WORDS AND PLACES
A very large number of wares are named from the places from which they
come. This is especially common in the case of woven fabrics, and the
origin is often obvious, e.g., _arras_, _cashmere_ (by folk-etymology,
_kerseymere_), _damask_, _holland_. The following are perhaps not all so
evident--_frieze_ from _Friesland_[36]; _fustian_, Old Fr. _fustaine_
(_futaine_), from _Fustat_, a suburb of Cairo; _muslin_, Fr.
_mousseline_, from _Mosul_ in Kurdistan; _shalloon_ from
_Châlons_-sur-Marne; _lawn_ from _Laon_; _jean_, formerly _jane_, from
_Genoa_ (French _Gênes_[37]); _cambric_ from _Kamerijk_, the Dutch name
of Cambrai (_cf._ the obsolete _dornick_, from the Dutch name of
_Tournay_); _tartan_ from the _Tartars_ (properly _Tatars_), used
vaguely for Orientals; _sarcenet_ from the Saracens; _sendal_,
ultimately from _India_ (_cf._ Greco-Lat. _sindon_, Indian cloth);
_tabby_, Old Fr. _atabis_, from the name of a suburb of Bagdad, formerly
used of a kind of silk, but now of a cat marked something like the
material in question.
Brittany used to be famous for hempen fabrics, and the villages of
_Locrenan_ and _Daoulas_ gave their names to _lockram_ (see quotation
from _Coriolanus_, p. 42) and _dowlas_--
_Hostess._ You owe me money, Sir John; and now you pick a quarrel to
beguile me of it: I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back.
_Falstaff._ _Dowlas_, filthy _dowlas_; I have given them away to
bakers' wives, and they have made bolters of them.
(1 _Henry IV._, iii. 3.)
_Duffel_ is a place near Antwerp--
"And let it be of _duffil_ gray,
As warm a cloak as man can sell."
(WORDSWORTH, _Alice Fell_.)
and _Worstead_ is in Norfolk. Of other commodities _majolica_ comes from
_Majorca_, called in Spanish _Mallorca_, and in medieval Latin
_Majolica_; _bronze_ from _Brundusium_ (Brindisi), _delf_ from _Delft_,
the _magnet_ from _Magnesia_, the _shallot_, Fr. _échalote_, in Old
French also _escalogne_, whence archaic Eng. _scallion_, from _Ascalon_;
the _sardine_ from _Sardinia_. A _milliner_, formerly _milaner_, dealt
in goods from _Milan_. _Cravat_ dates from the Thirty Years' War, in
which the _Croats_, earlier _Cravats_, played a part. _Ermine_ is in
medieval Latin _mus Armenius_, Armenian mouse, but the name perhaps
comes, through Fr. _hermine_, from Old High Ger. _harmo_, weasel.
_Buncombe_, more usually _bunkum_, is the name of a county in North
Carolina. To make a speech "for Buncombe" means, in American politics,
to show your constituents that you are doing your best for your £400 a
year or its American equivalent. Cf. _Billingsgate_ and _Limehouse_.
The adjective _spruce_ was formerly _pruce_ and meant Prussia. Todd
quotes from Holinshed--
"Sir Edward Howard then admirall, and with him Sir Thomas Parre in
doubletts of crimsin velvett, etc., were apparelled after the
fashion of Prussia or _Spruce_."
Of similar origin are _spruce-leather_, _spruce-beer_, and the
_spruce-fir_, of which Evelyn says--
"Those from Prussia (which we call _spruce_) and Norway are the
best."
[Page Heading: BEZANT--MAZURKA]
Among coins the _bezant_ comes from _Byzantium_, the _florin_ from
_Florence_, and Shylock's _ducat_, chiefly a Venetian coin, from the
_ducato_ d'Apuglia, the Duchy of Apulia, where it was first coined in
the 12th century. The _dollar_ is the Low Ger. _daler_, for Ger.
_Taler_, originally called a _Joachimstaler_, from the silver-mine of
Joachimstal, "Joachim's dale," in Bohemia. Cotgrave registers a curious
Old French perversion _jocondale_, "a _daller_, a piece of money worth
about 3s. sterl." Some fruits may also be mentioned, _e.g._, the
_damson_ from _Damascus_, through Old Fr. _damaisine_, "a damascene or
_damsen_ plum" (Cotgrave); the _currant_ from _Corinth_, and the
_peach_, Fr. _pêche_, from Vulgar Lat. _pessica_, for _Persica_.
A _polony_ was originally a _Bolonian_ sausage, from _Bologna_.
_Parchment_, Fr. _parchemin_, is the adjective _pergamenus_, from
_Pergamus_, in Asia Minor. _Spaniel_ is the Old Fr. _espagneul_
(_épagneul_), lit. Spanish. We have the adjective _Moorish_ in _morris_,
or _morrice_, _pike_--
"He that sets up his rest to do more exploits with his mace than a
_morris pike_."
(_Comedy of Errors_, iv. 3.)
In _morris dance_, Fr. _danse mauresque_, the same adjective is used
with something of the vagueness to be noticed in connection with India
and Turkey (p. 52). Shakespeare uses the Spanish form--
"I have seen him
Caper upright, like to a wild _morisco_,
Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells."
(2 _Henry VI._, iii. 1.)
Other "local" dances are the _polka_, which means Polish woman,
_mazurka_, woman of Mazuria, and the obsolete _polonaise_, lit. Polish,
_cracovienne_, from Cracow, and _varsovienne_, from Warsaw. The
_tarantella_, like the _tarantula_ spider, takes its name from Taranto,
in Italy. The tune of the dance is said to have been originally employed
as a cure for the lethargy caused by the bite of the spider. Florio has
_tarantola_, "a serpent called an eft or an evet. Some take it to be a
flye whose sting is perillous and deadly, and nothing but divers sounds
of musicke can cure the patient."
The town of _Troyes_ has given its name to _troy_ weight. The armourers
of _Bilbao_, in Spain, made swords of such perfect temper that they
could be bent point to hilt. Hence Falstaff describes himself in the
buck-basket as--
"Compassed, like a good _bilbo_, in the circumference of a peck,
hilt to point, heel to head."
(_Merry Wives_, iii. 5.)
The _Andrea Ferrara_, or Scottish broadsword, carried by Fergus M'Ivor,
bears, according to some authorities, the name of an armourer of
Ferrara, in Italy. According to others, _Andrea dei Ferrari_ was a
sword-maker at Belluno. I have heard it affirmed by a Scottish
drill-sergeant that the real name of this genius was _Andrew
Ferrars_,[38] and that he belonged to the same nationality as other
great men.
[Page Heading: LATEEN--GUINEA-PIG]
An _argosy_, formerly also _ragusye_, was named from the Adriatic port
of _Ragusa_, and a _lateen_ sail is a _Latin_, _i.e._ Mediterranean,
sail; _gamboge_ is the Fr. _Cambodge_, Cambodia, and _indigo_ is from
Span. _indico_, Indian. Of wines, _malmsey_, chiefly remembered in
connection with George of Clarence, and _malvoisie_ are doublets, from
_Monemvasia_ in the Morea. _Port_ is named from _Oporto_, i.e. _o
porto_, the harbour (cf. _le Havre_), and _sherry_ (see p. 116) from
_Xeres_, Lat. _Cæsaris_ (urbs); cf. _Saragossa_, from _Cæsarea Augusta_.
But it is possible to be mistaken in connecting countries with products.
_Brazil_ wood is not named from the country, but _vice-versâ_. It was
known as a dye-wood as early as the 12th century, and the name is found
in many of the European languages. The Portuguese navigators found large
quantities of it in South America and named the country accordingly.
They christened an island _Madeira_, timber, Lat. _materia_, for a
similar reason. The _canary_ comes from the Canary Islands, but its name
is good Latin. The largest of these islands, _Canaria_, was so called by
the Romans from the dogs found there. The _guinea_-fowl and _guinea_
gold came first from the west coast of Africa, but the _guinea-pig_ is a
native of Brazil. The name probably came from the _Guinea-men_, or
slave-ships, which regularly followed a triangular course. They sailed
outward to the west coast of Africa with English goods. These they
exchanged for slaves, whom they transported to the West Indies, the
horrible "middle passage," and finally they sailed homeward with New
World produce, including, no doubt, _guinea-pigs_ brought home by
sailors. The turkey is also called _guinea-fowl_ in the 17th century,
probably to be explained in the same way. The German name for
guinea-pig, _Meerschweinchen_, seems to mean little pig from over the
sea.
Guinea was a vague geographical expression in the 17th century, but not
so vague as India or Turkey. _Indian ink_ comes from China (Fr. _encre
de Chine_), and _Indian corn_ from America. The names given to the
_turkey_ are extraordinary. We are not surprised that, as an American
bird, it should be naturally connected with India; _cf._ West Indies,
Red Indian, etc. _Turk_ was in the 16th and 17th centuries a vague term
for non-Christians--
"Jews, _Turks_, infidels, and hereticks."
(Collect for Good Friday.)
and we find also _Turkey wheat_ for maize. The following names for the
turkey, given in a _Nomenclator_ in eight languages, published in
Germany in 1602, do not exhaust the list:--
German.--_Indianisch_ oder _Kalekuttisch_[39] oder _Welsch_[40] Hun.
Dutch.--_Calcoensche_ oft _Turckische_ Henne.
French.--Geline ou poulle d'_Inde_, ou d'_Africque_.
Italian.--Gallina d'_India_.
Spanish.--Pavon (peacock) de las _Indias_.
English.--Cok off Inde!
No doubt the turkey was confused with other birds, for we find Fr.
_geline d'Inde_ before the discovery of America. _D'Inde_ has become
_dinde_, whence a new masculine _dindon_ has been formed.
[Page Heading: HANSOM]
The early etymologists were fond of identifying foreign wares with
place-names. They connected _diaper_ with Ypres, _gingham_ with Guingamp
(in Brittany), _drugget_ with Drogheda, and the _sedan_ chair with
Sedan. Such guesses are almost always wrong. The origin of _diaper_ is
doubtful, that of _drugget_ quite unknown, and _gingham_ is Malay. As
far as we know at present, the _sedan_ came from Italy in the 16th
century, and it is there, among derivatives of Lat. _sedere_, to sit,
that its origin must be sought, unless indeed the original _Sedan_ was
some mute, inglorious _Hansom_.[41]
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Whence also _cheval de frise_, a contrivance used by the
Frieslanders against cavalry. The German name is _die spanischen
Reiter_, explained by Ludwig as "a bar with iron-spikes; _cheval de
frise_, a warlick instrument, to keep off the horse."
[37] The form _jeans_ appears to be usual in America--"His hands were
thrust carelessly into the side pockets of a gray _jeans_ coat."
(Meredith Nicholson, _War of the Carolinas_, Ch. 15.)
[38] A Scotch reviewer (_Glasgow Herald_, 13th April 1912) corrects me
here--"His name was certainly not Ferrars, but Ferrier. He was probably
an Arbroath man." Some readers may remember that, after General
_Todleben's_ brilliant defence of Sebastopol (1854-5), _Punch_
discovered a respectable ancestry for him also. In some lines
commencing--
"I ken him weel, the chield was born in Fife,
The bairn of Andrew Drummond and his wife,"
it was shown that the apparently foreign name had been conferred on the
gifted child because of the agility with which he used to "_toddle ben_
the hoose."
[39] Calicut, not Calcutta.
[40] See _walnut_ (p. 151).
[41] As the _hansom_ has now become of archæological interest only, it
may be recorded here that it took its name from that of its
inventor--"The _Hansom's_ patent (cab) is especially constructed for
getting quickly over the ground" (Pulleyn's _Etymological Compendium_,
1853). _Sic transit!_