WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF PEOPLE.
Many words have been taken from the names of people, saints and
sinners, men who have helped on human progress and men who have tried
to stand in its way, from queens and kings and nobles, and from quite
humble people.
One large group of words has been made from the names of great
inventors. All through history men have been inventing new things. We
realize this if we think of what England is like to-day, and what it
was like in the days of the early Britons. But even by the time of the
early Britons many things had been invented which the earlier races of
men had not known. Perhaps the greatest inventor the world has ever
known was the man who first discovered how to make fire; but we shall
never know who he was.
The people who discovered how to make metal weapons instead of the
stone weapons which early men used were great inventors too; and those
who discovered how to grow crops of corn and wheat, and so gave new
food to the human race. But all this happened in times long past,
before men had any idea of writing down their records, and so these
inventors have not left their names for us to admire.
But in historical times, and especially in the centuries since the
Renaissance, there have been many inventors, and it will be
interesting to see how the things they invented got their names. The
word _inventor_ itself means a "finder," and comes to us from the
Latin word _invenio_, "I find."
The greatest number of inventions have been made in the last hundred and
fifty years. The printing-press was, of course, a great invention of the
fifteenth century, but it was simply called the _printing-press_, and
did not take the name of its inventor. Yet this was a new name too, for
the people of the Middle Ages would not have known what a printing-press
was.
Several early printers have, however, had their names preserved in the
description of the beautiful books they produced. All lovers of rare
books are admirers of what they call _Aldines_ and _Elzevirs_--that
is, books printed at the press of Aldo Manuzio and his family at
Venice in the sixteenth century, and by the Elzevir family in Holland
in the seventeenth century.
We speak of a _Bradshaw_ and a _Baedeker_ to describe the best-known
of all railway guides and guide-books. The first takes its name from
George Bradshaw, a map engraver, who was born in Manchester in 1801,
and lived there till he died, in 1853. In 1839 he published on his
own account "Bradshaw's Railway Time Table," of which he changed the
name to "Railway Companion" in the next year. He corrected it a few
days after the beginning of each month by the railway time sheets, but
even then the railway companies sometimes made changes later in the
month. In a short time, however, the companies agreed to fix their
time tables monthly, and in December 1841 Bradshaw was able to publish
the first number of "Bradshaw's Monthly Railway Guide." Six years
afterwards he published the first number of "Bradshaw's Continental
Railway Guide."
The famous series of guides now called _Baedekers_ take their name
from Karl Baedeker, a German publisher, who in the first half of the
nineteenth century began to publish this famous series.
Members of Parliament still speak of the volumes containing the
printed record of what goes on in Parliament as _Hansard_. This name
comes from that of the first publisher of such records, Luke Hansard,
who was printer to the House of Commons from 1798 until he died, in
1828. His family continued to print the reports as late as 1889, and
though the work is now shared by other firms, the name is still kept.
Not only books but musical instruments are frequently called after
their makers. The two most famous and valuable kinds of old violins
take their names from the Italian family of the Amati, who made
violins in the sixteenth century, and Antonio Stradivari, who was
their pupil. An _Amati_ and a _Stradivarius_, often called a "Strad"
for short, are the names now given by musicians to the splendid old
violins made by these people.
The names of many flowers have been taken from the names of persons,
and this still goes on to-day when new varieties of roses or sweet
peas are called after the person who first grew them, or some friend
of this person. These modern names are not, as a rule, very romantic,
but some of the older ones are interesting. The _dahlia_, for
instance, was called after Dahl, a Swedish botanist, who was a pupil
of the great botanist Linnæus, after whom the chief botanical society
in England, the _Linnæan Society_, is called. The _lobelia_ was so
called after Matthias de Lobel, a Flemish botanist and physician to
King James I. The _fuchsia_ took its name from Leonard Fuchs, a
sixteenth-century botanist, the first German who really studied
botany.
There are many more new things and names to-day than in earlier times,
names which our grand-parents and even our parents did not know when
they were children. We talk familiarly now about _aeroplanes_ and the
different kinds of aeroplanes, such as the _monoplane_, _biplane_,
etc. But these are new names invented in the last twenty years. Some
of the names of airships and aeroplanes are very interesting. The
_Taube_, for instance, is so called from the German word meaning
"dove," because it looks very like a bird when it is up in the sky.
The great German airships called _Zeppelins_ took their name from the
German Count Zeppelin, who invented them; and the splendid French
airships called _Fokkers_ also take their name from their inventor,
and so does the _Gotha_--name of ill-fame.
The man who first discovered gunpowder is forgotten, but many of the
powerful guns which are used in modern warfare are called after their
inventors. The _Gatling gun_ is not much talked of to-day, but it was
a famous gun in its time, and took its name from the American
inventor, Richard Jordan Gatling, who lived in the early nineteenth
century, and devoted his life to inventions. Some were peaceable
inventions, like machines for sowing cotton and rice; but he is best
remembered by the great gun to which he gave his name.
Another famous gun of which we have heard a great deal in the Great
War is the _Maxim gun_, which again took its name from its inventor,
Sir Hiram Maxim. The _shrapnel_, of which also so much was heard in
the Great War, the terrible shells which burst a certain time after
leaving the gun without striking against anything, took its name from
its inventor. The chief peculiarity of shrapnel is that the bullets
fall from above in a shower from the shell as it bursts in the air.
But there are many other names which we should not easily guess to
come from the names of inventors. People talk of a macadamized road
without knowing that these roads are so called because they are made
in the way invented by John M'Adam, who lived from 1756 to 1836. The
name _macadam_ is often used now to denote the material used in making
roads. Sometimes this material is of a sort which John M'Adam would
not have approved of at all, for he did not believe in pouring a fluid
material over the stones, or in the heavy rollers which are now often
used in making new roads.
Another useful article, the homely _mackintosh_, takes its name from
that of another Scotsman, Charles Macintosh, who lived at the same
time as M'Adam. It was he who first, in 1823, finished the invention
of a waterproof cloth.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many great discoveries were
made in science, and many names of discoverers and inventors have been
preserved in scientific words. _Galvanism_, one branch of electricity,
took its name from Luigi Galvani, an Italian professor, who made great
discoveries about electricity in the bodies of animals. Every one has
heard of a galvanic battery, but not everybody knows how it got its
name.
_Mesmerism_, or the science by which the human mind is influenced by
suggestions from itself or another mind, took its name from Friedrich
Anton Mesmer, who first made great discoveries about animal magnetism.
Another famous discoverer of the powers of electricity, and one who is
still a young man, is Guglielmo Marconi, a native of Bologna. It was
he who invented the great system of wireless telegraphy which is now
used in nearly all big ships. In 1899 he first succeeded in sending a
message in this way from England to France, and in the next year he
sent one right across the Atlantic. Now ships frequently send a
_Marconigram_ home when they are right in the middle of the ocean; and
many lives have been saved through ships in distress having been able
to send out wireless messages which have brought other vessels
steaming up to their aid. In fact, this invention of Marconi's is,
perhaps, the greatest of all modern inventions, and it is but right
that it should preserve his name.
A different kind of invention has preserved the name of the fourth
Earl of Sandwich, an eighteenth-century nobleman, who was so fond of
card games that he could not bear to leave the card table even to eat
his meals, and so invented what has ever since been called by his
name--the _sandwich_.
Not unlike the origin of the name sandwich is that of _Abernethy_
biscuits, so called after the doctor who invented the recipe for
making them.
It was another doctor, the French physician, Joseph Ignace Guillotin,
who gave his name to the _guillotine_, the terrible knife with which
people were beheaded in thousands during the French Revolution.
Guillotin did not really invent it, nor was he himself guillotined, as
has often been said. The guillotine is supposed to have been invented
long ago in Persia, and was used in the Middle Ages both in Italy and
Germany. The Frenchman whose name it bears was a kindly person, who
merely advised this method of execution at the time of the French
Revolution, because he thought, and rightly, that if people were to be
beheaded at all, it should be done swiftly and not clumsily.
But many things are called by the names of persons who were not
inventors at all. Sometimes a new kind of clothing is called after
some great person just to make it seem distinguished. A _Chesterfield_
overcoat is so called because the tailor who first gave this kind of
coat that name wished to suggest that it had all the elegance
displayed in the clothing of the famous eighteenth-century dandy, the
fourth Earl of Chesterfield. So the well-known _Raglan_ coats and
sleeves took their name first from an English general, Baron Raglan,
who fought in the Crimean War. Both Wellington and Blücher, the two
generals who fought together and defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, gave
their names to different kinds of boots. _Bluchers_ are strong leather
half boots or high shoes, and _Wellingtons_ are high riding boots
reaching to the bend of the knee at the back of the leg, and covering
the knee in front. Wellington is supposed to have worn such boots in
his campaigns.
Another article of clothing which was very popular with ladies at one
time was the _Garibaldi_ blouse, which was so called after the red
shirts which were worn by the followers of the famous soldier who won
liberty for Italy, Garibaldi.
The rather vulgar name for ladies' divided skirts--_bloomers_--came
from the name of an American woman, Mrs. Amelia Jenks Bloomer, who
used to wear a skirt which reached to her knee, and then was divided
into Turkish trousers tied round her ankles.
A great many different kinds of carriages and vehicles have been
called by the names of people. The _brougham_, which is still a
favourite form of closed carriage, got its name from Lord Brougham.
The old four-wheeled carriage with a curved glass front got its name
from the Duke of Clarence, who afterwards became King William IV.; and
the carriage known as the _Victoria_ was so called as a compliment to
Queen Victoria. We do not hear much of this kind of carriage now; but
the two-wheeled cab known as the _hansom_ is still to be seen in the
streets of London, in spite of the coming of the taxicab. This form of
conveyance took its name from an architect who invented it in 1834. An
earlier kind of two-wheeled carriage invented a few years before this,
but which was displaced by the hansom, was the _stanhope_, also called
after its inventor. The general name for a two-wheeled carriage of
this sort used to be the _phaeton_, and this was not taken from any
person, but from the sun-chariot in which, according to the old Greek
story, the son of Helios rode to destruction when he had roused the
anger of the great Greek god, Zeus.
The names of old Greeks and Romans have given us many words. We speak
of a very rich man as a _Croesus_, a word which was the name of a
fabulously rich tyrant in Ancient Greece. A person who is supposed to
be a great judge of food, and devoted to the pleasures of the table,
is called an _epicure_, from the old Greek philosopher Epicurus, who
taught that the chief aim of life was to feel pleasure. The word
_cynic_, too, comes from the name given to certain Greek philosophers
who despised pleasure. The name was originally a nickname for these
philosophers, and was taken from the Greek word _kunos_, "dog."
We describe a person who chooses to live a very hard life as a
_Spartan_, because the people of the old Greek state of Sparta planned
their lives so that every one should be disciplined and drilled to
make good soldiers, and were never allowed to indulge in too much
comfort or too many amusements, lest they should become lazy in mind
and weak in body. A _Draconian_ system of law is one which has no
mercy, and preserves the name of Draco, a statesman who was appointed
to draw up laws for the Athenians six hundred and twenty-one years
before the birth of Our Lord, and who drew up a very strict code of
laws.
The word _mausoleum_, which is now used to describe any large or
distinguished tomb, comes from the tomb built for Mausolus, king of
Caria (in Greek Asia Minor), by his widow, Artemisia, in 353 B.C. The
tomb itself, which rises to a height of over one hundred and twelve
feet, is now to be seen in the British Museum.
The verb _to hector_, meaning "to bully," is taken from the name of
the Trojan hero Hector, in the famous old Greek poem, the Iliad.
Hector was not, as a matter of fact, a bully, but a very brave man,
and it is curious that his name should have come to be used in this
unpleasant sense. The other great Greek poem, the Odyssey, has given
us the name of one of its characters for a fairly common English word.
A _mentor_ is a person who gives us wise advice, but the original
Mentor was a character in this great poem, the wise counsellor of
Telemachus.
From the names of great Romans, too, we have many words. If we
describe a person as a _Nero_, every one knows that this means a cruel
tyrant. Nero was the worst of all the Roman emperors, and the story
tells that he was so heartless that he played on his violin while
watching the burning of Rome. Some people even said that he himself
set the city on fire. Again, the name of Julius Cæsar, who was the
first imperial governor of Rome, though he was never called emperor,
has given us a common name. _Cæsar_ came to mean "an emperor;" and the
modern German _Kaiser_ and the Russian _Tsar_ come from this name of
the "noblest Roman of them all."
An earlier Roman was Fabius Cunctator (or "Fabius the
Procrastinator"), a general who, instead of fighting actual battles
with the Carthaginian Hannibal, the great enemy of Rome, preferred to
tire him out by keeping him waiting and never giving battle. His name
has given us the word _Fabian_, to describe this kind of tactics.
The name by which people often describe an unscrupulous politician now
is _Machiavellian_, an adjective made from the name of a great writer
on the government of states. At the time of the Renaissance in Italy,
Machiavelli, in his famous book called "The Prince," took it for
granted that every ruler would do anything, good or bad, to arrive at
the results he desired.
Another common word taken at first from politics, but now used in a
general sense, is _boycott_. To boycott a person means to be
determined to ignore or take no notice of him. A child may be
"boycotted" by disagreeable companions at school. Another expression
for the same disagreeable method is to "send to Coventry."
But the political boycotting from which the word passed into general
use took place in Ireland, when any one with whose politics the Irish
did not agree was treated in this way. The first victim of this kind
of treatment was Captain Boycott of County Mayo in 1880. So useful has
this word been found that both the French and Germans have borrowed
it. The French have now the word _boycotter_, and the Germans
_boycottieren_.
Another Irish name which has given us a common word is Burke.
Sometimes in a discussion one person will tell another that he
_burkes_ the question. This means that he is avoiding the real subject
of debate. Or a rumour may be _burked_, or "hushed up." In this way
the subject is, as it were, smothered. And it was from this meaning
that the name came to be used as a general word. William Burke was an
Irish labourer who was executed in 1829, when he was found guilty of
having murdered several people. His habit had been to smother them, so
that their bodies did not show how they had died, and sell their
bodies to a doctor for dissection. From this dreadful origin we have
the new use of this fine old Irish name.
People who love books are often very indignant when the editors of a
new edition of an old book think it proper to leave out certain
passages which they think are indecent or unsuitable for people to
read. This is called "expurgating" the book; but people who disapprove
often call it to _bowdlerize_. This word comes from the name of Dr.
Thomas Bowdler, who in 1818 published an edition of Shakespeare's
works in which, as he said, "those words and expressions are omitted
which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family."
Sometimes a badly-dressed or peculiar-looking person is described as a
_guy_. This word comes from the name of Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder
Plotter, through the effigies, or "guys," which are often burned in
bonfires on November 5th.
Certain Christian names have, for reasons which it is not easy to see,
given us words which mean "fool" or "stupid person." The word _ninny_
comes from Innocent. _Noddy_ probably comes from Nicodemus or
Nicholas. Both these names are used to mean "foolish person" in
France, and so is _benêt_, which comes from Benedict.
Some saints' names have given us words which do not seem at first
sight to have any connection with them. The word _maudlin_, by which
we mean "foolishly sentimental," comes from the name of St. Mary
Magdalen, a saint whose name immediately suggests to us sorrow and
weeping. The word _maudlin_ suggests the idea of being ready to weep
unnecessarily. In this way a word describing a disagreeable quality is
taken from the name of one of the most honoured saints.
The word _tawdry_, by which we mean cheap and showy things with no
real beauty, comes from St. Audrey, another name for St. Etheldreda,
who founded Ely Cathedral. In the Middle Ages St. Audrey's Fair used
to be held at Ely, and as fairs are always full of cheap and showy
things, it was from this that the word _tawdry_ came.
_St. Anthony's fire_ is a well-known name for erysipelas, and _St.
Vitus's dance_ for another distressing disease. These names came from
the fact that these saints used to be chosen out as the special
patrons of people suffering from such diseases. In the same way the
disease which used to be called the _King's Evil_ was so named
because people formerly believed that persons suffering from it would
be cured if touched by the hands of the king or the queen. On certain
occasions, even down to the time of Queen Anne, English kings and
queens "touched" crowds of sufferers from this disease.
So in these words taken from the names of people we may read many a
story of love and sorrow and wonder, of disgust and every human
passion.