The Romance of Words Part 29

The maxim of Jakob Grimm, "von den Wortern zu den Sachen," is too often neglected. In dealing with the etymology of a word which is the name of an object or of an action, we must first find out exactly what the original object looked like or how the original action was performed.

The etymologist must either be an antiquary or must know where to go for sound antiquarian information. I will ill.u.s.trate this by three words denoting objects used by medieval or Elizabethan fighting men.

A fencing _foil_ is sometimes vaguely referred to the verb _foil_, to baffle, with which it has no connection. The Fr. _feuille_, leaf, is also invoked, and compared with Fr. _fleuret_, a foil, the idea being that the name was given to the "b.u.t.ton" at the point. Now the earliest _foils_ and _fleurets_ were not b.u.t.toned; first, because they were pointless, and secondly, because the point was not used in early fencing. It was not until gunpowder began to bring about the disuse of heavy armour that anybody ever dreamt of thrusting. The earliest fencing was hacking with sword and buckler, and the early _foil_ was a rough sword-blade quite unlike the implement we now use. _Fleuret_ meant in Old French a sword-blade not yet polished and hilted, and we find it used, as we do Eng. _foil_, of an apology for a sword carried by a gallant very much down at heel. As late as Cotgrave we find _floret_, "a foile; a sword with the _edge_ rebated." Therefore _foil_ is the same as Fr. _feuille_,[158] which in Old French meant sword-blade, and is still used for the blade of a saw; but the name has nothing to do with what did not adorn the tip. It is natural that Fr. _feuille_ should be applied, like Eng. _leaf_, _blade_, to anything flat (_cf._ Ger.

_Blatt_, leaf), and we find in 16th-century Dutch the borrowed word _folie_, used in the three senses of leaf, metal plate, broadsword, which is conclusive.

[Page Heading: PETRONEL]

We find frequent allusions in the 16th and 17th centuries to a weapon called a _petronel_, a flint-lock fire-arm intermediate in size between an arquebus and a pistol. It occurs several times in Scott--

"'Twas then I fired my _petronel_, And Mortham, steed and rider, fell."

(_Rokeby_, i. 19.)

On the strength of a French form, _poitrinal_, it has been connected with Fr. _poitrine_, chest, and various explanations are given. The earliest is that of the famous Huguenot surgeon Ambroise Pare, who speaks of the "mousquets _poitrinals_, que l'on ne couche en joue, a cause de leur calibre gros et court, mais qui se tirent _de la poitrine_." I cannot help thinking that, if the learned author had attempted this method of discharging an early fire-arm, his anatomical experience, wide as it was, would have been considerably enlarged.

Minsheu (1617) describes a _petronell_ as "a horseman's peece first used in the Pyrenean mountaines, which hanged them alwayes _at their breast_, readie to shoote, as they doe now at the horse's breast." This information is derived from Claude Fauchet, whose interesting _Antiquites francoises et gauloises_ was published in 1579. Phillips, in his _New World of Words_ (1678) tells us that this "kind of harquebuse, or horseman's piece, is so called, because it is to aim _at a horse's brest_, as it were _poictronel_." When we turn from fiction to fact, we find that the oldest French name was _petrinal_, explained by Cotgrave as "a _petronell_, or horse-man's peece." It was occasionally corrupted, perhaps owing to the way in which the weapon was slung, into _poitrinal_. This corruption would be facilitated by the 16th-century p.r.o.nunciation of _oi_ (p_ei_trine). The French word is borrowed either from Ital. _petronello_, _pietronello_, "a petronell" (Florio), or from Span. _pedrenal_, "a _petronall_, a horse-man's peece, ita dict. quod _silice petra_ incenditur" (Minsheu, _Spanish Dictionary_, 1623). Thus Minsheu knew the origin of the word, though he had put the fiction in his earlier work. We find other forms in Italian and Spanish, but they all go back to Ital. _pietra_, _petra_, or Span. _piedra_, _pedra_, stone, flint. The usual Spanish word for flint is _pedernal_. Our word, as its form shows, came direct from Italian.[159] The new weapon was named from its chief feature; _cf._ Ger. _Flinte_, "a light gun, a hand-gun, pop-gun, arquebuss, fire-arm, fusil or fusee"[160] (Ludwig).

The subst.i.tution of the flint-lock for the old match-lock brought about a re-naming of European fire-arms, and, as this subst.i.tution was first effected in the cavalry, _petronel_ acquired the special meaning of horse-pistol. It is curious that, while we find practically all the French and Italian fire-arm names in 17th-century German, a natural result of the Thirty Years' War, _petronel_ does not appear to be recorded. The reason is probably that the Germans had their own name, viz., _Schnapphahn_, snap-c.o.c.k, the English form of which, _snaphaunce_, seems also to have prevailed over _petronel_. Cotgrave has _arquebuse a fusil_, "a _snaphaunce_," and explains _fusil_ as "a fire-steele for a tinder-box." This is medieval Lat. _focile_, from _focus_, fire, etc.

[Page Heading: HELMETS]

The most general name for a helmet up to about 1450 was _basnet_, or _bacinet_. This, as its name implies (see p. 156), was a basin-shaped steel cap worn by fighting men of all ranks. The knights and n.o.bles wore it _under_ their great ornamental helms.[161] The _basnet_ itself was perfectly plain. About the end of the 16th century the usual English helmets were the _burgonet_ and _morion_.[162] These were often very decorative, as may be seen by a visit to any collection of old armour.

Spenser speaks of a "guilt engraven _morion_" (_Faerie Queene_, vii. 7).

Between the basnet and these reigned the _salet_ or _salade_, on which Jack Cade puns execrably--

"Wherefore, on a brick wall have I climbed into this garden, to see if I can eat gra.s.s, or pick a _sallet_ another while, which is not amiss to cool a man's stomach this hot weather. And I think this word _sallet_ was born to do me good, for many a time, but for a _sallet_, my brain-pan had been cleft with a brown-bill."

(2 _Henry VI._, iv. 10.)

It comes, through Fr. _salade_, from Ital. _celata_, "a scull, a helmet, a morion, a _sallat_, a headpiece" (Florio). The etymologists of the 17th century, familiar with the appearance of "guilt engraven morions,"

connected it with Lat. _caelare_, to engrave, and this derivation has been repeated ever since without examination. Now in the Tower of London Armoury is a large collection of _salets_, and these, with the exception of one or two late German specimens from the ornate period, are plain steel caps of the simplest form and design. The _salet_ was, in fact, the _basnet_ slightly modified, worn by the rank and file of 15th-century armies, and probably, like the _basnet_, worn under the knight's tilting helm. There is no Italian verb _celare_, to engrave, but there is a very common verb _celare_, to conceal. A steel cap was also called in Italian _secreta_, "a thinne steele cap, or close skull, worne under a hat" (Florio), and in Old French _segrette_, "an yron skull, or cap of fence" (Cotgrave). Both words are confirmed by Duez, who, in his _Italian-French Dictionary_ (1660), has _secreta_, "une secrette, ou segrette, un morion, une bourguignotte, armure de teste pour les picquiers." Ergo, the _salet_ belongs to Lat. _celare_, to hide, secrete.

We now _caulk_ a s.h.i.+p by forcing oak.u.m into the seams. Hence the verb to _caulk_ is explained as coming from Mid. Eng. _cauken_, to tread, Old Fr. _cauquer_, _caucher_, Lat. _calcare_, from _calx_, heel. This makes the process somewhat acrobatic, although this is not, philologically, a very serious objection. But we _caulk_ the s.h.i.+p or the seams, not the oak.u.m. Primitive _caulking_ consisted in plastering a wicker coracle with clay. The earliest _caulker_ on record is Noah, who pitched[163]

his ark within and without with pitch. In the Vulgate (_Genesis_, vi.

14), the _pitch_ is called _bitumen_ and the verb is _linere_, "to daub, besmear, etc." Next in chronological order comes the mother of Moses, who "took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch" (_Exodus_, ii. 3), _bitumine ac pice_ in the Vulgate. Bitumen, or mineral pitch, was regularly applied to this purpose, even by Elizabethan seamen. Failing this, anything sticky and unctuous was used, _e.g._, clay or lime. _Lime_ now means usually calcium oxide, but its original sense is anything viscous; _cf._ Ger. _Leim_, glue, and our bird-_lime_. The oldest example of the verb to _caulk_ is about 1500.

In Mid. English we find to _lime_ used instead, _e.g._, in reference to the ark--

"Set and _limed_ agen the flood" (c. 1250),

and--

"_Lyme_ it with cleye and pitche within and without." (Caxton, 1483.)

Our _caulk_ is in medieval Latin _calcare_, and this represents a rare Latin verb _calicare_, to plaster with lime, from _calx_, lime. Almost every language which has a nautical vocabulary uses for our _caulk_ a verb related to Fr. _calfater_. This is of Spanish or Portuguese origin.

The Portuguese word is _calafetar_, from _cal_, lime, and _afeitar_, to put in order, trim, etc.

[Page Heading: GHOST-WORDS]

The readiness of lexicographers to copy from each other sometimes leads to ludicrous results. The origin of the word _curmudgeon_ is quite unknown; but, when Dr Johnson was at work on his dictionary, he received from an unknown correspondent the suggestion that it was a corruption of Fr. _cur mechant_, wicked heart. Accordingly we find in his dictionary, "It is a vitious manner of p.r.o.nouncing _cur mechant_, Fr. an unknown correspondent." John Ash, LL.D., who published a very complete dictionary in 1775, gives the derivation "from the French _cur_, unknown, and _mechant_, a correspondent," an achievement which, says Todd, "will always excite both in foreigners and natives a harmless smile!"

It is thus that "ghost-words" come into existence. Every considerable English dictionary, from Spelman's _Glossarium_ (1664) onward, has the entry _abacot_, "a cap of state, wrought up into the shape of two crowns, worn formerly by English kings." This "word" will no longer appear in dictionaries, the editor of the _New English Dictionary_ having laid this particular ghost.[164] _Abacot_ seems to be a misprint or misunderstanding for a _bic.o.c.ket_, a kind of horned head-dress. It corresponds to an Old Fr. _bicoquet_ and Span. _bicoquete_, cap, the derivation of which is uncertain. Of somewhat later date is _brooch_, "a painting all in one colour," which likewise occurs in all dictionaries of the 18th and 19th centuries. This is due to Miege (_French Dict._ 1688) misunderstanding Cotgrave. There is a Fr. _camaeu_, a derivative of _cameo_, which has two meanings, viz., a cameo _brooch_, and a monochrome painting with a cameo effect. Miege appears to have taken the second meaning to be explanatory of the first, hence his entry--_brooch_, "camayeu, ouvrage de peinture qui n'est que d'une couleur." In Manwayring's _Seaman's Dictionary_ (1644), the old word _carvel_, applied to a special build of s.h.i.+p, is misprinted _carnell_, and this we find persisting, not only in the compilations of such writers as Bailey, Ash, etc., but even in technical dictionaries of the 18th century "by officers who serv'd several years at sea and land." The Anglo-Saxon name for the kestrel (see p. 100) was _stangella_, stone-yeller (_cf._ nightin_gale_), which appears later as _stonegall_ and _staniel_. In the 16th century we find the curious spelling _steingall_, _e.g._, Cooper explains _tinnunculus_ as "a kistrel, or a kastrell; a _steyngall_." In Cotgrave we find it printed _fleingall_, a form which recurs in several later dictionaries of the 17th century.

Hence, somewhere between Cooper and Cotgrave, an ornithologist or lexicographer must have misprinted _fleingall_ for _?teingall_ by the common mistake of _fl_ for _?t_, and the ghost-word persists into the 18th century.

The difficulty of the etymologist's task is exemplified by the complete mystery which often enshrouds a word of comparatively recent appearance. A well-known example is the word _Huguenot_, for which fifteen different etymologies have been proposed. We first find it used in 1550, and by 1572 the French word-hunter Tabourot, generally known as des Accords, has quite a number of theories on the subject. He is worth quoting in full--

"De nostre temps ce mot de _Huguenots_, ou _Hucnots_ s'est ainsi intronise: quelque chose qu'ayent escrit quelques-uns, que ce mot vient _Gnosticis haereticis qui luminibus extinctis sacra faciebant_, selon Crinit: ou bien du Roy Hugues Capet, ou de la porte de Hugon a Tours par laquelle ils sortoient pour aller a leur presche. Lors que les pretendus Reformez implorerent l'ayde des voix des Allemans, aussi bien que de leurs armees: les Protestans estans venus parler en leur faveur, devant Monsieur le Chancelier, en grande a.s.semblee, le premier mot que profera celuy qui portoit le propos, fut, _Huc nos venimus_: Et apres estant presse d'un reuthme (_rhume_, cold) il ne peut pa.s.ser outre; tellement que le second dit le mesme, _Huc nos venimus_. Et les courtisans presents qui n'entendoient pas telle prolation; car selon la nostre ils p.r.o.noncent _Houc nos venimous_, estimerent que ce fussent quelques gens ainsi nommez: et depuis surnommerent ceux de la Religion pretendue reformee, _Hucnos_: en apres changeant _C_ en _G_, _Hugnots_, et avec le temps on a allonge ce mot, et dit _Huguenots_. Et voyla la vraye source du mot, s'il n'y en a autre meilleure."[165]

The only serious etymology is Ger. _Eidgenoss_, oath companion, which agrees pretty well with the earliest recorded Swiss-French form, _eiguenot_, in Bonivard's _Chronique de Geneve_.

[Page Heading: UNSOLVED PROBLEMS]

The engineering term _culvert_ first appears about 1800, and there is not the slightest clue to its origin. The victorious march of the ugly word _sw.a.n.k_ has been one of the linguistic phenomena of recent years.

There is a dialect word _sw.a.n.k_, to strut, which may be related to the common Scottish word _sw.a.n.kie_, a strapping youth--

"I am told, young _sw.a.n.kie_, that you are roaming the world to seek your fortune."

(_Monastery_, Ch. 24.)

But, in spite of the many conjectures, plausible or otherwise, which have been made, neither the etymology of _sw.a.n.k_ nor its sudden inroad into the modern language are at present explained. The word _ogre_, first used by Perrault in his _Contes de Fees_ (1697), has occasioned much grave and learned speculation. Perhaps the philologists of the future may theorise as sapiently as to the origin of _jabberwock_ and _banders.n.a.t.c.h_.

FOOTNOTES:

[142] The following "etymologies" occur, in the same list with a number which are quite correct, in a 16th-century French author, Tabourot des Accords:--

_Bonnet_, de _bon_ et _net_, pource que l'ornement de la teste doit estre tel.

_Chapeau_, quasi, _eschappe eau_; aussi anciennement ne le souloit on porter que par les champs en temps de pluye.

_Chemise_, quasi, sur _chair mise_.

_Velours_, quasi, _velu ours_.

_Galant_, quasi, _gay allant_.

_Menestrier_, quasi, _meine estrier_ des espousees.

_Orgueil_, quasi, _orde gueule_.

_Noise_, vient de _nois_ (_noix_), qui font _noise_ et bruit portees ensemble.

_Parlement_, pource qu'on y _parle et ment_!

[143] Old Fr. _pourloignier_, to remove; cf. _eloigner_.

[144] A very difficult word. Before it was applied to a Londoner it meant a milksop. It is thus used by Chaucer. Cooper renders _delicias facere_, "to play the wanton, to dally, to play the _c.o.c.kney_." In this sense it corresponds to Fr. _acoquine_, made into a _coquin_, "made tame, inward, familiar; also, growne as lazy, sloathful, idle, as a beggar" (Cotgrave).

[145] Thought to be a Mexican word.

[146] "Sache que le mot _galant homme_ vient d'_elegant_; prenant le _g_ et l'_a_ de la derniere syllabe, cela fait _ga_, et puis prenant _l_, ajoutant un _a_ et les deux dernieres lettres, cela fait _galant_, et puis ajoutant _homme_, cela fait _galant homme_." (Moliere, _Jalousie du Barbouille_, scene 2.)

[147] Old Fr. _joindre_, Lat. _junior_.

[148] Of Arabic origin.