PHONETIC ACCIDENTS
The history of a word has to be studied from the double point of view of
sound and sense, or, to use more technical terms, phonetics and
semantics. In the logical order of things it seems natural to deal first
with the less interesting aspect, phonetics, the physical processes by
which sounds are gradually transformed. Speaking generally, it may be
said that phonetic changes are governed by the law of least resistance,
a sound which presents difficulty being gradually and unconsciously
modified by a whole community or race. With the general principles of
phonetics I do not propose to deal, but a few simple examples will serve
to illustrate the one great law on which this science is based.
The population of this country is educationally divided by the letter
_h_ into three classes, which we may describe as the confident, the
anxious, and the indifferent. The same division existed in imperial
Rome, where educated people sounded the aspirate, which completely
disappeared from the every-day language of the lower classes, the
so-called Vulgar Latin, from which the Romance languages are descended,
so far as their working vocabulary is concerned. The anxious class was
also represented. A Latin epigrammatist[42] remarks that since Arrius,
prophetic name, has visited the Ionic islands, they will probably be
henceforth known as the _Hionic_ islands. To the disappearance of the
_h_ from Vulgar Latin is due the fact that the Romance languages have no
aspirate. French still writes the initial _h_ in some words by
etymological reaction, e.g., _homme_ for Old Fr. _ome_, and also at one
time really had an aspirate in the case of words of Germanic origin,
e.g., _la honte_, shame. But this _h_ is no longer sounded, although it
still, by tradition, prevents elision and _liaison_, mistakes in which
are regarded much in the same way as a misplaced aspirate in English.
The "educated" _h_ of modern English is largely an artificial
restoration; _cf._ the modern _hotel_-keeper with the older word
_ostler_ (see p. 164), or the family name _Armitage_ with the restored
_hermitage_.
[Page Heading: PHONETIC LAZINESS]
We have dropped the _k_ sound in initial _kn_, as in _knave_, still
sounded in Ger. _Knabe_, boy. French gets over the difficulty by
inserting a vowel between the two consonants, e.g., _canif_ is a
Germanic word cognate with Eng. _knife_. This is a common device in
French when a word of Germanic origin begins with two consonants. _Cf._
Fr. _dérive_, drift, Eng. _drive_; Fr. _varech_, sea-weed, Eng. _wrack_.
_Harangue_, formerly _harengue_, is Old High Ger. _hring_, Eng. _ring_,
the allusion being to the circle formed by the audience. Fr. _chenapan_,
rogue, is Ger. _Schnapphahn_, robber, lit. fowl-stealer. The _shallop_
that "flitteth silken-sail'd, skimming down to Camelot," is Fr.
_chaloupe_, probably identical with Du. _sloep_, sloop.
The general dislike that French has for a double consonant sound at the
beginning of a word appears also in the transformation of all Latin
words which began with _sc_, _sp_, _st_, e.g., _scola_ > _escole_
(_école_), _spongia_ > _esponge_ (_éponge_), _stabulum_ > _estable_
(_étable_). English words derived from French generally show the older
form, but without the initial vowel, _school_, _sponge_, _stable_.
The above are very simple examples of sound change. There are certain
less regular changes, which appear to work in a more arbitrary fashion
and bring about more picturesque results. Three of the most important of
these are assimilation, dissimilation, and metathesis.
Assimilation is the tendency of a sound to imitate its neighbour. The
tree called the _lime_ was formerly the _line_, and earlier still the
_lind_. We see the older form in _linden_ and in such place-names as
_Lyndhurst_, lime wood. _Line_ often occurred in such compounds as
_line-bark_, _line-bast_, _line-wood_, where the second component began
with a lip consonant. The _n_ became also a lip consonant because it was
easier to pronounce, and by the 17th century we generally find _lime_
instead of _line_. We have a similar change in _Lombard_ for Ger.
_lang-bart_, long-beard, or, according to some, long-axe. For
_Liverpool_ we find also _Litherpool_ in early records. If the reader
attempts to pronounce both names rapidly, he will be able to form his
own opinion as to whether it is more natural for _Liverpool_ to become
_Litherpool_ or _vice-versâ_, a vexed question with philologists. Fr.
_vélin_, a derivative of Old Fr. _veel_ (_veau_), calf, and _venin_,
Lat. _venenum_, have given Eng. _vellum_ and _venom_, the final
consonant being in each case assimilated[43] to the initial labial. So
also _mushroom_, Fr. _mousseron_, from _mousse_, moss.
Vulgar Lat. _circare_ (from _circa_, around) gave Old Fr. _cerchier_,
Eng. _search_. In modern Fr. _chercher_ the initial consonant has been
influenced by the medial _ch_. The _m_ of the curious word _ampersand_,
variously spelt, is due to the neighbouring _p_. It is applied to the
sign &. I thought it obsolete till I came across it on successive days
in two contemporary writers--
"One of my mother's chief cares was to teach me my letters, which I
learnt from big A to _Ampersand_ in the old hornbook at Lantrig."
(QUILLER-COUCH, _Dead Man's Rock_, Ch. 2.)
"Tommy knew all about the work. Knew every letter in it from A to
_Emperzan_."
(PETT RIDGE, _In the Wars_.)
Children used to repeat the alphabet thus--"A per se A, B per se B," and
so on to "_and per se and_." The symbol & is an abbreviation of Lat.
_et_, written _&_.
[Page Heading: DISSIMILATION]
Dissimilation is the opposite process. The archaic word _pomander_--
"I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a riband,
glass, _pomander_, brooch, ... to keep my pack from fasting."
(_Winter's Tale_, iv. 3.)
was formerly spelt _pomeamber_. It comes from Old Fr. _pome ambre_,
apple of amber, a ball of perfume once carried by the delicate. In this
case one of the two lip consonants has been dissimilated. A like change
has occurred in Fr. _nappe_, cloth, from Lat. _mappa_, whence our
_napkin_, _apron_ (p. 113), and the family name _Napier_.
The sounds most frequently affected by dissimilation are those
represented by the letters _l_, _n_, and _r_. Fr. _gonfalon_ is for
older _gonfanon_. Chaucer uses the older form, Milton the newer--
"Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanc'd,
Standards and _gonfalons_, 'twixt van and rear,
Stream in the air."
(_Paradise Lost_, v. 589.)
_Gonfanon_ is of Germanic origin. It means literally "battle-flag," and
the second element is cognate with English _fane_ or _vane_ (Ger.
_Fahne_). Eng. _pilgrim_ and Fr. _pèlerin_, from Lat. _peregrinus_,
illustrate the change from _r_ to _l_, while the word _frail_, an osier
basket for figs, is due to a change from _l_ to _r_, which goes back to
Roman times. A grammarian of imperial Rome named Probus compiled, about
the 3rd or 4th century, A.D., a list of cautions as to mispronunciation.
In this list we find "_flagellum_, non _fragellum_." In the sense of
switch, twig, _fragellum_ gave Old Fr. _freel_, basket made of twigs,
whence Eng. _frail_; while the correct _flagellum_ gave Old Fr. _fleel_
(_fléau_), whence Eng. _flail_. A Vulgar Lat. _*mora_, mulberry, from
Lat. _morus_, mulberry tree, has given Fr. _mûre_. The _r_ of _berry_
has brought about dissimilation in Eng. _mulberry_ and Ger. _Maulbeere_.
_Colonel_ has the spelling of Fr. _colonel_, but its pronunciation
points rather to the dissimilated Spanish form _coronel_ which is common
in Elizabethan English. Cotgrave has _colonel_, "a _colonell_, or
_coronell_; the commander of a regiment."
The female name _Annabel_ is a dissimilation of _Amabel_, whence
_Mabel_. By confusion with the popular medieval name _Orable_, Lat.
_orabilis_, _Annabel_ has become _Arabel_ or _Arabella_. Our _level_ is
Old Fr. _livel_, Vulgar Lat. _*libellum_, for _libella_, a plummet,
diminutive of _libra_, scales. Old Fr. _livel_ became by dissimilation
_nivel_, now _niveau_. Many conjectures have been made as to the
etymology of _oriel_. It is from Old Fr. _oriol_, a recess, or sanctum,
which first occurs in an Anglo-Norman poem of the 12th century on
Becket. This is from a Late Latin diminutive _aulæolum_, a small chapel
or shrine, which was dissimilated into _auræolum_.
Sometimes dissimilation leads to the disappearance of a consonant,
_e.g._, Eng. _feeble_, Fr. _faible_, represents Lat. _flebilis_,
lamentable, from _flere_, to weep. _Fugleman_ was once _flugelman_, from
Ger. _Flügelmann_, wing man, _i.e._, a tall soldier on the wing who
exaggerated the movements of musketry drill for the guidance of the
rest.
[Page Heading: METATHESIS]
Metathesis is the transposition of two sounds. A simple case is our
_trouble_, Fr. _troubler_, from Lat. _turbulare_. _Maggot_ is for Mid.
Eng. _maddok_, a diminutive of Anglo-Sax. _maþa_; _cf._ Ger. _Made_,
maggot. _Kittle_, in the phrase "kittle cattle," is identical with
_tickle_; _cf._ Ger. _kitzeln_, to tickle. One theory for the origin of
_tankard_ is that it stands for _*cantar_, from Lat. _cantharus_, with
which it corresponds exactly in meaning; e.g., _cantharus_, "a pot, a
jugge, a _tankerd_" (Cooper); _cantharo_, a "_tankard_ or jug that
houldeth much" (Florio); _canthare_, "a great jugge, or _tankard_"
(Cotgrave). The metathesis may be due to association with the name
Tankard (Tancred).
_Wattle_ and _wallet_ are used indifferently in Mid. English for a
little bag. Shakespeare no doubt had in mind the _wattles_ of a cock or
turkey when he made Gonzalo speak of mountaineers--
"Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at them
_Wallets_ of flesh."
(_Tempest_, iii. 3.)
Fr. _moustique_ is for earlier _mousquite_, from Span. _mosquito_, a
diminutive from Lat. _musca_, a fly. _Tinsel_ is Fr. _étincelle_, spark,
earlier _estincele_, which supposes a Lat. _*stincilla_ for _scintilla_.
The old word _anlace_, dagger, common in Mid. English and revived by
Byron and Scott--
"His harp in silken scarf was slung,
And by his side an _anlace_ hung."
(_Rokeby_, v. 15.)
has provoked many guesses. Its oldest form, _anelas_, is a metathesis of
the common Old Fr. _alenas_, dagger. This is formed from _alêne_, of
Germanic origin, cognate with _awl_; cf. _cutlass_, Fr. _coutelas_ (p.
126). _Beverage_ is from Old Fr. _bevrage_, or _beuvrage_, now
_breuvage_, Vulgar Lat. _*biberaticum_, from _bibere_, to drink. Here,
as in the case of _level_ (p. 58), and _search_ (p. 57), English
preserves the older form. In _Martello_ tower, from a fort taken by the
British (1794) in _Mortella_, _i.e._, Myrtle, Bay, Corsica, we have
vowel metathesis.
It goes without saying that such linguistic phenomena are often observed
in the case of children and uneducated people. Not long ago the writer
was urged by a gardener to embellish his garden with a _ruskit_ arch.
When metathesis extends beyond one word we have what is known as a
_Spoonerism_, the original type of which is said to be--
"_Kinquerings congs_ their titles take."
We have seen (p. 57) that the letters _l_, _n_, _r_ are particularly
subject to dissimilation and metathesis. But we sometimes find them
alternating without apparent reason. Thus _banister_ is a modern form
for the correct _baluster_.[44] This was not at first applied to the
rail, but to the bulging colonnettes on which it rests. Fr. _balustre_
comes, through Italian, from Greco-Lat. _balaustium_, a pomegranate
flower, the shape of which resembles the supports of a balustrade.
Cotgrave explains _balustres_ as "_ballisters_; little, round and short
pillars, ranked on the outside of cloisters, terraces, galleries, etc."
_Glamour_ is a doublet of _grammar_ (see p. 145), and _flounce_ was
formerly _frounce_, from Fr. _froncer_, now only used of "knitting" the
brows--
"Till civil-suited morn appear,
Not trickt and _frounc't_ as she was wont
With the Attic boy to hunt."
(_Penseroso_, l. 123.)
Fr. _flibustier_, whence our _filibuster_, was earlier _fribustier_, a
corruption of Du. _vrijbuiter_, whence directly the Eng.
_freebooter_.[45]
[Page Heading: SHRINKAGE OF WORDS]
All words tend in popular usage to undergo a certain amount of
shrinkage. The reduction of Lat. _digitale_, from _digitus_, finger, to
Fr. _dé_, thimble (little thumb) is a striking example. The strong tonic
accent of English, which is usually on the first, or root, syllable,
brings about a kind of telescoping which makes us very unintelligible to
foreigners. This is seen in the pronunciation of names such as
_Cholmondeley_ and _Marjoribanks_. _Bethlehem_ hospital, for lunatics,
becomes _bedlam_; Mary _Magdalene_, taken as a type of tearful
repentance, gives us _maudlin_, now generally used of the lachrymose
stage of intoxication. _Sacristan_ is contracted into _sexton_. Fr.
_paralysie_ becomes _palsy_, and _hydropisie_ becomes _dropsy_. The
fuller form of the word usually persists in the literary language, or is
artificially introduced at a later period, so that we get such doublets
as _proctor_ and _procurator_.
In the case of French words which have a prefix, this prefix is very
frequently dropped in English, e.g., _raiment_ for _arrayment_; while
suffixes, or final syllables, often disappear, _e.g._, treasure _trove_,
for Old Fr. _trové_ (_trouvé_), or become assimilated to some familiar
English ending, e.g., _parish_, Fr. _paroisse_, _skirmish_, Fr.
_escarmouche_; _cartridge_, Fr. _cartouche_, _partridge_, Fr. _perdrix_.
A good example of such shrinkage is the word _vamp_, part of a shoe, Old
Fr. _avant-pie_ (_pied_), which became Mid. Eng. _vampey_, and then lost
its final syllable. We may compare _vambrace_, armour for the forearm,
Fr. _avant-bras_, _vanguard_, Fr. _avant-garde_, often reduced to
_van_--
"Go, charge Agrippa
Plant those that have revolted in the _van_;
That Antony may seem to spend his fury
Upon himself."
(_Antony and Cleopatra_, iv. 6.)
and the obsolete _vaunt-courier_, forerunner--
"You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
_Vaunt-couriers_ of oak-cleaving thunderbolts."
(_Lear_, iii. 2.)
When the initial vowel is _a-_, its loss may have been helped by
confusion with the indefinite article. Thus for _anatomy_ we find
_atomy_, for a skeleton or scarecrow figure, applied by Mistress Quickly
to the constable (2 _Henry IV._, v. 4). _Peal_ is for _appeal_, call;
_mend_ for _amend_, _lone_ for _alone_, i.e., _all one_. _Peach_, used
by Falstaff--
"If I be ta'en, I'll _peach_ for this."
(1 _Henry IV._, ii. 2.)
is for older _appeach_, related to _impeach_. _Size_, in all its senses,
is for _assize_, Fr. _assise_, with a general meaning of allowance or
assessment, from Fr. _asseoir_, to put, lay. _Sizars_ at Cambridge are
properly students in receipt of certain allowances called _sizings_.
With painters' _size_ we may compare Ital. _assisa_, "_size_ that
painters use" (Florio). We use the form _assize_ in speaking of the
"sitting" of the judges, but those most familiar with this tribunal
speak of being tried at the _'sizes_. The obsolete word _cate_, on which
Petruchio plays--
"For dainties are all _cates_--and therefore, Kate,
Take this of me, Kate of my consolation."
(_Taming of the Shrew_, ii. 1.)
is for earlier _acate_, an Old French dialect form corresponding to
modern Fr. _achat_, purchase. The man entrusted with purchasing was
called an _acatour_ or _catour_ (whence the name _Cator_), later
_cater_, now extended to _caterer_, like _fruiterer_ for _fruiter_,
_poulterer_ for _poulter_ and _upholsterer_ for _upholdster_ or
_upholder_.[46]
_Limbeck_ has been squeezed out by the orthodox _alembic_--
"Memory the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A _limbeck_ only."
(_Macbeth_, i. 7.)
and _prentice_ has given way to _apprentice_. _Tire_ and _attire_ both
survive, and _maze_ persists by the side of _amaze_ with the special
sense which I have heard a Notts collier express by _puzzle-garden_
(_cf._ Ger. _Irrgarten_). _Binnacle_ is a corruption, perhaps due to
association with _bin_, of earlier _bittacle_, from Lat. _habitaculum_,
a little dwelling. It may have come to us through Fr. _habitacle_ or
Port. _bitacola_, "the _bittacle_, a frame of timber in the steerage,
where the compass is placed on board a ship" (Vieyra, _Port. Dict._,
1794). As King of Scotland, King George has a household official known
as the _limner_, or painter. For _limner_[47] we find in the 15th
century _lumner_ and _luminour_, which is aphetic for _alluminour_, or
_enlumineur_. Cotgrave, s.v. _enlumineur de livres_, says, "we call one
that coloureth, or painteth upon, paper, or parchment, an _alluminer_."
[Page Heading: APHESIS]
But confusion with the article is not necessary in order to bring about
aphesis. It occurs regularly in the case of words beginning with _esc_,
_esp_, _est_, borrowed from Old French (see p. 56). Thus we have
_squire_ from _escuyer_ (_êcuyer_), _skew_ from Old Fr. _eschuer_, to
dodge, "eschew," ultimately cognate with Eng. _shy_, _spice_ from
_espice_ (_épice_), _sprite_ from _esprit_, _stage_ from _estage_
(_étage_), etc. In some cases we have the fuller form also, e.g.,
_esquire_, _eschew_; cf. _sample_ and _example_. _Fender_, whether
before a fireplace or slung outside a ship, is for _defender_; _fence_
is always for _defence_, either in the sense of a barrier or in allusion
to the noble art of self-defence.[48] The _tender_ of a ship or of a
locomotive is the _attender_, and _taint_ is aphetic for _attaint_, Fr.
_atteinte_, touch--
"I will not poison thee with my _attaint_."
(_Lucrece_, l. 1072.)
_Puzzle_ was in Mid. Eng. _opposaile_, _i.e._, something put before one.
We still speak of "a poser."
_Spital_, for _hospital_, survives in _Spitalfields_, and _Spittlegate_
at Grantham and elsewhere. _Crew_ is for _accrewe_ (Holinshed). It meant
properly a reinforcement, lit. on-growth, from Fr. _accroître_, to
accrue. In _recruit_, we have a later instance of the same idea. Fr.
_recrue_, recruit, from _recroître_, to grow again, is still feminine,
like many other military terms which were originally abstract or
collective. Cotgrave has _recreuë_, "a supplie, or filling up of a
defective company of souldiers, etc." We have _possum_ for _opossum_,
and _coon_ for _racoon_, and this for _arrahacoune_, which I find in a
16th-century record of travel; _cf._ American _skeeter_ for _mosquito_.
In these two cases we perhaps have also the deliberate intention to
shorten (see p. 66), as also in the obsolete Australian _tench_, for the
aphetic _'tentiary_, i.e., _penitentiary_. With this we may compare
_'tec_ for _detective_.
[Page Heading: APHESIS]
_Drawing-room_ is for _withdrawing room_, and only the final _t_ of
_saint_ is left in _Tooley St._, famed for its three tailors, formerly
_Saint Olave Street_, and _tawdry_. This latter word is well known to be
derived from _Saint Audrey's_ fair. It was not originally depreciatory--
"Come, you promised me a _tawdry_ lace, and a pair of sweet gloves."
(_Winter's Tale_, iv. 3.)
and the full form is recorded by Palsgrave, who has _Seynt Andries_
(read _Audrie's_) _lace_, "cordon." The verb _vie_ comes from Old Fr.
_envier_, to challenge, Lat. _invitare_, whence the phrase _à l'envi
l'un de l'autre_, "in emulation one of the other" (Cotgrave); cf. _gin_
(trap), Fr. _engin_, Lat. _ingenium_. The prefix _dis_ or _des_ is lost
in _Spencer_ (see p. 165), _spite_, _splay_, _sport_, _stain_, etc.
In _drat_, formerly _'od rot_, _zounds_ for _God's wounds_, _'sdeath_,
_odsbodikins_, etc., there is probably a deliberate avoidance of
profanity. The same intention appears in _Gogs_--
"'Ay, by _gogs-wouns_!' quoth he; and swore so loud,
That, all amaz'd, the priest let fall the book."
(_Taming of the Shrew_, iii. 2.)
_Cf._ Fr. _parbleu_ for _par Dieu_, and Ger. _Potz_ for _Gottes_.
This English tendency to aphesis is satirised in a French song of the
14th century, intentionally written in bad French. Thus, in the line--
"Or sont il vint le tans que Glais voura vauchier."[49]
_Glais_ is for _Anglais_ and _vauchier_ is for _chevauchier_
(_chevaucher_), to ride on a foray. The literary language runs counter
to this instinct, though Shakespeare wrote _haviour_ for _behaviour_ and
_longing_ for _belonging_, while such forms as _billiments_ for
_habiliments_ and _sparagus_ for _asparagus_ are regular up to the 18th
century. Children keep up the national practice when they say _member_
for _remember_ and _zamine_ for _examine_. It is quite certain that
_baccy_ and _tater_ would be recognised literary forms if America had
been discovered two centuries sooner or printing invented two centuries
later.
Many words are shortened, not by natural and gradual shrinkage, but by
deliberate laziness. The national distaste for many syllables appears in
_wire_ for _telegram_, the Artful Dodger's _wipe_ for the clumsy _pocket
handkerchief_, _soccer_ for _association_, and such portmanteau words as
_squarson_, an individual who is at once _squire_ and _parson_, or
_Bakerloo_ for _Baker St. and Waterloo_.
The simplest way of reducing a word is to take the first syllable and
make it a symbol for the rest. Of comparatively modern formation are
_pub_ and _Zoo_, with which we may compare _Bart's_, for Saint
Bartholomew's, _Cri_, _Pav_, "half a _mo'_" _bike_, and even _paj_, for
_pageant_.
[Page Heading: CLIPPED FORMS]
This method of shortening words was very popular in the 17th century,
from which period date _cit_(izen), _mob_(ile vulgus), the fickle crowd,
and, _pun_(digrion). We often find the fuller _mobile_ used for _mob_.
The origin of _pundigrion_ is uncertain. It may be an illiterate attempt
at Ital. _puntiglio_, which, like Fr. _pointe_, was used of a verbal
quibble or fine distinction. Most of these clipped forms are easily
identified, e.g., _cab_(riolet), _gent_(leman), _hack_(ney),
_vet_(erinary surgeon). _Cad_ is for Scot. _caddie_, errand boy, now
familiar in connection with golf, and _caddie_ is from Fr. _cadet_,
younger. The word had not always the very strong meaning we now
associate with it. Among _Sketches by Boz_ is one entitled--
"The last Cab driver and the first Omnibus _Cad_,"
where _cad_ means conductor. On _tick_, for on _ticket_, is found in the
17th century. We may compare the more modern _biz_ and _spec_. _Brig_ is
for _brigantine_, Ital. _brigantino_, "a kinde of pinnasse or small
barke called a _brigantine_" (Florio). The original meaning is pirate
ship; cf. _brigand_. _Wag_ has improved in meaning. It is for older
_waghalter_. Cotgrave has _baboin_ (_babouin_), "a trifling, busie, or
crafty knave; a crackrope, _waghalter_, etc." The older sense survives
in the phrase "to play the _wag_," _i.e._ truant. For the "rope" figure
we may compare Scot. _hempie_, a minx, and obsolete Ital. _cavestrolo_,
a diminutive from Lat. _capistrum_, halter, explained by Florio as "a
_wag_, a haltersacke." Modern Ital. _capestro_ is used in the same
sense. _Crack-rope_ is shortened to _crack_. Justice Shallow remembered
Falstaff breaking Skogan's head--
"When he was a _crack_, not thus high."
(2 _Henry IV._, iii. 2.)
_Chap_ is for _chapman_, once in general use for a merchant and still a
common family name. It is cognate with _cheap_, _chaffer_, and Ger.
_kaufen_, to buy, and probably comes from Lat. _caupo_, tavern keeper.
We have the Dutch form in _horse-coper_, and also in the word
_coopering_, the illicit sale of spirits by Dutch boats to North Sea
fishermen.[50] _Merchant_ was used by the Elizabethans in the same way
as our _chap_. Thus the Countess of Auvergne calls Talbot a "riddling
_merchant_" (1 _Henry VI._, ii. 3). We may also compare Scot.
_callant_, lad, from the Picard form of Fr. _chaland_, customer--
"He had seen many a braw callant, far less than Guse Gibbie, fight
brawly under Montrose."
(_Old Mortality_, Ch. 1.)
and our own expression "a rum _customer_," reduced in America to "a rum
_cuss_." _Hock_, for _Hochheimer_, wine from Hochheim, occurs as early
as Beaumont and Fletcher; and _rum_, spirit, is for earlier
_rumbullion_, of obscure origin. _Gin_ is for _geneva_, a corruption of
Fr. _genièvre_, Lat. _juniperus_, with the berries of which it is
flavoured. The history of _grog_ is more complicated. The stuff called
_grogram_, earlier _grograyne_, is from Fr. _gros grain_, coarse grain.
Admiral Vernon (18th century) was called by the sailors "Old Grog" from
his habit of wearing grogram breeches. When he issued orders that the
regular allowance of rum was henceforth to be diluted with water, the
sailors promptly baptized the mixture with his nickname.
[Page Heading: CLIPPED FORMS]
Sometimes the two first syllables survive. We have _navvy_ for
_navigator_, _brandy_ for _brandywine_, from Du. _brandewyn_, lit. burnt
wine, and _whisky_ for _usquebaugh_, Gaelic _uisge-beatha_, water of
life (cf. _eau-de-vie_), so that the literal meaning of _whisky_ is very
innocent. It has a doublet in the river-name _Usk_. Before the 18th
century _usquebaugh_ is the regular form. In the following passage the
Irish variety is referred to--
"The prime is _usquebaugh_, which cannot be made anywhere in that
perfection; and whereas we drink it here in _aqua vitæ_ measures, it
goes down there by beer-glassfuls, being more natural to the
nation."
(HOWELL, 1634.)
_Canter_ is for _Canterbury_ gallop, the pace of pilgrims riding to the
shrine of St Thomas. John Dennis, known as Dennis the Critic, says of
Pope--
"Boileau's Pegasus has all his paces. The Pegasus of Pope, like a
Kentish post-horse, is always on the _Canterbury_."
(_On the Preliminaries to the Dunciad._)
In _bugle_, for _bugle-horn_, lit. wild-ox-horn, Old Fr. _bugle_, Lat.
_buculus_, a diminutive of _bos_, ox, we have perhaps rather an
ellipsis, like _waterproof_ (coat), than a clipped form--
"Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet 'tis early morn:
Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the _bugle-horn_."
(_Locksley Hall._)
_Patter_ is no doubt for _paternoster_--
"Fitz-Eustace, you, with Lady Clare,
May bid your beads and _patter_ prayer."
(_Marmion_, vi. 27.)
and the use of the word _marble_ for a toy sometimes made of that stone
makes it very probable that the _alley_, most precious of marbles, is
short for _alabaster_.
Less frequently the final syllable is selected, e.g., _bus_ for
_omnibus_, _loo_ for _lanterloo_, variously spelt in the 17th and 18th
centuries--
"Ev'n mighty Pam,[51] that Kings and Queens o'erthrew,
And mow'd down armies in the fights of _lu_."
(_Rape of the Lock_, iii. 62.)
Fr. _lanturelu_ was originally the meaningless refrain or "tol de rol"
of a popular song in Richelieu's time. _Van_ is for _caravan_, a Persian
word, properly a company of merchants or ships travelling together,
"also of late corruptly used with us for a kind of waggon to carry
passengers to and from London" (Blount, _Glossographia_, 1674). _Wig_ is
for _periwig_, a corruption of Fr. _perruque_, of obscure origin. With
the 17th century _'varsity_, for _university_, we may compare Sam
Weller's _'Tizer_, for _Morning Advertiser_.
Christian names are treated in the same way. _Alexander_ gives _Alec_
and _Sandy_, _Herbert_, _'Erb_ or _Bert_. _Ib_ (see p. 172) was once
common for _Isabella_, while the modern language prefers _Bella_; _Maud_
for _Matilda_ is a telescoped form of Old Fr. _Maheut_, while _'Tilda_
is perhaps due to unconscious aphesis, like _Denry_--
"She saved a certain amount of time every day by addressing her son
as _Denry_, instead of _Edward Henry_."
(ARNOLD BENNETT, _The Card_, Ch. 1.)
Among conscious word-formations may be classed many reduplicated forms,
whether riming, as _hurly-burly_, or alliterative, as _tittle-tattle_,
though reduplication belongs to the natural speech of children, and, in
at least one case, Fr. _tante_, from _ante-ante_, Lat. _amita_, the baby
word has prevailed. In a reduplicated form only one half as a rule needs
to be explained. Thus _seesaw_ is from _saw_, the motion suggesting two
sawyers at work on a log. _Zigzag_, from French, and Ger. _zickzack_ are
of unknown origin. _Shilly-shally_ is for _shill I, shall I?_
_Namby-pamby_ commemorates the poet Ambrose Philips, who was thus
nicknamed by Pope and his friends. The weapon called a _snickersnee_--
"'First let me say my catechism,
Which my poor mammy taught to me.'
'Make haste, make haste,' says guzzling Jimmy,
While Jack pulled out his _snickersnee_."
(THACKERAY, _Little Billee_, l. 21.)
is of Dutch origin and means something like "cut and thrust." It is
usually mentioned in connection with the Hollanders--
"Among other customs they have in that town, one is, that none must
carry a pointed knife about him; which makes the Hollander, who is
us'd to _snik_ and _snee_, to leave his horn-sheath and knife a
ship-board when he comes ashore."
(HOWELL, _Letter from Florence_, 1621.)
Here the reduplication is only apparent, for the older form was to
_stick_ or _snee_, representing the Dutch verbs _steken_, to thrust,
_snijden_ or _snijen_, to cut. The initial of the first verb has been
assimilated to that of the second--
"It is our countrie custome onely to _stick_ or _snee_."
(GLAPTHORNE, _The Hollander_.)
Reduplication is responsible for _pickaback_, earlier _pickpack_, from
_pack_, bundle. The modern form is due to popular association with
_back_.
[Page Heading: PREFIXED CONSONANTS]
Occasionally we have what is apparently the arbitrary prefixing of a
consonant, e.g., _spruce_ for _pruce_ (p. 48). _Dapple gray_ corresponds
so exactly to Fr. _gris pommelé_, Mid. Eng. _pomeli gris_, Ger.
_apfelgrau_, and Ital. _pomellato_, "spotted, bespeckled, pide,
_dapple-graie_, or fleabitten, the colour of a horse" (Florio), that it
is hard not to believe in an unrecorded _*apple-gray_, especially as we
have _daffodil_ for earlier _affodil_, i.e., _asphodel_. Cotgrave has
_asphodile_ (_asphodèle_), "the _daffadill_, _affodill_, or _asphodill_,
flower." The playful elaboration _daffadowndilly_ is as old as Spenser.
FOOTNOTES:
[42]
"Nec sibi postilla metuebant talia verba,
Cum subito adfertur nuntius horribilis,
Ionios fluctus, postquam illuc Arrius isset,
Iam non _Ionios_ esse, sed _Hionios_."
(_Catullus_, 84.)
[43] Apart from assimilation, there is a tendency in English to
substitute _-m_ for _-n_, e.g. _grogram_ for _grogran_ (see p. 68). In
the family name _Hansom_, for _Hanson_, we have dissimilation of _n_
(see p. 57).
[44] _Cf._ the similar change in the family name _Banister_ (p. 179).
[45] It may be noted here that a _buccaneer_ was not originally a
pirate, but a man whose business was the smoking of beef in the West
Indies. The name comes from a native word _boucan_, adopted into French,
and explained by Cotgrave as a "woodden-gridiron whereon the cannibals
broile pieces of men, and other flesh."
[46] _Upholsterer_ has become specialised in sense; cf. _undertaker_ (of
funerals), and _stationer_, properly a tradesman with a _station_ or
stall. _Costermonger_ illustrates the converse process. It meant
originally a dealer in _costards_, i.e. apples. The French costermonger
has the more appropriate name of _marchand des quatre saisons_.
[47] English _i_ sometimes occurs as an attempt at the French and Celtic
_u_; cf. _brisk_ from _brusque_, _periwig_ (p. 69), and _whisky_ (p.
68).
[48] Our ancestors appear to have been essentially pacific. With
_fence_, for _defence_, we may compare Ger. _schirmen_, to fence, from
_Schirm_, screen (cf. _Regenschirm_, umbrella), which, passing through
Italian and French, has given us _skirmish_, _scrimmage_, _scaramouch_
(see p. 142), and Shakespearean _scrimer_, fencer (_Hamlet_, iv. 7). So
also Ger. _Gewehr_, weapon, is cognate with Eng. _weir_, and means
defence--
"Cet animal est très méchant;
Quand on l'attaque, il se défend."
[49] "Now the time has come when the English will wish to ride."
[50] _Cf._ also Dan. _Kjöbenhavn_ (Copenhagen), the merchants' haven,
the numerous Swedish place-names ending in _-köping_, e.g. _Jönköping_,
and our own _Chippings_, or market-towns.
[51] The knave of clubs. The name was also given to Lord Palmerston.