnell says, there comes of course an
immense peril, for there is a peril that belongs to every kind of
liberty. As dress and equipage may create a difference of appear-
ing that very nearly amounts to a difference of order and kind, the
race of ambition, as soon as ambition is born, will begin here.
And now the tremendous option of dress, given as a point of
dignity, becomes under sin a mighty instigator in the fearful
race of money, society, and fashion. There is something very
significant in the intimation which is made in Genesis iii. 21,
that "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God

154 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

make coats of skins, and clothed them." This, as Trench shows
in his sermon on the text, was immediately after they had
fallen into sin, and when shame had followed close on sin, and
under the influence of this shame they proceeded to make for
themselves such coverings as they could, yet such as they were
conscious to be slight and insufficient ; and in proof that they felt
them so, when they heard the Lord calling them in the garden
they were afraid, because in Adam's own words they were naked,
and they went and hid themselves from Him. But now, having
been drawn forth from their hiding-place, and having received
from the mouth of their Judge at once the sentence of death and
the sentence of life, the Lord God proceeds at once to do for them
what they had vainly attempted to do for themselves, to make
clothes for them such as shall be indeed effectual, such as shall
enable them to endure His else intolerable Eye. This, however,
He can do only at the cost of a life. Some harmless beast which
would not have been killed if they had not sinned must perish, by
God's immediate decree and act, that they may be clothed ; that
what covered it may henceforth cover them, being the garment in
which they may not be ashamed to appear before God. As there
was no grant of animal food before the flood, it would appear that
if animals were slain it was in sacrifice, and sacrifices of atonement
were rendered necessary only through man's sin ; and as just ira-
mediately before this, but after man had sinned, there was uttered
the prophecy of Christ in words, "The seed of the woman shall
bruise the head of the serpent," so we have here a prophecy in
act, in this first of the long series of sacrifices which were to follow,
a type and shadow, a prophecy and fulfilment of that crowning
Sacrifice on Calvary of the Lamb of God, in whom was no sin, to
take away the sin of the world by the sacrifice of Himself, that by
His righteousness we may be clothed. Spiritually we are taught
that we are not to attempt to manufacture a suit of righteousness for
ourselves, in patches of character gotten together and laid upon the
ground of our sin, but that we are to take the whole robe of Life,
graciously fitted and freely tendered in the humanly divine excel-
lence of Christ our Saviour, who is thus made unto us wisdom,

HIS CLOTHING. 155

righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. But coming down
from the figurative dress of the soul to the literal garments of the
body, it is certainly remarkable that we are still wearing the coats
of skin. The end of the world is almost upon us, and yet to this
day we have not got beyond the dress which was worn by Adam
and Eve on their expulsion from Eden. It is a curious thing to
enter a great international exhibition and look upon the display of
costly raiment worn by different nations in various climates, wrought
in all manner of costly workmanship, and brought together to show
the artistic skill with which our garments are now prepared, and
then to let the mind revert to the alpha of these things when the
Lord God saw the nakedness of our first parents, made coats of
skins, and clothed them. But for this early lesson we might never
have learned the art which is now our boast and our pride. It is
remarkable with how much of our clothing the skins of animals
are involved, and in how many of our words are we reminded of
this origin of dress and brought back to the coats of skin. Pelisse,
said now to be a silk habit worn by ladies, was originally a furred
coat or robe. It comes through the French from the Latin word
pdlis, a hide or skin, but properly I think it signifies a skin with
the hair on. The English noun pelt, from the same pellis, signified
the skin of a furred animal ; the word peltry is used exclusively
for the skins of furred animals, and the word peltry-monger,
common enough in the beginning of last century, was what we
term a furrier. A pelisse, then, if accordant with its name, is a coat
of prepared skins on which the hair has been preserved — a fur-
coat. In this country it was an article of female dress having
sleeves, which distinguished it from a cloak or mantle, and covered
the whole body from the neck to the ankles. The French, from
whom the word has been borrowed, consider a lining, or at least
linings of fur, as a necessary constituent of the dress, so much so
that they give the name of la pelisse to fur alone, but in this
country pelisses are often made of woollen cloth or of silk, even
without linings. We have said that this is an article of female
dress, but there is an exception in the case of certain cavalry
regiments, in which both officers and men wear each a short jacket

156

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

(called a pelisse) trimmed with fur and attached to the right
shoulder of the other jacket, from which it hangs after the fashion
of the Italians. Closely connected with pellis is the Old English
pall or palliament (AS. peel and L. palla), signifying a robe of
office, and to pall was to clothe in general, and particularly to
invest with the furred mantle of power. The noun pall is still in
the language, but it is most limited in its application, being used
solely to denominate the sable velvet cloth of ceremony which is
spread over the coffined corpse during the funeral rites that pre-
cede the burial of the dead. It is also the English equivalent of
the L. pallium,1 a cloak, which is the kind of scarf worn by the
Pope and sent by him to every archbishop on his appointment,
and it is made of lamb's wool, reared exclusively within the grounds
of the Convent of St Agnese in Rome, so that the pallium is one
of the coats of skins after all The word fell 2 (AS. fet), also from
the L. pellis,5 was formerly a common name for skin, and fell-
monger is yet equivalent to pelt-monger, though neither of these
words is often written, being superseded by the periphrasis, "a
dealer in skins." Felt was once synonymous with pelt, of which

1 Palliate, paUiatus, cloaked, from
pallium, a cloak or mantle, meant to
hide, cloak, cover, lessen, extenuate,
mitigate.

a From fell, the skin, we have
the word film, a thin skin or
membrane (formed by adding the
suffix m to the root of fell). It
is a pellicle, or thin skin, but is in
most cases associated in idea with
that part of a plant or animal which
it covers or lines. It has, besides,
some peculiarities of usage. The
popular conception of the causes of
blindness in general is that which
exists in a certain species of cataract,
in which an opaque film or skin
hangs across the pupil of the eye,
like a curtain, so as to exclude the
rays of light. This circumstance has
given rise to frequent metaphors :
thus the intellectual darkness that
confessedly surrounds the mass of
mankind, and in which it would

seem they are for ever doomed to
wander, is ascribed to superstition,
which, by drawing a film over the
eyes of the mind, excludes the rays
of reason and the perception of the
real objects of knowledge, while
she peoples the gloomy wood with
the phantoms of her own creation.

s Derivatives from the L. pellis, a
skin, appear in our language under
various forms. The rind (or skin)
of a vegetable, and particularly of
fruit, is called the peel, and hence
we speak of orange peel, lemon
peel, &c. To peel is to take off the
rind, and he who does so is some-
times called a peeler. The slang
name "peeler" applied to a police-
man has no reference to this, but
refers to Sir Robert Peel, by whom
the force was instituted, and for a
considerable time they were called
peelers in consequence, and some-
times "bobbies."

HIS CLOTHING. 157

it is obviously only a varied orthography, arising from a difference
in pronunciation ; but the word now denominates a sort of artificial
skin, in place of a real one. To felt or to felter is to form a
matted tissue of wool, or other short hair, in which the fibres are
so interlaced by their curls, and so closely united to one another
by the almost imperceptible patches of their scaly coats, as to form
a consistence like that of thick cloth. The term felting is em-
ployed in the manufacture of hats, — felt hats, which are called
"wideawake" hats, probably because, unlike the ancient beaver,
they have no nap !

In the same manner as the English pelt is transformed into felt,
so the L. pellis appears again with some difference of application in
L. vellus, velleris, a fleece — i.e., wool shorn from a sheep, but still
hanging together — and other words of similar orthography. Velare
is to hide or clothe as if with a L. veldmen, which in its primary
acceptation was the skin of an animal, and subsequently any sort
of garment or veil (velum, a curtain). To veil or vail is to cover or
conceal, and to unveil is to draw aside the curtain and to hold the
object to view. A veil or vail, generally speaking, is anything that
conceals, but in a specific sense it is the name of a piece of thin cloth
which women wear over their faces either for the sake of conceal-
ment or of ornament. It varies in size and texture with the
manners of the age or the country, and according to the purpose
intended, — from the sacred impenetrable screen of a Turkish
beauty to the flaunting gossamer-like gauze of an English belle.
In Roman Catholic countries the veil is a necessary constituent in
the costume of a nun. At the moment when she has just pro-
nounced the fatal and inevitable vow which separates her for ever
from the affections of the world, when in her eyes "the shrines
all tremble and the lamps grow pale," she is then said to have
taken the veil. To reveal, then, is L. revelare, to lay open, either
literally or metaphorically, what has been hidden, to draw aside
the veil by which an object has been concealed.

The L. vellere is closely connected with pellis and vellus. We
saw that vellus, velleris, signified literally a fleece ; now the verb
vello, velli, vulsum, vellere, is to pull off or to pluck out, to pull,

158 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

evidently by taking hold of the skin; to tear the skin from a
beast, or the hair from the beard.

I have mentioned that the L. rxOue was not only a skin in
general, but particularly the skin of a sheep, and in a still more
restricted sense the whole woolly covering, or what we call the
fleece — a word which may be derived either from its Latin name
or, as some say, phloroe, the bark of a tree. Wool (AS. wutt, ob-
viously contracted from vellus) denotes that soft curled hair of any
animal which is capable of being spun into yam and wrought
into cloth, and the compounds — sheep's wool and lamb's wool —
are therefore not unnecessary. That it may be span is indispens-
able to the definition of icool, for hair, the fibres of which are too
rigid for being twisted into yarn, is nevertheless manufactured
into haircloth. To fleece is to clip the wool from the sheep with
shears, and figuratively to deprive a person of the whole or of a
great part of his property by fraudulent means. Linsey-woolsey
is cloth fabricated with linen warp and woollen woof. Worsted
yarn is twisted thread, or yarn spun out of long combed wooL It
is termed worsted, from a town of that name in the county of Nor-
folk, near Norwich, — these are the worsted stockings of the hosier.
The woollen yarn is made from short wool, and it is from this
sort of yarn only that the strong compact cloths used for men's
clothes are woven; and the manufacturers of these are called
clothiers. The verb to card, used in combing wool, comes from
the L. carduuSj a thistle, it having been employed to completely
separate all the fibres. The cloth woven from woollen yarn needs
to be cleansed from the oil grease required in the previous opera-
tions. This cleansing is the first of the manipulations of the
fuller, who in that part of his trade is more properly termed a
scourer, because he scours or washes the cloth from impurities.
Scour comes through O.F. escurer and F. ecttrer and Ger. scheuem,
probably all from low. L. sturare, to sweep, from L. ex, curare.
Another possible, if not probable, etymology of scour is from the
F. escorer, from the L, ereorurre, to rub, scrub, or scratch the skin,
or to rub it so hard as to take the skin of£ from the L, ex, from,
and cerium, the skin. After the cloth is scoured, and all the

HIS CLOTHING. 159

knots and inequalities of the threads removed, the web is returned
to the fuller to be fulled — that is, to be condensed into a closer
and thicker fabric by the fulling-mill : thence the denominations
of twilled cloth and double-twilled cloth, from the verb twill
(from low Ger. twillen, to make double, from the root of two), to
weave cloth so as to produce the appearance of diagonal lines or
ribs on its surface. To full in this sense is to press or pound cloth
in a mill, so as to scour and thicken it. It comes through the
F. fouler, to tread, to full or thicken cloth, from L. fullo, fvllonis,
a cloth fuller. A twill of the best sort, termed superfine cloth, is
thus rubbed until it is reduced to one half of its original surface,
and might be raised to a much more solid consistence if required.
The cloth has again to be scoured, and it is at this stage that a
preparation of fuller's earth, &c., is used for softening the cloth
and cleansing it from the soap. Fuller's earth is a soft earth or
clay capable of absorbing grease, so named from its being used in
fulling or bleaching cloth. The name of the bleacher or cleanser
of cloth is a well-known surname. Thomas Fuller, the great
Church historian, was perhaps the worthiest who bore the name,
and he left instructions that the only inscription to be put on his
tombstone should be "Fuller's earth." Another distinguished
Baptist minister was the Eev. Andrew Fuller of Kettering, who
on one occasion, walking with Mr Jay of Bath, said, pointing to a
bird in the adjoining wood, " I believe that's a jay." On which
Mr Jay replied, " No, it is not a jay. It is fuller in the breast,
and fuller in the body, and fuller in the tail, and fuller in the
head — in fact, it's fuller all over!"

The peculiar construction of the trough and beaters of the full-
ing-mill (L. fullonia), into the trough of which the folded web is
put, soaked with warm soapsuds and beaten with two wooden
mallets, and rolled about continually and regularly amid the fluid
in which it was immersed, has in several languages given a name
to the machine. To suppose that the L. ftdlo and volvo are kin-
dred words might be reckoned too great a stretch of literal ety-
mology, but the OK and almost still used Scotch name, a walk-mill
(or in Scotland a wauk-mill), is doubtless from the AS. walurian,

160 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

or wealcian, to roll. The Saxon fuller was a wealcere, and he is
still termed a walker or a wauker in many parts of the island,
where to wauk is not only to scour and cleanse, but also to felt or
thicken, which applied solely to woollen cloth, for linen and cotton
goods are scoured in the wauk-mill without being condensed. A
practice which must have given rise to the invention of the fulling-
mill is still common in some parts of Scotland. A tub containing
the cloth to be scoured or the clothes to be washed, soaked in
water mixed with soap or other cleansing materials, represents the
trough, and the naked feet of the washerwoman are used for
beaters. This is called tramping. To tramp is to tread with
force ; and in the mouths of common people a tramp denotes one
who is obliged to travel on foot. To trample upon is a frequent-
ative of more common use. The trampler, either literally or meta-
phorically, treads another person, or thing, under foot. The
tramping (or trampling) of clothes is as old as history. In Scot-
land still the word tramp signifies as one of its meanings " to wash
by stamping with the feet." We have seen in the paintings found
on the walls of a fullonica at Pompeii, one which represents four
persons employed in tramping the clothes, which were soaking in
tubs or vats. The four persons represented are — three boys, prob-
ably under the superintendence of the man, with their dress tucked
up, leaving their legs bare ; while the clothes are being trodden
upon and stamped by the feet of the fullones.

The cloth having acquired a close and uniform consistency in
the fulling-mill, the real object of the clothier is to give it still
more of the qualities of a skin by raising the wool upon its sur-
face so as to cover it with a thick soft down, which is called the
pile, from the F. pott, from L. pilus, a hair. This is accomplished
by drawing forth a portion of the wool with cards made of the
prickly heads of the teasel, which has received its name of teasel
or fuller's thistle from the use to which it has been put.

I have hitherto spoken only of the plain milled fabrics that
are chiefly used for men's clothes ; but there are several sorts
of cloth of woollen or of worsted, or of both combined, differing
from each other in the mode of manufacturing, or in the finish-

HIS CLOTHING. 161

ing, and sold in the shop of the woollen-draper under various
names.

Blanket (F. blanquette, from blanc, white) is so called as being a
white woollen covering for beds; and blanketing is undyed and
used chiefly for bed-clothes, for which purposes it is cut into oblong
squares, each being called a blanket. Scotch blankets are plaid-
ing (from Gael, plaide, a blanket, contraction of peallaid^ a sheep-
skin, from peall, a skin, cognate with L. pellis), so that by night as
by day, asleep as awake, we still have the coats of skins with us.
The L. lana, wool, is the etymology of the Welsh gulatien, and the
English flannel, a soft woollen cloth of loose and open texture.

Turning from woollen to linen, most people know that the word
linen comes from the L. linum, lint or flax, from which linen is
made ; and there was not merely a waulk-mill for the woollen, but
also a beetling-mill for the linen. Long before any one thought
of preparing linen by a beetling-mill, the exclusive method was to
pound the linen with a sort of mallet, which was much like a
cook's rolling-pin provided with a handle at the end, or still more
closely resembling a brass roasting-jack turned upside down. The
implement goes by the name of a beetle, and is generally and most
naturally derived from the verb to beat, as exactly describing the
use to which it is put. When large quantities of linen had to be
treated, another method was used for shortening labour, and the
mangle in its various forms was introduced. It became further
necessary to glaze the linen by an extension of the process, and so
the art of calendering was introduced, which required the use of
cylinders filled with hot coals. Now it is very natural and very
reasonable to suppose that the word calender came from cylinder,
through the F. calandre, a calender, a mangle — a machine for
smoothing cloth. We are all familiar with the word calender from
Cowper's poem of " John Gilpin," in which he says his " good friend
the Calender will lend his horse to go." Unfortunately John's
orthography and grammar are not perfect, for he speaks of riding
" on horseback after we," and also of " the calender " instead of
the calenderer, for "calender" is the machine, and calenderer is
the person who runs it or uses it. Now there are certain diffi-

162

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

culties in the form of either calender or calander which prevent us
deriving it from the Gr. kulindros, a cylinder. The regular and
correct form of a word so derived would have been colender. A
more legitimate form of deduction would have been from L. caleo,
calui, calere, to be hot, as the linen was pressed between heated
rollers to finish it off. It is a very curious coincidence — although,
perhaps, not much value can be attached to it — that the word
calandre in French and calendra in Spanish is the name of a sort
of beetle, for which we have the authority of Cotgrave in the
seventeenth century; and it may be the case that the general
shape of the insect — the head representing the handle, and the
body the thick round part of the instrument — gave the name first
to our beetling and afterwards to our calendering.

But turning your attention now rather to the names of the differ-
ent articles we wear than to their substance, and proceeding from
the centre to the circumference, we find the word chemise, a French
word from the late L. camicia, an under-garment or night-gown.
This word is of comparatively recent introduction instead of a shift,
which was originally a euphemism for smock ; but as refinement
of a certain kind progresses, greater reluctance manifests itself to
mention various parts of the body in plain terms, and this avoid-
ance is extended by association to different articles of attire. The
extreme of vulgar prudery was thought to be reached in using limbs
for legs (even for the legs of chairs), but the substitution is not
different in kind from those I have just mentioned ; for smock,
which was first displaced by shift, was the AS. word smoc, likely
from the AS. smeogan, to creep, and literally signified a garment
crept into; while shift, which has been displaced by chemise,
meant originally a shift or change of linen — a very delicate idea,
one would have imagined. The word petticoat (literally a little
coat), in itself a sufficiently inoffensive term, has shown a tendency
to give way to skirt. By the irony of fate, this substitution is
made in ignorance of the original meaning of skirt, which is in
fact merely the old Norse word for shirt, and less delicate therefore
than petticoat. Garter, in ME. gartere, is borrowed from OF.
gartier, F. jarretiere, derivative of F. jarret, the small of the leg
behind the knee, from Bret, gar, the shank of the leg. Trousers is

HIS CLOTHING. 163

from the OF. tromses, originally worn by pages on the lower limbs
and trussed or fastened up at the waist, and this from the OF.
trosser, to bind together. Pantaloon was originally a ridiculous
character in Italian comedy, also a garment worn by him, all of
one piece, breeches, stockings, &c. Jacket is from the F. jaquette,
and is a diminutive of jack (F. jaque), a leather coat. This seems
to have been originally soldier's slang, for there is little doubt that
it is a jocose application of the proper name Jacques. Crinoline
was the name given by French modistes to a stiff fabric of hair-
cloth, but afterwards expanded by hoops, through F. crin, from L.
crinis, the hair, and tin, from L. tinum,1 flax. An apron is really
originally a napron, as is seen in the OE. and F. naperon, from
F. nappe, cloth, and meant originally a cloth, or piece of leather,
before one to protect the dress. This comes out still more distinctly,
as the meaning of pinafore is a loose cover of cotton or linen over
a child's dress, only pinned in front of it or afore or before. A
surtout is a close-bodied frock-coat, and the word is French, liter-
ally, sur, over, and tout, all, over all, from the low L. super totum, a
garment worn over all others. It is generally agreed among
philologists that the word cloak is radically the same word as
clock, and further, that the original sense of " clock " was a bell,
from the old Irish form doc, a bell, duly given by Windisch.
Skeat points out that the similarity to a bell, of at least one form
of the cloak, must once have been very noticeable, and that the
likeness did not escape the observant eyes of Chaucer. In his
famous description of the Frere (Friar) in the Prologue to the
' Canterbury Tales,' lines 262 and 263, he took particular care to
describe his outer dress in the words —

" Of double worsted was his semi-cope,
That rounded as a belle out of the presse."

Here rounded means "stood out stiffly all round" or "raised," and
" presse " refers to the mould in which the bell was cast.

1 While we perceive at once the
origin of our word linen, it would
scarcely be thought that from this
same word we have the name
linnet, the seed of the linum, or
lintseed, being the favourite food of

that bird. This origin of the name
does not occur to us, because we
have doubled the letter n, while the
French have in this instance in
their word linotte adhered closer to
the parent word.

164 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

The covering for the feet is still for the most part composed of
skins, as were the garments of our first parents, both soles and
uppers being generally of leather. But the name of pumps given
to the thin -soled shoes to which we were accustomed in our
dancing days, and on which we often exercised our etymological
powers in vain, we now find to have originated in the fact that
they were at first worn by persons in full dress for pomp and
ornament, and that to express this they had the French word
pompe, state, magnificence, ready to their hand. These thin soles
remind us of the word sole itself — the sole of a boot or shoe, — from
the L. solea, the sole of the foot or a shoe, from L. solum, the
ground or earth, whence also we have our English word soil. The
name of slipper is given to a loose easy shoe for indoor wear,
which slips on easily, and so we speak of slipshod, careless in
manners or style ; but the adjective meant originally wearing shoes
down at the heels, only slipped on. Somewhat akin to this is the
word galoshes, supposed to be from the Greek word kalos, beautiful,
but they must have been different from the articles which now
usurp the name if that be the true etymology. The earliest use
in our language of the word is with reference to a kind of wooden
shoes which went over the others to protect them, as we do with
our galoshes, now made of caoutchouc or india-rubber, and called
with us over-shoes. I think the most probable history of the
word is that it came to us through the F. galoche, from the L.
yoMiea, the name given to the foot-gear of the ancient Gauls, and in
France still the word galochier is a maker of sabots. In America
they are generally called "rubbers," from the material out of which
they are made. But over-shoes of this material are not universally
called rubbers even in America. In Philadelphia, with reference to
the substance of which they are made, they are colloquially called
" gums." A Philadelphian gentleman and his wife were going to
pay a visit to a house in New York, where they were very much
at home, and his wife remaining for a moment outside while he
entered the parlour alone, the question at once was put, "Why,
where is Emily ? " To which he answered, " Oh, Emily is outside
brushing her gums upon the mat." Thereupon there was a

HIS CLOTHING.

165

momentary look of astonishment, and then a peal of laughter.
Now, there is no need for the use of any of these words in this
sense. The proper word is simply over-shoes, which expresses all
there is occasion to tell except to a manufacturer or a salesman.
There is neither meaning nor propriety in our going into the
question of the fabric of what we wear for the protection of our
feet, and of saying that a lady is either ruhbing her rubbers, or
cleaning her gums on the mat, any more than there is for saying
that a gentleman is brushing his wool (meaning his coat), or that
a lady is drying her eyes with her linen (meaning her handkerchief).

The word caoutchouc is the name given by the inhabitants of
the province of Quito, where tributaries of the Amazon flow down
southwards from the neighbourhood of Chimborazo. As the
Amazon is a river of great length, it is useful to know that the
name is used only near the source of that river, not near its
mouth. The name signifies juice of a tree, which we call india-
rubber. The name india-rubber has been objected to, because it
was supposed to have come from Brazil, which was confounded with
the West Indies, and thus originated the name india-rubber. But
West Indies of itself is a misnomer, due in the first place to
geographical confusion. But the name India is appropriate
enough, because it was among the American Indians that the
name originated, while the name of rubber, applied to this sub-
stance in which there is now so enormous a trade, was originally
given to it from the only use to which they thought it could be
put, viz., a rubber out of pencil marks. The single word is now
greatly used as an adjective, or as the first part of a compound.

As we have just spoken of the sole, this is the proper place to say
a word or two about the vamp — that is, the front or upper leather
of a boot or shoe. It is a corruption of the F. avant-pied (avant,
before, and pied, a foot ; L. pes, pedis, a foot), the forepart of the
foot ; according to Cotgrave, " the part of the foot that's next to the
toes, and consisteth of five bones." This form of the word has
been arrived at by shortening it both at the beginning and the end.
However, this etymology is verified by the fact that the word
appeared originally in English as vaumpe and vampay. When it

166 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

came to be used as a verb, to vamp, it meant to put a new upper
leather on, to furbish, generally with up, to patch old with new,
to give a new face to.

The verb dress itself signifies properly to put straight, or in
order, from the OF. dresser, to make straight, and so a dress has
come to be the name for the covering of the body, or a lady's gown,
or the style of dress ; and yet among the epithets of a disparaging
kind applied to dress there is none more frequent, or of which the
origin is less known, than tawdry. The word is said to be a
contraction of St Audrey (or St Etheldreda), a name commonly
applied to an annual fair held on St Audrey's day, and at which all
kinds of frippery, and trinkets, and laces, were bought and sold,
while these articles generally possessed more glitter than gold ; and
as their splendours were too often sadly tarnished and faded, it
soon came to acquire the meaning which we now attach to the
word "tawdry" as "that which was bought at St Audrey's fair,"
and so, tawdry. The fair saint herself is said to have been rather
attached to finery — so much so, indeed, that she died of a swelling
in the throat, sent, as was believed, as a special visitation, on
account of an ardent youthful fondness for fine necklaces.

Of more general articles of dress we may mention, attire
originally meant a hood or woman's head-dress, from OF. atour
or attour, and to attire originally meant to put on a head-dress.
"Noblewomen," we read, "used high attire on their heads, piked
like horns " (Storr's ' Annals ') ; and it gradually came to mean
dress for the whole body, especially of a more sumptuous kind ;
but the word tire itself is almost entirely confined to decorations
of the head. So Jezebel tired her head, and the person who
attended to this was called a tire- woman. The word is the
same as tier, or row, and to tire the head would be to arrange it
in tier upon tier, or row upon row, of natural or artificial bands.
No doubt from the account given of the way in which the hair was
piled up tire upon tire, as they sat with head erect and back stiff
in their coaches up to London, they, if not their heads, must have
been tired enough when they reached their destination. Raiment
is that in which one is arrayed or dressed. The word garment

HIS CLOTHING. 167

is a contraction of the OF. garnement, decking or trimming, from
the F. garniej; to deck or adorn or garnish ; but it is now restricted
to the meaning of garnishing or decorating the body by dress,
so that garment signifies any article of clothing, and in the plural,
dress in general It has been said that raiment by good writers
is used only with reference to clothing of a very splendid or
expensive character, such as was used by Solomon, of whom our
Authorised Version says that "even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these " ; but the same translators
speak of a poor man in " vile raiment." The word livery
(F. livree, from livrer, to deliver or give, according to Du Cange,
from L. liberare, to deliver, to give freely) was originally applied
to the suit of clothes given out to servants in stated quantities
and at stated times, the distinctive uniform of servants marking
them out as belonging to a particular household, and which the
master does not require them to procure by purchase, but grants
them freely, that is gratuitously. It also was used to denote the
food or provisions so dispensed, or the allowance of food served
out. Then it was applied to the provender for horses, and soon
after to a stable, hence called a livery stable, where horses were
kept for the owner, and fed and groomed at a fixed charge, and
such horses are said to be at livery. A liveryman sometimes
means a keeper of, or attendant at, a livery stable — but more fre-
quently now a freeman of the city of London, who is entitled
to bear the livery of the Company to which he belongs, and to
exercise other privileges. The derivation of kerchief in the form
keverchef, as it is written in Chaucer, is obviously from the
F. couvrechef, a covering for the head, from couvrir, to cover,
and chef, the head. It was originally a square piece of cloth used
by women to cover the head, and so neckerchief, a kerchief for
the neck; but in handkerchief the meaning is slightly altered,
although it is still applied to the head. A cloth for wiping the
hands, also a handkerchief, is called a napkin, a diminutive of
the F. nappe, a tablecloth, from the L. mappa, a napkin. The
guests at an entertainment among the Romans used to bring
their own mappce with them ; and persons used frequently to

168 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

put into them what they could not eat at table. Handkerchiefs
require to be hemmed before they are used. The fundamental
purpose of a hem is to protect the substance of a texture, to
confine the threads of which it is composed, and prevent them
from ravelling out. The essential character of a hem, then, may
be signified by the Ger. hemmen, to hinder or stop the motion
of a body, to stop the flow of water, to drag a wheel, to hinder
a proceeding, &c. To hem one in is not merely to surround
him, but to prevent his action in any direction. The different
people employed in making and fitting on these varied articles
of wearing apparel are called by various names. The tailor is
so named because his businesa is to cut out and make men's
clothes, from the F. tailleur, from tattler, to cut. A milliner, or
one who makes head-dresses, bonnets, &c., for women, was
possibly milaner, a trader in Milan wares, especially female
finery; whilst a mantua- maker may have received her name,
not so much from the mantuas, cloaks, or mantles that she made,
and so from the F. manteau, a mantle, but from the city of
Mantua in Italy, which was famous for its dressmakers. Boot
and shoe makers need no special mention, but when they are
called cordwainers, they bring us back to the coats of skins
again, for the name of cordwainer was given to those who
worked in cordwain or cordovan, the name of a kind of goat-
skin leather originally brought from Cordova, in Spain. It was
important for all those workers, and especially for the customers
of the cordwainers, that whatever they made should fit. This
word fit seems a shortening of the OE. feat, or fete, neat, well
made, good, from F. faict, fait, made, fashioned after a certain
pattern or certain requirements. A coat is a fit when it is made
to measure. However, the shoemaker should not go beyond his
last. Now this last word, which means either the wooden mould
of the foot on which boots and shoes are made, or the verb to
fit with a last, is an AS. word, from the Gothic word lai*t*,
a footmark.

Closely connected with dress is the word fashion, and the
fashions. Fashion signifies properly the make or cut of a thing,

HIS CLOTHING.

169

prevailing mode or shape of a dress, from F. fapon, from
L. factum, from facio, to make. But as this changes so often
in Paris and other cities, it is generally expressive of that which
changes, as in Scripture, "the fashion of this world passeth
away." There are several countries where the same shape of
garments lasts for centuries, and then the same garments last
a long time. "The Israelites," as the writer of the Homily on
Excess of Apparel says, "were contented with such appare* as
God gave them, although it were base and simple. And God
so blessed them that their shoes and clothes lasted them forty
years ; yea, and those clothes which their fathers had worn, their
children were contented to use afterwards. But we are never
contented," says the homilist, " and therefore we prosper not, so
that most commonly he that mffieth in his sables, in his fine
furred gown, corked slippers, fur buskins, and warm mittens, is
more ready to chill for cold than the poor labouring man which
can abide in the field all the day long, when the north wind
blows, with a few beggarly clothes about him. We are loth to
wear such as our fathers have left us : we think not that sufficient
or good enough for us. We must have one gown for the day,
another for the night, one long, another short, one for winter,
another for summer, one through furred, another but faced ; one
for the working day, another for the holy day ; one in this colour,
another in that colour; one of cloth, another of silk or damask.
We must have change of apparel, one afore dinner and another
after ; one of the Spanish fashion and another Turkey, and, to be
brief, never to be content with sufficient. Our Saviour Christ
bade His disciples they should not have two coats, but the most
men, far unlike to His scholars, have their presses so full of
apparel that many know not how many sorts they have." Now
this homily was published in the year 1522, and yet we find that
even then, according to the writer, we in this country changed
the fashion so often that the writer could say, "Therefore a
certain man that would picture every man in his accustomed
apparel, when he had painted all other nations, he pictured the
Englishman all naked, and gave him cloth under his arm, and

170 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

bade him make it himself as he thought best ; for he changed his
fashion so often that he knew not how to make it."

Had space permitted I should have liked to dwell upon the
long -established custom among different classes and bodies of
men of adopting a peculiar mode of dress as a sign of brother-
hood, or denoting similarity of pursuit, profession, or opinion.
There is such antiquity in the habit that we hardly know how
and with whom it first originated. In our Lord's time the Scribes
walked about in long robes, while the Pharisees made broad their
phylacteries. Of later years the custom has prevailed to a greater
extent than ever. Thus we have amongst us the garments
of freemasonry, the orders of chivalry, the colours of political
opponents, and the singular, and for long unchanging, attire of
the Society of Friends. Each profession has its own garb : the
soldier, the collegian, the judge, the clergyman, has his distinctive
dress. In all ornaments of dress generally, or trappings, the
word paraphernalia is frequently employed. This word, which
now is used when speaking of articles of attire or adornment, the
trappings or decorations connected with any function, had orig-
inally a strictly legal significance, and meant those articles of
personal property which the law allowed a married woman to
keep, and to a certain extent deal with as her own. In Roman
law they were those articles of property held by a wife over and
above the dowry which she brought to her husband, and which
remained under her own control. The word comes through the
Latin from the Gr. parapJierna, from para, beside, and pherne,
a dower. This word dower, which now signifies that part of a
husband's property which his widow enjoys during her life, comes
through the F. douaire, and the low L. doarium or dotariurn,
from L. doto, to endow, from dos, dotis, a dowry (F. dot). A
dowager, too, is a widow with a dower or jointure, this title being
given to a widow to distinguish her from the wife of her hus-
band's heir. Habit, through the OF. habit (from L. habitus,
dress), is a very old and a very common word applied to dress
in general, but its meaning has become more and more restricted,
even as applied to ladies' dress, so that there are perhaps only

HIS CLOTHING.

171

two cases in which it is now so used. We still speak of habit in
general, meaning a coat with a long skirt worn by ladies on horse-
back; a habit - maker, a tailor who makes long cloth riding-
dresses for ladies ; and also a habit-shirt, a thin muslin or lace
garment worn over the neck or breast of women. The word
Twhitus comes in turn from the L. verb habeo, habere, to have
or hold, and so it was applied to dress, inasmuch as a man's dress
holds him or contains him, and is that in which he usually appears.1
Articles of dress in general were formerly called habiliments, from
the same word habilis, fitting well (and I suppose a suit of clothes
was so called from their suiting, or at least being intended to suit
or fit, the wearer). Our word habiliments, however, though it
came to us from the Latin, came through the French, who have
a word habillement, clothes (habiller, to dress). From this word
the French have formed the verb deshabiller (composed of the
particle des (L. dis), apart, and habiller), to take off one's clothes,
or to undress ; and they have also a noun, a substantive participle
of deshabilier, viz., deshabille", meaning easy clothing which one
wears at home and when not expecting any one. We have not a
word that exactly takes its place, and yet although it has been
struggling for a place among us as an English word for several
centuries, it is very seldom heard in conversation. In the French
word there are at least two problems (h and U) of which most of
us fight shy, and so we take the word and attempt to spell it as
if it were English. No fewer than fourteen varieties of spelling
have been tried, dishabille being the most frequent : by this
spelling and want of accentuation it is really quite cut off
from deshabille (pronounced de - zd - bi - ye), and I agree with the
authors of ' The King's English ' in thinking that it is a pity it
was not further deprived of the final e : that would have encour-
aged us to call it dish - abil, and it might have made good its
footing.

1 From the verb habeo we have
also able, unable, ability, and
inability ; exhibit, to show in
public, to hold forth what one

has ; inhibit is to hold in, and an
inhibition is a restraint upon, and
prohibit, to hinder and to forbid
formally.

172

CHAPTEE XIII.

FOOD.

Food is literally what one feeds on, that which being digested
nourishes the body, or whatever promotes growth. The AS. word
is foda, from a root pa, to nourish. A plant derives its food from
the earth, the air, the light, the rain. We also need our food,
and in the case both of man and other animals this is taken
through the mouth, both meat and drink. In England I think
the word meat is generally used with reference to the flesh of
animals used as food, while in Scotland we use it in contra-
distinction to drink, and apply the word to anything eaten as
food, — almost equivalent to victuals, literally that which is neces-
sary for living, food for human beings, meat (from low L.
vidualia, from L. victualis, relating to living), from vivo,1 vixi,
victum, vwere, to live. Viands also are articles of food, F.
viande, from low L. vivanda (for vwenda), literally " things to be
lived on," food necessary for life. We should not, however, apply
the words viands or victuals to uncooked provisions or raw food.
Appetite, or the desire for food, comes through the French from
L. appetitus, from the L. verb appeio, from ad, to, and peto, to

of an animal for scientific purposes
while yet alive. Convivial, social
in matters of feasting. To revive
is to renew animation. We speak
of a revival of learning, of a relig-
ious revival, of a revivalist, and
of revivalism. To survive is to
outlive. Darwin's theory of the
survival of the fittest is well known.
One who escapes where others
perish is called the survivor.

1 From this verb (and vita, life) we
have vital, meaning pertaining to
life, and also highly important. We
speak of vital energies, a vital part
of the body, of the vitality of seeds,
of vitalised blood. Vivaciousness
or vivacity is liveliness. An exam-
ination held viva voce (with the
living voice) is carried on by spoken
questions. Vividness is living bright-
ness. Vivisection is the dissection

FOOD.

173

seek after, from the root pet in different languages, and all the
three senses of "desire," "seek," and "ask" are found in the
L. verb peto,1 petivi, petitum, petere. And now with a good
appetite let us take the first meal of the day first, viz., breakfast,
a noun formed of the two words break (break, a verb) and fast,
meaning abstinence from food, from the AS. /test. To breakfast,
then, is literally to put an end to fasting by eating. The natural
meaning of the compound when employed as a noun is in the
sense of the meal whereby that process is effected, after the night's
fasting, i.e., the first meal taken in the day. When once the verb
had thus acquired this meaning and was afterwards applied, even
in cases where so little food had been taken before that meal as to
be hardly worth considering a meal, the meaning of " breaking the
fast " had been effaced by the new sense of eating the first important
meal of the day. The word fast itself has given rise, as Mr Bradley
has shown, to considerable difference of opinion as to whether
the words, whatever their different meanings now are, had come
from the same root originally, or whether they are originally from
different roots which have come to be pronounced alike : for we
have the three meanings of fast — (a verb and noun) in the sense of
abstinence from food ; and fast (an adjective), meaning in some
places firm, immovable, and in others fast in the sense of rapid or
quick, such as running fast. It is quite possible, and I think very
likely, that they were in the beginning one and the same word,
which has come in course of time to express the notions apparently
so entirely opposite, — the one being " immovable " and the other
" rapid " in motion. But in the case of fast, in these two instances,
I think it is the meaning that has altered, and the alteration is

1 Thus from the one root we have
a petition, petulance, centripetal,
seeking or leaning to the centre.
To compete is to strive to obtain
some desirable things which others
are also aiming at. Competition
does not necessarily imply any feel-
ing of emulation or rivalry. We
have at present numerous com-
petitive examinations. Darwin
represents animal species as com-

peting in the struggle for exist-
ence. Competent means fitted by
attainments, as well as by natural
endowments. Without such quali-
fications a judge would be incom-
petent to decide, or a doctor to
prescribe. A competence is a suf-
ficient livelihood, while impetus, im-
petuous, impetuosity, tell their own
tale. To repeat is to speak or do
again,and there are many repetitions.

174 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

quite easy to account for. The primary meaning of fast is firm,
immovable, "but the notion of firmness which appears in the
expression " to stand fast " was developed by an easy transition
into that of strength and unwavering persistence of movement.
Hence it became possible to speak of running fast. The adverb
in this connection originally meant " without slacking," but when
that acquired this meaning it was natural that it should pass into
the modern sense " rapidly." A later development of this sense is
exemplified when we speak of living too fast : a fast liver and a
loose liver are expressions practically equivalent, although origin-
ally, and still in other connections, the two adjectives are exactly
opposite to each other. It is quite true that the distinction between
fast in the sense of abstinence from food, and fast in the sense of
firm or immovable, is by no means so great as between fast in the
sense of firm and fast in the sense of quick, for a fast-day might
mean a day on which the fasting is firm and strict, but I think
it conies from the L. fastus dies (from the Gr. phao), a day
marked in the calendar as a fast or festival ; and as many of these
days were introduced into the Church of Rome as saints' days or
days on which a fast was to be observed, the word came to be used
as a noun, and not, as it had been, an adjective, and was applied to
fasting in general, and to be applied to any abstinence, and so the
word " breakfast " in the breaking of the fast observed through the
night. As for the usual materials for breakfast there is no great
etymological difficulty with their names, — tea, coffee, and cocoa,
all bearing the names given them in the countries where they are
produced. The word bread being AS. is susceptible of no further
explanation ; but the word morsel, often used in connection with
it, comes through the OF. marcel and morsel, a bite or mouthful,
a small piece of food, a small quantity, from L. morsiis, from mordeo,1
morsum, to bite ; but the origin of the word butter is not so
obvious. I think it comes from the Gr. bouturon, L. Iwtyrum ; and
Galen, the Greek medical writer, derives the Greek word from bom,

gnawing pain or anguish of con-
science excited by the recollection of

1 From this verb we have also the
word mordant, signifying literally
biting into, serving to fix colours ;
remorse, literally a biting again, the

grief. We speak of remorse of con-
science and of remorseless enemies.

FOOD. 175

the Greek for an ox or cow, and twos, cheese. It is likely that
the name is of Scythian origin as well as the thing ; and Pliny
speaks of butyrum as the most splendid food of barbarous nations,
and which distinguishes the rich from the poor. Sugar seems to
have, from its sweetness, suggested the F. sucre as its origin, yet
sugar came from India, and it is there called sdrkhara, which is by
no means sweet-sounding. It originally signified grains of sand,
and was applied to sugar because occurring in grains. This sarkhara
is the same word as sugar, and we still speak of saccharine juice,
which is sweet juice. The Latin word for sugar is saccharum,
which was a kind of sugar collected from reeds. Our sugar was
not known in Europe before the time of the Crusades. Barley-
sugar — it has been said in explanation of the origin of this word
that the sweetmeat so named was formerly made with a decoction
of barley. Of this there is no evidence. The fact is that it has
nothing to do with barley at all. The first part of the word is
here an inversion, and at the same time a corruption, of the F.
bruit, burnt. The whole word was originally F. sucre brule, burnt
sugar, and it is still sometimes called sugar-barley. Molasses (the
kind of syrup that drains from sugar during the process of
manufacture) must be restored to its original spelling, melasses,
before we can get at its derivation from the Spanish word melaza,
the dregs of honey, from the Latin word mel, honey. A closely
allied substance, treacle, has in its name a very interesting history
which has been often told. The word is undoubtedly derived from
the Greek word therialwn, pertaining to a wild beast, from Gr.
therion, at first a wild beast of any kind, but afterwards applied
more especially to animals that had a venomous bite or sting ; and
by many Greek writers the term was used to denote a serpent
or viper specifically. In Acts xxviii. we are told that a viper,
which the natives called a venomous beast, came out of the heat
and fastened on Paul's hand, and the word ih&rion is twice used,
proving that it refers to this species of serpent. But what is the
connection between a serpent and treacle ? How came so sweet a
substance to have so venomous an origin 1 It was a popular belief
at one time that, on the principle of taking a hair of the dog that

176 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

bit you, the bite of the viper could be cured only by the application
to the wound of a piece of the viper's flesh. Galen, the celebrated
Greek physician, who lived in the second century, describes the
custom as prevalent in his time, decoctions being made by boiling
the flesh in some fluid or other. The name given to the extraordin-
ary electuary of viper's flesh (electuary is from L. electuarium, a
medicine that dissolves in the mouth, made up with honey or sugar,
from the Gr. ek, out, and leicho, to lick up) was theriake, from
therion, a viper. By the usual process of alteration which goes on
in the course of a few generations, in words that are commonly
used, theriake became fheriac. Then it was transformed into the
diminutive theriade, afterwards triacle, in which form it continued
till the days of Milton. It changed its meaning and application with
its various changes of form, signifying first the concoction of viper's
flesh applied to the wound inflicted by the viper's sting ; then any
antidote, whatever might be its nature, or whatever might be the
origin of the evil which it was intended to cure. The word anti-
dote, Gr. antidoton, a remedy (anti, against, and didomi, to give),
is originally a medicine to counteract the bad effects of poison.
Afterwards medical prescriptions came to be prepared in some
substance intended to cover their nauseous taste or 'disagreeable
look, and this vehicle was generally some kind of sweet or sugary
confection to which the name of treacle was applied. Throughout
our older literature we find frequent allusions to treacle in the
symbolical sense of an antidote against evil, and in one of the early
editions of the English Bible the familiar text in Jeremiah, instead
of the question, " Is there no balm in Gilead?" &c., reads " Is there
no treacle in Gilead ? " and so it has given to that edition the name
of "The Treacle Bible." It is usual (in Scotland at all events) to
have some kind of preserve at breakfast, such as marmalade, which
comes from the Portuguese marmalada, from marmelo, a quince,
L. inelimelum, Gr. melimelon, a sweet apple. A rasher of bacon is
almost the only article of food used at breakfast whose name would
occasion any perplexity. It seems to be generally taken for granted
that this name has been given to it because it is rashly or hastily
roasted, but I think it would be difficult to arrive at a rasher con-

FOOD. 177

elusion than this. As a rasher of bacon means a thin slice, I think
it had heen originally a rasure of hacon (like the word erasure), a
thin slice, a shaving, from the verb rado, rasi, rasum, radere, to
scrape, shave, scratch. In Scotland still, with a large number of
the population, the breakfast consists almost, if not entirely, of
oatmeal porridge. The word porridge is said to signify a kind of
broth, and to be derived from the low L. porrata, from the L.
porris, a leek, literally leek soup. This does not seem likely, the
contrast is so great. The word has evidently got confused with
pottage, which probably may be nearer the original, although the
word porringer is produced triumphantly to show that the povr (or
leek) is an essential part of it ; yet pottanger has been found for
porringer, and meaning a dish of pottage, so that we are inclined
to think that whatever was made in a pot was called pottage,
or porrage, or porrridge.

A spoon is with us the most useful implement at all meals. In
the younger or prose 'Edda,' near the beginning, we read thus,
"thak heunar var lagt gyltum a kjbldum svo sem spdnthak,"
" thatch of it was laid with gilt shields so as a spoon-thatch," " its
roof was laid with gilded shields as it were shingles " (Dasent's
translation). Here we see plainly enough that thak = thatch = Gr.
tegos = stegos = tectum. But what is this phrase, a spoon-thatch 1
Speun = spoun, in Icelandic is (1) a chip, Dan. spaan, a chip, a shingle,
a shaving or filing, and (2) skje, sJcee, a spoon. The two significations
are reconciled, for the first spoons were but chips of wood. The
Greeks and Latins gave them the name of cochleavia, of or belong-
ing to snails or spoons (from cochlea, a snail or snail's shell), because
originally used for drawing snails out of their shells, and afterwards
for eating with generally. A traveller in Holland two centuries
ago came upon some turf-cutters whose name for a spoon was a
gape-stick, a chop-stick. In this word we have the origin of the
phrase " spick and span new," literally " spike and spoon new,"
where spike means a point and spoon a chip — bright as a spike or
nail just made, and a chip just split, — bright, quite new, or, as we
say in Scotland, " spleet new."

The second meal of the day (where an intermediate meal is taken)

178 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

is luncheon, or lunch, which is in one sense a mere contraction
of the longer word, but in another is really its basis ; for the word
lunch (connected with lump) signified originally a lump or a large
piece of bread, and so luncheon originally would be taking a piece
of bread between breakfast and dinner. As a corroboration of this
we have the fact that many people frequently call a sandwich their
lunch. It is sometimes called a repast, not a heavy meal generally
— literally a feeding again (re, again, and pastus, food, from
pasco, I feed). A sandwich has received its name from the
Earl of Sandwich, a very keen and eager gambler, who is said
once to have saved time at a game by stratifying the bread and
meat which his servant brought to the card-table. Archbishop
Whately's reason why the Israelites did not starve in the desert is
clever and amusing — " on account of the sand-w(h)ich is there."
" But how came the sand which is there 1 " " Noah brought Ham
and his descendants mustered and bred." There is no foundation
for supposing that the word was originally nuncheon. There was
a word nuncheon, but it had relation to drinking rather than to
eating. We find it spelt in ME. nonechenche, the obvious etymo-
logy being none (noon), and schenke (a pouring out or distribution
of drink). It was then liquid refreshment taken at noon ; and so
in this country, up to a comparatively recent period in Scotland,
refreshment taken at noon went by the name of meridian. Ante-
meridian was a morning dram; meridian, refreshment taken at
noon ; and post-meridian, an appetiser before dinner. Sir Walter
Scott, in 1818, writing 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian,' says, "Plum-
damas joined the other two gentlemen in drinking their meridian
(a bumper-dram of brandy)." And this may be as good an oppor-
tunity as any of mentioning some of the words connected with
drink and drinking. The Saxons, like most of the Northern
nations, were hard drinkers, and it is a subject of regret that their
descendants at the present day have not altogether lost this not
very creditable characteristic. They were not less remarkable for
their hospitality than for their love of strong drink, and did not
like to see their guests any more than themselves leave a drop in
the bottom of their very capacious tankards. Hence they called it

FOOD. 179

a carouse, when they drank all out, the word gar signifying
all, and ous meaning out, hence, the g being changed to c,
to carouse (anciently garousz) meant to drink all out. So Shake-
speare says, " The Queen carouses to my fortune, Hamlet." This
carousing tending to frequent quarrels, the Saxon king Edgar
enacted a law which he strongly enforced, ordering that certain
marks should be made in their drinking-cups at a particular height,
above which they were forbidden to fill their glass under a heavy
penalty. This law, however, as Kapin relates, was but a short
time in continuance, being too much opposed to the national
character to be long maintained. The word wassail, defined
by Dr Johnson as a drinking-bout, came from the old Saxon words
wes and hdl, ices being the imperative of the Saxon verb to be, and
hdl, signifying hale or healthy, literally, may you be in health !
The custom of pledging healths arose, it is probable, out of the
savage habits of the times when every man dreaded violence, but
when at the same time the most cruel among them respected a
pledge and strictly kept his word. When a man took up the large
tankard to drink, he pledged his word to his neighbour that he
would protect him from violence while drinking, if the other would
pledge him his troth, i.e., his truth, in like manner for his safety
while he was in the act of drinking, and thereby obstructing his
view by the large drinking-vessel and exposing his throat to an
enemy.

It has been usual to derive quaff from the Sc. quaich, a small
drinking-cup, making the word to signify to drink out of a cup.
This etymology, however, does not explain the characteristic mean-
ing of the word, viz., to drink deeply, to drink in full draughts.
" A richt gude willy- waught " means a copious draught. Now, as
the bodily action in drawing a deep breath and in taking in a full
draught of liquid is much the same, and as we speak accordingly
of a draught of water and a draught of air, it seems as if the words
quaff and waucTit are close relations of the English waff, whiff, waft,
expressing movement of the air — to waft, to blow along, to carry
on by the movement of the air.

Tipple, to drink in small quantities, has been explained by Skeat

180 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

as the frequentative of tip, to cause to slant, to incline, and means
continually inclining the drinking-glass (and never declining it !), to
be always tipping wine or beer down the throat; but, as Wedg-
wood shows, tip itself is never used in this sense, and the origin of
the signification is so clear in the case of the Bavarian zipfeln, an
exactly parallel form with tipple, that we need seek no other
explanation of the later word. Bavarian zipf or zip/el is the top
or narrow end of anything ; the secondary diminutive zipfelein is
used in the sense of a small portion of anything wet or dry.

It is said that the word bumper, as indicating a full glass,
originated in the fact that in drinking toasts if a man filled his
glass to the brim, almost to overflowing, he justified himself by dedi-
cating it to le bon pere, i.e., the Pope, and so the word bumper
came to be a full glass, and afterwards a bumper house, &c.

The various vessels employed for holding and drinking liquor
are generally clearly marked by significant names, but the one
attended with most difficulty is the word demijohn, which was
a very common word half a century ago, but now it is wellnigh
obsolete. It was the name of a large glass bottle covered with
wicker-work, which occurs in most European languages. It has
been a great puzzle to etymologists. It is often written in English
with a hyphen between the second and third syllables, as if, notwith-
standing its capacity, it were but the half of a whole John. In France
it is made a compound, dame-jeanne — Lady Jane, and a French
etymologist has fabled that it took its name from its introduction
into Europe by an apocryphal Lady Jane, a distinguished dame of
that nation. Every one who has been in the East will remember
that the portly vessel is there called damagan or damajahn, and the
name as well as the thing is generally supposed to have been
borrowed from the Christians by the unbelievers. The fact is,
however, that the demijohn was formerly largely manufactured at
Damaghan, a town of Khorassin, a province of Persia, once famous
for its glass works, and hence the name. In a note to the American
edition of ' Wedgwood's English Etymology,' Mr Marsh has re-ex-
amined the etymology of this word, and is now inclined to think that
the Orientals borrowed it from Europe, and that it is descended

FOOD. 181

from the medieval demionus (see Du Cange, who says that it con-
tained two quarts, and that it is made up of demi, for dimidtus,
half, and onus, a load or charge, and that it was half a chopin). As
for the contents of these vessels it is not necessary to say much,
as most of them, such as port, sherry, and champagne, are named
after the countries in which they are grown, but some are not so
obvious. Whisky is said to be composed of the two Gaelic words
utsge, water, and beatha, life, having the same meaning as aqua
mice, water of life, and is obviously from the same Gaelic words
as the Irish usquebaugh. Brandy, which with us originally was
brandy wine, from the Dut. branden, to burn, to distil, meant
burnt wine, like the German name for it still, branntwein. The
word punch is the Hind, pantscli, from the Sans, pantschan, five,
and it received this name at an early period (seventeenth century),
being made out of the five elements, spirits, water, lemon-juice,
sugar, and spice. Grog perpetuates the memory of Old Grog, the
nickname given to Admiral Edward Vernon, who first ordered his
sailors to dilute their rum with water. He was named Old
Grogram because he used in dirty weather to wear a cloak made
of grogram (a corruption of the F. gros and gram, meaning coarse
gram), a kind of cloth made of silk and mohair, of a coarse grain
and texture. A book just published (1907), entitled 'Admiral
Vernon and the Navy : A Memoir and a Vindication,' by Douglas
Ford, gives a valuable and closely studied account of the admiral's
career both at sea and in Parliament, where he championed the
cause of the Navy and the common sailor against the indifference
and the interest of Sir Robert "Walpole and his followers. His
great services to his country by his achievements at sea were
belittled by those who were embarrassed by his action and by his
writings in the pamphlets in defence of the sailor against the
oppressiveness of the hard discipline of those times, against such
institutions as the press-gang, &c. ; and even the kindly nickname
by which the admiral was known to the seamen of his day, " Old
Grog," has been perverted. It used to be said that he made the
sailors save half of their rum, because he made money by the
dilution. Mr Ford has no difficulty in showing that he gave

182 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

orders that water should be mixed with the rum because the drink
supplied by the Admiralty was poisonously bad, and taken raw
drove the men to acts of madness, for which they were put in
irons, lashed, and (no doubt) pickled. Negus is said to have
derived its name from its first maker, Colonel Negus, in the reign
of Queen Anne. The butler or bottler is the person who has
charge of the liquors, &c., in a large establishment, and he was so
called from the F. bouteiller, from boutettte, a bottle, diminutive of
bottle or vessel for liquids. It is almost worth while in this con-
nection to quote one of the most delightful specimens of mixed
metaphor of which we have any record. It is contained in the
following peroration to a speech addressed to a dishonest butler
who had been convicted of stealing large quantities of wine from
his master's cellar. " Prisoner at the bar, you stand convicted on
the most conclusive evidence of a crime of inexpressible atrocity, a
crime that defiles the sacred spring of domestic confidence, and is
calculated to strike alarm into the breast of every Englishman who
invests largely in the choicer vintages of Southern Europe. Like
the serpent of old, you have stung the hand of your protector.
Fortunate in having a generous employer, you might without
dishonesty have contrived to supply your wretched wife and
children with the comforts of sufficient prosperity and even with
some of the luxuries of affluence ; but dead to every claim of natural
affection, and blind to your own real interest, you burst through
all the restraints of religion and morality, and for many years have
been feathering your nest with your master's bottles." The word
buttery, too, has a closer connection with " butler " than appears
at first sight. It has no connection with " butter," but it is a cor-
ruption of buttery, a place for bottles. It was originally a place
for storing casks or jars of liquor, and by-and-by came to signify a
place in colleges and schools from which provisions are served out.
In opposition to all these drinks we have the teetotaller,
rendered by a recent French novelist by totoliserer du the, as if it
were tea-totaller, though it is, in fact, from teetotal, which is sup-
posed by many to be merely a reduplicated form of total. Perhaps
the best explanation of its origin is that it was the result of a

FOOD.

183

stuttering pronunciation of the word total by Kichard Turner of
Preston in 1833. Eecent slang has given the name of tee-totum
to a tea or coffee house, conducted by the philanthropic as a
counteraction of the dramshop. This is merely a poor pun, and
nobody ever thought that teetotum and teetotaller were etymo-
logically connected, but its coinage differs from folk-etymology
merely in being jocose and intentional. Teetotum, by the way, is
T totum. When used for gambling, the teetotum had a T on one
of its four sides, standing for "take all the stakes." The game
was at one time very popular in Scotland, so popular that an old
minister in warning his congregation against the temptations that
presented themselves about Christmas time, exhorted them in
these words, " Beware of cards and dice, my friends, and that
bewitching game the totum." A thoroughly established institution
in this country about four or five o'clock is afternoon tea,
which in addition to tea consists for the most part of cakes or
biscuits of different kinds. Biscuits, so called by us from the
OF. bescuit (now biscuit), but bes, the regular form of L. bis,
twice, and cuit, the past part, of F. cuire, cuisant, cuit, to cook (from
L. coquo, to cook, past cocttis, cooked), the twice-cooked or baked
bread having been so prepared by the Roman soldiers. From the
Latin through the French the Germans have taken the word zwie-
back (It. bis cotto, twice baked), the form zwie instead of zwei, two,
being that assumed as the first member of a compound word. This
zwieback is in German what we are accustomed to call a rusk, the
best being made at Friedrichsdorf,1 near Homburg — bread or
cake sliced and exposed in a slow oven until of a pale-brown
colour and of a crackling consistency, from the low Ger. rusken,
to crackle, and hence called by the Americans crackers.

We come to dinner, the great meal of the day. The two learned
explanations of the origin of this word, the one from the supposed
L. deccenare, to take supper, from L. coena, the other from desinwe,

1 This little town was founded in
1657 by 32 French Huguenot fam-
ilies, who found refuge and protec-
tion from the Landgraf Friedrich
IL In Church and in school, and

in their daily life and intercourse,
until a comparatively recent period,
the French language was exclusively
spoken.

184 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

to cease, as denoting a meal taken at the midday rest, the cessation
of work, are conclusively negatived by the fact that the word
dinner was originally applied to the earliest meal in the morning,
immediately after mass. The word, in fact, seems rather to be
only another form of dejeuner. In many parts of France diner
and dine are still used for the early meal. It is unnecessary
to go over the names of the different animals and birds that
are used as food, but it is interesting to remember that these
animals while alive are called by their Saxon names, but when
killed and cooked for the table are called by their Norman-French
names. Thus the cow becomes beef, the sheep, mutton, the calf, veal,
the deer, venison, the pig, park, and the fowl, poultry. This arose
from the circumstance of the Saxons rearing the live stock, while
the Normans cooked and ate the animal food. Of this we have an
amusing illustration by Sir Walter Scott in his novel of ' Ivanhoe.'
"Swine is good Saxon," said Wamba the jester to Gurth the
swineherd, "and pork, I think, is good Norman French ; and so
when the brute lives and is in the charge of a Saxon slave, she
goes by her Saxon name, but becomes a Norman and is called pork
when she is carried to the castle hall to feast among the nobles.
Nay, I can tell you more. There is old Alderman Ox continues to
hold his Saxon epithet while he is under the charge of serfs and
bondsmen such as thou, but becomes beef, a French fiery gallant,
when he arrives before the worshipful jaws that are destined to
consume him. Mynheer Calf, too, becomes Monsieur de Veau in
the like manner : he is Saxon when he requires tendance, and
takes a Norman name when he becomes matter of enjoyment."

While it is not necessary to say anything further about beef
itself, the word beef-eater has a much more interesting history.
The attempt has been made to show that the word has no connec-
tion with beef at all, but that it has come from buffetier, one
who attends to the buffet or side-board or table near the door
of the hall ; but no such word as buffetiei- or beau-fetier has ever
been found in French, and the French substantive which was sup-
posed to mean a waiter at a buffet or sideboard is still imaginary
and undiscovered. I do not see why etymologists should have

FOOD.

185

been so reluctant to admit that beef -eaters could mean " eaters of
beef," which was the melancholy fact. The word occurs not only
in 'The Spectator,' No. 625 (1714), but in 'Histrio Mastix,' 3, 99
(1710), and specifically for Yeomen of the Guard in Crowne, 1671.
They were famous for their consumption of beef. Cowley says :

" Chines of beef innumerable send me,
Or from the stomach of the Guard defend me."

Sir William Davenant speaks in 1673 of

" Beef that the greasie stomached Guard would please.'

Earle in his ' Micro-Cosmographie,' 1628, says that "the plain
country fellow is a terrible fastener on a piece of beef, and you may
hope to starve the Guard off sooner."

Another instance of this inept striving after far-fetched ety-
mologies which have been often too rashly accepted is the sirloin
of beef. It has for generations had an absurd story told about it,
that it got its title of sir, to distinguish it from the commonalty of
loins, from some monarch or (according to Swift, ' Polite Conver-
sation, II.') James I., who loved it so well that he gave it the
accolade 1 and knighted it Sir Loin. It is, of course, a mere mis-
spelling of sur-loin, F. sur longe, L. super lumbum, the joint of beef
above the loin, the supra-lumbar part. Following up the mistake,
the joint which consists of a double sirloin receives the more
honourable title of a baron of beef, "the knightly sir-loin, the
noble baron of beef," supposed to be a pun on the word Sir Loin.

Among the vegetables which, until lately, appeared most
frequently at dinner is first and foremost the potato, which is
simply the native Haytian name batata, slightly altered by the
Spaniards patata. The American sweet potato is a plant of
quite a different family, a convolvulus, but it has the best of rights
to its name, for it was called potato before that name was given to
the white tuber which is now regarded as the true potato. There

1 Accolade means the blow over
the neck or shoulder with a sword
given in conferring knighthood, — a

French word, from L. ad, to, and
collum, the neck.

186 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

have been confusion and corruption in the names given to it, both
in the German, French, and Italian languages. The Germans call it
Icartoffel, a corruption of the name of tartiiffel, properly the name of
the truffle, but which not the less was transferred to the potato, on
the ground of the many resemblances between them. The Italians
transferred the name, but with a qualifying or distinguishing ad-
dition. They also called the potato tartuffo, but added bianco, the
white truffle, — a name which has now given place to patata.
Thus, too, it was with the French who called it pomme, apple,
but pomme de terre, apple of the earth, even as in many of the
provincial dialects of Germany it bears the name of erdapfel, or
earth apple, to this day.

There are many condiments and sauces and spices used dur-
ing dinner. The word condiment comes from the L. con-
dimentum, that which serves to season, or gives a flavour to food
(condio, ivi, itum, ire, to season, spice, render more savoury).
Pepper, from L. piper — and we also speak of peppercorn, the corn
or berry of the pepper plant, and now signifying something of no
value. Vinegar, through the F. vinaigre, (win, wine, and aigre,
sour), from L. vinum, wine, and acer, sour, an acid liquor obtained
from wine, cider, and the like by the acetous fermentation.
Mustard, OF. motistarde, F. moutarde, from OF. moust, F. mout,
from L. mtistum, must, or wine pressed from the grape but not
fgjmented. Spice is the same word as species or specie. It
comes from the L. specie?, or kind, through OF. espice, and in ME.
meant both "a kind" and "spice." The latter sense is a queer
specialisation, and must have come through trade. There were
different kinds of these aromatic substances, and so spices came to
be used for the substances themselves. Allspice is so called from
its supposed composite flavour of clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Cloves receive their name, not from their fragrance or taste, but
from their resemblance to a nail, which all must have observed,
which in Latin is clavtis, a nail, while the Spanish name for clove
is clavo. Nutmeg is in ME. note-mur/e, a hybrid compound of
ME. note, nut, and OF. muge, musk. Cinnamon is the Hebrew
ginnamon, which is borrowed from some other Eastern tongue.
The older English form is cinnamom, from L. cinnamomum, itself

FOOD. 187

from the Hebrew. But this English form was made over by
scholars who were familiar with Hebrew, and thought cinnamoin
erroneous. Ginger is also an Eastern word. Its earliest English
form was gingwer, from OF. gengivre, from L. zingiber, or zinziber,
from Sans, cnngavera, where cringa signifies a horn, and vera,
shape, the name being given to ginger because the root is shaped
like a horn.

I must not omit the word kickshaws, which is a corruption of
the F. quelqiiechose, something. It is amusing to notice the varia-
tions that are played on the French words. It meant a " trivial
thing " when the phrase was taken up by English writers as a term
of the cuisine for a dainty and unsubstantial dish. Shakespeare
has " kickshawses," "Twelfth Night," L iii. 122; T. Brooks, in
1662, " kickshaws " ; Dryden, " kec shose " ; Milton, " kic shoes " :
"kickshowes" in "Jack Brian's Entertainment, 1616," II. i. 424.
The word from its form was soon mistaken for a plural, and people
spoke of a kickshaw. The latter part of the word seems to have
been mentally associated with pshaw ! the interjection of contempt,
and the word assumed a connotation of something contemptible.
Thus, in Ludlow's 'Memoirs,' 1697, " They made a very kickshaws
of him " (p. 49). In the dialects it is applied to one haughty and
contemptuous, " a proud kickshew " (TV. York), and in a Cumber-
land poem dancing is called the kicksheaw of pride. The Germans
have sometimes read their own word geek, a simpleton, into
qudque chose, and so got geckschoserie out of it, as if foolery.

With dessert dinner ends : and the dessert is so called from the
table being to a large extent cleared before the component parts
of the dessert are partaken of, and the word comes from the F.
desservir, literally to clear the table, from des, away, and servir, to
serve. The talk is now very much over the walnuts and wine.
The walnut has no connection with a wall, as if it were so called
from growing against one. It means merely the foreign nut — AS.
wealh, foreign, and Imutu, a nut. The AS. tcealh is, however, not
a native word, but comes from the name of the Celtic tribe of
Volcce, whence also the word Welsh. The Teutonic race regarded
the Celts as foreigners par excellence. In some parts of America
the name walnut is given to the shagbark, a kind of hickory nut ;

188 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

and the true walnut is known as the English Walnut, a term which

involves a curious etymological contradiction. Filbert is the nut

of the cultivated hazel, but how canie filbert to be there? (1)

Learned people hitched on the name to the classic story of Phyllis,

the Thracian maiden, who, being deserted by her lover Demophon,

was metamorphosed into a tree (G. phyllis, a leafy tree), — " The

tree of Phyllis for her Demophon " (Chaucer, " Man of Lawes,"

Tale 63). Neckham, about 1200, calls the nut "mix Phillides,"

De Nat. Rerum, 484 ; and Gower tells the story how Phyllis was

shaped into a nut tree, — "and after Phyllis, phillibert, yet for

Demophon to shame unto this day it beareth that name." (2)

Others, asserting that the original form of the word was phillibert,

tell us that it was so named after Philibert, a king of France, who

cultivated it according to Peacham, who speaks of the Philibert

that loves the vale. (3) Other learned people say that it was

probably so called because it was introduced into France by Sanct

Philibert (or Filebert), of the Abbey of Jumiego, whence its

Norman name (Noix de Filibert), or because it ripened about St

Philibert's Day — i.e., August 22, old style. For a similar reason

the German name of the filbert is supposed to have originated in

the time of its ripening, Lamberts Nuss, from St Lambert's Day,

which is September 17 ; but this is a popular travesty of its

historic name, Lombardische Nuss, "Lombard's Nut." (4)

The truth is that the name of filbert is known only in England.

There is no corresponding name either in France or Germany.

The spelling with ph seems to be adopted only by those whose

theory led them to connect it with Phyllis or Philbert. The name

filberde is exclusively English, and expresses exactly the distinctive

characteristic of the nut, — the fact, namely, that it just fills the

beard (i.e., the beards of the calyx with which it is surrounded),

while the beard of the common hazel leaves about half of the nut

exposed. It seems needless to look beyond the plain meaning of

the elements of the word. It is an interesting instance of the

ingenuity with which the folk contrive to read the right meaning

into a word, in spite of all the theories of the learned.

The institution of afternoon tea has given occasion to the con-
sumption of a great variety of cakes, and this leads me to speak of

FOOD. 189

two cakes — marzipan and simlin — which originated at a far
earlier period than afternoon tea. I confess that I had never
heard of the cake, either by its name of marchpane, which it bears
in this country, or by its name of marzipan, which it bears in
Germany, until about fifteen years ago, when I was in Liibeck, one
of the towns of the old Hanseatic League, and found from the
notices in the confectioners' windows that marzipan was the
specialty of the place, and I soon afterwards learned that this
sweetmeat is now imported chiefly from Germany, and in Germany
largely from Liibeck, under the German name of marzipan, which
has at least equal currency with the traditional English form of
marchpane. I was more interested in the composition of the word
than I was in the composition of the sweetmeat itself, and although
not aware then that the etymology and history of the word was a
sort of philological romance, I have ever since felt an interest in it.
I was very much inclined to acquiesce in the etymology generally
adopted for the latter part of the word — \iz.,pan or pane, from L.
pants or panem, bread. As for the first half, marci or Martins
(Marcus Brolen, German), it has now very generally been aban-
doned as an etymology, notwithstanding Hormayer's History of a
Famine in the year 1407, in which he says that in Saxony, in
memory of that sad time, are little cakes baked on St Mark's Day,
which are called marci panes. The derivation from maza panis
has found most favour. It seems to have been given first by the
Venetian, Ermolao Barbara, who died in 1494. He says " they are
called mazapanes, from maza and pane, as I think, although called
marcipanes by others." Diez, Mahn, and Heyne have also given it
their countenance. Maza, from L. massa (Gr. masso, to knead),
that which united together like dough, would suit the famous con-
fectionery very well. The difficulty however is, as we find the
word marzipan used in four senses — (1) as the name of a famous
confectionery, (2) as a little box, (3) as the name of a measure, and
(4) as the name of a coin — how we are to reconcile these widely-
differing meanings. The most thorough and the most recent
investigation has been conducted by A. Kluyver, and the
results are given by him in a most interesting article in the
sixth volume of the ' Zeitschrift fur Deutsche Wortforschung,'

190 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

edited by Frederick Kluge, 1904. He endeavours to prove that
the name given to the coin is the source of all the other mean-
ings. He identifies the word with the medieval L. matapanus,
a Venetian coin, bearing a figure of Christ on a throne, for which
we have the authority of Du Cange, who, under the head of
Matapanus, defines it as a species of Venetian money, and then
quotes from a MS. of Andrea Danduli (the grand old Dandalo ?) of
1193, "Subsequently the Doge ordered silver money to be made
for the first time, commonly called ' grossi Venetian!,' or Matapani,
with the image of Jesus on a throne on the one side, and on the
other the figure of St Mark and the Doge." I think there is
evidence enough to show that the name of Marzapane in Italy, and
Marzapanu in Sicily, was given to the boxes in which the marzipan
was brought, these being of a uniform shape ; and as these were of
a uniform size, a marzipan box came to be a standard of measure-
ment, so that ten marzipani came to be equal to one moggio — and
so becoming accustomed to its signification of a tenth in weight, it
came to be applied to the tenth in value of the standard coin, and
coins of its value and of its name were manufactured. At the same
time, it was found that there were Eastern coins in use of the same
value, and with very much the same name. When the Crusades
began, numerous Byzantine coins circulated among the merchants of
the Levant which showed the above-described figure of Christ. The
Saracens named the figure, and later the coin itself, mantJiaban —
the sitting king, or the king that sits still. About the year 1100
the Romans learned to know this expression, and made themselves
very familiar with it in the above-mentioned manner. The word
manthabdn came through the vulgar form by the Venetians, down
finally to matapan, and as they in the year 1193 introduced a coin
of the same value, it received in the mouths of the common people
the same name. Either from the example of the Venetians, or
from their initiative, the Italian rulers of the East issued such
money. Thus there was in Bathrun, in the year 1202, whose
ruler was a native of Pisa, a mazzapan agreeing so entirely with
the Venetian m-atapan, that both stood in the same relationship —
of a tenth to the chief coin of the country. If, then, matapan and

FOOD. 191

marsapan are so like in meaning, both also being names of coins
which have the same value, and if, further, the pronunciation
of marsapane and massapan was much the same, the question
presses, should these three words not be led back to the same
ground form? The question also is worth considering, that as
the Fabyan Chronicles, vii. 587, in 1494 speak of a "marchpayne
garnished with diverse figures of angels," there may not have been
also upon the surface of these cakes figures of St Mark, or of Christ
as afterwards He appeared upon the coins, and thus would all the
names be united and harmonised.

Simnel cake, or Simlin, is the name given to a kind of rich
sweet cake made of fine wheat flour, and offered as a gift, especially
on Mid-Lent Sunday, which is called also from this custom Simnel,
Eefreshment, or Mothering Sunday. The name of Eefreshment or
Refection has been given to it with reference to the feeding of the
multitude mentioned in the Gospel for the day (John vi. 1-14) ;
the name of Mothering Sunday has been given to it in consequence
of the rural custom of visiting one's parents and giving them presents
on Mid-Lent Sunday, supposed by many to be derived from the
custom in former times of visiting the mother church on that day.
Herrick in his poem to Dianeme says,

" I'll to thee a simnel bring,
'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering."

The name of simnel comes from the L. word simtla, fine wheat
flour, used by the great physician Celsus in the first century.

We close this chapter on Food with the word post-prandial,
which signifies, after a meal, now generally after dinner, and is
composed of post, after, and prandium, a breakfast or luncheon,
— from prandeo, prandi, pransum, prandere, to eat before the
principal meal, to breakfast, to eat in the morning. The Romans
had only one regular meal, somewhere about three o'clock. Who-
ever could not, or would not, wait till that time, ate something
before, as bread or fish, or even meat, &c. ; but the nobler and
higher classes of the Romans thought it improper to make this
a regular meal with wine, &c.

192

CHAPTEE XIV.

HIS DWELLING.

THE place where stones are dug for building purposes is called a
quarry : it literally signifies a place where stones are squared, from
L. quadrare, to cut square, through F. quairer, to cut square.1
The house, as it is called in AS., or domicile, as it is sometimes
termed, from the L. domus, a house, whence we have also domestic,
and domesticate, and domiciliary. Habitation signifies a place of
abode, a dwelling (from L. Jidbitare? to dwell, and habeo, to have or
possess). A habitation means a shelter as well as an abiding-place.
The word edifice, from L. cedes, a house, is generally applied to
a large structure, but it gives one or two words which are useful
in a figurative sense, such as edify, to build up mentally or spirit-
ually : a discourse may be edifying or unedifying, and in the former
case it tends to the edification of the hearers. At an earlier period
most of the houses in this country were thatched, as a very few of
the older and the poorer are still. The thatch was put on the
roof as a covering and a protection. The verb to " thatch " comes
from the AS. theccan, to cover, and it is closely allied to the
Ger. deckan and the L. tego,3 to cover. The eaves are literally

1 Quarry, the word used among
falconers, &c., for game, especially
that got by hawking (from OF.
corde, F. curte), originally meant
the entrails of the game (from L.
cor, the heart), and given to the
dogs at death, and now any game
flown at and killed, dead game.

2 The habitat (literally, it dwells)
of a plant is its natural abode, the I

place where it is found. To in-
habit means to dwell in it. The
extreme north is not habitable or
not inhabitable, and there are no
inhabitants there. Cohabitation
means dwelling together, especi-
ally as husband and wife cohabit.
3 From tego, text, tectum, tegere,
to cover or weave, we have tegument
and integument. A person is de-

HIS DWELLING. 193

the dipt edge of the thatch,* this being the meaning of the AS.
efese, and now they signify the edge of the slates or of the roof
projecting over the wall. The eavesdrop is a fact of some im-
portance in law. It frequently happens in the case of adjoining
proprietors that neither is allowed to build quite up to the ex-
tremity of his possession, but each is obliged to leave a space for
the eaves, and for the water which falls in drops from the eaves.
This space is called the yfesdrype (eaves drip), and so an eaves-
dropper is a person who places himself under the eaves drip, that
he may the better overhear what is said in the adjoining house or
field. Shakespeare, hi " Eichard III.," V. iii., uses the word, "Under
our tents I'll play the eavesdropper, to hear if any mean to shrink
from me." A mansard roof has wrongly borne this name, for the
architect, Francois Mansard (1598-1666), did not invent this kind
of roof, the lower part of which is almost vertical and covered with
windows. Such a roof permits the establishment of an upper
storey but little inferior to the others, in place of a mere garret.
"What Mansard did was to reintroduce or to revive the use of such
roofs in Paris about 1650, after they had for nearly a century before
been employed by Lescot in the Louvre. We have still a dormer
window, a vertical window also, but on the sloping roof of a house
(a hundred years ago the word dormer was used by itself, and was
the name for a sleeping-apartment), from the Latin verb dormire,
to sleep ; the same word from which we have our present word
dormitory, which means a large sleeping-chamber with many beds.
The window itself is an opening in the wall of a 'building for air
and light (literally wind-eye, ME. windaga, Icel. windauga, from
vtndr, wind, and auga, eye). A window sill is the timber at the
foot of a window, the lower piece in a window frame, from L. solum,
the lowest part of anything, and sometimes called with us the
window sole. The Saxon thrycan meant to trample under foot,

tected when he is found out in what
he wishes to conceal. We speak
of the detection of thieves, and
a detective is a policeman in plain
clothes to find out criminals secretly.
A tile is the L. tegula. To protect
is to defend ; we have the protection

of the laws, and we had in this
country a Protector, whose rule was
called a protectorate. A prot6g6 of
mine means one whom I have taken
under my care and protection. We
speak of undetected crime and of
unprotected innocence.

194

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

and threscan or therscan was to thresh. Threshold is the Saxon
thersh-wold, the wood (wold) that forms the tread or step immedi-
ately under the door or gateway. A necessary preliminary to enter-
ing the house is to cross the threshold, the Latin name for which
is limen, liminis, a threshold, — the word thus being composed of
pre, before, and limen a threshold, and so meaning whatever pre-
cedes the main discourse or business, so that preliminary remarks
are introductory. So, too, the word eliminate, L. elimindre, to
turn out of doors (e, out of, and limen, the threshold), has
come to mean to get rid of anything, to throw out or reject some-
thing from an argument. In Scotland it is still called occasionally
the door-stane, or sole of the door ; and in antiquated English it is
the sill, from F. seuil and Saxon syl. The door sill is usually a
step higher than the ground without, for the purpose of keeping
the house dry, and hence the phrase (generally metaphorical) of
stumbling at the threshold. As we enter the door we find that it
has been left ajar, a word used only in connection with door or
window, and meaning " on the turn." A charwoman is one who
is engaged for an occasional turn. So the Swiss say, Es ist mi
cheer, it is my turn. This comes from the AS. cerre,1 a turn, from
ceiven, to turn ; hence a door is said to be ajar when it is on the
turn — ajar (being perhaps a corruption of a-char ; AS. a, on,
and OE. char, a turn). Where there is more than one storey
(from F. estorer, to build), a stair is necessary to ascend. The
stair has received its name from the AS. stceger, which is derived
from the verb stigan, to ascend or climb, which in the form sty or
stie was in use as an English verb as late as the time of Spenser.
Stceger and stair, though sometimes confounded with step, properly
signify alike the entire system of successive steps by which we sty or
climb from one floor to another, and they may therefore be considered
as collective nouns. Thus Milton, " Paradise Lost," iii. 540-3 —

" Satan from hence, now on the lower stair,
That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven-gate,
Looks down with wonder at the sudden view
Of all this World at once."

1 From the same root we have
the word churn, as to churn milk,

literally to turn it about : comp.
Ger. kehren, to turn.

HIS DWELLING. 195

But it is usual to divide the stair, where the height of the stones
is considerable, into flights or sections separated by landing-
places, and each might not improperly be considered as an in-
dependent stair. Now in the great majority of stairs there was
but one intermediate landing-place, and of course the whole ascent
from floor to floor was divided into two flights of stairs, and thus
formed a pair of stairs, — a phrase which, although used by Pal-
grave, Hakluyt, Shakespeare, and others, and found in many
English classics in the best age of our literature, has been supposed
to be incorrect, in consequence of those who criticise the phrase
imagining that stair is synonymous with step, or tread.

The word room, in AS. rum and in Ger. raum, signified origin-
ally space, generally ample space, or, as we say, roomy, and gradually
came to mean a room or space in a house. The drawing-room,
originally withdrawing-room, is the room to which the company
withdraws after dinner. The mirror is so named from the F.
miroir, to look at with wonder. There is often a pier-glass in
the space between the windows, so called because the stone-work
between the windows, like the mass of stone-work between the
openings of a building, is called a pier, through the F. pierre, a
stone, from L. petra, a stone or rock. In the drawing-room, as
well as in the dining-room, are many beautiful paintings, or
pictures, both words being derived from the L. pinyo, pinxi, pie-
turn, pingere, to paint ; but the word painting comes through the
OF. paint, past part, of F. peindre, to paint, while the word picture
comes from the past. part, of pingo, viz., pictus. There is also a
most excellent miniature. This word, although now employed to
describe a portrait painted on a small scale and with minute finish,
and although the phrase " in miniature " has come to signify on
a small scale, or in a brief or abridged form, has no etymological
connection with the L. minor, less, minimus, least, or minuo, to lessen
or diminish. It comes through It. miniatura and F. miniature,
from L. miniare, to colour with red or vermilion (p. 124), from
minium, the Latin name for vermilion or red -lead. The name
of miniature was originally given to the red letter traced with
minium on MSS., missals, &c., to adorn the beginning of the
chapters, then the fine painting of small subjects made on vellum,

196

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

parchment, in the MSS. and missals, and now fine painting in very
small dimensions, usually on ivory or vellum, formerly always in
water-colour, now often in oiL No doubt the small size of the
miniature has led to its being connected in the minds of many
with minus, small ; so that it has ended by signifying a work of art
of small dimensions, and a thing of small proportions in general.
In the drawing-room is often seen a very fine mantelpiece, but
although it is now differently spelt from mantle, a cloak, yet they
were the same originally in spelling and meaning, for the old
mantelpiece or mantelshelf was formed like a hood to intercept
the smoke, and both came from the OF. mantel, from the L.
mantellum, a cloak, but which itself came from the L. manus, a
hand. Chimney-piece signifies also a piece, or shelf, over the
chimney or fireplace. The word chimney comes through the French,
from the L. caminus (Gr. kamenos), a forge, or smelting furnace, or
oven. It came to be used for any fireplace or hearth (the earliest
meaning in English), and then, in particular, for the smoke-flue
or vent The fireplace, within the fender and below the grate,
is often laid with mosaic, and partly with encaustic,1 tiles. The
fender is merely a contraction of the word defender, as its pur-
pose is to defend the carpet from the hot cinders or ashes ; while
grate comes from the L. crates, a framework composed of bars,
with interstices, originally of wood or hurdle, but afterwards of
iron bars, as of a grating, and especially a grate made of iron
bars for holding coals when burning. The mosaic tiling has
nothing to do with Moses, or with the Mosaic economy, but is so
called as being specially a work of art, and by the Eomans was
spelt musaicum opus, " musaic work," as being work carried on by
the inspiration of the Muses. Sometimes where there is a wood
fire and logs are burned, the iron bar which supports the end of
the logs is called andiron. The word is so much more used in
America than here that it is supposed by many to be an American
word. So far from this being the case, we find the OK auntyre,
also aunderne, aundyrne (from OF. andier, now spelt Vandier by

1 Encaustic signifies literally
wrought with fire, from Gr. enkaus-

tikos (en, in, and kaustikos, caustic,
from kaio, to burn).

HIS DWELLING. 197

coalescence with the definite article). These were naturally cor-
rupted at an early date to andyron or andiron. Other varieties
are end -iron (A.V., Ezekiel xl. 43, margin), hand -iron (Florio
Quarles), and land-iron. In 1541 "three old great laundirons" are
valued at 5s., and in 1557 two " laundeirons " are again mentioned
in company with " one payr of tonges " ; and in an inventory
dated 1685 we find "one iron pot and one land-iyron." In the
drawing-room we greatly admired the ceiling, so called from its
being above or over the room, and derived from the F. del,
which has the same meaning, although it signifies also heaven, and
comes from the Latin word for heaven, viz., ccelum, from which
also we have the word celestial. A smaller but prettily furnished
room near the drawing-room is called the boudoir, F., lit. a place to
sulk in, being the lady's private sitting-room : the word is French,
and comes from the verb bouder, to pout or sulk. The origin of
the French verb bouder is not known, neither is the origin of our
word sulk very certain. It was not in use in our language — at
least, it was not found in our dictionaries — earlier than Todd's
edition of Johnson, where it appeared at the same time, with much
the same meaning, as sullen, which meant at first solitary, and came
through the French (OF. solain) from L. solus, alone (whence our ad-
jective sole). It then had very much the same meaning as, and has
a certain connection with, sulky, which means sullen and solitary,
and wishing to be left alone — in the sulks. In the bedrooms we
also saw a cheval-glass, so called from the F. cheval, a horse, either
because it is so heavy that it required a strong support, or so big
that a horse might see himself in it, as the whole person can be
seen from head to foot. In most of the bedrooms we saw chests
of drawers, and only then did it dawn upon us that they were so
called becaiise they contained a great many sliding boxes which
could be drawn out. In one of the bedrooms we saw what was
called a tester-bed, with a flat canopy over its head, from the OF.
teste, F. tete, the head, from the L. testa, an earthen pot, hence a
hard shell, the skull. Counterpane, a stitched cover for a bed,
is so called from OF. coute, a covering, and L. pannus, a cloth

198

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

coverlet, altered to F. courte-pointe, a counterpane, corrupted into
contre-pomte ; or from OF. coulte-pointe, from L. culcita puncta, a
stitched quilt, the upper covering of a bed, having the stitches
arranged in patterns for ornament. The Latin word culcita signi-
fies anything stuffed with feathers, down, wool, &c., as a feather-
bed, cushion, mattress, pillow, and from this Latin word culcita
our word quilt is derived. The Latin word puncta is from the verb
pungo, pupiigi, punctum, pungere, to prick or sting, to penetrate as
with the point of a needle, a small hole. From this word, too, we
have pungent, meaning sharp and prickly to the taste or smell. We
speak of the pungent taste of mustard and of the pungent smell of
ammonia, while compunction expresses our bitter feeling at having
done wrong, differing from remorse in our sometimes feeling com-
punction before doing wrong. As the word point comes from
punctum, we appoint a man his work, and he may often be dis-
appointed. To expunge is literally to strike out with the point of
a pen. Also an alcove, a recess in a room, from It. alcova, a place
in a room railed off to hold a bed, from the Arabic al gobah, a
tent. In almost all the rooms were carpets. A carpet is a thick
covering for floors, originally made of different rags pulled to
pieces, corresponding to the Scotch word still used, "a clouty
carpet," made up of snippings and clippings of various kinds got
from tailors as well as saved up from mendings and makings at
home — from the verb carpere,1 to pluck or pull in pieces. It seems
to have been used originally as a carpet for the table, and after-
wards for the floor. Hence the phrase, perhaps, " on the carpet "
may mean " on the council table," under consideration or discussion,
if not from the F. sur le tapis. On the walls of one of the rooms
we saw a kind of carpet-work with wrought figures, specially used
for decorating walls, called tapestry, from the Latin word tapes,

1 The verb carpo, carpsi, carptum,
carpere, to pick, pluck, or seize,
gives us also to carp at, to find
fault with one's words and actions
in an unreasonable and ill-natured
spirit. An excerpt is a piece ex-

tracted (gleaned) from an author
or from a writing. Scarce (from
low L. scarpsus for excerptus)
means scantily supplied, to be
had in very diminished quan-
tity.

HIS DWELLING.

199

tapetis, a carpet, and F. tapis, a carpet. It is often called an
arras, from Arras, in Northern France, where it was first manu-
factured.

The kitchen, the scullery, the pantry, and the laundry are about
the only parts we have yet to visit. The kitchen is the room
where the food is cooked, and on that account it has received its
name, for it comes from the same root as the cook who rules in it,
as does also the German word Jdiche and the F. cuisine, all from
L. coquina, the kitchen, from L. coquo,1 to cook. There are a
great variety of utensils (vessels or implements used in domestic
economy), so called from F. utensile and L. utensilis, fit for use,
from L. utor, to use. The word tureen signifies a large dish for
holding soup at table — according to one view, so called from the
material of which it is made, " an earthenware dish," through the
F. terrine, from the L. terra, the earth, and said to have been
spelt at one time terreen. According to another etymology, it was
first used at Turin, in Piedmont, and has from that city derived its
name. A trivet excited my curiosity as to its signification, until
I found out that this movable iron frame on the fire-grate for
supporting kettles had originally three feet, and with this it stood
so firmly that to say anything was "right as a trivet" was to
say that it was perfectly right, or stood steadily, as a tripod. The
name comes through the OF. trepied, from L. tripes, tripedis, from
ires, three, and pedes, feet. Lumber-room is a very convenient
room in any house, however large, but the word has had a
strange history. The Langobardes, or Lombards as the name was
contracted into, became at an early period the competitors with

1 From L. coquo, coxi, coctum,
coquVre, to cook, we derive also
biscuit (see p. 183), literally twice
cooked (through F. biscuit — from
L. bis, twice, and F. cuit, done or
baked, from L. coctus), a kind of
bread baked hard for keeping. To
decoct is to extract the flavour of
anything by boiling. If a plant be
boiled in water, the strained liquor
is called a decoction. Precocious,
L. prcecox, c<5cw, or cdquis, soon

cooked, but metaphorically almost
= mature, means ripe in mind be-
fore the usual time. The apricot
is allied to the plum, and seems to
have got its name from its ripening
early — -prce, beforehand, and coquere,
to ripen. Our word culinary, sig-
nifying belonging to the kitchen
or to the art of cookery, or used
in the kitchen, is from the L.
culina, the kitchen (for coquitina
or coctina).

200

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the Jews as the capitalists and pawnbrokers of the Middle Ages.
Lombard Street in London, still the street of bankers, marks the
site of the Lombard colony in London, and they have left their
name not only on our streets but in our language, for a lumber-
room is the Lombard room, the room where the Lombard pawn-
brokers stored their unredeemed pledges. Hence after a time
furniture stored away in an unused chamber came to be called
lumber ; and since such furniture is often heavy, clumsy, and out
of date, we call a clumsy man a lumbering fellow, and our
American cousins have given heavy timber the name of lumber,
and call the man who fells it a lumberer. With us now a lumber-
room signifies a room in which useless things are heaped together
in confusion.

The scullery is the place for dishes and other kitchen utensils.
There are various opinions as to the origin of this name. Appar-
ently the safest is that it comes through the OF. escucher, from
the late L. cutellarius, from L. scutetta, a tray. The pantry is the
room or closet for provisions, &c. It is not so named, as some
have easily conjectured, from its being the receptacle, if not of
pots, at least of pans, because no pan ought to be found there ; but
it is from the French word paneterie, a place where bread is dis-
tributed, through the late Latin from L. pants, bread, and this
from the root pa, to nourish. The laundry is the place or room
where clothes are washed or dressed, from the L. lavo,1 lavdre, to
wash. Before leaving the house we look into the smoking-room,
and find there a box of matches, less needed now, except for this
purpose, in the days of electric light. They are called matches
through the F. meche, from the late L. myscus, from Gr. mycea,
the snuff or wick of a lamp which is easily rekindled. It used
frequently to be called tinder, which signifies anything that kindles
from a spark. The root is found in AS. tindan, to kindle, Ger.
ziinden. Lucifer matches (from lux, lucis, light, and/e?'o, I bring),

1 From this verb we have also
laundress, lavatory, a place for
washing and brushing oneself up ;
and to lave signifies to wash or
bathe, while some think that the

aromatic plant called lavender ob-
tained its name from its being laid
with newly washed clothes. There
can be no doubt that the word lava
comes from the same root.

HIS DWELLING. 201

light-bringing matches, were great improvements on these. "We
also saw there some beautiful meerschaum pipes — i.e., tobacco
pipes, of which not merely the bowl but the stem, except the
mouthpiece, are made of meerschaum, from the German word of
the same name — literally sea-foam, from meer, sea, and schaum,
foam, said to be a literal translation of the Persian name kef-i-
daryd, alluding to its frothy appearance, but being really a hydrous
silicate of magnesium occurring in soft, white, clay-like masses.

On leaving the house we were taken into the garden to see
what was called the pavilion. This word comes to us through
the F. pavilion, from the L. papilio, by the usual change of
p into v and of li into il. The Latin word papilio signified
originally a butterfly, but in late Latin, and even in Pliny and
Tertullian, came to signify a tent, colours, or a flag. It came to
signify this apparently from the flapping of the canvas, like a
butterfly — literally that which is spread out like the wings of a
butterfly. It is now generally used either of a large handsome
tent or of a building, to describe the projecting part of a structure
usually more elevated than the rest, and often domed and turreted.
The word papilionaceous is applied to plants of the leguminous
order, as the pea, from the butterfly shape of their blossom. In
the immediate neighbourhood were the remains of an old castle
(L. castra, a camp, and castellum, diminutive, a fortified place), now
mostly in ruins, except the parapet, a rampart breast-high. This
word rampart signifies literally that which defends from assault
or danger, from F. rempart (originally rempar), from remparer, to
defend (re, again, and em, to = en, in, and parer, to defend), from
L. parare, to prepare or keep off, which also gives us the word
parry, to ward or keep off. The word parapet, then, signifies
a breast-high wall — literally, a protection for the breast, through
French from It. parapetto, para, a protection, from It. and L.
parare, to protect, and It. petto, from L. pectw, the breast.

202

CHAPTEK XV.

HIS MENTAL FACULTIES.

THE mind (L. mens),1 while in one respect a single and indivisible
thing, may yet be divided into various faculties, each of which
may be recognised as in some measure independent of the rest, and
as possessed in various degrees of power or activity, so as to give
rise to the variety of talents and dispositions observed among man-
kind : such are consciousness, the knowledge which the mind has
of its own acts and feelings, from L. conscio, to know with one's
self — con, with, and scio,2 to know ; perception, the act of perceiv-
ing or discerning, through F. percever, apercevoir, from L. percipio,
percept, perceptum, percipere, to perceive, from L. per, perfectly,
and capio? to take. Attention means the steady application of
the mind, from L. ad, to, and tendo, teiendi, tensum and tentum,

1 From this word we have, if not
mind itself, such words as mental,
belonging to the mind. To mention
or make mention of anything is to
call attention to it without any fuller
treatment of the subject. To com-
ment is to write explanatory notes.
Demented means literally out of
one's mind, infatuated, or mad.
" The lassie's demented," said
Dumbiedykes (Scott), (de, out of,
and mente, the mind). A vehement
person is one whose mind carries
(vehit) him along with impetuous
energy. A memento (imperative of
memini, I remember) is something
that reminds, a remembrancer.

2 From scio, scivi, scitum, scire, to
know, we derive science, scientific,
sciolist (one who knows things
superficially), conscience, conscienti-

ousness, and consciousness ; nice (F.
nice) in old English meant ignorant
(L. nescius, not knowing, or simple),
by-and-by it came to mean fastidi-
ous, but also pleasant, gratifying, a
nice taste, and a letter nicely written.
We have still nescience, signifying
want of knowledge, ignorant. Om-
niscience means the knowledge of
(omnis) everything. God is omni-
scient. We also speak of God's
prescience, or fore-knowledge ; pre-
scient means knowing beforehand,
foreseeing.

3 From capio, to take or hold, we
have an immense number of deriva-
tions, such as cable, capable, capaci-
ous, incapable, incapacity, captious,
captivate, captive, to catch, to
chase. To accept, acceptable,
acceptation, anticipate, conceive,

HIS MENTAL FACULTIES. 203

tendere, to stretch.1 The memory is that faculty by which we
keep things in mind or in the mind, and it has been said that it
is from consciousness and memory that we acquire the conviction
of our own personal identity — that is, that we are the same persons
to-day that we were yesterday. The word comes from the L.
memoria (from memor, mindful), akin to the Sans, root smri, to
remember; and this word remember comes from the same root
through OF. rememlyrer (F. rememorer), from L. rememoro — re,
again, and memoro, to call to mind. A reminiscence is through
the French from the L. reminiscor, to call to mind, from re
and (root) men, whence we have mens, the mind. Imagination
is the faculty of forming images in the mind, from L. imago,
an image, from the root of L. tmitor, to imitate. All these
faculties are perhaps possessed, but in a much less degree, by
the lower animals, — but the powers of judgment and reasoning
are powers which they do not possess. Judgment is the faculty by
which we compare evidence and decide what is right to be done,
from the L. jus? juris, right or law. Reason is the faculty by
which we draw our conclusions, and determine what course we
ought to follow : it comes from the Latin word ratio, rationis,
signifying a calculation, from reor,3 ratus, to think. Eeason is that
faculty which distinguishes men from the brutes, that mental
characteristic by which he comes through the processes and
arrives at the results of reasoning. Logic is the art of reasoning
(Gr. lorjike, from logos, speech or reason), and a logician is one who is

preconceive, deceive, deception, pretending. We have people who

deceit, except, incipient, intercept, i intend and have always good inten-

occupy, participate, perception, tions. The cold is often intense,

precept, preceptor, receive, recep- and events are portentous, — yet

tion, receptacle, recipient, suscept-
ible.

1 From this verb we have to tend,
tendency ; we tender the amount of
a debt ; a tendon is the sinew or
hard end of the muscle which binds
it to the bone. A tent is covered
with stretched-out canvas. The sick
require attention, and a great man
may have many attendants. We have
contentious people always contend-
ing, and pretentious people always

people must superintend the work.

2 From jus, right, we have judge
and judicial and jury and jurisdic-
tion and jurisprudence. Injure and
injury, justly, justification, adjudge,
adjust, prejudge, prejudice, pre-
judicial, these last three meaning to
judge of beforehand.

3 From the verb reor, ratus, to
think, reason, or calculate, comes
rate, ratable, ratio, rational, un-
reasonable, irrational.

204

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

skilled in reasoning. The logical form of any argument is called a
syllogism (Gr. sullogismos, from sun, together, and logizomai, to
reckon), consisting of three propositions : the first two are called
the premises, and the third the conclusion. A proposition (L.
pro, before, and pono, posui, positum, ponere, to place) is a form of
speech in which the predicate is affirmed or denied of a subject.
This word predicate means, then, what is affirmed or denied of the
subject (L. prcedicatus, made known, from prcedlco, I declare — prce,
before or openly, and dico,1 dicavi, dicatum, dicare, to proclaim).
Predicament is a term in logic meaning one of the general
classes under one or other of which all may be arranged, such
as substance, quantity, &c., but it has come to signify also in
common speech a peculiar position, a difficult or dangerous situa-
tion. The verb predicate is sometimes ignorantly used for the
word predict, to foretell, but the two words come from different
verbs, to predict coming from the L. prcedico -1 (prce, before, and
dico, dixi, dictum, dicere), to tell beforehand, to prophesy. The
first two propositions in the syllogism are called, as I have said, the
premises.2 The word comes from the L. prcemitto, prcemisi,
prcemissum, prcemittere (prce, before, and mitto, to send), to send
before, and in this connection is from L. (sententta) prcem/issa =
(a sentence) put before = the two propositions sent or stated before
the conclusion is drawn. There are various fallacies in syllogism —
the word comes from the L. fallaciosus, deceitful, from fallo, fefelU,
falsum, fallere, to deceive, so that a fallacy and a sophism are much
the same in meaning. A dilemma in logic is an argument equally
conclusive by contrary suppositions, also an argument in which you
are caught between two difficulties, a state of perplexity hard to

1 The Latin word dico, dicare,
soon came to signify not merely to
publish or proclaim, but to devote
or consecrate to a deity in a set form
of words, dedicdre, to dedicate ; it
gives us also from the L. abdicdre,
the word to abdicate, to renounce,
to disclaim, to give up anything.

2 The word premises, so freq-
uently applied colloquially for
house or buildings, or out-buildings,

as when we say he is somewhere
about the premises, is supposed to
have been taken originally from the
custom of beginning leases with the
premises setting forth the grantor
and grantee of the deed, — the sense
was transferred from the description
of these to the thing leased, and
came to be used in the present vague
way ; so to premise means to make
an introductory statement.

HIS MENTAL FACULTIES.

205

decide. The word comes from the Gr. dilemma, a double proposi-
tion (dis, twice, and lemma, anything received, an assumption,
from lambano, I take), any difficult or doubtful choice ; while the
phrase, the horns of a dilemma, means literally the horns which will
toss you, whichever of the two you seize, or two alternatives, each
of which it is equally formidable to encounter. To be in a dilemma
is in common speech equivalent to being in a quandary, and it
describes well the state of doubt and perplexity in which every
one finds himself who attempts to give the origin of this word.
Some have suggested that it is a corruption of the Middle English
word uandreth — from Icelandic vandr (difficult) ; others regard it
as an abbreviation of hypochondry. But on the whole there is
the strongest leaning to its being a corruption of the F. qu'en
dirai-je ? (What shall I say of it f) To all these suggestions it
has been objected that the original stressing is quandary. Johnson,
however, and Webster, as well as many others, put the stress on
the first syllable. It would not do to reject a possible etymology
because people ignorant of the original language may mispronounce
the word when they use it : there are not a few syllables in
words taken both from L. and Gr. which are pronounced even by
educated people long where the L. is short, and short where
the L. is long. A mayor of one of the English county towns
complimented the late Dr Haig Brown at a public dinner on
possessing two of the greatest qualifications of headmaster of a
great public school — viz., the forfiter in re and the suaviter in
modo. The headmaster in reply said he appreciated more the
quality than the quantity of this praise. The word instinct, or
the impulse by which animals are guided, apparently independent
of reason or experience, is derived from the L. instincttis, from
instinguo, to instigate, to compel — in and stinguo.1 Instinct, then,

1 The verb stinguo, stinxi, stinctum,
stinguere, to mark, supplies the root
of distinguish, which means to
separate by marks or notes of
difference, and hence distinction
signifies a noted separation from
others and a mark of pre-eminence.
By such marks a difference becomes

"distinguishable," and the marks
of difference themselves are distinct
and distinctive, the opposite to which
is " indistinct." On the other hand,
to extinguish is to blot out, or erase
with a point, similar to expunge,
and that which is so blotted out
is extinct.

206 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

is that which incites or stimulates ; and the word is applied to
that natural impulse which urges the inferior animals to actions
which they perform without the deliberation that reason implies,
and frequently without knowing what they do, urged on by an
internal faculty (indicated by the prefix in) implanted in them by
their Creator. The word is sometimes used with reference to
human beings, to describe desire or aversion acting on the mind
without the intervention of reason or deliberation, as Shakespeare
describes Sir John Falstaff as a coward by " instinct." " Thou
knowest I am as valiant as Hercules : but beware instinct ; the
lion will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter ; I
was now a coward on instinct. I shall think the better of myself
and thee during my life ; I for a valiant lion, and thou for a true
prince." — "I. Henry IV.," II. iv. That which is done without
the application of reason, by the mere impulse of nature, is said
to be done "instinctively." "The very rats instinctively had
quit it." — Shakespeare, " The Tempest," I. ii.

The intellect in man appears to comprehend two orders or
faculties — the knowing faculties and the reflecting faculties. The
word faculty (L. facultas), from L. facilis, easy, means the power
of doing anything. The order of intellectual faculties earliest
developed in our minds comprehends those which are limited
expressly to the attainment of knowledge, and are therefore usually
called the knowing faculties. They are the faculty of language,
and the faculty for observing external objects.

207

CHAPTEE XVI.

DUE SPOKEN LANGUAGE.

Language is that which is spoken by the tongue. The word
conies to us through F. langage, from langue, from L. lingua (old
form dingua), the tongue, akin to Jj. lingo, Gr. leicho, Sans, lik,
to lick. The lingual muscle is the muscle of the tongue, I is a
lingual letter, a linguist is one skilled in languages, and linguistic
studies form part of a liberal education. There can be no doubt
that our mother tongue deserves this name from the manner in
which it has been acquired, for the child learns to speak from
intercourse with those in whose care he is placed, and he learns
single words by imitation. By this we do not merely mean that
cries (the pooh-pooh theory) and imitations of natural and animal
sounds (the bow-wow theory) furnished portions of the primitive
vocabulary of man ; but that this in its extent consisted in repro-
ductions or reflections of the sounds heard by him or made by
him, or the vocal murmurs and functional noises that were repeat-
edly in his ears. Neither must we forget the part that gesture,
L. gestus (from gero), posture or motion, must have played in the
development of speech. It aided in making speech articulate and
intelligible. Had man not been an erect animal with free hands
he never would have possessed language proper, nor, for that
matter, any effective means of communication. Had he not
elected, or been constrained, to employ his hands in other ways,
gesture-language might perhaps have sufficed for the wants of the
early man. As it is, gesture -language and speech proper went
hand in hand, and it was long till the latter could dispense with
the former. As Wedgwood has shown, a person terrified by a

208 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

bull would find it convenient to make known the object of his
alarm by imitating at once the movements of the animal with his
head and its bellowings with his voice. A cock would be repre-
sented by an attempt at the sound of crowing, while the arms were
beat against the side in imitation of the flapping of the bird's
wings. It is by signs like these that Hood describes his raw
Englishman as making known his wants in France : —

" ' Moo ' I cried for milk,
And if I wanted bread, my jaws I set agoing,
And asked for new-laid eggs by clapping hands and crowing."

There would be neither sense nor fun in the caricature if it had
not a basis of truth in human nature, cognisable by the lazy and
unspeculative class for whom the author wrote. A jest must be
addressed to the most superficial capacities of apprehension, and
therefore may often afford better evidence of a fact of conscious-
ness than a train of abstruse reasoning. It is on that account that
so apt an illustration of the only comprehensible origin of language
has been found in the old story of an Englishman at a Chinese
banquet who, being curious as to the composition of a dish he was
eating, turned round to his native servant with an interrogative
"quack-quack?" The servant answered "bow-wow!" imitating
as clearly as if he spoke in English that it was dog, and not duck,
that his master was eating. The communication that passed
between them, was essentially language, comprehensible to every
one who was acquainted with the animals in question, — such
language, therefore, as might have been used by the first family of
man, as well as by persons of different tongues at the present day.

In English, as in other living languages, there are numerous
words which, although seldom or never found in written literature,
are constantly and largely employed in every-day and familiar
conversation. At first these colloquial terms may have been mere
vulgarisms, but by coming into general use many of them have
been gradually taken up into the language.

Under the head of spoken language I would include (1) nick-
names, (2) words expressive of contempt, and (3) slang words.

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 209

(1) Nicknames. — The word nickname has now come to signify
very much a sort of contemptuous name, a name given to a person
in contempt, derision, or reproach ; but it was not originally so,
except in the case of those names which were given to us by our
school companions, who found out our weak point, and bestowed
upon us a nickname which, however it exaggerated the character-
istic to which it had reference, yet had the unintentional effect of
making us see our folly and amend our ways. None the less,
however, did the nickname remain, and after fifty or sixty years
is occasionally repeated. But the nickname originally was merely
an eke name, where the word became misdivided into a neke
name. The word eke, both in Scotch and English (witness John
Gilpin, " a train-band captain eke was he "), signifies, as an adverb,
in addition to, or likewise ; as a noun, an addition, as when you put
an eke on a beehive ; and as a verb, to add, as in the phrase to eke
out. So an eke name, or a nickname, was something added to the
original name — what the Latins called an agnomen, what in many
parts of the island is called a to -name (a name added to the
original), and in Aberdeenshire is called, from their local pro-
nunciation, a tee-name — a name added to, or tee, the proper name
to distinguish different people of the same name from one another.
In some of the fishing villages in Buchan, where you have a great
many John Stephens, and William Buchans, and James Cordiners,
&c., it is usual to distinguish them in the grocers' books, and then
in common speech, by these additional names ; so that I can well
believe the story told in an article on " Fisher-Folk " in ' Black-
wood's Magazine' in 1842. It is there said that on one occasion
a person had occasion to call on a fisherman of the name of
Alexander White in one of the Buchan fishing villages. Meeting
a girl, he asked her, "Can ye tell me far Sawny Fite lives?"
"Filk Sawny Fite?" "Muckle Sawny Fite." "Filk muckle
Sawny Fite?" "Muckle lang Sawny Fite." "Filk muckle lang
Sawny Fite?" "Muckle lang gleyed Sawny Fite," shouted the
stranger. " Oh, it's ' Goup the lift ' l ye're seekin'," cried the girl ;

1 The phrase "Goup the lift" sky," and in all probability the
means in Scotch " staring at the person so named may have been a

210

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

" and what the mischief did ye no speir for the man by his richt
name at ance ? "

(2) Words expressive of contempt. — These are very numerous.
I shall give some specimens which occur to me as I write, without
presenting any particular order or special classification. E.g.,
nincompoop, the name given to a simpleton or silly fellow, is
said to be a contraction of the three Latin words non compos
mentis, meaning not having power over himself, or over his mind,
— the word com for con, and pos,1 a contraction for potis, an adverb
like satis and magis (from pos, whence compos and impos), signify-
ing having power to do anything. Impos (in, and pos or potis)
signifies not master of, without power over anything ; hence the
Latin expression impos animi sui (used by Plautus), not master of
his reason, not of sound mind, out of one's wits. Ninny, a childish
person (from It. ninna and Sp. nino, an infant), said to be an
imitative word from the lullaby ninna-nanna, for singing a child
to sleep. It may be that all these words came originally from the
L. nanus or nana, a dwarf. The word snob is supposed to be of
Scandinavian origin, and is generally identified with the Icel. sndpr,
a dolt or idiot with the idea of a pretentious person, a boaster. We
have in provincial English the word snob used for a vulgar, ignorant
person who apes gentility, and in Suffolk for a journeyman shoe-
maker. It is a strange thing that particular trades, or professions,

native of Pennan, a fishing village
in Aberdeenshire, under the shelter
of a great cliff which overhangs the
village, so that the people are com-
pelled to go about with their heads
in the air, and can be recognised by
this peculiarity.

1 The Latin verb possum, potui,
posse, to be able, to have power,
comes from this word (potts, and
sum, I am), whence also we have
such English words as possible,
capable of being or occurring. We
speak of the possibility of mistake,
or of a bare possibility. Some
people confound difficulty with im-
possibility. Potent is powerful, but
it is applied rather to physical and
moral influence than to direct force.

We speak of a powerful engine,
but of a potent prince or a potentate,
and Shakespeare makes one of his
characters exclaim, " 0 most lame
and impotent conclusion. " We have
in English grammar the potential
mood, indicating that a thing may
or might be. Omnipotent means
all-powerful. Power is from the
OF. pooir, mod. pouvoir. Puissant
(F. ) means powerful : we speak of a
puissant prince, and Shakespeare
speaks of the " most puissant
Caesar," and Tennyson uses the
word puissance, whence he says —

" And thro' the puissance of his Table

Round,
Drew all their petty princedoms under

him."

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 211

or ranks of life which are supposed to involve something effem-
inate, or mean, or opprobrious, are taken as the types of these
qualities. Thus that vile sarcasm on tailors which wickedly
declares a tailor to be but a vulgar fraction of a man is of quite
dateless antiquity ; while the word snob has from an early period
been applied to shoemakers. That there has always been believed
to be a tendency in them to pretend to be in a different sphere
from what they were is evident from the old Eoman proverb,
" Ne sutor ultra crepidam " — the shoemaker should not go beyond
his last. This certainly implies that he was more inclined than
others to do so. In France, however, they do not typify this class
by a shoemaker but by a grocer, an epicier being with the French
the very beau-ideal of twopenny flash and beggarly magnificence.
Disraeli, in his ' Henrietta Temple,' says : "Of all the great dis-
tinctions in life, none is perhaps more important than that which
divides mankind into the two great sections of nobs and snobs."
Captain Armine was a nob, and the poor tradesman a snob. It
has now come to signify colloquially a toadying or blatant vul-
garian. Thackeray, who wrote the ' Book of Snobs,' says in his
' Irish Sketch-book ' that " a vulgar man in England displays his
character of snob by assuming as much as he can for himself,
swaggering and showing off in his coarse, dull, stupid way " ; and
in his ' Book of Snobs ' he says : " He who meanly admires mean
things is a snob — perhaps that is a safe definition of the character."
In the 'Pall Mall Gazette' of 1st March 1884 we are told that
"Admiral Maxe's French guest was strongly impressed with the
healthy hatred in which three things, the ' quack,' the ' humbug,'
and the ' snob,' are held by the Englishmen with whom he associ-
ated in England." On being asked here what a snob is, he said :
" An individual who would enjoy living in a dirty hole provided
it had a fine frontage, and who is absolutely incapable of valuing
moral or mental greatness unless it is first admired by big people."
There are numerous adjectives and other derivatives, such as snob-
bish, snobbishness, snobbery, snobocracy, &c.

Silly, which now signifies weak in intellect, originally meant
blessed or happy. Trench, in his Glossary, says : " A deep convic-

212 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

tion of men that he who departs from evil will make himself a
prey, that none will be a match for the world's evil who is not
himself evil, has brought to pass the fact that a number of words,
signifying at first goodness, signify next well-meaning simplicity;
the notions of goodness and foolishness, with a strong predomin-
ance of the last, for a while interpenetrating one another in them, till
at length the latter quite expels the former, and remains as the sole
possessor of the word." This is emphatically true with reference to
this word silly, which is the same word as the German selig, and has
successively meant (1) blessed, (2) innocent, (3) harmless, and (4)
weakly foolish. The word innocent has passed through a similar
experience. It comes to us through the F. innocent, from L. inno-
cens or innocentem, harmless, blameless (in, not, and noceo, to hurt),
pure, spotless ; and so has come, when used as a noun, to signify a
person deficient in intellect, almost an idiot. The word simple
has shared a similar fate. Originally it signified simple in the
sense of single, through F. simple, from L. simplex, lit. one-fold,
single, as opposed to duplex, two-fold, or double (whence duplicity).
The L. sim, or sen, or sem, comes from the Aryan root sama, same,
which appears in L. singuli, one by one ; semper, always alike ; semel,
once ; and simul, together. The second half of the word simplex
comes from the Latin word plicare, to fold, and so means one-fold,
not combined, uncomplicated, undesigning, and afterwards came to
signify silly. This meaning appears in its full force in the word
simpleton, which exhibits a double suffix -t-on, which is very rare ;
yet, as Skeat points out, there is at least one more example of it in
the old word musk-et-oon, a kind of musket — F. mousqu-et-on. The
word simpleton signifies not merely a foolish fellow, but one weak
in intellect. Unsophisticated is another of the same. It is,
literally, unadulterated, unspoiled, ignorant of crooked ways and
wiles, but is now almost universally used in the sense of rustic,
simple, or ignorant. It has gradually sunk from its high estate
until it has reached its present degradation ; for a sophist was
originally a wise teacher (from Gr. sophia, wisdom), and owes
its evil sense to the Dialogues of Plato, in which the reasoning
of these professors was attacked by Socrates. Perhaps none of

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE.

213

these terms of contempt have departed farther from the original
meaning than the word so frequently used by so many in utter
ignorance that it ever had any other meaning than the one it
bears — I mean the word idiot. This word idiot, signifying gener-
ally a person deficient in intellect, a born fool, as distinguished
from a lunatic, who is usually violent, although this is also occa-
sionally implied in the word idiot, as in the line,

"A tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing,"

conies from the Greek word idios,1 one's own, or peculiar. The
word, however, did not come to bear the meaning so much from
any peculiarity in the man, distinguishing him from those around
him as having less sense than they, but from the Greek word
idiotes, which meant at first merely a private person as dis-
tinguished from one who held a public office, a man in private
life and not belonging to the public. When the Romans came
to use the word, and to adopt it under the form of idiota, they
went farther, and assumed that if a man took no part in public
matters, or did not hold any official position, it was because he
was unfit for it. So important did they regard public office, as
furnishing the opportunity of serving the state, that they thought
that if a man failed with it he could not have all his senses ; and
further, that contact with public life was so indispensable even for
the right development of the intellect, that the men who had not
undergone this must be weak-minded. The disqualification for
public life was assumed to be want of ability, and the excess of

1 From the Greek word idios,
one's own, or peculiar to oneself,
we have formed many other words
of better meaning. The words idiom
and idiomatic, for instance, signify
a mode of expression or form of
speech peculiar to a language or
dialect ; and idiotism is not natural
imbecility of mind, but an abnormal
and individual departure, not only
from universal grammar, but from

its true idiom. Idiopathy is a
peculiar affection or state — a prim-
ary disease, one not occasioned by
another (idios, peculiar, and pathos,
suffering) ; and idiosyncrasy, which
signifies a peculiarity of temper or
constitution which becomes a char-
acteristic of a person, literally one's
own peculiar mixture — from Gr.
syncrasis, a mixture (syn, together,
and krasis, a mixture).

214 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

such want was expressed by the term " idiot " ; and even Xenophon
uses the word in this sense, as " a person without gifts," natural or
acquired, and thus unqualified to take a leading part ; and so in
this sense only we now use the words idiocy, idiotic, and idiotical,
to express what the Gr. idiotes never did, the man whose mental
powers are not merely unexercised but deficient, as distinguished
from him who is in full possession of them. The word private,
which we have just used, comes from the L. primes (perhaps from
prce), existing for itself, single, by itself. In the old Latin it was
synonymous with singulus. Then from privus was formed the
verb privo, privavi, privdtum, pi'ivare, to set free from anything,
to separate from anything or any one, and the participle privatus
and adjective : a private person signified one who lived for himself
and had nothing to do with offices of state, applied as we do to
private life and private property. So also the word privilege is
from privus, private, and lex, a law. Privilegium was a law regard-
ing a single individual, but it did not say whether for or against
him. As a matter of fact, a privilegium at first meant a law
decree or statute against an individual person, but afterwards it
came to mean an ordinance for the benefit of one or more persons
to the detriment of others, a special right or grant, exactly what
we now mean by privilege. Beldame, from F. bel or belle, fair or
beautiful, and dame, a lady, signifying literally and originally fair
lady, but now used ironically, and equivalent to an old noisy
woman, or an ugly and decrepit old woman. Blackguard was the
name originally given contemptuously to the large multitude who,
when the sovereign made a royal progress throughout the kingdom
with his train of courtiers and nobles, &c., usually brought up the
rear of the procession, consisting of the lowest class of menials,
being the scullery servants, the turnspits, the coal -carriers, and
others of that ilk ; and as they accompanied and protected the pots,
pans, and other kitchen utensils, riding among them and becoming
smirched by them, were contemptuously styled the black guard.
It is easy to trace the subsequent history of the word. With a
slight forgetfulness of its origin, he is now called a blackguard who
would have been once said to belong to the black guard. Now it

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE.

215

has come to signify one of the idle criminal class, or a mean, low
fellow, a scoundrel. A good illustration of the meaning of the
word is given in a Proclamation of the Board of Green Cloth
in 1683 (quoted in 'Notes and Queries,3 7th January 1854):
" Whereas of late a sort of vicious idle and masterless boys and
rogues, commonly called the Black Guard, with divers other lewd
and loose fellows, vagabonds, vagrants, and wandering men and
women, do follow the Court to the great dishonour of the same,
we do strictly charge all those so called the Black Guard as afore-
said, with all other loose, idle, masterless men, boys, rogues, and
wanderers, who have intruded themselves into his Majesty's Court
and stables, that within the space of twenty-four hours they depart."
Bumpkin, an awkward country fellow, a stupid peasant, a rustic ;
supposed by some to come from Dut. bommekijn, a little barrel,
from his awkwardness in moving or rolling about among others,
but closely connected with our bump, one who comes bump against
another without thought. Certainly bumptious is closely con-
nected with bump, for a bumptious fellow is one who is always
noisily asserting himself, pushing himself to the front, and, coining
in contact with others, is constantly taking and giving offence.
Caitiff, a mean, despicable fellow. F. chetif, poor, wretched,
through OF. chaitifand F. caitif; It. cattwo, bad, from L. captivus,
a captive, which in low Latin signifies mean or poor-looking (from
capio, to take). So called either because those captured by the
law or the Government were worthless characters, or as suggesting
what is doubtless true, that indentured servitude .or slavery is to
debase the character. Barbarian is believed to be originally a
word imitative of the confused sound of unintelligible voices con-
veying no meaning, but repeating the syllables bar, bar ; called in
Gr. barbaros, originally one who utters a confused jargon of unin-
telligible sounds, and afterwards a rude, savage, uncivilised man.
Hence such epithets as "barbarous" and "barbarity," and such
phrases as " methods of barbarism "; but originally it meant no more
than one whose language we cannot understand, as Ovid, speaking
of himself in Pontus, says, " Barbarus hie ego sum quia non intelligor
ulli " — i.e., " I am a barbarian here because I am not intelligible to

216 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

any." It is worth noting, too, before parting with this word, that
its origin, as an imitation of a confused sound of voices by a
repetition of the syllable bar, bar, finds a parallel in the way in
which the broken sound of waves, of wind, and even of voices, is
represented by a repetition of the analogous syllable mur, mur.
We speak of the murmur of the waves, or of a crowd of people
talking. It may be remarked, indeed, that the noise of voices
is constantly represented by the same word as the sound made
by the movement of water, and that in many languages. Cur-
mudgeon, the epithet usually applied to a greedy, ill-natured
fellow, a sort of miser. The origin of the name has given rise
to several conjectures. The strangest is that accepted by Dr
Johnson, who states in his Dictionary that it is from the F. cceur
mechant, bad-heart, adding "unknown correspondent," to indicate
that this (truly preposterous) conjecture had been sent to him by
some person to him unknown. Ash copied this etymology in the
form cosur, unknown, and mechant, a correspondent ! Another
conjecture is that it is from the AS. car mody, from care or Jcarg,
chary or avaricious, and mod, the mind, greedy -minded. The
third and most popular theory is that it is a mispronunciation,
and then a misspelling for corn-merchant; but this is extremely
unlikely, because no reason can be given for such a corruption of so
familiar a word as " merchant," and also because " corn-merchant,"
as applied to a class, has never been a term of reproach. No
doubt in times of scarcity dealers in corn were a most unpopular
class of persons, being always supposed to be keeping up the price
of com by their avarice ; hence the fourth etymology has found
much acceptance — viz., that as the word is spelt " in," instead of
" eon " as now, in early editions of Hudibras and elsewhere the
" in " stands as often for " ing " : the word accordingly is " corn-
mudging," which, according to the context, is "corn-hoarding." An
attempt is then made to trace farther the verb to mudge, to mix,
and much, but this is by no means clear; hence a fifth etymology
is from the OF. mucer or musser, to conceal or to hide ; in Picardy
mucker, the very word almost of which we are in search. This
verb was originally used of hoarding corn, and the expression was

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 217

originally a biblical one. In the OF. version of Prov. xi. 26 we
read : " Cil que musce les furmens." In our version : " Whoso
withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him." In Holland's trans-
lation of Livy, pp. 150 and 1104, used to translate the L. frumen-
tarius, a corn-dealer, we have corne-mudgin or corn-mudgin : " The
aediles curule hung up 12 brazen shields made of the fines that
certain corn-mudgins paid for hoarding up their grain." Singularly
enough, just when I had finished writing the above, I was told by
a young lady that some friends of hers who were driving through
a small village in Aberdeenshire in a motor, the smell from which
was not very fragrant, were surprised to hear one woman exclaim
to another as the car whisked past, " Me"chante odeur ! " being the
French for "a bad smell." My reply was that I believed that
what they had heard was really the word mishanter, a Scotch
word signifying an accident, and that she was likely predicting
misadventure as the sequel of their furious driving. I was rather
confirmed in this view by the fact that the word was sometimes
spelt " misanter," from prefix mis, wrong, and anter, to chance, to
happen, the same as aunter, to risk ; or as a noun, an adventure.
My surprise was great when, on turning up Jamieson's Dictionary
for another purpose, I came upon the following : " Mischant
youther, a very bad smell. This term is used both in the north
and west of Scotland, also in the Lothians. F. meschant odeur"
Now it is quite possible that the pronunciation of youther may in
the last hundred years have become more assimilated to the sound
of odour, which it really means. Dolt, a stupid, ' clumsy fellow.
We find it spelt in Shakespeare ("Othello," V. ii. 163) dult, show-
ing its origin more clearly, so that dolt or dult stands for dulled or
blunted. The word imp, which is now universally used in an evil
sense, if not in the very worst sense, was at first not so confined,
or rather it was a name of dignity and honour. It comes from
the medieval L. impetus, a graft (Gr. emphutos, engrafted, from
emphuo, to implant — from en, in, and phuo, to plant), and signifies
in OE. a scion,1 or son. Becon, in his ' Comfortable Epistle,'

1 This word scion has had a very the F. word scion, a shoot, a young
different experience. It comes from and tender plant, and the F. scier,

218

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

speaks of " those most goodly and virtuous young imps, the Duke
of Suffolk and his brother." In Storr's Annals (1592) we read
that " the King preferred eighty noble imps to the order of Knight-
hood." In Henry VIII. 's reign Prince Edward is called "that
goodly imp," while Spenser addresses the Muses in these terms :
" Ye sacred imps that on Parnasso dwell." But now we have such
phrases as "an imp of hell," meaning a little devil, and an imp
of darkness, a son of darkness; and frequently the word indi-
cates the devil himself. The word gossip, which now means idle
talk, or what is called tittle-tattle, originally meant a " sponsor in
baptism" — a godfather or godmother (see p. 116). The word was
originally spelt god-sib — that is, related to God, or God-related,
the old belief being that sponsorship brought the sponsor and the
child into spiritual affinity ; but now no one thinks of the original
meaning of the word, and the verb to gossip means only to run
about among neighbours and engage in idle talk, or to engage in
such small-talk. The word flunkey, which is generally used now
as a term of contempt, denoting a person who runs after people of
rank, and is cringing and obsequious, slavishly aping their manners,
— in other words, a low mean-spirited fellow, — has descended to
this only by degrees. Its etymology is somewhat doubtful. Some,
with Wedgwood, have derived it from the Platt-Deutsch or low
German word flurikern, to be gaudily dressed — Dut. flonkeren or
flunkeren, to glitter, and Ger. flunke, a spark (only that the Greek
unfortunately is fureke, a spark). However, the Platt-Deutsch
etymology derives some support from the fact that in Scotland still
it signifies a livery servant, from the peculiarity of his attire ; but
there is little doubt that its real etymology is the F. flanquer,
originally to be ready at need to run by the side of — from the
French word flanc (English flank), the side of an animal from
the ribs to the thigh — in all probability from the L. flaccus,

to saw or cut, and hence a de-
scendant ; from the L. seco, to cut
(see p. 74). A scion, then, ori-
ginally means a small twig or
branch cut from one tree and
grafted on another ; any young

branch or member, and applied
more exclusively to the families
of the nobility, as when Byron
asks the question, " Scion of
chiefs and monarchs, where art
thou ? "

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 219

weak or flabby, the flank being the weak part of the body, and
so it has come to signify the side of anything, especially of an
army or fleet. So that to flank means now to attack the side
or flank of an army; a flank movement is the posting of troops
so as to be able to attack the extreme right or left of the enemy.
Thus we see how a flunkey would receive his name from being on
his master's flank, or ready to support him on the side where he
was weakest. Possibly, too, in this way we come very near an
explanation of the word henchman, which, instead of deriving
from the AS. Tiengest, a horse and man, literally a supporter, seems
much more likely to be a modern form of haunchman, or one who
stands at the haunch, still called bench in Scotland.

(3) Slang words. — These are not necessarily contemptuous or
disparaging words, as is evident from several which occur through-
out this book in connection with the subjects to which they refer ;
but I may give as an illustration of this the word brick, which in
the slang sense is used for " a good fellow," one whose staunchness
and loyalty commend him to his fellows, so that to describe any
one as " a regular brick " is to employ perhaps the most eulogistic
epithet that one man can apply to another. It is said to be of
university origin, and the expression has been logically deduced
in the following amusing manner : A brick is deep-red, so a deep-
read man is a brick. The punning syllogism has been carried
farther. To read like a brick is to read till you are deep-read;
a deep-read man is in university phrase a " good man " ; a good
man is a jolly fellow with non-reading men, ergo, a jolly fellow is
a brick.

It has, however, been pointed out that dedicatory columns of
various forms have been found bearing Greek inscriptions, records
of the great and virtuous. Some of these were circular and fluted
pillars ; but the Athenians are said to have dedicated square
columns, so inscribed, which gave rise to the style tetrag-onos anerr
(Arist. Eth., i. 10), one whose worth entitled him to honourable
mention on some monumental stone of the form described. The
anticipatory distinction might therefore be easily accorded to one
worthy of such posthumous honours. From the meritorious notion

220 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

of the rectangular stone or pillar we get the living type of genuine
worth — a regular brick. A further analogy may be drawn from
the clayey basis of the brick, even in a combination with sand and
ashes — those types of instability and decay, — and we naturally
acquire the notion of solidity, consistency, and strength. We are
thus enabled to apply the phrase to the child of clay who may
chance to resemble it in the constitution, whose moral materials
and parts have been originally so carefully formed, so judiciously
tempered and skilfully moulded, that in spite of a frail and infirm
nature he has preserved his shape thus already given. The fiery
test only determines his solidity ; his sound, staunch, and un-
shrinking firmness constitutes him a regular brick or hero, the
attributes which specially qualify him for that metaphorical appel-
lation. The truth is that it is really classical slang after all. And
yet of the thousands who use the phrase, how few know its origin
or its primitive significance. Truly it is a heroic thing to be able
to say of any man that " he is a brick." Plutarch, in his Life of
Agesilaus, King of Sparta, gives us the origin of the quaint and
familiar expression. On a certain occasion an Ambassador from
Epirus on a diplomatic mission was shown by the king over his
capital. The Ambassador knew that though only nominally King of
Sparta, he was yet a ruler of Greece, and he looked to see massive
walls rearing aloft their embattled towers for the defence of the chief
towns, but he found nothing of the kind. He marvelled much at
this, and spoke of it to the king. " Sire," he said, " I have visited
most of the principal towns, and find no walls raised for their
defence. Why is this ? " " Indeed, Sir Ambassador," replied
Agesilaus, "thou canst not have looked carefully. Come with
me to-morrow morning and I will show you the walls of Sparta.
On the following morning the king led his guest out upon the
plain, where his army was drawn up in full battle array, and
pointing proudly to the serried hosts, he said, "There, sir, thou
beholdest the walls of Sparta — ten thousand men, and every man
a brick"

The word masher, which seems to have been originally American
slang, although in not uncommon use here, at first signified a person

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 221

who spends his or her time in making conquests, real or imaginary,
of the other sex. It has been supposed by many to be a cor-
ruption of the F. ma cJierie, but this is only another of the many
instances of an ingenious etymology whose surface plausibility
imposes on the unwary. A very plausible suggestion is made by
J. W. De Forrest in 'The Illustrated American,' 16th June 1890,
viz., that it is simply a translation of the French noun ecraseur,
which comes from the verb ecraser, to crush or mash. " Many
years ago," says Mr De Forrest, " when I was a young looker-on
in Paris, ecraseur or ecraseur des femmes was a slang term for a
lady-killer. I remember a drama in point. Scene, a carnival ball at
the Grand Opera. Young American looking on, his long mous-
taches stiffened with pommade hongroise, and carefully curled in two
dashing spirals. Out steps a nymph from the dance, takes him
gently by both the waxed ends, and says laughingly, 'You have
no right to mash us (nous ecraser) just because you have corkscrew
moustaches.' " There is no doubt that the word in this sense
was first employed in the United States, and that the participle
mashed was in use before the substantive. A person who was
very "spooney" on another was said to be mashed; then came
the verb to mash, and latterly the noun masher — i.e., who produces
the effect, or at least who imagines himself " a lady-killer." Need
I say that men of this calibre are often fops or dandies 1 hence the
word masher as now understood.

A still more likely derivation of the word is from the gipsy word
masher-ava, to fascinate by the eye, a derivation thus advocated
by Barrere and Leland ('Slang, Jargon, and Cant,' 1897). About
the year 1860 mash was a word found only in the theatrical
parlance of the United States. When an actress or any girl on
the stage smiled at, or ogled, any friend in the audience, she was
said to mash him, and mashing was always punishable by a fine
deducted from the wages of the offender. It occurred to the
writer (Leland) that it must have been derived from the gipsy
word mash (masher-ava), to allure, to entice. This was suggested
to Mr Palmer, a well-known impresario, who said that the con-
jecture was not only correct, but that he could confirm it, for the

222 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

term had originated with the C family, who were all comic

actors and actresses of Romany stock, and spoke gipsy familiarly
among themselves.

Bunkum is a West Yorkshire word, in use there up to the middle
of last century. It was applied to imported beef, and came to
signify tough and stringy. Whether the beef was imported or
not we cannot tell, but the word " bunkum " in its modern sense
has been imported. It signifies empty claptrap oratory, tall talk,
humbug, or talking merely for talking's sake. The word originally
was spelt Buncombe, which is the name of a county in North
Carolina, United States. The employment of the word in its
original sense of insincere political speech is ascribed to the member
for that county in Congress, who, when his fellow-members could
not understand why he was making a speech, explained that he
was merely talking for Buncombe. Judge Haliburton (Sam Slick),
in explaining this word, says that "all over America, every place
likes to hear of its member of Congress and see his speeches ; and if
they don't, they send a piece to the paper, inquiring if their member
died a natural death, or was skewered with a bowie-knife, for they
han't seen his speeches lately, and his friends are anxious to know
his fate. Our free and enlightened citizens don't approbate silent
members ; it don't seem to them as if Squashville, or Pronkinsville,
or Lumberton was rightly represented, unless Squashville, or
Pronkinsville, or Lumberton makes itself heard and known, ay,
and feared too. So every fellow in bounden duty talks, and talks
big too, and the smaller the state the louder, bigger, and fiercer
its members talk ; but when a critter talks for talk's sake, just to
have a speech in a paper to send to home, and not for any other
airthly purpuss, but electioneering, our folks call it bunkum"

The term is now universal on both sides of the water, and indeed
wherever the English language is spoken. So much is this the
case that the expression may now fairly claim a permanent place
in the language. The primary meaning has been somewhat en-
larged. That's all " Buncombe " is equivalent to " that's all
nonsense, or an absurdity."

Humbug is a very useful and a very expressive word, for which

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 223

we have no precise equivalent, and yet it is very difficult to say of
what it is composed or how it originated. Even the New English
Dictionary, which is not easily deterred from investigating to the
very uttermost, is compelled to say that "many guesses at the
possible derivation of humbug have been made ; but as with other
and more recent words of similar introduction, the facts as to its
origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became
common enough to excite attention. The attention it excited at
first was of no very favourable kind, for an article in the second
volume of 'The Student,' published in 1751, about a year after
the word was introduced, says : " There is a word very much in
vogue with the people of taste and fashion, which, although it has
not even the ' penumbra ' of a meaning, yet makes up the sum
total of the net sense and judgment of the aforesaid people of taste
and fashion ! I will venture to affirm that this ' humbug ' is
neither an English word nor a derivative from any other language.
It is indeed a blackguard sound made use of by most people
of distinction ! It is a fine make-weight in conversation, and some
great men deceive themselves so egregiously as to think they mean
something by it."

A hundred years later De Quincey, in a paper on Language,
' Works,' vol. viii. p. 78, says : " The word humbug rests upon a
rich and comprehensive basis ; it cannot be rendered adequately
either by German or by Greek, the two richest of human languages ;
and without this expressive word we should all be disarmed for
one great case, continually recurrent, of solid enormity. A vast
mass of villany that cannot otherwise be reached by legal penalties,
or brought within the rhetoric of scorn, would go at large with
absolute impunity were it not through the stern Khadamanthine
aid of this virtuous and inexorable word."

Two etymologies, however, are worth noting for their humorous
value, and also because they are often cited. The first is that of
Mr F. Crossby, who suggests a derivation from the Irish uim bog
(pronounced um-bug), meaning " soft copper," or worthless money.
James II. issued from the Dublin Mint a coinage of a mixture of
lead, copper, and brass, so worthless that a sovereign possessed an

224 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

intrinsic value of only twopence, and might have been bought after
the Ee volution for a halfpenny ; hence " humbug " as the opposite
of " sterling." The other is thus given in ' Notes and Queries ' :
" Edward Nathanael Lever, who was all his life connected with the
London Stock Exchange, and who died on 7th May 1876, aged
eighty, once said in all seriousness that during the Napoleonic wars
so much false news or politics and army movements came through
Hamburg, that anything that smacked of the incredible was re-
ceived with the derisive phrase, 'that's Hamburg,' whence is
derived, by corruption, the word ' humbug.' " It is unfortunate for
what would otherwise have been a very likely derivation, that the
word was in constant use in our country for more than fifty years
before the Napoleonic wars; and we are indebted to a later correspon-
dent in 'Notes and Queries,' 1892, for ihefons et origo of this re-
markable word — viz., the Italian uomo bugiardo, that is, a lying man.
Hocus Pocus. There have been many theories as to the deriva-
tion of this phrase. Nares thinks the expression is taken from the
Italian jugglers, who said " Ochus Bochus," in reference to a famous
magician of those days. In 'The Mirror,' vol. 21, there is a refer-
ence to this gentleman to the following effect : " Ochus Bochus
was a magician and demon among the Saxons, dwelling in forests
and caves, and we have his name handed down to the present day
in Somersetshire (viz., Wokey Hole, near Wells)." This, however,
is a mere invention, for the utmost that can be proved is that there
was a juggler who assumed this name, and that Hokos Pokos is
the name of the juggler in Ben Jonson's "Magnetic Lady" (1632) ;
while the word appears in " The Staple of News," an earlier play by
the same author (1625), in the sentence, "Iniquity came in like
Hokos Pokos in a juggler's jerkin, with false skirts like the knave
of clubs." In spite of all that has been said and written on this
subject, I am still inclined to think that there is more than a pos-
sibility in the suggestion made by Archbishop Tillotson in one of
his sermons, where he says, " In all probability those common
juggling words of hocus pocus are nothing else but a corruption of
hoc est corpus, by way of ridiculous imitation of the priests of the
Church of Eome in their trick of transubstantiation." When we

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 225

think how many slang phrases and words were made by profane
and ignorant persons from Church terms and the like (see Tyndall's
list of slang phrases, &c., in his ' Obedience of a Christian Man '),
(both by Tyndall and Frith, ed. Russell, i. 340), we cannot but
feel that such an alleged miracle as that of transubstantiation would
let loose a large amount of profane abuse, and might easily turn
into an irreverent travesty of the sacred words of consecration in
the Mass " hoc est corpus," meaning " this is my body," into
hocus pocus, a mere juggling with sacred things. It has been
alleged that many illiterate Romish priests who gabbled Latin
which they did not understand were in the way of saying " hocus
pocus " for " hoc est corpus." By way of supporting this con-
jecture, Pegge in his 'Anecdotes of the English Language,' pub-
lished in the beginning of last century, tells us that they called
part of the funeral service, viz., "De profundis" (130th Psalm), by
the style and title of "Deborah Fundish." I think there can be
no doubt that the word patter, in the sense of to repeat hurriedly
or glibly ; or as a noun, signifying the cant of a class ; or a patter
song, meaning a comic song in which a great many words are sung
or spoken very rapidly, is derived from the first word of the
Lord's Prayer, which is called Pate)' noster. Indeed, to patter
sometimes means to repeat the Lord's Prayer ; and I am not sur-
prised, for I have been struck with the rapidity with which, not
only in the Church of England but in the Church of Scotland also,
clergymen in repeating the Lord's Prayer at the end of other
prayers do so with a speed and glibness which 'are positively
irreverent, and which looks like showing how familiar they are with
it when they can repeat it so quickly, without thinking of what
they are saying ; so that it is little wonder that " patter " has come to
signify to repeat the same thing over and over again. Thackeray
(' X ewcomes,' ch. xi.) speaks of the housekeeper pattering on
before us from chamber to chamber, expatiating upon the magnifi-
cence of the pictures. Scott, in his " Lay of the Last Minstrel,"
ii. 6, says —

" For Mass or prayer can I rarely tarry,
Save to patter an Ave Mary."
p

226 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

Among the many etymologies suggested for the word hoax, I
think the most plausible is that which makes it a corruption of a
corruption — viz., a corruption from the hoc est corpus of the Mass.
A hoax may be defined as a successful effort to deceive, without
any motive but fun. The following inscription is a genuine hoax.
It was sent to the secretary of an enthusiastic band of archaeologists
exploring the town of Banbury, as having been copied from the
corner-stone of an old structure lately pulled down : —

SEOGEH SREVE EREH WCISUME VAHL
LAH SEHS SE OTREH NOS LLEBDNAS
REGNI FREH NOS GNIRES ROHYER
GANGED IRYD ALE NIFAE ESOTS SORCY
RUB NABOT ES ROHK CO CAED IR.

After the learned heads had been puzzled for a while, one of their
number hit upon the experiment of reading the inscription back-
ward, when it was found to be an ingenious transposition of the
nursery rhyme " Eide a cock-horse to Banbury Cross, to see a fine
lady," &c.

Cockney. — The etymology of this word most in favour at present
is that of " cock egg " (ME. ey, egg). The word meant at first an
unusually small egg (such as are termed in America litter eggs,
since the hen is thought to lay one at the end of her litter) ; thence
developed the meaning of a " cockered child," one suckled too
long, a "pet," a "mother's baby," or in a wider sense, a "milksop,"
and next "a pampered citizen," a feeble "cit" as opposed to a
hardy rustic. Specifically it meant " one ignorant of country
matters," as a greenhorn is one who knows nothing of city
life. Its particular application to a Londoner was then natural,
and was made as early as the sixteenth century. There is no
doubt that many of the early references to the word imply a child
spoiled by too much indulgence. Palsgrave gives the verb
mignoter, to bring up like a cockney, to dandle, to fondle.
Cotgrave in his Dictionary (1650) gives as the French equi-
valent of cockney, niais, mignot, cailhette — the last word signi-

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 227

fying a fool, a ninny ; but most of these references to children
are rather to their ignorance and want of knowledge, — to their
childishness rather than to their childlikeness. Bailey in his Dic-
tionary (30th edition, 1770) says that it is a nickname given to
one who is born and bred in the city of London, or within the
sound of Bow Bells; that some derive it from being cockered,
others from F. coquin, a slothful person — the citizens generally
leading a less active life than country people ; but he says, first
of all, that some derive the word from the tale of a citizen's son
who knew not the language of a cock, but called it neighing.
The full story — the memorable chestnut given in Minsheu's
'Ductor' (1625) — is to the following effect: That a citizen's
son, riding with his father into the country, asked, when he heard
a horse neigh, what the horse did. His father answered, "The
horse doth neigh." But riding a little farther, he heard a cock
crow, and he said to his father, "Doth the cock neigh too1?"
Another version of the same story is given by Dr Skinner in his
' Etymologicon,' but regarded by him as a mere conceit — viz., that
once upon a time a true-born and true-bred Londoner went into
the country, and on first hearing a horse neigh cried out, " How
the horse laughs ! " but being told that the noise made by the horse
was called neighing, he stood corrected. In the morning when
the cock crew, the cit immediately exclaimed with confident con-
viction that the cock neighed. Some, however, have so far rashly
favoured the story as to see in the first exclamation the origin of
the common term, a horse laugh, for that expression, I think, rests
upon a different ground. Some etymologists, indeed, contend that
it is a corruption of a hoarse laugh, but in such a case it must be
confined to those who either naturally have a very rough voice or
have got a violent cold, neither of which circumstances is abso-
lutely necessary ; for what we call a horse laugh depends rather
upon loudness, boisterousness, rude vehemence, or vulgarity of
manner. It seems to be, in fact, nothing more than an expression
of augmentation, as the prepositive horse is applied variously to
denote several things large and coarse by contradistinction. Thus

228 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

in the vegetable world we have the horse-radish, the horse-chest-
nut, the horse-mint, and the horse-plum. We have in the animal
world the horse-fly, the large fly, so called, because it stings horses
and sucks their blood. A servant girl once showed as much ignor-
ance of this as did the Cockney of the sounds of the different
animals, for, being asked if she had ever seen a horse-fly, she
answered that she had never seen a horse fly, but she once saw a
cow jump over a precipice. The story of the Cockney's ignorance
has been equalled, if not surpassed, by many incidents in later
times, such as that of a young woman from the town who married
a farmer, and, among other interesting inquiries, expressed a wish
to see the cow that gave the buttermilk.

Villain originally signified a farm-labourer. It is derived from
the L. villa, farmhouse, through villdnus, a slave attached to one's
country place. In English it was at first merely a description of
a particular station in life, replacing the native word churl (AS.
ceorl), which had the same sense. Soon, however, it became a
term of contempt for one who did not belong to the "gentry."
Gradually there was built up a set of ideas, associating with
villain and villainy all the qualities opposed to the comprehensive
word courtesy, which signified in the Middle Ages "the con-
tinent of what part a gentleman would see." Thus villain was
applied to a low fellow in general, and villainy was used for low
conduct, or low language, or low thoughts. From that to the
present meaning is but a short step : the implied moral reproba-
tion has simply been intensified. In this process villain and
villainy have quite lost their association with any particular rank
of life. A king as well as a peasant may be described as a villain
if he be morally wicked. Several other words which properly
mean farm-hand or the like have become more or less debased.
Thus churl means no longer " serf " or " bumpkin," but is applied
to any one who is rude in his manners, or a curmudgeon in dis-
position. But the word is little used. Boor, literally farmer, has
taken its place. It is the Dutch boer farmer recently introduced
afresh in the pure Dutch as a proper name for the Dutch in South

OUR SPOKEN LANGUAGE.

229

Africa. If our language were not so fixed by the conservative
force of literature and education, it is not impossible that fanner
would go the way of its predecessors. Clown was perhaps con-
temptuous in its very origin. It seems to have meant literally
a "clod," or "clot," or "lump." Clod was frequently used for a
gross or stupid fellow ; a clod-poll or clot-poll is a man who had
a sod or a clod of earth for a head (or a poll) ; so blockhead was
originally a wooden block for his hat or wig, hence a head with
no more intelligence in it than one of these. Clodhopper tells its
own story, but probably with humorous allusion to grasshopper.
Clown appears in English in the sense of rustic, and jester about
the same date (late sixteenth century), but there is evidence that
the latter is a derived meaning. At all events, the comic clown
of the drama frequently represented a clownish or dull-witted
countryman, who soon amuses the audience by his mingled sim-
plicity and mother -wit. Knave has had a history like that of
villain. It meant originally (like the Ger. Knabe) "boy," their
servant, from the habit of calling servants, as in French and Latin.
We may add also, in Greek, the word pais occurs in the New
Testament in the two different accounts of the same miracle, and is
rendered in the one account son and in the other servant. Thus
knave came to be used as a general term of disparagement for a
person of inferior station, and now, and finally, it has developed
the sense of general worthlessness and dishonesty. Yet at one
time it stood high for the character of a servant — for in an old
translation of the New Testament, the rendering for "Paul, a
servant of Jesus Christ," is said to have been "Paul, a knave of
Jesus Christ." Valet and varlet it is surmised were originally
the same word, — they are OF. diminutives of vassal. They
originally meant "boy" or youth, just as vassal meant man.
Specialised in the sense of servant, however, they tended to
deteriorate, and varlet became in English a synonym for " a saucy
fellow." All such words, as soon as they acquire a contemptuous
or reproachful implication, tend to go out of use in their literal
descriptive meaning, for the knave or villain in the old sense

230 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

refuses to answer to the discredited name. Vassalage is an
interesting example of a word which has been specialised in two
directions. Since the vassal or the squire was his lord's inferior,
it sank to the sense of servitude, — but, on the other hand, it rose
by an equally obvious train of thought to the meaning of valorous
deeds, " splendid service in war," such as a vassal performs for
his suzerain; and this is its meaning in Chaucer.

231

CHAPTER XVII.

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

SPEECH, as speech, cannot be called a scientific process until set
sounds with an established meaning can be produced at will, to be
readily apprehended by a second individual. When man in his
communications with man was able to string a number of words
and sentences together with a running cord of connection, he may
be said to have passed intellectually the border-line whence, if
progress had been arrested, man might have reeled back into the
beast. Perhaps one reason why we generally call the beasts dumb
is that in animals thero is a lack of that sympathy with one
another which appears to be the soul of language. But it is a
still greater step in advance when we are able to pass from the
spoken to the written language, and to represent certain sounds by
certain signs, and certain persons or things or thoughts by two
of these letters being combined into words, and afterwards into
sentences. The name given to the letters of a language arranged
in the usual form, by the Eomans, was the alphabetum or alphabet,
making a word out of the names of the first two letters of the
Greek alphabet, viz., alpha and beta.

Ampersand. — Southey, in his ' Letters,' i. 200, says, " The pen
commandeth only twenty-six letters ; it can only range between
A and Z ; these are its limits. I had forgotten and-pussey-and I "
Yet there are nearly thirty-six ways of spelling the mysterious word
at the head of this paragraph. It is spelt ampus-and, an-pasty,
anpassy, anparse, ampassy, ampussy, amptts, amplesant, ampersand,
aiiijtazad, zempy zed, ann-passy-ann. These seem all so many
corruptions of and per se and, meaning the old way of spelling and

232 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

naming the character fy, which is formed by combining the letters
of the Latin et, and, and which was commonly placed at the end
of the alphabet in primers, horn-books, and Shorter Catechisms.
I have no doubt that it was originally written et per se = and ; but
partly through ignorance of its meaning, and partly because in
French the t in et was not sounded, it came to be generally
pronounced eperse-and, as indeed it was in that part of Scotland
where I was brought up as a boy. We find confirmation of this
view in the fact that when fy, and, had not per se, or by itself, but
was written fyc., it was called L. et cetera, and the rest, and other
things, as it still means. Some of my readers may be reminded of
a nursery rhyming alphabet of their own childhood. The letters
had all done their several services towards the apple-pie to be
divided among them, —

" Then AND came, though not one of the letters,
And bowing, acknowledged them all as his betters,
And, hoping it might not be deemed a presumption,
Remained all their honours' most humble conjunction ; "

and, as Freeman says, the "humble conjunction" seems to have
fared even worse than the chaplains at great banquets, of whom
Lord Macaulay speaks, and to have got no apple-pie at all.

P's and Q's. — It has been supposed that the injunction to mind
your p's and q's is an injunction to be careful, as there is a liability
to mistake the p for q in printing, especially as the two letters
come together in the alphabet. But it is said that the phrase
originated in the practice of innkeepers, in reckoning the bills of
their guests, using the abbreviations of p and q for pints and quarts
of liquor, and where it was specially necessary to be careful. The
late Canon Ainger made use of the injunction to mind your
p's and q's when he propounded the question, What is the differ-
ence between a gentleman, a gardener, a billiard-marker, and a
verger 1 and when he answered it, as no one else could, by stating
that a gentleman minded his p's and q's, a gardener minded his
peas, a billiard-marker his cues, and a verger his pews and keys !
It was little wonder that the same canon, hearing it said at the

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 233

dinner-table that a church in London where he had been a wor-
shipper the previous Sunday was a proprietary chapel where the
clergyman was entirely dependent on the seat-rents, remarked that
he thought it very likely, for he had observed the clergyman during
the service several times looking round the congregation with a
pew-rental eye.

Acrostic (Gr. akros, high, extreme ; stichos, a row, order, line
of verse), a short poem of which the first letters of the lines or
verses form a word, generally a proper name, or at least follow
some definite arrangement. The acrostic psalms, so called, are
alphabetical — i.e., the initials make up the Hebrew alphabet. The
periods assigned to each letter may consist of one line (Ps. cxi.
and cxii.), of two (Ps. xxxiv., cxlv.,, &c.), or even sixteen lines
(Ps. cxix.) : these are perhaps more properly called ABC Darian
Psalms.

Alliteration (mod. French, from L. ad, litera, a letter), the
frequent repetition of a letter or sound in successive words. It is
in poetry, or at least in metre, that we find employed most
frequently "apt alliteration's artful aid." "We find it in Latin in
the celebrated ' Pugna Porcorum,' beginning

" Propterea properans proconsul poplite prono," &c.,
and in the English lines beginning,

" An Austrian army artfully arrayed,
Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade," &c.

A letter of the alphabet is so called from the word Utera,
which signifies this ; originally from lino, levi, litum, linere,
to make strokes. These letters are divided into vowels and
consonants. The vowels receive their name through the F.
voyelle, from the L. vocales (from vox, vocis, the voice), being
simple vocal sounds. Sometimes there are two vowel sounds
uttered with one impulse or stress so as to form a single syl-
lable ; these are called diphthongs, F. diphthongue, from the
Gr. diptithongos, with two sounds (from the Gr. di, twice, and
phfhongos, a sound), such as oi in oil. The consonants are so

234 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

called because they can be sounded only with a vowel, from the
L. consonans, pres. part, of consono, to sound with, to harmonise.
These consonants are divided into labials, gutturals, and dentals,
according as the lip (L. labia, the lips), the throat (L. guttur, the
throat), or the teeth (L. denies) are chiefly employed in uttering
them. The dentals are divided into hard, soft, or aspirate, — the
last word signifying a letter pronounced with a full breathing,
from L. ad, and spiro, to breathe. When one or two letters are
taken together they form a syllable, which is uttered by a single
effort of the voice, the word coming from the L. sylldba, from Gr.
syllabe (syn, with, and lab, the root of Gr. lambano, to take). A
word is one syllable or more, expressing an idea or notion ; AS.
word, cognate with Gothic vaurd, Icel. ord, Ger. wort ; also con-
nected with the L. verbum,1 a word, and Gr. eiro, to speak.

In coming to the study of grammar we find that the name itself,
as well as the names of its four great divisions, are all taken from
the Greek, whereas all the others are taken from the Latin.
Grammar is from the Gr. word gramma,2 a letter. So with the
four divisions of orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody.
Orthography is the correct method of writing, that is, of spelling
the words — from the two Greeek words orthos, right, and grapho, to
write (p. '59). Etymology signifies an account of the etymon, or
true meaning of words — from Gr. etymon, signifying the true mean-
ing of a word (Gr. etymos, true). Syntax is the correct arrangement
of words or sentences — from Gr. syntaxis (sun, together, and tasso z

1 From verbum, a word, we have,
in addition to verb (pp. 238 and 240),
the principal word in a sentence,
which makes the sentence, verbal — as
a verbal message, one communicated
by word of mouth, not by letter ;
verbatim, word for word ; verbiage,
a superabundance of words ; a
verbose style has too many words ;
a proverb is a wise or pithy saying,
a current maxim. Hurd has de-
scribed the ingredients of an excel-
lent proverb to be sense, shortness,
and salt.

2 From gramma we have not
merely grammar, but grammatical,

anagram (transposition of letters in
a name so as to form another word
— thus "best in prayer" may be
transformed into " Presbyterian,"
and Horatio Nelson into "Honor
est a Nilo "), a diagram, an epi-
gram, epigrammatic, telegram.

3 From Gr. verb tasso or taxo, to
arrange, we have tactics, the science
or art of arranging military and
naval forces. We have also tactical
and tactician. We have also from
the same word a taxidermist, a per-
son who prepares and stuffs the
skins of animals — from Gr. taxis,
arrangement, and derma, a skin.

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

235

or taxo, to put in order, to arrange). Prosody is that part of
grammar which treats of quantity, accent, or the laws of verse or
of versification — Gr. prosodia, a song sung to music, an accompany-
ing song (pros, to, and ode, a song).

As I have said, the names of all the other parts of grammar
proper are derived from the Latin.

The article is from the L. articulus, a diminutive from artus, a
joint, originally a very small member of the body between two
joints ; and by Quinctilian and others used for the article in
grammar, as with us. The articles are definite and indefinite.
The definite article the determines with precision and exactness
the person or thing referred to — from L. definio, to set bounds to
(from de, and finis,1 a limit) ; and the indefinite a or an (in, not,
and definite) is not precise — a person or any person. The noun,
from the L. nomen,2 a name, through the OF. non (F. noiri), is

1 From finis, a limit, boundary,
or end, we have the following
words — a fine, the price of a final
settlement. In this way perhaps
finance and finances came to mean
revenue and income. A financier
is one skilled in managing the
public revenue. Finical means
unduly particular about trifles.
To finish (L. finire) is to end
working at a thing, and to finish
a task is to get through with it.
Finite creatures are those having
bounds or limits ; that to which
we can assign no bounds is in-
finite or infinity. Affinity means
relationship (from affinis, related
to). To confine is to restrain per-
sonal liberty in any way. Dan-
gerous madmen must be put in
confinement. Confines are the
boundary lines. To define is to ex-
plain the exact meaning of a word.
A definite account of a thing is clear
and exact ; an indefinite account is
the reverse. Definitive means ex-
press and conclusive. A controversy
is said to be definitively ended. To
refine wine, silver, and gold is to free
them from extraneous matter or im-
purities ; and refinement is a high

degree of civilised culture ; while
superfine is very fine.

2 From nomen we have nomen-
clature (and calo, to call), the name
given to the terms employed to ex-
plain any science or art, and the
formation of a nomenclature or a
terminology is one of the most im-
portant steps in the beginning and
the progress of science ; nominal,
exists in name only ; nominally a
Christian, not really one. To nomin-
ate is to name or propose an indi-
vidual for appointment to an office.
The nominee is the person named or
appointed ; and we have a noun,
the nominative case, denominations,
things, or bodies of men, or sects,
classed and named. From the same
word also come ignominy and re-
nown. The word nominalist revives
the memory of an old controversy
between nominalists and realists,
the former holding that general
terms exist only in the mind, being
simply ideas or mere words. De-
nominator, in a vulgar fraction, is
the number placed below the line,
denoting the number of parts into
which the unit or whole is supposed
to be divided.

236

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the name of any person, place, or thing, and called a substantive, as
denoting something that exists — from L. substantio, from substo, to
stand under (sub, under, and stare, to stand). The word gender
comes through ~F. genre — from L. genus, breed — the distinction of
nouns according to sex. JNouns may be of the masculine, feminine,
or neuter gender. Masculine, from the L. masculus, a male (from
mas) ; feminine (from femina, a woman) ; and neuter, from ne,
not, and uter, either — neither masculine nor feminine. The num-
ber is also from the Latin, — the singular, from L. singularis, used
by Quinctilian for the singular number, comes from sinyulus, single,
one only (from sim, ie., semel, once) ; the plural denoting more
than one (L. pluralis, from plus, plures, more). Case is a very
familiar term — but what does it mean 1 How did it come to us,
and what did it mean ? Casus is the translation made at Eome of
the Gr. ptosis, a word which at first appears in Aristotle. It meant
a falling, a variation from the primary form, whether a noun or
verb. It was first restricted to nouns by the Stoics. The nomin-
ative case is from the L. nominativus (from nomen, a name), the
naming case. It is a translation of onomast%ke; but it is a bad
title, because the nominative does not merely name, but expresses
that a thing is in a particular relation. The genitive case is called
from the L. name genitivus (a translation of the Gr. geniJce, which
means the class-case). In such a statement as "Of good things
some are mine," the genitive denotes the genus, of which " mine "
is the species. The dative case is what is given — from do,1 dedi,
datum, dare, to give. It is so called because it follows frequently
verbs, or other parts of speech which mean giving, or some act
directed to the object — generally indicated in English by to or for.
The accusative case is probably so called from a Latin mistake,
the Greek original meaning (1) cause and (2) accusation; the Latins
took it in sense (2) instead of (1). Possibly the Eomans regarded
the objective, as confronted with the agent, like an accused person

1 From the verb do, dedi, datum,
dare, to give, we have the date of
an event, and data to go upon or to
reason from. Also a donor (from
donum, a gift), one who gives

presents, donations ; also (from dos,
dotis, a marriage portion) dowry,
endowment, condonation, and par-
don, which is granted by a superior,
as when a king pardons a criminal.

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

237

with the prosecutor. In English this is called the objective case
— the case on which the action of the verb falls — and regarded as
the object or mark aimed at by the action of the verb. The
vocative or exclamation case — from L. voco,1 to call — is the case of
a word when the person or thing is addressed or called. We have
in English only the nominative of address. Ablative is the sixth
case of a L. noun (composed of ab, from, and latus, carried), the
case denoting among other things ablation, or carrying away from,
as if it indicated taking away from, or privation. The verb itself
is fero, tuli, latum, ferre, to bear, to lift up. It is from the supine
latum 2 that " ablative," as we have said, is derived. These case
names are unnecessary in English, which has only one inflected
case — the genitive. The uninflected cases constitute the common
case (man, men), which is equivalent to the nominative, dative,
accusative, vocative, and ablative in such a language as Latin.

Nouns are of two kinds, proper and common. A common noun
(L. communis) is a name that is common to a class and not peculiar
or proper to an individual ; a proper noun (L. proprius, through
F. propre) is one that is peculiar to an individual. An adjective
is a word added to a noun, adding some quality or property to it —
from L. adjicio, to throw to or to add (from ad, to, and jacio, to
throw). A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun — L. pro,
instead of, and nomine, the noun itself. There are four kinds
of pronouns — viz., personal (from persona 3), indicating the person ;

1 From voco, vocavi, vocatum, vo-
care, to call, and vox, vocis, the voice,
we have vocal, vocable, vocabulary,
vocation, vociferate, vouch, vouch-
safe, vowel, as we have seen ;
advocate, avocation, avowal, con-
vocation, equivocate, evoke, invoke,
invocation, provoke, provocation,
revoke, revocation, and irrevocable.

- From this same supine we have
collate and collation, signifying
originally brought or carried to-
gether (from con, together, and
latus, carried). We speak of collat-
ing MSS., bringing them together
for the purpose of comparison ; and
we have what is called "a cold

collation," making a repast be-
tween full meals to which originally
every one brought his share ; cor-
relative, dilatory, dilate, dilata-
tion, elate, legislate, oblation,
prelate, relate, relation, relative,
relationship, superlative, translate,
translation, mistranslation.

3 And what is this person or
persona of which we hear so much ?
Most people are now inclined to
adopt the view of Max Miiller.
Nothing can be more abstract : it
is neither male nor female, neither
young nor old. As a noun it is
hardly more than what to be is as
a verb. In French it may even

238

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

relative (from L. refero, relatum, from re, back, and fero, to carry),
relating to something before, called its antecedent ; interrogative,
asking a question, as who? which? (from L. interrogare, from
inter, between, and rogare, to ask) ; and demonstrative, such as
this or that, pointing out (from L. de intensive, and monstrare, to
show). The verb, so called from verbum, the word, as being the
chief word in the sentence. The conjugations (L. con, with, and

come to mean nobody ; for if we
ask our concierge at Paris if any
one has called on us during our
absence he will reply "Personne,
monsieur!" which means "Not a
soul, sir ! " Of course person is the
L. persona : it came to us from
Rome, but the journey was long
and its adventures many. In L.
persona meant a mask made of thin
wood or clay, such as was worn by
the actors at home. It is curious
that the Greek actors always wore
those masks ; the Roman actors did
not adopt them at first. Thus
while nearly all technical Latin
terms connected with the theatre
were borrowed from the Greek,
their name for mask (prosopon) was
never naturalised in Italy. We
can understand why the Greeks
called their masks prosopon, which
means simply what is before the
face— pros, before, and opon, the
countenance — the masks thus worn
being meant to indicate the char-
acter represented by each actor on
the stage. To us it seems almost
incredible that the great Greek
actors should have submitted to
such mummeries, and should have
deprived themselves of the most
powerful help in acting, the ex-
pression of the face. But so it
was ; and we are told that it was
necessary because without these
prosopa, which contained some
acoustic apparatus to strengthen
the voice of the actor, they could
not have made themselves heard in
the wide and open-air theatres of
Greece. These masks were called
persona in Latin — i.e., through -

sounders, from personare (per,
through, and sono, to sound) —
because the head and mouth being
hidden by the cover of the mask,
which was open only through one
passage for the emission of the
voice, the voice, being no longer
unsettled and diffused, was gathered
into one exit only, and thus was
more clear and melodious ; and
because that mask makes the voice
of the mouth clear and resonant,
therefore it has been called persona,
the o being lengthened on account
of the form of the word, for there
are many words in which the
vowel is lengthened or strengthened
on this account. Persona came
in course of time to denote both
the mask and its wearer. When
persona was taken in its first mean-
ing of mask, representing not the
real but the assumed character of
an actor, nothing was more natural
than to say, for instance, of a dis-
honest man that he was wearing a
persona. Thus persona took the
sense of false appearance ; and per-
sonatus was used by Cicero of a
man who had to appear different
from what he really was, hence
our word "personate." But while
in these cases persona is used
of the mask worn, we find it in
others expressing the real character
represented by the author on the
stage. When we now read of
"dramatis personce," "characters of
the play," we no longer think of
masks but of the real characters
appearing in a play. After all, an
actor wearing a mask of the king
was for the time being a king, and

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

239

jungo,1 to join) are the different persons, numbers, tenses, moods,
and voices of a verb. The moods are Latin. Mood is from the
L. modus, manner, and is the form of a verb, expressing the
manner of action. The indicative mood (from L. indicare, to
point out, compounded of in, and dico, to say) indicates an action,
&c., as in past, present, or future existence. The subjunctive
mood (from sub, under, and jungo, to join = subjoined) is that
mood of a verb which expresses a purpose, condition, &c., sub-
joined to some statement, question, or answer. The imperative
mood is the commanding mood, from L. impero, to command.
The infinitive mood, from L. infinitus (in, not, and finitus,
limited), a mood not limited by any definition of a person or
number. The potential mood denotes the power or possibility
of performing any action, and is expressed by the auxiliaries, may
or can. It takes its name from the L. potens, able or powerful.
The tenses of the verb are also from the Latin : the word tense
itself comes from the L. tempus, time, through the F. t&mps. The

thus persona came to mean the very
opposite of mask — viz., a man's
real nature and character. Gradu-
ally persona assumed the meaning
of a great personage or of a person
of rank, and in the end of rank
itself ; and this sense of persona
prevailed during the Middle Ages
and continues to the present day.
A man mayme personce means, in
mediaeval Latin, a man of great
dignity. In ecclesiastical language
persona soon took a technical mean-
ing ; and the word " parson," which
is merely the same word with a dif-
ferent spelling, in England came to
be generally applied to the incumbent
of the parish as a title of dignity.
These so-called personce held high
rank. From this persona comes,
no doubt, the modern name of
parson. Lastly, persona came to
mean what we call a person, an
individual ; and in mediaeval writers
\ve find personce used as masculine,
"univerxi persona," "all the per-
sons," and, what is curious, this
use of persona as a masculine con-

tinues even in modern French,
where under certain circumstances
we may treat personne. as a mas-
culine. In conclusion, may we all
remember that while we have been
actors on the stage of time, before
we can go home we must take off
our masks, standing like strangers
on a strange stage, and wondering
how for so long a time we did not
perceive even within ourselves the
simple distinction between persona
and persona, between the mask and
the wearer.

1 From junf/o, junxi, junctum,
junyZre, to join, we have in L.
juyum, a yoke, and in Eng. the
words joiner, joints, jugular veins,
the large veins in the neck or throat
(L. juyulum), junction, juncture (a
seam or point of joining, also a
critical period of time), adjoin,
adjunct, conjoin, conjoint, con-
jugal, conjugate, conjunction, con-
juncture, disjoin, disjunction,
disjunctive, enjoin, injunction,
rejoin, rejoinder, subjoin, sub-
junctive.

240 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

forms of a verb, indicating the time of an action, are the present
tense, the imperfect or unfinished, the perfect or completed, the
pluperfect or more fully completed, and the future, that which is
yet to come to pass. We have the active and the passive voice in
verbs. The active (from L. ago, to do) is that form of the verb
which usually denotes acting or doing, and passive is that form
of the verb expressing passiveness rather than activeness (from
patior, passus, to suffer). There are also transitive and intran-
sitive verbs (from trans, across, and eo, ivi, to go), verbs that have
an object, so called because the action of the verb is regarded as
passing or going across to the object ; and intransitive (from in,
not), a verb whose action is not supposed to pass across to any
object. The gerund (from the L. gerere, to carry on) is that part
of the verb which denotes the carrying on of its action. The
genitive is adjectival, but the gerund is a noun. Supine is the
name given to two very rarely used noun forms of the verb, and
used only in the accusative and ablative. The origin of the word
is unknown, but it may at least serve to remind us that these
forms are the laziest and the most supine of all the parts of the
verb. Participle is a form of the verb participating in the value
of an adjective and a verb, from L. particeps, sharing (from pars,
and capio, to take). An adverb (ad, to, and verbum, the word)
is that which is added, not to the "verb" in the grammatical
sense, but to the word which it is used to qualify. The
preposition is placed before the noun or pronoun to show its
relation to some other word in the sentence, from L. prcepositio
(from prce, before, and pono, positum (see note, p. 266), to place
or put, so named because originally prefixed to the verb in order
to modify its meaning. The conjunction, -which connects or
conjoins sentences, clauses, and words, is named from the L.
conjunctio (from con, together, and jungo, to join). The inter-
jection, which signifies literally a throwing between, is an
appropriate name for a word thrown in between the parts of a
sentence to express emotion (from L. inter, between, and jacio,
to throw). Of the interjection Home Tooke speaks very dis-
paragingly, considering it as so far from being properly a part of

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 241

speech that he designates it the brutish and inarticulate inter-
jection which has nothing to do with speech, and is only the
miserable refuge of the speechless.

Closely connected with speech and language is

LITERATURE IN GENERAL,

and of whatever country we study the literature we require to
begin with a dictionary, which is a book containing the words of
that language alphabetically arranged, with their meanings, &c.
(from F. dictionnaire, from L. dictio, from dico, dicere, to say or tell).
There are also dictionaries of quotations, meaning the act of quoting
or citing, or the words or passage quoted, with author or page of
book in which it is to be found. It comes from the OF. quoter,
from low L. quoto, I mark off into numbers, from L. quot,1 how
many. The old Romans never used any such verb as quoto for to
quote a passage, but rather the word profero, to cite, to quote. On
a smaller scale it is called from the Latin a vocabulary, from vo-
cabularium, a list of vocables or words sounded with the voice (vox,
vocis) ; or an abridgment which is the substance of a larger work in
a smaller form. It comes to us through the OF. abregier, from
mediaeval L. abbreviare (L. ab, brevio, I shorten, from brevts, short),
from which we have the word abbreviate. It differs little in
meaning from the Greek word epitome (from epi, upon, and temno,
I cut, and tome, a cutting), a summary, which is so called because
it gives the sum and substance ; or Gr. synopsis, the act of viewing
at a glance (from sun, together, and opsis, a view), a collective view
of any subject in a condensed form ; or a glossary, from L. glossa,
a tongue, Gr. glotta, a vocabulary giving explanation of meanings
of words in some one book. A lexicon is a dictionary of words —
also from the Gr. lexis, a word, and lego, to speak. We have also

1 From quot, how many, we have
such words as quotation in another
sense — viz., in business the price of
an article named or given, meaning
how much do you ask ? Give me a
quotation, also quotient, from L.
'quoties, how often. In arithmetic

the quotient is the number resulting
from the division of one number by
another, thus showing how often a
less number is contained in a greater.
We have also quotidian, daily or re-
curring every day, from quotidianus
(quot, how many, and dies, a day).

242 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

an index at the end of many books — from the L. index, -icis, from
L. indico, to show (in, and dico, to tell), giving a list of the chief
subjects contained in the book ; and we have also the word
thesaurus, being the Greek word for a treasury or repository — in
this case of knowledge. Almost similar in meaning is cyclopedia
or encyclopedia, literally the circle or compass of human knowledge
(Gr. kuklos, a circle, and paideia, of learning).

The word book comes from the AS. boc, a book, but which
originally signified the beech, because the Teutons first wrote on
beechen boards, and our ancestors used to cut runic 1 letters on
wooden staves or rods. Compare the Ger. Buchstdben, " letters of the
alphabet," literally " beech-staves " ; the Latin word for book, too,
was L. liber, libri, the white or inner rind of a tree, the rind which
is under the outer bark, and on this outer rind the ancients used
to write — hence it came to signify a book. From it we have the
word library and librarian. When we speak of perusing a book
in the sense of reading it carefully, we use a word whose etymology
is uncertain, but probably coined from per, through, and usus, into,
to read carefully, hence to survey, to read. Wedgwood suggests
that it may be connected with L. pervisus, looked through, examined
(per, through, and visum from video, I see), to read with attention,
to read through, and so perusal signifies the careful examination
of a book. Chapter, the main division of a book or of anything
(OF. chapitre, from L. capitulum, diminutive of caput, the
head) ; and paragraph, the section of a chapter, from the Greek
word paragraphos, originally a short horizontal stroke drawn below
the beginning of a line in which a break in the sense occurs, also a
passage so marked — from para, by the side, and graphos, written.
Parenthesis, which is just the Greek word for insertion (from para,
beside ; en, in ; and thesis, a putting or placing), is now applied to
any explanatory word, clause, or sentence inserted into a passage

1 Runic is the adjective relating
to runes, to the Teutonic nations or
to their language. A rune is one
of the characters forming the earli-
est alphabet of the Teutonic nations.
The AS. run signifies a secret mys-
terious talk or mysterious history,

applied to the old Teutonic writ-
ten characters from their use in
divination. The word is found in
ME. rounen, to whisper, and is
cognate with Icel. run, with OGer.
runa, a secret, whispering ; Goth.
runa, a secret.

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

243

with •which it has no necessary grammatical connection. The
Latins had also the word Ubellus, a diminutive of liber, signifying
a little book or any small writing consisting of a few leaves. From
it we have the word libel, hut used in a different sense, and
signifying a written slander or defamation, and libellous, meaning
defamatory or abusive. In law the word has a more extensive
reference, meaning any blasphemous, immoral, or seditious pro-
duction ; also the plaintiff's declaration of his cause of action and
the relief he seeks. The word pamphlet, which means a small
book, consisting of one or more sheets stitched together (the same
in meaning as the word "brochure," from F. brocher, to stitch,
meaning a pamphlet of only a few leaves), is said to owe its origin
to Pamphila, a Greek lady who left behind her in the first century
a commonplace book containing notes, epitomes, and anecdotes.
The word anecdote, from the Gr. anecdoton, signifying unpublished
(from a, without ; ek, out ; dtdomi, I give), not given out, meant at
first a secret history, and now a short story, generally of some
interest in a man's life or conduct. It is a sort of slang to speak
of a man who is fond of telling such, as being in his anecdotage !
It was very difficult for a long time to get material on which to
write, and all sorts of materials were used both for writing on and
for writing with. We get some light on the origin of writing
when we learn that write comes from a Teutonic root writ, which
means to cut slightly, to mark, to scratch. The L. scribere,1 to
write, comes from the Aryan root scrabh or scarbh, an amplification
of scar, which also means to cut slightly, to scratch, to mark.
From the same root scrabh, with loss of the initial s (compare
tegument, detective, &c., from the root stag), we have also the Gr.

taught in Scripture. We ascribe
glory to God — i.e., assign it to Him
as His property. We circumscribe,
describe, inscribe, prescribe and
proscribe, subscribe and transcribe ;
and we have ascription and con-
scription, description, inscription,
prescription, proscription, subscrip-
tion, and transcription; and we have
manuscript and nondescript, and
conscript and postscript.

1 From scribo, scripsi, scriptum,
scribere, to write, we have many
derivatives and compounds ; to
scribble, is to write carelessly or
illegibly. A scribe is a professional
writer. Scrip is a certificate of
shares or stock. Script is a kind
of type in imitation of handwriting.
Scripture means properly any writ-
ing, but now the books of the Bible.
A scriptural doctrine is a doctrine

244 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

graphein, to write, and the English to grave, to engrave. All
these words bear witness to a time when writing was done on wood
or wax or other soft surface by means of a pointed instrument —
the stylus (from the Gr. stylos), an iron instrument resembling a
pencil in size and shape, used for writing upon waxed tablets. At
one end it was sharpened to a point, for scratching the characters
upon the wax, while the other end being flat and circular served to
render the surface of the tablets smooth again, and so to obliterate
what had been written. Thus vertere stylum, to change the
style, came to signify to erase, or to correct or improve, because
when they turned the stylus it was for the purpose of improving
what they were engaged on, and so the word came gradually to
refer not so much to the tool which was used for engraving or
writing as for the distinctive or characteristic mode in which an
author expressed himself : even in Cicero we find the word used
for an author's manner of writing. The word erase, just used
above, signifying to rub or scrape out, comes from the Latin verb
erddo, from e, out, and rado, rasus, to scrape. Obliterate, a
somewhat similar word (in meaning), is often connected with lino,
litum, linere, to smear, as if to obliterate were to smear over or
efface ; but its direct derivation is from litera, a letter, so that to
obliterate is in the first instance to efface writing in particular, and
secondarily, to efface generally. It is true that the root of litera
is linere, because some of the earliest writing was on substances
smeared so as to receive it, as the waxed tablets of the Eomans.

When advancing civilisation brought to the Western world the
art of making a writing material of strips of the inner rind of
the Egyptian reed, called papyrus, glued together transversely, the
name of paper was introduced, to be applied as time went on to
textures made of various substances. From the inner rind of the
papyrus, called in Gr. byblos, they derived the name for a book,
biblion, so that we have not merely bibliography, bibliomania, &c.,
but we have the word Bible — the Book — the book of God, the
God of books, the Bible. The different pieces of papyrus were
joined together by the turbid Nile water, as it had a kind of
glutinous property, — a layer of papyrus was laid flat on a board,

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

245

and a cross layer put over it, and being thus prepared, the layers
were pressed and afterwards dried in the sun. The sheets were
then fastened or pasted together, the best being taken first and
then the inferior sheets. The length might be carried to almost
any extent by fastening one sheet to another. When the book
was finished it was rolled on a staff, whence it was called a
volumen, from volvo,1 volvere, to roll, because it was rolled up like
a map on a roller. This is the root of our word volume. An
attempt has been made to show that copy is from cope, in the
sense of likeness ; and there is no doubt that copy signifies
frequently an imitation of an original pattern, and the verb to cope
signifies to vie with, especially on equal terms, to match. Never-
theless there seems good reason to believe that the word originally
comes from L. copia, plenty or abundance, through F. copie,
signifying first abundance, then facility or convenience. In late
L. copia signified a transcript, because by such the original was
multiplied abundantly. The Eomans wrote only on one side, and
when one sheet was thus finished it was joined on to the end of
another until the book was complete, and then they rolled it up on
a cylinder or staff. To " open " such a book was simply to roll
up the long ribbon at one end, simultaneously allowing it to
unroll at the other. Thus a long succession of short narrow
columns, corresponding to our pages, would pass before the eye
of the reader in a not inconvenient arrangement. Before leaving
the plain papyrus it is worth knowing and bearing in mind that
from scheda (or scida), signifying a piece cut off, and specially a
little leaf cut off from the papyrus, we have the origin of our
word schedule, originally signifying a piece of papyrus contain-
ing some writing, and now used for an inventory, or list, or table.
When vellum, however, took the place of papyrus as a literary
vehicle, the stiffness of the new material, which lent itself ill to
rolling, necessitated a change in the form of the book, which now
became a " codex," or, in other words, assumed the form of bound

1 From volvo, volvi, volutum, vol-
vere, to roll or turn round, we have
vault, voluble, voluminous, circum-

volution, devolve, devolution, evolve,
evolution, involve, involution, re-
volt, revolution, revolve.

246 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

leaves as in our ordinary books. This word code or codex was
the Latin word for the trunk, body, or stock of a tree, and was after-
wards applied by them to a book, because the ancients wrote, as we
have seen, on wooden tablets covered with wax ; and so it came to
mean a MS. not rolled up together as a volumen, but arranged with
leaves like our books. The word codex is generally applied to the
Bible MSS. — as when we speak of the Codex Sinaiticus, the Codex
Vaticanus, and the Codex Alexandrinus, &c.; and when spoken of
in the plural they are called codices. In common speech a code has
come to mean a systematic collection or digest of laws ; while the
word codicil (from L. codicillus, the small trunk of a tree, origin-
ally a diminutive from codex) came also to signify a writing tablet,
then a note or letter, and, finally, in Latin as in English, an
addition or supplement made to a will. As the word codex was
originally spelt caudex, it is little wonder that some have seen
a connection between this word and eauda, a tail, which has given
us the English word, as when we speak of the tail as a caudal
appendage ; and so in this case a codicil would just mean a small
appendix to the will itself, a sort of tailpiece. The little billets
or notes which were sent by the Eomans to their friends were
called codicilli. The Eomans called the paper which was made from
the Egyptian papyrus charta,1 from the Gr. chartes. Next to the
papyrus, parchment was the most common material for writing upon.
It is said to have been invented by Eumenes II., King of Pergamos,
in consequence of the prohibition of the export of papyrus from
Egypt by Ptolemy Epiphanes. It is made from the skin of a
sheep, or of a goat, prepared for writing on, through F. velin, from
low L. vitulina (charta, paper, understood), from L. vitulus, a calf.
Veal signifies the flesh of a calf, OF. veal, from L. vitellus, diminu-
tive of vitulus, a calf. As paper and parchment were dear, it was
frequently the custom, as we have seen, to erase or wash out
writing of little importance, and to write upon the paper or parch-
ment again, which was then called palimpsestus, in English
palimpsest, from Gr. palin, again, and psestos, rubbed — or rubbed

1 From charta we have cartulary, I charter, chart,
card, carte, cartoon, cartridge, '

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

247

a second time, — the first time when it was rubbed clean for the
previous writing, the second time for the writing which now is
there. Palindrome, a name given to a word, line, or sentence
which reads the same when the letters which compose it are read
in the reverse order, or which reads the same either way, like
"madam." In the 'ISTew Monthly Magazine' it is said that in
English but one palindrome line is known. I wonder if it is this
line by Philipps, 1706, " Lewd did I live, evil I did dwel."
The word in Greek is patindromos, from palm, again or back, and
dromos, running, or a race. Where the writing was done by hand,
as in every case almost it was so done, until the invention of
printing, it was called a manuscript, — literally mamts,1 the hand,
and scribo, to write. The word signature recalls a time when very
few persons had an elementary education of any literary kind, and
when the kings and barons, no less than their humbler followers,
affixed their own sign or cross or mark to any document requiring
their assent. The phrase to sign your name did not mean, as with
us, to write your name, because this very few could do, but to
make such a mark as will be a sign that you authenticate the docu-
ment. The Latin word signum 2 itself means merely that by which
a thing is known. The verb signo 2 also meant to seal, whence we
have the word signet, the seal used by the Sovereign to seal
private letters and grants ; a signet ring, a finger-ring, having a

1 From mamts, the hand, we have
many derivatives, such as maintain,
to hold firmly, maintenance, man-
acles, fetters for the hand, manage
(from F. manage, the training or
control of horses), to direct or
govern with address, manifest (that
which may be grasped, and hence
palpable, self - evident), manifesto,
manipulate, manoeuvre, manner,
mannerism, manual, manufactory,
manufacture, manumission, manure
(for manceuvre), some substance
added to the land to fertilise it, an
MS. or MSS., books written by the
hand, an amanuensis, bimanous,
quadrumanous, emancipate, leger-
demain.

2 Both from the noun signum and

from the verb signo, signavi, signa-
tum, sifjnare, we have such words as
seal (from the diminutive sigillum),
a signal, a sign . made from a
distance, and the adj. signal, mean-
ing remarkable, signalised. We
may signify or declare by any sign.
We speak of significant and in-
significant. We assign or mark
out as properly belonging to.
Assignment means a specific allot-
ting. We consign and receive a
consignment of goods. We counter-
sign, design, and designate. The
insignia are the marks of office.
We resign when we give back an
office, and resignation to the will of
God is the mark of unmurmuring
submission.

248 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

stone engraved with a crest or monogram (from Gr. monos, alone
or one, and gramma, a letter), a simple device formed by the
intertexture of two or more letters. Sign-manual, from sign and
manual (from manus, the hand), literally a sign made by one's own
hand, and now the royal signature, usually only the initial of the
Sovereign's name, with E. for Rex (king) or Regina (queen).

Paper is of different kinds indicated by different names. Hand-
paper was originally so called from its water-mark, which was that
of a hand, and the water-mark itself from the mark wrought into
the paper, and so transparent that it could be seen clearly through.
Pot-paper, a somewhat inferior kind, has the water-mark of apot;
and foolscap, which had the water-mark of a fool's head with cap
and bells, has now come to denote paper of a particular size. The
size is generally indicated by Latin words — e.g., folio, from the L.
folium, a leaf, means a sheet of paper folded but once, thus mak-
ing 2 leaves or 4 pages ; quarto (written 4to) is a sheet folded
into quarters or 4 leaves making 8 pages ; an octavo (8vo), so
called in accordance with the L. octo, eight, and folded into 8
leaves or 16 pages ; and a duodecimo (12mo), the Latin for 2 and
10, that is 12, one making 12 leaves of 24 pages, and so forth.
Stenography is the name for what we term shorthand — the art of
writing very quickly by means of abbreviations — (from Gr. stenos,
narrow, and grapho, to write). A scrivener is the name still
given to a scribe or writer through the OF. escrivain (F. ecrivain),
from low L. scribarim, from L. scriba, a scribe, from scribo. The
word is used chiefly in the phrase " scrivener's palsy," but now
called " writer's cramp." The word engross is also suggestive —
originally derived from F. en, in, and gros, large = in large. It
meant at first to copy a writing in a large hand or in distinct
characters, but it has now come to signify to occupy wholly, to
monopolise, as, the conversation.

The word volume is not the only instance of the retention of
a word, the literal signification of which is completely obsolete.
The word indenture refers to an ancient precaution against
forgery, resorted to in the case of important contracts. The
duplicate documents, of which each party retained one, were

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

249

irregularly indented in precisely the same manner, so that upon
comparison they might exactly tally. To indent was to cut into
points like teeth — to notch — low L. indento, from L. in, and dens,
dentis, a tooth. So also a vignette portrait has lost the accom-
paniment which alone made the name appropriate — viz., the vine-
leaves and tendrils which in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries usually formed its ornamental border. It still signifies
a small engraving with ornamental borders. Usually in olden
times the title-page of a book had such a border with two pillars
represented on each side wreathed with vines bearing leaves,
tendrils, and bunches of grapes. The F. vignette signifies a little
vine ; vignettes, vignets, branches, branch-like border or flourishes
in painting or engraving. Vignette is the diminutive of F. vigne,
a vine.

The directions in the English prayer-book are still known as
rubrics (L. mber, red), although it is now the exception rather
than the rule to see them printed as they originally were — in red
letters. And to take only one other instance, we apply without
any sense of incongruity the name of pen (from L. penna, a
feather) to all those modern appliances which rival — which indeed
have almost entirely superseded — the quill, to which alone the
word is strictly applicable.

The different forms of literature are divided into Prose and
Verse. Prose is the direct straightforward arrangement of words,
free from poetical measures — ordinary spoken and written
language : the word is derived through the F. from L. prosa
from prorsa from 2)rorsus, straightforward. Prose, then, is speech
going straight on and not poetical. Dull and tedious conversa-
tion is sometimes called prosaic and prosy, being monotonous.
Prosody has nothing to do with prose. It is the Gr. and L.
word (Gr. pros, to or in addition to, and odi, a song or tune), and
means the quantity of syllables and measure of verse, tone, or
accenting a syllable. Verse differs from prose in being measured,
that is to say, divided into groups of words and syllables. The
real meaning of the word " verse," according to Euskin, is a line of
words which " turns " at a certain point, as the furrow turns in a

250 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

ploughed field (L. versus, a turning, a line (from verto, I turn, p. 1).
It partly therefore involves the idea of returning in another part
of the field, and so has heen ordinarily employed in the sense of
" stanza." This last word, meaning first the chamber of a house
(old It. stantia, a stop, a lodging, chamber dwelling, from L.
sto, stare, to stand), came afterwards, both in Italy and here, to
signify properly a piece of a song enclosed or partitioned by itself,
or a division of a poem containing every variety of measure in the
poem. The Greek word metron, metre (measure), has been
adopted in all languages, with just respect for the first masters
of poetry, to signify a measured portion of a verse. Grammarians
enumerate more than twenty different metres, of which I shall
mention only a few. The spondaic, from the word spondee, two
syllables of equal length, uttered so deliberately that they may
correspond to the time in which a man, walking firmly and serenely,
takes two paces. This metre was called spondeios (pous, a foot)
in Greek, because it was the measure of the melodies used at the
most solemn religious and national ceremonies, accompanied always
with the " spondee," " the drink offering " to God. The spondee
was properly the libation or the wine poured out on the head of
the victim to be sacrificed when an agreement or treaty was to be
made. And it has the perpetual authority of correspondence with
the deliberate pace of Man, and expression of his noblest animal
character in erect and thoughtful motion : all the rhythmic art of
poetry having thus primary regard to the great human noblesse of
walking on feet ; and by no means referring itself to any other
manner of progress, by help either of stilts or steam. In this
power the spondceiis, or time of the perfect pace of a reasonable
two-legged animal, has regulated the verse of the two most
deliberate nations of the earth — the Greek and the Roman ;
and through their verse, has regulated the manner, the mien,
and the musical ear, of all educated persons in all countries
and times. It is usual only to define it as consisting of two
"long" syllables; but the actual length in time has never been
stated ; and it is absolutely necessary, in order to fix proper edu-
cational laws either for music or verse, that the time of metres

OUR WRITTEN LANGDAGE. 251

should be defined positively no less than relatively. Now, any
person holding himself well erect, and walking in regular time, so
firmly that he could carry a vase of water on his head without spill-
ing it or losing its balance, will find that he can easily take two
paces in a second, and not easily more. The proper length of the
spondee will therefore be one second (indicated by two minims),
and a long syllable (indicated by a minim), forming a part of any
other foot, will, primarily, have the length of half a second. From
this measure we can form our divisions of time, noting in what
special verses or under what particular conditions the time may
be quickened or delayed. The Dactylic measure is also import-
ant : the dactyl has a long syllable followed by two short ones.
It has not yet been sufficiently recognised by writers on prosody
that there are two dactyls, — the long dactyl, formed by the divi-
sion of the last syllable of a spondee into two, giving two seconds
of time to the whole metre as to the spondee from which it is
formed ; and the short dactyl, formed by dividing the last syllable
of the other into two, the syllables being severally half a second
and two-eighths of a second long — minim and two quavers ; or, in
lightest measure, crotchet and two semiquavers. It will be most
convenient to call the first of these the Heroic, and the second the
Lyric Dactyl, the last being almost exclusively used in English
verse. But for both the name Dactyl (Gr. dactulos), "finger,"
meaning a cadence composed of three joints in diminishing pro-
portion, indicates a subtlety in the distribution of time which
cannot be expressed by any musical measurement. • The division
of the foot in fine utterance, sounds as if it resulted from a certain
degree of languor, — as if the second syllable had fallen short by
some failure of power or feeling, and then the loss had been
supplied by the added third. A Poet signifies literally a maker
(Fr. poete, from L. poeta, Gr. poietes, a maker, from poieo, to do or
make), one who makes poetry, a composition in which the verses,
whether rhymed or not, consist of certain rhythmic measures. A
poetaster is a petty poet, a pitiful rhymster, a writer of con-
temptible verses.

Parody is a caricature of a poem, made by applying its words

252 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

and ideas with a burlesque effect (L. and Gr. parodia, from Gr.
para, besides, and ode, an ode or song). Rhyme was originally
and properly in AS. rim, measure, and naturally rime in ME.
But scholars attempted to derive it from the Gr. rt/thmo (whence
rhythm comes), and the absurd spelling, rhyme, is the result of the
effort. Rime is now preferred by many writers, and is already
gaining ground, but printers are stubborn, and it is hard to resign
the hard-won spoils of our youthful campaign in the spelling-book.
The adoption of the "learned spelling," "rhyme," has of course had
no effect on the pronunciation. An idyll is a short pictorial poem,
chiefly on pastoral subjects (L. idyllium, from Gr. eidyllion, dimin-
utive of eidos, an image, from eidomai, to seem). Elegiac poetry is
mournful poetry, an elegy being a song of mourning (French from
Latin and Gr. elegos, a lament). A sonnet is a short poem of
fourteen lines with varying rhymes, through French and It. sonetto,
diminutive of sono, a sound or song, from L. sonus, a sound. An
apologue is a moral tale, French from Gr. apologos, from apo and
logos, speech. A fable is a feigned story or tale, intended to
instruct or amuse (F. fable, from L. fabula, from fari, to speak).
An apostrophe is a sudden turning away from the subject to
address some person or object present or absent. Also a mark
showing the omission of a letter — Gr. apo, and strophe, a turning.
(We have also catastrophe, an overturning, a calamity, from Gr.
Jcata, down, and strepJw, to turn.) Aphorism is a brief pithy
saying, from Gr. apliorizo, to mark off by boundaries, Gr. apo, and
horos, a limit or boundary. Apothegm, a terse pointed remark,
Gr. apophthegomai, to speak plainly. Maxim, a general principle,
usually of a practical nature, a proverb (F. maxime, from L.
maxima (sententia, an opinion), superlative of magmis, great, and
proverb, a short familiar sentence forcibly expressing a well-known
truth ; OF. proverbe, from L. proverbum, pro, publicly, and verbum,
a word).

Of literature of a different though very important kind, we
have newspapers — lit., papers published for circulating news.
They are for the most part more than this, and the leading articles
of many of them are models of style, and leaders of thought, on

OUR WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

253

most questions of public interest. The word "news" has been

N
supposed to come from the four points of the compass W + E as

if the tidings came from all quarters, but the word signifies some-
thing " new," or the " newest." Printing itself came through the F.
empreindre, from L. imprimo and pressus, from in and premo, to
press. A journal is a newspaper published daily or otherwise, but
the word signifies literally a diurnal, or daily register or diary,
from F. journal, from jour, a day, from L. dmrnalis, from dies, a
day.1 An author is one who originates or gives existence to any-
thing, through F. auteur, from L. auctor, from augeo, auxi, auctum,
augere,2 to increase, make to grow, to produce ; but the editor of a
book is he who edits it — that is, superintends the publication and
gives it out to the world. The Latin editor — literally, one who
gives out, from the verb edere, to give out — was, after the invention
of printing, often employed in a special sense as denoting the person
who " gives to the world " a book or other literary work of which
he is not the author. In this sense it has passed into English and
other modern languages. But under modern conditions there are
two different classes of persons concerned in the production of a
book, to either of whom the word might be applied in as literal
meaning with equal propriety. The " giver-out " of a book — for
instance, of a classical text which has never before been printed —
may mean what we now call the publisher, the man who bears the
expense of printing it, and makes the arrangements -for its circula-
tion among the public ; or it may mean the scholar who puts the

1 Whence also sojourn, to wait
over the day, to dwell in a place
for a time, and adjourn, to put off
to another day. Journeyman,
originally and strictly a workman
hired by the day, or for a period
(F. journde, low L. jornala, a day's
work, from L. diunin*, from dies, a
day), afterwards and now a work-
man as distinguished from an ap-
prentice, not a mere learner as an
apprentice signifies, one who is
learning a trade, from OF. aprentis,

a beginner, from apprendre, to learn
(L. ad to, and prehendo, to lay hold
of). There is in Scotland the
shorter form of prentice or prentis,
as in Burns's lines :

" Her 'prentice ban' she tried on man,
And then she made the lasses, O I "

2 From this verb we have, to
augment, augmentation, auction,
auctioneer, authority, authorise,
authoritative, autumn, auxil-
iary.

254 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

text into order for publication, and provides it with such illustra-
tive matter as it is deemed to require. Now, while in French
editor, editeur, has come to mean publisher, in England it has
become restricted to the other of its possible applications. When
we use it we no longer think of its literal sense. The prominent
function of an editor is not that of issuing a literary work to the
public, but that of bringing it into the form in which it is to
appear. Although " editor " is not a word of English formation,
it has an ending which coincides in form with that of English
agent nouns, so that it has naturally suggested the coinage of a
verb "to edit," meaning to prepare for publication as an editor
does — i.e., to put into such a form as is thought suitable for the
public to read. When we say, usually with unfavourable meaning,
that a war correspondent's telegrams have been " edited," we mean
that they have undergone alterations or excisions, in accordance
with the press censor's notion of the amount of information which
ought to be given to the public at home. Similarly, we may say
that the composition of an illiterate, or foolish, person requires a
great deal of " editing " in order to be suitable for publication.
If, instead of adopting the Latin word, we had rendered it by
some such equivalent as " out-giver " (corresponding to the Ger.
herausgeber, which is used quite in the English sense of " editor "),
there would have been no opportunity for the back formation of a
verb, with a meaning so remote from the primary signification of
the substantive. — (Bradley's ' Making of English.')

255

CHAPTEE XVIII.

CITY LIFE.

A city is abstract in its origin. It is the F. cite, from the L.
civitas. Civitas meant originally citizenship, being the abstract
of civis, citizen, but was easily transferred to the citizens in their
collective capacity — the body of the citizens, the community, and
so came at last to be a mere synonym with L. urbs,1 a city. In
its origin, then, the " city " suggests the body politic, whereas town
suggests merely the actual place, the fenced stronghold ; and some
traces of this old distinction have persisted to modern times,
though the words have received new conventional senses, different
in different parts of the English-speaking world. Our distinction
between a city and a town is unknown to other Teutonic and
(now) also to Eoman languages, — Ger. stadt, F. mile, Sp. cuidade,
translate both town and city. Town is a very concrete word in its
origin. It is native Germanic (AS. tun) ; it means literally an
" enclosure," a " fenced place," and points to the stockaded settle-
ments of a long time ago, before the Angles and Saxons saw
Britain. The cognate Ger. zaun has kept the older sense of a
hedge. Village is F. from L. mllaticus, belonging to a country
house (compare Milton's " tame villatic font," in " Samson
Agonistes "), and suggests the manor-house with its adjacent
clusters of cottages. The Modern English word villa is a direct
borrowing from the Italian, which had preserved the word from the
Roman times without change of form. It was the Latin name for
a farmhouse with its accompaniments, and from the nature of

1 From urbs we have urban (L.
urbanus), belonging to a city, and

suburban, and also urbane, civil,
courteous, polite, refined.

256 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

Eoman land-holding, might be used of a very splendid estate.
Many of the houses in our suburbs would be, and are, properly
called villas. Descent is easy, and words, like people, have a
tendency to fall away from their better selves. A good example
is found in our word villain (see p. 228).

Having spoken of the words city, town, and village, we have the
name for a still smaller assemblage of houses to consider — the
word hamlet, a double diminutive, which we derived from OF.
hamelet, a diminutive of hamel (mod. F. hameau'), which is itself
a diminutive of "W. Ger. Tiaim (AS. ham, Eng. home, Ger. heim).
Thus hamlet is closely related to our home, though it has reached
us through the French, and has not descended like " home " from
AS. Home is a general Indo-European word for " abiding-place,"
"dwelling." In the oldest English it was purely descriptive, and
apparently as destitute of tender or sentimental emotions as town
or city with us. As early as the sixteenth century we meet with
the proverb " home is homely," i.e., home-like or comfortable, but
John Howard Payne's famous song, "Home, Sweet Home," ex-
pressed in simple language the feelings that had become vaguely
connected with the word.

"We now turn your attention to the ways through and around
the city on which the houses have been built, and where the
intercourse and traffic are conducted. These are chiefly streets.
A street is from L. strata l (via), a paved road lined with houses ;
but now applied to a definitely laid out road in a city or town,
quite irrespective of the question of pavement. Some of the
streets are not paved, but are macadamised — that is to say, the
road is covered with small broken stones so as to form a hard
smooth surface, so called from the name of Macadam (1756-1836),
the inventor. As street rather smacks of commerce, which, as
Cicero says of Rome, is in disrepute, except on a large scale, road
is preferred, as more suggestive of the country-loving gentry. A
road is properly the way by which one rides or travels — a high-
consternation, amazement that pro-
duces confusion and terror, and
prostration, the act of throwing

1 The L. verb from which this
comes is sterno, stravi, stratum,
sternZre, to throw to the ground,
and from it we have the word

down, or laying flat.

CITY LIFE. 257

way, and we naturally name it from the place to which it leads
(as the London Eoad), or its direction (as the Northern Eoad).
Turnpike (from turn and pike), originally a frame consisting of
two bars, armed at the ends with pikes or poles, and turning on
a post to hinder horses from entering, and afterwards applied to
the gate or bars across a road to hinder passage till toll be paid ;
and so the roads on which turnpikes or toll-bars were established
were called turnpike-roads or toll-roads. Way is the more general
term for any kind of road or street or passage. It is connected
witli the L. via, a way, and means literally that over which one
moves. A lane, from the AS. lane, and the Scotch loan, which
signified originally an open space between corn-fields, hedges, &c.,
has come to signify a narrow street : probably the change of mean-
ing has come about through the gradual narrowing of these open
spaces in the country, but there can be no doubt that properly
a lane is a narrow country way, and not a highroad. The term
(as in the case of the Devonshire lanes) is crowded with poetical
associations, which are lost in the dismal realities of city sur-
roundings. A narrow way is seldom pleasant in a city. Hence
(except in the case of Park Lane, London), the term is not in
favour in urban nomenclature. An alley (F. allee) has long been
a rather disparaging name in this country for a narrow passage.
The word comes from the F. alter, to go ; but we have here no
Grande Allee — they are all of the poorest kind, so that we are
more familiar with a blind alley, one that is closed at the end
so as to be no thoroughfare, a cul de sac. The word boulevard
is a F. corruption of the Ger. boll-werk, bulwark. It means,
therefore, a street laid out on the site of an ancient and de-
molished fortification. As this is never done until a city has
far outgrown its walls, a boulevard is generally in a thickly
settled quarter, and has no suburban associations. On the con-
trary, an avenue (from F. avenir, to arrive, from L. advenire,
to come to) is properly an approach to a city, or to some con-
spicuous part of it; or the chief approach to a country house,
usually bordered with trees — an avenue of limes and beeches.
In a town, and still more in a city, we are struck by the busyness

258 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

of the people, and very soon come to understand what business is,
the state of being busy, fully occupied — perhaps originally from
. the OF. bus&rgnes, pi., works, business, and busuigne (F. twelfth
century), connected with mod. F. besom (m.) and besogne (f.).
The most striking feature of city life is its commercial aspect.
The word commerce is from the L. commercium — con, with, and
merx, mercis, goods, wares, merchandise. From this word merx
we have also the word merchant, which in Scotland (and in
America) includes buying and selling of all kinds, whether on a
large or small scale, even although carried on in a shop, — and there
is no place more familiar to residents in country districts than the
merchant's shop ; and the general merchant is a man with the
most multifarious stock of any man in the United Kingdom — a
shopkeeper. In England the word merchant is still a name of
distinction restricted to wholesale traders, and especially to those
having dealings with foreign countries, except in cases where there
is a prefix to the word, such as spirit-merchant, tea-merchant, corn-
merchant, coal - merchant, &c., which frequently include retail
dealers. The word merchant came to us through the F., the OF.
being marchant, a merchant, from L. mercantem, the present
participle of mercari, to barter, but all from merx, a price.
Probably the French spelling gave us the English word market,
from L. mercatum, trade, and mart (a contraction of market), a
place of public sale and traffic. Still from the same word merx,
through the F. mercier, we have the word mercer, a dealer in silks,
velvets, laces, and other costly materials, but frequently with
silk prefixed. Mercantile is that which pertains to trade and
commerce. The word mercenary comes through merces, mer-
cedis, wages, from the same root, and originally signified a hire-
ling, or a person working merely for the sake of pay or of
self-interest.

As we go along the street and read the different signs, we find,
for instance, appraisers (L. ad, to, and pretium, a price), those who
put values on what is to be sold. Architects, who design build-
ings and superintend their erection (Gr. arclios, chief, and tekton, a
builder). Auctioneers (from L. audio, from augeo, to increase) —

CITY LIFE.

259

so called because at an auction the price gradually increases, and
the article is sold to the highest bidder. Butchers (F. boucher, OF.
backer, originally one who slaughters he-goats, from boc, a goat,
OELGer. bock], those who slaughter animals for food, or who cut
up and sell meat or flesh. Chandlers, who now are general dealers.
The word comes through the OF. chandelier, a maker of candles
or a dealer in them, from L. candela, a candle ; and at first we had
wax-chandlers and tallow-chandlers, then by-and-by we had corn-
chandlers, and now we have ship-chandlers, who supply ships with
cordage, canvas, and even with general stores. The French word
chandelier, introduced into England, signified first a receptacle
for candles, and the word has been so extended as to include gas-
jets and electric light. No doubt we have the word electrolier for
an electric chandelier, but here Her was taken as a termination,
though the Z is really a part of L. candela, candle, from which
candelabrum (the original of chandelier) is derived. Confectioners
derive their name from the L. confectio, a preparing thoroughly (from
con and factus, made). They are now makers of sweetmeats, which
are called confections, anything prepared with sugar, sweetmeats.
The meaning has gradually specialised into this. In Paris, on the
other hand, the word confection, signifying a making up, has come to
signify a making up or manufacturing, while a maison de confections
is a dressmaking establishment. Contractors, those who agree to do
a certain service or work at a stipulated price or rate, from L. con-
tractus, an agreement (con, together, and tractus, drawn). Distillers
are those who distil or manufacture ardent spirits or alcoholic liquors
from grain, &c. The word comes through the F. distiller from L.
distillare or destillare, to drop or trickle down (de, down, and stillo, I
drop] literally to drop or trickle down in drops), to vaporise by heat
and then reconvert into the liquid state. Drysalters do not throw
much light upon the reason of their name through anything we
see in their windows, such as gums, drugs, dyestuffs, and chemical
substances of various kinds ; but the name was given to them when,
as originally, they were dealers in dry and salted meats. Em-
broiderers are those who ornament with designs in needlework,
originally on the border (em, on, and F. brodei; another form of

260 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

border, from bord, edge). Laundresses — women whose employ-
ment is to wash and get up linen, — OE. lavanderess, OF. lavandiere,
from mediaeval L. lavanderia, from L. lavo, lavavi, lavatum, lavare,
to wash ; and a laundry is the place where clothes are washed and
done up (p. 200). Nurserymen are those who rear plants and trees
on ground set apart for the purpose, which is therefore called a
nursery, just as the room in a house set apart for the young
children is so called. The French do not use their word for
nursery in this double sense, but they have a chambre des en/ants,
the children's nursery, and pepiniere (from pepin, a kernel, pip, or
stone), a nursery for young trees. The Germans, however, speak
of a Baum Schule, a tree school, or a Pflanz Schule, a plant
school, corresponding with our nurseries for trees and plants.
Umbrella makers derive the name from the Italian ombrella,
diminutive of ombra, a shade, from L. umbra, a shade, — liter-
ally a protection from the sun by the shade it furnishes. But
we use the word habitually in the sense of a protection from
rain, and in this sense the word imbrella would have been
much more accurate, as it would come from the L. imber, a
shower, just as the French use the word parapluie (para, be-
side, and pluie, rain) for an umbrella; while the parasol (para,
beside, and sol, the sun) with them, as with us, is the name
of the small shade against the sun's rays. Victual dealers
and provision merchants generally go together in Scotland.
The word victual (now generally in the plur. victuals) comes
through the F. victuaille, through mediaeval L. victualia, mode
of living, or articles commonly used as food, from the L. word
victus, food, from vivo, vixi, victum, vivere, to live (p. 172). In
Scotland the word is restricted to farinaceous food, and in some
parts to the grain crops, which are spoken of as victual. Provision,
too, is generally limited to food, and always so when used in the
combination of which we are writing. Originally derived through
F. from L. provisionem, foresight, providence (pro, before, and
video, I see), the act of providing ; care or measures taken before-
hand, and then food, the things provided ; and a provision
merchant is the shopkeeper who retails articles of food for daily

CITY LIFE.

261

use. The word viands (p. 172), through the F. viande, It. vivanda,
anciently nourishment in general, low L. vivenda (necessary for
life), again from the L. vivere, to live, now provisions for eating —
sometimes pressed meat. The word victualler in England, and
especially the phrase licensed victualler, is a man who keeps a
victual house, — an innkeeper or tavern keeper, a seller of intoxicat-
ing liquors by retail. A monopoly is what many are struggling
to secure, for a monopolist is one who has obtained the exclusive
power to sell a certain article, or who, by buying up the whole of
it, has the command of the market at some place, and so he can
sell at an advanced price. The word comes from the Gr. mono-
polion (monos, alone, poleo, I sell).

The word traffic is derived from the two Latin words trans,
signifying through or across, and facere, to make or do, with its
participle factus or fictus. It is still chiefly carried on by carts,
waggons, lorries, drays. There are a great many carts with two
wheels for carrying heavy loads, the word being either the Celtic
cart, or from the word car, which came to us from the Norman
carre, used for almost any vehicle. Carre is from the late L.
carra, L. carrus. But we have now cars of all kinds, — steam-cars,
tram-cars, electric cars, and motor-cars. The word motor signifies
literally a mover, that which gives motion or motive power, without
specifying its nature, just as locomotive has a learned formation
(like F. locomotif], made as if from a L. locomotivvs (loco, from or
out of a place, and motivus, from movere,1 to mover— literally, what
moves anything from its place). The word engine obviously comes
from the L. ingenium (from in and gigno? genui, to produce), which

1 From moveo, mom, motum, movere,
to move, we have mob (from mobile,
easily moved), mobility, mobilisa-
tion, including all that is needed to
put an army on a war footing ; a
moment (for moviment), moment-
ary, momentum, motion, movement,
movable, immovable, immobility,
mutiny, commotion, &neute, emo-
tion, locomotion, promote, pro-
motion, remove, removal, re-
mote.

2 From the word genius (the same
root gif/no) we have genial, mean-
ing kindly and cheerful, geniality,
congenial. A gin (a contraction of
engine) is a machine or a snare.
An ingenious person is very clever
or skilful in contriving, and men
show great ingenuity in devising or
constructing machines, which are
also called ingenious. The English
word ingenuous is from L. ingenuus
(same root as ingenium).

262 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

signifies primarily the innate natural quality of a thing, then of a
person, the natural capacity or disposition, and very soon in Latin
even, talents, abilities, and specially the faculty of invention, genius,
and wit ; and so an engine signifies properly a machine or other
means skilfully adapted to effect a purpose, and an engineer is
one skilled in constructing engines or in devising plans. We have
still the waggon or wagon, which comes from the Dutch or low
German. The native English term of wain is from AS. wagen,
waen, from the root vah, to carry, L. veho. We still use the word
wain when we speak of the constellation of the Plough, or Charles's
Wain or waggon. The word lorry, properly a four-wheeled waggon
without sides, is supposed to come from provincial English lurry,
to pull or lug. Dray is also a slow-moving vehicle for heavy loads,
such as a brewer's dray, — in the AS. drage, dragnet, from dragan,
to draw. It is connected with dredge, but dredge, though originally
Teuton, comes from OF. drege. But turning your attention now
to vehicles that are used for the conveyance of persons, the word
vehicle itself is one of the most comprehensive, as meaning any
kind of carriage that is used to convey either persons or goods,
— from the L. veho, to carry. The word chariot comes from the
Latin word carrica, a chariot, the origin of which is clearly the
Greek word caruchon or coach. Stone tells us that " coaches were
not known in this country of old time, but chariots, or whirlicotes
then so called ; and then used only of princes or of men of great
estates, such as had their footmen about them. And, for example
to note, I read that Eichard II., being threatened by the rebels of
Kent, rode from the Tower of London to the Mile End, and with
his mother (because she was sick and weak), in a whirlicote, divers
lords attending on horseback. But in the year next following the
said Eichard, who took to wife Anne, daughter to the King of
Bohemia, that first brought hither the riding upon side-saddles,
and so was the riding in whirlicotes and chariots forsaken, except
at coronations and suchlike spectacles ; but now of late years the
use of coaches, brought out of Germany, is taken up and made so
common as there is neither distinction of time nor difference of
persons observed, for the world runs on wheels, with many whose

CITY LIFE. 263

parents were glad to go on foot." He adds that the number of
coaches in London must needs be dangerous, and gives the laws
and customs in the city for their government, such as that the fore
horse of every carriage should be led by the hand, &c., " yet these
good orders have not been observed." Coaches (or covered vehicles
for travelling) seem to have been introduced into this country
about the year 1570, but were used only by a few distinguished
individuals. Hume, in his ' History of England,' says : " About
1580 the use of coaches was introduced by the Earl of Arundel.
Before that time the Queen on public occasions rode behind her
chamberlain." In 1625, however, they were let for hire; and in
1689 a company of coachmakers was incorporated in London, and
bore for their arms a coach which is so similar to the family coach
of our own day as to convince us that little change in the form
has taken place since that time. The word coach was introduced
from the F. coche in the sixteenth century, when coaches came
into use. The word was originally a Magyar adjective, from the
name of the town Rocs (pronounced Kotch\ so that coach arises
from the generic name which the adjective limits. Of all the
private vehicles which pass along, perhaps the most remarkable,
for its name, is a tandem, which does not describe the vehicle
but the position of the two horses — not abreast, but with one
before the other. The name may have originated in ignorance of
Latin, or in all probability in university slang, as the L. adverb
tandem (from tandemum) signifies " at length," in the sense of " at
last," but never in the sense of length- ways. The L. tandem,
properly speaking, always contains the idea of a point of time
reached after long expectation. A good story in this connection
is told of Bishop M'Gee, who had been asked by a gentleman
in his diocese to remonstrate with a clergyman who had adopted
a good many practices which rather scandalised his flock, as in-
dicating that he was too fast and worldly, and, among others,
that of driving tandem. The bishop sent for the offender and
remonstrated with him; but on this particular habit the bishop
found him obdurate, and prepared to defend his conduct. He
said to the bishop that he really could not see that it made

264 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

any difference, if he kept two horses, whether he drove them
abreast as the bishop did, or, as he was accused of doing, the
one before the other, tandem; to which the bishop replied
that there were many cases in which the position made a great
difference. " For instance," he said, " I hold up my two hands
and pronounce a benediction; but if I were to put my hands
to my nose, the one before the other, it would be regarded as
the reverse of a benediction, and I should not be allowed long
to remain Bishop of Peterborough." Soon after this he became
Archbishop of York. But while still Bishop of Peterborough he
was coming down from London one afternoon with two gentlemen
in the same compartment who did not know the bishop by sight,
but who, as they came near Peterborough, were relating several
stories of the bishop, and with comments not always compli-
mentary. As they were going farther north, when he got out at
Peterborough he bade them good-bye, and added, "By the way,
when I have occasion to pronounce my name, I call it Magee,
and not McGee, as you have been doing " !

Cab was originally slang when first used, in 1830, as short
for cdbi-iolet, which is a French diminutive of capriole, a goat's
leap : the latter comes from the It. cabriola, itself a diminutive
of capra, a she-goat. This name given to it was in allusion to
its lightness and springiness; but the word cab itself is one of
a group of a peculiarly national stamp. They are easy and
familiar expressions formed by a curtailment of longer words,
and are mostly monosyllabic. It is generally, but not always,
the first part that has been retained. Thus for speculation we
have spec ; for omnibus, 'bus ; for cabriolet, cab ; for incognito,
incog. ; and stress for distress. The curt expression of tick for
credit is as old as the seventeenth century, and is corrupted
from ticket, as a tradesman's bill was formerly called. The
words which one generation calls slang are not unfrequently the
sober and decorous terms of that which succeeds : the term 'bus
has made for itself a very tolerable position, and cab is absolutely
established as a real word. The curt form of gent as a less
ceremonious substitute for the full expression of "gentleman"

CITY LIFE.

265

had once made considerable way, but its career was blighted in
a court of justice. It is about forty years ago that two young
men, being brought before a London magistrate, described them-
selves as "gents." The magistrate said that he considered that
designation little better than a "blackguard." The abbreviated
form has never been able to recover from the shock. It was
gradually discarded from the speech of the upper classes, and
came to be a contemptuous designation for the vulgar pre-
tenders to gentility, in whose vocabulary it still survives. A
more respectable example of a curt form is the title miss,
which, although nothing but the first syllable of mistress, has
won its way to an honoured position. In fact, these words
have a crude and fragmentary look only while they are recent ;
give time enough, and the abruptness disappears. Who finds it
vulgar to say consols, though this is but a short way of saying
" consolidated annuities " 1 A peal of bells is now an elegant ex-
pression, although it is curtailed from " appeal." Story is a pretty
word, though curt for history. The short form has always
borne a comparatively familiar sense, as it does to the present
day. Even curtailments which are now obsolete are in some
cases preserved to us in compound words. Thus the word cob-
web seems to indicate that the word attercop (old word for
spider — Scotch ettercap) was curtly called a " cop " or " cob." The
full word comes, as we have seen, from ator or attor, poison ;
and coppa, derivative of " cop," " top " ; or copp, cup, vessel, with
reference to its supposed venomous properties.

Hammer-cloth is the name given to the cloth that covers a
coach -box. Skeat suggests that the word/is an adaptation of
the Dutch word hemel, heaven, a covermg ; Ger. himmel. But
although Professor Skeat's suggestions are almost invariably char-
acterised by accuracy, I am inclined to think that others are
nearer the truth who suggest that the cloth that covers the
box-seat of a carriage of any kind is called the hammer-cloth
because in the old coaching days it concealed the box which
contained a hammer, nails, and other implements useful for
repairs in the event of a breakdown on the journey ; just as

266

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

we find similar provision, but on a more extensive scale, as
part of the furniture of a modern motor-car.

The cab in this fast age is frequently designated a crawler,
perhaps from its crawling slowly along the streets at times in
search of a fare, but in consequence also of its slow speed in
crowded streets ; so that if more rapid movement is required,
you must engage a hansom cab — so designated from the man,
Joseph Aloysius Hansom, who, in 1833, patented it as the
safety cab, — and not from its beauty or its speed : although it is
generally called a " hansom," on the principle that " handsome is
as handsome does." The name of hackney-coach is interesting.
It is simply the literal translation of the F. coche-haquenee, the
name given to a coach drawn by a hired horse, or let for hire.
I suspect, however, that it is the horse which gave its name to
the coach, and not the coach to the horse. The F. word haquenee
and the Dut. hakkenei signified a nag, an " ambling nag " origin-
ally ; but when a horse is employed for general use, especially on
hire, the word hack came to be used for such a horse — poor and
jaded — and so the word came to signify a horse for hire. The
postilion originally was the post-boy who guided post-horses, or
horses in any carriages, riding on one of the horses, and called
from F. postilion (from poste, post, from L. pono,1 posui, positum,
ponere, to place), so that post means originally a fixed place
or stage on a road. A stage-coach was so called because it ran
regularly with passengers from stage to stage (F. ctage, from
L. sto, to stand). To travel post-haste, then, meant to travel with
post-horses or with speed, because there were horses posted or
placed at the different stages waiting ready to relieve those which
had just arrived; and as carrying letters came to be the chief
business, even although there are no relays of horses now, nor

1 From pono we have posed, posi-
tion, posture, positive, positively,
apposite, apposition, component,
composed, compound, compose, com-
positor, depone, depose, deposition,
depositors, depositary, expose and
exposure and exposition, expositors,
expounders, impose, imposing, im-

postor, indispose, indisposition,
interpose, interposition, opponent,
oppose, opposition, postpone, post-
ponement, predispose, predisposi-
tion, preposition, propose, proposal,
purpose, repose, repository, super-
impose, suppose, transpose, and
transposition.

CITY LIFE. 267

horses at all employed for their acceleration, the word post has
been usurped by the post-office, and by the postman, even although
letters or messages are now sent by train, by telegraph, or by tele-
phone. We also speak of the parcel post, which now signifies,
almost exclusively, a small package of goods, such as tea or sugar,
or anything of such size as could easily be carried in the hand,
and originally signified a small part, a particle of anything, even a
small portion or piece of land, as in John iv. 5, " A city of Samaria,
. . . near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph."
It comes through the F. parcelle, from L. particula, a diminutive of
pars, partis, a part. The word mail, originally a bag for the con-
veyance of letters, from OF. male, OHLGer. mdhala, a wallet, and
Gaelic mala, a bag or sack. It now signifies any conveyance by
which letters are forwarded to their destination, and the letters
themselves collectively are often called the mail — e.g., yesterday
at a hotel to which a great many letters had been forwarded to
me, the hall porter said, "You have a very heavy mail this
morning, sir." The post-office suggests the stationer's shop, which
is never far off from it, where paper, pens, and ink can be pur-
chased ; and we are led to inquire why the man who keeps this
shop should be called a stationer, and why paper, pens, and ink
should be called stationery. I believe the explanation is that
there were certain stations or fixed places (stationes) in Eome, and
throughout Italy, where people sold paper, &c., to those who were
able to write, and who also wrote for those who were unable to do
so for themselves. And just as we have seen how " post," which
means originally firmly fixed, came to mean rapid travelling, so
we discover the reason why people who wandered through the
country selling paper, pens, and ink (as many did fifty years ago,
even in Scotland), should without, any contradiction of terms have
been called "flying stationers." The word philatelist, so recently
formed, and applied to one who makes a habit of collecting stamps
— a stamp collector — has come to us through the F. philatelic
(invented by M. Herpen, a postage-stamp collector, in 1864), from
Gr. ateles, free from tax or charge, ateleia, exemption from pay-
ment (ex ateleias, without payment, free, franco). When a letter

268 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

was sent carriage free or carriage prepaid by the sender, it was
formerly in various countries (such as our own) stamped free, or
franco ; the fact is now indicated by the letter bearing an im-
pressed receipt stamp, or its substitute, an adhesive label (com-
monly called a postage-stamp), for the amount : the Gr. ateles, a
passable equivalent for free or franco, has for the purpose of word-
making been employed to express the freimarke, franco - bollo,
franco-mark, frank-stamp, or postage-stamp, and so to supply the
second element in philatelic, while the common Gr. philo, a lover
of, or fond of, supplies the first (Murray). Near the post-office
(this word reminds us of the modern word) and the stationer's
shop, where two or three streets meet, there are generally several
people standing idly, and discussing the merest trivialities of the
day. There, as Trench says, you have the living explanation of
trivial, trivialities such as no explanation not rooting itself in the
etymology could ever give you, or enable you to give to others.
You have there the trivia, the place where three ways meet,
made up of L. tres, three, and vice, ways, and trivialities (from
L. trivialis, lit. to be found at the cross-roads or public streets)
properly mean such talk as is carried on by these idle loiterers
that gather at this meeting of the three roads.

269

CHAPTER XIX.

WEIGHTS AND MEASUKES.

IT would scarcely be sufficient to speak of a quantity. In this
word quantity, L. qtiantitas, from quantus, how much, that prop-
erty of anything that can be increased or diminished, any indeter-
minate weight, bulk, or number, we have also the word quantum
used as an English word, and by Burns also when he says —

" I waive the q^^antum o' the sin,
The hazard of concealing " —

i.e., the magnitude or the amount. The Greek word for quantity,
or the " howmuchness " of anything, is posotes, a word formed by
Aristotle from posos (how great) as an abstract term for the general
philosophic idea of the magnitude of any individual thing, and
quantitas was at a much later period manufactured as the Latin
translation of posotes. The Greek word posos is still found in one
or two words in our language. I was very much surprised a few
days ago, in going carefully over the admirable therapeutic notes
and index of diseases and their treatment in Wellcome's Medical
Diary and Visiting List for 1907, to come upon what is headed a
"posological table," giving the equivalents of imperial measures
of mass and capacity, where the word posological signifies of, or
pertaining to, quantities or doses in medicine. I mention this the
more readily that a medical man of great knowledge and experi-
ence, when I asked him what was meant by posological in that
connection, said he thought it meant " equivalent," but could not
tell from what it came. Posology is really the branch of medicine

270

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

which treats of quantity1 or doses. In the general traffic and
business of the community weights and measures are employed.
Measures of length and breadth taken from the human body are
very numerous. We may just refer in passing to a hair's-breadth,
which implies a very small measure indeed ; a nail's -breadth,
which is reckoned at 2^ inches (a measure of length greater
than that of any human nail I have ever seen or heard of, espe-
cially when we are told that a finger-breadth or digit is f of aa
inch ; digit, from the L. digitus, a finger or toe, akin to Gr.
doktylos, according to Curtius, from the root dek, seen in Gr.
dechomai, to receive. A hand's-breadth or a palm is literally the
breadth of a hand. The word inch, which comes from the L.
uncia, which signifies first, an inch, the twelfth part of a foot, then
an ounce, the twelfth part of a pound, and finally the twelfth part
of anything whatever. The great probability is that uncia is
derived from the L. word uncus, a hook or bend, and thus referring
to the top joint of the thumb. The French word for inch is
pouce, which also means a thumb, and the etymology of the
French word is the L. pollex, a thumb — the early French being
polce, but now pouce, sometimes used in the sense of measuring.
"We have a common expression for measuring approximately — viz.,
rule of thumb. Some people seem to think the rule of thumb
the most exact of all measurements, whether of temperature, of

1 Quantity, although almost op-
posed to quality in meaning, is yet
so nearly allied to it in origin that
it may be well to consider it here
in a note. When Aristotle, in his
matchless Peripatetic lectures, re-
quired a short word to represent
the general philosophic idea of
the "nature" as well as the mag-
nitude of any individual thing, he
found the Greek word poios, of
what sort? ready to his hand, and
by means of a derivative ending he
boldly formed poiotes, which repre-
sented the abstract term needed for
the idea. It served his turn, and
took its place with poiotes in the
technical dialect of the Greek phil-

osophers. Two hundred years later,
when Cicero interpreted these ideas
to his countrymen, he imitated the
boldness of Aristotle and ventured
qualitas (from quails, of what nature,
kind, or sort), a Latin word of equiv-
alent meaning to poiotes and simi-
lar formation (Cic. Acad., i. 6).
And so it has been well said, in
the course of linguistic history,
these two Greek terms for "how-
muchness " and " of whatsortness,"
invented to supply a refined philo-
sophic need, have, in the forms
quantity and quality, become the
common possession of every shop-
man, and are two of the most famil-
iar words in the English language.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

271

strength, or capacity, as when a Lord Provost of Edinburgh, giv-
ing evidence regarding the temperature of the water in St Mary's
Loch, from which it was proposed to bring a water-supply to
Edinburgh, said that when he visited the loch he found the tem-
perature was just 60° ; and being further interrogated as to what
thermometer he had used, he said he had not used any thermo-
meter : he had just put in his thumb ! But how is length to be
measured by the thumb, especially a length representing about an
inch, except by bending the thumb, and measuring its top joint
along the substance to be calculated ? In this connection it is well
to remember that all our terms of measurement taken from the body
not actually self -defined, as hand, palm, foot, &c., apply not to the
rigid but to the flexed posture. A cubit, for instance, refers to the
length from the bended elbow on which one reclines to the point of
the middle finger — from L. cubitus, lit. a bend, akin to L. cubare, to
lie down. Ell, from L. ulna, the elbow, is the name given to the large
bone from the same point, which the Germans call ellenbogen and we
ell-bow (elbow), the bend where the ell begins. A pace, as a measure-
ment of 30 to 36 inches, refers to the oppositely bended position of
the hip joint ; and a span (of 9 inches), to the oppositely bended
joints of the thumb and wrist. To span is to measure, to stretch
without any reference to length ; and yet we accept the general
term as the measure of a stretched hand without any hesitation.
A hand is a distinct measure of 4 inches, as when you speak of
a horse 14 hands high. I know no reason why the height of a
horse should be described by hands. I had a recent illustration
of the confusion occasioned by the use of such a standard. A
gentleman had bought a horse, and was giving me a description
of it, which he concluded by saying "it was 14 feet high." I
naturally looked amazed, and expressed my amazement in words,
when he corrected himself by saying it was 14 inches that he
had meant to say ! A foot, which was originally the length of a
man's foot, has now come to be a measure of 12 inches. The
word fathom signifies a measure of 6 feet, and is now limited as
a substantive to a nautical sense. "We find the German of this
word to be faden, the general term for a string or thread. We

272 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

can see a striking analogy between the German and English in the
expression " ein Faden Holz" a cord of wood ; but yet the words
faden and fathom refer primarily not to a thread, or cord, which
binds things together, but really to the space grasped by both
arms extended or held out. In the Old Saxon we have the form
fathom signifying the arm, while Rask quotes the AS. foethin in
the sense of an embrace, and Bjorn Haldersen (in his Icelandic
Dictionary) gives faden as equivalent to the outstretched arms.
If we want a conclusive analogy from a Romanic language, we have
but to look to the French equivalent for our nautical fathom,
which we find to be brasse, from bras, the arm ; and if, further, we
seek a reason why this measure should be named, rather from the
stretched out arms than from the stature of a man (these being
generally about the same length), we can but point out that the
very act of measuring one's own length (except in the involuntary
sense) would be performed with the arms rather than with the
body. The yard measure, of 3 feet in length, which regulates
our lineal measures, may be said to be also taken from the
human body, as its length was originally taken from the arm of
Henry I.

The itinerary measures (L. it&r, itineris, a journey), which are
included under the lineal, are not taken directly from the body.
The furlong, for example, which is now the eighth part of a mile,
is literally the length of a " furrow," this being the meaning of
the AS. furlang, composed of fulir, a fur, and lang, long ; furbey,
still the usual word in Scotland for the furrow or the trench made
by the plough. A mile derives its name from the L. mille, a
thousand, the Roman mile having consisted of a thousand paces
(mille possum), whereas our mile is 1760 yards. It may be here
parenthetically observed that as itinerary measures are very differ-
ent in different countries, even when the name is the same, the
traveller should be particularly careful on this head, otherwise he
will be frequently misled in his calculation of distances. The
writer had half a century ago to walk sixty-four miles at one
stretch, and with only one hour's sleep by the way, to keep an
appointment with a friend who had written to him that the dis-

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 273

tance was sixteen miles, but did not say that they were German
miles, or stunden = f our miles each, which you might walk in an
hour : hence the name, stunde, an hour. Of superficial measures,
an acre is now a distinctly defined measure of land containing
4840 square yards. Until recently, however, the English, Scotch,
and Irish acres all differed in size, and originally the word acer
signified a (cultivated) field, like the L. ager or the Gr. agros, both
of which signify a field without specifying any particular size.

Of liquid measures, the best known are gallons, quarts, and
pints. The word gallon (from OF. gallon) signified originally a
bowl (not of any specific size), and in modern F. jale. The quart
means the quarter of a gallon. The pint is so called because on
a quart measure a mark was painted on the vessel to indicate how
much the pint was. The F. is pinte, from Sp. pinta, a mark or
pint, from L. pingo,1 to paint. There is also a gill as a measure,
being a fourth part of a pint, from OGer. gelle, low L. gillo, a
flask. There is a story told of a man going into a public-house in
the country and asking for a gill of whisky. The landlady ex-
pressed her regret that she had mislaid her gill measure, and that
she must just guess at it. " Oh, don't bother guessing," he said ;
" my mou' just hauds a gill " ! In his case we have a measure of
capacity supplied by the human body.

Of the weights, we have avoirdupois, which is sometimes sup-
posed to be French ; but it is a corrupt seventeenth-century re-
fashioning of the English averdepois, from the OF, avoir de pois,
introduced and Anglicised in the fourteenth century or earlier, at
first meaning merchandise of weight — that is, sold by weight ; and
certainly de ought to be restored for du. Avoirdupois weight is
the standard system of weights used in Great Britain for all goods
except the precious metals, precious stones, and medicines. Troy
weight is that used by goldsmiths and jewellers, and the name is
said to come from Troyes in France, this weight being used at the
Troyes fair. What is called " apothecaries' weight " is that by

1 From pingo, pinxi, pictum, ping-
$re, to paint, we have also a
picture, pictorial histories, pictur-
esque scenery, and pigment, the

colouring matter used in painting ;
and we may be able to depict or
describe vividly, or at least to speak
of persons depicted in caricature.

274 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

which medicines are sold, and in it 20 grains make one scruple,
and 3 scruples one dram. The word grain is the smallest weight,
from the L. word granum, a grain of corn, with which it was sup-
posed to be of equal weight. A scruple is from L. scrupulus, a
little sharp or rough stone, diminutive of scrupus, a rough or sharp
stone. Such small stones were employed as weights, and still the
word is kept up in this connection, when 3 scruples make a
dram. This word "dram" is a contraction of the old drachma,
being •£$ of an ounce avoirdupois, or ^ apothecaries' weight It has
come to have a well-defined meaning in Scotland in liquid measure,
to mean as much whisky as is usually drunk at once. Whether
this be avoirdupois or apothecaries' weight, we are not informed —
probably apothecaries' weight, where there are 3 scruples to a
dram, as we never heard of any scruples to a dram in weight
avoirdupois. Usually the word scruples in this sense leads to the
question why it came to signify doubt or hesitation. The word
scrupulous, however, was not confined to the little stones used for
weighing : it was used also with reference to small stones, which are
apt to get into the shoes of persons walking, and to become very
troublesome ; so that people walked not merely with hesitation,
but with doubts whether they should go on at all. Hence such
words as scrupulous and scrupulosity. When we speak of standard
weights and measures, we mean those that are established by
Government as a rule, measure, or model, and afterwards generally
whatever is of undoubted excellence. But we scarcely ever think
how it came to bear that meaning when we speak of the " standard
bushel," " the standard of morals," or " not up to the standard."
The word comes through the OF. estendart (F. etendard), signifying
that which is spread out or displayed, from the L. verb extendo, to
spread out. As soon as the word entered our language, which it
did in the twelfth century, it was associated with stand, with
which it had no connection. Yet this supposed connection with
stand has not only changed its form, but has given it the meaning
of "that which stands firm," or "is fixed." Hence the word
standard may mean that which is extended, as a flag on the top of
a pole, or that which stands fast as a rule or model.

275

CHAPTER XX.

NUMBERS.

THERE are many interesting and difficult questions in connection
with the origin and history of numbers into which we are not
called here to enter, and there is enough both of interest and
difficulty to occupy us in connection with the formation of their
names. The subject is one of great importance, since numbers are
one of the essentials of civilisation. Only by numbers can we
measure the world and ourselves. But we must also remember
that of all words, the names of numbers are the first to lose their
primitive meaning, and therefore to become corrupted in the
common speech. It is not a necessary truth that two and two
make four, evident of itself and behind which our experience can-
not go, simply forcing itself upon our mind. Even such a simple
conception as that three and two make five has had to be gained
by slow and practical experience. There are peoples to-day who
cannot count above five, or four, or even threej or two. To
Garlanda we are indebted for many interesting facts in this con-
nection. The low tribes of Brazil count by their finger-joints up
to three only ; any bigger number they express by the word many.
A Pari vocabulary gives these numerals — 1 omi, 2 curiri, and 3 prica,
many. In a Botocudo vocabulary we find — 1 mokenam, 2 uruhu,
many. The New Hollanders have no numbers beyond 2 ; other
peoples cannot count up to 3 or 4 without saying two and one,
two and two. In Queensland we find — 1 ganar, 2 burla, 3 burla-
ganar, 4 burla-burla. In the Kamilaroi dialect we find — 1 mal,
2 bularr, 3 guliba, 4 bularr -bularr, 5 bulaguliba, and 6 guliba-
guliba.

276 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

All peoples use their fingers to count, and we often find the
word hand meaning five, from the number of fingers on the hand ;
two hands or half a man meaning ten ; hands and feet, or one man,
meaning twenty. Some peoples count up to five (which they call
a hand), and then they go on saying, a hand and one (six), a hand
and two (seven), a hand and three (eight), &c. In this way we
have a quinary numeral system (quinary, meaning consisting of or
arranged in fives, from L. qumdreus, from quinque, five). Others
count up to two hands (ten), and then they count two hands and
one, two hands and two, &c., thus forming a decimal system (L.
decem, ten). Others still count up to twenty (hands and feet), and
then count hands - feet and one, hands - feet and two, &c.,
up to another twenty, that is, forty. In this case we have what
has been called a vigesimal system of numeration (low L. vigesi-
mus or vicesimus) (from viginti, twenty). It appears that the
more intelligent races have soon discarded the quinary system as
insufficient, and the vigesimal as too cumbersome, and followed
the decimal system, but not so strictly as to abolish all traces of
the two others. Thus, e.g., we have evidently remnants of a
vigesimal system in the French numeration, where instead of
septante, seventy, they say soixante-dix, sixty and ten, and quatre-
vingts, four twenties, for eighty. They have also six-vingts (120),
sept-vingts (140) ; and there is an hospital called Les Quinze Vingts
(literally, the fifteen twenties), from its 300 inmates. These traces
of vigesimal notation are characteristic of the Celtic races. In
Gaelic we find aon deug is dafhichead, one, ten, and two twenties
= 51, and in Welsh unarbymtheg ar ugain, one and fifteen over
twenty = 36. Perhaps there is also a trace of Celtic influence in
our counting threescore and ten, fourscore and fifteen, &c.

The numerals (L. numerus, a number) are divided into the two
classes of cardinals and ordinals. The cardinal numbers (L. cardo,
cardinis, a hinge, that on which anything turns — hence, chief or
principal) are the chief or primary numbers, viz., one, two, three,
&c., as distinguished from the ordinal or derived names of numbers,
viz., first, second, third, &c., indicating the order (L. ordo,
ordinis) in which they succeed each other. The cardinal numbers

NUMBERS. 277

begin with one, from a root oi, with various suffixes, which is
used for this numeral in most languages. The Greek preserves
this in oivos, OIVTJ, one on dice, but has replaced it in common
use by eis, mia, en, one. The English one is the OE. an, and the
L. is units. Two is OE. ticegen (neut.) and tied (fern.). Already
in the earlier ME. tied was extended to the masc. ; tied men = OE.
tice</en raeun, literally ticeien, hceie = OE. twegen, was preserved
and indeed survives in the present literary English in the form
of twain. "We can trace it also in twice, twist, cloth of double
thread, twine, a cord composed of two or more threads twisted
together; between, in the middle of twain or two, and also in
twilight, the faint light after sunset and before sunrise (literally,
'tween light). Cognate forms are Ger. zwei, Gr. and L. duo.
Three in Gr. is treis, in L. ires and tria (neut), Ger. drei, very
likely connected with the root tri, to go over, to cross. Does
this word remind us of a time when the forefathers of the Indo-
European family counted up only to two, and for the first time
their numeration was pushed one degree further 1

Four in OE. is feower, but in ME. became fewer, four, the e
being absorbed by the two lip consonants between which it stood.
In German we have trier, in Sans, chatvar, cTiatur, L. guatuor.
Its fundamental form is kicaticar. The etymology is quite uncer-
tain, although some claim to see in the Sans, form chatur for
(e)cha-tur the word eJca, one (in Hebrew and Sanscrit), and the
root of three, as if it were "one-(and)-three."

Five is in ME. fij\ Goth, fimf, Ger. ftinf, Gr. pempe, pente,
L. quinque, Sans, panchan. The fundamental Aryan form is
parikan, which the Indian grammarians refer to the root pac, to
stretch out, applying it to the hand with all the fingers stretched
out. Of six, seven, eight, and nine we know nothing certainly
beyond the fact that they have changed but slightly from the form
in which they exist in Old English. Ten is in many ways a much
more important word, — AS. tigun, Mseso-Goth. taihun, Norse fin,
L. decem, Gr. deka,1 Sans, dashan, probably the two words dva,

1 From delta, the Greek word for French the word decade, which con-
ten, there came to us through the tinues to be so spelt, as to spell it

278

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

shan; dva is two, where shan represents the word shama, the
hand, hence, dva-shan, two hands, in other words, twice 5 or
10. What are called the teen numerals, 13-19, are all com-
pounds of the units, with OE. tiene, Anglian tene, and modern
teen. The ty numerals so called, 20-90, are formed in Old English
by combining the units with tig, which was originally a noun
meaning a lot of tens, half a score, so that twenty meant originally
two tens. The number ten plays also a very important part in the
word hundred, the original name for which seems to have meant
ten tens. The Gr. deJcas for ten represents a very old abstract
substantive dekmt, from forms of which all tens and also all
hundreds are made. Before going farther I have still to speak of
the words eleven and twelve. Eleven in Goth, is ain-lif, where
ain is the AS. an, one. The suffix lif some connect plausibly
with lika, ten, which in Lithuanian makes the numerals from 11

as we do monad and triad and
myriad, and to drop the e, would
obliterate the history of the word.
It certainly began with denoting
any aggregate of ten, but generally
a space of ten years, and is now for
the most part used in the present
day to denote this. It could cer-
tainly not be said to be erroneous
were we to apply it to days or weeks
or months or years. But it would
be an ignorant blunder were we to
use it to denote any other number
than that of ten, as a provost in Scot-
land did, when he had been elected
for the third time — i.e., for another
period of three years — in replying to
the toast of his health, "Gentlemen,
entering as I do on my third decade."
Both the abuse of the word itself and
its mispronunciation were irresist-
ibly ludicrous, and at the same
time threw some light upon the
mistake of a newspaper a short
time before, when it had derived the
word decadence from decade, in-
stead of from the L. de, and cado,
to fall off, or to decay. The Latin
word for ten — viz., decem — has not
fared much better in its English
use. The word decimate comes

from the L. decimo (decem, ten), to
punish every tenth man, or to take
by lot every tenth man for punish-
ment, or at the utmost to put
to death every tenth man. When
a Roman cohort revolted and the
revolt was put down, a common
punishment was to decimate the
cohort — i.e., select every tenth man,
decimus, by lot and put him to death.
If a cohort suffered in battle so that
about one man in ten was killed, it
was consequently said to be decim-
ated. But to use decimation as a
general phrase for great slaughter
is simply ridiculous. In a narrative
of the American war between the
North and South, I find that "the
troops, though frightfully decimated,
did not give way." The writer
might as well have said that they
were frightfully halved or terribly
quartered. An agricultui-al corre-
spondent of one of the Scottish news-
papers, not to be outdone in the use
of fine language, writing an article
on the crops, said, "Next morning
a severe frost set in which lasted
ten days, and my field of turnips
was absolutely decimated, — scarce
a root was left untouched."

NUMBERS. 279

to 19. If the identification be correct, both go back to a form liq
in which the Germanic languages have changed q to /, as in five.
The meaning also is disputed, but it seems best to connect it with
the root leiq or Gr. leipo, L. Unqtto, in the meaning one over. That
the word ten should be omitted is no more surprising than the
omission of shilling when we speak of one-and-six or one-and-
eight. Likewise twelve, Goth, twalif, is two over, ten implied.
"We may also gather some light about the origin of numerals by
inquiring into the formation of the names for large numbers, which
are evidently of a more recent date than the simple ones. The
Gallas to indicate a great number use a word which means hair.
With the Mexicans the word hair means 400, or a large number.
The Romans used often to use the word sexcenti, 600, to indicate
a large indefinite number. To express a very large number, say
ten billions, the Hindus used the word padma, lotus, which con-
tains numberless seeds. Chilioi, the Greek word for thousand,
is very likely connected with chilos, grass, as many as the
grass in the fields. The Hebrew eleph, thousand, seems to have
meant at first herd, flock. As for thousand, Goth, thusundi, it
contains in its second part hund, hundred : the first part it is
difficult to trace back to its source, probably from a root fhu, to
swell, to increase, giving thus the meaning of many hundreds.
The numerals up to one hundred are similar in all the Indo-
European languages, but they have not a common word for a
thousand. This does not necessarily mean that, at the time of their
separation, they were not able to count up to such a number ; they
may have done it and employed other words, such as ten hundreds
or the like. But this absence of a common word for thousand
proves at least this, that their counting very seldom exceeded a few
hundreds ; hence they had no necessity for a fixed numeral beyond
one hundred. It shows also that their life must have been very
simple : they must have lived in small villages and settlements,
with scarcely more than a few hundred souls, otherwise a word for
a thousand would have come to be as steadily used as that for one
hundred. These small settlements must evidently have been
inhabited by people of the same family or clan. Thus we see that

280 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

even names of numbers, nay, the very absence of a numeral, can
teach us not a little about the life and civilisation of a people.
In old English there was no numeral higher than thousand.
Million, ME. millioun, is the French form of the late L. millio, ace.
millionem, formed from L. mille, thousand. Billion, trillion, &c.,
are much later formations, in which the Latin prefixes bi and tri
(as in biennial, triennial) were substituted for the initial syllable
of million, so that " billion " was regarded as a sort of contraction of
" bimillion." Milliard, a thousand millions, is a modern French
formation from L. mille, or rather from million, by substituting the
augmentative ending -ard for -on, so that the word means "big
million," million itself originally meaning "group of thousands."

The ordinal numerals are for the most part derivatives of the
cardinal ones, but the first two ordinals are expressed by distinct
words. First is the OE. fyrest, which originally meant foremost.
To the old English adverb fore, before, in front, corresponds the
comparative furthre, further, and superlative fyrest, fyrst, forma,
fyrmest. Second was introduced in middle English by the French
form of L. secundus. The old English word was other, which was
discarded in consequence of ambiguity resulting from it having
also the meaning "other."

Before leaving the subject of numbers, I may mention in con-
nection with the cardinal numbers the word score for 20. This
was introduced into the language about 1230. It had formerly
been used for a notch or cut (from the same root as shear and
share and shore), but about the date mentioned it came to bear the
meaning of a scratch or notch to indicate a number, and especially
the number 20, as being indicated by a larger notch than the
others in those primitive times, when counting was yet in its
infancy and when to many figures were unknown. Small notches
were made in a stick to indicate how many things a person had
bought, or how much they had to pay, and to facilitate the counting
each 20 was marked by a bigger and deeper notch. In still more
recent times accounts were kept by strokes chalked on a board or
on a door, and the twentieth was always more conspicuous than
the others, by a much longer chalk mark. And so the word score,

NUMBERS. 281

meaning originally a notch or cut, came to signify a notch or mark
to indicate an account kept by notches or scores for twenty, and
then for the number twenty, without reference to cuts or notches.
The word arithmetic itself, signifying the science of numbers, comes
from the Gr. arithmos, number. Algebra, arithmetic by signs,
comes from the Ar. al jebr, literally the putting together of broken
things. Logarithm (Gr. logos, a word, a ratio, and arithmos,
number) is the exponent of the power to which a given number
must be raised in order to produce another given number.

282

CHAPTEE XXI.

DIVISIONS OF TIME.

WE begin these with the word calendar, from the Latin word
calendarium, which at first meant a book of debts or interest
kept by bankers or money-changers, so called because interest
became due on the first day of the month; for this word cal-
endarium, an account -book, was derived from the Latin word
calendce, the day on which accounts were due, meaning the first
day of the month, and afterwards a month. As the Greeks did
not count by calends, the phrase " ad calendas Grsecas solvere," to
pay on the Greek calends, meant nunquam — never (Suetonius).
At a much later period calendarium had the same meaning as our
word calendar. The most likely etymology of the word calendce,
signifying the first day of the month, is the verb calo, calare, to
call out, because the priests in Rome on the first day of the month
publicly called out whether the nones fell on the 5th or the
7th. The nones signified the ninth (from L. novem, nine), the
5th day in every month except in March, May, July, and October,
in which it was the 7th (because this day was always the 9th before
the ides, which were on the 15th day of the above months and
on the 13th of the others). The word ides, L. idus, is from the
Etruscan iduo, to divide. The Latin word calare goes farther
back, even to the Gr. kalein, to call. We have also from the
same word intercalate, to insert between, as a day in the calendar,
— from inter, between, and calo, to call.

The word year itself seems to come from the AS. gear, the
appropriate expression for harvest, and at the same time a term
which, as well as winter, was originally employed as the name of

DIVISIONS OF TIME. 283

the entire year. This may not be the received etymology of year,
but at the same time the identity of the words for harvest, and
for the twelvemonth, ar in the cognate Icelandic, and in the dialects
derived from it, form an argument of considerable weight in
support of this derivation, which, however, finds still stronger
evidence in the analogues of our primitive mother- tongue. In
AS. ear signifies an ear of grain, and by supplying the collective
prefix ge, common to all the Teutonic languages, we have gear
as we have seen the word. The corresponding words in the
cognate languages admit of a similar derivation, and this seems
more probable than those by which these words are connected
with remoter roots. In the figurative style, whether in poetry or in
prose, we often put a season for a year, and in this case the subject
determines the choice of the season. Thus of an aged man we
say, " His life has extended to a hundred winters " ; while in
speaking of the years of a blooming girl, we connect with them
images of gladness, the season of flowers, and say she has seen
" sixteen summers." We have in English a similar application of
another familiar word, suggestive of the phases of the year, and it
is curious that the same expression is used in Scandinavia. In
Denmark and Sweden, as well as in England, the gentlemen of
the race and turf reckon the age of their animals by springs, the
ordinary birth season of the horse, and a colt is said to be so many
years old "next grass" (Marsh). Annus, the Latin name for a
year, furnishes us with several derivatives, such as annals,
anniversary, annual, annuity, biennial, perennial, millennium,
and superannuation. The name of leap year is that which is
given to every fourth year, which " leaps forward " or adds one day
in February, making a year of 366 days. These years are divisible
by four without a remainder. It is also called bissextile, from
L. bis, twice, and sextus, sixth, because in every fourth or leap
year the sixth day before the calends of March, or the 24th of
February, was reckoned twice.

Down to a very recent period the use of year for years was very
common, and it is still heard in careless or colloquial language. It
is not a corruption, but a survival Indeed, from the historical point

284 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

of view, it is a better form than years. Year in Anglo-Saxon be-
longed to a class of nouns which took no ending in the nominative
and accusative plural. In Middle English the difference between the
old declensions broke down, so that nearly all plurals came to be
formed by means of the ending -es (AS. -as). Thus yeeres was
soon substituted for yeer, but the older yeer was still used. In
Chaucer, for example, both forms are common. Compare ten
pound, six mile, three foot, and other expressions of measure
formerly correct, but now regarded as colloquial or vulgar. Stone,
however, as a weight, has never been superseded by stones.

Month, as we have seen (p. 4), is from AS. monath, from mona,
the moon, and moon signifies literally the time-measurer, from the
Indo-Germanic root ma or me, to measure : a month is the period
measured by the revolution of the moon. The names of the twelve
months are all borrowed from the Latin ; but it is well to remember
that March was originally the first month of the year. In the
year 153 B.C. the entrance of the Roman consuls on their office
occurred on the 1st of January, and since that time virtually the
New Year has begun on that day. It was legally ordained to be
observed as such by Ceesar. From the fact that the year once
began with March, there is disclosed the otherwise obscure signifi-
cation of the names of the months from September to December,
as the seventh (September) to the tenth (December) month ;
whereas, according to their position, they are the ninth to the
twelfth. January is the L. Januarius, and is supposed by many
to be connected with janua, a door or gate, as if it had received
its name from being the opening month of the year ; but, as we
have seen, though it bore the name of January, it was not always
the first month of the year. It was named from Janus, the god of
the sun, who presided over the gates of heaven. February comes
from the Latin word februo, to purify or expiate, because in this
month the great Eoman feast of expiation was held. March, L.
Martins, is from Mars, the god of war. April, L. Aprilis, is from
aperire, to open, as being the month when the leaves and buds
begin to open. May, L. Mains (mensis), was sacred to Maia, the
mother of Mercury, supposed to be from the root mag, to grow,

DIVISIONS OF TIME. 285

and so May would mean the month of growth. June, L. Junius,
is probably from L. juvenis, young, and so it also would signify a
month of growth, as well as May. The following month was
called originally Quintilis (from L. quintus, the fifth), and was
afterwards named Julius in honour of Julius Caesar, whose birthday
fell on the 12th or 13th day of that month. August also was
originally named according to its number in the rank, Sextilis
(from sextus, sixth), and was first named Augustus, 8 B.C., in
honour of Augustus Caesar. The remaining months are simply
called by their Latin names, and number from seven to ten :
September (L. septem, seven), October (L. octo, eight), Novem-
ber (L. novem, nine), and December (L. decem, ten).

After the months we have the weeks, of which word the origin
is not very certain ; but it is certainly connected with L. vice, a
change, probably with reference to the change from one day to
another during the space of seven days. It is a curious fact that
all the Saxon names of the days of the week continued to be used
in the English language, while, on the other hand, none of the
months have retained their Saxon derivation, but are all of them,
as we have seen, called by names taken from Latin. I think this
may be accounted for on similar principles to those which caused
the difference between the names of the living cattle and the
animal food. The Saxons were the day-labourers, and as such
they had more occasion to speak of days than of months, while
as tillers of the land they were more concerned about the different
seasons than about the particular months of the year. We usually
hear the peasantry among ourselves talking of what they will do
in the spring, summer, harvest, and winter, rather than in such
and such months. Thus it would happen that the Norman employer
and the Saxon labourer, whose interchange of words was confined
to the giving and receiving of orders, would more frequently have
occasion to speak to each other of the days of the week and of the
different seasons of the year than of the several months, and so
came to continue the Saxon names of the week-days and of the
seasons, while the Normans among themselves kept up their own
names for the months. And even with respect to the days of the

286 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

week, they are to this day described in Parliamentry documents
by their Latin and not by their Saxon names.

The four seasons are periods into which the quarters of the year
are divided. The word season comes through the F. saison, from
the L. satio, sationis, a sowing or seed time (from sero, satum, to
sow), — a name which, however applicable to the first, is by no means
so applicable to the others. Spring (AS. springan, to leap), sum-
mer (from AS. sumor, from a root signifying sun), and winter are
of Saxon origin ; the Saxon word corresponding to autumn (which
is through the F. from the L. autumnus, from augeo, auctum, to
increase) is " harvest " — being the time of gathering in the
harvest, or ripened corn, as the word signifies; and we usually
hear the peasantry speak of the harvest, and not of the autumn.
The days of the week, I have said, retain the Saxon names given to
them by the Anglo-Saxons before their conversion to Christianity.
"We shall now give the origin of the names of the different days of
the week, mentioning at the same time anything of interest con-
nected with any of them. The first day of the week was called
Sunday, being dedicated to the sun and his worship. Whitsun-
day is known historically to have been " white Sunday " for at
least nine centuries — huite sundei, AS. huita sunnandceg, Icel.
hvitasunnu-dage and hvita-daega. So in "Welsh sul-gwyn, " white
sun," Whitsuntide ; and Vaughan, 1650, greets the festival with
the words, " Wellcome, white day " (Silex scintillans). It was so
called, no doubt, from the white garments of the catechumens who
were being baptised at that season. Indeed Fabyan, in 1516,
states that "Whitsondaye in the Calendar is called Dominica in
albis " (' Chronicles,' p. 276) — i.e., the Lord's day in " whites." The
German is der weisse Sontag. In the thirteenth and following
centuries it came commonly to be pronounced and written " Wit-
sunday" (e.g., Witte-sunnedei : OE. Homilies, twelfth century, 1st
sermon, 1'89); Witsontide, Wycliff (1 Cor. xvi. 8), and this was
interpreted as having reference to the Spirit of Wisdom who
descended at Pentecost. ' The Festyvale of Wynkym de Worde '
thus explains it : " This day is called Wytsonday by cause the
Holy Ghost brought wytte and wisdom unto Christ's disciples " ;

DIVISIONS OF TIME. 287

and similarly Eichard Eolle (died 1358), "This day Witsonday is
cald, for wisdom and wit sevenfold was given to the apostles on
this day"; for then, as the 'Play of the Sacrament' (about 1461)
expounds, " He sent them wytt and wysdom for to understand every
language when the Holy Ghost to them came" (p. 120). Easter
Sunday is the Sunday set apart "by many Churches to commemor-
ate the resurrection of Christ ; but the word Easter comes from AS.
JSastor, from Eostre, a goddess whose festival was held in April,
so that the word Easter had originally no Christian significance
whatever. Monday is the day sacred to the moon (moon and
day). Blue Monday is an expression which we not unfrequently
hear. It designates especially the Monday before Lent, because
the churches were adorned with blue altar-cloths. On this day
also, as it occurs in the carnival time, there is a great deal of
drinking, and so it has extended its meaning to every Monday into
which the drinking has been protracted ! In this country we have
been accustomed to speak of St Monday as a day which has been
dedicated to Bacchus by a large number who regard him in
practice as their patron saint, and Blue Monday may mean much
the same thing. It is said that dissipation gives to everything a
" blue " tinge. Hence " blue " means tipsy. "Drink till all is
blue." " Cracking bottles till all is blue." We hear often of a fit
of the " blues " — low spirits — and " blue devils." Hansel Monday
is still another Monday of great interest to many. It is the Mon-
day after New Year's day — the first Monday of the year, when
" hansels " or free gifts are still given in Scotland to all those who
have regularly brought letters or parcels, or bread from baker, or
meat from butcher, &c., throughout the year. The word handsel
was originally money for something sold, given into the " hands "
of another, the first sale or using of anything, and, as a verb, to
give a hansel, to use or do anything for the first time. The word
comes from the AS. handsyllan, a giving into hands — from hand,
and sellan, to give, whence the English word "to sell." Next to
the sun and moon, they honoured Tuesco, one of the founders of
their race, to whom they dedicated the third day of the week, calling
it Tuesco's day, or Tuesday. The most notable day of this name

288 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

is Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the time at
which confession used to be made — the time immediately before
Lent. It comes from the AS. scraf, past tense of serif an, and
ME. schrof, past tense of shriven. The modern verb — shrive,
shrove, shriven — signifies to hear at confession.

Woden was the god of war, the meaning of the word being
" furious " (Scotch wud} ; and an author of the seventeenth
century refers to the word wood or wode as being then used to
denote a man in a rage. So it is also constantly found in Chaucer
to describe one that is angry or mad ; as also woodness for madness
and wodly for madly. After this idol the fourth day of the week
was called Wodensday, now Wednesday, which accounts for the
orthography of the word. The chief Wednesday goes by the
name of Ash Wednesday, from the custom in the Eoman Catholic
Church of sprinkling ashes on the heads of penitents on that day.
The ashes were those of the palms burned on Palm Sunday.
Closely connected with this in the minds of many are the ember
days or ember week observed in the Roman Catholic and English
Churches. The seductive resemblance to embers = ashes, and the
analogy of Ash Wednesday, very easily led people to theorise that
these days were so named because " old fathers on the days when
they should fast would eat cakes that were baked under the ashes
in the embers, so that eating bread under ashes in the embers
they remembered that they were but ashes, and should return to
ashes again." Bailey, in his Dictionary (eighteenth century),
assures us that they were so called from a custom anciently of
putting ashes on their heads in those days in token of humiliation.
The ember days are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — the
fast days on the four times or seasons set apart for ordinations in
the course of the year ; and the word ember may either be a cor-
ruption of quatuor tempora (four seasons) through the Dutch
quatemper and Ger. quatember, or it may be really from the OE.
word ymbren or ymb-ryne — i.e., round running — the days which
recur regularly as the year runs round (AS. ymb, round, and
rinnen, to run). Next in order among their false gods was Thor,
who was worshipped by all the Teutonic race. As Woden cor-

DIVISIONS OF TIME. 289

responded to the Mars of the Eomans, so did Thor to Jupiter, his
dominion having been supposed to extend both in heaven and on
earth, governing the air, the winds, and clouds ; to whose dis-
pleasure they attributed thunder and lightning, tempests and hail,
while to his being propitiated by sacrifices (frequently human)
they believed themselves to have been indebted for fair and
seasonable weather, causing abundance of corn, and keeping away
the plague and all other infectious and epidemic diseases. From
this idol the fifth day of the week was named Thors day or
Thursday ; and so it is likewise called by the Danes and Swedes,
while the Dutch and Germans call it Donnerstag ; and in some
old Saxon MSS. it is written Thunresdeag, so that it would seem
that Thor or Thur was an abbreviation of thunre, since written
thunder. Maundy Thursday is the name given to the day before
Good Friday, from the Latin dies mandati — i.e., the day of the
command or mandate — as on that day Christ, after He had washed
His disciples' feet, said, " A new commandment I give unto you,
that ye love one another." It is properly Maundy ', not Maunday,
Thursday, the latter being a misspelling of Maundy ; OK maunde
or maundee, OF. mande, from L. mandatum, that which is com-
manded : Mandatum novum do vobis, it is in the Vulgate. Nares
and Spielman imagined that it got its name from the Maundie
alms given to the poor to carry away in their baskets (maunds).

The next in rank was the goddess Friga, who was reputed to be
the giver of peace and plenty, and from her we have Friday, from
AS. friggedaeg, or Friga's day. Good Friday is the name given
to the day set apart by the Church in memory of our Lord's
crucifixion, with all its blessed results. The last of the seven
chief idols of the Saxons was Seater, from whom, and not from
the Norman Saturn, the last day of the week was called by the
Saxons. Seater's day was Saturday.

There are also two other days that are interesting, though not
falling on the same day of the week, but on the same day of the
month, every year. One of these is Valentine's day, on the
14th of February. It was long sacred to the memory of Bishop
Valentine, a Christian martyr, beheaded at Eome on that day

290 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

in the year 278. A lover or sweetheart chosen on that day was
called a Valentine, and so was a love-letter sent on that day.
The practice of sending poetical souvenirs or pretty pictures
originated, it is supposed, in the pairing of birds about that
season. Perhaps there is no custom which has disappeared so
speedily as this ; and so entirely, as to be now almost unknown.
St Swithin's day is the other remarkable day, occurring on the
15th of July. It is a day which is looked forward to every
year with the greatest interest by large numbers of people, and
the reason of this interest is the belief that if it rains on St
Swithin's day it will rain more or less for forty days.

" St Swithin's day gif ye do rain,
For forty days it will remain ;
St Swithin's day gif ye be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair."

The legend is that St Swithin, who was the preceptor of King
Ethel wulf, and Bishop of Winchester, and who died 2nd July
862, had desired to be buried in the churchyard of the minster,
"that the sweet rain of heaven might fall upon his grave." At
canonisation the clergy took steps to disinter his body, in order
to bury it within the cathedral, and fixed July 15 for the
ceremony, when there came such a heavy downpour of rain as
to necessitate the postponement of the ceremony for that day.
They renewed their efforts every day for thirty-nine days more,
but with no better success, for it rained incessantly day after day ;
whereupon, after the fortieth attempt, they wisely abandoned the
project, and determined to allow the saint to remain where he was.
Fully as important to most people as any of the days we have
mentioned is the term day — the day, that is, on which rents and
wages have to be paid, &c., such as in Scotland are the Whit-
sunday term and the Martinmas term, where the word term
signifies the boundary, limit, or time for which anything lasts,
any limited time. The word comes through the F. terme from
the L. termimis,1 a boundary, which we still use as an English

1 From termimis we have such end after a certain time ; terminate,
words as terminable, coming to an to put an end to ; termination ;

DIVISIONS OF TIME.

291

word for the first or last station of a railway, and also as the
name of the Eoman god of boundaries.

From the L. word for day, dies, we have a dial, a diary, a
diet, an assembly held from day to day for ecclesiastical or legis-
lative purposes, such as the Diet of Worms — i.e., the diet held
at Worms, in Germany, in connection with the Reformation ; also
diurnal, journal, journey. A court adjourns, and a debate is re-
sumed after the adjournment. The meridian (originally medidian)
is midday. A sojourn is a temporary stay, and a sojourner is
a stranger who sojourns. Quotidian is from L. quotidianus (quot,
as many as, and dies, a day), meaning occurring daily, every
day. From the Greek word for day we have ephemeral (from
Gr. ephemeras, lasting but a day (epi, on, and hemera, a
day), continuing or subsisting for a day : certain flies are called
ephemeral from their brief life, and gradually anything that is
very transient is spoken of as ephemeral. The word ephemeris
is the name often given to an account of daily transactions, to
a journal, and also to an astronomical almanac. Before parting
with the days and months, this is the proper place to notice other
Saxon words referring to time. The ancient Saxons kept a note
of the course of the year on square sticks, on which they carved
the course of the moons of the whole year, by which they knew
when the new moons, full moons, and changes would occur, as
also their festival days ; and such a carved stick, it is said, they
called an almonaglit, that is, all-moon-heed, by which they took
heed or notice of all the moons of the year. Hence (although by

terminology, that branch of a
science or art which defines and
explains the peculiar words and
phrases used in it ; and also, as in
a recent discussion in Parliament,
the word " terminological inexacti-
tude." We have also conterminous
(con and terminus), bordering upon,
touching at the boundary ; and
conterminal. Determine (F. deter-
miner, from L. determinare (from
de and terminus), to bound or border
off, to resolve decisively, to come
to a decision ; and determination,

a fixed purpose. Exterminate is
to drive out or away, out of the
boundary (ex and terminus), and
then to destroy utterly. The word
limit, which we have used in this
chapter, comes through F. limite,
from L. limes, limltis, a limit, a
natural or prescribed termination.
We speak of the limits of the
human understanding, and of the
limitations of thought. We know
that our ideas are very limited, but
the extent of space seems unlimited,
and, as we can judge, illimitable.

292 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

some it is supposed to be from an Arabic or Egyptian word) we
have our English name almanac for that which from the Latin
is called a calendar. The Saxons counted time by the night, as
we still speak of a se'nnight or seven nights, and a fortnight or
fourteen nights, written in Chaucer fourtenyghte ("Troilus and
Cressida," 1. 334). They had anciently twa night for two nights,
as we now speak of every second day. We have spoken of a
year, a month, a week, and a day, but before we part with time
entirely we must mention shorter periods still — viz., an hour,
a minute, a second. An hour is very much the same word in
English, French, Latin, and Greek. A minute is the sixtieth
part of an hour, and comes from the L. verb mimio, minutum,
minuere, to diminish. Paries minutce primce, the first minute
parts, are the names given in the Latin translation of Ptolemy to
the first sixty divisions of the hour. The second : paries minutce
secundce are called seconds, being the sixtieth part of a minute
of time, or of a degree.

293

CHAPTEE XXII.

MONEY.

THE word sterling, which has come to mean pure, genuine, of the
best quality, was originally a designation of British money. It
was at first the name for a penny — in all probability from Easter-
Unys, the early English name for the Hanseatic towns in North
Germany, and for the merchants who came from them. They
were noted for the purity of their money, and are said to have
perfected the British coin. Holinshed speaks of these merchants
of Norway, Denmark, and of others those parts, called Osto-
mann, or as in our vulgar language we term them Easterlings,
because they be east in respect of us. Cambden also says : " In
the time of King Eichard I. money coined in the east parts of
Germany began to be of especial request in England for the purity
thereof, and was called Easterling monie, as all the inhabitants of
those parts were called Easterling ; and shortly after, some of that
country skilled in mint matters were sent for into this country to
bring the coin to perfection, which from that time was called of
them sterling (or Easterling)." We have spoken also of a penny-
weight in connection with Troy weight ; but that is not the weight
of an ordinary penny, but of a silver penny, of which the only
specimens we see now are those which are coined at the Mint for
the special purpose of being given by the king on Maundy
Thursday to the poor people to whom he gives certain bene-
factions on that day; and I have just had given me by the
cashier of one of the banks, a silver penny, a silver two-
penny, threepenny, and fourpenny, coined for the king, and to
be given by him on the 28th of March 1907. Coin comes
through the French from the L. cuneus, a wedge, and signifies a

294

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

piece of money bearing the official stamp, and so named from the
stamping having been originally effected by means of a wedge.
The Mint, the place where money is coined by authority, from
AS. mynet, money, from L. moneta (the "warning" one), a
surname of Juno, in whose temple at Eome the money was coined,
comes from moneo, to remind or warn. The origin of the word
bullion is rather obscure, but the best authorities are agreed that
although it now means uncoined gold or silver of standard fineness,
it originally meant the mint where the precious metals were
reduced to the proper alloy and coined, and in this sense it is
found in several of our old statutes. By these statutes all traffick-
ing in coin was forbidden, except at the bullion or exchanges of
the king ; and similar instructions were enforced in France, where
tampering with the coin was carried on more systematically than
in England. Hence in France the carrying to the mint of their
decried money became a familiar operation of daily life, and the
money so brought to be made up was termed monnaie de billon, and
billon thus became a common name for base alloy ; while in Eng-
land the mint came to be regarded chiefly as the authority which
determined the standard of the coin, and the name of bullion
has been given to the alloy or composition of the current coin per-
mitted by the bullion or mint. This explains and removes the
difficulty which had been found in the fact that the equivalent
terms billon in French and vellon in Spanish mean just the reverse
of pure gold or silver — viz., base metal or silver alloyed with
copper. Nummus or numus was the word most commonly used
for a coin by the Eomans (probably from the Gr. nomos, law, as
being that of which the use is established by custom or law).
Traces of it are still found in our language in the word numis-
matics, the science of coins. By far the most common word
for money among the Eomans was pecunia, from which we have
in the same sense our word pecuniary. But this Latin word
comes from another Latin word pecus 1 (perhaps from Gr. pekos, to

1 The word peculiar, which now
means extraordinary, singular, or
even eccentric, originally meant

what was private — not common
property, but one's own, being
derived from pecidium. The word

MONEY.

295

shear), signifying flocks and herds ; and inasmuch as the most
valuable cattle have always been the sheep and the cow, and as
they constituted the chief riches and the most important means
of subsistence among the Aryan nations, they took gradually the
meaning of money. The word cash is generally supposed to come
from the OF. casse, a box, or from the modern F. caisse, the name
given to the office where money is received and paid ; but it seems
rather to have come from the Portuguese coxa, signifying coin or
money, for even the current Chinese cash, the name of a small
coin, is believed to have come from the Portuguese word. Obvi-
ously the cashier is the person who keeps the cash. But the
verb to cashier, meaning to dismiss from a post in disgrace,
comes from a different root, in Ger. cassiren, F. casser, L. cassare,
from cassus, empty, void, which perhaps comes from carere, to
want anything, to be deprived of. The word pound, which,
whatever its meaning, comes from the L. pondo, the ablative
of pondiis (a word used only in the ablative), and pondus,
ponderis, weight, both come from the L. pendo,1 to weigh or

peculiar is used in its original sense
in the phrase "a peculiar people, "
meaning his own, or belonging ex-
clusively to him. Now the L.
peculium stands for pecudium (like
consilium for cansidium), and being
derived from pecus, pecudis, it
expressed originally what we should
call cattle or chattel, the word
chattel originally signifying any
kind of property not freehold. So
the word peculate (L. peculor), to
thieve or steal, is from the same
word, for it is to take to our private
use what is not ours. It is worth
noting in this connection that the
word fee, signifying a price paid for
services, a pecuniary reward, has
the same origin, coming from the
AS. feoh, which signifies cattle or
property, and this origin is seen
still more clearly in the German
word for cattle, vieh.

1 From the verb pendo, pependi,
pensum, pend$re, to weigh or pay,
and pondo and pondus, pond$ri8,

weight, we have derived many
words. We have the F. penser, to
think, whence pansy, heart's -ease,
the flower of thought. A pension
is an allowance for past services,
and he who receives it is a
pensioner. Pensive means thought-
ful ; to poise is to balance. We
have equipoise and counterpoise ;
we ponder, and we have the words
imponderably and ponderous. We
have a compendium, and we com-
pensate and get compensation.
We recompense, and the chemist
dispenses drugs, and the judge dis-
penses justice. We have dis-
pensaries in all our towns, and we
live under the Christian dispensa-
tion, and sometimes a dispensation
may be obtained from the Pope.
Some things are indispensable. We
expend by day, and have to limit our
expenditure, sometimes on account
of the expenses of the war, or at
other times because we have to buy
too expensive a dress.

296

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

pay. A pound is of the value of 20s., and is either a pound
note or a gold sovereign. The word is the AS. pund, from the
L. pondo. We have also the pound weight avoirdupois, the
proper spelling of which is that of the fourteenth century
averdepois, signifying literally to have weight, from the L.
habeo,1 to have (see pp. 171 and 192), and pensum, that which is
weighed. Some ignorant improver, fancying it was French, gave
us the present spelling ahout 1650, which has continued ever
since. The pound averdepois is 16 oz. or 1 Ib. We have also the
pound Troy weight, 12 oz. or 1 Ib., the system used in this country
for weighing gold, silver, and precious stones, and named Troy
weight either because first in use at Troyes, in France, or as a
corruption of F. (livre, pound) d'octroi, of authority, from
octroi, from L. auctoritas, authority, and signifying originally
"anything authorised," then "a tax." It means also cash to the
value of 20s., because in the Carlovingian period the Roman pound
(12 oz.) of pure silver was coined into 240 silver pennies. In the
familiar letters £, s. d., £ is for libra,2 the Latin for a pound.
The " a " is not originally a contraction for shilling, which now
is said, absurdly, by some to be derived from St Kilian, whose
image was stamped on the shillings at Wurzburg. We have AS.
scylling or stilling, a shilling, according to Skeat from the word
scylan, to divide. The coin was originally made with a deeply
indented cross, and could easily be divided into halves and quarters.
There is evidently some connection between our AS. stilling and
the Ger. schellen, to sound or tinkle, meaning perhaps the clinking

1 The verb habeo, habui, habitum,
habere, signifies to have, or hold, or
possess. From it we have such words
as able, ability, unable, inability,
disability ; average, aver (OF. for
habere), habiliments, deshabille,
habit, habitual, habituated. There
is also habit, a dress, as well as a
custom, and inhabit. The extreme
north is not habitable, and not
inhabited, for there are no inhabit-
ants there. We have also habita-
tion and habitat, literally dwelling
of a plant or animal in its natural

abode. We have cohabit and co-
habitation. Debility (L. debilis —
de, from, and habilis, able) means
weakness. To exhibit is to show
in public. There are some great
exhibitions of various works of art.
An exhibition at college is a scholar-
ship or bursary. We have also an
inhibition or a prohibition.

•2 Libra also signifies a "balance,"
and to this we owe the words
deliberate, deliberately, and de-
liberation, deliberative, and equil-
ibrium from equilibria.

MONEY. 297

coin, but the abbreviation " s " in £, s. d. is for solidus (nummus),
" a solid piece of money," while " d " stands for the L. denarius, so
often translated in the New Testament " a penny." Penny itself
is AS. penig. Farthing means literally fourth thing, AS. feorthing,
from feortha. In one of the statutes of Henry V., passed in
1421, we read, "that the King do to be ordained good and just
weights of the noble, half noble, and farthing of gold," showing
that the coin then known as the farthing was the fourth thing or
fourth part of the noble. A mite is popularly reckoned as half a
farthing, from Mark xii., " She cast in two mites, which make a
farthing." It is frequently used to denote a very small sum ; but
when the Scripture incident, which gave its name to an amount, is
borne in mind, when people say they will give us their mite, it
really means half their living. Our word comes from Dutch
mijt, a small coin. The word moiety is very often misapplied,
because very generally misunderstood, as if it were connected
etymologically with mite, and meant a small part, a lesser share,
portion, or quantity. The word means literally and strictly one-
half, — a sum which is payable in moieties is paid in two equal
sums. The word comes through theF. moitie, from the L. medietatem,
the middle point, in late L. half, from medius, middle. The noble
was an ancient coin, so called on account of the excellence of its
gold. And so our farthing is a fourth part of our penny, and in
the same way the quadrans with the Eomans was the fourth part
of an as. Florin is from Florence, where these coins were first
struck. The place in the town or city where money is deposited
— in fact, the institution for keeping, lending, and exchanging
money — is called the bank, F. banque, from the It. banco, a bench
on which the Italian money-changers displayed their money. From
the same word, and in the sense of our word bench, the Germans
have the word bank. In this word, too, we have the origin of the
word bankrupt, from the two Italian words banca rotta, broken
bench, — the seat or bench on which the banker carried on his busi-
ness being broken when he failed to meet his engagements.

A cheque is a bill of exchange drawn by a customer on his bank
for a stated sum of money payable on demand, but the origin of

298

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the word is somewhat obscure. Yet the varied spelling throws a
little light on it. It was, I think, originally spelt check, and it
might have been so named from its enabling the banker to check
the giving of the money if, taking the different checks together, he
found that their total amount exceeded what his customer had
deposited : at all events, it enabled him to check the account, if
not the customer. It is said that the Court of Exchequer, a
superior court which had formerly to do only with the revenue and
not with common law, was so named from the checkered cloth
which formerly covered the table, and on which the accounts were
reckoned by means of counters on this checkered cloth, and we in
our cheque-books have a counterfoil to be used as security. The
person in whose favour the cheque is drawn, before he can draw
the cheque or receive the money, must endorse it, or in other words
he must write his name on the back of it, for to endorse means
literally to write one's name upon the back, through an old form
endosse, from F. endosser, from low L. indorse, from L. in, upon, and
dorsum, the back. What you have is put to your credit on the left-
hand side of your bank account, what you have drawn out is put to
your debit on the right-hand side. At your credit is what the bank
owes you, at your debit is what you owe the bank, and the differ-
ence between these two is the balance,1 — "the balance at your
banker's," if you have more on the credit side. The word credit
comes from L. creditum, from credo,12 to believe ; and debit from
the L. word debitum, what is due, from debeof to owe. Interest

1 Balance, through F. from L.
bilanx, having two scales for weigh-
ing— bis, double, and lanx, lancis,the
dish or scale, and then the sum re-
quired to make the two sides of an
account equal.

2 From credo, credidi, creditum,
credere, to believe, we have cred-
ence, credentials, credible, credi-
bility, incredible, credit, creditor,
and creditable ; discredit and dis-
creditably ; credulity and incred-
ulity, credulous and incredulous.
We have the creed ; and a recre-
ant was one who gave up his faith
or confessed himself wrong, being

beaten in a judicial conflict (low L.
se recredere). A miscreant was
originally a misbeliever and infidel,
and then and now a wild unprin-
cipled fellow as the result of this
want of faith.

3 From debeo, debui, debitum, debere
(de-habere), to owe, we have the word
debt, what is owed, and debtor, the
man who owes it. We debit any-
thing when we put it on the debtor
side of the account. A debenture
is a writing acknowledging a debt.
A sum of money is due, that is,
owing to any one. Duty is that
which is due either to God or to

MONEY.

299

is the premium paid for the use of money, from OF. interest,
F. interet, from L. interest, it is profitable, it concerns, from intersum
(inter, between, and esse), to be together, to be between, to import,
concern, be of importance ; and it is well named, for what they get for
their money which is put out on loan is that in which the majority
of men seem to have the greatest interest. Usury was originally
only another name for interest, or for the use of the money lent to
another — literally a using, from L. usura, from utor,1 usus, uti, to
use ; but now it signifies the taking of more than legal interest on
a loan, exorbitant interest. This word exorbitant, from the pres.
part, of exorMto (from ex, out of, and vrbita, a track, from orbs,
orbis, a circle or sphere), was originally a scientific term, applied to
those heavenly bodies whose path deviated much from the plane of
the orbits of the planets, most familiar to the ancient astronomy.
It has now lost its technical meaning altogether, and it has no
longer a place in the dialect of science. It had slightly acquired
this popular and figurative sense even in the classic age of Rome.

The Stock Exchange is chiefly occupied with the buying and
selling of stocks and shares ; in fact, it is called by this name
because it is the place where stocks are exchanged, or bought and
sold. When trees are propagated by means of cuttings stuck in
the ground, or engrafted upon other stocks, that from which the
scion 2 is taken is called the parent stock ; and it is in allusion to
these natural objects that, when speaking of tribes or families of

a mistake in the use. We have both
abuse and abusive language. Now,
to disabuse is to undeceive, and to
peruse was to use up, to go through
thoroughly ; and a book may be given
a careful perusal in order to master
the contents of it.

2 F. scion, a young and tender
plant, from scier, to saw (from L.
seco, secui, sectum, secure, to cut.
Se(c)dre, by the loss of the middle c,
which is common in passing from
Latin into French, and by the change
of e into i, which is just as common,
gives the OF. word sier, to cut,
whence scier by the later addition
of a c (see p. 217).

man. Those who readily do their
duty to a parent or superior are
dutiful and duteous ; and to be in-
debted to a person is much more
than to be obliged to him.

1 From the verb utor, usus, uti,
to use, we have use, and long usage,
with usual and useless, usurer and
usurious. We speak of usurping
power, and usurpers are often
tyrants. A utensil is a vessel used
in domestic service. Utility is use-
fulness in actual operation. We can
utilise anything by using it to profit-
able account. There are still utili-
tarians. To abuse is to use wrong-
fully, but to misuse is only to make

300 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

men, we say that they have sprung from the same stock. In
another metaphor, stock is any fixed thing from which we expect
to reap or gather some periodical advantage or fruit. Thus the
money and goods of a merchant to the amount which, at an
average, his business requires to be continually in his hands, is
called his stock-in-trade, from which certain profits are expected
to arise. The balance of this stock which remains after deducting
the amount of his debts is capital,1 the head or source (L. caput}
from which his business is carried on. He who has comparatively
large sums of money at his disposal is now denominated a capitalist.
Money lent to the Government of the country, or invested in the
funds of any trading company, and which is usually divided into
shares of a determinate size, is called stock, because it is fixed and
not repaid, but brings forth fruit under the name of interest or
dividends. These shares or stock, which have the name of Govern-
ment stock, Bank of England stock, corporation stock, bank stock,
railway stock, &c., are transferable at pleasure, and the sales and
purchases are managed for the parties by stockbrokers. It is
somewhat difficult to ascertain accurately the origin of this word
broker. Many derive it from the OE. "broken (AS. brucan, Ger.
brauchen), to have the full and open use of a thing, and it came to
mean manager or transactor of business ; but certainly, as has been
said, it is a wide step from the notion of employing or having the
use of, to the occupation of a broker who is never to have the use
of what he buys. On the contrary, it was part of the broker's
oath in the City of London that he should not deal in any of the
merchandise in respect of which he intervened as broker. The
object of buying through a broker is to have the advantages of a
skilled judgment as to the value of the purchased goods ; his busi-
ness to discover defects, and thus to find fault, is recognised
in ' Piers Ploughman ' as the specific duty of a broker : " Among

1 The word capital as an adjec-
tive is used in such expressions as
a capital punishment and a capital
crime ; meaning not merely head or
chief crimes, out also, I think,
crimes for which the punishment is
beheading, not hanging by the neck,

in which the head also is involved.
There were many crimes in the
early days in this country for which
a criminal might be beheaded ; now
there are only two — viz., high
treason and murder.

MONEY. 301

burgesses have I be, dwelling at London, and gart backbiting be
a brocour, to blame man's ware." On this principle the German
designation of a broker is makler, from makel, a blur, stain, fault
(from L. macula, a spot) ; whence also maJceln, to criticise, censure,
find fault with, and thence to follow the business of a broker, to
buy and sell on commission. In the German of the shores of the
Baltic (with which much of our early commercial business was
carried on), braak signified damaged or refuse goods ; broken, to
pick and inspect, and exclude what falls below the standard.
Brake is the inspectorship of an institution for the examination of
wares and rejection of the faulty; braker, an inspector officially
appointed for the foregoing purpose in the Low German seaports,
an officer who would as nearly as possible answer to our sworn
broker. The principal difference is that in the ports of the
Baltic the inspector whose duty it is to try the soundness of the
goods is appointed by authority, while in London each man
chooses his own broker among those who are sworn to perform
the duties with uprightness. But the object in view is the same
in both cases — viz., to obtain the guarantee of technical experience
for the value of the goods ; and it is difficult to believe that the
broker of the Baltic is a different man from the broker of English
commerce. According to another etymology, the word broker is
derived from the Middle English word brocour, from the AS.
brucan, Ger. brauchen, to use, to profit, one who is employed to
buy and sell for others, charging a commission called brokerage
for doing so. A stock jobber is one who jobs or buys and sells
for his own account with the view of a profit. The word job,
which originally meant any piece of work, especially of a trifling
or temporary nature, for which one was to be paid, has gradually
come to signify one who turns official actions to his own private
advantage. These sales are often merely nominal, and form a
species of wagering as to the value of the stock at some future
day. There are several new words introduced into the language
of the Stock Exchange, while some old words have undergone a
change of meaning. The nominal buyers of stock on time (for
it is the difference of value between the times of purchase and

302 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

delivery only that is paid) are called bulls, and the sellers
bears. The bulls are so called because they wish to raise the
price of stock or toss it up as high as they can, while the bears
are those who keep bearing it down, that the price may become
as low as possible. The word appreciate, which comes from
the L. appretidre (ad, to, and pretium, price), signifies to set a
just value on (like appraise, which comes from the same root-
words, an appraiser being one whose business it is to put a value
on articles to be sold). This meaning of the word is well exem-
plified in Baring Gould's ' Life of the Eev. E. S. Hawker ' in the
following passage : " Talking of appreciation, as Mr Hawker said
once, the Scripture Reader Mr Bumpus came to me the other day
and said, 'Please, sir, I have been visiting and advising Farmer
Matthews, but he did not quite appreciate me. In fact, he kicked
me downstairs.'" To this, the right meaning of appreciate, two
secondary meanings have come into use — viz., to raise in value,
and to rise in value ; so that it is not uncommon to hear that
shares, and even silver and gold, have appreciated — that is, have
risen in value. Contango, probably a corruption of continue, a
Stock Exchange phrase, meaning a sum of money, or a percentage,
paid for accommodating a buyer in carrying an engagement to
pay money for speculative purchases of stock, over to next account
day : contango day, the second day before settling day. These
shares which are bought and sold on the Stock Exchange are ordin-
ary and preference shares, and bank stock, which bring in certain
dividends to their holders. According to the nature of the past,
or the expected future, dividend, will be the price they bring.
Debentures are a mortgage on any company's assets, carrying
a fixed rate of interest, and either perpetual or redeemable at
a certain fixed date, transferable in much the same manner as
shares. A mortgage, or a conveyance of property, is a secur-
ity for a debt, which is lost, or becomes dead to the debtor, if
the money is not paid on a certain day (F. mort, dead, from L.
mortuus, dead, and gage, a pledge). Profit is the gain resulting
from the employment of capital — F. from L. profectus, progress,
advance, from proficio, profeetum, to make progress. We often

MONEY. 303

hear the word advantage used where benefit, gain, or profit should
be substituted. The word conies to us through the ~F. avantage,
formed by the suffix age, from avant, before, from the low L.
abante, the modern d being due to the mistaken identification of
the prefix a with the L. ad, to, signifying a state of forwardness
or advance. I read only yesterday that "Free Trade equalises
advantages, making the advantage of each the advantage of all."
But the second " advantage " here should be altered to " profit " or
" gain," for it is as impossible for all men to hold a common advan-
tage (i.e., to be all in advance one of the other), as it is for all the
horses in a race to come in first. An investment, literally the act
of putting vesture on, from L. investio,1 ivi, Hum, Ire, to clothe,
from vestis, has now come to signify the laying out of money on
anything, or that in which anything is invested. But our invest-
ments may be profitable or the reverse ; and while securities may
seem to be applicable only to things that are very safe, as they are
applied now to bonds or certificates in evidence of debt or property,
security, even etymologically, does not mean free from danger or risk,
but only freedom from care, fear, or anxiety — L. securus, from sine,
without, or se, apart or free from, and cura, care or anxiety, and a
person who is without care or anxiety is apt to be careless. A
man without the sense of danger is apt to think that he is beyond
the reach of danger. We have formed an English word, sinecure,
out of the two L. words sine, without, and cura,2 care or anxiety,
which is an office without care, the person being paid, but having

1 From this verb we have vest, a
waistcoat, vested rights, a vestment,
a vestry, vesture, invest, investi-
ture ; a city may be invested when
surrounded by the enemy. To tra-
vesty (trans, over) is to treat in a
ludicrous way a literary subject
which has already been handled
seriously.

2 From L. cura, euros, attention,
concern, care, we have the cure of
diseases ; curable and incurable ; a
curate has a curacy, which seems
to mean a cure of souls. The cur-
ator of a building is the superinten-
dent manager. There are curious

things and curious people ; and
we have acccurate and inaccurate
people. We procure what is need-
ful ; a proctor is a procurator, and
a proxy is shortened for procuracy,
meaning the agency of another as a
substitute. Sure is shortened from
secure. We assure a person that
things are not so bad as they seem.
We give them our assurance, and
sometimes our assurance is such as
to resemble impudence. We have
life assurance and fire insurance,
and by paying a yearly sum, called
a premium, a person insures his
life.

304 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

little or nothing to do. There is great risk in Stock Exchange
speculations. This word risk signifies danger, hazard, or peril,
from F. risque, danger, but ultimately from the Sp. risco, which is
a maritime word for a steep sharp rock, whence the sense of
hazard or peril may well have arisen to sailors, or even to lands-
men standing on the rock, who would have been on the brink of a
precipice. The Spaniards themselves, however, have derived from
this word their name for danger, riesgo. Many words connected
with the Stock Exchange have come from France, where, however,
it is called the Bourse. It literally signifies the purse, and the
form bursa, from medieval L. bursa, a purse, was in use in this
country for more than two hundred years. The word coupon, too,
a name given to the interest warrants attached to transferable
bonds, is so called from the F. verb couper, to cut off, because
they are cut off when presented for payment. It would be more
correct to say " were cut off," for most of them now are perforated
and need only to be torn off, and so cease to be coupons. The
most of the risks that are run in connection with stocks and
shares are run by men who, in their race for riches, run so fast
and so far as to leave prudence, and sometimes honesty, behind
them. They fancy that riches means happiness ; whereas the
word which in our language has come to be applied to those
who have made much of it, and kept the whole of it, is the L.
word miser, which signifies "a miserable man." To be avaricious
is also to be unhappy, for it is the extreme of covetousness or
greed, or the having an eager desire for wealth — L. avarus, greedy ;
avarus itself comes from L. aveo, to pant after, to desire eagerly,
from which we have the word avidity, which means an eager
desire to obtain something enjoyable, and is generally used in an
unfavourable sense.

Wealth, the word which we have just mentioned, is used as
synonymous with riches now, and wealthy is the condition of
being prosperous and well-to-do. It is an extension of weal, the
condition of being well. It is intimately connected with the Saxon
weal, so we retain the phrase "for weal or woe," meaning for well
or ill. Milton says, " The weal or woe in thee is placed." We

MONEY. 305

retain welfare for going well (fahren, to go), while we have lost
the old word woefare, or going ill. Wealth was originally well-
being both of mind and body ; and when the prayer in the Eng-
lish Liturgy is offered for the king that he may be granted in
health and wealth long to live, it means in health and happiness,
not in health and riches ; so in the Litany, " in all time of our
tribulation, in all time of our wealth," or wellbeing ; and common-
wealth is the common weal. " Let no man seek his own, but every
man another's wealth." But as in L. beatu# means both blessed
and rich, and olbios the same in Gr., there is a tendency shown in
all these languages to express the idea that money is the source
of true happiness, and to value all by that standard, and so to
value money at more than money's worth. We should endeavour
to practise economy, the wise spending and saving of money, as
the word has come to mean, although at first it meant the manage-
ment of a household (L. oeconomia, from Gr. oikonomia, from oikos,
a house, and nomos, law). The economical man avoids waste
and extravagance, and uses his means to the best advantage.
Thrift is also an important virtue. Thrift is the condition of
thriving. The word comes from an old Norse verb, thriva, to
seize, snatch, lay hold of ; and not merely to lay hold of, but to
keep hold of, so that he becomes a thriving man, or a man who
has thriven. He may be niggardly — i.e., literally scraping it up
little by little, from the Norse verb nyggja, to gnaw, rub, or scrape;
and what has been thus scraped together is parted with very
sparingly. To live sparingly is to live on a small amount, from
the AS. verb sparian, to spare, to save from any use, to do, impart.
Parsimonious is to be continuously sparing in the use of money,
generally implying that this is carried to excess (F. from L. parsi-
monia, parcimonia, from L. parco, to spare). Frugality is prudent
economy. The word is derived from fnix, frugis, fruit, the fruits
of the earth, originally of the field, not the garden, and to. be
frugal was to be careful in their use ; but in course of time the
word came to have a metaphorical application to the fruits of a
good life, among which was the temperate use of what a man
had, and frugality came to signify whatever is opposed to waste.

306

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

Penuriousness comes from penury, which means want, or absence
of means and resources (F. from L. penuria, akin to Gr. peina,
hunger). Even in large establishments, and with more means,
retrenchment is sometimes necessary ; and it is surprising, when
this process is honestly gone about, how many things people find
that they can do without. To retrench signifies literally to cut off
or away, so as to live at less expense (OF. etrencher, F. retrancher,
from re, and trencher, to cut, which, according to Littre, is from
L. truncare,1 to cut off or maim).

Without this, unsuccessful speculation often becomes peculation,
a word signifying embezzlement, from the L. verb peculor (p. 294),
to steal, coming from peculium, that which is private property;
so that the verb came to signify in English to appropriate to
oneself what belongs to the State, to rob or defraud the public.
The word embezzlement has reached its present meaning by
a very roundabout path. Embezzlement, as well as many other
wrongdoings, is generally successfully carried out with the con-
nivance of another, a word which signifies pretended ignorance
of, or blindness to, the faults of another. It comes from the
L. word connivere, to wink or shut the eyes, to blink, as we
still speak of a person blinking the question when he shuts his
eyes to it. So to connive at anything is to wink at it, or inten-
tionally to fail to see it. Embezzlement has been defined to be the
fraudulent appropriation of another's property by the person to
whom it was entrusted. The word fraudulent is scarcely
necessary, as the rest of the definition in the sentence signifies
fraud (from L. fraus, fraudis) and dishonesty. But embezzlement
at first did not mean all this, but merely to weaken, or to waste.
It seems to come through the F. imbecile, from the L. word im-
bedllis, without strength, originally of body and latterly either of

1 If this be the correct etymology
of the word, then from trunco, trun-
care, to cut, we have not merely the
trunk of a tree with the root and
the branches cut off, the body of an
animal apart from the limbs, the
proboscis of an elephant as distinct
from the body (F. tronce and L.

truncus), but also trench, to cut or
dig a ditch, a long narrow cut in
the earth ; a trencher, a wooden
plate formerly used for cutting
meat on at meals (F. tranchoir) ;
and trenchant, wit or criticism
which is keen, cutting, and
severe.

MONEY. 307

body or of mind, feeble — originally so feeble and weak in body
as to require to lean in bacillo, on a staff, bacillus being a dimin-
utive of baculus, a stick or staff ; and so the word imbecillis was
formed to express bodily weakness from this outward sign of it.
But by-and-by it came to express weakness as well of mind as of
body ; and now imbecility means constitutional weakness of the
whole frame, and generally weakness of mind ; and an imbecile
is one powerless in body or silly in mind. And so from this has
been supposed to come embezzle, which first meant to weaken, to
squander away, and now means to appropriate, or apply to one's
own use, money held in trust The most recent conjecture, how-
ever, as to the origin of this word is that it is derived from the
old and now obsolete English word bezzle, which signified to
squander or waste. It came from the OF. word besil, which signi-
fied bad treatment, primarily of food, provisions in the way of
waste, and then applied to money both in French and English,
in the sense of making away with, or carrying off secretly for one's
own use of what belongs to another. While writing this page I
have seen a newspaper paragraph giving an account of a man
brought up for sentence, having been found guilty of a defalca-
tion, or deficit in public funds entrusted to his custody. The
word defalcation comes from the L. word falx, falcis, a sickle or
hook, so that defalcation might mean a pruning of the accounts, or
the amount due, of whatever sort. But the word falx was also
used for a falchion (which is derived from it), and in this way a
defalcation would be rather an amputation or a mutilation of them.
As we have seen, speculation is a very precarious way of gaining
an income, for that word is derived from L. preces, prayer, and
precor,1 to pray. Now, of all blessings those are most certain which
come from the unalterable benevolence of the Creator, and those
most uncertain which hang upon the goodwill of man. Who can
calculate upon the humanity of the great and powerful, when a
petition has to be presented to them ? Hence precarious — that is,
depending on the will of others to grant, in return for our own

1 From precor, to pray, we have I deprecatory, imprecation, impre-
prayer, deprecate, deprecation, | cate.

308

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

prayers and petitions — has passed into a very proverb of uncer-
tainty ; and precarious has come in common usage to mean critical
or perilous. A man who is in debt is much given to prevaricate,
from the L. prevaricare. The L. varicare is from varus, bandy-
legged, crooked, or straddling, while varicose veins, as perma-
nently dilated or swollen, are so called from their crooked appear-
ance ; so that to prevaricate is to walk with a shambling, shuffling
gait, and, metaphorically, to deal with words in a loose and shuffling
manner. " Lying rides on debt's back ; " and as it is very difficult
for an empty sack to stand upright, the peculator, the defalcator,
and the prevaricator soon become insolvent, unable to pay their
debts, from L. in, not, and solvere,1 to pay. He may even sink so
low as to become a mendicant, lit. a poor beggar, from the L.
mendicans, mendicantis, connected with the L. menda, a want ; but
at the same time we have mendax, mendacis, mendacious or given
to falsehood, also from mendo, a want or fault, so that it seems
as if there was often little difference between mendacity and
mendicity.

In concluding what I have to say on words connected with
money, it may be interesting to note some of the names connected
with the payments in different professions which are very sug-
gestive. The word emolument, for instance, which originally
meant the return which a person got from those whose corn he
ground in his mill, and also for bestowing great labour and pains on
it, has now been generalised to signify profit or gain, whatever its
source. It has risen in the world, and is now used only when the
profit is very large, and generally in the plural, as emoluments.

1 Prom solvo, solvi, solutum, sol-
v$re, to loosen, we have to solve,
insolvable, insoluble ; we have sol-
uble and solution. A man is solv-
ent when he can pay his debts. His
solvency is his ability to do so. If
he cannot pay his debts he is in-
solvent. We have absolve and
absolution. Absolute is opposed to
relative : God is absolutely perfect,
and we speak of the absolutism of
the Czar. To dissolve is to melt

or liquefy. We speak of the dis-
solution of Parliament, and of a
dissolute man. To resolve is to
break up into single parts. What
is compound admits of resolution
into elements. We resolve a diffi-
culty when we undo it. A resolve
or a resolution is a deliberate pur-
pose. A man is said to be resolute
that is determined in his course. To
give a resolute answer is to deny a
thing resolutely.

MONEY. 309

There was a Latin word emolumentum, used by Cicero, having the
same meaning, derived from the verb emolo, to grind, from the L.
mola,1 a mill, and Gr. mule. Not only is our word mill derived
from mola, but our word meal comes from the same. From it also
we have the Latin word molaris, of or belonging to a mill, or that
serves for grinding ; hence molares denies, the jaw teeth or grinders
— the molars. The word salary, too, which some people think is
so much more dignified a word than " wages " or " pay," is literally
" salt money," from the OF. salarie, It. salario, from the Latin word
solarium (from sal, salt), originally salt money, or money given to
the soldiers for salt, then allowance of money for a journey, and
then in general pay, allowance to a person for his services. Pliny
uses the word in both senses — (1) for the salt given to private
soldiers and officers or to public functionaries when travelling or
sojourning in a province (xxxi. 7, 41), and (2) for the pay of an
officer ; so that the word was soon extended to its present meaning,
salary. Pliny, however (Book x. 27), says that salarium is a
recompense or consideration made to any man for his pains
bestowed on another man's business, so called "quia tarn neces-
sarium quam sal homini " — " because as necessary for a man as salt
is." We still speak of one man as earning his salt, and of another
as not being worth his salt — that is, his pay or wages. The Scotch
pronunciation of the word, as if spelt " sailary," gave rise to a very
good pun by a clergyman, who, busy in his garden furring up some
plants, was asked by one of his heritors what he was doing. "Doing?"
he said; "just what you should have done — trying to raise my
celery ! " The salary of ministers in Scotland is more usually called
stipend, and it is now almost the only use of the word stipend —
viz., as applied to clerical incomes. A stipend is a salary paid for
services, a settled pay, from L. stipendium, a tax or contribution
(from stips, a contribution in small coin, and pendo, I weigh or

was called the mola salsa, or sacri6ce

1 Few would imagine that im-
molate had any possible connection
with emolument, and yet its alli-
ance therewith is very close. Mola
or mol(K was the word used to de-
note grits or grains of corn coarsely
ground, and when mixed with salt

meal, which mola was sprinkled on
the head of the victim previous to
immolating him, hence its applica-
tion to sacrificing, offering up ; and
to immolate is thus literally to
sprinkle meal on a victim.

310 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

pay). Pension which also comes from the same root, and orig-
inally meant merely a weighing or paying, has now come to signify
a stated allowance to a person for past services. Eemuneration is
a recompense for any service, from L. remunero (re, in return, and
munero, to grant something, from munus, muneris, a service in an
office, or a gift). From munus in the sense of gift we have munifi-
cent, and in the sense of office we have a municipality.

There was a slang word for money which was very popular a
few years ago, frequently seen in print, especially in novels, and
often in conversation, but now very rarely seen or heard — namely,
the word oof. The " oof -bird " was the goose that laid the golden
eggs — the source of supply; the " feathered oof -bird " meant money
in plenty. To " make the oof-bird walk " was to circulate money ;
while " oofless " meant poor. It seems that the word ooftish was
some forty years ago the East End synonym for money, and was
a corruption of Ger. auftische, i.e., auf dem tische, on the table —
that is, (money) laid on the table, (money) down. There is a German
word auftischen, to table. The word, according to the 'Sporting
Times,' originated with the aristocracy of Houndsditch and White-
chapel, who were in the habit of refusing to play cards even with
their best friends unless the money was down on the table.

Baksheesh is an Oriental term for a present of money, a gratuity,
a tip. There are not many words, even among those of foreign
extraction, of which the orthography offers no fewer than thirteen
alternatives. This is one of the few which enjoy that privilege.
Originally of Persian origin (bakJmsh, a present, from bakhshi-dan,
to give), it seems to have made its first appearance in Western
literature very soon after the death of Shakespeare, for in 1625 we
find bacsheese (as they say in the Arabic tongue), that is, gratis,
freely (Purchas, 'Pilgrimes,' ii. 1340). Whether or not the term
ever really had this meaning it is difficult now to determine, but
assuredly for'many years past it has signified something very dif-
ferent. In what may be called its most vulgar and aggravating
sense, it is the first word to greet the British traveller, and the last
to ring in his ears as he turns his face homeward. Probably no
other single vocable rises with such persistent frequency as this to

MONEY.

311

the lips of the dusky Oriental. It is like what the mathematicians
call a constant quantity, a grand discord which underlies his every
chord, a sort of special diapason from which there is no escape.
And yet in another form, under the name of tip, we have the same
thing here, except that it is not asked, but looked for. It is the
colloquial English for a gratuity, a small present in money. In
America it is usually confined to the coin given to a waiter or other
servant. Here it is applied also, and as frequently, to the money
which a parent, guardian, or relation adroitly slips into a school-
boy's hand. As Thackeray says in ' The Newcomes ' : " What
money is better bestowed than a schoolboy's tip ? How the kind-
ness is recalled by the recipient in after days. It blesses him that
gives and him that takes. Eemember how happy such benefactions
made you in your own early time, and go off on your very first fine
day and tip your nephew at school ! " As regards servants at
hotels, an old traveller has truly said that parsimony in tips is the
falsest of economies. Haggle as much as you like with the land-
lord over the price of your rooms, grind him down to the lowest
centime in fixing your weekly pension, but do not forget the waiter
or the chambermaid, or in a busy establishment the hall-porter, for
in their hands the question of your future comfort lies. So deep-
rooted is the institution of tipping nowadays that all hotel servants
place the guests into categories, according to the likelihood of their
tips being good, bad, or indifferent. It is even said that they have
a code of signals whereby they affix the hotel labels to your trunks
in such a way that your generosity may be gauged immediately on
your arrival at the next caravanserai.

312

CHAPTEE XXIII.

GOVERNMENT, ETC.

THE State includes the whole body of people under one govern-
ment, lit. a "standing" (OF. estat, F. etat, L. status, from sto,1
statum, to stand). There are various forms of government. This
word comes through the F. gouverner and It. gubernare, from L.
guberno, to steer a ship, to rule, from Gr. Jcubernao, connected with
Gr. kube, the head. It may be monarchical, with one sole or
supreme ruler (through F. monarque, and through the Latin from
Gr. monarches, from Gr. monos? one or alone, and arche? rule).
The government may be despotic, from Gr. despotes, a lord or
master; a despot, one who rules absolutely, being above all

1 From sto, steti, statum, stare, to
stand, come perhaps more words
than from any other in the Latin
language. We have stable and
unstable, stability and unstability.
We have a stage, and a stamen, and
stamina ; a stanchion and a stanza,
so called from the stop or pause in
the versification. We have a state,
stately, and statement and states-
man. We have station, and sta-
tioner, and stationery. We have
statistics, and statists, and statis-
ticians. We have statues and
statutes, stature and status. To
arrest (ad, re, stare) is to hold or
stop what is in motion. We have
circumstances, circumstantial, con-
stancy and inconstancy, constituent
and constituency ; constitution and
constitutional, consubstantial and
consubstantiation ; contrast, des-
titute, destitution, and distance ;

establish, an estate, extant, an in-
stance, this instant, and instantan-
eous. We have also an obstacle,
rest, and restitution ; substance,
substantial, and insubstantiate ;
superstition and transubstantia-
tion.

2 From monos, alone or sole, we
have a monk and monastic orders,
monogamy, monogram, monograph,
monolith, monomania, monopolist,
monosyllable, monotheism, mono-
tone, monotony, and monoton-
ous.

3 Arche, arches, beginning, or rule ;
from this we have arch prefixed to
a word, meaning chief, as in arch-
bishop, archdeacon ; and then we
have archaeologist, archipelago,
architecture, archives, anarchy,
heptarchy, hierarchy, monarchy,
monarchical, oligarchy, patriarchal,
and tetrarch.

GOVERNMENT, ETC. 313

restraints, or who exercises his authority without regard to the
laws or constitution. The government may be aristocratic, lit.
government by the best, from Gr. aristos, best, from Gr. arete,
excellence, and Gr. Teredos? power. Aristocracy is the government
which places the chief power in the hands of the nobles, of men
of rank. The government may be democratic, a form of govern-
ment in which the supreme power is vested in the people col-
lectively (Gr. demokratia, from demos, the people, and Jcrateo, to
rule, from kratos, strength. There is also an oligarchy, which
means government by a few, through French from Gr. oligos, few,
and arche, rule. A republic or a commonwealth is a form of govern-
ment without a monarch, in which the supreme power is vested in
representatives elected by the people (F. republiqw, from L. res
publica, the common weal). When we speak of a dynasty we mean
a succession of kings of the same family, from the Gr. dynasteia,
from dynastes, a lord, from dynamai? to be able, and dynamis, power.
A hereditary monarchy is where the government descends to
the heirs, sometimes only in the male line, but sometimes in the
female also. The word comes from L. hereditarius — from Tiereditas,
from Tieres, an heir. The names given to the supreme ruler differ
widely. Sometimes he is called a king, supposed to be from AS.
cyninrj, from cyn, a tribe = the father of a tribe ; while queen,
AS. cwen, meant originally a woman, or the chief woman, the wife
of the king. The present misspelling of the word sovereign is
owing to a supposed connection with " to reign " (through F. regner,
from L. regnare, regnum, a kingdom), and accordingly the g was
inserted in the word. It has no connection with reign, the real
derivation being through OF. soverain, F. souverain, from low L.
superanus, and L. super, supra,3 above. The word is correctly spelt

1 From kratos we have autocrat,
democrat, a theocracy, and a pluto-
cracy, where the men of wealth
(plutos) have the direction of national
affairs.

2 From dynamai we have dyna-
mics, and dynamite, and dynastic.
Dynastic changes have taken place
at some epochs of English history,
as when the Tudors, the Stewarts,

or the Hanoverian dynasty suc-
ceeded.

3 From the L. super and supra we
have superior, supreme, insuper-
able, superb, supernal, meaning
situated on an upper region above
us, as the supernal orbs, the super-
nal judge, supernal grace. Soprano
is the highest species of female
voice in music — equivalent to treble,

314

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

" sovran " by Milton. An emperor is one who rules an empire,
through F. empereur, from L. imperator, a commander, from im-
pero,1 to command. The Czar, the title of the Emperor of Eussia,
although a Russian word tsare, a king, is yet evidently closely
connected with the Ger. kaiser and the L. ccesar, a king or
emperor. President (of a republic) is so called because he is the
highest officer of state in a republic, the man who presides over it.
The L. word is presses (from prce, before, or in front, and sedeo,2 to
sit, to sit over others). The Sultan is the title of the supreme
head of the Ottoman Empire, being the Arabic sultan, power, or a

a word which is falling out of use.
A suzerain is a feudal lord. The
word is derived from sursum, up-
wards. It corresponds to a low L.
type, suzeranus for surseranus.

* From this word we have em-
pire, imperial power, an impera-
tive, and imperious, and "imperial
Caesar."

2 This L. verb, sedeo, sedi, sessum,
sedere, to sit or to be seated, is the
origin of many of our words, such
as session, a sitting for the transac-
tion of business. In England the
period of time that Parliament sits
is called the session. In Scotland
the session-clerk is one who keeps
the minutes and other documents
of the kirk - session, the lowest ec-
clesiastical court of the Church of
Scotland ; and we have the Court
of Session, the supreme civil court
in Scotland, and the Quarter Ses-
sions, the quarterly meetings of
the justices of the peace in each
county. As several of them went
abroad for a holiday in days when
travelling was not so universal, and
as in Munich the Hdtel de Quatre
Saisons was a great favourite, al-
though they were not all able to pro-
nounce its name accurately, it went
for a long time by the name of
the Hotel of the Quarter Sessions !
Sessile is the name applied in
botany to a leaf which issues
directly from the main stem or
branch without a footstalk — it just

sits on the branch. To assess was
originally to sit as a judge, and an
assessor was one who sat by a
judge as a legal adviser, so it has
gradually come to mean a person
who has to do with the laying on
of taxes, or making an assessment :
to assess, therefore, now means gen-
erally to fix a tax, or to tax in due
proportion. From the same verb
we have assiduous, literally sitting
closely, then very attentive, dili-
gent ; dissident, being at variance,
literally sitting apart (dis, asunder),
and dissidence, disagreement ; in-
sidious (L. insidiosus, cunning, art-
ful ; insidice, troops of men who
lie in ambush — but both from in,
and sedeo, to sit), deceitful, sly,
treacherous ; possession (po, an in-
separable preposition, from Gr. poti,
to or at, to express power or to
strengthen the meaning of a verb,
and sedeo, to sit). The L. verb
possideo signifies I have, hold, or
am master of, and so a possession is
the state of owning or having in
one's own power, or that which
is possessed. The possessive case
in English grammar denotes the
possessor, and is marked with an
apostrophe, as "the schoolmaster's
garden." To prepossess is to pre-
occupy, to sit down beforehand, and
so to take previous possession of ;
and prepossession is raising a favour-
able opinion beforehand. To reside
is literally to sit again, to remain, to

GOVERNMENT, ETC.

315

prince, evidently allied to the Hebrew shalal, to be strong.1 The
throne is the royal seat, from the L. thronus and Gr. thronos, a
seat (from Gr. thrao, to set). The sceptre is the staff or baton
borne by kings, as an emblem of authority (from L. sceptrum, from
Gr. skeptron, a staff to lean upon, from skeptro, to lean). The title
of prince denotes one of the highest rank, signifying literally one
taking the first place (through F. from L. piinceps, composed of
primus, first, and capio, cepi, I take). A duke, lit. a leader, is the
highest order of nobility in this country below the Prince of Wales ;
on the Continent a sovereign prince (F. due, from L. dux, duvis, a
leader, from duco, to lead). Marquis (now ranking next to a
duke) was an officer who guarded the marches or frontiers of a
kingdom (through F., from It. marchese, from the root of march, a
frontier ; and indeed in Scotland we still speak of " riding the
marches," or the boundaries of any town or burgh). The county
was so called as being originally the province ruled by a count, but
it is frequently called the shire, as we still speak of the county of
Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. The shire is a division of the king-
dom under a sheriff, a word which signified originally the shir-
reeve, or governor of the shire, the word reeve in ME. signifying
officer or governor. The AS. word meant the same — scir-gerefa

abide ; and we have resident, resid-
ence, residue, and residuary. To
subside is to sit or settle down (sub,
under), to sink to the bottom, or to
be tranquil after having been agi-
tated. Sediment is what subsides
or sinks to the bottom. Subsidise
is to give a subsidy, or assistance to,
— the original idea being that of sit-
ting under them to keep them up.
Sedentary (L. sedentarius) is from
sedens, sitting, pres. part, of sedeo,
to sit ; one who is accustomed to
pass much time in a sitting posture,
as when we speak of a sedentary
occupation. Sedate, quiet, calm,
composed, is from sedare, to settle,
also from sedeo, to sit. The word
siege, too, is also through the OF.
siege, from sedeo, to sit, a sitting
down before a town in a hostile
way.

1 The Ottoman Empire is gener-
ally spoken of as the Sublime Porte,
the F. for Porta Sublima, literally
"the lofty gate." Constantinople
has twelve gates, and near one of
these is a building with a lofty gate-
way called Babihumajun. In this
building resides the Grand Vizier or
Prime Minister (literally, a burden-
bearer, from Ar. wezir, wazir, a
porter, from wazara, to bear a
burden). In the same building are
the offices of all the chief ministers
of state, and thence all the imperial
edicts are issued. The F. word
sublime, like our own and the
L. sublimis, from which they are
derived, signifies lofty, elevated,
majestic. The etymology, however
is doubtful — generally supposed to
be super limen, above the threshold,
but Dr Parr, supra limum.

316 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

(sdr, shire, and gerefa, a governor). But " shire," or in the AS.
form " scir," signifies a division, from the AS. verb sceran, to
shear or cut off. Now this was the share, or shire, which was
assigned by the Saxon king to the sheriff to govern, and which
also gave him his title. But at the Conquest this Saxon officer
was displaced by a Norman, with the title of count. This title,
borrowed from the later Norman Empire, meant originally a com-
panion (L. comes, comitis), or one who had the honour of being closest
companion to his leader, and the shire became the county comitatus,
as governed by this comes ; but count is still a foreign title. The
word eaxl (AS. eorl, Icel. jarT) was the territorial title which it
displaced, for the complete history of the English word " earl "
involves the Anglo-Saxon, the Danish, and the Norman Conquests.
It now indicates the rank between a marquis and a viscount (from
L. vice, in place of, and comes, a companion).

The word lord is the contracted pronunciation of the OE. hlaf-
weard, which, literally translated, is " head-keeper," or guardian, of
bread, from hlef, bread, and weard, guardian. The usual form of
the word is hlaford, the w being elided in the haste of pronuncia-
tion, as in the modern penn'orth for pennyworth. The word
originally meant the head of a household, in relation to his servants
and dependents, who were called his " bread eaters," and in OE. it
had come to be the most general term for one who bore rule over
others. In ME. the F. word master was introduced, and by
degrees took the place of lord in this wider sense. It is true that
the Bible translation of 1611 still used lord and master as the
regular correlative to servant ; and in poetry, or elevated language,
the word can yet have its original meaning ; but so far as the
diction of common life is concerned, that sense has been obsolete
for many centuries, except in the religious sense, in which it never
can be superseded. But besides its religious sense, lord had another
specific application. As the word master took more and more the
place of lord in its original use, lord became more definitely re-
stricted in its use as a designation of elevated station, and was
employed as a prefix to the names, or territorial appellation, of
barons and nobles of higher grades. Hence in modern times, when

GOVERNMENT, ETC. 317

we hear of a lord, unless there is something in the context to
indicate some other meaning, we always understand the reference
to be to one of those persons whose ordinary appellation has the
prefix " Lord " as indicating his rank. In Scotland, where the
OE. hlaford came (in accordance with the phonetic laws of the
Northern district) to be pronounced not " lord " but " laird," the
word has retained a meaning nearer to its original sense, being
applied to any owner of landed property. But as early as the
fourteenth century the English form lord was in Scotland adopted
in the special meaning that had grown up in the Southern king-
dom— viz., " as a title of the Deity, and as the designation for a
nobleman " (Bradley).

Lady in AS. is hlafdige, and may mean " she that looks after
the loaf," if dige be from dugan, which signifies to care for, to help,
to serve ; but in all probability it is from the same stem as AS.
daige, a bread-maker, and as dag is AS. for dough, the meaning is
kneader of bread. In any case, the word " lady," as well as lord,
was originally expressive of high position ; but although " lord "
has retained, if not increased it, the word " lady " has sadly fallen
from its high estate, as has also the word " gentleman." The
adjective " gentle," which forms the first half of the word, is from
the L. gens, and means properly belonging to one of the great
families or gentles of Rome. It implied, therefore, in its first use in
English, " high station," and what we may call " gentle breeding,"
and came to be applied to a definite rank in society, corresponding
to that of the " lower " or untitled nobility of the Continent. The
adjective " gentle," however, had acquired a secondary meaning in
French before it was taken into our language. It had been ap-
plied, by association of ideas, to the characteristics supposed to
accompany high birth, and this sense has prevailed in English.
Chaucer, insisting on the moral or ethical sense of " gentleman,"
has defined the true gentleman as one who always tries " to do the
gentle dedes that he can." Courtesy, however, has been carried
too far both with gentleman and lady ; for it has been said that
while the extension of the words lady and gentleman to all human
beings is often unthinkingly ascribed to pushing self-assertion,

318 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

yet it conies in fact rather from politeness than from bumptious
democracy. A woman in humble circumstances compliments her
neighbour by calling her a " lady," the attention is reciprocated,
and the usage once established, the kindly feeling of social superiors
prompts them to employ the same term in their intercourse
with those below them. I am not sure that it is courtesy, and
not democratic push, which brings about results such as these.
The Duke of Saxe- Weimar stated that when he visited the United
States he was asked by the car-driver, "Are you the man that's
going to ride with me, for I'm the gentleman that's to drive1?"
Quite recently at a soiree given to a young women's society com-
posed chiefly of servant-maids, and where the tea was poured out
for the most part by their mistresses, one of them said to the lady
who was presiding at her table, "Please, woman, would you gi'e
this young lady another cup of tea1?" A good many years ago
now, during a severe whiter, and when most of the poor people
connected with our different Churches had been supplied with
coals, an enterprising firm employed in enlarging the Leith docks
had raised a very considerable sum by making a small charge for
the privilege of skating on one of the large temporary ponds that
had been formed during the process, and they resolved that the
money should be employed in purchasing coals for poor people
who did not belong to any Church ; and I was asked by them to
take charge of the distribution, to the extent of deciding who
among the non-churchgoing class were the most needy and de-
serving of relief. As may be supposed, I was interviewed by
many of the lowest class of the population. One morning towards
the close of the distribution I was told there were two women in
the parish room wishing to see me. When I went into the room
I found myself in the presence of two of the dirtiest women I
ever set eyes on. Not thinking, however, at the moment of the
coal question, but only that they had come under pressure of some
kind, and not wishing that they should be called on to tell in each
other's presence the difficulties that had brought them to me, with
the view of seeing them apart I said to one of them, " Were you
first ? " " K"o, sir," she said ; " it was this other lady " !

GOVERNMENT, ETC.

319

The word " woman " was at the time of the Authorised Version
a title of honour, but since then it has gone through the same
generalising or vulgarising process to which "lady" has been sub-
jected. Of late, however, a reaction has set in, and "woman"
seems likely to be restored to its full rights as a self-respecting
word.

Closely connected with these we have the words sire and madam,
and master and mistress. Sire and sir were the despair of the old
etymologists. They even wrote it eyre, to make it look like kurios,
a lord ; but these words are really a contraction of senior (elder),
the comparative of senex, an old man, which, through the respect
shown to age originally, had gradually come to be associated with
honour and dignity, so that as early as the sixth century senior
had established itself in the sense of lord and master ; and it has
given us the It. signore, signora, and signorina, the Sp. senor, the
Port, senhor, the F. sieur, sire, and seigneur, and the Eng. sir and
sire, both of which are borrowed from the F. sire, so that sir cor-
responds to the F. sieur in monsieur (my sir). This title, as its
etymology indicates, was used first as a mark of respect to old age,
afterwards as a mark of respect to everybody, in obedience to the
apostolic injunction, "honour all men." Madam is a French
word, a corruption of the L. mea domina, my lady, domina being
gradually changed into donna and dame. Grandsire and grandame,
which appear in the thirteenth century, are words taken directly
from the French spoken in England. They do not appear to have
been used on the Continent, and indeed the respectful titles
"sire" and "dame" for father and mother appear to have been
peculiar to the French in England. In the fifteenth century the
half-English grandfather and grandmother came into use, but it
was not until Elizabethan times that the use of the prefix was
extended (in a manner unknown to French) by the formation of
words like grandson and granddaughter. Father-in-law, mother-
in-law, &c., are formed of English elements, but they are literal
translations of old French designations. These words sire and
dame (now dam), which, as we have just seen, were originally
applied to parents as titles of respect, have suffered a strange

320 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

descent in dignity of use, being now employed (except for the
poetic use of sire) with reference to animals only.

The words master and mistress also came to us through the
French, for mister, meister, maister, OF. maistre, are but varieties
of master derived through French, with the usual loss of the
middle consonant, from L. magister, which meant properly "much
more greater," hence the idea of superiority, power, or sway.
Probably its first ennobling use came from ludi magister, the
Latin expression for schoolmaster, which appears in early classical
times, and still survives in its English form. Hence a teacher
was not unfrequently called the master, but in Scotland also the
dominie (from L. dominus). The feminine magistra was early
used in the school sense. Low L. developed a new form, magis-
trissa, whence ME. maistress, formed from master through the
F. suffix esse (L. ma, It. essa, as abbess, authoress, doctoress),
and our mistress. The latter was corrupted to Mrs (pronounced
Missis, but never written at length), which was long used as the
title both of married and unmarried women. Finally, however,
the abbreviated Miss was applied to the latter. Both Mr and Mrs
have ceased to be specific titles of honour: they are applied to
men and women of whatever rank, but they are still titles merely ;
they have never become ordinary synonyms for " men " and
"women." The title of Esquire or Esq. has been more eagerly
contended for by many who seem to have little title to it than
many another which seems much more honourable, and many
people who are mere clerks have taken mortal offence because on
their envelopes they were not addressed as So-and-so, Esquire.
The word esquire comes from the F. escu, a shield, and every
knight was attended by his servant or squire, who, mounted on
horseback like his master, carried his armour. It signified origin-
ally a shield-bearer (from the OF. escuyer, F. ecuyer — from escu,
now ecu — from L. scutum, a shield). This use of the word is now
unknown, but landed proprietors have generally the addition of
esquire to their names. The holders of the higher public offices,
provosts and mayors of towns, and sheriffs of counties, claim this
title, but the right to this addition is very ill defined. It is in

GOVERNMENT, ETC. 321

fact a mere term of complaisance, for a knight is the lowest degree
of honour conferred by his Majesty. The address "To A. B.,
Esq.," may be given to any man whom we choose to distinguish
from the common mass, and it is seldom refused to any one who
has the vanity to assume the title. Within the last year or two,
however, many people have requested that it be not written after
their names. The great mass of the population are unconcerned
about either the possession or the want of such titles ; but
naturally they do not like opprobrious epithets to be bestowed
upon them, such as the mob, which is a contraction from the
L. word mobile (the mobile vulgus), the fickle multitude, for
mobile is a contraction for movibile, from L. moveot to move.
Any one can easily prove how movable a mob is, for if you wish
to get through a crowd of a thousand persons to see what is going
on in front, you have only to remain in the position in which you
began, without moving either to the right hand or to the left in
search of likely openings : you will very soon find that so many
in your immediate neighbourhood move so often to try elsewhere,
that you have only to go straight forward into the openings made
by people who have moved to what they thought more tempting
chances, and in a very short time you find yourself in the very
front rank of the spectators. The word plebeian is an offensive
word to use (from the L. plebs,1 the common people) ; but I have
been a good deal surprised at the frequent use of the word
proletariat by mob orators, for the proletariat means the lowest
class — from the L. proletarius (in ancient Rome), a citizen of the
sixth and lowest class, who served the State, not with his property,
but with his children — from the L. proles, offspring.

On the other hand, there are several words that have seriously
deteriorated in meaning in consequence of the alienation of class
from class. The word vulgar,2 for instance, from the L. vulgus,
signified common, belonging to all without distinction, general,

1 Originally both plebs and vulgus
signified the common people, with
this difference, that the former was
used in a political sense, the latter
in a moral, with some mixture of

contempt.

2 A vulgar fraction is a common
fraction — that is, one written in the
usual or common manner.

322 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

universal. In the verb, vulgo, the idea is to divulge, to spread
abroad, to publish. The " vulgus " were the crowd, the multitude,
the mass of the people ; and so men used to speak of the Scriptures
in the " vulgar tongue," meaning the native language of the people.
The Vulgate, or Latin translation of the Scriptures (from L. vulgatus,
pp. of vulgo, to preach), was so called because it was originally
intended for the people generally, as the Latin language was then
more generally understood than any other. And now we use the
word vulgar to express all that is coarse, ill-mannered, objection-
able, rude, low in thought and base in spirit. There can be no
doubt that much of the meaning which the word bears to-day
comes from the disdain of the rich and the educated for the poor ;
but how much of it is true to the facts of life ? How far is it true
that the vulgus are the vulgar, that the masses have been loutish,
unrefined, without ideals and visions. The word is red- veined
with human nature. It is impossible for us always, perhaps it is
impossible for us at any time, to get back the depreciated currency
of popular speech to its face value. And if we can do no other
than accept the word " vulgar " in its modern meaning, at least let
us remember that vulgarity is not of the social provision but of
the soul, not of the income but of the instincts, which rule our
life. The sort of people who deserve the name of vulgar are not
found in the lower strata only. They crawl and swarm all round
us right up to the highest seats. A man is vulgar and ignorant
and undeveloped when he thinks the thoughts and speaks the
opinions of his official superiors. Men who do that always belong
to the mob. The word popular, too, is at the present moment
undergoing a change. Derived from the L. popultis, it used to
mean pertaining to the people ; now it oftener means " a favourite
with the people." Suppose a preacher were to say, "The great
business of my life is to be a popular preacher," you would probably
understand him to mean that his great object was to be a
favourite with the crowd, and you would very probably condemn
him as a sycophant, a time-server, a hireling, and a vain one at
that. But he might mean that his work in the world was not
to preach to an academy or to the university, nor to so discuss the

GOVERNMENT, ETC. 323

Gospel with men of light and leading in the nation. His work
was to appropriate all the results of modern research, scholarship,
criticism accumulated by the learning and toil of others, master
their meaning, and translate them into the common speech and
language of the common people, that they might hear him gladly.
Still more closely connected with the life of the State is the
Parliament, which is the name given to the legislature of the
nation, consisting of the king, lords, and commons. The word
means literally a parleying or speaking, from the F. parlement, from
parler, to speak. The Speaker is the name given to the person
who presides over the House of Commons. It signifies literally the
person who speaks, but he is really the person who speaks less than
any of the others ; and it is supposed that he has the name on that
account, possibly on the principle of " lucus a non lucendo," — the
origin of which phrase is said to be that the Latin word lucus
signifies a grove or dark place ; and when the etymology of it was
given as lux, light, it was wittily remarked that this was very
appropriate, as in a grove there was no light at all. The chief
members of the Government constitute the Cabinet, and they are
called Cabinet Ministers because they meet in a cabinet, a private
room or cabin, for consideration. If it should happen that they
met together for their own private ends, and not for the benefit of
the nation, they might be supposed to have entered into a plot or
cabal. This word cabal is said to have been derived from the
initials of the five Ministers of Charles II. who signed the treaty
of alliance with France for war against Holland in 1672 — viz.,
Clifford, Ashley (Earl of Shaftesbury), Buckingham, Arlington, and
Lauderdale ; but while it is true that the initials of the names, as
thus arranged, spell the word cabal, and that they were on that
account emphatically called the Cabal at the time, and that it has
never since been used except as a term of reproach, yet there are
many occasions in our language previous to that time in which
the word was used of a secret or private intrigue. A diplomatist
is the name given to a Minister at a foreign court. It comes from
the word diploma (from Gr. di or dis, double, and ploos, folded),
literally a document folded double ; and a diplomatist was so named

324 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

because of the folding of the paper or the parchment which author-
ised him to transact business for a sovereign at a foreign court.
The word is now confined to a parchment or formal writing, under
seal and signed by officials, conferring some privilege or honour,
such as university degrees. The word protocol, derived from the
two Greek words protos,1 first, and Jcollao, to glue or gum, means
properly the first leaf glued to the scapus or cylinder round which
the document was rolled, signifying by whom it was written, &c. ;
and so it has come to mean the original minutes or rough draught
of an instrument or transaction serving to secure certain ends
peaceably without a further ratified treaty.

The House of Commons is called a representative assembly,
because its members are supposed to represent the will and wishes
and opinions and views of those who return them as members of
Parliament. The word comes from the L. represento, avi, atum,
are, to represent — i.e., to exhibit as again present, to bring before
us the likeness or image of a thing — from re, again, and prcesens,2
present ; so that a representative is one who is present for another,
as a Member of Parliament sent to the House of Commons (which
itself " represents " the people) to be present instead of his con-
stituents— that is, those who constitute him their representative.
There seems a very great ambition to get a seat in Parliament,
and as I write these words in the midst of a contested election,
there are a great number of candidates, and a still greater number of
speeches. These speeches are enough to show that if ever there

1 We have also from protos, first,
the word protomartyr, the first
martyr, a name given to Stephen.
Then we have the word protoplasm,
the matter (from Gr. plassein, to
mould) of the structural units of
which all animals are composed.
The protoplast is the first thing
formed as a copy, the first in-
dividual or pair of individuals of a
species, as when we called Adam
the protoplast of the human race.
A prototype is the original or model
after which a thing is copied, an
exemplar. We speak of Simon
Magus (Simon the Sorcerer) as the

great precursor and prototype of
venal religious impostors.

'2 Prcesens, prcesentis (from prce-
esse), being in front of, near, pres-
ent ; as well as absens (from abesse),
being away, absent, not at hand ;
we have both presence and absence
both of body and mind. An ab-
sentee is one who absents him-
self, as a landlord not being on his
estate. To present is to bestow
a gift with an expression of regard ;
one who is presented is a presentee ;
presently means at once, immedi-
ately ; omnipresent means every-
where present.

GOVERNMENT, ETC. 325

was any connection between candour or candid and candidate, that
connection has long ceased to exist. But it never did exist ; and
the candidates were so called, not for the candour of their speeches,
but for the whiteness of their robes, as the applicants for any office
in Borne went about in white robes, and so were called candidati,
clothed in white. On account of their going round to solicit votes,
they were said to be ambitious, from the L. word ambitio, signify-
ing literally a going round (from amb, around, and ire, to go), a
going about. To canvass, in the sense of soliciting votes, seems to
be very closely connected with the noun canvas, which was the
material frequently employed for filtering or passing through a
sieve ; and so a canvasser passes all the votes through his sieve,
and in doing so is said to canvass them. Voting by ballot was so
called from putting the little ball into the box, secret voting, from
F. ballotte, dim. of balle, a ball. It has been said that this mode
of voting enables a man to take two bribes instead of only one.
Though the word bribe comes from the F. bribe, it does not signify
in French what it does in English. With them it signifies "a
lump of bread," and came with us to signify to stop one's mouth,
metaphorically to bribe one to hold his tongue or to obtain an
undue compliance from him ; and the noun has come to signify
a price or reward given to any one to do a wrong thing. The
French boast that they have no word for bribe, and hence argue
that they are less accessible than other men to that species of
official corruption of which a pecuniary or other material con-
sideration is the reward. But has not the reproach implied in
the very word a useful influence in bringing the act to the
consciousness of men as a shame and a sinl Can we, it has
been asked, fully comprehend the evil character of a wrong until
we have given it a specific objective existence, by assigning to
it a name which shall serve at once to designate and condemn?
And do not the jocular pot-de-vin and other vague and trivial
phrases by which, for the want of a proper term to stigmatise
the crime, French levity expresses it, indicate a lack of sensibility
to the heinous nature of the transgression, and gloss over and
even half commend the reception of unlawful fees as at worst but

326

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

a venial offence, the disgrace of which lies more in the detection
than in the commission 1 We have also the word blackball,
which means to put a black ball in against the person who is
being voted for, and if the majority is against him he is excluded
or blackballed. Somewhat corresponding with this was to ostracise
a man, to banish by the vote of the people written in an ostrakon.1
The candidate who has the largest number of votes is said to be
at the top of the poll — the poll being the register of heads or
persons who are qualified to vote for Members of Parliament ; and
the poll clerk is the person who marks the names of voters at
an election as they appear to give their vote. This word poll
has evidently come from the now obsolete Dut. polle, the crown
of the head ; and in the Bremen Wbrterbuch is found the same
word in the same sense in the low German. In Danish still, puld
signifies the crown of the head. It originally was used with us
to signify the human head, and now more specifically the part
of the head on which the hair grows, or the crown or top of
the head. Then it came, as we have mentioned, to signify a
person or individual in a number or list, and then the counting
of heads to ascertain the number of persons present. The verb
" to poll " signifies to cut short the hair of (a person or animal),
to crop, clip, shear. The expected primary sense would have been
to take, not the hair, but the poll or head of. (Can there be any
connection between poll and the F. poile, the hair1?) We have
still in Dut. bol, a head ; whence bolster, Ger. polster, and Scot.
pow. Latimer says in his ' Sermons,' " If thou wilt need show thy
hair and have it seen, go and poll thy head, or round it, as men do."
More says in his ' Utopia,' " Their heads be not polled or shaven,
but rounded a little above the ears." It means also to cut off
the top of a tree or plant, especially to lop or head a tree by

1 Ostrakon, a potsherd or tile,
originally a shell (from ostron, an
oyster, so called from its hard
shell). The Athenians wrote on a
shell or tablet the name of any
person whom they wished to ban-
ish as dangerous to their liberties,
or possessing an influence likely

to interfere with the political
constitution. When persons are
blackballed now they are gener-
ally ostracised from a club or a
society, or they may so conduct
themselves as to be sentenced to a
perpetual ostracism from the honours
of their country or other favours.

GOVERNMENT, ETC.

327

cutting off its branches, when the tree is said to be pollard, or
to have been pollarded. And cattle are said to be polled when
they have their horns cut off, or have shed them, or are of a
hornless breed. The word vote, which we have used so frequently,
both noun and verb (L. votum, a thing solemnly promised — from
voveo, vow, votum, vovere, to vow1), means expression of a wish
or opinion as to a matter in which one has an interest, as when
an elector gives his vote for a Member of Parliament. The word
suffrage means a vote — " universal suffrage," every one having a
vote for a Member of Parliament. It comes from the L. word
suffragium, which originally signified a potsherd — from sub, under,
and frango, fregi, fractum, frangere, to break, a sherd being a
shred or fragment, a bit broken off; and as votes were anciently
written on potsherds in the assemblies of the Eoman people, the
word soon came to signify a vote, and the verb suffragor to
signify to support a candidate by one's vote and interest. From
this use of the verb comes probably the word suffragan, meaning
an assistant bishop, one who supports the bishop proper in his
work. While I write, the word suffragettes has been applied
to the women who are clamouring so loudly for their votes and
being imprisoned for their clamour, and who are wishing even
more votes than men, probably because, being the "weaker
vessels," there would be more potsherds among them. Scrutiny
is critical examination, careful and minute inquiry — from the L.
scrutinium, an examining or searching, from scruta, old or broken
stuff, rubbish, trash, trumpery (Gr. gryte, rags). I do not know
that scrutiny ever rose higher in meaning than such a careful
and minute examination of rubbish-heaps as is given to them
by the chiffonier or ragpicker who examines the ash-buckets, until

1 From this word we have also
votary, one given up to any pur-
suit or worship or state. To vow
is to promise solemnly or to dedi-
cate, as to God. A votive offering
is one promised by a vow. To
devote is to give up in an earnest
and final way. Men devote them-
selves to a pursuit. A devoted

person is one given up to some
person or pursuit. A devout per-
son is one given up to religious
exercises. A devotee is one who
goes to an extreme in this way, being
indiscreetly and wholly given up to
such exercises. Devotion may mean
either devotedness or devoutness.
Prayer is a devotional exercise.

328

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the French used the word scrutin in the sense of a ballot, and
then scrutiny came to be used for an examination of the votes
given at an election for the purpose of correcting the polls. lsrow
a scrutiny is a minute examination of what is known and present,
and sometimes the designs of a great ruler may be inscrutable or
unsearchable.

The House of Lords is presided over by the Lord Chancellor,
and " to sit on the woolsack " is only another expression for to be
Lord Chancellor, whose seat in the House of Lords is the wool-
sack.1 It is a large square bag of wool, without back or arms, and
covered with red cloth. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth an Act
of Parliament was passed to prevent the exportation of wool, and
that this source of our national wealth might be kept constantly
in mind, a woolsack was placed in the House of Peers whereon
the judge sat. The word usher comes to us through the OF.
ussier (present F. huissier), from L. ostiarius, a doorkeeper, from
L. ostium-, a door. With us the word usher signifies generally an
official who introduces strangers to a presence-chamber or who
walks before a person of rank We have, for instance, such usher-
ships as the Usher of the Black Rod, an officer of the Order of
the Garter, who is first gentleman usher of the Court, and thus one
of the chief officers of the Court of Peers ; and Usher of the
Green Eod, one of the officers of the Order of the Thistle. In
England an assistant in a school was at one time called an usher,
probably from his opening the door of learning to the pupils,
or ushering them into it, for it has come as a verb to be used
metaphorically. One of our Scotch paraphrases speaks of " showers
that usher in the spring." Milton speaks of "stars that usher
the even," and Shakespeare more generally to "usher in the
evening." Our readers who have not forgotten their Latin will be
glad to be reminded of a very happy pun on this word ostium.
Two or three centuries ago, when Latin was habitually spoken in
our northern grammar-schools and universities, as several boys
came straggling into school late, one boy shouted out, as each

1 This word sack is said to be
the only word which is found in all

languages with very little change in
spelling, sound, or meaning.

GOVERNMENT, ETC. 329

of the laggards left the door open behind him, " Claude ostium,
puer" ("Shut the door, boy"). The headmaster rebuked him
for his interference with these words, " Claude os tuum, puer "
("Shut thy mouth, boy"), the word os, oris, signifying the
mouth. It is unnecessary here to refer to the Court of Appeal
or to the different judges and courts required for different kinds
of law. Two semi-unintelligible expressions frequently occur —
the one with reference to a judge, the other with reference to
a court of record or assize. The first of these, referring to a
judge, is that of a puisne judge — sometimes called a puny judge ;
and the name "puisne" is made up of the two F. words — viz.,
puis, after, and ne, born — lit., " born after " (from L. post, after,
and natus, born). And a puisne judge is the youngest born, and
therefore inferior in position : they are the four inferior judges
of the Court of Queen's Bench and the four inferior judges of
the Court of Common Pleas. The second perplexing expression
is nisi prius, which is late Latin, meaning " unless before," or
"unless previously." It is applied to trials of civil actions before
a judge and a jury in a court of record or assize, owing to the
name of the old writ which ordered the sheriff of a county to
bring the jurors impanelled in a civil action to Westminster
on a certain day, " unless previous " judges of assize came to
the said county. The L. word nisi, unless, sometimes occurs at
the end of a decree ; so that we read " decree nisi" which means
that the decree will be made absolute after an .interval, unless
some implied condition be fulfilled. I have used a few lines
above the word impanelled with reference to the entering of
the names of a jury in a list or on a piece of parchment called
a panel. The word signifies literally " a piece," originally a
piece of cloth — OF., from low L. panellus, dim. of L. pannus,1
a cloth or rag. The names of jurymen were written on a

1 From the L. word pannus, a
piece or patch of cloth, we have
also the word pane, a pane of glass,
and also the word pawn, a pledge.
The explanation of this etymology
given by Skeat is that the readiest
pledge to leave was a piece of cloth-

ing. Goods deposited for security
at a pawnbroker are said to be
pawned or impawned. The literal
sense of a penny is a little pledge.
I might have mentioned also that
the panels of the door are the thin
boards inserted in the thicker frames.

330

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

schedule or parchment, and they are therefore said to be im-
panelled. The meaning has been transferred in Scotland from
the jury to the prisoner, who is spoken of as the panel at the
bar. The word jury, through F. juree, a jury, and jurer, is from
the L. jurare, to swear, and is applied to a certain number of men
who are selected and sworn to declare the truth on the evidence
placed before them.

The name attorney has for two hundred years been given in the
law dictionaries as signifying one who acts in the turn of another,
and indeed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries we find the
word spelt atturney, atturnie, and atturny. But while it is true
that an attorney is one who is appointed or ordained to act for
another as agent, deputy, commissioner, yet it was adopted from
the OF. atorne, the past part, of atourner, to attorn, in the sense
of one appointed or constituted ; whence all the specific uses.
An advocate is one called or summoned to another, from OF.
avocat, adaptation of L. advocatus, past part, of advocare, from
ad, to, and vocare, to call ; literally one called in, or liable to be
called upon, to defend or speak for. The name of barrister is
derived from the word " bar," ME. barre, a piece of any material,
long in proportion to its thickness or width, also a rail or barrier
in a court of justice, and specially a barrier or partition in the
Inns of Court to which students, if they had attained a certain
standing, were called from the body of the hall ; so that to be
called to the bar came to mean to be admitted as a barrister.

331

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE ARMY.

THE army, as Trench has well pointed out, may fitly get its
name from the fact that it is an assemblage of armed and not of
unarmed men. It does this in our army and in the French armee
(from which our word is derived). Or it may be contemplated
not merely as an assembly of "men with musquets," but of
men trained and exercised in the use of these weapons. This
was what the Romans had in view when they called the army
exercitus (from ex, and arceo, to keep together), from exercito, to
practise frequently. In the German word Heer there is probably
the notion of a host l assembled for war ; while in the Greek
stratos,2 the notion which has suggested and which is embodied
in the word is that of huge multitudes camping out and stretch-
ing themselves over vast regions of space. A soldier has been
denned to be a man engaged in military service. Now this word
military comes from miles? the L. word for a soldier. The word

1 This word host, which now sig-
nifies an army or a large multitude,
originally meant an enemy, and
came to us through the OF. host,
from the L. hostis, an enemy ; and
so we speak of a hostile force, and
of carrying on or suspending hostil-
ities.

2 From the Gr. word stratos, an
army, we have stratagem (from
stratcgo, a general, and ago, I lead),
properly a plan concerted by a
military commander for surprising
the enemy and gaining an advan-
tage in war ; now it means also any
scheme for entrapping or captivating

others by imposing on the judgment
or reason. We have also strategy
and strategics. A strategist is one
skilled in strategy, and a strategi-
cal point is some point or posi-
tion in the theatre of war which
gives the possessor of it an ad-
vantage.

8 From L. miles, militis, a soldier,
we have also militant, engaged in
warfare ; so that we can speak of
the Church militant. We have also
militate, to act in opposition to, and
the militia, men trained to the use
of arms but not serving all the year,
like the regular soldiers.

332

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

soldier itself signifies literally "one who serves for pay." It comes
through the F. soldat from the L. solidus,1 or soldus, a piece of
money. From L. solidus came the OF. sol, as well as the
modified F. sou. Comrade is a companion, through Spanish
camarade, originally a room full, then a room-mate, from L.
camera? a chamber. The word companion itself comes through
the OF. competing, from L. cum, with, and panis, hread — one who
eats the same bread. The word uniform, as applied to a soldier's
dress, means having only one form, manner, or shape, and has
come to mean the official or state dress. When in undress he
is said to be in mufti. This word is said to be the title of a doctor
of the Mahommedan law, or an expounder of it; it is also the
well-known title of a Mahommedan high priest, and as officers in
India on returning from their duties don pyjamas and loose white
jackets, and when so arrayed bear a resemblance to the white-
robed priests of Islam, the word mufti has come to be the familiar
military slang for out of uniform, undress, the civilian dress of an
officer when off duty.

A regiment is a body of soldiers ruled or commanded by a
colonel, who is its superior regimental officer — from rego,3 rext,

1 From the L. solidus we have
the English word solid, not liquid
or hollow. Soda (for solida) is the
ashes of glass, &c. , from which solid
glass is made. Solder is a metallic
compound for cementing (or solder-
ing) metals. To consolidate is to
make firm or to unite in a mass.
The rocks have become consolidated.
Consols is the leading British Gov-
ernment debt, formed by the con-
solidation of different annuities.
The consols are now the 3 % Govern-
ment stock.

2 From L. camera we have the
word chamber itself. We have also
the camera obscura, or dark cham-
ber, an apparatus for casting images
on a white surface after passing
them through a double convex
lens.

3 From rego, rexi, rectum, regVre,
to rule, we have in L. regio, regionis,

a county or territory, and rex, regis,
a king, and in English rectangle,
rectify, rectification, rectilineal
and rectilinear, rectitude, rector,
rectory. A regent, one who governs
a country during the minority or in-
capacity of a sovereign. The office,
or the name of it, is called the
regency. A regicide is a king-
killer, or the act -of king-killing.
A regime (F. ) is a style of rule.
Regimen means systematic regula-
tion or orderly management, and
especially dietetic regimen. A
region is a large tract of country
considered as lying near some
governing centre. Regnant means
reigning, as the queen regnant. We
speak of the regal authority or
ensigns (regalia), those which belong
to his office ; of his royal majesty,
or the royalty of his person. To
rule is to govern the wills and

THE ARMY.

335

rectum, regere, to rule or govern. There are different kineses,
regiments, especially cavalry, infantry, and artillery. 'ire
cavalry are horse soldiers. The word comes through the I.
cavalerie and It. cavallo, from L. caballiis,1 a horse. A cavalcade
is a train of persons on horseback. The dragoons are horse
soldiers, and said to be so called because they had originally a
dragon (L. draco) on their standards. The hussars are light-
armed cavalry soldiers. The name hussar is Hungarian, meaning
in accordance with its two parts, husz, twenty, and ar, the price
of = " a twenty paid soldier." The origin of hussar regiments was
as follows: When Matthias Corvinus (born 1442, died 1490)
ascended the Hungarian throne, he (in order to possess a regular
cavalry) ordered that one man out of every twentieth family should
be enrolled, and further, that the expenses of his equipment should
be shared between the twenty families. From Hungary the
various hussar regiments soon spread themselves throughout the

actions of men. We speak of regu-
lations, and we regulate a watch or
our diet. What is regular goes on
in an established order or with
regularity, and with no irregularity
in the proceedings. To correct is
to bring to a right state, and we
speak of corrective measures and
the House of Correction. Direct
means going straight forward to
the point intended. We direct a
blow, and give directions about our
affairs. We may act as directors of
different companies, and we are very
much dependent on the London or
Edinburgh Directory. We may give
an indirect answer. A dirge is a
funeral song, a musical lament, and
is so named from the L. dirige
(direct), the first word in a Latin
hymn in the office for the dead.
Dress means the whole clothing of
the body as being more or less
carefully arranged (diriyZre); clothes
are articles of dress. An address
is written or spoken with special
reference to the character and cir-
cumstances of the persons addressed.
We speak of an address of thanks,

of a good or bad address, of paying
one's addresses to a lady. Adroit-
ness is really dexterity, especially
in avoiding danger or in escaping
from a difficulty. We speak of an
adroit stratagem, and of parrying
jibes and reproaches adroitly. To
erect a flagstaff is to set it up, to
erect a cathedral is to build it. A
throne or a new state is also erected.
We also speak of an erection, that
is, some sort of building ; or standing
erect, that is, upright, not inclined.
Only a year or two ago I saw on the
floor of a country church, where it
had been laid as a slab, a tombstone
bearing an inscription of which these
were the first words: "Erected [!]
in memory of," &c. To stand on
the alert (It. att'erta, for a la
erta, on the erect ; erto, from L.
erectus).

1 From caballus, through the
native French form of the word
chevalerie, we have the English
chivalry, which meant originally
knights or horsemen equipped for
battle, but now all the virtues of
the ideal knight.

332

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

I _,. .anic Empire, and subsequently found their way into the
.1 1-itish army in 1759.

The infantry are foot -soldiers, from F. infanterie, from It.
infanteria, from infante, a child or a servant, a foot-soldier, — foot-
soldiers being formerly the followers of knights, because, like
infantes, they have to be trained to work. A squadron (from
OF. escuadron, It. squadrone), primarily a body of troops drawn
up in a square (L. quadron, four-cornered) or in any form. Squad,
too, is a troop or square of soldiers, and the awkward squad
denotes those soldiers who have proved themselves so deficient and
clumsy in drill as to be the longest squad to be redrilled. The
artillery are the men who manage the cannon, mortars, &c.
Beyond the F. artillerie and the OF. artiller, to arm, the origin
of the word is not so very clear, as etymologists have to invent
a L. verb artillare, and to derive it from L. ars, artis, art. Apart
from this, it is of interest to note that while the word is now
applied only to the heavy pieces of ordnance of modern warfare,
in earlier use any engines for the projecting of missiles, even to
the bow and arrows, would have been included under this term.
See also 1 Sam. xx. 40 (A.V.), "And Jonathan gave his artillery
unto his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them to the city." As
the whole context of this passage (vv. 18-23 and w. 35-40)
shows that the artillery he had spoken of were bows and arrows,
we have Scripture authority, or at least that of the Authorised
Version, for including bows and arrows, and so for saying a few
words regarding them under the head of artillery. The arrow, the
straight, pointed weapon made to be shot from a bow (from the
AS. arwe or arewe, an arrow), is so called from the swiftness of
its flight, akin to the Icel. wr, the swift. We frequently read of a
sheaf of arrows — i.e., a bundle of arrows, — for the word sheaf meant
originally a bundle of anything shoved together, and was from an
early period applied to a bundle of arrows bound together in the
middle ; as also to a bundle of wheat so tied, and called a wheat
sheaf, formerly spelt scheff, as Chaucer has it "a scheff of arrows."
In AS. sceaf signified a bundle, a sheaf (scufari), while sceaft
signified a shaft (or spear, arrow), and we still speak of "the

THE ARMY. 335

shaft " of an arrow. "We find the word bolt used in various senses,
as the "bolt" of a door, a "thunderbolt," "bolt upright"; we
speak of "a horse bolting" and of a greedy fellow bolting his
food. Now all these, however apparently different, are to be
traced to the same origin. Bolt is the AS. word for an arrow, as
we read of a man taking a "bolt" from his quiver. Chaucer
quotes " to shoot a featherless bolt " as a proverb, meaning in his
day to labour in vain. Bolt upright means as straight as an
arrow ; a horse is said to " bolt " when he starts off to one side
suddenly, like an arrow; and a hungry man bolts his food,
swallowing it straight down without chewing, so that it is shot
down into his stomach. A quiver, from OF. cuivre, a cover or
case for arrows, was in AS. cocar.

Panoply, meaning a complete suit of armour, or the whole
armour of the soldier, is from the Gr. panoplia, the full armour of
the hoplites, or soldier of the heavy-armed infantry (from pan, all,
and opla, arms). The word is used also figuratively, and often
with direct allusion to the Greek of Ephesians vi. 11, 13, "the
whole armour of God." A field-marshal is the highest military
rank in the British army. The word marshal obviously comes
from the F. mareschal (mod. F. marechal), which is from the
OH.Ger. maraschalk — mara, a battle-horse (mare), and chalk, a
knave, or servant, like knave for Jcnabe. In an age of chivalry,
the strength of an army consisted almost entirely of cavalry. The
horses were carefully selected, and then subjected to elaborate
training until they were able to obey the slightest movement of
either wrist or heel, and in all points to co-operate in the battle
with their rBlers. The trainers of riding-masters were called
mareschals, and only such persons as had studied the constitution
of the horses, and possessed a high degree of veterinary skill, were
appointed to the office. Accordingly, the F. word mareschal, now
the name for the highest military commander, originally meant
a horse servant or veterinary surgeon, and is still used as the
name for a farrier. The highest regimental officer in this
country is called a colonel (in F., Sp., and OE. coronel, even in
the sixteenth century, hence the present pronunciation of the

336

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

word, and associated with corona, a crown, couronne, as if it
•denoted the coronal or chief captain of a regiment, being a cor-
ruption of the It. colonello, a little column), indicating the person
who was the leader of that little company or column, at the head
of the regiment). The major is the next in rank above a captain,
and is so called (L. major,1 greater, the comparative degree of L.
magnus,1 great) because he is in the more dignified position of the
two. The term captain is derived from L. caput, the head (see
p. 400), as being the head of his company. Lieutenant denotes
the rank of one who is competent to take the place of a superior
officer, from F. lieu, place, and F. tenant, holding. When it
stands alone, it means that he may hold the place of the captain,
but there may be also a lieutenant-colonel and a lieutenant-general,
and in these cases the position he holds is specified after the
lieutenant. The sergeant is so called from the L. sermre* to
serve, and literally means a servant. He is a non-commissioned
officer, next above a corporal, and his duty is to instruct recruits
in their drill and discipline, so as to lighten the responsibility of
his superior officer, the captain. The corporal, so spelt as if this
petty officer was one connected with a corps or body of soldiers,
from corpus, the body, and as short for corps d'armee (found in
French before 1700). It is generally assumed to be an old cor-
ruption of capral, F. caporal, It. caporale, one who is the head
{It. capo, F. cap) or captain of a squadron, and in defence of this

1 From magmts, great, and major,
greater, we have magnate, a person
of high rank, and the verb to mag-
nify. The " Magnificat " is so called
because it begins with the words,
" My soul doth magnify the Lord."
Magnificent is the word we apply
to pearls, cathedrals, and other
works of art or nature combining
size, elaborateness of structure, and
costliness. Magnitude means size
or great size. Main (OF. magne,
mane) means chief or principal, with
an idea of rough or bulky superi-
ority. Majesty means grand in
external aspect. We speak of an
air of majesty. A man attains his

majority when he comes to the age
of manhood, and it also means the
greater number. The Lord Mayor
of London is the chief magistrate.

2 From servio, to serve, we have
a serf and serfdom, a servant, ser-
vice, serviceable, servile, servility,
a servitor, servitude. To deserve
a reward or punishment is to be
worthy of it. Desert implies a fit-
ness in the case for such a recom-
pense. We speak of an undeserved
reproach ; and a dessert is a service
of fruit or sweetmeats at the close
of the entertainment when the
courses are taken away (in F. des-
servir).

THE ARMY. 337

they remind us that, so long ago as 1598, R. Barrett, in his ' Theory
of Names,' noted that the word " caporall, which is meerely Italian,
and also used of the French, we corruptly do both write and pro-
nounce cwporall" ; but the form corporal is of great antiquity.
Du Cange quotes from a letter of 1406, in which the word
"corporalis" occurs as almost equivalent to captain. The rank
(from OF. rang, order) signifies the grade, status, or position of an
officer, as when we speak of brevet rank, where brevet is from
French = a note, diminutive of bref, a letter, and in the army, an
official document or commission, conferring on an officer the next
higher rank to the one he holds, — a merely nominal rank, which
does not entitle him to increased pay. But the word rank in
general in connection with the army refers to the rank of a
common soldier, as when we speak of "risen from the ranks" —
i.e., a commissioned officer who once served as a private soldier ;
and so when we speak of " the rank and file," we mean the whole
body of common soldiers composing an army, — from L. filum, a
thread, — and so Indian file, or single file, is the march of a body
of persons one behind another, from the usual system of marching
among American Indians.

One or two of the names of the warlike weapons are instructive.
The word musket was originally applied to a species of crossbow,
but afterwards to the firearm or hand-gun at that time used by
soldiers of the line in this country and in France. In both
countries it was also usual to name firearms after animals of
different species. Now there was a species of hawk which was
called in Prov. mosquet, in French mouchet and emouchet, and in
OF. mousquet, which signified both a musket and a sparrow-hawk,
from which we derived the name. Bayonet, from Bayonne in
France (Fr. bawnnette), having been first made there, or more
likely, according to other authorities, because it was employed first
of all in an assault on the town of Bayonne in 1665. It is the
steel dagger at the end of a gun or musket. In Scotland bayonet
is usually pronounced bagonet or begnet. During the Chartist
agitation, when multitudes clamoured for the five points of the
Charter, an opponent said, " Before you get your five points, you

338 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

are sure to get a sixth." "What is it?" "The point of the
begnet" The word petard comes from the If.pet, wind, or an
explosion, from the L. pedo, pepidi, peditum, pedere, to crack
or to explode, the name given to a short piece of ordnance of
a bell shape, formerly used for bursting open gates and destroying
bridges by explosion. We have still the phrase, " The engineer
hoist with his own petard," applied to those who are injured
or destroyed by the very means which they were employing to
injure or to destroy others. Pistol, a firearm, but originally a
poignard, made at Pistoja or Pistoie, a little town within a good
day's walk of Florence. These little daggers having been taken
to Paris, received their name from the place of manufacture, first
pistorers, then pistoliers, and finally pistolets. Some time after-
wards their name was transferred to the small hand -gun which
still bears 'the name. Cutlass is the F. coutelas, for L. cultellus, a
krdfe, but owes its present form to a fancied connection with cut
(the I of cultellus would disappear in French). Cut has nothing to do
with either French or Latin, but is thought to be of Celtic origin.
Loss seemed to be English enough already, and suffered no change
at first, though lasses have nothing to do with swords. Half of
the word had an appropriate meaning at all events, and for a time
the popular feeling was content. And it has remained content,
except among sailors, who did not like to call their favourite
weapon by a name that was not completely intelligible. Cutlass
seemed wrong somehow, and accordingly they made it into cutlash,
both parts of which were eminently satisfactory, just as they made
;he old man-of-war ship Bellerophon into Billy Ruffian. The
same dislike of outlandish words which were meaningless to them,
led ostlers to convert the name of hotels such as "Boulogne-
mouth " into " Bull and mouth," " Othello and Desdemona " into
" Old fellow and Thursday morning," and " Lamprocles " into
" Lamb and Pickles "; so " Bedlam " is a corruption of Bethlehem,
and gets its meaning from a London priory, St Mary's of Beth-
lehem, founded 1247, and incorporated as a royal foundation for
the reception of lunatics in 1547, exactly three hundred years
afterwards ; while the motto over a hotel, " God encom-

THE ARMY. 339

passes us," has given the hotel the name of the "Goat and
Compasses."

The word blunderbuss, signifying a short hand-gun with a wide
bore, is commonly supposed to be a corruption of the Dut. donder-
bus, from donder, thunder, and bus, a box, barrel of a gun, or gun
itself, from Ger. donner-buchse. No doubt the Dutch word means
thunder - box, yet the English word is not a corruption, but a
generous translation. The word blunder is still used in Sussex
in the sense of a loud noise, as a thunder-box in Dutch. Another
application of the word was to a noisy man as a box of blunder,
just as a chatterbox is a man full of chatter. Thus Ger. polt&rer
(from poltern, to make a loud noise) is translated by Kultner, "a
blunderhead, blunderbuss, a boisterous, violent man."

The most common derivation of the word gun is from the Welsh
gwn, a bowl, a gun, or the cup or bowl in which the missile was
placed ; and it is supposed that the name was first given to a
catapult (from Gr. kata, down, and pallo, I hurl), a war-engine used
anciently for throwing large stones, &c., but no instance has been
adduced in which the word is mentioned before the use of artillery
in England. There is good reason for believing that it is derived
from the F. guigner, to wink or aim with one eye, to level at a
thing, winking. It must be observed that aiming by looking along
the tube would distinguish the management of a cannon from
the working of any kind of catapult. Hence the engineer who
directed the fire would in French be designated guigner, to aim
with one eye, as a gunner taking his level. Passing into English in
the shape of gunner, which would have no intrinsic meaning to
an English ear, it would seem to such to have been taken from
the newly imported engine under the management of the gunner,
which would accordingly be dubbed a gun.

The word epaulet, signifying an ornament sometimes worn on
the shoulder by naval and military men, is the F. word epaulette,
from epaul, the shoulder ; but it comes originally as espalle, from
the L. spatula, the shoulder of an animal, and by normal changes,
such as contraction, and dropping the s.

The word furlough, signifying a temporary leave of absence, is

340

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

generally supposed to be derived from the Dut. verlqf or Dan.
forlov, leave, permission, and is in frequent use among military
men and Indian civil servants for leave of absence from duty.
Another etymology is just as likely ; for if we remove the initial
/, the form urlough would immediately betray its identity with
the Ger. urlaub (of the same military meaning as our term), but
used in early German writers in its true sense of permission. (Of
course the analogy of our military expression of the same idea, on
leave, will strike every reader.) Auf Urlaub (on leave) by hasty
utterance becomes on furlough.

341

CHAPTEE XXV.

AMUSEMENTS, ETC.

THIS word amusement itself comes from the verb amuse, virtu-
ally the same word as muse, and once meant to make to muse, to
astonish. The F. amuser has been defined as to put into a muse,
to drive into a dump ; and donner la muse a, to put into the
dumps, to drive into a brown study. Hence we can understand
how Fuller could speak of one " being amused with great fear and
fright" ('Church Hist.,' ix. 664). John Howe, in his sermon on
" The Eedeemer's Dominion over the Invisible World," speaking of
the untimely death of a hopeful young gentleman, insists that it
"may be somewhat amusing to narrower and less considering
minds"; and Bishop Hacket, in his 'Century of Sermons,' 1675,
says of the glorious splendour of Christ's transfiguration that it
" did amuse Peter and James and John." The notion of diver-
sion, entertainment, is of comparatively recent introduction into
the word. To amuse was to occupy or engage, and in this sense
indeed to divert the thoughts and attention. The attempt to
bring the word into some connection with the Muses is certainly
an error, especially with those who regard it as a withdrawal from
the Muses, a forsaking of serious studies, and so a diversion. Thus
Coleridge condemns novel-reading as a lazy species of amusement,
" if indeed those can be said to retire a mtms who were never in
their company " (' Biographia Literaria,' p. 24), and Coventry Patmore
commends " readers who do not seek the Muses only for amuse-
ment." Both writers, perhaps, would have stayed themselves on a
dictum of Jones of Maryland, " Amusement means an occasional
forsaking of the Muses when a student lays aside his books."

342

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

Another name for amusement is recreation, which, carefully pond-
ered, shows how unworthy of the name are many forms of amuse-
ment carried on in crowded rooms and in a vitiated atmosphere,
with late hours, which so far from recreating (or creating again)
those who take part in them, exhaust and wear out, instead of
refreshing and reviving and reanimating and quickening into
fresh life. Relaxation implies previous tension which has kept
the mind on the stretch and strain, and from which it requires
from time to time to be relaxed — from L. re, away from, and
laxus? loose or slack ; and as Apollo does not always keep his
bow bent, so relaxation is the slackening of the bow of the mind
which has been so long in a state of tension. In this connection
we use the word leisure, signifying time free from employment,
freedom from occupation, and comes through the F. loisir (leisure),
which, however, though used as a substantive, is properly an infin-
itive. Menage's etymology, followed by some others, drawn from
the L. otium, is simply an absurdity. The word (in the forms
leger, leser, lesir) represents the Latin impersonal verb licet,2 licuit
or licitum, Ucere, it is permitted or allowed, it is lawful. The
primitive sense of the substantive leisure is, then, licence, permis-
sion ; the meaning of " I have the permission or freedom to write "
is limited by that of "I have time free to write." Sport is derived
from the OF. word desporter (se), lit., to carry oneself away from
one's work, to amuse oneself — from des and porter, from L. dis,
apart, and portare,3 to carry. The word play is derived from the

1 From laxus we have lax, laxity,
laziness, lazy ; to relax is to loosen
or unbend any physical or natural
force ; to release is to set free from
what binds — we speak of a release
from prison, from an obligation, &c.

2 From licet and licitum est we
have many English words, such as
licence, liberty to sell certain goods
or practise some responsible calling.
One is licensed to sell spirits,
another tobacco. A man who is
licensed to preach is called a licen-
tiate. Licence sometimes means
the abuse of liberty. A licentious
person indulges his selfish or his

vicious pleasures unrestrained by
law and morality. Illicit means
that which is forbidden by law.
Videlicet, in its contracted form of
viz., is put for videre licet, one
may see, and means namely or to
wit.

3 From porto, avi, atum, are, to
carry, we have several English
words, such as port ; a man's port
is his carriage, demeanour. A
porter is a carrier ; whatever may
be carried is portable ; a portfolio
is a portable case (for loose papers,
drawings, &c.) ; portmanteau, port-
erage ; a portly person is one whose

AMUSEMENTS, ETC.

343

AS. plega, which originally signified quick movement, motion,
rapid motion of almost any kind, — a sense preserved in technical
language in such expressions as the play of the lungs, the play of
the piston-rod, the play of the valves. The specialisation to sport
or game is natural, and took place very early, and this is the
regular sense among children, who require a context of some kind
if they are to understand the word in any other way. The
gambler has a still narrower limitation of " play " as his regular
understanding of the word — a specialisation of the already special-
ised sense of " game " ; so has the musician, the football player,
the actor. This last - mentioned specialisation to the drama is
perhaps the commonest of all. "Are you going to the play?"
without any further context, would first suggest this meaning to
almost everybody. Probably play in this sense is, at least in
part, a translation of the L. Indus. It affords a good example of
the influence of foreign languages in giving special senses to
native words, even when the corresponding foreign terms are not
actually borrowed. And so this word game, which I have just
used, comes from the AS. gamen, play or merriment ; but the
strange thing is that both the words sport and game should, in
their specialised and restricted sense, denote such amusement as
comes from the sufferings and death of the birds, beasts, and
fishes which are the objects of their pursuit. This is seen in the
word sportsman applied to the shooter or fisher, and in the word
game given to the birds and beasts that have fallen to his gun.
We must not omit to call attention to the ingenuity with which
Euskin, in his ' Crown of Wild Olive,' theorises that play is the
" pleasing thing " (il plait), not the " useful thing " : this, however,

body is marked by portliness ; to
comport is to agree with, to suit. A
man's deportment means his car-
riage or bearing as regards social
requirements. To disport is to di-
vert oneself, to gambol. We have
export and import, and exportation
and importation. We speak of the
import of a word, of the purport of
a speech. A thing may be import-
ant or unimportant, and we speak

of the importance of little things.
To report is to bring back news ; to
support is to bear, to uphold ; a
burden or a grief may be insupport-
able ; we transport goods when we
carry them from one place to an-
other ; and convicts were formerly
sentenced to transportation to a
penal settlement — now they under-
go their pain of penal servitude at
home.

344

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

is the true etymology of " pleasure," which means whatever pleases
us or gives us enjoyment — through OF. plaisir (from plaire), from
L. placeo,1 to please. Pastime is the very appropriate name given
to amusement or whatever helps to pass the time pleasantly — with
those for whom time does not pass all too quickly ; as Cowper
says of those

" Whose only labour is to kill the time,
And labour dire it is and weary woe."

The word diversion, from the L. diverto, diver sum — L. dis, aside,
and verto, to turn (see note, p. 1) — is literally a turning aside, or
whatever diverts or turns us aside from ourselves, leading us in
this way to forget ourselves for a little, — a confession in both
cases (as many moralists have pointed out) that these things confer
no real enjoyment, but merely prevent us from remembering that
we are unhappy. Happiness is the most the world aims at ; it is
their " being's end and aim," and it comes from outward things,
which in their turn are supposed to come by hap or chance, and
people are happy only so long as these things are continued ; but
joy is that which springs up within the man himself independent
of all external circumstances, a joy which the world neither
gives nor can take away. And so, too, in this connection,
and as illustrating the same tendency to ascribe so much to luck,
we have the word fortune, which literally signifies whatever comes
by chance, from the L. fors, fortis, chance or luck, whence fortu-
nate. The word " luck " itself, generally with the meaning of good
fortune, coincided with the Dutch luk and the Ger. gliick, pros-
perity. All these words point to the fact, not so much that

1 From the verb placeo, placui,
placitum, placere, to please, we have
plea (L. placitum, a decree), to
plead, a pleader ; that which grati-
fies the senses is pleasant, as a
pleasant taste ; that which satisfies
the mind or the judgment is pleas-
ing. We speak of a pleasant sound
when it affects us pleasurably, but
of a pleasing sound when it affects
all. A placid countenance is one

naturally peaceful ; complacent
means gratified, displaying satis-
faction. Complacence (or as in F.
complaisance) or complacency means
quiet satisfaction. Addison says :
"Complaisance renders a superior
amiable, an equal agreeable, and an
inferior acceptable ! " Displease is
to excite dissatisfaction, especially
in a superior, and displeasure is the
feeling which is excited.

AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 345

prosperity comes by chance, as that success in life does not
depend entirely upon the man himself but on a higher power,
and that the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to
the strong.

Dancing is a favourite amusement with many. The word
comes through the F. danser, from the O.Ger. dansen, to draw
along, Ger. tanzen. The different kinds of dances are too
numerous even to mention, but the country dance, as it is termed,
is worth more than a passing notice. Until very recently ety-
mologists were accustomed to say that our country dance, literally
" dance of the country," was merely altered from the French word
contre-danse, the original, as if a counter dance indicated the regular
centra-position of male aud female partners in the first arrangement
of the dancers, one side standing face to face (contre) or vis-a-vis to
the other (It. contra dame). " I would not dance any contre-danse
or galop " (Thackeray) ; " The contre-danse had not hardened
itself into the quadrille " (Shorthouse). This was supposed to
have been Anglicised into country dance as if it denoted a rustic
dance, in opposition to the more artificial performances of the town.
" The fact that farmer Flamborough's rosy daughters thought they
understood the jig and roundabout to perfection, yet were totally
unacquainted with country dances " (' Vicar of Wakefield '), would
seem to warrant the conclusion that it was a fashionable importa-
tation from abroad. Now, as a matter of fact, it was our native
country dance that was adopted by foreigners, and naturalised
as contre danse and contra danze. In Haldon's ' Court of King
James I.' (1650) country dances are distinguished from French
dances, and he even in his 'History of Dancing' in 1712 says,
" Country dances are the peculiar growth of this nation, through
us transported into all the Courts of Europe." The country dance
is said to have been introduced into Paris in 1745, and to have
come back to London as "quadrille" in 1815. Charades are
another popular form of amusement. The word comes from
F. charade, from Provencal charada, Norman F. charer,
Languedoc chara, to converse, a scene or tableau which represents
a syllable of a word, and ends by representing the word itself

346 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

(tdbleauxrvivants) ; also a puzzle in which a word is to be guessed,
and each syllable thereof (which itself constitutes a word) is
described in a more or less oracular manner.

Cards also provide amusement for a very large number of
people. The word comes from the L. charta (carta), papyrus
leaf, paper, adapted from Gr. chartes (carta}, probably of
Egyptian origin. Perhaps whist is the best known and most
popular game. It is said to have received its name from the
silent attention it requires, and from the frequent pst or hst which
chatterers require to repress their confusing chattering. It seems
to have been originally an interjection commanding or demanding
silence. The old verb whist meant both to silence and to keep
silence. Bailey in his Dictionary mentions as the popular name
for a certain game of cards in the eighteenth century lamb-skin-it,
with a significant reference, probably enough, to the fleecing of
many an innocent who ventured among sharpers. It turns out to
have been a corruption of the F. lansquenet, which Cotgrave tells
us meant a game at cards, as well as a lance-knight or German
footman — i.e., foot-soldier. Ben Jonson speaks of the true garb
of one of these lance knights. The lansquenets were mercenaries
that Charles VIII. took into his pay, and they composed a large
part of the French infantry in the sixteenth century. Both the
French and English words are corruptions of the Ger. landsknecht,
a country fellow (" land's knight "). As for the names given to
the different cards, the ace is the one both of cards and dice,
through the French from the L. as, assis, one or unity, and this
also from the Gr. heis, one, for which the Tarentines said has.
The deuce is a card with two spots (F. deux, two), from L. duo,
two. A trump card is a card of the leading suit that triumphs or
wins. The court cards are the king, queen, and knave of a suit,
and they are called court cards, not from the king or queen being
among them, but from their being pictured cards, — the word court
being a corruption of coat or coated card, as bearing the representa-
tion of a coated figure. The verb to palm, which now signifies
to play a trick, to cheat, or to impose a thing fraudulently on or
upon a person, to pass off by trickery or fraud, originally signified

AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 34T

to conceal in the palm of the hand, as in cheating at cards or at
dice, or in juggling.

The guessing of riddles, enigmas, &c., was a very common form
of amusement from earliest times. The enigma (Gr. ainigma, a
riddle or dark saying, from ainos, a fable) is the earliest form of
the riddle, which has since expanded so luxuriously into the cog-
nate forms of rebuses, conundrums, &c. A riddle is very much the
same as an enigma, only being an English word instead of a Greek.
The AS. word for a riddle is reed-els, from rcedan, to guess or solve.
Samson's riddle was an enigma; so was that of the Sphinx.
Though Samson afterwards became a judge, we cannot think that
his riddle was a fair one. " Out of the eater came forth meat,
and out of the strong came forth sweetness." This referred, as you
know, to a dead lion in whose mouth certain bees had made their
honey. Now it required for its solution too large a knowledge of
antecedent circumstances. No wonder his wife's people could not
in three days expound the riddle. The Sphinx really played
fairer. " What is that animal which in the morning goes on four
feet, at noon on two, and in the evening on three 1 " Answer, Man.
Here morning, noon, and evening are metaphors of infancy, man-
hood, and age, and there is a further metaphorical use of the word
feet, which is applied in one place to the hands and in another to
a staff used for support and progress. In the ' Book of Merry
Kiddles,' which Shakespeare mentions in the " Merry Wives of
Windsor," we find the following : " Two legs sat upon three legs
and had one leg in her hand ; then in came four legs and bare away
one leg ; then up started two legs and threw three legs at four legs
and brought again one leg." The answer is full of picturesque
detail, and runs as follows : " That is, a woman with two legs sat
on a stool with three legs and had a leg of mutton in her hand ;
then came a dog that had four legs and bare away the leg of
mutton ; then up started the woman and threw the stool with three
legs at the dog with four legs, and brought again the leg of mutton.

The name rebus, given to an enigmatical representation of a
word or phrase by pictures of things, is the ablative plural of the
Latin word res, ret, a thing, and signifies literally "by things."

348 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

The word was taken by us from the French, and signified, as we
have said, either the representation of words or syllables "by
things," or by pictures of objects the names of which gave the
required sounds or an approximation to them, as the representation
of the name Ashton by an ash-tree upon a tun, or the figure of a
bee for the letter B. Sentences or mottoes have been thus
indicated partially or entirely, and in this manner a kind of puzzle
or riddle has been instituted.

Another very interesting game for those who are at all skilful is
billiards. Many attempts have been made to trace the origin of
the game, but with little success. There is no doubt that the
game is of considerable antiquity — a development from some
primitive form played with balls on the ground. It is often taken
for granted that billiard, from the F. billard, means ball-stick or
cue ; but the French word bille signifies a ball and not a stick,
and the oldest form of the word in our language (we find it
spelt ball yards) rather confirms this etymology, for Spencer in his
'Prosopop/ p. 803, published in 1591, writes: "With dice, with
cards, with halliards. " The next time it occurs the spelling is as
now. Shakespeare, in his "Antony and Cleopatra" (1606), says,
"Let it alone; let's to billiards." A cannon is made when the
player strikes the other two balls with his. The origin of this
name is very doubtful, and any explanation which has been
attempted only removes the difficulty a stage farther back. There
is good reason for believing that the word cannon, as applied to
billiards, is merely a corruption of the word carrom, which is short
for F. carambole, a word which is sometimes applied by them to
the red ball, but the etymology of which is entirely unknown.
The game of chess is, with many, too prolonged and anxious a
contest to be characterised as a game. While it is admitted that
it is perhaps the most ancient game there is in any country, and
its origin has been traced to Persia, its name of chess has been
persistently regarded by many good etymological authorities as a
corruption of the word checks, the plural of check, from the sixty-
four little squares with which the board or chequer on which it is
played is divided. But many other games can be played on the same

AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 349

chequered board to which the name of chess, if this were the origin
of the word, would be just as appropriate. It seems strange to
trace its origin to Persia or Arabia and yet to try to find the
origin of the name in this country. Some light will be thrown
upon it if we think of the origin of the phrase checkmate, which
means putting your adversary's king in such a position that he can
neither cover nor move out of check. Figuratively, " to checkmate "
means to foil or to outwit another. Checkmated is out-manoeuvred.
It is generally admitted that checkmate is our English pronuncia-
tion of shah-mat (Arabic for dead), " the king is dead." Now, if
we go to Arabic for mate, why not go there for check also ? and
chess in Arabic properly signifies " the king," so that the game of
the king would be a good rendering for the game of chess — for
everything depends on the king's fate. The moment he falls,
even although it should be early in the game, all is over, but so
long as he can move out of check the battle continues. A
rook is a name given to the " castle " in chess, through F. roe,
from Persian roJch, a camel or a dromedary with a tower for
archers.

Backgammon is also a very favourite game, especially with
elderly people, and the older they grow the more devoted they
are to it, many of them playing every night. The name is sup-
posed by some to have been given to it by the Danes, with whom
bakke signifies a tray, and gammon a game, the word thus signify-
ing a tray game, a game played on a tray-shaped board. But while
it is likely enough to have come down to us from our Northern
ancestors, who devoted much of their long winter days to such
games, yet it is rather against this origin that the word does not
appear in Danish dictionaries. I do not think that we require
to go farther than to our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, who used bcec
for back, and gamen for a game, so that the word signifies the
back-game, — an appropriate enough name when we remember that
the pieces are, in certain circumstances, obliged to go back and
re-enter on the table. The game is played on a table with pieces
of the same kind, or with the same pieces, as are used in draughts,
but also with a box and dice. This word dice, the plural of die

350 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

{OF. det ; F. de, a die, from late L. dadus, a die, from L. datum,
given), is literally what is thrown on the table. A die is a small
cube with marks from one to six on the faces, used in gaming by
being shaken in a box and then thrown out from it. The most
common use of it in the singular is in the phrase the die is cast,
meaning that everything is hazarded, the last chance is taken or
offered. The plural is in much more common use, although for-
tunately not always intelligible, as in the case of the little girl
who, on being asked what dice were (the word occurring in her
lesson), answered, to the amusement of the teacher, "small cubs
at play " !

The game of draughts is so called from its being a game of
moves with separate pieces. A draught is literally what is
dragged or drawn. A draught of water is as much as is drawn
down the throat at once ; a draught of fishes what is taken at
one drag of the net. A move at chess or similar game was for-
merly known by this name —

" The burgerse took avisement long on every draught.
Draw on, said the burgerse, Beryn, ye have the wers :
The next draught thereafter, he took a rook for nought."

In the same way, in Italian tiro signifies a move at chess, from
tirare, to draw. Draughts is purely a game of calculation, and as
such craves wary policy, and not like whist, in which chance and
skill unite : chance distributes the cards, and skill controls their
destiny. But most of the games connected with dice and cards
are still more closely connected with chance, and, in consequence,
the hazard is very great. In fact, the name of hazard is given
to a game which depends entirely upon the throws of the dice.
Many conjectural etymologies of the word have been proposed, all
destitute of proof; but there seems no reason for rejecting the
opinion of William of Tyre, recorded in history, that hasard was
a particular game of dice which was invented during the siege of
a castle of Syria called Hasart, and took its name from this
locality. The name was afterwards extended and applied to risk,
chance, or danger of any kind.

AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 351

The game of battledore and shuttlecock is so well known among
children that no further description is necessary than the names
convey. Battledore is really a light bat, and comes from the
Sp. batidor, meaning a beater — the termination dor in Sp. signify-
ing an active agent. Shuttlecock is supposed to be a corruption of
shuttlecork, as it is really an ornamented cork stuck with feathers,
flying backwards and forwards through the air. The word shuttle
(from AS. sceolan, to shoot) is properly the implement by which
the thread is shot to and fro, backwards and forwards, in weaving.
An interesting story is told by Mary Sommerville (the great
scientist) of her early days when, as a little girl, she sat in the
old parish church of Burntisland, where her grandfather was
clergyman. It was in the days when the incorporated trades of
maltsters, weavers, &c., had each pews or portions of the church
assigned to them, and to the weavers was assigned a portion of
the gallery, on the front of which were printed the words, as being
very appropriate, " My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,
and are spent without hop job." She had no difficulty in under-
standing what the shuttle was, and the appropriateness of the
comparison between the swiftness of the shuttle and the swifter
passage of her days, but what weaving implement this hop job
could be perplexed her mightily. She could find nothing about
any weaver's loom which gave any clue to its nature, and every
Sunday for a long time she pondered more over its meaning than
over the sermon ; and it was not for many years afterwards, when
she was far away, that one day, on turning up the Book of Job,
she found the words, "My days are swifter than a weaver's
shuttle, and are spent without hope." Then was the mystery
solved, and the "hop job" resolved into its component parts —
"hop," a misspelling for hope, and "job," with a small j, the
name of the writer of the Book of Job, attached to hop for want
of space, but taking it for granted that all knew it was a Scrip-
tural quotation, without specifying chapter and verse.

Sport is a name under which many amusements are included,
and is in all probability a contraction of disport (through the
OF. desporter, to amuse), from L. dis, away or apart, and porto,

352

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

portare, to carry (p. 342), so that it literally signifies diversion
(what turns one away from his usual mode of life). A man's port
is his carriage, his usual demeanour — how he carries himself
(F. comment vous portez-vous ?). To disport, therefore, or to-
disport oneself, is to divert oneself. Byron speaks of disport-
ing here, like any other fly.

353

CHAPTEE XXVI.

OCCULT SCIENCES.

Magic is the science of the Magi, or the (pretended) art of pro-
ducing marvellous results contrary to nature. The Magi them-
selves were the priests of the Persians, or the wise men of the
East. The word is the Gr. magos (great), said to have been
originally a title equivalent to " reverend "or " doctor " given by
the Akkadians, the primitive inhabitants of Chaldea, to their wise
men, whose learning was chiefly in what we should now call
astrology and magical arts. A magician is one who is skilled
in magic, although he goes by many other names. At one time
he is spoken of as a sorcerer (from F. sorcier, Sp. sortero, L. sorti-
arius), literally one who predicts the future by casting lots (from
L. sors, a lot), hence a fortune-teller or conjurer generally; at
other times a soothsayer — i.e., a sayer of the sooth — and sooth or
soth in AS. is truth, reality, so that to soothsay is to say or tell
the truth, and afterwards it came to signify to foretell future events
without being inspired. We still use the word sooth in such
phrases as " sooth to say " and " forsooth ! " Again, and still in a
favourable light, he is called a diviner, meaning one who can read
the future (from L. divino, to be divinely inspired, to prophesy,
from divus, Godlike or divine). Very frequently he is called a
wizard ; properly and originally the word signifies a wise man.
Milton calls the three Magi " the star-led wizards " — it is wise,
with the suffix ard or art, as in drunkard, coward, sluggard, brag-
gart. This suffix seems to have come into English from the
French ; but it is of Germanic origin, and once meant " bold " or
"hardy." It is the same as the English adjective hard, and

354 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

appears in various proper names, as Keginhard. In old English
wizard was spelt with s and not with z, and its connection with
wisdom was then more apparent. The word wiseacre is more
closely connected with it than at first sight appears, for the
Ger. iceis - sagen, to foresee, is the MH.Ger. wizagon (from
wizago, a prophet), afterwards corrupted to wizsagen or wissagen
by confusion with sagen, to say. It is a very erroneous etymology
which would see in the Ger. wets sager, a wise sayer, the
original of our wiseacre, which signifies at the best a wise fellow,
but in common speech and in reality a pretentious fool The un-
meaning suffix acre is less objectionable than the corrupt German
suffix sager. The word wiseacre once afforded to Curran the
material for a smart retort to a dull but wealthy lawyer, who was
arguing that none but those who possessed some landed property
should be admitted to the bar. " Then may I ask, sir, how many
acres are required to make a wiseacre ? " Very closely connected
with wizard in many ways is the word witch. It comes from our
English word wit, from AS. witan, to know, and so a witch is
supposed to have supernatural power and knowledge, and have
compact with evil spirits. The word was not originally confined
to women, but was used of men also, like the AS. wicca, a wizard.
In Wicliffe's translation of Acts viii., Simon Magus is called " a
wicche," and in a 'Discourse on Witchcraft,' published in 1665,
p. 25, the writer says: "This is notable in that story, that this
young witch, doubting that his wife's examination would betray
his knavery, told the Inquisitor that in truth his wife was guilty as
well as he." So Dromio of Syracuse says, in the " Comedy of
Errors," IV. iv. 160, "I could find it in my heart to stay here
still and turn witch." And Charmian says to the soothsayer
in " Antony and Cleopatra," I. ii. 40 : " Out, fool ! I forgive thee
for a witch"; and again in "Cymbeline," I. vi. 165 : "He is one
the truest manner'd ; such a holy witch that he enchants societies
into him." From this word, with the AS. prefix be, thoroughly,
we have to bewitch, to exercise witchcraft, and metaphorically to
fascinate or charm, and so we speak of bewitchery and bewitchingly.
Another name given to a certain class of magicians is that of necro-

OCCULT SCIENCES. 355

mancer, or one who practises necromancy, which is the art of reveal-
ing future events by communication with the dead, so called from
the Greek word nekromanteia (nekros, dead, and mantis, a prophet).
They are also frequently called seers, from their foreseeing events,
as prophets. And they do all this in a variety of ways. Some
exercise their power by a spell, repeating a form of words sup-
posed to possess magical power, as we might spell or repeat the
different letters of a word ; and so we talk of a good spell and a long
spell. The AS. word spell signifies originally a tale or narrative.
If this magic formula is not merely repeated but sung or chanted,
it is called an incantation (from L. incantare — in, into or upon, and
canto, I sing, the frequentative, or cano, cecini, cantum, canere, to
sing). This is also called an enchantment, from L. incantamentum
(through F. enchanter), the chanting a magical verse or formula,
which was supposed to have a very potent influence ; and the
person who repeats or sings this is called an enchanter, a word
now generally applied to any one who charms or delights. The
word charm is very closely allied to this, for it is something
believed to possess hidden power or influence. It comes to us
through the F. charme, from the L. carmen, a song, and the person
who enchants or delights is called a charmer. He exercises a very
powerful influence, an inexplicable influence, over others, which is
called fascination, from the L. fascinum (Gr. baskaneon), an en-
chantment chiefly by the eyes or tongue. Sometimes the instru-
ment employed is a talisman (Sp. talisman, from Arabic tilsam, a
magical image, from Gr. telesma, tribute, in late Greek incantation,
mystery — from Gr. telos, completion), among Eastern nations a
magical figure cut or engraved in connection with certain supersti-
tious observances, &c. At other times it is an amulet (F. amulette,
from L. amuletum, a charm), of unknown origin, a preservative
against sickness, poison, &c. ; worn generally around the neck,
in the belief that it will ward off disease or evil. The word
phylactery comes to us through the OF. filatere, from L. and Gr.
phylact&rium or phylacterion, an amulet (L. amuletum, a charm),
from phylacter, a watchman, a guard, from phylasso, to watch
or guard. Among the Jews it meant those scrolls of parchment

356 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

on which were texts from the law (especially from Exodus and
Deuteronomy) worn by devout persons on the forehead, arms, or
breast, particularly by the Pharisees, who, we are told (Matthew
xxiii. 5), "made broad their phylacteries," so that they might have
room to put more texts on them, and thvis vaunt and parade their
own righteousness. A philtre (Gr. philtron and L. philtrum) is an
artificial means of exciting love, a charm or love potion. Magic
has been divided into black magic and white magic. Black
magic is evil magic, or magic used with evil purposes — for example,
to harm others or to bring evil upon them. The evil eye and the
use of evil spells come under this category : evil magic, too, had
dealings with the evil one. White magic, on the other hand,
was magic used for good purposes, such as healing the sick, or
curing diseases by means of spells. It did not deal with witch-
craft, sorcery, or evil spirits. It is supposed that the name of
black magic, or, as it has long been called, the black art, was given
to that branch of it originally, not so much because it had to do
with the devil as because the word " necromancy " being, as we have
seen, from the Greek, was not properly understood by the Latin
medieval writers, and they spelt it nigromantia, as if its first
syllable had been L. niger, black, from which we have our word
negro. In Minshaw's Dictionary, published in 1627, we find such
spelling as nigromancie and negromancie in French, negromantia
in Italian, negromancia in Spanish.

Legerdemain signifies literally "light of hand," being the
translation of the French words which compose it (viz., leger,
light ; de, of ; main, hand), that lightness of hand by which the
dexterity of the performer is able to elude the vigilance of the
spectator. It is commonly spoken of as sleight -of. -hand — sleight
(from sly) signifying slyness, cleverness, or cunning. It is some-
times called prestidigitation, from the Latin words prcesto or
presto, quickly, and digitus, a finger — quick fingers or light-
fingered. The word presto in Italian signifies quick also, and is
frequently used in music as the term denoting quick time, and
especially by jugglers, as if they were making an appeal to the
supernatural powers, whom they profess to help them, to lose no

OCCULT SCIENCES.

357

time. I suppose we all must have heard on such occasions, " Hey,
presto, change ! " and in a moment the apparent or supposed change
is effected.1

A juggler is another name for one who uses sleight-of-hand, but
claims no superior powers, as it comes from the L. joculari (from
jocus), to joke, as he does it in sport. The word conjurer, how-
ever, is different. It comes through F. conjurer, from L. conjurare
(con, and jurare, to swear), to call on or summon by a sacred name,
to implore solemnly ; hence to conjure means to claim the aid of
superior or even of infernal powers, to use supernatural influence,
or practise magical arts.

1 There is somehow a closer con-
nection with this word prestidigita-
tion than is generally recognised,
for the Latin word prcestigia signifies
sleight of hand, an imposture, or an
illusion, or even a fascination.
From this we have the word
prestige, in French signifying a
charm, a method of fascination, and

used by us for two hundred years
as meaning the moral influence
derived from past successes and
achievements, on which a confident
belief is founded on future triumphs ;
influence of character or conduct ;
weight and influence from former
deeds or character.

358

CHAPTEE XXVII.

THE DRAMA.

I HAD intended including the drama among amusements, but on
thinking over its history, and especially the place it held in Greece
and Eome, and the purpose it served when it was first introduced
into our own land in Christian times, I felt that, whatever might
be the case now, it had in former days a high intellectual aim, and
in our own land at first a great Christian purpose. The great
tragedies of Greece and Eome were not then composed, acted, nor
listened to for the mere sake of amusement, although Aristophanes
among the Greeks, and Plautus and Terence among the Eomans,
made their comedies for the amusement of their fellow-countrymen.
It is possible to trace the earliest origin of our own stage to a
period not very long subsequent to the Norman Conquest, for the
custom of representing episodes from Biblical history and the lives
of the saints, in a rude dramatic form, seems to have been intro-
duced from France, and to have been employed by the clergy as a
means of communicating religious instruction to the rude populace
of the Anglo-Norman epoch. Such religious spectacles, from the
sacred nature of their subject, were called Mysteries or Miracle
Plays. The earliest of whose representation we have record is the
" Mystery of St Catharine," composed by Geoffrey, Master of the
Convent School at St Albans, for performance by his pupils at
Dunstable Priory. Its date was probably about 1110. Geoffrey,
whose house was burned the night after the play, took holy orders
and became Abbot of St Albans in 1119. The play itself con-
sisted, as far as is known, of a series of scenes representing the
miracles and martyrdom of the saint, and was performed on

THE DRAMA. 359

the festival commemorating her death (November 25 in our
calendar). In an age when the great mass of the laity, from the
highest to the lowest, were in a state of extreme ignorance, and the
little learning of the day was confined to the Church, it was quite
natural that the governing class of ecclesiastics should employ so
obvious a means of communicating elementary instruction to the
people, and, by gratifying the curiosity of their rude hearers, extend
and strengthen the Church's influence. Obviously the form and
the spirit of these mysteries were derived from the Church's ritual.
Plays like this of St Catharine were applications and extensions of
the principle which gave so realistic and dramatic a character to
the Holy Week and Easter. The mystery was a further attempt
to popularise all this — to draw people to the Church by presenting
them with religious amusement. There has been considerable
doubt as to why they should have been called " mysteries." It
has been suggested on good authority that the word " mysteries,"
as thus used, should properly be spelt mistery, — ME. mistere,
corrupted from OF. mestier, F. metier ; that it signifies originally a
trade or handicraft ; and that it was afterwards applied to this kind
of rude drama of a religious nature because it was acted by crafts-
men. But I think this will not suffice to explain the use of the
word in the case before us. Whatever may have been the case at
a much later period, it is very certain that when these plays
received the name of "mysteries" they were not performed by
handicraftsmen. They were, in the first place, composed by monks
and acted by monks ; the cathedral was transformed in many
instances into a theatre ; the stage, a species of graduated platform
in three divisions, rising one over the other, was placed near or
above the high altar ; and the costumes were furnished from the
rich vestry of the church. This is the case with the Strasburg
miracle play which Longfellow inserted in his " Golden Legend,"
and this evidence may be received as the trustworthy authority of
a writer well acquainted with this species of literature. It was
absolutely necessary that some comic element should be introduced
to enliven the graver scenes, and especially in pieces of inordinate
length. One play, founded on the Creation and Fall of Man,

360 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

occupied six days in the performance. Some alleviation was
needed ; and considering the rude civilisation of the audience,
some farcical or amusing element was absolutely required. This
was found in the easy expedient of placing the wicked persons of
the drama, whether human or spiritual, in ludicrous situations, or
surrounded by ludicrous accompaniments. Thus the devil gener-
ally played the part of a clown or jester, and was exhibited in a
humour half terrific and half burlesque. But the audience were
not contented with the amusement which they extracted from the
grotesque gambols and defeated machinations of Satan and his
imps, or with the mixture of merriment and horror inspired by
horns and tails and hairy faces and howling mouths ; and so the
authors of the piece introduced human buffoons. The modern
puppet play of Punch and Judy, with its struggle between Punch
and the devil, is unquestionably a direct survival in which the
evil one was alternately the conqueror and victim of the buffoon
or jester. It is easy to see that these ludicrous episodes, introduced
to enliven the severity of a sacred tragedy, kept a conventional
hold on the drama. The twelfth century miracle plays had been
performed in church, and by the clergy. A gradual process of
secularisation took place. With the introduction of secular per-
formers, the mysteries passed from the church to the churchyard,
where a stage in tiers was erected, the uppermost level with the
church door, representing heaven and paradise, the second earth,
the lowest hell, whence fiends sometimes issued and passed
through the crowd of spectators. Then a further shifting
of scene to some green or other open space was necessitated
by the desecration of the graves in the churchyard,
trampled over by the mass of spectators. Nevertheless
a real effort was made to secure the religious element,
to which all mystery plays were ostensibly directed. The
word mystery or mysteries was used with reference to many
of the rites and processions of the old Greek religions ; and so,
properly speaking, these more modern mysteries dealt with gospel
events only, their object being primarily to set forth, by an illus-
tration of the prophetic history of the Old Testament, and more

THE DRAMA. 361

particularly of the gospel history of the New, the central mystery
of the redemption of the world as accomplished by the Nativity,
the Passion, and the Resurrection. The Greek word mtisterion,
and the L. mysterium, signify that which required a special revela-
tion to make it known. The mystery, once the only form of
dramatic representation, continued to be popular up to the end of
the fourteenth century ; and even now in some pastoral and re-
mote corners of Europe — notably at Ober-Ammergau — the famous
Passion Play sets forth the whole scheme of Eedemption, by that
employment of type and antitype which was so conspicuous a
feature in all the great medieval schemes of religious decoration,
and is found in the structure of the old English mysteries. The
moralities, as they are termed, mark another step by which the
dramatic art diverged from its exclusively religious character and
acquired more and more of a secular spirit in its subjects and in
the personages who took part in it. The moralities grew naturally
out of the mysteries, and eventually, about the beginning of the
fifteenth century, supplanted them. Instead of the Deity and His
angels, the saints, the patriarchs, and the characters of the Old and
New Testaments, the persons who figure in the moralities are
"Every Man," a general type or expression of humanity; "Lusty
Juventus," who represents the follies and weaknesses of youth;
Good Counsel, Repentance, Gluttony, Pride, Avarice, and the like.
The great weakness of the morality was that in taking general
abstractions for its dramatis personal it gave them either so much
individuality that their real intention was concealed, or so little
that they were dull abstract qualities and little more. The action
was in general exceedingly simple, and the tone grave and doc-
trinal, although of course there still existed the old necessity for
the introduction of comic scenes. The devil was far too useful
and popular a person to be suppressed, and his battles or scoldings
with the vice or clown were still retained to furnish forth " a
fit of mirth." Thus certain likenesses to the mystery remained,
certain distinctions from it were adopted. Eut the leading differ-
ence between the mystery and the morality is that while the
miracle play merely exhibits a series of isolated scenes, the morality

362

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

works out the purpose of its allegory by means of a continuous
plot. The mysteries were originally religious, the moralities ethical ;
but the one species imperceptibly melts into the other.

Side by side with the moralities, and bearing a very strong general
resemblance to them, grew up the interludes, which nevertheless
bring us considerably nearer the regular drama. The interlude
(from L. ludus,1 a game or sport) was of early growth, and one speci-

1 The verb ludo, lusi, lusum, ludSre,
to play, or the noun ludus, which
enters into the composition of inter-
lude, signifies originally in Latin a
game or sport. But as several of
these games required teaching and
training, such as music and boxing
were taught, the places where they
were trained being called schools,
although remarkable chiefly for
active recreation consisting of
bodily exercises ; and at a later
period the name of ludus was given
to a school in which reading, writ-
ing, arithmetic, with other branches
of literature, were taught — so much
so that ludi magister was the Latin
for a schoolmaster. The Latin verb
attudo, allusi, &c., however, from
which we have our words allude,
and allusion, invariably had refer-
ence to the idea of play or light
handling of any subject, and when
not used of jesting or joking, meant
a mere passing reference, or touch-
ing lightly on any subject. It
is frequently and erroneously used
as a fine-sounding synonym of say
or mention, or when much more
than a passing reference is meant.
It was certainly an abuse of the
word to say, as was said lately in
connection with the death of the
provost of a city, that the minister
in the prayer alluded to his death ;
or to preface a long description
about to be inflicted on listener or
reader with these words : " We
may now allude to Miss Hosmer, the
only pupil whom he ever professed
to teach." Collusion, from the same
root, means originally a sporting or

playing together, and then from
this intimacy a secret agreement
between two or more persons for
some evil purpose. Delude, now
signifying to deceive, signified
originally to make sport of, to mock,
and very soon to impose upon, to
deceive. An illusion is a mere
cheat of the bodily senses or of the
mind, and we speak of illusory
hopes or promises and of the illu-
sions of a heated imagination. To
elude originally meant to win any-
thing from any one in play and
afterwards to escape, or avoid by
artifice — as to elude detection or to
elude their vigilance. A prelude,
as the word implies (prce, before,
and ludo, to play), is a short
musical flourish or voluntary played
before the piece to be performed,
and then in general something intro-
ductory, leading up to what is more
serious. The growl of the thunder
is the prelude to the storm. Ludi-
crous denotes a thing which is
personally laughable, but does not
convey the idea of contempt or pity
as the word ridiculous (L. ridiculus,
from L. rideo, risi, risum, ridere,
to laugh, to laugh at, to hold up
to ridicule, to deride). The word
grotesque, now used in the sense of
ludicrous, from incongruity, fantas-
tically absurd, meant originally and
etymologically painting appropriate
to grottoes (grotto being an adapta-
tion of It. grotta, for which Dante
has also grotto), and can be traced
back through OF. crote or croute
to popular L. crupta and grupta,
through literary L. crypto, to Gr.

THE DKAMA.

363

men can be assigned to the reign of Edward I. Such of the shorter
moralities as " Lusty Juventus," which was written in the middle
of the sixteenth century, may be counted as interludes ; for this
class of composition, as its name implies, — from L. inter, between,
and Indus, a play (not a play between the play and after-piece, or
between the acts of a play), — was intended to fill up the intervals
between the courses of a banquet, and was therefore short and
pithy. The tone of the interlude was merry and farcical \ its sub-
ject, while still adhering in some sense to religion, deserted moral
theology for controversy. The connection of the interlude with lay
authors and actors placed it in a certain opposition to the Church,
from which it took its birth ; its popularity as a courtly entertain-
ment and as a learned pastime completed the work, and thus the
drama was gradually enfranchised, and entered on its independence.
The word drama, which is assigned to this sort of performance
as a representation on the stage of actions in human life, is through
the Latin from the Gr. drama, dramatos — from drao, to do ; and
the dramatis personse are the characters in the play. The name
of theatre was orginally given to the place occupied by the

krupte, a vault, from Jcruptein, to
hide or conceal in a cave or cavern,
especially one which is picturesque,
and very especially to many figures
or designs characterised by comic
distortion or exaggeration. Its or-
igin is thus grotesque enough, being
taken from certain whimsical figures
found in the subterranean apart-
ments, grottoes, in the ancient ruins
at Rome, and thence extended to
typify anything fantastical, ludi-
crous, or irregularly proportioned.
Such is the derivation given by Ben-
venuto Cellini in his 'Memoires,'
in which he says : " These foliages
have received the name of gro-
tesque from the moderns because
they are found in certain caverns in
Rome, which in ancient days were
baths, studies, halls, and other
places of the like nature. The
curious happened to discover them
in these subterranean caverns, whose
low situation is owing to the raising

of the surface of the ground in the
series of the ages, and as these
caverns in Rome are usually called
grottoes, they from them acquired
the title of grotesque." This word
gave Sydney Smith the opportunity
of making a jest at the expense of
Mrs Grote, the wife of the historian,
which at least had the salt of malice
in it. She was famed for the bad
taste of her costumes, and as one
day she swept by in an extra-
ordinary headdress, Smith pointed
her out to a friend with the words,
" That is the origin of the word
' grotesque.' " Mrs Grote had her
revenge, however, which she took.
Smith's daughter married a Dr Hol-
land, and when the latter was
knighted somebody spoke of his
wife as Lady Holland. " Do you
mean Lord Holland's wife ? " asked
a listener. " No," put in Mrs Grote,
' ' this is New Holland, whose capital
is Sydney."

364 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

spectators where they could see it best, — from the Gr. theatron,
from theaomai, to see, — and afterwards was applied to the whole
building. The word amphitheatre, in like manner, was first
applied to the circular seats all round, from which the spectators
could see all round about — from Gr. amphi, round about. The
orchestra, in the Greek theatre, was the place where the chorus
danced (L., from Gr. orchestra, from orcheomai, to dance) ; then it
came to signify the part of a theatre where the musicians were
placed, and at times the word is applied to the performers in the
orchestra. The stage, which is the name now frequently given
to the profession of an actor, is literally an elevated platform,
especially in a theatre, and sometimes called the boards, from
the wood employed in its construction. The word itself is a
Danish word signifying a ladder. Like the French, by whom
this word has been modified through estage to etage, a storey of
a house, we employ it also in the sense of an elevated structure
by a ladder of steps. The scene originally was part of the stage
of a theatre on which the actors perform ; and there were scene-
painters and scene-shifters. But as such wings and scenes are
scarcely used now, we have not so much change of scene as
formerly. The word came to us originally through the F. sc&ne —
from L. scena, Gr. skene, a covered place, a booth, a stage. The
word pit reminds us that many of the early representations took
place in cockpits. Indeed there at one time existed in London a
theatre which had originally been employed as a cockpit (a pit or
enclosed space where game-cocks fought), and was consequently
known as the Cockpit Theatre. Our old inns, of which a few
specimens still remain, were built round an open courtyard, along
each storey of which ran an open gallery or verandah (a kind of
covered balcony — Portuguese word, from Sanscrit varanda, from
vri, to cover), and on this opened the doors of the rooms occupied
by the guests. In order to witness the performance the inmates
had merely to come out of their rooms into the gallery. The con-
venience of this arrangement unquestionably suggested the prin-
cipal features in the construction of later theatres. The galleries
of the old inns were the prototypes of the circles of boxes in our

THE DRAMA. 365

modern theatres. This may account for the boxes, as we term
them, being then, and for long after, called "the rooms." In
the matter of properties, as they are to-day technically called
(OF. proprete), the articles required by actors in a play, the old
Elizabethan theatres were better provided than could have been
expected, as may be seen from the very curious lists of such
articles which have accidentally descended to us from the old
green-room or apartment in which the actors assembled until
they were called on to appear on the stage — so called, it is
said, from the green - coloured walls of the original apartment
so provided behind the scenes of Drury Lane Theatre by David
Garrick. The occupants of the gallery have received the very
general appellation of the gods — not because they are so high
up, but because the ceilings of theatres were formerly embellished
with representations of mythological deities, surrounded by a
sea of azure to imitate the skies ; consequently the patrons
of the gallery were said to be among the gods.

It is not easy always to determine the exact meaning of the
word pageant as applied to the stage. The best illustration of
the ambiguity in the use of the word will be found in the
account of the method of representation given by Archdeacon
Rogers, who saw the Chester plays performed in 1594, and
who lays the whole scene before us vividly enough. "Every
company had his pageant or part, which pageants were a high
scaffold with two rooms, a higher and a lower, upon four wheels.
In the lower they apparelled themselves, and in the higher
room they played, being all open on the top, that all beholders
might hear and see them. The place where they played them
was in every street. They began first at the Abbey gates, and
when the first pageant was played it was wheeled to the High
Cross before the Mayor, and so to every street, so that every
street had a pageant played before them all at one time, till
all the pageants for the day appointed were played, and when
one pageant was near ended, word was brought from street to
street, that so they might come in place thereof exceeding orderly,
and all the streets have their pageants before them all at one

366

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

time playing together ; to see which plays was great resort, and
also scaffolds and stages made in the streets on those places
where they determined to play their pageants." The word conies
through the ME. pagent, with excrescent t as in ancient, pheasant,
&c., from an older form pagen or pagin — from low L. paglna, a
stage, something framed or compacted — from pango,1 to fix. The
word pageant was applied originally to the stage ; then each single
play was called a pageant, and finally the word was confined to
tableaux vivants, where the spectacle was presented in dumb show
by disguised and costumed personages, and this representation was
often placed on a wheeled platform, and was part of some of those
long processions which formed the principal feature of ancient
festivities. The survival of the pageant is obvious in the procession
on Lord Mayor's Day and on other occasions ; and pageantry has
come now to signify any showy exhibition or spectacle, any osten-
tatious display or fleeting show.

Dramatic compositions class themselves, by the very nature of
the case, under the two great categories of Tragedy and Comedy.
The word tragedy is believed to be derived from the two
Gr. words tragos, a goat, and ode, a song or recitation — lit., a
goat-song. Thus far all is plain enough ; but what is not so
plain is the connection which the goatherd had with the trans-
action. In the early days of Greek history, Thespis and his
band of strolling players acted from waggons as their theatre,
besmearing their faces with vine-leaves for masks, and thus this
was the germ of the Greek tragedy. The name of goat-song may
have been given either because these mournful dramas may

1 Pango, pepigi, pactum, pangSre,
to fasten, gives us not merely page,
a pageant, and pageantry, but com-
pact (of bodies which are closely
and firmly joined together, as when
we speak of a compact volume or
a compact arrangement). A body
infringes on another which it strikes
against. Impact means the shock
in striking. We have also pact or
compact, an agreement between two
or more persons. From this word

also comes propago, propagum, a
slip or shoot of a plant for setting
or pegging down. We propagate
rumours when we speak of them.
We speak of the propagation of
plants or animals. The institution
in Rome for propagating the faith
is called the propaganda ; and we
have propagandist, one who devotes
himself to the spread of certain
tenets of a system.

THE DRAMA. 367

have been exhibited when a goat was sacrificed, or because a
goat may have been the reward of the best reciter, or because
the actors were dressed in goat-skins.

Comedy comes from the Gr. word komodos, a comedian, — a com-
pound either of Jcomos, a banquet, and ode, an ode or lyric song ;
or of its probable source home, a village, and aiodos, a singer or
minstrel — from aidein, to sing. The Ttomodos was thus the
minstrel or village bard, or the bard of the revels, and a comedy
was originally a festive spectacle with singing and dancing. The
word farce is so called because it is stuffed with low humour and
extravagant wit — from F. farce, the stuffing in meat, from L.
farcio, to stuff. Farce, then, meant at first a " stuffing " ; and
that it does not yet contradict the original meaning will be readily
admitted by those who have been obliged for two or three hours
to listen to certain entertainments of the kind. It has been
suggested that the name of farce, in the sense of stuff, was used
not so much with reference to the play as to the players, in
allusion to the custom of the ancient buffoons of padding out
their clothing to abnormal proportions. At a later date the
padding was dispensed with, but the rude garments remained, —
they survive even now in our clowns and pierrots. This last
word has been regarded by many as a compound, pier-rot — as a
species of rot to which we have become accustomed at the piers
of our watering-places, &c.

The pantomime as now presented on the stage has nothing in
common with its original purpose. It was the trade of certain
individuals among the Romans to follow in the train of a funeral
procession for the purpose of imitating or representing in dumb
show the leading actions in the life of the deceased. These per-
formers were called mimi, the plural of L. mimus (Gr. mimos), a
person who, by gesticulations and gestures of all kinds, imitated
the actions and character of others, and their performance bore
the name of pantomime, from the Gr. pantomimos, either imitation
of all, or all imitation (pas, pantos, all, and mimos, an imitation).
The word burlesque, which signifies literally a jesting or ridicule,
is the name given to certain ludicrous representations on the stage,

368 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

which make a pretence of exaggerating and ridiculing the conven-
tionalities of the modern drama, but which is really nothing more
than a variety show. It comes through the French from the
It. Imrlesco, to ridicule, based on burla, mockery, and burlare, to
ridicule. Travesty is a kind of burlesque, in which the original
characters are preserved but the situations parodied, — through the
F. travestir, to disguise, from the L. trans, over, and vestio, to clothe.
Sometimes the words are interchanged, as in a translation of
Homer's ' Iliad,' published in two vols. in 1797, the name of the
book being ' Homer Travestie,' but on the title-page " a burlesque
translation of Homer." More frequently interchanged still are the
words travesty and parody ; but parody is properly and originally
applicable to the caricature of a poem, made by applying its words
and ideas with a burlesque effect (from the Gr. parodia, from para,
beside, and ode, an ode or song). Parodies were favourite forms of
humour and amusement with the ancient Greeks and Eomans,
Catullus and Virgil having suffered most. In this country, per-
haps the most famous are the ' Eejected Addresses,' written by the
brothers Smith, caricaturing some of the principal poets and writers
of the day. They were so called as being professedly sent in by
their alleged authors as addresses in competition for the prize for
the best poetical address to be read at the opening of the new
Drury Lane Theatre after it had been destroyed by fire in 1812.
They professed that none of these had proved suitable, and had
been rejected by the committee. The book appeared simul-
taneously with the opening of the theatre, and was an overwhelm-
ing success. The parodies on Scott, Crabbe, and Wordsworth were
voted especially fine. The imitations of Southey, Byron, and Moore
are also famous. In Barham's ' Ingoldsby Legends ' there is the
admirable imitation of " The Burial of Sir John Moore," beginning —

" Not a sou had he got, not a guinea or note,
And he looked most confoundedly flurried," &c.

The parody of one of Wordsworth's famous poems appeared in
Henry S. Leigh's 'Carols of Cockayne.' It is entitled "Only
Seven," and begins thus —

THE DRAMA. 369

" I marvelled why a simple child,
That lightly draws its breath,
Should utter groans so veiy wild,
And look as pale as death," &c.

From the same author we have a clever burlesque of a well-
known passage in "Lalla Rookh," beginning thus —

" I never reared a young gazelle
(Because, you see, I never tried)," &c.

This poem has proved a great temptation to the parodist : we give
two more attempts, — the first by an anonymous writer, beginning —

" I never had a piece of toast

Particularly long and wide,
But fell upon the sanded floor,
And always on the buttered side."

The second is from C. S. Calverley, perhaps the best of all English
parodists —

" I never nursed a dear gazelle,

But I was given a parroquet
(How I did nurse him if unwell !), —
He's imbecile, but living yet."

His travesty of Tennyson's " Brook," called the " Tinker," is admir-
able after its kind —

" I loiter down by thorp and town,

For any job I'm willing ;
Take here and there a dusty brown,
And here and there a shilling," &c.

Unlike burlesque, where the subjects remain and the characters
reappear the same, though trivialised and degraded, in parodies
new characters apply old and high-flown expressions and language
to a new subject and an altered case. Harlequin (from the ~F,
arlequin, It. arlecchino, perhaps from O.Fresian helle kin, " the host
of hell," a troop of demons) was the leading character in a panto-
mime, in a light spangled dress with a talismanic wand, by means
of which he is supposed to be invisible and to play tricks; for

2 A

370 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

although most of the characters were clothed in the prevailing
fashion, there were certain conventional attributes always associated
with particular supernatural personages — angels, devils, ghosts, and
so on. " A roobe for to go invisible " is one of the items in a list
of properties. The word pantaloon is generally believed to come
from a Greek word pant-a-lene, which signifies all-lion, and is
believed to have some connection with the patron Saint of Venice
— the Lion of St Mark ; but if this be so, and if the F. pantalon
and the It. pantalone have all come from this, it is a very great
descent, and can only have been given originally as a sort of
nickname. Yet so strong is the desire to connect the word with
the Lion of Venice, that Lord Byron thought it must have been
originally pantaleone, the planter of the lion — i.e., the planter of
the standard bearing the Lion of St Mark, and supposed to be
applied to Venice (" Childe Harold," c. iv. note 9). Whatever the
word originally, it was very early employed to describe a ridiculous
character in a comedy pantomime, who wore a garment consisting
of breeches and stockings all of one piece. It is, I think, on the
whole more likely that the word was first applied to the dress
which the buffoon wore, for the Italian word pantalone properly
denotes a tight-fitting garment which covers the whole body down
to the feet ; so that the well-known character in the Italian comedy
received this name because his breeches and stockings were origin-
ally made in one piece, and in this case, like the garment invented
and used by Herbert Spencer, which he called the woolly bear,
it may be that the word has come from the Gr. pan, all, and
the L. talus, the heel or ankle, because it covered the whole body
down to the feet. If it be objected that a Greek and a Latin word
do not make a proper combination, yet such combinations exist ;
or it is possible that the word was composed of pannus, cloth, a
garment, or rags, and talus, the heel ; the ragged garment in which
walked the lean and slippered pantaloon — anything rather than
the all-leon suggestion. A buffoon is almost another name for a
pantaloon — one who amuses by vulgar jests and grimaces : the word,
through F. bouffon, a jester, is from It. bujfare, to jest or sport —
literally to puff out the cheeks, almost synonymous with clown

THE DRAMA. 371

(p. 229). The performances of all these and suchlike are gen-
erally characterised by caricature (F., from It. caricatura, literally
an overloaded representation of anything — from carricare, to load, or
from the L. carrus, a car). A frolic comes from the root preserved
in the Ger. froh, joyful, and the suffix Ujk (English like, ly).
Drollery is what excites mirth or laughter — through the F. drole,
as in Danish and Ger. drollig, funny. The word fun itself has
probahly been imported from Ireland, in which occurs the word
foun, delight ; and waggery generally is descriptive of mischievous
pleasantry, and is likely derived from wagging the head in derision.
Many of these excite laughter from their ludicrous associations.
This word, coming from Indus, sport (already considered, p. 362),
denotes a thing which is personally laughable, but does not convey
the idea of contempt or pity which the word ridiculous does.
We speak of a ludicrous situation, but of a ridiculous speech.

372

CHAPTEE XXVIII.

MUSIC.

Music might have been included under the heading of amusements
were it not that in its higher forms it is of a very devotional
character, and contemplates the advancement of man's highest
good. The word itself is derived through the L. musica, from the
Gr. mousiJce (techne understood), the art of music, or science of
harmony — from the word Mousce, the Muses. The name of anti-
phon was given to the alternate chanting or singing in church, from
the two Greek words anti, in return, and phone, the voice, express-
ing a series of choral responses; whereas an anthem, which has
been evolved out of the same word, and which originally signified
a piece of sacred music sung in alternate parts, now signifies a piece
of sacred music set to a passage of Scripture, and sung by all the
congregation who can. The Psalms is the name given to one of
the books of the Old Testament, which, when separately printed,
is called the Psalter, or Book of Psalms. The word comes through
the L. psalmits, from the Gr. psalmos — lit., a twitching or twanging
of the strings of a harp, from psallo, to twang ; and psalmody is
the singing of psalms (psalmos, and ode, a song). The Hymns were
founded on passages of Scripture, adapted to be sung either with
or without a musical accompaniment : the name is derived from
L. hymmis or Gr. hymnos. These hymns corresponded very closely
to our Scotch paraphrases, which are metrical translations of
different portions of Scripture adapted for singing; whereas the
spiritual songs mentioned by the Apostle in Colossians iii. 16
really resembled very much our modern hymns, which are not
so much translations of Scripture passages as ascriptions of praise

MUSIC.

373

to God for what He has done in creation, providence, and grace.
The word canticle — from L. canticulum, dim. of canticum — orig-
inally signified a song or ballad of any kind often accompanied
with music, and is now generally used with reference to sacred
songs ; and in the plural, Canticles, is used to denote the Song
of Solomon, or, as it is generally termed, the " Song of Songs."
We have also the word chant, signifying originally a song,
but now a kind of sacred music in which prose is sung — through
the F. chanter, It. cantare, from L. canto, from cano,1 to sing.
The chant was the earliest form of song, owing to the Hebrew
temples being of vast extent, and open to the sky : it was there-
fore necessary, in order to make the voice travel from the wor-
shippers to the priests and vice versd, to pitch it in a higher
key, with the result that the monotone style of delivery became
firmly established as the most suitable form of reciting prayers in
chorus. The Ambrosian chant is a development of the original
form of the chant by St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan in the fourth
century, and the Gregorian chant a further development of the
Ambrosian, introduced by Pope Gregory I. in the year 590. We
have also a cantata, which is a poem set to music, interspersed with
recitative. An oratorio is a kind of musical drama, usually
founded on a Scriptural subject. The word is Italian in its
origin, and this kind of musical drama was so called because it
originated with the priests of the Oratory of St Philip Neri,
founded at Rome in the year 1540. This word oratorio comes
from the L. oro, oravi, oratum, orare,2 to entreat, or to speak — from

1 This verb cano, cecini, cantum,
canSre, to sing, supplies us with many
words — possibly canary ; canorous
birds are good singers. Cant was at
first a beggar's whine, and hence it
came to mean hypocritical talk, or
affecting the phrases of any profes-
sion. A canto is one of the chief
divisions of a poem of some length.
We have also chanter and chantress
and chanticleer. A chantry is an
endowed chapel where daily masses
are said or sung for the souls of the
donors, or for such as they appoint.

Accent and accentuation come from
this word ; to enchant, enchant-
ment, and disenchant; to descant
on a theme ; and some believe in
incantations. An incentive prompts
to action. The precentor is the
leader of the church choir or
psalmody ; and to recant our opin-
ions is formally to give them up.
2 This verb gives us the following
words : oracle, oracular. An oration
is an elaborate speech delivered in
a dignified manner. An orator is
a public speaker possessing natural

374

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

os, oris, the mouth. A concert is so called in accordance with the
two Latin words con, together, and certare, to strive, signifying the
combined efforts of several persons for the attainment of a desired
end, not exclusively in connection with music, but applicable
to any other form of human endeavour. Thus a number of
persons may be said to act in concert in various ways, but a
so-called concert given by one and the same musical performer
is decidedly a misnomer. The name of opera l has been bestowed
upon that form of musical drama which is regarded by musical
enthusiasts as the crowning effort of human art, since its realisa-
tion enlists the several arts of music, poetry, painting, and dancing, to
say nothing of the mechanical arts for the production of the various
stage effects. An overture is the name given to the instrumental
music performed before the commencement of an opera, &c., and
literally signifies an opening — from the OF. overture (overt, from L.
apertus,2 open, pp. of aperio, to open). The word has also to signify
a preliminary proposal, as making overtures ; while in ecclesiastical

powers of eloquence, which may be
made still more effective by studied
elocution. Oratorical powers are
proved by the effect on the audi-
ence. Rhetoric is oratory reduced
to rules. An oratory means also a
place for prayer. Orison is a prayer
or supplication :

"Lowly they bowed, adoring, and began
Their orisons, each morning duly paid."
—Milton.

We adore God ; we are moved to
adoration of Him by the beauties
of nature. A man is inexorable who
turns a deaf ear to every entreaty
made to him to lessen the rigour of
a particular sentence. The perora-
tion means the conclusion or wind-
ing-up of a speech.

* Opera is either the plural of
opus, operis, work, or the singular
opera, ce, labour ; but from both the
following words are derived, such
as operatic music, an operation — a
sort of work which implies rule and
purpose ; a law is said to operate

for the harm or benefit of society ;
an operative is a skilled workman ;
things are operative or inoperative.
An operator is one who operates,
especially in surgery ; to co-operate
is to work together in everything
about some result. We speak of
mutual co-operation, of distant co-
operators, &c. From the L. opera
comes the F. ceuvre, which appears
in manure, manoeuvre (see mantis,
p. 247, note), and inure. By inure-
ment and training a man can bear
almost anything.

2 From apertus we have not merely
aperient and aperture, but prob-
ably the word pert. Pert seems
to be derived from the L. apertus,
open, then public, or without con-
cealment, or without shame ; but
the sense has now degenerated into
saucy or impudent or impertinent.
Malapert had this meaning from
the beginning, but it is seldom used
now, and pert seems to have taken
its place.

MUSIC.

375

language in Scotland it signifies a proposal made by the presbytery
or synod, and sent up to the General Assembly as an overture
to the supreme court. If adopted by the General Assembly, it
is then sent down to the different presbyteries, who must by a
majority approve of it before it can be passed into an Act. A
madrigal is an elaborate vocal composition in five or six parts,
or a short poem expressing a tender and graceful thought :
literally the word signifies pastoral, — It. madrigale, from mandra,
a sheepfold, from L. and Gr. mandra, a fold ; the affix gal from
L. caUx. Some of our old madrigals are as beautiful in language
as they are in melody. Several collections were published in the
reign of Elizabeth, and in the madrigals of her last years a remark-
able sweetness of modulation has always been recognised. Serenade
is the name given to evening music in the open air, and frequently
signifies music performed by a gentleman under a lady's window
at night (French, from It. serenata, from Prov. serena, evensong,
from L. serus, late).

Among musical instruments the grandest and noblest is the organ,
a musical instrument with pipes, bellows, and keys — through F.
organs, from L. organum and Gr. organon,1 akin to ergon, a work.
Perhaps the most impressive musical instrument, next to the
organ, is the violin, a stringed instrument played with a bow,
— F. violon, from It. violino, from viola, from low L. vidula. This,
however, comes from the L. vitulor, atus, ari, to skip like a
calf, to make merry or be playful, from the L. vitula, a calf. Our
Scotch word fiddle seems to come from the same root. We have
in AS. fithele, and Ger. fiedel. A cello, as it is called frequently,
is short for violoncello, a large stringed musical instrument between
the viol and the double-bass, held between the knees in playing.
It is the Italian dim. of violono, a bass violin. The pianoforte is

1 From organon we have also
organist. We have an organism,
organic substances, and inorganic.
We may organise any government,
any railway, or other complicated
business. We speak of the organi-

sation of a church ; and a body of
rules for the direction of men's
minds in the conduct of scientific
investigation is sometimes called an
organon.

376

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

so called because it can produce sounds both piano (Italian for
soft, from L. planus, plain, smooth) and forte, strong (from L.
fortis).

Before concluding what we have to say regarding man's mental
nature, it is well to bear in mind that wisdom consists in the true
balance of his mental powers. The word is Anglo-Saxon, and
signified then the right use of knowledge.

377

CHAPTER XXIX.

OUR MORAL NATURE.

IN addition to his intellectual nature, man possesses a moral
nature, which is determined by a moral faculty called the con-
science. It is the faculty or principle by which we distinguish
right from wrong. It is literally the knowledge of our own acts
and feelings as to right or wrong. We propose, under the head
of man's moral nature, to examine some of those words which
relate to (1) Truth and its opposite ; (2) Justice and the reverse ;
(3) Benevolence and its opposite ; (4) Self-control and the want
of it.

(1) Truth and its opposite. — Truth is that which is true, or
according to the facts of the case. Trow was an AS. word
meaning to think, to believe, to be convinced of. From this
comes true, anciently written "trew" (the past participle of "trow,"
as grew is of grow and knew of know), meaning trowed — i.e.,
believed firmly. Truth (formerly written troweth and troth) is
the 3rd person singular of the verb "to trow," describing that
which one troweth or firmly believeth. To trust is to think or
believe one to be true and faithful, and trustworthy is worthy of
trust The AS. verb is trywsian, to think true, to confide in
another. Troth is only an older form of the same word, and is
still found in the English Church marriage service — " thereto I
plight thee my troth " — and also in the word betroth, to contract
or promise to marry, to affiance, from be and troth, or truth ; so
also betrothal or betrothment. To say, then, that truth is just
what any man troweth or thinketh, implies that there is no such
thing as truth, seeing that no two people think ever alike ; but the
truth to any man is that which he believes to be true and holds

378

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

fast as truth. The Latin word for truth or truthfulness is veritas,
from verum,1 true. We shall first look at some of those words which
are more or less closely connected with truth — such as accuracy,
that which is done or said with care, from ad, to, and cura, care.
Exactness comes from L. exactus, a past participle of exigo, to drive
out, to measure — L. ex, and ago, to drive. Precision, the quality
of being precise, comes through the F. from the L. pneclsus, past
participle of prcecido (prce, before, and ccedo, to cut), what is cut
to the exact size, neither too much nor too little. Punctuality is
keeping to the exact time — through F. ponetud, from L. punctum,
a point, from the past participle of pungo,z which signifies to prick
or sting, to make a puncture, a small hole. Sincerity is also

1 From verus, a, um, true, and
verax, ads, truthful, we have ver-
acious. The thing said is true or
not true, but the relator is veracious
or the reverse. We speak of the
truth of a story or history and of
the veracity of the historian. The
verdict of a jury (from dicZre, to
say) is their decision and answer
to any matter legally submitted to
them for their determination. We
verify a quotation. Science guesses
the laws of nature and then proceeds
to the verification of the hypotheses.
What may be so tested is verifiable.
We speak of verisimilitude (likeli-
hood) to a narrative — from similis,
like. Veritable means real, genuine,
according to fact. Very is often
used as an adjective — "These are
the very words" ; "the very birds
are mute." As an adverb it means
exceedingly, as a very hot summer.
Verily means in truth or most cer-
tainly. We aver, and we profess
to have had given due proof of our
averments.

2 From pungo, pupugi, punctum,
punggre, to prick or sting, and punc-
tum, a point, we have pointer, point-
ed, pointsman. Poignant (F. ) means
piercing, acute, as poignant grief
and the poignancy of satire. A
poniard is a small dagger. To pounce
upon is to dash down upon, as a

bird of prey with his talons. To
punch is to drive a hole in some-
thing, also to thrust against. A
puncheon is a stamping tool, also
a wine barrel — probably so named
from its mark. A punctilio is a
nice point of exactness in ceremony,
conduct, or procedure. We speak
of the punctilio of further ceremony,
of punctiliousness of etiquette in
some societies, of a punctilious ob-
servance of forms, &c. Punctual
had originally the sense of exact.
Pitt spoke of punctual niceties, and
Burnet of punctual tediousness.
Punctuality now means an exact
adherence to an appointment, especi-
ally to the time appointed. He
paid his rent with great punctuality,
he observes faithfully his engage-
ments. Punctuation is performed
with four points — the comma, the
semicolon, the colon, and the period.
A puncture is a small round hole.
Pungent also means sharp and
prickly to the taste or smell. We
speak of the pungency of a radish or
ammonia, and of a pungent remark.
We appoint a man his work when
he receives his appointment. Men
are at times disappointed, and meet
with disappointments. Compunc-
tion is a bitter feeling ; but to ex-
punge is to strike out, literally with
the point of the pen.

OUR MORAL NATURE.

379

another quality of truthfulness, for it is to be in reality what we
are in appearance, unadulterated. The word comes to us through
F. from L. sincerus, clear, pure, with reference to pure honey,
which is said to be sine, without, and cera, wax. Sincerity
combines reality of purpose with observance of time, appointments,
or promises. A man who speaks what he does not think, or pre-
tends to be what he is not, is insincere. Ingenuousness, again, is
the disposition that hates such dissimulation ; candour is openness
in matters that concern oneself; while frankness is openness in
those matters that concern others.

We look now at some of those words more closely connected
with falsehood or untruth of all kinds ; and first the word false
itself, which, it has been suggested, is connected with the AS.
faldan, to fold, and L. plico^- avi and ui, plicatum and plicitum.

1 From this verb we get pliant,
capable of bending, and pliable,
capable of being bent about. A
stick is pliant, a rope is pliable. A
ply is a fold or plait. Small objects
may be grasped and bent by pliers,
a kind of pincers. An appliance is
a thing applied or used as a means.
To apply is to lay on, to have
recourse to, and we may injure our
health by too close application. A
court may require an applicant to
appear in person. Double (L. duplex),
triple, quadruple, centuple, mean
twofold, threefold, fourfold, a hun-
dredfold ; fact and feat are doublets,
the same word having a double form.
A doublet was originally a garment
of two plies, superseded by the
waistcoat. A doubloon is a Spanish
coin, originally double a pistole, and
worth about a guinea. A duplicate
is a second thing like the first.
Some merchants keep duplicates of
their business letters. Duplicity of
character consists in pretending to
act from motives by which one is in
reality not influenced, and some-
times it merely means doubleness.
Thus Ruskin speaks of the decor-
ation of some buildings as founded
on the duplicity of their idea of

substance, one internal, the other
external. To complicate is to in-
volve in a confused or intricate way.
We talk of a complicated sentence,
of a complication of our cases, but
of complex ideas or the complexity
of social problems. Complicity in
an evil deed means having a share
in it. A partner in crime is called
an accomplice. Troops deploy (form)
in line of battle. To display is to
spread before the view. We employ
means, and we can speak both of the
employment of our time and the
employment in which we are en-
gaged. An exploit is a chivalrous
deed. Some mysteries are explic-
able, others inexplicable. An explicit
statement expresses what is meant
fully and plainly. To imply is to
mean what is not expressed. The
evidence may be such as to implicate
several persons. He that denies the
providence of God, implicitly or by
implication, denies His existence.
A multiple of a number contains it
an exact number of times. We are
perplexed when we cannot deter-
mine between contending persons
or courses of action. A reply is an
answer to a formal question. Simple
(cp. L. semd, once) means one fold,

380

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

plicare, to fold, plait, or plat, and plectere, to weave. But the word
occurs very early in all the Scandinavian and Teutonic languages,
and it is not easy to believe that the name of so fundamental an
idea as that of the false must necessarily have been borrowed from
any other. It is difficult to avoid regarding it as indigenous, for
we cannot suppose that they did not know what falsehood was,
and had to borrow a word from the Latin such as falsum; and
this word falsum is part of the L. fallo,1 fefelli, falsum, fallere, to
deceive or cheat. As leading on to falsehood, we have vagueness,
applied to statements wanting clearness or precision, from L.
vagus, wandering or rambling, and vagor, atus, ari, to wander.2
Equivocation means equally two or more things — from L. cequus,
equal, and vox, vocis, the voice, or a word, the use of doubtful words
in order to mislead. Ambiguity comes from L. anibirjo, to wander

artless, silly. A simpleton is a
simple person who is easily deceived.
Simplicity may arise from ignorance
or want of experience. To simplify
is to make plain. What is involved
or intricate needs simplification.
Supple (from supplex, bending under,
humble, suppliant) means easily
bending or moulding itself to suit
a purpose. To supplicate is to
beseech — the figure in supplication
being that of the clasped hands or
bended knees : in the suppliant's or
supplicant's entreaty there is usu-
ally implied a deep sense of humili-
ation. Men approach God in a sup-
plicatory manner in order to ask a
favour.

" They bow and sue for grace with sup-
pliant knee."— Milton.

1 From fallo we get fallacy and
fallacious. Men and their judg-
ments are fallible, yet many main-
tain the infallibility of the Pope.
South speaks of the truth or falsity
of things. People who tamper with
records are said to falsify them, and
we speak of the falsification of a
document. From this root, through
the F. (faillir), come fail and fault.
We speak of the failure of the crops.

We call an ungenial temper a failing.
That is faulty which ought not to
have been. To falter is to fail in
steadiness, as when the voice falters
from inward emotion. Default means
failing to do what is due.

2 From vagor we have vagabond,
an idle fellow having no fixed home,
but wandering about without any
settled means of making a liveli-
hood. This vagabond life is called
vagabondage or vagabondism. Vag-
rancy does not necessarily mean
more than wandering without a
fixed home, but by a vagabond we
generally mean an idle wanderer
or even a sturdy beggar. As the
habits of a wanderer or vagrant
are likely to become loose and reck-
less, this term in course of time de-
generated into its present accept-
ation. The Prince Gonzoga de
Castigliono was doubtless not aware
of this when, being at table with
Dr Johnson, and meaning to be com-
plimentary, he called out to the doc-
tor, "Your health, Mr Vagabond,"
imagining that to be an appropri-
ate name for the author of ' The
Rambler.' A vagary is a wander-
ing in the mind, a wild whim or
freak.

OUR MORAL NATURE.

381

about (from ambi, about, or ambo, two, and ago, to drive). Am-
biguity leaves the sense of an expression doubtful. Evasion comes
from L. evddo, evasi, evdsum, evadere (from e, out, and vado, to go),
avoiding a definite answer, an attempt to escape the force of an
argument or accusation ; ostensibly answering a question, but
really turning aside to some other point. Prevarication is literally
a spreading of the legs apart in walking, from the L. prcevaricor
(from prce, intensive, and varicus1 (varus), straddling — see Hor.
Sat., I. 3. 47). Prevarication is, then, the shifting about from side
to side to evade the truth ; to deal with a subject in a straggling,
quibbling way, so as to avoid disclosing the truth. Whatever is
directly opposed to truth is a lie (AS. lige, from leogan, to lie), but
why a falsehood received this name we are unable to discover.
Under the head of a lie we may fairly include an exaggerated
statement — that is, a statement in excess of the truth. The word
exaggeration (from L. exaggeratio), which primarily signified a
throwing up of mounds of earth (from exaggero, to throw up earth,
to heap or heap up), came, even in Cicero's time, to signify
to increase, to magnify, to exaggerate. All are, however, alike
derived from the L. noun agger, aggeris, which signifies anything
heaped on the earth, a heap of rubbish of any kind, a military
mound, but never in a figurative sense like our word exaggerate.
Perhaps the L. word agger may have come originally from the two
L. words ad, to, and gero, to carry. The Greeks, however, had a
rhetorical figure, still recognised, — hyperbole,— which produces a
vivid impression by representing things as much greater or less
than they really are, an exaggeration (lit. " a throw beyond " —
hyper, beyond, and ballo, to throw). Aristotle says that hyperbole
is a figure suited only to a person enraged, or to children who
exaggerate everything, whereupon Chevreau pertinently notes : " I
suppose, according to this maxim, that the man who said his estate
was no larger than a laconic epistle must be set down either as a
child or as a very irascible person." An author having boasted
of having a large mansion and an extensive forest, a gentleman

1 Varicose veins are so called
from their crooked appearance. We

have also the word divaricate, to
branch off.

382

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

who knew him said to a friend : " I assure you on my honour that
he has not wood enough to make a toothpick, and that a tortoise
might make the tour of his house in a quarter of an hour." This
is the hyperbole of minimising. The hyperbole of magnifying is
the more usual form. Of course hyperbole is often used to make
a strong impression, and is not intended to be taken literally, as
when Sydney Smith, in his burst of astonishment when told that
a young neighbour was going to marry a very fat woman double
his age, exclaimed : " Going to marry her ! going to marry her !
Impossible ! You mean a part of her ; he could not marry her
all himself. It would be a case, not of bigamy, but of trigamy.
The neighbourhood or the magistrates should interfere. There is
enough of her to furnish wives for a whole parish. One man marry
her ! It is monstrous. You might people a colony with her, or
give an assembly with her, or perhaps take your morning's walk
round her — always provided that there were frequent resting-places,
and that you were in rude health. I once was rash enough to try
walking round her before breakfast, but only got half way, and
gave it up exhausted. Or you might read the Riot Act, and
disperse her. In short, you might do anything with her but
marry her." Plausibility is the art of pleasing superficially, a fit-
ness to gain applause (from L. platido,1 to clap the hands, to
praise, to applaud). Flattery comes probably horn flatten, to smooth

1 Plaudo, plausi, plausum, plaud-
$re, to clap the hands. This verb
gives us plaudit, in pi. plaudits,
which are an expression of praise,
as clapping the hands, beating with
the feet, &c. Plausible excuses,
representations, &c., are those that
sound all right but do not satisfy
the judgment. Plausible persons
speak fair. To applaud is to ex-
press approbation with some de-
gree of excitement, so that it is
received with loud applause. The
verb is sometimes spelt plodo, the
diphthong cm (pronounced aou)
being contracted into 6. This
was the popular pronunciation in
almost every such case. From

this word we have not merely
applause, in the sense of testify-
ing admiration by clapping with
the hands or beating with the feet,
but praise loudly expressed in any
way. We have also the word
explosion, which is now used in
the sense of a sudden, violent
burst with a loud report, as of
gun-cotton, dynamite, a bomb, or
of gunpowder, which are called
explosives ; but originally, as com-
ing from the verb explodo, — ex, out,
and plodo, to clap the hands, — it
signified to hiss off the stage, to
cry down (as an actor), to bring
into disrepute, and to reject (as when
we speak of an exploded theory).

OUR MORAL NATURE.

383

down, to make flat, to smooth by a gentle caress, or to soothe
with false praise. Parasitism is the conduct of a parasite, who
is literally one who feeds with another (through L. parasitus,
from Gr. parasitos — para, beside, and sitein, to feed, from sitos,
corn), the earning an invitation to the tables of the rich by
various acts. Sycophancy is the behaviour of a sycophant
(Gr. sycophantes, from sykos, a fig, and phaino,1 to bring to
light). The name is said to have been given to one who in-
formed against persons who illegally exported figs from Athens,
and so acting an obsequious part. The phrase "sucking up to
one " seems to have come originally from this practice. Another
and probable reason for the name is that it denotes one who
brings figs to light by shaking the tree, hence one who makes
rich men yield up their fruit by information and other vile arts.
Aspersion is the act of spreading foul or slanderous reports, but
originally and literally signified a sprinkling, as with dust or water,
from the verb aspersus, besprinkled, from aspergo, aspersi, asper-
sum, aspergere, to besprinkle (from L. ad, to, and spargo,2
I sprinkle), to sprinkle over; but gradually the verb also came
to mean, to cover all over with evil reports, to slander. To
slander a man is to speak falsehoods about him so as to injure
his reputation. The word comes from the Gr. scandalon, a snare,
also a stumbling-block or offence. It was originally scandele,
which in OF. became esdandere, and then in English slander.
Scandal also comes from the same word. It originally meant a
defamatory report without any regard to its truth, as there are
always people fond of listening to such scandalous or defamatory
talk ; but now it has come to signify almost exclusively some

1 The Gr. verb phaino (I show),
phainomai (I appear), has many
derivatives, such as phantom,
phantasm, phantasmagoria, phan-
tasy or fancy, fanciful, and fan-
tastical ; a phase or phasis ; a
phenomenon, quite phenomenal.
Diaphanous is that which allows
light to pass through it. Epiphany
is a Church festival celebrated on
the twelfth day after Christmas

to commemorate the manifesta-
tion (epiphaneia) to the Magi at
Bethlehem.

2 From spargo, sparsi, sparsum,
spargSre, to scatter, we have dis-
pergo, to disperse, to scatter here
and there, to separate ; and to in-
tersperse, to scatter here and there
among other things ; and sparse,
thinly scattered.

384

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

very serious transgression, bringing a reproach on a man's posi-
tion or profession. Slander may sometimes originate not in actual
speech but in what we call an innuendo. An innuendo is an
indirect reference or intimation, generally of an unfavourable kind
— literally a hint or suggestion conveyed by a nod. It is the ger-
und ablative of the L. verb innuo (in, to, and nuo, niiere), to nod
towards. It is very much the same in meaning as an insinuation,
which, however, is still more frequently used in an unfavourable
sense, the verb meaning to steal into one's affections, to ingratiate,
.to insinuate oneself — L. insinuo, to put or thrust into the bosom
(in, into, and sinus, the bosom). Sophistry consists for the most
part in using a word in one sense in the premise, and in another
sense in the conclusion; and a sophist now means a man who
employs what he knows to be fallacious reasoning for the purpose
of deceit, — a man who spends his time in verbal quibbles or philo-
sophical juggles. When a false argument puts on the appearance
of a true one, it is called a sophism. It comes from the Gr. word
sophos, wise, or sophia, wisdom. The Sophists originally were
professional teachers in ancient Greece, who for money gave in-
struction in what was then known of physical science, in meta-
physics, ethics, politics, and rhetoric. They prepared men for
public life ; but as public argumentation required a knowledge
of how the worse might be made to appear the better reason, un-
scrupulous teachers acquired a bad name, especially when such
philosophers as Socrates taught gratuitously. Sophistical reason-
ing is often so subtle and ingenious that it cannot readily be
detected or exposed, but yet we instinctively feel that it is a
juggle of words. Philosophy comes from the same root, meaning
properly the love of wisdom (from pliilos, a lover). Pythagoras
was the first philosopher who called himself so, a lover of wisdom :
previous philosophers were called sophists — that is, wise men.
Hypocrisy is literally the acting of a part on the stage, feigning
to be what one is not — from the Gr. hypokrisis, from hypokrinomai,
to play on the stage, from hypo, under, and krinomai,1 to decide.

1 From krino, I judge, and krisis,
a deciding, we have crisis, the de-

cisive or turning-point in affairs
before it is known whether the

OUR MORAL NATURE.

385

Untruthfulness often arises from cowardice. Now a coward is one
literally who turns tail, the word coming through the OF. couard,
and It. codardo, from L. cauda,1 a tail. While cowardice is the
general term, we have several varieties, such as craven, dastard,
and poltroon. A craven, from the AS. crqfian, to crave, to beg
earnestly, to beseech, is so called because he craves or begs quarter
or mercy from his antagonist when vanquished. A dastard is
also a cowardly fellow who shrinks from danger. The word
comes from a Scandinavian stem dost, literally dazed, and the
F. suffix ard, stupid through fear. We often hear people speak
of dastardly conduct, meaning conduct characterised by moral
turpitude or great cruelty. This is an abuse of the word, which
never signifies anything worse than conduct prompted by terror.
A poltroon2 is in the same category, one without courage or

issue will be good or bad. We
speak of the crisis of a fever, of
a political crisis, of matters com-
ing to a crisis. In this sense also
we speak of the critical days of a
fever. A critic is a man who
is able to examine minutely and
form an exact judgment on such
subjects as a literary production,
a work of art, &c. A judgment
thus passed is called a criticism
or critique. We may be very
critical in judging of any literary
or artistic production, or even
hypercritical — that is, unduly or
over -rigidly critical. A criterion
is something established and ap-
proved, whereby we may form a
correct judgment regarding actions,
principles, or literary productions.

1 From cauda we have the word
caudal, pertaining to the tail, as
Tyndal speaks of caudal nerves
and Darwin of caudal plumes. A
cue (F. queue) is the tail or end
of anything — or sometimes any-
thing like a tail, as in people
standing in a cue waiting their
turn to get admission into some
popular place. The phrase, giving
any one the cue, is taken from the
stage, where a player waits for the

last words of the speaker who pre-
cedes him, and knows from this
end, or cue, that it is his turn to
begin.

2 There is much to be said in
favour of Home Tooke's etymology
of this word. He derives it from
the L. pollice truncus, maimed or
deprived of one's thumb — L. pollex,
pollicis, the thumb, and truncus,
deprived or mutilated. So that,
according to this, a poltroon was a
man who had deprived himself of
his thumb, or had got some one
else to cut it off, that he might
be rendered unfit for military ser-
vice. Some doubt has been cast
on this etymology, and yet he
quotes a passage from ' The Times '
newspaper of October 1795, giving
BO perfect a realisation of the
primary idea of poltroon that one
can scarcely resist accepting it.
" One Samuel Paradise, who had
been committed to the house of
correction in Kendal, and there
confined as a vagabond until put
on board a king's ship, agreeable
to the late Act, sent for his wife
the evening before his intended
departure. He was in a cell, and
she spoke to him through the iron

2 B

386

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

spirit — supposed to be literally "one who lies in bed," through
the F. poltron, from It. pdltro (for polstro), originally a bed, from
Ger. polster, a bolster. There is a close connection between
coward and our word to cower, to sink down, generally through
fear, to crouch. Connected with the idea of cowardice is also the
word scoundrel, from the It. scondarnolo, a coward, from scondere,
to hide, from L. abs-condere (from abs, away, and condere, to hide),
to hide oneself. The It. scondariole meant originally a soldier
who absconds or skulks at muster-roll.

" Go ! if your ancient but ignoble blood
Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood."

— POPE.

Panic seems at one time to have signified a contagious emotion,
and Shaftesbury, writing in his 'Characteristics' in 1709, says,
" We may call every passion panic which is raised in a multitude
and conveyed by aspect, or as if it were by contact and sympathy " ;
and again he says, "There are many panics in mankind besides
merely that of fear." It is usual to derive it from Pan, the Greek
god. Sounds heard by night on mountains and in valleys were
attributed to Pan, and hence he was reputed to be the cause of
any sudden or groundless fear ; but many of the stories more or
less elaborated to account for the origin of the expression are obvi-
ously invented, and we are strongly inclined to regard the word as
coming from the Gr. pan, the neuter of pas, all, meaning wide-
spread or universal, as the feeling of fear is that which is most
contagious and spreads most widely, especially when unreasoning,
groundless, or excessive.

(2) Justice and tlie reverse. — Justice comes from the L. jus,1
law, and, like the L. Justus, signified originally what is lawful ; but

door. After which he put his
hand underneath, and she, with
a mallet and chisel concealed for
the purpose, struck off a finger
and thumb to render him unfit for
his Majesty's service."

1 From jus, juris, right, law ;
Justus, just ; and judex, judicis, a
judge, we have justice, justiciary,

judicial, juridical, jury, juror,
jurisdiction, jurisprudence, jurist ;
also injury, injure, injurious treat-
ment, justify, justifiable, justifica-
tion, judge, judgment, judicial,
judicious, judicatory, judicature,
judiciary, to adjudge, adjudica-
tion, adjust, adjustment, pre-
judge, prejudicial.

OUR MORAL NATURE.

387

gradually it came to mean what we understand by being just, or
doing what is just, not only according to human law, but accord-
ing to the moral law written on our consciences. Honesty comes
through L. Tionestus, from honor,1 our " honour " ; and impartiality
from in, not, and partialis, low L. from pars.- In regard to the
rights of others, justice shows itself in such words as loyalty,
civility, politeness, urbanity, courtesy, and courtliness. Loyalty
meant originally faithful to law (F. loi, from L. legatus, pertain-
ing to the law, from L. lex, legts,2 law), and then came to signify
loyal or faithful adherence to one's country or sovereignty. Civil-
ity, which is good -breeding or politeness, comes from civisf a

1 From honor, honoris, honour,
we have the word honest, which,
like the L. honestus, in old Eng-
lish meant honourable, actuated
by principles of honour. " Pro-
vide things honest [i.e., honour-
able] in the sight of all men "
(Rom. xii. 17). In modern English
honest means fair and straight-
forward in one's dealings. We
speak of honest motives, of honest
inquiry after truth. Honesty is
the best policy. The opposite of
honesty is dishonesty. Dishonour
is disgrace and shame, the opposite
of honour. Dishonourable means
with dishonour ; unhonoured, with-
out honour. An honorary degree
is one intended to confer honour.
A honorarium is a sum paid to a
professional man in recognition of
his services.

2 From pars, partis, we have
the following words : a parcel
(from particula, a little part)
means a package or bundle. To
parse a word, to tell the part of
speech ; to partake is to have a
part or share of ; to participate is
to have a share in common with
others. We speak of the sun and
the moon being partially eclipsed ;
of participles and of participial
forms ; a particle, particular, parti-
cularly, particularise, particularity ;
a partisan, partisanship, partition,

partitive, partners, and a party.
A portion is the part allotted, as
one's portion in life, a marriage
portion. Apart means at a greater
or less distance. An apartment
is a room. To apportion is to
divide in just proportion, to mete
out suitably. A compartment is
a separate part (of space), as a
railway compartment. A depart-
ment is a division or branch of
a business. To depart is to go
away ; and death is sometimes
spoken of as a timely or untimely
departure. To impart is to give a
part or share of what is properly
one's own. Proportion is relative
measure. Things are proportion-
ate when they are harmoniously
adjusted in respect of quantity or
degree. Numbers are proportional
to others when their . comparative
relation is the same as that of the
others ; while we have dispropor-
tion and disproportionate. A
repartee is a sharp, ready, and
witty reply. A retort is more in
earnest.

3 From lex, legis, the law, we
derive legal, legitimate, illegal,
illegitimate, illegality, legitimacy,
legalise, legislate, legislators, legis-
lation, legislature,

4 From civis we have civic and
civil and citadel, civilities and in-
civilities, civilian and civilisation.

388 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

citizen, or freeman of a civitas or city, where they observed the
little courtesies in the intercourse of life. Politeness might be
supposed to be the sort of courtesy shown by those who live in a
polls •"• (Gr. for city), but there is good reason for believing that the
word comes not from the Gr. polis, but from the L. politus, past
participle of polio, to polish ; and urbanity from urbs, urbis, a
city.2

Justice in regard to the merits of others requires respect,
reverence, and veneration. Respect implies esteem for merit.
The verb means literally to look again, or to look back upon,
from L. respicio, respexi, respectum, respicere — from re, back, and
specio, to look. The word respectable literally means looking
back upon — a man whom you would look at again by turning
round, as being worthy of your regard ; which word indeed means
very much the same, for regard originally signified to look or gaze
— from the F. regarder, from re, and garder, to keep, look after, to
hold in respect and affection. Reverence is fear arising from
high respect, through F. reverer, from L. revereor, from re, in-
tensive, and vereor, veritus, vereri, to feel awe, to revere — that is, to
regard with the feelings due to what is sacred. To reverence
expresses this mental homage, and also the expression of it in an
outward way. There is more of worship in reverence, and more
of esteem in veneration, from L. veneratus, pp. of veneror. What
we venerate is not so far removed from ourselves as what we
reverence. Reverend is a title given to clergymen. "We speak

1 Polio, ivi, itum, ire, to file,
polish, make smooth. We speak
of a polished surface, and also of
polished manners. A polite man
is both civil and courteous, and
polished in his courtesies. To
interpolate meant first to patch
and polish up so as to give a new
appearance. It now means to in-
sert a word spuriously in what
was written by another. Inter-
polations were sometimes made in
ancient manuscripts by transfer-
ring marginal explanations into
the text.

2 The suburbs of a city are the

outlying parts of it, the outlying
districts around it which we call
suburban. Urban means belong-
ing to a city ; urbane, courtesy in
manners. Urbanity of manners
and demeanour makes men agree-
able to others and liked by them.
We have also courtesy and court-
liness, or court-like manners, from
the word court, used often for the
palace of the sovereign, such man-
ners as are acquired at court ; and
it also signifies the gesture of salu-
tation or respect used by women,
to make a courtesy, but generally
in this sense spelt curtsey or curtsy.

OUR MORAL NATURE.

389

of reverent behaviour, and of a reverential esteem for things
sacred.

In regard to the property of others, justice is violated by
dishonesty in its various forms of robbery, larceny, burglary, and
cheating. The word robbery comes from the OF. rober,1 to take
by force or violence, to plunder or steal ; but this word rober
comes from a Latin word of the sixth century, the verb raubare,
signifying to steal, to strip off. " Si quis in via, alterum adsalierit
et eum raubaverit," says the Lex Salica : that is, " If any one
shall assail another on the road and shall strip him." This verb,
which is of Teutonic origin (OH.Ger. roubon, mod. Ger. rauberi),
signifies to pillage, to rob. Larceny, which is the legal term in
England and Ireland for stealing, theft, comes through the F.
larcin, from L. latrocinium, signifying originally military service,
and afterwards robbery, highway robbery. This word comes from
L. latro (Gr. latris), signifying a soldier hired for money and dis-
charged at the end of the war. And as these on their return
home frequently committed robbery, the word latro came to signify
a robbery, and latrocinium, highway robbery. Burglary, which
is much more common in our day than ever it was before,
was long since described as nocturnal housebreaking with
felonious intent, and spoken of as burgi latrocimum. It comes
to us through the French from the Latin — the F. bourg, town,
from Ger. Imrg (English borough), and OF. leres, from L. latro, a
robber. Cheating, or to cheat, is a corruption of escheat,
from the OF. eschet, from escheoir (mod. F. echoir), from low L.
excadere — from ex, out, and cado, to fall or to happen. Escheat as
a noun was originally property which falls to the State for want of
an heir ; and cheat originally meant an unexpected acquisition or

1 The remarkable thing is that
from the OF. word rober, to steal or
strip off, is derived the word robe,
both French and English, a gown
or mantle, a long loose garment
worn over the dress. The medieval
L. rauba was the equivalent of the
L. spolium, which signified origin-
ally the skin of an animal drawn
or cast off, and then that which a

soldier took from a slain enemy,
especially arms, spoils ; then any-
thing taken from an enemy in
war, especially effects, equipment,
dresses ; then anything obtained by
robbery or plunder, — and so the
general word ultimately was cir-
cumbended into vestments, tunics,
robes.

390

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

windfall. It seems gradually to have sunk in the world of mean-
ing, and from an unexpected acquisition soon came to signify what
was easily acquired ; and in one sense the easiest way of acquiring
anything is by cheating.

We shall now take some of those words which imply a want of
justice, selecting a few of those which are offences against rights and
usages, such as outrage, violence beyond measure (through French
— OF. oultrage, from low L. ultragium, from L. ultra, beyond), a
gross violation of the feelings, an offensive insult or attack on the
person. We speak of an outrageous speech or an outrageous
crime. To insult is to treat with indignity or contempt, and an
insult is abuse, contumely. To insult is literally to leap or jump
on, to spring at — from L. insilio (in, on, and salio ^ to leap) : an
insult consists in words or actions of an offensive or derogatory
kind. To call a man a liar or a coward is to insult him. We
speak of insults (in triumph) over a fallen enemy, over men's
fatuity. Even in Cicero's time the L. verb insilio was used in
the figurative sense of behaving insolently towards any one, to
scoff at, to abuse or revile.

Affront is closely connected with insult : it means to insult

1 From salio, salui, sattum, salire,
to leap or spring (bearing in mind
that the compound verb is insilio,
insilui, insultum, insallre), we have
salient, springing or bounding, and
then prominent, conspicuous. We
speak of the salient traits of a
man's character, or the salient
points of an argument. To sally is
to issue suddenly, as when besieged
troops make a sally or sudden rush
from their fortified place. A
salmon (L. salmo) is, as we have
seen, literally a leaper (p. 47). To
assail is to attack energetically.
To assault is to attack in a more
offhand way. Desultory studies or
reading and desultory remarks are
rambling and unconnected. An
exile (L. exsul, now derived from
salio) is one banished from one's
native country or home. Exile
may be honourable. To exult is

to rejoice exceedingly, to be glad
above measure. A man's bosom
swells with exultation. We are
exultant at the news of a victory.
Men resile — that is, recoil or start
back — from their previous intention.
Johnson speaks of the common re-
siliency (or resilience) of the mind
from one extreme to another. Re-
sults and consequences are different
forms of effects. A cause has an
effect which is generally thought of
as immediate ; the consequences are
more remote, springing perhaps
from the immediate effect. The re-
sults include the sum of all. A
person makes a somersault (lit., an
overleap) when he throws his heels
over his head and alights again on
his feet. This word is a corruption
of the F. soubresaut, It. soprasalto,
from L. supra, over, and saltus, a
leap — of course from salio, to leap.

OUR MORAL NATURE.

391

openly, to meet front to front — through F. affronter, from L. ad, to,
and frons,1 frontis, the forehead. Impudence signifies literally
want of shame, shamelessiiess, from the impersonal verb pudet,2 it
shames. Interference is a coming into collision, an intermeddling,
literally a striking in between — through OF., from L. inter,
between, and ferio,3 to strike. In our practical use of the word,
interference is always something offensive. Impertinence is liter-
ally " not belonging to the place or person," not pertinent, and hence
impertinent — from L. in, not, and pertinent, from L. pertineo (see
p. 50), to belong to. Intrusion is an offence of a similar kind,
and means a thrusting of oneself in where one has no business
to be — from in, in, and tnido, trusi, trusum, truderef to push or
thrust.

Injustice in governing is described by such words already con-
sidered as tyrannical, despotic, and also austere — from Gr. austeros,
bitter, harsh, from auo, to dry up or parch, hence harsh or bitter,
as the effect produced in the mouth by a parched dry feeling. As
regards injustice on the part of the governed, we have treachery,
treason, sedition, insurrection, rebellion. Treachery is faithless-
ness, from the OF. trecherie (F. tricherie), from trecher (F. tricfier
— from Dutch trekken, to draw). Treason is a betraying of the

1 From frons we have the front,
frontage, frontispiece, frontier,
frontlet. To frounce (old form of
flounce) is to wrinkle, curl, or plait.
" Buff coats all frounced and broid-
ered o'er" (Scott). Ladies may
wear flounces on their frocks. To
confront is an energetic word mean-
ing to face ; men confront their
opponents ; effrontery is shameless
impudence, as when a person asks a
favour of one whom he has wronged.

- From pudet we have also re-
pudiate, to put away what others
would connect with us, to disavow
strongly. The term repudiation
was at one time employed in the
sense of divorce.

3 From ferio, ferire, to strike, we
have a ferule, a rod for punishing
children, and in ancient times for
slaves.

4 From trudo, trusi, &c., we have
abstruse, thrust away from common
or easy understanding, as abstruse
ideas. To extrude is to thrust out or
to push out. Obtrude differs from
intrude in this, that while unwel-
come and uncongenial persons or
things intrude themselves, because
though they are not wanted they
come, — self-asserting persons and
irresponsible thoughts obtrude
themselves, they come in spite of
us. Intruders are uninvited, their
coming is intrusive ; obtruders
force their way with obtrusive bold-
ness. We also speak of the ob-
trusion of crude opinions on the
world ; of intrusionists and non-
intrusionists. To protrude is to
shoot forward, to be thrust for-
ward. Motion which thrusts for-
ward is called protrusive.

392

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

government or an attempt to overthrow it — from OF. traison,
F. trahison, from trahir, from L. trado, to give up, betray (from
trans, across, and dare, to give) ; and what is handed down from
generation to generation is called tradition. Sedition, L. seditio
(from se, apart, and eo, ivi, itum, to go), is a going apart. Insur-
rection is literally a rising up against authority — from L. insurgo,
from in, upon, and surgo,1 to rise.

(3) Benevolence and its opposite. — Benevolence, which has
now come to signify beneficence, etymologically means goodwill
or wishing well — from bene, well, and volo,2 to wish ; while benefi-
cence is from bene, well, and facio, to do, and means doing well,
bountiful kindness to others and active goodness. From bene,
well, we have benediction (with dicere) and benefaction and
beneficence. A benefit is some good conferred on another, and he
who confers it is a benefactor. Early rising and exercise are
beneficial to health. Parsonages, vicarages, manses, and some
other ecclesiastical livings, are called benefices, and the clergymen
who hold them are called beneficed. Benignity is from bene, well,
and genitus, born. We generally speak of rich and powerful
people rather than of poor people as benignant ; we also speak of
the benign influence of the seasons. The opposites of benevolence
are very strongly marked, being derived from L. male, badly, or
mains, bad. A malefactor is an evil-doer — from L. male, badly,

1 From surgo, surrexi, surrectum,
surgZre (for surreglre — sub and re-
gere), we have the source of a
stream ; surges, great swelling
waves, "the surging waters like a
mountain rise." When people take
up arms or rise in rebellion against
the governing power in the country,
they are called insurgents. Re-
surrection means rising again, espe-
cially rising again from the dead.

2 From volo, volui, velle, to be
willing, and voluntas, freewill, and
voluptas, pleasure, we have several
important words. The will is the
mental power ; volition is the put-
ting forth this power in act. All
our actions not done under compul-

sion are voluntary, whatever be
their motive ; but we may do them
unwillingly — that is, we may be
averse to do them. The motion of
our heart and internal organs is
involuntary. A voluntary in re-
ligious matters is one who pro-
poses to have religious matters sup-
ported by voluntary contributions.
A volunteer is one who enters the
military service from free choice.
People are also said to volunteer
to do any work. A voluptuary or
voluptuous person is one devoted
to sensuous pleasures. Malevolent
persons, again, are ill-disposed to
others. Malevolence is less strongly
personal than malice or malignity.

OUR MORAL NATURE.

393

and facio,1 to do. Malice is badness literally, ill-will, spite, dis-
position to harm others — through French from L. malitia, from
malusy bad, originally dirty, black, from Gr. melas, black. Malig-
nity, extreme malevolence — from malign, of an evil nature or
disposition towards others.

Closely connected with benevolence is that which has so largely
usurped the name of charity, viz., alms-giving, a word which sig-
nifies relief given out of pity for the poor, and comes from the
AS. almcesse, through late L. from eleemosyne, from the Gr. eleos,

1 From facio, fed, factum, JacSre,
we have so great a multitude of
words that we can merely enumer-
ate them without giving their
special meanings. (From this verb
also we have L. facilis, easy.) A
fact is a thing which really took
place ; a faction ; a factious opposi-
tion ; factitious means not real, but
artificial ; a facsimile, an exact
copy ; a factor, a factory ; a facto-
tum, a person employed to do all
kinds of work. A faculty is a
natural power. To fashion is to
shape, mould, or arrange the form.
Fashion means the arranged make
(F. facon, L. factio, onis) ; feasible,
feasibility. A feat is an exploit,
but on a small scale. A feature is
the make of lineaments of the face.
A fetish or fetich (F. fetiche, Port.
fertico) is a name given by the
Portuguese to the roughly made
idols of Africa. A fiat means in
Latin, let it be done, and expresses
a sovereign and effective command.
Fit is either the obsolete feat, the
OF. faict, formed for, neat, or it is
a Norse word ; fitness denotes every
sort of adaptation. Affair is prop-
erly a f aire (F.), something to do.
That which affects, takes effect
upon the condition. We speak of
an affectation of contempt when it
is not really felt, and of an affected
manner which is not natural. We
listen to an affecting address, and
there are people who are disaffected.
We speak of disaffection. Fear and

hope are affections of the mind.
A comfit is a seed coated with
sugar. A confection is any prepar-
ation of fruit with sugar. A con-
fectioner makes and sells such con-
fectionery. To counterfeit is to
make a copy with intent to deceive
or cheat. We all know what is
meant by defeat, defect, deficiency,
deficit. We effect a purpose in
spite of difficulties, and we effectu-
ate our desires. A man's effects
are his personal estate, often all he
has effected during his life. We
speak of an efficient cause, of the
efficiency of an institution, and of
an effective or effectual remedy ;
also of efficacious and inefficacious.
We have infectious diseases through
infection passing through the air.
An office is any special duty or
charge, and to officiate is to perform
official duties. 'An officious person
is unduly forward. The olfactory
organs are those used in smelling ;
and we have perfect and imperfect
and pluperfect and defective, pro-
ficient and proficiency, profit and
unprofitable. A refectory is a place
for refreshments, originally in con-
vents and monasteries. To suffice
or be sufficient means to be enough
to meet a demand : a man may have
a sufficiency of friends to pay a
debt, he may wear sufficient cloth-
ing, he may be sufficiently well
read in a subject to teach it ; and
a surfeit means an excess in eating
and drinking.

394

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

compassion, whence the word eleemosynary. Charity, however,
which properly signifies love, comes from the L. caritas (F. charite),
from earns, dear (i) in the sense of high price or value, and (ii) of
great worth or value, beloved. Surprise has been expressed that
in 1 Cor. xiii. the Authorised Version should have rendered the
Greek word by charity and not by love, but about that time (1611)
there was a feeling against the use of " love " in the language
of religious feeling. On the other hand, the Eevised Version
never uses the word " charity," and in the twenty-nine cases where
it occurs in the Authorised Version, it is always rendered " love "
in the Eevised Version.

Among dispositions which are helpful to the exercise of the
benevolent affections are agreeableness, affability, and obligingness.
Agreeableness is the quality of pleasing — from F. agreer, to accept
kindly, from L. ad, to, and gratiis,1 kindly. Affable means easy
to speak to — from L. affari, from ad, to, and /or,2 fatus, fari, to

1 From grains, pleasing, or gratia,
derived from it, agreeableness, we
have grace, favour shown towards
those who have offended. We
speak of the grace of a person's
behaviour, or the gracefulness of
an orator's action. Gracious means
kind to inferiors as well as to
those who have no personal
claim, and we speak of an un-
gracious refusal. Sometimes people
prove ungrateful and show their
ingratitude. Gratitude may be too
deep for words. To gratify means
to please iu a high degree. The
well-doing of those connected with
us is a great gratification. Gratis
means for nothing. A gratuity is
a free gift ; and the blessings of
heaven are gratuitous, and so we
speak of a gratuitous assumption.
Agree expresses harmony in taste,
statement, purpose, &c. ; and agree,
agreement, agreeable, and the op-
posites disagree, disagreement, dis-
agreeable, come from gratia through
F. To congratulate (L. gratulari)
a person on any piece of good
fortune is to wish him joy. We

speak of a congratulatory letter or
address. To disgrace is to deprive
of respect or favour. Disgraceful
conduct causes a man to lose the
respect of others. We ingratiate
ourselves with a person or into his
favour when we gain his favour by
proper means : base persons insin-
uate themselves or steal into the
favour of their superiors.

2 From the verb for, fatus, fari,
to speak, and fabula, a story, we
have a fable and a fib and fabulous,
not historically true. Fate means
literally what has been spoken and
thus decreed, and hence it means
what must come to pass. An event
is fated when it is doomed to be.
It is fatal when it is actually pro-
ductive of death. We have fatalism,
fatalist, and fatality. A fairy is a
being that charms as witches do.
To confabulate is to talk familiarly
or chat together. Ineffable things
are unutterable things, incapable of
being expressed in words through
their admirable qualities. An infant
means one not speaking. Infantry
means foot-soldiers, for the general

OUR MORAL NATURE.

395

speak to. Obligingness is the disposition to oblige or to confer
favours — through French from L. obligo, obUgdtum, from ob, and
tigo,1 to bind and to oblige. It is literally to bind or constrain by
some favour rendered, but now to do a favour to one without any
thought of laying him under any obligation. The outward expres-
sion opposite to benevolence is often annoying, provoking, tantalis-
ing. To annoy, to trouble or vex, is from the F. ennuyer, It.
annoiare, from the L. in odio2 esse, to be hateful to, literally to
be in hatred (Sp. enqyo, old Venetian inodio, vexation). Another
word which is often used, but incorrectly, in almost the same sense,
is the verb to aggravate, from the L. aggravare, to make heavier, to
add to the weight (from ad, to, and gravis, heavy), as when we
speak of aggravating the offence, or when we say that injury is
aggravated by the addition of insult. An insult may be aggravated
by being offered to a man who is courteous and kindly, as it may
be palliated by being offered to a brute and a bully ; but it is a
misuse of the word to employ it in the sense of to provoke to
anger, to vex, as in such expressions as " He aggravates me by
his impudence," for he angers me, or " Her martyr-like airs were

addresses them as lads ! mes enfants.
What is nefarious is too impious to
be spoken. So preface is something
spoken by way of introduction, and
some prefatory remarks are gener-
ally made before the proper subject
is handled.

1 From ligo, avi, atum, are, to
bind or tie, we have many deriv-
atives— e.g., a league, a union, a
confederacy for mutual interest and
support. An alliance is for the
sake of harmonious action. Liable
means bound by law, or capable of
being acted on. We speak of a
bankrupt's liabilities. We have
also ligaments and ligatures. To
alloy (formerly allay = alligare) is to
mix a baser metal with a more
precious one. When we speak of
gold 18 carats fine, we mean that
in 24 parts 18 are pure gold and
6 are alloy. (Carat comes from
Arabic qirat, a small weight.)
To disoblige is to displease by

refusing to do an act of kind-
ness, or to be accommodating.
To rally is to reassemble (re-ally)
and re-form for a fresh effort.
Religion means the discharge of our
duties to God ; it also denotes any
system of religion, true or false.
We have religious duties, religious
edifices, religious sects, and relig-
ious wars.

2 From the noun odium, hatred,
we derive the English word odium,
which signifies general dislike.
Odious measures, &c., are such as
bring odium on a government. A
person's conduct may also be an
annoyance. Ennui, borrowed from
the French, means langour of mind,
listless weariness, arising from want
of occupation and want of interest
in what is going on. Noisome
means injurious to health, as
noisome effluvia and the noisome
pestilence.

396

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

very aggravating," the right word being " irritating," or " Some
speeches grated upon and aggravated him more than he could bear " :
so also with the cognate word aggrieve. To provoke is to excite to
anger, but literally and originally to call forth — hompro, forth, and
vocare, to call (p. 125) ; but as what we call forth is generally
anger, this has come to be its usual meaning, though it was not
always so. The Authorised Version of the Bible (1611) was made
at the time when the meaning of the word was just beginning to
change for the worse, and so we find it there in both senses. In one
passage (Eph. vi. 4) we read, "And, ye fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath : but bring them up in the nurture and admoni-
tion of the Lord" ; and in another passage (CoL iii. 21), "Fathers,
provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged."
" Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works " (Heb. x. 24). To tantalise is to tease or torment by placing
a desirable object just within reach but not allowing the person to
get it. The word comes from Tantalus, a mythical king of Phrygia,
who for divulging the secrets of his father, Jupiter, was condemned
to be put up to the chin in water, with choice fruits hanging above
him, all of which withdrew themselves in proportion as he attempted
to reach up to them, while the water receded as he struggled to drink.
(4) Self-control and the want of it. — This word control, signify-
ing restraint, check, or command, comes from the F. controle, from
contre-role, a duplicate register for checking the original. To
control thus means primarily to keep a duplicate or a check on
a roll, and hence it means to govern or regulate men's actions,
wills, or appetites. The word roll, or F. rouler, meant originally
to hum like a wheel, then to be formed into a roll or cylinder, and
then that which was rolled up or wound into a circular form, as
paper often was, especially a register, — thus coming through the
OF. roeller (F. rouler), from the low L. rotulare, from L. rotula,
a little wheel, and this from L. rota,1 a wheel, (i) The quali-

1 From rota, rotce, a wheel, we
have not only to roll, but to rotate,
to move round a centre. We speak
of the earth's rotation round its
axis in twenty - four hours ; of

rotatory movements and rotary
steam - engines. Rote means fre-
quent repetition without attention
to the meaning ; to know or repeat
a thing by rote is an operation of

OUR MORAL NATURE.

397

fications for self-control are decision, determination. Decision is
the settling according to one's judgment, the making up one's
mind — through F. decider, from L. decidere, from de, away, and
ccedo,1 ccesum, to cut; hence to settle a dispute in the shortest
manner by cutting away, and so settling its fate. Determination
comes from L. determine, to enclose within boundaries, and then to
end or finish — from de, and termino, from terminus? a boundary, a
limit, that which prevents it from extending farther, the boundary
line which is not to be passed, (ii) The control of the bodily appe-
tites is secured by temperance, moderation, sobriety, abstemious-
ness, and abstinence. And first of temperance. We speak of a
man being moderate in his desires, and temperate in his gratifica-
tion of them. No very good explanation can be given of how the
word came to bear this meaning. Temperantia, from which the
word temperance comes, is itself derived from tempero, to observe
due measure in a thing ; and there seems little doubt that tempero 3

mere memory, not of intelligence.
Rotund means round, but it is
applied only to solid bodies. We
speak of the rotundity of a turnip
or of the earth. A rowel (F.
rouelle) is a small wheel (a spur).
Some men's passions are allowed to
become uncontrollable, and there is
a controller of the accounts.

1 Ctedo, cecldi, ccesum, ccedere, to
cut or kill. If we remember that
in its compounds the ce becomes i,
we find the following words derived
from it : caesura, a pause in a verse,
generally when the last syllable of
a word is cut off, and metrically
connected with the next word.
From this root probably come
scissors and chisel. There is a
concise style, and we may have a
decided preference for it. There
have been decisive victories, and
there have been parricides, fratri-
cides, matricides, and suicides.
The surgeon makes an incision
when he cuts into the flesh. There
are incisive remarks and incisor
teeth. Precise has the idea of
going straight to the point ; there

is precision of thought, and pre-
ciseness often denotes an excess
of nicety.

2 From terminus, a limit or
boundary, we have a term, ter-
minate, terminology, and inter-
minable. A railway terminus is
the first or last station of a rail-
way, while conterminous means the
same bounds, bordering upon. Pre-
determination is the determining
beforehand. We speak of the de-
terminate counsel of God ; while
to exterminate is to root out or
destroy ; and we speak of the ex-
termination of error, or of weeds
from a field.

3 From tempero, avi, atum, are, to
apportion, to regulate, to qualify,
we have temper, the due mixture
of qualities ; to tamper with is to
meddle with unfairly. There may
be intemperance in eating and
drinking. A man's temperament,
as we have seen (p. 10), is his
peculiar physical or mental con-
stitution. The temperature is the
degree of heat or cold ; to attemper
is to regulate or grind in due pro-

398

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

comes from tempus,1 temporis, time, from Gr. temno, tempo, to cut,
from root tern, to cut, and so signifying a bit cut off, a portion
of time. Moderation is a word of very much the same mean-
ing : it means not excessive, literally keeping within measure
or bounds — from L. moderor, moderatus, to give or set a meas-
ure to a thing, from L. modus? a measure or standard of
a thing. Sobriety is habitual temperance. The word sober,
in L. sobi*itis, means free from drunkenness, sobrius being from
so or se, apart, and ebrius, drunk, from which we have the
words inebriety and inebriation. Abstemiousness is from L.
dbstemius, from abs, without, and temetum, wine ; while ab-
stinence signifies literally the withholding or refraining from
— F. abstenir, from L. abs, from, and teneo, to 'hold.

Lack of self- control (i) as displayed in want of energy. —
Energy itself is from Gr. energeia, from ergon, a work, and signifies
strenuous work. Energy had first the meaning of inherent ani-
mate force : it then came to mean living power, forcibly exerted
by beings possessed of will. The opposite of energy is apathy,

portion ; and we speak of particular
distempers of animals and of the
human mind.

1 From tempus, temporis, time, we
have temporal ; the temporalities
of a sacred office are the secular
possessions of it. Temporary means
lasting for a time only. To tem-
porise is to yield to circumstances.
A tempest is a violent storm, and
we speak of tempestuous weather.
Tense is the grammatical distinc-
tion of the time of an action. Con-
temporary means living or existing
at the same time. Movements are
said to be contemporaneous, or to
occur contemporaneously. What
is said or done on the spur of the
moment is said to be extempore.
We speak of an extemporary or
extemporaneous discourse ; also of
extemporising a speech — ;that is,
speaking it without preparation of
the words. The temples (L. tem-
pera) are the flat portions of the
sides of the head above the cheek-
bones.

2 From modus we have a mode,

or regular manner. A model has
the idea of a perfect pattern. A
thing is modern which belongs to
the present order (mode) of things.
Modesty is the absence of all tend-
ency to over-estimate ourselves, also
purity of behaviour. A modicum
of sense is a small quantity of it.
To modify a thing is to change its
quality slightly. In a long life a
man's opinions admit of various
modifications. Words and sounds
are modifiable. Mood means the
manner of inflecting a verb to show
how an action is presented. We
modulate the voice, and we speak
of the various modulations of
musical sounds. A mould (F.
moule, L. moduhis) is the cavity
or shape in which metals, &c., are
cast. We accommodate ourselves
to circumstances, but we prefer
when accommodation is provided
at an inn. A commodious (L.
commodus) house means a con-
venient one. To incommode is to
put to inconvenience. To remodel
is to fashion again.

OUR MORAL NATURE.

399

lethargy, laziness, listlessness, indolence, supineness. Apathy is
literally want of feeling or indifference, from Gr. a, privative,
and pathos, feeling (note, p. 139). Lethargy signifies heavy
unnatural sleepiness or sluggish indifference, through French from
L. and Gr. lethargia, drowsy forgetfulness, and so we speak of
a deep lethargy, and of lethargic indifference ; but lethargy comes
from Gr. argos (idle), and lethe, forgetfulness, from lethe, the old
form of lanthanein, to lie hid or to forget. Letlie is also the
name of one of the mythological rivers in the infernal regions, said
to cause forgetfulness of the past to all who drank of its waters.
It is of importance in using the word to remember that it consists
of two syllables, otherwise ludicrous mistakes occur, of one of
which I was a hearer. It was in the early days of the use of
chloroform, and a distinguished professor of surgery delivered a
lecture on its nature and uses. He gave an exceedingly clear and
interesting account of the method of its administration, tracing it
up to when the person inhaling it had come fairly under its influ-
ence. " The patient may now be said to have drunk of the Water
of Leith " ! The effect was irresistibly ludicrous on all who knew
that the Water of Leith had at that time a most unsavoury reputa-
tion for evil smells, and as a filthy and polluted stream, and we
certainly pitied the patient. Laziness is a slothful habit of body
and disinclination to work, from ME. lasche, from OF. lasche (F.
Idche), slack, weak, from L. lax-us,1 slack or loose. Listlessness
means having no desire or wish, from list (a word frequently in
use in writings of the seventeenth century), to have pleasure in,
to like or please, to choose, from AS. lystan, to desire, and suffix
less, which signifies free from or without — "the wind bloweth
where it listeth." Indolence, denoting a love of ease and culpable
aversion to active effort, if not from the L. indoles, the disposition,

1 From laxus, slack or loose, we
have to lease. To lease a tenement
or a farm is to let it (to let it go,
laxare) for a term of years. A leash
is a loose thing or rope for holding in
a dog. Shakespeare speaks of being
"leashed in like hounds." We
speak of lax principles and of laxity,
a laxness of discipline, also of laxa-
tive medicine. A prolix statement

is one of wearisome length. To
relax is to loosen or unbend any
physical or mental force by a
pleasant walk or by some suitable
state of occupation. Such relaxa-
tion gives relief after effort. To
release is to set free from what
binds. We speak of a release from
prison, from pain, and from an
obligation.

400

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

comes from in, not, and dolens, part, of doleo,1 to suffer from or
grieve, so that it signified literally and originally free from, pain or
trouble. Supineness, the absence of interest or indifference, signi-
fies literally lying on one's back, from L. supinus,2 from sub, under,
and this from Gr. huptios, from hupo, under.

Lack of self-control (ii) as displayed in defective will -power
and misapplied energy. — We have impulsiveness, caprice, vacilla-
tion, obsequiousness, precipitation. Impulsiveness is acting on a
sudden excitement but not continuous effort — from impello, im-
pulsum, from in, on, and pello, to drive (see note, p. 25).
Caprice seems to come from L. caper, capri, a he-goat. To caper
is to dance about in sport, to skip about (as a goat) ; and caprice
means the acting from the slightest preference of the moment, not
from fixed principles or deliberation. Capricious persons are ever
variable. Vacillation (from L. vacillare, to waver) means hesita-
tion, uncertainty. For obsequiousness see p. 150. Precipitation
means rash headlong haste, rushing headlong — from L. prce,
before, and caput,8 the head.

1 From doleo, dolui, dolitum,
dolere, to grieve, we have doleful,
meaning exciting or expressing sad-
ness. We speak of a doleful
countenance, a doleful sight, sound,
or story. Dolorous means full of
wretchedness. To condole with is
to express sympathy or to grieve
with one. Steele speaks of one
whose congratulations and con-
dolences are equally words of
course.

2 Supine is also the name given
in the Latin grammar to the verbal
form in urn and u, so called perhaps
because, though furnished with case
endings, it falls back on the verb.

3 From caput, capitis, a head,
we have cabbage, so named from
its round head (OF. cabus, from It.
capuccio, a little head). Cadet (OF.
capdet, low L. capitellum, a little
head) was a younger son, so dis-
tinguished from the eldest son, who
was or was to be the head of the
family. Cadets are the lowest

grades of commissioned officers.
The word cadet has been shortened
into cadie and then cad, a strong
word for a mean, vulgar fellow, irre-
spective of social position. A cap is
a headdress. A cape is a headland.
The capital is the head or principal
town of a country. A man's capital
is that with which he trades ; a cap-
italist has large funds for trading.
Capital punishment is death. A
town capitulates when it surrenders
on terms, the heads of the agreement
being first settled. A capitation
tax is a tax per head — i.e., payable
by every individual. Captain is
the head of a company, and in the
navy commands the ship. The
word cattle is short for capital, as
anciently cattle formed the chief
part of a man's property or capital,
and so we still speak of a man's
goods and chattels, both words
meaning the same thing : so also we
have a chapter, chief, and chieftain.
What is achieved (F. achever, to

OUR MORAL NATURE.

401

(iii) As to ill-regulated mil power, we have obstinacy, con-
tumacy, stubbornness. Obstinacy is an excess of firmness, from
L. obstino (from ob, in the way of, and sto, to stand). Contumacy
is obstinate disobedience, from L. contumacia (from contumax,
dcis, insolent, from root con and perhaps root tern in L. temno,1 to
despise). Stubbornness expresses immovable fixedness of opinion,
and means literally "fixed like a stub," a stub being the name
given to the stump left after a tree is cut down (from the AS.
styb, akin to L. stipes and Gr. stypos, a stem, a stake).

(iv) As to the appetites. — An appetite is a natural desire (L.
appetitus, from appeto — ad, to, and peto, to seek : see in p. 172).
As regards the appetite expressed by hunger, a man may be an epi-
cure, a gourmand, or a glutton. An epicure was so called from the
Gr. Epicurus, who taught that pleasure was the chief good, but now
signifies one who is devoted to the luxuries of the table, but who
is at the same time very dainty about his food. A gourmand is a
French word signifying one who eats greedily. The origin of the
word is unknown. The verb, anglicised " gormandise " as early as
the sixteenth century, signifies to indulge in the pleasures of the
table to excess, to devour greedily. A glutton is one who eats to
excess (F. glouton, from L. glutio,2 to swallow, from L. glutus, the
throat). As regards thirst, we have intoxication and inebriation.
Intoxication, which now signifies the condition of being drunk,
originally signified the state of being poisoned, and perhaps not so
much by what was taken through the mouth as by poison ingested

bring to a head) is something grand.
An achievement is the result of
heroic and painstaking effort. We
have decapitate, to behead ; the
occiput, the hind head. We have
precipice and precipitous, and to
recapitulate a subject is to go over
the heads of it, to sum up the
principal things spoken or written.
1 From temno, tempsi, temptum,
temnere, to despise or slight, we
have contemn and contemptible,
contemptuous and contempt ; con-
tumely is the contemptuous treat-
ment of another to his face, while

contumelious treatment is not con-
fined to words.

2 From ylutio or gluttio, ivi, itum,
ire, to swallow, we have the English
word to glut, signifying to fill to
excess, as in Byron, " Arise, ye
Goths, and glut your ire." We speak
of a glut of the market, meaning a
superabundant supply. A glutton-
ous person is one who gorges himself
with food. Milton speaks of " their
sumptuous gluttonies and gorgeous
feasts." Deglutition is the act or
power of swallowing.

402

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

into the body. There is no early Latin word for intoxicate, but
there is a low Latin verb intoxico, which is derived from the word
toxicum, which was taken from the Gr. toksicon, where we have to
look for its meaning, which was a name given to a poison in which
arrows were dipped. It is supposed to have been some poison of
the nature of laudanum. But the name was given to it from its
connection with arrows. The Greek word tokson signifies a bow,
and the adj. toksicos signified relating to arrows, or skilled in
archery, and we have the word toxophilist, which signifies fond of
archery. Inebriation also signifies drunkenness. It comes from
the L. ebrius, drunk ; but the in prefixed rather intensifies than
negatives the meaning of the simple word. Sober is from the L.
sobritts = soebritts, not drunk.

Pride shows a want of proper self-control as a personal quality,
as manifested in its external display and in the treatment of others.
As a personal quality we find haughtiness, arrogance, dogmatism,
and vanity, presumption, ambition. Haughtiness, from haughty,
ME. hautein, from OF. Jiautain, haut, high, from L. altus,1 high.
Arrogance, an undue assumption of importance, claiming unduly,
from arrofjo, from ad, to, and rogo,2 to ask or claim. Dogmatism is
the repulsive, overbearing, and positive assertion of opinion — from
Greek for opinion, but this from dokeo, to think (see p. 78).
Vanity is from L. vamis,3 empty. Ambition, the desire of power,

1 From L. altus, alia, altum, high,
we have an altar (L. attare), an
erection made for sacrifice ; altitude,
a more scientific word for height.
To exalt is to elevate to a dignified
or important position. Exaltation
is the opposite of humiliation.
Hauteur is a haughty tone, a
haughty and imperious temper. A
hautboy (pronounced hoboi) is a
wind instrument of music, so called
from its high tone.

2 From rogo, avi, atum, are, to
ask, we derive not merely arrogate,
to claim haughtily some pre-emin-
ence, but abrogate and abrogation,
to derogate and derogatory, inter-
rogate and interrogatory The pre-
rogative : one of the king's prerog-
atives is to prorogue Parliament —

that is, to adjourn it to another
session. Prorogation means literal-
ly asking forward. Supererogation
means properly the paying out of
the Treasury more than has been
asked for and obtained from the
people. Works of supererogation
mean the performance of more
duties than are supposed necessary
for salvation, more than there is a
moral necessity laid on us to do.

3 From vanus, o, um, we have
vain itself and vanity. To vaunt
one's wealth is to bring it promin-
ently forward. The pleasures and
joys of life are evanescent. They
vanish away like a vapour. Hence
Horace Smith calls a mummy or
embalmed man "an imperishable
type of the evanescent."

OUR MORAL NATURE.

403

honour, fame, from the L. ambitio, the going about, the canvassing
for votes practised by the candidates for offices in Rome, — from
L. anibi, about, and eo, Hum, to go. Presumption is the act of
presuming, a confidence grounded on something not proved ; forward
conduct, literally a taking beforehand, acting forwardly (through
the OF. from L. prcesumptio), presumptuous, from L. prcesumo (prce,
before, and sumo,1 to take). Pride (AS. pryte) as manifested in
its external display in ostentation, parade, bombast, pedantry.
Ostentation is the act of making a display (always an ambitious
display), through F. from L. ostendo, to show or to spread out, to
stretch out. Ostensible means that which is held out without the
appearance of reality, and a liberal subscription is often an osten-
tatious display of generosity. To display is to unfold or spread
out, — OF. desployer, from des ( = L. dis), negative, and ployer, the
same as plier, from L. ptico, to fold. Parade is literally a prep-
aration for exhibition (F., from Sp. parada, from parar, to halt, from
L. paro,2 paratum, to prepare). It is first a place for the exercise

1 From sumo, sumpsi, sumptum,
sumere, to take up (for subemere), and
sumptum, cost, expense, we have
a sumpter horse or mule, one which
carries baggage. Sumptuary laws
are laws made to restrain excessively
expensive dress, food, or style. A
sumptuous house, a sumptuous
feast, and sumptuous apparel are
expensive and magnificent. To
assume is literally to take to one's
self. An assumption of authority
may be with or without right. To
consume is to use up, so as to do
away with the article. Those who
use the goods in the market are
called consumers. We have con-
sumptive and consumption. To
presume is to suppose something to
be true which has not yet been cer-
tainly proved. A presumption may
be a mere guess, or very probable, or
a moral certainty, but our presump-
tive evidence is derived from cir-
cumstances which usually or neces-
sarily attend facts. Man may sin
ignorantly or even presumptuously.
To resume is to take back again, or
to take up again. We speak of the

resumption of a grant, of reason
resuming her place, of resuming a
discourse or an argument.

2 From paro, avi, atum, are, to
make ready, to prepare, we have a
parachute, which is for par-d-cJmte,
that which prepares against a fall
(chute). It is an umbrella-like ap-
paratus to enable balloonists to drop
without injury. A parapet, literally
guarding the breast. A parasol, a
small umbrella used by ladies to
keep off the sun's heat. To pare
(F. parer) an apple is to shave off its
outer surface or rind. To parry a
blow or a thrust is to ward it off.
We have apparatus, compare, com-
parison, comparative, compara-
tively. We prepare land for a crop,
we make preparations for war, and
we adopt preparatory measures.
Rampart comes from re, em for in,
and par are. We have repair and
reparation ; separate, separation,
separable, inseparable ; and sep-
arate comes through the F. sever.
Several indicates more than two,
but not very many.

404

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

of troops, and then such a military display. A man may make a
parade or an ostentatious show of his possessions, his learning, or
any dignity. Bombast, which signifies inflated or high-sounding
language, is said to have meant originally cotton or any soft ma-
terial used for stuffing garments, and to have been derived from
bombaz, the low Latin for cotton, from the Gr. bombyx, silk ; so
Prince Hal calls Falstaff, " My sweet creature of bombast" Its
application to an inflated style is an obvious jest, and is first found
in Nashe (1589), "the swelling bombast of a bragging blank
verse." It is not likely to be much older than his time.1 Pedantry
is the vain, useless, and unseasonable ostentation of learning — F.,
from It. pedante, probably formed from Gr. paideuo, to instruct,
from paideia, instruction, from paisf paidos, a boy.

1 Fustian, in a similar sense, is of
about the same age, and is a similarly
jocose application of the name of the
coarse stuff so called. Fustian is a
kind of coarse tinted cotton cloth.
The word comes to us through the
OF. fustaine, F. futaine, from It.
fustaigno, from low L. fustaneum,
from Fostat or Flestat, a suburb of
Cairo, or another name for Cairo in
Egypt, where it was first made. So
the Greeks used lekuthos, originally
" an oil jar " (swelling in the body),
for a bombastic style, whence they
formed a verb lekuthidzo, to write
fustian or to speak in pompous
terms. Horace translated the former
by the Latin ampulla (and coined a
verb ampullor to correspond, signi-
fying to speak in a high or inflated
style), which signified properly an
oblong earthen jar with a large
belly, but as used by him signifying
anything blown or puffed up. In
his " Ars Poetica," line 97, he says,
"Profecit ampullas et sesquipedalia
verba." " Sesquipedalis " properly
signifies a foot and a half long, but
Horace uses the plural here to ex-
press long words ; and in this line
"ampullas " signifies bombast, high-
flown stuff and rodomontade, and
"sesquipedalia verba," words of in-
terminable length and little meaning.

2 From pais and paideia we have
pedagogue (from agogos, a guide,
and ago, I lead), signifying origin-
ally one who led the boys to school,
rather than a schoolmaster in the
first instance, as in the New Testa-
ment. The law was our school-
master to bring us to Christ. The
Greek word used is pedagogos, the
person who leads the boy to school.
Afterwards it came to signify a
schoolmaster, or one who, by exer-
cising this office, had acquired a stiff
and pedantic manner. Such a word
as pedagogue conveys little or no
idea to the ordinary mind. I had
been lecturing on the use and mis-
use of words in the Chambers In-
stitute at Peebles, and meeting a
gentleman on my return the follow-
ing afternoon, he asked me if I had
remained at the hotel all night. I
said, "No; I had accepted an invit-
ation from a gentleman who lived at
St Mary's Mount to spend the night
with him." " St Mary's Mount,"
he said ; "I think I know it. Is it
not that house on the hillside with
something like a Chinese pedagogue
on the top of it ? " I think pagoda
was the word intended. By peda-
gogic or pedagogics we mean the
principles or rules which ought to
guide the schoolmaster in instruct-

OUR MORAL NATURE.

405

In our treatment of others pride is shown by superciliousness,
scorn, and disdain. Superciliousness comes from L. supercilium,
an eyebrow (from L. super, above, and cilium, an eyelid) ; and so
supercilious means contemptuous, from the habit of contracting
the eyebrows (supercilia) haughtily. To scorn is to hold in
extreme contempt, to disdain, or to deride — from OF. escorner,
It. scornar, lit. to take the horns off, to humble, to insult,
from L. excornis, hornless, from ex, without, and cornua,
horns.

Disdain is to think any one unworthy, to treat as unworthy —
from OF. desdaigner, from L. dedignor, from de, privative, and
dignus,1 worthy.

Envy is seen in jealousy and suspicion. Envy is to look with
a grudging eye — F. envie, from L. invidia, from in, on, and video,
to look (see p. 123); it is the ill-will caused by seeing another's
greatness and success. Jealous is etymologically the same root
as zealous (Gr. zelos, emulous, or eager desire or ardour, from
zeein, to boil). Jealousy is painful suspicion that preference is,
or will be, given to another. I am jealous of another when I
am painfully apprehensive that he occupies, or will come to
occupy, some place in another's affections, or will receive some
advantage that I very much desire for myself. Suspicion,
or the act of suspecting, comes from the L. suspicio, to look
at secretly, from sub, beneath, and specio, to look at (see
p. 16).

(v) As to the passions —

(1) Generally such as wrath, choler, rage, resentment, vehemence,
violence, and fierceness. Wrath, a violent anger, is in AS. wrcedh,
lit. a twist in the temper, just as wroth, wrathful, from AS.
wradh, which originally signified twisted. Choler, a word seldom
used now, signifies the bile, and the choleric temper which was

ing and disciplining the young. A
cyclopaedia, or an encyclopaedia, is
a work containing, usually in alpha-
betical order, the entire circle of the
sciences, or the entire range of our
knowledge of any department of

them. We speak of a man's learn-
ing as being encyclopaedic or cyclo-
paedic.

1 From digmis, worthy, we have
to deign, dignify, dignity, dignitary,
indignity, indignation, indignant.

406

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

supposed to proceed from the bile. The Gr. word cholera comes
from Gr. chole, the bile. Rage, which signifies violent excite-
ment, through F. rage, Sp. rabia, from L. rabies, from rabo, to
rave, akin to Sanskrit rabh, to be agitated or enraged. Resent-
ment meant originally to take either well or ill. In older
English we read of a "grateful resentment"; but as people
more frequently took things ill than weD, resentment has come
now to signify, almost exclusively, displeasure. The word comes
through the F. from L. re, in return, and sentio, to feel or
perceive. Vehement, signifying furious, comes through F. from
L. vehemens,1 which is frequently said to be composed of ve, out
of, and mens, the mind.

(2) As displayed in words chiefly — such as sarcasm, satire,
irony, invective, and Billingsgate. Sarcasm, from L. sarcastmis
and Gr. sarkasmos, from sarkazo, to tear flesh like dogs, to
speak bitterly, comes from Gr. sarks, sarkos, flesh : it means
bitter personal satire. Satire (through F. from L. satira), or
satura (lanx, a dish, understood), originally a dish full of all
kinds of fruit, then a medley, then a dramatic piece in which
dancing and music and words were intermingled, afterwards satire
in its present sense of severity of remark or ridicule, — from L.
satur, full, from satis, enough (see p. 32). Irony is a mode of
speech conveying in words the very opposite meaning of what
is really intended. The word comes through F. from L. ironla
and Gr. eironeia, dissimulation, from eiron, a dissembler, from
eiro, to talk. Billingsgate is foul abusive language like that
spoken in Billingsgate, the great fish - market in London.
Invective is a violent accusation brought against one, a violent
attack with words — from inveigh, lit. to carry or bring against,
from L. inveho, invectum, from in, and veho, to carry.

1 The derivation above is very
unsatisfactory. It is true that the
prefix ve, with long e, has the
force sometimes of amplification,
and sometimes of diminution, as
in the case of sanus, sane, vesanus,

insane ; but with short £ it never
has that effect, and the v& in
vehemens is not long, but short,
so that we adhere to our orig-
inal etymology from v&ho, as in
p. 91.

OUR MORAL NATURE.

407

(3) As displayed in disputes chiefly — such as misunderstand-
ing, dissension, altercation, squabbling, wrangling, quarrelsome-
ness, bantering. A misunderstanding is really another name
for understanding wrongly, and has now come to be another
name for a quarrel, which often originates in a misunderstand-
ing. Dissension — lit. a thinking differently — means a disagree-
ment in opinion, hence discord or strife, from L. dissentio — dis,
apart from, and sentio, to think. Altercation, from L. altercor, catus,
to bandy words from one to the other (alter). The word bandy
itself is properly a club bent at the end for striking a ball, and
the verb " to bandy " means to beat to and fro as with a bandy,
to toss from one to another (as words), like playing at bandy ;
past part, bandied (F. bander, to bend, and Ger. band, a tie,
string); so also bandy-legged — i.e., having bandy or crooked
legs. Squabbling is akin to low Ger. Tcabbeln, to quarrel, and
Prov. Ger. schwabbeln, to jabber. Wrangling is the making of
a disturbance, an angry dispute, a frequentative from the past tense
of wring, to twist. Quarrelsomeness is the disposition to quarrel.
In ME. a quarrel was querele, from F. querelle, from L. querela,
from quwar, to complain. Brawling is a noisy quarrel, from
Welsh bragal, to vociferate, and supposed to be a frequentative
of brag, a root found in all the Celtic languages.

(4) When accompanied with ill -humour and bitterness — as
irritation, exasperation, mortification, chagrin. Irritation, from
L. irrito, atum, probably and generally said to come from L. irrio,
to snarl (as a dog). I can find no trace of this verb irrio, and
prefer deriving the word from the L. noun ira,1 anger, as irrita-
tion itself means the exciting or making angry. Exasperation,
from exasperate, to make very rough or angry, to irritate in a high
degree — from L. ex, intensive, and aspero, to make rough, from

1 From ira, anger, we have the
English ire, a poetical word express-
ing unreasoning explosive anger or
wrath. We read of an irate re-
monstrance, of irascibility of tem-
per, and we meet with men who

are both irascible and irritable.
Medical men apply certain sub-
stances as counter-irritants, to bring
the irritation or inflammation to
the outside.

408

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

asper, rough. Mortification (from mortify, lit. to make dead,
through F. from L. mortifico, lit. to cause death to, from more,1
death, and facio, to make) is a word used primarily in the sense
of destroying the vital functions or to lose vitality, and came
afterwards to signify to vex, to humble, to inflict vexation.

(5) As displayed outwardly in complaining, fretfulness, pet-
ulance, vituperation, scurrility, insolence. Complaining is an
expression of pain, a sense of injury (F. complaindre, low L.
complangere, from com, intensive, and plangere,2 to bewail.
Fretfulness is literally the wearing away by rubbing, and then
came to signify irritation, ill-humour; the AS. word is fretan,
to gnaw, from for, intensive prefix, and etan, to eat. Vituperation
is verbal abuse, or the act of finding fault with abusively (L.
vitupero, avi, atum, are, from vitium,5 a fault, and paro,* to
prepare or set about). Censure is an unfavourable judgment,
blame, or reproof — from L. censura, an opinion, a severe judgment,
from censeo,5 to estimate or judge. Insolence, lit. "what is
unusual," through F. from L. insolens, from in, not, and solens,

1 From mors, mortis, death, we
have such words as mortal, subject
to death, and mortality, immortal,
and immortality ; to mortgage
(gage, a pledge) is to pledge prop-
erty or lands in security for debts :
lands are thus said to be held in
mortgage ; the mortgagee is the
person to whom they are granted
in pledge. Mortmain, lit. " the
dead hand," is the transfer of prop-
erty to the Church or to any cor-
poration, which is said to be a dead
hand, or one that can never part
with it again. Mortification also is
used in Scotland to denote a be-
quest made to some institution.
The word murrain, signifying an
infectious and fatal disease among
cattle, comes through the OF.
marine, a dead carcass, through
morior, to die, from mors, death.

2 From plango, planxi, planctum,
plangere, to strike noisily, to beat
the breast, to bewail, and plaga, a
stroke, we have a plague, (1) a

severe trouble, (2) or a pestilential
disease. A plaint is an expression
of sorrow (as of beating the breast),
or a representation of wrong done
(complaint). We speak of a plain-
tive song or melody. The plaintiff
is the person who brings an action
at law.

3 From vitium, a fault or blemish,
we have vice, moral depravity ; with
vice, an evil habit. Vicious is the
opposite of virtuous. We have also
viciousness. To vitiate is to taint
or spoil, to make faulty or cause to
fail in its effect. We speak of the
vitiation of taste or moral tone.

4 Pa.ro, see p. 403.

6 From censeo, ui, um, ere, to give
an opinion, an estimate, we have
the word censor, a Roman officer
who estimated the property of citi-
zens with a view to taxing ; also
the title of a man who used to ex-
amine books or transcripts before
they were allowed to be printed,
and so we speak of the censorship

OUR MORAL NATURE.

409

pres. part, of soleo,1 to be accustomed to. It meant originally
conduct contrary to the established rule and custom of society.
It now means a rude incivility or studied disrespect.

(6) When accompanied with fierceness we have such words as
barbarian, rascal, ruffian, blackguard.2 Barbarian (see p. 215)
(through L. barbarus, from Gr. barbaros, from bar, bar, an imita-
tion of unintelligible sounds), applied by the Greeks, and after-
wards by the Romans, to those speaking a different language
from themselves. The word soon came to signify a cruel, brutal
man, little better than an uncivilised man or savage. Wanton
cruelty to men or animals is called barbarous treatment or
barbarity, being characteristic of men in a wild state. Rascal,3
a tricky dishonest fellow, a knave, a rogue — lit. the scrapings
or refuse of anything : F. racaille, the scum of the people, from
raceler, OF. rascler, to scrape, through a supposed L. form,
rasiculare, from rasus, scraped. Ruffian, a brutal, boisterous
fellow, almost a robber and murderer : F. rufien, It. rufiano,
from a root ruf, seen in Prov. Ger. ruffer and ruffeln, to
pander. (A roug7i-ian 1)

of the press. The census was the
report made at Rome every five
years of the censor ; in this country
the census, or enumeration of the
inhabitants, is made every ten
years.

1 From the verb soleo we have
also the word obsolete, a word or
custom that has gone out of use.

2 Blackguard, see p. 214.

3 The Gr. rokos, a word of the
same meaning, would suit well if
it were necessary to have recourse
to the Greek ; and indeed Littr6
approves of the etymology from
raca, an opprobrious Syrian word
used in the Jfew Testament in
Matt. v. 22.

410

CHAPTER XXX.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

MAN has not merely a bodily nature like the lower animals, a
mental nature, and a moral nature conscious of an immutable
distinction between right and wrong apart altogether from their
consequences, but he has also a spiritual nature with a spiritual
faculty, through which he becomes capable of knowing God, and
conscious of his responsibility to Him. The lower animals have
no such faculty. Man is the god of the animal ; and the lower
animals do this or avoid that, not because the one is right and the
other is wrong, but because they have learned that this will please
and that will displease their master, and that according to his
pleasure or displeasure with them will be their happiness or misery.
There are a great variety of opinions and beliefs regarding the
divine existence and the divine nature, some even going so far as
to avow themselves Atheists.

Atheism is composed of the Gr. a (privative), not or without,
and tJieos,1 God, and thus signifying without God, or atheism. An

1 From theos, God, we derive a
great many words, such as a theist,
who believes in a personal God.
Theism is the opposite of atheism.
The theistic principle is the first
principle of the Christian faith.
Pantheism is the doctrine that all
(pan) the universe — man included
— is God, or simply modes or mani-
festations of God ; that the entire
forces, good and evil, and the laws
which regulate them, are evolutions
of the divine soul of nature. A
polytheist (Gr. polloi, many) believes

in many gods. The name of pagan,
an idolater, one who worships false
gods, comes through the L. paganus
(L. pagus, a village), a villager.
Before the introduction of Christi-
anity these words were used to dis-
tinguish the dwellers in hamlets and
villages from the inhabitants of
towns and cities. After the Gospel
began to be preached in the Roman
Empire, it was first received in the
towns and cities — the seats and
centres of intelligence — while in the
hamlets and villages of the country

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

411

agnostic is a name invented by Prof. Huxley some forty years
ago, and means one who does not know (Gr. agnostos, from a (priv.),
and gnosis, knowledge — see p. 20), one who knows nothing of the
existence or nature of God or of any kindred subject. There may
be a God, for anything that agnosticism can say to the contrary.
It simply asserts that, from the nature of our faculties, we cannot
even hope to know whether there be a God or not. It is said that
Dr Blomfield, Bishop of London, while yet a rector of a country
parish, was anxious to preach extempore, and resolved to make the
attempt with the text, " The fool hath said in his heart, There is
no God." Wishing to know at the close of the service how he
had succeeded in this unwonted attempt, he overtook a rustic
member before he left the churchyard. Addressing him at once,
he put the question how he had liked the sermon, in answer to
which he received the answer, " Very well, sir ; but notwithstand-
ing all that you have said, I still think there be a God." The
' New English Dictionary,' in the first volume in 1886, adds
that the word was " suggested by Prof. Huxley at a party held
previous to the now defunct Metaphysical Society at Mr James

the old heathen superstition and
idolatry long continued to retain
their hold of the people ; so that the
name of pagans or villagers came to
be applied to the worshippers of the
ancient gods. The same explana-
tion accounts for the name heathen
being similarly employed. It comes
from AS. hcethen, heathen (from
hceth, a heath), literally one who
lived on the heaths and moors, and
not in a walled town, where idolatry
was no longer prevalent. We have
also theocracy, a government im-
mediately directed by God ; and we
speak of the theocratic state of the
Israelites. Theology proper is the
science which treats of God, of His
character, being, and attributes ;
and theological treatises contain not
only the doctrine about God, but
they inquire into the nature of
man, the duties he owes to God
and his fellow- men, the organisa-

tion of the Church, the future life,
&c. A man skilled in natural,
moral, practical, exegetical, and
systematic theology is called a
theologian. That branch of heathen
theology which treats of the nature
and generation of the gods is called
theogony (from Gr. gone, race or
progeny). A theophany (from phai-
nomai, I appear) is a manifestation
of God to man by actual appearance.
An enthusiast is influenced by as
great a fervour of mind in favour of
some cause or subject as if he were
inspired by a deity : this is true
enthusiasm. A pantheon is a build-
ing dedicated to all the gods, especi-
ally the buildings in Rome now
dedicated to the Virgin Mary and
all saints. A monotheist (Gr. monos,
one) is one who believes in the ex-
istence of only one God — the living
and true God.

412 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

Knowles's house on Clapham Common, one evening in 1869, in
my hearing. He took it from St Paul's mention of the altar to
'the unknown God.'"— R H. Button, in letter, 13th March 1881.
Since this letter appeared in print Prof. Huxley has himself given
the history of the word in ' The Nineteenth Century ' (of which
Mr Knowles was editor) for February 1889. "When I reached
intellectual maturity and began to ask myself whether I was an
atheist, altruist, or a pantheist, a materialist or an idealist, a
Christian or a freethinker, I found that the more I learned and
reflected, the less ready was the answer, until at last I came to the
conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these
denominations except the last. The one thing in which the most
of these good people agreed was the one thing in which I differed
from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain
gnosis, had more or less successfully solved the problem of exist-
ence, while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong
conviction that the problem was insoluble. . . . This was my
situation when I had the good fortune to find a place among the
members of that remarkable confraternity of antagonists, long since
deceased, but a green and pious memory — the Metaphysical Society.
Every variety of philosophical and theological opinion was repre-
sented there, and expressed itself with entire openness. Most of
my colleagues were ists of one sort or another, and however kind
and friendly they might be, I, the man without a rag of a label
to cover himself with, could not fail to have some of the uneasy
feelings which must have beset the historical fox when, after leav-
ing the trap in which his tail remained, he presented himself to
normally elongated companions. So I took thought, and invented
what I conceived to be the appropriate title of ' agnostic.' It came
into my head as suggestively antithetic to the gnostic of Church
history, who professed to know so much about the very things
of which I was ignorant, and I took the earliest opportunity of
parading it in our Society, to show that I too had a tail
like the other foxes. To my great satisfaction the term took ;
and when ' The Spectator ' had stood godfather to it, any sus-
picion in the minds of respectable people that a knowledge of

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

413

its parentage might have awakened was of course completely
lulled."

A materialist is also an atheist, inasmuch as he denies the
independent existence of spirit, and maintains that there is "but
one substance — viz., matter. There are various arguments in proof
of the divine existence, which go by different names : there are
specially two, called from the Latin the a priori and the a posteriori
arguments. The a priori argument is so called from being an
argument proceeding downward from causes to effects, or from
general and necessary principles to some particular consequence
necessarily resulting from them ; while the a posteriori argument
proceeds in the contrary direction, from effects backward and up-
ward to their cause, or from certain particular consequences to the
general and necessary principles from which they result — literally,
from the former and from the latter. The cosmological argument,
so called, proceeds after the a posteriori fashion, and deduces the
necessary existence of a first self-existent cause from the fact that
the world certainly exists, and is evidently an effect. The word
" cosmological," from cosmology, the science of the universe, is
from the Greek word cosmos,1 the world, as an orderly systematic
whole, opposed to chaos, disorder or confusion. Another form of
argument is called the teleological, or that argument which, from
the evidences of design in creation, seeks to establish the fact that
the great self-existent first cause of things is an intelligent and
voluntary personal spirit. The word comes from Gr. teleo, I
accomplish or end, or telos, an end, and logos, a discourse ; and so
teleology comes to be the doctrine of final causes — that is, the
science of the ends or purposes for which those exhibiting marks of
intelligence were created or caused to be what they are. The Latin

1 From the Gr. word Jcosmos, order,
ornament, also the world or uni-
verse, we have the words cosmic
and cosmical, which refer to the
universe or to the laws which regu-
late it. Cosmogony means either
the origin and formation of the
world or the doctrine or science
which treats of this formation.

Cosmography is a description of the
mundane system generally. A cos-
metic is an external application that
tends to beautify. A microcosm
(Gr. mikros, small) is a small world,
a world in miniature. In contrast
to this the great world or universe
is called the macrocosm (from Gr.
makros, large).

414

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

word for God is Deus,1 also Divus, God or Deity. A deist believes
in God, but not in the Christian revelation ; deism is thus inter-
mediate between theism and atheism. A theist holds, both from the
reason of the case and from universal experience, that a supernatural
revelation is absolutely necessary to make certain, by additional evi-
dences, the conclusions of reason, and to complete, and render
practically adequate, the knowledge of God which reason other-
wise has reached. A divine revelation is thus a clearer
manifestation of God and His ways to men — from L. re, back,
and velum,2 a sail, or veil ; lit. to unveil, to draw back the veiL
What Christians accept as a divine revelation they call the Bible,
the Scriptures, the Old and New Testament, the Word of God.
It is called the Bible — lit. the Book — from Gr. biblion (p. 244) ;
the Scriptures (from scribere, to write), because holy men wrote as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost ; and the Old and New
Testaments, or Old and New Covenants, — a covenant being from
the OF. covenant, twelfth to fifteenth century, from convenant —
viz., pres. part, of convenir, to agree, from con, together, and venire,3

1 From Deus we have deuce, or
possibly from Zeus, Jupiter. Divine
means relating to God. A divinity
is a deity. A divinity student is a
student of theology.

2 From velum, a sail (originally
connected with veho, to carry), we
have also a veil or vail, a curtain.
To take the veil is to become a nun.
We speak of unveiling one's face or
a statue, or of revealing or making
known what was formerly unknown
or mysterious.

3 From venio, veni, ventum, vtnire,
to come, we have to venture, adven-
ture, adventurous. Advent means
coming or arrival. Adventitious
means foreign to, not properly be-
longing to, casually acquired, not
essentially inherited. An avenue is
a long opening or passage by which
we approach or enter ; so circum-
vent, contravene, convene, convener,
convenient, and inconvenient. A
convent is an association or com-
munity of monks or nuns. A con-

ventual church is one attached to a
convent. A conventicle is a small
gathering for religious purposes.
Convention means first a coming
or meeting together, and then the
meeting itself. What is conven-
tional is sanctioned by general con-
currence, which is used out of
custom or special agreement. Event
means (1) that which comes or falls
out, any occurrence or springing
out of a previous state of things ;
and (2) the issue of consequences.
A scheme may not succeed at first,
but it may eventually, and be an
eventual success. To intervene
means literally to come between :
the moon is obscured by the inter-
vention of clouds. To invent is to
contrive or find out a mode of doing
a thing, as in the invention of gun-
powder. Those who are ready or
skilled in devising means are in-
ventive, or are said to have an
inventive head. An inventory gives
a true description, with the value

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

415

to come. The books that make up the Old and New Testaments
•were first called canonical by Origen. The canon of Holy Scrip-
ture is the entire Word of God, consisting of all the books which
the holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of
God, constituting one complete and only rule of faith and practice ;
for the Gr. word Tcanon, from which it comes, connected also with
kanne, L. canna, a reed, signifies a straight rod, a rule line used
by builders. When we speak of the inspiration of Scripture, we
mean that God so guided the sacred writers in all they wrote
that what they wrote was infallibly true, and to the very purpose
for which God designed it, yet left them free to exercise their
natural faculties, and to use material drawn from different sources,
both natural and supernatural. The word " inspiration " comes
from in, into, and spiro,1 to breathe, signifying literally to draw
breath into the lungs, but figuratively to communicate divine or
other influence, as if this were the breathing of another nature.
Inspiration is said to be plenary when it is full or complete. It
comes from the L. verb pleo* plevi, pletum, plere, to fill ; and so

of certain goods and chattels. We
speak of a misadventure, and we
say peradventure. To prevent
meant in OE. (1) to go or come
before, and (2) to do before or to
duplicate. Prevention is better
than cure. Revenue means annual
rents or income. A souvenir is a
remembrance, a keepsake ; and to
supervene is to come or take place
after.

1 From spiro, avi, at um, are, to
breathe, and spiritus, breath, we
have many words, such as the
spirit, which is the higher nature
of man. God is a Spirit. We
speak of spiritual gifts, of spirit-
ualising a text, of spiritualism,
the belief in spirits distinct from
matter, of spirituality of mind.
We speak also of a spirited an-
swer, of spirituous liquors. Sprite,
spright, is an old word for spirit,
whence we have the word sprightly.
We aspire after immortality. We
speak of aspirations after virtue or

renown. We have also a conspiracy
and conspirators, and we can dis-
pirit, or depress the spirit. To
expire is literally to give breath
from the lungs, also to breathe one's
last. We also perspire, and there
is perspiration. To respire is to
breathe, and the lungs are respir-
atory organs. Respiration is the
act of breathing, and a respirator
is a covering for the mouth, to
warm the air which enters the
lungs. A story is said to transpire
when it oozes somewhere out of
secrecy and becomes known.

1 From pleo, to fill, we have to
complete, to fill up, to finish ; to
deplete, where de has a privative
power, and makes the word signify
to unfill — i.e., to empty; to imple-
ment is to fulfil — i.e., to fill full.
An implement is a tool or utensil,
considered as supplying the requis-
ite means. To replenish is to fill
again after having been emptied.
Replete means completely full, and

416

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the Eomish Church speaks of a plenary indulgence, and we speak
of plenipotentiaries, those invested with full powers. The name
given to the five books of Moses is the Pentateuch, from the two
Gr. words pente, five, and teuchos, a tool (later a book), from teucho,
to make or produce, and means the five (pente) books (works) of
Moses. The Apocrypha means books of doubtful authority — books
often bound up with the Scriptures and admitted to be valuable,
but not generally admitted to be inspired in the same way as the
regular or canonical books. The word comes from the Gr. krypto,1 1
hide, apocrypto, I hide away, and signifies literally " things hidden."
The word apocryphal in common use signifies what is at the least
doubtful or uncertain — an apocryphal story. The Greek MSS. of
the New Testament are divided into two classes, according to the
characters in which they are written. Some are written entirely
in large round capital letters, and are called uncials, lit. " an inch
long," from L. uncia, a twelfth part, an inch. Others are written
in smaller letters and a running hand, and are called on that
account cursives, from eurro, to run (see p. 100). Uncials are as
a class older than cursives. No uncial is later than the eleventh
century, and no cursive earlier than the ninth. Protestants differ
from the Romish Church with reference to the only infallible rules
of faith and practice. Protestants — and had the word the accent
on the second syllable the reason of the name would be more
clearly seen — are those who protest against the new doctrines of
the Church of Eome, especially against the sale of indulgences,
which became at last so flagrant an abuse that it produced the
Eeformation. The Church of Eome claimed the power of granting
remission of the penalty due to sin for a certain time, either on earth
or in purgatory. The superfluous merits of the saints departed,
or those arising from good deeds supposed to have been performed

we should not eat to repletion. A
supplement is something added at
the end to supply something lack-
ing, and to supply is to furnish
what is wanted.

1 From krypto we have the word
apocryphal, employed not only in
the sense given above, but also to

any story which is rather more than
doubtful. From this verb, too,
comes the word crypt, a subter-
ranean cell or cave, especially a
vault under a church used for monu-
mental purposes, and sometimes for
a chapel.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE. 41 7

by them beyond what was necessary for their own salvation,
are assumed to be deposited in a kind of bank, in conjunction
with the merits and satisfaction of our Saviour. Of this treasury
the Bishop of Rome keeps the key, and over it he has unlimited
authority. He is thought to enjoy the privilege of drawing upon
this fund at pleasure, and to be at liberty to make a grant to
supply the deficiencies of true believers. The word indulgence
itself (L. indulgentia), from L. indulgeo, to be courteous, to pamper,
to fondle (in, in or on, and dulcis, sweet), signifies in general to
grant as a favour ; and to be indulgent is to be ready to do this.
A child, for instance, is said to have been too much indulged when
its every wish has not only been gratified but anticipated, and we
speak of the child as petted — that is, over-indulged. This word
pet is generally derived from Gael, peata and Ir. peat, a pet,
meaning a dear little one, a fondling, but it seems to come more
naturally through the F. adj. petit, small, from the L. petitus,
sought after, or the desired one. And so from the F. petit, when
the leading idea is that of smallness, we have that of insignificance,
as in petty, or in the sense of " taking the pet," or " being in a
pet," where the idea is that of acting like a petted or spoiled child ;
and pettish is synonymous with peevish. Protestants regard the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the all-sufficient
and only rule of faith and practice, while the Romish theory is
that the complete rule of faith and practice consists of Scripture
and tradition, or the oral teaching of Christ, and His apostles
handed down by the Church. Tradition comes from trado,
tradidi, traditum, tradere (from trans, across, and dare, to give).
What is handed down from generation to generation is called
tradition, but we generally mean what comes orally and unwritten.
We have already said that monotheists are those who believe
in one God ; but they at the same time believe that there are
three persons in the Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost. They are on that account called Trinitarians,
because they believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, from the
L. word trinitas, derived from the adjective trinus (from ires,
three), "threefold," or "three in one," and it thus exactly ex-

418 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

presses the divine mystery of three persons in the unity of one
Godhead, — implying that God is one; that Jesus of Nazareth as
to His divine nature was truly God, yet a distinct person from
the Father ; and that the Holy Spirit is truly God, yet a distinct
person. There are those who call themselves Unitarians, and
who maintain that in according to them this title we virtually
acknowledge ourselves to be tritheists, as if we were not also
believers in one only living and true God. Unitarianism maintains
that Jesus Christ is a mere creature, possessing either a super-
angelical nature or simple humanity, and ascribes divinity to God
the Father only (from L. unitas, unity, from unus, one). Unitarians
are frequently called Socinians, from Socinus, who lived in the six-
teenth century, and denied the doctrine of the Trinity and the Deity
of Christ. The Arians, so called from Arius of Alexandria, who
lived in the fourth century, held that Christ was called the Son of
God only because he was created by God more in His own likeness
than any other creature was, and first in the order of time.
Sabellianism was the name given to that attempt which was made
to reconcile with the unity of the Godhead what Christians had
learnt to call the Trinity, by Sabellius in the third century, who
held that God is one person, who, at His pleasure, presents to
mortals the different aspects of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
According to this system, in respect of His creating and possessing
all things, He is the Father ; in respect of what He did as the
Eedeemer of men, He is the Son ; and in respect of those influences
which He exerts in their sanctification, He is the Holy Ghost.
The doctrine of the Incarnation implies that Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, became really and truly man — became incarnate, that is
embodied in flesh (from L. in, and caro, carnis, flesh), having a
true body and a reasonable soul. Those who opposed this doctrine
in the earlier ages of the Church were known by the name of
Docetse, from Gr. dokeo, to seem, to appear. They supposed that
Jesus, although made in the likeness of men, was not really a man ;
that the body which the Jews saw was either a phantasm that played
upon their senses, or if He had a real existence, was a spiritual
substance, not formed of the same corruptible materials as our

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

419

bodies, standing in no need of the supplies which it seemed to
receive, and incapable of those sufferings which it seemed to
endure. The doctrine of the Atonement is that Jesus Christ, by
His death upon the cross, voluntarily died in our room, and suffered
in our stead, and made reconciliation between man and God ; and
that as our sins had separated between man and God, Christ made
an atonement — literally an " at-one-ment " (at and one), as if to set
at one, to reconcile, the old pronunciation of the word " one " being
preserved as in " only." The sufferings of Christ are said to be
vicarious — that is, they were suffered in the room or in the stead of
others. The word vicarious comes from L. vicarius, that fills the
place of a person or thing, a substitute, a deputy (from vicis l (geni-
tive) : the nominative is not in use, but very frequently we find
the abl. vice, in place or room of). Jesus Christ is called our Re-
deemer— our only Eedeemer — because He alone has redeemed us,
or bought us back by His own blood from the bondage and the
slavery of sin and Satan, — through the French from thelj.redemptus,
past part, of redlmo (from re, back, and emo 2), to buy back (buy as in
compensation), to ransom. Repentance is that sorrow for sin which
results in newness of life. To repent is through F. repentir — from
re, and OF. pentir, from L. poenitere, to cause to repent, horapoenio,
punio, to punish, from L. poena,3 a penalty. It is usual to say in

1 From this word vicis, or vice, a
change or alteration, we have vicar,
one deputed to perform the functions
of another : his house is called the
vicarage. We speak of having
vicarian authority, &c. A vice-
regent is one who exercises the
powers of another. A viceroy (from
rex, a king) is one who governs
with real authority as the king's
substitute. The viceregal office is
also called the viceroyalty. Vicissi-
tude is that which is caused by
changefulness or alteration. We
speak of the vicissitudes of the
seasons or of fortune. A viscount
was an officer who took the place of
the count or earl, acting very much
as a sheriff.

8 From emo, emi, emptum, ere, to

buy ; fximere, to take out. We are
exempt — that is, free from some
obligation from which others have
no exemption. From eximere comes
exemplum, a copy, a pattern, an
example. An exemplar is an ideal
model ; exemplary conduct is con-
duct worthy of being followed as an
example. Peremptory is from peri-
mere, to take away entirely, to
destroy, and applies to commands
which do away with all debate.
Prompt (from promere, to bring
forward) means ready for action ;
we have promptitude, promptness,
a prompter. An impromptu verse
is one that is made offhand at the
moment.

3 From poena, payment made as
an atonement by a criminal, com-

420

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

any definition of true repentance, as in the Shorter Catechism, that
there must not only be a true sense of sin but an apprehension of
the mercy of God in Christ. Now, an apprehension of the mercy
of God in Christ is a phrase that seems to many self -contradictory
— for how, it has been asked, can we have a " fear " of the mercy
of God in Christ 1 The answer has been given that the difficulty
is no greater in the Catechism than it is in Psalm cxxx., where
we read, v. 4, "But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou
mayest be feared." We could have understood, it is said, " There
is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be loved, or that Thou
mayest be trusted, or that Thou mayest be sought after, but not that
Thou mayest be feared," and yet this is just the feeling which the
experience of the divine forgiveness produces. The sense of God's
goodness, the experience of His forgiveness, the great cost at which
forgiveness was purchased, fill us with a holy fear lest we should
continue to sin against so much love and so much compassion, —
not the fear which hath torment, the fear which is connected
with dread and cowering terror, but the fear lest we should have
inadvertently grieved the heart of One who has so fully and
freely forgiven all our sins. The solution of the difficulty in the
phrase " an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ " is to be
sought for in an entirely different direction — viz., in the true
meaning of the word apprehension, as here used. The word
apprehend, or apprehension, or apprehensive, comes from the

pensation, satisfaction (plural poence,
punishment), we have penal servi-
tude. A penalty is incurred or
inflicted. Penitence means repent-
ance, or sorrow for doing wrong,
but it is less general and more of a
theological word. It has been
shortened into penance, a punish-
ment inflicted in the Roman Catholic
discipline. We are penitent only
in matters of religious or moral
duty. We may repent of some step
we take in business. Sentient
beings may pine, or pine away,
when depressed or disappointed. A
penitentiary is a reformatory prison.
To punch is short for punish. To

punish (punlre) has the idea not only
of correcting a man or setting him
right, but also of satisfying public
justice. We speak of a punishable
offence, of punitive laws, &c. Im-
penitence or impenitency means
want of penitence, not repenting
of sin. " They died impenitent "
(Milton). To do wrong with im-
punity is to do so without being
punished. To repine is an inward
discontent which preys on the
spirits, but does not break forth in
outward expression. A subpoena is
a writ commanding the attendance
of a witness at a law court under
penalty of some fine.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

421

L. apprehendo, from L. prehendo l or prendo, di, sum, dere, to
seize or lay hold of, and this meaning runs through all the various
forms of the word. If you believed a man to have been guilty of
theft, and if any one were to ask you why he had left the town,
you might reply, " I apprehend that he was apprehensive of being
apprehended." We have here the word used in the three different
senses, yet underlying them all the meaning of " laying hold."
"I apprehend" is, "the idea lays hold of me"; "that he was
"apprehensive," i.e., "that the fear laid hold of him"; "that he
would be apprehended," i.e., " that he would be laid hold of " :
and as the principle of fear is that which has perhaps the strongest
hold on us, the word has come to be more closely connected with
fear than any other feeling ; but here it is " apprehension " in the
sense of laying hold of. " An apprehension of the mercy of God"
is laying hold of the mercy of God in Christ — not merely knowing
that there is mercy with God in Christ, but a personal appropria-
tion or laying hold of that mercy for ourselves. The drowning
man is not saved merely by knowing that a rope has been thrown
from the ship for his rescue, but by his apprehending or laying
hold of it for himself ; and so it is with the sinner whose repent-
ance is brought about, not by vague notions that God so loved the
world, but by his personal appropriation of God's love for himself :
" Christ loved me and gave Himself for me."

1 From prehendo, prehendi, pre-
hensum, prehendSre, to lay hold
of, to grasp, we have prehensile,
fitted to grasp with, as those
monkeys which have prehensile
tails. A prize is a thing (particu-
larly a ship) captured from the
enemy, something contested for
now. A prison is a building for
the safe custody of criminals ; a
prisoner, imprisoned, imprisonment.
An apprentice is one bound to serve
his master, who in turn teaches him
his trade. We apprise a person
what concerns himself. To com-
prehend means both to 'comprise,
include, or contain, and to under-
stand ; and so we have comprehen-
sive and comprehension and incom-

prehensible. An enterprise is a
bold undertaking. An enterprising
man is active, courageous, and
resolute in carrying out great or
untried schemes. An impregnable
fortress is one that cannot be taken
by force. To misapprehend is to
mistake, to apprehend wrongly.
We may labour under misapprehen-
sions. A general makes reprisals
when he makes up for loss by
damaging the enemy. To surprise
is to take unawares. We are sur-
prised when we meet or do not meet
with something quite contrary to
our expectations. Surprise may
for a moment startle us ; but as-
tonishment and amazement are
much stronger.

422

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

The word sacrament, which is so often used in connection with
the solemn rites of our religion, is not, in the sense in which it is
now used, an ecclesiastical or a scriptural word, for the word sacra-
mentum, from which it comes, being a word of Latin origin, could
not be introduced into theology in the original language in which
the books of the New Testament were written. From the ety-
mology nothing more can be gathered than that a sacrament is
something, either a word or an action, connected with what is
sacred (from the L. sacer,1 sacra, sacrum, sacred). The word
sacramentum was originally employed by the Romans to express
the military oath of fidelity which a soldier took when he joined
the army, and this name was afterwards taken by Christians to
describe the oath of allegiance to Christ, as the Captain of their
Salvation, when they joined His Church, either by Baptism or the
Lord's Supper. The Church of Rome reckons seven sacraments, —
five in addition to these two, viz., confirmation, penance, extreme
unction, orders, marriage ; but these are not, strictly speaking,
sacraments, for two things are included in every sacrament — (1)
an outward and visible sign used according to Christ's own ap-
pointment, and (2) an inward and spiritual grace thereby signified.
Now, the first three are not divine institutions ; and the last two,
marriage and orders, the one instituted by God in Paradise, the
other by Christ, neither signify nor convey any inward grace.

Baptism (from Gr. bapto,2 to dip) means either the washing

1 From sacer, sacra, sacrum,
sacred, or devoted to religious use,
we have sacerdotal (from sacer dos,
dotis, a priest), sacrifice, sacrificial ;
while sacrilege is the crime of
stealing sacred things, and the
man who robs a church or violates
sacred things is called sacrilegious.
A sacristan or sexton is a man who
has charge of the movables of a
church. To consecrate is to set
apart by a. special act for the ser-
vice of God or for some sacred
purpose. To desecrate is to pro-
fane what is consecrated. To ex-
ecrate is to cast out as unholy,
to abominate, to curse ; and we

have also the words execrable and
execration.

2 From this word bapto, and bap-
tizo, we have the word Baptists,
who hold that baptism should be
administered only by dipping, and
Anabaptists (Gr. ana, up), who
maintain that baptism should be
administered only to adults, those
who are grown up. Those again
who hold to the baptism of children
are called Psedobaptists (from pais,
a boy), and they do so on the ground
that every stage of life has been
hallowed, or that the child obtains
by its connection with its Christ-
ian parent what is meant by bap-

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

423

with water or the washing in water, and is the application of water
to a person as the initiatory sacrament of the Christian religion,
whereby he is admitted into the Church; and persons are bap-
tised either by sprinkling or immersion. The adult person on his
baptism professes to receive certain beliefs, and engages to live a
Christian life. These are called baptismal vows or engagements.

The other sacrament is the Lord's Supper, so called because
instituted by the Lord Jesus, and at supper time. In it the bread
and wine are partaken of by Christ's command — the bread repre-
senting His body and the wine His blood. The name Eucharist
is given by many to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper because
before partaking of it we express our thanks to God for His
unspeakable gift. It comes from the Greek word eucharistia,
thanksgiving, from eu,1 well, and charisteo> to show favour (from

tistn. John the Baptist was the
forerunner of Jesus Christ. A bap-
tistry, or baptistery, is a place in a
church, or formerly attached to it,
for baptising people.

1 From this Greek word eu, well,
we have many important words,
such as a eulogy or a eulogium, a
speaking well of, a speech, a writ-
ing in praise of. (The word pane-
gyric, which signifies a public
eulogy, has been taken through the
F. pandyyrique, and through the L.
panegyricus, from the corresponding
Greek word signifying fit for a
public assembly or festival, from
Gr. pan, all, and aguris, aijora, a
gallery, a crowd, and now an ora-
tion or discourse in praise of some
person.) Euphemism is from the Gr.
euphemismos for euphemio, the use of
words of good omen (eu, well, and
phemi, to speak). From this same root
of phemi, to speak, we have the word
emphasis (Gr.), forcible expression,
and em, in or on, the stress or force
of the voice put upon a particular
word or syllable to increase its sig-
nificance. Euphemlte, " speak fair, "
the imperative of the corresponding
verb, was the solemn warning to
the Greek worshipper not to disturb

the sacrifices by speaking, lest he
might utter some ill-omened word ;
and so the Romans had a similar
formula at their sacrifices and
religious ceremonies — -favete ore or
linguis, favour us with your
tongues, meaning not to speak
but to keep silence. To say
"keep silence "was too suggestive
of evil speech, and to say ' ' utter
nothing ominous" would have been
in itself an ominous utterance.
They said absit omen when they
thought it unlucky but necessary
to mention any disastrous or evil
thing, just , as we instinctively
avoid the mention of death, and
take refuge in vague and softened
phrases such as depart, decease,
falling asleep, joining the majority,
&c. So the word obituary refers
us back to a well-known Latin
euphemism, obiit, for obiit diem
supremum, he has met his last day.
A similar euphemistic expression is
post obit (for post obitum), an agree-
ment to pay money after some one's
death. The word euphemism now
generally means the substitution of
a delicate or indirect expression in
order to avoid something offensive
to good manners or indelicate, also

424

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

charts, grace or thanks). The offering of bread and wine is
eucharistic, and the participation or communion is a means of
grace. The Church of Home holds that after the bread and wine
have been blessed by the priest they are no longer bread and wine,
but that they are transformed into the real body and blood of
Christ. This, called by the Eoman Catholics transubstantiation,
signifies a change into another substance — viz., that they are no
longer bread and wine, but the body and blood of Christ. The
Lutherans believe in consubstantiation — i.e., the actual substantial
presence of the body and blood of Christ with the bread and wine
used at the Lord's Supper.

As regards the future life, all who receive the Scriptures as the

a mild name for something sup-
posed to be offensive — as effluvium
for stench, perspiration for sweat,
untidy for dirty, untruthful for
lying, unwise for foolish, &c. Some-
what akin to this in meaning is the
word euphuism (Gr. euphues, of an
excellent nature, graceful — from eu,
well, and phues, from phuo, to be
born), applied to an expression
affectedly refined, or to high-flown
diction. It came into use in this
country from Euphues, the hero of
a book with this title written in
the reign of Queen Elizabeth by
John Lely, and which brought this
affectation of excessive refinement
into vogue. The word euphony (Gr.
and L. euphonia, from eu, well, and
phone, a voice) means an agreeable
sound of words, a pronunciation of
letters, words, or syllables pleasing
to the ear. There is a law of euphony
more or less in all languages, a law
which tends to assimilate the short
vowels that precede and follow a
liquid or light combination of con-
sonants. When the two vowels are
not merged into one they are often
thus assimilated — e.g., smaraldo
(It.) becomes in French esmeralde,
tmeraude, and in English emerald ;
mirabilia becomes successively
maraviglia (It.), merveilles, marvels ;
bilancia becomes balance ; nomen in

Latin is found ending in a in
Saxon, and o becomes a, nama ;
son ends in Saxon in u, and was
hence spelt sunu. In semi-Saxon
the second u became e, and the
whole word sone. Similarly, wif-
man becomes woman, and in the
plural is pronounced wimmen. The
operation of this law is very exten-
sive in all tongues. An attempt
has been made in a usually accurate
dictionary to derive the word
Utopia from eu, well, and topos, a
place, meaning well placed, as ex-
pressive of the ideal place of per-
fection described by Sir Thomas
More in his book in Henry VIII. 's
time which bears that name ; but
the Gr. eu is never spelt u in
English. The word comes, indeed,
from topos, a place, but the prefix is
the Gr. ou or ouk, not, so that its
literal meaning is no place, or no-
where, or a place situated nowhere,
the name being given by him to an
imaginary island where the utmost
perfection of laws and social ar-
rangements was enjoyed. He con-
trasts this ideal, a model of Utopian
perfection, with the defects of the
states of his time. We call a
scheme Utopian when it proposes to
be in a state of perfection, which in
man's imperfect condition would be
found impracticable.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE. 425

Word of God believe in a future state of existence either in
happiness or in misery. They believe in the immateriality of the
soul (from L. in, not, and materia, matter) — in other words, that
the soul is distinct from the body, and that therefore the destruc-
tion of the body does not imply the destruction of the soul. The
doctrine of the immateriality of the soul is a somewhat risky one
to preach to an ordinary congregation, who generally attach an-
other meaning to what is immaterial. About a hundred years ago
a would-be philosophical clergyman was endeavouring to prove to
his congregation that the soul survived the body, and affirmed that
the soul was immaterial ; but the congregation so entirely mis-
understood his meaning that they brought an accusation before the
Presbytery that he had said their souls were not material, which
just meant that it was immaterial whether they had souls or not.
The immortality of the soul is only another way of saying that
the soul survives the death of the body, and is not liable to death
itself (from in, not, and mmialis, subject to death). The word
resurrection (from re, again, and surgo, surrexi, surrectum, surgere,
to rise) means the rising again from the dead. The resurrec-
tion of the body is a doctrine of the Christian faith ; there will
be another kind of material body (related to our present body,
as the plant is to the seed), and called spiritual, which means
spirit-ministering or spirit-serving — no longer a clog and fetter to
the soul, but one which is a worthy and efficient servant. There
is an intermediate state (L. inter, between, and medium, middle),
a state between death and the resurrection, — between the death of
the body and its final reunion with the soul, — expressed by Hades
(Gr. aides, the unseen state, from Gr. a, privative; idein, to see).
Paradise (F. paradis, L. paradisus, a park ; Gr. paradeisos, a park,
a pleasure-ground ; and Heb. pardes, a park, a place planted with
trees) is the garden of Eden first, then any region or state of
supreme felicity, or heaven itself, as in our Lord's reply to the
penitent thief, " To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise," and
in the Book of Eevelation. The Church of Eome holds that the
great mass of partially sanctified Christians, dying in fellowship
with the Church, yet still encumbered with many imperfections,

426

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

go to purgatory, where they suffer more or less intensely, for a
longer or shorter period, until their sins are both atoned for and
purged away, when they are translated to heaven ; during which
intermediate period they may be efficiently assisted by the masses
and labours of their friends on earth. The word purgatory comes
from purgo,1 purgare, to clear or purge — from L. purum and ago,
to make clean or pure. Heaven, the dwelling-place of the Deity
and the blessed, is of doubtful origin, but most likely it comes
from heave, and so meaning heaved or lifted up ; and hell, the
place or state of punishment after death. Its etymology is also
doubtful, but most likely the word comes from the AS. verb helan,
to cover, to conceal, and so signifies originally a hidden or concealed
place, the word being cognate with the L. verb celare, to conceal —
whence we have cellar and a cell ; but when we remember that
the German word for hell is Holle, it may have been through this
that the AS. word hoi, a hole or cavern, assumed the form and
pronunciation of "hell." Those who doubt or disbelieve all this are
called generally infidels — from. L. infidelis, not believing, through
French from Latin, composed of in, not, andfidelis, faithful (from
fides, faith or belief). It is only fair to mention that infidel, properly
speaking, signifies not one of the faith (of the person speaking),
and so it is constantly applied by Mohammedans to Christians. It
is worthy of notice that the word miscreant, signifying now a vile
unprincipled fellow of the most extreme moral depravity, had
originally no reference to moral conduct, but referred exclusively
to creed, signifying a misbeliever or an unbeliever, and as such was
as readily applicable to the most blameless of these as to the vilest
and the worst. It comes from the OF. mescreant, misbelieving,
miscreant — from mes, badly, creant, believing (L. minus credere, to
believe amiss — arising from the settled conviction that to believe
wrongly is soon followed by living wrongly). They are called also

1 From purgo, avi, atum, are, we
have pure, purge, purgation, pur-
gational, expurgate, purgatory,
purity, impurity ; purism means
excessive nicety in the choice of
words. Purists are those who cul-

tivate or affect such rigid purity.
The Puritans were men who pro-
fessed great purity in doctrine and
life. Macaulay speaks of puritan-
ical circles from which plays and
novels are strictly excluded.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

427

sceptics, doubting or denying the truth of revelation (from L.
scepticus, from Gr. skeptikos, thoughtful, from Gr. skeptomai, to
look about, to consider). Some people are sceptics through excess
of credulity, because if they do not believe this they must believe
something much more difficult. And so we find some believing
in annihilation, the being put out of existence, the being reduced
to nothing (from L. ad, to, and nil or nihil,1 nothing).

The Millennium, to which many are looking forward, signifies a
thousand years (from L. mille, a thousand, and annus, a year), dur-
ing which, according to some, the Gospel will prevail through the
whole world. Those who hold this are called Millenarians. Pre-
millenarians are those who hold that the advent of Christ will
come before the Millennium.

Eegarding Church government and forms of worship, there are
great differences of opinion and practice among the different
Churches. The Eoman Catholic Church holds views which differ
very widely in many respects from those of the other Churches.
The very name of Catholic, which it claims for itself, is both pre-
sumptuous and uncharitable. Catholic signifies universal, embrac-
ing the whole body of Christians — from Gr. katliolikos, universal,
from Gr. kata, throughout, and holos,2 the whole. We speak of
the Catholic faith — that is, what is believed by all men, every-
where, at all times ; but such a faith has never been. Christians
may claim to be members of the Catholic Church, but no Church
can claim to be the Catholic Church. The word oecumenical is
used as an ecclesiastical term to signify belonging to or represent-
ing the whole (Christian) world or the universal Church — specially
applied to the general councils of the Early Church, and, in
modern use, of the Roman Catholic Church. It comes through the

1 From this word nihil we have
also Nihilists, the name given to
those who profess nihilism, or
nothingness — primarily applied to
the views of an extreme Socialist sect
in Russia, whose leading maxim is
that all the existing institutions of
society must be destroyed in order
to clear the way for a perfectly new
state of society, and which advocates

the assassination of kings, &c., as
one of the means to that end.

2 From holos, the whole, we have
also a holocaust (from kaio, I burn),
meaning a whole burnt-offering, a
sacrifice the whole of which was
consumed by fire ; and a holograph
is wholly in the author's handwrit-
ing (fjrapho, to write).

428 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

L. cecumenicus, from the Gr. oiTcumenikos, of or belonging to the
oilcoumene, the inhabited earth — the whole world. The Church
of Rome claims the Apostle l Peter as the first Pope. The word
comes through the AS. papa, from L. papa, father — originally a
childish word. It is the same as our papa, which we have inde-
pendently adopted from the F. papa, which is the same Latin
word. On this account they are called Papists, and so we speak
of the Papacy and of Papistical practices. The dignitaries of the
Church of Rome next to the Pope are the cardinals, from the L.
cardinalis (from cardo, cardmis, a hinge), which signifies literally
that on which something hinges or depends ; hence the sense of
important, chief, principal, generally of abstract things, as the
cardinal virtues, and then as a personal noun, a dignitary (see note,
p. 405). The other ecclesiastical dignitaries, under the Pope and
the Cardinals, are very much the same as in the Church of England
and other Episcopal Churches. There are archbishops, — i.e., arch
or chief bishops, — bishops of provinces as well as of their own
diocese, the word arch (from Gr. arche) signifying chief, prin-
cipal superior (see note to p. 312). The bishop is one of the
higher clergy who has charge of the diocese. The AS. name is
bisceop, through L. episcopus, from Gr. episcopos, an overseer, from
epi, upon, and seopos, a watcher. Episcopal is a later borrowing
from the Latin. The word diocese, which means the circuit or
extent of a bishop's jurisdiction, comes from the Gr. diokesis, from
di, and oikein, to keep a house (from di for dia, through, signifying
completeness, and oikeo, to manage a household, from oikos, a
house — see p. 8), implying that within his diocese he is over-
seer over his own family. The AS. ric (Ger. Reicli), signifying
rule, sway, dominion, jurisdiction, survives only in the word
bishopric. There used to be others, as cyneric, like the Ger.
Konigreicli, which we now call "kingdom," of which they did not

1 The word apostle (Gr. apostolos
— apo, away, and stello, to send)
means one sent out by another, then
one sent on important business, and
is now confined almost entirely to
those sent forth by Christ on the
most important of all business, and

so called apostles. In the same way
we have epistle, from epistole, any-
thing sent by a messenger (epi,
upon or to, and stello, to send),
and then a letter, and now chiefly to
the letters of Paul and the others
in the New Testament.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE. 429

regard the last syllable as a formative but as an independent sub-
stantive, Reich, and so they regarded Konigreich as a compound.
"We cannot so regard bishopric, simply because we have lost ric as
a distinct substantive; but when the word bishopric was first
made, it was made as a compound.

In the Church of Borne, as in the Church of England, the next
in order below a bishop and above a deacon is a priest. In the
translations of Wy cliff e's 'Purvey,' the Latin word presbyter,
designating an order of ministers in the Christian Church, was
rendered by its anglicised form priest. But in the other trans-
lations, priest stood also for another Latin word, sacerdos, which
denoted the sacrificing ministers of the Old Testament. This was
quite natural, because according to the view of the whole Christian
world at the time, the priest or presbyter and the bishop were the
successors in function of the sacrificing ministers of the Jews,
and in Church -La tin the word sacerdos was applied to both.
When, however, the New Testament came to be translated into
English from the Greek original, it was seen that the word pres-
buteros was the comparative of the adjective presbus, old. Tindale
retained " priest " as the translation of the Gr. hi&reus (the sacerdos
of the Vulgate), but he thought that presbuteros ought to be trans-
lated by an English word of the same literal meaning. It cost
him much thought to discover the right equivalent. In his first
edition of the New Testament he used the word senior, a rendering
which, in his controversy with Sir Thomas More, he admitted to
be un-English and unsatisfactory. In his second edition he sub-
stituted elder, and in this he has been followed by all succeeding
translators, except those of the Rhemish (Roman Catholic) version.
Thus Tindale's New Testament is the source of the ecclesiastical
sense of elder ; and the fact that, in the English Bible, priest never
occurs as the designation of a Christian minister, has had a
remarkable effect on the popular acceptation of the word ; for
although, as we have seen, the second order of the Anglican
clergy are officially called priests, it is only in certain northern
districts of England that the people commonly apply the title to
their parish clergyman. To the great majority of Englishmen

430 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the title suggests primarily either a Koman Catholic clergyman
or a minister of Jewish or heathen worship (Bradley's ' Making
of English,' p. 222). Deacon is in Episcopal churches the name
of the order of clergy under the priests. In some Presbyterian
churches it is the name of an officer under the elders ; but the
word deacon (from the L. diaconus and Gr. diakonos) means a
servant, a subordinate of the priest.

The Presbyterian Church, which is so called from its being
governed by presbyters or elders, holds that there are only two
orders mentioned in the New Testament, not three, as the Church
of Rome and Church of England hold — viz., teaching elders, usu-
ally called ministers, and ruling elders, usually called elders, who,
with the ministers, constitute the governing body of the Church
in each parish. It is said that the Gr. word paroikia, from which
parish comes, originally meant a "sojourning." It is applied in
the New Testament, Acts xiii. 17, as it is constantly applied in
the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, to the sojourning of
the Jews in Egypt. By a natural and not uncommon transition
of meaning, it came to be used in a concrete sense of a colony
of sojourners in the midst of an alien population, such as the
Jews were in all the great cities of the Roman Empire. It came
hence to be used by the early Christian communities. The
Christians of Rome or Corinth formed a community of sojourners.
It was not at first a local area, but an aggregate of persons. It
does not appear to have been applied to a local area until the
Church was fully organised ; and its application to small areas of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction presided over by one minister, such as is
meant by a parish in its modern sense, may have easily arisen
from the strict meaning of the word paroikia, composed as it is of
the two Gr. words para, near, and oikia, the house — i.e., near the
house, the house emphatically being the House of God ; and all the
dwellers near the house were constituted the parishioners of that one
parish. The word Church, which occurs frequently in the Author-
ised Version, is never used, as with us, for the building in which
people meet for worship. The Greek word from which our word
Church comes is never used in the New Testament. Our word

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE. 431

Church comes originally from the Gr. kyriake, " that which per-
tains to the Lord," from the Gr. kurios, the Lord, and so we find
in AS. kirice and kyriee, from the same Greek word. Now,
although it may seem strange to find a Greek word in the vocabu-
lary of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, yet while most of the Teutonic
tribes were converted through contact with the Latin Church,
some Goths on the lower Danube had been brought to the know-
ledge of Christ at an earlier date by Greek missionaries from Con-
stantinople ; and these Goths, the first converted, and therefore
with a Christian vocabulary, in their turn lent the word to the
other German tribes, and to our Anglo-Saxon forefathers among
the rest, and by this circuit it has come round from Constantinople
to us. The Kirk of the northern dialects is from the same root.
The word which is rendered " Church " in the Authorised Version
of the New Testament is the Gr. ekklesia, which is carried without
change into the Latin language, and also into the English in the
word ecclesiastical. To understand the proper meaning of this
word, the Church, we must trace out the meaning of ecclesia. The
word comes from Gr. ek, out of, and kaleo, to call, and means,
therefore, those who are called out — that is, called out of the world
to be the servants of Christ, or as we find it in John xv. 19, "I
have chosen you out of the world." The whole community of
Christians, therefore, constitutes the Church; and to confine the
meaning of the Church, as is too often done, to the officers of the
Church, or to the clergy in contradistinction to - the laity, is an
improper and unauthorised narrowing of the meaning of the word.
The word clergy is from the Gr. klericos, through the medieval L.
derricm. This comes from the Gr. kleros, a lot or portion, an
allotment. The priests were called klertkoi, either because, so
to speak, they were a class apart, or rather perhaps because they
had a lot in God's inheritance. And when only churchmen knew
how to read and write, the word clericus (clerk or writer) became
synonymous with scholar. As Shakespeare says in " Henry VIII.,"
" All the clerks, I mean the learned ones, in Christian kingdoms
have their free voices." As the person who did the responses in
church was able to read, he received the name of clerk. At a some-

432 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

what later date those who were engaged to write in an office or to keep
business books were so termed ; so that the word clerk, which once
conveyed an idea of dignity, gradually lost it with the increased
diffusion of education. A clerical error does not now signify any
fault or mistake on the part of the clergyman, but an orthographi-
cal error made by some mistake on the part of the writer, whoever
he may be. The phrase " benefit of clergy " may be here referred
to. It meant originally the exemption of the clerical order from
trial by a secular court, based on the text, " Touch not Mine
anointed, and do My prophets no harm " (1 Chron. xvi. 22). In
course of time it comprehended not only the ordained clergy but
all who, being able to read and write, were capable of entering into
" holy orders " ; and then the phrase meant that such should in
certain cases be exempt from criminal prosecution. This law was
abolished in the reign of George IV. (1827).

In every diocese in England, and in Eoman Catholic countries
also, the principal church is called the cathedral, from the Gr.
word kathedra, a seat, from its containing the seat or throne of

there is what is called, the nave, the middle or body ol the church,
as distinct from what are termed the aisles or wings, the side
passages of the church, so called from the F. aile and OF. aisle,
both from the L. axilla, from ala, a wing, as of a bird. But the
word nave (F. nef) comes from the L. navis, a ship, either, as
many suppose, from the resemblance of the roof to the hull of
a ship, or from the fact that the Church of Christ is often
represented as a ship exposed to many trials on the troubled sea
of this world, which has more probably given the name of the
nave to the body of the church. It is still a doubtful point
whether the billowy, wavy marble floor of St Mark's Cathedral
in Venice has become such now by the many feet that have
passed over it since its foundation ; or whether it was made so
originally, and on purpose, to represent the troubled sea over
which the ship of the Church has to sail. The chancel is the
name given to that part of the building in Episcopal churches in
which the communion-table is placed, and obtains its name

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE. 433

from the L. word cancelli (plural), signifying cross-bars, anciently
used to separate that part of the church from the nave by
latticework, — lattice signifying a network of crossed laths or
bars (F. lattis, from latte, a lath, from Ger. latte).

In Eoman Catholic churches especially, very great importance
is attached to the dresses or vestments worn by the officiating
clergy (L. vestimentum, from vestio, to clothe, from vestis, a gar-
ment), and therefore it is not to be wondered at that there should
be a special part of the building called the vestry, where the
sacred vestments are kept; while from the fact that managers'
meetings were frequently held there, the managers of the church
received as a body the name of the vestry, although they had
nothing to do with the vestments which were kept there, and
which originally gave it its name. There is only one vestment to
which I am to refer, and which is to be found in all such vestries
— the surplice. The climate of the North was not less severe in the
Middle Ages than it is now, and at the same time artificial modes
of producing or retaining heat were both fewer and more cumbrous.
The cold was warded off not so much by fires as by the use of
warmer clothing than is now commonly worn. Furs were in
ordinary use, and the ordinary winter dress of those who lived
the canonical life was a fur coat. Such a coat was allowed also
to monks, and is prescribed in the statutes of several orders. But
between canons and monks there was a point of difference which
seems to have been universally maintained. A' monk might not
wear linen, a canon might do so. A monk must appear, whether
in a church or in a monastery, in his woollen coat ; a canon threw
a linen blouse over his fur coat, and was thereby known to be
a canon and not a monk. An illustration of this is afforded by
what took place at Capos, when there was a doubt whether the
clergy there were monks or canons : the fact that they wore surplices
was held to be proof conclusive that they were the latter. The
linen blouse which was thus worn by canons, as a distinctive mark
of their order, over the fur coat or pelisse, was commonly known
as the over- pelisse or surplice. The word pelisse, which now
signifies a silk habit worn by ladies, meant originally a furred coat

2 E

434 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

or robe, from the L. pellis, a skin or hide ; and from the low L.
superpellicum, an over garment, we have derived the word surplice,
the white outer garment worn by the priests and English clergy.
Belfry is the name given to that part of the church or steeple in
which bells are hung. It was frequently, and still remains in the
case of very old buildings, separate from the church and built
alongside of it, as in the campanile or bell-tower of St Mark's,
Venice, &c. But the belfry originally was a tower for warlike
purposes, either of offence or defence. Though now associated
with the bells which it contains, it had nothing to do with bells,
but was, as I have said, originally and properly a watch-tower,
from the OF. berfroi or berfray, which also assumed the shape
of belefroy or belfroi, and eventually beffroi, — all this from the
MH.Ger. bercfrit (/rid or frit, a tower, and bergan, to protect —
modern bergen, to conceal or protect). The bells came later, and
are unessential The beffroi became corrupted into belfry long
before any bells were there ; but when the bells were there, they
were in frequent use. The best known of these was the bell that
was rung, and in many places still is rung, at 8 P.M., called the
curfew bell. The word curfew, which literally signifies " cover
fire," came from the F. couvre-feu (OF. covre-feu), and this from OF.
couvrir, to cover, and feu, fire ; and all these from L. co-operire,1 to
hide, from operire,1 to shut; and there is also aperire,1 to open (for

1 From these verbs aperio, aperui, a covering for the head. Harvey dis-
apertum, aperire, to open ; operire, covered the circulation of the blood
to shut ; and co-operire, to hide, — that is, he found what was before
we have an aperient, an opening unknown (or covered) ; but Watt
medicine; an aperture, an opening invented the steam-engine — that is,
or hole ; and April, the month in he contrived that new machine. We
which the earth opens for new fruit, speak with a true distinction of the
or for the reception of the seed, or inventions of art and the discoveries
when the leaves and the buds begin of science. Overt means open, mani-
to open up. And so, as we have fest — the opposite of covert. Mere
seen, cover is the F. couvrir, from intention is not punishable unless it
co-operire; and a coverlet is the F. shows itself in some overt action.
couvre-lit, an outer covering for a bed An overture means either an offer
(F. lit). Covert means what is not formally made or a resolution form-
open, concealed or disguised. Words- ally proposed for consideration, or
worth speaks of a covert nook, and the opening piece of an opera or
Milton of covert guile. A kerchief, similar musical composition,
as we have seen (p. 167), is couvre-ckef,

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE. 435

apperio, from ab and perio, which must have signified to cover,
as is still evident from operio). The English word curfew is
generally used in connection with the word bell, or implying it,
as in Gray's "Elegy" —

" The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."

The curfew bell was rung originally in the reigns of William I.
and II. at sunset, to give notice to all their subjects that they were
to put out their fires ; and the bell of the parish church, which in
many towns and villages is still rung at 8 o'clock every evening, is
a survival of the practice. It is said in the ' Dictionary of Phrase
and Fable ' that the Klokans in Abo, even to the present day, tra-
verse the towns crying the "go-to-bed time." Those abroad are told
to "make haste home," and those at home "to put out their fires."
It was abolished as a police regulation in England by Henry I.

In the Romish and Episcopal churches generally the service in
public worship is much more stereotyped than in the Presbyterian
and kindred churches. In the early days divine service was very
simple, but by degrees a number of external ceremonies and extra
prayers were added, until at length it was found necessary to
reduce the service into writing and regulate the manner of per-
forming it, and this was called a liturgy — from Gr. leiturgia, from
leitos, from Gr. loos, the people, and ergo, to make to do, mean-
ing public service. The sermon in all Christian congregations
forms a more or less prominent part of the public worship. The
name sermon (L. sermo, signifying speech, discourse, talk, anything
spoken) came gradually to signify a set speech or an oration, from
the L. sero, serui, sertum, serere, to form or bind together, to
connect. It is generally preceded by what is called the text.
A text with most people, in Scotland at all events, signifies the
verse or portion of Scripture prefixed to the sermon, and on which
the sermon is a comment. It came into Middle English from the
French, where it stands as the descendant of the Latin word textum,
something woven, and retains in English the figurative sense only
of its primitive, yet owes it to its origin that it describes a com-
position as a " woven " thing, as a curiously interwoven cloth or

436

SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

" tissue of words." The verb texo,1 texui, textum, texere, to weave,
once become a part of the English language, has grown with its
growth, and has acquired certain special usages, and it denotes
a literary work conceived of as a mere thing, as a texture woven of
words instead of threads. It designates neither on the one side
the book which contains the text, nor on the other side the sense
which the text conveys. We speak, too, of texts of Scripture,
meaning not various editions of it, but brief extracts from Scripture,
as, for example, proof-texts and the like — a usage which appears to
have grown under the conception that all developed theology is of
the nature of a comment on Scripture. Where it rather explains
a portion of Scripture than an individual text it is called a lecture,
originally a discourse read on any subject (from lego, legi, lectum,
legere, to read), or an exposition (through F. exposer, from L.
expono, exposui, expostum or expositum, exponere), to expound, to
lay open the meaning of. This is sometimes called an exegesis, being
the Greek word from exegesthai, to explain ; and the person who
does so is called an exegete. This word exegesis, I may mention,
is the name given to the Latin discourse delivered in the Divinity
Hall, and it is generally taken by a Presbytery instead of a new
one when a candidate applies to be taken on trials for licence as a
preacher ; and you may imagine my surprise when a student, who
had been four years at the University and two at the Divinity
Hall, wrote to me asking if I thought they would take his old
" Ecce Jesus," or whether he would require to write a new one !
This was far worse than the case of a distinguished Congregationalist
minister in England who wrote a very able book, ' Ecce Deus,'
which, but for the publisher noticing the mistake, would have
been published under the title of ' Ecce Deum ' ! The word

1 From this word texo we have
several words in common use — such
as context, literally something
woven together or connected, the
parts of a discourse or treatise which
precede and follow a special -passage.
We have also pretext (from prce,
before, and texo, to weave), an

ostensible motive or reason put for-
ward in order to conceal the real
one, a pretence ; and we have
textile, meaning capable of being
woven ; and textual, applied to a
preacher, and meaning one who
sticks to his text.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE. 437

hermeneutics is frequently used to express the science of exegesis
or of interpretation, especially of the Scriptures. It conies from
the Greek word hermeneutikos, from hermeneus, an interpreter,
from Hermes^ the Greek name for Mercury, the god of art and
eloquence. The word homily is often given to a sermon (from
the Gr. Tiomilia, originally an assembly to whom a plain, simple,
and practical sermon was addressed), and now generally on some
one special subject rather than on a text, as in the Homilies of the
Church of England, where we have sermons on the pride of dress
and suchlike. The word postil signified originally a note written
on the margin of the Bible, so called because written after the
text or other words (OF. postille, low L. postilla — i.e., post ilia
(verba) — after those words ; like post ea, after those words, subse-
quently written as one word, posted, afterwards). The word to
preach, which means to deliver a public discourse of a religious
subject, is through F. precher (It. prcedicare), from L. prce, before,
and dico, to proclaim. Litany means strictly any united prayer
and supplication in the churches. By the word, however, is
usually understood a form of alternate prayer, intercessory or
deprecatory, and of a penitential character, containing invoca-
tions to the Holy Trinity (and in the Church of Eome to the
Saints), in which the people respond to each clause of the priest
by the repetition of a short and expressive formula. The word
comes evidently from the Gr. Utaneia, from lite or litai,
prayers. Besides the Latin form, litaniat there is another form of
the word, viz., letania ; and in English the form letanie seems to

1 It is remarkable that while The word comes from Hermes, the
from Hermes we 'have the word ! Greek name for Mercury, the god

hermeneutics, which signifies an of art. It is also the Greek name

opening up of the meaning, we for the Egyptian god Thoth, called

should also from the same word by them Hermes Trismegistus, Her-

Hermes have the word hermetically, mes the Thrice Great, — literally,

as hermetically sealed, meaning Hermes the Thrice Greatest, — who

what is perfectly close or closed. A was god of science and of alchemy,

glass vessel is said to be hermeti- and whose magical seal was held by

cally sealed when the opening is medieval alchemists to make vessels

entirely closed by fusing the glass, and treasures inaccessible,
as a glass tube by meeting the ends.

438 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

be older than the form litanie. In Minshseus's 'Guide into
Tongues,' published in 1627, it appears in its order under let and
not under lat, where it is given but second in order. Some have
drawn a distinction between the forms, and have argued that
letania means a day appointed for special rejoicing, as if it were
from the Latin word Icetiis, joyful. The words, however, are
generally, probably always, used as synonymous. The word
oblation comes from the past participle of the Latin verb offero,
obtiili, oblatum, offerre (compounded of ob and fero, to bring), and
signified primarily to bring before, to present, to offer : itself signified,
as the Latin word oblatio did, a presenting, offering, a giving or
bestowing gratuitously, and also a gift or present ; till by-and-by it
came to signify anything offered in worship or sacred service, and
then more especially anything offered in sacrifice. In the prayer
for the Church militant in the Church of England, where both
alms and oblations are mentioned, the latter are by many com-
mentators taken to mean the " elements " of the Lord's Supper,
which in the rubric immediately before the prayer are ordered to
be then put on the table. However, it cannot be denied that in
the Scotch Liturgy the rubric calls the offerings of the people
oblations : " And when all have offered, he shall reverently bring
the said basin with the oblations therein, and deliver it to the
Presbyter " (L'Estrange's 'Alliance,' p. 167). From the same root we
have the English word oblate, meaning flattened at opposite sides or
poles, shaped like an orange, or scientifically " an oblate spheroid,"
where the L. oblatus means borne against, brought forward (from
ob, against, and latus, borne or brought). We have the word
" oblate " used also in another sense, as applied to some of the
orders of monks of the Eoman Church, who are called oblate
fathers, &c. — some have thought in consequence of some peculiarity
of shape in their hats, but in reality oblate signifies here, as in the
first case, offered up or dedicated, and is applied to all secular per-
sons who, on embracing a monastic life, have given all their goods to
the monastery of which they have become members. Supplication,
a humble and earnest prayer in worship — from the verb supplicate,
to seek by earnest prayer, from L. supplico, avt, atum, are, to beseech

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

439

(sub, under, and plico,1 to fold or bend), from L. supplex, folding
or bending the knees beneath one — originally perhaps merely supple,
easily bent, flexible. The Mass is the name given to the celebra-
tion of the Lord's Supper in Roman Catholic churches, from the
F. messe, It. missa, said to be derived from the Latin words tie,
missa est (ecclesia), — "Go, the congregation is dismissed," — from
the verb mitto,2 to let go, to send. Closely connected with this
is the word missal, the name given to the Roman Catholic mass-

1 The verb plico, plicdvi (orplicui),
plicdtum (or plicitum), plicare, to fold
or bend, with its various prefixes,
gives us a great many words, such
as apply and application and ap-
plicant (L. applieo, from ad, to, and
plico, to bend), to bend oneself to
anything, to give close thought or
attention to it, or to bend to any
one or make application. We have
also complex, composed of more
than one or of many parts, folded
together; and complexity, compliant,
complicate, literally to twist or plait
together, to entangle ; and com-
plexion (p. 12). Duplicate, double,
twofold ; and duplicity, doubleness,
insincerity of heart or speech,
deceit. Explicable is that which is
capable of being unfolded or ex-
plained ; explicate is to fold out
or unfold, to lay open. Explicit is
that which is not merely implied,
but distinctly stated. To implicate
is to involve any one in anything ;
to imply is to include in reality, to
mean to signify ; and so implicit
signifies implied, the resting on or
trusting another — relyingentirely,as
in the phrase "implicit obedience."
We have also simple and simplicity,
multiple aud multiplicity - — simple
meaning what has only one ply,
what is not complicated. Compare
the German expression einfaltig and
the Scotch ae-fauld.

2 From the verb mitto, misi, mis-
sum, miltere, to send, we have a
mess, a portion of food, a set of
persons eating together — especially
soldiers and sailors have mess or

eat in company, so called from its
being a quantity of food sent or
served up at one time (OF. mes, F.
mets) ; a message, a messenger, a
missile, a mission, a missionary, a
missive. To admit, admission, ad-
mittance, admissible. To commit,
commission, commissioner, comis-
sary, commissariat, committee,
compromise. Demise, demit, dis-
miss, dismissal. Emit, emission,
emissary. Intermission, intermit,
intermittent. Manumit is to liber-
ate from personal bondage, and we
speak of the manumission of slaves.
We omit when we leave things
out either purposely and wisely or
through oversight and imprudence ;
but to neglect implies omission
where duty, wisdom, or obligation
required the contrary. To permit
is to allow, and ,we speak of a
permissible excuse. Permission is
formal leave. The Permissive Bill,
if passed, would give the inhabitants
of a district leave to prohibit the
traffic of intoxicating drink within
it. A permit is a written permis-
sion given by the Custom House.
To premise is to state by way of in-
troduction. A premise is a previous
proposition. To promise is to give
one's word, and promissory means
containing a promise. Remiss im-
plies that some duty has been done
carelessly, and remissness is the
careless performance of work. To
remit a punishment is to let off,
and there is the remission of a tax
or duty. We submit, we become
submissive, and "frailty gets par-

440 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

book containing the masses for the different days of the year, from
the low L. missale, from missa, the Mass.

A congregation, of which we have just spoken, is an assembly
of persons, especially when they meet for religious worship — from
congregate, to gather together, from L. congrego, from con, to-
gether, and grex,1 gregis, a flock or herd. This also may have
suggested the name so frequently given to a Presbyterian minister
— viz., that of pastor, one who feeds or tends a flock of people or
a congregation ; and we speak of his pastoral office, which we call
the pastorate, from the L. pastor, a shepherd, from pastum, past
part, of pasco,2 to feed.

There are one or two words more closely connected with the
Church of Eome which are interesting. The common use of our
words abbot and abbey leads us to fancy them native words,
whereas they, as well as the F. word abbe, spring from a much
earlier source, having their origin in the Hebrew word ab, signify-
ing a father, the root of the name Abraham, "for a father of
many nations have I mads thee." From ab the Syrians formed
abba, used in Mark xiv. 36, Rom. viii. 15, and Gal. iv. 6. The
Greeks retain the word in their abbas, and so did the Romans ;
and we have continued it in our word abbot, anciently written
abbut, to denote the father or head of a monastery, a word
which originally came from Gr. monasterion (monos, alone), and
which signified first a monastery and then the church attached to
it. The corrupt form of the word appears in minster, which
from being the church of a monastery or convent has come to
signify a cathedral church. As the abbot was the head, so the

don" by submissiveness. To sur-
mise is to conjecture as to a matter
of fact. To transmit is to cause to
pass from one person to another.
We speak of the transmission of
letters, and electricity is transmis-
sible through metals.

1 From grex we have gregarious,
living in flocks, and egregious (from
e, out of, and grege, a flock), uncom-
mon, out of the usual, distinguished
either in a good or bad sense.

s From pasco, pavi, pastum,

pascere, to feed, we have also
pasture, grass, and also grass-land
or pasturage. In OF. pastime also
meant the tether by which a horse
was confined while grazing ; hence
the part of the leg between the
fetlock joint and the hoof is called
the pastern, because the tether was
attached to it. From this sense of
clogging the English word pester
has come to mean vex, harass,
annoy. A repast is a meal.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

441

friars were the brethren of the establishment, the word friar being
a corruption of the F. frere, derived from the L. f rater,1 a
brother. We find that in monastic houses many charitable
establishments called bede houses existed, and which, though
not now bearing their name, can, except in a few instances, be
distinctly traced. At Hamford there is still a bede house, founded
in 1493 by William Brown; and the 'Statistical Account of Scot-
land,' describing the parish of Euthven in Banffshire, says,
" There is a bede house still in being, though in bad repair,
and six bedesmen in the establishment, but none of them live
in the house." The word is derived from the Saxon word bidden,
or bedere, to pray ; whence came bedesman or bedeman, signifying
one who prayed for another, the inhabitants of those almshouses
praying for the souls of the founders or benefactors of them.
The word bedesman was a common conclusion to letters in the
time of Henry VIII., in the same way as a petitioner to the
Crown now concludes with the words, " And your petitioner will
ever pray." Sir Thomas More, in his letters to Cardinal Wolsey,
concludes them with the words, " Your humble orator and most
bounden beedsman, Thomas More." And Shakespeare, in "The
Two Gentlemen of Verona," Act L, Scene i., uses the word and
explains its meaning when Proteus says —

" Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers,
For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine."

To which Valentine replies —

" And on a love-book pray for my success ? "

1 In our word freemason, descrip-
tive of the brethren belonging to
the fraternity of masons, we pre-
serve the original word, the prefix
free referring not to the immunities
of that body, but to their brother-
hood. I think that this is a truer
etymology than that which rep-
resents them as having received
this name from having been freed
by the Pope from certain burdens
and obligations which rested upon
other men, or as an association of

masons, or builders in stone, who
were freed from the laws that regu-
late common labourers. I am fully
aware that the French name isfranc-
mctfonnerie, and that it is regarded
as a translation of our freemasonry,
but I see very much stronger rea-
sons for regarding our word "free"
as a corruption of the French word
fr&re for brother, even although
the Frenchmen afterwards imagined
that the word meant "free" in the
sense of "exempt from."

442 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

Sir Henry Lee, Champion to Queen Elizabeth in the year 1590,
when old age and infirmities had come upon him, gave a masque
at his seat at Quarendon in Bucks on his retirement from the
office of Champion, on which occasion a copy of verses alluding
to his retirement was read before her Majesty, concluding with
these words —

" Goddess, vouchsafe this aged man his right
To be your beadsman now, that was your Knight."

To bid beads, or to tell beads, was to say prayers ; and before
the invention of printing, when poor persons could not defray the
expense of a manuscript book, small balls of glass strung upon
a thread were invented (and are still used by the Romanists) to
assist their memories in counting their prayers ; and hence the
word (which primarily denoted the prayer itself) was transferred
to the small globular bodies, or telling beads — i.e., counting prayers
said, — from which the other meaning naturally followed. The AS.
was bed, gebed (Ger. gcbet), a prayer, and hence the little per-
forated balls used in counting the prayers recited were called
beads — from biden, to pray. The word rosary, which in meaning
has come to be closely connected with the preceding, is derived
from the L. rosarius (from rosa, a rose), of or belonging to roses,
or rosarium, used by Virgil, Georg. 4. 119, a bed or garden of
roses. In medieval Latin the word rosarium was the name given
to a garland of roses to crown the image of the Virgin, — F.
chapelet de roses, shortly called rosaire. Then a garland or string
of beads serving to mark off prayers as they were recited, rep-
resenting by their size Paternosters and Ave Marias and Doxologies,
to be recited in a certain order. This rosary is called the Dom-
inican rosary, having been first instituted by St Dominic (1170-
1221). It consists of 150 Ave Marias, 15 Paternosters, and 15
Glorias, to be recited once a- week " by the man who, being enrolled
among the Confraternity of the most Holy Eosary, has nothing
obliging him under the pain of sin, or any other pain, but solely
wishing to participate in the blessings which are enjoyed in the
Confraternity of the Eosary or religion of St Dominic, and

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE.

443

the Indulgences and Graces conceded by the Supreme Pontiff."
This I take from the introduction to a little manual entitled
' The Mysteries for reciting the most Holy Eosary to the Virgin
Mary,' published by authority at Eome in 1842. The name of
rosary may have been given to these different prayers, as being the
most beautiful flowers of devotion, as we read, " our Lady's Psalter
is now better known as the Eosary." ] These beads, professedly
hallowed by the Pope's consecration, were in former days im-
ported into England, but such importation was prohibited by
statute in the year 1570. Gower, an old English writer, uses
the words " bid thy bede " in the following passage, " Beware,
therefore, and bid thy bede, and do nothing in holy church but
that thou might by reason worthe." In the Church of England to
this day, the prayer before the sermon is known by the name of
the bidding prayer, and we still say to " bid " or " forbid " the banns.
The word beadle is also of the same origin, such person having
been originally the Officer of the Forest, who bade or summoned
the people to attend the Court of the Forest, and in after times the
officer who summoned the clergy and church officers to visitations ;
and in later times the officer of any court whose duty it was to
summon the people. The passage in our Bible (Dan. iii. 3, 4),
" Now when they stood up before the image that Nebuchadnezzar
had set up, then an herald cried aloud," &c., is in one of the
editions of the Bible, published in 1551, thus rendered, "Now
when they stood up before the image which Nebuchadnezzar set
up, the beadle cried out with all his might," &c. In early times
the tenants of many manors were bound by the customs of the
manors to perform at the will or bidding of the lords certain days'
work ; these days were called bidden days, or bindays, and the
work performed was called Bederepe, from the Saxon bidden, to
bid, and repe, to reap corn. The tenants who performed this
service for the lord of the manor, besides their ordinary meals,
were rewarded with a more substantial entertainment at the end of

1 So in like manner it is not
uncommon to find books called
anthologies (from Gr. anthos, a
flower, and logos, a discourse),

literally a discourse on flowers,
being a collection or selection of
flowers of literature, as of poetry
or epigrams.

444 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

the harvest, and this is the origin of our harvest -home supper.
In the customs of the Manor of Cheltenham, bead repe money is
mentioned, which is supposed to have been a money payment in
substitution for the feast, or in lieu of the daily meals. These
bidden days, or rather the work performed in them, were after-
wards rendered in L. precarice, from the Latin word preces, prayers,
from preco, to pray or bid ; and as the days were selected at the
will of the lord of the manor, and therefore uncertain, precarious
came to have that signification, as whatever was bestowed by mere
favour, and not by obligation, was risky. Our word " to bid "
comes from the same source, and its early use had the sense of
praying, which it has not entirely lost with us. Thus, in 2 John,
verse 10, "If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed " ; and
again, Acts xviii. 20, 21, " When they desired him to tarry longer
time with them, he consented not, but bade them farewell" The
words so used were in fact a prayer commending them to the divine
care, and were equivalent to the F. adieu, to God, — the Sp. a Dios
and the It. Addio, the parting benediction commonly by a friend to
the care of the Almighty. This was originally said to the person left
behind, as " farewell " was to the person setting forth. Farewell
is pure Saxon, for the word fare is also a Saxon word signifying to
go, to travel, to pass, and is very commonly used in early English.
Hence we have the phrases a thoroughfare, a wayfarer, or a sea-
faring man, and the price paid for travelling by land or water is
called a fare ; a ferry is a passage of water, and a ford is that
part of a river which is passed or fared on foot. The clergyman
preaches his farewell sermon, and in return his hearers, anxious for
his future happiness, express their wishes for his welfare. This
reference to sermons reminds me that criticisms are frequently
passed upon their doctrine, which is described as orthodox or
heterodox. The Greek doxa,1 opinion, is the same in both (from
Gr. doTceo, to seem), but orthos signifies straight or right, and

1 Paradox, any statement or tenet
contrary to received opinion or be-
lief, through F. paradoxe (fourteenth
century), and L. paradoxum, from

Gr. paradoxes, from para, past, be-
yond, contrary to, and doxa, an
opinion.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATQRE. 445

heteros, another or different, and therefore apparently wrong.
Perhaps orthodoxy originally meant the received or established
doctrine, and heterodoxy signified that different from it, so that it
has come to be said with considerable truth, " Orthodoxy is my
doxy, and heterodoxy is your doxy ! " An apostate is one who
forsakes his former principles or party, always used in a bad sense,
and generally with reference to a departure from a former profession
or belief — from Gr. apostasia (apo, from, and stasis, a placing or
standing). A somewhat similar word in meaning originally was
our word runagate, which has come to signify a fugitive or deserter,
from some fancied connection with running away, instead of through
the F. renegat, from medieval L. renegatus, from renego (re, again,
and nego, I deny), one who renounces his faith. "We have renegade
still in English, but it is as frequently used for a mere " deserter,"
and we have also a runaway with this meaning also. When
people carry their religious zeal too far, they are spoken of as
enthusiasts or as fanatics. Enthusiasm is a Greek word for in-
spiration or possession of a divine spirit (from en, in, and theos, a
god), yet in the eighteenth century it was the regular word for
fanaticism, which originally meant belonging to a temple — L. fan-
aticus, from fanum, a temple (perhaps from fari, to speak, to
dedicate). A church is still occasionally referred to in poetry as a
fane. The Eomans applied the word fanaticus especially to the
frantic priests of Mars and Cybele, and found no difficulty in
extending it to madness in general. Madness and prophetic in-
spiration are identical in the opinion of savages, among whom all
lunatics are sacred, and the ancient religions had not outgrown this
idea. Votes, the Latin for prophet, also bard, poet, is properly the
" raging seer " — genius and madness as thought to be nearly allied.
We read of " the poet's eye in fine frenzy rolling " ; while Dryden
says, " Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin parti-
tions do their bounds divide." At all events, the AS. wod, insane,
is cognate with the L. votes — compare Ger. WutJi, and compare
vaticinations (from vates), prophecies or predictions. Closely con-
nected with this is the word profane, from pro, before, and fanum,
the temple — literally, before the temple, that is, outside the temple,

446 SIGNIFICANT ETYMOLOGY.

and so, common. It was used originally to denote that which was
not specially sacred, as in the phrase " sacred and profane history,"
but it gradually degenerated in meaning until it has come in the
word profanity to signify what is unholy, impious, impure, and
irreverent. Etymologists give two possible derivations of the
word bigot. One makes it Norman bigot, an oath, according to
Du Cange, sworn by Hollo, Duke of Normandy, when called upon
to kiss the foot of Charles, King of France, in homage — " Ne se
Bigot ! " " Not so, by God ! " On which the king's court called
him bigoth, a name which afterwards attached to the Normans.
Others derive it from the Flemish beghard or beguire. A beguin-
age is an establishment of pious ladies brought together without
conventual vows. Bigote is also the Spanish for whisky, whence
say others the word meant first a fierce bravado, and afterwards a
fiery zealot. The word martyr originally signified no more than a
witness, like the Greek word martur, a witness, but it is now
applied to one who died in defence of the Gospel, or who bore
witness to his belief by suffering persecution or death for it ;
and martyrdom means the death or sufferings of a martyr, and
martyrology is a history or register of martyrs.

Before closing, there are two or three names used in the religious
world which it may be well to notice. These are Tractarianism,
Ritualism, and Ultramontanism — names, however, given not by
friends but by opponents. The name Tractarianism comes from
the word "tract," derived from tractus, the past part, of the L.
trdho, to draw, and was originally applied to a quantity of land
or water of considerable extent, as we still speak of a tract of
country, and not generally a small region or district. By-and-by
it came to signify a small treatise on any particular subject,
especially in pamphlet form (but not by any means drawn out
to any length, as the name would seem to imply) — the signification
which it still has ; and the name of Tractarian was originally
given to those who in the Church of England held the doctrine
promulgated in what were published as "Tracts for the Times"
during the years from 1833 to 1841. These were fully avowed
in Tract No. 90, although the preface to the first volume contained

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE. 447

an oracular announcement which very properly inaugurated these
memorable publications, indicating as it did, with great precision,
the theological system which they were meant to propagate and
defend. The announcement was this : " The sacraments, and not
preaching, are the source of Divine grace." Ritualism (from L.
ritus, a religious usage or ceremony) originally signified the observ-
ance of prescribed forms of worship in religious service, and
sometimes the code of ceremonies observed by an organisation,
such as the ritualism of the freemasons; but it has been very
generally applied to the excessive and prominent observance of
such forms especially by the Church of England, as a natural
development of the Tractarian movement, although not one con-
templated by the leaders of that movement, mostly characterised
by special vestments at the celebration of the communion, lighted
candles, incense burning, water mixed with wine, elevation of the
elements, processions with crosses, banners, &c. Ultramontanism
(from L. ultra, beyond, and montanus, belonging to a mountain,
mons, montis) has come to signify extreme views regarding the
rights of the Pope. Ultramontane meant beyond the mountains
(i.e., the Alps), and was applied by the Italians to describe the
heathen nations such as France and Germany ; but as the district
so described would be determined by the point of view from which
it was looked at, this meant the south or Italian side when em-
ployed by the nations north of them, so that when the phrase
was used not in a geographical but in a religious sense, it came
to signify the views of the Italians or extreme party in the Church
of Rome — extreme views as to the Pope's rights, prerogatives,
and supremacy.

INDICES.

ENGLISH.

Abba, 440

Accident, 24

Aeronaut, 34

Abbot, 440

Accolade, 185

Affable, 394

Abbreviate, 241

Accretion, 5

Affinity, 235

Abdicate, 204

Accurate, 308

Affodil, 64

Abduct, 23, 126

Accusative, 236

Aggravate, 395

Abject, 15

Achieve, 400

Aggressor, 74

Ablative, 237

Achievement, 401

Aggrieve, 396

Able, 171

Aconite, 60

Agitate, 19

Ablution, 34

Acorn, 60

Agnosticism, 411

Abominable, 17

Acoustics, 125

Agreeable, 394

Abound, 43

Acre, 273

Ajar, 194

Abrasion, 99

Acrostic, 232

Alabaster, 52

Abridgment, 241

Active, 19, 240

Alcove, 198

Abrogate, 402

Actuary, 19

Algebra, 281

Abrupt, 50

Adder, 105

Alimentary, 130

Abscess, 119

Adduce, 126

Alley, 257

Absence, 324

Adieu, 444

Alliance, 395

Absentee, 324

Adjective, 15, 237

Alligator, 103

Absolute, 308

Adjoin, 239

Alliteration, 233

Absolve, 308

Adjourn, 253

Allocate, 30

Abstemiousness, 398

Adjunct, 239

Allopathist, 138

Abstraction, 25

Admiral, 45

Allotropic, 29

Absurd, 126

Admiralty, 45

Alloy, 54

Abuse, 299

Advantage, 303

Allspice, 186

Acacia, 60

Advent, 414

Allude, 362

Acanthus, 60

Adventure, 414

Allusion, 362

Accede, 119

Adverb, 241

Alluvium, 34, 54

Accent, 378

Advert, 1

Alms, 393

Accept, 202

Advocate, 125, 237,

Alone, 1

Accidence, 24

330

Alphabet, 231

2 p

450

INDICES.

Altar, 402
Altercation, 407
Amalgam, 55
Amanuensis, 247
Amaranth, 60
Ambiguity, 380
Ambition, 402
Ambitious, 325
Amble, 133
Ambulance, 133
Amethyst, 55
Ammonia, 93
Ampersand, 231
Amphibious, 81
Amphitheatre, 364
Amputation, 145
Amulet, 355
Amusement, 341
Anabaptists, 422
Anaemic, 129
Anagram, 234
Analogy, 8
Anarchy, 312
Anatomy, 121
Ancestors, 118
Anchor, 42
Andiron, 196
Anecdotage, 243
Anecdote, 243
Anemometer, 26
Anemone, 60
Aneroid, 26 »

Anguish, 140
Animadvert, 1
Annals, 283
Annihilation, 427
Anniversary, 283
Annoy, 395
Annoyance, 395
Annuity, 283
Anodyne, 147
Antediluvian, 34
Antelope, 93
Anthem, 372
Anthology, 443
Anticipate, 202
Antidote, 176
Antinomian, 8
Antinomy, 8
Antipathy, 139

Antipodes, 30
Antipyrine, 22
Antlers, 92
Apathy, 139, 399
Ape, 71
Aperture, 434
Aphorism, 252
Apocrypha, 416
Apologue, 8, 252
Apology, 8
Apostate, 445
Apostle, 428
Apostrophe, 252
Apothecary, 144, 273
Apothegm, 252
Apparatus, 403
Appetite, 172, 401
Apple, 88
Appoint, 198
Appraise, 302
Appraisers, 258
Appreciate, 302
Appreciation, 302
Apprehension, 420
Apprentice, 253, 421
Apprise, 421
Apricot, 199
Apron, 163
Aqueduct, 23, 126
Arbour, 59
Archaeology, 312
Archbishop, 312, 428
Archdeacon, 312
Archipelago, 31
Architects, 258
Archives, 312
Argosy, 46
Arian, 418
Aristocracy, 313
Arithmetic, 281
Ark, 34
Armadillo, 85
Army, 331
Arras, 199
Arrive, 33
Arrogance, 402
Arrogate, 402
Arrow, 334
Artery, 129
Artichoke, 60

Article, 235
Artillery, 334
Asbestos, 52
Ascend, 98
Ascendant, 9
Ascription, 243
Asparagus, 61
Aspect, 9, 16
Aspersion, 383
Aspirate, 234
Ass, 89
Assassin, 149
Assess, 314
Assiduous, 314
Assign, 247
Assume, 403
Assumption, 403
Assurance, 303
Astounded, 18
Astringent, 105
Astrology, 8
Astronomy, 7
Atavism, 117
Atheism, 410
Athletic, 135
Atlantic, 31
Atlas, 31
Atmosphere 22
Atonement, 419
Atrophy, 139
Attend, 19
Attendants, 19, 203
Attire, 166
Attorney, 330
Attract, 25
Auction, 253
Audible, 125
Audience, 125
Augment, 253
Augmentation, 253
Augur, 16
Augury, 6
Aunt, 117
Auricles, 130
Auricular, 125
Aurist, 125
Auspices, 17, 94
Auspicious, 17
Authorise, 253
Authority, 253

ENGLISH.

451

Autobiography, 149

Beldame, 214

Brigand, 37

Autocrat, 149, 313

Belfry, 434

Brock, 75

Autograph, 149

Belladonna, 62

Broker, 300

Automaton, 149

Belligerent, 130

Broket, 75

Autonomy, 8, 149

Bent-grass, 62

Bronchitis, 140

Autopsy, 149

Betide, 32

Brother, 117

Autumn, 253

Bible, 244

Brow, 123

Auxiliary, 253

Bifurcation, 60

Buccaneer, 38

Avalanche, 25

Bigot, 446

Buffalo, 93

Avaricious, 304

Bile, 10

Buffoon, 370

Avenue, 257, 414

Bilge-water, 41

Bulbul, 95

Avert, 1

Billiards, 348

Bullion, 294

Aviary, 94

Billingsgate, 406

Bulls, 302

Avidity, 304

Binnacle, 42

Bump, 215

Avocation, 125, 237

Biography, 59

Bumper, 180

Avoirdupois, 273

Biscuit, 199

Bumptious, 215

Avow, 125

Bisect, 73

Bunkum, 222

Avowal, 237

Bishop, 428

Bunting, 44

Azote, 7

Bittern, 100

Burk, 148

Azure, 124

Blackguard, 214

Burnet, 62

Bladger, 74

'Bus, 264

Baboon, 71

Blanket, 161

Business, 258

Bachelor, 109

Blood, 10

Bustard, 94, 100

Backsheesh, 310

Boa, 104

Butcher's-broom, 62

Badger, 74, 75

Boat, 36

Butler, 182

Balance, 298

Bolster, 326

Butter, 175

Ballast, 43

Bolt, 335

Buy, 150

Ballot, 325

Bombast, 404

Buzzard, 97

Bandy, 407

Book, 242

Bankrupt, 50

Borage, 62

Cab, 264

Banns, 111

Botany, 57

Cabal, 323

Baptism, 422

Bottler, 182

Cabbage, 62

Barbarian, 215, 409

Boudoir, 197

Cabinet, 323

Barbery, 145

Boulevard, 257

Cable, 202

Barge, 36

Bourse, 304

Cadet, 400

Barley-sugar, 175

Bow, 42

Cadie, 400

Barnacle, 48

Bowels, 132

Caitiff, 215

Barometer, 26

Bower, 42

Calcine, 6

Baron of beef, 185

Bowsprit, 38

Calender, 161

Barrister, 330

Branch, 59

Canary, 373

Basilisk, 104

Brandy, 181

Cancer, 137

Battledore, 351

Brawling, 407

Candid, 20

Bay, 88

Bread, 174

Candidate, 20

Bayonet, 337

Break, 174

Canine, 79

Bead, 442

Breeze, 26

Cannon, 348

Beadle, 443

Brevet rank, 337

Canoe, 35

Bear, 74

Bribe, 325

Canon, 415

Bears, 302

Brick, 219

Cant, 373

Beef -eater, 184

Bridegroom, 110

Canto, 373

Beetle, 161

Brig, 37 ,

Canvas, 325

452

INDICES.

Canvass, 325
Caoutchouc, 165
Capable, 202
Capacious, 202
Capital, 300
Caprice, 400
Captain, 336
Captious, 202
Captive, 202
Card, 158
Cardinal, 428
Cards, 346
Cargo, 45
Caricature, 371
Carline thistle, 62
Carmine, 124
Carnage, 73
Carnation, 73
Carnival, 73
Carouse, 179
Carp at, 198
Carpets, 198
Carrion, 73
Carrom, 348
Carte, 246
Cartridge, 246
Cartulary, 246
Cascade, 24
Case, 236
Casual, 24
Cat, 76

Catacomb, 152
Catalogue, 8
Catamaran, 35
Catapult, 339
Catarrh, 137
Catch, 202
Caterpillar, 105
Cathedral, 432
Catholic, 427
Caudal, 385
Caulking, 40
Caustic, 127
Cavalry, 333
Cede, 119
Ceiling, 197
Celestial, 197
Cell, 426
Cello, 375
Cemetery, 152

Cenotaph, 152
Censure, 408
Census, 409
Centipede, 135
Cession, 119
Chagrin, 90
Chamber, 332
Chameleon, 103
Chancel, 432
Chandler, 20, 259
Chanticleer, 373
Chantry, 373
Chapter, 242, 400
Char, 194
Charade, 345
Chariot, 262
Charity, 394
Charlatan, 141
Charm, 355
Charnel, 73
Chart, 246
Chase, 202
Chattels, 400
Cheating, 389
Checks, 348
Chemise, 162
Chemist, 142
Cheques, 297
Chess, 348
Chest, 129
Chestnut, 62
Cheval-glass, 197
Chewing the cud, 91
Chief, 400
Chimney, 196
Chincough, 140
Chirurgeon, 72
Chisel, 397
Chivalry, 333
Choler, 405
Chop-stick, 177
Chronology, 8
Church, 430
Churl, 228
Churn, 194
Cinnamon, 63, 186
Cipher, 25
Circumflex, 24
Circumscribe, 243
Circumspect, 16

Circumstances, 312
City, 255
Civility, 387
Clavicle, 121
Claw, 86
Clematis, 63
Clergy, 431
Clerical, 431
Climate, 27
Cloak, 163
Clock, 163
Clodhopper, 229
Clothier, 158
Clown, 229
Coaches, 263
Cobweb, 265
Cochineal, 124
Cockatrice, 104
Cockered, 227
Cockney, 226
Code, 246
Codicil, 243
Cogitate, 19
Cognate, 2
Cohabit, 192
Coincide, 24
Collar-bone, 121
Collate, 237
Collocate, 30
Colonel, 335
Colour, 123
Coltsfoot, 63
Columbine, 63
Combustion, 24
Comedy, 367
Comets, 19
Comment, 202
Commerce, 258
Commission, 439
Commit, 439
Commodore, 45
Commonwealth, 305
Companion, 332
Compel, 25
Compendium, 142
Compensate, 142
Competent, 173
Competition, 173
Competitors, 33
Complacence, 344

ENGLISH.

453

Complaint, 408
Complex, 439
Complexion, 10, 12
Compliant, 439
Complicate, 439
Compress, 24
Compression, 24
Compromise, 439
Compunction, 198
Comrade, 332
Conceive, 202
Concentration, 25
Concert, 374
Concise, 397
Concrete, 5
Concur, 100
Condescend, 98
Condog, 79
Condonation, 236
Conduct, 23, 126
Conduit, 126
Confection, 393
Confectioners, 259
Confines, 235
Confound, 23
Congestion, 131
Congratulate, 394
Congregation, 440
Congress, 74
Conjecture, 15
Conjoint, 239
Conjugal, 239
Conjugation, 238
Conjunction, 239
Conjurer, 357
Connivance, 306
Consanguinity, 10
Conscience, 202
Consciousness, 202
Conscription, 243
Consecrate, 422
Consider, 14
Consols, 265, 332
Consonant, 233
Cory -icuous, 16
Co- mcy, 312
0 .ernation, 256
itituent, 312
.stitutional, 312
astrain, 105

Constrictor, 104

Crater, 49

Consubstantiation, 312,

Craven, 385

424

Credence, 298

Contango, 302

Credentials, 298

Contemplate, 15

Credible, 298

Contemporary, 398

Credit, 298

Contend, 19

Creed, 298

Contending, 203

Crescent, 5

Contentment, 50

Cretaceous, 54

Contents, 50

Crimson, 124

Context, 436

Crinoline, 163

Contiguous, 127

Crocodile, 103

Continent, 50

Croup, 140

Contorted, 102

Crow, 94

Contract, 25

Cud, 91

Contractors, 259

Cue, 385

Contrast, 312

Culinary, 199

Control, 396

Cur, 79

Contumacy, 401

Curate, 303

Convert, 1

Curator, 303

Convivial, 172

Cure, 303

Convocation, 237

Curfew, 434

Convulse, 98

Curious, 303

Copy, 245

Curmudgeon, 216

Coracle, 36

Current, 100

Cordwainers, 168

Cursives, 416

Cormorant, 102

Cursory, 100

Corporal, 149, 336

Curtail, 79

Corporation, 149

Curtal, 79

Corps, 149

Cutlass, 338

Corpse, 149

Cutter, 38

Correct, 333

Cyclopedia, 242

Corridor, 100

Cynic, 79

Corrode, 83

Cynosure, 79

Cosmetic, 413

Czar, 314

Cosmogony, 413

Cosmography, 413

Dactyl, 251

Countenance, 50

Daffodil, 64

Counteract, 19

Daisy, 64, 123

Counterfeit, 393

Dancing, 345

Counterpane, 197

Dandelion, 64

Country dance, 345

Dapple, 88

Coupon, 304

Dastard, 385

Courier, 100

Data, 236

Course, 100

Dative, 236

Courser, 86

Daughter, 116

Courtesy, 288

Deacon, 430

Covenant, 414

Deaf, 126

Cover, 434

Debenture, 298, 302

Coward, 385

Debility, 296

454

INDICES.

Debt, 298

Describe, 243

Discussion, 24

Decalogue, 8

Desert, 336

Disdain, 405

Decapitate, 401

Deserve, 336

Disease, 134

Decay, 24

Deshabille, 171, 296

Disenchant, 373

Decease, 119

Despise, 16

Disgrace, 394

Deceit, 213

Despot, 312

Dishelago, 63

December, 285

Dessert, 187, 336

Disjoin, 239

Deciduous, 24

Detain, 50

Disjunctive, 239

Decision, 397

Detect, 193

Dislocate, 30

Decoction, 199

Detective, 242

Dismiss, 439

Decrease, 5

Determination, 397

Dispatch, 135

Dedicate, 204

Deuce, 346

Dispensary, 142, 295

Deduce, 126

Deuteronomy, 8

Display, 403

Deduct, 23

Devil's bit, 65

Displease, 344

Deer, 92

Devious, 46

Disport, 343

Defalcation, 307

Devolve, 245

Disruption, 50

Defeat, 393

Devoted, 327

Dissect, 73

Defect, 393

Devour, 73

Dissension, 407

Definite, 235

Devout, 327

Dissident, 314

Deflect, 24

Diagram, 234

Dissolute, 308

Deglutition, 130

Dial, 291

Dissolve, 308

Degrade, 74

Dialogue, 8

Distaff, 109

Degree, 74

Diamond, 55

Distance, 312

Deign, 405

Diaphragm, 130

Distemper, 11, 12

Deist, 414

Diary, 291

Distend, 19

Dejection, 15

Diet, 291

Distillers, 259

Deliberate, 296

Diffusion, 23!

Distinguish, 205

Deliquescence, 10

Digestion, 130

Distort, 102

Delirium, 12

Digit, 74, 270

Distrain, 105

Delude, 362

Dignitary, 405

Diurnal, 291

Deluge, 34

Dignity, 405

Divert, 1

Demented, 202

Digress, 74

Diviner, 353

Demijohn, 180

Dilatation, 237

Divinity, 414

Demise, 439

Dilate, 237

Dock, 40

Democracy, 313

Dilemma, 204

Dodging, 78

Demonstrative, 238

Dilute, 34

Dog, 78

Denominator, 235

Diluvial, 34, 54

Dog-days, 80

Dental, 234

Dimple, 88

Dog-Latin, 78

Depone, 266

Dinner, 183

Dog's letter, 78

Deportment, 343

Diocese, 428

Dog-star, 80

Depose, 266

Diphtheria, 141

Doge, 126

Depositors, 266

Diphthong, 233

Dogged, 78

Deprecate, 307

Diploma, 323

Dogmatism, 78

Deprecatory, 307

Dipsomania, 12

Doleful, 400

Depressed, 24

Dirge, 333

Dolphin, 82

Deputation, 146

Disabuse, 299

Dolt, 217

Derivation, 33

Disappoint, 198

Domesticate, 192

Derogate, 402

Disaster, 9

Domicile, 192

Descant, 373

Discourse, 100

Donation, 236

Descend, 98

Discredit, 298

Donkey, 72, 89

ENGLISH.

455

Dormer, 193

Eke, 209

Equestrian, 87

Dormitory, 83, 193

Elate, 237

Equine, 87

Dormouse, 83

Elbow, 121

Equinox, 28

Dose, 147

Electricity, 18

Equipage, 87

Double, 379

Electuary, 176

Equipoise, 28

Doubloon, 379

Elegy, 252

Equity, 28

Dowager, 170

Elephant, 86

Equivalent, 28

Dower, 170

Eleven, 278

Equivocal, 28

Dowry, 236

Eliminate, 194

Equivocate, 237

Dragon, 103

Ell, 271

Erase, 244

Dragoons, 333

Elm, 65

Erasion, 99

Drake, 101

Embargo, 45

Eruption, 50

Drama, 363

Embezzle, 306

Escheat, 389

Draughts, 350

Embroiderers, 259

Especially, 16

Drawing-room, 195

Emolument, 308

Espouse, 112

Dray, 262

Emperor, 315

Esquire, 320

Dredge, 262

Emphasis, 423

Establish, 312

Dress, 166, 333

Empiric, 38, 141

Estate, 312

Drollery, 371

Empyrean, 22

Ethnography, 59

Dromedary, 93

Enact, 19

Ettercap, 265

Dropsy, 80, 141

Encaustic, 196

Etymology, 8, 234

Drosera, 65

Enchantment, 355

Eucharist, 423

Drug, 142

Encyclopedia, 242

Eulogy, 423

Druggist, 142

Endemic, 137

Euphemism, 423

Drysalters, 259

Endowment, 236

Euphony, 424

Duck, 101

Energy, 398

Evanescent, 402

Duct, 23, 126

Engage, 110

Evaporation, 32

Ductile, 23, 126

Engine, 261

Evidence, 123

Duke, 23, 126, 315

Engrave, 244

Evoke, 237

Duodecimo, 248

Engross, 248

Evolution, 245

Duplicate, 379

Enigma, 347

Evolve, 245

Duplicity, 379, 439

Enjoin, 239

Exact, 19

Duty, 298

Entertain, 50

Exalt, 402

Dwale, 65

Enthusiasm, 411, 445

Example, 419

Dynamics, 313

Entomology, 8

Exasperation, 407

Dynamite, 313

Entozoa, 7

Except, 203

Dynasty, 313

Envy, 123, 405

Excerpt, 198

Epaulet, 339

Excess, 119

Eaves, 192

Ephemeral, 291

Exchequer, 298

Eccentric, 13

Epicure, 401

Excrescence, 5

Ecclesiastical, 431

Epidemic, 137

Excretory, 131

Economy, 8, 305

Epigram, 234

Excursion, 100

Edify, 192

Epigrammatic, 234

Execrable, 422

Editor, 253

Epilogue, 8

Exegete, 436

Educate, 23, 126

Episcopal, 428

Exempt, 419

Educe, 23, 126

Epistle, 428

Exhibit, 171

Effusion, 23

Epitome, 241

Exhibition, 296

Eglantine, 65

Equable, 28

Exorbitant, 299

Egress, 74

Equanimity, 28

Expand, 25

Ejection, 15

Equator, 28

Expedite, 136

456

INDICES.

Expend, 142, 295

Felter, 157

Friar, 441

Explicable, 439

Feminine, 236

Friction, 24

Explicit, 439

Fender, 196

Frigid, 28

Explosion, 382

Ferry, 36

Frill, 28

Exposition, 436

Ferule, 391

Fritillary, 65

Express, 24

Fetish, 393

Frolic, 371

Expulsion, 25

Fetishism, 45

Front, 391

Expunge, 205

Fetlock, 87

Frontier, 391

Extant, 312

Fetter, 136

Frontispiece, 391

Extend, 19

Feverfew, 65

Frontlet, 391

Exterminate, 291

Fiat, 393

Frounce, 391

Extinct, 205.

Fib, 394

Frugality, 305

Extinguish, 205

Fiddle, 375

Fuller, 158, 159

Extort, 102

Filbert, 188

Fumitory, 66

Extraction, 25

Finance, 235

Fun, 371

Extrude, 391

Fine, 235

Funeral, 149

Exult, 390

Finical, 235

Funny-bone, 122

Eye, 123

Finish, 235

Furlong, 272

Finite, 235

Furlough, 339

Fable, 252, 394

Fissure, 32

Fustian, 404

Faction, 393

Fit, 168

Futile, 23

Factious, 393

Fitness, 393

Factitious, 393

Flag, 44

Galley, 37

Factor, 393

Flank, 219

Gallon, 273

Faculty, 393

Flannel, 161

Galoshes, 164

Faculties, 206

Flattery, 382

Gambler, 343

Fail, 380

Fleece, 157, 158

Game, 343

Fairy, 394

Flexible, 24

Garland, 442

Falchion, 307

Florin, 297

Garment, 166

Fallacy, 204, 380

Flounce, 391

Garnet, 55

False, 379

Flunkey, 218

Garrulous, 16

Falter, 380

Foal, 89

Garter, 162

Fanaticism, 445

Focus, 25

Gastric, 131

Fancy, 383

Folk's-glove, 74

Gastronomy, 8

Fane, 445

Food, 172

Gazelle, 93

Fare, 444

Forbears, 118

Gean, 66

Farewell, 444

Ford, 444

Genealogy, 8, 119

Farthing, 297

Fossil, 53

Genesis, 121

Fascination, 355

Found, 23

Genial, 261

Fashion, 168

Foxglove, 74

Geniality, 261

Fast, 173

Fraction, 97

Genitive, 236

Fatal, 394

Fractious, 97

Genius, 261

Fate, 394

Fragile, 97

Gent, 264

Father, 115

Fragment, 97

Gentleman, 317

Fathom, 271

Fragrance, 129

Genuflexion, 24

Fault, 380

Frail, 97

Geology, 8

Feasible, 393

Frangible, 97

Geranium, 66

Feline, 77

Frankness, 379

Gerund, 130, 240

Felspar, 52

Fraud, 306

Gesture, 130, 207

Felt, 156

Fretfulness, 408

Gillyflower, 66

ENGLISH.

457

Gin, 261

Habitable, 192

Ginger, 187

Habitat, 192

Gland, 131

Hack, 266

Glanders, 131

Hackney, 266

Glossary, 241

Hackney-coach, 266

Glutton, 75, 401

Haddock, 47

Gnawing, 84

Hades, 425

Gneiss, 53

Haemorrhage, 137

Gnomon, 20

Halcyon, 95

Gnostics, 20

Hamlet, 256

Goblet, 50

Hammer-cloth, 265

Gods, 365

Handkerchief, 166

Gooseberry, 66

Handsaw, 97

Gossip, 116, 218

Handsel, 286

Gourmand, 401

Hansom, 266

Grace, 394

Happiness, 344

Gradient, 74

Harbinger, 39

Graduate, 74

Harbour, 39

Graft, 59

Hare, 84

Grain, 274

Hare-brained, 84

Grammar, 234

Hare-lip, 85

Grandsire, 319

Hareshaw, 85

Granite, 52

Harlequin, 369

Graphic, 59

Harriers, 85

Graphite, 59

Harry, 84

Grate, 196

Hart, 92

Gratify, 394

Hartshorn, 92

Gratitude, 394

Harum-scarum, 84

Gratuitous, 394

Harvest, 282

Grave, 151

Haste, 85

Graves, 40

Haughtiness, 402

Graving, 40

Haughty, 402

Greengrocer, 145

Haunch, 219

Greenhorn, 226

Hautboy, 402

Green-room, 365

Hawk, 97

Greyhound, 79

Health, 134

Griffin, 97

Hear, 124

Grimalkin, 76

Hearse, 151

Grocer, 144

Heaven, 426

Grog, 181

Hedgehog, 73

Groom, 110

Heliotrope, 66

Gullet, 130

Hell, 426

Gums, 164

Helm, 42

Gunner, 339

Helpmate, 113

Gunwale, 37

Help-meat, 113

Guttural, 234

Helpmeet, 113

Gymnasium, 135

Hem, 168

Henchman, 219

Habiliments, 171

Hepatic, 131

Habit, 170

Hereditary, 313

Hermeneutics, 437
Hermes, 437
Hermetically, 437
Hernshaw, 97
Herring, 47
Heterodox, 445
Hibernate, 83
Hippodrome, 93
Hippopotamus, 86
Hoax, 225
Hobby-horse, 89
Hocus pocus, 224
Holocaust, 427
Holograph, 427
Homage, 107
Home, 256
Homeopathy, 138
Homicide, 107, 148
Homily, 437
Honest, 387
Honorarium, 387
Honorary, 387
Honour, 387
Hook, 97
Horizon, 27
Horizontal, 27
Hornblende, 52
Horoscope, 6
Horse, 86, 227
Hospital, 143
Hospitality, 143
Host, 143
Hostelry, 143
Hostile, 331
Hostler, 143
Hotel, 143
Hound, 79
Hour, 392
Hulk, 41
Hull, 41
Humanity, 107
Humble, 150
Humble-bee, 150
Humble-pie, 151
Humbles, 151
Humbug, 222
Humility, 150
Humour, 10
Hundred, 278
Hurricane, 26

458

INDICES.

Hurry, 84
Husband, 112
Hussars, 333
Hyaena, 81
Hydatid, 80
Hydra, 80
Hydrangea, 80
Hydrant, 80
Hydraulics, 80
Hydrodynamics, 80
Hydrogen, 80, 120
Hydrography, 59
Hydropathy, 80
Hydrophobia, 80
Hydrostatics, 80
Hygiene, 134
Hygrometer, 26
Hyperbole, 381
Hypochondriacal, 10

Ichthyology, 8
Idiom, 213
Idiopathy, 213
Idiosyncrasy, 213
Idiot, 213
Idiotism, 213
Idyll, 252
Ignite, 20
Ignominy, 235
Hand, 50
Illusion, 362
Imagination, 203
Imbecility, 307
Immaculate, 47
Immaterial, 425
Immolate, 309
Impanelled, 329
Impediment, 136
Imperative, 239
Impertinence, 391
Impervious, 46
Impetuous, 173
Impetus, 173
Implement, 415
Imply, 379
Import, 343
Importance, 343
Importune, 45
Imprecation, 307
Impression, 24

Impudence, 391
Impulsiveness, 400
Imputation, 146
Inability, 171
Inaccurate, 303
Incandescent, 20
Incantation, 355
Incapable, 202
Incarnate, 73
Incident, 24
Inconvenient, 414
Incredible, 298
Increment, 5
Inculcate, 40
Incur, 100
Indefinite, 235
Indenture, 248
Index, 242
Indicative, 239
Indigestion, 131
Indispensable, 142
Indisposition, 266
Induce, 126
Induct, 23
Indulgence, 417
Inebriety, 398
Ineffable, 394
Infantry, 334
Infectious, 137
Infidels, 426
Infinite, 235
Infinitive, 239
Inflection, 24
Inflexible, 24
Influence, 9
Infrangible, 97
Infringe, 97
Infusion, 23
Ingenious, 261
Ingenuous, 261, 379
Ingredient, 74
Inhabitant, 192
Inhibit, 171
Inhuman, 107
Inhumation, 150
Inhume, 150
Injection, 15
Injunction, 239
Injure, 203
Innate, 2

Innocent, 212
Innuendo, 384
Inoculation, 138
Inscribe, 243
Insect, 73
Insincere, 379
Insolence, 408
Insolvent, 308
Insomnia, 133
Inspect, 16
Inspiration, 415
Insult, 390
Insupportable, 343
Insurance, 303
Integument, 192
Intemperance, 397
Intend, 19, 203
Intense, 19
Inter, 150
Intercession, 119
Intercourse, 100
Interest, 299
Interference, 391
Interjection, 15, 240
Interlude, 362
Intermediate, 425
Interment, 150
Interpose, 266
Interruption, 50
Intersect, 73
Intervene, 414
Intransitive, 240
Introduce, 23, 126
Intrusion, 391
Inundate, 43
Inveigh, 91
Invention, 414
Inventory, 414
Invert, 1
Investment, 303
Invidious, 123
Invoke, 236
Irate, 407
Irrefragable, 97
Irrepressible, 24
Irritation, 407
Irruption, 50
Island, 50
Isle, 51
Isthmian, 51

ENGLISH.

459

Isthmus, 51

Latent, 24

Magic, 353

Lattice, 433

Magnate, 336

Jacket, 163

Laudanum, 147

Magnitude, 336

Jealous, 405

Laundry, 200

Magpie, 94

Jet, 15

Lavatory, 200

Mail, 267

Jetty, 15

Lavender, 200

Main, 50, 336

Jewel, 55

Leak, 41

Maintain, 50, 247

Job, 301

Legerdemain, 356

Majesty, 336

Join, 239

Legislate, 237

Major, 336

Joints, 239

Lemur, 72

Majority, 336

Journal, 253

Lens, 25

Malefactor, 392

Journeyman, 253

Lentil, 25

Malevolent, 392

Joy, 55

Lettuce, 67

Malice, 393

Judge, 203

Leveret, 85

Malkin, 76

Judgment, 203

Lexicon, 241

Manacles, 247

Juggler, 357

Libel, 243

Manage, 77, 247

Jugular, 239

Library, 242

Mandible, 87

Juice, 131

Lighter, 36

Mania, 11

Jurisprudence, 203

Ligneous, 58

Manifest, 247

Jury, 203

Limpet, 47

Manifesto, 247

Jut, 15

Linen, 161, 163

Manipulate, 247

Linguistic, 207

Manner, 247

Kail, 67

Linnet, 163

Mannikin, 72

Kale, 67

Linsey-woolsey, 158

Manoeuvre, 247

Kaleidoscope, 6

Liquefaction, 9

Mantelpiece, 196

Kalendar, 282

Liquid, 9

Mantua, 168

Kangaroo, 93

Liquidate, 9

Manual, 247

Keel, 41

Liquor, 10

Manufacture, 247

Kerchief, 167

Litany, 437

Manumission, 439

Kickshaws, 187

Lithography, 59

Manure, 247

Kidney, 131

Liturgy, 435

Manuscript, 247

King, 313

Liver, 131

Marble, 52

Kingfisher, 95

Livery, 167

Marchpane, 189

Kinkhoast, 140

Local, 30

Mare, 89

Kirk, 431

Logic, 203

Marine, 34

Kit-Cat, 77

Logomachy, 8

Market, 258

Kitchen, 199

Lombard, 200

Marmalade, 176

Kitling, 76

Loosestrife, 67

Marmot, 83

Kitten, 76

Lorry, 262

Marquia, 315

Knapweed, 67

Lucifer, 200

Marriage, 112

Knave, 229

Lugger, 38

Marshal, 335

Lumber, 200

Martial, 11

Labial, 234

Lunatic, 11

Martyr, 446

Lachrymose, 131

Luncheon, 178

Martyrdom, 446

Lambent, 47

Lungs, 130

Marzipan, 189

Lamprey, 47

Lynx, 75

Masculine, 236

Lane, 257

Mash, 221

Language, 207

Mackerel, 47

Masher, 220

Lapwing, 100

Madam, 319

Mass, 439

Larboard, 43

Madrigal, 375

Mast, 38

460

INDICES.

Matches, 200

Mob, 261, 321

Municipality, 310

Materialist, 413

Mode, 398

Munificent, 310

Matriculate, 113

Moderation, 398

Murrain, 408

Matrimony, 113

Modesty, 398

Muscle, 122

Mavis, 94

Modulate, 398

Music, 372

Maxim, 252

Moiety, 297

Mustard, 186

Mayor, 336

Molars, 309

Mysteries, 358

Mead, 55

Molasses, 175

Mythology, 8

Meal, 309

Mole, 73

Mediterranean, 31

Mollusca, 48

Nag, 87, 266

Medusa, 48

Monarch, 312

Naive, 1

Meerschaum, 201

Monk, 312

Napkin, 167

Megrim, 140

Monkey, 71, 90

Narcotic, 148

Melancholy, 10, 12

Monogamy, 112, 312

Nascent, 1

Memento, 202

Monogram, 312

Nasturtium, 67

Memory, 203

Monograph, 312

Natal, 2

Menage, 77

Monolith, 312

Nation, 2

Menagerie, 77

Monologue, 8

Natter, 105

Mendacity, 308

Monomania, 312

Naturalist, 2

Mendicity, 308

Monomaniac, 11

Nature, 1

Mercenary, 258

Monopolist, 312

Nausea, 33

Mercer, 258

Monopoly, 261

Nautical, 34

Merchant, 258

Monosyllable, 312

Naval, 34

Mercurial, 11

Monotheism, 312

Nave, 34, 432

Meridian, 178

Monotheist, 417

Navigation, 33

Mess, 439

Monotony, 312

Navy, 34

Message, 439

Month, 4

Nebular, 23

Meteor, 20, 22

Mood, 239, 398

Neckerchief, 167

Meteorology, 8, 22

Moon, 3

Necromancy, 355

Methylated spirit, 55

Mop, 76

Necropolis, 152

Metre, 250

Moralities, 361

Negus, 182

Mica, 52

Morphia, 147

Neigh, 87

Microscope, 6

Morse, 82

Nephew, 117

Mile, 272

Morsel, 174

Nephritis, 131

Militant, 331

Mortal, 146

Nervish, 122

Mill, 309

Mortality, 408

Nervous, 122

Millennium, 427

Mortgage, 11 1,302, 408

Nescience, 202

Milliner, 168

Mortification, 408

Newspaper, 252

Million, 280

Mortmain, 408

Nice, 202

Miniature, 196

Mosaic, 196

Nickname, 209

Mirror, 195

Mother, 115

Niece, 117

Misanthrope, 108

Motion, 261

Niggardly, 305

Miscreant, 298, 426

Motor, 261

Nightingale, 95

Mishanter, 217

Mould, 398

Nightmare, 133

Misogynist, 108

Mountebank, 141

Nihilism, 427

Miss, 265

Mouse, 83, 122

Nincompoop, 210

Missal, 439

Movement, 261

Ninny, 210

Missile, 439

Mowdiewarp, 73

Nitrogen, 7, 120

Missionary, 439

Multiple, 379

Nomenclature, 235

Misuse, 299

Mummy, 121, 152

Nominalist, 235

ENGLISH.

461

Nominally, 235
Nominative, 235
Nondescript, 243
Numismatics, 294
Nuptials, 112
Nurserymen, 260
Nutmeg, 186

Oakum, 40
Oar, 36
Obedience, 125
Obeisance, 125
Obesity, 139
Objection, 15
Oblate, 438
Oblation, 438
Obligingness, 395
Obliterate, 244
Obsequies, 150
Obsequious, 150
Obstinacy, 401
Obtain, 50
Obviate, 46
Obvious, 46
Occasion, 24
Occurrence, 100
Ocean, 31
Octavo, 248
Octogenarian, 146
Ocular, 123
Odium, 395
(Ecumenical, 427
Office, 393
Officious, 393
Olfactory, 129
Oligarchy, 313
Omen, 17
Omniscience, 202
Omnivorous, 73
Onion, 1
Oof, 310
Oolite, 53
Opera, 374
Operate, 374
Opossum, 93
Opportune, 45
Oracle, 373
Orang-outan, 72
Oration, 373
Oratorio, 373

Orchard, 58
Organ, 375
Organic, 375
Organs, 130
Orison, 374
Ornithology, 8
Orphan, 116
Orthodox, 444
Orthography, 234
Ortolan, 101
Osprey, 97
Ostensible, 19, 403
Ostentation, 19, 403
Ostentatious, 19
Ostracise, 326
Ostrich, 94, 100
Outrage, 390
Overt, 434
Overture, 374, 434
Oxygen, 7, 120
Oyster, 48

Pacific, 31
Pact, 366
Paedobaptists, 422
Pageant, 365
Pain, 134
Painting, 195
Pairtrick, 99
Palaeontology, 53
Palaeozoic, 53
Palfrey, 88
Palimpsest, 246
Palindrome, 247
Pall, 156
Palliate, 156
Palliative, 134
Palmers, 136
Pamphlet, 243
Pancreas, 131
Pane, 329
Pannier, 90
Panoply, 335
Pantaloon, 163, 370
Pantheism, 410
Pantheon, 411
Pantomime, 367
Pantry, 200
Paper, 244
Papists, 428

Parachute, 403
Parade, 403
Paradise, 422
Paradox, 444
Paragraph, 59, 242
Parallel, 122
Parapet, 201, 403
Paraphernalia, 170
Paraphrases, 372
Parasite, 383
Parasol-making, 260
Parcel, 267, 387
Parchment, 246
Pare, 403
Parent, 105
Parenthesis, 242
Parish, 430
Parliament, 323
Parody, 251, 368
Parry, 201, 403
Parse, 387
Parsimony, 305
Parsley, 67
Part, 387

Participate, 203, 387
Participle, 240, 387
Particle, 387
Particular, 387
Partisan, 387
Partridge, 99
Passive, 240
Pastern, 87, 440
Pastime, 344
Pastor, 440
Pasturage, 440
Pasture, 440
Pathology, 8, 139
Pathos, 139
Patter, 225
Pavilion, 201
Pawn, 329
Peal, 265
Peculate, 295
Peculiar, 294
Pecuniary, 294
Pedagogue, 404
Pedal, 135
Pedantry, 404
Pedestal, 135
Pedestrian, 135

462

INDICES.

Peevish, 417
Peewit, 101
Pelican, 101
Pelisse, 155, 433
Pelt, 155
Peltry, 155
Pen, 249
Penal, 420
Penance, 420
Peninsula, 51
Penitence, 420
Pension, 295, 310
Pensioner, 295
Pensive, 295
Pentateuch, 416
Penuriousness, 306
Pepper, 186
Peradventure, 415
Perambulate, 133
Perceive, 202
Perception, 203
Percussion, 24
Peremptory, 419
Permian, 53
Permission, 439
Permit, 439
Perpendicular, 27
Person, 238
Perspicuous, 16
Perspiration, 131
Perspire, 415
Pert, 374
Pertinent, 50
Perusal, 242
Pervert, 1
Pervious, 46
Pester, 440
Pet, 417
Petrifaction, 53
Petted, 417
Petticoat, 162
Petty, 417
Phantasmagoria, 383
Phantom, 383
Pharmacopoeia, 144
Pharmacy, 144
Pheasant, 99
Philatelist, 267
Philip, 86
Philosophy, 384

Philtre, 356
Phlegm, 10
Photography, 59
Phylactery, 170, 355
Physic, 138
Physical, 138
Physician, 138
Physiognomy, 20, 138
Physiology, 8, 138
Pianoforte, 375
Pictures, 195
Piebald, 94
Pied, 94
Pier-glass, 195
Pig-iron, 82
Pilgrim, 136
Pilot, 43
Pinafore, 163
Pint, 273
Pioneer, 135
Pirate, 37
Pistol, 338
Placid, 344
Plaiding, 161
Planet, 5
Plantigrade, 73
Plaudits, 382
Plausible, 382
Plea, 344
Pleasant, 344
Plebeian, 321
Plenary, 415
Pleurisy, 139
Pliant, 379
Plover, 100
Plummet, 43
Plural, 236
Plurisy, 139
Ply, 36
Poet, 251
Poignant, 378
Point, 198
Pointer, 378
Poison, 147
Politeness, 388
Poll, 326
Pollard, 327
Pollute, 34
Poltroon, 385
Polygamy, 112

Poniard, 378
Poodle, 81
Pope, 428
Popular, 322
Porcupine, 84
Porphyry, 53
Porpoise, 83
Porridge, 177
Porringer, 177
Port, 43, 45, 342
Portentous, 203
Portents, 18
Porter, 342
Portfolio, 342
Portion, 387
Portly, 342
Portmanteau, 342
Position, 266
Posology, 269
Possible, 210
Post, 266
Posthumous, 151
Postilion, 266
Postpone, 266
Postscript, 243
Potato, 185
Potent, 210
Pot-paper, 248
Pottage, 177
Pottanger, 177
Poult, 99
Poultry, 99
Pounce, 378
Pound, 295
Power, 210
Prandial, 191
Prayer, 307
Preach, 437
Preamble, 133
Precarious, 307
Precept, 203
Precipitation, 400
Precision, 378
Precocious, 199
Precursor, 100
Predicament, 204
Predicate, 204
Predict, 204
Predispose, &c., 266
Prehensile, 421

ENGLISH.

463

Prejudge, 203
Prelate, 237
Preliminary, 194
Premature, 146
Premises, 204, 439
Prepense, 142
Preposition, 240
Presage, 20
Presbyterian, 430
Prescience, 202
Prescribe, 243
Present, 324
Presentee, 324
Press, 24

Prestidigitation, 356
Prestige, 357
Presume, 403
Pretend, 19
Pretentious, 203
Prevaricate, 308
Prevarication, 381
Prevention, 415
Priest, 429
Primary, 53
Primrose, 67
Print, 24
Printing, 253
Prison, 421
Private, 214
Privilege, 214
Prize, 421
Proboscis, 86
Procedure, 119
Proceed, 119
Procession, 119
Procure, 303
Prodigal, 19
Prodigies, 19
Produce, 23, 126
Profane, 445
Profit, 302
Profusion, 23
Prognosis, 20
Progress, 74
Project, 15
Proletariat, 321
Prolix, 10
Promise, 439
Prompt, 419
Pronoun, 237

Propagandist, 366

Putative, 146

Propagate, 366

Pyat, 94

Propel, 25

Pyrometer, 22

Propose, 266

Pyrotechnics, 22

Proposition, 204

Proscribe, 243

Quack, 141

Prose, 249

Quadrangle, 71

Prosody, 249

Quadrant, 71

Prospect, 16

Quadrate, 71

Prostration, 256

Quadratic, 71

Protect, 193

Quadrille, 71

Protege", 193

Quadroon, 71

Protestant, 416

Quadruped, 71, 135

Protocol, 324

Quaff, 179

Protomartyr, 324

Quality, 270

Protoplasm, 324

Quandary, 205

Prototype, 324

Quantity, 269

Protract, 25

Quarantine, 45

Proverb, 234

Quarrel, 407

Provide, 123

Quarry, 192

Provision-dealing, 260

Quart, 273

Provoke, 237

Quarter, 71

Prune, 59

Quarto, 248

P's and Q's, 232

Quartz, 52

Psalms, 372

Quaternion, 71

Psalter, 372

Quilt, 198

Psychology, 8

Quinary, 276

Publisher, 253

Quinsy, 140

Puddle, 81

Quiver, 335

Puisne, 329

Quotation, 241

Puissant, 210

Quotidian, 241

Pulse, 25

Quotient, 241

Pumps, 164

Punch, 181

Rabbit, 85

Puncheon, 378

Racoon, 74

Punctilio, 378

Racy, 128

Punctual, 378

Radiation, 23

Punctuality, 378

Radicle, 128

Puncture, 378

Radish, 128

Pungency, 378

Raft, 35

Pungent, 198

Rage, 406

Punishable, 420

Raiment, 166

Punitive, 420

Rake, 101

Pupil, 122

Ramble, 381

Pure, 426

Ramify, 60

Purgatory, 426

Rampart, 201

Puritans, 426

Rank, 337

Purity, 426

Ranunculus, 67

Purpose, 266

Rascal, 99, 409

Puss, 77

Rase, 99

464

INDICES.

Rasher, 176

Rescue, 24

Rubber, 164

Rat, 84

Resentment, 406

Ruby, 55

Rate, 203

Resolve, 308

Ruffian, 409

Rational, 203

Respect, 388

Rule, 332

Reason, 203

Respectable, 16

Ruminate, 91

Rebus, 347

Respire, 415

Runagate, 445

Recede, 119

Respite, 16

Rune, 242

Receive, 203

Respond, 112

Runic, 242

Reception, 203

Responsible, 112

Rusk, 183

Recompense, 142

Restrain, 105

Rust, 83

Rectangle, 332

Restrict, 105

Recur, 100

Resurrection, 425

Sabellianism, 418

Redemption, 419

Retail, 145

Sacerdotal, 422

Redound, 43

Retain, 50

Sacred, 422

Reduce, 23, 126

Retina, 123

Sacrifice, 422

Reflect, 24

Retort, 102

Sacrilege, 422

Reflex, 24

Retract, 25

Sacrilegious, 422

Refracted, 97

Retrenchment, 306

Sacristan, 422

Refractory, 97

Retrograde, 74

Sail, 37

Refrigerant, 28

Retrospect, 16

Salary, 309

Refund, 23

Reveal, 157

Salmon, 47

Regency, 332

Revelation, 414

Samphire, 67

Regicide, 332

Reverence, 388

Sandwich, 178

Regimen, 332

Reverend, 388

Sanguinary, 10

Regiment, 332

Revert, 1

Sanguine, 10, 12

Revise, 123

Sapience, 128

Regnant, 332

Revive, 172

Sarcasm, 406

Regulate, 333

Revoke, 237

Sarcophagus, 152

Reindeer, 92

Revolt, 245

Satire, 406

Rejection, 15

Revolve, 245

Saturated, 32

Rejoin,^ 239

Rhetoric, 137, 374

Saturnine, 11

Relate, 237

Rheumatism, 137

Saucy, 128

Relative, 237

Rhinoceros, 86

Saunter, 137

Relaxation, 342

Rift, 32

Savage, 58

Release, 342

Rime, 252

Savour, 128

Remedy, 134

Risk, 304

Saxifrage, 68

Remember, 203

Ritualism, 447

Scale, 121

Reminiscence, 203

Rivals, 33

Scan, 98

Remuneration, 310

River, 32

Scandal, 383

Renegade, 445

Roan, 88

Scar, 243

Repast, 440

Rodent, 83

Scarce, 198

Repent, 419

Roll, 396

Scarlet, 123

Repine, 420

Rook, 349

Sceptic, 6, 427

Replenish, 415

Room, 195

Schedule, 245

Reply, 379

Rosary, 442

Schist, 53

Representative, 324

Rosemary, 67

Schooner, 38

Repress, 24

Rotate, 396

Science, 202

Reprimand, 24

Rote, 396

Sciolist, 202

Repulsion, 25

Row, 36

Scion, 217, 299

Reputation, 146

Row-lock, 36

Scope, 6

ENGLISH.

465

Scorn, 405

Skull, 121

Spontaneous, 24

Scoundrel, 386

Skye terrier, 81

Spoon, 177

Scour, 158

Slander, 383

Sport, 342

Scribe, 243

Slate, 53

Spouse, 112

Scrip, 243

Sleep, 133

Spout, 118

Scrivener, 248

Slipshod, 164

Sprain, 24

Scruple, 274

Sloop, 38

Squabbling, 407

Scrutiny, 327

Slumber, 133

Squad, 334

Scull, 39

Smack, 39

Squadron, 334

Scullery, 39, 200

Smock, 162

Squire, 320

Seceder, 119

Snob, 210

Squirrel, 83

Security, 303

Sober, 402

Stage, 266

Sedate, 315

Sobriety, 398

Stage, 364

Sedentary, 315

Soda, 332

Stair, 194

Sediment, 315

Sojourn, 253

Stalactites, 54

Seduce, 23, 126

Solar, 3

Stalagmites, 54

Senator, 146

Solder, 54, 332

Stalking-horse, 89

Senile, 146

Sole, 164

Standard, 274

Senior, 146, 429

Solid, 332

Stanza, 250

Separate, 403

Solstice, 3

Starboard, 43

Sepulchre, 151

Solution, 308

Starling, 95

Sere, 88

Somnambulism, 133

Stationer, 267

Serenade, 375

Son, 116

Stenography, 248

Sergeant, 336

Sonnet, 252

Step-mother, 117

Sermon, 435

Soothsayer, 353

Stereoscope, 6

Servant, 336

Sophist, 212

Stern, 42

Session, 314

Sophistry, 384

Stethoscope, 6

Several, 403

Sorcerer, 353

Stipend, 309

Sexton, 422

Sorrel, 88

Stock, 299

Shagreen, 90

Sounding, 43

Stockbroker, 300

Sheaf, 334

Spaniel, 81

Stock Exchange, 299

Sheet-anchor, 42

Sparingly, 305

Store, 42

Shell, 121

Sparrow, 94

Storey, 194

Sheriff, 315

Sparse, 383

Story, 265

Shift, 162

Spatchcock, 135

Stbur, 42

Shire, 315

Speaker, 323

Strain, 105

Shove, 334

Species, 16

Strait, 105

Siege, 315

Spectacle, 16

Stratagem, 331

Sign, 247

Spectre, 16

Strategical, 331

Significant, 247

Speculate, 16

Stratified, 52

Sill, 193

Spice, 186

Street, 256

Silly, 211

Spider, 48, 105

Stress, 105

Simnel, 191

Spindel, 109

Strict, 105

Simple, 212

Spine, 121

Stringent, 105

Sinecure, 303

Spinner, 105

Stub, 401

Singular, 236

Spinster, 109

Stubbornness, 401

Siphon, 26

Spirits, 13

Stun, 18

Sirloin, 185

Spleet new, 177

Style, 244

Sister, 117

Spondee, 250

Subdue, 23

Skirt, 162

Sponsor, 116

Subjection, 15

2 0

466

INDICES.

Subjoin, 239

Syllogism, 204

Tent, 19, 203

Subjunctive, 239

Sylvan, 58

Term, 290

Submarine, 34

Sympathy, 139

Termination, 290

Subsidise, 315

Symptoms, 134

Terminology, 290

Subtraction, 25

Synopsis, 241

Terminus, 397

Subtrahend, 25

Syntax, 234

Terrier, 81

Suburban, 255

Tester-bed, 197

Subvert, 1

Tactician, 234

Teuchit, 101

Success, 119

Tactics, 234

Text, 436

Succession, 119

Tailor, 168

Textile, 436

Suffrage, 327

Tainted, 126

Textual, 436

Suffragette, 327

Talisman, 355

Thatch, 192

Suffuse, 23

Tandem, 263

Theatre, 363

Suggest, 131

Tangent, 127

Theism, 410

Suicide, 147

Tansy, 68

Theogony, 411

Suit, 171

Tantalise, 396

Theology, 8, 411

Sulk, 197

Tapestry, 198

Theophany, 411

Sullen, 197

Tarantula, 105

Thermometer, 25

Summary, 241

Tardigrade, 85

Thesaurus, 242

Sumpter, 403

Tardy, 85

Threshold, 194

Sumptuary, 403

Tart, 102

Thrift, 305

Sumptuous, 403

Taste, 127

Thrill, 128

Sun, 3

Tavern, 143

Thrush, 94

Supercilious, 405

Tawdry, 167

Thumb, 270

Supererogation, 402

Taxidermist, 234

Thunder, 18

Superfine, 235

Teasel, 160

Thursday, 289

Superintend, 19

Tee-name, 209

Tide, 32

Superlative, 237

Teetotaller, 182

Tidings, 32

, Supervise, 123

Teetotum, 183

Timber, 58

Supine, 240

Tegument, 192, 243

Time, 32

Supineness, 400

Telegraph, 6

Tinder, 200

Supple, 439

Teleology, 6

Tipple, 179

Supplication, 438

Telepathy, 6

Toast, 28

Sure, 303

Telephone, 6

Toll-bar, 257

Surf, 35

Telescope, 6

To-name, 209

Surge, 392

Temper, 12

Topic, 29

Surgeon, 72, 145

Temperament, 10

Topography, 29, 59

Surgery, 72, 145

Temperance, 396

Torch, 102

Surplice, 433

Temperature, 25

Torment, 102

Surprise, 421

Tempest, 398

Tornado, 27

Surtout, 163

Temporal, 398

Torrent, 28

Survey, 123

Tenacious, 50

Torrid, 28

Survive, 172

Tenant, 50

Tortion, 102

Susceptible, 203

Tend, 19, 203. See 50

Tortoise, 102

Suspicion, 405

Tender, 19, 203

Town, 255

Suspicious, 16

Tendon, 19, 203

Toxophilist, 402

Sustain, 50

Tenet, 50

Trace, 25

Sweetheart, 109

Tenor, 50

Tractable, 25

Sycophant, 383

Tense, 239

Tractarianism, 446

Syllable, 234

Tension, 19

Traduce, 23, 126

ENGLISH.

467

Traffic, 45, 261

Unit, 1

Train, 25

Unitarian, 1

Tramp, 160

Unitarianism, 418

Transcend, 98

Unite, 1

Transcendental, 98

Unity, 1

Transcription, 243

Universe, 1

Transfuse, 23

Unprotected, 193

Transgress, 74

Unsophisticated, 212

Transitive, 240

Unstable, 312

Translate, 237

Unveil, 157

Transmit, 440

Urban, 255

Transport, 343

Urchin, 73

Transubstantiation, 424

Usage, 299

Travesty, 368

Use, 299

Treacle, 175

Useless, 299

Treason, 391

Usher, 328

Treatise, 25

Usual, 299

Trees, 57

Usurious, 299

Trenchant, 306

Usurp, 299

Trencher, 306

Utensils, 199, 299

Trinitarians, 417

Utility, 299

Trivet, 199

Utopia, 29

Trivial, 268

Trope, 29

Vaccination, 138

Trophy, 29

Vail, 157

Tropics, 29

Valentine, 289

Troth, 377

Valet, 229

Trousers, 162

Valetudinarian, 10

Truffle, 186

Valiant, 11

Trump, 346

Vamp, 165

Trunk, 59, 306

Vampire, 72

Trustworthy, 377

Varicose, 308

Truth, 377

Varlet, 229

Tureen, 199

Vassal, 229

Turnpike, 257

Vegetable, 57

Turtle, 102

Vehement, 91, 406

Twill, 159

Vehicle, 91, 262

Typography, 59

Veil, 157

Venison, 92

Ultramarine, 34, 124

Venture, 414

Ultramontanism, 447

Verandah, 364

Umbrella, 260

Verb, 234

Unanimous, 1

Verbal, 234

Uncle, 117

Verbiage, 234

Undetected, 193

Vermuth, 68

Undertaker, 149

Verse, 249

Unicorn, 1

Versed, 1

Uniform, 332

Version, 1

Unique, 1

Vertebrae, 1

Unison, 1

Vertical, 27

Vertigo, 1
Vest, 303, 433
Vestment, 433
Vestry, 303, 433
Vesture, 433
Veterinary, 90
Vexatious, 91
Viaduct, 23
Viands, 172, 261
Vicarage, 419
Vicarious, 419
Vice, 408
Viceregal, 419
Viceregent, 419
Viceroy, 419
Vicious, 408
Vicissitude, 419
Victual dealers, 260
Victuals, 172
View, 123
Vigesimal, 276
Vignette, 249
Villa, 228
Village, 255
Villain, 228
Villainy, 228
Vinegar, 186
Violin, 375
Violoncello, 375
Viper, 105
Virago, 108
Virility, 108
Virtue, 108
Virulence, 108
Visage, 123
Viscount, 419
Visionaries, 123
Vital, 172
Vitiate, 408
Vitiation, 408
Vituperation, 408
Viva voce, 172
Vivid, 123
Vivisection, 73
Viz., 123

Vocabulary, 237, 241
Vocative, 237
Voice, 125, 237
Volition, 392
Voluble, 246

468

INDICES.

Volume, 245
Voluminous, 245
Voluntary, 392
Volunteer, 392
Voluptuary, 392
Voluptuous, 392
Votary, 327
Votive, 327
Vouchsafe, 237
Vow, 327
Vowel, 237
Voyage, 46
Vulgar, 321
Vulgate, 322
Vulture, 97

Wage, 110
Wager, 110
Waggery, 371
Waggon, 262
Wain, 262
Wale, 36
Walk-mill, 159
Walnut, 187
Walrus, 82

Warbler, 95
Waremood, 69
Wassail, 179
Water-mark, 248
Wauk-mill, 159
Waulk, 159
Way, 257
Weal, 304
Wealth, 305
Wealthy, 305
Wedding, 112
Wedlock, 112
Weeds, 115
Welfare, 304
Welkin, 23
Welsh, 188
Welsh rabbit, 85
Wench, 77
Whale, 82
Whirled, 27
Whirlicotes, 262
Widow, 114
Widower, 115
Will-o'-the-Wisp, 21
Wince, 87

Window, 123, 193
Wisdom, 376
Wiseacre, 354
Witch, 354
Withers, 87
Wizard, 353
Woman, 109
Wool, 158
World, 27
Wormwood, 68
Worsted, 158
Wrangling, 407
Wrath, 405
Write, 243

Yard, 58
Year, 282-284

Zero, 25
Zodiac, 7
Zodiacal', 7
Zone, 28

Zoology, 7, 8, 70
Zoophyte, 7

FRENCH.

Abstenir, 398
Accolade, 185
Adieu, 444
Agre"er, 394
Aigle, 96
Aigre, 186
Aile, 432
Aire, 96
Allee, 257
Aller, 257
Amulette, 355
Amuser, 341
Ancre, 42
Arlequin, 369
Arme"e, 336

Artillerie, 334

Besoin, 258

Asphodele, 64

Billard, 348

Auteur, 253

Bille, 348

Avant-pied, 165

Blanc, 161

Avenir, 257

Blanquette, 161

Bouder, 197

Babouin, 71

Boudoir, 197

Bai, 88

Bouge, 42

Baionnette, 337

Bourg, 389

Balle, 325

Bourse, 304

Ballotte, 325

Bouteille, 182

Bander, 407

Bouteiller, 182

Banque, 297

Branche, 59

Belle, 214

Brasse, 272

Besogne, 258

Bref, 337

FRENCH.

469

Brevet, 337

Epaulette, 339

Langage, 207

Bribe, 325

Epine, 121

Langue, 207

Broder, 259

Epreindre, 24

Lansquenets, 346

Br flier, 175

Equiper, 87

Leger, 356

Busard, 97

Etage, 364

Lezard, 103

Butor, 100

Etat, 312

Lieu, 336

Etendard, 274

Lieutenant, 336

Cabriolet, 264

Lievre, 85

Cavalerie, 333

Fable, 252

Linotte, 163

Chagrin, 90

Fait, 168

Livre, 296

Chef, 167

Farce, 367

Livre'e, 167

Ch^if, 215

Faucon, 96

Livrer, 167

Chirurgien, 72, 145

Forain, 57

Locomotif, 261

Chute, 403

Foret, 57

Loi, 387

Climat, 27

Fouler, 159

Longe, 183

Complaindre, 408

Frein, 88

Confection, 259

Frere, 441

Madame, 319

Conjurer, 357

Futaine, 404

Main, 356

Contre-danse, 345

Mansarde, 193

Controle, 396

Gage, 110

Mare'chal, 335

Corps, 336

Gager, 110

Meghan t, 217

Cote1, 31

Garnir, 167

Meschant, 217

Coutelas, 338

Girofle, 66

Messe, 439

Couvrechef, 167

Girofle-e, 66

Mignoter, 226

Couvre-feu, 434

Glande, 131

Miniature, 195

Couvrir, 167

Glouton, 75, 401

Moiti6, 297

Crin, 163

Goulet, 130

Mort, 111

Gourmand, 401

Mousqueton, 212

Dame, 214

Gouverner, 312

Moutarde, 186

Dame-jeanne, 180

Griffon, 98

Danser, 345
D6jeuner, 184

T"V_«J. CA

Guigne, 66
Guigner, 339

Naive, 1
Naivete", 1

jjent, 04
De"shabill<§, 171
De"shabiller, 171

Habillement, 171
Habiller, 171

Nappe, 163
Na'pperon, 163
•fjx «joq

Desservir, 187

Haquene'e, 266

1>C, O**t7
fjjf 4.OO

Deux, 346
Dictionnaire, 241

Haut, 402
Huiasier, 328

1>L-1, *±O^

Niais, 226

Diner, 184

Huitre, 48

Douaire, 170

Octroi, 296

Drogue, 142

Imbecile, 306

CEuvre, 374

Oignon, 1

Echoir, 389

Jaque, 163

Oncle, 117

Editeur, 254

Jaquette, 163

Organe, 375

Etegie, 252
Ennui, 395

Jarret, 162
Jarre tier e, 162

Orgue, 374
Outarde, 94

Ennuyer, 395

Juree, 330

Envie, 405

Jurer, 330

Palefroi, 89

Epagneul, 81

Pane'gyrique, 423

Epaule, 339

Lache, 399

Panier, 90

470

INDICES.

Parallele, 122

Puissant, 210

Sorcier, 353

Parcelle, 267

Pupille, 123

Sou, 332

Parer, 403

Soubresaut, 390

Paturon, 87
Peindre, 195
Peine, 134
Pe'pin, 260
P<§piniere, 260

Quarteron, 71
Quatre-vingts, 276
Quelquechose, 187
Querelle, 407
Queue, 385

Souverain, 313
Sucre, 175
Surlonge, 185

Tableaux, 346, 366

Perche, 47

Tailler, 79, 168

Perdrix, 99

Tailleur, 168

Persil, 67

Racaille, 409

Tater, 127

Petit, 417

Rage, 406

Tenant, 336

Pinte, 273

Raton, 74

Tete, 197

Piquer, 128

Regarder, 388

Tombe, 151

Planete, 5

Re"gner, 313

Tourte, 102

Plombet, 43

Renegat, 445

Traite, 26

Poete, 251

Repentir, 419

Tranchoir, 306

Poll, 160

Re'publique, 313

Tricher, 391

Poltron, 386

Retail, 145

Tricherie, 391

Pomme, 88

Retrancher, 306

Tronce, 306

Pomme de terre, 186

Re>e>er, 388

Pommeler, 88

Rosaire, 442

Valet, 229

Pompe, 164

Rouan, 88

Varlet, 229

Ponctuel, 376

Rouler, 396

Velin, 246

Postilion, 266

Rufien, 409

Venaison, 92

Pot-de-vin, 325

Viande, 261

Pouce, 270

Saison, 286

Victuaille, 260

Poule, 99

Scrutin, 328

Ville, 255

Poulet, 99

Second, 280

Vin, 186

Pouvoir, 210

Simple, 212

Vinaigre, 186

Precher, 437

Soldat, 332

Violon, 375

Puis, 329

Sonder, 43

Voyelle, 233

LATIN.

Absum, 423
Acer, 186
Advenio, 257
Advocatus, 330
Mdea, 192
Squalls, 28
JEquus, 28
Agger, 381
Ago, 19, 240

Agurium, 6
Ala, 432
Alcedo, 95
llo, 130
Alter, 407
Altercor, 407
Amblgo, 380
Ambitio, 325
Ambiilo, 133

Amita, 117
Ammonia, 93
Ampulla, 404
Anas, 101
Anchora, 42
Animus, 1
Annus, 283
Aperio, 284
Apertus, 374

LATIN.

471

Appetitus, 172, 401

Candela, 259

Cresco, 5

Aprilis, 284

Candeo, 20

Greta, 54

Aqulla, 64

Candidatus, 325

Cretaceus, 54

Aquilegia, 63

Canis, 80

Crudus, 127

Aries, 7

Canna, 415

Cubitus, 271

Ars, 334

Cano, 355, 372

Cubo, 271, 428

Aspectus, 9

Capio, 202

Culclta, 198

Asper, 408

Captlvus, 215

Curro, 100

Aspergo, 383

Cardinalis, 428

Cursores, 100

Aspicio, 9

Cardo, 276

Aster, 9

Carpo, 198

Dactylus, 251

Atavus, 117

Cassus, 295

Decem, 278

Attonltus, 18

Castra, 199

Decimus, 278

Auctor, 253

Cauda, 385

Dedignor, 405

Audio, 125

Cedo, 119

Definio, 235

Augeo, 253

Celo, 426

Delirium, 12

Augur, 16

Censeo, 408

Delphinus, 83

Augurium, 6

Censura, 408

Dens, 64

Auricula, 125

Centrum, 13, 25

Deslno, 183

Auris, 125

Charta, 246

Dlco, 204

Auspex, 16

Civis, 255

Dlco, 204

Avarus, 304

Civitas, 255

Dictio, 241

Avis, 16

Clavis, 121, 186

Dies, 253

Avunculns, 117

Cocatrix, 104

Digitalis, 74

Avus, 117

Coccus, 124

Digitus, 74, 270

Axilla, 432

Codex, 246

Dignus, 405

Ccelum, 197

Diluo, 34

Baccalarius, 109

Ccena, 183

Dispense, 142

Baccalaureus, 109

Collum, 121

Dispergo, 383

Beatus, 305

Color, 124

Diurnalis, 253

Bernacula, 48

Columba, 65

Diverto, 344

Bimana, 70

Complecto, 10

Divino, 353

Bos, 100

Compos, 210

Do, 236

Botellus, 132

Comprimo, 24

Doleo, 400

Br6vis, 241

Condio, 186

Dominus, 320

Burra, 3

Confectio, 259

Domus, 192

Buteo, 97

Conjectura, 15

Donum, 236

Butorius, 100

Conjicio, 15

Dormio, 193

Conniv6o, 306

Dorsum, 298

Caballus, 333

Consider©, 14

Draco, 103

Cado, 24

Contemplor, 15

Duco, 23, 126

Czedo, 378, 397

Contineo, 51

Dulcia, 417

Calcare, 40

Contumax, 401

Duplex, 212

Calculus, 6

Convenio, 414

Calendarium, 282

Copia, 245

Ebrius, 402

Calix, 375

Coquo, 183

Edo, 139, 253

Calo, 282

Corona, 336

Electuarium, 176

Calx, 6, 40

Corpus, 149

Emo, 419

Camera, 332

Corvus, 102

EmOlo, 309

Cancer, 7

Credo, 298

Emolumentum, 309

472

INDICES.

Eruptus, 50

Fullonia, 159

Imperator, 314

Exaggero, 381

Fumus, 66

Impero, 314

Excornis, 405

Fundo, 23

Impos, 210

Excuto, 24

Funus, 149

Incanto, 355

Exegesis, 436

Futilis, 23

Incedo, 94

Exemplum, 419

Futus, 23

Indulgeo, 417

Eximo, 402, 419

Infans, 116

Expando, 25

Gadus, 47

Infidelis, 426

Expedio, 130

Gemini, 7

Inflflo, 9

Expono, 436

Gero, 130, 207

Ingenium, 261

Extreme, 24

Gigno, 261

Innocens, 212

Glans, 131

Inseco, 73

Fabula, 252, 394

Gluto, 75

Insilio, 390

Facilis, 206

Glutus, 401

Insolens, 408

Facio, 393

Gradior, 74

Insula, 51

Factum, 169

Gradus, 74

Insurgo, 392

Facultas, 206

Grallator, 100

Inveho, 406

Fallo, 204, 380

Gratus, 394

Invidia, 123

Falsum, 204, 380

Gravis, 395

Ira, 407

Falx, 307

Grex, 440

Ironla, 406

Fanaticus, 445

Grunnio, 47

Irrio, 407

Fans, 116

Guberno, 312

Irrito, 407

Fanum, 445

Gula, 130

Iter, 272

Fastus, 174

Gusto, 127

Fatuus, 21

Jacio, 15

Felis, 77

Habeo, 171, 192, 296

Jaculor, 15

Ferio, 391

Habito, 42

Jaculum, 15

Fero, 237

Habitus, 170

Jugulum, 239

Fidelis, 426

Haereditas, 313

Jungo, 239

Fides, 426

Hseres, 313

Juro, 330

Filum, 337

Hiberna, 83

Jus, 131, 386

Findo, 32

Hiems, 83

Justus, 386

Finis, 235

Hirpex, 151

Juvenis, 285

Fissura, 32

Hocus, 226

Flecto, 24

Hocus pocus, 224

Lac, 6

Focus, 25

Homicidium, 148

Lacerta, 103

For, 394

Homo, 107

Lachryma, 131

Fors, 344

Honor, 387

Lactea, 6

Frango, 69, 97, 327

Hortus, 101

Lanx, 406

Frater, 441

Hospes, 143

Lateo, 24

Fraus, 306

Hostis, 143

Latro, 389

Frenum, 88

Humilis, 150

Laudandum, 147

Frico, 24

Humor, 10

Laudo, 147

Frictus, 24

Humus, 108

Lavo, 200, 260

Frigus, 28

Laxus, 342, 399

Fritillus, 65

Ignis, 20

Lemures, 73

Frons, 391

Imago, 203

Leo, 77

Frumentarius, 217

Imbecillis, 306

Lepus, 85

Frux, 305

Imitor, 203

Libero, 166

Fullo, 159

Impedio, 136

Licet, 342

LATIN.

473

Licitum, 342

Mobile, 321

Ordo, 276

Ligo, 395

Mola, 309

Os, 97, 121

Limen, 194

Molaris, 309

Ossifragus, 97

Limes, 291

Mollis, 48

Ostendo, 403

Lingua, 207

Molluscus, 48

Ostiarius, 328

Linum, 163

Mons, 83

Ostrea, 48

Liqueo, 9

Mordeo, 128

Ovum, 105

Liquor, 10

Mors, 146

Lira, 12

Mortalis, 146, 425

Palatus, 127

Litera, 244

Mortifico, 408

Pallium, 134, 156

Lixus, 10

Mortuus, 111, 302

Pando, 25

Loco, 261

Moveo, 261

Pango, 366

Locus, 30

Mulcto, 110

Panis, 90, 189, 200

Lorica, 103

Munus, 310

Pannus, 329

Lorum, 103

Mus, 83, 122

Papilio, 201

Ludo, 362

Myscus, 200

Paradisus, 425

Lumbus, 151

Mysterium, 361

Pardus, 76

Luna, 4, 11

Pario, 105

Lunare, 4

Nascor, 1

Paro, 201

Luo, 34, 55

Nasus, 128

Pars, 387

Lux, 4

Nato, 101

Particeps, 240

Natura, 1

Particula, 387

Macula, 47, 76

Nauta, 33

Passus, 42

Maculia, 76

Navigo, 33

Pater, 115

Magister, 320

Navis, 33

Pater noster, 225

Malus, 392

Nebula, 23

Patior, 240

Mandatum, 289

Nihil, 427

Pax, 31

Mania, 11

Nisi, 329

Pectus, 201

Manus, 70

Nisi prius, 329

Peculium, 294

Mappa, 167

No, 101

Peculor, 295

Mare, 34

Noceo, 212

Pecus, 294

Marmor, 52

Nomen, 235

Pedo, 338

Mas, 236

Novem, 282

Pelicanus, 101

Massa, 189

Nubo, 112

Pellis, 155

Mater, 113

Nuptialis, 112

Pello, 25

Medeor, 134

Pendo, 142, 295

Medius, 31, 297

Obeo, 423

Pene, 51

Medusa, 48

OWtus, 423

Penus, 33

Memor, 203

Oblatio, 438

Perca, 47

Memoria, 203

Obsequor, 150

Percipio, 202

Mensis, 4

Octogenarius, 146

Perdix, 99

Mercari, 258

Oculus, 123

Perpetro, 148

Merx, 258

Odium, 395

Persona, 237

Metallum, 54

Odor, 129

Pervisus, 242

Micao, 52

Offi-ro, 438

Pes, 135

Mille, 272

Olfacto, 129

Petltus, 417

Millennium, 427

Omen, 17

Peto, 172

Minuo, 292

Opportunus, 45

Petra, 195

Missal, 439

Opus, 374

Pictus, 195

Mitto, 439

Orbus, 117

Pilus, 160

474

INDICES.

Pingo, 195, 273

Puer, 89

Rlpa, 32

Pinna, 37

Pullus, 89

Rivales, 33

Placeo, 344

Punctum, 378

Rivus, 32

Planta, 73

Pungo, 198, 378

Rodo, 84

Planus, 376

Pupillus, 123

Ros, 67

Plaudo, 382

Purgo, 426

Rota, 396

Plecto, 10

Purpura, 124

Rumen, 92

Plexus, 3

Purus, 145

Ruminor, 91

Plico, 36, 379, 403

Puto, 145

Rumpo, 50

Plumbum, 43

Putus, 145

Ruptus, 50

Pluvium, 100

Pcena, 134, 419

Quadraginta, 45

Sacer, 422

Poeta, 251

Quadro, 192

Sacerdos, 422

Polio, 388

Qualis, 270

Sacramentum, 422

Pollex, 385

Quantum, 269

Sseculum, 27

Pomum, 88

Quantus, 269

Sal, 308

Pondus, 295

Quatro, 24

Salarium, 309

Pono, 204, 240, 266

Quatuor, 45, 72

Salio, 47, 390

Populus, 322

Querela, 407

Salsus, 128

Porcus, 83

Queror, 407

Sanguis, 10, 129

Portendo, 18

Quinque, 277

Sapientia, 128

Porto, 342

Sapio, 128

Portus, 45

Rabies, 406

Satira, 406

Pos, 210

Radius, 23

Satis. 32, 406

Possum, 210

Radix, 128

Satur, 32, 406

Posterus, 151

Rado, 99, 244

Scando, 98

Postilla, 437

Rasores, 99, 177

Scansores, 98

Postnmus, 151

Rasus, 409

Scena, 364

Potens, 239

Ratio, 203

Scio, 202

Prjecido, 378

Rebus, 347

Scribo, 243

Prsecox, 199

Redtaio, 419

Scrupulus, 274

PraBsagio, 20

Regnum, 313

Scrupus, 274

Prsesens, 324

Rego, 332

Scrutinium, 327

Praesto, 356

Remedium, 134

Scutella, 200

Prsesumo, 403

Rememoro, 203

Scutum, 320

Pratum, 49

Reminiscor, 203

Seco, 74, 218

Preces, 444

Remunero, 310

Secundus, 280

Prehendo, 253, 421

Reor, 203

Securus, 303

Premo, 24, 253

Repello, 25

Sedeo, 314

Pretium, 302

Repo, 102

Seditio, 392

Princeps, 315

Represento, 324

Semel, 236

Privilegium, 214

Respicio, 388

Senex, 146

Privus, 214

Respublica, 313

Senllis, 146

Prodlgo, 19

Resurgo, 425

Sentio, 406

Proficio, 302

Retento, 93, 177

Sepelio, 151

Prolixus, 10

Retro, 16

Sepulchrum, 151

Promero, 419

Revelo, 157

Sermo, 435

Proprius, 237

Revereor, 388

Sero, 435

Provoco, 396

Rideo, 362

Serus, 375

Pudet, 391

Ridiculus, 362

Servio, 336

LATIN.

475

Sidus, 14

Supra, 313

Vacca, 109

Sigillum, 247

Surdus, 126

Valere, 11

Signo, 247

Surgo, 392, 425

Valetudinarius, 11

Signum, 247

Suspicio, 405

Valetudo, 11

Simila, 191

Vallis, 25

Similis, 73

Tandem, 262

Vanus, 402

Simius, 73

Tango, 126

Vapor, 32

Simplex, 212

Tapes, 199

Vehemens, 406

Sine, 303

Tardus, 85

Veho, 91

Singulus, 212

Taurus, 7, 100

Velamen, 157

Sinister, 17

Tego, 192

Vellere, 157

Sisto, 3

Tegula, 193

Velio, 98

Sobrius, 398, 402

Temetum, 398

Vellus, 157

Sol, 3

Temno, 401

Velum, 157

Solea, 164

Tempero, 10, 25, 397

Vena, 129

Soleo, 408

Templum, 15

Veneficium, 46

Solido, 55

Tempus, 398

Veneror, 388

Solidus, 332

Tendo, 19, 203

Venter, 130

Solstitium, 3

Teneo, 50

Verber, 125

Solum, 164, 193

Terminus, 290, 397

Verbum, 234

Solus, 3

Terra, 31, 82, 199

Vereor, 388

Solvo, 308

Tessella, 85

Vermis, 124

Sono, 125

Tessera, 85

Vertex, 27

Sonus, 252

Texo, 436

Verto, 1, 27

Spargo, 383

Tonitru, 18

Verus, 378

Spatula, 339

Torqueo, 102

Vestis, 303

Specio, 16, 405

Torreo, 28

Veterinus, 91

Spina, 85

Tortus, 67

Vetus, 91

Spiritus, 13

Trado, 392, 417

Via, 46, 257

Spiro, 415

Traho, 25

Vice, 419

Spondeo, 112

Trans, 368

Victualis, 172

Stationes, 267

Tremens, 12

Victus, 260

Stella, 7

Tres, 268, 417

Videlicet, 123

Sterno, 52, 256

Trinus, 417

Video, 123, 242

Stillo, 259

Trivia, 268

Vidua, 114

Stinguo, 205

Trudo, 391

Villa, 228

Stipendium, 309

Truncus, 385

Villanus, 228

Stips, 309

Turdus, 95

Vinum, 186

Stirps, 128

Tussilago, 63

Vir, 108

Sto, 3, 266

Virtus, 108

Strata, 256

Ulmus, 65

Visio, 123

Stratum, 52

Ulna, 122

Vita, 172

Stringo, 105

Uncus, 118, 270

Vitellus, 246

Sturnus, 95, 96

Unda, 43

Vitium, 408

Succisa, 66

Unio, 1

Vitulor, 375

Suffragium, 327

Unitas, 418

Vitulus, 246

Sumo, 403

Unus, 1

Vitupero, 408

Super, 35, 313

Urbanus, 255

Vivenda, 172

Supplex, 439

Urbs, 255

Vivo, 172, 260

Supplico, 438

Utor, 199

Voco, 125, 237

476

INDICES.

Volo, 392

Votum, 327

Vulgo, 322

Volumen, 245

Voveo, 327

Vulgua, 322

Voluntas, 392

Vox, 125

Volvo, 245

Vulcanus, 49

Zero, 25

GEKMAN.

Aar, 96

Hase, 84

Scharte, 85

Affe, 71

Hasen-scharte, 85

Scheuern, 158

Alp, 133

Heer, 331

Schiff, 87

Apfel, 88

Heim, 256

Schimmel, 88

Auge, 123

Hemmen, 168

Schlafen, 133

Himmel, 265

Schlummern, 133

Baum Schule, 260

Holle, 426

Schwester, 117

Boll-werk, 257

Holz, 272

Selig, 212

Braak, 301

Spatz, 94

Braken, 301

Kartoffel, 186

Sperling, 94

Brauchen, 300

Kassiren, 295

Spinne, 105

Bruder, 117

Keuchhusten, 140

Staar, 94

Buchstaben, 242

Knabe, 229

Stunde, 273

Burg, 389

Kb'nigreich, 429

Kiiche, 199

Teufel, 65

Donnerstag, 289

Thier, 92

Drei, 277

Lein-wand, 115

Tochter, 116

Drollig, 371
Drossel, 94

Makler, 301

Trocken, 142

Marzipan, 189

Ulme, 65

Einfaltig, 439
Ellenbogen, 271
Ente, 101
Enterich, 101

Meerschaum, 201
Mehre, 89
Miit, 69
Mutter, 115

Urlaub, 340

Vier, 277
Vogel, 99
Vorweser, 119

Faden, 271
Fahren, 305

Nachtigall, 95
Natter, 105

Wand, 115
Wehren, 69

Flunkern, 218

Polster, 326

Weis-sagen, 354

Fohlen, 89

Weis-sager, 354

Froh, 371

Quacksalber, 141

Wermut, 69

Fiinf, 277

Wirbeln, 95

Funke, 218

Rauch, 129

Wort, 234

Raufen, 329

Wuth, 445

Ge-apfelt, 88

Reich, 428

Gebet, 442

Reichen, 129

Zucken, 126

Geek, 187

Rennen, 92

Ziinden, 200

Geckschoserie, 187

Ross, 86

Zwei, 277

Gluck, 344

Rot, 88

Zwieback, 183

GREEK.

477

GREEK.

Adamas, 55

Austeros, 391

Eidomai, 252

Aetites, 96

Autos, 8, 149

Eidos, 252

Aetos, 96

Eimi, 51

Agnostos, 411

Ballo, 381

Eiro, 234, 406

Ag6ra, 423

Baptize, 422

Eiron, 406

Agros, 273

Bapto, 422

Eironeia, 406

Agttris, 423

Baros, 26

Ekleicho, 176

Ainigma, 347

Basileus, 104

Ekleikton, 176

Akeomai, 142

Basiliskos, 104

Electron, 18

Akoniton, 60

Beta, 231

Elegos, 252

Akouo, 125

Biblion, 414

Eleos, 393

Akros, 233

Bios, 59j 81

Elephas, 86

Alabastron, 53

Bombyx, 404

Empeirikos, 141

Allos, 122

Bosko, 86

Emphasis, 423

Alpha, 86, 231

Botane, 57

Empyros, 22

Ama, 55

Energeia, 398

Amarantos, 60

Dactulos, 251

Enthusiasmos, 445

Amphi, 81

Dakru, 131

Entomon, 8

Anekdoton, 243

Damao, 55

Entos, 7

Anemos, 60

Deka, 277

Episcopos, 428

Angeion, 80

Delphax, 82

Ergon, 72

Ankos, 42

Delphin, 82

Ethnos, 59

Ankura, 42

Demos, 137

Etymon, 234

Anthos, 93, 443

Derkflmai, 104

Etymos, 8

Anthropos, 108

Derma, 86

Eu, 423

Anti, 8

Despotes, 312

Eucharista, 423

Antidoton, 176

Dia, 130

Euphemi, 423

A6, 125

Diakonos, 430

Euphonia, 424

Apophthegomai, 252

Diaphragma, 130

Euphues, 424

Apotheke, 144

DidSmi, 176

TExegeomai, 436

Arachne, 105

Diphthera, 141

Arche, 32, 312

Diploma, 323

Phagein, 152

Argos, 399

Dipsa, 12

Phaino, 383

Aristos, 313

Dis, 205

Phainomai, 411

Arithmoa, 281

Doche, 40

Pharmako, 144

Arteria, 129

Dokeo, 402

Phemi, 423

Asbestos, 52

Doxa, 444

Philos, 8

Asparagos, 61

Drakon, 103

Phoke, 81

Astron, 8

Drama, 363

Phone, 372

Ateles, 267

Drosos, 65

Phrasso, 130

Atbanasia, 68

Dynamai, 313

Phullon, 86

Athletes, 135

Dynastes, 313

Phusis, 8, 138

Athlos, 135

Dys, 137

Phylacterion, 355

Atmos, 22

Phylasso, 355

Auo, 391

Eido, 123

Phyton, 7

478

INDICES.

Gados, 47

Chartes, 346

Gala, 6

Chole, 10, 406

Galaksias, 6

Chondros, 10

Galeotes, 37

Chronos, 8

Gameo, 55

Gaster, 8, 131

Kaio, 127, 196

Ge, 8

Kalein, 282

Genesis, 120

Kaminos, 196

Gennao, 120

Kanon, 415

Genos, 120

Karyon, 66

Gignomai, 120

Kastanon, 62

Gignosko, 20

Kata, 339

Glotta, 241

Kathedra, 432

Gnosis, 16, 20, 411

Kauso, 127

Gone, 411

Kenos, 152

Gramma, 234

Kentron, 13

Graphe, 29

Kepos, 71

Grapho, 59

Kerannumi, 49

Grupos, 98

Keras, 86

Grups, 98

Ketos, 82

Gumnazo, 135

Kiste, 129

Gumnos, 135

Klema, 63

Kleptes, 12

Haides, 4, 425

Kollao, 324

Haima, 127

Kome, 19

Helios, 67

Kometes, 19

Helko, 41

Komos, 367

Hepar, 131

Kosmos, 413

Heteros, 445

Krater, 49

Hippos, 86

Kratos, 313

Holkas, 41

Kreas, 131

Holos, 427

Krinomai, 384

Homoios, 139

Krupto, 416

Hoplites, 335

Kube, 312

Horizon, 27

Kubernao, 312

Huaina, 81

Kuklos, 7

Hudor, 59

Kyriake, 431

Hugieia, 134

Kyrios, 431

Humos, 142

Hus, 81

Lambano, 205

Hyperbole, 381

Lanthano, 399

Hypokrisis, 384

Latris, 389

Lego, 241

Ichthus, 8

Leicho, 207

Idios, 213

Leitos, 435

Idiotes, 214

Leiturgia, 435

Isthmos, 51

Lekuthizo, 404

Ithma, 51

Lekuthos, 404

Lemma, 205

Chamai, 103

Leon, 103

Lepas, 47
Lepo, 47
Lethe, 399
Lexis, 241
Litaneia, 437
Lite or litai, 437
Lithos, 59
Logizomai, 204
Logos, 7
Lynx, 75

Machomai, 8
Makros, 413
Malagma, 55
Malakos, 55
Mania, 11
Mantis, 355
Maraino, 60
Marmairo, 52
Marmaros, 52
Megas, 100
Melas, 11
Melimelon, 176
Melon, 176
Mene, 4
Menos, 107
Meteoros, 8
Meter, 115
Metron, 25
Mikros, 413
Mimos, 367
Monos, 11
Morphe, 147
Mule, 309
Myceb, 200
Mythos, 8

Nekros, 152
Nephros, 131
Neros, 26
Neuron, 122
Nomos, 8

Odune, 147
Oikos, 8

Oikoumenikos, 428
Oligos, 313
Ophis, 104
Ops, 93
Opsomai, 17

GREEK.

479

Organon, 375
Orthos, 444
Osteon, 48
Ostreon, 48
Oura, 83
Oxys, 120

Pachys, 86
Palaios, 53
Pallo, 339
Pan, 131
Panakeia, 142
Panoplia, 335
Paradeisos, 425
Parapherna, 170
Parodia, 368
Pater, 115
Pathos, 8, 139
Peira, 38
Peirates, 38
Pelagos, 32
Pelekan, 101

Posotes, 269
Pous, 30
Presbus, 429
Proboskis, 86
Prognosis, 20
Prosodia, 235
Prosopon, 238
Protos, 7, 324
Psyche, 8
Ptoma, 134
Pyr, 22

Rhegnumi, 137
Rheo, 137
Rhis, rhinos, 86
Rythmos, 252

Sabanon, 49
Sarkazo, 406
Sarks, 152, 406
Sbestikos, 52
Schidzo, 53

Syllabe, 234
Symptoma, 134
Syn, 134

Taphos, 152
Tasso, 234
Taxis, 234
Taxo, 234
Techne, 22
Technikos, 22
Tekton, 258
Tele, 6
Teleo, 413
Telos, 413
Temo or temno, 15
Tereo, 129
Teucho, 416
Teuchos, 416
Tome, 241
Topos, 29
Toxon, 402
Tragodia, 367

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