The Romance of Names Part 28

Hayward belongs to hay, hedge, enclosure (Chapter XIII), from which we also get Hayman. The same functionary has given the name Haybittle, a compound of beadle. Burward and Burrard may represent the once familiar office of bear-ward; cf. Berman. I had a schoolfellow called Lateward, apparently the man in charge of the lade or leet (Chapter XIII). Medward is for mead-ward.

The name Stewart or Stuart became royal with Walter the Steward of Scotland, who married Marjorie Bruce in 1315. It stands for sty-ward, where sty means pen, not necessarily limited to pigs. Like most official t.i.tles, it has had its ups and downs, with the result that its present meaning ranges from a high officer of the crown to the sympathetic concomitant of a rough crossing.

The Reeve, Anglo-Sax. ge-refa, was in Chaucer a kind of land agent, but the name was also applied to local officials, as in port-reeve, s.h.i.+re-reeve. It is the same as Grieve, also originally official, but used in Scotland of a land steward--

"He has got a ploughman from Scotland who acts as grieve."

(Scott, Diary, 1814.)

This may be one source of the names Graves and Greaves. The name Woodruff, Woodroffe is too common to be referred to the plant woodruff, and the fact that the male and female of a species of sand-piper are called the ruff and reeve suggests that Woodruff may have some relation to wood-reeve. It is at any rate a curious coincidence that the German name for the plant is Waldmeister, wood-master. Another official surname especially connected with country life is Pinder, also found as Pinner, Pender, Penner, Ponder and Poynder, the man in charge of the pound or pinfold; cf. Parker, the custodian of a park, of which the Palliser or Pallister made the palings.

ITINERANT MERCHANTS

The itinerant dealer was usually called by a name suggesting the pack which he carried. Thus Badger, Kidder, Kiddier, Pedder, now pedlar, are from bag, kid, related to kit, and the obsolete ped, basket; cf.

Leaper, Chapter XV. The badger, who dealt especially in corn, was unpopular with the rural population, and it is possible that his name was given to the stealthy animal formerly called the bawson (Chapter I.), brock or gray (Chapter XXIII). That Badger is a nickname taken from the animal is chronologically improbable, as the word is first recorded in 1523 (New English Dictionary).

To the above names may be added Cremer, Cramer, a huckster with a stall in the market, but this surname is sometimes of modern introduction, from its German cognate Kramer, now generally used for a grocer. Packman, Pakeman, and Paxman belong more probably to the font-name Pack (Chapter IX), which also appears in Paxon, either Pack's son, or for the local Paxton.

The name Hawker does not belong to this group. Nowadays a hawker is a pedlar, and it has been a.s.sumed, without sufficient evidence, that the word is of the same origin as huckster. The Mid. Eng. le haueker or haukere (1273) is quite plainly connected with hawk, and the name may have been applied either to a Falconer, Faulkner, or to a dealer in hawks. As we know that itinerant vendors of hawks travelled from castle to castle, it is quite possible that our modern hawker is an extended use of the same name.

Nor is the name Coster to be referred to costermonger, originally a dealer in costards, i.e. apples. It is sometimes for Mid. Eng.

costard (cf. such names as Cherry and Plumb), but may also represent Port. da Costa and Ger. Koster, both of which are found in early lists of Protestant refugees.

Jagger was a north-country name for a man who worked draught-horses for hire. Mr. Hardy's novel Under the Greenwood Tree opens with "the Tranter's party." A carrier is still a "tranter" in Wess.e.x. In Medieval Latin he was called travetarius, a word apparently connected with Lat. transvehere, to transport.

CHAPTER XX. OFFICIAL AND DOMESTIC

"Big fleas have little fleas Upon their backs to bite 'em Little fleas have smaller fleas, And so ad infinitum."

Anon.

It is a well-known fact that official nomenclature largely reflects the simple housekeeping of early times, and that many t.i.tles, now of great dignity, were originally a.s.sociated with rather lowly duties.

We have seen an example in Stewart. Another is Chamberlain. Hence surnames drawn from this cla.s.s are susceptible of very varied interpretation. A Chancellor was originally a man in charge of a chancel, or grating, Lat. cancelli. In Mid. English it is usually glossed scriba, while it is now limited to very high judicial or political office. Bailey, as we have seen (Chapter IV), has also a wide range of meanings, the ground idea being that of care-taker.

Cotgrave explains Old Fr. mareschal marechal as--

"A marshall of a kingdoms, or of a camp (an honourable place); also, a blacksmith; also, a farrier, horse-leech, or horse-smith; also, a harbinger,"

[Footnote: i.e. a quartermaster. See Romance of Words, ch. vii.]

which gives a considerable choice of origins to any modern Marshall or Maskell.

Another very vague term is sergeant, whence our Sargent. Its oldest meaning is servant, Lat. serviens, servient--. Cotgrave defines sergent as--

"A sergeant, officer, catchpole, pursuyvant, apparitor; also (in Old Fr.) a footman, or souldier that serves on foot." I

Probably catchpole was the commonest meaning--

"Sargeauntes, katche pollys, and somners" (c.o.c.ke Lorelles Bote).

The administration of justice occupied a horde of officials, from the Justice down to the Catchpole. The official t.i.tle Judge is rarely found, and this surname is usually from the female name Judge, which, like Jug, was used for Judith, and later for Jane--

"Jannette, Judge, Jennie; a woman's name" (Cotgrave).

The names Judson and Juxon sometimes belong to these. Catchpole has nothing to do with poles or polls. It is a Picard cache-poule (cha.s.se-poule), collector of poultry in default of money. Another name for judge was Dempster, the p.r.o.nouncer of doom, a t.i.tle which still exists in the Isle of Man. We also find Deemer--

"Demar, judicator" (Prompt. Parv.).

Mayor is a learned spelling of Mair, Fr. maire, Lat. major, but Major, which looks like its latinized form, is perhaps imitative for the Old French personal name Mauger. Bishop Mauger of Worcester p.r.o.nounced the interdict in 1208, and the surname still exists.

Gaylor, Galer, is the Norman p.r.o.nunciation of gaoler--

"And Palamon, this woful prisoner, As was his wone, bi leve of his gayler, Was risen" (A, 1064).

THE HOUSEHOLD

Usher is Fr. huissier, door-keeper, Fr. huis, door, Lat. ostium. I conjecture that Lusher is the French name Lhuissier, and that Lush is local, for Old Fr. le huis; cf. Laporte. Wait, corruptly Weight, now used only of a Christmas minstrel, was once a watchman. It is a dialect form of Old Fr. gaite, cognate with watch. The older sense survives in the expression "to lie in wait." Gate is the same name, when not local (Chapter XIII).

The Todhunter, or fox-hunter (Chapter XXIII), was an official whose duty was to exterminate the animal now so carefully preserved. Warner is often for Warrener. The Grosvenor (gros veneur), great hunter, was a royal servant. Bannerman is found latinized as Penninger (Chapter XV). Herald may be official or from Harold (Chapter VII), the derivation being in any case the same. Toller means a collector of tolls. c.o.c.ke Lorelle speaks of these officials as "false Towlers."

Connected with administration is the name Mainprice, lit. taken by hand, used both for a surety and a man out on bail--

"Maynprysyd, or memprysyd, manucaptus, fideijussus" (Prompt. Parv.);

and Shurety also exists.

The individual bigwig had a very large retinue, the members of which appear to have held very strongly to the theory of one man, one job.

The Nurse, or Norris, Fr. nourrice, was apparently debarred from rocking the cradle. This was the duty of the rocker--

"To the norice and rokker of the same lord, 25s. 8d."

(Household Accounts of Elizabeth of York, March, 1503),

from whom Mr. Roker, chief turnkey at the Fleet in Mr. Pickwick's time, may have sprung The Cook was a.s.sisted by the Baster and Hasler, or turnspit, the latter from Old Fr. hastille, spit, dim. of Lat.

hasta, spear. The Chandler was a servant as well as a manufacturer.

A Trotter and a Ma.s.singer, i.e. messenger, were perhaps much the same thing. Wardroper is of course wardrobe keeper, but Chaucer uses wardrope (B. 1762) in the sense which Fr. garde-robe now usually has.

The Lavender, Launder or Lander saw to the was.h.i.+ng. Napier, from Fr.

nappe, cloth, meant the servant who looked after the napery. The martial sound with which this distinguished name strikes a modern ear is due to historical a.s.sociation, a.s.sisted, as I have somewhere read, by its riming with rapier! The water-supply was in charge of the Ewer.

The provisioning of the great house was the work of the Lardner, Fr.

lard, bacon, the Panter, or Pantler, who was, at least etymologically, responsible for bread, and the Cator (Chapter III) and Spencer (Chapter III), whose names, though of opposite meaning, buyer and spender, come to very much the same thing. Spence is still the north-country word for pantry, and is used by Tennyson in the sense of refectory--

"Bluff Harry broke into the Spence And turn'd the cowls adrift."