The Romance of Words Part 6

"The kitchen _malkin_ pins Her richest lockram[33] 'bout her reechy neck, Clamb'ring the walls to eye him."

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

This is a diminutive of Matilda or Mary, possibly of both. _Grimalkin_, applied to a fiend in the shape of a cat, is perhaps for _gray malkin_--

"I come, _Graymalkin_."

(_Macbeth_, i. 1.)

The name _malkin_ was transferred from the maid to the mop. Cotgrave has _escouillon_ (_ecouvillon_), "a wispe, or dish-clowt; a _maukin_, or drag, to cleanse, or sweepe an oven." _ecouvillon_ is a derivative of Lat. _scopa_, broom. Now another French word, which means both "kitchen servant" and "dish-clout," is _souillon_, from _souiller_, to soil. What share each of these words has in Eng. _scullion_ is hard to say. The only thing certain is that _scullion_ is not originally related to _scullery_, Old Fr. _escuelerie_, a collective from Old Fr. _escuelle_ (_ecuelle_), dish, Lat. _scutella_.

A _doll_ was formerly called a _baby_ or _puppet_. It is the abbreviation of _Dorothy_, for we find it called a _doroty_ in Scottish.

We may compare Fr. _marionnette_, a double diminutive of Mary, explained by Cotgrave as "little Marian or Mal; also, a puppet." _Little Mary_, in another sense, has been recently, but perhaps definitely, adopted into our language. Another old name for doll is _mammet_. Capulet uses it contemptuously to his daughter--

"And then to have a wretched puling fool, A whining _mammet_, in her fortune's tender, To answer: 'I'll not wed,'--'I cannot love.'"

(_Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 5.)

Its earlier form is _maumet_, meaning "idol," and it is a contraction of Mahomet.

The derivation of _jug_ is not capable of proof, but a 17th-century etymologist regards it as identical with the female name _Jug_,[34] for Joan or Jane. This is supported by the fact that _jack_ was used in a similar sense--

"That there's wrath and despair in the jolly black-_jack_, And the seven deadly sins in a flagon of sack."

(_Lady of the Lake_, vi. 5.)

We may also compare _toby jug_ and _demi-john_. The latter word is in French _dame-jeanne_, but both forms are possibly due to folk-etymology.

A coat of mail was called in English a _jack_ and in French _jaque_, "a _jack_, or coat of maile" (Cotgrave); hence the diminutive _jacket_. The German miners gave to an ore which they considered useless the name _kobalt_, from _kobold_, a goblin, gnome. This has given Eng. _cobalt_.

Much later is the similarly formed _nickel_, a diminutive of Nicholas.

It comes to us from Sweden, but appears earliest in the German compound _Kupfernickel_, copper nickel. Apparently _nickel_ here means something like goblin; cf. _Old Nick_ and, probably, the _d.i.c.kens_--

"I cannot tell what the _d.i.c.kens_ his name is my husband had him of.--What do you call your knight's name, sirrah?"

(_Merry Wives_, iii. 2.)

_Pantaloons_ come, _via_ France, from Venice. A great many Venetians bore the name of _Pantaleone_, one of their favourite saints. Hence the application of the name to the characteristic Venetian hose. The "lean and slippered pantaloon" was originally one of the stock characters of the old Italian comedy. Torriano has _pantalone_, "a _pantalone_, a covetous and yet amorous old dotard, properly applyed in comedies unto a Venetian." _Knickerbockers_ take their name from Diedrich _Knickerbocker_, the pseudonym under which Was.h.i.+ngton Irving wrote his History of Old New York, in which the early Dutch inhabitants are depicted in baggy knee-breeches.

[Page Heading: NINNY--JACKANAPES]

Certain christian names are curiously a.s.sociated with stupidity. In modern English we speak of a _silly Johnny_, while the Germans say _ein dummer Peter_, or _Michel_, and French uses _Colas_ (_Nicolas_), _Nicodeme_ and _Claude_, the reason for the selection of the name not always being known. English has, or had, in the sense of "fool," the words _ninny_, _nick.u.m_, _noddy_, _zany_. _Ninny_ is for _Innocent_, "Innocent, _Ninny_, a proper name for a man" (Cotgrave). With this we may compare French _benet_ (_i.e._ Benedict), "a simple, plaine, doltish fellow; a noddy peake, a ninny hammer, a peagoose, a c.o.xe, a silly companion" (Cotgrave). _Nick.u.m_ and _noddy_ are probably for Nicodemus or Nicholas, both of which are used in French for a fool--

"'But there's another chance for you,' said Mr Boffin, smiling still. 'Do you like the name of Nicodemus? Think it over. _Nick_ or _Noddy_.'"

(_Our Mutual Friend_, Ch. 5.)

_Noddy-peak_, _ninny-hammer_, _nick.u.mp.o.o.p_, now _nincomp.o.o.p_, seem to be arbitrary elaborations. _Zany_, formerly a conjuror's a.s.sistant, is _zanni_ (see p. 143), an Italian diminutive of _Giovanni_, John. With the degeneration of _Innocent_ and _Benedict_ we may compare Fr.

_cretin_, idiot, an Alpine patois form of _chretien_, Christian, and Eng. _silly_, which once meant blessed, a sense preserved by its German cognate _selig_. _Dunce_ is a libel on the disciples of the great medieval schoolman John Duns Scotus, born at Duns in Berwicks.h.i.+re.

_Dandy_ is Scottish for Andrew, _e.g._, Dandie Dinmont (_Guy Mannering_). _Dago_, now usually applied to Italians, was used by the Elizabethans, in its original form _Diego_, of the Spaniards. The derivation of _guy_ and _bobby_ (peeler) is well known. _Jockey_ is a diminutive of the north country _Jock_, for _Jack_. The history of _jackanapes_ is obscure. The earliest record of the name is in a satirical song on the unpopular William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, who was beheaded at sea in 1450. He is called _Jack Napes_, the allusion being apparently to his badge, an ape's clog and chain. But there also seems to be a.s.sociation with Naples; cf. _fustian-anapes_ for Naples fustian. A poem of the 15th century mentions among our imports from Italy--

"Apes and j.a.pes and marmusettes tayled."

_Jilt_ was once a stronger epithet than at present. It is for earlier _jillet_, which is a diminutive of _Jill_, the companion of Jack.

_Jill_, again, is short for _Gillian_, i.e. _Juliana_, so that _jilt_ is a doublet of Shakespeare's sweetest heroine. _Termagant_, like _shrew_ (p. 34), was formerly used of both s.e.xes, _e.g._, by Sir John Falstaff--

"'Twas time to counterfeit, or that hot _termagant_ Scot (Douglas) had paid me scot and lot too."

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

In its oldest sense of a Saracen G.o.d it regularly occurs with _Mahound_ (Mahomet)--

"Marsilies fait porter un livre avant: La lei i fut Mahum e _Tervagan_."[35]

(_Chanson de Roland_, l. 610.)

Ariosto has _Trivigante_. Being introduced into the medieval drama, the name became synonymous with a stage fury--

"I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing _Termagant_."

(_Hamlet_, iii. 2.)

The origin of the word is unknown, but its sense development is strangely different from that of Mahomet (p. 43).

FOOTNOTES:

[24] But _Finsteraarhorn_ is perhaps from the river _Aar_, not from _Aar_, eagle.

[25] A place where a number of settlers were ma.s.sacred by the Zulus.

[26] "Two mountains near Dublin, which we, keeping in the grocery line, have called the Great and the Little Sugarloaf, are named in Irish the Golden Spears."--(Trench, _On the Study of Words_.)

[27] The French name for the fruit is _ananas_, a Brazilian word. A vegetarian friend of the writer, misled by the superficial likeness of this word to _banana_, once petrified a Belgian waiter by ordering half a dozen for his lunch.

[28] A reader calls my attention to the fact that, when the hippopotamus is almost completely submerged, the pointed ears, prominent eyes, and large nostrils are grotesquely suggestive of a horse's head. This I have recently verified at the Zoo.

[29] For the rather illogical formation, cf. _dogged_ from _dog_.

[30] Connection has even been suggested between _haggis_ and Fr.

_aga.s.se_, "a pie, piannet, or _magatapie_" (Cotgrave). _Haggis_, now regarded as Scottish, was once a common word in English. Palsgrave has _haggas_, a podyng, "caliette (caillette) de mouton," _i.e._, sheep's stomach.

[31] For _eyas_ see p. 114.

[32] To the same period belongs the colour _magenta_, from the victory of the French over the Austrians at Magenta in 1859.

[33] For _lockram_, see p. 48.

[34] _Jehannette_, "_Jug_, or Jinny" (Cotgrave). For strange perversions of baptismal names see Chap. XII. It is possible that the rather uncommon family name _Juggins_ is of the same origin.

[35] "Marsil has a book brought forward: the law of Mahomet and Termagant was in it."

CHAPTER IV

WORDS AND PLACES