WORDS AND MEANINGS
We have all noticed the fantastic way in which ideas are linked together
in our thoughts. One thing suggests another with which it is
accidentally associated in memory, the second suggests a third, and, in
the course even of a few seconds, we find that we have travelled from
one subject to another so remote that it requires an effort to
reconstruct the series of links which connects them. The same thing
happens with words. A large number of words, despite great changes of
sense, retain the fundamental meaning of the original, but in many cases
this is quite lost. A truer image than that of the linked chain would be
that of a sphere giving off in various directions a number of rays each
of which may form the nucleus of a fresh sphere. Or we may say that at
each link of the chain there is a possibility of another chain branching
off in a direction of its own. In Cotgrave's time to _garble_ (see p.
21) and to _canvass_, _i.e._ sift through _canvas_, meant the same
thing. Yet how different is their later sense development.
[Page Heading: BAN--BUREAU]
There is a word _ban_, found in Old High German and Anglo-Saxon, and
meaning, as far back as it can be traced, a proclamation containing a
threat, hence a command or prohibition. We have it in _banish_, to put
under the _ban_. The proclamation idea survives in the _banns_ of
marriage and in Fr. _arrière-ban_, "a proclamation, whereby those that
hold authority of the king in mesne tenure, are summoned to assemble,
and serve him in his warres" (Cotgrave). This is folk-etymology for Old
Fr. _arban_, Old High Ger. _hari-ban_, army summons. Slanting off from
the primitive idea of proclamation is that of rule or authority. The
French for outskirts is _banlieue_, properly the "circuit of a league,
or thereabouts" (Cotgrave) over which the local authority extended. All
public institutions within such a radius were associated with _ban_,
e.g., _un four_, _un moulin à ban_, "a comon oven or mill whereat all
men may, and every tenant and vassall must, bake, and grind" (Cotgrave).
The French adjective _banal_, used in this connection, gradually
developed from the meaning of "common" that of "common-place," in which
sense it is now familiar in English.[52]
_Bureau_, a desk, was borrowed from French in the 17th century. In
modern French it means not only the desk, but also the office itself and
the authority exercised by the office. Hence our familiar _bureaucracy_,
likely to become increasingly familiar. The desk was so called because
covered with _bureau_, Old Fr. _burel_, "a thicke course cloath, of a
brown russet, or darke mingled, colour" (Cotgrave), whence Mid. Eng.
_borel_, rustic, clownish, lit. roughly clad, which occurs as late as
Spenser--
"How be I am but rude and _borrel_,
Yet nearer ways I know."
(_Shepherd's Calendar_, July, l. 95.)
With this we may compare the metaphorical use of _home-spun_--
"What hempen _home-spuns_ have we swaggering here,
So near the cradle of the fairy queen?"
(_Midsummer Night's Dream_, iii. 1.)
The source of Old Fr. _burel_ is perhaps Lat. _burrus_, fiery, from Gk.
{pyr}, fire.
_Romance_ was originally an adverb. To write in the vulgar tongue,
instead of in classical Latin, was called _romanice scribere_, Old Fr.
_romanz escrire_. When _romanz_ became felt as a noun, it developed a
"singular" _roman_ or _romant_, the latter of which gave the archaic
Eng. _romaunt_. The most famous of Old French romances are the epic
poems called _Chansons de geste_, songs of exploits, _geste_ coming from
the Lat. _gesta_, deeds. Eng. _gest_ or _jest_ is common in the 16th and
17th centuries in the sense of act, deed, and _jest_-book meant a
story-book. As the favourite story-books were merry tales, the word
gradually acquired its present meaning.
A part of our Anglo-Saxon church vocabulary was supplanted by Latin or
French words. Thus Anglo-Sax. _ge-bed_, prayer, was gradually expelled
by Old Fr. _preiere_ (_prière_), Lat. _precaria_. It has survived in
_beadsman_--
"The _beadsman_, after thousand aves told,
For aye unsought-for slept among his ashes cold."
(KEATS, _Eve of St Agnes_.)
_beadroll_, and _bead_, now applied only to the humble device employed
in counting prayers.
Not only the Romance languages, but also German and Dutch, adopted, with
the Roman character, Lat. _scribere_, to write. English, on the
contrary, preserved the native to _write_, _i.e._ to scratch (runes),
giving to _scribere_ only a limited sense, to _shrive_. The curious
change of meaning was perhaps due to the fact that the priestly
absolution was felt as having the validity of a "written" law or
enactment.
[Page Heading: PUDDING--STICKLER]
The meaning which we generally give to _pudding_ is comparatively
modern. The older sense appears in _black pudding_, a sausage made of
pig's blood. This is also the meaning of Fr. _boudin_, whence _pudding_
comes. A still older meaning of both words is intestine, a sense still
common in dialect. The derivation of the word is obscure, but it is
probably related to Fr. _bouder_, to pout, whence _boudoir_, lit. a
sulking-room.
A _hearse_, now the vehicle in which a coffin is carried, is used by
Shakespeare for a coffin or tomb. Its earlier meaning is a framework to
support candles, usually put round the coffin at a funeral. This
framework was so named from some resemblance to a harrow,[53] Fr.
_herse_, Lat. _hirpex_, _hirpic-_, a rake.
_Treacle_ is a stock example of great change of meaning. It is used in
Coverdale's Bible (1535) for the "_balm_ in Gilead" of the _Authorised
Version_--
"There is no more _triacle_ at Galaad."[54]
(Jeremiah, vii. 22.)
Old Fr. _triacle_ is from Greco-Lat. _theriaca_, a remedy against poison
or snake-bite ({thêr}, a wild beast). In Mid. English and later it was
used of a sovereign remedy. It has, like _sirup_ (p. 146), acquired its
present meaning _via_ the apothecary's shop.
A _stickler_ is now a man who is fussy about small points of etiquette
or procedure. In Shakespeare he is one who parts combatants--
"The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth,
And, _stickler_-like, the armies separates."
(_Troilus and Cressida_, v. 8.)
An earlier sense is that of seeing fair-play. The word has been
popularly associated with the _stick_, or staff, used by the umpires in
duels, and Torriano gives _stickler_ as one of the meanings of
_bastoniere_, a verger or mace-bearer. But it probably comes from Mid.
Eng. _stightlen_, to arrange, keep order (see p. 172, _n._ 2).
_Infantry_ comes, through French, from Italian. It means a collection of
"infants" or juniors, so called by contrast with the proved veterans who
composed the cavalry.
The _pastern_ of a horse, defined by Dr Johnson as the knee, from
"ignorance, madam, pure ignorance," still means in Cotgrave and Florio
"shackle." Florio even recognises a verb to _pastern_, e.g.,
_pastoiare_, "to fetter, to clog, to shackle, to _pastern_, to give
(gyve)." It comes from Old Fr. _pasturon_ (_paturon_), a derivative of
_pasture_, such shackles being used to prevent grazing horses from
straying. _Pester_ (p. 167) is connected with it. The modern Fr.
_paturon_ has changed its meaning in the same way.
To _rummage_ means in the Elizabethan navigators to stow goods in a
hold. A rummager was what we call a _stevedore_.[55] _Rummage_ is Old
Fr. _arrumage_ (_arrimage_), from _arrumer_, to stow, the middle
syllable of which is probably cognate with English _room_; cf.
_arranger_, to put in "rank."
The Christmas _waits_ were originally watchmen, Anglo-Fr. _waite_, Old
Fr. _gaite_, from the Old High German form of modern Ger. _Wacht_,
watch. Modern French still has the verb _guetter_, to lie in wait for,
and _guet_, the watch. _Minstrel_ comes from an Old French derivative of
Lat. _minister_, servant. Modern Fr. _ménétrier_ is only used of a
country fiddler who attends village weddings.
The _lumber_-room is supposed to be for _Lombard_ room, _i.e._, the room
in which pawnbrokers used to store pledged property. The Lombards
introduced into this country the three balls, said to be taken from the
arms of the Medici family.
[Page Heading: LIVERY--FAIRY]
_Livery_ is correctly explained by the poet Spenser--
"What _livery_ is, we by common use in England know well enough,
namely, that it is allowance of horse-meat, as they commonly use the
word in stabling; as, to keep horses at _livery_; the which word, I
guess, is derived of _livering_ or _delivering_ forth their nightly
food. So in great houses, the _livery_ is said to be served up for
all night, that is, their evening allowance for drink; and _livery_
is also called the upper weed (see p. 2) which a serving-man wears;
so called, as I suppose, for that it was _delivered_ and taken from
him at pleasure."
(_View of the State of Ireland._)
This passage explains also _livery_ stable.[56] Our word comes from Fr.
_livrée_, the feminine past participle of _livrer_, from Lat.
_liberare_, to deliver.
_Pedigree_ was in Mid. English _pedegrew_, _petigrew_, etc. It
represents Old Fr. _pie (pied) de grue_, crane's foot, from the shape of
a sign used in showing lines of descent in genealogical charts. The
older form survives in the family name _Pettigrew_. Here it is a
nickname, like _Pettifer_ (pied de fer), iron-foot; cf. _Sheepshanks_.
_Fairy_ is a collective, Fr. _féerie_, its modern use being perhaps due
to its occurrence in such phrases as _Faerie Queen_, _i.e._, Queen of
Fairyland. Cf. _paynim_, used by some poets for _pagan_, but really a
doublet of _paganism_, occurring in _paynim host_, _paynim knight_, etc.
The correct name for the individual _fairy_ is _fay_, Fr. _fée_, Vulgar
Lat. _*fata_, connected with _fatum_, fate. This appears in Ital.
_fata_, "a fairie, a witch, an enchantres, an elfe" (Florio). The _fata
morgana_, the mirage sometimes seen in the Strait of Messina, is
attributed to the fairy Morgana of Tasso, the Morgan le Fay of our own
Arthurian legends.
Many people must have wondered at some time why the _clubs_ and _spades_
on cards are so called. The latter figure, it is true, bears some
resemblance to a spade, but no giant of fiction is depicted with a club
with a triple head. The explanation is that we have adopted the French
pattern, _carreau_ (see p. 161), diamond, _c[oe]ur_, heart, _pique_,
pike, spear-head, _trèfle_, trefoil, clover-leaf, but have given to the
two latter the names used in the Italian and Spanish pattern, which,
instead of the pike and trefoil, has the sword (Ital. _spada_) and mace
(Ital. _bastone_). Etymologically both _spades_ are identical, the
origin being Greco-Lat. _spatha_, the name of a number of blade-shaped
objects; _cf._ the diminutive _spatula_.
_Wafer_, in both its senses, is related to Ger. _Wabe_, honeycomb. We
find Anglo-Fr. _wafre_ in the sense of a thin cake, perhaps stamped with
a honeycomb pattern. The cognate Fr. _gaufre_ is the name of a similar
cake, which not only has the honeycomb pattern, but is also largely
composed of honey. Hence our verb to _goffer_, to give a cellular
appearance to a frill.
[Page Heading: MEANINGS OF ADJECTIVES]
The meanings of adjectives are especially subject to change. _Quaint_
now conveys the idea of what is unusual, and, as early as the 17th
century, we find it explained as "strange, unknown." This is the exact
opposite of its original meaning, Old Fr. _cointe_, Lat. _cognitus_; cf.
_acquaint_, Old Fr. _acointier_, to make known. It is possible to trace
roughly the process by which this remarkable _volte-face_ has been
brought about. The intermediate sense of trim or pretty is common in
Shakespeare--
"For a fine, _quaint_, graceful, and excellent fashion, yours is
worth ten on't."
(_Much Ado_, iii. 4.)
We apply _restive_ to a horse that will not stand still. It means
properly a horse that will not do anything else. Fr. _rétif_, Old Fr.
_restif_, from _rester_, to remain, Lat. _re-stare_, has kept more of
the original sense of stubbornness. Scot. _reest_, _reist_, means to
stand stock-still--
"Certain it was that Shagram _reisted_, and I ken Martin thinks he
saw something."
(_Monastery_, Ch. 4.)
Dryden even uses _restive_ in the sense of sluggish--
"So James the drowsy genius wakes
Of Britain, long entranced in charms,
_Restive_, and slumbering on its arms."
(_Threnodia Augustalis._)
_Reasty_, used of meat that has "stood" too long, is the same word (cf.
_testy_, Old Fr. _testif_, heady), and _rusty_ bacon is probably
folk-etymology for _reasty_ bacon--
"And then came haltyng Jone,
And brought a gambone
Of bakon that was _reasty_."
(SKELTON, _Elynour Rummyng_.)
_Sterling_ has an obscure history. It is from Old Fr. _esterlin_, a coin
which etymologists of an earlier age connected with the _Easterlings_,
or Hanse merchants, who formed one of the great mercantile communities
of the Middle Ages; and perhaps some such association is responsible for
the meaning that _sterling_ has acquired; but chronology shows this
traditional etymology to be impossible. We find _unus sterlingus_ in a
medieval Latin document of 1184, and the Old Fr. _esterlin_ occurs in
Wace's _Roman de Rou_ (Romaunt of Rollo the Sea King), which was written
before 1175. Hence it is conjectured that the original coin was named
from the _star_ which appears on some Norman pennies.
When Horatio says--
"It is a nipping and an _eager_ air."
(_Hamlet_, i. 4.)
we are reminded that _eager_ is identical with the second part of
vin-_egar_, Fr. _aigre_, sour, Lat. _acer_, keen. It seems hardly
possible to explain the modern sense of _nice_, which in the course of
its history has traversed nearly the whole diatonic scale between
"rotten" and "ripping." In Mid. English and Old French it means foolish.
Cotgrave explains it by "lither, lazie, sloathful, idle; faint, slack;
dull, simple," and Shakespeare uses it in a great variety of meanings.
It is supposed to come from Lat. _nescius_, ignorant. The transition
from _fond_, foolish, which survives in "_fond_ hopes," to _fond_,
loving, is easy. French _fou_ is used in exactly the same way. _Cf._
also to _dote_ on, _i.e._, to be foolish about. _Puny_ is Fr. _puîné_,
from _puis né_, later born, junior, whence the _puisne_ justices. Milton
uses it of a minor--
"He must appear in print like a _puny_ with his guardian."
(_Areopagitica._)
_Petty_, Fr. _petit_, was similarly used for a small boy.
In some cases a complimentary adjective loses its true meaning and takes
on a contemptuous or ironic sense. None of us care to be called _bland_,
and to describe a man as _worthy_ is to apologise for his existence. We
may compare Fr. _bonhomme_, which now means generally an old fool, and
_bonne femme_, good-wife, goody. _Dapper_, the Dutch for brave (_cf._
Ger. _tapfer_), and _pert_, Mid. Eng. _apert_, representing in meaning
Lat. _expertus_, have changed much since Milton wrote of--
"The _pert_ fairies and the _dapper_ elves."
(_Comus_, l. 118.)
_Pert_ seems in fact to have acquired the meaning of its opposite
_malapert_, though the older sense of brisk, sprightly, survives in
dialect--
"He looks spry and _peart_ for once."
(Phillpotts, _American Prisoner_, Ch. 3.)
_Smug_, cognate with Ger. _schmuck_, trim, elegant, beautiful, has its
original sense in Shakespeare--
"And here the _smug_ and silver Trent shall run
In a new channel, fair and evenly."
(1 _Henry IV._, iii. 1.)
The degeneration of an adjective is sometimes due to its employment for
euphemistic purposes. The favourite substitute for _fat_ is _stout_,
properly strong,[57] dauntless, etc., cognate with Ger. _stolz_, proud.
Precisely the same euphemism appears in French, e.g., "une dame un peu
_forte_." _Ugly_ is replaced in English by _plain_, and in American by
_homely_--
"She is not so handsome as these, maybe, but her _homeliness_ is not
actually alarming."
(MAX ADELER, _Mr Skinner's Night in the Underworld_.)
In the case of this word, as in many others, the American use preserves
a meaning which was once common in English. Kersey's _Dictionary_ (1720)
explains _homely_ as "ugly, disagreeable, course (coarse), mean."
[Page Heading: INFLUENCE OF ASSOCIATION]
Change of meaning may be brought about by association. A _miniature_ is
a small portrait, and we even use the word as an adjective meaning
small, on a reduced scale. But the true sense of _miniature_ is
something painted in _minium_, red lead. Florio explains _miniatura_ as
"a limning (see p. 63), a painting with vermilion." Such paintings were
usually small, hence the later meaning. The word was first applied to
the ornamental red initial capitals in manuscripts. _Vignette_ still
means technically in French an interlaced vine-pattern on a
frontispiece.[58] Cotgrave has _vignettes_, "vignets; branches, or
branch-like borders, or flourishes in painting, or ingravery."
The degeneration in the meaning of a noun may be partly due to frequent
association with disparaging adjectives. Thus _hussy_, _i.e._ housewife,
_quean_,[59] woman, _wench_, child, have absorbed such adjectives as
impudent, idle, light, saucy, etc. Shakespeare uses _quean_ only three
times, and these three include "cozening _quean_" (_Merry Wives_, iv. 2)
and "scolding _quean_" (_All's Well_, ii. 2). With _wench_, still used
without any disparaging sense by country folk, we may compare Fr.
_garce_, lass, and Ger. _Dirne_, maid-servant, both of which are now
insulting epithets, but, in the older language, could be applied to Joan
of Arc and the Virgin Mary respectively. _Garce_ was replaced by
_fille_, which has acquired in its turn a meaning so offensive that it
has now given way to _jeune fille_. _Minx_, earlier _minkes_, is
probably the Low Ger. _minsk_, Ger. _Mensch_, lit. human, but used also
in the sense of "wench." For the consonantal change cf. _hunks_, Dan.
_hundsk_, stingy, lit. doggish. These examples show that the indignant
"Who are you calling a _woman_?" is, philologically, in all likelihood a
case of intelligent anticipation.
[Page Heading: BUXOM--PLUCK]
Adjectives are affected in their turn by being regularly coupled with
certain nouns. A _buxom_ help-mate was once obedient, the word being
cognate with Ger. _biegsam_, flexible, yielding--
"The place where thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing silently the _buxom_ air."
(_Paradise Lost_, ii. 840.)
An obedient nature is "_buxom_, blithe and debonair," qualities which
affect the physique and result in heartiness of aspect and a comely
plumpness. An _arch_ damsel is etymologically akin to an _arch_bishop,
both descending from the Greek prefix {archi}, from {archê}, a
beginning, first cause. Shakespeare uses _arch_ as a noun--
"The noble duke my master,
My worthy _arch_ and patron comes to-night."
(_Lear_, ii. 1.)
Occurring chiefly in such phrases as _arch_ enemy, _arch_ heretic,
_arch_ hypocrite, _arch_ rogue, it acquired a depreciatory sense, which
has now become so weakened that _archness_ is not altogether an
unpleasing attribute. We may compare the cognate German prefix _Erz_.
Ludwig has, as successive entries, _Ertz-dieb_, "an arch-thief, an
arrant thief," and _Ertz-engel_, "an arch-angel." The meaning of
_arrant_ is almost entirely due to association with "thief." It means
lit. wandering, vagabond, so that the _arrant_ thief is nearly related
to the knight _errant_, and to the Justices in _eyre_, Old Fr. _eire_,
Lat. _iter_, a way, journey. Fr. _errer_, to wander, stray, is
compounded of Vulgar Lat. _iterare_, to journey, and Lat. _errare_, to
stray, and it would be difficult to calculate how much of each enters
into the composition of _le Juif errant_.
As I have suggested above, association accounts to some extent for
changes of meaning, but the process is in reality more complex, and
usually a number of factors are working together or in opposition to
each other. A low word may gradually acquire right of citizenship. "That
article blackguardly called _pluck_" (Scott) is now much respected. It
is the same word as _pluck_, the heart, liver, and lungs of an animal--
"During the Crimean war, _plucky_, signifying courageous, seemed
likely to become a favourite term in Mayfair, even among the
ladies."
(HOTTEN'S _Slang Dictionary_, 1864.)
Having become respectable, it is now replaced in sporting circles by the
more emphatic _guts_, which reproduces the original metaphor. A word may
die out in its general sense, surviving only in some special meaning.
Thus the poetic _sward_, scarcely used except with "green," meant
originally the skin or crust of anything. It is cognate with Ger.
_Schwarte_, "the _sward_, or rind, of a thing" (Ludwig), which now means
especially bacon-rind. Related words may meet with very different fates
in kindred languages. Eng. _knight_ is cognate with Ger. _Knecht_,
servant, which had, in Mid. High German, a wide range of meanings,
including "warrior, hero." There is no more complimentary epithet than
_knightly_, while Ger. _knechtisch_ means servile. The degeneration of
words like _boor_,[60] _churl_, farmer, is a familiar phenomenon (cf.
_villain_, p. 150). The same thing has happened to _blackguard_, the
modern meaning of which bears hardly on a humble but useful class. The
name _black guard_ was given collectively to the kitchen detachment of a
great man's retinue. The _scavenger_ has also come down in the world,
rather an unusual phenomenon in the case of official titles. The
medieval _scavager_[61] was an important official who seems to have been
originally a kind of inspector of customs. He was called in Anglo-French
_scawageour_, from the noun _scawage_, showing. The Old French dialect
verb _escauwer_ is of Germanic origin and cognate with Eng. _show_ and
Ger. _schauen_, to look. The _cheater_, now usually _cheat_, probably
deserved his fate. The _escheators_ looked after _escheats_, _i.e._,
estates or property that lapsed and were forfeited. The origin of the
word is Old Fr. _escheoir_ (_échoir_), to fall due, Vulgar Lat. _ex
*cad[=e]re_ for _cad[)e]re_. Their reputation was unsavoury, and _cheat_
has already its present meaning in Shakespeare. He also plays on the
double meaning--
"I will be _cheater_ to them both, and they shall be exchequers to
me."
(_Merry Wives_, i. 3.)
[Page Heading: CHEAT--BELCHER]
_Beldam_ implies "hag" as early as Shakespeare, but he also uses it in
its proper sense of "grandmother," _e.g._, Hotspur refers to "old
_beldam_ earth" and "our _grandam_ earth" in the same speech (1 _Henry
IV._, iii. 1), and Milton speaks of "_beldam_ nature"--
"Then sing of secret things that came to pass
When _Beldam_ Nature in her cradle was."
(_Vacation Exercise_, l. 46.)
It is of course from _belle-dame_, used in Mid. English for grandmother,
as _belsire_ was for grandfather. Hence it is a doublet of _belladonna_.
The masculine _belsire_ survives as a family name, _Belcher_[62]; and to
Jim Belcher, most gentlemanly of prize-fighters, we owe the _belcher_
handkerchief, which had large white spots with a dark blue dot in the
centre of each on a medium blue ground. It was also known to the "fancy"
as a "bird's-eye wipe."
FOOTNOTES:
[52] Archaic Eng. _bannal_ already existed in the technical sense.
[53] This is the usual explanation. But Fr. _herse_ also acquired the
meaning "portcullis," the pointed bars of which were naturally likened
to the blades of a harrow; and it seems possible that it is to this
later sense that we owe the older English meaning of _hearse_ (see p.
154).
[54] "Numquid _resina_ non est in Galaad?" (_Vulgate._)
[55] A Spanish word, Lat. _stipator_, "one that stoppeth chinkes"
(Cooper). It came to England in connection with the wool trade.
[56] In "livery and bait" there is pleonasm. _Bait_, connected with
_bite_, is the same word as in bear-_baiting_ and fishermen's _bait_. We
have it also, _via_ Old French, in _abet_, whence the aphetic _bet_,
originally to egg on.
[57] Hence the use of _stout_ for a "strong" beer. _Porter_ was once the
favourite tap of _porters_, and a mixture of stout and ale, now known as
_cooper_, was especially relished by the brewery _cooper_.
[58] Folk-etymology for _frontispice_, Lat. _frontispicium_, front view.
[59] Related to, but not identical with, _queen_.
[60] The older meaning of _boor_ survives in the compound _neighbour_,
i.e., _nigh boor_, the farmer near at hand. Du. _boer_ is of course the
same word.
[61] English regularly inserts _n_ in words thus formed; cf.
_harbinger_, _messenger_, _passenger_, _pottinger_, _etc._
[62] Other forms of the same name are _Bowser_ and _Bewsher_. The form
_Belcher_ is Picard--
"On assomma la pauvre bête.
Un manant lui coupa le pied droit et la tête.
Le seigneur du village à sa porte les mit;
Et ce dicton picard à l'entour fut écrit:
'_Biaux chires_ leups, n'écoutez mie
Mère tenchent (grondant) chen fieux (son fils) qui crie.'"
(LA FONTAINE, _Fables_, iv. 16.)