The Romance of Words Part 24

_Trepan_, for _trapan_, to entrap, cannot have been confused with the surgical _trepan_ (p. 109), although it has been a.s.similated to it. The _compound_ in which the victims of "Chinese slavery" languished is the Malay _kampong_, an enclosure.

The scent called _bergamot_ takes its name from _Bergamo_, in Italy, whence also Shakespeare's _bergomask_ dance--

"Will it please you to see the epilogue, or hear a _Bergomask_ dance between two of our company?"

(_Midsummer Night's Dream_, v. 1.)

but the _bergamot_ pear is derived from Turkish _beg armudi_, prince's pear. With _beg_, prince, cf. _bey_ and _begum_. The _burden_ of a song is from Fr. _bourdon_, "a drone, or dorre-bee; also, the humming, or buzzing, of bees; also, the drone of a bag-pipe" (Cotgrave). It is of doubtful origin, but is not related to _burden_, a load, which is connected with the verb to _bear_.

To _cas.h.i.+er_, _i.e._, break, a soldier, is from Du. _ca.s.seeren_, which is borrowed from Fr. _ca.s.ser_, to break, Lat. _qua.s.sare_, frequentative of _quatere_, to shatter. In the 16th and 17th centuries we also find _ca.s.s_ and _cash_, which come immediately from French, and are thus doublets of _quash_. Cotgrave has _ca.s.ser_, "to _ca.s.se_, _ca.s.sere_, discharge." The past participle of the obsolete verb to _ca.s.s_ is still in military use--

"But the colonel said he must go, and he (the drum horse) was _cast_ in due form and replaced by a washy, bay beast, as ugly as a mule."

(KIPLING, _The Rout of the White Hussars_.)

The other _cas.h.i.+er_ is of Italian origin. He takes charge of the _cash_, which formerly meant "counting-house," and earlier still "safe," from Ital. _ca.s.sa_, "a merchant's _cashe_, or counter" (Florio). This comes from Lat. _capsa_, a coffer, so that _cash_ is a doublet of _case_, Fr.

_caisse_. The goldsmith's term _chase_ is for _enchase_, Fr.

_encha.s.ser_, "to _enchace_, or set, in gold, etc." (Cotgrave), from _cha.s.se_, coffer, shrine, also from Lat. _capsa_. From the same word comes (window) _sash_.

_Gammon_, from Mid. Eng. _gamen_, now reduced to _game_, survives as a slang word and also in the compound _backgammon_. In a _gammon_ of bacon we have the Picard form of Fr. _jambon_, a ham, an augmentative of _jambe_, leg. Cotgrave has _jambon_, "a _gammon_." _Gambit_ is related, from Ital. _gambetto_, "a tripping up of one's heels" (Torriano). A _game_ leg is in dialect a _gammy_ leg. This is Old Fr. _gambi_, "bent, crooked, bowed" (Cotgrave), which is still used in some French dialects in the sense of lame. It comes from the same Celtic root as _jambe_.

_Host_, an army, now used only poetically or metaphorically, is from Old Fr. _ost_, army, Lat. _hostis_, enemy. The _host_ who receives us is Old Fr. _oste_ (_hote_), Lat. _hospes_, _hospit-_, guest. These two _hosts_ are, however, ultimately related. It is curious that, while modern Fr.

_hote_ (_hospes_) means both "host" and "guest," the other _host_ (_hostis_) is, very far back, a doublet of _guest_, the ground meaning of both being "stranger." "It is remarkable in what opposite directions the Germans and Romans have developed the meaning of the old hereditary name for 'stranger.' To the Roman the stranger becomes an enemy; among the Germans he enjoys the greatest privileges, a striking confirmation of what Tacitus tells us in his _Germania_."[112] In a dog _kennel_ we have the Norman form of Fr. _chenil_, related to _chien_; but _kennel_, a gutter--

"Go, hop me over every _kennel_ home."

(_Taming of the Shrew_, iv. 3.)

is a doublet of _channel_ and _ca.n.a.l_.

[Page Heading: MANUVRE--MYSTERY]

"Oh villain! thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert taken with the _manner_."

(1 _Henry IV._, ii. 4.)

says Prince Hal to Bardolph. In the old editions this is spelt _manour_ or _mainour_ and means "in the act." It is an Anglo-French doublet of _manuvre_, late Lat. _manu-opera_, handiwork, and is thus related to its h.o.m.onym _manner_, Fr. _maniere_, from _manier_, to handle. Another doublet of _manuvre_ is _manure_, now a euphemism for dung, but formerly used of the act of tillage--

"The _manuring_ hand of the tiller shall root up all that burdens the soil."

(MILTON, _Reason of Church Government_.)

_Inure_ is similarly formed from Old Fr. _enuvrer_, literally "to work in," hence to accustom to toil.

John Gilpin's "good friend the _calender_," _i.e._ the cloth-presser, has nothing to do with the _calendar_ which indicates the _calends_ of the month, nor with the _calender_, or Persian monk, of the _Arabian Nights_, whom Mr Pecksniff described as a "one-eyed _almanack_"--

"'A one-eyed _calender_, I think, sir,' faltered Tom.

"'They are pretty nearly the same thing, I believe,' said Mr Pecksniff, smiling compa.s.sionately; 'or they used to be in my time.'"

(_Martin Chuzzlewit_, Ch. 6.)

The verb to _calender_, to press and gloss cloth, etc., is from Old Fr.

_calendrer_ (_calandrer_), "to sleeke, smooth, plane, or polish, linnen cloth, etc." (Cotgrave). This word is generally considered to be related to _cylinder_, a conjecture which is supported by obsolete Fr.

_calende_, used of the "rollers" by means of which heavy stones are moved.

A craft, or a.s.sociation of _masters_, was once called a _mistery_ (for _mastery_ or _maistrie_), usually misspelt _mystery_ by a.s.sociation with a word of quite different origin and meaning. This accidental resemblance is often played on--

"Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a _mystery_; but what _mystery_ there should be in hanging, if I should be hanged, I cannot imagine."

(_Measure for Measure_, iv. 2.)

For the p.r.o.nunciation, cf. _mister_, for _master_, and _mistress_.[113]

The French for "mistery" is _metier_, earlier _mestier_, "a trade, occupation, _misterie_, handicraft" (Cotgrave), from Old Fr. _maistier_, Lat. _magisterium_. In its other senses Fr. _metier_ represents Lat.

_ministerium_, service.

_p.a.w.n_, a pledge, is from Old Fr. _pan_, with the same meaning. The origin of this word, cognates of which occur in the Germanic languages, is unknown. The _p.a.w.n_ at chess is Fr. _pion_, a p.a.w.n, formerly also a foot-soldier, used contemptuously in modern French for a junior a.s.sistant master. This represents a Vulgar Lat. _*pedo_, _pedon-_, from _pes_, foot; _cf._ Span. _peon_, "a footeman, a _p.a.w.ne_ at chesse, a pioner, or laborer" (Percyvall). In German the _p.a.w.n_ is called _Bauer_, peasant, a name also given to the knave in the game of euchre, whence American _bower_[114]--

"At last he put down a _right bower_[115]

Which the same Nye had dealt unto me."

(BRET HARTE, _The Heathen Chinee_.)

[Page Heading: QUARRY--QUARREL]

When Jack Bunce says--

"If they hurt but one hair of Cleveland's head, there will be the devil to _pay_, and no pitch hot."

(_Pirate_, Ch. 36.)

he is using a nautical term which has no connection with Fr. _payer_. To _pay_, _i.e._ to pitch (a s.h.i.+p), is from Old Fr. _peier_ or _poier_, Lat. _picare_, from _pix_, pitch. Fr. _limon_, a lime, has given Eng.

_lemon_,[116] but "_lemon_ sole" is from Fr. _limande_, a flat-fish, dab. A _quarry_ from which stone is obtained was formerly _quarrer_, Old Fr. _quarriere_ (_carriere_), a derivative of Lat. _quadrus_; cf.

_quadratarius_, "a squarer of marble" (Cooper). The _quarry_ of the hunter has changed its form and meaning. In Mid. English we find _quarre_ and _quirre_, from Old Fr. _cuiree_, now _curee_, "a (dog's) reward; the hounds' fees of, or part in, the game they have killed"

(Cotgrave). The Old French form means "skinful" (cf. _poignee_, fistful), the hounds' reward being spread on the skin of the slain animal. It is thus related to _cuira.s.s_, originally used of leathern armour. In Shakespeare _quarry_ usually means a heap of dead game--

"Would the n.o.bility lay aside their ruth, And let me use my sword, I'd make a _quarry_ With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high As I could pick my lance."

(_Coriola.n.u.s_, i. 1.)

In modern English it is applied rather to the animal pursued. Related to the first _quarry_ is _quarrel_, the square-headed bolt shot from a crossbow--

"It is reported by William Brito that the arcubalista or arbalist was first shewed to the French by our king Richard the First, who was shortly after slain by a _quarrel_ thereof."

(CAMDEN, _Remains concerning Britain_.[117])

It comes from Old Fr. _carrel_, of which the modern form, _carreau_, is used of many four-sided objects, _e.g._, a square tile, the diamond at cards, a pane of gla.s.s. In the last sense both _quarrel_ and _quarry_ are still used by glaziers.

In a "_school_ of porpoises" we have a Dutch word for crowd. The older spelling is _scull_--

"And there they fly, or die, like scaled _sculls_, Before the belching whale."

(_Troilus and Cressida_, v. 5.)

A _sorrel_ horse and the plant called _sorrel_ are both French words of German origin. The adjective, used in venery of a buck of the third year, is a diminutive of Old Fr. _sor_, which survives in _hareng saur_, red herring, and is perhaps cognate with Eng. _sear_--

"The _sere_, the yellow leaf."

(_Macbeth_, v. 3.)

The plant name is related to _sour_. Its modern French form _surelle_ occurs now only in dialect, having been superseded by _oseille_, which appears to be due to the mixture of two words meaning sour, sharp, viz., Vulgar Lat. _*acetula_ and Greco-Lat. _oxalis_.