The Romance of Words Part 19

(_Love o' Women._)

Our language is, owing to our borrowing habits, particularly rich in these gems. Examples familiar to everybody are _crayfish_ from Fr.

_ecrevisse_, _gilly-flower_ from Fr. _giroflee_, _shame-faced_ for _shamefast_. Other words in which the second element has been altered are _causeway_, earlier _causey_, from the Picard form of Fr.

_chaussee_, Lat. (_via_) _calciata_, _i.e._, made with lime, _calx_; _penthouse_, for _pentice_, Fr. _appentis_, "the _penthouse_ of a house"

(Cotgrave), a derivative of Old Fr. _appendre_, to hang to. Fr.

_hangar_, a shed, now introduced into English by aviators as unnecessarily as _garage_ by motorists, may also contain the same idea of "hanging."

In _hiccough_, for earlier _hickup_, an onomatopic word, the spelling, suggested by _cough_, has not affected the p.r.o.nunciation. _Surcease_ is Fr. _sursis_, past participle of _surseoir_, "to _surcease_, pawse, intermit, leave off, give over, delay or stay for a time" (Cotgrave), Lat. _supersedere_. _Taffrail_ has been confused with _rail_, its older form being _tafferel_, from Du. _tafereel_, diminutive of _tafel_, picture, from Lat. _tabula_. It meant originally the flat part of the stern of a s.h.i.+p ornamented with carvings or pictures. This is called _tableau_ in nautical French. Fr. _coutelas_, an augmentative of Old Fr.

_coutel_ (_couteau_), knife, gave Eng. _cutla.s.s_, which has no more etymological connection with "cutting" than a _cutler_, Fr. _coutelier_, or a _cutlet_, Fr. _cotelette_, little rib, Lat. _costa_. _Cutlas_ was popularly corrupted into _curtal-axe_, the form used by Rosalind--

"A gallant _curtal-axe_ upon my thigh, A boar-spear in my hand."

(_As You Like It_, i. 3.)

We have a similar corruption in _pick-axe_, Mid. Eng. _pikeys_, Old Fr.

_piquois_, _picquois_, "a pickax" (Cotgrave), from the verb _piquer_.

The word _posthumous_ has changed its meaning through folk-etymology. It represents the Latin superlative _postumus_, latest born. By a.s.sociation with _humus_, ground, earth, it came to be used of a child born, or a work published, after its author's death, a meaning which the derivatives of _postumus_ have in all the Romance languages.

The first part of the word has been distorted in _pursy_, short-winded--

"And _pursy_ insolence shall break his wind With fear and horrid flight."

(_Timon of Athens_, v. 5.)

Fr. _poussif_, from Lat. _pulsus_, throbbing. It was formerly used also in connection with horses--

"You must warrant this horse clear of the glanders, and _pursyness_."

(_The Gentleman's Dictionary_, 1705.)

[Page Heading: ARQUEBUS--JAUNTY]

_Arquebus_, Fr. _arquebuse_, is a doublet of _hackbut_, Old Fr.

_haquebute_, "an _haquebut_, or _arquebuse_; a caliver" (Cotgrave). The corruption is due to _arcus_, bow. Both _arquebus_ and _hackbut_ are common in Scott--

"His arms were halbert, axe, or spear, A cross-bow there, a _hackbut_ here, A dagger-knife, and brand."

(_Marmion_, v. 3.)

The origin is Du. _haakbus_, hook-gun, the second element of which appears in _blunderbuss_. The first part of this word has undergone so many popular transformations that it is difficult to say which was the original form. Ludwig has _Donner-buchs, Blunder-buchs, oder Muszketon_, "a thunder-box; a _blunder-buss_; a musketoon; a wide-mouthed bra.s.s-gun, carrying about twenty pistol bullets at once." It was also called in German _Plantier-buchs_, from _plantieren_, to plant, set up, because fired from a rest. Du. _bus_, like Ger. _Buchse_, means both "box" and "gun." In the _bushes_, or axle-boxes, of a cart-wheel, we have the same word. The ultimate origin is Greek p????, the box-tree, whence also the learned word _pyx_. Fr. _boite_, box, is cognate, and Fr. _boussole_, mariners' compa.s.s, is from the Italian diminutive _bossola_, "a boxe that mariners keepe their compa.s.se in. Also taken for the compa.s.se"

(Florio).

_Scissors_ were formerly _cizars_ (_cf._ Fr. _ciseaux_), connected with Lat. _caedere_, to cut. The modern spelling is due to a.s.sociation with Lat. _scissor_, a cutter, tailor, from _scindere_, to cut. _Runagate_ is well known to be a corrupt doublet of _renegade_, one who has "denied"

his faith. _Recreant_, the present participle of Old Fr. _recreire_, Vulgar Lat. _*recredere_, to change one's faith, contains very much the same idea; cf. _miscreant_, lit. unbeliever. _Jaunty_, spelt _janty_ by Wycherley and _genty_ by Burns, is Fr. _gentil_, wrongly brought into connection with _jaunt_.

In some cases of folk-etymology it is difficult to see to what idea the corruption is due.[98] The mollusc called a _periwinkle_ was in Anglo-Saxon _pinewincla_, which still survives in dialect as _pennywinkle_. It appears to have been influenced by the plant-name _periwinkle_, which is itself a corruption of Mid. Eng. _pervenke_, from Lat. _pervinca_; _cf._ Fr. _pervenche_. The material called _lutestring_ was formerly _l.u.s.tring_, Fr. _l.u.s.trine_, from its glossiness. A _wiseacre_ is "one that knows or tells truth; we commonly use it _in malam partem_ for a fool" (Blount, _Glossographia_, 1674). This comes, through Dutch, from Ger. _Weissager_, commonly understood as _wise-sayer_, but really unconnected with _sagen_, to say. The Old High Ger. _wizago_, prophet, is cognate with Eng. _witty_. The military and naval word _ensign_ is in Shakespeare corrupted, in both its meanings, into _ancient_. Thus Falstaff describes his tatterdemalion recruits as--

"Ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old-faced _ancient_."

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

while _Ancient_ Pistol is familiar to every reader. A _cordwainer_, from Old Fr. _cordouanier_, "a shoomaker, a _cordwainer_" (Cotgrave), worked with _cordouan_, "Cordovan leather; which is properly a goat's skin tanned." The modern French form _cordonnier_ is due to a.s.sociation with _cordon_, a thong, bootlace, etc. _Witch-elm_ has nothing to do with witches. It is for older _weech-elm_, _wiche-elm_, and belongs to Anglo-Sax. _wican_, to bend. _Service-tree_ is a meaningless corruption of Mid. Eng. _serves_, an early loan word from Lat. _sorbus_.

In the case of a double-barrelled word, folk-etymology usually affects one half only, e.g., _verdigris_ is for Fr. _vert-de-gris_, for Old Fr.

_vert de Grece_, Greek green. The reason for the name is unknown.

Cotgrave calls it "Spanish green." Mid. English had the more correct _vertegresse_ and _verte Grece_ (_Promptorium Parvulorum_, 1440). The cavalry trumpet-call _boot and saddle_ is for Fr. _boute-selle_, lit.

"put saddle." _Court card_ is for _coat card_, a name given to these cards from the dresses depicted on them. Florio has _carta di figura_, "a _cote_ carde." The card game called _Pope Joan_ would appear to be in some way corrupted from _nain jaune_, lit. "yellow dwarf," its French name.

[Page Heading: "PREPOSTEROUS" PERVERSIONS]

But occasionally the results of folk-etymology are literally _preposterous_.[99] The Fr. _choucroute_ is from _surkrut_, a dialect p.r.o.nunciation of Ger. _Sauer-kraut_, sour cabbage, so that the first syllable, meaning "sour," has actually been corrupted so as to mean "cabbage." Another example, which I have never seen quoted, is the name of a beech-wood near the little town of Remilly in Lorraine. The trees of this wood are very old and curiously twisted, and they are called in French _les jolis fous_, where _fou_ (Lat. _f.a.gus_) is the Old French for "beech" (_fouet_, whip, is its diminutive). This is rendered in German as _tolle Buchen_, mad beeches, the _fou_ having been misunderstood as referring to the fantastic appearance of the trees.

_Forlorn hope_ is sometimes used metaphorically as though the _hope_ were of the kind that springs eternal in the human breast. In military language it now means the leaders of a storming party--

"The _forlorn hope_ of each attack consisted of a sergeant and twelve Europeans."

(_Wellington's Despatches_, 1799.)

but was earlier used of soldiers in any way exposed to special danger.

Cotgrave has _enfans perdus_, "perdus; or the _forlorne hope_ of a campe (are commonly gentlemen of companies)." It is from obsolete Du.

_verloren hoop_, where _hoop_, cognate with Eng. _heap_, is used for a band or company. In 16th-century German we find _ein verlorener Haufe_.

Both the Dutch and German expressions are obsolete in this sense.

The military phrase _to run the gauntlet_ has no connection with _gauntlet_, glove. The older form _gantlope_--

"Some said he ought to be tied neck and heels; others that he deserved to _run the gantlope_."

(_Tom Jones_, vii. 1.)

It is a punishment of Swedish origin from the period of the Thirty Years' War. The Swedish form is _gatlopp_, in which _gat_ is cognate with Eng. _gate_, in its northern sense of "street," and _lopp_ with Eng. _leap_ and Ger. _laufen_, to run.

The _press-gang_ had originally nothing to do with "pressing." When soldiers or seamen were engaged, they received earnest money called _prest_-money, _i.e._, an advance on "loan," Old Fr. _prest_ (_pret_), and the engagement was called _presting_ or _impresting_. Florio explains _soldato_ (see p. 154), lit. "paid," by "_prest_ with paie as soldiers are." The popular corruption to _press_ took place naturally as the method of enlistment became more "pressing."

The _black art_ is a translation of Old Fr. _nigromance_, "nigromancie, conjuring, the _black art_" (Cotgrave); but this is folk-etymology for _necromantie_, Greco-Lat. _necromantia_, divination by means of the dead. The popular form _negromancie_ still survives in French. To _curry favour_ is a corruption of Mid. Eng. "to curry _favel_." The expression is translated from French. Palsgrave has _curryfavell_, a flatterer, "estrille faveau," _estriller_ (_etriller_) meaning "to curry (a horse)." _Faveau_, earlier _fauvel_, is the name of a horse in the famous _Roman de Fauvel_, a satirical Old French poem of the early 14th century. He symbolises worldly vanity carefully tended by all cla.s.ses of society. The name is a diminutive of Fr. _fauve_, tawny, cognate with Eng. _fallow_ (deer). (See also p. 192, _n._)

A very curious case of folk-etymology is seen in the old superst.i.tion of the _hand of glory_. This is understood to be a skeleton hand from the gallows which will point out hidden treasure--

"Now mount who list, And close by the wrist Sever me quickly the Dead Man's fist."

(INGOLDSBY, _The Hand of Glory_.)

It is simply a translation of Fr. _main de gloire_. But the French expression is a popular corruption of _mandragore_, from Lat.

_mandragora_, the mandragore, or mandrake, to the forked roots of which a similar virtue was attributed, especially if the plant were obtained from the foot of the gallows.

[Page Heading: CONTAMINATION]

Akin to folk-etymology is contamination, _i.e._, the welding of two words into one. This can often be noticed in children, whose linguistic instincts are those of primitive races. I have heard a child, on her first visit to the Zoo, express great eagerness to see the _canimals_ (_camels_ _animals_), which, by the way, turned out to be the giraffes. A small boy who learnt English and German simultaneously evolved, at the age of two, the word _spam_ (_sponge_ Ger. _Schwamm_).

In a college in the English midlands, a student named _Constantine_, who sat next to a student named _Turpin_, once heard himself startlingly addressed by a lecturer as _Turpentine_. People who inhabit the frontier of two languages, and in fact all who are in any degree bilingual, must inevitably form such composites occasionally. The _h_ aspirate of Fr.

_haut_, Lat. _altus_, high, can only be explained by the influence of Old High Ger. _hoh_ (_hoch_). The poetic word _glaive_ cannot be derived from Lat. _gladius_, sword, which has given Fr. _glai_, an archaic name for the gladiolus. We must invoke the help of a Gaulish word _cladebo_, sword, which is related to Gaelic _clay-more_, big sword. It has been said that in this word the swords of Caesar and Vercingetorix still cross each other. In Old French we find _oreste_, a storm, combined from _orage_ and _tempeste_ (_tempete_). Fr. _orteil_, toe, represents the mixture of Lat. _articulus_, a little joint, with Gaulish _ordag_. A _battledore_ was in Mid. English a was.h.i.+ng beetle, which is in Provencal _batedor_, lit. beater. Hence it seems that this is one of the very few Provencal words which pa.s.sed directly into English during the period of our occupation of Guienne. It has been contaminated by the cognate _beetle_.

_Cannibal_ is from Span. _canibal_, earlier _caribal_, i.e. _Carib_, the _n_ being perhaps due to contamination with Span. _canino_, canine, voracious. It can hardly be doubted that this word suggested Shakespeare's _Caliban_. _Seraglio_ is due to confusion between the Turkish word _serai_, a palace, and Ital. _serraglio_, "an inclosure, a close, a padocke, a parke, a cloister or secluse" (Florio), which belongs to Lat. _sera_, a bolt or bar.

_Anecdotage_ is a deliberate coinage ascribed to John Wilkes--

"When a man fell into his _anecdotage_, it was a sign for him to retire from the world."

(DISRAELI, _Lothair_, Ch. 28.)