At p. 80. of Mr. Trench's admirable little volume _On the Study of Words_,
an etymology is assigned to the word _bigot_, which is, I think, clearly
erroneous:
"Two explanations of it are current," writes Mr. Trench, "one of which
traces it up to the early Normans, while they yet retained their
northern tongue, and to their often adjuration by the name of God; with
sometimes a reference to a famous scene in French history, in which
Rollo, Duke of Normandy, played a conspicuous part: the other puts it
in connexion with _beguines_, called often in Latin _beguttæ_, a name
by which certain communities of pietist women were known in the Middle
Ages."
I agree with Mr. Trench in thinking, that neither of these derivations is
the correct one. But I am obliged, quite as decidedly, to reject that which
he proceeds to offer. He thinks that we owe--
"_Bigot_ rather to that profound impression which the Spaniards made
upon all Europe in the fifteenth and the following century. Now the
word _bigote_," he continues, "means in Spanish 'moustachio;' and as
contrasted with the smooth, or nearly smooth, upper lip of most other
people, at that time the Spaniards were the 'men of the moustachio'....
That they themselves connected firmness and resolution with the
mustachio; that it was esteemed the outward symbol of these, it is
plain from such phrases as 'pombre de bigote,' a man of resolution;
'tener bigotes,' to stand firm. But that in which they eminently
displayed their firmness and resolution in those days was their
adherence to whatever the Roman see imposed and taught. What then more
natural, or more entirely according to the law of the generation of
names, than that this striking and distinguishing outward feature of
the Spaniard should have been laid hold of to express that character
and condition of mind which eminently were his, and then transferred to
all others who shared the same?"
Of this it must be admitted, that "se non e vero, e ben trovato." And the
only reason for rejecting such an etymology is the existence of another
with superior claims.
_Bigot_ is derived, as I think will be hardly doubted on consideration,
from the Italian _bigio_, grey. Various religious confraternities, and
especially a branch of the order of St. Francis which, from being parcel
secular and parcel regular, was called "Terziari di S. Francesco," clothed
themselves in grey; and from thence were called _Bigiocchi_ and _Bigiotti_.
And from a very early period, the word was used in a bad sense. {561}
Menage, in his _Origini della Lingua Italiana_, under the word BIZOCO,
writes:
"Persono secolare vestita di abito di religione. Quasi 'bigioco' perche
ordinariamente gli Ipocriti, e coloro che si fanno dell' ordine di S.
Francesco si vestono di bigio."