The Romance of Words Part 27

_c.o.xa_. A _Barker_ employed bark for tanning purposes. _Booker_ is a doublet of _Butcher_. A _Cleaver_ was, in most cases, a mace-bearer, Old Fr. _clavier_ (_Clavier_ is a common family name in France) from Lat.

_clava_, a club. He may, however, have sometimes been a porter, as Old Fr. _clavier_ also means key-bearer, Lat. _clavis_, a key. A _Croker_, or _Crocker_, sold _crocks_, _i.e._, pottery. A _Lander_, or _Launder_, was a washer-man, Fr. _lavandier_. A _Sloper_ made "slops," _i.e._, loose upper garments, overalls. A _Reeder_ or _Reader_ thatched with reeds. A _Walker_ walked, but within a circ.u.mscribed s.p.a.ce. He was also called a _Fuller_, Fr. _fouler_, to trample, or a _Tucker_, from a verb which perhaps meant once to "tug" or "twitch." In the following pa.s.sage some ma.n.u.scripts have _toukere_ for _walkere_--

"And his clothis ben maad schyninge and white ful moche as snow, and which maner clothis a _fullere_, or _walkere_ of cloth, may not make white on erthe."

(WYCLIF, _Mark_, ix. 2.)

The fuller is still called _Walker_ in Germany. _Banister_ is a corruption of _balestier_, a cross-bow man; cf. _banister_ for _bal.u.s.ter_ (p. 60).

Some of the occupative names in _-ward_ and _-herd_ are rather deceptive. _Hayward_ means hedge[138] guard. _Howard_ is phonetically the Old French name Huard, but also often represents Hayward, Hereward, and the local Haworth, Howarth. For the social elevation of the _sty-ward_, see p. 90. _Durward_ is door-ward. The simple _Ward_, replaced in its general sense by _warden_, _warder_, etc., is one of our commonest surnames. Similarly _Herd_, replaced by _herdsman_, is borne as a surname by one who, if he attains not to the first three, is usually held more honourable than the thirty. The hog-herd survives as _Hoggart_; _Seward_ is sometimes for sow-herd; _Calvert_ represents calf-herd, and _Stoddart_ stot-herd, _i.e._, bullock-herd:--

"'Shentlemans!' cried Andie, 'Shentlemans, ye hielant _stot_! If G.o.d would give ye the grace to see yersel' the way that ithers see ye, ye would throw your denner up.'"

(_Catriona_, Ch. 15.)

_Lambert_ is in some cases lamb-herd, and _Nutter_ is in all probability a perversion of neat-herd, through the North Country and Scot.

_nowt-herd_. It is a common surname in Lancas.h.i.+re, and Alice Nutter was one of the Lancas.h.i.+re Witches.

[Page Heading: NICKNAMES]

In a sense all personal names are nicknames (see p. 114), since they all give that additional information which enables us to distinguish one person from another. The practice of giving nicknames suggested by appearance, physique, or habits is common to the European languages; but, on the whole, our nicknames compare very unfavourably with those of savage nations. We cannot imagine an English swain calling his lady-love "Laughing Water." From Roman times onward, European nicknames are in their general character obvious and prosaic, and very many of them are the reverse of complimentary. The most objectionable have either disappeared,[139] or the original meaning has become so obscured as to cease to give offence to the possessor. When a man had any choice in the matter, he naturally preferred not to perpetuate a grotesque name conferred on some ancestor. Medieval names were conferred on the individual, and did not become definitely hereditary till the Reformation. In later times names could only be changed by form of law.

It is thus that _Bugg_ became _Norfolk Howard_, a considerable transformation inspired by a natural instinct to "avoid the opinion of baseness," as Camden puts it. We no longer connect _Gosse_ with _goose_, nor _Pennefather_ with a miser. Cotgrave has _pinse-maille_ (_pince-maille_), "a pinch peny, sc.r.a.pe-good, nigard, miser, _penie-father_." In _Purcell_ we lose Old Fr. _pourcel_ (_pourceau_), little pig, _Fitch_ no longer means a pole-cat, nor _Brock_ a badger. On the other hand, we generally regard _Gosling_ as a nickname, while it is more often a variant of _Jocelyn_.

Names descriptive of appearance or habits often correspond pretty closely with those that are found in French. In some cases they are probably mere translations. Examples are: _Merryweather_ (_Bontemps_), _Drinkwater_ (_Boileau_[140]), _Armstrong_ (_Fortinbras_), _Lilywhite_ (_Blanchefleur_). Among colour names we have _Black_, _Brown_, _White_, and _Grey_, but seem to miss _red_. The explanation is that for this colour we have adopted the Northern form _Reid_ (_Read_, _Reed_), or such French names as _Rudge_ (_rouge_), _Rouse_ (_roux_), _Russell_ (_Rousseau_). With the last of these, Old Fr. _roussel_, cf. _Brunel_ and _Morel_. Fr. _blond_ has given _Blount_, _Blunt_, and the diminutive _Blundell_, which exist by the side of the fine old English name _Fairfax_, from Mid. Eng. _fax_, hair. Several other French adjectives has given us surnames, e.g., _Boon_ (_bon_), _Bonner_ (_debonnaire_), _Grant_ (_grand_), _Curtis_ (_courtois_), _Power_ (_pauvre_), etc.

_Payn_ is the French adjective _paen_, pagan, Lat. _paga.n.u.s_, in early use as a personal name.

[Page Heading: FOLK-ETYMOLOGY]

But many apparent nicknames are products of folk-etymology. _Coward_ is for _cowherd_, _Salmon_ for _Salomon_, _Bone_ for _Boon_ (v.s.), _Dedman_ is a corruption of _Debenham_. _Playfair_ means play-fellow, from an old word connected with the verb to _fare_, to journey. _Patch_ may sometimes have meant a jester, from his parti-coloured garments, but is more often a variant of _Pash_, _Pask_, a baptismal name given to children christened at Easter, Old Fr. _Pasque_ (_Paque_). Easter eggs are still called _pash_, _pace_, or _paste_ eggs in the north of England. _Blood_ is a Welsh name, son of _Lud_; cf. _Bevan_, _Bowen_, etc. _Coffin_ is Fr. _Chauvin_, a derivative of Lat. _calvus_, bald. It has a variant _Caffyn_, the name of a famous cricketer. _Dance_, for Dans, is related to Daniel as Wills is to William. In the same way _Pearce_ comes from Peter or Pierre. The older form of the name _Pearce_ was borne by the most famous of ploughmen, as it still is by the most famous of soapmakers. Names such as _Bull_, _Peac.o.c.k_, _Greenman_, are sometimes from shop or tavern signs. It is noteworthy that, as a surname, we often find the old form _Poc.o.c.k_. The _Green Man_, still a common tavern sign, represented a kind of "wild man of the woods"; _cf._ the Ger. sign _Zum wilden Mann_.

In these remarks on surnames I have only tried to show in general terms how they come into existence, "hoping to incur no offence herein with any person, when I protest in all sincerity, that I purpose nothing less than to wrong any whosoever" (Camden). Many names are susceptible of alternative explanations, and it requires a genealogist, and generally some imagination, to decide to which particular source a given family can be traced. The two arguments sometimes drawn from armorial bearings and medieval Latin forms are worthless. Names existed before escutcheons and devices, and these are often mere puns, _e.g._, the _Onslow_ family, of local origin, from Onslow in Shrops.h.i.+re, has adopted the excellent motto _festina lente_, "on slow." The famous name _Sacheverell_ is latinised as _De Saltu Capellae_, of the kid's leap. This agrees with the oldest form _Sau-cheverell_, which is probably from a French place called Sault-Chevreuil du Tronchet (Manche). The fact that _Napier_ of Merchiston had for his device _n'a pier_, no equal, does not make it any the less true that his ancestors were, like Perkin Warbeck's parents, "really, respectable people" (see p. 57).

Dr Brewer, in his _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, says of his own name--

"This name, which exists in France as Bruhiere and Brugiere, is not derived from the Saxon _briwan_ (to brew), but the French _bruyere_ (heath), and is about tantamount to the German _Plantagenet_ (broom plant)."

A "German" Plantagenet should overawe even a Norfolk Howard. A more interesting identification, and a true one, is that of the name of the great engineer _Telford_, a corruption of _Telfer_, with _Taillefer_, the "iron cleaver."

[Page Heading: DAFT]

A curious feature in nomenclature is the local character of some nicknames. We have an instance of this in the Notts name _Daft_[141]--

"A _Daft_ might have played in the Notts County Eleven in 1273 as well as in 1886."

(BARDSLEY.)

The only occurrence of the name in the Hundred Rolls for the year 1273 is in the county of Notts.

FOOTNOTES:

[122] This is probably the record for a proper name, but does not by any means equal that of the word _cus.h.i.+on_, of the plural of which about four hundred variants are found in old wills and inventories.

[123] Another origin of this name is Fr. _le bon_.

[124] "The last two centuries have seen the practice made popular of using surnames for baptismal names. Thus the late Bishop of Carlisle was Harvey Goodwin, although for several centuries Harvey has been obsolete as a personal name" (Bardsley). Camden already complains that "surnames of honourable and wors.h.i.+pful families are given now to mean men's children for christian names." Forty years ago there was hardly a more popular name than _Percy_, while at the present day the admonition, "Be'ave yerself, _'Oward_," is familiar to the attentive ear.

[125] It is even possible that _Hood_, _Hudson_, sometimes belong here, as _Hud_ appears to have been used as a North Country alternative for Richard, though it is hard to see why. For proofs see BARDSLEY, _Dict.

of English Surnames_, s.v. _Hudd_.

[126] Such a corruption, though difficult to explain phonetically, is not without example in uneducated or childish speech. Cf. _tiddlebat_ or _t.i.ttlebat_, for _stickleback_. In _stickler_ (p. 76) we have the opposite change.

[127] Of course also of English origin.

[128] Hence also the name _Britton_.

[129] Whence the perversion _Portwine_, examples of which occur in the _London Directory_.

[130] Old Fr. _vernai_, whence our _Verney_, _Varney_, has the same meaning; cf. _Duverney_, the name of a famous dancer. Old Fr. _verne_, alder, is of Celtic origin.

[131] Cf. _Chenevix_, old oak, a name introduced by the Huguenots.

[132] Other examples quoted by Mr Hardy are _Priddle_, from _Paridelle_, and _Debbyhouse_--"The _Debbyhouses_ who now be carters were once the _de Bayeux_ family" (_Tess of the d'Urbervilles_, v. 35).

[133] These names are supposed to have been generally conferred in consequence of characters represented in public performances and processions. In some cases they imply that the bearer was in the employment of the dignitary. We find them in other languages, _e.g._, Fr. _Leroy_, _Leduc_, _Leveque_; Ger. _Konig_, _Herzog_, _Bischof_.

_Leveque_ has given Eng. _Levick_, _Vick_, and (Trotty) _Veck_.

[134] _Gross_, twelve dozen, seems to be of Germanic origin, the duodecimal hundred, Ger. _Grosshundert_, being Norse or Gothic. But Ger.

_Grosshundert_ means 120 only.

[135] _Surplice_, Old Fr. _surpelis_, is a compound of the same word. It was worn "over fur" in unheated medieval churches.

[136] Another, and commoner, source of the name is from residence at a "corner."

[137] See quotation from _Henry IV._ (p. 155).

[138] The obsolete _hay_, hedge, is also a common surname, _Hay_, _Haig_, _Haigh_, etc.

[139] The following occur in the index to Bardsley's _English Surnames_:--Blackinthemouth, Blubber, Calvesmawe, Cleanhog, Crookbone, d.a.m.ned-Barebones, Drunkard, Felon, Greenhorn, Halfpenny, Hatechrist, Hogsflesh, Killhog, Leper, Mad, Measle, Milksop, Outlaw, Peckcheese, Peppercorn, Poorfish, Pudding, Ragman, Scorchbeef, Sourale, Sparewater, Sweatinbed, Twopenny, Widehose. Some of these are still found.

[140] Cf. also Ital. _Bevilacqua_.

[141] This word has degenerated. It is a doublet of _deft_.

CHAPTER XIII

ETYMOLOGICAL FACT AND FICTION

Romance and Germanic etymology dates from the middle of the 19th century, and is a.s.sociated especially with the names of two great Germans, Friedrich Diez, who published his _Worterbuch der romanischen Sprachen_ in 1853, and Jakob Grimm, whose _Deutsches Worterbuch_ dates from 1852. These two men applied in their respective fields of investigation the principles of comparative philology, and reduced to a science what had previously been an amus.e.m.e.nt for the learned or the ignorant.